The wartime evolution of non-pilot air crew training.
The RAF had gone to war with just three non-pilot air crew trades, observers, wireless operators (air crew) and air gunners. None of them were commissioned; many were mere aircraftmen. Three years later there were eleven recognised categories and sub-categories (thirteen by 1945) and by then all qualified flying personnel were at least sergeants and very large numbers of them were officers. This remarkable transformation had been supported by a vastly expanded and far more capable training organisation. Some references to specific developments have already been made and others crop up in later chapters but to attempt to describe all of the changes which occurred within the wartime air crew training system in any detail would require a book to itself. Nevertheless, while it can hardly be described as comprehensive, the following outline of its evolution may be helpful.
Figure 33 provides an impression of the main organisational changes that were involved but this too needs to be treated with circumspection, as it features only the mainstream training units, and only those which operated in the UK. Furthermore, while the diagram does provide a reasonable indication of when changes occurred, they were not always implemented instantly. A spate of redesignations, the conversion of B&GSs into AGSs and AOSs for instance, could take a year or more to complete. It will be appreciated, therefore, that the dates shown are notional and do not relate to individual units of which some 300 are represented within the diagram.1
The award of an air crew badge, of any description, was normally conditional upon the recipient’s having completed a prescribed series of courses, the associated ceremony at the end of the sequence representing a kind of ‘right of passage’. Nevertheless, it should be appreciated that, under certain circumstances, it was possible to acquire the right to wear a badge by other means. By the end of 1941, for instance, there had been several instances of officers and airmen, untrained in flying duties, having to be pressed into service to meet urgent operational requirements, one example being the photographic tradesmen who flew as camera operators on reconnaissance missions over Burma and elsewhere. If this situation prevailed for long it was only reasonable for the Air Force to accept that these men had effectively become air crew by default.
This sort of thing had occurred during WW I, when deserving cases had been granted the right to wear an observers badge on the authority of the GOC (see, for example, the case of 2/Lt G A Morris on page 112). A similar arrangement was clearly required during WW II. From the beginning of 1942, therefore, AOCs were authorised to award an appropriate air crew badge to anyone whose CO was prepared to certify that he had passed an OTU course (or could pass the associated tests) and had logged a minimum of thirty hours of operational flying time accumulated in the course of at least ten sorties.2
This regulation, which remained in force for the rest of the war, was also invoked to permit army officers who flew with the RAF as air gunners to wear an ‘AG’ badge.3 This was a temporary concession, however, and the badge had (was supposed) to be removed when the attachment ceased. The Air Ministry’s refusal to permit army officers to retain their battle-stained ‘AG’ badges on ceasing to be attached to the RAF would, incidentally, prove to be a contentious issue (see page 275).
Selection and Initial Training
The point should perhaps be made that in RAF parlance the term ‘initial’ implied (as it still does) the introductory phase of training, ie the period during which a civilian is transformed into something that bears a passing resemblance to a military man. Some professional instruction, possibly including an introduction to the handling of small arms, may be included but the essential content of initial training involves: the issue of a uniform; a sensible haircut; a ‘survival kit’ of Service procedures and Air Force Law, sufficient to give a tyro a better than even chance of keeping out of trouble; ‘jabs’ to immunise the subject against most of the diseases known to the medical profession; instruction on the perils of consorting with the opposite sex, including horrifyingly graphic illustrations of the effects of VD; some basic instruction in first aid and personal hygiene; and plenty of drill, physical training and route marches, often accompanied by a great deal of shouting. Depending upon circumstances, the duration of this phase has varied over time from a couple of weeks to several months.
Most civilians who had enlisted in the Air Force during the immediate pre-war period had received their military indoctrination courtesy of one of the RAF’s, by then three, Recruit Depots. Following general mobilisation, in order to cope with the sudden and massive influx of volunteers and conscripts, not to mention the thousands of reservists who were called to the colours, many more recruit training units had to be opened.4
While these ‘boot camp’ facilities were adequate for the majority of ground tradesmen, it was considered necessary to provide something a little more sophisticated for potential air crew. Furthermore, the military indoctrination phase was to be provided in wartime before embarking on any professional training, whereas it had been the pre-war practice for trainees to attend their disciplinary course at the RAF Depot after preliminary flying training at an ERFTS in the case of pilots or after the CANS course in the case of observers. At the suggestion of Alfred Critchley some consideration was given to re-creating, at Hastings, what amounted to the RFC/RAF Cadet Brigade which had operated there under his command in 1917-18 (see Chapter 8, Note 31). This is more or less what eventually happened, except that it was decided to set up a network of regional units, rather than putting all of the RAF’s eggs in one basket.5
Fig 33. Schematic of the evolution of UK-based, mainstream training units dealing with non-pilot air crew during WW II.
