大象传媒

The voyage across the Atlantic, on the whole, was a rather boring time. We were supposed to sleep below in hammocks. I was not very happy at the idea of being confined below decks at night, so with one or two others we took our hammocks,and spread them in a corner on a deck. The trip took 5/6 days. Apart from one day, when it blew hard, it was a relatively smooth crossing. On that one day I got up and had my breakfast and then went forward to the ablutions to wash and shave. The seas were such that the bows would go up to the crest of a wave and flop down on the other side. As I stood in front of the mirror shaving, I watched my face go greener and greener. Eventually I had to sick up my breakfast. After that I sat down amidships on the deck and, what with the fresh air and the motion abating, by mid-day I had recovered. That was the only time in my life I have ever been sea-sick. The other excitement occurred when we were about half-way across. During the morning the alarm bells sounded, steel shutters were put up and two of our three ship destroyer escort went haring off to the north (I think) and presently we heard the sound of depth charges some distance off. We never heard the result of that foray but obviously they had gone off for what was believed to be a U-Boat. So in due course we arrived safely in Halifax. This port was at the end of a long inlet, and it was good to see dry land and all the greenery of trees and fields again after a week of grey, leaden seas.
At Halifax we were put upon a train for the long journey across to the western prairies. As this was going to be a five day journey we had to sleep on the train. The seats became beds and there was a pull-down section over the seats which was also a bed. I took the upper berth, but it was hard. The time was passed reading, playing cards and the RAF version of Bingo namely Housey-Housey. With a couple of other airmen I helped to organise the Housey-Housey. Before we left the SS Pasteur we had all been issued with a small amount of Canadian money, either ten or twenty dollars. Apart from drinks, fruit, nuts and chocolate bars there was nothing to spend our money on. So naturally there was a certain amount of gambling. Housey-Housey was the only form of gambling that was not officially forbidden. Because the people running the game could not participate in any winnings, they were permitted to take a percentage of the stakes. I know that when I got off the train at our destination, despite spending money, I had more in my pocket than when I boarded it. Part way across Canada we were taken off the train at a small town and marched all around it, mainly to exercise us, but probably for public relations reasons also. The time passed quite slowly but as we passed around the northern edge of the Great Lakes the colours of the trees were brilliant. After about five days we arrived at a small country town in the middle of Saskatchuan called Swift Current, right in the middle of the prairie. I don't remember how long we stayed here, but it must have been some months. It was number 37 Service Flying Training School (37 SFTS in short). The aircraft were twin engined Airspeed Oxfords, and were for initial training of pupil aircrew in handling multi-engined aircraft. The engines were Armstrong Siddley Cheetah 9, and altogether I spent two years maintaining them, including at one point stripping them down to their component parts and reassembling them. After a while we went on to Calgary, which was where we should have been, but apparently it was not ready to receive us earlier. In Canada we were housed in large wooden huts, which were built in pairs, with communal washing and the other facilities between them. Each hut contained 30 metal double bunks, so that there 60 airmen in each hut. So when everyone was in the billet there was not a lot of spare space. Nevertheless, they were more roomy and better provided than the English Nissan Huts. The camp was to the north of Calgary and astride the highway running north to Drumheller and Edmonton. The billets, i.e. the living and messing quarters, were on one side of the highway and the aerodrome, i.e. hangars and runways, were on the other. Every morning we had to parade and then we were marched across the highway to our duties. Most times this was no hardship, but I can remember one occasion when there was a blizzard blowing. We had to march across the road following the man in front. There was so much snow that the opposite side of the road could not be seen. Naturally we went into Calgary as often as was permitted, usually to buy ourselves a good meal. That was not because the camp meals were bad, but mainly to have a change from mass cooking and, of course, to get away from camp and into the company of civilians. The Canadian people were extremely hospitable and some would go to great lengths to make us welcome. I and one or two others became very friendly with a family named Davison. If we had any free time we could call there and get a friendly welcome. I frequently played bridge with the family. Also Keith, who was a lodger there, was a keen and good badminton player and was a member of the top-notch club in Calgary. He took me with him as a guest at the club and we had many a good and close game. After the game we always had a shower. Normally we showered hot and finished with cold. That was alright in summer but in winter the cold was very cold as (so I was told) the water was purported to come straight out of the frozen Bow River. (Brrr). Most Canadian towns had an organisation know as the Elks, something like our Buffaloes and Masons. They had regular dances in their halls and which were always packed with the troops. Naturally we all tried the American beers but we were not too happy with them. They seemed too chemical compared with ours and lacked body. Canadians were astonished at our ability to sink quantities of this beer without apparently being affected, also at what seemed to be our immunity to the winter cold. This was ascribed to the fact that we came from places much nearer to sea-level than where we were in western Canada and consequently our blood was thicker than that of Canadians who were normally living at some 5/6000 feet above sea-level. For week-end breaks which we were permitted we would go by train to neighbouring towns such as Medicine Hat, Moose Jaw and Drumheller. While at Calgary I was boarded to see if I should be upgraded to Leading Aircraftsman. I was successful and received my 'props' to wear on my sleeve, mainly because I had been shown an engine on a testbed at Farnborough RAE and was able to talk about it and its purpose.
