Take Your Bike
Title
Take Your Bike
Description
A description of an operation over Berlin when the crew had to travel with all their personal kit because they were transferring to a new airfield.
Creator
Date
1943
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
One typewritten sheet
Publisher
Rights
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
Identifier
MGilbertAC186764-161013-08
Transcription
[underlined]TAKE YOUR BIKE [/underlined]
(Posted vis Berlin)
While serving with 514 Squadron at Foulsham in 1943 the squadron was suddenly posted en masse to Waterbeach in Cambridge. At that time 514 was a specialised squadron flying Lane. Ills fitted with GH Blind Bombing equipment which was designed to give more accurate bombing through cloud conditions on targets as far as the Ruhr.
As with so much of this new equipment it was used for a short time then the policy was changed. The GH programme was no exception. After six weeks of intensive training bombing
Ely Cathedral, then one operation to Dusseldorf, the policy was changed to bombing Berlin.
On the 23/24th November the target was, as usual, the 'Big City' but with a difference on our return we would land at our new base at Waterbeach. How or why it was ever allowed,
I never knew, but all kit had to be taken with us! so apart from the full bomb load the fuselage was crammed with trunks, cases, boxes and two bicycles! After six and half hours flying we returned to our new base only to be diverted to Cranfield due to bad weather,
arriving at base later in the day. Luckily all the squadron returned but I hate to think what German Intelligence would have made of a crashed Lanc. complete with kit!
It would be interesting to know if any other crew had an odd posting.
302 P.A.S.Twinn
(Posted vis Berlin)
While serving with 514 Squadron at Foulsham in 1943 the squadron was suddenly posted en masse to Waterbeach in Cambridge. At that time 514 was a specialised squadron flying Lane. Ills fitted with GH Blind Bombing equipment which was designed to give more accurate bombing through cloud conditions on targets as far as the Ruhr.
As with so much of this new equipment it was used for a short time then the policy was changed. The GH programme was no exception. After six weeks of intensive training bombing
Ely Cathedral, then one operation to Dusseldorf, the policy was changed to bombing Berlin.
On the 23/24th November the target was, as usual, the 'Big City' but with a difference on our return we would land at our new base at Waterbeach. How or why it was ever allowed,
I never knew, but all kit had to be taken with us! so apart from the full bomb load the fuselage was crammed with trunks, cases, boxes and two bicycles! After six and half hours flying we returned to our new base only to be diverted to Cranfield due to bad weather,
arriving at base later in the day. Luckily all the squadron returned but I hate to think what German Intelligence would have made of a crashed Lanc. complete with kit!
It would be interesting to know if any other crew had an odd posting.
302 P.A.S.Twinn
Collection
Citation
PAS Twinn, “Take Your Bike,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 27, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/28367.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.