[Col Ford]

Laurent,

Another factor was the repatriation of tour expired Commonwealth aircrew from Australia, New Zealand and Canada to their home countries. There was a significant number of aircrew, particularly those with fighter units from those countries being repatriated home. Some of these aircrew had served one full operational tour, whilst others had served two. In the case of Australia and NZ it was bringing aircrew back home to provide experienced aircrew to take on roles at home eg in training units, or to bolster front line units if the war in the CBI and Pacific had continued into late 1945 and 1946 - in the absence or failure of the A-Bomb and an invasion of Japan had been required. Most of those aircrew being repatriated home had been in the ETO for some time (some had been away from their home countries since since late 1940 and 1941), so for many of them a return home was welcome. A number in their memoirs noted they didn't like leaving the ETO whilst there was still "unfinished business" but on arriving home they realised that there was further work to be done against the Japanese closer to home.

There was repeated strong pressure from the British Army to the RAF to release suitable personnel for service with the Army as the War and casualties climbed. There was a political layer to this in terms of the size of the British/Commonwealth military contribution in the field vs that of the USA. If you look at "The RAF Regiment at War 1942-1946" by Kingsley Oliver, it does go into the pressures being put on the release of RAF Regiment personnel for service with the Army in late 1944 into early 1945, as well as use of RAF Regiment units to bolster and relieve Army units in certain circumstances.

That in turn put pressures back onto ground crew personnel for some RAF units on the Continent for airfield security in areas more removed from the immediate frontline ALGs and why you also end up with local elements of resistance forces or similar providing airfield perimeter security in some instances eg Belgian 'White Army' at Antwerp/Deurne.