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LAC. Alfred Harry Arthur Pierpoint
Royal Air Force
from:Essex
Our father Alfred Pierpoint served, as an LAC and, we assume, undertook radar training at RAF Yatesbury. As far as we know he also worked on instrumentation, automatic pilot and oxygen systems during the war, but we're not sure whether this was at Yatesbury or elsewhere.
We know he worked on Wellingtons and this is consistent with some information we have found that places him at RAF Feltwell in Norfolk around July 1941. He told us a story, more than once, of working on the oxygen tanks of a Wellington when the pilots decided to take off with him still on board.
He also mentioned how, in radar training, his class was being shown the power of high frequency radio waves by an instructor. Said lecturer demonstrated this by holding a piece of 4 by 2 timber a few inches from an active dipole transmission antenna and casually remarking on how it only took a minute or so before the wood began to smoke and then burst into flame. Obviously Health and Safety requirements were fairly low on the wartime agenda.
