Browse Items (39 total)
- Creator is exactly "Annie Moody"
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Interview with Tom and Gabi Wilson
Gabi Wilson grew up in Berlin and was a schoolgirl in 1939. She discusses one brother training as an interpreter and another brother returning from Russian prisoner of war camps. She worked as an apprentice at a publisher firm. She met her husband,…
Interview with Sylvia Trapp
Sylvia was born in Mansfield where her father was a miner and her mother had worked at Lawns Mills. She had two brothers and a sister. Sylvia was 15 when she left school to work at the hosiery mills and recalls the German manager being deported. She…
Interview with Susan Jones
Sue Jones was born in Manchester. When the mill where she worked closed at the beginning of the war, she went to work for Avro. She worked on Ansons, Manchesters and then Lancasters. She describes the camaraderie on the factory floor. She also found…
Interview with Steven Ellams
Steve Ellams is the son of a wireless operator, who flew in a number of different aircraft. During the war he flew overseas, initially, in Sunderlands before being posted back to the UK. He started operational flying in Bomber Command with 199…
Interview with Ron Wade
Ron was born in Stoke-on-Trent. He left school at 14 and tells of his experiences working in a pottery factory doing odd jobs, until he was called up. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1939 at the age of 22 and trained as an air gunner at RAF…
Interview with Ron Tomlin
Ron Tomlin grew up in Birmingham and was an apprentice carpenter before working in a munitions factory. He volunteered for the Air Force aged 18 and, after training, flew operations as a bomb aimer with 10 Squadron. His aircraft was forced to ditch…
Interview with Richard Harrison
Richard Harrison was born in Cologne in 1924 to a German mother and English father. His desire to be aircrew was thwarted initially by a failed medical, something he later surmises could be on account of his mother’s nationality. A member of the…
Interview with Rex Statham
Rex Statham was born in Luton. His father died in a motorbike accident when he was very young. Although Rex had been very keen to join the Navy, he volunteered for the RAF as a flight mechanic. When he realised that many trained mechanics were being…
Interview with Peter John Peck
Peter joined the 74 Air Defence Cadet Corps at a unit at Crayford, before volunteering to join the Royal Air Force. After a recruiting centre at Hither Green, he attended Lord’s Cricket Ground and was called up towards the end of 1943. He went to…
Interview with Olive Crowther
Olive had two brothers and a sister. One of her brothers joined the army and the other was an air gunner on Lancasters. She left school at 14 and went to work as a mender at Albion Mills. When she was 17 she worked on Lancaster navigation panels in…
Interview with Margaret Habberfield
Margaret Habberfield was born in 1923. Aged 16 she joined the Royal Air Force, having declared her age as 18. She began her six-week general training at RAF Harrogate and was billeted with around 20 other girls. Margaret was then posted to RAF…
Interview with Len McNamara
Len McNamara was born in Bristol in 1924. While working as an apprentice plumber, he joined the Air Training Corps and volunteered for aircrew. He discusses his initial training at various stations, the gunnery course he passed with merit and…
Interview with Joseph Musgrove
Born in York in 1922, Joseph left school at 14 and started work in a chocolate factory, whilst attending two nights of further education per week. In 1936, a fighter aircraft had landed nearby which stimulated his life-long interest in flying. After…
Interview with John Harrison
John Harrison grew up in Yorkshire and worked in the Civil Service before joining the Royal Air Force aged 18. After training, he flew operations as a mid-upper gunner with 106 Squadron from RAF Metheringham before being shot down over Leipzig and…
Interview with John Bagg
John Bagg worked as a clerk before joining the Royal Air Force, at the age of 20. He was trained as an Instrument Mechanic before re-mustering and completing a specialist camera course. He went on to serve on several training stations. After the war…
Interview with Joan Ray
Joan Ray was born in Doncaster on the 11th March 1925. She suffered problems with her eyes in her early life and tells of the impact it had, including problems with reading and writing. She spent time in domestic service working at Hesley Hall in…
Interview with Jeff Hildreth - One
Jeff Hildreth grew up in a colliery village where his father was a miner. he left school and started working at a tailor’s shop, which he didn’t enjoy. He volunteered for the RAF and was accepted to train as a pilot, navigator or bomb aimer. He…
Interview with Harry Irons. One
Harry Irons left a tailoring apprenticeship to join the Royal Air Force and trained as a wireless operator but became an air-gunner. He describes the uniform he wore and the unreliability of heated suits. He tells of the invention of scarecrows which…
Interview with Harry Hambrook
Harry Hambrook was born in Hackney and when he left school he became an office boy. He volunteered for the RAF and became an air gunner. He was posted to 3 Air Gunnery School in RAF Stranraer for gunnery training flying in Ansons. From there he…
Interview with Harry Gough
Harry Gough, born in Dewsbury, finished school in 1939 aged 14, joined the Air Training Corps in 1941 and volunteered for the Air Force in 1943. He recalls his training as an air gunner and flying over the North Pole. After flying operations he was…
Interview with Gordon Topham
Gordon Topham was born in Salisbury, but his family settled in Norwich, Norfolk and he joined the Royal Air Force at the age of 17, qualifying as a flight engineer in July 1944. Gordon’s father used to drive steam wagons and was involved with…
Interview with Geoff Packham
Geoff’s father had been in the Royal Flying Corps and Geoff joined the Royal Air Force at RAF Cardington. He was posted to various stations before going to Halifax in Canada to train as a pilot on Tiger Moths and then Oxfords. On his return, Geoff…
Interview with Frederick Ball
Frederick Ball grew up in Yorkshire and trained as a motor mechanic, before joining the RAF in 1939. He completed two tours with 44 and 49 Squadrons, as a wireless operator flying from RAF Waddington and RAF Scampton.
Interview with Fred Logan
Fred joined the Royal Air Force in Sheffield on 4th December 1940 and was accepted as a direct entry fitter. He went to the training school in RAF Hednesford, where he learnt about engines, and was then posted on Stirlings to 7 Squadron. From RAF…
Interview with Frank Tolley
Frank Tolley was born in 1921 in Tipton and left school at 14, to work as a grocery errand boy. He joined the Royal Air Force at 19 as a ground gunner, and was in at the inception of the Royal Air Force Regiment. After 18 months he volunteered to…