大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Ann Redgrave of Norfolk Adult Education鈥檚 reminiscence team on behalf of Eric Burrell and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I voluntarily joined the RAF on 19th December 1939 at the age of 22 years 8 months. I had medical category Grade 1, Rank A.C.II, proposed trade Flight Rigger. I reported for training at Padgate, near Warrington in early January 1940. It was not very nice. After 6 weeks I 鈥榩assed out鈥� and moved to a boarding house in Blackpool, within sight of the Tower 鈥� this was much better. Whilst waiting for training to start they gave us general information and dancing lessons, and asked for musicians other than pianists and drummers. I put down my name and eventually got my trumpet sent down. We soon had a 15 piece band and played in several big halls 鈥� some equal in size to the Tower. During this period I was introduced to the lady I would marry in June 1946. She was a sort of cousin to a school friend of mine in Norwich.

My room on the 2nd floor looked over the roofs as far as Burtons 鈥� only about half a mile from the Winter Gardens and Tower. The Comrades of the RAF made a lot of money out of the band 鈥� we got 2/- a day! We went on strike and got some extra payment.

In about July our course finished 鈥� I got an AC 1 Grade, which was quite good, and was posted to St Eval 鈥� a place nobody had heard of. It was between Newquay and Padstow in Cornwall. Of course, most of us wanted to be near home 鈥� the authorities wanted the opposite! About four of us set off on the train, with tickets and 1/6d to sustain ourselves. (Over two days of travel!) The 1/6d lasted until the first stop. We travelled all day finishing up at Launceton, Cornwall, which was as far as the train went that day. We slept in a church at the top of a hill, and then set out again next day, finishing up at Padstow this time. Someone phoned St Eval, about 8 miles away, and they sent a truck for us. St Eval was a village that had been 鈥榳iped off鈥� to make the aerodrome, just leaving the church and the 鈥榤ark鈥� of the main street.

We worked, partly outside on Avro Ansons, 217 Squadron, coastal command, which looked for submarines between us and Brest. The Battle of Britain was about starting. St Eval was pretty heavily raided, as well as nearby Fleet Air Arm bases. St Eval had a RAF band, mainly ex-professionals like a trumpet, 3 saxes, piano and perhaps other [players on the base like me. One night, out with the band, we broke down and could see Plymouth 鈥榞etting it鈥�, in complete silence 鈥� thirty miles away.

In November or December 1940 some of us were posted to Cosford, a large teaching camp about 8 miles from Wolverhampton. Cosford had a very large gymnasium. I did an 8 week course to improve from Flight Rigger to Fitter Airframes, which I also passed at AC1. I was then posted to Hooton Park, a First World War aerodrome on the banks of the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, opposite Liverpool Speke Airport. You could see the funnels of vessels going up and down the canal 鈥� apparently going across the airfield. This peninsular is called the Wirral. (Thorpe Station in Norwich had not heard of it!). This was 13 Squadron 鈥� an ole WWI unit that had quite a good history. They had just come back from France (about February 1941) and the pilots wore khaki uniforms with 鈥榳ings鈥� up until they made them wear blue. It was an Army Co-operation squadron using Westland Lysanders, which could fly very slowly for take-off. Chester was the best place to go. Birkenhead was a bit industrial and Liverpool was a bit jet-propelled. I had to guard the canal from time to time: it was just south of the Mersey. There was a band there too, although we played in village halls rather than big halls as we had in Blackpool.

About the end of the summer of 1941 the squadron moved south to Oldham. This was quite a large established station which had been opened by Goering in 1938. It was 8 miles from Basingstoke. Things proceeded much as before. They had a band and there was Canadian squadron there, Mustangs I think. Half the band was Canadian. Then we changed to Mark IV Blenheims, and later I did a Blenheim course at Bristol. On the first 鈥�1000 Bomber Raid鈥� we sent some Blenheims off from Wattisham near Ipswich. I volunteered to go there to help with a crash that had happened before the main take-off. This must have been fairly early 1942. In about May 1942 I got 鈥榳arned鈥� for Overseas Posting, and August 1942 got sent to West Kirby near Liverpool. Kirby was the 鈥榢icking off鈥� place for overseas. While we were assembling our stuff there, there was the disastrous raid at Dieppe, where we lost quite a few men, especially Canadians.

