The Padre & Recreation

The Padre – The first time, and the last, that I had anything to do with a military padre was before the military got smart and put the right words into padres’ mouths. A young padre of the Tangmere Wing came to visit “B” Flight just before we were about to go on a sweep over France. Each of us in the Flight had the usual difficult-to-spit mouth; dry as a bone. The very first words that the young padre volunteered were, “Now, it is a probability that one or more of you may not be returning this afternoon…” and before he could get another word out, he was on his way out the screen door of the hut without a foot on the floor. (Can you imagine, uh?)

On many an operational flight, I made opportunity to bypass the padre and go straight to the top with what may be described as a quick religion.

Recreation – Occasionally, the Squadron or the Flight had a stand-down, or put on a thirty minute readiness, or a fifteen minute readiness. There were two haunts which we frequented when this happened. One was the White Swan near the perimeter of the field, and the other was the Unicorn which was situated on the aerodrome side of Chichester.

Our favourite was the White Swan. The little pub was owned and operated by an old couple. One morning when Squadrons 145 and 616 were breaking formation, one pilot from 145 and another from 616 broke and collided right over the White Swan. One of them went down in a flat spin into the ground near the White Swan. The old couple dragged the pilot from the remains of the kite but the pilot was, probably, dead. We were very proud of our pub, but how callous we young punks were as we never knew the names of the dear old, mothering folks even though they were recommended for bravery to boot.

On most Wednesdays and weekends, the Unicorn held dances in a small ballroom which was part of the pub. The first time that I attended a dance there, the room was warm and smoky. The girl with whom I was dancing had two handkerchiefs tucked into the cavern of her breast area. The temperature after more dancing was, now, very warm, and as she fumbled down amidst her breasts for one of the handkerchiefs, she said, out of the blue, “Huh, I had two of them when I came in.” Well, the statement caught my mental, Canadian funny bone and I, ungallantly, guffawed.