大象传媒

While working at Fafnir Bearings in Wolverhampton, a friend asked if I would be interested in a job at Pendeford Airfield, Wolverhampton. John Lenton was working there, and knew of a job, working in the aircraft recognition section, as a civilian, under the RAF. I was told the job was as a projectionist and I would be trained, so I said yes.
I jioned the 28th Elementary Flying Training School at Pendeford at the beginning of 1943, at the age of 16. I was issued with an ID card for access to the airfield. I was shown around the camp and commenced work . In between the Aircraft Recongnition sessions, I helped out around the airfield. I was shown how to change the batteries on the Tiger Moths, help the electricians, helped light the flare paths for planes returning at night etc. That was how I met George Tupping, Amy Johnson's flight mechanic. He worked in the hangers as part of the civilian maintenance crew.
After a short while the RAF decided they wanted one of the RAF personel to do my job in the Aircraft Reconition Section, but they offered me a job in the Link Trainer Section(flight simulator). I tokk the job and found myself working with a girl I had known ar Fafner Bearings, and that was Joan Mears. Each link trainer was worth 拢3000.00 and was a delicate instrument. Great care had to be taken to keep it free of dust and sterile as it would affect the machines performance. I had to check the machine and set it up for the training sessions and also set up the "crab", a machine that traced the course of the simulator. The trainer simulated normal flying or night flying. The pilots trained on these together with flying the Tiger Moths. When their training was completed at Pendeford they went on to Cranwell and other RAF stations.
There were accidents at the airfield with the trainee pilots, but no one was killed during my time there.
There was always a risk of the airfield being bombed as we were also near the Boulton Paul aircraft factory, which was a target for enemy bombers. Their chief test pilot was Flight Leitenant Feathers, a wonderful pilot. They had their own airstrip next door to Pendeford. When he was testing the Barracuda, we used to come out and watch.
Some of our runways were grass which could only be used by the lighter aircraft. There was a great camaraderie among the RAF and civillian ground crews and a lot of laughter, in spite of the war. Our civillian Commander was Ron Bear(Behr) and the Chief Engineer was Mr McRobbie. One of the RAF ground crew was a young man, Jim Wormall, who had been on the Carol Levis Discovery Show, as a singer. He used to ring our trainer section, and when we answered the phone, he would start singing 'Whispering Grass'.
One day the Chief Instructor Sergeant Burton answered the phone,Jim did not realise it was him and started singing "Whispering Grass", Sergeant Burton barked down the phone 'Report to me lad'. That stopped Jim for a while but when he thought the hoo-haa had died down, he started up again.
We had a civillian working at the airfield, Dave Carter, and he had worked there for some time. He love dthe Tiger Moths and had a lot to do with them as gound crew. One day he got into one and took off, flying around the airfield, then down and straight through one of the hangers, frightening the life out of everyone. There was a bit of a do over that. Later he was called up and went into the Royal Navy. The last I heard his ship was sunk in the Indian Ocean and he was killed.
We also had recovering injured pilots working at the airfield. One young man was called Johnny Loach, aFlight Leiutenant, who came from Guernsey. He had been badly burned, especially the lower half of his face, but he was a lovely person. He was a quiet lad but if ever there was a social or a dance , he wanted to run the bar, and he did it well although he was a teetotaler! He was working at the airfield while waiting to go for plastic surgery.

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