AC1. John King
Royal Air Force No 1 School of Technical Training RAF Halton
from:Whiteparish, Wiltshire
39th Entry RAF Halton (No 1 School of Technical Training) Apprentice School
17th Jan 1939 575533 Aircraft Apprentice J King
We had a station church, swimming pool, workshops and school buildings. On school days we had various subjects including aerodynamics and technical drawing. Routine. Early morning a boy went to cookhouse and brought back a bucket of tea and biscuits known as gunfire. Our barrack room had 30 boys in it. Get up and make beds, all blankets and sheets folded to make a neat sandwich. Sometimes rifle drill or PT before breakfast, later march to workshops with our own band with bugles, bagpipes, trumpets and drums. Workshops entailed basic fitting, lectures on metallurgy, heat treatments etc. on to dismantling engines first De Havilland Gypsy engines, then Rolls-Royce Kestrel and Merlin engines and reassembling them, also Bristol Pegasus radial engines, carpentry, blacksmithing, pipework etc. Engine running was done on the airfield. We had to polish all our floors, clean bathrooms. During our time HRH Duke of Kent (Prince George) came round workshops to inspect our work. I was confirmed in the station church. There was a lot of sport I did swimming, cross-country running and athletics.
We had 2 year course, not 3 as it was wartime. Passing out you had to average 80% on all subjects to pass out LAC (Leading Aircraftsman), 60% average to be AC1 (Aircraftsman 1st class), 40% to be AC2. I passed out AC1. My first flight was in an Avro Tutor 2 seat biplane at Halton airfield. On airfield, we did engine running on a Blenheim, prop swinging on Tiger Moth. We had lunch on airfield from field kitchens, on 3rd Sept 1939 I heard Mr Chamberlain say we were at war with Germany. I was up in the NAAFI listening to the wireless.
