Life at Harogate
No, afraid I know nothing about the Hurricane pilots during Russian convoy voyages but when you mentioned survival time of a few seconds in the freezing water it reminded me of an incident when I doing my first deck landings. One of our group was Johnny Wright. Johnny was making a good approach but was still some hundred yards behind the carrier. Despite the Batman’s frantic signals to increase power and gain some height Johnny ignored the Batman and landed in the sea. It was reckoned that a Seafire would only stay afloat some six or seven seconds – Johnny was out in three seconds! After a medical and a Court of Enquiry, the Powers that Be decided Johnny (with a bit more practice) didn’t need a Batman and he was posted to Malta to help trainee Batmen learn the job.
Going back to those boring days in Harrogate I remember being posted to Brough, E. Yorkshire for another three weeks in Tiger Moths. Now Brough was where I did my first solo and a Flight Sergeant there had us all on parade and told us to remove our cap badges to see if we had polished the back of the badges. Most of them were a delicate shade of green! Arriving at Brough for the second time we were greeted by the same Flight Sergeant. That night I told everyone about the cap badges and we all assiduously polished the back of our badges. Sure enough the Flight Sergeant had us on parade the next morning and told us to remove our badges. He just couldn’t understand it when the back of ever badge glittered in the sun.
Another posting from Harrogate was to RAF Melbourne, Yorkshire. Three weeks sitting in a caravan near the start of the runway. RAF Melbourne was a bomber station flying Halifaxes and was one of a few airfields equipped with FIDO, a fog dispersal system. FIDO was a system of pipes along the side of the runway filled with petrol which when lit cleared the runway to a height of some three hundred feet. Once an aircraft had landed it was guided to a dispersal point by a tractor with a large sign on the back –FOLLOW ME. One day I was cycling around the airfield and there in a ditch was our tractor. All that could be seen was the sign – FOLLOW ME!
When full the FIDO system contained 500,000 gallons of petrol! Petrol was ordered on a form that asked for the required quantity of petrol to be entered in units of 1000 gallons. It must have been a new lad in the office – instead of asking for 500 units of petrol he entered the full amount 500,000 units (500,000000 gallons). I believe someone must have realised the error before a vast fleet of petrol tankers descended upon us!!!
Yes Harrogate was boring but some of the postings had amusing moments.
Dave