BWAF-1

BRITAIN’S
WONDERFUL
AIR FORCE

Part 1

WINGED MESSENGERS OF BOMBER COMMAND

With every day that passes the striking power of the R.A.F. increases. Above, these Avro Lancasters, Britain’s latest four-engined bombers to go into service, are seen setting course for an objective in Germany. They carry a crew of seven and have great range with a heavy bomb load

CONTENTS

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FOREWORD By Sir Charles Portal, K.C.B., D.S.O., M.C.

CHAPTER 1. THE ROYAL AIR FORCE: ORGANIZATION AND PERSONNEL

CHAPTER 2. AERIAL STRATEGY AND TACTICS

CHAPTER 3. A PILOT IN THE MAKING

CHAPTER 4. THE BOMBER AIRCRAFT

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Lancasters setting course for an objective in Germany

Hurricanes in line abreast

Almost fully fledged - men walking to their Anson training aircraft

Mark V Spitfires

R.A.F. Command structure

Wellington bombing up for a raid on enemy territory

Sunderland flying boat taking off

Barrage balloon being filled with hydrogen

Blenheim bombers over the Libyan desert

Caps, badges and sleeve markings of R.A.F. officers

Bombs being loaded into a Stirling bomber

Pilot under instruction in a Link trainer

An armourer loading up the magazines of a ﬁghter

Radio mechanics in the control room of a transmitting station

Fitters overhauling and adjusting the engines of a reconnaissance machine

Swimming tank at an R.A.F. physical training school

Markings of N.C.O.s and airmen

Badge, ensigns, flags and targets

Sleeve markings, caps and badges of W.A.A.F.

W.A.A.F.s track down German raiders

Women aircraft riggers at work

Women studying a model of an aerodrome

Girl armourers at work

Women mechanics dismantling an aero engine

Girls loading ammunition belts

Pilots of tomorrow

How a gun turret works

Medals awarded to R.A.F. personnel

A blow at the heart of the enemy

Stirlings and their fighter escort

Fighters clear the target area

Bomber armament

Bombers escorted by fighters

Bomber formation

Pilots studying target maps

High altitude, low altitude and dive bombing

Fighters getting inside the defensive circle

End of a Dornier 17

How fighters are warned of the enemy’s approach

Beaufort that torpedoed a pocket-battleship

Bristol Beaufighter

Bombers help the army

Hits on Japanese positions

Enemy secrets laid bare

Training aircraft of the R.A.F.

Pilots under training studying their maps before a cross-country flight

Secrets of the parachute explained

Learning to pack the ’chute

The De Havilland Tiger Moth

The great moment—the first flight

Miles Magister initial trainer

Controls of an aeroplane

Learning “to fly” on the ground

The “crab” traces the pilot's course

Aerobatics give pilots self-confidence

Cross-wind landing

Airspeed Oxford advanced trainer

Devices to overcome ice formation

Bomb aiming trainer

Landing by radio beam

A proud moment—a pilot sews on his wings

The new pilot chooses Lancasters

Pilots training in Canada

Bomber aircraft of the R.A.F.

Bomb safety device

Self-sealing petrol tank

Particulars of German bombers

Short Stirling heavy bomber

Bombers over the sea

Short Stirling

Handley-Page Halifax

Halifax in flight

Bombs for a Stirling

Controls of a Stirling bomber

Details of Stirling cockpit

Purpose of flaps

Trimming tabs

Master compass and repeaters

Homing in on a radio beacon

Finding the angle of drift

Rear gun turret of a bomber

Whitley gun turret

How bombs are aimed

Wimperis bomb sight

When bombs must be released

Wellingtons on the wing

Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley

Two methods of dropping bombs

The automatic pilot

Vickers Wellington Bomber

Wireless operator’s station

Flight engineer’s station

The man who aims the bombs

Pilots and bomb aimer of a Stirling

FOREWORD

BY AIR CHIEF MARSHALL SIR CHARLES PORTAL, K.C.B., D.S.O., M.C.

EACH chapter in this book is written by an expert, and the views expressed, although they are of course the personal opinions of the writers, are based on intimate knowledge of the daily work of the R.A.F. The book therefore gives a comprehensive and authoritative picture of the great organization into which the R.A.F. has been developed in so short a time and with such magniﬁcent results.

The book tells its own story and I shall not try to add to it in this foreword. But I should like to take the opportunity of paying a tribute to the patience, skill and devotion of all those who have laboured to make the R.A.F. what it is. I am sure that no reader of this book will fail to share my admiration for them.

CHIEF OF AIR STAFF

HURRICANES IN LINE ABREAST

Hurricanes and Spitﬁres between them met and decisively defeated the whole might of the Luftwaffe. Today these machines are more deadly than ever, as can be seen from the Mk. IIc Hurricanes above which have a devastating armament of four 20-mm. cannon

ALMOST FULLY FLEDGED

The Flying Training Command is responsible for turning out the required number of trained pilots, observers, navigators and air gunners for the ﬁghting units. These men, walking out to their machines, are nearing the end of their non operational career, and are completing their course on Avro Anson advanced trainers. Soon they will be posted to an operational squadron and will be allowed to put their new-found skill to the test on “the nursery slopes”

CHAPTER 1

The Royal Air Force: Organization and Personnel

The Air Council and the Air Staff. The Air Ministry. Intelligence. Operational and Non-operational Commands. Overseas Commands. Personnel. Permanent and short-service commissions. Grouping of trades. R.A.F. Volunteer Reserve. Auxiliary Air Force. Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Trades open to women. Comparative ranks. Air Training Corps. Medals and decorations

THE Royal Air Force, except that it does not grow its own food, or to any appreciable extent manufacture its own equipment, although it does maintain and repair it, is to all intents and purposes a world in itself. From exceedingly small beginnings it has expanded with enormous rapidity, and in this chapter it is intended to give the reader an outline of its organization and composition.

One is rather inclined, when one thinks of the R.A.F. to think in terms of pilots, air gunners, observers and other ﬂying personnel and quite forget the fact that for every man in the air there are numerous men on the ground all of whom, in their own modest way, play as vital a part in operations against the enemy as the pilot who sits at the controls of a high-speed ﬁghter, or the bomb aimer who releases his deadly load on an important objective.

GROUND STAFF

The ground staff of the R.A.F. has to function in a multiplicity of directions; it is a great administrative and technical body, with the Air Ministry at its head, dependent upon which are all home and overseas operational commands and coastal commands throughout their formations down eventually, through areas, groups, wings and squadrons, to the smallest operational unit—the ﬂight.

There are also training commands, both for air and ground organizations, the Maintenance Command, technical development units, reception, storage and distribution units, embarkation and port authorities, recruiting depots, and many other departments all of which ﬁt into the vast scheme of R.A.F. organization. In addition, the R.A.F. has affiliations with the Treasury, the Admiralty, the War Office, the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Labour, and so on.

THE AIR COUNCIL

The Air Ministry is the headquarters of the R.A.F., but it is not the supreme controlling body. The highest power is vested in the Air Council which is composed of High R.A.F. ofﬁcers, permanent civil servants and politicians. Its president is the Secretary of State for Air, and under him come the two Parliamentary Under Secretaries of State, one for the Commons and one for the Lords, the Chief of the Air Staff, the Vice-Chief of the Air Staff, three Air Members—for Personnel, for Supply and Organization, and for Training—the Permanent Under-Secretary, and three additional members, two to represent the Ministry of Aircraft Production and one to advise the Air Council on ﬁnancial and any kindred matters.

The status of the Secretary of State is a Cabinet one; that of the Chief of the Air Staff is both advisory and executive. Requirements and recommendations, diplomatic and otherwise, affecting air policy are conveyed by the Secretary of State from the Cabinet to the Air Council for necessary discussion.

AIR STAFF AND AIR MINISTRY

The Air Staff itself is composed of seven members. At its head is the Chief of the Air Staff, and under him are the Vice-Chief, the Deputy Chief and four assistant Chiefs for General Operational Requirements and Tactics, for Radio, and for Intelligence. There are also Directorates such as Plans, Operational Requirements (Home, Overseas, and Naval Co-operation), Intelligence, Allied Co-operation, Ground Defence, Signals, and the Deputy Directorate of Air Tactics.

The Air Ministry is organized under four main departments, each controlled by a member of the Air Council, namely, the three air members already mentioned and the Permanent Under-Secretary of State. This last department deals with such matters as ﬁnance, accounts, contracts and public relations.

It will be seen, therefore, that the Air Council is kept fully informed as to all aspects of R.A.F. organization and activities through the air members from both the Air Ministry and the Air Staff.

In the case of intelligence work the Air Ministry has a separate department dealing with the affairs of every important nation of the World, and the commands, even the large commands, need maintain only comparatively small staffs to deal with such activities. At the Air Ministry there is a room full of maps covered with all sorts of secret signs including long-term preparations and forecasts of plans on the part of, say, a potential enemy, together with a comprehensive ﬁling system extending back over years, ﬁlled with all the data supplied by countless agents working for all Government offices—the Foreign Office, for example, the War Office, the Admiralty, or the Air Ministry itself. In this room national policies are estimated or interpreted. In corresponding rooms at appropriate commands, immediate facts on the latest raids are extricated and deductions, often valuable, are made as to the enemy’s immediate intentions.

To understand how this chain of responsibility works in actual practice, let us consider a particular instance, namely, the entry of Russia into the Second Great War. Before the crisis arose, the Cabinet would have called for reports from the heads of all services. Intelligence sections dealing with all the countries in the area of the anticipated disturbance, notably, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Rumania, Finland, and Sweden would be consulted. The information they provided would be sifted through the Chief of Staff’s departments dealing with planning and operations, although many questions would no doubt be addressed to other departments not directly concerned before the complete picture would be ready to present to the Cabinet for consideration.

SERVICE ORGANIZATION

The attitude Britain adopted was doubtless based on the total appreciation of all factors—military, naval, air and economic—about which it would have information in great detail. It is quite evident that both the planning and operational sides anticipated the outbreak of war by at least a week, when a new policy of intensive daylight raids came into being.

So much for the political aspects. Let us now consider how the various duties of the Service are organized.

HOW THE R.A.F. IS DIVIDED INTO COMMANDS

The Royal Air Force in Britain is divided into eight commands, namely, Bomber, Fighter, Coastal, Army Co-operation, Flying Training, Technical Training, Maintenance and Balloon Commands (see above). This segregation does not apply to overseas Commands which are composite, embodying any or all of the above named elements. In addition there is Transport Command with headquarters at Montreal and world wide ramiﬁcations.

Five of the Commands are operational and three, the training and maintenance organizations are non-operational. In Bomber Command there are the Lancasters, Halifaxes, Stirlings of the heavy machines, the Mosquito of the lighter types and the ubiquitous Wellington.

SPEARHEAD OF BRITAIN’S AERIAL OFFENSIVE

Bomber Command is responsible for carrying the ﬁght to the enemy. It employs many types of aircraft including Wellingtons, Mosquitos, the big four-engined Stirlings, Halifaxes and Lancasters, and the American-built Venturas, Bostons and Marylands. The Vickers Wellington long range bomber, seen above, is bombing-up for a raid on enemy territory

Fighter Command controls the large numbers of day and night ﬁghter squadrons equipped with Spitﬁres, Hurricanes, Beauﬁghters and the latest types such as Typhoons, Mosquitos (as ﬁghters), and Whirlwinds, whose duty it is according to type to protect Britain and the seas around it or carry out long range offensive operations and ground straffing of targets in enemy occupied country.

Coastal Command shares to some extent the protection of Britain, but its main task is the U-boat war and attacks on enemy shipping and the policy of its operations is now decided by the navy. It also carries out air reconnaissance of the enemy’s harbours and its aircraft attack the targets found. It sends Sunderlands, Catalinas and other types of ﬂying boats, and land-based Liberators, Fortresses, Halifaxes, Beauforts and Beauﬁghters out over the Atlantic and the North Sea to protect convoys from submarine and air attack and to call up naval forces when the enemy is found at sea.

GUARDIANS OF BRITAIN’S SHORES

Coastal Command shares with Fighter Command the responsibility for home defence, but it also carries out reconnaissance of enemy harbours and shipping, and its aircraft bomb the targets found. It sends its ﬂying boats and land-based aircraft out over the Atlantic and North Sea to protect British convoys from submarine and air attack. The Short Sunderland long range ﬂying boat taking off above is setting out on such a mission

LONELY SENTINELS OF BRITAIN’S SKIES

This barrage balloon, which is being ﬁlled with hydrogen, will soon be on guard above some vital objective. Although the role of the Balloon Command is purely defensive, the balloon squadrons play a valuable part in Britain’s defence by discouraging enemy raiders from approaching too close to important targets. They effectively stop dive bombing

Activities of the Balloon Command are familiar to dwellers in big cities and to those who live near important centres of war effort. Although purely defensive, balloon squadrons ﬁll a valuable role in ensuring that the enemy is kept at a respectful height over important targets.

NON-OPERATIONAL COMMANDS

So much for the present for the operational commands of the R.A.F. and the active war they wage. They would not be able to function at all were it not for the activities of the non-operational commands whose appropriate training schools in the Flying Training and Technical Training Commands turn out their allotted number of pilots, navigators, wireless personnel, air gunners, trained mechanics and all the other skilled men needed in the ﬁghting units. In addition to fully-trained ofﬁcers and men, the ﬁghting units must have spares to keep their aircraft ﬁt for ﬂying. They must also have bombs, petrol, oil, and a thousand other requirements. All these are provided by the Maintenance Command with its vast organization of units, spread through the length and breadth of Great Britain.

The main R.A.F. Commands overseas are in the Middle East, India, and the Far East. Each of these is organized not only to meet its own local obligations, but also to be capable of meeting the wider responsibilities which the R.A.F. must bear in relation to war as a whole. The operations of these commands are not restricted to the areas in which they are located. Britain possesses a mobile air force which can be concentrated where necessary, and to this end units are able to move from one command to another, and on arrival in their new theatre of operations will ﬁnd ready for them the aerodromes, the bombs, ammunition, petrol, and so on, that they will require.

The part played by pilots, observers, air gunners and other ﬂying personnel is fairly well known to the general public, but it is not usually realized that apart from its actual ﬂying activities, the R.A.F. represents a complete cross-section of the community as a whole. It has its own tradesmen, its own administration, its own social services, doctors, dentists, chaplains, domestic staff, and so on. It is, in fact, a world of its own.

There are about a hundred and ﬁfty different trades for men in the R.A.F. and some sixty, including the responsibility for maintaining engines on operational aircraft and putting them through their ﬂying tests, for women. In subsequent paragraphs are discussed the different categories into which ofﬁcers, airmen and airwomen are divided, what they all do, and how they contribute to the smooth working of the service as a whole.

The General Duties Branch of the R.A.F. provides the officers for ﬂying duties, and it is from this branch, very properly, that the highest executive posts in the Service are ﬁlled. Officers are graded as pilots, observers or air gunners and, in the main, those possessing pilot qualiﬁcations predominate.

BLENHEIMS OVER THE DESERT

In the early days of the war in Libya, Blenheims (above) gave the Regia Aeronautica a lesson in air ﬁghting. Our ﬁghters accounted for hundreds of Italy’s best machines in aerial combats over North Africa, whilst the bomber squadrons repeatedly attacked Italian aerodromes. Now all the latest types of aircraft operate with the Middle East Command

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS

In peace time officers for general duties are obtained from three sources. Permanent commissions are granted to those who pass through the Cadet College at Cranwell, entrance to which is obtained by successful candidates in open competitive examinations, subject only to medical and temperamental ﬁtness. Permanent commissions are also given to graduates of the universities.

For short-service commissions there is no entrance examination. Candidates appear before selection and medical boards, and those chosen are gazetted as pilot officers on probation, and are conﬁrmed in rank on completion of a year’s intensive course of instruction at a ﬂying training school.

In wartime entry for air-crew duties is exclusively by way of the ranks, the only exception being in respect of already qualiﬁed pilots.

Non-ﬂying officers are employed in either the Technical, Administrative and Special Duties, Balloon, Accountant, Equipment, Medical, Dental, Legal, or Chaplain’s Branch.

A high degree of skill is demanded from officers of the Technical Branch of the R.A.F. In the main they are recruited from those who have engineering or science degrees, hold engineering certiﬁcates, or are members of approved institutions with at least some practical experience in their respective crafts.

GROUND PERSONNEL

The Administrative and Special Duties Branch provides officer personnel for the varied ground duties required by a large operational force. For such duties those with managerial experience in civil life are ﬁtted. This branch includes not only officers for purely administrative duties, but also officers required for intelligence work, marine craft duties, photographic work, physical training, catering and police duties, all of whom are required to have already some knowledge of the particular subject. For example, intelligence officers should be able to speak ﬂuently one or more foreign languages, collect and appreciate the value of information, and have the ability to interrogate officers and others.

Officers for marine craft duties are required to have at least a second mate’s Board of Trade certiﬁcate. They man the sea rescue services around Britain’s coasts and search for aircraft in high-speed launches ﬂying the R.A.F. ensign. For photographic duties the potential ofﬁcer should have a theoretical training in photography. He it is who supervises the processing of air photographs from which so much can be learned. Physical training officers are required to supervise physical training and games and must possess the personality and ability to encourage all forms of physical development.

BALLOON BRANCH

Ofﬁcers of the Balloon Branch are responsible for deciding at what height the balloons shall ﬂy according to meteorological and other factors, for their tactical employment, for maintaining supplies of hydrogen for inﬂation and “topping up,” and for numerous other duties. Officers for this branch are recruited mainly from the ranks, and it would be possible to say the same of all other branches, had sufficient airmen the necessary qualiﬁcations.

Equipment oﬂicers are responsible for provisioning the stations not only with foodstuffs but also with aircraft, aircraft spares and components, transport vehicles, clothing, fuel, furniture, and in fact all the multitudinous assortment of stores necessary for the life and efﬁcient operation of a unit. The absence of even a spare sparking plug might lead to an aircraft being grounded; conversely, large accumulated stocks are wasteful and uneconomical.

We must now turn to the many spheres of activity open to airmen. Those fortunate enough to possess necessary qualiﬁcations to be chosen for air crews perhaps steal the limelight from their less fortunate comrades on the ground; but it is a point to remember that an aircraft cannot even take off until a veritable army of unheralded and unsung individuals performs considerable feats of unromantic, unexciting, and very often, unnoticed work behind the scenes.

