2
25
39
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1271/17886/LBrittRG1739520v1.2.pdf
b99268ee5803cc0846735451cd928fa9
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Britt, Ron
Ronald Gleeson Britt
R G Britt
Description
An account of the resource
Five items. The collection concerns Ronald Britt (b.1923, 1939520 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book and photographs. He was an air gunner who flew 30 operations with 103 squadron and Binbrook Special Duties flight.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Stuart Pearce, Debbie Pearce, nee Britt, and Gail Elizabeth Britt. It was catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-05-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Britt, RG
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Ronald G Britt’s navigator’s air bomber’s and air gunner’s flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Navigator’s air bomber’s and air gunner’s flying log book for Ronald G Britt, covering the period from 1 October 1943 to 26 May 1945. Detailing his flying training and operations flown. He was stationed at RAF Stormy Down, RAF Wymeswold, RAF Lindholme, RAF Hemswell, RAF Elsham Wolds, RAF Binbrook and RAF Greenock. Aircraft flown in were, Anson, Wellington, Halifax, Lancaster and Sunderland. He flew a total of 30 operations with 103 squadron and 103 special duties flight, 22 Night and 8 daylight operations. Targets were Aachen, Calais, Wimereux, Crisbecq, Vire, Flers, Gelsenkirchen, Le Havre, Sterkrade, Aulnoye, Beaupre, Domleger, Oisemont, Revigny, Fontenay, Douai, Orleans, Dijon, Rieme, Russelsheim, Gdynia, Chapelle Notre Dame, Stettin, Agenville, Eindhoven, Frankfurt, Kattegat and Leeuwarden. His pilots on operations were Flying Officer Colvin, Pilot Officer Green and Group Captain Shean.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LBrittRG1739520v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Belgium
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
Poland
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Atlantic Ocean--Kattegat (Baltic Sea)
Belgium--Flanders
England--Leicestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Yorkshire
France--Beaupréau
France--Calais
France--Dijon
France--Douai
France--Flers-de-l'Orne
France--Jura
France--Le Havre
France--Manche
France--Nord (Department)
France--Oisemont (Canton)
France--Orléans
France--Reims
France--Pas-de-Calais
France--Somme
France--Vire (Calvados)
France--Wimereux
Germany--Aachen
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Netherlands--Leeuwarden
Poland--Gdynia
Scotland--Greenock
Wales--Bridgend
Germany--Oberhausen (Düsseldorf)
France
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
France--Domléger-Longvillers
France--Fontenay
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
1944-06
1944-07
1944-08
1944-01-28
1944-01-30
1944-05-24
1944-05-28
1944-06-02
1944-06-03
1944-06-04
1944-06-05
1944-06-06
1944-06-09
1944-06-12
1944-06-13
1944-06-14
1944-06-15
1944-06-16
1944-06-17
1944-06-18
1944-06-27
1944-06-29
1944-06-30
1944-07-04
1944-07-05
1944-07-06
1944-07-08
1944-07-09
1944-07-12
1944-07-13
1944-07-15
1944-07-16
1944-07-17
1944-07-19
1944-07-20
1944-07-23
1944-08-07
1944-08-08
1944-08-11
1944-08-19
1944-08-20
1944-08-25
1944-08-26
1944-08-27
1944-08-28
1944-08-29
1944-08-30
1944-08-31
1944-09-03
1944-09-05
1944-09-10
1944-09-12
1944-09-13
1944-09-15
1944-09-16
1944-09-17
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
103 Squadron
1656 HCU
28 OTU
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
Anson
bombing of the Le Havre E-boat pens (14/15 June 1944)
bombing of the Normandy coastal batteries (5/6 June 1944)
Halifax
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operational Training Unit
RAF Binbrook
RAF Elsham Wolds
RAF Greenock
RAF Hemswell
RAF Lindholme
RAF Stormy Down
RAF Wymeswold
Sunderland
tactical support for Normandy troops
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1279/17567/YPearceAT1874945v5.2.pdf
34d72b9ac95b155fe086945a33eeea8f
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pearce, Arthur
A T Pearce
Description
An account of the resource
140 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Arthur Pearce (1874945 Royal Air Force) He served as an air gunner with 12, 170 and 156 (Pathfinder) Squadrons and completed a 44 operations. After the war, on 35 Squadron he took part in the June 1946 Victory flypast over London and a goodwill visit to the United States. It contains his diaries, memorabilia and photographs.
The collection also contains an album concerning his post war activity with the Goodwill tour of the United States.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Steve Allan and catalogued by Nigel Huckins
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-12-17
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Pearce, AT
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[front cover] Royal Air Force badge THE AIR FORCE DIARY [/front cover]
[page break]
[picture] badges and words ROTOL and VARIABLE PITCH PROPELLERS [/picture]
[page break]
THE AIR FORCE DIARY 1945
[handwritten] [one indecipherable word] Pte Flain 317345[?] 19 Buller[?] Square, Peckham, London S.E.15 [/handwritten]
With sections on the Women’s Auxillary Air Force and the Air Training Corps
[page break]
“FALAISE” 15000
“RUSSELSHEIM” 9000
“STETTIN” 8000
“EINDHOVEN” 15000
“LE HAVRE” 15000
“LE HAVRE” 15000
“FRANKFURT” 11000
“RHEIN HOPSTEN” 13000[?]
“CALAIS” 15000
“NEUSS” 13000
“CALAIS” 15000
“CAP[?] GRIZ NEZ[?]” 15000
[PAGE BREAK]
“STUTTGART” 11000
“ESSEN” 13000
“COLOGNE” 13000
“COLOGNE” 13000
“COLOGNE” 13000
“DUSSELDORFE” 11000
“ESSEN” 13000
“DUISBURG” 13000
“[indecipherable word] DAM” 12000
“SOESTE” 13000
“BONNE” 13000
“OPLADEN” 13000
[page break]
“COLOGNE” 13000
“OSTERFELD” 13000
“MACDEBURG”[?] 11,000
[indecipherable word] 11000
[indecipherable word] 11000
“PFORZHEIM”[?] 10000
“MANNHEIM” 10,000
“CHEMITZ”[?] 9,000
“DESSAN”[?] 9,000
“MISBURG” 9,000
“HANAU” 9,000
“NURENBURG” 9,000
[page break]
“LUTZKENDORF” 8,000
“HAMBURG” 9,000
“KIEL” 10,500
“PLAUEN” 8,000
“KIEL” 10,500
“BERLIN” - [indecipherable word]
“SCHWANDORF” 9,000
“HELIGOLAND” 11,000
[page break]
2 January 1945
Flying
4 January Flying
8 January (indecipherable word]
[page break]
14 January
[indecipherable word] a year. “Crown”
15 January [indecipherable word] o.k.
16 January No 26. “Magderburg”[?]
20 January flying [indecipherable word] o.k.
[page break]
21 January flying
22 January 27. [indecipherable word]
27 January flying
[page break]
28 January [deleted] Leave [/deleted] flying
29 January Leave
Peterboro 12.14
Kings X 1.50
Dolly, John good time
30 January [indecipherable entry]
31 January Bank O.K.
[page break]
1 February Sailor [indecipherable word] Iris O.K.
2 February John, Roger, Tom Sailor Prince Iris
3 February George [indecipherable word] Party [two indecipherable words] Flo. Joe.
Reata[?] Party o.k. Flo. Joe. George.
[page break]
4 February Reata. Party o.k. Flo, Joe, George.
5 February Kings X 5.50[?]. Flo, Joe, George.
6 February flying H/S.[?]
7 February Birthday. [indecipherable word] Party.
[page break]
8 February Pilot in Hospital no flying.
9 February Flo’s Birthday. Ramsey
[page break]
12 February [deleted] time off Peterboro 12.14 Kings X 1.50. Reata. [/deleted]
13 February Peterborough 12.14. Kings X. 1.50. Reata good time
14 February 2 x Valentines X
[page break]
25 February flying
26 February flying
27 February flying
28 February Roses[?] Birthday
[page break]
1 March flying
No. 30. [indecipherable word] H11 Toast.
[two indecipherable words]
2 March flying
3 March flying
[page break]
4 March flying.
5 March flying No. 31. “[indecipherable word]”
6 March flying
7 March flying No. 32 “[indecipherable word]”
[page break]
8 March flying. [indecipherable word] John home.[?]
9 March flying
10 March 48 hrs Peterboro 12.14. Kings X 2.00. John Party. Good time
[page break]
11 March good time “fighter”[?]
12 March Kings X. 5.50
13 March flying
14 March flying
[page break]
15 March flying No. 33 “Misburg”[?] three engines 11H. Pilot D.F.C.
16 March No. 34 “Nurenburg”
17 March Ramsey O.K.
[page break]
18 March [indecipherable word] day.
19 March No. 35. “[indecipherable word]” 14 days leave. Peterboro 12.14 Kings X. 2.00
20 March [indecipherable word] Home. Good time all round London.
21 March [four indecipherable words] and good time all round.
[page break]
22 March [two indecipherable words] good day Loo and Iris.
23 March All [indecipherable word] London again.
24 March good [indecipherable word] all round week[?]
[page break]
25 March good time “Babs” [indecipherable word]
26 march good time lots of fun at station Bibby[?] away Sophie[?] O.K. Photos back O.K.
27 March Bank. Sophie[?] good time Met.
28 March good time Olive[?] O.K.
[page break]
29 March good time [indecipherable word] Etty O.K.
30 March good time [indecipherable word] Dance[?] O.K.
31 March Built[?] Belts[?] good time Home Dot O.K.
[page break]
1 April Bill. Good time at Dance Hetty[?]
2 April Bill, Good time [two indecipherable words] of [indecipherable word] good leave. Kings X 5.50 Peterboro 7.30. Niel[?] W.O.
4 April No 316[?] “[indecipherable word]” “Kings” last trip New [indecipherable word]
[page break]
8 April No. 37 “Hamburg”
9 April No. 38. “Kiel” Fred[?] Pilot got [indecipherable word] [indecipherable word] Admiral Sheer
10 April No. 39 “[indecipherable word]” [indecipherable word] engines again 1HH
11 April Ramsey O.K.
[page break]
12 April flying.
13 April No. 40 “Kiel” turrett[sic] U.S. [indecipherable word] three engines[?] 11H[?]
14 April No. 41. “Berlin”[?] [indecipherable word] three engines again 11H
[page break]
16 April No. 42. “Schwandorf”
18 April No. 43. “Heligoland”
[page break]
19 April flying
20 April flying P.F.F. Board passed O.K.
21 April flying
[page break]
22 April flying
23 April flying
24 April Ramsey good time
25 April No. 44. “Wangwooge”[?]
[page break]
26 April try for [two indecipherable words] 16 Stead Street P.F.F. cert.
27 April Wal [?] home. 48 hours leave. Peterboro 5.50 Kings X 7.20
Good time Wal [?] Joe. Ted. Loo
28 April good time Joan, June[?]
[page break]
6 May Wal[?] [indecipherable word] [inserted] down [/inderted]
7 May Squadron photo 7 days leave. Peterboro 12.14 good time all round. Dol
8 May V day. Childrens party good time with Sophie
9 May Ann. Waterloo 8 O/K. Reata O.K.
[page break]
10 May Many good times (Big Ben[?])
11 May Mary O.K.
12 May good time Wal[deleted end of word] party. Eileen O.K.
[[page break]
14 May Kings X. 5.50 Peterboro 7.30
18 May flying
19 May Busted[?] foot. Hospital
[page break]
20 May Hospital
21 May Hospital
22 May Hospital
23 May Hospital
[page break]
24 May Hospital. Crew of P.O.W. trip
25 May Out of Hospital
26 May Day off. Peterboro 3.38[?] Kings X 6.00. Betty, Eileen.
[page break]
27 May Eileen, Kings X 6.00 Flo, Joe[?] [indecipherable word]
29 May flying “Roverrod”[?]
[page break]
31 May Day off. Peterboro 4.4 Kings X 4.45 four[?] [indecipherable word]
1 June Kings X 10. Peterboro 11.40
2 June flying, Cooks tour. Crew posted to Middle East
[page break]
4 June film Unit[?] Crew[?] gone[?]
5 June Hand gun in
6 June D day 1944
[page break]
9 June 48 hrs. Peterboro 3.38 Kings X 5.00 Eileen wheel[?]
[page break]
10 June Kings X 5.50 Peterboro 7.00
12 June Telegram Bill Home
13 June 48 hours Peterboro 4.04 Kings Cross 5.30. Bill, Eileen good time
[page break]
22 June New Crew[?] [indecipherable word] flying O.K.
23 June Pass Peterboro 1.53[?] Kings X 2.30 Ted, Bill. [indecipherable word] Nelly. Good time
[page break]
