1 25 85 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2848/50583/SBondS-ThomsettAv10004.pdf bca93a1e697f5db5b0c7b2b12d44821d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Thomsett, Alan Description An account of the resource Two items. Collection concerns Flying Officer Alan Henry "Tommy" Thomsett who flew radio countermeasures operations as a Wellington pilot on 192 Squadron. Collection contains a transcript of a conversation and a photograph. The collection was licensed to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Dr Steve Bond and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. This collection was provided, in digital form, by a third-party organisation which used technical specifications and operational protocols that may differ from those used by the IBCC Digital Archive. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2022-01-18 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SBondS-ThomsettAv1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conversation with Alan Thomsett Description An account of the resource Edited transcript. Gives personal details and service history. Enlisted in 1942.Pilot on 1473 Flight and 192 Squadron (100 Group) on Wellingtons. Starts with comments about first posting 1473 Flight which eventually merged with 1474 Flight to become 192 Squadron. Talks of aircraft including Wellingtons and Ansons tasked with tracking beams coming from Holland and following the German bomber stream. Mentions jamming trials and other work in radio countermeasures. Comments on RAF Foulsham and 192 Squadron having Wellingtons for coastal work and Mosquitos for deep penetration. Describes coastal operations carrying special operators. Mentions that they did not have much knowledge of what special operations intelligence was gathered. Mentions looking for V-3 and possible U-boat homing beacons. Continues with general chat about special operations. Speaks about crew for special operations. Did 40.5 operations. Mentions some operations concerning V-1. Speaks of playing cat and mouse with German fighters who knew where they were and what they were doing. Mentions danger of loose talk on radio and warning from Bomber Command about giving information to Germans. Provides comment after being asked what he thought of Wellingtons. Goes on to talk of air ministry secret flying unit with Wellington Mark 14s checking radio equipment accuracy. Mentions visiting Norwich aviation museum and exhibition of 100 Group. Continues to talk about his career after the war at Filton in Bristol. Goes back to when he joined up and mentions training including in North America. Mentions advanced flying, OTU, crewing up (describes crew), cancelled postings and eventually going to 1473 Flight. Mentions commissioning and comments on commissioned and non-commissioned aircrew. Mentions keeping up with crew and offers more comments on reliability of Wellington. Speaks of long operations and FIDO at RAF Foulsham and having to divert with little fuel left. Carries on with anecdotes about flying incidents and experiences as well of descriptions of aircraft he had flown. He offers some insights from operations record sheets for days in August 1944. Mentions Tiger Moth flights. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource A Thomsett S Bond Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-11 2008-12 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1942 1943 1943-10 1944-03 1944-10 1945 1946 1948 1941-10 1958 1943-09-14 1943-11-26 1944-08-15 1944-08-15 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Oxfordshire England--Steeple Aston England--Norfolk Netherlands Scotland--Edinburgh England--Warwickshire England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Suffolk Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay England--Cornwall (County) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Royal Air Force. Bomber Command Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Photograph Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Eleven page printed document Conforms To An established standard to which the described resource conforms. Pending text-based transcription Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SBondS-ThomsettAv10004 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. 100 Group 192 Squadron 3 Group aircrew Anson crewing up FIDO Mosquito Operational Training Unit pilot RAF Chedburgh RAF Davidstow Moor RAF Feltwell RAF Foulsham RAF Turnhouse Tiger Moth training V-1 V-3 V-weapon Wellington https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/558/8825/PStempJ1502.jpg cfe10a514ff45b328abec6f3cbbb1c5e https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/558/8825/AStempJE151016.mp3 732c55fd46196ec43670b0ef9903c0ee Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Stemp, Joe Joseph Ethelbert Stemp J E Stemp Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stemp, JE Description An account of the resource An oral history interview with Joe Stemp (1602809 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a navigator with 578 and 77 Squadrons. The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Transcribed audio recording A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document AS: This is an interview with Joe Stemp, a navigator on 578 Squadron and later on 77 Squadron. My name is Adam Sutch and the interview is being conducted at Upton St Leonards, Gloucestershire for the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. Joe, thank’s so much for agreeing to the interview. I’d like to set the scene by asking you to describe your life before joining the Air Force. A little bit about your home, your parents and brothers and sisters, that sort of thing. JS: I had a very happy boyhood really. I had one brother and one sister and I’ve always been a very independent guy. I’d always earnt money and done jobs on the side. I was actually working full time in an advertising, not an advertising, a housing agency at sixteen and doing quite well. And I suddenly realised, a friend and I, that we’d like to join the Air Force. So, we went to Oxford University and did that exam over a weekend there. And out of the thirty people who were there, ten straight away were cancelled, scrubbed, because they were colour-blind. That left twenty of us and we had this serious examination. When we finished they called us in, one by one. My friend went in before me and he came out nearly in tears. I said ‘Why?’, ‘He wasn’t the type of pilot we need, he hadn’t got the right attitude’. I said, ‘Why?’, ‘They asked me what I was doing when Mr Churchill said “Every man, woman and child should do something”’, ‘What did you do?’ Well he couldn’t do anything ‘cause he didn’t want to give his age away. So that was it, well I followed him in and they asked me the same question. But being this cocky bugger I used to be I had an answer for. ‘Well Sir, you can see I did pass the exam but I’ve had to study a lot at home in the evenings to make sure’. ‘Good lad, that’s the spirit.’ I’m in the Air Force, I’m in the RAF Association [laughs] and I never saw him after I joined. He was shot down actually eventually in Burma flying Spitfire, Hurricane. But I never saw him again, we were great mates but it was just one of those things. And so I joined straight away then. AS: What did your parents feel about you joining? JS: They didn’t say a word, I was most surprised. Now my father, who would have had a go, didn’t even complain. My brother was sixteen years old. He was doing an ITW course at sixteen years old and he did a dinghy drill course down into Torbay harbour. A bloody dinghy fell over, he went in, and in the water it was all the oil from the boats around, got into his ear and caused trouble in his ear. Eventually he had to have it operated on and he lost the hearing of his right ear. They gave him the option. You can stay in the Air Force and everything will be alright but you’ll never fly again, or you can leave on a pension. No answer to that. He left on a pension, got a great degree, ‘cause he was a clever bugger anyway. But, all those, he died last week, ninety years old. AS: Oh, I’m sorry. JS: But I was always surprised my father allowed us to go and do this. AS: And you were under age as well? JS: I was seventeen. AS: And when did you leave school? Did you get matric? JS: No, I didn’t stop on for it, I left the school at sixteen. I should have stayed on ‘cause I went to Ealing Grammar School and I was doing alright but I just suddenly thought ‘I must get on’. I wanted to get on and do something and there didn’t seem to be. We moved the school, the younger children went, were evacuated. We went to a school in Ealing which was girls as well as boys and it was a waste of time, we spent most of our time mucking about with the girls. [inaudible] it was ridiculous, I left and I’ve worked hard ever since and I’ve always been very independent. AS: What year was this we’re talking about when you joined the Air Force? JS: Oh, ’40, ’41. AS: So, you’d been in Ealing, or London, when the Battle of Britain was going on? JS: Oh yes, yeah. AS: What was that like, the? JS: It wasn’t so bad in Ealing but London was awful. I remember going to confession one Saturday night with some friends of mine, we were in Ealing, in South Ealing, and we looked up towards London ‘cause there were bright lights in the sky and it was the time when the Germans came over and had those terrible raids they did on the East End London, they really did. But because it was bad for morale they never talked too much about it did they, they kept it a bit quiet. They mentioned there was a bit of, a bit of bombing. They did terrible things the Germans. You didn’t have to be a navigator you got yourself on the end of the River Thames came up and you’re there! AS: Glinting in the moonlight? JS: Absolutely, yeah. [laughs] AS: So, in those days I suppose Ealing was separated from London? JS: Well Ealing’s always been a, always a very private sort of borough, queen of the suburbs style of thing you know? They’ve always fancied their chances and it was a very nice place to live really. I went to work for this Barrett and he was as drunk as a lord and his sons had gone in the Army and he couldn’t run the business so. I know this sounds silly but I was sixteen and I was running his business for a year. Then after that I asked for a rise and he gave me about half a crown or something, so I told him to stuff his job and I joined the Air Force. AS: That was how you came to join the Air Force? JS: Yeah. [laughs] AS: Why the Air Force? JS: I always fancied being a pilot. Because when I was a lad I used to go to Heston and, Heston airport in those days, and I used to love, and I always wanted to be able to fly. It was one of those things that I wanted to do, it was something that really I took on. But do you know why I wasn’t a pilot? AS: No. JS: I did the whole course, and they cancelled and blew me out. This is the honest truth, we did during the final course, and we took off and he told me what to do. And he said ‘Do you know where you are, son?’ And I said ‘Yes’, ‘OK.’, and we carried on and he said ‘Do you know?’ And I suddenly realised, I hadn’t a bloody clue where I was and I wasn’t really worried. But I was enjoying being up there. And at the end of the course he said to me ‘You’ve done very well’. he said, ‘but there’s only one thing wrong, you haven’t known where you’ve been from the moment we took off’. And he was right. And they scrubbed me and what did they make me? A navigator. Isn’t that typical of the Air Force? AS: That’s a wonderful story and it doesn’t surprise me. JS: No. AS: A bit. Can you rewind a little? You, where did you sign on? JS: Um, good question. I think it was Regents’ Park, I think. It was up at Regents’ Park area I know. AS: OK. JS: Because those hotels up there, aircrew were all based up there, trainee aircrew. AS: Oh, this is Arty Tarty is it? This is the aircrew reception centre? JS: Yes, that’s it. Yes. AS: And everybody went there? JS: They all went there regardless at one time and from then on, we just followed on. I finished up actually leaving there and going to South Africa, you mentioned South Africa, and I actually got my wings in South Africa. I enjoyed my South African trip I was out there for some months and thoroughly enjoyed it. Flying every day of course ‘cause the weather was suitable. I was looking through my logbook last night, ‘cause I haven’t looked at the logbook for years, at the amount of flying we did out there. AS: So, you signed on and they sent you to Regents’ Park? JS: Um. AS: And then what happened between then and going to Oxford for this exam? Could you tell me about the exam that you took? JS: Oh, the exam was before then. AS: Ah, OK. JS: Oh, that was the exam that we had the weekend. Thirty people turned up at Oxford University, the object being they were going to check us out ‘cause they were looking for pilots. Well, as I told you the first ten straight away were colour-blind, so they scrubbed them, leaving twenty of us. And it was quite a severe examination afterwards you know, mental examination. I managed to finish all right, I wasn’t that special. My friend was brilliant and he came top. So, he went in first of all for what they called the commanding officer’s interview or something. And the officers sat round this table and asked questions of the guy. And it was a shame really ‘cause they caught him on the hop really, and then they finally said to him ‘You’re not the type of person we want as a pilot, you haven’t got the right spirit at all’. And he was in tears, he came out and sat beside me and said ‘What do I, what do I do Joe?’ I said ‘I can’t believe.’ [inaudible] So I thought ‘Christ’. So I went in about two hours later and they asked me the same questions but I was a bit quicker on the mark than he was. I said ‘As a matter of fact sir’, I said ‘if you noticed I have passed the exam? Not desperately well but I passed because I studied a lot each evening to make sure I did pass your’. ‘Good lad, that’s the spirit.’ I’m in. [laughter] AS: Excellent. So, you passed at Oxford? JS: Um. AS: Did you then go home and await some sort of call up or? JS: I went home and waited and I was called up within about two or three weeks. AS: As at that stage, PNB? Volunteer reserve? JS: Yeah. Volunteer reserve. AS: As a pilot navigator bomber? Bomb aimer? JS: Yeah. A PNB yeah. AS: Front of the aeroplane, executive office? JS: [laughter]. Yes. AS: OK, you’re called up and then presumably they had to try and make an airman of you, did they? JS: Well they did. I enjoyed it really except that when I was first flying, I was OK and even the instructor that took me on the final check, he said ‘You fly well, son’. He said ‘but what’s the bloody good of having you up there if you don’t know where the hell you are?’ Which is true. When you’re seventeen years old you’re so excited you don’t care about where you are. [laughs] And it was as easy as that. AS: Picking up on the excitement. JS: Um. AS: Do you think that the RAF knew you’d lied about your age and didn’t worry about it? JS: Oh yes, I’m sure they did. I was seventeen, and I’m sure they, my brother was sixteen. When he left the Air Force with this pension, he was seventeen years old when he left, and he went straight to university, got a good degree, eventually finished up in Australia. He died last week, he was ninety, but he’d had a pension since he was seventeen years old. Isn’t that amazing? AS: Turned out nice then didn’t it? JS: Um. AS: OK, so you were, you were in the Air Force starting pilot training, in this country was it? JS: Yes. AS: Whereabouts was that, and what were you flying? JS: Tiger Moths. Reading. There was an airfield at Reading, we used to pass it on the motorway going down, can’t think what it’s called. Theale is it? AS: Yeah. JS: Theale I think it was, and we would train there, it was a pilot training school. AS: And this was 1941? JS: ’41. Um, yeah, long time ago. AS: So still this was before the great move, the move to take pilot training abroad I suppose? JS: Yes, yes and no it was, they were picking up people they wanted, particular people. Even the guy who, instructor, who interviewed me at the end on the final flight, even he said ‘You fly very well, I’m very pleased the training has been good, you fly very well, but what’s the bloody good of having you up here if you don’t know where you are?’ Which is absolutely true and when you’re seventeen it’s all exciting, you don’t, you don’t even worry whether you’re going to get down again or not you know? Yeah. AS: You wanted to be a pilot, what sort of pilot? Fighter pilot? JS: I wanted to be a fighter pilot, I didn’t want to get anything to do with bombers. I was a little disappointed. I ended up, as you know, I did a tour with 77 Squadron but, it wasn’t what I wanted but then that’s the way life works. AS: So, you did, you soloed, did you solo? JS: Yes, oh yeah. AS: Marvellous, how many hours roughly did you do? JS: I don’t know, I don’t honestly remember now. I quite enjoyed flying, it was, it was much easier than I thought it would be. The thing, it’s exciting really. You’re seventeen years old and you’re flying. And honestly, it’s nothing to, you can’t get over it really. It’s amazing. AS: Superb. So, when you were told that your pilot training was going no further, what did you feel like, what? JS: Heartbroken. I used to say that’s the day I started drinking. But anyway, I waited around a lot and I did all sorts of odds and ends, waiting for another course, and the other course was in South Africa. So, I went to South Africa to do my navigator course. Unknown: Interruption. JS: Went to this hotel at Harrogate. All the groups, gunners, wireless operators, pilots, navigators, all in this big room, talking to each other, and we meet each other and if we fancy somebody and start talking, the way like I’ve met you today, they’d say ‘We could be alright together’. Then they met somebody else, so I met the rear, the mid-upper gunner was a Scot, nice guy, and the flight engineer was a Welsh guy, that’s the chap who had to become into aircrew or else. Now the three of us got on so well. They, in turn, had friends, before I knew where I was I’m one of six. The next thing is we’ve got Henley, this is the skipper, wandering around looking for. And he picks, out of the blue, you know. [inaudible] I thought perhaps, I’d heard about crews in the past, how they all get on. They don’t. But of course, you can get a group, I mean it’s very difficult to say seven blokes getting on together, isn’t it? AS: Um. JS: But we did, three of us did very well. And we managed with the others, we didn’t fight or anything. But I told you I wasn’t a friend of the skipper’s and I never was going to be. AS: But in the air you were a disciplined – JS: In the air, we were good, in fact in the air only two of us carried on talking. We had no conversation in the air unless it was necessary. The only person to converse with him, me, because I’d have to, the others only if they had too. There was no common chat amongst us. I’ve been listening to other people and they said they talked all the time. They didn’t in my crew, my crew only spoke when they had to. I think possibly it was a good idea, I don’t know. I know that, put it this way, I never felt afraid. It wasn’t, or upset, it wasn’t until old Charlie Whatsisname blew up in front of me that I suddenly thought ‘Christ Almighty, it’s dangerous up here’. And it was a bomber, do you know it was a Lancaster dropped the bombs? AS: Um. JS: And after that I was a bit wary, a bit wary. AS: And the Lancasters were flying higher than you obviously, yeah? JS: Um. Do you know something? Think about it there were, there were seven of us obviously in the crew, and you could often get such difference in seven people. AS: Did you see this on, on other crews that? JS: Yes, I did. Some crews I remained friendly with until the end, and when we retired they were coming up for their finish. You had to do thirty, you had to do thirty ops. Well I done eighteen with 77, 578 and I had twelve to do and I signed up with 77 and everything went fine from then onwards. They liked us. I never forget going to the first meeting and the navigation leader said ‘Now look here’. he said ‘I’ll tell you new lads what’s happening’. So I said ‘Well we might be new lads but we do know’. He said ‘I’ve done twelve ops already’, I said ‘Oh, aren’t you clever?’ I said. ‘I’ve done twelve, I’ve done eighteen’. I said. ‘Oh.’ So in other words don’t give us any bullshit ‘cause we know what it’s all about. [chuckles] AS: Can I wind you back a bit and cover the period from leaving OTU to joining the squadron? What happened when you joined the squadron? What was that process like? JS: That’s a good question. It was very good because there were about five squadrons in this billet and I didn’t realise it, but they all knew each other and they’d all been flying together. But after we joined them everything, not because of us, but everything seemed to go wrong and we ended up with just two. They lost three. AS: Three crews? JS: Just didn’t come back, you know? AS: Wow. JS: But when we first went there everybody was, I mean, give you for example. Oh, I must tell you this, the first night I’m there I go to bed and I was a Catholic. AS: Um. JS: And you had to put your name on the back, it told you what religion you were, on the back of my bed. Well I went to bed about eleven o’clock time, going off to sleep. I was woken very severely about an hour later by a chap who’d obviously been drinking and said to me ‘That’s the other man’. He said to me, ‘You a Catholic?’ I said ‘For Christ’s sake man’, I said ‘It’s gone twelve o’clock, what are you worried about?’ ‘Are you a Catholic?’ So, I said ‘Yes’. So with that, he opens his pocket and he throws a little, you know, brown leather wallet, that big. He threw it to me and he said ‘Here are, you better have it. My old lady gave me this, what a lot of bullshit’. I said ‘For God’s sake, what is it?’ So I opened it up and inside was a Sacred Heart and one or two medals that his mother had given to him. I said ‘You can’t give that away’. ‘Why not?’ he said. He was a bit pissed anyway, I said ‘Because frankly your mother gave you that, it’s for you to keep’. ‘I don’t want to know about it’. So I said ‘Look’. He said ‘I’ll chuck it on the fire’. ‘Don’t chuck it’. Those fires in the middle of the room. AS: Um. JS: I said ‘Don’t chuck it, leave it, we’ll talk about it tomorrow’. So in the morning, when I woke up, he was fast asleep of course, I waited until he got round, came round, and I went up to him and I said ‘Look, this was silly last night, you must be sober now. You were pissed out of your mind last night, you didn’t know what you were talking about. Talking about your mother that way, and throwing that and giving this’. ‘I told you, I didn’t want the bloody thing. I don’t know why she give it to me. It’s an embarrassment’. I said, ‘What are you saying?’ I said. He said ‘Do you want it?’ ‘Well rather than do what you said’, I said ‘yes’. So I kept it. That night, he and his crew disappeared and were never, ever seen again. Isn’t that amazing? AS: It’s, it’s amazing, but not unexpected. Do you, did you see other examples of that, of crews that knew they weren’t going to come? JS: No. AS: Back? JS: I have seen people say that to me, they had a feeling. ‘Cause I’ve heard people say ‘Our leave is due Friday, let’s hope to Christ we don’t have anything between Wednesday and Friday to stop us going’. And they say, and that was always a bit of a dangerous time because it happened so often, that your leave was going to be on Friday, Wednesday night you don’t come back. The times I’ve seen it happen. You’re always glad when it’s done and when you’ve been and then you’ve got some more to come. Just waiting for one day off, very tricky. But I never forget him and the next day I took it to him and I said ‘Look, I still feel you should have this’, I said ‘ because I don’t feel right to have it. I know what it means to lots of people, apparently it doesn’t mean anything to you’, I said ‘but the fact is your mother gave it to you, would have made you change your mind and seriously’. ‘Don’t talk a lot of bleeding nonsense’, he said. I said ‘You’re sure now?’ He said ‘I’ve told you, that’s it. I don’t want to hear about it’. So, OK. And that night they went out and they were never, ever seen again. We don’t know whether they were kept, well we know they weren’t prisoners of war. They were blown out of the sky, it’s as easy as that. And so, I thought ‘Christ Almighty, I wonder if it’ll be better for me’. So it got that way and when I told my crew about this, before we took off, every time before we took off, they all went. And once, on one occasion, ‘Oh Christ, I left it in my best blue’. ‘We can’t have that’ they said. So, I had to get a WAAF quickly to bring a jeep round, rush round to my place to pick it up otherwise they weren’t gonna go, they said. It’s amazing, isn’t it, how these things happen? I think people do have such things as lucky charms and they rely on them you know? [inaudible] insist that everything is alright. AS: Yeah, I think, I know you’re absolutely right. Did you as an individual, and you as a crew, always feel that you were going to come back? JS: I did, yeah. I did. I never gave it a thought, I always thought I would come back. Even on a Friday night when I’m due to go on leave. I always felt it’s a bit tricky but I’m going to make it. Because the only thing was that I had a dread of being shot down in the water. Because I was the only swimmer in my crew, and we did a couple of tests, and it was absolutely ridiculous. As I was the only swimmer, I was the main person. I had to get up on the diving board, suit on and boots off, jump in the water, find the dinghy, turn it upside down to the proper way, then try and pick the others up who were hanging around the edge of the bath. Well I did this and got one or two of them but the skipper, he would not get off the wall. And the instructor who was doing the swimming said, he said ‘Get in there’, and he pushed and he went in the water. He went like mad, my skipper, nearly bloody drowned me, and in the end the instructor realised that I was in trouble. So the instructor jumped in beside me, between the two of us we managed to get the bugger out, and I thought if ever anything happens and it’s in the sea we’re finished. We’re finished. No case of, can you swim? We’ll be finished. AS: So, this was dinghy drills in a swimming pool? JS: In a swimming baths, yeah. AS: Yeah, OK. What about drills on the aeroplane? Did you, as a crew, really practice those things, evacuating the aeroplane things like that? JS: No, no, never. No, never. I, that’s a good question. But when you think back, I was never, I don’t recall, we ever worked on how we would get out should there be an incident. I don’t think we thought there would be an incident. I think we were going to be lucky. They always said as long as they got him with us, meaning me, we’re going to be alright. But the only time I never flew with that crew, the doctor said I mustn’t fly for twenty-four hours, nothing’s going to happen I thought, but something did. And that meant to say that they had to go with a spare and they went mad, they got shot to pieces. Honestly, I’m not exaggerating. I waited until the last aircraft had come back in the early hours of the morning and I thought ‘Christ’. We hadn’t even heard a message then suddenly, in a very dim way over the line, came a call to say they are coming but they’ve been badly damaged and they might have trouble, but they were hoping to make it, and they did. They made it and the next thing I was worried about was would the bloody thing turn over when they landed, like it often does. So the WAAF and I waited, and they landed, and everybody stood by, and it landed and it stopped. And we all rushed out there, and the crew, apart from the skipper who was panic stricken. He couldn’t move, he was panic stricken. But the crew come out, lit the old fags up. ‘If he don’t come, we’re not going.’ [laughs] And we had a terrible problem. I was the lucky charm, without me they said they wouldn’t have managed. Silly of course but that’s – AS: Well it isn’t is it? It’s a really good insight to the crew as an organism. The fact that you didn’t necessarily get on, that you were the charm of the crew. JS: Another thing, the fact that I was a Catholic. I said ‘That’s got nothing to do it with it, the fact that I’m a Catholic’. ‘Well you don’t fuck about the way we do’, they said, which I didn’t. I drank with them but they were shagging all over the place, my crew, they were terrible. And the skipper was the world’s worst. I told you they thought I was queer. That’s why they called these awful women, and they’d introduce those awful women to me. Why I never forget one girl, it was a shame. She was as thick as two planks and they introduced her to me and said ‘Joe’s alright, he’ll look after you’. She said ‘He’s a nice bloke, you’ll like him’. I didn’t want to know her, and she insisted I go home and meet her parents, and I thought ‘That’s the last thing you want to do’. And I kept. [laughs] As I say my, my crew were awful in that respect. AS: How about the local population? ‘Cause Burn is, is in the part of Yorkshire where my family come from. JS: Yeah. AS: So, you have Goole, Selby, all around there. JS: Burn. AS: Yeah, what were the local population like to the aircrew? JS: Very good, very good. The only thing that used to upset me was they had a lot of Italian workers in the fields. AS: Prisoners? JS: Um. AS: OK. JS: And I remember standing one night, finishing a fag and watching these Italians working, and they were watching us taking off, and you can imagine what they were thinking. ‘Where the hell are they going, who are they going to bomb?’ you know? And I had to go into hospital for a couple of days and while I was in there they, this Italian guy came in and he was in a very, very bad way, and his mates used to come and visit him and he said to me, one of his mates, his English wasn’t bad. ‘Are you a Catholic?’ And I said ‘Yes, I am’. ‘You couldn’t have words with him, would you?’ So I said ‘Surely’, I said. He said ‘He’s not going to go home you know, he’ll never go home again. We don’t know what to say to him, perhaps if you talk kindly to him, he might take it from you’. So I said ‘I’ll try’. So I did when the chap passed, before he passed out, I said to him ‘Look I’m sorry you’re like this, it’s such a shame because you look like a nice guy and you could make quite a world of it’. But so, I said ‘The best thing to do is do what they say and carry on because the war won’t last forever and then you can go home’. But he died about a week later. AS: Wow. JS: He just died and I felt bad about it. In fact, I even went to the funeral. I know I shouldn’t have done but I felt bad about it ‘cause he seemed such a nice guy. When you think about it, it’s very serious really. AS: They’re people. Under the uniform we’re all people aren’t we? JS: Um. AS: So, whereabouts locally would you go from Burn as a crew, you know, for drinking or socialising? JS: Oh, in York. AS: In York, Betty’s Bar? JS: Um. There was a, there was a pub in Burn but it was packed. We had our own pub in York which we used to attend and we used to keep, it was very wrong of us really, we used to keep the Yanks out. ‘Cause the Yanks tried to get in our pubs and we said ‘It’s not on, this is for British staff only.’ AS: Which pub was this in York? JS: I can’t think which one it was but I know that, ‘cause the girls used to follow us rotten you know? In York ‘cause most girls wouldn’t have a lot to do with aircrew. Most regular girls as I call it, because they couldn’t guarantee, as they said, that you’d be here tomorrow, so we used to get all the tarts really. Well the lads didn’t mind, but I did. [aughs] AS: Yeah, it’s an interesting slant on wartime. So, when you finished OUT, did you get a big notice up on the wall posting you to a squadron? What happened, what was the process? JS: I cannot remember. AS: OK. JS: I think there was a group of us that had started at the same time, but we didn’t all go to the same squadron. I think, if I recall, we were posted to different squadrons. One here, two there and so on and so forth. ‘Cause in Yorkshire, Yorkshire was the home of the Halifax. AS: 4 Group, yeah. JS: And all the crews in it, that was Yorkshire, the Lancasters were lower down. So, what we did was, we all knew each other as crews, we used to meet and have a chat. There was quite a bit of rivalry between them and quite good humour too, between some of the crews. When I look back now it was a very difficult situation, because if somebody was killed or whatever, what did you do? We had this big joke, you’ve probably heard it, ‘Can I have your breakfast if you don’t come back?’ And that’s the way they were looking at it, ‘cause there was no other way of doing it. You couldn’t cry your eyes out about it ‘cause it could be you the next time. So, you had to get on with it, that was the way it was. ‘Could I have your breakfast tomorrow if you don’t come back?’ Um. AS: Was, I know you talked about leave. Was there much contact, did you go home on leave? Did you have contact with family or? JS: I was lucky I always went home on leave. I had money in my pocket, a good family who were dying to see me and I enjoyed it. But one of my crew, it was really silly, he’d been shagging around and leave came up and he got a dose. And I said, I went to hospital with him, and we sorted it out. And they reckon, he had a week in hospital and then he had to take it easy for a month or something and that was the way it was. And in the middle of all this he got involved with this girl again and I said ‘Look, Tom, you mustn’t do this’. I said, ‘What’s going to happen when leave comes round, you’re surely not going to go home and start on your own missus are you?’ He said ‘What else can I?’ I said ‘Well can’t you tell her some yarn about the fact that you’ve had trouble and that you can’t use it, but it’ll be alright in the future?’ ‘Um, I’ll try’, he says. So he did. So off we go on leave, when I got back after the weeks holiday he had my motorbike and he was waiting at the station for us. I said ‘When did you get back?’ He said ‘Oh, don’t tell me Joe, I’ve been home a week’. I said ‘Why?’ He said ‘I realised straight away when I got home that she knew there was something wrong. I had a terrible conscience, I didn’t tell her, and we just didn’t get on, and I sent myself a telegram to say “Return immediately”’. ‘Oh Christ’, I said. He said ‘What else could I do?’ I said ‘Well, I suppose you’re right, it’s a fact because you didn’t want to give it to your wife.’ Yeah. AS: So, when you turn up on the, on 578, what happened then? You’re allocated to a flight? Or do you go on ops straight away or? JS: Yes, more or less. When we realised the squadron was breaking down and we were going to be posted, we weren’t all posted to the same squadron. We were posted to 77 Squadron and when I got there, there were only two other crews came with us. So I should think the rest of the crews were split around the group ‘cause it was 4 Group. And I remember going in, I think I said a moment ago, when they had their first check up and the navigator was telling us new ones what to do and what it was like up there. And we said to him ‘How many ops have you done?’ He said, ‘I’ve done twelve’. And we said ‘That’s nothing’. [laughs] AS: Get some in. JS: ‘We’ve done eighteen’. But no, it was, it was difficult. I feel that on reflection it made one very hard. You had to be hard, it’s no good crying your eyes out is it about it? ‘Cause it could happen to you any time or anyone you were with. AS: Doing the job when you’re, whether it’s 578 or 77 Squadron. Could you take me through a typical operation from waking up in the morning until it’s all finished? JS: Well sometimes we’d wake up in the morning like today. And the navigators and the pilots would be called down, and we’d go to a meeting and they’d say ‘There’s going to be ops tonight, we haven’t got conditions at the moment but we’ll be calling an order about four o’clock.’ So we thought ‘Right that’s it, we’re on ops tonight’. And about four o’clock we used to go, and initially only the pilot and the navigator went and we listened to the place where we bombing, what we were trying to achieve, and so on and so forth. And with that we then opened the door and let the rest of the crew in and told them where we were going and what we were going to do and that’s how it was. AS: So how did? JS: It could only be hours before we took off. AS: So, when did you do your flight planning? JS: Well, flight planning. On the spot really. AS: So was that after your pilot, nav briefing. Or after everybody had had the briefing? JS: Well after the pilot, nav briefing we had an idea what we were going to do and where we were going to go, but how we were going to get there wasn’t ever discussed. It was never discussed. In fact, it wasn’t until just prior to going that we would talk about it. They used to discuss which way we would mostly take off and get to Reading, and at Reading it turned on to our target. I know it sounds silly but we were going anywhere until we got to Reading then we made for the target through Reading. That was our group you know? AS: So 4 Group would fly across England, presumably avoiding London? JS: Yes. AS: And you’d have worked out your flight plan by then? JS: Oh yeah. I tell you what did happen to me one night. We’d had a very long trip and we were very tired and coming back across France, I started to fall asleep. And I did just for a second or so and when I woke up, I looked around the aircraft, the gunners had undone their guns, everybody had heads down, including the skipper who was fast asleep. And we were over the, we were over England, but nobody knew where, ‘cause they were all asleep and didn’t care and I looked around and thought ‘Christ Almighty’. So I woke Ken up, he was the skipper, I said ‘Look, Ken, I don’t know how long you’ve been like this’. I said. He said ‘Oh it’s alright, it’s been on automatic pilot’. I said ‘I know it’s been on automatic, but how long is it supposed to be on for? Where are we, do you know?’ So he said ‘No, I haven’t a clue’. I said ‘That’s marvellous isn’t it?’ So I looked around, we woke the crew up and I thought ‘This is terrible, we could be anywhere, I know we’re heading north’ and then the Wash suddenly came into view. I could not believe my luck,. ‘cause as soon as I saw the Wash we knew where we were. But if we hadn’t have seen the Wash and it had gone on we could have been Scotland, run out of fuel and all had to bail out. That’s happened before as well. AS: To you? JS: No, no. AS: To others on the squadron? JS: I’ve had friends that it’s happened to, they just run out. Twice or three times – [knocking] AS: So, Joe, back to a discussion on a typical mission if there is such a thing. You’d get briefed, did you air test the aeroplanes in the morning? JS: I was only thinking that the other day when I looked at my book. We did very few air tests, very few air tests. I looked in here the other day. It’s amazing really, you’d have thought we’d have done more wouldn’t you? Because things were wrong with the aircraft and the ground staff, used to, when we got back, immediately jump on them to put it right. Nothing worse than an aircraft going wrong in the sky, you can’t do a thing about it you see, it’s got to be right when it leaves. AS: Was that always the case with you, did you have issues in the air? JS: Not really. I think I told you about, in there. [rustling of paper] AS: But not mechanical issues? You didn’t have mechanical issues? JS: Look at some of these. Silly things. Have you read this? AS: No, not yet. JS: Just have a quick look at it. AS: OK. So, Joe, we’ll pick it up again, we’ve just had our tea. We were, we were talking about air tests. The fact that the aircraft, you didn’t test the aircraft very much so you had complete faith in the men? JS: In the maintenance crew. AS: Did you, did you used to socialise with them as well? JS: Yes and no. Difficult. They all lived on the site which was miles from anywhere, outside and they used to live out there, virtually the maintenance crew. AS: With the aircraft? JS: Yeah. Awful. I’ve been out there sometimes in the winter, when they’ve asked us to come out, where we’ve had to sweep the snow off the aircraft to get it to go off and up, you know? The Halifax was a nice aircraft, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve only ever once been in a Lancaster, I didn’t like it particularly, you had to climb over lots of beams and things to get to where you fly. But with the Halifax there was plenty of room inside. And we had also, on a couple of occasions, Ken said to me ‘You better check that bugger’, meaning the American that we’d got, or Canadian that was the mid-upper gunner, the turret under the aircraft, little turret. AS: OK. JS: And they used to fly on there, but they didn’t. I mean I never said anything, I didn’t drop them in it. But I’ve been back and they’ve been lying there half asleep having a smoke. They never went out of the turret. AS: So, the Halifax’s were fitted, your Halifax’s were fitted with? JS: Some of them were yeah. AS: OK, yeah. Did you mostly do navigation or was bomb aiming your speciality? JS: Bomb aiming was my speciality with 77. Actually, I was going to get an award. Well I got the award but because of a silly incident at Scarborough, I lost it. I didn’t realise it but they took away my DFM and they took away his DFC, very unhappy he was. My fault. AS: So, you’d been recommended for? JS: Oh, before then I was, on one occasion, I forget which one it was ‘cause I never made a fuss in my logbook. Some people wrote things in the logbooks but I never did. On one occasion I went in and I was a bomb aimer and I dropped the bombs so badly to the ground that it started one end of the rail centre, right down the line, through the station, out the other side, and ruined. I cut the whole bloody railway out of the business. No, I had a letter from them to express, to express you know what a good job I’d done. The next thing I know is, I’m recommended for the DFM. Oh, OK. But after the incident at Scarborough it wasn’t quite the same, um. I’ve seen some funny things happen to other people. They didn’t talk about it very much but you obviously know about LMF? AS: Yeah. JS: And we had, at one period, quite a lot of LMF. Except for one guy and he was, he came from New Zealand and his skipper came from New Zealand and he used to be a nice guy, bomb aimer. And I got friendly with him but he was very religious, and he’d done about sixteen ops and he turned to me one night and said ‘I can’t do this anymore, Joe’. I said ‘What’s up?’ ‘I can’t do this bombing business anymore’. I said ‘Well what can you do about it, you can’t say I don’t want to do it’. ‘Oh, I can’. I said ‘But’. He said ‘Well what am I going to do?’ I said ‘I don’t know. Think about it, think about it’. Well he did. He complained that he didn’t want to, and he explained that he didn’t want to fly anymore, and I thought they would go for him but they didn’t. They said ‘Look sunshine, you’ve done over eighteen ops so far, what are you worried about?’ And they stopped and took him off and they sent him home. So he was a very lucky guy. AS: This was on 578 or 77? JS: On 578. AS: So, what happened to some of the other guys who, as you say, went LMF? JS: Oh God, terrible. When I first joined 77 I was walking down towards the Sergeants’ Mess and I saw a gang of airmen that did all the dirty work, clearing up. And in charge was a bloke who’d obviously been a sergeant ‘cause they’d ripped the sergeants stripes and you could see where they’d been, in charge of this dirty gang. And as I got up close to him I realised it was a friend of mine called Sandy Mount, and I said ‘Hello Sandy, what’s?’ ‘I don’t know you Joe’, he said. Funny thing to say, ‘I don’t know you Joe’. And off he went with his gang. I went into the Mess, I’d only just joined the squadron, and I said, I mentioned it. ‘Oh, don’t talk about him’. I said ‘What is he doing?’ ‘He’s waiting to be sent away to the LMF place down on the coast where they really give you a bad time’. I said ‘Why?’ Apparently the first time he said there was something wrong with the aircraft so they cancelled it. The second time something else went wrong and he returned early, the third time, on the fourth time they realised that he didn’t want to do what he was doing, and they said he’d got to come off flying. AS: And punished? JS: And they took him off, called him LMF and put him in charge of all the blokes doing the shit [inaudible]. There was this New Zealand guy that I knew he done about sixteen ops and he turned to me, he was very religious, and he turned to me one night and said ‘Joe I can’t do this anymore. I don’t know why we’ve got into our states with this war, it’s not on’. I said ‘Well you can’t do much about it now, you’ve got to wait until you finish your tour’. ‘Oh, I don’t think I could’, he said. Well his pilot, who was also a New Zealander, went up to the CO and they explained the situation and the CO was very good. He said ‘I can’t say LMF, I can’t blame him ‘cause he’s an extremely good navigator’, he says. ‘but we can’t have this sort of thing ‘cause if anybody else starts doing what he does, what do we do?’ So, they sacked him but they sent him home. AS: Lucky man. JS: Which was the best thing they could have done. He wasn’t a coward, it wasn’t that, he just said ‘I can’t do this anymore. What are we doing, all this dropping bombs on people and killing them?’ He said ‘It’s not on, this isn’t warfare is it?’ His skipper actually, terrible part about [unclear} it was, I must tell you this, hell of a nice guy, they only had one or two ops left to do, the crew, not him ‘cause he’d gone. And they went missing. Never seen. So the skipper was killed, obviously the aircraft disappeared, isn’t that amazing? But he didn’t go with them ‘cause he’d gone home to New Zealand. AS: Premonition or something. JS: Isn’t it strange, this world how it works isn’t it? AS: Absolutely. You mentioned he, the navigator, bomb aimer couldn’t go on bombing. What was the feeling in the country, say in 1944/45 about the bombing, what? JS: We were heroes ‘cause we were doing a great job, we were knocking them about something awful. This is what it said about Bomber Command, there’s a big article coming out soon. 1944 we were heroes, marvellous, good lads, 1945 we were villains, bombing these poor Germans. That’s true, mind you we were bombing them. God forbid we gave them quite a hounding. I remember going to Essen twice, I remember Hagen twice and each occasion it was a write off. Because when the war was over we took some of our ground crew and the WAAF’s on a visit to see what we’d done and I was absolutely flabbergasted at some of the damage we did out there. God, terrible. AS: And most of the time you’d been the bomb aimer? JS: Yeah. AS: And somebody else was doing the navigating? JS: Um. AS: Yeah. JS: I worked, I, navigation’s a funny thing. It got easier as the time went on because we had a lot of equipment to help us. It was much easier than when we first started. AS: What did navigation involve when you first started, when you were navigating a trip? JS: They used to call it, there’s a name for it. Well, it means pencil and paper and get down to it, you know? AS: Dead reckoning? JS: Yeah, dead reckoning. Didn’t always work out either, had a lot of trouble with it. When I look back on some of the guys that I flew with and lost, it was very difficult really. You never knew, well I knew I was going to come back, which is the most important thing, but a lot of them began to lose confidence. When you find that you had not one awful trip but two awful trips and then you lose the bloody way and everything goes wrong. So you realise what can happen, and does happen, but it never happened to me. I was very, very fortunate. AS: And, generally, were the ones you saw losing confidence, were they the ones that didn’t come back? JS: Oh yes, yeah. Yes, it was a shame because, don’t know how to explain it. I used to like to dance and I used to go to dances as lot and one or two of the lads I was with came. Most of the crew didn’t go for the dancing they went for the booze and the girls and they never turned up until the last knockings to find a bird to take home with them. But some of them I met, and we lost them. It seemed sad to think we wouldn’t see them again but it was just the way it was. My crew were funny really in that respect. When I look back on old Henley, he was a terrible man, a terrible man, I didn’t treat him as an officer above me in any way whatsoever, ‘cause I hadn’t got that much confidence in him and I hadn’t got that much respect for him either. If I had I would have shown it but I couldn’t show him ‘cause I didn’t think he was that sort of a guy. AS: In, did you used to go to the cinema and watch the news reels? JS: Um. AS: What did they say about Bomber Command? JS: Well they maintained the fact that we were doing a very good job and that it was necessary. I don’t think it was towards the end of the war as necessary as they made it ‘cause we did some terrible things you know? We really did towards the end of the war. We really did tear the place apart. AS: And did? JS: I went to Hamburg one night and we made a terrible mess of it. Bugger me, two nights later, they sent us back again to finish it off. And we did, burnt it down. It was a, you get to a stage where you don’t care, it was as easy as that. AS: It’s just a job? JS: Um. AS: But the excitement of flying that you talked about before, did that stay with you? JS: Oh yeah, yeah. [chuckling]. I’ve had some good times in the air. When we first, when I first went onto Dakotas I loved it. Oh God we had some fun. AS: So how did that, you were in 77 Squadron? JS: Um. AS: You finished your tour did you, you did thirty trips? JS: Um. AS: And this would be after the war, or just? JS: No, it’s in there. AS: Just as the war was finishing. So – JS: Chevrolets. We were going to the Far East you see? So, we all trained, were trained to fly these twin-engine things, Chevers. AS: OK. So, this is in May, end of May 1945? JS: Yes. AS: So – JS: The war was over here. AS: Yeah, so ops to Nuremberg in April, ops to Heligoland. Your last op was Heligoland in April? JS: It was an island in the middle and it was the last. And I’ll tell you a strange thing, you mention that, only a few of us were there, about twenty, and I watched this happen. I watched a ‘plane above drop his bombs on the ‘plane below and blow two others out of the sky with him. Five aircraft - ‘Bang’. Honest truth. And I looked there with my skipper and I said ‘Has anybody got out?’ and he said ‘I can’t see a sign’. AS: No ‘chutes? JS: I don’t think anybody survived. This is bloody night, the last day of the war you know, isn’t that awful? AS: And that’s what you see in daylight. The same thing must have happened at night time? JS: Um. AS: And 5 Group used to fly higher than you? JS: Oh, they did yes. I, I’ve, we’d been extremely lucky with the aircraft that we had ‘cause some of them were beginning to get very worn out. In fact, I told you the one I was flying had done it’s hundredth op. This was its hundredth op when these Germans came. We’d been warned for weeks, ‘Watch out’. What was the word they called? AS: Intruders? JS: Intruders, yeah, yeah, intruders. What happened was, as soon as we crossed the coast this side the gunners undid their guns. The, everybody sat down, even the skipper. Set the target on automatic and went to sleep. Out of the blue, these bloody aircraft were with us and we never saw them. And they shot down twenty over where I was. One of my mates he was, he was in a terrible state. They tried to land but nobody would take them on, ‘cause as soon as they went into land the Germans would come and they would shoot the place up. But they did bail out and he landed in a tree in a churchyard and it was a big tree right up high, and his ‘chute got caught in the top so he was hanging there swinging. And he gets his fags out and he puts his fag in his mouth, and he gets his lighter out and drops it. [laughter], and he sat there, hour after hour, waiting for someone to come in the early hours of the morning. Nobody turned up until about ten o’clock to see him stuck up a tree. He was alive at least anyway. He got away with it. AS: Yeah. As your tour progressed and we, you got H2S and G, was there a feeling that it was becoming more professional with a bigger bomber stream and more aeroplanes? JS: I think so. I think it was the numbers that were telling, it was big. They couldn’t hit us back, we were too big. In fact, they couldn’t touch us with all their guns used together. The only thing they used to have were these intruders. They used to have jets and they used to come up from nowhere when the jets first started, but they were going so fast they used to fly past us and couldn’t hit us. By the time they turned round, we’d gone. But I’ve seen some very bad incidents, very bad incidents. When I look back on it now we used to joke and we used to laugh about things but it was a very serious business you know? When I think of all the chaps I’ve known that used to be mates of mine that have gone. We used to come home on leave and my brother Tony was there at the time of course, and he used to say ‘Why the hell you went into Bomber Command I’ll never know’. I said ‘Well, you must remember Tony, you didn’t intend to go the way you went. Life has its own way of going and there’s nothing you can do to stop it’. He ended up, as I say, deaf in one ear with a pension. Amazing isn’t it? Last week he died, ninety years old, ‘cause he put his age up about three years. He um, I could never understand why my Dad gave me such a bollocking for what I did. AS: Tell us about that. This was when you went home in? He knew you were in Bomber Command? JS: Um. AS: And you were welcomed when you went home on leave? JS: I finished my tour and I went home to finish. I told him I’d finished and Mum I wouldn’t be bombing anymore and Dad said ‘You shouldn’t have done it in the first place. What the devil you’re up to in there’. I said ‘This is what war is all about’. I said ‘You seem to forget Dad, that they bombed us first you know’. ‘I don’t recall that’. I said ‘I know you don’t ‘cause you weren’t here, you were in London, you were in the north of England’. I said ‘But they dropped bombs on us, it was just, we didn’t drop the bombs first, they did’. He said ‘Joe, all I can say to you is if you close your eyes and think back on all the people you must have killed you must have a terrible conscience’. I said ‘Well to be honest Dad, I’ve never given it a thought, but now you’ve put it into my mind I probably won’t forget’. Which I didn’t, and [inaudible] But what can you do about it? AS: But he’d known you were in Bomber Command when you went home on leave? JS: Yeah, I didn’t talk about it at all. AS: OK. JS: I never talked about flying when I was home. Never said a word. Never said I was flying ops or anything. Never said what I was doing. I just said that, they asked why do I get leave so regular. I said ‘Because that’s the way it goes’, you know. When I look back on it now it was regular then. But then you might as well take it ‘cause you didn’t know when the next one was going to be. AS: And as crews disappear you go up the leave ladder? JS: When I look back you know, God I lost some guys. I was thinking about you, I’m glad you came today, and I’m sorry that I carry on so, because I don’t ever talk about the Air Force, I certainly couldn’t do it at home. And my Dad, or even now at home with people. My girls don’t seem to realise and they don’t take any notice. I’m not bragging to be some sort of hero but I don’t really get involved in talks about it. Have a bit of a laugh sometimes with some of the funny things that happened, some of the songs we used to sing and some of the things we used to do. AS: Can you still remember any of those songs? JS: All of ‘em, yeah. AS: OK. JS: 77 has their own one. AS: Yeah. JS Then 578 was, started off – ‘We’re the pilot, otherwise Joe, we take him wherever we go. Berlin or [inaudible] wherever they send ‘em, it’s all the same to him. We’re the gunners, Dawson and Rear,[inaudible] with the flight engineer. It appalled us when they called us, we’d rather go on the beer. Navigations what I do, at least that’s what I tell the crew.’ [laughter] And things like this you know? The other one was, ‘77, 77 though we say it with a sigh. We’d rather work for Mr Bevan then we’d never have to fly’. And we had all these songs, and it was cheerful, it took your mind off what you were doing. We drank a lot and they knew we drank a lot and nobody corrected us. Because they used to say ‘The poor buggers they can’t guarantee they’re going to get any more drink’, you know? Whether they’d come back. We did lose so many guys. AS: Yeah. JE: We did lose so many guys. AS: Yeah. JE: And it wasn’t until after the war on my own I sat down and thought about it. And I’m not going to argue with my Dad, I’m not going to talk about it, I’m not even going to mention it to anybody. So, I didn’t say I was in the Air Force. I thought if I don’t say it I won’t have to talk about it or worry about it. Because some people thought I was a hero but some people thought we were villains. AS: And this was quite quickly after the end of the war that things changed? JE: Um. When I look back on it now, what a time to live eh? AS: Well, it’s an experience. I mean did you ever think you’re getting airborne with two thousand gallons of fuel and twelve thousand pounds of bombs it was a bit dangerous? JS: No, I didn’t, yeah. AS: Did you? JS: I tell you on one occasion, odd occasion this, we had a two-thousand-pound bomb hung up in the bombing rack, and the bloody thing wouldn’t go. Well, I was the smallest member of the crew, so I went, they hung me by my legs into the bomb bay with a hammer. And I had to ‘bang, bang, bang’ at the group until the bloody thing went. And it went, and after it went, didn’t it go with a bang? Christ Almighty! And the other time, of course, was definitely was my fault. Where we dropped the bombs on Scarborough. We should never have done them really, but we wanted, we were getting so close to the sea and yet we didn’t seem to be getting there. I thought if we don’t get there in a minute we’re going in. So, I pressed the wrong tit at the wrong time. AS: I think dropping them live was what probably upset them, Joe. JS: Oh my God, the rear gunner said, ‘Christ Almighty, what’s going on Joe?’ He said. There was a terrible bang and then another one and of course they were all going off. Actually, I, we were lucky we didn’t blow ourselves out of the sky really. AS: Yeah. JS: Crazy thing to do. AS: There’s a minimum height for. JS: Um. AS: You also dropped lots of bombs safe didn’t you after the war? Tell me about that. JS: We used to load the aircraft with bombs. Fly outside of Hull and drop them in the sea. Just unload the whole bloody lot downward, go back and get another load. There were so many bombs in the bomb dump and we said ‘They won’t be used again. We want them out of the way’. So, on the floor outside of Hull are literally hundreds of bombs that were dropped there during the war. The next job after that was the aircraft. We had to fly them up to Newcastle. We took anything that was necessary off, flew them up there and they burnt them and broke them up. This was after the war. AS: Soon after the war? JS: Yes, not many weeks after the war, ‘cause by that time I’d then gone onto Dakotas you see? And Ken and I had to learn to fly Dakotas, I enjoyed that, they were good fun. AS: Did you surprise Ken with how well you could fly? Did he know about your previous experience? JS: Oh yeah, he knew initially that I could fly, because rare occasions, very rare occasions, he’d let me fly the Halifax. Only when he wanted to have a slash or have a break, then I would take over you see? AS: On ops? JS: Um. AS: Gosh. JS: When I look back on it now I was glad I wasn’t a pilot. I wouldn’t have wanted to be a pilot anymore. Different if you were a Spitfire pilot or a Hurricane pilot, which is what I originally went in to do. That’s alright but not sitting at the [inaudible] of the bloody thing. AS: Bus driving. JS: Bus driving yeah. AS: Well they call them don’t they? Driver air frame mark one?[chuckling]. JS: Yeah. AS: So, you stayed on 77, and the idea was they’d re-role 77 to be a transport squadron? JS: Um. AS: And you became a second pilot sharing the flying with Ken? JS: With Ken. AS: So, you didn’t stay in the UK, what happened? JS: Went straight out to the Far East. AS: Did you take any sort of test as a pilot? Qualification as a pilot? JS: We both had a test before we left. I spent a bit of time, we both were capable of flying and it was known, but he was the pilot obviously and I was the second pilot. But the aircraft, some of them were quite good, some of them were rubbish. They had them too long and they should have been scrapped but we used them occasionally. Um. AS: In training or? JS: Um. AS: And then you went with Dakotas overseas? JS: Um. AS: What was that all about, ‘cause the war in the Far East was still going on was it? JS: Yes, we went out for the invasion of Japan. We were going to act as the taxis for the people who were going to invade Japan, but they dropped the bombs on Japan completely, well it was fantastic bombs they dropped on Japan. And the war finished immediately. So after that we did every job that could be, was necessary for an aircraft to do. We brought the prisoners of war back home, we did all sorts of interesting things. AS: You set off the 27th of September to Sardinia? That’s one leg, Libya, Karachi this took you? JS: Took about ten days. AS: Amazing. Delhi via the Taj Mahal. JS: Um. AS: Carried VIP’s. What was that all about? JS: We took some. You see we had all sorts of jobs. Oftentimes somebody’s generals and admirals that had to go and we took them. We had a special aircraft which had seats, ‘cause a lot of the aircraft hadn’t got seats, had to sit on the floor. But we had lots of aircraft fitted for important people, and we took them to various places. I did a tour once, oh that was it, I did a tour once with them, with a concert party, and we had the concert party with all the extras in the Dak. And we used to fly every night we’d fly to a different place, and then they’d do their trip. Well then they finished, towards the end they said to us ‘What do you think of the show, Joe?’ I said, and I felt embarrassed, I said ‘Actually’, ‘Oh, go on’. ‘We’ve never seen the show’. ‘Good God man’ they said. I said ‘Well, there’s always’. ‘We’ll give you a performance tonight’. So some of them did. There were two brothers, they dressed up as young females. They were so good. AS: You’ve been out East too long. [laughter] JS: And I finished up with the tour at Bombay and we realised that we had a couple of days over, so I said to Ken ‘Can’t we get hold of some money and stop here for a couple of days?’ So he said he would see what he could do, and he got some cash out of somewhere. And we stopped on for a couple of days extra. And I liked Bombay, I learned to swim underwater in Bombay, ‘cause they had a beautiful pool there. AS: And that’s where in November 1945, at Palam, you set off on your last flight with 77 Squadron? JS: That’s right yeah. AS: Tell me about finishing flying, was that planned or? JS: No. I didn’t think he was going home that quickly, ‘cause he wanted to get home anyway. And his number came up long before mine, and I could have carried on with somebody else, but I suddenly thought ‘I’ve been flying for four years, I’m the luckiest bloke I know, perhaps I can even get an early journey home’. Well I went to see the CO and he said he realised that I had had a good innings but he couldn’t let me go yet, it wasn’t down. He said ‘There’s a nice little job coming up in the post office’. I said ‘oh’. He said ‘I think you’d like it you know, you’re in charge’. So I said ‘OK’ so I took it on until such time as it was due to come home. When I look back on it now, India was going through terrible internal problems. I was bloody glad to get out of India. They were killing each other wholesale. One against the other. Just before the break up, because that’s, if you look at the time, dates, that’s when they finally broke up, India and Pakistan. AS: I think also there was some trouble in the Air Force wasn’t there? What they called the 1946 RAF Mutiny? JS: Oh yeah. AS: What was that about? JS: That arrived it was the first time I went out there. It wasn’t ’46, it was ’45 I think, could have been ’46. What had happened was, all the guys, the ground staff guys, had been out in the Far East, some of them for four years, never been home. And here was the war over in England and all their mates were leaving and getting good jobs and there’s them stuck out there in India. And it got worse and worse until eventually there was a desertion and then a – AS: A mutiny? JS: Yeah, it really went mad. I thought there might even be a bit of violence but there wasn’t. But some of the chaps who were actually in charge, and they were officers, they were in trouble, they were jailed. But, and I can see their point, lots of them had been out there for four years. All their mates had gone home in England and finished the war and were getting jobs, nothing for them. AS: So, what happened to Joe Stemp then? You’re running a post office? JS: Yeah. AS: You told me earlier you taught yourself to drive on a big truck. JS: Yeah. AS: How did you end up from India? JS: My time came up to leave. AS: OK. JS: And I went up, I flew home. [inaudible] what I’m going to do and my father said to me ‘I’ve saved you a position in the works’. He said ‘You can start next Monday’. I said ‘Hang on, I’ve been away. I wasn’t going to start work straight away, I thought I’d have a break’. ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Because I’ve been away and I want a break’. ‘I don’t know about that’ he says, ‘I’ve kept a job for you here’. So I said ‘OK’. So I started and I hated it. And after a few weeks a mate of mine got in touch with me and we went and had a drink together. And he worked on the paper that the, Times no? AS: Financial Times? JS: Financial Times. AS: The pink one. JS: And he said ‘How would you like a job on the Financial Times?’ ‘Oh, not half’. I said. ‘I’ll see what I can do’. And the next thing I know is I’m offered a job by them. I went up, saw them, they liked me, I liked them and I went to work for them, and it was up and up from then onwards. I went out on the road eventually, had a good job as a rep and eventually went out on the road and did very well. Maxwell. AS: Yeah. JS: My first client, I’ve told you haven’t I? Three months I gave him his work. Did lots of [inaudible] for him, never got a penny. When I went to get money from him he was rude to me and told me to get stuffed and all sort of things. So I said ‘That’s it, we’re finished with you’. And we did but I carried on and I had some very good clients in the end and they liked me and also the women liked me, so I had lots of women clients. And they all liked Joe and I was getting more money. Before I knew where I was I was doing very well and over the years I’ve done very well. AS: How did you meet and marry Pat? JS: On a train. I was flying, it was just before I went to the Far East when I was still flying Dakotas, and I went, I took a couple of days off. And a mate said to me ‘Let’s go down the coast for a couple of days and have a break’. So I said ‘What a good idea’. And my Dad didn’t want me to because he knew that I’d go boozing. I said ‘So?’ Anyway, I went. We get to the station, we get to the train, there isn’t room to spare. We walked right the length of the train [inaudible] and in the last carriage, eight women were in there, but nobody moved. So, we stood outside all the way to Plymouth and at Plymouth two got out, and we went in and used their seats. And I took one look at this woman opposite me and I fell in love with her, now I did. I know I’m a romantic but there and then. So, the next day I looked and saw she had a wedding ring and an engagement ring. I thought ‘Bloody marvellous, every time I fancy some girl someone else has got there first’. So the next day we were talking casually and she said she was a widow. Oh, lost her husband shot down over Poland flying the aircraft [inaudible]. So on the third day I asked her to marry me. She thought I was crazy. ‘Good God man’. She said. ‘I don’t even know your name, never mind marry you’. I said ‘Would you marry me?’ She thought about and she said ‘Put it this way, I’ll think about it’. I said ’Look, I’m going away any moment now, like tomorrow or the day after, to the Far East. I don’t know how long I’m going to be going but I’ll be gone probably about a year. And I’d like to know’. She said ‘I’m not going to say anything. I’ll think about it’. So she wrote to me during the first year and when I came home I asked her again, and we got married. So, I did well didn’t I? [laughs] AS: Absolutely. JS: She said something to me about two years ago. She’d wet herself in the home down the road there, and I went to change her knickers for her and I changed her knickers in the toilet and I whispered in her ear ‘What a good job I love you to death’. Do you know what she said to me? ‘Joe, I’ve loved you from the moment I first saw you’. Christ I was nearly in tears. AS: On the train? JS: Um. So I said ‘You’re a funny girl’. I knew see, and of course we got on very well over the years but she used to write me nice letters. Even when the Queen sends us a card. There’s a certain period of the year when the Queen sends us a card. Because we’ve got some connection with them. And she usually writes in the Queen’s letter or card a nice letter to me. Always a nice letter saying how much she loves being married to me and what a marvellous life she’s had. And that was how it went. AS: And did you ever talk about the war and the flying between you? JS: No. AS: Because she’d lost her husband? JS: We never did. Only time she said something was when I did say at one time, ‘I should have stayed in you know Pat?’ ‘What do you mean you should have stayed in?’ I said ‘All my mates who stayed in did a great job, doing, working for Europe, buying stuff in Europe and coming over after the war you know? They were making a fortune on the side. AS: It’s called smuggling Joe. [laughter] JS: It is just that. So I said, she said ‘Joe, I’ve told you I lost one husband and I’m not going to take another one, it’s up to you’. I said [inaudible] So we were married. Sixty-five years we were married. AS: Good lord. JS: Never had a cross word with her hardly in all that time. My girls could never understand it. ‘You and Mum’ they said ‘You get on so well’. I said ‘Well, that’s what life’s supposed to be like, getting on well.’ Well now you know a lot about that book. AS: I’d like to photograph the book in a minute Joe. Just one final set of thoughts really, perhaps? That we talked about your father’s attitude to the bombing. JS: Oh yeah. AS: The public’s attitude through the fifties and sixties and the seventies, I think was, in many ways, was much against the bombing although you didn’t talk about it. JS: No. AS: Did you feel it was unfair? Did you shout internally about it or? JS: They felt that we were taking advantage of the fact that the Germans were in trouble with Russia and when they were in their worst state we were taking advantage and bombing them badly. Which we did. I never discussed that, it never gave me a thought. When you fly you’re told what you told, you go where you’re told to go, and do what you’ve got to do. And that’s all I can say. I couldn’t say to them ‘Oh I’m not going to bomb there, I’m not going to go there’. You do what you’re told. I didn’t even want to belong to Bomber Command but once you’re are, you’re there aren’t you? AS: And you had no choice about where you went? JS: No. AS: When you were flying, this has just occurred to me, did you have a lot of, I mean the enemies were the flak, the fighters and the weather. Did you have a lot of trouble with the weather? JS: No. If the weather was bad we didn’t go. [inaudible] Our raid were also worked on how the weather was going to be on the way and on the way back,. ‘cause we had to get back from Germany, it wasn’t like round the corner it was a six hour trip sometimes. And basically we did well. Occasionally we did come unstuck. In which case we had to find somewhere to land as soon as we hit this coast. Which we did, we went to a smaller ‘drome in south of England. AS: OK. JS: Went in there on two or three occasions. I’ve been down there and found the place full of Halifax’s, and bombers and all sorts that had run out of fuel. AS: So, is it fair to say that the weather reports you were given, or forecasts were pretty good most of the time? JS: They were very good. AS: OK. JS: I think I mentioned this. Just before I joined the squadron, I met some mates of mine who were in a similar squadron but they were flying Whitley’s and Wellingtons, and they hated the flying so what they did was, and this is an absolute truth, there used to be a song. ‘Bomb holes in the roof tops, instead of craters in the sea’. What had happened was, they’d be having a drink and the skipper would come in. ‘Don’t have any more drink lads, we’re on tonight’. ‘Oh, sod it, have we got to go?’ ‘Yes’. ‘Oh, alright.’ They’d take off, get half way across the coast then they’d say to each other ‘Let’s have a go’. So they’d all have a go at the skipper. ‘Have we got to go? This is bloody silly, really isn’t it? Why can’t we dump our bombs here and go back home? The navigator can cook the log’. Which he could, so they did. And it went on and on. At that period there were more bombs dropped in the bloody sea than ever dropped over there. And then they found out what they were doing, ‘cause the next morning they’d go down and they’d say ‘That’s funny, they reckon they dropped all the bombs, where did they drop them? We can’t find any bomb holes anywhere’. Spitfire would go over. They decided they must do something about it so they fitted a new attachment like that, to a camera, to the bomb tit. So when you pressed the bomb tit it showed you where the bombs were going. So you couldn’t get away with it anymore. [laughs] AS: So, this was automatic, so many seconds after the bombs went? JS: Um. But there was an awful lot of it. And when you think of the aircraft, they were pathetic aircraft, you know? You didn’t stand a chance really with them. At least with our aircraft we had good aircraft. I mean the Lancaster and Halifax were both fantastic bombers. And well looked after, well good. AS: Can you remember still, and I don’t expect this, but can you remember the drills you had to do as the bomb aimer as you’re approaching the target? JS: Any? AS: The drills. Did you have to set the wind up or? Too long ago? JS: No, as I recall, I did most of it, I didn’t do them all. But we had to get, as I recall. We used to lay on our stomach and we got our bomb sight lined up with where we had to drop the bombs. And generally speaking I was either very lucky, not always so clever, but very lucky. Consequently, I had some very, very good results and we got a big reputation. I told you, on the bombs on that railway, I blew the station from one end to the other. Right down the line, blew everything out of the way. And so I got congratulated on it. And on a number of occasions I was, I personally was congratulated, which was such a shame when I hit the Scarborough bit. [laughter] AS: OK. I think we’ve had a really good go at this Joe, I’m – JS: Haven’t we, I’m sorry. AS: No, I’m so grateful for you. And perhaps we could resume another day? JS: Yes. AS: When maybe some more memories will come back. JS: Next time I’ll take you out to have something to eat. It’s been nice, I’m not giving you bullshit now. It’s been nice to meet you, you’re exactly as I thought you would be and I’ve enjoyed your company. And if you ever want to come again, not necessarily to chat even, you’re always welcome here with me. AS: That’s very kind and I will. JS: Sorry. AS: This is the second reel of interview with Joe Stemp. Joe, I think we paused at the point when we were talking about your disappointment at – JS: At losing. Yes. Scrubbing my pilot’s skills. AS: Did they. What happened next? Did they give you the choice of being a navigator or? JS: Not really, I don’t know. All I know is that for some months I did odds and ends around and the next thing I know is I’m at Blackpool, going out to South Africa to do this navigation course. AS: What sort of odds and ends did they have you doing? JS: Oh, I did all sorts of things for them, I was most surprised they let me do it really. I quite enjoyed it, it was quite enjoyable. I was up at Blackpool for some time and, you know, I quite enjoyed the Air Force. I had intended to go for a pilot’s course, another one, and try again but I realised that they’d got all the records and I would never have got away with it. AS: So, you’d come out then and enlist under a different name or something? JS: Yeah. AS: OK. So, after they’d had you doing odds and ends, you’re in Liverpool, presumably going to South Africa by ship? JS: Yes, we did. AS: What was that like? JS: Marvellous. I found a lot of good friends out there. East London was where I trained and the people of East London were very good to us. Families would adopt us so at the weekend we always had somewhere to go. And I was adopted by a family and they liked me and we had good times together, the Carter family. I had a very good time in South Africa, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only thing that ever got me was she had a lot of other children, they weren’t hers. She had seven people working for her. She had people working for her, a family of seven and they lived in a rough old shack down the bottom of her garden. Well if I treated her children to sweets I treated their children. And she found out and I got a real bollocking. I mustn’t, she said ‘You don’t seem to realise, Joe, there’s more of them then us’. I said ‘It’s got nothing to do with it’. But, and I’ve always had this thing about it, the way they treated them. AS: Was there any, did you encounter any anti-British feeling in South Africa? JS: No, not really no. Not really. ‘Cause funny enough the Air Force weren’t very popular in South Africa, they weren’t very popular at all. I don’t know why, amongst the South African’s this is, I wasn’t unhappy to leave on that score. The course was very good, very interesting and we flew nearly every day. The weather was so good you could, you see We flew nearly every day. AS: So, you were there doing a specific navigators course or an observers course? JS: An observers course really. I was doing navigators and bomb aiming too. I did bombing as well. In fact, it was a brilliant – by the time I joined my crew on the Halifax I was the most experienced member of the crew really, although I was the youngest. It’s amazing isn’t it? AS: So, you’d had training on navigation and bomb aiming? What else did you manage to pick up? JS: Pilot training as well, you see, when I started, you see. AS: Of course. JS: I always remember when the war was over, I came home, and my skipper arranged to meet me in Ealing and we’d have a drink together. And we got terribly drunk and then got into trouble because we really let go. And I swore, I said ‘I’m not going to argue with you anymore. We’ll leave it to another time and finish this conversation’. And I walked out and left him. And I never did see him again, and I never did see him again because a couple of years later, out of the blue I found out he died early, so I never did get to see him. AS: Can you discuss what the argument was about? JS: Well first of all, I said the crew came to me at one period during our tour and said ‘You’re the best person to talk to him. Can you tell him that we are not here for the ride? We are part of this crew and we all have our jobs to do. Every time we say anything he completely ignores us’. So I said ‘In what –‘ So one of the gunners said ‘I told him, dive starboard’. I said. ‘How we got missed, I never know’. And all this sort of thing, he said ‘He never, ever listens to what we’re saying’. So I said ‘OK, I’ll have a word with him’. Because only the pilot and the navigator went into the main briefing. When the main briefing was over then the whole crew came in, and they all came in and after the briefing he went outside and he said ‘I believe you’re all upset with me?’ ‘Oh no’. And I stood there and I thought here I am, eighteen years old, I’ve learnt a lesson for life. Don’t talk up for other people, let them do it themselves. And I never. [laughs] And they all virtually. [inaudible] He said ‘Ha’. And I said ‘I don’t give a [inaudible], you either don’t want to know or you do, and I don’t care now’. We carried on, and in fairness he was a good pilot. And we had incidents as one does when one’s flying but basically I was very happy and we did a good job. I don’t think, I never wanted to go into bombers anyway. But as I say he was a funny guy. We went from there, as I told you, onto Dakotas, and the two of us were flying, learning to fly Dakotas at the same time. And then we flew out to the Far East with the object of the invasion of Japan, but they dropped the bomb and fortunately for us we didn’t have to invade Japan. So we ended up by doing anything out there that they needed. For example, we picked up most of the prisoners of war, our prisoners of war, and brought them back to India. Anywhere to get, you know? And we did all sorts of jobs with the Dakota. I always remember getting a whole group of these ex-prisoners. They were like, oh God it was awful, six stone some of them aAnd they didn’t want to get on the aircraft. They said ‘No, we’re going to get killed’. I said ‘We’ll be flying the bloody thing’. Anyway they got on, no seats, we just sat them on the floor. ‘Anyway, it’s only a couple of hours or so and then you’ll be out of here and on your way home’. But we did some very good jobs out there, I enjoyed it, but when he finally went home I didn’t want to fly with anybody else so they put me in charge of the post office in Karachi of all things. AS: But it sounds like a fascinating marriage almost. JS: Um. AS: One hears of crewing up and how the crew is terribly tight knit. JS: Um. AS: Doesn’t seem really – JS: It’s not true. AS: To have been the case for you. JS It’s not true. I know so many crews that were good and they were crews. They mixed together, they went out together, they worked together, they were part of a team. But my crew lasted, there were three of us, were good friends. The flight engineer and one of the gunners and I. The three of us were great friends. The flight engineer was a regular airman and he was coming, and he didn’t ever want to be in aircrew, and he was coming out with a load of stuff on his bike one day and just for a joke the guy on the desk said ‘What have you got there?’ And he’d got half a joint. He said ‘Where are you going with that?’ He was taking it to the Officers’ Mess. He’d nicked it from somewhere. It got into a big battle between him and the CO and they virtually said ‘We’ll give you an option. You can join aircrew and we’ll drop the charges or else’. And he didn’t want, he was scared. I’d been with him when poor old Tom. And I’d seen him gripping hold of the thing and I said ‘Don’t worry, we’ll be alright’. But he never did like flying. He was a good, he was a good flight engineer, but he hated flying, he was petrified. AS: But still did his job? JS: He did his job. When we finished the tour for some unknown reason, we all disappeared. Even he did you know? But he turned up again to say to me that he was going on Dakotas and he wanted me to come with him. So I did. As a pilot he was good, he knew what he was doing. As a man I wasn’t happy with him at all. AS: Was he an officer? Was he an officer? JS: He was a flight lieutenant. AS: Do you think this was part of the issue with the crew? JE: No, no. He was, he always fancied his chances. I had a feeling that he thought he was a bit cleverer and brighter than the others but actually, when it came down to it, he lived just round the corner from where I lived at home. Alright, I lived in a council estate and he didn’t, but he was nothing special and he had a very nice wife who he, I thought, treated abominably. Because there had been times when I was with him when we’d have awful rows. Because we’d be out, well I didn’t mind the other boys shagging around all over the place, but I did object to him doing it. And we’ve had so many rows over this over the years. When he, I, so for years went by and I was down in Guildford and I was sitting there and I got hold of the directory. And I looked there and there was his name in the directory. And I said ‘Good God, I’ll ring him up’. So I rang him up and a voice said, a very posh voice said ‘Hello, who’s that?’ I said, ‘It’s Joe Stemp’. ‘My God man, that’s’s going back a bit, my God’ she said ‘Fancy that’. And she kept going on and on but she didn’t mention him. I thought ‘She kicked him out, she must have done’. But she didn’t, he died a couple of years after, after I’d separated from him. With a heart attack. AS: Lot of strain, lot of stress in operational life. JS: It was yes, yeah. AS: You raise an interesting issue actually about sex in wartime. JS: Um. AS: I think, yeah, my generation thought they invented sex. Every generation thinks they invented sex. [laughter] It’s not something one hears a great deal about. JS: You know why don’t you? They didn’t like aircrew. The girls would not, did not, like going out with aircrew ‘cause they said you could never guarantee he was going to be there on Friday, which happens. They’d fall for one and then the chap just wouldn’t appear again. We lost so many men that women were very careful about who they went with, especially flying men. So I’m told. I never had a girlfriend, I didn’t really worry. I found a girlfriend at the right time when it was all over. AS: But amongst your crew mates there was a lot of? JS: Oh God, they used to take me with them. It was, I was embarrassed. And they used to, they started off first of all thinking I was queer because I didn’t want to know, then to stir things up they always got somebody for me. Some awful woman that they’d dump, and I’d get left with this. Oh God, yes they were always after me. The thing was I wasn’t very old either when you think about it was I? Only about eighteen. AS: I won’t ask you who you were more terrified of, the flak or the ladies? JS: [laughter] We had lots of incidents when I was flying but I’ll tell you a story. I didn’t do many daylight trips, mostly night trips, long night trips. I was on this day trip and the rear gunner said to me, called over, and we didn’t have a lot of chat when we were flying. And he called over the tannoy, ‘Joe, look ahead of you. See that Lanc, that Halifax on the right, that’s old Charlie Whatisname’. So I looked and I thought ‘Dunno’. I thought ‘Perhaps he’s right, yeah’. I said, ‘I think it’, and before I could say another word he disappeared into little bits. A Lancaster above dropped his bloody bombs on the. Honestly, and it blew him out of the sky. And I turned round to the crew and I said ‘I’d never really got worried about flying, but this has done me in, I can’t believe what I’ve just seen.. Terrible. AS: And not unique? JS: No,it wasn’t, it happened a lot. Crashing into each other, bombs on each other. I mean, in some of these big raids where we had hundreds of bombers there was terrible mess ups all the way through you know? AS: What sort of things? JS: I’m a strange guy. People used to say ‘You’re an amazing guy. You don’t seem to realise it’s a dangerous job you’re doing’. I said ‘Well it’s quite exciting really’. And that’s the way I saw it you see? It wasn’t until I watched him go and I suddenly thought ‘Christ, it’s dangerous up here’. But I was never nervous and I was never scared, honestly, because we had a job to do. I was quite happy. But he was, we’ve had, I had lots of problems with him, the skipper. When we flew together out in India different story entirely. I did a lot of flying with him. AS: As a second pilot were you responsible for the navigational duties as well or did you carry a navigator? JS: We had a navigator. AS: So, you were sharing take offs, landings and the flying? JS: In fact, the guy who was our navigator at that time with the Dakotas, I have to tell you this story. We were flying out to the Far East, we’d done two legs when suddenly the aircraft got into trouble. So we put it in at Tel Aviv in Israel and they said they’d examine the aircraft. While we were there two days we met a couple of girls. Just chatted normally, we took them out and had drinks and enjoyed their company and that was it. Thoroughly enjoyed it, ‘Bye, bye, see you some time’. Years later, I went to see this navigator, and I had a feeling that it wasn’t right ‘cause when I rang him his wife used to give him the information what to say, and I had a feeling he didn’t know. I think he had Alzheimer’s, I think he didn’t know what he was saying. So anyway, I went down to see him and we had quite an interesting visit. And I did a silly thing, I said to him ‘Do you remember the crash in the Wellington?’ And he looked at me all surprised, and his wife was standing behind him going. So, I thought ‘OK, stop it, that’s it’. He obviously had forgotten, one doesn’t forget crashes. So, I said ‘That’s it’. So when I left I get into my car, he had a posh house in Torbay, he came rushing down the thing and banged on the window. ‘Here, Joe’ he said, ‘Do you remember those two girls we met in Tel Aviv?’ and I said, ‘For Christ’s sake’. We had a terrible crash and I don’t know how we ever got away with it and he says, he’d forgotten that and he was talking about two girls that we met just casually. Isn’t that amazing? AS: The memory is a funny thing. What was the crash as a matter of interest? JS: I tell you what it was. And it was, my skipper wasn’t at the helm. We’d done a navigation course at which I was working and we ended up somewhere outside, that island, between England and Ireland. AS: Isle of Man? JS: Isle of Man. We parked in there and we were taking off to go back home, and we’d only been in the air about ten minutes when the operator came up and said ‘I’ve got a message, Joe, to be passed through’. The message was ‘Return to the Isle of Man because the weather in the North, in Scotland, is so bad they won’t take us in’. So I gave this to my pilot who gave it to the other man who was flying, the flight lieutenant we don’t know him. ‘Sod that’ he said. ‘I told my wife we’re going home tonight and I’m going home tonight’. Well we had no answer to this, he was in charge, he was the skipper, so off we went. When we get there it is foul. Lossiemouth, Kinloss, none of them would take us in. So we went to a little place called Elgin and he decided he’d go in there. Instead of going into wind he went downwind, took the bloody barbed wire fence with him. I watched it pull all the skin off the aircraft as I sat there, and eventually it ended on, there’s a, they used to raise dumps and put the grass round, you know, and it was a bomb dump. And as soon as we managed eventually to stop, there was nobody rushing to our aid, they’d all buggered off, running away ‘cause they thought. [laughter] I’ll never forget it. So I caught them up and we finished there and he wasn’t a mid-upper gunner because we hadn’t got a mid-upper turret. But we were keeping him for when we went onto heavies. And he went up to this officer and he walloped him. And of course everybody grabbed him. And I thought, said to my gunner ‘Joe it’s [inaudible]’’. Anyway, they didn’t. I think he lost his commission. I think he was charged ‘cause he was definitely told he mustn’t return. How the hell we got away with it I’ll never know. AS: So, this is when you were back in England? JS: Yeah. AS: Crewed up? JS: I’d crewed up but we were crewed up on Wellingtons you see? AS: OK, whereabouts was that? JS: I can’t think now. AS: Doesn’t matter. This was what OTU? JS: Like an OTU yes. This is where I first met my pilot and the other crew got together. We were crewed up as a crew. We had a strange crew. Lots of crews I’ve met over the years have been ideal. But there were some strange crews. AS: Strange in what sense? How did you, how did you meet and fall in love as it were? How did you crew up the? JS: They put us all together in this big hangar with drinks to follow, and you had the chance, people would come up and say, if they fancied you ‘Are you crewed up?’ ‘No’. ‘You’re not looking for an engineer?’ ‘Yeah, yeah’. It was all, you know, we ended up with, they were quite a mixed crowd really. Some of the crews were great, they got on so well together. They were a real team. But we couldn’t say that with Henley, ‘cause Ken Henley was an arrogant bastard really. I – AS: Who was, can you remember, who was in charge of the crewing up? Did he take the lead? Did you take the lead? JS: No, I did meet, I met two chaps who were talking together and I said to them, I liked the look of them you know? And I said to them ‘Are you crewed up?’ ‘No, not yet’.[inaudible]. He and I had just met, his gunner and his engineer had just met, and I said, ‘You haven’t got a crew?’ ‘No’. I said ‘Oh, could I join you?’ They said ‘Yeah, sure. Who are you flying with?’ And I said ‘Well I’ve got a skipper but I don’t know whether you’d like him or not?’ But they said ‘Oh sod him, we’ll have you’. And that’s how we got together. There were funny things happen with crews during the war. Very funny things used to happen. AS: What sort of things? JS: Well, my skipper for example was, he was a terrible womaniser in every possible way. And also he, what he said the crew agreed. In other words the crew used to say ‘He thinks he’s the only one on board. I don’t know why we all go with him ‘cause he doesn’t bother, you’d think he was the only one. He forgets there should be seven of us’. He did, and he did do this and I used to say to him ‘You must be more careful, Ken, with their feelings’. ‘I mean’ I said ‘When the other night’. One of the operators did something and he virtually turned him down. ‘He was absolutely right and you know it was’, I said, ‘Through him and through you ignoring him, we were five minutes late’ I said ‘We ended up that we would have reached the target five minutes after the other buggers had left’. I said ‘It wouldn’t have been a lot of fun’. And it got worse and worse and the nearer we got to the target, they kept coming up to me and saying ‘Joe, for Christ’s sake, tell him’. So I did. I mentioned ‘This is stupid. There’s no point on going on like this, we’re going to get shot to pieces in a minute, ‘cause we’re going to be the only ones up here’. And he at last agrees so we dropped all the bombs and we came home on our own. But it would have been awful. AS: Going back to your accident up in Elgin. Were you ever aware of an organisation called the Training Flying Control Centre on the Isle of Man? That - JS: No. AS: That sent all these signals? JS: No. AS: My mother worked for them. JS: Really? Good Lord. AS: Yep. ‘Cause you and lots and lots of aircrews were training over the Irish Sea and they used to fly into mountains and fly into the sea. So they started this Training Flight Control Centre and they would be the people probably who sent you the recall message. JS: Yeah. AS: So, you were crewing up and learning the art of operational flying on Wellingtons? What were they like as kites? Were they new or old and clapped out? What were they like? JS: Wellingtons? AS: Yeah. JE: Loved it. Loved ‘em. Oh, I was very keen on the Wellington. I liked the Wimpey, we all did. In fact, I was sorry when we started first of all on the Halifax. My, I must tell you this chap, one of my crew, the engineer he hated flying, he was absolutely scared stiff. But he had to, I think I told you because of an incident. But there were so many things. He was a professional airman too. He’d been in the Air Force before the war, the last thing he wanted to do was fly. But he was threatened so he had to start flying. And I used to try to comfort him because he I found he used to get so, so upset. I can see him standing there, holding onto things. He hated it, he hated ops. But he didn’t like upsetting us so he came with us. It wasn’t an easy job you know at times. We went out in some awful weather and did some awful trips, long trips. We were coming back from that big one, where we should never have dropped the bombs, we did because of the Russians. AS: Dresden? JS: Yes. And I said to my crew, ‘Now look’ I said. ‘Don’t for Christ’s sake put this in your logbook, ‘cause the time will come when you’ll be most embarrassed to know, or anybody else know, that you actually bombed here, like we’ve done’. ‘Well’ they said ‘All we’ve done is drop’. We didn’t drop explosive bombs. So, I said, I said ‘The best thing to do is forget all about it’. Because, I mean, fifty yards from the target, I looked back and the Americans had come in and they decided to bomb, and there was a lot of bombing going on. It was awful. AS: So even, even as, you were carrying incendiaries? Even as you were over the target what made you think not to put it in your logbook? Just the? JS: The fact that we realised we shouldn’t have been there anyway. I didn’t feel we should have bombed there. They said, they said ‘It’s the Russians, we’re doing it to please Russia’. Perhaps we are, but nobody seemed happy about it. None of the crews that I flew with that day said to me anything. They all had a bit of an indiscretion, they all felt a bit bad about that one. AS: This was after the briefing? JS: Um. AS: What did they say then, just that it was to help the Russians, at the briefing? JS: Well they said it would help the trouble on that front, you know? The following day the Americans went in but they didn’t have incendiaries, they had high explosives, they blew the place apart. AS: Before we got to your operational missions, you were, how long did it take on the Wellingtons, on the OTU? What sort – JS: A long time. AS: What sort of things were you doing? JS: A lot of training on the Wellington. I loved that on the Wellingtons. Apart from the crash we had a great time. I thought it was a lovely aircraft, always did. This guy who was flying it he was, he’d had a flat near the ‘drome, and he promised his missus he was going home, regardless of us. Regardless of [inaudible] that the weather was bad or that they weren’t going to take us into Kinloss or Lossiemouth. And he still carried on. Well, he was in charge, we weren’t. So, you just do what you’re told don’t you? AS: So he was a staff pilot from the OTU? JS: Oh yeah, yeah. I think he lost his rank, I think he lost his job. I don’t remember afterwards anything happening. All I know is that we were. We didn’t realise why people were running away from us, not coming to our aid. Because we were on the bloody bomb dump that’s why. AS: So, I imagine that it wasn’t quite the same then nowadays. Did you get leave and counselling or anything like that? JS: Well, when we were flying on ops we had leave about every month. We had a week off and not only did we have a week off but Lord, was it Nuffield? AS: Nuffield yeah. JS: Used to give us extra money. Did you know that? AS: Yes. JS: For aircrew, most unusual. And I used to always have a white fiver to give to my Mum. And when I used to go home I used to give my Mum the white fiver, she used to rush up the stairs and hide it. And years later, couple of years, she gave it all back to me to put in the Crusader Rescue. I said ‘I’m not going to do it. It isn’t for the Crusader Rescue, it’s for you’. But no we had a, we did quite well, we had leave quite regularly. AS: After your accident did they give you leave? Or just put you in another aeroplane? JS: No. After our accident we were flying a different ‘plane the next day to make sure we were all alright, ‘cause they thought perhaps you know we’d not want to fly again. AS: At this time when you’re flying over England, over Europe, I’m told it was very different from flying in South Africa. How did you find it, did you pick up the navigation in Europe very quickly? JS: Yes. Lots of room. Lovely weather, lots of room. The pilots actually that were training with us were South African Air Force pilots. And one in particular he’d got a couple of girlfriends. And he used to bugger me up because I’d be on a navigation trip and he’d say ‘I won’t be long, Joe, I’m just going to pull off for a bit’. And off he’d go off to up where his girlfriend lived. Then we, then I wouldn’t bloody know where we were, and I’ve got to find out. No, it was a bit of a headache with him. He was a nice enough guy but he was mad. AS: During your training, it was all. What sort of navigation did you learn? JS: I don’t know, it’s hard to say now. AS: Astro and? JS: Yes, yeah we did the lot you know. AS: Astro Course JS: It was a very good course. Navigator. And of course in the end we had H2S and these things on the aircraft too. AS: In South Africa? JS: Oh no. When we came home. AS: Yes. JS: Um. AS: So, you’d done your training. Did you come back by ship? JS: Yes, I did. AS: What was that like on the ship? JS: Hated it. I was taken ill actually and I spent most of the way home in the sick bay. And I was put in a hospital when we first arrived home. I forget what was the matter with me but I know I wasn’t right. I always remember we came home on one of those famous liners we used before the war, you know? AS: Queen Elizabeth or Queen Mary? JS: Yeah, that sort of thing, yeah. AS: Wow. JS: Amazing. AS: And can you, can you remember the trip? Were you in convoy or? JS: Yes, that was the trouble. When we were going out we had huge convoys. It took ages, it took about three weeks to get to South Africa. And also, another time, I remember flying alongside in North Africa. There were tremendous problems out there. It was, you always made a convoy around you to keep you safe, you know? So many of these things I’ve forgot but it was quite an interesting time. AS: Yeah. It’s a long time ago, forgetting is not surprising. But when we talk it’s surprising how much comes back I think. You came back, did you come back into Liverpool from South Africa? JS: Yes. AS: OK. JS: And we stopped also, I always remember. We went to a very posh place and stopped there. All aircrew and we were crewed up, we crewed up there. I have met some really nice guys in aircrew during the war. I was unhappy about my bloke but the thing was you couldn’t afford to be. When you’re flying with someone you’ve got to get on and do what’s going. So we did the best we could. He was a good pilot, he was a bit nervous. On one occasion only did he panic. We had an explosion underneath us and he called out to me ‘Joe, Joe, they’ve shot my arse away’. So I said ‘What are you talking about?’ So I went up to him and he said ‘Look, blood, blood!’ And I said ‘For Christ’s sake’. So we got a torch out of the engine, they hadn’t shot his arse away, they had shot underneath, and in doing so they he had, it wasn’t blood it was oil! And he was panic stricken ‘cause he had a handful of oil and he thought it was blood. But he was alright generally but I wasn’t happy with him. I would never have anything to do with him in private life ever. AS: But you were an extremely effective crew? JS: Yes. We were a good crew. We were a good crew. The only thing that we did wrong was the end of my tour and I bombed Scarborough. AS: I was born in Scarborough. JS: Were you really? AS: Yes. I take great exception to that Joe, tell me about it. JS: We took off, aircraft was a deadbeat aircraft, full load of bombs. Got in the sky and he said to me ‘Christ, Joe, we’re in trouble’. And the next thing is, one of the engines packed up. I said ‘For God’s sake, Ken, let’s get out of here’. We had a load of bombs, let’s. I said ‘Make for Scarborough and we’ll get to the beach and we’ll drop the bombs in the sea there’. So he said ‘OK’. So we got to Scarborough and got lower and lower and lower, and then suddenly he said ‘Look we’ve got to get.’ So I pressed the tit. I pressed the tit that would send them down ‘live’ instead of ‘safe’, and they nearly blew us out of the sky. The poor old rear gunner was nearly. And there was a terrible incident there. ‘Joe Stemp bombs Scarborough’. Christ. So when we got back we explained what had happened and they, he didn’t exactly help me. So I had to go on a switch drill campaign, just to embarrass me really you know. I thought perhaps they’d stop us but we carried on just the same afterwards, but I always remember that. We didn’t do much damage, it wasn’t too bad. But they always joked about Joe Stemp the bloke that bombed Scarborough. AS: So what were you, as a nav, doing with the bombs? JS: I don’t know. I don’t know how it happened, it was panic stations that day. AS: You just don’t like Yorkshiremen do you? JS: [laughter] Lots of things I don’t remember. But we had, the crew weren’t too bad as a crew I suppose but I wasn’t terribly happy. AS: Well, I’m, I’m interested actually about the ropey kite. Did you have your own aircraft as a crew mostly for the tour? JS: Yes, well we had an aircraft. And it had done a hundred ops.. AS: What was her letter? JS: I can’t think. AS: Doesn’t matter. JS: Anyway, the night of the hundred ops. The big arrangement there were lots of people turned up, we were going to have a big celebration, but something went wrong. Unbeknown to us, in the group coming back, was about thirty German fighters. And they didn’t make themselves known until they got over here. And when we got to Yorkshire they opened up and shot twenty of us down. AS: Oh, this is Operation Gisela is it? Yes. JS: Um. AS: Were you attacked? JS: Um. So my skipper said. I said ‘Well we better get down’. So he went to land and they tried to put him off landing, but he said ‘Sod it, we’re going in’. Well as we did and as we went there was an aircraft chasing us, shooting at us as we went down. We dived under the aircraft. Stupid our aircraft [inaudible] but of course the incidents, all the festivities forgotten. So the hundredth op just passed by. But it was a bad night, we lost a lot of aircraft. Lost a lot of aircraft that night and then the squadron broke up. And I had to join 77 ‘cos I think I’d done eighteen ops and I needed twelve more and so we joined 77 and finished the twelve with 77. AS: As a complete crew? JS: Yeah. AS: Why did they break the squadron up, because of the losses? JS: Yes, I think so. It was 578 the squadron was. It broke, they just closed it down. AS: Good Lord. So, a very, very short existence? JS: Um. I can’t imagine now why. I’ve often sat there when I’ve been on my own trying to think, ‘cause we had lots of fun on the station. Aircrew were always jolly chaps and we had singing and drinking and driving. And I had a motorbike and sidecar you see, I used to take them into York. AS: The whole crew? JS: Yeah. Well not him, not the skipper, but we’d get the rest on there. And the Police used to think, we used to think ‘They’re gonna nick us’. But I think the Police used to say ‘Poor buggers, might as well enjoy it, might not be here tomorrow’. So they let us get away with it. Oh, I drove yeah. AS: Were there generally a lot of losses on 578? Not just that one night? JS: No, there were a lot of losses. Um. AS: Yeah. I know it’s a long time ago but can you remember how you felt at the time about that, about people? JS: No, I can’t, honestly. I’ve thought about, ‘cause Emily is the journalist who was involved in their magazine and she went into it in a big way. But I can’t, I was too young and too excited to worry about what was happening. I was very excited about what we were doing. I never minded going on ops. I never worried. I said the only time I really got upset was when old Charlie Whatisname blew up out of the sky in front of me. And that really did upset me. I thought ‘For Christ’s sake. That’s in the middle of nowhere, here he is ‘Bang’. but no. AS: Shall we pause and go and have a spot of lunch? JS: Yes. I’d like that. I do go on a bit. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Joe Stemp Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Adam Sutch Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-10-16 Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context AStempJE151016, PStempJ1502 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Language A language of the resource eng Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Royal Air Force. Bomber Command Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 02:12:37 audio recording Description An account of the resource Joe was a navigator with 578 Squadron and later with 77 Squadron, flying Halifaxes and then Dakotas. Joe has a sister and a brother. His brother ended his service with the Royal Air Force after an accident on a dinghy drill course left him deaf in one ear. Before joining up, Joe was working full time in a housing agency and he was just 17 when he signed up for the Royal Air Force, wanting to be a fighter pilot. Joe tells about his training in South Africa, and how he crewed up, as well as his uncomfortable relationship with his pilot. He also tells of how he did his planning – on the spot. Joe remembers seeing the lights in the sky at Ealing, from the bombs falling during the Battle of Britain. He also tells of his encounter with a man who gave away the Sacred Heart that his mother had given him, and how that man’s crew failed to return. Joe talks about how he was always sure he was going to return after an operation. Joe recalls the story of seeing another Bomber Command aircraft blowing up in front of him and of watching a Lancaster aircraft dropping its bombs onto other aircraft below. He tells of the effect that lack of moral fibre had on the unit he was with. Joe was a bomb aimer with 77 Squadron and was due to be presented with a Distinguished Flying Medal; however, it was taken away from him after he dropped live bombs on Scarborough instead of safe ones into the sea. Joe talks about the heavy losses suffered by Bomber Command, his feelings on the bombings later in the war, including the bombing of Dresden. He was also involved in Operation Gisela, which led to 30 German fighters shooting down 20 Bomber Command Aircraft. Joe finished the war having completed 30 operations. He met Pat on a train and they were married for 65 years. He proposed before he headed off to the Far East. Joe ran a post office in India and took a job with the Financial Times newspaper Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--London England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough South Africa Germany Germany--Dresden Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Vivienne Tincombe Maureen Clarke Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1945 578 Squadron 77 Squadron aircrew bomb aimer bomb struck bombing bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945) bombing of Hamburg (24-31 July 1943) C-47 coping mechanism crewing up Distinguished Flying Medal entertainment faith fear Halifax lack of moral fibre Lancaster love and romance navigator recruitment rivalry superstition https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/501/22343/EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0001.jpg 2d53cd2733fa2eba85461ad0f699a301 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/501/22343/EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0002.jpg 8c0f3138ee0ea9af6929c93d3efcdd6e https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/501/22343/EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0003.jpg bf3b5024dc8927fc82bb01d7718fbbf0 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/501/22343/EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0004.jpg 6e984410413598a7e07da9978a000244 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/501/22343/EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0005.jpg 971c05b9b3626c029036b44b2f0a97ff https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/501/22343/EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0006.jpg ef7ace6ab39a2200b6b13798036a2a2d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Curnock, Richard Richard Murdock Curnock R M Curnock Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Curnock, RM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-04-18 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Description An account of the resource 92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war. The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter. Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document U/S posting wef 13/1 [postmark] [postage stamps] [indecipherable word] 201/239 WINB W. [deleted] O. WARD A. OR SGT. D. CURNOCK, Sunnycroft, 59, Minehead St, Leicester. U.K. [page break] From:- 167580 F/L Woodhead A. [postmark] [page break] 167580 F/L Woodhead. A. c/o 83, Tennyson Avenue, Scarborough, Yorks. 15th January 1946 Dear Dickie Thanks for the photographs and letter it was very good of you to remember me. If you happen to come across any others I would be very pleased to have a copy. Did any of ‘Jacks’ photographs ot the ones taken in the ‘yard’ come out if so send them please. The journey was quite uneventful and the whole procedure is very smooth. The train left Treviso at midnight on Friday the 3rd and by 1800 hrs on Wednesday the 8th I was a free man (?). The customs people were quite lenient to anyone who was honest enough to declare everything, and in most cases charged either nothing at all or a nominal twenty or thirty shillings. Frankly I got away without paying a single penny though I did declare everything I could think of. Just a little higher up I put the words ‘a free man’ with a very large question [page break] mark after them, you may think this somewhat eccentric, but if you are leaving the R.A.F., you will see the logic of the question mark in due course. This civilian life is governed by more laws than there are in the whole of KR’s and A.C.I.’s, and S.R.O’s are published every day through a medium once known as the ‘free press’ (?). (That question mark has crept in again.) There are plenty of jobs going in ‘civvy street’ today, for example you can be a coal-miner, a brick layers assistant, (it takes 2 years to become a qualified bricklayer) and numerous other jobs in the same category. My wife and I had quite a good four day holiday in the Midland Hotel in Manchester, bed and breakfast was only 2/10/- per night and dinner was recognised as being quite reasonable ay 15/- per head for three courses (without bread.) I know the maximum charge for a dinner is 5/- but at this place, in fact at most places, there is a cover charge of 5/-, a 5/- service charge and 5/- for dinner. For our first drink [deleted] at [/deleted] in U.K., four of us went to the Euston Hotel in London and we had four half pints of lager (no beer) the cost of these four half pints was 6/6, and anything [page break] less than a 2/- tip caused the barman to go on strike. Incidently [sic] ‘striking’ is apparently the recognised method of earning a living. Another strange innovation which has found its was [sic] into our lives is method of obtaining a taxi for your benefit I will outline the procedure. First fall down flat on your face as if completely exhausted, cry out to heaven in a loud voice for mercy on your tormented body. The taxi driver then does one of two things, either runs over you or offers, (in a very haughty manner), to permit you to ride in his taxi. On any fare below 5/- he expect [sic] a tip equivalent to 100% of the fare, on fares between 5/- and 10/- a 75% tip is anticipated and on all fares over 5/- a 50% tip is the order of the day. As this seemed to be quite a lucrative profession. I have endeavoured to get in it, but I was told that it is a ‘closed shop’ or in other words only available if Mr. Morrison likes you. Nearly all questionnaires for jobs contain the following questions, ‘Did you vote labour at the last election? Do you intend to vote labour at the next election? Do you like the labour government? Are you prepared to say ‘Heil Morrison’? Have you read ‘Mein Kamp’ [page break] by Herbert Morrison, if not you are uneducated. Have you more than 15/- to your name? if so you are a capitalist. Are you an ex-serviceman? if so you were a fool weren’t you! So it goes on ‘ad infinitum’. Incidently [sic] I can put you in the know for a job which has many advantages, e.g. security, a bed, three meals a day and money too, it is known as the ‘Services.’ If you are there already [underlined] do not leave [/underlined] . Sorry to sound so bitter but really there is no England anymore but only a country known as ‘Labour Utopia,’ or ‘Alice + Bevan in the Underground.’ Crazy isn’t it but that’s how I feel. I am addressing this letter to Alec and you just in case you have come to this country before it gets to Italy. Cheerio for now and enjoy yourselves. Arthur Woodhead. P.S. Tell Alec that I shall be back in 56 days time. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter to Dick Curnock from Arthur Woodhead Description An account of the resource The letter thanks Dick Curnock for sending photographs and a letter. He describes a short holiday in Manchester and discusses prices of meals, drinks and taxis. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Arthur Woodhead Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1947-01-15 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Four handwritten sheets and an envelope Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0001, EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0002, EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0003, EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0004, EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0005, EWoodleadACurnockRM460115-0006 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Civilian Royal Air Force Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Scarborough England--Leicester England--Leicestershire England--Yorkshire Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1947-01-15 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Peter Bradbury David Bloomfield https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/307/8757/PMooreWT1506.jpg ba450a2587f7d4bdd809b39eda3c5fa9 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/307/8757/AMooreWT160318.mp3 06f88d173f760d9f30a9e3038f1f9794 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Moore, Bill William Tait Moore William T Moore William Moore W T Moore W Moore Description An account of the resource Eight items. Three oral history interviews with William Tait "Bill" Moore (1924 - 2019, 1823072 Royal Air Force) and five photographs. He served as a navigator with 138 Squadron. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-07-28 2016-03-18 2016-07-06 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Interview Agreement Form - Moore, WT, William Moore-03 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Moore, WT Transcribed audio recording A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is the 18th of March 2016 and I’m meeting with Bill Moore who was an Observer with the RAF and he is accompanied by his friend Tony Boxall. And we’re going to talk about Bill’s life from the earliest days to the periods after the war. So, Bill, could you start by telling us about your early days? WM: Well, I was, I was born in a town called Dunoon in the West of Scotland in 1924 and I was, at that time, I was the eldest of three children, I became that, and then of course what happened? We moved house from a little single ended cottage and we moved in to a brand new council house. And of course we gradually became a family of five. I was the eldest of course, as I said, with — CB: Keep going. WM: With two sisters and two brothers. My, my father was a slater and plasterer, Builder, and my mother had been what later on in life people called them Land Army girls because she’d done that during the First World War and my father had been in the Royal Scots Fusiliers right through, right through the First World War. And later on he, he was, he was taken on ship board to India where they, they actually were the garrison at various towns for a, for a few years up to there, you know. Alright. And then, and then of course what happened was that he came back to Dunoon and met and married my mother and as I say he also then went back into the building trade, you know. That is the sort of life that people did, they were in the army and then back into Civvy Street and later on in life that’s exactly what happened to us. Now, I, I attended Dunoon Grammar School all the way though, Right from the infant class right through into, into High School and I enjoyed it. I was never a person who didn’t enjoy school and at the same time after school I worked in various sort of capacities like in butchers shops and deliveries and all these sort of things that, in those days, people had to do to help augment the family incomes. I left, I left school when I was thirteen. The reason why was because the incomes that they could draw at that time wasn’t sufficient to keep the family going and being the eldest one I was out of school, as I say, at thirteen and I [pause] I was employed. I was employed by people called the Richmond Park Laundry which is, or was at that time, the biggest laundry in Glasgow but which is now gone. Then what happened then was, was that the war clouds were coming and I joined the Air Defence Cadet Corps. The Air Defence Cadet Corps was the forerunner of the Air Training Corps. And of course to do that we had to go to Abbotsinch, which is now Glasgow Airport and that was where we, we got the feeling for the Royal Air Force. Also that was where I saw my first Wellington and we certainly fell in love with it because all the other aircraft that we had seen from there, there on for many years was all the old ones that had been scattered around the country. Then of course, when the, when the Air Training Corps started we changed over, we volunteered for that and on the, on the Tuesday night I joined up and signed up. I went back again on the Friday night and the Friday night I became a flight sergeant which was instant promotion. And the reason for that was, was that I had been in the Air Defence Cadet Corps. We er, what we did was we, we had courses run in the Dunoon Grammar School by teachers who had become officers in the Air Training Corps and one particular gentleman there — Mr D. J. McDermid was the one that I’d looked up to for many years through the Boys Brigade and other organisations like that. And also a Mr Oswald Brown. And Mr Oswald Brown was the mathematics teacher and of course he was the one who actually taught us the rudiments of navigation. And we did that until we were old enough to, to volunteer for the Royal Air Force. Now, during, during that time we sat the examinations and all the way up through till we were actually ready for the aircrew selection. When I was old enough I went to Edinburgh and I was on the selection course there. I come out with very high marks and I got my little silver badge and I then became a member of the Royal Air Force. We, we didn’t get a number but we had various facts and figures written down about what we were. Then of course you had to wait your turn until such times as, as they had space for you. Well that’s what they said. So you got called up and then of course you were VR. And we eventually went to London and, of course, with that of course that was ACRC and that was at Lord’s Cricket Ground along with many other people which was quite strange. I met one or two chaps that day from all over the country, Some of them that I was with for quite a long time and before we actually finished at ITW. From, from London of course we went to ITW and my ITW was Number 17 in Scarborough based at the [pause] now what was it? Based at one of the, one of the hotels in Scarborough. And likewise of course in Scarborough there was about five other different ITWs. My, my hotel that I eventually landed up with was the Adelphi Hotel which was right above the Italian Gardens in Scarborough itself. In the Italian Gardens there was all the swimming pool and all the little offices attached to the swimming pool and that is where we did all the navigation and training like that, in the actual [pause] actual course at Scarborough. The gymnastics, the PT and all that other stuff was held at Scarborough College which was a very good asset. We had our own swimming pool in the Italian Gardens so that was also very good for us. Most of our drill and disciplinary actions was taught on the esplanade in front of the Adelphi Hotel and above the Italian Gardens. We [pause] we had a small, a small flight, and a few days after we were beginning to settle down, we got quite a surprise and we had a group of Belgian boys came across and joined us. They joined us there and it was a very good experience because most of them had been through High School and their English was very good compared with our limit in French or whatever dialect they said that they spoke. But it was very good because we got a good background of the continent which most of us had never had. Well, on completing of the ITW course I was given a job which was a temporary thing, I became the rations officer and I used to deliver all the foodstuffs from the main offices in Scarborough to all the different ITWs and that lasted for a couple of weeks. It was very good to get a responsibility like that because you really had to make sure that everything was right on the button. Otherwise, the sergeants and people in charge of all the kitchens as you went around certainly were very tough on you. During, during that particular time we, we went round all, all the various ITWs in Scarborough and as a matter of courtesy we actually visited one after the other and they did the same to us. And then of course we used to always go on a journey, see all the different church parades, you know. And an aside to one thing was my great friend here — and Ernie Taylor his name, who later became a fighter pilot in Spitfires and Hurricanes and Mosquitos, and although we were in Scarborough at the same time and been on parades at the same time and did various other things we never actually met up and we didn’t meet up officially until I came here in nineteen eighty — [pause] I beg your pardon, in [pause] yeah, 1983, when I returned from Africa. But that’s a different story, I can come back to that one. When people had vacancies for us then we went to different places from Scarborough. Well the first place that I went to was to Scone, Scone in Scotland. Just outside of Perth, and that was where we were, we were flying on Tiger Moths. We did the course there And anybody who has ever been to Scone Airport always remember that they had a bump in the, in the runway and when you went down there you lost the horizon, then all of a sudden you were airborne, and if you missed the bump you were always in trouble. But that was it, it was a good thing to know. And the instructors there were mainly, mainly chaps who’d, who had served all over world with the Royal Air Force. A lot of them had been out in the desert, various ones, And they had been recalled for to train people like us. Especially at Scone near where we were. Well we, we actually graduated from there and in those days you said that you were a LAC, Leading Aircraftsman, Which was quite good, It meant that you got a few more shillings in your pocket but that was about all it was. Sometimes they didn’t even have time to issue the propeller to you, but before you knew where you were you were away doing something else. But anyway, what happened to us, I say us because there was a few from 17 ITW, we, we went to a place called Broughton-in-Furness. Now Broughton-in-Furness — that, that was a, like an escape course, or a commando course or whatever you wanted to call it but really and truly it was like an escape course and you were taught all the rudiments of, of the bush. Well, as a matter of fact being a country boy I quite excelled in that and I got the red lanyard again which I already had when I’d been at Scarborough which gave you a little bit of authority, but as soon as the parades were off you took the lanyard off and that was it. But the lanyard, lanyard was just to give you that bit of authority for parades etcetera, etcetera. From, from there we went to, to Manchester, to Heaton Park. Now, Heaton Park you were either billeted in the Nissen huts which was standard accommodation, about fourteen men to a hut, or you were lucky enough to be billeted outside in somebody’s back room, Or front room, And we enjoyed that for, for a couple of weeks. We were actually put in to a lady’s front room, Two of us, And that was a chap called Alec Kerr and myself, And Alec was one of the ones that, from Peterborough, that I had met on that first, first day in London. It seemed to be that we kept bobbing up wherever we were on, maybe because Kerr and Moore was near enough on the alphabetical list. But anyway we shared the room there and if we gave the lady a half a crown a week each she used to leave the window open so that there was no bother about coming home at night time. But that was, that was more or less just across the road or nearby to Heaton Park. We never took advantage of it, always made sure that we were in before midnight although you were supposed to be the same as the camp, in about half past ten, you know. Well once we got over that stage we were called up into the park and put into a Nissen hut, the same as everybody did, and then we did some more drill and discipline and listened to the Royal Air Force tunes that was drummed into you so that you’d know whatever was being sounded was what you did. And of course if the, if the tunes came up to a certain degree then you had to — whatever you were doing — you had to march to attention, and if you got caught not marching to attention when these tunes were being played you found yourself on KP or something else like that. I managed to avoid that so I was quite lucky. Maybe it’s because it was drummed into my head that you always smartened yourself up whenever these tunes were played. Anyway, we, we eventually got we didn’t really do a lot of, we had a lot of talks on various things but we didn’t do any stuff for examinations. But all of a, all of a sudden you began to, you began to assemble in to different groups, your name was put here and then was put there and it wasn’t alphabetical either and the next thing you knew that you were ABC or DEF or whatever else it was, and eventually these groups were how you were going to be posted away from, from Heaton Park. And with that at Heaton Park — Heaton Park I was, I was KL and KL and M was quite good for me, I didn’t know too much about it and neither did anybody else. But one day, one day we were fitted out with kit and we were told that we would probably go to Rhodesia, And everybody said, ‘Oh. We’re going to Rhodesia. Oh that’s — that’s a cushy number there. You go all the way in the boat and then you go to Cape Town and then you go on a train and you go all the way up to either Salisbury or Bulawayo.’ Well everybody thought oh this is, this is good, anyway , that was a special uniform you got for going to Rhodesia, it was different from those who went to South Africa. Anyway, what happened then was that we, we started assembling in these groups. So the groups one day were 12 o’clock noon, the bell went and we formed up and the next thing we were told, ‘Get your kit together. You’re off.’, ‘Oh. We’re off. Where are we going?’, ‘We’re not telling you where you’re going. You’re off.’ So we got all this kit and we went to Liverpool and [pause] a little memento here of a ship called the Andes, A N D E S, which was a brand new ship just before the war. That ship had come up the Clyde in to the Holy Loch in all its glory because it was supposed to be on the South American run. And it was a beautiful ship, all brand new, And we boarded this ship in Liverpool. And who was beside me? Alec Kerr. Oh, ‘Alec. How did we manage this?’, He said, ‘I don’t know.’ He says, ‘Just the names seemed to come up again and we’re here together.’ I said, ‘Oh good.’ So, anyway we went down to K deck, I thought it wasn’t bad, it was well down in the ship but being a new ship it was quite good. Anyway, we, we stayed there overnight. The ship didn’t move. And we had another fellow with us there and his name was Ted Weir, and Ted Weir was thirty three. Thirty three. And we were only leaving UK. So he said, ‘My God,’ he said, ‘my wife’s expecting a baby,’ and we said, ‘What? You’re an old man for having a baby.’ He said, ‘Yes. I’ve just got word.’ I said, ‘What are you going to do?’ He said, ‘I’m going to slip off tonight and go and see the baby. In case I never get another chance.’ I said, ‘Alright. Alright Ted. How are you going to do it?’ He said, ‘I’m going to go down the anchor [inaudible].’ I said, ‘Well if you don’t come back you’re in big trouble.’ Anyway, about 2 o’clock in the morning and he came back. We hadn’t moved. So Ted Weir, thirty three plus, had seen his baby, a little boy with ginger hair like him, so he was quite happy. But we never saw the baby, we never saw photographs but we were told plenty about him. So anyway around about mid-day the next day the Andes took off. So anyway away we go, away we go down the Mersey and around the top of Northern Ireland. We were sailing well and it was good weather, we went, ‘Oh this is a piece of cake. Nice cruise we’re on on a ship.’ So there we go. Judgement, you know. I said, ‘We’ve left. We’ve left Ireland now. We’re heading for the Bay of Biscay.’ Anyway, that night we were up on a deck and I said to, I said to Alec and Ted, I said, ‘This ship’s going the wrong way.’ And they said, ‘You and your Clyde navigation.’ I said, ‘Me and my Clyde navigation. We’re going the wrong way.’ So, in the morning we were back in Liverpool, right back where we left. Anyway, we wondered what was going to happen there, so we were told to keep our kit all close together and all the rest of it. Anyway, I looked across from where we were, out and I said to, I said to Alec, I said, ‘The 534.’ And Ted Weir said, ‘What’s the 534?’, I said, ‘I’m not telling you. You might be a spy,’ you know. He says, ‘Come on Bill. Tell me. What’s the 534?’, ‘Oh a 534’s got three funnels hasn’t it?’ He said, ‘Yes.’, ‘Well that’s the Queen Mary.’ [pause] So we, we were twelve hours later, we were on the Queen Mary and the next thing we knew we were heading west. So where did we go? We landed up in New York. We were only in New York about twenty four hours, a bit longer. We had a great crossing, everything was fine. And as I say we got in to New York and we had a bit of shore time which was unusual. We were given strict instructions that you would be in the chucky if, if you didn’t come back in time. So anyway they trusted us so off we went, came back, and we, we were taken to the train station as they call it there. And we were all put on these lovely trains with beds and everything, you know, so, oh this is ideal. Anyway, it was American trains and sometime, sometime the following morning we pulled out and we wondered where, where we were going. There was all sorts of bets on, we were going to Arizona, we’re going to this, we’re going to that. No, no, we didn’t go there. We went to Moncton, New Brunswick, in Canada. And that’s where we, where we started getting a bit of trouble because we, we didn’t have much uniform. Some of it, we’d changed some of the stuff, you know. Typical Air Force . You weren’t allowed this if you had that and things like that. Anyway, we walked around there and the saying up there was like a squaw and later on in life I used to call like a ‘Matabeleland nanny,’ you know. Anyway, we got up there and Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick was the centre in Canada where, where people were sent all over Canada and sometimes down to the States etcetera, etcetera, you know, so once we get up there then we found out what we were actually going to do. Anyway, Alec Kerr and Ted Weir and myself, we were still together and, well it was more luck than judgement, and we didn’t do much there. As a matter of fact we learned, we learned all the names for Canadian names, American names for things. Pie a la mode for a sweet and this, that and the next thing. All the fancy things which we thought we might be getting to eat. Although the diet there was terrific compared to what we had in the UK, the UK diet was excellent. Plain Jane and no nonsense but when we got to, we got to New Brunswick we even got ice cream and things like that. Anyway, one day we, our names appeared on, on a notice board and we were deftly got different parades as people called it in the Air Force , you know. Now, when you join the Air Force you volunteer, butthat’s the last time you ever volunteer for anything, so by this time we were just told what we were going to do. So some people were down for pilots, some people for navigators, some people for wireless operators, all sorts of different things come up, you know, and then of course there was various other bits and pieces that came up, you know. Anyway, we went off in the train and about five, about five days later we got to Winnipeg. We changed trains in Winnipeg, all the way across to Canada to there. We’d actually been in one train and one bed and we used to get off and stretch our legs and get an hour or so while they put new coal and stuff on the, on the train and then we went back on and away we went to the next station. And we had quite a wee bit, and there was one, there was one time I was off and somebody says, ‘You’d better have a haircut’. I said, ‘Alright. I’ll have a haircut’. So I went in and typical me, you know, I went in and I said, ‘Can I have a haircut please?’, ‘Yes. How would you like it?’, ‘Oh I don’t want it, I don’t want it too short and I don’t want it long otherwise I’ll be in trouble’., ‘We’ll give you a Canadian one’., ‘Ok. Fine’. Anyway, I got settled back in the chair and the next thing I knew it cost me fifteen bucks because I went to sleep. I’m still a person who could go to sleep with just sitting, sitting around for a few minutes. Anyway, when I woke up, he says, ‘Yes. You agreed. Every time I told you what you wanted you nodded your head’. I said, ‘Oh. Thank you very much’. So I was fifteen bucks short. Anyway, that was alright. Well, eventually from from Winnipeg we went up to Manitoba. Dauphin, Manitoba. Right up, right up in the top of Manitoba itself, right up north, Dauphin and Paulson and various places like that. And we looked around for the town. It was a hamlet. Dauphin wasn’t too bad but Paulsen, I think it was twelve, twelve houses that was there, you know and we had, we had more people in the camp then there were civilians around us, you know. Anyway, that was quite good. We, we went training there and we did, we did the basics of gunnery there, and started off with the, we had 22s and we did a lot of clay pigeon shooting in the hangars because by this time there was six feet of snow outside, you know. And we didn’t, we didn’t go very far, but we got one or two flights in those Ansons, the early ones, so that wasn’t bad. Getting us accustomed to, to flying as they called it and then, and then of course what happened after that was that they began to tell us what we were going to do. Well some of the chaps, some of the chaps were down as pilots and they went off to another ‘drome nearby. Some of us took in navigation, and some, some took in wireless and gunnery. But what we did was we did the whole lot, we did POSB, you know. And that was, that was the, we all took the full course pilot — pilot, observer, navigator the whole thing, you know. We were beginning to find out what it was all about. It was very gentlemanly, there was civilian pilots and civilian instructors, things like that. All sort of chaps in their early thirties — early forties or thirties and they were our instructors. Anyway, about a few weeks later we were divided up again and this time it was a full, a full gunnery course that we did, everybody had to do that. We had a full gunnery course, and then we had a wireless course, and that kept us the whole time. Even the gunnery course kept us going the whole time. And you might, you might have, instead of maybe having five or six courses for gunnery or something like that they slackened down so you were beginning to realise what you were actually going to do. So what we did then, what we did then was we went across to the pilot’s school. They never told you whether you failed or otherwise. They would say we need seven pilots and that was seven pilots. The first seven in the list became pilots and the rest of us then went in for, for navigation and bomb aiming, and we still carried on with the wireless and we still carried on with the gunnery. Then of course we went up and the next thing, the next thing what we knew was we were concentrating more on navigation than we were anything else although we still carried on every now and again, keep our hand in at wireless, at wireless and gunnery. Well we actually graduated in each of these places and were passed on to different, different sections there and then we had a big change. We went over to Dauphin. Dauphin, Dauphin was quite, quite a town by their standards, there were shops in the village and places like that and we got quite friendly with the local people, and I got friendly with a couple who’d come out from Scotland many years ago. And they had a grown up family of a son who was already in the Air Force and a daughter and there was another girl who stayed with them and she was the fiancé of the son. Anyway, that’s another little story. Anyway, we were quite friendly with them and visited them when we could and had the usual, we had our Christmas lunch there for a start. We went to dances, we went to everything in our spare time, the usual sort of thing. Made ourself, we were told to mix which was very good. And then of course we went up through and you actually, you actually graduated or you failed. If you didn’t graduate and you failed then you were sent to a straight gunnery school and that was, that was to be, that was just to be on a gunnery course. There was no shame to it, it was a good course. Other people went to wireless operator and gunnery, that was also a good course but certainly a little bit different. Anyway, we did, we went on to the straight navigation course and that was, that was fine. Then of course we graduated. You didn’t get any, any stripes, you didn’t get any. You just, just moved out and of course by that time they had, they had AC2s and AC1s instead of the, instead of the LACs so we never did get these props, but we were changed from LACs to AC1s. Anyway, the next thing we knew we had, we had a week’s leave, a week to ten days leave and which was very nice. We got rail warrants for where we could go and all the rest of it, that was ideal. And then we came back and when we come back from there we actually got posted to different places and I got posted to a place called Portage la Prairie. Now Portage la Prairie is a very special, a very special school. Portage la Prairie was Number 7 Observer School. In other words you are doing things slightly different from navigation and we concentrated a lot on [pause] on different, different subjects and one of them of course was low flying and be able to map read. That was quite easy in Canada but, anyway, later on it was a different story. But that was, that was Portage la Prairie. Now Portage la Prairie is still going today and every four years the commandant of Portage la Prairie comes across here to the UK and he and his family take up residence here, and I have, I have met three different families now that came from Portage la Prairie. Anyway, going back, going back to Portage we did this specialised training, navigation etcetera, etcetera like that and observer training and then we, we went in to, we went into Winnipeg. We went to Winnipeg and we attended various courses in there which we didn’t really know what it was all about but it was courses that we were really specialists in. That was what it was, we were specialists in different things, you know. Then we went back of course to, we went back of course to the main station again, and then we got leave. We got some leave and I managed to, I managed to get to see quite a bit of Canada. And then the next thing we knew we were back in Moncton. Moncton, New Brunswick. In Moncton, New Brunswick we had, we had maybe a week or a couple of weeks or whatever, whatever was, until we actually got sent back to the UK. Now, when, when that, when that happened you were called in to a room and we were allowed two big full size kit bags. One that you could take your Air Force kit in and one that you could put all your civilian stuff in, including all the things that you’d bought when you were in Canada and the States and things like that. [pause] And then of course what happened, you were told that you might have a preference of flying back which meant that you could only take one, one kit bag with you and that would, that would be your service kit bag and the other one would come later. On the other hand if you, if you went by sea, returned by sea, you could take the two of them. So at that time everybody thought, ‘Oh well. Everything we’ve saved up for is in that other kit bag.’ [laughs] So we opted to try and get back by, back by sea. So anyway that did happen and we went down, we went down to, [pause] we went down to the railway station this day with all our kit and there we were heading towards the sea. So we went down and when we went down there, there was a ship there. And this ship that was in the dock, I recognised it, and I was just saying to the fellows that were with me, my other two friends had gone, but other ones, I said, ‘This looks like the Empress Line, you know’, ‘Oh. Empress. How do you know that?’ I said, ‘They used to sail down the Clyde every Friday night and we used to watch them, you know. So, anyway, this one turned out and it was named the Empress of Scotland, you know. As I was walking around it I picked up a little bit of information. It used to be the Empress of Japan and during the war they had changed it, changed it from the Empress of Japan to the Empress of Scotland. So, that was Halifax that we were in. So what we did was one day we up-anchored and away we went and of course as we were going out there we were, we had some little ships, something like the corvettes that we had in the UK, and they followed us out quite a bit in to the Atlantic. Then one morning they weren’t there, so you were on your own. Anyway, we, we were sleeping once again away down in the depths of the ship and we said, ‘You know, if we go down there and we are in the mid-Atlantic and we get torpedoed I don’t think we’d ever get out of there you know’, because we timed it and the timing was pretty good because we’d done two or three different runs. And we said, ‘Oh bugger it. We’ll try and sleep up on deck’, but by this time it was summer weather so we actually slept up on deck. And then one day I looked up and I said, ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘I know where we are’, I said, ‘We’re heading for the Clyde’. And we did. And we sailed right up the Clyde, up to Gourock and we lay off Gourock there and I saw a lot of the older men who were working on the boats there that I knew from my home town. Dunoon area. But we weren’t allowed to talk to anybody. We were told, ‘No, No, No, No, We don’t want anybody to know where you’ve come from or anything like that.’ So we got down and got onto a boat which was called the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Mary 2 was a passenger boat that used to ply between Gourock and Greenock and Dunoon on the Clyde but she was bare by this time and she was painted grey the same as the rest. But she was used to ferry people from the liners across to Gourock or Princes Pier, and what happened then was that you went on a train to somewhere, you know. And of course eventually, eventually we did that. And we landed up, landed up in, we landed up in Yorkshire, that’s where we got to, you know. And we got there and we were billeted in one of the colleges and that was great. There was running hot and cold water and things like that and at night you could get out and you could go up to the pub because you’d already been given some money, British money, and we had two or three days there, you know and during this time this friend of mine and I’d met up with Alec Kerr again and we, we went in to this pub and I looked in this big mirror, you know and I said, ‘Look, I know that chap, that Canadian over there’. He said, ‘No you don’t’, I said, ‘Look. I’ll bet you a couple of pints’. He says, ‘Are you sure? Alright I’ll take you on’, ‘Alright’. I said. I said, ‘Yeah. I’m sure. Are you betting against me?’ He said, ‘Yeah. You don’t. There’s so many Canadians here’. Anyway, I went up to him and I said, ‘Oh by the way that was a nice wristwatch that you gave to your girlfriend at Christmas’. He was just about ready to put his [inaudible] up. He said, ‘Why?’ I said ‘Because I took her to a dance’, you know. And I said, ‘Draw that back’, I said, ‘Your names Nicholson, you know. And your, your girlfriend is staying with your mother and father because your parents are working on the railway’, you know. [laughs]. So what he was going to do to me, you know. Anyway, it was quite fun. We had, we had these couple of pints and we had a good night and he had to go his way and we went ours, I never saw him again after that. But it was quite strange. By the time I got home my mother and his mother had been corresponding, you know and she knew all about him and all the rest of it and that was it, you know. And apparently, apparently, the other one knew all about me, you know. [laughs] But from there, from there we, we were, we were back in the Royal Air Force, you know. It was entirely different again you know. Back in the Royal Air Force. This time we were shipped, shipped down to [pause] where would we call it? [pause] My kid’s staying there at the moment. I’ll get back to it. Let me get this. [pause] What — it was a station. The station is Halfpenny Green, you know and we, there were several of us went there, about a half a dozen, but other ones were scattered all over the place, you know. And once, once we get into Halfpenny Green we discovered that we were on specialised training of low level flying on the, on the new Anson, you know. And we did all sorts of stuff but this time of course it was Royal Air Force pilots and they were a lot of chaps who had actually been on service and they’d been lucky enough to have done a tour on something or someway and landed up there on the same as us, low level flying. But as I say most of them were actually stationed there and knew they were there for a while. Anyway, we went, we went there and we actually wondered why we were doing this because really and, really and truly it was just about the only thing we did. We did the night flying and we did this, we did that. We was also a lot of it was either moonlight or daylight. Anyway, what happened then was, of course what we didn’t know was that we’d been selected, selected for duties where, where your low level flying and stuff like that was good, you know. Of course, anyway, by that time that was one of the things we wondered why but you never asked too much. And then of course you had some night flying where you’re up flying low over Wales and all the rest of it and going, actually doing bombing runs under different bridges there and things like that just to keep your hand in, and then eventually we went to, we went to different, different stations again, you know. From [pause] from there [pause] sorry about that. CB: Do you want to stop for a mo? WM: Yeah. CB: Yeah. Ok. [Recording paused] WM: I had a break there. CB: We’re re-starting. WM: Fine. [pause] CB: Ok. WM: From there we were actually transferred to a secret ‘drome. We didn’t believe it was secret until we got there. As a matter of fact on the way everybody was saying it must, it must be like an ordinary station, and then as we, as we get nearer there with the talk that was coming back to us it really was secret, and that turned out to be Tempsford. Now, the big thing about that was, was that the first thing you did when you get inside you get lined up and you had a nice, sort of friendly talk. And they said, ‘Right you’ve now got to sign the Secrets Act again but this time it’s for real. CB: Right. WM: If you talk about anything and it gets out anywhere you will be shot, that’s how serious it is. And as a matter of fact a couple of times the little pub there — The Wheatsheaf — was closed because they thought that it might have been that some information might have been getting out through the pub. There was always the chance that somebody might have said something, although , as I say, we were sworn to secrecy. Now, what we didn’t realise at the time was what we were going to do because nobody told us and nobody would tell us. Now, after, after about a week I think what had been they were actually assessing our characters as they could see them there. They began to take confidence in us and give us that little bit of confidence, you know, and then we found out what it was all about. At that time the CO come in and he spoke to us and he told us what it was all about. And then we realised to what extent the secrecy was demanded because not only was the fact was that the people you were taking in to the occupied countries were in danger of their life but you also were. And what was given to us was, ‘You don’t communicate with them, and they don’t communicate with you’. I do know for a fact that the Americans later on when they started getting into things they used to call the people Joe’s and things like that, but we were not for that at all. We did not say, we did not take, if you turned around and say, ‘You’ve got a bunch of Joe’s there’ well right away people would know you had a bunch of people and where they come from. But the big thing about it was that in most times you just went out on one aircraft to one airfield, and that wasn’t too bad at all. Although there was a couple of occasions where about twenty agents who had been rounded up and all shot out of hand by somebody who had given, given them away, and that happened to be a person of the same nationality. We don’t like to say exactly what it was, I know people have written about it. But on the other hand is this, that we don’t like to think that, that the people helping our agents once on the ground was people that gave them away but it’s a sad story to say that it was. The worst part of that from time to time was in Holland, you know. And the bad thing about it was that the man who was responsible for so many deaths at one time was actually based in London, you know. He was, he was a, he was a Dutchman, yeah, and of course the Dutch people are still horrified about that, you know. That their own people could give them away, you know. Anyway, what did happen was that we were told exactly what was going to happen was that you would be allocated a pilot because then by that time I was classified as an observer. You had your pilot and you and he actually spoke over about what was going to happen. Once we knew where we were going and how many people we were liable to be taking. Well the thing is this. You can all imagine about Lysanders, they can’t carry very many people, but the lighter the people were the more we could actually take and that was a fact. And of course we were, we were told all sorts to keep our weight down. Now, I can assure you that it wasn’t too hard to do that but at the same time you had to make sure that you kept within limits. Now, when, when an operation was on, whatever was going to happen, however you wanted to count it or name it then everybody, everybody who was concerned once again knew what was going on. They knew how secret it had to be, they knew that people’s lives were depending on it, whether it was the team flying them out or the people going out. Now, what did, what did happen was that going back, going back to the time of navigating and taking everything on the map-readings and being able to do that. Nine times out of ten we were jolly lucky but sometimes you might have been landing in a field which was next door to the one that you were supposed to be landing, and the ground wasn’t exactly good. But, of course, the fields that we were landing on had, nothing had been done to them since the pre-war days and one or two of them had been glider schools that people had been taught to glide from, because then these fields had been disbanded and walked away from, you know, and people kept away from them. But they were the kind of fields that were the best for landing on. They had been, they had been more or less gone over in early days because gliding, gliding in Europe was quite a sport before the war. It wasn’t too, too strong in the UK but in, in Europe it was very strong from time to time, you know. And of course, as I say taking, taking people in it was the big thing was to make sure where you were going, how long it would be and as much as possible you had to be exactly on time because a few minutes either way could have cost people their lives because there was people that was coming in to meet the ones that was being taken in and there was also people further along the lines to receive them, so everything had to be timed exactly. If you had strong headwinds going across to the continent and you might have lost twenty minutes or things like that. That was too bad but at the same time, at the same time you had to try and do something about it. And the best thing that we used to do was to try, try and get that little bit extra speed and keep down as low as we could, then of course you had, you had more dangers than you normally would have with wires and all the rest of it, you know. But everything was done more or less by moonlight and that was as best as we could do it. The big, the big thing about it was trust. Now, with the early, the early days there was quite a few of the chaps who were flying there had, had been flying over that area either as people who had money and could fly about etcetera, etcetera or they were people who had been in flying clubs, so they were the best people to get some of the ideas from of how you could do it. Now, the big thing too was that we had, we had some officers with us who were exceptional in whatever it was, whether they were pilots or whether they were navigators or whether they were doing exactly what we were doing, you know because [pause] when they, when they told you about things you certainly listened to them. [pause] WM: After a while we actually got, we got some twin-engined aircraft from America and with them they were quite good because they were actually designed to land in the Prairies in Canada or America and their undercarriage was strong. That the likes of the fields that we were operating on they could be taken in and that was, that was one of the good things that happened there. Now there was one particular night and we were loaded up with guns and ammunition and all these sort of things for the Maquis and we had our target where we had to take it to. Anyway, we set off and we had just the three of us in the aircraft. There was the skipper, myself and another chap who, well, nowadays you would call him a loadmaster or something like that. He was the chap that made sure that the load was alright, well maybe that was where the name came from, I don’t know, but that was what he always had to do. Anyway, this particular night we came in to this ‘drome which had been an airfield for, for the [pause] I beg your pardon, an airfield for the gliders. As we came up and we turned around we began to sink. And we felt, well, that would be alright. Nobby turned around and said, ‘Its alright Bill. Once we get rid of this stuff we’ll rise alright’. you know. So Jim, in the back, shouts, ‘Well I bloody well hope so. I don’t want to be kept around here for a while’, you know. Anyway, what did happen was that the Maquis came there with their person in charge, they got all their stuff away and off they went into the bush and that was the end of them. They were gone. Anyway, we tried to get out and we hadn’t got out at all, we’d got out a little bit. Not bad. Anyway, the leader of the group on the ground, and it was a lady, and what she says was, ‘We’ll get you out. Don’t worry. We’ll get you out.’ And we said, ‘How?’, ‘Oh we’ll get you out’. So she actually went to the village and she rounded up everyone in the village and of course they weren’t supposed to move, they weren’t supposed to go out after dark, but man, woman and child all came out to help get us out and of course they had to try and find articles that would help. Anyway, when they were half way up they met a German sergeant, and the German sergeant said, ‘Right. You people. You shouldn’t be out at night time. What are you doing?’ Or words to that effect. And she says, ‘We’re trying to get your big black aircraft out of the mud and the Gestapo’s going to shoot us all including you if we don’t get the job done’. So he says, ‘That’s alright. I’ll go and look after the village and you can get the aircraft out’. So, anyway, he went back to the village and they got us out, but that was about an hour and a half on the ground instead of, at the most, twenty minutes. And as I say when we took off that was one of the best take-offs we ever had because we made sure that she was up and ready to go. But the only thing, time, well, what used to happen to us was we used to get the odd chap on the ground who heard an aeroplane coming and you used to hear ‘bang, bang’ and he would shoot at us with a rifle or something like that, or sometimes even thought it was somebody with a shotgun because we didn’t know it at the time but when you got back again you found the results on your aircraft. And these old aircraft, they could take it you know which was, which was a big thing. But that that was the nearest that we got to ever being interned because we were, we were very lucky. I put, I put it down to each of us doing our own work, you know and able to do the job that we set out to do. There’s the big black box down there if you want to take it home and use it. Would you like to use it? CB: Yeah. WM: [laughs] Do you know what it is? CB: No. What is it? WM: What is it Tony? TB: I don’t know. What are we talking about? WM: In there. Around this side. [pause] Down. TB: That. No. Where am I looking? CB: We’ll have a look in a minute. TB: Yeah. WM: Over there. TB: Ok. WM: No. The big thing. The big thing down there. TB: I don’t know. WM: It’s alright. It’s been shifted. The girl shifted it. Sorry. I beg your pardon for this. CB: That’s alright. WM: It’s — TB: Not this. WM: No. It’ not that, Tony. CB: We’ll have a look in a minute. TB: Yeah. WM: Yeah. CB: Yeah. WM: Sorry. Sorry about that. CB: That’s alright. WM: Ok. Not to worry Tony. TB: Oh. WM: I know where it is now. TB: Oh. WM: She shifted it. I’ve got somebody that comes in, I beg your pardon, anyway , as I say between, between our training and respect for each other and what we did, I reckon that is why we survived. And not only that but the code of silence that we had. Now, what did happen was that later on, later on, once, once it started getting where they didn’t need so many people on the ground in Europe then we moved over to Tuddenham and then to Bomber Command, you know. And then later on all the station and everything else moved away from Tempsford across to Tuddenham, you know. And what happened was that the chap that I was flying with in the beginning, a chap called Murray, by that time he was, he was our wing commander. And he was the wing commander for 138 Squadron after the war as well for quite some considerable time, you know. Now, what happened, what happened to me was that on Bomber Command we did, we did thirty six ops on Bomber Command over and above what we did for the other ones but from time to time, our people just called them trips, there was no such thing as tours with us. It was if the old man let you off for a few days you got off for a few days. If he couldn’t afford to let you go you didn’t get, that’s how it was and you also had to make sure that you didn’t talk about what you were doing there. And that wasn’t just on the oath but that was also on the comradeship that we, that we had there, you know. Anyway, after that, after the end of the war the next thing we did was to fly back, fly back all our ex-prisoners of war and we were flying them back and also we were designated to take displaced persons down through France, down to the South of France, you know, and they had special camps there for them, to help them get rehabilitated, you know. And one of the biggest ones was at Istres you know. CB: The who? WM: Ist ISTRVS. In the south of France. TB: Istrvs. WM: Then of course, after a while there was three crews selected with their Lancasters and their ground crews and we went to RAF Benson. And we didn’t know what we were doing at first but eventually we found out what it was and one of the things that Churchill wanted was to have everything photographed from the air. The likes of London and cities like that we photographed them all from two thousand feet, then smaller towns. went I down gradually to about ten, fifteen thousand feet, and then of course the countryside was at twenty thousand feet. We didn’t only do the UK and Ireland but we also did right from the North of Norway all the way, right down to the Mediterranean and as far around to the east as we could go and come back on the fuel that we had. And that was an operation that had been put in place by Churchill when he was still in office, you know. CB: So this was coastline? Coastlines? WM: Sorry? CB: Just the coastlines. WM: No. No. Internal cities. Everything. CB: Right. WM: Yeah. Yeah. CB: Ok. WM: Now we had bases, we had bases in Norway, we had bases in France, we had bases all over. And that was 138 squadron. CB: Then what? WM: Then I went. I was told I wasn’t going to get made up to another rank that I thought I was going to get and — CB: What was that? WM: A warrant officer then. And I didn’t get that and by that time instead of going out on class A, I took class B which was an early release for anybody who had been in the building trade and essential industries like that and that’s what I did from there, I took that and back in to the building trade. CB: So what did you do in the building trade? WM: Well we, we started, we revamped the family business and carried out many jobs, many contracts, but in the end we were finding out that all the spivs were getting the jobs instead of honest contractors. And then one day I decided now that enough’s enough and I said to the family, ‘Right’, the younger brothers, ‘You can take over the business. I’m going’. I didn’t know where I was going to but eventually I landed up in Africa with the African, what it was, was that the, the Mandela, Mandela, which was a trading store in Africa had started up a building section and they recruited me to go and take over a dozen sights there, you know. And that’s when we started building the schools and the hospitals and the universities and all sorts of things like that. First of all in the Nyasaland, as it was and then, and then in the Rhodesias and then that became the Federation. And then that went ahead by leaps and bounds until the UK government gave the countries away. And then eventually I came back here after fifty years. CB: Where did you retire to? WM: Well I retired here because I retired supposedly in 1980. What happened, my wife didn’t want me around the house so I went consulting, and I was a consultant for the Zimbabwe government, Zambian government and Namibia and Mozambique and Northern South Africa wasn’t it? [pause] Yeah. CB: What made you choose this area? WM: Well, what happened was that I came, I used to fly around here but also the fact was that I came back here in 1991 when one of my nieces and nephews were staying here and he’d been given, got a job as a bank manager from Africa to be here. And I rather liked it, and eventually my wife and I decided to come here, you know, and now that all my family are either in here or down in the Bournemouth area. CB: How many children have you got? WM: Three. Three children and then six, six grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. Yeah. CB: What was your wife’s name? WM: Phillis. P H I L L I S. Like that. CB: Yeah. Ah fantastic. Yeah. And when was she born? WM: On the 1st of February 1926. CB: When were you married? WM: The 3rd of January 1947. CB: So when were you actually demobbed? WM: The end of February 1946. CB: Ok. You talked about a lot of interesting things and one of the questions really is, we haven’t touched on is, what were the planes you were using when you were with 138? On the agent’s side. WM: The twin engines were Hudsons. CB: Right. WM: Yeah. And then of course we had the single engines then. CB: Did you, did you fly in Lysanders? WM: Yes. CB: You did. Right. WM: Yes. CB: How many people could you take in a Lysander? WM: Well it all depended on the weight that you were carrying, you know. Yeah. CB: But if it was just agents. WM: Well that was, well that was, you could get three in, you know. CB: As well as you and the pilot. WM: Yeah. CB: Ok. And in the Hudson? WM: Well the Hudson mainly was, we took quite a few people on board, yes, about ten of them but we were mostly on the Hudsons taking in supplies to the Maquis. CB: So how often did you air drop the supplies? Or how often did you land them? WM: Well on the air drop, on the air drop was between, between fifteen and twenty, yeah, and then the land drops. The land ones, we landed with them, the special stuff. That was about five or six. Five or six. CB: Six people. WM: No, No. TB: Six times. WM: Six drops. CB: Six drops. Yeah. Right. WM: Yeah. TB: How many Lysander trips did you do? WM: Eh? TB: How many Lysander trips did you do? WM: About twelve altogether. CB: Twelve Lysander trips. Ok. And Hudson? Because sometimes you didn’t find the location did you? So — WM: No, we went, no well, we always seemed to, always seemed to be quite lucky that way. We were, you know. You know turn around and say it might have been the field next door or something like that but it wasn’t far away. We always managed to get our targets and get our stuff away. CB: But it took exceptional navigational skill in the dark to be able to get to these places. WM: It was. CB: So what was the, what was the real key to that? WM: Well they told me I had a countryman’s eyes. CB: Because not everybody could do it. WM: No, that’s right. As I said right at the beginning when I told you about the Clyde and the Clyde navigation. CB: Yeah. WM: The stars and things like that. You know, as a, as a boy I used to wander the countryside in the dark and it didn’t matter what the weather was. CB: Right. So you had an eye for it. WM: Oh yes. Aye. CB: So the navigation itself. What were you flying? What height were you flying on the transit? WM: Well the, no more than a thousand feet. CB: Right. So that made it difficult. WM: It did. CB: To see laterally. WM: That’s right. CB: And when you got to the target then, where you were going to land, how did you do approach that? Did you do a straight in or did you fly over and around or — WM: It all depends. If you recognised it and the code looks right you went straight in. Sometimes you buzzed it a couple of times because you weren’t sure whether it was a decoy or not. Because once or twice where the Jerries had set up decoys. CB: So you were warned off were you? WM: Yeah. Well it was the people on the ground you know. CB: That’s what I meant, yeah. WM: They always seemed to manage to do something that upset the Jerrie’s decoys. However, there were one or two chaps [pause] that didn’t. CB: Yeah. The, so you’re coming at a thousand feet. Is this a wooded area or does it tend to be open country? WM: Well most of them were open areas that we landed in, you know. Oh yeah. CB: And how would they know you were coming in practical terms. At the last minute. WM: Oh well. I would say they had a rough time of when we’d be there. That was what it was. CB: So were they using lights to identify? WM: Sometimes you had lights because we used to even take the lights in to them, you know. And sometimes the remote areas — sometimes they, they had little bush fires. CB: Right. WM: I call them bush fires. That’s from Africa, bush fires. CB: Yeah. Yeah. So in landing they were fairly small strips. WM: Oh yes. CB: So how did you know, because you’ve got wind to consider? WM: Yeah. CB: How would you know which direction to approach for landing? WM: Well, well you’d try and find your winds on the way through. CB: Right. WM: Yeah. CB: And what navigation aids were you using? WM: Well mostly, mostly, most of it was the navigator’s computer. There was a computer on the knee. But nine — CB: The Dawson Computer. WM: Yeah. CB: Yeah. WM: Nine times out of ten, nine times out of ten it was just the old fashioned hit and run, you know. CB: You didn’t have Gee. WM: Oh no, not at that time. We never got Gee until we were flying in, we never had Gee until we, we flew in Lancasters. CB: Right. Ok. So when you, when you were loading up to leave in the winter what was happening? Was the aeroplane sinking in? Is that what you were talking about earlier? WM: Yeah. That’s what you had to watch out for. CB: What did they do to help that? WM: Well our people were very good because you know they made sure everything was alright for us but the ones on the other side as much as possible they had firm ground for us, you know. CB: So you land the aeroplane. You had to taxi back. WM: Yeah. CB: In order to take off again. WM: That’s right. CB: How long are you on the ground between? WM: Well, as I say, about twenty minutes. CB: Right. WM: Well, some, some of these trips. Other ones were a wee bit longer you know. CB: The Lysander could get in a pretty small spot could it? WM: Oh yes. Yeah. As a matter of fact most of the first groups — they used to land on the roads. CB: Oh did they? WM: Oh yes. Aye. Used to land on the roads. CB: Between the trees. WM: Yeah. ‘Cause you could do that with the Lysanders. Aye. CB: What was the loss rate? Did people tend to —? WM: Well I’ll tell you about it if you give me a few minutes. CB: Yeah. WM: I’ll give you it exactly, you know. CB: Right. I’ll stop just for a moment. WM: Yeah. Sure. [Recording paused] CB: Right. We’re talking about the loss rates in 138 in the flying over Europe. WM: 138 Squadron. The Royal Air Force Association. The Royal Air Force, I beg your pardon. Royal Air Force. At Tempsford, during the time we were there we lost nine hundred and ninety five agents. CB: Blimey. So when. When’s that from when to? WM: That was right through the war. CB: Right. TB: When you say lost do you mean — WM: Lost. TB: What? Captured by the Germans. WM: Yeah. CB: Ok. WM: We dropped twenty nine thousand containers. CB: Yeah. WM: We dropped seventy, we dropped ten thousand packages. CB: Yeah. WM: And there was seventy — seven zero aircraft lost. CB: On the SOE operations. WM: Yeah. And there was three hundred air crew lost. The motto for 138 squadron is “For Freedom”. “For Freedom.” [pause] CB: Right. WM: It may be that you’ll come across some day — the United States Air Force 7th Airlift Squadron came to be with us and they actually adopted our motto — “For Freedom.” [pause] CB: Now, what were the aircraft used? Because we’ve talked about the Hudson — WM: Yeah. CB: And the Lysander. WM: Oh yes. CB: But were you using bigger planes as well? WM: Oh yes. Of course. We used, used Stirlings and Halifaxes. CB: In the squadron. WM: Oh yes. CB: Part of the same squadron. WM: Oh yes. CB: So they had lots of different aeroplanes. Yeah. WM: Yeah. CB: Right. WM: Yeah. We used Whitleys. We used everything. CB: Yeah. WM: We used to say that the junk that the old man didn’t want they used to pass it down to us. TB: How did the Stirlings and Halifaxes get off then because they needed quite a long runway didn’t they? WM: Yeah. Well that was, that was fine there at Tempsford. CB: Tempsford had a long runway so that was ok. TB: But the other end? CB: It’s a standard A airfield. TB: The other end then. How did they didn’t actually — they didn’t actually land in those? CB: They didn’t land those. WM: No, no . CB: They didn’t land at the — WM: No. They were for the heavy stuff they were dropping. CB: Yeah. So fast forward then to going to Tuddenham. WM: Yeah. CB: That was because the SOE bit stopped. WM: That’s right. CB: What did 138 do from Tuddenham? WM: Well we were on Bomber Command. CB: Yes. So what type of bombing were you doing there? WM: Well we were on a lot of the big ones that was available at that time. Yeah. CB: Right. WM: Including, including the various ones like [pause] Where was one? There was the Kiel one. CB: Yeah. WM: The Kiel. Then there was, was — TB: Did you do Cologne? CB: And a, so you did a lot of different raids there. WM: Yes. CB: What, what about D-day because you got the Legion of Honour. WM: Yeah. On, well, apart from the Legion of Honour wasn’t only just for D-day. CB: No. WM: That was for all the stuff we were doing for the French, you know. CB: Right. Ok. WM: But during D-day time what we were doing, we were dropping H2S. It seems a funny thing for us to be doing a thing like that, but H2S and you did so many trips during that particular time they just called it one. One day. One day. They didn’t call it, didn’t call it so many trips. CB: Right. WM: That was one day. CB: Right. Ok. So what were you actually doing? What were you actually doing at that time? WM: That was, we were dropping, we were actually dropping, dropping — CB: Window. WM: Window. CB: Yeah. WM: But at the same — CB: Not H2S. WM: Yeah. CB: Because H2S is the radar isn’t it? WM: That’s right. CB: Yeah. WM: Well H2S is our side. CB: Yeah. WM: Whereas, whereas the window was against the Germans so — CB: Yeah. Quite. WM: But of course, on the other hand we’d divert and do a short bombing run somewhere else. Somewhere, somewhere else. CB: Oh as well. WM: To try and convince them that we were all over the place. CB: Yes. Yes. WM: So one flight might go off after twenty minutes, another one after half an hour and go and drop something, and things like that. CB: Right. Ok. WM: Yeah. CB: So just on timings. When did you start with 138 squadron at Tempsford? WM: When? CB: When was that? WM: When. In Tempsford? Well we went back to Tempsford at the beginning of March. TB: What year? WM: Yeah. CB: Nineteen forty —? WM: 1945. CB: Right. WM: Yeah. CB: But originally when did you go to Tempsford? WM: Oh Tempsford. Not Tempsford, no, that was Tuddenham. CB: Yeah. WM: That was Tuddenham. CB: Yeah. So when did you go to Tempsford? WM: ‘41, ‘42 CB: Ok. WM: Yeah. CB: Right. And from then you went to Tuddenham. WM: Tuddenham was at the end. CB: Right. What did you do in the middle? WM: Tempsford. CB: Always Tempsford. WM: Always Tempsford. CB: Yeah. Ok. Good. WM: It didn’t matter what job come up, we were a Tempsford squadron. Yeah. CB: Ok. Good. Thank you very much. WM: And that is, that is and that was very important was that we were. Well 219 Squadron came and joined us from time to time you know but I had nothing, I had nothing to do with them, you know. CB: The same idea. You don’t talk to each other. WM: Much the same idea. Yeah. CB: Yeah. Right. So when you were at Tuddenham and you were in Lancasters, how many sorties? How many ops did you do? WM: That was thirty six. CB: That was thirty six. Ok. WM: Yeah. CB: So that that until the end of the war. WM: That’s right. CB: Ok. And how did the crew get on? WM: Oh, we had a great crew. What we, what we did, we went back to a place called Langar. CB: In Nottinghamshire. Yes. WM: In Nottingham. And that’s where we, where we picked up the rest of the crew. CB: Right. WM: And also there was one funny one we picked up, and what he was, he was the youngster, just come right out of university and we didn’t know how many languages he could speak but he could speak just about everything on the continent. And he used to carry his black box with him wherever he went and he used to, he used to speak into that. We never knew exactly what he was doing but we had an idea that he was talking to the German control. CB: Yeah. WM: And everything else like that. CB: Yeah. WM: A very important job, but as I say he was just straight out of university. CB: But he was completely detached from the rest of the crew. WM: No, no, no. CB: On the ground I meant. WM: He was a part of the crew. CB: No. On the ground. WM: Oh, on the ground. On the ground, yeah. He’d his own, he had his own station on the aircraft. Yeah. CB: Yeah. Where was that? WM: Yeah. He was behind the radio operator. CB: Right. WM: Because they had to work together on it. TB: But you dropped food stuffs into Holland as well didn’t you? WM: Oh yes. That, we were on, we were on that drop. CB: On Manna. WM: Oh yeah. CB: Operation Manna. Yeah. WM: Yeah. CB: How many drops did you do on that? WM: We did, at the beginning we did three in one, three a day. CB: Right. WM: We did that for about fifteen days. CB: Yeah. WM: Aye. Yeah. CB: And what height would you be flying for that? WM: Well some of it we were just over, some of it, at the beginning there was about a thousand feet, then it was down to six hundred, you know. But there was one, one little story which is quite, quite a good one. We, it was the first Sunday we were on the run and we were on our second, second run, anyway what happened, As we were flying up, you see what had happened the ladies, we called it ladies, we used to call it ladies they had made white crosses like that. CB: The WAAFs. WM: Yeah. Well we said that was. CB: Yeah. WM: We didn’t really know but the women used to say it was them. CB: Yeah. WM: And what it was that became our drop zones. CB: Oh I see. Right. WM: And that was inside — CB: In Holland. WM: Football grounds and thing like that. CB: Yeah. Yeah. WM: Enclosed areas. Anyway, what happened was as we were coming in and just about ready for the drop and I saw this other Lanc coming in like that. CB: Oh. WM: And I said, ‘You’re bringing sprogs, you know’, and we went a little bit that way and dropped because we couldn’t do anything else, we’d already gone, you know. More or less gone. Top they went and the stuff went outside and landed here. CB: Right. On the outside of the designated area. WM: On the railway, you know. CB: Yeah. WM: Yeah. Anyway, what happened was that years later we’d just opened a rugby ground in Africa and I was saying, I said, yeah, I said one of the stories I was saying, ‘And there we were, we dropped the food’. This lad came across. ‘And the stuff fell outside on the bloody railway line’, you know. And I said, ‘It looked like a whole lot of little black ants around a sugar lump, you know. In Africa that was. CB: Yeah. WM: All of a sudden I had a hand on my shoulder, and I looked around and somebody bigger than Tony, or he seemed bigger than Tony. I said, ‘What is it?’ He said, ‘You nearly killed me’, I said, ‘What?’, ‘You nearly killed me’. I said, ‘How?’ He said, ‘That was, I was that first lot of black ants’. And there’s another lady here, she was at church with us on Wednesday and she was five year old then and what happened was that her mother heard the bombers coming in and she, her granny said, ‘Hide under the table. Hide under the table. We’re going to get bombed. Going to get bombed’. And her mother said, ‘They’re very low’. The next thing they saw these funny things coming down because that was before the arrangements were made. CB: Oh. WM: And that was on to like a golf course. An open area. It wasn’t any good for landing. CB: No. WM: It was undulating stuff, you know. And what, what happened was that as I say she was five year old and that was the stuff landing right in front of her, you know. CB: Amazing. WM: Yeah. CB: Yeah. WM: And she’s here. CB: Is she? What an extraordinary thing. WM: And the number, the number of people that I’ve met is terrific. Well Tony was with us. TB: Yeah. WM: Tony was with us. I had a photograph here. Well it’s not a photograph. TB: Yeah. WM: There’s a painting done by a Dutchman, you know that was bigger than that. CB: Right. WM: No. It’s not there now Tony. It’s gone, my daughter’s got it. Like that. A great big mural, yeah. And he had it, he gifted it that day we were up there at Lincoln and it shows you the Lancasters all coming in, dropping the food and all the rest of it, you know and he actually gave me one just bigger, a little bit bigger than that envelope there. TB: But the Germans were allowed to eat the food as well that was meant — WM: Oh yes. TB: There were people. CB: They were starving too. WM: Oh yeah. Well that was one of the reasons why, why, well, do you know the story behind it? Right. The people in Holland, both indigenous ones and members of the German armed forces, were starving and two young Canadian officers, lieutenants, had been talking to their CO and said, ‘Hey man, can’t we do something about that? These people are starving’. And he says, ‘We’ve got plenty of food’. CB: These were army officers. WM: Yeah. ‘We’ve got plenty of food. Let’s give some to them’. He said, ‘How are we going to do that?’ He says, ‘Let us go in and see the German. See if he’ll allow it’. He said, ‘They might, you never know’. The two of them. No guns, no nothing like that, no knives, and they went in and they walked right into the German headquarters and demanded to see the number one. So they got in there and they put their case to them that the aircraft coming in wouldn’t drop bombs as long as you didn’t shoot at them, and we’ll drop food and you can share it. Of course he thought that was a good idea. You can share it. Anyway, that happened. So the first thing that people said was, ‘Where are we going to get containers?’ Everybody said, ‘138 squadron. They’ve got hundreds of them’, you know. And so we had. And what they, did they next thing we knew there was American, American trucks, Canadian trucks, all of that coming on to our secret ‘drome, you know, with food. And of course they were all loaded up and taken to us and put in these containers. That’s why I’m saying about contained looked like. They must have had quite a job trying to get into it of course, you know. CB: Yeah. WM: But that, that was the first lot of containers that were been dropped. Then they used to drop them in the reinforced mail sacks, you know. Well they were, they were run up special. People were running up up them special night and day to drop, so we could drop, so we could drop them. CB: Yeah. Yeah. WM: Some of them were great big things. They weren’t small, you know. Aye. CB: So even at six hundred feet the power of the drop would have been — WM: Oh well. CB: Difficult for the — WM: Well that was, that was — CB: They were breaking. WM: Well, that was the chance. Yeah. But most of our containers were alright because — CB: Yeah. WM: They were used to being dropped, you know. CB: No. Quite. TB: [inaudible] Lancasters were dropping the food? CB: Eh? TB: Were they using Lancasters? WM: Lancasters. Yeah. CB: Lots of squadrons did it. WM: Oh yes. There was. CB: Yeah. WM: Aye. CB: Right. What was the most memorable thing about your experience in the RAF? [pause] WM: It was when we were dropping the food to Holland and the response that we got. Yeah. CB: What? What was the response? WM: Oh terrific. CB: In what way? How did they demonstrate it? WM: Oh well. The crowds. Hundreds of people come out and waving to you and everything like that. And the, and the messages that was coming across, illicit radios and everything else. The airwaves were full of it. Aye. CB: Were they? WM: Aye. Oh yes. CB: And then after the war did anybody go back to Holland to see? What? WM: Oh yes. Yeah. Not only that, for quite a number of years they held food drops there, cheese drops. I was, in the beginning, alright but then I was away for fifty years. It still carried on during that time, and what used to happen was that the Dutch people came, came across on light aircraft and they brought all these little parachutes with these, you know these wee round cheeses and used to drop them at the various Royal Air Force Association homes on one special day at one special time. Yeah. And that was the food drops. TB: ‘Cause you’re got a Dutch reward haven’t you as well? As well. WM: Aye. I’ve got a Dutch medal. Yeah. CB: What’s that called? What’s that called? WM: Would you like to see it? CB: Yeah. [Recording pause] CB: So we’re talking about your Dutch award for Manna. What’s that called? [pause] WM: I’ve got it. Yeah. Yeah. That’s it. CB: What’s it say? WM: Thank you. “Thank you Canada and Allied Forces. Awarded the Medal of Remembrance. Thank you Liberators. 1945. To Mr W.T. Moore.” CB: This is a plaque on the wall. WM: Yes. CB: Yes. Framed. WM: Yes. CB: Yes. And then after the war there were regular contacts but you were abroad. WM: Yeah. CB: So you didn’t get involved. WM: That’s right. CB: Yeah. WM: Since I’ve returned I’ve been highly involved with them. CB: Yes. That’s really good. And this year, on the seventieth, last year just gone, the seventieth anniversary. Did you go to Holland? WM: No. I didn’t. I didn’t manage to go. CB: Right. WM: But I had quite a number of Holland and Dutch people come here and saw me. CB: Did you? Fantastic. WM: Yeah. CB: Can I just wind things back a little. Tell me about the crew. How, at Langar you crewed up. How did that happen? WM: Well [laughs] it was an old RAF system. CB: Go on. WM: Open the hangar door, everybody goes in and they shut the hangar door and you’re told to, to crew up. In other words you have to try and find a crew. And well we were alright, Nobby and I were alright, we knew each other. CB: That’s the pilot. WM: That’s right. CB: What was his name? WM: Noble. Noble. CB: Noble. Right. WM: Yeah. Because I had a few pilots before that but he was the one they were going to fly Lancasters with, you know, and so then we — CB: Who took the initiative in selecting the rest of the crew? WM: Well, it just happened that, happened to be we that were standing around and this old man came around, you know and we said, ‘Oh he looks alright. He’s got experience. What’s your name?’ ‘Graham. Graham Wilson’, ‘What are you?’, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘I’m a tail gunner’, We said, ‘Oh bugger off. We don’t want, you’re six feet and odd and you don’t tell us that’, you know. ‘You’re something else’, you know. Anyway, Graham Wilson became the tail gunner. He was, he was already twenty five plus twenty six. CB: Yeah. An old boy. Yes. WM: I know about that but — CB: Yeah. WM: And of course, then of course we had we had Jimmy Dagg. Jimmy Dagg from New Zealand and he became, he became our, [pause] well what he, what he actually did was he was our radar man. He was a radar man. He looked after all the radar equipment, and operating that as well. And then we had, we had radar, we had the wireless operator. We had a wireless operator and he was a signaller, Wireless Op/AG. He was a signaller as they called themselves, and he came from across the Clyde from me and his name was Dave Mitchell. [pause] Then of course the mid-upper, the mid-upper gunner, well he come from Canterbury. Peter. Peter Enstein and he and the family have a, have a hotel in Canterbury still, you know. TB: You met up with one of them at the ITV do didn’t you? WM: Sorry? TB: You met up with someone at the ITV do. WM: Yeah. TB: Who was that? WM: Well, that was that, that was the same ones that we met later on in life. Yes. CB: Who was the flight engineer? WM: The flight, the flight — CB: Flight engineer. WM: The flight engineer was Gus. He come from, he came from London, you know. CB: Gus. WM: Yeah, Gus Mitchell. Not Mitchell [pause] Oh what was his second name. Gus. Oh I’ll come back to him in a minute. CB: Yeah. Ok. WM: Sorry about that. CB: Right. Now, anything else that we need to cover that comes to your mind particularly? [pause] WM: Well, just about [pause] Well I think we’ve been covering it in general. We’ve covered in general, you know. CB: Yes. WM: We haven’t gone into designated drops and designated flights and — CB: Ok. WM: Where people got shot up and things like that. CB: Yeah. Well that’s — WM: I haven’t done that. CB: No. Can you do that? WM: I haven’t done that on purpose. CB: Oh right. Ok. WM: I haven’t done that on purpose. CB: Yeah. WM: We were quite lucky. We were quite lucky. We went in, in to Bomber Command as a crew and we come out as a crew. We were lucky. CB: Yeah. WM: We, the pilots I had earlier on for the small and light aircraft and things like that the most memorable one to me was this chap as I say when I started off he was a, he was a pilot officer, you know, and he finished up as the, as the wing commander. And with that he [pause] he actually, well to me he was a person who deserved everything he ever got because he was, he was a first class team leader, he was a first class gentleman. If he told you a thing then he meant it, he didn’t elaborate on it, you know. And his name was Rob Murray. Of course he had various, various high decorations during his time. CB: Yeah. Such as? WM: Well he got all the high ones. CB: DSO, DFC. WM: That’s right. CB: And bars? WM: Well he did. He did, yes. CB: So, when you were on operations, what was the most challenging thing on that? So you’re on the Lancaster — WM: Well on a Lancaster the main challenging thing was to watch out for night fighters. CB: Right. WM: You know, by that time your navigational aids were good but the worst thing about it was the German night fighters. Because there were so many young crews, as I call them, shot down before they even left the UK. The likes of chaps just about ready to shove off the cliffs there, you know, they got shot down, you know. CB: The night fighters were in that close were they? On the way to meet you. WM: Oh yes. Now then and also at night time on the return trips. That was also the night fighters rejoice. CB: Right. WM: Oh yes. You don’t hear a lot about that but there was a lot of chaps were actually shot down here. CB: Yeah. WM: On the return. CB: Yeah. WM: On the return journey. CB: And what about the British night fighters that were counteracting those? WM: Oh well that was up to my Jimmy Dagg and our boffin boy to do that. To try and, try and keep our special signals going. Aye. CB: So Jimmy Dagg was, where was he operating? Behind the signaller. WM: Yeah. That’s right. CB: And who was your bomb aimer? WM: I did the bomb aimer as well as that because I did, I did the navigating and the bomb aimer. CB: Oh did you? Right. WM: Yeah. CB: Ok. Right. And so when you were on the sorties in the night obviously. WM: Yeah. CB: In the squadron. Then what, you were in a stream. WM: Yeah. CB: Did you ever see other aircraft while you were there? WM: Oh yes, yes. Oh yes, we did. CB: How close did any of them get? WM: Well I think sometimes within a hundred metres. And other than that you had to watch out for chaps who were either too low or too high. Or too quick on the bomb release. Yeah. CB: Any coming down from above you? WM: Oh yes. But you know the thing is that if you went straight through on the guidelines of what you were told to do you were much safer than if you tried to do something different. CB: Right. WM: Aye. CB: So because you’ve got the extra person on board then you’re doing the bomb aiming as well as the navigation. WM: That’s right. That’s right. CB: So the practicality is on the run in. How far out from the target are you doing straight and level. WM: Well a lot of that depended on the territory and the terrain and how it was at night time you know. But generally, generally in later days when the pathfinders were going it was twenty, thirty miles and more. CB: And you are, you are not. You are releasing the bombs as the bomb aimer. WM: Yeah. CB: But you’re not controlling the aircraft. Is that right? WM: No. Well you did control the aircraft. CB: Oh. WM: Because you were controlling the pilot. CB: That’s what I meant, you’re telling the pilot. WM: Oh yes. CB: Rather than having the remote. WM: Yeah. Oh yes. CB: Yourself. WM: Oh yeah. The thing is as I often joke about coming out of the road here at night time I say to people, ‘Left. Left. Left. Left. Right.’ CB: Yes. WM: You know. CB: And then you had to do the photoflash afterwards. So how soon would that be after you’d released? WM: Well that. All that, that depended on how the target was. CB: Right. WM: But what you did was you counted in. You say each, each lot of bombs were [pause] were going to go off at different heights because they were different types of bomb types you were going. It wasn’t just all the same type CB: Ok. So what were the types? WM: Well you had everything from the small incendiaries, well the nuisance bombs, you know. CB: Yeah. WM: The big incendiaries that used to drop and probably set two or three buildings going you know. CB: Right. So your load would be a mixture of high explosive. WM: That’s right. CB: And incendiaries. WM: Normally was. CB: So the photoflash was to illuminate the target. WM: Oh to try and, yeah. CB: And when did the camera fire. How did that happen? WM: Well that was timed, that, we didn’t — CB: Automatic. WM: We didn’t actually do the timing. CB: Right. WM: That was actually arranged ahead of time you know. CB: So if you weren’t at the right height for the original calculation. WM: Yeah. CB: What happened? WM: Well then, then of course they could give you, could give you, you know say whether you were actually within that area or not, you know. CB: Yes. WM: Oh yes. CB: Ok. WM: A lot of people turn around say now that it was scattered and all the rest of it but a lot of them didn’t realise that you might have had a change of wind. The wind might have went up from fifty or sixty knots to about a hundred knots. CB: Right. And how did you detect that change? WM: Well, well what you did was you were finding your winds all the time and that. You had to try and allow for that you know. CB: But you’re not using a sextant. WM: That was the old days. TB: Looking out the window. CB: So you’re using Gee. WM: Yeah. CB: Are you? And GH. WM: Oh yeah. Yeah. CB: And GH? WM: And of course. Yeah. And otherwise H2S, you know. TB: H2S. Yeah. Just a quick one — WM: Once you, once you started on H2S you know it was a different story entirely. CB: So what could you see with H2S? WM: Well if you had water around you it was excellent. If you were going up alongside a canal you had excellent because the more water you had around you the better it was. CB: The contrast. WM: Yeah. CB: So how did you use H2S? For navigation? Or could you use it for the actual bombing? WM: Well we could use it, could use it for navigation. You could use it for bombing as well. Oh yes. CB: But what was the downside of using H2S? TB: The tracking. WM: [laughs] You should know what that was. TB: Yeah. Yeah. WM: That was as bad as the night fighter. TB: Yeah. Yes. CB: So the practicality of it is that you’d only switch it on occasionally. WM: Well the trouble was the better you were on the other instruments, the better your crew were on the other instruments, the safer you were. CB: Yeah. WM: Once you got the run ups and different things like that you then you were taking your chances. CB: Yeah. To what extent were you aware of the German system of upward firing guns in night fighters? WM: Well the thing is, the thing is this. With that — CB: The Schrage music. WM: It was something, it was something your rear gunner was dreading because after a certain angle he’d no control over that at all but if he, if he was on his, on his proper lateral defences for the aircraft, fine . Now, it’s, you couldn’t turn, you couldn’t turn around, turn around and say that the rear gunner missed something you know because it was a big bit of sky you know. CB: How many times did you get fired on from a fighter? WM: Very seldom. I dare say we actually got fired directly on with the other ones but we were aware of them, you know. CB: And did you do many corkscrews? WM: Oh yes, quite a few. Quite a few of them. Yeah. That that was a lot of the targets like Kiel and places like that that was when you did a lot of corkscrews was on that. CB: Yeah. And they were using box flak were they? WM: Yeah. Well you see, along, along the canals and that you had your pockets because, you know, the canal was where there had been several good attempts or big attempts at different things. Like one night we went out on the Friday nights and we bombed this battleship, you know and we actually put it on its side, you know. And the Sunday night we were called up again and somebody said, ‘you’ve got to go and so and so’. And a voice chipped up and said, ‘Hey are you wanting us to right and put it back up the way it was before?’ [laughs] That was a fact, that’s what he said. That was actually recorded as being recorded. [laughs] CB: So when you were bombing shipping what bombs were you using? WM: You had a medium height bomb you know but we weren’t in for the shipping direct we weren’t in a lot of these special ones. CB: Right. WM: But dropping bombs. Dropping bombs in the submarine pens, nowwe had the big ones for them as well. CB: You did carry the big ones. WM: Yeah. CB: Ok. WM: But you see the thing is this. We had a modern, we had a modern Lancaster, the most up to date one, yeah, And the thing about them was, was that you were, you were dropping. Later on what we were doing although we thought we were dropping on submarine pens, it wasn’t. We were dropping them because the V2s and the V2s were in there and at the beginning we didn’t even know that there was V2s and V1s, we just thought they were submarine pens because the amount of damage that the government believed was going to come on the London area was going to be horrendous and there could have been, you know. It was bad enough the likes of people down this area knew about the V2s and V1s and things like that. CB: Yeah. Sure. WM: Yeah. CB: Right. Do you want to stop there for a mo? TB: How did they discover, the Germans discover — [Recording paused] CB: What was the role, the difference between you, sorry, the wireless operator and Jimmy Dagg. So Jimmy Dagg — WM: Well the wireless operator had, as you say wireless. CB: Yeah. WM: He had his official work to do. CB: Yeah. Signaller. WM: Yes. CB: Right. WM: When Jimmy was doing this other thing you had, you had lots of stuff that was introduced that Jimmy used to use, you know. A lot of it, we never touched it, we never touched it, you know. Same as the, same as the youngster with his black box, we never saw what was inside that. CB: So, Ok. Who was the youngster then? WM: Eh? CB: Who was the youngster? WM: Well, he was young Weir. CB: Oh he was young Weir was he? WM: Yeah. Yeah. CB: Right. WM: But we never, well maybe a bit [laughs] [coughs] we didn’t, we didn’t treat him as a kid, you know, but we did actually look after him, you know, because by the time we were doing that we were, you know, we had quite a few things under our belts sort of thing, you know. Yeah. CB: So he only came in later did he? WM: That’s right. CB: Right. Ok. WM: Yeah. CB: Where did you meet your wife and when? WM: Oh I met my wife in 1944 in Dunoon, in Scotland. TB: Up there. WM: There it is. There. Up there. TB: Yeah. WM: That’s the picture up there. CB: Yeah. WM: But what it was, was we got, we got some leave and I managed to persuade the old man to give us a few days extra. And I said, ‘It takes us two days to get there and two days to get back again, you know’. And he said, ‘Ok’. So we got about ten, got about ten days and that, and that was the July of ‘44. As I say we thought we deserved a, we deserved a bit of a rest after what we’d been doing for D-day and all the rest of it, you know. CB: Yeah. Yeah. WM: Yeah. CB: And how many other bombers did you see blow up? WM: Quite a few actually but you were never sure whether it was your ones or the enemy that had been got at, you know. CB: How do you mean your ones? WM: I mean, I mean our aircraft. Some other Lancasters. CB: Which, whether it was a German plane that blew up. WM: Yeah. CB: Or a British one. WM: That’s right. CB: Ok. WM: Sometimes they went, they went puff too. Yeah. But no, no, it was hard to say. CB: And your rear, Graham Wilson in the back. WM: Yeah. CB: At six feet he was squashed in. Did you have the later .5 machine guns in the rear turret? WM: Yeah. Yeah. We had that. I’ll tell you what we did, I never mentioned this with — CB: Previously. WM: At one time from [pause] this was one of the sort of trips that we did from [pause] from Tuddenham. We, we went up to Abbotsinch and we got new engines put in, you know, and , well they turned around and said these ones were getting a bit old and so they were but we got these new engines put in. CB: More powerful. WM: Powerful. We could fly faster, fly further, fly higher, all the rest of it. Anyway, there was only three. So anyway we went up there and we got up to Abbotsinch which is now Glasgow airport, you know. I knew it as Abbotsinch as a kid, you know. Anyway, we left that aircraft. We had taken our own ground crew with us. CB: Oh. WM: We were told to do that, they also got leave, and we went home and all the rest of it. We didn’t scatter because everybody came and stayed with my mother, you know. Anyway, we got back and they had these new engines and the ground crew were back. They also had a couple of Scotsmen in the ground crew and we had to test these new engines and fly them around and give a report. So we used to take the chiefy, if you know what a chiefy is. Do you know what a chiefy is? CB: Yeah. The chief technician. Yeah. WM: No, no. CB: The ground crew chief. WM: No. CB: Oh. Which one? WM: No. A chiefy was a flight sergeant. CB: Oh. WM: [laughs] That is where it came from. CB: Yes. WM: The equivalent from the, from the Navy. CB: Right. WM: Was the chiefy. CB: Right. WM: And the flight sergeant became a chiefy. But anyway their chiefy came along and we got these engines back and had to run them up, so we did that and we had a couple of days flying around and one night in the, in the mess and the naval boys were shooting a line about HMS Forth and the submarines in the Holy Loch and they said that nobody could get near them, you know. Well, I’ll tell you what, I just, I never said a word and I’d told the crew already you don’t mention anything about. They might have guessed my accent a bit but, you know. Anyway, so anyway what we did we went into Paisley and we got a whole lot, a whole lot of little bags of lime, you know, and we loaded it up in the Lancaster and we took off. So, we had, we had permission to fly anywhere we wanted as long as it wasn’t in one of these defensive barrages, you know, whatever they call them. Anyway, we decided that we’d go and see The Forth. So we got in, we revved her up, we took off, we went across the Clyde to Erskine. We went up in to Loch Lomond and flew up Loch Lomond and flying low, used to flying low, then we jumped. We jumped over the section where the Norsemen used to draw their boats across Loch Lomond to Loch Long. And we jumped across there, down Loch Long, moved over into Loch Eck, down Loch Eck, Glen Massan and then we just opened up the throttle. Full throttle right down the Holy Loch and dropped all this stuff on HMS Forth and all the submarines and got the hell out of it, you know. Anyway, we got, we did, we went away down the Isle of Arran and all the way around about, the bottom of the Clyde, you know, and back up again about an hour later, you know. So, eventually we landed and this lieutenant commander sent for us, and we paraded in front of him, all scraggly buggers, you know. None of us had proper uniform on, we’d just what we used to use around the aircraft you know. Anyway, he says, ‘You’re all on a charge’. ‘Why sir?’, ‘Well it’s my Lancaster that did this, AC-Charlie, and I won’t have it’. I said, ‘What do you mean your Lancaster, sir?’ He said, ‘Well they’re based here and they’re my Lancasters. I’m in trouble for them’. I said, ‘Oh. Why’s that?’, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘You made a mess of the Forth’. ‘Don’t you remember the other night in the mess? All these naval boys were saying it was impossible, you know’. ‘Well. Dismissed. We’ll see you later when you come back from your next job’. So we went up and went up north and we loaded up with bombs and eventually the idea was to go up into Leningrad, you know, so called Leningrad then, you know and the siege. A lot of people thought the siege was just like across the road there you know but it wasn’t, it was about forty or fifty miles away, you know, but at the same time old Jerry had it all wrapped up, you know. But the Russians had their great bunkers there that you could land a Lancaster on. Well they had, they used to say, ‘Watch the bloody holes in the runway’. But they used to fill them in all the time. Anyway we landed there, got under this big, what was supposed to be bomb proof shelters, you know. Well we knew what we were doing the other side but anyway that was it. So we stayed there until the wind changed because we couldn’t have the wind that we came in on otherwise we’d be flying over the Jerries’ lines immediately, you know, at low level. So we waited until the wind changed, right, Gulf of Finland, away, good.Back up were Russian bombs then, Back right down we dropped the Russian bombs. Now this was all his majesty’s ideas and I don’t mean the King either. This was Winston Churchill’s ideas to show what, what we could do, you know. Anyway, we went back to Lossiemouth and back again and back again and we were lucky, you know. We had a few chips and things like that. Anyway, the last time we got to Lossiemouth they said. ‘No. It’s finished. You did enough’. ‘Oh thank you very much. Where do we go now?’, ‘Go back to Abbotsinch.’ Back to Abbotsinch and all the boffins came up from the, from a factory which is, well the factory’s about twenty minutes in a motor car, you know. About five minutes in a aeroplane, you know. CB: Yeah. WM: But that’s where they used to make these engines, you know. Anyway, all the boffins were there. Took the, took the engines off, took them away again and then we went up to see the old man as we call a lieutenant commander. So we got up there and I knocks on the door. No lieutenant commander, full commander. And I said to the boys, I said, ‘Oh this is alright. He’s been posted somewhere’, you know. He wasn’t posted somewhere, he’d been promoted to full commander which is just under a captain in the Navy . Yeah. So I saw his secretary, a very nice young lady, I got on well with her, you know. Anyway, we said to her, ‘When can we see the boss?’ Well, she said, ‘I’ll make an appointment for you’,’ Alright’. The next morning appointment everybody had their best blues on, shining, buttons polished, boots polished. She led us in. He was out in his other office. ‘Come in. [pause] Morning gentleman. Why are you here?’ I said, ‘Beg your pardon sir. You’re the one who told us to come back here when we come back and you would sentence us to that escapade that we had’. ‘Don’t know anything about it’. I said, ‘But —‘, ‘I don’t know anything about it’. He said, ‘Good trips boys?’ ‘Yes’, ‘And they had theirs?’,’ Yes’. ‘My Lancasters’. So there it was. Nothing happened about it. CB: That was lucky. Yeah. WM: But the, there was a great friend of mine. He’d got a book, another book I think over there somewhere. Anyway, he’s written it. Peter. Peter Lovatt, you know. TB: Oh that’s the bloke you met at the what’s name isn’t it? WM: Sorry? TB: That’s the one you met at — WM: Oh right CB: Is it there Tony? TB: Yeah. WM: Eh? TB: Yeah. WM: One on submarines, and one on this, and one on that. CB: Yes. Lots of captains on HMS Forth. WM: That’s right. CB: Yes. WM: And [pause] and of course as I say what happened was that I lost touch. And you know the Millies? [pause] Well the Millies are sponsored by the ITV and The Sun newspaper and one of the first ones that was done I was asked to go on it. Anyway, I’d been, I’d been speaking to a young lady at the Bomber Command luncheon on the Sunday. CB: Yes. WM: And this thing was going to happen about ten days later, you know. But at that time I didn’t know. So, anyway, what happened was that I couldn’t, I couldn’t find him anywhere. I’d written to him, we’d lost touch and that was it, you know. Anyway, I even got a letter from him. It took fourteen years to come to me, I got it though. Fourteen years to come to me. Anyway, I tried to find him, couldn’t find him. Anyway, on the, on the Saturday [pause] no, I’ll tell you a sad thing that happened was on the Sunday I’d been at the Bomber Command luncheon and my wife was dead and my children said, ‘No dad. You must go and we’ll see to everything at the moment.’ So, anyway on the Friday we had the service and on the Saturday morning my daughter got a phone call saying that I was wanted for something special for the Millies. We’d never heard about the Millies. Anyway, she got to know a bit more than I did and then apparently this lady went to work to try and find Peter and she found his son playing golf and then that led to them finding Peter. And then of course on the Wednesday I got a car that came here for me. I was warned about this. First of all they said black tie and wearing black tie is fine. The next one was lounge suit, yeah, that’s fine. Next one was blazers and badges, that’s fine, you know.Anyway, what did happen was that I took the whole lot and I got dressed here in the dickie suit. All the way down to London, just myself in this green tomato carriage. The next thing I knew we stopped at this hotel. ‘No. Keep in where you are’. ‘Where are we going now?’ ‘Just you wait and see. I’ve got my orders not to lose you’. I said, ‘Oh. Thank you’. So they took us to Number 10. So that was fine. So we had a photographic session and shaking hands and all this. And then we got taken back to the hotel. We went to the Dorchester first and we, we had drinks there and then they said, ‘Time up. Everybody in’. And we had buses by this time, great big buses, you know, and the driver had already told us that, ‘You sit in the place where you are because I’ve got you on camera and you don’t dare go and move. Or another bus’. Anyway, we got back to the hotel and somebody says, ‘How about dinner?’ ‘No. You’ll get dinner where we’re going’. ‘Where are we going?’ ‘We’ll take you there’. So we don’t know where we’re going. So all done up in dickie suits and medals and this, that and the next thing. And we get there and we’re at the War Museum and it’s all lined up like Hollywood. All these searing lights and all this thing and we get escorted up. Once again, in the bus they said, ‘Have you got your number?’ The bloke next to me, he keep talking away to me and he turned out to be with, he was the boss of the Royal Navy you know. And he was down in the dumps because they’d just took his aeroplanes away that day, you know. He wasn’t very happy with them, you know. On the other side of me was a young pilot officer who’d a brand new DFC up here, you know. Anyway, that was fine. Anyway, we got there and they said, ‘Right. As you come up if you get a green ticket you go to the right. You get a red ticket you go to the left.’ Alright. I got a red ticket. I’m going this way and all these film stars and all these other high [unclear] and had a great run ‘cause you meet everybody because that’s the idea of the two lots. Then all of a sudden somebody shouts out. ‘Ready. The doors will be open in five minutes ladies and gentlemen. And after you get in through the doors there’s toilets on the right and the left that you may use’. [laughs] Anyway, we get there and then of course they tell us what table we’re at. Then I find out that I’m with another five Bomber Command boys. Bomber Command. Five. Five and one is six. Something wrong. Anyway, we go back. We go, we sit down and we get our nibbles and this, that and the next thing and that’s the beginning of a good evening, you know. Plenty of wine coming around you know. Very nice. Good stuff. Then the next thing I noticed that there were people going up to the platform. So this man went up and this lady went up and this man went up and eventually, ‘Bomber Command. Table Thirteen.’ We go up. There’s still six. Anyway, we get up there and as we get up one of the chaps, about his size, what does he do? He falls down through the trapdoor. Honestly all you could see was he was down to about my size. [laughs] So, anyway, what happens then is that we’re beginning to get the idea there’s presentations going on. So we got this presentation, a beautiful glass ornament we’ll call it, a beautiful thing. We’ve got it. Anyway, what happened, we got that and everybody else had moved away when they got theirs and this presenter, that fella, same height as me, white hair and this young blonde girl. She was here and he was there and wouldn’t they let me move. No. Then the next thing was the roll of the drums. ‘Brrmbrrrm brummmm brmmm’. What happens? TB: Peter comes in. WM: They have it like that programme, “Your Life.” Eventually what happens, I get to see something. I thought to myself it can’t bloody well be. There’s Peter Lovatt there and of course they said to me, ‘What would you like to do tonight?’ I said, ‘I don’t know but I’m beginning to think my imaginations’, you know. Anyway, apparently my accent was broader than it should be. Anyway, what happened, It was Peter. They’d found him and they had him dickied up and they had him there after all these years. Yeah. TB: [inaudible] CB: Extraordinary. TB: Yeah. [Recording paused] CB: We’re restarting. So what you’ve got is a plate here. WM: Right. CB: Yeah. WM: Now — CB: So they presented to you. WM: Now, when we went in to the, when we went in there, on the table, there were lovely sets of plates were all on the table and of course everyone was admiring them and reading them. And then of course when we came back from being on the platform they had disappeared, you know. But unbeknown to us they’d made up bags. Extremely heavy, strong, beautiful carved out, set out plastic bags. Now in the audience was my friend. Who? CB: This is your pilot? WM: Camilla. CB: Oh Camilla. WM: Camilla and her husband. CB: Right. WM: So, anyway, what happened during the time we were going around and they went outside and then everybody came back inside after the toilet, you know. What happened then was that we were at the tables and the VIPs came around to greet us although everybody told us we were the VIPs and not the ones coming to greet us. So, anyway, the Prince of Wales and his good lady was coming around and they got to me and I was told that, you know, we could talk to them. They’re here, we could talk to them. You’re the VIPs and you can tell them any stories you like so long as you don’t go on too long, you know. Maybe they knew me. Anyway, what happened, when they came to me I said, ‘Good evening ma’am. Good evening sir. Thank you very much for coming tonight. We’re very happy to see you here’. I said, ‘By the way can I tell you a little story about your granny’. That’s to him. And Camilla takes out a wee book, I’ve got one of them here, yeah, h, a little book like that, you know, and her pen. I said, ‘This is a story’, I said, ‘In 1960 I built a race course for your granny and I was given ten days to build it while she went on a cruise up and down Lake Nyassa in Africa’, and of course then the ears were going but I hurried the story up. So, anyway, anyway Camilla’s busy writing and she says, ‘This is going to be our story at Christmas’. Christmas is only a few days away, you know. ‘This is going to be our story. Nobody knows that one’, you know. So, anyway she writes down all this stuff about what I told her and all the rest of it, you know. And I said, ‘I hope you can read that’, and she said, ‘Yes. I better’. I says, ‘Ok’. And Charles is watching her. Anyway, the next thing that happens, the next thing that happens is he says, ‘Is that all?’ I says, ‘Aye. I can tell you a lot of stories about your mum if you like too’, you know. He says, ‘Another time’, he says. I said, ‘Alright, we’ll make it another time’, [laughs]. Anyway, I’ve met them several times since. Anyway, what did happen the people on the platform turned about to these ones? Yeah. Now, he’s a secretary for Bomber Command and has been for generations. There’s myself there and this was my nominated girlfriend for the evening. Well the thing is this, she’s married now and got a baby now. [laughs] And this is the one that fell down the hole. Well there you are. CB: Fantastic. WM: This is us shaking hands on the — yeah. That’s my friend Peter Lovatt. CB: Yeah. TB: Have you heard from him since? Have you heard from him since? WM: Oh yes. Aye. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Bill Moore. Two Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chris Brockbank Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-03-18 Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context AMooreWT160318 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Language A language of the resource eng Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Royal Air Force. Bomber Command Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 02:45:48 audio recording Description An account of the resource <p>After spending time in the Air Defence Cadet Corps, Bill Moore joined the Royal Air Force, qualifying as an observer. He tells of his family history in wartime and his transatlantic trip, landing in New York before heading to Canada for his training. He went to 138 Squadron and tells of his time flying Lysanders from RAF Tempsford, taking members of Special Operations Executive over the France and of dropping supplies to the Resistance. He also tells that, on one of these operations, his aircraft had to be helped by local villagers to get airborne again. As well as Lysanders, William flew in Hudsons, Stirlings, Halifaxes and Lancasters in Bomber Command. Bill tells about 138 Squadron's part in Operation Manna - he received the Legion of Honour from France and also a Dutch Medal of Commendation. He also tells of his time after the war when he returned to the building trade working in Rhodesia and Zambia.<br /><br />[<strong><em>Please note: The veracity of this interview has been called into question. We advise that corroborative research is undertaken to establish the accuracy of some of the details mentioned and events witnessed].</em></strong></p> Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Bedfordshire England--Suffolk England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough Canada New Brunswick New Brunswick--Moncton France France--Istres Netherlands Zimbabwe Zambia Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Maureen Clarke 138 Squadron aircrew Anson bombing crewing up displaced person Gee H2S Halifax Hudson Lancaster Lysander observer Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945) RAF Benson RAF Halfpenny Green RAF Heaton Park RAF Tempsford RAF Tuddenham Resistance Special Operations Executive Stirling training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/631/8901/AQuineJW160805.mp3 150ac30c9c6d3baa4f6bacf9b4d9923b https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/631/8901/PQuineJW1603.jpg d8bf456c899eddf94849e34a0fb71c7b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Quine, John Wakeford J W Quine Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Quine, JW Description An account of the resource Seven Items. Collection concerns Pilot officer John Wakeford Quine (b. 1923, 1576065, 185297 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a pilot with 170 and 582 Squadrons. The collection consists of his logbook, official documents, a course photograph and an oral history interview. also includes a sub-collection of a photograph album of his time training in the United States as well as some target photographs. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by John Quine and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-08-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1942 1943 1944 1945 1945 1946 Transcribed audio recording A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is Friday the 5th of August 2016. I’m in Lickey with John Quine who was a pilot and he’s going to tell us all about his life and times particularly in the RAF. So what are your earliest recollections of life, John? JQ: Well my very earliest recollection in life is living in Wales in Penarth. My father was a civil servant and he was working in Cardiff, if I remember rightly and my grandparents were living in Penarth where [pause] where my grandfather had a printing company which was in Tiger Bay. It was only a small company but apparently quite successful. In those days I remember seeing the odd aircraft go across the sky and everybody looked at it because there weren’t many there and they were little bigger than the average light aircraft of these days. Usually with two wings but sometimes one would say, ‘Look, there’s a monoplane.’ And then I remember seeing an airship on a couple of times. It would either be the R100 or the 101, I can’t remember now. Or it could have been both. And they looked absolutely huge in the sky. They weren’t, obviously but seeing a lump like that in the sky was most unusual. At an early age my father interested me in the Schneider Trophy. I missed the first one but the second one I got sort of got interested, and I listened to the commentary on the radio where of course history tells us that we, we won and on the third year we won again and we had won the first one so that gave us the Schneider Trophy permanently and the Schneider Trophy being a race for seaplanes which we won it was a sort of a basis for the Spitfire when Mitchell came to design it. So at that early age I was interested in flying and I used to have model planes which I used to fly around in my hand making the appropriate noises and whatnot as a kid of about five and later on I went on to the extremely technical one of a rubber band being used as a propellant. So that’s how my interest in planes started. And so it went on. I was, remained interested in planes. I used to see Alan Cobham and his air circus. By now we’d moved to Lickey near Birmingham and Alan Cobham used to come once a year to the aerodrome which was at the Austin motor works. The aerodrome now has gone and so has the Austin motor works for that matter but I used to be able to see them doing all the stunts from the house where we lived at the time. I did, on one occasion, go and actually view the circus on, on the aerodrome itself but I didn’t have a flight because in those days it was, if I remember rightly, five shillings for a quick trip and five shillings was quite a lot of money in those days. I well remember one trick which, wing walking and this really was wing walking because they got an aeroplane, something like a Tiger Moth, might have been a Tiger Moth and the chap got out of the seat that he was in, two in the aircraft of course, he got out of the seat and walked around the outside of the aircraft, got on to the wing and walked up and down a bit and waved to the crowd and then he got underneath the underneath wing and sat on the axle that held the landing wheels and they landed the aircraft with him sitting there and I think an extremely dangerous thing to do and certainly wouldn’t be allowed today. So later on when the war started I did a short period in the, in the Home Guard and then I volunteered for, to join the air force. Having decided to volunteer I was walking down a road in Nottingham, my father now having been moved to Nottingham because of the war and I went in and saw the recruiting sergeant and he said, ‘Well what do you want to do in the air force?’ And I said, ‘Well, I think I’d like to be a mechanic.’ I had thought at that time that it, when I came out of the air force it could be useful. Never dreaming that we might of course, lose the war at the time but he said well you, you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t, now I’m overrunning the story a bit. Yeah. I said, ‘Right. Well I’ll go away and think about it. I’ll come back next week,’ which I did. During the week I thought well if I’m going into the air force I might as well be a pilot. So I went back and I said, ‘I’ve changed my mind. I’d like to be a pilot.’ And the recruiting sergeant said, ‘You wouldn’t be any good as a pilot.’ And I said, ‘Why not?’ And he said, ‘You didn’t have a secondary school education.’ Secondary schools in those days were, you know almost equal to a grammar school and I said, ‘Well, what makes you think I haven’t had a secondary school education?’ He said, ‘Well have you.’ And I said, ‘Yes. I have. I went to Bromsgrove County High School.’ So he said, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘. Well, alright, well I’ll put you forward.’ So I didn’t hear anything for three weeks or so as far as I remember and then I was called again and I had to go for an RAF interview and a test which I found extremely easy at the time and went away again and the next thing I knew was I had my discharge papers so I queried this why I’d been discharged when I hadn’t even been in and they said, ‘You’re in a reserved occupation,’ which was quite ridiculous because it wasn’t so very long since I left school but I was working at the Brush Electrical Company in Loughborough and so, anyway they didn’t have any objection to my going. Probably, probably glad I did [laughs] So in the end the matter was resolved and I was taken back into the air force with a different number and so I got in. Now, the sequel to that story is that after I’d been in the air force and got trained and had pilot’s wings and was an officer I was walking down the same road in Nottingham and I thought, I wonder if that recruiting sergeant is still in the recruiting office so I went in and he was. So he still being a sergeant and me an officer he of course jumped to his feet and saluted and I kept him going for about five minutes and then, then I told him and we both had a laugh together. [machine paused] CB: Ok. JQ: Yeah. CB: Right. JQ: So having joined the RAF I went to St Johns Wood and the first place I went to was Lord’s Cricket Ground where we had an FFI and I’ve, I’ve had many a laugh with people telling them that I, I’ve been in the famous long room in the pavilion with my trousers down and they say, ‘How on earth did you manage that?’ But that was the reason. Then I went to ITW at Scarborough for a bit. I was quite amazed at the fact that there was quite a few people there that couldn’t swim because that was one of the things that happened there that if you couldn’t swim they taught you to swim there in the local baths and then from there we went out to Carlisle for ten hours attitude training on Tiger Moths and the instructor made a big mistake with me because after I’d been flying for about five hours he said, ‘Oh you’re quite a natural. If you go on like this, in another couple of hours you’ll solo.’ And we weren’t really required to solo there. It was just an attitude test. Well of course having told me that of course I went right off but I did actually solo after nine hours and so that was quite, quite a boost for me and then after a short time in Manchester at Heaton Park we were sent off to Canada in the Andes ship that had been a cruise liner which had been taken over as a troop ship and when we got to Canada we went to Moncton. It was Christmas Day I remember. We got there. We didn’t actually have our Christmas dinner and whatnot until a fortnight later. But then they had us all in a hangar and separated us out and about ninety percent of the people went to Canada but some of us were sent to America. To various places in America but we went to Oklahoma. When we got there they kitted us out with American uniforms which was a sort of summery uniform because it was quite hot at the time but we were, we had our own hats which we wore and our own insignia on the arm but apart from that it was more or less like a summer dress, and we were there for about six months doing ordinary, learning to fly and aerobatics and all that sort of thing and it was on one of these flights that was in a Harvard at the time which was the more advanced trainer that we used and I met, I had, I made a pal of a chap who lived in Redditch which wasn’t very from where I lived at home and we went on a cross country. We were sent on a cross country and we got lost or partly lost. Anyway, we weren’t quite sure where we were and I spotted this town so I thought, and there was a railway there and I thought I wonder if they’ve got the station name written up so I thought I’d go down and have a look and I went down. They hadn’t got the name on the station but they had got it written around a water tower so we knew exactly where we were then. Now the sequel to that story is that when the war had finished with Germany we were sent out to do what we called Cooks Tours over the, over the Germany, over Germany and we took ground crew with us and showed them what they had helped to do and coming back on, from one of these things on a very hot day and flying at about two hundred feet which we were allowed to do everybody was, it was, it was a bit boring and we were, and I think the bomb aimer was getting a bit bored with his life so he, and so was, so was the navigator and so the navigator said, ‘Would you mind skip if I come out and have a look around?’ And I said, ‘No you can’t do that because we shan’t know where we are if you,’ And the bomb aimer said, ‘Well, I’ll map read.’ So I said, ‘Alright then. Well the navigator can come out.’ So he came out and we flew happily along for about another half hour and it was all quiet and so forth apart from the noise of the engines of course and I said to, ‘Where are we Jimmy?’ Jimmy being the bomb aimer. No reply. And so I asked him again. Still no reply. So I said to the engineer, ‘Have a look down and see what’s happened to Jimmy,’ and Jimmy was fast asleep. So we then didn’t know where we were so I thought, right. So I saw this town. I thought I wonder whether they’ve got the name written around a water tower and they had so we were able to use that. So that was fine. [pause] CB: I’ll just stop for a mo. [machine paused] CB: So when you were in the States were they military or civilian instructors? JQ: Oh civilians. CB: Ok. What sort of people? JQ: Young, youngish chaps. Quite good flyers they were but some of the seniors were, you know, sort, sort of bosses over them but none of them were that old. CB: And they hadn’t been called up for the American military and were flying training you. JQ: Yeah. CB: And still civilians. JQ: Yeah. I don’t know how old they were. CB: Well that’s ok. JQ: Yeah. Just let me find myself again. CB: Ok. The intriguing thing here John is that you’re being trained in America by civilians with the war having started and you’re not being trained in Canada so how did they treat you and what were the conditions like? JQ: Well, we were, we were extremely surprised actually because if you take the food for instance. Here we were coming from a very strictly rationed country to one who although they said they were rationed was not really rationed by our standards at all and the bread was white for a start. Our bread was anything but white and there was plenty of this and plenty of that and the natives were extremely friendly, you did find the odd one but what used to annoy us although I can’t think now why it did annoy us but they used to call us limeys, the people that annoyed us. But we called them yanks so, you know, tit for tat really but most people didn’t call us limeys and they were extremely friendly, extremely hospitable and the girls were very hospitable and I remember on the first night we were a bit staggered because we’d hardly arrived and we were invited to, to a roller skating party which was quite something really. Fortunately, I could roller skate so I wasn’t too bad at that and many of the students, us that is, formed relationships with the girls that lasted for years. Sometimes some married them but I’m not sure how many but certainly there were, friendships were made and I couldn’t praise them too highly really. People would say, ‘How did you find them?’ And I’ve always said they were absolutely magnificent to us. They couldn’t have been better, Hospitable to the point of being over generous. CB: How many of you were there on each course? JQ: Oh now that’s difficult. I would have guessed at about fifty but I am guessing now and from memory so - CB: And so you were in American uniform but with British insignia. JQ: That’s right. CB: And you had a structure with some, there was an officer, an RAF officer running it was there or what? JQ: Yes the RAF officer was the chief of the whole lot. The CO and the ground instructors were RAF and British but the flying was done because we were at the Spartan School of Aeronautics in America and other schools were similar and I presumed that they were instructors who were instructing at the school before we arrived. Of course nobody else was there of course at the time other than RAF people except a sprinkling and I do mean a sprinkling of about six, something like that, of Americans. One of the things that did slightly annoy us, not too much really but the Americans went through exactly the same training as we did and they were awarded with the American flying badge and the RAF flying badge and we were not awarded the American flying badge. We just got the RAF one and we expected to get them both but we didn’t get them. I think on one of the things that I’ve got they do say that certain courses did get them both but whether that’s true or they just said it I don’t, I’ve no idea. CB: So how many hours would you have done when you finished there after six months, to get your wings? JQ: Now that’s, I shall have to have notice of that. CB: Yeah. Well it doesn’t matter. So you’ve got your wings - JQ: Yeah. CB: And then - JQ: Well we got our wings. Well in getting those wings we, at one point we’d done advanced training and we were halfway through that and they split us in to two then. They assessed people as being fighter pilots or bomber pilots and fighter pilots went on to air to ground gunnery and the bomber pilots did something else. I’m not sure what they did but presumably bombing but I’m not sure. I was put on the fighter pilots lot. CB: Oh. JQ: But when I got back to England they didn’t want any fighter pilots so I automatically went on to bombers. CB: Right. JQ: We had an aside on this one is that we had, we did have reunions after the war and I went on one and it involved us doing an internal flight. We went into Dallas, flew into Dallas from Britain and then from there we’d got to go fly to Tulsa. I think I’m right and from there we got a ground thing to Oklahoma. I think that’s the way it worked. Anyway, you had to do this internal flight, wherever it was and I noticed while we were waiting to board the aircraft, a civilian aircraft, I noticed the pilot go around the back of the desk and disappear and I thought, I wondered why has he gone around there? So I sort of wandered around while we were waiting for boarding and he was there coming out of a little sort of cubby hole thing and I said, ‘What are you doing around here?’ And he said, ‘Oh I’m just checking up on the weather,’ he said, ‘We’ve got a computer in here, comes out on the weather,’ he said. ‘I don’t know why I’m doing it here actually,’ he said, ‘We get it out on the aircraft anyway but,’ he said, ‘I thought I’d just have a look.’ I said, ‘Well you’d better do a good landing when you get,’ and he said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘You’ve got forty five pilots in the back.’ And he said, ‘We haven’t have we?’ He said, ‘I’ll give it to the second pilot. He lands it better than I do’ [laughs] So off we went and during the course of the flight he wandered back and he was saying hello and whatnot and, and when we’d landed and it was quite a reasonable landing he was there waiting and he saw me and he said, ‘Well? What did you think of the landing?’ And I said, ‘Nine out of ten.’ [laughs]. So anyway he laughed too. So that was that. CB: Yeah. When. when you were in the States doing your training to what extent was the, how rigorous was the training? They examined you, tested you all the way did they? JQ: All the way through. CB: Or did you lose quite a few people because they didn’t pass. JQ: Didn’t lose many people, no. And of course while up to that point sixteen people had been killed. CB: Of the fifty or - JQ: No. I mean - CB: No. In general. JQ: Since the thing started. CB: Oh right. Ok. JQ: And certainly one of my friends doing this air to ground gunnery had not pulled up early enough and had tipped his wing on the target which was a fairly a big target, half the size of this room and landed, well not landed but crashed about two fields away and of course he didn’t do himself any good so he disappeared. I don’t think he died or anything like that but so people, people left for one reason or another. Either they, very few fortunately got killed. Some, some just couldn’t complete the course because they were injured or their health wasn’t good or they had to stay there in hospital and whatnot and wait until they got better and then complete the course and presumably did something else so - CB: I ask the question because over a course of training, period of training for RAF pilots there’s a continuous chop going on and I just wondered how the chop rate was there. JQ: No. Well I would have said it was quite good actually. CB: And then when you’d finished the training did they run a party for you or what did they do? JQ: I remember the party very painfully actually. CB: Oh. She was as nice as that was she? JQ: Well we had, they told us they were going to give us this party at the end. Either they told us or we assumed it from somebody else who had it for us and we knew we were going to get one. In the, in the restaurant, what do they call it? What do they call the PA. CB: The PX. JQ: And so what we decided to do was to pay every week while we were training. We put in so many dollars. I can’t remember how much it was now each and then that would give us a free night. The night came and it was due to start say at 8 o’clock. I don’t remember quite now but all I’d got to do was walk from my billet, across about a hundred yards to the restaurant, PA or whatever and there I was so at five to eight I went across and there was a lot of blokes there and one bloke came up and said, ‘Hello John what are you having?’ That was only, I mean he wasn’t paying anyway but you know I said, ‘Oh I’ll have a beer, yes.’ Well he brought me this beer back and he said, ‘Cheers.’ ‘Cheers.’ And it was neat Scotch he’d got in this thing. CB: Jeez. JQ: I’d got, it wasn’t half a pint but it was I didn’t query it because we were in America not England. I’d have queried it if it was a beer in England because you should be up the top you see but it was three quarters of a glass, half a pint glass of this thing and it was neat Scotch so I thought well I’ll stick on this. I gently got a way through this. It was in, blokes were coming in and so forth and so I finished this thing and we still hadn’t started dinner so I don’t want to drink a pint of beer on the top of this half a pint, I don’t think they had pint glasses, I can’t remember now so I thought I’d have another of these so I had another of these Scotches. Big one. And we settled down to the dinner which, if I remember rightly was very nice and I finished this thing and all around me blokes were getting tight, you know, really really tight and I thought I’m blinking well doing well here on this Scotch. I’d better have another. So I had another. And I was still alright when I finished it and I thought, I don’t know how I managed this you see. So I thought well that’s over, finished, so I went outside you see and well the cold air hit me so I thought I’d better get off to bed so I started to walk this hundred yards to my bed and I got as far as the flagpole in the middle of this lawn where they ran up the RAF flag ceremoniously at 7 o’clock every morning. And I thought, oh I do feel tight. So I sat down and I don’t remember another thing until I woke up at half past five in the morning with the dew on me and I thought blimey I’d better get out of here or I’m going to be in trouble if they come to ceremoniously put [pause] so I staggered, I staggered to my bed, got into bed and of course I’d got to get up about an hour later or something like that and I felt like death for about three days, you know. So I won’t do that again. I don’t know how I managed it to be quite honest. CB: So what was the accommodation like? Were you in individual - JQ: Well the accom - CB: Rooms or dormitories? JQ: Well the set up was a, was a hotel. It had been a hotel. It was a chain. A bit, a bit like Premier Inn or something like that and they’d got a chain all around America of these things and they’d taken one of these over as the administrative building and it had got a fair amount of land around it or they’d, either that or they’d cornered it and they’d built these wooden huts you see which wasn’t terribly out of the ordinary ‘cause of course, particularly in Oklahoma a lot of their, or most of their houses are wooden anyway and they were very comfortable and of course being in the RAF the lino was polished, sort of thing, by us and all the beds were all tidy and done up officially when not being slept in and all this sort of thing and it was all very nice. When we went back on the thing, the, I forget what had happened to the administrative building. It wasn’t RAF. Whether it had gone back to being a hotel I don’t know but they let us go into the huts that we were in which had been taken over by Wrangler’s Jeans and they looked a right shambles. They really did. Absolute dump. And so that was it but while we were there it was very good. CB: Yeah. JQ: I was a bit bothered about the fact that they’d built some, for the junior people, you know, the new intake they, I think they were stepping it up or something but they’d built another set of dormitories in wood and they also put some loos with them and the loos were just a series of WC’s about a yard apart all the way down. No, no shielding around them - CB: No. JQ: At all. I didn’t, I thought I couldn’t do that but fortunately I didn’t have to use those because I was a senior by that time. CB: So what rank were you under training? JQ: Under training I was an AC2 and as soon as we got our wings they made us sergeants and then from then on it was up to them how you got on and what you did and all that sort of thing. CB: So you got your wings. You’re a sergeant. What happened to come back? How did you come back? JQ: We came back on the Queen Mary, no Queen Elizabeth the first which I think was made to carry about three thousand. It was a cruise ship but it hadn’t been finished. It had been started before the war and it, and it was a ship which would go but it hadn’t got, the cabins were all inside but that was about it you know. Well, as a troop ship you don’t need all the comforts and what not so in a room which was supposed to be for two there would be six blokes and they could only sleep in it one night and the next night they’d have to sleep wherever and somebody else moved in and then the next night you were back in it and so you alternated but I mean the crossing was only about four days anyway so, but they’d got, on a ship that was supposed to take three thousand they’d got about ten thousand on it and it went at full speed and zigzagged all the way and if you didn’t lie down on the floor, if it wasn’t your turn to be in bed, in a bunk if you didn’t lie down on the floor somewhere by about half past six, at night you didn’t lie down because there were so many bodies all over the corridors and what not it was just practically impossible to find enough room to lie down so everybody was sort of certainly sitting down and marking their space very early on in the time. Nobody shaved, or very few people shaved. You couldn’t in actual fact have a decent shave because they didn’t, didn’t, if you turned a the tap on sea water came out which, which is alright for having a swill around but if you try and make a lather with, in salt water you’re struggling. You just don’t get one. So a lot of people thought blow it, you know, they just four days and just began to look - JB: Stubby. JQ: More unkempt every day. CB: Where did that go in to? JQ: That went in to, it went in to, Greenock. CB: And from there where did you go? JQ: From there we went to Heaton Park in, in Manchester. And from there, after we were at Heaton Park for a while, [pause] No I’m telling you wrong I’m sorry. We went in to Harrogate. Yes. That’s where we went. We went into Harrogate and then we were allocated places from there. I went to Oxford. To, up a little field and I mean a field at a place called Windrush. CB: I know it. JQ: And there we learned to fly on Oxfords. CB: That’s at Witney. JQ: Pardon? CB: Windrush is at Witney. JQ: Is it? [Pause]. JQ: And - [pause] CB: So this was for your twin engine training. JQ: That’s right and I remember going off, they sent us, they sent us off on a cross country. A solo cross country it was and I started off on this solo cross country and I ran into cloud which didn’t bother me because we could fly on instruments but unfortunately I came out of this cloud after I was supposed to have turned because I thought I would and I did come out but I couldn’t find myself and we got a system going, Darkie. I don’t know whether you’ve come across that. CB: Yeah. JQ: It was an emergency system and I thought well I’ll call up Darkie. So I said, ‘Hello Darkie. Hello Darkie.’ And the nearest aerodrome was supposed to reply. This is whoever. And then you knew where you were. Well one did reply and Snitterfield it was I was supposed to get to. I was now supposed to have landed at Snitterfield and so I said, ‘Hello Darkie. Hello Darkie. And they came back, they said, ‘Hello Darkie. This is Snitterfield.’ And I thought well I must be here and I was looking around and I thought well I can’t see Snitterfield here. You’d see an aerodrome. It was right underneath me. That’s why I couldn’t see it. [laughs]. Anyway I eventually spotted that and landed there and that was fine. And then another time I was doing something in this Oxford and I was flying low, minding my own business as it were and I smelled roast beef. At least I thought it was roast beef and it didn’t strike me for a bit and then I thought what am I doing smelling roast beef up here? So I thought what is it and I looked down and the batteries are there in an Oxford. CB: Right next to you. JQ: And it was sort of boiling over, this battery so I got, got down a bit sharpish after that but anyway it was alright. From there I was sent to Peplow which is, is up near Wellington in Shropshire and there we flew Wellingtons which I thought was quite a nice aircraft actually because of course by that time it was getting a but outdated and I think it was there that they put us all in a room and said pick yourself a crew. CB: So this was an OTU. JQ: Now, wait a minute. CB: Based where did you say? JQ: Yeah. Yes. Peplow. A place called Peplow. CB: Yeah. Ok. JQ: And put us all in this room and I finished up without a crew. Couldn’t make up my mind or they couldn’t make up, because everybody was supposed to have a go, you know. So they said, ‘You’ll have to wait ‘til next week.’ Anyway, I didn’t wait for next week ‘cause they got in touch with me in in the afternoon. I think we did the thing in the morning and they got in touch with me would I report somewhere which I did and oh by this time I was a flight sergeant and I reported and they said, ‘One of the pilots has gone missing,’ not missing, ‘sick. So we’re not holding the crew up,’ he said, ‘We’ve got two pilots and one crew so what we’re going to do is we’re going to let you meet the crew and the crew’s going to pick the pilot.’ So we met them and they picked me which was a bit fortunate for them because while we were still there the other pilot, the one that wasn’t picked, got a crew and he was flying this Wellington around still doing his training with the crew and the wing fell off and they all got killed. The initial finding was that it was pilot error but they did actually prove in the end that it wasn’t. That apparently, so I was told at that time, that the wing on a Wellington is only held on by two, albeit heavy bolts, one of which had rusted through or something [pause] and, and that that brings me to another tale of the same thing because a ground crew member when we were on ops, after we’d finished on operations, a ground crew member told me that one of the faults with the Lancaster was that they tended to get cracks in the main spar right near the fuselage and what what they used to do to cure it was to drop a piece of channel over the top of the main spar underneath the outer skin and pop rivet it on and put the main skin on and that was it and he said, ‘If you’d known that’s what we were doing you would never have flown it.’ I don’t think that’s quite right because we wouldn’t have had any, any say in the matter but how true that is I don’t know but that’s what a ground crew member told me. CB: So you finished your OTU. JQ: Yeah. CB: With the crew who picked you. JQ: That’s right. CB: And how, where did you go after that? JQ: Went to Lindholme. CB: Right. JQ: Which is now a prison I think up at Yorkshire and then we - CB: And what happened at Lindholme? What was that? JQ: Well Lindholme was four engines. Getting on to four, training on to four engines. CB: So you got extra crew members there. Was this the HCU? JQ: Yeah. CB: Heavy Conversion Unit. JQ: Yes. I think that’s what it was called. I just got one, one crew member there, the engineer. CB: Yeah. JQ: I can’t. I flew a Halifax but I can’t remember whether it was, yeah, it must have been before we went on to the Wellingtons. I had some time on a Halifax and I remember learning all about the complicated fuel system on a Halifax because you’ve got to be careful because if you do it in the wrong order it can cut petrol off to all engines. CB: Right. JQ: But I’ve [pause] and I went on to Lancasters. Now I hadn’t got an engineer at the time and I was flying a Lancaster around without an engineer. CB: At the HCU. JQ: Yeah, but it wasn’t long before they gave me one and he was, he was an ex lorry driver. Nice chap. Anyway, he, he turned out to be a first class engineer in actual fact but at this time the, if you’re putting the flaps down on a Lancaster the lever is just there and you - CB: On your right side. JQ: Yes and you push, you push it down and wait for the flaps indicator to go around to whatever flaps you want and then you pull it back up again to the right position, to the sort of neutral position but its hydraulically done and if it, if it doesn’t work the trick is you push it down and if nothing works so you pull it up and push it down again and nine times out of ten it works ok. So we were practicing circuits and bumps with the engineer and I called for fifteen degrees of flap on the downwind legs so he gives me fifteen degrees of flap having slowed the aircraft so that it would take it. Now I’ve then got to slow the aircraft down a bit more so I can put thirty degrees of flap on and I’m now coming in on the final approach so I call for thirty degrees of flap and he pushes it down and nothing happens so he obviously does the right thing he pulls it back up again but he didn’t push it down again so, what fifteen degrees of flap or whatever how much he’s got down comes up rather smartly and we went down extremely smartly because we’d slowed down, half stalling really. So I rammed the, all the throttles wide open and we missed a tree by about a foot and everybody swore like the clappers and the engineer never did it again [laughs]. CB: Ok. We’ll stop there a mo. [machine paused] CB: So on the question of the engineer and the use of flaps and throttles who would normally run the flaps? JQ: Normally the engineer would do the flaps. CB: On your command. JQ: On my command. CB: Right. JQ: That’s right and as I said before he made a mistake the first time but - CB: Yeah. JQ: He never made it again. CB: No. JQ: On, with regard to the throttles he followed me up. I always did the throttles. CB: On take-off. JQ: On take-off. CB: Yeah. JQ: In every way but he was there just in case something happened, I took my hand off for some reason or whatever, his hand was always there so that he could just push, push them up. He also looked after the petrol of course and switched all the tanks and so forth and after an initial period of time I trusted him enough to not even tell him to do it. He just did it. And there was a point where that came extremely useful because getting back to the war and why we were there and so forth we were hit by anti-aircraft fire on occasion and I never noticed to be quite honest because I was still on the bombing run and on a bombing you’ve got to fly extremely accurately straight and level and keeping the height and the speed and the attitude of the aircraft absolutely [thing?] There’s only way of doing that particularly at night is on instruments, so you’d be there on instruments trying to be as accurate as you can and the engineer er the bomb aimer would be saying, ‘Left. Left. Right. Right,’ and so forth and you’d be following his instructions and so I was doing that when the upper mid, mid-upper gunner said, ‘Skip, we’re on fire,’ and I looked and the port tank was on fire and going quite, quite well but it hadn’t exploded. CB: Which tank is this? Is this number one on the in board? JQ: I don’t, no it’s - CB: Close to the fuselage JQ: It was, I can’t remember. I think it was between the two engines I thought. CB: Right. JQ: Anyway. I can’t remember to be exact. Anyway, I was still on the bombing run because I thought well we’ve got to finish this bombing run so keeping a quick eye on that or trying to and doing the bombing run at the same time. I was trying to decide what to do and I thought well the thing to do is we’ve probably got to bale out but I was determined to finish this bombing run because we were so near so I said, ‘Prepare to abandon the aircraft,’ but I still continued the bombing run and the bomb aimer still continued to give me instruction and then when we’d finished, when he said, ‘Bombs gone,’ we’d still got to carry on that little bit longer for the photograph you see and by this time I’d come to the conclusion that if we were going to bale out, over the target was not a good idea, because apart from the fact that you’d be getting into a whole lot of anti- aircraft fire because the Germans weren’t aiming at any particular aircraft they were just pumping as much stuff up there as they could possibly get and so and if you managed to avoid all that the natives below wouldn’t be very pleased to see you and indeed they had been known to be extremely annoyed. So I thought well we’ve got a short dog leg to do which is going to take us about five minutes I wonder if we could, we shall have to risk it so as soon as, soon as the time was up I’d turned and it was then I said, ‘Prepare to abandon ship,’ which they all did. Before we got to the end of the thing, the end of this dog leg the fire went out, much to everybody’s amazement including me and we, I’d then got another problem. Have we got enough petrol to get back? Now, quite by chance, the engineer hadn’t got much petrol in that tank which is why it went out but how much was in it we’ll never know because, I’ll tell you in a minute. So I said, ‘Well have we got enough petrol to get home?’ And he sort of calculated up what we’d got in the other tanks and so forth. Fortunately it was a Ruhr thing so it was a short trip. He said, ‘If we’re careful we’ve got enough to get home.’ So he was able to give me an assurance so we were careful and we had to come back at a slow rate and you know, not too use much petrol and that sort of thing. When we got back we found, oh, on the way back the mid-upper gunner said, ‘Skip, I can’t move my turret.’ So I said, ‘Oh. Do you know the reason?’ He said, ‘No. I’ve no idea.’ He said, ‘Could I come down then?’ You know, because he was a bit cold up there and it was a bit warmer in the cockpit and I said, ‘No, you can’t. You stop up there and keep a good lookout,’ So he stopped up there. Anyway, when we got back and down and safe we found that the jettison tube which, I don’t know whether you know, a bit about that diameter and if you want to jettison petrol you pull a lever or push a button, or pull a lever I think it was and this thing drops down and all the petrol goes whoosh down and what had happened was that where we were hit it it had set the thing on fire but at the same time it had dropped this petrol jettison tank down and all the petrol went down very quickly out of the aircraft and what was burning but quite fiercely, instead of exploding it was sort of burning and there wasn’t a lot of it so it didn’t last more than about five minutes or something like that. Well the sequel to that is that it must have been about forty, forty five years later my rear gunner had a sixty fifth birthday party, a surprise party given to him by his wife and she invited all the crew and we all went up and of course he was very surprised and we all got chatting and what not and it was then that he told us this tale. He said, oh no I’m over running the thing, I’m sorry. I’ll go back again. When I’d said, ‘Prepare to abandon ship.’ CB: Yeah. JQ: He opened his doors, got his parachute out of the thing and clipped it on himself or got it ready to clip on himself, I don’t know whether he’d got room, yes he did. And he sat there waiting for the instruction to bail out in which case he would have probably turned this thing and gone out backwards. CB: Rolled out backwards. Yeah. JQ: Now, me in the front there when everything had, when the fire had gone out and I decided that we weren’t going to abandon ship after all I I gave the order not to abandon ship you see and I called everybody in turn and said, ‘Are you alright?’ And one by one they answered and said, ‘yes,’ they are but I didn’t get any reply from the rear gunner so I sent the engineer back to see if he was alright and after a minute or two he came back and he said. ‘Oh, he’s alright. He’s ok,’ he said. I said, ‘Well why didn’t he reply?’ And he said, ‘Well when he got his parachute pack out,’ he said, ‘He inadvertently pulled his plug out of his thing.’ He said, ‘he never got the message not to abandon ship,’ you see. So at this party forty five years later he told, he said he was sitting there waiting for the abandon ship thing and it never came so he thought we’d all gone and he was in there on his own and he was there for ages. Well until the engineer went back. What a thing for a chap to sit in there thinking he’s flying in an aircraft which is flying on its own which of course it could well have been. CB: Yeah. Yeah. JQ: And I think that’s absolutely amazing. [pause] CB: Right. So we’ve got to the stage earlier where the engineer pulled up, didn’t use the flaps right. JQ: Right. CB: And we’re getting to the end of being at the HCU and then we went on to the operational flight. JQ: Yeah. That of course was - CB: That you were talking about. JQ: That of course was an operational flight. CB: Exactly. Yeah. But we haven’t finished the earlier bit which was when you were at the HCU. So how did you finish at the HCU? JQ: Well the thing I remember about that is that, also was that I was at the HCU I’d fixed to get married and they sent a message through saying would I attend a commissioning interview, on my wedding day. Not that they knew it was my wedding day. CB: Right. JQ: So I thought I can’t put my wedding off you see so I went to the CO and said would it be possible for me to, thing, and he said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘No,’ he said, ‘You can’t do that,’ he said. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘You can,’ he said. ‘But,’ he said, ‘The chances are you won’t get a commission if you don’t.’ And so I thought, ‘Well I won’t then,’ you see. Anyway, my crew, crew persuaded me that that wasn’t a very good idea so I requested another interview with the CO and he gave me one and he said, ‘Well Quine,’ he said, ‘It’s not my decision,’ he said, ‘It comes from group this has.’ And there was a sergeant in the room at the time and the sergeant said, ‘What’s the problem sir?’ So he told him. He said, ‘Would you excuse me a moment,’ and off he went and he came back again and he said, ‘It’s alright sir. I’ve fixed it quite good.’ He said, ‘If he could get there for 2 o’clock in the afternoon instead of 9 o’clock in the morning it’ll be ok.’ And I thought the CO couldn’t do it and that sergeant had done it. Well it appeared that the sergeant worked in the office and he was in touch with with his counterpart at group and he got through and this chap had said it would be alright, you know. CB: So what time was the wedding? JQ: Well the wedding was supposed to be at some reasonable sort of time but you know 9 o’clock in the morning there’s no reasonable time you can get married about 6 o’clock in the morning or something like so I would have had to have cancelled it but what I did do was to got married at half past nine in the morning and then I’d got to get from here, well not this house, but, you know, a similar one. CB: Lickey. JQ: Lickey. Well it wasn’t Lickey actually. It was a place called [Linkbery?] CB: Oh yes I know. JQ: Where we’d gone to live by that time. No. It wasn’t. No. I beg your pardon it was here. It was here, Lickey. And I had to get, get there without any public transport or cars. Well public transport but certainly no cars so I managed to get myself on a train. It must have been about 11 o’clock or something like that ‘cause I got married. Had a quick wedding breakfast. Got on a train, went, that’s right it was a train. I went into Birmingham, and then I had to change trains in Birmingham and get up to Derby, Burton on Trent, get off at Burton on Trent and there was a taxi outside. There weren’t many taxis but I went up to this taxi and I can remember I said, ‘Could you take me to Eckington Hall?’ I remember the name of the place. It had been taken over by the RAF and I said to him, ‘Could you take me to Eckington Hall?’ He said, ‘I’m engaged.’ So I said, ‘I’ve just been married.’ And he said, ‘Oh. Well I’ll take you then.’ [laughs] Not only that. He not only took me but he also took my wife and we were going on honeymoon. You couldn’t go out of the country of course, you couldn’t even go to the seaside in those days. Not within ten miles of the coast so we had to go to Shrewsbury and so when we got to Eckington Hall in this taxi I went up to the guardroom at the, which was at a lodge at the front of this big hall and saw the thing in the guardroom and the chap said, I said I’ve got my wife outside. We just got married. Could she come in as well? He said, ‘Oh no you can’t bring her in.’ You see. So I had to say, ‘You’ll have to stop out here,’ you see, so leaving a rather a large case and what not with my wife I said, ‘Well which way do I go?’ and they said, ‘It’s that nissen hut over there,’ ‘cause they’d put some huts in the thing. So leaving my wife there I went and it’s now about 2 o’clock in the afternoon or something like that and I went to this nissen hut and I opened the door to find myself immediately in the interview room with an interview going on and a sergeant rushed over and he said, ‘You must be Quine.’ And I said, ‘Yes I am.’ He said, ‘Go around the other side.’ So I went around the other side and the place was full of people. CB: Yeah. JQ: All waiting for commissioning interviews so somebody I knew there, and I said, ‘How, how long is it?’ They said, ‘Well we’ve been here since 9 o’clock this morning,’ And I said, ‘Well what’s the order?’ And they said, ‘Well, you know, did they take your name on the way in?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Well that’s it. You have to wait for it.’ He said, ‘You’re in the back of the queue.’ I thought, blimey, what’s my wife going to do out there? So there wasn’t anything I could do about it. So took my hat off and sat down talking to these chaps and I hadn’t been there two or three minutes and they shouted out, ‘Quine.’ And so I got up and they said, ‘Your hat. Put your hat on,’ you see [laughs] so put my hat on. I went in and they knew all about it and they said, ‘You got married.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Well we hope you have a nice honeymoon and good luck,’ and so forth and off I went to find my wife and she’d been standing outside there and of course all the guards were looking at her all the time so she thought she couldn’t stop. So she wandered off down the road and got herself in the telephone box and she was sitting on her case in the telephone box. CB: Now which date was this? JQ: Pardon? CB: What date was this? JQ: It was September the 28th 1944. CB: Right. So when did you know that you’d got your commission? JQ: It wasn’t long. It wasn’t long. It was quite quick actually because I was still at Lindholme and I knew I’d got it and they gave me some leave, a few days leave so I could go and get myself kitted out and I came to Birmingham. I got kitted, kitted out in a shop that knew all about what they were doing and they’d done it so many times before. CB: So you’ve got married, you got the interview, you went on honeymoon to, where did you say? JQ: We went to - CB: Shrewsbury. JQ: Well it was near Shrewsbury. CB: Right. JQ: It wasn’t in Shrewsbury. CB: Ok. JQ: I can’t remember now. CB: Ok. So you’re at the HCU at that stage at Lindholme. JQ: Yeah. CB: When did you finish there and where did you go? JQ: I think I went straight from there to the, to Hemswell I think. I can’t remember now. CB: Yeah. JQ: Yeah. [machine paused] JQ: So you’re finished at Eckington Hall. What did you do then? You’ve got your wife there waiting for you. CB: Yeah. So we’d got to go on honeymoon from there. JQ: Yeah. So we’d got to go back to Birmingham and then catch a train to Shrewsbury so we got back to Birmingham along with three friends that I knew that, who had also been at the interview and we were standing on the station at Snow Hill and my wife decided that, you know, it was men’s talk and what not so she’d gone and sat in the train that was there and one of the other chaps, a chap with red hair so we called him Ginger quite obviously, he’d gone to keep my wife company and have a chat to her and so forth when the train started moving with Ginger and my wife in the thing and me on the platform so there was quite a scramble to change over but we managed it. CB: Crikey. Where did you meet your wife? JQ: I used to go to school with her at Bromsgrove High School and we went on the same school bus and in the end we were married for sixty three years. CB: Brilliant. JQ: Yeah. CB: Fantastic. JQ: She died in 2006. CB: Right. JQ: So - CB: Ok. [machine paused] CB: So you left the, at the HCU. You had Lancasters, you had Halifax to begin with. Then what happened? JQ: We went on, got converted onto Lancasters. CB: Right. And so you left there and went to which - JQ: We left there on the29th of the 11th CB: Yeah. JQ: ’46. No. CB: ‘45. ‘44 JQ: ’44. CB: Yeah. JQ: And - CB: And went, went to your squadron. JQ: I went to the squadron on December the 2nd. CB: Yeah. Which was - JQ: 1944. CB: Which squadron? JQ: 170. CB: Right. At - JQ: Hemswell. CB: At Hemswell. Ok. JQ: And then I went on my first operation on December the 4th CB: Yes. JQ: But it was only me that went on that. My crew didn’t. They just, they had the thing of sending you as second pilot for your first time to give you the idea. CB: Where did you go? JQ: Karlsruhe. [pause] CB: So then you picked up your crew for the next ones. What was the next raid? JQ: The next one was Koblenz. December the 22nd CB: Ok. What were the most notable ops? Do you remember? JQ: Well I remember, well obviously we went on fire was the one - CB: Yeah. JQ: I remember most. CB: When was that [pause] ‘cause that was caused by flak. JQ: That was caused by flak. Yeah. [pause] CB: I’ll stop for a mo. while you look. [machine pause] CB: So one of your notable events was when you got hit. So what was that? JQ: That was on Feb - CB: And when was that? JQ: That was on February the 3rd 1945. CB: Ok. What happened there? JQ: Well we were flying at Bottrop. There was intense searchlight activity with a heavy and light barrage and predicted flak and we were hit by flak and the port wing caught fire. CB: And how did you know that you’d been hit? JQ: Well the mid-upper gunner spotted it and - CB: So if you’re hit in the fuel tank what normally happens? JQ: Well it normally explodes. CB: Right. What did the crew do? JQ: The mid-upper gunner spotted it because I was flying on instruments at the time, on the bombing run and I had to make up my mind what to do and I decided to finish the bombing run which was only a short time afterwards and then decide whether to abandon the aircraft or what to do and I decided that baling out over the target with all that flak and everything else wasn’t a very good idea and so I decided we’d do a short dog leg which we had to do and then bale out so I warned the crew to get ready to bale out but the short dog leg, which was going to take about five minutes, after a couple of minutes the fire went out. For what reason we didn’t know at the time and our biggest problem was would we have enough fuel to get back again. We did in actual fact find out that when we got back to the aircraft, to the aerodrome at home that the discharge tube from the tank for quickly discharging petrol had been hit, it had set what petrol there was in the tank, not a lot fortunately, on fire and the rest had gone straight out of the dumping, discharge tube and, which had then wound itself around the mid-upper turret stopping it from movement. CB: Blimey. Yes. So the gunner was lucky not to be dowsed in fuel. JQ: Well he was. Yes. Yes. CB: Oh he was dowsed in fuel. JQ: No he wasn’t. He was lucky. CB: He was lucky yeah. In the circumstance of a tank being ruptured what would the flight engineer normally do? JQ: Well there wasn’t a lot he could do. There was a, there was a lever to pull which, if I remember rightly, it was nitrogen which would go in and dowse the flames but I can’t remember where it was now but that was, that was the procedure but it all happened so quickly and what with everything going on one - CB: Sure. JQ: One wonders. CB: I’m just wondering whether they would, the flight engineer would normally try to pump fuel out. JQ: No. he wouldn’t do. CB: Or was that a dangerous thing to do? JQ: Well he wouldn’t do it fast enough. I mean fuel normally ignited, explodes doesn’t it? I mean why it didn’t explode, my own theory is that it was so fast coming out of this discharge tube because it was about a foot in diameter this thing. CB: Oh. JQ: And so it would really go out and what was left was just burning plus the fact that there was a fair airstream coming over the top of the wing which would keep it from sort of flaming upwards. It was all flaming backwards. It was flaming quite a lot but, enough to be quite frightening. CB: What speed would you be flying - JQ: Oh we’d be doing - CB: On your run in to the bombing? JQ: We’d be doing roughly two hundred and twenty five miles an hour, er knots, knots or miles and hour I can’t remember now. CB: Did the gauges read in knots, or miles an hour? JQ: Do you know I can’t remember? CB: It doesn’t matter. I’m just curious. JQ: I pretty sure it’s knots but - CB: Yeah. JQ: I wouldn’t put my shirt on it now to be honest although I’ve got a thing here which, cruising speed two hundred and ten. CB: Right. JQ: Miles per hour that is. CB: Yeah. JQ: Yeah. CB: A hundred and ninety knots. JQ: And on today’s thing you’d think this was low but the service ceiling of a Lancaster is twenty four thousand five hundred and I took one up to twenty four thousand on one occasion and it was getting extremely slow to get any higher and you know you, you couldn’t get any - CB: Staggering. JQ: Headway at all really. CB: What, what height were you on that day you had the flak fire? JQ: No. I haven’t - CB: Would your engines be running at normal cruise all the same all the time then? It didn’t, the fire didn’t affect the engine, either of the engines on that side. JQ: No. No it didn’t. No. I did actually, when we got back into safer areas I did actually slow the aircraft right down. At night, it’s a bit, it all seems to be a bit hairy sort of doing odd manoeuvres at night but I thought I thought I’d better do it and I warned the crew I was going to do it and I slowed right down to almost a stall. In fact it was beginning to judder and I thought well that’s alright. So - CB: So your stall clean, that’s with the flaps up, would be what? Roughly. A hundred and forty. A hundred and thirty miles an hour. JQ: Something like that. I’m just wondering if I’ve got it here. Some people could remember these things straight off and I’m blowed if I can. CB: Anyway - JQ: Maximum speed is two hundred and eighty seven at fifteen thousand feet. CB: For the Lancaster yeah. JQ: For the Lancaster. CB: So the other part of your tour you did how many, how many ops did you do in total in that tour with 170? [machine pause] CB: So with 170 squadron then how many ops did you do for, it wasn’t a tour but before you moved? You did how many ops? You did eight did you? JQ: Eight. CB: Right. Then why did you only do eight? JQ: Because we moved. We volunteered for, a notice came up they wanted volunteers for, the thing, now there’s a little story about that because we decided that we’d have a go at this. CB: At what? Volunteering for what? JQ: Volunteered for - CB: For Pathfinder. JQ: Pathfinders. CB: Right. JQ: Yeah. And this was something from our point of view I suppose was a little bit new in actual fact because most Pathfinders were Mosquitos but they decided, I don’t know whether they decided then or it just happened to come up but anyway they had this thing and on the 170 squadron we had A crews and B crews and A crews were judged by the practice bombing that we did as to how accurate they were. We had to do, if I remember rightly, drop smoke bombs, we only dropped smoke bombs for practice within about ten yards of the target and it, it might have been a bit more than that but I’m not quite sure and we got, dropped ten within that thing. Well we were a B crew so we decided to try and prove we were an A crew so we did actually, and they said well you know prove to us that we, you can do it so we went up in Lancaster and we went down to the bombing range near Southampton to do this and if I remember rightly it was from about fifteen thousand feet we were dropping eleven pound smoke bombs. The first one we dropped alright as far as I remember. The next one coming up and of course I’m trying to fly very accurately and the bomb aimer says, ‘Overshoot.’ So we overshot and went around again and do a sort of circuit you see and sometimes we dropped them and sometimes we overshot and in the end we dropped them all and the bomb aimer said, ‘I think we’ve done it.’ So in exuberance of the fact that I’d been flying very accurately and you know really trying hard with this thing I decided that I’d [?] like this knowing exactly what would happen of course by pushing the control columns but I was a bit too exuberant about it so the rear gunner had the ride of his life and the navigator lost a pair of compasses down the side of the aircraft never to be found again. So anyway we had a good laugh about that. CB: So you put the nose down. How long did you run it with the nose down? JQ: Oh only just down and then back again. CB: Oh right. JQ: But of course the tail comes up you see. CB: Yeah. JQ: The nose goes down, the bomb aimer was wondering, I should think, where he was going. CB: Bumped his nose. Yeah. JQ: Anyway, that was alright. We had a good laugh about it. I said, ‘I’m sorry blokes I didn’t mean to do it quite that hard,’ you know. They said, ‘Oh that’s alright.’ That’s when I learned the navigator had lost his compasses or his dividers or whatever they were so we go back to the squadron and and land and the pilot is usually the last one out because you know, the rear gunners usually get out pretty smartly and then the wireless operator. The navigator has got to put his maps away in his bag and he’s got to get himself out and then the pilot’s got to see that the controls are locked and the petrol’s switched off and all this and the engineer might beat him by a short head sort of thing and so I’m just switched everything off and seen everything’s alright and walking down this thing and I could hear this row going on. I said, ‘What’s the row about?’ You see. And I looked and I thought I know what the row’s about. It was this high tech bit of equipment that we’d got in the back of the Lancaster namely an elsan toilet. You see, I wasn’t to know that the elastic band over the top had broken so of course as we, as I’d pushed the stick forward all the contents had come out of this toilet and of course it’s blue. I could see. I mean it’s not a thing you can wipe down just like that because the inside of a military aircraft is full of struts and wires and all sorts of things. CB: Christ. JQ: And this, this flight sergeant was going on to my crew despite of the fact that two of them were officers and going on about, ‘bloody mess’ so I thought that’s a bit much. I shall have to apologise so I get to the top of the steps and he’s down there and I said, ‘I’m sorry chiefy,’ I said, ‘It’s, it’s my fault. I was a bit too enthusiastic.’ ‘That’s alright sir. We’ll soon get it cleaned up.’ [laughs] So that was a tale. CB: Brilliant. What, who were the other officers, what, in the aircraft? JQ: Well there was Mike Seaton who was navigator. And I’ll tell you a tale about him in a minute and then there was Alf Thompson, rear gunner. Eddie Howell, mid-upper gunner. CB: All officers. JQ: Oh no. Beg your pardon. You only wanted officers didn’t you? No. CB: I want to know all the others but - JQ: Yeah. Well they were - CB: I’m just curious about the officers. JQ: Yeah. Well the navigator was an officer. CB: Yeah. JQ: Jimmy Green, I haven’t told you. He was an officer. CB: This is the bomb aimer was he? JQ: He was the bomb aimer. And then there was Jack Bassington. He wasn’t an officer. How many have you got? CB: Wait a minute. Yeah. Sorry. So Jimmy Green. Mike Seaton, Ralph Thompson was the rear gunner. JQ: No. Alf. CB: Alf Thompson. Sorry. Ok, who was the mid-upper? JQ: No. No. He was the rear - CB: Yeah, but who was the mid-upper? JQ: Eddie Howell. How many have you got? CB: Wireless operator? JQ: Jack Bressington. Bressington. CB: Yeah. JQ: And me. That should be seven. [pause] CB: Engineer? JQ: Engineer. [machine paused] CB: Just ask you the question. So John just going back to the time the plane’s on fire the mid-upper tells you that the plane’s on fire. What’s your immediate reaction? How do you feel about that? JQ: Well it’s difficult to, difficult to say really. If you’re one of these people who can make an instant reaction and it happens to be the right reaction then that’s what you must do but the average person it takes a second or two to sink in and I was doing a job on a bombing run and so I knew that I’d got to do something and the thing I was doing was the nearest thing to do. Having done that I was able to think that getting out of a plane over a target in an area full of anti-aircraft fire with a lot of hostile natives below wasn’t a very good idea. The chances of, of the petrol tank blowing up were diminished slightly, I realised quite quickly because if it was going to blow up it would have been blown up before then and so I thought with a bit of luck I could get to the end of a dogleg which was going to take me about five minutes and then bale out and that was my intention and fortunately the fire went out for whatever reason. We didn’t know at the time but we found out when we got back what had happened. CB: So you said already you slowed the aircraft down but when you landed, how did you feel? JQ: Relieved [laughs] yes because I was relieved because it was a fact that we, the fire went out was a relief to start with but we were then faced by the fact that we might not have enough petrol to get back so we might still have to bale out at some stage but at least we might be able to get to somewhere where it was a little bit more friendly then there. So when I slowed the aircraft down and let it almost stall and put the wheels down and I got the indication that they were down and then pulled them back up again of course then I was more relieved at that but we still couldn’t be quite sure whether the aircraft wheels would stay locked down when we got there so I tried to put it down as gently as I could but we were quite relieved to get back. CB: So your concern there was whether the hydraulics had been damaged. Was it? JQ: Yes it was. Or anything, any other reason. CB: Yeah. So what I’m thinking is you taxi to dispersal. JQ: I wasn’t bothered about taxi. CB: Then what do you do? JQ: Yeah. I think we, I don’t think we whooped with joy or anything like that you know I think we just sort of accepted it as being jolly good fortune and next stop the - CB: The fry up. JQ: The coffee. Coffee. CB: Yeah. JQ: Coffee and rum. CB: Yeah. JQ: And the interrogation as to what had happened. CB: Yeah. JQ: And, and then eventually to get to bed because we were usually pretty tired by that time. CB: But you were a bit more tired with that one. JQ: Yeah. [machine paused] JQ: To the dispersal that you know we’d be, we’d be briefed in the briefing room as to what we’d got to do, where we were going and get all our maps, or the navigator would get all his maps together and you’d put all your kit on and you’d get in the wagon and they had to take you out to dispersal and dump you there and you wouldn’t get in the aircraft because you were going to be in there long enough so you’d stop outside the aircraft and chat or do whatever and the CO used to come around, always came around and said, ‘Good luck everybody,’ and then off he’d go again in his car and you’d laugh and joke and whatnot and I’ve often wondered why we did it and everybody did it you know. And I think, thinking back, I think it was bravado. You know. We all, we all knew why we were going and we all knew the chances that we, but nobody said it and I think you just joked. The Americans used to play baseball or something or other. CB: Antidote to the stress. JQ: Yeah. I think so. I think that’s what it must have been. CB: So you’ve got, you’ve got out of the wagon. You’ve peed against the rear wheel. You - JQ: No. I never did that. CB: Oh. You didn’t. Right. JQ: No. Some of them did. CB: But when you, as soon as, the joking is outside, but as soon as you get in the aircraft. JQ: No. There wasn’t any joking there. CB: Right [pause]. How did the crew get on? JQ: Oh fine. We never had any, any bother about anything. Yes. We were ok. [machine pause] JQ: Bomb aimer had been in the air force a little bit longer so he tended to be the one that knew about things. We didn’t get on with him to start with and tried to get rid of him but the CO wasn’t having it. I think if we’d pressed him really hard I think he would have done it. CB: Was it because - JQ: Because you were supposed to be able to do it. CB: Was it his second tour? JQ: No. No. No. I think he’d been on the ground. He was always a bit, could never quite understand him really. A bit of a line shoot you know. But you know having got over the initial thing we all understood him and you know, he used to joke about the fact, because we had batwomen you know and he always used to say, ‘No batwoman has ever, ever beaten me to the door,’ sort of thing and things like that he used to say. Nobody believed him of course. CB: This is because you had a mixed crew in terms of rank so you had officers and he was one and you had NCOs so - JQ: There was one, one on somewhere. I think it was one of the heavy conversion units we were on, he was a wing commander and he used to make his crew line up and salute him as they got in. CB: And he was serious. JQ: Oh yes. He was dead serious. CB: And he was the squadron commander was he? JQ: No. No. He was just one of us really but his rank was wing commander. Quite how he got there, he was probably re-mustered from some other thing. CB: Just on that topic did you ever get people who came on an ad hoc basis from OTUs? So they would just come to a station because there was always a shortage of somebody sometime and would just fly with a crew. Did you get any of those? JQ: Never had that. CB: In term, we’ve talked about a number of aspects but in terms of your gunners you have a mid-upper and a tail gunner. JQ: Yeah. CB: To what extent - JQ: And of course the bomb aimer had guns up front. CB: And a bomb aimer at the front. So how often did they, did you get attacked and fire the guns? JQ: Well never is the answer to that. They did fire the guns but not in anger only to, you know see where we were going and we had to do something to fire at something for some reason or other in the sea. I can’t remember quite why it was now but we never, and I’ve often wondered why we never got attacked and I have a feeling that it may be you read these stories about blokes going on the raids, I’ve read one or two actually and they seem to choose their own height. They might, might attack the target at the right height but in between they’ve gone down low or whatnot. They always used to give us a height to fly and I always flew it and the reason I always flew it is was that I reckoned the higher you go the less petrol you used because the air’s thinner so you don’t need quite so much so that’s what I did. I did what I was told really. CB: What heights would they be? JQ: Well it varied. I mean, it, I think the lowest in anger would be about fifteen thousand and the highest would be about twenty and of course the Germans knew this and that’s why they put their thing, they had a box and, but I think what some people must have done is to say right, ‘We’ve done that, dropped the bombs, right, stick the nose down and get home boys,’ you see and you can get that bit faster sticking their nose down and what not. Well you’d use more petrol doing it that way but you’d obviously have enough to get back but you know if you, if you were in trouble then perhaps you’d might miss that bit that you’ve got. But look at it from a fighter’s point of view. Chap’s there in a fighter and he’s churning around at night and there’s one nice and down low where he is and other than that he’s got to climb up to twenty thousand feet or something or other and do up there so he thinks I’ll stop down here and probably gets the pickings down there which wasn’t not the reason I stopped up there in actual fact. I stopped up there because that’s what they said so that’s what I did so - CB: And when you’re in the bomber stream you need to be on some pre-agreed level don’t you? JQ: Yes but I’ve read quite a few stories about people who didn’t and of course there must be a lot who didn’t or don’t admit it or didn’t admit it at the time and but I mean I had one time, is that on? CB: Ahum. JQ: One time we were told to get together, I can’t remember, rendezvous, that’s the word I was trying to think of, rendezvous at fifteen thousand feet above our airfield along with a lot of others and so we started off and we’d got I think three quarters of an hour, or an hour or something like that to do it and it took us more than that to get to fifteen thousand feet by which time everybody else had gone and it, I mean it was a night raid but it started off in daylight and I knew the reason that we, everybody else had gone was because we weren’t getting the power and I was looking around for a reason. Checked everything through. Checked everything I could think of. I couldn’t find the reason and they said, we did actually set course at the time we should have done but we set course at a lower level. We were still climbing, trying to get to this fifteen thousand feet. By the time we get, we got to the coast the darkness was closing in and we could see the Dutch coast and we could see flak coming up like mad there so we knew that that’s where the bomber stream was and we were on our own and so I thought we were in for it when we, you know, they’ll get us good and proper but anyway so on we went straight through Holland. Nothing. Every now and again on the way we could see these, this flak coming up and every time we got to somewhere near there, nothing. And then we get near the target, near it, it’s going to take us another quarter of an hour or so to get there but I could see over there at about two o’clock to my thing was this beautiful sight, it was amazing really and I thought what on earth is that? And I very quickly realised it was our raid going on and you got the fires that had been lit with the bombing, you’d got Window, do you know what I mean by Window? CB: Absolutely. Yes. JQ: Yeah. Trickling down, well you couldn’t actually see the Window but you could see the sparkles coming down. You could see the searchlights going up in to a cone over the top. You could see the markers green and red and what not there and the anti-aircraft fire and it was really was a beautiful sight and it took me a second or two to realise what the devil it was because I knew we’d got to go there, there and bomb on the way back. So I thought blimey. They were really going to be waiting for us when we get there so we did that, we came and we turned around and we were on the run in now. So this time I thought right I’m going to get out of here as quickly as we can so I put the throttles right up, and we went in and we did the bombing run, we went out, not a searchlight came up. Nothing. No ackack fire. Nothing. And it was only on the way out as one searchlight popped up and it wasn’t terribly near us and we got back and we never had a blind thing really and we were all on our own. CB: Amazing. What height did you manage to achieve in the end? JQ: Oh I think we, I think we - CB: It doesn’t matter but I was just curious. JQ: I can’t remember now. I’ll just see if I can spot it. CB: Because in practical terms if you were low on power it would be pretty difficult loaded to get high wouldn’t it? JQ: Yeah. Oh that wasn’t the reason. No, I found, we found out the reason afterwards when we got back because I went around the next morning and said to the mechanics, ‘What did you find?’ And it was stuck in hot air and there was a lever, hot and cold air and I checked that but the answer I got was when they loaded the bombs they, they’d bent a control rod. Now, why a control rod for hot air should go through a bomb bay I’ve no idea but that’s the answer I got so. But I did check, check that. That was the first thing I checked because I - [pause] CB: Well let’s pick up that up a bit later. Can we move to when you became a Pathfinder? So you moved from 170 because you did your practice bombing. JQ: Yeah. CB: You were so elated with that you put the nose down and – JQ: Yes. CB: The elsan - JQ: Yeah. CB: Decided to - JQ: Yeah. CB: Fly. JQ: Yeah. CB: But presumably you were re-graded on that. JQ: We were. Yes. We were. CB: So - JQ: They made us an A crew. CB: That made you an A crew so what happened then? JQ: So then they posted us to - CB: So 582 squadron. JQ: 582 squadron. CB: Little Staughton JQ: Little Staughton. That’s right. CB: Now this was a demanding experience was it? JQ: Well they, yes, they didn’t put us straight onto ops because they don’t operate quite the same. They don’t operate the Lancasters quite the same either. They fly them a little bit faster and various other things I can’t quite remember them all now but it wasn’t that much different but they had their own way of doing things. We were expected to, if I remember rightly, we were expected to get to the target plus or minus. I can’t think whether it was a minute or four minutes plus or minus but whereas main force they give you each hour and you started off when you should get there at the time and when you arrived you bombed but you, with Pathfinders you started in good time and then the navigator worked out, he kept working out the eta and if you wanted to lose some time then he’d say, ‘Lose a couple of minutes Skip,’ you see, so I’d turn forty five degrees to the, to the route for two minutes. I’d turn ninety degrees back for two minutes and that puts you back on where you were but two minutes later and then you kept doing that and doing that and you could actually get there more or less smack on time doing that but of course it means that you’re there longer and then what you do then is you have, you have to drop Window which protects the people behind you. It doesn’t do anything for you. It just accentuates the view of you because they can see a line of Win, on the radar they could see a line of Window coming from you but nothing in front so they know that’s you. So we had a special radio which we switched on just before we got anywhere near the target and that sort of blurred everything in front so it gave us the protection that we were giving everybody behind. Having done that we’d go in and if you were new to the, to the Pathfinders you would go in as a supporter. They wouldn’t let you drop a flare or a marker or anything like that but you would go in with those blokes who were going to do that and the fact you were dropping Window and using your radio and all that sort of thing you were supporting them in that, in that respect. You would then, having supported them in that way you then did a circuit around, came back into the bomber stream again and came up to the target again. CB: In the bomber stream. JQ: In the bomber stream. And then drop bombs or whatever they’d put in, in the bomb bay. I always thought that was the most dangerous time to be quite honest because it was like doing a u-turn on the M1 at night, you know, without any lights because you didn’t know whether there was some of your own bombers. CB: Yeah. JQ: Would come and wipe you up you know. I mean I know they worked it all out so that you should all be separated but it doesn’t work like that you know. CB: No. JQ: Anyway we never did come to any harm. And then after you’ve done some of those then then they started giving you flares and markers to drop. CB: How many sorties, ops, would you have to do before qualifying for that? Normally. JQ: I, I think it was five. CB: Ok. JQ: No. No. Wait a minute. It could have been more than that. CB: So after five you would then join the others straight in. JQ: Straight in. Yeah. CB: With flares. JQ: Except the master, master bomber of course. He was floating around all the time. CB: Right. So the master bomber would be there and then he would be, what height would he be at? JQ: Oh he would go - CB: Watching what was going on? JQ: Anywhere. Usually quite low. CB: Oh was he? JQ: Yeah. And usually in a Mosquito. CB: Ah. JQ: In fact I would think probably always in a Mosquito. CB: And would the master bomber be a pilot or would he be a navigator in a Mosquito? JQ: Do you know I don’t know? We had, you see, on our squadron, on our thing at Little Staughton we had 582 which was Lancasters and 109 which was Mosquitos and it used to annoy us because we’d go in and we’d take off say at half past six and they’d take off about half past seven. We’d be back about twelve or whatever. They’d be back at ten. CB: Yeah. JQ: And in bed. CB: Yeah. Really narking, yeah. JQ: Yes. CB: And they’d eaten all the fry up. JQ: They didn’t do that. CB: They didn’t get a fry up because it was before midnight. JQ: What was the question you were asking? CB: The question was how many ops you had to do before you qualified to go in on the main operation? JQ: I’m not sure that there was, there was a particular time but - CB: Because they monitored your progress did they, in the early stages, more than they would otherwise. JQ: I don’t know. [pause] CB: We’re just looking at the logbook. [pause] CB: Let’s pick that up, that one up later John. JQ: Yes. Ok. CB: So how many, you joined the Pathfinders? They said after, say five that you would then go in on the main operations. So these were all at night were they? JQ: Yeah. Yeah they were mainly. CB: And a wide variety of - JQ: No. No they weren’t, they weren’t all at night. There was the odd one or two as the war went on. CB: Yes. And then so you did eight ops with 170. How many ops did you do with 582? That was more wasn’t it? JQ: Yes it was. CB: But while you’re looking that up when you joined 170 you had the first op was as second pilot. JQ: Yeah. CB: With Pathfinders did they do the same thing? JQ: No. Straight in. CB: Right. So when your Pathfinder activity came to an end, why was that? JQ: The war finished. CB: Right. JQ: Yeah. CB: And how did you feel at that point because it wasn’t the end of a complete tour of thirty ops was it? JQ: No. It wasn’t. No. CB: So did you feel short changed or what did you feel? JQ: Glad the war was over. No. Didn’t worry too much really but, no. You’d got other things to think about and you’d come through. No. Sort of mixed feelings I suppose really. We were glad the war was won. CB: Were there any major raids you went on as a Pathfinder? JQ: Well it depends what you call a major raid. CB: Well - JQ: And I don’t know which one we could - CB: On the really large cities. Berlin. JQ: Oh I didn’t go to Berlin. CB: Right. JQ: The reason for that was they did actually try it before we joined Pathfinders and it wasn’t a success because they lost a lot of planes doing it because the fighters, their fighters were so much faster than the thing and you got all that time to get to Berlin. CB: Yeah. JQ: And back again. CB: No. JQ: And Berlin was really Mosquitoes all the time. CB: Right. JQ: Towards the end when I - CB: For Pathfinding. JQ: Well for anything really. CB: Right. JQ: I think they did the odd one or two to Birmingham but er to Berlin but I went to the major cities. Hanover. I think that, when we were on our own, was Hanover. CB: And the Ruhr. JQ: Ruhr all the time because that’s near, that was near that was an easy one. CB: Yeah. JQ: I think the longest one I ever went on was a nine hour trip but I can’t remember where that was too. Somewhere in the north of Italy somewhere. CB: Ah right. So it was Turin was it? The raids in Italy. JQ: If I could spot it I would know. CB: In the Lancaster you could fly over the Alps could you? Or did you have to fly around them? JQ: I don’t think, I don’t think we flew anything direct. We usually went around things you know because if you were direct they knew you were coming. CB: Yeah. JQ: Yeah. I’ve got one there. Seven and a half. That was Dessau, wherever that is. [pause] Mannheim. [pause] Essen of course [pause] Bremen. Dahlen. Hanover [?] Lutzendorf, wherever that is. [pause] CB: Oh a bit of variety. So now the war is finished. It’s the 8th of May 1945. What happened to the squadron and your flying? JQ: Now wait a minute. Did you say the 8th of May 1945? CB: The Europe, the war in Europe is finished. [long pause] JQ: Yes. That’s right. Well - [long pause] JQ: On the 4th of April we did an op to Lutzendorf. CB: And you did some raids, some ops after that for the month because May, we’re talking about 8th of May and what you did after that? JQ: Well on May the 3rd CB: Yeah. JQ: Much to our surprise because the war hadn’t finished they said, ‘You’re going food dropping.’ CB: Oh yes. Right. So you did Operation Manna in Holland. JQ: Yeah. CB: Ok. JQ: Nobody’d done it. Certainly not to our knowledge anyway. Two hundred feet. Which is low. CB: Yeah. JQ: To drop food at Rotterdam. CB: Is this over the city or in the countryside? JQ: In the countryside. Well near enough Rotterdam you know and - CB: Is that in the bomb bay or was it chucking it out of the door? JQ: No. No. What they, they sprung it on us really. We’d. I think the negotiations had begun before that but we didn’t know anything about it and we were still in in a bombing mode. CB: Right. JQ: You know, and we were still practicing for it as we always did and they said, ‘Right, you’re food dropping at two hundred feet and the Germans have promised not to fire.’ And we thought a likely story. So we set off on this thing. What they did was they had done a few tests and they’d found that it wasn’t really a practical proposition to sort of take a load of parachutes and have it dropping down by parachute. What they’d do would stick it in paper bags like a concrete bag that you’d have concrete powder in and stick stuff like powdered egg and grain and that sort of stuff you know. Flour and, in this bag and drop it from two hundred feet. Well of course the bag burst immediately so then they had a bright idea and they thought what if we put another paper bag around it what would happen and it didn’t. I presume if it went on top of a pole or something it would do. CB: Yeah. Yeah. JQ: You know. So then they got something like a football net behind a goal and they attached that to the bomb hooks or some of the bomb hooks in the bomb bay and then that gave something they could put all these bags in and then and we were able to close the bomb doors and then from then on it’s a bombing raid. CB: Right. JQ: You see, so it was done exactly the same. It was marked. CB: Yeah. JQ: And from two hundred feet so we went over and did this and I was careful to put my altimeter, to put pressure on my altimeter highly correctly and off we went. When we got there, obviously being daylight, we could see all the aircraft and I was here and there was two or three aircraft in front of me, you know, only about a hundred yards away. There was one there and one there, one there, one there but slightly higher than me and I remember looking at my altimeter and thinking well they’re a bit high. I’m at two hundred feet. But of course your instruments vary a bit you know so I didn’t bother because I thought well I’m within twenty five, thirty feet of two hundred feet or they’re too high. One or the other you know. We’d come up to, up to the point and they released their bags. Well I had a hundred weight bags of this, that and the other flying past me like, you know I thought, God, you know I thought if one of those hits us we’re in for trouble. CB: Yeah. Yeah. JQ: You know there was nothing I could do about it. CB: Yeah. You had to pull it back did you? JQ: No. I didn’t. I just, we just kept going. I thought well even if I’d pulled back I couldn’t have missed one. CB: Yeah. Yeah. JQ: So anyway it all went down and it was, the Germans didn’t fire and it was highly interesting to see what the Dutch had done because there were Union Jacks all over the place. CB: Oh were there? JQ: Where they got them I’ve no idea. You’d see kids in a school, what looked like a school playground and on the ground in the playground there’d be this flat on the floor and they were all waving like the clappers and all out in the, a right reception they gave us. CB: Yeah. Fantastic. JQ: But all the time we wondered whether the Germans would fire but they didn’t so so that was that and I think there were one or two. We only did one but there were one or two like that. CB: So you only had one sortie. You didn’t have to fly at low level to get there did you? You just had to let down - JQ: Yeah. CB: At the last minute. JQ: If I remember rightly. Yes. In fact I’m sure that’s right. My common sense tells me that. Not my memory. CB: Yeah. And for the drop you don’t want too much speed so what did you haul back to? JQ: I can’t remember. CB: But you did, you did throttle back. JQ: A thousand probably because I mean we were so used to flying up, up high. CB: No. I didn’t mean that I meant the speed. So you don’t want to be going at two hundred miles an hour dropping bags do you? You - JQ: Oh yeah we did. CB: Did you pull it back? JQ: Yeah. We did. CB: And just keep it at - JQ: No we well - CB: A hundred and fifty or something. JQ: No. I didn’t pull it back. CB: Right. JQ: In fact we got, I don’t remember any instructions to pull it back. I don’t think it would make any difference anyway. CB: I was thinking about the impact. JQ: Well, they got from two hundred feet anyway so - CB: Yeah. JQ: It would have slowed a bit by then wouldn’t they? CB: Yeah. JQ: It seemed to work anyway. CB: So after that the war ends. JQ: After that we got sent, I got sent to Dunkeswell. CB: Oh yes. JQ: Which is in Devon. CB: Yeah. JQ: And, oh I did do some, on May 15th I fetched some prisoners of war back from Juvincourt. Then I got sent to Dunkeswell. CB: How many times, how many trips did you do? That was Operation Exodus wasn’t it? Bringing back POWs. JQ: Yes it was. I’d forgotten that. Yes. CB: How many trips of that did you do? JQ: Only one. CB: That was from Holland. Was it from Holland? JQ: No. Well, Juvincourt. I can’t remember where Juvincourt is. CB: Belgium. JQ: Either France or Belgium I think. CB: So you did one of those. So you went to Dunkeswell. What happened there? JQ: Well we were supposed to be transferring on to Lincolns for the Japanese war. CB: Yeah. JQ: But it never happened. I did a bit of test flying there of Lancasters where I flew the Lancaster completely on my own. Usually with a couple of ground engineers or even one ground engineer because - CB: What were you testing then? JQ: The pilots had reported faults with - CB: Ah. JQ: With the thing and - CB: Yeah. JQ: It was either before they’d been put right or after or both, you know. I remember taking off in one thing and I checked all around outside and as soon, as soon as I took off one of the wings dropped so I immediately corrected it and I found instead of being like that, straight and level, I was flying like that and it worked perfectly well. The only thing about it was that I couldn’t get any farther that way I’d really got to go this way and go all the way around and - CB: What did that turn out to be? JQ: Well – CB: A spanner left in the plane? JQ: No. A trimming tab on the aileron. CB: Right. JQ: Was bent up too much or down too much. I can’t remember which way now. Something quite simple really but I mean you know unless you knew quite what, what you were doing. CB: Right. JQ: And if you panicked and tried turning even faster you might get yourself into trouble. I realised you couldn’t get that way anymore so I went this way. CB: Yeah. JQ: But of course when you’re coming in to land it doesn’t help you know you’re coming in to land - CB: Of course. JQ: Like this. Well if I want to go that way I’m going to use my rudders or something. CB: I’ve had an elevator trimmer go myself and run out of stick movement. JQ: Yes. CB: When you don’t know what it is it’s disconcerting. JQ: Yes. CB: So after Dunkeswell then what? Did you have to, how long did you stay in the RAF before you were demobbed. JQ: No longer than I could help after that, you know. Having made - CB: Right. Was that the end of flying? Dunkeswell. JQ: Decided that was it. That wasn’t the end of flying for me but - CB: No. No. But in the RAF. JQ: In the RAF. CB: When was your last sortie with the RAF? [long pause, turning pages] JQ: It appears to be January the 18th 1946. CB: Ok. JQ: And I was actually, what happened then, after that, I was taken off flying. I got sent back to my old Little Staughton. CB: Oh. JQ: Which rather surprised me and I had an even, even bigger surprise when I got there because when I’d left it it was a thriving bomber station and when I came back there were about no more than a dozen people in the sergeant’s mess and about three of us in the officer’s mess and two of them had been there quite a while and wanted to go on leave and so one of them said, ‘Well, here’s the key to the bar. You’re in charge. Goodbye.’ [laughs]. So although I never had the title I was virtually CO. Only for a short time. Only about a fortnight, something like that and then, then I was demobbed. CB: From Little Staughton. JQ: Yeah. CB: What did you do after that? Because you’d done engineering before you joined the RAF. So what did you do when you left the RAF? JQ: Well I thought I didn’t want to go back to the job I was in because I’d started wrong anyway because I went into the drawing office and although I did alright in it and understood what I was doing I’d really started wrong because to go in to a drawing office you really ought to start on the floor, not in the drawing office, on the floor doing engineering stuff and I realised that that was the way I ought to have done it so I thought, no, I didn’t want to go back there. So I cast around for a bit and the Ministry of Labour, as it was in those days, wanted, they ran, ran a course. They realised there were a lot of people in the services, particularly officers who had gone in at a young age as I had and hadn’t got any experience of business. So they thought well if we give them some experience of business perhaps we can slot them in to the employment lot and they’ll know what they’re doing you see and they’ll have caught up a bit so I thought well that’s a good idea so I applied. They didn’t take everybody but I applied and they accepted me and I went down to Worcester and it was a three week course if I remember rightly. They taught us, well, quite a lot of stuff. Accountancy. You know, a bit of this and a bit of that and a bit of the other and quite good. And then if you wanted to you could apply then for a speciality course which was another three weeks and that you could be put out with a firm and they could teach you about what went on at their firm and if they liked you or wanted you and what not they could take you on and possibly would take you on. So I thought I’ll have a go at that so I had a go at that and went through all that and, and then said, ‘I’d like to,’ oh apart from the people who you were with for the speciality, no wait a minute, yes, apart from the people you were with on the speciality course the ministry, if they didn’t want you the Ministry of Labour would find you a thing. And the chap, chaps that I was with didn’t, didn’t want me so I applied to the Ministry of Labour for them to find me. So they said, ‘Oh yes. We’ll find you somewhere.’ Nothing happened. And then I queried it a bit and they sent me to someplace that, you know, I thought blimey if I come here I’m really going down you know. You know. Real Dickensian stuff you know. CB: Oh. Sweatshop. JQ: So I thought well this is a right thing so I said, I had a bright idea and I went around and I said, ‘Can you give me a pile of your leaflets?’ And they said, ‘What do you want a pile of leaflets for?’ And I said, ‘I’ll find my own.’ Well they thought that was a jolly good idea. Saved them a lot of bother you see. So they gave me a pile of these leaflets and I went around to people I thought might be likely and asked to see somebody and most of the time they didn’t because they didn’t, you know didn’t know what I was about so I’d leave a leaflet and what not and one of them turned up. It was in printing and my grandfather as I told you was in printing. CB: Yeah. JQ: So I I went there and I did quite well. CB: Locally. JQ: I did, I went into the office, I didn’t go to the actual printing. I went into the office and I took up, doing a night course on costing which I did. Printers had a costing system so I did that and the people who were running this who were the British Master Printers Federation they, when I’d finished they said, ‘Well we’re short of a teacher in Birmingham. You wouldn’t like to do it would you?’ Because I’d, it was three certificates you got and I’d got all three so I said yes. So I taught that for three years until I got tired of it. And then one day I called on, oh I got on to the sales side of that, for that thing then and they gave me a car, a small car and then I called on a customer one day and it was a woman customer and she said, ‘My managing director wants to know if you know anybody that’s interested in a job in printing.’ So I said, ‘Well I’m in printing.’ She said. ‘Yes. That’s why I said it.’ So I said, ‘Who is it?’ And she said, ‘I don’t know he hasn’t told me.’ So I applied for it and got it and it was for a big printing company Sir Joseph Causton. CB: Oh right. JQ: And so I applied for that and I got that and the rest is history. I did, did quite well and they gave me a car, and then a bigger car, and a bigger car and then I thought well I’m driving a lot around in this car I could fly around. So I said, I said to the sales director, ‘What about it?’ He said, ‘Good idea. Yeah. Why not.’ So I did that a bit and then, and I’d got my own aeroplane by then. CB: Oh had you? JQ: So I thought well if I did use it for business they paid the expenses. I thought well they might as well own it why don’t I sell it to them? So I sold it to them the aeroplane. CB: Oh did you? JQ: And used it on the proviso I could use it for private means if necessary provided I paid the costs so they agreed to that and then we were taken over and I ran into trouble then because we were, we got in to a sort of recession and they said, ‘Well we’ll have to cut the aeroplane down,’ So I bought it back off them and used it privately and in the end I found that I wasn’t using it as much as I was paying. It was costing me in those days three thousand pounds a year if I never moved it out of the hangar. CB: Really. Crikey. JQ: So if I moved it out the hangar but I did quite a lot of things like I found that flying for business was a lot more demanding than flying for the RAF apart, you know, in the war of course. CB: Yeah. JQ: Because the RAF I mean they’re sensible. I mean I can remember being up in the, being up in my aircraft over Norfolk way on one occasion flying on business and I looked down and there was all these highly specialised aircraft and I can’t think what they were now. CB: RAF ones. JQ: RAF ones. Lightnings. CB: Oh yes. JQ: I don’t mean the old Lightning that they had. CB: Right. JQ: I mean the new ones. CB: P1 yeah. JQ: And they were all on the ground. I was up in the blinking air tossing around like mad and things like that you know and I found that you had to be, you had to be a lot more smart as well because in the RAF you got things like defrosting and that sort of thing and you can’t afford to buy that sort of thing in the light aircraft. Apart from the weight. So in the end I found that I wasn’t using it as much as I’d think so I thought I’d better give it up so I did. And in a sense, in a sense I’m still a pilot because although I haven’t got a licence - CB: Yeah. JQ: You know in all this post that comes through your door, all these catalogues I get, I get it all the time or when it comes to the door I pile it here and I pile it there. CB: Nice one. Nice one. Nicely said. So when did you retire eventually from the printing world? JQ: I think I was about oh I did, I have left a bit out which I forgot for a minute because I went, this Sir Joseph Causton and the aeroplane whatnot I retired from Sir Joseph Causton, buying my car off them as I, as I went, at a cheap rate. CB: Right. JQ: And I hadn’t been retired that long and a chap rang me and he said, ‘John,’ he said, ‘I’ve got somebody who wants me as, as a salesman,’ he said, ‘But I don’t want it. I wondered if you’d like to start up again,’ you see. So I thought I’d investigate this. So I did and I thought I don’t want to be employed any more. I’ve had my time but anyway I went to see them. They were in [pause] what’s that new town down south? Down your way. CB: What, Milton Keynes. JQ: Milton Keynes. They were in Milton Keynes or near it. Yeah. It was Milton Keynes. I went down and I said, ‘Well,’ you know, ‘I am interested but I don’t really want to be employed by you. I’ll employ myself and you can pay me a – CB: They could pay you a fee. JQ: A fee for it. CB: Yeah. JQ: So that’s what I did for some years and did alright at that too. So that’s it really. CB: When did you eventually - JQ: So I must have been about – CB: Retire? [pause] JQ: Seventy, seventy, seventy two. Something like that. CB: I’ve just got two extra questions that you prompted me with earlier. JQ: Oh yes. Yes. CB: One was to do with baked bean tins. JQ: Baked bean tins. Yes. Yes. We had a thing apart from the elsan toilet that we’d got in the back like every other Lancaster. CB: In the Lancaster. Yes. JQ: We didn’t actually use it to be quite honest. But then we never had the same Lancaster anyway. You could get one or the other or whatnot. But, but people did use it but we we had that the engineer organised this. He always used to have a baked bean tin and where he got them from or why we could get baked beans during the war I’ve no idea, but this used to be passed around. You know, anyone who wanted a pee you didn’t have to get up. He’d come along with the baked bean tin you see but of course it gets full so he had to, and so if possible it was kept until we were over the target and then tipped down the window chute. CB: Just as a bonus for the target. Yeah. JQ: Yeah. CB: And the other was the cracked - JQ: Oh well that was, that was - CB: Bomb. JQ: After the war while everything was still going but even though the war had finished, you know, this was at Little Staughton and we still did, you know, practicing because we, I mean the war with Japan was still going and we were sort of getting ready for that but you know everybody was still flying and that sort of thing but not in anger and the CO called me to see him one day so I went and saw him and he said, ‘Quine,’ he said, ‘We have a bomb in our bomb dump which has got a crack in it,’ he said, ‘And when the,’ he said, ‘It’s got a crack in it and the explosive is seeping out through the crack and crystallising,’ he said, ‘And when it gets into a crystallised state it gets a bit unstable and the bomb’s liable to go off,’ he said, ‘And we’d rather not a bomb go off in our bomb dump if you don’t mind,’ he said. ‘So what we’re going to do is we’re doing to load it into a Lancaster and ask you to fly it and drop it in the sea in the appropriate place,’ because there was an appropriate place for everybody to drop stuff if they had to so you know wondering why he’d picked on me for this job you know so I went around and I think it was something like a Sunday morning and there wasn’t a fat lot going on, I went around to see the crew half of whom were still in bed cause they didn’t want to do much on a Sunday and they they were highly delighted to get out of bed for this thing you see. So for some reason or other which I can’t remember I had to go up to the guardroom so I went up to the guardroom and the military policeman there who everybody loves as you know said, ‘Morning sir. Lovely morning.’ So I said, ‘Yes it is a nice morning.’ He said, ‘Nice night, nice day for a flight. Are you going for a flight sir?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am as a matter of fact.’ ‘I’d love to come with you.’ So without telling him why we were going I said, ‘Yes certainly. You can come with me if you want to.’ And he said, ‘Well I shall have to ask my superior.’ I said, ‘Well go and ask him then.’ So he disappeared in the back and he came back about a minute later and he said, ‘Yes that’s alright. He said I can come.’ I said, ‘Right 2 o’clock at dispersal.’ I told him where. So off we go and just before two the bomb’s been duly loaded. We could see that because the bomb doors were still open. You didn’t close them until, until you were about to taxi off. I didn’t tell him why and he didn’t ask why either or where we were going. I told the crew not to tell him and we took off and as soon as we’d taken off we told him and he went white. And so we flew out and dropped it without any trouble at all really. Quite gently we did it, I flew it out ‘cause I didn’t - CB: I bet. ‘Cause none of you wanted to join your maker did you? JQ: And of course I hadn’t inspected it and in any case I wouldn’t have known what sort of state it was in by looking at it, not being an expert on these things. So anyway, we dropped it and of course then he got his own back. CB: Oh. JQ: ‘Cause he’s a hero now you see. So, I mean, ‘I’ve been in an aircraft with a wonky bomb,’ you see. CB: Amazing. Final question really and that is after the war a lot of people, air crew were sent on tours of Germany they called the Cooks Tours. JQ: Cooks Tours. CB: Did you do any Cooks Tours? JQ: Yes. Did those. CB: So who were the people who went? What was a Cook’s Tour and who went on it? JQ: We flew out to the Ruhr as a rule. In fact it might have been all the time to the Krupp’s works at Essen which was a right sight. You should have seen it. It was a tangled mass. We really clobbered it. No doubt about that. And we were cleared to fly at two hundred feet and we’d get there and usually what I did was do steep turns around it because when you do a steep turn you can look down and got a really good view of it and most people seemed to enjoy that and having done that we just came back again. CB: Yeah. But who were the people you took? JQ: Now, the people we took were in the main were ground crew and they enjoyed it but we ran out of ordinary ground crew. I don’t know how many I did. I didn’t do that many but I did do some so we took some WAAFs. They decided they’d let the WAAFs come. We didn’t organise it so they were provided with sick bags and we did exactly the same as we always did. We went around, steep turns, around, out comes the sick bags whoo [laughs] and then we came back again and I think, I think if I remember rightly I think I think it was one of those, this business I’ve told you of the bomb aimer going to sleep when he was supposed to be map reading I think that was why we were at - CB: Right. JQ: Two hundred feet. CB: Did you, how many did you take at a time and how did they actually get the experience of looking? JQ: I think they enjoyed it and they all - CB: But how many would you take at a time? JQ: Oh it wouldn’t be, it wasn’t many. Four or five. And they’d be up, standing beside me and I’ve got a feeling some of them went down. CB: And behind you. Yeah. JQ: You’d get two at the side I think, to watch. To watch. I think you might get two in the bomb aimer’s position. I can’t remember exactly but I know we had some at the side and I think that’s where the others must have gone but we never had more than four or five. CB: And they just sat on the floor. JQ: Oh they sat on the floor on the way to and from. CB: But your full crew was there was it? JQ: Oh yeah. CB: Yeah. JQ: We had a full crew. CB: Right. Ok. What was the most memorable part of your career in the RAF? JQ: Blimey what a question [pause]. I can’t tell you. It’s all pretty memorable actually. CB: Well you’ve done really well. So, John Quine thank you. [machine paused] JQ: The war. They didn’t look out we just - JB: You just packed them in did you? CB: How many could you carry in a - JQ: They just sat on the floor in the back. JB: Yeah. JQ: And we gave them blankets. JB: Right. JQ: Which we took with us. I think it was about thirty or something like that. JB: Really. JQ: Because we hadn’t got, we hadn’t got any bombs on of course. JB: No. No. JQ: That’s why we were able to take a weight like that but I think, I don’t think they were in much comfort. JB: No. CB: But they just wanted to get back. JQ: Yeah. JB: So why were they special that they got - JQ: Oh we never found out why. JB: No. JQ: Never heard. CB: No. If you take the Buckingham, the airfields at Westcott and Oakley received fifty seven thousand POWs. JQ: That’s amazing isn’t it? CB: Yeah. In that operation. JQ: Yeah. CB: Operation Exodus. JQ: Yes. I remember the name Exodus. CB: Yeah. Normally a Lancaster could take twenty five but that was really pushing it. JQ: Well it could have been twenty five. It could have been. I said thirty but, you know I’m guessing a bit but I thought of something just now that I hadn’t told you. What question did you ask John? JB: How many prisoners of war could you get - JQ: Oh that’s right, you did. JB: In a Lancaster. JQ: Yeah. Now, I can’t just think. If I think in the next few moments I’ll - Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with John Wakeford Quine Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chris Brockbank Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-08-05 Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context AQuineJW160805, PQuineJW1603 Conforms To An established standard to which the described resource conforms. Pending revision of OH transcription Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 02:48:07 audio recording Language A language of the resource eng Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Royal Air Force. Bomber Command Description An account of the resource John volunteered for the Royal Air Force as a pilot. He went to Lord’s Cricket Ground, followed by the Initial Training Wing at Scarborough. He spent 10 hours on Tiger Moths in Carlisle. After a short time at RAF Heaton Park in Manchester, John went to Moncton in Canada, subsequently training for six months in various places in America. He returned to RAF Harrogate, followed by RAF Windrush where John learnt to fly on Oxfords. At RAF Peplow, he flew Wellingtons and was picked by a crew to be their pilot. RAF Lindholme followed, where John spent some time on Halifaxes, Wellingtons, and then Lancasters. John had his commissioning interview on the same day as his wedding and joined 170 Squadron at RAF Hemswell in December 1944, from where he carried out eight operations. He describes one of the operations to Bottrop when they were hit by anti-aircraft fire but managed to return safely. John volunteered for the Pathfinders and was posted to 582 Squadron at RAF Little Staughton, flying Lancasters. He explains how they, initially, acted in a supporter role before progressing to dropping flares and markers. John took part in Operation Manna in Rotterdam and transported some prisoners of war from Juvincourt in France. He then went to RAF Dunkeswell where he test flew some Lancasters before returning to RAF Little Staughton, from where he was demobbed. He describes the Cook’s tours he did for ground crew and WAAFs. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Sally Coulter Maureen Clarke Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Cambridgeshire England--Devon England--Gloucestershire England--Lincolnshire England--Manchester England--Scarborough England--Shropshire England--Yorkshire Canada United States New Brunswick New Brunswick--Moncton Germany Germany--Ruhr (Region) Germany--Bottrop Netherlands Netherlands--Rotterdam 170 Squadron 582 Squadron anti-aircraft fire bomb dump bombing Cook’s tour coping mechanism crewing up Halifax Harvard Heavy Conversion Unit Lancaster love and romance Operation Exodus (1945) Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945) Operational Training Unit Oxford Pathfinders RAF Dunkeswell RAF Harrogate RAF Hemswell RAF Lindholme RAF Little Staughton RAF Peplow sanitation Tiger Moth training Wellington https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/977/11388/AMarriottMW170824.mp3 15135eb3b22eaf671462d807e1ddf2e0 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/977/11388/PMarriottMW1701.jpg 5a3b61b21b2d24a22ae4c152815572a8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Marriott, Maurice William M W Marriott Description An account of the resource An oral history interview with Sergeant Maurice Marriott (b. 1924, 1627148 Royal Air Force). He flew as a navigator with 194, 96 and 110 Squadrons. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Maurice Marriott and catalogued by Barry Hunter. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-08-24 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Marriott, MW Transcribed audio recording A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is Thursday the 24th of August 2017. And I’m in Duston, Northampton with Maurice Marriott to talk about his life and times. So, Maurice what are your earliest recollections of life? MM: I think my, one of the things I recall is my grandmother’s pub that she ran in Wansford near Peterborough. I remember the, the skittle room and the people in there. In particular I can remember the skittles being thrown and the noise they made. CB: And what did your parents do? MM: My father was a railway clerk on the LMS railway. And my mother was originally a school, schoolteacher. CB: Yeah. And where did you go to school? MM: I went to school in Northampton. Stimpston Avenue School in Northampton to start off. Then Campbell Square Intermediate School. And then Northampton Technical College after that. When I was twelve years old I think it was when I started at Northampton Technical College taking Commercial Studies. CB: And what age did you leave school? MM: I left school, my father had previously died when I was eight years old and I left school early because a job came up on the railway as a clerk which was, in those days was considered quite a good job. And I went for an interview and I got that job and I left school when, just when I was just over fifteen years old. CB: And what did you do in this job? MM: That was a clerk on the railway. Which I continued until I joined the RAF. I had various different jobs, at I worked at different places. Wolverton, Northampton and Bletchley and in the Goods Department. Then I was a claims clerk on, that was on, based at Northampton station. CB: Did you enjoy that? MM: Well, yes. It was, yeah quite a friendly, you know, crowd and everything. Yes. I wasn’t, you know it wasn’t particularly exciting. I was offered another job. A better job. But the railway wouldn’t release me. And I went to a tribunal in the end but they still wouldn’t release me. So I had to stop there until I joined up. They told me I couldn’t join up. It was a reserved occupation. I said, ‘Well, I’m already, I’ve already volunteered and I’ve got my number and everything.’ Previously four of us went down and joined up together in Northampton. And I told them that I’d already volunteered for the Air Force. CB: Did they all join the Air Force as well in the end? MM: They all joined. Three of us went to Cardington. Well, four of us went to Cardington and three of us passed out PNB — pilot, navigator, bomb aimer. And the fourth one failed the medical and he, he went in as ground staff and unfortunately he, he, we were all seventeen years old but he was already a smoker and he stopped smoking and, and was on the ground staff. And then he re-mustered as aircrew and as a flight engineer he was killed soon after he started flying. That was — CB: On ops. Had he got to operations? MM: On ops. Yeah. CB: Yeah. MM: And we were still, that was just after we, I think it was just after we, we were on deferred service for a time, the three of us. We couldn’t join for PNB training until we were eighteen and a half years old. And I think, think it was just about when we joined up he was killed. He was killed on the, as a flight engineer on ops. CB: He was older than you was he? MM: Pardon? CB: He was older than you. MM: No. He was the same age as us. Yeah. CB: Extraordinary. Yeah. Just taking a step back the war started soon after you started your employment on the railway. So 1939 was — MM: Yes. CB: When you were fifteen, wasn’t it? MM: Yes. CB: So, what — MM: Well I, when the war started I was still fourteen. CB: Yes. MM: And, and yes, well [pause] yes, it was. Sorry, I’m just a bit — CB: It’s alright. So the war started when you were still fourteen. MM: Yeah. CB: What do you remember about the starting of the war? MM: Well, I remember hearing the announcement that you know we, at that age we were all very keen on listening to the radio. No television of course. But we all listened to the radio and kept apace with what was going on and, you know, we heard the announcement that we were at war. And at, and that is probably soon after then when I started taking an interest in in aeroplanes. Although I’d previously, as a boy I used to go with, with a Sunday school teacher who used to have a Lagonda and used to take us boys looking at the aircraft at Sywell. And I suppose from that day I was interested in aircraft. And then when I was about fifteen I suppose I joined the Air Training Corps and I couldn’t wait to be called up. So I volunteered. CB: Yes. MM: To go in the Air Force. CB: So the other options were Army or Navy. Did you consider those at all? MM: I never considered them. No. CB: Right. And what was your aim in aircrew? What task did you want to do? MM: I think like everyone else we all wanted to be pilots. I think nearly everyone that joined up thought you know that was the glamorous job. Pilot. CB: In 1940 there was the calamity of Dunkirk. How much did you learn about that? MM: Well, I remember quite clearly there was a lot of Frenchmen came to Northampton and I remember where they were. A lot of them were billeted on the Kettering Road near St Michael’s Avenue and I used to talk to them about various things. Practiced my French. A lot of school boy French. And used to talk to them about their experiences and one thing and another. CB: And what was their general demeanour? How did they feel about their circumstances? MM: Well, they were all, you know it was quite upsetting really for them of course. They didn’t know. They were there. Got nothing to do sort of thing and they were just waiting to find out. They had to be told what was going to happen to them sort of thing. They didn’t know and I would imagine they eventually joined the Free French Army and one thing and another. Under De Gaulle, you know. CB: So there was a camp set up was there? MM: No. There wasn’t a camp. I don’t know what happened to all the Frenchmen in the end there. CB: Right. MM: That’s all very vague to me now. CB: Of course. MM: It’s all a long time ago now. CB: So, with the ATC activity in mind what were you doing as an ATC cadet? MM: Well, I used to go you know with you know, make friends with a lot of the boys who was in the ATC and we used to go there and sort of learn all about, you know sort of Morse. Morse and drilling and keeping fit. You used to go to the gym with the ATC and sort of do various, you know gym activities. You know, on the pommel horse and one thing or another. And I was quite athletic in those days. I used to do a lot running. I used to run the mile and one thing and another. But — CB: And RAF Sywell was quite near. MM: That’s right. CB: So what opportunities did you have to go there? MM: Yes. I, yes I flew from there with Wing Commander Mackenzie who was CO at, of the Number 5 EFTS at Sywell and he took me up for a, and we did a few aerobatics which I think he tried to frighten me. Which I think he did [laughs] CB: What did that do to your resolve? MM: I was more, more determined than, than ever to get in the Air Force. Yes. CB: The railway workers at the time. What sort of people were they? MM: Oh, well they were you know quite a nice crowd. A lot of, sort of girls and young when I was at, in Northampton at the, at one of the places I worked for a while. At Far Cotton it was called. Far Cotton. A lot of girls there. Comptometer operators. And, oh we had quite a bit of fun in between working but we worked hard as young, young lads and that there. And in those days we had to do shorthand and typing and one thing and another which I, one of the exams I passed to get on the railway in those days. CB: And then there were a lot of older people were they? MM: Oh, yes. CB: Who couldn’t be called up. MM: Yeah. Yes. A lot of them that were sort of near retiring age I suppose. Yeah. But — yeah. CB: And the railways were busy. MM: Oh, yes. CB: All the time. MM: Everything went by rail in those days and came to, and all the deliveries were done by drays. Horse and drays around the towns. Used to come in to, and be unloaded in Northampton at the Castle Station goods depot sort of thing. And all delivered around the town in horse drawn, horse drawn drays. CB: So were there many lorries in those days? MM: Yes. There were a few lorries but most of them were, they used to do the heavy deliveries from Far Cotton in most of the broken down sort of lorries. Old. Second hand. And there were still some big lorries that went to [pause] with solid tyres that delivered the grain to, to the breweries which were quite near the depot. Yeah. CB: And there’s still a brewery in the middle of the town. MM: Yeah. Yes. Just on the — CB: The Carlsberg one, yeah. MM: The Carlsberg brewery now. There were two breweries there. Northampton Brewery Company and Phipps. Phipps Brewery. Yeah. CB: So, you said that you volunteered in ’43. July. But they wouldn’t take you because you weren’t old enough. And you — MM: No. ’42. CB: ’42. MM: I volunteered in ’42. CB: ’42, yes. MM: Yeah. CB: I meant to say. Right. And you then joined in ’43. MM: Yes. CB: Where did you go? MM: You couldn’t go for aircrew training until you were eighteen and a half. CB: Right. MM: I went on July the 5th 1943. CB: Yeah. MM: To ACRC. Aircrew Recruiting Centre at London. CB: Yeah. MM: Lord’s Cricket Ground. CB: Yeah. How long were you there? MM: I think probably about a month in London at Grosvenor Court. I spent some days in sick bay with vaccine fever after my smallpox inoculation. But then I, when I came out of there I had a rifle put in my hand and was one of the, to line the route for General Sikorski’s funeral at, who was the Polish, I think sort of Premier. Whatever he was. CB: Army commander. MM: Pardon? CB: Army commander. Yes. MM: Yes. And we all lined up which I, I nearly collapsed after my vaccine fever thing. CB: Oh really. Yeah. MM: Stood there with a rifle in my hand at the [pause] in London and waited for the cortege. The cortege to come by. And nearly collapsed. CB: He’d been killed in an air crash in Gibraltar. MM: That’s right. Yes. Yeah. CB: So, from ACRC where did you go next? MM: After that it was Scarborough. 17 ITW at Scarborough. I was based in the Adelphi Hotel which was two big houses on the front knocked together. And Scarborough was all, all RAF. All the hotels and everywhere in Scarborough were RAF there. They were sort of I suppose quite a few hundred RAF there in Scarborough at that time. CB: So that was the 17 Initial Training Wing. MM: Yes. CB: What did you do when you were there? MM: There we did, we used to drill on the front there. The corporal used to have us drilling there. And we did quite an intensive course. Law and administration, engines, basic rules of engines. Navigation. And sort of, it was quite, quite an intensive course really, you know. Every day we used to all go down to the classrooms and there were some lectures on, on different subjects there. Maths and navigation was the main thing but — CB: Yeah. MM: Yeah. CB: Because everybody was air crew but this was the PNB selection. MM: That was the PNB scheme. CB: Yes. MM: Yes. CB: Ok. And a bit of drill. MM: Pardon? CB: And some drill. MM: Drill. Yes. We used to drill along the front there. There was always some of the holidaymakers that were still there used to watch us drilling. Yeah. It was a beautiful, beautiful summer anyway in 1943. CB: And how long were you there? MM: Can we stop for a minute? CB: Yeah. Just pause there. [recording paused] CB: So, from Scarborough. MM: Right. CB: Where did you go? MM: Went to Brough. Brough near Hull. CB: Yeah. MM: For on the EFTS on Tiger Moths. CB: Yeah. MM: We were all aspiring pilots in those days. CB: Yeah. MM: And I, I did about five hours flying there which I thought I was doing very well and we, but when I had my solo check I didn’t do a particularly good landing and that was the end of my flying as a pilot. Which I think obviously we couldn’t all pass as pilots because an air crew’s, mind you there’s only one pilot, so they got to fail quite a number. I think in the early days most when they were short of fighter pilots they kept on until they passed as pilots. When they wanted pilots. But when I went there I think they’d got a surplus of pilots and they failed quite a number of us. And I finished up as a navigator. CB: So what did they do with you next? MM: Then we were [pause] they’d, I think they didn’t know where to send us all. I did one period down at Beaulieu in Hampshire, in the New Forest. I spent a bit of time in the ops room. There was a Coastal Command mainly, but there was also a Typhoon squadron up on there but I was in the ops room and then various other little jobs around there. I met, I met, one of the things I recall there is meeting a Liberator coming in with Air Marshall Cunningham. Air Chief Marshall. I think he was an air chief marshall probably, Cunningham coming in and Air Chief Marshall Sholto Douglas and a few other high ranking officers were waiting to greet him. And when Air Chief Marshall Cunningham got out of the Liberator he came straight up to me before anyone else. I’d still got my white flash on and he said, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘There’s two corporals flew with me. Can you find them and give them some English money?’ And he gave me several pounds to give to them. He said, ‘I don’t think they’ve got any English money with them. Can you give it?’ And that was that [laughs] CB: Your claim to fame. MM: Yeah. CB: So where did you go from there? MM: And I think from there I went back to Scarborough for a little while at another, just messing about there. I don’t think we did very much there except we did a few, I remember cross country running and one thing or another for a few weeks just wasting time sort of thing. And then I went to Heaton Park, Manchester which was a holding unit before you went abroad. And I, I spent Christmas there at the end of 1943. And after that I, I think I went to Morecambe after that and before going to Canada. And I remember we went to Canada on the Queen Mary. We went one night to, to Scotland and boarded the Queen Mary there. We were taken out by DUKWs to the Queen Mary and went off during the night to Canada on the Queen Mary to New York. CB: When you say DUKW these are the swimming lorries. MM: Yeah. CB: The DUKW. MM: The, yeah. CB: Yeah. MM: Yes. That’s right. Yes. We, and then — CB: So you went to New York. MM: Went to New York. And then we went by train from New York to Toronto which was another big holding unit. And when we got to Toronto there was a scarlet fever epidemic there at this depot. This big exhibition place where we were billeted. And there were hundreds of us there. We were confined there for about, I think it was about five weeks and not allowed to, well weren’t supposed to leave the, the camp. The site there. The only break we, we, they used to march us along the shores of Lake Ontario every, every morning and, and then, then we went back to the, the depot. To the, where we were billeted. And while we were there they used to send film stars and well known people to keep us amused while we were there which would entertain us. There was, it was a big hall there. They used to come and entertain us all. Well known film stars used to come. And they used to put on wrestling matches and all sorts of things to amuse us. And after that I was sent to, as a navigator to Number 1 Central Navigation School at Rivers, Manitoba which is between Winnipeg and Regina. Half way between the two. And that was another, that was quite an intensive course there. From there I think I was there for about five months flying in Ansons and [pause] which we did, you know sports. You know football matches. It was very hot and we had football matches in between our studies but the studies were quite intensive and hard work for some of us who left school early. But about half the, half the course I was on there were ex-university boys and it probably wasn’t so hard for them. But I found it quite hard. But I ploughed through it and eventually graduated there. CB: So you went, just going back a moment you were an AC2 in Britain. MM: Yeah. CB: When you got to Canada what did they do about your rank? MM: Yeah. Well, as soon as you graduated you were either a pilot officer or a sergeant and I was a sergeant. You know, graduated as a, sort of half of the course were sergeants and half were pilot officers. And I say the, the course was the astro navigation was very hard and not very accurate I’m afraid. The [pause] and after the, after we graduated I, we went back. We, towards we were due to depart from Halifax, Nova Scotia but they asked some of us, it was going to be about four or five weeks wait there before we were sent, sent home and they asked some of us if we wanted to go apple picking. So, two of us volunteered. Well, more than that I suppose but two of us volunteered to go to one farm and we had a, we thought we were going to have quite a nice time there but we had to work hard. The farmers told us, ‘Oh no. We’ve got got to pay, pay wages for you to come here,’ So we used to put ladders up the trees and run up there, pick the apples and roll them down a hill. I think, put them in to barrels and roll them down a hill. But on our weekends off or something we used to hitchhike down to St John and we had all various little experiences going down there with different people we hitchhiked with. I can remember one hitcher, hitchhiking in a, in a car with a farmer. A farmer with a bottle of wine and I can remember that’s when the bonnets used to open both sides and as we were going along they used to open up and sort of like an aircraft you know. It used to, the bonnet used to come up each side as he was drinking his wine. Various. But yeah. That was good fun. Then we came back to [pause] eventually we were, we left from Halifax, Nova Scotia and went back to Liverpool. Then we continued with our training. We, we were at Harrogate for a time and, then I think from there we went to, to, I went to Llandwrog in North Wales on Ansons again on a, it was mainly sort of map reading and low flying course on Ansons. And after we completed that, that course we went to Moreton in the Marsh on Wellingtons. That was a Wellington OTU. Operational Training Unit. CB: 21 OTU. MM: Yes. And which was mainly Australians there and I think they wanted five more RAF aircrew to make up crews there and I was, I crewed. We were all sort of put in a room there and we made up crews. All got together and made up crews and I joined a crew of Australians there who, you know we all palled up you know very well together. And we spent some weeks there. That was quite an intensive course there again doing all sort of training in Gee navigation. Gee. And I got various other sort, types of navigation. One thing and another. And cross countrys. Cross country exercises. And then eventually we, we moved to 1654 Conversion Unit on to Lancasters at Wigsley. CB: Near Lincoln. MM: Lincoln. Near Lincoln, yes. And I, I can remember the first landing we made there after Wellingtons. We did, it wasn’t a very good landing. We came down with a bit of a bump but after that our pilot was, never did it, you know he was alright after that but the first landing wasn’t [laughs] wasn’t as it should have been. And shall we stop there? CB: Did he have an instructor with him? MM: We did the first time. Yes. CB: For his bad landing. MM: Yes. There would be, I think. For him. Yeah. CB: Ok. We’ll stop there. [recording paused] CB: I’d just like to go back to Canada. MM: Yes. CB: When you were doing your navigation training. MM: Yes. CB: What was the most memorable thing about the landscape that you were flying over? MM: Well, it was quite, quite [pause] it was mainly prairie, sort of thing around there. But there were various [pause] I suppose the change of winds was the main thing for, for navigators. You set off with one wind direction and then all of a sudden you found out the wind had changed which was quite confusing for, you know when we were in our training. As I recall it there were very often two of us. A second navigator and a first navigator and the, and one of them was doing map reading and the other was doing the plotting and that. But, but you know we had, it was quite difficult for them. For, you know some youngsters who were, you know flying for the first time. The, and a lot depended on the pilot we’d got. Whether he was very cooperative or not. They were all young chaps who had just graduated. Well, the pilots who didn’t want to be doing that job. They wanted to be sort of, they were hoping, a lot of them were hoping to go where the action was. CB: Yeah. Yeah. MM: But, but — CB: Because it’s a featureless landscape. MM: Pardon? Yes. CB: A featureless landscape. MM: That’s right. Yes. CB: So map reading must have been quite difficult. MM: Yes. It was yes. But we had the turning points and that. And the timing and everything was, you know you’ve got to, all our plots and everything were marked afterwards so you’ve got to be, you know trying to do everything correctly and take the drift. You know, have drift sight and everything. You had to get the right drift on the, for the winds and everything. CB: Yeah. So that’s an interesting point you said about the winds changing. So how did you go about establishing what the wind was doing? How does a drift sight work? MM: Well, you get to know how much drift. You know, you’ve got your course and your track and you could tell how much, how many degrees of drift you’d got on it. It’s all quite complicated but we’d got the Dalton computer. CB: Yeah. MM: Which was our main little, no not a computer as you know it these days. CB: No. No. MM: But it was a mechanical sort of thing. No batteries or anything like that with it. CB: A little, little aluminium box. MM: Yeah. CB: With a dial on it. MM: Quite. Got all sorts of things on it, you know but there was quite a lot to, sort of a difference in height and you know temperatures and all sorts of different things. But yeah, I remember its quite, quite a lot to learn as young navigators. CB: Yes. And of course it wasn’t all daylight. MM: No, used to, at night that was, you know, when we’d do, did astro navigation. That was really difficult. You sort of got your head in the astrodome, you know, and sort of which, you know if the, if the, with the turbulence you’re knocking your head on the astrodome or something and you were trying to get the right star to identify, you know through the app. Through the sextant. And then when you got it there were all sorts of adjustments to make with the chart. With the sort of tables and things. I can’t remember much about it now but it, it was very there were so many different adjustments to make for, allowances for the, for the variations on the astrodome and all sorts of other things. As I say it’s all a bit vague to me now. CB: Yes. Just to clarify that the astrodome is the transparent bubble on the top of the aircraft. MM: That’s right. Yes. CB: The sextant hangs from a pin in the middle of the astrodome does it? MM: No. CB: You just have to hold it. MM: You do, you hold it. Yeah. CB: Right. MM: Hold it. Yes. CB: Yeah. And you’re taking readings. Shot readings. MM: Readings. CB: Of stars. MM: Yeah. CB: At a timed point. MM: Yes. CB: And you then look at the tables. MM: Yes. CB: And you do a series of those to find out where you are. MM: Yes. You can get, you know fixes you can identify one star. CB: Yeah. MM: And another one a different angle to, to fix your point but it took so long to do it and of course well it wasn’t so bad in, in Ansons but a fast aircraft, you know you’d be miles away before you could get the answer to — CB: Yeah. MM: You know, get your position. But it wasn’t a very, you were lucky if you could get within I’d say ten miles of where it should be I should think. CB: By taking fixes. MM: By, yeah. CB: Yeah. Ok. Thank you. We’ll stop there. [recording paused] CB: You talked a moment ago about being at the OTU and crewing up with Australians. MM: Yeah. CB: How did that work and how did you get on with them? MM: Well, I think, as I recall it they were all, we were all in a room together. I don’t know how many there’d be. Quite a, quite a lot of us in the same room. We all seemed to mix together and all of a sudden you, you sort of palled up with a little group and you know, you sort of blended in somehow. CB: Who was the driving force in the selection? Would it be everybody had focussed on a pilot or how else might it have been carried out? MM: I can’t really recall exactly how it happened but somehow I suppose it was. Yes, the pilot. Shepherdson his name was. A little, you know, not a very tall chap and we all sort of suddenly grouped together and as I say it was sort of pot luck somehow that we all blended in and we all got on very well after that. We, and then we, we eventually bought a car between us. I bought it in Northampton and we went, went back. Our little Ford 10. And we used to go about at Wigsley in this Ford 10, EHK 233 [laughs] Which I eventually acquired when the, when we, when the war ended I finished up with the car. CB: So you’d go out in, all get in the car so — the crew is five isn’t it? MM: Pardon? CB: The crew is five. MM: Six of us I think then. CB: Six. Ok. MM: And eventually I think there were seven when we acquired a flight engineer. CB: Yeah. MM: But — CB: So it was an Australian crew. What was their Australian motivation for being in Britain to fight the war? MM: Well, I think, you know [pause] I don’t know. I think that was, they were quite sort of loyal to Britain in those days and I’d say like all young men they, you know wanted to get in the, where there’s some action. You know. Yeah. CB: Could you say a spirit of adventure? MM: A spirit. Yes. It was really. Yeah. CB: So when you got — MM: You all, you all think at the time that nothing is going to happen to you. CB: No. MM: It’s, it might happen to the others but, but you, some, yeah. CB: We’ll stop for a mo. MM: Yeah. [recording paused] CB: Just on the motivation of the Australians. What was — how strong was their sense of purpose would you say? MM: I think it was very strong. Yes. I mean I was in a, in a nissen hut full of Australians. The only Englishman in this thirty six foot nissen hut and I, I think they were quite sort of loyal to England in those days. Yeah. But the best part of it was they all used to have parcels come over from Australia and they used to share them and I used to join in [laughs] with whatever was. I finished up with a nice little sheepskin sort of waistcoat thing, you know. Which they, you know someone gave me there but they shared all the parcels that came. CB: How many crews in each nissen hut? MM: I should think there’d be about four. Four. About four. Four or five crews I suppose. CB: Right. MM: In a nissen hut. Yeah. They were all, you know beds on each side of the hut. CB: Yeah. So you then went to the HCU at Wigsley, and there you acquired a flight engineer. What was he? MM: He was an Englishman. Yeah. But I can’t really remember much about him. I think [pause] I believe he was a pilot who was, as I say in those days there were a lot of surplus pilots around and I believe it was a pilot who was sort of acting as flight engineer. CB: Yes, they did a bit of that. MM: Yeah. CB: They re-mustered. MM: Yeah. But of course they’d still keep their wings on. That was, you know they never took the pilot’s wings off if they had graduated as a pilot but — CB: Well, that’s interesting. MM: Yeah. CB: Because from the interviews some of them maintained their pilot’s brevet. MM: Yeah. CB: Some of them had to give that up and wear an engineer’s brevet. In other words the E. MM: Did they? CB: And if then re-mustered again as a pilot they could return — MM: Yeah. CB: To wearing the pilot’s brevet. MM: Yeah. I don’t know anything about that, you know. CB: How did he feel to being re-mustered to engineer? MM: Well, I I don’t think they’d think, the pilot wouldn’t think much to that because the pay would be less for a flight engineer than a pilot. But I’m a bit vague on that so I [pause] Yeah. CB: Just take a break there. MM: Yes. [recording paused] MM: Yes. CB: So it’s a bit difficult when you come in to an established crew. MM: Yes. CB: As an engineer. How did you actually fit in to the crew? MM: Yes. I think he fitted in alright. Yes. But — CB: He could take the Australian banter. MM: Yes [laughs] Yes. We, yeah we all got on well together, our crew. The air gunner used to come on leave with me. I’ve got a picture of him somewhere at, outside that house there on the end. CB: On the wall. MM: Leaning on the car that we got. The Ford 10. And he was very very fond of my next door but one neighbour’s daughters [laughs] When he wrote to me afterwards he often sent his regards to them. CB: Yeah. But did you keep in contact with him after the war? MM: Not very much. They went back and were all demobbed pretty well straight away. When the, when the Japanese war finished they seemed to all get demobbed. CB: Yes. MM: And I didn’t keep up. They wrote to me a few times and I suppose mainly, you know I was still pretty busy over there, you know. We did all the airline work on Dakotas and I was pretty busy and mainly my fault. I wished afterwards I’d have kept up the correspondence but I lost touch with them altogether. CB: Yeah. Well, easily done. MM: They wrote. They wrote to me, you know. Kept writing. But I eventually lost touch with them all. CB: Different motivation. MM: Yeah. Well, you, you know I was pretty busy over there one way and another and — CB: Ok. MM: Yeah. CB: But just going back if I may we were at the HCU. So at the HCU what was the main activity? So you’re on to Lancasters there. MM: Yeah. Well, we did sort of various parachute drill and things like that and I think, I don’t know whether I’ve got any — CB: You’d be flying a lot of cross countrys. MM: Yes. CB: As a navigator. MM: Yes. CB: You were kept pretty busy, were you? MM: Yes. CB: What date are we talking about for the HCU? MM: Well, the dates [pause] CB: Just checking the book. I’ll just stop it a mo. [recording paused] MM: 5th of May ’45. My first flight. CB: At the HCU. MM: At the HCU. CB: So the Europe, the war in Europe had finished three weeks earlier. MM: Yeah. What date did the war finished? CB: 8th of May. MM: 8th CB: 1945. MM: Oh, I remember. Oh I must have been before then because I remember when the war finished. You know, all the station was in uproar sort of thing and you know all, went on all night sort of thing. I think war was, end of the war was declared probably in the early hours or at night or something. CB: Good excuse for a piss up. MM: Everything was, everyone was there rejoicing on the station, sort of thing. CB: Yeah. MM: Yeah. CB: Would you say that it was [pause] although there was the rejoicing that it was a bit of a mixed reaction on the basis that you hadn’t had the action. MM: Well, there wasn’t that, you know. At the time you know all we wanted to get in to, to go on ops, of course. CB: Of course you did. MM: In retrospect we were glad we didn’t, you know. When you think about that afterwards you’re glad you didn’t go on ops. But at the time we, you know we were all hoping to go on ops. But — CB: So here we’re talking about the latter days of training. MM: Yeah. CB: To what extent were the crews aware of the loss rates in the front line, in the squadrons? MM: Well, I think they were very very aware of it all, yeah. Yeah. I mean we, you know most of us knew people who had got killed and one thing and another. You know. Yeah. Some of my, you know good friends that were killed early on. I was saying the chap I joined up he went to Cardington but he was killed quite early on. CB: Yeah. MM: And others as well. You know, a friend of mine that I knew. CB: Your instructors would on balance have been people who had already done at least one tour. MM: Yes, yeah. CB: To what extent did they talk about the practicalities of being on ops? MM: Yeah. Oh yeah. CB: Did they talk about that with you? MM: I suppose, you know if we asked they would but I mean I don’t think they volunteer to talk about it very much. CB: Right. MM: And afterwards of course I knew you know you, know when you’re demobbed and everything then years afterwards I knew a lot of them. They were on ops. I’ve got books, you know books written by them and that sort of thing and that I’ve met and knew. CB: Yeah. MM: But they’d talk about it but — CB: After the HCU which squadron were you posted to and where was that? MM: Well, I went out to [pause] We were sent out from, went out from Lyneham. Sent out as a crew, I mean, after. After HCU we went with the, with this, some of this crew here. CB: The picture. MM: That crew. CB: That picture in there. MM: Yeah. CB: Five of you. MM: Went to Leicester East. CB: Oh yes. MM: On Dakotas. And which we did another intentive course there on pannier dropping and glider towing and all that sort of thing. Then we went down to Ibsley near Bournemouth on a glider snatching. That was an interesting operation. You know, come down and snatch the gliders. Hadrian gliders down there and, you know I did some I sat in, sat in the gliders sometimes and waiting to be snatched up. You were all tensed up waiting to be snatched up. And they used to snatch us up [laughs] and anyway when you do go up, you know it was quite good fun, you know. That was — CB: A huge acceleration. MM: Pardon? CB: Huge acceleration. MM: Yeah. CB: So the bomber — MM: It was taken up a bit by a winch in the Dakota. There’s a winch there that takes up a bit of the slack but not very much. It still, you know all of a sudden you’re sort of doing eighty ninety miles an hour sort of thing. Yeah. CB: So how does this work? The Dakota has a cable on a winch inside the fuselage. MM: Yeah. A long — CB: It lets it out. MM: Yeah. There’s a long hook. CB: A hook on the end. MM: A hook. Yeah. Snatches. Yeah. CB: And it snatches a rope that’s held between two posts is it? On the ground. MM: Yeah. Yeah. And of course it’s got to come down pretty low, you know. CB: Brilliant. MM: You know, fair sort of aircraft the Dakota. You know that. CB: Yeah. But the Dakota itself is going to be pulled back by the snatch so — MM: Yeah. CB: They’re — MM: A little bit of the jolt is taken up by this winch. This long steel, you know. I don’t know how, how much you know say perhaps a couple of hundred or a hundred yards — CB: Yeah. MM: Perhaps of cable you know that, you know that takes up a bit of the slack but— CB: And then it pulls it in. Winches it in does it? MM: Winches it in. Yeah. CB: Right. So how far does the glider fly behind the tug? MM: Well, it wasn’t very far. I suppose perhaps — I’m not sure now. Twenty five yards perhaps behind, yeah. To do your release, yeah. CB: Yeah. They’ve got to dodge the airstream of the tug. MM: Yeah. CB: Right. We’ll stop there for a mo. [recording paused] CB: Cover this. One of your pilots was a man called Schuoua .S C H U O U A. What, what nationality was he? MM: Well, he was sort of Argentinian but he’d been to England. He spoke perfect English. Better English than the lot of us. And his people were sort of in, in to textiles or something. He’d got plenty of money anyway because he, I remember he used to get short of money and wire home for another, another hundred pound or something. That was you know a fortune to us in those days. But oh, he was a great lad. He, of course he spoke Spanish was his native language but he said, ‘I’m Don Enesto Shuoua.’ [pause] But — CB: Yeah. So he came out with you. MM: Yes, he went and then had no sooner got out there then he was sort of demobbed. CB: Was he? MM: He was sent. Yeah. He came back home again. CB: Went back to Argentina. MM: Yeah. CB: So when [pause] what we didn’t, we need to follow on from really is for, which we will do in a moment, is you went then to Lyneham as a crew. MM: Yes. CB: To go to, where did you go to? MM: As, we went from there our first stop was Sardinia. We went on a cold miserable day in November and arrived in Sardinia on a beautiful hot day, where there was a, and where we spent the night there was a Italian aircraft which had crashed quite close to where we were billeted at. I can’t recall now just how far from us it was but that was that. And then we went by various routes to, well eventually we got to Karachi via [pause] I think it’s all down in the book. CB: Yeah. Ok. But where did you go from Karachi? That was where, you were stationed there was it? MM: Yeah. I was at, we were at Mauripur which was the outskirts of Karachi. I spent my twenty first birthday there. We were in a tent there. A small, small tent there. I spent my twenty first birthday with a bottle of whisky in a small tent there [laughs] And from Karachi went via Empire Flying Boat, the Caledonia, the name of it was to, to Calcutta. Spent a few days in Calcutta and then went from Calcutta to Chittagong by Dakota. We were picked up by Dakota and spent Christmas. Christmas Day we were in, in Chittagong. And went from, after that we spent a few days in, in Chittagong and then we went by Liberty ship. A Liberty ship. I think there were two crews of us then. We picked up another crew there. Two crews went by Liberty ship down to Rangoon. And there we were [pause] We went from Rangoon to 194 Squadron which was at Mingaladon Airport which was just outside Rangoon where we thought we’d be eagerly awaited but we were rudely awakened to the fact that no, they sort of didn’t. Didn’t care whether we were or not [laughs] sort of thing. We were given tents, implements to go and clear a bit, a bit of the jungle and put, put our big tents up there and make ourselves at home. Which we did. We cleared the jungle and, and cut down bamboo to put little, all around the tents to keep the snakes out. And put this like felt, they called it [unclear] or something on the, on the ground and we made it made our own beds there with bamboo. And oh, we, we you know quite enjoyed doing all this in the end. CB: Built yourself a little village did you? MM: Yeah, we, yes we were sort of all our all the tents were crowded around together sort of thing in the area and, you know officers and sergeants and everything were all mixed in together there really. But — CB: What rank have you achieved by now? MM: I was still a sergeant. I didn’t, however I eventually got a, got my crown and became a flight sergeant and then they stopped automatic promotions then, you see. CB: Yeah. MM: I was just, I think I was a month away from getting warrant officer but they stopped — CB: Yeah. MM: The automatic promotions. CB: Meanwhile, what were you doing with 149 Squadron. Dakotas flying. MM: 194. CB: 194. MM: Yeah. We were, we did all, we did all the airline work in the Far East. Well, really between, between Calcutta and well, we flew to Japan as, as well. All around that area. I didn’t actually go to Japan but some of the squadron did. You know, went to, when we eventually got to — we eventually finished up at Hong Kong. Finished at Hong Kong but then did quite a regular run to Japan. But I was mainly, mainly between. I was flying mainly between sort of Calcutta and Hong Kong and went down to, you know all the different places — Malaya and Singapore. And I went up to Shanghai once. All around that area. Our usual run was Calcutta, Rangoon, Mingaladon, Bangkok, Saigon and Hong Kong, but we used to do all various routes around there, you know. Kuala Lumpur and all different routes. CB: Who were the people you were ferrying? Or was it largely freight? MM: No. Mainly they had to have a good reason for flying. They were all sort of VIPs and I remember we had a, we’d got a general and all his staff we were taking from I don’t know where we started off from but when we were coming in to land at Hong Kong which was Kai Tak Airport, was a very dangerous airport. And it wasn’t the usual runway that we landed on. It was the one that was across. You could only land. You couldn’t overshoot or anything. There was hills the other side. CB: Right. MM: And we landed, landed there, we’d got crates of, apart from the general and his staff there were crates of rats we were carrying to the medical department for some reason or other. And we landed with a bit of a bump and one of, one the crates burst open and the rats got out. On the reception there was, waiting for his general at Kai Tak Airport there was a sort of reception committee waiting for this general and his staff and we were still trying to catch the rats and get them back in the crates. CB: A bit of a delay then was there? MM: Yes. CB: But you got them all in the end. MM: Yes. Yeah. But we had many many different experiences in, you know while we were doing different [pause] We, we had to. One of them was a belly landing in bad weather. We were going from Bangkok to Mingaladon, Rangoon. But we got caught in a, in a bad thunder storm and had to do an emergency landing. Belly landing in Burma, near Ye. The name of it Y E. We managed to sort of pick out a little, what was a little paddy field but unfortunately when we landed the mud, they used to put mud banks around this little paddy field to keep the water in the paddy field. It had all dried up and it was like hitting a brick wall. And we hit this brick wall and twisted the aircraft around and finished up tail first skidding across this little paddy field and got away with it with seventeen passengers on board. Which I’ve got pictures of. The various, some of— CB: This was a wheels up landing. MM: Yeah. And — CB: The Dak wheels stick down slightly. MM: Yeah. CB: Don’t they? MM: But, yeah. But it sort of ripped off an engine as we landed. CB: Oh right. MM: And you know, smashed the aircraft up a bit. But I was the only one who wasn’t strapped in. I’d got no, in the navigator’s seat there wasn’t a belt or anything. It was a, and I, but I sort of opened the door to tell, to shout to the passengers in there who were all strapped in to brace. I shouted out, ‘Brace,’ and slammed the door and then I tried to keep myself in the cabin but I was thrown around the cabin and I, funny how you, you know you hear about these things but you don’t believe it but all my life sort of flashed before me. CB: Because you thought it was terminal. Yeah. Thinking of, as a navigator here we are in the Far East with huge expanses of sea and jungle were there beacons? How did you navigate in those areas? MM: There was only, the only aid we had was the Eureka. CB: Oh right. Yeah. MM: Which I’d already done a course on, on Oxfords while I was at Leicester East. I had a few days course. I think it was about a week’s course on Oxfords. It’s in my logbook there so, but on Eureka which was a very easy thing. You knew what you but there were only two or three beacons in the Far East. There was one in Hong Kong and I think there was another one at, I think there was one at Saigon and one at Mingaladon I believe. But very few. They were about the only aid we had. CB: So these are actually long range signals so — MM: Yeah. CB: How did you — MM: A hundred miles. CB: Oh, only a hundred miles. MM: A hundred miles. When you got within — CB: So how did it — MM: A hundred miles you could home on to. You knew where you were and you could home on to the, on to the beacon. They were very useful. CB: Could you just describe how Eureka worked? So there was a beacon at your destination but what are you doing to use it? MM: Well it, a very simple thing as I recall it. It, you got a, on this instrument you could, it was [pause] just a line with and you could tell which side of the line you were on and — CB: It was a cathode ray tube with a —. MM: Pardon? CB: A cathode ray tube. MM: That sort of thing. Yeah. CB: Yeah. MM: And you could, you could, you knew which side of the line you were on you could home, home right in on the beacon. Very easy to, to use. CB: Because it showed you in a blip which side of the line you were. MM: Yes. Yes. That’s right, yeah. Yes. It was a sort of, as I recall it, yeah it was like a long blip thing. The movement. Yeah. CB: Yeah. A sort of a variation of the blind landing system. MM: Yeah. CB: Right. But apart from that because the distances were huge — MM: Yeah. But it was all sort of dead reckoning, you know, just, but — CB: Were there intermediate beacons of any kind? MM: No. No. There was just these one or two out there and the only other thing you could, the only other aid besides all dead reckoning sort of thing was I think occasionally, very occasionally I used the sextant for a position line on the sun. CB: Right. MM: That’s when you could get a fix but you could get a position line onto the sun. But nothing else. It was [pause] but quite, you know quite often say from Hong Kong to Saigon that was all sea, you know. You got [high land] all on one side but but it was all sea ‘til you — well not, you could, no it wasn’t all sea but halfway sea anyway. Then and you got on to sort of Cambodia and that. What was Cambodia. That was all, you know when we were there it was French Indo China down Saigon. Yeah. CB: But you tried to take a direct route rather than keep close to the land. MM: Yeah. Yeah. I did that dozens of time down there you know but you were always glad when you got terrain. I think it was. You were always glad when you, you know you got to land sort of thing. CB: Why did the squadron relocate to Hong Kong? MM: Well, that was British of course. Hong Kong. At that time it was British and I think they thought that was the best place to be sort of thing. We thought so as well. It was very nice there [laughs] CB: So, in Hong Kong what was the social life like? MM: Very good. Yeah. That was good there. CB: Did you meet any interesting people? MM: In those, in those days I mean Hong Kong was British and the Chinese you know sort of, they got on well with the British and they you know respect us. We were sort of in charge sort of thing anyway. But I had various experiences there when we went to what they called the New Territories. Used to go swimming out there. Got on a, going on the main road along there and there was a lot of trouble there and the big, all arguing and doing a lot of [pause] people all around there. And as soon as I got there I was, you know I was only a sergeant or flight sergeant or something there and I managed to quell it all [laughs] but, you know it wouldn’t happen these days sort of thing. CB: It was an argument between Hong Kong people was there? MM: There was all the sort of, a lot of new territories people. They used to carry their wares into, into Hong Kong you know. CB: From China. MM: [unclear] bars and one thing and another and all their, you know stuff they had grown and all that sort of stuff to sell in Hong Kong. And I think it was arguing with other Chinese. I think there was some Chinese army there or something. I forget now. It’s all very vague. But, you know they had a, there was a bus there, I think. They’d held up the, held up this bus and they were all arguing and doing and — CB: You managed to quell the riots. MM: Yes [laughs] CB: Yeah. And what sort of interesting people did you meet there? MM: Well, one of the, when we were on one of our trips we got Compton Mackenzie. Sir Compton Mackenzie he eventually became wasn’t he? And we were taking him, we were supposed to be taking him from Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport. I think it was to Calcutta and there was, there was a Mandarin and people seeing him off. He’d been to, he was writing a book or something and he was there with his secretary and, and they were seeing him off there. He was amongst other passengers there. We used to have various interesting people that we used to take about but, but anyway we took off from, from there. We had an engine failure on, soon after we took off which wasn’t very nice [laughs] So, we had to fly around for a bit. Try and use up some of our petrol. Then we had to, we eventually landed again and went through the same procedure again the following day on a different aircraft. With a different aircraft. And when, and when we got down to Saigon we stopped at Saigon. We always used to stop the night at Saigon which we liked very much. We liked Saigon then. And we took off from there and I was talking to Compton Mackenzie and he said, I should, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘A pity we can’t see Angkor Watt.’ You know the, where everyone goes to see these days which wasn’t far from Saigon. I said, ‘Well, as long as you don’t put it in your book when you write your book about your travels in the Far East I think we can divert a little bit. It’s not far off our route and we’ll fly over it.’ So, we did that and he was pleased as punch. But he was the one who wrote, “Whisky Galore.” And all that, you know. They made a film of it. CB: Yes. MM: “Whisky Galore.” But he seemed an old man to us then but you know then I looked as though in the obituary in the paper and I realised he was only, I think he was in his late sixties in those days. Which of course was an old man in those days. CB: These flights. How long were they? MM: Well, we did so many different flights there. It’s all in my book there, you know. I mean from, from Rangoon to Bangkok was about, average about two and a half hours I suppose. Bangkok to Saigon was probably three hours. And a lot of them were say down to Singapore. We were going down to Singapore we used to stop at Saigon first and refuel and that would be another, you know down there was probably three hours. Four hours perhaps. Averaged at about sort of four hours I suppose. CB: When you were out in the Far East you were stationed in Hong Kong as we were talking about just now. MM: Yeah. CB: At what stage did you know when your demob was coming up? MM: Well, my number was fifty four. We all knew our numbers and they used to get demobbed by numbers sort of thing and you kept tabs of, you know when your number was coming up. But anyway I elected to stay on an extra three. I signed on for another three months because I got married there you see. CB: Right. MM: So — CB: Tell us about meeting your wife. MM: Well, we, we met in, on Hong Kong island. She was waiting for a tram to go, go to, I think it was a dance. And we got talking and it all developed from there over the months. CB: What was Phyllis doing? MM: Phyllis. Yeah. CB: What was she doing in Hong Kong? MM: Well, she was there during the war, you know. She was born there. That was her home. Her father was a British, you know. He was from Taunton. He was, worked for the, you know, British Colonial. CB: Yeah. The Colonial Service. MM: Service. Yeah. And — CB: As a civil servant. MM: Yeah. But you know he had died just before the war and her mother was, her mother was Peruvian actually. And, but you know it’s a long story but she was sort of hidden in a convent as a, as an Italian but, which at the time was on the opposition side anyway which, and of course it was occupied by the Japanese and — but they were, they were on the Japanese side at the beginning of the war of course. But — CB: So when you met her she was on her way to work or what she was doing? MM: No. I think then she was on her way to a dance hall. There used to be dances on in Hong Kong, you know. We might even have been going to the same dance. We used to go to a dance. I think it was, I don’t know whether it was the Yacht Club or something like that. And but [pause] that was all. CB: So when were you married? MM: March the 17th 1947. CB: So, how long were you engaged for? MM: Well, I suppose probably a couple of months or something. Something like that. CB: And you deferred your — MM: I deferred. CB: Demobilisation, to do it. MM: Yeah. CB: Kept flying in that time did you? MM: Pardon? CB: Did you keep flying at the time? MM: Kept flying. Yeah. CB: So you were, when were you actually demobbed? MM: That was, be sort of about August. August I think it was. 1947 CB: Right. MM: Yeah. CB: How did you feel about the end of your service? MM: Well, for a time I was sort of kept thinking about going back in the Air Force. Didn’t know what to do quite. Yes. And you know it was all [pause] you know kept, you know, as I say I went as an agricultural student. I handed my notice. They kept my job open of course on the railway and they, they were very annoyed when I said I’m not coming back. They said, ‘Oh, we kept your job open,’ and all the rest of it. Didn’t they? CB: Because you were going to college. MM: Pardon? CB: Because you were going to Agricultural College were you? MM: Yeah. When I, when I told them I was going to they said, ‘We kept your job open and you should come back to us, you know. We want you to come back.’ And one thing or another but I said, ‘No. I’ve finished with clerical work.’ As I thought. CB: [unclear] So you didn’t return to the railway. MM: No. CB: So, how did you, what did you do then? MM: Well, I kept waiting for the course to start. And the unemployment people said, ‘Well, you’ve got to do something eventually,’ and for a few weeks I went in a stores for a firm here. Blackwood Hodge in Northampton. I was only there a few weeks then and then the course started and I went as a, you used to have to go to lectures. You know, agricultural. To somewhere in town. We used to have lectures on farming and that and then I had this. Went on this to this college in the not the well it was at Malton, Malton Park Farm. CB: Yeah. MM: It wasn’t a college. Malton Park Farm. It was St Andrew’s Hospital College. Farm I mean. Yeah. CB: How long were you there? MM: About seven months. CB: And then what? MM: Then I bought a small holding not far from here which is now all built on. I’d got about eighty fruit trees and I kept supplying half of Northampton with, with a lot of people had their hens in the back garden then. I used to sell, you know eight week old pullets and one thing and anther, you know. And one thing and another. Kept pigs. I don’t know. I used to go all around all the farms collecting the eggs and selling them to the shops and one thing or another. Fruit and so on. I’ll say, then I got a temporary job on the central in those days British Electricity Authority. Which eventually became Central Electricity Generating Board which lasted thirty years until they closed down two power stations. Did the administrative work for closing down Northampton Power Station. CB: Did you? MM: And Leicester Power Station. CB: How did you get in to that? MM: Then I elected not to move anywhere else and I, I finished up at British Timken which was just a stone’s throw away. I could walk there. Spent ten years there. My last ten years of working life there. Which I quite enjoyed. CB: What did you do there then? MM: Well, I was a, when I joined they said, ‘Well you wouldn’t want — ’ I was on the professional and executive list or something at Leicester. I wasn’t on the unemployment thing. And they didn’t send me any jobs to apply for or anything. And so eventually I got a job here just as there were strikes on in the engineering department and everything else. And they said, ‘Well, there’s only one job going. That’s a foreman’s clerk.’ I said, ‘Well, try me.’ You know. So I went and had an interview and got the job as a foreman’s clerk. Which was, you know just a little clerical job. I thought that would do me. I was already on a pension from the Electricity when I was fifty five so [laughs] and but then there was another job came up there as a [pause] as a clerical, and an engineering clerical worker or something. It was partly clerical and partly engineering. It was a technician sort of thing which developed eventually. I was called a technician there which I quite enjoyed you know. We tested in the, tested all the bearings from all over the world from the British Timken factories in America and Australia and Africa and everywhere else in the world. We’d test them. And I was there until I retired at sixty five. CB: Didn’t you do well. Good. We’ll stop there. [recording paused] MM: Which wasn’t very nice. CB: So the cunims are ahead of you. MM: What? CB: The cumulonimbus are ahead of you. MM: Yeah. CB: And are they, how big are they? MM: They built up so quickly and we, we couldn’t get over them in those days. CB: No. MM: I mean we usually used to like to fly at five or six thousand feet or something like that. CB: Oh, I see. Right. MM: But sometimes you know you would try and get over them or you would see one, a bank of cloud and by the time you got to it they sort of rose so quickly. That was the trouble out there. CB: Is this over the — MM: There were more aircraft lost I think during the war and that with the weather than anything else. CB: Oh, were they? MM: And accidents and that. CB: And are the cunims on the edge of the land or are they in the middle of the ocean? MM: Well, they were all over. All over that area, you know. It’s the heat and everything. In the mornings that’s all we liked to take our early start and but they built up so quickly with the heat and you know they was so much weather. You know, rain and one thing and another they built up so quickly. We used to try and get an early start. CB: On your planes you had IFF did you, effectively so that or some kind of beacon so people could keep an eye on you. MM: No. Not as far as I know. No. CB: I mean if you went down. MM: No. I don’t know. CB: Or if the plane went down how would they find you? MM: No. No. As far as I know there was no, nothing [pause] I mean the wireless operators, you know they’d, you know if, if you’d got a chance the wireless operator would you give the rough position, you know, lat and long and sort of thing. Latitude and longitude and where. That was what we did when we came down in Burma. I was very proud of that. Latitude and longitude was dead on. So [laughs] CB: What was the crew comprised of? Two pilots. MM: Well, there was the pilot and, and the air steward was very often another pilot. He was acting steward because there was such a surplus of pilots and one of our air stewards was a pilot. [Bernardus] a big tall handsome bloke he was. Only a young chap and I’ve got a picture of him somewhere and he was one of our air stewards. But, but another one was, I had several different air stewards at different times. There was the wireless operator and navigator. So, you know there were usually four of us. CB: What was the air steward’s job? Keeping you watered? MM: Well, he was, you know he was taking sandwiches and looking after the passengers. You know. CB: How many could you take at a time? Passengers. MM: Well, capacity was twenty six. Sometimes there weren’t twenty six but that was the most we could take. CB: They’d have luggage with them. MM: Yeah. Not much but you know very often it was just sort of hand luggage and but, I mean one when we came down in you know our belly landing they could all carry their luggage. I think afterwards. It’s funny, until I knew this was going to take place I was looking for things to [pause] I know, and what not and I [pause] Ah, what’s this now. This was another [laughs] another thing I found. One of our things we had to do on one of our courses was ship recognition. We used, that was — CB: Right. So, this is, this is — MM: Had to a recognise ships you know. CB: Yes Other: Not easy CB: Of all nationalities those. That’s got different — MM: Yeah. Yeah. CB: British. American. MM: Yeah. CB: Japanese. MM: But — CB: Those, they are warships. MM: I was looking for, looking for maps. I say my son and his wife were just going to Canada and these are some of my actual maps that went around Rivers. CB: Are they really? MM: You know. CB: Yeah. MM: He’s going quite close and I was finding these. And I found my name on them somewhere but some of the routes we took but — CB: What would you say was the most memorable thing for you in the war? MM: I suppose one of the most memorable things was when we did our belly landing. CB: After the war. Yes. MM: After the war. Yeah. That was after the war but — CB: But in the war itself was there something that stood out? Particularly memorable. MM: Well, all through the war you know before I joined up even we used to keep in touch by, you know on the radio. We were always eager with what was happening everywhere. You know. Surprising that as you can’t imagine you know as a fourteen, fifteen, sixteen year old. Nowadays you can’t. But in those days we sort of knew everything that was happening you know in the Middle East or you know. It was always on the on the radio. All the different, you know what had happened everywhere. And we all used to talk about it and, you know keep in touch. CB: And when you knew about your brother dying in — MM: My — CB: Who was it? A relative? A relative of yours. MM: My son. CB: Oh, I beg your pardon. In the war. MM: That was my — CB: No. No. In the war. MM: During the war. CB: Yeah. MM: No. He was one of our, a chap I joined up with. CB: Oh the chap you joined up with. MM: Yes. Yes. CB: Your friend. MM: Yes. CB: Yes. How did you feel about that? How did you feel about that? MM: Well, you know. Just one of those things that you know we obviously, we you know thought what a shame it was, you know and all that. CB: Yeah. MM: But he was one of various friends of ours you know. Now, another boy I was quite friendly with near, I grew up with. You know. Geoff Boyson his name was. He was he was an air gunner. He was killed quite early on in the, you know in the war soon after he joined up. And several others. But you know it was just one of those wartime things you know. You, nothing you could do about it but you were you know very sorry about it all but — CB: So the four of you who joined together as far as them and their families were concerned how did you keep in touch with what went on with them? MM: Well, the, one of them, one of the four he, he didn’t. He finished up as, on a, on a navigator’s course but he didn’t pass. And, you know I saw him afterwards and everything but I don’t know what he was doing. What he did really after that. But he didn’t continue as air crew anyway. And the other one who I was [pause] he became a navigator and I was best man at his wedding and everything but he, he didn’t do much. He passed as a navigator but after that I don’t really know what he did. He didn’t do any more flying. But a lot, a lot of them that when the war finished they finished up as they made them in charge of transport or all sorts of different things. I’ve got a, sort of various books there written by one of them. One of them was, “Avenging in the Dark.” it’s called. I don’t know where it is now. He did two tours. He, he died after you know a few years ago now but he’s exactly a year older than me. He did a tour. A tour on Stirlings and a tour on American B17s. CB: Oh, did he? MM: Which not many people knew that the RAF used B17s. CB: For a short time, yes. MM: Yeah. [recording paused] CB: You talked about the different backgrounds of the people you were being trained with. MM: Yeah. CB: How well did the different backgrounds gel or did they tend to be — MM: Well, you know we all mixed together. I mean my, probably my best friend there was ex-university but we never talked about it. I don’t know what he did at university or anything but, but we all got on well together but I know he didn’t get a commission and he said, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘My people will be so disappointed. They’re expecting me to get a — ’ Most of the university boys got a commission you see. But — CB: But he didn’t. MM: He didn’t. No. CB: What, what did, he would end up as what? MM: Well, he was sergeant. CB: Yeah. MM: Same as me, you know. And then of course we all went to I don’t know what happened to him but as I say people made friends with them and then all posted to different places. CB: Yeah. Yeah. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Maurice William Marriott Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chris Brockbank Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-08-24 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context AMarriottMW170824, PMarriottMW1701 Conforms To An established standard to which the described resource conforms. Pending revision of OH transcription Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 01:47:18 audio recording Language A language of the resource eng Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Royal Air Force. Bomber Command Description An account of the resource Having been interested in aircraft through the Air Training Corps, Maurice joined the Royal Air Force in 1942 and went to RAF Cardington. In July 1943 he went to the Air Crew Reception Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground, followed by 17 Initial Training Wing in RAF Scarborough. Elementary Flying Training School on Tiger Moths at RAF Brough saw him become a navigator rather than a pilot. He was in the operations room at RAF Beaulieu and describes an encounter with Air Marshal Coningham. Maurice was sent to RAF Heaton Park and RAF Morecambe before sailing to Canada and 1 Navigation School at Rivers, Manitoba. He discusses the difficult wind changes and how a Dalton computer was used to work out drift. He recounts the difficulties of astro navigation at night. Maurice flew on Ansons before returning to Britain. Time at RAF Harrogate and RAF Llandwrog on Ansons, was followed by Wellingtons at an Operational Training Unit at RAF Moreton in the Marsh. Maurice crewed up with Australians and trained on Gee navigation. He eventually moved to the 1654 Heavy Conversion Unit at RAF Wigsley on Lancasters. The war finished before he took part in any operations. Maurice went to RAF Leicester East on C-47 where he did a course on pannier dropping and glider towing (Hadrian gliders). He went from RAF Lyneham to Karchi, stopping off in Sardinia. Maurice was stationed at Mauripur. He travelled to Calcutta and Chittagong, then Rangoon and 194 Squadron at Mingaladon airport. They did airline work in the Far East, ferrying VIPs, including Compton Mackenzie. Navigation systems were Eureka and dead reckoning. Maurice finished his RAF career in Hong Kong, where he married. He was then demobbed in August 1947. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Julie Williams Sally Coulter Maureen Clarke Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Burma Canada China Great Britain India Burma--Rangoon China--Hong Kong England--Northampton England--Scarborough India--Kolkata England--Northamptonshire England--Yorkshire Canada Manitoba Manitoba--Rivers England--Leicestershire Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1943 1945 110 Squadron 1654 HCU 21 OTU aircrew Anson C-47 crewing up forced landing Gee Heavy Conversion Unit Initial Training Wing Lancaster navigator Operational Training Unit RAF Harrogate RAF Leicester East RAF Llandwrog RAF Mingaladon RAF Moreton in the Marsh RAF Wigsley RCAF Rivers training Wellington https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/800/10781/ADellowJA170617.mp3 643b36b0ab4c85a5824d3d83a5adba37 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dellow, James Albert Dellow, Jim Albert J A Dellow Description An account of the resource Six items. An oral history interview with Flight Lieutenant James Albert Dellow (1921, 13918226, 171266 Royal Air Force) his log books and note books. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 44 Squadron. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by James Dellow and catalogued by Barry Hunter. