Did the Royal Observer Corps serve in World War II?
Harry Hudson Rodmell
After serving with the Royal Observer Corps during World War II, his graphic design work was largely replaced by commissioned oil paintings of new vessels. These were often produced from plans so that a painting could be completed before the vessel was launched.
Royal Observer Corps
Prior to the Second World War, observers were employed by county police forces and after twelve years of continuous service qualified for the Special Constable "Long Service Medal". However, following RAF Fighter Command assuming control of the ROC in 1941, this ceased to be awarded to members of the ROC.
Lieutenant commander
Throughout much of its existence, the British Royal Observer Corps (ROC) maintained a rank of observer lieutenant commander. The ROC wore a Royal Air Force uniform and their rank insignia appeared similar to that of an RAF squadron leader except that the stripes were shown entirely in black. Prior to the renaming, the rank had been known as "observer lieutenant (first class)".
List of Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons
During the Second World War pilots who served in the 600-series RCAF squadrons were recruited from the Royal Canadian Artillery in England and Italy, and trained to fly at 22 E.F.T.S. Cambridge (England), completing their operational flying training at 43 O.T.U. (RAF Andover). Observers were trained at Larkhill (England); these were selected 'Other Ranks' from the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Artillery. The three Canadian 'Air Observation Post' squadrons operated under the command of 70 Group, RAF Fighter Command; the first two squadrons saw action while serving with 84 Group, Second Tactical Air Force.
Edward Masterman
Air Commodore Edward Alexander Dimsdale Masterman, (15 April 1880 – 26 August 1957) was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force in the first half of the 20th century. After retiring from the RAF, he served as the first ever Commandant of the Observer Corps.
Volunteer Air Observers Corps (Australia)
The Volunteer Air Observers Corps (VAOC) was an Australian air defence organisation of World War II. The VAOC was formed on 31 December 1941 to support the Royal Australian Air Force by sighting and observing aircraft over Australia. The VAOC swiftly established observation posts across Australia and provided information to the RAAF's regional air control posts. As the threat to Australia declined the VAOC's role was expanded to include coast watching, assisting air traffic control and weather reporting. The VAOC was staffed by civilian volunteers and reached a peak strength of 24,000 personnel and 2,656 observation posts in 1944. After the end of the war the VAOC was reduced to a cadre in December 1945 and was disbanded on 10 April 1946. The VAOC was similar to the British Royal Observer Corps.
Royal Observer Corps
The headquarters of each ROC "Group" operated from a control "Centre", responsible for and controlled between 30 and 40 observation "Posts", each of which would be some 10 km to 20 km from its neighbour. By 1945 there were 40 centres covering Great Britain, controlling in total more than 1,500 posts. (The ROC did not operate in Northern Ireland until 1954).
Denis Rixson
Air Commodore Denis Fenn Rixson (12 December 1918 – 10 December 1994) was a British pilot during World War II and a senior Royal Air Force officer in the post-war years and a Commandant Royal Observer Corps.
Derek Wood (author)
A lifelong and keen aircraft spotter, Derek was a sparetime volunteer member of the Royal Observer Corps for nearly fifty years and wrote the history of the Corps in his 1975 book "Attack Warning Red : The Royal Observer Corps and the Defence of Britain, 1925 to 1975", later updated in 1992 when the Corps was stood down. Derek joined the Royal Observer Corps in 1947 and served on posts near Chichester, London, and at Cuckfield (north of Brighton) after moving there in the 1960s. As a journalist and aerospace expert he did his utmost to further the Corps' standing in both military and civil areas.
List of Royal Armoured Corps Regiments in World War II
On the creation of the corps in 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, it comprised those regular cavalry and Territorial Army Yeomanry regiments that had been mechanised, together with the Royal Tank Regiment. As the war progressed and further horsed regiments were mechanised, they joined the corps, together with new (armoured) cavalry regiments that were raised for the hostilities. The RAC created its own training and support regiments, and in 1941 and 1942 a number of infantry battalions were converted to armoured regiments and joined the RAC. Lastly, the RAC subsumed the Reconnaissance Corps in 1944.
Royal Observer Corps
In 1986 the Royal Observer Corps Association (ROCA) was established with membership open to members of the ROC to provide close and continuing links between former ROC members. The association is organised on a regional basis with representation in each of the twenty five groups. Each group produces and distributes a magazine several times a year to keep the membership informed of developments and both local or national news.
Percy Bernard, 5th Earl of Bandon
In December 1945 the Earl became the fifth Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps, taking over from the retiring Air Commodore Finlay Crerar. The Earl assumed command of the Corps at a time when it had been officially stood down from duty and placed on a care and maintenance basis. Although a period of stand-down had been ordered the Corps was not completely disbanded, as it was anticipated that the ROC must continue as an essential component of the UK’s future post-war air defence system.
Royal Observer Corps
By the late 1980s the ROC comprised 69 professional full-time officers, approximately 10,500 civilian spare-time volunteers, and over 100 Ministry of Defence (MoD) civilian support staff. At HQROC, (RAF Bentley Priory), over a dozen full-time secretarial, clerical and other administrative staff were present. Each of the five Area HQs were staffed by a clerical officer and a typist, and each of the 25 Group HQs were staffed by a clerical officer, typist and handyperson. (Many MoD civilian support staff were also civilian spare-time volunteers).
