Description
Object description
Two volumes of entertaining memoirs, with few dates, recording his active service with the RAF as an NCO in the Auxiliary Air Force (AAF) in the UK, France, India and Burma (March 1938 – January 1946), including joining the AAF (March 1938) aged seventeen and serving as a Trainee Air Gunner with No 615 Squadron RAF at RAF Kenley (March 1938 - ?September 1939), which flew the Hawker Hector as an Army Co-operation Squadron, and at Merville and Vitre in France (?September 1939 – early 1940); retraining as an armourer at RAF Manby in Lincolnshire (early 1940 – ?August 1940); re-joining and serving in the Armoury with No 615 Squadron at RAF Kenley (?August 1940) and then RAF Pestwick in Ayrshire, Scotland, RAF Northholt, RAF Anglesey, RAF Manston, RAF Angle and RAF Fairwood Common in South Wales (no dates); embarkation overseas in the troopship JOHAN VAN OLDENBARNEVELT (no dates) to India via Cape Town, South Africa; active service with No 615 Squadron RAF flying Hurricanes in Bengal, India and Burma (no dates); serving with an unnamed refuel and rearm unit in the Naga Hills and at Dimapur and Imphal (no dates); the RAF Service Commando in Calcutta and then Burma (1942 – late 1944), notably servicing the Mosquito, B25 and Dakota in support of the 5th and 7th Indian Divisions in the Arakan and at Imphal; as Sergeant armourer with No 113 Squadron RAF flying Hurricane fighter-bombers in the reconquest of Burma (late 1944 - 1945); being invalided to hospital (1945) and then the UK with Tropical Sprue and malaria until demobilisation (January 1946); and commenting on RAF life, his training as an air gunner, his first flight, his off-duty entertainment, the conditions, celebrating Christmas (1939), the destruction caused by drunken American air force soldiers, his adventures with various snakes, the famine in Bengal, and his treatment for dysentery, malaria, and dengue fever.
Content description
Two volumes of entertaining memoirs, with few dates, recording his active service with the RAF as an NCO in the Auxiliary Air Force (AAF) in the UK, France, India and Burma (March 1938 – January 1946), including joining the AAF (March 1938) aged seventeen and serving as a Trainee Air Gunner with No 615 Squadron RAF at RAF Kenley (March 1938 - ?September 1939), which flew the Hawker Hector as an Army Co-operation Squadron, and at Merville and Vitre in France (?September 1939 – early 1940); retraining as an armourer at RAF Manby in Lincolnshire (early 1940 – ?August 1940); re-joining and serving in the Armoury with No 615 Squadron at RAF Kenley (?August 1940) and then RAF Pestwick in Ayrshire, Scotland, RAF Northholt, RAF Anglesey, RAF Manston, RAF Angle and RAF Fairwood Common in South Wales (no dates); embarkation overseas in the troopship JOHAN VAN OLDENBARNEVELT (no dates) to India via Cape Town, South Africa; active service with No 615 Squadron RAF flying Hurricanes in Bengal, India and Burma (no dates); serving with an unnamed refuel and rearm unit in the Naga Hills and at Dimapur and Imphal (no dates); the RAF Service Commando in Calcutta and then Burma (1942 – late 1944), notably servicing the Mosquito, B25 and Dakota in support of the 5th and 7th Indian Divisions in the Arakan and at Imphal; as Sergeant armourer with No 113 Squadron RAF flying Hurricane fighter-bombers in the reconquest of Burma (late 1944 - 1945); being invalided to hospital (1945) and then the UK with Tropical Sprue and malaria until demobilisation (January 1946); and commenting on RAF life, his training as an air gunner, his first flight, his off-duty entertainment, the conditions, celebrating Christmas (1939), the destruction caused by drunken American air force soldiers, his adventures with various snakes, the famine in Bengal, and his treatment for dysentery, malaria, and dengue fever.
History note
Cataloguer SJO