The Scene - 52 Sqn, RAAF Butterworth, Malaya, early December 1964.

10th Dec - At RAF Hullavington, we did a long air test on Valetta 814. In the air she wallowed her way over S.W. England, refusing to trim out to the pilot’s satisfaction. She really was a bit of a pig! Anyway, on the 14th we took her from Hullavington to RAF Lyneham. On the 15th, the Aussies who had been swanning around London, arrived complete with a large Christmas tree. Covered with plastic, they were sure it would be the talk of Penang. At 09.45 hrs we took off for Nice. “I’ll get you half hourly pin points” said Alec the Aussie Nav. Some chance I thought, having seen the met chart. Cloud covered the ground the whole way. It was a grim trip, with the clunk of ice bouncing between prop and fuselage - so much for our new paint job! Later that evening we had a drizzly walk along the promenade des Anglais looking at a grey Mediterranean. Roll on Penang, palm trees and blue seas! 16th Dec - Took off from Nice to RAF Luqa in Malta. Cloud cover again, Elba appeared, our first view of the ground. At Luqa it was wet and cold, just in time to pick up some cheap grog to comfort us on our way. Then on to RAF El Adem for a night stop - dry and warm thank goodness.

17th Dec - Departed for Cairo, all ready changed into civvies for refuelling there as RAF uniforms weren’t popular. An uneventful trip until inside Egyptian airspace, then bedlam. Excited Arab voices on the RT instructed us to hold our position, so we did a racetrack. We heard a Hastings, overflying to Aden, being told to land immediately. Eventually we were given clearance to land at Cairo and park in a remote area of the airfield and not to leave the aircraft until told. We gathered that an Israeli plane had been shot down whilst approaching Cairo. (Later found out that it was an American Oil Company light aircraft with four civilians on board.) We taxied past the Hastings which had been en route to Aden. Pongo’s in civilian clothes were lined up under armed guard. What a welcome! I went to Air Traffic to file a flight plan on my own. The lift boy spoke good English and showed me both the Met Office and Flight Planning, and then took me down again. Having a few minutes to spare, I decided to go into the Terminal building where I could see some shops. I always bought stamps when landing in a new country for my children’s stamp collections, so I tried the nearest door, but it was locked. A nearby Arab grabbed my arms and held me tight while shouting hysterically to others nearby. I said in ‘Haltonese’ - “Unhand me you Oriental gentleman, I don’t want your dirty postcards” or something like that!! The shouting got worse and a sizeable crowd gathered, all shouting and waving their arms.

The only recognisable word which I could understand was “Israeli, Israeli”. As I was pulled around, I saw the lift door open and out leapt the lift boy, this time waving a large pistol. He used the pistol to make a path towards me. The first man who had grabbed me was still holding on to me tightly. He had his ears boxed by the lift boy’s free hand, followed by a swift boot up the backside which sent him off cursing. The rest of the crowd were then harangued by my new friend for a couple of minutes, then they scattered. He suggested, not unreasonably, that maybe this wasn’t a good time to go shopping, as feelings against foreigners were running high and there were rumours of Israeli saboteurs being active. Anyway, we shook hands and I returned thankfully to the quiet corner of the airfield. As soon as the refuelling was finished, we took off for Asmara (we didn’t mention Aden in case they refused to give us clearance). Half-way down the Red Sea coast, our Aussie co-pilot spotted oil on our starboard engine cowling and the oil pressure was a bit low. Eventually that engine was shut down. Riyadh was our diversion, but that didn’t seem to be a good idea after our experiences in Cairo, so we pressed on to Asmara. After landing and removing the cowling, a large crack was obvious in a metal oil pipe. Fred found a local smithy who could only braize the crack for us. Fred decided that this was on, until we could get across to Aden for some proper servicing. We dined that evening on rice and goat meat in a fairly tatty hotel.

18th Dec - Both engines behaved themselves. On landing at RAF Khormaksah and taxiing to Station Flight, who should open the door but Bob P......, ex-Engineering Officer of 49 Sqn. We had shared an old farmhouse in Marham village as a hiring. He soon had us on board a Land Rover and out to the Valetta graveyard where we had the pick of oil pipes. Bob fetched me for supper that evening and I had a bumpy pillion ride on the back of his Honda to Steamer Point to meet his family again. What a contrast to Penang! Oily gravel beach, no green anywhere, but the welcome was warm. Unfortunately Bob found plenty of problems with 814 and all the next day he ferried more bits to 814 from the graveyard. He and his lads did a sterling job to get us on our way.

