Thomas James Colhoun Family History <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O:p></O:p> I was born in the year 1923 and lived in Londonderry City at Orchard Row. My education was at primary school and then technical school in Londonderry city. My immediate family did not have a history of service to the crown. One of my uncles served in the Royal Navy during WWI. He was in the submarine service for the period. Another uncle fought in the 1914-18 war and lost a leg in an action that led to him being awarded the MM. <O:p></O:p> My four brothers Weslie Gibson, Victor Lee, James and Hugh Colhoun were also in the RAF. Hugh was an Observer. The Observers were later called Navigators in Bomber aircraft. My younger brother William joined the Royal Navy and served in the Far East till the end of the war. <O:p></O:p> In 1942 four of my cousins were serving in the RAF. Two had joined before the war started and were employed as ground staff. <O:p></O:p> The American Construction Firm <O:p></O:p> When the war started a lot of locals were attracted to the Royal Navy as Londonderry had a RN Base at that time. At that time I was employed by an American construction firm called George A Fuller, Merit, Chapman, and Scott Incorporated. They were responsible for building the camps around Londonderry city during the war. That included Creva, Beechhill and Springtown. They also built the docks at Lisahally. This was not a permanent structure, just enough to last the length of the war. The first ships to come into Londonderry during the war were the ships carrying the Americans. These ships also carried the supplies and equipment used in their construction work. <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> The Pay Rates <O:p></O:p> The man in overall command of the American workforce was caller Arthur la Chance. My immediate boss was an American. His name was called Sullivan. He came from Rhode Island. His job was to service all the generators in various camps and I was his assistant. Another boss I remember had immigrated to the USA from the Republic of Ireland. He and his brother had a service station in New York and he came over to N. Ireland to build up his capital. Most of the Americans were earning £30 per week in a country that was paying us £2 a week. The American firm paid me £5 per week rising to £7 with overtime. The Americans maintained a very efficient workforce. The people I became involved with were well educated and highly skilled at their work. The local people had never before seen the technology and advanced construction equipment used by the Americans. Most of this equipment, the steel work and the senior bosses were located at ‘The Brickyard’ in Lower Garden City. <O:p></O:p> The bosses were very mobile; they all used big motorcycles with sidecars to get round the sites. The Americans were all accommodated at the Waterside Barracks. These became known as HMS Sea Eagle. Some of the local Derry men were employed as checkers. You had a little brass badge you picked up in the morning when you reported for work and you had to return this badge when you finished work. The checkers would come round the site periodically to see if you had your badge and were on site. <O:p></O:p> Joining the Royal Air Force <O:p></O:p> One morning while I was walking to work I observed three Hurricane aircraft practising an exercise called Ack Ack Co-Op. This was an exercise for the benefit of the RA gunners who were training in the area. I was seventeen years old at that time took a great interest in the RAF. Little did I realize that within the next four years I would be flying the Hurricane. Later on an advert appeared in the local papers. The RAF was prepared to accept applications from seventeen and a half year olds. I posted off my application and was duly called for an interview and a medical. I passed both subjects and was accepted into the RAF, subject of course to parental permission. <O:p></O:p> Call-up <O:p></O:p> One of the Americans called Dick Sousa knew I was waiting to be called up into the RAF and he was enquiring about joining himself. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour changed his mind. I was called up in April 1942 with the status of RAF cadet and considered to be potential aircrew. The Americans tried to talk me out of Joining up, telling me I was crazy for leaving a well-paid job to join up. I knew that the Americans would not be hanging about once their construction work was finished so I went ahead and joined up. Years later I can remember some of the workers and lorry drivers reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ of working for the Americans. There was no job or pay like that for a long time in Derry, other than American Radio Base just outside the city. It may have been called Boys Town. <O:p></O:p> RAF Cadet Training <O:p></O:p> All the cadets were then taken to the aircrew-receiving centre in London. The RAF had commandeered blocks of flats in various parts of London to use as accommodation. I found myself occupying a flat along with two or three other young men in the St John’s Wood area of London. This was only a stones throw from Lords cricket