Conversation with Norman Didwell - early days of Wellington on 99 Squadron
Title
Conversation with Norman Didwell - early days of Wellington on 99 Squadron
Description
Norman mentions the personnel and roles of the Wellington development flight. He discusses the arrival of Wellington on squadron and conversion of crews. He notes that most pilots were NCOs. Norman discusses the difference between and problems with early marks of Wellington. He describes activities and tasks of ground crew on squadron and recounts anecdotes about early aircraft incidents on the squadron.
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00:10:33 audio recording
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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
SBondS-DidwellNv10013
Transcription
SB: Right. Again they had —
ND: Well —
SB: Someone was going to Mildenhall.
ND: Yeah, with Barnes Wallis.
SB: Right.
ND: Just before the war.
SB: Yeah.
ND: I just saw these two civilians walking around and I wondered know who they were. I didn’t find out until afterwards. Now —
SB: On, so where did you get about that development flight? What was it?
ND: Wellington Development Flight.
SB: Part of 99.
ND: Yeah. With three aircraft in it.
SB: Right. Ok.
ND: And they were all 99 Squadron pilots. I can always remember there was Flight Sergeant Bill Williams who was also the holder of the AFM.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Jerry Blackwell who was a sergeant pilot in those days. Flight lieutenant, Flying Officer Kirby-Green and then there was a flight lieutenant, I think it was Hetherington who was a New Zealander and I can remember they were on Wimpy flights.
SB: Right. So it was —
ND: It was the three I can remember.
SB: What sort of things were they doing then?
ND: Well, they were just doing duration tests and fuel consumption tests and that. I mean they used to go up for nine hour durations and [unclear] like that.
SB: Blimey. Oh right. I’ve never heard about that before. That’s new.
ND: I think one of the aircraft was an original one that was just delivered. The first one which was L4215. A Mark 1 Wimpy.
SB: Right.
ND: Which hadn’t got Parnell or what was the other fellow who done the turrets?
SB: Oh. Frazer-Nash?
ND: Yeah. Frazer-Nash or [unclear] and that was a [unclear]
SB: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh right. Right. That’s interesting.
ND: With incendiary bombs. I’m just trying to think of [pause] if there was somebody else there. It is just so long ago isn’t it?
SB: Oh, well. Yeah it is.
[pause]
ND: Yeah. You see some of them pilots they made the deliveries. They collected the Wimpies from some of those 99 [and 9] Squadron blokes because they went down and converted on to them didn’t they? Got the [unclear]
SB: Ah, so they did their conversion at Brooklands.
ND: Yeah. I’m certain they did because —
SB: Right. Right.
ND: I remember. I remember somebody saying to me that [pause] who was it? I think it was squadron leader [unclear] who went down there and collected a Wimpy. I can remember the original Wimpy pilots because they [pause] on 99 As I say I’ll have to sort out some photographs because you know that big photograph I’ve got of the squadron?
SB: Yes.
ND: Taken in November 1938.
SB: ’38. Yeah.
ND: Right.
SB: Yeah.
ND: They’re on that. If you count up all the pilots most of them were NCO pilots. Most of them ex-Halton apprentices going back from the early days.
SB: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You’re on that photograph presumably somewhere.
ND: No.
SB: Are you not?
ND: I didn’t join the squadron until May 1939.
SB: ’39. Right. Yeah. Ok.
ND: So just that period I spent before the war.
SB: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Oh, great stuff. So when you were there 1As and 1Cs was it?
ND: We had the first ones that came with the proper turrets —
SB: Right.
ND: Was the 1A, Mark 1As.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Then they had Mark 1Cs.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Then they had the inline ones called the Mark 2.
SB: Yes.
ND: With the Rolls Royce engines in.
SB: Yes. Yeah. Got you.
ND: Then they brought out the Hercules.
SB: Yeah. Mark 3.
