FantomZorbin,
No. Do tell, please !

D.

FZ Given what's underneath the Ops Site entrance, I would be surprised if much building work would be possible. The 'retained' bit is only just big enough for one solitary house anyway.

Anyway, you do the Tramp tale, and I'll follow with the scandal that had preceded my arrival there.

Well,apparently it was like this …


As has already been mentioned, the ‘bungalow’ was a RAFP manned security post where we all had to receive a security tag in exchange for our ID cards, only then were we permitted through the turnstile and proceed to the nether regions.


One quiet night the duty supervisor was disturbed from his duties by the airman doing the security rounds to be told that he, the airman, had found a tramp curled up asleep in the generator room and what should he do about it!


It transpired that the said tramp had been in the habit of seeking warmth and shelter in this, little visited, hide away whenever his travels brought him to the area.
The Gentleman of the Road was unceremoniously escorted to the great outdoors and warned, in no uncertain terms, to never do it again.


I don’t know what the result of the ensuing fallout was …any ideas MPN11?

I've found all sorts of things in Towers in my time - but never a tramp ! - FZ, I would think the Corporal Plod on duty would have some awkward questions to answer next morning !

Danny.

Sorry, FZ, nothing to add on the tramp. Never heard the story either, so may have been after my brief visit in 1970.

And before I went to Sopley, there was of course the infamous episode of the Call-Girl operation ... ;)

MPN11, don't leave us all agog like that - Give !!

Spotted this 'book' on a FBook group I occaisionally follow

I have no interest in this item and the asking price appears to be ludicrously high, but the content may interest some on here

Bristol T.C.69 Aircraft Division Class A- Lectures, Notes, Drawings, Diagrams, Etc By M.A Bannister - Used Books - Hardcover - 1941. - from Heldfond Book Gallery, ABAA-ILAB and Biblio.com

PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)

Old Comrades
 

I was interrogated twice by an officer who threatened to have me shot if I didn’t disclose information, but I reminded him of my obligation to give him only my name rank and RAF number, and he replied by telling me all about 603 Squadron with names to match. His knowledge surprised me, but I kept my mouth shut. and gave away nothing.

One R.A.F. prisoner in the house managed to whisper hurriedly to me one day, that he had managed to loosen the window fastenings in his room next door, that he was being taken away, and that I should continue to work on the fastenings if I was moved into that room.

Only a couple of hours later I was transferred from the kitchen to the room in question. Fixed timber shuttering was outside the window, that could be opened inwards. The metal window sash had been prised away from its seating by the previous occupant but could be replaced to look as though it was fixed. He had then used the sash through the venetian-style shuttering, to force away the horizontal wooden bar forming a temporary lock on the shutters. A little more work, and the bar would fall away from the shutters which could then be opened.

I waited anxiously for the night. I listened carefully for the sound of the patrolling guard, who walked right around the outside of the house very regularly. I felt very unwell, and guessed I was suffering another bout of malaria, which had happened to me a couple of times since my illness in the Sudan. About midnight I began to work on the shutter, and had got it partly open, when the guard made a very hurried exit from the front of the house and dashed around the back, where my room was. He rushed back to the front and I heard him speaking excitedly to the Corporal in charge. I closed the shutter and window carefully, and was thankful to sink into bed, feeling very shaky.

Nothing happened until two days later, when a senior N.C.O (Feldwebel) came into my room suddenly, walked straight to the window and tested it. By that time I had shut it quite firmly. He muttered something to me in German that I took to mean that he was told the window had been opened, and then left after I played dumb. All very strange, I thought, and I wasn’t very happy about the outcome.

The next day during my exercise period under supervision, I managed to get to the side of the house and was able to look directly across some vacant land behind my prison room. There was another house facing the back of ours, with a large verandah facing towards us. On it, apparently pointing at my window, was a machine gun mounted on a tripod!

After ten days Bob and I were two of six prisoners taken to the local railway station. I then found that as well as we two, there had been two Greek airmen and two Americans in the house. One Yank was incapable of moving, having a broken leg. He was kept on a stretcher throughout our journey to Germany. The other, a Lieutenant pilot,introduced himself to me with a Southern drawl, saying, “Ah come from Chattanooga”. “Well blimey,” I said in my best London accent, “I always thought Chattanooga was a mythical place in a song.”

