From Christine Bate’s document titled Geoff in WW2.doc

Geoff’s War Experiences

There was an article in the San Jose Mercury last week about Bob Burgess who was at school in England near St. Neot’s  during WW II. His school was near an American Air Force Base. The article mentioned the ATC  or Air Training Corps, saying that it was a “youth program sponsored by Britain’s Royal Air Force”.  That was correct as far as it goes but from what Geoff told me about the ATC. it was a program aiming at preparing the participants for service in the Air Force so that when they reached the age of 18, much of their training was already done. 

The ATC came to school in uniform on Mondays and stayed after school for their program. Geoff’s uniform was the usual rough serge that all the servicemen wore, but the officers’ uniforms were of much finer cloth. Sam Barker, a chemistry teacher and my history teacher, Mr Beynon, were officers and so was one of the two caretakers or janitors, Bob Marklew. Mr Beynon was Welsh but Marklew was a real Yorkshireman.  He’s the one who complained “There’s ‘alf o’ Treeton Woods under ‘ere”,  as he swept the conkers out from under a radiatior in the parquet-floored assembly hall one autumn.  He used to say, “Let’s get fell in”, as the ATC sessions began. 

The only thing I remember is that they drilled and studied airplane recognition. I don’t know what else they did on Mondays but in the summer holidays, they went to an RAF station, probably one in Lincolnshire, and spent a week there. The main comment I heard was how well fed they were compared with the rationing that they had at home.  Geoff spoke mostly about the generous “full English breakfasts” with bacon and real eggs.  He also talked about helping to load bombs onto the planes and watching them leave. Later they sat in the operations room and watched as the bombers were checked back in on a chalkboard as they returned. He always hoped that the plane he had helped to load would return safely. Another activity was to be assigned to a mechanic and observe the repairs made on the plane. It was the rule that the mechanics who had worked on a plane took it up for a test flight and Geoff went up with them. 

Fortunately for us, the war ended  as Geoff entered his last year in school.