WHEN the Second World War broke out, the task of keeping society afloat fell on the shoulders of the women left behind. Women the world over stepped into boots they'd never worn before - becoming engineers, labourers and intelligence experts. Their houses were razed to the ground, they fled their enemy-occupied countries and they picked up guns to defend their homes, but their stories are rarely told.

Remarkable Women of the Second World War is a collection of twelve of these stories, all carefully gathered and retold by Victoria Panton Bacon. These are the stories of Galina Russian navigator who flew on the front line for the Red Army alongside the feared Night Witches; Ena, an ATA engineer who didn't think much of the Spitfires and Hurricanes she worked on; and Lee, a Jewish girl who fled Frankfurt and arrived in Coventry on a Kindertransport train. These women weren't remarkable because of high rank or status, but because of their grit, resilience and determination. These are the tales of ordinary women who did extraordinary things.

Autorentext

Victoria Panton Bacon worked for the Prime Minister in the 1990s before becoming a BBC television producer, making films in the UK and Europe, including Bosnia. She founded Elizabeth's Legacy of Hope in 2011 with her twin sister, Sarah, to raise money for children in developing countries who need prosthetic legs. Victoria lives in South Norfolk with her husband Richard, the local MP, and their two sons. She has previously written Remarkable Journeys of the Second World War.

Klappentext

During the Second World War, women kept society going, acting as carers, nurses, cleaners and teachers; or stepping in where men had gone, taking up such positions as engineers, farm labourers, factory workers, drivers and intelligence experts. This new collection of stories contains twelve true testimonies of women who lived through these years, either given directly to Victoria Panton Bacon, or shared through unpublished documents by family members especially for this book. The stories include a farmworker in the Women's Land Army, a child evacuee whose east London home was destroyed, a Lady Almoner caring for needy families at Great Ormond Street Hospital, an Air Transport Auxiliary aircraft engineer and a Dutch woman who was a child in hiding, whose mother was deported, and she never saw again. Each story represents millions of ordinary women doing extraordinary things, long before the days of political exposure or campaign.