大象传媒

Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on the edge of the Cotswolds opened in August 1937. The airfield was almost circular and was grass. There were five C type hangars. The station buildings were all brick and some had a Georgian look. Like all the pre-war stations it had a barrack square. The nearest railway station was Bampton that overlooked the airfield. We arrived late in the afternoon and were transported o the camp by a Bedford lorry. After reporting in, we were put in a ground floor barrack room in a block overlooking the barrack square. The barrack room had a polished wood floor and central heating. Ablutions and toilets were inside the block and there was a drying room. The station was very compact and methodically laid out. There were five main hangars and four more at various points around the perimeter.
The training aircraft sprayed yellow were North American harvards and Airspeed Oxford Advanced trainers. The Harvard was used for training fighter pilots. It was an all metal low wing monoplane with a 600 hp Pratt & Whitney, nine cylinder air cooled radial engine. The top speed was 205mph. It had a retractable undercarriage and tandem cockpit. The Oxford, used for training bomber pilots was made of wood. It was a twin engined low wing monoplane with 375hp Armstrong Sidderly Cheeta seven cylinder aircooled radial engines. It鈥檚 top speed was 197mph and it had a retractable undercarriage.
The day after arriving at Brize Norton I was issued with a toolbox and tool kit and then assigned to a flight of Harvards under Flight Sergeant McNally. My task would be inspection servicing and running the Harvard engines. In early 1940 the majority of airmen on the station were regulars or reservists. Many of the technical Senior NCOs were ex Halton boy apprentices with about fifteen years service. Then what were known as class E reservists were mainly Corporal fitters or carpenter riggers. Many of them wore tunics that had a 鈥渄og collar鈥� and had medal ribbons for service on overseas Empire stations. A good many looked quite old.
The married quarters were still occupied and children would be seen on parts of the station. However, after a short time, the married families were moved out. I think many went to an estate about half a mile outside the camp. Single airmen were then put in married quarters.
In addition to working on aircraft, airmen were detailed for guard duty which used to come around about every ten days. When detailed for guard duty you were allowed to leave work early to prepare and have an early tea. You then drew rifle and bayonet with fifteen rounds of ammunition from the armoury. You carried your gas mask which with your tin hat attached was slung so it rested just above your backside. Your gas-cape was neatly rolled and on your back. At 1745 you fell in outside the guardroom. The guard were then marched onto the square where it would be inspected by the Orderly Officer. After inspection the guard would fix bayonets and present arms as the ensign was lowered to the accompaniment fof a bugle. Most of the guard duty was around the hangars and you patrolled in pairs during 2 hours on and 4 hours off. The guard duty finished at 0600hrs. After coming off guard duty you had to report back to work by 1000hrs.
From outside the station busses ran to Witney, the nearest town, and to Oxford. We would go into Witney at night. We were lucky we had one day off a week and we would sometimes go to Oxford and occasionally go to the New Theatre. At that time we did not play much sport; in any case there was little time for that.
The pupil pilots at that time were pilot officers and sergeants. When I first went to Brize Norton there was one pupil pilot who was American. Pilot Officer William Fiske was the first American to die in the war. William Fiske was the son of an international banker. He had been at Cambridge and had been living in Paris. He had captained the team that had won the Olympic bobsleigh event in the early 1930s. When he completed his training at Brize Norton he went to 601 Hurricane Squadron. During the Battle of Britain on August 16th, Billy Fiske was in the thick of the battle in the south when an incendiary bullet entered his petrol tank which exploded. In flames he crash landed at Tangmere. The ground crew got him out of his aircraft and terribly burnt he was taken by ambulance to hospital but he died 12 hours later.
There was a plaque erected to his memory in St. Pauls Cathedral.
