Never, Never, Never Talk Politics in the Mess!

I have been re-watching a really well done drama series about the early days of World War 2 in the RAF called "A Piece of Cake". The squadron's Intelligence Officer is quizzing a visiting Air Commodore about what's going to happen to Poland after the War is won? Considering that Poland was the supposed reason Britain entered the War in the first place but half of it has now been occupied by the Russians! After fumbling for an answer, the blunt response is that "after 25 years in the RAF, the best advice is to never, never, never talk politics in the Mess!"

Well, knowing my Grandfather, as I was lucky enough to, I cannot believe he stuck to this rule. Almost every conversation he had was about politics, specifically , left-wing politics. Some people don't like arguing, especially about politics, but I do and so did he. We spent many evenings in fairly heated conversation putting the world to rights and I miss that very much. He once even invited the Jehovahs Witnesses in to discuss how Religion should become less about faith and more political! After about an hour of 'lively' discussion, they beat a hasty retreat!

From his Log Book, I see that my Grandfather did no flying in December 1942, so I thought it would be a good time to "talk Politics" and try and discover why he was so such a left-wing political animal.

The background to the War, as far as the socialists, including my Grandfather, saw it was that the call to arms was not about Countries, Monarchies, property or power, but to fight against dictatorship, brutalism, intolerance, and militarism. These young socialists had seen what relying on Capitalist markets had done to their fathers and mothers, during the 30's Great Depression, and wanted instead a planned future along the lines of the 5 year plans that the Soviets had adopted. 

We are much more cynical these days about the power of Propaganda, despite the fact that we still too often fall in line with the 'news ' that we are fed. But there is no doubting that there was a general left-wing air during the war, with 'everyone in it together' rather than the 'no such thing as Society', 'me first' attitude that we are being forced into today. Thank you Margaret!

One of the most powerful forces for Socialism and the working class in Britain during wartime in Britain was the weekly "Postscript" broadcasts by J. B. Priestly, which drew audiences of 16 million; only Churchill was more popular with listeners. He was brought in by the BBC to counter broadcasts by William Joyce, "Lord Haw-Haw" and was a great advocate for a "new order" after the war where "community is more important than property and power". His memory of how badly the returning Tommies were treated after the First World War fired him up to make sure this would not be allowed to happen again and Britain would become a "land fit for heroes". He was eventually taken off air because the Conservatives, including Churchill, were worried about his socialist views. There is a good radio documentary on J. B. Priestley on BBC Archive on 4.

The war in Britain meant that suddenly everyone was needed. An unemployment rate of nearly 1.5 million in 1939 was banished with people needed for war work in factories or to join the forces. Indeed there was such a huge need for people that women were also called up and were working in all the same trades as the men by the end of the war except for actual combat.

Many women enjoyed going out to work so much, that they didn't want to go back to just "being the little wife at home" after the war. They opened many doors that the next generation of women jumped through.

Union membership, always used as a barometer of left-wing sympathy, rose from 4.5 million before the war to 7 million by it's end.

All this had to be paid for somehow, and even the rises in taxes, especially to corporations and on dividends, were applauded by the socialists due to their desire for more financial redistribution and hate of profit at the working man's expense.

The need to boost morale through propaganda and make everyone feel part of the war was taken right into the kitchens of every household, with the appeal for aluminium to build aircraft.

There is some contention about what happened to all the scrap pots and pans that were collected, with some saying it was just dumped at the end of the war. But it made people feel good about themselves and that they were doing something to help win the War.

There were subsequent appeals to the public sense of community, fair play and good behaviour, including "Make do and Mend" 

and rationing food

which were designed to control the behaviour of the population, relying on being seen to 'do the right thing' and 'muck-in' together. The outcome was that despite the threat of attack from Germany, many people thought the War was the best days of their lives, as people were so friendly and community minded. This made a big impact on my Grandfather and may explain why (with his later promotion and command of men in the RAF) he had a strong sense of right and wrong and always took great delight in telling people what to do! 

For the socialists, December 1942 was a very important month in politics with the publishing of the Beveridge Report laying the groundwork for the Welfare State.

