Originally Posted by
roadsman
My Dad is Master Navigator John Lennard. Back in July I posted an item on my father’s service history including his navigator training between 1946 and 1948. Coodashooda asked if Dad could provide more information about his flying training.
During the war he was a teenager living in the Suffolk coastal village of Hollesley (not far from RAF Bawdsey and RAF Woodbridge). He was a member of the local ATC Squadron.On a regular basis he cycled the 13 miles over to RAF Martlesham Heath and scrounged flights in the Ansons based at the airfield. It was during these flights he noticed that the Navigators appeared to be busy all the time and he decided that is what he wanted to become when he joined the RAF.
In early 1946, aged 17, he attended the aircrew selection centre at RAF Hornchurch for two days of tests. Out of approximately 150 applicants, he and three others were the only ones to be selected for Pilot, Navigator and Bomb aimer training. He selected Navigator as his first choice. He accepted the King’s shilling and joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve. As an ATC Cadet he was able to wear a white flash in his forage cap indicating he had been seleted for aircrew training. In June 1946 he was called up for the “duration of the present emergency”. He was kitted out at RAF Padgate and did his square bashing at RAF Wilmslow.He was then posted to RAF Ibsley and RAF Sopley, prior to commencing his flying training. During his time at Sopley he was instructed on the use of Radar which was to prove useful later.
In April 1947, he was posted to No 1 Air Navigation School RAF Topcliffe to join the No 1 All Through Course, the first post war Navigators course to be held, at the time Navigators were still being trained using the one year wartime syllabus.The new course were to be nearly two years long, the training at Topcliffewas to be 18 months in length, 6 months ground school, 6 monthsbasic flying in Ansons followed by 6 months flying Wellingtons. The average length of a training flight in an Anson was about three hours with the maximum time being about 4 hours.The average length of a Wellington Flight was about 4 hours with the longest flight being over 6 hours.The flying phase totalled about 250 hours. The aircraft used were not training marks of the aircraft or even converted but war weary early marks. The Anson’s turret had been removed but the void was just covered in canvas.During take-off and landing in the Wellingtons the crew had to assume crash positions. My father’s position was braced behind the main spar. Nearly all the training flights were around the north and midlands of England although one trip was to Northern Ireland but without landing. His pay for an Aircrew cadet was 4 shillings a day rising to 6 shillings when he started flying. After successfully completing the course he was awarded his navigator brevet and given the rank of Nav IV. His pay rose to 10/6 a day.
In September 1948 he was posted to RAF Swinderby for the advanced Nav course, still on Wellingtons. This is where all the aircrew trades were to come together and form crews but the pilots and signallers all through courses had been postponed and had been replaced by wartime trainees. His pilot at Swinderby was a Polish Flight Sergeant called Jurczyczysn. They did a ground loop on their first take off from Swinderby. In January 1949 he was posted to the Coastal Command OCU at RAF Kinloss for a course on Lancaster ASR 3s. In April 1949 he was promoted in Nav 111.
On September 1st 1950 the aircrew ranks were abandoned and he was promoted to Sgt on 22/6 a day. Dad continued flying until 1970 and retired from the RAF in 1983.