|
Letter received from:
-
W. P. Knight.
Grimsby,
Dear Colin
Thank you for your letter. Pat Fry has
circulated a copy of your earlier letter to surviving members of 143 Sqdn, so you may well
hear from some of them, though there are very few of us left. There is no separate
Squadron Association for 143 but Pat is the convenor for the 3 Squadrons of the North
Coates Strike Wing, of which 143 was one.
As you will see from the enclosed extracts from
143’s War Diaries, the Squadron did not come to Banff until October 1944. Previously,
we had flown Beaufighters from Portreath in Cornwall, Manston in Kent and North Coates in
Lincs. I served at all of these as a navigator and took part in 65 operations, the
last of which was on the 5th of December 1944, when my pilot, Bob Gilchrist, from
Lanarkshire was killed. This operation is described in the War Diaries extract for the 5th
of December. I have enclosed a copy of a photograph, which I took immediately prior to our
attack on the ships in Nordgulen Fjord (you can keep this as I have the original).
War Diaries for all the Banff Squadrons are held
on microfilm at the Public Record Office at Kew. If you are interested in following up the
details there, you will need a reader’s ticket (free) and plenty of spare time!
P.R.O. References are as follows
143 Squadron AIR 27 978/9
235 " " " 1444
248 " " . 1496/7
144 " . " 983
404 " " . 1786
Operational photographs are held at the P.R.O.
and in the Photographic Archives of the Imperial War Museum in London. Staff are helpful
but you have to go in person to select any of which you require prints.
There is a lot of information too, in a book
called "The Strike Wings" by Roy Conyers Nesbit, published by William Kimber.
My own recollections of a brief spell at Banff
(I left in January 1945) are coloured by the extreme cold of a severe winter (all ranks
shovelling snow off the runway). A fashion adopted by Officer aircrew of wearing their
raincoats over their greatcoats for extra warmth (soon stopped by the Station Commander).
Coal was in short supply and people devised other means of keeping warm, overloading
electrical circuits and causing the occasional black out. I recall returning from sick
leave to find that a water pipe in the ablutions had burst and the cascading water had
frozen round my bicycle stored there, so that my pride and joy was encased in several feet
of solid ice. However, it suffered no lasting damage and I still have it now.
As Banff was a wartime station, we lived in
Nissin huts and the Officers Mess was on the same pattern, albeit on a larger scale. The
Bar had a rough-hewn appearance reminiscent of a Wild West Saloon. We didn’t let off
six guns but we did let off steam in other ways. I recall one evening when a bonfire was
lit in a suitable receptacle and aircrew, dressed in white sheets, performed a creditable
(allegedly authentic) Arab dance around it, to the accompaniment of drum "music"
on upturned bar stools. A visiting ENSA repertory company were invited to the Mess after
their performance (a Chekhov play I recall) - the ladies took one look and fled. As you
know, the Station lay between
Banff and Portsoy. The latter had a village hall
where a dance was held a couple of times a week. Unfortunately the dance could not start
until the Whist Drive finished, so one was lucky to get to bed before about 2am - OK if
you were not down to fly early the next day.
Since starting this letter, I have dug out three
more photographs from the Imperial War Museum archives. These I have copied, and enclose
copies that you can keep. However they are "copyright reserved" and you may not
use them without the Museums permission. Reference numbers are on the reverse of the
copies.
I was interested to learn of your initiative. I
wish you well in your endeavours and will be interested to hear if you do publish
anything. I would very much appreciate a photograph of the Banff Memorial if one were
available. With every good wish,
Sincerely,
Bill Knight (navigator 143 Sqdn).
|
