The job on Far East Flying Boat wing
was a major operation.
It was called the Operation 700. And.
We weren't associated with the squadrons.
There were three squadrons, 88
Squadron.205 and 209.
And they used to work away from Singapore,
up in Malaya.
Where the flying boats used to operate from
because there was guerrilla warfare.
So we were virtually at war.
It was active service.
The aircraft came in for the major service
every so often and
it was taken out of the water.
The wheels
two wheels had to go on either side of the underneath the wings
and a rear trolley
had to go onto the back and it was bolted onto the hard shine
and it used to be pulled up by a lorry
and it was taken straight into the hangar
and everything was stripped, everything was stripped.
The engines taken off, the radar taken out.
The turrets were taken out.
It was my job
to dismantle the rear turret
and get it taken out,
put on a trolley
on the side of the hanger where you worked on it,
stripped everything down
and everything.
Everything mechanical had to be checked.
The turrets are covered with perspex.
And if they're damaged, at all you had to take them out
and replace them.
Bear in mind that there were no spares.
You know, it wasn't the sort of aircraft
where you had all these spares because it was on the way out.
So you had to make it. And.
But we managed we made these panels, which were molded.
What we had to do is get
a huge sheet of perspex
and make a jig.
For it to go intr,
then we used to take it over to the cook house
and put the
perspex sheet in boiling water
to make it a bit flexible.
Put it in a jig,
clamp it down.
It was all done manually.
Which I love doing.
You know, you've made it from scratch.
When it was all finished,
we had to put it all back together again.
The rear turret, which was my job.
Is held in position
by about 50
0BA nuts and bolts.
Otherwise, it'll fly off
and If you go on a Sunderland,
you look down the back there's a panel
underneath the turret,
which held the
rotary motor,
and all of the nuts and bolts
were underneath there.
So you had to
lie on your back.
Put your hands up there and do
all of these nuts and bolts up or undo them.
And when it was all finished,
it was all painted
and it came out of the hanger.
Like a brand new aircraft.
Every time.