Bomber Pilot

by Leonard Cheshire

Leonard Cheshire was one of the most highly decorated pilots of the Second World War. As the Royal Air Force's youngest Group Captain in 1943, he took a drop in rank and went on to command No. 617 Squadron and pioneer low level marking and precision bombing. For this, together with four years of fighting against the bitterest opposition during which he maintained a record of outstanding personal achievement, he was awarded the Victoria Cross. In 1945 he was an official observer of the dropping of the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Post-war his humanitarian work on behalf of the disabled resulted in the establishment of the Leonard Cheshire Foundation (now known as Leonard Cheshire), the world's leading disability care charity.First published in 1943, Bomber Pilot is Leonard Cheshire's contemporary account of his experiences during his first three years with Bomber Command. His light style captures the exuberance of youth, yet also brings out the growing realization of the responsibilities and dangers facing the young aircrew of Bomber Command. He describes his experience of operating Whitleys with No. 102 Squadron, first as a novice co-pilot and later as captain with his own crew, providing a vivid description of the action for which he was awarded his first DSO. Following a brief interlude in North America he returned to join No. 35 Squadron as it introduced the Halifax into service before moving on to command No. 76 Squadron.

Genres: Military History, World War II, Aviation

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

Group Captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, VC, OM, DSO**, DFC.

Graduate of Merton College, University of Oxford; World War II Royal Air Force hero and recipient of the Victoria Cross; convert to Roman Catholicism; humanitarian.

Founder of the the Cheshire Foundation Homes (1948, later known as The Leonard Cheshire Disability), the Raphael Pilgrimage (1953), the Ryder-Cheshire Foundation (1959), and The Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre (1997).

Reviews

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shortly before the TV series Masters of the Air about the bomber war as waged by the Eighth Air Force of the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) premiered, I took to reading this book by one of Britain's most distinguished WWII bomber pilots in RAF Bomber Command: Leonard Cheshire.

Originally published in 1943, Bomber Pilot is the author's reflections on his experiences of being part of a bomber crew flying Whitleys (twin engine bombers) on missions over Germany during 1940-41. What surprised me in reading about the RAF nighttime bombing campaign at that stage of the war was the low altitudes at which many of the bomber units carried out the bombing of military targets. For instance, it wasn't unusual to bomb at altitudes ranging from 7,000 to 10,000 feet.

Cheshire also shares with the reader the close relationships forged among the crews. To survive a combat tour depended on teamwork -- every member of a bomber crew knowing his job and having implicit confidence in each other to work well together seamlessly --- as well as luck. A couple of times, Cheshire had close calls. One was over Cologne in which the Whitley he was flying was struck by anti-aircraft fire and caught fire which temporarily blinded the wireless operator. Luckily, the crew was able to douse the flames and set the Whitley aright after it had tumbled through the sky. Eventually, they returned safely to England.

The second close call came over Magdeburg in Eastern Germany. "On E.T.A. [estimated time of arrival], we felt certain of our position and therefore decided to come down and look for clearer air. The guns opened up, and, in spite of the cloud, were exceptionally accurate. I feathered all four airscrews [of the Halifax bomber he was flying], switched the motors off, and turned through 180 [degrees]. It was a curios sensation watching a row of dead props over Germany, but none the less it fooled the defences completely; they continued firing way behind us along our previous course and then finally stopped altogether. At 9,000 feet, for safety's sake, I tried to restart one engine, just to see if everything was in order, but everything was not in order: it refused to pick up. I called Paddy back from the fuselage and we got to work. Feathering knobs, starter buttons, magneto switches, throttles and airscrew pitch controls, all at the the same time. It must have been a funny sight watching us, but nothing very much happened. The engines turned over slowly and even fired for a brief moment, but that was all. At 7,000 feet the starboard outer started and of course the ack-ack opened up immediately. What we really wanted was the inboards, because they worked the generators, and the batteries could not last much longer under this strain. At 5,000 feet the starboard inner started: both on the same side; with bombs we could not maintain height. One of the port engines kept bursting into life and then stopping again. At 4,000 feet we jettisoned the bombs.

