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PART ONE

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard and was written by Ronald Cameron's son, Alastair Paterson Cameron.

My Father tried many time to enlist from the 4th Sept 1940 but his registration was not accepted until 12/03/1940.

This demonstrates the delays there were in being accepted for service, due to status of being in a reserved occupation being one of them. My fathers career as a Quantity Surveyor being one of such occupations. Even after registration this status stopped his joining up and he had to go to a tribunal to make his employer holding cease this sanction over him.

On going to tribunal to have this suspended, he was asked only three questions: -
Are you R G Cameron? His answer Yes. Did you volunteer for the RAF? His answerYes.
Do you still wish to serve in the RAF? His answer Yes.

The judge then told him, he was released from his Reserved Occupation Status and he was free to join up.

He reported to 16 Aircrew Selection Board at Edinburgh 29/11/1940 and was selected for Pilot I Observer training.

His records show that was given the rank of Aircraft Charge Hand (ACH) / Pilot / Observer (under training). He told await instructions and he would be given his date to report for basic training.

He received his service number 1343390 on Monday 10/3/41 and his enlistment notice followed on the 28/6/41. He reported to the RAF receiving wing (No 1 Aircrew Reception Centre) at Babbacombe, London on 7/7/1941 for the issue of his kit and inoculations. Here he was given the rank of AC2. That night the first in his RAF service, he slept under the Members Pavilion at Lords cricket ground. The next day he was told report to No.4 Initial Training Wing (ITW) Paignton Cornwall, for initial training. His first night there was spent at the RAF's expense at the Seaton Hotel in Torquay. During his time at ITW he was billeted in the Tembany Hotel. After two months "Square bashing" etc he was posted with the rank of LAC to 21 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) RAF Booker near High Wycombe.

Where on the 6/9 41 he started his training this was to assess his suitability to fly.

At Booker he met up with a few lads who became his friends for the first part of "his" war. They were - George Forrester (more on him later), Eric Redhead (He became an "Ace", shooting down 4 and a half Vi's. Frank Lee (Shot down in Sept.1943 and imprisoned in Stalag Luft Ill Sagan, this camp was famous for "The Great Escape") & John McCrossan (to be awarded the DFM later, but sadly killed in 1943).

At RAF Booker he flew solo after 10 hours 30 minutes.

The first solo was uneventful but the second shows up as lasting over 1 hour 30 minutes.

The story of why went like this: -

After take off he became lost and spent about an hour trying to relocate the airfield, he picked up the river Thames (by luck) and followed it back to the airfield at Bray. He eventually returned to the Terra Firma, on being asked by the flight controller "Where the hell have you been?" he replied " My watch must have stopped & I was having so much fun I didn't realise that the time had passed so quickly". I believe he got away with that as no record is shown in his Logbook of any disciplinary action. His training continued for a further 4 weeks and by the end of it he had over 90 hours flying experience under his goggles.

He left Booker on the 5/12/41 to go on to Heaton Park in Manchester and from there he was to go to a Service Flying Training School (SFTS). However due to the Luftwaffe's tactics of trying to shoot down pilots under instruction these units were moved abroad to Canada, South Africa and Rhodesia. He was posted to Canada.

Thus began a part of his life that still continues to this day, the family friendship with the Sorrenti family (and there descendants) of Winnipeg Manitoba.

The journey from the UK to Canada was on the ship HMT Bergensfiiord, his recollections of the ship are a little vague now but he can remember the weather conditions being very bad. He maintains that he was the only one who wasn't seasick on the voyage. Also he remembers being removed bodily off the lavatory to allow another "Passenger" to be sick. The voyage lasted from the 22/12/41 to 1/1/42.

On arriving at 31 PD at Moncton a day later he was to be posted with the others assembled there it seems by the alphabetic method. He seems to be in the group of C to F; the unit they were being posted to, was 33 SFTS at Carberry near Winnipeg Manitoba.
He was billeted with a young airman from Booker that came from Glasgow, LAC George Forrester (RAF nickname Fudgy). It was due to this lad that he met the Sorrenti family; this was when the airmen were allocated a billet to stay at when they were in Winnipeg on leave.

