Speaker Meeting 22-Sep-2011 Mr Bernard Smith
The Oldest Air Force in the World The Oldest
Air Force in the World Over 100 years Old
B
A O
B
ernard Smith, our
speaker, was
called up in 1943 to join the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. He was trained chiefly in Canada as a Telegraphy Air Gunner and served in the north Pacific.
s an “aide- memoire” to his talk he used about 25 cards containing anecdotes,
poems etc. and delivered them in such a way that he often had us roaring with laughter.
ne statistic he quoted was that some 1500 airmen served in this area, and 390
lost their lives. Of these, 130 were killed by the enemy and 260 by our own people or by crashing their planes (chiefly Swordfish) landing on a carrier that was going up and down with heavy seas. Story supplied by John Kent
Editor’s Comment
ernard is a local man who spends much of his time these days visiting clubs and or-
ganisations speaking about his time spent in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. He doesn’t charge for his time but he usually sends round a box for donations which he then passes on to his charity -‘The Not Forgotten Association’ - which provides help for Disabled Veterans.
H
e usually speaks for one to one and a half hours so he had to curtail much of
his usual talk to fit into our lunchtime session.
W I
Bernard also uses visual images for his full talk, but on this occasion he handed round some of his large collection of photographs which helped us to visualise the many ‘hairy’ situations that he described.
ith his many anecdotes and ‘poems’ and his catch phrase of “so that was all
right then” Bernard kept us in stitches.
loved his throw away remark that he was nearly killed six times, but only once was
by the enemy!
R T
on ,our speaker secretary was more than interested in Bernard's talk because he
too spent many years of his young life in the Pacific at the same time. He was able to relate very personally to stories of unreliable and sometimes unsuitable craft trying to land on a moving airstrip during this difficult time. Den- nis Bragg was also pleased to see Bernard as he remembers him from school although he is a couple of years younger than our speaker.
he raffle on this day ,the last one before the new 'Govani Gift Voucher' era, was
won by -guess who- Ken King. Now that was spooky!
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