Sisters For Victory (Secret Sirens Aviation Thrillers)
It is well known that the British and Americans employed both male and female pilots to deliver combat aircraft to their operational bases. The pilots were civilians, and the aircraft were unarmed, but it was dangerous work, as the death of the celebrated British aviatrix, Amy Johnson, exemplified. The premise for Sisters for Victory is that the RAF secretly went beyond this to set up a fighter-bomber group of all-female aircrew for precision attacks on targets in northwestern Europe. Bailey describes the recruitment, training and operational experience of these ‘Sirens’ in vivid and authentic detail. There is a romantic sub-plot, but this is primarily a thriller.
The unit is so secret that the aircrew are issued with cyanide pills to commit suicide rather than be captured and interrogated. It is very dramatic, but I could not help wondering why the unit was so secret and who it was secret from. The unit would understandably be secret from the British public, since female service personnel were supposedly employed only in defensive roles (although this included anti-aircraft guns, coastal batteries and the like). However, why keep it from the Germans, who employed high profile women test pilots for the Luftwaffe and were well aware that the Soviets had an all-female night fighter unit which they nicknamed the Night Vixens?
A more serious reservation is that Anna, the central character and flight leader, is just too exemplary in her skill, courage and commitment – a sort of Worrals for grown-ups. Yes, she has doubts about the loyalty of some of her ‘sisters’, is saddened by casualties, but she never seems to experience real fear. Male aircrew might exhibit Lack of Moral Fibre, but never Anna.
This is a feel-good book, but I think a story about bomber pilots should be a bit more hard-edged.
