Millicent Trayford is a young British photographer composing and developing photos for a local newspaper when WW2 began. From a titled family, she’s expected to do her duty and puts in time with the Ministry of Information producing cheerful propaganda shots. THROUGH HER LENS the stricken world looks very different, especially after her former nanny is killed in the Blitz. Millie joins the Services.
I’ve read several recent fiction books on the roles women played during wartime. Many stories cover working-class women and those who crossed class boundaries. This tale, it has to be said, stays firmly upstairs at the stately home commandeered for the war effort. Yes, it makes sense that a better-off student would have been taught photography and able to buy cameras and film. But everyone else with a speaking part seems to be a pilot which means officer, or a Women’s Auxiliary Air Force officer, or something high up in the Ministry. These people manipulate others just because they can, such as the Earl, Millicent’s secretive father, steering her into the WAAF and Intelligence’s Photographic Interpretation unit.
From a start at Wick in Scotland, Millie’s story moves to England at RAF Medmenham, where she and others spend days staring at aerial photography gathered by pilots. Millie’s now an Assistant Section Officer with a tailored uniform, but the stress of the work takes its toll. Millie’s fiancé Elliot Harrington, brother Peter and good friend Callum are pilots, braving death as they cross the Channel. Seated at her desk, staring at images in stereoscopes, Millie is part of Operation Crossbow, set up to look for the rumoured V1 flying bomb and V2 rocket and their possible launch sites. We know now that these were in development, but as the days count down to landing in Europe, those higher up don’t want to commit resources to bombing rockets that might not exist.
Nice details include Millie’s personal Leica camera, the first portable camera that allowed war reporting. The women working at Intelligence are not allowed to tell family their roles, so Millie is exceptional. This makes Millie all the more determined to tell the real story of women and war work with her photography. To me, she comes across as entitled, as she never gets the full brunt of rationing or having to make do without elastic for her unmentionables. I spotted a few Americanisms like sidewalk, and ‘that never got old,’ due to the author Melissa Clark Bacon being American. Full marks to her for researching and telling the story of a significant and secretive portion of the war effort, with a determined heroine. There’s a brief interlude that reminds me of the English novel The Chamomile Lawn – Golden Youth in a Golden Time. Even as I was reading this, I knew it couldn’t last, and the war intruded swiftly. This is Melissa Clark Bacon’s first novel, and THROUGH HER LENS I gained a good insight into the period described. I’ll look out for more of her work.
In Through Her Lens, Melissa Bacon weaves a gripping tale of self-discovery set against the backdrop of World War II. Meet Millicent Trayford, a brilliant young woman working for British Intelligence in the perilous hunt for the deadly Nazi V1 and V2 bombs. Millie's world is turned upside down when she decides to blow up her own life and pursue her lifelong passion for photography.
Three years ago, Millie dutifully packed away her cameras and began her career in Secret Intelligence after discovering her surrogate mother's flat leveled during the Blitz. Her commander has reassigned her to help verify and destroy the Nazis' long-range vengeance weapons program before D-Day. Amidst the urgent demands of her work, a Royal Air Force pilot named Callum won't let her forget who she is. He is always there - sneaking her a camera and tempting her with a life spent with him instead of her fiancé, Elliot.
Melissa Bacon masterfully captures Millie's struggle to choose between her dreams and her duty to family and country. Through Her Lens chronicles a piece of history based on actual events surrounding Operation Crossbow, a top-secret intelligence investigation tasked with stopping the V1 flying bomb and V2 rocket program. This exploration of women's empowerment is a must-read for those interested in untold stories of the heroes of World War II.
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