ideas (sent on email also)

Costume Idea’s.......

Sky blue shirt, (if you can get one)

Navy Tie

Navy Skirt

Jacket (if possible)

http://war-women.co.uk/Waaf.html

http://masqueradeshop.co.uk/index.htm?ac=B47Y2-G

Hairstyles, 1940’s............ ideas......

Update 20-11

Hello Group!

The script is coming along and I will have it done by daybreak.
Until then, have a look at this film. It's brilliant! Gives a nice overview of the Battle of Britain and gives a sense of the atmosphere. Of cause this is total propaganda but it still tells us a lot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCuf2omqu-g
Enjoy!

mette

28^th June 1919 – The Treaty of Versailles signed. Germany loses territory and money.

Early 1930s – Berlin one of the most open and tolerant cities in the world (major cultural centre of Europe)

1933 – Hitler and his armies (e.g. SA) seize control of Germany through intimidation and violence.

30^th January 1933 – Hitler came to power, perfectly legally. Within a few months his dictatorship was firmly in place – he became the Fuhrer.

1936 – US Congress passed a neutrality law (they wouldn’t get involved with another European war) Hitler had nothing to fear from the US.

1938 – Austria annexed. Submitted to the same reign of terror as Germany.

Czechoslovakia next victim – under protection of England and France. Crisis followed.

September 1938 – Munich Temple of Nazism – 11^th hour peace conference. Mussolini and Hitler opposite Neville Chamberlain (British PM) and Edward de Lidia (France) – the western democracies. Czech province given up in exchange for Hitler to promise not to make anymore claims on European territory.

March 1939 – Hitler prepared a democratic coup. German-Soviet pact meant war for the rest of the World. Hitler had nothing to fear form the Soviet Union.

Friday 1^st September 1939 – Danzig – first shots of the Second World War.

3^rd September 1939 – Ambassador for Britain declares war. France also declares war.

20^th September 1939 – Hitler ordered the bombing of Warsaw. He wanted to strike fear into the hearts and minds of his enemies.

8^th November 1939 – Hitler narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.

Autumn 1939 – Siedkrieg (Setting war) or ‘Phoney war’ – strange waiting period.

Winter 1939 – 41 – one of the coldest winters recorded.

Hitler launched a surprise attack against Denmark and Norway – a Blitzkrieg. He captured Oslo in 2 days. Blitzkrieg – intended to give the enemy no time to attack.

9^th May 1940 – Hitler left Berlin on his private train heading for Norway. Then halfway there the train switched direction and took him to his new headquarters on the French border. He planned to trap the French/ British armies in Belgium.

10^th May 1940 – German paratroopers jump over Holland to capture the airfields and bridges around Rotterdam. At the same time Hitler released his war machine on Belgium.

German soldiers invaded France – life would never be the same again. Millions of civilians had their homes destroyed and lives disrupted as they were caught in the war.

Gamelin (French) ordered British/French armies to advance through Belgium. He moved the elite armies into Belgium; these were the best soldiers he had.

11^th May 1940 – Daybreak – German paratroopers were dropped into Belgium their goal was to capture the linchpin of the Belgium defence system – Fort Eban Emael, on the Albert Canal – reputed to be impregnable. Fort Eban Emael was captured in less than 24 hours.

Things took a sudden turn for the worse in France – in just 3 days the Germans had swept through Ardennes and had advanced towards the defence line on the Murs River. Closing the net with a pincer movement the Germans trapped the Allied troops in Belgium.

13^th May 1940 – Germans built bridge to cross the Murs River. Although the French fought back the Germans neutralised the French artillery. German tanks attacked with force.

Paris late May 1940 – French authorities struggling to cope with increasing numbers of refugees.

28^th May 1940 – Allies were encircled. Belgium King surrenders. British withdraw towards the coast. Allied armies were on the brink of disaster.

