2
25
51
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1724/29008/SNolanJF150621v10046.2.jpg
b94ab9e011f35872423efff7e73aa9b7
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Nolan, Frank. Work folder
Description
An account of the resource
Twenty eight items. Folder containing work related correspondence and ministry of aircraft manufacture, aeronautical inspection directorate process reports.
Date
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2016-05-17
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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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.
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Nolan, JF
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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[crest]
A.I.D. GROUP OFFICE,
A.V. ROE & CO. LIMITED,
GREENGATE, MIDDLETON,
MANCESTER.
4th October, 1945.
PERS/TGG.
Mr. J.F.Nolan
c/o Inspector in Charge, A.I.D.,
Messrs. A.V.Roe & Co Ltd.,
[underlined] GREENGATE.[/underlined]
Dear Nolan,
I have received your letter pointing out you are an ex-service man and I quite agree you should have some preferential treatment regarding retention on the Department.
I have forwarded your letter to the “Powers that Be” for their consideration and will let you know in due course, the result of same.
Your sincerely,
[signature]
GH.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter to Frank Nolan from T G Green, A.I.D office A V Roe
Description
An account of the resource
Writes that he agrees that Nolan should have preferential treatment regarding retention as he was an ex-servicemen. He would pass letter to "powers that be".
Creator
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T C Green
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-10-04
Format
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One page typewritten letter
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
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SNolanJF150621v10046
Coverage
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Civilian
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Manchester
England--Lancashire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-10-04
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/325/11350/MSaundersAC295399Arm-170201-02.2.jpg
938c255e8860df7acb3584681ba6cd94
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Saunders, Sandy
Arthur Courtenay Saunders
Arthur C Saunders
Arthur Saunders
A C Saunders
A Saunders
Description
An account of the resource
Seven items. The collection consists of a log book, an oral history interview and extensive medical records as well as photographs and a report. Dr Arthur Courtenay "Sandy" Saunders (1922-2017, 295329 Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) received extensive burns after an aircraft crash in September 1945 and underwent experimental maxillo-facial surgery, as a member of the Guinea-pig Club.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sandy Saunders and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-02-01
Rights
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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.
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Saunders, AC
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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COMPANY COMMANDERS REPORT [inserted] 94 [/inserted]
1st Month This Cadet works hard yet is easy going and does not realise the importance of discipline and command. Hard work and experience should give him the confidence that he requires.
4 Sep 43 [initialled]
2nd Month He is young and impetuous but has guts and determination although he has still a lot to learn in man management and discipline. He must be willing to accept all orders with a smile and then will be in a better position to command.
He has a fair tactical knowledge. 23 Sep 43.
3rd Month
4th Month
5th Month
6th Month
[signature]
Major,
Officer Commanding “A” Company,
165th Officer Cadet Training Unit (G.P)
COMMANDING OFFICER’S REMARKS
Category D
He is impetuous, but has guts determination and works hard. Inclined to a little impetuous at present. His sense of discipline should improve with experience.
[signature]
LIEUT.COLONEL.
COMD 165TH INF. O.C.T.C
Date 28 SEP 1943
Cadet’s Initials and date [indecipherable] 29/9/43
(15301) Wt.19789/310 40,000 7/40 A.& E. W. Ltd. Gp.698
(16360) Wt.32091/1056 40,000 11/40 A.& E. W. Ltd. Gp.698 Forms/B.2616/1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Sandy Saunders' Officer Cadet Report
Description
An account of the resource
Report written by Major W Lacy, Sandy Saunders' commanding officer on his progress as a cadet. He is described as 'young and impetuous but has guts and determination' and is told to develop greater discipline.
Creator
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W Lacy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-09-28
Format
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One typewritten sheet
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Service material
Identifier
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MSaundersAC295399Arm-170201-02
Coverage
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British Army
Temporal Coverage
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1943-09
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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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.
Contributor
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Georgie Donaldson
Steve Baldwin
aircrew
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1272/17684/BBrookerWHBrookerWHv1.2.Pdf
24729bb5b19388c22accd4ab9136516e
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Brooker, William Harry
W H Brooker
Miller James
J Miller
Description
An account of the resource
11 items. The collection concerns brothers in law James Miller (b. 1919) and
William Harry Brooker (b.1920). It contains propaganda leaflets, two photographs, a NSDAP Car flag, documents and a memoir.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Ann Brookfield and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-04-02
Rights
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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.
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Brooker, WH-Miller, J
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] INTRODUCTION [/underlined]
This is the World War II service history of RAAF Flight Lieutenant W H Brooker, who was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross, and also mentioned in Despatches.
After the War Service he was awarded a Diploma of Accountancy and was admitted to the status of AASA and is Certified Practising Accountant. [inserted] AUDITOR 3335 [/inserted]
He was born at Lameroo South Australia on 3rd April 1920. He completed his education in 1934 and was awarded the Dux of the Lameroo Higher Primary School.
Typed for Mr Brooker by Mrs Rhonda Copper
[page break]
[underlined] MY HISTORY WITH BOMBER COMMAND OF THE RAF [/underlined]
I will commence at the beginning of my time on the RAAF, and my World War II service in Bomber Command.
I volunteered for aircrew in the RAAF about June or July 1940, and was called up for the service about 27th February 1941. The entry at that time was called 12 Course: this means the Empire Training Scheme commenced about Jan/Feb 1940, representing an in-take each month. Training took place in Australia, Canada, Rhodesia, Kenya and South Africa. I believe some training did occur in England; but most English trainees were sent overseas, mainly to Canada. I do not think any came to Australia.
The trainees were allotted to specific courses – Pilot, Observer/Navigator, and Wireless Operator/Air Gunner. Certain numbers of Australian trainees were sent to Canada, but after some initial training of about 6 weeks in Australia. The courses for pilots were held at Initial Flying Training Schools. Observers/Navigators went to other places, and Wireless Operators, Gunners went to other places also. The whole course took each category about 6 months. I went to Pearce, WA for initial training – then Ballarat for wireless training, then to Pt Pirie for gunnery, and flew in Fairey Battle aircraft. Observers also went there for bombing training.
I believe that flying training was not undertaken in England, due to the airfields being required for offence, and defensive purposes, and probable to give the rest of the Empire something to do, and of course, the space available.
Of course another reason is the terrible weather in England, especially in the winter months, and the industrial haze. Visibility was very much impaired. In fact, flying training at Operational Training Units (OTUS) could not be undertaken for several days at a time.
1
[page break]
The training in Australia to passing out stage, and the awarding of wings and promotion, took about 6 months. Some were promoted to the Commissioned rank of Pilot Officer, while the remainder became Sergeants.
I believe most of the newly qualified personnel were sent overseas to the United Kingdom, while a lesser number were retained in Australia, to become instructors, or go on to Squadrons, where they would have had to undergo further training on the aircraft, with which each Squadron was equipped, and of course the duties and tactics of the Squadron.
Those who graduated as in gunnery without wireless qualifications, had to go to England, due to Australia not having a need for them. Our gunnery duties were performed by the wireless/air gunner, but only in Beauforts.
Those who went to England were drafted to the Royal Air Force operational training units, for a course of instruction on the aircraft that they would be flying, on operations. These courses lasted several months due to the poor weather. In Australia it would have been about two months or less.
The main OTU for Australians was No 27, located at Lichfield in the Trent Valley. There was also a satellite airfield located at Church Broughton – near Derby.
Bomber Command had about 5 or 6 of these stations. There are located towards the midland, or centre of England, and in Scotland. In fact due to bad weather, several courses were transferred to Lossiemouth, Scotland. I should have said that on arrival in England, we were sent to holding units to live, until vacancies became available and the various OTU. Australians went to Bournemouth on the Channel coast; later this holding unit was transferred to Brighton. I spent about 2 1/2 months at Bournemouth.
2
[page break]
I and several others arrived at 27 OTU Lichfield, in the Trent Valley, on 13th January 1942, but were immediately transferred to a satellite holding camp about 20 miles away. It was a farm called ‘Kings Standing’, supposedly owned by the Prince of Wales. It was very poor, cold, wet and snowed; however we were only there for about 3 or 4 weeks. You can now see that there was a terrific lot of waiting and wasting of time. It would seem that the flow of personnel was quicker, than the absorption rate and getting personnel into operations.
Eventually my group got into real training at Lichfield with classroom subjects on the aircraft, being Wellington Mark IC, being taught the various parts and stations in the aircraft, and of course gunnery. We had a ground rear turret with two Browning 303 machine guns, with belt feed at the rate of about 1150 rounds per minute. The turret could be rotated and the guns elevated, and depressed. We did go to a firing range with turret mounted on a trailer, and being of hydraulic operation, it was powered by a Ford 10HP engine. The ammunition was stored or packed in four containers within the turret. The turrets could be used to measure the wind shift. The guns were sighted on an object on the full beam, and there was a scale on the fixed part of the turret ring, that gave a reading for the Navigator. These engines were widely used for powering searchlights, and as hauling winches for barrage balloons and anti aircraft guns.
Besides being taught gunnery, we had subjects on parachute drill, harness and handling of parachutes, and stowage; entry and exit from aircraft; aircraft identification and recognition; ditching procedure and dinghy drill; how to speak to; and answer the other members of the crew, and the correct patter, or other matters.
Ground subjects would have been aircraft recognition during day and nights. It was necessary to identify between a Messerschmidt 109, Hurricane, Spitfire, Beaufighter Mosquito, V Junkers 88, and later a US Thunderbolt and Focke Wulf 190. We were told of tactics, when caught in searchlights and anti aircraft fire, barrage balloons, and icing of wings (it changes the shape of the aero-foil). Also exits for parachuting and ditching, and getting into the dinghies.
3
[page break]
Also getting into the aircraft on the ground and out, while the engines are running; persons were known to walk into a spinning propeller.
At the end of training at an OUT [sic], the crews were sent on a cross-country exercise. One of the final was at St Tugwell. They flew to St Tugwell, an uninhabited small island in the Irish Sea.
The bomb aimers were able to drop several live bombs, and after that the height was reduced, so that the gunners could fire at the rocks and seagulls.
Reporting to the pilot and crew on what was observed, such as flash, searchlights and attacking fighter aircraft. Of course other categories were undergoing their specialist training, on ground subjects.
After a few weeks, pilots were told to get a crew together. This was done by approaching people they knew. First selection was probably Navigator, and then Wireless operators. At this state [sic] I must say that some navigators became bomb aimers, and had to get used to gunnery at short notice, as they occupied the front turret; and last, the rear gunner, unless he had become known to others. This made up a crew of 5.
Pilots would have had a mixture of ground subject and actual flying, as the latter would have taken longer, especially in the poor weather. The crew of the Wellington would have been made up of instructor pilot, trainee pilot, instructor wireless operator, and instructor rear gunner. The training was what was called circuits and bumps; ie take off circuits and landing taxiing, about 6 times in a lesson.
4
[page break]
[underlined] HISTORY OF BOMBING OR DROPPING BOMBS FROM AIRCRAFT [/underlined]
This had its beginning during the First World War. At the end of the War the British had to decide what direction the Armed Service should go, and in view of the post war reconstruction for the civil population, made it necessary to cut back in finances from the armed forces.
For example, the army commands decided that tanks were only a passing phase; similarly machine guns, and that money would not be spent on those two branches.
Aircraft had been under the command of the Navy and Army, and these two arms would like to continue that way. The Navy and Army were much against aircraft becoming a separate arm of attack or defense, even after WW1, although on 1st April 1918, the Royal Air Force was established as a separate arm. The Army and Navy were against it, probably due to the great expense that was necessary to provide aircraft and all the support activities.
It was after the war that many countries were put under the control of France and Britain. Several of these came to Britain, Palestine, Trans Jordan, Mesopotamia (Iraq) etc. The French got Syria and Lebanon, and we (Australia) got New Guinea. The three armed service were permitted to express their desire and cost. The RAF won, due to the personnel, costs and efforts. This is when aerial bombing both by day and night was developed. It created great opportunities for flying, training, development of aircraft, bombs, and of course the accuracy and development of release mechanism, and the bombsights.
The pilots who took part in these operations [inserted] w[/inserted]ere the same personnel who, on their return and in the 1930’s became the senior officers to command the RAF during World War II. Such names come to mind as, Charles Portal, Arthur Harris, and the Hon. Peter Cochcrane, Lord Trenchard.
5
[page break]
After passing out of the OTU the crew reverted [inserted] were posted [/inserted] to the various squadrons equipped with
2-engined aircraft. This was before the 4-engined machines became available in greater numbers. The type we had were Mark 111 Wellingtons with Bristol Hercules radial engines, with sleeve valves 14 cylinders in two rows. They were faster than we had trained on, and had 4 gunned rear turrets; and ammunition was stored in bins about mid way along the fuselage, and came along in chutes to the turret, up through the floor. These aircraft were also equipped with GEE, a radar navigation aid. This meant that the navigators had to be trained.
On arrival at the squadron at Snaith, Yorkshire, the new crew were sent on short training flights to become accustomed to the new surroundings, and the later aircraft and engines.
At OTU our crew consisted of four Australians, Sergeants and English Pilot Officer. The first operation was for the new pilot to do a second dickie trip with an experienced crew.
It was on this trip that our pilot became very sick, and had to be taken off operations. He later was discharged, but was accepted by ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary). These pilots ferried aircraft from maintenance depots to squadrons etc. Two well-known pilots were Amy Johnson and Jim Mollinson.
These pilots became very expert and versatile and could fly many various makes and types of aircraft.
I was on the tarmac when two ATA pilots came to take two Beaufighters away – one was a woman. But the two aircraft were different; one had Bristol Hercules 14 cylinder radial engines in two rows; the other had Rolls Royce V12 engines. I heard them say, “I have never flown one of those”. So they decided the woman would take the conventional one, with the radial engines. So the man got the manual out and started perusing it; then said “Well, if I get into trouble I will read it then”.
6
[page break]
This resulted in us being a headless crew; however it did not last for long, and we got an English Sergeant, who proved to be very good. He was a spare who had lost his crew when he was off; be he had about ten trips to he credit, so we had him until he clocked up his 30 trips for the tour. He was the pilot who took our next pilot on his second dickie. We were matched with an Australian, he was a Flight Lieutenant who remustered from ground duties and kept his rank.
We have better wireless equipment. All aircraft of the RAF were equipped with an automatic signaling device, known as Identification Friend or Foe (IFF). This was uses over England, and after crossing the North Sea or English Channel, was switched off to prevent the Germans homing on to it. On the return it was switched on when nearing the English coast. Failure resulted in the anti aircraft batteries starting to shoot.
Our first sortie was to Emden on the night of 22nd June 1942 from 23.25 hours, for 6 hours 15 minutes uneventful.
The second sortie: 25th June 1942 from 23.30 hours for 6 hours 40 minutes to Bremen. On the way back we were caught in a cone of searchlight; at about 14,000 ft we twisted etc and lost height and I could fire at searchlights. We were hit by light tracer flak, and sustained a hole in a petrol tank at the top.
The next operation was termed “Gardening”, and consisted of dropping mines in the Kiel Canal, from about 700 feet, on parachutes so as not to damage them and keep them live, until a ship passed over them. We carried two at about 2000 Ibs each. This type of attack was fairly frequent and rendered substantial results. The time was 3 hours 50 minutes after take off at 0145 on 8th July 1942.
All my operations were at night.
7
[page break]
The next trip was on the same day, and with take off at 23.35 hours to Wilhelmshaven for 5 hours 35 minutes. We were chased by a Mersserschmidt 109 but were able to take evasive action.
Still during July we went to Duisberg three times. On one occasion we sighted a Junkers 88 twin-engine night fighter, but we took evasive action. It was the tactic not to allow an attack before the range closed. Of courses we do not fire; the tracer bullets would have shown our position. It was said that the Germans, on identification of the bombers, did not want to take on the four guns.
On another mission on 11th August 1942, we went to bomb Mainz from 2215 hours for a flight of 6 hours 30 minutes. We saw several aircraft go down. One was on fire and we saw 3 parachutes appear. The rest of this story had a sequel. I was sent on a gunnery course, and we were asked to tell of our experiences; so I mentioned the parachutes, and sitting next to me the person said, “I was one of them”.
To continue, he landed safely in France and was rescued by the French, and he was passed on to various locations, and was back in England within 19 days. This resulted in him not being used, to fly over France and Germany again.
Other sorties were to Frankfurt; during the trip I saw a Focke Wulf 190, a single radial engine German fighter. It was the first sighting of this type of aircraft at night. All crews were interrogated on their return. My story resulted in me being called by the Intelligence Officer the next afternoon.
We went to Kassal, Saarbrucken twice, Karlsruhe, Bremen (sustained holes from flak, anti aircraft fire), Duisberg and Bremen again.
Mine laying among the Friesian Isles twice, and St Nazaire (Bay of Biscay)) twice, Saarbrucken again.
Lorient mine laying.
8
[page break]
On 8/11/42 at 1740 hours we went to Hamburg for a flight of 6 hours and 30 minutes. You will notice that take off was quite early and this could be achieved due to the less hours of daylight. This was my thirtieth operation and resulted in me being ‘screened’, the term used for term expired aircrew.
The crews were quite often broken up and sent to operational trainings as instructors for a rest period. I went back to Lichfield, Staffordshire. I was sent on a specialist course at a training unit to do an air gunnery instruction course, which lasted about 2 months. On completion of the course I returned to Lichfield, but after a few days I was sent to the Satellite Church Broughton airfield, as an instructor. The station was not very large, only about ten aircraft, being Wellingtons. It was not very far from Derby. There was one activity of interest there being the testing of Gloster Meteors Mark 1 and Mark 11, being pure jet aircraft. As an aside, there was a Wellington fitted with a jet engine in the tail of the fuselage as test aircraft. Part of the test was to feather the two piston engines, and fly just of the jet, I believe it was quite fast.
The Commanding Officer was an Australian Wing Commander, Ken Baird from Ballarat, an early appointment of an Australian.
On 3/10/1943 I was sent on a short gunnery course of 3 weeks, mainly flying against attacking aircraft.
At the end of October, I was sent to a heavy conversion unit, to meet a new crew of Australian and one Englishman, to be trained for Lancasters. The five Aussies had just passed out of 27 OUT on Wellingtons at Lichfield. The Englishman was our Flight engineer who had remustered from a fitter. This course took about two months; part of familiarization on the ground and flying take off circuits, landing, and later cross-country, mainly at night.
9
[page break]
In fact, our first 4-engined flight was in a Halifax for about 3 trips. It can be mentioned that the instructor pilots were, of course, screened from operations and could fly either Halifax or Lancasters. We were at two stations in Lincolnshire at Skellingthorpe and Swinderby. Our conversions finished on 23/12/1943 and we were posted to 463 RAAF Squadron at Waddington, Lincolnshire about 3 miles south of the city of Lincoln.
We were one of the foundation crews of 463, which was formed by taking several crews from 467 RAAF, and then building up to about 20 crews each. 467 had been stationed at Bottesford, which is a bit further inland, and was a new war-time airfield. Waddington was and still is, a permanent station being built up during the First World War. In fact it was an airfield before WW1. The citizens of Lincoln are very proud of Waddington airfield, and the staff have in more recent times been granted the freedom of the city.
As an aside, Lincoln has been classed as a City for several hundred years. The lord Mayor carries the title of Right Worship; even the lord Mayor of London only has the title of Worshipful. The Australian Sister City of Lincoln is Port Lincoln.
Our operations with 463 Squadron commenced on 2/1/1944; but we did not complete the mission due to icing, and could not gain the height of 20,000 feet, so we returned, as we could only reach about 12,000. So we jettisoned the load safe over Holland. The next trips were to Brunswick, Magdebur, then 4 to Berlin. On the second to Berlin we shot down a Focke Wulf 190 single engine fighter from a range of about 40 yards. The trips took about 8 to 9 hours.
Other targets were Liepzig, Stuttgart twice, Schweinfurt, Augsburg.
