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The War Away From The Home Front:
A Personal Account- by his 14 year old Grandson

Introduction:

In this project I hope I am able to give you a fascinating and gripping account of what happened to my grandfather during the war.
It includes his own personal opinions of what was happening around him and the rest of the world, the planes he flew, the ships that he sailed on and a secret naval project in the Orkney Isles, which I shall be writing about later on in this essay.

The War:

At the outbreak of the war my grandfather was studying at Manchester University. It was here that he had decided to join the home-guard and served 9 months on training and patrol duties, but realising that he was a fit and healthy young man he concluded that he should be fighting, not patrolling the streets of Manchester.

It was June 1940 at the time and the country desperately needed pilots, so he voluntarily enlisted for the University Air Squadron. Here he started his basic aviation training, but found out that he would have to spend another year at University before they would let him leave. This was not to my grandfathers liking as he wanted to be fighting for his country immediately, not at the time when many thought Britain would be under Nazi occupation.

He therefore left his fellow comrades at University, of whom only a few would ultimately survive the war, to join his majesty’s Fleet Air Arm. Thus, unintentionally serving in all three forces in one year.

It was in August 1941 when he began his year long training to become an observer. For the first four months, mainly in Portsmouth, he practised dummy bombing runs on ships, navigational skills and chatting up women! During this time the attack on Pearl Harbor occured, this threw an entirely different perspective on the war, now the Americans were involved.

He chose the Carribean Island of Trinidad to complete his flying course.

When he had finished his training in Trinidad he was sent to New York to be shipped back to England, along with 20 000 American troops, by the H.M.S Queen Elizabeth. The entire crew only had spaghetti and dried eggs to eat for three whole weeks. Since then he has refused to eat either again!

When he arrived back in England he was comissioned to 845 squadron. He and his squadron then ironically sent back to the U.S.A to collect their aircraft, Grumman Avengers.

It was in Quonset Park Naval Air Station that he trained and then flew down to Norfolk Virginia to join the baby carrier H.M.S Chaser for convoy work in the North Atlantic.

After three months of tireless convoy work my grandfather’s squadron was transfered to Orkney for the next 6 months for bad weather training. This, he said, was great because on the hot sunny days you could laze around and go fishing, but on the days when it was cold wet and miserable you were up in the air learning how to navigate in the attrocious conditions.

Then true to the Royal Navy, after spending 6 months training for bad weather, his squadron was sent to the East Indies. He was stationed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) at a place called Katakurunda in southern Sri Lanka.

His squadron was then sent aboard the H.M.S Ameer a small aircraft carrier. The 845 squadron was temporarily detatched to H.M.S Illustrious and U.S.S Saratoga for a top secret raid on Soerabya in Java, along with two other squadrons. This attack was on a former Dutch Factory that used to make and repair military vehicles, munitions and uniforms as it was now in the hands of the Japanese it had to be destroyed. It was the only factory of its kind in Java, therefore any damaged vehicles would have to be shipped out of Java to most probably the Philipines, then back to Java; creating a huge inconvenience for the Japanese.

The raid that day involved ninety Gruman Avengers of which only one was shot down, the factory and the surrounding area were totally flattened. It was a massive sucess and played a huge part in the retreat of the Japanese from Java and the surrounding area.

On his return to Ceylon he found that the H.M.S Ameers’ engines had broken down. With only rough directions as to how to get to Vavuniya, a British base in North Ceylon, his squadron were catapulted off the Ameer into the sky and made their way North.

My grandfather enjoyed his time at this base as it was in the middle of the Ceylon bush and when he was off duty, himself and his friends went snake and lizard hunting, which he says was some of the best fun he has had in his entire life. The only problem with staying at this base he says were the monkeys, they stole everything that was not locked up, my grandfather would have had many more pictures about the war had they not been taken!

After a compulsory 2 year frontline service my grandfather was posted back in the U.K to await an air photography course that he had applied for whilst serving in Ceylon. To pass time before his course, he was transfered to Orkney once again.Here he flew stripped down Douglas Bostons on weather flights towards Norway.

One time whilst flying over the Norwegian coast, which was under Nazi rule at the time, he saw a plane on the horizon flying towards him, he signalled this to his pilot and they both identified it as a Focke Wulf; thankfully the plane that he was in was totally stripped of all armour, guns and comforts. That may sound like a bad thing, but no fighter plane would be able to catch you as long as you did not crash or the engine cut out, you were unable to fall out of the sky. After the close encounter with a Focke Wulf he was thankful for the plane’s speed.

Now he was about to test something completely different, that in the future would become an imperitive weapon of war.
R4B Gadfly was like no other flying craft ever seen before. It could take off and land vertically and was made of aluminium. This was, of course, one of the first ever helicopters to be flown on British soil, my grandfather however at the time did not see the point in having one in service for numerous reasons. The first was the speed, it could not match even the most basic of aircraft, its manruverability was dreadful and the armourment on the plane was non existent.
Perhaps the most fatal flaw on the helicopter were the rotor blades, these were coated in a type of cloth to give the helicopter extra lift, if you were ever in the sky and saw rain, or even worse hail clouds coming towards you, then you would have to execute an emergency landing. Since if the rotor blades, which were spinning at 600 revolutions per minute, came into contact with the rain they would be ripped into shreds giving you no lift, plummeting you down to earth and almost certain death as it was incredibly difficult to bail out.
Since then helicopters have evolved considerably and obviously now have played a vital part in many other conflicts.

In June 1945, after the end of the European war, he was posted to Belfast as an air intelligence officer on the H.M.C.S. Warrior, an Canadian aircraft carrier. This was not because he had a Canadian relation or relatives, it was due to the fact that Canada was desperately short of sailors after the war and he was hired from the British navy.

The ship set sail in October for trials in the Atlantic Ocean and off the coast of Scotland. He said this was the fastest and most powerful ship he had ever sailed on, as it had used new engine technology that had hardly been used in the war.

When the H.M.C.S. Warrior was about to leave for home my Grandfather handed in his notice of resignation, after five years of military service he decided that after seeing many of his friends die, he could not take the risk of another war.

My Opinion of my Grandfather:

I like to think that my Grandfather played a futuristic part in the war as he sailed and flew on aircraft carriers, flew in ingenuative planes and one of the first helicopters in Great Britain, perhaps even the world!
Although he did not win any individual medals, only campaign medals, he was a respected naval seaman and a respected aviator.

Certainly to travel all over the world risking your life everyday is a huge feat of courage, especially as you have nowhere to run on a ship. I have the utmost respect for what he did during the war and I hope that this project is a fitting tribute to his service during the war.

By Richard Vernon 9y

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