page_title: Royal Observer Corps
section_title: Battle of Britain
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Observer Corps / Second World War / Battle of Britain
caption_attribution_description: Squadron Leader D.O. Finlay, the Commanding Officer of No. 41 Squadron RAF and former British Olympic hurdler, standing by his Supermarine Spitfire Mark IIA (P7666, ‘EB-Z)’ “Observer Corps”, at Hornchurch, Essex (UK).
context_page_description: The Royal Observer Corps was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December 1995, when the Corps' civilian volunteers were stood down. Composed mainly of civilian spare-time volunteers, ROC personnel wore a Royal Air Force style uniform and latterly came under the administrative control of RAF Strike Command and the operational control of the Home Office. Civilian volunteers were trained and administered by a small cadre of professional full-time officers under the command of the Commandant Royal Observer Corps; latterly a serving RAF Air Commodore.
context_section_description: After the Fall of France, the goal of Germany was to achieve air superiority over Great Britain by destroying RAF fighters, both in the air and on the ground, and by bombing aircraft manufacturing facilities. Winning the Battle of Britain, as it became known, was Germany's prerequisite in preparation for the invasion of Britain; Operation Sea Lion.
  The British Chain Home radar defence system was able to warn of enemy aircraft approaching the British coast, but once having crossed the coastline the Observer Corps provided the only means of tracking their position. During the period from July to October 1940, the Observer Corps was at full stretch operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, plotting enemy aircraft and passing this essential information to RAF Fighter Command Groups and Sector Controls. (ROC personnel were deployed in two specific roles: Those in Class A were required to undertake 56 hours duty per week, while Class B personnel undertook up to 24 hours duty per week). The Battle of Britain also saw the introduction of the Blitz campaign and the shift of German bombing from airfields to cities. Again, the Observer Corps provided vital information which enabled timely air-raid warnings to be issued, thereby saving countless lives. The Blitz itself continued until early in the summer of 1941 and bombing continued, albeit on a reduced scale, until March 1945. The Observer Corps formed the cornerstone of Air Marshal Hugh Dowding's air defence system, who stated in a despatch following the Battle of Britain that:
  It is important to note that at this time they (the Observer Corps) constituted the whole means of tracking enemy raids once they had crossed the coastline. Their work throughout was quite invaluable. Without it the air-raid warning systems could not have been operated and inland interceptions would rarely have been made.
  As a result of their role during the Battle of Britain, in April 1941 the Observer Corps was granted the title Royal by King George VI, and the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) became a uniformed civil defence organisation administered by RAF Fighter Command. Also during that same year, in a change from the policy of the Observer Corps, the ROC undertook to recruit women personnel for the first time. Initially, the only uniforms provided were RAF overalls, (boiler suits), with an ROC breast badge, commonly referred to as the "soup plate" because of its shape and size. Standard issue RAF No.2 Battledress uniforms were issued in a rolling programme over the next two years. For the remainder of the war, the ROC would provide an essential part of Great Britain's air defences.
caption: Supermarine Spitfire IIA, "Observer Corps", at RAF Hornchurch in 1940. Swastika kill markings denote that two of Sqn Ldr Donald Finlay's four confirmed (individual) enemy destroyed were achieved with this aircraft.
exif: {"Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image ExifOffset": "50", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "280", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4213", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "899", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "429", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "150", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "57b08fd9a86d8ab673d3eaa7b50963c5"}