Chapter 2
Once again my kit was packed and I was taken to Peterborough to board a train to Kings Cross station in London. Then a taxi to Maryleborne station for a train to Wendover, this the nearest station to Halton Camp.Halton was a very large camp, a pre-war establishment, the majority of the buildings were of brick construction. It was the home of the apprentices, or "boy entrants" as they were called, very young boys training to fill positions of the higher ranks. Halton Camp is on the slopes of the Chiltern Hills, the nearest large town being market town of Aylesbury. I found Halton a fascinating place. Firstly, this Group I course was a new course for Halton. My entry was only the second one there. On my second day my old friend Fred Fisher arrived and we were very glad to see each other again. During our first few days there the Mess tables had white tablecloths on them but sorry to say the)! soon disappeared and reverted back to the bare wooden table tops. This course was a very intensive one, delving more deeply into the workings of all kinds of instruments. Also more American equipment was on the agenda, American bombsights and automatic pilots. This was again a course of some three months tuition. The first morning we went to work I wondered what on earth was going on. The air was filled with the sound of marching music. It seemed that every morning the "boys" marched to work with bands playing and that meant everything, pipes, drums - the lot. The same procedure happened again when they returned to their billets in the evening. Halton was a very musical place. I found Halton to be for us an easy going place. We got on with our work and no one interfered with us. Our billets were away from the main buildings and there was no "bull", not at all like the "boys"' environment. One of the lads on the course was named Bell. He came from Sheffield and, of course, he became "Tinker Bell". He was a wizard on the piano so was always in great demand in the N.A.A.F.I. every evening. After the war was over and we all returned to Civvie Street he was on Hughie Green's "Opportunity Knocks". He really was a very good pianist. Time passed by very quickly because the course was very interesting. We were told that by the end of the course we would be qualified Electrical Engineers. There was one aircraft in a field so we were able to get some idea of what it was all about. It was an old Hampden bomber, a death trap if ever there was one. Sometimes we got home on a weekend leave. It all depended on what time we could get away. If we got a train from Aylesbury to Bletchley, which was on the main line from Euston to "Brum ", or alternatively from Aylesbury on the L.N.E.R. line to Rugby and then across the town to the L.M.S line and then on to "Brum", nearly every time in Rugby there would be an air raid in progress. Aylesbury was a nice town, a cinema there, much to our delight. One time we were home on leave my friend Fred got married and I was his best man. That was in December 1941. At the end of the course we had to take a test again and I was very pleased to pass out as AC/l, Group I. That meant that I had now gone up five ranks with, of course, another increase in pay. Once again we were all posted to different units, once again it was goodbye to my friend Fred. I was posted to No 68 Squadron at High Ercall in Shropshire. The nearest town was Wellington, now part of Telford. It was not so very far from home either. I eventually arrived at Crudgington, this the nearest railway station to the airfield. I made my way to the guard room and then reported to the Orderly Room at HQ and was told where my billet was, and the cook house and the N.A.A.F.I. This was a very widely dispersed station. The Mess was quite a way down the lane from the main gate and the hut I was to be in was down the lane from the Mess and then across two fields. This was winter time, cold and wet, so tramping across muddy fields was not so very brilliant. The way to get to work in the mornings was by coach from the Mess. If you missed that it was a walk to the section and a late arrival, which was frowned on. Most of this to-ing and fro-ing was done in the dark. No 68 Squadron was a night fighter unit. It was equipped with a twin engined aircraft, the Bristol Beaufighter. About every fourth night you did night duty crew and, of course, hoped the nights would be quiet ones. But, of course, "Jerry" was over Brum or Liverpool so there was plenty of activity. The Squadron Commander was Max Aitkin, the son of Lord Beaverbrook, and a very experienced and competent pilot. The Beaufighter was a very rugged, strongly built aircraft. It was of all-metal construction with two very powerful engines, namely Bristol Hercules, sleeve valve air-cooled radial engines. It was also the most heavily armed fighter of the war. Four cannons in the nose and six machine guns in the wings and when used as a day fighter it also had a machine gun in the observer's blister. It certainly looked what it was, a destroyer. It had a crew of two, the pilot and an observer/navigator. Later in the war it also carried bombs and a torpedo and later still it was fitted w1th rockets. It was a very formidable machine. I remember when the engines were run up in the darkness the cylinders would glow red. I will now try. to explain how the day's work was carried out. First the Squadron was made up of different units. There were the flights, from where the flying took place, and then there was the maintenance section where all the major inspections were carried out or any really large major servicing was required. |
