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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0742.PDF
332 FLIGHT (Left) S/L A. G.Doug/as, manager at Redhill when No.,15 E.&R.F.T.S. opened and CO. at Carlisle in 1940; and S/L. F. S. Homersham, who succeeded him there. (Right) J. P. O'Hara, chief engineer, and E. Parker, one of his trusty henchmen. RESERVE-SCHOOL RECOLLECTIONS... in the morning and again on their return; unhappily, the second evaluation were usually less than the first. On one evening we saw a number of Hurricanes coming in from the south-east, escorting sundry Bombays and Ensigns. Possibly, we then thought, the evacuation of Important Personages—but later we learned that it was probably a squadron returning from its erstwhile Con tinental base, complete with ground crews and spares. Gone also, were our peaceful nights for, although we were not at that time disturbed by enemy raiders, there were multitudinous signals from "Group." which usually arrived in the middle of the night marked "Urgent" and which, when opened, were found to contain such things as promotions of N.C.O.s. One night, how ever, an order to disperse all aircraft on to the airfield arrived about midnight, to be put into operation at once. Only the CO., die orderly officer and the pupils were available, the instructors and others all being billeted widely around the neighbourhood; so those on the spot had to remove the 40-odd aircraft from the hangars, in pitch darkness, and taxi them to places round the perimeter of the landing area, all of which they did without mishap. Came the "Glorious First of June," and the sight of the many trains, travelling almost guard's van to engine, on the main line which passed the aerodrome; they stretched for miles down the line and wherever they stopped the troops therein were greeted by everyone who was near. We flew over low and received waves from the carriage windows. (At least, we thought that the troops were waving, but we afterwards discovered that they may have been shaking their fists, as it was thought at the time that the R.A.F. had let down the troops at Dunkirk.) Later in the day things really began to happen. Some time previously, the CO. had been told that he must hold himself in readiness to move the unit to a safer position should occasion arise, but he had always been given to understand that several weeks' notice would be given. Consequently it came as some thing of a shock when he was summoned to "Command" to be told that No. 15 E.F.T.S. was to evacuate itself in its entirety to Kingstown, Carlisle, and be working there in three days' time! Sunday, June 2nd, was spent in frantic preparation, and during the day the Junior Course went off by coach, as did our baggage. Later, Lysanders of No. 16 Squadron, which was to take our place at the aerodrome, began to arrive. Fortunately, all but one of the school aircraft were serviceable, so early on the morning of the 3rd these were made ready for the move to Carlisle, which was to be flown in two stages, with a stop at Shawbury to refuel. The armada took-off by flights, the organization providing that one instructor, flying with a pupil, should lead some half dozen other pupils, these latter flying solo. On the whole (and considering that none of the pupils flying had had more than a few hours' solo to his credit) this went according to plan—except for the fact that when one of the "C" Flight instructors did the regulation circuit after take-off, the pupil following him did not, with the result that the instructor found himself at the rear of his charges. At Kingstown, "intensification" was the order of the day. The Powers-that-Were decided that, as well as having their courses shortened, the unfortunate pupils would have to take part in airfield defence work as well, with the result that certain of them were on duty day and night—with distressing results to the school's very moderate accident rate. This spate was not helped by the small size of Kingstown when compared with Redhill. However, things gradually stabilized and, between June 1940 and August 1941, seventeen complete elementary courses were put through, these including both English and Polish personnel, the latter being supplementary to the advanced Polish flight. In addition, satellite landing grounds were opened at Burnfoot and Kirkpatrick. At the latter site, night flying began in July 1941. Tiger Moths were used, as the Magisters were not then fitted for night flying. During the end of 1940 and in early 1941 the instructors were on duty from before dawn until after sunset, which was a great strain at the time. The civilian ground staffs worked even harder. At Redhill, formation flying had been barred by those in authority, owing to supposed risk of confusion with enemy air craft; but after the school had settled down at Carlisle, "B" Flight commander (F/L. D. L. Townsend) decided that if he reintroduced this exercise, even though only for instructors, and made it the first flight of the day, he might stand a better chance of getting everyone off the ground by 0830 hr, which was the time flying duty commenced. Consequently the first ten minutes of each day was spent thus, the aircraft afterwards dispersing to their more lawful occupations. Nearby was Hadrians Camp, one of our local defence points, and very early one morning (when the flight commander was on leave) we so far forgot ourselves as to do an echelon peel-off over this spot, afterwards disappearing at high speed before the gunners reached their armament. We just beat them to it. One instructor, however, cut his dive a little too fine and hit the parade ground with his left wheel, causing severe damage to the oleo leg. Its subsequent collapse on landing at Kingstown took a lot of explaining away. Towards the end of 1940, S/L. Douglas was posted to "opera tions" his place being taken by the senior flight commander, F/L. F. S. Homersham, D.C.M., M.M., a veteran of the first world war who was promoted to squadron leader and shortly afterwards to wing commander—as were all E.F.T.S. CO.s about that time. S/L. Geoffrey Walker came in as C.F.I. And on the day As the School's Magisters were hurriedly evacuated to Carlisle during the invasion alarm of June 1940, Lysanders of No. 16 Squadron moved in.
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