Vision Ahead: Air Commodore P Huskinson 1949 1st edition hardback

Author: Air Commodore P Huskinson CBE, MC

Publisher: Werner Laurie

Pagination: 198

Format: Hardback

Condition: Very good, with slight edge wear and mottling to the cover.

1st Edition.

Older Farndon residents who remember anything of Patrick Huskinson associate him with two things, his design of big bombs and the fact that he was blinded during the London blitz. His injury came about in April 1941. He was living with his wife Molly (he had married on 1940) in an apartment in Knightsbridge close to his work in the corrdors of power.

He left work at the Air Ministry at about 9 p.m. and after a meal settled down to work at some papers. The air raid warning had sounded but he did not take shelter. In fact, as was his custom, he looked out of the window to watch the raid because he was always ready to learn from German bombing methods. As the bombing came closer they left the bedroom and went to comparative safety of the sitting room; they drank tea, she read a book and he did some more work on his papers. He rose to get his pipe from the mantelpiece and the next thing he knew he was being cradled in his wife’s arms whilst she told him that the apartment had been hit, he was badly hurt and that there was a fire. He became aware that he was bleeding and that he was unable to see anything. She helped him out of the apartment to safety and he was taken to hospital where wounds were stitched, bits of wood, glass and metal were removed from his body and he became that he had lost his eyesight. His eyes had been flooded with blood and he was permanently blinded. Here- after he wore dark glasses and walked with the aid of a stick. Despite all this, things could have been worse. The bed where they had been lying only minutes before the bomb fell lay crushed beneath a large slab of concrete.

His determination and courage helped him to get over some of the worst of the inconven- iences. He removed the glass face from his watch so that he could tell the time by touch. At mealtimes, crockery and food were always placed in the same positions so that he couldvisualise their position by imagining them in relation to the points of a compass.

He learnt to read blueprints by having the outlines gone over with a toothed wheel. He could form a mental picture of them by turning the sheet over and feeling the pricklings like a form of Braille. Inevitably he relied heavily on help from those around him, especially his wife. The value of his work to the war effort was so great that his room was converted into an office and he was given two personal assist ants and a secretary so that he could conti ue. Even after he was invalided out of the RAF in January 1942 they could not dispense with his services and he was invited to be President of the Air Armaments Board. This brings us to his invaluable work in the design of big bombs.