Eileen Younghusband

Who is Eileen Younghusband?

Eileen Younghusband served in the WAAF during World War II Britain in 1944. and received the initial coded message “Big Ben”, alerting allied forces to the first V-2 rocket launched against London.

Younghusband, adept at French and German, also had a talent for maths. This was used to great effect during her time in the Filter Rooms of Fighter Command during the war in which together with a team of fellow WAAF officers, she was responsible for assessing the information gleaned from Radar’s Chain Home coastal stations, estimating position, height and number of enemy forces in the air - essential for establishing Britain's defence network and giving air raid warnings. These teams had a matter of seconds to calculate accurately the whereabouts of both friendly and enemy aircraft. This vital information was essential since at the time of the Battle of Britain, the RAF had a limited number of fighter aircraft, trained pilots and limited supplies of gasoline.

Having joined the WAAF in 1941 at the age of 19, Younghusband completed her initial training at RAF Innsworth, near Gloucester and later at RAF Leighton Buzzard. She was later posted to 10 Group Fighter Command at RAF Rudloe Manor, near Bath, where she proved herself to be fast and accurate enough to be commissioned as a Filterer Officer. After training at the home of radar, RAF Bawdsey, she went first to 9 Group, RAF Barton Hall and finally to the Fighter Command headquarters at RAF Bentley Priory, Stanmore. Six weeks after her marriage in 1944, Younghusband was posted to 33 Wing, 2nd TAF at Malines, Belgium on detection of the launchers of the V2s aimed at the vital port of Antwerp. She remained there until June 1945. Following VE Day she was seconded to the formidable Breendonk concentration camp, known as the 'Camp of Silence and of Death', where she acted as a guide and interpreter, relaying to RAF personnel the horrors and harsh realities of war.