210520 F/O Arthur James Freer Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 429 (Bison) Squadron from:Desborough, Northants I volunteered for aircrew service in the RAF and served with ITW Torquay followed by technical
Training at St. Athan South Wales. Commenced flying at Wombleton 1666HCU with a Canadian RCAF crew captained by F/O J.M.C (Jack) Wade DFC. The crew completed 33 ops with 429 (Bison) Squadron at Leeming Yorks in 1944.
The crew returned to Canada soon afterwards, but I was retrained as a Signals Officer and on completion was posted to the Far East. We were flown in a "Liberator" from Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire to Castel Benito (Tripoli) thence to Karachi via Cairo and Habbaniya, Iraq.
On arrival at Karachi we were told that no Signal Officers were required there but that teams were required to set up and operate RAF Post to improve the transit of Forces mail to and from the U.K. With the end of hostilities in the Far East servicemen and women were keen to return home and morale was at a very low level. Initially, I served in Bombay and in Calcutta at the time of the race problems following the partition of India and Pakistan which was very unpleasant indeed. My next posting in India was to AHQ New Delhi and finally back to Bombay and repatriation to the U.K on SS Moultan.
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