The scars of the Second World War, branded with LMF!

 

Today, if a soldier is suffering from P.T.S.D. there is counselling, therapy and treatment. Back in World War II it was a different story especially in the Air Force.  Air crews were horribly treated, in a system that used threats and psychological bullying to make the airmen, many of them not yet twenty years old, climb the ladder, get back in the air and do their dangerous job.

I had the extreme pleasure of meeting and dining with a WWII spitfire pilot named Flight Lieutenant Charley Fox, who put this into context for me.

First of all, let me tell you a little about Charley Fox.  Charley was a colourful character, always with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.  He was an icon on the air show circuit parlaying his witty banter and knowledge of aircraft, along with anecdotes of time spent in his own MK IX Spitfire, the VZ-F, serial number NH357 which he affectionately called “The Office”.

I asked Charley one time, “How many planes did you shoot down during the war?” His response was “One”.  You see, Charley was an air to ground attack combat fighter and prided himself on accurate marksmanship. This led to being awarded the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross) honour and the nickname of the Train Buster.

Charley led his section against a variety of targets, often in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire. He had personally destroyed or damaged twenty-two locomotives and thirty-four enemy vehicles, bringing his total to 153 vehicles destroyed or damaged. In addition, he had destroyed at least a further three enemy aircraft and damaged two others. In December 1944, Charley led his squadron on an attack against enemy airfields in the Munster area and personally destroyed another enemy aircraft, bringing his total to 4. Through his quick and accurate reporting, a further 4 enemy aircraft were destroyed. Since the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Charley continued to display outstanding skill, coolness and determination.  Now Charley’s real claim to fame is that he was recognized as the Pilot that strafed Erwin Rommel’s staff car in June of 1944.

In another conversation, I asked him “What did you do if you didn’t feel like flying one day?”  His response was “You kept your mouth shut”. He went on to tell me of how he remembered other pilots telling the ‘powers that be’, that they wanted to keep their boots on the ground on a particular day, that they were a little off and it just didn’t feel quite right.  He told me of how his superiors would coddle the pilot by saying, “Not a problem, we understand”. Then they would take the pilots wings and brand them with a thing called LMF (Lack of Moral Fibre), a punitive, punishable term for combat stress reactions commonly used in World War II by the RAF.  That pilot would never fly again.  

So WWII military personnel realized that expressing any emotion or showing any fear was a sign of weakness, so they just sucked it up and kept it inside and kept their mouths shut.  I often wonder how that carried on in their minds in the post war years and if that is why they never spoke of the trauma they endured during the war - they couldn’t.  It was instilled in their heads.

L.M.F. (Lacking In Moral Fibre)

Lack of Moral Courage is a subject that has been largely ignored in military history records. This unique and horrendous label LMF was given to RAF crew members who displayed 'cowardice' during combat and were indefinitely banished from his squadron and his flying badges taken away, a most degrading thing for the victim who showed guts on previous missions. In the Royal Air Force some 4,000 cases were classified LMF (Later changed to 'Forfeiting The Co's Confidence') and in late 1944 around 2,000 were incarcerated in the detention facility at Sheffield. 

Sergeants were reduced to the lowest rank and put to work shovelling coal, peeling potatoes and in some cases sent to work underground in the coal mines. An officer was asked to resign or transferred to a desk job in administration. Many of these LMF cases had already completed a dozen or more operational raids, some even were decorated for bravery which makes any punishment unfair and unjust. 

No one was executed for LMF, the ultimate punishment was dispensed with many years before. After the heavy losses during the bombing of Leipzig and Nuremberg most air-crew were flying in fear although few would admit it. Most LMF case reports have somehow disappeared or have been destroyed and it is hoped that the stigma of LMF has been erased from the files. (Source) http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/1944.html