After these I went to the Central Gunnery School to partake in a specialist course for gunnery leaders for three weeks during the month of April.
10
[page break]
On my return to 463 Squadron my crew was still there, they had survived about 10 operations; this put us about level in the count. They had to do 30 sorties and I only 20.
The targets now switched from Germany to France.
8th April 1944, we bombed an airfield near Brest. Other targets were Lille (railway yards), Boug Leopold, St Martins camp, gun emplacements at Cherbourg. These were coastal batteries and you can now see we were preparing for the “D” Day landing on the 6th June 1944.
It might be mentioned that larger bombs were capable of splitting the gun barrels, and more accurate.
The strategy was to put coastal batteries out of action and to hamper transport to the French coast. Also to put the Luftwaffe out of action, which was virtually achieved by D Day – done by attacking airfields and destroying the aircraft on the ground, and the facilities.
Another target was the railway marshalling yards at Saumur. We did not drop our bombs, but were ordered to return with the load, probably due to an earlier wave about to destroy the target.
3rd June we bombed a wireless station at Cherbourg. The bomb loads would be increased for those close targets, and be varied to high explosive 500 pound. The load would have probably been 16,000 pounds – 8 tons. The petrol would have been reduced from 2154 gallons to perhaps 1000 gallons.
The weather was very poor in early June; and landing barges etc were loaded, and took refuge from the high seas around Isle of Wight. The weather cleared toward the 5th June and improved further to permit the landings and flights to be made.
11
[page break]
Our target was gun emplacements at Pierre du Mont. Our take off was at 0243 on 6th June and took 4 hours 29 minutes. After bombing we headed southwest to be clear of other operations. On the return, an American Thunderbolt fighter followed for about 10 minutes, probably a bit lost, to access the course home.
Again on 6th June at 2319 yours [sic] we went to a road junction at Argentan, this was to delay the German reinforcements coming to counter the allied armies in Normandy.
Other sorties were to Rennes railway yards and Orleans railways. The latter on 10th June was my last of 52 missions.
Then on leave when returning to Lichfield.
Here I can mention that once aircrew personnel had commenced operations, they were granted leave of 1 week every 6 weeks, and this continued until the end of the war.
Aircrew was given a special flying meal before an operation, and a similar one on return. The menu was always bacon and eggs. Some crew members were given coffee to drink and biscuits to consume during the flight. However this was a bit difficult to handle – take off gloves, pour out into top of thermos flask in total darkness, and minus 40 degrees Celsius. Of course there was always the danger of an attack. The crew had to be on the watch and alert at all times. The gunners rotated their turrets from side to side all the time, and the mid upper could do a complete circle. The only crew member not watching the sky was the navigator, he was the only one in a lighted cubicle. The pilot would also need to watch the instruments, and the Engineer to keep checking the fuel levels, for the amount and transfer and for cross feeding. He had to complete the log.
The wireless-operator stood looking out the astrodome, if he was not required to listen out.
12
[page break]
After take off, the strategy was to climb to our operating height of about 20,000 feet to be above the range of light anti-aircraft fire, and increase the inaccuracy of the fire from larger caliber guns, also perhaps to make it more difficult for fighter aircraft.
Depending on the route to the target, we could still be climbing over the North Sea, but if the route were over Northern France, Belgium, Holland the climbing would have been over England.
The heavy anti-aircraft gun fire was close, when the puffs of black smoke from the shell bursts were at around our level; and closer if you could hear the shell bursts about the noise of the aircraft; and a real close one when the smell of the burst could be smelt even when an oxygen mask was worn.
Oxygen masks were worn all the time, because of the microphone for the intercommunication, within the aircraft. Oxygen was put on at about 5000 feet, although no real effects would be felt until about 10,000 were reached. It was usual for the pilot to call up each crew member about every 15 minutes. If no answer was received it was usually the wireless operator who would go to the position. The mid upper gunner was able to see whether the front and rear turrets were moving.
There were small portable oxygen bottles for use when crew members had to move about.
Searchlights, which I must mention briefly, were used to locate flying aircraft and could illuminate up to 20,000 feet, to aid night fighters and anti-aircraft fire. If searchlights had locked onto an aircraft and then went off, it was sign that a fighter attack may occur. In some instances a large number of lights may lock on; this was disconcerting, as they had a blinding effect and upset the pilots view of the instruments. The most frightening was if the aircraft was under cloud, as each light threw a shadow of the aircraft on the clouds.
13
[page break]
Up to now you may have been wondering how it was decided as to where the targets for Bomber Command would be aimed.
There were Committees of the Chiefs of Staff of the three services, and strategists, as to what would retard the enemy and aid other forces-army-navy. Such targets would be listed. Some that can be mentioned were shipping ports, u-boat facilities, transport, war factories, oil and mining, army, navy and Luftwaffe installations.
There were some targets that may be hard to hit, out of range; others the amount of damage that could be caused and the effort to be incurred to repair it. Bombing an airfield may not be of great result unless aircraft and buildings were destroyed. Bomb craters on the airfield could be reinstated within a few hours.
Alternatively factories could put out of action, or output was substantially reduced for several weeks, or remain as production reduced, for a considerable time.
Oil refineries would have to suffer direct hits and are reasonably small in unpopulated areas.
Populated areas did suffer damage and civilian deaths. This put a strain on other civilian activities, and caused the workers to miss out on work attendance while they attended to home type duties.
Having damaged a highly productive war production area such as the Ruhr Valley. After a series of raids such damage would take some time to repair, and bomber efforts would be directed elsewhere for some time, before it was seen to be useful to revisit those targets.
You will see that the targets that I’ve attacked were an attempt to retard the German war effort, and to take the war to the German people. There were some targets that were attacked that were an urgent nuisance. Like attacking the pocket battle ships as they progressed through the English Channel, and the battleship Bismark as it proceeded in the Atlantic.
14
[page break]
The Chief of Air Staff would have a short list of targets that should be visited provided the conditions were favourable.
The Squadrons would be notified by about 10am that operations were to be prepared for; this would include petrol load, bomb load and types of bombs. Other personnel would be advised of the target and route to be taken. The routes were planned to miss the heavily defended areas, and also to avoid night fighter airfields in close proximity.
The battle order was prepared and posted, so crews knew who were involved. After lunch the pilots and navigators were called to the briefing room for a pre briefing as to target and route. The pilots left early, while the navigators took an hour or so to prepare their charts.
Depending on the time of take off, the timing of the full briefing was fixed when all crew members attended. The Wing Commander named the target and showed the route; the Navigation Officer expanded on the route.
The Intelligence Officer told of the defences etc. The Meteorology Officer (not necessarily an RAF officer) told of the weather for take off etc, along the route, at the target area, the return route and landing.
The wireless operators were given the details of call signs and wave lengths etc on flimsy rice paper so that it could be eaten to destroy it.
During the afternoon an air test of an aircraft could be undertaken, especially if an aircraft had had some special work performed on it. This was limited to some degree due to the petrol being topped up, and the bombs had still to be loaded. The aircraft should be loaded if possible in daylight to observe the blackout.
Security – as soon as the operation was announced some telephone services around the airfield were cut. Public telephones in the base and in the streets and messes were cut.
15
[page break]
All aircraft were dispersed around the airfield to isolate them from an attack and to minimize any damage. It was therefore necessary to have buses or covered trucks with seating, to take the aircrews from the hangars or briefing rooms etc to the aircrafts.
On the return the transport picked up the crews to take them back to the briefing room for interrogation as to their efforts. Every aircraft carried a camera to photograph the result of their bombs. Flares were released to light the target as the bombs dropped, and the camera would run with shutter open until the falling time had elapsed. These photographs were assessed and the crews were told of the result.
In addition photography reconnaissance aircraft were dispatched to be over the target in daylight and take more photographs. Various aircraft were used such as Spitfire, Mosquitoes etc. A Murray Bridge pilot was on one of these units, David Rice. I believe he flew a Spitfire.
Spitfires were specifically prepared, no guns, no armor plate, to reduce weight. The rivets on the fuselage were rubbed down flush to reduce drag and the fuselage polished, no paint.
We were issued with special flying underwear and heated flying suits. The pilot, flight engineer and navigator were in a heated section of the plane, did not need anything special. We were also given an escaping kit to be used in the event of coming down in Europe. The kit contained a compass kit, buttons, war rations etc, money appropriate to the area over which the route took us.
Lectures were also given as to what to say when under enemy interrogations upon capture. The usual period of interrogation was only a day or two before transfer to prisoner-of-war camps.
16
[page break]
If you were able to evade capture, information was given as to how to behave and of course to obey the French Resistance, as to the route to be taken and how to travel. Of course Switzerland was a haven and arrangements were made to repatriate personnel. Another place to head was Spain, but it was further and the mountain range a barrier.
Information was also given to be wary of allied persons who become friendly and quizzed of secrets etc of operations. There were several known RAF personnel who had become stool pigeons, and were given favours by the Germans for information gleaned.
One of these was an RAF man called Flying Officer Metcalf-Freeman. The story of his end was that upon his arrival back in England he was arrested and put into prison for trial. Of course the pictorial media had a field day over this. Fancy a hero, after being in a POW camp for several years, not being allowed to return home to see his wife and family etc. Who saw the film – “The Great Escape” there was an informer in that.
During 1944 Waddington had two crews who become the newsreel photographers. These were both Australian crew. The 35mm camera was mounted in the front turret and the plane carried an extra person who probably gave some instruction to the front gunner. The film was a record of the bombing, and was shown in the London cinemas the next afternoon. One of the pilots was Keith Schutz from Kapunda or Eudunda, and now resides in the Modbury area.
The bomb carrying capacity of the several bombers was:
Wellingtons 4000 Ib crew of 5
Halifax 8000 Ib crew of 7
Mosquito 4000 Ib crew of 2
US Flying Fortress 4000 Ib crew of 10
Lancaster 16000 Ib crew of 7
Stirling 8000 Ib crew of 7 or 8
Now you which aircraft was the most effective for crew number involved.
17
[page break]
[underlined] Aids to Bombers [/underlined]
I mentioned GEE earlier. This was a radar device which had three transmitters in England separated by 100 miles or so. They each sent a signal that was picked up by the set in the aircraft, and the signals inspected on the screen, showed a position that could be plotted on a specifically prepared chart, to give the position over the earth. It was very accurate but its range was only 400-450 miles. The Germans devised a method to partially jam it. We were able to bomb on the position given by GEE.
Later a radar device came into being known as H2S. It was self-contained radar fitted to the underside of the fuselage and it scanned the earth like map reading. It would distinguish between water, land, and gave a picture. It could pick up ploughed fields against trees, forest or meadow. Not every Lancaster was fitted with it, and only squadrons used for making targets.
Talking of special squadrons. There was the pathfinder force made up of well-trained and experienced crews. They went off a few minutes before the main force with the purpose of locating the target, marking it with coloured flares or bomb blasted. They then flew around to assess the marking and report to the main force by RT as the aiming point.
Later developments were for the location and marking to be done by a Mosquito and even by Leonard Cheshire in a Mustang. These were done at lover level.
Another development was to use Mosquito night fighters to accompany the Lancasters, with the aim of getting the German night fighters. This operation was referred to as Intruders, and was quite successful.
18
[page break]
Some Mosquito bombers were fitted with a radar device known as Oboc. This was a navigation signaling system to correct the pilot’s course over the target-bombing run. It had a system of lights in the cockpit to indicate bombing run, and bomb bay doors open, and dropped the bombs, After that the pilot closed the bomb bay doors and turned for home.
A few Lancasters in 1943 and onwards were fitted out with extra wireless and media receivers and transmitters.
They carried extra crewmembers that could speak German, and listened out to hear the German ground controllers and night fighters. They were to give countermanding messages or false messages to confound the night fighters and send them off in the wrong direction. They would have known the target and route. This was called A.B.C. airborne cigar.
Another devise was called Tindal and this was a method of transmitting a noise over the German wavelengths so that the WT & RT (Wireless Telegraphy & Radar Transmission) could not be used. The noise was generated by a microphone fitted to one of the engines. Later it was fitted to the wireless operations gene motor, which was just as effective.
One of the most successful devices was called Window. This was a large number of tin foil strips cut to a certain length and about 1/16” wide. The length of the strip was cut so as to jam to enemy radar, to such an extent that the screens were a total blur of colour and could not show a target, and put the ground, night fighter and anti-aircraft radar, out of action. I think the first target was Hamburg and resulted in great destruction. Even the bitumen streets were alight. The wireless operator fed those bundles out through the flair chute when the target was being reached.
The aim was to cause the conflagration caused by the incendiary bombs. The bomb load consisted of blockbusters, incendiaries and high explosive.
19
[page break]
Incendiaries were packed into containers about 50-60 per container.
Just a short portion on the Commander in Chief, Air Chief Marshall, Sir Arthur Traver Harris. Some people did not like him because of his manner in some instances. However, these people in high places had to be very careful what they said about him and to whom.
We must not forget that Churchill and quite a number of others recognized he was a champion. This was even agreed and echoed by Roosevelt, General Arnold etc and later by Eisenhower when he was supreme Commander European theatre.
Bomber Command was divided into five main groups and all the Commanders were well-known and proven officers and had served with Harris for many years overseas and at home.
With the defeat of the Dutch, Belgians, and French etc and after the evacuation of the British Army from Dunkirk in 1940; only one force carried the war to the German people. This was Bomber Command, especially from 1942 to D Day, commanded by Harris.
METRIC CONVERSION
Feet to Metres x 0.3048
Miles to Kilometres x 1.609
Gallons to Litres x 4.544
Pounds to Kilograms x 0.4536
20
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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World War II service History of Flight Lieutenant WH Brooker DFC
Description
An account of the resource
WH Brooker volunteered in June or July 1940. He was called up on 27 February 1941 and trained in Pearce, Western Australia. On transfer to UK there were delays in further training.
Initially he served on Wellingtons at Snaith. He describes individual operations starting with Emden. After 30 operations he was transferred to an Operational Training Unit as an instructor, firstly to Lichfield then to Church Broughton. He then transferred to a Heavy Conversion Unit, training on Halifaxes and Lancasters, based at Skellingthorpe and Swinderby. He was then posted to Waddington with 463 Squadron, RAAF. After several operations he transferred to a specialist gunnery course before returning to 463. Bombing operations were switched to France to assist in hampering German reinforcements after D-day. He describes the various roles of the crew during a flight and how targets were decided by the High Command. He concludes with aids to bombers -GEE, H2S, Oboe and Pathfinders. Also he describes counter measures such as ABC, Tidal and Window.
This item was provided, in digital form, by a third-party organisation which used technical specifications and operational protocols that may differ from those used by the IBCC Digital Archive.
Creator
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WH Brooker
Format
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20 typed sheets
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
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BBrookerWHBrookerWHv1
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Australia
Western Australia
Victoria--Ballarat
Great Britain
England--Bournemouth
England--Brighton
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Kiel Canal
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Germany--Kassel
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Friesland
Germany--Hamburg
England--Lincoln
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Schweinfurt
Germany--Augsburg
France--Brest
France--Lille
Belgium--Leopoldsburg
France--Cherbourg
France--Saumur
France--Orléans
France--Rennes
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Braunschweig
Germany--Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Saarbrücken
Germany--Emden (Lower Saxony)
Victoria
France
Germany
Belgium
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Hampshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Sussex
France--Saint-Nazaire
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
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Georgie Donaldson
27 OTU
463 Squadron
467 Squadron
Air Transport Auxiliary
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
Beaufighter
bombing
Fw 190
Gee
H2S
Halifax
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hurricane
incendiary device
Ju 88
Lancaster
Me 109
Meteor
mine laying
Mosquito
Oboe
Operational Training Unit
Portal, Charles (1893-1971)
RAF Bottesford
RAF Church Broughton
RAF Lichfield
RAF Skellingthorpe
RAF Snaith
RAF Swinderby
RAF Waddington
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
searchlight
Spitfire
training
Wellington
Window
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1272/17692/MBrookerWH[Ser -DoB]-180402-04.Pdf
3b9047193742b850ace9da368c0472b6
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Brooker, William Harry
W H Brooker
Miller James
J Miller
Description
An account of the resource
11 items. The collection concerns brothers in law James Miller (b. 1919) and
William Harry Brooker (b.1920). It contains propaganda leaflets, two photographs, a NSDAP Car flag, documents and a memoir.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Ann Brookfield and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-04-02
Rights
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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
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Brooker, WH-Miller, J
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] PRODECURES AND LIFE OF AN AIR GUNNER WITH A LANCASTER SQUADRON [/underlined]
Our Crew arrived at RAAF Lancaster 463 Squadron from Swinderly Heavy Conversion Unit, on 27th December 1943, at Waddington, 3 miles south of the City of Lincoln in Lincolnshire. Waddington became an airfield before the First World War. In our time it had been updated with three concrete runways and sealed taxiing tracks and aircraft dispersal points. No 463 was a new squadron made up from RAAF 467 Squadron that had been at Bottesford, Leicestershire. This was done to create a base with RAF 50 Squadron at a satellite air field at Skellingthorpe, commanded by RAAF Wing Commander Arthur W Doubleday, from Grong Grong NSW.
Our crew was made up as follows:
Pilot Joe Freeman Orange NSW
Navigator Lance Wilson Geelong Vic
Wireless Operator John Bulmer Harden NSW
Bomb Aimer George Flanagan St Arnaud Vic
Rear Gunner James Frith Lismore NSW
Mid Upper Gunner Flying Officer William Brooker Lameroo SA
Flight Engineer Dave Callum RAF Newcastle UK
They were all sergeants doing their first tour. William Brookers was a Flying Officer on his second tour of 20 operations, the rest of them had to complete 30 operations. Flight Engineers were drawn from engine fitters who re-mustered to crew. Our Commanding Officer was Wing-Commander Rollo Kingsford-Smith, a nephew of Sir Charles.
The Station Commander and Base Commander was Group Captain Bonham-Carter RAF (later on an Air Commodore).
The decision as to when we operated and the targets were selected by the Commander-in-Chief, assisted by his staff at High Wycombe, the headquarters of RAF Bomber Command, Air Chief Marshall Sir Arthur T Harris.
The list of targets was composed by the War Cabinet. These would be German factories that produced U Boats, aircraft, guns, cannons, tanks, ships etc. for the German warfare. Other targets were oil, rail and road. There may be special targets such as find and sink the Bismarck, Tirpitz and other battleships.
The cities producing this were attacked (eg: Krupp in the Ruhr Valley). The main targets in Germany was attacked by up to 900 Lancaster bombers.
Mines were laid in U Boat harbour such as Lorient and Saint Nazaare. This was done at a height of 700 feet. The mines were lowered on parachutes to break the fall and exploded as a metal ship or U Boat passed over them.
All operations were made at night. No lights on except essential illumination.
The marking on 463 Squadron were JO and on 467 was PO.
The first letters of the alphabet became ‘A’ Flight while the rest became ‘B’ flight.
Our aircraft was JOT.
1
[page break]
All aircraft would be kept in the open at dispersal around the airfield. The ground staff worked there and had small shelter huts for the gear etc.
If a pilot wanted to air-test his aircraft he would do it early, so that any faults could be rectified.
Perhaps the fitter would go up too. The fuel tanker may be waiting to top up. Some of the fuel tankers were driven by the WAAF.
A general briefing may be at 13.30pm and would be attended by all crews flying, heads of Crew members, Commanding Officers, Meteorologist Officer (quite often a civilian), Intelligence Officer to advice of the enemy defences, guns and fighter aircraft.
Aircrew on operations were sent on leave for a week, every 6 weeks, and this continued after a tour of operations. Ground staff was only granted leave every twelve weeks.
Lancaster bombers had a fuel load of 2154 Imperial Gallons of 100% Octane petrol. They had 3 tanks in each wing. Fuel consumption was up to 1/2 gallon a minute.
