大象传媒

In 1942 I had been accepted by the London Hospital Medical College so I was in a 鈥榬eserved occupation鈥� but I decided to postpone my medical training 鈥� which turned out to be one of the best decisions that I ever took Had I continued through university my first meeting with the public would have been in a doctor/patient relationship. Rather than joining the RAF medical branch where I would have been an orderly I applied for training as a wireless mechanic, an entirely new field for me and a Group 1 trade on the highest pay scale.

I reported to Penarth, near Cardiff, on 16 December 1942 with a small suitcase in which my civilian clothes were to be sent home when I was kitted out. We were issued with our service numbers, 鈥楢irman鈥檚 Service and Pay Book鈥� (form 64), uniforms and other kit and we sat an intelligence test. I was posted to Weston-super-Mare, where we stayed in boarding houses, and we did square-bashing on the promenade. The drilling was a particular worry for me as I have always had difficulty with my right and my left; perhaps a consequence of being born left-handed and forced to change to being right-handed. On parade I constantly reminded myself of which was my right hand and fortunately I never made a mistake. We had lectures ranging from VD to aircraft recognition; we were shown aircraft silhouettes against a painted cyclorama which could be lighted to represent day or night.

Although the square-bashing was set for eight weeks, a group of us was called to the office after six weeks and told that we were to start our one-year course of training as wireless mechanics. Sixteen of us were posted to Shrewsbury Technical College for six months of basic wireless theory where the lectures and practical laboratory lessons were given by technical college staff. We discovered that, with one exception, we had all undertaken further education in a variety of specialties; there were two pharmacists, an architect, a teacher, a textile mill manager and so on. However one had run his own wireless business in civvy street but sadly he could not cope with the mathematics and physics and he failed the course after a couple of months. Our background in higher education was necessary to understand the theory of wireless circuits, valves, transmitter aerials and batteries. I worked with Chris Bean, who had been a lecturer in pharmacology at Chelsea School of Pharmacy; we were to stay together for over two years and we remained close friends until his death a few years ago. RAF discipline was minimal. Technically we were attached to RAF Shawbury, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, but we never went there and the RAF staff at the technical college consisted of a Flight Lieutenant, a Flying Officer, a sergeant and a corporal.

I was billeted with a family where the husband was a railway engine driver. The wife looked after us and accepted her airmen as part of the family; I kept in touch with her ever since, visiting her until her death. It was a very happy summer though the study was a challenge. We all passed the basic course and we were posted to 鈥楴umber 7 Radio School, South Kensington鈥� where we were introduced to RAF equipment and taught how to maintain it. The radios were of advanced design and the receivers and transmitters, direction finding sets, beam approach and intercom amplifiers were very sophisticated; we were also introduced to other equipment which we might meet on a station. The lectures were in the Science Museum, our dining room was in the Victoria & Albert Museum and we lived in 鈥楢lbert Court鈥� immediately behind the Albert Hall. We paraded every morning in Prince Consort Road where an RAF band played its two tunes on alternate days.

During my stay at South Kensington I saw every play in London鈥檚 theatres from the 鈥榞ods鈥�, I attended many of the proms and I was a member of two service clubs in London; I even danced on the stage at the Royal Opera House 鈥� but that was because it was used as a dance hall for service men and women. The end of the course meant leaving London but was compensated by a leap in pay as a Group 1 Tradesman. The postings were announced and Chris and I were sent on embarkation leave and then to Blackpool to await an overseas posting. Christmas at Blackpool was not pleasant. We were lodged in boarding houses and other than reporting to a pier pavilion once a day when names for the next boat were read out, there was nothing to do. After a couple of weeks I volunteered for work in an RAF office which at least kept me occupied. I was determined to enjoy life. After three months our postings were announced and we had to report to RAF Bramcote, near Nuneaton so we had a home posting after all

Bramcote was a very formal permanent camp and the whole place reeked of 鈥榖ull鈥�. The unit was under 44 Group Transport Command and its purpose was to take in aircrew who had completed their bombing missions and convert them to flying transport 鈥榩lanes. Most of the aircraft were Vickers Wellingtons from which the armaments were removed, but we later got a couple of Dakotas. There was an airfield but as it was grass, flying was restricted and most of the flying was from RAF Lindley, some five miles away on the A5 road, which had concrete runways; it is now the Motor Industries Research Establishment.