Tom Harrisson
During the Second World War Harrisson continued directing Mass-Observation and was radio critic for "The Observer" from May 1942 until June 1944. For much of this time he was in the army and gave up reviewing on leaving the UK. After service in the ranks he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Reconnaissance Corps on 21 November 1943. He had been recruited (some sources say by a confusion of names, despite his apparent suitability) for a plan to use the native peoples of Borneo against the Japanese. He was attached to Z Special Unit (also known as Z Force), part of the Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD: a branch of the combined Allied Intelligence Bureau in the South West Pacific theatre). On 25 March 1945, he was parachuted with seven Z Force operatives from a Consolidated Liberator onto a high plateau occupied by the Kelabit people. An autobiographical account of this operation (SEMUT I, one of four SEMUT operations in the area) is given in "World Within" (Cresset Press, 1959); there are also reports – not always flattering – from some of his comrades. His efforts to rescue stranded American airmen shot down over Borneo are a central part of "The Airmen and the Headhunters," an episode of the PBS television series "Secrets of the Dead". The recommendation for his Distinguished Service Order which was gazetted on 6 March 1947 (and dated 2 November 1946) describes how from his insertion until 15 August 1945 the forces under his command protected the flank of Allied advances, and caused severe disruption to Japanese operations.
Royal Observer Corps
The Royal Banner, (displayed at St Clement Danes Church), the stained glass window at Bentley Priory, those former posts, group controls, MoD bunkers and other sites operating as museums, and those individuals who attend memorial parades as members of the ROC Association, continue to provide a link to the ROC and its distinguished past roles in contributing to the defence of the United Kingdom. The ROC and those who have served throughout its history are commemorated at the National Memorial Arboretum, where members of the ROC Association regularly undertake practical grounds maintenance of the ROC "grove".History
Royal Observer Corps
When the ROC was first issued with RAF style uniforms in 1941, the RAF was able to provide the majority of the uniform items but held insufficient stocks of RAF blue berets. However, at that time the Army held a surplus of black Royal Tank Regiment berets, therefore the ROC was initially issued with black berets, which remained part of the ROC uniform only until a manufacturer was able to produce the prescribed midnight blue berets, which then remained part of the ROC uniform throughout its history. There was a similar shortage of both Sergeant and Corporal stripes. However, there existed a large surplus of rank badges destined for the quasi-military "Royal Canadian (Volunteer) Storekeeper Corps" who served in UK dockside warehouses during the Second World War. These badges, displaying horizontal bars within a wreath of laurel leaves, were adopted for the ROC, with "Chief Storekeeper" becoming "Chief Observer" and "Leading Storekeeper" becoming "Leading Observer". The four bar rank of "Master Storekeeper" was discounted initially, but was again under consideration in 1990 as an RAF Warrant Officer equivalent rank styled "Master Observer"; intended to act as dedicated assistants to Crew, Group and NRC officers. However, the decision on whether to introduce the rank of Master Observer was overtaken by the standing down announcement. (The surplus rank badges destined for the Royal Canadian (Volunteer) Storekeeper Corps were also used by the United States' Civilian Technical Corps, who were based in the UK during the Second World War).
Royal Observer Corps
Technical
HMS Vigilant (R93)
HMS "Vigilant" was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during World War II.
Royal Naval Patrol Service
The Royal Naval Patrol Service (RNPS) was a branch of the Royal Navy active during both the First and Second World Wars. The RNPS operated many small auxiliary vessels such as naval trawlers for anti-submarine and minesweeping operations to protect coastal Britain and convoys.
Nicholas Monsarrat
Though a pacifist, Monsarrat served in World War II, first as a member of an ambulance brigade and then as a member of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). His lifelong love of sailing made him a capable naval officer, and he served with distinction in a series of small warships (corvettes and frigates), assigned to escort convoys and protect them from enemy attack. Monsarrat ended the war as commander of a frigate, and drew on his wartime experience in his postwar sea stories. It has been alleged that during his wartime service, Monsarrat claimed to have seen the ghost ship "Flying Dutchman" while sailing the Pacific, near the location where the young King George V had seen her in 1881. No mention was made of this in his autobiographies however, and the ship he was supposedly serving on (HMS "Jubilee") did not, in fact, exist.
Finlay Crerar
Crerar was promoted to air commodore and appointed commandant of the Royal Observer Corps on 23 June 1943 when his predecessor, Air Commodore Geoffrey Ambler moved across the road at RAF Bentley Priory to RAF Fighter Command as deputy senior air staff officer (DSASO). Crerar immediately generated controversy within the ROC when his first decision was to make retirement at age fifty mandatory for all centre personnel, including the duty officers. No similar changes were to be applied to post personnel, many of whom were already in their 70s and even 80s. The furore rumbled on for the next few years, but the new policy was to remain extant until after the end of the Second World War. Crerar's vision of a younger, fitter and more flexible centre workforce became the norm during hostilities, although many forcibly 'retired' centre personnel immediately re-enlisted on local posts.
Royal Observer Corps
Perhaps the most unusual ROC post location was No.17 Group (Watford) Easy-4 Windsor Post, nestling between the battlements and chimneys on the top of Windsor Castle's Brunswick Tower. Reporting for duty through the castle gates, many newly appointed ROC Group Officers were caught unawares when the castle Guardsmen in their sentry boxes snapped smartly to attention and presented arms. Observers frequently encountered King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Princesses, (Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret), in the castle grounds, where they would often make a point of stopping to enquire as to ROC activities.
Aircraft spotting
During World War II and the subsequent Cold War some countries encouraged their citizens to become "plane spotters" in an "observation corps" or similar public body for reasons of public security. Britain had the Royal Observer Corps which operated between 1925 and 1995. A journal called "The Aeroplane Spotter" was published in January 1940. The publication included a glossary that was refined in 2010 and published online.
Royal Observer Corps
Throughout the Second World War, ROC personnel were paid expenses and allowances in cash via their Group HQ and several Deputy Group Commandants discovered that they had up to one hundred additional observers appearing on their staff roll, each receiving higher than normal allowances, despite these individuals having never reported for duty.