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-06-17 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Dellow, JA Transcribed audio recording A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document DB: This is Denise Boneham and today I am talking to James Albert Dellow in his home at Icklingham in Suffolk. Today’s date is the 17th of the 6th 2017 and it is currently 11.10 hours. JD: When war was declared in September 1939, I’d reached the age of eighteen years and we had to report to a government office where my name was recorded. Here we were asked to tell which branch of the armed forces we hoped to join. We were told that it didn’t mean we would definitely get our choice, but it would depend upon the requirements of the country. They would do their best to grant our request. I had opted to join the RAF for pilot training. After this we were told that when we were wanted the authorities would send us a letter. I resumed my employment which at that time was in an office in Kent. In 1941 I had to attend an RAF Medical Centre in London in June of that year. I passed A1 fit for flying and after this I was told to go back to my office job and await a call up letter which could be as long as six weeks. Eventually a call up letter came telling me that I had to report to Lord’s Cricket Ground in London which was being used as a Centre to receive recruits. It had been requisitioned by the Royal Air Force. Eventually [pause] I’ve read that, I was given my service number, uniform and other clothing. My accommodation was in a small hotel requisitioned by the RAF, and this was situated opposite the London Zoo where we had our meals prepared by RAF cooks. But we didn’t eat with the animals. About twenty other lads about my age were at the hotel. We were supervised by an RAF corporal and during our short stay in London which was two weeks we were taught to march in the quiet road where the hotel was located. We attended lectures in the hotel. We took turns in preparing equipment in case our hotel was bombed as it was still early in the war and London was still experiencing bombing raids. However, it was only a stay of two weeks in London when we were moved to other parts of the country. This move was the first stage of our training and we arrived at Scarborough, the seaside place in Yorkshire. Number 10 Initial Training Wing. And we stayed in the Crown Hotel located on rising ground facing east and enabling us to see the sea. It was a very bracing place to be. Here we attended lectures, doing a cross country run every day in all weathers. We had to learn, practice Morse. Sending and receiving messages by lamp and then by buzzer. We studied RAF law, gunnery, learning to recognise different aeroplanes using models. Enemy planes and RAF ones. That came under the aircraft recognition. I was sent to a grading course at Brough situated right next to the River Humber near Hull and I was there for about a month as a pupil pilot. This was just to see what, if we were competent in holding the joystick and being up in the air. I was supervised by a qualified pilot sitting behind me in this Tiger Moth. We had equipment, joystick, rudders and steering wheels, speaking to me through a speaking tube. I passed the course. Returned to Scarborough. However, my return there was only for a very short time. Those of us who’d passed the grading course were told we were going to continue our training overseas. Until we were on the ship we did not know where we were going until we were well on our way across the Atlantic Ocean in February of that year. Early February. Because the Atlantic was infested by many German U-boats we were on our own. Just the one ship. Not in convoy. We were escorted from Gourock in Scotland by two Royal Navy destroyers. One was each side of us listening out with their sonar for U-boats under the water. We ran in to very rough weather and many of the lads including myself experienced sea sickness which caused us to stop eating for about three days. But mine was really brought on by something which I had got from the, the kitchen where we had to get our food. It so happened that I, memory, that I’d been appointed as the runner for my people on our mess table to get the meal. And I had two billy cans, one in each hand and I had to walk the full length of the ship to the galley where the cooks were providing the food. I could smell the, [pause] smell the food. The smell of food came along the walk that I was using to get to where the cooks were, and when I got there we had in one billy can I had a big amount of stew which was put in. It looked rather oily and had about two or three peas floating on the top. And then on the, on the counter there was some lovely baked, newly baked bread loaves which had been baked that morning, and they were the main things that interested me because I was loving, wanting to eat some bread and put some, we didn’t have butter we had margarine. Now, until we were on the ship we didn’t know where we were going which I’ve already said. I’m sorry about that. I trained in a, in a Tiger Moth [pause] Something’s gone wrong. Pages turning] Here we are. The time of the year was January, late January 1942. After five days at sea we were nearing Halifax, Nova Scotia. By the time we left the ship we were put in the care of English RAF sergeant and we were put on a railway train to take us a thousand miles to Toronto in Canada. Being in wintertime darkness was upon us. However, unlike Britain at this time there was no blackout in Canada and traffic right near the port were moving along the roads with their headlights and all the lights of the streets were on. We travelled the thousand miles and we left the train and we were taken to the National Exhibition building in Toronto. This would be a similar building like the Olympia in London. This place was used as a Recruiting Centre for the Canadian recruits. And we were here for six weeks waiting to be sent to an aerodrome. The huge building could accommodate several thousand people, and I had to move later on. For pilot training I was sent to a small aerodrome situated on the shore of one of the great lakes. Lake Huron. This is an Indian name because they were the original inhabitants of Canada. I trained in a Tiger Moth training plane, and to qualify as a pilot in the war each pupil pilot had to show that he could be trusted to handle the plane on his own within ten hours of training. Once he’d done that he was expected to go up on his own. Unfortunately, I failed to do this in the, in that time and I was taken off the pilot course because they were desperate to get fully trained pilots back in Britain. I had to report to our commanding officer at this Canadian flying school. He happened to be a British squadron leader who had fought in the First World War. He could see I was upset at being taken off the pilot training course and he said to me, ‘If you want to carry on flying why don’t you become a member of the bomber.’ This I thought of and agreed and thanked him for my advice. On my return I was given two weeks leave and told to report to a Canadian aerodrome where recruits would train to be members of a bomber crew. So the two weeks leave meant that I was able to choose where I would spend it, and I decided I would try and visit my sister Eileen in America. Where she had just arrived in 1937 as a newly married lady with her husband Jim, or James and he too was working in opening a factory in America. They were living with their two little children in Pennsylvania. Altoona. At the end of my leave I returned to Canada from America and reported to Trenton, Ontario where bomber crews started their training. I became a trainee bomb aimer flying in a plane, able to carry out the duties required. In Canada I used practice bombs day and night on ground targets. I had to do aerial gunnery and at one time I flew in a Battle. An old aeroplane they called the Battle. In an open cockpit and I had to do gunnery firing at a drogue pulled by an aeroplane alongside. Our bullets were coloured so that they knew when they took the thing down that where the green bullets had landed that meant they would be mine and the other people had different colours. I qualified in all departments and it was in late November while at Moncton, New Brunswick in Canada we had to move out ready to leave Canada and travel by train all the way down in to the States. Passing down the east coast of America through the New England States, such as Boston, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. New York Harbour we arrived at, and we had to go on board the brand new ship which had only recently been launched named Queen Elizabeth. She was eighty five thousand tons in weight and we didn’t need any escorts to guard us as we crossed the sea to come back to Britain because she was so fast. She was able to zigzag through the ocean and we reached Scotland five, five days afterwards. But because the ship was so huge she couldn’t come close to shore. She had to lay in deep water while we got off the ship. We had to go down ladders at the side of the Queen Elizabeth and go on small, small ships that came up to us and here they were jumping, bumping up and down with the rough sea. In Scotland, sorry [pause] in Scotland a bomber crew was formed by us trainees. We’d been trained in Scotland. We’d been using a Whitley bomber in Scotland. But when the new plane came out called the Lancaster built to bear much heavier loads we were sent to a Conversion Unit near Lincoln city where our pilot had to learn to fly this very big four engine plane. This he did successfully after which we were put in to Number 44 Rhodesian Squadron which was using Waddington as our base where we had our own plane to bomb Germany. Before the whole crew started bombing operations three of us out of the crew namely pilot, navigator and myself, we didn’t fly with the, our own crew at all. We weren’t expected to do any work because we were observing what it was like to be over enemy territory. To see what gunfire was like, ack ack from the ground, enemy fighters, searchlights. We attended the briefing of this trip with another crew. This was Hitler’s birthday, the 20th of April and so we all reckoned it surely must be Berlin, the target. Because one never knew the target until you entered the briefing room which had to be locked and kept secret to the very last minute and you would know where you were going by the big red ribbon that started from your base and ended at the target. And this time when we looked we found that our destination on this occasion was not Berlin, but it was a sea port in the Baltic Sea Called Stettin. I flew in a Lancaster from Number 106 Squadron and while we were flying we, we flew all the way to Denmark on, over the North Sea with our propellers just churning almost the waves to keep low so that Germany couldn’t catch us on their radar which stretched all along the wall that Hitler had built. As we approached Stettin a Lancaster flying on our left side was hit by flak, that’s enemy fire, because the sea there had many flak ships which Hitler had in the sea where they were all heavily armed with guns which could reach planes and this poor chap had caught it. In no time at all a burst of flame came out from the side of the Lancaster and a huge ball of fire came out in such a short time giving no time at all for the crew to leave and so seven men perished in a split second. They were immediately cremated alive. On arrival at Stettin we saw it was already on fire and many searchlights were on the move probing the sky to locate any of our planes. Fortunately we weren’t caught by searchlights but hit, nor hit by shells from planes or ground or searchlights. We didn’t linger over the target. Once we’d dropped our bombs we changed course as our next location was our base near Nottingham with this other crew that I flew with. Again we approached Denmark and soon left this behind. Descended, flying over the sea, very low down and not to be on the German radar. On landing at our base after the trip we had to report to the intelligence officers to give them information concerning the state of the target and any other news of interest. This trip took eight hours. The target we went to as a full crew and now we had our own crew was in the Ruhr in Germany. A very dangerous part to go because it was where the bombs were made and the big firm Krupps made the armour and big guns, and it was heavily guarded. And it was on a coal field which made it easy for the factories to get their boilers heated to run the engines of their factories. It had extra searchlights and anti-aircraft guns. Here for a while we were picked out and got caught in the searchlight. I remember looking down the beam of the searchlight which wasn’t a very sensible thing to do but in our plane it was light as day, and thankfully our pilot managed to wriggle out of the other searchlights that were trying to come on to the one that was already there. Fortunately we managed to drop our bombs without incident after that and made our way back to Britain. We were getting short of petrol as the fuel gauges indicated but with luck and good navigation we looked for the red light flashing the Morse Code letters that told us the location of our base. Our base was at Dunholme Lodge because we’d had to move from, from Waddington earlier on in our tour because originally we started using, landing on grass and the heavy Lancasters eventually began to sink into them in wet weather. And so Waddington was closed for six weeks while the people that built the new runways would come in and lay down concrete. And so we were sent to a new aerodrome. A wartime one this time because Waddington had been there since 1917. It was a peacetime base but Dunholme Lodge on the other side of Lincoln city was on farmland and was a real wartime aerodrome. Everything was just metal and we, we knew that eventually it would be returned as farmland. Before land [pause] before landing our pilot told us to leave our places because this time having been hit by flak we were told to take up crash position. This meant we lay on our backs in the plane with our knees bent ready for any eventuality. As we’d been reported missing and late returning from the air we could see the ambulance and the group captain’s car by the runway. Landing on one wheel because the other one had been damaged on our trip to Peenemunde it touched the ground, we spun around. Eventually stopped still. Not anyone in the crew needed medical attention luckily, and we were all taken to the aircrew building for debriefing telling the intelligence officer all about our trip. Of all the trips we’d made, most in Germany other targets in Italy and Czechoslovakia it was on our visit to Peenemunde rocket base that we were attacked by enemy fighters who fired shells through our fuselage making holes on both sides. One engine was destroyed. A shell, a hole went through the flaps of the wings and one, fortunately we got rid of all our bombs before this happened otherwise I wouldn’t have been here now. We’d have been blown up with it. We were especially grateful to our pilot’s skill in escaping from those night fighters and our navigator Desmond for navigating us home to our base at Dunholme Lodge, which is about five miles north east of Lincoln city. It has now gone back to become a farm. My pilot and navigator each received, or were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Other targets we visited in my tour were Dortmund, Duisburg, Pilsen in Czechoslovakia, Dusseldorf, Wuppertal, Krefeld, Mülheim, Cologne, Gelsenkirchen. We went four times to Hamburg. Then we went three times to Mannheim and then Nuremberg and eventually Berlin which was heavily defended. After our trip on bombing we were moved to become instructors but we all parted, each of us never, not knowing where our friends were going to. And so once this happened I never saw my pilot again until I saw him at a reunion which I went to at Waddington. It was only many years after the war that some of my crew met again. We were all grateful at leaving the Air Force uninjured. After a tour not one of us ever received even a scratch. And then when we were still in the Air Force I hadn’t finished yet because the war with Japan was still going on and the idea was that they would send Lancasters to India and we would continue bombing from India to Japan and, or we might do desk jobs to free long serving personnel who could come back to Britain. But when the Americans used their atom bomb and the Japanese surrendered it meant that Japan surrendered and we were saved from going any more over any country doing this job which we believed helped to preserve our country. And so I was in the Air Force for six years and the war enabled me to move around Britain. I went to Canada, the United States and India. So I found all the places interesting and we were given great hospitality everywhere we went. And although we were in Canada first of all as trainees they treated us like heroes even before we’d seen an aeroplane [pause] Now, after leaving the RAF I had to go to my civilian home. My father at this time who’d been living in a tied house in London looking after a school. My mother had been killed in the Blitz or died in the Blitz, so he was on his own and he had to move to a new house out of London which he did and informed me and I had to make my way to the new location. It was in Surrey. Near Croydon Airport. A place called Carshalton. And we soon got used to living there and of course at this time I had to get a job to earn some money and I found I’d already been promised to be taken on a teacher’s training course, and so I knew I had a job eventually. But in the meantime I was given a part time job in a office in London which I had to travel too. That didn’t last long and eventually I was on the teacher training course which was at a very nice situation in the lovely town. A seaside place called Eastbourne. This building was very comfortable in which to live. It had been a private prep school before we used it as a teacher training college. Training college was very interesting and of course we had lots of lectures. We had to do teacher training in, going out in actual schools and the first school I went to was in Eastbourne itself which had the name I cannot remember at this time. But there was primary school children, and my class that I was going to happened to be mostly Barnardo children. Barnardo boys who were orphans and they were a reasonably nice lot. But of course as a student you have to learn to make sure that you had order in the class and gradually, and as long as they knew the type of things that you wanted such as stopping, stopping talking when teacher spoke. We wanted absolute silence so everyone could listen to the teacher. And of course it meant preparing things every night. Models of things and maps to show the children and of course while you were training at the school and teaching at the school just roughly for three weeks a lecturer would come, an inspector would come in and sit at the back of the class watching you doing your job. Seeing if you could make any headway in the new job that you’d chosen to go in to. And I managed to get through this successfully. And that was the first teacher training school that I went to. And the teacher of the class of course started to be with me to begin with, but after a while he or she would go and leave me entirely on my own. The next school I had to go to was the, some distance from Eastbourne. It was near Hastings called St Leonards. And this was a very, very good church school because it was situated alongside the church itself and assemblies were actually held in the church and so the behaviour was very good because teachers accompanied the children into the church. And occasionally we would be taken in as a class to see a Communion service and attend, and the priest would kneel near us and explain everything that was going on at the altar in the church. And I enjoyed being at that particular church at St Leonard’s on Sea because it was quite a train journey as the train hugged the south coast of England going through Pevensey and Romney Marsh and then eventually St Leonards, and next door was Hastings itself. And so I got through the training course there, and again inspectors came in and summed me up and made notes about my method and how I was teaching. And then I left to return to the college. But everything wasn’t all work because after work many times I would go back into the town. This lovely seaside town. Go up to Beachy Head which can be very dangerous if you go too near the edge because being chalk it could crumble and there was about a six hundred feet drop down to the beach and there were many cases of people who had gone over accidentally. And even poor little dogs who’d been running after a ball where their master or mistress had foolishly thrown a ball towards the edge of the cliff. The poor little dog had gone running after the ball and not realising that the end of the edge of the cliff he went over and was killed. Anyway, I won’t dwell on that too much but I have had a very interesting life and met many good people and managed to keep going and keeping cheerful because that’s the main thing. You have to grit your teeth like in the war when we all gritted our teeth and tried to be cheerful. Used to sing plenty of songs, but occasionally we would go and have a nice drink in a hostelry somewhere which increased in volume especially when we were on the squadron [laughs] Anyway, here I am at ninety five years old and I don’t feel any age much except that I’m conscious of that fact that I’m so frustrated that I can’t do the things I used to and I do ache in joints and places like that. But again I emphasise I’m so happy to be free from pain like some poor people, and I could have been killed on my first trip. I could have been killed in our training because we lost many men in the crew who had been, while they were training they failed perhaps to take a turn on the petrol of their aircraft and the amount already there was just enough to get them up in the air and by not turning on the petrol of course the whole plane would fall to earth. Other people made the foolish mistake of being up above masses of cloud. They felt they were lost a bit and they thought they would go down under the cloud to see where they were not realising especially in Wales and Scotland that mountains exist and again they would meet their end while they were training. And that was what happened to so many. And again I don’t want to end on a sad note but I was very proud of fighting for my country and I felt that we mustn’t let the devil Hitler come in this place. Otherwise, we would not be here now. And the same feeling was, was felt in the, all the Services. And here I end and I wish you all well. Thank you. [recording paused] I failed to mention, and I have been more or less ordered [laughs] to give this information which I didn’t really want to do but I did actually get my [pause] You see my pilot Des and, Derek was the pilot, Desmond was my navigator, and I am James or Jim. And it was on the raid to the Peenemunde rocket base that we were really the only time we felt we could never get back to England because we were attacked while we had luckily had finished our bombing. The bombing had stopped because we’d dropped all our bombs. If that hadn’t happened and what I’m going to tell you did happen at that time it would have set the whole plane on fire and we would have blown up like that poor chap on the way to Stettin. But I’m in the front as a bomb aimer, lying full length on the floor looking through this Perspex with plenty of vision to allow me to look either side of the plane and down. And while I was there I must remember, remind you or tell you that because we weren’t in the first wave the first people to get to that target it already was on fire and it was like a hornet’s nest that had been stirred up because it was, we were flying at low level. Six thousand feet and the full moon, and the air was full of German night fighters and they, I’m lying full length looking through my bomb sight and other parts and I could see a stream of incendiary shells coming from underneath the plane, just below our plane and they were whizzing in front of me. And they were all coloured and lit up and they were a tremendous speed they go through. And then in the plane each crew member could talk to anyone else in the plane by our special communication that we had underneath our goggles, underneath our mouthpiece and they severed, these shells coming through our plane severed the cable that enabled us all to speak to each other and immediately we were completely separate in talk amongst everybody. So nobody could talk to a fellow member of the crew like you would do and so I literally got up from the floor, Derek my pilot was throwing the plane all over the place to escape these night fighters and searchlights, and I managed to get upstairs to the navigator who was in his little office with the light to show him how to make his courses on the maps. He had to have a light and he was shielded from letting the light out by a cover which you had to pull apart. I couldn’t speak to him through my mouthpiece so I had to lift up his earpiece and take my own thing off in front of my mouth and shout to try and beat the noise of the engine to ask him what would be the next best thing to do. How to work out how to get back to England. And anyway, this happened and I returned to my place in the front and I certainly didn’t know I’d been awarded a mention in despatches because I don’t see why I should have had one quite honestly. But I think, I was never told why I’d got it but I think it was because I managed to remain calm and didn’t fluster, and I actually made an effort to continue how to do things which I really couldn’t really do. So, anyway, by the grace of God it was Derek, my navigator and the pilot who managed to go almost on the deck, or on the ground in flying to escape the fighters and we flew away from Peenemunde flying over a Luftwaffe aerodrome which had all lit up. Quickly as we could and as best we could, we saw a lovely mass of cloud not too high above us which stretched some distance and my pilot felt that if we could just climb up to that cloud, disappear in the cloud for some time it would be a hiding place and enable us to get across part of the North Sea and get back to England. And that’s what happened. We flew in to this cloud for some time and then it didn’t last long because Derek lifted the plane slightly above the cloud and we continued flying back to England. And the navigator, the bomb aimer, the flight engineer I should have said he was the one that told my pilot that we were short of petrol and we hoped we’d make it enough petrol to get back to our base. By the grace of God that did happen. We managed to reach England and it was here that we had to decide where our base was. And in the war every aerodrome had a big mechanism of lights. All in red. And each of them was flashing letters of the hour which was changed to not let the enemy get to know which was which. We knew which our letters were for that period and we saw it, aimed for it and we were given priority to land. And as we came lower and lower we could see the group captain’s car by the runway. We saw the ambulance waiting because we’d been reported missing presumed crashed or something like that. And so we had to take up crash positions so that we wouldn’t hurt ourselves if we could help. We had to lie on our backs in the middle of the aeroplane with our legs bent to push against the metal bar there so that it would help to stop us being thrown around inside at the sudden stop. But don’t forget we were landing on one wheel. The other one was completely useless. It had been punctured in the air by shells and so we landed on this one wheel and landed at the side of the concrete runway on the grass and it spun round on the one wheel and as luck would have it not one of us was hurt. And then we came out and debriefed and gave all the information to the intelligence officer. And it was, it was later on our aircraft was photographed and I have the photographs of the damaged aeroplane in my logbook at this moment. And they’re over there actually. So that’s, that is the news. Our worst raid was over Peenemunde and I still don’t know why I on my own got a mention in despatches but I suppose it must have been given by my pilot or someone in the crew. And that’s my story. Alright. [recording paused] He must have been in his very early thirties and it was because his wife was so upset at him flying in dangerous jobs that it affected him and he went along to ask for, to be taken off operations. And as you know in the war they were very tough on people that left. Don’t forget all our flying was voluntary, and they took this other awful decision that anyone who came off the crew through, they would call it cowardice you would be stripped of your rank. You would be, it didn’t matter who you were, officer or anything you became an AC2 and your only job would be to clean the toilets. The lowest of the low. And this has been remarked on many times because as you know now the medical people have studied more and realise it isn’t just cowardice. It’s something that happens and anyone can get into this position. So you can’t judge people if they are in this state. You see, that poor man. Every time he saw his wife she was in a dither. That affected him didn’t it? You see. But they don’t take that in to consideration and of course we never, we never knew what happened to the poor chap. And then we had the other mid-upper gunners but eventually we got one that lasted a long time and apart from that but of course I could have said all this on my machine about who was who because our rear gunner was a young man. Sam. He was about nineteen when he joined us and he was a coal, he’d been in a coal mine. And then there was, the only officer we had in the crew was Desmond Heslop and he, the rest of us to begin with were flight sergeants. Derek, my pilot got his commission while he was still a bomber pilot. He was married and he came from Norfolk and he got his DFC as I’ve told you. Now, I did go to Bury St Edmunds Library. This was some time ago. To the Reference Library because I wanted to see what the citation was about awarding, you know. You know the citation don’t you? Why they got this award. And I wrote them in my diary as a matter of fact which is over there. I might try and locate. So Derek got his citation and Desmond, the pilot, the flying officer and Desmond the navigator unlike us, because I went on to become an instructor, ending up at RAF Silverstone which is now the racing track. That was, that was an OTU. An Operational Training Unit. And in the meantime, I found this out later, Des the navigator did not want to leave the bombing side of it. He wanted to remain damaging Germany you see. So he didn’t become an instructor as he could have done because in his, in his citation they remark on his expert navigation. So he would have been a good instructor. But unfortunately I think he went on in a Mosquito. Two engine. So in other words pilot and navigator. And he flew. I’ve got it in my [pause] I’ll get that down because he [pause] [recording paused] Definitely. She had a stroke through it. Through, where we were living in London was a place called Wandsworth. You may have heard about Wandsworth about two miles from the River Thames. And I can remember on the day a big fleet of German bombers, daylight flew over our house and they flew towards the Thames which was a couple of minutes, well, in flying two minutes to get there. Less than that. And then they followed the Thames all the way around to the docks. This was the beginning of the Blitz and they dropped bombs on the oil, the tanks in the docks and other things. Anything that would light and keep burning. So because they did that in daylight that fire was still raging in the evening and so at that very evening he sent bombers over the docks and they dropped stuff using the docks. They didn’t need to navigate. They could see it from miles away, you see. So, that was the beginning of the Blitz. And then gradually the bombing spread and where I lived was not far away. Quite near was a Common. You know a lovely place where you could play on grass and so on. And also not far up the road was a little, it wasn’t a big one it was a public library where I as a boy used to go there and belong to it. Get books out and help to do, to get knowledge and that kind of thing. And in April ’41 there was a very heavy bombing raid and that affected our area and they destroyed completely that little library and also houses in the street very near and in one of these houses lived a family that we knew very well. And Mr [Bazant] and his wife, his eldest daughter were killed their house destroyed and the only one that got through it in that family was the youngest daughter. So, that was the kind of thing that went on. And also the Germans that night dropped what they called parachute bombs and they were mines dangling on parachutes. Once they dropped these things they were, they didn’t fall straight to earth. They were slowed down by like baby parachutes and these floated in the air and they went where the wind took them. And as they were swaying they’d only got to touch a house and they’d go pssst, you see. That’s another thing they did. And I think it was the day after because I at that time had to evacuate to Kent because the firm I was working for temporarily before I, before I went into teaching was an insurance company that felt that they would be bombed the first day of the war. And I had, I worked a little while in London at the offices but a note came around saying the whole firm except for a skeleton staff would, they would stay in London. Very few. But the bulk of the firm which was a big one would be sent in to Kent where they’d leased a lovely big house in its own grounds. Big enough to accommodate the office and all its equipment and the rooms were turned into the offices. So, we, we were working in bedrooms with the typists and so on. The claims department was in a bedroom. All the filing was in a corridor. You know. And I was very happy down there near Tonbridge. If you know Tonbridge. And I used to travel up on the Green Line Bus every weekend when we, we either worked Saturday one week but the next week we finished on the Friday. Alternate you see. But whenever we finished I always got, at the end of this big house there was the London Road and the bus stop for the Green, what used to be called the Green Line Service. Like a country bus service. And that was a single decker which would take you from, all the way to London. To the coach station at Victoria and then I’d get a train up to where we lived and walk to my where I lived and see if my family were still alive. That was the kind of life I was living you know at the time. And then I returned to work on the Monday because I used to stay. If it was say if I finished on Friday at the office I’d arrive Friday night at home in London. Stay Friday night at home in London. Saturday in London. Even Sunday in London. But I had to get up very early in the morning to go back to Victoria to catch a train. No. Waterloo. I beg your pardon. Waterloo. To get a train to Sevenoaks and the firm down in Kent used to run a coach service from Sevenoaks which is before you get to Tonbridge. And that was the kind of life I was living you see. But when I got back on that Monday I didn’t hear anything from the family. There was only one telephone in this big house by the way. Under the stairs. But then a call came through. I’m in the claims office. Working in the claims office and the door opened and a person came through and said, ‘Can Mr Dellow please come to the phone.’ And this was very unusual. So I, my boss who was a very decent bloke he said, ‘You can go,’ he said. Off I went to the phone under the stairs and it was my father speaking to me saying, ‘I’ve got some bad news,’ he said, ‘Mum. Your mum’s very ill. Become very ill.’ And then he said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ He said, ‘I can’t keep it from you,’ he said. ‘She’s died.’ And I was nineteen at the time and I must confess that I actually cried in the office. My boss was a very decent bloke and said, ‘You can’t stay like that,’ he said, ‘You go straight home now.’ And it was the most awful journey home and I met members of our friends who were going to the house where mum had died. She was still in the house and they were crying. It was an awful time. This was 1941. And my father told us what had happened. He said that although I’d seen her at the weekend and she seemed to be alright she went out shopping on the Tuesday I think it was. It may have been the Monday. She went to Clapham Junction where there was a big shopping centre. Not like they are now but I mean there were lots of shops where, it was a place she like going. It needed a bus. A little bus service. Not far. About a mile. While she was out apparently this is what, what my mother told my father when she had to go back home there and then. She couldn’t carry on shopping. So she got back. She staggered back somehow with this terrible headache she’d got. She got home and got worse in pain. Luckily, this was before the NHS of course we had our doctor, luckily enough that used to come to us when we needed him was not far away across the road where we lived. So he went across, told the doctor that my mother was very ill indoors and he came over pretty well straightaway and apparently he realised that my mother had had a stroke and that it’s what they called to do with the brain. You know the brain bursts or something or other and he said that, ‘If she lives she’d be just like a vegetable, you know. You know, you’ve got to remember that it’s better, the fact that she died.’ It sounds awful but that’s the case he said. And so that period of my life was very sad, and like you do you have to grin, well you don’t exactly grin. That’s the particular way. But I mean you’ve got to go on. You know, you’re still here aren’t you? That’s the attitude. That was the attitude of the war. Grin and bear it. Keep cheerful. Keep singing. Have singsongs and if you really must go to the pub and get sloshed [laughs] DB: Which you did [laughs] JD: We had a good old session up in London. This was after the war. But some I think your father was in the, no I don’t know whether he’d gone back in the Air Force or what. Anyway, now we used to get the last if you were up in London you see the last train from Victoria Station to our station near where we lived in Surrey which was Carshalton Beeches it was 11.38. Just gone half past eleven at night and luckily we caught the 11.38. And it was quite not about half hour journey in time you know normally. But having had plenty to drink and the movement of the train we both fell asleep. And when, the next thing was the door opened. The train was sealed and it was at a station you see. But it wasn’t Carshalton Beeches. It had gone on to the end of the line which was at Epsom. You know, Epsom. The races. And we had a long, long, in the black out. This was blackout there were no lights and we had to walk and got back indoors I think the Wallington clock was chiming three. It was 3 o’clock in the morning. So that kind of thing you know, you could get caught like that going to sleep on the train. So these things happened, didn’t they? [recording paused] It was on, on the training but they found that they found that the Manchester wasn’t at all reliable. The engines weren’t powerful enough and if, it only had two engines and if one failed you were more or less fall to earth whereas with the Lancaster you used to do training over the North Sea every morning before going to Germany. Test all the equipment. And Derek my pilot used to switch first of all one engine off. That meant we were flying on three. He’d knock another engine off. We were flying on two. He’d knock another engine off. We’d be flying on one. But if you flew on one you would gradually sink, because the one engine wasn’t quite powerful enough to keep you up at height. But most of our bombing was about twenty thousand feet and we didn’t have proper heating and we only got heat in the jacket you wore up here. Your legs would get frozen stiff. And we used to get little cartons of orange juice to take with us, and that used to get frozen solid so we couldn’t drink that. And we always took a pigeon with us in case we were crashed in, in the North Sea and we would tie a message to that pigeon’s leg you know and he’d fly back to your home base and they’d see that you were in the North Sea, and send a plane out to see if they could see you. In fact, when I was at Waddington which I think I’ve told you had to close down because of the, putting the concrete runway we were in bed in the morning, about three in the morning banging on the door. Woke up. ‘Hurry up. Go down to the crew room,’ which we did. ‘We hear a plane has landed or fallen in the North Sea you are now going on a square search,’ you know. And this was in the middle of summer and luckily although the sun was very powerful it made a mirage on the sea. If you’re up high and you’re looking at the sea for somebody, you get this shiny background of water glinting in the sun. And that very often puts you off seeing the chaps in the, in the dinghy you see. So, it wasn’t all. We never did find whoever had crashed. Which was must have been an awful experience. And if you were seen of course you would have been notified. They would send a message back to base and then they’d send people out to rescue you. But that was the only one we ever had to do. Searching for somebody in the sea. [recording paused] In Lincolnshire, and they’d blindfold us and go all round the roads in Lincolnshire and then you’d stop the thing somewhere miles from camp and they dropped you out and you were supposed to make your way back to base on your own. You know. That’s in case we landed, we had to land in Germany or France. Anywhere. To make us learn how to try and get back to base. We had compasses. Little compasses in our shoes and I think it was in the heel of your shoe I think it was. Yeah. All these little things. And I think I did get back to base anyway. Oh yeah. Lovely times. I enjoyed my life in the Air Force and in a way I wouldn’t have minded staying in. But there was a, I think the fact the country had spent so much money on the war. Fifteen million. We were told at that the time that the country was paying about fifteen million pounds a day to keep the war going which doesn’t sound so much these days but in those days that was a big, and then of course we borrowed money from America didn’t we? National debt which we’re paying now. I don’t know. That was, and America too I think is in debt, you know. I don’t know how these countries manage, do you? It baffles me. Money. Economics and how we keep going you know. We keep talking about an individual. lf you go over your own in the bank they pounce on you like you’re a criminal don’t they? You know. I’m limited to three hundred pounds if I go over my bank statement. Which isn’t much these days. And ever since I joined because when you become an officer all your money is paid into a bank. It’s with everyone now, isn’t it? But in those days if you weren’t commissioned you had to pay. You had pay out, go to a pay parade and stand in front of the officer who was doling out the money and when your name was called you went in front of the them at the table and saluted and he said, ‘Dellow, 1391826,’ you see. To make sure that you were the same person, and he’d give you the money which was half a crown a day to begin with. Once you went flying you got three half crowns a day which was seven and six. Still under a pound. The pound in those days you could buy so much with it. You know. Well, you had two hundred and forty pennies to the pound. It used to cost one penny on the bus to go from East Hill where I lived to Clapham Junction which was a mile. So that’s a penny a mile. That’s for the national newspaper one penny. Now what is it? Sixty pence a day, isn’t it? Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with James Albert Dellow Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Denise Boneham Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-06-17 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ADellowJA170617 Conforms To An established standard to which the described resource conforms. Pending review Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 01:05:16 audio recording Language A language of the resource eng Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Royal Air Force. Bomber Command Description An account of the resource James ‘Jim’ Albert Dellow had to register the start of the war he as he was 18 years old. On being asked which service he would prefer, he opted for the Royal Air Force as a pilot. Whilst waiting for his call up, he worked in an insurance office in London, which was evacuated to Kent. Once called up in June 1941, he was sent to RAF Scarborough for basic flying training in a Tiger Moth. In February 1942 he was sent to Canada for further training as a pilot, but he did not qualify and opted to become bomb aimer. He qualified in November 1942 at Trenton, Ontario. On arrival back in Great Britain, he trained on the Whitley before transferring to a Heavy Conversion Unit based at RAF Waddington to fly Lancasters. Posted to 44 Squadron his first flight was a second dickie flight with another crew to Stettin in April 1943. Though their aircraft was not hit, one flying alongside was and caught fire - there were no survivors. The worst operation that Jim recounts is one to Peenemünde. After dropping their bombs, they were attacked and damaged by a night fighter. Their pilot managed to get them back on three engines. As they landed at RAF Dunholme Lodge, only one wheel was working, and they spun off the runway crashing, with no casualties. The pilot and navigator were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Jim was mentioned in despatches. After 30 operations Jim became an instructor based at RAF Silverstone. After the war he worked as a teacher. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Northamptonshire England--Lincolnshire England--Lincolnshire England--Kent England--Scarborough England--London Canada Ontario--Trenton Poland Poland--Szczecin Germany Germany--Peenemünde England--Buckinghamshire Ontario Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-06 1942-02 1942-11 1943-04 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Nick Cornwell-Smith Julie Williams Maureen Clarke 106 Squadron 44 Squadron aircrew bomb aimer bombing bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943) Distinguished Flying Cross forced landing ground personnel Heavy Conversion Unit intelligence officer Lancaster RAF Dunholme Lodge RAF Silverstone RAF Waddington recruitment searchlight shot down Tiger Moth training Whitley https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1401/27272/BMooreDMooreDv1.pdf 6f33157a0b1575c878747146f837b62b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Moore, Dennis D Moore Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-05-06 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Moore, D Description An account of the resource 37 items and two albums. The collection concerns (1923 - 2010, 1603117, 153623 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, documents, photographs and two albums. He flew operations as a navigator with 218 and 15 Squadrons. Album one contains photographs of his family and his training in Canada. Album Two contains photographs of his service in the Far East. The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Terrence D Moore and catalogued by Barry Hunter. Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document Dennis Moore 28.06.1923 – 30.10.2010 [photograph] Autobiographical notes DM Memoirs (Second Edition) Compiled and edited by Terry D Moore [censored lines] 1 [page break] 2 [page break] Foreward In late 1991, following the end of the Cold War and the cessation of hostilities in Iraq. the Government's "Options for Change" defence review led to the disbandment of several RAF squadrons, one of which was XV Squadron which had played a significant role in the first Gulf War. As a former member of this squadron, in which he flew as a Lancaster Navigator during the Second World War, my father was invited to attend the disbandment ceremony in Laarbruch, Germany, and I had the privilege of accompanying him as his guest. Although he continued to serve in the RAF until 1964, Dad had never talked about his wartime experiences but, during the long car journey to and from Germany, all that changed – the memories flooded back as though it were yesterday. The stories became very familiar to me as they were regularly recounted at the many air-shows and Squadron Reunions we attended over almost two decades Sadly, he did not live to celebrate his birthday on 28th June 2012, the day on which Queen Elizabeth II unveiled the long overdue Bomber Command Memorial in London's Green Park. However, my wife Penny and I proudly attended as his representatives [photograph] The ceremony, honouring the 55,730 airmen who lost their lives during the Second World War, was attended by more than 5,000 second world war veterans and it brought to mind the last words of the Antarctic explorer, Captain R.F. Scott: "had we survived I would have had a take to tell . . . . . . ." Well he did survive – a thirty-three sortie tour with Bomber Command, and his tales are told in the form of these "Autobiographical Notes" which he compiled following our trip to Germany in 1991. I spent many hours editing his notes, which I illustrated with photographs from his albums and, thankfully, was able to get his seal of approval before he died. Since then I have added more photos and later material which I found in his papers. I am certain that he would have approved. [photograph] Terry Moore, July 2012 3 [page break] [photograph] "60 years on" – with PA474 at RAF Lossiemouth, May 2005 [photograph] Pam and me at XV Squadron "90th Birthday" reunion, Lossiemouth 4 [page break] Dennis Moore AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 1923 – 1939 I was born at 98 Camden Crescent, Chadwell Heath, Essex on 28th June 1923. The youngest child of Thomas and Mary Moore 1, brother to Thomas (Owen) 2 and sister Joyce 3. About 1926/7 the family moved to 150 Croydon Road, Beddington, Surrey. My education began at Bandon Hill School, Wallington. At the age of 7 I fell ill with infantile paralysis (Polio). I was taken to St. Thomas's Hospital in London where I spent nearly 3 months. I was immobilised in a body splint but do not remember much about the treatment except having pins stuck in the soles of my feet periodically (mostly in middle of night!). Apparently I was very lucky to have been diagnosed so quickly and affected in whole body rather than in particular limbs. I only remember there being some form of epidemic in the ward and visitors were not allowed for three weeks or so. The doctor promised me 5 shillings (a lot of money for an eight year old in those days) if I could walk unaided from the end of my bed to the end of the bed opposite by the time my parents were allowed back in. He had to pay up! All together I was off school for nearly a year. I started back in a wheel chair but soon discarded it! In 1934 I got a place at Wallington County School for Boys. I was not very good at school but just about managed to keep up, though mostly somewhere near the bottom of the form! I only once ever obtained good results in exams when I managed to come [italics] first [/italics] in a science exam, and that was only because, by chance, I had swotted up the night before on all the right things! I joined the school Scouts (9th Wallington {County School} Troop) and did quite well. Our Scout Master, A. D. Prince, was the school science master. I became Patrol Leader of the 'Owls' and eventually obtained the King's Scout badge and the 'Bushman's Thong'. Nearly every holiday was spent camping or 'Trekking'. In 1937 I attended the Scout Jamboree at Zandfoort in Holland (pictures in green photo album). None of us liked the very militant contingent from Germany who threw their weight about at all the 'get-togethers'. [photograph] Joyce, Dad, Mum and me I represented the Scouts at swimming and the school 2nd XV at Rugby. All my spare time was taken up with tennis at Beddington House Lawn Tennis Club, playing and helping to maintain the tennis courts. My swimming ability arose from the Polio recovery therapy. Long daily sessions were spent in the hospital pool and then in the local swimming baths in Croydon. Our house was quite close to Croydon Airport and two of my friends lived actually overlooking the airfield. We could recognise all of the airlines and aircraft that we saw landing and taking off each day. This aroused my life long interest in flying. 1 Thomas Henry Moore (1892-1967), Mary (née Tait) (1893-1984) 2 Thomas Owen (b. 3 October 1917, d. 2 November 2010) 3 Joyce (b. 11 July 1919, d. 16 May 2012) 5 [page break] 1939 Mid-June – our summer holiday at The Hartland Hotel, Hartland Point, Devon was delayed so that I could take the last exam of Matriculation (Economics) but I did so badly that we need not have wasted the extra day. I left school at the beginning of July, aged 16 War started on 3rd September and we listened to the radio broadcast by Neville Chamberlain, which was immediately followed by the Air Raid warning and all of us really though that we were about to be annihilated. I started work at 'CUACO' (Commercial Union Assurance (Marine Department)) in Lime Street, London. Starting Pay was 21 shillings & sixpence (£1.12 1/2) per week and a railway season ticket cost 13 shillings (60p) per month. My boss was called Godin. I spent most of the time making onionskin copies of documents – before the days of photocopiers! The Underwriters were almost like gods and had to be treated as such. The firm had a lunch club in Ropemaker Street (near Moorgate Tube Station). It was a very old and decrepit building and we had one of the top floors, which could only be reached by very rickety stairs. It was well worth the 10-15 minute walk to get there, through the many alleyways and quick-cuts through other buildings, as the meal was free!!! Later, this building was destroyed by bombing and the Barbican now stands on the site. I joined the AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service) as a Messenger. 1940 Joined the CUACO Tennis club. Played on the sports ground in the Sidcup area. In late summer I witnessed the bombings in the surrounding area. The evacuation of Allied Forces from Dunkirk, following the German advance through Belgium, Holland and France, took place at the end of May and was completed around 3rd June. I had holiday from work a few days later and went on a cycle tour of Devon. I caught the train to Exeter, then cycled & stayed at YHA's from there. I passed many camps of army people who had just got back. They were not allowed to send mail without it being censored, so I acted as 'Mail Boy' for many of them who called me over from inside the fence. One of the hostels I stayed at was at Waters Meet (now a National Trust site) and the Warden and I were the only two people there. He took me into Lynton (or perhaps Lynmouth) and introduced me to real cider. It did not take much of this to wake up next morning with a very thick head! However, a long hike up the river soon altered that. At Salcombe, I managed to hire a motor boat (dinghy) and could not understand why the chap who hired it to me insisted that there was a full tank of petrol. I now imagine he must have thought that I was going into the Channel to pick up more 'Dunkirk Survivors' – I must have been very naive at the time!! The 'Battle of Britain' started in earnest about 12th August. I had been playing tennis at Sidcup when the first bombing of airfields started. On the 15th (or possibly the 18th), I was in the garden at 150 Croydon Road Beddington when aircraft flew over with bombs dropping from them aimed towards Croydon aerodrome. The following day I was called to the Bourjois factory with the AFS to try and get underneath some girders to see if anyone was trapped. A few days later, Dad took us all to live with the Robsons in Charlton Cottage, Copperkins Lane, Amersham, which they rented for a short while. I joined the local Scout Troop (1st Chesham Bois) and met the King family. After short time, by general consent, I was made Troop Leader. I travelled up to London daily by train with George King & his brother. On one occasion, after a very heavy night raid, it took two hours to walk from Paddington to Lime Street through the devastated city. I camped out at weekends at Chalfont Heights and Great Hampden. The Blitz was at its height during this period and London and the surrounding area were seemingly bombed every night. 6 [page break] 1941 Early in year the folks moved back to Beddington but I stayed on and lived with one of the King family at 'Rose Cottage' in Chesham Bois. I visited Len Reynolds (see Gunboat 658) who worked for Sun Insurance and had been evacuated to Wrest Park, Silsoe, Beds. I cycled from Amersham via Luton and was chased by a dog for a long way up the A6. Recent visits to Wrest Park are somewhat nostalgic. 24th April 1941, on leaving Chesham Bois, I was presented with a Photo Album by George King and members of 1st Chesham Bois Scout Troop. [photograph] Len Reynolds and myself in uniform Changed jobs soon after a devasting German bombing raid on London on 10th May and started with Gold Exploration & Finance Company of Australia, which had been evacuated to Sandroyd School, Oxshott. The first few days were spent in the old office in Basinghall Street helping to move files and papers from the partially bombed building. During the week I lived at Sandroyd (in a small house called Kittermasters) and cycled home to Beddington at weekends. By the end of the summer the Blitz had more or less finished but a German bomber (or parts of it!) crashed in the grounds of Sandroyd one evening while we were out drinking in a local pub! Volunteered for RAF and attended the selection centre at Oxford University (not sure which college – visits in recent years in no way help me to recognise anything about it). Had a long session with medics to decide if my previous infantile paralysis (Polio) would allow me to be considered for Aircrew. After an interview with four Senior Officers, it was decided that I had passed 'A1' and was 'sworn-in' for deferred service. My actual service in the RAF counted from then. Mum was very upset when I informed her as she was convinced that I would be unfit for any service in the Forces due to my previous medical history and Dad was upset that I had volunteered for the [underlined] RAF [/underlined] because he had already booked me as a nautical apprentice with a post on the Prince Line vessel "Black Prince". I had actually done myself a great favour as the ship was sunk quite early on with the loss of all the crew! Took part in amateur dramatics at Sandroyd together with others from English, Scottish & Australian Bank (ES&A). Performed in Xmas panto as a character in sketches of the Weston Brothers type. They were very popular Radio characters of the time. 7 [page break] 1942 Early spring, I was called up as U/T Aircrew and reported to Aircrew Receiving Centre (ACRC) at Lords cricket ground and billeted in "Viceroy Court" (one of numerous apartment blocks in Regents Park area). During the first week or so we were kitted out, received inoculations, vaccinations, took night vision tests and attended numerous lectures in various part of the cricket ground. Many of the staff were well known cricketers of the day. Spent about eight or nine weeks here with some odd short periods of leave (weekend passes) so I was able to get home quite easily. [photograph] At home in the garden 150 Croydon Rd, Beddington Posted to RAF Bridgenorth & RAF Ludlow where I helped to build the camps. We lived in tents and were treated like 'dirt'. Most of the time was devoted to learning how to 'skive-off' each evening and get back into camp without being caught! Ludlow was famous for the large number of pubs and we took advantage of this to avoid being seen by the SPs (RAF Police). Fortunately, both postings were quite short lived. Summer was spent at Initial Training Wing (ITW) Newquay. Billeted in the "Penolver Hotel" on the seafront. I seem to remember it being next door to the "Beresford" (pictures in album). Our Sergeant, called Sgt. Hannah, was very strict but fair and we got on well with him. In the photos I recall many of the faces but I cannot put names to any of them. A certain teaspoon, still in use, came from a little cafe where we had our brief coffee breaks! A glorious summer – spent much time on the beach and in the sea, as well as clay pigeon shooting on the cliffs. Since I had elected not go to pilot basic training selection but [italics] to train as a navigator [/italics], I remained at Newquay with 2 others while the rest of the course did their 'Tiger Moth' time. We met up again at Heaton Park, Manchester after they had finished their pilot checkouts. Had a miserable time hanging about waiting for next posting. Billeted in a filthy boarding house with a scruffy landlady and every one of the NCOs seemed to make life difficult. 8 [page break] 1943 Early in the year I finally got a posting to Empire Air Training in Canada. We entrained to Greenock (Glasgow) and boarded the Troop ship [italics] Empress of Scotland [/italics]. [photograph] RMS Empress of Scotland (formerly Empress of Japan) Hundreds of us were bundled together in tiers of bunks in makeshift accommodation on the port side, fairly well forward on the boat deck. It was a blessing being able to get out into the open quickly as some of the others were down below, almost in the bilges. We spent hours queuing for food but it passed the time quickly. We sailed on our own and had numerous alerts but nothing was seen or heard. Eventually we docked in New York, although we all thought we were going to [underlined] [italics] Halifax! [/italics] [/underlined] By train up to No. 31 Personnel Depot Moncton (New Brunswick), stopping for nearly a day in sidings in Portland (Maine). People were very hospitable and made us meals and food for the rest of the journey. It was freezing cold in Moncton but the huts were very warm and I remember barrels of apples at the end of each hut, which were always kept topped up with crisp, juicy, sweet red apples. Although well below zero outside, we never seemed to feel the cold. Time-off was spent in the town of Moncton, mostly in Macdonald's(?) drug store, eating very cheap T-bone steaks and drinking pints of milk. No shortage of food made it a regular paradise after rationing. We also spent hours ten-pin bowling, both in Moncton and in the alley back at camp. I cannot remember what we did on duty, but do remember coming into contact with a Welsh corporal by the name of Gee who was the most obnoxious individual I have ever come across and who made our life a misery. It was a relief to join the epidemic of Scarlet Fever that swept through the camp. I was quite ill but lucky to find that one of the doctors was the husband of one of the girls that I had worked with at Sandroyd. He helped me when I was fit enough for convalescent leave by suggesting that I didn't go on my own to Montreal but to stay with one of the local families who took in Service people and looked after them. He introduced me to a couple called Tait who lived in Shediac, a place some 50 miles away, near or at the coast. They seemed to like me and 2 days later arrived back to take me home with them. They already had a number of Australian 'Tour Ex' aircrew staying with them, a couple of whom were in a very bad state and were being sent home by way of Canada and America. [photograph] The Tait residence was a huge detached property and they had a lovely red setter dog called Terry who took an immediate fancy to me for some reason and was my constant companion for the rest of my stay with them. The Taits cosseted me right from the start and were most intrigued to find that Mum's maiden name was the same as theirs. They were most concerned when they saw my patched pyjamas and other clothes and really didn't understand when I told them about 9 [page break] clothes rationing and all the other shortages. They immediately took me shopping to buy a whole set of new clothes and underclothes. Early in my stay they asked if I had ever had oysters and when I said no they immediately took me to a place called Pointe du Cheyne(?), which was 75 miles away up the coast, for an evening meal out. The place specialised in fried oysters and I had a whole plateful of them. They were marvellous and the taste still lingers on even though I have never had them again since. They seemed to think nothing of a 75-mile drive each way just for a meal out. I was introduced to all the inhabitants of Shediac – or so it seemed – and during my stay with them took me all over New Brunswick, visiting all the towns and villages and spent a day in Fredrickton visiting various relatives at the University. It was a terrible break to have to leave them and get back to real life. One thing however was somewhat sobering and that was the discussions I had with the Australians before they left. I learnt from them what it was really going to be like to go on Bomber operations once training was finished. Almost as soon as I reported back to camp in Moncton I was posted to No 1 Central Navigation School – Rivers Manitoba. The trip was a 3-day ride on the train and that in itself was a fascinating experience. Eventually I arrived at the town of Brandon after a short stop off in Winnipeg. No. 76A Navigation Course began almost as soon as I had arrived and lasted from 17th May 1943 to 1st October 1943. After nearly a month of groundwork, I had my first flight in an aeroplane on 5th June 1943. I spent 3 hours 10 minutes in Anson 6882 flown by P/O Davey. [underlined] [italics] I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. [/italics] [/underlined] [photograph] 76A Navigation Course 17th May – 1st October 1943, No. 1 Central Navigation School, Rivers Manitoba, Canada The others on the course were an amazingly good bunch and a number of us used to work and play together in almost perfect harmony. Only three pupils were 'scrubbed', for various reasons, during the course and the list of those completing the course is in my green photo album. Seven of us formed a small group. Paul Bailey Ken Waine Joe Meadows Doug Holt Rick Richardson Don Finlayson 10 [page break] We were given regular 48-hour passes and the 75 miles on the train to Winnipeg was quite an easy journey. At Eatons, the major department store, we were able to arrange to stay with local people. Nearly all my visits were to a family living in Assiniboine Drive but quite early on Don Finlayson discovered that he had a relation in Winnipeg that he had never heard of before and we spent most of the time at his place, only going back to the others to sleep. I do not remember the name of the people I used to stay with, although I have a vague recollection that their name might be Oliver. Finlayson's relatives had a youngish daughter and before long all seven of us paired up with other girls. As can be seen from the photo album we enjoyed many happy hours in the Cave Supper Club and danced to the music of Marsh Phimister (Marsh was still around in 1979 when we returned to Winnipeg to visit my cousin Tom Moore4 & his wife Marg!). THE CAVE SUPPER CLUB [photograph] Date SEP 15 1948 No. 9 GIBSON On one 48-hour pass I travelled to Toronto (or Montreal, I can't remember which) to meet my cousin Tom, whom I had never met before, but still managed to find him amongst the crowds on the Mainline Station. He took me to Hamilton Ontario were [sic] he was billeted. I think we also went to London Ontario but am not certain. He looked after me quite well and we seemed to get on well together, although it was a very short visit before I had to get back to camp. Although I had never done very well at school, I suddenly discovered that I was just as clever (if not more so) as the others and I began to do well on the course. In the end I managed to finish 2nd on the course and along with 6 others was given an immediate commission as a Pilot Officer whilst all the others were promoted to Sergeant. About the 5th October I returned to Moncton and almost straight away entrained to Halifax and boarded the Aquatania (or was it the Mauretania?). We sailed without a convoy again but had air cover at both ends with only a small gap in the middle. It was a smooth crossing, in much superior accommodation to that on the journey out. I met a Canadian who, it subsequently turned out, used to work opposite Tom Moore at Ogilvy Mills in Medicine Hat. – Small world! We landed back at Greenock and I was posted to Harrogate for Officer kitting-out and indoctrination. I stayed at the Queen's Hotel in some luxury and, as there were lots of Civil Servants evacuated to Harrogate, the social life was extremely good. Went to numerous dances and parties including Christmas and New Year. 4Tom Moore (1916-1992) Margaret (nee Rutherford) (1914-1999) 11 [page break] 1944 Posted to No. 1 (O) A.F.U. (Advanced Flying Unit) Wigton, Scotland on or about 10th January and started No. 193 Air Navigators AFU Course. Towards the end of January I 'went sick' with an undulant fever. Local Medical Officer did not believe me until I got rapidly worse and eventually was transferred to Hospital near Stranraer where Glandular fever was diagnosed. Whilst there, a survivor from a crashed Anson was brought in and all the 'stops' were pulled out to help him survive. Although nearly every bone in his body was broken he gradually rallied and started to make a miraculous recovery. Having recovered from Glandular Fever, I was diagnosed to have a mild leukaemia and started getting massive injections of iron and ate liver until it almost came out of my ears. Walked for miles in the surrounding countryside with some of the other patients and after a while felt fitter than I had for a long time. I rejoined No. 226 Course on 7th April and finally finished there on 2nd May. I was posted to No. 12 O.T.U. (Operational Training Unit) at a place called Chipping Warden near Banbury. I arrived at Banbury railway station on my own and started enquiring about transport to the RAF Station. I met a Squadron Leader Pilot who informed me that he had already arranged for transport, which would be along in 'about an hour'. We sat and talked and I learned that he was called Nigel Macfarlane (Mac), a Rhodesian, who had already done a 'tour' in Hampdens. He told me that we were both two days late for the start of the course, although through no fault of our own. He seemed to be quite interested in me and my background. When we arrived on the course, we discovered that most of the others had already had time to choose their own crews and Mac immediately asked me to be his navigator. Together we then looked around for the rest of the crew. Eventually we got ourselves sorted out and finished up with Pilot – Squadron Leader Nigel G. Macfarlane Navigator – Pilot Officer Dennis Moore Bomb Aimer – Pilot Officer Fred H. Shepherd Wireless Operator – Sergeant 'Napper' Dennis Evans Mid Upper Gunner – Sergeant Jimmy Bourke Rear Gunner – Sergeant 'Nobby' Clarke (655) The Flight Engineer, Sergeant 'Johnnie' Forster (later to become Pilot Officer), joined us later – after we had left Chipping Warden. Fred Shepherd wore an 'N' brevet as he had completed a Navigation Course but for some reason had been re-mustered to Bomb Aimer at the end of his course? The OCU aircraft identification was 'FQ'. All the flying was done in Wellingtons and it is worth noting that one of these – Z1735 – 'S', actually set a record of longevity by operating at this unit from early 1942 until January 1945. We only flew in this aircraft once. During the course both Fred & I were made Flying Officers and the Sergeants promoted to Flight/Sergeant. We were on an exercise on the night of 5/6th June (D-day), and at the time could not understand why there were so many other aircraft in the sky! On the 10th July we completed our first Operational flight on what was called a 'Nickel'. We dropped leaflets over Angers in France. The trip was successful and no difficulties other than 'Flak' were encountered. Much of our flying here was from the 'satellite' airfield of Edgehill which was some distance away and actually on the site of the old battlefield. 12 [page break] We finished our training about the 15th July, by which time we all seemed to work well together and all the instructors rated Mac very highly. Posted to No. 1653 HCU (Heavy Conversion Unit) Chedburgh, Suffolk, on or about 28th July after leave. Flying on Stirlings commenced on the 14th August, firstly on 'A' Flight doing mostly circuits and bumps by day & night and then on 'C' & 'D' Flight doing Cross Country, followed by high level bombing practice. During the course we had 2 undercarriage collapses but otherwise the Stirling was quite a pleasant aircraft to fly in. We did a fair bit of interchange of jobs except that our flight engineer, Johnny Forster had now joined us and he got the major share of actually flying it. I had a short lesson and also a session in the rear turret. It was here that I discovered that I did not feel at all happy looking down. I actually dropped a stick of practice bombs and did very well. On the ground we also did exercises at each other's job and on the gunnery range my '4 sec' burst disintegrated the moving target! Whilst doing each other's jobs we found out that Mac (the pilot) had attended the Specialist Navigators Course just when the war started (he had come over from Rhodesia and joined the Air Force in 1938). This made three of us who were so-called navigators and it could have presented a problem, particularly as Fred Shepherd rather fancied himself in that role. However, on one trip, Fred started to try and give changes of aircraft heading to Mac from 'pinpoints' that he had observed on the ground without letting me know. Mac had no hesitation in telling the whole crew that, although there were two others who 'at a pinch' could possibly take over, there was only one navigator in the aircraft whilst he was Captain and that was me!! – and he had every faith in my ability to look after all of us as far as the navigation was concerned. This certainly boosted my ego and from then on we all got on famously. The course was completed on the 4th September and we were quickly posted to No. 3 LFS (Lancaster Finishing School) at Feltwell where we arrived on 7th. Feltwell was a grass airfield with no runways but, nevertheless, we finished our conversion in 4 days and then rushed to No. 218 Squadron at Methwold so that Mac could take over the job of c/o 'A' Flight. We discovered that a few nights previously the Squadron had lost 5 aircraft, one of the crews being the Flight Commander. This was somewhat of a shattering experience to start off with but fortunately our first operation was a relatively easy one, bombing by daylight 'V1' bomb sites at Boulogne. 'Flak' (Anti-Aircraft shells) was quite heavy but there was no fighter activity. During the rest of September we did two more daylight trips and 1 night trip to Neuss near Dusseldorf. During the early days of Oct. we converted to a form of specialised bombing called 'G.H' – an extension of OBOE. This used a tracking beam and a crossing beam for the release point. On this system the bomb aimer only had to set up the bomb release and I did the actual bombing run and release. The exercises we did proved to be extremely accurate and we regularly dropped practise bombs to within 50 yards from 20,000 feet. Methwold was built just before the war but had no permanent brick buildings and accommodation was in Nissen huts dispersed in the woods, some over a mile from the Mess, which could only be reached over muddy footpaths. It started to get quite cold in these huts quite early on and scrounging for fuel for the stoves became a major pastime. Barbara Sharp, who used to live five doors from us in Beddington, turned up at Methwold but she did not stay for long. The film 'Journey together' was shot at Methwold and David Tomlinson the actor (of 'Bedknobs & Broomsticks' with Julie Andrews) was on one of the Squadrons. The author – Miles Tripp was a bomb-aimer on the Squadron and his book "The Eighth Passenger" tells of his crew and what happened to them both during and after the war. He talks of one trip taking off at a certain time when we actually took off 1 minute before him on the same operation. My experience and his seemed to differ completely on this particular occasion (see copy of his book obtained 20/01/1994!!). 13 [page break] During October we completed 2 daylights and 3 night ops and after 1 trip (at night) in November Mac was posted to Mildenhall as Commanding Officer No. 15 (XV) Squadron and promoted to Wing Commander. The next day he sent an aircraft over to fetch us and we then joined the Squadron officially. As the C/O's crew we did less trips than anyone else and as Mac decided to act as a check pilot for the first trip with all new crews, we were asked to fly with one of the Flight Commanders called Flight Lieutenant Pat Percy (known to us as 'Tojo'). This was not a popular move as he was not of the same calibre as Mac but for special trips Mac flew with us and the difference was noticeable by everyone. Tojo was promoted to Squadron Leader in mid-December and we finished the month carrying out 3 daylight and 3 night trips. One of these was as 'Master Bomber' on the Schwammenauel Dam with Mac. [photograph] Mildenhall, December 1944 XV Squadron crew, with Lancaster "C" Charlie, ME844 [photograph] [photograph] 14 [page break] 1945 New Year's day opened the month with a 6 hour 5 minute night trip and during the rest of the month a further two night ops and three day trips were completed. On the 14th, returning from Saarbrucken, the East Anglian weather deteriorated so much that all aircraft had to be diverted. We finished up at Predannack in Cornwall and it was an absolute shambles. It is amazing that there were not any collisions as aircraft with very little fuel left tried to get into unknown airfields. Most of our spare time when 'ops' were not in the offing we used to spend at the Bull at Barton Mills. Mac had his wife Margaret (from Nottingham) and his baby son Ian living there and the whole crew went to keep her company, particularly when Mac himself was not able to be there (see note at end of 1945). He often went with 'Sprog' crews on their first operation, to try and make sure that they were capable of operating on their own. We made many friends from No. 90 Squadron based at Tuddenham, which was also nearby and particularly with a Squadron Leader Pete Dunham and his crew who we subsequently saw blowing up on a daylight operation (see scrapbooks) Only 2 trips in February (1 day – 1 night) both with Mac, and during this time Johnnie Forster was commissioned and Fred & I took him to London to get kitted out. About this time I first met Pam. She was going out with Fred and visited him at Mildenhall. For some reason or other we were walking back to camp from the village as a group and Fred chose to go off with somebody else and Pam walked back with me. Also around about this time I had bought a car and 'passed my test' by driving on leave with 4 passengers down through the centre of London. BAU 62 was a blue Ford saloon named 'EROS' which I bought for £30 at an auction of the effects of a deceased pilot. Sometime during the month, my sister Joyce came up to visit. She stayed at a small pub quite near the main camp. I have always thought that it was called the George but visits in recent years have failed to find a pub with this name. [italics] (27/05/2014 – Fred Shepherd confirmed that it was "The Bird in Hand" which is just outside the old main gate – Ed) [/italics] 7 Daylight ops during March and mostly with a Canadian bomb-aimer called Tom Butler who stood in for Fred who was deputising for the Bombing Leader. On most of these we led either the Squadron, the Base (No. 32) or the whole Group. A Base was a small group of RAF airfields & 3 Group comprised all the Heavy Bomber Squadrons in East Anglia. All these 'daylights' were flown in quite tight formation – depending on the opposition! To boost moral back at the Squadron, our return over the airfield was always in as tight a formation as possible. On 23rd March we bombed a very precise area on the German side of the Rhine at Wesel (we were the lead aircraft), in preparation for our troops crossing. From all the aircraft bombing, 80 despatched and 77 actually bombed, only one bomb fell outside the perimeter (not us!) and that was as a result of a 'hang up' and not the fault of the crew. In Dudley Saward's authorised biography of "Bomber" Harris, this attack was listed as – 'perhaps the best example of direct support of the Army were the attacks on troop concentrations in Wesel on 23rd March by seventy seven heavies dropping 435.5 tons of bombs immediately prior to the Army launching its crossing of the Rhine and capturing Wesel'. Montgomery wrote to Harris – "My grateful appreciation of the quite magnificent co-operation you have given us. The bombing of Wesel yesterday was a masterpiece and was a decisive factor in making possible our entry into that town before midnight". At this stage of Bombing Operations in Europe the number of 'Ops' required to complete a 'Tour' changed week by week. At the beginning of the year it was more or less standard at 30 but then it went up, first to 35 then to 40 before coming back down to 35 again in early March. When we went on our 33rd trip on 14th April we still expected to have at least another two to do. It was very much of a pleasant surprise to be told that we had finished as the tour had just been reduced again to 30!! One of the most difficult of trips was always the last with the crew 15 [page break] so worked up that inevitably things went wrong and the crew failed to return. We were lucky not to have had to go through that trauma. Although so late on in the war, losses were still extremely high, with aircraft being shot down by flak and the more modern German fighters even by rocket aircraft. Losses averaged 5% per trip right up to the end. The end of the European war (VE Day) came on my last day of 'End of Tour' leave and after some celebrations on the way eventually got back to camp to find the mess having a huge party which spread onto the front lawn with fireworks and a colossal bonfire. Without having much time to think about what was happening, the crew split up and I was posted to Catterick for "Disposal", leaving on the following day. I drove up to Catterick on official petrol coupons and went through the boring process of half choosing and half being told where to go next. At the time it seemed like a good idea to elect for Transport Command to get away from having to stay in Bomber Command and being posted to the Far East in what was known as 'Tiger Force'. I had hoped that I could get on to routes in-and-around Europe!! After a further leave, when I had to drive on 'acquired' petrol, I was eventually posted to No. 109 Transport OTU Crosby-on-Eden near Carlisle, arriving around the beginning of June. After 4 weeks 'Ground' school – after a false start, I crewed up with: Pilot – Flying Officer 'Butch' Harris Signaller – Warrant Officer Ernie Omerod and flying on DC3 (Dakotas) began on the 7th July and finished on 27th August. On the 1st August the unit was reorganised as 1383 Transport Conversion Unit and it was here that the news of the dropping of the Atom Bombs was announced, as well as the end of the war. Another tremendous party to celebrate. I was then posted to India! Departed for Morecombe to await transit instructions. Pam came up for few days and we went fishing for Dabs with the others! On 7th October departed for Holmsley South (Hampshire) and the following day we left in a York (MW167) of 246 Squadron for Karachi via Malta, Cairo and Shiebah, arriving on the 10th. Spent a whole month kicking our heels in Mauripur (Karachi) before moving on (see photo album). On 16th November departed in Sunderland (ML786) for Calcutta. Had a 7 1/2-hour flight, taking-off and landing in the appropriate rivers and enjoying the luxury of a civilian aircraft even though flown by a Wing Commander. Arrived on 52 Squadron at Dum Dum, Calcutta and almost immediately started route flying in Dakotas. Places visited: Akyab Bangkok Bombay Canton Chakulia Chittagong Comilla Hong Kong Meiktila Nagpur Rangoon Saigon Although now 3 months since the war finished, there were still the last of the Japanese soldiers (now prisoners) working at various places we flew to and there was much evidence of the utter destruction caused by their occupation. Most of our flights were to ferry the civil and military occupation forces back and forth and even to the more remote areas. