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My father is Robert Harrison Parkin and he lived in South Shields joining the RAF in February 1942 as a LAC. This is a small part of his diary giving an insight into his life in the RAF and his "interesting" time in West Africa.

Left South Shields Thursday February 11th 1942 at 5.57pm. Good seat on the train and quite warm but oh! my nose.

Arrived Penarth - how vastly different to Padgate. After Handing in ration cards etc we were taken for a hot breakfast of bacon, beans, bread and butter and jam. From here we went for inspection for fleas, lice etc.

Friday
Rise 6.15am Gosh! Middle of the night. March to breakfast - porridge, baco and sausage, bread and butter. Very good. Clean Flight office and scrub floors before 9.30am. After this we are marched to photographers and sitting like prisoners had our mugs taken. Bitterly cold and windy so can you wonder at our looking so miserable.

Saturday 14th
First day in uniform and what a lousy feeling. Felt as though everyone was looking at us.

Monday 16th
Flight office again and then detailed for duty at Sergeant's mess with Jack, Howard and Patrick. Oh! to be a Sergeant but what a mess. Looks as tho' they threw a party last night. Cleaned the lounge, polished the floor, dusted the furniture and generally acted as skivvy till 12 o'clock. Afternoon spent shivering in the bedroom out of the reach of the NCO's. Pictures at night to see 20,000 Horsemen.

Wednesday 18th
Kitchen stove out again. All other fires made up then walked to breakfast with Amos. 11.50 burnt hand on stove. Told to report to MD and get it dressed. Talk from Padre in the afternoon and bought a New Testament. Very good concert at night. Cardiff ladies Choir. Everyone excited as postings expected. Still bitterly cold.

Thursday 19th
Reported sick with small kit bag. Had my hand dressed and got back to billet to find that 21 of us are moving out tonight. Pay parade for 2/- subsistence so we must be going further than Weston. Skeg or Redcar? Received rations and water bottle full of cocoa. Shook hands all round, shouldered kit bag and set off for station 9.45pm. Boarded train feeling glad to be at last getting started. Sat on kit bag as far as Gloucester then got a seat in stifling hot carriage. Arrived London 2 hours late and 4 hours to wait. Breakfast in Salvation Army canteen - bacon, bread and tea for 8p. Strolled up Euston Road. Left Kings Cross 1pm and arrived Skeg 5.30pm.

20th February 1942
Marched from station for what seemed miles but very relieved to find we were in private billets with Geo Sallis, Jack Doug, Chas King (Charlie and Jim already there). Thank heaven for a bath, sleep and a comfortable bed. Parade - 8am - snowing - FFI then to YMCA for pay books. Start work on Monday.

Sunday went to Church.

Cpl Edwards (Eddy) drill instructor and a swell fellah - first taste of foot drill. Vaccination and innoculation on Saturday - feel lousy and arm very stiff by Monday.
Thumb turned very sore - suspect poison - report sick and excused rifle drill. Thumb lanced, put on light duty.

First visit to range - not too good but I can hit the target.

George goes sick 4 days off and I go down with flu. Howard in hospital. Posting and last night dance and so on to Cosford.

What a camp stretches for miles or so it seemed with a kit bag. Double decker beds, thank heaven for lockers. Sgt Davis and Bannister for first week on bayonet, rifle, grenade, gas etc. Throw my first grenade and fire on range again.

Dance at Bridgenorth - swell do. Tennis - played for wing team with Frank Musgrove and won easily.

Started basic lectures, filing, drilling, tapping. Preliminary engines - ran up engine in sports field. Mags and carbs. More tennis, dancing, cinema etc. Parrachutes. Fire watch on drome two nights - am I dead. Finished at last.

Spent 2 days as warrant officers runner and then on Sat morning "THE BOARD". Mags and carbs first and did he shake me. Panicked a bit but engines weren't too bad. Components easy but fell down on one question - surprised myself but think I lost too much at the beginning to get a one. Well it's over and everybody thinks they did lousy.

CO asks for volunteers for overseas. Going with the gang as I'm single.

Results out and i've got my one - Whoopee! 15 ones and 6 twos. Farewell party in Shifnal with dance afterwards - beds rigged what a riot.

Paraded in shed and given mess numbers and marched aboard ship about 10am. Confusion and chaos. Everyone getting in each others road, no room to move and troops pouring down gangways into the bowels of the ship.

Thank heaven I'm on top floor and stand a reasonable chance of getting out if anything happens. Latrines simply "stink" the only word for it and the washing facilities very poor. Cigarettes 6 for 20 Woodbines and 1 and 3 pence for 50 Gold Leaf. Kit packed on racks and then wonder of wonders white bread appears and fried eggs. What a site 18 eggs on one plate.

I volunteer to help the linen steward. Hammocks issued. Everbody busy trying them out. What a night. Either the hammocks wrong or I'm the wrong shape. Quite cold too.

