CONTINUATION OF CARREER IN THE NAVY (until August 1953).

Period:  1950-1953.

Afer my return in the Netherlands I soon (November 1950) started with my training as aircraft apprentice for the navy. In the beginning this was on the airfield Hilversum in a civil flying school.  The purpose of this course was to ascertain whether my capacities were good enough to justify an education in the airforce flying school. This period was very strenuous, adventurous and interesting.  I learned all what was possible with such an airplane. The plane was the Havilland Tiger Moth (DH 82A). I learned there how to take off, to land, but also to make other manoevres, for instance corkscrews (spins), stalling and even loopings.  I was able to finish this all satisfactorily and I was accepted to join the Airforce training in Woensdrecht.

Over there all went well until a fatal landing. I did not correctly assess the right altitude on finals during my landing manoeuvre, my approach was too low and I  almost collided with a mast and a building and so the landing was far from perfect. I damaged the plane, one wing had touched the ground and the undercarriage was out of shape. Now I had still one chance: I had to do a flying test and if this had been successful the continuation of my training would be possible. But regretfully I did not succeed and my carreer as a would be pilot stopped.

But my contract as a wireless operator and navigator was still valid and in 1951 I returned to my old profession. I was stationed on the naval airbase Valkenburg not far from Leiden. I came in Squadron-320. This was an RAF registration for Dutch naval aircrews who during the war operated   from the United Kingdom and after the return to the Netherlands after the war this squadron retained that number.    I could immediately  fly as wireless operator and my first flights were with the North American Mitchell (B-25). In this relatively short period we had some exercises with our fleet and meanwhile I flew in Squadron-2, to train an extra navigator course. There I flew with the Fairey Firefly. After that I got a permanent incorporation in Squadron-320 to fly with the Lockheed PV2 Harpoon.  This aircraft was used as a maritime patrol bomber, mainly for the battle against submarines.

Exactly in that period a significant development of  the maritime cooperation of the NATO-countries  took place and this led to a lot of naval exercises with our allies during which  the participants  as much as possible imitated the real situation.  In particular the recent history produced very good experiences with the cooperation between the British and the Dutch navies. Between 1940 and 1945 Squadron-320 and her predecessors were operational from airbases in England and Scotland and during the NATO-manoeuvres we often were stationed on those airbases, for instance Leuchars in Scotland and Culdrose and Lee-on-Solent in England. From there we made very long sorties during which a fleet played the role as ennemy. This fleet sailed  along the Northcape to attack Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

The Harpoon aircraft was very well equipped. A modern radarsystem, the newest American transceivers (APS3 and ART13), the Commandset  and for navigation we used our radar, old fashioned radio direction  finding systems, but als the LORAN (Long Range Navigation). The radar had also the system IFF (Identification Friend or Foe).  When we saw an object on our monitor we could immediately see whether this was an ennemy or not. For the battle against submarines we had our Sonarbuoys.  Those buoys had an underwater microphone. We dropped them near a submarine and were able to analyse the sounds and follow the submarine until a destroyer could finish the job.

With this Harpoon I made a lot of flights and in this way I was often abroad. There we had our exercises with fleets and naval airforces of those countries. For instance in Marocco (Agadir), Casablanca and Port Lyautey as guests of the French navy while we together with British Shackletons did our exercises with the Dutch navy. We also used Gibraltar as temporary base.

In February 1953 the Netherlands suffered from an innundation caused by heavy floods and our Harpoons were also active during rescue operations.

In August 1953 this period ended. I left the naval airforce and thus concluded my maritime carreer.

Harpoon PV-2 in formation. (During this flight I was leading operator).
Fairy Firefly.
B-25  North American Mitchell	Chris as a trainee pilot in a Tiger Moth