This latest Osprey book in their Warrior series is about the RAF Fighter Command Pilot. Unlike the Germans during WWII, the RAF did not have a lot of active duty pilots when the war was imminent. What they did have was a goodly number of reserve pilots. These folks would fly on occasion in order to keep up their skills and would have a couple of weeks of active work during the summer to ensure readiness. When the war started, these folks were called up to their respective units and were important assets in the opening stages. As the war progressed, pilots from countries over-run by the Germans found their way to England and they, too were used in the fighting.

The UK also had a wide commonwealth of nations that provided qualified pilots and you found Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans in the RAF. You also found pilots from countries not yet involved in the war such as the United States and Argentina, for example.

In the beginning, these highly trained men bore the brunt of the fighting in France and later during the Battle of Britain. But it was obvious the more pilots were needed, so training was streamlined. It was not uncommon for newly trained pilots to have only flown Hurricanes or Spitfires for a few hours and more than just a few had never fired the guns! This showed a real deficiency and the training syllabus was in a major state of flux. Few of these new pilots were trained in tactics and those that were used in the beginning were soon shown to be woefully out of date. This was changed from the bottom up as units learned what worked and what did not. Eventually, training evolved into the BCTP, or the British Commonwealth Training Plan held at bases throughout the commonwealth. Prior to the entry of the US into the war, many British and commonwealth pilots were trained in the US, though ostensibly as 'civilians'.

In this book on the RAF fighter pilot, the author looks at how RAF fighter command operated in the inter-war period, It then goes into what it took to be a fighter pilot and the evolution of their training. A section on their flying clothing and uniforms is next, followed by a look at the major aircraft types of Fighter Command in the first few years of the war. This is then followed by the conditions under which these men operated. Initially, they flew without relief, but once the BoB was over, they were able to fly on a more regular schedule and this included down times to re-train and perhaps move on to new types. This is then followed by a section on the tactics of aerial combat and how these changed during these early years. It ends with a short list of major UK museums where these aircraft can be seen today.

January 2009

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