大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site on behalf of Albert Henry Capstick and has been added to the site with his permission....

In 1941 Albert joined the RAF as an electrician and was posted to the Canadian 502 Squadron based at Potlington near York.

Potlington was operational and the planes went out in the evenings, returning in the mornings. The electricians had to meet the planes as they came back from bombing in Germany. The planes had to be repaired, but firstly part of their job was to remove the dead and injured.

Potlington was a low lying fen district always covered in mist and Albert, probably due to this caught rheumatic fever and was sent to hospital in York. On returning to his unit he was informed that the squadron was to be posted abroad, but due to his illness he would be unable to go with them. They asked him if there was anything they could do for him and he requested a posting to Blackpool. Three weeks later this happened and he was sent to a Polish School in Blackpool where he taught electrics.

The whole school was moved to Melksham Camp near Tring and Albert went with them. He was a good footballer and he formed a team. He recalls one match, they played the RAF police. The Poles thought of the police as the Gestapo and considered Albert to be a hero, as he was injured playing in the match. They had seen it as 'fighting the Gestapo'

In 1943 Albert married and was billeted back at home in Blackpool. Irene his was was in the fire brigade working nights, so with Albert on days they rarely saw one another. But the thing was, he was back home.
He remembers writing to his friends in the squadron and them replying saying how lucky he was.

Later Albert was posted to an electrical school in Henlow. Each weekend he had to take a detachment of men to London. The blitz was on and again he was removing dead and injured bodies, a terrible time he doesn't like to think about.

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