The Arnold Scheme:: British Pilots American South and the Allies'… (edition 2007)

If you're looking for a book that covers the training of Royal Air Force pilots in the United States, this is it. Expansive in scope, this book covers all aspects of the Arnold Scheme, including how the locations to train the flyers were selected. I have great interest in the history of the Lakeland School of Aeronautics, later known as the Lodwick School of Aeronautics, which was one of two locations in Florida to train RAF pilots, and thousands of USAAF pilots, too. I was nervous to read the account of Cadet Robert Arthur Gordon Cleave, who is the only RAF cadet to have died while based in Lakeland. There's a lot of misinformation regarding his disappearance, often repeated in breathless delight, how he was shot down by a U-boat in the Gulf and carried off to a POW camp. The author notes specifically that the U-boat story is false, which I deeply appreciated.

Each school that was used in the Arnold Scheme has part of a chapter dedicated to it, in addition to chapters discussing the washout rate, Basic flying schools, Advanced flying schools and navigator training. There are also helpful charts in the appendix that compare the stats of each of the flying schools.

A bit dense for the casual reader, and perhaps even the general WWII reader, but to those with interest in the program, it is a wonderful and informative book. ( )