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Cheers to the Chute Girls
By Elinor Florence
Fifty thousand Canadian women served during the Second World War, performing work previously done by men. And one vitally important job was packing parachutes – a complicated arrangement of silk fabric and leather straps that meant life or death for a man plunging from the sky.
Here’s a photo of some very smart-looking Canadian airwomen carefully laying out a parachute on a long table, checking that every fold is in place.
There was a tremendous need for parachutes in the Second World War. Flyers needed them during training, and every time they boarded an aircraft.
During the six-year conflict, hundreds of thousands of parachutes were sewn, packed and distributed. In one single mission, 20,000 parachutes dropped paratroopers into France on D-Day.
And for the most part, parachute packing was women’s work – not only in Canada, but also in Britain, Germany, and every country that had an air force.
In the book We Serve That Men May Fly, author Mary Ziegler quotes one officer, explaining why women were suited to this work. “To a man it’s a dull, routine job. He doesn’t want to pack parachutes. He wants to be up there with one strapped to his back. But to a woman it’s an exciting job. She can imagine that someday a flier’s life will be saved because she packed that parachute well. Maybe it will be her own husband’s life or her boyfriend’s. That makes parachute packing pretty exciting for her, and she does a much more efficient and speedy job than an unhappy airman would.”
Perhaps there was even some truth to this somewhat sexist attitude!
The Foothill Fliers was the newsletter at the No. 3 Service Flight Training School in Calgary, and it published an article in 1943 titled: Temptations of a Chute Girl.
Written by Corporal Muriel Ellis, the tone was humorous: “Ever miss those nice sheer pre-war silk stockings, girls? When you work all day with enough silk to make stockings aplenty for the next eight years, wearing cotton stockings, it’s a great temptation to whip out the scissors. Particularly now, when real $1.50 chiffons are as scarce as beefsteak in Berlin.”
This photo shows Airwoman First Class A.S. Olive packing a parachute at Wolseley, Saskatchewan. Behind her you can see the individual cubbyholes, where each parachute was stored until checked out by an airman before a flight.
Packing a parachute was far from simple. Here’s how it was done: “The main canopy is 56 square yards of silk and is 24 feet in diameter. Fastened to the pack are two rings known as the D rings. From the right ring run 12 rigging lines up the right side of the canopy and down the left side and then fasten on the left ring. These lines measure 52 feet apiece and total 700 feet. The canopy and lines are stowed in a small pack 11 inches by 16 inches in concertina fashion. The placing of such a large quantity of silk and lines in such a small space is a very intricate operation and well worth witnessing. The weight of the parachute complete with harness is 25 pounds.”
Before the parachute was packed, it had to be minutely examined for flaws in a hanging position. According to the article in Foothills Fliers: “Each fold must be exact, all rigging or shroud lines must be in the pockets straight and true. The metal fittings have to be kept free from rust, and a dozen other things checked to insure the fast opening of a parachute. For a chute must not only open, it must open fast!”
Records were kept to ensure parachutes were tested regularly. First the chute was opened and hung up for 48 hours to air it; then it was taken outside and aired by nature, ballooning with the wind. It was then shaken to get rid of any insects.
At periodic intervals, the women also went up in an aircraft and ‘drop-tested’ the chutes, attached to 180-pound dummies. According to the Foothill Fliers newsletter: “The girls feel like bombardiers as they circle the drome at 100 miles per hour, hefting the dummies out!”
The lead image above shows a group of Wrens (members of the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service) checking to see that a parachute is filling correctly, by opening it in the wind. This 1942 photograph was taken at the Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent in England.
If a tiny hole or weak spot was noted, the parachutes had to be carefully mended.
This painting by Paraskeva Clark, who was appointed by the National Gallery of Canada to record the activities of servicewomen during wartime, shows the process.
The intense expression on the women’s faces draws attention to their tasks of cutting, folding, and securing the lines of the parachutes. This 1947 oil painting is part of the Beaverbrook Collection of War Art at the Canadian War Museum.
Here’s a photo of women mending chutes at No. 38 Wing RAF & Airborne Division Headquarters in England.
You can see by the volume of fabric and the number of lines that this was a fairly cumbersome job.
The parachute-packing women were intensely aware that their work was of the utmost importance. A sign on the wall behind these members of the British
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force reads: “REMEMBER, A MAN’S LIFE DEPENDS ON EVERY PARACHUTE YOU PACK!” I doubt very much if the sign was necessary.
Sadly, many men died no matter how well their parachutes were packed. And in each fatality investigation, the parachute had to be inspected to see whether it was a factor.
Parachute-packer Anna Dundas (née Mayer) of Winnipeg enlisted in the RCAF Women’s Division and served at No. 10 Service Flight Training School in Dauphin, Manitoba.
