Danish WW2 Pilots

Kpl Adda Margrethe Ploug (m Hauge)

(1920 - n.a. )

Grethe Ploug was one of the Danes serving in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in 1941-43. She served as a Clerk Special Duties, Plotter (presumably Radar Plotter). In September 1943, she enlisted in the Norwegian Women's Corps/Air forces.

Adda Margrethe, or Grethe, Ploug was born on 21 April 1920 in Køge, to foreman Rasmus Frederik Valdemar Frederiksen Ploug and Clara Johanne Ploug (née Carlsen).[1] She was one of nine siblings, eight sisters and one brother.[2] Ploug’s mother died in December 1938 and her father in November 1940.[3]

Women's Auxiliary Air Force

Ploug volunteered for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in Gloucester during the war in Gloucester in early 1941, probably February, but the exact date is not known.[4] She served in the WAAF for two years as a Clerk Special Duty (440123).

The available documents shows that she served as a Plotter, possibly a Radar Plotter, and that she was promoted to Corporal during her service.[5] In late 1942 har address was the WAAF Mess, RAF Station Kinloss in Morayshire, Scotland.[6] This station was the home of 45 Maintenance Unit and 19 Operational Training Unit for most of the war.[7]

Norwegian Women’s Corps/Air Force

Ploug married the Norwegian 2nd Lieutenant (Fenrik) Ivar Hauge, who was serving in the Norwegian Army. She became a Norwegian citizen by marriage.

On 16 September 1943, she enlisted in the Norwegian Women’s Corps/Air Forces, in London.[8] This corps had been established on 1 April 1943 in London under the command of 2nd Lieutenant Eva Mohr, the widow of the Norwegian service pilot Conrad Mohr, who had died in a flying accident in Little Norway in Canada. The corps remained fairly small. The total number of women in this corps and in the sister corps in Canada was sixty-three.[9]

Ploug, now Hauge, was allotted the service number W.39. She was assigned to the accounting office in the Flyvåpnenes Fælles Kommando (the joint command of the norwegian air forces).[10] In June 1945, she was stationed in Olney,[11] which seems to have been a Norwegian Air Force depot.

Endnotes

[1] DNA: Parish register, Køge, Sankt Nikolaj.

[2] DNA: 1925 and 1930 Census of Denmark.

[3] DNA: Parish register, Køge, Sankt Nikolaj.

[4] NA 78/127. Ploug’s service number 440123 is part of a batch of numbers allotted to WAAF recruitment in Glouchester in February 1914.

[5] NNA: RAFA-4079 - Forsvaret, Forsvarets overkommando/Luftforsvarsstaben/P/Pa/L0065/0009 - Hauge, Adda Margrethe.

[6] DNA: 10194, Danske Råd i London, Rekrutteringskontoret.

[7] RAF Kinloss, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Kinloss (accessed on 5 April 2021).

[8] NNA: RAFA-4079 - Forsvaret, Forsvarets overkommando/Luftforsvarsstaben/P/Pa/L0065/0009 - Hauge, Adda Margrethe.

[9] Børresen, Jacob, K-soldater, Store norske leksikon på snl.no, https://snl.no/K-soldater (accessed on 10 April 2021).

[10] NNA: RAFA-4079 - Forsvaret, Forsvarets overkommando/Luftforsvarsstaben/P/Pa/L0065/0009 - Hauge, Adda Margrethe.

[11] Based on information provided by Pål Næss, Norway.