1 25 3 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1356/22525/PCoombesHS2043.jpg eea433f2d4d40119b197388673169478 https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1356/22525/ACoombesDC200306.mp3 a287977d72c3f7937dae30d1a2487d18 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 Coombes, Horace Horace S Coombes H S Coombes Description An account of the resource 88 items. An oral history interview with Group Captain Clive Coombes about his father Squadron Leader Horace 'Ken' Coombes (1921, 148799 Royal Air Force), his log books, correspondence and photographs. He flew operations as a pilot with 626 and 582 Squadrons.<br /><br /> <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/1644">His album</a> contains photographs of his service.<br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Clive Coombes 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 2020-01-13 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 Coombes, HS Transcribed audio recording A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document JS: This interview is being conducted for the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is Jim Sheach. The interviewee is Clive Coombs. The interview is taking place at Clive’s home in Edinburgh, Scotland on the 6th of March 2020. Clive, maybe we could start if you could tell us a little about your father’s life before the war. CC: My father was born in Birkenhead in 1921. Went to, went to the local school which was the same one that John Lennon ended up going to a few weeks afterwards. They, the family lived in Garston in Liverpool, and my grandfather was a merchant seaman. My grandmother was obviously what’s the official term now, a homemaker? She had six kids that survived, and a couple that didn’t. My father was the eldest and he, following his secondary education joined the Mersey Dock Board with his brother, Alf. And in 1942, if my memory serves he decided that notwithstanding being in a protected employment that he would join up and he joined the RAF as a pilot, and went to training in America. Did all his training at, in Alabama and Florida as a sergeant pilot. Returned to the United Kingdom in ’43. Was immediately commissioned on a VRT commission as a flight lieutenant and joined 582 Squadron Pathfinder Force straight away. JS: Ok. So — CC: So that’s his career prior to, you know that takes him up to his first operational mission with 582. JS: Ok. Spinning a bit in time your, your uncle also has a connection with Bomber Command. Can you, can you tell us a little about him? CC: Yeah. This is, this is on the maternal side and my Uncle Jack, Jack Hanne or John Henry Hanne was from Llandrindod Wells in, in Mid-Wales but interestingly of German extraction. And he was the husband of my mother’s sister Nancy Vera Morgan as she eventually died, but it was actually Nancy Vera Guildford then. She married Jack and Jack was in the Air Force when they married. He’d actually joined very early. ’34 ’35. Served in Iraq, and was originally a mechanic. I’m not sure if it, I’m not sure exactly what his official trade was but he was a mechanic and having been a boy entrant, so he really was, you know a very young joiner and then was, then converted to pilot and ended up flying in Iraq on 13 Squadron if again memory serves. Came back to UK prior to the war. Still flying. Converted to Blenheims, flew some very early missions in the war and was killed on the 10th of January 1940 flying a 109 Squadron Blenheim from Wattisham on an air raid over Germany. And he was shot down by a Messerschmitt and crashed in the, in the North Sea. So one of the very early casualties and interestingly the first casualty of World War Two from Radnorshire, in Wales. He’s commemorated both at Runnymede, at the IBCC and on his family, sorry, and on the War Memorial in Llandrindod Wells and a couple of months ago on the 10th of January 2020 my wife and I went down and laid a wreath. Sorry. JS: No. You’re ok. You’re ok — CC: So, clearly I never knew Jack but I’ve got his medals, I’ve got a lot of his history and I’m quite proud of him. JS: As you would be. As you would be. CC: Yeah. Holder of the, he’s got his, probably one of the few of Aircrew Europe Crosses so he’s got the Star. He gave a lot to the Air Force, you know. Joined in ’35 and trained right through and I’ve got some wonderful photographs of his time as a trainer. As an airman. You know. Some wonderful pictures of air crashes and things like that. And then his time in Iraq as well. What I don’t have sadly is any details of his, of his flying time. I don’t have his logbook. I’ve no idea where that went. And strangely, you know Jack is, I mean he died what twenty years before I was born. I think the sad part is that Nancy, my aunt was pregnant when he was killed, and she gave birth to Jacqueline who, who survived for two days. And that was ultimately the only child that Nancy ever had. She remarried a stoker from HMS Belfast interestingly, and I obviously knew him as my uncle. Predominantly not Jack. And he died very suddenly many, many years ago. Strangely at a funeral for one of his friends. He died in the church at the funeral which was a bit tragic. JS: Yeah. CC: But Nancy was always I think actually very much in love with Jack and I’ve got some wonderful poetry written by Jack to Nancy and it’s, it’s quite evocative the memories that go with that. So I probably have a strangely close relationship with Jack albeit that he’d been dead for twenty years before, before I was born but I followed it up and, yeah he did some very good things. He did some very good things and sadly lost his life very early in the war. JS: Early on. CC: I hope he would have probably gone on to do a few more things but you know it’s, it’s life and death in that environment. But it was a privilege to do the [unclear] which garnered quite a lot of publicity in Wales. It made the front page of three local papers which I was quite surprised about, but, but quite nice. Quite nice. So his legacy lives on and, you know strangely Runnymede and IBCC, it’s nice to have his name on both and I’ve seen both and I’ve visited both and paid my respects there as well. So, no it’s good. Very good. JS: The memorialisation thing obviously means a lot to you. CC: Yeah. I think [pause] I guess it’s probably because, you know I’m very proud of what I did. I did thirty seven years in the Air Force. Got to a pretty senior rank. Been decorated. But there’s no legacy because I have no children. I was an only child and when I die my family name dies and so memorialisation as you get older has become slightly more, slightly more relevant I think and I don’t know what to do to commemorate that. I think, you know one of the things I am going to do is contribute to the ribbon at IBCC. And probably ultimately