Page 6 - John Francis Ryan

John was promoted Flight Sergeant on the 21 April 1944. The recruits it appears not undertaking
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any further training until the 13 June 1944, when movement orders were received informing the
recruits, they were to report to No.18 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit (18 (P) A.F.U at
RAF Snitterfield in Warwickshire.
RAF Snitterfield is located 4 miles North of Stratford upon Avon. RAF Church Lawford,
Snitterfield’s Base station is located 1.5 miles South of the village of Church Lawford,
Warwickshire and 3 miles South West of Rugby, Warwickshire
Church Lawford, as Base station of the two controlled the maintenance of the two airfields
aircraft and the unit administration.
Both stations had on charge the Airspeed Oxford. As the title suggests advanced training on the
twin engine Airspeed Oxford continued using both airfields to practice taking off and landing
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procedures. John was attached to 1514 B.A.T. Flight at RAF Fiskerton from 18 to the 25 July
1944 for more blind approach training. His attachment to the RAF station he would eventually be
posted to is, one assumes a coincidence.

RAF Church Lawford RAF Snitterfield

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Completing this part of his advanced training John was posted on the 22 August 1944 to No. 85
Operational Training Unit at RAF Husbands Bosworth, 5 miles South West of No. 85 O.T.U’s Base
station at RAF Market Harborough. This airfield, located 14 miles South East of Leicester,
Leicestershire. The Base station being in control of the unit’s aircraft, maintenance and
unit administration.
This unit was part of No.7 (Training) Group. The crew would have undertaken flying lessons
from both airfields.
On arrival at the O.T.U. all the pilots were put in a hangar with other airmen and instructed by the
O.T.U’s senior officers to select their 6 man crews. The crew at this point were minus the flight
engineer, he joining the crew later at Heavy Conversion Unit. (H.C.U)

RAF Market Harborough RAF Husbands Bosworth

Having ʹcrewed upʹ, the crew would have undertaken conversion training on the twin engine
Vickers Wellington and honed their skills working as a team. The Wellington medium bomber,
removed from front line service and relegated to training, after the introduction of the four engine
heavies that were equipping the front line squadrons of Bomber Command.

John and his crew, having successfully converted to the medium bomber stage would have then
been posted to RAF Lindholme (71 Base) in South Yorkshire, 9 miles South of Doncaster.
John was then posted on to RAF Watchfield to undertake a short Blind-Beam Approach course
there. This training consisted of the pilot being taught how to land his aircraft in poor visibility by
instruments only. Transmitters on the airfield sent two signals, dots on one side of the runway
and dashes on the other. The strength of the reception on the aircraft’s instrumentation
depended on the aircraft's position relative to the centre line of the runway. The aircraft's
equipment could then determine its position relative to these dots and dashes. Signals are
detected by electronics in the aircraft and present the pilot with an indication to fly left or right,
up or down and thus be able to land his aircraft safely. On the 20 January 1945 John was
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posted to RAF Cranwell, possibly on a course as by the 27 he was back at Lindholme.
This training completed, John with his crew were posted onto 1667 Heavy Conversion Unit
(H.C.U.) at RAF Sandtoft in North Lincolnshire. Three of these units were within No.1 Group of
which 576 Squadron was an operational squadron. Here the crew would have met their flight
engineer, he having completed his flight engineer training at one of the many RAF’s Schools of
Technical Training (S. of T.T) in the UK.