Representative of the tens of thousands of men who passed through the RAF’s Initial Training Wings, photographed in January 1944, this is D Flt of No 3 Sqn of No 8 ITW which was accommodated in the Beaconsfield Hotel at Newquay.
The first dedicated unit, No 1 Initial Training School, opened at Cambridge on 7 September 1939, only to be restyled No 1 Initial Training Wing on the 15th.6 Three more ITWs had opened before the end of the year but they were unable to handle all of the volunteers who were flooding to the recruiting offices and it soon became necessary to introduce ‘deferred service’. That is to say that, once they had been accepted by an Aviation Candidates Selection Board (ACSB), recruits would be sent home to await call-up. Depending upon the capacity of the system and the demand for manpower, a volunteer would often have to wait six months and later in the war it could be a year or more. The first eight ACSBs had been set up at Uxbridge (four), Cardington (two) and Padgate (two) on the declaration of war. Thereafter they proliferated steadily so that by the summer of 1941 there were thirty of them, operating in clusters centred on Oxford, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Blackpool, Penarth, Weston-super-Mare (later Doncaster), Cardington and London (Euston).
To smooth out fluctuations in the intake a Receiving Wing was opened at Babbacombe (Torquay) in July 1940, a second being established at Stratford-on-Avon in November. These two units acted as pools from which the various ITWs were fed. Until mid-1941 they were the first port of call for prospective air crew on joining the Service and it was there that they were medically examined (again, having already been given a cursory once over at the ACSB), inoculated, kitted out and introduced to drill and PT.
On 14 July 1941 the two Receiving Wings were converted into additional ITWs, their original functions having been taken over by the Air Crew Reception Centre (ACRC) which had been set up in London in the previous month.7 Occupying a substantial number of requisitioned properties in St Johns Wood in the vicinity of Regents Park (where meals were taken in the cafeteria of the London Zoo), and including Lords Cricket Ground, the notional capacity of the ACRC was 5,100 men, the intake rate being 1,700 per week. As these figures suggest, a cadet could expect to spend three weeks at the ACRC before being allocated to an ITW. In practice, however, some people were held there for as long as three months.
For a time, cadets who had failed at some stage of training returned to the ACRC to be reselected for some other category. By the autumn of 1941, however, the entire capacity of the ACRC was occupied by new recruits so it became necessary to make other arrangements for reselection. This requirement was satisfied on 6 October by the establishment of a dedicated unit. Set up in Brighton, it was initially assigned the rather depressing title of the Air Crew Disposal Wing.8
To begin with all pilots, observers and air gunners were expected to attend an ITW course, although there was insufficient capacity to cater for the latter until April 1940 when the first batch reported to No 4 ITW at Bexhill. As described below, there was no ITW provision for WOps (or flight engineers) until as late as 1943. By that time there had been a major change in the structure of the system due to the introduction of the PNB scheme in 1942 (see page 222). Prior to this a cadet had been earmarked for a particular air crew category at the Receiving Wing/ACRC stage, and there had been a tendency for individual ITWs to specialise. Under the new scheme the initial selection was carried out by the ACSBs, but only on the coarse basis of PNB, flight engineer or air gunner, the streaming of PNB candidates into specific categories being postponed to the end of a common ITW phase.
On passing their ITW courses, cadets moved on to begin their professional flying training. Until the middle of 1940 this would have been done in the UK but from then on pilots and observers (later navigators and air bombers) were increasingly likely to be sent abroad. To begin with most of them went overseas via the Personnel Distribution Centre (PDC) at Uxbridge. This function was subsequently delegated to Nos 5 and 6 Recruit Centres, at West Kirby and Wilmslow respectively, until August 1941 when the Air Crew Despatch Centre (ACDC) was set up at Heaton Park (Manchester) specifically to handle this outbound traffic, and to provide a modicum of post-ITW continuation training.
By early 1942 overseas training had become the norm, cadets routinely proceeding from their ITWs to the ACDC where they were assembled into drafts and assigned to convoys bound for Canada or South Africa. Between November 1941 and October 1945 Heaton Park’s intake would total 134,490 cadets9 but it could accommodate only 2,000 or so at a time. It often had many more than that on its books and when the ACDC was operating to capacity, cadets awaiting a passage overseas could find themselves detached elsewhere to act as unskilled labour, MT drivers, or, at harvest time, even being put to work in the fields.
