WAAF photo Leighton Buzzard

[Valerie231059]

Hi
The photos attached are of my mum Ruby Bentley, one when she was 18yrs. The other with friends taken at the Sgts Mess RAF Wing Leighton Buzzard.
Ruby 21
Louise
Joyce
Diana

Can anyone tell me what they would have done?  Mum never said. Looks like she had some nice friends.

[philipsearching]

Leighton Buzzard is only a couple of stations along from Bletchley.  Perhaps they were working at Bletchley Park.

[tazzie]

The WAAF at Wing had their own site near to the village. RAF Wing was built on the Cublington road and I remember seeing lots of the old stores still scattered around up into the 1980....mostly on the farms. I think a chicken farm was built on a big part of it when it closed.

As an active airfield they could have carried out radar and tracking duties as well as communication duties.

   Tazzie

[Crumblie]

If they were at the Sergeants Mess they may have been stewardesses.

[DB10]

Courtesy of Wiki....
"RAF Wing was primarily a bomber training airfield. First flight was in March 1942. It consisted of five hangars, three concrete runways, offices, a canteen, rest rooms, blast shelters, ammunition and bomb dumps, radio and telegraph rooms, training blocks, church, gym, squash court, rugby and football field, tailors, barbers, shoemakers, Post Office, a cinema, and stores."
Members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force had their own site close to Wing village on Cublington Road, much of which can still be seen today. There was also a hospital constructed close to Cublington that is still partially standing. It even had a new sewage treatment plant constructed which is still in use today.

All in all a very self contained operation.

So what did your mum do there? Well there are plenty of duties that would have been carried out by WAAFs - offices, radio/telegraph operators, or even canteen/cinema duties maybe. Its pretty much impossible to say without further clues.

Any hints in any work she did in later life. Also do you know what date the pictures were taken?

Regards DB10

[Nick Stoke]

These are lovely images, thank you for sharing. I really suggest you get a book called ‘Wings over Wing’ by ex Wing schoolteacher Michael Warth so that you can learn more regarding where your mum worked. Chapter 14 is dedicated to the WAAFs in 26 Operational Training Unit at Wing and they did every type of vital job from wireless operators and teleprinters, to caring for thousands of repatriated allied POWs who were in a terrible condition. If you do have social media like Facebook, I also recommend joining the Stewkley, Wing and Cublington history group and you will see lots more. Not only did the WAAFs on site play a pivotal role day to day, a number lost their lives there in awful aircraft accidents. A few of us are trying to have a memorial placed at the site, before what is left there crumbles away, so if anyone is keen for the same, let the Parish Councils know. I hope it’s ok that I have shared the lovely pictures with the history group to see if they can help more, and do please post anything more you have. Your mum was part of an incredible group of people.

[Ssxy]

My mother served at Leighton Buzzard as a teleprinter. Many of her fellow WRAFs lived in accommodation at The Grange in nearby Heath and Reach.

This book is worth a read, The Secrets of Q Central, How Leighton Buzzard Shortened the War.

Ssxy

[Valerie231059]

Many thanks to you all for the book recommendation and suggestions.
Sorry for my very late reply.
The group Photo was taken in October 1945
The photo of my mum was taken April 1942

[IMBER]

RAF Leighton Buzzard had nothing to do with RAF Wing, that's a completely different location near Aylesbury. Leighton Buzzard was a huge, highly secret establishment and operated as the RAF's Central Exchange and Wireless Telegraph Station for the whole of the UK and beyond. It was later known as RAF Stanbridge. Thousands were based there.

The clothing worn in the photo is very similar to that worn by my WAAF mother in WW2, and she was a cook.