Originally Posted by
Vendee
I wouldn't say unprecedented. .
It definitely wasn't unprecedented - anything can happen at any time when the government of the day decides to remove entire capabilities.
For instance, the "Withdrawal from East of Suez" decision, cancellation of the F-111K, transfer of the nuclear deterrent to the RN and decision to rationalize UK-based command HQs from 8 to 4 all combined in a very short period around 1968 taking the RAF from 125,000 to less than 75,000.
One of the single hardest hit areas - in the 100s - was Canberra aircrew. I remember a former sqn ldr sqn cdr - a "top notch" guy who had been ADC to CinC Fighter Command - telling me their notice of being made redundant was a nominal roll posted on the Officers' Mess noticeboard (without any prior discussion) !
So, very experienced type-specific sqn cdrs, flt cdrs, QWIs and QFIs were gone - because there would be either no future HQ ground role or cockpit slots for them on another fleet - even if conversion was considered worthwhile at their age.
Another example from my own family history, in the early 1950s the government decided to get rid of the vast majority of the Royal Artillery's anti-aircraft gun capability - dozens of regiments - and this resulted in 450 officers in the rank of major in the Royal Artillery getting a choice of either transfer to a support arm or redundancy.
The weasel-worded spin put on the decisions by politicions don't change - see the example here:
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-h...ice#column_794
Extract from above Under-Secretary of State for the RAF - March 1968:
"It is my impression that the problem of redundancy in connection with the rundown of the Services
gets far too much emphasis. As the House knows, amongst the measures announced in January was provision for
an eventual reduction in Service manpower beyond the 75,000 forecast in the Supplementary Statement on Defence Policy in 1967 (Command 3357) and
for the reduction to be spread over a shorter time." "Although the manpower reduction forecast is substantial, it is important to get the matter in proper perspective. One must remember, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that over 10,000 men leave the Royal Air Force on normal exit each year and that by 1973 some 50 per cent. of the men at present serving in the Royal Air Force will have left through normal wastage. It will be possible to take advantage of this turnover in keeping redundancy to the minimum required to preserve a proper age/rank and trade balance."
Serve long enough and you witness the unthinkable happen - several times over !