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Diary of Frederick Lloyd
Supplied with the kind permission of Steve Lloyd
1940
January 30th - My first son Michael was born at home in Bristol.
February 12th - I was posted to Cranwell Royal Air Force College in Lincolnshire, I was there for a twelve week course to increase my grade to Instrument repair class II. My wife Marjorie stayed with her uncle and aunt, Jim and May at Watford, so I was able spend weekends with them, I travelled back and forth on weekends by taking a two and half hour train ride to Kings Cross station in London, then I would hitchhike down the M1, getting a ride was easy wearing a RAF uniform at that time, I would then take a train back to Grantham station with my first return ticket, I slept on the tram while waiting at the station, and then bought a ticket to Sleaford early on Monday morning.
May 28th - Completed and passed out the AC Instrument Repair Class 11 and was immediately posted back to the 501 squadron at Tangmere airfield in Kent, However the squadron was still in France at that time and I was sent to Manston airfield in Kent. Manston was our annual training camp station, we had to wait here for the return of the 501. While I was there I helped service many aircraft that were coming in from over the Dunkirk area.
June 21st - After the evacuation of Dunkirk the 501 was reformed at Croydon airfield, Surrey, south of London, I was posted there on June 25th.
July 4th - The 501 squadron was then split into two wings, I was sent to Middle Wallop, Hampshire with one wing. We flew there in a Vickers Bombay aircraft, I had to sit on the oxygen bottles as I was responsible for the recharging of all the aircraft oxygen bottles. During the flight we had a lucky escape as we were strafed by a German MΕ 109 fighter, but fortunately for us he was flying so fast and our aircraft was so slow that he overshot our aircraft and kept going, we escaped the encounter with no damage at all.
July 25th - We reformed again (still Group XI), and were sent to Gravesend Flying School airfield in Kent at the mouth of the Thames river. We converted the airfield into a fighter squadron operational strip, this was just in time for the start of the battle of Britain.
London was now regularly being bombed, during one particular raid as the Luftwaffe bombers were heading to London they were attacked by Hurricanes from our squadron, some of the German aircraft responded by releasing their bombs in order to escape. Some of these bombs landed on our airfield, we dived into slit trenches, these trenches were about two feet wide by five feet deep. I remember one of my friends Jack Yates, (Jack died later in the war on the Island of Malta) Jack was next to me in the trench and as some of the bombs landed and exploded someone dived into the trench on top of us, at which point Jack started yelling, "I'm hit" "I'm hit", but it was only the guy's boot hitting Jacks helmet. We pulled his leg for days over that. The Germans finally got wind of our position and after a couple of raids on London their escort fighters tried to shoot us up as they flew back to their bases in France. From then on and to avoid casualties all personnel not on duty were trucked out to Cobham Hall, this was a large mansion set on a large estate some ten miles from Gravesend. We were billeted in one wing of this mansion in what was the servants rooms. It was in this wing that several of us encountered the resident ghost, he was dressed in civil war style Cavalier clothing and always appeared at the end of a particular passage way. Those of us who saw him never found out who he was as none of the locals would talk about it. Meanwhile the battle of Britain raged on, and the 501 Hurricanes were going up continuously all day long, landing only to refuel and rearm. Our airfield was now being bombed and strafed once or twice every day, each raid only lasted two or three minutes at a time.
August 18th - The Luftwaffe began attacking all the airfields in southeastern England, they were trying to stop our fighters that were taking a heavy toll on their bombers, we were being bombed every day. The battle of Britain was reaching its climax and the 501 was in the thick of it.
September 10th - The 501 was again reformed, our wing from Gravesend along with the second wing from Middle Wallop. We reformed at Kenley Airfield in Surrey south of London.
October 1st - About this time I was posted to RAF Hereford (Crediton Hill) for a sixteen week course to obtain Instrument Repair Class I. The school was surrounded by a fifteen foot wire fence, but we found a way out through the rifle range. Someone got hold of some blank passes, so with the added signature of "Sherlock" (the camp C.O.), several of us were able to get out on weekends and go home. (School closed on Friday afternoons, so we were free to do whatever we wanted, except of course, that we had to have passes to get out and back). During November with air raids starting on Bristol it was obvious that I would do whatever to get home. Fortunately, getting out was no problem, I would hitchhike from Hereford to Gloucester, sometimes having to catch a bus, and then a train from Gloucester to Bristol. Sunday nights going back it was a train to Gloucester and a bus to Hereford; and with a "special pass" courtesy of "Sherlock" I could get through the main gate with no problem!.
December 7th - I was on my way home on a train from Gloucester when Bristol had an air raid, bombs had hit Temple Meads Railway Station where I was to get off, the train had to stop and wait outside the station. Finally the train was backed out to Stapleton Road station where I got off. I had to walk across the city to get home, fires were burning all around me, and fire hoses crisscrossing most of the main roads, It took hours but I finally reached where Marjorie and Michael were staying at her fathers Pub the Spotted Horse in Bedminster. This period was very worrying for me because the fires burning in Bristol after the air raids created a bright glow in the sky that could be clearly seen from Hereford which is about eighty miles away.
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