Appendix L

Arrangements for Naval Officer Volunteers for Service with the Fleet Air Arm (AMWO No. 551)

551. – Fleet Air Arm – Admiralty Orders. (51392/24)

 

The following Admiralty Fleet Orders regarding the Fleet Air Arm are reproduced for information and guidance:-

 

1058 Naval Air Work – Volunteers for, other than, for Air Observation – REPORT

(C.W.3850/24 – 25.4.1924)

  1. Volunteers are required for the Naval Air Work of the Fleet, under the arrangements made by H.M. Government, by which, to the extent of 70%, the Officer personnel of the Royal Air Force employed in the Fleet Air Arm may be provided from Naval Officers attached temporarily to the Royal Air Force for specific periods.
  2. Officers volunteering must be of the rank or relative rank of Lieutenant or Sub Lieutenant, and must not be above the age of 28 on 1st July 1924. Sub Lieutenants must have obtained their watchkeeping certificates. In the main, Officers selected will be of the Executive Branch, but a small number of (E) Officers and Officers, Royal Marines, who satisfy the conditions as to relative rank and age, are also required. Officers before selection will be required to pass a medical examination.
  3. Officers who apply are required to volunteer for service in the Fleet Air Arm, involving attachment to the Royal Air Force for certain periods, the duration of which will be decided by the Admiralty from time to time. Officers who volunteer will not be required to undertake a second or subsequent period of attachment, except with the consent of the Officer concerned. For the present, it is intended that the periods of attachment and General Naval Service shall be approximately as follows:-
    • A. – 1st Period: Air – Four years, which will include a period of training
    • B. – 2nd Period: General Naval Service – Two years C. – 3rd Period: Air – Two years for 50 per cent of the Officers who have completed A. (first period) The rest remain in General Naval Service
    • D. – 4th Period: Air – Two years for 60 per cent of the Officers who have completed C. (3rd period) The rest remain in General Naval Service
    • E. – 5th Period: General Naval Service, or For remainder, if any, of Lieutenant Commander’s Air, as required time for all officers who have completed D. (fourth period)
  4. Appointments of attached officers will be made by the Air Ministry on the nomination of the Admiralty.
  5. Naval or Marine Officers attached to the Royal Air Force will be granted Air Force rank during attachment, the initial rank granted being that of Flying Officer, and will be eligible for advancement in the Royal Air Force irrespective of their rank in the Royal Navy. They will continue to wear the uniform of their Naval or Marine rank, but will wear also a distinguishing badge indicating that they are attached to the Royal Air Force for service in the Fleet Air Arm.
  6. They will continue during the attachment to draw their Naval full pay and will receive in addition an allowance of 6s a day. The allowance may be drawn in addition to the (E) pay or to G.T. or similar specialist allowance. It will be paid during attachment under the general conditions laid down for submarine allowance (Article 1372, clauses 2 & 3 K.R. (King’s Regulations) and A.I. (Admiralty Instructions), KR 17/23) During the periods of Naval General Service, however, when the Officers cease to be attached to the Royal Air Force, the allowance for flying duties will not be payable.
  7. When attached to RAF establishments on shore, they will either be accommodated and rationed, or will be eligible to receive in lieu, in addition to the Naval full pay and flying duties allowance, where applicable, lodging and provision allowance at the Naval rates.
  8. When embarked during periods of attachment their flying duties will be considered as equivalent to specialist duties. They will therefore have the rank and status and authority of their Air Force rank when they are engaged in specialist air duties; at other times when they are engaged in General Naval duties, they will have their Naval or R.M. rank, status and authority. They will be available for ship duty in addition to flying duty, and in order to emphasise this, they will, when appointed to a carrier or other of HM ships, receive an appointment from the Admiralty as well as an appointment from the Air Ministry.
  9. Attached Officers will, as stated in Paragraph 5, be eligible for advancement in the Royal Air Force under RAF Regulations, irrespective of rank in the Royal Navy or Royal Marines, and such advancement will be determined by the Air Ministry, in consultation with the Admiralty.
  10. The promotion in the Royal Navy or Royal Marines of R.N. and R.M. Officers serving in the Fleet Air Arm will be governed by Naval or Marine Regulations, and this service will be considered to be as good service towards promotion as if they had served in any other specialist branches. Naval and Marine Officers who have had six or eight years air experience will be favourably considered for employment in the higher posts in the Fleet Air Arm both ashore and afloat.

    Consequently, an appreciable proportion of such Officers who receive promotion to Commander and above in the Royal Navy, or equivalent rank in the Royal Marines will be required for attachment to the Royal Air Force in higher ranks.

    In addition, there can be little doubt that, with the continued development of Naval air work, air questions must enter more and more largely into Naval staff work, and a knowledge of such questions, must become a very valuable asset for a War Staff Officer, even if it does not become a necessity.

  11. Commanding Officers are to bring this Fleet Order to the notice of all Officers concerned and, in doing so, they should draw their special attention to the following points:-
    • (a)Officers will not, during any of the periods of attachment, lose their association with the Royal Navy. They will, as stated in paragraph 5, continue to wear Naval and Marine uniform, and, except for the initial period of training, they will normally be employed on Fleet air work. It has been arranged that no Naval of Marine Officer attached to the Royal Air Force shall be appointed to a non-Naval unit without the express consent of the Admiralty, and such consent should only be given in exceptional cases, and then only if the Officer himself is willing.
    • (b)Attached Officers, when appointed to carriers or to one of HM Ships will, as indicated in Paragraph 8, be employed as far as practicable, on ship duties as well as Naval air duties, and they will therefore be in a position to keep up their knowledge of other Naval duties. Time in such an appointment to a seagoing ship will count as time at sea for the purpose of qualifying for promotion.
    • (c)All reports, confidential or otherwise, on attached Officers, serving in units of the Fleet Air Arm will be signed by the Captain of the ship and forwarded through Naval and Air Force channels to the Admiralty and Air Ministry. In the event of attached Officers not being borne on the books of one of HM Ships, the reports will be forwarded to the Admiralty through Air Force channels.

      The good service of an attached Officer will therefore come as much under the notice of the Admiralty as if the Officer was serving entirely under Admiralty authority.

    • (d)Officers at present serving as observers and other specialist Officers (G), (T), (N) etc., are not debarred from volunteering under this scheme, and will be considered subject to their services being spared.

      Author’s Note 1: Observers who did not apply for pilot training were specifically excluded from the above provisions. Naval observer posts were never to be manned by RAF officers, and Naval observers remained always under normal Navy Command and under the Admiralty’s authority.

       

      Author’s Note 2: The purpose of these Admiralty Orders, apart from bringing RAF attachments to the notice of Naval and Marine Officers, was to emphasize the attractiveness of such attachments in career terms.

1924 – Fleet Air Arm – Attached Officers to receive Air Force Commissions

(C.W. 6376/24. – 25.7.1924

 

With reference to the first sentence of paragraph 5 of A.F.O. 1058/24 (see above) which reads ‘Naval…Navy.’ it has been decided that in order to ensure the status and authority of attached Naval Officers under Air Force law while under training or at such times during their attachment when they may have to command RAF personnel not under the Naval Discipline Act, they will be given temporary R.A.F. commissions while attached. Such commissions will be given for the above purposes only and will not in any way whatsoever affect their Naval or R.M. status or authority. Attached Naval Officers will invariably be addressed by their Naval titles and if their Naval rank is relatively higher than their Air Force rank they will take precedence (but not command) among Air Force Officers in accordance with their Naval rank.