HOW THIS BOOK BEGAN Will Largent, my late father-in-law and the author of RAF WINGS OVER FLORIDA, attended the 1990 annual Memorial Day service at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Arcadia, Florida a short time after he and his wife Gertrude retired to Sarasota. This was the 25th year in which families, friends, and representatives of the British government and military had gathered in this place to commemorate the 23 RAF cadets who died during training in the 1940's. As Will explains in his Introduction, he was attracted to the story of the cadets and their training experiences partly because of his own wartime experiences as a U.S. Army Air Corps radio operator/gunner flying aboard Martin Marauder (B-26) bombers out of bases in North Africa and Italy. Like his fellow crew members, he welcomed the sight of British fighters flying as escorts on bombing missions over Europe. On his last mission, Will was shot down and became a POW under the Nazis in southern France in August 1944. After a few weeks, as Allied troops advanced on the small town where he was held prisoner, the German admiral commanding the medical detachment where Will was being treated for injuries suffered after he parachuted from his burning aircraft, surrendered to Will. This was very likely one of the few instances in all of World War II in which a high-ranking Axis officer surrendered his ceremonial sword, himself, and his troops to an Allied enlisted man! For this achievement, Will was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French, one of the highest military honors possible. As a history buff and former journalist, Will began initially to prepare what he thought would be an article of perhaps 10 or 15 pages. However, as he came in contact with more and more of the former cadets, instructors, and civilian personnel associated with the training programs in Arcadia and Clewiston, it became clear that he would have enough material for an entire book. His research and writing continued from 1990 until his death in 1998, although the text of the book was essentially completed by 1995. I became involved as an editor of the book after I got to know Will following my marriage to his daughter Denise in 1990. In 1992 I began to scan Will's 450-page typewritten manuscript and convert it into a computerized document which would allow more efficient editing, revising, and indexing. After Will passed away in January 1998, I completed the final edits, selected and captioned photographs, prepared a camera-ready manuscript, and arranged through a company in Tampa to have a small quantity of books printed and bound. Later, in 1999, I was gratified when Purdue University Press agreed to publish the book, because this would result in more efficient and broader marketing of the work through the libraries, colleges, booksellers, and other channels available to a university press. Through contacts with veterans' groups, news media, historians, libraries, and individuals, about 350 copies of the book (both the early privately printed version and the Purdue University Press edition) have been distributed in the U.S. and in the United Kingdom and other places abroad.   WHY BRITISH CADETS WERE TRAINED IN FLORIDA The idea of training British pilots in the United States was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's response to Prime Minister Winston Churchill's plea in a radio address on February 9, 1941: "Give us the tools and we will finish the job," said Churchill, referring to war materiel and other kinds of support. Roosevelt's answer came in the form of Lend-lease legislation which allowed Britain (and later other Allied nations) to acquire war materiel against the promise to pay after the war was over. The actual plan had been hotly debated in the U.S. Congress over a two-month period, but the Lend-lease bill became law in March of 1941. Now heralded as a major achievement in Roosevelt's presidency, the Lend-lease Act may well have had the greatest impact of any single event in modern world history. Had it not passed, there is little doubt that Britain and the U.S.S.R. would have lost World War II, with disastrous results almost certain to follow. The Lend-lease Act clearly spelled out where the United States stood and would involve an expenditure of more than 50 billion dollars between March of 1941 and September of 1946. In addition to a combat-free environment, the locations chosen for the pilot training bases were almost all in what now are called "Sunbelt" states -- including, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, among others. Year-round weather conditions generally permitted much more flying time than states further north -- and certainly more than England, where cloudy weather often combined with frequent enemy attacks to make such training almost impossible. The base at Arcadia operated under the Arnold Plan -- named for U.S. Army Air Forces general Henry J. "Hap" Arnold -- during its first year of operation, which began in June 1941. This involved both RAF and U.S. cadets. In Clewiston, the base was established at the outset as Number 5 British Flight Training School, or BFTS, operating until it closed its doors in August 1945. Between July 17, 1941 and August 25, 1945, about 1800 Royal Air Force cadets, Courses 1 through 24, entered six-month pilot training Courses at Riddle. Graduating and winning wings as pilots were about 1400. There were 300 graduates commissioned pilot officers and 1100 given pilot sergeant rank. Many of the pilot sergeants were later commissioned, with some rising well above mid-level RAF ranks. The first group of British cadets -- 99 in number -- arrived to a rousing reception at Arcadia, where they were greeted at the railroad station on Monday morning at 6:15 (June 8, 1941) by throngs of Arcadians, including DeSoto County cowgirls wearing colorful rodeo regalia. Tired, hot, hungry and sleepy, the young "hope-to-be-pilots" had been riding the train from Toronto for about forty-eight hours. They were dressed in wool civilian suits, neckties and safari-style pith helmets. Soon they were directed to the Arcadia House, where hotel employees, backed up by women of the Trinity Methodist Church, served the boys orange juice, tea, coffee and doughnuts on tables set up on the lawn of the hotel. That was an appetizer. A caravan of volunteers, driving their own cars, transported the cadets to the field where they settled into their quarters, showered, changed into tropical weight clothing and then had breakfast. The British boys would share quarters and some training with the fifty-three American Air Corps cadets who had three or four weeks to go in the primary course before being shipped out to Basic flight training. From that point on, Carlstrom would remain all-British until May of 1942, when the Arnold Plan at Carlstrom ended, and the field reverted to training of U.S. Army Air Corps cadets.   