Description
Object description
Ts account (44pp) based on his recollections of his wartime service with the RAF, describing enlisting at the age of 16 (February 1941), his ITW at the SFTS at South Cerney, near Cirencester, pilot training at RAF Desford in Leicestershire, RAF Kidlington in Oxfordshire, RAF Cranwell and RAF Cranfield in Bedfordshire, his posting to No 418 Squadron RCAF at Bradwell Bay in Essex (August 1942), where he flew Intruder IIs on operations over France (December 1942 - June 1943) and where he met his future wife (a WRAF whom he married in 1947), the squadron's move to Ford in Sussex, before his posting to the Far East (September 1943 - September 1945), which he believed was due to the CO wanting No 418 Squadron to be solely Canadian, flying operations over Burma with No 27 Squadron, India Command, based at Agartala in Bengal, and then Parashuram (January - July 1944), with No 82 Squadron at Kolar in Bangalore (July - October 1944) and finally with No 45 Squadron at Kumbhirigram in the Himalayas (October 1944 - June 1945), commenting on the general disorganisation within the RAF and unrealistic expectations at the higher echelons, his two week journey to India (September 1943) when he had to find his own route flying a mosquito and was only one of two of the six aircraft which left England to make it, life in the jungle, the shock of the sudden death of his mother back home (February 1944), the intensification of operations against the Japanese in early 1945, his completion of 75 sorties throughout the war and belief that dangerous raids were unfairly allocated to him as he was an NCO, and his subsequent discharge on medical grounds on his return to England.
Content description
Ts account (44pp) based on his recollections of his wartime service with the RAF, describing enlisting at the age of 16 (February 1941), his ITW at the SFTS at South Cerney, near Cirencester, pilot training at RAF Desford in Leicestershire, RAF Kidlington in Oxfordshire, RAF Cranwell and RAF Cranfield in Bedfordshire, his posting to No 418 Squadron RCAF at Bradwell Bay in Essex (August 1942), where he flew Intruder IIs on operations over France (December 1942 - June 1943) and where he met his future wife (a WRAF whom he married in 1947), the squadron's move to Ford in Sussex, before his posting to the Far East (September 1943 - September 1945), which he believed was due to the CO wanting No 418 Squadron to be solely Canadian, flying operations over Burma with No 27 Squadron, India Command, based at Agartala in Bengal, and then Parashuram (January - July 1944), with No 82 Squadron at Kolar in Bangalore (July - October 1944) and finally with No 45 Squadron at Kumbhirigram in the Himalayas (October 1944 - June 1945), commenting on the general disorganisation within the RAF and unrealistic expectations at the higher echelons, his two week journey to India (September 1943) when he had to find his own route flying a mosquito and was only one of two of the six aircraft which left England to make it, life in the jungle, the shock of the sudden death of his mother back home (February 1944), the intensification of operations against the Japanese in early 1945, his completion of 75 sorties throughout the war and belief that dangerous raids were unfairly allocated to him as he was an NCO, and his subsequent discharge on medical grounds on his return to England.
History note
Cataloguer KM
History note
Catalogue date 2006-01-25