Pat and Albert Barnard - 157 Squadron, RAF Swannington
Pat Peck (seen above right) was from Gorleston, Norfolk. Albert Barnard came from London. They both joined the RAF and found themselves posted to RAF Swannington when it opened in 1944. The war lasted just for another year, but their union lasted a lifetime.
Albert revisited what remains of the camp at Swannington in December 2002, and shared memories of events which happened there during 1944 and 1945.
Albert was 20 years old when he joined the RAF in 1942. He qualified as a top craftsman Carpenter 1, Group 1, having in addition studied aerodynamics, hydraulics and general maintenance – ideally suited to working on the airframe of the Mossie, the ‘Wooden Wonder’. He was posted to 157 Squadron at RAF Predannack, Cornwall, only to find when he got there that the Squadron had moved to RAF Valley in Wales.
When he caught up with them, he was delegated not to hangar duties, but instead to A Flight to carry out normal daily inspections, and night shifts to despatch aircraft on their missions, to receive them back, and refuel them. It was on one of these occasions that he acted in a way I am sure would today be recognised with a Bravery Award. Albert described the incident:
‘After marshalling the kite into the Dispersal Bay nearest the A Flight Office/Crew Room, and having positioned the petrol browser in front of the aircraft, I smelt burning. I traced this to beneath the Navigator’s seat, calling to the airman already on the main plane unscrewing the petrol tank caps to get to the Office and report the fire; while I re-started the tractor to move the petrol browser to safety.
On returning, I saw the oil browser on the grass in the same bay where the aircraft was alight, and moved it to safety. By then, the Mossie was burning fiercely, its cannon shells exploding in the direction of other aircraft in the same bay. I hitched on the towing cable from the tractor to the main under-carriage wheels, and getting the airman on duty to steer the kite via the long bar attached to the tail wheel, we removed it to safety towards the Control Tower area. The aircraft burned to ashes.’
With the launching of V1 ‘Doodlebugs’ from the other side of the English Channel, there was a serious threat to London and the South East. One of the few planes capable of the speed necessary to catch them was the ‘Wooden Wonder’. In July and August 1944, both 157 and 85 Squadrons were temporarily transferred from Swannington to RAF West Malling in Kent. Albert throws light on this period:
‘When the V1s started to come over the Channel, the Mossies had some success in exploding them. 157 A & B Flights, and I believe 85 Squadron were sent to West Malling. The aircraft were modified to use a higher octane petrol and, when refuelling, gloves had to be worn. The manifolds were removed, and stub exhausts fitted to give extra speed. To the best of my knowledge, the Pilots were permitted to pull the booster tit for a specified number of seconds to get that extra bit of speed.
It was from one of these missions that Sqn/L Matthews of A Flight returned to Base having exploded a V1. He had dived onto it, and it was a question of shooting at it and going through the resulting fireball, or peeling off and letting it go on. The result was that every bit of dope paint, lettering and roundels were scorched off his Mossie, including the fabric on the rudder. The canopy and windscreen were blackened with soot, except where the wipers were used.’
There were, of course, lighter moments. The boys would get to Cawston for a beer or two and occasionally travel to Norwich where ‘The Bell’ was a favourite haunt.
The Church Army Tea Wagon would pull up on the perimeter in front of the maintenance hangar. Here, the various RAF personnel would queue up for their tea and wads. Albert would get in the wagon to help serve. One young lady, an assistant from the parachute section (having become redundant from the fabric section), on several occasions kept her fingers in the handle of the mug as she handed it to Albert. They would have a good laugh, and soon started courting.
Albert had met his Pat!
Albert recalls:
‘For the celebrations of Victory in Europe, the acceptance hangar was emptied, and a bar was set up, extended to the whole length of one side. A good portion of the concrete floor on the other side was treated with aircraft dope paint to make a dancing surface which was surrounded with trellis work and bunting, and there was a huge bonfire away from the hangar. It was a happy night. I can recall a chap called ‘Pinky’ returning next morning with a bucket to salvage any beer left in the barrels!’
Albert remembers other fun moments:
‘I can remember playing for RAF Swannington Hockey Team. I also remember converting two drop tanks with a sail to mess about on the Lakes (Haveringland Hall). The shed that housed the sluice gate on the side of the roadway between the two lakes (which had different water levels) was used for snogging! After VE Day, a weekly Sports Day was introduced, and a troop carrier used to go to Caister-on-Sea for a day trip with a huge inflatable dinghy lashed to the roof. Pat and I had a whale of a time!’
Pat and Albert married on 1 December 1945 (pictured left). Pat was then discharged from the Service (shown right in ‘civvy street’). But Albert was moved on to at least five different airfields before being discharged in 1947. They set up home in London.
When Pat died, on 1 December 2002 – precisely 57 years to the day of their marriage – Albert and a family group fulfilled Pat’s wish by spreading her ashes within yards of where they met in 1944 … under a tree on a patch of grass adjacent to the old site of the hangar at Haveringland.
Members of A Flight, 157 Sqdn.
Albert is in front of ‘Mossie’, extreme left
Fabric Training Course, WRAF learning to patch bullet holes on a Wellington wing.
This article is from the Spring 2018 issue of Confound and Destroy
