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An Armourer in North Africa

I spent three years working as an RAF Armourer in Bilida, in North Africa.

The Station was involved in preparing for an invasion in Europe and the aircraft we looked after were from both RAF and United States Air Force, which consisted of a wide variety of planes. We looked after Mosquitoes, Lightenings, Hurricanes, Spitfires and anything else that dropped in. We said that we shared everything between us, except rations – the Yanks had much better food that the Brits.

Armourers not only ensured that bombs, shells, etc were correctly loaded on the aircraft but also that the guns and turrets operated smoothly. This meant that we often flew on training sorties, testing equipment.

One interesting experience when I offered to act as ballast in the US gliders while they were training. They were very fragile planes but I will never forget the excitement of flying over the Atlas Mountains and seeing the Sahara Desert below.

We were miles from any other camps and we had to make our own entertainment. Arthur Howard, Leslie Howard’s brother, was one of our officers, and he set up a drama group. With no women of the camp, he decided that only plays with an all-male cast would be performed. It was a bit ironic that the first play that we staged was R C Sherriff’s Journeys End, a World War 1 story. I played the part of the Mason, the butler, and I still remember some of the lines.
We also staged Badger’s Green, another of Sherriff’s plays with an all male cast.

Humour was very necessary, partly to break the monotony but also to take our minds of the situation. Letters too were precious – all through the war, my girlfriend and I wrote twice a month to each other – we have now been married for fifty-six years.

Later we moved to a camp near Tobruk, where I was working in a transportation unit, right out in the desert. We were still doing plays; Lifeline by Mary Hayley Bell was one of them. One evening, someone came up to me and said he recognised me. He was from my old school, but a different year and different house. It is a small world.

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