High Wycombe

Dad didn't tell much what he did in High Wycombe.
Probably because he had sworn secrecy and he took his oath very serious.

The only things he told me ware personal things.

LIke that he had a good stay at the place of a widow and her daughter Lillian.
Lillian went later to Rhodesia with her husband.

He always said he was very decisive in choosing for the RAF and not the Dutch squadrons.

So he must have been taking part of the pre-training program of the RAF.

High Wycombe had a very active local ATC unit.
ATC: The Air Training Corps, often called the "Air Cadets"
It gave boys aged 15 to 18 a direct pathway into the RAF.
They wore modified RAF uniforms, took classes in navigation, aircraft recognition, and radio communication, and did physical training.
They met in town halls, schools, or local bases. 
The boys were billeted with local families, placed by the British Government, paid by the Dutch Government. There they could get rest after their escape and interrogation, learn the language and habits of their new country, and prepare for the RAF.

High Wycombe was the absolute nerve center of RAF Bomber Command. 
Because of this, the town was flooded with young personnel, trainees, and administrative staff.
The RAF ran university short courses and preparatory academic schemes for young men who showed high aptitude for pilot, navigator, or technical training but were too young.
He has probably learned there aircraft recognition, morse code and aviation mathematics.

He had a booklet with silhouettes of planes, and he knew them all.
He enjoyed teaching me how to recognise planes in the sky: the spitfire was the easiest for a 4 year old.

When I was a bit older he taught me morse code.
We had fun when we were at grams to tap the wooden arms of the chairs to talk to each other, until gram told us to stop with a huge smile.

_*_*_

I have been talking with Tony Iveson and he knew my father in WW2.
They might have met in High Wycombe. 
Or maybe later.

During the war southern Rhodesia hosted the Rhodesian Air Training Group, a network of flying schools part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
Thousands of RAF personnel, including instructors, ground crews, new wives were send there because Great Britain was too dangerous and crowded for new pilots to train safely.
So Lillian's husband might have been in the RAF, or attached to the aviation industry, or maybe Lillian herself.



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