Some friends of ours are attending a motor bike event at Silverstone this weekend & it reminded me that my Dad had been to Silverstone. Not to race any kind of bike or car but in his ongoing aircrew training between August and October 1944.
The unit was called No 17 Operational Training Unit (OTU), at this point in time they were flying Wellington bombers, one of the bigger twin engine bombers of the era. You can see below his results on his gunnery course. This included flying (in the rear turret of the Wellington as it didn't have a M/U position which he was to hold once converted to Lancasters)) with a British fighter (in this case a Hurricane) acting as the bandit. Instead of firing guns at it a cine camera was 'fired' at the bandit. You can see my Dad got 78.3%. I don't know what the pass mark was but there's an entry that states he would became 'an efficient air gunner.' Bear in mind the gunner would instruct the pilot to corkscrew to port or starboard to avoid the bandit & in doing so pulling extra G force whilst still trying to aim his guns!
I well remember him telling me of these 'fighter affiliation' exercises. He thought the fighter pilots were all mad as so close would they fly to the Wellington before the exercise that he maintained if he could have lent out of the gun turret he could have touched the Hurricanes nose!
17 OTU was part of their build up to be aircrew with Bomber Command. My Dad had started on Arsons, a small twin engine aircraft, once with a crew he went onto Wellingtons, a bigger twin engine plane, then onto the big four engine beasts of the Stirling and of course the mighty Lancaster.
The flights marked in red on the photo of his log book are night flights. The entry for 14/10/44 is rather interesting. It is designated a 'Sweepstake' operation. Basically these crews, along with many others who were still under training were to act as a dummy bomber stream to confuse the Germans. The 'real' bomber force would also be flying out and at some stage the Sweepstake force would turn for home so the Germans had to split their resources as they wouldn't know which were the bombers out to attack them. It's worth stating again these boys who were still under training, were flying over enemy territory and liable to blown out of the sky very bit as much as their fully trained colleagues. But it wasn't included as an 'operational sortie' by RAF officialdom.
By the end of the course he had flown 75 hours and 10 minutes in Wellington Bombers marks III & X. Next stop for them was Swinderby to convert to Stirlings, then in January 1945 to No5 Lancaster Finishing School and finally to 106 Squadron to fly operationally. As an 'effective air gunner' he did fire his guns 'in anger' as did the rear gunner when they were attacked by a Focke Wulf 190 fighter over Hamburg on the night of 21st April 1945 though for some reason it was not counted a 'combat.'
The unit was called No 17 Operational Training Unit (OTU), at this point in time they were flying Wellington bombers, one of the bigger twin engine bombers of the era. You can see below his results on his gunnery course. This included flying (in the rear turret of the Wellington as it didn't have a M/U position which he was to hold once converted to Lancasters)) with a British fighter (in this case a Hurricane) acting as the bandit. Instead of firing guns at it a cine camera was 'fired' at the bandit. You can see my Dad got 78.3%. I don't know what the pass mark was but there's an entry that states he would became 'an efficient air gunner.' Bear in mind the gunner would instruct the pilot to corkscrew to port or starboard to avoid the bandit & in doing so pulling extra G force whilst still trying to aim his guns!
I well remember him telling me of these 'fighter affiliation' exercises. He thought the fighter pilots were all mad as so close would they fly to the Wellington before the exercise that he maintained if he could have lent out of the gun turret he could have touched the Hurricanes nose!
17 OTU was part of their build up to be aircrew with Bomber Command. My Dad had started on Arsons, a small twin engine aircraft, once with a crew he went onto Wellingtons, a bigger twin engine plane, then onto the big four engine beasts of the Stirling and of course the mighty Lancaster.
The flights marked in red on the photo of his log book are night flights. The entry for 14/10/44 is rather interesting. It is designated a 'Sweepstake' operation. Basically these crews, along with many others who were still under training were to act as a dummy bomber stream to confuse the Germans. The 'real' bomber force would also be flying out and at some stage the Sweepstake force would turn for home so the Germans had to split their resources as they wouldn't know which were the bombers out to attack them. It's worth stating again these boys who were still under training, were flying over enemy territory and liable to blown out of the sky very bit as much as their fully trained colleagues. But it wasn't included as an 'operational sortie' by RAF officialdom.
By the end of the course he had flown 75 hours and 10 minutes in Wellington Bombers marks III & X. Next stop for them was Swinderby to convert to Stirlings, then in January 1945 to No5 Lancaster Finishing School and finally to 106 Squadron to fly operationally. As an 'effective air gunner' he did fire his guns 'in anger' as did the rear gunner when they were attacked by a Focke Wulf 190 fighter over Hamburg on the night of 21st April 1945 though for some reason it was not counted a 'combat.'
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| Air Gunners Flying log. 14/10/44 detail the 'Sweepstake' operation. |
