Patterson, Gerry: my Air Force recollections (November 2, 2006)
PublicRank: Colonel.
Interviewer: Smith, Allison
ABSTRACT: Colonel Gerry Patterson First tour 1952-1956 with the second fighter wing in Gros Tenquin. It was like stepping back into the 16th century. The people were terribly poor. (1:10) They lived in fortified villages. He described his view of the people as peasants. (1:40) they piled manure around the water pumps in the front of the yards to keep them from freezing in winter time and kept the animals in the lower level of their homes. (2:50) because there was no accommodations at 2 Wing a couple of the men with their families rented a place in Sussex, England, telling their wives they could whip back and forth. But they couldn't. The first time he took his airplane there they didn't have a starter for the plane. He had to use their battery cart and it burnt it out and burst into flames and he was told not to come back. (4:00) They didn't get over as much as they wanted. (4:30) At 2 Wing they ended up renting a lot of seaside caravans. (5:00) trailers were small with no water access. (6:00) theirs was 8 by 12 with him his wife and a baby. (6:40) because there was still construction going on when they flew to 2 Wing in 1952 there was mud everywhere and they all wore great big weather boots. (7:50) At one stage in Autumn their airplanes were up to their nose in water. Runway cracked and had to move the whole wing over to Germany in Zweibrucken (8:30) they all lived there in tents in a make shift place. (8:50) Germany was totally different. German cities still heavily abandoned and rubble everywhere at the time. (9:20) they had advanced so much more then the poor people in France they lived among. They were very industrious. (10:00) Air field was properly built in Germany. (11:00) the trailers didn't have any showers. If they emptied all the water into the bath they had about 3 inches of water. This was okay for the officers who could go shower in the mess, but not so good for the wives. (12:00) the place was so dirty that they thought they had brown floors until the cleaners polished it up and realized they were just covered in mud. (14:00) it was much better for the officers morale when the wives came over, although maybe not the women. (14:30) He was on the move all the time so he was gone for long periods from his wife. (16:30) This probably did not do much for the morale of their wives. (17:00) even though he was away a lot he was still involved in the kids life. They were all young, with young children. Newly graduated pilots, newly married, newly with children.(17:50) When things dried out in the Spring of 1953 they were able to have a mess and had all of the normal functions and dinners there. They had to make their own entertainment, there was nothing there. (18:30) A big event for his wife was to leave their little kid with friends and have a weekend in Strasbourg France, have a trout dinner, and they had a bath which they would spend all weekend getting in and out of.
An interview/narrative of Colonel Gerry Patterson's experiences with the Canadian Air Force Division in Europe. Interview took place on November 2, 2006.
Interviewee: Patterson, Gerry
- In Collection:
- 1 sound recording (MP3)
- 51.5, 10.5
- 52.16045, -0.70312
- Original recording (DVF) on compact disc (CD) in Special Collections.
- Canadian Military Oral History Collection
- PG_510
- Special Collections Finding Aid: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/military-oral-history-collection
- January 23, 2013
- Digital sound recording in .mp3 format at 56 kbps and 16 kHz. Digitized by JF, technical and cataloguing metadata provided by JF and JP. Interview migrated to digital format for UVic Special Collections in 2013. Migration metadata by KD and MT.
- Rights
- This interview has been posted with the understanding that it may be used for research purposes only. Should the interviewee or their heirs have any objections to this interview being accessible on the Internet, it will be removed promptly. Contact UVic Special Collections for permission if using for other than research purposes: speccoll@uvic.ca
- DOI
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