RAF Air Patrol Tactics
Mr. Wilson describes how the Royal Air Force, after sustaining heavy losses to the Luftwaffe, changed its patrol tactics by stacking groups of four aircraft in three tiers, thus decreasing its losses substantially.
Gordon Wilson
First name
Gordon
Last name
Wilson
Gender
M
City
Salaberry-de-Valleyfield
Province
Québec
Biography
Gordon Wilson was born on December 5, 1917 in Limerick, Saskatchewan. The Royal Canadian Air Force was no longer accepting recruits when he enlisted so he joined the Royal Regina Rifles. Six months later, Mr. Wilson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at Brandon, Manitoba.
His first wartime deployment saw him serving in North Africa near El Alamein, where he initially flew Hurricanes in a Royal Air Force squadron. He later piloted
Spitfire 9’s in Sicily, Italy and the Middle East. After the war, Mr. Wilson completed a university degree and became a museum curator.
People old ID
708
People Language
E
Different Aircraft and Tough Navigating
Mr. Wilson discusses his surprise at being selected for fighter pilot training, and goes on to describe training on the Miles Master and Hurricanes. He describes the challenge
of navigating in industrial cloud cover.
An Unusual Welcome to England
Mr. Wilson describes arriving in Scotland, traveling by train to Bournemouth and being welcomed there by a German dive bomber.
Tiger Moths and Harvards
Mr. Wilson compares the experience of training in a single-engine Tiger Moth and the much more powerful twin-engine Harvard.