Memory Lane

On 22nd June 1953, I was in a hut beside the main runway at RAF Abingdon with 29 other soldiers, waiting to make our first parachute jump from an aircraft.

I had volunteered for an airborne posting during basic training, for reasons that escape me now. I joined a squad of similar volunteers from a variety of regiments at the Airborne Forces Depot at Aldershot in May. Thirty of us had got through the rather grim selection course and were now at Abingdon for the actual parachute training which was carried out by the RAF.

As part of the preliminaries, we had jumped from the roof of a hangar while attached to a cable that rotated a huge fan as we descended, and we had made several jumps from a captive barrage balloon. We had got used to hearing the instruction to the winchman ‘Up 800ft, six men jumping’ from the instructor. And when we heard ‘Go’, we jumped.

Today was the big one, our first from a plane. I had never before flown in an aircraft and I doubt that any of my fellow soldiers had flown either. We were all keyed up but were having to wait because the wind speed at RAF Watchfield, where we were due to jump, was thought to be too strong for safe parachuting.

Most of us left the hut in order to watch the comings and goings at the airfield. We were interested when a Hastings plane came into view. To our amazement, the plane seemed to land heavily, tail end first, and then cartwheel forward over onto its back and burst into flames.

‘Sorry about that,’ said the pilot officer. ‘The wind at Watchfield is OK now and we will get another plane from RAF Lyneham.’ Sure enough, another Hastings quickly appeared and we all boarded it. The plane took off over the still smoking remains of the first, and we all made our first parachute jump at RAF Watchfield.

When we were returned in a lorry to Abingdon, we heard the tragic news that six men had died in the crash.

By Brian Collins, who receives £50. Readers are invited to send in their own 400-word submissions about the past