Browse Items (375 total)
- Spatial Coverage is exactly "Zimbabwe"
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Interview with Bill Spence
Bill Spence was born in Middlesborough. He abandoned his teacher training and joined the Royal Air Force in 1942 becoming a bomb aimer. He completed 36 operations during his time in Bomber Command. Bill tells of his experiences while training in…
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 Clifford Watson. One
Clifford Watson, initially, wanted to join the navy because of a high demand in pilots. After being rejected, he joined the RAF and was sent to Rhodesia for pilot training, but then re-mustered to become an air gunner. He flew 76 operations in total.…
Interview with Clifford Watson. Two
Clifford Watson remembers his training as a pilot in Salisbury, Zimbabwe, but being scrubbed at the flying test. Tells of when he flew a Ju-88 at RAE Farnborough. Talks about the different wages in various trades. Tells of an emergency landing at RAF…
Interview with Dick Heath
Dick Heath was an apprentice boat builder and joined the Royal Air Force in 1943. He began training as an air gunner but was posted to RAF Fiskerton working in the bomb dump. He was on his way to Canada by ship when the war in Europe ended. After he…
Interview with Douglas Robinson
Douglas was in the Local Defence Volunteers before joining the Royal Air Force as a pilot. After Babbacombe, he did initial training at Scarborough and then in Rhodesia. Initial flight training in Harare on Tiger Moths was followed by service…
Interview with Geoff Paine
Geoff Paine attended High Wycombe Royal Grammar School and Falmouth Grammar School, joined Air Training Corps and volunteered for the Royal Air Force at eighteen. Upon competition of initial training he was posted at RAF Waltham (100 Squadron) then…
Interview with Harold James Richards
Harold Richards from Lincoln was working in the health industry before he volunteered for the RAF. After trying to be a pilot he trained as an observer. He was posted to 297 Squadron at Stoney Cross where he and his crew dropped supplies to the…
Interview with Harry James
Harry James grew up in Berkshire and after school began training as a plumber. He joined the RAF and carried out thirty three operations as a rear gunner with 166 squadron. He discusses his crew, who were of different nationalities, of how the…
Interview with Jack Cranston
Jack joined the Royal Air Force in Leeds. After going to St. John’s Wood in London, he trained in Rhodesia where he passed out as a pilot. His training was on Tiger Moths and Oxfords before he was posted to a Wellington RAF station. Jack went on to…
Interview with Lester Simms
Lester tells of his tough, early childhood and his first experience of seeing a Heinkel bomber flying over his home in Surrey, to attack the Brooklands Aircraft Factory. He tells of how he worked in the experimental department of Hawker Aircraft…
Interview with Oluwole Hyde
Oluwole Hyde’s father was Adesanya Hyde, who served as a navigator with 640 Squadron. He was badly injured but continued to navigate the aeroplane on operation. It was only when they were over the UK that he accepted the morphine for the pain.…
Interview with Philip Batty
Philip Batty grew up in Walsall. He discusses the death of his older brother Dennis, a wireless operator with 226 Squadron, early in the Second World War. Philip volunteered for aircrew. After training, he was posted to 50 Squadron at RAF Sturgate as…
Interview with Ronald Charles Davis
When the war broke out Ronald was a solicitor’s clerk, then got a job with in Portsmouth. Whilst there he volunteered for air crew and went to London to join the Air Force. After about six months he was called up for training. He went on a…
Interview with Thomas James Page
Thomas Page grew up in a farming family before joining the Royal Air Force in 1940, training as a flight mechanic. He was initially posted to 257 Squadron (Hurricanes) but soon went to Gloucester to train as a fitter from where he was posted to 71…
J H Bird’s pilots flying log book. One
Pilots flying log book for J H Bird, covering the period from 29 March 1943 to 24 August 1945. Detailing his flying training, operations flown and instructor duties. He was stationed at RAF Induna, RAF Kumalo, RAF Gianaclis, RAF Peplow, and Italy.…
John at the Round House Hotel
John, wearing desert uniform, with shorts and shirt and tie, standing on the steps of the Round House Hotel, at the corner of Esigodini Road/ Hope Fountain road, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. On reverse is 'Yours truly on Round House steps'.
John at Victoria Falls
John looking across the gorge to the Victoria Falls. He is wearing long woollen socks, shorts and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He has a watch on his wrist and has a camera slung from his shoulder.
John in the gorge by the Victoria Falls
John sat in the gorge with the Zambezi river and Victoria Falls beyond.
John in uniform
John dressed in uniform and his white banded side cap standing in front of a pitched grass roofed single storey building.
John L Kennedy’s pilots flying log book
Pilots flying log book for John L Kennedy, covering the period from 2 February 1942 to 30 November 1945. Detailing his flying training, operations flown and instructor duties. He was stationed at RAF Induna, RAF Kumalo, RAF Perth, RAF South Cerney,…
John on a boat
John, wearing his topee and with his sleeves rolled up, sat in a boat on a river. He is sat under a klaxon attached to one of the boat's uprights.
John on his camp bed after inspection
John sat on his camp bed with a fellow serviceman laid on an adjacent bed, both reading. They are in a corrugated barrack with wooden shelves holding tinned boxes, safari pith helmets with uniforms hanging below. Mugs and eating utensils are arranged…
John sitting on a rock
John, holding a pipe sitting on a rock across from the Victoria Falls.
John standing by a grass hut
John standing, with hands in pockets, outside grass huts. He is wearing long socks, shorts and shirt, rolled up sleeves and a half cap with a white band. On the reverse 'Yours truly in front of grass huts'.