Published in Issue #31 of the "Friends of the R.A.F. Air Defence Radar Museum Newsletter"

THE CIVILIAN TECHNICAL CORPS (CTC)

By Ian Brown, of the Historical Radar Archive

The Civilian Technical Corps (CTC) is arguably the least known organisation involved with radar during the Second World War. Despite years of searching, it is only very recently that surviving members of the Corps have been traced by historians, and its existence is largely unknown outside of members of the CTC or those who served alongside them.

The story of the Corps goes back to the summer of 1941 when, following the proven success of radar in the Battle of Britain, there was a rapid increase in the number of radar installations being erected in British-held territory world-wide. Combined with the many mobile radar units being introduced into service just behind the front-line, there was a huge demand for trained radar personnel to operate and maintain these radars. Despite the valued contribution of WAAF radar operators, there remained a critical shortage of radio mechanics and the drastic step was taken to publicly announce the existence of radar in order to recruit civilians with radio experience from the United States of America.Thus it was that in the early morning of 17^th June 1941 Lord Beaverbrook made a radio broadcast to the USA about how the application of science to the war effort had achieved great success and made a plea for American citizens to "join this venture and maybe it will be your fortune to discover, here on the frontier of science, some new manifestation, some technical development that will transform the whole face of the war".

Recruitment started immediately and it was anticipated that 30,000 volunteers would come forward. The British Consulate General in New York received 200 applications for enrolment in the CTC on 19^th June, several of them from women who were not, in fact, eligible to join the Corps. The Radio Marine Corporation of America and RCA Institutes offered their facilities in 20 cities across the USA for the CTC to use for the technical examination of applicants. Even though this was six months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, and the United States was still officially neutral there was clearly support for the CTC in the USA.

Although the CTC was established to resolve a shortage in the supply of radar mechanics, recruiting was opened to a number of trades which it was considered would be of value to the war effort, Thus, the Corps was open to men from any of the following trades: radio mechanics and engineers, electrical technicians, instrument makers and repairers, watch makers, meter mechanics, metal workers, machine toot setters and operators, wire-men, ships electricians, sound engineers, automobile mechanics, ordnance artificers and engine-room artificers.

Volunteers accepted for the Corps were classed as paid, non-combatant, employees of the British Government and had to agree to serve for three years, or for the duration of the war, whichever was the shorter. They had to be between 18 and 50 (40 for those volunteering for marine trades), physically fit and also technically qualified for the various trades required. In return they would receive free board and accommodation plus a uniform with a distinctive insignia. The uniform was the standard RAF uniform with black bakelite buttons instead of brass; the insignia included a cap badge made of chrome plated metal with the letters "CTC" surrounded by a wreath, a cloth shoulder title reading "USA", and a cloth rank badge of horizontal bars (the number of bars denoting the rank) surrounded by a wreath. The rates of pay were between £5.5s and £9.7s.4d per week, according to grading.

The CTC instituted a formal rank system as shown below:

CTC Rank .............................. RAF Rank

Craftsman.................................. Aircraftsman

Senior Craftsman .................... Corporal

Chargehand..............................Sergeant

Foreman of Trades ................. Flight Sergeant

Principal Foreman of Trades ... Warrant Officer

A transit centre for the CTC was established in Montreal, Canada, with the CTC Reception Depot at Eglan Court Hotel in Knyveton Road, Bournemouth. Personnel passing through the Bournemouth depot were accommodated at the Annerley Court Hotel before being posted out. The first batch of volunteers arrived at Bournemouth on 19^th August 1941, with additional groups arriving over the next few days before the first men were posted out on the 26^th August.

The Commandant of the Corps, Mr. Donald Gill was appointed on 8^thSeptember 1941.At the date of his appointment he was 48 years of age, having served in the US Navy in the First World War. Between the wars he held a number of important business appointments and was Secretary to the American Chamber of Commerce in London. He was also Secretary of the American Red Cross Committee in Great Britain, a position he relinquished to take up his post as Commandant of the CTC. Although working from the Bournemouth HO, he preferred to remain at his home in Milton Abbas, Dorset, a choice which was to be the cause of difficulties due to the shortage of petrol.