1 July Kings X 6.45.
4 July flying Huntingdon[?] Dot good time
[page break]
5 July flying
6 July flying [three indecipherable words] Crew Photo.
7 July [three indecipherable words] good time, Mary.
[page break]
8 July Kings X 6.45[?] [indecipherable word]
9 July flying
10 July Back to Highton[?]
11 July [indecipherable word/s]
[page break]
13 July flying Cooks [indecipherable word] Huntingdon Dot good time
[page break]
17 July 7 days [indecipherable word] 5.4 Kings X 8.00 good time Ted
18 July Joe[?]. Bank, Joan[?] [indecipherable word]
[page break]
19 July Eileen good time
20 July Eileen good time Joe[?] Kit Sophie at [indecipherable word]
21 July Joe good time at Bank Exhibition[?] Ann, Party[?]. [indecipherable]
[page break
22 July good time [indecipherable word]
23 July good[?] time Ann
Brenda[?] in Hospital
24 July Air Ministry 11.45
25 July Phone Joan, Eileen Kings X 6.40[?] [indecipherable word] 8.45. Dot, [two indecipherable words] good time
[page break]
26 July inoculations
27 July Dental officer
28 July Taylor[sic]
[page break]
30 July A.O.C. inspections. Dental officer
3 August Week [indecipherable word] Hunts 9.21 Kings X 10.34 Fay
[page break]
6 August phone Connie
8 August flying
10 August Hunts.[?] Dot good times
11 August [indecipherable word]good times
[page break]
12 August off to Italy today
13 August Barni good times. Photo
14 August Barni good time
15 August took off forced[?] [indecipherable word] in [two indecipherable words] two engines 1+1+ VJ day dance good time
[page break]
16 August good time [indecipherable word] the Rec.[?]
17 August Carry [?] the [?] Rec [?]
18 August Marselle
[page break]
19 August Carry the Rec Dance
20 August Lake, good time
21 August Angle[?] good time.
22 August Carry the[?] Rec[?] good time
[page break]
23 August Carry [?]
24 August Carry[?]
25 August Raid[?] T20.F.F.
[page break]
26 August Carry[?]
27 August [indecipherable word]
28 August Marselle good time
29 August Carry [?]
[page break]
30 August Carry[?]
31 August Marselle
1 September Istrey[?]
[page break]
2 September Istrey[?] Dance Angela[?] good time
3 September Carry[?] the[?] Rec
4 September Barry the[?] Rec
5 September Sussie[?]
[page break]
6 September Istres[?]
7 September Air test. took off for Blyty.[?] Walter[?], Arthur, Jimmy. Posted to T.C.[?] [2/3 indecipherable words] F/O Doolan[?]. Saw Steve
8 September 48.[?] Canalbridge[?] 1.00 Kings X 23.30. Eileen
[page break]
9 September Flo. [two indecipherable words] good time
10 September Blondie good time. Kings X 6.40 [indecipherable word] 8.45. Neil in Hants
11 September Hunts. Dot O.K.
12 September Stores shoes[?]
[page break]
14 September Week-end Hunts 12.10 Kings X 2.40 Blondie good time
15 September [three indecipherable words] House[?] good time
[page break]
23 September good time Ted. Kings X 6.35.
25 September Birlin[?] [sic] good time [indecipherable word] club look for Bill
26 September Back to Blyty[sic]
[page break]
27 September [indecipherable word] Photo [indecipherable word] break Party[?] good time [indecipherable word] Bang on time “Dawn House”[?]
29 September Week end. Hunts 1.45 Kings X 4.00. Wal[?] house Tiggy’s Party good time
[page break]
30 September good time Wal. Charlie Kings X 6.45. Hunts 8.45.
3 October flying
[page break]
5 October flying
6 October Week end. Hunts 10.30 Kings X 12.30 Went[?] home[?] good time party. [indecipherable word]
[page break]
7 October Kings X 7.10 Hunts 9.40.
8 October Sqdn disbanded Crew posted to 115 Sqdn. [indecipherable word]
10 October good time. Wal.
[page break]
11 October Leave Wal. Good time Ann
12 October Hospital with Wal Ann all [indecipherable word]
13 October George good times
[page break]
14 October Troe[?] No more beer.
15 October Troe[?]
16 October Odiar[?]
17 October Elephant[?]
[page break]
18 October Dentist.
19 October Kings X 7.10. Offord[?] 9.00
[page break]
24 October Sqdn Photo
[page break]
26 October Peterboro. Good time
[page break]
5 November Mum in [indecipherable word], baby
Offord 5.40. Kings X 7.20
6 November County
7 November Kings X 7.10. Offord 8.20[?] Crew on Dodge[?]
[page break]
8 November Wal home 10 days
9 November Weekend Offord 2.14[?] Kings X 4.00. good time County[?] [indecipherable word] Joan Beal
10 November good time, Harry.[?] Joan Beal
[page break]
11 November Joan
12 November Harry in the Army.
13 November Off to Italy down at [indecipherable word]
14 November Back to Base
[page break]
17 November Weekend Offord 1.50. Kings X 4.00 Wal good time
[page break]
18 November Kings X 7.10 Offord 9.00.
20 November Dentist
[page break]
23 November Weekend Offord 5.54 Kings X 9.10. Reata Beat good time
24 November good time [four indecipherable words] Reata Beat.
[page break]
25 November [indecipherable word] Wal good time Beat [indecipherable word] Roger
26 November Kings X 7.4. Offord 9.5 M.O.
27 November M.O.
28 November 7 days leave London by Road Wal [indecipherable word]
[page break]
29 November Beaty 6.00 good time Met. O.K.
30 November Bill Betts Wal good time
1 December Met xxxx Flo [indecipherable word] Party Bonso [indecipherable word] Bang on.
[page break]
2 December Wal. Pearls[sic] O.K.
3 December good time Fountain
4 December Fountain for lunch Bull good time Mary
5 December Wal. Bill. Good time
[page break]
6 December Kings X 7.4. Offord 9.00.
7 December Dodge Scrublet[?] D.F.M. London G.
8 December [indecipherable word] Offord O.K.
[page break]
9 December Crew on Dodge Wal in hospital at [indecipherable word]
[page break]
13 December Crew back from Tibbing[?] Wal still in Doc
15 December Offord 1.54 Kings X 4.00 Wal, Bill good time
[page break]
16 December good time Bee Hive
17 December Peckham Doctor O.K. Kings X 7.10 Offord 9.00
[page break]
21 December Wal home Mum’s Birthday. Offord 1.50 Kings X 3.10 [indecipherable word] O.K. [indecipherable word] O.K. [indecipherable word]
22 December Trouble in County, Ben
[page break]
23 December D.F.M. Cable more trouble County but good time Mrs Allehonne[?]
24 December South End. Wal’s mum good time good time County
25 December good time at home Jos Ly.[?] Rona[?] [indecipherable word]
26 December good time. Bill Berts[?] Speedy, leave off.
[page break]
27 December Kings X 10.35 Offord 1.00.
28 December Pilot Flt. Lt.
29 December Dodge Scrubbed
[page break]
Cash Account – January
B.N.Z. City 6001
C.T. HOP. 1293
N.S.O. City 3623
G.W.R. Pad[?] 7000.
Parry GIP 3832
Terry[?] KIN. 5052
George EUS. 6292
Club TEM. 3135.
K.X. TER. 4200.
[page break]
A/B E. BUTTON
P/5X 521035
MESS
H.M.S. RINALDO
c/o G.P.O. London
Driver L. Symmons
T.10665218
403. Cay[?] R.A.S.C.
(AMD[?] Car)
B.L.H.
380 Hind[?] A.C.W.
c/o Sgts Mess
R.A.F. Oakington, Cambs.
[page break]
MEMORANDA
FALAISE
RUSSELSHEIM
STETTIN
EINDHOVEN
LE HAVRE
LE HAVRE
FRANKFURT
RHEIN HOPSTEN
CALAIS
NEUSS
CALAIS
CAP GRIS NEZ
STUTTGART
ESSEN
COLOGNE
COLOGNE
COLOGNE
DUSSELDORF
ESSEN
DUISBURG
ERFT DAM
SOESTE
BONN
[page break]
OPLADEN
COLOGNE
OSTERFELD
MAGDEBURG
HAMBORN
DORTMUND
PFORZHEIM
MANNHEIM
CHEMNITZ
DESSAU
MISBURG
HANAU
NUREMBURG
LUTZKENDORF
HAMBURG
KEIL
PLAUEN
KEIL
BERLIN
SCHWANDORF
HELIGOLAND
WANGEROOGE X
[page break]
BARRY.
ISTRES.
ST MISTRE.
MARSEILLES.
CARRY LE RUE.
BIRLIN.
MARTIQUE.
POTSDAM.
[page break]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Arthur Pearce Air Force Diary 1945
Description
An account of the resource
Some personal data and a list of operations with heights. Entries for flying days, Operations January to April 1945, Mentions leave, birthdays, train times, days out, events, news of friends and acquaintances, meetings and parties, hospital appointments, inspections, air ministry appointment, trips after the war to Italy and France.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A Pearce
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Multi-page booklet wit handwritten entries
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Diary
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
YPearceAT1874945v5
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Germany--Euskirchen Region
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Poland
Poland--Szczecin
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Rhine River
Germany--Neuss
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Essen
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Soest
Germany--Osterfeld
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Pforzheim
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Hanau
Germany--Dessau (Dessau)
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Mücheln (Wettin)
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Plauen
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Schwandorf in Bayern
Germany--Helgoland
France
France--Falaise
France--Le Havre
France--Calais
Netherlands
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Italy
Italy--Bari
France--Marseille
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Leverkusen
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Wangerooge Island
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
David Bloomfield
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-01-16
1945-01-22
1945-03-01
1945-03-07
1945-03-15
1945-03-19
1945-04-04
1945-04-08
1945-09
1945-04-15
1945-04-14
1945-04-16
1945-04-18
1945-03-05
1945-04-25
1945-08-12
1945-08-18
bombing
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
Cook’s tour
Operation Dodge (1945)
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1279/17566/YPearceAT1874945v4.2.pdf
a2351da247af3b1b94f5f4679bb41f42
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pearce, Arthur
A T Pearce
Description
An account of the resource
140 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Arthur Pearce (1874945 Royal Air Force) He served as an air gunner with 12, 170 and 156 (Pathfinder) Squadrons and completed a 44 operations. After the war, on 35 Squadron he took part in the June 1946 Victory flypast over London and a goodwill visit to the United States. It contains his diaries, memorabilia and photographs.
The collection also contains an album concerning his post war activity with the Goodwill tour of the United States.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Steve Allan and catalogued by Nigel Huckins
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-12-17
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Pearce, AT
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Bank Holidays, 1944
[page break]
PERSONAL MEMORANDA
Sgt PEARCE
[page break]
Bank CITY 6001
G.T. HOP 1293
N.S.D. CITY 3623
G.W.R PAD 7000
Parry G.I P 3832
TENY KIN 5052.
[indecipherable word] EUS 6292.
MESS Seiford 61.
K.C. SER 4200.
Club TEM 3135
[page break]
1944 JANUARY
1 SATURDAY
[deleted] GIP 5852, KIN 3032, UES 6292 [/delete]
7412
Stalag XX13 (84)
Germany
2 SUNDAY
J.W. Simmonds
3 Malmesbury Road
South Woodford
E. 18
SG Parry
189 Gipsy Road
West Norwood
S E. 27
GIP 3832
[page break]
3 MONDAY
FX.115112. LDG AIR. PALMER JJ JEa/AG.
825 R.N.A. SQDN.
c/o GP.O LONDON.
Joan White
238 New Kent Road
London SE. 1.
[underlined] 4 TUESDAY [/underlined]
14423672
4th Batt C. Coy.
No.1. IR.T.D.
C.M.F
[page break]
5 WEDNESDAY
letter from home, wrote home.
Irene Hudd,
28 Upper Kenton St
Thorne
Nr Doncaster
Yorks.
6 THURSDAY
letter from Flo
[page break]
7 FRIDAY
[blank page]
8 SATURDAY
letter from Flo.
[page break]
9 SUNDAY
letter from Mum
10 MONDAY
went to Belfast good time.
[page break]
[blank page]
[page break]
13 THURSDAY
[blank page]
14 FRIDAY
Leave. Sgt. Tapes Belfast
[page break]
15 SATURDAY
arrived at home
16 SUNDAY
London. Pleasant surprise good time
[page break]
17 MONDAY
good time
18 TUESDAY
good time
[page break]
19 WEDNESDAY
good time
20 THURSDAY
good time
[page break]
21 FRIDAY
good time
22 SATURDAY
saw Bill.
