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From Satch Goodwin 4/2/08

Thought the troops might like to see what the fashion conscious
armourer was wearing "up the jungle", RAF Kuantan 1964. Dave Hunt &
big Ginger Russell should have happy memories of the time.

Sach.

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From John Taylor 28/12/07

I am considering having a round of golf prior to the Reunion bash next July. If anyone would like to join me drop me an e.mail and I will endeavour to get it organised. johntaylor81#btinternet.com Replace the # with the 'at' sign. This is an anti-spam precaution on this page.
There is a pay and play course at South Cerney and as it is quite near to the RAC we should be able to get 18 holes in before the 'Do'.

John (Tubs / Rolo ) Taylor
681088 Airframes
Block 5 Room 4 2 Wing

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From Mike Stanley 24/11/07

I notice that no one has gone onto the feedback page since my entry regarding my top 10,or rather no one has made any entries .Bob Galbraith must have looked at the page as has got in touch [e mail] and answered my question as to the name of that tune
It's 'The Road to Gairloch'. (Click to see and hear it being played)

Mike

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From Sach Goodwin 5/9/07 Anniversary Greetings!

A bit late in the day but just time to wish all the boys a happy
anniversary.

Sach

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1950’s Desert Island Discs: Editor's Choice from Mike Stanley

The song that always carries me straight back in time to September 1955; No 3 Wing [can’t remember the block/room I think it was Blk 3/Rm 3?] is “Hey there! You with the Stars in your Eyes”. We laughed at the haircut of the Sgt who was in charge of us before attestation [Sgt Beany?]— after we signed the dotted line it was our turn for Sweeny. [Hey there! you with the short back and sides]

I remember certain other songs/ tunes from my time at Halton, not in any chronological order, and many not number 1’s or even in the top 10.

“ Diana”[opening line as I recall was “ I’m so young and your so old….” not the best of chat up lines I would have thought] which was the theme tune of a mate of mine in the 82nd who professed to have the love of an “older” woman named Diana, just as in the words of the song.

“Flying Home” I think by The Gerry Mulligan Quartet [I could well be wrong but I’m sure some one will put me right] Slim Turner usually played this on the nights before we went on leave. Slim also introduced me to my next remembered song. ”Fast Freight “ by the Kingston Trio, which included the rather racy lyrics, for the time and place, “Well I wouldn’t give a nickel for the bum I used to be”, [the bum in question being an American hobo not a British posterior] but it is a cracking song in it’s own right.

“Maybe Baby” by Buddy Holly. I remember this one as we had a bloke in our billet in 2 Wing named Maybe [not sure if it was spelt the same but it was certainly pronounced the same]. It drove him wild when we all sang along with the record.

The theme /dance scene tune from the film “Picnic”, which I saw in a picture house in Aylesbury [was it the Odeon?] and promptly fell in love with Kim Novak.

The theme tune played over the opening credits of ” The Man with the Golden Arm” [Main Title?] where I continued with my love affair with Kim Novak.

“Doing my Time” The lyrics of this song [doing my time, with an aching heart and a worried mind] echoed the low feelings we sometimes encountered during “ 2nd Year Blues” I’m not sure which category it falls into. Was it skiffle, protest, or work/prison song, and who sang it?

The pipe tunes that we heard hundreds of times during our stay at Halton are burned into my memory banks as firmly as that of my service number or the colour of the annulus of the various types of 0.303” ammo. However, with the exception of “The Bear”, I don’t know their titles. One jaunty tune, impossible not to be whistled as one strides along, had some rather bawdy words sung by us apprentices. The first line of which goes “There’s a girl in One Wing tank.”

I would be grateful if some one could ‘Name That Tune!

Finally “Colonel Bogey” as arranged for the film “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, the Entry’s signature tune bestowed on us by Slim Turner. [Try whistling it as you go past the guardroom on the next Triennial, if you have the puff!]

That’s my 10 {you only get 8 with Kirsty Young!}

 

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From Sach Goodwin 9/8/07 Name of cafe

If my grey matter serves me well, there were two cafes on the way to
Wendover. The first, a few hundred yards on the right, was the
Willow Cafe, commonly referred to as the Club-de-Willow. The second,
on the corner on the outskirts of Wendover, was the White House.

Thanks Sach. Your grey matter does you credit.It was the Willow Cafe that had 'Fever' on the juke box. W

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From Frank Chammings 5/8/07 Entry split-up (see Journal 12 article )

Back on-line after moving house, I have to wait another week to get broadband though.

I am sure that the Entries were split up the day after returning from our first Christmas Leave, Jan 1956, possibly a Thursday.