ground. There were so many RAF cadets in that area we were called upon for fire piquet duties in the Lords cricket ground. I got to know Lords long before I ever saw a game of cricket being played there. In 1947 I made a point of going to Lords and I watched a cricket match. There were such notables as Dennis Compton playing that day. Later on there would be a series of tests to see who would be selected as gunners, pilots or observers. In the meantime time was spent on kit issues, drill and learning to spit and polish up our boots, all for 2 shillings a day. <O:p></O:p> Move to Brighton <O:p></O:p> After four months at St Johns Wood we moved down to Brighton on the South Coast. The RAF had taken over The Grand and The Metropolitan Hotels for our accommodation. There we were trained to operate the Aldis lamp and use it to send Morse code. Many of the instructors at Brighton were ex-university people who also taught us mathematics. <O:p></O:p> The Boat Trip <O:p></O:p> In August 1942 we were all issued with the full complement of Flying Kit and boarded a train that took us all to Merseyside. There we boarded the troopship, SS Rangitiki, a former New Zealand cruise ship. We headed out round the north coast of Ireland and due south on a six-week journey that took us to Durban, South Africa. The only port of call was Free Town for a few days. <O:p></O:p> The Train Journey to Rhodesia <O:p></O:p> At Durban we transferred straight away to a troop train heading for Rhodesia for our selection and training. That was a fascinating journey. Each carriage had a veranda at the back and I use to sit and look at the country we were travelling through. Scenic places such as Natal and the Valley of the thousand hills At Mafeking the ladies of the Voluntary Services turned out en masse looked us after. They brought us out fresh fruit, and promised to send telegrams to our families letting them know that we were well. That was our first experience of the hospitality of the white people in South Africa. The Afrikaners were running the train service and they did not display any fondness for the English but the hospitality expressed by the Rhodesian people was wonderful. For example, at the weekends, people were driving up to the camps and inviting the trainees out for Sunday lunch. Not that we were deprived in any way during our training but it was very welcoming to be invited out. <O:p></O:p> The Rhodesian Air Training Group <O:p></O:p> The Rhodesian Air Training Group was a general term because there were several training groups in Rhodesia. These groups were responsible for training single-seater fighter pilots and bomber pilots. Our group was based outside Bulawayo at a place called Hillside. The selection procedure started with a written exam. Depending on the results of the test you were categorised as either a pilot, a navigator or a gunner in bomber command. The first aircraft I trained in was the DeHaviland Tiger Moth bi-plane. Next came the American Harvard for the more advanced stages of our training. As part of our training we were often despatched on ten-mile hikes into the bush. All we had was a compass to take us in the general direction. Our Christmas dinner in 1942 took place in a huge dining hall provided by the de Beers mining company. <O:p></O:p> The Wings Exam <O:p></O:p> For our final wings exam there was a series of tests including: mathematics, theory of flight, navigation, aircraft recognition, bombs, components, weapon training. The only subjects not covered on the course were Law and Administration. At the end of my course three of the pilots were commissioned as officers and the remaining thirty-seven were promoted to Sergeant in August 1943. <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> No 20 Service Flying Training School, Egypt <O:p></O:p> After we completed our training in Rhodesia we were posted to Egypt. First we went up by road to Kenya and waited at a place called Kasumu for a couple of weeks. Eventually we were transported by a British Overseas Airways Sunderland flying boat called the ‘Caledonia’ to Cairo in Egypt. We landed on the River Nile and were then shipped to a transit camp outside Heliopolis. The canal zones had several flying stations and we went to Almaza. From there we went on to operational training where we flew the Hurricane for the first time. <O:p></O:p> Course Personnel <O:p></O:p> There were two Egyptian officers on our course, Flying Officer Zeid and Warrant Officer Shams. Most of those on the course were South Africans with some Irish, English, Scots and Welsh. We also had a Maltese officer called Carawana. We began our familiarity training on the Hurricane. The aircraft we used were all ex-Desert Air Force aircraft unfit for combat use. <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> Tactics <O:p></O:p> Some of the manoeuvres we were trained in included: Battle formation, Spinning, Low flying aerobatics, General flying, Air combat and finally, Oxygen formation where you climbed in a single seater aircraft accompanied by an instructor on another aircraft. The aim of that exercise was to test your oxygen equipment. <O:p></O:p> Kohima <O:p></O:p> In 1944 I went