Book: 'AIR WAR DIARY'

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

He witnessed so many deaths through , in his opinion, sheer stupidity . Many prangs happened during training on Wellingtons and Stirlings particularly. He was always 100% prepared and well genned up on flying and all its complications and dangers .

From what I've read Mike, a lot of this stupidity was on the part of British instructors, certainly on fighters anyway. They'd send trainees up in all sorts of weather in Spits and Hurricanes, when the fastest thing they'd ever flown was a Miles Master. "Familiarization" consisted of strapping the trainee in the cockpit and briefly pointing out a few instruments and controls before take off. The trainee would be terrified but he knew if he refused to go up or even baulked at the idea, he'd be kicked off the course and written up as LMF. A lot of them died on that first flight.

As well as excessive losses in training, evidence suggests LMF reports were excessive too. In one 8 month period in '44/45, 500 of 627 RCAF cases were reported during training in Britain. So it wasn't the enemy they were scared of, it was flying in training that terrified them. Their instructors were trying to kill them!

Apparently a lot depended on which instructor you got, and some them were mongrels by all accounts. They hated "colonials", and as long serving pre-war RAF pilots they resented these upstart EATS youngsters.

I haven't encountered such criticisms of bomber training, so maybe things were better there. Especially with the instructor in the cockpit, not safely on the ground!