大象传媒

The day the end of the war was announced I was sitting on the grass of an airfield in Fassberg in Germany talking to some of the lads. There was no cheering, just sighs of relief and quiet as we all started to think of the future. It was an anti-climax as until that day the morning would be filled with bustling activity and the sound of the healthy roar of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines being started up as the Spitfires were being prepared for another sortie. The only sound was the whisper of a breeze through the grass.

On the 15th November of that year the Squadron was disbanded and the Spitfires handed over to the French Airforce, which meant that the ground crews were posted to other units to await demobilisation. As an aero-engine fitter I was posted to a motor Transport unit, 73 MTLRU at Gutersloh, to work on motor vehicle engines. What a drastic change that was from working on the clean aircraft engines to oily, greasy and muddy motor vehicles.

One day I was playing cribbage with my mates when a Corporal walked in and said, "I want a volunteer". Pointing at me he said, "You'll do". He took me to an 18 tons recovery vehicle made by the Ward la France company in America. It had a 120 h.p. petrol engine and did 4 m.p.g., air brakes and a single jib crane and a winch front and rear. A fifth gear which in those days was called, "overdrive". The Corporal's name was Stan Coombs and he took me all over Germany and Denmark recovering all kinds of vehicles. Stan had removed the engine speed govenor and our maximum speed in overdrive on the flat was 55 m.p.h. At 30 m.p.h. the equipment rattled, at 40 m.p.h. the crane rattled and at 55 m.p.h. everything rattled. An hour before a meal stop we put tins of food on the exhaust manifold.

One scary trip occurred when we went to Essen and had to stay overnight. We left "Bertha" in the town square. In the morning when we started up the air pressure buzzer came on which was usual and it stopped after a minute or two when the pressure had reached a safe level. This time however it kept on buzzing and we knew that something was wrong. On investigation we found that during the night someone had disconnected the pipe to the air brakes. If it had not been for that buzzer we would have left Essen downhill with a right-angled bend at the bottom.

A memorable trip took us to Nuremburg in the American zone to recover a staff car. We had to report to the American Town Major who provided beds in a barrack block and a crate of Coke each. He said, "You guys need some tickets for the War Crimes Trials?", and we spent the next day there, sitting up in the visitor's gallery. Each seat had a set of headphones and a selector knob for one of four languages, English, German French and Russian. It was very interesting looking down onto the people who had run the War from the other side, Goering, Doenitz, Keitel and others besides. That evening we spent in the American Stork Club and came away with a stein each bearing the piture of a stork and the words, "Stork Club Numberg".

Next day we returned to Gutersloh where my Demob papers had arrived. My Airforce days had ended on a pleasant note. So, goodbye to Stan and Germany and back to life in Civvy Street.

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