大象传媒

I volunteered for the RAF in July 1940 at Croydon recruiting centre having been refused for the Royal Navy, as I was not old enough for the job I wanted to do.I was accepted by the RAF but put on deferred service.As there were no vacancies at the training camps, I was advised to join the Home Guard as I would get some weapons training.I joined and spent many nights guarding Wandsworth Gas Works, Putney railway bridge, Wandsworth bridge, and our HQ, Mayfield school.I was finally called up in December and posted to Blackpool where we were in civilian boarding houses, and did our drill on the promenade. This lasted four week and still no training places, so I and two others were posted to RAF Chivenor,Devon, and were attached to the Service Police, checking passes at the main gate or patrolling the airfield.At the end of February I was posted to RAF Credenhill, Hereford, for a 14 week electrical training course. this covered the whole of the electrical equipment found on the planes, lighting,bomb gear, undercarriage,propellors,internal communications systems,gun turrets etc.At the end of the period was an examination and finally a posting list for those who passed.Me and some 6 others were kept back for a further 14 weeks for a group 1 course which went into greater detail into the various systems on the planes.Finally I passed out and was posted to RAF Holme upon Spalding Moor.When I arrived there were no planes and the station was still being finished. The Electrical section was F/Sgt Reeves, a First war reservist, Cpl Bannion, A/C Bannister and myself.We were able to set up our section, and it was agreed that Bannister would be in charge of A Flight, and I would be in charge of B Flight.We had some more men arrive, but we three were the only Group 1 men in the section.
About the beginning of November a RAAF Squadron arrived. We soon got set up, and they started operations, at first dropping sea mines along the North Sea Coast.The Aussies did not like our weather, as it was very cold and damp.There was a dance arranged for New Years eve,and everyone got themselves smartened up for it.That evening, as we all made our way to the Station Gymnasium-cum-Church-cum-dance hall, it started snowing. Some of the Aussies had never seen snow before and thought it was wonderful, and were standing out in it waiting for enough to make a snowball.We told them they wouldn't think it so wonderful after a few days of it.On arrival at the Dance hall we were met by a drill Sgt with a clip board and asked name and trade, this was duly noted, and we were told to go back, put our working uniform on, and report to the stores for a pair of overalls and a shovel.We Electricians were told to report back to our section, where we spent all night going round checking the trolley accumulators to see that they were fully charged, and the small engines which operated the charging units werw working. Those with shovels were kept busy clearing the runway while the WAAFs supplied tea and sandwiches.This weather lasted until the end of April, and there was so much snow piled up along the runway that you couldn't see the planes taking off until the tail lifted. Being a new drome, things like a telephone point at each end of the runway were non-existant and we had to roll out a cable from the flight control each day, when there were operations, and some times in the middle of things the wind changed and we had to roll it up and relay it.It took three of us , two with the drum on a piece of tubular scaffold,one laying the cable.Often we were waist deep in snow,several times we had to leave it and change the two carrying the pole as they were so cold.At night they would get undressed for bed by taking their overcoats off and getting into bed fully dressed. They had all been given a woollen blanket when they left Australia, together with a sheepskin waistcoat.We would strip down to singlet and underpants as usual - the Aussies yelled at us to get into bed quickly, as we were making them feel cold just by looking at us!
I went home for weekend leave, and when I returned they had all left as the Squadron had been moved to the Middle East.I stayed on at the camp,attached first to Station workshops and then with 152 Beam approach Training Flight, which was a small unit with 6 two-seater Air Speed Oxford aircraft.
While I was with Station Workshops,together with Sgt Pickles we made a larger test rig for the plug bay as the equipment they had was more suitable for a small garage, rather than for working on aircraft. For example, Wellingtons had 72 plugs, Lancasters 96, Oxfords 35.Each aircraft required a spare set, and there were, on average, 24 aircraft on a squadron. All this, and only six girls in the plug bay. One of these girls, Ivy Smith, became my wife in 1944.
I was posted to a Glider Pilot training unit for a short time, and then I was posted to RAF Halton as an Instructor in the new Electrical Training wing.Here we were training the 'Boy apprentices'.This was very different to life on a station, with regular hours,weekends mostly free apart from occasional duty as orderly Corporal.After the invasion of France I was posted overseas and travelled on the SS Mooltan arriving in Bombay, being one of the first convoys to get through the Med without any casualties, the voyage taking four weeks.After a two-week period, during which I was vaccinated and innoculated, and issued with tropical kit, I was posted to Cocanda, a small fishing village on the west coast of India, now called Kakinda, some 200 miles north of Madras. It was devestated in the recent Tsunami disaster of 2004.There was a Flying Boat base here.The main bases for the Flying boats were in Ceylon, but after their sorties into the seas around Japan the Catalinas and Short Sunderlands would land at our base.Here we would inspect them ,service them, refuel and rearm them, then send them back out again.It was here that we heard of the end of the war in Europe. In July I was posted together with three of my section to Colombo, Ceylon where we posted to the SS Manela, which was to be a floating flying boat base.We left Colombo and were to join a convoy.after we had left port and were out of sight of land the skipper came on the tannoy and told us that we were sailing to join the invasion force for Rangoon.None of us were pleased to hear that, however before we reached Rangoon the first atom bomb was dropped and we were told that we, together with HMS Nelson and the French battleship Richleur, would be going direct to Singapore. On the way through the Straits of Mallacca the French ship hit a mine, Nelson stayed with her, and we went into Singapore alone.Arriving two days before the official Surrender date, we saw some of the ex-prisoners from the Japanese camps.We suggested that they be given all our food and beer, but the MO said it would kill them ,and suggested we ration them to one medicine glass of beer and one slice of bread, which we did.We saw some terrible sights amongst these poor fellows.After the surrender, the Sunderlands were used to fly these ex-pows home.I remained at Seleta until June 1946, when I was posted home and discharged.
Appendix:Daily inspection on a Wellington Bomber:
Check: all navigation lights, port, starboard,nose and tail.
Formation lights.
landing lights under port wing.
Interior lights,cockpit,bombaimers ,navigators, turrets.
Intercommunication lights.
Port and starboard booster coils (ignition)
Port and starboard starter motors.
Bomb sight and control box.
Bomb doors open and closed.
Bomb racks,nose and tail fusing switches.
Undercarriage lights (up and down).
If needed,change the battery.
Sign Form 700.

For larger aircraft,the daily checklist was longer, eg more bomb racks.
A Wellington had 7 miles of electric cable, a Lancaster 12, as did the Halifax.

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