Dunkirk – 224,000 British and 114,000 French troops were successfully evacuated, rescued from death/ capture. British army was saved but in tatters. The French were sent back to make a final attempt at saving their country. British sent off to be re-equipped. All of Britain held Dunkirk as an extraordinary feat. It was then, in those first days of June 1940, that the Dunkirk spirit was born.

4^th June 1940 – Germans took Dunkirk.

10^th June 1940 – Mussolini declared war on Britain and France.

14^th June 1940 – Daybreak – Germans entered Paris. The Swastika flew triumphant over the French capital. Germans seized records from the abandoned ministries – lists of spies and freemasons. They also obtained the original copy of the Treaty of Versailles, which was sent off to Hitler.

17^th June 1940 – Petain (French) seeking an armistice.

22^nd June 1940 – Hitler in Paris to accept the French surrender. Everything was designed to humiliate the losers. The diatribe accused France of starting the war with no reason – Hitler left. Catastrophe for Britain – lost major ally.

British removed nameplates – Germans took France because of good maps. Children evacuated. Young women enlisted. Every woman had to defend their homes. All men joined the army. America supplied weapons – soldiers prepared for war. Battle of Britain begins. RAF principle weapon – excelled in electronics; invented radar. Pilots joined by air men who had fled their countries.

Germany commanded an aerial offense against Britain – convoys in the channel, on the shores and then airfields. Hitler forced to postpone plans to invade Britain.

The Blitz – fatal mistake on Hitler’s part. Bombing cities relived the pressure on the RAF. British people now in the firing line: shelters. People rarely lost confidence of good humour. London was bombed for 76 consecutive nights. 40,000 civilians killed and 200,000 homes damaged. Determined spirit became legendary.

Jessica

Tuesday 16th

Hey Group!

You are in room MX118 on Tuesday from 1 to 3. It is the building by Asda where we used to have Investigations. I'll go see Pete at 2 to do the health and safety thingy.
I suggest that you do a thorough warm-up including some warm-up-improv-exercises, then do some character exercises before you try and improvise some of the collective scenes.
Your improvisations will be recorded (if that's ok with everybody) so we can use them to modify the existing text.

mette

Ideas

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/britainatwar/britainatwarreadersmemories/6507067/WW2-readers-memories-my-time-in-the-WAAF.html
An article to give some background on women in the WAAF, maybe for the composite character Helen.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=51949
http://www.foyleswar.com/glossary/w.htm
http://www.yfaonline.com/assetDetails.cfm?film=2881&keyword=Waaf&fromSearchValue=fromKeyword&start=1
Archive footage.... ideas for set design/action on stage.

Thanks Naomi

First draft of script

Biggin Hill

A table with black and red “planes”, a radar screen, a blackboard, head phones, 3 chairs.

Image/video clip projected on the background.

It is 2pm on a Sunday.

3 women come to the front

Joan: It was the year 1940

Helen: September 1^st

Elspeth: At the RAF Aerodrome in Biggin Hill

Helen: It was the 1^st of September

Joan: 1940

All: The day we thought we would die.

Sound of siren. Elspeth is working the radar screen, Joan is sitting with headphones on, Helen is writing coordinates on blackboard.

Voice: Evacuate the premises. We are under attack. I repeat, we are under attack. Go to the shelters immediately.

Helen is about to leave in a hurry.

Helen: Come on! What are you waiting for? We have to get out of here!

Elpeth: 51 degrees, 16 minutes, 27seconds North, 0 degrees, 10 minutes, 37 seconds East

Joan: Base to 6-10 Squadron. Base to 6-10 Squadron. You have enemy incoming from East-South-East.

Helen: Corporal Henderson! We have to leave! The Germans are back!

Elspeth: We have 3 coming in from 16, 28 North, 10, 25 East. 5 from 16, 58 North, 12, 32 East, 4 from 16, 68 North, 10, 4 East. They are all over the place!

Voice: We are under attack. I repeat, we are under attack. Leave your posts and go to the shelters now!

