The ATA's Ambivalent Position on the Border between Military and Civilian Spheres

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 In what some might call "typically British" fashion, the early days of the ATA were a bit of a muddle. With time, however, the organisation secured a place and a role on the border between civilian and military spheres -- in many ways comparable to the Merchant Navy. 

 

Members of the ATA wore a uniforms, held ranks, and worked hand-in-hand with the armed forces all without being engaged in combat. In the early days, ATA pilots were simply "loaned" to the RAF and operated out of RAF facilities, receiving their assignments from RAF officers and flying alongside RAF ferry pilots. However, this caused friction due to different rates of pay, the absence of Mess privileges, and what some participants described as a "lack of military manners" on the part of the civilians. 

The Air Ministry briefly considered commissioning the ATA pilots but decided against the scheme because of (justified!) doubt as to whether the volunteer hobby fliers, many of who were well- established and successful men in other fields of endeavour, would be willing to accept strict military discipline. In short, the 'threat' of a commission might have driven away the very men the organisation was designed to accommodate and upon which it relied for so much of its success!

Instead, the ATA was granted the authority to develop its own organisational structure. This eventually expanded to include departments for Recruitment and Training, Supplies, Finance, Medical Services and Operations. Operations were located in what would be known as stations or bases in the air force, but which in ATA parlance were called "Ferry Pools." These each had their own Operations Office, Meteorology Office, Intelligence Unit, Motor Transport Pool, nursing and catering services. On average, each Ferry Pool consisted of roughly 50 pilots supported by 30 ground crew and 20 other ground staff -- an astonishing low ratio of support staff to flying staff, indicative of extreme efficiency.

Long before the ATA had reached its peak, the RAF and the Ministry of Air had already come to the conclusion that the ATA performed so well in large part because it was not part of the military. Far from seeking to take control of it, the RAF preferred to leave the ATA "on a long lead" and let it do things its own way. Which to the end of the war it did very well.

 

A former ATA woman pilot is one of the leading female protagonists in the Bridge to Tomorrow Trilogy about the Berlin Airlift.  Find out more about the series at: https://helenapschrader.net/bridge-to-tomorrow/

Watch a video teaser here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7rS_Mwy3TU 

                                      

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