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

[Danny42C]

Pom Pax,

Mere crewroom banter, my dear chap, I assure you (of course you can tell a Wellington from a Blenheim ! - everybody can do that). But the problem with opening a can of worms is that there are an awful lot of worms in it. So let's start counting:

(1) Your: "..... in early '42 Moulmein was the target for several raids by Blenheims the only available bombers of a very small force in Burma....."

In early '42 I would think the only Blenheims in India (the Japs had got all Burma by then) would be those just brought out by the four squadrons (45,82,84,&110) to help stop the rot. When it seemed that the Japs had stopped for a rest on the India/Burma border anyway, they flew the Blenheims back to the M.E. with just their junior pilots (and I suppose a Nav or two to find the way).

So the rest were on the ground twiddling their thumbs when the unloved and unwanted VVs came on the scene - and the rest you know.

(2) Your: "....Wellingtons (No 215's) first appear operational in theatre on 23/4/42...."

We had no contact with the Wellingtons, and really the only thing I remember is the story of a lone Wimpey with a single 4,000 lb bomb working together with a VV squadron (82 ? - certainly not 110 RAF or 8 IAF). They must have been on the same airfield, as in the "Farewell to the VV" poem ("You always were an ugly brute/Of that there can be no dispute...etc") there are some final couplets hinting at a ground collision between the Wimpey and a VV from which the VV came off worst !

(3) Oddly enough, I'd never heard of Mepal ! (had to look it up). I suppose Tony and I settled on Wyton as it was the nearest to Huntingdon and had plenty to see. Mepal can't have been much further on.

(4) Your: "....All 16 year old boys of my time yearned to be aviators..."

Particularly did they yearn in autumn '40, after the "Few" had thrown Hitler's intended invasion of Britain out of the window. Many achieved their ambition; they got all the aviation they wanted; a little more than a half of the tens of thousands of them survived.

"A Polygon is a dead parrot" (well, many thought it was funny at the time !)

Cheers, Danny.