The ground staff for a Lancaster would consist of:
2 Engine fitters, 2 Airframe fitters (for moving parts, wheels etc. Armourers for hydraulics and ammunition. Then in a group, Bomb Loaders, Navigation aids GEE H2S, Instrument Makers, Parachute packers and folders. Transport around airfield was by truck and bus also push bike.
If there had no been night flying, the previous night all our crews assembled at the flight office at Squadron Headquarters. The Pilots would go to their Flight Commanders, the Navigators would go to their Flight Navigators, they would be given something to do or be lectured. Similarly the wireless operators and bombardiers went to their leader’s office.
The message may be received, say, 9am or later, as to whether we would be operating. This Would come from the Commanders of Group Headquarters using dedicated phones. Afterwards Security would disconnect the public phones, as they would monitor all outgoing phone calls made from High Wycombe Bomber Command.
The Flight Sergeant in charge of services would be asked if aircraft would be available (i.e. serviceable).
By this time the target may not be divulged but the petrol load and bomb load would be. If the fuel load was 2154 gallons of 100 octane, it meant a long flight (eg: Berlin). The aircraft would stand at 3/4 full.
The fitters E (engine) would be run the engines and test. Fitters A (airframe) would be check all moving parts etc. The armourer would check ammunition etc, and as they were sorted and loaded on the trolley and aircraft.
By then it would be lunch time and Pilots and Navigators would assemble and be told the target. By now the Adjutant clerk to the Wing Commander would have the Battle Order printed and posted on the notice board.
2
[page break]
After lunch final arrangements would be made, aircrew meals at the Sergeants Mess times would be set.
Bomber Command specify the bomb load eg: size of the bombs and mixture including incendiaries. These were packed in canisters and held in by a bar of iron, that were released, allowing 4 1/2 pound bombs go, but the canisters came back.
Depending on the distance to be travelled for the night, it dictated the petrol load. A full load was 2154 gallons about 7 tons of 100 octane petrol.
If the aircraft sustained engine failure before the target, the operation, if over Germany, the bombs would be dropped if a target could be found and the operation would be aborted. A
Lancaster could fly unloaded on two engines but would gradually lose height.
There was specially constructed airstrip near the coast of East Anglia, to allow damaged aircraft to get down. It was of tarmac about 3 miles long a quarter mile wide. On hearing a radio call of “Mayday” or “SOS” a row of searchlights on each side would light up to cone or tunnel for the aircraft to pass under.
Our aircraft number was ME615. The letter may have significance to the factory where it was built.
The first aircraft to come to 463 Squadron came from the Jaguar Factory at Coventry.
Jaguar had their own airfield.
27/12/43, we were sent on a cross country training flight for 4 hours 10 minutes.
All new pilots had to do a “second dicky” to learn how an experienced crew went about their duties during an operation and listen to commentary. It was a quick course for a pilot to see how an operation progressed.
2/1/44 we were sent on our first operation to Berlin. However we had to abort over Holland due to glazed icing on the wings at 12,000 feet. This meant we could not climb to the desired height of 20,000 feet. This difficulty meant that we used fuel at a greater rate and may not get back from Berlin. I, as the experienced crew person, suggested we drop the bomb load, unarmed (safe) and return to base after 3 hours 55 minutes.
7/1/44 we were sent on a “bullseye”, consisting of a day flight to a target in the Irish Sea. It is a small rocky outcrop. This took 8 hours 15 minutes.
13/1/44 we did a test flight with the Flight Commander, Squadron Leader W Brill for 40 minutes.
On these flights the Navigator and Bombardier did not take part.
14/1/44 we went to Brunswick our first successful operation, for 5 hours 37 minutes.
3
[page break]
17/1/44 we did some day ground firing over The Wash for 53 minutes.
21/1/44 we went on operation to Magdeburg for 6 hours.
27/1/44 at 17.47pm we took longer on operation to Berlin for 8 hours and 55 minutes.
Joe Freeman had been commissioned as a Pilot Officer.
28/1/44 at 00.16am we took our own aircraft, T for TARE, on operation to Berlin. On approaching the target a German night fighter came close and the rear gunner shot it down. It was a Focke Wolfe 190.
30/1/44 we went to Berlin, taking off 17.19 hours and lasted 6.33 hours.
15/2/44 to Berlin, taking off 17.30 hours and arrived back at base after 6.58 hours, in our own aircraft JOT number ME615.
19/2/44 To Leipzig taking off at 23.54 hours. Landed after 7.01 hours being 6.05 hours on 20/2/44.
20/2/44 to Stuttgart, taking off 23.57 hours landed after 7.21 hours airborne 7.18 hours.
24/2/44 took off for Schweinfurt, but port inner engine was failing, returned on 3 engines after dropping bomb load. Airborne for 5 hours.
25/2/44 taking off in JOK ME614 for Augsburg, airborne from 21.30 hours for 7.25 hours.
1/3/44 in our aircraft, JOT ME 615, taking off at 23.29 hours for Stuttgart for 8.15 hours.
Then Flying Officer Brooker went on a Gunnery Leaders Course at Catfoss.
8/5/44 in JOT 615, rejoined my crew whom had a stand in during my absence. Taking off at 22.15 hours for Brest Airfield, airborne for 5.04 hours.
10/5/44 taking off at 22.16 hours for Lille Railways yards etc. For 2.39 hours. The bomb load would have been heavier and fuel load reduced. No block busters.
11/5/44 take off at 22.23 for Bourg Leopold for 3.37 hours.
Crew then went on 6 days leave.
18/5/44 taking off at 22.40 hours to St Martin’s for a trip of 3.24 hours.
31/5/44 taking off at 00.23 hours to Saumur marshalling yards. Airborne for 5.10 hours. On 1/6/44, however, we received an order to return with another bomb load.
4
[page break]
3/6/44 taking off at 12.55 hours for Cherbourg wireless installations for 3.34 hours duration.
6/6/44 D Day. Taking off in JO’L M130, for Pierre Du Mont, airborne for 4.29 hours. A gun emplacement near the coast.
8/6/44 to Rennes railway yards, airborne for 6.34 hours. Had to land away at Acklington and
10/6/44 returned back to Waddington base.
10/6/44 took off at 21.58 hours to attack Orleans railway yards. These were to retard Germany taking up positions in Normandy, also to prevent attack where French citizens would be in fairly large numbers.
Night operational flying time was 289.20 hours.
The Australian members of the crew were decorated:
PILOT: G FREEMAN D.F.C.
BOMB AIRMAN: G FLANAGAN D.F.C.
AIR GUNNER: W BROOKER D.F.C. and M.I.D.
NAVIGATOR: L WILSON M.I.D.
WIRELESS OPERATOR: J BULMER M.I.D.
AIR GUNNER: J FIRTH M.I.D.
Written by W. K. Brooker, Flight Lieutenant, De Mob
Typed by Rhonda Copper
5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Procedures and Life of an Air Gunner with a Lancaster Squadron
Prodecures [sic] and Life of an Air Gunner with a Lancaster Squadron
Description
An account of the resource
William Brooker's service. His crew was transferred from Swinderby Heavy Conversion Unit to 463 Squadron at RAF Waddington.
He names the crew and describes their roles, including the ground crews, details the activities before an operation, and lists his operations he was involved in.
This item was provided, in digital form, by a third-party organisation which used technical specifications and operational protocols that may differ from those used by the IBCC Digital Archive.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
WH Brooker
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five typed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MBrookerWH[Ser#-DoB]-180402-04
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Australia
New South Wales--Orange
Victoria--Geelong
New South Wales--Harden
Victoria
New South Wales--Lismore
South Australia--Adelaide
Great Britain
England--Newcastle upon Tyne
England--High Wycombe
France--Lorient
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Schweinfurt
Germany--Augsburg
France--Brest
Belgium--Leopoldsburg
France--Saumur
France--Cherbourg
France--Rennes
France--Orléans
Germany--Braunschweig
Victoria
France
New South Wales
South Australia
Germany
Belgium
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Buckinghamshire
France--Saint-Nazaire
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
463 Squadron
467 Squadron
50 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
bombing
Distinguished Flying Cross
fitter airframe
fitter engine
flight engineer
fuelling
Fw 190
Gee
ground crew
ground personnel
H2S
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Heavy Conversion Unit
incendiary device
Lancaster
meteorological officer
mine laying
navigator
pilot
RAF Bottesford
RAF Skellingthorpe
RAF Swinderby
RAF Waddington
training
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/957/9611/SMathersRW55201v10007.1.jpg
af1a8f7a3ed92f9b663999574ef0a9db
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Mathers, Ronald. Album
Description
An account of the resource
45 page scrapbook of Squadron life and The Goodwill Tour to the United States by 35 Squadron in 1946. It includes photographs, newspaper cuttings, and programmes. The tour visited stations on both the East and West coasts of the United States and the airmen were entertained with visits to Hollywood.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-17
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] NO. 35 SQUADRON FLYING PROGRAMME FOR 8th JUNE, 1946 [/underlined] Serial 104
A/C Letter Captain and Crew Spares or Passengers Details Call Meal Briefing Buses Take Off Duration of Flight
F W/C CRAIG (1) VICTORY PARADE - 1430 0910 1030 1200 2 hours
N F/O LAMB (2) FLY-PAST
C F/L MATHERS (3)
A S/L BEETHAM (4)
D F/L CLARINE (5)
H F/O HAMPSON (6)
M F/L PENNINGTON (7)
R F/O ROBINSON (8)
S P/O LEADON (9)
P S/L HARRIS (10)
G F/L GREIG (11)
L P/O CHESHIRE (12)
RESERVE AIRCRAFT: - “E” and “O”
OFFICER i/c W/C CRAIG
DUTY NAV. OFFICER F/L BARNES
DUTY SIGS. OFFICER F/L WALTON
S.D.O F/L DAWSON
NUMBER OF BUSES : 3 (THREE)
WING COMMANDER, COMMANDING,
NO. 35 SQUADRON.
[inserted] This Photostat supplied by Alan [indecipherable word] in January 1986 [/inserted]
[page break]
[photograph]
[underlined] VICTORY DAY FLY PAST. [/underlined]
[underlined] 8th JUNE 1946. [/underlined]
Bomber boys were bang on the target
RAIN and poor flying weather nearly “scrubbed” the R.A.F. Victory flypast over London yesterday, writes a “Sunday Chronicle” reporter who flew in the wedge formation of the Lancaster bombers belonging to the famous No. 35 Pathfinder Squadron.
But, despite the poor visibility, I saw from 1,300 feet the surging Victory crowds.
Whitehall and Trafalgar Square were a sea of white faces framed in splashes of colour from flags and bunting. Along The Mall, the blue square of the R.A.F. marching column was just coming up to the Saluting Base – at what seem a snail’s pace.
The fly past of 307 planes which may be one if the last formation flights by R.A.F. and Fleet Air Arm planes for some years, was led by a tubby Battle of Britain Hurricane, piloted by the Unknown Warrior of the R.A.F.
His identity will never be known because he will symbolise all living and dead Fighter Command pilots.
The timing Was Split-Second
It was an operation of split-second timing.
The Lancaster Formation left the ground at Graveley, Herts, aerodrome at 30 second intervals.
They flew over Cambridge, turned at [indecipherable word] to Colchester, and over the mud flats of the Colne Estuary to Maldon.
They were guided by the un-seen hand of ground control interrogation, used in operations to spot German aircraft in the Battle of Britain.
At Romford the sky darkened, at Leyton fine rain started falling, and the weather worsened steadily during the run up to London.
As the planes left Buckingham Palace and passed over Kew, the leader, Wing-Commander A. J. I. Craig. D.S.O D.F.C. shouted through the inter-comm “Good show, chaps, the weather couldn’t have been worse, but you were bang on the target”. It was just like the old days coming back from a raid on Germany.
Crack Squadron To Fly In U.S.
The pilot of my plane was Flight Lieutenant Ken [indecipherable word], who won the D.F.C. on his second operation, and twice brought home his plane with the nose smashed in.
His only other passenger was a pretty W.A.A.F., L.A.C.W. Jeanne Forbes. She earned her trip by working overtime for two months on the squadron’s V-Day preparations.
But is not the last Victory Fly Past of No. 35 Squadron. On July 3 they leave for America as the only representative of the R.A.F. in the U.S. Army Air Force Day and Victory celebrations in New York, Washington and other American cities.
Meteors flew ‘blind’ in Victory flypast
During the fly-past the Tempests were ordered to break from line because the Meteor jet planes, the world’s swiftest fighters, were coming in very fast, and, owing to the weather, could not see anything ahead.
Vampires came in about 300 [indecipherable word] north of the line, again owing to weather conditions.
All aircraft landed at their [indecipherable word] stations except one Spitfire Squadron which landed at [indecipherable word] instead of Middle Wallop owing to the weather.
Highlights of the flypast by the R.A.F. and Fleet Air Arm was the [indecipherable word] formation of the Meteors. They were cheered to the echo of thousands of watchers – mainly under umbrellas – perched on rain-swept rooftops or hanging precariously from windows. Millions [indecipherable word] in the saturated streets were [indecipherable word] by the display.
Rain fell steadily and visibility was poor when the lone Hurricane fighter, flown by an anonymous Battle of Britain pilot, led the [indecipherable word] at exactly one o’clock.
[photograph]
[underlined] ”C” FOR CHARLIE COMES IN FROM THE “DO” [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victory day flypast
Description
An account of the resource
Item 1 is a list of the aircrew from 35 Squadron who took part in the Victory day flypast.
Photograph 1 is 12 Lancasters in formation at the Fly past. It is captioned 'Victory Day Fly Past 8th June 1946'
Item 2 is a newspaper cutting referring to the fly past.
Photograph 2 is an aircraft landing. It is captioned '"C" for Charlie comes in from the "Do".'
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-06-08
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Text. Service material
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v10007
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-06-08
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One printed sheet, two b/w photographs and one newspaper cutting on a scrapbook page.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
Steve Baldwin
35 Squadron
Lancaster
Pathfinders
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/957/9612/SMathersRW55201v10008.1.jpg
b09c3f3152cc12529d409b695a8bbaa0
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Mathers, Ronald. Album
Description
An account of the resource
45 page scrapbook of Squadron life and The Goodwill Tour to the United States by 35 Squadron in 1946. It includes photographs, newspaper cuttings, and programmes. The tour visited stations on both the East and West coasts of the United States and the airmen were entertained with visits to Hollywood.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-17
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] D.G.P.1. [/underlined] Copy: - A.N.P.
C.A.S. wishes the following message to be sent to all R.A.F Units and formations which took part in the Victory Parade:-
“I wish to offer my very sincere congratulations to all those, on the ground and in the air, officers and other ranks, men and women, who showed the world on Victory Day that the spirit, the discipline and the skill of the Royal Air Force is as high as it ever was.
TEDDER.
Marshall of the Royal Air Force”
[underlined] 12th June, 1946. [/underlined]
[signature]
[underlined] P.A. to C.A.S. [/underlined]
-2-
[underlined] P.A. to C.A.S. [/underlined][inserted] [initials] 14/6 [/inserted]
C.A.S’s message has been signalled to all Commanders-in-Chief at home and overseas. It has also been sent to the Commandant R.O.C., D.G.G.D. Matron-in-Chief and D.W.A.A.F.
Arrangements have also been made for it to be promulgated in A.P.Os.
[signature]
(D.HARRIES)
J.O.P.( I )
[underlined] 14.6.46 [/underlined]
[page break]
[underlined] SQUADRON TRIANGLE and TRAFALAR SQUARE. [/underlined]
[photograph]
[underlined] NELSON TURNED HIS BACK BUT NO DOUBT SOMEONE WAS LOOKING. [/underlined]
[inserted] A – Mike Beetham E. Gil Hampson. G. [indecipherable name]
R – Robby Robinson P Shorty Harris
[indecipherable words] – S. Paddy Leadon. L Frank Cheshire. [/inserted]
THE SPHERE
[photograph]
THE LANCASTERS FLY OVER CENTRAL LONDON – MACHINES OF NO. 35 SQUADRON ABOVE THE CITY AS THEY HEADED FROM FAIRLOP AERODROME TO THE SALUTING-BASE IN THE MALL: A prelude to the fly-past which, despite the increasingly poor visibility, was a spectacular feature of the Victory Day celebrations and was rehearsed beforehand with the most exacting efficiency. The Lancasters – machines which played such a vital part in the distruction of German industry – were led by Wing Commander A.J.L. Craig, D.S.O., D.F.C., the R.A.F.’s youngest Wing Commander. The great dissimilarities in the speeds of the various types of aircraft in the procession – they ranged from 150 m.p.h. to the 350-m.p.h. cruising speed of the jets – was a problem, but this was solved by so timing the convergence of the units that when the Hurricane was over the saluting-base the Meteors were still 65 miles away
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victory day flypast
Description
An account of the resource
Item 1 is a letter from 'Tedder' to all participants in the Victory Day flypast.
Photograph 1 is a flypast of 12 Lancasters taken from the ground. It is captioned 'Squadron triangle and Trafalgar Square' and underneath 'Nelson turned his back but no doubt someone was looking'.
Item 2 is a newspaper cutting referring to 35 Squadron and with an air-to-air photograph of six Lancasters over London. The cutting has the aircraft and Captains annotated in handwriting.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-06-12
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v10008
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-06-08
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One letter, one b/w photograph and one newspaper cutting on a scrapbook page.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
Steve Baldwin
35 Squadron
aircrew
Lancaster
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/957/9618/SMathersRW55201v10014.2.jpg
861a702b7d66b38b5b6ba5e6c8a003c4
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Mathers, Ronald. Album
Description
An account of the resource
45 page scrapbook of Squadron life and The Goodwill Tour to the United States by 35 Squadron in 1946. It includes photographs, newspaper cuttings, and programmes. The tour visited stations on both the East and West coasts of the United States and the airmen were entertained with visits to Hollywood.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-17
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
The RAF goes to New York
From Daily Mail Correspondent
New York, Wednesday.
PUNCTUAL to the second, 16 Lancaster bomber of 25 “Pathfinder” Squadron swooped down on Mitchell Field, Long Island, this afternoon and received a generous warm-hearted welcome.
The Lancasters were due to arrive at 4 p.m. New York time from Newfoundland, and at 3.55 a great cry went up from hundreds of American Air Force men, civilian workers, and hangar hands: “Here they are – dead on time.”
The roar of the Lancasters’ 64 engines drowned their cheers as the famous British squadron, in the tightest possible formation, sailed straight down the centre of U.S. Army Air Force’s great field.
The R.A.F. flyers then gave a breath-taking exhibition of “peeling off” as they broke formation and came in singly to make their landing.
‘PROUD OF YOU’
Led by 24-year-old Wing Commander A.J.L. Craig, D.S.O., D.F.C., the Lancasters touched down smartly behind each other on the first lap of their happiest mission – Operation Goodwill.
Soon all 16 were neatly lined up in front of operations control, and 200 R.A.F. men, forming up in ranks, stood to attention as the American Air Force band played “God Save the King.”
Speaking on behalf of General Karl [indecipherable name], Lieut-General T. Stratemeyer, commanding officer, U.S. Air Defence Command, said:
“Our people are proud of the R.A.F. They will want to thank you and many will step forward personally to do so. God bless you.”
[inserted] IT'S A BIT OF A LINE, BUT WE WERE DEAD ON TIME. [/inserted]
[photograph]
RAF’s NEW YORK WELCOME
After the Anglo-American bickering that has been going on regarding the Loan, it is pleasant to see this reminder of the Anglo-American unity that helped to win the war. The RAF received a warm welcome at Mitchell Field, Long Island.
[page break]
[underlined] MITCHEL FIELD. N.Y. [/underlined]
17th – 21st JULY 1946.
[photograph]
[underlined] THE GUARD OF HONOUR (or a banquet of Snowdrops). [/underlined]
[photograph]
THE WINGCO IS INTRODUCED TO THE BASE COMMANDER.
