Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II

[regle]

The war begins...

My hard work at Upwood was rewarded with the plum posting to 105 Squadron of 2 Group, Bomber Command. They were stationed at Horsham St. Faith, near Norwich and were commanded by the redoubtable Hugh Idwal Edwards V.C.,D.S.O.,D.F.C. 105 was the first Sqdn. to be equipped and go into action with "Mossies". They had the unarmed, light bomber MK1V version and was capable of carrying 4x500lb. bombs, usually with an 11sec. delay to enable the aircraft to get clear when the bombs were dropped at low level...50ft. was the norm. The Mosquito was named the "Wooden Wonder" as it was constructed with wood and carried the same bomb load as the American Flying Fortress The US plane had a 17 man crew and was bristling with Guns and ammunition; The Mosquito was a two man crewed aircraft with no guns at all in the MK1V. It was made by De Havillands and was developed , with little or no Government support from The Comet which was the winner of the pre-war London (Mildenhall) to Melbourne , Australia air race. It was one of the finest aeroplanes to come out of the war and one of the most versatile.
Horsham St. Faith was commanded by Group Captain "Digger" Kyle. He was later to become Sir Wallace Kyle. "Hughie" Edwards was also knighted and became Governor General of Western Australia
The Sqdn. had been operating with the outdated Blenheim 1V and had suffered grievious losses . They had just taken delivery of their first Mossies when I joined them in 1942. My Flight Commander was Sqdn. Ldr. Roy Ralston who with his Navigator, a fellow Blackpudlian, Sid Clayton, were amongst the many famous personalities on the Squadron. One of their most talked about exploits was to bomb the entrance of a railway tunnel in occupied France just after a train had entered it and then had dropped another one on the other side, neatly sealing it in.
Sid Clayton made the incredible number of 100 sorties as a Navigator and then persuaded the RAF to send him to train as a pilot in Canada and came back to make another 45 Ops, on Mossies, ofcourse.
I had already crewed up with my navigator at Upwood. He was a Southport lad, my own age , Les Hogan, and we were soon thrown straight into the fray. After a few circuits and bumps in the Mossie, no dual instruction, just read the Pilot's Notes and off you went. I found that I was flying a wonderful aircraft as different as chalk from cheese from anything that I had flown previously.
We were sent on comparatively uneventful low level sorties against targets ,such as factories, railway junctions in Holland and Belgium. We would roar over the enemy coastline at nought feet and see the German gunners lounging in their bathing costumes in their sandbagged emplacements. There would always be a desultory burst of flak after you had passed so as to explain to the higher ups that they had not been caught napping. On one occasion I was in the third Mosquito of three, bombing the railway yards at Tergnier, N.France and saw the bomb from the machine in front of me bounce over my wing and explode behind me.
It was common to see civilians waving frantically with handkerchiefs and I remember seeing a priest walking along and he stopped and blew kisses at us ! At dusk, usually leaving the target, we would see torches flashing the three dots and the dash of the V for Victory sign. It was very reassuring to see the signs of friendship whilst flying at over three hundred miles an hour over enemy territory....much more to come.