After two or three weeks, and following my promotion to Flying Officer, the Squadron Commander appointed me Training Officer with instructions to produce a continuous training programme for the squadron’s four flights. This was necessary not only to improve upon the basic training received by the National Servicemen prior to their posting to us but also to keep them fully occupied throughout the day.  There were rifle range facilities available and we made full use of them throughout our period of duty at Gatow.

Within the RAF Station there were a number of recreational facilities including a NAAFI canteen and a cinema and, within walking distance from the main gate, a sailing and boating club run by the RAF, a “Blue Beret” club for RAF Regiment airmen and two German bars frequented by servicemen of all nationalities. Berlin was in ruins. In some parts there was hardly a building standing and Berliners were only just starting to recover from their wartime ordeals. In the centre of the city the Western Occupational Forces had opened clubs and other recreational facilities and all ranks soon got to know their way around.

With all the entertainment and night life available I neglected to keep in strict training as I had intended although I did play rugby regularly every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon either for the RAF team or the Berlin Garrison team. There were many Army units in Berlin which could field a good rugby team and, in addition, teams from units and stations in the British Occupation Zone and also from the UK, visited Berlin to give us a game. If the opposing team were of a very high standard then a Berlin Garrison team, with players, including me, drawn from all services, played them.

A week or so before Christmas I received instructions to report to HQ  BAFO at Bad Eilsen where I was briefed to represent the RAF at a meeting at Army HQ which was planning a Tattoo to be held in Berlin in the middle of 1947. The RAF’s contribution was to be a fifty strong team swinging clubs with lights at the end of the clubs and I had the job of training them because first, I had attended the army PFOs course and secondly, I was stationed in Berlin. Don’t ask who thought this one up, because I have no idea and I had never swung a club in my life.

Winter came and with it plenty of snow and ice. The Havel lake froze over for about three months, which enabled us to try ice skating.  Also, about this time, Field Marshal Lord Montgomery used RAF Gatow as an overnight stopping place for flights to and from Moscow. Not only did the Squadron provide  Guards of Honour for him on his landings and take offs but those not on Guard of Honour duty had to keep the P.S.P. runway free from snow with human powered shovels. Even so, it was a marvellous place to be at Christmas time with the trees covered in snow, plenty to eat and drink and a wide variety of entertainment.

The 12 months service I was required to undertake as an officer was due to end in March 1947 but the RAF brought in a new scheme called “Extended Service Commission”  (E.S.C. for short) enabling wartime commissioned officers, like myself, to apply for a four years engagement, at the end of which, we would receive a lump sum of £450. I was granted one of these commissions which would terminate in 1951.

In the spring of 1947, I, together with three other officers drawn from different RAF Regiment squadrons in Germany, attended yet another Army course. This one dealt with “Methods of Instruction” and, after the course, we were formed into a team of four to visit every RAF Station in Germany to give a two days presentation on the subject. It was a very pleasant task, travelling between RAF Stations on Wednesdays and Saturdays and making our presentations on Mondays & Tuesdays in one place and Thursdays and Fridays in another. In this way we covered the whole of the British Occupation Zone and saw the German countryside at its best and the damaged cities at a low second best.

During this tour, however, I was required to make two journeys to Army HQ regarding the Tattoo and it became obvious that I could not continue with both tasks given to me by BAFO HQ so I visited HQ and asked to be relieved of one or the other.  The decision was for me to continue with the Methods of Instruction tour and another officer would be appointed to supervise arrangements in Berlin for the RAF’s contribution to the Tattoo.

One of the oddities about travelling around Germany by military train was the appointment of an Officer i/c Train. On over half the journeys I made, an Army Warrant Officer, with an R.T.O. armband, asked me to be Officer i/c Train. The perk for this duty was a compartment to oneself and, on long journeys, ( Berlin to Hamburg for instance) this could be an advantage. So I accepted every time and signed for the appropriate number of axles on the train - not carriages, but axles.

On completion of the Methods of Instruction tour the four of us returned to our respective squadrons where I found that our Squadron Commander had changed once again and was now Squadron Leader Wallace who was quite a character. He had been a pre-war airman and was almost word perfect in his knowledge of Kings Regulations and Air Council Instructions. To be present at his daily “Orderly Room” was an education in how, and how not, to administer justice. He had placed an airman on a charge for not saluting him. Sqn. Ldr. Wallace was the only witness and he presided over the “Orderly Room” himself. The proceedings went as follows:-

Warrant Officer    -    “Escort and Accused Attention.  Quick March.  Right Wheel.  Mark Time.  Halt.  Left Turn”
                                     “Accused AC Bloggs, Sir”
Sqn.Ldr. Wallace  -    “Are you 1234567 AC Bloggs”
AC Bloggs             -    “Yes Sir”
Sqn.Ldr. Wallace  -     “You are charged that -  whilst on active service you failed to salute your Squadron Commander when he passed you”. “Do you understand the charge ?”
AC Bloggs             -     “Yes Sir”
Sqn.Ldr. Wallace   -     “The evidence against you is given by Sqn. Ldr. Wallace”

The Squadron Commander stood up, moved to the side of his desk and addressed his empty chair.

“On the evening of ------- when wearing my uniform I passed AC Bloggs but he did not salute me.  I told him that he would be charged”

The Squadron Commander then returned to his chair and asked AC Bloggs - “Do you have any questions to ask the witness?”

AC Bloggs    -   “No Sir”

The Squadron Commander then gave AC Bloggs a good ticking off at the end of which he said “Admonished. March Out.”

Warrant Officer - “Right Turn. Right Wheel. Quick March. Right Wheel. Left Wheel. Halt. Admonished. Dismiss”

A Television comedy act could not have done better.

However, one essential item of training in law procedure I received at Gatow was by being appointed an officer under instruction at a Court Martial.

The Squadron left Berlin in the autumn of 1947 after one year there and we drove, in convoy, to Fassburg. However we did not remain there very long, but long enough for another officer and myself to run two courses, each of three weeks duration, for aircraftsmen from all the RAF Regiment squadrons in Germany who were considered suitable for promotion to Corporal.  (With the demobilisation of the majority of wartime N.C.Os it had become necessary to promote some post war National Servicemen to Corporal). This was another of those special jobs that I enjoyed doing.

A further task was to act as assistant to the Chief Umpire for a large scale exercise involving several squadrons which lasted for two days. My job was to remain in the Umpires Field Office for the whole of the two days and log every report from all the Umpires in sufficient detail so that decisions could be made by the Chief Umpire (Wing Commander Norman Martin) and the Exercise Director (Colonel Moore) as the exercise progressed. I had my meals brought to me and I slept on a camp bed.

At the debriefing after the completion of the exercise the Director did not pull any punches in his criticism of the various officers who had made mistakes but he was good enough to thank me publicly for the part that I had played. (I met and served under Wing Commander Martin five years later and married his daughter, but that is another story.) Another duty I had at Fassburg was to attend a second Court Martial as an officer under instruction.

Towards the end of 1947 the Squadron was posted back to the UK but those officers, including myself, who had yet to complete two and a half years service in Germany were posted to No. 64 Squadron at RAF Lubeck. So ended my service with No. 2865 (renumbered 63) Squadron, although I seemed to have spent a great deal of my time away from the squadron on other duties.

My sports activities during 1947, and 1948, included playing rugby for the RAF Germany team and making two short visits to the UK to take part, firstly, in the RAF Athletics Championships and, secondly, to take part in trials for the 1948 Olympics, but I did not make the British team.