J Humphries audio memoir

J Humphries audio memoir

J Humphreys trained as a wireless operator before being posted to 640 Squadron at RAF Leconfield. In this recording he recounts being attacked and his aircraft being severely damaged. They managed to return to the UK flying only about fifty yards over the waters of the Channel. He was horrified when he looked up and it appeared that the skipper had failed to notice the white cliffs looming over him. Once alerted he took evasive action and just managed to clear the cliffs and the bungalow at the top.

00:12:14 audio recording

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AHumphreysJT940413

To leap ahead rather and record an incident that took place during our tour with 640 Squadron and this took place I see by my logbook on August the 2nd 1944 and we had been detailed to attack some flying bomb bases in Northern France. And I clearly remember on this trip that we by this time of course were the senior crew on the squadron so there were only ten Halifaxes taking part and we were operating a new system which we’d never done before. Flying in line of stern we were the leading Halifax following immediately behind two Mosquitoes and we were due to bomb when they bombed and everything else of the type. A strange idea. Anyway, we were approaching the target and I seem to remember we had already opened bomb doors and I had climbed out of my normal position, was standing beside Vic on his right-hand side and the setting sun was way over to the west. I happened to put my right hand on the window at the right and Vic said to me, ‘Keep your hand there. It’s keeping the sun off my eyes.’ So I stood there and the next thing after a few seconds of approaching and waiting to see when these, this second Mosquito bombed and we would then bomb suddenly all hell was let loose and there was a ginormous, well several ginormous bangs and the dreadful smell of cordite and the next thing I knew Vic had put the stick right forward and was going down into a hell of a dive. It was just as well because we discovered that all the oxygen had been cut I suppose about eighteen thousand feet above oxygen height and went down in a screaming, screaming dive. Eventually pulled out at whatever height. I don’t know. I remember looking down and seeing Les, the navigator sitting at the escape hatch, the front escape hatch had blown in from the blast and Les was sitting there with his legs dangling out of the hatch and his whole expression looking and he said, ‘Do we jump? Do we jump?’ I knew what he meant so I pulled Vic’s knee and either yelled at him or screamed out, I can’t remember. Anyway, he shook his head violently and said no. So I shook my head back at Les and he hauled himself back in again and I remember then looking, looking back and seeing this solid black cloud of flak bursts. Absolutely a solid cloud which we had come through and all the engines were still going like hell and that was fine. I then got back into my seat and a minute later or two minutes later I got out again and had a look around and to my horror I saw this black cloud instead of being behind us was in front of us. Now, as we went afterwards one compass had gone u/s on the way out and the other compass was between Vic’s knees and had received a direct hit. The alcohol compass. In fact, Vic later said he felt what he thought was blood in his flying boot and it turned out to be alcohol from the compass. And Gee unknowingly had gone right around and we were heading straight back through this black cloud. So I sort of feverishly pulled his right knee and pointed because he was talking, I think he was talking to the engineer. We came around once more and once more they had a go at us. Well, anyway, to cut things very short we then came around really low over the Channel and I scribbled a quick note when I looked down and saw the waves literally sort of about fifty feet below us and I thought God if the engine packs up now we’ve had it. Nobody will know where we are or anything.
[recording paused]
I quickly scribbled down because I couldn’t make him hear on the intercom, ‘Do I send SOS?’ And he shook his head violently so I sat back a bit and I saw of course we’d always been told you know [laughs] being air crew to use our initiative when needed and I thought well I don’t know if we do go in the drink then nobody is going to be any the wiser. So I compromised by going back and decided to switch over to the emergency channel which I did and had never had cause to use before and I gave our call and followed the procedure for emergency which I then tuned in, sat on the Morse key for fifteen seconds as required and so they could get a fix on us and I got a call back, message received from the other end and having done that the next thing I clearly remember was looking out again from my window and to my absolute horror we were down right over the, right over the waves. I mean, you know, literally I should think about fifty feet all four engines still going like mad thank goodness. I looked ahead out of my window and to my horror I saw a wall of white approaching us at high speed. In other words it was the white cliffs and there we were heading straight for them and I got up, looked at Vic and at that precise moment he’d screwed his head around and was talking to Arthur the engineer. I