L. To R. W/C CRAIG, G/C COLLARD, Col. L.E. PARKER.
[photograph]
SQUADRON PARADE FOR WELCOMEING ADDRESS
In the background – the Wingco’s kite & behind it, the G/C’s “York” transport.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The RAF goes to New York
Description
An account of the resource
Item 1 is a newspaper cutting refers to the punctual arrival of 16 Lancasters of 35 Squadron at Mitchel Field, Long Island. It is captioned 'Its a bit of a line, but we were dead on time'. Item 2 is a newspaper cutting 'RAF's New York Welcome' with a photograph of officers shaking hands. The photographs are captioned 'Mitchel Field. N.Y. 17th-21st July 1946'. Photograph 1 is an American guard of honour watched by a large crowd, some on top of a brick building. It is captioned ' The Guard of Honour (& a bouquet of Snowdrops)'. Photograph 3 is three officers shaking hands in front of airmen and a Lancaster. It is captioned 'The Wingco is introduced to the Base Commander. L to R. W/C Crane, G/C Collard and Col L.E. Parker'. Photograph 4 is the guard of honour and a line of airmen in front of a Lancaster. It is captioned 'Squadron parade for welcoming address In the background - the Wingco's kite & behind it, the G/C's "York" transport.'
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-07
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two newspaper cuttings and four b/w photographs
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v10014
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-07
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
Georgie Donaldson
35 Squadron
aircrew
Goodwill tour of the United States (1946)
Lancaster
Pathfinders
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/957/9621/SMathersRW55201v10017.2.jpg
3ee3becbe6616c2bb1eebfca320b874e
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Mathers, Ronald. Album
Description
An account of the resource
45 page scrapbook of Squadron life and The Goodwill Tour to the United States by 35 Squadron in 1946. It includes photographs, newspaper cuttings, and programmes. The tour visited stations on both the East and West coasts of the United States and the airmen were entertained with visits to Hollywood.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-17
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[photograph]
[page break]
[missing letters].F. THRILLS [missing letter]EW YORK
[missing letters]m Johnson Turner
[missing word][italics] Chronicle special cor[missing letters]ent with the Lancaster [missing letters]all mission now in U.S. [/italics]
[missing word] YORK, Saturday. – The [missing word] thrill for New Yorkers [missing word] was the spectacular [missing letters]ion flight of the 16 R.A.F. [missing letters]sters over the city’s sky[missing letters]rs.
[missing letters]ough the crews were unused [missing word] violent air currents that [missing word] in America at this time [missing word] they handled their planes [missing letters] ficently as they roared down [missing letters] ngth of Manhattan in the [missing letters] at possible formation.
[missing letters]tain’s youngest Wing-Com[missing letters]er, Alan Craig, D.S.O. D.F.C.
“This was one of the most [missing letters]alt formation flights the [missing letters]ron have ever made. I was [missing letters]g as much as five hundred [missing letters]n the most violent bumps.”
[missing word] add to the crews’ discomfort [missing word] interior of the planes were too [missing word] to touch and most of the men [missing word] bathing trunks.
MONDAY, JULY 22, 1946 and Morning Post Printed in LONDON and MANCH[missing letters]
[photograph]
LANCASTER BOMBERS of the famous Pathfinder Squadron No. 35 in flight over the East River, New York, last Thursday. These R.A.F. planes have been sent on a good will mission to the United States.
[underlined] 18 JULY 1946. [/underlined]
[photograph]
The crew with Eddy (centre), Tommy, Self, Jack, Paddy, Ted, Tedney, Chalrie
Bronxite in RAF on Goodwill Visit
The Bronx has a Yank in the R.A.F. He is Tech Sgt. Edward S. Machonis, 728 Elton Ave, who has been placed on detached service with Squadron 35 of the Royal Air Force, now on a good will tour of the United States.
Because of his rating as chief operator of the Army communications service at Mitchel Field, the sergeant was assigned to brief the crews of the giant four motored Lancaster bombers on American communication data.
He was flown to Gander Field, Newfoundland, to meet the 16 bombers on their flight from England.
“I was taken up to Newfoundland by Squadron Leader Pearson, who preceded the main flight.
It was my job to see they were thoroughly informed about radio ranges and communication facilities that would be encountered during their trip,” he said.
Crews Were Briefed
The visiting airmen were grouped in a hangar on the field, and the 24-year-old American sergeant presented the information to them. Following his talk, he invited questions.
With all routine matters taken care of, the flight to New York continued. “We had prefect weather coming down. It couldn’t have been better if we personally ordered it,” the sergeant said.
The 207 officers and enlisted men of the British Squadron were welcomed at the Long Island airport on Wednesday by civil and Army officials, which included Col. L. R. Parker, base commander of the field: Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, Gen. Jimmie Doolittle and Frederick Reinicke, New York City Commissioner of Aviation.
[photograph]
Tech. Sgt. Edward S, Machonis
Flew Over City
On Thursday, the 16 huge bombers flew over the city as the first mission of their tour. Sgt Machonis, supervising the radio communications, lauded the cooperation and efficiency of the crews.
“Their lead navigator,” he said, “told us we would be over the Empire States building at exactly 1.20 p.m. We hit it right on the second.”
Headed by Wing Commander Allan J. I. Craig, the Lancasters will tour the States as guests of the Army Air Forces and will hold the position of honor [sic] in an aerial review to be held on Air Force Day, Aug. 1, over Los Angeles. On Aug. 18, the squadron will arrive at Mitchel Field and will then return to England.
Sgt Machonis, who lives with his Australian wife, Iris, and their nine-months-old baby Michael, is not impressed with the unusual duty that has been assigned to him.
The sergeant has been in the Army over four years and intends to make a career of it.
[photograph]
A good load for an equally good kite Crew and Passengers
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Royal Air Force at Mitchel Field
Description
An account of the resource
Photograph 1 is a line of airmen and a guard of honour in front of a Lancaster. Item 1 is a newspaper cutting referring to the arrival of the Lancasters over New York. Item 2 refers to the arrival of the Lancasters and includes an air to air shot of 12 Lancasters over New York. It is dated 18 July 1946. Item 3 is a newspaper cutting 'Bronxite in RAF on Goodwill Visit'. A native of the Bronx is on detachment to 35 squadron. The cutting refers to the arrival of 35 squadron in New York. Photograph 2 is seven airmen captioned 'The crew with Eddy (central) Tommy, Self, Jack, Ted, Tedney, Charlie'. Photograph 3 is 12 airmen standing in front of a Lancaster captioned 'A good load for an equally good kite Crew & Passengers'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-07-18
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v10017
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)
New York (State)--New York
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-07
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs and three newspaper cuttings on a scrapbook page.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
Steve Baldwin
35 Squadron
aircrew
Goodwill tour of the United States (1946)
Lancaster
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/957/9622/SMathersRW55201v10018.2.jpg
28379816b7a13ac302ad369afe996dca
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Mathers, Ronald. Album
Description
An account of the resource
45 page scrapbook of Squadron life and The Goodwill Tour to the United States by 35 Squadron in 1946. It includes photographs, newspaper cuttings, and programmes. The tour visited stations on both the East and West coasts of the United States and the airmen were entertained with visits to Hollywood.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-17
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[missing letters]Y. JULY 19, 1946 23
WINGS OF PEACE OVER NEW YORK
[photograph]
HIGH, WIDE, AND HANDSOME. Here on goodwill mission, dozen four engined Lancaster bombers fly over New York, giving inkling of the might that was blended with U.S. warbirds to produce victory in air over Europe. Shot of British planes was made by News aerial fotog flying above formation.
[page break]
[photograph]
[underlined] BEER AND HOT DOGS AT THE PONY RACES [/underlined]
[photograph] [photograph]
[underlined] THE SWIMMING POOL MITCHELL FIELD. L to R:- PETE, JERRY , PENNY & I [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wings of Peace over New York
Description
An account of the resource
Item 1 is a newspaper cutting with a photograph of 12 Lancasters over New York. Photograph 1 is a group of airmen seated in tiered rows. It is captioned 'Beer and Hot Dogs at the Pony Races'. Photograph 2 and 3 are four airmen seated at a round table with a parasol. Behind is a swimming pool and diving board. It is captioned 'The swimming pool Mitchel Field, L to R Pete, Jerry, Penny and I.'
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-07
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v10018
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)
New York (State)--New York
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-07
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One newspaper cutting and three b/w photographs on a scrapbook page
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
35 Squadron
entertainment
Goodwill tour of the United States (1946)
Lancaster
Pathfinders
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/997/10471/SMaddockLyonR2205669v10017.1.jpg
50cb10a39d9e75e826fa26117add0532
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Maddock-Lyon, Roy. Scrap book
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Maddock-Lyon, R
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-03-21
Description
An account of the resource
20 pages. The scrap book contains items about Roy Maddock-Lyon's aircraft being shot down over Holbæk in Denmark 14 February 1945 and his subsequent evasion. It contains correspondence, photographs of the wreckage of his aircraft ZA-X, and what happened to his crew.<br />
<p>This collection also contains items concerning John Grayshan and Albert Berry. Additional information on <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/211033/">John Grayshan</a> and <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/202051/">Albert Berry</a> is available via the IBCC Losses Database.</p>
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[photograph]
The graves of Jonny and Red Berry
[page break]
[photograph]
Caterpillar Club Membership Card.
[newspaper cutting]
Over 20,000 ‘Escapers’
MEMBERSHIP of the Caterpillar Club, Britain’s most famous “escapers” organisation, has topped the 20,000 mark after six years of war.
Membership is confined to those who have made forced descents by parachutes. Nearly 10,000 men have had their claims ratified within the last nine months. Among them are a large number of P.o.W.
Among the members are Wing Commander Bader, two V.C.s – Squadron Leader J. B. Nicholson and Flight-Lieutenant Reid – and Air Vice-Marshall Bennett, the Pathfinder chief who landed in Sweden.
Members are planning a big V-celebration when the war prisoners return home.
Over 20,000 Escapers.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The graves of Johnny and Red Berry. Roy Maddock-Lyon's Caterpillar Club membership card and a newspaper cutting
Description
An account of the resource
Item 1 is an image of the graves of F/O Grayshan and Serg Berry, captioned 'The graves of Jonny and Red Berry'.
Item 2 is a Caterpillar Club membership card issued to Sgt Roy Maddock-Lyon, captioned 'Caterpillar Club Membership Card.'
Item 3 is a newspaper cutting referring to 20,000 'Escapers' belonging to the Caterpillar Club, captioned 'Over 20000 Escapers.'
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One photograph, one printed card and one newspaper cutting on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMaddockLyonR2205669v10017
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Denmark
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
aircrew
bale out
Bennett, Donald Clifford Tyndall (1910-1986)
Caterpillar Club
final resting place
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/886/10940/NSmithEA151029-030004.1.jpg
3bf64ef99f148a6379e929ebe6998b37
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hudson, Douglas
James Douglas Hudson
J D Hudson
Description
An account of the resource
529 items. Collection concerns Pilot Officer James Douglas Hudson, DFC (755052 Royal Air Force) who joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in June 1939 and trained as an observer. While on route to Malta in August 1940 his Blenheim crashed in Tunisia and he was subsequently interned for two and a half years by Vichy French in Tunisia and Algeria. After being freed he returned to Great Britain and after navigator retraining completed a tour of 30 operations on 100 Squadron. The collection contains letters to and from his parents and from French penfriends while interned in Tunisia and Algeria, newspaper cuttings of various events, logbooks and lists of operations, official documents and photographs. A further 23 items are in two sub-collections with details of navigator examinations and postcards of Laghouat Algeria.<br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Elizabeth Smith and Yvonne Puncher and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br />
<p>This collection also contains items concerning Louis Murray and Harry Bowers. Additional information on <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/202827/">Harry Bowers</a> and <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/220410/">Louis Murray</a> is available via the IBCC Losses Database.</p>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-06-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hudson, JD
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
RESCUED FROM NORTH AFRICA INTERNMENT CAMP
BURNLEY BOYS HOME AFTER GREAT ORDEAL
RELEASED from interment in French North Africa by the recent invasion by American and British forces, several local men have arrived home this week and been joyfully welcomed by their families.
Among them are Marine George Latham, 40, Travis-street, Burnley, and Ordinary Seaman George Taylor 30, Grasmere-street.
Both were on board H.M. Cruiser “Manchester”, which was torpedoed in the Mediterranean on August 13th, while escorting a Malta convoy. The crew most of whom were uninjured, reached the North African coast, and were interned in a combatants’ camp in the Sahara, where for three months they suffered privations from overcrowding, bad sanitation and insufficient food.
LANDED HOME IN SHORTS
Marine Latham reached home yesterday wearing a pair of shorts, a shirt and an Army greatcoat. O.S. Taylor arrived in Burnley on Wednesday, in good time to celebrate his 20th birthday yesterday.
In interviews with an “Express” reporter, both men paid sincere tribute to the work of the Red Cross, though the parcels were generally rifled before the men got them.
“We would all have been invalids but for the parcels”, said O.S. Taylor. Though their homes are only a few minutes’ walk apart, the men had never met until they were informed in letters from home that they were in the same camp.
TERRIFIC FLIGHT
Fully recovered from his double ordeal of the Mediterranean convoy battle and later the terrible conditions prevailing in the internment camp at Laghouat, O.S. Taylor told an “Express’ reporter his amazing story.
“The Manchester’ was part of the escort for a big convoy for Malta,” he said, “and we had a terrible fight in the Mediterranean. I was on desk loading our gun for most of the time and I had a marvellous view of everything, including the sinking of the aircraft carrier ‘Eagle,’ which went down in about 15 minutes.
“We were attacked by ‘planes from about dinner-time one day until dusk, and had some remarkable escapes. We gave as good as we got though, and a lot of ‘planes were shot down. We got some sleep that night, but a dawn it all began again. Bombers, dive-bombers and torpedo-carrying ‘planes of all kinds came over. and there were sub-marines about too. One actually surfaced quite near, and we opened up on her. I believe we hit her too.
“In the Straits of Pantelleria the E-boats attacked us. We sank several by gunfire, but one of them got us with a torpedo, and we got orders to abandon ship. We were only about five miles from the shore then. I got into a Carley float, and just as dawn broke we were spotted by a French ship which took us in tow.
“We were jolly glad to get on dry land,” continued O.S. Taylor. “The local population received us in a friendly way and gave us fruit. We thought our troubles were over. Then we were all collected together and put on the train and spent about a week travelling across Tunisia and Algeria. Finally we got to a terminus of some kind and were transferred to motor ‘buses for the last stage of the journey to Laghouat, which is well inside the Sahara.
“BEAU GESTE” FORT
The actual camp is like the fort in ‘Beau Geste’ more of a fortified town than anything. It was already crowded when we arrived. The crew of the ‘Havoc’ were there and a lot of R.A.F. chaps too. Some of them had been there two years, ever since France capitulated.
“Conditions generally were terrible. We slept 48 in a room designed for 24 native troops. There was a water supply only a short time each day, and the heat and the flies make life unbearable. It was a good job we had our surgeon-commander and a few sick berth fellows with us, as there was a lot of illness of various kinds. Two fellows died during the three months we were there. We couldn’t keep clean, for one thing, as we had no soap.
“The grub was terrible, mostly macaroni and a kind of bread which tasted as bad as it looked. Our sardine ration worked out at one sardine per man every 10 days. We were given wine to drink, potent stuff it was too, but not very pleasant to the taste.
“Things got gradually worse, and for eight weeks there were no cigarettes at all. Previously we had missed a lot of cigarettes altogether. Finally we mutinied and refused to parade for counting. This had the desired effect, and there was some improvement afterwards.”
CAMP “UNIVERSITY”
“We had to amuse ourselves as best we could during the day,” said O.S. Taylor. “A ‘university’ was started, and I attended for mathematics and English. There were also some splendid lectures by various officers, particularly by one who served in the French Foreign Legion. Some of the fellows also got up a pantomime, which was as good as anything I have ever seen.”
Describing the scene when the news of the invasion came through on the wireless, O.S. Taylor said that it was on a Sunday morning when they heard a sudden yell from a group of lads who were listening to the wireless. When it was finally established that the news was authentic, everyone went mad and there was “some fun with the guards.” Red Cross parcels appeared, and there was general rejoicing. On the following Thursday they were all sent to Algiers and put on board a liner. reaching Scotland with incident. Everyone was granted a month’s leave, which is expected to be extended over Christmas.
TWICE TORPEDOED
Marine Latham, who had been torpedoed previously, and spent 9 1/2 hours on a raft before a small French vessel picked them up, was formerly employed at Ormerod Whitaker’s Oak Bank Mill. He joined the Royal Marines three years ago as a musician. He is well-known in local dance band circles as a trumpeter.
Whilst on active service he was attached to the fire control squad, and when the order to abandon ship was given he assisted in the work of lowering rafts and boats before jumping overboard, and with another member of the crew clambering aboard a spare raft.
As a souvenir of his adventure he has brought home a knife he made out of a piece of his iron bed. This was to cut the bread with which they were issue in Laghouat.
Marine Latham has been granted six weeks’ leave, four for overseas service and two for survivors’ leave.
Sergt. Observer J. Douglas Hudson, whose parents live at 191, Halifax road, Nelson, has also arrived home after spending two years in a Moroccan prison camp.
Able Seaman Arthur Turner (24), 137, Waids House-road, Nelson, another internee in Morocco, is expected home shortly. He has been torpedoed on three occasions.
Junior Third Officer Ellis (21), so of Mr. and Mrs. John Ellis, 15, Meredith-street, Nelson, was interned on October 23rd in Morocco, but his parents have had no communication from him since.
Another local man who it is hoped will arrive home shortly is Mr. W H. Clemence, 18, Wood-street, Brierfield of the Merchant Navy. Before being called up he was employed in a mill at Harle Syke.
News is awaited of Flight Sergt. Observer John Walsh, one of the three serving sons of Mr. and Mrs. Walsh, 14, Brockenhurst-street, Burnley, Flight Sergt. Walsh was interned at Mediouna, near Casablanca, after his Beaufigher of Coastal Command was shot down. According to one report, internees from Mediouna were taken on board United States vessels, but no further details have been forthcoming.
[photograph]
O.S. G. TAYLOR
[photograph]
MARINE G. LATHAM
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Rescued from North African Internment Camp - Burnley Boys Home after great ordeal
Description
An account of the resource
Account of release of two Burnely men (Ordinay Seaman G Taylor and Marine C Latham) amongst French North Africa nternees freed by American Forces. Both had been aboard HMS Manchester which was torpedoed in Mediterranean on August 13th. Tells of battle on convoy, incarceration in "Beau Geste" fort and conditions. Notes others released including Sergeant Observer J Douglas Hudson arrived home.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One newspaper cutting
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
NSmithEA151029-030004
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Navy
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lancashire
England--Burnley
Algeria
Algeria--Laghouat (Province)
England--Nelson
North Africa
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
Govert J. van Lienden
entertainment
prisoner of war
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/886/10948/NSmithEA151029-040001.1.jpg
5dbad34ecdab2bf91ba687bdf41b4c29
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/886/10948/NSmithEA151029-040003.1.jpg
509077d44a174665e17efc54e5e6e92b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hudson, Douglas
James Douglas Hudson
J D Hudson
Description
An account of the resource
529 items. Collection concerns Pilot Officer James Douglas Hudson, DFC (755052 Royal Air Force) who joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in June 1939 and trained as an observer. While on route to Malta in August 1940 his Blenheim crashed in Tunisia and he was subsequently interned for two and a half years by Vichy French in Tunisia and Algeria. After being freed he returned to Great Britain and after navigator retraining completed a tour of 30 operations on 100 Squadron. The collection contains letters to and from his parents and from French penfriends while interned in Tunisia and Algeria, newspaper cuttings of various events, logbooks and lists of operations, official documents and photographs. A further 23 items are in two sub-collections with details of navigator examinations and postcards of Laghouat Algeria.<br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Elizabeth Smith and Yvonne Puncher and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br />
<p>This collection also contains items concerning Louis Murray and Harry Bowers. Additional information on <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/202827/">Harry Bowers</a> and <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/220410/">Louis Murray</a> is available via the IBCC Losses Database.</p>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-06-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hudson, JD
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
R.A.F.’s LOSSES
Two Brothers Killed in Action
Two brothers, both of whom had shot down six German aircraft and damaged several others, are reported killed in action in the Air Ministry’s casualty list, No. 46, issued to-day. It contains the names of 314 officers and airmen.
