Spitfire Girl (32 page)

And I behold a vision there of silver wings,
Swift, cutting through the cumulous mass,
And listen to my heart it sings,
Until with pain I see, alas!

It is not I that feels that thrill,
Though yet the memory lingers still;
It is a younger one today
Who’s flying now, o’er my skyway.

‘We had returned to a different world.

We had taken off in peace at nine-thirty and landed in war at noon.’

Jackie Moggridge was just nineteen when World War Two broke out. Determined to do her bit, she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary. Ferrying aircraft from factory to frontline was dangerous work, but there was also fun, friendship and even love in the air. At last the world was opening up to women... or at least it seemed to be.

From her first flight at fifteen to smuggling Spitfires into Burma, Jackie describes the trials and tribulations, successes and frustrations of her life in the sky.

J
ACKIE
M
OGGRIDGE
served in the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during World War Two, receiving a King’s Commendation for Services in the Air. After the war she continued to fly professionally whilst raising her two daughters. She died in 2004; her ashes were scattered from a Spitfire.

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The story starts here.

First published as
Woman Pilot
in the UK in 1957 by Michael Joseph Ltd

This revised edition first published in paperback and eBook in the UK in 2014 by Head of Zeus Ltd

Copyright © Jackie Moggridge, 1957

Introduction © Veronica Jill Robinson and Candida Adkins, 2014

Afterword © Carolyn Grace, 2014

The moral right of Jackie Moggridge to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Paperback ISBN: 9781781859896

eBook ISBN: 9781781859889

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