Browse Items (130 total)
- Contributor is exactly "Carolyn Emery"
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Interview with Margaret Horry
Margaret Horry was born in Spalding. She remembers aircraft taking off going on operations, and retells wartime stories of her relatives. Arthur served in Bomber Command as a bomb aimer. Frank was also in Bomber Command. He joined the Royal Air Force…
Interview with Bernie How
Bernie How was 14 when war was declared and remembers aircrew socialising at his father's pub. He volunteered for the RAF at 17 and trained as a flight engineer on Stirlings. He describes a crash on take-off in a Stirling. He completed 35 operations,…
Interview with Alfred Huberman
Alfred Huberman volunteered for the RAF when he was eighteen and trained as an air gunner. He describes the training and emphasises how physically hard it was. He flew 31 operations from RAF Elsham Wolds in Lancasters. These included operations over…
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 and transferred to the RAF Volunteer Reserve when war was declared. He trained on Ansons and then flew in twin-engine Blenheims…
Interview with Jim Ibbotson
Jim Ibbotson grew up in Sheffield and recalls Sheffield being blitz bombed. He joined the Air Training Corps and volunteered for the RAF when he was eighteen. He was called up in March 1943 and trained to become either a pilot, navigator or bomb…
Interview with Derek Jones
Bomb aimer Frank Jones wrote notes decades ago regarding his service in Bomber Command with 158 Squadron. His son, Derek reads his father’s story, which includes his early life, enlisting into the RAF and training in navigation at No. 43 Air…
Interview with John Joyner
John Joyner was working for the Cooperative Wholesale Society in London and joined the Air Training Corps aged 16 in 1940. He later joined the RAF and trained as an air gunner, initially on Wellingtons and then on Lancasters as the mid-upper gunner.…
Interview with an anonymous interviewee (An01137)
Anon, from Scarborough was keen to join the Fleet Air Arm as a pilot. Disappointed that he didn’t meet the height requirement, he joined the RAF and began training as an electrician. His aim was to travel abroad with the service but, to his…
Interview with George Rex Armstrong
George Rex Armstrong served in the RAF as a flight engineer. He was born in Belfast and grew up in Donaghadee. He decided to join the RAF because he wanted to follow his brother Ted, who flew 40 operations with 617 Squadron. He mentions being in the…
Interview with Maurice Vivian Askew
Maurice Askew volunteered for the RAF and began training as a flight engineer. He was posted to 207 Squadron at RAF Spilsby and his first operation was to Berlin. On his last operation his aircraft came under attack. He was knocked unconscious as he…
Interview with Colin Atkinson and Jean McEwan
Colin Atkinson was 12 at the outbreak of war and grew up in Lincolnshire. His father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the army. He worked as a trainee reporter for the local paper and served as a messenger for civil defence; his post was on the Castle…
Interview with Gordon Atkinson
Gordon Atkinson lived in Flixborough, Lincolnshire. As a young boy he recalls seeing aircraft gathering over the River Humber in the evenings, ready to fly out on bombing operations. In the morning he watched them come back, some with bits dropping…
Interview with Brian and Jenny Bailey
Brian and Jenny Bailey were children during the war and witnessed the bombing of Cleethorpes and Grimsby. Standing on a local bridge, they could also see Hull in flames. Jenny recalled walking with her mother on the day war was declared and seeing a…
Interview with Cyril Edwin Bailey
Cyril Bailey was working in a garage before he volunteered for the RAF. He considered that he would like to be a mechanic but was told there were no vacancies and he was encouraged to become a flight engineer. He joined 625 Squadron at RAF Kelstern…
Interview with Daphne Baptiste
Daphne joined the Air Ministry at 17. She initially joined the Civil Service, as she believed it would be a safe job with high wages. Throughout the war, she was stationed at Ladies’ College in Harrogate and was in charge of supplying water to many…
Interview with Maurice Barrick
Maurice Barrick had always wanted to serve in the Royal Air Force. Upon completion of training, he was posted to Bomber Command 467 Squadron at RAF Waddington. He did four operational flights and two trips flying British prisoners of war from…
Interview with Max Barry
Max was born in Beaufort, Victoria and grew up on his parents’ dairy farm. Gaining a scholarship led to him becoming a student teacher and attending training college. He was called up when he was 18 and applied to become a reserve in the Air Force,…
Interview with Frank Gerald Bassett
Frank was brought up in Woolwich. He joined the RAF at the age of 18 and became an armourer. Frank describes the difficult physical work, loading and unloading bombs. He served 617 Squadron and loaded bouncing bombs, which were different. He…
Interview with Martin Arthur Catty
Martin Catty grew up in London and was evacuated, with his school, to Westward Ho! at the beginning of the war. He completed a short training course at Cambridge University in 1942 and joined the Royal Air Force. After training, he flew 40…
Interview with John Holtham
At the age of 15, John ran away from home, lied about his age and joined the British Army. In 1917 he joined the Royal Flying Corps, qualified as a pilot and volunteered to join the Royal Naval Air Service. When the Second World War broke out, he…
Interview with Fred Hooker. Two
Fred Hooker was a mid-upper gunner on 102 Squadron at RAF Pocklington, where he flew three operations before being shot down. Born in Hartley Wintney in 1924, Fred’s first experience of the RAF was visiting RAF Odiham as a member of the Air…
Interview with Harry Hooper
As a child, Harry Hooper enjoyed watching the planes at Heston Airfield. He volunteered for the RAF in 1939 and began training to be a pilot. He flew with 115 Squadron and undertook operations over Northern France and Germany using Gee, including…
Interview with Jack and Jean Howes
Jack Howes was born in 1933 in Nottingham. His father was a machine engineer and by the start of the war they were living in Lincoln where he worked for Ruston-Bucyrus. His father was then transferred to Grantham where he lived during the week. His…
Interview with Janet Hughes, One
Janet Hughes’ father, Reginald Charles Wilson, volunteered for the RAF in August 1941. In January 1942, he was posted to America under the Arnold training scheme and was later re-mustered to train as a navigator in Canada. After forming a crew at…
Interview with Janet Hughes. Two
After flying as a spare, Reginald Wilson (Hughes’ father) formed a new crew and completed their first operation to Berlin on the 29th December 1943. During their second operation to Berlin on the 20 January 1944, the aircraft was shot down. Upon…