Statistical summary, Week 15:
* Total Fighter Command Establishment: 1700 planes
* Strength: 1737 planes
* Balance: over strength 37 planes
* Weekly Aircraft Production: 6 Beaufighters, 8 Defiants, 55 Hurricanes, 25 Spitfires
Training the Aces
Derby winners are the product of trainers. So are successful fighter pilots. All pilots who fly in war or peace are the product of instructors who have taught them to fly. The RAF, at the time of the Battle of Britain and now, pays a great deal of attention to the training of their air crew. Pre-war training of pilots tended to take place at a somewhat leisurely pace. Directly the country went to war, there was a speeding up of the process. Anybody interested in finding out what it was like could do no better than to read Geoffrey Wellum’s book, “First Light”, in which he describes his experience of joining the RAF just before war broke out in September 1939 and the conclusion of his training when he joined 92 squadron flying Spitfires in May 1940.
There were two parts in the process of training: flying training and the intellectual task of learning what flying was about. You had to pass both to qualify.
The flying took the form of three stages. The first was the gentle art of learning to fly a really simple training plane. In 1939 it was the De Havilland Tiger Moth, a very light two-seater bi-plane. This is the aircraft in which the trainee pilot first got his experience of going solo which usually occurred after doing some 7 or 8 hours of instruction.
The next stage was, in those days, when the pilot graduated onto the Harvard. This was an American built and designed two-seater trainer which was a monoplane with a good deal more powerful engine than that of the Moth. It had some of the characteristics of a fully fledged fighter aircraft. In it the trainee pilot was moved from the simple aerodynamics of the Tiger Moth to the more demanding performance resembling that of a Hurricane or Spitfire.
Then came the third and most demanding stage of the training when the trainee was subject to the real test, both of skill and nerve of flying a real fighter, which in those days meant the Spitfire. This last stage was when the trainee really had to learn his stuff.
It was at this stage that the relationship between the instructor and his pupil became really crucial. Wellum’s description of his instructor tells the story. When Wellum, the newly commissioned trainee, met his instructor for the first time, he addressed him as “Sir”. The answer came back, “You don’t call me, “Sir”, Sir. You call me Flight Sergeant or Flight”. What this hardened instructor, in his late twenties, with sharp bright blue eyes and thin lips wanted was perfection. He was a hard task master and kept Wellum at it until he was satisfied. But he was probably responsible for Wellum’s survival when it came to the Battle that summer. The skills he had taught Wellum lasted him, not only through the Battle, but for two long years afterwards until Wellum came home from Malta at the end of his third tour. He owed his life to that instructor.
Throughout the Battle the RAF turned out pilots at an increasing rate to fill the gaps caused by operations, on the squadrons. The service never ran short of pilots, but there was undoubtedly a diminution in the performance of the newly qualified pilots as a result of the time pressure Training Command was under to get them onto the front line. It meant that the squadrons were having to rely on younger and less experienced pilots than they had started with. It was inevitable but regrettable.
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October 21, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Andrew
That covers flying training. What about firing guns and fighting tactics? Even experienced pilots of the time admit that this was lacking and prewar training focused on flying in close formation which wasn’t much use in a war. Many RAF pilots didn’t fire guns until their first time in battle. That some learnt how to shoot down aircraft while facing a very experienced and capable foe shows a combination of bravery, raw talent, determination and luck (to survive their first few missions).
Sailor Malan did a lot to bring in gunnery practice as well as improving tactics, albeit after the BoB. Also Keith Park discovered a lack of urgency when posted to Training Command immediately after BoB and set about to improve fighter training.
October 25, 2010 at 9:33 am
Tony Rudd
Luftwaffe pilots had the advantage of gaining experience in Spain. As a result of that they began to adopt the tactic of flying in pairs. This was adopted by Fighter Command and was called the Finger Four formation. I agree formation flying was continued by some who were slow to adopt the new tactics. As for gunnery, it certainly seems that new pilots coming onto squadrons had had very little training in this essential skill. But as you say they obviously adopted the new tactics, or the results wouldn’t have been as good as they were. Tony Rudd