Crossing the North Atlantic in Convoy
Heroes Remember
Crossing the North Atlantic in Convoy
Then I was given a job on a, as gun crew on an anti-aircraft gun
and I stood four hour watches in the cold and the wet.
The sea was rough but I wasn't ill fortunately, while some of the
other fellows were. There were ten nursing sisters on board
and ninety other air force officers. The North-Atlantic was rough
and several times during the crossing we were, the convoy was
torpedoed. But mostly it was rough and cold I think.
I was very glad to see land on the other side. We landed at
Greenwich in the early hours of the morning and immediately
got on a train and went to Bournemouth where we waited for
someone to direct us to an OTU (Operational Training Unit).
That was a rather trying time at Bournemouth. You really had
nothing to do other than you went to parade first thing every
morning, hoping that your name would be called out for a posting
to a school. They were asking for volunteers for a bomber command
and a number of our people got tired of waiting and volunteered
for bombers. There was no way I was going to do that.
If they came and took me I would've gone, but not voluntarily.
I waited for a posting to a fighter, OTU came along
and eventually got to Eshet (sp) in Northern England,
where we trained on Spitfires.
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