Eventually we were posted back to Swift Current, sometime towards autumn in 1942. It was here that I probably spent most of my time in camp as there was so little available for entertainment in town. I made three trips from Swift Current. One was to Regina by Greyhound bus. We set off in the dark driving through a snow storm and it was bitterly cold although warm enough in the bus. We overstayed our leave here and got docked three days pay for this. We also had a long week-end back in Calgary. But the biggest journey was a week's leave in the USA. We went by train from Swift Current to Minneapolis, Pancho and myself. Here again the people could not have been friendlier. At one point we got separated and Pancho found himself in a police car. He was taken into places where he was told that it was only because he was with the police that he was safe. My memory was of regularly visiting one particular bar and to lunch on turkey sandwiches and champagne cocktails. Somewhere I have a photograph of myself with two girls in the 'Happy Hour' bar. The winter of 42/43 was probably the coldest I have ever experienced. Snow was deep all around, probably two or three feet. Flying was still going on, so the kites had to be serviced. Adjusting the engine boost (i.e. the turbo-charging of the engine) was a very cold job in these conditions. One had to be only a couple of feet behind the prop to get at the adjustment point and with temperature at 70 degrees Fahrenheit below freezing and the engine having to be run at full throttle it could not be stood for long. It was about five minutes working and then twenty minutes de-freezing in the crew room. In order to get the maximum flying time, the aircraft were serviced at night. The aircraft were towed into the hangars by tractors. Once the servicing was finished and the kites towed outside and the engines had a satisfactory test run, then tractors races were run as we returned to the cookhouse for breakfast and then to the billets and bed. When there was so much snow on the ground, there was not much to do in our spare time. One of the favourite pastimes was the game of poker. All variations of the game were played and although the stakes were relatively small, the limit usually being a dime (10 cents) or a quarter (25 cents), quite a lot of money could change hands. It was not unusual for me to rise at the end of an evenings play with winnings of 5 or 6 dollars. On one occasion, it was a pay-day, we sat down to play immediately after our evening meal. By lights out at 10.30 p.m. I had lost my fortnight's pay and had borrowed, so was in debt to the tune of something like 6 or 7 dollars. By morning, when it was time to go to breakfast (say about 7.30 a.m.), I had repaid all my debts and had doubled my fortnight's pay. So for a short while I was relatively rich. We also put on a concert. This consisted of a number of short sketches and a few chorus songs with a little bit of chorus dancing. In the one sketch that I was in, I was the fatuous officer with the posh oxbridge voice taking a defaulters parade. The miscreant airman was brought before for being absent without leave for three days. As the fatuous officer, I had to order a deduction for him of three days pay, but instead I took the money out of my own pocket and gave it to him. Altogether, with little off-station amusement apart from the occasional dance, it was quite a quiet although a busy working life. I found the land in Western Canada not very inspiring. In summer it was either yellow with wheat or brown from dried out grass and in winter it was white from snow, with very little green in spring. Trees were very sparse. There was a story told about cross-country training flights that the 'sprog' pilots were told to fly for so many miles (say 150), then, if on course, they would see a tree. They then had to turn left onto a new course for so many miles when they would come to a barn or farm. Here they have to turn left again and head back to the station. This was illustrative of the open spaces of the Canadian prairie. Came June 1943 and, unless one volunteered to stay on, we were posted back to the U.K. By train we returned to Halifax, spending a day in Montreal to stretch our legs. From Halifax, again on the Pasteur, we crossed the Atlantic without incident, and landed at Liverpool. Dis-embarking was quite funny. We had to go through customs and naturally, as everyone had met rationing before going overseas, everyone had brought from the land of plenty, Canada, items that we thought would be in short supply, One lad had a big parcel dangling from his kitbag with several thousand cigarettes in it. When asked by customs what was in the parcel,he replied 'my dirty washing'. Fortunately with so many airmen to deal with, he was not asked to open the parcel. I had three-quarters filled one kitbag with tinned foodstuffs which I was taking home to my parents. We were sent by train to Morcambe for a few days whilst our posting were sorted out, billeted in private houses. Our landlady was quite strict and locked the door at I think it was eleven o'clock. One night several of us were late returning and could not get in. No one was prepared to come down and unlock the door, so one brave lad scaled the drainpipe and climbed through a window. I got so far up and then decided it was safer to get down again. So I spent a cold and rather sleepless night in a shelter on Morcambe front. From Morcambe I went on dis-embarkation leave, home to Colyton. In order to carry all my kit and the tinned goods I had brought back from Canada, I had to distribute all my kit between my second kitbag, backpack and side haversack and wear my greatcoat. This was mid-June. There must have been a heatwave because I can remember staggering down the length of the platform at Waterloo Station, streaming with sweat, wearing my greatcoat and full pack and with two fully loaded kitbags tied together and slung around my neck, until I managed to find a seat towards the front of the train. Was I glad to get in that train and unload myself.

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