20th Dec - We took off for RAF Masirah on the East coast of Oman. Feeling more confident that 814 was behaving herself, we refuelled at Masirah and left for Karachi. On landing, a different set of problems beset us. Fred’s vaccination certificates were out of date! Despite vociferous protests, he was sent off in an ambulance to an isolation ward in the local hospital.

21st Dec - When we arrived at the aircraft in the morning, one engine was running and Fred was anxious to take off. I had to tell him the bad news that Air Traffic wouldn’t clear us to fly to Delhi. “I must tell you that our velly good friends in India would not like you to start an epidemic” we were told with much head wagging and hand shaking. Some time later we convinced the Pakistani authorities that we were no serious danger to anybody and they cleared us to take off for Bombay. Much relieved, we took off in a much happier state of mind. At Bombay, the Military Attaché’s department wanted to know our reasons for not keeping to our original diplomatic clearance schedule! I sent a signal flannelling about headwinds and fuel states. Luckily nobody wanted to see our vaccination certificates! We set off for Madras, where storm warnings were out as the tail end of a typhoon was battering the coast. The next day the winds across to Car Nicobar island were too strong, so we spent the day wandering around Madras. We saw quite extensive storm damage to buildings and dozens of rickety bamboo scaffoldings being used for repairs - dangerous to use and to pass under. All the beautifully carved fishing boats were high above the tide marks, some damaged. On the old promenade, the statues of Queen Victoria and Co had suffered from years of salt spray. That evening, Fred, a great trencherman, challenged the hotel to produce a really hot curry because on the previous evening it had been too mild! Everyone else hastily withdrew from this challenge and said a mild curry was just the ticket. Fred insisted that we all tried his curry. I swear it started my bald patch! Anyway, Fred manfully tucked into his feast, washing it down with brandy sours. I was unfortunate enough to share a room with him!!!

23rd Dec - At breakfast, with the winds moderating, we gladly accepted the Aussies offer to pilot the next leg. After take off, Fred communed with nature on the Elsan or lay on our kit until after a couple of hours he felt better. After we were committed by our fuel state to continue to Car Nicobar, the starboard engine revs started to hunt, eventually it was feathered. In clear empty skies, we made a very gradual descent and landed on the lonely airstrip of Car Nicobar. Everyone on this Indian Air Force outpost was glad to see an aircraft, as their regular visitor was once a month. Off came the cowlings - suspect a u/s constant speed unit. Eventually Vick got through to Butterworth on H/F. With three aircraft on detachment to Borneo and only one serviceable aircraft on base, the Squadron had stood down for Christmas. Now, almost resigned to spending Christmas on Car Nicobar, we nevertheless sent an appealing message for help. On the small Indian base, rations were running low and they were living on local food, but there was plenty of tea for tiffen. The CO was an Anglo Indian gentleman of the old school and he and Fred hit it off straight away. Apparently all the natives were Christians and the only real crime in their code was to lose your temper. Every year several people used to jump over the cliffs for doing just that, and we were feeling bad tempered about that engine! As we were staying the night, we were included in a general invitation to go carol singing around the island. The CO had been drilling his thirty or so men in the English words of well known carols. He had enough copies for everyone, so that evening we climbed into their one and only lorry - three Brits, three Aussies, Sikhs, Hindus, Moslems and one Christian Anglo Indian. That night we visited the three largest villages on the island. At each one the whole village, young and old, gathered around the attap meeting house. They sang the carols and hymns most beautifully and in wonderful harmony, all in English. Then came our turn, with Fred and the CO out front as conductors. We did our best, and, much to our delight, our efforts were greeted with great enthusiasm. Then the eating started. Officially there was no alcohol, but we were suspiciously more cheerful after coconut ‘wine’ was passed around at each village! When we finally returned to the airfield in the early hours, we broke open the last of our Duty Free brandy. We sat on the square of coral sand outside the CO’s basha, no lights but the stars, and sang amongst others “In the Stores” which the older Indians seemed to know.

24th Dec - Breakfast was of chapatti’s and tea. Vick raised Butterworth again and apparently a crew of volunteers were coming out from 52 Sqn with our spares. Three hours later, Johnny B....., a sterling ex-Polish Air Force pilot, arrived. A quick hello/goodbye and he was away home. Fred insisted on doing most of the work himself - the fitter who came with the spares wasn’t too pleased! Anyway, it wasn’t long before we were saying our farewells to our new friends and we had an uneventful last leg. Kedah Peak had its usual bubble of cloud, otherwise it was gin clear. After we landed and unloaded our Marks & Spencer goodies, there was one final laugh. The Aussies took off the plastic cover from their Christmas tree. There was a shower of needles and a very, very, bare trunk, but Fred had kept his promise.