Royal Observer Corps Medal
In 1950 HM the King, as Air Commodore in Chief of the ROC, granted permission for the award of the Royal Observer Corps Medal in recognition of long service. For part-time personnel, the medal was awarded to those having completed twelve years of continuous service. Each subsequent service period of twelve years was recognised by the award of a clasp depicting a "winged crown ". (On ribbon bars, a silver rosette was worn to represent the clasp). Full-time service on the part of ROC Officers counted for half the qualification period for part-time personnel; therefore requiring twenty four years service to qualify for a medal or clasp, but with any previous part-time service counting in full.
Royal Observer Corps
The association has actively continued since the ROC disbanded and still provides an additional contact point for ex-observers and their dependants. The ROCA also organises the annual reunion weekend each October at a suitable holiday resort hotel and provides an ROC contingent to the annual Remembrance Sunday event at the Cenotaph in London.
Royal Observer Corps
On at least one occasion during the mid-1980s, ROC personnel were briefly called upon to resume their historic role in visually identifying aircraft for the purpose of air defence. The Royal Artillery, conducting exercises at the Otterburn Training Area involving the deployment of the "Rapier" surface-to-air missile, invited personnel from the ROC to assist Rapier crews with aircraft identification. The exercises involved both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft conducting simulated attacks on high-value ground targets, the defence of which was tasked to the Rapier crews. The high energy manoeuvres conducted by fixed-wing aircraft at low level meant that the task of identifying such targets as "Hostile" or "Friendly" proved to be extremely challenging.
Royal Observer Corps Medal
In July 1961 the Commandant ROC Air Commodore Wight-Boycott presented a Royal Observer Corps Medal to the Battle of Britain Class locomotive no.34050 "Royal Observer Corps", which had commenced service with the Southern Railway company in December 1946; the ceremony taking place at Waterloo station. The medal was mounted in a glass fronted cabinet in the driver's cab and the locomotive's side was repainted with a representation of the medal and its ribbon. These were displayed until the engine was retired from service and scrapped in the late 1960s. However, the original nameplate and front badge were recovered and displayed in the entrance hall of RAF Bentley Priory, (HQ ROC), until 1996 when they were transferred to the RAF Museum, Hendon.
Observer Group
By December 1941, when the United States has entered the war, the joint unit was designated as the "Observer Group", which was composed of a small group of soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division and Marines from the First Marine Division; two officers and 22 enlisted men. The Marines were mostly from the 5th Marines' Battalion Intelligence (S-2) and Regiment Intelligence Sections (R-2), and the Division Intelligence Sections (G-2) of the 1st Marine Division. The Observer Group was led by 1st Lieutenant Lloyd Peddicord, Jr. of the United States Army and began to operate under the staff supervision of the Amphibious Corps, Atlantic Fleet G-2 by Army Lieutenant Colonel Louis Ely. Captain James Logan Jones Sr. was assigned to working under Colonel Erskine as the Assistant G-2 of the Intelligence section, under the Amphibious Corps staff, at the request of the Commanding General of Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet, Major General Holland Smith. Jones was fluent in several foreign languages, was extremely familiar with the target area of Africa; had experience with mechanical and mechanized vehicles and machinery, had experience in living in foreign lands, and had a military schooling and background. Because of these qualifications, he was assigned in February 1942 until September 1942, during which time he was promoted to Captain.
Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post
Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Posts are underground structures all over the United Kingdom, constructed as a result of the Corps' nuclear reporting role and operated by volunteers during the Cold War between 1955 and 1991.
Royal Observer Corps
During 1958, RAF Fighter Command expressed a desire to obtain data similar to that provided by the ROC in the event of a nuclear attack, specifically that concerning the location of nuclear bursts and the resulting nuclear fallout. The Air Defence Commander at the Air Defence Operations Centre, (ADOC), RAF Bentley Priory, in order to ensure continued operations by RAF mobile and static units, wished to use such data in determining which UK airfields, (both civil and military), had been subject to blast damage and/or exposed to any subsequent nuclear fallout.
John Roberts (rugby player)
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Roberts served as a lieutenant of the Home Guard in the Otterburn area. He also served in the Royal Observer Corps. 1951 he took up a new post moving to Southdean in the borders of Scotland. Roberts was a former moderator of the Hawick Presbytery and the industrial chaplain to the Scottisj knit-wear firm Lyle & Scott.
Canadian Forces Air Navigation School
Canadian pilots in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) learned rudimentary navigation during World War I, but separate observer schools were not introduced until 1918. Right up until the outbreak of World War II there was still no category of air observer in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).
Royal Observer Corps
Despite having successfully built upon the extensive NBC reporting trials, undertaken with the RAF Regiment, and meeting full NATO standards and evaluations (STANAGs and OPEVALs), the conclusion reached by the UK MoD was that retention of the ROC in its NBC Cell role was "desirable, but not essential in the existing format". As a consequence, the remaining part-time members of the ROC were stood down on 31 December 1995, following the laying-up ceremony conducted for the 1991 ROC Royal Banner in the Rotunda at RAF College Cranwell on 8 Dec 1995, where it remains on display alongside other stood-down Air Force units and squadrons which remain subject to possible future reactivation. Headquarters ROC at RAF Bentley Priory finally closed on 31 March 1996, after all administrative winding up tasks were completed. Assisted by the Senior ROC Officer (SROCO), Observer Commander N A Greig, MBE, the honour of being the last Commandant of the ROC fell to Air Commodore Martin K Widdowson RAF, who held the position jointly with his appointment as Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) of the newly combined No. 11/18 Group RAF.
Royal Observer Corps
The majority of control buildings have been sold into private ownership and demolished or converted to other uses, such as 17 Group Wrexham that is now a recording studio, 16 Group Shrewsbury is a veterinary hospital and 1 Group Maidstone is a solicitor's storage archive. Several others still remain, albeit for the most part abandoned and derelict. The notable exception is HQ 20 Group York's semi-sunken control building that has been adopted by English Heritage as a museum of the ROC and its cold war activities, and is open to the public from Wednesday - Sundays from Easter until November, and Saturdays and Sundays from November onwards. (The York museum closed for several months during 2008, when an unknown mould was discovered in the data centre, but reopened in October after investigations showed the mould to be harmless. It was forced to close again in August 2015 for one month due to serious flooding after a prolonged period of heavy rain).
