THERE have been over one thousand raids by the British Air Force on Germany and German-occupied countries in the three months ending in August and in these a magnificent part has been played by the Air Gunners.
At the training stations the Tew spirit" is built up and pilots, observers, air gunners and wireless operators are taught their responsibilities to each other.
The pilot life may depend on the air gunner and in the same way his safety depends upon the pilot.
The maintenance of its formation is a factor upon which the security of a force of bombers largely depends and this calls for complete discipline and instant obedience to orders from the pilots. There are times when the gunner must hold his fire though hi natural inclination may be to give his opponent every round of ammunition he has got and the wireless operator who works under conditions of ex treme difficulty, must devote all attention to his' job.
In all these qualities British airmen are supreme and every week the stations of the Bomber Command Training Group are turning out thousands of eager young men, ranging in age from 19 to 23, who have been taught how to carry out all kinds of bombing attacks and have also studied fighting tactics and the problems of evading enemy defences. They have attended lectures on airmanship, reconnaissance, operations, tactics and meteor urology. In the air their instruction is equally intensive and in Picture (1) an air gunner is seen figing at a towed target.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.