War Service Career
Title
War Service Career
Description
A letter to Bethany School from an old boy, Henry, describing his time as a pupil, participation in the scout movement and service in the Royal Air Force including training, diagnosis of colour blindness and becoming a flight mechanic. He describes some incidents where the enemy dropped bombs close to a bomb dump and the machine gunning his occupied barracks. Henry participated in theatrical productions and remembers the thrill of entertaining audiences and giving daily radio broadcasts. After the war Henry served as an instructor preparing airmen for civilian life.
Creator
Date
1993-02-08
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Four typed pages
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.
Identifier
EHowardHFForsythRD930208
Transcription
[letter head censored]
R.D. Forsyth Esq.,
[address censored]
8th February 1993
[underlined] War Service Careers of O.B’S. 1939-45 [/underlined]
[underlined] Sgt. Henry Howard RAF 1158144 [/underlined]
Dear Robert,
I am sorry to have been so long in replying to a fellow “ex Kipper” on the above-mentioned subject, but for what its’ worth – “Here goes!” I hope that you will find it mildly interesting.
I joined the RAF early in 1940 and served until February 1946. After initial training at Cardington, it was decided that I was colour-blind with the amusing classification of “Defective Unsafe” and therefore unfit to fly.
After six years of merchant banking in the City, I felt that I wanted to do something practical as my contribution to the War effort. As I had always been interested in engines and taking them to pieces etc. I became a Flight Mechanic. After a training course I was sent to a Bomber Squadron operating out of Marham in Norfolk.
Months later, I was posted on an engine fitter’s course to Cosford, outside Wolverhampton and passed the course well enough to be sent as an instructor to the RAF No. 1 School of Technical Training at Halton, near Wendover. I taught there for the next two and a half years in the company of many other professionally qualified men who turned their talents to teaching interesting but difficult technical subjects. I was mostly concerned with Aircraft Ignition, Carburation and Supercharging. I have a photograph of King George VI visiting our workshop/classroom when I was there.
[page break]
In my spare time I took a leading part in organising and appearing in what was then called “The Station Concert Party” with such stars as Dick Emery, Harry Worth and many others. At that time there were 30,000 new trainees a month coming in, from which to choose a great variety of talent.
It was a splendid and very talented group, which also went on tour from time to time and raised thousands of pounds for Charities, “Wings for Victory” weeks and many other worth-while causes.
Ralph Reader of the Scouts Gang Show fame became a friend and asked me to join him and integrate our Company with his group, which toured all theatres of operations entertaining and keeping up the morale of the armed forces. It was not to be, as most of us were then classified by the RAF as highly trained technical instructors. I met Hughie Green and Semprini at this time together with many others who went on to make their living in the theatre after the War.
In 1943/44, I was posted to 53 Base at Waddington near Lincoln. It was the base for several squadrons of bombers and many important and major bombing raids, like the Dam Busters Raid and many others were executed from there.
You asked about amusing or exciting incidents that I recall. Here are some:-
(a) As a “Sprog” airman, I remember being on sentry-duty somewhwere [sic] in Gloucestershire and firing my rifle at a low-flying enemy aircraft approaching the aerodrome. I expected to be reprimanded for wasting ammunition – but I wasn’t!
(b) In East Anglia on the big Bomber Stations, some of the German pilots in the earlier years of the War used to mingle with our returning aircraft to get in for a quick raid when the Ground Defences were unable to retaliate for the fear of hitting our own aircraft. On one such occasion, the Germans dropped a stick of bombs very close to our Bomb Dump. Everyone started to run and then stopped, as if on a signal, because they all realised that if the Bomb Dump went up – we’d all go up with it, where-ever we were on the airfield!
[page break]
(c) Equally hairy, on a similar occasion was organising a group of men with fire extinguishers to put out the flames of burning tyres on a large fuel bowser which was full of aviation fuel. The fire had to be put out, or the subsequent explosion would have caused untold havoc to aircraft, personnel and buildings in the immediate vicinity. We put the fire out and as a result are here to tell the tale.
