Interview with Peter Sewerin

Interview with Peter Sewerin

Peter Sewerin remembers his father Stanislaw Sewerin. He escaped from Poland and fought in North Africa before transferring to the RAF and training as a pilot. He flew operations as a pilot with 300 Squadron. After the war, he flew as a pilot in civil aviation.

Peter Sewerin’s father escaped from occupied Poland and made his way through Czechoslovakia to Tobruk where he took part in the Tobruk campaign before continuing his journey to the UK where he volunteered for the RAF. He was posted to RAF Faldingworth and RAF Ingham where he was a pilot on Wellingtons and Lancasters.

Stan was born in Warsaw and went on to become part of the Polish Olympic Team for the Los Angeles Olympic games.
Stan joined the RAF and flew from RAF Ingham and RAF Faldingworth, as a pilot. Stan was thought to be a ‘lucky’ pilot to have as part of your crew due to him surviving a crashed landing in Scotland with only a broken big toe.
Stan wore the Polish Eagle as a Polish airman. This was painted green after, he and his crew survived three ops to Berlin. Stan was involved in the Operation Manna food drops. Stan was demobilised from the RAF in 1959. He then flew for smaller independent commercial airlines.

2024-09-16

00:17:20 Audio Recording

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ASewerinP240916, PSewerinS2409

