大象传媒

December 1939. I travelled to Uxbridge RAF Station from Devon and as thousands were doing the same I had to sleep on a billiard table in the NAAFI on my first night. It was exceedingly cold and in my civilian clothes I felt it after Devon. I was kitted out in uniform and went through initial training which was very tough. I came home for Xmas and on my return was posted to Felixstowe on the east coast. It was very cold that winter and we had to dig trenches for Air Raid precautions. It snowed and snowed and I fell into one of the trenches! After a few weeks I was again posted, this time to Gosport. As well as the threat of Hitler, the IRA were troublesome and we had to guard all installations against IRA attack. Two IRA men were hanged at Winson Green Prison in Birmingham and to me, a young civilian, it was a scary time. It was still very cold and the worst winter of the whole war. All telephone lines were coated with an inch of ice and the weight snapped the poles. I used to go home on a 48 hour pass some weekends.

Eventually in February I was posted to Yatesbury in Wiltshire which was No. 2 Radio Training School as I was to be trained as a Wireless Operator Air Gunner. When we arrived the camp was snowed in. The floors of the huts for sleeping were covered in ice and due to the failure of the electric supply the only lights were intermittent and one per hut so you had to wait until the light came on and then dash for an empty bed. It was so bad that the bedclothes froze to the shape of your body. It was made worse as without power they couldn鈥檛 cook and rations were very short. We were sent home for a while until the weather conditions improved. The course was 12 weeks and when I passed out I knew something about Electricity, Radio and could transmit Morse code at 25 words per minute. As I proved to be one of the best at it and because I was not allowed to fly due to an operation I had in 1936, I was selected to go back to Uxbridge to study the operations in No.11 Fighter Group so that I could instruct men and women on operational radio work.

I was in the south east during the Battle of Britain (Sept 1940) based at Hornchurch in Essex. We received a lot of air attacks and I saw some awful sights. I worked in remote direction finding caravans on the coast to pass information of aircraft positions back to group headquarters. I also worked in a caravan as a broadcasting link to our own aircraft. Aircraft transmitters and receivers were very small and not very powerful having a transmitting range of 35 miles. We did the broadcasting and we were connected to fighter command by landline thus it extended the range from headquarters to the aircraft. I saw many battles in the air and saw both our own and German aircraft crash. Once we were in a field of turnips and the Germans got a bearing on our transmitter and bombed us. We retreated to a trench in the field and when the bombing stopped we saw a peculiar sight. All the turnips were cut of at ground level by the bomb blasts. It was funny to see a field of yellow rings instead of growing turnips.

After this I was posted to Cranwell and started 6 week courses for Radio Telephony Operators, both men and women. As there were only 6 instructors we worked double shifts starting at 6a.m. and the courses went on until 10p.m. but we did get leave after each course. As the war progressed equipment improved and VHF equipment was brought out so the range became greater and I also had to instruct on this equipment. At the end of each course was a Trade Testing Board and I used to serve on this as well. I had been made a Corporal and my Morse improved to 30 words per minute.

Eventually I had to instruct all nationalities from the Empire Air Training Scheme to teach them Radio operating and theory for operating in the air. The equipment was old but one day there arrived in my laboratory a new transmitter and receiver made by Marconi. My instructions were to install it and be ready to instruct officers and staff on its uses. Within 4 hours of receiving it I gave a lecture on it. After that I instructed on it most of the time going to stations with new aircraft such as Lancasters and Halifaxes as the operational crews didn鈥檛 know how to use it. In 1942 I was posted to RAF Bobbington as a Sergeant to an officers and crew training unit where the men came for training on the Marconi equipment. I have photographs of classes taken in front of aircraft whom I instructed prior to going into operations.

It was at this time my daughter was born and I was flown back to Cranwell on compassionate leave. When my wife and I went home on leave to Devon we had to go through London and many times were caught in a blitz. One time we were in a train all night outside of Bristol and we could see the fires and gun flashes etc. At daylight we pulled into Bristol Station and it was complete devastation. Many times we arrived in Exeter and had to get to Exminster, 4 miles away, to my wife鈥檚 mother. As there was no transport we had to walk.

Later in the war I went to Chipping Warden in Oxfordshire and lived in a little instructed here at the Officers Training Unit. Finally I was posted to a Radar Station on research work at Swanton Morley in Suffolk. They used to drop loads of tin foil from the aircraft to upset the radar and confuse the enemy. I was here when the war ended in 1945 and I was demobbed. In November 1945 I went to Wembley Stadium to get my demob suit and my discharge papers and attended the service at the Cenotaph on 11 November 1945.

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