Born 12th November 1922 and educated at Bristol Cathedral School. He was the 11th member to join the newly formed Air Defence Cadet Force in 1940 which later was renamed 37F Air Training Corp.
Volunteered for the RAF as Aircrew in March 1941 at Oxford where he passed all necessary medical and mental tests, received the Kings Shilling and then sent home to await further instructions. Instructed to report to RAF Abbey Wood London in June for a session of square bashing, kit issue and numerous injections. Posted to 5 ITW Torquay for initial training in Navigation, theory of Flight, Map reading, Morse Code etc. Sept.1941 our course was entrained to Greenock on the Clyde to join hundreds of other potential Air Crew to be loaded aboard the Highland Monarch to cross the Pond to Halifax Nova Scotia.
After Fighter Pilot training in the USA in 1941/42 (Florida, Alabama and Georgia) where he Soloed after 6hrs 10 min dual instruction he returned to the UK for conversion to Hurricanes and was then posted to an Army Co-operation Unit in Northern Ireland where he gained valuable experience flying various types of aircraft, i.e. Defiant, Lysander, Hurricane, Martinet and Twin Engine Oxford. Posted to 198 Rocket Firing Typhoon Squadron 1st Jan 1944 to experience his first sight of the seven ton monster called a “Tiffy” and left tour expired 1st November 1944.
His operational flying from Southern England (Manston, Tangmere,Thorney Island, Funtingdon and Hurn) consisted mainly of attacking the many strongly defended Radar Stations from Ostend to Cherbourg and on two occasions changed from rockets to bombs for attacks on No-ball Targets (flying bomb sites), also low level intruder ops into Northern France mostly in just a finger four formation looking for targets of opportunity to attack. Middle of March 1944 the squadron was posted to Tangmere as part of 123 Wing 2and TAF and everyone both aircrew and ground crew left the comfort of brick buildings and went under canvas.
Operations from the landing strips in Normandy consisted, with close Army Support, taking out Gun Positions, attacking Tanks and destroying anything that moved in enemy territory all against very heavy enemy Flak. He completed in excess of 100 sorties before leaving 198 at Ursel in Belgium, and since 1984 has revisited Normandy on many occasions. He attended the official funerals of two 198 Squadron Pilots whose aircraft wreckage had been discovered as many as 41 and 49 years after the events. His final visit to Normandy was in May 2004 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of D –Day when he was brilliantly escorted by his son-in-law Paul Hamblin.
Association of 198 Squadron RAF Pilots & Ground Crews
