Instructor RAF Hatfield 1941

Let us return to my Grandfather's Log Book. After passing out as a flying instructor on 25th June 1941, he is commissioned as a Pilot Officer and posted to 21 EFTS (Elementary Flying Training School) at RAF Hatfield. For the next five months he continues to fly Tiger Moths but just lists "Pupils" in the '2nd Pilot' column. He also continues to accrue more valuable flying time hours.

I must say that I find it amazing that my Grandfather became a flying instructor, because his attempts to instruct anyone in his own family were usually disastrous. Firstly, whilst teaching me how to steer a boat on the Norfolk Broads when I was about 7 years old, his increasingly loud instructions totally confused me and nearly caused us to collide with a rather expensive looking cruiser. Secondly, I think his attempt to help my Grandmother to learn to drive was so bad that she never dared sit in the drivers' seat of a car again for the rest of her life! So I imagine that his wartime flying "pupils" must have had very thick skins...

To my surprise I have found a recollection of one of my Grandfather's pupils on the BBC WW2 People's Story site (here's a link) Arthur Lowndes was training in Tiger Moths in 1941 and his story goes thus;

  "When being trained by Flying Officer Kelsey at Hatfield, he often used to ask pupils to practice a forced landing in a field as if your engine had failed. He did this with me twice, but we found he had an ulterior motive: when we had landed in the field, he jumped out of the Tiger Moth and said `follow me'. I taxied the aircraft round the field to take off again and he would be walking along picking mushrooms. He was very fond of mushrooms and took them back to the mess for his breakfast!!"

This is a lovely story and really shows how my Grandfather loved nature and food! 

As an aside, I also think this posting was lucky, both for him and for the generations of his family that came after him, because it kept him off operations while the RAF improved their aircraft and efficiency. The RAF was, at this time in 1941, the only way we had of hitting back at Germany directly. But the aircraft and technology the RAF used were very primitive. The Blenheims and Stirlings that were used to bomb Germany were very ponderous and trying to navigate and bomb German targets at night was almost impossible. So, many daylight raids were attempted, and the casualty rate was horrendous. On 4th July 1941, a low level daylight raid on Bremen by 15 Blenheims of Nos. 105 and 107 squadrons resulted in a Victoria Cross being awarded to Wing Commander H. I. Edwards. However, four Blenheims and their crews were lost, all the others were damaged and the target was barely scratched. Another mission on the night of 12th/13th October 1941 went badly wrong when 152 aircraft were sent to bomb Nuremberg. Due to weather and navigation error, some crews bombed villages almost 100 miles away from the target. However, on the plus side, a new navigational aid called Gee (wikipedia Gee navigation) was starting to be used and this and other advances in radar would make the RAF start to become more effective as the War progressed.

Britain and Russia Together

Here's a question that's going to divide opinion - Who or what saved Britain from losing the Second World War?

No, not Churchill. No, not the Americans. Not the Spitfire, nor the English Channel. It was Stalin and the Russians.

This is not just my opinion but, in 1940's Britain, it was the view of most of the British populace too. During the War, membership of the British Communist Party more than doubled, from 17,756 in September 1939 to 45,435 by March 1945.

Once Russia had been invaded in Operation Barbarossa, the British government was not slow in using propaganda to encourage the British to embrace their new ally. Stalin, the 'man of Steel' was portrayed as 'Uncle Joe', the cuddly leader who was going to keep us safe in our beds.

There's a nice clip of a wartime film called "Tawny Pipit" which shows the Russians being applauded for helping us in the war. Actually, it's a great film and worth watching in full because it contains lots of "messages" about the way we should behave and the perils of leaving ourselves unguarded from '5th columnists'.

The Internationale - "Tawny Pipit"

Here's a link to the full film "Tawny pipit"

The fact that Russia was now on 'our side' would not have gone amiss to my twenty-one year old newly qualified R.A.F. pilot, proudly Socialist, Grandfather, Howard Kelsey. He would have been elated that the political and military left was rising up to confront the Nazis at last. His early attraction to Russia and Communism was to remain with him all his life, despite the Cold War and the atrocities and purges carried out by Stalin that were revealed after the Berlin wall came down. He was learning to write in Russian and had a Russian pen-pal up until the time he lost his eyesight in his eighties. His political views were very important to him, but they did not make for an easy life. Indeed, with the anti-Communist atmosphere and McCarthyism in the late 1950's, his political stance would end his career in the R.A.F. with a great deal of acrimony.

Whatever we think about Stalin, there is no doubt that Russia had to confront the vast majority of the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe during the Second World War, and the Russian people lost over 20 million people to the carnage. This fact is terrible enough, but made worse by the news that the Western leaders will snub the 70th V.E. day celebrations in Moscow this year. Guardian link to Moscow Snub We never learn!

Doug Gregory DFC R.I.P.

Sad news today to read that Doug Gregory DFC has died. He was knocked down by a car whilst walking to collect his newspaper and died in hospital two weeks later. Here is the Telegraph obituary;

Doug Gregory - Pilot obituary

 Doug Gregory DFC

Doug Gregory served as a pilot during World War 2 on 141 Squadron at the same time as my Grandfather, Howard Kelsey. He later wrote a book called Aeroaddict (here's a link) which I am using to fill in some of the colour and flavour of their time on the squadron. My Grandfather was very tight-lipped about his wartime experience, so I am having to use other sources to try and find out more about what RAF life was like back then.

Here's a clip of Doug talking about flying Beaufighters; Doug Gregory and the Bristol Beaufighter

As a mark of respect I thought I would post a scan of one of Doug Gregory's combat reports. By this time he was flying DeHavilland Mosquitoes. One night in July 1944, along with his navigator Steve Stephens, he shot down a JU88 over Beauvais, France.

On August 5th that year he was awarded the DFC. It is typical of Doug that the comment beside the log-book entry mentioning the award of his DFC reads “I still don't know why”.

So another night fighter pilot is added to the 'celestial score' but I hope his memory will live on.