205129 Killick. Dave Henry "Tom" Thomas Fleet Air Arm HMS Formidale from:London, England. My Father, Dave Thomas was in a reserved occupation until 1944 (I believe) He was then conscripted into the Fleet Air Arm. He sailed to America and travelled across the USA by Train to join HMS Formidable on the west coast, with the British Pacific Fleet.
He was a mechanic, servicing the aircraft and did a course on Seafires which were a bit too fragile for aircraft carriers although they were still used. He mainly serviced Avengers and Corsairs. I remember him telling me of one occasion when he had just finished a service on a n Avenger and the Pilot came to ask him if it was ready. Upon confirming this he was told to get in the rear gunners turret and when my father asked why, the Pilot said, well you serviced it so if I go down so do you.
He was in Sydney Australia on two occasions, I'm not sure of dates but I believe it was in 1945 and I still have some of the photo's he took of Sydney at that time, complete with Trams. When the war ended they returned to Sydney and were moored at Pier 1 alongside HMS Indefatigable. We used to have photos of this but are now long gone.
Eventually they were advised that the Indefatigable was to go home the Formidables crew were, naturally upset. But just before the ship left both ships complements were marched down onto the docks with all their personal gear and the crews swapped ships! So the Formidables crew sailed home, first on the Indefatigable.
My father achieved the rank of Killick and it was his inability to spell that stopped him becoming a Petty Officer. He died in 1984 at the age of 69 after along illness
|