Browse Items (1464 total)
- Type is exactly "Sound"
Sort by:
Interview with Harry Richardson
Harry describes his early life and operations on Wellingtons with 149 Squadron and then on Liberators in the Far East with 59 Squadron.
Interview with Samuel Adolphus Jordon
Samuel Jordon grew up in British Guiana and volunteered for the Air Force when he was 18. He discusses his journey to the UK, his training and work as a clerk.
While training at RAF Melksham the war ended. He was then posted to the Number 1 School…
While training at RAF Melksham the war ended. He was then posted to the Number 1 School…
Interview with Carolin Richter
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.
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 not 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. Two
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…
He describes training as a flight engineer, the nerves of his first flights, and the humour found in mishaps and banter. Life on base…
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 Anna Williams
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…
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 Norman Rutherford. Two
Norman Rutherford discusses his schooling during the war and how few male teachers remained. He recollects the scarcity of food and the blackout. As a child he was briefly sent from his home in Cleethorpes to stay with his music teacher at…
Interview with Norman Rutherford. One
Norman Rutherford was born in Cleethorpes in 1931 and remembers as an eight year old child discussing with his cousin as to whether there would be a war. Norman recalls the sound of the air raid sirens and learning his multiplication tables in the…