FROM TIGER MOTH TO V-BOMBER

NOEL DUNNINGHAM’S 32-YEAR CAREER AS AN RAF PILOT AND INSTRUCTOR TOOK HIM TO AFRICA, EGYPT, CYPRUS AND BASES ALL OVER BRITAIN BEFORE HE RETIRED AS SQUADRON LEADER. HERE HE RECOUNTS SOME OF THE MANY SPECIAL MOMENTS TO CHRIS GILSON

PILOT CAREER

NOEL DUNNINGHAM

To the teenage Noel Dunningham watching the contrails form above his home town of Ipswich during the monumental summer of 1940, there was only one place to be. It was the height of the Battle of Britain, and the sights and sounds of the fighting made an impression that has stayed with him to this day.

Now 94, and living in leafy Suffolk, Noel, who retired from the RAF as a squadron leader, recalls that time clearly.

“I was 17 and seriously thinking about going into the recruiting office and being a bit indecisive about my age. I heard others had done it and I was quite tall.

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