Goodwood Revival a brief look at wartime meteorology and a new suit!

This is a late post if ever there was one! I can barely believe the Revival was a month and a half ago! Time speeds away indeed.

I didn't get to see much of the Revival itself as I was very lucky to have been asked along, and lent/made a uniform, in order to work as a WAAF in one of the hospitality tents. This was great as it meant that I had the chance to explore another area of history that I haven't looked into much... It also ment that i got to dress up!

I was posted on the met desk, which meant I had to give frequent weather reports... y'know cloud base, wind velocity and direction, visibility, first light... etc, etc! Eek! I cried. I only know how to tune into the telly and listen to John Kettley talk about isobars!

Fortunately I found a wonderful book called "One WAAF's War" by a lady called Joan Beech. If you ever find a copy I highly recommend it. Joan worked in the RAF Met office from about 1942. The book's full of anecdotes and wonderful descriptions about what her job involved. I also read "Debs at War" by Anne De Courcy, which looks at a selection of services women could sign up to, from the perspective of the higher class Debutants of the era. Again, this book is a fabulous read. The pictures are wonderful and to discover about the social history of such a class of woman and how the war shook such class structures was a real eye opener.

So with my very small amount of research under my belt I headed off to Goodwood, terrified that I may encounter a real life meteorologist who'd ask me questions that I wouldn't be able to answer... as one cannot discover the art of mapping the weather after reading two books!

At the Met desk, recieving a call from Bracknell HQ

In real life a Met WAAF would have made a weather observation every hour, reading the temperature, pressure, wind direction and speed. Cloud types, height and quantity, the visibility and weather conditions. this would then be coded and sent by teleprinter to Met HQ at Bracknell.

The charts like you see on TV were produced every three hours and in the afternoon a visit to the aircrew briefing room would be made. here the chart would be displayed so that details of the weather conditions at take-off, over the target and on return back to base could be given.

It was an unglamerous job, all shift work, either working from 6am-1pm, 1pm-8pm or 10 hours overnight 8pm-6am and invariably the girls would have to venture outside in stormy weather and take readings whilst getting drenched! the plus side was that due to working shifts, the routine "square bashing" could be avoided... so many Met girls didn't have to do drill too often!

Also, because the job required breifing airmen about weather conditions, many WAAFs encountered pilots in the briefing room who they would never seen return from an operation... which, to me, is a very sad and very daunting prospect.

Me at the plotting table

The plotting table

The plotting table was a very important bit of kit, upon which service women plotted the movements of allied and enemy aircraft. This was done every 5 minutes and updated according to a "sector clock". Each new plot would be labelled in a new colour, red, blue or yellow... depending upon what time a plot is made.

A sector clock

 I watched with awe as the other girls undertook this task... it was explained to me, but continued to confuse me! The chaps at the top of the table are important Officer types giving out orders and so on!

It wasn't only the RAF who were working in the ops room. In fact we were working alongside the Royal Artillery, Navy and ATS, with a group called The Garrison... a wonderful re enactment group who explore role of the Royal Artillery and Auxiliary Territorial Service gunners in war and in peace. Check out thier website, and if you can head to one of thier events, it's all extremly accurate and they are a smashing bunch of folk.

The spitfire formation

On the Sunday I was lucky to see an ariel display of ten spitfires grace the sky... which was utterly breathtaking. and particularly poingnat as the aircraft was conceived 26 miles from Goodwood at the Supermarine Aviation factory at Woolston... Such beautiful pieces of machinery!

And now for something completely different...

I had bought a ticket for the saturday, so rolled up in my "civvies" and what civvies they were. thios gorgeous creation is from those lovely folk at Puttin' on the Ritz. It's a sneak preview to a 1930s style suit in thier up and coming range called "The Parisienne". I felt splendid in it... and it's such a versatile little number. the skirt and bolero can be worn separately, and together they are the height of sophistication in monochrome!

Trackside posing!

Ok, Ok... it's a 1955 Aston Martin DB3S and the suit is 1930s influenced... photo date accuracy fail! But the car was black and white, I was wearing black and white, so it was aesthetically pleasing!

So, that was my Goodwood experience this year! I wonder what next year will bring?

TTFN

G x