WHAT THE BOOK TELLS US ABOUT ARCADIA AND CLEWISTON In two chapters in his book, Will tells of both Arcadia and Clewiston as sites for World War II military training bases. As some of you in today's audience may be aware, the area which became the Arnold Scheme training base in Arcadia had already been used as a pilot training facility as early as World War I. As Will puts it in his book: "Named after famed flier Victor Carlstrom, who was killed in a 1917 plane crash, the field was where the likes of Eddie Rickenbacker had won his wings before becoming the legendary air ace with the Congressional Medal of Honor. Determined to see the once-proud training field restored to playing a key role in training U.S. Army Air Corps pilots, a group named Airbase-for-Arcadia went into action during the 1930s." Will then goes on to describe the eventually successful efforts of local citizens and Florida Senator Duncan Fletcher and Florida Congressman William Sears in persuading the federal government to re-establish a base near Arcadia. Stories from contemporary news reports published by the Florida News Service and by the local newspaper, The Arcadian, are summarized and quoted extensively in this chapter of the book. Suffice it to say that Carlstrom Field was rededicated as a training base for both RAF and U.S. cadets on April 5, 1941 -- 61 years ago this spring. Will includes similar information about the base in Clewiston, where the Number 5 British Flight Training School (BFTS) was formed.   THE CADETS AND THEIR "FLORIDA FAMILIES" For many readers, the most entertaining, touching, and interesting parts of RAF WINGS OVER FLORIDA are the published reminiscences by the former cadets, both U.S. and British, with whom Will communicated during his research. In a few cases he met and talked with these men personally, but for the most part he learned about their adventures through letters sent by mail. I tried gently to persuade Will to consider joining the "high-technology revolution" by acquiring a computer and getting involved in electronic mail and Internet surfing, but he stuck steadfastly to his trusty Smith-Corona word processor. And even though I am a confirmed user of e-mail myself and have found the Internet a very useful source of information and contacts regarding the book, I find it fascinating to read the scores of letters -- both typed and hand-written, sometimes on simple note paper and in other cases on elegant embossed stationery -- that Will received from veterans and others who so generously shared their stories. These letters today are in the Riddle Field archives of the Clewiston Museum. The book contains reminiscences from dozens of cadets, instructors, and civilians who had a connection with the training experiences in Arcadia and Clewiston. Some of these are, of course, longer than others, but taken together they contain a wealth of amusing, interesting, sometimes frightening, and often inspiring stories. In the short time I have here today, I can highlight only a few of these accounts. The reminiscence by Bob Davies, the recipient of the Air Force Cross and a graduate of the Arnold Scheme at Carlstrom Field, contains a very unusual story about a misguided bomb drop that occurred during a September 1944 mission over Holland. The Halifax bomber being piloted by Davies was just completing the release of its bomb load. The flying conditions were excellent -- bright sunlight and only very light flak. Suddenly, there was a loud but mysterious-sounding crash. One of Davies' crew members yelled, "There's a big whole in the top of the fuselage about ten feet aft of center!" (I have edited his considerably saltier language here in deference to community standards!) Upon inspection, Davies and his crew discovered that there was an equally big hole in the floor of the fuselage, and the chemical toilet and flare chute had disappeared, exposing a very clear but somewhat frightening view of the Dutch countryside passing several thousand feet below. It soon dawned on him and the crew what had happened: an aircraft flying overhead had dropped a bomb directly through the Halifax bomber, without exploding or knocking out controls. Luckily, no crew member was injured, but the aircraft was severely damaged. Davies and his crew set a course for a crash landing. Fortunately, despite damage and, eventually, bad weather on the return to England, they managed to bring the plane in safely. While enjoying a well-earned cocktail later at the officer's mess, Davies met a young bomb aimer who said he was on the diverted Lancaster that had been flying above Davies's Halifax. In Davies's words, "he raised his glass to me and said, 'Awfully sorry that I saw one of my bombs go through your Halifax. A terrible thing, really.'" Davies shook hands with the man, and they went about their business -- a memorable demonstration of British pluck and gentlemanly behavior. In his memories of Carlstrom Field and Arcadia, Vic Hewes, a British-born flier who became a commercial airline pilot after World War II and who today is retired and living in the Atlanta, Georgia area, recalls: Flying over the orange groves and smelling the blossoms even at one-thousand feet. ... Enjoyable indeed were our days off at Carlstrom. Four of us ... would rent a car in Arcadia for one dollar an hour and drive to Miami and West Palm Beach. The roads were straight and we drove with the gas pedal flat down whenever possible. It's a wonder that we survived those trips. The flying was safe, the driving was dangerous. Sometimes we would take a Trailways bus from Arcadia to Sarasota, where we were met by many residents who took us to their homes for the night. Not