Ring. Lovely night
Cable
[page break]
23 SUNDAY
good
24 MONDAY
good
[page break]
25 TUESDAY
good
26 WEDNESDAY
good
[page break]
27 THURSDAY
good
28 FRIDAY
good
[page break]
29 SATURDAY
good
30 SUNDAY
Cable
good week end
[page break]
31 MONDAY
very good time
FEB. 1 TUESDAY
Worried browned off
[page break]
2 WEDNESDAY
still worried and browned off
3 THURSDAY
good tan
[page break]
4 FRIDAY
good time in county
5 SATURDAY
browned off
[page break]
6 SUNDAY
things going wrong.
7 MONDAY
Birthday [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted]
Smashing time
[page break]
8 TUESDAY
went to Parry.
Good time Joyce
Silvia
9 WEDNESDAY
Flos Birthday
not so good
[page break]
10 THURSDAY
[boxed X] trouble
Bad
11 FRIDAY
County. not so good
[page break]
12 SATURDAY
[deleted] Four indecipherable words [/deleted]
13 SUNDAY
still felt bad.
[page break]
14 MONDAY
Cable.
good leave untill [sic] last few days
15 TUESDAY
Hixon 2-45.
[page break]
16 WEDNESDAY
Met pilot [indecipherable word] and crew. O.K.
Wing/Co. Caulson
P/O Stevens
P/O Soo.
P/O Davies
17 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
18 FRIDAY
[blank page]
19 SATURDAY
Wals Birthday
[page break]
20 SUNDAY
[blank page]
21 MONDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
22 TUESDAY
[blank page]
23 WEDNESDAY
Marina Birthday
[page break]
[pages missing]
28 MONDAY
Roses Birthday
29 TUESDAY
Leighford
1 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
2 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
3 FRIDAY
plenty of cloud Bashing
4 SATURDAY
still cloud bashing
Stafford good time plenty of fun.
[page break]
5 SUNDAY
bags of flying,
good crew.
6 MONDAY
still bags of flying and doing grand job.
[page break]
7 TUESDAY
grounded.
Very good time
8 WEDNESDAY
plenty of cloud Bashing and Bombing
[page break]
9 THURSDAY
more Bombing
10 FRIDAY
went to Stafford with crew. very good time. plenty of fun.
[page break]
11 SATURDAY
dingy [sic] Stafford plenty of fun
12 SUNDAY
Cloud Bashing
[page break]
13 MONDAY
more Cloud bashing no time off
14 TUESDAY
went sick. Hospital
[page break]
15 WEDNESDAY
Hospital
16 THURSDAY
Hospital
[page break]
17 FRIDAY
Bombing.
Not so good Hospital
18 SATURDAY
Hospital
[page break]
19 SUNDAY
Hospital
20 MONDAY
[author indicates he’s in hospital]
[page break]
21 TUESDAY
[author indicates he’s in hospital]
22 WEDNESDAY
[author indicates he’s in hospital]
[page break]
23 THURSDAY
Hospital
24 FRIDAY
flying
[page break]
25 SATURDAY
Bombing
26 SUNDAY
Cloud bashing
Bombing
Pilot hurt.
[page break]
27 MONDAY
48 hours leave
3-31 Stafford
dispointed [sic]
Pilot in Hospital
28 TUESDAY
good time in county
[page break]
29 WEDNESDAY
Cluston 5.38
Pilot Bad
30 THURSDAY
easy time
[page break]
31 FRIDAY
pressure test
48 hours. Leave
5.48 Stafford
APRIL 1 SATURDAY
Good time.
hard going
[page break]
2 SUNDAY
Uaston 12.00
all was well
3 MONDAY
Browned off
[page break]
4 TUESDAY
[deleted] Met New Pilot Sgt [indecipherable word] [/deleted]
5 WEDNESDAY
nothing to do no pilot or Wireless/opp
[page break]
6 THURSDAY
[blank page]
7 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
8 SATURDAY
flew with madman.
9 SUNDAY
[deleted] almost killed [/deleted]
[page break]
10 MONDAY
very easy day.
A good night out.
11 TUESDAY
nothing to do.
[page break]
12 WEDNESDAY
Volenteered [sic] to go on Balls eye.
Good things
13 THURSDAY
easy time
[page break]
14 FRIDAY
still nothing to do.
15 SATURDAY
good time in town bags of fun
[page break]
[missing pages]
20 THURSDAY
good time at Dance
21 FRIDAY
end of long rest
Posted
[page break]
22 SATURDAY
back to Hixon New Pilot Sgt Keeler.
23 SUNDAY
plenty of flying
new Pilot O.K.
[page break]
24 MONDAY
cloud Bashing
25 TUESDAY
cloud Bashing Bombing
[page break]
26 WEDNESDAY
grounded bad weather good time in town
27 THURSDAY
Cloud Bashing bad Crash
[page break]
28 FRIDAY
felt bad. No flying.
29 SATURDAY
flying again
[page break]
30 SUNDAY
Bombing
MAY 1 MONDAY
Cine Bombing
[page break]
2 TUESDAY
Bombing
3 WEDNESDAY
night off. good time Plenty of fun.
[page break]
4 THURSDAY
grounded
5 FRIDAY
grounded
[page break]
6 SATURDAY
grounded
7 SUNDAY
grounded
[page break]
8 MONDAY
grounded lost leave.
9 TUESDAY
48 hrs leave. Stafford 9-48.
[page break]
10 WEDNESDAY
disapointed [sic] but had good time
12 + 13 11 THURSDAY
Claston 8-30 a.m. Met new “Wop” Flt. Sgt Stricket
[page break]
12 FRIDAY
Cloud Bashing
13 SATURDAY
Cloud Bashing
[page break]
14 SUNDAY
long trip bombing plenty of trouble every [deleted] the [/deleted] thing wrong. I was nocked [sic] out. Pilot in trouble but all ended well Balls eye.
15 MONDAY
lots of flying
[page break]
16 TUESDAY
busy night Mick killed
17 WEDNESDAY
hopes of leave. Steve got F/O.
[page break]
18 THURSDAY
13 days leave. Stafford 5.48.
19 FRIDAY
Joe home. very good times
[page break]
20 SATURDAY
plenty of fun [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] Flo. old feeling again but held my own.
21 SUNDAY
pleasent [sic] time
[page break]
22 MONDAY
good time with Sal. good time with Joan
23 TUESDAY
Stepney good time Good time with Joan, plenty of fun
[page break]
24 WEDNESDAY
went to Totenham [sic] took Joany out from bank. Plenty of fun.
25 THURSDAY
County plenty of fun
[page break]
26 FRIDAY
Stepney, baby. Good time
27 SATURDAY
took Joan and Betty out. Stepney. Party. good time but worried
[page break]
28 SUNDAY
went out with Flo. Jess and Joe, hard time trouble
29 MONDAY
Bad time
[page break]
30 TUESDAY
Bad for me
31 WEDNESDAY
Kings Cross 12-45 Doncaster 4.10 Boston Park.
[page break]
1944 JUNE
1 THURSDAY
Bill Charlie O.K.
2 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
3 SATURDAY
day off, Thorne Plenty of fun.
4 SUNDAY
day off Thorn More fun.
[page break]
5 MONDAY
Stones O.K.
6 TUESDAY
The day.
[page break]
7 WEDNESDAY
on Charge. got away with with it
8 THURSDAY
Fred got his Comision [sic] Thorne. Morends [sic]
[page break]
9 FRIDAY
Irene. Smashing girl a very good time plenty of fun. Pleasant suprises [sic]
10 SATURDAY
Background danger. Irene. Smashing time More fun Wally went home. Charlie, Bill Posted
[page break]
11 SUNDAY
“P/O Keeler”
12 MONDAY
Stones O.K.
[page break]
13 TUESDAY
Posted Sandtoft Pool
Epworth. good time bags of fun.
John got Married
14 WEDNESDAY
Epworth O.K. bags fun
Whiteheart Raynor.
Doreene
[page break]
15 THURSDAY
Hopes of Posting
Epworth good time Joan. Plenty of fun.
16 FRIDAY
Bill & Charlie Posted.
[page break]
17 SATURDAY
Epworth. good time Plenty of fun Peggy.
18 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
19 MONDAY
[blank page]
20 TUESDAY
Posted to Blighton
Met Engineer JOE.
[page break]
21 WEDNESDAY
Posted Ingham.
Bill and Charlie again
Castle
22 THURSDAY
Went to Lincoln good time bags of fun.
[page break]
23 FRIDAY
flying.
24 SATURDAY
flying
Lincoln good time plenty of fun
[page break]
25 SUNDAY
flying
26 MONDAY
flying
[page break]
27 TUESDAY
flying
28 WEDNESDAY
flying
[page break]
29 THURSDAY
flying
30 FRIDAY
flying
Lincoln good time
[page break]
JULY 1944
1 SATURDAY
Posted to Blyton
2 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
3 MONDAY
[blank page]
4 TUESDAY
[blank page]
5 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
6 THURSDAY
flying Bombing
[page break]
7 FRIDAY
Gainsborough. good time fun.
8 SATURDAY
Gainsborough. good time plenty of fun.
[page break]
9 SUNDAY
[blank page]
10 MONDAY
Lincoln. Gainsboro [sic] photo
[page break]
11 TUESDAY
flying
12 WEDNESDAY
flying Geordy killed
[page break]
13 THURSDAY
flying
14 FRIDAY
[deleted flying [/deleted]
Gainsboro [sic] good time
[page break]
15 SATURDAY
Lost Navigator
16 SUNDAY
Gainsboro [sic]. good time
[page break]
17 MONDAY
New Navigator. Flying. F/O. Yule.
18 TUESDAY
flying New Nav O.K.
[page break]
19 WEDNESDAY
Gainsboro [sic].
20 THURSDAY
flying
[page break]
21 FRIDAY
flying Bombing.
22 SATURDAY
flying
23 SUNDAY
flying Ballseye.
24 MONDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
25 TUESDAY
[blank page]
26 WEDNESDAY
Posted Hemswell 6.25. Lincoln
[page break]
27 THURSDAY
[blank page]
28 FRIDAY
11.15. Kings X.
[page break]
29 SATURDAY
[blank page]
30 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
31 MONDAY
Gainsboro [sic].
AUG 1 TUESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
2 WEDNESDAY
Gainsboro [sic]
3 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
4 FRIDAY
[blank page]
5 SATURDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
6 SUNDAY
flying
7 MONDAY
Gainsboro [sic]
[page break]
8 TUESDAY
flying
9 WEDNESDAY
flying Dingy [sic] 8.30
[page break]
10 THURSDAY
[blank page]
11 FRIDAY
Posted to Squadron No 12. Wickenby
[page break]
12 SATURDAY
No.1. O.K. Cornfield “Falaise”
13 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
14 MONDAY
7. days leave Lincoln 1.55 Kings Cross 6.15
15 TUESDAY
good time
[page break]
16 WEDNESDAY
good time
17 THURSDAY
good time
[page break]
18 FRIDAY
good time
19 SATURDAY
good time fun
[page break]
20 SUNDAY
good time fun
21 MONDAY
Kings Cross 5.40
[page break]
22 TUESDAY
Guns OK.
23 WEDNESDAY
year.
[page break]
24 THURSDAY
[blank page]
25 FRIDAY
No 2. O.K. “Russelsheim”
[page break]
26 SATURDAY
[blank page]
27 SUNDAY
flying guns O.K.
[page break]
28 MONDAY
[blank page]
29 TUESDAY
No. 3. Cornfield O.K. “Stettin” Paddy killed good fellow real Pal
[page break]
30 WEDNESDAY
Lincoln good time
31 THURSDAY
[blank page]
1944 SEPTEMBER
1 FRIDAY
Lincoln good time
2 SATURDAY
flying
[page break]
3 SUNDAY
No.4. O.K. “Eindhoven”
4 MONDAY
Lincoln
[page break]
5 TUESDAY
No 5. O.K. “Le Havre”
6 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
7 THURSDAY
Lincoln good time
8 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
9 SATURDAY
Lincoln
10 SUNDAY
No. 6. O.K. “Le Havre”
[page break]
11 MONDAY
[blank page]
12 TUESDAY
No 7. O.K. “Frankfurt”
[page break]
13 WEDNESDAY
[deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] flying
14 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
15 FRIDAY
[blank page]
16 SATURDAY
No 8. O.K. “Rheine Hopsten”
[page break]
17 SUNDAY
[blank page]
18 MONDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
19 TUESDAY
[blank page]
20 WEDNESDAY
No 9. O.K. “Calais”
[page break]
21 THURSDAY
Lincoln
22 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
23 SATURDAY
No. 10. O.K. “[deleted] Calais [/deleted] “Neurs”
24 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
25 MONDAY
No.11. bombs back not so good. “Calais”
26 TUESDAY
No 11 OK. “Cap Griz Nez”
[page break]
27 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
28 THURSDAY
Lincoln 6.25. 7. Days leave.
