Dispersal: recollections of the 69th in the wider RAF

The purpose of the No. 1 School of Technical Training was to create trained personnel who would then, hopefully, go out into the wider RAF. Many of them did, and these are a few of their stories.

Incident at Swanton Morley, by Dave Symonds (armourer)

In the early sixties I was a Corporal armourer at CSDE Swanton Morley and during the week that the Duke of Gloucester visited the Station I found myself Corporal in charge of fire piquet in the guardroom. No Green Goddess, just two airmen, three sit-up-and-beg cycles circa 1941, rods and stirrup pump. But I did have a bell on my bike!

Nothing untoward happened all week - the royal visit came and went. Then, at nine o'clock on Saturday morning, the proverbial hit the fan chimney fire at Thompson Close, As I lived in Thompson Close my first thought was that the phantom stoker (my wife) had struck again.

Just as in 1940 the fire piquet scrambled and flew off on our trusty blue machines the half mile down the Dereham road to the quarters. Red Leader (me) raced on ahead to assess the situation while my number two wingman carried the rods and pump. This must have looked, to a bystander, like a Keystone Cops film,

Arriving at the scene, I was relieved to find my house fine. The house on fire was nearer the road and the occupying Sergeant paced up and down outside. Going inside through the kitchen, I found the rest of the family sitting at their table eating breakfast in spite of the smoke, so thick that I could hardly see them!

The fire was in the sitting room. The Sergeant hadn't done any preparation at all; the TV cable, still live, ran in front of the fireplace with the plug not removed. The chimney was well alight, making a loud roaring sound. I yelled to the Sergeant to get a bucket and shovel to remove the burning coal, which he eventually did. Just then my team arrived with a crash. The lad with the rods had a brake deficiency and stopped with the use of the kerb, falling off and scattering the rods to the four winds.

Having unplugged the TV, removed the rug, got rid of the coal, asked for water and assembled the rods, we commenced pumping. The Sergeant disappeared and when the fire was out we discovered him eating his sausages in the kitchen somewhat smoke blackened.

Now the East Dereham fire brigade arrived and I told them the fire was out. However they insisted on getting on the roof and putting water down the chimney 'just to make sure' as they could see a wisp of smoke issuing from the chimney.

You guessed it. The houses were semi-detached and of course the smoke was coming out of the next door chimney. The poor old Chief Technician and his wife, keeping a low profile sitting round their fire, ignoring the fuss outside, were a tinge suprised when their fire exploded in their faces, steam and soot everywhere! Luckily no one was hurt but the chimney breast cracked severely.

Just one incident in a happy seven years at Swanton. I arrived as a Corporal and left as a Chief Technician, my best posting in the service. The next time I put out a fire was thirty years later at the Conoco oil refinery on the Humber bank during off-shore helicopter training. Happy days!