WW2 Fleet Air Arm: Air Mechanic Alec Hodgkins

After leaving school, Alec Hodgkins worked in a reserved occupation at Appleyard of Leeds, a subcontractor for Blackburn Aircraft building wings for Fairey Swordfish aircraft. He made steel detail for wings, bomb racks, etc, but he felt he was not doing enough for the war effort and ‘wanted to be with the lads’ and have ‘an adventure’. Alec managed to get out of the job and was conscripted into the Fleet Air Arm as an Air Mechanic/Electrician, despite his father doing everything in his power to keep him out of the services due to his own bad experience in WWI.
Alec joined 766 Naval Air Squadron at HMS Nightjar air station (RNAS Inskip) in Lancashire, operating Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers. In December 1944, he embarked for Australia from where he joined the escort aircraft carrier HMS Arbiter which served in the Admiralty Islands, taking Supermarine Seafire aircraft to the British Pacific Fleet and returning inoperable aircraft and tankers to the main base at Manus. During this time, the Atom bombs were dropped, ending the war with the Japanese.
Alec’s memories of meeting Far East prisoners of war still upset him, and the fact that when he returned home no-one had heard of the British Pacific Fleet or their part in the war – they were truly the ‘Forgotten Fleet’.