GAINING AN RAF PILOTS BREVET
26ER--Excellent--you have answered questions I had been mulling.
You certainly were able to spend your NS productively.Your relatively quick progress through the "system" would bring tears to any 43-45 U/T
Increasing the NS obligation when you were already in doesnt seem fair. I suppose this decision was made because of Korea.
But you havent finished your story!
Danny 42c---Last week I watched a replay of a documentary about the war in the Pacific--the casualties ,certainly among the US Marines, were way beyond anything experienced in the European war.
I dont recall whether you have mentioned any losses during your Vengeance work but certainly if you had been shot down and taken prisoner the Japanese "Stalags" could not be compared with the RELATIVELY" Ritzy" German version---so what you were doing was very dangerous work even if you werent killed.
A couple of reminiscences.
It must have been in the 70,s that,while visiting my parents in Somerset I was invited to a party.
One of the guests was a L/Cdr? Sheperd living in quaint Dowlish Wake and I believe well know in the FAA.
He introduced me to another guest he had brought along --"Ziggie"--I chatted with him a little but couldnt quite place him---his English had a trace of American about it---but we drifted apart without exploring this.
Next day there was a display at Yeovilton and a German navy 104 went in killing the pilot.
The pilot was "Ziggie" and like many/all German 104 pilots was trained in Arizona.
The other story is more pleasant.
One of the 400 Squadron RCAuxF pilots had,in the 40,s, flown Hurricanes in the Western Desert---shot down, he was flown to a POW camp in Italy. When the Italians dropped out of the war,with the Germans in pursuit, he was able to escape through the mountains to Allied lines.
Sent back to the UK and now on Spitfires he had what was probably an engine failure and parachuted out over N France. The Resistance took care of him, escorting him through Paris and eventually over the Pyrenees into Spain.
I dont think double escapers are common and certainly not successful double escapers.
He was recommended for the MC but this was turned down on the grounds that the MC was an Army decoration---that said I did note in a recent RAF obit where someone had got an MC.
When I heard his story I wrote to Maggie Thatcher asking for reconsideration---no response.
Never mind- at 90 he continues to fly his Piper on floats---and there is an article about him in the August " Fly Past"
Danny Let me second your welcome to 26er and any others who pop up----your enthusiasm leads me though to what I think is my last story --and 100% true
It must have been in the 80,s we were invited to dinner in the rotating restaurant on top of the tower which overlooks Niagara Falls. The host was i/c maintenance of the tower and also a Polish ex RAF pilot. After dinner he took to his office where he had a series of photos of those who had chosen to commit suicide by jumping off the tower--the photos he said were part of his duties.
Fast forward and I get a newspaper cutting---our Pole had been taking friends up in a Cessna. He low flew over his house and with his wing tip beheaded his next door neighbour who was on his garden tractor--the neighbour was an ex RCAF Lancaster pilot.
The Pole was sentenced to prison for manslaughter--I dont think he had a valid licence either.
Several years later and another cutting. The Pole, post "clink", had been swinging someones prop--it kicked back,hit on the head and he was killed.
As they say over here--"What goes around,comes around"