Armourer training

[mikebee62]

Hi , I was just wondering how long training would take to be an Armourer in the Raf in WW1 ?? , I have found my Great uncles RAF records , its shows him joining up in July 1917 and being posted to France in the October , can this be right ??? , I suspected he may have been transferred from the Army ??? .

Many Thanks , Mike

[Barrett]

Mike, I suspect that your great uncle was something akin to an apprentice rather than a "graduate" level armo(u)rer. I do not know the RAF syllabus for armorers/ordnance men but certainly it would have involved more than a month or so. Entirely possible that some new chaps got OJT, learning by doing under supervision.

One thing for sure: he would've learned by heart the function cycle of semi- and automatic weapons.
Feed, chamber, lock, fire, recoil, unlock, extract
aaaand
eject.
That knowledge helped analyze malfunctions and thereby correct them.

[errolmartyn]

Mike,

Some information on the training of armourers can be found in F. J. Adkin's 'From the Ground Up - a history of R.A.F. ground crew', pub by Airlife 1983.

Errol

[mikebee62]

Great , many thanks to you both for your help :-) , Mike