Petty Officer Eric Such

	General experience.
	Includes more autobiographical extracts.
	This page: includes inventory and audio clip.

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Eric Such, November 2001.

Inventory of the Donation

• Memoirs
• Flying log book
• Postcards
• Postcard album
• Various Magazines
• Stamp book
• 2 large photograph albums
• Scrap book including newspaper cuttings, theatre programmes and tickets, telegrams etc.
• Newsletters:
    HMS Illustrious
    HMS Victorious
• Box of naval badges
• Mouth organ
• Elements of uniform
• Second World War information booklets
• Manuals of seamanship
• Tape-recorded

Conditions on board for all concerned were arduous, working long hours to keep the aircraft in serviceable order, for example while on HMS Victorious in Operation Pedestal:

We were now concerned with ranging the Martlets for take off and I was lying on the deck holding onto a chock like grim death as the pilot brought up his engine speed, the back-lash threatening to blow me into the whirling propellers behind. No one needed to warn you of this danger!

Suddenly the order was 'Chocks away!' and I wrenched the chock from under the wheel, as my mate manhandled the other. The slipstream tore at us as we carried our little loads to safety. Then the eerie quiet began, before the first of our planes landed on, back to the re-arm, refuel and take off. The threats from the very determined enemy, were numerous and constant. Once again, our Hurricanes were landing on, keeping the batsman busy, while we waited on the stern for them to arrive. In a flash an Italian plane followed by another nearly took our heads off and as we made for side cover, a bomb exploded. Another bomb, quite intact, hit the flight deck and bits vanished in all directions over the ship's side. The Eyeties gained height rapidly heading away, so out we came and carried on as before.

(Extract taken from Eric's autobiography Tool of War, 1997, published by Square One Publications).

Circular Slide Rule

RAF Cinema programme, October 1944.

Eric's Christmas card to his parents 1944.

'Ashore at last', MT section dance, September 1944

Pages from Eric Such's flying log book including a reference to the attack on Formosa, March 1945.

Eric Such Audio Clip:

Audio Clip Requires Real Player - free download here

Transcript of Audio Clip

The point is this, that the ordinary, well, the good pilot, Japanese pilot, used to drop on you from above. He used to come in as much as he could in the blind side. He used to come on your tail. Used to come up underneath. He'd got a method and you knew he had and that's why I say you couldn't take your eyes off the skies all round the plane. You looked as far as you could. Whereas in this analysis of when we went to Formosa after the kamikazes. Even the take offs were rough. We caught a lot of them trying to take off. For a squad of kamikazes, they used to have probably 2 fighter planes, pilots, zeros or what have you. Those you'd got to watch but the quality of those were bad. They used to come straight to you and you knew they were coming because you could watch them from the time they took off till the time they were approaching. So basically they put themselves in danger and although as I say we were more or less concentrating on the targets below.

	General experience.
	Includes more autobiographical extracts.
	This page: includes inventory and audio clip.