Monday morning Reveille stow hammocks draw bread and butter ration then wait in a terrible queue for breakfast. Porridge, bully beef hash, bread, butter and tea. Everybody wondering when we will sail.

Tuesday morning finally pulled away from quay out into the open channel. Lay there all day testing guns and compasses and having boat drills. Really got to know the linen job - one good thing about it we get free soap and clean towels when we like.

Wednesday travelled steadily, three ships in a line with the rugged cliffs and high Welsh hills within easy distance. Ray, Stan and I spent two and a quarter hours in the canteen queue and bought chocolate, biscuits, razor blades, cigs, tins of fruit and condensed milk. Had a tin of peaches after tea between us. Tea was kippers, bread and butter and jam. The jam tastes good but has a lousy smell.

Weather fine but windy. Things becoming more ship shape. Potatoes badly washed, meat as tough as a horse and perpetual rice and apricots.

Started properly on job with towels, tablecloths etc. So far see no aerial protection for convoy but we're making good speed. Plenty of soldiers going back to Gambia so it looks like we're for Africa.

Sat and discussed religion with John who is attending London University and training to be a parson - he like me thinks the Church has fallen down on the job. Time ceases to matter as there is nothing to see but sea, sea, sea.

Watched a lovely sunset at night. Sleeping better now with lifebelt for a pillow.

Some activity after being out about a week. Destroyers raced astern and dropped depth charges. No atttack. Large 3 funnel armed nerchant cruiser found us but left after 3 days when we had passed the Azores. Ran into lots of flying fish.

Variety concert by troops. Fellows now wearing khaki. Quinine to be taken every day. American sloop arrives to do convoy duty.

Lecture by CO and MO to say we are going to Fisherman's Lake in Liberia. Things look pretty tough from what he says - we'll wait and see.

November 12th 1942
After 17 days at sea we awoke to see a dark line on the horizon. We stop engines in a big bay at the foot of the mountains. One or two small jettys, a few native huts and a number of larger stone buildings further back. This is Freetown the capital of Sierra Leane. Supposed to be the worst colony of the Empire and we picked it.

Slowly we steam between anchored ships, tankers, freighters, barges and native canoes until we anchor opposite a small bay where there a number of Naval and RAF launches and higher up 3 Catalinas are moored. Very interested as we think they will be part of our Squadron.

The native canoes come alongside with fruit - we throw money into the boat and they throw bananas and oranges back. They have picked up a number of foul expressions and gestures in English and use them freely. One falls overboard in rush for money.

The hills look interesting and wild and I make up my mind to climb them if we get the chance. 4 o'clock we are told to get ready for disembarking with usual RAF punctuality it is almost 6 before we get on board. What a relief to get our packs off. The engineer lathered in sweat tells us it is the coolest day.

JUI - NOVEMBER 1942

A crowd of Yanks helped us off the power boat. We tramped up the jetty to a flood lit hanger and got our first real view of Catalinas. From the hanger we are transported to the guards room in a lorry and there we meet "I am the Station Warrant Officer". He gave us the gen on snakes, mosis, showed us the tents and the cookhouse where we had the best meal since getting on the boat.

By this time it was quite dark and when we got back we had to wrestle with beds and mosi nets. With the aid of two boxes of matches we eventually got the nets up. In the distance you could hear the croak of bull frogs and the beat of tom toms. Examine all corners of the tent for snakes, scorpions, spiders etc. Smearded ourselves with mosi ointment and crawled into bed with our clothes on.

Awoke at sunrise 6.45 to find Stan wrappped in his net like a shroud. Carefully examine our boots for spiders etc and got dressed.Bought some bananas off some boys at two a penny. Gosh were they good. I ate about four straight off.

Paraded after breakfast and given more gen on what to do and what not to do. Handed in rifles and ammo and then moved into billets. Got a swell bed under the fan. Spent all day getting sorted and issued with some more clothes.

Dhobey Boys, Sorri Sissi, Sorri Komara and Bi Comara who all do our washing. Sorri Komara is cheerful and speaks fair English Bi Commra is just a piccan inclined to be cheeky but a good boy. They are paid by the RAF to keep the hut clean.

The food in the camp is fairly good with lots of fruit and a free issues of chocolate and 50 cigarettes each week. The natives wear the oddest assortment of hats and mostly belong to the Tenne and Mendis tribes and there is no love lost between them.

After a month I am taken off to build s Nissan hut for a Guardroom. After three days I felt rather dicky and reported sick with a terrible head and a temperature of 103. Suspected malaria and sent up to 51st. The hospital is high up on the hillside above Freetown and commands a grand view of the town and harbour. Blood slide taken by sister, given bed and blue hospital pyjamas complete with white shirt and red tie. Seven blood slides taken and all neg. Doctor gave me a very thorough examination and seemed puzzled about my heart. The food is very good with such things as chicken, jelly and custard.

