大象传媒

St Athan, near Cardiff, was a very big station used for many purposes. It had big buildings used for instructional purposes. The accommodation were wooden huts interconnected by wooden passages including ablutions and toilets. There was also central heating.
All flight engineers were trained at St Athan and there were many corporal fitters on the course. Before courses were introduced some engineers were trained up on the squadron. At St Athan there were courses on Short Stirlings, Handley Page halifaxes, Auro Lancasters, Liberators and Catalina Flying Boats. I was put on a Lancaster course. We were instructed on the construction of the aircraft and it鈥檚 systems, it鈥檚 emergencies including emergency repairs, it鈥檚 controls, pre flight checks, take off and landing drills, engine handling and flying for economy.
After starting the coursewe were given another aircrew medical which was more severe than the previous one at Gosport. The medical examination officers were bad tempered and aggressive and seemed to regard us as a nuisance, and if I had not wanted to continue what I had started I would have told the RAF to stuff their flight engineers course up their Jacksy!
Part of the course was a week at the Lancaster assembly factory at Woodford near Stockport. For that week we were accommodated in private houses near the factory. With another airman named Fitchet I was in a house called The Nook in Bramhill Lane off Woodford Road. The Nook was a lovely detached house with a garage. The woman that looked after us was, I would estimate, about forty or forty five and suffered badly from asthma. We used to catch a bus each morning to go to the Lancaster factory where we were given lectures and demonstrations by civilians and a Flight Sergeant with a DFM. At the works we had a midday meal and tea breaks. There were a good many women and girls working in the factory. Some days we were allowed to roam around the assembly shops and look at anything we so wished. I had a pal who I only remember as Geoff and who came from Urmston, Manchester. One afternoon there was a pretty girl working in the nose section of a Lancaster. Her photograph is on page 120 of a book produced many years after the war, The Illustrated history of the RAF. In the book she is named as a WAAF. However Geoff chatted her up and made a date to meet her that night in Stockport, and she said she would bring a friend for me 鈥� a blind date. As it was blackout and December it was very dark but somehow we met and decided to go to a cinema. When we entered the film was in progress and it was quite dark. When the lights went up I had quite a shock. My date looked quite old, she could have been Geoff鈥檚 date鈥檚 mother.
大象传媒 at Woodford came to an end and we returned to St Athan. St Athan was the worst station I was ever on for food, although I have no doubt that others serving and soldiering abroad and prisoners had far far worse. During my time at St Athan I had another good mate Ken Farmelow who knew his way about Cardiff, and Barry who I believe had been stationed at St Athan before. We had some good times together but Ken was later killed when the aircraft he was in was hit by flak over berlin on the 20/21st Jan 1944. Just before Christmas 1942 our course came to an end and we had our final examination. To me the Flight Engineers course had not been as hard as the Fitters course at Blackpool, but the minimum pas figure was 60 per cent and I just scraped through. After passing out we went on Christmas leave. I felt very elated, I now had the Engineers brevet and the rank of sergeant. When we returned after Christmas we hung around for a few days and were again sent on leave. On leave I received instructions with a railway warrant to report to RAF Swinderby. With a few other Flight Engineers I arrived at Swinderby railway station at about midnight. We were then transported to the camp and given a bed for the night. The next day we were issued with a battle dress and flying kit after which we were taken by road to Wigsley near Saxilby. RAF Wigsley was 1654 Heavy Conversion Unit. Wigsley was a wartime airfield. It had runways and it鈥檚 wooden buildings and Nissan huts were more dispersed than a peacetime station. Wigsley was where crews that had trained on Wellingtons, a five man crew had picked up a mid upper gunner and a Flight Engineer and then converted to Lancasters before going to an operational bomber squadron.
