大象传媒

Mr. Poole gives his permission for his story to be added to the 大象传媒's PEople's War website

I鈥檇 been at Yately for about 2 years and we had instructions to pick up a Hamilcar glider. It was the biggest one ever built and we towed it back to Yately. It was always towed with a Halifax. The boffins loaded it with all kinds of things. We turned up at Yately with this glider and we were called into the office by two boffins. They had a brilliant idea of putting a 12 ton tank into the Hamilcar. Tam said they would never take off with that. The boffins said they were going to fit rockets to the Halifax to get it up off the ground. Tam wasn鈥檛 impressed. They said, 鈥淲e want you to fly the Halifax to Farnborough and we will fit rocket pods to it鈥�. After two or three days, there under each wing were these big round pods with 48 rockets each side. Inside on the dash they put a button so I could fire them and they were supposed to fire every two seconds. Next day, there were all the boffins, there was the loaded Hamilcar. Tam and I taxied up the Halifax and the cable was attached. Charlie Cranmer and the boffin flew in the glider and Tam and I in the Halifax. We took up the strain of the tow wire and began to move. Tam said 鈥榝ire鈥� and I fired the rockets. They fired perfectly every two seconds. 48 each side. We went down the runway and of course the Hamilcar with the slip stream left the ground but the Halifax didn鈥檛. At the end of the runway there was a line of trees. They seemed to be coming towards us at 100 mph. How our undercart missed them I will never know. We just missed. The other side of the trees there was a big empty field. With these rockets, we did get up and then I had to check the technical details and eventually the Hamilcar cast off and we dropped the tow ropes and landed.

Next the boffin said they wanted to tow the Hamilcar with two Halifaxes. They said if one Halifax was just behind the other, there would be 6 ft between them. Tam said at 100 mph that wasn鈥檛 much. The other pilot was a Flightt. Lt. A good chap 鈥� he subsequently crashed in a Mosquito and I had to get him out. The idea was that he flew Starboard side and we flew Port side 6 ft. away from his tailplane. We tried it without the Hamilcar and it was fine. In the afternoon we did it again, the same the next day and the next as the weather was still good. Six times and we did it. We agreed that if weather was OK and we had radio contact with each other, we could do it. Then the boffins fitted rocket pods to both aircraft.

Next Monday, there were boffins and brass there to watch and there was the big glider with the tank inside. The other pilot and Tam taxied up, the tow ropes were fitted. The width of the runway only allowed us the 6ft. separation. We began to move and we both set the rockets off. It was thrilling and exciting but nerve-wracking, but we got off the runway and it was the first time it had ever been done. We flew round, gained height and the leading Halifax cast off the tow rope, the glider cast off and we dropped the double tow rope. The boffins wanted to do it again in the afternoon while the weather was good. That Monday afternoon we did the same again successfully. Everyone was pleased. Next day we did the same again twice and the next day, but I don鈥檛 know if it was ever put into service.

Next day a farmer came in and said we had frightened the life out of his silver foxes. He was furious. His animals had been terrified. Tam said he hadn鈥檛 been too happy in the cockpit either.

Charlie Cranmer was a captain and every morning at crack of dawn he used to fly in an Avro Tutor with a Lynx engine. He took off on air test one day and I was flying with him. We went up about 5000 ft. He loved low flying and in Hampshire there was a big field with two low hedges and he used to turn and chase the cows across the field. One morning, we were about 5/6 ft up and unusually, the farmer had shut the gate! How our undercart missed that gate, I鈥檒l never know. Two days later a copper [policeman] turned up and complained. As a result the two people in the plane would be grounded for a month. Tam went mad. He phoned the police station and read the riot act something chronic. If they tried to stop us flying I think he would have bombed the Police Station! I was not grounded, thanks to Tam.

They came up with a 12000 lb. bomb to be dropped from a Halifax and we had to find out how it would perform. They made a bomb of concrete and it was so big the bomb bay doors wouldn鈥檛 close. We took off from Yately and there were top brass there etc. We checked the rate of climb to about 20,000 feet. When we came back I dropped this concrete bomb on Laffens Plain near Farnborough and how the Halifax leaped up! We always dropped our tow ropes there too.

