Name: Gordon

When did you join up?

I was born in 1917 and went into the RAF in October 1939 as a volunteer. A
friend of mine and I went along to the recruitment base in London; my friend
joined the Army. I was going to join the Navy but when we sat down, the  petty officer there told me that if you get through you’re in for 12 years. I asked if he thought that the war was going to last that long. He said he hoped not! I asked if I could join just for the duration. “Not with us” I was told, so I went next door and joined the RAF.

Where were you on VE day?

I was in London, posted to India and done the trip round Africa. I’d done the trip to India, got a bug, was hospitalised in India and sent home to work in the Air Ministry. We did know the war had come to an end, the whole of London knew. We had a celebration in Trafalgar square with the other 50,000 people. Very memorable but not much to drink

Have you had any contact with German people since?

No I haven’t, not for any adverse reasons but I just haven’t had contact or even met people in the places where I worked.

What do you think of Twinning?

Very good thing. Not very interested right at the beginning. In 1964 I bought a caravan when I was living in Frome in Somerset and took my family to France for the first time for a holiday, I hadn’t been long in France when I got stuck in a traffic jam which I understand were common there but new to me then, surrounded by irate Frenchmen shouting “a bas les anglais” because I had a caravan. I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t enjoy it much. Twinning’s all right for those who enjoy it.