1961 - 1963
RAF Waddington
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| 1961 - Norfolk Broads John TURNER, Colleen WALKER, Peter THORPE, Barbara WALKER, Pete KITCHIN |
My posting to RAF Waddington came through and I left Halton wondering what the future held. The first thing that happened was that I was contacted whilst on leave and asked to arrive early so that I could play hockey in an important Station match. My reputation had obviously preceded me!
I spent part of my leave on a second holiday on the Norfolk Broads in the six berth ‘Queen of Hearts’. I am indebted to Peter THORPE for providing the photograph telling me that he was there along with his girlfriend Colleen WALKER, her sister Barbara and Pete KITCHIN, who was an 89th Entry pal.
One of the next things that happened was that, because Technical Training Command had come joint top of the Command Hockey Championships that year, there had to be a play-off to decide the ultimate winners. Because I had played in the championships for Technical Training Command I was allowed to play in the play-off even though I was now in Bomber Command. I was awarded my Technical Training Command Colours on 18th May 1961. Oddly enough, I don’t remember winning so maybe we didn’t.
Because I had passed my driving test my Mum bought me my first car. She paid £35 for a 1935 Triumph Gloria. Of its time this was a special car with which I had lots of fun, and heartache. Because so much happened with this car in the short time that I owned it, I have devoted Chapter 9 to it.
I was sent to work in the Electrical Bay along with John BAKER and Ian WARHAM. They got the clean jobs and I got the Vulcan Generators, which were extremely dirty. Working in the Instrument Bay was Frank HARE, so I did know some of those people around me. When I started work in the Bay it was run by a WRAF Sergeant, Mary CUTLER. As time went on, she was replaced by two Chief Technicians and she was sent to the Station Battery Charging Bay.
When we were allocated our accommodation, John BAKER and I found ourselves in Hyderabad Block along with about 20 cooks. Whilst we worked permanent days, except for exercises, they worked around the clock and consequently came and went at all hours of the day and night; this was not conducive to a good night’s sleep, especially as they played cards in the middle of the night. We were eventually found more suitable accommodation in Canberra Block and finally, took over the old WRAF accommodation of Hind Block. I wonder why it didn’t have urinals?
As I have said before, I was an SAC Fitter and I needed to get myself promoted to JT. To do this I had to go to RAF Melksham in Wiltshire to sit the Oral examination again, and again, and possibly again. One of the problems I had was that none of the electrical systems on the Vulcan formed part of the Halton training syllabus so I had to revise everything from notes rather than from any practical experience. I honestly don’t know how many times I attempted it with the same result. The pass mark was 60% and I would achieve something like 55-57% on each occasion. Eventually I was told that I had passed, although I think they got fed up with me and gave it to me for good attendance. RAF Melksham was an old camp and the barracks that we stayed in were old style wooden huts as shown in the photograph. I am indebted to Phil Ridgway for the photo, which is one of several on the RAF Melksham unofficial website. (http://www.rafmelksham.info/).
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| RAF Melksham Hut |
On one occasion when I was there, it was the middle of winter and, as can be see from the photo, the central heating consisted of stoves in the middle of the room. That was all very well if there was anything to burn and we didn’t have much. The consequence of this was that some wooden furniture disappeared. Fortunately nobody did an inventory check when we left.
Frank HARE had a girlfriend, Shirley HILL, who lived in Featherstone, Yorkshire. He also had a car, a Vauxhall 12, but he hadn’t passed his driving test so I used to drive him, in his car, to Featherstone where he would stop off at Shirley’s house and I would continue to Bradford for the weekend. I would then pick him up on the Sunday evening. One day, whilst driving in Bradford I went to change gear and the gear knob came off in my hand, which was slightly disconcerting. Our worst journey came on a very cold winter’s night. There was no heater in the car and as we drove, the inside of the car windows misted up then froze. I remember driving for about 20 miles with my head out of the window with a woollen scarf on my head, meanwhile Frank had his head out of the other window to make sure that I didn’t hit a kerb; about 3 miles from Waddington, I went to change gear and the gearbox stuck in second. Quite a journey. According to Frank, after he had fixed the car, I borrowed it for an urgent trip into Lincoln and ran out of fuel on the way back, leaving it on a grass verge. R.A.F. Waddington then went into a three day exercise and the police contacted Shirley’s parents (the car was registered at their address), wanting to know why the car had been abandoned. I have no recollection of this incident.
I was promoted eventually on 25th February 1963, just a week before Frank got married on 2nd March 1963. I went to the wedding in Featherstone, along with John BAKER. Earlier this year they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary. I have only come across Frank and Shirley a couple of times since we all moved from Waddington; they have been to a couple of 89th Entry reunions and organised one in Chester. The photo shown here, taken at that wedding, shows me wearing the JT’s single upside down stripe. As an aside, upside down stripes indicated technical ranks in those days.
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| 2nd Mar 1963 Frank HARE's Wedding Day |
During this period I carried on working in the Electrical Bay, with a two month spell at First Line. At that time, whilst the aircrew were still divided into squadrons, the ground crew worked on a centralised servicing principle. At some time in 1962, I was sent to work in the Battery Bay, back with Sgt. CUTLER. The reason for this move was the requirement for an Air Electrician to maintain Simstart Trollies. These trollies consisted of twenty one 24 volt aircraft batteries connected to four Engine Start Panels. There were four cables, which connected to NATO connectors in the undercarriage bays. The idea was to have four aircraft ready on the ORP with Simstart trollies connected then at the appropriate signal, start all four engines at one second intervals, whilst the aircrew were still getting into their seats. In theory, the cable should have pulled out when the aircraft started taxiing but that didn’t always happen and it was known for the trolley to follow the aircraft for a short distance, which rather spoiled the idea of getting four aircraft airborne within two minutes. My job was to maintain the control panels, which were the same as those used on the aircraft. This was a comparatively simple job, but if one of the trollies didn’t work, then I had some awkward questions to answer. During this time, I decided to try and improve my education by doing a day release course at Lincoln Technical College with the aim of obtaining a Higher National Certificate in Electrical Engineering. My heart wasn’t in it however and I gave up towards the end of the first year. One of the few things that I remember learning during my time on the course was that the square root of -1 is ‘j’. Very useful for working out problems with transformers apparently.