CAPS, BADGES AND SLEEVE MARKINGS OF R.A.F. OFFICERS

1, Ofﬁcers of air rank; 2, group captain; 3, other officers; 4, officer cadet; 5, ﬁeld service cap; 6, full-dress headwear; 7, ﬁeld service cap of officer cadets; 8, pilot’s wings; 9, cap badge of officers of air rank; 10, observer’s wing; 11, medical ofﬁcer’s collar badge; 12, air gunner’s wing; 13, cap badge of officers below air rank; 14, dental officer’s collar badge; 15, chaplain’s cap badge; 16, chaplain’s collar badge. Sleeve markings (black and pale blue bands); 17, marshal of the R.A.F.; 18, air chief marshal; 19, air marshal; 20, air vice-marshal; 21, air commodore; 22, group captain; 23, wing commander; 24, squadron leader; 25, ﬂight lieutenant; 26, ﬂying officer; 27, pilot officer; 28, ﬂight lieutenant, full dress (gold bands)

BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE R.A.F.

For every man who ﬂies there are many men on the ground, all of whom, in their own modest way, play as vital a part in operations against the enemy as the gallant airmen who ﬂy the machines. There are about a hundred and ﬁfty trades in the R.A.F., every one of which is a vital link in the huge chain of R.A.F. organization, and the following pictures illustrate only a few of the many duties that have to be performed.

Some formidable 2,000 lb. bombs being hauled up under a Stirling bomber before setting off

A Link trainer instructor initiating an embryo pilot into the intricacies of aeroplane control. This wonderful machine reproduces all the actions of a plane in ﬂight and corrects “ham-handedness”; it is of untold beneﬁt to young pilots under instruction

An armourer loading up the magazines of a ﬁghter aeroplane

Radio mechanics in the control room of a transmitting station for Radiolocation

Fitters overhauling and adjusting the engines of a reconnaissance machine, working at night by the aid of powerful ﬂood lamps

R.A.F. AQUARIUM

Physical ﬁtness is essential for ﬂying duties in the R.A.F., and great importance is attached to the bodily well-being of all ranks. The men seen above are physical training instructors under instruction in a specially constructed swimming tank at an R.A.F. physical training school. The officer outside the tank is watching the action of the swimmers under water and correcting any faults with the aid of a microphone

CAPS, BADGES AND SLEEVE MARKINGS OF N.C.O.s AND AIRMEN

1, Ceremonial and walking-out cap; 2, ﬁeld service cap; 3, cap badge; 4, sleeve badge of bomb disposal squad; 5, good conduct stripe; 6, badge of the Air Training Corps; 7, airman of the R.A.F. band; 8, warrant officer’s badge; 9, ﬂight sergeant; 10, sergeant; 11, corporal; 12, leading aircraftman; 13, wireless operator; 14, physical training instructor; 15, apprentice and boy entrant; 16, drum major. Note: Pilots’, observers’, and air gunners’ badges are worn on the left breast and are the same as those worn by officers as previously illustrated

BADGE, ENSIGN, FLAGS AND TARGETS OF THE R.A.F.

Distinguishing marks, ﬂags and lights carried by R.A.F. aircraft. The numbers indicate:—
1, Under surface marking; 2, fuselage marking; 3, upper surface marking; 4, ensign of the R.A.F.;
5 to 12, distinguishing ﬂags and lights carried by British aircraft, the lights replace the ﬂags at night; 5, marshal of the R.A.F.; 6, air marshal; 7, air commodore; 8, wing commander; 9, air chief marshal; 10, air vice-marshal; 11, group captain; 12, squadron leader; 13, commander of armoured car; 14, badge of Royal Air Force

TRADES OF THE R.A.F.

The trades of the R.A.F. are divided into ﬁve groups according to the degree of skill demanded, rates of pay being scaled. In addition there is a medical group for the health of the service and the treatment of casualties. The groups are:—

GROUP 1. Airﬁeld controller; architectural draughtsman; blacksmith and welder; carpenter; carpenter (boat builder); civil engineering assistant; clerk of works; compass adjuster; coppersmith and sheet metal worker; draughtsman; draughtsman (mechanical); electrician, grade 1; ﬁtter, grade 1; ﬁtter, grade 2 (airframe); ﬁtter, grade 2 (engine); ﬁtter (armourer); ﬁtter (armourer) (bombs); ﬁtter (armourer) (guns); ﬁtter (general); ﬁtter (marine); ﬁtter (M.T.); ﬁtter (stationary engine); ﬁtter (torpedo); instrument maker; instrument repairer, grade 1; Link trainer instructor; machine tool setter and operator; metal worker; navigation instructor; R.D.F. mechanic; wireless and electrical mechanic; wireless mechanic; wireless operator mechanic.

GROUP 2. Acetylene welder; aerial erector; armoured car crew; armourer; armourer (bomb disposal); armourer (bombs); armourer (guns); Balloon operator; blacksmith; bricklayer; carpenter; copper-smith; driller; electrician, grade 2; electrician (works); ﬂight mechanic (airframe); ﬂight mechanic (engine); foreman of trades; grinder; instrument repairer, grade 2; interpreter (technical); mechanic (stationary-engine); meteorologist; miller; M.T. mechanic; pattern maker (architectural); photographer; plant operator; plumber; quarryman; R.D.F. operator; safety equipment worker; sheet metal worker; steel erector; turner; wireless operator.

GROUP 3. Balloon fabric worker; balloon rigger; concreter; cook and butcher; drainlayer; driver (winch) (balloon); fabric worker; hydrogen worker; motor boat crew; P.A.C. operator; shoemaker; tailor.

GROUP 4. Clerk (accounting); clerk, equipment accounting; clerk, pay accounting; clerk (general duties); clerk (provisioning); clerk (signals); clerk (special duties); equipment assistant; radio telephony operator; radio telephony operator (balloons); teleprinter operator.

GROUP 5. Aircrafthand; armament assistant; barber; batman; C.W. ﬁghter; driver (M.T.); ground observer; groundsman; gunner; maintenance assistant; messing duties; motor cyclist; musician; packer; physical training instructor; pigeon keeper; R.A.F. police; safety equipment assistant; station police; telephonist; torpedoman; works hand.

MEDICAL GROUP. Chiropodist; dispenser; laboratory assistant; masseur; medical orderly under training; mental nursing orderly; nursing orderly; operating room assistant; optician orderly; radiographer; sanitary assistant; special treatment orderly; trained nurse; dental clerk orderly; dental mechanic; dental orderly under training.

Some of these trades are for the R.A.F. Works Service, an organization whose main function is the speedy repair of aerodromes and buildings damaged by enemy attack, the construction of new aerodromes and the maintenance of buildings in which personnel is housed. In addition there are the members of the R.A.F. regiment who are responsible for the defence of air stations.

GRADING OF TRADES

It will be noticed that most R.A.F. trades have approximate equivalents in civil life, and, therefore, to bring a skilled civilian into line with his Royal Air Force counterpart all that is necessary is for him to have a short course of instruction to adapt him to service equipment and procedure. The foregoing list shows that there is a grading of skill. In Group 2, for example, there are the separate trades of blacksmith and of acetylene welder, and again of coppersmith and of sheet-metal worker, whereas in Group I the pairs of trades are amalgamated to form one highly skilled trade. A man’s service usually has an upward tendency; a ﬂight mechanic in Group 2, after being trained and gaining some experience may, for example, be up-graded to ﬁtter in a Group I trade.

Without going into too much detail, the reader may be interested to have a brief summary of the functions of those trades that are peculiar to the R.A.F.

THE FITTER GROUP

The ﬁtter group of trades comprises, as is natural in such a mechanized service, the bulk of R.A.F. tradesmen. There are many kinds of grades of ﬁtters—the ﬁtters who work on actual aircraft, ﬁtters who specialize on armament, ﬁtters who are responsible for the eﬂiciency of high-speed launches, ﬁtters who keep mechanical transport on the roads, ﬁtters who ensure that when a torpedo hits a warship “something disintegrates.” Also included in the ﬁtter group are the less skilled ﬂight mechanics—both for engines and air-frames.

Brieﬂy, the less skilled man in Group 2 conﬁnes his activities to testing and minor overhauls, inspections and maintenance requirements. To the ﬂight mechanic (engine) falls the happy lot of being permitted to sit in the pilot’s cockpit and run the engine, and to the armourer (guns) during his testing activities, that of imagining himself to be blazing merrily away at an enemy machine.

Tradesmen in Group I are required to undertake major repairs and overhauls, and supervise less skilled men. How thorough and competent was the work of our ﬁtters was clearly demonstrated during the Battle of Britain when our aircraft were refuelled and rearmed time and time again without developing technical defects.

Radio-mechanic and radio-operator trades are of comparatively recent institution and are of the highest importance in the defence of Britain. These are the trades about which some publicity has been given under the term radiolocation—one of the best-kept secrets of the war. For most of us, both in and out of the service, the details of radiolocation are still a jealously guarded secret, but we have been permitted to learn, very broadly, how this entirely new form of military science works.

RADIOLOCATION

Ether waves, which are unaffected by darkness or fog, are constantly sent out to act as scouts beyond the limits of our shores. Day and night distant outposts of the ether are perpetually “manned,” so to speak, by wireless electronic watchmen ever ready to ﬂash us tidings of the enemy’s approach with the speed of light itself. Radiolocation makes it largely unnecessary to maintain standing patrols and so has saved Britain immense expenditure on petrol, engines, and wear and tear of aircraft. It has also obviated the tremendous strain on personnel which, otherwise, would have been unavoidable.

The duty of radio mechanics is to maintain at one hundred per cent efficiency the delicate and intricate radiolocation apparatus. Anything less, throughout twenty-four hours a day might well have serious consequences.

Wireless mechanics test, install, set up, maintain and repair the varied wireless apparatus used both on the ground and in aircraft. They are required to have a knowledge of radio telephony procedure sufficient to carry out tests on equipment, and to be capable of Morse code ﬂashing at a speed of eight words a minute.

Wireless operators are required for operating, inspecting, maintaining and testing of wireless, visual signalling and intercommunication equipment.

Link-trainer instructors are, as an Irishman might say, “ground ﬂying instructors.” Their work is designed to reduce considerably the amount of instruction which would otherwise have to be given in the air to an embryo pilot. With the help of their ingenious apparatus they are able to correct ﬂying faults, eliminate “ham-handedness,” and inculcate in the pupils an air sense of untold beneﬁt to them when actually aloft.

Airmen mustered for armoured car crews are called upon to drive, maintain and operate armoured cars, more often than not over the sandy wastes of the desert—an exciting life both in peace and war. Balloon operators are skilled tradesmen who possess the qualiﬁcations of rigger, fabric worker, driver (winch) and driver (M.T.). They are required to supervise the handling, ﬂying, and general maintenance of balloons. In addition, they must be capable of driving and maintaining various transport vehicles allotted to balloon units.

The duties of motor boat crews commend themselves to airmen with a love of the sea. Various types of marine craft are in use with the R.A.F. from the high-powered speed launches to powered dinghies. An airman of this trade is not promoted corporal until he possesses a second-class coxswain’s certiﬁcate. A rather gruelling test for this trade is swimming fully dressed.

NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS

R.A.F. photographers carry out all photographic processes and production, and maintain photographic equipment and records. Clerks are classiﬁed for general and accounting (pay and equipment) duties, similar to those undertaken by civilian clerks but adapted, of course, to service requirements. A clerk for the Special Duties Branch is required for plotting work in various operations rooms. Equipment assistants keep equipment section records and books and prepare forms for accounting for equipment and handling storage and care of equipment.

Teleprinter operators require a thorough knowledge of R.A.F. signalling procedure and must be capable of passing signals traffic over line circuits terminated by teleprinters at a proﬁciency of forty words a minute. Ground gunners and ground observers are primarily concerned with the defence of aerodromes. Parachute packers are required for the care, maintenance, packing and ﬁtting of parachutes—all responsible tasks and ones upon which the lives of ﬂying personnel depend.

Titles of the medical trades clearly indicate the duties performed.

Entry into the R.A.F. in wartime is principally by way of the R.A.F. Volunteer Reserve. Commissions in the General Duties (Flying) Branch are given to men in the ranks of the Reserve, but in the Technical, Administrative and Special Duties, Equipment, Accountant, Medical, Dental and Legal branches they are granted direct from civil life.

The R.A.F.V.R. was instituted in 1936 and was open to men in civil life with no experience of ﬂying. It was originally formed to provide pilots only. Later sections were formed for most other categories of airmen.

SLEEVE MARKINGS, CAPS AND BADGES OF W.A.A.F.

Sleeve markings of 1, air commandant; 2 , group officer; 3, wing ofﬁcer; 4, squadron officer; 5, ﬂight officer, 6, section officer; 7, assistant section officer; 8, cap of officer of air rank with patent leather peak and two rows of oak leaf embroidery; 9, cap of group officer; 10, cap of other commissioned officers; 11, cap worn by all ranks other than commissioned officers; 12, badge of warrant officer; 13, senior sergeant; 14, sergeant; 15, corporal; 16, leading aircraft-woman. A table of comparative ranks of the R.A.F. and the W.A.A.F. is given later

AUXILIARY AIR FORCE

The Auxiliary Air Force bore the same relationship to the R.A.F. as did the Territorial Army to the Regular Army. It was brought into being in 1924 under the Auxiliary Air Force and Air Force Reserve Act, and included ﬂying and balloon squadrons. Enrolment for officers in peace time was for ﬁve years on the active list, to be followed by a similar period on the Auxiliary Air Force Reserve. Airmen were required to join for four years after which they could either apply for extension or for transfer to the reserve.

The value of this organization was shown when war broke out in 1939, the Auxiliary Air Force being able to put twenty ﬂying and forty-four balloon squadrons into immediate operational use. On the outbreak of war all recruiting for the A.A.F. was stopped. Pre-war volunteers can be recognized by the “A” badge worn on the lapel.

W.A.A.F.’S TRACK DOWN GERMAN RAIDERS

Radiolocation is a job for which women are particularly well suited. The girl operators work in subterranean operations rooms where they plot the movements of enemy aircraft. The girls above are working in one of the detection posts. Here the personnel keeps watch day and night, while the actual operation is done by specially selected and trained girls.

THE W.A.A.F.

It is the aim of the R.A.F. in wartime to employ women to the greatest possible extent, and the ideal towards which the service is progressing is that no man should be employed on work which can be undertaken equally well by a woman.

Women form part of station personnel, and the W.A.A.F. officer in charge of a detachment is responsible to her R.A.F. ofﬁcer commanding for the efﬁciency, discipline, well-being and training of all ranks of her detachment, generally complying with orders, rules and regulations and instructions laid down for the R.A.F. itself. The W.A.A.F. are separately messed and accommodated.

The duties on which W.A.A.F. officers can be employed are being increased in the light of experience, and though originally, with the exception of code and cypher ofﬁcers, women were employed only on administrative duties, they are now being substituted for R.A.F. ofﬁcers in the Accountant and Equipment Branches, and in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch in which duties include intelligence work, catering and photography.

Radiolocation is a job to which women are well suited. They are employed largely in R.A.F. subterranean operations rooms where they plot the course of enemy aircraft on huge maps.

TRADES OPEN TO WOMEN

The process of substitution is being widened in respect of airwomen, as the rank and ﬁle are known, and the trades in which they are employed are given below. Constant consideration is given to the practicability of employing women in still more trades either exclusively or in co-operation with men of the R.A.F. Women work in the following trades:—

GROUP 1. R.D.F. mechanic; Wireless mechanic.

GROUP 2. Acetylene welder; armourer (guns); balloon operator; electrician, grade 2; ﬂight mechanic (air frame); ﬂight mechanic (engine); instrument mechanic; instrument repairer, grade 2; meteorologist; M.T. mechanic; photographer; R.D.F. operator; sparking plug tester; wireless operator; W.T. (slip reader operator).

GROUP 3. Cook; fabric worker, aero; fabric worker, rigger, balloon; hairdresser; parachute repairer; shoe repairer; tailor.

GROUP 4. Administrative; charging board operator; clerk, equipment accounting; clerk, general duties; clerk, pay accounting; clerk, personnel selection; clerk, special duties; clerk, special duties (watch keeper); equipment assistant; R.D.F. operator; R.T. operator; teleprinter operator; tracer.

GROUP 5. Aircrafthand general duties, armament assistant; balloon parachute hand; batwoman; bomb plotter; Cine projectionist; Drogue packer and repairer; M.T. driver; maintenance assistant; mess steward; orderly; parachute packer; telephonist; waitress; workshop hand; W.A.A.F. police.

MEDICAL GROUP. Chiropodist; dental clerk orderly; dispenser; laboratory assistant; masseuse; nursing orderly; operating room assistant; optician orderly: radiographer.

A number of jobs detailed above are undertaken by women in civil life, and no doubt it will be claimed that such jobs as clerical duties, telephone operating, teleprinter operating, and domestic organizing are really more suitable to women than to men. Many trades have been started for which they can be trained and in which they have already proved highly successful.

WOMEN DO A MAN’S JOB IN THE W.A.A.F.

The R.A.F. believes that no job should be done by a man if women can do it equally well. Below are some of the tasks undertaken by W.A.A.F. girls.

Girl riggers at work

Studying the layout of an aerodrome with the aid of a model

Girl armourers at work

Mechanics dismantling an aero engine

Girls loading ammunition belts

Women radio operators and clerks, special duties, must be of high character and integrity, able to assume responsibility under active war conditions, and mentally alert and accurate. They must have exceptionally good eyesight and sound nervous control as their occupations are a severe test of ﬁtness.

Teleprinter operators can be trained quickly if they are competent typists with a speed of not less than thirty words a minute. Clerks, general duties, should be able to type at thirty words a minute and/or write shorthand at 120 words a minute. Girls who have book-keeping or company experience, such as hotel cashiers and ledger clerks, can very quickly be trained as clerks, accounting, and those with experience of handling goods and accounts in stores, shops or warehouses make ideal equipment assistants. The trade of fabric worker commends itself to seamstresses, upholsterers or tailors. They are mainly employed on the maintenance of barrage balloons, aircraft fabric or as upholsterers at aircraft maintenance and repair units. The jobs of wireless operator and slip-reader operator call for a high degree of skill and ability to co-ordinate hand and eye. A knowledge of Morse is, of course, necessary. The slip reader must be a touch typist; her job is an exacting one, as she has to read Morse tape as it emerges from the Creed receiver and simultaneously convert it to typescript.

Cooks must be accustomed to dealing with large numbers. Restaurant, hotel or catering cooks are admirable for this work. Sparking-plug tester duties consist of dismantling sparking plugs taken from aircraft, cleaning and reassembling them and adjusting the spark gap. For this work a girl must have a high sense of responsibility. Slovenly work might have tragic consequences. Skilled hands from gramophone factories or wireless assembly shops are particularly well ﬁtted for the trades of instrument mechanic and instrument repairer.

An ideal type of woman for the trade of sick quarters attendant is she who is capable of tending members of her family during minor ailments, whilst a woman who has had experience as a receptionist or clerk to a civilian dentist is suitable for the work of dental clerk orderly.

