Flying Skill Level of Squadron

Some, I would think that when I was on 601 Squadron I had probably more flying hours than the average guy, not as many operational hours as the squadron commander or the flight commander until I got my time in. But, and on the fighter squadron it’s rather difficult to judge what the skill level of the other pilot is because only he is in the aircraft. Did he live? I think was the best, was the best, was the best barometer of that.We lived in tents, the desert air force was mobile and we moved, for instance we were on the Adriatic side of Italy near a place called Turmoli and we used to do sweeps over the Adriatic into Yugoslavia come back and we’d be in tents, usually two fellows to a tent. The mess tent was an, was an, also. Now when we moved across to the Naples side to provide cover for the Anzio invasion near Rome, we again were in tents again with our own little roll up beds. We took care of ourselves. It sure wasn’t Royal York Hotel and the cooks provided food for all ranks. There was an officer’s mess or a pilot’s tent where we could be a little quieter and have our own drink and then the troops had their own tent where they could relax. In North Africa it was pretty hot, oh yeah. And in Italy it was warm until the winter came and then it could get pretty mean at night, yeah.