大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Marie on behalf of Ron and has been added to the site with his permission. Ron fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I joined the R.A.F. in May 1940. Before that I was a clock maker, which was an exempt occupation so I didn鈥檛 get called up straight away. But then my boss forgot to put in the exemption paperwork and six of us at the company were called up so quickly our feet just didn鈥檛 touch the ground!

I went in as a Wireless Operator Air gunner. I failed Aircrew on medical grounds - I鈥檓 colour blind - so I couldn鈥檛 fly. So they then said to me, you鈥檙e a clock maker, you will be an instrument engineer, aircraft instruments repairer. And that鈥檚 what I was. I did various courses, I set bomb sites, auto-pilots and that type of thing. I became more specialised.

It was a huge change for me - totally different to clocks and watches! But it was very interesting and it was a challenge. And it did set me up for when I finally left the air force. I managed to get a job with B.O.A.C. and then onto Airspeed which became De Havilands and then onto Rolls Royce and finally got involved as instrumentation flight test engineer on Concord! So I enjoyed my life and with hindsight, it was a lot more colourful life as a result of being in the R.A.F.

My main R.A.F. existence was with 160 Squadron at Sigiriya and we were laying mines all around Java, Sumatra and Malaya. Most of the time I didn鈥檛 go up in the planes though which was good. Where we were though is the area where the tsunami struck on Boxing Day 2004.

I went back with the Hero鈥檚 Return programme just before this in September 2004. It was traumatic for me and bought back some difficult memories. I felt so sorry for the people out there though - to me it seemed like life was worse for them now then it was sixty years ago. People were having to collect drinking water from the gutter. So I鈥檓 hoping that with the money that has been raised, a lot of good can be done in the area.

It was exciting being out there for the first time though - very different to back home, a real cultural shock. I was na茂ve 18, 20. People didn鈥檛 go on holiday in those days so to be in the jungle with monkeys, snakes - the monkeys especially would go rampaging through the building and they鈥檇 take any fruit or bottles you had near your bed! You had to tip your boots upside down to make sure there weren鈥檛 snakes hiding inside them. And the toilet was just a plank over a massive hole!

We would feel cut off from home - there were no mobile phones or anything like that so you鈥檇 wait months for a letter, or a telegram. When we got news about V.E. day, it was a bitter-sweet moment. We got an extra pint of beer that day - and a friend managed to get hold of a bottle of gin. Where it came from we don鈥檛 know, and it wasn鈥檛 gin as we know - it was more of an arrack type of thing. And all I know we got pleasantly tight and I woke up in a monsoon ditch. I鈥檇 broken the face of my watch which was a 21st birthday present and I was lucky it wasn鈥檛 a monsoon then otherwise I could have been drowned. But that鈥檚 how we were then - and next day it was back to reality - loading up the aircraft with bombs to go and mine-lay to try and prevent the Japanese breaking through. Not that we knew what we were doing then of course - in fact I鈥檝e learnt more know since I got out the Air Force about what I鈥檇 been up to then when I was doing it! It was a different time then - you had to be like dad and keep mum and all that. I had a camera confiscated because I鈥檇 taken photos off our base. Lots of men lost their cameras because of that.

V.J. day was a whole different feeling. I鈥檝e got a photo of me and some of the boys holding the Daily Mail with the headline 鈥減eace on earth鈥� - we got it two days later but we were still so pleased to see it. The war now was over - but it wasn鈥檛 for us - that was August 1945 and January 1946 I was in the R.A.F. mutiny in South East Asia. We went on strike because we were still there. My demob group - they worked out your demob number based on your length of service - had been back in England and working for several months and we weren鈥檛 happy. The Government said they had no ships or planes available. We eventually found out when things were off the secret list that it was because they were concerned about countries around that area, like India, getting their independence and thinking there would be trouble.

We were on strike for about three to four days. Cawnpore where I was stationed was one of the biggest R.A.F. maintenance units in South East Asia and we were doing all kinds of work and we felt like we鈥榙 been forgotten about. There were 5000 of us and they threatened to shoot us if we didn鈥檛 go back to work. Somehow it was all sorted out - I came home on the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Andes and it had been partly refurbished for the tourist trade and that was another reason for the delay - all the ships and planes were being fitted out for the tourist trade. It meant we had a cabin when we came back though - and we came back through the Suez canal which only took a fortnight rather than the six or seven weeks it took to get out there in the first place. By this point though, I hadn鈥檛 seen my little girl for over two years which was hard. She didn鈥檛 know me anymore. It took time to become a Dad again and I do feel a bit bitter about the way we were treated and the time I lost.

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