Content area
Full Text
The of the MAAF Meteorological Service.
John Joyce. 1997. 112 pp. Price unavailable. Paperbound. Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Metarch Papers No. 5.
For the duration of World War II, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Meteorological Service was responsible for all weather support to the civilian and military sectors in Australia. Those interested in the creation and general performance of that service will find this primer a good starting point.
Joyce was an officer in that service during World War II. Otherwise, his life's work was in education, having earned his Ph.D. from the University of London. In 1980, Joyce was awarded a grant to write a history of the RAAF Meteorological Service. He passed away shortly before its publication in 1993.
In 10 short chapters (the text is just 97 pages, with 20 photographs and 4 maps/charts), Joyce addresses such items as the formation of the RAAF Meteorological Service in 1941; the recruiting and training of personnel, administration, research, and development; and the fortunes of the service's men and women as they supported the RAAF and the Australian army and navy.
To establish the significance of weather and weather support to military operations, Joyce opens by briefly citing the Allied lands of France in June 1944 and the crucial naval battles in the Coral and Bismarck Seas. Some readers might take issue with Joyce's conclusion that during World War II the Japanese "probably made more use of the weather than any other nation."
World War I was the first in which combatants put meteorologists in uniform. In Australia's case, its 215 weathermen (including 28 officers) were assigned to the army's engineers. They were mustered out of uniform immediately after the war.
But by the late...