Stewart Blackburn War Story - Fleet Air Arm (1939-46)

 

To Be Involved- 

In 1939 Stewart Blackburn started work as a clerk at Eaton, Smith & Downey, a firm of Huddersfield solicitors. On September 3rd of that year the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared that Britain was at war with Germany.

Inevitably the war began impacting ordinary peoples lives and there was a feeling of wanting to be involved and to “do your bit”. During the nights of the early 1940s Stewart volunteered as part of a Fire Watch. A team which sat in various town centre buildings and provided early warning of the effects from incendiary bombs.

During 1940 Stewart’s father, Percy, gave up Tailoring for the war duration and became a Progress Clerk at Hopkinson’s engineering works as part of their war production effort. While sister Annie had taken two evacuated students into her household.

Huddersfield wasn’t totally untouched by direct enemy action during these years. German bombers attempted to hit David Browns factory at Lockwood, but hit the hillside below Castle Hill. In 1941 an Incendiary bombing raid hit mills in Firth Street. An unexploded 2200lb bomb was found in the River Colne near Kings Mill Lane. It was later displayed in the Market Place as a collection box for the war effort.

The war gradually involved more family members. During 1941 Stewart’s sister, Betty, joined the Womens Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as a teleprinter operator at age seventeen and a half, eventually becoming Corporal Instructor. While in 1943 sister Joyce is called up into the WAAF as a Radio Operator. Stewart is desperate to get involved and contribute to the war effort.

At the beginning of 1944 Stewart is eighteen and attempts to sign up for war service. At first he is turned down, as his sunken chest is regarded as making him unfit. According to his sister Betty’s recollection, Stewart makes them realise how fit he is by running round the parade ground in full kit until they give in and accept him.

Crest of HMS Gosling

HMS Gosling – Fleet Air Arm Training School

On 27th March 1944 Stewart enters service as FX685739 Air Mechanic 2nd Class in the Fleet Air Arm. He is based at HMS Gosling Camp 111.

 Royal Naval Air Stations (RNAS) tended to be christened ornithologically after water birds. Gosling is a Fleet Air Arm Training School at Risley near Warrington in Cheshire.

By the 20th May 1944 Stewart had completed training with a rifle, Lewis Machine Gun and Grenades.

Photograph,above, from HMS Gosling May 1944 shows Stewart on the second row 2nd from left.

As training is well on the way to completion by September Stewart makes a visit back to Huddersfield and girlfriend Freda.

Stewart & Freda September 1944

Following on from his 19^th birthday on the 1^st October, Stewart qualifies as an Air Mechanic (Grade A) on the 20th October 1944. Achieving 58% in the Trade Test.

Crest of HMS Merganser

HMS Merganser – 717 Squadron Torpedo Bomber Station

Training completed, Stewart is posted to HMS Merganser on 16th November 1944. HMS Merganser can be found near the village of Crimond and hamlet of Rattray, near Peterhead, Scotland.

 Although opened in 1943 it was commissioned in October 1944 as HMS Merganser for training Barracuda torpedo dive bomber crews. From November 1944, at the time of Stewart's arrival, it was home to 717 Squadron.

 At Merganser Stewart works on maintaining the "Barracuda" aircraft. Someone steals his toolbox, so he steals someone else's. A recurrent pastime. His service at Merganser is recorded by Lieutenant B. Holloway (RN) as "satisfactory".

Barracuda Torpedo Bomber

Stewart’s posting to Merganser is quite short, but this may have been through no fault of his own. Up until August 1944 the Fleet Air Arm had been charged with sinking the German battleship Tirpitz, which was hiding in a Norwegian Fjord. A number of raids had been attempted from carriers flying the Barracuda torpedo bomber amongst other aircraft. The last such raid was in August and following another failure the responsibility for sinking the Tirpitz was transferred to the RAF who deployed Lancaster Bombers and the “Tallboy” earthquake bomb invented by Barnes Wallis. The Tirpitz was duly sunk on 12^th November.