PS: Is that something I could see or hear?
DE: Eventually.
PS: Okay then.
DE: Yeah. Right. So this is an interview with Peter Sewerin. My name’s Dan Ellin. It’s for the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. We’re at the University Offices at Riseholme. It’s the 16th of September 2024. So, Peter can you start by telling me a little bit about your father’s pre-war life in Poland as you, as you know of it.
PS: So, my father was a totaliser for the Polish Racecourse Association I believe. Basically, he was an accountant. When Poland was invaded he and some friends decided to leave Poland by any which way. He escaped down through Czechoslovakia, Hungary over to Tobruk. He was at the Tobruk campaign. I think he joined the Polish Forces in Palestine. He decided then to join the British Army and opted for the RAF and he made his way to, by boat I believe to England where he joined the RAF.
DE: Can we, can we run back a little bit?
PS: Oh yeah. His, sorry yeah his rowing. Yeah. He was a champion of Poland I believe. ’34 to ’36, 1934 to ’36 on coxswainless force. He was also in the Polish Olympic team but his discipline was not chosen and that was in the Los Angeles Olympics. A good friend of his who he escaped from Poland with won a bronze. His name was George Brown, Jersey born and, yeah.
DE: And he’s, you said earlier he escaped wearing rather bizarre clothes.
PS: Oh yeah. Yeah, I wasn’t sure whether this would be pertinent but I think it definitely was for the people he was with. Yeah. He bought a white fedora and a matching white full length overcoat and he was determined not to leave it because he’d only just bought it. But they convinced him to take it off because you know it was, he made, he made them a target with the white. Yeah. The bright white outfit. So —
DE: So, who did he, who did who did he escape with?
PS: Well, I can only remember my dad telling me it was with George Brown who he used to row with who was my sort of pseudo uncle if you will. Any other names they escape me but I know there were a few that had decided to leave.
DE: So, they both wound up in North Africa for a time.
PS: Yeah. North Africa and they fought in the Tobruk campaign and then I think my Uncle George became, joined the Army and my dad opted for RAF.
DE: Do you know what they did in Tobruk? Did he talk about —
PS: Tobruk. No. Not much but I mean there was obviously they had something to do with the taking of Tobruk so I think being in the Army they must have just been normal Army.
DE: Yeah. Infantry maybe. Yeah.
PS: Yeah. Infantry men I believe.
DE: Did your Uncle George did he stay in the Army then?
PS: He stayed in the Army until just after the war.
DE: Right.
PS: So he did leave and I think he was an engineer by trade anyway and moved to Crawley in England and carried on from there.
DE: Any stories you can remember about the escape or the journey to, to the UK?
PS: No. Only that it was fraught as you can imagine. No. It escapes me. If my dad did tell me I would remember. I remembered all the sort of high spots. Especially the wearing of the hat, the white hat.
DE: Yeah. Yeah.
PS: And the white coat.
DE: Yeah. So, what do you know of his, his time in the RAF?
PS: So, his time in the RAF he flew from RAF Ingham and RAF Faldingworth. Faldingworth was with the Lancasters. I think Ingham was with the Wellingtons and other bombers. He met my, he met my mum, she was a WAAF and she was on barrage balloons and worked in catering and the story was that my dad asked for more food and that’s how they met.
DE: Right.
PS: That’s how they got talking. Yeah. And the rest is history. So there was a time when I think my father could have been put on a charge where he used to buzz my mum’s mum, my nan’s house in Leeds, in the Chesney’s and he wasn’t put on report. He was threatened to put on report if anybody had ever reported him for buzzing the house basically and making all the teacups rattle and shake on the table. But he was young.
DE: Yeah. Yeah. You’re going to need –
PS: And foolish.
DE: Yeah. So, he was a pilot.
PS: Yeah. He was a Lancaster pilot.
DE: Yeah. Do you know where he did his training?
PS: I can’t remember. I think [pause] no I can’t.
DE: No. It would be in his logbook. It’s fine.
PS: It will be in his logbook like I say.
DE: Do you remember him telling any stories about any particular operations?
PS: I remember he always used to say we used to watch an old programme called, “All Our Yesterdays,” with Brian Inglis. This is way back when it was black and white TV. He never used to talk much about the war but when he did he’d correct the things that Brian Inglis had said and say, ‘No, that never happened that way. This is how it happened.’ You know. Because I think the Air Force was really shunned or the Bomber Command was shunned after the war because of all the, you know the Dresden operations and other such like you know where civilian lives had been lost. He did tell me a story about having the undercarriage damaged and he had to crash land in Scotland and he got his, he broke his big toe. I can’t remember if it was the left or right foot on the rudder and after that everybody wanted to fly with Stan because they thought if he can crash land a Lancaster and break a big toe it’s not a bad, not a bad thing you know to have him as your pilot.
DE: Yeah. So that’s, that’s one you can limp away from.
PS: Yeah. Thank God. Yeah. Yeah. Dust yourself off.
DE: Yeah. So, my colleague is busy scanning the collection. Can you talk a little about what, what you’ve brought in?
PS: Alright. So yeah [coughs] excuse me. I brought in four of his logbooks. Two, two books of his flying history after the war. So he came over in 1942 I believe and he stayed in the RAF until 1959 when the, he was demobilised if you like and then carried on commercial flying after that.
DE: So, we’ve got the Polish Eagle.
PS: Oh yes.
DE: Which has a story to it.
PS: Yeah. Sorry, yeah. Yeah. The Polish Eagle my dad wore on the, on his tunic had a wreath in its, in its jaws if you like. It was big and it was painted gold when you put the uniform on and after three sorties over Berlin it’s painted green because no one ever thought you’d come back after or you could achieve three sorties over Berlin. He was very lucky in that respect you know. A lot, a lot of the fighters, flyers weren’t.
DE: Yeah. And the other thing you brought in is the link trainer chart.
PS: Oh yeah. He designed this link trainer chart. I believe it was in Biggin Hill because he was stationed at Biggin Hill after the war. Down in Biggin Hill and also RAF Kenley as well and he designed it in his own time and, you know and it was accepted as a chart. I forget the chart number now.
DE: Fifty four is it?
PS: Fifty four. Something like that.
DE: Yeah.
PS: And was used for air training purposes after that.
DE: Yeah. So the war finished. He flew his operations. I notice in his logbook he did some Operation Manna food drops and things like that.