Aircrafthands must be strong, intelligent, and active. They are employed on the following duties: all forms of domestic duties, cleaning and so on; in workshops (including unskilled duties); as waitresses (including cleaning of mess-rooms); as orderlies (including messenger duties); and as parachute packers.

The administrative trade is open to women who have held positions of control, and who are willing to start “on the ground ﬂoor,” in order to adapt themselves to the ways of the service and such women are rapidly earmarked for promotion to positions of control in the W.A.A.F.

The comparative ranks of the W.A.A.F. are given here:

W.A.A.F. RANK	RELATIVE R.A.F. RANK
Commandant-in-Chief Air Chief Commandant Air Commandant Group Officer Wing Officer Squadron Ofﬁcer Flight Officer Section Officer Assistant Section Officer Under Officer Senior Sergeant Sergeant Corporal Aircraftwoman, 1st Class Aircraftwoman, 2nd Class	Air Marshal, or above Air Vice-Marshal Air Commodore Group Captain Wing Commander Squadron Leader Flight Lieutenant Flying Ofﬁcer Pilot Officer Warrant Officer Flight Sergeant Sergeant Corporal Aircraftman, 1st Class Aircraftman, 2nd Class

PILOTS OF TOMORROW

These young members of the A.T.C. are receiving instruction in the principles of ﬂight in the shadow of a Hurricane ﬁghter. The lectures are made interesting by giving practical as well as theoretical instruction

THIS IS HOW A GUN TURRET WORKS

Actual contact with operational machines stimulates the imagination of A.T.C. boys. A few moments’ practical instruction, such as these boys are receiving, is worth a whole course of theoretical lectures in a classroom

AIR TRAINING CORPS

The organization methods which have been built up for the training of both ﬂying and ground personnel are discussed fully in later chapters, but before closing this chapter mention should be made of the Air Training Corps which was formed in February, 1941, its aim being to act as a reservoir from which the R.A.F. can draw in the future for its air and ground crews. All physically ﬁt boys of sixteen and upwards who would like eventually to join the R.A.F. or the Fleet Air Arm are eligible for the A.T.C. The training consists first of all of drill, mathematics, Morse code and lectures of general interest. Later the cadets take specialized courses to prepare them for the branch of the service for which they are best ﬁtted. These specialized courses fall under two main headings, namely air crews and technical occupations. The former comprises such subjects as mathematics, navigation, Morse code, aircraft identiﬁcation, etc., whilst the latter includes courses for wireless operators, wireless mechanics, ﬂight mechanics, riggers, instrument repairers, electricians and motor transport mechanics.

A.T.C. units are organized by university and school authorities, while local units are raised by civic authorities. Uniform is issued free, and each efficient cadet receives an annual grant of £1.

MEDALS AWARDED TO R.A.F. PERSONNEL

1, Distinguished Flying Cross; 2, Distinguished Service Order; 3, Air Force Cross; 4, George Cross; 5, Victoria Cross; 6, George Medal; 7, Air Force Medal; 8, Long Service and Good Conduct Medal; 9, Meritorious Service Medal; 10, Distinguished Flying Medal

HONOURS AND DECORATIONS

Many honours and decorations may be conferred quite irrespective of the service to which the recipient may belong. Others are only awarded to particular services. The following four decorations may be won by members of the three Services, and in the case of the George Cross and George Medal, by civilians also:—

VICTORIA CROSS (Fig. 5). Most highly prized distinction of the ﬁghting services, It takes precedence over every other. It was instituted in 1856 and is awarded for the performance in the presence of the enemy of some pre-eminent act of valour or devotion to duty. When the ribbon only is worn a miniature of the medal is ﬁxed in the centre of the ribbon. This applies also to the George Cross. The V.C. ribbon, which is one and a half inches wide, was originally blue for the Navy and claret for the Army. The latter colour was adopted for all three Services during the war of 1914-18. The V.C. may also be awarded to officers and men of the Merchant Navy serving under naval, military or air force authority.

GEORGE CROSS (Fig. 4). Instituted in 1940 to recognize exceptional deeds of valour. It may be awarded to members of the ﬁghting Services as well as to civilians. It embraces the functions under which was formerly awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal, recipients of which are entitled to the later decoration. It ranks second only to the V.C. The ribbon is plain blue.

GEORGE MEDAL (Fig. 6). Instituted in 1940, it is awarded for valour and may be won both by men and women, civilian or otherwise. The medal ribbon is red with a thin blue vertical stripe.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER (Fig. 2). Instituted in 1886 for commissioned officers specially recommended for meritorious or distinguished service in action before the enemy. The D.S.O. is the most colourful of medals here described. It consists of a cross enamelled white, with gold edges. The laurel wreath is enamelled green and the crown is of gold on a red background. The ribbon consists of a wide red central band edged with blue.

The following medals are exclusively R.A.F. decorations:—

DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS (Fig. 1). Dating from 1918, it is awarded to officers and warrant officers of the R.A.F. only for exceptional valour, courage or devotion to duty while ﬂying on active operations against the enemy. The ribbon, which is an inch and a quarter wide, is of violet and white in alternate diagonal stripes, one eighth of an inch wide.

AIR FORCE CROSS (Fig. 3). Instituted in 1918. It is awarded to ofﬁcers and warrant ofﬁcers of the R.A.F. and to civilians for acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty while ﬂying. The ribbon is similar to that for the D.F.C. except that red stripes replace the violet.

DISTINGUISHED FLYING MEDAL (Fig. 10). Founded simultaneously with the D.F.C., it is awarded to non-commissioned oﬂicers and men of the R.A.F. for exceptional valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst ﬂying in active operations against the enemy. The ribbon is similar to the D.F.C., but the stripes are one sixteenth of an inch wide.

AIR FORCE MEDAL (Fig. 7). Awarded in the same circumstances as the A.F.C., but to N.C.O.’s and airmen of the R.A.F., to members of the other services, and to civilians. The ribbon is similar to the A.F.C. except that the stripes are one sixteenth of an inch wide.

LONG SERVICE AND GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL OF THE R.A.F. (Fig. 8). Awarded to N.C.O.’s who have completed eighteen years exemplary service. The ribbon is dark blue and crimson equally divided, with white edges.

MERITORIOUS SERVICE MEDAL (Fig. 9). Instituted in 1845, it is awarded to warrant officers, N.C.O.’s and men for valuable services in the ﬁeld as distinct from ﬂying services. The R.A.F. have a distinctive ribbon for the M.S.M. It is of red and blue, equally divided, with white edges and a white central stripe.

In addition, the O.B.E., the M.B.E., and the B.E.M. are granted to the R.A.F. while they have also become eligible for the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal if serving with the Fleet, and also for the Military Cross and the Military Medal.

A BLOW AT THE HEART OF THE ENEMY

The basis of all aerial strategy is attack, and the bomber is the main weapon used for this purpose. The R.A.F. sends its bombers to attack objectives of vital importance to the enemy for it believes that this is the best means of breaking down his will to continue the war. These attacks are concentrated upon war factories, troop concentrations and communications of all kinds including port installations and convoys. The Blenheim above has just scored a direct hit on an enemy tanker, the loss of which will help to immobilize his war machine

CHAPTER 2

Aerial Strategy and Tactics

Types of aircraft employed. Day and night operations. Co-operation between ﬁghters and bombers. Use of ﬁghters as bombers. Effect of ground defences. Bombing tactics. Tactics of air ﬁghting. Tactics in close support of naval forces. Tactics in close support of land forces. Quality versus quantity. Morale of air forces

THE main purpose of an air force is to seek out and attack the enemy wherever he may be. Every lesson learned in the present war has conﬁrmed this elementary principle. The use of air power in conjunction with land power as an indivisible whole, as the spearhead to, and cover for, land operations is a simple development of that idea. It follows, therefore, that attack must always be the basis of all air strategy for attack is also the best form of defence.

SCOPE OF AIR POWER

An air offensive, however, is not concerned only with attack against opposing forces in the same way as an army goes into battle against another army and a navy hopes to entice an opposing ﬂeet to sea so that it can join combat and destroy it. There is a long arm to air power. It can reach “over the top” behind the enemy lines. Far more than with the other two services, it can “seek out” the enemy. Its targets can be, and are, anything and everything of importance to the enemy—his armament industries, his ports, his convoys, his road and rail communications and his reserves behind the actual ﬁghting lines. Their relative importance as primary and secondary targets is the relative value which the enemy places upon them and the use he is making of them at the moment. At the height of the U-boat war, for instance, the whole weight of Britain’s Bomber Command offensive was turned to the destruction of U-boat bases and the centres at which submarine parts were manufactured.

But air warfare is double-edged, for the enemy in turn relies on his bomber forces to inﬂict serious damage to the vital centres of his opponent. Both sides, therefore, are obliged to allot a considerable proportion of their aircraft industry and ﬂying personnel to the question of defence. They must produce ﬁghter craft and train ﬁghter pilots so as to render themselves as immune as possible from the attention of bombers, secure control of the air above their own production centres and be in a position to provide escorts for their own bombers in attack.

This situation of air superiority is not likely, though, ever to be complete over the whole of enemy territory. Even if superiority is obtained in a particular area of operations, it is probable that the enemy will still muster considerable ﬁghter forces in his more distant areas with which to oppose long range bombers.

FIGHTER ESCORTS

The main object of the Fighter Command of the R.A.F. is to defeat the enemy ﬁghters in the air, but this is only possible within the radius of action of ﬁghter aircraft and it is therefore necessary that bombers should have a ﬁghting capacity which, allied with their powers of evasion by use of clouds or darkness, will enable them to operate alone in spite of probable heavy ﬁghter opposition.

TYPES OF BOMBERS

It is true to say that the bombers of the R.A.F., with the exception of the specialized American Flying Fortress, have a heavier defensive armament than those of any other country and this, coupled with the power-operated turrets used on most British types gives them a very high degree of immunity from attack. Nevertheless, bombers are always at a disadvantage unless accompanied by ﬁghter escorts, and the R.A.F. are constantly developing new types of ﬁghter aircraft and endeavouring to increase their radius of operation so that they can give their bombers the greatest possible support.

Let us now consider the qualities required by the various types of machines used in an air offensive. First of all come the bombers. These machines must have a long range, a high speed and a great load-carrying capacity. In addition they must have a powerful defensive ﬁghting armament to give them as high a degree of immunity from enemy ﬁghter aircraft as possible. They must have a high ceiling—i.e., they must be able to ﬂy at a great height—so that they can keep clear of enemy ground defences on their journey to and from their objective. Britain has always designed her machines so that they would possess these qualities. They helped to bring about the success of the earlier Hampdens, Whitleys and Wellingtons and have made the giant four-engined Stirlings, Halifaxes and Lancasters the ﬁnest aircraft of their type in the world.

TYPES OF FIGHTERS

Fighter aeroplanes normally have a much shorter range than the bombers because they are designed primarily to intercept and bring enemy bombers to combat. They therefore require a very high speed, a very high service ceiling, and great engine power to enable them to climb rapidly. Single-seater ﬁghters such as the famous Spitﬁres and Hurricanes, and the twin-engined Beauﬁghters and Mosquitos rely entirely on ﬁxed guns or cannons ﬁring forward.

STIRLINGS AND THEIR FIGHTER ESCORT

Although British bombers carry a heavy defensive armament with machine guns ﬁring all round they are, nevertheless, at a considerable disadvantage in combat with fast interceptor ﬁghters during daylight raids, and they are, therefore, escorted by ﬁghters. Fighters, however, have a comparatively short range and for long-distance raids bombers operate alone by night. The big Stirling bomber above is one of a squadron attacking objectives in enemy-occupied France. Its escorts are Hurricanes armed with twelve machine guns

NIGHT FLYING

Reconnaissance aircraft carry cameras and are usually without great offensive power. They rely chieﬂy upon speed or height to perform their task. Their duty is to obtain information and bring it safely home and they must, therefore, avoid combat wherever possible. They are not normally used for bombing, although they frequently carry bombs, and coastal reconnaissance planes may carry a torpedo.

The effectiveness of all kinds of air operations is reduced by darkness. In daylight ﬁghters can readily gain contact with enemy bombers, but at night the high-ﬂying raider is very difﬁcult to ﬁnd and to attack. True, Britain’s night ﬁghters have met with great success in establishing contact with the enemy, but given daylight there is little doubt that their “kills” would have been inﬁnitely more.

To offset the advantage which darkness gives to the bombers is the fact that it is more difﬁcult at night for bomber crews to identify their targets and attack them with accuracy. In general, effective air bombardment by night demands much higher skill in navigation and bomb aiming than do similar operations in daylight.

There have been many schools of thought regarding the use of ﬁghters in co-operation with bombers. The ideal to be aimed at by an attacking air force is to send ﬁghters on ahead of the bombers to clear the sky of opposing ﬁghters before the bombers arrive over the target, thereby enabling the bombers to select and attack their targets at their leisure and unhampered by enemy interference (Fig. 1).

FIGHTER PROTECTION

Another school of thought takes the view that the bombers themselves should be so heavily armed as to be capable of beating off any enemy ﬁghter attacks without assistance from their own ﬁghters. The Americans, in their design of the Flying Fortresses and the use they have made of them, have adopted this principle. These ideals, however, are unlikely to be attained by either of two air forces of nearly equal size unless one is very inferior in quality or morale (Fig. 2).

FIGHTERS CLEAR THE TARGET AREA

Fig. 1. One ideal to be aimed at by an attacking force is to clear the sky of opposing ﬁghters before the bombers arrive, as shown above. The bombers could then select and bomb their targets at their leisure, unhampered by interference from defending ﬁghter aircraft

BOMBERS UNESCORTED AND ESCORTED

Fig. 2. Some experts maintain that bombers should be so heavily armed as to be capable of beating off enemy interference unaided. R.A.F. bombers, although they cannot always do this, are extremely well armed as can be seen from the Wellington which has power-operated turrets in nose and tail as well as machine guns ﬁring from the cabin windows on each side.

Fig. 3. Shows ﬁghters escorting bombers on a raid. They are arranged in groups so as to protect the rear, which is the most vulnerable part of the formation

One form of co-operation that can be adopted is for bomber formations to be accompanied by ﬁghters whose duty it is to protect them whilst carrying out their mission (Fig. 3). This method was tried by the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain in 1940 wherein their large bomber formations were escorted by still larger formations of ﬁghters which attempted to keep the path clear, locally at any rate, whilst their bombers carried out attacks on the selected targets. It is a method of attack which has also been tried by Britain. The Germans failed with it, mainly because their ﬁghters never succeeded in dealing properly with the opposition that they met and thereby allowed the British ﬁghters to get in among the bomber formations. Britain has, at all times succeeded in using the method, because British ﬁghters, technically superior, have always remained dominant. They have never allowed themselves to be broken up as formations.

It was the inability of the German ﬁghters adequately to protect their bombers that caused the enemy high command to resort to night operations. This switch from day to night bombing, incidentally, followed the precedent which the Germans themselves set in the war of 1914-1918. It was an attempt to obtain from darkness and bad weather the cover for his bomber forces which his ﬁghters had been unable to give him in daylight.

This expedient has, however, led to the rapid development of ﬁghter operations by night which, in combination with an elaborate and highly technical system of radiolocation has succeeded in inﬂicting very heavy losses on the enemy.

USE OF FIGHTERS FOR BOMBING

Fighters can be and are used as bombers, but this is a specialized class of work for which British Hurricanes were adapted. It is dealt with in a later chapter. The Germans use ﬁghter bombers such as Me 109F.s and F.W.190s similarly and for tip-and-run raids on coastal towns. The ﬁghter can use its great speed and manoeuvrability for purposes of evasion and it stands a better chance of penetrating enemy ground and air defences, but it has only a limited range and any extra weight it has to carry in the shape of bombs means that a corresponding weight of fuel must be sacriﬁced.

Efficient ground defences impose important limitations on offensive air operations. These defences consist of heavy and light anti-aircraft guns, balloon barrages and searchlights. Anti-aircraft ﬁre is a serious danger to an aeroplane which ﬂies at moderate heights and on a steady course.

Attacking planes are forced to take evasive action by altering course, height and speed whenever they encounter A.A. gunﬁre. This, of course, makes bomb aiming less accurate and, if heavy enough, almost impossible. In consequence, guns grouped round important targets have a strong deterrent effect. Light anti-aircraft ﬁre is a valuable defence of small isolated targets.

Balloon barrages, especially at night or in very cloudy weather are a valuable deterrent to enemy raiders. They make enemy pilots extremely wary and keep the raiding machines at a height that will enable the A.A. guns to get at them and they, in consequence, very frequently succeed in bringing them down. In addition, they effectively stop low altitude bombing of towns and factories.

USE OF SEARCHLIGHTS

Lastly, searchlights not only very greatly help the ground gunners to locate aircraft by night, but their light dazzles the bomb-aimers and entirely upsets the accuracy of their aim.

We have said that the main object of British air strategy is attack, and the bomber is the chief weapon used to carry the ﬁght to the enemy. We will now consider how the bomber is employed. The tactics of aerial bombing may be summed up as comprising: (1) accurate navigation to the target area, (2) prevention of enemy interference on the way, (3) recognition of the target, and (4) accurate bomb-aiming.

The ﬁrst of these calls for considerable skill because the modern bomber must ﬂy for hundreds of miles to reach its target, very often through clouds, fog or darkness. During its ﬂight over enemy territory it will almost certainly be attacked either from the ground or by enemy ﬁghters, but it must not tum back until it is severely damaged, or until it has accomplished its mission. Interference from enemy ﬁghters whilst the bombers are going to or returning from their objective is overcome in different ways. In daylight or clear weather the bombers ﬂy in close formation each relying on the air gunners of the whole formation to deal with enemy ﬁghter attacks. The bomber formations adopted vary according to local requirements. Sometimes the aircraft ﬂy in V formation (Fig. 4), sometimes in box formation (Fig. 5), or in diamond formation (Fig. 6), but always with the aim of combining ﬂexibility with mutual ﬁre support, which is another most important factor.

Fig. 4. Formation of aircraft varies with the local needs. Here are aircraft in V formation; Fig. 5. Showing a further assemblage of bombers ﬂying this time in box formation; Fig. 6. In daylight bombers ﬂy in close order, known as the diamond formation

Recognition of the target and accurate bomb-aiming are of outstanding importance. It is useless to have reached the target area if on arrival the target cannot be recognized or the bombs, when released, fall wide of the mark.

Targets can only be recognized after careful study of maps and photographs prior to the raid. In this respect the R.A.F. takes special pains to see that its pilots are given the fullest possible information, both photographic and otherwise before they set out to attack a target. In certain cases models of the target are made from photographic data and the best methods of approach and means of attack are discussed by the pilots before they embark on the enterprise (Fig. 7).

