Peter Inman joined the RAF on 21st September 1942 and trained as an armourer at RAF Hereford before being posted to West Africa in 1943.
Peter sailed from Liverpool on RMS Rangitika leaving on 19th June and arriving on the 30th June in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
This is his picture of the troopship RMS Rangitiki (his note calls it Rangitika) that took him from Liverpool (departed 19th June) to Freetown (arrival 30th June 1943). Research shows she had been built in 1928 by John Brown & Co Ltd. on Clydebank for the New Zealand Shipping Co for service on the England - New Zealand via Panama Canal service. She operated as a troopship in 1940-47 and resumed New Zealand in 1948. She was scrapped in Spain in 1962.
(Click images to view enlarged)
(Above left) At Port Etienne - Peter's 'personal boy' known as "Birdie", whom Peter was very fond of.
(Above centre) Sylvia is JM677/S - a Short Sunderland Mk3 built by Short Brothers at Rochester in Kent in early 1943
(Above right) Peter Inman
Peter was initially posted to Bathurst in Gambia before moving northwards to Port Etienne in French West Africa (now Mauritania).
Peter Inman Photos
The Armoury section of 95sqn (95MU - Maintenance Unit) taken at RAF Bathurst in 1943 in front of an unidentified Sunderland Mk 3. Peter is in the middle row, 3rd from the right marked with an X
A group of Dobi boys and section labourers at Pt Etienne "Birdie", Peter's "personal boy,) far right!
A billet at Pt Etienne - pretty basic and, being made from corrugated iron, extremely hot & humid. Note the obligatory pin-up behind the first bed!
Sunderland MK3 at rest in Pt Etienne