Book Review: ‘Lettice Curtis: Her Autobiography’ by Lettice Curtis

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RAF cadets with the local population, to their obviously mutual benefit, is well described, as is the obvious pride that the citizens of Terrell had in the exploits of 'their' ex-students, including Flight Sergeant Arthur Aaron who was (posthumously) awarded the Victoria Cross in 1943. The penultimate chapter follows the School through to its closure as the need for pilots rapidly reduced - although not before showing how clearly the training requirements for pilots had changed over the four years of operation. The original 150 hour all-through training programme involved cross-country flights of up to a couple of hundred miles in length, but by 1945 two thousand mile flights were being carried out by up to 15 aircraft operating together. The epilogue provides a link between the past and the present in the shape of the story of the final memorial to those airmen who had died whilst training such a long way from home. It is clear throughout that the town of Terrell, Texas, is still proud of its British visitors and the part that they played in what is accurately described as "One of the greatest wartime cooperative ventures ever undertaken between nations".

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