The Icelandic connection - 01.06.2014, Síða 32

174
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
Vol. 66 #4
as cold and icy, not often speaking to
the workers. One women describes her
taking a knife and slitting a canvas cover
in the sewing department when she was
unsatisfied with their work. Another
describes her in a different light, saying
that though she could have taken a ride
in one of the transport cars, she always
walked by the wings in the factory. “I’m
glad she did that,” she says. “It let us know
who she was.”
“She was like the first man on
the moon for the women. She made a
breakthrough for us.”
They released their first Hawker
Hurricane, a plane designed and built for
the Royal Air Force. Her large role in the
success of this aircraft earned her public
fame and fascination. It earned her the
nickname, “Queen of the Hurricanes” and
even inspired a popular comic book about
her in the United States.
A year after the first Hurricane was
released, the factory was churning out 20
planes a week. Out of the 3,000 factory
workers, 500 of them were women.
By the time the demand for the
Hurricane was dropping, the US had
entered the war and Fort William found a
new contract for the US Navy planes, the
Helldivers. The Helldiver production was
difficult, in part due to excessive changes
in design by the US Navy. By the time the
Helldivers were in full production, 10,000
engineering orders (EO’s) had been
issued, leading to 50,000 design changes.
At this time, there were 7,500 workers in
the factory, 3,000 of them women. After
a visit from Naval officers to the factory,
Elsie and the works manager Bill Soulsby
were mysteriously dismissed. Rumours
flew, but were soon explained when the
two announced their engagement a week
later.
The couple were undeterred and
moved to Toronto were Elsie opened
a successful aeronautical consulting
company. She continued to accumulate
“firsts” throughout her life, including
being the first woman to ever chair a
UN committee. She won numerous
awards, including the Order of Canada.
Though she never fulfilled her dream of
becoming a pilot due to a polio-inflicted
disability, she accompanied her pilots on
all test flights of any aircraft she worked
on. Shirley Allen, a Canadian member of
the Ninety-Nine organization of women
aviators describes her:
“She had a brilliant mind and was
recognized as an outstanding Canadian
woman. Neither gender nor disability
prevented her from using her talents to
serve her community and country.”
CCF continued to produce Helldivers
until the war began to show signs of
coming to an end after the Normandy
Invasion. Throughout the course of the
war, the company had produced 1,400
Hurricanes and 800 Helldivers. Out of
the 3,000 women employed at the factory,
only three were kept on after the war. But
to this day, the women who were there
speak of the incredible experience they
had in the factory
“All in all, it was the greatest
experience, I think, of our lives... and you
really never forgot it. You knew you had
done something and done something
worthwhile. I’m certainly proud I worked
on that plane.”
To watch the film, visit
https://www.nfb.ca/film/rosies_of_
the_north
1 http://www.apegm.mb.ca/pdf/News/2013Report0n
FemaleParticipationlnEngineeringlnManitoba.pdf