On about 20th August 鈥�42, a lot of us got on a night train and arrived in Glasgow early the next morning. We transferred to a large ship, 鈥楴es Hellas鈥� (New Greece) closely escorted by MPs. The ship was closely packed and our own E Deck was below water-line, so no portholes. I had a hammock. At a boat drill they asked for entertainers and someone said I played the trumpet. 鈥淏ut鈥� I said, 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 got one鈥�. You see, I thought that overseas posting in 1942 was my lot, and so I hadn鈥檛 brought a trumpet with me. 鈥淣ever mind鈥� said the officer, 鈥淚 expect we can find you one鈥�. I wondered where they would find one three days out into the Atlantic. But sure enough, there was a learner on board and we borrowed his trumpet. It didn鈥檛 play very well, but it sufficed, and we soon had a 5 piece band. I even suggested a band as we had about 1000 troops and fifteen nurses 鈥� and we had one!

It was not very comfortable 鈥� very hot, but it was quite nice getting up early, paying tuppence for tea and biscuits and taking a trip to the 鈥榮harp end鈥� to see the sun come out of the sea. A brief stop at Gibraltar, a longer one at Freetown, then on to Cape Town. It took a month from Glasgow. We were supposed to have gone to Durban, but apparently the captain heard that there was a sub waiting for us at Durban, so we stopped at Cape Town.

I got off the ship that evening, went to the pictures and had a meal 鈥� no blackout. Some airmen and soldiers went on a train or another ship, and were gone. Next day, I was still there with a pass, and decided to see what I could. I went up Table Mountain, to President Smuts house, Cecil Rhodes memorial and such like. The drafts kept and eventually the trumpet owner went as well. There wasn鈥檛 much in the Cape Town music shops, but there was a S. African military band in a camp next door, so I tried them. To my surprise they lent me an old King Libert trumpet, and although it was old and worn it played ever so well. I took the trumpet back every time I borrowed it, cleaning it up and giving the man 50 cigarettes each time. 50 cigarettes in a round tin were only about 2/6d, so that was OK. Eventually I bought the trumpet for 拢9. I had to borrow some money from my friends to do it, but the trumpet was now mine! It was the only trumpet I have ever had with a full set of high and low pitch slides. I was doing gigs around then 鈥� some in quite smart clubs. I had a gig for December 31st 1942, but before then I got news that the convoy was moving out. I hope the band leader forgave me!

By then the last 400 of us had been in Cape Town for about 3 months and we had nearly all made friends with local British families. But you had to be careful as the Cape was full of spies. We moved on to Bombay 鈥� 16 days on the 鈥楨astern Prince鈥�. I mainly slept on the deck. Bombay was like a sort of Indian London 鈥� with red double decker buses! There were riots while I was there 鈥� to do with Mrs Ghandi. After a while we set out on a big long train to Lahore, Delhi and the famous North-West Frontier. It was quite a long ride with no real stop until Lahore, the local seat of government in the Punjab. I was on 307 Maintenance Unit (M.U.) mainly repairing old Hurricanes in various states of collapse. I was still doing Hurricanes when I left to come home in November 1945. I thought they were a good plane: not too complicated and quite strong. Lahore city was about 7 miles away. We had a little 7-piece band with a sax player doing some manuscript stuff. The RAF loaned us some music which we were supposed to copy. We did about 10 broadcasts on All-India Radio. The airmen at dances used to have Anglo-Indian girls to dance with, as well as the occasional English girl. We had a regular Sunday night in a large building in Lahore. On one momentous occasion the Viceroy came and the police were shoulder to shoulder around the entire building. The band also played for civilian gigs, replacing an Indian Cabaret band once for a whole week. In the hot season all personnel were given a 2 or 3 week break from the heat, about 7000 feet up in the hills. We took the band up together and had a nice break.

In Lahore we were only allowed to go in one main street, the Mall, for our own safety. The cinemas and eating places were quite good, but when the Americans came in 1943 it spoilt a lot of things. They used to pay the rates the Indians asked, and we British could not compete!

In September 1943 it was time to move on, and a few of us went up to a place called Campbellpur. I didn鈥檛 think much of it there, but I soon moved on again after being made a Sergeant. I went o a place called Kohat where I carried out major overhauls on two planes called Audaxes 鈥� I had never heard of them! After a lot of trouble getting spares for these old aircraft, we got them going and handed them back to the Indian Air Force. Kohat wasn鈥檛 bad. Again there was a band and the singer was Gary Gowan, who used to sing with Oscar Rabin. I met him again in Norwich after the war. While I was at Kohat I did a gig at a place called Thal, and had a road accident on the way back. The Ghurkhas there had their rifles chained to their bodies! I once saw 4 Hurricanes coming down the runway in one direction, and another from the other way. They all missed each other, while the duty pilot stood doing a little 鈥榙ance鈥�!

