Description
Object description
British NCO served as signaller with 953 Balloon Sqdn in GB, 1940-1942; served with 18 Sqdn RAF in GB, North Africa, Sicily and Italy, 1942-1945; served with 43 Sqdn RAF in Austria, 1945-1946
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Manchester, 1920-1940: family; education; employment; reaction to outbreak of war, 3/Sep/1939; question of joining Territorial Army; enlistment with RAF, 6/1940; selection procedure. Aspects of period with 935 Balloon Sqdn RAF in GB, 1940-1942: basic training at Padgate; posted to Balloon Centre, Caerau. Wales; posted to 953 Balloon Sdqn; description and function of balloons; area covered; role on switchboard liaising between balloon sites; description of switchboard equipment; shifts; location of telephone exchange; description of operations room; nature of messages; question of height of balloons; memory of German air raids and box barrage; role of Post Office in maintenance of telephone lines and exchange; promoted leading aircraftman and role in charge of switch room; accommodation; attitude to discipline; relations with local civilians; promoted corporal and nature of duties; problem of working with WAAF NCO; story of being posted to 18 Sqdn RAF, 5/1942. Aspects of period as signaller with 18 Sqdon RAF, West Rainham, 5-10/1942: role of squadron; description of equipment.
REEL 2 Continues: nature of duties in switch room and working with aircraft; question of training on switchboard; issued with tropical kit and khaki battledress; question of wearing American flashes; problem of smell of battledress; story of journey to Scotland and embarkation from Greenock aboard Arundel Castle; accommodation; personnel aboard ship; opinion of sleeping in hammock; problem of seasickness; description of voyage to Algiers, 10/1942. Recollections of operations with 18 Sqdn RAF in North Africa, 11/1942-7/1943: transportation; billets in Botanical Gardens; attitude of local civilians to British; posted to airfield at Blida; opinion of accommodation; reaction to being under fire; role in charge of working parties transporting fuel and bombs; activities of 18 Sqdn; description of setting up telephone system; story of obtaining equipment from Americans.
REEL 3 Continues: comparison of US and British telephone equipment; description of plug boards and cable; problem of faults on lines and sabotage; role of R/T operator in stacking aircraft; personnel in operations room; construction of control towers; attitude to accommodation in tents; opinion of rations and messing arrangements; story of food recovered from sea; diet.
REEL 4 Continues: problem of sores healing; problem of chloride in water; story of beer; attitude to climate; memories of CO including death in action; question of casualties and loss of aircraft in 18 Sqdn; story of South African CO; memory of black pilot; description of switch room and equipment; problem of German air raids and repairing runway; question of friendly fire incidents involving US Air Force; air raid shelter in slit trench; relations with air crew; number of aircraft in squadron; story of being caught in crossfire on airfield; relations with infantry.
REEL 5 Continues: memory of visits by King George V1, Churchill, Eden and Trenchard. Aspects of operations with 18 Sqdn RAF in Sicily, and Italy, 7/1943-4/1945: posted to airfield in Catania Plains; description of conditions; problem of unburied corpses; daily routine and duties on various airfields in Italy; opinion of Italians; story of Italian partisans; description of German surrender and armistice; posted to 43 Sqdn RAF, 4/1945. Aspects of period with 43 Sqdn RAF in Austria, 1945-1946: posted to Klagenfurt and role as part of army of occupation; nature of duties; story of minefield; problem of laying cables; question of fraternization with civilians; story of damage caused by Russian troops; demobilised, 7/1946.