Us Versus Them
Us Versus Them
Relationships between the officers, NCOs and other ranks were usually quite friendly but occasionally someone would pull rank and try to gain advantage. We were standing in the armoury office one day and there were a few NCOs and others. The Squadron Leader entered the office and the rat catcher sergeant jumped to attention and saluted while the rest of us just stood at attention. The sergeant immediately turned to us in front of the officer and said, “Don’t you know to salute an officer when he enters the room ?”. I replied, “ Only the senior rank present should salute the officer, the others are only required to stand at attention”. The officer smiled and left the room.

It is well to know the regulations which apply to given situations. On one of the security exercises, everyone in the camp was required to carry a firearm for the full day and the armourers had to issue these to the appropriate people. Officers of air rank were to be issued with revolvers, other officers and senior NCOs had to get sten guns and other ranks, rifles. Along with others I was handing out weapons to officers when a non-flying officer decided he didn’t want a sten gun and demanded a revolver. I reminded him that he was not of air rank therefor he couldn’t get one. He started to get nasty so I called the armoury warrant officer and told him what had been said. He didn’t speak to the officer but turned to me and said “Give him a sten gun”. End of argument, young officers did not argue with older warrant officers.

Some NCOs had been promoted during or just after WW2 although they had not passed the appropriate qualifying exams. This was probably because many airmen would have been demobbed at the end of the war. Some of the sergeants were suddenly faced with the prospect of having to pass an exam if they wanted to maintain their rank. If they couldn’t pass the exam, they could be demoted to the rank of corporal and the difference was quite substantial. Sergeants had their own mess with lodgings for single men. If someone was demoted to corporal he had to move into other rooms in their own blocks or into single rooms in the ordinary billets. It was obvious that some sergeants, not all, would never pass the RAF Test Pt. 1 but they had been promoted when the service  needed them so it was a bit unfair to demote them years later. Officers who were doing their National Service were usually pilot officers, the lowest rank of commissioned officer, and were not well paid so had to have access to funds of their own to subsist in the officers’ mess with all the mess bills that meant. I believe the family circumstances were taken into consideration when they were interviewed. 

It must have been galling to some of the warrant officers to have to salute these young officers not long out of school but, of course, they were saluting the Queens commission, not the man ! There were a few officers from other air forces at the Fighter Weapons School and they seemed to have a different attitude in their relations with the other ranks. There was an American officer in charge of the Trials Flight at one time and he would always use your first name when talking to you whereas none of the others would.
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