The Stress and Difficulties of Being a Pilot in WWII

Luke Letizia
1/7/19
LML

One person can change a war, while still being a small part of it. One decision can change
the outcome of it. Pilots flying out of England flew sixteen hour missions, dropping bombs on a
enemy country in a plane nicknamed “the flying fortress.” But soldiers were trained inefficiently
and forced to perform long and arduous missions. This often lead to the bombing of cities and
towns that had a limited impact on the war. The effects of the different types of warfare during
WWII and the effects it had emotionally on the pilots and the people who were subjected to it.
My great uncle Johnny was a part of the air force and was one of those pilots stationed in
Yorkshire, England during WWII. He completed over 50 missions, he was responsible for his
life and the lives of his crew. He dropped bombs on Germain factories and Germain airstips. And
he witnessed terrible atrocities on his fellow pilots and on the people whom were on the
receiving ends of the bombings.
Coming out of high school, Johnny got a job. He was hoping to work his way up to
become an engineer. He was a diligent worker in high school and at his job, as well as intelligent
and quick thinking. He kept at his job until December 7th 1941, when at around 8am, hundreds
of Japanese fighter planes descended on the pearl harbor military base that belonged to the U.S.
They blew up over 20 Navy vessels and hundreds of planes. This event impacted the world by
bringing the U.S into the war and to the aid of the allied powers. The idea of the attack being on
American soil was very upsetting to many people because it showed that the U.S was still
vulnerable. Many stories and news articles began to surface disclosing the horrific details of the
attack. They killed over 2,400 American soldiers. This was the call to action for the entire
country; it seemed everyone was sold on getting involved in the war. This was no different for
my Uncle. He had been moved by his patriotism for his country and was determined to get
involved, “well, young men at that age (because he was basically 19) after they bombed pearl
harbor, were all looking to enlist and to serve their country,”1 The call to war and to action was
very prevalent, most young men felt it was their responsibility to serve. Johnny immediately
enlisted in the Air Force, and he was soon shipped off to basic and pilot training. The training
was very brief, and they learned to fly in less than 6 months. The aircrafts they were flying were
extremely strenuous to operate, weighed almost 60,000 pounds, and went up to 300 mph. 2They
did not learn how to properly fly these aircrafts and how to avoid anti aircraft guns while in the

1
(John Letizia, Sunday December 2nd, 10:14 pm).
2
​Dwyer, Larry. "Boeing B 17 Flying Fortress." ​The aviation history online museum​,
8 Sept. 1996, www.aviation-history.com/boeing/b17.html. Accessed 28 Nov.
2018.
sky. After he finished basic pilot training, he left for England. He started missions almost
immediately, and process was expedited as the war escalated.
When he was stationed in Yorkshire, he was specifically at RAF Snaith. This base was
operated by the English, but had squadrons of U.S. soldiers stationed there. Most of the U.S
pilots operated along side of the English, as the they needed any help they could get. They were
very thankful for any help that was provided by the their allies, The more pilots, the more
missions that were executed.
“​Throughout the war, Great Britain acknowledged that the United States had surpassed it
as the world's top power by accepting a command hierarchy that put Americans in
supreme command positions in all major theaters of the war.” 3
This was an English perspective on the U.S. involvement in WW2. This helped the U.S. solidify
a role as one of the world’s most powerful countries. The English received help from the U.S. as
well Canada. Whether that be via supplies or from air force soldiers. Most Canadian pilots were
sent to different bases, like RAF East Moor, which was partly run by Canadian soldiers. They
would participate in similar missions to the U.S. pilots. All of the help that the English received
from the Americas was very much needed. The allied powers were given the advantage over
Nazi Germany, for the first time in all of the war.
A pilot’s job is to get the aircraft from one area to another, and are responsible for the
lives of everyone on board the aircraft. In addition to this, pilots out of England were responsible
for dropping a bomb capable of killing thousands of people in one run. They would fly 500 miles
to destroy airstrips and factories. The goal of these missions was not kill civilians, or even to kill
anybody for that matter. The goal was to destroy artillery and technology that the Germans
would be able to use against the English. These were stressful, high stakes missions that could
cost the pilot or other people their lives. A lot of guilt and responsibility was put on these pilots
who flew the planes, specifically the B-17 planes (which were all aluminum except for the steel
cockpit). They also targeted German military bases. The flights were done without radar,
something that is essential to modern pilots. During night flights, they would calculate where
they were by how much fuel they had remaining. As my father explained in the interview, “they
basically had a certain amount of gas they had to go 300-500 miles into Germany and at a certain
point they dropped the bombs depending on timing, on the compass, and based on where they
thought they were. And then they headed back and this was before pressurized cabins.
Sometimes the temperature 20,000 feet above sea level would be -30°and they had to dress
warmly with multiple layers. Even the oxygen mask sometimes stuck to their face frozen”4

