大象传媒

CALL UP AND INITIAL TRAINING

I am looking back at incidents that I recall from day one of joining the RAF following release from a reserved occupation on the 3rd September 1943. Abbey Lodge, St. John's Wood was our living quarters; Regents Park zoo cafe was our Mess. The noise of birds and animals awaiting breakfast, as we marched through for ours at 7 a.m., is still with me. It surprised me to see the number of pigeons on Lord's cricket ground, as we were kitted out in the 'Long Room'. It took an argument to get the authorities to replace the WAAF greatcoat I received.

14 days later we were posted to various places, each dealing with aircrew categories. Most pilots, navs [navigators] and bomb aimers went to Canada or Rhodesia for the longer training. The A/Gs [Air Gunners] went to Bridlington. Living quarters was a house which had been taken over, number 4, Blackbum Avenue, I think, where I shared a room with Bill Miller and Joe Micallef. Joe, a Maltese, came to this country aged 3, when his parents took on a cafe in Walthamstow High Street. He had been second electrician at the Phoenix Theatre. Having a jutting jaw he had been offered the job of stand -in for Tommy Trinder, but turned it down.

After three weeks of drill, lectures on guns, turrets, hydraulics, aircraft recognition, morse etc we had 36 hours off - Saturday noon to midnight Sunday, unless one was on guard duty. I was down for Armoury Guard. A Scots lad who had a leave pass said it didn't warrant trying to get to one of the islands and offered to do mv guard stint, so I could go home to York. We went to the NCO in charge who flat out refused the swap request. I was angry, but it was their way of showing who is the gaffer.

BASIC TRAINING AT RAF BRIDGNORTH

Next to Bridgnorth for 6 weeks. We arrived to find a 'flu epidemic of such proportions that it had caused all the WAAF to be moved off the station to allow their quarters to be fumigated. Our huts were getting the same treatment. We marched to a large hangar where an officer gave us the 'Welcome to the Station' address. He said that we would live in this hangar, using the 3 to 400 beds in one corner until the huts were ready in a week's time. Lectures and training would carry on as usual.

By now the early winter chill began to bite, despite the hot air units in the roof, which created equal quantities of cold draught and hot air. A wash room, attached to the outside of the hangar, allowed some 20 people to wash etc at a time. Lavatory procedure took place in the hangar on some 50 'Elsan' buckets, running along the end wall. (An 'Elsan' was a bucket with a seat and a lid, plus disinfectant in the bottom). The heaters blew night and day causing the dust from the concrete floor to penetrate everywhere. The permanent lights dipped 10.3Opm to 6.00am. Any sound was multiplied 10 to 20 fold in the enclosed hangar space, thus sleep was a very patchy affair. i can smile now, but waking many times during the night, there vvere always souls perched on thrones along the hangar wall.

Despite the harsh set up, lectures and the day's activities continued apace. The instructors had all done a tour of ops. (30 ops for a tour was rewarded with a minimum of 6 months screened from ops). In addition to lectures, real life incidents, made them tin gods to us. Their schooling and comments on life in the RAF helped me to cope with the hangar set up. A few trainees couldn't take it and were removed. ('I didn't join the RAF for this'). All aircrew were volunteers and could cease training before flying, without detriment to their record. Leaving after commencing flying led to a charge of L.MF (lack of moral fibre). This usually meant transfer to a distant 鈥榙rome as lavatory cleaner with no hope of promotion.

Our gunnery instructor, W/O 'Jock Hunter', had done his Ops on Hampden and was famous with us for his use of the word 'deflection'. In gunnery terms he regarded this as the core to being a good air gunner. 'Deflection is the distance travelled by the target during the time of the flight of the bullet', he said. He would pause in a lecture and snap at a trainee. What IS deflection?' The chap had to know it off pat. This could happen three or four times in the course of an hour's lecture. Yes- we knew what deflection was!

Completion of gunnery, aircraft recognition, hydraulics, morse, turrets and how the RAF is run, sees us en masse on Bridgnorth railway station, bound for No.2. air gunnery school - Dalcross, near Inverness. It took some 30 hours, including a 6 hour wait at Crewe so we arrived around tea time.

No.2 AIR GUNNERY SCHOOL, DALCROSS

Off again on lectures for 3 days before the real job of flying began. I was airborne on the 1st Jan '44 for the first time. Flying took place over the Moray Firth. Strong winds were normal and a hazard to the Anson taxying to the runway for take oft. A trainee supported each wing of the plane on the perimeter, to prevent it digging in during a gust, then boarded the aircraft for the exercise. Each of the three trainees had their own coloured bullets, usually red, green or yellow, and fired 200 rounds at a drogue towed by an accompanying aircraft approximately 400 yards away. On return the trainees collected the drogue from the drop zone, taking it to the parachute section. The three types of coloured holes were counted and cancelled with a black stamp. A card, with each trainee's score was taken to the gunnery section for end of course assessment on conclusion at each firing exercise. Cine cameras took the place of guns on some exercises, when a mock attack took place. These films were also assessed.

