Dinger's Aviation Pages
SO BE IT!
In 2011 I was delighted to be contacted from New Zealand by Don Sutherland who maintained Skuas at No 2 AACU (anti-aircraft Co-operation Unit) at Gosport near Portsmouth. He gave me an insight into what it was like working on Skuas. Sadly Don passed away on 1st July 2013.
His daughter, Janet, passed on to me notes of his memories of serving in the RAF. I edited these and added footnotes with extra information about some of the events he witnessed and personalities he met.
There are lots of memoirs of officers and aircrew from WW2 but very few from groundcrew and those that do exist are often just a series of anecdotes. Whereas Don's account captures something of the terror and tedium of his duties. He was one of the last batch of engine mechanics to be trained prior to the war. He served at Gosport and survived the dive-bombing of that base. He was also helped in digging up unexploded bombs around the radar station at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. He describes a terrifying trip across Portmouth on the worst night of its Blitz. Changing trade to MT driver he served at Chivenor and was involved in pulling a body clear of a crashed aircraft. After a horrific accident, Don was treated by Dr Ludwig Guttmann, founder of the paralympics movement.
It has now been published as an ebook on Kindle, Kobo, Apple and Smashwords. Any proceeds go to his daughter for onward distribution to forces charities in New Zealand.
<Click here to find it on Amazon Kindle. >
<Click here to find it on Kobo >
<Click here to find it in the Apple Store>
<Click here to go to the Smashwords download page.>
In 2011 I was delighted to be contacted from New Zealand by Don Sutherland who maintained Skuas at No 2 AACU (anti-aircraft Co-operation Unit) at Gosport near Portsmouth. He gave me an insight into what it was like working on Skuas. Sadly Don passed away on 1st July 2013.
His daughter, Janet, passed on to me notes of his memories of serving in the RAF. I edited these and added footnotes with extra information about some of the events he witnessed and personalities he met.
There are lots of memoirs of officers and aircrew from WW2 but very few from groundcrew and those that do exist are often just a series of anecdotes. Whereas Don's account captures something of the terror and tedium of his duties. He was one of the last batch of engine mechanics to be trained prior to the war. He served at Gosport and survived the dive-bombing of that base. He was also helped in digging up unexploded bombs around the radar station at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. He describes a terrifying trip across Portmouth on the worst night of its Blitz. Changing trade to MT driver he served at Chivenor and was involved in pulling a body clear of a crashed aircraft. After a horrific accident, Don was treated by Dr Ludwig Guttmann, founder of the paralympics movement.
It has now been published as an ebook on Kindle, Kobo, Apple and Smashwords. Any proceeds go to his daughter for onward distribution to forces charities in New Zealand.
<Click here to find it on Amazon Kindle. >
<Click here to find it on Kobo >
<Click here to find it in the Apple Store>
<Click here to go to the Smashwords download page.>