Lieutenant commander (Royal Navy)
Throughout much of its existence, the British Royal Observer Corps (ROC) maintained a rank of observer lieutenant commander. The ROC wore a Royal Air Force uniform and their rank insignia appeared similar to that of an RAF squadron leader except that the stripes were shown entirely in black. Prior to the renaming, the rank had been known as "observer lieutenant (first class)".
Carlisle
The Royal Observer Corps was stood down and its parent organisation the UKWMO was disbanded in December 1995 after the end of the Cold War and as a result of recommendations in the governments Options for Change review of UK defence. The ROC buildings were demolished in 1996 and replaced by a cellphone communications mast. The foundations of the nuclear bunker can still be partially seen outlined in the concreted yard, which also contains the Air Training Corps hut during recent further development of the site.
Royal Observer Corps
Following this transfer, Major General Ashmore, who had been responsible for air defence during World War I, reported to a new Air Raid Precautions (ARP) committee, established in January 1924. In areas surrounding Romney Marsh and the Weald a series of trials were undertaken to develop a "Raid Reporting System" which would employ an optimum arrangement of observation posts and associated control-centres. During 1925 these trials were further extended to cover parts of Essex and Hampshire, and by October a proven "modus operandi" had been developed for a new organisation to be known as the Observer Corps, which was established on 29 October 1925.
Royal Observer Corps
Of the remaining 170 full-time ROC uniformed and civilian staff, many were transferred to other appointments within the Ministry of Defence and other UK Government departments, some opted to take early retirement, however the majority were made redundant. The "Senior Administration Officer" (S Ad O) and "Personnel Services Officer" (P Serv O) at HQROC undertook an extensive campaign of arranging relocation or retirement courses for staff from all over the UK. The S Ad O and an Observer Lieutenant remained in post to administer the reduced ROC contingent under a revised RAF structure. A massive exercise in recalling instruments, equipment, furniture and stores from all monitoring posts and controls took place over a period of nine months, controlled by the HQROC Supply Officer. Arrangements were made with the Ministry of Defence and RAF Historical Branch to archive ROC files, documents and historical memorabilia at various locations across the country.
Royal Observer Corps
The ROC provided an additional and highly useful function to the war-time UK Government by providing a plausible cover story for a number of covert war-time operations. Up to twenty highly secret electronic warfare units and Y-stations were established across the UK, with their associated scientists and technicians being dressed in ROC uniforms so as to avoid arousing any suspicion while entering and leaving RAF, Army and Royal Navy establishments.
List of Royal Observer Corps / United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation Posts (Q–Z)
This is a list of Royal Observer Corps (ROC) nuclear monitoring posts incorporated into the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO).Notes:-
Royal Observer Corps
The ROC can trace its roots to the First World War and the requirement for a warning system to bolster UK defences, predominantly over south east England, against bombing raids by Zeppelin airships of the German Empire's Luftstreitkräfte. A system of observation posts and observers was organised, with a network of approximately 200 posts established in strategic areas. Initially these posts were manned by British Army personnel, who were in turn replaced by Special (Police) Constables, and posts were coordinated on an area basis with telephone communications provided between themselves and their associated anti-aircraft defences.
Royal Observer Corps
In 1950, King George Vl granted permission for the issue of a "Royal Observer Corps Medal" for twelve years continuous service. Each subsequent period of twelve years was recognised by the award of an RAF "eagle clasp" attached to the medal ribbon. Service by full-time officers was calculated at a rate of 50% for qualifying years, thereby requiring fully twenty four years service in order to qualify for a medal or subsequent clasp. However, any spare-time service previously undertaken by such individuals counted in full. (ROC personnel who served for 28 days during World War II also qualified for the award of a War Medal, with service of 1,080 days qualifying for the 1939–1945 Star and the Defence Medal).
Edward Ashmore (British Army officer)
In his later military career, Ashmore was the leading figure in the air defence of the United Kingdom, founding what would eventually become the Royal Observer Corps. He was appointed to devise improved systems of detection, communication and control. A system to be called the Metropolitan Observation Service was created which covered the London area and was known as the London Air Defence Area. This was soon extended towards the coasts of Kent and Essex. The system met with some success and although it was not fully working until late summer 1918 (the last air raid took place on 19 May). The lessons learnt were to provide valuable grounding for later developments.
Geoffrey Ambler
In June 1942, Ambler was promoted to acting air commodore and appointed as the third Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps, replacing Air Commodore Drummond Warrington-Morris. During his time in command he oversaw the reorganization of the Corps' headquarters and the subordinate area headquarters.
Edward Ashmore (British Army officer)
Major General Edward Bailey Ashmore, (20 February 1872 – 5 October 1953) was a British Army officer from the 1890s to the 1920s who served in the Royal Artillery, the Royal Flying Corps and briefly in the Royal Air Force before founding and developing the organisation that would become the Royal Observer Corps.
John Herbert Thomas Simpson
Air Commodore John Herbert Thomas Simpson (26 March 1907 – 26 August 1967) was a bomber pilot during the Second World War and a senior Royal Air Force (RAF) staff officer during the 1950s. In his final appointment before retirement in 1959, Simpson was the eighth Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps.
Army Air Corps (United Kingdom)
At the beginning of the Second World War, Royal Artillery officers, with the assistance of RAF technicians, flew Auster observation aircraft under RAF-owned Air Observation Post (AOP) Squadrons. Twelve such squadrons were raised —three of which belonged to the RCAF— and each performed vital duties in a wide array of missions in many theatres.
