Margaret "Maddie" Brodatt Timeline and Summary

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• June 1938: Maddie sees a Puss Moth crash and meets the pilot, Dympna Wythenshawe. So begins her love affair with airplanes.
• October 1938: Maddie is accepted for flight training by the Civil Air Guard.
• February 1939: Maddie earns her basic pilot's license.
• Autumn 1939: Maddie joins the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as a switchboard operator.
• Late 1939-Early 1940: Maddie is stationed at Oakway Airfield, near her home; she's recruited to become a radio operator.
• Spring 1940: Wellington bomber crews give Maddie joyrides, and Maddie learns to use Radar.
• Summer 1940: Maddie is transferred to RAF Maidsend, where she guides lost aircraft home over the telephone—she meets Queenie when they collaborate to lure a lost German aircraft to Maidsend.
• Autumn 1940: Maddie takes Queenie on her first flight.
• Early 1941: Maddie transfers to the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA).
• 1941: Maddie sees Queenie three times: when Queenie visits her at home on leave, when Maddie visits Queenie's brother, Jamie, in the hospital, and when Queenie does her parachute training out of Maddie's plane.
• Late 1941: Maddie learns about RAF Special Duties flights and begins to train.
• November 1941: Maddie visits Craig Castle, Queenie's home, where she finds no one but Jamie and a bunch of war refugees—Maddie tells Jamie he might qualify for RAF Special Duties.
• Summer 1942: The SOE has their eyes on Maddie, though Maddie doesn't know it. Maddie meets with the Bloody Machiavellian English Intelligence Officer playing God, who recruits her.
• April 1943: Queenie, Maddie, and Jamie are all stationed at the same airfield; Maddie takes an unauthorized night flight to France and back.
• October 11, 1943: The pilot who was supposed to fly Queenie to France gets in a car accident, so Maddie does it instead. She has Queenie parachute out and then crashes the damaged plane.
• October-November 1943: Maddie is stranded in France, where she joins up with Resistance activities and looks for Julie.
• December 1, 1943: Maddie participates in the ill-fated ambush of the Nazi prisoner van and kills Julie before the Nazis can begin torturing her.
• Early December 1943: Maddie makes contact with Engel, who is working for the Resistance and gives Maddie Julie's papers. Maddie figures out the code embedded in the papers and works with the Resistance to complete Julie's mission of blowing up the Ormaie Gestapo headquarters.
• December 11, 1943: Maddie finally gets out of France on a refugee flight piloted by Jamie.
• Late December 1943: Maddie is debriefed by the Bloody Machiavellian English Intelligence Officer playing God. She receives a letter from Julie's mother asking her to come for a visit.