Women in Combat - UK

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Women's Roles In UK Military - Forces > .

Flight Lieutenant Julie Ann Gibson was the first full-time female pilot for the Royal Air Force when she graduated in 1991. Previously a ground-based officer, she learnt to fly while attending City, University of London. She was subsequently assigned to No. 32 Squadron RAF flying Hawker Siddeley Andovers, and following her promotion to Captain, Lockheed C-130 Hercules at RAF Lyneham.

She attended the City, University of London, where she graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering. While at University, she had learnt to fly and had joined the associated University Air Squadron.

Gibson joined the Royal Air Force College in 1984, and following her officer training, she was posted to RAF Honington in Suffolk. She was initially in charge of 75 engineers. In the following assignment, she commanded 160 men in the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II tactical weapons unit. Alongside fellow female pilot Sally Cox, Gibson took her first solo flights in 1990 at RAF Linton-on-Ouse. She successfully applied for pilot training, going on to train in the Advanced Flying Training Wing. She graduated as the first female pilot in the RAF on 14 June 1991 at No. 6 Flying Training School RAF, within RAF Finningley. She was assigned to No. 32 Squadron RAF, where she flew Hawker Siddeley Andovers out of RAF Northolt. She was subsequently promoted to Flight Lieutenant, and assigned to fly Lockheed C-130 Hercules at RAF Lyneham.

Joanna Mary Salter (born 27 August 1968, in Bournemouth) was Britain's first female fast jet pilot flying the Panavia Tornado ground attack aircraft with 617 Squadron, she later became an inspirational speaker.

Salter joined the Royal Air Force at the age of 18 with the intention of becoming an engineering officer but she went on to train as a pilot after the British government announced that women would be allowed to fly jet aircraft in 1992. As part of her engineering training she had studied at the Royal Military College of Science. Salter was awarded her wings on 3 April 1992 and at the end of 1992 she finished her fast jet training at RAF Brawdy with Dawn Hadlow (nee Bradley), who became Britain's first RAF female flight instructor.

In August 1994 Salter joined 617 Squadron at RAF Lossiemouth in August 1994 as a flight lieutenant, and was declared "combat ready" by the RAF on 21 February 1995. Salter was the first woman to be an operational Tornado pilot and she later flew from both Turkey and Saudi Arabia in protection of the no-fly zone over Iraq. Whilst flying ground attack Tornados, Salter started an MBA course with the Open University in 1996, being sponsored by the MoD, she completed the course in 1999.

Women's Rights Struggle

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Caroline Norton, Custody of Children, 1838 | Mother Victorian England - HiHub > .

1903-10-10: Foundation of Women's Social & Political Union = Suffragettes - HiPo > .

Emily Davison stepped into the path of the King's horse at the 1913 Derby and was fatally injured. Exploring how a middle-class governess became a radical activist.

Caroline Norton's, 'The separation of mother and child by the law of ‘Custody of Infants’ considered' (1838).

Frustrated by the lack of progress made by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies from whom the group had split, the WSPU (Women's Social & Political Union) soon became known for its militant and sometimes violent actions under the motto ‘Deeds, not words’.

The WSPU sought votes for women on the same basis as votes for men rather than universal suffrage. Many men at the time were denied the vote due to property qualifications, which meant the proposals by the WSPU were seen by some not as ‘votes for women’ but ‘votes for ladies’. The WSPU even split from the Labour Party after Labour voted in favour of universal suffrage, leading the suffragettes to became more explicitly middle-class.

The actions of the suffragettes soon brought into question the traditional ideas of ladylike behaviour as they were routinely arrested for activities that were designed to shock the refined members of the establishment. Actions such as window breaking, arson and the sending of letter bombs routinely saw members of the WSPU imprisoned, where they would often go on hunger strike and be subjected to force-feeding by the authorities. The best known militant action is probably that of Emily Davison who was killed after stepping in front of the King’s horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby.

Daily Mail newspaper reporter Charles Hands introduced the term ‘suffragette’ to describe the WSPU’s members as a way to distinguish their violent actions from those of the less militant suffrage groups.

