“Two days should do it, sir,” Corporal Hill replied.
“Very well, report back to me on his progress on Thursday morning.”
“Yes sir,” responded Corporal Hill. Flight Lieutenant Gaskin nodded and said, “Thank you, Corporal.” Corporal Hill came to attention and then left the office.
Their section had a large room at the end of the headquarters building with a number of desks in it, not all of them occupied. SAC Malcolm Donovan, one of the progress clerks, called out to Corporal Hill and said, “Corp, there’s a large box been delivered to us containing something called a photocopier. What’s that?”
“I’ve heard of them but never seen one,” replied Andy. “Let’s get it unpacked and have a look.” They put the carton onto a table and unpacked the machine. Also, in the carton were chemicals and positive and negative papers. Studying the instruction book, they assembled the machine and put chemicals into the bath. “It’s a photographic process,” said Andy, “just like developing photographic film.” They took a letter from a file and placed the negative paper against it, put both on the light box and closed the lid. Andy set the exposure time and pressed ‘start’. A thin ribbon of light showed from under the lid. When the light went off Andy opened the lid and quickly slid a positive sheet onto the exposed negative sheet and fed them through the rollers to go through the chemical bath. The result was not good. Part of the negative sheet had been exposed to daylight and therefore didn’t copy. The rest of it had much of the letter but it was faint. They both realised that using this machine was going to take some practice. In time to come they would learn more about the machine’s foibles. Andy gave SAC Donovan a list of supplies that had been ordered and told him to check on their arrival. He was particularly concerned to know that the slide rules and logarithmic tables had arrived. Andy wanted to take the airmen through their use of them. He also wanted to check their skills in the analysis and graphic presentation of data so that he could determine how to divide up the duties.
Just after 15.00 hours, Corporal Mike Armstrong brought Corporal James Jackson down to the trials analysis section and introduced him to Corporal Hill. The new man was under six feet in height but built like the proverbial ‘barn door’. He spoke with a Liverpool accent. Corporal Hill shook him by the hand and welcomed him into the team. “Corporal Jackson has already been settled into his billet, Andy,” said Corporal Armstrong, “so it’s over to you.”
Andy turned and thanked him and said, “See you in the mess later.” He got a smiled nod in return as Corporal Armstrong left the room. “How do you prefer me to address you,” Andy asked.
“Call me ‘Jim’. James is a bit too formal and I’m not keen on ‘Jimmy’,” was Corporal Jackson’s reply. “Right,” said Andy. “I’d better take you into meet Flight Lieutenant Gaskin, our section officer, and then I can start explaining things to you.” They walked across the office and Andy knocked on the door of Gaskin’s office.
“Come,” they heard and the two went in and came to attention. Corporal Hill introduced Corporal Jackson to the officer and then left the room, closing the door behind him. He then went across to his desk and started sorting out material to give to the new arrival.
“We got a new corporal in the section then, Corp?” asked SAC Donovan.
“Yes, Malcolm, we have. He’ll take over some of my current duties. We will have more for our section arriving in the near future. That should lighten your load then.”
“Gee thanks!” was the response. “Does that mean I’ll be able to have a ‘charp’ after lunch each day?” The question was put with humour, Donovan knowing full well it wouldn’t be so. Andy liked Donovan. He had been posted in after disembarkation leave from a year in Sharjah. Donovan was of chunky build with hair bleached blonde by the Middle-East sun. Some members of the unit thought that he had spent too much time out in the desert sun. He had an attitude to authority that said it had to be earned if he was going to comply. Donovan liked Andy and appreciated his approach to getting work done by not ‘ordering’ but by inviting support in an inclusive way. With some other NCO’s he had responded to orders in a way that bordered on insolence.
Corporal Jackson came out of Flight Lieutenant Gaskin’s office and came across to Corporal Hill. “Let’s go for a walk so you can see the disposition of the unit and I’ll introduce you to people you’ll be in regular contact with,” said Corporal Hill. He turned to SAC Donovan and said, “Mind the fort, Malcolm, we are going on a tour of the unit.”
He received an “Okay, Corp” in reply and the two corporals headed out of the section.
The week was passing quickly as the unit settled into the preliminary trials. Andy taught Jim Jackson the set-up for the defect recording and analysis. He told Andy that he had been on a fighter base working on the defect recording as the RAF moved from a breakdown to a planned maintenance system.
Wednesday afternoon (19th) came and Andy received a telephone call from Sergeant Rawson to see if he was free to go in to Grimsby for the martial arts training. He replied in the affirmative. After work, Andy went to his bunkroom and got changed. He met Flying Officer Braidley and Sergeant Rawson outside the admin building and they drove in Braidley’s car to Grimsby. As they drove to a car park near the hall, they noticed