(d) On another similar occasion, German aircraft not only bombed the aerodrome dropping anti-personnel bombs, which looked a bit like fountain pens, but they also machine-gunned the barrack blocks. I remember waking up to the sound of cannon and machine-gun fire and looking at the towel draped over the top of the bed next to mine to see it literally disintegrate in a hail of bullets! I was lucky – the chap whose towel it was, fortunately stayed fast asleep until it was all over, then he woke up, sat up, saw his towel and passed out immediately!
(e) Breakfast was frequently a sad and poignant time in Bomber Command. When big aircraft carried a crew of seven or eight people, if seven aircraft were lost on a night raid there were fifty or more empty places in the mess the next day.
(f) On a lighter note and reverting to the theatre side of my war-time activities, I shall never forget the thrill of entertainig [sic] ve[inserted]r[/inserted]y big audiences out of doors. It was quite weird seeing people laughing on a slope at the back of an audience of two thousand or more, before you actually heard them doing so.
My last six months in the RAF were spent usefully as what was called an EVT Instructor (Educational and Vocational Training), preparing airmen for civilian occupations again. I taught the Institute of Bankers syllabus and a few other subjects as well, right up to the time I was released in February 1946. My release was delayed for two months because the RAF lost my papers! I became marooned at Bawtry, Yorks- but that’s another story!
While at Waddington I ran a daily radio broadcast of the news culled from the BBC, plus local news and other items. I also ran another “Concert Party” and helped convert a disused hangar into a theatre and meeting hall.
[page break]
I retired from the RAF with a very good conduct report, lots of memories, good, bad and frightening and the rank of Sergeant Grade 1 (Technical).
I was at Bethany from April 1929 until December 1933. I was Captain of Kipling’s House; Vice-Captain of cricket and soccer; a King’s Scout and Troop Leader of the 1st Bethany Troop and represented Kent at the World Scout Jamboree in Budapest in 1933: for the record, I also was awarded the Scouts Silver Cross for Gallantry and the Royal Humane Society’s Parchment whilst at Bethany.
I served on the OBS Committee immediately I left School and have served in every office of the Society.
[inserted] I hope its what you want, phone me if I can help further. Eric Parker should have a contribution to make.
With all good wishes
Yours sincerely,
Henry Howard
R.D. Forsyth Esq.,
[address censored]
8th February 1993
[underlined] War Service Careers of O.B’S. 1939-45 [/underlined]
[underlined] Sgt. Henry Howard RAF 1158144 [/underlined]
Dear Robert,
I am sorry to have been so long in replying to a fellow “ex Kipper” on the above-mentioned subject, but for what its’ worth – “Here goes!” I hope that you will find it mildly interesting.
I joined the RAF early in 1940 and served until February 1946. After initial training at Cardington, it was decided that I was colour-blind with the amusing classification of “Defective Unsafe” and therefore unfit to fly.
After six years of merchant banking in the City, I felt that I wanted to do something practical as my contribution to the War effort. As I had always been interested in engines and taking them to pieces etc. I became a Flight Mechanic. After a training course I was sent to a Bomber Squadron operating out of Marham in Norfolk.
Months later, I was posted on an engine fitter’s course to Cosford, outside Wolverhampton and passed the course well enough to be sent as an instructor to the RAF No. 1 School of Technical Training at Halton, near Wendover. I taught there for the next two and a half years in the company of many other professionally qualified men who turned their talents to teaching interesting but difficult technical subjects. I was mostly concerned with Aircraft Ignition, Carburation and Supercharging. I have a photograph of King George VI visiting our workshop/classroom when I was there.
[page break]
In my spare time I took a leading part in organising and appearing in what was then called “The Station Concert Party” with such stars as Dick Emery, Harry Worth and many others. At that time there were 30,000 new trainees a month coming in, from which to choose a great variety of talent.
It was a splendid and very talented group, which also went on tour from time to time and raised thousands of pounds for Charities, “Wings for Victory” weeks and many other worth-while causes.
