Hi,

I'm investigating crashes and accidents of RAAF Catalina flying boats. I'm trying to work out what rank I should display against a person when I list the crew.

For example, on 24/02/42 Catalina A24-13 took off from Port Moresby on an operational flight to attack aerodromes at Rabaul, New Guinea with two other Catalinas (A24-2 and A24-17) but failed to return. The entire crew was presumed killed.

As the time of the crash the first pilot was: FLT BEAUMONT [260].

However, sometime after the crash in 1945 Beaumont was promoted to the rank of Squadron Leader with retrospective effect from the 1st October, 1942.

So the question is should I record the rank as FLT or SQLDR? I'm not sure what the standard practice is.

Cheers,
Blackcat