Gerald (Gerry) was part of the Air Training Corps and Officers’ Training Corps before the war. He volunteered for aircrew in 1942, was interviewed in Oxford and was put on deferred service. Gerry was accepted as an air observer. He was called up in early 1943 and went to the Air Crew Reception Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground. He was sent to an Initial Training Wing in Scarborough, before being posted to Harrogate and Ludlow while waiting for further training overseas. He sailed to New York and then on to Nova Scotia and Rivers in Canada, where he spent six months training to be a navigator at the Number One Central Navigation School. Gerry describes how two or three navigators trained in the back of an Anson with a navigation table. He lists the different subjects they studied, the equipment they required and how they would plot a chart. On his return to the UK, Gerry was sent to RAF Harrogate and then posted to an Operational Training Unit at RAF Abingdon and its satellite RAF Stanton Harcourt where he was flying on Wellingtons, and describes the crewing up.  He then went to a Heavy Conversion Unit at RAF Lindholme. Gerry discusses his posting to RAF Ouston for training on Mosquitos, but he failed the night interception radar section. He was posted, temporarily, to RAF Wigtown for some navigational training before returning to RAF Abingdon.

]]> Chris Brockbank]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Julie Williams]]> Sally Coulter]]> Maureen Clarke]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Great Britain]]> England--Oxfordshire]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> Scotland--Dumfries and Galloway]]> Canada]]> Manitoba]]> Manitoba--Rivers]]> 1943]]> 1944]]> 1945]]>