Arrowsmith
January 2025
Now’s the time we look back into the past, and forward into the future. It’s when we realise the limitations we share. Living memory depends so much on the length of life itself. That’s by no means equal for all. Women live longer than men, and townsfolk can’t expect to last as long as countryfolk. That, of course, is according to statistical averages, but it’s fair to assume that almost nobody remembers 1945. The year of the end of the Second World War – VE and VJ days, celebrating victory in Europe and Japan respectively.
About twenty years ago I interviewed a ‘lumberjill’: a former member of The Women’s Land Army Timber Corps, founded in 1942 when British imports of wood ceased because of the German invasion and occupation of Norway. The Women’s Land Army (WLA) had been founded in 1917 to meet labour needs in farming due to men being occupied in the armed forces but was disbanded in 1919after the end of the First World War. In 1939 the WLA was re-established and continued in service until 1950.
The women of the Timber Corps had shorter working hours than those of the rest of the WLA, and had more stringent entry requirements with respect to medical fitness and technical aptitude to enable them to pass the more complex training – essential to prepare them for the skills of selecting standing timber, felling, loading and transporting it to meet strict specifications for use as a prime material for use in war manufacture. Not only would their output supply armament factories to provide stocks for Lee-Enfield .303 rifles, but timber was also a key component of Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft, which accounted for more Axis air losses during The Battle of Britain than did the all metal Spitfires. Wood was the main structural element of Airspeed Oxfords which were a twin-engined trainer, teaching bomber crew their team skills. The Airspeed company was owned by the pilot and author Neville Shute, and it was an Oxford in which the record-breaking woman aviatrix, Amy Johnson lost her life serving with the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) early during the war. Ironically Amy Johnson was a shareholder in Airspeed!
Possibly the most famous use of wood amongst the Allies was in the construction of the De Havilland Mosquito, known popularly as ‘The Wooden Wonder’, which featured a steamed plywood skin, moulded around concrete formers with balsa wood packing. The strongest element of the main wing spar was made of incredibly strong and flexible laminated Sitka Spruce. Whereas metal aircraft were welded and riveted together, wooden aeroplanes were glued and screwed firmly with Cascamite glue and brass screws! The Mosquitoes were very light, fast, highly manoeuvrable and extremely versatile.
The history of the use of wood in the air couldn’t be complete without mentioning Airspeed Horsa Gliders which – flying from airfields such as Down Ampney – carried Airborne troops to combat in such campaigns as Arnhem, and the D-Day invasion. Although women were not generally expected to carry out combat, the significance of the work of the Women’s Timber Corps should be acknowledged, especially now so many of them have gone, taking their memories with them as their lives have ended.
Our ability to see into the future is even more limited than our memories of the past, but we have seen how much has changed over the eighty years since 1945. Women have worked on the land for centuries, and today we see many more women farmers than ever. Our politicians should ensure the idiocy which once meant only sons, and not daughters, could inherit the product of generations of family investment of effort, doesn’t see farming families become victims of myopic political ineptitude. Look forward with wisdom and consider consequences.
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