Research - RAF - WWII - North African desert

[HappyHaddock]

I wondered if some kind soul more knowledgeable than myself about RAF operations during WWII may be able to help with the meaning of some unfamiliar acronyms within the context of researching my grandfather's war time service  in/around North Africa.

 

Like so many, my grandfather never really spoke about what he did in WWII. What little we think we know comes from contradictory inferences, not all of which can be accurate. He was already a very skilled engineer and a well qualified wireless telegrapher before joining the armed forces, and he had enlisted in the RAF before war had broken out.  His eyesight was such that he would never have passed the medical for any kind of active combat role, nor would he have been as young as typical RAF combatants at the point war was declared. However, odd comments he did make lead us to think that once war was declared he may have been involved in something a little secretive, maybe even covert, to do with setting up communications stations. We believe that for the entire duration of WWII he never once returned home to my grandmother in England, and throughout his life he maintained that he had never, ever, flown in an aeroplane. The only photographs we have of him in recognisably British RAF uniform seem to be from before the war. The few photos of him which we believe to be taken during the war are from among a small collection of "tourist type snaps" depicting the pyramids and the sphinx, so we presume he was in Egypt at some point. They show his colleagues wearing recognisable RAF pale tropical uniform, however my grandfather is shown wearing civilian shorts with a bare chest, or alternatively wearing full flowing traditional Arabic robes. We certainly know he had a lifelong hatred of camels. This can only have come from intense personal experience of working with what he always referred to as "disgusting obstinate beasts", where the only place he could have encountered these would be during his wartime service in the desert.

 

Our suspicions that his wartime activities were possibly something secretive were enhanced by the fact his limited military records posed more questions than they answered. They only showed that he was discharged from being an "air gunner" on medical grounds (presumably poor eyesight?) in June 1939; ie. a little before the start of WWII. Consequently we had no official record of his wartime service and no record of him ever having gone to North Africa, let alone what he actually did for the RAF whilst there. However very recently my family discovered that he actually had more than one RAF service number (I don't know if this was common or may be more evidence of "unusual" military service?).

 

Anyway, whilst discovering this hasn't yet answered any questions about exactly where he served or what he actually did for the RAF, it has prompted new lines of enquiry. Based upon this the military have provided us with photo-copies of a few additional hand-written official records from the war which our family are trying to make sense of. In many cases simply reading the poor/smudged handwriting is a challenge, and in others the excessive use of unfamiliar acronyms is also a cause of confusion. Some of these acronyms we have been able to look up, others remain a mystery. What has been surprising is how frequently he seemed to change units between 1940 and 1944 and that these new RAF records seem to hint that my grandfather may have had as much to do with French military units as British ones.

 

If anybody knows what any of the following acronyms may mean in the context of military units relevant to the above circumstances, or even if they can make an educated guess as to what they might mean, I would be very grateful for any suggestions which might further our family's research into my grandfather's wartime service.

 

10BC                      : meaning unknown

AHQWD                 :presumed to stand for Air Headquarters Western Desert.

ISOR                       :meaning unknown, though it could possibly read 1SOR or 1S0R

ISS                          :meaning unknown, though it could read 1SS, and possibly even IS5 or 1S5

MEAST                  :meaning unknown, could it be as simple as middle east?

MESS                     :meaning unknown

NWAAF                  :presumed to stand for North West African Air Force

YRC                        :meaning unknown

 

Cheers

HH

Edited February 25, 2020 by HappyHaddock

[cardboard_killer]

1 hour ago, HappyHaddock said:

NWAAF                  :presumed to stand for North West African Air Force

 

This looks right. From a source as impecable as wikipedia

 

 

2 hours ago, HappyHaddock said:

10BC  

 

Again wikipedia: BC is the call sign of 511 Squadron RAF, and the Photo Reconnaissance Development Unit, too.

