Browse Items (39 total)
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Reg Miles Audio Memoir
Reg Miles's memoir in three parts. Part one Reg describes his childhood in St Peter’s on the Isle of Thanet, his family, school, lack of money, and holiday jobs. Reg joined the Royal Air Force as an apprentice, known as a ‘Brat’, in January…
Rabbit Mascot
A small stuffed toy rabbit wearing a green top and brown dungarees. It was the mascot of Squadron Leader R E Millichap.
Tags: 630 Squadron; RAF East Kirkby; superstition
Marion Clark Interview
Marion Clark grew up in Lincolnshire and served as driver at RAF Hemswell and RAF Ingham. She discusses her role as a driver and life on a bomber station.
Interview with Vera Willis
Vera Willis volunteered for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force because she wanted to be a driver. Her driving career in the RAF involved driving driving aircrew to dispersal.This content is available as embedded video:
Interview with Rinaldo Sarani
Rinaldo Sarani reminisces about the bombings of Pavia describing widespread damage at Borgo Ticino and people being extricated out of rubble. Stressed the importance of bridges: ponte della ferrovia, ponte vecchio, ponte dell’impero, ponte della…
Interview with Piero Fiorot
Piero Fiorot reminisces about his pre-war life in Sacile: schooling, fascist paramilitary training and indoctrination, curfews, rationing, and doing business in a tightly controlled, closed economic system. Contrasts the relatively tranquil life…
Interview with Peter Stevenson
Peter Stevenson was born in Grantham and joined the Air League of the British Empire as well as the Air Defence Cadet Corps, The Officer’s Training Corps and the Public School’s Air Cadet Wing. He rose through the cadet ranks and embarked on…
Interview with Livia de Savorgnani Zanmarchi
Livia de Savorgnani Zanmarchi reminisces her wartime experiences in Trieste. Describes the 10 June 1944 bombing, mentioning the destruction of the Beata Vergine delle Grazie church and the Modiano card factory. Talks about the gruesome sight of a…
Interview with Lidia Vendramin
Lidia Vendramin reminisces her childhood in Sacile including details on her primary schooling, family, and town life. Contrasts the public manifestations of joy the day the war was declared, with the shock and dismay of her parents, whose lives had…
Interview with Leontina Giovanetti
Leontina Giovanetti (b. 1913) reminisces about her early life with three sisters, her father who was a typographer and photographer and her mother a house-wife. Describes musical training at the Milan conservatory, stressing the demanding attitude of…
Interview with Joyce Exton Wallace. Two
Joyce Exton Wallace recalls a misunderstanding whist giving orders to inspect the barrage balloon bed wires which was misinterpreted as an order to inspect the wires of the 16 beds in the Nissen hut.
Interview with Joyce Exton Wallace. Three
Joyce Exton Wallace recalls a time when she was with barrage balloons protecting an army barracks in Barry when a dog stole their meat ration. It was subsequently replaced by locals pooling their own meat rations.
Interview with Joyce Exton Wallace. Six
Joyce Exton Wallace recalls a conversation with an elderly man who expressed his disgust at women wearing trousers. He had seen her tying a barrage balloon's wing down whilst up a 14 foot ladder in the playing field of St. Edward's school.
Interview with Joyce Exton Wallace. Seven
Joyce Exton Wallace recalls the bombing of her sister's house with whom Joyce and her baby Robert were living. Half of the house was destroyed and 11 month old Carol, was killed. Joyce, Robert and her sister escaped by climbing down the rubble of the…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; home front; V-2; V-weapon
Interview with Joyce Exton Wallace. One
Joyce Exton Wallace recalls reattaching a loose barrage balloon with the help of the commanding officer.
Interview with Joyce Exton Wallace. Four
Joyce Exton Wallace recalls being put on a charge for insolence to a non commissioned officer. Joyce and her colleagues had missed the last train back to camp at Stanmore after attending a dance. She was reprimanded for reacting inappropriately to…
Interview with Joyce Exton Wallace. Five
Joyce Exton Wallace recalls being given five clothing tokens by the council to clothe herself and her baby Robert after being bombed. A stranger donated a parcel of baby clothes and she received a pram and more baby clothes from the Canadian Red…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; home front; Red Cross
Interview with J Ebanks
J Ebanks was from Jamaica and was a navigator in 571 Squadron at RAF Oakington. They carried out a number of operations to Berlin. He also refers to RAF Benson and time spent in Malaya. J Ebanks recounts, with humour, a number of anecdotes from his…
Interview with J A Taplin. Two
John volunteered to join the RAF in 1940 wanting to become aircrew as a wireless operator as he had an interest in early radios. While awaiting his aircrew application to be processed he did his initial training at Blackpool and then onto RAF…
Tags: 10 OTU; 10 Squadron; 408 Squadron; 6 Group; aircrew; bale out; Blenheim; bombing; evading; ground personnel; Halifax; Operational Training Unit; prisoner of war; RAF Horsham St Faith; RAF Leeming; RAF Melbourne; RAF Yatesbury; shot down; the long march; training; Whitley; wireless operator; wireless operator / air gunner
Interview with Inge Nicolis
Inge Nicolis, the daughter of a Swedish engineer and an Italian woman, reminisces about her wartime experiences in Milan. She stresses the sense of having been thrown into a tragedy and the anguish of not being able to evacuate Milan on the grounds…
Interview with Howell Davies
Howell grew up on the Glamorgan coast. After the university air squadron, he joined the RAF in April 1962, training on Provosts at RAF South Cerney. He then went to RAF Swinderby and flew the Vampire T11. He subsequently trained on Vulcans at 230…
Interview with Gilberto Martina
Gilberto Martina reminisces his childhood in Chiusaforte and in the Canal del Ferro area: disrupted schooling, fear of Germans, subsistence farming, saboteurs, and one of his mates being killed by a bomb found in a pile of litter. Stressed how the…