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

[Danny42C]

Danny is dragged back into the fray (and DH Mosquito troubles)

(Gone quiet all of a sudden, hasn't it ? Let's have it back on its proper place on Page 1...D)

The time frame becomes obscure at this point (I'll try to clear it up later, after a good root round in Wiki), but the sequence of events is clear in my memory.

One afternoon I came back from a swim. "Boss * wants to see you", they said. This was not good news. The only time S/Ldr Sutherland wanted to see anybody was to tear a strip off them. What had I done? Could my subterfuge with the dictionary have come to light? I'd kept my mouth shut, of course, but might the accused or one of the witnesses have called in the Orderly Room and recognised it back on the shelf? It was possible. I tried to construct a defence on my way to Squadron HQ.

(Note * I'm not sure that that expression was current in those days, but it was in everday use in my later RAF service, so I've no hesitation in using it . But "Staish" is entirely foreign to me - so I avoid it.......D).

The Adj pointed to the door without a word. I tapped, went in, snapped to attention and threw up my smartest salute. S/Ldr Sutherland was a man of few words. "Get your kit packed - you're on the morning shuttle (from Quetta) to Delhi. Adj's got your Air Movement Authority, he'll give you all the details, Good luck." "Thank you, Sir" - salute and out !

John had the paperwork on the desk. "What's this all about?"......."You're posted down to Yelahanka"......"What for?"......"Well, you know the Mossies have been grounded for a while?....... I nodded, everybody knew that ...... "How does that affect me?"........."They're setting up a sort of quick conversion course to use the Mossie crews on the Vengeance until they can get the Mossies sorted out"...........This was the daftest idea I'd heard for a long time, but "ours not to reason why"........ "Where do I fit into all this?"........"You'll be an instructor"........."But I'm not a QFI"......."Who checked you out on 'em, then?"......(he had a point there !)... ......"Will Stew Mobsby be coming as well?"......"No - they don't want any Navs or AGs"

"What about my Clearance Certificate?"........."I've sent a lad round with it this afternoon, you only need to pay your Mess Bill"...It was a fait accompli. He produced my high priority air movement, which allowed me to take all my kit with me - an unheard of concession - it amounted to 126 lb (this was a measure of the urgency with which the affair was being conducted).

I said farewell to Stew and the other chaps. The pilots would be kept back, and I think some would stay until the Spitfire XIVs came in (about November). And at that point (according to Bharat Rakshak) all the RAF Navs and Wop/Ags seem to have been cleared out and scattered all over India.

Flying down South (Quetta-Palam-Nagpur-Yelahanka), I thought a bit harder about this short conversion course, and tried to imagine what might have been in the mind of AHQ when they decided on it. Gradually it dawned on me that perhaps it was not as stupid as it first appeared. At that point, the Mossies had all been grounded (full story below), but the reason for their numerous failures had not yet been established with any certainty, and it was by no means out of the question that the fault might be inherent in the materials, design and construction of the aircraft: the things might never be fit for use in SE Asia.

If that proved the case, then the only stopgap for the moment was the recently discarded Vengeance, and it might be a long time before the Allies (who had only been ashore in Europe for three months and had their hands full) could provide another ground-attack type for the Far East. We all know now that victory would come in Europe in eleven months: we did not know it then. (Hitler gambled on a quick summer victory in Russia in '41: he was bogged down in there for four years). We had to plan for the worst-case scenario, the Vengeance might have to soldier on for two or three years more.

Assuming that to be the case, who was going to crew them? Most of the existing crews were still in India now, but many of them would be tour-expired by the end of '44 (this particularly applied to Dominion aircrew who had left their home countries, then done six months' AFU, OTU and general hanging about in the UK before coming out to India). Although they were ready and willing now, we had to plan for the long term; the Mossie crews were just beginning their tours. Better to bite the bullet, it was easy and quick to convert them onto the Vengeance, do it now.

For the same reason, it would make no sense to round up all the original 36 ex-fighter OTU pilots, who had come out at the end of 1942 and were now unemployed, to fly the Spitfire XIV s which were scheduled to come into action in early 1945. They would all be nearly tour-expired by then. It is true that 8 Sqdn. had a large proportion of RAF pilots on their Spitfires, but these were people who had come out much later. Whether they ever achieved their goal of a 100% Indian manned Squadron before Independence, I do not know.

So that was what I was going down to Yelahanka for. I did not promise to be an onerous job. I resolved that they would get the same instruction as I'd had myself eighteen months before. ("Here's the Vultee Pilot's Notes - there's the cockpit, this is the best way to get up to it, we'll go over it together now, this afternoon I'll take you up in the back for half an hour to get the feel of it - then it's all yours - any questions ?"). All they'd need then would be a bombing range, practice bomb racks and bombs, and time.

I had no idea at all about how this "Conversion Course" was organised or who would be running it, and I'd never seen Yelahanka. I did not expect the Mossie pilots to be exactly jumping for joy at the prospect - my heart bled for them, after my own disappointment with the Spitfires the year before, they could jolly well join the Club.

There's plenty more to come !

Evenin' all,

Danny42C


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