I was once told that good carpenters make good navigators, or was it the other way round. Well, I have just spent an amazing morning admiring the carpentry of my neighbour Frank and listening to his story as a Beaufighter navigator.
This is the Frank who I have been trying to get to tell his story for about 20 years. We showed him Walter603's posts and he finally agreed to tell all.
I arrived at his house to be overwhelmed with books and photographs and now have to put my notes in some kind of order, learn to post some pictures, and stretch my limited writing skills to do his story justice. This may take me some time.
In the meantime, Frank was keen to tell me about his old friend George Sproates who not only shared the same role, but was very much a fellow Geordie. However, George was a very clever mimic and soon shook off his pronounced Geordie accent. He was a brilliant actor and musician who everyone expected to take up a career on the stage. As you will see, Frank spent most of the war enjoying the hospitality of the Italians and Germans so lost touch with George. When he was repatriated he found that his old friend had shaken off the restrictions of the "class ridden" RAF (Frank's words) and signed on as an officer. Now Frank finds it incredibly funny that his old Geordie friend eventually became a Group Captain and his last position was Station Commander at Akrotiri. It is possible that some followers of this wonderful thread will have known him.
For me, it is another example of how war expanded the horizons of so many people.