Eggs!

Charlie loved eating eggs,but when World War Two came he could only have rations of egg powder (which he hated). When he received a message about an application for the RAF he noticed that they would feed them his favourite: real eggs, so he accepted.

Training

When Charlie arrived at his first training op, he was offered a position as the tail gunner. He used a wheeled turret to get to grips with the conditions at war. He made friends with Paddy, Bill and many more members.

Going to war

After a few weeks of training, he was ready to go to war. He and his friends went in a Mitchell B25 bomber plane to fight for the Allied forces. Whilst they were on the plane, ready to attack, they were tailed .Luckily, the Allied plane followed them back, so when they arrived in England, the plane flew away. One time, when they were bombing, they were hit from behind by a German plane. When the plane attacked , something hit Charlie’s face which blacked him out. When the rest of the crew fount him, he was lying in a pool of blood with a broken jaw. The crew escorted him to the nearest hospital. He was close to death’s door but he survived.

Retirment

After he recovered from his injury, he retired and married. He got 4 children. He had a job at an office. The war was over and done with.

Charlie’s plane

BY:CO’NALL & TERRY

 “I love eggs! poached , fried  boiled or scrambled  I could have it for breakfast , lunch ,dinner  and tea.

and then the war began…”

This is my story

It was in “The Boy’s Own ” comic that I read about the RAF getting real fried eggs for breakfast . That made my mind up!  I was  trained to be one of Churchill ‘s boys

How you can get through

You need to be a certain height  to get in. You’re not allowed to wear glasses.  You can not have medical issues or it would be difficult to get in.  You have to be a certain age or it  will be difficult for you to get though .

What we do

We have a laugh- we play cards and sports,  we have nights out in town  and hold parties in cafes.  We sing silly songs and act like a goat.  We play the piano.  We relax, have  sandwiches and hot drinks   and we live our lives to  play football..

The war

I thought I saw fireworks . but in fact I heard a bomb explode –   clang.. bash. boom.  The aircraft was filthy and  smoky.  Paddy found me in a pool of blood.

The RAF hospital

After the accident , I was rushed to the hospital.    I woke up on Christmas day in the hospital.  I could have lost my head.  The war ended six months later …

My life before war

Before the Second World War started, I was always able to eat eggs, Poached, fried, boiled or scrambled, they all tasted delicious. Then, World War II came along and i had to eat egg powder instead, it tasted nothing like normal eggs. Soon after, I heard that the RAF served fried eggs to the men that worked there, so I decided to try and get enlisted for the army (only for the eggs).

How I got in

To be able to get in, you had to be a certain height, you weren’t allowed to wear glasses, you had to have perfect hearing and you basically had to have nothing wrong with you. Basically if you had medical issues, you couldn’t work for the RAF. So it was quite difficult to get in. (I was made to work as a tail-gunner).

Training

As our training was during the war was going on, we had to be out serving the war as soon as possible. We had target practice in a turret on wheels! It was funny because all tail-gunners got called “Tail-End Charlie” and my name was Charlie! I also learnt some RAF slang.

Bandit- An enemy fighter

Bang on- Right on target

Gone for a Burton- Killed in action

Hot potato- A risky operation

In the drink- To land in the sea

OP- Operation or mission

Mae West- An inflatable life vest

Piece of Cake- An easy operation (Which we still use nowadays)

Skipper- The pilot

Wizard- Brilliant!

Wizard Prang- A successful op

Our last training op was a real mission over enemy-occupied Holland to drop ‘Window.’

At war

Whilst at war, I kept feeling drowsy, I was playing Orchestra playing in my head. Then, I saw coloured lights in the sky, at the start i thought they were fireworks but to my surprise it was tracer from a Messerschmitt 109! That made me remember that i was at war! I quickly attacked back, but the fighter passed my window like a streak of lightning. Luckily, Bill got us out of trouble, I was terrified. Then someone called to check on us, everyone else was okay but I just lay there in a puddle of blood, I was luckily still breathing.

RAF Hospital

After the incident, they took me to the RAF Hospital and when I woke up, it was Christmas Day! I smashed my jaw and could have lost my head. When my wounds healed the commanding officer must have thought i’d done enough because he didn’t send me back. So he posted me to a desk job in England instead, where I met a lovely lady called Muriel Jones..

HOW AND WHY I JOINED

hello! my name is leo. i’m tall, strong,smart and obviously handsome,if i didn’t have these characteristics how would i have made me it onto the RAF team. Let me tell you  how i ended up getting myself to be in the army.

