WW2 Alcohol limits
 

I'm unsure if this should be here or JetBlast, but here goes .

In WW2 what were the permissible alcohol limits before flying operationally . Haven't been able to find it via normal searches

The minimum was 5 pints of ale the night before and a jolly good sing song.

out of interest how old are you?

I don't think they had breath analysis machines back then, which was probably a good thing.
I did read that many BoB pilots relied on the head-clearing ability of pure oxygen first thing in the morning. Youth and adrenalin probably helped as well.

Read Geoffrey Wellum’s book “ First Light”. I don’t think there were any limits! By the way JH, the hangover curing properties of pure oxygen were still much valued in the 70s and 80s. By the 90s the attitude to drinking was changing for the better.

In my thirties I found a whiff of O2 worked wonders, but not when in my fifties. I reckon they were producing inferior oxygen!

On thread, no means then of recording alcohol levels. Even the traffic police were using the "walk the white line" test well into the sixties.

... known as part of the BAGS test: Breath, Attitude, Gait, Speech.

I reckon if you could take a Lancaster to Berlin and back successfully in 1944 blood alcohol level was pretty much irrelevant.

TROOO!!! I would 'second' that !!!

I refer the OP to 'Lancaster Target' by the late-lamented Jack Currie; Chapter 7 - The New Squadron Forms (626 btw) and the antics of 'Tony' and his need to imbibe ale at lunchtime. 'Tony' also re-appears in the sequel 'Mosquito Victory'. Both books (damn good 'reads', each) will tell you all you'll need to know.

Rules to fly by
 

Never drink within 40ft of an aircraft and never smoke 12 hours before take off.

Reminds me of the old US Navy FS' Poster " No Smoking in Bed & No Sleeping in the Ashtrays".

I had the great honour to drink in the same pub as Jack and he would often knock off a chapter at the bar on a portable typewriter. The corner of the bar where he sat is now named in his honour with some Lanc and Mossie memorabilia.

"The Leith police dismisseth us". Try that three times quickly.

There was a JP Refresher student at Manby (c. 1966) who drained the O2 test rig on many mornings, after arriving early to ensure privacy. No idea what happened after he was identified, though.

I can't even say that sober!

Quite.

Different world 80 years ago.

Even 50 years ago.

I always found that a stiff winged collar affected the neck seal of the immersion suit.

1970s V-force station....

Land after night flying and repair to the scruffs' bar.

Beer is 20p per pint. 5 in the crew, a round is a pound.

We all buy our round.

We all drive home.

MADNESS!

20p??? That would be the NEAF Bomber Wing, then! 😎

I left UK for Tengah about a fortnight after the breathalyser came in (1967). Fortunately I was within walking distance if all my local pubs, as I was back at my parents’ place on embarkation leave. And for the next 2.5 years in Singapore, nobody seemed to care very much. I only declared myself unfit to drive once, after a PU on HMS Hermes docked at the naval base, and after bouncing off kerbs on both sides of the road through the base invited Jules Leigh to take control of my Sprite and get us home. <insert further Singapore drink/drive stupidities>

But we were young and indestructible in those days. And the WW2 guys never knew if they’d see the end of the week.

it was more stringent than that, it was 50 feet. Regarding smoking, there is ample contemporary evidence of lighting up at the aircraft steps. It may well have given rise to the ritual per in the pan.