I had successfully completed my interview at Cardington and before I left for home I was given my service number which I remember to this day. 1473208.  I kept this number until I was commissioned in December 1944. I was told I would be called into the air force when I was 18 and a quarter years and this duly happened on May 5th 1942. I was duly billeted at 8 Hall Road and for the first few days we had to march around in our civvies. When we were eventually issued with our uniform most of us I think felt a sense of pride. Wearing a white flash in our hats gave us a sense of superiority!!! One of the few companies not making essential goods that seemed to be carrying on as usual was Brylcreme Hairdressing. They used an airman as their model for advertising, so we became known as the Brylcreme boys. The air force had some admin. offices at Regent Park Zoo. I remember having to march there one day but what exactly for I can't remember. After about 3 weeks in London  some of us were posted to Ludlow where we lived in canvas tents. We had a frightening drill sergeant in charge of us who kept saying that if we thought he was tough wait until we got to ITW. Ludlow was a sort of toughening school. We marched about a lot and we made roads. I think on the whole we enjoyed it there. My main memory is laughing a lot. After about 4 weeks there we were posted to Newquay No. 8 ITW but before we left Ludlow, we were all injected for protection against tetanus and typhoid. It seemed as though every time we were posted to a new place we had to suffer injections. Our group was put in the charge of a pilot officer who seemed to me to be about 35 years old and had a mild school masterly manner. He was a non flying type. (Non fliers were nick-named 'penguins') When the train we were in passed Plymouth, P/O Tregear called us out into the carriage corridor and said "that is why we are fighting, lads." Plymouth was a scene of utter devastation. It had received a hell of a pounding from the Luftwaffe. (Memory is an odd thing. For some reason I can remember that rather quiet pilot officer's name.).We were all  dreading arriving at ITW thinking we were going to be ordered about by some bully of a sergeant. Imagine our surprise when a fresh faced young sergeant and a jolly looking corporal told us to just keep together in an orderly group and walk to our billets. He thought we must be tired after such a long journey. We were in for a further surprise. When we reached the mess hall the sergeant and the corporal waited on us. This would be the only time, they said. We were then introduced to our CO. He was Sqd/Ldr Wilde (Oscar was his nick name) and he said he did not believe in 'bull' but only wanted to pass out successfully as many students as possible. All he asked was that we behaved ourselves and if we saw him in the streets of Newquay not to salute him as he had to return our salute and this was very tiring and not to say irritating.

At Cardington we were asked what category of air crew we wished to be. Most applicants said pilot and then navigator. I just said navigator as I know I am rather slow at picking things up. It took me a while to learn to ride a bike and a longish time to learn how to swim properly. I had a feeling it would take me longer than 12 hours to learn to fly solo. (It took me a long time to work out this ruddy computer!).   There were about 40 of us all on the same course at ITW. We were divided into 2 flights, A & B. I was in A Flight. We had some sort of intelligence test and those that finished in the top 20 went into A Flight. This meant that whatever place of learning we went to I was always put into A Flight. All 40 of us were to be trained as navigators, our ages ranged from 18 years to 30 years and we were a true cross section of society. Everything from school leavers to solicitors and policemen.   We learnt how to do dead reckoning navigation, how to take a Browning machine gun to pieces (don't ask me why), be able to send morse code on a buzzer at 12 words a minute, and use an Aldis lamp at 8 words a minute. We went out in boats and took bearings on landmarks, and we went down to the beach every day to do PT which always ended with us going swimming in the surf. We did dinghy drill in the harbour and this usually finished with us swimming around in the beautifully clear waters of this sheltered haven. The teacher we had for maths and navigation was a first class instructor. He must have been an excellent school master. He had the honorary title of Flight Lieutenant. There were other things we learnt such as aircraft recognition and how to make your bed in a tidy fashion! As far as I was concerned ITW was like a glorious holiday. All our instructors and drill NCOs were excellent fellows. However, there was another ITW at Newquay (No.7) where , I understand, the pupils were driven mad by nit-picking disciplinarians.