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reworht · 21st April 2020, 13:27

My father served in the RAF as groundcrew. He spent most of the war at RAF Debden in North Essex. Whilst he was reluctant to talk about his experiences, he did admit to being thrown off a motorbike and sidecar by a bomb blast during the Battle of Britain. As the war ended, he was posted to RAF Langenhagen near Berlin, as part of the ground crew at temporary airfields set up to bring in supplies for ground forces. This a poor quality scan (the original is after all nigh on 75 years old!) of the Programme for Christmas Day 1945.

XMAS1945003 by Rod Thrower, on Flickr

As I grew up, there are only two things I can recall that my father ever mentioned in relation to the War -

He wouldn't listen to Abide with Me when it was sung on TV - he said it brought back too many painful memories
He always had huge respect for his brother-in-law (my mother's brother) who refused to take advantage of his reserved occupation status as a farmer and insisted on serving in the Green Howards as "I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to Roland (my father) whilst I was ploughing a field".

Dad

RAF DAD001 by Rod Thrower, on Flickr

21st April 2020, 13:27	#8
reworht This is my second home Honda HR-V 1.6 i-DTEC SE Navi 5dr Diesel Hatchback Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: North Yorks Moors Posts: 14,446 Thanks: 782 Thanked 2,156 Times in 1,497 Posts	My father served in the RAF as groundcrew. He spent most of the war at RAF Debden in North Essex. Whilst he was reluctant to talk about his experiences, he did admit to being thrown off a motorbike and sidecar by a bomb blast during the Battle of Britain. As the war ended, he was posted to RAF Langenhagen near Berlin, as part of the ground crew at temporary airfields set up to bring in supplies for ground forces. This a poor quality scan (the original is after all nigh on 75 years old!) of the Programme for Christmas Day 1945. XMAS1945003 by Rod Thrower, on Flickr As I grew up, there are only two things I can recall that my father ever mentioned in relation to the War - He wouldn't listen to Abide with Me when it was sung on TV - he said it brought back too many painful memories He always had huge respect for his brother-in-law (my mother's brother) who refused to take advantage of his reserved occupation status as a farmer and insisted on serving in the Green Howards as "I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to Roland (my father) whilst I was ploughing a field". Dad RAF DAD001 by Rod Thrower, on Flickr __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] Rodney - you plonker! ... but more commonly known as Rod !