大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Julia Shuvalova on behalf of Mr Walter Edwards, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author is fully aware of the terms and conditions of the site.

On completing pilot training in South Africa, on Hurricanes, I was commissioned and arrived in India in April 1945. I was sent to Poona where the agenda included a jungle survival training session - which brought me a spell in hospital suffering from dysentery and malaria. I also did a mountain climbing course.

At that time the Japanese were in full retreat and the demand for aircrews - and certainly for fighter pilots - had diminished considerably. Many new aircrew found themselves grounded, humping baggage at airports and doing similar not very inspiring work.

I took the opportunity to visit brother Norman at 151 OTU Peshawar. Then the war ended, on August 15 1945.

Undeterred, I transferred to Transport Command, joining 62 Squadron at Mingladon, Rangoon, in September as a second pilot on Dakotas. Dakota Squadrons were continuing to supply Army units in the jungle and remote areas, some of them still engaged in skirmishes.

At Mingladon I had the unexpected pleasure of meeting my long-time friend and former neighbour, navigator Herbert Valentine, who was also on a Dakota Squadron. I vaguely remember that Val, as he was always known, helped me to celebrate my 21st birthday on 26 October.

Another of the Squadron's jobs was helping to repatriate ex-prisoners of the Japs.

Flights took me to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Maymyo, Singapore, Batavia, Penang, Calcutta, Chittagong and Akyab.

The army was moving ahead fast at the time, and I well recall flying with medical supplies including penicillin, trying for nearly a week to catch up with one particular unit which was always somewhere else. We flew to Saigon - the unit had gone. We chaised it to British Borneo, to no avail. On to Dutch Borneo, where we finally caught them up. A short return trip had taken six days.

At one time 62 Squadron was based at Meiktila, which my brother Norman remembers as a former main fighter base for the japanese where, during a strafe, 155 Squadron Roy Brown was hit by flak and killed.

In March 1946 62 Squadron was disbanded. I was posted to Burma headquarters, in the Central registry, remaining until demobilisation, sailing on the "Monarch of Bermuda" to Southampton - where my worldly good were stolen by dockworkers!

After the war I got back to single-engined aircraft for a while serving as a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, flying Chipmunks and Harvards from Barton and Woodvale airports.

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