It was politically correct in 1944!
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It was politically correct in 1944!
Just found these on the internet from January 1944's edition of "Tee Emm", which was the forerunner of today's Air Clues and the start of Pilot Officer Prune (to which this forum has a link to):
Last edited by The B Word; 28th Jan 2013 at 19:41.
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I understand that the name for the central character, who was always doing something wrong, was chosen because prunes give you the sh*ts.
Plus ca change
Plus ca change
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The AWM in Canberra produced reprints of both volumes of TeeEm some years back until they were advised about copyright issues, but I have both their production and an original set of all the wartime TeeEm's. Great reading even now, with lots of useful stuff
To heck with PC and call a spade a spade
Gentleman Aviator
There used to be a CD with all the Tee Emms on it, produced for a Service charity IIRC (and which I've got somewhere). Don't know if it still exists??
Does anybody know what the "SANDRA points the way" is all about?
Searching the interweb with the world's favourite engine just gives loads of stuff about Sandra Bullock!
Searching the interweb with the world's favourite engine just gives loads of stuff about Sandra Bullock!
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SANDRA
Also had a look for SANDRA and found this on an obscure forum...
"One other thing about coming in from the Atlantic. If you were really stuck there was a system called "SANDRA" This put searchlights up through the fog and this made a glow and you knew that that was where you had to get to. It was a great help, one of those miraculous situations where we were wondering how are we going to get down and all this lack of petrol and suddenly there was the lake and a flare path down below. So that was one little episode".
Darky was the emergency location system for lost aircraft to find their position..... (ie - in the Dark). Aircraft would call "Darky" and any airfield receiving the call would pass on the bearing from the airfield.
It would seem that this edition of TEE EM was teaching about operating in poor visibility.
"One other thing about coming in from the Atlantic. If you were really stuck there was a system called "SANDRA" This put searchlights up through the fog and this made a glow and you knew that that was where you had to get to. It was a great help, one of those miraculous situations where we were wondering how are we going to get down and all this lack of petrol and suddenly there was the lake and a flare path down below. So that was one little episode".
Darky was the emergency location system for lost aircraft to find their position..... (ie - in the Dark). Aircraft would call "Darky" and any airfield receiving the call would pass on the bearing from the airfield.
It would seem that this edition of TEE EM was teaching about operating in poor visibility.
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The first reference I found in Tee Emm is April 1942, in the lesson "Lost?" Flying Control plotted all aircraft and became adept at recognising those who became lost, with searchlights turned on if they crossed the coast, plus pyrotechnics were fired, and 'instructions issued (to the alternate aerodrome) to call the aircraft on "Darky"'. QED, "Darky" was a contact frequency?
In the March 1944 issue a humorous follow up to the OP's 'advert' goes on about 'pundit' being inserted in error, as Pundits and Darky don't mix. More grist to the mill!
In the March 1944 issue a humorous follow up to the OP's 'advert' goes on about 'pundit' being inserted in error, as Pundits and Darky don't mix. More grist to the mill!
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Sandra
August 1944 Tee Emm refers to a Lancaster returning from a Berlin raid in distress:
The IWM describes Sandra lights as
searchlight homing was instituted to an Emergency Landing Ground which was illuminated and Sandra lights were exposed. The aircraft made a long straight approach over the occult and landed safely.
Three searchlights (called 'Sandra' lights) form a cone to indicate the height of the cloud base for the departing aircraft.
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QED, "Darky" was a contact frequency?
If an aeroplane was in an emergency situation regarding its position to the airfield it is due to land at the pilot could use the basic life-saver DARKY, which was a system where the pilot could call for a Homing using the call-sign Darky. Most R.A.F. Stations operated a permanent Darky Watch on a common frequency with a transmitter / receiver of limited range to avoid possible overlap with other stations. By taking bearings and comparing them with other stations by telephone they could rapidly fix a lost aircrafts position.
Where R.A.F. coverage was poor the Royal Observer Corps Posts could be contacted to assist as they were also equipped with Darky sets.
The search light thing sounds pretty crude today, but it probably would have
worked a lot better in the blacked out Britain of 1944.
Searchlights
The aircraft could also signal to searchlights (S/Ls), which were supposed to point a friendly aircraft away from danger. However in 1940 some searchlights were not familiar with the procedure and attempted to illuminate the danger, such as a balloon barrage so that the friendly aircraft flew into the barrage and sometimes crashed, or played their searchlights onto the aircraft itself, so that wherever the aircraft went, the searchlights followed it, blinding the pilot, which sometimes caused loss of control and the aircraft to crash.
However, S/Ls were supposed to point away from danger, or point the direction in which the friendly aircraft should be flying.
Last edited by Wensleydale; 30th Jan 2013 at 06:49.
