大象传媒

Peter Senhenn

During May 1941 my Mother, Aunt and Myself were sitting in the lounge at home when an aircraft flew very low overhead which we could see through the window steering towards the English Electric plant and to our amazement we saw four or five bombs leave this aircraft. At first we thought the aircraft was a Bristol Blenim but as it turned it was a Junkers 88. Fortunately for the employees at the EEC the bombs although they appeared in various engineering shops did not explode. This caused lots of shock in the workforce. During the evening we tuned to Lord Haw-Haw and he confirmed that indeed a Junkers 88 had been to Stafford that day and bombed a large factory. He obviously did not that the bombs had not exploded.

In September 1942 I joined the RAF and went up to Jesus College, Cambridge, for a short course. I was in the University Air Squadron, and we wore an RAF museum with ATC buttons on it. Then I went on to No.1 ITW (initial training wing) in April 1943 before passing through the transit station at Heaton Park Manchester waiting to be posted to overseas. Crossed the Atlantic to Canada on the Queen Elizabeth to Halifax, Nova Scotia and was posted to RAF Monckton, New Brunswick, before being posted Caron near Moosejaw (30? EFTS elementary flying training school), out in the prairies. We were there to notch up 90 hours flying in Cornells. Having completed that course we moved on to 39 SFTS (Service Flying Training School) in Swift Current, Saskatchewan where we flew for another 150 in Oxfords. When we completed this course we were awarded our wings (30 Jan 1944) and were fit to be pilots.

Now I had become a pilot I was posted back to Monckton and then on to Dorval in Montreal. Then I was given a posting to no.1 GRS (General Reconnaissance School) Summerside in Prince Edward Island. During the winter, whilst on the course we had to make 1 minute circuits of Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia, in Ansons with a view to identifying and locating all the ships in both harbours which had to be entered onto white charts. This practice exercise was to prepare us for reconnaissance in wartime conditions.

From PEI I went back to Montreal and was given a month鈥檚 leave during which I covered the eastern seaboard of the US, from Boston and Washington. At the end of the leave I went back to Montreal and then to 111 OTU (Operational Training Unit) in Nassau in the Bahamas (along with the Duke of Windsor!). After 75 hours flying Mitchells (B25s) at Oaksfield I moved to Windsor Field for 150 hours on Liberators (B24s). Posted back to Montreal, New Brunswick, for trans-shipment to UK. Once back in Britain I was posted to Aldergrove, Northern Ireland, to join the squadron.

Unfortunately the squadron had converted to Halifaxes which did not require two pilots so I was supernumerary and posted to Harrogate. It was now November 1944. They sent me to Morecombe (another transit station) for posting to Ceylon aboard the Sumeria. Arrived in Bombay then transferred by train to Madras and then to Madura to join 203 Squadron on Liberators. By January 1945, I had joined the war. Four weeks later the squadron transited by air to Kankesanturai (known as KKS). We were operational here until the end of the war in the East (August 1945) and I remained posted here until October 1946 when I was posted to Singapore, ACSEAC (Comms Squadron) based in Singapore Racecourse. I was transited home in December 1946 on the Empress Australia to Liverpool and was finally demobbed in January 1947.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.