大象传媒

I was just over 14 years of age when war was declared on September 3 1939.
My Mother was a Head Mistress of a village school in rural Gloucestershire.
For the first winter of the war not much happened on the ground. I remember that we had a very severe winter, with thick ice forming in the trees, and stopping all traffic.
Then in Spring there was the collapse of France, and the Dunkirk evacuation. Everyone was devastated that such a thing could have happened.
Returning soldiers were billeted everywhere.
The next thing was of course the Battle of Britain. I was still at school, and like many more helped in the fields to gather the harvest. This went on well into September , and we witnessed several dogfights.
I left school in July 1941 and went to work in a small engineering works that had been evacuated from London. I trained as a centre lathe turner.
I also joined the Home Guard in July 1941 by putting my age on a bit .
I had always wanted to join the R A F hopefully as a pilot , and I found that I could volunteer for aircrew at the age of 17 1/2. but you needed your parents consent. It took me till March 1943 to persuade Mother to sign the form.
The next step was to Aircrew Selection Centre at Gloucester, where I was graded PNB(pilot navigator bombaimer),and told I would be put on deferred service and returned to my civilian job until needed.
This lasted to 24 June 1944, when I was ordered to report to ACRC (aircrew reception centre) St.John's Wood, London.
This was during the flying bomb attacks so we had to sleep in the cellars in three tier bunk beds.
There I was regraded WOPair (wireless opperater) and from there to Bridlington Initial training wing.After the 6 week course it was decided we were not required as fliers, so we were trained as drivers and sent out all over the UK to different RAF stations. I was at Lindholme near Doncaster with 3 others . This was a heavy conversion unit equiped with Lancasters. Crews were given their final training before going on op's They did several diversion raids over occupied Europe before the end of their course.
I was driving a crew bus for a while and it was quite tense waiting for them all to come back.
I was still at Lindholme for VE-Day. What a day that was. We were all paraded in the square at 10am when the CO made the announcement that the war in Europe was over, we all had the rest of the day off to celebrate in our own way.
After this I was posted to Woodbridge, then on a refresher course at Cranwell, the highlight of this was a visit by King George X1.
Then I was posted to Down Ampney as an accounts clerk. This is where I celebrated VJ-Day.
That was the end of my war , but my RAF career continued until January 1947.
I did get to radio school eventually, and almost finished flying training before being made redundant, and remustering as a driver.
After several postings including HQ Bomber command, I ended my service in Germany.
Not exactly a distinguished career but I would not have missed it.
I made several very good friends .
Those of us who are still alive keep in touch

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