Getting Crewed Up

First assignment... O.K., I got the telegram, went to the police station, got a warrant, and my father-in-law drove me to, my future father-in-law, drove me to the station and I went down to a place called Abington, in Berkshire. Abington was a pre-war station, it was an OTU. Operational Training Unit. And, I think it was OTU 10 I think it was. Anyway, when we got there we found out, it was the day before D-Day of course, but the next morning we found out it was D-Day. Okay, and we were sent out the next morning into a huge parade area behind the billets. And when we got there, there would be oh... 5 about 30, 30 times 5.... yeah. About 30, there was 30 crews so about 30 times 5 at that time. And we were all told, we were called to attention, we're just loosely standing around and an officer came and called us to attention and said "Within the next 15 to 20 minutes you will pick for yourself a crew, voluntary. If at the end of this 15 minutes or half an hour, whatever it was, you have not done so, we will assign you a crew." OK, so I had two buddies and we, I was the senior of the three so, in service as well as everything else, so the other two decided that... you got two gunners, they'd flip a coin to see which one was going to come with me. So they flipped a coin and the Scottish laddie lost, the one that ate the porridge. He lost and so Reg came with me, Reg Morris. And we then were standing around, the two of us together and this guy walked past, he was big. Hunky looking guy and he had the pilot's wings, so Reg says to me "Ask him! Go on, ask him!" So I said "Hey, sir! Hey sergeant, are you looking for two gunners? " And he said "Oh, sure to be god I am!" Oh god, I got an Irish man. So he said "Are you any good? " I said "Oh yeah, you got the two best gunners on this parade ground." "Ah sure," he says " have you be pulling my leg." So anyway he took us. And we looked around and we saw another guy, tall, thin looking fellow. And he was a navigator's badge up, so we asked him if he was looking for a crew and he said, "Yeah, yeah." he says, "Indeed to goodness I am man." Oh god, we've got a Welsh man. So now we have a Yorkshire man, an Irishman, from the free state! They weren't even supposed to be in the war! Now we have a Welshman as a navigator. Now we want a wireless operator. So we tally around and this guy walks up to us and he says "Whey ya man, are you looking for a wop? " Oh god we've got a Jordie, from Newcastle. And so we finished up with a, and we found another guy, he was a Cockney from the sound of Bow Bells. That meant he was a for real Cockney, with the Cockney accent. Now we have all these guys, each one with a different accent, trying to work together as a crew and understand what each one is saying! And that in itself is a chore, because believe you me, when you get a group like that together.... and we came top of the course.