Many anti-aircraft batteries had male and female personnel. These women of the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) operate a mobile power-plant on an anti-aircraft site in December 1942.
Ack-Ack Girls, members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), run to action at an anti-aircraft gun emplacement in the London area on May 20, 1941 when the alarm is sounded.
The girls of the ATS did a lot more than "man" anti-aircraft guns. My mother was in the ATS, stationed in Swansea and trained as a teleprinter operator. Being in a signals section, they also tried to train her to read morse code but she reckoned that the dots and dashes went in through each ear and just jumbled up in the middle! Much of the message stuff she was tasked with sending on her teleprinter was of course in code but she was able to identify some of the content, some of which was quantity details of fuel supplied through the PLUTO pipeline to the Normandy landing areas. I think it just goes to show that at the time, no matter how big or small, everyone's job was vital.
