Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II

[Box Brownie]

Flt Lt John Dunbar DFC Five into four won't go

Taken from three tapes.

At the end of the war I flown 228 hrs operationally over the jungle Interestingly, of 176 aircrew forced down in the enemy controlled areas or in jungle in Allied territory, 166 were lost without trace. I was flying in Batavia in the Dutch East Indies when I was told that the following day I would be going to Kuala Lumpur to again be the personal pilot of General Messervy who was now GOC Far East. I had flown him about fifty times in the L5 but this time it would be in the Beech Expiditor.
On arrival I was greeted by his adjudant and was told Messervy was in meeting, but we would
be flying the following morning as the General wished to go to Singapore – an 8 o'clock take off. We were told not to worry as the General liked pilots. Little did the adj know!
I was introduced to W/O Jimmy Rainbow who was to be my navigator. He had been on 177Sqadron flying Beaufighters. We were told to be standing under the nose of the aircraft to await his arrival.
We get to the dipersal area the following morning and there are what appears to be hundreds of soldiers lined up. There is this enormous parade to see Messevy off and standing next to the aircraft is the RAF contingent which consists of the AOC, x number of Air Commadores and Group Captains all now standing to attention. I hadn't been introduced to any of them, didn't know any of them, I was just the pilot.
Messervy had commandeered a bloody great Packard that the Japanese had used during the war and appears complete with outriders, a very posh peacetime General. He is looking out and he sees me. This is a true story and if you told an army bod he wouldn't believe you. He leant forward, tapped his driver on the shoulder and the car stopped, he gets out and almost half runs across the tarmac. He puts his arms round me “Ginger!” This a General to a Flt Lt. *The Air Commodores and the Group Captains were apoplectic. He then went through every pilot by christian name asking how they were, just the three of us together. He then went to the AOC and I heard him say “ Sorry about that, Ginger and I went through Burma together”