[page break]
29 FRIDAY
Watch Bill good time Ted
30 SATURDAY
good time
[page break]
OCTOBER 1944
1 SUNDAY
Bill Home good time
2 MONDAY
Bank good time
[page break]
3 TUESDAY
good time
4 WEDNESDAY
good time
[page break]
5 THURSDAY
Reggie good time
6 FRIDAY
Kings X. 5.50
[page break]
7 SATURDAY
[blank page]
8 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
9 MONDAY
[blank page]
10 TUESDAY
flying F.A.
[page break]
11 WEDNESDAY
flying A.F.
12 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
13 FRIDAY
flying F.A.
14 SATURDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
15 SUNDAY
Posted to. [indecipherable word] Lincs
Binbrook.
16 MONDAY
flying Picked up new kite 190. Squadron.
[page break]
17 TUESDAY
Grimsby. good time
18 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
19 THURSDAY
No 12. O.K. “Stuttgart”
20 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
21 SATURDAY
Louth good time Watch.
22 SUNDAY
New Squadron. 170 Dunholme Lodge
[page break]
23 MONDAY
[blank page]
24 TUESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
25 WEDNESDAY
No. 13. O.K. “Essen”
26 THURSDAY
Lincoln
[page break]
27 FRIDAY
[blank page]
28 SATURDAY
No 14. O.K. “Cologne”
[page break]
29 SUNDAY
[blank page]
30 MONDAY
No 15. OK. “Cologne”
[page break]
31 TUESDAY
No 16 OK. “Cologne”
NOVEMBER 1 WEDNESDAY
Party. Black Bull good time
[page break]
2 THURSDAY
No.17. OK. Dusseldorf
3 FRIDAY
Lincoln
[page break]
4 SATURDAY
P.F.F. ?
5 SUNDAY
Posted Warboys P.F.F.
[page break]
6 MONDAY
Warboys. 2.9. Kings X. 4.2. Joe. Good time
7 TUESDAY
Kings X. 6.40.
[page break]
8 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
9 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
10 FRIDAY
test OK. Dinghy Cambridge
11 SATURDAY
flying
[page break]
12 SUNDAY
flying
13 MONDAY
flying Huntingdon
[page break]
14 TUESDAY
Post. Upwood. Squadron. 1.5.6.
15 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
16 THURSDAY
[blank page]
17 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
18 SATURDAY
[blank page]
19 SUNDAY
flying
20 MONDAY
[blank page]
21 TUESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
22 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
23 THURSDAY
flying
[page break]
24 FRIDAY
[blank page]
25 SATURDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
26 SUNDAY
[blank page]
27 MONDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
28 TUESDAY
[blank page]
29 WEDNESDAY
No 18. “Essen”
[page break]
30 THURSDAY
No 19. “Duisburg”
DECEMBER 1 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
2 SATURDAY
[blank page]
3 SUNDAY
No. 20. “Urfurt [sic] Dam”
[page break]
4 MONDAY
[blank page]
5 TUESDAY
No 21. “Soest” ears bad
[page break]
6 WEDNESDAY
No. Grounded ears bad.
7 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
8 FRIDAY
[blank page]
9 SATURDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
10 SUNDAY
[blank page]
11 MONDAY
leave Peterboro [sic] 3.58 Kings X. 5.25
[page break]
12 TUESDAY
good time Bank. Ted home Flo
13 WEDNESDAY
good time
[page break]
14 THURSDAY
good time County Flo. Dolly O.K.
15 FRIDAY
good time. Dolly
[page break]
16 SATURDAY
Ted good time. plenty fun
17 SUNDAY
good time Ted ship Dolly.
[page break]
18 MONDAY
Kings X 5.50 Peterboro [sic] 7.30
19 TUESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
20 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
21 THURSDAY
No 22. “Bonn”
[page break]
22 FRIDAY
Mess Dance Audrey O.K. Pat.
23 SATURDAY
Peterboro [sic].
[page break]
24 SUNDAY
Sqd Dance Audrey OK
25 MONDAY
Dance Ramsey Audrey. O.K.
[page break]
26 TUESDAY
[blank page]
27 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
28 THURSDAY
No 23. “Opladen”
29 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
30 SATURDAY
No 24 “Cologne”
31 SUNDAY
No 25. “Osterfeld”
[page break]
Flight 8/113
RAF. Stockleigh Rd
Regents Park
London. S.W.1.
E Flight
6 Squadron
18 I.T.W.
Bridlington
Yorks.
Hut 55.
D. Squadron
N.1. E.AGS,
R.A F Bridgnorth
Salop
[page break]
11 Course
12 A.G.S.
R.A.F.
Bishops Court
N. Ireland.
Sgts Mess
R.A.F. Hixon
Sgts Mess
R.AF. Leighford
Sgts Mess
R.AF. Hixon
Sgts Mess
R. A. F. Boston Park
Lindholme
Yorks
[page break]
Sgts Mess
R.A.F. Sandtofts
Yorks
Sgts Mess
R.A.F Blyton
Lincs
Sgts Mess
R.A.F Ingham
Lincs
Sgts Mess
R.A.F. Hemswell
Lincs
[page break]
Sgts Mess, Red
Wickenby,
Lincs.
Sgts Mess
[indecipherable word]
Lincs
Sgts Mess
Dunholme Lodge
Lincs
Sgts Mess
Warboys
Hunts
[page break]
Sgts Mess
Upwood
Hunts
Sgts Mess
Wyton
Hunts
Sgts Mess
Warboys
Hunts
Sgts Mess
Wyton
Hunts
Sgts Mess
Graveley
Hunts
[page break]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Arthur Pearce Diary 1944
Description
An account of the resource
Memorandum items addresses of friends and acquaintances, mentions many days/evenings out and what sort of time he had in Belfast, Lincoln, Gainsborough and many others. Mentions various journeys and postings, lists birthdays. Jots down daily activities and feelings. Mentions crew and other he flew with and comments about them. Entries for days flying and activity. Entries for news of acquaintances and colleagues, some of whom were killed. Mentions posting to 12 Squadron at RAF Wickenby, 170 Squadron at RAF Dunholme Lodge and to RAF Warboys for Pathfinders. mentions many targets from August to December 1944.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A Pearce
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Multi-page booklet with handwritten entries
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Diary
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
YPearceAT1874945v4
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Yorkshire
England--Doncaster
England--Lincolnshire
England--Cambridgeshire
Northern Ireland--Belfast
England--Staffordshire
France
France--Pas-de-Calais
France--Calais
France--Le Havre
France--Falaise
England--Lincoln
Netherlands
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Germany
Germany--Cologne
Poland
Poland--Szczecin
Germany--Bonn
Germany--Essen
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Neuss
Germany--Soest
Germany--Rheine
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Düsseldorf
Great Britain
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-08-11
1944-08-12
1944-08-25
1944-08-29
1944-09-03
1944-09-05
1944-09-12
1944-09-16
1944-09-20
1944-09-23
1944-09-25
1944-09-26
1944-10-19
1944-10-25
1944-10-22
1944-10-28
1944-10-30
1944-10-31
1944-11-02
1944-11-30
1944-12-21
1944-12-05
1944-02-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Christian
David Bloomfield
12 Squadron
170 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bombing
Pathfinders
RAF Dunholme Lodge
RAF Hixon
RAF Sandtoft
RAF Warboys
RAF Wickenby
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1279/17438/LPearceAT1874945v1.2.pdf
e35e6116419f7eb8f03d67b018b5f883
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pearce, Arthur
A T Pearce
Description
An account of the resource
140 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Arthur Pearce (1874945 Royal Air Force) He served as an air gunner with 12, 170 and 156 (Pathfinder) Squadrons and completed a 44 operations. After the war, on 35 Squadron he took part in the June 1946 Victory flypast over London and a goodwill visit to the United States. It contains his diaries, memorabilia and photographs.
The collection also contains an album concerning his post war activity with the Goodwill tour of the United States.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Steve Allan and catalogued by Nigel Huckins
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-12-17
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Pearce, AT
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Arthur Pearce's air gunners flying log book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LPearceAT1874945v1
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Description
An account of the resource
Air gunners' flying log book for A T Pearce, covering the period from 2 December 1943 to 25 November 1946. It details his flying training, operations flown and post war flying. Arthur Pearce was stationed at: RAF Bishops Court, RAF Seighford, RAF Hixon, RAF Ingham, RAF Blyton, RAF Hemswell, RAF Wickenby, RAF Kelstern, RAF Dunholme Lodge, RAF Warboys, RAF Upwood, RAF Wyton, RAF Graveley and RAF Stradishall. Aircraft flown in were: Anson, Wellington, Halifax, Lancaster and Packet. He flew a total of 45 operations, 7 Daylight and 5 Night-time operations with 12 Squadron, 2 daylight and 4 night-time operations with 170 Squadron and 4 daylight, 23 night-time operations, operations Manna and Dodge with 156 Squadron. Post war Pearce flew a goodwill tour of the USA with 35 Squadron. Targets were: Falaise, Russelsheim, Stettin, Eindhoven, Le Havre, Frankfurt, Rheine Hopsten, Calais, Neuss, Cap Griz-Nez, Essen, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Duisberg, Urft Dam, Soeste, Bonn, Opladen, Osterfeld, Magdeburg, Hamborn, Dortmund, Pforzheim, Mannheim, Chemnitz, Dessau, Misburg, Nurenburg, Hanau, Lutzkendorf, Hamburg, Kiel, Plauen, Berlin, Schwandorf, Heligoland, Wangerooge and Rotterdam. His pilots on operations were Flying Officer and Flight Lieutenant Keeler.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
Poland
United States
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Staffordshire
England--Suffolk
France--Calais
France--Falaise
France--Le Havre
France--Pas-de-Calais
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Bonn
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dessau (Dessau)
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Essen
Germany--Euskirchen Region
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Hanau
Germany--Hannover Region
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Mücheln (Wettin)
Germany--Neuss
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Osterfeld
Germany--Pforzheim
Germany--Plauen
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Germany--Schwandorf (Landkreis)
Germany--Soest
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Northern Ireland--Down (County)
Poland--Szczecin
Germany--Rheine
Germany--Leverkusen
Germany--Wangerooge Island
Germany--Urft Dam
Great Britain
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
1946
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943
1944
1945
1946
1944-08-13
1944-08-14
1944-08-25
1944-08-26
1944-08-29
1944-08-30
1944-09-03
1944-09-05
1944-09-10
1944-09-12
1944-09-13
1944-09-16
1944-09-17
1944-09-20
1944-09-23
1944-09-24
1944-09-25
1944-09-26
1944-10-19
1944-10-25
1944-10-28
1944-10-30
1944-10-31
1944-11-01
1944-11-02
1944-11-03
1944-11-29
1944-11-30
1944-12-03
1944-12-05
1944-12-06
1944-12-21
1944-12-28
1944-12-30
1944-12-31
1945-01-16
1945-01-17
1945-01-22
1945-02-20
1945-02-21
1945-02-23
1945-02-24
1945-03-01
1945-03-05
1945-03-06
1945-03-07
1945-03-08
1945-03-15
1945-03-16
1945-03-17
1945-03-19
1945-04-04
1945-04-05
1945-04-08
1945-04-09
1945-04-10
1945-04-11
1945-04-13
1945-04-14
1945-04-15
1945-04-17
1945-04-25
1945-06-02
1945-07-13
1945-08-13
1945-08-15
1945-09-25
1945-09-26
1946-01-02
1946-01-03
12 Squadron
156 Squadron
1662 HCU
170 Squadron
30 OTU
35 Squadron
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
Anson
bombing
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
Cook’s tour
Goodwill tour of the United States (1946)
Halifax
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operation Dodge (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Operational Training Unit
RAF Bishops Court
RAF Blyton
RAF Bridgnorth
RAF Bridlington
RAF Dunholme Lodge
RAF Graveley
RAF Hemswell
RAF Hixon
RAF Ingham
RAF Kelstern
RAF Seighford
RAF Stradishall
RAF Upwood
RAF Warboys
RAF Wickenby
RAF Wyton
tactical support for Normandy troops
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1242/16313/LAllenJH179996v1.1.pdf
c9fc81707756633917b840cabd806864
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Allen, Jim
J H Allen
Description
An account of the resource
18 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant James Henry Allen DFC (b. 1923, 179996 Royal Air Force). He flew a tour of operations as a pilot with 578 Squadron. The collection consists of a number of memoirs, photographs and a diary. It includes descriptions of military life and operations and his post-war life and work.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Steve Allen and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-05-12
2019-02-05
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Allen, JH
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Jim Allen’s Royal Canadian Air Force pilots flying log book
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Description
An account of the resource
Royal Canadian Air Force pilots flying log book for J H Allen, covering the period from 2 December 1942 to 14 January 1947. Detailing his flying training, operations flown, instructor duties and post war squadron duties. He was stationed at, RCAF Station Assiniboia, RCAF Station Estevan, RAF Hullavington, RAF Banff, RAF Harwell, RAF Rufforth, RAF Burn, RAF Lossiemouth, RAF Merryfield, RAF Stoney Cross, RAF Leaconfield, RAF Stradishall, RAF Homsley South, RAF Bassingbourn and RAF Wratting Common. Aircraft flown in were, Tiger Moth, Anson II, Oxford, Wellington III and X, Halifax II, III and V, Stirling V and York C1. He flew a total of 40 operations with 578 squadron. 19 night and 21 daylight. Targets were, Malines, Berneville, Morsalines, Trouville, Orleans, Boulogne, Bourg Leopold, Trappes, Massey Palaise, Amiens, Douai, St. Martin L’Hortier, Siracourt, Oisemont, Rosingal, Mimoyecques, Wizernes. Villers Bocage, Les Catelliers, Thiverny, Kiel, Stuttgart, Foret de Nieppe, L’Isle Adam, Caen, Foret de Mormal, Somain, Russelsheim, Tirlemont, Venlo, Le Havre, Gelsenkirchen, Munster and Calais. His pilot for his first 'second dickie' operation was Sergeant Harrison.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LAllenJH179996v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Belgium
