But if you do not know your position, you can't set a bearing to your destination.

Radar was available during the war we had chain home radar stations & the pilots could follow the signals back to base.

Besides a top pilot knows were he is the white cliffs of Dover are in England not France. :-)

These navigation methods do sound a bit stone age. Volvo have a similiar setup on their Sat Nav's.

My father had a habit of landing in the channel that way he got a new plane .

Lol..... What did he fly?

Alex Henshaw's colleague Jeffrey Quill also wrote of his experiences both in the Spitfire and earlier in his career. One of his RAF postings was in the 'Met' flight doing observations of temperature and pressure at various altitudes and in all weathers. Very, very few times did he fail to get back to base; navigation mostly by landmark and stopwatch. Operational minima cae later.

Don't forget there were lots of airfields around London/Kent etc. Biggin, Kenley, Hornchurch etc were main bases with assorted sattelite fields. Although fast by the standards ofthe day the Spit & Hurri landed at around 60-70 and putting it down in a field was possible. The Spitfire's spindly undercarriage meant landings 'off piste' were likley to result in a ground loop and damage but pilots often walked away. The tougher Hurricane survived a little better in these circs.

And plenty of pilots flying in marginal conditions with busted instruments etc were lost inthe Channel and Nort Sea.

Interesting fact is that more air crew were lost in non combat rather than combat situations.But then again there was no Health and Safety dept 1939 to 1945.

Shouldve had high visibility jackets then they wouldve been totally safe.

I know its been a while since a good Jamie-centric-controversy on HJ but theres no need to go drumming one up out of nothing.

People gave their lives so as we had the freedom to decide what we wish to do and say and part of that is im allowed to make a harmless health and safety joke (which was directed at the 'wear high vis and thats safe' brigade and nothing to do with soldiers) if i want to. Just as you have the right to make a big fuss out of it for no reason. It was in response to Collos saying there was no H&S department back then but he doesnt have to put up with this grief.

Edited by jamie745 on 29/10/2011 at 00:16

My father flew Lancesters along with many brave young men who never came back he was lucky but after the war never flew again,I still have his heated flying boots and gloves these people gave everthing so that many unworthy people could have the freedom they now enjoy.

His navigation was done by a navigator when they became incapicitated he flew low so he could try and get some landmarks he new like the channel ,the white cliffs or Lincoln cathedral in foggy weather is when many crashed and lost there lives.Even more remarkable were the big wings how they were able to fly across europe drop their payload and return back to their base.