ON HER MAJESTY’S NATIONAL SERVICE
At this distance, bearing in mind the complexities of training to fly and fight in today’s combat aircraft, the notion of conscripts flying jet fighters seems almost extraordinary. National Service, though, was about more than just squaddies square-bashing. It had a genuine role to play in supplying personnel, of which the post-war RAF was much in need.
Yet not far in the background lay an uncomfortable truth: Britain could no longer afford to maintain such levels of military commitment. Force reductions were inevitable, and quite a lot of perceived fat was ripe for trimming. “National Service inevitably involves an uneconomic use of manpower”, said the 1957 Defence White Paper that presaged its abolition, “especially in the training organisation”. This few could deny, least of all in relation to the RAF.
Some National Servicemen stayed on. Others served their time and then joined ‘civvy street’. But there remains a common bond, forged at a time when the RAF still, somehow, retained a little of the ‘world’s best flying club’ atmosphere that prevailed pre-war. It was on the Gloster Meteor that they gained their ini…