ND: Mark 3 which was fourteen. The first one was a fourteen hundred something or other and fifteen. Fourteen hundred and fifty horsepower. Then they punched it up and eventually those Hercules engines were churning out eighteen hundred. Eighteen hundred and fifty weren’t they?
SB: Oh right.
ND: The only thing with the mark 1As and the Mark 1 Cs was the air intake of the carburettors was under the bottom cowling.
SB: Right.
ND: And it over [unclear] in cold weather [laughs] You used to get a fire in it. In the elsan. And what they used to have to do they used to have to keep the engine turning. [unclear] from behind you and what they used to do they used to put either the [unclear] over.
SB: Over the intake.
ND: A board to kind of [unclear] so they’d open it up.
SB: Bloody hell.
ND: Blow the fire.
SB: On the way was it?
ND: Yeah.
SB: Yeah.
ND: That’s honest to God.
SB: Bloody hell.
ND: They used to sit, usually it was, usually it was the engine fitters were stood there groaning. The [propane] started.
SB: Right. Well, in my day you could always tell somebody who worked on a Lightning squadron ground crew.
ND: Yeah.
SB: Because his forage cap was all burned because they used to use it to put out starter fires.
ND: Yeah.
SB: Yeah. The same kind of thing really. How many blokes would you have doing a DI?
ND: You what?
SB: If you’re doing a DI.
ND: Yeah.
SB: Yeah. How many blokes would you have doing that?
ND: Well, on the squadron we’d sometimes we had four fitter 2. Fitter 2.
SB: Two yeah.
ND: So flight mech engines.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Right. That would be two of them. Then you’d have a flight rigger and a fitter 2A.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Right.
SB: Yeah.
ND: You’ve got an armourer.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Which usually was responsible for two aircraft. Armourer gun. Armourer bomb.
SB: Right.
ND: And you had electricians at this time. You had the instrument basher.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Right.
SB: Yeah. Yeah.
ND: But sometimes the ground crew you had two aircraft to look after.
SB: So is that your case? Did you normally have two to look after? Or —
ND: Yeah.
SB: Yeah.
ND: You see we had, I remember we had Pickard’s aircraft. The first one he flew which he had to ditch which I always remember was N3200 and he ditched that in June. The crew was all rescued as you know. Came on the other one further up the line was the one that Flight Sergeant Tim [Healey] flew. Now, Tim [Healey] before the war was flying a Mark 1 and the flare chute [unclear] from him. I don’t know what happened. It exploded and went on fire and it burned quite low.
SB: Oh, crikey.
ND: He got it down but Tim [Healey] was unlucky. During that Battle over Heligoland on the 14th of December 1939 his aircraft, a shell burst underneath it from one of the cruisers and blew him, I think it was, I think it was base’s aircraft over. Landed on top of him. [unclear]
SB: Oh blimey. Right. But did you have a lot of reliability problems with them say from a ground crew point of view? How reliable were they?
ND: Well, you got a lot of oil leaks in those days and you were forever washing the undercarriage down on the Wellington on the port side or the starboard side. You washed it down with paraffin you know because petrol was [pause]. Then you got nowhere for the grease to go and all the grease [unclear]
SB: Yeah.
ND: And then obviously they brought out covers for the, for the tyres, for the wheels because they were ruining them all the time [unclear] for those engines.
SB: Right. Right.
ND: With the [unclear] engines.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Otherwise they were reasonably serviced in many ways. You could get things. Not like [unclear] he was crawling about in the Blenheims [unclear] The only thing was you got a lot of damage to the fabric sometimes [unclear]
SB: Yeah. Yeah.
ND: And especially if they lost on the [chafing strips] on the geodetics. You’d got to replace all them and hardly make them yourselves could they?
SB: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
ND: A bit of cord and the fabric right down and then sewn up with the geodetic.
SB: Right. Oh right.
ND: So, it meant I’d be [unclear] and I’d have to crawl in between the [unclear] servicing the bombs. You could get in so far you know.
SB: Yeah.
ND: You know the thing was putting the engine covers on and cockpit covers and turret covers.
SB: Yes.
