大象传媒

I joined the Air Training Corps as a 15 year old in April 1941. I did all the training and later got accepted into air crew, and joined the air force. They had a scheme called the 鈥楥ommonwealth Training Scheme鈥� which was going on all through the War, where training for air crews, particularly pilots and navigators training was carried out in Rhodesia, South Africa, in United States and Canada. But as the course of the war progressed, the need to train further pilots an navigators became less because the losses for those types of crews was not as bad as it could have been, and consequently a decision was made in the latter part of the war that they had sufficient trainees for the job.

I was in the situation where I was carrying on a period of training, as were all of the other people, and the Air Ministries decided to make a stand on this and they decided that they would stop progress of all the trainees up to a certain level, and I was one of those. They said to me and all the other individuals, 鈥淲e cannot train you further in this grade, but we can offer you training as a wireless operator, or a wireless operator air gunner, or an air gunner鈥� 鈥� The abbreviations are a 鈥榃OP AG鈥� for a wireless operator air gunner, or a straight AG for an air gunner.

Now, at the time a number of my pals were in fact WOP AG鈥檚 or AG鈥檚, and a lot of them were going down in flames and losing their lives, and I decided that if I couldn鈥檛 be a pilot or a navigator, then I was disappointed, but that was it. I didn鈥檛 want to be an air gunner. So I told the Officers that, I was given two weeks leave, and while I was on leave I got a letter to join the Army.

On the 2nd November 1944, I had to go to a place in Scotland called Fort George, which is close to Inverness, and I did training in that area, including some training on Culloden Moor. After the training was completed, I moved down to Maidstone, then to Folkestone, and eventually to Helmsley in Yorkshire, where our battalion was formed: 鈥楾he 1/6th Battalion of the Queens Royal Regiment鈥�. On Christmas Eve, 24th December 1945, we embarked for the Middle East, where I spent two years in Lebanon and Palestine. In December 1947 I was demobilised and returned to the Post Office; and just moved on from there.

It was a very interesting time; especially where Lebanon was concerned. I was involved in stores work. Of course I was then responsible for providing clothing stores for the battalion, comprising of about 950 men.

The work we did in Palestine, was carrying out security work at 鈥楲ydda Airport鈥�, (which is now called 鈥楲od鈥� in what鈥檚 now called Israel.) We were also doing road-blocks on the Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem road.

All the time we were in Palestine we carried arms, one or two problems: I was in a church one time opposite the King David Hotel, which was a building in Jerusalem. I was having a mug of tea and a couple of buns and something, and they set some bombs off that had been placed in milk churns, and took them into the foyer of the King David hotel and caused the explosions. That caused mayhem and a lot of damage and lots of injuries. Again I was rather fortunate that I was in a building opposite, and we didn鈥檛 receive a lot of damage.

See more of Bill's stories:

• A White-Faced Inspector
• Chipolatas and Chips
• Doody
• Given a bit of cheek
• High-Tailed it home
• How it all began
• I was BKFJ434
• 鈥橪et him go and let him tarry鈥�
• In a split second timing
• Oranges and Lemons
• Rotten Bananas
• Waste not, Want not
• It was coming straight for me
• Tiny and Shiny
• Free post
• Time just came and went
• No. 1 London

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