"What with the roar of shells and the crackling of the intercom and looking round at everything, trying to make out which engine really was running, it was difficult to know what was happening, but at least the bombs fell in the middle of Magdeburg's defences. Shortly afterwards a heavy burst hit us underneath the port wing and threw us into a spin or a dive - I could not make out which. The instruments must have hit the stops, for they went out of action completely, except for the altimeters, which still showed a rapid rate of descent. The controls locked hard over in the starboard position and nothing that I could do would move them. The instruments showed no signs of recovering and amid all the ack-ack we were still going down: we could not be more than 2,000 feet from the ground.

" 'The aircraft's no longer under control; you'll have to jump ... Jump!'

"But nobody moved from their seat. Crock, though we did not know it then, was standing in the fuselage without a helmet and oblivious of what was going on.

"Come on, Ches, you can do better than that. Come on, sir, we trust you. Pull us out of it: you've come out of worse holes than this. Come on, sir.

" 'Yes, Jock, I think I can.'

"I realized then what had happened. The shell-burst had thrown us on our side, and simultaneously both port motors had started, forcing us further and further over. I throttled them back quickly, and we returned to normal. As we broke cloud, six fighters in close formation flashed by, but they did not attack."

I'm so glad the management of the cinema (where I had gone to see a movie today) had found this book after I had so foolishly left it there. It was the second time in less than a month that I had lost this book. I went back to the cinema to reclaim it. Now that I've read this wartime memoir, I won't let it out of my sight. Bomber Pilot is a book that faithfully conveys the precarious life of an airman on active service in wartime Britain.

[Oliver Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a book very much of it's time; written in 1943, while the War was still going strong, Bomber Pilot is a memoir of Leonard Cheshire's experience as a - you guessed it - Bomber pilot, during 1940 and 1941, first flying Whitley's and then Halifax's. This is a rather obscure book, one I only found and knew about because my dad had it, buying it when he was young in the 70's, and rediscovering it a few years back.

It being written in 1943, it no doubt had to face the rigours of the war office's censors; one can tell as it is isn't filled with that many details about the Bomber's themselves - it wouldn't surprise me if the British government didn't want it to be public knowledge at the time, for obvious reasons. That, along with the book not being terribly well written, is likely why a reprint has eluded this book completely in recent years.

It's a shame, as while it's definitely not the most well written book of all time, it's certainly one of the more raw accounts of piloting bombers during the Second World War. Much of the writing, one can tell by the way it was written - "It is getting late as I write this. Perhaps my mind is beginning to wonder I do not know" - was done not too long after the actual events themselves happened. Because of that we get a lot of the author's thoughts and feelings about various topics from getting shot at by Anti Aircraft guns - AKA ack ack - to the USA when visiting it.

While there's little on the actual bombers themselves, there's plenty on Bomber piloting, with the various roles - apart from the rear and front gunners, perhaps it was obvious at the time? - being well detailed.

Sometimes his thoughts are just let out, as if he were opening the flood gates of his mind, stuff which one seems unlikely to remember (at least to me anyway) several years down the line "[after getting hit] Down. Why always down? Something to do with rain isn't is? King Lear, Hamlet, Richard II - yes, Richard, I think it is. No, I'm not sure even of that; it's so long since I read Shakespeare" that was preceded and followed by much more of his thoughts.

The above paragraphs, in my view, are the real value of this book - personal insights into bomber piloting during the early stages of the Second World War. It's a somewhat forgotten fact that while the blitz was going on, the Brits were bombing Germany right back. In describing his time in the Whitley's it's revealed that bomber piloting in 1940 was a comparatively rudimentary business compared to what would come later with the Halifax's and Lancaster's, with repeated engine failures, difficulty navigating and even rain dripping through the Perspex as they flew through the clouds.

As the book cover reveals, he did win the VC later on in the war, becoming a legend in his own time. He would survive the war, growing old and eventually dying in 1992.

[David Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An atmospheric pilot's-eye view of the early, primitive bomber operations of World War II.

