Women's Auxiliary Air Force
The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), whose members were referred to as WAAFs, was the female auxiliary of the British Royal Air Force during World War II. Established in 1939, WAAF numbers exceeded 181,000 at its peak strength in 1943, with over 2,000 women enlisting per week.
Poster
The first WAAF nursing orderlies selected to fly on air-ambulance duties to France, 1944
WAAF Recruitment poster
The Operations Room at RAF Fighter Command's No. 10 Group Headquarters, Rudloe Manor (RAF Box), Wiltshire, showing WAAF plotters and duty officers at work, 1943
Women's Royal Naval Service
The Women's Royal Naval Service was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War, remaining active until integrated into the Royal Navy in 1993. WRNS included cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, weapons analysts, range assessors, electricians and air mechanics.
A WRNS rating during the Second World War
Two Ordnance Wrens in Liverpool reassemble a section of a pom-pom gun during the Second World War.
Second World War recruitment poster
A Mark 2 Colossus computer operated by Wrens.