The demand for air crew was progressively reduced from the spring of 1944 onwards, so the numbers passing through the ACDC decreased. By early 1945 the outflow to overseas destinations had reduced to a trickle which soon ceased altogether. In effect, this meant that the ACDC had become a holding unit for post-ITW cadets who were in a state of limbo, pending decisions on the eventual size and shape of the post-war air force, and thus of the training system that would support it. Cadets with suitable qualifications (especially internally recruited airmen) were found productive employment elsewhere, while the rest were detached to Bomber and Coastal Commands whence they were recalled to the ACDC every ten weeks for a fortnight’s ‘ITW refresher course’ under what was known as the Rotation Scheme.10 At midnight on 20 October 1945 (just two days before the unit left Heaton Park for Bridgnorth) there were 3,647 cadets subject to these arrangements, of whom 1,840 might be considered to have been found ‘proper jobs’ of some description.11
This early post-war backlog was not a new phenomenon; the problem of surplus cadets had first manifested itself at the ACRC in 1942. To handle the overspill until places could be found for them at ITWs, an Air Crew Camp was established at Ludlow. Opened in May, Ludlow was able to handle as many as 12,000 cadets at a time, providing organised activities in a healthy outdoor environment – a euphemism, some would have said, for hard labour, as the cadets were employed to dig the necessary drainage ditches and lay the foundations for such temporary buildings as were erected. Most of the accommodation was under canvas, however, leading to the camp’s closure in October, although it reopened to provide similar facilities between May and October of 1943. By that time the bulge in the flow of cadets, which had been between the ACRC and the ITWs in 1942, had passed through the system so that it was now making itself felt between the ITWs and Heaton Park. As a result, many of those who were stuck at the ACDC awaiting passage abroad were sent to Ludlow. Ironically, some of these cadets turned out to be the same ones who had cooled their heels there a year before.
So far as navigators were concerned, an attempt was made to provide an alternative form of constructive occupation while Ludlow was unavailable during the winter of 1942-43. In September a Navigator Bomber Pool was set up in Hastings as a detachment of No 3 Personnel Reception Centre (PRC) at Bournemouth.12 The idea was to take some of the cadets backed up at Heaton Park and provide them with some basic continuation training while waiting for their outbound passages. Unfortunately a six-aircraft hit-and-run raid by the Luftwaffe on 24 September killed three cadets and injured forty others so the unit (940 cadets and seventy-three staff) was promptly evacuated to Harrogate. On 11 November it returned to the south coast, taking up residence in Brighton where it remained until the re-opening of the Air Crew Camp permitted it to be disbanded on 31 May 1943, although training had ceased in mid-April.13
By the time the unit closed the rolling programme provided a cadet, who was in residence for a month with the following (hours): parades (36); drill (18); navigation (18); signals (18); law/admin (4); armament (4); swimming (9); arms drill (12); cinema (9); aircraft recognition (4); organised games (12); current affairs (4); geography (4); PT (12); first aid (4). Throughput between 3 November 1942 and 12 April 1943 had amounted to 3,185 cadets.
For the first two years of the war the RAF had been able to recruit its personnel from the upper, ie the better educated, echelons of society. This was a finite resource, however, and by 1941 the Service was being obliged to lower its sights. This is not to say that the men coming forward in 1941 were lacking in enthusiasm, in aptitude or in intellect but it was clear that the national education system had failed to prepare some of them adequately. As a result an increasing proportion of cadets was experiencing difficulty with the more demanding academic aspects of flying training.
With the aim of reducing the wastage rate, an education test was introduced at the ACRC stage in June 1941. Those deemed to be in need of extra tuition were sent to Brighton where an Air Crew Training Wing (ACTW) was established to operate alongside the Disposal Wing and the Officers School (see below). In September 1942 these three units were reorganised to become component parts of the Air Crew Training and Reselection Centre.
The Wartime University Air Squadrons
The function of the Officers School, which had opened for business in May 1941, was to provide an appropriate entry point into the Service for certain air crew candidates arriving from universities. The three pre-war University Air Squadrons (UAS) had been closed down in September 1939 but in August 1940 the Air Ministry learned that the War Office had secured financial approval for a six-month university course culminating in a commission in the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers or Royal Signals. In order to ensure that the RAF had similar access to manpower of this calibre the UAS scheme was restarted in October 1940. In fact the system was considerably expanded so that by mid-1941 twenty universities had air squadrons, in addition to the pre-war units at Oxford, Cambridge and London, all three of which had been re-established.