PS: Yeah.
DE: Towards the end of the war. Did he talk about Poland and the end of the war and —
PS: Yeah. Yeah. He did. He mentioned to me that he wouldn’t, wouldn’t want to go back to Poland under Communist rule and that if he did he couldn’t take me because I could be conscripted in the Soviet Army. So yeah. So he, again he never took me. I did ask him once if he could, if I could learn Polish and he said, ‘Son,’ he said, ‘It’s a lot easier for me to learn English than it is for you to learn Polish.’ And I believe that to be so just by, you know looking in dictionaries. You know. It’s amazing.
DE: Yeah. Have you been to Poland since?
PS: I have. I have. I’ve been to Poland but I’ve not been to my father’s grave which is in Warsaw. He did actually ask for him not to be buried in Poland. I’ve got some papers in his case because he didn’t want the onus on his wife or us to organise a burial you know in a foreign country. But although his ashes are here in England in Croydon Crematorium the plaque that celebrates his life if you like is with his mum and dad in Poland. I’ve got the coordinates as well.
DE: Yeah.
PS: And where it is but I can’t remember off the top of my head.
DE: So where did you go to when you did go to Poland?
PS: I actually went to Krakow and we saw a couple of the horrible, you know the camps which was very very interesting. Moving. But I will one day. I know Heather is interested. My daughter would like to go and see grandad’s grave.
DE: Yeah. Where was he born in Poland?
PS: He was born in Warsaw.
DE: Oh right. okay. Yeah.
PS: And he’s buried in Warsaw as well.
DE: So, you know, what, what did he do in the UK after? After he left the RAF.
PS: Oh yeah. So, he joined a commercial airlines. Quite a few I think. All independent. Nothing that was really big. No BEA or BOAC at the time. So little independent airlines, Lloyds, Pegasus, Eros, Air Safaris and that’s how he spent like his years after the war. And very, it was very sporadic as well. Some of the, you know some of the companies would go bust so he’d have to get a job somewhere else you know. Although everybody thinks it’s all glamourous you know the money wasn’t you know fantastic that you know you could live like a king. As I don’t think it is now really. You know, for what you do because it’s quite a common thing to be a pilot and it never used to be. But yeah, that’s, that’s how he, that’s how he carried on after the war.
DE: Yeah. You talked a bit about some of his other skills and his woodwork and other hobbies.
PS: Oh yeah. In between obviously leaving you know like active service although he was still in the Army you know he couldn’t, he liked carpentry. He’d made like leather bags and to a really good standard you know. Maybe that’s something to do with me being a carpenter now. Even now for my sins. So yeah he was very very hands on. Very good with his hands. A very determined man as well. A very hard, hard man I think going through what he’d gone through. You would be. He wouldn’t suffer fools gladly either. You know. He was quite abrupt but he was, he was a lovely dad.
DE: You’re kind of answering some of my questions. I was going to ask you what what sort of man he was and you –
PS: Yeah. Very smart.
[pause]
DE: It’s okay. Take a minute. Sorry.
[recording paused]
DE: I’m just going to start it again so, so yeah.
PS: Yeah. So he was a very very proud man. A very smart man. Always dressed impeccably even if he was at home. Not with a suit but always looked smart. Unlike myself. But yeah, he was a very very proud man. A hard man but you know, fair. A fair man. Like I say he wouldn’t suffer fools gladly. He’d let you know what he thought. I’m just trying to think how I could phrase it.
DE: Do you have any special memories of him?
PS: Oh well, I mean he used to help me with my homework so much. I remember I could never get my head around binary and –
DE: Okay.
PS: And oh, what is it? You know, the if A equals Y and Y is three times. I could not get my head around that.
DE: Yeah. Algebra is tricky.
PS: Algebra. Yeah. And that is when I thought you know I didn’t really want to go to Pilot’s Training College if I had to you know if I had to learn all that because I couldn’t get my head around it. So I was never as academic as my father but he used to stay up all night long and work things out for me and wake me up in the middle of the night and go, ‘Pete, I found out what that one with the algebraic play.’ ‘Have you really dad?’ You know. But he could. Yeah. Always encouraged me at sports, you know. You know, like rugby at school. Sent me to a school that only played rugby.
DE: Right.
PS: Never played football unless it was with a tennis ball in the playground.
DE: Okay.
PS: So that was that and when I passed my eleven-plus I remember he said, ‘I’m going to treat you.’ And he took me out and bought me a racing bike. A Claud Butler drop handle racing bike. That was my day, my day made. He said, ‘Because you saved me money. So I don’t have to pay for you to go to grammar school now. You can –’
DE: Oh right. Okay.
PS: You get a not a bursary what did they call it?
DE: A scholarship.
PS: A scholarship. Yeah.
DE: Yeah.
PS: So, he was tickled pink and the bike was thirty quid so yeah things like that. Yeah. He had, he had, he loved watching you know people like Tommy Cooper and other comedians. Spike Milligan. Even he still had his accent until the day he died and, but he understood the humour you know and he loved it. He’d cry laughing sometimes which was so funny. You know because you’d think maybe some of the jokes would be lost on him and he couldn’t understand but he got his head around and he did. He loved, he loved all that British comedy.
DE: Yeah. Fantastic. I think, I think we’ve just about covered all the, all the questions I had. Is there anything else you can think of?
PS: I’m trying to think. I’ll probably when you turn it off I’ll probably think –
DE: Yeah.
PS: Of loads more things but yeah that’s all I can think of at the minute. But yeah great memories of him and like I said very proud of what he did and it’s only now you know I’m sixty eight. It’s only now really that you know it’s, it’s become so popular to find out about you know, the Bomber Command and everything and all these museums opening up which has highlighted, you know, you know, their bravery and you know just I find it incredible.
DE: So, what are your thoughts about the way that Bomber Command and the Polish effort in the war has been remembered?
PS: I think it’s a lot better than it than it has been. You know, especially with the Memorial in, you know Green Park and like I say these museums that are, you know operated by volunteers you know. They’re passionate about, you know the people that flew from there and you know lost their lives inevitably. But yeah.
DE: Okay. I’m going to press pause. Thank you very much.
PS: Alright. Bless you.