Wireless Operator

While qualified as an Air Gunner, FSGT Roy Brook was tasked as the Wireless Operator for Lancaster JA906.

According to the Kings’ Regulations, which governed Air Force law, a multi-engined aircraft was not permitted to take off without a wireless operator.
A Wireless Operator was in charge of managing the Lancaster’s communications systems. The WOP was the crews’ link back to base. The WOP was positioned in a sectioned off room where the artificial light needed to work by would not escape.  His tasks were the taking of bearings and fixed positions from ground transmitters, the sending of half hour wind readings back to base, the maintenance of a radio log, the jamming of German fighter control transmissions, and often to the dismay of his fellow crew members: the adjusting of the plane’s
heating outlet.