Helen Mills (Gareth Tarr).
WWII stories are best told first-hand. Walton-on-Thames-born Helen joined the
WAAF in 1942 and had three weeks of initial training at Morecambe before being posted to Hornchurch in Group 11. Fighter Command was based at Stanmore and the country was divided into Groups 10 to 13, 11 being London and the South East. In 1943 she started working as a plotter in the Group 11 Battle of Britain Bunker at Uxbridge, which you can still visit today. All radar signals from the coastal stations were communicated to Stanmore, which then distributed the relevant plots plus the aircraft information to the Groups. The plotting rods in the early days (eg during the Battle of Britain) were wooden croupier sticks, which pushed the arrows into place. Later they were replaced by tin arrows and plotting rods which had retractable magnetic ends so the plots could be moved and released with accuracy. Every ops room had a clock divided into five-minute colours – red, yellow and blue. The idea was that the plots were changed to a new colour every five minutes to identify their current location. Hence if the clock showed a blue period and a red plot was on the table, that red plot needed changing because it would have moved. Each plot on its small tin indicator was coded as Friendly (red and white), Unknown (yellow) or Hostile (black). All were numbered in sequence and more detailed information (eg the number of planes and height of flying) was held off-table on the tote which could be seen by the Operation Room’s Commanders. Earlier, all this information was on the table on heavy indicators when the wooden
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rods were used. There is a memorial window at Biggin Hill Church of plotters in an ops room. Helen went on to describe some of the key characters of the Battle of Britain and had particular praise for Keith Park, who was Head of Group 11, and Air Vice-Marshal Hugh Dowding, Head of Fighter Command at Stanmore. Both were experienced pilots with invaluable knowledge and they played a vital role in defeat- ing the Luftwaffe, but were rather sidelined after the Battle of Britain. In the case of the uncharismatic Dowding, this may have been due to his standing up to Churchill and he was replaced by his main critic. Though celebrated as a pilot, Douglas Bader was a particularly unpleasant character who had a patrician attitude to lower ranks and many people who had dealings with him have confirmed this. Helen also asked everyone to remember the ground crews whose expertise made sure that each plane was made operational for its next sortie. They and the ‘Few’ were all heroes of the Battle of Britain. After D Day Helen spent a year in Gloucester at RAF Records. After the war she trained as a Froebel teacher, retiring from the profession in 1984.
Helen describing some of the plotting pieces (Gareth Tarr).
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