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This contribution was submitted by Haydn Evans and is added to the site with his permission.

After passing out from training...we then had to wait for our final training.
The holding camp was called ACDC which meant Air Crew Despatch Centre and was in Heaton Park Manchester…so began a long association in my life with that city. This was July 1944 a time when the air crew training programme was beginning to be reduced as were overseas postings. The cadets therefore were occupied by being drafted to different aerodromes around the country to assist in the war effort in any way possible. We went back to Heaton Park for refresher training every two or three weeks. When we went out it was the time when Germany was being attacked by American flying fortresses during the day and the RAF would mount huge attacks with Lancasters at night. As many as 1000 bombers used to take part in these. I had three postings to Lincolnshire a county which had many aerodromes because of its flat landscape. Each was at RAF Coningsby which wasn’t far from Lincoln itself and where my duties were very varied but mostly concerned with the arming of Lancaster bombers. The camp consisted of British squadrons of Lancasters but it was also the base for one Canadian Lancaster squadron. At this time one of the most moving and memorable activities was when I was instructed to assist a Sqdn Leader who had the responsibility of sorting out the personal effects of missing or dead air crew, who didn‘t return from their missions. They called the operation, I believe, the Committee of Adjustment in which the Camp Padre and another senior officer was involved. I did this for about ten weeks. There were a large number of casualties at this time because of the number of participating aircraft. I still remember with poignancy seeing the photographs of young children or wives of the missing airmen - a very moving experience. Letters too had to be read so if there was any evidence of indiscretion or infidelity great care was taken to make sure these items were not returned to the next of kin to save even more distress.
We were sent back to ACDC Manchester between aerodrome postings and it was here in September 1944 I learned of my brother’s death. I remember now the feeling of immense anger about this…I think one has to go through a situation of that sort before they can really realise the feelings. I was granted compassionate leave to go and see my mother for a week and this lessened the grief to some extent. But since then I have always thought of war as a stupid useless and foolish measure to take under any circumstances….and I still do.

The months passed…I found myself back in Manchester still awaiting a posting overseas to complete my pilot training. When the end of the European war and VE Day arrived …and which I spent at Albert Square in the centre of Manchester with my service friends and female admirers. But of course the war wasn’t over….the Japanese were still active and my posting then came through on June 8th 1945 which was to …………….to complete my overseas service to 25th August 1945.

So my flight of 24 cadets sailed to Halifax Nova Scotia on that date on the P and O liner the Alcantara from Liverpool the ship was about 20,000 tons and was in use repatriating American and Canadian troops home after the cessation of the European hostilities. My berth was five decks down, sleeping in a hammock with the regulation 15 inches of space on either side. The troops homeward bound were noisy and boisterous and I don’t think I could eat for the first four days on the ship. It took about seven days to reach Halifax Nova Scotia we were transferred then to a rail journey down to New York where we arrived at a holding camp in Brooklyn, probably around June 16th 1945. We were entering the final weeks of the Japanese war and because of this there was little effort to send us on to what was intended to be our training aerodrome in Florida. There were little or no discipline supplied and we were free almost every day to enjoy the city of New York which of course had not experienced the hardships and shortages of wartime Britain. We ate in the GI messes and bought from the Pxs the equivalent of our NAAFI and did a lot of sightseeing to Coney Island, Empire State Building etc. etc. In fact it was more a holiday than a duty. VJ took place in August and I spent it in Times Square with my friends and the square was the scene of huge crowds and a huge celebration ….which didn’t end just on that day it went on for some time. No time was lost after the cessation of hostilities and as a complete contrast to my outward journey on the Alcantara I returned to Southampton on the Queen Mary which of course was used extensively as a troop carrier throughout the war, without an escort because of its speed, it was fast enough to dodge the U boats and I believe I had a cabin I shared with one other person on the second deck. So it was rather different from the hammock on the other boat. In September we were given the option of signing on for three years and continuing our flying training.
But I saw no sense in this because I had already met the girl I was to marry and wanted to get out of the services as soon as possible. But it still took until May 1947 to get demobbed because the demobilisation was on a first in, first out basis and of course there were a large number of airmen to be processed. So I remustered to DMT - Driver Motor Transport - with the feeling in mind of having some useful training before I left the service. And was taught over a three month period at Lytham St. Annes and Blackpool. After qualifying as a driver I was posted to various units such as Cottismore in Rutlandshire at the AID Department (Aeronautical Inspection Department) driving officer engineers to the sites of damaged or crashed aircraft at other aerodromes . OnMay 18th 1947 I was demobbed at Kirkham dispersal centre and dressed in my standard issue grey chalk stripe suit joined the girl I had married a month earlier in Manchester…and so began another story.

I had been four years in the Royal Air Force and didn’t have many hours of flying. While at Coningsby the officer pilots sometimes used to give us flights in Lancasters…I remember one time a flight from Lincolnshire up to Manchester, down to Birmingham and back to Lincolnshire. It was the first time the lights were on…the blackout had ended ….and you could see the lights of the cities beneath you as you flew over them.

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