The status of the reinstated UASs was a little uncertain until the end of 1940 when they were embraced within a rationalisation of all aspects of pre-entry training. This resulted in the UASs being constituted as an element of the newly created Air Training Corps (ATC) which was established by a Royal Warrant of 4 February 1941. Members of UASs wore RAF uniforms but embellished with ATC buttons and cap badges; they were not enlisted into the RAFVR until they left university to embark on their formal flying (or other professional) training.
Some of the standard academic university courses had been abbreviated, compared to peacetime practice, and in imitation of the Army’s initiative the RAF now sponsored its own ‘University Short Course’. Announced in January 1941, the first Short Course began in April, with subsequent intakes at six-monthly intervals. The aim was to provide up to 2,000 potential pilot and observer officers per year with six months of academic training plus ‘a course of ground instruction in Service subjects similar to that carried out’ at an ITW, the latter aspect being handled by the UAS, membership of which was mandatory.14 No practical flying was involved, the sole intention at this stage being to turn high grade material into potential air crew officers, not to train them as aviators.
To begin with, ten universities were involved in this specifically air crew-oriented programme, but three dropped out during 1942. In practice the numbers involved never approached those authorised; compared to a capacity of some 5,000, the total intake on the first five courses, ie up to and including April 1943, had been only 3,001.15 The October 1944 intake numbered 880 but it was known that, following their graduation, these men would have to wait at least six months before entering flying training and it was becoming increasingly clear that anyone on later courses was unlikely to become operational before the war ended. Admissions to the April 1945 intake were, therefore, limited to a total of 150 and the number of participating universities was reduced to five. Long term planning envisaged the RAF-sponsored course being extended to one (academic) year with a single annual intake in October but this was run only once and by July 1946 the last Short Course pupils had left.
In all 5,639 prospective air crew were admitted to the nine wartime University Short Courses and approximately 5,300 of them will have been commissioned into the RAFVR via this scheme.
Meanwhile, what of ‘ordinary’ undergraduates? Surviving statistics are fragmentary but in October 1941 the membership of the twenty active UASs stood at 1,225.16 Of these: 365 were remaining at university for another term; 569 had been accepted into the RAFVR (482 as potential pilots, fifty-five as observers, eight as WOp/AGs, twelve as technical officers and twelve as administrators) and a further twenty-eight had joined the FAA. The remaining 263 had presumably not yet enlisted in the RAFVR, been rejected for military service, joined one of the other Services or been earmarked for other war work by the Ministry of Labour.17
As with the RAF Short Course, the UAS syllabus for undergraduate entrants was concerned solely with classroom work and providing an indoctrination into the ethos of the Service. While the concentrated ground instruction and exposure to Service procedures provided by the UAS was deemed to have been sufficient to permit a Short Course pupil to by-pass the formal ITW phase, this was not always the case with undergraduate entrants some of whom still needed to be given some form of introduction to the ‘real’ air force, hence the need to spend three weeks at the Officers School in Brighton.
Fig 34. The five role-specialised ITWs that were still operating in the summer of 1944.
Most squadrons ‘owned’ a Tiger Moth which was kept at a nearby airfield but it was there only to enable the staff to keep their hands in and to permit liaison between squadrons, not for instructional purposes. No doubt the occasional squadron member will have been taken up for a ride but such air experience as was provided (if any) was more likely to have been acquired ‘in bulk’ using a borrowed Anson or the like.
By January 1944 only eighteen UASs were still operating, their combined membership (excluding Short Courses) standing at 533, ninety-eight of whom were potential technical officers. The distribution varied widely, 50% of the total being concentrated at London, Leeds and Swansea, while six of the other squadrons had fewer than ten members each.18 By the autumn of that year the end of the war could be predicted with sufficient confidence for the RAF to conclude that anyone entering university from then on was unlikely to see active service. Furthermore, although the Air Ministry wished to offer graduates a full peacetime career, it was impossible to forecast how many might be needed. For these reasons, as with the Short Course, the undergraduate intake into the UASs was considerably reduced from October 1944 onwards.