Richard Jordan (RAF officer)
Air Marshal Sir Richard Bowen Jordan, (7 February 1902 – 24 April 1994) was a bomber pilot and squadron commander during the Second World War, a senior Royal Air Force officer during the post-war years and the sixth Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps (1949–51).
Post Instrument
The Observer Corp was an expansion of a system originally set up in World War I to coordinate the reports from observers in the London area, part of the London Air Defence Area (LADA). In this system, originally set up by Edward Ashmore, observers telephoned reports of aircraft to a plotting center in the Horse Guards building in London. Information from the map would then be forwarded to the searchlights and anti-aircraft guns in the LADA area.
Royal Observer Corps
During the 1930s the number of groups increased until by 1936, England had a full coverage of observation posts south-east of a line between Flamborough Head in Yorkshire and Poole Harbour in Dorset. (In 1936 the Headquarters of the Observer Corps relocated from RAF Uxbridge to RAF Bentley Priory in north-west London). By 1939 a system of observation posts covered practically the whole of Great Britain, with the western parts of Wales and Scotland together with England's West Country incorporated during 1940. The final group, Portree in the Western Isles, formed in 1941.
Royal Observer Corps
As a result of such developments taking place throughout the 1970s, a third category of Observer was introduced in addition to Post Observer and Control Observer; that of NRC Observer. The role of NRC Observer combined basic ROC training with specialist scientific skills and training normally reserved for UKWMO warning teams. Similarly, a higher level of security clearance was required by those ROC personnel acting as NRC Observers.
Royal Observer Corps
In 1925, following a Defence Committee initiative undertaken the previous year, the formation of an RAF command concerning the Air Defence of Great Britain led to the provision of a "Raid Reporting System", itself delegated to a sub-committee consisting of representatives from the Air Ministry, Home Office and the General Post Office. This "Raid Reporting System" was to provide for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain, and was eventually to become known as the Observer Corps. The Observer Corps was subsequently awarded the title Royal by His Majesty King George VI in April 1941, in recognition of service carried out by Observer Corps personnel during the Battle of Britain.
Goosnargh
During the Second World War the operations bunker of RAF Barton Hall was located at a site on Langley Lane on the border of the parishes of Goosnargh and Whittingham. After the War the Royal Observer Corps 21 Group Headquarters and the Western Sector Control of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation took over the bunker. In the bunker was the standby national control of the famous "four-minute warning" air raid warning system for the UK. The ROC and UKWMO were disbanded between 1991 and 1995 and the nuclear bunker was closed.The premises are now used as a veterinary practice.
Royal Observer Corps Orlit Post
Experience from WW2 identified that there would be a need for increased protection from enemy aircraft if the UK was ever faced with the prospact of being at war again. Although the ROC was finding that aircraft monitoring was becoming increasingly difficult to plot with the development of new faster aircraft, new aircraft monitoring posts were developed to assist observers to monitor aircraft.
Royal Observer Corps
Within a year four "groups" operated in South East England, covering much of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Essex, with the intention that a total of eighteen groups would cover the whole of Great Britain. The system required cooperation between and the participation of the RAF, the army, the British police forces and the General Post Office (GPO). (The GPO at that time operated Britain's national telecommunications system.) In January 1926 county police constabularies recruited observers as special constables, and each observation post was manned by a sergeant and six special constables. Recruits were spare-time volunteers who received neither pay, uniform, nor allowances. Individual volunteers purchased the only distinguishing insignia, Observer Corps lapel badges, at their own expense.
Royal Observer Corps
Following the UK Government's "Options for Change" defence spending review in 1990, the vast majority of the civilian spare-time volunteers were stood down on 30 September 1991, with the remainder being stood down on 31 December 1995. The closure of HQROC on 31 March 1996 and redeployment of those few remaining HQROC staff marked the disbandment of the ROC after over 70 years of service.
750 Naval Air Squadron
The Royal Navy Observer School grew out of HM Naval Seaplane Training School at RNAS Lee-on-Solent as a result of a series of changes of identity and parent unit. From 1918 until 1939 the Royal Air Force was responsible for naval aviation, including training and provision of aircrew to the Royal Navy. With the return of naval aviation to the Royal Navy on 24 May 1939, the Observer School was established as 750 Naval Air Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm. During World War II the squadron moved to Trinidad to continue training aircrew. It was temporarily disbanded in October 1945. The squadron reformed in 1952 and is currently based at RNAS Culdrose, where it trains approximately 30 Royal Navy observers every year.
RAF Bentley Priory
The Observer Corps moved to RAF Bentley Priory from its original location at RAF Uxbridge, along with Dowding and Fighter Command, during July 1936 and would remain at the Priory until it was stood down in December 1995. The Observer Corps was one of the cornerstones of Lord Dowding's air defence system and he said later in his despatch after the Battle of Britain:
Royal Australian Army Service Corps
The Royal Australian Army Service Corps (RAASC) was a corps within the Australian Army. Formed shortly after the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, it was initially known as the Australian Army Service Corps (AASC) until 1948 when the Royal prefix was bestowed. The corps served in World War I, World War II, as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, Korean War, Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War. The RAASC was disbanded on 31 May 1973.
Lavernock
A few yards away from the historic Marconi hut Penarth's only World War II Royal Observer Corps (ROC) Searchlight post stood on the cliff edge with its clear views over the Bristol Channel and the islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm. The Observer Corps site was established by the Air Ministry on part of the original War Department land connected to the Lavernock Gun Battery. The volunteer ROC observers spotted many Nazi German Luftwaffe raids approaching across the channel and activated the air raid warnings in the town.
Royal Observer Corps
Approximately every four or five years each group was subjected to a "no notice" and in depth "OPEVAL" assessment similar to an RAF "TACEVAL" or Tactical Evaluation, where a mixed team of UKWMO and ROC full-time staff would appear and evaluate all aspects of the group's planning and operations under realistic wartime conditions over a period of 48 hours.
