fighters vs bomber ratio
John Fairr
The ratio of fighters to bomber cadets (not forgetting coastal command?) was brought about by the current phase of the war. i.e. during the Battle of Britain we needed fighter pilots as we were under attack and defending the UK. When Reg was a cadet July 41 to Jan 42 the UK started to want to go on the offensive, hence they needed more bomber pilots. I can also guess that when the convoys were attacked by U boats that we needed Coastal Command pilots?
My Uncle who was on the same course as Reg 42A, got "washed out" of Reg's class after Primary training and swapped to BFTS 1 course 3, when I tracked down all the output from the BFTS in that class approx 100, there were only 6 fighter pilots including my Uncle, that would be Jan 42.
I've spoken to Reg and other cadets many times to see how they were selected for single or multi-engined careers, but I have not managed to find out exactly how the selection was made,I do know that Reg was in the first 3 to solo on his course and was good at acrobatics so you would have thought he would have been selected as a fighter pilot? However also knowing Reg he would be quite communicative to the instructors that he saw his future as a multi engine pilot and maybe they listen to the cadets? I also think they tended to select the rebellious individualists as fighter pilots?