Danny and a little history of 20 Sqdn.
So what would be the nature of the "co-operation" that 20 Squadron had provided for the Army in India? Essentially the age-old Frontier duty: "Subduing the Tribes". This sounds barbarous, but was really quite a gentlemany procedure.
From time immemorial, the hill tribes on the NW frontier of present day Pakistan had plagued the plains villages below, raping and pillaging, plundering livestock and grain stores and generally making nuisances of themselves. They were a constant thorn in the side of the Raj, which generally came off second-best when it went into the hills after them, but was able to contain them in their fastnesses, as we controlled the plains.
The arrival of the aeroplane altered the balance of power. An aircraft would fly over the tribal village responsible and drop leaflets saying: "We are coming over next Thursday afternoon to knock the place down". This gave them ample time to move people, livestock, charpoys, food stores, tools and possessions over to the next hilltop on the appointed day.
Then a flight of Wapities or Harts would come over and drop a lot of small bombs to do a good deal of damage. No blood would be lost, the villagers still had all the means to resume daily life, but the menfolk had to turn to and rebuild their houses. This was too much like hard work; the message got home that they had better behave themselves in future.
I cannot vouch for any of this, for it was all related to me by a Very Old India Hand I met on the boat home. What I do know is that a very similar policy was adopted in Mesopotamia (aka Irak), when we held the League of Nations mandate to administer that former province of the Ottoman Empire for thirteen (?) years in the twenties and thirties after WW1. Moreover, it was more efficient, and cheaper than sending in punitive expeditions, and the Treasury loved that.
(Back to Valley at last!)
"RE-VEILLE" (Punning title of the Valley Station Magazine).
"AVE ATQUE VALE" (Even worse pun - title of the last issue on disbandment in September 1951).
I got off at Valley station (which seemed a reasonable thing to do), and rang the SDO for transport.. There was the usual argey-bargey; I should have gone on to Holyhead (4 miles), left my heavy kit in the Left-Luggage there, and taken the bus back to RAF Valley.
This was an argument which I was well used to having; I kept it up till I'd worn him down, and he reluctantly signed the 658 (was it ?) and dug out the Duty Driver. (I bought the SDO a beer when I got in, so we parted the best of friends).
Now we must consider No. 20 (Army Co-operation) Squadron in some detail. To begin with, I think it was in Fighter Command only because it used fighter aircraft: a Beaufighter TT, Spitfires XVI and Vampires III (no surprise there then: I was not to touch a Meteor for the next four years). The Station had a Harvard and a very useful Tiger Moth. 20 Sqdn. cannot have been high on the Fighter Command Order of Battle, for it could not fight Pussy. Our guns had been taken out, we were toothless tigers.
We "co-operated" with the Army in a few simple ways: The Beau towed targets in Cardigan Bay for AA gunnery practice at Tonfanau (Nr Towyn, midway between Barmouth and Aberdovey). The Spitfires were also targets there, but by an ingenious method which I shall explain later, suffered no harm, and they did mock LL attacks on Bofors guns near Barmouth. The Vampires were high-level calibration aircraft for a R.A. experimental gun-laying radar unit at Ty-Croes, a few miles down on the coast, not far from Valley.
We were pretty busy during the summer, when the Territorials had their Summer Camps (and I think that a large part of the Army's AA was Territorial); in the quieter months we were free to do a bit of aeros, formation and tail-chasing with the Spitfires and Vampires. But there was never any serious attempt at Valley to refresh any "fighter" skills we might once have had. A couple of us went on a Gunnery course at 226 OCU (Stradishall) in April, '51, but that was all. It was difficult to avoid the impression that Fighter Command had lost any interest it might ever have had in us.
Will expand on this next time (whenever that may be),
Goodnight, all,
Danny42C.
Never mind.