大象传媒

My job was to operate and maintain all the fixed installations on airfields, in particular electrical power supplies. Power generation using ship's diesel engines, driving alternators, therefore, I was needed at locations without public electricity supplies.

My initial training was at Blackpool and in mid 1942 rifles were in very shot supply, so the local carpenter had a contract for making several thousand wooden cut-outs. These resembled the Lee Enfield rifle and we perfected our rifle drill using these.

After Blackpool I was at Dyce Aerodrome near Aberdeen. This particular day I was on duty in arport control, when we saw a large JU 88 Bomber streaking along the runway at a height of approximately 200ft. it had a large white cloth flying from the canopy, and was escorted by two Spitfires, one on each side. The aircraft circled, landed and taxied towards flying control where nobody could find a firearm. Therefore the duty cotnroller took the surrender using a "Very Pistol".

They turned out to be two young 18 year old German air crew, who had had enough. The plane was subsequently painted in RAF Markings and flown by test pilot specialists, who found out all there was to know about the aircraft and its radar. I have one more memory of this night - I had my first passionate kiss from a WAAF.

I then did one year on Vagar, one of the Faroe Islands (4 miles by 7 miles); it had one airstrip on top and was also a flying boat station. In this location I saw the Grinda Whale Hunt, where large schools of whales swim south to have their young, and the Faroese drove the whales up the fjord near our camp and slaughtered them. This was food for a year, - they dried the whale products and then soaked them when needed.

We sailed to the Faroe Islands from invergordon ont he Ben McCree, with 500 men on board. This vessel was the ex Liverpool Isle of Man Packet Steamer and our only defence was a barrage balloon flying above us. After a brief spell in the U.K. again I was posted to Reykjavik, Iceland, for two years.

The base in Iceland was there for anti-submarine and convoy defence, also as a staging post for the route between the USA and Great Britain. The Warwicks were for air sea rescue, carrying a lifeboat slung underneath the aircraft, which was dropped on two parachutes, the lifeboats being fully equipped for survival.

My duties in iceland were the airfield lighting, in particular, the obstruction lighting, e.g. two 600 ft hight masts. There was a vertical ladder inside them and it took thirty minutes to climb them with frequent rests.

At the top was a nine-foot square wooden platform that swayed in the wind, you just got in and dit it without previous training, and succeeded.

The war in Eurpe ended while I was in Iceland, and then I was posted back to Mill Green in Hertfordshire, where I waited for demob.

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