WAR ACTIVITIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24537, 20 March 1943, Page 4

WAR ACTIVITIES

AIR FORCE WOMEN EFFICIENCY DISPLAYED A full share of essential duty j s borne by members of the Women's Auxiliary , Air Force who have been posted to a station near Auckland. They have been in the W.A.A.F. long : enough to have been completely incorporated into the parent service and carry out a wide range of tasks with a high standard of efficiency. The essence of their service is hard work, and they are introduced to it immediately they arrive at the station. It is stated that airwomen are drafted to the type of work for which their previous training best fits them. Ma&y of those with no training, or with training in a trade of which there is no counterpart in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, find employment in the mosses, although only trained cooks are engaged on the actual cooking. Duties in the Messes Within the messes the duties are as far as possible rotated so that all may share the hard with the not so difficult tasks. However, although mess duties • in many cases involve working on concrete floors and there is very little respite during meal times, few com* plaints are ever heard from Waafs. When airwomen are required for training in special duties the messes provide the greater number and there is thus, except for the non-commissioned officers, a fairly steady flow of women through the messes. More .than half the girls on th» -1 station are at present carrying out mess duties. Others are in the stores, where their work is by no means simple and easy. Waals in Other Sections Men have also been largely replaced in the transport section. Waafs drive all but the heaviest trucks, which they are unable to load, and, like all the other branches of the Air Force, they generally work an eight-hour day. In addition to driving, members of this section help with all running rapairi and two are on duty every night to meet any aircraft or in case they are needed on the ambulance. Other Waafs are used for maintenance of various aircraft parts. There is also a section which makes minor repairs to and tests of instruments; other girls clean plane engines; ana some pack and maintain such items of equipment as parachutes and collapsible boats. Waafs are also wireless and telephone operators, assistants in the medical and dental section, and clerks in the administrative department. The only three commissioned Waafs on the station are doing cipher work. Accommodation on the Station All the Waafs live on the station in a large dormitory or in a number of houses. One of the houses hi used as a clubhouse; they are free to use the Y.M.C.A.; and dances are held there twice a week. Supper is served for them every night in the clubhouse. The object behind the formation ot the W.A.A.F. was the release of men for more active duties, and every section of Air Force duties which the girls enter contributes to the general object. Now there is a suggestion that New Zealand might follow the English oxample and allow some of them to sit for examination as ground engineers.