Tony Cunnane's RAF Years

The following day, Tuesday 14 December 1954, was the last day of our journey to Ceylon. I wrote in my diary:

“Breakfast was really horrible: some queer lumpy porridge and some sort of milk which tasted like nothing else on earth.”

We took off from Mauripur at 0815 local time. The trip, avoiding over-flying the Indian mainland for political reasons, was uneventful with good weather all the way until we neared Ceylon when it became very cloudy. We landed at 1545 local time, 5½ hours ahead of GMT, and a few minutes later it started pouring with rain just as we were about to disembark.

For six of us, Ceylon was our final destination and we collected our heavy baggage before we left the aircraft and then walked across to the terminal building. After having our documents checked we were sent to a transit billet where we joined those airmen going on to Changi, Singapore, the following day. They were still in their blue uniforms because they had not been permitted to unload their heavy baggage from the Hastings. That was the last I saw of any of them.

Mike, Tombstone and I got drenched going to tea but it was warm rain. I remember we cavorted along the camp roads like schoolchildren, splashing in the many puddles, much to the amusement of other airmen we met along the way, all of whom were dressed in very short shorts, flip-flops on their feet, and carrying locally made, highly decorated umbrellas. Our own faces, arms and legs, were deathly white by comparison with theirs and for the first time we heard the jibe, 'Look - Moon Men!' Clearly one of our first tasks would be to 'get a tan.'

Our clothes soon dried on us. In the NAAFI I met a couple of old friends from 159 A and B mechanics courses at Locking.

I had finally arrived. Lyneham to RAF Negombo had taken four days and roughly 30 flying hours.