On 4^th October 1941 Air Chief Marshal Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferte, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Coastal Command, inspected a parade of 45 members of the CTC. He addressed the parade afterwards, saying that "radiolocation was one of the most important things of the war.

An even more prestigious visitor was to inspect members of the Corps at a parade on 23^rd October -- His Majesty King George VI, accompanied by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

Technical Corps men had the opportunity to speak to the King and Queen. His Majesty the King also visited CTC men in their classroom at No. 1 Radio School, Cranwell, on 23^rd November 1941, some of the men meeting the King for the second time.

The Civilian Technical Corps was to experience the full tragedy of war when,on 15^th October 1941, 19 members were lost on the SS VancouverIsland which was torpedoed by U-558 in mid-Atlantic. All of the 65 crew, 8 Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMS) gunners and 32 passengers lost their lives. Ironically, the Vancouver Island was originally the German merchantman Weser, which formerly acted as a supply ship for the surface raider, Orion. Captured by the Royal Canadian Navy on 25^th September 1940, the Weser was re-registered as the Vancouver Island.

Established principally to provide trained personnel for the radar chain, the CTC did, in many cases, provide invaluable service. After a three-month course at No 1 Radio School, Cranwell, volunteers were sent to radar stations across Britain, with most stations having at least one of them. In fact, three CTC men were posted to Scarlett Chain Home station on the Isle of Man between January and April 1942. They were to remain there until their release in May 1943 at which point they joined the US Merchant Marine as Radio Officers. AirVice Marshal Robert Aitken, the Air Officer Commanding No. 60 (Signals) Group, told one of these men, Foreman of Trades James S Farrior, CTC No 149, during a tour of Scarlett that the CTC men serving in No. 60 Group were amongst the most competent radio mechanics and making a significant contribution.

As another example of the value of the CTC, one of the many units to which CTC men were posted was HMS HORNET in Gosport, the base of the Coastal Forces. Approximately 60 members of the Corps were working there, on the repair and maintenance of the US-manufactured Packard engines which powered motor torpedo boats. A report written by Mr. I V H Campbell, Air Ministry Signals, on 24^th January 1942 notes:

"These men, who are working alongside naval personnel but under the general control of their own Chargehands, appear to have settled down happily and to be contented with their working and living conditions, though they complain of insufficient work. This is, I understand, due primarily to lack of special tools which have not yet arrived from the USA. The RN officers in charge of the shops spoke well of the men".

Unfortunately, a number of problems for the CTC soon emerged. A significant phrase appeared in an article in The Times on 18^th September 1941 following the appointment of Mr. Donald Gill as Commandant of the CTC:"They have a code of discipline of their own". This was reflected in the status of the CTC men, who were civilians and non-combatants. As such they were not supposed to be subject to military discipline or non-technical work, such as guard duties or fatigues. Donald Gill noted that failure to respect their civilian status was a major problem:

"It proved increasingly difficult during the first six months to deal with civilians in a uniform so like that of the RAF as to be practically indistinguishable. Allowances must be made for the men's attitude on this score since they were assured on enrolling that they were to wear distinctive dress and would not come under any form of military discipline. The recommendation made in September 1941 that "members of the Civilian Technical Corps should be told frankly that if they insisted on their right to be free from any form of discipline, their position would become impossible, and they should therefore be allowed the choice of accepting enough RAF discipline to render them inconspicuous or returning home was turned down at an Air Ministry conference on 13^th October 1941 on the grounds that it would be a breach of faith with the United States State Department".