Helen: Please!

Elspeth: I am not going anywhere. If we leave our posts there will be no one to help our boys in the air.

Joan: I'm staying too. I can't leave Michael and the other pilots to fight in the dark.

A bomb falls.

Helen throws herself to the ground

Joan: We could really use your help, Turner.

Helen looks towards the door, but is too afraid to leave.

Helen: All right. I'll stay. Starts writing on the black board 51, 16, 27 North …

The girls do their jobs in a stressed environment. Their voices goes silent and their movement turn to slow motion. Helen turns to the audience (normal pace).

Helen: The bombs have been raining down on us for the past few weeks now. But the past couple of days has been beyond all reason. This afternoon we are having the 6^th attack in 3 days. I am afraid. I saw the Germans come closer and closer this morning. I could see them on the radar and I could see that they were heading straight for us. I was thinking: Oh no, not again. I was so afraid. It seems that every day there is a little less left of the base. Walls and roofs missing, big holes in the ground. I prayed that after the attack this morning the Germans would leave us alone just for a little while. But just as the other days, they return in the afternoon with more bombs, more screams, more death.

I didn't use to be this frightened. In the beginning it was fun and exiting. We would spend all day helping the pilots to shoot down Germans, and then when our men returned in the evening, we'd all go down to the pub in the village.

Back when the war started it was decided that we should be the Main Flight Command and the final defence of London. This made us the prime target for Hitler's Luftwaffe. On August 18^th we felt the impact of this responsibility. They carpet bombed us here at Biggin Hill, throwing 500 bombs within 10 minutes. Most of the base was destroyed. Every last surviving one of us was ordered to go out and fill the holes and craters of the runway with whatever we could find, so that the pilots could land safely. We succeeded and managed to send out more fighters that very afternoon. But I am so afraid right now. We have already suffered so much. We have lost so many lives. How much more can we withstand?

Sounds of sporadic bombs.

Helen returns to her work and all actions go back to normal pace.

Elspeth: Enemy at 51, 20, 03 North, 0, 21, 40 East – moving West

Helen moves planes on table

Joan: Base to fife-niner, base to fife-niner. Enemy straight East. Go get him, Michael!

Elspeth: Enemy at 51, 20, 53 North, 0, 21, 44 East.

Helen: Target is moving North.

Joan: Base to fife-niner, base to fife-niner. Your target is moving North now. Do you see him?

(To the girls) Michael has got a Junker in reach!

Helen: He'd better hit him, before they throw more bombs at us.

Elpeth: He is headed straight for us now.

Joan: Fife-niner. Do you see the enemy? He is North-West of you now.

(out) Fife-niner is firing at enemy target. (all 3 waiting in suspense) We've got a hit! German bomber is going down.

Helen: (looking at map) It'll land in one of the fields North-East of town.

Joan: (to girls) No need to send for the German. It was a crash and burn.

Base to fife-niner. You have one very proud fiancée waiting for you when you get back here.

Elspeth: (with a smile) Sergeant Mortimer, the radio is not for romance. Save it for your honeymoon. We are actually trying to fight a war here, remember.

They continue working.

Action turns to slow-motion and Elspeth turns towards audience.

Elspeth: I can't help but to feel a profound sense of pride that I get to take part in all of this. It is strange to think of how I ended up in this situation. My mother was in the Women's Royal Air Force back in the Cold War. Just as now, there was a shortage of able-bodied men to fight in the front lines, so women had to take over the men's jobs at the home-front. I remember feeling very proud of my mother for being a driver at an airbase and I think she would be very proud to see me here.

As soon as the war ended women were back in the kitchens, but from 1918 to 1920 my mother got to serve her country.

I was so exited when they established the Women's Auxiliary Air Force last year, I enlisted as soon as I had the chance. I was stationed here at Biggin Hill and after 6 month I received the title of Corporal. But it hasn't all been fun and games. Two weeks ago, on the 18^th, when the 500 bombs fell all around us... A building collapsed. We had to dig out the wounded... and the dead. I fear that it will take me a lifetime before their faces are erased from my mind's eye.

