Originally Posted by
rolling20
IIRC Air Observer was introduced in 1934, but it wasn't until 37/8 that they were primarily concerned with navigation.
Yes but at the outbreak of WW2 - the RAF did not have many observers and therefore we were short of navigators for multi crew aircraft,also partly why I posted the link about Ian Blair - his sqn were so short of Observer/Navs that an Air Gunner was acting as a volunteer Nav/Bomb Aimer,the pre war Air Gunners did sometimes act as Observer on the Biplanes etc but they were not given much (if any) formal training in that role.