Wartime Memories ( story 6 part 2)

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It was during the autumn that Flight Lieutenant Wilson, the Station Adjutant,
was sent to another post and I was appointed to take his place. This marked the
beginning of a period in the Royal Air Force when I derived the greatest satisfaction
from the work which I was able to do and it had taken around 3 years to reach this
point. I was now in control of the busy Station Headquarters Orderly Room, with a
deputy, Flying Officer Hicks, a dapper little fellow who had come from Fox Films and
was inclined to see himself in his work as a Film Magnate. Group Captain Gordon,
the Station Commander, occupied an office at the end of the corridor from my office,
and we worked together a great deal, he not interfering in any way with what I was
doing. There was a Squadron Leader [Administration], without staff, also in the
corridor — a promoted ‘regular’ Airman. I never really got to know what his sphere of
influence was — whether, for example, he was in charge of me and my office — but he
was a harmless individual who also left me alone to my own resources.
Of course, there were some occasions on which we all had to work together.
There were periodic accidents involving the deaths of Airmen. The worst tragedy
during my service at Alness was when about a dozen Canadians were killed during
flying training operations. We had to arrange a very large funeral, with most of the
Station personnel taking part. The Station’s Pipe Band led the lengthy parade from
Alness to a little cemetery lying between there and Invergordon. After the Pipe Band
marched a group of wreath-carrying Airmen, then the coffins on R.A.F. vehicles, and
finally there was a considerable number of the Station’s Airmen. It was by far the
saddest of a number of these tragic occasions. It involved a great deal of planning,
including, of course, communicating with the relatives in Canada, but the funeral was
carried out with great dignity.
My Orderly Room was, I suppose, the equivalent of a modern Personnel
Department. It was a base which any of the several thousand Airmen and
W.A.A.F.’s on the Station could rely on to sort out difficulties in their lives, whether
due to a granny having died or the need to get married in haste or to a hundred and
one other difficulties which arise more readily in the captive population of a major
R.A.F. Station than among an equivalent number of people in civilian life. The office
managed the substantial movement of personnel, both inwards and outwards, as
determined by Group Headquarters, as well as, unfortunately, numbers of Courtmartials
normally for absence without leave.
It was as an extension of these basic responsibilities that I offered to give legal
advice to those requiring it to help the young people solve their problems within that
field. I did, in fact, discover that there were many Airmen, and to a lesser extent
W.A.A.F.s, with worries to justify the offer which I had made, and, as a result, I ran
regular sessions to try and resolve the difficulties which were explained to me. One
can appreciate that these covered a wide spectrum. I can give 3 examples of the sort
of things that were put to me - [1] I want to get a divorce from my wife because she
stores all the dirty washing below the bed and this distresses me; [2] What can I do
when I got married to an under-age girl of 15 who stated that her age was 16; [3] I
have been going out with a girl from the village [Alness] and she has become
pregnant — when advised that he had to face up to his responsibilities or come to a
suitable arrangement for the child’s up-bringing, he said — ‘she is a decent girl — she
is going to go out with another fellow and blame him’. My education was
considerably widened as a consequence of my entry into this voluntary work
because I met up with strange problems which I never knew existed.
There was a period when Sunderlands were occasionally losing their propellers
in flight and the Commanding Officer considered that it would be beneficial to air
crew morale if Administrative Officers, such as my Deputy and me, would sometimes
join them in their training exercises. I am happy to relate that I went through that
period unscathed, but on one occasion, my Deputy, Flying Officer Hicks, was not so
fortunate, the aircraft on which he was flying losing a propeller. Poor ‘Hickie’ had to
spend several days in bed to aid his recovery.
At one stage, as part of my work, I acted in effect as a primitive Meteorological
Officer. There was no sophisticated satellite information then available, such as
exists today. Relying on a number of items at known distances from my viewpoint,
which ones I was able to see determined the scope of visibility. When someone at
Group Headquarters phoned daily to co-ordinate the weather report for the benefit of
flying crews, I was able to give an exact measurement of visibility in the Cromarty
Firth area. Whether the German reconnaissance planes were able to tap into the
information, I do not know, but we had fairly regular visits from enemy spy-planes
coming from the Sutors of Cromarty, the imposing rock formation at the entry to the
Firth, and flying over our aircraft. We never had any bombs dropped on our Station,
nor on any adjacent targets. There was the possibility, however, that some of these
spying aircraft never returned to their bases, because they may have been
intercepted by fighter planes stationed somewhere along the route between
Inverness and Aberdeen.
As diversions from the routine of the office, I prosecuted and defended at a
number of Court-martials. I cannot remember any of these proceedings being for
major crimes; they were generally for such demeanours as absence without leave,
although it has to be said that such offences were looked upon quite severely in
these days.
Apart from the business of the office, especially in summer, the long clear
evenings gave us scope for recreational activities. ‘Double Summer Time’ was in
operation, and in consequence, there was daylight until very late in the day. Several
of us were interested in playing golf, and we took advantage of the freedom to play
over Alness Golf Course which was attractively laid out on the hillside above the
village. We had very many enjoyable evenings there, our games usually finishing
past the midnight hour.
I, along with some others, occasionally had the opportunity of fishing from a
boat on a small Highland loch on the hill not very far beyond the golf course, and we
enjoyed this experience as well. The loch was so under-fished that, when you cast a
line with 3 hooks on it, you normally caught 3 fish. The fish gave the impression
that they were surrendering themselves to any angler. Our fishing adventures at the
loch inspired a fishing venture which was not exactly crowned with financial
success. We learned that the fishing rights on the Averon were available for leasing
for the season at £20. After some effort, 20 Officers were found who were pleased to
contribute £1 a head for 2 good reasons — [1] that we could each share in the
pleasure of river angling, knowing that, as lessees, we were asserting our rights and
we would not be troubled with water bailiffs, and [2] with a captive population of
several thousand Airmen, many of whom were expected to be keen anglers, there
was the chance of making a profit by selling permits to fish at 2s. 6d. a day. The
anticipated profit was not to materialise although some of the £1 contributors did
take advantage. So far as the Airmen were concerned, we would have required a
team of Bailiffs to patrol the river to get a return on our outlay. As it was, we were
relying on the goodwill and honesty of the interested Airmen to purchase permits.
For the record, the syndicate’s total income for the season was 2s.6d.
In the Aultnamain area, on the hill road from Alness to Bonar Bridge, I got to
know a Farmer who kept hens, and who thereby had a regular supply of eggs. I was
aware that, back home, eggs were scarce and, after coming to an arrangement with
the Farmer for a regular order of 6 eggs at a time, I made a fairly solid egg-box into
which I was able to pack 6 eggs for posting to my wife. The empty box was posted
back to me, and so began a shuttle egg-service to the Stirling area. There was
always a warm welcome in Stirling for my egg package. That egg-box travelled many
miles in its lifetime, and the procedure fully justified the effort collecting the eggs as
well as the postage involved.

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