Browse Items (1333 total)
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Interview with Bill Thomas
Bill had joined the Air Defence Cadet Corps and Air Training Corps. He volunteered as a pilot in the Royal Air Force and flew Tiger Moths at RAF Sywell but was re-mustered as a navigator. Bill went to Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme,…
Interview with Bill Viollet
Warrant Officer Bill Viollet was born in Reigate in Surrey in 1921, the second oldest of four boys. His brother, Bob, joined the Royal Air Force and Bill wanted to follow him into the service. Bill wanted to be aircrew so he trained as a wireless…
Interview with Bluey Mottershead
Born on a farm in Shropshire, his best friend from his youth joined the Royal Air Force as aircrew and was killed at RAF Honington when a German aircraft bombed the station. A desire for revenge made him enlist for flying duties in January 1941. He…
Interview with Bob Frost. One
Bob Frost recounts experiencing the London Blitz as a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained at the Air Gunnery School at Evanton, Scotland. He was then posted to the Operational Training Unit at RAF…
Interview with Bob Hughes
Bob Hughes joined the RAF as war became likely to avoid repeating his father's First World War experience in the trenches and transferred to the RAF Volunteer Reserve when war was declared. He trained on Ansons and then flew in twin-engine Blenheims…
Interview with Bob Kemley
Upon joining the RAF in 1940, Bob Kemley trained as a navigator and completed 34 operations on Halifaxes, Wellingtons, and Lancasters. He joined 427 Squadron based at RAF Leeming, before moving to 432 Squadron as a navigation officer. On his final…
Interview with Bob Lasham
Bob Lasham began an electrical engineering apprenticeship with British Thomson-Houston before volunteering for the RAF in 1941, aged 20. He trained at Babbacombe and Wilmslow before continuing to Clewiston, Florida, to complete his training as a…
Interview with Bob Leedham
Bob Leedham was a flight engineer who carried out twenty-one operations on Stirlings. At the outbreak of war Bob was an apprentice motor mechanic, and along with other apprentices, was left to operate the garage when all the engineers were called up.…
Interview with Bob Porteous
Flight Sergeant Bob Porteous grew up in Australia and after spending time in the bush he joined the Royal Australian Air Force. After training and spending time in the United States, he travelled to Scotland on the Queen Mary. He flew operations as a…
Interview with Bob Sharrock
Bob Sharrock was the son of a miner. He worked as a milkman delivering milk via a hand cart until he was given the privilege of a pony and trap. Bob then went to work as a lab technician for a gas company before he volunteered for the RAF. He trained…
Interview with Bob Smith
Bob Smith was born in Brisbane, Australia. He recalls moving to the family farm in 1932 and being a member of the Air Cadets during his school years. Upon leaving school, Smith undertook training as a bank clerk. Following the events of Pearl…
Interview with Brian and Jenny Bailey
Brian and Jenny Bailey were children during the war and witnessed the bombing of Cleethorpes and Grimsby. Standing on a local bridge, they could also see Hull in flames. Jenny recalled walking with her mother on the day war was declared and seeing a…
Interview with Brian Hutson
Brian Hutson was a child during the war. He remembers his father, who worked on building airfields and delivering air raid shelters. He also recalls his childhood, sleeping in a shelter and listening to aircraft, air raids, blackouts, playing with…
Interview with Brian Llewellyn
Brian Llewellyn was a member of the Air Training Corps during the war and spent time with the RAF as well as the Polish Air Force. He talks about his time in Lincolnshire, including various stations he visited and his first flight. Brian had many…
Interview with Brian Payne
John Payne was born in 1932 and went into the Royal Air Force as part of his National Service, becoming a Navigator on the Canberra aircraft with 15 Squadron. His father went into the combined service in the First World War and was training to be a…
Interview with Brian Robert Southwell
Brian Robert Southwell was born in Sydney and lived during the Depression which saw him have to set aside his interest in aircraft in order to secure a steady wage with an office job. He spent eighteen months making a model aircraft with the support…
Interview with Brigitte Terboven
Brigitte Terboven (b. 1930) recalls the bombing of Essen and the dropping of an air mine by a British bomber which was trying to evade a German night fighter. The bomb hit the ground about 20 meters from her home which collapsed like a house of…
Interview with Bruce Cunningham
Bruce Cunningham was born in New Zealand. After initial training as a pilot he was posted to RAF Wescott Operational Training Unit and flew operations with 514 Squadron at RAF Waterbeach. His first operation was over Berlin. On one operation they…
Interview with Bruce Minnitt
Bruce Minnitt served in the Second World War flying Wellingtons on maritime reconnaissance in the Mediterranean and B-24s in India. When war started Bruce joined the Home Guard, and in 1941 when reaching 18 years of age, he enlisted in the Royal Air…
Interview with Burckhard Kuck
Burckhard Kuck (b. 1925) tells the story of a 63-year-old mirror, a present from his fellow inmates when he was detained in a prisoner of war camp in England. Emphasises how the object reminds him of the lack of mirrors in the camp and of the fact…
Interview with Carla Baietti
Carla Baietti recalls her life as a young labourer in Olgiate Comasco. She tells of the hardships her family suffered during the war: fascist indoctrination; food shortage; her uncle's desertion and her brother's death, while serving in Russia. Carla…
Interview with Carla Fantini
After leaving school, Carla Fantini started working as telegraph operator, which she found a gratifying and thoroughly enjoyable occupation. She describes the bombing war in Milan, stressing widespread destruction and ravaging fires. Reminisces…
Interview with Carla Griva
Carla Griva (b. 1935) describes different attitudes and various coping strategies of people inside a shelter in Turin: reciting the rosary, putting their hands over their ears to avoid listening, storytelling, and asking children to practice…
Interview with Carlo Bertolo
Carlo Bertolo (b. 1939) remembers a bombing of Turin when incendiaries were dropped. Recalls how one of them hit his house, but it was stopped by a trunk full of clothes before it could reach the shelter.