Browse Items (27 total)
- Contributor is exactly "Cathie Hewitt"
Sort by:
This is why I joined the RAF
A poem written in December 1942 after her first love was shot down over France. After his death Betty resolved to join the Royal Air Force and became a wireless operator. According to a note, she later found out that some of what she wrote down went…
The day I reviewed the German army
The memoir details the events after Sergeant George Reid Williamson baled out of his Lancaster over Chateau-Thierry. After hiding in a wood for a few days, he met a local farmer who took him back to the farmhouse for food and a large overcoat. While…
No 9 course air gunners
Group portrait of 14 aircrew all with air gunner’s brevets formally arranged in three ranks, five seated, the rest standing. The man in the middle of the front row is wearing a peaked cap while the rest are in side caps. The group is in grass yard…
Letter to Mrs Miller from Alan Robson
Alan Robson writes to Mrs Miller from M.- Stammlager 1X A telling her he flew with her son Teddy and expects her to hear bad news.
Letter to Mr Woolgar
R Stubbs writes from RAF Scampton to Mr Woolgar informing him that his son has been rescued and is at the Royal Naval Hospital in Portsmouth. He advises that he will be granted leave after he has returned to the squadron.
Letter to his mother from George Wilson
Letter from George Wilson to his mother enclosing a letter to Irene, and asking her to save it and give it to her should anything happen to him. On the reverse 'PRIVATE'.
Kaleidoscope – the morning after - 1943
![MBartlettA[Ser#-DoB]-150520-01.jpg](https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/square_thumbnails/94/890/MBartlettA[Ser -DoB]-150520-01.jpg "MBartlettA[Ser#-DoB]-150520-01.jpg")
Five verse poem describing feelings the next morning after a harrowing night operation. Describes emotions and surprise that the crew survived.
Interview with the family of John Edward Ayres
John Edward Ayres flew operations as a flight engineer with 427 Squadron.
Interview with Sidney Bunce
Sidney Bunce grew up in Buckinghamshire and worked in a butchers and a dairy. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force aged 18 and trained as a flight mechanic engineer. He served with 115 Squadron at RAF Witchford and at RAF Wratting Common with 195…
Interview with Ronald George Doble
Ron Doble grew up in London and joined the Air Training Corps and the fire watchers when war was declared. He volunteered for the Air Force when he was 18 and trained as an air gunner. He talks about the conditions in his turret and the mishaps he…
Interview with Ron Tomlin
Ron Tomlin grew up in Birmingham and was an apprentice carpenter before working in a munitions factory. He volunteered for the Air Force at 18, and after training, flew operations as a bomb aimer with 10 Squadron. His aircraft was forced to ditch in…
Interview with Richard Harrison
Richard Harrison was born in Germany to an English father and German mother and grew up in Gloucester. He served in the Home Guard and the Air Training Corps. He joined the Royal Air Force and served as a clerk at RAF Tempsford before being posted to…
Interview with Philip Batty
Philip Batty grew up in Walsall. He discusses the death of his older brother Dennis, a wireless operator with 226 Squadron, early in the Second World War. Philip volunteered for aircrew. After training, he was posted to 50 Squadron at RAF Sturgate as…
Interview with Gerald McPherson
Gerald McPherson grew up in Australia and was working in banking before he volunteered for the Royal Australian Air Force. He flew operations as a rear gunner with 186 Squadron.
Interview with George Holmes
George was born in Mansfield and was bought up by his Grandparents until he was seven when he moved back to his parents in Leicester where his Father ran a coffee shop. He was a semi-professional musician playing violin, trumpet and mandolin. He…
Interview with Elizabeth Eady
Elizabeth Eady grew up in Leicestershire and worked in a factory manufacturing parachutes before she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. After her training, she served as a telephonist at RAF Skellingthorpe and RAF Waddington. She was discharged…
Interview with Donald Keith Fraser, One
Donald Fraser grew up in Fifeshire, and worked in forestry until he volunteered into the RAF in 1942, aged eighteen. He trained as a flight engineer and completed a tour of operations with 101 Squadron. He recalls operations to Berlin, being hit by…
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 Charles Henry Clarke. One
Charles volunteered for the RAF when he was 17 and trained as a bomb aimer at RAF North Luffenham. After qualifying, he was posted to 619 Squadron at RAF Woodhall Spa. He was shot down on his 18th operation and he became a prisoner of war. He talks…
Interview with Betty Bascombe
Betty grew up in Cardiff and worked in the Royal Ordinance factory. Her first husband, Ron joined the Royal Air Force as a flight engineer. She talks about receiving the telegram, stating that Ron was missing and later finding out that he had been…
Interview with Arthur Loudon
Arthur Loudon was born and raised in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia. He talks about his early life, jobs and family, before he enlisted in 1943, aged nineteen, into the Royal Australian Air Force. He was trained as a navigator at various…
Interview with Allen Geoffrey Gould
Allen Gould grew up in Bournemouth and worked for the Danish Bacon company until volunteering for the Royal Air Force. He completed 32 operations as a flight engineer with 620 Squadron from RAF Fairford. Post war, he married his wife, who was…
Daylight bombing of Pula harbour
Aerial inclined photograph of the harbour of Pula, centered on Otočić Sveti Andrija. A big smoke cloud is rising from Otok Katerina: other explosions are visible on land and water. A splash marks the crash of a B-24.
On the reverse:…
On the reverse:…
Course 71 navigators
The class book for 71 Navigators course, March - July 1943. Cover includes course details and photograph of an Anson in flight over the airfield with landing gear down. Contains the list of names of the 19 students who completed the course as well as…
Beeston airman believed killed
Sergeant Edward Milling's wife has been informed that his husband is believed to have been killed over Germany. Details of his peacetime employment are provided.