大象传媒

Submitted on behalf of Geoffrey Saunders by Stafford Library.
I suppose I am a bit of a survivor without trying! Born in West London saw me in a reserved occupation but by October 1939 I applied and was granted permission to volunteer for RAF flying duties. Three days at Uxbridge confirmed by acceptance as a U/T pilot. We were sent home on deferred service to June 1940 - just after Dunkirk. Posted to Cambridge in Emmanuel College we spent 10 weeks learning how to look like a cadet and manning roadblocks against German parachutists. Then to Sywell for elementary flying. After 15 hours solo I made a bad landing in a ditch and bent my plane so they decided I might do less harm as a navigator. Sent to Babbacombe in Devon awaiting posting, sunbathing on the beach while braver souls fought the Battle of Britain. Eventually we arrived at Prestwick missing the London Blitz by 24 hours. No sirens disturbed our sleep as we learned to navigate, use the Morse code, signal lamp and take line overlap photos mostly in Avro Ansons. The west coast of Scotland up to the Shetlands made for poor training while when returning to base our bored pilot would hover over Goat Fell or the Isle of Arran. Unfortunately the following day another pilot was caught up in the currents and crashed. 1941 saw us at Dumfries in appalling living conditions and clapped out Fairey Battles and A.W Whitleys. We did our practice bombing over the Solway Firth and air gunning the Irish Sea. Unfortunately returning to base in a blizzard we hit a hill - I survived but most of the crew did not. Posted to 13 OTU at Bicester on Bristol Blenheims we did non-operational night flying - nearly hit a Wellington over Cambridge and shot up by a German intruder who blew up our petrol tanker. They decided I was unfit for operational flying so I returned to civvy street at Paddington where I dealt with incidents arising from bombing, doodlebugs and rockets for the last two years of the War - without a scratch!!

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