There was a large hangar where aircraft which had completed a given number of flying hours were stripped down for servicing; fitters worked on the engines, riggers checked the airframes and electricians, instrument technicians and wireless mechanics overhauled the equipment. We were issued with a set of tools and it was nice to work in the trade for which we had spent so long in training but work at the bench was less interesting than working on the aircraft. We had a rota for night work but we were restricted to work as wireless mechanics. In the past somebody had had the brilliant notion that as we had to work with our minds we must not get too tired and therefore wireless mechanics were exempt from all guard and fire duties.

After a few weeks I was posted to RAF Lindley to work on a Flight and here the situation was quite different from Bramcote. The accommodation was in Nissen huts and we were issued with bicycles to move about the camp. Between the entrance and the airfield were the billets, mess and NAAFI, stores, workshops, a hangar and the control tower and around the perimeter of the airfield were four flight dispersals, each with about a dozen aircraft. On each Flight were groups of fitters and riggers and the 鈥榞ash trades鈥� as we were called 鈥� electrics, wireless and instruments 鈥� because the fitters and riggers reckoned that we were not essential to keep a plane flying. The emphasis was entirely on the job and I cannot recall any parades or drilling; we got up in the morning and stepped straight into our wellies, had breakfast and then went to our Flight. I was on 鈥楢 Flight鈥� where three wireless mechanics were responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the aircraft. We did a 鈥楧aily Inspection鈥� and signed the 鈥楧.I. logbook鈥� certifying that the equipment was serviceable. It was here that I made the first of hundreds of broadcasts when I called the control tower from each plane to check the RT.

The Wellingtons had a TR1154/55 general purpose Marconi transmitter and receiver with direction finding facilities and with a built-in generator driven by the 24 volt battery. There was a TR9 transceiver for radio telephony (RT) which was very old fashioned and troublesome but this was later replaced by a TR1132/33 VHF transceiver which also had its own generator. There was a Beam Approach receiver for blind landing, an A1134 intercom amplifier and an IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) radar set which had a bomb in it to destroy it to stop it falling into enemy hands. There was also an emergency transmitter painted a bright yellow and which could float in case an aircraft ditched in the sea.

Every month a group of aircrew would arrive for training which consisted of a number of 鈥榗ircuits and bumps鈥� - when the pilots would take off, encircle the airfield and land again - a series of all-day flights to different airfields and back 鈥� frequently Prestwick in Ayr and Nutts Corner in Belfast. - and finishing up with some night flights. It was essential that they completed their required flying hours in the month and that meant that we had to maintain sufficient serviceable aircraft to fulfil this. In fact there was considerable competition between the Flights to complete their hours first and we had a flight sergeant whose forcefulness and enthusiasm ensured that not only did we finish ahead of all the other flights but we would finish at least a week early so we had a quiet period each month. Sometimes after take-off for a cross-country flight there was a 鈥榩hone call from the control tower to say that a plane was coming back with a fault. Each tradesman was terrified that if the problem was with his equipment he would face the opprobrium of the rest of the Flight as this could cause a delay in the completion of the course. I knew of one wireless component which was troublesome and though I had done the D.I. the evening before I went round every 鈥榩lane in the morning to re-check this item. In fact our record was extremely good and we usually completed a course way ahead of the other Flights.

The wireless department had a rota which covered the period of take-off for night flying by all Flights; this meant that at night we were not directly responsible for our aircraft. One evening a fault developed on a VHF transmitter/receiver and a sergeant from the workshop spent some time trying to sort it out; the motor generator was running but no signal could be obtained so it was decided that the following day the aircraft must go to the hangar. I had a look at it in the morning and, applying the old adage 鈥渁lways check the power supply鈥� I found that the battery connections were reversed so the generator was running backwards. I changed the leads, did the D.I. and went to sign the log. The Flight Sergeant told me that the 鈥榩lane was going into the hangar but when I assured him that I had done my D.I. he cancelled the transfer, got all the other technicians to do their D.I.s and the 鈥榩lane was ready to fly that day. He had great delight in telling the workshop that 鈥榟is lad had corrected the fault鈥�; he was very paternalistic towards the staff working on the Flight.

So dedicated were we to keeping our 鈥榃impies鈥� flying that we made a deal with the wireless department that we would accept full responsibility for the Flight day and night, working our own rota which included days off. As the A5 ran along the other side of the hedge beside 鈥楢鈥� Flight, it was easy to thumb a lift (usually on a military vehicle) into and back from London. The Flight was also near a dairy farm and during the summer we took our mugs for drinks of milk which cost a few coppers and was better than the char and a wad from the NAAFI van which called every morning and afternoon.