I would be very surprised if the IBCC didn’t benefit from a considerable legacy from the Coombes family. If there’s only some way of the Coombes family, when I say Coombes family, me and my wife of, of memorialising my father, my uncle, and you know in a, could I say entirely altruistic way myself as well because you know I believe that you know over thirty seven years I’ve, I had a pretty good career. I broke a few, a few glass ceilings in what I ended up doing and it would be nice if that was remembered. But there’s, there’s very little legacy in terms of human kind that will remember that because you know I have a half-brother and a half sister who were dad’s kids but they have they have, they have no kids and they’re much older than me. I have no kids. My wife’s sister has one child and they’ve gone different, different, different line. And so there’s nothing, you know. When Coombes, Coombes, this one dies, Coombes name dies which is really sad. So I just feel as I’ve, you know just hit sixty I think I need to do something about it. And this is probably a way of doing it so also — JS: But, but there is a, the interesting part in this is, if you like long, very long ribbon of service through the RAF from, from your uncle through your father, through yourself. CC: Yeah. I mean, I think if we, if we look at it between 1942 and 2014 there was only fifteen months that either my father or I were not serving because at the end of the war dad was demobbed. Went back to the Mersey Dock Board, and albeit that I never actually got around to asking him I’m not sure whether it was him who got fed up with the Mersey Dock Board or whether it was the RAF needed QFIs, but he was, he was dragged back in after about fifteen months on a, on a full term normal commission, and re-joined the Air Force as a flight lieutenant and was posted immediately as a qualified flying instructor. And then when he retired it was only a matter of months between him retiring and me joining. So, I think, you know we could probably stretch it to maybe eighteen, twenty months between early 1942 and late 2014 that there wasn’t either my dad or me in the Air Force which, which is interesting. If you then stretch it further back you know with Jack as a family connection, you know it goes back to sort of 1934, 1935. That, that is, you know that is quite a long time serving for three people alone and bearing in mind that Jack’s service was brought, brought to a very sharp end after only five years. JS: Yeah. CC: Having been killed. But dad did a full career. Retired at fifty five as a squadron leader. And I did a full career, thirty seven and a half years retiring in 2014 as a group captain. So, you know it’s, it’s something that we’ve given to blue suits. Yeah. JS: Yeah. Yeah. CC: I’m proud of — JS: Yeah. Absolutely. You, you spoke earlier about your, your dad doing the training in the US which was very common. CC: Yeah. JS: And then coming back and going on a squadron. So, with the [pause] how, what sort of operations was he doing then? CC: Well, it’s, it’s strange that I mean looking in his logbooks which I’m still privileged to have he, he went, his first operational squadron was a Pathfinder Squadron which I think was probably quite unusual because obviously they, they, you know Don Bennett indicated that what he wanted was the best of the best for the Pathfinder Force and 8 Group. But I’ve no idea why dad went on to that. I’m looking at his logbook, looking at his flight assessments from Gunther Field and various bits and pieces. And interestingly I used to serve in the States and I actually went to Gunther Field fifty years virtually to the day that he graduated from there. Which was purely serendipity but I was, I actually visited the base on duty that, very close to fifty years. But I didn’t know that until I checked it. So he was assessed as above the average in pretty much everything so one would assume that he went back and was sent straight to 582. I go through his, his logbooks and they are standard bombing missions, you know, full time. Dusseldorf on the Ruhr. And they were, you know genuine front line Pathfinder operations. Subsequent to that 582 at Little Staughton, he then transferred to 626 Squadron at Wickenby. Still Pathfinder Force, with the same crew which I have no idea why they, why they transferred squadrons. I know that they used to do that and you know maybe 582’s losses were not high whereas 626’s were and they just transferred crews to 626. But he had the same crew throughout pretty much. One Brit, a couple of Aussies and a Canadian. I don’t know where the others were from. I could check, I think. But, but he flew through. He did twenty four, twenty five missions. I only ever once asked him why he didn’t do the thirty or how he felt not having got to thirty and to get his automatic DFC, and his quote to me was, ‘Had I son, you may not be, you may not have been here.’ But I look at what happened after that, and you know now things come out. You don’t know what, you don’t know the true meaning of it all but he went off to be a test pilot and whether that was because he was suffering from what we now know as post-traumatic stress disorder or whether they needed highly skilled pilots to be test pilots I have no idea. But you look at some of the stuff that he did and it’s quite remarkable, you know. I mean, one day in his logbook he’s got I think Lancaster, Spitfire, Hurricane, Wellington, Mosquito. Pretty much on the same day. If not the same day sort of three days. And you go wow. Hang on a minute. What aircraft am I in today? You know it’s quite remarkable to do that. And yet you talk to friends of mine who I’ve served with over thirty seven years and, you know they have gone through careers commanding squadrons only ever having flown a Bulldog, a Jet Provost and a Tornado. Or a Hawk and a Tornado so you had four types of aircraft. He had five in two days. So, remarkable different world. I guess, I suppose when again I haven’t checked the dates entirely it could well have been that operations had pretty much finished. Formal operations had finished. I know, having checked his logbook very recently that he flew on Op Manna. JS: Yeah. CC: So that probably would indicate that formal operations over Germany had ceased by that time. Hence the reason he didn’t do the thirty. But quite surprising Manna didn’t count as an operational sortie. So, you know, that’s, that’s probably why. I don’t know but — JS: Although, it wasn’t, it wasn’t without it’s dangers either you know. CC: Correct. Absolutely right. JS: Many, many aircrew I’ve spoken to flew on Operation Manna and they all talk about that doubt in their minds as to whether they were likely to be shot at. JS: Yeah. Yeah. CC: You know. JS: So, you know he went off and did that and then he