Treasury approval was given for the formation of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, which helped to broaden the scope of recruiting RAF pilots. The first batch of 50 men was attested in January 1937. Nearly 800 pilots who took part in the Battle of Britain used the RAFVR as their ‘portal of entry’ to the Service. These young could learn to fly and to fight on week nights, Saturdays and Sundays, and at summer camps. This was to be a ‘citizen’s army of the air’.