Captains and co-pilots.

I have not read about this subject for a while but I seem to remember that copilots would be eligable for upgrading after a certain number of missions. So I guess that the replacements were partially from within the squadron and also from the new crews that were fresh from training. Just my two cents.

By the way, I have always enjoyed John Comer’s ‘Combat Crew’ as a great read and a very honest insight into the lives of these crews.

I was not asking a question of the book.I was trying to fathom out that with the high fatality rate how were captains chosen as many replacement pilots would have little experience?Yes the RAF only had one pilot and he was captain but the B-17 etc had two!!As for the love story ,would you think that this would not happen during the war?

As in the novel? I thought it was terrible. The author (who I believe was writing under a pseudonym) clearly had a great interest and passion for the 8th Air Force and tried to incorporate this into a tacky love(?) story. Don’t judge a book by its cover…

Thanks for the tip! I’ve just ordered it. From an airline point of view Ernest K Gann’s Fate is the Hunter describes the battle pre-war co-pilots had to get into the left seat – and even then they could soon find themselves sulking in the right seat.

RAF bombers very early on became single pilot.

That’s a tremendous book, one of my favourites.

Moggy