Originally posted by Snapper
Aha! Sqdn. should be after the number, sqdn. if it is not specific – or sort of…ie: 609 Squadron, or the squadron, 609 Sqdn. or the sqdn. 609 Sqn or the sqn.
S/Ldr was wartime abbreviation, not Sqdn Ldr or Sdn Ldr.
I’m taking this from ORB’s, diaries, letters, combat / intell reports etc all from one sqdn though, so perhaps there is an element of it having been ‘the form’ there, or with the I.O.
Didn’t intend clobbering you Papa Lima!
Anyway, have sent a request to a 1938 Auxiliary. Now, it was A.A.F. at the time, then R.A.A.F. Then became RAuxAF – presumably because of the R.A.A.F. appearing in large numbers over here! Except that foreign pilots in the R.A.F. were R.A.F., not RNZAF, RAAF, RSAAF, RCAF etc. Or something like that. (and I gave up on the full stops, insert wehere needed!)
Not sure what you mean by foreign pilots in the RAF, surely RCAF crews were exactly that “RCAF” and the same with RAAF etc…. They were attached to the RAF or served on RCAF Squadrons within the RAF as in Don McPhail (KIA Nov 42) who served on 263 Sqn RAF but served in the RCAF.
Foreign nationals from occupied countries were in general enlisted in the RAFVR for the duration of the war and maintained RAF ranks, however they also had the rank equating to their own air force, such as Bernard Scheihauer (Shot Mar 44) of the FFAF who had the RAF rank of Pilot Officer and the French rank of Sous Lt .
Prof Alan Brown wrote an excellent book on the subject of Airmen in Exile that illustrates how these airmen were integrated into the RAF, but also how the various national Air Forces were able to keep their own structure.
But this doesn’t solve the problem of whether it’s Sqn or Sqdn.
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