The next step was the formation of four more similar units, and the area then covered by the service comprised the North Wales mountains, the Northern and Western Grampians, South-West Scotland, the Pennine Chain and Yorkshire Moors, the Lake District and the South Wales hills.

Specialised training started at Llandwrog. Sergeant Pick arrived from the 52nd Mountain Division and the team was subjected to a fortnight's intensive training which included navigation, elementary rock climbing and cross-country walks.

On June 16th, 1944, Llandwrog went out to assist a civilian climber for the first time. This was a girl who was stranded on a ledge on Cader Idris. The team searched the area twice without success and they found her some time later, safe and uninjured, in a farmhouse, having escaped from the ledge without help. The R.A.F. had not been called in until police and civilians had made unsuccessful attempts to reach the girl themselves.

Air Ministry had several reasons for taking the decision to allow R.A.F. teams to assist in civilian climbing accidents. (The term civilian is misleading, particularly in recent years when the teams have often been called upon to assist in rescuing men from the Services who were out on climbing trips.) Firstly, it was recognised that the most effective training for the men was practical: exercises in mountainous country and actual rescues. Climbing rescues would form an invaluable contribution to the training programme. Secondly, in the case of difficult rescues, the R.A.F. had personnel who specialised in search work and rescue operations. Most experienced civilian mountaineers have been involved in rescues, but few, if any, in those days trained together in teams. In any event, the R.A.F. could provide extra manpower, special equipment and the wireless communication which is so often vital in co-ordinating large-scale rescue operations. Thirdly, the R.A.F. were always on hand in the middle of the week with fast motorised transport when most civilian climbers were not available. A fourth point tied in with the purely humanitarian angle, for it was felt that since police, firemen and civilians were willing to co-operate in aircraft accidents, the least the R.A.F. could do was to reciprocate.

Sometimes this extended policy - of assisting a climbing rescues -has led to abuse. In the years that followed the war it was not uncommon for civilians to assume that the R.A.F. were obliged to go to a rescue and civilians were to co-operate only if greater numbers were needed. There was an occasion in Scotland when some students, one of whose numbers had been left injured in a hut, upon meeting the team on their descent (the R.A.F. were returning the empty stretcher to the hut after carrying down another of the students' party - dead - the night before) asked them to carry down their injured companion. The team agreed and the students continued their descent empty-handed.

Another popular belief is that the R.A.F. are paid rescuers and as such should do the work in preference to civilians. In fact, they receive no more than their basic service salary, and all are volunteers who devote their leisure to training in and for mountain rescue.

They don't go out to every accident; they go out when no other rescuers are available or when the operation requires their specialised experience. This is assuming that the service team is good, not one which has been depleted suddenly of its best members and is in the process of training novices to the required standard. Nor can they go out when they are on stand-by for an air exercise, an overdue aircraft, Continue to page 4