My Father's War

My late father served in the RAF during World War 2:

These photos are part of a collection of old family photographs that my mother and father had thrown away when they were clearing out prior to moving house. When I heard of this I told my mother to retrieve them from the bin.


At this time my father was quite ill - he later died of lung cancer - but I managed to spend a little time with him going through his wartime photographs making a few notes about what he could remember. These have been in an album I have kept for the past 18 years, but I am now digitising them all and hope to prepare a little book of them for the family.

He was called up in July 1940 at the age of 20. Prior to that he was in the Messenger Service based at Craylands School in what is now Basildon, Essex. This was also a first aid post - I have several photos of the people there undertaking exercises.

The photo below was, I believe, taken in 1939. My father is 3rd in from the right.


What strikes me is how young they all look...











Much of my fathers time with the RAF was spent in the Middle East - Iran, Iraq, Kuwait - places that are currently in the news. One of the bases he stayed at was Habbaniya in Iraq. Researching this I found it was an RAF base from the 1930's to the 1950's and there is a Habbaniya Association for people who have served there. I have made contact with them and received some good advice from them.

I have a number of photos taken during this time - I have no idea where they got the film, photographic paper and chemicals from - showing him and his mates at the various camps - one of the notes states that they waited 6 months for equipment.

The photo below is labelled 'the cookhouse crew'. My father is on the front left. What I like is that it shows the ordinary blokes making the best out of the situation.

















This final image is where they were watching the reactions of a scorpion trapped by a ring of burning petrol. Bored young men trying to entertain themselves....


















If you would like to see some more photos, feel free to contact me via my website and I will send a link.