After 3 days rest Doc still seems puzzled and brings two other guys. Decides to have an X ray. It is definately not malaria so I am allowed to walk around. We spend most of our time on the terrace watching the ships in the harbour. There is a poor beggar next to me with Blackwater Fever - he looks ghastly but slowly seems to be getting stronger.

Had a very nice Church service with quite a crowd of native orderlies present. Monday -the result of my X ray - the Doc tells me there is a peculiarity in the entrance of the tubes into the heart, the first he has ever seen but it will probably never affect me.

Left hospital on Tuesday with three days sick leave back at camp.

On the last day I took a trip into Freetown. The road is simply a switchback of very steep hills, sharp turns, narrow bridges and terrifying drops. There is an average of one crash a day at Devil's Elbow and the native drivers often go down driving with one hand and the other holding the door open ready to jump out.

The houses are simply red mud shacks, incredibly dirty, with palm thatched roofs or corrugated iron. The windows are holes in the walls, there is no chimney and the cooking is done on an outside fire. It is strange their houses are so dirty as they are always washing their clothes and almost every house you pass has clothes on the grass drying.

Almost a mile before entering the town and either side was lined with dilapidated shacks. No two are the same height, length or breadth, mostly of red mud with corrugated roofs. Chickens, hens and goats wander about rooting in the deep gutters which line the road and every house is a heterogeneous collection of foodstuff and odds and ends exhibited for sale. Rice, paw paw, yam, cloth, wool, nails, padlocks, etc all spread out on the roadside to attract passers by. Little boys and girls in birthday suits wave merrily as we pass.

Everywhere was noise and bustle. A perfect babble of tongues from a native market place. The amount of stuff these people can carry on their heads is phenomenal. Reminds one rather of Covent garden except that their loads are often irregular and take much more balancing. A small girl of about six or seven can carry a bucket of water on her head without spilling a drop. Hausa merchants from Nigeria sit by the roadside with their displays of leather goods - lizard skin, snakeskin, bush cat handbags, brief cases, pouffee covers, writing cases, wallets all spread out on the pavement. Each one asks a price far in excess of what they hope to get, then after a long and protacted haggle eventually sell for about half the price.

The only place to lunch was Honolulu Cafe a very much misnamed place. A small board over a broken doorway between two high buildings informed us that it was in bounds to troops. At the end of a dingy passage it opened into a filthy compound lined on two sides with hen houses. Three goats and a dog rooted amongst a pile of refuse in the corner and a man surrounded by half a dozen nude kids was seated on an empty box ploating chickens. On the other side of the compound six steps led to a ramshackle wooden hut in which were a number of small tables, a few covered with alleged tablecloths and some chairs.

The menu consisted of eggs on toast or chicken the latter being killed and cooked while we waited. We favoured eggs and found them good.

The Korner House where we had tea is run by the local WRVS but it is only open 3-4, their cakes and sandwiches ere very acceptable.

In camp most of my time is spent writing letters or reading - we have a very decent library. Tea is scarce and the lousiest coffe in the world is served in this place but there is plenty of fruit so we don't starve.

Just before Christmas some kites arrive and I was put on maintenance party. Christmas brings a certain amount of activity. a competition for the best decorated hut but our blokes are too lazy so I went down and helped G3. They made a wizard job with arched palm leaves along the wall, a huge tree with crackers and candles made from fruit tin labels, strips of silver paper, coton wool snow, tiny Chinese lanterns and a few novelties from Freetown.

Christmas morning 1942 dawned clear and fine and after a good breakfast including an egg we walked down the village. There is a dilapidated little Methodist chapel and as we approach it that grand hymn "Christians Awake" filled the air. The stonework was crumbling and the paint was in blisters but the place was packed with a congregation who seemed to vie with each other as to who could sing the loudest. Almost all the women were in native dress with their huge brightly coloured headdresses and the men in trousers and long loose robes. The singing was led by a huge yellow toothed old man with a voice like a circular saw but he got there just the same. The preacher was a wizened old local. The Church was falling to pieces, the people obviously very poor and largely illiterate but there was joy in their singing which I have seldom met elsewhere.

The camp dining hall was decorated with palm leaves and flowers and looked very pretty. Each table had piles of oranges, bananas and cigarttes on it and the officers who were waiting on brought bottles of beer. There was much singing, laughing and shouting until at last a great cheer announced dinner was ready. Chicken, roast pork, sausage stuffing, roast potatoes, carrots and stewed apple, Christmas pudding with white sauce, mince pies and fruit.

Boxing Day night the Snoj players presented the Christmas Cavalcades a simply wizard show. The costumes and scenery were remarkable especially the ballet scene with Mike as principal fairy! The fellows work extremely hard as they give us a new show every week.

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