I have the 1954 edition and Cheshire writes a somewhat disparaging forward in which he refers to 'Bomber Pilot' as a young man's book. This it certainly is, and it has also a crude, written-between-sorties feel, plus it takes care to avoid censoring, yet all this just adds to the atmosphere. Every flight over Europe was an adventure in 1940 and '41, with inadequate aircraft, primitive equipment, and of course, the weather - and that was before the searchlights, flak and fighters got involved. There are vivid descriptions of the goings-on in those Whitleys as they battled on through ice and storms, with vital equipment malfunctioning, and the crews often unclear whether they were over the Continent or the UK, or - more scarily - whether they were heading west over the North Sea toward home or heading west out over the Atlantic toward a lonely death (with only half an hour's fuel left in the tanks). Great stuff.

It helps if you know something about the history of the air war at that time, and if you have read similar books, because Cheshire is writing for a contemporary audience and doesn't waste time on explanations. If you do, it's an exciting read and really conveys the pathfinding and heroic spirit of those early bomber crews, and why so few of them survived the war.

[Andy Meek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vivid, contemporaneous personal account of life as a young British World War 2 bomber pilot - Cheshire was just 26 years old when the book was published in 1943. It was written as a kind of blog on days between missions and the author would have been writing sections never knowing if he would return alive to write the next chapter. The writing style is of the period and rather immature and patchy in its pace, but this adds to the immediacy and authenticity. It contains plenty of technical detail of flying aircraft and the specifics of certain bombing raids to be realistic, as well as Cheshire's own observations of his thoughts and feelings, but was no doubt reviewed by a censor to omit some military details and to maintain the right level of morale.

This book made Cheshire a popular public figure during the war. He went on to be highly decorated, and after a profound religious conversion, later devoted his life to helping disabled people through the Cheshire Homes. This book is interesting in its own right as a portrayal of life in wartime, but it also gives insight into the experiences of a young man who changed dramatically and went on to live an entirely different kind of life.

[Hans · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you take into account that this book was written in 1943, so during WWII, it is a really good read. Obviously you need to adjust to the tone, which is different from the way books are written today, but it drew my attention from the start.

What is even more amazing is that this book was written around halfway Cheshire's career. He would be flying many more missions from the point where the book stops. He would be one of the highest decorated RAF pilots of the war.

You get to meet Cheshire in June 1940, just before he would be on his way as a second pilot on a mission to France. His first of many. The book shows how the RAF groped in the dark to reach targets in occupied Europe and hitting a target more by luck than skill. These young men did the best they could with the training and equipment they had, but luck had to be on their side. So many things could go wrong.

The book is filled with tense stories and I found putting it aside quite hard.

Despite it age, it still shows how RAF Bomber Command started to strike back, but still had a long way to go.

[Paul Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I met Leonard Cheshire several times in the early 1980s. He was one of the most charismatic people I have ever met. There was a calmness about him. One I suspect came largely from his Christian faith. I knew something of his background. Decorated bomber pilot, who survived far longer than the average WWII pilot. British observer of the US nuclear bombing of Japan. Those were things he preferred not to talk about. He was more interested in my postgraduate research on climate change (then quite a new concept), my experiences in Africa, evidence from East Africa for early human evolution. He told me about his post-war life, how he found Catholicism, his work to support those left damaged by wartime injuries.

It was with considerable interest that I started this book. Written during the war, it must have been subject to official censorship. Nonetheless, it is very informative about the mechanics of being a pilot, learning to navigate, to manage a team of men under high pressure. He lost friends and colleagues. I was surprised to learn he had married in the US.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read - pretty raw narrative as the author is obviously not a professional writer and the book was written while he was still a pilot in the war. For all that it reads well and gives a great insight into the lives of the young men who took up the challenge. It also seems a rare insight having been written at the time it was happening, rather than in later years looking back. It is all the more interesting knowing how Leonard Cheshire went on through the rest of his life with his charitable work and religious beliefs. My dad was a bomber pilot, so perhaps I have a biased view, but I do read a lot of these kind of books as he would never talk about it himself and this feels like a real insight into his experiences.