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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…
Interview with W Pilling
W Pilling trained as a gunner before joining 102 Squadron at RAF Pocklington. During a training flight he jumped out of a burning Whitley. While at his first squadron he flew with several crews and when he no longer flew with them they had a tendency…
Interview with G V Korner
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…
Interview with R W Harvey
R Harvey trained as a gunner before being posted to RAF Lossiemouth to join an already established crew. While based at Leconfield he married and his wife moved close by. He was sure that the weather conditions were such that there would be…
Interview with Ken Trueman
Ken Trueman trained as a navigator and flew operations with 640 Squadron from RAF Leconfield. While on operations they came under attack and the plane began to burn. The crew baled out except the pilot and rear gunner. Ken parachuted into a field…
Interview with Jim Gray
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…
Interview with R Knowles
R Knowles served with 640 Squadron at RAF Leconfield. As bomb aimer he had to deal with at least two remaining hang ups in the bomb bay. When they missed a Group message telling them not to return to base but to divert due to fog they insisted on…
Interview with Ian Wilkie
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…
Interview with J Wiltshire. One
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…
Interview with Jacqui Whitehead
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…
R W Craft's audio memoir
Richard Craft was navigator on 640 Squadron. He recalls briefing visiting American officers about RAF navigation. He took part in a thousand bomber operation to Duisburg. While over the target area he looked up through the astrodome and saw to his…
Interview with John Robert Dobson McClements
Interview with John McClements regarding his parents Robert and Iris McClements, and his decision to make a documentary about Operation Gisela, and his father's friend, Jack Laffoley.
Additional information on John Gifford Laurence Laffoley is…
Interview with Jack Crawford
Jack Crawford volunteered for the RAF in Jamaica. He was posted to the UK in 1944 and began his precision instrument training before being finally posted to work on trainer aircraft. After the war he returned to Jamaica. He married and then returned…
Interview with Douglas Clark
Doug Clark grew up in Lincolnshire and witnessed the construction of RAF Ludford Magna. He saw the wreckage of a Lancaster crash and recalled the time when Lancasters filled the sky. After he left school, he joined the Royal Observer Corps. He went…
Interview with Stan Mellor
Squadron Leader Stan Mellor joined the RAF in 1943, initially training as a wireless operator and air gunner before qualifying as a signaller. His early service saw him instructing on Dakotas before deploying to Burma, where he flew operations to…
Interview with Beryl Fitter
Beryl Fitter grew up in Birmingham during the war. She recalls the many hours spent in the Anderson or Morrison shelter. She also experienced the Black Market which supplemented the rations. The house across from them was bombed. An incendiary landed…
Interview with Maureen Shirley Lill
Maureen Lill grew up in Louth during the war. She recalls the one night when a bomb destroyed the house of her school friend. Her father was in the Army and she didn’t see him for the duration of the war after he was called up. He had begun to read…
Interview with Peter Brian Edwards
Peter Edwards is the son of a Halton apprentice. His father was based at RAF Wittering as Senior Technical Officer during the war, but his mother moved with him and his brother to Lytham St Anne’s for the duration. American servicemen were frequent…
Interview with Elizabeth Ann Rogers
Elizabeth's earliest memories include the family’s Anderson shelter, later replaced by a Morrison shelter where she slept during air raids. She recalls the sound of planes overhead and the impact of nearby bombings, including shattered windows and…
Interview with Suzanne Williams about her father John Andrew Cromie
John Andrew Cromie volunteered for the RAF in Australia. He was posted to 460 Squadron. On his thirteenth operation he was shot down and became a prisoner of war. After the war he didn’t talk to his family about his experiences. Upon the death of…
Interview with Tom Smith
Tom Smith grew up in Lancashire during the war. He recalls the German bombers going over to bomb the docks, the effect of rationing on a country community and the ban on night fishing during the war.
Interview with Rudolf Williams about his father, James Raphael Williams
Rudolph describes his father’s (James) life, from his childhood years in Trinidad, through to volunteering for and serving in the RAF in the UK. After demobilisation, James returned briefly to Trinidad before returning to the UK where he worked for…