My Dad's Service History

JIM’S R.A.F. SERVICE

Service No.651377 AC2

West Drayton attested 25.7.39
Uxbridge square bashing, drilling.
St. Athans Mechanical Training for flight rigger — passed A.C.1.

Croydon servicing aircraft — Blenheims..

West Drayton kitted up for Middle East service. Two days’ leave.

Train to Southampton boarded ship to Cherbourg
Cherbourg to Marseilles by train.

Boarded troopship “Devonshire” for Malta. Stayed in harbour for two days then off to Alexandria, Egypt.

Boarded train for Cairo, Suez. Then on to Ramleh, Palestine to join No.6 squadron “B” flight servicing Lysander aircraft. Did station course for my L.A.C. airframe fitter — passed with high marks. Had passes out for visits to Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Jaffa.

Went on detachment to Gaza. Pilots got more training, drogue towing, with me in back seat firing Very pistol under pilot’s instruction.

Moved back to Ramleh then to Qasaba in Western Desert. September 1940 co-operated with army under General Wavell.

Italians entered war June 1940 — Sidi Barrani, Mersa Matruh, Halfaya, Sollum, Tobruk, Gazala, Derna, Benghazi, Agedbia. Moved back to Derna.The army was under General Wavell’s command. He had to stop his advance to send troops to Crete.

At Derna things started to warm up; the Germans and Italians started to push our troops back. Rommel was on the move. The squadron had to move back to Tobruk. I stayed at Derna to see the aircraft off. The shelling wasn’t too far away — time we moved! About ten of us climbed aboard an Italian diesel truck which was towing the squadron communication wagon then headed to Tobruk. The road was packed with traffic so the retreat was well on its way. We had to stop a number of times to allow traffic to pass as we were a slow truck. We had to dump the wagon down a wadi. By the time we got to Tobruk it was “hurry up, you’re the last — the tank traps are going into place”. The Germans circled Tobruk and carried on heading for Alexandria. We carried out what duties the army needed plus 73 squadron with its hurricanes. We had a couple of aircraft left when it was decided to fly them out. We (the ground crews) were taken by trucks down to the quayside and were picked up by a destroyer about 2 o’clock in the morning in complete darkness; stayed that way until we reached Alexandria.

Re-kitted out and sent to Canal Zone, Shandur. Hurricanes, low flying. Moved to Sudan, Wadi Halfa. Defence Asswan Dam. By river boat. Nile. Gloster Gladiators.

Detachment sent on a secret mission to Port Sudan. When we got to the nissen huts it was dark — took off our gear and laid on the beds. Went off solid. Woke up to find I was covered in bed bugs. This was enough — all my gear and I made a home on the sand away from the billet. A couple of days later, looking out to sea, I knew the answer why we were at Port Sudan. On the horizon was an aircraft carrier. When we boarded — H.M.S. Indomitable - we were checked over by the medical officer. He went mad over the bug bites and we were all well cleaned up. 50 Hurricanes minus wings went on board — the wings were standing side of fuselage making for easier stowage. Once we were well out to sea to were told we were heading for the Far East. We had an escort of 3 destroyers and what a noise when action stations was sounded. We helped the crew with jobs we could do and when the time came we did our job and fitted the wings and the R.A.F. pilots flew them off. They did a marvellous job with no previous carrier experience — a few near mishaps. It took nearly 48 hours in all to do this so we slept well afterwards. We were then told the aircraft had made for Singapore.

We sailed for Trincomalie, Ceylon. Work had to be done on the keel so we had a couple of weeks in the harbour and were able to make some visits — it’s a lovely place.

Returned to Port Sudan, then back to Wadi Halfa. There for a short time and back to Canal Zone, Fayid. Hurricanes low level flying. When pilots were OK at this we moved to a landing strip on the Alexandria Road. Just a number, no name. Received our tank buster Hurricanes. There was a range of tanks and armoured vehicles for the pilots to practice on — it made your hair stand up! The aircraft skimmed over the sand guns firing and lumps flying from the tanks. We lost a pilot who flew too low.

General Alexander (General Montgomery was busy) said this time we go forward and no going back. We were told October 23rd 2200 hours it would start and it did. The skyline was full of flashes and the ground rumbled. When the battle had been won we moved with the army taking the same route as before all the way along the coast road. Homs, Tripoli, Ben Gardane,Gabes. At Gabes our pilots were awarded 4 DFCs and 2 DSOs for an attack on German armour that was holding up the army.

Sfax, Sousse, Tunis.

Flew to Sicily by Dakota 24.2.44.

Sicily, Catania, Italy, Taranto, Grotaglia. Aircraft fitted with rockets and high explosive incendiary bombs to be used against shipping in the Adriatic.

Brindisi, Bari, Foggia, Pescara, Ancona, Rimini.

Back to Naples to get ship back to Liverpool then to Blackpool to be re-kitted with uniforms, passes then leave and home. When my leave finished I was posted to Home on Spalding Moor where I worked on Halifax bombers — quite a hard job after years on smaller aircraft. Did a bit of secret work. Then got posted to an aerodrome on Salisbury Plain near Aldershot — that was secret too — working on Typhoons.
It was then the war with Germany finished. Had some more leave. Shortly after this I was demobbed — 14.1.46 - clothes, suit and 110 days leave.

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