Reader123,
Welcome aboard to our virtual crewroom in the sky! (and so say all of us, I'm sure). Take a pew! Would have said "Hello" much earlier, but your Post must have crept in under the wire after I went to bed last night (Moderator casting eagle eye?).
Pushed for time, now (yes, really). Many of your Dad's themes ring my bell - will try to say a bit more tonight.
Danny42C
*********
Reader123
Back again! It sounds as if you must have heard many an interesting tale from your late father. Please rack your memory and see if you can recall more of the details - even if they seem random and disconnected to you. We may well be able to fill in some gaps, as of course you'll have seen happen in many a previous Post on this thread. Let's have all you can remenber - we'll be very grateful.
An engineer in command of a
glider Squadron (where there aren't any engines?) Sounds incongruous to me, but what do I know? This is exactly the Alice-in-Wonderland sort of thing that went on all the time in war; if the White Rabbit came hopping into the Mess, no one would be in the least surprised (he'd be in a curry in no time). I can't remember gliders being used much, except possibly in Wingate-style incursions behind Jap lines, certainly there were no large scale Arnhem - like drops
AFAIK.
Gin - would be Carew's - neat, it might well turn your stomach - it was only palatable as the basis for long drinks, you had to have
something with it; as a last resort on a train one day we were reduced to Carnation tinned milk, the mixture wasn't at all bad. The slacks-and-long- sleeves rule after dark was a sensible anti-malarial precaution; the mossie comes out at dusk and goes for wrist and ankle. Only a newcomer would flout that order and he had to find out the hard way. Malaria untreated could very well kill you, but all M.O.s knew the beast well and how to treat it.
It wan't that we regarded malaria in a cavalier way, it was simply that it was so common that we simply accepted it as part of being out there. A silver cigarette case - now there would be a
good use for ground radar! An auger? - your dad was lucky, pick and shovel for us! (Later on, I have written a thesis on the Deep Trench Latrine, but that will have to wait).
I am a bit doubtful about all-welded aircraft. That war was a throw-away economy is true. But the snag would have been that welding (and
can you weld aluminium alloy?) needs very skilled tradesmen, whereas drilling holes and pop-riveting could quickly be taught to anyone who turned up at the factory gate.
Hope that helps,
Goodnight, Danny42C