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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: Wolseley on Tuesday 28 March 23 08:50 BST (UK)
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I have been trying to interpret my father’s RAF service record (he was a Wireless Operator in the RAF), but there are some things I am having trouble with.
Here’s what I have to work with:
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And here’s where I have got to:
Recruited into RAFVR, Edinburgh 20 December 1941. 3RC - 3rd recruitment centre maybe?
10(S)RC- other than the RC probably standing for recruitment centre I have no idea what it means.
2 Signals School - would be the training undertaken at Blackpool from 2 July 1942
44 Mobile Unit, Edzell, as of 22 October 1942
Newbold Revel (RAF wireless training subsequent to his training in Blackpool) - from 19 May 1943
350 Signals Depot - was this the unit he was in while stationed at Newbold Revel?
1 Personnel Despatch Centre (Sup.) - I don’t know what the significance of “1” is, nor do I know what “Sup.” stands for, but this is obviously reference to his processing in preparation for posting to India. The date given is 4 November 1943 and is followed by an entry “India Renamed SE Asia” with a movement date of 11 November 1943 and an arrival date of 16 November 1943. (Although arrival where, I don’t know, as it would have taken a lot longer than that to get to India).
Now here comes the interesting bit. My father told me that while his ship was on its way to India, a couple of weeks or so after leaving the UK, it was torpedoed after it passed Malta, started to take water as a result of the damage sustained, and just managed to make it as far as Alexandria, where all the men who were travelling on her to India had to disembark and wait in Egypt for the next available boat to India. From my father’s photograph album, I can tell that he spent Christmas in Egypt, although I don’t know how much longer he had to wait after that. From what I can see, this means that the ship he left the UK on would have been the HMS Birmingham, as it is the only ship whose movements correspond with this version of events. Any comments?
It appears that he arrived in India in January 1944, possibly the 22nd, judging from the entry on his card. It would appear that the rather badly written entry under “Unit” indicates that his first posting in India was to Worli camp.
From 1 February to 3 August, 1944, he is shown as being attached to 385 (not sure if it is MU for Mobile Unit of WU for Wireless Unit, followed by a period of hospitalisation, first at 2 India General Hospital, then at Shillong followed by a Medical Field Hospital. I have no idea what this was for but it was for an exceptionally long period. As far as I am aware, he had no war injuries at all, so I can only assume it was something like malaria or maybe dysentary, although I do remember him telling me once that he sent his mother into a panic when he wrote home to say he had gangrene…..
I have no idea what the entry for HD 164 S Wing, other than that I believe HD stands for Home Defence.
The entries for 368 WU and 376 WU tie in with some of the few things that my father told me about his war service - firstly that he had to learn Japanese Morse Code in addition to the standard Morse, and that the Japanese messages he intercepted were given to others to be interpreted. It also fits in with his last posting being to Hong Kong.
His postings, roughly in chronological order (the order may not be 100% accurate), seem to have been Bombay, Kashmir, Calcutta, Bangalore, Rangoon, Singapore, Malaya and Hong Kong.
Also, the entry for Home Embarkation speaks for itself, but can anyone tell me what “Compan. Snds” means?
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10 (S) RC is No 10 (Scotland) Recruits Course
No 2 Signals School was at Yatesbury in Wiltshire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yatesbury)
44 MU stands for Maintenance Unit (ie repair). Ditto 385 MU etc. Edzell was an aircraft storage unit, so possibly he was maintaining or installing radio equipment in the aircraft.
BMH Shillong is the British Military Hospital.
HQ (not HD)164 S[ignals] Wing was at Newbold Revel then India.
All the rest as per Wolseley's reply.
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368 and 367 Wireless Units were in Hong Kong, although I don't if this was the case in 1945
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“Compan. Snds” is compassionate grounds.
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You should have been given a list of abbreviations by Cranwell along with the Service Record.
However units with a specific function had a prefix number to define the exact formation described.
eg RC is Recruit Centre - 3RC No.3 Recruit Centre 10(S)RC is No.10 (signals) Recruit Centre
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7160734
44MU - 44 Maintenance Unit (not Mobile Unit)
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4100712
368 Wireless Unit in India
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7159679
HD is HQ for Headquarters No.164 Signals Wing
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_cr=air&_dss=range&_ro=any&_q=164+AND+signals+AND+wing
Ross
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Thank you, Andy. Now that makes sense. It must be “Compass. Gnds” and not “Compan. Snds”. He had a sister who was a Sergeant in the WAAF and had been seriously ill for several months at that point and eventually passed away in August of 1946.
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Yes, Ross, I was given a list of common abbreviations with the record, but not everything used appears to be common, and the poor handwriting on the index card doesn't help.
Looking back, I can see that MU is Maintenance Unit and not Mobile Unit - a mistake on my part. It would have been handy being posted to Edzell - my father came from Brechin, about eight miles down the road.......
