Browse Items (133 total)
- Contributor is exactly "Carolyn Emery"
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Interview with Eddie Humes
During the war, Eddie Humes flew as a navigator on Lancasters with 514 Squadron. In May 1939, he chose to join the RAF instead of going to work in the mines. He was initially expected to be posted as a rigger on aircraft but was then sent to a…
Interview with Douglas Reed
Douglas Reed was working in the Town Clerk's Department at Goole when he volunteered to serve in the RAF. After completing operational training at RAF Peplow he was posted to 166 Squadron at RAF Kirmington. He flew operations over Germany before…
Interview with Douglas "Jim" James
Douglas (Jim) James was born in India and returned to England when he was nine. After school, he joined the RAF as an air gunner, forging his father’s signature on the application. Jim carried out twenty nine operations on 460 Squadron, flying in…
Interview with Doris Reddish
Doris Reddish attended Sleaford High School followed by commercial college. She worked at Moore, Cooper and Burkett’s in Market Rasen until she joined the Royal Observer Corps. She trained for aircraft recognition in Lincoln then served as a table…
Interview with Don Sutherland. Two
Don was brought up in Newcastle, where he worked for a number of years. He attended a meeting a year before the war began, about alternatives to war and that war didn’t have to be accepted as inevitable. Don joined a community which organised…
Interview with Don Sutherland. One
Don’s father was Scottish and his mother came from the west coast of England. They moved to Coventry, where Don was born. When he was eight, they moved to Newcastle-on-Tyne, where his father worked in armaments. Don left school at 15 and half and…
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 Dennis Kirk. Two
Dennis Kirk was born in Barkston 1920, and lived on a farm near Plungar. He recalls when the war started, the War Executive Committee told farmers what to produce; he also talks about the Land Army. Being in a reserved occupation, he joined the Home…
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 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 Colin Hynd
Colin Hynd joined the RAF in November 1943. Upon completing initial training, he was posted to RAF St Athan, where he trained as a flight engineer. He struggled to bond with his first crew, so instead worked as an instructor, before joining a…
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 Coby Van Riel
Coby Van Riel was aged about six when the Germans invaded Holland. She lived in a fishing port area of The Hague, where her father had numerous jobs to make ends meet in the difficult days before the war and her mother ran a chemist shop. She…
Interview with Charles Parker
Charles Parker was part of the Fast Night Striking Force of Number 8 Group, Pathfinder Squadron in Bomber Command, flying in Mosquitos. He tells of “crewing up” in September 1943 as a 21 year old, his near miss with a Mosquito from 1409 Met…
Interview with Cecil Parsons
Cecil Parsons was born in 1918 in Victoria, Australia. He volunteered for the Royal Australian Air Force in 1939 and trained as a pilot in New South Wales and Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme before being posted to England in 1940. He…
Interview with Brian Hutson
Brian Hutson was a child during the war. He remembers his father, who worked on building airfields and delivering air raid shelters. He remembers his childhood, sleeping in a shelter and listening to aircraft, air raids, blackouts, playing with…
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 Bob Smith
Bob Smith was born in Brisbane, Australia. He recalls moving to the family farm in 1932 and being a member of the Air Cadets during his school years. Upon leaving school, Smith undertook training as a bank clerk. Following the events of Pearl…
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 Bill Viollet
Warrant Officer Bill Viollet was born in Reigate in Surrey in 1921, the second oldest of four boys. His brother, Bob, joined the Royal Air Force and Bill wanted to follow him into the service. Bill wanted to be aircrew so he trained as a wireless…
Interview with Bill Lucas. Two
Bill Lucas DFC was born on the 16 January 1917 and lived in Upper Tooting. He left school at the age of 15 and went to work in an Insurance Company, before joining the Royal Air Force in 1939. Bill was sent to 16 EFTS at Derby and then to an Advanced…
Interview with Bill Lucas. One
W E (Bill) Lucas joined the Royal Air Force in 1940, where he trained as a fighter pilot flying Miles Magisters and Miles Masters, before being posted to RAF Lossiemouth and moving into Bomber Command where he flew the Vickers Wellington 1C. He flew…
Interview with Betty Welton
Betty Welton was born in 1924. She left school at the age of 14 and, at the age of 17 and a half, joined the Women’s Land Army. She saw this as an opportunity to escape her home circumstances. On receiving her papers, she travelled from her home…
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 Bernie Harris. Two
Bernie Harris joined the Air Training Corps and volunteered for the Royal Air Force, joining in April 1943 and training to become an air gunner. Mentions his father serving in the Royal Flying Corps. Witnessed the London Blitz as a young boy.…