- Contributed by听
- Elizabeth Lister
- People in story:听
- Ken Wardle
- Background to story:听
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:听
- A7317065
- Contributed on:听
- 26 November 2005
Stationed 200 miles of the coast of Japan we were on 48 hours duty, 48 hours in and 48 hours out. A member of the Fleet Air arm in Aircraft Maintenance we鈥檇 fly in and then we鈥檇 have 2 days of it. Start at 5am, they鈥檇 fire off the first flight around 6 at daylight and then we鈥檇 arranged the bombers. Arranging more fighters then into the hangar for breakfast, which was always bacon sandwiches and tea.
So it carried on all day. Temperatures were pretty high about 100 to 110 degrees and we were pushing around aeroplanes weighing about 6 tons. This would finish at 6 at night and then we鈥檇 start maintenance on the aircraft. Then 7 ish go you would go and have a meal, ordinarily roast beef, pork or lamb, good food to keep you going. Then we鈥檇 go back down the hangar and carry out the maintenance. The only problem was that the ship was very short of water, it had to make it all you see and so they would only put it on half an hour each side of the watch. Well watch is about, let鈥檚 say in the evening, 8pm to midnight. So the water would be on 7.30 till 8.30 while we were working in the hangar. Then the water was on 11.30 till 12.30 and if we鈥檇 finished work around about 10.30 what do you do? Do you stay up and wait? Well we mainly went to bed dirty because we knew we鈥檇 be able to tidy up next morning and get underway again.
So it went on. We鈥檇 work for two days and retire for two when we鈥檇 refuel, re-arm and get fresh food. We used to get mail then as well. A whole fleet of ships would descend carrying new aeroplanes and new crews. Big tankers would pull up and re-fuel, I once saw a tanker re-fuelling a carrier on one side, a destroyer at the other and another at the stern, most nerve-wracking for the captain to say the least.
If someone talks about the atomic bomb today I always ask them where they were in August 1945. I say jokingly, that if we had not dropped then we would still be out there - doing two in and two out.
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