Page 9 - Dennis Ovenden
P. 9
On returning from a leave, Dennis was posted No.78 Squadron, a No.4 Group squadron stationed
at RAF Breighton, 6 miles east of Selby in North Yorkshire. Dennis arriving at the airfield on the
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9 May, he only completing one airborne exercise in one of No.78 Squadrons Handley Page
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Halifax heavy bombers on the 7 June.
This airfield is still in use today, it home to the WW2 themed Real Aeroplane Company maintaining
historic aircraft with the Breighton Flying Club using a separate grass runway within the original
airfield grounds.
Dennis opted to stay in the regular RAF and applied for a clerical course at No.2 Administrative
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Training School, arriving there on the 16 August. The school based in Hereford, the county town
of Herefordshire, on the Welsh border. As Dennis had transferred from the volunteer to the regular
post war Royal Air Force, he was in accepting a ground role demoted back to Aircraftsman 1,
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eventually on the 1 July 1946 being promoted to Sergeant. Aircrew senior non-commissioned
officers had seniority over their ground-based equivalents, hence the reduction in rank until
Dennis promoted Sergeant in India.
Dennis, it has to be said at this point knew exactly what he was doing, as prewar his occupation
was one of a Clerk in a local London based company. In selecting this clerical course, he was
clearly using the Royal Air Forces vast administrative experience to, on his demobilization use this
qualification and experience to start a new life as a shopkeeper. Course completed Dennis was
sent to No. 5 Personnel Dispatch Centre (5PDC) RAF Padgate, Warrington, Lancashire on the
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8 October. This dispatch centre dealing exclusively with overseas postings. His stay at Padgate
was a short one, he posted on to No. 9 Personnel Dispatch Centre at RAF North Weald in Essex
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on the 1 November. As this dispatch centre was just to the north of London one must assume his
embarkation point was one of the London docks, his final RAF posting to India.
Arriving at Headquarters BAFSEA (Base Air Forces South East Asia) in the country’s capital, New
Delhi in December of 1945 (the exact arrival date is not clear on his service record), Dennis would
have replaced a clerk selected for demobilization.
It is not known if his duties where in the capitol or the Advanced Headquarters in Kandy, the
capitol of Ceylon, (now Sri Lanka). What is known is these Headquarters administered the
following RAF Groups in this region.
They were:
No.222 Group, based in Colombo, Ceylon.
No.223 Group, based at Peshawar, India
No.225 Group, based at Bangalore, India
No.226 Group, based at Palam, Delhi.
No. 227 Group, based at Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
New Delhi also had administrative control of Army Headquarters Burma and
Eastern Air Command.
Dennis’s service in India continued until mid-1946, when he headed home arriving in the UK by
ship, possibly arriving in Liverpool and being demobilized at No.101 Personal Dispatch Centre
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(101PDC) at Warton, Lancashire on the 22 September 1946. It is not clear if Dennis was
demobed or made redundant due to post war service cuts by the Government.
Kitted out with a new suit and travel warrant, Dennis returned home to his family. Dennis
remaining on the RAF ʻGʼ (General) Reserve until March 1957.
If, post war he had been called up as aircrew then Dennis, after a short refresher on navigation
would have been promoted to Flight Sergeant. Post war the armed forces had reduced in size,
each Officer and NCO rank stepping down one rank. Bomber Command having been reduced to
less than 70 Squadrons from its war time peak of 108 squadrons.