Ron Levett's memories, from the early 1930's, when he lived in the small village of Alfriston in Sussex

At Lewes County School for Boys, a squadron of the Air Training Corps had been formed. Of course, everyone wanted to be aircrew, so all were tested for fitness. I was given a coloured sheet and asked what I could see. I should have seen a pattern, but all I could see were coloured dots. I was told that I was colour blind.

That put an end to my ambition of becoming an aircrew member. However, I carried on training, since there are far more members of the RAF who are ground staff than there are aircrew. I also learnt the Morse code, which came in handy later.

We enjoyed a week's camp at Ford Aerodrome in West Sussex. We were billeted in a hutted camp about a mile from the aerodrome, which meant we had to march a mile every morning. This gave us a good appetite for breakfast. I remember having devilled kidneys for the first time.

The aircraft at Ford were a night fighter squadron of Douglas Havocs, a derivative of the Douglas Boston bomber. Painted a dull black, with 4 cannons in the nose, they looked very deadly.

On another occasion, a party of us went down to Shoreham Aerodrome to take our first flight. The plane was a very old naval biplane, even older than a Swordfish.

After one or two pairs had had a short flight, the plane landed and dropped off its passengers. Unfortunately its tail wheel stuck in the mud and when the pilot revved his engine the tail wheel pulled right off. That was the end of our hopes, so we returned to Lewes rather 'cheesed off'.

Ron Levett, 2001