Old Comrades
We four, being “aircrew types", were sent to RAF Station Abingdon, in Berkshire, to fill in time as airfield defenders, whilst awaiting our turn for flying training. I had no contact with the others during the day, except casually, as I was rostered to serve in a small squad for Ground Defence. On 24-hours shifts, we occupied dug-outs and tents on the perimeter of the aerodrome. The circular dug-out contained a Lewis machine gun, and three of us took two-hour turns at manning the gun, keeping a sharp lookout for enemy aircraft that might be raiding by day or night.
In between times, we filled sandbags, made new dug-outs and gun-pits, and occasionally spent time in the N.A.A.F.I. (“Naffy” was the Services canteen, run by the Navy Army and Air Force Institute) or visiting the local shops trying to buy elusive cigarettes.
After about eight weeks of this routine, I was sent to Stanton Harcourt, a village not far from Abingdon, where there was a satellite airfield. I met several new trainees, all potential aircrew, and together we started the huge task of putting up barbed wire around the miles-long perimeter of the airfield.
We were billetted in an unused dance hall next to a public house, by the side of a very pretty stretch of river about a mile and a half from the village. The publican’s name was Ecott but we were not related.
On 9th May 1941, I received the welcome news that I was posted for the beginning of my aircrew training to No. 8 I.T.W. (Initial Training Wing) at Newquay, Cornwall, but first to Air Crew Receiving Centre ("Arsy-Tarsy") for some more of that “bull” welcoming all recruits.
At Newquay on 24th May I was to spend another six fascinating weeks, being taught elementary navigation, meteorology, airmanship (as applied to flying) and other facets of pilot expertise. As well, we were brought up to an absolute peak of physical fitness by the constant attention of Corporal Jeff Allway, Physical Training Instructor. I remember him telling me that before the war he had had a small part as an actor in the early film "White Horse Inn", about smugglers in the west of England.