Later Developments in Pre-Entry and Initial Training
Meanwhile, during 1942 the numbers of ordinary entrants assessed as needing remedial training had increased to such an extent that the ACTW could no longer cope. To provide the necessary additional capacity the Air Ministry co-opted the assistance of a country-wide network of polytechnics and technical schools, institutes and colleges. This arrangement, the Preliminary Air Crew Training (PACT) scheme, came into being when the first four PACT Centres opened in March 1943, offering six-month courses.
By this time candidates were sitting their education tests at the ACSBs. Those who were considered satisfactory were sent home on deferred service to await call up, whereupon they reported to the ACRC for their three weeks of formal induction. Those assessed as being in need of further tuition were sent to the PACT Wing, which had been set up within the ACRC at Regents Park on 18 February 1943. This unit, which could handle up to 600 cadets at a time, served as a pool from which the PACT Centres could be fed.
For a while the Air Crew Training and Reselection Centre (which left Brighton for Eastchurch in May 1943 when it was restyled the Combined Reselection Centre) maintained its involvement in remedial training. By the summer, however, the civil-based system was sufficiently well-established to permit the embedded ACTW to be closed down on 8 August. By September there were twenty-one PACT Centres in operation, providing pre-ITW training for more than 3,000 cadets.
By early 1943 the ITW system had hit its stride with each unit now handling a specific group or individual category of air crew broken down as PNB, WOp/AG, flight engineer and/or air gunner. Depending upon trade, courses lasted between six and twelve weeks (fourteen for Poles passing through their own school).19 The syllabus content also varied, but in each case, while it still involved ample quantities of drill and PT, it always contained a good deal of very relevant basic instruction in airmanship, mathematics, meteorology, navigation, aero-engines and the theory of flight. This approach reflected Air Cdre Critchley’s belief that, once they were engaged in practical flying training, cadets could become so preoccupied that they could think of little else. The aim of Critchley-style initial training, therefore, was to strengthen the body and hone its reflexes while filling the mind with academic knowledge to be exploited at a later stage. This philosophy had worked well during WW I and it proved to be equally effective in WW II.
By the end of 1943 there were twenty-three ITWs distributed between fifteen locations, this organisation being able to accommodate no fewer than 17,500 cadets at a time.20 Having achieved such mammoth proportions, the training system had actually outgrown itself and, in line with a cutback in the BCATP programme (see below), there was a major rationalisation of initial training early in 1944, the number of wings being halved. Even this swingeing reduction was insufficient, however, and the system continued to contract so that by July only the five wings at Figure 34 were still in commission. Since responsibility for selection had been reassumed by the ACRC, each of the remaining ITWs was now dedicated to a separate air crew category. The reduction in intake also relieved the pressure on the PACT scheme which until then had had to be restricted to direct entrant PNB candidates. From April 1944 it became possible to extend these facilities to prospective air crew of all categories.
From 1942 onwards it became standard practice for all PNB cadets to be given a few hours of ‘grading’ in a Tiger Moth or Magister at an Elementary Flying Training School to ascertain their potential as pilots. This Tiger, R4922, belonged to No 7 EFTS. (P H T Green)
Despite a marked reduction in intake from the spring of 1944 onwards, the numbers still turned out to exceed the requirement for air crew and there was a further major cutback in the autumn. By the end of the year it had become possible to process all cadets, of all categories, through a single ITW, No 50, at Bridgnorth, although the autonomous Polish and French ITWs, both of which had escaped the previous cull, continued to function in isolation, at Croughton and Filey (later Stormy Down) respectively. The reduction in numbers also meant that selection standards could be raised, rendering the PACT scheme superfluous. The PACT Centres began to shut down in August, the last two closing in February 1945.
There is one other aspect of the selection and initial training system which should be mentioned – grading. In 1941 it was decided to send candidates, earmarked by the ACSBs as pilots, to an Elementary Flying Training School for initial handling tests to confirm that they did have the anticipated potential. Since it permitted weak prospects to be weeded out at an early stage, this approach saved a great deal of wasted time and effort, reduced the failure rate in formal training and enabled the Service to redirect cadets into a more appropriate category. When the PNB concept was introduced in 1942, grading became an integral part of the selection process and, unless there were medical or other considerations that ruled them out, all PNB candidates were given the opportunity to demonstrate their potential as pilots at the end of a common ITW course.21
Grading (which typically involved about twelve hours of flying, although sometimes as many as thirty, during which a prospective pilot might go solo) continued to be employed for the remainder of the war, although it subsequently had to be rescheduled so that it took place earlier within the selection and training sequence. This was because, as noted above, from mid-1944 onwards each ITW offered a course tailored to the needs of only one category of air crew. As a result, it became necessary to identify the specific allocation of a PNB cadet immediately after the ACRC stage so that he could be posted to the appropriate ITW.22
Rank and status while under training prior to the award of an air crew badge.
