A 103-YEAR-OLD Jerseyman who served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War has said that it is vitally important that young people remember the sacrifice that many of his colleagues made to secure today’s freedom.
Derek Touzel, who joined the RAF in 1941 and would serve as an instrument mechanic in Italy and Egypt, said he was “one of the lucky ones” to make it through the War.
Mr Touzel – who would go on to run his family’s tobacconist business in St Helier after the War – attributes his survival to his colour blindness, which limited him to ground operations during the five long years of conflict.
Born in October 1922, Mr Touzel evacuated with his family at the end of June 1940 and joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve as an airman the following year. However, he failed the ‘Isihara’ eyesight test and was “told to go home”.
But, as Mr Touzel recounts: “I told the recruiting officer that I couldn’t go home because it was occupied by the Germans.”
Determined to serve, and persisting with his medical officer, Mr Touzel was allowed in and he was first posted to RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire as a batman.
However, his worth and technical skills were soon recognised and he retrained as a mechanic, calibrating and repairing the instruments of aircraft.
After completing various courses at RAF Melksham in Wiltshire, he was assigned to overseas service in 1942. After leaving Liverpool and sailing a looping course south to avoid the U-Boat menace, the now Leading Aircraftman Touzel arrived in Naples in early 1943.
By this time, the Italian campaign was in full swing and Mr Touzel’s squadron – equipped with P51 Mustangs – followed the advance up the peninsula, which ended in Lavariano in north-east Italy in May 1945.
He also worked on Typhoons – or ‘Tiffys’ as they were known in RAF slang – which became a highly successful low-altitude ground-attack aircraft.
With the European war over, Mr Touzel flew to RAF Abu Sueir in Egypt, where he worked on Liberators and Lancasters assigned to ‘Tiger Force’ – a large body assembling to join the fight against Japan.
However, after the detonation of two nuclear bombs, the Pacific War ended in September that year, and then Corporal Touzel returned home and was discharged in March 1947.
Mr Touzel was then offered a job at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough but he decided – after much deliberation – to return to the family business in Jersey, where he remains to this day.
Mr Touzel lived independently at his home above First Tower until only a couple of years ago, but he is now cared for at Lakeside in St Peter, where is he regularly visited by friends, including former RAF and commercial pilot Martin Willing, who has helped to record Mr Touzel’s memories.
Mr Touzel is understandably frail, but his mind remains sharp, sharing his disappointment that he never had an opportunity to work on the Spitfire.
He also recounted his departure from the New North Quay on 27 June 1940 as a 17-year-old, boarding a small coal-carrying steamer bound for Weymouth, his father’s Morris Oxford abandoned at the Harbour.
He also recalls how difficult it was for evacuees returning to Jersey after the war – their experiences very different but no less impactful than those who have lived under occupation.
But, above all, Mr Touzel is clear that the war, while full of memories of comradeship, was also full of loss – and it is their sacrifice that remains with him to this day.
