Tony Thompson talking about his time at HMS Ringtail, RNAS Burscough, 14th August 2021.

Tony Thompson talking about his time at HMS Ringtail, RNAS Burscough, 14th August 2021.

Alan Birch, Lawrence Critchley and Michael Dawson talking to HMS Ringtail veteran and Burscough resident Tony Thompson (age 95).

Engine Mechanic Tony Thompson FX 682358, Royal Navy (retired)

“I arrived at HMS Ringtail from London age 18, in September 1944 and I was attached to 735 Squadron as an engine mechanic working at Edge Farm dispersal area. I left HMS Ringtail in 1945 for Australia and joined up with the aircraft carrier HMS Venerable in Sydney, now attached to 814 Squadron (this was just after the end of the war). When we left Sydney we were the lead ship of the British Pacific Fleet. I had quite a trip I did, Singapore, Hong Kong, Fiji, all over.”

“Well, when I first arrived at HMS Ringtail I worked on Swordfish and finished up with Barracudas. 735 Squadron’s job was to train people to use radar, well radar was secret then it was hardly known by anyone. One day a pilot came up to me, we were doing jobs on the engine, for about three or four days we had been fiddling with this engine, something was wrong with it (I can’t remember what), anyway he just came up to me and said ‘go and get a parachute’ just like that. Well I hadn’t flown before, anyway I got this parachute, I put it on, this great big thing and I got in the plane and that was a Barracuda by the way, and off we went over Southport and he was looping the loop, I could see the pier while upside down and then we went back and landed. There was no warning at all, he just came up to me and said ‘go get a parachute.’ That was to keep you on your guard, because if you didn’t take your job serious, you could end up leaving tools in the engine bay, a spanner or a screwdriver or something, that was to make sure that you knew, that at anytime you could be up there with them.”


If you have any old cine films / audio tapes / video tapes / old photographs relating to Burscough / Ormskirk or the surrounding areas (including HMS Ringtail), please contact me as I would love to be able to add more to the 'Images of Burscough' archive, for future generations.

Please check out our Website and Facebook groups...

www.hms-ringtail.org.uk
www.images-of-burscough.co.uk

'Images of Burscough and Surrounding Areas'
https://www.facebook.com/groups/142406402473095/

'Images of Burscough and Surrounding Areas Group 2'
https://www.facebook.com/groups/454977691315970/

'Images of Burscough and Surrounding Areas - Views from the Towpaths'
https://www.facebook.com/groups/116969535308629/

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