I'm digitizing the interview with LIEUTENANT COMMANDER JOHN PLUNKETT-COLE, R.A.N., senior surviving officer of CANBERRA. He states at one point that he was on duty as P.C.O. Can anyone expand that for me? TIA
Hi OpanaPointer, I don't come here very often but was reading the naval forum and saw your question. In the RN (and RAN) the P.C.O. was the principle (fire) control officer whose action station would be in the main armament director which targeted the ships main armament (in Canberra's case 8" guns) during surface actions. This would seem to be a good fit for Lt Cdr Plunkett-Cole's rank. A couple of links - from a wartime RN gunnery manual:The Gunnery Pocket Book - Part 3 - from an naval abbreviations website: US Military Abbreviations, Acronyms, Terms and Organizations Hope that helps.