Battle of Britain

Pilots

By the summer of 1940, there were about 9,000 pilots in the RAF for approximately 5,000 aircraft, which most of them were bombers. All the time, the new pilots had "almost not chance at all" of surviving their first five sorties because they don't have experience, and that was because they received the most-damaged planes. The number of survivals rose up during the next 15 sorties as their skill and confidence grew, but sadly, after 20 sorties the number of survivals again decreased to zero.

With aircraft production running at 300 each week, only 200 pilots were trained in the same period. So then, more pilots were sent to the squadrons than there were aircraft, so this allowed the squadrons to continue with operational strength. Another factor was that only the 30% of the 9,000 pilots were assigned to operational squadrons; the 20% of the pilots were involved in the pilot training, and a another 20% were undergoing further instruction. And finally the rest were assigned to staff positions,because the RAF policy stated that only pilots could make many staff and operational command decisions. And for fighting only 30 pilots were released to the front line from administrative duties.For these reasons, and for the loss of 435 pilots during Battle of France, and some others lost in Norway, the RAF had fewer experienced pilots at the beginning of the battle. 

From regular RAF forces and the Auxiliary Air Force and the Volunteer Reserve, the British people could master some 1,103 fighter pilots in July 1st. Replacement pilots, with little flight training and often no gunnery training, suffered high casualty rates.

The Luftwaffe would master a larger number like 1,450 of more experienced fighter pilots. They had comprehensive courses in aerial gunnery and instructions in tactics suited for man vests man combat. Training manuals also discouraged heroism, stressing the utmost importance of attacking only when the odds were in the pilot's favour. But, German fighter formations did not provided a sufficient reserve of pilots to allow for losses and leave, and the Luftwaffe was not able to produce enough pilots to prevent a decline in the operational strength as the battle progressed.

Written by: Paula Guardia and Eileen Gallagher