The Air Transport Auxiliary

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hamble and district hampshire

Spitfire Women

Alison King wrote that on their first day at ATA Ferry Pool 15 in Hamble-le-Rice in October 1941,

"It was cold and drizzly, we left the airfield and wandered through the village, suddenly we turned from the wide windy road round a corner and down a sloping lane into something that had been in a world of its own since the fourteenth century”.

Pauline Gower and been a "joy ride" pilot through the 1930's, running a pleasure trip business for the general public on a field next to a major highway in Kent. As war approached, and with 2,000 hours flying time and 33,000 passengers under her belt. In September 1939, she approached the Director General of Civil Aviation with the idea of using women to ferry planes, with the newly formed and all-male Air Transport Auxiliary. In Decmeber 1939 permission was granted and Pauline Gower was promptly asked to form the Women's Section of the ATA.

The Hamble Base Ferry Pool 15 was primarily run by women. Margot Gore (Hamble C.O.) and Rosemary Rees, Philippa Bennett, Lettice Curtis, Wendy Sale-Barker, Jacky Moggridge and Alison King were the original Hamble women pilots.

Hamble Ferry Pool 15

Rosemary Rees (Rosemary Lady du Cros) had been a flyer before the war, and held an instructors license in 1938 and had toured extensively around the world in her Miles Hawk. She had even attended an air show in Germany as war threatened. Escaping in time, she returned to England to fly with the ATA. To add to this colorful background, Rosemary Rees was also a former ballet dancer. She became the Second in Command at the Hamble Ferry Pool.

ATA Mess at Hamble

The ATA Mess at Hamble

The Air Transport Auxiliary, or ATA, initially transported mail, dispatches and essential supplies but quickly developed to ferry new, damaged and repaired aircraft between the aviation industry and the RAF and Fleet Air Arm airfields. The ATA delivered all types of newly built operational aircraft and flew others in need of repair. By 1941 the Hamble unit had become an all female unit.

Between September 1939 and November 1945 the ATA flew 309,011 aircraft missions. Though romanticised as a glamous occupation we owe a great debt to the ATA. Tragically 173 ATA personnel were killed on duty.