George Mitchell Croil (CAS Air Marshal RCAF etc) Military Cross recommendation MiD and/or AFC instead?

[Airshipped]

Hi,

I was rummaging around my material on 32 Training Wing recently - looking for some 18 TDS recommendations for the Air Force Cross - when I came across this recommendation for Croil.

 

Ultimately he wasn't awarded the Military Cross. Unlike the DFC/AFC distinction on the matter of actions 'in the face of the enemy' the Military Cross awards seemed to have a wider degree of latitude in the interpretation of the relevant regulations. 

 

However, the case below has brought me back to an ongoing issue: just what was the 'conversion rate' between gallantry recommendations and actual awards?

 

I'd imagine that it varied considerably from theatre to theatre and over the course of the war, e.g. what was remarkable in 1915 (without gunsight, synchronisation gear, weapons mountings etc, not to mention aircraft performance) was commonplace within the year. 

 

I can recall quite a few instances where a recommendation is made for one award but another is granted, e.g. Arthur Lionel Gordon-Kidd was recommended for the Victoria Cross for the destruction of a train but instead became a companion to the DSO. 

 

From my own rough figures, approximately 1,300 - 1,500 Military Crosses went to the RFC and RAF (and many, many officers who won these in the trenches subsequently served with the RFC or RAF, so making the calculations difficult when looking at the Air Force Lists etc) but I was wondering if anyone had done research on how many recommendations were made?

 

(Apologies for the image quality but I'd propped the files up on the foam supports so as to avoid strain on the treasury tags).