only were we wined and dined -- we were taken to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Ringling Museum. ... I was fortunate to meet a very nice family by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Lowell Morey, who invited us to their home anytime we could get away to Sarasota. We became good friends and corresponded for many years after the war. The folks in Arcadia gave us a dance and made us feel welcome. Vic Hewes's memories of the kindness and friendship of local citizens in and around Arcadia are shared by a great many of the British former cadets whose stories appear in RAF WINGS OVER FLORIDA. Indeed, the bonds of friendship became so strong that in some cases they led to marriage between a cadet and a daughter in the family. Some of these men became so fond of Florida that they chose to settle or establish homes here in their later lives. A great many of them have continued to visit the area since their youthful experiences in the 1940's. A comment received from a former cadet with whom I correspond often via email highlights the poignant feelings of many who were trained in Florida. I quote from a May 20 message by Henry Wright, an Englishman living in Vienna, Austria who recently celebrated his 80th birthday and whose story is included in the book: In order to write something about "Wings over Florida" I am reading it again. I find it extremely interesting and exciting, but it is not, for me, an ordinary book. It arouses such a tremendous mixture of strong emotions that they do not die away after I have put the book down. The strong feelings of nostalgia, the longing to feel young and change the events in one's life. The excitement of meeting girls, the feelings of hope of soloing and the fears of being washed out and the envy of those who became pilots. I recall particularly my close friend, Stuart Bell, with whom I kept in touch. He took off from Pradannoch, Cornwall in a Blenheim on his first operation and never returned. I think of him often. However temporary the friendships were, the young men and women I met are implanted indelibly on my mind with nostalgia and affection. My curiosity is continually being reawakened over what happened to them. During the advanced training in a Harvard, over which I felt a stranger, the instructors were army officers, correct and unsympathetic. Others in my class, however, were successful and had the same instructors. I sometimes think I survived the war because I failed, but this is no consolation. I could have become a pilot and survived. Time does not permit me to relate the wonderfully humorous accounts of young men experiencing their first encounters with strong drink and weak young women, but the book contains several such stories. As some of you may know, the British author Edna Dawes (under the pen name "Emma Drummond") wrote an interesting romance novel set in Arcadia and concerned with the rivalry of a British and an American cadet over the attentions of a comely young woman. Her book, THE SAVAGE SKY, was published in 1998. Like many others who have read RAF WINGS OVER FLORIDA, she has expressed gratitude for the wonderful stories and historically important information in Will's book.   ONGOING LINKS WITH THE PAST IN ARCADIA AND CLEWISTON I would like to close my remarks today by noting that Arcadia's continuing link with the stories of the RAF cadets from the 1940's benefits greatly, of course, from the presence of the British plot in that community's Oak Ridge Cemetery. A short time after his passing in January 1998, Will Largent's memory was honored through the planting of an oak tree by my family near this beautiful place, and I believe Will would greatly appreciate this gesture because he was very moved by what he encountered on that Memorial Day 12 years ago. (I am happy to report that my stepdaughter -- Will's granddaughter -- found the tree alive and healthy only a few days ago during her visit with a friend in Arcadia.) At the close of Will's book, he cites the names, home city, and death date for each of the cadets buried at Oak Ridge. He also quotes the very moving epitaphs that appear on their gravestones. I believe that Will, as a veteran who himself narrowly escaped death in battle during World War II, had an especially acute appreciation for the sacrifice made by these young cadets in Arcadia and Clewiston, and indeed by many others who died or were injured later in the war. Although I myself was just a toddler during those years, I too am moved by a visit to this cemetery, and I feel honored to have had a small role in helping the stories that Will so carefully and lovingly assembled reach a wider audience. It has been a great pleasure to hear expressions of gratitude from many people in their 70's and 80's whose memories have been rekindled by reading the book. I would also like to reiterate Will's respect for the people of Arcadia -- in particular the American Legion Auxiliary, the Arcadia Rotary Club, and the City of Arcadia Parks Department -- for their ongoing support of the annual memorial ceremony and the care of the British plot in Oak Ridge Cemetery. I remind all of you that another annual memorial service will be held there this coming Monday, May 27, at 10:00 am. I urge you to attend if you are able to do so. Clewiston also maintains strong ties to Riddle Field through a wonderful collection of letters, artifacts, photos, and other memorabilia in its local historical museum on Commercio Street. If you have an interest in learning more about the RAF in Florida, I recommend you visit this small but interesting site about three hours from St. Petersburg. I can provide a phone number that will help you learn exact driving directions if you wish. I would also like to thank the St. Petersburg-based Florida Aviation Historical Society for publicizing the book to its membership. More information about the FAHS can be obtained from Dr. Warren Brown (warenbrown@aol.com), editor of its newsletter. Information on how to obtain the book is available on an information sheet that I will be happy to give you after today's talk. I thank Roberta Whipple of St. Pete Beach Library for the invitation to speak with you today and would be happy to answer your questions if I can.

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