Halifax on November 15, 1943

On board the Mauritania and on our way to England

We left Liverpool by train and went down to Brighton where we were accommodated in Brent’s Hotel.Had some months to fill in before going on squadron and during this time I took two courses.The first was a Commando course at Sidmouth in Devon.Here we were taught to use rifles, sten guns, revolvers and how to throw hand grenades.The marching was brutal.Twenty miles per day with a pack on our backs.Final test was a mock battle between two halves of the course, with live bullets being fired at us by our instructors during the action.All day out there in the blazing sun.The final outcome was a draw.Beautiful country down in Devon.Introduced to Devonshire cream!

Back to Brighton.Every night now, German bombers came over us on their way to bomb London and, if they had any bombs left, they dropped them on Brighton.One of our course was out in the open during an air raid, took his girlfriend into a sheltering doorway, a bomb exploded nearby and the girl was killed by a sliver of glass.Very dangerous times.We were expected to man the Bofors guns along the waterfront to protect the hotels from low flying aircraft.I only had one chance with our crew to shoot down a plane but it went over us so fast that we just didn’t have time to aim and fire.

March 25, 1944

Number 2 AFU, Millom, Cumberland

This was another course on bombing using Ansons.We used cameras instead of bombs.We flew around England navigating and bombing different targets and being assessed on

our navigational ability and the accuracy of our bombing.Along with this, we had lectures and, at the end of the course, an exam to rate us on our knowledge of bombing, the bombsight and aircraft recognition.

March 30, 1944Whitehaven – Kalso – Stranraer – Haltwhistle

April 6, 1944Whitehaven – Kalso – Turnberry- Whithorn – Whitehaven

April 9, 1944Menai – Larne – Whithorn – Whitehaven

April 10, 1944Menai

April 11, 1944Lurgan – Port Ellen – Mull of Galloway

April 12, 1944Bardsley – Skulmartin – Point of Ayre

Much flying experience in Ansons during this period.No trouble taking over controls when instructor advised of my previous experience.

We flew 20 hours day and 20 hours night exercises.I topped the course much to the disgust of several of the others.

Back to Brighton

May 15, 1944

Posted to No.11 OTU (Operational Training Unit), Oakley/Westcott

Now we graduated to heavy bombers and began our operational training.The aircraft were Wellington Mk.10 bombers equipped with all of the gear that we would use on operations.Our first exercise was to form ourselves into a crew and, for that, I began looking for a likely skipper.I had noticed an Aussie pilot (Robbie Robertson) on the course and suggested that I team up with him.We together, selected the other members of the crew, Frank Aspden, the Navigator, Reg Churcher, the Wireless Operator, Harry Mullett, the Rear Gunner and Dennis Outhwaite, the Mid-Upper Gunner.We had one month's intensive training in which I flew sometimes with Robbie and sometimes with other pilots.Once again I managed to obtain a considerable amount of flying time on this aircraft.We did circuits and bumps, (takeoff, circuit and land) with and without Robbie, both dual and solo and, in between, did some high level bombing and some fighter affiliation.

We spent 25 hours day and 20 hours night on exercises. And then we went on to Westcott where we did the same thing all over again.Here, it was a little different; we did a fair amount of cross-country flying, both day and night.We spent a further 18 hours day and 20 hours night on exercises.By this time we were all very familiar with the aircraft and it’s equipment.One experience I had with F/Lt Hogg.The undercarriage on the aircraft would not go down, so, while I flew the aircraft around, F/Lt Hogg went aft and cranked the wheels down by hand, took about ½ hour and he was all in after the exercise. 

August 15, 1944

After some weeks of leave we were posted to:

No.1651 CU (Conversion Unit), Wratting Common

The aircraft, here, were Stirlings and again, more cross country, both with and without Robbie as the pilot.Here we had an aircraft, which had only one fault, it was difficult to get off the ground.With four 1650 horsepower Bristol Hercules radial engines swinging huge propellers it took the combined efforts of Robbie and I to keep the plane on the runway on takeoff. Robbie had to keep the plane straight while I manipulated the throttles to counteract the tremendous torque generate by those engines. Once in the air it was really a beautiful aircraft to fly, just slid along through the air like a well tuned racing car. Landings were not quite as bad as engines were throttled back, but again, due to the tremendous length of the undercarriage, it was difficult to judge height above ground.We spent one month here, 25 hours day and 20 hours night, before we went on to: