大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by CSV/大象传媒 Radio Nottingham on behalf of Julian Eric Berry with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

Before the war my mother and father had a small hotel in Cromer on the Norfolk coast. I was two years old when my father volunteered for service with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on the 16 November 1940.
After his initial training he was stationed at RAF Oakington in Cambridgeshire. He became a chef after attending the School of Catering at RAF Halton in 1941. He was then transferred to RAF Bradwell Bay in 1942. In 1943 he was posted to North Africa serving with the North West African Airforce in support of the 8th Army. He was based at Cap Serrat in Tunisia and Algiers, later in the year he was transferred to 272 Beaufighter Squadron which was carrying out missions from Catania in Sicily. Early in 1944 the Squadron moved to Sardinia and eventually to mainland Italy.
One morning in February 1946 when I was seven years old I awoke to find a stranger sitting having a cup of tea, my mother introduced him as my father, but I would not believe either of them because this man was wearing a khaki uniform and I knew that my father was in the Air Force and they wore blue. However, after my father explained that he was still in the Air Force but he was wearing khaki uniform because they had been in the desert and Italian war zones, he also showed me the RAF. Insignia on his battledress sleeves, only then I really did believe my father was home.

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