Bl] LUHLI and By Air 
     
    
   
   
    
     friends saying how much he could drink, that I looked at 
     
     the clock in the pub and said, “I could drink you under 
     
     the table.” For the next hour I did, but when I started for 
     
     home, all the buildings were moving and I went to bed. 
     
     The next day I was so sick I went to the doctor, just to get 
     
     the rest of the day off. He wanted to take out my appendix 
     
     on the spot. I talked him into giving me something for 
     
    

    
     my sick stomach, then threw the prescription in the 
     
     wastepaper basket. From then on, no hard liquor. I think I 
     
     am allergic to alcohol. 
     
    
   
   
    
     DI SHF ORTH 
     
    
   
   
    
     We next went to Dishforth to learn to fly the heavy 
     
     four engine bombers, which in this case was the Halifax. 
     
     I never liked the plane - its speed was about 200 mph. We 
     
     picked up two gunners, Sgt. McCall and Sgt. McKelvie. 
     
     McKelvie was the rear Gunner, and he was rather an 
     
     extrovert, who always made the trips sound worse than 
     
     they were. The history of these “shaky does” had got 
     
     around the camp. I always felt he was a Dead—eye Dick 
     
     and felt safe with him sitting in the rear turret. I always 
     
     felt sorry for him sitting alone in the rear turret some 60 
     
     feet behind us. He was sitting there in an open turret with 
     
     nothing between him and the open air. Of course, he wore 
     
     a heated flying suit and head gear, but even with these, 
     
     he actually had a slight freezing of the face and eyes one 
     
     night, as the temperature was below minus 60 degrees 
     
     at 20,000 feet. McKelvie was a great skeet shooter - one 
     
     night I was taking star shots and he asked if he could take 
     
     one (his one and only) and when I worked it out, it came 
     
     within yards of where I was standing. In the Halifax the 
     
     Navigator’s cabin was in the nose of the plane and when 
     
    
   
   
    
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