While I had been away my unit became 144 Repair and Salvage Unit, and moved to Risalpur. It wasn鈥檛 a bad place and it was a fair size. From Risalpur you could see the Khyber Pass about 25 miles away. It looked like a white 鈥榃鈥� high up on the mountain. I never saw it close up as you weren鈥檛 allowed to go there without permission, and I missed the last organised party. I was glad to be with my friends again and had my own trumpet sent out.

I was disappointed to find that it was inferior to the old King from Cape Town, which I had sold to someone, so I did some further transactions and got the King back! During my time in India I wrote to the King Company in Cleveland Ohio asking about my trumpet. They said they had sold this old type in New Zealand in 1928 鈥� so it had travelled a bit! About the same time as the trumpet transaction I was doing a month鈥檚 duty in the Sergeants鈥� Mess bar 鈥� me a non-smoker and non-drinker! I got Sandfly Fever which laid me low for a week. They thought I had malaria as the symptoms are similar.

At the end of 1944 as New Year was approaching, I got an unpleasant job. Three of out local rogue airmen were sentenced to 90 days, 30 days and 30 days in the glasshouse barracks at Lucknow. There were four of us as guards 鈥� me in charge, a police corporal and two airmen. It took a week on the train and I hadn鈥檛 been given any money for expenses. Once we had delivered the prisoners, we put away our guns, lived on the establishment for a short time, and looked around Lucknow and the Residency.

It was New Year 1945: at least we had missed D-Day! Things just carried on inevitably until about 8th May 1945, VE Day, when we played at a big VE Day dance at the Officers鈥� Club, Nowshera 鈥� about 7 miles from Risalpur. Technically we were still in the Japanese war out there, but we were actually the width of North India away from it. Then we got some confused messages about the atom bombs, and it was all over. There was another big occasion at Nowshera, this time for VJ Day. They let off 25 year old signal rockets, and it was amazing how high they went. We had our 鈥榟ills鈥� trip again that year, then my next trip was to go into tribal territory at a place called Rozmak. It was 8000 feet up and a plane (Beechcroft) had crashed outside the fort walls. We had a job getting the mainplanes (wings) off, and the road was all zigzags and slopes. I had taken my trumpet along and used it in the Sergeants鈥� Mess. While I was there someone pinched my wallet so they let me off my mess bill. It was proper tribal territory and we had to have quite a big escort. The Bren-gun carriers, Ford V-8 engines, weren鈥檛 very reliable and some conked out.

I wasn鈥檛 back in Risalpur for long before I was posted to Peshawar in September 1945. This was a better place. It had all the really high officers 鈥� the ground captains used to make the tea! Before I moved there, they used to send 2 Harvards the 30 miles down the road to Risalpur for myself and a clarinet player to come and augment their band. Our CO daren鈥檛 refuse!

On about 7th November 1945 I started getting ready to go from the station which was the most northerly part of the Frontier Mail Train. I was the only one from Peshawar. It was about 1500 miles from there to Bombay. In the Bombay transit camp I found a kindred spirit 鈥� a corporal with similar tastes. We had about two weeks to wait. Eventually the Scythia, a 25 year old Royal Mail ship, took us on board. Unfortunately, although I was now a sergeant, I was still on E Deck.

This time it was 3 weeks 鈥� the Red Sea, Suez Canal, Mediterranean, Gibraltar, and eventually Liverpool. The weather seemed very cold to us. At least the WI greeted us on the train at Liverpool with tea, cigarettes and the papers. I went tot Cosford, where I had been twice before. I looked up a band friend who lived nearby. He had left India a couple of months earlier, being over 10 years older than me.

Then it was Hednesford (Midlands) where we got 鈥榗ivilianised鈥� again, handed in some clothes and got some new ones. I went down to London on the train but missed my connection and spent the night sleeping next to a stone lion on Kings Cross/St Pancras station. I was woken up early by a porter chasing a rat around me with a broom! It was cold! I got to Norwich at about 1pm on December 13th. My Dad picked me up. Mum was pleased to see me undamaged. The Spaniel dog did not know me but was friendly anyway. I hadn鈥檛 seen any of them since early August 1942 鈥� 3 陆 years. Later on that afternoon the dog started showing me more interest and following me around 鈥� and eventually decided it was me! I got my driving licence renewed that day, and Dad had kept his old Standard 10/12 Speed Saloon running throughout the war.

At the weekend I went to Cambridge to see my lady friend, who was staying there with friends. She wasn鈥檛 really an official girlfriend, but was the only one I had written to since 1940 (apart from my mother and father). Instead of a cuddle after 3 years 4 months, she just choked me off and went to her room. I went home to Norwich again the next day, but was not too worried. It sorted itself in the end and we were married on 10th June 1946. We had two daughters. Joyce, my wife, died on 20th April 1967 aged 48.

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