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Re: the ages of WW II Pilots

Posted by Christer on Sun Oct 27, 2002 07:43:28 PM

In reply top the ages of WW II Pilots posted by Karen on Sun Oct 27, 2002 06:35:06 PM

Hi Karen!

The Versailles Treaty didn?t allow Germany any motorized flying at all. The treaty allowed gliding though which lead to a great interest in that subtype of flight. A side effect is that Germany is the world leader in the field of glider design today.

During the twenties and the thirties the youth was encouraged to take up gliding for sports/recreation and there were special groups within the Hitler Jugend. If memory serves me they were called Flieger Gruppen. Training was commenced when the kids were in their early teens and these groups were a natural recruiting basis for the Luftwaffe.
Apart from those Luftwaffe pilots who fought in WWI, most of them had their basic training as glider pilots.
I can?t tell You for sure how young they were when they were enlisted but a guess is in their late teens.

In the early stages of WWII the Royal Air Force had a shortage of pilots and during the Battle of Britain very young lads were trained as fighter pilots. They were in their late teens as well.

Allied training was developed during WWII, especially in the US, with the aim to make the pilots better trained before sending them on active duty. This made them slightly older when they made their first tour.
In Germany it was the other way around, towards the end of WWII the training situation was hopelessly disrupted by the allied war efforts and the losses prompted a quicker flow through the system.

I hope this helps,
Christer

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