LONDON ~ PARIS AIR RACE
The following appeal is made by Les Dungey
Back in the days when we counted on our fingers and used pen and ink to write letters to one another, I was NCO i/c the Ground Radio Section at RAF Duxford during the year of the last Daily Mail Air Race from London to Paris. “May we enter?” pleaded two of our flying types to the Air Ministry. “Most certainly” replied their Lordships, “on the one condition that you WIN”
The race was to begin in the centre of London with the contestants scrambling out of the city to their chosen airfields and aircraft. For our intrepid pair the plot called for abseiling down the Embankment to a waiting motor launch on the Thames. Practice for this was carried out by jamming my box-on-wheels airfield vehicle against a wall of the Air Traffic Control Tower so that the distance from the tower balcony to the vehicle roof simulated the height of the Thames Embankment to the estimated tide level for the day and time of the race. Day after day they practised climbing down the wall. Whose foot went through the vehicle roof I never knew, but in the do or die situation there was a degree of tolerance and patient understanding.
Intricate and well laid plans included the use of countless field telephones, drums of cable, and other mobile radio equipment ~ the contents of my inventory was scattered to the four winds. From the start the pilots were to use motorcycles to the Embankment. It was rumoured that airmen were strategically placed at road intersections and pedestrian crossings to ensure that traffic lights favoured our motorcyclists.
A week or so before the race I left Duxford for AFCENT, Fontainebleau.
The Royal Air Force won the London – Paris Air Race
Later that year I was joe’d to be a member of an RAF Guard of Honour when the two Duxford pilots were feted one evening at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. We formed up on both sides of the foyer and after their arrival the two pilots and their French hosts we were taken inside for a slap-up meal with as much wine as we wanted. After speeches and the screening of an RAF film we were treated to a typical Moulin Rouge floor show.
It was an unforgettable evening, and I can remember feeling awed by the sheer co-incidence of my being there. Details of the race itself are missing from my memory. With the advent of my arrival at AFCENT the race was the furthest thing from my mind, and it is probable that news of it passed me by.
I was one of a great number at Duxford involved in the preparations for the Air Race, and I was just one of thirty people in the Guard of Honour at the Moulin Rouge when the winning pilots were feted by the French. Holes in my memory get bigger every year and of the race itself, a complete blank. There must be some of my contemporaries who can help me fill in the blanks. Please phone Les Dungey 01795 533118
MERCHANDISE
To add to our range of merchandise a sample and costings for table mats and coasters has been requested. These will show the A F C E motif as it appears on this Newsletter headpost. Subject to the price for a consignment it is hoped to have these available for sale at Leamington Spa.
Blazer badges, enamel badges and ties remain in stock. A limited number of Ted Caton’s book giving an account of his National Service in the RAF are still available. No bookshelf is complete without it. Interested ? ~ Please contact the editor.