A Pool of Talent

By 1938, to many people, war seemed inevitable, and as a consequence there was a desire to both train new pilots, and if possible organise civilian pilots in a purposeful way. Initially the Civil Air Guard was set up as a sort of territorial air force to train pilots up to the age of 50, and many pilots used this route to eventually find themselves in the RAF or Fleet Air Arm. It quickly emerged however that there was a massive pool of talented pilots who, for one reason or another, whether it be age, eyesight, infirmity etc. were unable to join the air force and people like Gerard d'Erlanger, a director of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), saw a role for these pilots. This was to become a unique feature of the ATA, in that physical handicaps and deficiencies were ignored so long as the pilot was able to do his job and ferry aircraft. As such the ATA employed pilots who suffered from colour blindness, pilots with limbs missing, pilots with only one eye and even a pilot who suffered from narcolepsy, who had the unfortunate tendency of falling asleep during flight and required someone to give him a nudge should this happen. Stuart Keith Jopp, a first world war fighter pilot who lost his arm and an eye ferried over 1300 aircraft up to the wars end and Francis Delaforce Bradbrooke, the star of the wartime film ‘Ferry Pilot’ suffered from colour blindness.

Initially envisaged as a kind of civilian transport, d'Erlanger proposed that these pilots should used for communication should the enemy destroy railways and road systems, transporting mail, despatches, medical supplies or be used as ambulances and even transport the occasional VIP. He quickly contacted the then Parliamentary under secretary for air, Mr. Harold Balfour and the Director General of Civil Aviation, Sir Francis Shelmerdine and proposed a pool be set up of civilian pilots to undertake the aforementioned tasks. As it was his proposal d'Erlanger was given the job of identifying suitable pilots from all backgrounds and from all over the country who were judged to be qualified to undertake the task and in August 1939 the organisation of the pilots was placed under the control of BOAC for administration and finance. Although the ATA was to be placed under the auspices of many departments during its life, the administration would always remain under the control of BOAC and Gerard d'Erlanger. To this end a set of pre-requisites were formulated in that the pilots had to hold an 'A' private flying licence with at least 250 hours flying time and this list of pilots were formed into what was to become the Air Transport Auxiliary. It must be pointed out however that although the ATA was made up primarily of pilots, there was a requirement for other trades such as flight engineers needed to ensure the smooth operation of the four engined bombers and flying boats and in fact, Sir Freddy Laker was indeed one of these flight engineers based at White Waltham.

Training and Female Pilots

It was not long before the original set of duties planned for the ATA was enlarged upon as it was evident that the RAF, who were undertaking the ferrying of their own aircraft, would be needed on active service. Before the war, the squadron pilots were responsible for picking up their own aircraft from the factories and two RAF Ferry pools, based at Hucknall and Filton were tasked with the ferrying of training aircraft. Within six months however, the ATA would find themselves ferrying aircraft of all types from storage units to front line squadrons and with these new faster, heavier aircraft would inevitably come more training. This would be done initially at the RAF Central Flying School at Upavon where the ATA pilots would be ’cleared’ to fly the more modern aircraft but stressing at the same time that no instruction would be made available and operational control would be the responsibility of the Air Ministry. What would come next would be historic, due to the ever-increasing demand for ferrying services and the pool of male pilots diminishing it was proposed that female pilots could also be used to ferry aircraft alongside the men.

The proposal by the Undersecretary of State for Air that women pilots should be allowed to ferry aircraft and operate next to the male pilots proved to be quite revolutionary, in fact it would be the first time in history that women would ferry military aircraft and to this end met with stern opposition in many quarters. Firstly, in those days it was culturally difficult for women to operate next to men as it was felt that piloting aircraft was unbecoming for women and secondly that it would simply take jobs away from the men. Many felt that women were incapable of flying aircraft even though numerous women who were very able pilots, women such as Amy Johnson and Pauline Gower for example. In fact it was Pauline Gower, with over 2000 hours flying behind her, who proved the more vocal and due to her efforts eight women pilots were engaged to fly and ferry communication and training aircraft although these aircraft could be just as complex and just as difficult to handle as the front line fighters. At first, these women were paid approximately 20% less than their male counterparts but by 1943 women pilots would hold the same rank and draw the same pay as their male counterparts; this being the first time in history that the British government would give its approval to equal pay and status to women in an organisation under its control and make the ATA one of the first Equal Opportunities Employer. The persistence by Pauline Gower and summer being the peak period for aerial operations would see the male ATA pilots stretched to breaking point due to the ferrying demands of the RAF and so by July 1941 the first women, Winifred Crossley, would be qualified to fly the Hurricane fighter and by the autumn of 1942 Lettice Curtis would become the first women to fly a four engined bomber. Pauline Gower was appointed commander and like d’Erlanger she would remain in that position for the entire war.

