Flight Instructor - Lancasters - Alberta, Canada

[Bill Walker]

Dave;

That is a reasonable assumption.

After EFTS and SFTS, a new bomber pilot would go to an OTU, and then maybe an HCU "finishing school" for 4 engined bombers. Most multi-engined OTUs in Canada trained crews for Coastal Command, for transport aircraft, and for light tactical bombers. The one exception was 5 OTU, which trained Liberator crews from April 1944, all for South East Asia. These OTUs were all on the west and east coasts, none in Alberta.

Anybody who wound up on Lancasters would have to go to an OTU, usually a Heavy Conversion Unit, and maybe an AFS, all in the UK. Depending on the training he had in Canada and at the OTU, he would go to the Advanced Flying School for more instrument flying. He may not have known he was destined to fly Lancasters until he got to the HCU. Early on, say 1943 and before, the HCU might be the first place the pilot flew a 4 engined aircraft of any kind. The OTU would be the first place a new crew flew as a crew.

My understanding is that the student would be asked his preference of operational postings, and the RAF/RCAF would try to at least get close. It seems high scoring students had a better chance of getting their wish, but no guarantee.

An instructor at a Canadian twin-engined SFTS, especially late in the war, could be pretty certain that a good per centage of his graduates would end up on Halifaxes or Lancasters with 6 Group. He probably had no knowledge about individual students' detailed futures at all.