I was reading up on Short Sterlings at this site for 15 squadron and I had always thought pilot officers were pilots but if you look at the crew of W7624 there were pilot officers as air gunner, pilot, and observer. Is this correct ? Also who had the most senior rank, a flight officer or a pilot officer ? http://home.hetnet.nl/~olgaenron/15%20squadron.htm
It is at present known as Flying Officcer not flight officer, although I dont know if it was flight officer in ww2, rank structure, was in ascending order Pilot officer Flying officer Flight Leiutenant Squandron leader Wing Commander Group Captain Then your into the Realms of Air officer commanding ranks. The Flight Leiutenant is not same rank as similar Army rank of Leiutenant but is equivalent to Army Captain. As with present useage of rank, a Squadron leader could be navigation officer on an aircrew, but still have a Flt Lt, at the controls. Some of the casualty lists provide good reading of mixtures of RAF ranks, whereby a GP.Cpt could have been killed with a flight sgt as only crew of a two person craft. And dont forget the old lower ranks, sgt pilots abounded in the war as well as other flight trades. Even going back to Fairey Battles of Marstricht fight, with leading aircraftsmen on board. The crew of an RAF plane then and now has always been mixed, although you will not see Flight Sgt pilots today, although they do crew the Hercs as loadmasters etc and helocopter fleets. And not of course not forgetting the ubiquitous rank of Warrant officer. Martin would know for sure though.
That's very flattering, urqh..but don't take it for granted ! I must confess to finding WWII RAF ranks very confusing, with Warrant Officers, Sergeants, Flight Sergeants, etc etc and of course the famous anomaly that a Sergeant could be in command of a heavy bomber which included officers in the crew, all deferring to him as the 'skipper'.....
I am not sure, but i am pretty sure that everyone who served in the AirForce during WWII would be an officer. There were no privates. Due to the rate of being shot down and capture, they found that it was better to be an Officer POW rather then a Private.
I don't think you're quite right, Mussolini. As I recall from my reading, aircraft in Bomber Command and the USAAF were crewed by officers and NCOs. A significant difference between the two forces was that the flying personnel of the USAAF (ie pilot, co-pilot ) were always officers, not so in Bomber Command. This started to change toward the end of the war, certainly most Mosquitoes by 1944/45 were crewed only by officers and most Lancasters were being piloted by officers, too.
