Originally Posted by
langleybaston
A word of explanation regarding the Standard Area Forecast.
This was produced by the Duty Senior Met man [there were no senior women at that time] in the semi-basement in JHQ. Early each morning the FBS broadcast it at dictation speed, often mangled in the process. It was primarily for AAC use when flying from the many unsupported airfields/ strips/ garrisons/ green fields in N Germany.
In my 3 years I never ever had any feedback. Ever. Thus my faith in accuracy was low.
However, we had the Clutch plus Gutersloh plus Detmold also forecasting for all and any that asked for such, and these did get feedback, especially if their gen was crap.
Detmold in particular, supporting the AAC, had a great deal of contact with army customers and provided a service far better than I could provide from my hole in the ground.
In retrospect it would have made more sense for Detmold to write the Standard Area when manned, and JHQ to take over at weekends.
As drawdown got under way, I believe that Bruggen took over the 7/24 watch for the Standard Area. Either way, the N German Plain was far from fun for forecasting for low flying. I still bear the scars.
You want to read this months Britain at War magazine, it tells of two Halifax squadrons losing 20 odd % of their aircraft in one raid and 7 of them never even made it out of the county, they hit icing at a couple of thousand feet after take off resulting in 40 dead crew...
