The Royal Air Force in Texas: Training British Pilots in Terrell during World War II

Chapter 8 Epilogue

144 Chapter 8 Epilogue One of the ironies of wartime RAF pilot training is that graduates of early courses from No.1 BFTS suffered heavy losses after posting to operational squadrons due to the intensity of the fighting, while many graduates of later courses saw little or no action. Bert Allam used both official and unofficial sources after the war to trace the original thirty-three exBritish Army transfers who joined Course 4 in Terrell. Only seven survived the war.1 Another Terrell graduate, Douglas Sivyer, traced the operational records of the graduates of Course 3. Of the thirty-eight graduates, only fourteen survived the war. The list includes details of the last flights of those lost. Many of the descriptions contain nothing more than the poignant epitaph, “failed to return .”2 Eight graduates of Course 3 attended an Operational Training Unit (OTU) on Spitfires. One of the pilots, Eddie McCann, flew with 131 and 165 Squadrons at Tangmere and then 232 Squadron in the Mediterranean where he escorted American medium bombers. Of the others trained on Spitfires , Johnny Gallon and Frank Seeley were killed while operating in 11 Group (England); Vernon Brooker, Blondie Reeves, and George Richardson were killed in North Africa; Bob Wood was killed in Malta, and Peter King in Sicily. Of the original eight, only McCann survived the war.3 Ken Bickers, the cadet lost on his first cross-country flight to Commerce, Texas, and later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, disappeared on a bombing mission to Berlin in March 1944. The final resting place of Bickers and his entire crew is unknown. On the same night Bickers disappeared, his old friend from Course 4, Flt. Lt. L. C. J. “Bonzo” Epilogue 145 Brodrick and seventy-five other POWs tunneled out of the Stalag Luft 3 prison camp in what has become known as “The Great Escape .” Brodrick avoided the fate of fifty of the escapees who were recaptured and executed by the Gestapo.4 Jack Bolter of Course 4 and his entire bomber crew disappeared over Germany in March 1945, less than two months before the end of the war in Europe. On his return to England following graduation, Bert Allam became an instructor, much to his dismay. In retrospect this assignment may have saved him from the fate of so many other members of Course 4. Later in the war Allam joined a Lancaster bomber squadron and flew missions over Germany. Toward the end of the war, with the Axis on the defensive, the Allies enjoyed aerial supremacy over virtually every front. With an ample supply of pilots, graduates of flight schools were often delayed in holding centers waiting for operational postings. Some found no openings at all. Henry Madgwick graduated with Course 24 in 1945 and never saw operational service.5 Several graduates from Courses 16 through 20 were retrained in England to fly gliders and participated in Operation Varsity, the crossing of the Rhine. At least three Terrell graduates, W. H. Paul, P. N. Hyde, and W. F. Murphy, were killed in this operation.6 After the war former cadets of No.1 BFTS and staff personnel dispersed around the world. Flight Lieutenant Palmer served in Cairo, Egypt, in the Judge Advocate General’s office.7 He later became the head of the RAF legal department and retired as an air commodore (the equivalent of a brigadier general). Sir John Gingell of Course 23 and later president of No.1 BFTS Association in England, attained the rank of air chief marshal (the same rank as a four-star general) and became Black Rod in the House of Lords. Michael Giddings of Course 1 earned both the DFC and AFC and became an air marshal (the same rank as a lieutenant general). Frank Miller, the former art student and designer of the school crest, became a successful architect in Australia. Ray England, the top cadet of Course 9 and later an instructor at the Waco Army Airfield, became the chairman and chief executive of Jaguar Mo- 146 Chapter 8 tors in 1972. Thomas Round of Course 10 also served as an instructor assigned to the U.S. Army Air Forces and after the war became an internationally acclaimed operatic tenor. British actor Robert Hardy, noted for his portrayals of Winston Churchill and starring role in the Public Broadcasting System television series All Creatures Great and Small trained with Course 27, one...