1940's night flying training recruitment advertisement
By 23rd November 1942, my Grandfather, F/O H.C.Kelsey, was back at RAF South Cerney, No. 3 (Pilots)Advanced Flying Unit to show off his new found Beam Approach skills. A week of night flying followed, including landings and one Overshoot with F/Sgt Bartram, x-country with P/O Phillips and Precision Flying with P/O Walsh. Plus nearly 6 hours of solo night flights. An Overshoot is were an aircraft was unable to land and had to go around again and line up along the flare path. This would involve turns at night which could be very disorientating. These were all very dangerous requirements of night flying training and there were many crashes and fatalities of wartime trainee crews trying to find that friendly flare-path in the dark to touch down safely on terra firma. I'm not saying that my grandfather would have witnessed these crashes, but there's little doubt that he would have been aware that this was going on. Two such training accidents at about this time are documented here;
On 9th Nov. 1942 at RAF Chipping Norton 6(P)AFU. Time:03:50 Aircraft, Airspeed Oxford, hit trees shortly after take-off and crashed to ground on a night training flight. Investigation found that a/c elevator trim wheel may have been incorrectly set for take-off. F/O (015144) H A KALLEND (Instructor) RAF - killed Sgt (1055351) James GREENALL (Pupil) RAFVR - killed "He rose on the wings of the morning to meet his heavenly Father"
On 11 July 1943 Airspeed Oxford HN781 of 3 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit (3 PAFU) with the crew RCAF Flying Officer George Schrman and Sgt Joseph S. Southall, who were both killed when the aircraft crashed on take-off 1 miles west of Long Newton, Gloucestershire. Details of crew from Commonwealth War Graves Commission website SCHURMAN, GEORGE MAXWELL Flying Officer J/16809 11/07/1943 26 Royal Canadian Air Force Canadian Plot 6. N.C. Row C. Grave 13. CIRENCESTER CEMETERY SOUTHALL, JOSEPH SAMUEL Sergeant 1577584 11/07/1943 20 Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve United Kingdom Sec. 3. Grave 3. WILLENHALL CEMETERY
Any internet search is littered with aircraft crash incidents involving Airspeed Oxfords on night flying training, which continued killing air cadets many years after the war. Indeed one course lost 6 aircraft in 14 nights, with many fatalities. The total blackout at busy airfields and lights out on the aircraft meant that there were also many mid-air training flight collisions. Added to this the occasional attacks by the Luftwaffe, attracted by the lights of the flare-path, and it is clear that my Grandfather was lucky to survive his training.
The wood and fabric covered "Ox-Box", did not fare well in a crash
Remains of an Airspeed Oxford after training accident
Despite all of the potential hazards, on 30th Nov. 1942, my grandfather qualified from 3(P)AFU, with his "Proficiency as a Pilot" assessed as "Average on Oxfords". He duly went home to London on leave to await news of his next posting.He arrived, no doubt, to a rapturous welcome from my Grandmother after an itinerant few months which had kept them apart. The reason why I am highlighting this leave is, not to make too fine a point of it, but my Mother was born almost exactly nine months later! The War in general at this time continued to throw up astonishing stories. Not least of which happened on 27th November 1942, when the french navy scuttle their ships at Toulon after the Germans invade unoccupied Vichy France. The first news of the mass murder of Jews also started to reach the allies.
An Airspeed Oxford with the yellow triangle livery of the Beam Approach Training Flight.
RAF Feltwell Station Crest - Vires Acquirit Eundo - Gains Strength As it Goes
On 14th November 1942, after a week without flying, at least flying that is recorded in his Pilot's Flying Log Book, my Grandfather, Flying Officer Kelsey, was sent to RAF Feltwell to take a course with No. 1519 Beam Approach Training Flight.
The course ran for seven days and included 12 hours flying time as well as 5 hours 15 minutes on the Link Trainer. Please read my previous blog regarding the link trainer.
A Beam Approach Trainer photographed in 1942
It's slightly amazing how rudimentary the tech. was in 1942 to help pilots land safely in poor visibility. With even the most bog standard cars now having Sat. Nav. and parking sensors, the front-line RAF pilot in the War still had to rely on mostly visual aids, such as flares and paraffin lamps, to guide them to an airfield. With the poor British winter weather conditions and high casualty rate of pilots returning from raids, but then crashing when trying to land, something had to be done.
Ironically, the RAF turned to the German Lorenz system to help them locate and land safely at military airfields. This system had been used successfully by the Germans as the Knickebein, or "Crooked Leg" beam to help them bomb very accurately at night during "the Blitz". The Knickebein system is focussed on in the series called The Secret War (TV series). "The Battle of the Beams" episode deals with the use of beams for navigation and the countermeasures the British 'boffins' used.
Diagram of Beam Approach System
My Grandfather obviously knew nothing of this at the time and had his own troubles trying to get the hang of the Beam Approach System. Put simply, the beam approach (sometimes known as Blind Approach) system relied on two audible signals, Morse A (dit dah) and N (dah dit) which originated from differing parts of the airfield, which was "divided" into four quadrants. Listening to the signals, the pilot knew which side of the airfield he was flying in from. When he started hearing both signals of different strengths, he was aware of how close to the centre line he was. When both signals merged and became a continuous sound, he knew he was "on the beam". Ancillary signals enabled the pilot to land in very poor conditions. This is a huge simplification of what was in fact a complicated set of learned instructions involving many changes of direction and height as well as swift calculations of orientation in response to the audible signals you were receiving. Not easy!
System for Beam Approach landing
I have to thank the following website for much of this information; An Ordinary Crew
My Grandfather took his first Beam Approach flight on 14th November with Sgt Miller as instructor. Subsequent flights were instructed by P/O Neill, S/L Burrell, W/O Driscoll, P/O Jones and finally Sgt. Nicholls. I haven't been able to find any further information about these men. During these flights, the aircraft were kept in the air at controlled heights of 2000, 2500 and 3000 feet. It was a most demanding course, mostly consisting of taking off up to 100ft or so, at which point the instructor pulled a screen over the trainee's side of the cockpit blacking out everything. From then on flying was by instruments only, guided by the radio beam system until on the final stage of the approach for landing, when the instructor removed the screen. The "DUTY" column shows the various exercises the pupil would be put through, but I cannot find any reference to what the different numbers mean.
Although this system was basic by today's standards, it was a great leap forward for the time, and undoubtedly saved many lives of the crews who had got lost on their way home from raids over Germany.
RAF Feltwell from the air 1942
The Beam Approach system was undoubtedly a boon to safer landings, but apparently by 1942 not many military airfields were equipped with it and, if conditions we're foggy, the crews would just be diverted to another fog-free airfield!
Inside the cockpit of an Airspeed Oxford
The wider War at this time can be characterised by Churchill as the "end of the beginning". With the British advances in Morocco, the German attacks stalling at Stalingrad and landings of the Americans in West Africa, it looked as though the allies were turning the tide against the Nazis. In celebration, on Sunday 15th November 1942, church bells were rung up and down the country for the first time since 1940.