Geoffrey Ambler
Air Vice Marshal Geoffrey Hill Ambler (23 June 1904 – 26 August 1978) was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Ambler served as the third Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps, the first serving RAF officer to hold the appointment as his predecessors were retired air commodores.
Royal Observer Corps
RAF Bentley Priory, home of HQROC for the entire history of the "Royal" Observer Corps, closed in May 2008 and will be developed as a private hotel or luxury apartments, with the historic officers' mess rooms and a selection of ROC items retained as a public museum. With effect from July 2011, the ROC Museum, Winchester, assumed responsibility from the MoD for the maintenance, storage and dissemination of information relating to "ROC Service Records" of those individuals who served with the Corps.
Basil Brown
During World War II Brown performed a few archaeological tasks for the Museum, but was principally engaged in civil defense work in Suffolk. He served in the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes and in the Royal Observer Corps post at Micklewood Green.
Royal Observer Corps
On 12 September 2008, a replica of a No. 41 Squadron Spitfire MkIIA, wearing the ""Observer Corps"" badge and title, was installed as gate guardian at RAF High Wycombe. The original aircraft on which the replica is based; EB-Z ser. no P7666, was the personal aircraft of Sqn/Ldr Donald Finlay, Commanding Officer of No. 41 Squadron at RAF Hornchurch. This aircraft being one of two which Observer Corps personnel raised sufficient funds in order to purchase for the RAF at the start of World War II. (In 2010 a BAe Harrier GR9A was adorned with the tail code EB-Z and title ""Observer Corps"" in order to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Harrier "ZG857" displayed these additional markings during the months which preceded the type's retirement from RAF service in March 2011).
Alfred Warrington-Morris
In 1934 on leaving the Royal Air Force he was employed as the Deputy Commandant of the Observer Corps under Air Commodore Edward Masterman CB CBE AFC RAF (Rtd) at RAF Uxbridge. Between 1935 and 1936 he was appointed Commandant of Southern Area of the Observer Corps during the massive and crucial expansion and development of the Corps during the inter war years.
When Air Commodore Masterman stood down as Commandant ROC in April 1936 Warrington-Morris replaced him and took control of the Observer Corps during the important period immediately prior to the Second World War. He oversaw the move of HQ Observer Corps to RAF Bentley Priory and the Corps' adoption by RAF Fighter Command. He also controlled the Corps during the memorable events of the Battle of Britain and was still at the helm when the Observer Corps was granted the title "Royal" to become the Royal Observer Corps and became a uniformed branch of the RAF. He was Mentioned in Despatches in July 1940.
RAF Rudloe Manor
RAF Rudloe Manor was the location of Headquarters Southern Area Royal Observer Corps (ROC) from 1952 until 1980, when it was relocated to Lansdown near Bath. Co-located with the ROC was Headquarters Southern Sector United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation, responsible for the now-defunct four-minute warning in the event of nuclear attack during the Cold War.
Royal Observer Corps
Many control and post crews have formed sub-groups of the ROCA and have continued to meet on a weekly or monthly basis throughout the years since the initial stand down in 1991. Meeting at local Royal Air Forces Association Clubs or hotels, they invite visiting speakers, or arrange visits to local places of interest. Local ROCA members turn out for Remembrance Sunday and parades all over the country, with former members being permitted to wear the ROC beret and cap badge, together with any medals.
William Glock
Glock was music critic of the "Daily Telegraph" in 1934, and then of "The Observer" (1934–1945). He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II.
Options for Change
Other casualties of the restructuring were the UK's nuclear civil defence organisations, the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation, and its field force, the Royal Observer Corps (a part-time volunteer branch of the RAF), both disbanded between September 1991 and December 1995.
The amalgamation of the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers into the Royal Scots Borderers (one battalion) and the Cheshire Regiment and Staffordshire Regiment into the Cheshire and Staffordshire Regiment (one battalion) was suspended in 1994.
A dramatisation of the effects that Options for Change had on the ordinary men and women serving in the armed forces came in the ITV series "Soldier Soldier". The fictional infantry regiment portrayed in the series, the King's Fusiliers, was one of those selected for amalgamation. It showed the whole process of negotiation over traditions, embellishments, etc. between the two regiments involved, and the uncertainty that many of those serving felt for their jobs in the light of two separate battalions merging into one, with the resulting loss of manpower.
Paull
Post-Second World War military structures included a nuclear attack monitoring post on Holme Hill (Royal Observer Corps), used from 1962 to 1968.
Royal Observer Corps
A core-team of instructors, provided with pre-formatted lesson plans, would be drawn from those spare-time officers present, who in turn would be supervised by a team of up to nine full-time officers. Full-time officers would be present for the duration of the summer programme of training camps, one of which being appointed as "Camp Entertainments Officer"; organising events including social dances, visits to local places of interest and an end of camp grand raffle. On the last full day of each camp, a Cabinet Minister or senior RAF officer of the rank of Air Vice-Marshal or above would visit to inspect a Guard of Honour, tour the training facilities and address the assembled personnel.
Commandant Royal Observer Corps
The Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps (CROC) was the Royal Air Force commander of the Royal Observer Corps. All the holders of the post were RAF officers in the rank of Air Commodore, initially retired reserve officers then Auxiliary officers and, since the end of World War II, serving officers. The ROC was a uniformed civilian branch initially under the control of the Air Defence of Great Britain organization, then Fighter Command and latterly Strike Command. The Royal Observer Corps existed from 1925 until it was stood down in 1995. Most of the commandants, with only three exceptions, were qualified RAF pilots, two being air navigators and the other a General Duties (Ground) Supply Branch officer. If a Royal Observer Corps officer had ever held the appointment, they would have held the rank of "Observer Commodore".
