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I was 20 and working at Kennings motors on Suffolk Road, Sheffield, when I got my call up papers. I was sent to the Cutlers Hall in Sheffield the first time I had been there and I had to have a medical and answer some questions, one of the officers holding a screwdriver asked me ‘Do you know what this is?’ to which I naturally replied ‘it’s a screw driver’ from this they decided I should join as an engineer and I began my service as an aeroplane engine fitter.

My training in England took me to several places, I started with a week at Warrington, where I received my uniform and began my training. I was then moved to Morecambe where we did constant drills up and down the sea front as well as rifle training. From here I went to Blackpool where I ended up spending 16 weeks, we lived in guest houses of up to 12 people a house. The people of Blackpool were very friendly, they new we received little money and tried their best to provide for us, very often we were able to receive meals off complete strangers. We were away from home but tried to sneak back when ever we could, on the return journey we made sure when we were within 2 or 3 miles of home that we ducked down in our vehicles so as not to get caught by the RAF police.

From Blackpool I went to Oxfordshire where I began to learn more about aircrafts. One of our jobs was to teach pilots night flying, one of the things this required was teaching the pilots to land in the dark. Initially we used flares to lead the planes into landing but we soon learned that the German pilots were using the flares as flight paths and we had to stop using them.

I spent the last 4 years of the war in South Africa 2 years at 42 Air School in Port Elizabeth and 2 years at 43 Air School in Port Alfred. We travelled out on a troopship, which sailed as close to the American coastline as possible to avoid U-boats, the journey took 6 weeks and it was very cramped. On the troopship we were allowed a beer in the evening in the ships canteen we only got one and as you can imagine the queue was miles long. We hadn’t enough time to queue for another so we thought of a wonderful idea, we took the tea bucket and got that filled, some of the lads got quite merry and they soon put a stop to our game.

The aim of us being in South Africa was to train navigators and air gunners we also had to service and maintain all engines and to keep them flying at all times. We had to look for engine frames cracking at joints due to metal fatigue then it was a case of engine removal and new frames been placed in. When we had finished this operation we had to test them whilst on flight, so you can guess there was no slip-shod work. We worked on ‘Harvard’s’, ‘Airspeed Oxfords’ and ‘Avro Anson’s’.

When we were discharged at the end of the war we were given our ‘de-mob suits’ which looked like sack cloth and we also we received a ‘pay-off’. I was able to return to my job before the war in the motor works as the government had guaranteed we could return to our previous employment.

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