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Belgium--Leopoldsburg
Belgium--Mechelen
Belgium--Rossignol
Belgium--Tienen
Canada--Assiniboia, District of
England--Berkshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Hampshire
England--Somerset
England--Suffolk
England--Wiltshire
England--Yorkshire
France--Amiens
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
France--Caen
France--Calais
France--Douai
France--Le Havre
France--L'Isle-Adam
France--Nieppe Forest
France--Nord (Department)
France--Normandy
France--Oisemont (Canton)
France--Oise
France--Orléans
France--Paris
France--Pas-de-Calais
France--Somain
France--Trouville-sur-Mer
France--Yvelines
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Germany--Stuttgart
Netherlands--Venlo
Saskatchewan--Estevan
Scotland--Banff
Scotland--Lossiemouth
Germany--Münster in Westfalen
France--Villers-Bocage (Calvados)
France--Neufchâtel-en-Bray
Saskatchewan
Canada
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
France--Les Catelliers
France--Morsalines
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1944-05-01
1944-05-02
1944-05-08
1944-05-09
1944-05-10
1944-05-11
1944-05-12
1944-05-22
1944-05-23
1944-05-24
1944-05-25
1944-05-27
1944-05-28
1944-05-31
1944-06-01
1944-06-11
1944-06-12
1944-06-13
1944-06-14
1944-06-15
1944-06-17
1944-06-18
1944-06-22
1944-06-23
1944-06-24
1944-06-25
1944-06-27
1944-06-28
1944-06-30
1944-07-01
1944-07-04
1944-07-09
1944-07-12
1944-07-23
1944-07-24
1944-07-25
1944-07-28
1944-07-29
1944-08-03
1944-08-05
1944-08-06
1944-08-07
1944-08-08
1944-08-09
1944-08-11
1944-08-12
1944-08-13
1944-08-15
1944-08-16
1944-08-17
1944-09-03
1944-09-09
1944-09-10
1944-09-11
1944-09-12
1944-09-17
1944-09-24
1945-06-30
1945-07-04
15 OTU
1663 HCU
20 OTU
578 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
bombing
bombing of Luftwaffe night-fighter airfields (15 August 1944)
bombing of the Pas de Calais V-1 sites (24/25 June 1944)
Cook’s tour
Flying Training School
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 3
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Banff
RAF Bassingbourn
RAF Burn
RAF Harwell
RAF Hullavington
RAF Leconfield
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Paignton
RAF Rufforth
RAF Stoney Cross
RAF Stradishall
RAF Wratting Common
RCAF Estevan
Stirling
tactical support for Normandy troops
Tiger Moth
training
V-1
V-3
V-weapon
Wellington
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1242/16310/BAllenJHAllenJHv1.1.pdf
368ff6096040c7a52f4ecd60bf3d29e4
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Allen, Jim
J H Allen
Description
An account of the resource
18 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant James Henry Allen DFC (b. 1923, 179996 Royal Air Force). He flew a tour of operations as a pilot with 578 Squadron. The collection consists of a number of memoirs, photographs and a diary. It includes descriptions of military life and operations and his post-war life and work.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Steve Allen and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-05-12
2019-02-05
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Allen, JH
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
A SHORT PERSONAL VIEW OF A BIT OF HISTORY
The following questions and answers may be helpful to those studying World War II history by bringing a little closer what war was like for one man. The man concerned flew Halifax III aircraft in Bomber Command in 1944 over Europe. There is nothing exceptional in this account other than surviving a full tour of operations - which was largely a matter of having a good guardian angel.
Q1. How did you first hear that Britain was at war with Germany. How did you feel?
A. It must be appreciated that the declaration of war was no surprise. For at least a year everyone in the country was aware that war preparations were in hand, and Hitler was set on war. I heard the Prime Minister (Mr Neville Chamberlain) broadcasting on the radio at 11am on Sunday 3 September 1939 when he announced that “a state of war exists between Germany and ourselves”.
I was aged 16yrs and 1 month.
How did I feel? First I think some sense of relief that the decision had been made. (Hitler had invaded Poland on 1 Sept and there was a general feeling that we should declare war at once). Secondly for me a vague feeling that my world was on the brink of change and I was somehow about to enter the unknown.
Summed up: some sense of relief, a little apprehension and some vague feeling of excitement.
It is interesting to note that my father's war had started when he was 15yrs old (in 1914) and mine was starting as I reached 16yrs.
Q2. When did you join up?
A. I went along to the RAF recruiting office one week before my 18th birthday at the end of July 1941. Strictly speaking one could not join up under the age of 18yrs of age, but I was allowed to fill in the application form for training as aircrew. I was called up on 30 March 1942; I reported to Lords cricket ground, this being the assembly point for men intended for training as aircrew.
In common with all the other young men there I had volunteered for flying duties; in the RAF all aircrew were volunteers. In fact I had been fascinated with aeroplanes and flying since I was about 5yrs old, and the prospect of flying was far more important to me than the war, and I think this was the general feeling.
The timescale for my training was:
Reported for duty 30 march 1942
Sailed to Canada November 1942
Received my 'Wings' 28 May 1943
Returned from Canada July 1943
Flew first operation 1 May 1944
[page break]
2
Q3. Can you remember how your grandparents & parents reacted to the outbreak of war?
A. Again I would mention that war had been expected for a long time.
The reaction of both my grandparents and parents was one of deep disappointment that they were involved in a war only 20yrs after their previous one – the war to end war! They blamed Hitler for the war, but also felt that the weak British governments of Mr Baldwin and Mr Chamberlain had, with the policy of appeasement, encouraged Hitler. There was a general feeling that had Hitler been confronted when he re-occupied the Rhineland (I think that was about 1935 or '36) the war would have been averted. “Appeasement” was now a dirty word.
My grandfather was nearly 70yrs old in 1939, but he became a War Reserve policeman and served throughout the war. Once war was declared the feeling was that we were caught up in it and would have to do what was necessary. It is worth noting that nowhere did one hear any suggestion that we might lose the war. It simply wasn't considered.
Q4. What were your experiences as a bomber pilot?
A. “Experiences” has a fairly broad meaning so I'll confine my answer to how and what I felt under a few different circumstances. Initially on arrival at the squadron the feeling was of a certain excitement in approaching a new job with some element of danger. The feeling remained constant for about 10 operations; after that the excitement faded and a certain amount of worry began.
On return from each operation one was mentally exhausted, but felt a certain elation (and relief) on having returned and of having contributed something towards winning the war.
A question sometimes asked is “How did you feel when carrying a load of bombs to a city knowing that women and children would be killed?” The answer is that almost everyone thought little beyond the next moment; the main concern being to avoid fighter attack, searchlights or flak; in short to survive. Bear in mind that we usually flew in the dark and there was virtually nothing to focus on but the instruments: and with the engines pounding away in your ears our concentration was quite intense. Whatever the target it was thought of only as a city, military camp, gun battery or whatever. We didn't think of people.
On only one occasion did I feel sorry for the people in the target area: this was one night over Kiel when I deliberately banked my aircraft in order to look at the target. (Normally I never saw the target, as with my seat fully lowered I flew entirely on instruments in the target area). I looked down on a city ablaze; it was like looking into the mouth of a huge furnace. I thought 'you are looking into the mouth of Hell'. On that raid my aircraft carried one high explosive bomb weighing a ton and 13 cannisters [sic] each containing 90 (yes ninety) incendiary bombs; that is 1170 fire bombs of 4lb each, some with explosive charges in them. Over 200 aircraft took part in that attack. Today this is called conventional warfare.
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One point I do want to make is that war is not as shown in films or on the tele, with handsome men charging heroically and willingly into the mouths of guns. Initially on any bombing raid there was apprehension. When actually engaged by enemy fire the feeling varied from real worry that one might be hit to downright terror when, for example, one was boxed by flak and an engine was damaged and on fire at night. Or flying against a target in the Ruhr Valley in daylight when the intensity of the flak was itself terrifying. In these cases the mouth goes dry, one's temperature soars, sweat pours down the face, the knees tremble and the hands grip the control column like iron. To watch another aircraft spinning down or blown apart makes one physically sick. In short wars are fought by terrified men; and anyone who tells you different has never experienced it.
But training, discipline and sense of duty still carry men through.
Not every bombing trip was dangerous: sometimes we would complete an operation with no trouble at all, and be thankful for that. On other trips things could be difficult and one struggled back to make an emergency landing, everyone utterly exhausted and oh, SO thankful to have completed the sea crossing. The prospect of crashing into the North Sea (that is, ditching) was not a happy one. Even if one survived the crash and got into the dinghy before the aircraft sank the chances of being picked up were slim - about 1 in 9.
Sometimes it was possible to have a quiet laugh. One day in daylight we were flying west at 18,000ft just north of Calais; over France it was quite hazy. I happened to be looking towards the land when in the haze I saw a very bright flash and knew instantly that I was looking almost straight down the barrel of an anti-aircraft gun which had just fired at us. My training had taught me that the shell would reach us in 11secs, so by putting the aircraft into a diving turn towards the the [sic] gun we dodged the shell and saw it explode where we would have been had we continued on our original course. In this case we felt very pleased with ourselves. Even so one did not want the war to get so personal.
On finishing our tour of 40 operations we were posted from the squadron. How did we feel? Firstly very happy at the fact of surviving. Secondly an appreciation that we had been very lucky (although
of course we always believed that WE wouldn't be shot down: just as everyone else did). We HAD been lucky as only 1 crew in 4 survived a full tour. And of course my new wife of only two months was very pleased.
Sometimes one is asked if religion played a part for a bomber crew. For myself, I had a definite belief in God and in the power of prayer long before my bombing tour started. I did pray as I got into the aircraft, usually “Dear God, please look after us” or something as simple. When pounding through the night to or from the target I certainly felt a Presence with me, and if in difficulty dragging home I certainly did pray for help. On landing I ALWAYS offered up a heartfelt prayer of thanks.
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Q5. Describe any campaign or important flights you were involved in.
A. Apart from a few spectacular actions such as the breaking of the Mohne and Eder dams, and attacks on the battleship 'Tirpitz' Bomber Command's campaign was continuous, but help was given to actions such as the Battle of the Atlantic, support for the Army in Normandy and defence of London against the flying bomb (the V1).
The Battle of the Atlantic was continuous, and Bomber Command helped by attacking the U-boat bases. Kiel was one such base where U-boats were built; it was of course heavily defended. I twice went to Kiel with the object of bombing the U-boat yards. If we couldn't find the U-boats then bombing the peoples' houses was almost as effective in stopping the U-boats being built. Flying to Kiel involved a long flight each way over the North Sea; thus if an aircraft was damaged near the target or by a flak ship off the Danish coast there was little hope of living if we had to bail out, and not much chance of survival if we ditched in the sea. The round trip took some five and a half hours, most of it quiet, but over the target quite exciting and not a little worrying. Strangely enough it was unusual to see another bomber except one below showing up against the fire.
