In comparison to the Royal Navy and Army, the RAF had less of a problem with attracting volunteers to join its ranks. Furthermore, within the aircrew fraternity the role of fighter pilot was considered to be something of an elite status, and a glamorous calling for many young men considering a career in the military. During World War I the act of shooting down other aircraft had been glorified by the media, with pilots who achieved ‘ace’ status being mentioned in newspapers and the most successful even becoming household names. The notion of controlling an agile, exciting aircraft in a dogfight with the prospect of media attention bringing fame back home appealed far more than the prospect of piloting a heavy aircraft laden with bombs on long-range raids over enemy territory, most of which would be in straight and level flight. This absolute fallacy was compounded by popular fiction such as Captain W. E. John’s adventures Biggles, which were aimed at an adolescent market and glorified air combat. Whereas Biggles, which was hugely successful in the inter-war period, proved inspirational to many aspiring fighter pilots, despite its minimal factual basis, more realistic accounts of air combat in World War I, such as Winged Victory by V. M. Yeates, met far less commercial success. This glamorous apeal ensured that there was never a problem attracting volunteers to the RAF in the inter-war period, with the number of applicants always exceeding the training capacity for pilots. As a result, many aspiring pilots would fail selection, being offered non-piloting jobs within the aircrew cadre or ground-based branches, or denied entry into the service altogether.
The outbreak of war brought a different aspect to the recruitment process. The National Service Act made all fit adult males liable for war work of some description. Warned of the horrors of trench warfare by an older generation, huge numbers of young men still applied to become pilots in the RAF as the ‘lesser of two evils’, considering that military service was an inevitability for most. After the outbreak of war, the number of non-British nationals flying aircraft in Fighter Command increased hugely. Moved by events in Europe such as the Spanish Civil War and the Winter War in Finland, small numbers of Americans volunteered for service as pilots overseas, initially with the Royal Canadian Air Force or with the plan to join a US detachment of the French Air Force. With the fall of France, the RAF was now the next logical option for American pilots wanting to help in the fight against Nazi Germany. Seven American pilots flew in Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, and by September 1940, the first of three ‘Eagle Squadrons’ was formed – fighter squadrons with British commanding officers and flight leaders but American pilots. Many other nationalities flew with the RAF throughout the war – the RAF welcomed into its ranks exiles from fallen European countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and France, which gave the RAF hundreds of pilots with actual combat experience and an almost fanatical devotion to duty at a time when they were needed the most. The contribution from Commonwealth nations was also invaluable; hundreds of pilots from New Zealand, Canada and Australia flew with the RAF despite their own nations having air forces. In December 1939, the signing of ‘Article XV’ meant that personnel of the RAF, RCAF, RAAF and RNZAF who had graduated from the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan were all placed in a pool and made available as operational needs dictated. As a result, the majority of these servicemen would serve with the RAF in front-line roles.
In the pre-war period the first stage of training upon selection for aircrew duties in the RAF would be at RAF College Cranwell in Lincolnshire, where Initial Officer Training was carried out. Officer training had been undertaken at Cranwell since the establishment was transferred to the RAF from the Royal Navy in 1918, with College Hall opening in 1920, but with war approaching it was correctly predicted that the number of officers who would now need training was far in excess of the capacity of Cranwell. Furthermore, the rigorous and comprehensive pre-war programme now needed to be replaced with training that provided little more than the absolute minimum so as to ensure as little a delay as possible in getting officers to the front line. To that end, Cranwell was not used specifically for officer training throughout the war. Moreover, because of these changes and the fact that pilots would now be ‘hostilities only’ and therefore recruited into the RAFVR, by 1941 a rigid system was in place whereby a trainee pilot would not know if he was going to be an officer until some way into his flying training.
After volunteering for service as aircrew with the RAF at a local recruiting centre, applicants would then return to their civilian occupation while waiting for a joining letter. After receiving their joining dates, new recruits would then report to an ACRC – Air Crew Reception Centre – where they would spend between two and ten weeks, the exact duration varying throughout the war. As an aircrafthand 2nd class, aspiring aircrew would learn the basics of service life, including stringent medical examinations (particularly with regards to eyesight), written exams, centred heavily around mathematics, drill, guard duties, and kit issue and husbandry. Following successful completion at the ACRC, potential aircrew would move on to one of many Initial Training Wings (ITW) situated throughout the country. ITW built on the lessons learned at ACRC, with further tutorials on mathematics, meteorology and principles of flight, drill and PT, and the issue of flying kit.
