Flt Lt John Dunbar DFC Five into four won't go
Taken from three tapes Back to the UK
One day, after about three months of flying the General, I just semi-passed out while airborne with Jimmy rainbow, after flying General Messervy to Bangkok. He was not on board. Jimmy Rainbow had undergone pilot training in America under the Arnold scheme but late in the course was washed out, becoming a navigator. *I had let him fly the Expiditor when airborne on a number of occasions and fortunately for us he was able to get us down in one piece. I have no recollection of the next ten days. They discovered that I weighed 100lb and was suffering from a combination of malnutrition and heat exhaustion plus dysentery – all the things we all had out there. I came back as a medical repat. They didn't know what to do with people like us when they came back from Burma.
I can remember the reception committee for the hospital train coming into Waterloo station. There was a cpl MP who had some blank passes to enable us to get to our destination – that was our reception from a grateful nation when we got back. I was given double food rations and told the best thing I could do was go home, rest and in three months have a medical at Adastral House. In the meantime I had lost my flying category as well, which didn't please me at all.
After three months I had a signal to report to Adastral House, which I did. There was a three day medical and on the second day the usual boring routine was in progress. I was sitting in a corridor and was suddenly conscious of a body standing in front of me making a muted cough. I looked up and there was this Group Captain, gorgeous uniform and rows of medals just standing in front of me. What does one do as a humble Flt Lt? I stood up to attention and he didn't say a word to me – just looked at me and eventually he said “ Don't you recognise me?” “ Well sorry sir, should I ?”
“Oh yes – you should recognise me alright” I said “ I'm terribly sorry sir, but I am afraid I don't”.
“Well I suppose you don't. I'll tell you what. I'll give you a clue. Picture me wearing a Burmese longyi and a big black beard.” The penny dropped, Wg Cdr Nottage, the CO of 177 Sqdn who I had flown out of the jungle was now Grp Ctn Nottage and was in charge of postings.
“I think I owe you a lunch. Name any restaurant in London. I will pick you up at 1:00 o'clock”
When I mentioned the medical board his reply was classic. “Don't worry about them. I am in charge” In the taxi on the way back he asked me to see him once the medical was over so that a posting could be sorted out for me. My flying category limited me to Transport Command or Training Command. George Nottage suggested a posting to No1 Flying Instructors School at Woodley. He had noticed on my records that I had above average and exceptional categories. The station was civilian run by Miles Aircraft. What interested me was that the instructors stayed in the Beehive pub owned by Simmonds brewery. So that was Nottage's thank you to me.
I had an interesting few months at Woodley, particularly as Miles had just produced the Aerovan. Their pilots lived in the mess and the Chief pilot said to me one day “ Are you staying for the weekend?” I said yes because I had a rather nice girlfriend there at the time, at which he invited me to fly the Aerovan. We had a great time. He knew a farmer and we beat up the farm. On returning air traffic had a go at us as we had been reported for low flying. I thought 'well, I'm not the pilot'. A few days later he came into the mess and asked if I had signed on. I replied yes and that I had signed on for eight years on the understanding that I was in line for a permanent commission. “ You can get out you know” I said I didn't want to. “ Ah, but would you like to join us as a test pilot?”I fell for it, took my demob and went back there a few weeks later to be greeted by a large notice on the gate Miles Aircraft Factory Closed' So I found myself in civvy street without a job.