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One of the subjects covered at ITW was the Browning .303 machine gun and I well remember the first lecture on this weapon when a Corporal Armourer giving the lecture delivered his party piece which went as follows: " This is the Browning.303 machine gun which works by recoil action. When the gun is fired the bullet nips smartly up the barrel, hotley pursued by the gases...". Applause please! Another subject learned was the Morse Code and here again the training in the ATC stood me in good stead.

The next phase would be flying training, but when and where?

On New Years Day 1943 we were posted from Paignton to yet another 'holding unit' at Brighton. The move from the English Riviera to Brighton was like going to the North Pole. At Brighton we were billeted in the Metropole Hotel. More lectures, square bashing and boredom, until,, after about three weeks, on morning parade it was announced that a new aircrew category of ‘ Airbomber’ had been created and any u/t Navigators who volunteered would be guaranteed a quick posting and off to Canada for training.
Needless to say, yours truly stepped forward and within a week had been posted to Heaton Park, Manchester which was an enormous transit camp for u/t aircrew leaving the UK for Canada, Rhodesia or America for training.
They used to say it always rains in Manchester and it certainly did continuously whilst I was there. Anyone who has seen the film "Journey Together" will have seen a departure parade at Heaton Park in pouring rain. I am told that on the day that film was shot it was fine and the fire service had to make the rain,. S.O.D.s Law I suppose!

'This story was submitted to the People's War site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of John Derek Bailey and has been added to the site with his / permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions

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