Group Captain Research Articles

So You're Posted into CASG - An Aviation Engineers and Logistics Perspective

Warrant Officer (WOFF) David Turnbull provided his insight and point of view (Turnbull, 2023) on the struggle of getting the best people into Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG). Whilst it is a great read and the scene is set for further nail-biting episodes, the one standout observable from my point of view is that his theme is focussed on the ability or struggle of encouraging Enlisted Aviators to seek employment within CASG. This is different from the point of view of commissioned aviator ranks. Aviators within the aviation Engineers and Logistics (ENGLOG) categories, posting into various CASG System Program Offices (SPO) is inevitable. Unlike the Enlisted Aviators, aviation ENGLOG can expect a posting into a SPO at each rank band in between the ‘fun’ postings; Junior Officer (JO), Squadron Leader (SQNLDR), Wing Commander (WGCDR) and Group Captain. But the SPO ‘fun’ doesn’t stop there because then there are CASG Branch level postings for Air Commodore and Air Vice Marshal.

John Kenyon (“Ken”) French Mason

Long serving Royal Air Force pathologist who later helped pioneer medical jurisprudence Credit: University of Edinburgh Ken Mason’s distinguished medical and medical jurisprudence career, which spanned 74 years, can be...

Melodrama, Celebrity, The Queen

In the midst of Princess Margaret's 1950s romance with Royal Air Force group captain Peter Townsend, Malcolm Muggeridge warned that the new celebrity coverage of the royal family would end in tears. But in 2006, Stephen Frears’ The Queen proved that tears could enhance the popularity of the British monarchy, creating what one film critic hailed as the most sophisticated public relations boost for the queen in 20 years. In this depiction of the fateful week after the death of Diana in 1997, docudrama—the fictionalized representation of real people and events—is trumped by melodrama, with its pathos, its appeal for moral recognition and its highly expressive mise en scène. The former (represented by actual news footage) is the genre of the film's ‘queen of hearts’, Diana. The latter (represented by the dramatic fiction of screenwriter Peter Morgan) is that of its ‘queen of a nation’, Elizabeth II. In its opposition of two ambitious queens—one romantic, one worldly—the film echoes Friedrich Schiller's 1800 proto-melodrama Mary Stuart. More than two centuries later, the older genre triumphs, rendering The Queen's fictional world more vivid and affecting than the actual images of the real-life Diana. Much of this triumph can be attributed to Helen Mirren, who brings the prestige of her star persona to a monarch in danger of being overshadowed by the celebrity of her rival. In an unusually forthright discussion of royalty and celebrity, The Queen draws the two regimes of power together in a single figure, who finishes the film with a declamation on ‘glamour and tears’.

7 SQUADRON IN WORLD WAR II (PART 2: 1943-1945)

On 2 January 1943 Group Captain Cross of 219 Group visited the Squadron. He outlined the future of the Squadron. The Squadron was to intercept Ju 88's which the enemy used to attack the Suez Canal, and would also supply cover to convoys. Arrangements were made for Maj Blaauw and six pilots to give an anti-tank demonstration at Maqubeilia in Palestine at 74 OTU.

Stephen Anthony Cullen

Air Commodore Stephen Anthony Cullen (“Tony”) was an aviation pathologist of international repute. Tony, himself the son of a doctor, was born in Liverpool in 1939 and qualified in medicine...

Sky's the limit.

MEETING GROUP Captain Annie Reid, Matron-in-Chief for The Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service (PMRAFNS), challenges many expectations about such a person. She is not 'posh' or stuffy, but down to earth and her Cornish accent gives her speech sincerity and homeliness. Walking with her across the base where she is stationed and where I am to interview her, she is saluted at regular intervals, reflecting her senior position, but each of her salutes is followed by a comment of concern about the individual she meets.

Naval capabilities: The launch of the British maritime doctrine

On 17 May 1999, in a presentation and panel at the Institute, the Second Edition of BR1806: British Maritime Doctrine was launched. Reproduced here are remarks on how the new doctrine will guide the Royal Navy into the next century, by guest speakers; Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, (First Sea Lord) Brigadier Robert Fry (Director Naval Staff), Brigadier Sebastian Roberts (Director of Public Relations, Army), Group Captain Mike Barnes (Air Warfare Centre) and Colin McInnes (University of Aberystwyth).

A British joint general staff—imperial throwback or strategic imperative?

The involvement of UK forces in several UN‐sponsored operations in different parts of the world, such as the Gulf War and the enforcement of the no‐fly zone in northern Iraq has dramatically increased in the last 40 years. Britain's armed forces have had to adapt in order to face new types of international commitments. Group Captain Campbell, in his prizes‐winning essay, here looks at the restructuring of the UK forces, arguing that a comparative study of staff skills required at the various levels is needed to achieve the most mobile, flexible and agile formations capable of world‐wide deployment. Through a comparative study of the historical and contemporary structures of the forces of Germany the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom he draws the conclusion that there Seems to be a strong case for the introduction of a formal joint general staff system in the UK With future UK operation commitments likely to be multiple concurrent joint and of variable scale operational effectiveness must be maximised.

Centenary year of scientific papers in the British Dental Journal.

It was no accident that Warren Harvey's paper on 'Tooth temperature with reference to dental pain while flying' was published during the Second World War, as Harvey was given the opportunity to investigate this subject after aircrew reported dental problems during flight. Group Captain Peter Richardson of the RAF Institute of Dental Health and Training reviews the paper.

