CAPTAIN X.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 50, 28 February 1940, Page 12

CAPTAIN X.

WOMAN PILOT.

WORK IN FRANCE

R.A.F. men at an 'airfield in • France saw. a 'plane make a perfect landing'on rough ground—nothing unusual. But -they shouted in surprise when they saw that the pilot was a woman, says a writer in an English paper.

"Do you see what I see?" eaid one aircraftsman, as the pilot stepped out, wearing dark blue serge, neatly creased trousers, blaek talk socks and black shoes.

Aβ ehe brushed a 'Mack curl from under her forage cap, the. sleeve of her tunic revealed the three gold bands of a captain.

She is "Mrs. X.," of Sevenoaks, Kent, mother of a boy of ten, and she had flown the first consignment of blood for the R.A.F. headquarters area behind the line*. ,

Her -first concern was to see that, the blood, in its special containers, was safely on its way to a casualty clearing station. Then ehe drove into town and bought face powder. ■ = ■■- "Mrs. X." is the first woman to pilot a 'plane to France on active service. Although under the blood transfusion scheme, she had flown blood on several occasions to a French Channel port, this is the. first time she hae brought it so far forward. Her only companion on the -journey was her radio operator. I' asked him if he minded being piloted by a woman. "Nigel doesn't mind," "Mrs. X." broke in, "but some radio men won't be flown by a woman. Silly of them, isn't it t"