I do not know much about Jack Ellis as he was from England. Until late in the war, most of the
Flight Engineers were from the RAF. There were three main routes into the Flight Enginneer trade.
In addition to those who enlisted requesting that trade the RAF had begun a training program for
youths starting from 15 years old. The RAF were responsible for the boy's well being and training.
When they turned 18 and had the training the RAF needed the cadets joined the RAF as Flight Engineer.
There were a number of incidents where volunteers from ground crew whoes trades matched the skills
needed for the Flight Engineer trade.
Roy Kent visited Jack and his family right after the war,
but then all contact was lost with him by the rest of the crew who had returned to Canada.
Seated beside the pilot on a seat which was hinged to permit crew to travel to and from the
bomb aimer's compartment in the nose of the aircraft was the Flight Engineer. He assisted
the pilot on take-off and landings by handling the throttles. In flight he was constantly
checking his panels to monitor oil, fuel and pressure gauges to assess engine performance
and fuel consumption from the Lancaster's six wing tanks.
Although Flight Engineers were generally trained to fly the aircraft "straight and level"
they had no formal pilot training and hoped that they would never have to try to land the aircraft.
Jack was assigned to the Roy Kent crew at No. 1666 HCU in Wombleton, England in April 1944.
Jack and the rest of the Roy Kent crew were posted to the 419th squadron at Middleton St. George arrived on May 26 1944.
He flew 32 operational missions with the crew from June to October 1944. I could not find any information
on the date of his commision.
Ellis was screened from 419 and posted to A.C.A.C. on November 6th 1944.
