Hugh Thomson - War Service August 1940 - December 1945

August 1940 The second World War had been going about a year when I was called up and went into camp at Levin. I had had to wait about 12 months since applying to join the Air Force after the outbreak of war. We arrived at Levin, were kitted out in uniforms etc and provided with our initial training.
Lots of marching, drilling, physical exercises. We also had many lectures on the theory of flight, navigation, weather, engines, machine guns etc. A very active time in which we learnt a lot, became very fit and made good friends.

October 1940 We moved from Levin to Taieri just south of Dunedin. This was where we learned to fly plus many more lectures on the various aspects concerning flying. We would spend half a day schooling and the other half getting into our Tiger Moths and being instructed in
actual flying. I managed to go solo after 8 hours 15 minutes which is about average. We left Taieri with about 25 hours solo and 25 hours dual in our log book.

Late November 1940 From Taieri we were posted to Wigram near Christchurch. At this stage of our training
we were split up into 2 groups; those considered more suitable to be single engine fighter pilots, and those considered to be suitable as bomber pilots. I’ve never quite worked out on what basis these deductions were made. However of the 30 odd members of our course only about 6 were selected to be trained as fighter pilots – I being one. My now small group started further instruction flying aircraft named Fairy Gordons. They were ancient biplanes which were soon to be replaced by Harvards. Harvards were very suitable single-engine training aircraft. However I did quite well on Gordons and did about another 50 hours of solo and dual flying them. The final training on the course was night flying. This was where I came to grief. My night flying was a disaster and together with another one or two of our course I was grounded.

So ended my aspirations to become a fighter pilot. This could have been one reason I survived the war. I was remustered to be a navigator. Navigator training was to be carried out in Canada.

March 1941 After a short final leave I left Auckland by ship for Canada. The ship Aorangi was a fairly big ship which had yet to be converted to war–time conditions. It was most comfortable. It carried Australian and New Zealand men for training in Canada and also quite a number
to go directly on to England to finish their final training there.

When we left Auckland there was quite a crowd to see us o and I was glad all my goodbyes had been said in Invercargill. It was afternoon when we pulled out. There were tears on board and tears down on the wharf. The final goodbye was sung by those down on the wharf. However once away we all came down to earth and settled into our cabins. Food and drink was plentiful but not many of us had much money so we had to watch
our spending. The Australians ran a gambling school and made good profits. However we ate well and slept well.