Glider pick-up
Gentlemen – your kind comments deserve responses, so here goes:-
Danny: The sad affair of the crocodile reminds me that, shortly after arrival on 194 Sqdn, I was regaled with the story of a krait (a small but highly venomous serpent) that emerged from behind the instrument panel during flight, being duly despatched by an alert copilot's kukri. As I heard this from several sources, I think it can be relied on as truth.
A twist on the snatch story is that I believe an attempt was made to develop a means of grabbing human beings, to be hooked up by passing aircraft. I think it was a US project, probably dreamt up by the CIA as a means of getting agents back to base in a hurry, but whether or not ever used in anger I can't say. Can anyone out there provide further enlightenment?
High Tow: No I don't recall a Kershaw, and have no record of such a name in my log book but then the RAF was a big place back in '45. As for silver-topped Horsas, there were certainly none at Leicester during my stay – wonder what the purpose was, but I think your suggestion is probably correct.
Your pseudonym suggest you were a glider pilot yourself – if so, more details pse!
Chugalug: Ref my ride in a snatched Hadrian, I concur that the army pilot was without doubt acting in the spirit of inter-service one-upmanship, and certainly cut things very fine indeed – but he timed it so perfectly, I think he must have tried it out before. Inter-service rivalry manifests itself in various ways, as I found out years later when I was the victim of an attempted stitch-up by the Senior Service – fortunately unsuccessful!
From the dates you quote, you must have been at Leicester not long after me.