Interview with Douglas Harold Killick

British aircraftman served with Royal Air Force in GB, Northern Ireland and Ceylon, 1940-1946

REEL 1 Background in Croydon, GB, 1921-1940: family; education; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; effects of blackout. Recollections of period as aircraftman with Royal Air Force in GB and Northern Ireland, 1940-1945: reasons for volunteering for Royal Air Force, 6/1940; basic training at Blackpool, summer 1940; bathing parades; aircraftman pay; ground defence duties at RAF Hamble, 8/1940-12/1940; sight of Junkers Ju 87 Stuka attack on Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd at Woolston; character of training; sense of impending invasion, summer 1940; listening to radio including Vera Lynn; posting to RAF Weeton for motorcycle course, 1/1941. REEL 2 Continues: posting to RAF Sydenham near Belfast; role as despatch rider for No 82 Group, RAF; question of carrying side-arm, 1941; hazards in doing despatch rider work in Belfast; German Air Force raid on Belfast, 5/1941; rescue of hysterical Women's Auxiliary Air Force aircraftwoman, 5/1941; problems of escorting bodies of Short Stirling bomber crew from Larne to Belfast; use of smoke generators to thwart German Air Force, Belfast, 1941; period in 24th British General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps at Campbell College, Belfast during German Air Force raid, 5/1941; road accident which put him in hospital and court of enquiry about it; posting to motor transport unit at RAF Long Kesh; posting to aircraft observation post at Clough. REEL 3 Continues: sight of King George VI at Clough, 1942; posting to RAF Ballyhalbert; questioning by plain-clothes policeman about using out-of-bounds public house in Clough area; handling of personal possessions of Royal Air Force victim of air accident; application for training as fitter-marine; course at RAF Locking; reaction to Low Moral Fibre gradings in Royal Air Force; posting to marine training school at RAF Corsewall; receiving overseas posting, 5/1945. Aspects of journey from GB to Ceylon, 1945: voyage from GB to Bombay, India via Suez, Egypt; train journey, summer 1945. Aspects of period as aircraftman with Royal Air Force in Ceylon, 1945-1946: preparations for Operation Zipper in Colombo; unrest over demobilisation procedure and rumours of Royal Air Force mutiny. REEL 4 Continues: warning issued by authorities about mutiny; potential Member's of Parliament forum at Odeon Cinema in Colombo and manifestation of demobilisation unrest; handling of ex-Far Eastern Prisoners of War; question of prostitution; return to GB, 1946. Reflections on service with Royal Air Force in Second World War: attitude to having served in Second World War; question of contrast in difference in financial circumstances between servicemen and those in Reserved Occupations; loss of his and his wife's personal possessions by thieves on train; question of how Second World War changed his beliefs.