Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 71 continued ... When the two certificates were in my log book off I went and flew solo circuits and landings for 1 hour, 15 minutes. I had a little panic attack when I first attempted to retract or lower the undercarriage as it was necessary to change hands on the spade grip (the control column) and no one had shown me how to properly move the undercarriage lever which was a sort of “H” pattern action. At first I couldn’t remember what was written in the instruction manual. After that first solo there were more solo flying exercises and later some with an accompanying instructor flying in another Hurricane. The objectives were first to learn R/T (radio telecommunication) procedure and D/F (direction finding) homing practice. This was followed by airborne map reading, aerobatics and spinning, instrument practice in the Master with instructor P/O Kopecký, forced landing practice, formation flying, elementary dog fighting, and air combat with cinè cameras, and cross country flights landing at another aerodrome. Finally there was air to ground target firing and firing on an airborne drogue with deflection shooting. All of this was crammed into 5 hours, 5 minutes flying in the Master, and 34 hours, 50 minutes in the Hurricane. I have one sad memory of my time at the OTU. When I was attending King’s County Academy (High School) in Kentville I had a serious neck injury received when our rugby team was engaged in a Provincial Championship game against St. Mary’s of Halifax. I was tackled by a St. Mary’s player and badly injured. Dr. Griffin (a surgeon who later became a Commander in the Royal Canadian Navy), who was at the game, had some boards taken from the ballpark’s fence. I was placed on the boards and taken to hospital where I awoke with my neck rigidly held by sandbags. Three vertebrae had serious damage. At the OTU while flying tight maneuvers which applied “G’ force to the body I had insufficient strength in my neck muscles to keep my head up straight. My bunk mate (upper and lower bunk beds in a Nissan Hut), a fellow student from New Brunswick, would routinely massage my neck and eventually, having kept our secret, the muscles recovered their strength. Then, one day, my companion made a forced landing and his Hurricane smashed into a stone wall. He was killed. Having completed the course I was posted to No. 87 ‘United Provinces of India’ Squadron, Royal Air Force, which was based at Royal Air Force Base Colerne, Wiltshire, near the city of Bath. I traveled by rail and when my train arrived at a place called ‘Box’ it was around midnight. When I disembarked I was the only person there except for the Railway Station Master. I told him that I was posted to an RAF squadron at Colerne and he called there and arranged for me to be picked up. There were aircraft flying around overhead and I asked him what kind of aeroplanes. He said they were Hurricanes that flew mostly at night and were painted black! My visions of daytime aerial combat quickly faded and I wondered what I was getting into. No. 87 Squadron, RAF Colerne, Wiltshire, England 6 Nov 41 Having arrived at No. 87 Squadron RAF Station Colerne I was assigned to a Nissan Hut, (Sergeant Pilot accommodation) and to “A” Flight for flying duty. First I was interviewed by the Squadron Commander, Wing Commander Ian R. “Widge” Gleed, DSO, DFC. His stature was small and as I stood at attention in front of his desk he seemed “lost” behind it. He soon had me relaxed and asked me where I was from, who were my parents and what was my Dad’s employment, what was my education level and what kind of flying training had I been given and had I done any night flying. To the last question I answered only 6 hours, 10 minutes at the Service Flying Training School in Canada. He welcomed me, gave me some general information about the squadron and said I would be given night flying experience flying Hurricanes with “A” Flight. continued ...
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