蜜芽传媒

The first part of my journey back to the UK was to be on a 232 Squadron Liberator to Bombay. But the day before the Adjutant said there would have to be a delay for me as some of my pare work had not arrived.

Though a little fed up by this delay it actually saved my life. On the flight to Bombay the main spar of the Liberator gave way due to massive turbulence and all were killed. What a tragedy for those looking forward to the UK after the war years. A few days later my papers now complete, and after a farewell party in the Officers Mess I flew off to Bombay and spent 5 days in the transit mess there before boarding the troopship the Georgic some 22,000 tons. It had survived a bombing by the Germans in the Suez Canal. Then, before sailing as there had been another smallpox out break in Bombay I had another jab. On the voyage form Bombay to Egypt the 6 of us sharing a cabin used to spend time playing cards up on the boat deck when one afternoon the ship鈥檚 tannoy broke out naming us 5 to report immediately to ship鈥檚 quarters as a Flt Lieutenant in our cabin had gone down with the smallpox. I remember him lying on his bunk the day before covered in sweat. Also two army soldiers had contracted the disease and were taken ashore with him. We 5 spent the rest of the voyage, through the med to the UK, in the ship鈥檚 quarantine. When we eventually arrived in the Mersey off Liverpool the port health authorities came alongside. The medics examined us and cleared the ship to berth in the Liverpool Docks. On the quayside were numbers of relatives and friends of those on board plus two RAF ambulances. Medical orderlies carried our belongings to one ambulance and we boarded the other. Customs did not go near our kit 鈥� if only we had known before hand. As we still had nearly a week to complete our quarantine we stayed at RAF Warton in Lancashire. Each day the Medical Officer would inspect us and our only contact with our families was an airman via the local post office would send off a telegram as no letters were permitted for risk of contamination. My message home just said that I had arrived back in the UK and would explain the delay later. The five of us were fortunate and completed the quarantine period and were given clearance. We heard later that our 6th colleague had died of the disease. He had only been out east a few months after surviving a bomber tour over Germany. From Lytham I went to Hednesford for clearance form the RAF back into civilian life handing in my RAF equipment except for my Irvine flying jacket, which I opted to keep after a certain payment. I still have parts of it but unfortunately it suffered damage on one of the many squadron moves when the dye of my Mae West life jacket burst, a powerful yellow dye that eventually rotted part of the jacket.

PART III: CONCLUSION

It is now April 1946 and I had become a civilian. As with others in my positions it was a bit of a cultural shock. In the services we had departments such as admin, medical, orderly, room and uniform and our future was controlled completely. Upon leaving the R.A.F. I had about three months leave due to me and also received the enormous gratuity of 拢100 plus being kitted out with civilian clothing. For those of us who had spent most of our five years service abroad it was even more difficult to acclimatize ourselves to Civvy Street back in the UK.

For that three months I lived at home with mum, dad and my sister Joan and made little attempt to ensure my future apart from having an interview with the Officers and Executive section of the then Labour Exchange. Their only response when I said I intended to continue flying was to advise me to see the advertisements in magazines such as 鈥淔light鈥� and 鈥淎eroplane鈥�. This of course I had already done. Then I was invited to an interview with a director at 鈥淪els鈥� Ilford Ltd, my pre war firm where I had been a laboratory assistant in the research labs. He said they were prepared to offer me my old job back but wit no promotion. I recall he and I parted on not very friendly terms when I said I had no intention of accepting their offer. When he pointed out that for the first year of my R.A. F. service as an aircrew cadet with the lowest rank of Aircraftman Second Class the firm made up the difference between my civilian pay and the RAF pay. I said I was quite willing to reimburse then for the paltry sum of a few pounds if required but that I had no intention of accepting their meagre offer. Initially early at the interview he seemed genuinely interested in my wartime experiences but obviously had little concept of the experiences we had gone through having spent the war years as a civilian with no disrespect to him as he was too old for military service.

Whilst in the R.A.F. I had a dream that if I could afford it I would buy a sports car, an MG. But as my sole wealth was little more than 拢100, and pre war MGs were fetching 拢500 or more that was out of the question. During my three months leave I used to meet up with other ex R.A.F. chaps at a local pub at Gants Hill Ilford called the Valentine just opposite the Savoy cinema. We often talked shop - known as opening the hangar doors. Some 12 years later one of our group who had been at school with me but being a little bit older was in a different form. His name was Ken Rayment and was one of the two pilots in the Elizabethan aircraft that crashed at Munich where many of Manchester United football team were killed. The other pilot, Jimmy Thain survived but lost his job initially being held to blame but later exonerated. Ken Rayment was fatally injured and died shortly later.

In October 1946 having applied for several flying jobs I went for an interview with both BOAC and BEA and had offers from both. I decided upon BEA as I had had enough of foreign parts out East and opted for BEA that flew to European and UK cities.

THE END

APPENDIX A

HISTORY OF 117 SQUADRON

路 Formed 1 January 1918 at Waddington, then Hucknell, Norwich, Wyton-Tallaght and Gormanston. Disbanded 6 October 1919.
路 Reformed 30 April 1941 at Khartoum from 鈥淐鈥� Flight of 216 Squadron.
路 Aircraft types: Bombay, Wellesley, Proctor, Gladiator, SM79K (Savoir Masdretti), DC2.

1942
March Bilbeis (Egypt), equipped with DH 86
May Hudson Mk VI, Lodestr DC 3.
3 November Amiriya
13 November El Adem
1943
January Marble Arch (Cyrancica).
February DC 2
6 March Castel Benito (Tripoli).
April El Djem (Tunisia).
13 April Gabes
23 May Castel Benito,
June DC3
September Catania (Sicily),
2 October Bari (Italy)
1 November Mauripur (Karachi, India)
6 November Dhamial (Rawalpindi)
1944
19 January Lalmai
14 March Sylhet (Assam)
25 June Agartala
1 November Risalpur
26 November Bikram
10 December Hathazari (near Chittagong)
1945
16 June Patenga
19 August Hmawbi

路 17 December the Squadron disbanded after surrender to the Japanese. It was an operational mobile squadron supporting the 8th Army as part of the Desert Air Force, and then in Burma supporting the Chindits under General Wingate.

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