Frank (Francis) Austin.
I joined 216 at the time General Gott was killed in a Bombay of the squadron piloted by Sgt. Jimmy James, and at the time the Squadron consisted of two flights of Bombay aircraft, plus a Lodestar, a Valentia, a Douglas DC2 and an Italian Tr3. These aircraft were sent on detachment in November 1942 to El Adam, Tobruk, but sadly the third to take off crashed into the Petrol Dump at the end of the runway, all were killed except the Squadron's medical orderly. These aircraft returned to LG224 Cairo West in January 1943 where the Squadron had been re-equipped with Dakotas. With these aircraft we were engaged in dropping units Of the Greek Sacred Brigade, the Durham Light Infantry and the R.A.F Regiment on Creek islands of Kos, Leros and Samos. In November l943 I formed part of a Dakota crew which carried a Radar Unit and operators to Tehran. When we arrived parked and got out I found we were surrounded by Russian soldiers with rifles at the ready, which as you can imagine was quite disconcerting, but a lorry arrived with and RAF officer who spoke to the Russian Officer and had the Radar equipment unloaded. He then said we should take off any of our personal items as the plane's door would be sealed by the Russian's and we would not be allowed back to the plane until it was time to leave. He said we would be accommodated until it was time to leave. A small people carrier then took us about 20 miles to a village outside Tehran to a hospital were a Sargent of the R.E.M.C ushered us to a room with bed Shower and said he would call us when a meal was available when we asked him what was going on he said all he knew was something but all he knew was that he was ordered to find us accommodation. Eventually we found out that Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin were at Tehran to attend a Conference. We stayed at this Hospital for 4 days and each day we were given a packed lunch and allowed to go out where liked. The road past the village was a direct highway to Azerbaijan, Russia and quite a number Russian lories used the road to Tehran so we got lifts The R.M.C. Sargent also laid on a guide for us to go up the mountain but after 4days we returned to reality got back to Tehran airport the Russians removed the seal on the door of the plane and we loaded up the radar and back to Cairo West. During my short time on 216 Squadron I served at: EL Khanka, Egypt. August l942 to November l942. - Hudson |