On one occasion it was reported that smoke appeared in an aircraft when in the air. The electrician and I thoroughly investigated our respective equipment and circuitry but could find no cause for it. It happened again so we decided that our only course was to get a pilot to take us up to see where the smoke was coming from. Soon after we were airborne we realised that we had not even bothered to get ourselves a parachute. We found the problem and the electrician dealt with it.

When the aircraft were away on a cross-country flight and after the end of a course there was nothing to do all day but sit round the fire talking. Airmen would bring bread and butter from the mess and we would feast ourselves on hot buttered toast. I built a simple wireless set and I devised an automatic switch on the telephone which turned down the volume when the 鈥榩hone was picked up.

The billets were heated by a coke stove. Along one side of the airfield ran a railway line and the lads on 鈥楥鈥� Flight would call to the men on the footplate asking for coal. After a while the locomotive stokers prepared large lumps which they dislodged from the tender near the camp so every evening coal was brought back to the billets. This was a great improvement on the coke and huts competed with each other to see how high they could get the chimney red hot.

During my stay at Lindley I was put on 鈥楶reliminary Warning Roll鈥� indicating that I was liable to be posted overseas at a moment鈥檚 notice. This meant that I had to get 鈥榗learance鈥� from the camp by handing back anything that I had borrowed and getting a signature from each department to say that I was clear to leave. They allowed me to hold on to the bicycle but I had to surrender my tools so I had to borrow from colleagues, a situation which continued for some months until my posting came through 鈥� to RAF Uxbridge, another home posting. I was very sad to leave Lindley as it was a very happy camp, the work was very rewarding and was much appreciated.

The prospect of being stationed at a major camp, steeped in RAF history, was worrying after the relaxed time I had spent in Nuneaton. Dominating the camp was the square where a formal flag-raising and flag-lowering ceremony was enacted daily. The Central Band of the RAF was stationed at Uxbridge and while I was there they had arranged an exchange visit with the United States Army Air Force Band who distinguished themselves on their first day by playing baseball on the square while the flag was flying. A stream (the River Pinn) separates the formal side of the camp from the less formal. I was attached to Continental Aircraft Control (CAC) and it was a great relief to discover that it was on the other side of the stream where a number of wooden huts had been erected attached to Hillingdon House. Here wireless operators sat at receivers (RCA AR88s) taking down weather reports and coded messages in morse code and two wireless mechanics serviced the equipment, maintained and charged the emergency bank of batteries and altered aerials as required. There were also type-X machines for decoding the messages 鈥� these were kept very secret from us until they needed repair!! We took it in turns to be on call for night emergencies, though as we always left at least one spare receiver in each hut we were never called. Close by was No. 11 Group Fighter Command where in a deep bunker the Battle of Britain had been controlled

I discovered later that the CAC unit had just been vacated by the Army which had gone to France following D-Day; the army wireless mechanic who had worked there joined me at the London Hospital Medical College where we trained and qualified together and he was even the best man at our wedding. He had had a serious problem with the top brass who inspected the installation. He had erected an array of aerials each measured accurately to the calculated length for optimum reception. The senior officers exploded because 鈥榚ach aerial was of a different length which made the array look untidy鈥� and he was ordered to make them all the same length. He resolved the problem by adding dummy insulators at intervals along the wires to give the appearance of a more symmetrical pattern.

Soon after VE Day I was told that an overseas posting had been arranged for me. I had suffered from mild asthma but I had never reported it lest I should be thought to be shirking. However on this occasion when I went for my medical it was noticed and the first question I was asked by the medical board was 鈥渁re you returning to medical school after demob?鈥�. Answering in the affirmative I was given a form which stated that I was being discharged on medical grounds with the diagnosis 鈥渁llergic rhinitis and bronchospasm鈥� (a posh way of describing hayfever and asthma) and I was asked to sign a document saying that I would not sue the RAF for my affliction. Clearly the medical staff had had sympathy on me now that hostilities had ceased and proposed to release me. I was given a civvy suit and hat on 12 December 1945 and sent on two months demob leave which terminated on 5 February 1946. I started at the University in January 1946 in a class which had almost doubled in size with half of the students being ex-service men.

I was delighted with my training in radio and used it for a short while to supplement my student grant. I also continued my subscription to Wireless World for a couple of years but by then transistors were coming in and I found it difficult to keep up with the radio revolution while applying myself to my medical studies.

I am a bit ashamed to admit that I enjoyed my war!!

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