Keeping the pot boiling!
Danny, I have so enjoyed reading your posts, marvelously graphic.
My input into this thread is to join the odd dot or two, for me anyway. My father was in the 14th army during WW II, with the East African REME and commanded those folks through the trials and tribulations of keeping jeeps/transport/heavy guns and such working in pretty bad conditions. He ended up as a Lt Col of the regiment but has long departed this world.
His younger brother joined the RAF and became a pilot flying Blenheim aircraft, was shot down over Crete In 1940 and spent the rest of the war in various POW camps including Stalagluft III. He came home, to Kenya where our family home was in 1946, flew for East African Airways for many years. He too has departed this world.
I joined the Royal Navy as a 15 year old Boy Seaman, remustered into the Fleet Air Arm and had an eventful 13 years of service with the RN, then departed to become an engineer, licensed, for various airlines based all over the world. Over time I left the airline engineering world and joined the regulatory authority in Australia followed by the UK (CAA) and went through the training regime to gain a PPL, to enable me to have a clearer understand the skills required in the GA fraternity from an operational as well as an engineering point of view.
During my time within two regulatory authorities I had the good fortune to assess and issue Permits to Fly to a variety of aircraft from WWII era, including Spitfires and Lysander's.
I have now retired but do miss, from time to time, the world of aircraft that I was part of for 50 years,
Please keep on with your story Danny, such a good read.
Nkosi