RAF Waddington - the conversion flight
Title
RAF Waddington - the conversion flight
Description
Gives training history of crew. Having completed training on Wellington at Finningley, posted tie RAF Waddington for conversion to the Lancaster. Joined by rear gunner and flight engineer. Mentions that at this time conversion training was done on operational bases but later heavy conversion units took over this role at the end of 1942. Post-it note give date as September 7 1942
Date
1942-09-07
Language
Format
One page printed document
Conforms To
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
SBeckettG622136v10055
Transcription
[inserted] MONDAY
SEPTEMBER 7TH
1942 [/inserted]
[underlined] R.A.F Waddington – The Conversion Flight [/underlined]
Sgt. Beckett and the other four members that now made up the McNamara crew, were due to be posted out of R.A.F. Finningley in mid September, having successfully completed their training on the old Wellington’s of 25 O.T.U.
After two weeks leave, they were all posted to R.A.F. Waddington, in Lincolnshire, a 5 Group base, home to No’s 9 and 44 bomber squadron’s.
Before commencing operational flying, the crew now had to be converted from twin engined aircraft, to the much more modern and complicated Avro Lancaster, which they were destined to fly. It was now that they were joined by their new tail gunner, Sgt. Jones and their Flight Engineer Sgt Read, making their crew up to seven, with Sgt. Beckett taking over the mid-upper turret.
It had been the custom to train crews on to the type to be flown at the operational base, but the task of training up new crews on squadrons became too large, as increasing numbers of new crews arrived to build up the force and replace losses.
Heavy Conversion Units took over this task, towards the end of 1942, on their own airfields. This helped lessen the risk of the inexperienced crews ‘mixing it’ with operational crews in the same circuit and possibly blocking the runway or causing some other equally hazardous occurrence. The McNamara crew were to be one of the last crews to be trained at Waddington’s Conversion flight.
Meanwhile, on the seventh of September, Hazel finally replied to Moms letter, sent some weeks previously.
SEPTEMBER 7TH
1942 [/inserted]
[underlined] R.A.F Waddington – The Conversion Flight [/underlined]
Sgt. Beckett and the other four members that now made up the McNamara crew, were due to be posted out of R.A.F. Finningley in mid September, having successfully completed their training on the old Wellington’s of 25 O.T.U.
After two weeks leave, they were all posted to R.A.F. Waddington, in Lincolnshire, a 5 Group base, home to No’s 9 and 44 bomber squadron’s.
Before commencing operational flying, the crew now had to be converted from twin engined aircraft, to the much more modern and complicated Avro Lancaster, which they were destined to fly. It was now that they were joined by their new tail gunner, Sgt. Jones and their Flight Engineer Sgt Read, making their crew up to seven, with Sgt. Beckett taking over the mid-upper turret.
It had been the custom to train crews on to the type to be flown at the operational base, but the task of training up new crews on squadrons became too large, as increasing numbers of new crews arrived to build up the force and replace losses.
Heavy Conversion Units took over this task, towards the end of 1942, on their own airfields. This helped lessen the risk of the inexperienced crews ‘mixing it’ with operational crews in the same circuit and possibly blocking the runway or causing some other equally hazardous occurrence. The McNamara crew were to be one of the last crews to be trained at Waddington’s Conversion flight.
Meanwhile, on the seventh of September, Hazel finally replied to Moms letter, sent some weeks previously.
Collection
Citation
“RAF Waddington - the conversion flight,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed June 14, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/41368.