The End of the Beginning - September 1942

Since putting in a request for a transfer to "nightfighters" in June 1942, the wheels at the M.O.D. had been slowly turning and by September 1942, it looks like my Grandfather would be moving to pastures new. From his Log Book, I see that the last day my Grandfather, F/O H.C. Kelsey, served as a Flying Instructor at 21 E.F.T.S., Booker, Marlow, was 11th September 1942. On that day he flew a 'solo' test in a Miles Magister R6445 for thirty minutes, followed by a training flight in a Tiger Moth T7845 with LAC Kidd for an hour and that was that.  

Tiger Moth taxying at Booker

In his final assessment, after a year and three months service, his C.O., S/Ldr A.J."Jackie" Hicks commented that my Grandfather was of "Average" proficiency as a Pilot and "Inclined to over-confidence". I think that we can sense that there may not have been a great deal of love lost between these two men! I'm not sure how seriously these comments would be taken by his future Commanding Officer, but I do know that many fledgling pilot's careers where blighted by comments made in their Log Book.

However, I have read many recollections from RAF pilots of their early days as a flying trainee and nearly all of them echo this sentiment from LAC Stephen Johnson in his book "A Kriegie's Log";

‘Everybody has a tremendous respect for the man who teaches him to fly an aeroplane. You have a lasting sense of gratitude and admiration for your first Flying Instructor. It is unlikely that you will forget entirely your first girlfriend but you don’t remember her with anything like the same affection and respect as you do the man who says, ‘Well off you go,’ on your first solo flight.’

My Grandfather would have been really proud of all the trainees he had helped to "go solo". He would also have enjoyed meeting people from all walks of life, both in the RAF and the Army, as well as volunteers from Commonwealth Countries such as Canada and South Africa. I don't know how many of these men would have survived the war, but of the names on this scan of his Log Book alone I know that F/Lt Appleby was killed in a bombing raid over Berlin in 1944 and Corporals Potts and Saunders flew a glider in the capture of the bridge over the River Orne on D-Day.

But most importantly he had mastered the controls of two different aircraft and amassed 1094.15 valuable flying hours. Through many hours of practise, he was becoming a very good pilot. On his final moments in a Tiger Moth, in full view of the control tower, he would have performed some aerobatics, closed the throttles and glided towards the airfield in text-book manner. By side slipping expertly to reduce speed and judging the effect of the wind to perfection, he would softly land in the first third of the airfield, taxy smartly across to the hangars, switch off, jump out and not look back. A 'Piece of Cake'!

Eric Ravilious 1942

The wider World War held some brighter news for a change for the allies. During the Battle of Alam el Halfa, RAF air superiority helps to hold back Rommel's final attempt to encircle the British 8th Army under the command of Montgomery. In South-East Asia, the Japanese land forces suffer their first defeat at the Battle of Milne Bay, when Australian and U.S. forces combined to push them back, easing the threat to Australia. However, darker news was coming in from Russia with the start of the Battle of Stalingrad, heralding some of the worst hand-to-hand fighting of the war as well as the starvation of many Russian civilians. The RAF was still sending large numbers of bombers over to bomb Germany. On 10th September 1942, they target Dusseldorf, with 360 aircraft dropping 700 tons of incendiaries and using a Pathfinder target marking force. This caused terrible fires and massive damage. Many German civilians were killed and 30 RAF bombers didn't make it back.

Aerial photo over the centre of Dusseldorf Sept. 1942, showing ack-ack tracer and smoke from the fires caused.