The brothers, both of whom had received the D.F.C., were Pilot Officer C. A. Woods-Scawen and Flying Officer P. P. Woods-Scawen. Both were born at Karachi. It is believed that they had flown together.
C. A. Woods-Scawen was born in 1918, and his award was announced on September 3, when it was stated that in June he was shot down 25 miles inside French territory but got back to his squadron. Up to then he had been shot down six times, and tribute was paid to his “unabated courage and enthusiasm” and his outstanding qualities as a resourceful and determined leader. P. P . Woods-Scawen was born in 1916, and when his D.F.C. was awarded in June it was stated that once when heavily outnumbered he attacked a large formation of Germans with hesitation and shot two down. His ‘plane was hit and he was slightly wounded, but he escaped by parachute and rejoined his unit. It was added that he had shown “great courage, endurance, and leadership”.
The list gives a total of 49 officers and airmen killed in action and 48 wounded or injured. Those missing total 85. The number killed on active service is 48, Of ten previously reported missing three are now safe and seven are prisoners. A sergeant of the Royal New Zealand Air Force is reported missing and two pilot officers were killed on active service.
The names of nine D.F.C.s, one A.F.C., and one D.F.M are included in the list.
KILLED IN ACTION
Aeberhardt, 42781, P/O R. A.C.; Balmer, 745574, Sgt. J.H.; Bell, 90051, F/O J.S.; Berry, 563426, F/Sgt. F.G., D.F.M.; Bonseigneur, 42791, P/O C.R.; Briggs, 751402. Segt. W.; Brook, 648603. Sgt. D.; Burrow, 551597. Sgt. J., Davies, 632374, Sgt. H.; Davis, 90131, F/O C.R., D.F.C.: Clifton. 41902, P/O J.K.G.; Corker, 751198, Sgt. W. J.C.; Cranston, 751938, Sgt. T.G.J.; Dickinson, 740861, Sgt. J.H.; Fletcher, 800635, Sgt. J.G.B.; Gouldstone, 812360, Sgt. R.J.; Haigh. 566171, Sgt. C.; Hanson, 33363. F/O D.H.W.; Higson, 70305, F/O K.H.; Hogg, 77977, P/O D.W.; Hood, 746840, Sgt. C. L.G.; Hunter, 40178, F/O F.M.
Jacobson, 1050704, A/C N.; Jenkins, 41930, P/O D. N.O.; Johnson, 79241, P/O C.E.; Jones, 905466, Sgt. R.H.G.; Kenner. 73032, P/O P.L.; King, 32199, Sq, Ldr. E.B.; Love, 523064, L/A/C W.; Maffett. 80814, P/O G.H,; Noble, 742128, Sgt. D.; Owles, 748693, Sgt. A.E.; Pendred, 37999, Actg F/Lt. S.C.; Pinkham, 37208, Actg. Sq. Ldr. P.C., A.F.C.; Price, 41060, P/O J. F. S.P.; Reynolds, 41803, P/O J.H.; Ridley, 565201, Sgt. M.; Starr, 34181, Sq. Ldr. H.M.; Stenhouse, 39904, F/O W.A.; Trueman, 40766, P/O A.A.G.; Tune, 581552, Sgt. H.A.; Wakeling, 741505, Sgt. S. R.E.; Waterston, 90197, F/O R.Mc.; Webster, 37436, Actg. F/Lt. J.T. Wilcox, 70830, F/O E.J.; Williams, 745324, Sgt. L.A.; Winter, 43372, P/O D.C.; Woods-Scawen, 40778, P/O C.A., D.F.C.; Woods-Scawen, 40452, F/O P.P., D.F.C.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING, NOW PRESUMED KILLED IN ACTION
Brig, 563033. Sgt. F.J.R.; Orchard, 540259 A/C J.; Woods, 580401, Sgt. W.B.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING, BELIEVED KILLED IN ACTION, NOW REPORTED KILLED IN ACTION
Coleman, 39781, P/O W.H.; Poole, 42722, P/O FT.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING, NOW REPORTED KILLED IN ACTION
Atkinson, 33418, P/O H.D., D.F.C.; France, 580739, Sgt. E.B.H.; Jones, 590727, Sgt. G.W.; Lewis, 580549, Sgt. G.; Murray, 759321, Sgt. A.G.; Parvin. 581118. Sgt. F.F.; Pirie, 42077, P/O H.G.R.: Prentice, 812244, Sgt. M.A.
WOUNDED OR INJURED IN ACTION
Acworth, 40496, P/O R.A.; Alexander, 42178, P/O J.W.E.; Barrett, 42181, P/O R.B.; Bell-Salter, 41895, P/O D.B.; Boulter, 37757, F/O J.C.; Bowring, 90105, F/O B.H.; Braithwaite, 05161, Wing Cdr. F.J.St.J.; Brown, 590264, F/Sgt F. S.; Bunker, 40668, P/O R.H., D.F.C.; Carbury, 40288, F/O B. J.G.; Carpenter, 42191, P/O J. M.V.; Cottam, 77790, P/O H.W.; Coward, 39412, P/O J.B.; Davies, 808429, Sgt. L.; Duckers, 552182, Sgt. P.W.; Eliot, 42490, P/O H.W.; Elkington, 44184, P/O J.F.D.; Ellacombe, 43031, P/O J.L.W.; Else, 741332, Sgt. P.; Forbes, 37499, F/Lt. A.S.; Gowers, 40166, P/O A.V.; Green, 813076, Sgt. W.J.; Henderson, 74719, P/O J.A.McD.; Hillary, 74677, P/O R.H.; Hunt, 42754, P/O D.W.; Joubert, 81618, P/O C.C.O.; Kellett, 90082, Sq. Ldr. R.G. Lees, 29257, Sq. Ldr. R.B.; Lockhart, 74708, P/O J.; McLure, 82167, P/O A.C.R.; Matheson, 39363, Act. F. Lt. C.; Morris, 40132, F/O E.G.; Mounsdon, 42871, P/O M.H.; Pinckney, 72520, P/O D. J.C.; Plummer, 39753, F/O R.P.; Ritchie, 90198, F/O I.S.; Robinson, 39569, Act. F/Lt. A.I.; Rutter, 42574, P/O R.D.; Sheen, 39474, F/O D. F.B., D.F.C.; Smith, 40859, P/O D.S.; Stewart-Clark, 78535, P/O D.; Sutton, 41962, P/O F.B.; Thomson, 39398, F/O R.L.; Townsend, 33178, Actg. Sq. Ldr P.W., D.F.C.; Walker-Smith, 741213, Sgt. F.R.; Westmacott, 40488, F/O I.B.; Worrall, 42291, P/O P.A.; Wynn, 81375. P/O R.E.N.E.
DIED OF WOUNDS OR INJURIES RECEIVED IN ACTION
Allen, 740664, Sgt. J.W.K.; Duncan, 581442, Sgt. H.H.; Fleming, 74672, P/O R.D.S.
MISSING, BELIEVED KILLED IN ACTION
Jones, 525815, L/A/C J.C.; Hull, 37285, Actg. Sq. Ldr. C.B., D.F.C.; Little. 741292, Sgt. J.McG.; Meades, 536703, Sgt. S.E.; Shalley, 746984, Sgt. D.F.; Smitheram, 41074, P/O J.C.; Weaver, 70719, Actg. F/Lt. P.S.
MISSING
Arthur, 42090, P/O C.J.; Baker, 935961, Sgt. B.; Baker, 751839, Sgt. J.; Bann, 581165, Sgt. J.; Bayliss, 44057, P/O G.L.; Bentham, 552444, Sgt H.; Berry. 39959, F/O E.R.; Borg-Banks, 41659, P/O T.H.; Bowers, 743077, Sgt. H.; Bruce, 39853 F/O D.C.; Carter, 628721, Sgt. H.W.; Child, 616033, L/A/C A.G.; Churchill, 41255, P/O R.S.A.; Clarke, 743056, Sgt. J.C.; Coghlan, 37719, Actg. F/Lt. J.H., D.F.C.; Coverley, 70142, F/O W.H.; Cox, 747188, Sgt. R.C.R.; Cunningham, 90194, F/Lt. J.L.G.; Cutts, 40804, P/O J.W.; D’Arcy, 561093, Sgt. B.M.; Davis 44271, P/O D.H.; Dean, 975058, A/C 2 H.W.; Dickson, 626161, Sgt. G.M.; Doulton, 90235, F/O M.D.; Dunkels, 42822, P/O C.O.; Dunnington, 612371, Sgt. H.; Dymond. 580059, Sgt. W.L.
Edmeads, 751841, Sgt. A.C.H.; Fawcett, 41005, P/O. N.B.; Fitzpatrick, 79540, P/O. W.E.; Francis, 42211, P/O. C.D.; Garvey, 741796, Sgt. P.K.; Gibson, 751217, Sgt. A.; Gordon, 42120, P/O W.H.G.; Hall, 510251, L/A/C E.A.; Hamilton, 39316, F/Lt. H.R.; Hibbert, 538174, A/C 1 G.; Hill, 567598, Sgt. M.; Hillcoat, 90256, Actg. F/Lt. H.B.L.; Hogg, 33486, P/O. R.M.; Hood, 26110, Sq. Ldr. H.R.L.; Howard, 566374, Sgt. H.G.H.; Hudson, 755052, Sgt. J.D.; Hynes, 41707, P/O. T.G.; Inskip, 581339, Sgt. I.; Johnson, 520406, Sgt. J.I.; Johnston, 580546, Sgt. N.R.; Jones, 536553, L/A/C. C.P.; Lampard, 615948, L/A/C. C.D.; Lawes, 567002, L/A/C. W.F.; Lovett, 37543, Actg. F/Lt. R.E. D.F.C.; Macdonald; 74679, P/O. D.K.; Martin, 633385, L/A/C. E.; Maxwell, 967872, Sgt. W.; Moody, 81046, P/O H.W.
Newson, 755404, Sgt. F.H.; Norris 565646, F/Sgt. H.N,; O’Reilly, 535507, L/A/C. J.P.; Parvin, 33441, P/O. J.H.K.; Pearce, 742651, Sgt. E.A.; Pigg, 39678, F/O. O.St.J.; Randall, 905742, Sgt. D.W.G.; Reay, 626591, A/C. 1 G.; Rhodes, 42529, P/O. R.A.; Rhodes-Moorhouse, 90140, F/Lt. W.H., D.F.C.; Riddick, 1004679, Sgt. D.C.B.; Rigby, 532880, Cpl. G.A.; Riley, 741996, Sgt. C.P.; Riley, 550943, Sgt. E.A.H.; Ringwood, 629710, Sgt. E.A.; Rolls, 615888, Sgt. H.; Rushmer, 90192, F/Lt. F.W.; Sawyer, 638724, Sgt. F.C.; Sherriff, 362116, F/Sgt. W.D.; Smith 755623, Sgt, J.S.; Stephenson, 550132, Sgt. J.W.; Stiles, 639949, Sgt. R.C.E.; Sully, 581542, Sgt. A.P.; Thomas, 37332, Actg. Sq. Ldr. F.G.R.; Wainwright, 581127, Sgt. L.H.; Walker, 615619, Sgt. A.E.; Webb, 966677, A/C. 1 D.C.; Westmoreland, 741143, Sgt. T.E.; Wicker, 746715, Sgt. R.M.; Willcox, 590740, Sgt. R.J.
MISSING, BELIIEVED KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
Attwood, 643865, Sgt. C.A.V.; Ayres 610542, A/C. 1 W.A.; Gates, 643900, Sgt. F.A.E.; Hartnell, 568749, Sgt. R.S.; Heseltine, 563144, Sgt. R.; Richardson, 740461, Sgt. R.T.; Stephens, 967065, Sgt. E.J.; Tompkins, 565827, Sgt. R.J.; Turner, 741188, Sgt. E.G.
KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
Ambrose, 73040, P/O. R.; Barrell, 864073, Actg. Cpl. A.R.O.; Bott, 742082, Sgt. N.K. Burridge, 646963, A/C. 1 H.L.; Campbell, 638834. A/C. 1 D.; Clarke, 770819, A/C 1 A.W.; Crowdle, 900919, A/C. 1 T.P.; Eastoe, 754751, Sgt. E.R.; Emery, 958357, A/C. 2 D.A.; Fairfield, 1358170, A/C. 2 W.; Fletcher, 42828, P/O A.W.; Graves, 632826, Sgt. E.A.; Gregory, 569989, L/A/C. G.T.; Griggs, 1252107, A/C. 2 D.B.; Harrison, 747970. Sgt. C.W.C.F.; Haviland, 76571, P/O R.H.; Herring, 42605, P/O. S.J.; Hopwood, 903368, Sgt. H.C.R.; Howard, 905610, L/A/C. W.H.; Imeson, 514385, Cpl. B.A.G.; Ives, 904303, Sgt. H.G.; Kirk, 1103925, A/C. 2 A.
Laidlay, 79740, P/O. J.R.J.; Larkin, 906240, A/C. 2 F.L.; Loham. 365473, F/Sgt. W.H.G.; Loomes, 748020, Sgt. G.H.; Lowry, 944933, A/C. 2 J.; Macassey, 42136, P/O. M.E.B.H.; McConnell, 34023, Sqdn. Ldr. R.H.S., D.F.C.; Milway, 1256132 A/C. 2 O.E.; Mole, 776021, L/A/C. A.H.; Moon, 909698, A/C. 2 R.; Munro, 43336, F/O. K.; O’Reilly, 27139, F/Lt. M.P.; Ryall, 901751, A/C. 2 ( Air Cadet) G.W.; Sadler, 90937, Actg. P/O. D.A.; Shackleton, 343404, L/A/C. H.A.; Smith, 644581, A/C. 2 J.W.S.; Steele. 550484, Sgt. A.; Teviotdale, 748400, Sgt. E.A.; Thompson, 742868, Sgt. K.; Walker, 1007477, A/C. 2 F.; Watt, 755255, Sgt. J.A.; Whiffen. 747997, Sgt. R.J.; Williams, 748354, Sgt. R.; Wood, 581423, Sgt. F.W.K.; Williams, 758155, Sgt. H.; Yorke, 31255, F/O. P.D.L.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING, BELIEVED KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE, NOW REPORTED KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
Gwynne, 742137, Sgt. J.D.
WOUNDED OR INJURED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
Arnold, 972725, A/C 2 J.O.; Bain, 39480, Actg. F/Lt. W.P.; Baker, 1153997, A/C 2 R.C.J.; Brown, 626429, A/C 1 W.K.; Cavender, 906332, A/C 2 R.R.G.; Costin, 1182824, A/C 2 B.; Cox, 918517, L/A/C C.H.; Crawford, 351789, Sgt. F.P.; Denby, 638979, Cpl. G.C.; Dicks, 620604, A/C. 1 W.C.H.; Edwards, 943459, A/C 2 R.H.; Hamblion, 974821, L/A/C C.W.G.; Johnson, 907870, A/C 2 TM.; Marshall, 70447, F/Lt. F.W.; Ross, 82429, P/O. D.G.; Smalley, 632821, Sgt. L.G.; Speed, 614009, Sgt. F.O.; Weeks, 91228, P/O. P.C.
DIED OF WOUNDS OR INJURIES RECEIVED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
Alway, 77382, Actg. F/Lt. E.J.; Dudley, 1182877, A/C 2 G.W.L.; Harris, 39331, F/Lt. F.B.; Holdaway, 1173749, A/C 2 F.A.C.; Smyth, 33550, P/O. T.N.; Terry, 801454, Sgt. A.W.
DIED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
Angell, 1004023, A/C 2 M.; Barnes, 1305022, A/C 2 A.J.; Cooper, 632264, L/A/C A.; Dench, 621994, A/C 2 M.V.C.; Horobin, 963047, A/C 2 A.J.; Jones, 963923, A/C 2 E.; Keogh, 613956, L/A/C H.P.G.; Leman, 951530, L/A/C C.T.W.; Morton, 1005871, L/A/C T.R.; Naylor, 1007682, A/C 2 D.; Sorbie, 625465, A/C 1 A.; Suter, 944760, A/C 2 D.A.; Wallington, 512076, Sgt. W.F.; Wilmott, 846488, L/A/C E.V.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING, NOW REPORTED SAFE
Chapman, 614035, A/C 1 J.; Lewis, 42465, P/O W.N.; McIntosh, 644566, A/C 2 W.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING, NOW REPORTED PRISONER OF WAR
Beardsley, 565475, Sgt. G.; Grey-Smith, 39460, F/O. G.E.; Hallifax, 33404, P/O. N.D.; McKenzie 40405, P/O. R.C.D.; Roberts, 90897, P/O. R.; Taylor-Gill, 590406, F/Sgt. J.D.T.; Whiting, 581047, Sgt. D.A.
ROYAL NEW ZEALAND AIR FORCE
MISSING
Fuller, A 39913, Sgt. J.E.
KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
Hoadley, A 39919, P/O. H.M.; Priestly, P/O. J.S.
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D.F.C. BROTHERS KILLED IN ACTION
NINE D.F.C.s, one A.F.C., and one D.F.M. are included in 319 officers and airmen named in the 46th Air Ministry casualty list.
Two of the D.F.C.s are brothers. Pilot Officer C.A. Woods-Scawen and Flying Officer P.P. Woods-Scawen are reported killed in action. They were born at Karachi and educated at Salesian College, Farnborough.
The list, other than wounded, is:-
KILLED IN ACTION
Aberhardt, 42781, P.O., R.A.C.; Balmer, 745574, Sgt. JH.; Bell, 90051, F.O J.S.; Berry, 563426, Flt.-Sgt. F.G., D.F.M.; Bonseigneur, 42791, P.O. C.R.; Briggs, 751402, Sgt. W.; Brook, 648603, Sgt. D.; Burrow, 551597, Sgt. J.; Davies, 632374, Sgt. H.; Davis, 90131, F.O., C.R.; D.F.C.; Clifton, 41902 P.O. J.K.G.; Corker, 751198, Sgt. W.J.C.; Cranston, 751938. Sgt. T.G.J.; Dickinson, 740861, Sgt. J.H.; Fletcher, 800635, Sgt. J.G.B.; Couldstone, 812360, Sgt. RJ.; Haigh. 566171, Sgt. C.; Hanson, 33363, F.O. D.H.W.; Higson. 70305, F.O. K.H ; Hogg, 77977, P.O. D.W.; Hodd, 746840, Sgt. C.L.G.; Hunter, 40178, F.O. F.M.; Jacobson, 1050704, A/C. 2nd Cl.N.; Jenkins, 41930, P.O. D.N.O.; Johnson, 49241, P.O. C.E.; Jones, 905466, Sgt. R.H.G.; Kenner, 73032, P.O. P.L.; King, 32199, Sqd. Ldr E.B.; Love. 523064. Ldg. A/C. W.; Maffett, 80814, P.O. G.H.; Noble, 742128. Sgt. D.; Owles. 748693, Sgt. A.E.; Pendred, 37999, Act. Flt. Lt S.C.; Pinkham, 37208, Act. Sqd. Ldr. P.C.; A.F.C.; Price, 41060, P.O. J.F.S.P.; Reynolds, 41803, P.O. J.H.; Ridley. 565201, Sgt. M.; Starr, 34181, Sqd. Ldr. H.M.; Stenhouse, 39904, F.O. W.A.; Trueman, 40766, P.O. A.A.G.; Tune, 581552, Sgt. H.A.; Wakeling, 741505, Sgt. S.R.E.; Waterston, 90197. F.O. R.McC.; Webster, 37436. Act. Flt. Lt. J.T.; Wilcox, 70830, F.O. E.J.; Williams, 745324, Sgt. L.A.; Winter, 43572, P.O. D.C.; Woods-Scawen, 40778 P.O. C.A.; D.F.C.; Woods-Scawen, 40452, F.O. P.P., D.F.C.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING NOW PRESUMED KILLED IN ACTION.
