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This story and photo has been added to the People’s war website by Marie on behalf of Norman Jenkins. Norman has given his permission and is aware of the site’s terms and conditions.

The pilot in this photo is just about to take the recruits one at a time up for their first experience of circuits and bumps. Before volunteering for the RAF he was a bank clerk and later volunteered for operational flying with very rapid promotion and responsibility for a new style of independent command.

By this time we had landed in France and established operational airfields. He was now a Wing Commander, no longer giving joyrides to schoolboys, when he took a passenger seat home to get married. Unfortunately although we had successfully invaded the continent, we had not cleaned up the last remaining groups of active German troops. They fired at every passing aircraft. My good friend was killed.

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