A fact from Finn Varde Jespersen appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 30 July 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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Just a couple of small things in the World War II section. Neither is of massive importance, but it would be nice to get them clear.
We say his rank was lieutenant immediately after we say he joined RAF Bomber Command. There is/was no such exact rank in the RAF. Was it possible to be Bomber Command personnel and keep your Norwegian rank, which might explain it, or is there a minor error here in that he had RAF rank, or do we need a minor reword/move to separate the rank of lieutenant from his time in/with the RAF?
We say his Lanc went down with all five crew. The normal crew complement was seven. Error, exception, special Norwegian setup, or what?
Any views or help please? I've also asked for help at a couple of other relevant Talk pages. Thanks and best wishes to all, DBaK (talk)
Thank you for pointing at these details.
About rank, "Lieutenant" is probably his Norwegian rank (the source says, in Norwegian: Løytnant i Flyvåpenet). An English rank is not given in my sources. I relocated the mention of his military rank, to avoid it be unintentionally interpreted as a British rank.
"All five crew" - my error, or misreading of the source. The source, in a chapter covering Norwegian personnel who perished while serving with British units, lists four other Norwegians among the crew (Münster, Pedersen, Magnus and Evensen), in addition to Jespersen. It then says, in Norwegian: De ble skutt ned ved Bayeux, og alle omkom, in English: They were shot down at Bayeux, and all perished. I removed the sentence about crew members. Considered to replace it with "The aircraft had four other Norwegians among its crew, all lost.<ref name=meyer/>", but think the article reads better without this mention, until the fate of all crew can be told (and sourced).
Hopefully someone with access to English sources can better answer questions about his rank while serving with the RAF. Oceanh (talk) 22:07, 16 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Rank - as far as I know the Norwegians would have worn RAF uniforms but would have retained Norwegian ranks. Cant find a source at the moment. MilborneOne (talk) 08:23, 17 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Gosh. Thank you both, very much, for your speedy and extremely useful responses. Like it says on my user page I am sometimes a bit disillusioned and givvy-uppy with wp but, at its best like this, it's terrific. Fantastic collaboration. Cheers DBaK (talk) 08:41, 17 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
They retained their rank as given by their country - Norway, wore RAF uniform with "Norway" as a shoulder flash. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.155.170.197 (talk) 13:28, 17 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Everyone serving in the allied forces retained the rank they were commissioned or promoted. This was because whilst their country may have been occupied, the de-facto Government and often Monarch, was in exile. They were considered as being "on Secondment" to the Royal AIr Force, Royal Navy etc., — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.244.63.112 (talk) 12:52, 24 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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