RAF Operational Sorties - Does name order infer role on plane?

[Neil_A]

Hi

I'm looking at the WW2 records of a relative who was lost, feared drowned, in combat off the Bay of Biscay. His rank was a Sergeant and he was a wireless operator/gunner.

He was part of a crew that manned a Halifax in 1943. The official listing of those perished starts with two Pilots, a navigator, three wireless operator/gunners and an engineer. Can I infer anything from the order of the names given?

For example the first pilot name given would have been the captain of this designated flight?
Would the first wireless operator/gunner listed actually have been the wireless operator rather than the Gunner on this occasion?

It matters as one of the crew actually survived. He was picked up a German U-boat and he on release from a PoW documented what happened to the crew members (by role).

many thanks

Neil

[Andy J2022]

I would expect the crew to have been listed in rank order, meaning that the captain of the aircraft would usually be the highest ranked crew member. The Halifax had 3 gun turrets (nose, dorsel and tail) so I would imagine that all three of the operator/gunners were required to man the guns and one may have been nominated as the radio operator in addition to his gunner duties. This was probably the forward (nose) gunner as his position was adjacent to the radio operator's position, immediately beneath the pilot's position. It's possible that the first named of the operator/gunners would thus have usually been the nose gunner, assuming that they all held the same rank.

[tonepad]

The pilot (captain) was not necessarily the highest ranking of the aircrew.
Here is an example:
Pilot F/Sgt
Bomb Aimer P/O

https://www.158squadron.co.uk/memorials/cavanagh


It was unusual to have a second pilot aboard in WW2, the second pilot may have been training with an experienced crew before taking over his own aircraft or they were on a special long range mission. The flight engineer normally doubled up as second pilot when taking off and landing.


Tony

[andrewalston]

There's a good description of the Halifax crew compartment at https://35squadron.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/handley-page-halifax-crew-positions/

It also describes the roles of each crew member. "Second pilot" was phased out in 1942.