After nearly four years of knocking lumps out of each other, Britain and Germany were still at War in January 1943. So far the War had lasted longer than the First World War with seemingly no end in sight. My Grandfather, Flying Officer H. C. Kelsey, was still learning his trade in the RAF, but he was itching to "do his bit" to help end the War as soon as possible.
To this end, after a blissful month on leave with my Grandmother in London, my Grandfather was posted to 51 OTU (Operational Training Unit) at RAF Twinwood Farm, Bedfordshire in preparation for eventually joining an Operational Unit. 51 OTU originally formed at Debden, Essex in 1941 before moving to Cranfield and Twinwood Farm, Bedfordshire in August 1941, specifically to train nightfighter crews. By January 1943, training was undertaken in Bristol Blenheims and Bristol Beaufighters, neither of which my grandfather had flown before. But he was now flying a proper combat aeroplane and would be under even more intense pressure of testing and scrutiny to assess whether he could "make the grade" as a combat pilot.
Scan of Log Book H.C. Kelsey Jan. 1943
From a scan of my Grandfather's Log Book, his first two weeks at the Unit were spent going through various "exercises" in Blenheim V and Bisley aircraft. I have to thank another blog., "Broody's War" for an explanation of what these "exercises" or "Ex" were as noted in my Grandfather's Log Book. They refer to Gunnery Practise,
From "Broody's War"
And A.I (Airborne Interception) Exercises
Also from "Broody's War"
On 15th Jan 1943 he was in the air for 1 hour 30 minutes with F/O Frenkel going through "Ex 1&2" which I assume was gunnery exercises as it was during daylight. Over the following two weeks these gunnery exercises continued with the occasional solo flight, until 29th Jan when my Grandfather was accompanied by F/Lt Young to go through "Ex 8"(Dual Quarter - Cine). This must have given a filmed record of how close the trainee's shooting was to the target? All guess-work I'm afraid.
Bristol Blenheim MkV/Bisley
Then, on 5th Feb. 1943, he navigated a Blenheim Mk1 to ferry F/Lt Bird to RAF Hullavingdon and returned solo. These ferry trips were often given to the most accomplished trainees, after all, you didn't want unnecessary crashes or injured pilots.
Bristol Blenheim MK1 in flight
On the 7th Feb. he was back in a Bisley for 45 minutes of night fighter training tutored by F/Lt Bamber. Then, on 11th Feb. he had three flights in a third Blenheim variant, a Blenheim MkIV. The first was detailed as a "N.F.T.", which meant a Night Flying Test, in which the pilot spent a twenty minutes checking over, in daylight, the aircraft he was detailed to fly that night. I'm not sure what the figure "4" after "N.F.T" means, so would be delighted if anyone can help me there? Then, that night he had two solo flights, totalling nearly 5 hours, stooging around in the freezing February night.
Bristol Blenheim Mk IV
Cockpit Drill Certificate Blenheim Aircraft 1943
Interspersed with these flights was 8 more hours of practise on the link trainer with some new exercises which I assume are different night flight patterns, as I cannot find any explanation of their meaning online. Can anyone help?
Link Trainer Exercises
The Bristol Blenheim came into service as a light, twin engined, fighter/bomber which, when first introduced in 1935, was faster than any other fighter aircraft in the RAF. But by the onset of War in 1939, it was shown to be hopelessly outclassed by the aircraft the Luftwaffe were equipped with. As we can see, the Bristol Blenheim seems to have undergone quite a few adaptations, mostly in the nose end, to accommodate a bomb aimer/navigator, or to increase it's firepower. Sadly these often either didn't work very well, or added extra weight which reduced the Blenheim's effectiveness.
1937 Advertisement
The Blenheim was sent on many early bombing raids which proved to be almost suicidal, including a daylight raid on Aalborg, Denmark, in August 1940 in which 11 of the 12 aircraft of 82 squadron were shot down. This was the second time that 82 Squadron had been almost wiped out in Blenheims.
The Blenheim was then adapted for use as the first night fighter during the London Blitz of 1939 and 1940. But, initially, it was not equipped with radar and so, due to it's lack of speed and small machine guns, as well as problems of locating the enemy at night, was almost useless. It was as late as 21/22nd July 1940 that the first Blenheim Mk1F of FIU (Fighter Interception Unit) made a successful night-time interception using airborne radar, shooting down a Dornier Do17. However the Blenheim was too slow to make a successful night fighter - some of the German bombers were actually faster, and long, fruitless stern chases back across the channel were common.
