大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Callington U3A csv story collector Judy Foweraker, on behalf of Frank Foweraker, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

In 1942 when I was 16, I was in the Air Training Corps, and went on a weekend visit to a RAF station near Yelverton, where we took part in various aspects of RAF life 鈥� parachute packing, helping the armourers load ammo into the wings of Spitfires, etc. We always had to have a note from parents permitting us to have a flight should it be offered, usually in the Station Commander鈥檚 Miles Magister biplane. In the evening we had tea in the dining hall and were shown our billet for the night, complete with 3 blankets per boy.

On Sunday after breakfast we would report for whatever was laid on, and after lunch we were free to wander about until the bus took us home. Another lad and I wandered off round the dispersal areas where aircraft were tucked away from the main runways. In a remote place we saw an Avro Hanson with Yankie markings. Suddenly two GIs appeared 鈥� they had no rank. One jumped up on the wing, opened the door and started the engines, and slowly the Avro moved forward. When the other one put his hand up the brakes were applied. After doing this a few times the one on the ground asked, 鈥淒o you wanna flip, bud?鈥� We said, 鈥淲e have a note from our Mums鈥�, and he said, 鈥淣ix to the note, bud, climb in.鈥� He jumped on the wing and we scrambled after him and, before the door shut, the engines roared and the Avro shot off down the dispersal road, which wasn鈥檛 exactly straight, and before it reached the runway it was off. It banked round sharp and whizzed over the trees: we swooped down valleys, skimmed over trees 鈥� it was exciting! It must have been half an hour, and then we glided over some trees and with a sharp bank left and a couple of bounces it was back on the dispersal road. Before it had stopped, one had the door open and was out on the wing, the other one slammed on the brakes and cut the engines. As he went past us he said, 鈥淰amoose bud, and scram鈥� and we vamoosed. By the time we got down they were nowhere in sight, and we began to realise something was wrong. We worked our way through the woods and met a rough track heading in the right direction. We heard a vehicle coming and it was a Jeep with two RAF Police in it. It stopped and the sarge asked if we had seen a couple of Yanks. We stood there struck dumb. He said a naughty word coupled with 鈥楽tupid ATC鈥� and roared off. We caught the bus home and told no one鈥�..

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