大象传媒

Jimmy Slack born 1921

My older brother Robert was with the 238 Squadron and served with them throughout the Battle of Britain. He had gone up to Glasgow to join the Merchant Navy but changed his mind when he saw a poster for the RAF. When I joined up he requested that I join him. That鈥檚 why I didn鈥檛 join the navy 鈥� the more firma the less terra! All my friends were in the Merchant Navy - John Main was in the merchant Navy, Ivor, Johnny Fraser, and Bill.

We got on the train south of Manchester 鈥� didn鈥檛 know where we were going 鈥� it was the middle of the night 鈥� I was dozing and I heard someone say we were at 鈥淧ieslay鈥� Paisley! Next minute we were at Gourock Pier. I knew the policeman who was on duty and he was able to tell my mother where I was. We were out there for three days and when we left my mother was up the Lyle Hill 鈥� heartbreaking but when you鈥檙e 19 you don鈥檛 think about it.

We went out to North Africa via Freetown - I serviced Hurricanes 鈥� it was a soft job.

I can remember Lord such and such coming out to give us a pep talk 鈥� he was an old RAF guy 鈥� he was telling us how tough it was going to be and what we should do and what not and at the end he said 鈥榟as anyone got any questions? And this voice chime dup 鈥榶e 鈥� when are we going home? We had been there for 18 months. When you get some sand in your shoes boy!

238 Squadron went back to Port Said and then to Corsica. We were going over in landing craft all the noise and racket and flairs going up 鈥� my brother said I think we should take our boots off. I said 鈥渨hy?鈥� Because we might end up in the water! Dawn broke and we were sliding up the beach and all that was there was this old woman shouting 鈥渙eufs oeufs鈥� she was selling eggs! Slightly anti-climactic

In May 1940, No.238 reformed at Tangmere as a fighter squadron with Spitfires but in June these were replaced with Hurricanes. It became operational on 2 July and spent the period of the Battle of Britain in the Middle Wallop sector, apart from four weeks in Cornwall. In May 1941 the squadron left for the Middle East, its aircraft being flown off HMS 'Victorious' to Malta while the ground echelon sailed round the Cape of Good Hope. After refuelling in Malta the Hurricanes flew on to the Western Desert where they were attached to No.274 Squadron, pending the arrival of the squadron's own ground crews. By the end of July, No.238 was again operating as a complete unit, flying escort missions and fighter patrols throughout the campaign in the desert until after the battle of El Alamein. It was then withdrawn to Egypt for air defence duties and converted to Spitfires in September 1943. In March 1944, the squadron moved to Corsica for sweeps over northern Italy and in August covered the Allied landings in southern France. After moving there for two months, it was withdrawn to Naples and disbanded on 31 October 1944. Robert came home, while Jimmy joined the 260 Squadron.

The despatch rider arrived across the desert with the mail - everyone was waiting anxiously but there were only four letters - all for me from Lily. Romance, eh?

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