Women’s auxiliary founded by order of the minister of defense of the Polish government in exile in mid-December, 1942. Based on the model of the British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), the goal of the Pomocnicza Lotnicza Sluzba Kobiet (Polish Auxiliary Air Force or PLSK, 1943-1945) was to cooperate with the Polish Air Force and replace Polish pilots in service and support roles on Polish air bases in the United Kingdom.
Initially, in May 1943 thirty-six women candidates were sent for basic training to Falkirk, Scotland. After undergoing successively higher levels of specialized training, the group qualified as flight instructors. Twelve women graduated from an officers’ course and the remainder from a noncommissioned officers’ (NCO) program. In October 1943 the women were awarded both Polish and British ranks. General recruitment to the PLSK began in November 1943 (Polish Women in the War 1985, 12).
Apart from Great Britain, where the PLSK recruited most of its members, the PLSK also attracted Polish women from Canada, the United States, France, Argentina, Switzerland, China, and Japan. A large number of volunteers came from Polish military units organized in the Soviet Union, the so-called Anders Army commanded by General Wladyslaw Anders. This unit was subsequently evacuated from the USSR to the Middle East. The women served in twenty-six units of the Polish Air Force.
PLSK recruits were trained in forty-five specialties to which they were directed on the basis of their abilities and preferences, including every area where they could promptly replace men. For example, women were employed in communications, laboratory work, and interpreting aerial photographs. They served as clerks, cooks, mechanics, radio and telephone operators, physicians, dentists, sentries, and parachute folders. Women officers served in administrative, logistical, intelligence, and educational capacities.
There are discrepancies in the total numbers of officers and NCOs. A more recent Polish source (Mleczak 1994, 2) cites the total strength of the PLSK as 1,436, constituting 10 percent of the Polish Air Force on the western front of the war, with 52 officers and 110 NCOs, while an earlier source cites a total of 1,653, including 52 officers and 163 NCOs (Polish Women in the War 1985, 12).
