My first posting on leaving Halton was to 2nd TAF; I had exchanged my initial posting to RAF Cranwell with either Satch Goodwin or ?? Beston[the memory is going fast] to whom I will ever be grateful. The journey out to Germany is a story on it's own {which I may inflict on you if you don't send in plenty of stuff!} I landed up at RAF Geilenkirchen (with Michae[Speedy]Quick; Mick[Kingy]Guy; Ray[Butch] Butcher the late Jim[Jock] Woods and ?Bugden?, with the later arrival of Pete[Bomber] Walden -Hughes) I was the only armourer from the entry and I duly presented myself at the Central Armoury next morning. We had been told at Halton that " we would have the red carpet rolled out for us and be met with open arms" and sure enough there was a red carpet,flanked by white blancoed ropes on higly polished posts on an equally polished floor in front of the offices of the Station Armament Officer ; the Officer i/c Central Armoury and the Warrant Officer. There were some strange canvas covered shapes behind the ropes that I took for lifeboats, which I thought odd as we were far from the sea. As for the open arms , well I was told I would have to wait to see the officer i/c the armoury as " Flt .Lt Pugh was d oing the Station Pig Farm accounts " which let me know where I stood in the heirarchy. I managed to stifle a laugh over the surname of the officer i/c pigs as I thought my sense of humour wouldn't be the same as the WO's. I was to be proved correct in my assumption.

It was a great first posting ; I worked in the gun bay with 20m/m cannons, and Mk 7 Belt Feed Mechanism (BFMs) [which we had covered at Halton but were told we wouldn't find them now in the RAF as no aircraft were in service that used them. The Meteor NF11s of 256 and 96 Sqns proved that to be false. 59 Sqdn flew Canberra B(I) 8s that also had Hispano cannons, mounted in those' lifeboats', that turned out to be Canberra gunpacks!! The Mk 5 BFM , more familiar to me than the Mk 7 but a lump of old tin in comparison, completed the fittings of the gun bay.

Detachment to RAF Sylt with 256 Sqdn for airfiring in the depth of winter ; where it was so cold the sea froze between the mainland and the island , and where Speedy and I foolishly decided to walk down to Westerland and nearly succumbed to hypothermia before reaching the first bar. Our eye lashes had frozen to our cheeks with watering and wind chill ,and our lips were so numb we had difficulty ordering our drinks. After three or four,or maybe more , schnapps we came back to life and made sure we caught a taxi back to camp.

2nd TAF became RAF Germany ; 256 became 11 , 96 became 3 and both Sqdns re equipped with Javelins. We now had 30m/m Adens in the gun bay ,which made life more interesting , and hernia inducing. After about a year I was moved from the gun bay into the carrier bay . No.59 Sqdn carried the ' shush ' bomb. An American 1650lb bomb carried on an American bomb carrier ,which was made by the Douglas Corporation , the whole lot loaded on to our Canberras . Besides working on these carriers I was also part of a bombing up team for the Canberras . The bomb would be trundled out of the bomb dump [ where the Yanks had their own storage area ] surrounded by black USAF Air Police, all built like Mike Tyson ,but not as charming . They wore huge hooded parkas whatever the time of year and huge .45 Colt Automatic pistols.We discovered that Yanks have no sense of humour. We used to chalk the CND sign on the side of the bomb after we loaded it on to the aircraft [ we never knew if it was a dummy or the real thing], they took great offence at this and it came up on Wing Routine Orders that the practise must desist.

The two and a half years flew by : it was a wonderful place to be as a young feckless J/T , ciggies a shilling for twenty ; buying Carlsberg by the crate in the Malcolm Club and swilling' Sludge' by the gallon in the Naafi.

March 1961 I was posted back to UK ......... from the sublime to RAF St Athan. It could have been worse, I was sent to 4 S of TT and not 32 MU!