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543221 RAF Corporal Jack Turner’s wartime adventures

Jack Turner joined the RAF in 1937. He had been working as a labourer since leaving school in 1930. Contracting Scarlet fever in 1937 provided him with time to consider his future and he decided to join the forces in order to get a trade not suspecting that he was about to be caught up in a war.

He trained as an engineer. During the battle of Britain Jack played his part in the defence of the realm by working long hours in the airfields around the south coast. He was stationed at St Ival, near Newquey in Cornwall attached to RAF 234 Squadron. By this time he was Corporal he remembers working very long shifts. During 1940 there was heavy bombing by the Luftwafer and airfields were naturally a great target. Jack has many memories of running for cover in the makeshift shelters around the field. He had many narrow escapes one being when during his precious time off he was drinking with some friends when they saw their billets being bombed. When Jack returned he found that an enemy bomb had made a direct hit in the space where his bed had previously stood. .

In the autumn of 1941 Corporal Jack Tuner left Liverpool on a crowded troop ship bound for the African coast. The trip took around two weeks. Conditions on board were cramped we slept in hammocks packed like a tin of sardines head to tow.

The ship docked at Freetown where we boarded a small boat for Takorai on the Gold Coast as it was known then. At Takoradi they climbed down rope ladders carrying their kit bags on their backs into small boats that rowed them to the shore.

I was sent to work as a Corporal Fitter Engineer in an aircraft assembly centre building planes. The Americans were at that time still officially neutral but were supplying materials for building of aircraft. The aircrafts parts came in a convoy of ships to Takorai where they were assembled and then flown to the Middle East for action.

The Americans were very generous and offered to send free radio for the troops the British Government however declined this offer as they thought it would affect the British market at home

After the trauma of was torn Britain my time in Takorai came as a welcome break. It almost seamed like a paradise at times and the war a long way off in another world.
The centre was situated on the flats just above sea level when you could walk straight out of the centre and down to the sea for a swim. Best of all you there were exotic fruits such as bananas which were not to be seen in Britain until after the end of the war. The area was known as the white man’s graveyard but Jack was fortunate in not contracting Malaria like some many of his comrades and remained there for around 18 months.

The local people were warm and welcoming. Jack met up with a catholic priest called Father Mooney who invited me to join him on his visits to the villages in his parish were the community greeted me with great courtesy and hospitality. On one such visit Jack and Father Mooney travelled by river rowed by some of the natives. Jack began to talk to one of the rowers and was astonished to find that he had just returned to his homeland after touring with a production of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ which had taken him to the Playhouse at Derby Jack’s hometown. Having had a rural childhood and being the son of a Game keeper I was accustomed to wandering off on my own and would often wander off on my own exploring the local area. On one of my visits to a village a great fuss was made of me when I was mistaken for the local bishop, all Europeans looking the same to them.

After a tour of 18 months Jack returned to Britain in the summer of 1943 and went to work at RAF Cosford as an instructor. On the 23 August he was married at St Wulfid’s parish church in Barrow-on-Trent, Derbyshire to the girl who had begun writing to him while he was overseas, Private Joyce ATS. The couple continued to serve in the armed forces until after the end of the war in 1946.

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