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.