US-trained British pilots who fought Nazis remembered

So training took place instead in Canada, South Africa and Rhodesia through the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

British war leader Winston Churchill and US president President Roosevelt also agreed the establishment of another training scheme in America known as the Arnold Scheme, so named because it was under the direction of Major General Henry H Arnold.

Yesterday The Arnold Society handed over the official archive of this successful air training scheme to the Yorkshire Air Museum.

Ian Reed, Museum Director, said: “We are delighted that the Arnold Society have decided to donate us this valuable historic record of what is a largely unsung story that played an important role in the air war in Europe and the ultimate winning of WWII.

“Without the ability to train many thousands of pilots in America and Commonwealth nations, the RAF would not have become the dominant force that it was.”

Between 1941 and 1943, nearly 8,000 RAF pilots were trained in the USA. Trainees travelled to America by ship, which was in itself hazardous.