Having identiﬁed the target, the next thing to do is to hit it with bombs. Good bomb aiming calls for a very high degree of skill, great determination, and coolness at the critical moment just before the bombs are released. Bombing has been carried out from heights up to 40,000 feet; it can be done from aircraft ﬂying very low, or by dive bombing, in which the aircraft starts at a great height and dives at maximum speed upon the target, releasing its bombs at point-blank range and pulling out of the dive at the last possible moment (Fig. 8).

STUDYING THEIR TARGET

Fig. 7. Accurate navigation to and recognition of the target are of outstanding importance in all bomber operations. These pilots and navigators are taking no chances: they are studying maps and photographs containing the latest available information concerning the objective which, in a few hours’ time, they will be blasting with high explosive bombs

HIGH ALTITUDE, LOW ALTITUDE AND DIVE BOMBING

Fig. 8. Three methods of hitting a target with bombs. High altitude bombing is most effective in clear weather, but rarely secures surprise. Low altitude bombing secures surprise, but makes the recognition of targets diﬁicult. Dive bombing, developed by the Germans, gives considerable accuracy, but is mainly effective against ill-defended ground targets

High-level bombing is most effective in clear weather or when there are gaps in the clouds. It has the advantage that targets can easily be found, and the approach and bomb aiming are not interfered with too greatly by anti-aircraft ﬁre. Bombs dropped from a great height have great penetrative power and accuracy. This method of bombing, however, rarely secures surprise, whereas very low bombing can secure surprise although approach to and recognition of land targets is made difﬁcult by the speed at which the pilots pass over landmarks. Low bombing, too, exposes the aircraft to light anti-aircraft ﬁre which in well-defended areas may be very effective. Bombs for low-altitude bombing are ﬁtted with delayed-action fuses to enable the aircraft to get clear of the target before the explosion takes place. Blast can be very dangerous.

DIVE BOMBING

Dive bombing has been specially developed by the Germans. It gives considerable accuracy added to which the noise of the diving plane can add considerably to the moral effect of the bombing. On the other hand, if dive bombers are met by cool and well-aimed ﬁre from the ground, very high casualties can be inﬂicted upon the attacking aircraft. The bombers after pulling out of their dives can also be caught easily by ﬁghters. Dive bombing is therefore mainly effective against ill-defended ground targets or against ships when there is not sufﬁcient protective cover by ﬁghters.

Let us now consider the tactical employment of ﬁghters in modern warfare. Fighter tactics are of two kinds, namely, ﬁghters against ﬁghters, and ﬁghters against bombers. In addition small bodies of ﬁghters may work on roving commissions such as shooting up enemy aerodromes or other special targets. Normally ﬁghters operate in formations, so that a strong offensive ﬁre can be brought to bear while at the same time the members of the formation protect each other and the whole from surprise.

IMPORTANCE OF HEIGHT

In all circumstances height is of the greatest value in ﬁghter attack. It enables advantage to be taken of cloud cover, and the direction of the sun, and also allows attacks to be made at great speed. Maximum performance at great heights is therefore a primary need in ﬁghter aircraft. On occasion, when one body of ﬁghters has encountered another, the V formations in which aircraft usually ﬂy may be modiﬁed so that they ﬂy round in a defensive circle, each aircraft covering the one in front of him. All, or any can dive out of the circle to attack isolated enemies, or the whole circle can manoeuvre slowly until it withdraws from the combat. This formation was often adopted by the Germans during the Dunkirk period at the end of the Battle of France in 1940, and also in their later attacks in the Battle of Britain. The defensive circle formation was sometimes outwitted by British ﬁghters getting inside the circle, ﬂying round it in the opposite direction to the Germans, and thereby getting them one by one in their gun sights (Fig. 9). The volume of frontal ﬁre of which the modern ﬁghter is capable is very great indeed. Fighter actions, therefore, consist of considerable periods of manoeuvre for position with only short but intense bursts of actual ﬁring.

GETTING INSIDE THE DEFENSIVE CIRCLE

Fig. 9. Enemy aircraft ﬂying in a defensive circle, each machine covering the one in front as they withdraw slowly from the combat. A British ﬁghter has entered the circle ﬂying in the opposite direction and is picking the enemy machines off one by one

Fighter attacks upon escorted bomber formations naturally depend in the ﬁrst instance upon avoiding or dealing with any ﬁghter escort. Once this has been done the method of attack upon bombers themselves is to split up the formation and then to deal with each member individually, several ﬁghters attacking a single bomber from various directions and thus distracting the enemy air gunners from concentrating their ﬁre.

Fighters that have to deal with the isolated bomber, which usually operates in bad visibility or clouds, have ﬁrst to make contact with the bomber and then attack it before being observed; In these circumstances the work of the ﬁghters might be described as “stalking.”

END OF A FLYING PENCIL

When ﬁghters attack bomber formations they split the formation up and then deal with each aircraft individually. The Dornier 17 above is diving to its doom after having been caught in the deadly stream of ﬁre from a Spitﬁre

HOW FIGHTERS ARE WARNED OF THE ENEMY’S APPROACH

Fig. 10. This diagram, reproduced from the “Battle of Britain,” shows how the ground warning organization of the R.A.F. functions. Instead of patrolling the skies in search of the enemy, the ﬁghters wait on their aerodromes until warned of the approach of a hostile force. When in the air they are directed to within sight of the enemy by radio telephone

In all fighter operations successful results can best be obtained when the ﬁghters have a proper warning organization on the ground to assist them. Then, instead of spending unnecessary time in patrolling, they can wait on the aerodromes until warned of the approach of the enemy.

When in the air they can be directed by radio to within sight of their quarry. The R.A.F. has brought to a ﬁne art this co-operation between ground observers and ﬁghter pilots, and this system contributed in large degree to the great successes achieved by British ﬁghter pilots in the air battles over Britain in the autumn of 1940 (Fig. 10).

LAND AND SEA CO-OPERATION

Besides the actual offensive and defensive duties carried out by bombers and ﬁghters, planes of the R.A.F. co-operate in many ways with both land and sea forces. There are two main aspects of such co-operation; the ﬁrst and most important of these is that there should be a favourable air situation before ships and armies can work successfully. If naval bases are subject to heavy air bombardment, if ships themselves whilst at sea are in constant danger of torpedo or bomb attack from the air, if the area in which they are working can be ﬁlled with mines dropped from aircraft, then naval forces have to work under a severe handicap and may have to face heavy losses. The same applies to the operation of military forces. The bases from which they receive their supplies of food and ammunition must be secure from air bombardment; the railways and roads along which their reinforcements and their daily needs are brought must be reasonably free from air attack. The troops themselves in their billets or camps must be able to get proper rest with total relaxation in the intervals of their ﬁghting on the ground.

To ensure, therefore, that naval and land forces can operate effectively it is vital that a favourable air situation be produced by the air force to give them security from enemy aircraft, and to inﬂict upon the enemy those very difficulties which would prove embarrassing to its own ships and men. To obtain this favourable situation is part of the general air strategy of the war, and we must now consider how an air force achieves it.

BEAUFORT THAT TORPEDOED A POCKET-BATTLESHIP

The R.A.F. co-operates in many ways with naval forces. It carries out continual reconnaissance of the seas around Great Britain and attacks enemy ships whenever they are found. This Bristol Beaufort torpedo-carrying bomber above scored a direct hit on a German pocket-battleship either the “Lutzow” or the “Admiral Scheer,” off the coast of Norway

BRISTOL BEAUFIGHTER

This twin-engined day and night ﬁghter has a span of 57 feet 10 inches; a length of 41 feet 4 inches, and its wing area is 503 square feet. The Bristol Beauﬁghter’s armament comprises four 20 m.m. cannon in the fuselage nose and six .303 inch machine guns in the wings. Four of these are mounted in the starboard wing and two in the port wing. It has a top speed of 330 m.p.h. and a cruising speed of 200 m.p.h. Mainly used by Coastal Command against enemy shipping

SEA AND AIR CO-OPERATION

The ﬁrst stage of air support for naval forces is air reconnaissance. This should provide warning when enemy ships are assembling or have put to sea, and thenceforward give an accurate picture of the enemy’s dispositions and the courses which he is steering in order that contact at sea can be made and a naval battle brought about. A classic example of this type of reconnaissance is the case of the German battleship Bismarck, which was reported by reconnaissance planes to have put to sea on May 25, 1941. As a result she was brought to action by naval forces in a battle in which the British battle cruiser Hood was sunk. Although the German ship succeeded in withdrawing from the action under cover of darkness, she was later located by Catalina ﬂying boats of the Coastal Command and attacked by torpedo carriers of the Fleet Air Arm who succeeded in reducing her speed and summoning British naval forces. Her destruction on May 27 was no less a triumph for the air forces of Britain than for the Navy.

The second stage in close co-operation between air forces and the Navy is that air attacks should be delivered against enemy ships, synchronized with, or even prior to, a naval action. If important ships can be hit by torpedo or by bomb their speed and their effectiveness may be very seriously reduced, to the great advantage of naval forces in the subsequent operations. Here again the Bismarck affords a model example of this type of co-operation.

The detailed tactics of bombing ships at sea differ little from the bombing of targets on land except that a high degree of skill is required in judging the speed of movement of the target, and when low bombing, in pressing home the attack against a concentration of anti-aircraft ﬁre. Torpedo attack by aircraft against ships requires the aircraft to descend very low and in close proximity to the enemy, and again calls for great judgment of speed and course to ensure a hit.

Aircraft can also co-operate very effectively by directing ships’ gunﬁre when the ﬂeets are engaged. The Navy’s air requirements at sea are mostly met by aircraft in carriers and aircraft catapulted from warships. Effective support is also given, however, by shore bases reconnaissance, bombing and torpedo-carrying aircraft.

BOMBERS OVER TARGET

Allied raids on occupied territory are becoming more and more intensiﬁed. The top picture shows a Ventura aircraft of the R.A.F. Bomber Command over its target—The Royal Dutch Blast Furnaces and Steel Works at Ijmuiden in Holland. U. S. Flying Fortresses can be seen below attacking the Rotterdam shipyards and dock installations. Hits have already been made on the chief part of the engineering works, and on the submarine slips and repair shops

BOMBERS HELP THE ARMY

Bombers are used to destroy objectives which the army cannot reach with its own guns. Such targets are frequently crowded roads, or bridges, like that seen above, which has been destroyed by a well-aimed bomb

HITS ON JAPANESE POSITIONS

Fire bombs raining down on Japanese territory. Over ﬁfty incendiaries were dropped at one time by Allied Aircraft on this Japanese village in the Taungdaung district of Burma, where considerable destruction was caused to enemv positions, and many ﬁres were started

LAND AND AIR CO-OPERATION

The question of the precise relationship between an air force and an army has been answered in many different ways since the war began, but experience has now shown, not only that an army is useless without supporting air power but that air and land forces must work together under one control if effective use is to be made of either. The air force must be at the tactical disposition of the army if any strategical land attack is to be carried through to a successful conclusion. It must be prepared to carry out perpetual reconnaissance, provide an air cover to keep enemy aircraft away and be ready at a moment’s notice to bomb targets which the army deem essential. When this war began, however, this conception of the relationship between air forces and armies was not fully understood. It took many months and the formation of a new Command, Army Co-operation, for it to become practice. Lessons learned in the Middle East had to be turned to account. The use of paratroops, gliders, fast ﬁghters, such as the American Mustangs, had to be developed for army work. The result is dealt with in a later chapter.

QUALITY VERSUS QUANTITY

A problem that has always faced the organizers of air forces is to decide between the relative merits of large numbers of aircraft as against a force of smaller size but of quality greatly exceeding that of the enemy. This question of quality applies not only to the design of the aeroplanes themselves, but to the material of which they are constructed, to the workmanship by which that material is put together, and to the training of the ﬁghting crews.

It is always possible that a very large force used with great determination may overwhehn an opponent who has relied upon fewer numbers but greater quality, before he has recovered from the initial blows. This policy, however, entails very grave risks because of these initial blows should fail to destroy the enemy, the better aircraft and the more skilful crews can then assert themselves with the result that the force that relied upon numerical strength alone ﬁnds itself at a serious and increasing disadvantage.

The Royal Air Force has always endeavoured to supply its pilots with machines that are better than those of the enemy. Its policy has been to build the best possible machines that can be turned out quickly enough to supply all its requirements. Furthermore, it has always endeavoured to keep one jump ahead of the enemy in technical achievement. In order to do this it maintains experimental stations and keeps pace with the latest enemy developments by examining carefully all the latest types of enemy machines that have been captured (Fig. 11). Much valuable information has been received in this way, and the R.A.F. is not slow to incorporate or improve upon any innovations or devices that have been discovered.

ENEMY SECRETS LAID BARE

Fig. 11. The R.A.F. in its race to keep ahead of the enemy in technical development, maintains experimental stations where captured planes are dismantled and examined. Much valuable information has been obtained in this way, and the R.A.F. is not slow to incorporate or improve upon any useful devices it has discovered in enemy aircraft. The two planes being examined are an Me .109 ﬁghter (above) and a Heinkel 111 bomber (below)

Aircraft viewed from the ground may appear as impersonal objects going about their business almost regardless of ordinary human factors. But they are not really so. Their pilots and crews are ordinary men subject to the enthusiasms, the faith or the misgivings of ordinary mortals. It is an essential condition of successful air warfare that the ﬂying personnel have trust in their leaders, conﬁdence in their own ability, and reliance on their aircraft and equipment. No other ﬁghting forces are so susceptible to the encouragement that comes from success, or are so liable to discouragement from undeserved failure. The strategic and tactical handling of an air force, therefore, demands the most skilled direction. If an air force once gets the impression that its efforts are being wrongly or wantonly expended a vast amount of effort would be required to instil once more the courage and conﬁdence which its task demands.

TRAINING AIRCRAFT OF THE R.A.F.

Flying Training Command employs several types of aircraft to teach pilots and other members of air crews their jobs. Engine particulars and top speeds of some of these are given above

CHAPTER 3

A pilot in the Making

The medical examination. The Receiving Wing. Initial Training Wing. Importance of navigation. Elementary Flying Training School. The parachute. Tiger Moth trainer. The ﬁrst ﬂight. Dual control. Working of the controls. Stalling and spinning. The Link Trainer. The ﬁrst solo ﬂight. Landing across wind. Service Flying Training School. Airspeed Oxford trainer. A.M.L. teacher. Blind approach. Navigation tests. Commonwealth Training Plan

THE British system of ﬂying training is the ﬁnest in the world, whether in the leisurely days of peace or under the pressure of the needs of a major war. It is a system which has stood the test of hard trial, the Battle of Britain, when a mere handful of ﬁghter pilots fought until they were asleep on their feet and beat off the full might of the Luftwaffe. It has been imitated in many parts of the world. Other countries have sent their pilots to Britain to be trained or have borrowed instructors from Britain. And, ﬁnally, it is the system on which the great Empire Air Training Scheme, about which we will talk later, has been founded.

CAREER OF A VOLUNTEER

In order to produce a successful operational pilot, other qualities must be developed besides the basic ability to ﬂy an aeroplane, so let us follow the fortunes of a hypothetical John Smith, who has volunteered for ﬂying duties with the R.A.F., and go with him through the various stages of his training.

He has already been interviewed by an aviation candidates’ selection board, and has not been found wanting. He is told that he must now prove that his physical qualities are up to scratch by passing a medical examination. A ﬁghter pilot has to withstand a physical strain rather different from that imposed upon a bomber pilot; he must ascend to greater heights, at times above 40,000 feet, though for comparatively short periods; he has to stand up to physical and mental stresses induced by the manoeuvres of mortal combat at speeds, often, of more than 400 miles per hour.

MEDICAL EXAMINATION

The R.A.F. Central Medical Board has, therefore, to deal with distinctive types of potential pilots, and John Smith’s chances and capabilities, medically speaking, will be painstakingly estimated. The interviewing doctor soon puts him at his ease, considers his personal and family medical history, and passes him along to a succession of medical specialists to each of whom in turn he appears for appropriate medical and surgical tests, eyesight tests and so on.

He sees, for the ﬁrst time in most cases, a bewilderment of intricate apparatus, the components of which are nevertheless most inoffensive in action, except perhaps in so far as they are uncompromisingly truthful. The biceps of one of his arms will be encircled by a rubber bandage (Fig. 1) whose variable pressure, indicated by a column of mercury, is the means whereby the secret of his blood pressure is laid bare. He will be invited to try the strength of his lungs in opposition to another column of mercury; this is known as the Forty Millimetre Test, and he will be asked to blow the mercury in the U-tube up to a certain height and hold it there for at least ﬁfty seconds. This is not as easy as it sounds.

LUNG TESTS

After succeeding in the balancing rod test which requires him to raise a ruler on which is balanced a rod from a table to shoulder level and back again without upsetting the rod, he is introduced to the spirometer, an instrument resembling a gas meter, which is used to determine the capacity of his lungs. The next test is designed to ascertain the expiratory force of his lungs; for this he is seated before a manometer, or U-tube of mercury, asked to take a deep breath and to blow mercury in the tube as high as he can.

After having his reﬂexes tested, his height and chest measurements taken, Smith appears before the President of the Medical Board, a senior officer whose duty it is to weigh up the results of the various examinations and tests. In this case there is no doubt of his physical ﬁtness. The good news is announced, and he leaves the building with the feeling that he will soon be in the cockpit of a Spitﬁre. Given keenness, determination and a certain amount of natural aptitude, the training upon which he is about to embark will soon transform him from a civilian into a sound and reliable service pilot.

BLOOD PRESSURE TEST

Fig. 1. The young volunteer above is having his blood pressure tested during his medical examination for the Royal Air Force. The rubber bandage round his arm is inﬂated and the blood pressure measured by means of the mercury tube seen on the table

He is posted as No. 99999999, Aircraftman Class 2, Smith, John, to a receiving wing where he will be initiated into service life. Here he draws a complete set of uniform, is paraded and taught how to march, to salute and generally to conduct himself in a smart and “airmanlike” manner.

A.C.2 Smith hears an address by his commanding oﬂficer, and is given the explanation of the rules whereby several hundred men can live companionably together. The days pass quickly as he attends lectures on such subjects as navigation, aircraft recognition, law and discipline, organization, R.A.F. ranks and their equivalents in other services, anti-gas drill, and elementary mathematics.

Very soon he ﬁnds that he is becoming physically ﬁtter from the drill and physical training meted out by his energetic instructors, and already a perceptible change has been wrought in other respects as well. He has accumulated some knowledge of his job and of the R.A.F. in general, and is altogether a new man in his outlook on life.

In due course A.C.2 Smith is posted to an initial training wing whose purpose it is to implant a thorough foundation in subjects just as essential for a pilot to understand as that of actual ﬂying, but which must be learnt on the ground. Attention is paid to the development of physical ﬁtness and of the spirit of leadership. The commanding officer has to interview each man individually and, taking into consideration his record to date, to forward to higher authority his opinion as to whether the man is suitable to hold commissioned rank.

