大象传媒

We were among a motley selection of people on board, we had some Poles and also some Japanese who were fighting for the Americans for some reason. These were an unstable lot and were taken to waving large knives around, it paid to keep out of their way, and two of them committed suicide on the voyage.

We were not travelling in convoy and were told that we were making a fast trip and that no U-boat could catch us this was a bit worrying to us but we hurtled along at a great rate. We didnt see land once during the trip, the only contact we had with the outside world was when a Sunderland came to visit us somewhere off the coast of Africa.

The first land we sighted was the coast of Scotland. The ship had not carried any cargo in order to keep the speed up and when we sighted the Scottish Coast everyone rushed to the side and immediately caused the ship to list violently. This caused quite a panic and we were all sent below decks until we were docked.

Again we were sent on leave and the stringency of the war time diet hit us immediately, we thought longingly of our sumptuous meal in South Africa and were eternally hungry as well as being very cold all the time.

After a couple of weeks leave we had to report to another staging camp, this time at Harrogate. We were put into a hotel, the Grand, it wasn鈥檛 very grand whilst we were there. It was early March and freezing cold, no heating in the hotel, and we were constantly on parade and kept standing around in the cold. All in all a fairly miserable existence.

We had been there a couple of moths and were beginning to wonder if we had been forgotten, when just as it started to get a bit warmer they decided that we needed shaking up. Several of us were sent to the RAF Regiment Officers Battle Course at Bridgnorth.

The course was due to last six weeks and it was spelt out to us that we were in for a pretty tough time. We were issued with Army kit and Ross rifles which were the heaviest of the service rifles. We were told that we would be required to run three miles in twenty minutes in full kit carrying our rifles and the squad carrying a Lewis gun and ammunition, also that we would be required to carry out a forced march of twenty six miles overnight.

We started off marching and running and carrying out field activities like an horrendous battle course under fire. As a bit of light relief we went out into the countryside and lived off the land for a couple of days. This was quite enjoyable as the weather was now quite warm and we enjoyed wading through streams, and drying out in the sun. We also caught trout by tossing gun cotton slabs into the river and having a fry up.

We were getting very fit. We felt absolutely worn out by seven o鈥檆lock in the evening so didn鈥檛 have any time for social activities. After four weeks of this we were beginning to get used to things, as usual the RAF decided to intervene and we were recalled to Harrogate. This time things sounded as if they were improving as we were posted to an advanced flying unit this was at Ternhill in Shropshire.

When we got there we found that we were not to fly operational aircraft as we had expected, but the aircraft were masters of various vintages, some very old and not capable of any violent manoeuvres which was pretty useless. The course was very much like the last half of our spell on Harvards, and we just stuck it out. We know that the next step would be to an Operational Training Unit which was what we had been working towards for what seemed years.

True enough after being sent on leave again we were told to report to an airfield in Northumberland, a place called Millfield. Here we came face to face with what we had been looking forward to for so long, there on the airfield stood rows of Hurricanes!

In the past when learning to fly a new aircraft we always went up with an instructor for at least a couple of hours. There were no two seated Hurricanes so we had to get familiar with the cockpit and procedures on the ground, and were taken up in a small passenger aircraft for a look around the area so that we could find our base again. This was important because all the airfields were camouflaged and not very easy to find unless you know which landmarks to look for.

After all this came the fateful day when you were strapped into a Hurricane and left to sort things out for yourself. It was a great sensation to fly an operational aircraft and the course was very enjoyable. We had some mad instructors who took great delight in beating up the airfield, and the whole time at Millfield was one to look back on with pleasure.

Having finished the course we were sent on leave again to await what we expected to get, a posting to an operational squadron.

It was now getting very near Christmas and we didn鈥檛 expect anything to happen before the new year, but on Christmas eve I got a telegram telling me to report to Morecombe, another transit camp! Again nobody know where we were going.

After a few days at Morecombe we were told to report to Liverpool docks, and after delving into the depths of the operations room in the Royal Liver building, we finally found out the name of the ship we were to travel on, it was the Stirling Castle. She was a Union Castle line ship which had been turned into a trooper. It seems strange to me now looking back on it that as my rank increased so the standard of my accommodation on troopships depreciated.

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