I hope that Danny will forgive another contribution which I gave several years ago but we served at Hhooton Park and Valley, though we were not acquainted.
After training at No 1 BFTS at Terrell, Texas on Stearman PT 17 and AT6 Harvard, I returned to U.K. in the summer of 1944 soon after D day hoping to fly Spitfires or Mustangs.However in the September the battle of Arnhem decimated the Glider Pilot Regiment. The C.O. Of the Regiment, Brigadier George Chatterton had been in the RAF and had friends in high places. He asked for pilots in the pool awaiting further training be seconded to his Regiment. Volunteers were called for but only a few volunteered. We were read the riot act and warned that if we did not volunteer we would never fly again and be put in the army anyway. So we were voluntary conscripts and very bolshy. We went to Brize Norton to fly Horsas and Hadrian’s. We were then sent to various Transport Command stations , Broadwell for me and we were trained by the survivors of Arnhem to be soldiers.
I did the Rhine Crossing and we lost a lot of our mates. I was on embarkation leave for the Far East when the atom bombs were dropped and the war ended. I went back to the RAF for further training but was persuaded by my father to leave when my number came up and join him in the hotel business. This I did, but also joined the RAFVR in Merseyside, evantually at Hooton Park with Tiger Moths and eventually Chipmunks. When the Korean War started we were paraded and told that the RAF was going to expand and now was the time to go back, so I did. I went on a refresher course for three months at Oakington on
Harvard’s, then three months at Swinderby on Wellingtons, and then to Dishforth to be a second dicky on Hastings, finally ending up at Topcliffe on 47 Squadron Hastings. I was commissioned after that and went to Kinloss to convert on to Lockheed Neptune’s. We were lent 50 Neptune’s as the Shackletons were slow coming off production, and the Cold War was on. We had four Squadrons of Neptune’s, 217 at Kinloss 36, 203 and210 at Topcliffe...After three years flying the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, the Neptune’s went back to America, and I joined 120 Squadron at Aldergrove flying Shackleton 1s and 2s. There was a Sunderland Squadron at Seletar Singapore and it was decided that they would be replaced by Shackletons at Changi. I had a friend at Coastal Command an he agganged a posting to join 205 Squadron now at Changi.
We gradually received all 8 aircraft. One at 30 minutes readiness for S and R at Changi.
Eventually the runway was ready at Gan and because of trouble between Gan and the capital Male we sent a Shack to Katanayaka in Ceylon and ran a daily patrol to Gan checking the Maldives for signs of trouble! Eventually we moved into Gan and then kept two Shackletons there for S and R and trouble! Changeover day was Wednesday, and the returning aircraft couldn’t leave Gan until the relief was on its way from Changi. My last trip in a Shack was returning to Changi from doing S and R for the two weeks over Christmas.
We left Changi/Singapore early January 1961 in the troopship Oxfordshire. I reckoned that I would never be able to afford twenty five days cruise. There were only a few RAF officers, the army officers had taken leave. We had the Sherwood Forresters Regiment aboard plus band. I had to do duties on board . When I was the duty Jo I had to “Mount the guard” with the RSM, then inspect the ship with the Quartermaster, RSM, and several others from bottom to top, ending up on the bridge with the Officer of the Watch. It was an Army Run ship. When we got to Gibraltar, my great friend was the ADC to the AOC and he came out to the ship in the RAF launch and took us ashore — brownie points!, It was a great posting out to Singapore , the Shackleton was hot and smelly, we were all high tone deaf, but four Griffons, Leather seats and a good crew who relied on each other, what more can a man/Pilot want?
back to America, and I went to Aldergrove on 120 Squadron