Training qualified pilots on the new types of aircraft within the RAF was at first rather ad hoc with the prospective pilot asking a pilot who already had the ‘gen’ or information on the type they had to fly or even asking the ground crew for assistance. However, as the demand to ferry more aircraft of increasingly different types, not to mention the various marks of aircraft within the types, a problem compounded by the influx of less experienced pilots there was a urgent requirement for some kind of training facility. So was born the ATA Conversion School to familiarise the pilots with the various types of aircraft they would be required to fly by using classroom and flying instruction both dual and solo plus the issue of the ATA pilots notes. Following this period of instruction they would be assigned to a training unit for more experience on the types they would fly and then on to their respective ferry pools.

Types of aircraft were organized into the following categories:

Class 1: Single-engined light aircraft (primarily teachers)
Class 2: Single-engined operational aircraft (mostly fighters, such as Hurricanes, Spitfires, Corsairs, and Mustangs)
Class 3: Twin-engined light aircraft
Class 4: Twin-engined operational aircraft (mostly medium bombers)
Class 5: Four-engined aircraft (heavy bombers, such as Lancasters, Stirlings, Fortresses, and Liberators)
Class 6: Flying boats (Catalinas, Sunderlands)

Classes 2 and 4 also had plus ratings, for more difficult types within that class (Class 2 Plus included P-40 variants, Tempests, Typhoons, and Airacobras; Class 4 Plus included Hudsons, Mosquitos, rare or older twin-engined types, and twins with tricycle undercarriages, such as Havocs (which were also Bostons), Lightnings, Mauraders, and Mitchells.

Multi-National Composition

The ranks of the ATA would be enlarged not only by home-grown pilots but also by men and women from 25 nations throughout the world. They would arrive from the USA, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, the Philippines and among the ranks there was even a Prince of Siam. The largest group of these like-minded pilots would however come from Europe; from those fleeing from Nazi tyranny and fanatical to help in any way to further the cause and the road home.

Increasing Responsibility of the ATA

By May 1940, the German blitzkrieg had devoured almost all of Europe and the situation was becoming critical with the lack of aircraft in France. It was down to the men of the ATA to ferry bombers, in this case the Fairy Battle single engined light bomber to France. Unfortunately, the situation had deteriorated so much that although they had just arrived they were immediately required to ferry Hurricane aircraft back to the UK. This would be the first but not the last time that the men of the ATA would ferry aircraft to the continent but it would not be the last although four years would have to elapse before they would return.

Dangers facing ATA Pilots and Aircrew

By August 1941, the ferry pilots would take over all the duties for transporting aircraft both to the maintenance units to have guns and cannons fitted and most importantly, not least to the subject of this book, to have radios fitted. Most ATA flights were undertaken without radios, often with nothing more sophisticated that a compass, so once the aircraft had taken off their was little chance of recalling it for reasons of for instance enemy action or bad weather and weather forecasting in the UK was a very inaccurate art and the weather was a very fickle thing. This combined with that fact that ATA pilots were not taught to fly using instruments only meant that flying in bad weather was very dangerous indeed and it was weather which accounted for the loss of many ATA pilots and aircraft. Furthermore, for most of the war there was a very real threat of enemy action over the UK, the RAF by no means having air supremacy. The location of balloon barrages and other defensive installations within the British Isles was also problematic to the longevity of ATA pilots not least because while planning their route they were not allowed to identify these positions on their maps for fear of them falling into enemy hands.

From the maintenance unit’s the aircraft were ferried on to the front line squadrons. Aircraft damaged due to enemy action and could not be repaired at squadron level but remained flyable needed to be ferried in the other direction, ie. from the squadrons to the maintenance units, a particularly hazardous task indeed. Compounded by the fact that most maintenance units were not equipped with concrete runways but had rough, short grass strips, usually open land adjacent to the units only added to the risk. This was a job the pilots however would continue to pursue with zeal, conviction and ultimately losses until the end of the conflict in Europe in 1945.