brian finally some figures that show the incredible carnage of it all.
you need at least one more statistic to make the figures useful.
what was the death rate during training?
you need both ab initio training as a figure and subsequent operational preparation training as a figure.
as a historical perspective my uncle was a wellington bomber pilot. had a few successful missions under the belt in and around the italian campaign.
when the brits went all out to kill the U-boat menace in the atlantic the wellington crews practised night intercepts off europa point gibralta against a naval pinnace. evidently the searchlight in the wellie nose was controlled by a morse key on the glare shield. uncle was one of the first pilots in this training and one night in the practise attack run, leaning forward to key the light he unknowingly applied forward control pressure and in the darkness flew the wellie into the sea. all but the two rear crew were killed on impact.
deaths during training was a horrendous figure. that needs to be bought to light as well because the ww2 lessons still colour flight training today.
Last edited by dubbleyew eight; 27th Aug 2013 at 01:36.