LAC STUBBS Alfred, Overseas Air Preparation Units,

a.k.a. my Grandpa.

A blip posted by Alberta reminded me of the photographs I have of Grandpa's time in the R.A.F. during WWII.

Grandpa is the far right chap in the back row of the top photo. That's not a hanky on his head, just a tear in the photo!

He emigrated to Australia before I was born and ended his days in a sheltered housing complex. He and 8 others published a book of stories of their time in the services during the war, extracts from which I have used in the following write up.

These photos show him with his group in 1940 in St Athans, South Wales and some shots of Durban, his first overseas posting. I've noticed there are no photos of him actually working. Maybe that was forbidden in case they fell into enemy hands?

" I was with 64 Fighter Squadron - three flights of Spitfires with three in each flight - at Kenley in Sussex in August 1940. It had been a quiet war so far ... we were stood down ... playing football, lazing about in the sunshine ... Then came the drone. Dozens of low flying shapes ... followed by what seemed like hundreds, probably Heinkels ... Unbelievably most of the bombs failed to go off ... The WAAF shelter took a direct hit. No WAAF personnel survived. "

Inevitably he was posted overseas and found himself at Liverpool dock with hundreds of other RAF personnel, awaiting allocation.

" We could smell our troop ship before we saw it ... in the past it had carried meat from Argentina to England - the meat had gone but the smell never left "

He was seasick for 4 weeks ( I am his grandaughter, Gert!) and then they had to sit in the harbour at Freetown for a week, no shore leave, in swelting tropical heat. They had to wait for the flotsem and jetsam of sunken ships to clear before they could continue, and had the constant threat of U-boats swimming around them.

" Often we had to keep quiet below deck, with an officer at the top of the steps to stop anyone escaping, unable to bear the waiting and the silence. "

Arriving in Durban, it must have seemed like paradise; " As we went down the gangplank, lots of personal baggage and guns slipped overboard as men were too weak to hold on to them. "

Grandpa spent 10 weeks in Durban, once again waiting for his posting orders and feeding up; " ...most days I went down to the Jewish Club where a very good meal could be had for one shilling ... the food was an eye opener after the rations in England ... such wonderful jams that I had never seen before. "

" Eventually my number came up " ( is that where that saying comes from then? ) and he was off to " as yet, unkown shores ".

In fact it was Lahore, and I will blip part 2 later ....