[MiloMorai]

A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940-1945: Volume One: North Africa, June 1940-January 1942

(A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940-1945 #1)

by

Christopher Shores

 

A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940-1945, Volume 2: North African Desert, February 1942 - March 1943

(A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940-1945 #2)

by

Christopher Shores,  Giovanni Massimello

[cardboard_killer]

1 minute ago, MiloMorai said:

A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940-1945, Volume 2: North African Desert, February 1942 - March 1943

(A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940-1945 #2)

by

Christopher Shores,  Giovanni Massimello

 I have this one, but it doesn't have a glossary of terms!

2 hours ago, HappyHaddock said:

AHQWD                 :presumed to stand for Air Headquarters Western Desert.

 

I think that's a very good assumption. I found it in a couple of documents on line that certainly implies it.

 

https://knowledgebank.org.nz/text/air-force-log-book-1941-2/

 

Quote

11.11.41   0900   S/Ldr. Morris took off for Bagush at 0900 hours to attend conference at AHQWD. Returned at 1200 hours. 5 A/c returned from L.G.110 at 1200 hours. P/o Cole remained behind owing to seizure of engine. Sgt. Creighton in A/c AM 438 force landed at El Alamein. 30 miles east of Dhaba owing to engine trouble. He was unhurt. General flying

 

[HappyHaddock]

1 hour ago, cardboard_killer said:

Again wikipedia: BC is the call sign of 511 Squadron RAF, and the Photo Reconnaissance Development Unit, too.

 

The notion there may be some connection with photo reconnaissance is an unexpected thought worth further investigation, though with him claiming to have never flown and having poor eyesight it's doubtful that my grandfather was directly involved in taking photos.

 

However the fact he seemed to move from unit to unit with unusual frequency (almost as if he was seconded for a month or two at a time?), that he had an engineering background in developing bespoke technical equipment for unusual one-of-a-kind projects and that there's a whiff of something covert about his military service wouldn't make it out of the question that he was involved in some sort development work  for others.

 

two units he seemed to spend the longest with were "HQ338wing" at the end of 1943 moving to "HQ328wing" early in '44. so these are areas of interest for the family at the moment, where I don't know if there is any significance to having these "wings" listed as his unit on his records rather than a particular squadron within a wing?

 

Cheers

 

HH

Edited February 25, 2020 by HappyHaddock

[MiloMorai]

Sounds like he was a 'fixer' that was sent from HQ to fix problems.

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Organization_of_the_Mediterranean_Allied_Air_Force_January_1944.jpg

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Allied_Air_Forces#/media/File:RAF_MAAF_June_1944.jpg

[HappyHaddock]

8 hours ago, MiloMorai said:

Sounds like he was a 'fixer' that was sent from HQ to fix problems.

 

Well officially he was listed as nothing more than a wireless operator, but throughout his life my grand father was one of those "useful" people who kept things running and who others turned to when they had problems that needed sorting quickly,  so it would be entirely in-keeping for him not to have been tied to any specific post just sending and receiving messages for those higher up the chain of command, but instead being sent all over the place "fixing" things when other people couldn't.

 

Without knowing much (anything?) about how common it was to be moved from unit to unit I don't know if there is any significance in the number of units he is listed as being attached to and that these all seem very large/broad general units rather than specific squadrons with designated specific tasks. However nineteen units in little more than three years seems a lot, especially when these units all all seem broad enough to potentially encompass many hundreds/thousands of personnel all carrying out very varied roles and so tell us little more than that with each transfer my grandfather was "still in the military".

 

We are also looking to try get to the bottom of his issue with camels and the fact we have photos of him in the desert dressed in Arabic costume but not in RAF uniform. This again hints at something out of the ordinary by way of none standard duties where it seems strange he should be discharged from the RAF at the start of the war only to serve with RAF throughout the war under a different service number.

 

Cheers

 

HH

[41Sqn_Skipper]

17 hours ago, cardboard_killer said:

Again wikipedia: BC is the call sign of 511 Squadron RAF, and the Photo Reconnaissance Development Unit, too.

 

"BC" is not the callsign but the squadron code of the mentioned squadrons (the 2 letters painted on the fuselage of the aircraft before the national marking). It doesn't make sense to use that code with a prefixed "10". Also I can't recall of any usage of the squadron code to identify the squadron in a document.