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As for the US "cartoony" style versus the RAF style, I think this may reflect the expected educational background of the readers. The RAF (and RCAF) required candidate pilots to have a university degree early in the war, the US draftees may have had less previous exposure to high level documents.
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Bravo, Bill. That rings very true to a 75-year-old American. We had a "comic book" culture back then as compared to your more pedantic cultures in Canada and Great Britain. And it is also true that the majority of our air crew officer candidates did not have 4-year university degrees. I can well remember some of the clownish instructional material that was still being used in the U.S. armed forces in the mid- and late-1950's that was seemingly targeted at an audience with a 6th or 7th grade reading level. I do not fault the authorities for this because the objective was to communicate the message and, as writers know, the audience determines the style and comprehension level.
L.