Camp Security Matters
Camp Security Matters
The armourers along with all the other airmen did security and fire duties in addition to there normal duties. This entailed reporting to the guardroom at 5pm where we were assigned various activities such as security patrols, fire station duties. The fire station duties included one person being assigned to the camp cinema in case a fire broke out there but, if you were selected for this, you had to get down early as others would turn up stating they were the fire piquet so that they could get in free. Another part of the fire personnel duties was to light the fires in the R.C. church on Sunday mornings in the winter time.

The security patrols did two hourly tours round the camp to make sure everything was secure and there was nobody there who shouldn’t be. We were given a police type baton in case we were attacked and on one occasion I thought we might need to use it. We patrolled in pairs and we were told to report to the guardroom where we learned that a man and a woman had asked for directions to one of the married quarters which were attached to the camp. they were told which direction to take but, after they had gone, one of the RAF police discovered that no-one of that name lived in the camp. So we were told to find them which we did and took them back to the guardroom. We went back on patrol but were informed that the police had allowed them to go and someone had seen them heading towards the hangers and we had to find them again. We went to the only hanger which was open and where the badminton club played in the evening surrounded by many fighter aircraft and saw them watching the badminton. We asked them to accompany us back to the guardroom as it was suspected they were part of the RAF police who checked on the security of stations. As we were walking back, the woman said I was holding the baton in a threatening manner and she might have to break it over my head. She carried on in this manner until we got back to the guardroom where we handed them over to the police. The RAF police in the guardroom got a very bad report about the incident but we were not mentioned.

The patrols carried on all night and then we had to go to work as normal in the morning.
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