They Didn”T Just Drop from a Cloud
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
o o D [J ... by George Oliver 0 0 0 0 --. 0 ] \ D - - {] - .. 0 # 0 . - .. .. [r , . 0 ~, - 0 , ...--- ... ~CJnttnt5 Irrren~i)(- Avlt/i.17r51{17te5 ,Z. rt"ljin~ Trt\-inin~ in We5tern Avl5trt\-tit\ ? Set\- t17W t\-r 1? rt "ljin~ Trt\-inin~ u1G ;::.y :ffet\-v"Ij ~17nver5i17n unit .?7 Srec.it\-t ()rerMiI7n51r~t\-in5t tti-e. I-nefn"lj b? Tti-e."f:,t\-ttte 17/Irrnti-e.fn '[7 Se'J!:let t17tti-e. :ff17ttt\-n~ c.rt\-5/i.. 11? Sc.reene~ -- 1bbf :ffet\-v"Ij~17nver5i17nunit 1+1 ()ur rt\-fnitu5 T17uc.ti-e.~P"IjW t\-r 1+'[ Ir~~en~u fn .1f? ~17nc.tu5i17n .1f? "f:,ipti17~rt\-r/i."Ij .1fb C1ttOJ:'fTtt /? Ohvttr llfL 0 Chttva.littr dtt .Ill £4gi011- d7£O;zmttur 1 My decision to write this story after all these years was the result of meeting up with old Air Force mates, including members of my wartime crew, and the interesting discussions we had about our experiences many people have told me that these stories should be told, to pass on to our descendants. Another incident, on a visit to the old Roman Baths in the city of Bath in the UK helped motivate me. I saw a slab of stone on which a Roman soldier had inscribed his name and the number of his Legion. I have always been interested in reading Roman history whish is mainly about the famous. I looked at this stone and thought how interesting it would be to get into the head of this ordinary Roman solider and see his personal story. This is my personal story, which includes the training from Tiger Moth to Operations, and some relevant history. A Welsh Squadron mate of mine was telling me about some books he had read about a variety of airborne operations including SO£. He said "The people were dropped here there and everywhere, but we didn't get much of a mention George, you would think they just dropped out of a cloud" we had a bit of a laugh about that and on reflection I decided to Call my Story.- Most families of my parents and my Generation were touched by War. In World War 2 the vast majority of people in the combatant nations were involved in some way as it evolved in to what was described the "Total War". The whole of the adult population worked at something in support of the war effort. Families were separated for years, often without news of loved ones. My mother had no news of dad from when Singapore fell until the end of the war, as did many other wives and mothers. I know she worried about my welfare too. My younger brother Ron was a member of the Air Training Corps as were many other youngsters. Jeans family was deeply involved; with Frank in the Army, Charles a P.O.Win Changi and John in the R.A.F... Sister Jess served with the Guide International service. Jean and her other three sisters were in CivilDefence. Jean's dad who served in the Army in World War 1 was a keen gardener and he grew vegetables in large plot near by "Digging for Victory" it was called. 2 The Royal Australian Air force was formed in 1921, the same year in which I was born and in 1939 when I became of military age World War 2 started and Australia soon became involved. The news we received was disturbing and a variety of steps were being taken by the Government to put the country on a war footing. Many goods were brought under a rationing scheme and the Armed Services were seeking recruits. On the 6th of August 1940, my Dad joined the AIF and some months later, I applied to join the Air force. Mum was quite concerned but realised, as did Mums all over the world that events outside our control were such that we had little choice but to fight back. Soon after a letter arrived, in response to my application instructing me to attend an interview, where I was asked if I had a preference of categories in the Air force. With my building experience, I suggested perhaps I would be suitable for work on airframes. After a lot of questions and discussions, I was asked if I had considered aircrew training. I told them I was very keen to do that but did not think I had the required education standard and they sent me for a variety of tests both physical and mental. Then I was told that there was a correspondence course I could do which would enable me to apply for aircrew training. I was very keen to do that and the goal at that time was to become an Air force pilot, which seemed a bit of a pipe dream. A friend of mine Max Hubbard was in the same situation so we got together and spent all our spare time at study together. This went on for a few months and early 1941 I was called in for a medical and other examination, which I passed and became a member of the Air force Reserve on the 29th March 1941. Max was in the same situation so we continued with our studies including the Morse code, which was widely used in the communications of the time. I had been told after a test to see if we could tell whether signals sent in pairs were the same or different, that I might have trouble with Morse, so I acquired a Morse Key for Max and I to practice. It was all good fun as we waited for the day of our call up. At last, on the 14th September 1941 we were transported to RAAF Pearce, which then included number 5 Initial Training School as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme. We were soon issued with uniforms and our blue overalls, which were to be worn on our station activities. This was followed by various needles to provide protection on our anticipated travels. We also had to make our Wills, which seemed to us rather ominous, but being young, we joked about it. I left all my worldly goods, which consisted of a motor bike, a few tools and clothes to Mum. We then began the course, which included the inevitable Drill and ground subjects-Theory of Flight-Navigation-Meteorology-Morse Code-Math's - Pyrotechnics-Weapons-to my memory, and there may have been others. This Course took about twelve weeks and concluded with examinations and the separation into groups according to which type of training we were to undertake, I was grouped with others who were to be trained as pilots and I was very pleased and relieved as I had set my heart on this. Initial Training School had been very enjoyable to me as I found the subjects very interesting and I had made some new friends, including Bob Pots-Tom Scotland -Jim Mudie- Lyndsay Fairclough and of course, Max Hubbard was on Course too. It was my experience in Service life that when a lot of young men 3 found themselves together it was not long before special friends were made who tended to get about together. Navigation was my favourite subject. I had studied Architectural Drawing at Perth Tech and I enjoyed again using the drawing instruments doing air plots in the basics. Aircraft Recognition was another subject, which was done by flashing silhouettes of aircraft on to a white screen. The aircraft were from all the combatant countries and there were a lot of them. We had to name them and give the wingspan, which was necessary for estimating the range of an attacking aircraft through a gun sight. I am not sure if our air gunners found this useful on operations or not. Pilots in WWl did not use oxygen and there was a perception among some old Pilots and also us young men that to use oxygen was pansy, so we were submitted to a test in a decompression chamber to prove the importance of using it. We sat in the chamber with oxygen masks on all except one person and then had to write our name in our best copperplate style. The air pressure was then reduced in stages. At each stage, we had to write our name and the pressure was taken down to represent 30 thousand feet. The pressure then returned to normal and we compared our writing at the various stages the writing with those wearing masks was OK but the other got worse at each stage and was just unreadable at the higher stages. This test convinced ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE us all of the necessities of oxygen. We were told that the enemy would be using it. It was obvious that we would be at a disadvantage without it. As it turned out for me later, most of my operational flying was done at low level and we did not have RAAF BASE PEARCE oxygen in our aircraft. More of NUMBER 5 INITIAL TRAINING SCHOOL that much later. I EMPIRE AIR TRAINING SCHEME do not know if this test was continued because it soon became an accepted fact that oxygen was essential. We had gas masks and we were walked through a chamber full of tear gas twice-once with the mask on and once without it, and I suppose it was to show that the mask worked and also nobody liked carrying these masks around, Later in the war it seemed unlikely that gas would be used and I don't recall having a mask.