we were taught to think things out for ourselves and we were expected to be irreverent and individual.
As offspring of one of 39 Entry's Little Gentlemen, I concur with that summation Longer Ron.
Being shipped in to Malta as a 19 year old tested those abilities to the full. When ,later, during the move up via Sicily ,Italy etc. The number of German Aircraft found abandoned, seemingly needlessly, on airfields with what to a "brat" were minor problems reinforced belief in the superiority of the RAF front-line maintenance doctrine. Indeed , Senior was involved in getting a number of Axis aircraft back into the air for evaluation in theatre. When later working with POW Luftwaffe ground crew, the system liabilities of just having largely "box changers" in the front-line were apparent ( a comment also made by many about USAAF front-line servicing) . All well and good when you are going forwards and the logistics pipelines are in full flow - but when that went to rats.........
As you well know the stories of RAF ingenuity in individualistic " make do" engineering,based upon excellent fundamental knowledge are legion over the years.
The situation is of course very different philosophically now,with not so much room for "individual" fixes, however it is predicated on adequate logistics support which is presumed ( has) to be in place to generate enough War Goers
Senior once stated in the early 60's : " You put my generation on a Lightning,without handbooks, and we would probably , in time, work it out for ourselves."
I very much doubt if that would apply now.