The performance of the Barracuda had been criticized as slow (At 140mph flying speed it was easily picked off by defending fighter formations). The Germans had also built a sand berm around the Tirpitz to stop it capsizing and also rendering torpedo attack virtually impossible. Therefore it would be understandable if demand for new Barracuda pilots reduced at this point in time, especially in this part of Scotland.

HMS Merganser as it looks today

Crest of HMS Godwit

HMS Godwit – Advanced Instrument Flying School

HMS Godwit received Stewarts services from the 23rd January 1945. It was a cold Tuesday with temperatures not getting above freezing all day. Godwit was located at Hinstock in Shropshire and involved changing trains at Nantwich for the Market Drayton branch line then finally disembarking at the bleak Hodnet station. It was a further 5.5 miles to the Ratings quarters in the village of Childs Ercall so Stewart was thankful for the truck providing transport for the final leg. There were over 600 naval personnel assigned to the site. 363 ratings and 144 WRNS (Womens Royal Naval Service) were based at Childs Ercall. Bicycles were provided for the daily journey from quarters to the airfield. The 137 officers were based in the village of Hinstock at Hinstock Hall.

Hodnet Railway Station in 1967

HMS Godwit was designated an "Advanced Instrument Flying School". 

Flying by instruments is a very important skill when confronted with little or no visibility at night or in fog. At the beginning of the war the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) was suffering from an alarming loss of newly trained pilots, not owing to enemy action. It was formulated by Commander Johnnie Pugh (RNVR) that this may be due to their training in cloudless skies in the Caribbean and then being met with blanket cloud conditions in Britain. He proposed a dedicated school for Instrument Flying to the Admiralty and after some months “badgering” was eventually granted a dedicated squadron to be based at an ex RAF airfield near Hinstock in Shropshire. It became a pioneering centre for “Blind Flying”. Airmen were trained in the Standard Beam Approach which enabled them to ride a beam to land safely. The QDM (Direction Magnetic) would give pilots a bearing to the station and guide them in. The station cat was named "QDM" as it kept coming back, so was thought to have an inbuilt homing system. 

Airspeed Oxford I Training Aircraft

The base consisted of 40 twin engine Airspeed Oxfords, Anson calibration aircraft and Tiger Moth biplanes. Later expanding to a hundred Oxford aircraft when the neighbouring airfield at RAF Peplow was attached to the school. RNAS Hinstock had a grass runway when first opened but was quite quickly equipped with a “metal” runway. This was an American invention consisting of interlocking steel grids 12 feet by three feet. A runway 1000 yards long and 50 yards wide was constructed in three days.

Stewart is posted to 780 Squadron working on Oxford I aircraft with a specialism for airframe. He is recorded by Lieutenant Marshall (RN) as "a very clean Rating". In March after settling into HMS Godwit Stewart had his “QS Form 700” certificate of aircraft maintenance signed off by the Old Etonian station engineering officer Lt. Commander Philip Pleydell-Bouverie.

Stewart paid at least one visit to Wolverhampton on a drinking night out. Ferried to and from the town in a series of trucks. It was here he bumped into one of his mates from Huddersfield, Geoff Dimmer who was in the army. Unfortunately Geoff was in the army and had quite a rough ride from the naval ratings until Stewart stepped in and assured them he was a “mate”.

 A further view of the social life on offer is given by Chief Petty Officer Ron Swinn:

 "The main camp was at Hinstock and I recall a couple of Naval airmen stealing the Station fire engine to transport them into town but 'pranged' it on their way back - I believe it made the local papers at the time.”

And Instrument Flying Instructor Peter Sirett recalls:

“The only local pub I can remember visiting was the Four Crosses at Hinstock. We had few means of transport except bicycles but recreational transport was supplied occasionally to visit the cinema at RAF Tern Hill.”

