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W D Tweddle. Tape Three
![ATweddleWD[Date]-030004.mp3](/application/views/scripts/images/fallback-audio.png "ATweddleWD[Date]-030004.mp3")
Doug Tweddle describes the final days of the war on the Squadron. He participated in Operations Dodge and Exodus bringing POWs home. After his posting to Bardney he was posted to RAF Skellingthorpe with 50 Squadron.
Interview with Lionel Horner
Lionel begins by mentioning he was on Leeds University Air Squadron at beginning of war. Once he finished his degree, he was slated to train as a fighter pilot in the United Sates, but due to lack of space on courses, eventually was trained as a…
Interview with Les Rutherford
Les Rutherford was called up for the Army just short of his 21st birthday. He was in France at the time of Dunkirk and made it to the beach of St Valery where they were under constant bombardment. He and another soldier found a door and used it to…
Interview with Keith Toule
Keith was five at the start of the war and lived in a farm adjoining the airfield at RAF Skellingthorpe. He describes the airfield and how the trees were cut down in the farm belt. The airfield was closed soon after the war, bought by the City…
Interview with David Rose
David Rose was born in Swanage, Dorset. His father had been in the Medical Corps during the First World War and suffered ill health afterwards. David believed his father had as much reason to be on the War Memorial as his two brothers, who died…
Interview with Edward Robert McRae
Ted McRae volunteered for aircrew and trained as a gunner. He was usually in the mid-upper turret but would sometimes swap places with the rear gunner. On one trip, repatriating ex-prisoners of war, his aircraft crashed. He and the other gunner were…
Interview with Richard Hollis
Richard’s father, Arthur Hollis, went to Dulwich College as a day boy. He left aged 16 to join the Home Guard, then worked for a firm of accountants for a couple of years before joining the Royal Air Force. He was sent to Manchester University for…
Interview with Neil Harris
Neil Harris wanted to join the RAF because he was looking for an exciting life experience and an opportunity for further education. He started as a flight mechanic before training as a pilot. Neil remembers being trained in different locations across…
Interview with Howell Davies
Howell grew up on the Glamorgan coast. After the university air squadron, he joined the RAF in April 1962, training on Provosts at RAF South Cerney. He then went to RAF Swinderby and flew the Vampire T11. He subsequently trained on Vulcans at 230…
Interview with Harrison Stanley Cammish
Harrison Cammish was born in Scarborough in 1923 and, when he was 14, he became an apprentice carpenter and joiner. When war broke out, he joined the Air Training Corps, and the Home Guard, who gave him a rifle and 40 rounds of ammunition. At the…
Interview with Reg Payne. Two
Reg Payne was born in Kettering in 1923. He left school at the age of 14 and just before he was 18 he volunteered to join the RAF. He did his basic training at RAF Blackpool learning Morse Code in the tram sheds. From there he did his radio…
Interview with Edward Allan McDonald. Two
Allan McDonald was born in Hull and watched Alan Cobham’s Flying Circus as a child. He worked as an apprentice electrician before joining the Air Force. He served as ground personnel in Northern Ireland until he passed the exams to become aircrew…
Interview with Eric Coling
Eric Coling’s father died when Eric was a child which left his mother to cope on her own, economically. Eric and his sister were sent to live in an orphanage but their mother was able to visit monthly. When Eric left the orphanage he began working…
Interview with Robert Barnes. Two
Robert Barnes, as flight engineer, had to deal with an emergency on one flight when, during the process of changing the fuel tanks, the aircraft went into a steep dive.
Interview with Robert Barnes. One
Robert Barnes was working in a Reserved Occupation and knew the only way he could join the RAF was to volunteer for aircrew. Before he volunteered he was also a member of the ARP and Home Guard. Robert trained as a flight engineer and was posted to…
Interview with Audrey Hazel Baker
Audrey Baker had been married to Gordon, her Bomber Command pilot husband for two years when he was killed in action. Gordon had been serving with 50 Squadron. She immediately joined the WAAF as a driver and was posted to Balloon Command. She drove…
Interview with Arthur Emlyn Williams
Arthur Emlyn Williams was working as a pump operator at the mines, before he volunteered for the RAF. His mother hid his first recruitment letter. He trained at Lord’s Cricket Ground, and Number 2 Air-Gunnery school at RAF Inverness, on Ansons. He…
Interview with Arthur Emlyn Williams
Arthur Emlyn Williams describes his life before volunteering and what lead to his decision to volunteer. His parents were upset about his decision to join the RAF. In September 1943, he was accepted for training as an air-gunner. He started his first…
Interview with Reg Payne. One
Reg Payne was born in Kettering, left school aged 14 and worked for the British Legion. He volunteered for the RAF aged 17 and a half and trained as a wireless operator and air gunner. He describes his training, learning Morse Code and gunnery…
Interview with Edward Allan McDonald
Allan McDonald was born in Hull and worked as an apprentice electrician before joining the Air Force. He passed the exams to become aircrew and trained as an air gunner. During training, his aircraft crash landed and he was soaked in petrol. He flew…
Interview with Ronald Marlow
Ronald Marlow went to Middleton Council School, then worked at Forgrove Engineering. He joined the Air Training Corps before volunteering for the Royal Air Force training in London at St Johns Wood. He became an air gunner ad flew Wellingtons,…
Interview with Bob Hughes
Bob Hughes joined the RAF as war became likely, to avoid repeating his father's First World War experience in the trenches, transferring to the RAF Volunteer Reserve when war was declared. He trained on Ansons and then flew in twin-engine Blenheims…
Interview with Margaret Horry
Margaret Horry was born in Spalding. She remembers aircraft taking off to take part in operations, and retells wartime stories of her relatives. Her husband, Arthur, served in Bomber Command as a bomb aimer and his brother, Frank, was also in Bomber…
Interview with George Holmes
George was born in Mansfield and was bought up by his grandparents until he was seven when he moved back to his parents in Leicester, where his father ran a coffee shop. He was a semi-professional musician playing violin, trumpet and mandolin. He…
Interview with Norman Goodfellow
Norman Goodfellow was born in Wakefield, in 1923. Before the war he worked as an apprentice engineer. Joining the RAF aged 17 he was offered the choice of pilot or navigator. Although Norman chose to be a navigator he, initially, trained as a pilot…