PILOT TRAINING in UK, WW2
There was still plenty of enemy activity over the UK at night, and very often on returning to Abingdon there were “Bandit” warnings. The airfield was blacked out and we waited for some time until it was clear for landing. On one trip back from the Isle of Man I allowed Peter Taylor, an “O” trained navigator but now my Bomb aimer, to fly the aircraft. He must have drifted off course, for suddenly we were over Birmingham at 10,000 ft in an air raid and getting our first experience of ‘Flak.’ I guide him away and changed seats just before the rear gunner reported a JU88 immediately behind, but we lost him in cloud.
On another night cross country, coming down from Hexham, we encountered a severe storm. The lightning was amazing and the rain torrential. The Whitley leaked like a sieve and the Navigator’s chart was soaked, not entirely by the rain but also from the contents of a little tin which I carried “for domestic purposes.” When I emptied the contents of the tin through the clear vision panel, they were blown in through the perished seals of the navigator’s window! The Rear Gunner asked if he could move forward from his turret; he was soaked and could see nothing, and his parachute pack was dripping. He came forward and sat by the Wireless-Operator whose set was dead, with sparks flying from it. “Does it often spark like that?” “All the time,” said Benny.
Brad decided that being a W/Op was too dangerous.
We could make no contact with Abingdon and we dare not drop below 500 ft because of Boar’s Hill. Flying around in a widening circle I eventually made intermittent TR 9 contact by “Darky” with Chipping Warden. They told me they were firing rockets, but we could not see them. I asked for Mortar shells and eventually we saw one and closed with it. Then we saw the rockets, so I asked for the Chance Light. The Chance light and all the Drem system were already fully on, and finally we saw the runway. I landed in a tremendous rainstorm and I was told the spray shot up like a Flying Boat landing.
We reported into the Watch Office, where the Duty Officer complimented me on my procedure; then he played back all our radio conversations on a vintage Edison Bell wax drum recorder. There were many OTU crashes that night. fredjhh