Brig, 563033. Sgt. F.J.R.; Orchard, 540259, A/C J, Woods, 580401. Sgt. W.B.;
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING, BELIEVED KILLED IN ACTION, NOW REPORTED KILLED IN ACTION.
Coleman. 39781. P.O. W.H.; Poole. 42722. P.O. F.T.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING NOW REPORTED KILLED IN ACTION.
Atkinson. 33481, P.O. H.D., D.F.C.; France, 580739, Sgt. E.B.H.; Jones, 590727. Sgt. G.W..; Lewis, 580549, Sgt. G.; Murray. 759321, Sgt. A.G.; Parvin. 581118, Sgt. F.F.; Pirie, 42077, P.O H.G.R.; Prentice, 812244. Sgt. M.A.
DIED OF WOUNDS OR INJURIES RECEIVED IN ACTION.
Allen, 740664, Sgt., J.W.K.; Duncan. 581442. Sgt. H.H.; Fleming, 74672, P.O R.D.S.
MISSING, BELIEVED KILLED IN ACTION.
Jones, 525815, Ldg. A/C C.J.C.; Hull, 37285 Actg. Sqdn. Ldr. C.B. D.F.C.; Little, 741292, Sgt. J.McG.; Meades. 536703, Sgt. S.E.; Shaller. 746964, Sgt. D.F.; Smitheram, 41074, P.O. J.C.; Weaver, 70719, Actg. Flt. Lt. P.S.
MISSING.
Arthur, 42090, P.O. C.J.; Baker, 935961, Sgt. B.; Baker, 751839, Sgt. J.; Bann, 581165, Sgt. J.; Bayliss, 44057, P.O. G.L.; Bentham. 552444, Sgt. H.; Berry, 39959, F.O. E.R.; Borg-Banks, 41659, P.O. T.H.; Bowers, 743077, Sgt. H.; Bruce, 39853. F.O. D.C.; Carter, 628721, Sgt. H.W.; Child, 616033, Ldg A/C A.G.; Churchill, 41255, P.O. R.S.A.; Clarke, 743056, Sgt. J.C.; Coghlan, 37719, Actg. Flt. Lt. J.H., D.F.C.; Coverley, 70142. F.O. W.H.
Cox. 747819. Sgt. R.C.R.; Cunningham, 90194. Flt-Lt. J.L.G.; Cutts, 40804. P.O. J.W.; D’Arcy, 561093, Sgt. BM., Davis, 44271, P.O. D.H.; Dean, 975058, A/c 2 H.W.; Dickson, 626161. Sgt. GM.; Doulton, 90235. F.O. M.D.; Dunkels, 42822, P.O. C.O.; Dunnington, 612371, Sgt. H.; Dymond 580059, Sgt. W.L.; Edmeads, 751841, Sgt. A.C.H.; Fawcett, 41005, P.O. N.B.; Fitzpatrick, 79540. P.O. W.E.; Francis, 42211, P.O. C.D.; Garvey 741796, Sgt. P.K.; Gibson. 751217. Sgt. A.; Gordon. 42120. P.O. W.H.G.; Hall, 510251, Ldg. A/C E.A.; Hamilton, 39316, Flt. Lt. H.R.; Hibbert, 538174, A.C G.; Hill, 567598, Sgt, M.; Hillcoat, 90256. Actg. Flt. Lt. H.B.L.; Hogg, 33486, P.O. R.M.; Hood, 26110 Sqdn. Ldr. H.R.L.; Howard, 566374, Sgt. H.G.H.; Hudson, 755052, Sgt. J.D.; Hynes, 41707. P.O. T.G.
Inskip, 581339, Sgt. I.; Johnson. 520406, Sgt. J.I., Johnston 580546, Sgt. N.R.; Jones, 536553, Ldg. A/c C.P.; Lampard, 615948, Ldg. A/c C.D.; Lawes, 567002. Ldg. A/c. W.F.; Lovett, 37543, Act. Flt-Lt, R.E.; D.F.C.; Macdonald, 74679. P.O. D.K.; Martin. 633385. Ldg. A/c E.; Maxwell, 967872, Sgt. W.; Moddy, 81046, P.O. H.W.; Newson, 755404, Sgt. F.H.; Norris, 565646, Flt.-Sgt. H.N.; O’Reilly, 535507. Ldg. A/c J.P.; Parvin. 33441. P.O J.H.K.; Pearce, 742651, Sgt. E.A.; Pigg, 39678, F.O. O.St.J.; Randall, 905742, Sgt. D.W.G.; Reay, 626591, A/c G.; Rhodes, 42529, P.O. R.A.; Rhodes-Moorhouse. 90140. Flt-Lt. W.H., D.F.C,; Riddick, 1004679, Sgt. D.C.B.; Rigby, 532880, Cpl. G.A.; Riley, 741996, Sgt. C.P.; Riley, 550943, Sgt. E.A.H.; Ringwood, 629710. Sgt. E.A.; Rolls. 615888. Sgt. H.; Rushmer, 90192, Flt-Lt. F.W.; Sawyer. 638724 Sgt. F.C.
Sherriff, 362116, Flt Sgt. WD.; Smith, 755623,. Sgt. J.S.; Stephenson, 550132, Sgt, JW.; Stiles. 639949. Sgt. R.C.E.; Sully, 581542. Sgt. A.P.; Thomas, 37332. Act. Sqd. Ldr. FG.R.; Wainwright, 581127, Sgt. LH.; Walker 615619, Sgt. A.E.; Webb, 966677. A/C D.C.; Westmoreland. 741143, Sgt. T.E.; Wicker, 746715, Sgt. R.M.; Willcox, 590740, Sgt. R.J.
MISSING BELIEVED KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
Attwood, 643865, Sgt. C.A.V.; Ayres, 610542. A/C WA.; Gates, 643900. Sgt. F.A.E.; Hartnell, 568749, Sgt. R.S.; Heseltine, 563144, Sgt. R.; Richardson. 740461, Sgt. R.T.; Stephens. 967065, Sgt E.J.; Tompkins, 565827, Sgt. R.J.; Turner. 741188 Sgt. E.G.
KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
Ambrose. 73040, P.O. R.; Barrell, 864073, Act. Cpl. A.R.O.; Bott, 742082, Sgt. N.K.; Burridge 646963, A/C. H.L.; Campbell, 638834, A/C D.; Clarke, 770819, A/C A.W.; Crowdle, 900919, A/C T.P.; Eastoe, 754751, Sgt. E.R.; Emery, 958357, A/C 2 D.A.; Fairfield, 1358170, A/C 2 W.; Fletcher, 42828, P.O. A.W.; Graves, 632826, Sgt. E.A.; Gregory, 569989, Ldg. A/C G.T.; Griggs, 1252107. A/C 2 DB.; Harrison, 747970, Sgt. C.W.C.F.; Haviland, 76571, P.O R.H.; Herring. 42605, P.O. S.J.; Hopwood. 903368, Sgt. H.C.R.; Howard. 905610. Ldg. A/C WH.; Imeson, 514385. Cpl. B.A.G.; Ives, 904303, Sgt. H.G.; Kirk, 1103925, A/C 2 A.; Laidlay, 79740; P.O. J.R.J.; Larkin, 906240, A/C 2 F.L.; Loham, 365473 Flt. Sgt. W.HG.
Loomes. 748020, Sgt. G.H.; Lowry. 944933, A/C 2 J.; Macassey, 42136. P.O. M.E.B.H.; McConnell, 34023, Sqdn Ldr. R.H.S., D.F.C ; Milway, 1256132, A/C 2 O.E.; Mole, 776021 Ldg. A/C A.H.; Moon, 909698. A/C 2 R.; Munro 43336, F.O. K.; O’Reilly, 27139, Ft. Lt. M.P.; Ryall, 901751, A/C 2 (Air Cadet) G.W.; Sadler, 90937, Act. P.O. D.A.; Shackleton. 343404, Ldg. A/C H.A.; Smith, 644581, A/C 2 J.W.S.; Steele. 550484. Sgt. A.; Teviotdale, 748400. Sgt. E.A.; Thompson, 742868. Sgt. K.; Walker, 1007477, A/C 2 F.; Watt, 755255. Sgt. J.A.; Whiffen. 747997. Sgt. R.J.; Williams. 748354. Sgt. R.; Wood. 581423. Sgt. F.W.K.; Williams. 758155. Sgt. H.; Yorke. 31255. F.O PD.I.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED “MISSING, BELIEVED KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE,” NOW REPORTED “KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE.”
Gwynne, 742137, Sgt J.D
DIED OF WOUNDS OR INJURIES RECEIVED ON ACTIVE SERVICE.
Alway 77382. Act. Flt. Lt. E.J.; Dudley, 1182877, A/C 2 G.W.L.; Harris, 39331, Flt. Lt. F.B.; Holdaway, 1173749, A/C 2 F.AC.; Smyth. 33550, PO T.N.; Terry. 801454. Sgt. A.W
DIED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
Angell. 1004023, A/C. 2 M.; Barnes, 1305022. A/C 2 A.J.; Copper, 632264, Ldg A/C. A.; Dench. 621994. A/C. 2 M.V.C.; Horobin, 963047, A/C. 2 A.J.; Jones, 963923, A/C. 2 E.; Keogh, 613956, Ldg. A/C. HP.G.; Leman, 951530, Ldg. A/C C.T.W.; Morton, 1005871, Ldg. A/C. TR.; Naylor, 1007682 A/C. 2 D.; Sorbie, 625465. A/C. A.; Suter, 944760, A/C 2 DA.; Wallington, 512076. Sgt WF.; Wilmott, 846488. Ldg A/C EV
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED “MISSING.” NOW REPORTED “SAFE”
Chapman, 614035. A/C J.; Lewis, 42465, P.O W.N.; McIntosh. 644566, A/C. 2 W.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED “MISSING.”, NOW REPORTED “PRISONER OF WAR”
Beardsley, 565475, Sgt. G.; Grey-Smith, 39460. F.O. G.E.; Hallifax, 33404, P O. N.D.; McKenzie. 40405. P.O. R.CD.; Roberts, 90897, P.O. R.; Taylor-Gill, 590406. Flt. Sgt. JD.T.; Whiting, 581047, Sgt. DA.
ROYAL N.Z. AIR FORCE
MISSING
Fuller, A 39913, Sgt. J.E.
KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE
Hoadley, A 39919, P.O. H.M.; Priestley, P.O. J.S.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
RAF Losses
Description
An account of the resource
Two newspaper cuttings with casualties including that Sgt J D Hudson is missing
Format
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One newspaper cutting
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Identifier
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NSmithEA151029-040001, NSmithEA151029-040003
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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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.
Contributor
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Georgie Donaldson
missing in action
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/886/11084/OHudsonJD173116-151001-030005.2.jpg
c1703c78d0197b572b25ab94fb4179d9
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Title
A name given to the resource
Hudson, Douglas
James Douglas Hudson
J D Hudson
Description
An account of the resource
529 items. Collection concerns Pilot Officer James Douglas Hudson, DFC (755052 Royal Air Force) who joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in June 1939 and trained as an observer. While on route to Malta in August 1940 his Blenheim crashed in Tunisia and he was subsequently interned for two and a half years by Vichy French in Tunisia and Algeria. After being freed he returned to Great Britain and after navigator retraining completed a tour of 30 operations on 100 Squadron. The collection contains letters to and from his parents and from French penfriends while interned in Tunisia and Algeria, newspaper cuttings of various events, logbooks and lists of operations, official documents and photographs. A further 23 items are in two sub-collections with details of navigator examinations and postcards of Laghouat Algeria.<br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Elizabeth Smith and Yvonne Puncher and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br />
<p>This collection also contains items concerning Louis Murray and Harry Bowers. Additional information on <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/202827/">Harry Bowers</a> and <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/220410/">Louis Murray</a> is available via the IBCC Losses Database.</p>
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-06-16
Rights
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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
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Hudson, JD
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Bombed Bremen From 50 Feet
[Picture]
Sergeant Norman J. Giblin, R.A.F.V.R., awarded the D.F.M, now missing.
DARING R.A.F. bomber crews who carried out raids on Bremen, one in daylight and from a height of 50ft., are in a list of awards for gallantry.
They are: -
Pilot – Officer Waples, R.A.F. R.A.F.V.R., No. 21 Squadron, and Pilot-Officer Alister Stewart Ramsay, R.A.F.V.R., No 105 Squadron who receive the D.F.C.; Sgt. Gerald Douglas Prior Quinn, No. 106 Squadron, who gets a bar to his D.F.M.; and Flt-Sgt. Frederick John Patterson and Sgt. Norman Joseph Giblin, R.A.F.V.R., No. 21 Squadron. and Sgt. Robert Hesketh Nuttall, No. 115 Squadron, who get the D.F.M.
Sergeant Giblin was born at Preston in 1920. His father lives at Withington, Manchester. He was a local government officer before enlisting in the R.A.F.V.R. in April, 1939, as air observer.
Pilot-Officer Waples, Flt-Sergt. Patterson, and Sergt. Giblin were pilot, wireless operator-air gunner, and observer of a plane which successfully bombed Bremen from low level last month.
On the return journey the plane was attacked by two fighters, but Flt-Sergt. Patterson, by his timely and accurate instructions, enabled the pilot to take successful avoiding action. Then the aircraft was attacked by three fighters, but Flt.-Sergt. Patterson destroyed one and assisted his pilot again by giving him invaluable evasive instructions.
The parents of Sergeant Giblin, who live in Old Moat-lane. Withington, have been informed that he is missing. They are confident he will “turn up”, for it is not the first time he has failed to return from an operational flight. Last November he dropped into the North Sea, but was picked up by a convoy and came home safely.
Sergeant Giblin, who is 20, was educated at St. Bede’s College, Manchester, and was an accountant in the Manchester Corporation Electricity Department. His father, Mr J.J Giblin, is a Corporation bus guard.
THROUGH BALLOON BARRAGE
Pilot-Officer Ramsay and Sergt. Quinn were the air observer navigator and wireless operator air gunner of the leading aircraft of a formation which made a daylight bombing attack on Bremen on July 4. Flying through a balloon barrage and meeting with most determined and accurate fire from the ground, they attacked the town centre from 50 feet up.
Sergt. Quinn was wounded in the leg, but remained at this post, maintaining wireless watch and assisting Pilot-Officer Ramsey materially in navigating the aircraft safely back to its base.
Sergt. R. Hesketh Nuttall was rear gunner in an aircraft which attacked Bremen one night this month.
D.F.C FOR NIGHT FIGHTER
The D.F.C. also goes to Wing Commander David Francis William Atcherley of No. 25 squadron. He has carried out a large amount of operational flying at night and has destroyed three enemy aircraft at night. His father lives at York.
Sgt. Henson, though shot in the neck during a daylight attack on Merville Aerodrome, remained at the controls for an hour and landed his machine safely. The observer stopped the flow of blood from Henson’s neck by placing his thumb over a vein.
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Title
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Bombed Bremen from 50 feet
Description
An account of the resource
RAF bomber crews who carried out attacks on Bremen, one in daylight and from height of 50 feet are listed for gallantry awards. Goes on with lists and describes actions of Pilot Officer Waples 21 Squadron, Pilot Office Alister Stewart Ramsay, 105 Squadron, Distinguished Flying Cross. Sergeant Douglas Prior Quinn. 106 Squadron, Flight Sergeant Frederick John Patterson and Sergeant Norman Joseph Giblin, 21 Squadron who were awarded Distinguished Flying Medal. Account of action for award of Distinguished Flying Cross for night fighter Wing Commander David Frances William Atcherley, 25 Squadron and Distinguished Flying Medal for Sergeant J K Henson.
Format
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One newspaper cutting
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Identifier
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OHudsonJD173116-151001-030005
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Germany--Bremen
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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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.
Contributor
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Georgie Donaldson
105 Squadron
106 Squadron
21 Squadron
25 Squadron
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1001/11329/EGunnWRRamsayW500329-0001.1.jpg
ed95b6d71aa19a2536e901131559d907
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1001/11329/EGunnWRRamsayW500329-0002.1.jpg
bcb24b020d18f95aaeaf58393b982147
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Joseph, David
D Joseph
Description
An account of the resource
22 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Joseph (1576383, Royal Air Force) and contains his decorations, log book, memoirs, correspondence and a list of prisoners of war at Stalag Luft 4. He flew operations as a pilot with 76 Squadron from RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor until his aircraft was shot down on 18 March 1944 on an operation to Frankfurt and he became a prisoner of war. The collection also contains a letter to Mrs Ramsay about the loss of her son, Flying Officer Kenneth Ramsay and photographs of his final resting place. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Brian Joseph and catalogued by Barry Hunter.<br /><br />Additional information on Kenneth Grant Ramsay is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/223173/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2018-05-22
Rights
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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
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Joseph, D
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Canada Crest]
IN REPLY PLEASE QUOTE No. J22060 (DPC)
Department of National Defence
OTTAWA, 29th March, 1950.
Mrs. Winnifred Ramsay,
7790 Cartier St.,
Vancouver, B.C.
Dear Mrs Ramsay:
It is with regret that I refer to the loss of your son, Flying Officer Kenneth Grant Ramsay. A report has, however, been received from our Missing Research and Enquiry Service concerning your son.
Investigating Officers of this Service have ascertained that two woodcutters had found your son’s body in the woods near Niederehe. Niederehe is thirty-seven miles west of Koblenz. He had been buried in the local cemetery.
Our Investigating Officers were informed that other members of the crew had parachuted safely at Nohn, 1 3/4 miles north east of Niederehe. On making enquires at Nohn, witnesses stated that they knew of at least three crew members landing at Nohn. They remembered the names of two of these crew members as being Wirth and Joseph.
[COPIED Archives stamp]
In view of the fact that your son’s body was located less than two miles from where other members of the crew has parachuted safely, he must have lost his life in the parachute descent.
In accordance with the agreed policy of the Nations of the British Commonwealth that all British aircrew buried in Germany would be moved to permanent British Military Cemeteries located in Germany, your son was moved to the permanent British Military Cemetery eleven miles north west of Duisburg, Germany. The cemetery is known as the Rheinberg British Military Cemetery. Your son was laid rest in plot II, row E, grave No. 25.
[inserted] Phoned persons who have [indecipherable word][signature][/inserted]
….2….
RCAF G32B
200M-6-49 (5941)
[page break]
– 2 –
This British Military Cemetery will be reverently cared for and maintained in perpetuity by the Imperial War Graves Commission (of which Canada is a member). The Commission will also erect a permanent headstone at your son’s resting place.
It is my earnest hope that you will be comforted with the knowledge that your son’s resting place is known and that it will be permanently maintained, and I would like to take this opportunity of expressing to you and the members of your family my deepest sympathy in the loss of your gallant son.
Yours sincerely,
[undecipherable signature]
for (W.R. Gunn)
Wing Commander,
R.C.A.F Casualties Officer,
for Chief of the Air Staff.
[COPIED Archives stamp]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter to Mrs Ramsay referring to the loss of her son
Description
An account of the resource
A letter to Mrs Winifred Ramsay referring to the death of her son, Kenneth Grant Ramsay and giving details of his final resting place.
