Beginning of October 1945 and having been remustered fron Nav/W to straight W/op I am back at Bridgenorth for the refresher ITW course which was to last for around 6 weeks.
The course was much the same as the original one although there seemed to be mote emphasis on square bashing and PT which we probably needed as standards had slipped during the previous year.
At the end of the course we were posted to No4 Radio School at Madley for a W/ops course. Madley was near Hereford and was widely dispersed with the various living and working sites scattered round the aerodrome.
The accommodation consisted of wooden huts which were divided into rooms each containing two double bunks and accommodating four bods. The only facilities on the living sites were the lavatories and the ablutions were over a mile away near the mess hall so that when you left the hut in the morning you were fully equipped for the days work by which time you were too knackered to think about venturing out againOn the odd evening we might spend some time in the NAAFI before returning to the billets.The various lecture huts were also dispersed and a good part of the day was spent in marching between the various sites often retracing your steps.
Our first parade was a visit to the stores to be issued with with flying kit, the usual paraphenalia of helmet,oxygen mask,3 pairs of gloves, silk inner, woolen and leather gauntlets,flying boots and of course an extra kitbag.
It was a pretty miserable station but it was here that we were to be introduced to the mysteries of the TR1154/55 wireless set as well as the Theory of Radio,fault finding, operating procedure and such like subjects not forgetting Morse instruction which took up to 3 or 4 hours per day and at which we were expected to reach a speed of 22wpm. Some of the guys had difficulty with this and were taken off the course and the odd bod had what was known as "Doolally Tap" and went a bit strange. hence my user name of Taphappy.
We also spent time in the Harwell Box which contained standard aircraft radio equipment built to simulate live aircraft conditions including engine noises.There we would practice communicating with the ground station. When we finally got airborne the conditions were a lot more difficult than operating from a Harwell Box.
After about three months it was neccessart to pass examination on all subjects in particulat that your morse speed was up to the required standard before you could proceed to the next stage of training.
Luckily I managed to get through OK but a few of the course didn't make it and were posted elsewhere.
Enough for now.