Lt.Ransford Slater DSC-Background

Ransford Slater's log book records that at 0900 hrs on 9th July 1942 he joined 836 squadron as its Commanding Officer. 

For all the Observers except James Turner, 836 was their first squadron, and only the CO, Fox and Lisle had been in front line squadrons. Singleton had been training Observers, piloting pupils at Crail and Arbroath, Johnstone had been towing drogues for air-gunners at St. Merryn where, as will be seen, he had learned among other things how not to taxi Swordfish. With this sort of inexperience a good deal of training needed to be done and this was called "working up". As this phase began, unifying bonds, so important to morale and performance, were already apparent. Seven of the officers had shared the experiences of the previous months. Three of these Palmer, Piercy and Robertson, had also been members of the 46^th Observers' course, and Jim and Nick, being keen mountaineers nipped up to North Wales for an assault. Johnstone and Singleton had been on the same pilots' course: Taylor and Cartwright had been on the 47^th Observers' course over lapping with the 46^th trio in Trinidad . Young Philip Blakey, an irrepressible, forthright Yorkshire man, as a recruit at HMS Vincent had sought refuge from the smoothing with public school accents and double-barrelled names which seemed to dominate his pilots' course, and found a bosom pal in Bob Barrett and the two had joined 836 in Jamaica . Only after the war did it become generally known that Lisle and Turner had flown together on anti-submarine patrols from Gibraltar . John Lisle was not the last to be impressed by James's general superiority and knowledge of just everything. When they sighted a submarine in Gibraltar straight, John's instinct was to make a surprise attack from the stern. His vision of glory and gongs were shattered by James's very deliberate exchange of recognition signals with the submarine, which turned out to be one of ours.

John never claimed to be God;s gift to the Fleet Air Arm; indeed he later wrote "I don't know why they didn't drop me from the pilots' course". But while he was around things were always lively. His father came to Lee to see him and arrived in a state of extreme shock and fury. He had been on the top deck of a bus driving along the promenade when a low-flying Swordfish approaching from dead ahead forced it off the road. The pilot? Who else, but his own son. And who else but John Lisle would have suggested for the Squadron's Crest the insignia of the R.A.F's P.O.Prune: the Highly Derogatory Order of the irremovable finger- a clenched hand with forefinger rampant and the motto "Blind Faith and Hope". Was if finger trouble that caused Johnny to crash spectacularly on his approach to Lee runway carrying a "runner" torpedo which had failed to drop on the torpedo range? Much drama preceded the exploit for his Observer fired off red Very Lights to warn of an emergency landing, and while the emergency services stood by the runway a different emergency evolved when Johnny's engine stalled and he dropped, literally, into an adjacent field. The torpedo was shaken free and carved its way through the topsoil of the meadow. Commander (F) rushed over with condolences, while an officer in HQ told Second Officer Doreen Lisle WRNS that some "clot" had pranged in an anti-invasion meadow. Johnny returned once more "their Lordships humble and obedient servant"- or so it said on his A25 (accident report).

Lt (A) Bertie Blacow had no sooner returned from leave then he left the squadron, I believe, to go into hospital: but not before giving a brilliant rendering of his "no sugar" hospital joke. For the rest of us, crewing arrangements were worked out as indicated in the list, and the pairings seeming to be compatible became more or less permanent. We began to work as a team, in the air and in the crew room. "Working up" meant refining and applying within the wider context of the squadron the individual skills we had learned under training. There was much tight formation flying at low level and high level, depth charge and torpedo dropping on targets near Nab Tower, the latter serving also as our target for practice work with S.E. (Special Equipment) later called ASV (anti-surface vessel) and later still, Radar. In these exercises we changed crews a good deal. My log book tells me I flew with nine different pilots and Observers in July- fourteen by the end of August. Thus cliques were avoided and a wider team spirit encouraged, and possible personnel changes through accident or sudden drafts could be made more smoothly. Most of us would fly with anyone without qualm (just as well when later there were more aircrew than planes) and after some of the pilots of Percival Proctors in Trinidad, John Lisle- with whom yours truly did his first flight in 836- was indeed a Master Pilot.

The Observers came into their own navigational exercises (Navex) either in the air or in foul weather, in the crew room (Plotex). These were "marked" by James Turner- always tolerant and helpful. For those (unlike James) trained in Trinidad there were new difficulties. There, 98% of our time had been spent over the sea but the Channel was out of bounds, so from Lee we were forced to navigate northwards where map reading would have been a more appropriate exercise.

In the Wardroom, with its bar "chits", bills and monthly accounts, "temporary Officers and Gentlemen" gradually adapted to life on the "Upper Deck". The newly-commissioned officers had at most a ten day "knife and fork" course atGreenwich before joining the elevated surroundings of an Officers' mess to which, but for the war, they would never have aspired. Most of them were Secondary or Grammar School boys- the Midshipmen barely out if school- who would normally not have such close contact with the products of Public Schools, Dartmouth and Oxbridge, with whom they now enjoyed equal status. The Hon. Nicholas Piercy- a Cambridge graduate- was the first Etonian I had ever met. But we didn't hold it against him. Rather, the provincial accents from North of Watford, especially North of Birmingham (Blakey, Singleton, Taylor, Cartwright, Muir) more than held their own. But all the RNVR men had a great respect beyond habitual deference for the "straight RN" officers who, like Ransford, had trained them and borne the brunt of the first years of hostilities as well. And though at the end of the war RNVR men said that now- numerically having swamped the regulars- they had won the war, the RN could have the FAA back, all realised their debt to the backbone and tradition they had inherited. Lee did not encourage rowdiness among its junior officers, so it was at Victoria,Lee Tower and Wrennery dances that we found our fun. On 20^th July  S/Lt Taylor,now 20 and newly promoted, wet his stripe at Lee  in a fashion he regretted the next day on a fighter evasion exercise, in which his pilot gave the impression it was Seafires who were to take evasive action. It was not unusual to seek wider fields of action in Fareham, Gosport,or even Winchester .