Page 8 - Demo

16strong or sober enough and it went through the window instead. In fact,it knocked the whole window frame out. The next morning, we were all marched in front of our flight commander. Flt Lt Sinclair, who gave us a huge bollocking and said we would have to pay for the damage. I think it came to about 10 shillings (50p) each. As we marched out with our tails between our legs he looked up from his desk and said quietly %u201cwell done chaps%u201d. Just before Christmas we went into the pressure chamber to experience anoxia. They pumped the air out of the chamber taking us effectively up to I suppose 20,000ft. We then took it in turns to remove our oxygen masks and perform some simple tasks like taking 7 away from 100 or writing something. It all appeared to be going well, but then you felt someone putting on your mask and realised you had passed out without noticing although you had thought the lights had been turned down a bit maybe. When you looked at your work you could see that it had deteriorated to gibberish. It was all good fun and there was lots of laughter. But it was serious training to help us realise we were getting anoxic should the oxygen system fail. We were getting closer to being pilots or navigators at last. Although there were a couple of secretarial and equipment officers together with one Rock Ape (RAF Regiment) officer the majority hoped to be pilots. We had been issued with our flying kit very early in the term which had caused great excitement. I had entered in my diary %u201chalfway to the moon already%u201d. We also moved out of %u201cthe lines%u201d into the junior mess. We loaded all our kit on to carts and pulled them like a load of refugees to our new quarters and then went on leave. I spent the Christmas at home but did drive Mum%u2019s car to Wellington with Pat to go to the carol service but arrived too late. I went to London to see in the new year with Richard and Pat, singing in Trafalgar Square as we had done the year before. Grandpa came for Christmas, and I went to see Nan and Pop. We had the usual family party with Mum%u2019s friends from Hatch End, it was quite a gang of people