Format
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Two typewritten sheets
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
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EGunnWRRamsayW500329-0001,
EGunnWRRamsayW500329-0002
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
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Canada
Germany
British Columbia--Vancouver
Germany--Nohn
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Rheinberg
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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1950-03-29
Temporal Coverage
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1944-03-18
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
Steve Baldwin
76 Squadron
aircrew
final resting place
killed in action
navigator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1001/11340/B[Author]JosephDv1.pdf
adb4481f59b00354de92b535f55c6558
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Joseph, David
D Joseph
Description
An account of the resource
22 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Joseph (1576383, Royal Air Force) and contains his decorations, log book, memoirs, correspondence and a list of prisoners of war at Stalag Luft 4. He flew operations as a pilot with 76 Squadron from RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor until his aircraft was shot down on 18 March 1944 on an operation to Frankfurt and he became a prisoner of war. The collection also contains a letter to Mrs Ramsay about the loss of her son, Flying Officer Kenneth Ramsay and photographs of his final resting place. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Brian Joseph and catalogued by Barry Hunter.<br /><br />Additional information on Kenneth Grant Ramsay is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/223173/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-05-22
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Joseph, D
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
DAVID JOSEPH; WORLD WAR II RAF PILOT AND PRISONER OF WAR
Introduction
David’s early RAF career is still being researched, but we have comprehensive set of material and information from Jan 1944, including his original flying log book, copy diaries made by fellow prisoners, letters from one of his crew, and various books and articles. We also have his “wings”, medals, inscribed “caterpillar club” broach, and the original letter to his parents advising David was missing in action.
The following notes are drawn from the material, and include some direct quotations from it. The prime sources are
1. Of Ploughs, Planes and Palliasses, by Percy Carruthers, a fellow RAF POW’s story of survival of camps and forced marches. It includes a reference to David by name, and others from his crew.
2. To See the Dawn Breaking, by Bill Chorley, an official RAF historian, a history of 76 squadron. It records all their bombing missions include those David was on.
3. The Army that Didn’t March on It’s Stomach, by Cecil Room, an original diary of forced march from Feb to April 1945. David was the group of pow’s on this march.
4. The Last Escape, by John Nicholl and Tony Rennell, written in 2002 based on research and interviews with WWII pow’s.
5. Letters from Ted Giles, flight engineer on Davids Halifax Bomber crew, and also a pow, at times in the same camps as David and also repatriated together.
6. David’s log book Jan-March 1944 with 76 Squadron, recording the planes, crew, and missions.
7. A photocopy from the original postmans list of pow’s in Gross Tychow, 1944
For any amateur historian or student projects, the material is superb historical evidence, fascinating, sobering and emotional, and brings vividly to life the hardship, heroism, camaraderie and sheer will to survive of the pow’s, many of them like David barely turned 20 years old.
Brief Edited Highlights of David Experiences
1. From training to operations.
David joined the RAF in October 1941 aged 18 years 8 months, with Service Number 1576383, and was finally decommissioned on 2nd Feb 1946. His training included spells in Canada and he qualified as a pilot and was awarded his wings, an achievement commemorated in an inscribed silver cigarette box given to him on his 20th birthday in Feb 1943 by the workforce at N.C. Joseph Ltd.
David was posted to 76 Squadron, Bomber Command in Jan 1944, a Halifax bomber base at Holme-on-Spalding Moor, and one of many RAF bases in Yorkshire, (The village church has a commemorative stained glass window to squadron members lost
[page break]
in action). He began operational flights with them on 20th Jan, piloting the four-engined bombers including missions to Berlin, Trappes, Le Mans, and Stuttgart.
2. Shot down and captured
On the night of 18th March en-route to Frankfurt in Halifax LW 655, the plane was severely damaged by streams of gunfire from an unseen attacker, and the crew were forced to bail out. As pilot, David was last to jump, by when the plane was spiralling down out of control. David’s Canadian navigator, Ken Ramsay was killed during or immediately after the parachute descent, but the rest of the crew survived (and thus became members of the Caterpillar Club of airman whose lives were saved by silk parachutes). They all landed near to Niederehe and Nohn.
Ken’s family never knew where he lay until 1984, when David in retirement researched and tracked the grave through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It is at the Rheinberg war cemetery 15 miles north of Krefeld.
David set off on foot towards the West and bumped into one of his crew, Ted Giles, who was using the same hedgerow for cover!! They were put up in a barn and fed by some French farm labourers the next day, but set off again on foot as soon as night fell only to be captured by armed police in an unknown village. After a few hours in the local cells, they were shipped off to Dulag Luft IV Interrogation Centre at Frankfurt, and from there to Luft III Sagan. This was the scene of the famous “Great Escape” and although David’s group were only there for a few hours and not directly involved, the timing was coincidental with the escape activities as it was on the 23rd March that 50 Airman from Sagan were shot as reprisal for the escape.
3. Hydekrug POW camp
Next David and his group were shipped on to Luft VI Heydekrug, “bleak and cold and inhospitable in the barren wastes of Lithunia”, which was to be their “home” through to July. Stories abound of tunnelling, trigger happy guards, regular searches by Gestapo who stole the prisoners’ personal possessions and food, great ingenuity, deliberate disruption by the pow’s of daily roll-calls, sport and self-created entertainment, and a lethal home-brew fermented from raisins, prunes and sugar received in red-cross parcels.
In June 1944 news of the allied forces D-day successes left Germany fighting on two fronts, and give pow moral a great boost. “The long hard winter had passed, we now had sunshine with us and more to look forward to, plus hope to sustain us. Within the next ten months we were to discover that we needed every bit of both we could muster, and every ounce of food we could find, just to survive.”
By early July, heavy artillery fire from the westward advancing Russian army could be heard in the camp, as the Red Army swept the front line through Poland and ever closer to the border with Germany. The German’s attitude to the pow’s hardened dramatically.
On 13th July Luft VI Heydekrug was evacuated. There was no transport and men could only take what they could carry, and they were marched to the railway station.
[page break]
Here the group spilt, some including Ted Giles going to Thorn in Poland, the rest with David among them beginning a trek during which they suffered unbelievable horrors.
4. “Baltic Cruise”, the Insterburg.
Crammed into cattle truck, they arrived that night a Memel, a Baltic seaport on the west cost [sic] of Lithuania. 900 men were forced into the two holds of the “Insterburg”, “a dilapidated, old and dirty coaster of about 1500 tons”. There was no light or ventilation once the hatches were shut, no food, no drink except for one bucket lowered by rope occasionally, no sanitation, and dysentery was rife and spread fast. The journey lasted 60 hours ending at Swinemunde at the mouth of the river Oder, and an important base for the German Navy..
As the men were unloaded, they were forced to remove their boots and were handcuffed together in pairs, then forced at bayonet point into yet more cattle rail trucks. At that point an allied bombing raid began and the trucks jumped into the air, vibrated and splintered from the blasts.
Eventually the train set off, and “most were in a bad way, and some slumped on the floor, tongues parched and gasping for breath; but the wagons were so crowded no one could bend down to help them.”
But the worst was still to come.
5. Hitler Youth. Bayonets, alsations and “The Run Up the Road”
After an overnight journey, the train halted “on a long lonely stretch of track beside a pine forest. A sign announced the name of a tiny station, Kiefheide”. The original guards got out and were replaced by “lines of vicious looking young men in white uniforms, brandishing unsheathed bayonets.” They were marine cadets from the Hitler Youth, teenage Nazis reared on adulation for Hitler. “We saw hate in their eyes,” and kept in the trucks again overnight, “we slept little, kept awake by the sounds of steel blades being sharpened on grinding wheels and laughter as the boasted how they would teach the Terrorfliegers a lesson tomorrow.”
Kept shut in the trucks until the following afternoon of 19th July, the prisoners were finally hounded out still manacled, struggled to retrieve their boots, and made to stand in lines beside the track. Then they were marched out onto a road, to be confronted by double lines of cursing shouting marine cadets, fixed bayonets, alsation dogs, and guards with machine guns at the ready. The German plan was apparently to incite the men to panic and run, to be shot down “while trying to escape.” There were even cameras on tripods to record it all.
Remarkably the prisoners kept their discipline and maintained a fast walking pace until in frustration the German major began yelling at his troops “Alles laufen. Make them run. Make them run until they drop.” Blood oozed from cut flesh and the smell of it enraged the snapping dogs. Men fell to the ground, tripping over or simply too exhausted to carry on. The marine cadets closed in around them.”
[page break]
And yet the prisoners still kept in ranks, shouted encouragement to one another, and the stronger moved to the outside of the line to protect the injured and the weaker in the centre. “There were many acts of courage amidst the confusion.”
6. Gross Tychow, Stalag Luft IV.
They arrived at the gates of Gross Tychow, Stalag Luft IV, in the German province of Pomerania, after 6 days without food, water, sleep or sanitation, “an exhausted, scared and subdued bunch. The Germans sat outside eating food they had taken from our packs.” And still it was not over, as to go through the gates they were forced to run a forty metre gauntlet of guards in two lines with bayonets fixed, jabbing incessantly at them. Then they were forced to lie on the ground and were strip searched.
This camp became a byword for brutality. POW numbers in the camp grew to 10,000, severe cold and snow set in, there was very little food and Red Cross Parcels only got through rarely. There is evidence that preparations and training were made by the Germans for organised shooting of prisoners.
Initially there was no accommodation, then dog kennels 14 feet by 8 feet and only 4 feet high each with 10 men. Finally barrack huts were available, and we have a photocopy of the postmans list which includes David and 4 of his crew, plus Jeff Longford another Stratford man and school contemporary at KES with David.
Camp numbers swelled dramatically as “hordes of weary dishevelled soldiers, mostly British with some Russian and other Nationals all arriving on foot from the East. They were footsore and limping, dirty, ill-clad, very hungry and exhausted.”
7. The Death March from Gross Tychow to Fallingbostel.
By 6th Feb 1945 the advancing Russian army was only 15 miles away, and the RAF prisoners were forced to set off out of the camp on foot, “herded out onto road and to the fields and woods, in snow, frost, rain and sun, to experience frostbite, hunger, thirst, blisters, swollen limbs, spastic muscles, colitis, dysentery, pneumonia and many other afflictions.” It was the start of a massive exodus that would see “the arteries of Germany clogged by millions of displaced people heading west in varying degrees of terror and horror.”
The journey covered 380 miles over 8 weeks, and is fully documented in Cecil Room’s diaries and Percy Carruthers book.
7th Feb “rain and sleet, we shall be sleeping in wet blanket tonight.” “Bloody awful night, no room in barn and again no food from Jerry.”
8th Feb “we see how long the column is. 2000 men three abreast takes up a lot of roads.”
“I break the ice in a puddle to get a moderately clean cup to water.”
[page break]
13th Feb “we purchase a small sheep from a farmer, and the boys slaughter it. Divided among 600 men and my share is as big as a sugar lump.”
“the dysentery situation was also deteriorating. Many were too weak to go any further, and burning wood to make charcoal and eating it in large quantities. Thanfully [sic] it did seem to ease the burning rawness and soothe tortured bowels.”
15th Feb “a day of 25 miles and no food. The evening was intensely cold under a clear sky portending frost and body numbing temperatures.” There were no buildings to sleep in and the night was spent in the open. “Most of the boys were in such an advanced stage of physical fatigue they just folder up on the wet ground where they were standing.”
“the ground we slept on was digusting,[sic] the snow was the colour of khaki from human excrement from those further up the column who had gone before. That night allied bombers came over the area again, not too far away an anti-aircraft battery was firing, and big chunks of shrapnel were coming down from the flak. It was terrifying. We had no helmets to protect us. But what was happening made me so angry, I was determined to survive. Come hell or high water, I was going to get home. This was without doubt the worst night of my life.”
16th Feb, (Davids 22nd birthday) “we awoke to see everything and everybody covered with white frost. How some had survived the night I shall never know.”
“this was another day of total abstinence from food. We did receive some drinking water late in the day.”
By the 15th March, they had covered 288 miles, “I can count the ribs easily now and don’t suppose I’m more than six and half stone. In the 37 days so far, our food supply from the Germans has been 2 loaves, 4/5 of pound of margarine, 4 ounces of meet [sic], and two and half Red Cross food parcels.” The only extras were from stealing, bartering (twelve cigarettes for two cattle cakes), hacking flesh of dead horses on the roadside, raiding the fields for root crops to gnaw on, occasionally finding grain and potato stores.
“I looked at my own forearm and saw it as a piece of meat. My own arm for Christ’s sake. I would wonder if I could bite into it and not hurt myself.”
“so little water was issued that men drank water or snow from the ground or from ditches others had used as latrines. Dysentery was so common and severe that wherever our column went, there was a trial of bloody movements and discarded underwear.”
As the health and strength of the prisoners slumped, the doctors with them were a scource of strength and survival despite desperate lack of equipment and medicines. They walked at the rear of the column encouraging and supporting the weakest. They scraped lice off patients bodies to listen to their chests with bare ear pressed to the skin. All they had to lance hundreds of abscesses was a razor blade.
Often a pep talk was all they could offer. “The human body is the toughest device ever built. You fellows are young, far stronger than you realize. You can take an
[page break]
unbelievable amount of punishment and make a snappy comeback. Hundreds of men have already done it, and you will too.”
“Each man on that march had a moment or several when they faced utter despair. Each had to find his own medicine within himself or die.”
There are no formal records of the numbers, but eyewitness accounts suggest a minimum of 150 of the RAF prisoners died along the way.
8. Fallingbostell. Hell, Chaos, and Freedom.
The march ended on 28th March, when the prisoners were yet again loaded into rail cattle trucks at Ebstorf, packed 80 to a truck and left locked in overnight and it was “truly hell. We were all so tired and the very sick were totally worn out. The number of men capable of standing up all night was very few indeed. This resulted in bodies being heaped on each other, exhausted.”
A two and a half hour, 70 kilometre journey followed to Fallingbostel, between Hamburg and Hannover, where the group was spilt between two camps, David’s going to Stalag 357. Remarkably here he met up again with Ted Giles, whose group has been transported in from Thorn in Poland. “To say that I was delighted to see David was a gross understatement, but he has experienced a grim journey, very evident in his appearance.”
The camps in Fallingbostell were hugely overcrowded, numbers rising daily as more pow’s, refugees, concentration camp inmates and slave labourers all of every nationality poured in from the east. There were French, Russian, British, American, Serbs, Indians, Yugoslavs and many other minorities.
The compounds were shanty towns, and there was no food. “I was so frigging hungry there. We received potatoes and a green stew that was made up of boiled grass and boiled sugar beets. All it did was fill a space, there was no nutrition in it.”
Information about the advance of British and US troops was conflicting and confusing, and hopes of early release into friendly hands were not realised. On 6th April the RAF prisoners were ordered to leave the camps and to see off marching yet again, this time to the North East away from the advancing allied forces. There were various groups, some returned to the camp as their guards disobeyed orders, and one was tragically mistaken for German soldiers and shot at by allied Typhoon fighter planes. Some, including David and Ted Giles’s continued marching, and for the next few weeks were caught up in “the utter chaos of a scarred landscape, full of people who seemed to have nowhere to go, but who filled the roads trying to get there.” At times they were overtaken by retreating German soldiers, and at others were in the front line battle zones.
Finally in late April or the first few days of May, David and Ted Giles were together when the British Army caught up with their group, and freedom was quickly followed by starting the journey back to the UK via Brussells [sic] on VE night 8th May. Frankly we were too exhausted to join in the fun.
[page break]
They were taken to the reception centre at RAF Cosford, to be re-kitted and de-briefed. At the end of the program David and Ted Giles “suggested they be sent on a refresher course and then on operations in the Far East. The Medical Officer’s reply was not encouraging!!”
9. Reflections
David weighed an emaciated 6 stone on his return home, carried stomach ailments, bayonet wound scars and a hatred of alsations for the rest of his life. His legs remained pencil thin. No doubt there were deep mental and emotional scars too, but like many of his fellow pow’s he rarely spoke of his experiences, just once taking for hours to Beryl (who he met in the autumn of 1945 whilst recuperating) on a drive down from Stratford to Biggin Hill to see Beryl’s parents.
But in many respect David was one of the lucky one. 76 squadron alone lost 775 crewmembers killed in action, David’s navigator Ken Ramsay among them. And David’s cousin “little David” Silverman was killed on operations when his Lancaster went down. And not forgetting that 150 of his fellow prisoners did not survive the “Death March”.
The so-called “Baltic Cruise” and the “Run up the Road” were the subject of a Foreign Office letter dated 27th Jan 1945 requesting a full investigation as war crimes breaching the Geneva Conventions.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
David Joseph; World War II RAF Pilot and Prisoner of War
Description
An account of the resource
Includes David Joseph's service in the RAF, his training in Canada and his operations on Halifaxes at RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor and his movements after being shot down 18 March 1944 and becoming a prisoner of war.
Format
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Seven typewritten sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
B[Author]JosephDv1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Wehrmacht
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
Lithuania
Poland
England--Yorkshire
France--Le Mans
France--Paris
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Ebstorf
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Krefeld
Germany--Nohn
Germany--Stuttgart
Poland--Świnoujście
Lithuania--Klaipėda
Poland--Toruń
Germany--Bad Fallingbostel
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
Steve Baldwin
76 Squadron
animal
bombing
Caterpillar Club
displaced person
Dulag Luft
fear
final resting place
Halifax
Lancaster
memorial
prisoner of war
RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor
Red Cross
sanitation
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 6
the long march
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1001/11343/MJosephD1576383-180522-21.2.jpg
7779b893da182f121e902672edd54846
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Joseph, David
D Joseph
Description
An account of the resource
22 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Joseph (1576383, Royal Air Force) and contains his decorations, log book, memoirs, correspondence and a list of prisoners of war at Stalag Luft 4. He flew operations as a pilot with 76 Squadron from RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor until his aircraft was shot down on 18 March 1944 on an operation to Frankfurt and he became a prisoner of war. The collection also contains a letter to Mrs Ramsay about the loss of her son, Flying Officer Kenneth Ramsay and photographs of his final resting place. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Brian Joseph and catalogued by Barry Hunter.<br /><br />Additional information on Kenneth Grant Ramsay is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/223173/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-05-22
Rights
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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
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Joseph, D
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Crest]
In the years when our Country
was in mortal danger
DAVID JOSEPH
who served from 6th June 1940.
gave generously of his time and
powers to make himself ready
for her defence by force of arms
and with his life if need be.
[signature]
THE HOME GUARD
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
David Joseph's Home Guard Certificate
Description
An account of the resource
A certificate dated 'from 6th June 1940' awarded to David Joseph for his time in the Home Guard.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One printed sheet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MJosephD1576383-180522-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
civil defence
Home Guard
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1020/11366/LMacArthurDA[Ser -DoB]v10009.jpg
4f1245c287e72ffadbf0e061a69c0172
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Staves, Malcom Ely. MacArthur, DA
Description
An account of the resource
Four items concerning Flight Lieutenant DA MacArthur including an extract from his log book.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-26
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
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MacArthur, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Tragedy of Legion official
THE ROYAL British Legion’s county treasurer for Humberside, Mr David McArthur, has died within hours of moving to Warwickshire to be nearer his daughter.
He had been due to retire from his post later in the year because of his decision to set up home with his wife in the Midlands.
Mr MacArthur collapsed and died only a day after bidding farewell to friends on Humberside.
Mr MacArthur (68), had been county treasurer for the past 20 years and was president of the Willerby, Kirkella and Anlaby RBL branch since 1976.
He was a former treasurer of Haltemprice Urban District Council, retiring in 1974 on local government re-organisation.
Mr MacArthur, of Woodlands Drive, Anlaby, was a navigator on Lancaster bombers during the 1939-45 War and joined the British Legion on discharge.
HDM: 17/6/82
Mayor at funeral service
THE MAYOR of Beverley, Coun. John Gray, and the borough council’s chief executive, Mr Jim Thomas, attended the funeral service for Mr D.A MacArthur, the former treasurer of Haltemprice Urban District Council, which took place at Pebworth, near Stratford upon Avon, on Monday.
