cs, sounds par for the course certainly. Just remembered our 30 Sqn a/g was on Battles not the Wellesley, the first being deemed front line, the latter not in 1940. Both were totally obsolete of course by then.
Must admit I find the discussion re RAF Cabin Crew as being a ground trade rather confusing. Are they not deemed aircrew? If not, why not? They share the same awesome responsibilities as their civilian counterparts, to safely evacuate their passengers on command and within mere seconds, to cope with inflight emergencies such as explosive decompression, cabin fires, medical emergencies, etc, etc. How can those duties be considered a ground trade?
Whether the parsimonious bean counters pay them flight pay or the badge snobs deny them a brevet I'm prepared to believe the worst in both cases, but are they not an integral part of the flight crew and trained and considered as such? Does CRM not include them too, the eyes and ears of the flight deck? If not then I would expect that retention for them is a real issue, never mind those up front....