Short Short training

[Compo]

I am looking at my grandfather's military record and find that he joined as a private in Dundalk Ireland then four days later was sent as a cadet to Anti aircraft school in St Johns Wood in London where he emerged as a 2Lt in the RGA Special Reserve of Officers after 27days. He was then employed against Zeppelins over London. Four months and 22 days later he was in France.

That is 4 days training as a soldier.

Then 27 days to learn to be an officer and how to handle antiaircraft guns.

Can this have been normal training before entering the war?

[Captain Dave]

What was his exact job? He may have been commissioned for a specific set of skills that he had, as opposed to handling HE rounds into field pieces.

[Compo]

Dave,

He was Valparaiso Chile, Pacific Steam Navigation Company port manager. More suitable for the Navy I would think.

I know he could ride horses and shoot game very well but that hardly seems to qualify for antiaircraft gunnery although management skills and the ability to lead a target in the air must have been useful assets.

[KONDOA]

Wrong, he would be a skilled telegraphist!!

[Compo]

Well Rupert, under your theory he must have telgraphed two german planes out of the sky as he got a Military Cross for that among other things. Bill

[Captain Dave]

This is an area that has interested me immensely for some time, ie the trg of Junior Officers during WW1. Given that a chap could be commissioned based on a kind word from a senior officer or a recommendation from a local mayor etc, the trg of these chaps has always struck me as slipshod to say the least. That the British Army managed to adapt and survive in an industrialised war has always been a source of amazement to me.

I think Drake may be correct in that the chap was a telegraphist, thus a very specialised set of skills that he may have found himself utilising as a Signals Officer attatched to the AA Bty. There is no proof that he was a battery or section commander, only that he was utilised as a YO in the unit. Most units (especialy an AA one) has a lot of moving parts and demands cohesion between them as they get split and shunted from here to there. I think there is a grain of truth in that the chap may have been signals orientated, AND that given the AA units were a new branch of the Army, they were formed hastily. He may have been at the right place at the right time when they assembled them to draft them (Quick, we need some Liasion Officers, get me some 2Lts with a few clues by tommorow.)

Unless any other concrete info can be provided, were only working with asumptions.

[Compo]

Sorry guys he was Lt in charge of a section. He got a Military Cross decoration in the field for "crashing" two airplanes.

Never used a telegraph to my knowledge as he was P.S.N.C. Port MANAGER in Valparaiso a very senior position in those days.

He had trouble getting accepted in a fighting unit as he was over 40 and quite short and seems to have concocted a way to get into the fighting via the RGA Special Reserve of Officers.

He was therefore a pure civilian until receiving about one month of training.