Language and Rank

[Wander00]

NL - are you being deliberately slow.......................or do I just have a coarse sense of humour? Hat, coat

[ursa_major]

LAC aircrew

Originally Posted by Tankertrashnav

Certain logic about the rank as in the early days of the RAF many ACs (and LACs) worked on aircraft, but very few, if any, were aviators

TTN, throughout the Second World War trainee pilots going through EFTS and SFTS were LACs. That's a fair number that could be considered aviators, and judging by the quantity of F1180s with that rank on as pilot i/c, a reasonable number who were borderline...

I would assume that they were promoted to Sergeant at the point they were awarded their wings.

[NutLoose]

One has standards Wanderer, some of the Canadian women I met I wouldn' go near with a knife and fork, let alone anything else.

[NutLoose]

LAC aircrew
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tankertrashnav
Certain logic about the rank as in the early days of the RAF many ACs (and LACs) worked on aircraft, but very few, if any, were aviators

TTN, throughout the Second World War trainee pilots going through EFTS and SFTS were LACs. That's a fair number that could be considered aviators, and judging by the quantity of F1180s with that rank on as pilot i/c, a reasonable number who were borderline...

I would assume that they were promoted to Sergeant at the point they were awarded their wings.

There was a fascinating article in Flypast or Aeroplane of late regards AC 1 and 2 ranked gunners on Battles during the early part of the war, very few of the crews survived or made it out of Europe and back to the UK as they were shot down in droves, one of them a now seasoned combat experienced AC was amazed upon managing to get back to the UK to find all the newly qualified air gunners that came out to the aircraft were now Sgts.
The AC gunners were often drawn from the engineering staff and after missions had to carry out their normal trade work

[Wander00]

ISTR that as "Officer Cadet"s at the Towers we were enlisted as "Aircraftmen", of which class I know not, and I guess we were paid even less - what did an AC get in the early 60s - we got £5 a week I recall

[ursa_major]

Originally Posted by NutLoose

The AC gunners were often drawn from the engineering staff and after missions had to carry out their normal trade work

The youngest casualty in the Battle of Britain that I've found whilst researching accidents round here was AC2 Norman Jacobson who was killed when Blenheim L1330 of 29Sqn was shot down by an enemy aircraft off Wainfleet Haven on August 25th 1940. Some sources have him as being the AI operator, others as an air gunner. He was 18 years old and had joined 29 that morning.

[Tankertrashnav]

Point taken about WW2 flying ACs and LACs, but I was thinking back to the early days of the RAF when the rank structure was formed. For a short period after its formation, the RAF retained army officer ranks, and ORs in technical trades below the rank of corporal were classifed as Air Mechanic 1st and 2nd class. The AM2 had no rank insignia, AM1s wore a red two-bladed prop, similar to the later LAC. I believe that ORs in non-technical trades were still classified as Privates, but I may be wrong. I did once own an early RAF LS & GC (George V issue) which was named to a "Sergeant Major, RAF" - that must have been a very short lived rank.

Wander00 - when I was at OCTU in 1964 I was paid as an AC (AC1 and AC2 having been merged earlier). It had risen to the dizzy heights of £1 a day by then, but as I joined straight from school it didn't seem bad to me!

[Wander00]

I worked in Sainsbury's the summer (62) before I joined the RAF - the £8 a week they paid me just about paid for 2 hours flying a very tatty J1 Auster kept in the back of a hangar at White Waltham. WLAC let me have it at half price to go to Rearsby to collect a tailplane for them!