Published: 18 September 2009
Finally published 45 years after it was originally written, and, “attempting to do to the RAF what Spike Milligan did to the Army”, the late author’s ‘Micky-taking’ memoirs shed a light hearted light on service life in the RAF.
His early days in Blackpool paint a vivid and comical picture of young civilians being thrown into service training; practising saluting, 10pm bedtimes, marching, saluting, and yet more saluting.
The main aim from their Morse Code training at Blackpool was to reach the magic ‘passing out’ goal of sending and receiving 12 words per minute, which would ensure that they would go to RAF Compton Basset.
But had they known it was going to be like moving from a 'Mayfair flat to a cell in Wormwood scrubs” they might have wanted to take their time reaching their goal as polishing the coal bucket seemed to have been the main part of life for the author at Compton Basset. Not to mention other tiresome tasks of keeping the beds in line with a piece of string and making sure the greatcoat was folded expertly on the shelf (heaven forbid if the shelf was used for anything else!)
The witty stories and anecdotes continue with the wireless operators’ journey to and along the front line from Syria through to Italy. Sketchy photos help to show the sights seen and provide some nostalgic images emphasising a great message that shines out of this book and is repeated often which is of friends and camaraderie during service: “friends made service life bearable”.
Telling us how it really was, this book is an amusing read and an original account of how the war was won through the eyes of someone in the RAF Y Service. In an interesting and colourful voice it reflects on what is a standard Service story compared with the many bloody and sombre ones that you are more likely to have read before, but it’s none the worse for it.
The book is available through
www.amazon.co.uk, priced approximately £10.
Review by Hollie Ewers
