DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the No. 1 British Flying Training School, out in Kaufman County. Now, by 1939, the British government had already started doing the math on a very unpleasant possibility. If war came with Germany — and the signs weren't good — training pilots back home might not be an option for long.
So they looked outward. Commonwealth countries, yes, but also civilian flight schools in the United States, schools not entirely unlike what the U.S. Army Air Corps was already using at the time.
That math paid off. In August of 1941 — and mind you, the United States hadn't even entered World War II yet — the No. 1 British Flying Training School of the Royal Air Force was established in Texas. And not just anywhere in Texas.
In Terrell. The people of Terrell wanted this school, and they made that plain. The Terrell and Kaufman Chambers of Commerce both got involved, working to find a suitable piece of ground for the whole operation.
They found it about one mile south of town, on the Bond and Patton Farms. Major E. F.
Long of Dallas was named as the operator, and the school opened as Terrell Aviation School not long after that. And because the main field was only one main field, to ease congestion they added two auxiliary fields further south — one on the Boykin Farm, one on the Tarver Farm. Now, what were they teaching out there on those fields?
Twenty weeks of preparation. Civilian instructors walked those cadets through flight training and ground school, covering meteorology, airmanship, navigation, and link trainers for instrument flying. The kind of knowledge that, once the skies over Europe turned hostile, would mean the difference between coming home and not.
And the cadets came. From the Royal Air Force, approximately two thousand two hundred of them passed through No. 1 BFTS. Another one hundred and thirty-eight came from the U.S.
Army Air Forces. The motto of No. 1 BFTS said it plainly: the seas divide, but the skies unite. But here's the part that sticks with you.
This wasn't just a school sitting apart from town, behind a fence, doing its military business in silence. The people of Terrell welcomed those cadets in. The cadets, for their part, contributed their talents to the cultural life of the town.
For years, young men far from home in the middle of a world war found something like community in a small Texas city. And then it was over. September 10, 1945 — the final cadets left Terrell's Railroad Station.
A contingent of local citizens was there to wave them on. Whatever you make of goodbyes like that, there's a weight to them that doesn't need embellishing. In 2002, the No. 1 BFTS Museum opened in Terrell, set up to commemorate not just the wartime school itself, but the continuing cooperation between the British Commonwealth and the United States — in war and in peace.
The seas divide, they said. But the skies unite. In Terrell, for a few years during the worst of times, that wasn't just a motto.
It was a fact on the ground.
What the marker says
By 1939, the British government recognized that in the event of war with Germany, training facilities would need to be established overseas in commonwealth countries, or in the U.S. at civilian schools similar to those already utilized by the (then) U.S. Army Air Corps. In August 1941, prior to the U.S. entry into World War II, the No. 1 British Flying Training School (BFTS) of the Royal Air Force (RAF) was established with strong support from the citizenry of Terrell. Both the Terrell and Kaufman Chambers of Commerce assisted in locating a suitable location for the new training school. Following the naming of Major E. F. Long of Dallas as the operator of the school, a site was selected about one mile south of Terrell on the Bond and Patton Farms. Terrell Aviation School opened shortly thereafter. In addition to the main field at the No. 1 BFTS, to ease congestion the school had two auxiliary fields to the south of Terrell on the Boykin and Tarver Farms. Civilian instructors provided the cadets with 20 weeks of preparation that included both flight training and ground school classes that covered meteorology, airmanship, navigation, and "link" trainers for instrument flying. During World War II the school trained approx. 2,200 cadets from the RAF and 138 U.S. Army Air Forces cadets. The motto of No. 1 BFTS was "the seas divide, but the skies unite". The people of Terrell welcomed cadets into their community and the cadets contributed their talents to the cultural life of the town. The war over, and their mission complete, on September 10, 1945, the final cadets left Terrell's Railroad Station with a contingent of local citizens waving them on. In 2002, the No. 1 BFTS Museum opened in Terrell to commemorate not only the wartime school, but the continuing cooperation between the British Commonwealth and the United States in war and peace. (2010)