Royal Observer Corps
On the day of the dedication of the ensign, (Sunday 24th), the approximately 2,000 observers present undertook the first ever uniformed ROC march-past to the accompaniment of the RAF Band, with the Under-Secretary of State for Air, Lord Beatty, taking the salute. The parade then formed into a huge square and the ROC Ensign was presented by Lord Beatty. The Ensign was borne from the drumhead by Observer Lieutenant Pollock, VC. During the parade, Observer Lieutenant Pollock carried the Ensign, flanked by two senior NCOs, at the head of the massed contingent of observers. A film record of these events is held in the archives at the Imperial War Museum. However, in a matter of only a few months, the ROC would again be called upon to meet the challenges posed by a new threat: the Cold War.
Luftmeldekorpset
Following the Second World War, the Danish Home Guard sought to develop the LMK, and looked to an organisation with a similar role, the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) of the United Kingdom.
List of Royal Observer Corps / United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation Posts (L–P)
This is a list of Royal Observer Corps (ROC) nuclear monitoring posts incorporated into the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO).Notes:-
Honor Tracy
On the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Tracy joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, and worked in its intelligence department until 1941. She was then attached to the Ministry of Information as a specialist on Japan for the remainder of the war. She worked for "The Observer" newspaper as a columnist and as a long-time foreign correspondent. She wrote also for the "Sunday Times" and for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Royal Observer Corps
On one memorable occasion the observers on duty received a one-minute advance warning from a royal footman that they were about to receive a royal visit. A few minutes later, the King and Queen, together with the teenage Princess Elizabeth, climbed up the steep ladder and joined the observers on the darkened roof-top while a major V-1 flying bomb attack was taking place over London. The royal visitors stayed for over an hour, asking technical questions and peering through binoculars at the unfolding aerial battle. Prior to departing, the royal party autographed the post Duty Log. The following evening, the royal party again appeared and on this occasion stayed for a longer period, although there was little aerial activity due to poor weather.
Royal Observer Corps
Only the Nuclear Reporting Cell (NRC) elements of the ROC remained in service which, working alongside major armed forces headquarters, themselves entered a new and highly uncertain phase. Reduced to fewer than 260 members, the 16 retained NRCs now found themselves tasked with the daunting challenge of providing a comprehensive Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) warfare analysis and warning service for the Military Home Commands, on a reserve-manned basis as NBCCs but operating without the countrywide flow of data from posts and controls.
RAF Carlisle
During the Second World War the air raid warning organisation No 32 Group Carlisle Royal Observer Corps operated from a city centre building on Norfolk Road, The Laurels, although it was controlled administratively from RAF Kingstown. The association with Kingstown developed further in 1962 when the ROC ceased its aircraft spotting role for the RAF and took on a new role of plotting nuclear explosions and warning the public of approaching radioactive fallout for the UKWMO. A new administration building and a protected, hardened Nuclear Reporting bunker was built at RAF Carlisle. The nuclear bunker was a standard above-ground structure and both the bunker and Headquarters hutting stood on a separate site at Crindledyke just outside the main gates of RAF Carlisle and roughly opposite the station's officers mess. The Carlisle group was redesignated no 22 Group ROC.
144th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps
The 144th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (144 RAC) was an armoured regiment of the British Army raised during World War II as part of the Royal Armoured Corps. It fought in the campaign in North-West Europe, from June 1944 to May 1945.
Roy Orrock
Air Commodore Roy Kenneth Orrock DFC (18 January 1921 – 11 July 2002) was a British pilot during the Second World War and a senior Royal Air Force officer in the post-war years. He served as the fourteenth Commandant Royal Observer Corps from 1973 to 1975. He was Aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II.
Royal Observer Corps
The ROC has twice been commemorated by the naming of railway locomotives. Constructed in 1946, the Battle of Britain class steam locomotive no.34050 was named ""Royal Observer Corps"" in February 1948, and was presented with an ROC Long Service Medal ribbon at Waterloo station on 2 July 1961 by Air Commodore C M Wight-Boycott. Withdrawn from service and scrapped in 1965, the locomotive's nameplate survived and now forms part of the collection at the RAF Museum. Constructed in 1966, the British Rail Class 73 electro-diesel locomotive no.73137 was from 1985 until 1999 named ""Royal Observer Corps"". Marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Corps, Air Chief Marshal Sir David Craig undertook the naming ceremony at Waterloo Station on 30 October 1985.
Aircraft recognition
To answer this new threat, Major General Edward Bailey Ashmore, a First World War pilot who had later been in command of an artillery division in Belgium, was appointed to devise improved systems of detection, communication and control. The Metropolitan Observation Service was created, covering the London area, known as the London Air Defence Area, and was soon extended to the coasts of Kent and Essex. This led to the establishment of the Observer Corps in 1925.
Operational instruments of the Royal Observer Corps
The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation operating in the United Kingdom between October 1925 and 31 December 1995, when the Corps' civilian volunteers were stood down. (ROC headquarters staff at RAF Bentley Priory stood down on 31 March 1996). Composed mainly of civilian spare-time volunteers, ROC personnel wore a Royal Air Force (RAF) style uniform and latterly came under the administrative control of RAF Strike Command and the operational control of the Home Office. Civilian volunteers were trained and administered by a small cadre of professional full-time officers under the command of the Commandant Royal Observer Corps; a serving RAF Air Commodore.
RAF Harlaxton
A Royal Observer Corps aircraft spotting post was located on the north-east perimeter of the airfield during the Second World War and would have been responsible for initiating air raid warnings to the Grantham area during hostilities. An underground nuclear bunker was built on the same site in the 1960s and was used throughout the Cold War.
159th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps
159th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (159 RAC) was a short-lived armoured regiment of the British Army's Royal Armoured Corps serving in India during World War II.