Among the spate of regulations devised to convert the Service onto a war footing in 1939 was one dealing with the status of trainee air crew.23 It stated that internal recruiting had been suspended with effect from 3 September and that, irrespective of their eventual category, all civilian entrants were to be enlisted into the RAFVR as aircrafthands of Trade Group V and classified as AC2s. As such, they were to be paid two shillings per day.
On completion of their initial training, prospective observers (and pilots) were to be remustered into Trade Group II and reclassified as LACs, retaining this status throughout the remainder of their professional training. As LACs, their basic pay rose to five shillings per day plus two shillings instructional pay for pilots, but only 1/6d for observers (until 1941 – see page 191). On completing their courses pilots were immediately awarded their ‘wings’ and graduated as temporary sergeants (or pilot officers). As we have seen, until late 1940, observers were treated far less generously, as they emerged initially as unbadged acting sergeants (acting observer) and, as such, they were paid 3/6d per day less than their colleagues. Only after the completion of six months’ service did observers become temporary sergeants entitled to wear a flying ‘O’ and to draw the full daily rate of 12/6d.
Wireless operators (air crew) and air gunners were even less fortunate, remaining as AC2s of Group V throughout their training. As a result, their rate of pay stayed at two shillings per day and, moreover, they received no instructtional pay. On completing their courses wireless operators (air crew) were remustered to Trade Group II, air gunners remaining in Group V. Both were entitled to wear a winged bullet (later the ‘AG’ badge) but they remained as aircraftmen, their initial classification as LACs, AC1s or AC2s depending on the marks achieved on passing out.
As described previously, these early arrangements did not survive for long, as it soon proved necessary to make radical improvements to the status of all non-pilot air crew and to introduce additional categories. The first change in the rules had to be made as early as February 1940 when the system, which had been intended to deal solely with direct entrants, was complicated by the reinstatement of internal recruiting (see page 199).
The problem was that, while internal recruits retained their real ranks (and rates of pay), as trainees, they needed to be treated in exactly the same way as direct entrants. The answer lay in reinstating, what amounted to, the procedures in force within the RFC/RAF in 1918 when all prospective air crew had been regarded as cadets, while undergoing initial training, and as flight cadets during their professional training. From May 1940 onwards, therefore, regardless of their actual rank, from the beginning of the ITW phase until they gained their ‘wings’ all trainees were referred to as cadets, or as air cadets in the case of those earmarked for commissioning.24 All prospective air crew could be distinguished, incidentally, by a white peak to their field service caps, this innovation having been introduced in February 194025 (see photograph on page 228).
Fig 35. Grades and rates ofpay for air crew under training introduced in June 1943.
Subsequent changes within, and additions to, the air crew structure tended to provoke a series of debates as to who should be paid how much and when, the first of these being prompted by the Canadians. When the EATS had originally been set up it had been run in accordance with British regulations but the RCAF soon took issue with the discriminatory practice of reclassifying only pilots and observers as LACs. The Canadians argued that all air crew should be treated equally and, with the concurrence of the Australians and New Zealanders, they unilaterally decided to ‘promote’ all WOps being trained for air crew duties to LAC.
Fortunately for the Air Ministry, who would not agree to this procedure at the time, no RAF WOps or gunners were being trained in Canada during 1940 so the discrepancy will have escaped the notice of most British airmen. Nevertheless, in March 1941 the RAF eventually conceded that, on posting to a Bombing and Gunnery School, all trainee WOps and air gunners should be reclassified as LACs and that they would also be entitled to draw flying instructional pay at a rate of one shilling per day.26 In November similar provisions were made to cover the various specialist ground tradesmen who flew as air gunners in Coastal Command.27
Apart from the obvious financial consideration, the Air Ministry’s objection to making everyone an LAC had been one of principle. While the term ‘LAC’ is often referred to as a rank, it was actually one of three relative classifications of aircraftman (2nd class, 1st class and leading).28 Ideally, reclassification should be conditional upon passing a trade test. In the case of direct entrant air crew, however, they had no basic trade in which they could be tested. On the other hand, it could reasonably be argued that successful completion of an ITW course represented a sufficiently rigorous test to justify reclassification from AC2 to LAC at that stage. Yet, as the Canadians had pointed out, while this was done for pilots and observers, it was not for other categories. In effect, the RAF had been misusing the classification system in order to create a pay differential in favour of the more demanding air crew categories.
