Figure 1.--

"From 1940 onwards until the end of the war, was a gunnery leader. First of all a gunnery leader of a squadron and thn finally of group headquarters. And in that capacity I was responsible for the chaps who sat in the turrets in bomber aircraft. (RAF bombers mostly had turrets, unlike the American gunners who also fired from open bays.) The majority of the lads that sat in tail turrets were only in their late teens. I supose that the vast majority had joined the air foce expecting to see exciting action and it must have been, indeed I know a pretty horrifying awakening for them to find that they were in fact destuned to sit in turrets so cold, very frightened, very lonenly, sometimes for six, seven, eight hours on end."

-- L.G. Johnny Johnson, Squadron Leader, RAF,

Air crews of course are an important part of the effectiveness of World War air forces. And this would depend largely on the effectiveness of the various countries training programs. Here countries had different priorities and objectives as well as different budgets for training. Training pilots was an extended and very expensive undertaking. Other specialissed crew mwnbers aslso required extensive training. The Axis commitment o war mean that hey had the best air crews prepared for War at the onset of World War II. This was especially true of the Japanese and Germans. The Japanese had the most intense pilot training program of any country. Candidates were selected as boys and carefully trained. It resulted in a relatively small number of brilliant pilots. This was ideal for short low-intensity wars with China that had a small, weak air force. It would, however, prove catastrophic for a high-intensity, drawn out conflict with the United States. The Germans had had a youth training program as part of the Hitler Youth and a very effective training program, producing more trained pilots than the highly-selective Japanese programs. Not only did they have effective training programs, but both countries were involved in military actions before the war, giving their pilots and crews valuable combat experience. The United States had a different approach. They began large training programs much later than Germany and Japan. And the goal was not to train a small number of superb plots, but a large number of competent pilots. It wold prove to be the correct approach for a large air force and a long war. All World War II aircraft had plots, but except for fighters, there were other crew members. The crews included plots, co-pilots, navigators, bombardier, radio operator, and gunners. The largest crew was needed for the American B-29. On smaller planes, crews took on multiple roles. Gunners made up most of the crew for heavy bombers.

Created: 1:01 PM 7/27/2025
Last updated: 1:01 PM 7/27/2025