LEARNING TO FIND THEIR WAY

Navigation forms one of the most important subjects in the training of a pilot, for however good he may be at handling an aircraft, he would be useless if he could not ﬁnd his way. The young pilots above are studying their maps before setting off on a cross-country ﬂight

A.C.2 Smith might become a great pilot in favourable circumstances, but that would avail him nothing if, instead of reaching Berlin as required, he unwittingly ﬂew to Norway and failed to reach his base again. He is not surprised that he is to receive more instruction in navigation than in any other subject. Should he fail the preliminary examination in mathematics, to which he must shortly submit, it will mean the end of his ambitions to ﬂy. This may seem rather drastic, but it is obvious that without a certain minimum knowledge of mathematics he cannot possibly learn any of the ﬁner points of navigation.

EXAMINATIONS AND TESTS

Near the end of the course there are other examinations and tests which must be passed, in such subjects as navigation, signals, armament, defence against gas, organization, law and hygiene. Of these signals comes next to navigation in importance. One day Smith’s ability to send and receive messages in Morse may be the means of saving him from a dangerous predicament, apart from the not very distant time when, during night ﬂying, he will have to communicate with the ground staff by signal lamp.

Smith is also impressed by the logic that skill in manoeuvring a Hurricane or a Spitﬁre to secure a position from which the decisive blow can be administered to the enemy is nulliﬁed if the question of air gunnery has been neglected. So he applies himself to the study of armament with diligence.

Soon after his arrival at the initial training wing Smith is issued with his ﬂying kit. He bears to his locker a leather helmet, earphones, a Sidcot suit, an inner garment of padded silk and wool, gauntlets, and their companions, silk undergloves, as well as ﬂying boots lined with lambs’ wool, and longs for the day when he will climb into the cockpit of an aeroplane, or aircraft, as he has now learnt to call it.

OFFICER OR N.C.O.

Shortly after passing his maths. examination Smith has the interview already mentioned, which will help to decide whether at a later stage of his training, he will wear a pilot officer’s stripe or the no-less honourable chevrons of a sergeant. The aim of his commanding officer, whose medal ribbons reﬂect his distinguished record in the war of 1914-1918, is to discover to what degree Smith possesses initiative, capacity for leadership, willingness to accept responsibility, and the ability to criticize constructively any aspect of the work at his unit. It is soon decided that Smith is the right type of man to hold commissioned rank, so a recommendation to that effect is included in his record.

The days pass quickly—the navigation examination gives Smith some anxious moments, but after what seems an age he learns he is safely through. Patient study in his spare time is rewarded also with regard to the other tests, and he is now ready to go forward to his ﬁrst ﬂying training school. On his sleeve now appears the badge of a propeller signifying that he has become a leading aircraftman, and his pay increases to ﬁve shillings a day. After a few days’ well-earned leave he reports at an elementary ﬂying training school, and the most interesting part of his training has begun.

Here the task of the chief ﬂying instructor and his assistants is not merely that of teaching men to ﬂy. There is far more in it than that. L.A.C. John Smith, now officially designated as pilot under training, or, more conciseley, as U.T. pilot, together with others like him may be keenly disappointed to hear that ﬂying will not ﬁgure in his ﬁrst day’s programme.

First they are paraded under a ﬂight sergeant who divides them into two sections, one of which will receive ﬂying instructions in the mornings and attend lectures in the afternoon and vice versa. Lockers for ﬂying kit are then allotted, and the whole course is marched to a lecture room where the chief ground instructor gives a brief and business-like address.

He begins his talk by pointing out that more than superﬁcial knowledgeof ground subjects is expected and that members of the course are advised to set aside some hours weekly of their spare time to supplement their lecture-room instruction. John Smith decides that he will exceed the chief ground instructor’s expectations with regard to private study.

After being photographed as a course and in ﬂights for record purposes, the pupils are issued with text books and note books, by the end of which time the promise of an appetizing lunch looms attractively near.

In the afternoon Smith is introduced to that constant companion of the air, his parachute. He watches it being packed and marvels that so much material can be folded up so as to occupy so little space.

SECRETS OF THE PARACHUTE EXPLAINED

During their ﬁrst day at the E.F.T.S. pilots are introduced to the parachute and given brief instruction in the operation and care of this valuable life-saving device. The class above are receiving a demonstration in parachute folding. A service parachute costs about £70

LEARNING TO PACK THE ’CHUTE

It is not long before the U. T. pilot knows all there is to know about his ’chute for, like the young men learning to pack them above, he realizes that one day his life may depend upon its efficient working

CARE OF PARACHUTE

The parachute harness is then adjusted to ﬁt him and he is given brief instruction on how to operate this saviour of thousands of men’s lives, and on how to take care of it, not for its own sake alone, though it costs about £70, but for the reason that his life may depend on its being in good condition. After further lectures you may be sure that there is very little he will not know about his “chute,” as he will affectionately call it.

THE DE HAVILLAND TIGER MOTH

Fig. 2. The D.H. Tiger Moth initial trainer is a superbly reliable little machine sturdily built to resist rough handling. Its 130-h.p. Gipsy Major engine gives it a maximum speed of 109 miles per hour at 1,000 feet; it has an initial climb of 670 feet per minute and a service ceiling of 13,600 feet. Its wing span is 29ft. 4 ins., its length 23ft. 11ins. and height 8ft. 9ins. Some of the great air “aces” of the past and present have received their initiation into ﬂying in one of these planes which were also much used by civilian pilots

FLYING TRAINING

He then attends his ﬁrst lecture on airmanship theory, in the teaching of which subject a large portion of the instructional syllabus is set aside. Smith starts to refer to the R.A.F. Flying Training Manual. After another lecture, this time on armament, the course is dismissed.

All ﬂying training in the R.A.F. is based on the procedure taught by the Central Flying School. Here since the early days of the war of 1914-1918 a system whereby selected pilots are trained to become, in turn, ﬂying instructors themselves, has been built up and brought to a ﬁne standard of efficiency.

In dealing with those who are, as yet, unﬂedged, the wisdom of the very wise is abundantly necessary. Some of the great “aces” of the past and not a few of the notable pilots of today were comparatively slow to learn their craft, and needed considerably more than the average amount of dual instruction before “going solo.” On the other hand it is a waste of time and effort to persevere with a backward pupil when there are good grounds for concluding that he will never “make the grade.” A good chief ﬂying instructor has to be something of a psychologist with the ability to analyse a pupil’s character. It is sometimes his duty—and then often a painful one, when a pupil is obviously trying to do his best—to discontinue his training. No pupil is ever rejected, however, when there is still reason to believe that conﬁdence will surely come with practice.

THE GREAT MOMENT ARRIVES

Having donned his ﬂying kit and parachute the pupil pilot climbs into the rear cockpit of the Tiger Moth trainer; the flying instructor sits in front and when a clear run is available he turns with the wind, opens the throttle, the aircraft gathers speed and the great moment of his life has arrived. He is going into the air for the ﬁrst time and is taking the ﬁrst step on the ladder that will lead him eventually to the cockpit of a high-speed ﬁghter or a heavy bomber

The second day of John Smith’s course at the elementary ﬂying training school breaks ﬁne and clear, with no low cloud and a gentle breeze. After breakfast he meets his ﬁrst ﬂying instructor whom it is certain he will never forget. He ﬁnds that he will share ﬂying instruction with three other pupils, and after a few minutes is told to don ﬂying kit and carry his parachute to the Tiger Moth on the tarmac outside the hangar where the plane is found waiting.

THE FIRST FLIGHT

Aircraft suitable for elementary training must be sturdily built to resist rough, if unintentionally rough, handling, and their engines must be supremely reliable. Tiger Moths with Gipsy engines admirably fulﬁl these requirements (Fig. 2). Smith climbs into the rear cockpit and is assisted to do up the Sutton harness correctly. His instructor follows suit in the front cockpit and in due course tests the engine by opening the throttle to full revolutions. He next tests each magneto, and checks oil pressure and temperature. The wheel chocks are then removed and the instructor taxies gently across the aerodrome to the take-off point. On the way he chats through the inter-communication telephone telling his pupil of the functions of the various controls. In a short time they are on the leeward side of the aerodrome, and as soon as a clear run is available the instructor turns into wind and opens the throttle. The aircraft gathers speed; vibrations transmitted from the landing wheels suddenly cease, and they are airborne. The ground seems to fall away and in no time Smith is having a surrealistic view of things, or so it seems to him on this ﬁrst great occasion.

He can just distinguish that some of his fellow pupils are looking up at him. They appear to be shrinking rapidly and their faces are already the size of cherry stones. It is an unusual yet exhilarating feeling. Is it they who have suddenly become Lilliputians, or he who has been eating Alice in Wonderland’s cake?

BACK TO THE AERODROME

At a height of 500 feet a gentle turn is made to the left and the hangars recede still further, with a very excited and slightly nervous pupil looking avidly down to earth. At 2,000 feet the instructor’s voice, breaking into his consciousness, comes clearly through the earphones telling John Smith, who is now gazing fascinatedly at the instruments, to relax and keep looking over the side as that is the principal purpose of this ﬁrst “air experience” ﬂight.

After ﬂying round to get Smith accustomed to the feel of being in the air the instructor decides it is time to return. So back they go to the aerodrome, losing height on the way to save time. At a suitable spot the throttle is closed and they are gliding in to land in what seems uncanny silence after the roar of the engine. Smith sees the ground apparently rushing up to meet them, but the next moment he ﬁnds that they are ﬂoating along just above it. With a scarcely perceptible jar they touch down and run along on the landing wheels till the aeroplane comes to a standstill.

Having taxied back to the hangar the instructor helps Smith out of his straps.

“So much for that,” he says. “Have a smoke and read the book of words—you know, The Flying Training Manual—while I cope with the other three lads, and then I’ll be ready to give you some dual.”

Smith’s successor accordingly takes his place in the cockpit and Smith returns to the pupils’ crew room where he tries to overcome his vivid recollections and to concentrate on the “book of words.”

MILES MAGISTER INITIAL TRAINER

Many R.A.F. pilots receive their initial training on the Miles Magister, seen above. This is a cantilever low-wing monoplane of wooden construction, and like the Moth, it is powered by a 130-h.p. D.H. Gipsy Major engine. It has an initial climb of 850 feet per minute and a service ceiling of 18,000 feet. Its maximum speed is 142 miles per hour and its range 380 miles

It seems no time before he is once again watching the back of his instructor’s head as the Tiger Moth skims across the aerodrome and climbs rapidly into the sky above. Soon they are at 2,000 feet ﬂying straight and level at 90 miles an hour. A voice is heard through the earphones which startles Smith, who has just realized that what he judged to be strange white ﬂowers in a pocket handkerchief of pasture land away below—are merely sheep after all. “I want you to put your hands and feet lightly but ﬁrmly on the controls in your cockpit, and watch the nose of the aeroplane in relation to a point on the horizon. Notice that if I put my right foot forward, right rudder is applied and the nose of the aeroplane swings to the right. If you apply left rudder the nose will swing to the left.” So it goes on.

CONTROLS OF AN AEROPLANE

Diagram showing how the control column and rudder bar control an aircraft in ﬂight. The former when moved fore and aft lowers or raises the elevator, and when moved laterally raises one and depresses the other aileron. The rudder, controlled by the pilot’s feet, is used in conjunction with the ailerons when turning. Insets show, left, how the aircraft yaws if rudder is applied without ailerons; centre, position of elevator and control column when climbing and diving; and right, position of ailerons and control column when banking to left and to right

EFFECTS OF ELEVATORS

“And now for the effect of the elevators. I push the stick forward and immediately the nose goes down. See how the horizon seems to rise? Now I’ve pulled the stick back and we’re climbing. I move it forward and we’re straight and level again.” Smith is also shown the effect of the ailerons by which the aeroplane is banked—to the left, or to port, if the control column is moved to the left, and to starboard if it is moved to the right. Having demonstrated that he understands the ﬁrst part of the lesson, Smith is then shown how the controls are responded to by the aircraft in a glide with the engine throttled back, and how, owing to the absence of slipstream from the airscrew past the tail, the elevators and rudder become less effective.

DUAL INSTRUCTION

The throttle is opened and after lost height has been gained again Smith is shown how all three types of controlling surfaces—rudder, elevators and ailerons—are used in combination.

“I’ve put her straight and level again,” continues the instructor. “Now you take over and continue straight and level—gently does it to start. You’re swinging to the left. G-r-r-r, you’ve swung still further to the left. That’s better. In attempting to correct the swing you forgot yourself and put on more left rudder instead of taking it off. Never mind, all that’ll become instinctive in time. You’ve put the nose up too high—ease the stick forward a little. That’s ﬁne.”

During succeeding ﬂights Smith learns of further effects in addition to practising what he had already learnt. Stalling gives him some uncomfortable moments to begin with and makes him feel that he is parting company with his stomach. A few attempts make him feel quite at ease, however. Turns being most important manoeuvres, a good deal of time is expended on them. Spinning at ﬁrst makes Smith wonder why he had ever classed stalling as unpleasant. Approaching a distant Mother Earth head-on is all very well, but when Mother Earth appears to be spinning like a gigantic top it takes a bit of getting used to. After trying his hand at half a dozen he is able to reassure himself that there is nothing in it. Though pretty to watch, spinning, like rolling, is not of much account as a useful manoeuvre and the main reason for learning how to go into a spin is to learn in due course how to get out of one, as in certain manoeuvres a little bad ﬂying may induce a spin to develop all by its own cussedness as it were, and the controls have to be handled rather ﬁrmly to correct it.

In due course Smith’s ﬂying instructor is pleased with his progress. He has a light, ﬁrm touch on the controls, and a rapidly developing air sense. On the ground his instructors are equally satisﬁed with his steady painstaking work. Though classed as ground instruction, part of his training there is the nearest thing to actual ﬂying that he has ever experienced and this deserves more than passing mention.

LEARNING TO “FLY” ON THE GROUND

Fig. 3. The Link Trainer is used to train pilots in instrument ﬂying on the ground. It takes the form of a miniature aeroplane mounted on four supporting bellows which are inﬂated or deﬂated by a vacuum turbine the valves of which are operated by the movement of the control column. It faithfully imitates nearly all the movements of a real aircraft in ﬂight

THE “CRAB” TRACES THE PILOT’S COURSE

Fig. 4. The cockpit of the Link Trainer is ﬁtted with a full set of ﬂying instruments to guide the pupil on his imaginary ﬂight. The course he steers is automatically recorded, and traced by the “crab” (seen above) on a sheet on the instructor’s desk, where there is another instrument panel electrically harmonized with the instruments in the trainer’s cockpit

Smith is already learning to ﬂy Tiger Moths by visual aids, using the horizon as the principal line of reference. In cloud, heavy rain, fog, mist, or snow the horizon is no longer to command, and so the pilot has to ﬂy on instruments. In wartime this ability is of special importance, the bomber pilot on his way to the target and the ﬁghter pilot seeking to destroy his enemy are equally handicapped if they cannot use the clouds to their own advantage.

Instrument ﬂying being entirely a matter of trained reaction to the ﬂying instruments, plus self-conﬁdence, training and practice in this important aspect of ﬂying can be most ingeniously given on the ground by means of the Link Trainer, instruction on which is followed up by similar exercises in the air.

THE LINK TRAINER

The Link Trainer (Fig. 3) is in the form of a miniature aeroplane and consists of a hooded fuselage with wings, tail and control surfaces. The whole is mounted on four supporting bellows contained within a turntable mounted upon a square base. These four bellows work in pairs, being inﬂated or deﬂated as appropriate, in conjunction with a vacuum turbine, by means of an intricate system of valves which are in turn operated by movements of the pilot’s control column. The fuselage therefore moves in response to the stick and assumes appropriate attitudes, being tilted forward in a “dive,” to right or left when “banking,” and so on.

Turning is accomplished by means of a reversible motor connected by an endless belt to the turntable. This motor responds appropriately to movements of the rudder bar.

Inside the hooded cockpit is a modern instrument panel containing the full range of ﬂying instruments, some real, some “synthetic,” but all registering, which are so arranged that they operate as they would in actual ﬂight. These include an air-speed indicator, an “artiﬁcial horizon,” a rate of climb indicator, a sensitive altimeter, a direction indicator, a magnetic compass, and an engine revolution indicator.

In addition to the other controls already mentioned there is a “throttle.” Complementary to the Link Trainer is an automatic recorder, popularly known as the “crab” (Fig. 4), which ingeniously traces a detailed diagram of the course “ﬂown” by the pupil on the instructor’s desk, where there is also an instrument panel electrically harmonized with the pilot’s own instruments, simultaneously indicating “airspeed,” “height” and “rate of climb or descent.” Instructor and pupil are linked together by telephone.

In the Link Trainer can be imitated, though not always quite authentically, every manoeuvre of normal ﬂight, including stalling and spinning. The last-named gives a good example of a lapse from authenticity as regards attitude, since in its synthetic spin the trainer rotates rapidly, but with its nose up instead of down. The instrument readings are identical with those of an aeroplane in a spin, and, equally important, recovery from the spin is effected by exactly similar manipulation of the controls. A spin can be induced involuntarily by a mishandling of the controls, or deliberately by ﬁrst stalling the aeroplane and then applying full rudder.

The Link Trainer saves valuable hours of instruction in the air, as well as lives and aircraft. Link Trainer instruction is given at every stage of a pilot’s training. Even when fully ﬂedged a pilot has a Link Trainer in his squadron in which he can practise with advanced problems.

IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL JUDGMENT

John Smith is not introduced to the Link Trainer until he has done a fair amount of visual ﬂying, as it is important that his visual judgment should be developed before he is allowed to learn how to ﬂy on instruments and that he should not develop a habit of glueing his eyes to instruments inside the cockpit when his life may depend on keeping a good look out.

Nevertheless an experiment has been tried in the U.S.A. in which a young man learnt all his “ﬂying” in a Link Trainer, afterwards taking up a real aeroplane for the ﬁrst time in his Life, controlling it perfectly, and ﬁnally making a blind landing using a radio beam!

However, we must return to John Smith who is just getting acquainted with the Link Trainer. He begins his blind-ﬂying lessons by learning to ﬂy straight and level, to climb, glide and turn. He learns that whereas in visual ﬂying turns are classiﬁed as medium (thirty to forty degrees bank) and steep (sixty to eighty degrees bank), in instrument ﬂying only gentle turns not greater than thirty degrees bank are allowed. These are graded according to rate, a rate 1 turn being made with a ﬁfteen degrees bank, and a rate 2 turn with a thirty degrees bank. At rate 1 the aircraft turns through 180 degrees in a minute; at rate 2 through 360 degrees.

Smith’s ﬂying instructor works in close collaboration with the Link Trainer instructor to ensure that air exercises in instrument ﬂying are kept in sequence with the Link Trainer work.