to Poona, India for a refresher course and then went to Calcutta to be selected for our Squadron postings. In April 1944 a Canadian WO called Robinson and myself were posted to 34 Squadron RAF. That following day there were two casualties. The Flight commander Jimmy Wheland and a Warrant Officer were both killed My new flight commander was called Ken Rolls. The squadron was based in an area called Dergown in northern Assam. As the army advanced, so did the squadron. The longest stop we had was at a place called Pallel. Most of my 138 operational flights were from Pallel. Weather permitting the squadron would operate a twenty-four rota with sorties out every day. Each pilot had one flight every day. The flight would last for about one hour. One of the main problems with the Hurricane was when you were in a steep dive it was difficult to pull out of the dive. I always used the elevator controls to help me get out of the dive. In the year of operations there were approximately nine pilots killed. <O:p></O:p> Squadron Strength <O:p></O:p> There were about one hundred personnel and sixteen aircraft in each Squadron. Twenty-five of these were the flying personnel. The remainder of the Squadron was made up ground crew and administrative staff. There was a crew of five personnel to each aircraft. The ground crew included riggers, armourers and fitters. The base HQ administrative staff consisted of about six personnel. On an airstrip of three Squadrons there would have been about 350 personnel in total. <O:p></O:p> Japanese Tactics <O:p></O:p> The Japanese air force was decimated by the time 34 Squadron were posted to the Kohima area. The Squadron met no real opposition from the Japanese air force. Our biggest problem was in facing the Japanese small arms fire. Many of our sorties involved low flying and that was why most of the pilots we lost were killed in small arms fire. <O:p></O:p> First Operational Flight <O:p></O:p> My first operational flight 21stMay 1944 took me to the Japanese positions in south Chasumi. I was then aged twenty. The Hurricane we were using then was the 2C model. It had four 20mm cannons and two 250lb bombs. All our operations were in support of the army. They would request an attack and the army liaison officer, a major, would deal with the front line information. Whatever the army asked for, he would brief us with a map references and the type of sortie needed and we would head off. Without exception all my 138 operational flights were in support of Slim’s 14<SUP>th</SUP> Army. <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> The Flight Log <O:p></O:p> There are many DNCO entries in the flight log. This means Duty not carried out. Most of these entries occur at the height of the monsoon season. If the target was obscured we never attacked. Most of the entries in the flight log read Bombed and Strafed. The Rhubarb codeword refers to an operation where you were sent out on a sortie with complete freedom to attack anything. This was usually Japanese territory where no Commonwealth troops were present. The flight log shows that Pilot Officer Costa Saisell was killed in a high-speed stall when pulling off a target. Flying Officer Tibbetts was killed when his plane hit a vulture and crashed. There were so many dead bodies in the area we operated that the carrion birds would congregate and this made flying hazardous. Sgt Taylor died when he failed to pull out of a bombing dive. Sgt Pettitt was shot down on the 22<SUP>nd</SUP> Feb 1945. We also dropped many leaflets on the Japanese asking them to surrender. <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> The Thunderbolt Fighter <O:p></O:p> The squadron all attended a conversion course to qualify to fly the American Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt was a massive machine. We had converted to the American aircraft simply because there were no more Hurricanes available. I liked the Hurricane but once we got used to handling the P47D Thunderbolt we felt comfortable. They were fitted with eight .5 Browning machine guns. The breechblock of the .5 Browning always closed with a live round in the chamber. While we were flying in the Burma campaign, the heat would sometimes cook the round and the gun would fire off the cooked round. This was dangerous because the Thunderbolt sorties usually flew in close formation at low level. WO Jerry Twort worked out what the problem was but there was no cure. Luckily it never led to any fatal consequences. It was a tough aircraft; I have seen Thunderbolts returning to base that had been badly damaged. They certainly could take a lot of punishment. The Hurricane was not as robust. For example, if the water jacket was penetrated, you were finished. You either had to bale out or crash land because the engine would seize up. The P47 engines were air cooled and therefore less prone to damage. The P47D that I flew was just a later Mark than earlier models. The Americans always gave their fighter aircraft a number. For example, the Mustang was a P51 and the Marks went from A up to D, E, F and so on. The early version of the P47 could not be compared with the later Marks because they became much more