JANKERS

Following discussions at the 1994 Reunion as to who did the most days jankers at Halton, Narcy Burford came up with 109 days, but this was put in the shade by the 151 days, plus a ‘few’ inside, by Del Harris. So Del took the dubious honour of being our worst ‘criminal’.and when he was on jankers, and was also the Duty Trumpeter responsible for sounding ‘Reveille’ and ‘Lights Out’, he made the ‘calls’ from his Barrack Room window! At the same time, it was also established that Ken Savage was the first in the Entry to be awarded jankers and the punishment took place over the Battle of Britain weekend, when there were civilians visiting RAF Halton. While being marched from No.1 Wing to No.2 Wing cookhouse, the Cpl i/c enjoyed giving orders in a loud voice prefixed by “Defaulters”. However, Del Harris, our reputably longest serving janker wallah, recently went on holiday to Tenerife and called on fellow 51st colleague, Roy Studart, who now resides there. During conversation, the subject of jankers came up and it transpired that Roy was a seasoned janker wallah himself. Roy cannot recall the exact number of ‘days’ that he did, but he thinks it was around the 120 mark. He also said that he did two lots of 28 days, plus sundry other days, in the ‘mush’. ‘Mush’ was the punishment for crimes that were more serious than those given for jankers, in that one ‘resided’ in a guardroom cell for the duration of the punishment under the watchful eye of the Snoops, and went to Schools and Workshops under escort. As neither of them kept a Log Book of their punishments, we have decided that from their confessions, we consider that both were as bad as each other, so they tie for first place, with Narcy Burford relegated to third place – unless someone out there knows better!. However, if Chiefy Thomas has a ‘janker’ file tucked away in the attic, perhaps he can adjudicate for us and let us know who did the most ‘days’! ‘Jankers’ was the colloquial name given to the punishment for committing a minor offence in the eyes of the RAF during our training at Halton. We are not talking about serious offences such as murder, grievous bodily harm, drug dealing, burglary etc, but lesser crimes, such as dirty brass buttons, late on parade, caught wearing civilian clothes, untidy bedspace, room job not done properly, caught outside the Block after ‘lights out’ (at 21.30 hrs), absent from parade, smoking etc. If you were caught, then you were charged, marched in before the Squadron Commander and given 3, 7, 10 days (or whatever) CB (confined to barracks). The Apprentice receiving this punishment was called a ‘Janker Wallah’ and he would wear a White armband throughout his sentence. A day in the life of such a person, with reveille at 06.30 hrs, would be:-

06.30 hrs

Reveille

06.45 hrs

Report to the Henderson Square in Best Blue for Roll Call

07.45 hrs

Report to Henderson Square in Working Blue for Colour Hoisting parade

13.00 hrs

Report to Henderson Square in Working Blue for Roll Call

17.45 hrs

Report to Henderson Square in Best Blue for Colour Lowering parade

18.00 hrs

Kit Inspection (Lay out kit on own bed in barrack room)

19.00 hrs

Report in Working Blue for fatigues - usually in cookhouse

20.00 hrs

Report to Henderson Square in Best Blue for Roll Call

21.00 hrs

Report to Henderson Square in Best Blue for Roll Call

21.30 hrs

Lights Out

THE BOOK

POST WAR BRATS AT LARGE

This book contains a collection of stories written by members of the 51st Entry of RAF Aircraft Apprentices, often referred to as “Trenchard’s Brats” after their founder, Marshal of the RAF the Viscount Trenchard. It covers the years since they, 252 young men, joined the RAF in 1945, six days after the end of the Second World War, and includes stories from their 3-year Apprenticeship, throughout their subsequent RAF careers and into retirement as senior citizens. There are some amusing and incredible tales from their Apprentice days - beating the system without getting caught (but not always!) was a popular pastime. When they were finally ‘at large’, many of the Entry left their basic trades and were trained as aircrew and inevitably some of the more exciting stories relate to their flying experiences. Some, unfortunately, did not survive to tell their tales. Service overseas is another source of interesting experiences, although sadly many of these postings are no longer available to the RAF personnel of today. Nevertheless, these stories provide a worthwhile insight into Service life away from home, as it was from the late 1940’s to early 1980’s. Sixty years on, the former apprentices of the 51st Entry still have many more stories to tell, and no doubt some emerged during the Diamond Anniversary Reunion which was held at RAF Halton on 21st August 2005, in honour of which this book is being published. This book will be of considerable interest to members of the 51st Entry and other RAF Aircraft Apprentices, their families and friends. It should also appeal to those who have never served, but have an interest in the history of military aviation and the Royal Air Force.

