Spitfires: The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger During World War II | Becky Aikman

Did women win WWII? That might be an overstatement, BUT, they were certainly an unrecognized backbone of the war effort. Spitfires tells the previously under-publicized story of American women pilots who joined the ATA in Britain at a time when women weren't permitted to fly American military planes. The women came from a broad swath of American life -- country girls who flew crop-dusters and performed in aerial exhibitions to socialites who arm-twisted Daddy to give them flight lessons and a plane.

They ferried planes to get them where they needed to be, and figured out how to fly complicated aircraft on the fly. Literally. Training was, in a word, brief. There were 25 American women who crossed the Atlantic to join the war effort. These women were flat out brave, strong and smart. And they outworked many of the men doing the same job. They also were the first women to advocate for, and win, equal pay for equal work, which was unheard of then (and too frequently, now).

I know what you're thinking -- these women probably became the first commercial women pilots once the American military realized the effort in their thinking about the ability of women to fly. HA! Obviously they were relegated to the dustbin once the war effort was over, although a couple did become trailblazers in the aviation industry.

The book is a fast-paced read. Aikman had what seem to be fantastic interviews with family member and colleagues, and made great use of diaries and correspondence from the women pilots. Think Hidden Figures only 30,000 feet in the air with notorious English weather wailing. Though the period of time for the Spitfires was just 3-1/2 years, it was a time period that changed their lives, and without question, helped the Allies win the war.