Interestingly, in trying to give reasons for the British population to fight against Hitler, the coalition Government had brought forward a package of social welfare insurance proposals that had been milling around for some time before. But to show they were giving something back for enduring the war, they provided a fund to benefit the whole of society that would become a cornerstone of the future Labour Party.

Beverage Report to fight Want, Ignorance, Disease, Squalor, and Idleness.

Those who attack the Welfare State today due to the way it encourages 'scroungers' should note that Idleness was intended to be dealt with also in the Beveridge Report.

By appealing to the community spirit of people, encouraging them to see the future as better than the past and allowing them to make a valuable contribution to Britain in the fight for freedom from dictatorship, regardless of their class or background, there was a general movement to the left in British politics at the time. This left-wing support was finally cemented at the end of the War with the last and most amazing fact of wartime Britain, when the British people threw out Winston Churchill, the bona-fide hero of the Second World War, and elected a Labour Government.

Qualified "Average on Oxfords" 3(P)AFU - Nov. 1942

Pilot's Log Book Nov. 1942

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;

1. 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"
2. 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.

No.1519 Beam Approach Training Flight - RAF Feltwell

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.

Formation Flying - 3 (P)AFU RAF South Cerney - Nov. 1942

South Cerney Control Tower

So, seventy three years ago, my Grandfather H. C. Kelsey, was nearing the end of his training course at South Cerney airfield. The training was accomplished in twin engined Airspeed Oxford aircraft and having been trained in this type, the trainee pilot would usually go on to join either a night-fighter or a bomber squadron. My Grandfather had his sights set on night-fighters.

Airspeed Oxfords in starboard echelon

During the second week of Nov. 1942, the training consisted of formation flying. This was a high precision form of flying but it had become an integral part of R.A.F. flying since the First World War, when larger and larger numbers of aircraft started to be sent out over the enemy lines.

From his Log Book, we see that the main formations were Line Astern, Echelon and Advanced Formation. There's also a reference to R.T.A and R.T.A.A., which I'm not sure the meaning of. I presume it's something to two with R/T (Radio Telephony) between aircraft so the formations can be formed and tightened up. The trainees would have to be very proficient flyers to be able to move easily between these formations, but my Grandfather had 1,240 flying hours by this time, so he certainly knew how to handle an aeroplane.

Two Airspeed Oxfords flying in very close formation

I haven't found a lot written about this area of the training course apart from the fact that the trainees were now allowed to fly without instructors on board. Indeed, my Grandfather's Log Book shows that after a flight with P/O Fisher on the 6th and P/O Tattersall on the 7th Nov., he flew the next three formation flights on his own. However, without the presence of an instructor, the exuberance of youth meant that the trainee pilots would often try to show off to each other in the air by attempting to touch wings or frighten the living daylights out of their pals flying with them.

Airspeed Oxfords in Line Astern

A crowded sky with Trainee pilots in formation flying.

Inevitably, mucking about in the air whilst forming up lead to some serious accidents. Here are just a couple that I found, but there must have been many more;

• On 14 September 1941 two RAF Airspeed Oxfords collide during formation flying near RAF South Cerney, one crashed in flames.

• On 19 May 1942 two RAF Airspeed Oxfords collide while formation flying, one aircraft crashes near RAF Driffield.

Thankfully, my Grandfather came through unscathed and on 14th Nov. he was sent to 1519 B.A.T. Flight at R.A.F. Feltwell to take a Beam Approach Course.

At this time in the War, the British forces were still mostly fighting at El Alamein in North Africa. With Operation Torch, the most amazing fact is the British were actually fighting against the French in Morocco. The failure of the French to defend this allied invasion triggered the German occupation of Southern France on 11th November 1942. We now characterise the French forces as Vichy French, but the fact is that they were the French Army and Navy.

The RAF in Europe was at the mercy of the weather, which was apparently ghastly in November 1942, so bombing raids were very rare. At the same time, the Luftwaffe was putting all it's efforts into the Eastern front, leaving Britain relatively unscathed. In fact, until January 1944, the number and intensity of Luftwaffe raids on Britain dropped dramatically and it became known after the War as "The Lull".