My hockey career continued, playing for the Station and Bomber Command; in addition, when I went home at weekends I was persuaded, first to play for Bingley Hockey Club and then for Adel, who had just started to play at their new ground, which, for the first time, was actually in Adel. Because of a competition called the Station Commander’s Cup, I also played football, cricket, badminton and in addition did a little athletics as well. In the latter, I once won a set of RAF cufflinks in the 4 x 100 yards race! In social time I also played table tennis and snooker in the NAAFI.
Socially, apart from the NAAFI, friends and I went drinking at the Wheatsheaf or Horse & Jockey in Waddington village or the Bell Inn at Coleby. We did spend some time in Lincoln but not all that much; there was an Indian Restaurant on ‘Steep Hill’ that was a popular haunt. Whilst out one evening with a friend and one of the WRAF girls, this friend decided that it would be good idea to ply this poor girl with far more alcohol than was necessary. The result of this was that we had to virtually carry her from Waddington village to the camp. Outside the main gate was a bus shelter and here she passed out. As I didn’t have an available car, I left the pair of them and ran into camp, woke John BAKER and begged the use of his car. I then went back out and with considerable difficulty got Mary into the car; difficult because this was a Morris Minor we are talking about. We then drove to the WRAF Block and were fortunate enough to be able to attract the attention of one of the girls who managed to get her safely in and to bed. I should point out I suppose that the WRAF Block was ‘Out of Bounds’ to us boys, and the doors into it were locked.
The winter of 1962/1963 was probably the coldest I have ever encountered and the snow just would not go away. There was an ongoing problem in trying to keep Waddington airfield open so that QRA aircraft could be launched in case the Russians attacked. Waddington had an MRD, which was a Jet Engine mounted on a chassis and driven by large tractors or Fuel Bowsers. We also used Sicards, which were towed by tractors and had large brushes at the front which forced the snow into a compartment; the snow was then ejected using a blower and could be either thrown off the side of the runway or loaded into a truck alongside. Even with this equipment there was still plenty of snow shovelling to do for us. I clearly remember that the mechanical equipment had got the snow off the runway, but, in the process had buried the runway lighting. The Jet Engined MRD was always likely to melt the tarmac if not moving quickly enough, but most often it left the tarmac wet; this promptly froze leaving yet another problem. The ice needed to be melted. We used Urea because we couldn’t use salt due to its corrosive effects on metal.
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1962 - Yorkshire Dales
Me & Maureen DDOLEY
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In 1962, John BAKER and I decided to go on a summer holiday together and we somehow decided on the Devon Coast Country Club at Paignton in Devon. We left Waddington on Friday evening and drove in John’s Morris Minor, PYG 913, to his home in Shirley, Surrey. Because we knew that there was always a problem navigating around Exeter we left his home at about midnight. We had been going about an hour when the engine stopped. Having opened the bonnet and thumped the electric fuel pump, it ticked away for a while, which meant that we could start going again but not for long as the contacts kept on sticking. After some more stops and restarts, we spotted a garage with a light on and stopped, only to find out that the only two people in were a night watchman and a policeman with his dog. Nevertheless, we told them of our problem at which point the policeman asked the night watchman when a Morris Minor in the corner was due out. Obviously he got a satisfactory answer because he then wandered across took the fuel pump contacts out and gave them to us. We replaced ours, left the old ones behind, started up and didn’t have any further problems. Aren’t policemen wonderful? Now I have to say that I have recently spoken to John about this incident and he tells me that it wasn’t the fuel pump that was the problem but a broken carburettor needle. As the car was his, I suppose that he should know but that is not how I remember it so I have left my version in the story. John does agree about the outcome, i.e. a policeman helped to fix it.
I cannot speak for John but I enjoyed that holiday. I seem to think that the weather was kind to us, which was useful as even the swimming pool was outdoors. The restaurant was fairly formal with us dressing in shirts and ties and the pianist playing ‘There’s a Small Hotel’ as we went in. The tables were mostly for four people so we always had to share, but the organisers matched us two boys with two girls for each of the two weeks. On the second week, we became very friendly with twin sisters Meryl and Veronica WALDEN. Both of them were very good ballroom dancers and we were often the first on the floor, John with Meryl and Veronica with me. John and Meryl were very good at jiving but I am afraid that it wasn’t one of my accomplishments and I never did learn. As it happened, the girls lived in Kent so were reasonably close to John’s parents. John continued to see Meryl after the holiday was over, the upshot of which was that we all arranged to do the same holiday in the following Summer. At the time there was no problem for me because I didn’t have a girlfriend, but this holiday was to cause me some grief before it was over as will be explained in chapter 11.
It would have been during these years that, having lost the use of my own car, I borrowed Mum’s car to visit Bill and Mary HEWSON in Beverley, East Yorkshire. About half way there, I heard a strange knocking sound and, having stopped, I realised the there was no oil in the engine so I was going no further. I have no excuse for not checking the oil before I started and there was no oil pressure gauge or warning light on that car, which didn’t help. I rang home and Pop came out in his car and towed me back to Bradford. It was winter, snowy, very cold and not a pleasant journey. Obviously I was not very good at looking after cars and I was particularly embarrassed at this occurrence.
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