Gaining An R.A.F. Pilots Brevet In WW11
The detachment at Ballykelly took all the Squadron aeroplanes. During this detachment Ballykelly ran out of our fuel, 115/145 octane and Shannon couldn't supply. I had to fly the Neptunes back to Topcliffe to refuel and make sure that we had enough for the exercises.
We had an exercise for two weeks operating out of Orlandt at the entrance to Trondheim Fjord. We were operating with HMS Jamaice and Henry attendent destroyers, Daring class, new at that time, now just replaced with the new and much larger Darings. We operated in the north of Norway, checked out Bardufoss in case we ever had to use it, and saw the remains of Tirpitz in the breakers yard at Tromso. We were warned at Orlandet not to run off the runway as we would be up to the wing in an hour and disappear overnight. There were reputed Condors, which used the airfield in the war, underground!!
The only time I lost an engine in anger was on a weather ship trip. I spoke to another Neptune and said that if I couldn't maintain height below a thousand feet I would blow the tip tanks Which I did and managed to get into Ballykelly on one. At Bk the railway runs across the runway and the train has priority. Not this time and the train was emergency stopped!! The engineers last job before entering the aircraft was to take the pins out of the flange holding the tip tanks on to the wing and show the captain, luckily he had done so.
We had a very good "air trafficker" at Topcliffe. We didn't have proper GCA, but a modified one which we knew as the ARAA, and he was an expert. I was never diverted by weather
Most aircrew officers had a secondary duty and because for several months at Valley I had been in the Mountain Rescue Team, I was give:n that job. There was a very experienced Flight Sergeant in charge so he ran it. I went out a lot with them at weekends when not otherwise involved. Our area was from Jedburgh to Mottram and included the Lake District, Pennines and North Yorks Moors.
We had a Varsity on the Station Flight which was used as a hack, so I managed to get checked out on that.
In August 1956 No 203 Squadron was disbanded. Some were posted to Kinloss to convert to The Shackleton. My wife was pregnant with our first child and the Group Captain arranged with the C.O. Of No 120 Squadron at Aldergrove for me to be converted to the Shackleton on the Squadron, so it was goodbye to Topcliffe and Hello Aldergrove.