No. 1 British Flying Training School
Terrell, Kaufman County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Foreseeing war with Germany, Britain arranged to train pilots overseas, and in August 1941—months before the U.S. entered World War II—the Royal Air Force's No. 1 British Flying Training School opened just south of Terrell with enthusiastic local backing. Over the war civilian instructors put some 2,200 RAF cadets and 138 U.S. Army Air Forces cadets through 20 weeks of flight and ground school, and the town embraced them under the school's motto, 'the seas divide, but the skies unite.' The last cadets left Terrell's railroad station in September 1945, and a museum opened in 2002 to keep the story alive.
Why it matters
It marks a little-known thread of Allied cooperation on American soil, where a small Texas town helped train the airmen of Britain's Royal Air Force during World War II.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
As the 1930s closed, Britain looked toward another war with Germany and confronted a hard problem: where to train the thousands of pilots such a war would demand. The skies over the British Isles would be crowded, contested, and dangerous—poor classrooms for cadets learning to fly. The answer was to train them overseas, in the Commonwealth and, crucially, in the still-neutral United States.
America in 1941 was a nation on the edge of war but not yet in it. Formal neutrality limited what the government could do, so training arrangements often ran through civilian schools rather than the military—an arrangement that let Americans help prepare Allied airmen before the country itself entered the fight.
Into this picture stepped Terrell, a small town in the North Texas farm country east of Dallas. Its wide, clear skies and flat land made ideal flying country, and its citizens made it welcoming country. The result was one of the more remarkable partnerships of the era: a Royal Air Force training school planted in the heart of Texas, months before Pearl Harbor.
People & events
The school came to Terrell through local initiative as much as national policy. The Terrell and Kaufman chambers of commerce helped find a site, and with a Dallas man, Major E. F. Long, named to operate it, a location was chosen about a mile south of town on farmland. Terrell Aviation School opened its gates, and to ease the crowding of its airfield, additional auxiliary fields were laid out on nearby farms.
What followed was a steady rhythm of instruction. Civilian instructors put cadets through twenty weeks of training that blended time in the air with ground school—meteorology, airmanship, navigation, and hours in "link" trainers learning to fly by instruments alone. Over the course of the war the school trained roughly 2,200 cadets of the Royal Air Force, alongside well over a hundred American Army Air Forces cadets.
But the marker's warmest truth is social, not technical. The people of Terrell took the young airmen in—into their homes, their churches, their community life—and the cadets gave back their own talents to the town. The school's motto caught the spirit exactly: "the seas divide, but the skies unite." When the war ended, the final cadets departed from Terrell's railroad station in September 1945, sent off by townspeople who came to wave them goodbye.
Its place in the American story
This is a small, luminous thread in the larger story of Allied cooperation—proof that the partnership between Britain and the United States was being built on American soil, and in American hearts, before the U.S. formally joined the war. A Texas town helped train the airmen of a foreign ally in the anxious months of 1941.
It also illustrates how total the war effort became, reaching into places far from any front. Terrell had no strategic target, no factory of arms; what it offered was open sky, steady instructors, and a community willing to take in strangers in uniform. That was contribution enough to matter.
And it left a bond that outlasted the war. A museum opened in the town in 2002 to keep the memory alive—not only of the wartime school, but of the ongoing friendship between the British Commonwealth and the United States. The cadets who left from the railroad station carried Terrell with them, and the town has never quite let them go.
If you visit
Come to Terrell ready to be surprised by the incongruity of it: British RAF cadets learning to fly in the North Texas farmland east of Dallas. That surprise is the doorway into the whole story, so let yourself feel it.
The town's museum devoted to the school is the place to anchor your visit—there you can trace the twenty-week course, the auxiliary fields, and above all the human side, the cadets folded into local families and community life. Look for the motto that captured it all, "the seas divide, but the skies unite."
Then imagine the departure. Picture the railroad station in September 1945, the last cadets boarding as townspeople gathered to wave them off. If you visit, carry that farewell with you—it turns a quiet Texas town into a place where an international friendship was made and remembered.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Major E. F. Long
Related events
- · World War II
Themes & tags
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