AIR TRAINING CORPS, 1970
A Visit to RAF Shawbury & the Band Marching in Newhaven
By Andre Havard
I had a short sweet spell in the ATC in 1970; I got to fly in Chipmunk training planes (& did aerobatics), a Hercules Transporter and a glider. Great fun but I soon discovered that the discipline of military life wasn't for me.
The first pic is 1218 Squadron at RAF Shawbury, near Shrewsbury. Apart from the areobatics, we had lots of other activities, including a five-a-side football tournament against other squadrons (We lost the final), a drill competition which I tried to dodge by volunteering to make sandwiches - I failed.
We also went off base for excercises, including a night time operation against the Army cadets of Tern Hill. We had to defend an objective against attack by the Army (some of the people in this photo fell asleep while on watch, allowing the "enemy" to get through!). We built a raft to cross a river. Ours fell apart and Anthony Still's specs ended up at the bottom of the river, with us scrabbling around to retrieve them, and we had an orienteering excersise, where we were dropped off in the countryside and left to find our way back to base, mapping the surrounding area as we went. It was easy to get back - we just followed the planes as they came in to land!
We were aged around fourteen when this was taken - I doubt if kids of the same age today get the kind of freedom that we had, which is a shame - they are missing out on so much.