World War II veteran Barbara Archer was part of a stealthy pioneering team where enemy sites could be targeted from the air, even when pilots had no visibility.
The 100-year-old Bayswater, Victoria, resident was a radar operator based at Beachy Head in East Sussex, England. Her work formed part of the Oboe method of guiding aeroplanes, including Lancaster bombers like those flown by Bill Purdy (The Senior, April 2024), to hit enemy sites, even when you couldn't see.
Appropriately equipped planes could be guided via information sent between two radio transmitters on the ground and a transponder on the plane. Barbara, on the radar, could help identify the signals. That data could be triangulated against a series of maps to tell exactly where the aeroplane was.
A secret code of dashes and dots was delivered to the pilot's headphones and in some cases, visual equipment, from the ground team to indicate left, right, or steady, plus advise when it was time for the bomb to be released.
"As soon as the bomb had gone, we'd get another flash (on the radar screen) and we'd see that it was successful, and we would jump up and down 'bomb's gone, bomb's gone!'," Barbara said.
She was one of about 182,000 people who by 1943, had joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Its members took on roles including working in intelligence, aircraft maintenance and serving on airfields, which allowed more Royal Air Force males to be on the front lines.
She joined in 1942 just before her 19th birthday, after working in a bank in Lincoln. Her family, who were farmers, was surrounded by neighbours whose properties were turned into makeshift aerodromes used by bombers.
"The bombers would come and have a time with us on the farm... and I thought I would join up, thinking I'd be on an aerodrome... They decided to put me into a radar operator."
Barbara saw war's effects on women's status in society and their wanting to enter the workforce; typically, male roles including mechanics for climbing up towers to fix receivers and transmitters, plus engineering, were now done by females - often in remote teams who had to rely on each other to get the job done.
"When the war was over and women had to go back and just wash the dishes and what have you, it didn't go down too well," she said.
"Even with the outbreak of the Cold War, women who had gone away were asked to come back, and many did".
Barbara served the WAAF for five years in total, being promoted to Corporal in 1947 and working across various stations around England.
After military life, she moved to Australia as a ten-pound pom with her two children and then-husband, and had another two children.
Barbara wore her medal at her age care site's early Anzac Day commemoration service earlier this month. While proud to have served, looking back she is "concerned" that more should be done to stop wars from happening.
