Understanding RAF service records

Hi
I'd like some help with my father-in-laws RAF service record. He was in ground crew for Bomber Command and I managed to decipher many of the entries.
I would be very grateful for help with:
1.The following units - 9166 SE and 9153 SE. In the column headed MUSTERING the number 9 has been written - are these Squadrons 166 and 153 perhaps?
2. Under special qualifications and in Mustering is the abbreviation FIIE (look like capital 'I's ). Can anyone help with this please? (He is shown as FM/E which I take to be Flight Mechanic Engines)
3. He was promoted from AC2 to AC1 and then LAC but seems to have been demoted to AC2 and then promoted to AC1. the 'demotion' to AC2 has the same date as an exam in FIIE (see above) with a score of 50% - would this be the reason? His character is VG and he only forfeited 1 day for absence.
4.In the column 'date of movement' is the date movement from the unit on that line or to the unit on the same line?

with many thanks to anyone who can help
Andrew

 

Andrew,

It would help to post up his record so the experts can help better.

If you don't want to tell us his full name etc OK, but that does help.

 

No need to post the record - it is easy to see how to help from your post.

1.The following units - 9166 SE and 9153 SE. In the column headed MUSTERING the number 9 has been written - are these Squadrons 166 and 153 perhaps?
No.9166 and No.9153 Servicing Echelon - these units were independent but as you surmised they were mostly associated with movements on No.166 and No.153 Squadrons

2. Under special qualifications and in Mustering is the abbreviation FIIE (look like capital 'I's ). Can anyone help with this please? (He is shown as FM/E which I take to be Flight Mechanic Engines)
Fitter II Engines eg Engine Fitter in Group II (2) trade eg 2nd most technically skilled trade group in RAF

3. He was promoted from AC2 to AC1 and then LAC but seems to have been demoted to AC2 and then promoted to AC1. the 'demotion' to AC2 has the same date as an exam in FIIE (see above) with a score of 50% - would this be the reason? His character is VG and he only forfeited 1 day for absence.
Have a look in Mustering, a reversion to AC2 is usually associated with a change of trade. eg he was being paid as LAC for skills in a trade, but when he changed his skill level in the new trade did not warrant continued pay as fully trained and skilled.

4.In the column 'date of movement' is the date movement from the unit on that line or to the unit on the same line?
Both - date his paperwork and ownership change took place - he actually moved a few days adrift from this date.

Ross

 

Ross
Thank you for such a helpful and prompt response
Andrew

 

Sorry meant to make it clear that date to right of a unit was usually posted to.

Date posted from/to was usually to left.

Habitually only dates posted into a unit or attached (A) were given on wartime Form 543A usual exception was first three eg RC to Reserve to RC with dates being shown left and right.

Ross

 

Hi Ross
I wanted to clarify the points you made about mustering and rank. I attach my father-in-laws record. His trade doesn't appear to change significantly in mustering but you can see that his rank in 'Promotions' drops from LAC to AC2 and then goes to AC1. Also the character assessments in December each year give his rank on 21/12/44 as LAC whereas the promotions section shows he was AC2 from 7/3/44.
The only dates that match are his exam on 7/3/44 - on this date he was demoted to AC2. Was this because his score of 50% was deemed unsatisfactory?
Andrew
PS thanks for clarifying the date issue on unit movement.

 

Flight Mechanic was trade that was established pre-war, only sub division was on either airframe or engines.

It was intended that recognition of skill and seniority within the sub division was to be done via classification eg AC2 - AC1 - LAC, LAC being the new 1918 RAF classification for the RFC Air Mechanic 1st Class.

Between the wars and then with advent of Second World War the RAF first grew then exploded in size and technical trades evolved as modern aircraft replaced pre-war types.

A new trade of Fitter was created with sub-divisions Fitter, Grade I - Fitter, Grade II (airframe) - Fitter Grade II (engine) - Fitter (armourer) - Fitter (armourer)(bombs) - Fitter (armourer)(guns) - Fitter (marine) - Fitter (M.T.) - Fitter (torpedo). Fitter trade co-existed with Flight Mechanic trade.

So his reversion is when he changed trade from Flight Mechanic to Fitter - see mustering - u/t FIIE dated 6/10/43 and FIIE dated 7/3/44

u/t is under training so this is the date he started to change trade - posted to No.3 School of Technical Training for training as Fitter, Grade II, Engine - he is still an LAC and being paid as such to denote a top of the tree Flight Mechanic (only thing that would pay more is to become an NCO trade supervisor but that was limited by "dead mans shoes" for each unit).

