Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II

[Danny42C]

Recherche a temps perdu (hope I've spelt it right - and I can't do accents !)

I trust you'll bear with me for a while, for I have to put a number of jumbled memories into some sort of order before going on to the more interesting bits which follow.

After I finished flying in '54, I closed my logbook and don't suppose I opened it again for fifty years. Then when I composed my "Jottings" over the last ten years or so, I relied solely on my memory for a "broad brush" recall of events, both for my own satisfaction and that of the family (I did not get on line until last summer, and only started to post on this thread in January).

Now my posts have to face scrutiny by knowlegeable and critical readers, I've had to open the book again to check that my "Jottings" are not in conflict with it.

First shock: March '43 has vanished ! (no, the sheet has not been ripped out to conceal some nefarious deed - all the times carry forward seamlessly, and it's all fully countersigned). I've just dropped off the radar from late February to the last week of of April. Right at the back of my memory some half-forgotten fragments begin to come together. Here goes:

It must have been a few days after I got back from Calcutta; a Hoogly mossie had done its worst; I went down with my first dose of malaria. That's not news out there. Then I developed jaundice - a not unusual sequel. (Just for interest, Google "Jaundice" - they show a nice pic of the greyish yellow colour I turned - it is also the exact shade of our UK issue tropical kit after a wash or two).

I was hospitalised - no surprise - but in Dehra Dun ! Dehra Dun is five hundred miles away as the crow flies. There were British Military Hospitals in Calcutta - only 150 miles away. I had no reason at all to be in Dehra Dun.

Why, and how did they get me up there ? I don't think jaundice is infective. Was I "walking wounded", fit for train travel ? Don't know. All I know is that I was in hospital there for two ot three weeks, and then they passed me on for a fortnight's recuperation to Chakrata, about 80 miles to the West.

Both these places are semi Hill Stations in the foothills of the Himalayas, perhaps 4000 ft up and therfore some 10-15 degrees (F) cooler than Bengal, which would be hotting up nicely by then. Does a cooler climate assist recovery from Jaundice ? Don't know.

Nothing much special about Dehra Dun, except that even today it seems to have more than its fair share of hospitals, and the Indian Army "Sandhurst" was there.

Chakrata had a small "cantonment" ( a military camp with married quarters); we were billetted in former OR's MQs - like Hullavington). They had a very skilled camp barber, he was reputed to be able to shave, with a cut-throat razor, a sleeping customer without rousing him from slumber (didn't try it - would you !)

I arrived back In the last week in April, and Stew and I flew a few more training exercises. In May, he vanishes. Where ? Could he have got malaria ? Quite possibly. I should remember, but I don't. From the 8th, my regular crewman was a P/O Robertson (nav), and it was with him that I went to war on the 12th. Stew does not appear again until 5th July, when we'd pulled back to Bengal from the Arakan for the Monsoon, and after that "we were not divided".

While I'd been away, 110 (maybe just one flight) went on a week's detachment to Dohazari - in Arakan a bit south of Chittagong - and flown one or two sorties (I only found this out from Wiki - I don't remember anyone telling me about it at the time - Odd ?) And again, what was the point of sending them across there just for a week ? (it might have enabled them to say that 110 was the first VV Squadron to go into action - which it was - but little else).

You've been very patient. Next time the fun starts.

Another day done,

Danny42C


Light Duty