More ghosts from the past
I have held back from commenting until the likely cause became more firmly focused on the pilot having to endure pressure from the brass in the back. I am reconstructing the history of the RAF's early Special Duties operations for SIS and SOE in 1940 and 1941. When Polish crews were posted to 138 Squadron in late 1941 and early 1942 the operational records become slightly confusing, until one realises that one set of records that holds the aircraft and pilot, and another that gives the operation-name and the captain, are about the same sortie. With the Polish Air Force crews the Observer/Navigator was almost invariably the aircraft captain; the pilot was, to be perhaps unfairly blunt about it, his driver. My almost immediate reaction to this speculation (for that is what it is, so far) was to wonder if some hangover of this culture lasts to the present day, even though I am writing about events from 70 years ago. The Soviet-bloc mentality as evidence by the posts from andrasz indicates that the same chain of command applied to the Soviets as well as to the German Air Force in both World Wars.
In the RAF the pilot was always the captain, even if he was a Sergeant and the rest of his crew were commissioned officers; a situation which was a source of amazement to USAAF bomber crews. My father's pilot was, briefly, a Sergeant to his own rank of Flying Officer: as he said to me "In the air I was in charge, on the ground, your father was; it never caused a problem." The same principle applied even if the CO was flying as Second Pilot. Occasionally, the Rear Gunner or Despatcher might be a Squadron Leader: S/Ldr Jack Benham, one of the Ringway parachute pioneers posted to 1419 Flight, was lost on ops in January 1941 flying as Despatcher, a job usually performed by an NCO or even an LAC before the role was granted regular aircrew status. Some of PPrune's corespondents might be guilty of assuming that the rules that applied in their air force applied to all.