I have so many people to thank that I'll have to lump you all together in one Post - so thanks, chaps!
Millercourt,
I must first thank you for providing the answer to a question which was bothering us a few Posts back: what is a ballpark figure for the total training hours up to Wings in the UK in the early part of the War? Now we've got it - 141.
As for the main business, it is probably going to be hard and non-productive to get to the bottom of it. The two sources are no longer with us, and de mortuis non nisi bonum applies. It is pointless to speculate over possible motives. I would think that this might be a case of arguing from the very particular to the general, and that the numbers involved were very small in relation to the totals returning. Indeed, if it were not so, the story would have been all round the Air force in no time, and I certainly never heard a whisper of it.
The institution of the (P) AFUs was a perfectly sensible step; all the newly trained pilots from the Empire Training Scheme were coming back to a world utterly unlike that in which they had been trained. It was clear that they would have to be "acclimatised" to wartime UK conditions. It is true that 9(P) AFU took over this task from the former SFTS at Hullavington (as the stamp in my logbook attests), but I would hazard a guess that the requirement for flying training had greatly lessened now that the Empire, BFTS and Arnold schemes had shouldered the load.
It is obvious that the former, now redundant SFTS instructors and aircraft would be ideal to take over this new task, and possible that they did not appreciate the precise nature of their changed roles. To quote: "....to mask the predicament which had arisen No.3 FTS was renamed No.3 (P) AFU and we continued with the same syllabus as before". The same syllabus ? 85 hours and about three months, while all our Course (at No.9 (P) AFU) were doing 30 hours in 25 days ? Or was it just possible that this one AFU was chosen for the putative dullards? Assuming that this was the case, it went on without anyone else knowing about it ?
Anyway, we've got a handle on the thing now. We know Jan-Feb 1942, and No. 3 SFTS becoming No.3 (P) AFU. That's plenty. Bring on our computer wizards - who can be the first to get the true story out of the Historical Branch?
As to the minor point about when the trainees went out - we're in agreement now - straight from ITW.
Cheers, Danny.
Chugalug,
As ever, a thoughtful analysis of this rather strange story. I do not think that there was very much resentment of the johnnies-come-lately in the early days, although later the well known gibe: "Overfed, overpaid, oversexed and over here" was, I regret to say, bandied about.
I think it might have been more a case of "making a mountain out of a molehill", or, as I have suggested to Millercourt, an imperfect understanding of the purpose of (P) AFUs. Anyway, we'll find out soon, I hope.
Danny.
glojo,
Marvellous pics, that's just how we were, living cheek-by-jowl! Thanks for the kind offer, but I'm just as happy with this one in my laptop.
Without detracting in the slightest from the incredible courage and endurance of Bomber Command, let's all spare a thought for the men of the Navy and Merchant Marine, who lived for weeks in miserable conditions with a constant "sword of Damocles", of a torpedo and sudden death, hanging over them.
Thanks, John,
Danny.
Kookabat,
I think we've got as near as we can to the Australian blackout story. As Darwin was being bombed, they'd almost certainly have had a full blackout. In the South, it would just be a few-mile wide coastal strip that would have to be blacked-out. Get hold of an old-timer, buy him a tinnie and ask!
Goodnight, Adam and all,
Danny.
Last edited by Danny42C; 9th Mar 2012 at 02:19.