On the Friday, Tam said we had to go to Turnhouse at Edinburgh taking a boffin up there. I had to navigate there. Tam said we were going to stay up there the weekend. We went up in a Dakota to Scotland. I can tell you, in their pubs, it was dark and there were no women. The only time you saw a Scotsman鈥檚 hand was when he was drinking his pint! I was an RAF man and I was proud 鈥� my hands weren鈥檛 in my pockets. After the weekend, Tam rang on the Monday and said we had to get back to Yately by lunch time; an Air Commodore had phoned and said we must be there.

We went back to the airport and Tam said we had orders to return to Yately that morning. The C/O said there was no flying that day because the weather was too bad so I said to Tam, 鈥淟et鈥檚 go and see the Met. office chaps鈥�. The Flight Lt. there had charts with the shipping weather reports. Going east, you couldn鈥檛 see anything, but he said about a mile off-shore visibility was all right to about 50 feet above the sea. I believe Turnhouse was about 25 miles from the coast. I said if we took off, turned and did about one and a half miles, we would be 26.5 miles from the sea.

The C/O was mad, but that is what we did. I was watching the gauges; we flew east for 26.5 miles and started to descend. Below 100 ft. we were getting worried but at 50 ft. we found the sea, about three-quarters of a mile off-shore and we carried on due south at 130 mph, 50 ft. above the sea.

We flew past Scotland, Durham, and were approaching Yorkshire when suddenly, visibility became worse : 45 ft., 40 ft. it began to close down! We kept the same course and realized that we were by the mouth of the Humber and that was why the fog was getting thicker. We were down to 14 ft. at about 120 mph. when suddenly, there was a ship in front of us! I can see it to this day 鈥� it had a red funnel with white ring. How we missed it I will never know. With a Dakota, the tail-wheel doesn鈥檛 retract with the rest of the undercarriage and as we skipped over this ship, we felt a little tug and I reckon we took his aerial off. Still, we kept our course and went on past Lincolnshire and the weather improved : at the Wash, visibility was at 100 ft. and at Norfolk it was beautiful, so then we could head across Norfolk to Hampshire.

In 1944, we had no communication with the airfield. If they didn鈥檛 want us to land, they fired two Verey lights. The procedure was to fly around once and wait for the signal. We flew over the runway at about 200 ft. and then on our port side we saw so many people and cars! We landed and taxied up and a chap in a jeep said he wanted to lead us up the runway, so we taxied behind this jeep and had to stop right by the crowd. I opened the door to see what was going on and jumped the 3 ft. or so to the ground. There was a lady coming towards me, with an Air Marshall with her. 鈥淗ello,鈥� she said, and I realized it was the Queen and with her were two girls 鈥� Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.

Elizabeth came forward and said Hello. They had heard about the rocket take-offs. I said we had finished doing that now and they were disappointed. Elizabeth was charming. I was 23 and she was about 20. I chatted to her for about half an hour and we got on very well. I told Margaret she was daft as a brush, and Elizabeth laughed. She was fascinated with the aircraft and I admit, I was fascinated with her. I showed them the kites and the rockets and told them all about them. After about half an hour, the Queen called them. She had been speaking to Tam Morrison.

After some time, I had a chance to be made up to Flight Sgt. but I said no, because I would rather be able to fly at every opportunity than be stuck with ground duty as a Flt. Sgt..Tam didn鈥檛 want me to be prevented from flying either, but really, I was flying as a Navigator / Flight Engineer a lot of the time.

I flew in every kind of kite you can imagine except a Lancaster. I flew in American aircraft too. The Americans thought they knew it all and would not listen to us and some aircraft were lost because they wouldn鈥檛 listen. We used to fly aircraft almost to destruction so that we could tell flyers what they could push the aircraft to.

I wasn鈥檛 afraid of dying, but I was afraid of being so injured I couldn鈥檛 fly any more.

Towards the end of the War, I was posted overseas in Sept. 44 to India 鈥� Bramah Putra. I was in the fitters鈥� hangar. We were in the jungle with only a runway so they used to put a block and tackle over the trees to lift out the engines and bring them back to us. It was 142 rescue & service unit. Once a week a Dakota flew in with food and stuff. I finished my war service there and haven鈥檛 really flown since.

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