OBSERVERS CORPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25735, 5 January 1945, Page 2

OBSERVERS CORPS

EYES AND EARS OF R.A.F. MAY COME TO PACIFIC A plan to send members of Britain’s Royal Observers Corps to the Pacific war zone is now being discussed in London. This illustrates the immense scope of the all-out offensive against Japan which Britain is already preparing. It also shows that all the specialised knowledge and experience gained by Britain in five years of war against Germany are being brought to bear on the struggle against Japan. The Royal Observers Corps—now 40,000 strong—is a volunteer civilian army recruited from all sections of the community. Some of its members are full-time watchers, but the majority do 24 hours’ duty a week in addition to their part-time civil occupation. “The eyes and ears of the K.A.r. This unofficial description aptly sums up the main function of the Royal Observers Corps, which is .to spot, identify, and record every aircraft, whether hostile or friendly, which approaches or passes over Britain. The immensity of the task is illustrated by the fact that Britain alone has 300 different types of aircraft, while in heavy German raids anything up to 1000 German planes of various types were over the London area, with R.A.F. night fighters engaging them. . Observers “tell” every outgoing or incoming aircraft by direct telephone line to the nearest of the 40 Royal Observers Corps centres in the country. The centre in turn keeps Fighter Command informed of the situation, and thus fighters can be despatched immediately to the correct points at which to make interception. Without close unison between the Royal Observers Corps and the R.A.F. it is doubtful whether the Battle of Britain could have been ■ won. The number of messages a day has averaged more than 1,000,000. The corps uses enough telephone wire to go four times round the world. When Hess Arrived Throughout Britain there are 1500 carefully-placed observer posts, each manned every minute of the 24 hours by two highly-trained observers. Incidentally, Hess’s arrival in Britain provided an ‘interesting example of the skill and speed in identification of the corps. The Messerschmitt 110 which he used was known to be incapable of making the return trip from Scotland to Germany. Yet Hess had no sooner crossed the coast after dusk than observers reported to an incredulous centre that an Me. 110 was passing over. They were, of course, proved correct.

The men and women of the corps, for 2500 of its members are women, must possess great powers of endurance. While on duty they can never relax. Conditions are rigorous, for observers’ posts must, tor reasons of efficiency, be situated in isolated, exposed, and often outlandish places; on a hill or headland, on the top of a church tower, and even, in one case, on the top of a tree. They must be manned every minute, day and night, in every type of weather. This work also calls for a high degree of courage. When enemy fighters are diving at a post with machine guns and cannon in action, the observer continues to report its course to the centre. Even when he sees bombs descending towards his post he does not seek shelter.

Although, thanks partly to its own efficiency, the Royal Observers Corps now seldom sees a German plane over Britain, it cannot relax its vigilance as long as the possibility of even smallscale enemy attacks remains. Meanwhile. its work as “ teller ” of friendly aircraft goes on. In this capacity the Royal Observers Corps has saved countless Allied lives, for example, in reporting the arrival of “ homing ’ crippled bombers. Again, quick action by observers on shore sites has saved a number of airmen who have crashed into the sea. Service on Merchant Ships For manv of Britain’s air observers the climax of their years of vigilance came when the liberation of France was planned. Eight hundred volunteers were called for to serve as aircraft observers on merchant ships carrying Allied troops and war supplies to France. The response was instantaneous and hundreds had to be disappointed. The average age <?f those selected was almost 50. They did their job so efficiently that merchant captains whose ships they had served asked whether the scheme could not be extended to all convoy work. These 800 volunteers who served with the fleet are now the proud possessors of the “seaborne” flash. The greatest testimony of‘all, however, to the service of the Ro-yal Observers Corps is the recent announcement: “So successful was the work of the Seaborne Observers Corps during the invasion of Europe that a similar scheme for the Pacific is now being considered.”