Potter, Peter

Title

Potter, Peter
P Potter

Description

39 items. Collection concerns Peter Potter, (1925 - 2019, 1876961 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a rear gunner with 626 Squadron. Collection contains an oral history interview, his logbook, memoirs and photographs

The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Peter Potter and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.

Date

2015-09-14

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. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Identifier

Potter, P

Collection Items

Peter Potter and his pilot
Left - a man standing wearing academic robe and mortar board in front of a brick wall. Captioned 'Thomas Henry Hooper Ford - my pilot'.
Right - four airmen wearing tunic and side caps, two sitting in front and two standing behind. Captioned 'Price,…

Eighteen airmen
Eighteen airmen wearing greatcoats and side caps standing and sitting in three rows. Submitted with caption 'Potter Training Squad'.

Peter Potter
Top - head and shoulders portrait of a sergeant wearing tunic with air gunner brevet and side cap. Captioned 'graduation'.
Bottom left - head and shoulders portrait of a man wearing civilian clothes. Captioned 'escape photo'.
Bottom right -…

Peter Potter
Head and shoulders portrait of P Potter for use on escape documents if captured, submitted with caption 'Peter Potter Escape Photo'.
Additional information about this item was kindly provided by the donor.

Peter Potter
Full length image of a man wearing blazer with medals and squadron badge and tie standing on a patio outside a house.
Additional information about this item was kindly provided by the donor.

Family in car
Family in an old car in a field, car has “Fobbing” written on the side, submitted with caption; 'Mum with pigtails, self on bonnet, Chris Olive & Jean'.
Additional information about this item was kindly provided by the donor.

Four aircrew cadets
Four airmen wearing tunic and side caps, two standing and two sitting in front, Captioned 'Price, Swan, Potter, Moore'

Two photographs and a note
Top - seven aircrew wearing flying helmets and Mae West, three squatting in front, four standing behind under the wing of a bomber aircraft. Captioned 'The crew under a Halifax wing'.
Middle a note giving names of crew 'L to R standing, Jim Jackson,…

RAF Poem
Untitled poem on joining up to fight. Men leave behind their identities to become aircrew. Submitted with caption; 'RAF Poem'.

A true war story
Humorous story of a young airman billeted with a war widow.

Joining up/Training
Account of Peter Potter's experiences following signing up to join the RAF.

RAF Hixon
Posted for training on Wellingtons. Describes crewing up process and other events while training including a brake failure on landing and ending up on railway line outside the airfield boundary.

Conversion to 4 engines and posting
Conversion to 4 engines Halifax and Lancaster at RAF Hemswell and then to RAF Wickenby on 626 Squadron. Mentions allocation of aircraft and nose art.

Westkapelle
Account of return from an operation to Westkapelle when they flew over authors father's farm and local village where they threw out window.

Training
Covers some aspect of aircrew training including decompression chamber and parachute training.

On take off
Account of crew actions during take off and one particular time when aircraft ahead slewed when tire burst half way down the runway. Luckily they were able to get airborne and avoid the other aircraft.

Two stories from Pembrey
Tells story of a one comrade who did not take part in Christmas festivities due to his being excessively religious and resulting events. Second risqué story about innocent comrade.

Bridlington
Tells story of comrade who got drunk on pub crawl and fell into an emergency static water tank on his way back to camp and resulting events.

Bombing
Highlights some of the issues causing lack of precision with bombing. Also mentions problems of weather meant USAAF results despite their bomb site was rarely better that the RAF. Mentions their most successful operation was dropping mines in the…

Claim for campaign stars and/or defence medal
Part made out for Warrant Officer P L Potter qualified for 1939/45 star.

After ops
Noted that tour was completed on 17/18 December 1944 and was not called upon to fly again as the war in Europe was nearly over.

My finest memory
Story of Price Albert and his stutter causing him to be unable to issue command and author having to strike him on the back to force out the necessary order.

Main Ops - with crew only
Starts with account of operation to Paris on 3 May 1944 when attacked by Me 109 and writes of crew actions. Continues with list of operations giving details of target, anti-aircraft fire, flight time, some bomb loads, events, results. From 3 August…

Copy of Peter Potter's flying log book
Flying log book excerpts from P L Potter’s log book, covering the period from 3 May 1944 to 17 December 1944. Detailing his flying training and operations flown. He was stationed at RAF Hixon and RAF Wickenby. Aircraft flown in were Wellington and…

Letter of appreciation
Letter from King George to WL Potter thanking him for work with GHQ Auxiliary Unit, submitted as; 'Secret Army Letter'.

Additional information about this item was kindly provided by the donor.
View all 39 items

Collection Tree

  • Potter, Peter