- Contributed by听
- threecountiesaction
- People in story:听
- Terry (Terence) Pattinson
- Location of story:听
- Ramsgate, Kent
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A7313997
- Contributed on:听
- 26 November 2005
[This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Margaret Jones from Three Counties Action at the Glenn Miller Festival on behalf of Terence Pattinson and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr. Pattinson fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.]
I joined the RAF in 1941 and served for 5 years as an LAC. In 1942 I was stationed in London to attend an Advanced Wireless course held at the Science Museum in South Kensington. I remember our instructor was a communist and we used to ask him questions. He took us to their HQ in Bermondsey where meetings were held over a pub. I remember there were photos on the wall of heroes of the Spanish Civil War. While I was in London I saw Glenn Miller at the Queensbury Club in Soho.
From 1944 - 46 I worked as a wireless operator in an Air Sea Rescue high speed HSL140 launch searching for planes in the sector from Dover and Ramsgate towards the French coast. In December 1944 we were sent to search continuously for a plane for 5 days which was much longer than usual so we knew it was someone important. We didn鈥檛 know the name of the person missing, where they had set off from or where they were going to. It was not until the 大象传媒 announced the disappearance of Glenn Miller in a newscast on Christmas Eve that I realised that it must have been him that we were looking for.
There was no sign of wreckage and no operations over Europe that night. It was foggy and apparently he had been warned not to fly but he set off in a Commanche 10 seater with the band to follow on later.
I am a member of the Glenn Miller Society.
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