In 1943 when my dad was nineteen years old he was posted to a naval air station near Freetown in Sierra Leone. He wrote in his diary: "Sighted the African coast early in the morning and at 10.10 dropped anchor in Freetown harbour. The town looks very pretty with brightly coloured houses, the outstanding objects being a church and two wireless aerials. Behind the town to the left is the coastal range of hills." If you look closely at this photograph you can just see the church and the aerials. (The aerials are rather blurred but just about visible on the left side of the photo.) Freetown Harbour, Sierra Leone In his diary he went on: "Large numbers of canoes fill the harbour, some mere dug-outs but others quite decent boats. Freetown, Sierra Leone At 16.30 the launch arrives to take us ashore and our kit is unloaded by small boys." They travelled in a lorry to a village called Hastings about 15 miles east of Freetown to the naval