I’m trying to track down some individual identities but can’t seem to find where they would have been initially recorded. ORB’s tend to have just the serial, pilot’s logs usually have either the individual aircraft letter or the serial but not both. Was there a standard procedure for allocating letters to aircraft on the squadron and recording same or was it just ‘call that one A and that one B etc’ ?
By: paulmcmillan - 20th August 2015 at 08:51
You can sometimes work them out but you need multiple sources
I once worked out a code because in the Log Book of a pilot he recorded the Codes and the ORB recorded the codes of the aircraft he flew. But by process of elimination, comparing codes with known fates and serials etc I got down to one possibility
This was not absolute proof but then aircraft was recorded as having an accident of a certain day, I know that the accident card recorded the serial number and that the possible ‘code’ aircraft had an accident the same day (the only one listed in the ORB and same circumstances) – It was not 100% proof but good enough – I think it would have held up in court
But you need multiple sources to do this and then eliminate
Sometimes you get lucky ORB has Serial Log Book has Code and if you know P/O X only flew “A” on date DD-MM-YYYY you have a match
Also you can sometimes work them out based on history of aircraft movements, if Aircraft “A” Serial XXXXX was lost on certain date and two days later a new aircraft turned up but was record in ORB as ‘A’ as well but with Serial YYYYY then you can make a good partial guess that YYYYY was ‘A’ as well
By: Derbyhaven - 20th August 2015 at 08:46
There was no centrally organised official system of allocation of individual letters. The nearest to a system was what Sabrejet described in post 2. As to recording the letters it rarely seems to have happened although they do appear in some squadron Operations Record Books.
By: Wessex Fan - 20th August 2015 at 02:32
Combat Codes – Written by Vic Flintham & Andrew Thomas. It is probably the definitive work on the subject. The quickest way to purchase is via Amazon.
The Source Book of the RAF by Ken Delve and RAF Squadrons by Wing Commander C G. Jefford are also on my must have list!
Cheers
By: Sabrejet - 19th August 2015 at 19:08
Not always: Sqns with Flights often allotted A to M for ‘A’ Flight machines and N to Z (or similar) for ‘B’ Flight. As aircraft were lost, replacements would then take over the missing letters. So in time, the allocation would look rather random.
But not always the case!
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August 19, 2015 at 5:55 pm