7/3/44 he has come to the end of his training course and is Ex Remus - Examination for remustering - 50% is a pass rate and he changes trade to FIIE.

Now as a FIIE he is a new boy in the trade and needs to practice a whole new set of skills, he can no longer have the extra pay for skill that came with LAC so his classification is revised to AC2. Usually this meant a slight reduction in pay but he was now on a path that potentially pay far more than he was previously getting as FM/E.

11/9/44 his progress is assessed by a Local Trade Test Board LTTB on his station and they recommend that his pay in FIIE trade be increased to reward increase in skills - this is done with the pay increment for AC1 classification - 1/10/44.

That's the gist of it - there were slight variations for changing needs/war years etc but they do not alter the basics eg change from squadron line/station ground staff duties to Base related central servicing to move into europe and possible far east deployment that meant change back to core services for squadron movements.

Ross

 

31/12/44 note on annual assessment is probably a note that he was acting classification of LAC on that date - either unpaid or paid - by instruction of the unit he was posted to.

LAC was restricted to a set number of LACs for the unit strength so Officer Commanding could make local adjustments giving acting classifications/ranks that were not official promotions but recognised work by the airman.

As the RAF contracted post war numbers of airmen reduced and classifications were reduced to bring in line with the RAF structure pre 1939. This would be why he remains AC1 on 31/12/45 assessment.

Ross

 

Ross
Thank you so much for such a clear and comprehensive reply. I knew that he worked on Lancasters and his unit history (with your help with the dates) shows that all/most of the units had Lancasters at the time he was based with that particular squadron.
I can now brief my wife on her Dad's wartime history.
regards
Andrew

 

A nice example of the transition of aircraft maintenance. If you will permit I'll try to flesh out the service record.

Flight Mechanics were intended to be the daily staff for a unit and mostly flight line based.

Flight Line duties were daily inspections for flight, turnround servicing after operations, fault diagnosis and rectification for tasks that could be done outside at dispersals. As a result most FM/E and FM/A postings in early war years were to Squadrons and were used as initial manpower/intermediate manpower reserve. This would allow the squadron to self govern for training/sickness/leave etc and was expected to cover all operational demands in the short term. Analogy today for FM/E duties would be AA/RAC roadside assistance.

Hangar space for more complex inspections and repairs that could not be done at dispersal was assigned as 1/2 hangar per squadron in the early war years so almost all tasks were done on the flight line.

The scarcity of hangar space for 3rd line servicing led to rotations of aircraft from the squadron to remote specialised maintenance establishments or to special Ministry of Supply Hangars at local aerodromes (mostly for urgent mods that needed to be done out of phase from periodic flying hour inspections). Think of this as Halfords Servicing/Local Garage

The settled nature, workload of Bomber Command led to the introduction of Base Servicing as a stage between flightline and maintenance units - airmen posted to Base would work on aircraft from several local squadrons in hangar style surroundings. FIIE/FIIA were mostly here doing specialised inspection/repair that could be compared to Specialist Motorsport engine builders/tuners today.

This was fine for home force but did not fit with field operations where the squadrons moved to bases just behind moving front lines. A new format of unit servicing resource was required for mobile operations. Two formats appeared - Servicing Commando and Servicing Echelon.

Servicing Commando appeared in most of the RAF field theatres. Initially in the Med then Burma and Northern Europe.
Royal Air Force Commandos - Wikipedia

Distinction was that these were expected to occupy recently vacated enemy aerodromes and flight line service any visiting aircraft as battle repair and turnround. Also to actively repel any counter offensive against the aerodrome.

Development from experience of Servicing Commando was that aerodrome defence was a task that the RAF needed to provide for itself without reliance on local army . This led to the birth and growth of the RAF Regiment role.
RAF Regiment - Wikipedia

With regiment defence the Servicing Commando could be restructured into Servicing Echelon - where part of the squadron structure would contain a sub unit that would carry out all the servicing activities from Flightline to Hangar Inspection/Repair to keep the squadron operational in the field. His posting to 9166 and 9153 SE relate to this specalism. If Base servicing was motorsport tuning, SE was more akin to formula 1 race engine mechanic travelling to race circuits.

Both No.166 and No.153 Squadrons were initially earmarked as part of the larger bomber force to be sent to the Pacific Theatre to assist the USAAF in operations against Japan hence the setup of Servicing Echelon but during the planning it was decided to start with a smaller force and expand as necessary. Atomic bomb and capitulation made further reinforcement postings not required.
Tiger Force (air) - Wikipedia

Hope this helps explain a bit more on what his trade change meant in skills and direction his service career was heading.

Ross