3
​Jones, Steve. "The U.S. and Great Britain: The Special Relationship Forged In War." ThoughtCo, Jun. 14, 2018,
thoughtco.com/us-and-great-britain-the-special-relationship-p2-3310125.
4
​ ​(John Letizia, Sunday December 9th 6:33 pm).
 The conditions of the flights were not glamorous, and the pilots were responsible for
staying in formation. They only would leave formation to avoid anti-aircraft guns. They also had
a certain time where they had to drop the bombs. If they did not drop them at that moment, they
would not have enough fuel to return home. At night, there was no way for the pilots to know
where the other planes were, so they would sometimes drop the bombs on the plane below. This
earned the nickname of “dead reckoning.” Planes would often get destroyed by the pure weight
of the bomb. These experiences were very traumatic for the pilot and the crew, as the bomb had
not even gone off yet.
When these bombs made contact with an object, they would reek havoc on wherever they
hit. The reason for the bombing was to create a disadvantage for the German army, whether that
be blowing up a gun factory or a a military air-strip. They consistently did this, but they had to
be constantly dropping bombs. But there was no way to know the exact amount of casualties on
the German end. After they dropped the bombs, they would immediately turn around and try to
make it home as safely as possible. They only had enough fuel to make it there and back. If the
pilots made it back, they would sit on the shore and wait for their fellow pilots to return (if they
even did at all!). Sometimes planes would crash 1 mile off shore. They would go on mission
every three weeks. Germany had bombings of their own too, but chose a different reason to
bomb. Adolf Hitler was upset that the English Air Force was so superior compared to Germany,
he bombed the Capitol with a vow to destroy it. Nicknamed the “Blitz,” in September of 1940
he bombed consecutively for 76 nights, including raids throughout the day with over 600 planes.
He bombed Liverpool, Manchester, Swansea, Cardiff, Bristol and Southampton. These attacks
devastated the English. It killed over 43,000 people and wounded 139,000 people.5 Within about
a year, American troops had arrived.
My Uncle arrived home and became depressed almost immediately. He saw so much
tragedy with his brothers in the Air Force, and he felt guilty for the lives he might have taken
with the bombs he dropped on the Germans: “I really think it affected him the later missions
where they were just bombing anything. Whether it was a cow patch or city or a suburb, they had
to drop the bombs at a specific site.”6 They also did not receive the same level of appreciation as
other soldiers. “Their contribution to the war effort has been partly overshadowed by the
controversy over the saturation bombing of German cities in 1944 and '45, in which tens of
thousands of German civilians were killed.”7 Instead of coming home with medals of honor,
most pilots came home depressed and dishonored. They had the one most stressful jobs in the

5
Gilbert, Adrian. "The Blitz." Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/event/
the-Blitz.
6
​ ​(John Letizia, Sunday December 2nd, 10:14 pm).
7
​Fielder, Mark. "The Air War, and British Bomber Crews, in World War Two."
​BBC,​ 17 Feb. 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/
air_war_bombers_01.shtml. Accessed 17 Feb. 2011.
war and had to make some of the hardest decisions. My Uncle did not feel much pride about his
time in the war, so he did not often talk about it. After he had gotten home, he went to college
and became an engineer. He was living with his parents at the time when he met his future wife,
“he was fixed up on a blind date with a german women who was actually 3rd
generation… they got married and lived in staten island… he did have two children but
again the war had such an effect on him that- I don’t want to say he was cold- but he
never showed his feelings. But he just expected everybody to grow up and do the right
thing and go to school and join the army.”8
Although I cannot say whether his time in the world was for better or for worse, I can say that it
shaped him and influenced every aspect of his life going forward.
Pilots, like my great Uncle, went through a lot of stress and very little training, but did
not receive the recognition they deserved. They performed long, onerous missions that were very
high stakes. They flew in large and fast planes that were not designed for missions of the
distance from England to Germany. The pilots dealt with emotional disorders post-war and
lacked the praise that many war veterans received. This lead to how service men were treated
after the vietnam conflict, and how the U.S. brought more relevance to organizations such as the
Veteran Affairs.

8
​ (​ John Letizia, Sunday December 2nd, 10:14 pm)
 Works Cited

Dwyer, Larry. "Boeing B 17 Flying Fortress." ​The aviation history online museum,​ 8 Sept. 1996,

www.aviation-history.com/boeing/b17.html. Accessed 28 Nov. 2018.

Fielder, Mark. "The Air War, and British Bomber Crews, in World War Two." ​BBC​, 17 Feb.

2011, www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/air_war_bombers_01.shtml. Accessed

17 Feb. 2011.

Gilbert, Adrian. "The Blitz." ​Encyclopedia Britannica​, www.britannica.com/event/the-Blitz.

Ni, Preston. "14 signs Psychological and Emotional Manipulation." ​Psychology today,​ 11 Oct.

2015,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/communication-success/201510/14-signs-psychologi

cal-and-emotional-manipulation. Accessed 19 Dec. 2018.