Ralph Reader of the Scouts Gang Show fame became a friend and asked me to join him and integrate our Company with his group, which toured all theatres of operations entertaining and keeping up the morale of the armed forces. It was not to be, as most of us were then classified by the RAF as highly trained technical instructors. I met Hughie Green and Semprini at this time together with many others who went on to make their living in the theatre after the War.
In 1943/44, I was posted to 53 Base at Waddington near Lincoln. It was the base for several squadrons of bombers and many important and major bombing raids, like the Dam Busters Raid and many others were executed from there.
You asked about amusing or exciting incidents that I recall. Here are some:-
(a) As a “Sprog” airman, I remember being on sentry-duty somewhwere [sic] in Gloucestershire and firing my rifle at a low-flying enemy aircraft approaching the aerodrome. I expected to be reprimanded for wasting ammunition – but I wasn’t!
(b) In East Anglia on the big Bomber Stations, some of the German pilots in the earlier years of the War used to mingle with our returning aircraft to get in for a quick raid when the Ground Defences were unable to retaliate for the fear of hitting our own aircraft. On one such occasion, the Germans dropped a stick of bombs very close to our Bomb Dump. Everyone started to run and then stopped, as if on a signal, because they all realised that if the Bomb Dump went up – we’d all go up with it, where-ever we were on the airfield!
[page break]
(c) Equally hairy, on a similar occasion was organising a group of men with fire extinguishers to put out the flames of burning tyres on a large fuel bowser which was full of aviation fuel. The fire had to be put out, or the subsequent explosion would have caused untold havoc to aircraft, personnel and buildings in the immediate vicinity. We put the fire out and as a result are here to tell the tale.
(d) On another similar occasion, German aircraft not only bombed the aerodrome dropping anti-personnel bombs, which looked a bit like fountain pens, but they also machine-gunned the barrack blocks. I remember waking up to the sound of cannon and machine-gun fire and looking at the towel draped over the top of the bed next to mine to see it literally disintegrate in a hail of bullets! I was lucky – the chap whose towel it was, fortunately stayed fast asleep until it was all over, then he woke up, sat up, saw his towel and passed out immediately!
(e) Breakfast was frequently a sad and poignant time in Bomber Command. When big aircraft carried a crew of seven or eight people, if seven aircraft were lost on a night raid there were fifty or more empty places in the mess the next day.
(f) On a lighter note and reverting to the theatre side of my war-time activities, I shall never forget the thrill of entertainig [sic] ve[inserted]r[/inserted]y big audiences out of doors. It was quite weird seeing people laughing on a slope at the back of an audience of two thousand or more, before you actually heard them doing so.
My last six months in the RAF were spent usefully as what was called an EVT Instructor (Educational and Vocational Training), preparing airmen for civilian occupations again. I taught the Institute of Bankers syllabus and a few other subjects as well, right up to the time I was released in February 1946. My release was delayed for two months because the RAF lost my papers! I became marooned at Bawtry, Yorks- but that’s another story!
While at Waddington I ran a daily radio broadcast of the news culled from the BBC, plus local news and other items. I also ran another “Concert Party” and helped convert a disused hangar into a theatre and meeting hall.
[page break]
I retired from the RAF with a very good conduct report, lots of memories, good, bad and frightening and the rank of Sergeant Grade 1 (Technical).
I was at Bethany from April 1929 until December 1933. I was Captain of Kipling’s House; Vice-Captain of cricket and soccer; a King’s Scout and Troop Leader of the 1st Bethany Troop and represented Kent at the World Scout Jamboree in Budapest in 1933: for the record, I also was awarded the Scouts Silver Cross for Gallantry and the Royal Humane Society’s Parchment whilst at Bethany.
I served on the OBS Committee immediately I left School and have served in every office of the Society.
[inserted] I hope its what you want, phone me if I can help further. Eric Parker should have a contribution to make.
With all good wishes
Yours sincerely,
Henry Howard
Collection
Citation
Henry Francis Howard, “War Service Career,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed January 13, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/42723.