Chugalug,
Not '73 - I was in Manchester. But '75 and I was there ! (btw, they seemed to be very low to be over a city - ANOs and all that - were you doing LL circuits ?) ....D.
Taxydual,
Thanks for the link. File card fell down the back of the cabinet, I guess ! But it all turned out right in the end. But on ages and dates given, he would have enlisted in '43, but didn't get to FTS in Canada until Feb '45 - (very long ITW, or in a ground trade, or [most likely as ACH/GD], the poor devil had had a lot of coal-shovelling to do).
And then it was all over bar the shouting (in Europe in May, and in the Far East in August '45). Must have been disappointing - all dressed up and nowhere to go. Good luck to the lad (any chance of getting him on Thread - we haven't had much on the very last days of wartime flying training ?)
"Northern Echo", like most of our Press, cannot yet get its head round "Air Vice Marshal" (not Marshall !), but strangely don't print "Field Marshall".....D.
Cheers to you both, Danny.