Empire Flying Training School bound
I started my flying at the Bomber Command Instructors School in Dec.1944. I had reached 953 hours when I got there. I stayed there until November of 1946 and had many pleasant experiences and met some very interesting people . One of them was a Sqdn. Ldr. Jim Wyatt who came through Finningley as a pupil and stayed on as a Flt. Commander. We became great friends and I was surprised to find out from him that he was the Brother of R.E.S. Wyatt who was England's Cricket Captain for a long time beforethe war. Jim told me many tales including showing me some of the letters that his Brother had received from the English cricket fans. R.E.S. Wyatt was not, as Jim freely admitted, the most handsome of men but some of the fan mail ...."Call yourself an England Captain ! You look like a b....y Frog.! and that was one of the milder letters.
We were at Finningley when VE Day came along and I had the pleasant task of flying some repatriated POW's over Germany to show them the damage that we had done to the Third Reich. I see, from my log book that, on the 9th. July1945, I took some of these people on a 5 hour flight over Rotterdam, Arnhem, Essen. Cologne, Aachen, Antwerp. I have noted that one of them was a W.O. Booth, a navigator, who was
shot down over Wilhelmshaven in a Blenheim of 107 Sqdn. on...wait for it!
the 4th. Sept. 1939 (The Day after war was declared.). I can't remember much about what he said but I have always remembered the grim smile that he gave when we flew over Cologne and said " I see we left them the Cathedral".
The Examining Flight of the E.F.S. came round again, this time for the new "Green Card" that was neccessary to hold if you wanted to fly in the new Control Zones under IFR that was coming in. This time I was in for a surprise as the examiner, a Sqdn. Ldr. Beardon, passed me and in making out the card asked me if I would join the E.F.S. as a Tutor for the Empire Course that was given to those chosen from various Empire Air Forces...we still had an Empire... and , also, various civilians from our own Ministry and other countries. I was, by now, looking forward to peacetime and knew that this posting would do me no harm for my ambitions in carrying on flying so I accepted the posting, which carried a Flt. Lt. ranking, with very good feelings.
I had enjoyed my stay at Finningley and had learned a lot. I had now about 1500 hours when I took up my posting and moved the family, now four of us, from the wilds of Doncaster to the very different atmosphere of The Empire Flying School, Hullavington , Wilts.