大象传媒

The first part of this story can be read by going to bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/a5130659

In 1942 I was posted to Mombassa in Kenya, to work on flying boats again. The aircraft were mainly American built Consolidated Catalina amphibians. They could take off and land on water, but also had wheels to do the same thing from land. There were also some Sunderlands. The aircraft flew convoy protection patrols over the Indian Ocean.

One day, a group of new aircrew arrived and wanted to look round the aircraft on the water. I was not in favour of them doing so, because the aircraft were armed with depth charges. I was over-ruled and they went out to have a look. A few minutes later there was a terrific explosion. One of them must have pressed a wrong switch and released a depth charge. They were all killed.

Each morning a group of about 20 of us were issued with rifles and a few rounds of ammunition. We had to walk, in line abreast, across the airfield to scare off the wild animals. Once a lioness gave birth on the airfield and was killed by an aircraft taking off. We adopted the cub as a pet. It was fed every day from the cookhouse. Everyone got used to it wandering about, as it was quite tame. One day some top brass were visiting and we were told to keep the lion out of their way. A fitter was working on an engine at the top of a ladder. He looked down and saw a lion sitting at the bottom of the ladder. He spoke to the lion saying that it would be in trouble for not keeping out of the way. He went down the ladder and clipped its ear. The lion then ran off across the airfield. He came hurrying over to us to tell us that we had lost our lion. We showed him ours, safely locked in its compound. He fainted when he realised his lion was a wild one!

Whilst I was in Kenya a small group of us walked to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. It took us about four days. I also caught malaria and spent a long time recovering in a South African hospital. From there I was posted back to the U.K., in 1943.

Once back in England I went to 16 Maintenance Unit at Stafford, where I spent the rest of the war servicing armaments. In 1944, 8 of us were suddenly told to pack our kit and go to RAF Tatenhill, on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border. There was an underground bomb store in an old alabaster mine at Fold, near Tutbury. Some of the bombs had exploded, making a huge crater and killing lots of people. It was one of the largest man-made explosions in the world. Not all the bombs had gone off and we had to take all the un-exploded ones to Tatenhill, in order to identify them. We were working on them for six months.

This story was submitted by Alison Tebbutt, Derby CSV Action Desk, on behalf of George Frederick Sterland. The author has given his permission and fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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