Because of the bumpy conditions we took bags etc to contain vomit, or the culprit had to clean up after landing. I took my gas cape hood, and used it on the first day when I flew three times. The first flight was for familiarisation, the second cine camera and the third air firing -when my tummy gave up. I remained in the RAF for three years after demob date. In spite of many washes the smell never left the hood, no wonder I detested gas exercise!

One of the drogue pilots was French and never without his pipe. On towing for us his pipe was in full flow, one could barely discern him in his cockpit for smoke! Some of the French, Czech and Polish pilots were so individualistic that they were given this type of flying as they would never mould into a crew.

In the hectic life of training there were~ no weekends if the course was behind schedule, so often I was unaware of what day of the week it was.

An Oxford aircraft training unit for pilots shared the 鈥榙rome with us. When they were on night flying (circuits and landings) they kindly took us up for an hour or two to give us some idea of night flying set up. Coming in to land with the runway lights beckoning us home appealed to me very much. This was not part of our training. When we completed the course we left behind a cookhouse turning out the best porridge I have ever tasted! Now we were Sgts, going on 10 day's leave.

ACTIVE SERVICE STARTS AT RAF BUNTINGTHORPE, LEICESTERSHIRE

Next came Buntingthorpe, Leicestershire; meeting up with many of the Dalcross lads. The day after our arrival we assembled irl a hangar and were addressed by the C.O. The gathering comprised pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, wireless ops and air gunners. Enough to form some 20 crews. We were asked to make up a crew by chats, log book checks etc Three days were allowed for this, after which the authority would make up crews from the 'leftovers'. I don't recollect how our six members got together. We were all English except the wireless op who came from Edinburgh. All were single and we agreed not to have any female ties until Ops were finished. Our parents had enough concern about our welfare, and we didn't wish to add to them

Flying the Wellington bomber in training, with lectures, morse, aircraft recognition, dinghy drill, pigeon shooting ('deflection' as per Bridgnorth)! we were busy. There were few parades now. One real bonus to me, now a Sgt, was I no longer had to carry a knife, fork and spoon with me for meals!

It was here that lectures on crew co-operation began and continued until we were posted to a squadron, fully trained. The aim of this was to weld us together as a unit. Thus we went to the local, the cinema, dance hall etc., always with our own crew members. We became a family. This family thing continues to this day via the 'phone and letters. The five of us remaining are almost past visiting nowadays.

I was the mid upper of the two air gunners. This was decided by the skipper Jim Clark, as my night vision rating tests were 2to 3 points down on Jim Moore's, who was now the rear gunner. After six weeks on station we were granted 9 days leave. On return, Jim Clark our pilot announced that he was engaged. This started a rumpus and Jim was finally persuaded, as we stood over him, to write a letter calling it off. We posted it, and that was the end of that.

We moved to Bitteswell for some three weeks and did a lot of night flying to complete our course. The crews then moved on to four engined bombers at Winthorpe, Newark, where a flight engineer, Ralph Cooke, also a bachelor, joined the crew. We were now a complete crew of 7, busy with familiarisation; circuits and landings, cross country day and night exercises, bombing practice and fighter affiliation. This latter activity involved a fighter aircraft making a mock attack which was filmed by camera, in place of guns in the turrets. A crewless Irish flight engineer was with us for experience.

On start up an engine caught fire. 'Paddy' panicked and fled the aircraft, shouting to me as he passed the mid upper turret, 'Get out, an engine's on fire - it's going to blow up'. I could see the fire from my turret, and via the intercom heard the calm voices of the skipper and engineer as they shut off the fuel and operated the extinguisher. It was sorted out in 2 or 3 minutes and we vacated the aircraft in an orderly manner. The skipper put in an adverse report on 'Paddy' and we never saw him again.

Newark was some 2 miles away and on walking back after an evening in town we listened to 'Music as You Work' issuing from the open doors and windows of 'Ransom and Maries' factory for those on night shift. My two room mates from Bridlington days, Miller and Micallef, were both members of the same crew and were in the next hut to us. It was sad to learn that they and their fellow crew members were killed when they ran out of runway and crashed into a wood, doing circuits and landings at nearby Swinderby airfield.

As part of our training we flew at night towards Germany and occupied countries at 12 to 15,000 feet, in an attempt to draw radar and fighters, whilst the main Bomber Command force went on their night raids.

This story was entered by Jenni Waugh, 大象传媒 People's War Outreach Officer, on behalf of Bernard Lazenby, who accepts the site's terms and conditions.

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