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Well, the task of making sense of it all continues, but there is one other entry on the card (not included in the detail shown above) which I would like to find out more about. It is a typewritten (thank heavens for that) note under the heading "Miscellaneous" which takes up three lines and reads as follows:
- Med. cat grade 1 20.12.41
- No. 16. ACSB F2171. 30.8.41
- Not rec. for trng. in aircraft duties.
The first line is fairly self explanatory (the date is the date of his enlistment which is presumably when the medical examination was conducted).
I have no idea what the second line means.
But above all, I would like to know what led them to decide that he was not to be recommended for training in aircraft duties. That decision probably saved his life, as fatalities among flight crews were very high and, had he been selected for air crew, then I may not be here today. But what would have led them to make that decision?
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No.16 Aviation Candidate Selection Board
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7160883
Looks like he volunteered for Aviation Candidate, was rejected by the selection board and joined 3 months later as either call up or volunteer.
F2171 is the Air Ministry/RAF Form 2171 that contained the detail. Long since destroyed.
The Form 543 (F543a) is the only surviving part of a service record that was kept for pension purposes.
Ross
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Thanks for that, Ross. In that case we can forget about the second line of that entry, as it isn't going to lead us anywhere, and I'll get back to working on the only remaining document we have.
That third line intrigues me though......
Jim
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Without sight of the F 2171 you will never know the reason.
ACSB criteria changed as the war progressed - mostly it was an interview and an appraisal by the board as to the man's survivability.
So first cut was accepted for aviation training or rejected.
Early war all initially started as Pilot but at various stages washouts then restreamed for Observer or Air Bomber.
As war progressed then additional task was given to the ACSB of classification of those accepted - Pilot, Navigator, Air Bomber (PNB) and training in dedicated streams was followed.
Chapter 1 in this volume of the RAF Air Historical Branch Narrative on Flying Training gives a primer.
https://www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/units/air-historical-branch/second-world-war-thematic-studies/flying-training-volume-ii-organisation-part-1-basic-training-in-the-united-kingdom/
Ross
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Thanks for that, Ross. That is a fascinating document, although it doesn't really give me an answer to my question, so I guess I'm now into the realms of speculation, so maybe it's best for me to just be thankful that he ended up being a ground based wireless operator rather than air crew, and leave it at that.
He was, as far as I know, always in perfect health from childhood until the infirmities of old age took their toll and he had no issues with his eyesight either. As for education, he finished High School with good marks in all the usual subjects, plus French, Latin and Art, and was undertaking tertiary studies when he enlisted. Maybe he was just deemed to have a definite natural aptitude for work as a ground based wireless operator, we will never know, it seems.......
Jim
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Colour blindness is a possible reason but I don't know if that was tested for then, I know people wishing to become aircrew nowadays are tested. It also prevents you working in electronics trades in the RAF as well.
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Not a factor Crumblie.
His medical category was 1 so fit for Full Flying Duties.
Only fitness for flying duties (A) had numeric sub category eg
1 Full Flying Duties
2 Limited Flying Duties
3 Combatant passenger
4 non-combatant passenger
Ground duties was (B)
The letter "p", "t" or "h" is added after both "A" and "B" to indicate limitations of fitness, as follows:-
p permanently unfit
t temporarily unfit
h home service only
Example: A2hBh indicates fitness for limited flying at home and ground duties at home. ("p" and "t" are not employed in conjunction with a numeral.)
The following is a list of the limitations which a medical board may apply in the case of category A.2 :-
i) Duration of flight - this should be stated both as regards individual flights and the total flying permitted in any one day.
ii) Limitation in height
iii) Limitation in aerobatics
iv) * Light aircraft only (aeroplanes which are or have been in use in the service for elementary training)
v)* Single-engined aircraft only: this limitation is chiefly used in connection with certain ear defects.
vi) Dual fitted aircraft only, and with another pilot.
Ross
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Colour blind? Whether it was a criteria they used or not, he wasn’t colour blind, so we can forget about that possibility. After his release from service, he completed his studies and was awarded a Diploma of Art from Dundee Art College and a Diploma of Education and spent his working life as a secondary school art teacher, first in Scotland and, from 1959, in Australia. As I sit here at the computer, I have four of his paintings in the room, and they are, I think, evidence that his colour vision was not impaired.
The whole thing gets, to quote Lewis Carroll, curiouser and curiouser. It’s a pity that the records that could give us the answer no longer exist. Was it some odd thing he said during one of the aptitude tests that maybe led them to say this, or was it possibly something that marked him out as someone who might be more of an asset performing the sort of work that was undertaken in 367 and 368 Wireless Units?
He never said anything to me about the enlistment process (or for that matter, much about the war itself, although he did talk about the places he had been) so I don’t even know if he even wanted to be flying or not.
Jim
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As an aside, here are a couple of my father's photos, taken somewhere in Burma: