- Contributed byÌý
- Raghu's WWII Page
- People in story:Ìý
- N Gopalkrishnan
- Location of story:Ìý
- Around East Anglia
- Background to story:Ìý
- Royal Air Force
- Article ID:Ìý
- A2594144
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 03 May 2004
My uncle, who is currently 84, lives in Washington DC. He was employed in the RAF (I am not sure what his rank then was but I do have a picture of him nattily dressed and wearing the officers cap of the RAF) during WWII (After 1942). I constantly badger him for information on his role in the RAF in those years. First, I wonder how many indians served in the RAF in Britain and if at all any were involved with Radar work.
Among his many anecdotes, I found this most interesting:
"I was bicycling to my Radar hut one day and all of a sudden was thrown sideways into a ditch. After regaining my composure I realized that this had happened because of the immense pressure of the air around me as a V2 rocket had exploded some distance away."
Fortunately he was unhurt but had this interesting story to tell. He also mentioned another occasion when he had met Robert Watson Watt, the inventor of the Radar. Besides these, he has told me the technical aspects of Chain home and Chain home low systems.
He is a very smart man. In Southern India, among his peers and collegues, he was called "Kanak Pillai", which is a colloquial slang for "Number cruncher" or someone who is good at maths.
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