WAAF? My father's Irish cousin

[littlealison]

Hello there.
Trying to find out what my father's cousin did during the last war.
Her name was Stella DOWSE, born 2008 in Dublin. I don't know what service she was in, but one of her old letters says that she was briefly stationed at St Cyrus, near Montrose.
The family rumours (can't even call them stories) are that she was in something like either interpretation of aerial photographs, or in the new radar stations used to track incoming enemy bomber formations.

I know St Cyrus was a radar station, but were there other things going on there as well?
Can anyone throw any light on this?

[Elwyn 1]

Here's a photo of her office:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcahms/6111768705/

[Currie]

Hello Alison,

According to Stella, she was in the Observation Corps, spotting enemy planes.

The Irish Times, 21 February, 1968: p7.
TRIBUTE TO WARTIME PILOT.
TWENTY-FIVE years ago next St. Patrick's Day an R.A.F. Halifax bomber, returning from a raid on Pilsen in Czechoslovakia, had a final encounter with an enemy night- fighter, fell out of the sky and ended as a sea of fire on the German countryside 50 miles south of Stuttgart. The pilot, "a very gallant Irish gentleman from near Dublin", perished at his controls.
The pilot was Flight Lieutenant Patrick Dowse. D.F.C., and recently his sister, Miss Stella Dowse, of Ardbrugh villas, Dalkey, Co. Dublin, received, a quarter of a century later, a tribute, published in "Scramble", the journal of the Royal Canadian Airforce Association, to her brother's heroism from a crew member who flew with him on that last night raid.
Former Flight Lieutenant Andrew N. Orr, who emigrated to Canada in 1947 and now lives in Rexdale, Ontario, writes of the late Patrick Dowse that because of him, the writer lives today: "He had ample time to get out of the plane that night 25 years ago. But no! He knew I was trapped in the rear turret and he remained at the controls to give me a chance to save my own life".
To qualify for the Victoria Cross (posthumously or alive) requires two witnesses, preferably not presently involved with the prospective recipient.
Mr. Orr holds firmly to the belief that the late Flight Lieutenant Dowse deserved a posthumous V.C.
"BAIL OUT"
In his account in "Scramble", Mr. Orr recalls that when the attacking German night-fighter set the starboard wing of the Halifax on fire, the late Flight Lieutenant Dowse shouted into the inter-com: "This is it chaps! Bail out!" And all the crew except the pilot and the rear gunner, did so successfully over Stuttgart.
Mr. Orr, the rear gunner, always carried his parachute with him in the turret. "To my horror the turret doors wouldn't open. The turret had been hit by enemy fire during the engagement and had warped, jambing the doors. In my panic to get out I twisted off both handles. In desperation I screamed into the inter-comm, 'Paddy, Paddy. I can't get out! and told him what had happened. With amazing coolness Paddy's voice came back, 'Andy calm down, calm down! Use your axe. I can still fly the kite'."
Orr fought the doors with his axe and his shoulders but when they opened and he fell out into the slip stream his right leg got caught and he hung out of the turret by one leg. Finally, the burning wing fell off and the Halifax went into a nose spin.
"Round and round we went faster and faster. Finally, the centrifugal force straightened my knee and I was free . . . I looked down and saw a sea of fire below me." He remembered no more until he was jolted awake by a German home guardsman.
Miss Dowse, whose other brother was killed while serving as a Flight Lieutenant in the R.A.F. during the last war, served herself in the Observation Corps spotting enemy planes.

There’s more information here, in German, about the Halifax crash. http://www.thomas-scharnowski.de/Episod ... g_1943.htm

Google Translator works to a degree. http://translate.google.com.au/?hl=en&tab=wT

All the best,
Alan

[littlealison]

Thanks, both!
A small snapshot of a little of Stella's life - I did meet her briefly in the '90s but my parents knew her well. So she must have been in the WAAF/ROC.
Elwyn - the radar station ...would there be more underground?

Alan - I had found the German site - google helped a bit.....but not the Irish Times, not having access. So that little bit is confirmation of what I'd heard.

The rest of her life however, including the rest of the war, is a bit of a blank. She was in some way connected with the Leopardstown Hospital, according to her obituary - but they have completely stonewalled me, referring me to the Freedom of Information Act...but I'm on the trail of her memorial service, you never know.
Thanks again, Alison

[Elwyn 1]

Alison,

I don't know anything about how the building would have been configured. Perhaps the RAF Museum might be able to answer that question. Presumably there were a series of these stations around the coast, all build to a similar spec. So even if they don't have the plans for that one, they might know what typically would have been there:

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/

Elwyn

[littlealison]

Elwyn - The radar stations seem to be built much like wartime concrete bomb shelters - have been looking at images of them, they all look different and there's a hint that some could be underground, and one has details of an escape tunnel to a shaft...they don't look safe at all.

Another one on http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/site ... sey_radar/ there's a pic of women at work here
And
"For further information and pictures RAF Bawdsey click here….."

[littlealison]

Now awaiting a letter from Ireland about Stella from someone who knew her - via the contact for her memorial service!