Page 88 of The Spitfire Girls
Lizzie felt her eyes widen. ‘What do you mean? What sort of a fuss?’ she whispered back. ‘What does that have to do with us?’
‘Well, they want your head on a stick to start with,’ he muttered.
Lizzie blanched at the thought, but she knew full well how many men she’d riled with the very existence of the WASPs. But how was this her fault? She hadn’t even known about the closures.
‘Apparently, they’ve trained all the new pilots they need, which is great on the one hand because we haven’t had as many pilots killed in battle as expected. But with your WASPs taking over so many non-combat roles here, well ...’
‘What are you trying to say?’ she hissed.
‘Most of those men, the flying instructors, they were civilians. They were excused from joining the army only because they were training our pilots, but now with those flight schools being closed, they might well end up as foot soldiers.’ His hand covered her knee and she didn’t bother reprimanding him. ‘I thought you’d want to know.’
‘So they want our jobs?’ she asked. ‘Is that it?’ She’d been so excited about the bill in front of Congress, so certain everything was working in her favour, and then to be told this?
The screen crackled to life and she shuddered, suddenly seeing everything falling to pieces around her. How could this be happening when they were so close to being recognised by the army? Would this little group of men, jumping up and down in protest, derail all the progress they’d made?
‘These instructors have been teaching beginner pilots. It would take them forever to train well enough to handle advanced aircrafts,’ Jackson said. ‘So let’s hope it’s nothing more than a bump in the road.’
She looked back at him, wondering if he was just saying that to make her feel better. She had the feeling he was keeping something from her still; she could tell from the tight lock of his jaw, the way he wasn’t meeting her gaze.
‘There’s more, isn’t there?’ she asked sadly, tucking her fingers around his. ‘Tell me. I need to know, otherwise they’ll blindside me when I’m least expecting it.’
‘They’ve started a campaign to discredit you,’ he whispered. ‘They’ve already got wind of this bill before Congress, and they’ve started a deliberate attempt to get rid of the WASPs entirely. The first story ran today in a small paper, but I can see that it’ll be picked up everywhere soon. It’s why I knew I couldn’t keep it from you.’
‘How bad was it?’ she asked in a low voice, as the black-and-white images crackled over the screen.
‘They’re saying that women have stolen men’s jobs, that you have a terrible accident rate, and that it costs a fortune to train a woman to fly a military plane.’
Lizzie gulped and sat silently as a tear ran down her cheek, then another and another. She held tight to Jackson’s hand, not needing to tell him how wrong it was; he knew it as well as she did.
They officially had a lower accident rate than men flying the same missions. There was no difference at all in the cost to train them; in fact, they cost less, as they didn’t even receive the same quality uniforms. But no one was going to care about that. All they’d see were the headlines screaming ‘Women Stealing Men’s Jobs’ or something equally obscene.The women pilots would be told to go back to homemaking and knitting, instead of being lauded for the serious contribution they’d made to the war effort.
She would fight every slanderous word until her last breath, but for the first time she wondered if this was one fight she didn’t have a hope of winning. The only thing she could do was ensure the bill received support, and to do that she’d need to exercise an extremely bold bluff.
‘I’m going to tell Hap that if the WASPs can’t be in the Army Air Forces, like every other army pilot, then the WASP programme will come to an end,’ she murmured.
Jackson nodded, and she knew she had his support. The only problem would be if her gamble failed, but she had to believe they were too important to the army for them to risk losing her or her programme. And if they didn’t think that, then the demise of the WASPs would be on her head. She couldn’t see any other way forward through this mess.
She stared at the screen and wished she hadn’t.What on earth?
Lizzie looked around her and saw the horrified faces of her pilots as they watched the film. They’d come to see a movie about their incredible work, about women flying enormous military planes and taking on roles that should have impressed anyone, and instead they were being portrayed as silly girls more interested in flirting with officers and gossiping. She groaned at the immature actress on screen giggling and making love-eyes at a man in uniform, wishing she’d just stayed on base for the evening.
She’d never been so embarrassed in her life.
‘This is ridiculous,’ Jackson said, loud enough for everyone around them to hear.
Lizzie shut her eyes and blocked it all out. It was like the world was conspiring against her, and she wasn’t going to stand for it: just as she’d refused to take no for an answer before she was sent to England. This was not going to signal the end for the WASPs, and she was not going to let this ridiculous film make a mockery of their work.
‘Let’s go,’ she said to Jackson, standing.
He looked surprised, but he stood.
‘We don’t need to sit and watch this nonsense,’ she said in a loud voice to the women around her. ‘Stay for a laugh if you like, by all means, but remember that this is fiction and does not for a moment reflect the incredible work of the WASPs.’
And with that she walked out, holding her head high. She’d collapse and cry in her own bed later, but now she needed to set an example to her girls.
‘Elizabeth?’
She was surprised to see one of her office assistants standing outside the venue, holding a sheet of paper in her hand. The paper was trembling.