The two of them ended up with Mrs Effie Sorrenti, her Husband Vincenzo, and
her children Marg, Vincent & Roy. (Their other son Lou was in the RCAF at this time). The reason for the two of them going to live at 800 Warsaw St was that Mrs Sorrenti was from Glasgow and the Volunteer Service league tried to place airmen with families from the same area of the UK. Fudgy was from Glasgow and he persuaded my father to go with him to his digs and not to look for a family from Renfrewshire. George was actually quite shy and didn't wish to be on his own in Winnipeg. This was the best thing that could have happened to my dad, the family became so close, that Mrs Sorrenti became my father's "Canadian mother" and 800 Warsaw Street his "Canadian Home". He sent flowers to Mrs Sorrenti ever year at Christmas until she passed away in 1968. This deep friendship has survived the years and all the Cameron family today refer to Marg Wright (Sorrenti) as "Aunt Marg". The visits to Canada and the "Sorrenti" family descendants still continue today.

His flying training started on the 11th of January 1942 on Avro Anson aircraft. His first solo on this aircraft was 7 days later. After 35 hours flying he was certified to carry passengers. The instruction continued with navigation, night flying and even a bombing exercise. He flew over 120 hours during the course and the award of his "Wings" occurred on the 24/4/1942, he was given a commission and the rank of Pilot officer. He (and Frank Lee from EFTS) was posted to 31 SFTS in Kingston Ontario as Instructors.

Sgt George Forrester went back to the UK to train as bomber pilot. Sadly he was killed about six months later in a flying accident at 6 Advanced Flying Unit at Little Rissington.

17/05/1942 P/O Cameron arrived at 31 SFTS in Kingston Ontario to instruct pupil pilots in blind flying techniques. Also at based at Kingston was a gunnery instruction school. It was here that he came to know the comedian Jimmy Edwards. Jimmy was a Target towing pilot, he was well known for shouting over the radio to the pupils "shoot the drogue! Not me you stupid……. F/Lt Edwards later in the war was awarded the DFC for his actions during "Market Garden "flying over Am hem.

At Kingston P/O Cameron flew the Harvard trainer and instructed over 40 pupils in the four months he was stationed there. His logbook shows he had to carryout an emergency landing near Gannoque Ontario when the engine failed.

I was told recently by Flt. Frank Lee that my father also had a small accident with a Harvard, he managed to run into a pile of gravel and covered the aircraft in the stone chips by means of the propeller. For his error he was made Night Duty officer for two weeks. Frank remembers he accompanied him on his many night patrols around the camp over those two long weeks.

On completion of this posting he was informed he would return to the UK and continue his training there.

On leaving Kingston he passed through No.3 Manning Depot at Monkton. From here to Halifax and he was on a convoy home. On route the ship he was on, Zigged and an American escort destroyer Zagged and the destroyer lost and was cut in half and sunk. His ship returned to Canada and all the servicemen on board put on a train to New York where they were sent home on the Queen Mary on the 3/9/42.

All during this journey they were not allowed to talk to anyone about the incident that happened on the earlier convoy or to take pictures on the trip to the USA. Here again my father used his ingenuity and took pictures through the cabin porthole of the Statue of Liberty, a Swordfish escort aircraft and some of the ships in the harbour. On the voyage back he meet P/O Ian Clyne and from then the two of them were to posted to the same units for the next three and a half years

He arrived home on the 11/09/1942, the ship docked at Greenock and the all of the Airmen on board were sent to 3 Personnel Dispatch Centre (PDC) in Bournemouth. During this trip he passed within 2 miles of his home and managed to shout a message to the local stationmaster. He got the message to the local Post office and the Post Mistress cycled over 5 miles to the next town to get the message to his Fiancee at that time in the Land Army, she billeted at a farm there. This was to tell his family that he was back home and would see them soon. He arranged permission to get married on the 21st September 1942 at Houston parish church. He and my mother spent their honeymoon on the Isle of Arran. They remember that the weather was bad that day and the crossing being very rough. They also remember sharing the packed lunch of another couple on the boat, only to be told that they shouldn't be eating their own food on board.

On his return to the RAF from leave, he was posted to 7 Advanced Flying Unit (AFU) at Peterborough. He didn't like the station one bit; it shows on his report of his time there. He only just passed the course and was glad to leave after four weeks with a promotion to Flying Officer and had been selected to join 10 Flying Instructor School (FIS) at Woodley near Reading. My mother moved down to England to be with him at this station.

He trained as an instructor for Elementary Flying for just under three months. He and my mother finding digs locally in Reading. They remember they used to have afternoon tea at the Green Parrot tearoom there. Which I am told may still exist.

He and F/O Ian Clyne applied to be posted to duty to 11 EFTS in Scone Perth, but his first posting as a Flying Officer (instructor) was to 2 EFTS in Worcester. Again my mother joined him at digs in the town until she returned home to Crosslee as she was expecting her first child, my eldest brother lain.

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