RIGHT AND WRONG WAYS OF LANDING

Fig. 5. Top, correct three-point landing, in which wheels and skid touch down together. Centre, the pilot has misjudged his height and stalled his machine too far of the ground with the result that he has pancaked. Bottom, left, bounce due to failure to ﬂatten out, and right, landing on wheels with too long a run due to failure to stall before touching down

And now to return to Smith’s visual ﬂying. One morning he has just made three daisy cutting landings with his Tiger Moth, whereupon his instructor grins affably and climbs out of the cockpit.

“For the last few hours’ ﬂying,” he says, “you have been in complete control of this aircraft, and I have been merely a passenger. So off you go on your own—just one circuit, a three point landing, and don’t forget to give me a lift back to the hangars.”

Feeling, it must be confessed, rather nervously excited, Smith taxies into position at the leeward boundary, pauses to ensure that his take-off path is clear and unthreatened by other aircraft coming in to land, turns into wind, and opens the throttle. Up comes the tail as he gathers speed while he keeps a straight course by applying rudder correction as necessary. Then a slight backward pressure on the stick and the little Tiger Moth is airborne. At 200 feet he eases back the throttle to climbing speed and carries on steadily to 500 feet where he does a gentle climbing turn through 90 degrees bringing him across wind. At 800 feet he adjusts the throttle and tail trim for level ﬂight.

THREE POINT LANDING

He realizes with a pleasant shock that he is not frightened by the unfamiliar absence in front of him of the back of his instructor’s head. He turns down wind for his approach to the aerodrome, keeping a sharp look-out all the while for other aircraft. A left-hand turn, the engine throttled back, the tail trimmer adjusted, and he is gliding down steadily at about sixty-ﬁve miles an hour with, the aerodrome on his left front. He selects his landing path and when opposite it turns into wind at 500 feet and glides in to land, crossing the boundary at 150 feet. The ground seems to rush up to meet him, he eases the stick back slightly to ﬂatten the glide until the aeroplane is ﬂoating along just above and parallel to the ground. As speed decreases Smith keeps gradually moving the stick back to prevent his aircraft sinking until, with the stick right back, he stalls an inch or two above the ground—a genuine “three pointer” ﬁrst time (Fig. 5).

His instructor who, for all Smith knows, has been grinning just like that ever since he last saw him, climbs up on the step and shakes hands. This is the greatest moment in John Smith’s ﬂying career; larger and faster machines it will be his lot in due course to ﬂy; great deeds against the enemy may one day become part of the day’s work; but there is nothing to equal the thrill of the ﬁrst “solo.”

AEROBATICS: EVOLUTIONS THAT GIVE PILOTS SELF-CONFIDENCE

Fig. 6. All R.A.F. pilots are given instruction in aerobatics during their training, for not only do they give the pilots conﬁdence in themselves and their machines, but they may be the means of outwitting enemy pilots in actual combat. Some of the most spectacular aerobatics, however, are of little use in combat. The aerobatics illustrated above are self-explanatory

It is after his ﬁrst solo that Smith really gets down to the business of learning to ﬂy. During his solo ﬂights he sedulously practises what he has been taught. Dual instruction is sandwiched between these at intervals, when more tricks of the trade are demonstrated, sideslipping, for example, aerobatics, crosswind landing, and forced landing. Aerobatics (Fig 6), by far the most spectacular of these, has in addition to what may be termed its popular appeal a distinct training value, ﬁrst because it promotes self-conﬁdence in the air, and, second, because the intelligent use of aerobatics is often the means of outwitting the pilots of the enemy. The most spectacular aerobatics, such as slow rolls, are of little use in combat, however.

So far Smith has invariably landed into wind which conveniently reduces ground speed. To be able to land across wind in a restricted space such as a long, narrow ﬁeld is a useful and indeed necessary accomplishment at times.

CROSS-WIND LANDING

Fig. 7. A pilot landing in a narrow space across wind would drift sideways did he not counteract this by sideslipping into wind as shown on the right. Left, effect of side wind on direction of aircraft’s flight. Such landings and the question of drift are explained in the text

CROSS-WIND LANDINGS

To understand what has to be contended with in this respect let us consider the eﬁcect of a side wind on an aeroplane in quite normal ﬂight, while going cross-country. In the plan view of the aeroplane at A on the left of Fig. 7 the aircraft is being drawn forward by the power of its engine, considered separately, along the line AB. The force of the side wind, however, is tending to blow it along the line AC. A natural compromise between these two forces results in the aircraft actually moving along the line AD. It is interesting to note that if we know the air speed of the aircraft and the course being steered by it, and the speed and direction of the wind, a diagram similar to the one in question will give us the speed of the aircraft over the ground and the actual direction it travels. Thus, if the lengths of AB and AC are made proportional to the air speed of the aircraft and the speed of the wind respectively, and the parallelogram ABDC is completed as shown, the length of AD will be similarly proportional to the speed of the aircraft over the ground and the direction AD will be that in which it actually moves.

It is obvious that if an aircraft attempts to land while drifting sideways in this way the landing wheels will be subject to a severe lateral thrust as they touch the ground sufficient in many cases to wreck the undercarriage at least, and the aeroplane will possess a lateral momentum which may turn it on its side.

In cross-wind landings, therefore, the aircraft is persuaded to approach the ground along its normal landing axis directly fore and aft, and this is achieved by side-slipping the aircraft into wind at such a rate that the drift due to the wind is exactly counteracted. This is illustrated in the right hand sketch in Fig. 7. Similarly in a cross-wind take-off the stick is held to the side from where the wind is blowing thus giving the aircraft a tendency to bank as soon as it is able to do so.

Forced landing practice is very valuable. In this the pupil is taught to throttle back his engine, to select a suitable ﬁeld, and to land in it without opening the throttle again. A well executed forced landing as a result, perhaps, of enemy action, may be the means of saving the country the price of a bomber, worth as much, possibly, as £40,000.

And now John Smith encounters the terminal examinations which he passes with credit in every subject. The only decision that remains to be made is whether he is to become a ﬁghter or a bomber pilot. The type of advanced trainer on which he will continue instruction depends on this choice. Several types of trainer aircraft were shown previously.

AIRSPEED OXFORD ADVANCED TRAINER

Fig. 8. The Airspeed Oxford, used for training bomber pilots, is a twin-engined low-wing cantilever monoplane with a retractable undercarriage. Its two 375-h.p. Armstrong Siddeley “Cheetah” X engines give it a maximum speed of 197 miles per hour at 8,300 feet. It has an initial climb of 1,225 feet per minute and a service ceiling of 23,000 feet

Smith has expressed a preference for multi-engined types, and the chief ﬂying instructor thinks his choice a sound one. He is cool headed, possesses initiative and stamina, his blind ﬂying is good, and he has demonstrated his ability to navigate. To his delight he is therefore posted from his elementary school to an appropriate service ﬂying training school for advanced training on twin-engined Airspeed Oxfords (Fig. 8).

On his arrival at the new station he ﬁnds that no time is lost in getting down to work, and he soon meets his new instructor. After a brief chat on John Smith’s ﬂying experience so far, he is taken along to a superannuated aircraft of the type he will ﬂy, but from which the engines have been removed and which is jacked up above the ground. He climbs into the left hand seat, and his instructor sitting on the right explains the functions of the host of instruments and controls.

After the almost bare simplicity of the Tiger Moth’s small cockpit with its few simple instruments Smith is almost appalled by the bewildering array of instruments of various kinds, levers, knobs and switches, all requiring attention at certain times.

On his right hand side are the instruments concerned with the welfare of the two engines: boost gauges, revolution indicators, cylinder head temperature gauges, and oil pressure and temperature gauges. He is shown how to lower the ﬂaps, and the correct way in which to lower and retract the undercarriage.

Soon afterwards he is given his ﬁrst ﬂight in an Oxford. Since a ﬂight in one aeroplane, apart from speed considerations is very like a ﬂight in any other, this may largely be left to the imagination. Suffice it to say that Smith is at present confronted with a host of unfamiliar “gadgets.” Before taking off a systematic check must be made. In addition to ascertaining from the appropriate gauges the amount of fuel in the tanks, boost pressure, and engine revolutions on the run up, seeing that the cylinder temperatures are reasonable, and watching the oil pressure, the operation of the ﬂying controls has to be checked, the elevator trim adjustment made, ﬂaps positioned, mixture adjustments made, and half a dozen other items attended to. Small wonder that John Smith regards all this at ﬁrst as rather an embarrassment of riches.

The necessity for giving a pilot instruction on a modern type of trainer such as the Oxford at an early stage before sending him to ﬂy an operational aeroplane is obvious. The Oxford, a sturdily built trainer, with a cruising speed of 160 miles an hour provides an excellent stepping stone to bigger things.

CHANGES IN TECHNIQUE

In addition to its principal differences from the Tiger Moth, such as having two engines, ﬂaps, and a retractable undercarriage, Smith notices that there is a wheel control instead of a stick to operate the ailerons. He also ﬁnds that its cabin type of cockpit is comparatively quiet, the take-off run longer, speeds higher, and glide steeper. Some dual soon enables him to master the necessary changes in technique, and he is sent off for a solo circuit, a tame affair by comparison with his ﬁrst solo. He progresses steadily in his ﬂying exercises of which night ﬂying, formation ﬂying, and navigation are perhaps of most importance.

DEVICES TO OVERCOME ICE FORMATION

Fig. 9. Ice formation on aircraft is a very serious occurrence for it can, as shown above, seriously impair its efficiency and may even cause it to crash. Some of the most common devices used on aircraft to combat this danger are illustrated in the lower half of the diagram

Ground instruction assumes a gradually more advanced character and new subjects are included such as engines, meteorology, and aircraft maintenance. Science is continually providing the pilot with more aids to enable him to defy the worst weather. Examples are the standard blind ﬂying panel such as Smith ﬁrst encountered on the Link Trainer, radio aids to navigation such as direction ﬁnding equipment, beacons, and blind landing systems, and de-icing equipment (Fig. 9). The human factor is still, however, the greatest in any equation, and the really astute pilot is he who is well aware of what he cannot do.

THE A.M.L. TEACHER

Smith’s progress is still being carefully assessed. Although reports have accompanied him from his I.T.W. (Initial Training Wing) and E.F.T.S. (Elementary Flying Training School) to the service school, these in no way prejudice the opinions now being formed. After a few weeks he and other members of his course are transferred to the officers’ mess—clear evidence that they have been provisionally selected for recommendation to commissioned rank. This requires official conﬁrmation bythe station commander at the end of the course.

BOMB AIMING ON TERRA FIRMA

Fig. 10. This robot bombing teacher projects a moving picture of the target on the ﬂoor of the building in which it is housed. With its aid pilot and bomb aimer can practise under realistic conditions without leaving the ground. It also records the result of the aim

Smith now encounters a new aid to training—the A.M.L. (Air Ministry Laboratory) Teacher (Fig. 10), a robot device which makes practice bombing readily available without leaving the ground. This device is housed in a tall specially constructed building, and consists of an elaborate ﬁlm projector which is located at the top of the building. A cinema ﬁlm is projected upon the ﬂoor of the building, and an illusion is created whereby Smith and another pupil—pilot and bomb aimer in turn—on a gallery half-way up the building, can imagine themselves to be ﬂying across a stretch of country. The pilot sits in a bucket seat with stick and rudder bar in front of him, and the bomb aimer, equipped with a bomb sight is lying on his stomach in front of the pilot. The countryside appears to be passing beneath them, and the bomb aimer has ﬁrst to determine from the amount and direction of drift which is apparent the speed and direction of the wind. After making the appropriate setting on the bomb sight he “bombs” a selected target, and in due course the accuracy of his attempt is revealed. Pupils can attain a high degree of accuracy by practising on this trainer.

There are several ways of ﬁnding wind speed and direction, and Smith is using what is known as the three-course method which involves ﬂying on three courses and measuring the amount of drift in each case. His fellow pupil sitting in the pilot’s seat has to steer in the direction indicated by the bomb aimer, the rudder bar being coupled to the directing mechanism upstairs, any deﬂection causing the “scenery” down below to move exactly as though Smith and his companion were actually ﬂying. The A.M.L. Teacher is a fascinating and very valuable device which paves the way admirably for the time when real bombs are dropped on actual targets.

In the Link Trainer Smith is continuing advanced work in instrument ﬂying and is rapidly approaching the stage when he will enter upon “blind approach,” the radio beam system of ﬁnding and landing upon an aerodrome in fog. Later on he will actually ﬂy on the beam and become master of this marvellous method of defying the worst weather. The Link Trainer is ﬁtted with a radio set reproducing all the signals that would actually be heard by the pilot of an aircraft in the air when ﬂying on a radio beam.

Let us take a look at the instructor’s desk on which is placed a celluloid-covered map of a radio approach beam. On this moves the recorder tracing the imaginary path of the Link Trainer as John Smith manoeuvres his craft in response to the signals.

THE RADIO BEAM

It should be explained that a radio beam is projected along a pre-determined track selected to provide the best line of approach to an aerodrome. By means of a receiving set in the aeroplane and by observing a pointer in a special instrument or by listening to signals the pilot is aware when his aeroplane is ﬂying in the beam which is characterized by a steady continuous signal. If he deviates to the left of the beam the continuous signal changes to a series of dots, and if to the right of the beam to a series of dashes (Fig. 11). Simultaneously the pointer already referred to “kicks” right or left indicating the direction the pilot has to turn to regain the beam.

LANDING BY RADIO BEAM

Fig. 11. Diagram to illustrate principle of radio beam. If the pilot ﬂies on his course he receives a steady continuous signal. If he deviates to the left or right the signal changes to a series of dots and dashes respectively. The pilot not only hears the signals, but sees them in a special instrument in the cockpit. He is also warned when he is above the main beacon

So much for direction; now for indication that the aerodrome is near. This is effected by two low-powered transmitters which are located in the centre of the beam and which emit vertical zones of radiation in the form of inverted cones. These transmitters known as the outer and inner marker beacons (Fig. 11) are sited about two miles apart, the second being on the aerodrome boundary.

BLIND LANDING

When the aeroplane ﬂies through these vertical radiations the pilot receives distinctive signals superimposed upon the steady signal of the beam and simultaneously a red neon lamp in the cockpit glows. There is also an indicating symbol called the cone of silence when the pilot is vertically above the main beacon.

The pilot wishing to locate and land at an aerodrome equipped with this radio beam in fog or conditions of low visibility is by means of a recognized procedure brought into position at the outer marker beacon heading towards the aerodrome. His height is about 600 feet and his speed, say, 100 miles per hour. When he hears the warning indication of the outer beacon he throttles back to a predetermined setting and descends at approximately 400 feet per minute at the lowest safe manoeuvring speed, keeping at the same time in the centre of the beam. He arrives at the inner beacon at a height of 100 feet and hears its distinctive signal indicating that he is correctly placed to make a landing. From that height he will almost always see the ground. If not, he carries on keeping straight on his beam until the ground is visible, and lands in the usual way.

In air training the next important items are the navigation tests, and Smith is told by his instructor to prepare to ﬂy cross-country to a distant aerodrome. He notes on the map the best “checks” on or close to the route, the proximity of high ground and obstructions such as balloon barrages. A weather report is obtained for the period covering the ﬂight.

In the air Smith climbs to 3,000 feet and then crossing the aerodrome while actually setting on his course he notes the time of departure and settles down to steady ﬂying. After ten minutes he studies his map and checks his position which should be, say, one mile east of a railway station alongside a main road. Finding that he is almost dead over the right spot he decides to carry on on the same course.

In the cabin, with the hum of the engines sounding pleasantly in his ears, Smith rapidly checks his engine and ﬂying instrument readings. He ﬁnds that everything is just as it should be.

NAVIGATION TESTS

Some time later he checks his position again, this time in relation to a large conveniently situated reservoir, which shows that he is one mile off his track. The necessary calculations are made and the Oxford’s course is altered by a few degrees. If considerably off his course it may be necessary to amend the estimated time of arrival.

The aeroplane speeds on through the afternoon sky piled high with cloud now tinged with grey nimbus in the west, over the green ﬁelds and little villages with people looking up to observe its passage, near big towns with factories belching forth smoke, across rivers, roads and railways. So it goes on until he sees the aerodrome buildings straight ahead and that glow of satisfaction peculiar to navigators who have reached their appointed destination steals over him.

END OF THE COURSE

After tea, which goes down very well—ﬂying is hungry work—Smith starts off on his journey home. This is uneventful except for about ten minutes in the middle which call for some instrument ﬂying. The heavy showers threatened in his weather forecast arrive with the clouds down to 1,000 feet. Smith does not worry, however. It is obvious that it is only a bad patch; he is well clear of high ground and he settles down on his instruments till, as suddenly as it arrived, the rain ceases and he is “in the clear” again.

After seeing his instructor who goes over the details of the trip with him and gives him a metaphorical pat on the back, Smith retires for supper. Another day has gone and his training is nearing its end. On the ﬂying side there is only night ﬂying to be done. Smith ﬁnds that the Oxford is easy enough to handle by night, and after a few circuits with his instructor he is sent off entirely on his own. He has put in some really hard work throughout the course at his various ground subjects. Now he sees that all his pains are rewarded when he discovers his name placed third on the list.

He is interviewed by his commanding officer who, after a few minutes conversation says: “Well, Smith, you have worked well and what I have seen of you has convinced me that you are suitable for ofﬁcer rank. I shall be pleased to send your name forward for a commission.

“I have studied your ﬂight commander’s report on your ﬂying,” he continues, “and his recommendation for your employment on heavy bombers. I notice that you yourself have expressed a wish for Lancasters, and I think you would do very well on that type of aircraft. Therefore I am recommending you for heavy bombers with Lancasters as the ﬁrst choice.”

So here we must take leave of Pilot Officer John Smith, now with wings on his tunic, about to depart for his operational training unit where he will receive crew training before joining his squadron.

Good luck, John Smith!

HIS PROUDEST MOMENT

When a pilot has successfully completed his course at a service ﬂying training school he receives the coveted insignia of his calling—his wings. This badge represents months of mental and physical eﬂort, and the job of sewing it on to his tunic is more of a ceremony than a task

JOHN SMITH’S CHOICE

This is the type of multi-engined bomber that John Smith was determined to ﬂy. The Lancaster is an extremely powerful night bomber which carries a maximum bomb-load of about eight tons. Its speed is well over 300 m.p.h. while it has a range of more than three thousand miles

We have said that the British system of ﬂying training is the ﬁnest in the world and we have followed a hypothetical John Smith through all the stages of turning him, a raw recruit, into a ﬁnished pilot. But we did not say where his training took place—and for a very good reason. It might have been in Britain, in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia or India. He could even have gone through his initial training in Burma, Malaya, Trinidad or Bermuda. There is not a part of the great British Commonwealth which has not contributed men for the air crews ﬁghting the battle against Germany. There are few parts which do not share in the training of those crews, at least in the early stages.

