Luck of the Draw

Luck of the Draw We’d meet everyday to get the word whether we were posted or not, you know. And it was a matter of luck where you were going, see. From there, you were going to go to a Spitfire OTU or a Hurricane OTU and you might be very unlucky and go to some other command. But if they were looking for troops, it was just alphabetical, see. It was like the roulette wheel, you know, and you just had to be lucky. We would think often, afterwards, how difficult it was to be a fighter pilot, you know. It really, really was that really difficult. Not the flying part or anything, just getting there. You could be dragged away. Interviewer: So everyone was hoping to be going to the Spitfire operational training unit? We all wanted to be fighter pilots. The majority, I’d say, the majority. But they were starting, they were starting night fighters then too, you see, and they were looking for navigators and they were looking for night fighter pilots. We were going on the train and we stopped somewhere on the siding, I think, to wait for another train, and there was a little air field next to the railway and we saw these six Spitfires scramble off. They were Spit I’s or II’s. We saw them go, head south, you see. Well we were there long enough and four of them came back. So, you know, it was just that indication that, well, where’d the other two go? You know, it sort of fitted something in our minds that maybe, they were shot down. Interviewer: Were you having any second thoughts at that time? No, no. It’s very strange how that goes, you know. But anyway, as we go along we might.