Description
Object description
Memoir (47pp ts) recalling his experiences as a Scottish 17-year old at the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, enlistment into the 131st Field Regiment RA (TA) at Glasgow, basic army training and home defence duties in the south of England during the summer of 1940, volunteering for transfer to the RAF in early 1941, elementary flying training at Reading and Swindon prior to further training at Swift Current, Saskatchewan (Canada), during April – August 1942 in Harvards, and return to the UK for advanced flying training, joining the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit (MSFU) at RAF Speke in January 1943 for Sea Hurricane training in preparation for deployment to Catapult Aircraft Merchant (CAM) ships, his subsequent service in this capacity in the SS EMPIRE DARWIN on convoy to North Africa, May 1943, engaging with a Focke Wulf 200 'Kondor' on the return journey (includes a copy of his personal combat report for this incident), before transferring to 609 (West Riding) Squadron at the end of 1943 flying Typhoons from RAF Manston, moving to Thorney Island in April 1944 as part of 123 Wing TAF, being shot down over northern France in May 1944 and evading capture on the 'escape lines' in the countryside and in Paris before being apprehended by the Germans in the capital (as the result of the activities of an infiltrated Gestapo agent), spending the rest of the war as a POW in Buchenwald and Stalag Luft III (Sagan).
Content description
Memoir (47pp ts) recalling his experiences as a Scottish 17-year old at the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, enlistment into the 131st Field Regiment RA (TA) at Glasgow, basic army training and home defence duties in the south of England during the summer of 1940, volunteering for transfer to the RAF in early 1941, elementary flying training at Reading and Swindon prior to further training at Swift Current, Saskatchewan (Canada), during April – August 1942 in Harvards, and return to the UK for advanced flying training, joining the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit (MSFU) at RAF Speke in January 1943 for Sea Hurricane training in preparation for deployment to Catapult Aircraft Merchant (CAM) ships, his subsequent service in this capacity in the SS EMPIRE DARWIN on convoy to North Africa, May 1943, engaging with a Focke Wulf 200 'Kondor' on the return journey (includes a copy of his personal combat report for this incident), before transferring to 609 (West Riding) Squadron at the end of 1943 flying Typhoons from RAF Manston, moving to Thorney Island in April 1944 as part of 123 Wing TAF, being shot down over northern France in May 1944 and evading capture on the 'escape lines' in the countryside and in Paris before being apprehended by the Germans in the capital (as the result of the activities of an infiltrated Gestapo agent), spending the rest of the war as a POW in Buchenwald and Stalag Luft III (Sagan).
History note
Cataloguer SWW