Long before the war began in September, 1939, the Dominions and Colonies were making their contributions of personnel to the R.A.F. Twenty per cent of the pilots who joined before the war came, in fact, from overseas, where Dominion air forces were also being developed along parallel lines to that of the R.A.F. and with the help of an interchange of instructors. Consequently, when hostilities began, there was a framework in existence on whichncould be built the vast training scheme that it very soon became obvious would be necessary. The Empire Air Training Scheme, later to be known as the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, could be launched with a minimum of delay. It was. And to give some idea of to what purpose, it is only necessary to mention that two years later, in Canada alone, more than 40,000 personnel were employed on the training staff of the Plan.

PILOTS TRAINING IN CANADA

Thousands of R.A.F. pilots have been trained in Canada since the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan came into operation in 1940. Here is an impressive group f pilots and their machines at Trenton, Ontario, one of the many wartime ﬂying schools in Canada

AIR TRAINING IN CANADA

The Empire Air Training Scheme was based on a proposal made to the Governments of Canada, Australia and New Zealand by the British Government on September 26, 1939—just 23 days after war was declared. Subsequently South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, India all developed similar training plans, but in the ﬁrst place Canada was chosen as the pivot round which the whole plan should revolve.

Her wide open spaces, her consistent weather conditions, the three thousand miles that separated her from the European theatre of war made her the ideal centre and she was asked also to provide by far the largest number of ﬂying recruits. The actual ﬁgures aimed at cannot as yet be divulged, but it can be mentioned that Canada was asked to provide eighty per cent of the needed number of ﬂying men, Australia and New Zealand eight per cent and the United Kingdom the balance. Those percentages have since been adjusted to meet developing conditions, but they were the basis of the original proposals which, within two days of being received, were readily and cheerfully accepted by the Canadian Government and by Australia and New Zealand almost as quickly. The proposals meant a rapid and extensive increase in the Air Forces of each of the three Dominions concerned and that Australia and New Zealand would send to Canada for advanced training, airmen who had received their initial training in their home countries. Canada would also give elementary training to her own airmen and to a number that were to be sent from Britain.

How it could be done had been agreed and planned by Christmas, 1939. By April, 1940, the plans were under way, sites for new aerodromes and camps were being cleared, aircraft procured and instructors got together and trained. A time limit of two years was ﬁxed for the whole plan to be in full operation and six months before that time was up all but one of the proposed establishments was working to schedule.

Twenty-six elementary ﬂying training schools, sixteen service ﬂying training schools and a central ﬂying school for instructors, using more than 100 ﬂying ﬁelds, were created, apart from gunnery, navigation, observer, bombing, wireless, and technical centres. Twice as many trained aircrews were actually sent overseas in 1940, the ﬁrst year of the plan, than it had been thought possible to pass out in such a short space of time.

U.S.A. CO-OPERATION

Before the United States entered the war, America also provided valuable pilot training capacity. Four civil schools in the United States provided “refresher” facilities for American volunteers, with a hundred hours civil ﬂying experience to bring them up to R.A.F. standard. Facilities were also provided at several civil schools where pupils who had completed their preliminary ground training in this country could undergo an extended course of instruction to ﬁt them for operational training units.

Our John Smith could have learned to ﬂy almost anywhere in the Empire, or even in the United States. But wherever it was, whether he was an English John Smith or a Smith of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or some small island coloured red in the middle of a map of the Paciﬁc, he would have learned in the ﬁnest possible way.

CHAPTER 4

The Bomber Aircraft

Factors regulating design. Take-off run. Speed and defensive power. Range. Day and night bombers. Stressed skin and geodetic construction. Protective colouring. Interior of a bomber. The bomb aimer. Tachometric sight. Bomb distributor. Automatic pilot. Operating the bomber. The captain and second pilot. Air observer. Wireless operator. Air gunner. Flight engineer. Oxygen Equipment

THE design of every bomber is a compromise between a number of conﬂicting requirements, and the best bomber is the one in which this compromise has been most happily solved. The requirements of take-off performance, speed, bomb carrying capacity, manoeuvrability, defence, range and proper facilities for the crew must be carefully balanced. Bombers, however, are not yet standardized in one type, and the purpose for which they are required will affect the emphasis that is placed on one or more of these requirements. For instance, in the tip-and-run day bomber, such as the Mosquito, the emphasis may be placed on speed and manoeuvrability. On the other hand, in the night bomber, which must be capable of deep penetration into enemy territory, while speed is obviously important, the most essential qualities are range and bomb carrying capacity.

REQUIREMENTS OF BOMBERS

When the designer lays out his projected bomber aircraft, the ﬁrst thing he will ask is how long a take-off run can be tolerated. The longer the run the greater the load that can be taken into the air with a given wing area, and therefore the answer to this question is one of the principal factors governing the geometry of the aircraft. The length of the take-off run is limited by the size of the aerodromes from which the bomber will operate and on their freedom from surrounding obstructions, such as high ground, trees, buildings, etc. It is for this reason that the Air Ministry has always insisted on the provision of aerodromes of a size sufficient to prevent bomber design being hampered by inadequate take-off run.

TAKE-OFF RUN

With this question settled, the designer knows his maximum length of run and the rate of climb which his aircraft must have after it has taken off. If our aerodromes provide, say, at clear run of 1,500 yards in one direction for use when there is no wind and 1,200 yards in two or three other directions, we can very safely give the designer a take-off run of 1,500 yards in a still air to clear a 50-foot obstacle.

BOMBER AIRCRAFT OF THE R.A.F.

Details of engines and maximum speeds of seven well-known types of British bombers. They are all used for long range night bombing with the exception of the Boston which is a medium bomber. The Mosquito is a light day and night bomber and is the fastest aircraft in the world

The landing run in a bomber is of less importance as the aircraft will be lightly loaded, as normally the bombs will have been dropped and most of the fuel used up. If a bomber should have to return for any reason before it has reached the sea or the enemy country and the bombs cannot therefore be got rid of, arrangements are provided for jettisoning the bulk of the fuel so as to reduce the load before landing. The fuses of the bombs can be made safe so that apart from an outbreak of ﬁre even if the aircraft crashes the bombs will not explode (Fig. 1).

The next requirement, that of speed, depends on the engine power which the designer can provide consistent with the size and construction of the aircraft, and on the cleanness of the streamlining.

SPEED AND DEFENSIVE POWER

The requirement of defensive power conﬂicts very much with speed as it entails the provision of power operated gun turrets with good arcs of ﬁre and good ﬁelds of view for the gunners, which cannot be provided without interference with the perfect streamline shape of the aircraft. Defensive power does not, however, consist only in the provision of good gun positions. That may be called the active side of defensive power, but there is in addition the very important passive side which consists of the provision of armour, self-sealing tanks (Fig. 2), bullet-proof glass and so forth.

BOMB SAFETY DEVICE

Fig. 1. Diagram illustrating how bombs are “safe” until they have been released from the bomb rack. The air pressure during descent operates the small propeller which unwinds the striker pin and makes the bomb “live”

SELF-SEALING PETROL TANK

Fig. 2. Diagram showing principle of one type of self-sealing fuel tank used in bomber aircraft. When a bullet or other projectile penetrates the tank the petrol acts on the plastic rubber lining, of which it is a solvent, and the hole is thereby automatically sealed

Good facilities for the crew also conﬂict with the requirement of speed, as they demand a hull of sufficient size to give reasonable accommodation to the crew for ﬂights often lasting nine or ten hours, and good ﬁelds of view for the pilot and bomb aimer which again are difﬁcult to reconcile with the perfect streamline shape.

The range of an aircraft is the distance it can ﬂy without landing to refuel. The requirement of range chieﬂy conﬂicts with the bomb load and these two requirements are therefore made as interchangeable as possible by the provision of large tanks and large bomb carrying capacity.

This arrangement allows the aircraft to ﬂy a very long distance with a small bomb load or a short distance with a very large bomb load, although with tanks full and bombs on all the racks the aircraft would be so overloaded that it would probably be unable to take off. This enables the best possible use to be made of the load carrying capacity of the bomber for both short and long journeys over enemy territory.

A very careful study of these factors and their application to air warfare has, since the war of 1914-18, been a principal preoccupation of the Air Staff. They realized very clearly that one of the main lessons of the last war was the supreme importance in air warfare of technical superiority. It has a profound inﬂuence on the morale of the air crews and consequently on their ability to carry out, day after day, their difficult and dangerous tasks. The fruits of this study ensured that the Royal Air Force entered the war equipped with aircraft which, type for type, had no equal in the world, and were certainly much superior to their German and Italian counterparts. More than four years after the war began this superiority is still maintained. The Luftwaffe has no aircraft which can be considered equal to the modern British types.

ENEMY BOMBERS

SPEED AND ENGINE PARTICULARS OF WELL-KNOWN GERMAN BOMBERS

Leading types of German bombers. The two Dorniers are developments of the famous Do.17, or “Flying Pencil.” The 17z is more heavily armed than the 215, which it is gradually superseding. The Heinkel 111K, like the Dorniers, has been used in great numbers for raids on Britain. The two Junkers bombers, besides being used for raids on land targets have been employed in support of armoured vehicles and attacks on shipping. The Focke-Wulf Kurier is used for long range reconnaissance work and also for attacks on shipping convoys

Generally speaking, the British bombers are altogether more highly specialized than those of the Luftwaffe.

The Germans designed no bombers speciﬁcally for use at night, and, when their daylight offensive ended in a costly failure in the autumn of 1940, they were compelled to alter their whole policy and adopt night bombing as the main feature of their air offensive with aircraft that were not very well suited to this particular task.

The day bomber, which always runs the risk of being intercepted and overwhelmed by superior numbers of enemy ﬁghters, is compelled to ﬂy in formation so that the guns of one aircraft may cover the blind spots, of another. In order to make full use of the advantages of formation ﬂying, pilots must be trained to an extremely high standard of skill and must keep in constant practice.

NAVIGATING THE BOMBER

Much experimental work was done during the years of peace to determine the best type of formation to adopt to minimize casualties both from ﬁghter attack and anti-aircraft ﬁre, and the huge unwieldy formations escorted by ﬁghters to which the Germans pinned their faith have never been popular in the Royal Air Force. The British always preferred to operate with comparatively small manoeuvrable formations with the aircraft so disposed as to give each other the maximum possible support in the face of enemy attack.

SHORT STIRLING FOUR-ENGINE LONG-RANGE HEAVY BOMBER

Diagrammatic drawing illustrating the main features of the Short Stirling. This aircraft is readily recognizable by its large single tail ﬁn and the distinctive hump over the pilots’ cockpit. The bombs are carried beneath the fuselage in three bays. The armament consists of a two-gun, power-operated turret in the nose, and a four-gun turret in the tail

BOMBERS OVER THE SEA

The increasing range and armament of aircraft has made them invaluable in the work of submarine detection and destruction. By means of gunﬁre, bombs and depth-charges they can often cripple submarines. This disabled U-boat was forced to surrender to a Hudson aircraft

The heavy night bomber with its powerful defensive armament and relative freedom from ﬁghter attack, does not require, except possibly on very bright moonlight nights, to ﬂy in formation. It ﬂies alone and the main difficulty of its task is accurate navigation to its target area in the dark, the ﬁnding of the precise target and the successful return to its base. When it is remembered that this must be carried out in all weathers, not excluding fog, it will be realized that the provision of the best facilities for navigation is vital in a night bomber.

This preliminary survey will give us some idea of what sort of aeroplane the bomber should be. The tip-and-run day bomber will be a fast twin-engined monoplane with a bomb carrying capacity of about one ton and a range of about 1,500 miles. This will give it an operational radius of action of about 600 miles. It should have a top speed of over 300 miles per hour, and should be easily manoeuvrable. The Mosquito conforms to this general description, although its speed is considerably greater. Its armament consists of four ﬁxed cannon and the same number of machine guns in the nose.

MODERN NIGHT BOMBERS

The latest type of night bomber is multi-engined with a cruising speed of 300 miles per hour, and a range of 3,000 miles with some six to eight tons weight of bombs. It is equipped with power-driven turrets in the nose and tail and amidships, each carrying a powerful battery of guns. Britain has several such types, notably the Stirling, Halifax, Lancaster, and the American Fortresses and Liberators. A table, for comparison of engine particulars and performance, etc., of seven prominent British bombers, is given below (Fig. 3).

In the War of 1914-18 our bombers were constructed of wood, reinforced with steel tubes and braced with steel wires. As their speed and weight increased it became obvious that wooden construction would no longer suffice, and preparations were made to change over to metal construction. This was an entirely new branch of engineering, in which we had no experience to guide us and the rival claims of steel and light alloys were pressed by rival constructors. After much trial and error it was found that in order to compete with light alloys for weight, steel had to be of paper thinness, and it was impossible to guarantee its immunity from rust, a small amount of which might dangerously reduce it strength.

Nowadays, for all practical purposes throughout the world, the stressed skin method of construction (Fig. 4) using light alloys is universal for high performance aircraft. The only notable exception is the wooden construction of the Mosquito. The stressed skin method consists of using frames and stringers, rather like those of a ship, but very much lightened and reﬁned, with a thin metal skin riveted on to it. This system is extremely strong and reasonably simple to build. An alternative scheme used for the Wellington bombers is the geodetic system (Fig. 4) in which the framework of the aircraft resembles a basket-like network made of corrugated light alloy strips.

Fig 3. PERFORMANCE AND SPECIFICATION OF SOME TYPICAL BRITISH BOMBERS

GEODETIC AND STRESSED SKIN CONSTRUCTION

Fig. 4. The stressed skin method of construction (lower) consists of using frames and stringers with a light metal skin riveted on to it. The geodetic method (above) used on Wellingtons, resembles a basket-like network of corrugated light alloy strips covered with fabric

THE SHORT STIRLING

Dimensions of Britain’s largest four-engine bomber. The Stirling is powered by four 1,600 h.p. Bristol Hercules 14-cylinder engines and carries a crew of seven. Its bomb load is about 8 tons

HANDLEY-PAGE HALIFAX

The Halifax, although slightly smaller than the Stirling in length and height, has a similar wing span of 99 feet. Its twin tail ﬁns and distinctive nose make it simple to identify

GRACEFUL LINES OF A MODERN HIGH-PERFORMANCE BOMBER: THE HALIFAX IN FLIGHT

The Halifax is a mid-wing monoplane powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. In the nose is a two-gun, power-operated turret below which the bomb aimer’s compartment is situated. On each side of the nose is a transparent blister for observation purposes. The undercarriage retracts backwards into the engine nacelles, and the Boulton-Paul electrically operated rear turret, which protrudes well behind the twin tail ﬁns, mounts four guns. The Halifax carries a crew of seven, composed of ﬁrst and second pilots, navigator-bomb aimer, wireless operator, ﬂight engineer and two air gunners. The bomb compartment, in the fuselage below the wing, can accommodate a very heavy load of bombs

BOMBS FOR A STIRLING

The Stirling seen above is bombing up in readiness for the night’s operations. Its bomb load, which is three times that of a Wellington, is carried internally in three long bays running almost the whole length of the aircraft. The lugs, which can be seen on the bombs in the foreground, are for attaching the bombs to the bomb carrier. The Stirling carries a crew of seven

The system is ingenious and has certain advantages in construction, but it requires about the same structural weight as the stressed skin method. It has, moreover, the disadvantage that large holes, such as are required for the removal or changing of fuel tanks, cannot be made in the framework and that the whole aircraft must be covered with linen fabric. This reduces its all-weather qualities, which is an important matter in time of war, when hangars are seldom used and our bombers are dispersed round the aerodrome in the open day and night, summer and winter, in all weathers.

Much work has been done in recent years in protecting aircraft from the effects of corrosion. Light alloys receive a special anodic treatment which not only protects them from the effects of rain and exposure to the air, but also prevents them from being damaged by salt water or sea air.

The preparation of a suitable scheme of protective colouring is of great importance to a bomber. The upper surface must be coloured so as to harmonize with the ground, so that dispersed aircraft in the open do not give away the camouflage of our aerodromes, while the undersides must be toned so as to be inconspicuous against the sky. Day and night bombers therefore require different colouration for their undersides, the day bombers being painted a pale blue, while the night bombers are treated with a special matt black dope. This dope has a remarkable power of absorbing light and reﬂects very little when the aircraft is caught in the beam of a searchlight.

The ﬁrst impression produced on entering a modern heavy bomber is surprise at its amazing complexity. In every direction run large numbers of pipes, electric leads and controls, while the engineer’s control panel has scores of gauges and many cocks by which the fuel distribution is automatically controlled from the tanks to the engines.

CONTROLS OF A STIRLING BOMBER

Fig. 5. Interior view of pilot’s compartment of a Stirling four-engine bomber showing instrument panel. With so many controls every moment of the trip demands the pilot’s utmost concentration. He must be able to handle them calmly and correctly even at the most critical junctures. The key to the various dials and instruments is given below

DETAILS OF STIRLING COCKPIT

Key to Fig. 5. 1, time of ﬂight clock; 2, blind approach indicator; 3, wheel brake pressure gauge; 4-7, engine boost gauges; 8-11, engine revolution indicators; 12, bomb jettison controls; 13, air-speed indi- cator; 14, artiﬁcial horizon; 15, rate of climb indicator; 16, undercarriage position indicator; 17, time of ﬂight clock; 18, undercarriage master switch; 19, bomb emergency switch; 20, altimeter; 21, drift indicator; 22, turn and bank indicator; 23, bomb release switch; 24, undercarriage indicator switch; 25, vacuum gauge; 26-27, bomb-door warning lights; 28-29, airscrew de-icing controls; 30, oxygen regulator unit; 31, pilot’s control columns; 32, rudder control; 33, control box, including: (a), engine control levers; (b), undercarriage retraction control; (c), landing lamp control; (d), aircrew variable pitch control; 34, the aircraft compass

THE PILOT’S COCKPIT

A casual glance at the pilot’s dashboard (Fig. 5) would lead one to suppose that the number of gauges and instruments is limited only by inability to ﬁnd room for any more, while all round the pilot’s cockpit are the numerous switches and levers which control the engines; the lever for actuating the ﬂaps, which enable the pilot to make the gliding angle steeper (Fig. 6); the gear for operating the undercarriage; the trimming tabs which trim the aeroplane and enable it to ﬂy “hands off” (Fig. 7), and the control for the dashboard lighting. Then there is the compass; a very important instrument indeed. In modern bombers a master compass, placed where it is as free as possible from magnetic interference, controls a number of repeaters. One of these is required by the pilot (Fig. 8). The wireless operator’s station is surrounded by all the complicated apparatus which enables him not only to keep in constant communication with his home base, but to assist the navigator by obtaining bearings from direction ﬁnding wireless stations in this country and even, in certain circumstances, those of the enemy. There is also the radio telephone which enables the crew to establish short range communication with an aerodrome or to talk to another aircraft in the air, and the inter-communication telephone which enables the crew to talk to one another. In addition, there is the apparatus which enables the aircraft to home in on a wireless beacon and to make its approach and landing on the airﬁeld in anything short of the densest fog (Fig. 9).

