When I returned from 1 BFTS in Terrell, Texas in June 1944, I fondly imagined that I would be flying Mustangs or Spitfires. Not so, and after the debacle at Arnhem, the Glider Pilot Regiment was virtually non- operational. Volunteers from we, awaiting further training, were asked to volunteer for secondment to the Regiment. Few volunteered so we were read the riot act at the pool in Harrogate. We were told that unless we volunteered we would be sent to the infantry or down the mines. So we were voluntary conscripts!! We were taught to fly Hotspur, Horsas and Hadrians and were incorporated into the Regiment. They taught us to become infantrymen and to be able to help with anything which we would take into action -- the Regiment didn't have passengers. I was lucky enough to take part in the Rhine Crossing and survive. On one exercise we did carry 26 members of the Parachute Regiment in the Horsa. They were not impressed and said that they would rather jump. Of course, we didn't carry parachutes. I was on embarkation leave for the Far East when, luckily the. Bomb was dropped. I left the RAF in 1947 .. I rejoined the RAF in 1951 and after a year ended up on 47 Squadron at Topcliffe. So I was very interested in seeing airborne ops from the comfort of the Hastings.
I do not tnink that the Hastings ever towed a glider, and by this time the Glider Pilot Regiment had been incorporated into the Army Air Corps. From 47 I was posted to Coastal at St Mawgan. I was hoping to go to Sunderlands, but by the time I had finished OCTU, Calshot had closed and Sunderlands were a closed shop.
I was posted to Kinloss and given the choice of Neptunes or Shackletons. I chose Neptunes, and ended up on 203 Squadron , back at Topcliffe, now a Coastal base.
The Neptune was a lovely aircraft. At that time it was equipped with two 20mm cannon in the Noe and tail and twin .5 machine guns in the mid upper turret. We also could carry 16 rockets under the wings and a couple of depth charges and the Lindholm asr gear in the bomb bay. We had the APS radar underneath the flight deck, the APS 31 attack radar in one wing tip fuel tank, and a 75 million candlepower searchlight in the other. It had two 3500 hip Wright turbo compound engines . A press button on the pedestal could synchronise the engines and we could speak to each other on the flight deck without the intercom. The poor old engineer sat on a wooden chair at the entrance to the flight deck where he could see the the enormous switchboard by his left shoulder and operate the very clever cross feeds under a cover by his feet
We had lift spoilers on the wings so steep turn were a doddle. There was a varicam button on the control column which allowed an electric motor to activate the tail plane which would help the elevators i.e. No varicam, no roundout. Then the captain would shout "stick", the co pilot would push the stick forward and the captain would engage reverse gear and transfer his left hand to the wheel for the nose wheel steering. When we lost our turrets and were fitted with the MAD tail, we had to have an hydraulic varicam as the electric motor interfered with the MAD. In 1200 hours on the Neptune I only had to feather once in anger,, had to ditch the wing tips ( not popular!)
We lost one Neptune from Topcliffe when it hit the Mull of Kintyre on an exercise from the Joint Anti- Submarine School, operating out of Ballykelly. Fair amoun of controversy over that!!