Page 91 - Demo

91 While the host nations provided the infrastructure and the bulk of the ground staff and, at least, the initial cohort of instructors many of the aircraft were provided, or paid for, by the British, including Battles, Tiger Moths, Oxfords and Ansons. The table at Figure 1 gives some idea of the scale of this contribution, approaching 8,000 British8built aeroplanes %u2013 of these four types alone. There were many others; the 400 Masters that were sent to South Africa, for instance, along with substantial quantities of Harvards, many of which were also supplied to Rhodesia. Apart from these imports, the Canadians built, among many other aeroplanes, more then 1,500 Tiger Moths and nearly twice as many Ansons. Australia and New Zealand both built training aeroplanes too. The reason for the British exporting many of the Harvards that it had previously imported, was that they were no longer required in the UK. Carrying out ab initio flying training in increasingly crowded airspace (with a rapidly expanding USAAF presence compounding the problem), especially at night, in a blacked8out operational theatre stiff with anti8aircraft guns and with skies filled with barrage balloons and trigger happy night fighter pilots had always been difficult. Once the overseas facilities were well8established, it became possible to run8down the home8based system and by 1942 the UK had virtually withdrawn from the basic flying training game altogether. From then on, all that happened at home was that, before being sent to Canada or Africa, potential aircrew were %u2018graded' %u2013 given 10 or 12 hours in a Tiger Moth to determine whether they had sufficient aptitude to make them a reasonable prospect as a pilot or whether they would be better %u0014%u001a %u0005 %u000e!\%u000f%u0005 %u0015%u0004%u0011%u0005%u0016%u0004%u001a %u0005%u0017%u000c!%u0003%u0005%u000e#%u000b%u000f%u0010%u0005%u0017%u000c!%u0003%u0004%u000b%u001a%u0005%u0012%u000c %u0004\%u0006%u000f$%u0004%u000b%u0005%%u000c%u0003%u0005 %u0017%u0001 %u0013%u00056%u0001 %u000666%u0001 %u0017%u0001 %u0017%u0001%u000e%u001a\%u00067%u0014%u00186%u0001 %u000676%u00186%u0001 %u0015%u0014%u0001 %u0013%u00146%u0001 %u00166%u0001&%u0003%u0003%u0004%u0005 %u0013%u00146%u0001 %u0018fi6%u0001 6%u0001 %u000686%u0001 %u0015%u0014%u0001'(#%u000c%u000b %u0005 %u0013%u0005%u0014%u0001 %u001886%u0001 fi%u0015%u0014%u0001 %u000566%u0001 %u0005%u0014%u0001%u0006%u000c%u0003\%u001876%u0015%u0014%u0001 %u00157%u0014%u00156%u0001 %u0013%u00146%u0001 %u00067%u0018%u00056%u0001 %u0006%u00146%u0001)%u000b%u001a %u0005%u0006%u000c%u0003%u0005%u0005%u0005%u0005fi*fifflffi%u0005Fig 1. Approximate numbers of representative types exported by the UK in connection with co?operative training arrangement.