Here Anna describes one sad but memorable incident: “There were three of us in that section. We had to inspect parachutes for rips or tears and hang them in a well to air them for 48 hours, and then repack them.
“The only time I was nervous inspecting a parachute was where they brought it in after a crash and it had burned. And we had to go through it. We, when I say we, I had to. I was the only one that worked on it, to make sure there were no body parts in it. And the smell of that burnt silk was very, very strong, it was nauseating. And it was kind of a daunting job. But we had to do it,that was part of the ritual, before they could throw it out.”
Parachute records noted when it was packed, and by whom, so every parachute could be traced back to its packer.
One woman named G.D. Martineau wrote an eloquent poem describing her anxiety at the importance of her work.
I love the last two lines: “Today we go warring together, And my soul will be there at the jump.”
The Parachute Packer’s Prayer
G.D. Martineau
When they posted me here to the section,
I was free as the pitiless air,
Unashamed of confessed imperfection,
Having no sort of burden to bear.
I was not an incurable slacker;
Neat, not fussy –
I fancied of old,
But today I’m a Parachute Packer,
And my heart takes a turn with each fold.
When I think how I snugly resided
In the lap of this land we could lose,
I believe if I left one cord twisted,
I would place my own neck in a noose.
So I lay the fine silk on the table
And I lift each pale panel in turn.
They have said that my folding is able
But it took me a long time to learn.
For the cords must come free for smooth flowing
And the webbing attachment be stout,
For the brute of a breeze will be blowing
If the aircrew have to bale out.
Cos the flyer must float unencumbered,
Come to earth to complete the design,
See, the chute has been carefully numbered,
And the name in the logbook is mine.
So is conscience awakened and care born
In the heart of a negligent maid.
Fickle Aeolus, fight for the airborne,
Whom I strive with frail fingers to aid.
Give my heroes kind wind and fair weather,
Let no parachute sidle or slump,
For today we go warring together
And my soul will be there at the jump.
* * * *
Here is the best story of all, and it comes from a small town newspaper in Watkins Glen, New York called The Watkins Express, dated July 7, 1943.
RCAF Flying Officer J.R. Delaney had managed to bail out of his burning plane and was saved. In gratitude, he sought out and thanked in person the parachute packer, a young woman named RCAF Leading Aircraftwoman Irene Camken, who worked in a parachute packing station in Rockcliffe, near Ottawa. Flying Officer Delaney was from Mount Vernon, New York.
Because the old clipping is a little blurry, here is a transcript:
BRINGS HIM BACK ALIVE
“When a flier has to bail out of his aircraft, he not only appreciates the parachute that does the trick of saving him, but looks on its packer as the person who threw a life preserver when he started to sink.
“Flying Office T.R. Delaney of Mount Vernon, New York, who recently jumped from a flaming aircraft, landed safely and went to the parachute section of the Royal Canadian Air Force Station at Rockcliffe to thank the airwoman who “brought him back alive.”
“She is Leading Airwoman Irene Camken, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Camken of Belleville. Formerly a fabric worker at the Cooey Metal Works, Brighton, Ont., LAW Camken enlisted in the Women’s Division of the Royal Canadian Air Force 14 months ago, and has been packing parachutes ever since. In her estimation, that is a real war job.”
“You can never let yourself forget how important your work is when you’re packing chutes,” she said.
“It isn’t your life that depends on them. It’s somebody else’s, and your best is the only job that’s good enough.”
“Now transferred to another station of the RCAF, LAW Camken took along evidence of how good her “best job” can be. It is a new identification bracelet, one shining side bearing the RCAF crest, her name and Women’s Division number. The other is the side she prefers. That reads: “With sincere thanks, T.R. Delaney.”
On behalf of all those men who fell safely from the sky – not to mention their mothers, sisters, and wives I want to send a big cheers to the Chute Girls, wherever they are now. Happy Landings!
– Career journalist Elinor Florence, who now lives in Invermere, has written for daily newspapers and magazines including Reader’s Digest. She writes a regular blog called Wartime Wednesdays, in which she tells true stories of Canadians during World War Two. Married with three grown daughters, her passions are village life, Canadian history, antiques, and old houses. You may read more about Elinor on her website at www.elinorflorence.com.
Elinor’s first historical novel was recently published by Dundurn Press in Toronto. Bird’s Eye View is the only novel ever written in which the protagonist is a Canadian woman in uniform during World War Two. The heroine Rose Jolliffe is an idealistic Saskatchewan farm girl who joins the Royal Canadian Air Force and becomes an interpreter of aerial photographs. She spies on the enemy from the sky and makes several crucial discoveries. Lonely and homesick, she maintains contact with Canada through letters from the home front. The book is available through any bookstore including Lotus Books in Cranbrook, and also as an ebook from any digital book provider including Amazon, Kindle and Kobo. You can read more about the book by visiting Elinor’s website at www.elinorflorence.com/birdseyeview