Browse Items (42 total)

  • Contributor is exactly "Julie Tompkins"

Alfred Lengart was a gunner in the German Army on duty at the Möhne Dam on the night of Operation Chastise. Many years later he was invited to the Yorkshire Air Museum for the opening of the Barnes Wallis Museum. During the opening he delivered a…

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James ‘Dixie’ Deans was captain of a Whitley bomber when after twenty five operations he was shot down on the 10th of September 1940 and became a prisoner of war. He was imprisoned initially at Stalag Luft 1 where he became Camp Leader. He then moved…

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Ethel Smith (née Hanson) discusses her early life and her time in the WAAF. She joined aged 21, and remembers the camaraderie. She worked as a rigger at Number 12 Balloon Centre and was later posted to RAF Titchfield near Portsmouth. She discusses…

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Rosita Williams nee Semler grew up near Frankfurt during the Second World War. Her education was very disrupted by the war including her piano lessons when there were no local teachers. She was on a train when it was shot up by fighters. She was…

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Calton Younger discussed his experiences as a prisoner of war with a producer who was hoping to make a film about the life of Dixie Deans.

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Carolin Richter discusses the Flightpath of Friendship, the memorial in the woods at Katzenelnbogen, and the relationship between Bomber Command navigator Arthur Lee and German soldier Rudi Balzer.

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James ‘Dixie’ Deans joined the RAF in 1936 as a direct entry pilot. He trained at White Waltham and Abu Suweir. At the outbreak of war he flew Whitleys from Linton on Ouse. His aircraft was struck over Berlin and although he managed to get to the…

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Part 1 – interview with Dixie Deans detailing his attempts to get to the British front line to inform them POWs were in the area where the RAF were bombing and to desist from the action.
Part 2 – a radio interview with John Bristow about how he…

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Dixie Dean was shot down over the German/Dutch border and became a prisoner of war. He was elected as camp leader at the first prisoner of war camp which was a post he maintained at all further camps where he was held. He sent/received coded messages…

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G Korner completed his training as a rear gunner and was posted to RAF Leconfield. As gunner he witnessed other aircraft above heading into their bombing run and their bombs just missing his aircraft. He also witnessed aircraft being shot down and on…

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Harry Hacker was in a Reserved Occupation with the Post Office when he and his friend volunteered for the RAF. He had lived through the Liverpool Blitz. He trained as a bomb aimer and was sent to South Africa to complete his training. While enroute…

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Description of a painting of dropping supplies as partisans waved to the crew.

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Harry Richardson DFC grew up in Derby and Wembley and tried to enlist two weeks before the war began. He was determined to be taken on as a pilot and undertook pilot training on Tiger Moths before converting to Wellingtons. He was posted to RAF…

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Ian Wilkie served as a flight engineer on 158 Squadron before being posted to RAF Leconfield in January 1944. Paddy, the mid-upper gunner on his crew always said that shrapnel wouldn’t hurt them until he was hit by it. He was pulled from the turret…

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J Wiltshire trained as a flight engineer. He joined his crew at RAF Riccall before being posted to RAF Leconfield. On one occasion a navigational error found the crew over enemy territory rather than Norfolk they had expected. However, they got home…

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Warrant Officer J Wiltshire flew as a Flight Engineer on Halifaxes with 640 Squadron. He was demobbed March 1947.

He describes training as a flight engineer, the nerves of his first flights, and the humour found in mishaps and banter. Life on base…

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Jacqui Whitehead talks of how she has been involved with veterans, remembrance, and the Air Gunners Association over the last thirty years. She discusses stories of reconciliation, and how the Flightpath of Friendship and Reconciliation became a…

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James Edwards trained initially as a pilot before training as a navigator. Part of his initial training was in South Africa. When he returned to the UK and completed his training he was posted to 49 Squadron at RAF Fiskerton.

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At the end of the war Jeff found himself posted to Germany working as an equipper which didn’t interest him at all. He retrained as an armourer but he really wanted to continue to fly. He successfully re-mustered as a pilot and went to Canada for…

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Jeff Brown was working as an apprentice electrician before he volunteered for the RAF. He had always had a fascination for aircraft and wanted to fly. He trained as a wireless operator air gunner. He was then streamlined into straight air gunner…

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Jeff Brown flew on a wide variety of aircraft during his career in the RAF. While flying in a Wellington they flew in a thundercloud and fell from twelve thousand feet to four thousand feet out of control.

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Jeff Brown took part in the Operation Manna flights and was honoured by the Dutch people many years afterwards. The low flying over the drop-zones left a lasting impression on Jeff. He also describes metal falling off his aircraft during an impromptu…

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Stationed at 640 Squadron at RAF Leconfield Jim Gray recalled an occasion when having been briefed for an operation to Trappes airmen having a drink in Beverley heard the local townspeople talking openly about the operation. Since the operation was…

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Radio interview with Ron Mogg, Dixie Deans, Peter Thomas and Cyril Aynsley following the publication of, “The Sergeant Escapers” written by Ron Mogg. General conversation about the democratic make up of the prisoner of war camps they were held in,…

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Molly Deans was the wife of James ‘Dixie’ Deans who was the leader of several prisoner of war camps after he was shot down in September 1940. She describes the struggle to find out what had happened to him after he was posted as missing. She received…

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