RAF Fighter Command
As a direct result of their efforts during the Battle of Britain the Observer Corps was granted the title Royal by King George VI and became a uniformed volunteer branch of the RAF from April 1941 for the remainder of its existence, retitled the Royal Observer Corps (ROC). The corps would continue as a civilian organisation but wearing a Royal Air Force uniform and administered by Fighter Command.
Royal Observer Corps
Unlike an Armed Services unit, (having a "Regimental Colour"), the ROC has, in place of such, a "Royal Banner". Presented by HM the Queen, both in 1966 and 1991, these were laid up in 1991, (St Clement Danes), and 1995, (RAF Cranwell), respectively. Unusually, the Imperial State Crown and St Edward's Crown appear together. (The "ROC Ensign", first authorised in 1945, differs from the "ROC Royal Banner" in that from 1952, following the accession of HM Queen Elizabeth II, the ROC badge was thenceforth ensigned with the St Edward's Crown). During October 2015, the Royal Banner at RAF Cranwell was temporarily 'Lodged-Out' to RAF Northolt, prior to being laid up at St Clement Danes Church, where it replaced the 1966 Banner.
RAF Carlisle
The Royal Observer Corps and its parent organisation the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation were stood down in December 1995 after the end of the Cold War and as a result of recommendations in the governments Options for Change review of UK defence. The ROC buildings were demolished in 1996 and replaced by a cellphone communications mast. The foundations of the nuclear bunker can still be partially seen outlined in the concreted yard, which also contains the Air Training Corps hut during recent further development of the site.
XXX Corps (United Kingdom)
XXX Corps (30 Corps) was a corps of the British Army during the Second World War. The Corps provided extensive service in the North African Campaign at the Second Battle of El Alamein in late 1942, and in the Tunisia Campaign and the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, after which it returned briefly to the United Kingdom; the Corps served in the reclamation of France from June 1944 in the Allied Invasion of Normandy, and then served in Operation Market Garden, in the Netherlands, and finally in Operation Veritable in Germany until May 1945.
Royal Corps of Naval Constructors
The Second World War saw a similar expansion of the shipbuilding effort and the evacuation to Bath of the Director of Naval Construction. Many members of the Royal Corps served in uniform in the ranks up to the level of Constructor Rear-Admiral.
149th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps
149th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (149 RAC) was an armoured regiment of the British Army's Royal Armoured Corps that served in the Burma Campaign during World War II.
Aircraft recognition
Recognition competitions were organised locally, regionally and nationally and by the start of World War II the Corps had trained nearly 30,000 volunteers to accurately recognise all types of current aircraft. The unofficial "Aeroplane Spotter" magazine was later renamed as "The Journal of the Royal Observer Corps Club" before being adopted as an official publication and renamed as "The Royal Observer Corps Journal" published by HMSO and distributed to every observer at a price of one shilling (5 new pence).
Gomersal
There was also a Royal Observer Corps 'Orlit' type surface observation post on the Popeley Fields around one third of a mile from the Gomersal Cricket ground. This was active throughout the war and manned day and night. In the 1960s on the same site a nuclear-blast-proof underground bunker was constructed as a monitoring post, one of over 1,500 constructed in the UK, for use in measuring direction, strength of blast and fallout in the event of the UK coming under nuclear attack. The ROC stood down during the late 1980s with the reduced threat of the Cold War and the bunkers were abandoned and sold or given back to the land owners.
Aircraft recognition
In the United Kingdom, The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was formed as a defence warning organisation with civilians trained in aircraft recognition and operated primarily as such between 1925 and 1957. Aircraft recognition was first developed between the First and Second World wars when aerial warfare was first recognised as a future threat, after 208 Zeppelin and 435 aircraft raids over London during the First World War. In 1917 Germany had started using fixed-wing bombers, and the number of airship raids diminished rapidly.
Richard Jordan (RAF officer)
On 1 February 1949 Jordan took over the appointment as Commandant Royal Observer Corps at RAF Bentley Priory from Air Commodore the Earl of Bandon. In April 1949 Jordan was additionally appointed Aide de Camp to King George VI. Jordan was Commandant ROC when, on 1 March 1950 the Air Officer Commanding in Chief, RAF Fighter Command assumed direct administrative control of the Corps. Under this change Headquarters Royal Observer Corps continued to operate in its existing form but assumed a status that was comparable with that of a Fighter Command group headquarters.
Observer Group
The Observer Group began to conduct reconnaissance exercises on both the Atlantic and the Caribbean, (just as the Fleet Marine Force's Fleet Landing Exercises had done a few years before) by the Marines' Platoon Sergeant Russell Corey. He trained the Observer Group in hands-on work at sea abroad fleet submarines and in the tower for instructions in the Momsen lung. Another Marine by the name of Sergeant Thomas L. Curtis was selected from the Observer Group and was sent to the United Kingdom to train with the British Royal Marines and subsequently was transferred to Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency).
Post Instrument
The Post Plotting Instrument, or simply Post Instrument, was the standard optical sighting system used by the UK's Royal Observer Corps (ROC) to determine the location of aircraft. It was used during the period from the mid-1930s into the early 1950s, and was one of the main sources of daytime tracking information during World War II.
RAF Wrexham
Between 1962 and 1992 there was a hardened nuclear bunker, built for No 17 Group Royal Observer Corps North Wales, who provided the field force of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and would have sounded the four-minute warning alarm in the event of war and warned the population of Wrexham in the event of approaching radioactive fallout. The building was manned by up to 80 volunteers who trained on a weekly basis and wore a Royal Air Force style uniform. After the break up of the communist bloc in 1989, the Royal Observer Corps was disbanded between September 1991 and December 1995. However, the nuclear bunker still stands on the site of RAF Wrexham as a lasting reminder of the cold war, but is now converted and used as a recording studio.