did, he flew Mosquitoes in the PRU role before he was demobbed. And then when he re-joined QFI flying Vampires and Meteors from Shawbury, where he met my mum having divorced from his first wife. So yeah, an interesting career and then ended up for the [unclear] he converted to, to what we now call, is it aircrew spine or something like that? But he was spec aircrew but in those days you had to be dual qualified, so he was an air traffic controller as well and on his down, on his ground tours he was deputy SATCO at Wildenrath in the late ‘50s. And then in the early 70s was SATCO at Lyneham. So, you know that must have been an interesting time when you’ve got a SATCO with, with two wings. And then he went back to flying and finished as ops officer on, his last flying tour was ops officer on 10 Squadron. VC10s. So, you know, he had a pretty varied career in, in what he actually did. So it was, there’s lots of flying hours. There’s forty seven different types of aircraft in his logbook which is quite remarkable really when you think about it. JS: And a very thick logbook I’m sure. CC: Five of them. JS: Five [laughs] CC: Yeah. Five of them. Five different ones. Yeah. So, yeah pretty much ranging from sort of link trainer through to Harvard, through to Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster, Wellington, Mosquito. JS: Yeah. CC: A Varsity. VC10. JS: Yeah. That’s not a logbook. That’s a library. CC: Yes. It is a library. That’s what it is actually. JS: Very much. Very much. CC: It’s a very, you know they are quite important documents to me to see what he did. So, yeah. It’s very interesting. JS: Yeah. Very good. There’s, there’s quite a lot of discussion about how Bomber Command were viewed after the war. Let’s say, sort of just after the war and that part after that. Did, did you dad ever, ever talk about that or give a view about it or — CC: Not, not to me. And it’s, I think it might be indicative that it probably happened quite a lot that these guys didn’t actually talk about it. Sadly, my dad passed away in 1990 at the age of sixty eight which you think is not necessarily fair given what, what he went through during the war. You know, by that stage I had joined and strangely I was told what must have been two weeks after my dad died that I’d just been promoted to squadron leader and that would have been nice for him to know. JS: Yeah. CC: But, you know c’est la vie. Time is everything. So he never really spoke to me about, about that. I did ask him once when I was younger. I was doing a bit of research and clearly, you know his career influenced me quite markedly having, you know literally joined months after he, he retired. I realised at that stage that the Pathfinders were entitled to wear the albatross on their, on their number one jacket, left breast pocket and I asked dad why he didn’t wear his Pathfinder brevet because my understanding was that, you know once a Pathfinder always a Pathfinder and you could continue to wear it for the rest of your career. And he sort of passed it off saying that ‘Well, you know it’s not de rigueur anymore, and nobody wears it.’ And, ‘Well, probably they don’t wear it any more dad is because there aren’t many Pathfinders left.’ And he never really made comment about that. He always wore his medals with pride but it was just the standard four, you know ‘39/45 Star, France and Germany and the other two. The War and Victory or War and Defence. And sadly, stupidly I’ve never as yet applied for his Bomber Command clasp which I frankly should do I must confess. But he never really commented on it. I think he was amongst a crowd of people who were obviously Bomber Command pilots themselves in his QFI days at CFS but I still think he was quite proud of what he did albeit with the fact that he knew that, that flying over Germany however high dropping bombs was going to kill people. But no. He never really spoke about it. I think from my own personal perspective I, I do wish Bomber Command had had more recognition but it goes down to what we, what we as military guys and girls do. You know. We, we do what we’re told to do. It’s not, it’s not for us to question the policies. It’s for us to deliver what’s required. And, you know, you can extrapolate that argument straight up you know to the Falklands and the Gulf War One, Gulf War Two, the whole lot. You know. Was it the right thing to do? Did Saddam Hussain have WMD we don’t know. Still think there’s no proof but the government made the call. You go do it. Ours is not to reason why but ours just get on with it because that’s our job and I think that’s the way dad would have looked at it as well. He, I sense but only sense, I’ve no evidence that he found it quite strange in 1958/59 to be serving in Germany and living in Dusseldorf which is where we did live knowing that only a matter of years previous to that he’d been over it at thirty five thousand feet dropping two thousand pound bombs. That I think was slighty odd as far as he was concerned. And I honestly don’t think they particularly enjoyed their tour, my mum and dad particularly enjoyed their tour in Germany and I think they were quite keen to get home. And when I look at it they only did eighteen months in Germany and during the period I was born there but, but still not the happiest days of dad’s career probably because there was the subliminal issue of, you know, I’ve been here before but at a different height and with a different mission. So, but no he never formally said. I think what is sad, that he never saw the recognition that has now finally come to Bomber Command in terms of the Memorial and in terms of the IBCC. I think he would have been quite proud of that, and I think he would have been very pleased to have attended either the opening of the Bomber Command Memorial or the IBCC had he still been alive. Again, c’est la vie. The way things go. JS: Yeah. CC: As for Jack I can’t answer the question. I have no idea. JS: Yeah. CC: My aunt kept many, many clippings of, you know what he did because he was on one of the very early raids where a squadron commander got a DSO. They were presented to the King as a result of that because it really was one of the, it was a late 1939, very early air raid. And, and I think that’s in the days where you know before we were dropping, carpet bombing. And, and I think Nancy was very proud of Jack as well but again you know clearly I don’t know what he would have felt about it. Probably slightly stranger given that his extraction was German, you know. One generation German. So, I mean his father was a hotelier in Germany. So, you know, came over prior to the war so I think he would have felt quite strange about it. JS: Yeah. CC: But he was staunchly British. I understand that. And staunchly Welsh as well, strangely. So yeah, a different world. I don’t know. I can’t answer all the questions. JS: That’s alright. CC: Haven’t talked about it for a long time. JS: That’s interesting. That’s interesting [pause] Because your dad served in the RAF for — CC: Thirty five. JS: That period after — CC: Yeah. Yeah. JS: And to a certain extent as you’ve mentioned earlier that you were born abroad when your dad was in service. Then, then at the end of the day, that thing, you’d been embedded for the, within the RAF a lot longer than you served in the RAF. CC: Oh yeah. JS: I suppose that was the, the thing is do you think it was always likely that you would join? CC: Yeah. I think it probably, I think it probably was. I mean, I guess I vividly remember at school I mean I was fortunate I got a, I won an academic scholarship to an English Public School and it was a case of, ‘Well, Coombes, what are you going to do?’ And I think, that’s from my careers master and I said, ‘Well, I probably will join the Air Force, sir.’ And he said, ‘Right.’ and that was a tick. That’s one solved. That’s one less issue to worry about. JS: Conversation over. CC: Yes. You know, so I didn’t trouble my careers master for very long and I remember I, I went for a university scholarship or a university cadetship and didn’t get it, but was offered an immediate place straight from school and which I accepted. So literally after finishing school in the July I joined in the September of 1978. And clearly knowing I had a job I didn’t do particularly well at A level, and very much enjoyed my last year at school and then joined up straight away and actually have no regrets about that because subsequent to that the training I’ve done, you know I’ve got my, I’ve got my masters level education through the Australian Air Force having served out there on exchange. And yeah it was probably the easy option for me but I have absolutely no regrets. I mean, I think if I do have one regret it’s that my eyesight wasn’t good enough to, to allow me to be aircrew so I became a personnel support officer. But in so doing have had a very, very varied career. Done an awful lot of jobs, served pretty much all over the world and, and enjoyed my time. I guess if I were to be held down and pinned to the wall saying, ‘Do you regret not being a pilot?’ The answer is, ‘Hell yes.’ Because I know I had the aptitude and I proved, you know I went through Aircrew Selection Centre, and had pilot aptitude but sadly couldn’t see, and and that’s probably a regret. But not withstanding that I served in some great places. Had I been air crew I don’t think I would have been as good as my dad. I probably would have been a journeyman pilot flying maybe Hercs or VC10s around the world. Which would have been a great time. I don’t think I would have been good enough to go fast jet albeit that in my career I have fortunately managed to log about three hundred hours on fast jets because I’ve got some very good friends and I had a wonderful time. But I have no regrets being ground branch officer because you know what I did in the end of my career particularly, the last five years I did jobs that were aircrew jobs previously and ended up managing to convince those that needed convincing that actually a ground branch officer could undertake these jobs satisfactory. And I think, you know irony of ironies I ended up, my penultimate tour was in Germany as the deputy commander of the Rhine and European Support Group based at Rheindahlen, and part of my area of command was the former RAF Wegberg site where I was born. And so I ended up actually being the garrison commander of the garrison on which the hospital that I was born in resided. So it was a bit, that was a bit spooky but, but also quite oh wow you know how the wheel turns. So, you know no regrets about that. And I know full well had I been aircrew I’d never have done that so that little thing sort of comes, comes to pass. So yeah. Interesting. An interesting career for me but very much influenced by what dad did and sadly, you know I’d only been serving for twelve years when dad passed away so it would have been nice if he’d still been around to see me go, you know a couple of ranks above what he did, doing things that he never did. But, but there you go. That’s life. You make, you make your career choices as he did. JS: Well. Yes. But I’m, I’m sure he knew that your career was on the right track. CC: Well, one would hope so. JS: You know. I think in — CC: I do remember my second, third tour was I was the ADC to the air officer commanding in Cyprus and mum and dad came out to, to Cyprus for, for a holiday and they were invited kindly by the, by the AOC to come and have dinner and dad said to me afterwards, he said, ‘Oh, you know, the boss thinks you’re ok. He thinks you’ll probably make wing commander.’ I thought that wasn’t bad given I was a flying officer so that was, that’s ok. And, and to achieve one more than that was a great, was a great privilege, so that, that was interesting. He, he was quite good. I do remember that quite vividly. He thinks you might make wing commander. Well, thanks. That’s great. JS: That’s good. You, you spoke earlier about Memorials. CC: Yeah. JS: Which was interesting. How, how important do you think memorialisation is to the RAF as a whole and also to yourself personally? I think we touched on that sort of personal thing earlier — CC: Yeah. Yeah. JS: But it would be interesting to hear your thoughts as a, as a recent serving officer. What, what you think the view in the RAF is on that? CC: Well, its again interesting. I mean, I joined the Air Force in ‘78 when there were a hundred and [unclear] thousand, a hundred and twenty something thousand people in the Air Force. I, I left in 2014 when there were just a smidge over thirty thousand. Ok. Roles change. Technology changes and you don’t, you know you don’t have eight man crews on Shackletons, and six man crews on Hercules and you know it comes down to single crew aircraft. But I think sadly, you know this sounds like a really crusty old boy talking the Air Force was not, not the same when I left it as it was when I joined it, and clearly that’s, that’s obvious. But I still, I think that that when I joined it in 1978 it was a career. I think sadly now for most people who join the Air Force it’s a job. And that’s why I hope that, that memorialisation of some kind in whatever form is is continued and indeed improved because these, these things can’t be forgotten. I think, you know the Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park is very special. I think the IBCC is a wonderful set up, and having visited it very recently for the first time I am hugely impressed. I’d like to see other things go in there. I’d like to be able to help with that. It’s a long way from Edinburgh to there and you know that but things like