Ground crew

As the air forces expanded how were ground crew obtained? Could one transfer in from an infantry regiment{should've been a popular move)? Was some type of technical skill/background required or was it all provided in training? Furthermore, did most of the top aces have a permanent crew? For example, Voss's mech. Timm, did he accompany Voss on each transfer? And of, course, MvR's crew, has anybody ever heard anything about them?

Ray,

>As the air forces expanded how were ground
>crew obtained?

One of the funniest stories I read recently was how Oswald Watt then CO of 2 Sqn AFC got the squadrons groundcrew. 2 Sqn was raised in Egypt from members of 1 Sqn AFC. Naturally they were shorthanded so Oswald Watt got several Leyland Lorries and drove them into an Australian Lighthorse camp. Watt stood on the back yelling out "Trades?, Engineers?, Fitters?, Sailmakers?" Lighthorseman started putting their hands up and they were shuttled onto the lorries. Once they had enough people one of the AFC Officers said to Watt, "Should we tell the Lighthorse Orderly Officer what we are doing?". Watts reply was, "No, we have to snatch them."

They did some more testing and so forth at the AFC camp and they sent back the Lighthorse folks the AFC didnt want. I doubt the Lighthorse was impressed lol.



cam
AFC - http://members.nbci.com/pointcook/

Ray: I recall a book based on Sefton Brancker's papers talking about that problem. Initially, the technical people the RFC needed were going to the BEF as grunts. The RFC put out a call for the "trades" and there was initial resistance from the army because the upstart air services had little value, and men were needed in the trenches. I think it took a combination of things to sort that out: Cam's story about the AFC illustrates one answer; a campaign at home to find and recruit technical types; training programs and; finally, politicians to finally sit down and allocate resources. To add to the difficulties, the RFC and the RNAS were competing for these precious few resources.
DD

I seem to recall reading something about women being used in this capacity by Britain. Since it was strictly noncombatant work, it seems a likely use of "womanpower."

Some joined the RFC straight from civvy street as mechanics, etc. Usually they had already got some skills in that direction. Sgt Attwater of 20 Sqn joined that way, and I think McCudden did too - although I stand to be corrected re the latter. My grandad moved from being a Field Ambulance driver to air gunner with 20 Sqn after they called for volunteers. I would think it was very much a mixture of direct enlistments and transfers.

Bob