大象传媒

Flying training started in summer 1941 on Tiger Moths (more or less foolproof) and Twin-engined Airspeed Oxfords (not so). Eventually classified on October 1st as 鈥渁verage鈥� pilot, 鈥済ood鈥� navigator and was awarded RAF Wings. Reverted to Pilot Officer with reduced pay. As regards the designation as an average pilot, he always considered this extremely fair. As he never regarded himself as a natural flyer, even if he was supposed to be an above average navigator.

More flying training occurred in October 鈥� December 1941, this time at a Coastal Command Navigation School at Blackpool. Most of the time was spent flying around the Irish Sea in Blackburn Bothas, not a very highly regarded aircraft in RAF circles. In due course he was certified as an 鈥渁bove average navigator鈥� and shortly afterwards obtained a similar classification at a Blind Approach school near Swindon. This latter was made much easier because the aircraft being used were Oxfords where previous experience was helpful.

At Christmas 1941 he was sent on indefinite leave pending posting to some operational unit of Coastal Command, but he soon became bored with this and voluntarily returned to Blackpool to see if any further flying experience could be obtained. This decision resulted in an enormous piece of good luck, which would shape the pattern of everything that happened up until the end of the war. Quite by chance, sitting in the bar of a hotel in St Anne鈥檚, which served as a hostel for visiting pilots, conversation developed with a previously unknown, but obviously senior operational squadron leader. This officer disclosed that he had just arrived to form a new unit that would train people to serve in a special high-flying photographic section which operated with Spitfires from RAF Benson in Oxfordshire; further that so far he had one other instructor, two aircraft but no pupils. This matter was immediately rectified, and the two instructors set about trying to teach a not very competent pupil the rudiments of flying and navigating without wireless on early Spitfires presumably acquired from Fighter Command. This achieved, not altogether without incident, he was dispatched to an airfield in Kent to learn how to combine flying a Spitfire at high altitude with successful photographic coverage of specified targets. Due to rather sketchy training, and consequential inexperience, the initial results of this were very poor and there was a serious danger of being rejected from the unit. At the last minute, however, a single flight was approved by the instructors, as a result of which he was immediately posted to RAF Benson, arriving there during the first week of April 1942, and having the first operational flight (to Amsterdam) on April 16th.

Number 1 PRU had been in existence for some time but was still a small unit made up of six flights which, at full strength, totalled approximately 30 pilots. Each flight was commanded by a flight lieutenant, most of which were regular RAF officers. Four of the flights operated directly from Benson and the other two rotated between there and St Eval in Cornwall and Wick in the very north of Scotland. The latter was not very popular.

Flight commanders were very considerate towards new recruits and mainly gave them easy targets to begin with, which could almost be regarded as an extension of training. The Spitfires being used in 1942 were Mark V versions, specially modified in that the guns were removed from the wings and the resulting space filled with additional fuel tanks, each of which held about 66 gallons. Petrol consumption was perhaps the most important topic of operational function, as sometimes the Spitfires had to operate at extreme range when covering targets in the Baltic, Norway, South Germany or the Franco-Spanish border. Standard flight times for these targets were normally just under 6 hours. Because the unit was so small, everyone knew everybody else and gradually operational experience grew and the beginners were fully absorbed into flight routine.

In early 1942 Benson was a grass airfield and, apart from the PRU, the only other inhabitants were the King鈥檚 Flight which did not seem to be called upon to do very much. The station itself however was a fully equipped one, built to pre-war standards and extremely comfortable. Having spent about three and a half years there with occasional short breaks, he was struck by the strange mixture of living under such relatively luxurious conditions and operational excitement, and all completely isolated from the discomforts of wartime Britain. He even had a garage for the somewhat dilapidated Ford 10, purchased in 1941 as a result of being paid for two months by both the RAF and the Army. An operational allowance of two gallons a month was sufficient to travel anywhere without hindrance, even to the extent of Ascot races, where the car was nearly the only one there.

The operational activities of the unit could perhaps conveniently be described as being the flying section of the Intelligence gathering industry. Work was carried out for the Navy, the Army, the Intelligence Services, as well as the various other RAF commands. Short-term tactical demands were also catered for; this included coverage of German airfields and ports, marshalling yards, etc. Considerable effort was also directed towards provision of damage assessment photographs of German cities bombed the previous night by Bomber Command. It is perhaps interesting to note that as far as the Navy was concerned, coverage of all ports from North Norway to the Franco-Spanish border was provided as routine. It was therefore reckoned that the naval authorities knew the identity and position at any one time of any German controlled vessel bigger than a barge. At times of extreme activity, coverage of some of the Channel ports might be required up to three times a day.

These diverse demands resulted in any aircrew with an enquiring mind accumulating a pretty accurate knowledge of how the war was going 鈥� something which was not available to most service personnel and certainly not to the public at large. On the purely operational side there was enormous freedom as to how the work should be done, to the extent that the pilot had been given the targets to be covered, it was left entirely to him as to how this could be achieved. Flight plans were personal, and the only information that had to be recorded was the time, height and place where leaving and re-entering the English coast was estimated. It can be readily understood that in such a small and independent unit, a wide variety of individuals would display very different approaches as to how they carried out their duties. A few were highly trained RAF regular officers, some of the volunteers were natural fliers who could equally have fitted in with the needs of Fighter Command, but the majority were ordinary thoughtful individuals who enjoyed the work that good fortune had brought their way.

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