Introduction

In this part we look at the organisational structure of the RAF ground crews during Ron's service.

Ranks

The following table gives the ground crew ranks with their abbreviations. Service personnel entered as Aircraftman 2nd Class (AC2) and could theoretically rise to the rank of Warrant Officer.

Throughout the war the three lowest grades on non-comissioned airmen and airwomen, ie AC2/ACW2, AC1/ACW1, and LAC/LACW were not holders of rank in the strict service definition, meaning they had limited powers of discipline over subordinates.
There were instead trade classifications denoting the holder's current standing according to successful trade testing results, eg to attain the LAC/LACW's coveted propellers' arm badge meant passing all facets of the appropriate trade testing examinations at a minimum 80% pass mark. Therefore the lowest true rank was Corporal. Actual promotion from LAC/LACW to Corporal or higher ranks depended on many things, including establishment vacancies, 'seniority' at existing level of rank or classification, recommendation initially by unit commander and other numerous factors. Overall authority for such promotion rested ultimately with the RAF Records Office, which authority also issued air postings' notifications, confirmation of substantive rank promotions, and myriad other facets of RAF life affecting all ranks.

On a local level, unit and station commanders had limited powers of authority to promote individuals to temporary higher rank in order to fill a key vacancy in unit/station organisation but such temporary rank would be removed on the individual's eventual posting to another unit, unless confirmed by RAF Records Office in the interim, or the lack of a vacancy for such a rank at the new unit.

The generic slang term for all non-commissioned airmen below the rank of Corporal was 'Erks' - a term applied over many years before, during and after the war. This term was used with almost a degree of affection whereas the official term, 'Other Ranks' was commonly resented. Also resented was the oft-used term inherited from the Army, and used by unthinking junior officers, of 'Troops'. A further common irritation to any ex-airman or serving Erk was the misspelling of Aircraftman/Aircraftwoman by the insertion of an 's' between 'aircraft' and 'man/woman'. Put at its simplest explanation an AC was an aircraftman, not an air-craftsman.

Trade Group Structure

All airmen and airwomen that enlisted in the RAF and WAAF were allocated to a specific trade. There were six trade groups Numbering I to V and M. Each group reflected the degree of technical skill and responsibility of the personnel in the group. The most skilled tradesmen were those mustered in Group I, descending in levels of skill and basic training requirements to Group V. Group V included newly-joined recruits. Group M contained mainly medical or nursing categories and was considered on a par with Group V in terms of skills.

Pay Structure

Daily rates of basic pay for all ranks below commissioned officer varied at each rank level according to which trade Group the individual was mustered in. The following table gives the range of daily pay rates for each trade Group. Within each trade Group Aircraftman second class (AC2) is the lowest of the pay range and Warrant Officer is the highest.

These were the basic rates of pay, calculated on a daily basis, but additional payments were made in individual cases for various reasons. For instance certain specialist qualifications directly relevant to some trades could bring the holder extra payment of 'non-substantive' daily 'bonus' pay varying from 3d to 1s. All airmen and airwomen having a service record of very good conduct were also awarded 3d per day additional to basic rate at each stage of completing 3, 8 and 13 years service in the RAF.

- This puts some significance on Ron being awarded good conduct badges, not only were they recognition of good conduct but they meant more money!

General working conditions

Once enlisted an airman's 'terms of service' during the war were relatively vague, beyond the certain knowledge that he was unlikely to be released from the Service until the close of the war unless for medical reasons, or other individual possibilities. He automatically became subject to all and every rule and regulation to be found in KRs and ACIs and was bound in disciplinary matters by the imposing volume Manual of Air Force Law (MAFL). This was in addition to a host of temporary wartime impositions place upon all Servicemen and civilians.

Postings

He could be (and often was) posted at the shortest of notices to far-flung corners of the globe, with no redress. If such a posting was to an overseas theatre of operations, his stay outside his homeland was undefined in the context of specific length of sojourn, ie there were no laid-down, set parameters to an overseas' tour of duty. This might be mere months, or (more often) two, three or even four years away from kith and kin, with no known date for repatriation to his homeland until only weeks before actually leaving his unit abroad. Even 'working hours' depended on myriad considerations on whichever particular unit, station, or Command he might be on or in. Traditionally (then) no Serviceman could belong to a trades union, hence his working life became a simple matter of 'Service exigencies' - a term sufficiently vague enough to 'cover' all of any imposed working structure.

Working Hours

Working hours varied sharply, but generally depended to a great extent upon an airman's trade, and especially whether he was serving with a front-line operational unit, or employed in non-combatant areas and other facets of service. The usual working week for Erks on operational stations was at least six and a half days of 'labouring' at their individual trades, with a 48-hours pass about once per month, and very occasionally a few days' leave - IF 'exigencies' permitted, of course. For the ground crews directly concerned with the aircraft, however, these worked whenever work was necessary, even if this meant staying on the job until the task was completed, day and/or night. In support of the 'spanner brigade' toiling out on the bleak dispersal's or in the draughty, unheated hangars, were the cooks, clerks, equipment, pay and MT, etc - each equally important in the overall 'teamwork'. If the 'vitality' of certain apparently mundane duties rather escaped those involved, without their back-up the organisation might have crumbled rapidly.

Acolades

Inevitably, the air crews, representing the 'sharp end' of the RAF, received the lion's share of media publicity, awards and honours: inheriting an aura of 'glamour' in the eye of the public. Yet to place just one pilot in one aeroplane and get both airborne has always needed a host of non-flying back-up, essential services. Put bluntly, without such support all air crews on most, of not all, operational units the unstinting labours and devotion to duty of the unglamorous Erks were genuinely appreciated by the air crews, thereby forging an efficient, mutually co-operating team. Only as one 'progressed' further back from front-line operations did the gap open up between the 'leaders' and the 'led', widening overly as that 'range' increased......
'Press on rewardless' might well have been sanctified as most Erks' official motto!