harrym (your #7445) and others,
Thanks, and now what I would really like to find was the date the "Air Bomber" speciality was introduced, and why. It appears to have been about '42, and that would fit in nicely with the arrival of the "heavies" and A.M. Harris's take-over at Bomber Command. Before that, it seems to have been the task of the Observer/Navigator, who would have to leave his position and wriggle forward into the bomb aimer's station in the nose. Clearly this was done in the "Wellington", but how practicable would it be in a Stirling, Lancaster or Halifax ?
Whatever, I believe the "Bomb Aimer" was primarily the front-gunner until they neared the target, and then he would go down into his position below the turret. It is difficult to see how much work a front- gunner could expect at night, for the pilot and f/e would have almost as good a view ahead and I can hardly visualise a head-on attack from a night fighter ! (I was out of the country from autumn '42 till the end, so have only a layman's knowledge of bomber 'ops').
The original "Air Observers" were very proud of their "flying a***'oles", and seemed to have been allowed to hang on to them to the bitter end. There were still a few around (mostly in ATC) when I retired at the end of '72.
Pom Pax (your #7448),
There was certainly a "T.A.B." (Typhoid and para-typhoid A and B). It came in two stages, as I remember, and you got them a few days apart. I was "jabbed" with it several times: it produced no more than the usual sore arm, but on one late occasion in the '50s it produced a violent reaction which laid me low for a couple of days. It may have been a bad dose of vaccine, the M.O. was quite worried.
Cheers to all, Danny.