17

Extraneous duties and Jever life.

So far I have concentrated mainly on Squadron life and flying duties, but there is another side to being an Officer in the General Duties (Flying) Branch of the RAF. It is timely now to look at these changing aspects as they had a bearing on my activities throughout the rest of my service career.
My embarrassing situation of being a Squadron MTO, and officially being unable to drive, had to be rectified. On seeking the advice of the Station MTO I found that the only qualified driving instructor with authority to 'pass me out' was a Flt.Lt. Higgins. Due contact was made, and during a chat, he discovered that I been driving agricultural tractors, towing all sorts of loads and implements, since age 13! He then decided that a bit of practical wagon driving was called for. After no more than three hour-long sessions in a Thorneycroft 3-tonner he was satisfied that I was competent to be given the necessary authority to drive RAF vehicles in Germany.1 A licence was issued. After a couple of further, unofficial, sessions with friend Higgins, I was, most unusually for an Officer, given authority to tow aircraft should the need arise.
When Sqn.Ldr. Bob Allen, the Boss, heard this he told me to start teaching a dozen or more Airmen how to drive and get them checked out as Class 'B' drivers. So, in very quick time, I became a driving instructor!
I had better explain that the Duty Squadron maintained an hourly bus service from the domestic site to the 4 and 93 Squadron hangars on the opposite side of the airfield. 4 and 93 alternated, week in, week out. A Thorneycroft fitted with seats under its canvas tilt was used. I had two drivers for this who were mis-employed from their proper trades for the purpose. This was unfair on them and it was time to release them and use others whom I now had to train. That is not to say that these were the only drivers on the Squadron, for enough had been found for our convoy to Sylt. A Tactical Squadron which had to be able to move at short notice to a new operating base had to have drivers and, through postings and personnel changes, 93 was now short. Hence my task. I used Wednesday afternoons for training. Volunteers were forthcoming, mostly from those who wanted an excuse to skive off organised sport. During ensuing sessions I familiarised each learner in turn with the controls and how they worked. I personally drove them round a large hardstanding out of harm's way and showed them how to start up and engage first gear and stop. I then sent them solo. In this vast area they learned how to steer, start and stop, at slow speed. I had several learners doing this at the same time. Next, I showed them how to change gear, and they drove faster as a result. This they did until they could go through the box, double-declutching and without too much graunching of gears. Thus the lessons advanced. I sat with each learner in turn, as necessary, to check them out, then I tried a brief convoy of maybe half a mile or so along the perimeter track. Reversing was more difficult. Using sand bags as markers, each learner had to reverse into a 'bay'. As they grew more competent the bay was made narrower. Finally I sat with each driver to test them out. Tuition in road signs was interspersed with practical lessons and it was only a matter of a few weeks before I had drivers competent enough for duty. The whole operation became known as 'Pod's Circus'. In the summer we held convoy practices of four or five vehicles to as far as the north coast for a spot of swimming or messing about on the beach. These sessions proved very popular and the Squadron was never again
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1 I practised hill starts using the MT vehicle servicing ramp as there were no hills within many tens of miles of Jever.
93