After about two days at Wigsley a good many aircrew were sent to Barkston Heath near Grantham. As I recall there was nothing there except wooden huts and buildings amongst trees. What food we had and when at Barkston I now cannot remember. On our first night a small crowd decided to go to a pub, and with two other flight engineers I followed the crowd. As it was dark I had no idea where we were going or the name of the pub. When we arrived it was a cosy little place with a cheerful fire and we were welcomed by two oldish women and we had a good night. It seemed strange to me to be mixing and drinking in the company of officers, but we were all aircrew together. Before leaving some of us went into another room that was not in use. On the walls in the room were pictures of Laurel and Hardy and a good many of Stan Laurel. Someone said that one of the women was Stan Laurel鈥檚 sister. I still do not know where that pub was nor it鈥檚 name. At Barkston we did a little drill but after a day or two moved to Belton Park, an RAF Regiment Depot also near Grantham. There we did an assault exercise, some rifle shooting, watched demonstrations and had a few lectures, but it only lasted about a week. It was then back to Wigsley. I had now entered another world, the world of aircrew. There would be no more kit inspections or other irksome duties. The main thing now was flying. Many of the aircrew were Canadians. They were mostly fine handsome men who had come to help Britain. They had no time for 鈥渂ull鈥� and were sometimes inclined to be wild. There was a railway line just over the boundary of the airfield, and some aircrew, mostly Canadians, would jump on goods trains that travelled slowly, and get a lift into Lincoln.
On the notice board in the Sergeants Mess I observed that I had been crewed up with a Pilot Sergeant J. Russell. This was then the crew:-
Sgt Jack Russell 鈥� Pilot 鈥� Long Island, New York
Sgt Richard Wright 鈥� Navigator 鈥� Chicago
Sgt Nick Golden 鈥� Bomb Aimer 鈥� Gloucester
Sgt John Dow 鈥� Wireless Operator 鈥� Kilmarnock
Sgt Jack Lazenby 鈥� Flight Engineer 鈥� Ockley, Surrey
Sgt Ron Marston 鈥� Rear Gunner 鈥� Holborn, London
Sgt Wally Bark 鈥� Mid Upper Gunner 鈥� Anfield, Liverpool
Jack Russell and Dick Wright had joined the Canadian Air Force and the teamed up. After training in Canada they had come to Britain to continue their training on Wellington bombers on an Operational Training Unit and had crewed up with Nick Golden, John Dow and Ron Marston, and they had done a fair amount of flying training together. Wally Bark had done some flying at Gunnery School. Although I had the most service I had the least aircrew experience and zero flying hours. Practically all the instructors at Wigsley, as all operational training units, were ex-operational aircrew. There were instructors for every crew position 鈥� pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, wireless operators, gunners and flight engineers.
Crews would commence flying in Manchester twin engined bombers whose 24 cylinder Vulture engines were somewhat unreliable. After about fifteen or twenty hours on Manchesters the pilot and crew would then convert to Lancasters. All aircraft at Wigsley were dual controlled, and you commenced flying with a pilot instructor which was takeoffs, circuits and landings. On the afternoon of Sunday 24th January 1943 we commenced flying in a Manchester aircraft with Pilot Instructor Flt/Sgt Taylor. We did two take offs, circuits and landings and after the third take off the port engine cut. The propeller would not feather which created considerable drag, and unable to make the airfield we did a belly landing in a meadow near the village of Saxilby, went through a hedge and ended up in a ploughed field. After coming to rest we left the aircraft at speed and no one received a scratch. As we stood by the hedge we had come through the aircraft started to slowly burn. We then saw a man running across the field towards the crashed aircraft and we shouted that there was no one in it. Another old man then came across the field pushing a rusty old bicycle. He was wearing a tin hat on which were the letters AFS 鈥� Auxiliary Fire Service. As we stood by the hedge watching the aircraft burn, several people of all ages from Saxilby came on the scene. We then saw a man in a blue overall approaching along the edge of the field and he had with him a jug of tea and cups in a wicker shopping basket. An ambulance and a fire engine from Wigsley then arrived and a large tank of foam was sprayed on the burning aircraft which damped it down.
After we had seen off the tea, the man who had provided it persuasively invited us to his house for something to eat, so we all piled into the ambulance and went to the house which was only a short distance away. We followed the man into the house leaving a trail of mud. We were then led into a large farmhouse type kitchen in which there was a long rough table, and although there was rationing we were served ham and eggs and fussed over by several young women who I presume were the man鈥檚 daughters. Across the ceiling of the kitchen was a large beam from which was hanging several hams. The pilot instructor then said that we must get back to Wigsley in case the ambulance was wanted, and so we made a rather rapid departure. When we arrived back at Wigsley we were all given a medical check up by a medical officer

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