The Book (ISBN 1-903953-93-6) priced at £15-00 plus p&p, is obtainable from :-

Woodfield Publishing,

Mail Order Department

Babsham Lane,

Bognor Regis,

West Sussex,

PO21 5EL

Telephone 01243 821234

or on the net at www.woodfieldpublishing.com

BOOKS

CHRIS ASHWORTH- AVIATION HISTORIAN

In the RAF he was Joe - a nick-name acquired in Block 15 Room 5, but it was as Chris Ashworth that he became a significant Aviation Historian. Few of us realised that Joe began the hobby of collecting information and photographs of aircraft, airfields etc., at quite any early age - probably as an ATC cadet before Halton. We were aware that he owned a camera - a rare sight amongst Apprentices in 1945 - and some of us saw several of his pictures. That early start became “...a great passion of his...” (RAeS) and led to a massive collection of books, magazines, articles & photographs which eventually filled three rooms in his home!!

It was the title “Chris Ashworth Collection” of a two page article in a recent Aerospace Professional magazine, published by the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), which caught the attention of a member of the 51st Entry and prompted further interest in the works of Joe/Chris. The RAeS article listed “... a large number of typescripts recording the development of a number of British civil and military types (particularly detailed in their records of individual aircraft histories and squadron allocations) ...” and “... are a mine of information for anyone researching aircraft or squadrons ...”.

Many of these typescripts were articles which Chris contributed to aviation magazines over the years. With the help of Margaret Ashworth, it has been possible to put together a summary of Chris’s remarkable collection which included : 4,000+ Books & Magazines - 3,500+ Archive files - 80,000+ photographs from Bristol Fighter to Nimrod ( many originals taken by Chris), and 132,000+ negatives, slides, plates etc.

The Ashworth family decided that the wealth of information contained within the collection would be of value to many other aviation enthusiasts - even though this would, sadly, lead to the break up of the collection. Auctioneers, Dominic Winter, sold Chris’s library of books and his photographic collection at specialist Collectors Sales in May & November 2005 and May 2006.

Chris continued his writing when he retired from the RAF in 1977. In addition to his many magazine articles, Chris published several mini monographs including: Gloster Meteor PR Mk10, De Havilland Comet & Avro York in RAF Service, Avro Shackleton MR Mk3, Vickers Valiant, Bristol Brigand, Airfield Focus St Eval & Kinloss.

His major written and published books are:

Action Stations: 5. Military airfields of the South West - 266pp (ISBN 085059510X)

Action Stations: 9. Military Airfields of the Central South and South East - 328pp (ISBN 0850596084)

Encyclopaedia of Modern Royal Air Force Squadrons - 210pp (ISBN 1852600136)

RAF Coastal Command 1936-1969 - 256pp (ISBN 1852603453)

RAF Bomber Command 1936-1968 - 256pp (ISBN 1852603089)

Avro’s Maritime Heavyweight; The Shackleton - 224pp (ISBN 0946627169)

Below are just four covers from his major works.

Many of these Monographs and Books are still in print and available new & used from specialist book sellers. The following is a quotation from Chris’s Introduction to one of his books and is typical of the detail and enthusiasm which he gave to his work:

“My first sight of south-east England was the best possible - from the air on a beautiful August day. It was pure chance, for I was just one of many ATC cadets camping at Bircham Newton during the summer of 1944 and when my air experience flight came up it was not in the usual Dominie biplane, but in a Wellington XIII which was flying to Manston and back. I was put in the front turret out of the way and off we went across East Anglia and over the Thames Estuary. The thing I remember most about the flight was the fright I got when a P-47 Thunderbolt attacked us head-on. So convinced was I that it was a Fw 190 that had I known how to switch on the fully-loaded turret I might even have tried to open fire!”

SUPERSTAR- THE FAMILY GOES TO SEA

This is the title of the book written by Eric Mold and was published in October 1996. The book tells the story of how Eric & Vera sold up their wordly possessions, bought a boat with the proceeds and set out for a life on the sea. It begins with them sailing out of the Solent, with little or no experience of sailing on the high seas, and ending up 4 years later in the Caribbean via the Mediterranean as veteran sailors and running a successful charter boat business. If you would like to purchase a copy of the book, its reference is Ident No. ISBN 85200 066X, and was available (in 1996) from United Writers Publications Ltd, Ailsa Castle Gate, Penzance, Cornwall TR20 8BG at a cost of £15.95, or alternately borrow it from your local library.

---

---

Birth of the Association	Roll Call	Group Photographs	Entry Details
Passing out Parade	Tribute to Apprentice Scheme	Reunions	Honorary Members
Projects	Officials	Home Page	Obituary