Description
Object description
British apprentice rigger served with No 1 School of Technical Training, RAF at RAF Halton, GB, 1930-1932; aircraftman served with 204 Sqdn, RAF at RAF Mount Batten, GB, 1932-1934; NCO served with 203 Sqdn, RAF in Iraq and Aden Protectorate, 1934-1938; served with 60 Sqdn, RAF in India, 1938; served as instructor at RAF Locking, GB, 1939
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as apprentice rigger with No 1 School of Technical Training, RAF at RAF Halton, GB, 1930-1932: background to enlistment as apprentice, 1930; initial impressions; discipline; role of leading boy; room inspections; defaulters' punishment duties; system of leading boys; incident of voyeurism and its punishment; choice of trades; training as metal rigger.
REEL 2 Continues: building aircraft as part of training; general education; examinations and passing out as aircraftman first class. Recollections of period as aircraftman with 204 Sqdn at RAF Mount Batten, GB, 1932-1934: posting to squadron; promotion to leading aircraftman; initial prolonged splicing duty; team spirit amongst riggers; pay; story of aircraftman whose pay was docked to pay for wife's debts; relations between other ranks and officers; daily routine; memories of T E Lawrence serving with Marine Section.
REEL 3 Continues: degree of knowledge about T E Lawrence's background; T E Lawrence's appearance; unpopularity of breeches and puttees; location of RAF Mount Batten; accommodation and daily inspections; character of Supermarine Southampton flying boats; problems of corrosion and method of dealing with it; problems with water seepage; daily inspection routine; flights as crew member and duties on take off and landing.
REEL 4 Continues: air gunner duties; bombing practice and accuracy; operating Lewis Gun on flying boats; lectures on King's Regulations and education; role of squadron in testing sound detection equipment, 1934; preparations for visit by Prince of Wales; further details on sound detection tests; supply dropping and refuelling at sea exercises; sea conditions for landing; preparations for overseas posting to Iraq. Recollections of period as NCO with 203 Sqdn, RAF in Iraq and Aden Protectorate, 1934-1938: troopship voyage from GB to Iraq.
REEL 5 Continues: impressions of Basra, Iraq; initial loss of air crew status and pay; duties repairing crashed De Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth; temperature and isolation at Basra, Iraq; character of move to Aden Protectorate during Abyssinian Crisis, 1935; opinion of Short Rangoon Flying Boat; flight to GB to replace squadron's Short Rangoons with Short Singapore Flying Boats; refuelling in Red Sea using Zwicky Pump; role cooking on board aircraft; incident in Greece illustrating British prestige; character of Short Singapore Flying Boat.
REEL 6 Continues: return to Aden Protectorate via Alexandria, Egypt; mooring accident whilst visiting HMS Norfolk at Perim Island, Aden Protectorate; beaching incident at Malta; health in Aden Protectorate; accommodation, facilities and moorings in Aden Protectorate; relations with civilians in Aden Protectorate; account of return of squadron to Basra, Iraq via Alexandria, Egypt, 7/1936 including forced landing in Dead Sea, Palestine.
REEL 7 Continues: emergency repairs and overnight protection from Transjordan Frontier Force; RAF dispositions in Iraq; supplies carried; anti-slavery patrols in Persian Gulf; visiting wireless station at Muscat, Oman; carrying Air Officer Commanding Iraq Command Christopher Courtney on fishing trip; entertaining sheikhs on flying boat; reinforcement exercises to Singapore, Malaya; signing on for third year in Iraq; attending summer camp at Kurdistan, Iraq, 1937; camouflaging of aircraft; grounding on sandbank near Allahabad, India and damage to oil tanks during forced landing at Udaipur, India during return journey from Singapore, Malaya, 1938.
REEL 8 Continues: story of flying boat running aground and recovery at Ras Al Khaimah, Trucial States; reasons for not wearing parachutes. Aspects of period as NCO with 60 Sqdn, RAF in India, 1938: posting to squadron and loss of flying crew status; contracting sandfly fever; news of expansion of Royal Air Force in GB; reaction to standby due to Munich Crisis, 9/1938; return to GB and promotion. Aspects of period as NCO instructor at RAF Locking, GB, 1939: role as instructor; training Fleet Air Arm personnel; effects of expansion; reaction to outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; memories of troops returning from Dunkirk Evacuation, 5/1940-6/1940.