Originally a training establishment for the Royal Naval Air Service, Cranwell was transferred to the newly formed RAF in 1918. Officer cadets would conduct their initial officer training and obtain their commission at Cranwell, with some also undergoing early stages of their flying training at the same location. (RAF Museum, PC98-173-5605-1)
However, an extra step in the process was introduced in late 1941 – grading. Grading involved a short flying course at an Elementary Flying School, where students were given a limited numbers of hours of dual instruction on De Havilland Tiger Moths or Miles Magisters. Within around 12 hours of instruction, students needed to show the necessary levels of competency with which to ‘go solo’ – to carry out their first flight without an instructor. Effectively a cull to save valuable time and resources at later stages of training, those without the required aptitude would be failed from the pilot training pipeline at this point. Only at this stage were successful trainees ready to commence flying training in earnest, and as a result were promoted to leading aircraftsmen. However, places on flying training courses were finite, and the newly classified ‘Pilot Under Training’ would be sent to an Aircrew Dispatch Centre to await his next flying training course.
In the first two years of the war, flying training was almost exclusively carried out within Britain. Elementary Flying Training (EFT) was again carried out on either Tiger Moths or Magisters – the first purpose-designed monoplane training aircraft operated by the RAF. Trainee pilots would progress through a rigid and comprehensive syllabus, commencing with the primary and secondary effects of controls, and then progressing on to the relatively simple but vital skills of straight and level flight, medium turns, climbing and descending and stall recoveries. Once these skills had been completed to a satisfactory standard, pilots would begin flying circuits. The circuit consisted of taking off, climbing and levelling off before turning to fly straight and level downwind, parallel to the runway, then turning to line the aircraft up for landing on ‘finals’ and then either carrying out a full stop landing or a ‘roll’ – touching the wheels down and then powering up to carry out further circuits. The circuit was not only an excellent tool with which to learn and maintain essential handling skills, but also a technique used on front-line air stations to ensure safe distances were maintained between aircraft joining, departing or operating on the runway. The student pilot’s first solo on type would then consist of a single circuit – in the days prior to the addition of grading in the pilot training syllabus, this would be the pilot’s very first solo. The first solo was a huge step in the pilot’s career, as described in a letter home by Arthur Vincent Gowers from the De Havilland School of Flying near Maidenhead in 1937 (Gowers would go on to fly Hurricanes and achieve the rank of squadron leader). ‘You will be pleased to hear that I went “solo” today, after passing the test yesterday. It’s a grand feeling, being up there all on your own, swearing into the telephones (aircraft’s internal communication system) at an imaginary instructor! I had an irresistible desire to “shoot up” the neighbouring village, but was checked by the thought that low flying is the quickest way out of the Service.’
First flying in 1937, the Miles Magister was the RAF’s first monoplane designed specifically as a trainer, and with its low wing provided a good introduction to front-line fighters. (RAF Museum, PC98-173-5732-4)
Trainee Pilots and instructors pose by a De Havilland Tiger Moth trainer. The leads for their Gosport tubes can be seen hanging from their helmet ear pieces – the Tiger Moth had no internal radio, leaving the crew to communicate via simple speaking tubes. (RAF Museum, P016609)
Solo consolidation would be carried out in the circuit, and from this stage of training pilots were given dual instruction before then repeating lessons while flying solo. The exact syllabus content changed several times throughout the war, but further instruction included spinning, navigation and formation flying before successful pilots passed the course with some 50 hours flying, up to half of which could be solo. Unfortunately, many pilots would fail EFT and considerable numbers would also be KIFA – Killed in Flying Accidents.
For British-based flying training in the opening stages of the war, the next stage echoed the pre-war training system, moving on to Service Flying Training (SFT). This was carried out in a dual-control training aircraft, but a higher performance model, such as the Miles Master, was used to bridge the gap between Elementary Flying Training and front-line types. SFT also varied in duration and syllabus content throughout the war, but typically consisted of some 80 hours flying. Many stages of SFT, particularly the first half of the course, were re-flights of EFT, but were carried out in a faster and more demanding aircraft. Again, pilots were expected to advance to solo standard before a short period of consolidation, then further dual instructional sorties, followed by repeating these exercises solo. Night flying was a new addition to the trainee pilot’s skill set during SFT.
