Western Morning News (Saturday)
World War Two hero is all set to celebrate centenary
EASTER Sunday this year will be a very special day at Jim Padley’s home in Tavistock, which he shares with his two daughters, Melanie and Alison.
April 17, 2022, is when Jim will be proud to celebrate his 100th birthday. He will be joined by his daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren for the happy and momentous occasion.
Before moving to Devon, Jim had a long career in the engineering industry but, in common with many men of his distinguished generation, it is his service during World War Two that catches the eye when the story of his life so far is told.
A teenager in the Midlands when the conflict began in 1939, Jim’s military service began the following year. He soon found himself in the United States, training for combat as a pilot, and later, as an RAF Warrant Officer, he participated in wartime action against the Japanese in the Far East, flying both Bristol Blenheim bombers and Hawker Hurricane fighterbombers.
“When World War Two started, I was living at home with my parents and working as an apprentice toolmaker at the Austin Motor Company’s aircraft factory at Cofton, near Longbridge in Birmingham,” Jim recalls. “I used to look at all the old men working all their lives at the same job in the same place, and it was depressing.
“In June 1940, the RAF announced that any man aged 18 or over and physically fit could join the RAF aircrew. I felt this was the chance that I needed. As I was 18, I left the factory and went to Oxford and, after several tests and a medical, I was accepted as a pupil pilot and enlisted in the RAF Volunteer Reserve.
“Because of the length of time needed to train as a pilot, I was told to return to my previous job and wait to be recalled. I was recalled at the end of March 1941, when I joined up full-time. I was still only 18 years old.
“After my initial training,” Jim explains, “I was fortunate enough to be sent to the United States, via Canada, for flying training at the US Army’s South-East Air Corps Training Center at Napier Field in Dothan, Alabama.
“Because the US was not at war at that time, we could not wear RAF blue uniform. I had to wear a pale grey suit with a label on the trousers which read ‘15 Shilling Tailors’.”
They were a British menswear firm at the time, and Jim had to sort out another clothing issue before he left the States. “When we were in Alabama, the food was so good,” he adds. “I had to contact Washington to get another blue uniform flown down before I could return home. I had put on so much weight!”
It was time to prepare for battle. Jim takes up the tale: “When I graduated in May 1942, I returned home via Canada, as before. I went to Shawbury, near Shrewsbury, and went on to twin-engine aircraft. I later went to Bicester, Oxfordshire, on Blenheim bombers.
“I flew a Mark V Blenheim from Portreath, Cornwall, to Cairo via Gibraltar and several North African ports, then to a troop ship, carrying German POWs, mainly Africa Korps. Later, we voyaged to Bombay and went by train across India to join the Arakan campaign,” he adds.
That arduous campaign was the Allies’ first attempt in 1942 and 1943 to reclaim Burma from the Japanese. “We joined RAF 113 Squadron,” Jim continues. “I did one operational sortie on Blenheims, when we bombed a Japanese headquarters at Buthidaung, Burma.”
Then came one of the most notable episodes of Jim’s service in the Far East. “We had to fly some Blenheims to Nagpur,” he explains. “The day chosen was marred by bad weather, so it was decided that we would fly singly and take off at 10-minute intervals. Unfortunately, we were flying on instruments most of the time and couldn’t see the ground, so my navigator got lost and I had to find somewhere to land before we ran out of fuel.
“I found the flood bed of the River Son [in central India] and did a crash landing on the sand. No one was hurt in the crash, contrary to some reports of the incident, and we were rescued by the Army in boats. Some of the squaddies persuaded my gunner to give them the armour-piercing rounds from his machine-gun belts so they could shoot crocodiles! The river was full of them.”
Jim was about to swap cockpits. He switched from flying Blenheim bombers to Hurricanes, the legendary Battle of Britain planes which were capable of being used as bombers as well as fighters.
Jim recalls: “Later, the Army took us over and we went to Madras, where we converted on to Hurricanes and then flew to Assam. We went to Palel airfield, in the Imphal Valley. Here, from February to July 1944, I carried out 79 strafe and bomb missions on Hurricanes.
“The Japanese occupied the high ground – the tops of jungle-covered 3,000ft hills. In this country, they would have been called mountains. When our artillery fire became too much, they moved around to the other side of the hills, but stayed at the top. The Army indicated their new positions with smoke shells. Our job was to blast them out of their new positions with 250lb bombs and strafe them with 20mm cannon fire.”
An untimely illness brought an end to combat of that level of intensity, however. “Because I was wearing second-hand boots from the squadron stores, I became ill with hookworm because the boots had been worn by an infected Indian soldier,” Jim says.
To his great regret, even to this day, his combat missions were at an end. Jim adds: “Due to having been ill, the squadron did not accept me back and I had to spend the rest of my time flying Hurricanes on meteorological flights in Nagpur until the war ended and I could go home.
“On my return home, I went back to Austin, but to the motor works, as a press toolmaker, making body parts for cars. From Austin, I worked at several engineering companies. Finally, I joined a management consultancy before I retired.”
Now happily living at his house in Tavistock with his daughters, Jim, one of an ever-dwindling number of proud veterans of a global conflict to whom this country owes so much, will rightly be the centre of attention when he and his family celebrate his grand occasion tomorrow.
It is due to be a day to savour, and it is a life story to be proud of. Happy birthday, Warrant Officer Padley!