the RAF Club remain very special, you know. The memories that are in the RAF Club are absolutely amazing. And Runnymede still takes my breath away. We can’t forget. JS: Yeah. CC: You know, we did very well at RAF 100. And I was, I re-joined for a year for RAF 100 as a reservist and did, did a job up here, predominantly with the Tattoo. And it was nice to come back in. I think, I think to come back in when you’re fifty nine years old is quite strange and you know you’re dealing with a lot of young people who have a different ethos to you. And bearing in mind that I spent my last eight years of service, three of them in Germany commanding, effectively commanding an army garrison and five years, my last five years working for the Foreign Office overseas in South East Asia where you know you’re just going home when, when the Ministry of Defence comes to work. I really did notice a sea change when I actually re-joined the Royal Air Force having been out of it effectively for a decade and it wasn’t the same. There was a lot of self-interest, and I know that what we tried to achieve in RAF 100 was, was would have been impossible had it not been for reservists and volunteer reserves and part time reserve service people. Which is quite sad given that you would expect to be able to do what you needed to do with the regular people. Those who were actually serving. So, you know we had a big success with RAF 100 but by jingo if it hadn’t have been for the people who’d, you know served before and come back in as reservist there’s absolutely no way we would have achieved it. I do remember the words of the then Chief of the Air Staff Steve Hillier saying that, you know, ‘It’s a privilege to be the CAS at the RAF 100 but all I’m doing is laying a future for my successors, successors successor,’ blah blah blah, ‘Who will be CAS at RAF 200.’ I just wonder how big the RAF at two hundred will be. Not very big I don’t think. And whilst I won’t be here and none of my progeny will be here I do wonder what it will be like. I’ve got a horrible feeling being probably glass half empty on this one that it will be the Defence Forces of The United Kingdom all wearing green uniform. I don’t know. We’ll see. But you can’t take away what’s there. IBCC is there. Runnymede is there. Other memorials are there. Long may it continue as far as I’m concerned and anything I can do to assist with the memorialisation of that then I will continue to do that, and this is a first step for me. And I’m pleased to be able to contribute. And hopefully sometime in, you know RAF 200 somebody might listen to this and say, ‘Jeez, who was that old boy talking?’ We shall see. JS: Clive, thank you very much. CC: My great pleasure. JS: That’s been fascinating. Thank you. CC: Thanks very much indeed, Jim. I hope it gets somewhere. 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 Clive Coombes Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource James Sheach 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 2020-03-06 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. Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ACoombesDC200306, PCoombesHS2043 Conforms To An established standard to which the described resource conforms. Pending review Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 00:37:09 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 Second generation Description An account of the resource Clive Coombes grew up on Royal Air Force stations, eventually joining and serving for 37 years, before retiring in 2014. During this time, he served worldwide, including in Australia and Germany, as a ground branch officer. Clive outlines his own service, as well as that of his father and uncle. His uncle, Jack, was born in Llandrindod, Wales and joined the Royal Air Force in either 1934 or 1935, becoming a pilot and serving in Iraq before returning to Great Britain and serving in the Second World War. Originally flying Blenheims, Jack was shot down and killed on the 10th January 1940 during an operation for 109 Squadron. Whilst he did not serve for long within the Second World War, Clive retains a large amount of Jack's information pertaining to his service, including his logbook and a number of poems sent to Clive’s aunt. Born in Birkenhead, his father, Horace 'Ken' Coombes, joined the Royal Air Force in 1942 as a pilot, training in Alabama and Florida, before returning in 1943. His first posting was to 582 Squadron at RAF Little Staughton, flying Pathfinder operations over Dusseldorf and the Ruhr, amongst others. He was eventually moved to 626 Squadron at RAF Wickenby. Throughout his service, Clive’s father flew Lancasters, Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mosquitos and Wellingtons. After flying on Operation Manna, he was decommissioned and re-enlisted soon after as an instructor, later becoming an air traffic controller and a reconnaissance flyer, flying Meteors and Vampires at RAF Shawbury. Following his retirement in 1977, Clive recalls his father refusing to mention his opinion on the view of Bomber Command following the war. Clive wishes that Bomber Command would receive more recognition, especially through the efforts of the IBCC and Runnymede Air Forces Memorial. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--Shropshire England--Lincolnshire England--Cambridgeshire Germany Alabama Australia Florida Germany Germany--Düsseldorf Netherlands United States Germany--Ruhr (Region) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Sam Harper-Coulson Julie Williams Maureen Clarke Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1940-01-10 1942 1943 1977 109 Squadron 582 Squadron 626 Squadron aircrew Blenheim Hurricane killed in action Lancaster Meteor Mosquito Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945) Pathfinders perception of bombing war RAF Little Staughton RAF Shawbury RAF Wickenby Spitfire Wellington https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1575/37205/B[Author]HanneJHv1.pdf b3e4eb7fb9e71825e4688e974fc2853e 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 Hanne, John Henry J H Hanne 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 2020-01-13 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 Hanne, JH Description An account of the resource 81 items. The collection concerns Sergeant John Henry Hanne (1913 - 1940, 564212 Royal Air Force) and contains documents and photographs, albums and a scrap book. He flew operations as a pilot with 110 Squadron and was killed 10 January 1940.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2150">Album 1</a> Contains p<span>hotographs taken during his service in the Middle East and North Africa.<br /></span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2151">Album 2</a> Contains p<span>hotographs of family and his inter-war service.