RAF training whilst on deferred service
For completeness, the following is the response from Peter Elliott at the RAF Museum regarding the "Message of Welcome" sentence "arrangements will be made to help you in your studies and you will be told about these in due course".
A big thank you to Peter and all the staff at the RAF Museum who are always extremely helpful.
I’ve not been able to trace a letter giving further details of the “arrangements” in our collection.
From March 1943 those who were selected for training as Pilot, Navigator or Bomb Aimer were given training in maths, general science, mechanical drawing, geography, English and modern history on “full time educational courses of six months duration [to be] held in colleges and schools… The problem was partly one of providing the candidates with the basic education, mostly of a mathematical and scientific character, which they required in order to be able to absorb the course of aircrew training [and] to form or revive habits of study, and to develop an attitude of enquiry and self-reliance in the solution of problems.”
The course was widened to all aircrew trainees in the Spring of 1944 and the last course began in September 1944. Cadets who were selected for the Preliminary Air Crew Training Scheme were placed on deferred service but recalled six months earlier than they would if they had not joined the scheme".
Last edited by Petet; 3rd Oct 2012 at 11:49.