Firth, John

Title

Firth, John
John Firth
J B Firth

Description

11 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer John Bernard Firth (1924-2016, 1850441 Royal Air Force), his logbook, a home-made prisoner of war Christmas card, and seven photographs. John Firth was a flight engineer with 50 Squadron at RAF Skellingthorpe June to August 1944. He was shot down in August 1944 on his 20th operation and became a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft 7.

The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by John Firth and catalogued by and Nigel Huckins.

Date

2016-07-06

Publisher

IBCC Digital Archive

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. 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

Firth, JB

Collection Items

John Firth's navigator's, air bomber's and air gunner's flying  log book
Navigator's, air bomber's and air gunner's flying log book for Sergeant John Firth from 31 March 1944 to 7 August 1944. Detailing training and operations flown. Served at RAF Wigsley, RAF Syerston, RAF Skellingthorpe. Aircraft flown were Stirling and…

John was called up at 18 and went to Padgate. He did a flight mechanics course at RAF Locking, followed by a Maintenance Unit at RAF Colerne. He was posted to a flight engineers’ course at RAF St Athan. John joined up with his crew at RAF Wigsley…

John Firth's crew
Head and shoulders view of seven aircrew in two rows, three in front and four behind. All are dressed in battledress with aircrew brevet and shirt and tie. John Firth is top right. On the reverse '50 Squadron crew, John Firth top right'.

John Firth
Full length portrait of John Firth wearing a light coloured suit and tie standing by a wooden door to a house. He has a cigarette in his right hand and his left hand is in his trouser pocket. Behind him a brick wall and to the left an open wicker…

Stalag 3A Chapel
Interior of a building with windows on the right. In the back right corner a large cross with railings behind. In the centre and left two candelabra stand against the back wall. On the left a lectern. In the centre three support columns running from…

Stalag 3A - food for 200 men
In the centre four men in line abreast carry a large tub slung on a pole. To the right a tall fence with clothes hanging on it. Telegraph poles with lights are aligned along the fence. To the left three men standing talking in front of the door in…

John Firth
Head and shoulders portrait of John Firth in tunic and side cap. On the reverse 'AC1 Locking, 1943'.

Prisoner of war bunk beds
Three bunks, the bottom one near the floor and with an approximately 50 cm space between each. There is a vertical support a third of the way from the left. The bottom two bunks are covered with a variety of unidentifiable objects. Clothes hang on…

John Firth age four and a half
Full-length portrait photograph of John Firth wearing a jacket, shorts, long white socks and black shoes with his hand resting on an occasional wooden table. On the reverse Age 4 ½, Mrs Firth, Felma, 10NA Crescent[...], [...] 9, […,] 16x1.5-,…

Letter to John Firth from the Air Ministry
References John Firth's request for his log book which was forwarded with this letter.

Prisoner of war home-made Christmas card
Envelope addressed to J Firth, Slough, from WS Ridgeway (who is mentioned in the attached card), Wollaton, Notts, and containing a home-made Christmas card from Stalag Luft 7, Bankau, 1944, signed by 6 airmen and giving their addresses.
View all 11 items

Collection Tree

  • Firth, John