PLANE SPOTTERS

Waikato Times, Volume 196, Issue 22547, 4 January 1945, Page 6

PLANE SPOTTERS

MAY BE SENT TO PACIFIC A plan to send members of Britain’s Royal Observers Corps to the Pacific war zone is now 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 is 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 R.A.F.” This unofficial description aptly sums up the main function of the R.0.C., 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. Million Messages The number of messages per day has averaged more than a million. The corps uses enough telephone wire to go four times round the world.

For many 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 of those selected was almost 50.

They did their job so efficiently that merchant captains whose ships they served asked whether the scheme could not be extended to all convoy work. The greatest testimony of all, however, 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 being considered.”