Browse Items (23 total)
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Interview with Victor Gregg
Victor Gregg joined the army on his 18th birthday. He was stationed in the Middle East when the news came that war had been declared. His first major battle of the war was at Beda Fomm. He later volunteered and was posted to 10 Parachute Battalion…
Interview with Susan Chapman
Susan Chapman talks about her father, Charles Reginald (Reg) Jaques. Reg Jaques grew up in County Durham and, to improve his prospects for employment, he studied by the light of the streetlight. He secured a job with a local authority in Shropshire.…
Interview with Sheila Rankine
Sheila Rankine wanted to join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force but was conscripted to be a munitions factory worker. She worked at Rose's in Gainsborough, making the hydro-static fuses for bombs, including the Upkeep bouncing bomb. She met Guy Gibson…
Interview with Sheena Staves
During the war Sheena lived in Cottingham, a village close to Hull. She lived with her mother and father (who was a fire watcher and had fought in the Far East during WWI). She had two elder brothers, one in the Navy and one in the Royal Air Force,…
Interview with Ray Charlton
Ray wanted to join Bomber Command but, after going to RAF Paignton, he was re-mustered and went to RAF Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey where he decided to train as a flight engineer. He was posted to RAF Bridlington and this was followed by a…
Interview with Lillian Margaret Bailey
Lillian Margaret Bailey volunteered for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and, after a brief time in RAF Balloon Command, was trained as a driver. She served at RAF Elsham Wolds driving aircrews out to their aircraft. She was known as Margaret as there…
Interview with Kenneth George McVicar
Kenneth George McVicar was born in Llanelli, South Wales and joined the Royal Air Force at the age of 18, where he qualified as a Gunner. He flew in Ansons, as mid upper gunner turret, but also on Stirlings and Lancasters. He tells of how he went on…
Interview with John Whitworth
John Leslie Whitworth was born in Sutton Coldfield. He signed up for the Royal Air Force in 1940, finally being called up for service in 1941, before starting his training at the Initial Training Wing in Torquay, followed by more training at RAF…
Interview with John Plendeleith
John Plenderleith was in the Air Training Corps before volunteering to join the RAF. He was posted to 626 Squadron at RAF Wickenby and, when the crew were allocated their hut, they were surprised to find it was still occupied with another crew’s…
Interview with Joan Raettig
Joan Raettig (nee McGuire) was born in Hull and was evacuated to Scarborough when she was 14, the day before war broke out. She experienced the bombing of Hull and spent nearly two years sleeping in an air raid shelter, due to the frequency of the…
Interview with Hugh Lorimer
Hugh Lorimer skipped school to see a flying circus and won a flight in one of the aeroplanes. He later volunteered for the RAF and began training as a wireless operator. He was, initially, posted to Special Duty Flight test flying in India. However,…
Interview with Harold Yeoman
Harold Yeoman volunteered for the RAF hoping to become an air gunner and was surprised to find he would be trained as a pilot. He describes a crash landing in a Wellington, returning from an operation to Cherbourg, and being sent to Essen twice…
Interview with Grace Bradley
Grace Bradley lived on Boothferry Road in Hull and remembers the bombing of Hull during the war. She was a shorthand typist and worked for a local timber importer. She joined the WAAF and typed the reports given by the returning aircrews to the…
Interview with Gerald John Castleton
John was called up for the Army at 18 but chose to join the Royal Air Force. He passed the exams for direct entry onto the flight engineers’ course. He was then sent to RAF Rufforth where he crewed up. After 10 hours’ training, he took his first…
Interview with Frederick Cole
Frederick Cole grew up in Derby and was studying for a degree when he joined the Royal Air Force. He met his wife at an RAF dance during the war. He completed his degree after the war and had a career with Rolls Royce.
Interview with Fred Crawley DFC
Fred enrolled in the RAF Volunteer Reserve in May 1939. He wanted to be a navigator and was sent to an Initial Training Wing at Bexhill. He received excellent training on DH Rapides at RAF Scone, near Perth. Bombing and gunnery training were carried…
Interview with Frank Colenso
Frank Colenso grew up in Cornwall and, at the outbreak of the war, was working for a local newspaper. He recalls the return of injured survivors from Dunkirk into Falmouth Bay. He joined the local defence volunteers following the bombing of Falmouth…
Interview with Ernie Tillbrook
Ernest Hector Angelo Pedrazzini was the son of an Italian father and an English mother. After the war he changed his name to Tillbrook. Ernie’s father escaped from a prison camp during the First World War and found his way to Russia and…
Interview with Ernest Frederick Gardiner
Fred Gardiner grew up in Oxfordshire and worked in a furniture factory before volunteering for the Royal Air Force. He flew five operations as a wireless operator/air gunner, from RAF Syerston, before his aircraft was shot down. He gives a detailed…
Interview with Dinah Smith
Dinah Smith was born in Bamford, Derbyshire in 1937, moving to Darley Dale when her father found a new job as an aqueduct linesman. Dinah outlines her experiences of school, friends, foraging for food, and celebrations during the war. She also…
Interview with Danny Walker
Wilberforce (Danny) Emmanuel Walker was born in Jamaica and joined the Royal Air Force in June 1944. After becoming a Junior Clerk at the Post Office in Jamaica, Danny arrived in England in 1944 was based in RAF Filey in Yorkshire, where he became…
Interview with Arthur Spencer
Arthur Spencer joined the Royal Air Force after leaving school. He began pilot training in Florida but then re-mustered as a navigator and trained in Pensacola. He completed two tours of operations as a navigator with 97 Squadron at RAF Woodhall Spa…
Interview with Alfred Marshall
Alfred Marshall volunteered for the Royal Air Force and was called up to serve with two others from his hometown of Birtley, neither of whom survived the war. He flew operations as a navigator with 192 Squadron from RAF Foulsham, including Special…