John Russell's F543A Record of service
Title
John Russell's F543A Record of service
Description
John was ground crew, initially a Flight Mechanic Engines from 12 February 1943, having gained experience he received further training to Fitter II E from 19 October 1943. He was promoted to LAC 1 November 1944 and then corporal 1 November 1945. He joined the service in 14 January 1942 and was demobilised in 8 January 1947, he served mainly in Great Britain but was in Egypt from 27 March to 6 September 1945.
The donor kindly provided this additional information. 'My father recounted a number of anecdotes about his service and one concerns the entry on his service record where you will see it just says Cheddington. As you will be aware RAF Cheddington was at that time a USAAF base. I cannot verify this it is only what my father told me. The reason for the week at Cheddington was due to a dispute between Bomber Command and USAAF around the turn around time of the four engined heavies. The RAF said the Americans were taking too long compared to the RAF for engine servicing or replacements, not sure exactly but it resulted in a group of RAF personnel going to Cheddington to show them how the RAF did it. As I recall father said he was somewhat surprised to find rows of USAAF service personnel sitting on chairs in front of the aircraft while the RAF changed all four engines and brought the aircraft back on line.
He also told me about being on crash duty for the returning aircraft and of one instance when the airfield was attacked and having to run for the shelters.
The donor kindly provided this additional information. 'My father recounted a number of anecdotes about his service and one concerns the entry on his service record where you will see it just says Cheddington. As you will be aware RAF Cheddington was at that time a USAAF base. I cannot verify this it is only what my father told me. The reason for the week at Cheddington was due to a dispute between Bomber Command and USAAF around the turn around time of the four engined heavies. The RAF said the Americans were taking too long compared to the RAF for engine servicing or replacements, not sure exactly but it resulted in a group of RAF personnel going to Cheddington to show them how the RAF did it. As I recall father said he was somewhat surprised to find rows of USAAF service personnel sitting on chairs in front of the aircraft while the RAF changed all four engines and brought the aircraft back on line.
He also told me about being on crash duty for the returning aircraft and of one instance when the airfield was attacked and having to run for the shelters.
Date
1942-01-42
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
One Form 543A a printed form with handwritten annotations
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
MRussellJSS1615354-150724-010001, MRussellJSS1615354-150724-010002, MRussellJSS1615354-150724-010003, MRussellJSS1615354-150724-010004
Collection
Citation
“John Russell's F543A Record of service,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/43775.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.