Regards,

Frank.

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From Mike Stanley 2/8/07

Looking at the hair cuts of the hockey team in Journal 12 Sweeny must have been on a sabbatical judging by the abundance of flowing locks. Just goes to show that even at Halton we kept our hair longer than the normal military style in the 1950/60's. I would have thought we would have sported a more short back and sides type; compare that to what the average squaddie looks like these days hairwise.
Mike

 

 

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From Mike Stanley 19/7/07On a pre -AOC Inspection parade at RAF St Athan the inspecting officer stopped in front of me and asked if I had had my uniform tailored. I replied truthfully that I hadn't[ it being my T63 as issued at Halton some 5 years previous]
"Well it fits you very well " he said , "you must be deformed!"

Talk about a back handed compliment!

Mike Stanley

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From Jim Lee 13/7/07

I have just read "The Wear We Wore?" in news letter No. 11 and it reminded me of when I was at Wildenrath in Germany. My T63 uniform was getting a bit old and shabby so I was forced into buying new one, the worst part was that my working blue was going the same way. Any way some of the guys on the camp were wearing nice smooth battledresses. It turned out that the camp tailor had a good thing going remaking the T63s into battledress at a much cheaper cost than a new battledress, so I had mine converted. That was fine until I returned to the UK and one day in the queue in the mess (about 2 from the front!) the mess sergeant came and called me into his office and wanted to know where I got the uniform from, I explained and he said OK, go and get you dinner, but I had to go to the back of the line which had grown some in the meantime.Apart from that no problems.

Jim Lee

 

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From Willie Keays

Hi Mike -ADA?

Ada is a computer programming language designed specifically for military real-time applications. It is supposed to provide very high reliability in mission-critical applications, such as avionics software. Ada was named after Ada Lovelace, who is often credited with being the first computer programmer.

The maiden flight loss of Ariane 5 Flight 501, a European Space Agency Ariane 5 launcher, was due to an error in a program written in Ada leading to main processor shut down and loss of guidance. Ada suffers from being designed by a committee. Maybe the same committee that, in trying to design the horse, came up with the camel.

As far as I am aware, Ada Lovelace is not related to Linda.

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From Mike Stanley re Journal 11 3rd May 2007

Hi Willie

Couple of points from your article;

I don't believe there are 2 photo's of me available, the first one bust the camera.

My first working greatcoat at Halton had Royal Ceylon Air Force shoulder flashes and buttons[ the buttons almost smooth with wear and the colour of the coat a rather fetching field gray] I remember cutting the flashes off but not having to sew on RAF buttons so maybe I handed it to the tailor for that?

I have still got a trog mac, not Halton vintage I'm sorry to say but issued when I joined the GPO; I did have matching oilskin kecks and a Sou'wester to complete the ensemble.

I seem to recall that the T63 issued to me had a cloth belt as per hairy blue;buckle and buttons agonised.

all the best
Mike

ps what is an Ada course? is it like an ASDA course[ I failed that when going in for shelf filler]

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From Mike Stanley 3rd April 2007

The next issue of First & Last, Journal 11, should be up on this web page at the beginning of May........... assuming that more articles are forthcoming before then.

Your Entry Journal Needs You!!!!!

Mike the Ed

 

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From Willie Keays 21st February 2007

Thanks to Frank Chammings for his feedback on toolboxes. Engine toolboxes were definitely red. In mine I had a file roll with a triangular file, a second cut HSE file, a bastard, a round file and maybe some other files. Pride of place was taken by a 16oz ball-pein hammer. I also had a hide-face. There was a fitter's square, a steel rule, spring dividers and a scriber. A GS and a rachet screwdriver were also included together with a hand-brace and a cuddly toy.

Have I missed anything?

Willie

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From Ian Dakers 14th February 2007

The RED ARROWS aerobatic squadron of the Royal Air Force brings huge pride and international prestige to the UK, but the Treasury bean-counters in our beloved Government want to axe the Reds to save a couple of shillings. The personnel, pilots and aircraft of the squadron are all capable of deployment elsewhere in the RAF, so the money really saved would be peanuts.

Cynics might observe that the move is a covert campaign to expunge from the public mind a potent and highly visible symbol of the very best of the Royal Air Force as an independent Air Arm of a United Kingdom giving up its identity to Europe...

10 Downing St website has an online petition. http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SaveTheReds/
Please sign it. Don't let them get away with this.

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From Brian Spurway 6th February 2007

If you have had a gander at our Entry web page you will have seen the group photo we had taken at the 50th....our best attendance to date with 72 turning up for what was a great evening, and for some an equally great accompanied weekend break in the Cotswolds.

The Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester did us proud and is once again the choice for our next reunion....the 50th anniversary of our graduation from Halton.

Soon after that last reunion I placed a booking with the RAC for the evening of 30 Jul 08 which will be exactly 50 years from our graduation; a recent check with the management assured me that the booking still holds and that all they require of me, some twelve months before (i.e. this summer), is a good approximation of the number we expect to attend. Although there's stacks of time I would really appreciate an early reply to this message letting me know if you plan to attend on 30 Jul 08 or, hopefully not, that you have no intention of joining us.

Of course I fully appreciate that at our age plans don't always reach fruition but I remain "basically optimistically reasonably confident" that we will be able, yet again, to increase the number attending. Once I have finalised arrangements with the RAC I will send out all the necessary details. Looking forward to hearing from you. My best regards,

Brian

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From Frank Chammings 5th February 2007: Re Journal 10

I thought that my toolbox in basic was brown, probably faulty memory again. I have still got some ex-RAF tools, I was given the task of sorting out our tools on 22 Sqdn to build a portable toolstore with a tag system and had to write off (most) of the unusables. My GS screwdriver has served me well over the years in civvy street, we never had a problem with lost tools, as we had to pay for them.

I forgot to add my telephone number to the request for the triennial, it is 01837 52095 can you add it at this late stage.

Regards,

Frank.

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From Mike Stanley: 4th February 2007: Re Journal 10

I did have it in the back of my mind that hard copy of the Journal should be offered to an appropriate museum; As you say in the future researchers ,or even Joe Public, will be interested how it was for the "ordinary" serviceman . ‘Rif raf ’ history,as Asa Briggs described it, has more resonance now days and possibly in the future ,than the history we were taught at school; kings and dates and treaties etc. [ who can forget The Diet of Worms,whenever it was?]

I suppose the obvious place would be Halton, although the RAF museum at Cosford would also be a likely archive.

It is something that the entry should think on.

As for the colours on the pie chart ; the program I used [ part of Works suite 2000] decided which colours to produce . I suppose I could have changed them but I considered red appropriate for plumbers[danger! plumber at work]; blue for riggers for their language used when cleaning out the elsan; yellow for engines as that was the colour on the tips of propellers, used to stop the black from falling off ; green for electricians ,as they really wished to be plumbers [envy] and light blue for instruments as they were too well brought up to swear like the rest of us.

I don't remember having a tool box at Halton. As I recall all our tools used in Workshops were on shadow boards. But why would a plumber want a tool box for his 2lb lump hammer?

all the best
Mike

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From Frank Chammings: 25/11/06

More mugs; this time from Block 5 Room 1

 

 

 

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From Sach Goodwin: 28/11/06

Thanks to Frank, I now realise that I got it wrong. The photo caption should of course read Block 3 Room 2.

Many thanks for putting the photo on the page. I notice that Jimmy Gilbert's name does not show up.(AL2 ) pleted)

Regards,

Sach

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From Frank Chammings: 25/11/06

I don't think the photo is Block 5 Room 2, unless I am very
much mistaken Room 2 was filled with engine fitters not armourers, I am sure
I was in Block 5 Room 1 and people like Norman Hills (H's) were in Room 2.
Regards,
Frank.

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From Satch Goodwin: The lads of Maitland Block 3(AL1 see above) Room 2. Point your mouse cursor for a name.

 

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20th November 2006

Hi Sach

This was indeed a Beaufighter. It was mentioned in Journal 5. As far as having 4-bladed props the simple answer, for non-engine fitters, was to transmit the increased power of larger donks but exactly what the mark of Hercules fitted to the Beaufighter were, I don't know. The Hastings, with Hercules 216 or 230 had 4-bladed props so we can assume that the Beaufighter cockpit classroom was either a late mark Beaufighter, or a lash-up with engines from some other aircraft.

Willie Keays

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20th November 2006

Question to the engine fitters from Brian Goodwin

Have just stumbled across a photo of the front end of an aeroplane
attached to a shed (classroom) at airfields. Am I right in thinking
it was a Beaufighter? If so, how come it has four bladed props? All
the photos I've seen of Beaus have three blades. Answers on a
postcard to brian184#btinternet.com (Replace # with the 'at' sign to avoid spam generation)

Best wishes,

Sach

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FB4 150506

Thanks Willie, a good practical solution with the only downfall probably being the amount of work you have to keep up with.ell done.

Regards,

Frank.

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FB3 130506

Hi Ned
Our new feedback page is slower than the previous set-up but it's spam-free and very much cheaper than buying-in secure feedback software and the necessary change of ISP and host.
Willie