Elsie and Mairi Go to War by Diane Atkinson
2009
'One day they saw an English plane, engine spluttering, flying so low over the trenches they could see the pilot's face. He pancaked into the water. They ran to him across the duckboard walkways to see if her was still alive, arriving just before the Germans who were expecting to take him prisoner and capture the plane. The Germans called out to Elsie asking if he was injured. She snapped back in German (Mairi's translation), 'well what the Dickens do you think after thumping down like that, of course he's wounded and we're going to take him.' The German's agreed but said they would have the plane.'
In Three Words: extraordinary, fascinating, uplifting
This was a disappointedly written piece of non-fiction, but worth reading for the lives of these two amazing women.