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent on a round trip to Rangoon via Meiktila where our Xmas Dinner was a bacon 'sarni' (we actually had flown in the bacon!) 16 [page break] 1946 New Year's day was spent en-route to Bombay having only returned the night before from Rangoon again. During the month we flew some 71 hours. Until 5th May we flew with only very short breaks in between and in one month (March) flew 106 hours. It was in March when we had to divert whilst flying over Hainan Island and the only option open to us was to go to Canton (China). We became the first British aircraft to land there since the beginning of the war. As I was the senior British Officer on board the aircraft, the British Consul would only talk to me even though I was not Captain of the aircraft. He was virtually useless and was going to try and arrange for various families to accommodate us in ones and two? The American Consul offered to put everyone up in his Headquarters and I agreed to this much to the annoyance of the British bloke (I seem to remember his name was HALL). Within a few minutes everything was arranged and all 30 odd people allocated a bed, even though somewhat crowded. The crew adjourned to the bar and, as the song 'Rum & Coca-Cola' was all the rage at the time, that's what we decided to have. It slid down very easily and after eating out at a local Chinese Café we eventually returned rather noisily, tripping over various passengers beds in the process. In the morning 7 of the passengers refused to fly with us and decided to return to Hong-Kong by boat. We did the trip in a matter of minutes whilst they took nearly the whole day. To give them their due, when we met up again in Hong-Kong, their spokesman apologised to us and admitted that we knew our own job better than they thought we did and then he bought us all a further round of 'Rum & Coke'. Soon after this episode we were allocated a very young 2nd pilot called Terry Glover, who ousted me from my usual position in the right-hand seat. After a very scary let-down into Hong-Kong (letting down well out to sea and flying very low level over the water and between the numerous islands) we were guided by our new pilot into a dead-end which was not very popular with 'Butch', who immediately climbed very rapidly, put me back in the right-hand seat and then did a smart 180 before doing another letdown. This time I was lucky enough to find the right way through the islands and from then on I always sat in the front unless the conditions were CAVU (Clear and Visibility unlimited). In 1946 Kaitak airfield was a very different airfield compared to today. The main runway was usually only used from one end (from seaward) as a 1200ft. mountain blocked the other end. It was just possible to land the other way by just scraping the top of the 'Hill' and cutting back on everything, dropping like a stone then pulling out at the last moment!! We did it a number of times but only when the weather was good and even then it was quite exciting. After the war the whole of the mountain was removed and dumped in the sea at the other end of the runway, thus extending the runway considerably. Photos in the brown embossed album just about show this hill. More pictures in the album show various other views and other places. We stayed in a transit 'Hotel' called the 'Arlington' and did a great deal of sightseeing. Bearing in mind that the colony had only just been recovered from the Japanese, there was plenty to see and do. A suite in the Peninsular Hotel (the largest at the time) had been occupied by the Japanese General commanding the colony and was fitted out to remind him of home and even had a little stream running through the bedroom!! One of the delights of our stays in Hong-Kong was the chance to be able to drink fresh cold milk and we always made a beeline for the local Milk-Bar as soon as we arrived and indulged in the luxury of a long cold pint!! Food also seemed plentiful and we fed well in one or the other of a Russian Café on the mainland, which was called "Timoschenko's" or the "Paris Grille" over on Kowloon. Our stops in Saigon were also not without their drama as well as relaxation. The French always resented our having taken over from them and a continuous subtle 'infighting' was always taking place. The airfield was run by a joint-force and both the French and British Flags flew side by side on separate flagpoles over the airfield Control Tower. The British troops started one night by taking the French pole down and sawing a foot off the end before putting it back up so that their flag was slightly lower than ours. Apparently it took them a long time to notice but when they did, they reciprocated. Eventually new flagpoles were required and these 17 [page break] got progressively longer and longer. One evening we arrived to discover the French very much up in arms because the following day their General Leclerc was coming on an inspection visit and they had caught our chaps taking their flag away altogether. As a result we were prevented from parking our aircraft in its usual position and were made to place it in part of a semi circle of aircraft on the tarmac in front of the Control Tower. We told them that we needed to leave at our usual time the following morning (around 8.30 to 9.00) to give us plenty of time in daylight for the 6 1/2-hour flight to Hong-Kong. They chose to ignore us and insisted we park where they told us, despite our protests. When we arrived early the next morning from our hotel in the town, French troops and a large band were already drawn up inside the semi circle, awaiting the arrival of General Leclerc. We carried out our normal preparations, including starting up the engines and testing them out! This infuriated the French and when we went back into the Control Tower for Met. and Flight Clearance briefing, they threatened to arrest us. The British staff winked, gave us a full briefing, with both Met. and the arrival times of visiting dignitaries, and assured us that they would give us taxi and take-off clearance. Walking casually through the French ranks, we informed one of the officers that they would need to move whilst we taxied out but nobody moved. We then decided that it was time to go, so started up our engines again and called for taxi clearance. We got no reply so started to move forward very slowly. The troops decided to give us room to get through and moved aside, but as we turned it was necessary to rev up the port engine and this we did somewhat more enthusiastically than usual. When we managed to look back the bandsmen were chasing their sheet music all over the airfield, so we gave an extra blast just to complete the havoc. As we did so the controller came through advising us to take off immediately and clear the area. Once airborne, the British controller bid us 'good-day' and thanked us for our 'co-operation' and we could hear the glee in his voice. Almost immediately we were formatted upon by 4 Free French Spitfires and we had visions of them shooting us down. However, they stayed with us for nearly 10 minutes before breaking away sharply and going back the way we had come. We found out on the return visit that they thought we were the General's aircraft and that the General's aircraft had landed before they got back. Apparently he was NOT amused to have to arrive without an escort and the Band still not fully reformed!! On top of all this there were Dacoits and Bandits operating in the area, and there were gunfights around the airfield and Saigon on a number of occasions. Despite all this we enjoyed our leisure in Saigon, the French Club 'Ciercle Sportif' (see Photos). About this time, I had applied for a job with BOAC through Mr. Robson who was something to do with the Ministry of Transport. I had been given a very good character assessment by our Squadron Commander (see his remarks in my Log-Book) and had hoped that the experience of 'route' flying would stand me in good stead. In mid May we were given 2 weeks leave and we decided to find the coolest spot we could, so decided to visit Darjeeling. We went by train to a place called Siliguri, which is at the base of the Himalayas. By the time we got there we were hotter than ever and did not relish another train ride up to Darjeeling. However, we joined a miniature train which slowly but surely wound its way up the mountains and it got progressively cooler all the time. When it got near to the top it was going round and round like a corkscrew and in many places it was possible to step off the train, as it was moving very slowly, and then walk up a few steps to meet the line again and wait for the train to come past again. There is a picture of this in the photo album and this little railway is in fact quite famous. By the time we reached Darjeeling I was freezing cold and we had to hang about whilst accommodation was arranged for us. I remember flopping down on a bed in a dingy "guest house" and the next thing I remembered was waking up in the local Forces Hospital. It seemed that I had gone down with a severe bout of flu and some other chest bug as well. I was extremely well looked after in this hospital and there were a number of Sikh and Ghurka officers in the place as well. They all had serious complaints of some sort but as I got better they were a good crowd to be with. Towards the end of the 14 days leave, the others that I had come up to Darjeeling with departed back to Calcutta and I was given an indefinite extension, with sick leave on top. Before leaving the hospital, I was taken by the others to visit the highest racecourse in the world. It was at a place called Lebong and was at 14,000 feet. It was about the size of a large football ground and spent most of the time in 18 [page break] cloud. Betting was a hazardous affair, as it was not unknown for the horses to disappear into cloud on the far side of the curse, only to re-appear in a completely different order when they came back into view! However, it was very pleasant to be able to sit in a reserved box, rather like the Royal Box at Epsom, drinking our cool drinks and placing a bet when the mood took us. We never ever won anything but nevertheless didn't lose much either. One morning, very early, a whole gang of us hired horses and rode the 15 miles or so to a place called Tiger Hill where we hoped to witness sunrise over Everest. We did see Everest but the sunrise was not quite where we had thought it should be. It was a magnificent sight, however, and well worth the effort to get there. The ride back was less pleasant and we all finished up vowing never to ride a horse again. Needless to say I never have. One of the patients from the Hospital was a chap called Captain Weston who had a very rare skin complaint which was caused by the heat and humidity of the climate on the plains. His skin peeled off in layers and as a result he nearly died. It was only in the cool of the hills that his skin was able to grow again but as soon as the Medics tried to get him back home the whole process started again. Apparently on one occasion they got him as far as Calcutta ready to catch a plane out but unfortunately the aircraft takeoff was delayed and they had to rush him back to Darjeeling having already lost nearly the whole of his skin again and once again seriously ill. I have often wondered what ever happened to him when I left. So many people out in India and the Far East suffered from skin problems as well as the dysentery types of disease. Apart from the time in Darjeeling I cannot remember being free from some form of diarrhoea varying from slight to chronic as well as 'Prickly Heat'. We all took Malarial prevention tablets called Mepachrine, which gave a yellowy tinge to the skin. Having the 'Trots' while flying was somewhat of a problem in itself. The Dakota only had one toilet and with 35 odd passengers most of whom suffered from the same problem made things somewhat complicated!! The prickly heat was no respecter of rank and once we had an Air Commodore on board who asked if he could come up front so that he could take his Bush Jacket off and get some cold air to his body. I had never before seen anyone who was so badly affected. His whole body was one mass of it and most was infected through scratching. We opened the side windows for him and after about an hour's flying he got some slight relief. He was most grateful to us and thanked us profusely before going back to the cabin to exercise his authority over the more junior members of his party. The Medics had no cures for any of these problems in those days although they could bring some help to the dysentery sufferers. I was very reluctant to leave the cool of Darjeeling but eventually had to and took a mad taxi ride down through the tea plantations to the railway at Siliguri and almost finished up with a heart attack as the driver was desperate to show off his skill at negotiating hairpin bends on two wheels and only one hand on the steering. The road drops from about 12,000 feet to sea level in something like 15 miles and did not seem to go more than a few hundred yards without at least one hairpin to turn back on itself. The heat at sea level hit me like an oven and the train ride back to Calcutta was enough to make me swear never to complain about being too cold again. When you are cold at least you can find some way of keeping warm but there was absolutely no way out there that you could cool off when you were too hot. Back in Calcutta the Monsoon had started with a vengeance but I was immediately informed that I was on the next 'demob' contingent and also that I had been offered a job as Navigator with BOAC as soon as I was 'demobbed'. Very soon after I was on the train again, en-route to Bombay. This took 3 days and we played cards nearly the whole time. I swore that I would never play 'Solo' again after that. It was sweltering hot the whole time and we had all the windows open to catch the air from the movement of the train but most of the time we just got the smoke and smuts from the engine. Food was only available at each of the many stops and since the train was only carrying troops it was a mad rush each time and more often than not we had to scramble back onto the train as it started to pull out of the station without having got anything. 19 [page break] At Bombay we waited in the transit camp at WORLI until our turn came. After about two weeks we finally boarded the SS Samaria, a small passenger boat, which we were told would take 13-14 days to reach home. As we sailed out of the harbour a large liner steamed in and we were told that it would embark its passengers and sail again within 12 hours and only take 7 days to get home. Sure enough the following day we were galled to see it steaming passed [sic] us with all the troops on her decks jeering at us as they shot past. We were absolutely livid at the time and as everyone was anxious to get home as soon as possible we all felt hard done by. However, we heard later that the liner had broken down and had turned round and gone back to Bombay during the night. Like the tortoise and the hare the laugh was on us as we chugged slowly but surely and arrived in Liverpool after 12 days. After disembarking we were quickly put through the 'demob' procedure including handing in our air force kit, medicals and being issued with civilian clothes and a rail warrant home and with the minimum of fuss we caught the train to London. All this happened within 24 hours of disembarking and, similarly quickly, arrangements were made for our Wedding on 19th October at St. Andrews church Leytonstone. After a Honeymoon in Hastings I was due to start with BOAC at the beginning of November. However, following a visit to my old civilian company to tell them that I did not want my old job back, I was introduced to Air Commodore Powell who was running SILVER CITY AIRWAYS and decided to join them instead, which I did on 5th November. On the 8th I was navigating an Avro Lancastrian G-AHBW (City of London) from London Heathrow to Nairobi Eastleigh, Captained by Ex-Wing Commander Johnny Sauvage DSO & bar, DFC, arriving back to the 4 huts of Heathrow on the 24th. During December we did 3 trips to Malta and back, one of them in the then record time of 4 hours 55 minutes (see cutting from the Malta Times). Thus ended a very eventful Year. [photograph] Sliver [sic] City Airways – December 1946 Johnny Sauvage and crew with Lancastrian G-AHBW “City of London” 20 1947 At the end of my RAF Transport Command Course at Crosby on Eden in 1945, I had been awarded a certificate which was recognised by the Department of Civil Aviation. Also in February 1946 I had been awarded a Second Class Navigation Warrant number 422, which was also recognised by the D of CA. Whilst working in the office of Silver City Airways (1 Great Cumberland Place, London), I was able to study the additional subjects required to obtain a Civil Aircraft Navigator's Licence. I passed all except [underlined] signalling [/underlined] and re-took this and one other subject to obtain full First Class Civil Licence in May. After another full aircrew medical, licence number 2116 was issued on 7th June 1947. On 13th June I started flying again with Captain Storm-Clark in G-AHBV "City of Canberra" to Verona. After a further 2 months in their office (during which time Terry was born, we moved from 63 Fladgate Road, Leytonstone, to38 Warham Road, South Croydon, as well as attending a XV Squadron reunion at the Holborn Restaurant on 22nd August), I joined up with Captain R. C. "Hoppy" Hopkins as his navigator on a VIP Dakota G-AJAV. This aircraft was very luxuriously fitted out, with only 6 seats and very superior accommodation. Hoppy immediately 'promoted' me to 'pupil pilot under instruction' and I spent most of my flying time with him sitting in the second pilot's seat, often on my own, while he chatted with the passengers. We flew to France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Iceland, as well as locally. I was very disappointed when the aircraft was chartered to fly Churchill out to Marrakesh and I was taken out of the crew. Another pilot took my place to act as formal second pilot/navigator. Hoppy was very upset particularly as the new chap was not a very experienced pilot and had never previously acted as navigator. He had long arguments with the MD of the company (Air Commodore Powell) expressing the opinion that he 'would rather fly with an experienced navigator who at a pinch could fly the aircraft than fly with a not very experienced pilot who, at a pinch, might possibly be able to navigate the aircraft'. Unfortunately the MD would not give way and blamed the charterers, who had insisted on there being two qualified pilots on board and the firm could not afford to have a crew of four (excluding stewards etc.). In the event I was sent to Belfast to pick up a crew to ferry a Sandringham flying-boat to Buenos Aires. The pilot was called 'Pappy' Carreras (because of his age) and we got on famously together. As well as navigator I was 'promoted' to become 'Mooring Officer', which meant that I stood in the bows to slip the mooring before take-off and had to attempt to catch the mooring buoy with a boat-hook on landing. I had thought that slipping the mooring would be very simple but more often than not it was impossible to do as the aircraft was pulling against the tide and the loop would not come off without the engines being revved hard to take up the slack. Often we surged forward so quickly that I did not have time to get the loop off before we were passing the buoy – still attached to it. Mooring after landing was also just as tricky and I lost a number of boat-hooks before I finally mastered the technique!! On the way we ate and slept in the 'boat' as the accommodation and cooking facilities were superb. On the leg between Dakar (West Africa) and Natal (Brazil), Pappy commented that although he had done the crossing a number of times, he had never seen Saint Paul's rocks. I gaily said that this time we would see them, not realising how small they were in the wide expanse of ocean. He immediately took me up on it and some 8 hours later (the crossing took 10 hours 20 minutes) was more than astonished when I suggested that if the others were to look out of the starboard windows they might see the rocks in about 5 minutes time. More by pure luck than anything to do with me, we passed them some 6 minutes later about 1/2 mile away. From then on I could do no wrong!! Pappy had flown during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 but unfortunately for him – on the wrong side – so that he was no longer able to go home. His flying with F.A.M.A. (Flota Aerea Merchante Argentina) meant that he had to be very careful not to ever get diverted to Spain. 21 [page break] Christmas day was spent in Buenos Aires and I was able to buy some presents there that I could not get at home. (A Tri-ang bus (No. 15) and Xmas Decorations – some of which are still in use today!!) We arrived back in London on New Years Eve (without Pappy who of course normally operated from B.A.) As a result of my various trips abroad I did not spend much time at home, although when I did, I usually was able to have plenty of time-off from work. Sometime round about October, Terry had gone into Great Ormond St. Hospital to have a growth removed from his neck. It was more difficult to remove than had originally been thought and when he was able to come home he became very ill with Gastro Enteritis and was taken to the Mayday Hospital in Croydon. He was desperately ill to start off with and took a long time to recover. 22 [page break] 1948 Worked mostly in the office until April, having attended a 52 Squadron Reunion at the Waldorf Hotel on 20th February when, on 8th April, I ferried a MOSQUITO out of Turkey via Jersey & Rome landing at IZMIR. Had trouble with Turkish Customs over three wooden deer bought in Rome. They could not seem to understand way anyone should want to buy such things! An insight into to [sic] the mentality of the Turks we came into contact with is highlighted by the fact that the Turkish government had purchased 100 odd SPITFIRES and a similar number of 'Mossies'. The deliveries were almost complete by the time we took ours out there but they only had managed to have one Mosquito & two Spits' remaining serviceable by that time. The story goes that one Spitfire XI was delivered one evening and the pilot handed it over to the ground crew asking if there was anything they wanted to know about it. During the night it rained hard and when they were getting it ready for a test flight they discovered that the cockpit had a pool of water in it. To cover up the fact that the cockpit hood had been left open in the rain, one bright spark took his drill with the biggest bit that he could find and bored a series of holes in the floor and to let the water drain out!! The Turkish pilot duly took off but came back in after a fairly short flight and refused to sign the acceptance certificate because the aircraft would not pressurise. Apparently the Spitfire XI was one of the first aircraft to have cockpit pressurisation!!! In May we went to Canada to pick up a Dakota which had just been converted for a company in South Africa. I stayed in Montreal whilst the rest of the crew went down into the States to pick it up. At the time I thought the whole set-up seemed strange but the fact that aircraft were being flown illegally into Israel at the time never occurred to me. Eventually we set off from Montreal to Newfoundland but I didn't prepare properly and we wandered miles off course and I was unable to get a pinpoint fix because I could not recognise any ground feature. Since I had been sitting in the second pilot's seat I eventually decided to go back and try to fathom out why we were 'lost'. After a long period I suddenly realised what I had done wrong – I had borrowed a Canadian map that had the various airline tracks marked on and along the side were the courses to steer. What I had not noticed was that they were magnetic and not [underlined] true [/underlined] bearings. I had applied a correction for the wind and applied variation as usual to arrive at the course for the pilot to steer. As variation in that part of the world was something like 30 degrees, we had in fact been flying 30 degrees off course!! Once I had sussed this out I was soon able to recognise where we were and to start pointing us back in the right direction. Sighs of relief all round!! If we had had some decent radio equipment aboard it would not have been so bad but the aircraft was stripped right down to bare essentials – In retrospect another odd thing. When we landed at GANDER my preparation was suddenly very much more thorough, the next leg being across the Atlantic. With the fuel that we could carry there were three choices of route bearing in mind the winds that could be expected in the weather systems that existed. First, to head straight across to Ireland and make for Shannon – this was ruled-out as there would be barely enough fuel to do it. Second, to go southwards to the Azores. This was the best for fuel, wind & weather but without radio navigation aids was rather risky – if we missed our landfall there was nowhere to divert to within range of the fuel remaining (if any!). Third, to head for Iceland, which was much the nearest. Unfortunately, with the low-pressure system to the north, the winds would be headwind and very strong. This would again leave us very short of fuel and, as well as this, the landing conditions forecast were not very good. As a result of our discussions we decided that unless we waited a couple of days for the weather to improve, we should consider a fourth possibility of taking the short leg to Greenland, refuelling and then heading for Iceland the following day. This would only, so we thought, take one more day and would allow us to assess the fuel situation when approaching Iceland and perhaps carry on direct to Scotland and, in fact, save us time. This we finally decided to do and although we were unable to get clearance due to radio interference, the controller assured us that it would be alright as he would radio through later on whilst we were on our way. After a very frightening flight to Bluey West One, up a long fiord, we arrived only to be refused landing permission as the flight had not been cleared. Since there was no way we could get back to Gander and there were no other diversions they eventually agreed to let us land. When we did 23 [page break] the aircraft was surrounded with soldiers and we were told that we would be interned until clearance could be obtained from Washington because of the Israeli situation!! So there we sat for 7 days whilst the powers-that-be decided what to do with us. We had all bought loads of food to bring home as meat was still rationed and other foodstuffs were in short supply. We had a small fridge on board the aircraft but they would not allow us to run one engine to keep it cold and they would not store it for us. There we were, surrounded by huge Glaciers, whilst all our 'loot' went slowly off. In the end we had to dump nearly all of it. I got sunburned sitting on the nearest glacier and this did little to improve our tempers. Eventually on the 7th day we were allowed to file a flight plan to Weeks (Iceland) and we took off at 22.45 that night. At that time of year it was still almost broad daylight and we landed and refuelled in Iceland, at night but still light enough to see. Two hours later we were off again and landed at Prestwick after a 5hr 40min flight. After this I was transferred back to flying with Hoppy but in a Bristol Wayfarer (freighter) this time. The first trip was to Karachi via all the short legs possible. We were delayed in Nicosia whilst a new propeller was sent out and we helped the engineer to change it. There was no help forthcoming from the locals (civilian & RAF) although I cannot remember why. This took 7 days and then we were delayed for a further 9 days by the Iraqi Government, so that the whole trip had taken 24 days. It was about the time of Partition in India and the whole of the region was in turmoil. I met a chap that I knew well who was running some form of charter company out there, who offered me a job on the spot, at a ludicrously high salary, if I would join him the same day. The offer was so attractive that I was sorely tempted but I did not want to break my contract with Silver City and leave Hoppy in the lurch. I suspected that the job was either gun running or illegal transport of refugees, so in the end I turned it down. I was to learn later, that the day after we left he tried to take off from Karachi and the plane was so grossly overloaded in the tail that it stalled just after becoming airborne and all aboard were killed outright. As we suspected the cargo was found to be arms and ammunition!! The next trip was out to Iraq on charter to IPC (Iraqi Petroleum Company) and we flogged up and down the oil pipelines. Having been stuck in Baghdad last trip we had all suffered from the lack of liquid refreshment (alcohol banned and water somewhat 'iffy'), so I bought two bottles of orange squash in Malta to take with us. When I opened my case in Baghdad I discovered a somewhat wet and sticky mess where one of the bottle tops had come loose. Just about everything was covered in juice but it was not until we got to Bahrein that I was able to get everything washed and the case swilled out! It was lucky that we stayed there an extra day or else I would have had to bring the whole soggy mess back home with me. As it was the case was never the same again, even when I relined the inside with brown paper. Terry had the case for a number of years and finally gave it back to me in 1991! At the end of September I, along with a number of other navigators, was made redundant and then I started my first experience of having to hunt for a job to keep the family fed!! I applied for a job with Flota Aerea Merchante Argentina and, along with another navigator from Silver City called Ross Plews, was called for an interview in their offices in the West-End. We were horrified to see a crowd of 20 or 30 people waiting and spilling out on to the pavement outside. We debated what to do and had decided that, as we were almost the last ones there, it was not worthwhile waiting. We were just about to walk away, when who should try to push past us than Pappy Carreras, who immediately asked me what the crowd was about. When we explained her said, "Wait there while I check in". This we did and within minutes we were called to the front of the queue, much to the disgust of most of the others, and both of us went into for interview to discover Pappy sitting at the long desk with three other officials and I was introduced to the others by him. He then said, "this is the chap I have flown with down to BA and he is the one I would choose without seeing any of the others. If his friend is as good as him we may as well take him on as well – has anyone any objections? – No! – Good! – That's it then! – Let's send all the others away. Welcome to FAMA Dennis – You are hired”. That's how I came to be flying on an Argentinean York, en-route to Buenos Aires in the first week of November. We were delayed in Natal for three days whilst an engine fault was 24 [page break] corrected and I got badly sunburned whilst swimming in the sea when there was no shade. Having arrived in Buenos Aires we were met with welcoming arms and I started to look around for somewhere to live but very shortly after a new decree was issued by Eva Peron (she was the power behind throne!) limiting the number of non-nationals working in the country. As FAMA was 75% British, 15% German and the rest Argentinean, this caused immediate problems and, since we were the last to arrive, we were scheduled as the first to go. I was offered the opportunity to navigate a force of Lincolns as a show of strength over the 'Malvinas', provided I gave up my British nationality and took on Argentine citizenship. This I refused to do and so started a week of negotiations to collect some form of compensation and what was already due to me. The expression 'mañana' really came into play and it took all our wits to find someone high enough in the organisation who had the power to do something about our plight. They, in their turn, did everything they could to beat down our demands. Once again it was Pappy Carreras who came to our rescue and we eventually got a flight back with Pappy (see 'Crossing the Line' certificate) landing back in London on the 3rd of December. We came via Madrid and Pappy had been given permission for the very first time to re-enter Spain. Even then he decided to stay in the Airport – just in case. Once I got back I was quite surprised to get a number of phone calls from various firms offering me a job and I was able to pick and choose, finally agreeing to start at the beginning of the New Year with Flight Refuelling, the firm founded in 1934 by Sir Alan Cobham to investigate the use of air refuelling, and who's pioneering system is still in use today. The BERLIN AIRLIFT was under way and all the Charter firms were fighting for the work that it generated. [logo] Berlin Airlift [emblem] [drawing] [inserted] TX 276/1281 [/inserted] AVRO LANCASTRIAN – FLIGHT REFUELLING LTD 47403 On 23 June 1948, the Soviet forces occupying the eastern part of Germany blockaded all rail, road and waterway supply routes from the Allied Western Occupation Zones in Berlin. With less than one month’s supply of food and fuel, the prospects for the two and a half million Berliners looked bleak. Only three severely restricted air routes remained as a lifeline between the besieged city and the western world. The Allies responded immediately with a miracle of logistics – The Berlin Airlift. Codenamed Operation Vittles by the USAF, and Operation Plainfare by the RAF, over a period of 11 months Allied aircraft made thousands of flights into the cramped airspace of Berlin and succeeded in supplying everything the city needed. Every available aircraft from RAF Transport Command was in service, as well as hundreds of USAF aircraft and even civil charter firms were called upon to supplement the effort. The operation became so skilled that the Soviet Command eventually realised that they had failed and on 12 May 1949 the blockade was finally lifted. Avro Lancastrian G-AGWI represents an aircraft which was originally delivered to British South American Airways (BSAA) at Heathrow in January 1946. The aircraft was registered to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for a short period in 1948 before being sold to Flight Refuelling in January 1949. The aircraft was then allotted fleet no. Tanker 26 and flew 226 sorties on the Berlin Airlift. [inserted] I FLEW IN 13 OF THEM [/inserted] [diagram] 25 [page break] 1949 I report to Flight Refuelling at Tarrant Rushton and am crewed up with a very experienced ex-Air Lingus pilot. It was not until later that I was to discover that he had been sacked from them due to being drunk in flight! After an air test we departed in a Lancastrian for Wuntsdorf just outside Hanover on 13th January. The airfield was RAF and being used by them to fly Yorks on the airlift. It was very crowded with both aircraft and people and we were billeted in a small place called Bad Nenndorf about 10 miles away. There was a reasonable sized Hotel where all Flight Refuelling crews were accommodated. The following day we did two trips into Gatow carrying PETROL. B.T. O'reilly was the name of the pilot and he became somewhat of a legend on the lift. However he was not a very reliable pilot when sober and, although he boasted that he could land the aircraft better 'on a sea of gin' than any other time, sometimes he was positively dangerous. On one occasion whilst flying into Gatow, I saw him climb out of his seat and then push past me and go to the back of the aircraft. I thought it would be a good idea to go forward and keep an eye on the instruments to make sure 'George' was doing its job properly. To my consternation, I saw that the aircraft was trimmed into a shallow dive (perhaps to counter his moving to the toilet at the rear of the aircraft?) and there was no sign of him returning back to his seat. When we descended below 1,000 feet I decided to get into his seat and was absolutely astounded to discover that the autopilot was not even engaged. I climbed it back up to the proper altitude and called the wireless operator to go and look for 'BT'. He reported back to say that 'BT' was 'out cold' on one of the seats at the back and he could not get him to register that he was needed! At this point we were committed to carry on towards Gatow as we were in the air corridor in the Russian Zone, so I decided that I would make up some story to over fly Gatow and hope that by the time we had got back to Wuntsdorf 'BT' might have surfaced. In the event, just as we approached the Beacon to start letting down to land, 'BT' pushed up to the front and demanded to know why I was in the pilot's seat. We swapped over and I pointed out that he had not put 'George' in when he went down the back. His reaction was happily to say, "these aircraft fly themselves!!" and then carried on to make a perfect landing. I was must relieved when I was asked to take an aircraft back to Tarrant Rushton with another pilot and never had to fly with him again. I was crewed up with a better chap on our return to Germany. At the end of April we moved to Hamburg and started flying into Tegel instead of Gatow. In June I was allocated yet another pilot who was very young and inexperienced and I was not over happy with him either. When we were withdrawn from the airlift in mid-July, I had completed 89 flights back and forth to Berlin and also carried out a number of ferrying flights to Tarrant Rushton. (See Lecture Notes and 50th Anniversary Celebrations 1999) [photograph] With Col. Gail S. Halvorsen – "The chocolate pilot" Berlin Airlift 50th Anniversary, Berlin 1999 26 [page break] Two books fully detail the Berlin airlift and the part played by the civil participants (they have been suitably annotated). The one by Robert Rodrigo is the better of the two. The end of the airlift deposited hundreds of aircrew (many of whom had only just come back into flying for the good money) on to the job market and I was unable to find another flying post. Thus ended my civil flying career. After flying for so long, finding an ordinary job where my abilities would be of some use and would be recognized by prospective employers, was very difficult. One day I saw a friend from schooldays called Peter Filldew whom I had met at Mildenhall during the war, where he was the orderly-room clerk. He suggested he might be able to get me a job with his firm of Estate Agents (Fielder & Partners) in South Croydon. He obviously gave me a glowing recommendation as my interview was quite short, and I was offered a job as a Negotiator with a very low salary but very good commission on completion of any property that I obtained for their books or was instrumental in selling. The work was very hard and I had to spend long and unsociable hours including Saturdays & Sundays but I managed reasonably well once I gained the necessary confidence. Soon afterwards we moved house to 248 Croydon Road and this stretched our resources to almost breaking point. The car, BAU 62, which I had bought during the war, had to go and I only managed to get £5 for it and it almost broke my heart to see it being driven away. The bungalow cost something like £1,200 and I got somewhat into debt to raise even the 10% and buying fees. Everything was based on my getting the commission on sales that I thought I should be able to earn. 1949 ended with me still working for Fielder. 27 [page break] 1950 One day at Fielder's, I overheard the receptionist speaking on the phone to someone called Macfarlane and casually asked what were his initials. On being told that they were N.G., I asked to speak to him and asked if he recognised my voice which, after a short pause, he did and we immediately arranged to meet. This caused uproar from the sales manager called Chillcot, who insisted that Mac was already one of [italics] his [/italics] clients and I was not to be allowed to deal with him. All my explanations fell on deaf ears and I had to phone from home to explain this to Mac. He agreed to phone up and cancel the appointment we had made and say that he was not interested anymore. We arranged to meet one lunchtime and go home to our bungalow. I then told the Sales Manager that through his stupidity we had lost a good client and this started an antagonism between us. The meeting with Mac was quite an event and he suggested that I should re-apply to come back into the RAF and he would back my application if he could. He was still a Wing Commander but holding a post at the Air Ministry and he thought he should be able to pull a few strings. As a result of this meeting I decided to apply and, after a long wait, was called for interview by a panel, who seemed to feel that wartime service was not a good recommendation for a peacetime commission and they did not even listen to what I had done subsequently. After a further long wait I received a letter addressed to Flight Lieutenat [sic] D. Moore informing me that they were unable to offer me a commission but they would be prepared to let me return as 'NAV 2' (which was the same as Sgt.) As much as I would have dearly loved to have got back into the Service, my pride would not let me accept such a reduction in rank and I therefore wrote back straight away telling them what I thought of their offer. Working for Chilcott became very difficult and it was obvious that things would come to a head soon. Just when I was expecting to start collecting my first big commissions I was told that I was no good at the job and 'fired'. They would only pay me up until the last day at the basic rate, and no commission money. I appealed to Fielder but he was obviously being influenced by his sales manager and would not help me. On the job market again, I could only get menial jobs, first as a temp in what then equated to the DHSS issuing new National Insurance Cards and then a more permanent job in the Gas Company working in their costing department. My job was to cost out all the job sheets for the week from the job rates for the various jobs and individuals. This job was running weeks behind when I joined and it did not take long before I was able to catch up and sit waiting for the current week's work dockets to arrive. When the head of my section saw this he 'warned me off' and checked every item of my work so that we looked as though we were still working weeks behind time again. This got very frustrating and I started to look around for another job. Through the good offices of the Officers' Association I was passed a number of job openings and eventually was interviewed by a firm of grocery distributors called Harvey Bradfield & Toyer. They wanted a salesman to help introduce a Milton's product called Deosan to cafés & restaurants as a means of getting to be their suppliers for groceries as well. I was given the whole of South London to canvas and had to do it all by 'cold selling' and without the use of any transport of my own. Fortunately I made my number with the Public Health Office and frequently got called by them to visit establishments that they had found to be 'unhealthy' and I was able to introduce 'The Deosan method of food hygiene' to them quite easily. I found that the standard of cleanliness in most places I visited to be almost non-existent and the large 'posh' Hotels were the worst. I found this job quite interesting but although I did not feel I was doing a very good job of it, the firm seemed quite happy with my work. 1950 ended with me still trudging around south London and hardly making enough money to live on. Christine had been born on May 28th and this did not make things any easier. 28 [page break] 1951 At the beginning of the year I was still working for H.B.T. and being called-on to visit various places in the South London Area. I asked for a special visit to the Head Office to discuss my work with my boss, who still seemed quite happy with what I was doing but made no effort to increase my wages. I do not remember exactly what I actually earned each week but it was round about £50 per month. During the last week in March I was in Croydon on a visit and decided to call again on my friend in the Recruiting Office, and here I was asked if I had thought about applying to rejoin the RAF. When I explained about having applied once already and had only been offered 'Master Aircrew' which I had turned down, the Senior Recruiting Officer asked if I would mind if he phoned Air Ministry to find out what the latest situation was. I was quite happy for him to do this and did not expect anything to come of it. It was quite a surprise when he phoned me the next day to say that if I were to apply again I would be given every consideration, so I got him to help me fill in the necessary forms which he duly sent in. It was only a few days later that I was called for interview at the Air Ministry and I went with a totally different attitude to the previous time. When asked the first question which inevitably was 'Why do you want to rejoin the RAF' I decided to take the offensive and replied 'I am not sure if I do – I want you to convince me that I should'. From this point on I could do no wrong. A greater part of the interview came from a Group Captain on the panel who kept asking me questions about the Argentine and seemed genuinely interested in the answers that I gave. The panel were all smiling when I left and the 'Groupie' asked me to wait for him outside. He then told me that I would be hearing within the next few days – at which I laughingly said that the last time I had heard that remark it had taken over 6 weeks for them to contact me. He assured me that he literally meant 'the next few days' and then asked me if I would wait for him and walk down to the Tube with him. This I did and he told me that he was due to be posted as the next Air Attaché in Buenos Aires hence his interest in my comments. Two days later I was called for an Aircrew Medical and, having passed this easily enough, was offered a new commission in the RAF as a Flying Officer to start at Air Ministry on April 16th (this was barely 3 weeks since I visited the Recruiting Office in Croydon). Needless to say I accepted and duly reported for duty on the day required and then spent a month getting kitted out and doing some odd jobs for a Wing Commander in one of the departments there. Along with 13 other people reported to Central Navigation School at Shawbury on 23rd May for a Navigation Instructors Course. I teamed up with Jimmy Cuthill (with whom I shared a room) and Bob Hunter (who was a Canadian serving in the RAF). [photograph] Navigation Instructors Course, Shawbury 1951 29 [page break] On 17th June I went with most of the others to Sick Quarters to have our inoculations brought up to date and as soon as I had had mine I began to feel odd. We all trouped back to the classroom and settled down to a lecture on 'how not to lecture' and I could feel myself 'blowing up like a balloon' and my heart racing like mad. I bemoaned the fact that I had never had a reaction to 'jabs' before and I really did feel rough. The Instructor eventually noticed that there was something wrong and told me to go back to the Mess and lie down. I remember 'floating' back and one of two gardeners asking me for the time and me just laughing back at them because I could not see the time on my watch. The next thing I knew was someone asking me how I felt and me just laughing like a mad thing again, and then later somebody standing over me and saying "I am just going to inject some adrenalin into you – you will find yourself shaking but try not to fight it – just let yourself go". I was then carried out to an ambulance and taken to the Station hospital. It seemed like hours before the shaking stopped but eventually it did and I felt very much better – in fact even asked for something to eat as I was hungry! Needless to say, I did not get a meal but was allowed a drink. After a while the M.O. (doctor) came to see me and explained what had happened. I had suffered an 'angino-neurotic' type of reaction to the inoculation and this was extremely rare and quite often fatal unless caught in time. It seems that when the lesson finished everyone wandered back to the Mess for lunch and, since it was a little late, everyone went straight in to eat except Jimmy Cuthill, who decided he ought to check up to see how I was. He found me unconscious on the bed and immediately called for the M.O. but could not find him. Fortunately he looked in the dining room and when he saw him eating his lunch insisted that he came up to our room immediately. The M.O. told me that if I had been left much longer I could very well have died. The humorous part of the story was that, after a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast in bed, I felt completely fit and was allowed to rejoin the others in class. They were all sitting moaning about sore arms and feeling rotten and I was 'feeling no pain' and was able to 'lord' it over them for the rest of the day! Flying started on my Birthday on Mark XI Wellingtons! and the course finished with an overseas flight using special navigation techniques (Grid Navigation). I was then posted to No. 1 Air Navigation School at Thorney Island and I reported there on 13th August. This was a prime posting and I was very pleased to get such a good one. However, it soon became obvious that something was not quite right. When I applied for married quarters I was told that I would not be considered "just yet" and no explanation was given when I queried this. When I tried to find out which courses I would be looking after I was allocated as course tutor and then, a little later, told that I was to be held in reserve pending the arrival of another course tutor. I then learnt that this new chap was Les Dibb who had been in the same Group at Shawbury and had hoped to be posted to Thorney but had eventually been posted to Lindholme. It then became fairly obvious that some 'string pulling' had been going on by someone at Thorney. For the Open Day at Thorney I had arranged for Pam to bring Terry down for the day to look around and see the show. Nobody was more disappointed than me to have to tell her when she arrived that we were not going to be staying, since I had just been informed that my posting to Thorney was cancelled and that I was to report to No. 5 Air Navigation School at Lindholme on 19th September. Terry enjoyed the show until two aircraft flew over and dropped bags of flour (to represent bombs) and fake bangs designed to simulate the explosions & the crashes from the 'Anti Aircraft guns' frightened the life out of him. He yelled his head off and did not want to see anything else and all he wanted to do was to go home. Just before leaving Thorney I met Ernie Ormerod (signaller) from back in 1946 as well as another signaller that I knew called 'Chuck' Radcliffe who was also on 52 Sqn. I really did not have enough time to do more than say hello before I was on my way. I duly reported to Lindholme somewhat bitter about the whole thing but was immediately made Course Tutor under Flight Lieutenant 'Mick' Munday on No. 2 Long Navigation Refresher Course. This comprised 6 Officers and 1 NCO who had either been off flying for some long time or who had just come back into the Service. One of them, Flt.Lt. Willis, had been on the same course as me at ITW in Newquay. At the time he was re-mustering from Corporal SP 30 [page break] (RAF Police) and we had given him a hard time during 'rough and tumble' games on the Beach. He subsequently became the Navigator with Prince Charles when he was learning to fly. They were a good crowd and I got on well with all of them. Our Classroom was a concrete hut, which had been used by the Poles as a church during the war and all the walls had been panelled with carved wood and decorated with religious artefacts. I could not get into quarters so I started looking around for somewhere to live (without much success), so I had travel up and down to Beddington whenever I could manage a weekend off. Without a car it was very difficult but I did manage to get lifts from time to time. [photograph] [underlined] No.2 L.N.R. COURSE. [underlined] BACK ROW:- F/LT. CARR, F/O. GREEN, SGT. JONES, F/O. SWINFIELD. FRONT ROW:- F/LT. WILLIS, F/O. D. MOORE, F/LT. H. MUNDAY, F/LT. HINGE, F/LT. ROWLAND. NEGATIVE No LIND 290G 9 UN52/UNCLASSIFIED When the Long Nav. refresher course finished we started to run navigation courses for National Service people. We found this to be very frustrating as most of those on the course were not the slightest bit interested in what they were doing and they had only chosen to become 'Navigators' as an easy way to spend their time instead of becoming 'PBI' (soldiers!) It was further made much worse when we were informed from a higher source that none of them were to be 'failed' (some political reason no doubt). One of them (a Pilot Officer Simpson) was so bad and such a bad influence on the others that we fought tooth and nail to get him 'scrubbed' but all we did was to made [sic] trouble for ourselves for 'making waves'. I shall always remember his face when he eventually 'passed out' as a navigator and was promoted to Flying Officer. He boasted openly that he was cleverer than us because he had 'beaten the system'. At the time I could only hope that he never had to put a flying crew at risk, as he would surely kill them all and himself as well. I often wonder what happened to him. 31 [page break] 1952 In the New Year we decided to sell the Bungalow and find somewhere up near Lindholme whenever we could. I negotiated with a Sergeant Paine who wanted to sell his car, and he agreed to accept a deposit and the balance as soon as we had sold the house. I did make it clear that I could not possibly pay him until the money came through from the solicitors and we had not even found a buyer for the Bungalow. At the time he seemed quite happy to agree to this but later had doubts and then started to cause me hassle. The car was a Hillman Minx Reg. No. FA7136, which served us well until about 1956. In the meantime I found a house that the RAF were prepared to take on as a 'hiring' in Crabtree Drive at Five Lane Ends, Skellow, Just off the A1, about 7 miles North of Doncaster and I was able to start setting up a home there. Nowadays the Motorway around Doncaster rejoins the A1 just there and you can just see the road from the Service station at the junction. The Bungalow sold quite quickly and we got £2,850 for it, having paid about £950 when we bought it. It took a while for all the loose ends to be tied up but eventually I got the money, paid off Sgt. Paine and moved the family up to the new place. Pam was sadly disappointed with it but the people were all very friendly and she began to like it after a while. We had a number of excursions from there and went to the sea at Hornsea on two or three occasions. Having done well with No. 2 LNR Course I applied for a permanent commission but the Group Captain (Laine – I think) told me that I did not have the right kind of experience to suit me for a permanent career and turned me down. The Chief Navigation Instructor was Wing Commander Hickey (nicknamed 'Bone dome'), who also did not think much of me either. I rather think it had something to do with my leaving Thorney Island under odd circumstances. After only a year and just getting settled into the house, I was surprised to find myself posted yet again. This time it seemed like a real improvement but very much a 'desk' job as one of the Navigation Examiners at the Command Examination Board, Flying Training Command at Shinfield Park just outside Reading. Our offices were in old huts a little removed from the main building and here began one of the more interesting posts of my career. We managed to find a bungalow to rent from a Mrs Samways at 36 Wood Way, Woodley and we were able to move from Doncaster quite quickly. Having settled in, I was allocated the exams for the navigator's finals that I would be responsible for. These were: astro-navigation, maps & charts and magnetism & compasses. I also had to set the general navigation paper for pilots. I did not have much time to think before having to do a full set of exams and, only by Christmas, start to really appreciate the scope of the job. 32 [page break] 1953 To start off with, I had discovered that the questions on the subjects that I was to specialise in had previously been picked out by the examiner from a 'bank' of questions based on what had been set previously. After thinking about it for a while and based on my own experience decided that it was possible for the Instructors at the various Training Schools to work out a permutation which would more or less guarantee to predict over 60% of the questions. All the exam papers were vetted by the newly appointed Chief Examiner (Gordon Arkley) and I did not have much difficulty in convincing him that we should be a bit more professional and he agreed that I could start-off by changing the system in one subject to be going on with. I started with astro navigation and set what I considered to be a very practical paper instead of the usual theory one. I sat back and waited and on the day of the exams the phone stated [sic] to ring and complaints came in thick and fast – 'Unfair', 'Not what we have been used to'; 'We were not able to prepare the students!' etc., etc. As a result, I was asked to attend a high power meeting of all the Chief Navigation Instructors and the senior people on the Examinations Board. In the meantime, I received all the papers for marking and the results showed that one school did very well but all the others failed miserably. When I was grilled at the meeting I was very pleased to have the backing of my own boss. When all of them were presented with the evidence that, apart from the one school, the others had not covered the syllabus properly and 'only taught what was necessary to get the students through the exam', there were a number of red faces and I was not very popular with them. However, the Chief of the Examination Board asked the schools to go back and put their houses in order and told them that from here on in, [underlined] [italics] all [/italics] [/underlined] examinations would be based on the new method and not on the 'Question Bank' method'. He then congratulated me on setting a fair and very practical paper, which should have been welcomed instead of being complained about. So began a new regime and after a while everyone agreed that things were much better than they used to be. We also move into better offices. Gordon Arkley dabbled in amateur dramatics and had contacts with the film studios at Pinewood. One day he took me across there for lunch and introduced me to Glynis Johns and Robert Newton as well as a couple of other famous film stars whose names escape me. After a very 'boozy' lunch, we went across to the film-set and watched for a couple of hours. I cannot recall which film it was but it became one of the big hits of the 1950's. It was a most interesting experience. During the year, I managed to get in a few hours flying from White Waltham airfield, mostly in Ansons, to visit other Flying Training Command units (to the Isle of Man and also to Northern Ireland). I also flew in a Procter, a Prentice and a Chipmunk. It was just before Christmas, when I was sitting at my office desk, busy painting the air traffic control vehicle with black and white squares for the model airfield that I was making for Terry's Xmas present, when the Air Officer Commanding (Sir Arthur Pendred) chose to make his inspection (without notice) of the Examination Board's offices. I really thought I was in for big trouble for doing private work in duty time. When asked what I was doing, I decided to say precisely what, and why I was doing it! He did not blink an eyelid, had a good look at the model and then, as he turned for the door, wished me a happy Christmas and hoped that I managed to get it all finished in time!! Needless to say I put it all away quickly and tried to get on with some 'proper work'. I still expected that there would be repercussions but there never were. Some 5 year later (16/7/58), I was stationed at Pershore and I was flying with Group Captain Innes-Crump to a meeting at West Malling. When we entered the Bar in the Mess to get a drink before lunch, there was a large group in the corner surrounding a very senior officer – It was Sir Arthur! I was never more surprised in my life when he broke off talking to the others and called across to me to come and join his party. He greeted me as though I was a long lost friend and, remembering my name, ordered drinks for me and the Group Captain before asking me, with a smile on his face, if I ever managed to get [italics] that [/italics] Xmas present finished in time!! A marvellous man. 33 [page break] 1954 Started building model aircraft again and flew them in the fields at the back of the bungalow. After losing a glider, I made a Hawker Hunter powered by a 'jet' engine (in fact it was a pellet that had to be lit!) and Terry became quite upset when it got lodged up a tree. He started school in Woodley and has been back there recently to retrace his steps. Bob Hunter, a Canadian who had been on the same course as me at Shawbury, was also based at Reading and he was always popping round to our place. He and his wife Marg are pictured, in the photo album, with us at the New Years Eve Party. Having sat and worried about what happened last Xmas, was quite surprised to be offered, in February, a job on the Air Staff as Command Search & Rescue Officer & also to look after the Command Film Library. Apparently there was considerable opposition from some of the others working there (mostly Wing Commanders and above) as normally only 'Permanent Commission' officers were offered this sort of post. However my new boss, Wing Commander Bagott, made it quite clear that someone 'on high' had approved my appointment and immediately suggested that I apply for a permanent commission (my original commission was 'Short Service' – i.e.: 8 years). When I pointed out that I had already applied and been turned down and was reluctant to go through it all again, he offered to have the necessary forms filled in and all I needed do was sign them! By the end of the day this was done, and two days later I was called away from my office to attend an Assessment Board. I was totally unprepared for this but was assured that I did not need to go and get 'dressed up' and 'not to worry'! The interview took about 2 minutes and was a complete farce – we just passed pleasantries! Within a few minutes I was told that, of the 13 candidates having been seen, I was the only one to be recommended. After a few days I was called for another interview with an AVM Allison who carried out a proper 'grilling' but he was very pleasant about it and made it quite plain that it was just a formality. Shortly afterwards I was offered a brand new Married Quarter and we then moved into 15 Salmond Road, Whitley Wood – right opposite the Baggots! The appointment to a Permanent Commission was not confirmed until 25th August and backdated to 1st June 1954. (I had already been informed verbally quite early on). [certificate] In my new job I did a fair bit of visiting and on one occasion, whilst flying with Group Captain Alvey stopping off a [sic] various Units, I had a further brief meeting with Mac (my 'skipper' on Bomber Command). Due to my interest in model making I also got involved in the RAF Model Aircraft competitions and was 'asked' to act as a Judge on a couple of them (see pictures in album). Here I was introduced to my first flight in a jet aircraft – the Canberra. I have to say that I did not particularly enjoy it (I got air-sick). My work was very absorbing and most of the dissenters soon began to accept me. I enjoyed mixing with quite senior officers and only found it difficult to get on with some of the 'upward pushing' more junior people. We became very friendly with our next-door neighbours – The Lacey's and we all got on very well together. Christine had started school here and most of the children from 'The Patch' went there as well. 34 [page break] 1955 Having got nicely settled down in our Married Quarter I was somewhat disappointed to receive a Posting Notice in early January. However, I was told that it was supposed to be a prestige posting and about two weeks later I left Reading in a heavy snow blizzard on my way to the Royal Radar Establishment Flying Unit at RAF DEFFORD, near Worcester. The Mess was deserted when I arrived in the gloom of a Sunday evening, with the snow still pelting down. Later, one or two others came in for a drink and were so friendly that I began to feel a little less dejected than I had been during the journey there. So began almost 5 years of a marvellous posting. Initially, I lived in the Mess and immediately started flying in various aircraft, on trials of equipment designed by the 'boffins' at the Royal Radar Establishment at Malvern. My first flight was in Hastings TG503 piloted by 'Bert' Welvaert, aged 36, who claimed to be 'the youngest grandfather in the Air Force'. I next met up with Bert at the Berlin Airlift 50th Anniversary in May 1999 [photograph] Bert Welvaert and myself standing if [sic] front of Hastings TG503’. This aircraft is now on permanent display at the Allied Museum in Berlin. I flew in the following types (in no particular order) during my stay on the unit (over 1000 hours all told): Hastings Lincoln Shackleton Dakota Varsity Ashton Wayfarer Marathon Hermes Devon Valetta Meteor Canberra Vampire Whirlwind (Helicopter) Fairly early on, I quite often flew with a pilot called Flt. Lt. Chase in a Hastings and around March time was scheduled to fly with him again on a trip to Farnborough. One of the other navigators, a Canadian (whose name I cannot remember), asked me to swap with him as he needed only a couple more hours to make up his first '1,000 hrs' before he left the unit to return to Canada. I agreed to do so just to do him a favour, but in the event I did myself a very special one as the aircraft crashed on take off from Farnborough, killing the navigator and severely injuring the flight engineer. The pilot and signaller were less severely injured and the two passengers in the back escaped with only minor injuries. When the news was first 35 [page break] received, many of us were briefed to quickly break the news to the various wives and families. I was allocated the flight engineer's wife, wishing like mad that I had been able to go to the signaller's instead. However, as it turned out I was lucky again, as the signaller, whose wife had been told that he was "OK and not too badly hurt", had a relapse the following day and died from 'secondary shock'. On the other hand, John Mills the flight engineer, who had not been expected to live, remained in a coma for nearly a month and suddenly woke up one morning demanding to be fed as he was [italics] starving [/italics]! Although he finished up with a plate in his head, he actually returned to flying about six months later. The pilot recovered enough to return to flying but was posted away quite quickly when it was established that he had attempted to take off with the flying control locks still in place (i.e. [underlined] Pilot Error [/underlined])! It is worth pointing out however, that the Hastings had mechanical locks of a new type instead of the old wooden blocks that fitted on the outside and had to be removed before getting into the aircraft. With the new method there was a lever in the cockpit that had to be actuated to release the locks. If the lever was operated whilst the aircraft had airflow over the wings etc., it did not release the locks as it was designed to do. As a result of this accident a modification was introduced to rectify the fault. The funeral of the navigator took place in the local church in Pershore and I was a Pall Bearer for the funeral of the signaller in Scarborough. Once these funerals were out of the way, life gradually got back to normal. After a short while I managed to find a 'hiring' – a large detached house in a very nice spot – 'Severn Croft', Bevere, in Worcester – and moved the family away from Reading. We have lots of expensive furniture, curtains etc., which has to be put away in store for safety. Started to make friends with the 'Lentons & Skeers' for Terry & Christine. Peter was born in December and a new house is started in the field next to us. I did not fly at all this month and managed a fair bit of time off. Pictures of us at the Summer Ball are in the photo-album. 36 [page break] 1956 The new Flight Commander (the unit split into two flights – 'A' Flight for piston engined & 'B' for jet aircraft), Sqn Ldr Tebbutt, shared an interest in model making and he started building a model boat whilst I stick to aircraft. I made a Tiger Moth, which flew well, and we used the airfield at weekends. Other aircraft that I made seemed to crash too easily and the Radar servicing Manager suggested that I use radio control. He offered to help me build it but I decided to put it into a model boat rather than aircraft as this was much safer. Early in the year I got myself elected Mess Secretary, which slowed down the flying somewhat – sometimes to only 10-12 hours each month. Being Mess Secretary became an almost full time job and, mixed in with developing a new radio control system to put into the destroyer that I built, my time was fully occupied and very rewarding. Two major Mess functions during the year and, as this was such a small Unit, I found myself suggesting, designing and constructing all the decorations for both of them. Fortunately the civilian component of the Unit made sure that I was able to get marvellous procurement & engineering assistance. Peter was 1 year old just before the Christmas Ball and lots of locals attended his party. 1957 Started flying helicopters and was allowed to take the controls on odd occasions, eventually having some 'formal' instruction. I was told that fixed wing pilots are somewhat difficult to convert whereas other aircrew categories with good 'air sense' usually learn quite quickly. After about 10 hours dual I became reasonably competent and passed the 'brick wall' of it being in charge of you, to you being in charge of it!! [photograph] RRFU Defford, 1957 Group Captain Innes-Crump took me under his wing and nominated me as his navigator. We did various trips to conferences etc. and eventually he let me do most of the flying and some take-offs & landings (in a Devon). Many of the pilots started to let me fly the aircraft from the right-hand seat and eventually I even landed a Hastings all on my own (or at least I thought I did). 37 [page break] [photograph] Lincoln at zero feet! Flying with Group Captain Innes-Crump (OC, RRFU Pershore) At end of October the Unit moved from Defford to Pershore and took on a somewhat more formal atmosphere, which was not to everyone's liking. 10th December 1957, Peter's 2nd birthday and disaster on the Unit. One of 'B' Flight jet aircraft went missing and presumed crashed in the hills over North Wales. I had to visit the wife of one of crew members to warn her that her husband 'would be late home'. A dreadful story to delay the almost inevitable. As a result I was also 'late home' for the Birthday Party and could not say why – I was not very popular!! Next day, along with others, flew a 4-hour sortie to see if we could find the crash site. Although flying very low ourselves amongst the treacherous hills, we could not find anything. Just before we were due to leave the area, we received a message that Mountain Rescue team had found the site and both crew had been killed. It was some way from where we had been looking near 'Drum Hill'. Another funeral to attend, and just before Christmas too. However see picture in album of us at Xmas Ball a few days later! 1958 Lots of flying each month this year mostly in: Hastings Varsity Devon Valetta July – see item, 5th paragraph of 1953 re. Sir Arthur Pendred. Also see article & photos in 'Air Clues'. The atmosphere at Pershore was not the same as at Defford. However, we all became very settled in at Bevere and friendly with neighbours – Lentons around corner, the Hucksters at the back and the next-door families on both sides. – A very pleasant year. 38 [page break] 1959 At beginning of year got in regular flying each month. Flew in a Meteor for the first time with Wing Commander Lawrence as pilot. Also did some more helicopter piloting but had become quite stale after so long. April was particularly busy, flying, but after the first few days in June got caught for admin work. On 10th July I was handed a signal informing me along with others (but not Flt. Lt. Smith mentioned in signal – see photo-album), that passage was booked on the FLANDRE, sailing 17th July, to attend a training course on the 'Thor Missile' in the USA. Mad panic to get ready and needed to get a Dinner Jacket for the voyage and other items at a time when I was particularly low on funds. Pam was not very happy with the idea of me being away for so long and having to look after everything on her own. Fortunately the neighbours at Bevere were all very supportive. Travelled First Class by train from Worcester via London where we were joined by another group of RAF but who considered themselves very superior and tried to keep apart from us as much as they could. The Flandre was a French passenger liner of some 15,000 tons and the First Class passengers (mostly American – and us of course!) were extremely well looked after. After a very enlightening voyage and a charter flight to TUCSON Arizona, we started our training on Thor missiles at Davis Monathon AFB. Our group consisted of: self; Flt. Lt. Colin Reeve; Flt.Lt. Walker; Flt. Lt. Evans & Flg. Off. Nancarrow, together with Americans: Captains Jim Hadsell; Mel Schaffer & Carl Heintz. After an intensive 'ground' training period there, we travelled by car with Jimmy Hadsell via the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam to Vandenberg AFB California. [photograph] Davis Monathon AFB, Tucson Arizona Standing (in uniform), L-R: Flight Lieutenants John Evans, Jeff Walker, Colin Reeve, Myself Below: USAF Captains Jim Hadsell and Mell Schaffer, Flying Officer Frank Nancarrow,, Captain Carl Heintz 39 [page break] When the training had finished, another charter flight back to New York and thence on the SS America back to Southampton, where I was met by the family, who had been driven there by Mr Lenton. Posted to No. 82 Squadron SHEPHERDS GROVE as Launch Control Officer in December. [photograph] RAF Thor Launch, July 1959 Vandenberg AFB, California 1960 Found a bungalow in Diss – about 10 miles from Shepherds Grove – to take on as a 'Hiring'. We moved from 'Severn Croft' on a very bleak and foggy day. It was very nostalgic as we had started to 'put down roots' in Worcester and very difficult as far as Schools were concerned. The journey was very hazardous as the car was loaded down with all the last minute items – Including the animals. At one point near Diss we finished up in a field because the fog was so thick – but eventually got to Diss about 4 hours later than planned. I had not been in the Bungalow for long and was at home one lunchtime, when a Victor en-route for Honington, passed overhead quite low making a horrible roaring noise. We all rushed outside to see the aircraft on fire and will the crew to eject (we did not know at this time that only the pilots had ejection seats). Eventually, parachutes were seen to open but the aircraft dived into the ground about 2 miles away. As I was in uniform, I decide to drive towards the crash sight [sic] to see if I could help – but before I could get within a mile of it I was held up by masses of sightseers crowding the narrow lanes. In the end I gave up and returned home. It transpired that 2 of the crew had been killed – one of them opening his 'chute too late and the other (one of the pilots) getting out too late. Spent the whole of the year on shift covering 365 days a year and having responsibility for 3 Thor nuclear missiles every time I was on shift. 