I was chatting to my departmental administrator one day and the conversation drifted to this thread, she told me that she had recently begun typing out her fathers memories of his time in the RAF during WW2.
She has kindly given me permission to post the following:
Thomas Henry Ransley, born 19 March 1919, was conscripted into the Royal Air Force in June 1939 as a Militia man. This was a reserve corps whereby they spend 6 months training and 6 years on standby. In actual fact he spent 6 months on reserve and 6 years fighting due to the fact that the Second World War started at the end of 1939.
One of his memories is:
On 1 June 1943 he was ordered to fly out from Hendon Air base in a Dakota bound for Algiers in North Africa via Lisbon, Portugal to fit anti radar equipment to fighter aircraft based at various airfields in North Africa. Also on this flight were seven fellow electrical technicians and numerous senior ranking officers who were in charge of the North African campaign.
The Dakota took off from Hendon at 12.00 noon but during the flight the crew received a message that the German intelligence had information regarding a Dakota flight between London and Lisbon which was carrying very senior members of the allied forces. The flight therefore was diverted to Cornwall where they were held until midnight to confuse the Germans. In the meantime a civilian Pan Am flight had arrived in Lisbon from America, the passengers had transferred in Lisbon to a Dakota bound for London. On this flight was Leslie Howard the actor. This flight took off from Lisbon during the mid afternoon and was shot down by the Germans over the Bay of Biscay in mistake for the military Dakota aircraft, there were no survivors.
At midnight the Dakota with Dad on board took off from Cornwall bound for Lisbon, they flew over France, which was occupied by the German forces. However once they arrived over Portugal which was neutral territory they were fired upon by Portuguese anti aircraft guns, they had to take evasive action by climbing higher with no cabin pressure.
After Lisbon they flew to Gibraltar on the next stage of their journey. They landed at Gibraltar with no assistance from the airfield and were confronted with a mutiny of the British forces as Gibraltar had just been declared a Home Base as opposed to an Overseas Base, which meant that the regular three year leave had been cancelled. Due to the unsettled state of the base all members of the Dakota passengers and crew were housed in the Sergeant' s quarters for one week until the dispute was settled. During this time they managed to find some civilian clothing and travel by boat for a day trip to Algeciras in Spain which was neutral territory but did not allow German or English military personnel to enter Spain. The dispute was settled by the threat of the British Authorities threatening to send the army to shoot all staff for desertion.
Once the dispute was settled they took off for Algiers, North Africa in an American Dakota, however, during the week in Gibraltar the British Navy had sunk the French Vichy fleet at Oran Harbour in North Africa and the French and the North Africans had become very anti British so much so that the French had started shooting anyone in British uniform. The Dakota flew over Oran to show the senior staff on board the sunken French fleet. On arrival in Algiers all members of the flight were kitted out with American uniforms as a precaution due to the anti British feeling.
On arrival in Algiers they were billeted in a transit camp near the Kasbah which was bombed on the first night. After a couple of months Dad caught dysentery and had had to be transported to hospital in Constantine. As there were no ambulances available Dad was taken in General Spaatz' own staff car, which due to the state of the uneven roads and uneven state of Dad's stomach was in a pretty bad state when they arrived at the hospital. He was in hospital for 2 weeks but during his convalescence he was warned not to venture into Constantine as if he was caught by the French he would be thrown off the bridge.
After Constantine he travelled to El Kairouan, which was a holy city surrounded by squadrons and burial grounds as the muslims only bury their dead approx. 2ft. below the surface the smell at night was horrendous. Whilst in El Kairouan the nearest point on the coast was Souse he took the radio van down to the coast and went in swimming and saw a partly eaten dead body, tried to swim to a small island with his colleagues, but got into trouble and ended going under twice but one of his colleagues saw him and came to his rescue by swimming with him on his stomach to the island. They then pumped him out at the island and after recuperation took him back to the shore. A few days later he suffered very badly from appendicitis.
After fitting the equipment to the aircraft around Kairouan and Castel Beneto they had to wait until a further consignment of equipment arrived at Tripoli from England. This was coming by sea but after waiting a few days they were told that the ship had been torpedoed off the island of Pantellario. As the Sicilian invasion was pending a further consignment had to be sent out by air. They flew from Tripoli across the Gulf of Sirte to Benino (Benghazi). There they fitted the equipment to an RAF squadron just in time for the invasion of Sicily.
On the way to Tripoli they were put up by Free French army engineers at Kasserine pass in a mosquito infested area where they had to plaster repellent all over their exposed areas at night.
The British captured Kastel Benito airfield from the Italians and used it to fit the anti radar equipment. Dad stayed in North Africa for 6 months fitting the anti radar equipment to approximately 12 bomber squadrons. Travelled back to Tunis via Tripoli where they travelled by cattle truck train from Tunis to Algiers. During this time the invasion of Italy took place from Tripoli and Dad travelled back to England on the first convoy of ships out of Africa with Italian fleet as escorts. During this voyage they were shadowed by U-boats and German fighter aircraft which were all destroyed by the captured Italian naval escorts.
The only way to keep under air cover they had to go under cover of the Azores and then to Londonderry and arrived at Liverpool.
I notice that there are several references to anti radar equipment for the aircraft, does anyone have an idea of what this might have been?
If you find this of interest I'm sure I could persuade her to find out more about her fathers life.
Tilleydog