Little is known of P/O McConnell at this time.The ORB notes that he was posted onto the Squadron from No.2 School of Army Co-operation on 16/09/40. The ORB notes that he was a Sgt observer for P/O James, however starting in Aug 1940, the first P/O observers began operating on the squadron, where as before, the rank of "Sgt" was the standard for this muster.

ORB records show that on 23/03/1941 he reported to embarkation officer, Glasgow, to proceed to Canada for a specialist navigation course. He may have later become the squadron Navigation Leader.