At Easter or Witsun 1940 I was given leave and I went home to Surrey. About a fortnight before leaving home in July 1939 I had taken delivery of a new Triumph Tiger 80 motor cycle. Prior to that I had owned an AJS Silver Streakwhich, as I was leaving home, I had tried to sell but not being able to get the price it was worth I had part exchanged it for the Triumph. When I returned to Brize Norton at the end of my leave I travelled back on my motor cycle. I believe by then that petrol was rationed and petrol coupons had been issued. About a week after returning from leave I was promoted to ACI which meant that I had a little more money. In the spring and early summer of 1940 Brize Norton was a happy place, and the war and developments in France seemed to make no difference to life on the station. Even a Walls icecream man on his box tricycle was allowed in. Dunkirk made everyone realize that we were now in a war. After Dunkirk, the RAF were very unpopular with the Army. They thought the RAF should have done more to prevent them being bombed and straffed on the beaches and that the RAF had let them down. Until after the Battle of Britain if you were out you risked getting into a 鈥減unch-up鈥�. After Dunkirk with the threat of invasion we had rifle shooting practice. There was then Anti-Parachutist duty during which you were confined to camp and the duty was for a week. During that time you carried a rifle and a cloth bandolier with 25 rounds of ammunition which was carried or kept by you 24 hours a day, even at work.
During that summer I had my first flight in a Harvard. I sat in the rear cockpit. The pilot was Flt/Lt Love. It was an air test. The duration was only 20 minutes at 800 feet.
When the Battle of Britain started a good many of the young flying instructors went to Hurricane and Spitfire squadrons. As the battle developed, in the evenings, we would gather around the radio to listen to its progress and would quite often cheer at the claims of German aircraft destroyed.
Before the start of the Battle of Britain all Harvard aircraft went to another station and our aircraft were now Airspeed Oxfords. We were far away from the battle and the station was on a set routine. All flying would cease about 1700hrs and the Oxfords were then refuelled and packed into the hangars. August 16th was a cloudy day and some of the German bombers were able to penetrate inland. At about 1745hrs two JU88s suddenly appeared and bombed the main hangars. Our hangar full of Oxfords received a direct hit and was soon burnt out. Altogether on the station 46 aircraft were destroyed. It was the Germans biggest success of the whole battle, but as most of the aircraft were trainers it was not too serious. A barrack block was hit and some airmen injured. The living quarters at the back of the NAAFI was hit and a girl injured. The barrack square was machine gunned just as the night guard marched on but no-one was hit. Only one man was killed, a civilian. The Oxfords manufactured at Portsmouth were soon replaced and many were then dispersed at Akemon Street, a Relief Landing Ground 3 miles NW of Whitney, and Southrop, Gloucestershire 鈥� 2 miles N.E. of Fairford 鈥� another Relief Landing Ground. It was about that time that a detachment of the Gloucestershire Regiment was based on the station. The single airmen moved out of married quarters and were replaced by WAAFS who were all volunteers. Conscription for women did not come into force until 1941 or beginning of 1942. Prior to that, although working with RAF personnel, they were not legally under the same codes of discipline.
Southrop was a grass field with a few Nissan huts and tents. Flying from there was soon in progress and I was there until the end of the summer. It was a wet autumn and we were issued with Wellington boots and a black oilskin coat. Back at Brize Norton the airfield became unusable for a little time. We now had another flight sergeant whose name was Lucas. He was known as check Lucas because he was always checking upon airmen. He was a monster of a man who I should think had the biggest hat in the Airforce. One very cold January morning we were having difficulty in starting an Oxford engine when 鈥淐heck鈥� came on the scene and removing his hat he put it over the air intake of the engine to choke it and get it to start.
It was in the winter of 1940/41 that at the age of 23 I started drinking, and about this time some new airmen, ex members of the Ambrose Orchestra came to Brize Norton. For a time they would, in the evening, play on the stage in the NAAFI.
Near our flight was No6 Maintenance Unit whose staff was nearly all civilians, and aircraft were delivered to their area from factories by the Air Transport Auxiliary, some of the people being women. Spitfires were delivered and checked over before going to a squadron. One freezing January morning in 1941 some Spitfires were taxying in over a frozen rutted ground, and two opened up their throttles to get out of the ruts, and finished up on their noses, the metal propellers being bent.

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