247

-2- (centre aligned)
This completed he was posted on the 2nd May to No. 15 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit, Grove, Berkshire. During the course of his advanced flying training he attended an instrument flying course with No. 1 Beam Approach School, Watchfield, Wiltshire. Passing out of the Advanced Flying Unit on the 18th July 1943, the next stage of his training took him to No. 21 Operational Training Unit, Moreton-In-Marsh, Gloucestershire to crew-up and complete his training on Wellington bomber aircraft prior to proceeding late in September 1943 to thet Mediterranean theatre of war on posting to No. 142 Squadron, Kairouan, Egypt. From here and from airfields in Italy (redacted to where the squadron subsequently moved) he took part in forty operational flights comprising attacks on Rome (2), Turin, Cecina, Padua (2), Gotta-ferrata) 2), Anzio, Montalto-Di-Castro, Milan, Alessandria, Valmontone (2), Ferentino, San Steffano, Viterbo, Trieste, Bologna (2), Ravenne (2), Pesaro (2), and Ferrara (3), all in Italy; Sofia and Philippoulis in Bulgaria; Buda Pest, Hajduboszormeny and Sxony in Hungary; Bucharest (2) Givrgio and Ploesti in Romania; Munich in Germany and Marseilles in France; together with a sortie minelaying in the Danube. This tour of operations completed in November 1944 Flying Officer Stinson returned to England.

Back in England he was posted on the 1st February 1945 to No. 108 Operational Training Unit, Castle Donington, Derbyshire for operational training on Dakota aircraft. This was followed by a transport pilots course at No. 1382 Transport Command Training Unit, Wymeswold, Leicestershire on the successful completion of which on the 20th October 1945 he left England by air on posting to No. 10 Squadron, Poona, India.

This journey was made with halts at Malta, Cairo, Shaibah (Arabia), Karachi (India) and Poona was reached on the 25th October (redacted after a journey of twenty five hours thirty minutes.)

With No. 10 Squadron in addition to duty as a transport pilot he trained for his future duties of supply dropping. In March 1946 the squadron moved to Keiktila, Burma, and Flying Officer Stinson was employed in dropping rice to isolated villages in the mountains of Northern Burma.