Brenton Siggs came to tell us a few stories about the RAAF during WWII, and he chose to focus on the human side of things by relating tales about Doug, Felix, John and Tom. Doug Arrowsmith has just turned 100 years old and he still lives in Perth. Doug was a Lancaster pilot in 460 Squadron and he participated in 36 operations. At one stage early in his career he had a very close call whilst piloting a Lancaster over Germany when he was alerted to rapidly approaching ground fire and swerved just in time! The air crews relied heavily on ground crews for support, and they became very close-knit groups. Doug was awarded the DFC. Felix Sainsbury – now 102 and still living in Perth too – was ground crew on Kittyhawks during the war, and they had a practical difficulty; when taxiing they had to have someone sitting on the wing to guide the pilot who couldn’t see what was ahead of him! Felix had a mate called Tiny Cameron who adopted a monkey whilst on active duty and called it Buzz. Buzz was eventually smuggled into Australia and landed up in the Queensland Zoo! John Lyall was an air gunner on B17s and Lancasters and part of his role was to jam the German radios. His girlfriend and later wife was based at a manor house in England, where the local WAAF girls used to sunbathe on the roof topless! John and his mates flew low over the house and dropped toilet rolls all over the show which streamed into the trees and stayed for ages. Tom Packer – Brenton’s second cousin – also flew Kittyhawks, but unfortunately he was shot down and killed in May 1942. Brenton advised us that Doug and Felix have both written books, called A Skipper’s Tale and Ground Crew respectively. He also talked about the cricketer Keith Miller who flew Mosquitos during the war, and answered a number of questions from the floor. Brenton finally pulled out his guitar, and gave us a song that he has written about it all!