Plane spotting in the Royal Observer Corps

Richard wanted to tell the story of his father, Charles Wightman, who was a member of a rather neglected group of people, the Royal Observer Corps, in World War 2. He was 39 when the war started, so wasn't called up.

Richard said that the myths about Britain being unprepared to withstand air attack were untrue. It isn't commonly known that by 1936 there was a complete network of observer corps posts across the country which were capable of plotting and tracking aircraft movements throughout the UK. Richard's father became a member of the corps in the 1930s (photo 1 of his badge). There were over 20,000 members of the corps during the war consisting of volunteer civilians wearing uniform (in Charles' case a rather eccentric one consisting of a policeman's helmet and RAF jacket!). They were under the jurisdiction of Fighter Command.

There were about 2,000 observation posts in the country and Charles served at one high up on Otley Chevin (a local hill) with 23 others, mainly business men and professional people, who worked in reserved occupations during the day, also covering for those who had been called up, and then spent long, long evenings and sometimes nights at the lookout post spotting planes. They must have been exhausted by the end of the war because each post was manned for 24 hours a day. While they were on duty they couldn't eat or drink, but there was a recreation hut with beer and cooking equipment, built with timber supplied by Charles, who was a timber merchant. (photos of cartoons showing the team and the evident camaraderie they shared) . There were secure phone lines connecting them to HQ. German bombers would pass over the Chevin on their way to bomb Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool and Belfast. (Photo of tankard which was a wedding present for his marriage 3 months before the war). (Photo of medal before the word 'Royal' was added to 'Observer Corps'.) The outlook posts were later replaced with bunkers and the work of the corps continued until the end of the 1980s and the fall of the Berlin Wall.