Tony Cunnane's RAF Years

It was a little disappointing to be told that we would be flying out from UK before Christmas. I left Locking for the final time on 1 December and moved to RAF Innsworth. In those days Innsworth was the place where all officers and airmen going to and returning from overseas were processed; I seem to remember that it was called No 5 PDU, Personnel Disposal or Dispersal Unit. In our case being disposed of, or dispersed, meant being issued with overseas tropical kit and having it tailored to fit. We were also given our overseas inoculations which, unlike these days, were always painful. I remember particularly the Yellow Fever jab because it caused really acute pain for about 20 seconds. Apparently this was because the fluid had to be ice cold when it was injected. In spite of all these careful preparations the medics forgot to give the three of us bound for Ceylon our essential cholera jabs. Along with several others we were at Innsworth nine days. I’ve always suspected that this was a deliberate ploy so that the Station Warrant Officer at Innsworth would have a constant supply of airmen for fatigues around the station.

On the day before our flight we were transported by road to RAF Clyffe Pypard, a tiny transit unit in a splendid location at the top of a hill. I see from the Internet that the RAF had an airfield there from 1941 to 1961 but I have been unable to find out what aircraft or squadrons used it. The village of Clyffe Pypard had a population of 885 in 1831 and that had to reduced to just 519 in 1951. At that rate there is probably just a few hard souls left there now!

I remember my short visit to RAF Clyffe Pypard well. It was a beautiful frosty afternoon when we arrived and we could see the airfield at Lyneham in the distance down on the plain. The disadvantage was that there was absolutely nothing to do at Clyffe Pypard. In my case I decided to use an airmail writing pad I’d bought from the NAAFI at Innsworth to write a narrative of my journey to Ceylon. I still have that pad to this day and the following account is based on my scribblings.

The transit hut, No 43, was longer than the standard RAF wooden hut: it had 30 beds in it rather than 22. I suppose there must at some time have been at least another 42 huts somewhere on the site but it was too cold to go exploring and, in any case, the winter day rapidly became a winter night. For some reason we were confined to camp – perhaps to ensure no-one suddenly decided to go absent without leave, or perhaps to ensure that we didn’t contaminate any of the local population with yellow fever! A very grumpy sergeant put one of our group on a charge for being improperly dressed – he’d had the temerity to go past the Guard Room to have a look at the view but he either forgot, or didn’t see the need, to put his uniform cap on in this isolated location. The F252, Charge Report, eventually caught up with this airman in Ceylon about three months later and the flight commander tore it up.

It was a long evening. We lit both the stoves in an effort to keep warm but most of us retired to bed early. I see from my diary that I shaved before going to bed to save a bit of time in the morning. When we woke the fire at the far end of the hut was still burning strongly so someone must have got out of bed to feed it during the night. The fire at our end was quite cold. The next entry in my diary recorded that since I had shaved the night before, “it was only necessary to have a rinse this morning but as there was plenty of hot water that caused little discomfort. There were no hot water taps so we had to use a jug to carry the water from one main tap to the basins.”

Back to top or advance to the next part of this story

Above: This was our last night at Locking - packing kit and cleaning the billet.

Below: This was us waiting for the coach to take us from Innsworth to Clyffe Pypard. It seems ridiculous now but we had to take all our service kit with us - and that included the very heavy and bulky greatcoat. Certainly we needed to wear the greatcoat up until the time we boarded the aircraft at Lyneham but why did we have to take it all the way to the Middle and Far East and keep it in store until we were about to return to the UK at the end of our overseas tour - which was, for most of us, 30 months ahead!