2 days ago, the ops room I was in was hit by a bomb. I remember noticing that one of the walls had gone. Fire everywhere. Me and the others escaped through a broken window. The smoke felt thick in my throat. I had managed to get safely out of the building when I heard a voice shout at me to move. I then realised that what I was leaning against was an unexploded bomb. It all feels like a bad dream right now. But I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Here I make a difference. My actions save lives. We might be sitting ducks here, but I'd rather fight back than sit and hide in a shelter and let the Germans do their worst. This is my country, and I would proudly die for it.

Resumes work, all back to normal pace

Joan: 3-1 has just shot a German Junker to the ground.

Helen: Good! So far we are hitting more of them, than they are us.

Elspeth: Great! I would give a round at the pub, but as you know, it was bombed to dust yesterday.

Joan: Fife-niner is hit, fife-niner is hit. Michael! Oh God no. Michael!

Everything freezes

Joan: I was supposed to be working at Hendon Armoury, but I had heard that all the action would take place at Biggin Hill. So I came here against all orders, met Michael at the town pub, and he helped sneak me in at the base. I just started working there. Trying to avoid the Commanding Officer, so he wouldn't start asking questions. Me and Michael fell in love almost straight away.

On the 18^th of August when it was raining bombs... Michael was in the air fighting off the Germans. I looked outside and saw that it would be extremely difficult if not impossibly to land anywhere. There where so many unexploded bombs everywhere. I grabbed as many red flags as I could and ran out onto the runway. The bombs were still falling. I placed red flags by all the unexploded bombs, so that the pilot could steer safely around them. It was like a minefield. But I kept running. An officer ordered me to stop, and I did. At least until he wasn't looking any more. The air was thick of dust and sulphur, but I kept running with my red flags. All I could think off was to get Michael home safely. A bomb fell near me and I was knocked unconscious, I don't know for how long. I woke up and without thinking I continued my task until there were no more flags left. When Michael landed that night, the first thing he did was to ask me to marry him. I said yes.

Now I hear his voice in the radio telling me that he is hit, that he has lost control of the aircraft, that he is plummeting to the ground. He is crying. He tells me that he loves me. He starts to scream. He cries for God. He cries for his mother. He screams. (…) Then silence.

A distant plane is heard crashing

Unfreeze.

Joan: Michael! Michael!

The sound of bombs are closer now.

Helen: No! Oh God no!

Elspeth: I am so sorry, Joan.

Joan cries

Helen: We can't stay here! We are going to get killed! Let's go to the shelters. Please! I can't stay here.

Elspeth: We need you here. The men need you.

Helen: No I can't. I can't take any more of this. I'm going to the shelter.

Joan: Helen, please. If you go more pilots will die.

Helen: But I am so scared!

A bombs explodes nearby. The room shakes. They all fall down.

Helen: The shelter... The shelter is gone. All those people. Sedgewick, Peters, Matterson...

Elspeth: Don't worry about them now. There is nothing you can do. There are already people running there to save the survivors. Right now, if you want to save lives, you get back here and help us guide the pilots.

Helen: You are right. You are right. Let's do this. We can't let those Nazis get away with this.

Joan: Base to fife-fower. Enemy is approaching South-East of you.

The women continue their jobs.

The sound of bombs grows louder and more intense. Then silence.

Elspeth: It was the 1^st of September 1940

Helen: It was the day we thought we would die.

Joan: But somehow we didn't

The End

Hey girls, Mette,... Looks good so far, will need to think about it in terms of scenes. I can help with talioring the text into live action on paper if that helps. I am looking at the soundscape, I want the noise to be constant, so need 20mins, if you know of anywhere else other than the web for ideas, let me know.

