大象传媒

BETTER BORN LUCKY THAN RICH.

Story 7 鈥� Awful conditions, Friends Gone But Not Forgotten!

This happening made me decide not to join the R.A.F. after the war, because as you read this you can make your own mind up, but to me it was as big an injustice as you could get.

A sergeant who was going home after his stint of I think two years (we all did four years), and he told us that because of Basra鈥檚 deadly climate, and most of the time you will be working indoors, and doing some heavy lifting by building Bombers that come up the Gulf in pieces.

If anything wants doing do not hesitate because you will sweat night and day, and if you stand about you get weaker and lose a lot of energy. You can say that in it鈥檚 cooler 2 or 3 months, Basra is 90oF, and then up it goes to 145oF, and at midnight it gets to 112o F, and humidity is always there, and reaches 90%, and your breathing really suffers.

After our course in England of 4 months, where you draw the plane systems, it鈥檚 outer working parts, Aerodrome procedure, damage repairs, theory of flight, night flying procedure, etc, etc. Because of good drawings and writings in my course book, the Sergeant advised me to go in for an L.A.C.(Leading Aircraftsman), which is next to a Corporal, ..I did and passed. The best part I was there with the lads, and we needed to be together, because honestly we suffered together with the heat, and terrible illnesses we all got. The first year I got home, I wore an overcoat winter and summer.

Now comes my trouble. We had just finished one job, and were ready to do the heavy work, and get the main plane (wing) on one side lifted and fitted into a tight lip all round the side of one wing, and held up by six men who have to take the weight with their arms above their heads, and that鈥檚 heavy, and we were sweating, and we only wore short shorts, and they got very wet, and you will know the rest, how the Corporal got me 鈥渏ankers鈥� for working. Secondly, how an officer forced 10 of us to wear parachute

harnesses when there were no parachutes, and how, just as we were taking off in the plane, there was an explosion and our hydraulic system was destroyed, and I think it was the work of one person only, and we were very luck to survive that.

Back in England now, and having passed an exam before going abroad, I knew I would be put on a corporal鈥檚 course on arrival in England because the song lyrics 鈥淭here ain鈥檛 no promotion on this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, bless em all鈥� was true. I passed my first exam in 1941 and soon as I returned to England after 4 years I find myself on the corporals course, where they remembered my work before abroad, and thought that I should do very well, as they had also seen a good report in my RAF service book (I still have this at home). I think they hoped I would go further up the ladder!

The Corporal giving me 鈥渏ankers鈥� for working and the officer making us wear the parachute harnesses played on my mind and I thought I would leave the RAF after the war. However, I thought and tried to forget them. But there was one thing that I could not forget and never will.

I class myself as being an honest sort of chap, but on the fourth day of the course I told the sergeant and colleagues that I was not stopping in the RAF after the war, so it was only fair that I did not waste their time. They said I was silly by leaving the RAF, as I was the sort that they knew was capable and could have a job for life. I said I have enjoyed my work very much. 鈥淐hange your mind鈥� they said.

鈥淭hanks for everything鈥� I said, but I couldn鈥檛 change my mind. I suppose I cheated by not giving the real reason why I would leave at the end of the war.

The real reason was that I could not work for a Royal Air Force that for nearly 2 years could allow 70/80 airman, of various trades, in Basra to work in aircraft hangers, building twin engine bombers in outside temperatures of 145 degrees and humidity 90 percent: it would have been even hotter inside, working 8 hours everyday. It was sweat, sweat, and
sweat in only short pants. Lorries took us back to our billets where we were confined for 4 hours

Daily: sweat, sweat and sweat again. All this was orders鈥� from Head Office, as they thought it too hot and dangerous to be outside, yet it was hotter inside. There were no cooling at all in those days and the intense heat gradually weakened you, so when the various illnesses arrived you were guaranteed to get half of them and then you were either in a bad way or a very bad way! 鈥淛ust Bad鈥� meant that you were on loads of tablets, 鈥淰ery Bad鈥� and you were in hospital, and that was not good! After our visit to hospital to see our mates who were very ill, we wanted to visit again 3 days later but were told that they had gone to Iran to recuperate. We didn鈥檛 believe this and a year later and not seeing them again, we found out there was an RAF depot (Habbaniya) for recuperating, but they never got there. We were convinced that we would never see them again!!!

Just to finish, it may seem minor, but in the 2 years in Iraq, we were never given any fruit, even though I was told that you needed fruit for the vitamins etc. A visiting officer (the one and only whilst I was there) was asked by one of our lads 鈥� 鈥渨hy is it Sir, we do not get any fruit at all, but when you arrive we have half an orange each鈥�? We were told that there wasn鈥檛 any fruit available to us, that was it.

I can give you the name of the lad who asked the question, it was Slattery and his friend was Sykes, and they were both from Middlesborough area. Believe me it took some guts to ask a question like that because we were ruled not helped!

Jim Grigor
Boston
Lincs

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