By mid-1941 a growing number of pilots were being trained overseas, notably in the United States or as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. For those bound for the USA, flying training followed a slightly different programme of events. Trainee pilots – who were strictly ordered to wear civilian clothes while off base in the days before the United States entered the war – were posted to either a United States Army Air Corps or a civilian flying training base to carry out EFT, followed by Basic (BFT) and then Advanced Flying Training (AFT). Each stage of training built on the previous stage, progressing through faster and more complex aircraft types. A typical training pipeline with the USAAC might consist of EFT on the Stearman biplane, BFT on the Valiant and then AFT on the relatively high-performance Texan.
Entering service in 1932, the De Havilland Tiger Moth was used for Elementary Flying Training, and grading later on in the war. It was also used by civilian flying schools to train RAF pilots during the war. (RAF Museum, P016742)
Like their contemporaries completing SFT in Britain, pilots training in the USA were awarded their ‘wings’ – the pilot’s flying badge on completion of AFT. For leading aircraftsmen of the RAFVR, the decision was now made regarding their commission. The RAFVR looked for leadership potential in its officers, and with thousands of pilots under training moving through its pipelines, quick decisions needed to be made on whether or not an individual would qualify for a commission. As a rule of thumb those with a university education or public school background were very often selected as officers, whereas the majority of others would become NCO pilots. Streaming was also an important part of the flying training system. A large number of trainee pilots, although certainly not all, wanted to fly fighters. However, individual strengths and weaknesses and the needs of the service were more of a driving force behind the selection of fighter pilots rather than individual preference. Fighter pilots, particularly those moving on to single seat aircraft, needed the mental capacity and situational awareness required to pilot a high-performance aircraft alone, while simultaneously dealing with airmanship considerations such as navigation, fuel management and communications. Coordination and ‘hands on’ piloting skills were also a must, but many successful fighter pilots were stronger at air gunnery than actual flying. With some now striped up as officers, all proudly wearing the pilot’s flying badge, those streamed as fighter pilots would now move on to one of the Operational Training Units (OTU) in Britain to complete the last stages of their training.
The OTU was the final bridge over the gap between a pilot of a training aircraft and a front-line combat aircraft. For pilots of the pre-war era and opening stages of the war, the front-line role training was carried out at the individual’s front-line squadron. This meant that fighter pilots would be posted to their new squadron with very little time in single-seat fighters, and in some cases with no tactical training of any sort. This system worked well enough during the inter-war years; there was plenty of experience on each squadron and no rush to bring new pilots up to speed. However, with the outbreak of war and the massive increase in the number of pilots moving up through the training system, this was simply no longer feasible and was one of the reasons behind the creation of OTUs.
In January 1939, No. 11 Fighter Group Pool was formed at Andover, a holding area for freshly trained fighter pilots to work up on Hawker Hurricanes and Fairey Battles if they were not allocated a place on a front-line squadron as soon as they had finished training. This provided valuable experience on front-line aircraft, but still no tactical training was provided so it was still not a true OTU. In the early stages of the war, new fighter pilots often arrived at front-line squadrons with no training in formation attacks or having ever fired guns from an aircraft – a lack of gunnery training was perhaps the single largest shortcoming in Fighter Command’s training.
Number 12 Group’s Pool was created at Ashton Down in September 1939, operating Gloster Gladiators, North American Harvards and Bristol Blenheims. It was not until March 1940 that these two units were redesignated as No. 6 and No. 5 OTUs respectively, now equipped with a mixture of front-line and training aircraft, including 48 Hurricanes and 34 Spitfires. By June 1940, in keeping with plans for Bomber Command’s new training scheme, the decision was taken to make the OTU mandatory for all new pilots. This at least ensured that by the time of the Battle of Britain, new pilots would arrive at front-line squadrons with some experience of their operational type. The number of OTUs steadily increased throughout the war. As well as providing new pilots with valuable extra dual-seat tuition in a high performance trainer and single seat experience in their front-line type, formalized air-to-air gunnery training was finally provided, although poor training in this skill continued to plague fresh Fighter Command pilots throughout the early years of the war.
An assortment of training aircraft at No. 20 Service Flying School. The types in the foreground are North American Harvards, high-performance aircraft used in advanced training. (RAF Museum, P016630)
The cockpit of a Hawker Hurricane: the instruments are deliberately set out for the ‘selective scan’ used in instrument flying, a technique which had developed into an embryonic state in World War I for flying through cloud. The technique involves centring the scan around the artificial horizon, then glancing across at other instruments at regular intervals. (RAF Museum, P010041)