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Jack Hughes Royal Air Force (Ground Crew) 1943-46 |
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“I was working on a farm...well farming, you couldn’t get in, you know, reserved occupation. You had no chance of getting in the Army. I was farming in ’43 (then) I volunteered. You could get into the Airforce if you were farming, but you couldn’t get in the Army.
“I joined up at Padgate near Warrington. Did six weeks training there and then I was posted to an operational training unit at Millfield, Northumberland.That unit flew hurricanes and typhoons. I was only there a few months and then I got posted overseas to Algiers. The African campaign was almost finished. I was only there a matter of six weeks and then I was shipped to Naples. “When I was with the photographic reconnaissance units my job was fetching in water, or helping in the field kitchen. But when I went to the fifty nine motor transport repair and salvage unit I was reconditioning aircraft. That was near Venice. As a crane driver my job was to lift engines in and lift them out. In between if one crashed we would have to go and scrape it up. “(After the invasion of Italy)...Hitler was on a losing run then. (The Italians) were happy enough. It was a good thing for them as they were getting food then, our military food.” |