Votes for Women 1900+ ..

Women's Rights Struggle ..

Women's Suffrage - 1860s ..

Women's Suffrage Propaganda ..

Women & Children

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Story behind iconic WW2 poster - Vox > .

Wives – What Soldiers Left Behind - WW2 - On the Homefront > .

Home Front - Women & Children - ViDo >> .
On the Homefront - WW2 >> .
Women - WW1 - BeGe >> .
Women's Suffrage and Equality - HiHu >> .
Women in Parliament - UK P >> .
Housing in 30s, 40s - ViDo >> .
Wartime Kitchen, Garden, Farm, Cooking - BeSi >> .
Blitzed - ViDo >> .

Home Front - ElQu >> .
Home Front - BeSi >> .
Pied Piper - ViDo >> .
Women, Children - WW2 - RaWa >> .
Women - WW1, interbellum - RaWa >> .
Women - WW2 - BeGe >> .
Medical, Surgical Services - ViDo >> .
Fabric, Fashion, Rationing ~30s, 40s - ElQu >> .
Women's Land Army - ViDo >> .
London Life - ViDo >> .
The 1940s House - ElQu >> .
Food Rationing - ViDo >> .
Nutrition Front - ViDo >> .
Rationing & Black Market - ViDo >> .
Wartime Farm - AbHi >> .
Wartime Farm, Kitchen & Garden - arch >> .
Wartime, Subsistence Cooking - ElQu >> .
Wartime Kitchen, Garden, Farm - ElQu >> .
Wartime Kitchen, Home - Pickle >> .
Wartime Kitchen, Garden, Farm, Rations - ToBl >> .

Female Spoils of War ..

Spousal Separation, WW2 .. 

● Fighter Aircraft

Allies

Boulton Paul Defiant ..

Bristol Beaufighter - nightfighter of 219 ..

Bristol Blenheim - nightfighter ..

Corsair .. 

Engine Development, Fighter Aircraft, WW2 ↠

F-35 ..

F-35 failure? .. 

Fighters .. 

Fighter development ..

Fighters, Bombers - size comparisons ..

Gloster Gladiator (SS.37) ..

Hurricane ..

Spitfire Mk I Cockpit .. 

Supermarine Spitfire ..

Tankbusters ..

Allies & Axis

Iconic WW2 Planes ..

Drones 

Future Air Power ..

Future 

2040 Aircraft? ..

STOL

S/VTOL - Harrier ↠

UAM, eVTOL ↠
VTOL ↠

Axis

Dornier Do. 335 ..    

Engine Development, Fighter Aircraft, WW2 ↠   

Fighters, Bombers - size comparisons ..

Focke Wulf Fw 190 A-8 ..  

Russia
Flashy Russian Stealth - Su-75 ..

WW1 

3D Fokker DVII Biplane, WW1 ..

Boulton Paul Defiant

.WW2 Weapons: The Dawn of the Turret Fighters | Part 1 > .

WW2 Weapons: The Demise of the Turret Fighters | Part 2 > .

Boulton Paul Defiant; IL-2 Cliffs of Dover Aircraft 3 > .

Boulton Paul Defiant -- Night Fighters > .
Boulton Paul Defiant; IL-2 Cliffs of Dover > .
end of WW2 - Forgotten Aircraft - the Boulton Paul Balliol > .

The Boulton Paul Defiant is a British interceptor aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II. The Defiant was designed and built by Boulton Paul Aircraft as a "turret fighter", without any fixed forward-firing guns, also found in the Blackburn Roc of the Royal Navy.

In combat, the Defiant was found to be reasonably effective at destroying bombers but was vulnerable to the Luftwaffe's more manoeuvrable, single-seat Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. The lack of forward-firing armament proved to be a great weakness in daylight combat and its potential was realised only when it was converted to a night fighter. It eventually equipped thirteen squadrons in this role, compared to just two squadrons as a day-fighter. In mid-1942 it was replaced by better performing night-fighters, the Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito.

The Defiant continued to find use in gunnery training, target towing, electronic countermeasures and air-sea rescue. Among RAF pilots it had the nickname "Daffy".