大象传媒

This story was added to the website by a CSV volunteer on behalf of Ray Smith, who has given his permission for his story to appear on the site, and understands the terms and conditions of the website.

In early 1941 i decided that i could not remain a civilian and should join one of the main three forces, and after some deliberation, decided on the Navy.

I eventually presented myself at the recruitment office. At this time I was working at the Standard Telephone Co. at Southgate on the inspection of completed telephone equipment. This type of work was considered to be important to the war effort and as such I was told that the only way of getting into the services was to volunteer for aircrew. I filled in the appropriate documents to join the R.A.F. and was accepted in May of 1941, but was not called up until September.

When called up I was told to report to Lords cricket ground for medical checks, issue of uniform etc. I think I was there for about 3 weeks - we had to subject ourselves to various innoculations, do a bit of drill and a maths test, before being posted to an initial training wing(ITW) in Scarborough.

Three or four weeks were spent here, mainly doing drill practice on the beach, guard duty and other activities wich seemed quite irrelevant to aircrew duties! The next stage of our training was actual flying and for this I was sent to an aerodrome in Scotland near Scone. One could not go on to the next stage unless one "soloed" in less than ten hours. In fact no-one was allowed to "solo" in the strict sense of the word.

Trainees had to fly with their instructor and if you made a few manouvres and landed safely without the instructor assisting in any way you passed to the next stage. I succesfully completed this part of the training and was informed that the next phase would be in the southern part of the U.S.A. wich turned out to be an airfield called Turner Field near Albany, Georgia.

I remember arriving at the camp, a large site, in warm weather. We did not wear R.A.F. uniforms but were issued with khaki American Army Aircorp uniforms. We were then subjected to two or three weeks of acclimatisation wich comprised mainly of sports and physical training.

The aircraft used for flying training was the Stearman, a more powerful and larger version of the Tiger Moth and the instructors were civillians. I don't think my heart was in this aspect of flying, I felt I wanted to be a navigator. However things worked out because I didn't succesfully complete the course although it was nothing to do with flying ability.

It happened one evening, I went out with two or three others - I imagine we had quite a few beers and I got separated from the others. I eventually found a Taxi but did not arrive back at camp until after the permitted hours. Knowing that this would be a disciplinary offence, and that I would in all probability be removed from the course, I decided to try and enter the camp by squeezing under the surrounding wire fence.

During this operation I heard the sound of a rifle shot, lights were switched on and I was caught. That was the end of my training and I learnt that I would be sent to Canada on a navigators course, so I was not particularly dissapointed!

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