Vincent Boughton as a newly promoted Pilot Officer in 1943
Vincent Boughton’s ‘Charmed War’
Flt/Lt. TVJ Boughton. MBE. RAF Retd.
I was born in Gillingham Kent on the 19th July 1920 and from an early age admired my half brother, Marcel Philips, an ex-apprentice from the 22nd entry at Halton. He lived an exciting life as a Sgt. Pilot and so when I was 15 I wanted to follow him into the Royal Air Force.
I sat the exam to join, which cost half a crown to take. I used to see a Folkestone Grammar schoolboy at Appledore Station on the way to my school and he took the same exam and failed. Our post had not arrived that morning when I had left home, but he told me I would have failed too, “if a grammar school boy couldn’t get in then what hope had I!” Mother was waiting with a letter when I got home and I had passed! Next day the boy ‘got what for’!
I Joined the RAF on September 4th 1935 as an Aircraft Apprentice at RAF Halton in the 32nd entry. My number was 568569. We were an early part of the expansion ordered by the Government and championed by Trenchard who had been, Chief of the Air Staff up until 1929 and now known as the ‘father of the RAF’. We all became known as the Trenchard’s Brats because he had started the apprentice scheme.
I soon became an airman and a skilled fitter. We learnt technical drawing and studied Engines and Airframes and I became a (Fitter 2) when I passed out in 1938. Alison, my future wife, and my Mother came to see me pass out. My first uniform, when I joined, was marked as having been made in 1918!! The Best Blue included Foxes Puttees. We were the penultimate entry to wear puttees, as the 33rd entry had the pleasure of being the last!!
You had to do two things whilst at Halton. Learn to swim and go for a flight! The latter consisted of a 15-minute trip around the aerodrome. I was not destined to be a pilot as airsickness was a problem for me! In fact all fitters were precluded from even applying to be pilots once war broke out, as we were too vital to keeping aircraft serviceable.
RAF Tangmere was my first posting, where I joined 217 Squadron in 1938. On arrival there was no one there. They had all flown down to Jersey to celebrate the first anniversary of the Squadron. They bought up cheap wine and champagne and stowed it in the bomb bay. But as the aircraft circled and dipped to salute the local mayor, the bungee supporting the bomb bay doors gave way and wine and champagne fell out of the bomb bay.
In 1939, as war was imminent, there was a panic on and we had to move to Warmwell in Dorset. The Squadron of 16 Ansons had to be painted in camouflage but no dope was available. So the stores Sgt. went out and bought distemper. This soon washed off in the first rain! We were inspected by the AOC, moved back to Tangmere and cleaned up the aircraft!
At the outbreak of war I was working on aircraft maintenance for 217 Squadron at Thorney Island where we were housed in bell tents, as all the Barracks were full. Following the announcement that war had been declared all aircraft were started and taxied out to dispersal points with sirens sounding! Nothing happened.
Soon I was posted to RAF Leuchars in Scotland to join 233 Squadron, D flight, working on ‘short nosed’ Blenheim Aircraft, where we harmonised the guns in readiness for war. D Flight was soon formed into 254 Squadron, provided with extra aircraft and moved to RAF Bircham Newton in Norfolk. We were operating with Coastal Command protecting the North Sea Coast. By now we had been issued with ‘long nosed’ Blenheims, which were a bit faster.
The Squadron flew up to the Orkney Islands to join HMS Sparrowhawk, a shore base operated by the Royal Navy. Our aim was to operate against the Germans in Norway. We lived in Nissan huts and at night the Petty officer would come round at night and tell us to ‘darken ship’. If an air raid was sounded we ran up the hill to hide behind the stonewalls.
In 1940 I was based at Sumburgh Head with 254 Squadron, in the Shetland Islands, maintaining planes that were operating against the Germans in Norway. Here I was promoted to Corporal.
Troop carrying Barges were massing for a possible invasion and so all corporals were issued with a rifle to shoot at enemy aircraft. (The Black Watch who guarded the base had ammo for only 10 minutes!) One evening the alarm was sounded and I quickly realised that I had no ammo for my rifle and went to find the Warrant Officer armaments only to find a queue of corporals waiting to be issued with their 303 ammo. We each got 143 rounds in a box which had to be carried around from then on!
I was then posted to Dyce, still with 254 Squadron, and it was here that I got one weeks leave and returned to Kent to get married.
The wedding was on the 4th September 1940 and on the way to the Church I had to shelter from the showers of canon shells falling from the sky, as a dogfight took place overhead. I had to ask a RAF Sgt. to come in off the street to be my best man!
After the wedding, we went back to my mother’s house in Tunbridge Wells where as I opened a window I saw a yellow nosed Messerschmitt coming straight towards the house. Fortunately it crashed a mile away. So I decided to take my new wife with me away from the danger. We went back to Dyce, where we lodged with a Mrs Duckid.
I was then posted to St. Athan in Wales to be an instructor for new recruits joining up and here I was promoted to Sergeant and we were provided with a local Council House to live in.
Several of us were sent on a course to be trained to be a sergeant. It was notable that when Hong Kong fell to the Japanese I was in the process of learning to iron the tapes on my Gas Cape for a kit inspection!! Such was the state of Training Command.
In February 1943 volunteers were asked to go on a course to Leicester College of Art and Technology to study for an HNC in readiness for commissioning to Officer. The famous broadcaster Cliff Mitchelmore was on the same course with me. After further courses I was finally commissioned. We were posted to Sidmouth where we undertook intensive battle training to prepare us to fight the enemy. On one exercise 80 men were sent on a bike ride and my abiding memory is of burning rubber from the brakes as we all negotiated down a steep hill!
I was posted to RAF Cosford on an engineering course to prepare to be an Officer and in 1943 I was promoted to Acting Pilot Officer. My number changed then to 51429 as for some reason officers got new numbers!
My first posting as an officer was at the Torpedo Training Unit, Castle Kennedy near Stranraer. Later we moved to RAF Turnberry which had been a famous Golf Course and where the clubhouse was used as a hospital for very badly injured POWs, whom the Germans had returned.
On one day I cycled in from our home at Girvan only to find that the aircraft were about to take off covered in hoar frost. Unbeknown to the new pilots this affects the lift of the aircraft and my swift action in halting their take off probably saved several crashes on take off!
Next I was sent out to the Middle East. I was instructed to report to Liverpool to the Reno Del Pacifico, a day before sailing and was given responsibility for ‘Ventilation’. We sailed out into the Atlantic and I was overcome with seasickness, so ventilation was far from my mind. In any case the cold meant that the vents were stuffed with socks to avoid all heat loss! Eventually I emerged to be found by a steward, who on hearing I was suffering, gave me a slice of beetroot, which had the effect of stopping my queasiness!
As an Officer I travelled in a first class cabin, which I shared with 16 other officers!
At Port Said several officers left the ship, whilst we stayed on board rumoured to be heading for Turkey. At Port Tufic we disembarked and got onto a lorry, which drove us along the Suez Canal, where we met with the other Officers we thought we’d seen the last of. It seems that our trip to Turkey was cancelled.
It was here that I received a letter from home announcing that my wife was pregnant with our second child. This caused great hilarity for an officer colleague called Singlehurst. The next day he received mail informing him that his wife was in a similar condition! Mail sent out from here was photographed and sent home by air.Source bbc.co.uk WW2 People's War Copyright Marcel Boughton