Eventually, the Blenheim was withdrawn from frontline bombing after incurring huge losses. Indeed, ground crews joked that the Blenheim rarely needed to go through an inspection as it didn't survive long enough! Yet again I think my Grandfather was a lucky man to have avoided the early disasters of the RAF, which claimed the lives of many of the full-time pre-War RAF personnel. Although sidelined from frontline action, the Blenheim was now shunted off to Training Units, especially for night fighter training, to allow new recruits to get a feel for flying a twin engined fighter/bomber. As a result they were usually fairly bashed up and antiquated examples and renowned for being really cold to fly with a biting wind often whistling through various ill-fitting hatches and windows. The Blenheim V was favoured by instructors despite being slower and heavier than the other variants due entirely to the fact it had a heated cockpit. All Blenheims apparently had a bewildering array of dials and switches positioned in a haphazard and often bizarre configuration, as Doug Gregory recounts in his book "Aeroaddict";
"The propellers (on Blenheims) could be set to fine pitch or coarse. Fine for take off and landing and coarse for cruise, where economy played a part and for higher speeds....It was necessary to change into coarse pitch by groping behind the seat to pull two mushroom-shaped knobs.....With both hands searching for knobs and levers, it was easy to forget that the aircraft still had to be flown and at night it could be quite a problem. All marks of Blenheim suffered with these strange arrangements of controls, whose positions were learned slowly and painfully,"
The Bisley was originally designed as a heavily armoured, ground attack aircraft, with a solid nose. Later on a bomb aimer window was added and it was renamed Blenheim V. Although it was outclassed in the European campaign, it still saw extended service in North Africa, the Far East and India. It seems from my Grandfather's Log Book that he was differentiating between a Blenheim V and a Bisley, but I cannot find out what the difference is between them.
Bristol Bisley of 113 Sqn. Asansol, India
January 1943 is notable as the first time the RAF make use of Target Indicator marker bombs on a raid on Berlin, in an attempt to improve the precision of it's bombing operations. Also, in February 1943, the Casablanca Directive, was issued by the joint Chiefs of Staff in an effort to weld together the bomber forces of the RAF and the USAAF to make one mighty air arm to crush the German industrial, military and economic system. However, the biggest War news outside Britain was the German surrender at Stalingrad. The history of the Battle for Stalingrad was so extraordinary in many ways, including over 800,000 German and Axis casualties and over a million Soviets killed or injured, but the biggest morale boost for the allies, was the first surrender of a German Field Marshal in history.
Hitler had hoped that Von Paulus would commit suicide before he was captured.
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Meanwhile, my Grandfather was comfortably stationed at RAF Cranfield and may have been entertained by a pantomime version of "Babes in the Woods" which was performed there at the time. With the wicked Uncle/Sheriff "baddie" being portrayed as Hitler.
After two days leave, on 14th September 1942 my Grandfather, H.C. Kelsey, was posted to No. 3 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit (3(P)A.F.U.) at South Cerney, Gloucestershire. This posting would require the mastery of a tricky, twin-engined, aircraft called an Airspeed Oxford. And the new instructor putting him through his "sequence of instruction" paces, as noted in the "Duty" column, was F/Lt. Chance.
Airspeed Oxford with "trainer" paintwork
Furthermore, the posting would mean that he would no longer be an instructor, but instead return to training, in preparation for an operational posting. But did it also mean that my Grandparents would be split up after a year of fairly normal domestic bliss? I can't imagine that Flying Officers were given married quarters during the War. Perhaps my Grandmother had to go back to London and live with her parents? So a lot of changes all at once.
Flying in the Airspeed Oxford, or "Ox-box" as it was fondly known, with it's distinctive yellow-belly trainer markings, was eloquently recounted in his autobiography by F/Lt. Chance, or John Newton Chance as was his full name. He was a novelist who became a flying instructor during the War.
With novelists and pianists as well as poets and artists among the men rubbing shoulders with my Grandfather in the RAF, they must have had a huge influence on this young man's attitude to life. After all, my Grandfather was still only twenty one years old at this time. The War had forced together a very diverse and interesting group of people from all corners of the world and I think this is why that generation seems to have been "special".
So what was it like to fly an Airspeed Oxford? From what I have read, it seems that the first thought many trainee pilots had when first confronted with the large, complicated frightening monster called the Oxford was "I'll never manage THIS!" It certainly was a huge jump from a diminutive Tiger Moth, to the 53 feet 4 inches wingspan of the "Ox-box" with it's two large engines providing 750 horsepower, compared to the Tiger Moth's 130 horses. However, my Grandfather had the advantage of a great deal more flying time than the usual trainee, and knowing him , no doubt he would have been far more excited than frightened. He was a very self-confident man and would probably have started telling the flying instructor how to fly the plane within minutes of starting up!
These recruitment drawings make training in the Airspeed Oxford seem a cozy affair!