In 1944 the British Army was held up in Normandy and Bomber Command was asked to help. On 30 June a village called Villers-Bocage was occupied by three panzer divisions: 250 bombers were put on this target and with precision bombing wiped out the village without damage to British troops not far away. This was a daylight attack; a message of thanks and congratulations on the accuracy of the bombing was sent by General Montgomery to Bomber Command HQ.
On the night of 12 August 1944 a major attack was made on the Opel motor works at Russelsheim, Germany. It was a moonless night, and the pathfinders put the target indicators down three miles from the factory. My navigator told us that the markers were wrong as we approached them, but as our bomb-aimer could not see the factory we carried out the master-bomber's orders to bomb the target indicators. One the way home, over Belgium at 12,000ft we were suddenly boxed by radar-predicted flak. We dived to get out of it, but our port outer engine was damaged and caught fire. We managed to put out the fire by stopping the engine. (We did this by feathering the propeller, which means turning it edgeways on). We now flew on 3 engines and about an hour and a half later landed at Woodbridge emergency landing ground. We were the first of over 50 damaged aircraft to land there that night, many with dead and wounded crewmen. When we learned that reconnaisance [sic] photos proved that the target had been missed by three miles we felt very cross with the pathfinders as all our efforts had been for nothing.
(You probably know that 12 August is the start of the grouse shooting season. I KNOW that the grouse don't like it).
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In September 1944 oil plants were high priority targets. On 11 Sept an attack was made on the synthetic oil plant at Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr Valley. This was a daylight attack against a small target which resulted in bombers getting very close together on the bombing run. Flak was so intense that the smoke from exploding shells formed a thick black cloud through which the bombers had to fly. This was very frightening, as also was the danger of being bombed by other aircraft only a few feet above. A damaged Halifax spinning down just in front of us made me feel quite sick; there were seven men inside struggling to get out.
After return to base it was found that every aircraft on the squadron had sustained flak damage; it was probable that all the other squadrons suffered as much.
In July 1944 Bomber Command made a big effort to destroy flying bomb bases in France - from where these weapons (the V1s) were being launched against London. Attacks were made in daylight in good weather. The targets were small, but well defended by flak; even at 18,000ft flak was quite accurate. On 4 July we attacked a site at a place called St Martins L'Hortier. On the run-up to the target our aircraft was hit by flak; the instrument panel was smashed and one engine was damaged. We completed the bombing run and later made an emergency landing at Farnborough.
Q6. What was it like to come home on leave?
On my return from training in Canada in July 1943 I became engaged to a young lady named June, so my main interest when on leave was to be with her. She lived at Romford, about 15 miles east of London, so she was familiar with air raids.
We were generally aware that civilians died in air raids and airmen were killed when flying, and this tended to strengthen our feelings for each other. We married in July 1944, with flying bombs passing overhead, and had a 3-day honeymoon. I had to get my father's permission to marry (in writing I may say) as I was 2 weeks under 21yrs. I had by then flown 22 operations over Europe - for which I did not require my father's permission!
After our marriage I flew a further 18 missions to complete a tour of 40 operations, (I flew 39 missions with my crew; my first trip was as second pilot with another crew – just to get the idea!). The time taken was from 1 May to 24 September (21 weeks), during which time I had three lots of leave.
The depth of feeling we felt towards each other during leave was undoubtedly greater than under normal conditions, and provided a foundation for many year of happily married life as we had learned that each day really could be the last. When coming home on leave one brought a ration card as no family could feed an extra person for more than a day or so.
On the bomber squadron we got 7 days leave every 6 weeks provided we weren't shot down. Thus leave became very precious and we lived every minute conciously, [sic] but not morbidly; we did our best to enjoy life together.
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Q7. How did the war affect your family?
A. I was the oldest of 7 children – 16yrs old in 1939. My father was not called up as he was over 40yrs of age and in poor health. The three oldest children (myself and two brothers) served in the RAF and Royal Navy respectively. The elder of my brothers did 4 trips to Murmansk in Russia on convoy duties. Those trips were extremely dangerous and uncomfortable. He also took part in the D-Day landings in close support bombardment.
The four youngest children lived at home in Romford, spending many a night in the air raid shelter in the garden, and going to school as possible. My mother was not called up for factory work as she had children at home under 14yrs of age.
No-one in our family was killed or injured during the war; In this respect we were very lucky as the family suffered the air raids and the two oldest children were actively engaged in the fighting.
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BASED AT BURN
THESE PAPERS CONSIST OF THE ORIGINAL ARTICLES OFFERED FOR THE BOOK
EDITING HAS RESULTED IN SOME LOSS OF STORY, AND IN SOME CASES CHANGES OF MEANINGS
IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THESE PAPERS BE READ FIRST
THE RELATED ARTICLES WILL BE RECOGNISED IN THE READING
J H Allen
May 1995
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INTRODUCTION
It is fairly well known that Bomber Command lost over 55,000 aircrew killed in the Second World War. Perhaps not so well known is that over 6,000 aircrew were killed in training. There can be little doubt that most operational aircrew were lost to enemy action. Possibly a large proportion of trainees and some operational crews were lost because the pilot failed to interpret or believe his blind flying instruments:- Airspeed indicator, Artificial horizon, Climb & descent indicator, Altimeter, Directional gyro and Turn and bank indicator. In cloud or pitch darkness it is impossible to determine one's positional attitude by human senses alone.
The following account shows how one crew survived several nasty moments because the pilot took blind-flying seriously and the crew applied the disciplines taught in training. The operation described was one of thirty-nine that the crew flew together.
In producing a Squadron history it is appropriate to include descriptions of operations as experienced by individuals and crews. This account makes no pretence to be anything but factual; the events described were at the time not considered out of the ordinary; certainly not worthy of serious presentation in the mess. Many experienced bomber crew members may well say that they experienced far greater trauma; and they should be believed. For a description of a rough trip the reader is referred to the account of Plt Off Cyril Barton VC of 578 Sqn; target Nuremberg, 30 March 1944.
Rising generations may nonetheless be interested in trying to imagine the conditions described. As in so many situations there are lucky people and lucky aircraft – in this case a happy combination. The aircraft was a Halifax III, B-Baker, no. LW473 which survived the war completing 91 operations. The crew contained at least two 'lucky' members, (the sort of people who get knocked down by an ambulance) and flew twenty operations in her.
The other factors that mattered were crew training, and crew discipline based largely on crew confidence e.g. keep quite unless you have something worth saying; stick to the drills and procedures.
Although considered part of the job at the time experiences such as described can have strange long-term effects. Fifty year on the pilot's wife still tells him about three times a year that he has spent the night thrashing about and shouting, and cannot be woken – yet he wakes with no memory of disturbed dreams.
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12 August 1944 Pilot Plt Off J H Allen
Take-off for Russelsheim was 2120hrs in LW473, B-Baker, with time on target 0016hrs. A routine run to the target, some opposition, the trailing aerial taken off by an unseen aircraft passing below. No moon, pitch dark. As we approached the target the bomb-aimer gave a course correction to enable us to bomb the target indicators (TIs) as instructed by the Master Bomber (M/B). The navigator (Joe) immediately said that we would miss the target by three miles if we altered course. This posed a dilemma as standing orders laid down that the M/B's instructions were to be followed even if the TIs were clearly wrong. Even so crews were prepared to disobey the M/B and on this night one crew did (Fg Off Townsend, pilot, who brought back the only photo of the factory being hit). Recce photos next day showed open fields three miles from the target heavily bombed!
There was of course heavy flak opposition in the target area, but the crew were not overly concerned as we had seen it all before. Myself and the bomb-aimer were concerned to find the target as there was no point in making such effort to deliver the exports if they did not get to the right address.
I asked the bomb-aimer (Phil) if he could identify the factory and if so go for it. However the glare from the incendiaries was blinding, so the M/B's instructions were followed. The navigator was cross and asked why we bothered to bring him along, then gave the course out of the target area.
We were all glad to leave as there was a lot of exciting activity around.
Part of the tactics of the bomber stream was to alter height at various points along the homeward route, usually between 18,000 and 8,000ft. Hopefully this 'would confuse the enemy'. Heard that before? At 0120hrs somewhere over Belgium B-Baker was in climbing power on such a leg when without warning both port engines cut dead. The aircraft swung violently to port, and I found myself instinctively pushing the control column hard forward with right stick and rudder at the same time asking the flight engineer (Geordie) to check fuel to the port motors (as they say at Courts Martial “or words to that effect”). In fact in something approaching a high pitched scream! The blind-flying instruments previously so well behaved now looked decidedly sick, the artificial horizon at 45deg, altimeter unwinding rapidly and gyrocompass turning steadily, turn & bank needles slammed into the left hand corners with the airspeed approaching the world record: again the instructors’ voice clamoured, “Believe the instruments”. As control was regained the engines burst into life and with balanced power back the situation could be reviewed. The aircraft was below 8,000ft and 90deg off course. The incident had occupied about 10secs on the clock (and taken 10 years out of my life). On resuming course the engineer was asked if he had let the tank run dry – both engines were feeding from one tank, which was the correct drill. He was emphatic that this was not so, but had changed tanks as soon as the engines cut. There was no argument among the crew, nor was the matter referred to again. It could have easily been due to flak damage.
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After a minute or two temperatures had come down, knees and hands stopped shaking and thoughts turned to bacon and eggs in two hours time. At 0130hrs (ten minutes gone) I saw flashes by the starboard wing and called “Fighter, flashes to starboard”. The rear gunner (Eric) called back laconicly, [sic] “it's not a fighter it's flak and it's all around us”. As each shell burst into many pieces there was a lot of metal flying about. I now carried out a diving turn to port, lost 2,000ft and climbed up again, resuming course.
All seemed comfortable back in the friendly darkness until the wireless operator (Ron) seated immediately below the pilot came on to the intercom and said quite quietly, “Al, port outer's on fire”. There can be few other phrases which produce so much instant worry. A quick look showed a streamer of fire. Reaction was instant as only drill can be. Throttle slammed shut, feathering button punched – time 3/5sec. The engineer was now alongside me and said, “Shall I press the fire extinguisher?” I said “NO!” and the engineer held off.
Why did I say No? Because the instructors had stressed this drill and the lesson was absorbed. You can't [underlined] practice [/underlined] fire drill with real fear present.
As the propellor [sic] feathered the engine stopped and the wireless operator reported that the fire had died. Had it not done so [underlined] then [/underlined] the extinguisher would have been used; the last chance.
The really important point here is that in the moment of high stress the engineer [underlined] asked [/underlined] if he should use the extinguisher. Crew discipline isn't a matter of shooting people at dawn: and crew drills need no remembering.
With the fire out and the instruments getting back into proper order power was increased on the remaining three engines to maintain speed in the stream; the engineer checked fuel to use more from the port wing tanks, and parachutes were returned to stowages.
The navigator advised that there was still 30 minutes to go before crossing the enemy coast, and we would then set course for Woodbridge emergency landing ground.
The crew had now been badly frightened three times in less than a quarter of an hour. The worry, sweat, trembling, parched mouths and throats gradually subsided to something like normal fear of something else going wrong. What other damage had been done? The port inner was now surging, or was it?
The next half hour was a long one; there was no knowing what other damage had been done, but at least there was no injury among the crew. I was certainly praying fervently – not a sudden conversion this being the [sic] our 31st operation – just 'Dear God get us back, be with us please'. I also gave some thought to my wife, married just four weeks earlier on St Swithin's Day.
Eventually the navigator said that we were crossing the coast and the let-down into Woodbridge began. The aircraft was now in thick cloud, but with good Gee reception an accurate homing was possible.
At 1500ft the aircraft broke cloud and almost immediately two searchlights came on producing an inverted 'V' marking the emergency runway.
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4
B-Baker was now over the runway at 1000ft; I was calling “Darkie” on the emergency frequency and being given clearance to land. Some two minutes later we were down on the runway. The landing was not the best I'd ever done; but the sense of relief was palpable. The following day I noted in my diary, 'Landed (?) 0226hrs. Shaken up a bit. Nerves stretched'.
At the end of the runway a Jeep was waiting to guide us to dispersal. Some 50 aircraft followed B-Baker into Woodbridge that night, some with dead and wounded crew members.
As one would expect the organisation was excellent. We were received kindly, fed and accommodated without fuss and generally made to feel welcome. In the meantime other crews were being received and cared for with much more attention, as the crew of B-Baker had had a relatively easy trip; no-one was hurt.
Before departing (by train) the next day we checked to find the cause of the fire. The oil cooler situated below and at the rear of the radial engine had been smashed allowing oil to be pumped out into the exhaust flame. The ensuing comet-like tail must have been gratifying to the flak crews!
This crew completed a further eight operations without personal injury.
The lessons learned in training: blind-flying, crew discipline based on confidence in each other, together with total attention from our Guardian Angel paid off.
