Danny has some Surprising News.
The next Funny Big Thing was a real stunner. This time Sgt Watt had a puzzled grin on his face as he brought in the mail one September morning. It seemed that we had another change to our Establishment. Not more bikes this time, but in our personnel. The Unit's C.O. post had been put up to Wing Commander (R.Aux.A.F. of course).
How and why had this happened ? Nobody (as far as I know) had ever suggested it, and there was no earthly reason for it. Had it happened at any other FCU ? Not to my knowledge. How ? My only guess was clerical error (could that be even remotely possible ?) But supposing that to be the case (and the fact that I do not recall any previous advice from P2 or TAAFA supported it), it is conceivable. It was a surprise (to say the least) to the Station Commander.
Clerical error or not, everybody went along with it, and Dave duly became W/Cdr Brown, DSO. Every cage on the Station was rattled. Dave was now senior to the other two Auxiliary C.O.s, and level with the Station Commander (for an Auxiliary W/Cdr in uniform is as good as any other). The FCU, once the Ugly Duckling of the Auxiliary family, had blossomed into a Swan.
Soon, tangible evidence appeared to prove that, even if it had been a mistake, they were sticking with it. We were allotted an Austin 16 Staff Car, all black and glossy - a real Group Captain's car (I think it came with the pennant in the glove compartment). Of course, all cars are in Station "pool" in theory, but in practice it worked fine. W/Cdr Daw had the car Mon/Fri (when Dave had no use for it): he (and I) had it on Sat/Sun, when Daw had his weekend.
During the week, I was content with the oil-junkie Minx. This I used once or twice on a weekday morning to go down to the "Bodega", a small restaurant under the Middlesbrough Exchange Building. There Dave would meet me for a coffee, while we mulled over the recent problems of the day.
It would be about this time that I thought I would Tidy Up a Loose End. When I got the Bond three years before, I'd only the car licence I'd had since '38, but no m/c licence, as I never had enough money to buy one. But the Bond is a motor cycle in Law. Strange but true. It is a "Non-reversible Tricycle", and is lumped in with motorbikes. So I'd been driving without a valid licence for three years. It was time to get legal. I applied for a Test, everything went fine (not surprisingly, as I'd got some 20,000 miles on it), the examiner (who had done a few on type) congratulated me on the Bond's performance, said it was the best one he'd ever met. Accordingly I now have a motorbike licence, and the Law doesn't even know if I can ride a bike !
Winter was now coming on, and my thoughts turned to the snows again. This time I would go alone, and with the RAF Winter Sports Association, in early January after a long Christmas break at home. They had chosen Ehrwald, a small Austrian ski resort just over the border from Garmish-Partenkirchen. There was no air travel option - the Combined Services Association fiasco three years before may have put them off it. It was train/boat/train, like it or lump it. On the SNCF down through Europe, I joined up with a F/Lt Witold Suida, one of the many Poles who had thrown in their post-war lot with the RAF rather than return to a Communist Poland. He proved to be useful in two ways: he was fluent in German and a very competent on skis.
The whole trip was a disappointment. Checking on Google now, I read of a resort 6,000 to 9,000 feet (presumably up to the top of the Zugspitz) with plenty of red and blue runs. But in those days it was a far more modest affair, I don't think it ran up more than 4-5,000 ft, at which level snow is unreliable. I remember it as a collection of nursery slopes, with hardly anything much more testing. I think they had only two or three drag lifts. The weather was atrocious - I think it actually rained on us one day.
I remember being very impressed by the quality of the devotional frescos covering nearly all the facades - we were housed in the Hotel Maria Regina, with a magnificent rendering of the Madonna and Child over the entrance. Inside we were warm, snug, comfortable and well fed, but that didn't compensate for the poor skiing. All in all, it was an eminently forgettable experience. But you can't win 'em all !
An amusing story next time.
Goodnight, all,
Danny42C
......and some have greatness thrust upn them......
Last edited by Danny42C; 26th May 2013 at 00:43.
Reason: Correct Error.