Following a lengthy review of the system, the rates of pay and conditions of service for trainee air crew were restated in June 1943.29 In essence, the new regulations avoided the inappropriate use of the classification scheme by making the system even more complicated. All trainee air crew were now to remain as AC2s throughout their training, the desired pay differentials being maintained by introducing three grades, the highest of which would be reserved exclusively for PNB categories. As before, of course, where it was to his advantage, although his true rank was effectively suppressed by his cadet status, an internally recruited airman who already had a basic trade retained his original rate of pay.30 The revised arrangements, at the time of their introduction, are summarised at Figure 35. Needless to say, these regulations were subsequently amended as required to deal with further changes in the categorisation of air crew, but, in principle, these rules prevailed for the remainder of the war. Note that the Grade C rate of pay (applicable only to PNB cadets) was inclusive of flying instructional pay whereas the Grade B rate was not and cadets in these non-PNB categories were entitled to draw an additional one shilling per day while engaged on a course that involved a practical flying phase.
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1 Readers wishing to study the intricacies of the wartime training system in greater depth are referred to RAF Flying Training and Support Units Since 1912 (2007), by Ray Sturtivant with John Hamlin. This book is not concerned with training policy, philosophy or techniques but it does provide key details of the date and place of formation, subsequent movements and ultimate disbandment of practically every training unit ever sponsored by the RFC/RAF.
2 AMO A.89/1942 of 29 January. Sanction for recognising de facto air crew on a relatively informal basis was symptomatic of wartime pragmatism. Never intended to become a permanent concession, the option was formally withdrawn when AMO A.89/1942 was cancelled by AMO N.99/1946 of 31 January.
3 A specific instance of this is cited by Mike Henry on page 181 of his book, Air Gunner (1964). He was a Capt J W Casserley (Henry calls him Cassidy) of the Royal Berkshire Regt who flew as a gunner in Bostons of No 137 Wg, to which he was attached as an ALO (Army Liaison Officer) between 31 March 1944 and 8 March 1945.
4 To supplement the Recruit Depots at Uxbridge and Cardington, a third had been opened at Padgate in April 1939. Another was set up at Bridgnorth in October, by which time all four had been redesignated as Receiving Centres. In January 1940 they became Recruit Centres and this title remained in use for the expanding network of such units throughout the remainder of the war.
5 Commissioned into the RAFVR as a flying officer on 30 August 1940, Critchley was immediately promoted to acting air commodore and appointed AOC 54 Gp. As such he devised the wartime initial training system which he continued to supervise until 1943.
6 AIR2/3638. It is, perhaps, a little surprising to find that the Air Ministry had begun negotiating with the university authorities over the RAF’s use of Cambridge’s facilities as a wartime initial training centre as early as May 1939. The related correspondence is on this file.
7 Because the majority of wartime air crew entered the RAF via London, the unit concerned tends to be thought of as the ACRC. This actually was the case for a time but six others were to be established from 1943 onwards, leading to the allocation of numerical designations, the original unit in St Johns Wood becoming No 3 ACRC. Three of the additional ACRCs were set up in the UK, the others being in Algeria, Egypt and Palestine.
8 Apart from dealing with remustering between air crew categories, the Air Crew Disposal Wing also handled cadets from the ACRC, ITWs and UASs who had been referred for revisionary training or disciplinary action.
9 AIR29/477. ORB for the ACDC. Although the unit officially formed on 21 August 1941, it did not accept its first intake, of 686 cadets, until 5 November.
10 AIR25/675. In January 1945 HQ 54 Gp published the syllabus for the two-week course to be attended periodically by cadets held at the ACDC and subject to the Rotation Scheme.
