My dad - 'Super Nav' or just Lucky?
My late father joined up from a reserved occupation in about 1942 and wanted to be a navigator. He was thus one of the few of his intake who got what he wanted. After that, it gets a bit vague.
I know he trained in South Africa - Kyalami and East London I think - gaining his N wings. I know that ordinarily he would have been posted to a squadron and that, given the loss rate in '43, I would probably not be here. However, I think my dad had been found to be rather good at navigating and he was chosen to do the next big thing; 'Master bomber'. Mum and dad were married about a week after the Dam Busters raid.
After that, he still wasn't posted to a squadron, but sent for Pathfinder training. After that, low level a la Armiens and Shell Copenhagen - which he hated, with tour served Mosquito and Beaufighter drivers being told to fly at naught feet to test dad with 'left at the Red Cow' and 'Right at St. Andrews'. Still no squadron and then on to 'Long Distance Over Water', which could only mean the Far East.
Then they dropped the bomb and dad did 'Copper Beating' until he was demobbed in late '45 or early '46 and went back to his drawing board. I was born in December '46! It wasn't until we lost him in 1996 that I realised just how meticulous he was and why he was obviously such a skilled navigator. Why he didn't go to BOAC or any other airline post war, I don't know. They had plenty of top pilots, but probably not too many top navigators.
The thing is, where and how do I start looking for records? So far as I know, he didn't keep his log book - I assume Nav's had them too? - but I would love to know what aircraft he flew and from where.
Also there is one intriguing story from his time in South Africa. On one or perhaps his final cross country navex the pilot - a SAAF Afrikaans pilot - deviated from dads instructions, to do a low level beat up of his family farm ..... and crashed the aeroplane. The pilot demanded that dad falsify his navigation plot to show they should have been over the farm, but dad refused and I believe there was a frightful row. The pilot went on to become a noted South African golfer on the international circuit, but it wasn't Gary Player. Any idea who?
After he was demobbed, dad never flew again until BEA took him to somewhere in German in the late fifties or even sixties, but I guess you could say he had a good war?
Roger