Happy 22nd Birthday Grandad - War Still Not Over - October 1942

Pilot's Flying Log Book Oct. 1942

My Grandfather spent his 22nd birthday training at 3(P)AFU RAF South Carney, with two flights in a twin engined airplane called an Airspeed Oxford. His first flight, probably in the morning, was instructed by F/Lt Warren and involved the number 6 cross-country course. There and home the cross-country course took two and a half hours, and with the top speed of an Airspeed Oxford being 192mph, this was approximately a 400 mile round trip.

This course would have relied on the pilot navigating via landmarks, dead reckoning, experience of the area and some luck. All the time the instructor would be noting down your errors and trying to distract you and put you off your calculations. I think the British trainee pilots had an advantage here, compared to the Commonwealth and allied trainee pilots, because they were used to the different and sometimes rapidly changing weather conditions and the more complicated navigational requirements of "patchwork" England.

1942 RAF Map of South Cerney Area

Referring back to Ken Fentons War Blog. that I mentioned in my last blog., Sgt Stephen Johnson gives his recollections of cross-country training.

‘After some time of flying solo we were passed fit to carry a passenger and used to go up with another pupil pilot to do navigation and cross-country flights. I was extremely lucky in being paired off with Arthur Innes who was the only pupil on that course to be assessed as exceptional in the final classification. I was at the same time placed as above average’

‘There was at that time a great shortage of pilots and the courses were being pushed through just as hard as possible. We were sent off on cross-country flights without wireless on some pretty bad days, with visibility only a mile or two and a very low cloud base. On one occasion we never saw the ground at all for about 2 hours. Luckily when we returned on our dead reckoning course we found a gap in the cloud and pinpointed ourselves not very far from where we expected to be.’

‘Being lost while flying an aeroplane is a most unpleasant feeling. When alone you are apt to panic just at the time when it is most essential to remain calm and try to work out where you are. One of the difficulties is that you can’t stop and look at the map. If it takes you about 5 minutes trying to match what you see on the ground with your map you have to remember to look for somewhere else on the map because even at 120 mph you have gone some ten miles. Luckily the South of England was covered with aerodromes where you could land if truly lost. If you did land as a pupil you were not allowed to take off again until your instructor came and fetched you. This wasn’t at all popular. Before the war and again now it is comparatively easy to fly down low and read the names off a railway station but just to be difficult they covered them up during the war and also filled all likely looking large fields with poles which caused little if any disadvantage to the enemy but a great deal of inconvenience to fledgling pilots.’

The second flight my Grandfather took was again with F/Lt Warren and of 1 hour 10 minute duration, involving a couple of exercises and an Instrument Flight(IF).

This would involve pulling a hood over the trainee pilot to obscure any view out of the cockpit and then relying on the instruments to get you back to the airfield. This would be used in conjunction with more training on the link trainer, to simulate night flying with all lamps off.

Airspeed Oxford instrument panel.

Again, I rely on Sgt. Stephen Johnson to let us know what it was like to fly like this,

‘Instrument flying was an important part of our training. We had started on a link trainer at Perth (EFTS) and at Brize Norton we spent a considerable time in one. This was an excellent machine for simulating the conditions of instrument flying and quite invaluable: but it was not the same as actual flight, for there was no feeling of motion to combat. It is a funny thing, flying an aircraft by instruments when you cannot see out at all. You are faced with two alternatives; either you believe what your instruments tell you or you can believe what your own sense of balance and feeling of movement tell you. If you do the later you are killed almost at once. The reason for this is quite simple. If you blindfold someone and put him on a revolving music stool and start revolving him to the right he will say, ‘l am turning to the right’. If after a few moments you stop he will feel that he is turning to the left. In an aircraft if the pilot believes his feelings he will start turning to the right again to counteract it. I believed the instruments. Some people did not.’

I just hope that after this hazardous birthday, my Grandfather treated himself to a pint or two and a singalong with his pals in the local pub.

Yellow Belly - 3 (P) A.F.U., South Cerney - September 1942

Pilot's Flying Log Book September 1942

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. 

BBC The World at War Episode 9 - Stalingrad

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.