A Tale of Four Parachutes

My name is Bernard Wade, I am 75 years of age and I live in Hull, East Yorks. During the war I was too young to serve in the war itself so I joined the local branch of the Air Training Corps as I thought it would put me in good stead for when the time came for me to be called up to do my National Service.In the late Spring of 1945 my branch of the ATC were invited to an aerodrome near Bridlington to have a trial flight in a Wellington Bomber.We were instructed to queue outside the Parachute store to collect a parachute for our flight.As the queue shortened and I entered the Store I noticed that a young lady from the WAAF was giving out the chutes and she in turn was being supervised by the most fearsome looking Flight Sergeant.He was about six feet tall, ginger, and Scottish and when he barked out an order the whole nissen hut seemed to shake. I thought I would not like to rub him up the wrong way! He told us to pick up our parachute from the counter carefully, by the handle, and proceed with it to the edge of the Air Strip to await the plane. Unfortunately he had failed to notice that although he had told the front of the queue which was the handle , I was outside at the time and I naturally thought that a heavy parachute would have a good handle on it and I chose to pick it up by the nice looking metal one. MISTAKE! BIG MISTAKE! As I lifted it off the counter, it fell open before my eyes to display a beautifully packed chute that I quickly learned had taken at least 3 hours to pack and because all its retaining straps had been released it would have to be all unpacked and repacked.The Flt. Sgt. was furious and after a severe lecture he told the WAAF to give me another one and to make my way to the Airstrip. I carefully made my way with Peter, my friend, to the Airstrip. I had the chute down by my side holding it by the handle and the two of us were discussing the events of the past few minutes and having a bit of a laugh about it. MISTAKE! BIG MISTAKE! All of a sudden I felt a tug from the side I was carrying my chute. The terrain we were crossing in order to get to the concrete runway was a mixture of bracken and thorns and somehow, because I am only short in stature, my chute was almost touching the ground. I turned and in horror I saw my chute beginning to unravel behind me only this time three or four feet of it! Peter was laughing his hat off at my predicament. I had the job of collecting my chute about me and making my way back to see that dreadful flt.sgt. I hoped against hope that he might have gone for his lunch. What with my luck! No way! I tried to tell him how sorry I was about what had happened and it must have been the sheer terror in my face that made him relent and give me parachute number three! This time I hugged it close to my chest and went to join Peter by the side of the Airstrip.It turned out that Peter and I were the last two to get a flight and as the two of us climbed into the Wellington Bomber, we were told to put our parachutes up on a shelf.We took off and we were advised that we would be flying at about 10,000 ft. We soon discovered that a Wellington Bomber is a very cold and draughty aircraft to fly in. However we were quickly absorbed by the view from the gun turrets when suddenly, without warning, the aircraft went into a sudden steep dive. Unknown to us, because we were the last two cadets,the flight crew decided to have a bit of fun and do some hedge hopping at 50ft.If only they had told us about it! We thought we were going to crash and made a mad dash for our parachutes. I got hold of mine alright but Peter,in his haste got hold of his by the Ripchord and out it tumbled. You have got to see it to believe it.The sight of two Air Cadets being quickly consumed by huge shrouds of silk as they were soon filled by the terrific draught which filled the aircraft.I helped Peter to carry his chute back to the Parachute Store but left him to the harsh words of the flt. sgt. I decided that when I came to do my National Service I would think twice about the RAF.The following year I volouteered for the Navy and guess what! They put me in the Fleet Air Arm!.

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