Although the CTC men were subject to State and Federal US income taxes, they were exempt from the higher British income tax which highlighted the disparity between them and the RAF servicemen. Foreman of Trades in the CTC (equivalent to a flight sergeant) received 400 pounds per annum tax free, whereas a RAF flight lieutenant received 346 pounds 15 shillings. However, despite this, the basic pay was not enough to attract skilled craftsmen in the US, with resultant problems.

"Many of the men sacrificed better paid jobs at home to join the Corps. Their motives were extremely varied, but usually mixed with a genuine desire to help the war effort. Some who had been foremen understood that their promotion would be rapid and promised their wives that they would increase their allotment soon after arrival. At the other extreme were the flotsam of American labour, men, both old and young, who had not held a real job since the Depression. When these men were posted to RAF units, drawing pay approximating that of a flight lieutenant some degree of resentment was inevitable".

However, the main problem lay not with pay or discipline, but in the careless selection of recruits in the United States of America. Enthusiastic recruiting and lack of knowledge on the part of recruiting committees of the required qualifications and conditions under which the men were to work "has contributed more than any other single factor to the failure of the Corps to prove itself an asset to this country and a credit to America". Lack of technical ability was a major handicap for many of the volunteers. Direct postings in the trade in which the men were mustered proved disastrous. RAF units expected a turner or welder to be up to RAF standards in those trades, and even skilled men were returned to the Bournemouth Depot owing to their unfamiliarity with RAF methods and equipment. Despite help from the RAF Central Trade Test Board, which interviewed every incoming CTC man, it proved necessary for them to be placed in already overcrowded Technical Training units. One interesting paragraph in a report by Donald Gill dated 30th June 1942 perhaps explains why many of the CTC men on radar stations proved more effective than other trades:

"Except in the case of Radio Mechanics, who went at once to the Radio Schools - and incidentally had been more carefully selected - the help in trade testing and training came too late to prevent a bad impression being made at RAF units by the first three hundred men posted to them. Also in some trades to which men had been mustered there were at that time no vacancies in RAF establishments.Even good men could not be placed. The Reception Depot became overcrowded with idle men, under no real discipline, and with too much money in their pockets; men who had come to this country with the idea that skilled workers were desperately needed".

Another problem in the recruiting procedure was the acceptance of volunteers despite poor health or age. The winter of 1941/42 badly affected many of the older men, particularly those from the Southern States. The lack of any central heating in their living quarters and workshops highlighted many physical weaknesses such as rheumatism and tuberculosis. Many men eventually had to be repatriated on medical grounds.

In the end it was not these problems which were to see the Civilian Technical Corps disbanded. The entry of the USA into the war on 8^th December 1942, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour the previous day, meant that US servicemen could now be involved in British radar, and many officers of the Signals Corps would be trained, and serve at stations in the radar- chain round Great Britain. In fact, many of the Chain Home Low stations would be commanded by officers of the Signals Corps. In view of the involvement of the US military, and the increasing supply of Royal Canadian Air Force personnel from radar schools in Canada and elsewhere, the need for the Civilian Technical Corps had declined. A total of around 1,000 men had joined the CTC by the time recruiting was suspended in February 1942, only one thirtieth of the expected total.Many started to leave during 1942 and by mid-1943 only around 300 men remained in the Corps.

It is all too easy to highlight problems with the Civilian Technical Corps recruiting procedures and organisation. However, it must not be forgotten that not all the volunteers were technically unqualified, medically unfit or simply troublemakers. Many performed their duties at coastal radar stations, and with other units, admirably, and went on to serve in the US Army, US Merchant Marine, the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation or elsewhere with distinction. As one example, CTC No 314 Edward L Martin served with the CTC at School Hill CH station before transfer ring to the US Army and ending up as a Lieutenant Radar Maintenance Officer with the 313^th Air Wing on Tinian Island. His duties concerned the repair and maintenance of the radar equipment of the nine hundred B-29 Superfortress bombers based there. One of these aircraft was the Enola Gay, the B-29 which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.