Detachment at RAF Normanby off the A15 - Tony Cunnane's Life and Times

After a couple of weeks at Hemswell I was detached to a small out-station at Normanby, just south of Caenby Corner, a major crossroads in the 1950s just north of Scampton, to cover for a chap who was being sent off on an advanced training course. I found that I was in sole charge of ten high-powered short wave transmitters and a group of a dozen airmen, including three or four RAF policemen, a storeman and a cook. We all lived together in a barrack hut. This was yet another occasion when I was sent to do a job for which I had no qualifications. It’s just as well the half dozen wireless mechanics who were already there knew what they were doing. I was at Normanby for about three weeks and fortunately nothing happened that needed my attention nor did anyone come from Hemswell to see how I was doing,

It was during this period at Normanby that I went down the A15, the Roman Road 'Ermine Street', to Lincoln several times and saw the extensive road works connected with the lengthening of Scampton’s main runway for the arrival of the V Bombers. (The image on the left is part of a 1955 landing chart for Scampton and the image on the right is a similar chart for 1978. Click on either to pop up a much larger version.)

I did better at Hornchurch the second time around (12-18 April 1956) mainly because I knew what to expect and how to play the system. A few days after  arriving back at Hemswell I was summoned to an interview with an administrative squadron leader. He sat me down in his office and showed me a letter that had just arrived from Hornchurch. They were offering me training as an air signaller which carried  with it promotion to sergeant on graduation. I was hugely disappointed.

“You have to sign at the bottom to say you accept this offer,” said the squadron leader proffering a pen.

“No sir,” I said after a very brief pause. “It’s not what I want. I want a commission and I want to be a pilot.”

The squadron leader asked me to re-consider. He said that because the new V Force was starting to expand rapidly there would be lots of vacancies for Air Signallers and airmen with my qualifications would find the course very easy. “In any case,” he continued, “It will mean promotion to sergeant when you finish the course, with a big jump in pay, and there will be opportunities to try again for pilot training later."

With some reluctance I accepted what I knew to be second best and signed the form.

On 22 May 1956, I left Hemswell for the very last time, in a staff car, for Gainsborough railway station where I boarded an extremely slow train that stopped at largely deserted stations every few miles and eventually dropped me at Kings Lynn. From there  I took a bus to East Dereham where I met up with a couple of others, including a flight sergeant returning from leave, who were about to order a taxi for the 3-mile journey to Swanton Morley. I happened to mention that I was reporting on posting (once  again my uniform was a bit of a giveaway) whereupon the flight sergeant assured me that I was entitled to official transport. He telephoned the RAF station on my behalf and in due course we were all picked up by an RAF vehicle. It turned out that the  flight sergeant, a WW2 air gunner, would also be on my course but in 1956 corporals did not talk socially to flight sergeants!

Many years later, 35 years later to be precise in 1991 when I was working at Scampton with the Red Arrows, I had sneaky access to the confidential reports written on me following my two visits to Hornchurch and learned from them that on each occasion  the recruiters had noted my unacceptable Yorkshire accent and, therefore, considered me unlikely ever to become suitable for a commission but quite suitable for service as a senior NCO.

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