Abbreviations used:
u/t under training
SFTS Service flying training school
OTU Operational training unit
TIs Target indicators
M/B Master Bomber
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ONE MORE CHALKED UP
Aircraft B-Baker, LW473
On 4 July '44 the Squadron was detailed to attack a flying bomb base at St. Martin l'Hortier in France, a daylight mission on a nice easy target. Fine sunny day with no troubles to crease the brow. Bit of flak after starting to trespass, otherwise a smooth run to “Bomb-doors open” then an almighty thump which literally shook everybody. The instrument panel immediately reported sick with the gyro instruments out of action.
A quick check over the intercom confirmed no-one injured. The bomb-sight was OK so the run was continued and the target attacked. Course was set for home after clearing the target. No great immediate problem - daylight, in clear air with good visibility.
Damage assessment indicated that a piece of shrapnel had entered the fuselage a few inches in front of the pilot's windscreen and had been stopped by the solid brass gyroscope of the artificial horizon, making rather a mess of the back of the blind-flying panel. However the airspeed indicator and altimeter seemed to be working so there was no great anxiety and we continued fairly comfortably giving me time to contemplate the point that had the aircraft been flying 12inches lower the shrapnel would have entered via the windscreen and been stopped by the inside of my skull. As we approached the English coast the cloud cover below thickened to 10/10ths and the starboard outer engine began running roughly. The flight engineer (Geordie) reported that it was suffering low oil pressure and high temperature; he recommended immediate feathering of the propellor [sic] (or words to that effect). The prop feathered OK and attention was turned to the question of what to do next.
Standing Orders dictated that if engine damage was sustained south of The Wash the aircraft should land as soon as possible as there was no way of knowing of possible damage to other engines.
We had a text book problem; the answer was clear.
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2
In 1944 the Bomber Command emergency call was “Hello Darkie” (today's “Mayday”). Darkie was called and an airfield answered at once giving a course to steer and runway heading (around 240 mag).
The aircraft descended on this heading in thick cloud with a worried pilot balancing it horizontally on the turn & bank needles which may or may not be working, fully aware that not-so-funny positions can be achieved in dense cloud. However all was well, cloud base was broken at 1500ft with:- wonder of wonders a big fat runway dead ahead!! A bit close admittedly, but nothing that couldn't be accommodated with closed throttles, full flap and undercarriage down and a 50deg nose-down approach with a horrified flight engineer looking at the runway through the perspex roof of the cockpit.
A rather fast approach (say 40% above normal), brakes on as soon as the tail gunner had landed and held hard on as the runway got shorter.
As the aircraft stopped figures with wheelbarrows and shovels were seen running to the sides of the runway. A new section was being laid; we stopped just before the wet concrete, brake drums at approximately the same temperature as the crews' brows.
We had landed at Farnborough – and everyone concerned was surprised.
Our first concern was to telephone Wg Cdr Wilkerson to say that we hadn't lost one of his planes – just mislaid it. He didn't mind as it would come back again.
We returned to Burn by train next day.
Out aircraft returned to Burn a week later with new instruments, a few patches and a new engine.
So ended trip 19.
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A TRIP TO REMEMBER
Monday 11 September 1944 Lovely Summer Day
Aircraft: Halifax III, B-Baker, LW473
Briefing was at 1330hrs with take-off at 1555hrs which gave the crew just on two and a half hours to think about the target – the synthetic oil plant at Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr Valley.
A daylight trip down Happy Valley on a clear sunny evening was not a Sunday School outing.
The crew of B-Baker had additional reasons to be concerned. Their original mid-upper gunner having done thirty trips with them (his second tour) had departed. Another gunner, F Sgt Wilkinson, had been allocated to the crew for the last few trips of his tour, [underlined] and this would be his final trip [/underlined] He too was more than usually worried.
There were certain points in a crew's tour of operations that were regarded as particularly dangerous ('dicey' in the jargon of the day): The first trip together, the 13th, any trip on which an 'odd-bod’ ie not a regular crew member was carried, and the last trip either for the crew as a whole or any individual member. F Sgt Wilkinson had flown seven trips with our crew – and as this was our 37th operation we were nearing the end of our tour. I spoke quietly to the worried mid-upper saying, “We've simple GOT to get you back come hell or high water”. The combination of an odd-bod on his final trip, and down Happy Valley on a sunny afternoon was not cause for rejoicing.
Met briefing had promised a smooth flight there and back with clear skies, and good visibility in the target area.
On the climb out from base I engaged George, the automatic pilot. This was not my normal practice; the reasons now were firstly to be able to concentrate better on the large number of aircraft around (379 heading the same way) and also to try to be that much less tired when approaching the target area. All went according to plan with no undue worries until the turn-in for the last 10mins, the bombing run. Looking towards the target I commented, “Met have got it wrong again; there's a great black cloud over the target – and at our height”. A minute or so later I realised that the Met [underlined] hadn't [/underlined] got it wrong: the sky was cloudless. The 'black cloud' was in fact smoke from flak, so thick that it formed a dense block bracketing the height band of the bombers, (17-20,000ft).
Exploding shells twinkled within this black block.
I was now flying manually, virtually rubbing wingtips with lots of other aircraft, with more above and below. Piccadilly Circus at rush hour had nothing on this.
There was no alternative to flying straight through; as the course was good only minor changes were called by the bomb-aimer which could be accommodated in the press of aircraft. This was no run of the mill trip; at least in the dark one didn't [underlined] see [/underlined] the extent of the flak and rarely saw another aircraft. (What had we missed?).
This lot was not just scary – it was near terrifying; and in addition bombs were falling past from aircraft above.
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B-Baker ran in and bombed then kept a steady course until the camera had operated to film the bombs hitting the ground. This time was once described as 'akin to standing naked in Piccadilly – and you are NOT dreaming'. (The photos later showed the bombs straddling the aiming point).
Then GET OUT!! We were in a swirling circuit of aircraft trying to avoid collision and with the flak still in close attendance. As B-Baker set course away from the target a Halifax ahead and above rolled to port and dived vertically passing dead ahead at about 100yd. Reaction was instant - mouth dry, sweat bursting out on my face, fingers locked hard on the control column 'spectacles', almost physically sick into my oxygen mask. The bile rose into my mouth, to be forced down again (care to join in the taste?). The bomb-aimer reported that the tail of this aircraft broke off and also reported two other aircraft going down. Within all this activity I found myself worrying about getting the mid-upper safely home; of how ironic for him to be shot down on his last trip, and also asking myself what the hell I was doing three miles up in the sky being shot at when there were better jobs going – like Orderly Room Clerk.
Some ten minutes out of the target area there seemed to be more sky per aircraft and life was generally quieter.
A check round the crew revealed everyone still in place no-one hurt and no apparent damage; (this was found after landing). Temperatures returned to somewhere near normal the coffee flasks were opened and sampled, everyone thankful for some relief from the physical and mental effort (and also to allow me to wash my mouth and throat). It had been a long half-hour.
The rest of the homeward run was without incident. A very relieved crew landed at 2025hrs none more so than the mid-upper gunner. The rest of the crew now had something else to think about – the next two trips would entail carrying an 'odd-bod' as a gunner, and the second of those trips would probably be the final one of the tour.
Final notes: Bomber Command War Diaries (by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt) record, “5 Halifaxes of 4 Group and 2 Pathfinder Lancasters were lost. These losses were caused by flak or 'friendly' bombs”.
And every 578 Sqn aircraft on this raid was damaged by flak.
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[underlined] SABOTAGE ON 578 SQUADRON AT BURN [/underlined]
On the night of 24/25 July 1944 Halifax Lk”C” LL548 took off on its way to attack factories at Stuttgart. Earlier in the day the crew had given the aircraft a flight test and the very experienced crew captained by F/Sgt J Allen had given it a clean bill of health, including the oxygen supply and the distant reading (DR) compass.
On reaching 10,000ft oxygen masks were clipped on and the oxygen supply switched on. The Mid-Upper, nearing the end of his second tour, reported that he could feel no puff of oxygen as he had during the test flight. The Flight Engineer discovered that the oxygen tube supplying the M/U had been cut, but he was able to rig up an emergency supply from one of the crash positions. Unfortunately it would allow the gun-turret to turn only 180 degrees.
A little later the navigator asked the pilot to check his DR compass which did not agree with the Navigator's compass, and it was decided to ignore the DR compass (thus flying on the basic magnetic compass).
Finally nearing the target the Rear-gunner reported that his hydraulics system was out of action; thus the guns and turret could be moved only by hand.
They flew on to the target then back to Burn, to report all these matters at de-briefing. Next day they were informed that the M/U oxygen tube had been cut with something like an electrician's wire-cutter, the rear turret's hydraulic system had been loaded with iron filings as also had the DR compass. All this had been done while the flying crew and the ground crew had been eating a meal prior to take-off. From that date all ground crew were required to stay with the aircraft until take-off, and eat later.
There was no doubt whatever that “C-Charlie” had been deliberately and very skilfully sabotaged. The official supposition was that it was performed by someone coming from the road nearby (through a hawthorn hedge 8ft high and 4ft thick!).
But whoever it was had to know which aircraft were operating that evening, and when they would be unattended. They also needed a highly professional knowledge of the Halifax. The sabotage was designed to be undiscovered until late in the fight, [sic] while in the event of cancellation the evidence could be easily removed or repaired. The saboteur also needed solitary authorised access to the interior of the aircraft so that his presence would not be challenged.
Other problems met by this same crew on operations, in a cluster of three aircraft were:
9 May “D” Bombs failed to release 'due to electrical fault'
22 May “C” Bombs failed to release 'due to electrical fault'
24 June “B” Air position indicator U/S 'due to electrical fault' AND DR compass became U/S 'due to electrical fault'
10 Sept “B” Bomb-sight U/S at target 'due to electrical fault'
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If this person sabotaged one aircraft it [sic] likely that he did the same to other aircraft on the Squadron, sending them off track to be easily picked up by enemy radar, anti-aircraft batteries and night fighters, and with both turrets out of action unable to defend themselves.
A few days before the Stuttgart operation the Squadron had set off to attack a target at Bottrop (26 aircraft, 20/21 July). Six failed to return to Burn. Two collided in mid-air near Hull with the loss of all crew members, but the other four were lost over Europe, with the loss of 22 crew, the most disastrous episode in the history of the Squadron, while the total losses that night in Bomber Command were 7 Halifaxes (B.Cmd War Diaries, page 547). One has to consider seriously the possibility that the high losses on 578 that night were due to sabotage.
Colin Joseph Dudley
August 1994
ADELAIDE Sth Australia
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[underlined] Memories of 578 Squadron at Burn 1944 [/underlined]
Colin Dudley Flt Lt DFC Navigator
Among the luckiest days of my life is the day I met Jim Allen, my pilot through 39 operations over Europe trying to bring peace to our suffering nation by destroying Nazism and defeating their armies as quickly as possible.
He was also my pilot through Operational Training and Conversion Units which were quite as dangerous as ops over Europe.
Jim was not my first pilot. I had done an OTU and Conversion to Halifaxes with a crew that I regarded as the greatest. The pilot was an antique dealer, an old man 30 years of age, while the Bomb-Aimer was an Irish poet, Louis Chamberlain, and the others equally interesting. But on our final night exercise at Con. Unit I got lost. In my EFTS in South Africa I had emerged as top student. But navigation by map-reading in daylight in perfect weather in South Africa was vastly different from night-flying in British weather at 18,000 feet, using H2S, in which I had little confidence. I was also wearing an unfamiliar oxygen mask as my own had been taken in error that night. Whatever the reason, my navigation was a failure and the following day the C.O advised me to take further training, which I certainly felt in need of, and my place in the crew was taken by a spare navigator looking for a crew, while I was sent back to OTU to find a new crew. I was deeply depressed and disheartened.
Then I was introduced to Jim and his newly picked crew. We were all NCOs and all under twenty-one except an old chap of twenty-three, the Mid-Upper, who was forgiven this fault as he was entering on his second tour. Eventually after miraculous escapes from certain death we arrived at Burn and I, who had now done two OTUs and two Conversion Units, was probably the best-trained navigator in Bomber Command not yet on Ops. Furthermore, to my great relief I never had to use H2S again. The Gee-Box was my friend everfaithful, [sic] and my guiding star. It could not mistake one city for another, nor could it be homed onto by night-fighters as it was discovered H2S could be.
Thirty-nine ops later we all said goodbye to Burn without a single scratch on our persons, although I at least had my digestion ruined for years after by the combination of stress, irregular hours and an unremitting diet of fried bacon, sausages and eggs, Which reminds me of the incredible hilarity that marked our meals on returning to base. We would laugh our heads off for an hour before making way to our beds where we found it difficult to get to sleep for the sound of engines that continued to ring in our ears. It always took two hours after landing before we got to bed, as it also took two hours from briefing to take-off. The shortest sortie of four hours therefore always occupied us for eight hours, whilst the longest, of eight hours, kept us busy for twelve hours.