OK. Southern Radar, RAF Sopley, mid- to late-60s. The Unit was staffed with a large number of Local Service WRAF, including ATC Assistants. It appears that a telephone call to the Allocator [or was it the Supervisor?] would result in another call to the WRAF Block, from where one of the WRAF would hop into a car and head into Bournemouth for a 'lucrative assignation'.

The fallout apparently included a new CO, several other postings [and I assume disciplinary action] ... and a rumour that only ugly WRAF would be posted there. By the time I attended the Course at the beginning of 1970, normality had been restored.

When I visited sometime later there was a nasty malicious rumour that some of those involved, including clientele, were in the retirement home up the road!

Walter, it appears that your alertness probably saved your life! If it was thought that you were working to escape via your window, why wasn't it checked for two days? Unless of course they were waiting for you to make that bid and to react accordingly....

No doubt you have since pondered the reliability of the whispered information about the window in the first place and the convenient transfer to the room that followed. Such are the muddied waters of war, when often the only thing to rely on is your own common sense.

MPN11 (#8831),

We had a case at Leeming - but ours was "in house". Details are sketchy as it was supposed to have taken place before I arrived in '67.

IIRC, two airwomen had banded together to provide a service to all comers. When this came to light, they were promptly booted out of the WRAF. Nothing daunted, the (now civilian) pair put a caravan on RAF Leeming's Caravan Site and set up a profitable business there. Apparently this ran for some time before we managed to evict them.

There were legitimate enterprises carried on there too, notably by an Ex-Cpl Stapley (MT Fitter). He was very good (and cheap) and had plenty of custom. He looked after, and gave me £50 for my rotted-out old Peugeot when I retired - and flogged it to some Far East studes for £120, so I heard.

"Stappers" was a byword among the AFS student body (and far and wide).

Danny.

Happy Canada Day !
 

.

Better early than late - and better late than never !

I hope I speak for all PPRuNers in wishing you a HAPPY CANADA DAY on Friday !

Those old enough to remember the exciting days 70 years ago will recall that Canada supported Britain, among many other ways, by training thousands of aircrew for the RAF under the Empire Air Training Scheme, and by sending us thousands of their own RCAF young men to stand (and in many cases to die) beside us.

In "my" air war in Burma (it may have been different elsewhere), they were the most numerous of the Dominion contingents (followed by the Australians, then the New Zealanders, and a smattering of South Africans).

Those of us who were trained in Canada (or who had passed through on our way to training in the States), will fondly remember the extent of your marvellous hospitality (and the mountains of wonderful food which amazed us, coming as we were from severely rationed Britain).

Thank you !

Danny42C.

Chugalug (#8833),

It does sound fishy, doesn't it. And strange, too. As a general rule, I believe they wanted to keep their aircrew prisoners alive for their potential value as Intelligence sources.

Perhaps they had a sadistic Commandant, Walter, who wanted to amuse himself by setting up a "shot while trying to escape" scenario (which would give a veneer of legality over the murder), Or it was a set-up "pour encourager les autres" !

Danny.

Apparently the phrase du jour in Brussels... :0

And now we return you to the normal programme...

Danny42C .. the Leeming Not-A-Runway-Caravan tale rings a distant bell here. There are some professions older than ATC/Flying Prevention, of course ;)

Yerp ... The way Tante Angela is acting, I could see a quick Blitzkreig against either Poland or Belgium [both historically popular destinations] to ensure European Unity. Please avoid occupying the Channel Islands next time. :)

... And now we return you to the normal programme as well ...

Danny42C/MPN11

Strange that you mentioned 'The Hole'! My first posting was to an R3 at RAF Bawdsey (Suffolk) in 1971 working on the height finders and T80!

With all the talk about "holes in the ground" I've today added my illustrated contribution with a new thread on this forum:

"RAF Fighter Command VHF/DF Fixer Net Early 1950's"

WT

Nice job, WT >>> http://www.pprune.org/military-aviat...ly-1950-s.html

Can I join MPN11 and recommend Warmtoast's new Thread:

RAF Fighter Command VHF/DF Fixer Net Early 1950's to all who have not clicked onto it yet.

D.