In terms of design, the Airspeed Oxford is the first aeroplane that my Grandfather flew which related more to the 2nd World War than to the 1st World War. It had a fully enclosed cockpit for a start, although apparently the glass panes often didn't fit well and a "bracing" breeze could be felt through the gaps! Secondly, the cockpit instruments were arranged well and easily seen, rather than just haphazardly bolted in as an afterthought. However, the "Ox-box" was regarded as tricky to fly well, and deliberately designed so. The theory being that if you could fly the Oxford, then you could fly pretty much any multi-engined aircraft, therefore making it ideal for training. It seems that it was on take-off that the Oxford could have a mind of it's own, as a wartime trainee at 3(P)A.F.U called Stephen Johnson recalls in a blog called Ken Fenton's War;
"After our Tiger Moths, the Oxford seemed a very powerful machine. You had to learn to control the swing on take-off by opening one engine or the other a little more. I had managed to go solo in an Oxford after about two and a half hours dual and felt quite confident about it. We were thrilled by our Oxford’s power when we first started flying them, as they went much faster than Tiger Moths and had all sorts of new gadgets, like retractable wheels which usually went up and down when you pressed a lever and flaps which did likewise." He continues,
"There was no electrical intercommunication in Oxfords or Tiger Moths in those days. We used a system akin to those tubes you find in the walls of very old houses. Down these you had to blow at first and this blew a whistle incorporated in a plug at the far end; this in turn summoned a minion from some distant basement. In an Oxford you had a flexible mouthpiece which you tucked into the front of your parachute harness; the other end was plugged into the pupil’s helmet. If you blew into it it made his eardrums pop. This was seldom necessary however as pupils were unlikely to go to sleep while flying.’
Another trainee at the time, called Peter Mayhew recounts in this same blog another quirk of the Oxford, "The Oxford was a good deal more exciting to fly having one or two vices, such as dropping a wing when you stalled it. A week or so after going solo we did our first night flying." As usual, these men are very understated about the difficulties they experienced in mastering the foibles of the Oxford. In fact stalling an Airspeed Oxford, which, as we know, was part of the training schedule ( See my earlier blog here), was rather hit or miss. Some would stall "straight", whilst others would have a pronounced wing drop, but you would never know for sure which one, so counteracting this before the aircraft started "spinning" required a good deal of pilot skill. Nobody could say flying the Oxford was a "piece of cake", it behaved itself when handled well but tended to bite fools!
Airspeed Oxfords at South Cerney 1942
So with the added difficulties of flying this aircraft, the usual British weather and the relatively busy skies around the airfield, not to mention the fairly frequent raids by the Luftwaffe, the casualties and deaths of young RAF personnel were a serious concern. The average percentage of deaths whilst training was 3%, but this does not include serious, life changing injuries. In the book"Bombing Hitler: One man's war with Bomber Command", T.I. Steel's Grandfather Bernard Steel, was one of the trainers at 3 (P)A.F.U in 1941/2. This passage tells us of his last day at South Cerney;
"As it turned out Bernard's last day at 3 (P) A.F.U. would be 17th October 1942 as he would take a week's well deserved rest before joining his new unit. His final pupil at South Cerney was a Sergeant Heath who, after a fifty minute flight, helped take Bernard's flying time to 832 hours and thirty minutes. Unfortunately October was unable to give the unit a fatal free month. The last man to be killed in a flying accident at 3 (P)A.F.U. while Bernard served there was Sergeant S.F. Smith, who was killed in Oxford AP401 after losing control during a night-time overshoot at Bibury relief landing ground. The aircraft was destroyed by fire after crashing. He was the thirtieth young airman to die at 3 (P) A.F.U. during Bernard's year at South Cerney."
I'm just trying to imagine what it would be like if just one person died where I worked, let alone 30 in one year! And this without getting anywhere near the enemy, just during training. Thirty deaths at just one unit in just one year through occupational accidents... how did they handle this pressure? I know that F/Lt. Chance eventually snapped and had to be invalided out of the service in February 1944.
Airspeed Oxford "Trainer" at Duxford
What of the War in general at this time? Stalingrad is now completely surrounded by the Wehrmacht. Food supplies to the civilians are dwindling and the people are starving to death, with some reports of cannibalism. The fighting is becoming bogged down in house to house attacks, and the casualties on both sides are horrendous. One of the worst battle sites was at Mamayev Kurgan, a strategic high point overlooking the City centre. Originally captured briskly by the Germans on 13th September 1942, the very next day it was the site of a huge Soviet counter-attack from 13th Guards Rifle Division. By September 16th, the Russians had recaptured the hill, but the cost was almost all of the 10,000 Soviet troops who had attacked two days previously.