In the navigator’s station we ﬁnd a compass and a large plotting table with a screened electric lamp, charts, maps, rulers, dividers and pencils. There is also his sextant for ﬁxing his position by taking observations of the stars and an ingenious instrument for plotting his position on the map from these observations without the need for working out complicated sums in arithmetic. Near to him is the astrodome, a perspex dome in the roof through which he operates his sextant. Near at hand also is the drift sight, through which he can ascertain, the drift of the aircraft even at night (Fig. 10).

PURPOSE OF FLAPS

Fig. 6. Flaps, which are arranged beneath the trailing edges of aircrafts’ wings give increased lift, and are used in taking off and landing. The diagram shows how they increase the gliding angle and reduce the speed of an aircraft during landing. Inset, direction of airﬂow over wings with ﬂaps down

TRIMMING TABS

Fig. 7. Trimming tabs on a bomber. These adjust the trim of the aircraft according to the shifting centre of gravity (i.e., when bombs are dropped or fuel used up), and enable the pilot to ﬂy “hands off.” In addition, in some aircraft the whole tail plane can be trimmed as a complete unit, as shown inset

MASTER COMPASS AND REPEATERS

Fig. 8. In modern bombers the compass is placed where it is as free as possible from magnetic interference. It controls a number of repeaters, as shown in an imaginary aircraft above, which are required by the pilot, navigator, bomb aimer and wireless operator

HOMING ON A RADIO BEAM

Fig. 9. By taking bearings on two ground transmitting stations a lost aircraft can ascertain its exact bearing by means of a radio compass. Generally, however, three stations are used and the course plotted on a map. To keep to that course the loop aerial is turned at right angles to the station required. So long as the aircraft keeps to the correct course no signals are heard, but should it deviate to left or right the loop aerial becomes excited and a warning is given. To ascertain the direction of deviation the ﬁxed aerial is switched into the circuit and the increase in signal strength right or left is transmitted to a visual indicator. Inset, aircraft off course to left with visual indicator showing position of station

FINDING THE ANGLE OF DRIFT

Fig. 10. Diagram showing how an aircraft’s course is corrected for drift by means of the drift sight. The sight is set until an object on the ground appears to pass between the parallel lines, and the angle is read off the scale. This gives the pilot the necessary correction in degrees

THE GUN TURRETS

Then there are the power operated turrets, which enable the gunners, by means of a simple control, to bring their powerful battery of machine guns to bear on an attacking ﬁghter. The turrets are a tight ﬁt for any but small men when in ﬂying clothes, and air gunners, like jockeys, should be of small size and light weight (Figs. 11 and 12).

In the nose of the aircraft is the bomb sight, a very important instrument (Figs. 13 and 14). Its purpose is to tell the bomb aimer the correct moment at which to drop the bombs in order to ensure that they hit the target. When we recollect that an aircraft travelling in the air is free to move in all three dimensions, it is easy to believe that the problem is not a simple one. So many things enter into it. The speed at which the aircraft approaches the target is the resultant of the aircraft’s own speed and the speed of the wind at the height at which it is ﬂying. The direction from which it approaches the target is the resultant of the direction in which the aircraft is pointing and the direction of the wind at that height. It is therefore most important that the bomb aimer should be able to know not only the speed and direction of his aircraft, but also the speed and direction of the wind which is affecting it. This is by no means an easy thing to discover; it can be done by measuring the angle of drift of the aircraft and calculating it from that; or a tachometric sight can be used which automatically solves the problem by measuring the apparent velocity of the target from the aircraft itself. The sight must also allow for the time of fall of the bomb, since, when it is released, the bomb has a forward speed equal to that of the aircraft, and during the time that it is falling to earth it will travel forward a long distance (Fig. 15). The time of fall is proportional to the height at which it is released and the sight must therefore be adjusted to allow for this factor. The resistance of the air will gradually slow up the forward speed of the bomb and this produces what is called “trail angle,” which must also be allowed for. The modern tachometric sight, gyroscopically stabilized and fully automatic in its operation, even releasing the bombs electrically at the right moment without any action on the part of the bomb aimer, is a marvel of ingenuity.

REAR GUN TURRET OF A BOMBER

Fig. 11. Interior of the Frazer-Nash power-operated rear gun turret as ﬁtted to bombers. The numbers indicate: 1, sight; 2, trunnions carrying guns for vertical traverse; 3, breech blocks of four Browning machine guns; 4, ammunition belts; 5, ﬁring buttons for four guns; 6, control grips; 7, ammunition boxes; 8, gunner’s seat; 9, gunner’s safety belt

EXTERIOR OF REAR GUN TURRET OF A WHITLEY

Fig. 12. Exterior view of the Frazer-Nash power-operated, four-gun turret, the interior of which is illustrated in Fig. 11. The turret can be made to rotate by means of a simple control, and the gunner can rapidly bring a powerful concentration of ﬁre to bear on the enemy from his four Browning machine guns. The transparency is bullet resisting and splinter proof. Slightly modiﬁed and improved turrets are used on the more modern four-engined bombers

HOW BOMBS ARE AIMED

Fig. 13. Details of Wimperis course-setting bomb sight. If the sights are correctly set the target will pass down the drift bar in the direction indicated by the arrow. Inset, view of target as seen by bomb aimer when point of backsight is in exact line with point of foresight.

Fig. 14. The bomb aimer in the nose of a Wellington taking his sights with the Wimperis bomb sight. He gives the pilot directions as to the course to ﬂy

WHEN BOMBS MUST BE RELEASED TO HIT A TARGET

Fig. 15. Diagram showing distances from a target at which H.E. and incendiary bombs must be released by aircraft ﬂying at 200 miles per hour at heights 20,000, 12,000 and 5,000 feet. It will be noted that whereas the aircraft is almost above the target when H.E.s strike, it is well past by the time incendiaries arrive. The scale is in units of 1,000 feet

WELLINGTONS ON THE WING

The Vickers Wellington long range bomber is easily recognizable by its long narrow wings and single large tail ﬁn. It has a wing span of 86 feet 2 inches, a length of 64 feet 7 inches, and a height of 17 feet 5 inches. It carries a crew of ﬁve and has a ceiling of 26,300 feet. It is armed with power-operated turrets in nose and tail. Its top speed is 250 m.p.h.

ARMSTRONG-WHITWORTH WHITLEY

The Whitley bomber, like the Wellington, carries a crew of ﬁve. It has a wing span of 84 feet, a length of 70 feet 6 inches, and a height of I 5 feet. Its service ceiling is 25,000 feet and its top speed about 245 m.p.h. The Whitleys were the machines which bore the brunt of the leaﬂet and bombing raids carried out by the R.A.F. in the early days of the war

TWO METHODS OF DROPPING BOMBS

Fig. 17. Bombs can either be released all together as a salvo (inset) or in succession as a stick. When a stick is dropped the order of and interval between each bomb can be determined by means of the distributor. In the diagram above the interval between each is two-ﬁfths of a second, and distance 100 feet. The aircraft is travelling at 165 miles per hour

The bombs can be released either all together as a “salvo” or in succession as a “stick.” In order to drop the bombs in a stick an ingenious pieceiof mechanism is employed called the bomb distributor. This can be set so as to allow any desired interval between the release of each bomb, and also makes it possible to select the order in which the bombs are released. For example, if it is desired to drop a stick of bombs with a distance of 100 feet between each bomb, it is easy to calculate the interval—thus at, say, 165 miles per hour the aircraft travels approximately 250 feet in a second, and the time interval required to be set on the distributor would be two-ﬁfths of a second (Fig. 17).

Another very useful piece of equipment is the automatic pilot, popularly known as “George.” An aeroplane ﬂying in the air is free to pitch, roll or yaw, and the automatic pilot must therefore be capable of controlling it in all three axes. For this, three separate gyroscopes are required, each connected to a servo-motor or pneumatic system which, acting upon the controls, is able to correct any tendency for it to alter its trim. If, therefore, a bump should force the nose of the aircraft down, the gyroscope controlling the pitching movement would at once bring into operation the mechanism which would raise the elevator, depress the tail and so bring the nose back to its original position. The automatic pilot will therefore keep the aeroplane ﬂying steadily along a given course at a given height and at the same time keep it laterally stable (Fig. 18).

GEORGE, THE AUTOMATIC PILOT

Fig. 18. A, directional control indicator; B, elevation indicator; C, gyroscope to hold aircraft on even keel; D, course-setting control; E, control column untouched by pilot when automatic pilot is in operation; F, valves controlling air cylinders operated by movement of gyroscope; G, H and J, compressed air cylinders for operating rudder, ailerons and elevators. In electrical types, servo motors replace the pneumatic system, and although one gyroscope is sufficient to counteract any alteration of the axis of the machine, three are generally employed

In addition to all this astonishing complexity, the bomber’s equipment is governed by yet another very important factor, the need for making everything as light as possible. The role of the bomber is to carry the maximum weight of bombs to the target and drop them with accuracy, and the weight of all this ancillary equipment detracts from the ability of the bomber to carry bombs. Nothing therefore can be allowed to have a place unless it justiﬁes its weight by assisting the crew to ﬂy and navigate the aircraft and drop their bombs with accuracy on the target. In addition, every piece of equipment is itself made as light as possible. A fraction of an ounce scraped away here, a penny-weight there, the substitution of a light alloy or bakelite for a heavier substance, will add up into a saving of hundreds of pounds of weight, which means that another heavy bomb can be carried. This need for saving weight has had the effect of reﬁning the bomber’s equipment, and has put a premium on good design and really ﬁrst-class workmanship.

Let us now think for a moment about the problem of operating these bombers. In the days of the war of 1914-1918, and for some time afterwards, it was customary to focus attention on the pilot. Most aircraft were single-seaters and two seaters, and the pilot was the all-important person. He was usually an ofﬁcer, and the remainder of the crew until recent times possessed an inferior status. Those days are now past, and all members of bombers air crews enjoy equal status, although it is true that only a pilot may be captain of the aircraft. The Bomber Command of the Royal Air Force never talks about “pilots,” but always about “air crews,” and everything possible is done to encourage and foster team work among the crew. Team work is the secret of success in the operation of a modern bomber, and it is for this reason that, during the later part of their training, air crews work together as a team. The pilots, the air observers, who navigate and aim the bombs, the wireless operators, the air gunners, and the ﬂight engineers, all go to their separate schools at ﬁrst where they learn their own basic trade. They then go to an operational training unit where they are formed into a crew and begin to learn team work. The duties of all members of the crew are carefully deﬁned as far as their principal tasks are concerned, but the captain of each aircraft is responsible for arranging the details of the duties of his crew and for seeing that they carry them out punctually and efﬁciently.

VICKERS WELLINGTON BOMBER

Diagrammatic illustration of general lay-out and construction of a Vickers Wellington long range bomber, showing positions of crew, bombs and other items of equipment. It is drawn by G. H. Davies and reproduced by courtesy of the “Illustrated London News”

We have seen in the previous paragraphs how complex is the equipment carried by the modern bomber, and it is no exaggeration to say that faulty manipulation of this equipment on the part of any member of the crew is only too likely to end in disaster to the aircraft. Each man must carry out his duties with the most painstaking care. No haste, no preoccupation can excuse a false move which will end in disaster. It can be imagined how difﬁcult it is to instil this precision and almost superhuman patience and care into young men, for youth is traditionally given to impatience and irresponsibility. To assist them in their difficult job a very carefully worked out drill is employed which lays down the sequence of operations and enables the captain, with the minimum of talking, to ensure that each member of the crew is at his place and has carried out at the correct time the duty which has been allotted to him.

It is a guiding principle in laying down the composition of crews of large bombers that there must be at least two men capable of carrying out each major task. Thus, there are two pilots, the senior of whom is the captain of the aircraft. Either of them can not only ﬂy the aircraft, but can, in emergency, do the work of the air observer. The two wireless operators are also air gunners, and so is the ﬂight engineer. Thus, if any one member of the crew should become a casualty there is another man available to take on his work and play his part in carrying out the task allotted and bringing the aircraft safely back to its base.

The captain of the aircraft, like the captain of a ship, is responsible for the safety of his aircraft and for carrying out the orders given to him by his superior officer. He is also the ﬁrst pilot of the aircraft and he will certainly make it his responsibility to take off the aircraft when fully loaded, and also to land it unless conditions are quite straightforward. Upon his judgment will rest the decision to go on or to turn back in bad weather or other emergencies, and he will decide the tactical method of approach to the target. If the aircraft gets into difficulties he will decide whether to order the crew to “bale out” or whether it would be better for them to stick to the aircraft and try to land. When attacked by enemy ﬁghters he will ﬁght his aircraft, controlling its manoeuvres and giving instructions to the gunners in the various turrets. He is responsible for checking the work of the navigator and for seeing that crew drill and ﬂying discipline are correctly maintained, His is a very responsible and important position, and it is remarkable that captains of aircraft more often than not are young men scarcely out of their teens. No doubt they are the same young men whose irresponsibility in a sports car often calls down on them the denunciation of their seniors, but when they are on the job in their bombers they are serious, well disciplined and responsible leaders.

The second pilot, who may be regarded as a captain under training, will take over the controls of the aircraft when the captain is busy with his other responsibilities and as he grows more experienced, may even be allowed to do all the ﬂying. He is also capable, in emergency, of manning the front gun turret, aiming the bombs or completely taking over the navigation of the aircraft.

To the air observer is allotted the very important duty of navigating the aircraft to the target and home again and of ﬁnding and identifying the target and aiming the bombs, though in the modern four-engined aircraft a separate air gunner is carried to do the bomb aiming. It is not too much to say that the success of a bombing mission depends on his faithful discharge of his task.

The wireless operator is responsible for maintaining communication with the outside world. From time to time, as requested by the air observer, he will obtain ﬁxes of the aircraft’s position from the direction ﬁnding wireless stations. In bad weather conditions the safety of the aircraft may well depend on the skill and accuracy of this man.

The air gunner, perhaps, has the most arduous and thankless task of all. Squeezed into a power operated turret, he does his work in isolation. He is cut off not only from the outside world, but also from the other members of the crew for many hours at a time, except for the slender link provided by his intercommunication telephone. Throughout long hours of darkness he must maintain a constant vigilance, searching the night sky for signs of enemy ﬁghters. For long periods, for weeks together, he may not see an enemy ﬁghter, but one night suddenly the attack will come. When it does come the gunner may only have a few seconds in which to swing his guns into position and ﬁre. He has, however, the satisfaction of knowing that his powerful battery of guns has a very good chance of sending the enemy ﬁghter crashing down to the earth below.

SPARKS’ OFFICE

Wireless operator’s station in a heavy bomber. He keeps in touch with the outside world, and in bad weather the safety of the aircraft may well depend on the skill with which he carries out his task

FLIGHT ENGINEER

Fig. 19. The ﬂight engineer is usually carried only in bombers with more than two engines. He watches over the gauges and dials that register the performance and condition of the engines, but he also acts as an air gunner if necessary

The ﬂight engineer (Fig. 19) is usually carried only in bombers which have more than two engines. His task is to watch over all the tell-tale gauges which record the condition and performance of the engines, and to control the petrol supply and the temperature of the engines. In a four-engined bomber he may have to watch as many as thirty different instruments which will tell him the cylinder temperature, the temperature of the oil going into the engine and coming out again, the oil pressure, the fuel pressure, and the boost pressure, while he must watch the fuel-contents gauge so as to change over the supply from tanks which have been emptied to those which are still full. All this used to be the responsibility of one of the pilots and still is part of their duty in twin-engined bombers. In multi-engined aircraft, however, the work is sufﬁciently complicated and responsible to require the whole time attention of one man. In addition, the ﬂight engineer is trained as an air gunner, so that he can man a gun if necessary.

To complete the picture which this brief survey has attempted to convey, it must be remembered that the crew of a bomber are not only carrying out delicate and responsible tasks in a cramped and noisy aeroplane, but they are doing so, even in the height of summer, in conditions of extreme cold and ratiﬁed air. In a civil air liner it is possible to seal up the passengers’ cabin and supply it with heated air so that the travellers may sit in comfort in their ordinary clothes. It is not possible in the same way to seal up a military aircraft equipped with turrets, cameras, bomb sights, etc., and although heated air is supplied, it cannot be made so effective. If the hull of the aircraft is penetrated by bullets or shell splinters, the outside air, which may well be at a temperature of 50 deg. or 60 deg. Fahrenheit below freezing point, will rush in. The crews must therefore wear thick, warm clothing, which cannot be other- wise than hampering and to some extent uncomfortable. In the turrets, which are even more exposed, electrically heated clothing, gloves and boots must be worn.

The rareﬁed air at the great altitudes at which military aircraft must be prepared to ﬂy makes the provision of oxygen necessary for the crew. This is carried in high-pressure metal bottles and led by pipes to each crew station. It is inhaled by each member of the crew through a mask which is permanently worn and connected to the supply point by a ﬂexible pipe. Included also in the mask is the microphone for the intercommunication telephone.

THE MAN WHO AIMS THE BOMBS

The entire ﬂight of a bomber across hundreds of miles of hostile territory may be wasted if the man who aims the bombs is a fraction of a second out in timing their release. The picture above shows the air observer at the bomb sights in the nose of a Stirling four-engined bomber

The bomber aircraft, like any other piece of machinery, is subject to constant modiﬁcation and improvement. Very little of its equipment remains the same for more than a few months at a time, for continuous research and development are going on with the object of eradicating weaknesses and improving its efficiency. The guiding principle underlying this research and development is that complication in design and production can be tolerated if it leads to simplicity in operation. The work of air crews under the severe conditions that have been brieﬂy described above must be made as simple as possible, for there can be no doubt that in the air the number of mistakes a man will make is directly proportional to the amount of complication involved in the task.

Such is the bomber aircraft of today, a complicated, deadly weapon of war, as yet in its infancy, little more than a quarter of a century old. While it would be rash to attempt to prophesy the trend of its future development, it is quite safe to say that it will not grow less complicated, nor will it become less deadly.

PILOTS AND BOMB AIMER OF A STIRLING

Interior of the pilots’ cockpit of a Stirling bomber. The ﬁrst pilot (left) is the captain of the aircraft and is responsible for the safety of the machine and its crew. On his right sits the second pilot who takes control of the aircraft when the captain is otherwise engaged. In the foreground the air observer bomb aimer is seen leaving the bombing compartment in the nose