In August 1941, when the first Royal Air Force (RAF) cadets arrived at Cochran Field, Georgia, the Battle of Britain had ended only nine months earlier and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was still four months away. With the fall of France in June 1940, the Germans had turned their attention to invading Great Britain. By July, Hermann Goering had convinced Adolf Hitler that the Luftwaffe could destroy the RAF and guarantee a German invasion of the British Isles.

Between 13 August and 15 September 1940 (the height of the battle), the RAF and the Luftwaffe fought a death struggle over the skies of England to determine the future of Western Civilization. As the combat began, the English had 918 fighters (including 276 Spitfires and 541 Hurricanes) and 1,200 pilots, while the Germans had 2,226 bombers and fighters and over 4,000 pilots and airmen. During the battle, both sides substantially increased their numbers of aircraft and pilots. The RAF more than doubled their numbers. In the end, the RAF lost over 1,000 planes destroyed or heavily damaged along with nearly 500 pilots. The Germans lost nearly 2,600 planes and 8,000 (3,000 killed) men. Ultimately, the tactics of Air Chief Marshal Hugh C. T. Dowding and his brilliant Air Vice Marshal, Keith R. Park, which undertook vigorous base defense, rapid airfield repair, the production of new planes, and repair of damaged ones, combined to keep Fighter Command operating unabated.

While the last great German bomber raid came on 15 September 1940, sporadic massed attacks continued through the end of November. Lesser raids continued until the next April. The Italian Air Force was also drawn into the conflict flying 1,700 sorties from October 1940 to April 1941. Their losses were no less staggering than those of the RAF and Luftwaffe. Still, as Basil Collier declares in his book The Battle of Britain, "Sunday, September 15, 1940 was, in some ways, the most significant date in European history since Sunday, June 18, 1815, [Battle of Waterloo]..."((New York: MacMillan Co., Inc., 1962), p. 140)

To be sure, the German failure on that day convinced Hitler to remove his forces from their position on the Channel and send them against the Soviet Union. By 25 November 1940, when Dowding turned over Fighter Command to W. S. Douglas, German forces were already on the march east and to eventual ignominy.

As Winston Churchill declared, it had been England's "finest hour." Indeed, never had "so many owed so much to so few." But, while the Battle of Britain was won by the end of 1940, the need for pilots and planes were greater than ever. Hundreds of the RAF's best and most experienced pilots lay dead on the alter of their country having sacrificed all for the defense of civilization. By 1941, the U.S. had begun programs to reinvigorate the air forces of her soon-to-be ally. Among these brave young RAF cadets who came to the United States were the thousands who received basic flying training from the Southeast Army Air Forces Training Center at Cochran Field.

Indeed, it was the job of U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF) instructors and support personnel to prepare these young men for combat, even as they did for the American cadets who would soon join their English comrades over the skies of Europe and the Pacific. Thus, the appropriate nature of the Command slogan "Prepare for Combat" is, I believe, an appropriate title for this work.

As World War II unfolded many of these cadets, American and English, would duplicate the sacrifice made by their brother pilots in 1940. But, far more would live to assure the victory of freedom over tyranny and to restore peace to Europe and, eventually, the world. Thus, it is the intention of this book to honor the efforts of all these men, living and dead, who gave so much in the defense of their countries. It is also significant and fitting, that Major General William P. Hallin, WR-ALC Commander, has sought to pay homage to these same veterans on 23 March 1994, through a Tattoo Ceremony which was also the geneses of this work.

On behalf of all those involved in this project we at Robins AFB wish to dedicate this work to all those in Great Britain, the U.S., and all nations who served so that we might enjoy the fruits of their victory--FREEDOM!

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