<br /></span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2152">Album 3</a> Contains p<span>hotographs of his family and service.<br /></span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2153">His Scrap book</a> Contains news cuttings.<br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Clive Coombes and catalogued by Barry Hunter. <br /><br />Additional information on John Henry Hanne is available via the&nbsp;<a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/211833/">IBCC Losses Database.</a> Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document John Henry Hanne Radnorshire’s first WW2 RAF casualty. John Henry Hanne the dashing young airman pictured here was actually born in Lambeth on the 15th of February 1913, his mother however had been born in Llandrindod wells and the young John Henry known as ‘Jack’ was to return here at a young age. Jack’s Mother, Elizabeth Langford had been born to a Radnorshire labourer and his wife in number 4 Denham Terrace at the Ridgebourne in Llandrindod Wells in 1888. As was common in those days the young Elizabeth entered service as a housemaid. We know very little about her time in service, or how she came to be in Cardigan so far from home. It was here that Elizabeth met the man that was to change her life drastically. Henry Hanne was German immigrant who had come to England in November 1907. He had worked in several large hotels in Germany as a waiter. He first comes to our notice, as the Butler for the eccentric American, Doctor John Walter Pritchard (Dentist to the Prince of Wales). Dr Pritchard had been a Captain in the American civil war leading the 160th New York Volunteer’s. He later settled first in London and then bought for the princely sum of £1325 the Priory estate in Cardigan. According to Henry Hanne Dr Pritchard was an eccentric woman hater who would only allow men servants in the house. This seems an odd statement in view of the fact that several female servants are recorded at the Priory both before and during Henry’s time. When exactly Henry started work at the Priory is unclear, it is also unclear just how he came to meet Elizabeth Langford. They were married on the 24th of January 1911 At the outbreak of World War 1 Henry Hanne (along with thousands of other foreign nationals) was interred at Knockaloe camp on the Isle of Man. Elizabeth now had three children by Henry Hanne, her daughter May (born1912), John Henry ‘Jack’ (born1913) and his younger brother Frederick (born1914). life must have been very hard for a young Welsh woman married to a man considered to be the enemy but far more serious matters were to arise. Elizabeth may have been subject to certain restrictions herself as the wife of [page break] an alien and it seems that she had tried to get some form of legal document from the Swiss embassy. The document she did get back was not at all what she had been expecting. Henry, it seems had a wife still living in Germany. Henry Hanne defends himself to the internment camp Commander by claiming that his former employer Dr. Pritchards wife had not wanted the men only servant arrangement to continue on her husbands death and had urged Henry to be married, even apparently persuading him that nobody would find out in Wales if he did not gossip about his German wife. There are many holes in Henry’s story one being that Dr Pritchard had died after his marriage to Elizabeth. Elizabeth came back to Llandrindod Wells, with her children and rather bravely did not call for her marriage to be annulled, but chose instead to prosecute Henry for Bigamy. A course of action that could have led to the whole story becoming public. Elizabeth did find happiness again when she married Mr. Frank Floyd of Rhayader in 1920. We now jump forward to the 14th of January 1930 and Jack Hanne aged 16 years and 334 days has decided to enlist in the RAF. With one war far behind and another one not yet on the horizon, this must have seemed like a glamorous and exciting career. Jack may even have been inspired by seeing one of the displays on the Ddole air field. Jack is listed as scholar and although he enters service as a boy aircraft apprentice his service record shows that he was recommended for pilot training very early on. He would have been too young at this point to take up flying but he was obviously judged bright enough. On his 18th birthday (15th feb 1931) Jack enlists in the RAF full time and for the duration of 12 years. It must have been quite an achievement for a young man from a small country town with a slightly unpromising start in life to get into the RAF. A small scrap of paper kept in a family scrapbook notes the J.H. Hanne proceeded to R.A.F. Halton Camp. Bucks. Consequent on his success in the A/A competitive examination November last. [page break] Jack starts his aircraft apprentice training with No 2 wing at Halton. Halton was the primary establishment for taking boy trainees, they became affectionately known as the ‘Trenchard Brat’s’, after Lord Trenchard who initiated the scheme. Many of the Brats went on to become non commissioned officers and were praised for their high standard of training. Photographs taken at the time show the young Jack Hanne as a suave and debonair young man who carries himself with an air of easy confidence. He was only of average height (5Ft 5 and half inches) but he had a distinctive shock of auburn hair with brown eyes and a fresh complexion. The apprentices were trained not just in their technical trades but in all aspects of military discipline. Initially as a boy apprentice Jack would have had an eight thirty to four thirty day in a class room or work shop, but the boys were kept well occupied for the rest of the time with very many extra curricular activities including gliding, participating in a project to build and fly a small light aircraft as well as all manner of sports, music, literature and debating societies. Halton (a country estate initially requisitioned off the Rothschild’s, then eventually purchased at Lord Trenchards insistence) was chosen specifically for it [sic] close proximity to London and all the main train routes. Lord Trenchard felt that it would benefit the possibly homesick boys if their parents could visit them on the weekends. Presumably he did not expect apprentices Like Jack to come from so far away. Also he was not adverse to allowing them the use of the cinemas and dance halls on the weekends, provided they conducted themselves in the appropriate manner. Jack may not have received many visits from Llandrindod Wells but it seems quite likely that he found time to get back here himself. Jack although stationed the other side of the country finds his future wife right back here in Llandrindod Wells. Jack Hanne and Nancy Vera Gilford had grown up in the same street in Llandrindod Wells and