Ernest Livingston Johnston — Air Navigator

This paper was presented at a meeting of the RIN History of Air Navigation Group held at Shoreham Airport on 20 September 1995. In the paper, Group Captain Johnston tells the story of the distinguished and extraordinary career of his father, Squadron Leader E. L. Johnston. Bound up with this is the brief and glorious, but ultimately tragic, story of the operation and navigation of British airships.

Group Captain F. C. Richardson, CBE, FRIN, DBA, B.Com. RAF (Retd)

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Close air support over Bosnia‐Hercegovina

United Nations Resolution 836 empowered UN Protection Forces to use force to counter attacks on safe areas in Bosnia‐Hercegovina including cir power and, specifically, close air support, Group Captain Sweetman here discusses the practical problems encountered whilst trying to enforce the UN's Mandate and the solutions which have been found to attempt to adequately fulfill dus requirement. He particularly highlights the importance ance of command and control, responsiveness, air superiority and tactical air reconnaissance in all conflicts, but in the theatre of Bosnia‐Hercegovina specifically. He concludes with a re‐enforcement of the importance of technology, which allows for a maximum, level of accuracy and tactical reconnaissance—a capability to be increased in the future to ensure the maximum efficiency of close air support in all situations.

The front line: Operational effectiveness and resource constraints

In the last five years alone since the fall of the Berlin Wall, emphasis has shifted from facing down the threat of a regular enemy to concentrating on resource management under the constraints of post Cold War economy to meet an expanding range of possible scenarios. To see what this change has really meant at grass‐roots level, Group Captain Wright, as Officer Commanding. RAF Bruggen, here discusses how he has been able to link operational effective‐ness with resource constraints to achieve real value for money. He looks in detail at Operations, Training and aspects of Support and in particular at his budgetary responsibilities under the New Management Strategy (NMS). He concludes that NMS is a very positive tool for forward planning, fostering responsibility and authority and enabling the Station Commander and his subordinates to focus on achieving and maintaining efficient operational capability at the best value for money.

Reviews and Short Notices

Reviews and Short Notices

Group Captain James Martin Walker

Group Captain James Martin Walker

UK RAF approach to reliability and maintainability : Group Captain A. B. Blackney and Squadron Leader M. W. Watts. IEEE Proc. Reliab., 329 (1982)

UK RAF approach to reliability and maintainability : Group Captain A. B. Blackney and Squadron Leader M. W. Watts. IEEE Proc. Reliab., 329 (1982)

British Intelligence on the German Air Force and Aircraft Industry, 1933–1939

The advent of the Hitler regime in Germany in early 1933, with its emphasis on the overthrow of the Versailles- peace treaty restrictions and the re-militarization of German society, caused a fundamental shift in the focus of Bntish intelligence activity. Germany replaced Russia and the Comintern as the primary target. The arm of German military power which commanded the most attention was the Luftwaffe, Germany's new air force. The bomber was the only weapon with which Germany could directly threaten Britain; by which London and the industrial Midlands could be made vulnerable; which could strike at the civilian population. Out of this nexus of strategic anxieties, the air staff created their ‘worst-case’ assumption. The worst case, as the air ministry consistently saw it during the 1930s, was a massive German air attack launched against Great Britain with the object of forcing a quick surrender, primarily through the collapse of civilian morale. Group Captain J. C. Slessor, director of plans in the air ministry (and a future chief of the air staff), admitted in his memoirs that,’ in those years immediately before the war the possibility of what was referred to as the knock-out blow bore very heavily on the minds of the Air Staff’.

Some Mathematical Aspects of Air Traffic Systems

In this paper, which was presented at a meeting of the Institute in London on 26 January 1977 with Group Captain H. L. Sheppard in the Chair, Mr. Attwooll, Head of the Air Traffic Studies Division at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, discusses the application of the theory of queues to air traffic control. He shows the importance of random perturbations due to late arrival of aircraft, and how traffic schedules in an airway network can best be adjusted to minimize delays due to congestion on certain routes. Much of this study was carried out on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority but the opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policy either of the CAA or the Ministry of Defence

Group Captain Reginald George Joseph Charlesworth, L.D.S

Group Captain Reginald George Joseph Charlesworth, L.D.S

THE HISTORICAL IMPACT OF REVEALING THE ULTRA SECRET

Abstract : We really should not have been greatly surprised. When Group Captain (Colonel) F. W. Winterbotham's work, The Ultra Secret, burst on our consciousness in 1974, it undoubtedly produced the most sweeping sensation thus far created by an historical revelation. It was sweeping, especially, in the sense of seeming to demand immediate and wholesale revision of historical assumptions about virtually all that determined the course of World War II in the Atlantic sector. It astonishes one to reflect on how little speculation there had been hitherto about the extent of code breaking on the part of the Western Allies and how few pressures there had been on governments to answer perplexing questions. That there were stories to be gained from reluctant authorities had, of course, been noted. Historians knew something about the remarkable Enigma machines developed by the Germans. Churchill had referred to them in his monumental work on the war period, and here and there a book or an article-usually in some French or German journal-went so far as to claim that there had been successful intercepts and decipherments and that these had much to do with one or another turn of the war. Usually such writings mixed claims of this kind with other sensational items of doubtful authenticity, so the ULTRA story was discounted with the rest. No one paid it much attention.