Diary of Ernest Kenyon Alexander (Part V)

NZ416235 W/O Ernie Alexander (Navigator)

Part V: Chatham, some personalities and graduation

These experiences are from extracts of letters that I wrote to my grandfather Mr. A. K. Alexander of 15 Oakley Avenue, Hamilton, when I did my aircrew training in Canada.

By mid term most boys on the course discovered how they were faring. The examinations gave them an indication of their ability or lack of it as far as being navigators was concerned.

Early on the course Charlie Frazer went home, supposedly air sick, but I think it was excessive home sickness. For a start his wife was not keen on him going overseas, and there was slight friction. To make it worse the first six weeks in Chatham he received no mail, it went elsewhere. Poor Charlie was thinking the worst with all the Yanks in New Zealand. After the war I met him in Papakura, he was one of the attendants at the Kingseat Hospital. The next to go home was Pip Stapleton, never keen on it at any stage, and then Harold Crampton, Tom Potts, Ted Thurston and the two Marshalls turned it in. The first two were grey wolves and the whole five remustered as bombardiers. They actually qualified for their wings before we finished our course and were on operations in England when we were in Halifax. Harold Crampton was killed when the bomb from another Stirling took the nose off their plane, and Harold went with it. The pilot bought the plane home with the greatest difficulty, a great feat. [JS Note. Friday 11 August 1944, 514 Squadron Lancaster II LL697/B2 took off at 14.13 hours captained by W/O W.D. Brickwood for a raid on Lens rail yards. Over the target the nose was struck by a falling bomb. Air bomber, Harold Crompton, was thrown out. LL697 returned to Woolbridge Suffolk at 17.30 hrs. LL697 never flew again and the surviving crew members flying Lancaster II LL731/U were shot down over Europe on the 12 September 1944. Source Martyn, E.W., For your tomorrow, Vol. II] Harold was one who performed amazing feats with the astro-graph, which no other navigator did. "Cooking" the astro-graph it was called, but it didn't teach you navigation. He also developed a 'plum' when he joined the RNZAF and it became part of him. A character, liked to be popular.

Tom Potts, a former school teachershould have passed his course but the green Canadian bottled beer was to great an attraction. Every night without fail he spent hours in the canteen, and by 10 O'clock would be on top of the piano, singing (or trying to) like a troubador. Often he would come back to the barracks and grab a mop and march up and down reciting the "The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven", until someone would drop from the top bunk and put him under the cold shower, then he would cry like a baby. He was killed in England after a few raids. [JS Note. 24 July 1944, 75 (NZ) Squadron Lancaster I HK575/O took off at 2155 hrs for raid on Stuttgart. Shot down by night-fighter and crashed near Chateau Voue killing the crew of seven including Air Bomber NZ421143 Thomas Potts, age 27, and Captain NZ415216 James McRae, age 27. Source Martyn, E.W., For your tomorrow, Vol. II]

Most course members lost trace of Ted Thurston, but he survived the war. someone saw him in Wellington arguing with the referee during a game of rugby football. He was always a thorn in my side because he did his best to prevent me from studying. A favourite jibe of his was, "You will do well Ernie if you work hard". A type of fifth columnist.

Of the two Jamiesons, Laurie was definitely killed, and no one ever heard of the other one. I fancy he went west somehow. [JS Note. 31 May 1944, 15 Squadron Lancaster I LM121/C took off from Mildenhall at 2357 hrs and was shot down by a night-fighter killing the crew of seven including Air Bomber NZ415636 Laurence Jamieson, age 26. Source Martyn, E.W., For your tomorrow, Vol. II]

Towards the end of our course two others dropped out, they lost confidence believing they could not cope with the job. On the other hand some of the older boys stuck it out. They had left school many years before the war and their attitude was, they can throw me out, but I will not go voluntarily. Typical of them was Jack McConachie and Mick Cassidy. Jack was an electrician and Mick a coalman. I can still remember Jack arguing for some vital marks in the subject Electricity and Magnetism. He knew his sparks but the instructor knew the book side of it. However Jack squeezed about three marks which he badly needed. Both eventually flew Catalinas and made good navigators.

The top three on the course were Ross Laurenson (died of Meningitis after the war [JS Note. 16 April 1945], Laurie Berg and Jim Lyon. All had just left university and swot was no trouble to them.

A spur to our course was a statement by an instructor that whoever came bottom, would be posted to British Columbia to train on the Torpedo-Bombers Hampdens. No one minded British Columbia, but Hampdens were suicide. The average expectancy of life was about two raids. Fortunately for us, the only Canadian who joined the course, Len Saffron, volunteered. We never heard if he survived. [JS Note. Len Saffron went on to fly in RCAF 422 Squadron and survived the war.]

Graduation day was a wonderful occasion, a culmination of weeks of hard work and for all who passed a great achievement. When it is considered to get into the air force you were required to pass a strict medical, do pre air force educational training, and then an extremely hard course covering about nine months, the successful ones had something to be proud of.

I started in Rotorua with a course of 60. I came second in that lot, and 30 were aqccepted to train as navigators, the remainder doing the bombardier course. Nineteen finally received the observers wing on that parade, a proud moment and no one hid their elation.

My marks were Navigation No.1 76%, Navigation No.2 71%, Maps and Charts 88%, Meteorology 71%, Compasses 65%, Reconnaisance 90%, Photography 88%, Instruments 64%, Aircraft recognition 76%, Signals (written) 64%, Signals (practical) 95%, Bombing 90%, Armaments 90%.

My average was 78.5% and I came fifth, a result of a lot of hard work. Believe me it did not come easy. The total hours flown on course including night and day amounted to 87, mostly in trips of no more than three hours.

So I was a fully fledged navigator, and in future would be responsible for giving correct courses, finding out where we were, and working out E.T.A. (estimated time of arrivals). The full significance of this responsibility had not dawned on me at this stage. My only thoughts, "others were doing it, why couldn't I?"

However we were faced with more training yet, six weeks at Fingal, Ontario, for bombing and gunnery, and another six weeks at Summerside in Prince Edward Island. The latter really gave us confidence, we were made to see that navigation really worked. It was mainly reconnaisance training, flying out to sea about 150 miles and returning home again. To find out we could do it was great. Usually we were given the job of finding a harbour, photographing it, drawing all the details on a plan, such as ships, wharves, oil tanks, etc. Because we had to skim over the sea at nought feet, the pilots loved it. Such a contrast to the humdrum flying. One day a pilot shot up a farmer who was driving his horse and sledge across the frozen ground. The horse took off, leaving the farmer shaking his fist at the monster above. I often wonder the outcome of this.

During the whole of our training in Canada we had only three breaks. One was a long weekend when we went to Quebec and the other two at the end of courses, when we visited the United States. [JS Note : Here Ernie uses several pages describing his leave in Quebec, Boston, Detroit, Pittsburg, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.]