11 AIR25/676. An HQ 54 Gp memorandum of 24 October 1945 summarises the position with respect to trainees at that time.
12 If the ACDC at Heaton Park was the ‘way out’ for cadets leaving the UK, No 3 PRC at Bournemouth became the ‘way back in’ when they returned wearing their air crew badges. Originally set up at Uxbridge in February 1941, No 3 PRC moved to Bournemouth in June by which time the throughput was running at some 500 officers and 1,500 NCOs (of all categories) per month. In October 1942 the unit was divided into three separate elements dedicated to handling Dominion personnel. Initially identified simply as the RAAF, RCAF and RNZAF PRCs, in the course of 1942-43, these units would be redesignated eventually to become No 11 (RAAF) Personnel Disposal and Reception Centre (PDRC), No 3 (RCAF) PRC and No 12 (RNZAF) PDRC. While Canadians continued to pass through Bournemouth, the Australian and New Zealand units moved to Brighton in mid-1943, although, to make room for troops involved in the invasion of Normandy, all three units were temporarily moved away from the south coast (to Innsworth and Padgate) during May-August 1944. Since the Dominions now had their own facilities, the majority of returning RAF air crew passed through Harrogate where No 7 PRC had been operating since 23 March 1942.
13 In point of fact the unit had been divorced from No 3 PRC with effect from 3 November 1942 when it had been established in its own right at Harrogate as No 2 Navigator Bomber Pool. It retained this designation until it disbanded, suggesting that there may also have been a No 1 Pool, although this writer has been unable to find any reference to such a unit.
14 AIR2/8354. From the pamphlet describing the course, a copy of which is preserved on this file.
15 Ibid. This figure is taken from a report on RAF University Short Courses dated 9 July 1943.
16 Twenty-three UASs had actually been established by this time (the peak wartime strength) but, as yet, those at Hull, Birmingham and Exeter had not enrolled any members.
17 AIR2/6388. An analysis of UAS membership as at October 1941 is preserved on this file. Unlike the dedicated ‘air crew only’ RAF Short Course, ‘normal’ UAS membership was not confined to aviators and in addition to the 1,050 undergraduates who had enrolled as potential air crew up to that time, 110 and sixty-five applicants had been accepted for the Technical and A&SD Branches respectively.
18 Ibid. A return of UAS strength as at 1 January 1944 is preserved on this file.
19 Prospective air crew, recruited from refugees or ground personnel already serving with the free Polish Air Force (which operated under the aegis of the RAF), were initially dealt with under quasi-national procedures at No 1 (Polish) FTS at Hucknall. To bring these arrangements into line with British practice, a dedicated Polish Squadron was formed within No 12 ITW at St Andrews on 9 August 1941. On 23 July 1942 this unit was hived off to be re-established at Brighton as an autonomous unnumbered Polish ITW. It moved to Croughton on 31 May 1944, remaining there until it disbanded on 1 November 1945.
20 To provide the necessary bed spaces, most ITWs were at seaside resorts to take advantage of the ready-made accommodation that could be obtained by requisitioning hotels. For the same reason, many of the Recruit Centres which provided induction and initial training facilities for airmen other than air crew were also located in seaside towns, eg Morecombe, Weston-super-Mare, Whitley Bay, Blackpool, Skegness, Redcar, Great Yarmouth and so on.
21 While the intention was clearly to ensure that square pegs were slotted into square holes, the ‘exigencies of the Service’ always took precedence. Thus, despite the fact that a cadet might have demonstrated an adequate level of natural piloting ability, he could still find himself earmarked as, say, an air bomber if there was a priority demand for air bombers at the time.
22 As a knock-on effect of grading being brought forward within the training sequence, it became necessary to provide a modicum of basic air crew instruction while candidates were still at No 3 ACRC in London and with effect from 1 April 1944 the duration of this phase was doubled from three weeks to six. Clearly this doubled the demand for scarce accommodation in the vicinity of Regents Park so No 6 ACRC had been set up at Scarborough on 23 March to absorb the surplus. On 30 August 1944 No 3 ACRC closed, its place being taken by a new No 7 ACRC at Torquay. A subsequent reduction in intake permitted No 6 ACRC to be closed in December, leaving Torquay as the sole induction facility in the UK for the remainder of the war.
23 AMO A.469/1939 of 9 November.
24 AMO A.273/1940 of 9 May.
25 AMO A.102/1940 of 15 February. Cadet aircrew continued to wear a white peak to their field service caps until the practice was terminated by AMO A.498/1947 of 12 June.
26 AMO A.189/1941 of 20 March.
27 AMO A.984/1941 of 27 November.
28 AC1, AC2 and LAC did eventually become ranks, but not until 1 January 1951 (see AMO A.515/1950 of 22 August).
29 AMO A.635/1943 of 24 June.
30 AMO A.94/1944 of 10 February introduced a concession which permitted an internally recruited air crew cadet to wear the badges of rank or classification to which he was actually entitled when on leave or absent on a pass, although they were to be masked by a blue-grey serge armlet when on duty.