大象传媒

BELOW, ABOVE AND BEYOND
by
John Lauder

I was fourteen years of age when I left school in 1939, the year Britain found itself at war with Germany.
Coalmining was the main industry in my village, Climpy, in rural Lanarkshire, and on seeking employment, I was offered and accepted an apprenticeship as an electrical engineer, maintaining equipment below and above ground.
Fascinated by stories of air aces in WW1, followed by the brave deeds of the Battle of Britain pilots, I volunteered several months before my eighteenth birthday, for service in the Royal Air Force. Employed in the coal industry I was exempt from being called-up to serve in the armed forces as I was in a 鈥渞eserved occupation鈥� but volunteers were accepted for flying duties in the RAF.
The RAF Selection Board offered me the position of flight engineer, probably because of my engineering background, but I had to obtain my parents consent, which I did, as I was under eighteen years of age.
A few months later, in August 1943, I received my joining instructions and reported to the RAF Air Crew Receiving Centre, at Lords Cricket Ground, London. On completion of basic training, followed by a course of technical training on airframes and aero-engines, at RAF St Athan, in Wales I was presented with the Flight Engineer鈥檚 wing and promoted sergeant. This included an increase in pay from three shillings (15 pence) a day, to twelve shillings (60 pence) a day. This took place two weeks before my nineteenth birthday.
Seconded to the Royal Canadian Air Force, who was deficient at that time, of flight engineers to crew the four engine bomber Lancaster and Halifax bombers, operated by them in the air offensive, I was posted to No 420 (Snowy Owl) Squadron based at Tholthorpe, Yorkshire. From there, between August and December 1944, I flew 32 operational missions to targets in France and Germany.
After Germany surrendered in 1945, I was posted to a Glider Pick-Up Unit at RAF Ibsley, in the south of England, where we practiced snatching gliders off the ground, with the Douglas Dakota (DC 3) aircraft. This was, supposedly, to be used to recover troops from jungle clearings in Burma.
Our skills in this field were not required however, with the Japanese surrender, but this did not prevent me from being posted to Burma, where I spent the remainder of my service as an Air Traffic Officer at RAF Mingaladon, Rangoon, by which time I had been commissioned Flying Officer.
I was demobilised in 1947, but did not return to my earlier trade as an electrical engineer in the mines, joining instead the Police Service, where I served until 1985, retiring with the rank of Chief Superintendent.

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