Sergeant Roger Air Signaller: Eight Years Brass Pounding and Oggin Watching in the Kipper Flee
Roger William Nolan
Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
2017
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This is the second volume in the 'Roger' series chronicling the life of its author. The first volume covers his life before during and after Hitler's war until the day that he left home having volunteered to become an Air Signaller in the Royal Air Force in order to pursue his interest in Radio and Electronics. This part of his biography is self-contained and it is not necessary to have read the earlier volume to appreciate and enjoy this book that covers the next eight years. In 1950 planned major changes in the R.A.F resulted in a significant number of extra air signallers being required to fill their many new roles. To meet this, their training was drastically compressed. Roger was on the first of these highly intensive courses. After electing to spend his service in Coastal Command first converting to Lancasters then the new Shackleton Maritime long range bombers. Having completed two tours of Active Service on 220 Squadron and was then posted to H.Q. Bomber Command, 1 Group, the V Bomber Squadrons for the remainder of his service. During his active service he logged over 1000 hours flying, longest flight 23 hours 45minutes, caught pneumonia from getting soaked rescuing survivors of the Cromer floods, had several frightening flying experiences including surviving when a Shackleton stalled, took part in Joint Anti-Submarine Courses with the Senior Service, spent probably hundreds of hours on Search and Rescue flights, took part in ferrying paratroopers to the Suez Incident and was stranded in Malta, being injured in a crash landing and needed to spend time at Headley Court Rehabilitation Centre for Officers and Aircrew and all the while he pursued his interest in Radio and what became known as Electronic Engineering to the point that when he left the Service he obtained employment as an Electronics Circuit Designer. Later books cover his life after he moved into Electronics Research in the Automotive Industry, contributing significantly to the early developments of electronics in cars and traveling round the World. Foreseeing the demise of British Car Industry he retired to become a Mountain Walking Leader and later a Parisian guide. As his daughter put it, 'Dad, you've had a very full life'. Here you can read some more of his story but with much more to come in the near future.
