On a Wing and a Prayer

On a Wing and a Prayer

Experiences and recollections of a navigator in RAF Bomber Command

After winning his Observer’s brevet, Ron Fullelove moved from training Stirlings to clandestine low level Halifax sorties with 138 Squadron at Tempsford, dropping agents and arms across France, Belgium, Holland and Norway. He then transitioned to Lancasters with 153 Squadron at Scampton, where his navigation kept the crew tight in the bomber stream and on track to major targets.

In quick succession they struck Neuss, Mannheim and Cologne—surviving heavy flak over the Rhine bridge—and endured the costly straight in, straight out night to Nuremberg. Further daylight operations raids hit Bremen, Paderborn and Nordhausen, while a precision attack ignited vast fires at Lutzkendorf. They later bombed Plauen and made a hard fought trip to Potsdam near Berlin. He took part in Operation Manna dropping food to Rotterdam and The Hague and ferried liberated prisoners of war home as part Operation Exodus. Fullelove’s post tour work included H2S radar trials with 12 Squadron at Binbrook before demobilisation.

1992-06

37 printed sheets

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.

BFulleloveRFulleloveRv1