3
difficulty in living up to at subsequent parties when supplies were not so easy
to "find", though he always succeeded; the Wing Dance Band provided the music
and much labour was put into making the "bare boards" of a temporary Air Ministry
building look like a private ballroom in Mayfair.
In these early days everyone had some form of grouse, largely because new
officers, N.C.O's and men arrived every day who did not know each other and had
"enjoyed themselves where they were before." 140 did not like having a new C.O;
16 disliked high flying; neither of them liked the Wing Operations Room and there
were the usual references to "earthbound types" and "aircrew". But the Group
Captain, with unbounded energy and tact, made peace between the warring parties
and built up a solid unity.
When
16 Squadron
arrived they brought with them their
Mustangs
and, as no
Spitfire
replacements were immediately available, they used the 140 Squadron air-
craft, whenever possible, for the purpose of converting their crews, and at the
same time they carried out some very valuable low-level sorties in the
Mustangs
.
140 Squadron had about twelve
very old and worn out aircraft
and, as a result, the
serviceability was a constant source of worry both for the conversion of 16 and
for meeting operational demands.
Chuck Sharp
(140) was flying BR648 on its
fourth trip of the day on Aug 16th when, at 28,000 feet over Dorset on his way
to USHANT, the aircraft burst into flames. Chuck landed safely by parachute but
the sortie had originally been planned for the Pas de Calais area and, if this
had been carried out, he would have been far over France at the critical time.
On that day, Aug 16th,
the Wing moved into tents
in order to practice living
under such conditions and, presumably, to find out if the equipment was sufficient
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