蜜芽传媒

COLTISHALL (and BADER) by L. E. (Eric)Taylor

In July 1940 after 14days recruit training at Blackpool including firing 15 rounds on the rifle range we were sent to Coltishall to form the Station Defence Flight although that was not what we had volunteered for. The station was still in the process of being built and our first two nights accommodation was in one of the newly constructed hangers. Our beds were straw filled palliasse鈥檚. We moved from the hanger into bell tents on the grassed area at the top of the square. We did eventually move in to the newly completed No 6 block.
We were issued with Canadian Ross Rifles, Lewis Guns and Boyes antitank rifles and later Vickers Watercooled which had been mothballed since the First World War. For antiaircraft defence we had four 20mm Hispano-Suez drum fed cannon with solid ammunition to which was later added four twin Lewis with ring sights. These were more effective (and successful) as they had tracer and explosive ammunition. An armoured column was formed with an Armadillo equipped with a 40mm C.O.W. gun and flat bed trucks protected with railway sleepers and armed with one Lewis Gun . When we first arrived we were met by an LAC with first world war medal ribbons. His promotions must be something of a record because in a short time he became Flight Sergeant 鈥淪nuffy Joe鈥� Wells. He gave us a hard time trying to make us in to an efficient unit. He and one of our unit who had been a gamekeeper used to go off in a van and return with game birds fort the Officers and sergeants mess. The station concert party wrote a song about him :-
鈥淣ow Flight Sergeant Wells he bellows and yells
When Station Defence all fall in
When he goes out poaching
He needs no coaching
He carries his snuff in a tin
You鈥檓 on parade You鈥檓 on parade
You鈥檒l hear old Snuffy Joes voice
And when he gets posted
His health will be toasted
And Station Defence will rejoice鈥�
One morning just after we had fallen in we spotted the Station Warrant Officer coming on to the parade ground accompanied by a cadre of Guards NCOs led by the unmistakeable figure of Regimental Sergeant Major Britain who we all knew from seeing him on news reels of The Coronation and Trooping of the Colour.
They instructed us in infantry training including bayonet fighting, priming and throwing hand grenades and how not to get shot in the backside when crawling .
There were several 鈥渉it and run鈥� attacks on the airfield .In one bombs struck the new watch tower the hanger and a near miss on the officers mess. Our Hispano jammed after firing a few rounds. The first two casualties were two Irish men working inside the hanger. On another occasion the area round the domestic site was showered with incendiaries many of which fell within the barbed wire defences which meant we had to practice our skills at negotiating barbed wire whilst carrying a sandbag.
In August we were put on invasion stand to given a few extra rounds of ammunition and told in no uncertain terms what was expected of us and told what to expect if we left our posts. As one of your other correspondents says it was believed that the invasion barges had left port and that fuel was being dropped around them and set on fire. After a very long stand to we were eventually stood down and went back to the routine of training in the morning ,24 hours guard duty , followed by an afternoon helping to construct air raid shelters. When we did get an afternoon off there was only one liberty bus into Norwich so it was a case of hitching a lift and coming back on the last service bus which left Norwich at 9.00pm. On one occasion I missed the bus and had to walk most of the way back to camp but got a lift just before Coltishall village from a Czech pilot.
It caused quite a stir when word got around that 鈥淭in legs鈥� Bader had arrived. I was manning the Hispano near to dispersal when we saw him stride out get in to an Hurricane and take off. The aerobatics were far more spectacular than in the film and more amazing as the station commander had banned any form of aerobatics over the airfield.
The station commander insisted on holding church parades. Many of the aircrew Officers had no knowledge of ceremonial parades and so instruction was given to them in one of the hangers behind closed doors. If there had been a hit and run raid on a Sunday morning it would have been a disaster with all the off duty personnel formed up on the parade ground. Despite it being a remarkably hot summer, in September we were ordered to wear greatcoats for guard mounting and the unfortunates on the main gate had to wear them during their two hour spell. The winter of 1940 was very cold and after a very heavy snow storm everyone off duty was ordered down to the airfield to assemble a metal runway. We had to take our gloves off because we could not fix the nuts and bolts with them on.
The best duty was being sent on detachment to guard the RDF station which was at that time outside the station boundary and close to the village of Coltishall. Whoever came off the early morning stint at 6.0 would go down to the village and in to the back door of the bakery and bring back freshly baked rolls and pastries. The first postings were of a party of about 25 to be sent to Malaya which at that time was a peacetime posting. I often wonder how many of them survived although I did meet one in Burma and another after the war who had been a prisoner for three years.
In 1941 the rest of the original bunch was posted to a newly opened station at Pershore.
Flight Sergeant Wells delivered us there and I am sure there was a tear in his eye when he said goodbye to us. Shortly after that my remustering came through. Although I became a 鈥渕edic鈥� the training was not wasted as the Japanese did not recognise the Geneva convention and all medical personnel were armed.

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