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WAAF PARACHUTE PACKERS

WAAF parachute packers carried out their painstaking duties at Ringway in an annex within No.6 hangar. Some of the "girls" were as young as eighteen and they worked eight-hour shifts in teams around the clock, carefully packing a total of 429,000 'chutes in five years. By February 1943, 92,000 jumps had been made, almost all over Tatton Park, 26 fatalities had occurred,with many of the deaths having resulted from twisted and tangled rigging lines. Improved equipment and training later reduced the fatality and injury rate.

Click here for an enlarged picture

Click here for enlarged photo

Their superb work record shows that they all fully lived up to the cautionary notice"Remember a man's life depends on every parachute you pack" and during the course of the war, only one death was attributed to faulty packing by the WAAF parachute packers at Ringway - an incredible achievement in pressurised circumstances.

Parachute packing was an awesome responsibilty and one Padre confessed to Group Captain Newnham that
'for 32 years his whole trust had been in God, but that for five seconds - until his parachute opened - his confidence was transferred to a young WAAF parachute packer'
The WAAFS would always exchange a parachute without asking for any explanation, if requested to do so by a nervous recruit.

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Last Update 09/01/10