110. There is no doubt that the first big test of the Corps came with the Battle of Britain. How well the Corps did its job can be deduced from the fact that on 9 April 1941 it was announced in the House of Commons that His Majesty King George VI had granted the Corps permission to use the title "Royal

111. The tracking of aircraft overland was the responsibility of the Corps but scientific research had developed a system to be known as radar whereby it was possible to detect the presence of an aircraft over the sea area. This detection and the resultant tracking was treated as a form of early warning of the approach of possible hostile aircraft. The joining of radar tracks produced over the sea approaches with ROC tracks overland gave the fighter controllers at RAF control rooms a complete picture of enemy incursions and made possible a greater number of interceptions.

112. During this vital period experiments were also made in giving imminent danger warnings to factories on war work. These experiments were so successful that the Ministry of Home Security installed air raid warning officers in ROC centres to warn certain vital industrial undertakings. This warning scheme was extended considerably and was responsible for saving many millions of man hours, thus making a vital contribution to the production of a large bomber force and of war material which made possible the invasion of France.

113. Had the invasion of this country been attempted the Corps would have played a part in its defence. Home Defence staff officers would have been stationed at each ROC centre, where the tracks of attacking airborne forces would have been displayed, thus enabling the small defending force available in this country to be used to its best advantage.

114. In September 1941, due to the increased call-up of manpower, women were introduced into the Corps and, as in all the other branches of the Services, they acquitted themselves well.

115. In June 1942 Air Commodore G H Ambler, OBE AFC was appointed Commandant of the Corps. He made extensive changes in the organisation. Some of his more important changes are listed below:

a. Reorganisation of ROC Headquarters.

b. Reorganisation of Area Headquarters.

c. Area territory to conform to the appropriate fighter groups.

d. Greater employment of young women at centres.

e. Training to become compulsory and to be the official responsibility of Headquarters, Royal Observer Corps.

f. Reorganisation of the Corps on a non-military basis, but with graded ranks.

116. The first of these organisations to be put into effect was the adjustment of each area to conform to that of the fighter group with which it was concerned. The Southern and Western Areas were unaffected by these changes, as they already corresponded approximately in area with Nos. 11 and 10 Fighter Groups of the RAF. Having altered the area territories the next logical step was to move the ROC Area Headquarters to locations closer to fighter group headquarters. There were now six Area Headquarters Scottish, Northern, North-Western, Midland, Southern and Western - but with the closing down of No 13 RAF Fighter Group, the Northern Area of the ROC ceased to exist and its Groups were re-allocated to the Scottish and Midland areas.

117. Up to now a centre controller had been responsible for each operations room, while observer group officers had been responsible for the posts, which supplied the information to the operations room. It was recommended that a group commandant should be appointed to unify the policy within each group, assisted by a deputy group commandant. An adjutant was appointed for administration within the group.

118. Duty controllers and group officers were appointed in the rank of observer officer to take charge of operations room crews and sectors of posts respectively.

119. Up to this time training varied from group to group but now that Headquarters ROC had undertaken the responsibility for training, methods became standardised and a full training programme was instituted in each group.

120. At each post an observer was appointed as a training instructor with the rank of leading observer and at the same time acted as deputy to the head observer, who was now ranked "Chief observer" and was responsible to his group officer for the administration of the post.

121. It became compulsory for group officers to attend training courses that they, in turn, could train post instructors.

122. Post meetings were held weekly and the periodic training visits of post personnel to the operations rooms were authorised. Finally, tests for post observers became compulsory.

123. Ranks were also given to operations room personnel. In the crews at the operations rooms, in addition to the duty controller, ranks were given to appointments as follows:

Duty controller's assistant Chief observer

Post controller Chief observer

Floor supervisor Leading observer

124. In Fighter Group operations rooms a liaison officer had represented the ROC. Under the reorganisation he was given the rank of observer lieutenant. An addition was now made to this liaison service by providing ROC representation in the sector operations rooms, where the ROC representative was termed a sector liaison teller, with the rank of chief observer.

125. At this period, ROC group operations rooms were either built or altered to a standard design and a new system of operational procedure was brought into use, including the long-range plotting board, designed to improve the hand-over of tracks from group to group. This board also made possible the decentralisation of the civil air raid warnings. Ministry of Home Security officers was now situated in ROC operations rooms. This brought about an excellent system for the sounding of air raid warnings.

126. While the reforms mentioned in the previous paragraphs were being completed, Air Commodore Ambler returned to Fighter Command, and he was succeeded by Air Commodore Finlay Crerar CBE, who remained as Commandant until November 1945.

127. The ROC played a big part in combating the hit-and-run raids on the south and south-east coasts. A large number of satellite posts were quickly constructed along the coast to give complete low level coverage, which was vital as radar could not be expected to pick up all the low-flying aircraft. Air raid warnings to several coastal towns were sounded direct from the ROC posts.

The Defence Committee had been expecting a new phase of enemy air activity which became known as the "flying bomb". Some doubt had been expressed as to the ability of the Corps to deal with this threat, but the ROC once again rose to the occasion and proved its alertness and flexibility. Observers at the coast post of Dymchurch identified the very first of these weapons and within seconds of their report the defences were in action. This new weapon gave the ROC much additional work both at posts and operations rooms. RAF controllers actually took their equipment to two ROC operations rooms at Horsham and Maidstone and vectored fighters direct from the ROC plotting tables. The critics who had said that the Corps would be unable to handle the fast-flying jet aircraft were answered when these aircraft on their first operation were actually controlled entirely by using ROC information.

129. It was fitting that in the last stage of hostilities the worth of the ROC should again be proved. The C in C of the Allied Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory KCB DSO, expressed concern at the number of friendly aircraft being shot down. In discussing this problem and its solution with the Commandant of the Corps, a need was stated for observers trained in aircraft recognition to advise gun crews on board the defensively equipped merchant ships (DEMS) during the allied invasion of Europe, "Operation Overlord". This scheme became known as "Seaborne". The observers required to man the ships were drawn from some 1400 members of the Corps who volunteered for this duty. How well they performed is recorded in many letters of appreciation received from the chiefs of the various Services. Ten of the volunteers were mentioned in despatches and subsequently HM King George VI approved the wearing of the shoulder badge "Seaborne" by all that took part in the operation.