On the outbreak of the Second World War Long joined he Royal Air Force. He was posted to Driffield where he was to fly the long-range bomber, Armstrong Whitworth Whitley. Long then trained other pilots including Leonard Cheshire. He later explained in Bomber Pilot (1943): "I do not think there can have been a single piece of equipment or a single aspect of flying on which he failed to question me... There was the ground crew also, to each of whom Long (Lofty) introduced me individually, talking of their problems, and the background from which they came and explaining the importance of building up a personal relationship with them."
Cheshire recalled: "Lofty... kept drumming into my head the fundamental lesson of never thinking that you have mastered your job, of applying your whole heart and mind to the task of perfecting as far as is humanly possible the techniques of operational flying. He made me practise and re-practise, study and re-study, experiment and re-experiment. I had to sit in the cockpit blindfold and go through the different drills, sit in the rear turret, in the navigator's and the wireless operator's seat, and try and see life from their point of view.... Hardly any Captain that I ever knew would allow his Second Dicky into the driving seat whilst over the danger zone: thus when one was finally passed out and given a crew of one's own, one had no actual experience of handling the controls under fire. But Lofty (Long) was different: he would give me a clout - with his boot if he could possibly manage it - and bawl out at me to get into his seat and take over... Then from the Second Pilot's position he would talk me into the target and back, not always perhaps in the most complimentary of tones, but in a way that gave me a confidence and experience that I could not possibly have otherwise gained. I must have been the only pilot in the squadron who was ever given such a start as this."
Frank Hugh Long was killed during a mission of 13th March, 1941. Leonard Cheshire later wrote: "Whatever outward face I may have put on it, his loss affected me very deeply and the memory of what I owed him and of all that he stood for remained with me throughout the war. It may sound a peculiar thing to say, and certainly has no rational basis, but I came to think of Lofty as more or less indestructible. It was just, I suppose, that he was so strongly built, so physically fit, and so calm and competent, whatever the situation. Perhaps also there is some innate, subconscious need in man for the perfect model to which one can look up and from which to draw strength and inspiration. Or perhaps in times so uncertain, when even the immediate future was full of the unknown, one would clutch at any straw. At all events, with the night that Lofty failed to return the character of the war changed: I knew now that no one was immune and though in the years that followed I was to meet others with perhaps even greater qualities and greater dedication than Lofty, to whom t also owe my own debt, never again would I look at someone and say, he at least will always come back.''
(1) Leonard Cheshire, Bomber Pilot (1943)
I do not think there can have been a single piece of equipment or a single aspect of flying on which he failed to question me... There was the ground crew also, to each of whom Long (Lofty) introduced me individually, talking of their problems, and the background from which they came and explaining the importance of building up a personal relationship with them.
Cheshire recalled : "Lofty... kept drumming into my head the fundamental lesson of never thinking that you have mastered your job, of applying your whole heart and mind to the task of perfecting as far as is humanly possible the techniques of operational flying. He made me practise and re-practise, study and re-study, experiment and re-experiment. I had to sit in the cockpit blindfold and go through the different drills, sit in the rear turret, in the navigator's and the wireless operator's seat, and try and see life from their point of view.... Hardly any Captain that I ever knew would allow his Second Dicky into the driving seat whilst over the danger zone: thus when one was finally passed out and given a crew of one's own, one had no actual experience of handling the controls under fire. But Lofty (Long) was different: he would give me a clout - with his boot if he could possibly manage it - and bawl out at me to get into his seat and take over... Then from the Second Pilot's position he would talk me into the target and back, not always perhaps in the most complimentary of tones, but in a way that gave me a confidence and experience that I could not possibly have otherwise gained. I must have been the only pilot in the squadron who was ever given such a start as this."
(2) Richard K. Morris, Cheshire (2000)
Long was a New Zealander, and known as Lofty for his alpine stature. Strongly built, broad-shouldered, dark-haired and ofunhurried manner, he was "what we chose amongst ourselves to describe as a 'character'. His juniors he treated as his equals and, as it appeared to us at the time, his seniors as something a little less. Long was meticulous in the preparation of his aircraft, vigilant when flying, calm at times of stress and gifted with a wry humour.
As a mentor he was at once exacting and encouraging. Cheshire came to revere him, possibly even love him. Fifteen pages of Bomber Pilot dwell on the first hours of their acquaintance, and a quarter of the book deals with the six weeks of their partnership. All this was ahead. Long was on leave when Cheshire was put into his crew, but when he returned on the Saturday morning, Cheshire's schooling began.
(3) The British Gazette (2nd January 1940)
Pilot Officer Gray and Pilot Officer Long were respectively Pilot and Navigator on a night reconnaissance flight over enemy territory during November, 1939. During the operations a snowstorm was encountered and the aircraft became badly iced-up, in addition to being subjected to anti-aircraft fire.
Nevertheless the reconnaissance flight was continued but it was not found possible to reach the objective as eventually weather conditions rendered the aircraft practically impossible to control, the upper surface of one wing and half that of the other wing having been stripped of fabric and one "flap" jammed down. The wireless apparatus also failed. The journey home involved a flight of 342 miles over the sea during very heavy rainstorms and it was mainly due to the skill, courage and splendid team work of Pilot Officer Gray and Pilot Officer Long that the aircraft and crew were brought safely back.
(4) Leonard Cheshire, unpublished manuscript.
Whatever outward face I may have put on it, his loss affected me very deeply and the memory of what I owed him and of all that he stood for remained with me throughout the war. It may sound a peculiar thing to say, and certainly has no rational basis, but I came to think of Lofty as more or less indestructible. It was just, I suppose, that he was so strongly built, so physically fit, and so calm and competent, whatever the situation. Perhaps also there is some innate, subconscious need in man for the perfect model to which one can look up and from which to draw strength and inspiration. Or perhaps in times so uncertain, when even the immediate future was full of the unknown, one would clutch at any straw. At all events, with the night that Lofty failed to return the character of the war changed: I knew now that no one was immune and though in the years that followed I was to meet others with perhaps even greater qualities and greater dedication than Lofty, to whom t also owe my own debt, never again would I look at someone and say, "he at least will always come back.''
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