David Alexander MacArthur (68) entered local government with Cheltenham Borough Council and joined Haltemprice in May, 1940.
Towards the end of 1941 he volunteered for service with the RAF and as navigator in a Lancaster bomber squadron he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
On demobilisation he returned to Haltemprice and shortly afterwards took over as treasurer of the council, a post he held until his retirement upon local government reorganisation in 1974.
Mr MacArthur joined the Willerby and Kirkella branch of the Royal British Legion in 1946 and had served as committee member since that time.
He also served as treasurer, for many years as chairman and since 1966, as President. In addition he was the county treasurer for 20 years until his death. His 36 years of loyal service were recognised with the Legion’s highest honour – a National Certificate of Appreciation.
Members of the Willerby and Kirkella branch of the Royal British Legion, as well as former council colleagues, also attended the funeral service, at which the address was given by Maj. G.Pilsbury, county chairman.
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Title
A name given to the resource
D A MacArthur newspaper cuttings
Tragedy of Legion Official
Mayor at funeral service
Description
An account of the resource
Three newspaper cuttings referring to the death of DA MacArthur.
1 - intimation of DA MacArthur's death
2 - Tragedy of Legion Official. David MacArthur was county treasurer and died at the age of 68.
3 - Mayor at Funeral Service. David MacArthur was former treasurer of Haltemprice Urban District Council. The article refers to his wartime career and the award of a Distinguished Flying Cross.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1982-06
Format
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Three newspaper cutting on a single sheet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LMacArthurDA[Ser#-DoB]v10009
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Stratford-upon-Avon
England--Warwickshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-06-06
Rights
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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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
aircrew
Distinguished Flying Cross
Lancaster
navigator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1221/15084/SAttwoodSG1814420v10035.2.jpg
e47ad7f5f713b87d42b678a096e124d5
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Attwood, Stanley Gordon
Attwood, S G
Description
An account of the resource
19 items. The collection concerns Stanley Gordon Attwood (1924 - 1983) and includes photographs and newspaper cuttings that mainly relate to a documentary made in 1969 about a Lancaster aircrew of 50 Squadron reunited after 25 years.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Andrea Giles and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-09-24
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
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Attwood, SG
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
DOWN TO EARTH
[Picture]
Flight Sergeant Eric Gledhill made his final trip as engineer in RAF Waddington’s Lancaster when he flew in an air display in Cheshire.
The trip to Woodford was an appropriate one for was to the place where hundreds of the bombers were built during the war.
On his return to Waddington, Flt Sgt Gledhill, who will soon be leaving the RAF, was met by Wing Commander John Maud, acting Station Commander, who produced a bottle of champagne to be shared with the other crew members.
Flt Sgt Gledhill has been engineer on the Lancaster since it started flying at Waddington, and has had the responsibility of ensuring that the aircraft has been fit to fly on the many displays throughout the country.
Above, Wing Commander John Maud, third right, toasts Flt Sgt Eric Gledhill after his last trip in the Waddington Lancaster.
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Down to Earth
Description
An account of the resource
A newspaper cutting about the last flight of Flight Sergeant Eric Gledhill in Lancaster KM-B from RAF Waddington to a display at Woodford, Cheshire and back. In the photograph are seven airman and a woman.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One newspaper cutting from a scrapbook
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SAttwoodSG1814420v10035
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Civilian
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
aircrew
flight engineer
Lancaster
RAF Waddington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1230/16016/MRedgraveHC743047-151002-08.1.jpg
17f4ad2741453afc0e9cbd1d4d19c27e
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Redgrave, Henry Cecil
H C Redgrave
Description
An account of the resource
187 items. The collection concerns Henry Cecil Redgrave (743047, Royal Air Force) and contains his decorations, letters and photographs. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 207 Squadron from RAF Waddington. He was killed 13/14 March 1941. <br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pam Isaac and catalogued by Barry Hunter.<br /><br /><span>Additional information on Henry Cecil Redgrave is available via the </span><a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/119457/">IBCC Losses Database</a><span>.</span>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-10-02
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
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Redgrave, HC
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
- copy -
March 13 1941.
On the night of March 13, 1941, shortly after the alert had sounded at 20.43, an air battle took place over the city and a British bomber was brought down.
A fighter plane dived on a bomber which was flying from east to west over the south part of the city. A thrilling action was watched by thousands of people.
The fighter steadied behind the bomber and fired three bursts of machine gun bullets into it. The bomber, which was carrying lights, did not reply, but quickly lost height and crashed at Whisby Moor.
Four of the crew of the plane, a Manchester, were killed and two injured.
There was doubt whether the fighter was British or German.
End
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Title
A name given to the resource
March 13 1941
Description
An account of the resource
A brief account of the shooting down of Harry Redgrave's Manchester aircraft over Lincoln by a fighter. It states that four of the crew were killed and two injured when it crashed. Concludes with the statement 'There was doubt whether the fighter was British or German.'
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One typewritten sheet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MRedgraveHC743047-151002-08
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-03-13
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
aircrew
crash
Manchester
shot down
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1252/16491/MCheshireGL72021-181210-010003.2.jpg
043f6236c9b8efc864dd8d40ea5db9fa
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Cheshire, Leonard
Cheshire, Geoffrey Leonard
Baron Cheshire
Description
An account of the resource
374 items concerning Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC, OM, DSO & Two Bars, DFC. Collection consists of photographs of people, vehicles, places, aircraft, weapons and targets; documents including, private and service letters, signals, telegrams, intelligence reports, crew lists and official documents. Cheshire served on 102 and 35 Squadrons and commanded 76 and 617 Squadrons. The collection includes details of 617 Squadron's precision bombing operations. Also included are two sub-collections: one containing 21 photographs of Tinian and Saipan, the other consisting of 37 audio tapes of speeches given by Cheshire after the war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by The Leonard Cheshire Archive and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is property of the Leonard Cheshire Archive which has kindly granted the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive a royalty-free permission to publish it. Please note that it was digitised by a third-party which used technical specifications that may differ from those used by International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. It has been published here ‘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.
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] RAILWAY TUNNEL AND BRIDGE, SAUMUR. [/underlined]
[underlined] NARRATIVE. [/underlined]
On the 8th June, 1944, the squadron had been detailed to attack a special target and by late afternoon the plans for the attack had almost been completed. At this point, however, this operation was cancelled and an entirely new operation ordered. In response to a request from the army, the squadron was to attack the railway Tunnel at Saumur, an important railway junction in Western France. Although the Marshalling Yards at Saumur had already been successfully attacked, enemy troops were still reaching the invasion area from South Western France and the only way to stop this flow of reinforcements was to cut the line which ran just east of Saumur.
The target was very small and to make the attack really successful, extremely accurate bombing was necessary. It was decided to use, for the first time, a new type of bomb which had recently become available in small numbers. This was the 12,000 lb penetration bomb.
The flare force was to carry a load of 1,000 lb bombs and was detailed to attack the bridge, which carried the line across the river at the northern end of the tunnel.
The attack opened on time and although most of the flares fell to the south and east of the tunnel the Force Leader was able to identify the target without illumination. He dropped four red spot fires as markers and these fell on the railway tracks just South of the tunnel entrance.
The bombing, as usual, was of a high standard. There was a direct hit on the roof of the tunnel, two hits on the tracks just south of the tunnel entrance and the remainder of the bombs fell within 50/100 yards of the aiming point. Two aircraft bombed on the fires as the markers had been extinguished by a direct hit toward the end of the attack.
The attack on the bridge was not quite so successful. In spite of the lack of flare illumination most of crews were able to identify their target and a marker was put down within 50 yards of the aiming point by F/Lt. Fawke. Unfortunately this could not be done until some time after the bombing had commenced as F/Lt Fawke had been standing by to mark the tunnel had the Leader been unable to do so. However, bombing was well concentrated and there was at least one direct hit on the bridge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Railway tunnel and bridge, Saumur, operation narrative
Description
An account of the resource
Relates that in response to request from the Army a planned operation was cancelled at late notice and replaced by operation against the railway tunnel at Saumur. As accurate bombing was required it was decided to use the recently available 12,000 pound penetration bomb. Flare force was to carry 1000 pound bombs and attack bridge. Leader identified target and dropped red spot flares. Notes direct hit on the roof of the tunnel and others close by. The attack on the bridge was less successful.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
France--Saumur
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-06-08
1944-06-09
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCheshireGL72021-181210-010003
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Cheshire, Leonard. Bombing of the Samur tunnel (8/9 June 1944)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
License
A legal document giving official permission to do something with the resource.
Royalty-free permission to publish
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is property of the Leonard Cheshire Archive which has kindly granted the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive a royalty-free permission to publish it. Please note that it was digitised by a third-party which used technical specifications that may differ from those used by International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. It has been published here ‘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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Ashley Jacobs
David Bloomfield
Georgie Donaldson
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One-page typewritten document
617 Squadron
bombing
Bombing of the Saumur tunnel (8/9 June 1944)
Cheshire, Geoffrey Leonard (1917-1992)
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Tallboy
target indicator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1252/16492/MCheshireGL72021-181210-010004.2.jpg
bee29088d255f93e853c971d9a3b80c7
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Cheshire, Leonard
Cheshire, Geoffrey Leonard
Baron Cheshire
Description
An account of the resource
374 items concerning Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC, OM, DSO & Two Bars, DFC. Collection consists of photographs of people, vehicles, places, aircraft, weapons and targets; documents including, private and service letters, signals, telegrams, intelligence reports, crew lists and official documents. Cheshire served on 102 and 35 Squadrons and commanded 76 and 617 Squadrons. The collection includes details of 617 Squadron's precision bombing operations. Also included are two sub-collections: one containing 21 photographs of Tinian and Saipan, the other consisting of 37 audio tapes of speeches given by Cheshire after the war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by The Leonard Cheshire Archive and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is property of the Leonard Cheshire Archive which has kindly granted the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive a royalty-free permission to publish it. Please note that it was digitised by a third-party which used technical specifications that may differ from those used by International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. It has been published here ‘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.
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] INTERPRETATION REPORT. [/underlined]
[underlined] SAUMUR (TUNNEL). [/underlined]
[underlined] PROVISIONAL STATEMENT OF DAMAGE. [/underlined]
The greatest concentration of craters lies to the Southern end of the target area, where severe damage has been done to tracks and embankment. One hit is seen on the tunnel at the extreme South end.
The following items of damage are seen.
1. Direct hit on roof of tunnel only a few feet from S. entrance.
2. All tracks cut at a distance of approx.. 100 yds. from S. entrance.
3. Near miss to road/rail intersection 185 yds. from S. entrance, cutting all tracks and blocking the road with debris.
4. Crater in road approx.. 150 yds. West of S. entrance.
5. 17 craters within a radius of 220 yds. of S. entrance destroying or damaging several small buildings.
6. Two direct hits on buildings approx.. 50 yds. West of the N. entrance.
7. Large crater blocking road approx.. 180 yds. East of N. entrance.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interpretation report - Saumur tunnel - provisional statement of damage
Description
An account of the resource
Concentration of craters at south end of target area, severe damage to tracks and embankment. Notes direct hit in roof of tunnel a few feet from south entrance and lists six other areas of damage.
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCheshireGL72021-181210-010004
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
France--Saumur
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-06-08
1944-06-09
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Cheshire, Leonard. Bombing of the Samur tunnel (8/9 June 1944)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
License
A legal document giving official permission to do something with the resource.
Royalty-free permission to publish
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is property of the Leonard Cheshire Archive which has kindly granted the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive a royalty-free permission to publish it. Please note that it was digitised by a third-party which used technical specifications that may differ from those used by International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. It has been published here ‘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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Ashley Jacobs
David Bloomfield
Georgie Donaldson
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One-page typewritten document
617 Squadron
bombing
Bombing of the Saumur tunnel (8/9 June 1944)
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Tallboy
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1236/17758/PThompsonKG15010075.1.jpg
8da8e9f1164cd02393d5dc9e187d3c6b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Thompson, Keith G
K G Thompson
Description
An account of the resource
95 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Keith Thompson DFC (1238603 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, photographs and training material as well as his navigation logs. He flew operations as a navigator with 101 and 199 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Mark S Thompson and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-09-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Thompson, KG
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MAY’ 44 – 1936 FORD 10 – MY FIRST CAR
[photograph]
[photograph] [photograph]
TOPCLIFFE, THIRSK IDEC’ 44 AFTER BRUSH ON A1 WITH HALF TRACK TRUCK
[photograph]
FEB’ [underlined] Marriage [/underlined] 1945
CORKILL-WATSON – On February 15th, at St. Barnabas’ Parish Church, Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, by the Rev. C. F. Welsh M.A., Flying-Officer Kenneth David Corkill, D.F.C., youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. R. Corkill, Preveril House, Ballasalia. I.O.M., to Hilda Mary Watson (W.A.A.F.), younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. J, Watson. Fairholme, Thornfield Road Lockwood, Hudderfield 16
[photograph]
HILDA & KEN 15 FEB ’45 HUDDERSFIELD
SECOND TOUR CREW
No. 199 HALIFAX, RADIO COUNTER MEASURES SQN.
100 GROUP
FEB-JULY’ 45
“CIS” BRYANT
REAR GNR.
BOB BROWN
ENG
“YOUNG BILL”
W.O.P.
“TICH” READ
M.U. GNR.
JOE EVANS
BOMBAIMER
BILL SHARPLES
PILOT
KEITH
NAV
[photograph]
WE FLEW 12 SORTIES JAMMING GERMAN RADAR FROM FEB ’45 TO VE. DAY. AIRFIELD – NORTH CREAKE, SOUTH OF WELLS-NEXT-SEA, NORFOLK
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Ken Thompson's first car and second crew
Description
An account of the resource
Photograph of car parked in a street, Keith Thompson and civilian standing by car, captioned 'May '44-1936 Ford 10-My first car'.
Second and third pictures, same car, somewhat battered, parked on road, houses in distance, captioned 'Topcliffe, Thirsk, 1st Dec '44, after brush on A1 with half track truck'.
Photograph of marriage party, with newspaper clipping annotated Feb. 1945, captioned 'Marriage Corkill-Watson, on February 15th at St Barnabas Parish Church, Crosland Huddersfield'.
Photograph of Bride and Groom captioned 'Hilda & Ken 15 Feb '45 Huddersfield'.
Photograph of six aircrew posed in two rows in a field, buildings in the background, captioned 'Second tour crew No 199 Halifax Radio Counter Measures Sqn, 100 Group. Feb-July '45 [rear row] ."CIS" Bryant, Rear Gnr. Bob Brown Eng. "Young Bill" W.Op, "Tich" Read, M.U.Gunner, [front row] Joe Evans Bomb Aimer, Bill Sharples Pilot, Keith Nav'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Six b/w photographs and a clipping on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PThompsonKG15010075
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Norfolk
England--Yorkshire
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-05
1944-12
1945-02-15
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
Georgie Donaldson
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Workflow A completed
100 Group
199 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
flight engineer
Halifax
love and romance
navigator
pilot
RAF North Creake
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1169/18400/NTurnerAJ170615-07.1.jpg
ed7b4f9fb16dc2625f6b1c5f3f0e094a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Turner, John
Albion John Turner
A J Turner
Description
An account of the resource
<a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/228620/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>116 items. Concerns Flight Sergeant Albion John Turner (1911 - 1939, 561939 Royal Air Force) who joined the RAF as an apprentice in 1927. After service as a fitter he re-mustered as a pilot in 1935 and after training served on 216 Squadron flying Vickers Victoria and Valentia before moving to 9 Squadron on Handley Page Heyfords in 1936. He converted to Wellingtons February 1939 and was killed when his aircraft was shot down on 4 September 1939 during operations against shipping at Brunsbüttel. Collection consists of an oral history interview with Penny Turner his daughter (b. 1938), correspondence, official documents, his logbook and photographs. <br /><br />Additional information on Albion John Turner <span>is available via the </span><a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/228620/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IBCC Losses Database</a><br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Penny Turner and catalogued by Nigel Huckins
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-05-29
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Turner, J
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
BOOTH-CHEER.-On June 5th, at St. John’s Church, Washingborough, Lincolnshire. by the Rev. G. Anderson. Vicar of Harby, Notts., Donald Bartleman, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Booth, of Old Southgate, London, to Marjorie Ellen Baxter, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Baxter Cheer, of the Old Hall, Washingborough, Lincolnshire. 7
HARESIGN-BROWN.-At Mint-street Baptist Church, on June 5th. by Rev. R. E. Jenkins, Herbert, elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Haresign, 40 Carholme-road, to Edith, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Brown, 33 Chaplin-street, Lincoln. 7
RUSHTON-KETTLEBOROUGH.-At St. John’s Church. Bracebridge, on June 5th. 1937, by Rev. G. H. Piercy, Arthur Alwyn. youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. C. Rushton. of Manor Farm, Hykeham, to Margaret Gwendolen , only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. Kettleborough, Bracebridge Heath. 7
LIGHTFOOT-HAYES -At Saxon-street Church, Lincoln, on June 5th, 1937, Frank, only son of Ernest and Florence Lightfoot, of 24 Mildmay-street, to Frances Mary, 2nd daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Hayes, 16 Kent-street. Lincoln. 7
TURNER-WHALEY.-On June 5th, at St. Martin’s Church. Lincoln. Albion John. elder son of Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Turner, of Southsea, to Kathleen, youngest daughter of Mrs. E. Whaley, of Lincoln. by the Rev. W. G. Calvert-Lee, M.A., Rural Dean of Ludborough, brother-in-law of the bride. 7
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Notification of Marriage
Description
An account of the resource
Newspaper notification of marriage of Albion John Turner to Kathleen Whaley at St Martins church, Lincoln on 5 June 1937.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Newspaper cutting
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
NTurnerAJ170615-07
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Lincoln
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1937-06-05
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1937
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
love and romance
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/627/19794/PPettyD1606.1.jpg
f7a9d47ca22d80b9d1890d6f176fed98
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Petty, Doug
Douglas Petty
D Petty
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Petty, D
Description
An account of the resource
11 items. An oral history interview with Flying Officer Douglas Petty ( 1923 - 2023, 189456 Royal Air Force) documents and photographs. He flew operations as a flight engineer with 429 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Douglas Petty and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-08-31
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[photograph]
Back row left W Manion bomb aimer D.F.C F/O
Back row second left F Bullen navigator D.F.C F/O
Back row centre R Mitchell pilot D.F.C F/LT
Back row right D Petty flight engineer F/O
Front row left W Hay rear gunner F/O
Front row centre E Tammela radio operator SGT
Front row right L Joderell mid upper gunner D.F.C F/O
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Doug Petty's crew and ground crew
Description
An account of the resource
Ten airmen arranged in two rows in front of their Halifax. Seven of the airmen are identified with rank and function. Four have DFCs.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PPettyD1606
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
Georgie Donaldson
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Workflow A completed
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
Distinguished Flying Cross
flight engineer
ground crew
ground personnel
Halifax
navigator
pilot
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/812/23475/SEllamsG49286v20034.1.jpg
707aa8fd19ec9329586d519beb285e14
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Ellams, George
G Ellams
Description
An account of the resource
60 items. An oral history interview with George Ellams the son of Wing Commander George Ellams OBE (b. 1921), and documents and photographs concerning his fathers service. He flew operations as a wireless operator with 223 and 199 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Stephen Ellams and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-06
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
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Ellams, G
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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[photograph]
R.A.F. man at the palace
Wing Commander George Ellams, of R.A.F. Cosford, outside Buckingham Palace yesterday after an investiture at which he had received the O.B.E. from the Queen.
Dublin Core
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Title
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George at the Palace
Description
An account of the resource
Newspaper cutting recording that George attended Buckingham Palace and received the O.B.E. from the Queen.
Format
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Newspaper cutting
Language
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eng
Type
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Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SEllamsG49286v20034
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Contributor
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Georgie Donaldson
Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain (1926 - 2022)