sophisticated. The bubble canopy of the early Marks was reinforced with ribs that restricted your view of the surrounding sky whereas the later models were reinforced and had no ribbing. <O:p></O:p> Middle East <O:p></O:p> After completing my operational tour I was posted to the Middle East as an instructor at Fayid. At the end of the hostilities I took part in two fly-pasts. The first one was over Cairo and the next was over Alexandria. That was the end of operational flying. My Station Commander at Fayid was Group Captain Goddard DSO DFC Air Force Cross. He was a most unassuming man, an architect before he joined the RAF. The chief instructor was an Irishman, Wing Cdr Stephenson DFC and Bar The Chief flying instructor was another Irishman called Paddy Wright. <O:p></O:p> 165 Squadron Doxford Cambridge <O:p></O:p> After the war ended I was posted to165 Squadron at RAF Station Duxford, near Cambridge. There I flew an Mk 9 Spitfire for the first time. I also met quite a number of people who had flown bombers and they used to explain the ferocity of the Ack Ack fire and the night fighters they had to deal with over Europe. I learned a little about their war and appreciated the danger they had to face. I believe that bomber command was one of the toughest jobs in the RAF. Bomber command lost over 50,000 of their aircrew during the European operations, never mind those injured or captured. My CO at Duxford was called Wing Commander Kenneth Doran, another Irishman. He had a very tragic life. He got the first DFC of the war and then the first Bar to the DFC. He was shot down over Europe in 1941 and spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp. He was a Wing Cdr and later he became a Group Captain. When he was a Squadron Leader his CO was a Wing Commander who later became the Air Marshal in charge of the Desert Air Force while Ken was languishing in a POW After spending most of the war as a prisoner he came out of the POW camp to be the CO of 165 Squadron at Duxford. He married late in life and after several promotions he became an Air Attaché in Turkey. He and his wife were flying back to Turkey after a holiday when their plane crashed in France and both of them were killed. <O:p></O:p> The Missing Research and Enquiry Service (MRES) <O:p></O:p> While I was at Duxford a circular came round asking for volunteers who had served overseas during the war to join the Missing Research and Enquiry Service (MRES). The headquarters of the MRES was in Italy. Their job was to locate aircraft crashes that had taken place on Axis territory during the whole war. I spent some time at MRES HQ and then four others and myself were posted to Greece. Our job was to travel around the Greek islands and pinpoint the crash sites where allied aircraft had crashed during the Axis occupation. If we located bodies on the sites it was our job to have the remains properly interred in a British military cemetery. One officer was in charge of one sector of the island at Heraklean and I was stationed at the other end of the island at Hanya. That task lasted eight months. On one occasion we located the site of a Beaufighter crash on Lefkas Island. The aircraft had crashed into the harbour at a time when the Italians had occupied the island. They had given the crew a proper Christian funeral with full military honours. One of the crew was called James Reid. On this operation an officer of the Imperial War Graves Commission accompanied me. <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> Zourva Village <O:p></O:p> On one occasion a local farmer acting as our guide took us up a mountainous region of Greece to locate a crash site. He brought a mule along for the journey. He believed that we would have to use the mule to complete the tiring journey. He also thought that the mule would be useful to carry down any remains that we may find. An interpreter called Nick Belaskas also accompanied the party. He was a bit wary because the area we were moving into was notorious for Communist guerrilla activity. A civil war was still raging in Greece at the time. When we eventually reached Zourva village there wasn’t a soul to be seen, they were just as cautious of us as we were of them. Eventually this impressive figure appeared. He was a big tall man with a beard and moustache, he turned out to be the mayor of the village. Once he had satisfied himself with our credentials the villagers started to emerge. What had spooked the villagers was my blue RAF battle dress. It was similar to the Axis forces battle dress and the villagers had already experienced their heavy hand. We completed our mission and retrieved the remains from the crash site and returned to the village for a glass of wine before our long journey down the mountain. At that time we were all issued with extra cigarette rations to help us cope with the smelly and unpleasant work of retrieving the remains. But because we were dealing with clean bones most of the time the cigarette ration accumulated. We distributed the cigarettes amongst the villagers and the glass of wine turned out to be quite a party. <O:p></O:p> Greek Climate <O:p></O:p> The climate in Greece was always warm and dry