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From "RAF Yatesbury The History" with the kind permission of Phil Tomaselli - EditorCHAPTER ELEVEN1955 to 1965Editor's note: The following is an account that we can all relate to Ted Wolfenden: I
joined the RAF in October 1954 for a twelve-year
engagement just before I was due for National
Service. In fact my call-up papers arrived the day after my arrival at At Cardington I had my photograph taken, a service number of 3519622 being attached, a lovely kit issued, the fitment of which was amazing, especially the length. Only being 5ft 5 ins tall, inside leg 27", some shortening was necessary which made the leg bottoms even bigger. Next stop, haircut by the vampire staff, then informed of our square bashing station, lovely Bridgnorth. Also that my Air Force trade would be air radar mechanic. As I was ex-ATC, my square bashing was six weeks instead of the normal eight. After Bridgnorth, two weeks' leave over Christmas and then train tickets from Bridgnorth to Cardiff, Cardiff to Calne via Bristol and Chippenham. So, after Christmas leave, train to Calne for Yatesbury. On arrival at Chippenham, we found the Calne Flyer, with its very old wooden-seated, gas-lit carriages, which moved at the speed of the canal boats that it replaced. At Calne station, we were confronted by a rather large notice about trainees for Compton Bassett and Yatesbury and other outstations. Eventually, we found the lorry and corporal for transportation to Yatesbury. On arrival at Yatesbury, we
found that snow had arrived before us. We were ordered out of the lorry by a
number of snowdrops of various ranks, whose creases were sharper than a razor.
Allocated to a wooden shack, amongst the thousands of them, at least that is
what it looked like at the top, allocation of the beds were the normal first
come, first takes. However, the hut corporal then arrived and laid down the
law. No shoes in the hut to be worn unless skating on carpet pads over the
highly-bulled floor, informed of the times of the canteen, the times of
training, times of pay parade (pay and formal), times of buses on Saturdays,
three out of four, and Fridays (one out of four). Informed that Wednesday
afternoon was sports day, and to decide what we wanted to do as it was
mandatory and everyone attended a sport. Mine was rowing. Also, that on three I was at Yatesbury on GEE 2, an old Rebecca and IFF, type numbers may be incorrect (memory running low after 45 years since 1955 due to continuous training in new computer hardware between 1966 and 1999 with ICL). The main
items I remember from this section at Yatesbury, which was January to March
1955, was three days jankers due to some slob
pushing his dirt under my small locker. |