RAAF Meteorological Service
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Weather Factor in Warfare
Chapter 2: Establishing and Developing the RAAF Directorate of Met. Services (D.Met.S)
Chapter 3: Recruiting and Training of Personnel
Senior Officers
Recruitment and Personnel
The WAAAF
Training Courses
'Who are these Met blokes?'
Chapter 4: Meteorology in Aviation
Chapter 5: The Met. Retreating
Chapter 6: The Met. Advancing
Chapter 7: The Met With the Army and the Navy
Chapter 8: Divisional Offices of the Bureau of Meteorology During the War
Chapter 9: Research and Instrumental Development
Chapter 10: The End, Aftermath, and Beyond
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
References
Index
Search
Help
Contact us
Recruitment and Personnel
Simultaneously with the above appointments, many other officers of the existing Met. service who volunteered, and who were eligible and medically acceptable, were also commissioned in the Citizen Air Force with ranks appropriate to their civil status and seniority at the date of enlistment. Other officers worked on in the various capital cities in their civil capacities.I spoke with Wing-Commander E. W. Timcke, aged 91, in Melbourne in January, 1981. 'I'm sorry I'm a little late' he apologised, looking down on me from a slightly stooped six feet six inches, I was measuring up a rink at my bowling club . . . My memory isn't too good'. He began to accurately recount what happened in the early days of the Met. service 42 years before. Timcke, a World War I AIF veteran, was Deputy Director (D.Met.S.) during World War II, and succeeded Group-Captain Warren as Director of the Commonwealth Met. Service in 1950. As I write these words, I have been advised that this fine old gentleman passed away in July, 1982.
In order to meet the needs of the armed forces, it was necessary to recruit into the relatively small Met. service, many new members for training as Meteorological Officers (forecasters), Meteorological Assistants (observers) and Meteorological Charters (coders).
The South-West Pacific war theatre comprised some 15,000,000 square miles requiring meteorological coverage. Throughout the war, recruitment and training remained one of the main preoccupations of D.Met.S. At some periods of the conflict, demands for forecasters and observers were so great that it was only with the greatest difficulty that they could be met.
A few personnel, mostly civilians, were added to established sections of administration, instrument making and repairing. The Directorate of Signals RAAF supplied Wireless/Telegraphy operators. These were supplemented by specially sought recruitment from the Post-Master General's department of people skilled in this type of communication.
Organisations in Australian Science at Work - Directorate of Meteorological Services (D.Met.S)
People in Bright Sparcs - Dwyer, Leonard Joseph; Timcke, Edward Waldemar; Warren, Herbert Norman
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Bureau of Meteorology |  |
© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
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