WW2 airmen brutally honest
 

Thank you to the wonderful series of tweets from "WW2 Tweets from 1941".
Today's gem is a Mass Observation survey of the reasons why RAF airmen "went out".

Note the third most popular pastime!
(Not quite as important as drinking though!)

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6a0f67871f.jpg

Surprised "Bombing Germans" didn't feature!

#1 It does not imply that 16% were actually on a date.
#2 now this probably was100% DCO.
#3 at 10% probably indicates mission but DCO was not necessarily 100%

Now I do know of a Sgt RCAF Flt Eng who walked out with my mother in law. I have no reason to believe it went any further.

Since the question implies intention rather than completion, I'd suggest that close to 90% of airmen are liars.:)

In the early '70s a questionnaire was sent out as part of a survey on quality of service life etc.,this was a cynical response to a lot of grumbling in all ranks at the time. The survey proudly asserted that responses were anonymous.
I omitted to respond and was therefore surprised to receive a curt letter asking why my completed survey had not been received … so much for anonymity!!

FZ. Anonymous, just enter your DOB. Also got the letter as I put a false DOB in.

I wonder if they ever saw the betrayal?

PN and FZ. It still goes on. One place I know of sent out a questionnaire, which included department, gender, age bracket etc, to all staff. In some cases, with a small department, this narrowed the response down to the individual.

A chap on our squadron once filled in one of those huggy-fluffy 'quality of service life' questionnaires, but said that he was a black lesbian who had been bullied at school....

Was he ever surprised when the crew room phone rang and the EO person at the other end asked him for more details!

Reminds me of the story concerning Winston Churchill when he lost the election after WWII. He sent an anonymous survey to all MPs asking about why the election was lost, it included a stamped addressed envelope to encourage responses.
When the anonymous replies were received the stamps were removed to reveal an individual code that identified the sender!

During one of those week long exercises back in the 70s (High Wood, I think) we all had questionnaires. One question asked how you were feeling, on an hour to hour basis. One of the possible responses was "lethargic, bored", which was much used. Thereafter the phrase entered common squadron usage, as in "how are you today?" - "lethargic, bored!"

I grew up surrounded by a ring of Bomber Command 'dromes but too young to know of #3 but obviously I see now But there was a snag competition because outside my local ring there were more 'fields staffed by folk who were "over paid, over sexed and".

My late father served with 6 Group Canadians who were reported to have had the highest VD infection rate of any allied formations. I told him this some years ago, and he said that was not the full story as many he said went to their graves as innocent in that respect as when they were born. There was never the same issues as in WW1 with bars behind the lines catering for service personnel he said, though no doubt some ports like Grimsby, Hull, Middlesbrough had some what seamier areas. Therefore I am not sure the VD rate says anything about Canadians or more about the ladies of North Yorkshire,Tees side. As for the drinking, my father was always teased about drinking milk in the pub with his crew, as he did not like alcohol, and was a very moderate drinker all his life. However he did say the day he joined his Squadron he was deliberately taken to see the tail of a returning Halifax who's unfortunate tail gunner was having his remains power washed out of the remains of his turret after being hit by approx. 4nr 20mm cannon shells, which he said was a very sobering experience for an 18year old.

Cheers
Mr Mac

I am reminded of the apocryphal RN destroyer survey into self abuse at sea:
95% said that they did, 5% were liars.