Crew ranks and titles on B-24

Hello there. New user here. I am researching Operation Tidal Wave and B24 crews in general and one aspect I haven't seen explained is what rank each of the many different crew members would be i.e. would the pilot be a Maj or a Col etc? What about people like the flight engineer, radio operator or bombardier? What would be their typical rank?

And on a similar note, when you have airmen of different ranks on a crew, do they refer to each other strictly by rank or is it less formal i.e. would the pilot always be expected to be called Sir, Major or whatever by all the other crew?

TIA

 

The normal B-24 crew was 10 men of which 4 were officers and 6 were enlisted men. The pilot, copilot, navigator and bombardier were the officer positions. On new crews they were generally 2nd Lts. (occasional Flight Officers). Promotions to 1st Lt. usually came well into their tours. The Group Commander was generally a Colonel. Group Operations officer generally a Major. Squadron commanders were Captains or sometimes Majors, although there were cases where a 1st Lt would be Squadron Commander at least for a while.

Among the enlisted men, the flight engineer and radio operator usually were T/Sgts. The others were S/Sgts or below. The six gun positions were nose turret, top turret, ball turret, tail turret and two waist gunners. The F/E generally manned the top turret. The radio operator generally either the nose or a waist gun.

 

Good clear info mcoffee, interesteing too as I read "Wild Blue" recently.

 

Thank you for the info!