MY TRIP HOME
As Remembered By Tony Rayner, TCM RAF Ismailia
After reading in the May magazine John Currier’s experience at Malta on his way home and remembering the sad loss of the Avro York, I would like to add a similar story.
I arrived at Ismailia in 1953 and later found out at demob time that it was possible to be taken to Triest and allowed to make your own way home. This, of course, to be in your own time and at your own expense. I believe you were given 6 weeks before you were required to report to your demob unit. To me this would be an exciting adventure and, being a railway worker, I could get a free ticket from Triest to my home which I could use if I ran out of time or had any other problem. Unfortunately the scheme was cancelled before my demob.
As I approached demob I was moved to a transit camp at El Hamra where I was told to be packed and ready the next morning to fly to the UK. Next morning when I reported I was told there was no spaces left and was put on fatigues for the rest of the day. This happened for several days and then I was finally put on a UK flight. On arrival at Fayid I was very pleased to see that we would be going on a Hastings and not a York. I’d always had the idea that if a Hastings crashed you would have a reasonable chance of surviving as the fuselage was on top of the wings whereas a York was underneath so at least you would have a better chance of getting out especially if you were on water.
We duly took off and after a short period the pilot told us we were going to Lyneham but would be stopping at Malta to refuel. We would first fly to the Med, then along the coast towards Malta. As we would not be flying very high he would point out any places of interest and then he told us that if we crashed not to look for a parachute as there was only one on the plane and he was sitting on it – but there won’t be any problems like that so settle down as it will take about 7 hours before we land. A few hours later we landed safely at Luqa, disembarked and were given lunch. We then rejoined the aircraft and took off, saying goodbye to Malta.
Ken, John, myself & Alan at Malta
After climbing for several minutes the inner port engine (next to where I was sitting) stopped! We stopped climbing and eventually the pilot announced that we had a minor problem – not serious as the aircraft could fly on 3 engines. We would return to Malta, but first we had to loose a lot of fuel because it was dangerous to land with full tanks. We flew around Malta for a while and then landed safely.
After disembarking we stood around in small groups. The group I was with was approached by two sailors who asked if we had been to Malta before, none of us had so they said that they had a small truck here and would we like to have a quick sightseeing trip to Valetta as it would be at least an hour before the aircraft would be ready. We accepted this kind offer and arrived back in time to board. This time we took off safely and the pilot explained that it was a failed magneto which had now been replaced. On the way back we saw one or two islands and flew over Nice in darkness.
On arrival at Lyneham we were met
by H.M. Customs who promptly searched all of us and our kit. What a welcome
to the UK! – the amount of money collected would not have even paid their
wages let alone administration costs. Like others all I had was a camera, watch
(both purchased more than a year previously) and a few souvenirs. My camera
cost the equivalent of £6.7.6p and this is what duty I had to pay plus
a further amount for the watch and souvenirs. These actions left all of us with
no money! About a week later I was demobbed and happy and forever grateful that
I had arrived home safely.