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MIDLAND MEMORIES

Like many tens of thousands of other servicemen, my husband-to-be, Glen Townsend, spent most of his wartime service in the Midlands.

I was born and bred in the small Oxfordshire village of Great Haseley, and met Glen in late 1943 while he was recovering from TB. Glen was eventually called-up to join the R.A.F. in May 1944 having at last been given the ‘all clear’ by his doctor.

Glen wrote to me nearly every week while he was on duty, and to this day (although sadly he died in 1978) I have kept his letters. They provide a record of his postings and his work, also they give an indication of the frustrations and tedium of service life, in particular after the war had ended waiting to be demobbed.

At the end of April 1944 Glen received has call-up papers to go to
RAF Cardington after a week there spent undergoing medicals etc he was sent to RAF Skegness for initial training, drill etc. I still treasure the first letter he sent me from Skegness in May 1944 saying how much he missed me and wished that he could cycle home to see me.

Glen was a carpenter by trade and was trained in the RAF in airframe repairs, so after Skegness he was sent to RAF Kirkham in Lancashire for training in airframe maintenance. While he was there a USAAF B-24 bomber crashed on a school in nearby Freckleton killing a 61, including 38 children. Glen wasn’t able to write in detail about this incident but mentioned it the next time he visited me.

After Kirkham, the next letter I had from Glen was in November 1944, telling me he had been posted to his first front-line station RAF Dunholm Lodge in Lincs. servicing Lancasters of 170 squadron. But he only stayed there a few weeks before the squadron was transferred to RAF Hemswell near Lincoln where Glen was to remain until well after the end of the war.

During that autumn I was glad to be able to send Glen a number of apple pies from the Bramley apple tree in our garden. Although servicemen had much better rations than us civilians the novelty of home-cooking was greatly appreciated and Glen was pleased to be able to share my pies with his ‘mates’.

When it became clear that the war in Europe would end soon we got married in February 1945. It was to be nearly 18 months before Glen was finally demobbed from RAF Syerston. Where he spent the first 6 months of 1946, like thousands of others getting extremely bored, relieved by all-too-infrequent home leaves.

Joan Townsend

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