The Diaries of Russell James Sparrow 1908 to 1991
Bonnie Scotland Now for the final hurdle, and on 3 Sept. 1942 I was on my way to bonnie Scotland for the gunnery course at Evanton on Cromarty Firth about 30 miles north of Inverness and a few miles from Invergordon, notorious for its naval mutiny. At that time a base for Coastal Command Sunderlands. An arduous journey, threading my way through the sleeping forms of Londoners bedded down for the night on the platforms of the Underground stations (a sight I was to see several times in the future) and then standing most of the way to Inverness. rd
On arrival at camp I found some more old pals and we celebrated together. Promoted to L.A.C. (Leading Aircraftsman) and soon busy dicing with death in Blackburn Bothas firing at airborne drogues and at ground targets on the wild north east coast of Scotland, cinecamera gun exercises with attacks by fighters etc. We were shown the films which were a lasting record of how good a shot you were in the air, gun turret turning and manipulation, gun stripping and assembling, aircraft recognition and pyrotechnics, dinghy drill, escape and survival exercises, clay pigeon shooting and a bit of Morse and some semaphore to prevent us going rusty. A very concentrated course and most of our spare time was spent at the camp cinema or the Scotch hut in the village, although we did manage a trip or two into Inverness. I had a good result at the end of the board, we had a super feed to celebrate and on 2 Oct. 1942 we had a brevet parade and were presented with our flying badges and promoted to Sergeants. nd
We left camp at 0200 hrs. and arrived at Stowmarket at 0200 hrs. in a terrible fog and I was more than pleased to see Clifford who had come to meet me. After a few days leave it was back to Evanton to learn that I had been retained as an Instructor. I was sent to do a course at R.A.F. Manby in Lincolnshire, another long journey for my 41
