A GROUP of military wives and serving women will pay tribute to their 1940s counterparts with a charity calendar.

The women, whose partners serve, or who themselves serve at RAF Brize Norton, will pose for the calendar to raise money for the Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA).

They plan to dress up in 1940s costumes to honour the Land Girls who worked in fields and factories while their husbands fought overseas during the Second World War.

The 2015 calendar will be produced next year and the organisers hope to sell 5,000 copies to raise about £30,000 for the charity.

RAFA provides welfare support to serving members and veterans of the Royal Air Force and their families.

One of the team, Joanne Olsen, 31, from Carterton, said: “We are all very passionate about what our husbands do and for us RAFA is just amazing.

“The idea of the calendar came about and it just kind of took off.”

Since the first meeting in September last year, the organising committee has expanded to 11 people and many more are involved in the project.

Witney-based photography studio Scott’s Photography has taken publicity shots for free and make-up and others have donated costumes.

Mrs Olsen said: “Everyone seems to think it is going to be smutty, but it is not.

“We are wives and girlfriends and we have to respect the morality of our husbands and of the Royal Air Force.”

She added: “We are doing 1940s women of war because we want to thank them for everything they did to help the boys out serving.

“The strength the women had in those days is something we personally aspire to — the things they went through and the way they just saw a problem and dealt with it.”

So far, three months of the calendar have been shot and the group plans another photo shoot in September.

They hope to have the calendar finished next year and will begin pre-orders in June for a launch in September.

Mrs Olsen said: “We just did not want to rush it.

“Everyone that’s part of this is either a mother or is in full-time work and we want to make it perfect.”

Her husband Kjell, 37, serves at RAF Brize Norton and they have a six-year-old daughter, Teagan.

Project manager Elizabeth Parsons, 28, from Carterton, said: “I wanted to take part because I visited one of the clubs that benefits from money donated by RAFA and it was wonderful.”

Mrs Parsons worked as a civil servant for the Ministry of Defence and her husband Oliver, 28, serves at RAF Brize Norton. They have a 15-month-old daughter, Melodee.