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I think RAF pilots were more concerned with Squadrons and battles than theatres. Fighting above France was different from 1940 to 42 and from 44 to 45. Malta changed completely as a theatre during the war and in any case most are "Europe". I don't think an Aussie fighting at Darwin considered himself to be in a Pacific operation any more than Bob Doe thought he was over Northern Europe in the Battle of Britain.Thanks for the replies peoples! I don't know if it's just an American thing; but I know a lot of WW2 historians divide WW2 into 4 major theaters of conflict; ETO (European Theater of Operations: i.e. West and East Fron actions); MTO (Mediterranean Theater of Operations) to include Italy, North Africa, Malta, Greece, Crete, etc.; CBI (China-Burma-India) to include China, Burma, SE Asia, India, etc.; and PTO (Pacific Theater of Operations) which basically covers anything touching the Pacific that isn't on the Asia mainland.
Obviously this leaves some gaps (like the fighting in Iran) or some things that don't make much sense (i.e. Italy IS part of Europe), etc.; but it's a quick 'rule of thumb' many historians (and those of us like me who pretend to be) use as a 'short-hand'.
Also, I certainly didn't mean to offend anybody by limiting Allied pilots to "English or Australian"; obviously numerous Polish, Czech, New Zealander, Canadian, Irish, South African, etc., etc. pilots flew for the Allies.....as did Russians, French and many, many more. Apologies if that came across all wrong!
I HAD heard of (and forget about) Caldwell; I had NEVER heard of 'Wally' McLeod or Louis Curdes before, thanks for that!
I appreciate all this and LOVE learning new things like this, I appreciate it!