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The following reminiscences are from exRAF,WAAF and Fleet Air Arm personnel who served at RAF Peplow in Shropshire. They were collected by myself for a Millennium project for the village of Eaton upon Tern, the original stories are buried in a time capsule in the village garden.

1. From RAF electrician Sid Willis of Dunstable.

I arrived at RAF Peplow by train in the spring of 1944 straight from an electricians course at RAF Credenhill. The first thing I was issued with was a sit-up and beg bicycle. I was billeted in a Nissen hut on a site with no hot water, this meant you carried your toilet gear together with your knife, fork and spoon plus mug in a side pack with you everywhere.The only hot water available was in a wash house behind the cook house, you washed there before breakfast and in the evening after coming from Dispersal. Laundry was done on site but your stiff separate collars, of which you had two, or more if possible, had to be sent to the Chinese laundry in the nearby town of Wellington for special treatment, they came back stiff and shiny and could worn for several days.

To reach the Dispersal site near Childs Ercall we used our RAF bikes. One chap, an instrument fitter could not ride a bike so must have walked miles unless he was lucky enough to get a lift. The electricians had half a Nissen hut and the instrument fitters the other half. I was matey with an instrument fitter Charlie Davis who came from Birmingham. He had his own bike and every week, on his day off, he would cycle to Birmingham to see his wife. One day Charlie was refilling the oxygen tanks on the Wellingtons. There was a fitting on the outside of the aircraft which was connected to cylinders on a trailer drawn by a tractor. Whilst still connected to the aircraft the NAAFI tea wagon arrived and Charlie, not wanting to miss it, jumped on the tractor and started to move off at a rate of knots until a severe jolt reminded him that he had an aircraft in tow!

Charlie and I used to like dancing and we used to cycle to Newport several times a week, we use to go out through the perimeter wire near Childs Ercall, without a pass of course.

On Dispersal there was an electrician called Alf Banner who like myself came from East Ham, we became great friends. He was a professional stage artist, a song and dance man - a very good tap dancer. He got the job of arranging the camp concerts. I went with him to perform at Donnington Army camp where we were treated like royalty! He later went into the army continuing his stage shows "Stars in Battledress", and finally with his wife appeared in theatres and clubs until his death from a heart attack in his dressing room.

One day a Warrant Officer Pilot came into Dispersal asking if anyone lived in London. He was taking his Wellington to RAF Wing near Leighton Buzzard, from there you could catch a train and be in London in two hours. Just then Alf walked into the hut and I said grab your bag we are going home, he didn't know what had hit him, we ran to the plane which was revving up and climbed the ladder in the nose. We pulled up the ladder, shut the door and were told to stand in the middle of the plane by the astrodome and away we went.
When we landed we asked the pilot to sign our passes as we had left Peplow without anyone knowing. Eventually after avoiding awkward questions from Officers as to who we were etc. the pilot told them that our names and numbers had been taken by the Duty Officer at Peplow, which of course they hadn't! In the end bull baffled brains and an officer signed our passes.

We were still in our working uniform, oil stained, black plastic buttons and badges and wellington boots so we had a wash and a shave in the wash house, then washed our boots and pulled our trousers over them. We caught a bus to Aylesbury, boarded a train to London and arrived in East Ham during an air raid. At my home I had a job making my parents hear me banging on the door as they were in the air raid shelter in the back garden.

The following day, after a stroll round East Ham, Alf decided he wanted to see a West End show. So with wellington boots blacked to try and get some sort of shine on them! we headed for the London Palladium to see Tommy Trinder and Zoe Gail in "Best Bib and Tucker". We paid 2/6 to stand at the back of the stalls, looking around us we spotted a young chap, of military age, with his girlfriend in a box overlooking the stage. We, of course, passed comment - like service dodger etc. and then thinking no more about it. Suddenly there was a tap on my shoulder, we think it is the M.P's, but no, it's the chap from the box inviting us to share it. Alf couldn't get there fast enough, there were just four ordinary chairs and he grabbed the one next to the girl leaving the boyfriend and myself to sit behind them. There we sat, dirty uniforms and wellington boots in a box at the London Palladium! It was a great show and I have never sat in a box since.

On arriving back at Peplow our Corporal reprimanded us for leaving without permission as he had wasted time asking where Willis and Banner were only to be told eventually that we had gone off in a Wellington.

Late 1944 I was posted to the satellite station at Sleaford and as far as I can remember we were snowed in most of that winter.

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