大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War by Liz Andrew of the Lancs Home Guard on behalf of Harold Clayton and has been added to the site with his permission.

I volunteered for the RAF in 1940 when I was 18. My dad had been in World War One and he had told me all about it so I was determined NOT to go into the Army. We did our square bashing and basic training at Squires Gate in Blackpool and I trained there as a Flat Mechanic Engineer. Then I ws posted to Dalton near Thirsk;there was an aerodrome at Top Cliff. We were repairing planes to send off to Germany. Life really was a doddle.

From Top Cliff I was sent to Pocklington then to Elvington and Marston Moor.I spent five years working on the Merlin engines for Halifax bombers.We used to go to the pub and I remember I smoked about 40 cigarettes a day - they were 11d for 20. We used to live in barracks - big huts with maybe 40 beds in them. It was at Dalton that we had the biggest laugh - the huts there were smaller. The showers were about a mile away so we used to get washed in the fire bucket - all 40 of us. And the toilets were just a long bench with buckets underneath! Till then I 'd only lived with my mum and dad - I'd been camping once before with the Sunday School.

I was terribly shy - I used to go out with my mother's cousin's daughter - she was a right bonny girl - but I didn't dare to talk to girls. Then my mum's next door neighbour said, " Why doesn't your Harold take Chris out?" I had a friend called John who asked me to be his best man - and the week after that he said he'd be MY best man
- he had done my proposing for me...

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