40 [page break] 1961 Was selected to join the Feltwell Thor Missile Training Flight after categorisation by Bomber Command. [italics] Second US trip, this time to Vandenberg AFB, California for THOR test firing] [/italics] [photograph] 82 Squadron crew. With RAF THOR Missile, Vandenberg AFB 1962 [inserted] Fl/L Moore [/inserted] Headquarters Bomber Command, Royal Air Force, High Wycombe, Bucks. [underlined] Order of the Day [/underlined] [underlined] To all Thor Squadrons and Stations [/underlined] The decision to phase out the Thor Force of Bomber Command in no way detracts from the vital role which the force played in the past, and the significant part it will continue to play in future, until the very last missile is withdrawn. Thor was the first strategic missile system operational in the West. At a time when the threat to this country came almost entirely from manned aircraft, you were the most formidable part of the defence of the United Kingdom, and the Western Alliance. You in the Thor force have maintained a constant vigil day and night for almost four years. You have maintained a higher state of readiness in peacetime than has ever been achieved before in the history of the Armed Forces of the Crown. I am well aware of the sacrifices, so willingly accepted, that this constant readiness has imposed on the officers and airmen of the force. I am content that History will recognise your devoted service in the cause of peace. I know that I can rely on you for the same devotion during the rundown phase, as you have shown since the birth of the force in 1958. [signature] (K. B.E. CROSS) Air Marshal. Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief. Bomber Command 2nd August, 1962. Announcing the rundown of Britain's THOR missile defence programme 41 [page break] 1963 A very severe winter and had great difficulty travelling back and forth. On the way to Shepherds Grove, while driving along a cutting through a snowdrift, a car coming the other way crashed into me. Although my car was damaged, after temporary repairs I managed to drive it back to Diss and put it in to garage for proper repair. In the meantime, I used the Vespa scooter to get to the Units to do my categorisations. Strange, but everyone seemed to know I was coming, so the grapevine seemed to be working overtime. All the pipes froze up at 102 Victoria Road, including the underground ones from the mains. Had to get water from our next-door neighbours, who remained unaffected. The Council eventually cleared the mains by passing an electric current in some way. In July I was informed that [underlined] [italics] my services were no longer required by the RAF [/italics] [/underlined] and that I was to have a 'Last Tour Posting' somewhere nearby. I was shattered by this news as I had very high ratings in my job and good yearly assessments. I appealed to the Group Captain who was as much astounded as I was, particularly as other officers were being kept on whom he would 'court martial' given half a chance. Eventually he informed me that somewhere, someone with 'influence' didn't like me, and I must have upset whoever it was. So no reprieve! Middle of July, I was posted to 721 Mobile Signals Unit based at Methwold as Commanding Officer – very strange! I was met with the results of a drunken brawl amongst members of the Unit under the previous CO and it took all of my energy and some very smooth talking to get it sorted out. Managed to restore unit pride with only two people being posted away and reprimands for a couple of others. It turned into a happy posting once I got everyone on my side. Managed to get damage fixed without any further problems. The unit acted as a bomb plot for the "V" Force and had the call sign 'BRANTUB'. Unfortunately in October the unit was ordered to move to Lindholme. So much for it being a 'Last Tour Posting' [underlined] [italics] near [/italics] [/underlined] present residence. 1964 The Lindholme posting was not as bad as expected. Fell ill with flu just as move took place and when I finally drove up there from Diss I found the Unit on an isolated site, well away from the rest of the Station (see photos in 'Nostalgia' album). Everything was in good order and working well, all thanks to the good spirit now on the unit and a Warrant Officer who worked wonders to get it going. I now had an assistant, Pilot Officer Frank Moss, who was a navigator on Vulcans. Since we were acting as a "Bomb Plot" for the "V" Force, I think the idea was for him to persuade me to give good scores despite some of the dismal results they had been getting previously! Made a number of suggestions for improving our lot on the Station and moral was very high. Managed to get us out of AOC's inspection and this also went down well. On the operational side I was able to invent a means of our not having to listen to the sound put out to simulate "Blue Steel" bombing. This was achieved by converting the sound signal into a visual meter display so that we could watch rather than having to listen for 10 minutes each run. Everyone at Bomber Command were surprised that nobody had thought of this before. After we had settled in and were given a good result from the Bomber Command Inspection Team, I managed to arrange our shifts so that I could get away for longer periods. Finally, at the end of October, I was given a firm retirement date. I was given a very emotional farewell from the Unit and, although the practice was frowned upon in higher circles, I was given an inscribed watch as a going away present from all the members of the Unit (some 26 people excluding myself). 42 [page break] From Lindholme I was finally posted to Honington to begin formalities to leave the Air Force. I only spent a few days there, handing in Kit and obtaining all the necessary clearances. On 19th November I drove away from Honington having finally 'retired'. I shall always remember it being rather like a dream but I do recall listening on the car radio to a program featuring Pam's cousin, Christopher Gable, who was leaving the Royal Ballet to take up an acting career (Christopher's last performance with the Royal Ballet was in 1965. He died in 1998). The break was so great that I was hardly able to make any plans for the future. Right: The final farewell [Ministry of Defence Crest] MINISTRY OF DEFENCE MAIN BUILDING, WHITEHALL, LONDON, S.W.1. TELEPHONE WHITEHALL [indecipherable number] 29th October 1964 Dear Flt. Lt. Moore The Secretary of State for Defence has it in command from Her Majesty The Queen to convey to you on leaving the Active List of the Royal Air Force her thanks for your long and valuable services. May I take this opportunity of wishing you all good fortune in the future. [signature] Flight Lieutenant D. Moore 43 [page break] 1965 I managed to get a job with Marconi at Southend working with the modifications team and liaison with the RAF! It was very poorly paid but it was the best I could do under the circumstances. We decided to move away from Diss and chose Chelmsford as the best place to settle down. It was the nearest into London that I wanted to go and the furthest out that Pam wanted to be. We started looking around and were particularly interested in some new houses being built on a development on the edge of town on Springfield road. They were more than I could really afford and the one we liked was suddenly sold to someone else. We needed to move quite quickly and when we saw a chalet bungalow, which Pam seemed to like, we decided to set the wheels in motion to buy it. No sooner had we paid a deposit than one of the new ones came back on the market, even before the walls had been built, so we decided to buy that one instead. I managed to commute half of my £500 a year RAF pension and the £250 translated into a cash sum of nearly £6,000, which only left a small mortgage requirement. The purchase proceeded reasonably smoothly and we finally moved into 2 Llewellyn Close on 9th April 1965. Moving into a newly built house was not such a good idea and all sorts of snags were encountered. Only earning a pittance and very unhappy with what was expected of me, I started to look around again for another job. 1966 Got a job as Training Officer with Littlewoods operating out of Basildon, visiting all their stores in the south of England. Found it very difficult as all the lady supervisors were very suspicious of me and not at all co-operative. Was suddenly called up to Liverpool and made redundant with no reason given. 1967 Spent the whole year job hunting and at last got a job with John Zinc just outside St. Albans. 1968 21/10/68 – 13/12/68. Completed a Training Officer course (construction Industry) in Slough. Finally got a reasonable job with Balfour Beatty in Bread St. London but had to leave after they moved to Croydon. 1970 At last I got a decent job! Started with Powell Duffryn, Great Tower St. London on 19th January but made redundant when they de-centralised 1971 After spending most of the year job hunting I finally started working for Letchworth and District Printers Group Training Scheme on 1st December 44 [page break] 1972 After travelling the 43 miles back and forth to Letchworth every day and finding it very tiring, we decided to look around for housing in Letchworth. I made up my mind that I wanted to be as near to work as possible and not have to travel any distance at all. Unfortunately this was a period of 'gazumping' and although our offer on the nice house we found in Cloisters Road and had been accepted, suddenly they had another buyer prepared to offer more. Reluctantly we bid for our present house and once again the offer was accepted. At the time of the year it looked much better than it actually was and, to make things worse, the day after swapping contracts the house in Cloisters came back on the market. We had easily sold our Chelmsford house and had completed on that, so we could not afford to change our minds. We finally moved into 116 West View on 15th May 1972. Having been promised help in re-location by my employers, the Committee that had originally made the offer changed and all the new lot were prepared to give me was £100. I was not very happy about this and made my feelings very plain. But they just shrugged their shoulders. 1973 – 2010 No further entries [photograph] Celebrating my 80th Birthday DM Memoirs (second Edition) Compiled and edited by Terry Moore, October 2010 Appendix and additional photographs – January 2011 Postscript – May 2012 Foreword – July 2012 [italics] The editor accepts no responsibility for inaccuracies [/italics] 45 [page break] Postscript The funeral service for my father took place at Harewood Park Crematorium, Stevenage, on Thursday 11th November 2010, attended by family, friends, representatives from the XV Squadron Association and colleagues from the North Herts. Branch of the Aircrew Association, of which he was president. Like most airmen of his generation, Dad had a great affection for the Avro Lancaster, in which he spent many flying hours as navigator in both war time and peace, so it seemed most fitting that his ashes be scattered from the only remaining Lancaster still flying in this country. [photograph] [photograph] In May 2011, my wife and I made the ninety-mile trip to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire where the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is stationed and left the casket in the care of the Public Relations Manager who was to make the necessary arrangements. [photograph] [photograph] Dad took his "last flight" on 29th August 2011 in Avro Lancaster PA474 escorted by the Spitfire and Hurricane of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. His ashes were scattered over North Norfolk, England. [chart] BBMF flight schedule for 29/08/2011 Terry Moore, May 2012 46 [page break] 1945 Appendix 1 Operational Sorties – September 1944 – April 1945 [underlined] NO 218 SQUADRON RAF METHWOLD Aircraft Letters "HA" [/underlined] [underlined] 17/09/1944 [/underlined]Sortie No: 1 (Daylight). Target [underlined] BOULOGNE [/underlined] Aircraft – PD277 Code "A". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 2 hours 45 minutes 762 Aircraft – 370 Lancasters; 351 Halifax; 41 Mosquito. Dropped more than 3000 tons of Bombs on German positions around Boulogne in preparation for an attack by Allied troops. The German garrison surrendered soon afterwards. 1 Lancaster & 1 Halifax lost. [underlined] 23-24/09/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 2 (Night time). Target [underlined] NEUSS [/underlined] Aircraft – PD256 Code "J". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 4 hours 35 Minutes 549 Aircraft – 378 Lancasters; 154 Halifax; 17 Mosquito. Most of the bombing fell in the dock & factory area. A short local report only says that 617 houses & 14 Public Buildings were destroyed and 289 people killed/150 injured. 5 Lancasters & 2 Halifax lost. [underlined] 26/09/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 3 (Daylight). Target [underlined] CAP GRIS NEZ [/underlined] Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlare [sic] Flying Time – 2 Hours 55 Minutes 722 Aircraft – 388 Lancasters, 289 Halifax; 45 Mosquito – 531 aircraft to CAP GRIS NEZ (4 Targets) and 191 aircraft to 3 Targets in CALAIS. Accurate and intense bombing of all targets. 1 Lancaster lost [underlined] 28/09/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 4 (Daylight). Target [underlined] CALAIS [/underlined] Aircraft – PD277 Code "A". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 2 Hours 35 Minutes 341 Aircraft – 222 Lancasters; 84 Halifax; 35 Moquito. [sic] Target area covered in cloud but Master Bomber brought the force below cloud to bomb visually. Bombing was accurate. 1 Lancaster Lost [underlined] 14/10/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 5 (Daylight). Target [underlined] DUISBURG [/underlined] Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 4 Hours 5 Minutes This raid was part of a special operation. (See page 601 of Bomber Command Diaries) 1013 Aircraft – 519 Lancasters; 474 Halifax; 20 Mosquito with RAF fighters escorting. 3574 Tons of HE & 820 Tons of incendiary. 13 Lancasters & 1 Halifax lost. [underlined] 15/10/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 6 (Night time). Target [underlined] WILHEMSHAVEN [sic] [/underlined] Aircraft ? Code "C". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 4 Hours 506 Aircraft – 257 Halifax; 241 Lancasters; 8 Mosquito. Last of 14 Major raids on Port of Wilhemshaven [sic]. Bomber Command claimed "severe damage caused." No record of any losses noted. [underlined] 19/10/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 7 (Night time). Target [underlined] STUTTGART [/underlined] Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 6 Hours 30 Minutes 565 Lancasters & 18 Mosquito in 2 forces 4 hours apart. Serious damage caused to central and eastern districts (including BOSCH factory) 6 Lancasters lost. [underlined] 23/10/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No. 8 (Night time). Target [underlined] ESSEN [/underlined] Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 5 Hours 5 Minutes 1055 Aircraft – 561 Lancasters; 463 Halifax & 31 Mosquito. This was the heaviest raid on Essen so far in the war and the number of aircraft also the greatest number on any target. (These results achieved [underlined] without [/underlined] the Lancasters from 5 Group!! 4538 Tons of Bombs dropped. [underlined] 29/10/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 9 (Daylight). Target [underlined] WESTKAPELLE (WALCHEREN) [/underlined] Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 2 Hours 15 Minutes 358 Aircraft – 194 Lancasters; 128 Halifax & 36 Mosquito. 11 different ground positions attacked. Visibility was good and results were accurate. 1 Lancaster lost. 47 [page break] [underlined] 04/11/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 10 (Daylight). Target [underlined] SOLINGEN [/underlined] Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 4 Hours 30 Minutes 176 Lancasters of 3 Group. The raid was not considered successful as bombing scattered. 4 Lancasters lost Note: Aircraft NF934 Code "G" went "missing" on 12/12/1944 Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane promoted to Wing Commander and posted as Officer Commanding No: XV Squadron RAF Mildenhall in mid-November and sends aircraft to fetch whole crew from Methwold [underlined] NO: XV SQUADRON RAF MILDENHALL Aircraft letters "LS" [/underlined] [underlined] 28/11/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 11 (Night time). Target [underlined] NEUSS (DUSSELDORF) [/underlined] Aircraft – HK 695 Code "V". Pilot – Wing Commander N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 4 Hours 40 Minutes 145 Lancasters of 3 Group & 8 of 1 Group. GH Bombing attack. Modest damage. No losses. [underlined] 05/12/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 12 (Daylight). Target [underlined] SCHWAMMENAUEL DAM [/underlined] Aircraft – ME 844 Code "C. Pilot – Wing Commander N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 4 Hours 40 Minutes MASTER BOMBER – 56 Lancasters of 3 Group attempt to "Blow up" this Dam on river ROER to help American Army. Target covered in cloud. Only 2 aircraft bombed. No losses. [underlined] 06/12/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 13 (Night time) Target [underlined] LEUNA MERSEBURG [/underlined] (Near LEIPZIG) Aircraft – NG 357 Code "K" Pilot – Flt. Lt. Percy Flying Time – 7 Hours 20 Minutes 475 Lancasters bombed Oil Target in Eastern Germany, 500 miles from UK. Cloud cover but considerable damage to the synthetic oil plant. 5 aircraft lost [underlined] 08/12/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 14 (Daylight). Target [underlined] DUISBURG [/underlined] Aircraft – NG 357 Code "K". Pilot – Flt. Lt. Percy Flying Time – 4 Hours 20 Minutes 163 Lancasters of 3 Group bombed on GH through cloud on railway yards. Good results. No losses. [underlined] 14/12/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 15 (Night time). Target [underlined] MINING KATTEGAT [/underlined] (off KULLEN POINT) Aircraft – NG 357 Code "K". Pilot – Flt. Lt. Percy Flying Time – 7 Hours (Landed LOSSIEMOUTH) 30 Lancasters & 9 Halifax. Mines accurately laid. (see H2S photo) Diverted to Lossiemouth on return. No losses. [underlined] 28/12//1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 16 (Daylight). Target [underlined] COLOGNE [/underlined] (GREMBERG) Aircraft – HK 693 Code "B". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 4 Hours 50 Minutes 167 Lancasters of 3 Group. Marshalling yards. Accurate bombing. No losses [underlined] 01/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 17 (Night time). Target [underlined] VOHWINKEL [/underlined] Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 6 Hours 5 Minutes 146 Lancasters of 3 Group. Successful attack on railway yards. 1 aircraft lost [underlined] 03/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 18 (Daytime). Target [underlined] DORTMUND [/underlined] Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 4 Hours 45 Minutes 99 Lancasters of 3 group. GH attacks through cloud on Coking plant (HANSA). Accurate bombing. 1 aircraft lost. [underlined] 07-08/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 19 (Night time). Target [underlined] MUNICH [/underlined] Aircraft – HK 618 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 7 Hours 45 Minutes 645 Lancasters from 1,3, 5, 6 & 8 Groups – Very successful raid causing severe damage (see Terry's book – "Fliegeralarm" – Luftangriffe auf München 1940-1945) 11 aircraft lost and 4 crash in France [underlined] 13/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 20 (Daylight). Target [underlined] SAARBRUCKENt [/underlined][sic] Aircraft – ME 849 Code "L". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 6 Hours 20 Minutes 158 Lancasters of 3 Group attack Railway yards. Accurate but some overshooting Divert to Predannack on return because of bad weather at base. 1 Aircraft lost 48 [page break] [underlined] 16-17/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 21 (Night time). Target [underlined] WANNE EICKEL [/underlined] Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 5 Hours 5 Minutes 138 Lancasters of 3 Group attack Benzol plant. 1 Aircraft lost [underlined] 23/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 22 (Daylight). Target [underlined] COLOGNE [/underlined] (GREMBERG) Aircraft – PD 234 Code "E". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 5 Hours 55 Minutes 153 Lancasters from 3 Group attack Railway Yards. Good Visibility – Results variable 3 aircraft lost and 1 crashed in France [underlined] 09/02/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 23 (Night time). Target [underlined] HOHENBUDBERG (DUISBERG KREFELD) [/underlined] Aircraft – PD 234 Code "E". Pilot – Wing Commander N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 5 Hours 10 Minutes 151 Lancasters from 3 Group attack Railway Yards. 2 Lancasters lost [underlined] 19/02/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 24 (Daylight). Target [underlined] WESEL [/underlined] Aircraft – NG 444 Code "Y". Pilot – Wing Commander N.G. Macfarlane Flying Time – 5 Hours 15 Minutes 168 Lancasters from 3 Group. Good attack with best results around railway area Leading Aircraft for whole of 3 Group. (I navigated and everyone else followed me!) 1 Lancaster lost [underlined] 02/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 25 (Daylight). Target [underlined] COLOGNE [/underlined] Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 5 Hours 30 Minutes 858 Aircraft – 155 Lancasters from 3 Group. Only 15 aircraft from 3 Group bombed because of GH failure. All other bombing highly destructive. Cologne captured by the Americans 4 days later. 6 Lancasters lost [underlined] 04/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 26 (Daylight). Target [underlined] WANNE EINCKEL [/underlined] Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 4 Hours 55 Minutes 128 Lancasters from 3 Group bombed on GH. No losses. [underlined] 05/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 27 (Daylight). Target [underlined] GELSENKIRCHEN [/underlines] Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 5 Hours 35 Minutes 170 Lancasters from 3 Group. Leading Aircraft for whole of 3 Group. 1 Lancaster lost [underlined] 11/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 28 (Daylight). Target [underlined] ESSEN [/underlined] Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 6 Hours 5 Minutes 1079 Aircraft – 750 Lancasters. Attack accurate and Essen paralysed. Leading aircraft for 32 Base. 3 Lancasters lost [underlined] 22/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 29 (Daylight). Target [underlined] BOCHULT [/underlined] Aircraft – PA 235 Code "E". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 5 Hours 15 Minutes 100 Lancasters from 3 Group. Leading aircraft for Squadron. Town seen to be on fire. No losses [underlined] 23/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 30 (Daylight). Target [underlined] WESEL [/underlined] Aircraft – PA 235 Code "E". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 4 Hours 35 Minutes Special GH attack to support Rhine crossing. 80 Lancasters from 3 Group. Signal from General Eisenhower congratulating the crews concerned on their very accurate bombing. [underlined] 29/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 31 (Daylight). Target [underlined] HALLENDORF [/underlined] (SALZGITTER) Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 7 Hours 5 Minutes 130 Lancasters from 3 Group. Attack on Benzol plant using GH. Leading aircraft for Squadron. No losses [underlined] 9-10/04/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 32 (Night time). Target [underlined] KIEL BAY [/underlined] – MINING Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 6 Hours 10 Minutes 70 Lancasters. No loss on Mining but 4 lost on main raid on Kiel (Very accurate - Pocket Battleship Admiral Scheer hit and capsized. Admiral Hipper Emden badly damaged.) 49 [page break] [underlined] 14//04/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 33 (Night time). Target [underlined] POTSDAM [/underlined] Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy Flying Time – 8 Hours 35 Minutes 500 Lancasters. Attack successful and severe damage caused 1 Lancaster lost to night fighter. Tour completed because the tour requirement was reduced from 40 to 30 whilst we were over Potsdam. References Air 27 1352 (218 Sqn) Air 27 204 & 205 (XV Sqn) [photograph] End of Tour, Mildenhall, April 1945 Lancaster "H" Howe, NG538 L-R: P/O Johnny Forster (flight engineer), Flt Sgt Jimmy Bourke (mid-upper gunner), Ft Sgt 'Nobby' Clarke (rear gunner), Sqn Ldr Pat "Tojo" Percy (pilot), Flt Sgt Dennis "Napper" Evans (wireless op.) F/O Tom Butler (bomb aimer), F/O Dennis Moore (navigator) [photograph) End of Tour, Mildenhall, April 1945 Lancaster "H" Howe, NG538 Squadron Leader Percy & Crew with ground crew 50 [page break] 1945 Appendix II [underlined] Lancaster NG 358 Mark B1. XV Squadron (15) Coded LS-H [/underlined] This aircraft was built by Armstrong Whitworth at their Baginton factory and was one of 400 delivered to the RAF between July 1944 & February 1945. The previous LS-H was HK 648 and NG 358 first appeared on the squadron in Mid-December 1944. It was finally 'Struck off charge' on 19/10/1945 [photograph] Dates actually flown in this aircraft: 30/12/1944 Day 1450 'GH' Bombing Exercise 1-2/01/1945 Night 1610 6.05 VOHWINKEL 146 a/c, 3 missing 03/01/1945 Day 1250 4.45 DORTMUND 50 a/c 16-17/01/1945 Night 2307 5.05 WANNE EINCKEL 138 a/c, 1 missing 27/01/1945 Day 1005 Air Test 02/03/1945 Day 1200 5.30 KÖLN Led 32 BASE, 531 a/c, 6 missing 04/03/1945 Day 0946 4.45 WANNE EINCKEL 128 a/c 05/03/1945 Day 0940 5.35 GELSENKIRCHEN Led 3 Group, 170 a/c, 1 missing 11/03/1945 Day 1200 6.05 ESSEN Led 32 BASE, 750 a/c, 3 missing 29/03/1945 Day 1230 7.05 HALLENDORF Led SQUADRON, 130 a/c 09-10/04/1945 Night 2000 6.10 KIEL BAY MINING 70 a/c 14-15/04/1945 Night 1825 8.55 BERLIN (POTSDAM) 500 a/c, 2 missing The crew of 'H' – 'HOWE' on the above flights was: Pilot Squadron Leader Pat Percy Navigator Flying Officer Dennis Moore Bomb Aimer Flying Officer Tom Butler (Canadian) F/Engineer Pilot Officer Johnnie Forster Wireless Op. F/Sgt. Dennis Evans Mid Upper F/Sgt. Jimmy Bourke Rear Gunner F/Sgt. Nobby Clarke Other 'operations' in other aircraft were flown with Wing Commander N.G. Macfarlane as Pilot. (see note below) 51 [page break] [underlined] Explanations: [/underlined] Bomber Command was split into GROUPS (mainly 3 & 5 Group) – each Group split into 3 BASES and each Base comprised 2 or 3 airfields on which there were usually 2 SQUADRONS. Each Squadron was normally split in two FLIGHTS although sometimes they had three. 3 Group Base were Nos. 31; 32 & 33. 31 Base comprised STRADISHALL & WRATTING COMMON plus one other; 32 Base comprised MILDENHALL, LAKENHEATH & METHWOLD. 33 Base comprised WATERBEACH, WITCHFORD & MEPAL. The other Squadron at MILDENHALL at this time was No 622 (Australian). Each Squadron normally had 24 aircraft and a 'MAXIMUM EFFORT' was achieved when all of them flew on an OPERATION ('op'). All daylight trips were in tight FORMATION and Bombing was done on 'GH' – which was operated by the navigator who actually 'pressed the button'. The Bombing Leaders were distinguished by the double yellow bars on the tailfin/rudder. All others in the flight bombed on the Leader. A limited number of Squadrons & Aircraft in No 3 Group were fitted with this equipment, which was extremely accurate. Note. Mac (or Nigel, as I now am allowed to call him) lives in a retirement home near Capetown, South Africa. At the Mildenhall register meeting in May 1995 I was told he had died. The following day I was able to contact his son Ian (whom we had 'baby-sat') who is now a Harley Street Consultant and he put paid to this rumour. Nigel & Margaret visited the UK June 2000 to celebrate their 60th Wedding Anniversary and Pam & I were invited to their Party. Not able to drive at the time so unable to go. Terry offered to pick him up and take him with us to Squadron 85th Birthday celebrations at Lossiemouth. Unfortunately he was not well enough so Terry & I went to Lossiemouth on our own. 1945 Appendix III [italics] The Operational Sortie which the crew decided had turned me from being a "very Good" Navigator into an "ACE" Navigator. (Their words - not mine!!) [/italics] An operational order was "posted" quite early in the morning of the 7th January 1945 and the fuel load was 2154 gallons (the maximum) so we all knew that we were in for a long haul. At the pre-flight briefing Munich was announced as the target and we were allocated HK618 "G" (George) with Squadron Leader Percy as pilot. We learned later that 645 aircraft from 1;3;5;6 and 8 Groups loaded with 1 x 4000 pounder (Cookie) and clusters of incendiaries, carried out a very successful bombing raid causing very severe damage. (See photos in Terry's book). A total of 11 aircraft were lost and another 4 crashed in France (nearly 3%, which was quite high at this time). Getting airborne at 1830, the flight out was quite uneventful from a navigational point of view with 'Gee' working well and covering a good way down into France. Having bombed on a well lit (burning) target, the Alps were now the only visible landmarks and, at the appropriate time, we turned onto a northerly heading based on the wind component calculated on the way down across France. We kept going on this heading, expecting to pick up something to give us a 'fix' but unfortunately nothing was forthcoming, and at the ETA at the French coast I asked if any of the crew could see anything. Nobody else could see through the cloud but the rear gunner (who had a good downward view) finally called to say that we had just passed over a 'Pundit' flashing what turned out to be Manston!! Quickly turning on the IFF (identifying friend not foe) and crossing the Thames estuary, a quick calculation, the message" Maintain heading – ETA base in 17 minutes" was passed to the pilot. EXACTLY 17 minutes later the pilot reported "overhead base – joining circuit. Well done Navigator" Thus ended a 7hour 45 minute flight and the very tired but elated crew gathered in the briefing room to be met, as usual, by the padre dishing out the rum ration for those that wanted it. I was quite happy to have my share while we were being de-briefed, with a crew enthusing over my marvellous navigation (all the way back from the south of France without having to change heading once!!) and then off to the quarters behind the Mess to a well earned sleep. What was never mentioned to anyone – and the crew in particular – was that, had the heading been just ONE degree to starboard, we would have gone sailing – literally – up the north sea and, because of the cloud cover, not know why we never made it back to base – if we had survived the ditching in the dark and subsequent days adrift in the North Sea – that is!!! 52 [page break] 1945 Appendix IV [underlined] Dakota Flights (as Navigator) July 1945 – May 1946 [/underlined] 109 OTU Crosby on Eden 08/07/1945 – 23/07/1945 DAY 18.55, NIGHT 7.45 PILOTS: Flt/Lt Mason & Flt/Lt Samuael Aircraft registrations: FZ609 KG502 KG619 KG658 KG664 KG666 B Flight 1383T/C.U 26/07/1945 – 27/08/1945 DAY 49.55, NIGHT 26.15 PILOTS: P/O Zygnerski & Flt/Lt Herringe Aircraft registrations: FL652 KG373 KG392 KG638 KG726 KG644 KG649 KG657 KG726 52 Squadron RAF DUM-DUM CALCUTTA 01/12/1945 – 08/05/1946 DAY 345.25, NIGHT 13.50 PILOTS: Mainly F/O Harris but also Flt/Lt Ruddle, F/O Lofting, Flt/Lt Earwalker & F/O MacArthur Route flying from Calcutta to Bangkok, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh), Hong Kong, sometimes calling into Chittagong, Meiktila, Hmawbi, Rangoon, Canton Aircraft registrations: FL507 FL612 KG212 KG502 KG573 KG923 KJ813 KJ814 KJ820 KJ904 KJ963 KK190 KN211 KN219 KN231 KN239 KN240 KN299 KN301 KN308 KN341 KL507 KN534 KN573 KN600 KN604 KN630 KN633 KP211 Total Hours: DAY 413.35 NIGHT 47.10 Appendix 1949 [underlined] "Lancastrian" G – AGWI/1281/TX276/111 [/underlined] I flew 13 Sorties as Navigator in this Aircraft on the Berlin Airlift. Registered 28/11/1945 to Ministry of Aircraft Production. Certificate of Airworthiness No: 7283 24/01/1946. Delivered to BSAA (British South American Airways) Heathrow 27/01/1946 Named 'Star Land' Registered to Ministry of Civil Aviation 16/08/1948. Sold to Flight Refuelling Ltd. 16/01/1949 and Registered to them 18/01/1949. Allotted Fleet No. 'Tanker 26' and flew [underlined] 226 [/underlined] Sorties on Berlin Airlift Scrapped at Tarrant Ruston 26/09/1951. Berlin Airlift [logo] Berlin Airlift [emblem] [drawing] [inserted] TX 276/1281 [/inserted] AVRO LANCASTRIAN – FLIGHT REFUELLING LTD 47403 On 23 June 1948, the Soviet forces occupying the eastern part of Germany blockaded all rail, road and waterway supply routes from the Allied Western Occupation Zones in Berlin. With less than one month’s supply of food and fuel, the prospects for the two and a half million Berliners looked bleak. Only three severely restricted air routes remained as a lifeline between the besieged city and the western world. The Allies responded immediately with a miracle of logistics – The Berlin Airlift. Codenamed Operation Vittles by the USAF, and Operation Plainfare by the RAF, over a period of 11 months Allied aircraft made thousands of flights into the cramped airspace of Berlin and succeeded in supplying everything the city needed. Every available aircraft from RAF Transport Command was in service, as well as hundreds of USAF aircraft and even civil charter firms were called upon to supplement the effort. The operation became so skilled that the Soviet Command eventually realised that they had failed and on 12 May 1949 the blockade was finally lifted. Avro Lancastrian G-AGWI represents an aircraft which was originally delivered to British South American Airways (BSAA) at Heathrow in January 1946. The aircraft was registered to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for a short period in 1948 before being sold to Flight Refuelling in January 1949. The aircraft was then allotted fleet no. Tanker 26 and flew 226 sorties on the Berlin Airlift. [inserted] I FLEW IN 13 OF THEM [/inserted] [diagram] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dennis Moore Autobiography Description An account of the resource Dennis Moore's autobiography, compiled and edited by his son, Terry Moore. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dennis Moore Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 53 typed sheets Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Memoir Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BMooreDMooreDv1 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Civilian Royal Air Force Royal Air Force. Bomber Command Wehrmacht. Kriegsmarine Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain Germany--Weeze England--London England--Wallington Garden Netherlands--Zandvoort England--Croydon England--Hartland England--Lynton England--Salcombe England--Amersham England--Newquay England--Manchester Scotland--Greenock United States New York (State)--New York Canada New Brunswick--Moncton Maine--Portland New Brunswick--Shediac New Brunswick--Fredericton Manitoba Manitoba--Brandon Manitoba--Winnipeg Ontario--Toronto Ontario--Hamilton Ontario--London Alberta--Medicine Hat England--Harrogate Scotland--Stranraer France--Angers Germany--Neuss England--Carlisle England--Morecambe Pakistan--Karachi Malta Egypt--Cairo Burma--Rangoon India--Mumbai China--Guangzhou China--Hainan Sheng China--Hong Kong India--Darjeeling England--Liverpool England--Hastings Kenya--Nairobi Italy--Verona Morocco--Marrakech Northern Ireland--Belfast Senegal--Dakar Brazil--Natal Argentina--Buenos Aires Turkey--İzmir Israel Newfoundland and Labrador--Gander Greenland Iceland Cyprus--Nicosia Iraq--Baghdad Bahrain England--Blandford Forum Germany--Hannover Germany--Berlin Germany--Hamburg England--Skellow England--Worcester England--Scarborough England--Pershore Arizona--Tucson California--Vandenberg Air Force Base England--Diss England--Chelmsford England--Basildon England--St. Albans England--Slough England--Letchworth England--Stevenage France--Calais Germany--Duisburg Germany--Wilhelmshaven Germany--Stuttgart Germany--Essen Netherlands--Walcheren Germany--Solingen Germany--Leipzig Germany--Cologne Germany--Dortmund Germany--Munich Germany--Wanne-Eickel Germany--Gelsenkirchen Germany--Bocholt Germany--Salzgitter Germany--Kiel Germany--Potsdam England--Coventry England--London Germany--Wuppertal Germany--Saarbrücken Québec--Montréal India--Kolkata Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia) Vietnam--Ho Chi Minh City England--Southend-on-Sea France--Boulogne-sur-Mer Italy France Arizona California Maine New York (State) Egypt Ontario Québec New Brunswick Alberta Newfoundland and Labrador Germany Brazil Burma China Cyprus India Iraq Kenya Netherlands Pakistan Turkey Great Britain Vietnam Senegal Germany--Ruhr (Region) England--Berkshire England--Buckinghamshire England--Cornwall (County) England--Cumberland England--Devon England--Essex England--Herefordshire England--Kent England--Lancashire England--Norfolk England--Northumberland England--Sussex England--Worcestershire England--Yorkshire England--Warwickshire England--London Atlantic Ocean--Kattegat (Baltic Sea) Germany--Salzgitter Sweden Sweden--Kullen France--Pas-de-Calais Morocco North Africa Argentina Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Sue Smith Maureen Clarke 12 OTU 15 Squadron 1653 HCU 218 Squadron 3 Group 5 Group 52 Squadron 6 Group 8 Group 82 Squadron 90 Squadron Admiral Hipper Admiral Scheer Advanced Flying Unit air gunner Air Observers School aircrew Anson anti-aircraft fire bomb aimer C-47 crewing up Distinguished Flying Cross Distinguished Service Order entertainment flight engineer Gee ground crew ground personnel H2S Halifax Hampden Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984) Heavy Conversion Unit Initial Training Wing Lancaster Lancaster Finishing School Lancastrian Lincoln master bomber memorial mess Meteor mine laying Mosquito navigator Nissen hut Oboe Operational Training Unit padre pilot Proctor RAF Bridgnorth RAF Catterick RAF Chedburgh RAF Chipping Warden RAF Farnborough RAF Feltwell RAF Honington RAF Lakenheath RAF Lindholme RAF Lossiemouth RAF Mepal RAF Methwold RAF Mildenhall RAF Shawbury RAF Shepherds Grove RAF Stradishall RAF Thorney Island RAF Tuddenham RAF Waterbeach RAF Wigtown RAF Witchford RAF Wratting Common RCAF Moncton RCAF Rivers Shackleton Spitfire Stirling Sunderland Tiger force Tiger Moth training V-1 V-weapon Wellington wireless operator York https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42088/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410901-0001.jpg 0a3dc816ac85a141972636cec7aef6fc https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42088/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410901-0002.jpg 2461a08a18bc7a84ee9310fc7f552fe5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document [Postcard] SOUTH BAY FROM ESPLANADE, SCARBOROUGH [page break] [postage stamps] [Postmark SCARBOROUGH YORKSHIRE 10-AM 1 SEP 1941] Sunday Dear Mara & Dad, I saw this postcard in a shopwindow. It’s the view from our window looking over the bay. I sent you a letter this morning you should get it before this. Love Lewis Mr & Mrs Ellis 54, Wulfric Rd., Manor, Sheffield 2 Yorks Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Postcard from Lewis Ellis to mother and father Description An account of the resource Front has b/w photograph of South Bay, Scarborough. Writes that postcard show similar view as that from his window. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941-09-01 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-09-01 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Civilian Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Handwritten postcard with b/w photograph Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410901 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Claire Monk Initial Training Wing military living conditions training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42089/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410911-0003.jpg 89a63a03ff42d911c2c294b03b8b0402 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42089/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410911-0001.jpg 4a4aa98f5a0c15e50b2e7c68e29f20ec https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42089/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410911-0002.jpg 207ac42307fdcd1b4ec65bf3bee7c394 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document 1238597 AC2 E L ELLIS "D" Flight 4 Squadron 11 ITW Waldorf Hotel Scarborough Dear Mam & Dad, I got your letter on Monday telling me about my [deleted] W [/deleted] Uncle Charie coming. I saw him come and rushed down stairs but he'd gone; anyway I got the watch and medal. We've been promised a few days leave at the end of this course which is a fortnight or a three week this weekend and after that [deleted] I [/deleted] if I pass all the exams, I get my L.A.C. [drawing of badge] 5/- a day and we can then make an allowance. We got paid last Friday – 30/- but Ive got to save some thing in case we don't get paid before leave. I reckon the Air Force owes me a fortune but the cpl says we get all our dues settled at the end of each quarter. We've got our drill exam next week and Flt Sgt. intends us passig (Ive got hooves like a horse now). and on the 16th Sept. I have my interview with the Wing Commander the CO to see if I’m any good for a commission etc. I'll be glad when its through. We are doing navigation now, and is it complicated, but its very interesting. Well I think thats all now Mam I'm sorry I couldn’t write sooner. Give my love to all Your loving son Lewis. [page break] [postage stamp] [postmark] Mrs. Ellis 54, Wulfric Rd., Manor Sheffield Yorks. [page break] [reverse of envelope] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from Lewis Ellis to his mother and father Description An account of the resource Catches up with family news. Hopes for leave after course finishes. Will get promoted if he passes exams. Writes about pay. Mentions drill exam and possibility of a commission. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941-09-11 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-09-11 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Civilian Royal Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource One side handwritten letter and envelopoe Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410911 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Sue Smith Initial Training Wing military service conditions training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42090/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410922-0003.jpg 5e51678dfcafdc9fcfd1b0dc05f7ba19 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42090/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410922-0001.jpg 9ef55b80c501b09d0a48d34fdebcbea2 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42090/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410922-0002.jpg 1e81aa4cabbea9010e9ea7949eb267a0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document 1238597 AC2 E L ELLIS “D” Flight 4 Squadron II I T W Waldorf Hotel Scarborough Dear Mam & Dad, I got your letter, I think it was last Wednesday but I havn’t [sic] had time to reply before. On Friday about 20 of our flight had to go and see the OC (not the CO, we saw him Tuesday) and he told us to expect to leave this weekend, 26 Sept, but it would only be 48 hrs as we are taking our exams this week and if we pass we are being posted sometime the following week. I shall catch the 1 oclock train from Scarborough & I shall get to Sheffield about 4 oclock to 5 oclock. We may have to bring full kit so could you get one of the lads to meet me. If you can’t get any one, & I don’t suppose you can on a Friday I’ll get up [underlined] myself [/underlined]. I expect it will be the LMS station. Last Tuesday we went before the C.O. & he asked me how I liked it [inserted] here, [/inserted] what the food was like, had I any brothers??? and a lot more rot, anyway I think I got on alright because he told me I’d got 98 out of 100 for my maths. Well we’ve got exams next week so I’ve got a lot of swatting to do so I’ll close now. See you on Friday all being well Your loving son E.L.E. P.S. When I get back from leave I’ll get my L.A.C. [deleted word] I’ve written & told Fred. [page break] [postage stamp] [postmark] SCARBOROUGH YORKSHIRE 12.15PM 22 SEP 1941 Mr Ellis 54, Wulfric Rd., Manor Sheffield. 2. [underlined] Yorks. [/underlined] [page break] [blank rear of envelope] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from Lewis Ellis to his mother and father Description An account of the resource Writes about upcoming 48 hours pass, exams and postings. Mentions how he will get home on 48. Mentions interview with C.O and score on maths exam. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941-09-22 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-09-22 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Civilian Royal Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource One sided handwritten letter and envelope Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410922 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Alan Pinchbeck Initial Training Wing military service conditions training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42091/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]411002-0003.jpg d426f67aaf43e94f4d79462ee5b12dcb https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42091/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]411002-0001.jpg 931cec428b43d427ab20cc1a440e0148 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42091/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]411002-0002.jpg 33a12dfc8896c7b5fe3eb3f00dab26a0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document 1238597 AC2 E L ELLIS D Flight 4 Squadron II I. T. W. Waldorf Hotel Scarborough [underlined] Yorks [/underlined] [underlined] Thurs. [/underlined] Dear Man [sic] & Dad, I got here O.K. yesterday after stopping twelve times on the York train. All the others were there on the York station. Today [deleted word] we were all sent down to the “Accounts and told we could make an allowance so I made 1/- a day as a AC2 and 2/- a day as a L.A.C. When we got back there was a list on the notice board which said from Sat. 4th Oct. the following names would be LAC.s. I was the eighth on the list, but it hasn’t been been [sic] confirmed yet, but I think it will be. Rusty & Sayer have got their L.A.C. too. Well I think that’s all. Don’t write back after Friday as we are moving. Tell Hats & Fred I’ll write to them on Sunday. Rember [sic] me to all, Your loving son Lewis Excuse writting [sic] I’m in a hurry. [page break] [postage stamp] [postmark] SCARBOROUGH YORKSHIRE 7-PM 2 OCT 1941 Mrs Ellis 54, Wulfric Rd., Manor Sheffield. 2. [underlined] Yorks. [/underlined] [page break] [blank rear of envelope] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from Lewis Ellis to his mother and father Description An account of the resource Writes of his journey, pay and promotions. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941-10-02 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-10-02 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Civilian Royal Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource One sided handwritten letter and envelope Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]411002 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Alan Pinchbeck Initial Training Wing military service conditions promotion training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42092/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]411022-0003.jpg de88c18586cb6db8e7327f2ba40c3837 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42092/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]411022-0001.jpg d41a0bc189f8485a1e5499f6ee4909dd https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42092/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]411022-0002.jpg 3e254e7e34f54dee215c0051b8f60f66 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document [crest] LAC Ellis 1238597 Scarborough Dear Mam & Dad, I arrived here OK about 9-30. Since we got here we havn't done anything but tomorrow we are getting our second tunic & cap. and on Thursday we get paid. The officer told us this morning that we are going back to Wilmslow on Friday morning so its no good writting [sic] back but I'll write again when I get there. Tell Hats & Fred I'll write when I get to Wilmslow & tell them to write straight back as we may leave Wilmslow quickly. Well I think that all for now Your loving son Lewis. Remember me to all [missing words] more next time [page break] [postage stamp] [postmark 10 – AM 22 OCT 1941] Mrs. Ellis 54 Wulfric Rd. Manor Sheffield. 2. Yorks. [page break] Destination. T. No 1680192 Gn J.L Waring 116/26th LAA Regt RA c/o Army Post Office 1,000 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from Lewis Ellis to his mother and father Description An account of the resource Writes about uniform issue and move back to Wilmslow. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941-10-22 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-10-22 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Scarborough England--Cheshire England--Wilmslow England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Civilian Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource One sided handwritten letter and emvelope Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]411022 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Sue Smith Steve Baldwin military service conditions training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42830/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]41XXXX-01.pdf 47732acf070d13f1ca64e6cc96ad5bdc Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document [inserted] Wilmslow [/inserted] [postage stamps] Mrs Ellis 54, Wulfric Rd, Manor, Sheffield.2. [underlined] Yorks [/underlined] [page break] [blank reverse envelope] [page break] [RAF Crest] 123859 LAC ELLIS WILMSLOW Dear Mam & Dad, most of this camp moved to the embarkation port yesterday, Rogers & Rust went but Sayer, Tyler & I and a lot more were unlucky & will have to wait till next time probably in a fortnight so we’ve got to go back to Scarborough, we think until then. When or if we get back to Scarboro, we are expecting to get another 7 days leave as we shall have nothing to do but wait till the next American convoy leaves. I got your parcel yesterday [page break] I wondered where the cap comforter (scarf) was and thanks for the cigs. 4-30 Just got to know that we are leaving for Scarborough at 6-0. Well that’s all for now Have you heard of my allowance yet? Your loving son Lewis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from Lewis Ellis to his mother and father Description An account of the resource Writes that most of camp had moved to the embarkation port. He and others would have to wait a further fortnight, but hoped to get a weeks leave. Thanks them for parcel. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Civilian Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Two page handwritten letter and envelope Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]41XXXX-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Liz McElwee aircrew training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42842/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410810.pdf 0113082e4b4970f23df7b4b957a6a411 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from Lewis Ellis to his mother and father Description An account of the resource Noted that he had moved to Scarborough the day before and describes journey. Writes that he will start study of maths, Morse and navigation and that were now known as cadet pilots U.T. He mentions timescales for promotion and getting wings. Compares new location favourably to previous with good food and accommodation. Concludes with gossip. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941-08-10 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-08-10 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Civilian Royal Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Two page handwritten letter and envelope Conforms To An established standard to which the described resource conforms. Pending text-based transcription. Allocated Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410810 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive military living conditions military service conditions training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42843/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410819.pdf 798dc5100c3bd99a3a2898e4513ac433 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from Lewis Ellis to his mother and father Description An account of the resource Acknowledges receipt of parcels and catches up with news of friends. Speculates on future and that he might be sent abroad to complete his training. Writes about strict discipline and his training including PT, swimming, maths and Morse. Discusses family and domestic matters and mail he had received. Mentions pay, air raids, future training and not seeing a friend. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941-08-19 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-08-19 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Civilian Royal Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Two page handwritten letter and envelope Conforms To An established standard to which the described resource conforms. Pending text-based transcription. Allocated Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410819 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive bombing home front military discipline military service conditions training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42844/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410827.pdf 5921710c3279af651befe03ca41e8ef6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document [postage stamp] [postmark 27 AUG 1941] Mrs. Ellis 54 Wulfric Rd Manor Sheffield. 2. Yorks [page break] [blank page] [page break] 1238597 E L ELLIS “D” Flight 4 Squadron. 11 ITW Waldorf Hotel Scarborough Yorks Dear Mam & Dad, I got the parcel this morning, thank [sic] for the brushes I need them bad. We were issued with three, but at a kit inspection the officer says we’ve got to have seven showing & Ive bought two. I shall try & write more often but we work hard from 6 in the morning & we parade for tea at 1/4 to 7 so you see I havn’t much time & I have to write to seven others not counting our young Charlie: I shall try & reply to him to-nigh. [sic] Well this morning we got a surprise we were marched down to the clothing stores & got all our flying kit – £50 worth of it I wish you could see it but as you can’t I’ll try and describe it. First there’s the under suit: this is chocolate brown silk – pure silk, double & filled with lambs wool – its over half an inch thick. Its got a zip fastener right down the front, one from the elbow to the wrist end on each arm & a zip from the knee to the ankle end down the side of each leg Second the over suit this is just same shape as the under suit with zips etc. P.T.O. [page break] Its made of Khaki green canvas leather double fur lined with fur lined pockets & a 1ft 3ins thick fur collar: all the pocket – I think theres six, all zip up. Third theres the gloves – 3 pairs of them – first a white double silk pair next to the skin then you put on a pair of elastic wool brown ones and last the brown leather gauntlets which fit up to the elbow & zip from the wrist to the elbow. Fourth theres the boots – I think they’er [sic] the finest boots I’ve seen. They reach to the knees covering over the flying suits & they are made of green & black kid leather. The bottoms are black & the leg part green & lambs wool a inch long padding them. We could pick our own boots, some got those brown suede ones & some black, but most got the ones like I got. Besides all this we got our oxygen mask with radio-telephone microphone, all ready to plug in – out head earphones receives, & thousands of studs & tubes fitting to the oxygen mask & helmet earphones. Our helmets have gone back to have the earholes cut in & connections fastened. P.S. Weve also got our sun proof gogles [sic] – fleecy lined. This morning we had to parade outside in our flying kit – the flying kit fits over all the uniform & it was red hot. In about five minutes all Scarborough was out watching us and asking where we had parked our Spitfires. When I come on leave I’ll try & bring some of it to show you. Well to morrow we have our “maths” exam but Ill pass anyway so I’m going to bed early. Rember [sic] me to all at 52 & 69. Tell our Sid to be quick with the letter. Hows [deleted] Yo [/deleted] my Dad getting on with Rabbits chicks etc Your loving son, Lewis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from Lewis Ellis to his mother and father Description An account of the resource Acknowledges receipt of parcel. Writes of his busy daily routine not leaving much time to write. Comments on issue of flying kit and describes it in detail and mentions parading in it watched by inhabitants of Scarborough. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941-08-27 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-08-27 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Civilian Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Two page handwritten letter and envelope Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410827 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Alan Pinchbeck aircrew military service conditions training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42845/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410831.pdf b077f6aae797ea30f3b9816313548b8a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document [postage stamp] [postmark 31 AUG 1941] Mrs Ellis 54, Wulfric Rd., Manor, Sheffield. 2. Yorks. [page break] [blank page] [page break] 1238597 AC2 E.L. ELLIS. “D” Flight 4 Squadron 11 I.T.W. Waldorf Hotel Scarborough Yorks Dear Mam & Dad, Just a line in reply to your letter I got yesterday – Saturday. Every things OK. Ive passed my “Gas” exam and we had the maths exam last Wednesday and it was very easy, I ought to have 100% for that. We have now started lerning [sic] “Navigation” and “Armements.” [sic] Navigation is pretty simple and armements [sic] is lerning [sic] to take to pieces, put together [deleted] on [/deleted] and fire one of those guns they have in the gun turrets of “Blenhiems, [sic] Wellingtons, Sunderlands etc: our Sidney will know what I mean. Our Flight Sergent [sic] (Sergent [sic] Major) is a devil, he has us drilling about 1 1/2 hours a day – plays H – with us and when we’ve finished & feel half dead he tells us we are the best flight he’s taken. We’ve got two NCOs in charge of the flight (Our’s is Senior Flight) one is Cpl Lock – Surry [sic] cricketer and the other hes only twenty & one of my pals is Collinson – proffessional [sic] footballer – so you see our flight is the most athletic in the squadron. Our CO – Alwyn – is the best officer I know – he stops and talks to any of us when we’re in the street and believe it or not one night he went in the kitchen and made cocoa for the guard. [deleted] I’ve done [/deleted] I did six guards in the first two weeks & we are guard flight next week so I’ll have another three at least. [page break] In our Squadron there are 4 flights – A – B – C & D and we have been here the longest and so we are senior flight. The other three flights are observers but we are all pilots. Each Friday we have a “Wing Dance” its 1/6 for us but being as some chaps out of our flight were on the door we get in for nothing (our Flight). It was the poshest dance Ive seen. Terrific band about 200 officers and about 100 of us juniors (our title is not AC2 but CADET) when we are on parade). Both our corprals [sic] were drunk – there were two bars – and the CO had to be taken home. Anyway we all enjoyed it except for the Air Raid – we get six a week here. Well I reckon that’s all – I don’t know the chap our Cyril means he hasn’t been up yet. Rember [sic] me to every body and the rabbits Hows our Lyne Your loving son Lewis. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from Lewis Ellis to his mother and father Description An account of the resource Writes of passing exams and that he had now started navigation and armaments. Mentions their flight sergeant and other instructors and doing drill. Writes about their well regarded commanding officer. Writes a little about their establishment and weekly dances. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941-08-31 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-08-31 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Civilian Royal Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Two page handwritten letter and envelope Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410831 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Alan Pinchbeck entertainment military service conditions training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42846/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410914.pdf ce7230534ab59f948f824556cb667cea Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document [postage stamp] [postmark 14 Sep 1941] Mrs. Ellis, 54, Wulfric Rd, Manor, Sheffield, 2. Yorks. [page break] [blank page] [page break] 1238597 AC2. E L ELLIS “D” Flight 4 Squadron 11 I.T.W. Waldorf Hotel Scarborough Yorks Dear Mam and Dad, [inserted] AC/2 [/inserted] Last week I had my photo taken so I thought I’d send you one. I think it looks more like my Dad than me, don’t you. When I had it took I told him I wanted a side view with my white belt showing but this is what I got. On Friday a chap in our flight got his discharge. [deleted letter] He’d only been on a charge twice and on Friday we were doing drill (its lousy) and he wasn’t swinging his arms shoulder high and the officer asked him why and Biswell (thats his name) said he was tired because had had drill all the previous afternoon. So the officer told him the RAF had no use for tired pilots and recommended him for discharge to the Wing Commander and yesterday morning Biswell was sent back to London. Well I’m getting on OK with my lessons, I can navigate now, and send and receive morse with a buzzer and a lamp, and all the other subjects are easy so I think I shall get through the exams alright so I am expecting some leave in about three weeks all being well. I’ve written to John Smith three times are [sic] had one reply although he says he wrote twice to me while I was a [sic] London. I get letters from Hats & Fred regularly and sometimes one from [page break] Derrek Roper, or the circle; I havn’t [sic] had our Sidney’s yet.! Well its Sunday morning and its raining cats and dogs so we’ve been excused church parade so I thought I write a few letters so I am going to write to Hats and Fred next. I think thats all for now Mam, so remember me to all at 52 & 69, tell our Sidney to hurry up with that letter. Your loving son Lewis Hows our Tyne? how big are the young rabbits and chickens, How many pullets are there. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from Lewis Ellis to his mother and father Description An account of the resource Writes about recent photograph. Describes the conduct of a course member who had been discharged for being too tired to swing his arms during drill. States that he was getting on well with all his lessons. Catches up with mail sent and received. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941-09-14 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-09-14 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Civilian Royal Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Two page handwritten letter and envelope Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]410914 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource A C Montgomery military discipline military service conditions training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2101/42851/EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]411025.pdf fe25bfc1f3b1158cd5f82974aee47678 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ellis, Ernest Lewis E L Ellis Description An account of the resource 483 Items.&nbsp;Collection contains an oral History interview with Sidney and Una Ellis about their childhood in Sheffield during the war and about Flying Officer Ernest Lewis Ellis. (<span>183959 Royal Air Force)&nbsp;</span>He flew operations as a pilot with 166 Squadron and was killed 23 February 1945. Includes letters to and from family and friends, official correspondence, photographs, decorations, personal and official documents, newspaper cuttings, badges (pilot's brevet), maps, his pilot's flying log book and an aicraft notebook.<br /><br /> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2474">Scrapbook</a>: 14 items. Letters and documents concerning Lewis schooling and other family matters.<br /><br /><span><span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2347">Photograph album</a> containing 59 items.<br /><br /></span></span> <div id="dublin-core-title" class="element"> <div class="element-text"><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2480">Family album</a>: 68 items. Family album with multiple pages containing photographs of people and places as well as some documents, booklets, magazines as well as best wishes cards and post cards.</div> </div> </div> </div> <br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Ellis and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span data-contrast="none" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" class="TextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0">Additional information on<span>&nbsp;Ernest Ellis</span></span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW140975740 BCX0"><span>&nbsp;</span>is available via the</span></span><a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/107039/">&nbsp;IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-16 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellis, EL Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document [postage stamp] [postmark] 25 OCT 41 Mrs. Elllis 54, Wulfric Rd., Manor Sheffield .2. Yorks. [page break] [blank page] [page break] [RAF crest] 1238597 L.A.C. ELLIS [inserted] [deleted letters] [LITMUS DRAFT] [/inserted] HUT 27. “D” Squadron No. 2 P.D. Wing R.A.F. WILMSLOW CHESHIRE Dear Mam & Dad, We left Scarborough this morning and have just arrived at Wilmslow. I have got in the same hut as Heap & Oates, but Tyler has got put in the next hut. Yesterday we got paid and I got £5-14-0 so [underlined] if [/underlined] I can get a P.O. Ill send you £1. I don’t know when we shall be moving but Ill write you when I know. We look like being very buisy [sic] so tell Fred and Hats they can write to me & I’ll write as soon as I can. I havn’t [sic] seen Sayer yet, but I shall have a look for him after tea [page break] Well I think thats all. Ill write as soon as I have time Tell Hats & Fred to write Remember me to all Your loving son Lewis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from Lewis Ellis to his mother and father Description An account of the resource Mentions leaving Scarborough and arriving at Wilmslow. Mentions pay and money he was sending them. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E L Ellis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1941-10-25 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-10-25 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Cheshire England--Scarborough England--Sheffield Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Civilian Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Two page handwritten letter and envelope Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EEllisELEllisH-[Fa]411025 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Frances Grundy military service conditions RAF Wilmslow https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1157/51404/BThomsonGBThomsonGBv1.pdf baecaeb98330cdc7cc0e67172c844449 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Thomson, George George Buchanan Thomson G B Thomson Description An account of the resource 629 items. Collection concerns Warrant Officer George Thomson (b. 1924, 1572977 Royal Air Force), he flew operations as a navigator with 15 Squadron and was shot down in September 1944. Contains two oral history interviews, his wartime log, several memoirs giving accounts of being shot down and his time as prisoner of war, family and official correspondence, documents and photographs. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by George Thomson and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-10-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Thomson, GB Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A young man walking backwards A synopsis of the life of George Buchanan Thomson Description An account of the resource Starts with description of early childhood, growing up and attending school in the Glasgow area. Having been in the air training corps, he volunteers for the RAF. Briefly covers his training before joining 15 Squadron flying Lancaster from RAF Mildenhall. Describes how his aircraft was shot down by a German fighter on his 19th operation to Frankfurt. He mentions attempts to evade capture and being sent to Stalag Luft 7 in Silesia. He took part in the long walk back to Germany and was liberated by Russians. He mentioned travelling to Germany to visit the graves of his pilot and mid upper gunner who were killed. He continues by describing life after the war, including his career in banking and his involvement as an elder in the Church of Scotland. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource G B Thomson Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1924-01-10 1944-09-12 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain Scotland--Glasgow Scotland--Glasgow Region England--London England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Suffolk England--Shropshire Northern Ireland Germany Germany--Frankfurt am Main Poland Poland--Kluczbork Region Poland--Tychowo Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Civilian Royal Air Force Royal Air Force. Bomber Command Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Memoir Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Five page printed document Conforms To An established standard to which the described resource conforms. Pending text-based transcription Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BThomsonGBThomsonGBv1 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Maureen Clarke 11 OTU 15 Squadron air gunner aircrew Anson evading faith killed in action Lancaster navigator Operational Training Unit pilot prisoner of war RAF Bridgnorth RAF Mildenhall shot down Stalag 3A Stalag Luft 7 Stirling the long march training Wellington https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1157/52212/EThomsonGBThomson[Fam]430201-0001.jpg 3fa63f68018c2c91efb81cd8f69b13cb https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1157/52212/EThomsonGBThomson[Fam]430201-0002.jpg 46a89f260415081fe8651dc48b5c9e9f https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1157/52212/EThomsonGBThomson[Fam]430201-0003.jpg 1377943d62f85911a92894d42d69095c https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1157/52212/EThomsonGBThomson[Fam]430201-0004.jpg 1e58d6e47b5fe2316d5fd937b7ec3dea https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1157/52212/EThomsonGBThomson[Fam]430201-0005.jpg 096b531332b70be9df418c4e3797733a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Thomson, George George Buchanan Thomson G B Thomson Description An account of the resource 629 items. Collection concerns Warrant Officer George Thomson (b. 1924, 1572977 Royal Air Force), he flew operations as a navigator with 15 Squadron and was shot down in September 1944. Contains two oral history interviews, his wartime log, several memoirs giving accounts of being shot down and his time as prisoner of war, family and official correspondence, documents and photographs. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by George Thomson and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-10-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Thomson, GB Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter from George Thomson to his family Description An account of the resource Writes in detail about his recent journey to York. Mentions not knowing results of exams but that one lad had failed and they were all feeling good. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource G B Thomson Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1943-02-01 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1943-02-01 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain Scotland--Glasgow Region England--Yorkshire England--York England--Scarborough Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Civilian Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Correspondence Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Four page handwritten letter and envelope Conforms To An established standard to which the described resource conforms. Pending text-based transcription Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EThomsonGBThomson[Fam]430201 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1157/52726/SThomsonGB1572977v60016.jpg bc8a0223dc1a3aa64380fc40a46dfd37 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Thomson, George George Buchanan Thomson G B Thomson Description An account of the resource 629 items. Collection concerns Warrant Officer George Thomson (b. 1924, 1572977 Royal Air Force), he flew operations as a navigator with 15 Squadron and was shot down in September 1944. Contains two oral history interviews, his wartime log, several memoirs giving accounts of being shot down and his time as prisoner of war, family and official correspondence, documents and photographs. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by George Thomson and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-10-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Thomson, GB Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Brief history of George Thomson's RAF career Description An account of the resource Brief details covering, volunteering, reporting to aircrew reception centre, training, operations, shot down, prisoner of war Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource G B Thomson Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1942-09-12 1943 1943-12 1944-03 1944-04 1944-05 1944-06 1944-09-12 1945-01-19 1945-03-08 1945-04-22 1945-05-20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--London England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough England--Shropshire Northern Ireland--Downpatrick England--Buckinghamshire England--Cambridgeshire England--Suffolk Germany Germany--Stuttgart Germany--Rüsselsheim Germany--Frankfurt am Main Germany--Luckenwalde France France--Paris France--Le Havre Atlantic Ocean--English Channel Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Royal Air Force. Bomber Command Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource One page printed document Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SThomsonGB1572977v60016 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Conforms To An established standard to which the described resource conforms. Pending text-based transcription 11 OTU 15 Squadron Air Observers School aircrew bombing crewing up Dulag Luft evading flight engineer Initial Training Wing Lancaster navigator Operational Training Unit prisoner of war RAF Bishops Court RAF Bridgnorth RAF Mildenhall RAF Stradishall RAF Westcott shot down Stalag 3A Stalag Luft 7 Stirling the long march training Wellington https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2732/49755/PBaileyEH1909.jpg c28942c13233e01f2b1e0053ff1ca296 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2732/49755/PBaileyEH1910.jpg fbfe636131fbf713c723fdad7ff743f3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bailey, Eric Hargreaves Description An account of the resource Nine items. The collection concerns Sergeant Eric Hargreaves (1818101 Royal Air Force) and contains documents and photographs. He flew as an airgunner with 1661 Heavy Conversion Unit and was killed 28 October 1944.<br /><br />The collection was licensed to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Elaine Baker and catalogued by Jan Johnstone.&nbsp;<br /><br />Additional information on Eric Hargreaves is available via the&nbsp;<a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/100821/">IBCC Losses Database.</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-03-11 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Bailey, EH Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context PBaileyEH1909, PBaileyEH1910 Title A name given to the resource A Flight, No 1 Squadron, No 11 ITW January 1944 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Great Britain. Royal Air Force Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1944-01 Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1944-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Royal Air Force. Bomber Command Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Photograph Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource One b/w photograph Description An account of the resource Forty nine trainee airmen in four rows, five instructors front and centre. Annotated: 'Back row, left to right - Cadets Wylde J, Marshall R J, Bailey E H, Rushton D T, Watkin G, Ewart R R, Willoughby J A, Baldwin R H, Browne R C, Randall K W, Castelow C R, Fredericks J A, Nokes C, Hoole F E. Third row, left to right - Cadets Brown B S, McGrath E, Mills A R, Johnson A C H, Foweraker J W, Burrows H, Botcher R B, Spaven D, Starbuck T W, Gibbs J F, Andrassey H, Brown W R, O'Keefe G A, Dale J C H. Second row, left to right - Cadets Smith C T, Thwaites R A H, Tilney R H, Mellor G, Wood J A, Eaglen C, Richards W, Bates R J, Baldwin N J, Brennan E J, Darby C B, Hamblin B P, White I. Front row, left to right - Cadets Waller R R, Peel J M, Fidde K R, Hoanes G L, Patten H B L, F/O W S Speddy, S/Ldr C H Wethered, F/Lt B L Jones, P/O G Holborn, Cpl Chuwen M, Cadets Gilmour D M, Beesley F, Scholefield C W.' Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Yorkshire England--Scarborough Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jan Johnstone aircrew Initial Training Wing training https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/2790/49601/MKirkbrightREM1483124-190324-01.pdf 43dcb87a0f8daba39a97c9be488d0415 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kirkbright, Robert Edmund Marshall Kirkbright, REM Description An account of the resource Five items. The collection concerns Robert Edmund Marshall Kirkbright (1483124 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books and documents. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 199 Squadron. The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Mark Batchelor and catalogued by Lynn Corrigan. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-03-24 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Kirkbright, REM Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Robert Kirkbright’s service and pay book. One Form 64 Description An account of the resource Airman’s service and pay book for Flight Sergeant Robert Kirkbright from 9 July 1941 to 20 August 1943. Includes personal details, inoculation record and a list of where he served. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Great Britain. Royal Air Force Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1941-08-20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Durham (County) England--Berkshire England--Lancashire England--Lincolnshire England--Staffordshire England--Suffolk England--Yorkshire England--Brighton England--London England--Manchester England--Scarborough Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Isle of Man England--Hartlepool Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Royal Air Force Royal Air Force. Bomber Command Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Text. Service material Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource One multi page printed booklet with handwritten entries Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MKirkbrightREM1483124-190324-01 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available IBCC Digital Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource 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. aircrew bomb aimer observer pilot RAF Chedburgh RAF Hixon RAF Ingham RAF Jurby RAF Lakenheath RAF Manby RAF Padgate RAF Stradishall RAF Waddington