many of the photographs in Nancy’s album show the two of them enjoying time together in and around the town, some dated as early as 1932. Maybe Jack was waiting to ‘pop the question’ until he was sure of his prospects. They were clearly in love and Jack would write long letters, (often including poetry), home to Nancy. Jack rises through the ranks relatively quickly, his work is more often than not described as superior and his character as very good. He completes his training at Halton not only is he a qualified fitter and armorer but he has been judged to have the technical ability of a non commissioned officer, i.e. He would be a foreman or supervisor. [page break] Then on the 1st of April 1935 Jacks dream is realized, as he sets off for R.A.F. Wittering for the start of his pilot training. On the 6th of January 1936 Jack is awarded a good conduct stripe, this can be seen on the sleeve of his uniform in some of the photographs. It is followed later that year by a further promotion, this time to Sergeant (unpaid) and what was probably Jacks first trip overseas. He is sent to R.A.F. Hinaidi in Iraq (just outside Baghdad) to serve with no. 70 bomber training squadron, he is among a small group sent out to train on twin engined heavy Bombers. Hinaidi was a former WW1 British army base that had been requisitioned by the R.A.F. in 1922. Jack’s travels don’t end there he somehow ends up in Karachi (1482 miles away from Hinaidi) where in March 1937 he is finally examined and confirmed as a full paid Sergeant. His exam marks are all good he has been marked as skilled in his trade and now he is also shown to be a proficient pilot. It must have been a very proud Jack who came home on his next leave. Jack has now been in the R.A.F. for seven years and he and Nancy seem to have been courting for at least five of those, maybe his brief period in Karachi over 5000 miles away from Nancy finally spurred him on to propose. Jack and Nancy tied the knot at Holy Trinity church in Llandrindod Wells on the 29th of August 1938. Nancy was given away by her Father and with her sister June and Jack’s sister May acting as her bridesmaids. Jacks only brother Fred is his best man, Jacks Mother (now Mrs Floyd) also attended. They then went on to a reception at the Louis cafe in Llandrindod Wells, before Jack and Nancy left for a honeymoon in Skegness. Nancy is now a fully fledged service wife and after their honeymoon she moves away from Llandrindod wells to be near her Husband. Their new address is listed as 7 Edgar avenue Stowmarket in Suffolk just 6 miles away from where Jack is stationed at R.A.F. Wattisham. Jack is now flying Blenheim’s an aircraft he both liked and was proficient in flying. On the 24th of July 1939 Jack took off from Wattisham airfield in a Blenheim he was ferrying to Hullavington his aircraft started to lose power somewhere around Debden. Unfortunately, his approach was baulked by a Hurricane and in turning away he was unable to avoid overshooting what was now a very tight landing area, finishing up in a wood. By September that year, Britain was at War. For some, this period known as the phony War, was little different from their peace time activities. For Jack [page break] however the War was to start almost immediately. At 4.pm on September the 4th 1939 Jack was part of a raid on the Kiel Canal led by Squadron Leader Kenneth Christopher Doran. This was officially the first bombing raid of world war two. Jack and four other Blenheim’s from 110 squadron were accompanied by Blenheim’s from 107 and 149 squadrons as well as Wellingtons from No 9 squadron. Not all the aircraft returned safely, among the dead was Sgt Albert Stanley Price, a navigator who was the first Canadian killed in World War Two. A few days later Jack was included in a small group of airmen presented to King George the VI by Sir Kingsly Wood the Minister for Air. His Squadron Leader K.C Doran was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. We now come to a slight gap in Jack’s career. An undated note in Nancy’s scrap book, written by Squadron Leader K.C Doran, leads us to understand that Jack is in some way judged unfit to fly and is obviously disagreeing with the decision. A search of the operational record book can shed no light on why he has been posted unfit. After their success at Kiel, 110 Squadron entered a very quiet period. A combination of bad weather and lack of enemy activity led to very few operational sorties. The squadron spent the next few months on standby but not doing very much. Their flying mainly consisted of bombing practice and training flights. Jack is back on flying duties by the 9th of January 1940 with Sgt George Llewellyn Williams as his Navigator and AC1 Edwin Vick as his Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, he flies Blenheim Mk IV serial number L4859. By Now Jack is a very experienced pilot with 568 flying hours under his belt, 212 of these hours were on Blenheim’s. 110 Squadron is part of the duty Squadron. This mainly consisted of flying over the channel looking out for enemy ships or aircraft in what was known as a sweep. On the 10th Jan 1940 Jack along with 11 other Blenheim’s sets out on a sweep over the North Sea. The Blenheim’s were attacked by 5 Messerschmidt 110’s. All the Blenheim’s dived to sea level and tried making it back to base. The ME 110’s kept attacking using the two machine guns and two cannons that each ME 110 was equipped with. The Air gunners in the Blenheim’s fought back, quickly damaging one of the [page break] ME110’s, another was seen to crash into the sea and a further badly damaged one landed in Denmark. LAC John Tippet Wireless operator/Air Gunner was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal for his efforts that day in keeping the ME 110’s at bay. The ME 110’s attacked the formation for 25 minutes. Tippett was flying in the Blenheim on the extreme right of the formation, whereas Jack was flying the Blenheim on the extreme left. Jack’s Blenheim had already been hit and he had lost one of his engines. Desperately Jack tried to get the aircraft home as the battle was still raging. The remaining two ME 110’s kept attacking. Jack with only one engine was now losing speed and getting far behind the rest. Seeing a target of opportunity an ME 110’s flown by Hauptman Wolfgang Falck of 2/ZG76 (German equivalent of a fighter wing) attacked again and the Blenheim along with Jack, Williams and Vick was seen to crash into the sea and explode. Jack Hanne was 26 years old. Initially the crew were reported as missing. The news must have been almost unbearable for Nancy, who was now three months pregnant. She kept the newspaper cuttings both about him being listed as missing and eventually telling of his death. Probably the scrap book was intended to show the unborn child how brave its’ father had been. Nancy returned to her parents home in Llandrindod Wells. The local paper tells of his death and of him being Radnorshire’s first Airman to be killed. Radnorshire Urban District Council sent a letter of condolence, to Nancy and to Jack’s Mother. Nancy gave birth to Jack’s daughter Jacqueline Anne on the 14th of July 1940. Sadly the baby only lived for 2 days. She is buried in Llandrindod wells cemetery. Nancy Lived on and even married again (Mr. Sidney Morgan) but she had no more children. She was buried with Jacqueline in 1996. She was 82 years old. Jack, having crashed into the sea has no known grave but is remembered on panel 15 of the Runnymede memorial and by his nephews, Peter Hanne son of Jack’s brother Frederick and by Clive Coombes the son of Nancy’s sister June. Both have very kindly lent personal items that belonged to Jack and Nancy to this exhibition. 