ND: Especially when you were trying to get [unclear] turret. The windows are blowing and you’re on the moulding and you’re on rickety old bloody steps.
SB: Yeah. Yeah.
ND: No, but it was interesting work though.
ND: Well —
SB: Someone was going to Mildenhall.
ND: Yeah, with Barnes Wallis.
SB: Right.
ND: Just before the war.
SB: Yeah.
ND: I just saw these two civilians walking around and I wondered know who they were. I didn’t find out until afterwards. Now —
SB: On, so where did you get about that development flight? What was it?
ND: Wellington Development Flight.
SB: Part of 99.
ND: Yeah. With three aircraft in it.
SB: Right. Ok.
ND: And they were all 99 Squadron pilots. I can always remember there was Flight Sergeant Bill Williams who was also the holder of the AFM.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Jerry Blackwell who was a sergeant pilot in those days. Flight lieutenant, Flying Officer Kirby-Green and then there was a flight lieutenant, I think it was Hetherington who was a New Zealander and I can remember they were on Wimpy flights.
SB: Right. So it was —
ND: It was the three I can remember.
SB: What sort of things were they doing then?
ND: Well, they were just doing duration tests and fuel consumption tests and that. I mean they used to go up for nine hour durations and [unclear] like that.
SB: Blimey. Oh right. I’ve never heard about that before. That’s new.
ND: I think one of the aircraft was an original one that was just delivered. The first one which was L4215. A Mark 1 Wimpy.
SB: Right.
ND: Which hadn’t got Parnell or what was the other fellow who done the turrets?
SB: Oh. Frazer-Nash?
ND: Yeah. Frazer-Nash or [unclear] and that was a [unclear]
SB: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh right. Right. That’s interesting.
ND: With incendiary bombs. I’m just trying to think of [pause] if there was somebody else there. It is just so long ago isn’t it?
SB: Oh, well. Yeah it is.
[pause]
ND: Yeah. You see some of them pilots they made the deliveries. They collected the Wimpies from some of those 99 [and 9] Squadron blokes because they went down and converted on to them didn’t they? Got the [unclear]
SB: Ah, so they did their conversion at Brooklands.
ND: Yeah. I’m certain they did because —
SB: Right. Right.
ND: I remember. I remember somebody saying to me that [pause] who was it? I think it was squadron leader [unclear] who went down there and collected a Wimpy. I can remember the original Wimpy pilots because they [pause] on 99 As I say I’ll have to sort out some photographs because you know that big photograph I’ve got of the squadron?
SB: Yes.
ND: Taken in November 1938.
SB: ’38. Yeah.
ND: Right.
SB: Yeah.
ND: They’re on that. If you count up all the pilots most of them were NCO pilots. Most of them ex-Halton apprentices going back from the early days.
SB: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You’re on that photograph presumably somewhere.
ND: No.
SB: Are you not?
ND: I didn’t join the squadron until May 1939.
SB: ’39. Right. Yeah. Ok.
ND: So just that period I spent before the war.
SB: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Oh, great stuff. So when you were there 1As and 1Cs was it?
ND: We had the first ones that came with the proper turrets —
SB: Right.
ND: Was the 1A, Mark 1As.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Then they had Mark 1Cs.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Then they had the inline ones called the Mark 2.
SB: Yes.
ND: With the Rolls Royce engines in.
SB: Yes. Yeah. Got you.
ND: Then they brought out the Hercules.
SB: Yeah. Mark 3.
ND: Mark 3 which was fourteen. The first one was a fourteen hundred something or other and fifteen. Fourteen hundred and fifty horsepower. Then they punched it up and eventually those Hercules engines were churning out eighteen hundred. Eighteen hundred and fifty weren’t they?
SB: Oh right.
ND: The only thing with the mark 1As and the Mark 1 Cs was the air intake of the carburettors was under the bottom cowling.
SB: Right.
