大象传媒

.Now it was back to reality and a posting to 31 Bombing and Gunnery School at Picton, Ontario. A two day journey by train around the North Shore of Lake Superior to Toronto and Belleville and then twenty plus miles down a dirt road to Picton.
The airfield still exists, on high ground, overlooking the town on the shores of Lake Ontario. The bombing targets were moored out in the lake and air gunnery practice took place out over the lake.
The weather during this spell was very hot and flying was limited to a period from very early morning until midday. Canadian built Ansons were used for bombing practice and Bolingbrokes, which were Canadian built Blenheims, were used for air to air gunnery practice. The target drogues were towed by Lysanders. Nothing outstanding took place at Picton except perhaps for our passing out party which we held in Belleville. In my case, being full of Canadian rye whisky of the bootleg variety I literally passed out and for many years afterwards could not even stand the smell of strong spirits.

Having recovered from the passing out the next stop was No.33 Air Navigation School, RAF Mount Hope, Hamilton. Ontario. Mount Hope is now Hamilton Airport. Navigation training in Ansons was fairly uneventful and ended with us receiving our Sergeants stripes and the coveted "0" brevet. (Known to all as the flying Orsehole) The "O" brevet was soon to be replaced with brevets more appropriate to the trade of the wearer, ie "B" for Airbombers, "N" for Navigators, etc. .Next it was back to Moncton for the return to the UK.
The return voyage was on the' Mauritania' where there were only 50 sergeant aircrew who were to act as guards on the ship which was transporting a large number of American troops. O/C Troops on the ship was a Royal Air Force Squadron Leader. To our amazement when the Americans boarded the ship they had no idea where they were going. Most seemed to think they were going to Iceland and when we told them Liverpool was our destination they could not believe it. We were asked where we picked up the convoy and when we told them we did not go in convoy this caused a great deal of consternation. All the troopships going back and forth between the UK and North American were too fast to be in convoys and fast zig zag runs were made across theAtlantic It was very long odds against the likelihood of encountering a U Boat. .
Having safely arrived in Liverpool our next temporary home was yet another 'holding unit'.

'This story was submitted to the People's War site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of John Derek Bailey and has been added to the site with his / permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions

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