Tiger_Moth.....'bout time you grew up? Speak to some RAF Veterans & they may tell you how it really was? Perhaps 5 hours was a slight exageration, but then your claim of 150 - 200hrs before combat is simply far fetched.....for a start there was a dire shortage of pilots. Training for Roald Dahl & his contemporaries probably amounted to double figures if they were lucky & then sent out in Spitfires & Hurricanes,often without instruction on type - so yes there were casualties. Some went straight from the single engined trainers onto Mosquitos etc. Tough stuff.
Read the delightful Stuart McKay's fabulous tome on Tiger Moths.......you might learn something?
[ 04 November 2001: Message edited by: tiger burn ]