pulled his knee again and he looked and I just with my arms and hands and [unclear] look in my eyes did an upward movement and he then saw and he pulled the stick back right into his stomach and we climbed like billyo and I clearly remember because it was etched on my memory all these years we skimmed over the top of the cliffs. Goodness knows how much by. But I remember seeing a washing line, a line of washing flash by and a bungalow as we zoomed upwards. What the poor occupants of the bungalow if they were there must have felt. Goodness, they must have been scared out of their wits. We really would scare. So we then carried on at a more normal height. By this time it was getting dark and I thought well now better go over to the emergency Darkie frequency and call up in case we needed any help. And I called and called and called and couldn’t get the answer. Looking back I realise that probably I didn’t because when you did that you were meant to circle if you were lost or something and we weren’t circling. We were hurtling straight ahead. Now, how Les, the navigator got us eventually back to Leconfield is the main I still can’t remember clearly because remember one compass had gone u/s on the way out. The other one had been hit by flak and as far as I remember Vic, the Gee set was still working and he took a series of fixes and therefore we zigzagged up country and he would pre-fix his own sort of go to Vic and put his fingers up seventy degrees port or so many degrees starboard and he did all this by signs with his hands and eventually once he [unclear] pitched up we were approaching. Approaching Leconfield. And remember Vic’s mike wasn’t working. Mine seemed to be so Vic got hold of me and I was signalling [unclear] and I was to do the calling. The usual calling up as we approached base. I remember clearly we had to say, ‘Downwind,’ at a certain point and the final call was, ‘Funnels. Funnels.’ Funnels we were in the funnels coming into the runway and the WAAF’s voice came back eventually, ‘Pancake.’ And he got it, he put it down and we finally taxied to our dispersal. Oh, I mentioned by the way that [unclear] Gray who was, had a bit of flak on his face by the side of his nose. His turret was an absolute mess. He was therefore lying in the rest position so he didn’t see what was going on. That’s why in his description in the book I mean it is mentioned but he doesn’t know, he hasn’t said anything about going into the cliffs I don’t think. We finally taxied to dispersal and cut the engines and I remember that while the ambulance people were giving Jim Gray and the engineer who had a bit of flak had gone in his back he’d been saved by his harness. I mean he spun around and he said later that he wasn’t really damaged. I remember in the silence that followed the engines cutting sitting there for perhaps a full minute or even more just sitting sort of soaking up, soaking up the silence and eventually gathering all my bits and pieces and kit together and jumping out of the main door and I nearly fell into the arms of Group Captain Waterhouse who marvellously had come out to see us, to greet us. And that was, there we were. Vic, I’m glad to say was an immediate DFC for this trip which I don’t think Ginger mentions in the book either because I also clearly remember about a week or fortnight later we were all on a big parade for Vic to be presented with his DFC. Who by I can’t remember.
[recording paused]
I do remember the next morning. The ground crew reporting to us and we went out to see there were eighty two holes in the aircraft. Some of these holes were as large as footballs and of course poor old N-Nan was out of action for several trips after that which was very sad. Also, after we had been debriefed of course everyone else had long since cleared. They’d given us up for goners but after the normal briefing I decided to walk across to the signals section to see if they had received the messages I’d sent and the WAAFs were saying, ‘Yes. Yes. We got your emergency message and we got a fix on you.’ And then later on, oh I don’t think I mentioned once we got across the coast in this horrendous manner and this washing line I sort of thought I’d better cancel. So I was ordered, I got on to the emergency frequency again and there wasn’t time to start decoding. I just sent a plain language message overland [unclear] anyway the signals told me yes they’d got it and something else and I got a wonderful reception there and everything else. Something else I’ve remembered since recording this last night or the night before which in fact Jim must have, because I think it's in the book. I’ll have to check on it. When we eventually had had our night flying meal and everything else and it was time to go to bed we went over to our barrack block and to our amazement found that all our kit, personal stuff and clothing and everything else had all been removed from our lockers and side tables and everything. It was a strange feeling but it was returned very early the next morning. Everything put back in place so that was all rather strange. So that shows how overdue we were and the fact that we had been given up for lost so to speak. And now for some short incidents that occurred to me in the last twenty four hours or so. First of all going way back to the 1930s when I was at Sutton Valence in Kent —