Description
Object description
British aircraftsman trained as pilot with RAF in GB and Canada, 1942- 1944; officer served with 131 Coastal Operational Training Unit in Northern Ireland, 1944-1945; 230 Sqdn, RAF in Far East, 1945-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Penrith, GB, 1923-1942: family; education; early interest in aviation; attending course with Air Training Corps at Durham University, 4/1942- 9/1942; origins of post-war academic interests; character of Penrith; life in Cumbria during 1920s-1930s; degree of awareness of situation in Europe; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939.
REEL 2 Continues: opinion of organisation of RAF training programme; employment; RAF casualties and service of his schoolfriends. Aspects of period as air cadet with Air Training Corps at Durham Light Infantry, 4/1942-9/1942: further details of course with Air Training Corps at Durham University, 4/1942-9/1942; construction of water tank at Durham at time of Baedecker Raids, 1942; syllabus. Recollections of period as aircraftsman and officer with RAF in GB and Canada, 1942-1943: period at Air Crew Reception Centre at St John's Wood; grading of pilots and navigators; start of flying training at 28 Elementary Flying Training School, Wolverhampton.
REEL 3 Continues: familiarisation with aircraft; taking off, circuiting and landing; character of De Havilland Tiger Moth; spinning; use of Fairchild Cornell; training in Canada; local Canadian newspapers; reading material; contact with home; steep turns; reception on arrival at 32 Standard Flying Training School at Bowden; opinion of Airspeed Oxford; attitude to allocation to twin engined aircraft; training at 1 General Reconnaissance School on Prince Edward Island.
REEL 4 Continues: training at 1 Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Panshanger; training at RAF Little Rissington; story of obtaining flights to and from Cumbria with Air Transport Auxiliary; method of approaching buoy in Short Sunderland. Aspects of period as pilot with 131 Coastal Operational Training Unit in Northern Ireland, 1944-1945: allocation to flying boat training, 12/1944; impressions on arrival at Killadeas; role as second pilot; operational training exercises; navigational drills used; character of Short Sunderland; flight control system of Consolidated Catalina.
REEL 5 Continues: layout of Short Sunderland cockpit; care of design of Short Sunderland; comfortable nature of flights and range; contact with civilians; trip to Dublin; drogue aircraft that crashed in southern Ireland; VE Day celebrations, 5/1945. Recollections of period as pilot with 230 Sqdn, RAF in Far East, 1945-1946: description of flight from GB to India, 7/1945; role of Special Duties Flight; plan to recover ditched pilots from sea.
REEL 6 Continues: hearing of atomic bomb drops; move to Singapore, Malaya, 8/1945; flights to and from Singapore; move to Labuan Island in Borneo; return flight to GB, 4/1946; demobilisation and return to civilian life; relations between civilians and British in Singapore; attitude towards Germans and Japanese.