H i LEE. Thanks for your welcome. Before I go on nattering could you let me know if you receive this? George Carey.
HI Lee: thanks very much for your welcome. Before I go on nattering would you let me know if you receive this as I'm still poor at posting? Cheers George.
Welcome aboard, George. To start off a new "career" with WW2 talk at the age of 91, what a great sport you are, most admirable. Stefan.
George, I have been away from a computer for a coupple of weeks and have just seen your introduction. A hearty welcome to the forum and I look forward to hearing some of your experiences. Regards Tom
Hi again George Could you tell us, did you choose to join the R.A.F and what did you have to do when you first joined? Jules.
Hello Jules :indexCAXI2NHN: Nice to hear from you again. In answer to your query I volunteered for air crew duties when I was 19. Following this I had a stiff medical and an academical test. Eventually I was called up and had a short period in the UK on general training - drills etc.getting used to life in the service. I then moved to a place called Arcadia in Florida for pilot training. Unfortunately you were only given an extremely short time to make the grade and as I did;nt I remustered as a wireless operator/air gunner and did courses in jacksonville and Pensacola Florida. Whilst in Pensacola we did quite a bit of flying in Catalina flying boats over the Gulf of Mexico. The next stop was in Canada to refine the gunnery and then I returned to the UK. Following a stint at an operational training unit we had to ferry a Wellington bomber to Cairo following which I did yet another course on torpedo bombing and then joined 458 sqdrn on anti-submarine duties. Following this I transferred to Foggia in Italy joining 40 sqdrn bomber command. The rest you know from my introduction. Hope this has been of some interest. What about yourself? Cheers George. edited by Green ll April 2013 -15.30
Morning George. Hope the sun is shining where you are Thank you for the reply which was definitely of interest. Did it take long for you to adjust to life away from home - especially when you were transferred to Florida? For my part, my link to WW2 started in 2010 when I started to research my Great Uncle and then my Grandad's - (father's father) - military history. My Grandad was with RAOC then REME and after a stint in Iraq and Egypt he was based mainly in and around Naples for the duration of the war. Luckily it appears that he arrived at a location after the worst of the fighting had taken place. He had joined the army years before the outbreak of war and had been posted to Egypt for a few years, so I guess he didn't have to adapt to life abroad in quite the same way as his mates. My Great Uncle though arrived in Italy as a newly trained Signaler in an infantry battalion in 1943. He was based in Troia for a short while - so not so far from Foggia. When you had to bale out over Bulgaria, did you know what caused the engines to pack up? I hope your training prepared you well enough for it ! Jules.
Hello Lee, Thanks for your welcome. Actually Idid respond some time ago but I doubt if you got my message. Regarding nickel we did a drop over Sofia - Bulgaria. A little later we had to bail out over this country.and had a pretty hairy time until we eventually reached a POW camp. The natives were pretty hostile towards us and we were told that we were going to be treated as war criminals and what were our last wishes|| Good job they were masters of bluff:;;;. The rest you know from my introduction. Enough about me; what about your history? Look forward to hearing further. Cheers ---George. Green.
Great to have you with us George! Looking forward to reading some posts from a man who has "Been there, done that" I hope you enjoy the forum. Welcome!
George, Hello and welcome to the forum. I am sure that you will enjoy your time participating. Regards Tom
George. Sending you warm good wishes. Like you in my early 90s, having joined my local Territorial Battalion in May 1939 when my father's Great War unit was reformed. So served as infantryman with The Royal Scots for the whole of the War. I have written what I have grandly called 'My War Memoirs' which are listed below, and if you tap on it you will be able to read about my life during the Second World War. Perhaps of more interest to you is the other website (also listed below) which is a tribute to my boyhood friend, also from Peebles in the Scottish Borders, who served in the RAFVR as a navigator, first with 103 Squadron, then after a spell with Bomber Command posted 140 Squadron and flew reconnaissance missions. A neighbouring Squadron, the 69th, operating night recces called for volunteers as they needed three navigators on each flight on the specially adapted Wellingtons and to my great sadness his Wellington was shot down and he was one of the four members of the crew killed whilst two were wounded and taken as PoWs. Hope we will keep in touch. Joe Brown.
Hi Dave B| Thanks very much for your welcome and for the records of 458 sqdrn. There is a bit of a tale attached to my flights with F/O Way which may be of interest. Shortly after the date taken from the records I wason another flight with F/O Way in a specially adapted Wellington and I was operating the radar looking for subs. I spotted a large object dead ahead which was obviously a land mass. I reported this to the skipper who dismissed this putting it down to a back echo. My reading proved correct and we almost collided with a large rock|| That was the last time we flew with F/O Way and shortly after I moved to 40 Bomber Command in Foggia - Italy. Hope we can keep in touch. Cheers George. Green.
Hello George and welcome to WW2Talk. I am sure all the members would like to hear more about your experiences and if you could illustrate your accounts with photos it would be even better. Owen (or another Moderator) will be able to talk you through how to post pictures here. Looking forward to your posts and I am very impressed that you are computer-literate. My Father (a mere 83) has no idea at all about computers, and he was a Signals teleprinter Op during his post-WW2 National Service. Mike