so that the remains were usually reduced to a skeleton. For that reason we always carried a couple of blankets to wrap the bones up in until we carried out a proper burial at Souda Bay war Cemetery. There were occasions when the remains were very easy to identify because there were ID tags and the occasional inscribed wristwatch. On one occasion the remains of an unfortunate pilot were interred three times. First the local mayor had conducted the burial service when the unfortunate airman was buried in the corner of a vineyard. Second, the owner of the land needed the ground to expand his business so the remains were lifted and re-interred in another spot. Then I came along and moved the remains to the War Cemetery. <O:p></O:p> The Claims Commission <O:p></O:p> On my sector of the island I shared an officers’ mess with a Major Graham Williams who was twenty-two years old and Captain John Bremridge. They were part of the Claims Commission. During the early part of the British army occupation of Crete, before the Germans invaded the locals had been supplying the British army with local produce. The army then had to evacuate Crete and left a pile of unpaid bills. It was the task of these two officers to examine the claims made by the local population for outstanding bills. They compensated all those who produced bona fide claims. After they had completed this posting the government financially supported both officers when they returned to Oxford University to complete an education interrupted by the war. John became an administrator in Hong Kong and received a knighthood. <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> The Cretian Police Force <O:p></O:p> While I was on the island the Cretian Police force was being re-formed. A former RUC Head Constable from Belfast who had served in the 1914-18 war and won a Military Cross in an action that took part of his arm away. He was now known as Colonel McKinley, a great old guy. He was accompanied with his wife. They were accommodated with us on a temporary basis until their accommodation was ready. <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> In Italy I was attached to the Royal Artillery for two months. My posting was 654 Air OP Squadron where I flew an Auster aircraft. This was the RA Observer Squadron responsible for observing the artillery fall of shot and directing the artillery fire onto the target. The war had ended at this stage of my RAF career and there was no active service to be done. Immediately the war ended all the RAF aircraft were withdrawn, either to maintenance or sold off in the Middle East. The reason I was posted to Italy had a lot to do with the backlog of service personnel waiting to be posted to the UK. The services were empowered to find gainful employment for all the servicemen in transit. When a vacancy eventually arose I was transported back to the UK. I was demobbed in December 1947. <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> Civilian Career <O:p></O:p> At that time I was twenty-four years old and needed to find employment. I became a temporary clerk in the Civil Service. Brandywell Training Centre was running courses for ex-servicemen in 1947. You could apply for a three-month course in one of the building trades but the course qualifications were not acceptable to the building trade employers. I felt that one of these courses would have taken up three months of my life and then I would be back on the dole again. There was an alternative to this dilemma. The government was in the process of introducing the new National Assistance Act. The rehabilitation officer in the Labour Exchange interviewed three of us for alternative employment. Along with me was a former army captain and the other was an ex-merchant seaman. We were sent down to Ivy House on Strand Road in Londonderry where they had set up a branch of the National Assistance Board. We were interviewed by the manager and accepted as temporary clerks. That was the start of my thirty-eight year Civil Service career. I was married in 1956. The pay as a Civil servant at that time was £4:10s gross a week. Before that I had been a non-commissioned Flying Officer in the RAF and my pay was £7 gross a week. <O:p></O:p> The Irish Connection <O:p></O:p> Here in Castlerock we have Miss Beamish who was in the Dental Service in the RAF. She had the equivalent rank of a Wing Cdr. Two of her brothers were Air Marshals. Another brother called Victor was killed during the war when he was a Group Captain. <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> When I started training in Rhodesia we were in flights of thirty. The flight I was in there were five Irishmen, I was the only Northerner. There was: Michael Bayler, Jerry Keogh (Pilot), Patrick Finton (Bomber Cd), and Patrick Gallagher (Bomber Cd). Before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour there were many Americans in the RAF, some of Irish extraction. We called them the Eagle Squadron. At the same time many RAF pilots were being trained in the USA. After Pearl Harbour many of the Americans transferred to the US Armed Forces. <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p> <O:p></O:p>