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 John Henry Hanne - A Biography Radnorshire's First WW2 RAF Casualty Description An account of the resource A biography of Jack, as he was known, from his birth to his early death. Jack Hanne enlisted on his eighteenth birthday in 1931, he rose through the ranks to become a proficient pilot, serving overseas in Iraq and Karachi. By 1939, he was flying Blenheim bombers from RAF Wattisham and took part in Britain’s first bombing operation of the war over the Kiel Canal. Presented to the King for his role, Jack had logged over 500 flying hours by early 1940. On 10 January, during a patrol over the North Sea, his aircraft was attacked and shot down by German fighters. He was 26. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Great Britain England--London Wales--Cardigan Germany Wales--Rhayader Iraq--Baghdad Pakistan--Karachi England--Skegness England--Stowmarket Germany--Kiel Canal Denmark England--Runnymede England--Lincolnshire England--Stowmarket England--Suffolk England--Surrey Wales--Llandrindod Iraq Pakistan 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. Personal research Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Six printed sheets Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context B[Author]HanneJHv1 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 Sandra Jones Claire Campbell Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1939-09-04 1940-01-10 107 Squadron 110 Squadron 149 Squadron 70 Squadron 9 Squadron aircrew Blenheim crash Distinguished Flying Cross Distinguished Flying Medal George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952) Hurricane killed in action love and romance Me 110 memorial missing in action navigator pilot RAF Debden RAF Halton RAF Hullavington RAF Wattisham RAF Wittering training wireless operator / air gunner https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/files/original/1575/37387/MHanneJH564212-200113-05.2.jpg fe169df38f93b73ce8b7d18a97eceff2 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 Hanne, John Henry J H Hanne 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 2020-01-13 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 Hanne, JH Description An account of the resource 81 items. The collection concerns Sergeant John Henry Hanne (1913 - 1940, 564212 Royal Air Force) and contains documents and photographs, albums and a scrap book. He flew operations as a pilot with 110 Squadron and was killed 10 January 1940.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2150">Album 1</a> Contains p<span>hotographs taken during his service in the Middle East and North Africa.<br /></span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2151">Album 2</a> Contains p<span>hotographs of family and his inter-war service.<br /></span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2152">Album 3</a> Contains p<span>hotographs of his family and service.<br /></span><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2153">His Scrap book</a> Contains news cuttings.<br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Clive Coombes and catalogued by Barry Hunter. <br /><br />Additional information on John Henry Hanne is available via the&nbsp;<a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/211833/">IBCC Losses Database.</a> Transcribed document A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Transcription Text transcribed from audio recording or document REF/SGT HANNE. REF/PAGE 70 FROM HISTORY OF 2 GROUP T A F. 10 JANUARY 1940 FOUR SECTIONS LEFT WATTON TO FLY A NORTH-EAST/SOUTH-WEST SWEEP OVER THE NORTH SEA. ABOUT 45 MINUTES LATER NINE BLENHEIMS OF 82 SQUADRON TOOK OFF TO BE IN POSITION TO ATTACK ANY REPORTED VESSELS. (STANDARD PROCEDURE) FOUR SECTIONS OF 110 SQUADRON WERE SOON LEAVING WATTISHAM. AT ABOUT 55o 30o N. 05o 10o E THE 110 SQD FORMATION LED BY KENNETH DORAN SIGHTED 5 MESSERSCHMITT 110. APPROACHED FROM THE ABOVE, AND OUT OF THE SUN. IMMEDIATELY THE BLENHEIMS DIVED TO SEA LEVEL. MAINTAINING 240 M P H I A S. QUARTER ATTACKS CAME SINGLY THE FIGHTERS USING TWO CANNON AND TWO MACHINE GUNS THEN BREAKING AWAY INTO A STALL TURN AT ABOUT 2000-2500 FEET FOR ANOTHER ATTACK. IN THE SECOND ATTACK AN ENEMY AIRCRAFT FLEW BETWEEN THE LEADING SECTION AND NO3 BEFORE BREAKING AWAY AND THE REAR GUNNERS WHOSE SHOOTING WAS SKILFULLY CO-ORDINATED BY PLT/OFF SEARIE GUNNERY LEADER SAW THEIR TRACER ENTER THE FIGHTER. THE ACTION LASTED FOR 25 MINUTES DURING WHICH SGT PENNINGTON NAVIGATOR IN THE LEAD AIRCRAFT COOLLY OCCUPIED HIMSELF BY SENDING CODED SYKO MESSAGES TO BASE, ONE BF 110 WAS SEEN TO CRASH INTO THE SEA AND AFTER 12 MINUTES TWO BROKE AWAY TO THE SOUTH-EAST, A BADLY DAMAGED 110 LANDED IN DENMARK, THE OTHER TWO MADE ABOUT NINE ATTACKS BEFORE RUNNING OUT OF AMMUNITION EARLY IN THE ENGAGEMENT L4859 NO3 OF THE THIRD SECTION FLOWN BY SGT/HANNE. LOST SPEED AND IT WAS BELEIVED [sic] HE HAD AN ENGINE PUT OUT OF ACTION. HANNE FELL SOME 400 YARDS BEHIND BECOMING ONE OF THE STRAGGLERS ABOUT WHOME [sic] WARNING WAS ISSUED L4859 WAS SOON FINISHED OFF BY FIGHTERS AND EXPLODED ON IMPACT WITH THE SEA. 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 Details of Jack Hanne's Last Flight Description An account of the resource A page from the history of #2 Group covering the events of Jack's disappearance during an attack. Temporal Coverage Temporal characteristics of the resource. 1940-01-10 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Atlantic Ocean--North Sea Denmark 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 typewritten sheet Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MHanneJH564212-200113-05 Conforms To An established standard to which the described resource conforms. Pending text-based transcription. Under review 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 Tricia Marshall 110 Squadron 2 Group 82 Squadron aircrew Blenheim Me 110 navigator RAF Wattisham RAF Watton