Interview with David Vandervord

Interview with David Vandervord

The interviewer describes his aims for the interview. Edited transcript at linked item. David Vandervord explains that, as a Wellington second pilot, he never actually handled the aircraft on operations. He mentions leaflet dropping. He, initially, joined the civil air guard and started pilot training but this was interrupted by the war. He describes basic, advance and OTU training before being posted to 218 Squadron at RAF Marham in December 1940. He recalls the names of the first pilots he flew with. He recounts an operation where they had to jettison bombs over England and were then forced landed. He recalls another operation where they were attacked by 2 Me 110 which damaged the aircraft and wounded him and was recovered to base single engine. David states that he flew 13 operations and then asked to be removed from Bomber Command. He talked a little about subsequent postings. He comments on qualities of Wellington and states that all operations were at night. He mentions that his crew were lost while he was recovering from a wound. He talks about his crew, mentions operation to Brest to attach Scharnhorst and recovering to Boscombe Down. He concluded with discussion over photographs.

00:47:28 audio recording

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