 |
|
 |
|
|||
 |
|||
|
Alan Tatchell Conrad 1478237 RAFVR MID: “The RAF Tourist” In any research project, it soon becomes clear that some terms are very specific to the topic. Apart from the obvious “211 Squadron” and “Bristol Blenheim”, there are many such in the Squadron’s history. For example, repeated Internet searching on certain place names will find new material from time to time. And so it was with “The RAF Tourist”. Searches on Wadi Gazouza used to find nothing of relevance to the 211 Squadron story. Then in late 2001, a fresh ”find” emerged. In Florida, John Conrad had been busy drafting some web pages to share his father Alan’s photos and story with the family in england and elsewhere. On enquiry, both surprised and pleased that their project had been spotted, they each replied in very kindly terms. This page is the result. Called up for service in 1941, Alan reported to 3 Recruitment Centre Padgate on 24 May. Enlisted as a Group IV Clerk (General Duties) in the entry rank of AC2, by September 1941 Alan found himself aboard ship bound via South Africa and Aden for the Middle East. Arriving at Port Tewfik on the Suez Canal that October, he was sent straight to the sand and scrub of the Sudan, where he was posted as a clerk to 211 Squadron at Wadi Gazouza. As well as his 211 Squadron days, Alan spent time with 230 Squadron and at Lake Koggala, where 205 Squadron were stationed both before and after their part in the Java debacle. Alan summarised his RAF experiences neatly as follows: “My connection with 211 squadron and Wadi Gazouza was very brief. I was posted there in October 1941 and when the squadron was moved to the Far East shortly after the Japs attacked, I was transferred to 72 OTU. At the time I was very fed up being transferred from an operational squadron but about 45 years later I read what had happened to the 211 ground staff I was thankful I had been posted. Wadi Gazouza was a very dry, dusty, sandy place and I as a lowly AC2 orderly room clerk with a total service of about five months, was about the greenest thing around. About April 1942 72 OTU was transferred to Nanyuki in Kenya (a green and pleasant land) and in June 1943 I was posted to 230 Squadron at Dar es Salaam. Their Sunderlands evacuated many from Greece in 1941 and I hope this included a lot of 211 bods [it surely did - see CFR Clark Operations in Greece]. We later moved to Lake Koggala in Ceylon and then on to Akyab and Rangoon in Burma where I left them in July 1945 having completed my four years overseas service.” Among Alan’s comrades were two photographers Messrs Condor and Fletcher, who appear with him photographed by a Blenheim. They took most of the photographs of Wadi Gazouza that are shown on the Conrads’ site (and were the source of the “unofficial” aerial shot of Wadi Gazouza). They remained with 72 OTU and transferred to Kenya. When Corporal Alan Conrad left the RAF in November 1946, his long and distinguished service overseas and in the “back office” had been rewarded not only by steady promotion but with a Mention in despatches (London Gazette 1 January 1946). Photographs
15 aircraft here. On the flightline, 12 of them twin-engined and almost certainly Blenheims. With equal confidence, of 211 Squadron. Sun, sand and circuits.
Taxiing, hatch open and LSC bombed-up. No squadron code or individual letter but with virtual certainty a 211 aircraft. A mixture of Mark Is and IVs were available to 211 Squadron when operating as 72 OTU.
www.211squadron.org © DR Clark & others 1998–2008 |
|||