A private bus company, Butters, ran a service between Childs Ercall and Wellington daily, with the return service in the evening very overcrowded.

 As a break to this merriment Stewart managed to make it home to Huddersfield at the end of March for the marriage of his sister Joyce to RAF Engineering Officer Arthur Gill. A couple of months later Arthur was posted to Australia for two and a half years, a dream posting for a 19 year old Stewart at the time.

Wedding of Joyce Blackburn to Arthur Gill 28.03.1945. Stewart is at back right next to his father, the diminutive Percy

The VE day celebrations, on the 8th May 1945, at the base got out of hand as Lieutenant Commander Phil Moss (Station Radio Officer) recollects when he was assigned to restore order. As Duty Officer, with a .32 Smith & Wesson revolver in his coat he assembled a section of six armed guards. First to the Officers mess at Hinstock Hall where the unpopular Commanding Officer Commander (RNVR) J.B.W. Pugh had been thrown in the fountain. Then secondly to the Wrens barracks at Childs Ercall where unruly male ratings had invaded intent on mischief. They quickly withdrew to their own barracks on sight of the armed squad, only to then make a bonfire of the mess furniture.

After VE day (Victory in Europe) in May 1945 the flying intensified in preparation for the assault on Japan. Godwit expanded by sending one detached flight to Henstridge and one to Australia. Frustratingly Stewart was assigned to the Henstridge Flight and Somerset was his furthest south.

Crest of HMS Dipper

HMS Dipper – 761 Naval Fighter School

RNAS Henstridge was near Yeovil in Somerset and was christened HMS Dipper in the waterfowl tradition. It was a training establishment containing 761 Squadron Naval Fighter School and 718 Squadron Army Co-op Training.

 On 26th June 1945 Stewart is promoted to Air Mechanic 1st Class.

 By this time Stewart was not letting the grass grow under his feet, and by 9th August 1945 had passed his exams and been promoted again to Leading Air Mechanic.

Stewarts Rank patches: Left Leading Air Mechanic Airframe, Right FAA Leading Rate

Activity at Henstridge included advanced courses in low level flying in Corsair and Supermarine Seafire single seat fighter bombers. The Seafire was the Royal Navy’s version of the Spitfire intended for use on Aircraft Carriers.

Supermarine Seafire on deck of HMS Illustrious 1943 (courtesy of IWM)

Henstridge had become an EVT (Educational and Vocational Training) establishment, at the beginning of 1946, which prepared servicemen for a return to civilian roles.

Henstridge EVT May 1946 - Stewart is again 2nd left on second row

The war over, Stewart finally finishes service back at HMS Godwit on 4th October. A Class "A" release from service is granted on 29th November 1946.      

A War Gratuity for 28 months service was granted of £16 16s. A Post War Credit of Wages in respect of Service as a Rating was granted of £20 13s. Making a grand total to be deposited in the Post Office Savings Bank on 30th November of £37 9s 0d. Stewart was twenty one years old.

 Stewart did not want to return to the solicitor’s office and took a job at David Brown Engineers. Luckily the interviewer had also just been discharged from the Fleet Air Arm.

 Through a career at David Brown Gears Stewart found himself cutting the gears for most of the Royal Navy ships constructed in the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and early eighties. Highlights of which were the new aircraft carriers Invincible, Illustrious and Ark Royal. Known as “Through Deck Cruisers” as politics demanded at the time.

 In the late 1970’s and early 1980’ David Brown began losing orders to German competition. This incurred audible displeasure from Stewart as he chuntered the company name

Blohm & Voss from Hamburg. After all they were the same company that built the battleship Bismarck !!!

Stewart's 1939-45 War Medal

Further Information:

Royal Navy Research Website - RNAS Hinstock

BBC - WW2 People's War - HMS Godwit Recalled

Phil took no chances at navy base's wild VE Day celebrations | Shropshire Star