Netherlands Flight Training in England, 1940-1941

[Tommy Wo!]

I'm looking for details on a program throughout 1940-1941 in which the Royal Air Force provided British flight instructors to help train exiled Dutch pilots following the German occupation of the Netherlands. I'm guessing this took place at Grantham Air Base, approximately 100 miles NNW of London. The few references I've seen regarding this initiative have been very cursory. Most of the allude to it as being unsuccessful with poor results.

Does anyone have additional information on this program? What was the scope? Where was it located? And in particular, why was it considered a failure? I've seen references that the failure of this program gave the KM / MLD pause when forming a similar initiative using American flight instructors on Java in 1941. That program is the subject of my next manuscript which currently numbers around 58,000 words.

Any insight that you might can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[HansV.]

I'm looking for details on a program throughout 1940-1941 in which the Royal Air Force provided British flight instructors to help train exiled Dutch pilots following the German occupation of the Netherlands. I'm guessing this took place at Grantham Air Base, approximately 100 miles NNW of London. The few references I've seen regarding this initiative have been very cursory. Most of the allude to it as being unsuccessful with poor results.

Does anyone have additional information on this program? What was the scope? Where was it located? And in particular, why was it considered a failure? I've seen references that the failure of this program gave the KM / MLD pause when forming a similar initiative using American flight instructors on Java in 1941. That program is the subject of my next manuscript which currently numbers around 58,000 words.

Any insight that you might can provide would be greatly appreciated.

I would expect that the NIMH (Netherlands Institute Military History) has some information on this subject. Try contacting them at: Contact en bereikbaarheid | Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

See also this link: 726 Nederlandse luchtstrijdkrachten in Groot-Brittannië (1940 - 1945) (NIMH / Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie) - Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie