I am reading a book of memoirs by a chap who was (amongst other things) the tail-gunner on Lancasters. He says that in *his* crew everybody had a reserve who learnt how to do the same job (so that if e.g. the navigator took a bullet a gunner could take over and get them home). And because he's had some pre-war flying in Tiger Moths his pilot chose him to be the reserve pilot. And therefore he did a couple of landings in training and even a couple on active operations. Would they really have chosen the *tail* gunner as a reserve pilot?
Does anybody know if this was normal? Online, I have found this reference:
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/whos-...af-bomber-crew which says that "the bomb-aimer could act as a reserve pilot in an emergency as he would have received some flying training".
Which rather suggests that it was official training...