Everyone loves eggs .well especially i do when my mom makes it . Ever since the world war started ,food has gone low especially eggs but i still wanted to care for my mom so i decided to stay home while my brothers prepared for war .  One day i went to get some food from the corner shop ,my mother got shot in the left part of his chest(the heart).Ever since this tragedy took place i took it upon my self to join the  army. While i was at the RAF centre i made loads of friends our friendship groups grew tighter and tighter.

how to make friend at the RAF

1. Tell them you love eggs
2. Also be the best footballer
3. Make a good impression
4. Be the strongest (attracts women)

With these you will be just fine……

Life in the Raf

Risks were real.Death flew around like a freed bird it can hit on anyone and when it hits you it hits hard . Lives were at stake . We were sent on our first mission to send out light strips to confuse the enemy. Since we did very well we were sent to do the actual thing the real deal to send bombs to the germans . i was terrified. But what had to be done had to be done .

“do this for mom” something told me so i did it not for me for her.

so we went to do it . Crash ,Bomb,Clash , Cling that was a spitfire going down . That  was shrapnel they just hit my face…

Introducing The Story

As seen in the picture below Charlie (his nickname) was a soldier , and it all started like this.

How It All Started Out

Charlie was at home one day when it was 1939 when the world war started when his mom came back from the store. ” Rationing has started !” his mother said .”So instead of normal eggs we are going to have egg powder”

With those words said that is how Charlie went to become tail end Charlie (he only went to RAF so thFat he could get proper eggs).

Charlie went on to become the tail gunner (hence the nickname tail -end Charlie). Training was not that long because they had to get men to war fast and quickly because the NAZIS were coming to power.

Charlie went on his first mission as practise instead of dropping bombs it dropped foil strips. The second mission was a disaster! Charlie was hit in the face with Shrapnel  and was taken to a hospital .Well I guess you could say it wasn’t that much of a disaster because that’s how he met his wife she was one of the nurses helping him.

That’s how they got married and had four children. So that’s his story and now lets move on to some fun facts.

Fun Facts

Did you know if you had minor problems like if your ears were not that good at hearing or if you had glasses you would not be able to join the RAF. People during the world wars had to have something called rationing , and eggs were really rare .You even had to have egg powder instead of eggs ! The soldiers even had to have frozen chocolate or no chocolate.

Tail End Charlie – by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom

Decoration

We are quite interested in the language that is used in this non-fictional eye-catching book ! It is amazing how somebody can recount their dad’s RAF experience from 74 years ago . It is a story to be passed down generations .

Ratings

I would rate this book 4 stars out of 5. When you hear a book about World War 2 you would not expect to hear about romance. Would you be interested in this type of book?

Recommendation

I Would recommend this book to people in the age range of 9 -13 .This is because some younger children might not understand that people put their own lives at risk to save our nation.This book  shows the struggle that adults and children had throughout World War 2 .

Tail gunner on the go

Tail end Charlie trained for no less than 5 weeks and soon he was on the go. Fortunately for him , the nickname for the tail gunner was Tail end Charlie,and Charlie  just happened to be his name.During night training with wellington bombers he, made a beginners mistake, Charlie was swivelling his tail turret around and leaned back to get comfy ,but  had not  fastened the turret doors properly. Worst of all Charlie had forgotten to strap myself in.

RAF Slang

Bandit-An Enemy

Piece of Cake-Easy mission

in the drink-landed/landing in the sea

Mae west-inflatable life vest

Fun fact!

Did you know that a B25 Mitchell was a plane used in World War 2?

Here Is an RAF poem made by Rochelle and Natasha

The RAF is pretty serious ,which is why it makes some people curious.

While Fighting for the right of our Nation, many people died from the lack of our rations

World leaders think  they’re superior,but really they’re just inferior.

Today we thank people who fought for us, so much lives sacrificed for us.

Hey everyone! its me TailEndCharlie, your favourite blogger! Today, I decided to add to your education about my life and replace your fluffy unicorns with RAF planes.

Beginning

So to start with, before I had further experience, I mainly started to work there for EGGS! I was picked out as a tail gunner. My nickname was tail end… Charlie ( Tail end Charlie so yes…) . EMBARASSMENT.

Slang

When i started training, I learnt a lot of slang ( RAF slang of course) :        Bandit= An enemy  fighter                                                                           Bang on = Right on target                                                                          Gone for a Burton = killed in action                                                             Hot Potato = risky operation                                                                       In a drink= Fell on water/the sea                                                                 O.P= Operation or mission                                                                         Mae west= inflatable life jacket                                                                   Piece Of Cake= Easy mission                                                                    Skipper= Pilot                                                                                              Wizard= Brilliant                                                                                           Wizard Prang = Successful O.P

Wellington bomber

After not much practice, ma and my friends , Bill,Com and Paddy became bombers , on Wellington Planes . Some others took photos of our allies ( since we were fearless Axis ) . On my mission there was a slight problem. The crew was alright… but me? I was found laying on the ground covered in blood. I was taken back to our base

The Love Of My Life

I woke up after the incident on Christmas day . I still needed treatment. I wouldn’t be surprised since I’v almost gone for a burton . I needed to be operated. My operator was love from 1st sight! 6 months after that, the war ended and i got married