From: bakc@giraffe.ru.ac.za (MR KR COMAN)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: RAF "Cab-Ranks" {was RAF a/c engines}
Keywords: Typhoons/ground attack role
Date: 4 Nov 92 17:28:41 GMT
Organization: Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa


From MR KR COMAN <bakc@giraffe.ru.ac.za>

In article <Bx3oqG.379@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> jimd@sfu.ca (Jim Davies) writes:
>
>Cab-Rank referred to the similarity of A/C stooging around, waiting
>for a call from the army, to cabs waiting for fares. Don't know exactly
>what you mean by *drones* but these planes were piloted. Think the Brits
>called it Army-Cooperation.

My father served with the RAF's Tactical Air Force from D-Day thru to the 
end of the war in Germany.  His was a ground radio unit  attached 
to the British Army's famous XXX Corps.  The way they operated was to stay 
up with the front line -- being no more than 5 miles back, often a lot 
closer; with a mobile radio center.  Two types of message-traffic 
were typically handled:

Their primary job was to keep in touch with the radio net used by front-line
troops (jeep-mounted sets, and later the much-admired US 'walkie-talkies').  
When troops encountered "a problem" (e.g.) a German machine-gun nest, anti-
tank gun, troop concentration, or a couple of tanks they would radio the news
back to the RAF ground station which, in turn, would prioritise the work and 
pass it onto controllers at Wing HQ.  They, in turn, would task air 
units (in this case mainly Hawker Typhoons) drawn from the waiting "cab-
rank".   The RAF ground unit would then pick up the designated 
flight commander and vector him and his men to the target.  When in radio 
range of the ground troops, the flight commander would be passed over to 
whoever was in charge or who had requested air support.  In case of 
difficulty, the RAF ground station would act as a comms-link between the
a/c and the ground.   
	When things were "quiet", the Typhoons were not actually kept in the 
air circling around waiting for a call, but each squadron in its 
sector maintained at least one flight at a state of instant readiness for 
take-off.   At other times, when there was an attack or push on, squadrons 
would maintain one or more flights circling in a holding pattern in 
anticipation of a call from the ground:  hence the notion of a "cab-rank".
Naturally, each squadron was careful not to have all its planes out at once 
otherwise they might all be out of fuel and ammo at the same time -- fine
control and co-ordination was thus necessary.   Primary weapons on the 
Typhoon were 60lb rockets (fired on the first pass) plus 4 20mm cannon -- 
bombs apparently were not popular being less accurate and relatively slow to
rearm a plane with versus the rockets.

Second priority messages were most often of a logistical nature.

BTW, British Army Co-Operation was a special branch of the Army -- not the
RAF.  Their main job was spotting for divisional heavy artillery, and not
so much to provide the small-scale tactical support delivered by the RAF
ground-attack squadrons.  (The a/c used were mainly Austers (delightful 
plane to fly) -- originally a licence-built 1930's American Ryan design.)   
However, I'm sure that in practice their tasks often overlapped!

>One reason they didn't use typhoons as fighters was the scarcity of 
Luftwaffe>fighters at this time. Even the 8th AF fighters were commanly used 
for>ground attack after D-day. 

True.  By the end of 1944 it was quite a rare event to see German a/c over 
the ground front in any numbers -- the odd sneak attack at twilight or 
first light by a FW190 fighter-bomber was perhaps the norm.  One fallout 
of this problem was that it was found that RAF fighter squadrons were 
unbalanced; too many were equipped with Spitfires -- a superb short 
range interceptor with nothing to intercept!   Hence many were re-
assigned to the ever-urgent role of ground attack/battlefield support; 
an experience that many US pilots flying P-47's and P-38's came to share at 
the time.   Over Germany itself, of course, it was another story!

>Typhoons were used for V-1 pursuit because of
>their speed, as were Spits when 150 octane fuel was available.

The Hawker Tempest was however, the mainstay of the RAF's efforts to counter
airborn V1's; it had a straight 'n level sprint speed that the Typhoon could 
not match.

Cheers,
Keith Coman

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