By: bazv - 26th November 2015 at 21:44
Nice little youtube video showing the team for the NZ air race includes Bob Currie still wearing the Observer badge –
That is a lovely little vid MM – thanks very much for posting : )
Really high quality clip that has not been ‘artificially aged’ as is fashionable with many interesting film clips !
By: exmpa - 26th November 2015 at 17:10
Gp Capt “Harry” King, Station Commander at Gaydon until 1969 still wore his “O” brevet.
By: Mothminor - 26th November 2015 at 08:43
Bob Currie was described as the senior Navigator for that particular unit (540 sqn – NZ air race)
Nice little youtube video showing the team for the NZ air race includes Bob Currie still wearing the Observer badge –
By: bazv - 25th November 2015 at 06:54
I had meant to post some more details about Sqn Ldr Bob Currie AFC,but had forgotten ,so to catch up on this very experienced and obviously extremely highly rated Navigator – here is a short bio…
By: John Aeroclub - 26th May 2015 at 22:37
I certainly remember there were a number of NCO aircrew on 9 and 12 Sqn’s in 1960. I particularly remember two Observers, one a Flt/Sgt Smith who gave me some photos of Brigands he had flown in Malaya (I still have them) and another, who sadly I can’t remember his name but he was killed in a crash on our detachment to Libya in Nov 1960.
John
By: bazv - 26th May 2015 at 22:10
Not exactly but Bob Currie was described as the senior Navigator for that particular unit (540 sqn – NZ air race)
Obviously a wartime nav – it was quite normal for aircrew to wear their old flying badges as long as they could get away with it (or also as long as they could get replacement badges) !
By: Graham Boak - 26th May 2015 at 22:02
OK, but is this what John meant by having Observers in his crews?
By: bazv - 26th May 2015 at 21:03
I have certainly read that the introduction of the N badge was not universally popular and that some individuals preferred to carry on with the O badge as long as they could – but not as far as Canberras, I’m sure. The postwar Observer will have to have been a distinctly different kind of animal (I mean specialist aircrew, of course)
Sqn Ldr Bob Currie and others might disagree Graham ; )
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By: Rosevidney1 - 26th May 2015 at 20:44
An ex-Fleet Air Arm pilot friend rather unkindly referred to Observers as ‘talking ballast’!
By: Robbiesmurf - 26th May 2015 at 17:00
A counter to the dead weight then.
By: TonyT - 26th May 2015 at 16:32
The RAF still had Navigators on the Vc10’s, they were solely there to counterbalance the weight of the Loadmaster they carried down the rear of the aircraft.. :p
By: Graham Boak - 26th May 2015 at 15:49
I have certainly read that the introduction of the N badge was not universally popular and that some individuals preferred to carry on with the O badge as long as they could – but not as far as Canberras, I’m sure. The postwar Observer will have to have been a distinctly different kind of animal (I mean specialist aircrew, of course)
By: John Aeroclub - 26th May 2015 at 15:27
Thank you for the reply. I’m researching a deceased Avro Manchester Observer Sgt H.C. Redgrave (the father of an extended family lady member) who was lost in the first operational loss of that type on 13th March 1941. I have a good account of the drama including a photo of the German pilot. I know that Sgt Redgrave attended 1 Air Observer and Navigator School (Prestwick). I remember we had Observers and Navigators on our Canberra B.6’s in 1960 with the Observer just carrying out the non Radar Bomb aiming.
John
By: Moggy C - 26th May 2015 at 15:00
They didn’t ‘split’ The latter replaced the former
According to Observers and Navigators and Other Non-Pilot Aircrew in the RFC, RNAS and RAF by Wing Commander C. G. Jefford
He examines the way in which the post WW1 RAF rapidly dispensed with its Observer officers and spent the next fifteen years attempting to make do by misemploying airmen as Air Gunners on a part-time basis. The story continues with the reinstatement of Observers in 1934, albeit still as part-time corporals until 1939.
Wartime experience soon revealed that in wartime conditions Pilots did need qualified assistance and by the summer of 1940 all observers and gunners were at least sergeants and increasing numbers were being commissioned.
He then goes on to examine the proliferation of non-pilot aircrew categories until 1942 when the system was substantially reorganised. This was when the Observer was replaced by the Air Bomber and a variety of specialised types of Navigator.
I haven’t got a copy of the book, so I don’t know whether an Observer would, come 1942, unpick the Observer badge from his uniform and replace it with an ‘N’ badge. It wouldn’t surprise me if most continued to wear the ‘O’ as a sort of ‘long service snobbery’.
Moggy
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May 26, 2015 at 2:41 pm