Jessica, costumes number for Stafford based Ian Older: 01785 258 200

Ideas/Inspiration
Website to visit for research from curator at RAF museum: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/manchester/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8536000/8536818.stm

http://www.war-experience.org/

http://www.culture24.org.uk/am18648?ixsid

http://www.waafassociation.org.uk/

Claire from the Museum has given us the number of Lauren Woodard curator of exhibition based in london: Look for book by Pippa Beck, autobiography on WAAF Bomb Command.

Elspeth Henderson

NAME:  Elspeth Candlish Henderson

DOB: June 16^th 1913

Elspeth was the daughter of a professor of law at Edinburgh University. She was educated at St Denis School in Edinburgh and Harrogate ladies’ college. After leaving school, she travelled around Europe and became proficient in German and French

Elspeth joined the WAAF in January 1940. After two weeks training to be a plotter in the ops room of a fighter base, she was posted to Biggin Hill. She was soon posted to corporal, giving her the responsibility of supervising other WAAF plotters as they displayed the progress of incoming enemy bomber formations.

In the last few days of August 1940 the Luftwaffe concentrated on knocking out the fighter airfields in the south-east of England; and Biggin Hill, one of the most important, suffered heavily

During this period, when there were six raids in three days, the then Corporal Elspeth Henderson was on duty in the operations room, responsible for maintaining the vital contact between the airfield operations staff and the controllers at Fighter Command headquarters, Uxbridge.

On August 30 nine Junkers 88 bombers delivered a devastating attack on the airfield. An air raid shelter was completely destroyed, and a number of WAAFs sheltering in an adjacent slit trench were amongst the 39 people killed. Others were entombed, and Elspeth Henderson was one of the first to help to dig them out.

After spending the night in makeshift quarters with her WAAF colleagues, she was back on duty the next day when the Luftwaffe attacked again. She maintained contact with Uxbridge despite the bombs bursting on the airfield. Later that afternoon the ops room took a direct hit, and she was knocked over by the blast; but she carried on with her work. "There was nothing much else we could do, anyway," she commented later.

Elspeth Henderson maintained contact with Uxbridge throughout the raid but, as fire broke out, the staff was ordered to take shelter. With her commanding officer and the rest of the staff, she hurriedly left the burning ops room through a broken window and threw herself to the ground as more bombs exploded.

Her warrant officer shouted at her to move - she was leaning against an unexploded bomb.

Using hastily repaired telephone lines and signals equipment in a temporary operations room, Elspeth Henderson maintained contact with Fighter Command headquarters and the Observer Corps posts. Sporadic raids continued until September 7, when the Luftwaffe turned its attention to London. On November 2 it was announced that Elspeth Henderson and two other WAAFs - Sergeants Helen Turner and Elizabeth Mortimer - had been awarded the Military Medal for their "courage and example of a high order". The commanding officer of Biggin Hill said: " These three girls have shown amazing pluck." Throughout the whole of the Second World War, there were only six awards of the Military Medal to members of the WAAF

Elspeth left the service in 1946 with the rank of squadron officer. In July 1974, she returned to Biggin Hill, where a road in the RAF married quarters was named after her. In recent years the site has been demolished, but it has been announced that the new housing development on the site will include roads bearing the names of the three WAAFs and the former fighter pilots who flew from the Battle of Britain airfield.

Elspeth married Alastair McWatt Green in 1949.

Elspeth’s daughter, Heather Redfearn, said: “My mother believed very firmly that it was morally wrong that men were being sent out to fight on the front line, and were risking their lives, while single women like her could literally sit at home and lead quite a normal life.

“But what a turnaround it must have been for her – one moment taking dictation in Edinburgh, and only months later in the very thick of the action.”

Elspeth Green died on August 24 2006 aged 93.

Hellloooo

Hey guys!

I decided to set up a blog for us to all use. That way we can all post our ideas etc, and everything will stay in one place, making it easier for us :)

Liz xxx