Bird's Eye View author Elinor Florence pays tribute to Canadian women in WWII
Relatively little has been written about the 50,000 Canadian women in uniform during the Second World War, but Invermere, B.C. author Elinor Florence is working to change that with a weekly blog and her first novel.
"Women sort of hid their own light under the bushel, as women are wont to do," Florence, author of Bird's Eye View, said in an interview with Radio West.
"I think the reason for that is because women were very conscious of the fact that they weren't fighting and dying, they were providing a supporting role for the fighting men."
Such supporting roles include that of Kelowna, B.C. woman Georgina Harvey, who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1943, said Florence.
Harvey, now 96 years old, took aerial photographs of bomb targets to see whether men training to become bomb aimers (bombardiers) were hitting their mark.
Harvey's story, as well as others, are documented in Florence's Wartime Wednesdays blog. Her novel Bird's Eye View, published last fall, is about a young woman from Saskatchewan who joins the air force.
To hear the full interview with Elinor Florence, click on the audio labelled: B.C. author sheds light on Canadian women in the Second World War.
