Air Force Index

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Air Sea Rescue Services, Royal Air Force If you can provide any additional information, please add it here. Logbooks Do you have a WW2 Flying Log Book in your possession? If so it would be a huge help if you could add logbook entries to our new database. Thank you. View Logbook entries Those known to have served with Air Sea Rescue Services, Royal Air Force during the Second World War 1939-1945. Shipperbottom Percy. Flt.Sgt. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List Records of Air Sea Rescue Services, Royal Air Force from other sources. The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website. Announcements The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web. 27th April 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 264001 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible. Looking for help with Family History Research?   Please read our Family History FAQ's The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation. Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. We are now on Facebook. Like this page to receive our updates. If you have a general question please post it on our Facebook page. Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations. Want to know more about Air Sea Rescue Services, Royal Air Force? There are:-1 items tagged Air Sea Rescue Services, Royal Air Force available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. Flt.Sgt. Percy Shipperbottom Launch 102 Air Sea Rescue Services Percy Shipperbottom was my father who served on Air Sea Rescue launches as a radio operator, initially operating out of Ramsgate on launch 120. Then in early 1943, he was posted to Calcultta/Rangoon and travelled on the Strathenden from Liverpool (I think) to Bombay via Freetown and Durban. Apparently he was 'volunteered' to take a shift at the wireless set, as he tells in the following story: At lunch time an RAF officer came round asking for wireless operators to make themselves known. When he got to our table he asked, ‘Has anyone here any experience of working with the Navy?’ ‘Yes sir, I have’, I answered. ‘What experience have you had?’ ‘Air Sea Rescue, Sir, based at Ramsgate on a Naval Base’. ‘Good, follow me’. So I followed him, wondering what the hell I had let myself in for. He took me up to the Holy of Holies on the ship, The Bridge. The officer approached a Merchant Navy Officer and said, 'I think I have found you someone who should be suitable, and ex Air Sea Rescue wireless operator’. The Merchant Navy Officer gave me an Aldis Lamp and pointing to a ship nearby said, ‘Call the ship, say ‘Dimpy fourth column two’. I looked at him, ‘D-I-M-P-Y?’, I asked. ‘Good lad, correct spelling is ‘D-J-Y-M-P-I’. It’s a Polish ship’. I called the ship and the message was accepted. The Merchant Navy officer turned to the RAF officer and said, ‘This chap will do fine, he has good speed’. The RAF officer then left. The Merchant Navy officer then outlined my duties and my watches and hours. He told me the Stratheden would be the convoy commander during the voyage and all orders and signals would emanate to and from it. The following morning the huge convoy put to sea, we went round the North of Ireland and went far out into the Atlantic, I thought we must be heading for America but then the convoy turned South on what was known as a ‘zig-zag’ course. At regular intervals, at a signal from the Stratheden, the whole convoy would change course. This course change signal was sent by a series of flags, hooked on a line and then run up for the rest of the convoy to see. Although I was never trained on flags in the RAF, I became quite adept at running these flags up and reading the signal flags on the other ships, but my main form of signaling was with the ten-inch Aldis Lamp. The plus side to my signaling duties meant that I was excused from ‘bullshit fatigues’, which consisted of scrubbing and polishing anything and everything to keep the men occupied. The Atlantic can be very rough, especially in winter. Most of the troops were not used to rough seas and suffered from seasickness, but this didn’t bother me after my service on the Air Sea Rescue launches. There were twelve men on our mess table, and for nearly a week I could have had twelve meals at every sitting because I was the only one who eagerly looked forward to mealtimes. We eventually made a mostly southerly course, and when we eventually sailed into warmer climes lots of the lads tried to 'get their knees brown' and spent a lot of time sun-bathing. This meant a lot were reporting sick through sunburn (in those days people usually did not travel abroad and therefore had no idea how strong the sun can be). After nearly a week of this an order was posted up that henceforth anyone reporting sick through sunburn would be put on a charge, for 'self-inflicted injury'. Our 'tropical wear' must have been relics of the Indian Mutiny. We looked like a lot of comic opera soldiers, but it was all we had and we had to wear it. As the weather became hotter, especially at night, it became fairly uncomfortable below decks so I would take my blanket up to the gun turret on the bridge and sleep there. Our first port of call was Freetown, West Africa but no one was allowed ashore except for the necessary officers to arrange replenishments for the convoy. So for about a week we sweated it out there whilst little boats chugged back and forth with an assortment of supplies. Then onwards we sailed, no incidents apart from a submarine scare, but thank goodness nothing more. David Shipperbottom Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices.

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