The Central Gunnery School (CGS) was formed on 6 November 1939 after the RAF recognised the need for both continuing and advanced instruction, initially for air gunners in Bomber Command. Its first base was
RAF Warmwell and the CGS ran its first course in April 1940, where the main focus was on turret-gunnery. On 1 April 1942 the CGS moved from
RAF Chelveston near Northampton to RAF Sutton Bridge. During the
Battle of Britain, it became apparent that while aircrew had acquired essential flying skills, they had received little or no training in aerial gunnery. This was a serious deficiency for inexperienced pilots, meaning such training and the teaching of
deflection shooting had largely to be carried out or just picked up during operations, resulting in fewer combat successes. For this reason, and after repeated approaches to senior officers by Wing Commander
Adolph Malan widely known as ‘Sailor’ Malan, he finally received authority to set up a Fighter Wing at the CGS. He was a respected leader and high-scoring fighter pilot, whose Ten Rules For Air Fighting were already on many fighter squadron notice boards. There was mutual advantage for the Bomber and Fighter wings to be based at the same location so that relevant gunnery flying exercises could be carried out together. Thus, the Central Gunnery School transferred to Sutton Bridge on 1 April 1942, with its new wider remit, and remained until February 1944. It comprised the Gunnery Leader (Bomber) Wing and the Pilot Gunnery Instructors Training Wing. Each training course lasted a month and comprised 10 fighter pilots and 32 air gunners; with a 50% overlap of courses there were always twice that number of airmen at the School. Thus, its purpose was to give advanced training to experienced aircrew to become gunnery Instructors who were then posted to airfields around the country to use their newly acquired instructing skills. Fighter Command and Bomber Command worked together at the airfield. The two principal aircraft used were the
Supermarine Spitfire and the
Vickers Wellington respectively, although a large number of aircraft types were based at the airfield.
Pilot Gunnery Instructors Training Wing Spitfire pilots with operational experience were given a month's training to become gunnery Instructors who would then be posted out to APCs (Armament Practice Camps) to teach freshly trained pilots deflection shooting. Some of the training was undertaken using wing-mounted cine-cameras, simulating attacks with machine guns and cannons. In order to learn how to attack bombers and to learn dogfighting skills, the simulated attacks were made on both Wellingtons and on other Spitfires; for some purposes the School's target towing aircraft were sufficient as targets for these attacks. The gunnery film taken during simulated attacks was subsequently evaluated to assess proficiency. Training using live ammunition was carried out on drogue targets (similar to a windsock), towed behind a
target tug, most commonly
Miles Masters or
Westland Lysanders.
Hawker Henleys were also used briefly at the School - see link for photograph of a drogue. The CGS operated its own Target Towing Flight. The ammunition of various Spitfires was painted in different colours, for example, blue green and red. Three Spitfires made attacks on one drogue, after which the target-towing aircraft dropped the drogue at a dropping zone near the airfield; it would then stream another drogue in readiness for another three pilots to make their attacks. By subsequent examination of the colour of the paint around the holes in the drogue, percentage hit rates of individual pilots could be assessed. In 1943, the Air Ministry produced a 48-page training book for fighter pilots titled "Bag The Hun". This dealt with the estimation of range and angle off in deflection shooting, with the sub-title "Try This Series Of Exercises & Improve Your Shooting". This formed the basis of the training, and was issued to all instructors and pilots attending fighter gunnery courses. (For modern animation of a gunnery training class, see external links.) A typical series of pilot's logbook entries for training flights during a course at the School would include: Ranging and line of flight on
Spitfire; Range estimation on
Wellington Bomber (Wimpy); ¼ attack on Wimpy; Deflection practice on Spitfire 200mph; Deflection 250mph; Deflection 300mph; ¼ attack on Spitfire; Half roll attack on
Miles Master; ¼ attack and half roll from above on Wimpy; Spitfire evading 200mph; Spitfire evading 300mph; ¼ attack on Miles Master; ¼ attack on Miles Master with patter; Varied attacks on Wimpy; Astern shots at Spitfire; Snap shots at Spitfire; Attacking Wimpy taking full evasion. (Wimpy = RAF aircrew nickname for Vickers Wellington bomber).
Gunnery Leader (Bomber) Wing During the simulated attacks by Spitfires on Wellingtons, the bomber Gunnery Leaders were also trained using cine-film rather than live ammunition. Again, the film was subsequently evaluated to assess proficiency. After passing the course, trainees were posted to Operational Training Units around the country, where they became Instructors to train bomber gunnery crews.
Officers commanding Central Gunnery School 1942 to 1944 Station Commanders RAF Sutton Bridge: • 7 May 42 to 5 Sep 42 Gp. Capt.
Claude Hilton Keith • 5 Sep 42 to 26 Nov 43 Gp. Capt. Charles Eric St John Beamish • 26 Nov 43 to 22 Feb 44 Gp. Capt. Michael Harington Dwyer Officers Commanding Pilot Gunnery Instructor Training Wing, CGS: • Mar 1942 to Sep 1942 Wg. Cdr.
Adolph Malan • Sep 1942 to Dec 1942 Wg. Cdr. Peter Russell 'Johnnie' Walker • Dec 1942 to Jun 1943 Wg. Cdr.
James Rankin • Jun 1943 to Oct 1943 Wg. Cdr. Peter Russell 'Johnnie' Walker • Oct 1943 to (Feb 1944) Wg. Cdr.
Alan Christopher Deere Officers Commanding Gunnery Leader (Bomber) Wing, CGS: • Mar 1942 to Jun 1942 Wg. Cdr.
John Mortimer Warfield • Jun 1942 to Jun 1943 Wg. Cdr. J.J. Sutton • Jun 1943 to Dec 1943 Wg. Cdr. Claydon • Dec 1943 to (Feb 1944) Wg. Cdr. Arthur Ernest Lowe Chief Instructors Fighter Wing, CGS: • Mar 1942 to Sep 1942 Sqn. Ldr.
Allan Richard Wright • Oct 1942 to Feb 1943 Sqn. Ldr.
Peter William Lefevre • Feb 1943 to Jun 1943 Sqn. Ldr. Thomas Balmforth • Jun 1943 to Sep 1943 Sqn, Ldr.
Robert Dafforn (K) • Sep 1943 to (Feb 1944) Sqn. Ldr.
Archibald Winskill The Central Gunnery School transferred to
RAF Catfoss in March 1944. ==Closure and later use==