ND: And it over [unclear] in cold weather [laughs] You used to get a fire in it. In the elsan. And what they used to have to do they used to have to keep the engine turning. [unclear] from behind you and what they used to do they used to put either the [unclear] over.
SB: Over the intake.
ND: A board to kind of [unclear] so they’d open it up.
SB: Bloody hell.
ND: Blow the fire.
SB: On the way was it?
ND: Yeah.
SB: Yeah.
ND: That’s honest to God.
SB: Bloody hell.
ND: They used to sit, usually it was, usually it was the engine fitters were stood there groaning. The [propane] started.
SB: Right. Well, in my day you could always tell somebody who worked on a Lightning squadron ground crew.
ND: Yeah.
SB: Because his forage cap was all burned because they used to use it to put out starter fires.
ND: Yeah.
SB: Yeah. The same kind of thing really. How many blokes would you have doing a DI?
ND: You what?
SB: If you’re doing a DI.
ND: Yeah.
SB: Yeah. How many blokes would you have doing that?
ND: Well, on the squadron we’d sometimes we had four fitter 2. Fitter 2.
SB: Two yeah.
ND: So flight mech engines.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Right. That would be two of them. Then you’d have a flight rigger and a fitter 2A.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Right.
SB: Yeah.
ND: You’ve got an armourer.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Which usually was responsible for two aircraft. Armourer gun. Armourer bomb.
SB: Right.
ND: And you had electricians at this time. You had the instrument basher.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Right.
SB: Yeah. Yeah.
ND: But sometimes the ground crew you had two aircraft to look after.
SB: So is that your case? Did you normally have two to look after? Or —
ND: Yeah.
SB: Yeah.
ND: You see we had, I remember we had Pickard’s aircraft. The first one he flew which he had to ditch which I always remember was N3200 and he ditched that in June. The crew was all rescued as you know. Came on the other one further up the line was the one that Flight Sergeant Tim [Healey] flew. Now, Tim [Healey] before the war was flying a Mark 1 and the flare chute [unclear] from him. I don’t know what happened. It exploded and went on fire and it burned quite low.
SB: Oh, crikey.
ND: He got it down but Tim [Healey] was unlucky. During that Battle over Heligoland on the 14th of December 1939 his aircraft, a shell burst underneath it from one of the cruisers and blew him, I think it was, I think it was base’s aircraft over. Landed on top of him. [unclear]
SB: Oh blimey. Right. But did you have a lot of reliability problems with them say from a ground crew point of view? How reliable were they?
ND: Well, you got a lot of oil leaks in those days and you were forever washing the undercarriage down on the Wellington on the port side or the starboard side. You washed it down with paraffin you know because petrol was [pause]. Then you got nowhere for the grease to go and all the grease [unclear]
SB: Yeah.
ND: And then obviously they brought out covers for the, for the tyres, for the wheels because they were ruining them all the time [unclear] for those engines.
SB: Right. Right.
ND: With the [unclear] engines.
SB: Yeah.
ND: Otherwise they were reasonably serviced in many ways. You could get things. Not like [unclear] he was crawling about in the Blenheims [unclear] The only thing was you got a lot of damage to the fabric sometimes [unclear]
SB: Yeah. Yeah.
ND: And especially if they lost on the [chafing strips] on the geodetics. You’d got to replace all them and hardly make them yourselves could they?
SB: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
ND: A bit of cord and the fabric right down and then sewn up with the geodetic.
SB: Right. Oh right.
ND: So, it meant I’d be [unclear] and I’d have to crawl in between the [unclear] servicing the bombs. You could get in so far you know.
SB: Yeah.
ND: You know the thing was putting the engine covers on and cockpit covers and turret covers.
SB: Yes.
ND: Especially when you were trying to get [unclear] turret. The windows are blowing and you’re on the moulding and you’re on rickety old bloody steps.
SB: Yeah. Yeah.
ND: No, but it was interesting work though.
Collection
Citation
S Bond and N Didwell, “Conversation with Norman Didwell - early days of Wellington on 99 Squadron,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed June 13, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/49117.