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The next that I heard of my old crew, piloted by Bill Hogg, was that they had gone missing (got lost?) on their first sortie, and later I heard that they were in a German prison camp. Quite remarkably, on VE Day, when like everyone else, I made my way to London and home, the first person I met on getting off the train at St. Pancras was my old rear gunner just having landed in England after two years of Nazi hospitality.
Jim was not only a brilliant pilot and a lucky one (better to be born lucky than rich), but he had, rather uniquely I imagine, begun is training for aircrew as a Navigator and he was very quick to check any of my courses and ETAs, (and there has never been a Navigator who hasn't made at least one modest error in his career, though I can't remember a particular instance, and I double-checked all my calculations). I on the other hand, had begun my training straight into Navigation, with my Observer's wings, and knew virtually nothing about piloting.
Jim was very 'highly-strung' and lived perpetually on a high level of adrenalin. He also felt very keenly his responsibility for the lives of his crew. The whole crew had absolute confidence in his skill, courage and intelligence, but some of the crew found his intensity hard to live with at times. But they couldn't ever fly with anyone else, although on one occasion they came to me to try to persuade Jim to ease up and relax a bit, (a lot!) which he very sensibly did.
Jim (or Al) has described his feelings in graphic detail when flying over the target, braving the flak and dodging other aircraft. But while all this excitement was going on, I in my curtained Navigator's corner was busy checking the Estimated Time of Arrival, entering details in my log and calculating the course out of the target area; and seeing nothing of the War in the Air.
The more Jim sank down in his seat hiding from the shrapnel the higher his voice rose and the faster his speech. The Flight Engineer also had a rather disturbing habit of suddenly shouting through the intercom at moments of high tension with some dire information about engines being on fire:- 'HEY, AL!' I therefore made it my business to speak very calmly and slowly into the intercom when instructing the pilot, as though I was lazing on the beach and sleepily commenting on the nice weather. I also used the correct procedure – “Navigator to Pilot”. I hoped thereby to cool the atmosphere. Of course it was easier for me to appear calm and relaxed or at least to sound like it, for over the target I could see nothing except a glimpse of flares and bewildering lights over the bomb-aimer's shoulder.
But although my voice may have sounded calm, my knees were shaking with at [sic] a tremendous rate and with great vigour while my hands were trembling so much that I could hardly write at all as I tried to record everything in my log and work on my chart. In fact one could always tell from my log when we had crossed the enemy coast because my
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3
writing immediately became a bit shaky until it became almost illegible over the target. Coming home, crossing the enemy coast the writing became neat and clear once more. As for the parachute, which was supposed to rest beside one, I always wore it clipped on my chest. The idea of trying to catch a parachute flying around the aircraft as we spun out of control with only one wing did not seem a very hopeful exercise.
On one occasion (our 37th op, 11 Sept) a daylight raid deep in Happy Valley, to Gelsenkirchen, Jim invited me to come up to stand beside the pilot's seat as we approached the target, which was clearly visible to the bomb-aimer from about 50 miles away. So Jim called me up saying, “You've never seen the flak, Joe. You've nothing to do just now. Come up and have a look”. So up I went. Unforgettable! All those black blobs suddenly appearing from nowhere like magic. All the aircraft around us, one suddenly diving out of control, – one or two parachutes blossoming into life.
Then, for some reason (a little bored perhaps!) I looked above me, and there about ten or fifteen feet above my head the sky was blocked out by a whole bomb-bay full of bombs, bomb-doors wide open. Our bomb-aimer was calling “Steady, Steady left, left, Steady”. I punched Jim on the shoulder and pointed upwards. He took one glance and immediately threw the old Halibag into a steep dive to port. The Bomb-aimer yelled “What the hell!” Jim levelled out and as we found an even keel the bombs above dropped past our starboard wing, it seemed within inches. A few seconds later the B/A called “Bombs gone”. Then the interminable wait, flying straight and level for the camera to do its stuff. As Jim has said, our photos showed our load straddling the target, so our friends above must have fallen short.
That was my only view of the outside world over a target, and it was according to Jim the most fearsome of our whole tour. But what made Jim call me up? And what made me look up at that moment? Another one, or two seconds at the most and we and the aircraft would have been obliterated by “friendly bombs”. Many of our Squadron came home with 'friendly holes', and one was certainly lost as photographs were to prove. All this was reported at our debriefing and passed on to HQ Bomber Command. But at our next briefing the CO read out a letter from the Boffins at HQ in which they stated that damage from from [sic] “friendly bombs” was 'mathematically impossible!' Actual words! Never to be forgotten. Amazed and bewildered merriment (?) from all present.
What our wingless boffins did not appreciate was that in daylight navigation is much easier and more accurate than at night, and that therefore far more aircraft arrive over the target on track and on time. Also the target is seen far ahead, to greater accuracy; and also that sheer fear, as with ground troops, tends to make men under fire bunch together.
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4
All this led to much closer concentration of aircraft over the target.
There was little that one could do about it except to keep an eye on what was going on overhead, and perhaps below, but Jim, being a sensible fellow kept our old Halibag on the outside edge of the herd of aircraft approaching the target in daylight, not only to avoid bombs from above, but also because he knew that the A/A guns would be shooting at the centre of the clearly visible mass of aircraft.
Although none of the crew suffered a single scratch in 39 ops, many of our colleagues died and our aircraft suffered damage, sometimes severe enough to require landing away from Burn. Such landings were quite pleasant for they required us to travel back to Burn by rail through London, where Jim and I both had fiancees working. A quick phone call, and when we all arrived at Waterloo, Liverpool Street or wherever – with no caps, collars or ties, to the chagrin of the Service Police – there we would find our lovely laughing girls running to meet us, rayon covered legs flashing down the platform. Very good for morale! One memorable landing was made at the “Secret” experimental base at Farnborough – by mistake! It was the 4th of July, returning from a daytime visit to a place called St Martin L'Hortier. We were flying above ten tenths cloud over Kent seeking a bomber-sized aerodrome. Our “Darkie”* call was answered by a 'drome south of London and we made our way there until I was able to give the pilot a Gee fix over the answering 'drome, a fix that would in this area have been within a quarter of a mile. Receiving instructions from Ground Control we descended through the thick low cloud to find the runway dead ahead. Still speaking to Ground Control Jim with his duff engine and smashed instrument panel landed safely, only to discover that we were not on the aerodrome with which he was communicating, but at a station which had no Emergency service therefore without knowledge of our existence, being an independent experimental station, until we suddenly arrived out of the low cloud and landed in front of the Control Tower! Meanwhile our 'Darkie' aerodrome about a mile away was wondering what on earth had happened to us. Being driven away from our crippled Halifax we were intrigued to see little fighters with no engines! Our first encounter with Jets. But there was no way our pilot coming out of low cloud with a smashed instrument panel and a duff engine, runway almost underneath him could have known it was an unmapped aerodrome only a mile or so from the one he was talking to. Farnborough would have had no identification letters, just as it would not be listening on the emergency frequency.
But to return to our fiancees in London. They of course were suffering the horrors of the V1 Flying bombs and the V2 rockets, both of them massive and terrifying. My own girl (whom I have known since childhood and to whom I have now been married for nearly fifty years) after nights in the air raid shelter would be travelling every day from her home in south-east London to her office in the City of London by overland train as crowded as any modern Japanese underground train, the train stopping as the roar of the V1s overhead cut their engines
* Bomber Cmd emergency call. Equivalent to today's “Mayday”
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and began their silent descent to blow as many people as possible to pieces. Flying out one night over Kent towards the V1 launching sites I once saw a little red light passing below us towards London, the back end of a V1 Flying Bomb, and felt great satisfaction in knowing that I was on my way to destroy their launching sites and storage depots.
Forty years later I watched and recorded a T.V. programme called “Wings of the Storm”, concerning the Australian contribution to Bomber Command, which was massive, immensely courageous and skillful, [sic] and I heard Air Marshal Don Bennett say that “Germany had 10,000, I repeat ten thousand! Flying Bombs to descend on London in one week! If Bomber Command had not gone to a little place called Watten in northern France and had not destroyed that entire stock in one night [underlined] we would have lost the war[/underlined]!” The terrible thing is that Australian aircrew in England were receiving white feathers from people in Australia who thought they should be in Australia, where there were no aircraft and no sign of a possible invasion. What would have happened to Australia if Hitler and his SS and Gestapo had defeated the Allies, as they very nearly did, may be left to the imagination.
Behind all the tragic drama of ops from Burn, a few human dramas:-
One of our crew, our Mid-Upper on his second tour, was having trouble with his girl in Scotland, a Scottish nurse. She couldn't make up her mind to marry. The rest of the crew were concerned that our colleague, very much in love, was not in a FIT STATE OF MIND to concentrate on finding night fighters, so we concocted a letter, I think I was asked to frame it, to his nurse telling her of the situation and asking her to do something about it and give us all a better chance of surviving. She did so, she said “Yes” and they both lived happily ever after, as did the rest of us.
Another member of the crew had decided to get married during the tour. He was a strict teetotaller and non-blasphemer. His strongest expletive was “Flipping”. Eventually our crew were given a few days leave and our friend went home to finalise arrangements for the wedding. Arriving back in camp on my return I found my hopeful bridegroom in the middle of the Sergeants Mess as pissed as a newt and cursing the whole world in the strongest possible language. I got him back to our billet and soon we were back over Germany and eventually I attended the wedding. It was only long afterwards that I learnt that on his leave my friend had discovered that his future father-in-law who had a respectable income and was to pay for the wedding, was quite penniless. In fact he had been keeping another family quite unknown to his own wife and family.
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6
All this was discovered when the future bride and groom went to pay for the wedding goodies that had been ordered. No wonder our mate got sloshed. But he said nothing and we went on to complete a long and successful tour, always bang on target and bang on time. Three of the crew commissioned and all gonged except for the poor Rear-Gunner, – the best gunner on the Squadron. Although he had picked out a number of night fighters he had never fired his guns as the enemy had never seen us. Perhaps they were homing on the other poor so-and-sos who were using H2S, the fighter pilots watching their radar instead of the night sky around them. On our last op however, which was low level to attack the German troop positions at Calais our pilot, Jim, flew back and forth below the level of the cliffs, (the Master Bomber having cancelled the bombing due to the very low cloud base) so that the gunners could fire at the searchlights and gun emplacements and anything else that looked nasty; and at least tell their grandchildren that they had attacked the enemy.
This final sortie to Calais was particularly difficult for me, for we flew out in heavy rain under clouds that became lower and lower until the pilot was able to check my watch by reading the time off the clock on Maidstone Town Hall! Halifaxes may have been reasonably waterproof on the ground, but at 180mph the rain drove through the bodywork as though it was wire netting and my chart table and log were soon under half an inch of water. Not the easiest way to navigate an “easy” op.
The attack on Le Havre on the 9th September was a disaster. The noise on the R/T was horrendous, but had to be suffered in case of recall. In fact as we approached the target the Master Bomber aborted the attack with the codeword 'Applepie' But as we turned away we heard him repeating “APPLEPIE, APPLEPIE” more and more desperately until finally he cried, “For God's sake stop bombing!” It would seem that Allied troops on the ground had moved forward unknowingly or unexpectedly, which must have resulted from a lack of co-ordination or communication somewhere, but it also meant that someone in the air was not hearing the Master Bomber's words either because they had switched off their R/T or perhaps they were on a different wavelength. According to the official record Mosquitoes and heavy bombers went out on the operation, but the bombing was aborted before the heavy bombers reached the target, which suggests that the Mosquitoes were the problem. Anyway our problem was to jettison some of the bombload. The problem there was that not only had had [sic] we navigators been given areas of the English Channel which were prohibited for such purposes that day, but all the way out the W/Op was passing me new co-ordinates extending the prohibited areas until only one square mile (a tiangle [sic] actually) was left. When the pilot asked me where to go to jettison I gave him a course for this little spot and eventually a very clear Gee fix over it. But below was ten tenths cloud, so Jim said, “I'm going down to have a look and make sure”. We came out of cloud at 1,300ft to cries of amazement! We were surrounded by warships all firing at us. A quick press on the bomb release and up we zoomed into the cloud, but not before some of the bombs exploded in the sea and bounced us around. Back at Burn everyone was closely questioned about what happened at the target and where bombs had been jettisoned.
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7
Our living accommodation on the Squadron was a Nissen hut remote from the central administration. Because of this remoteness, and perhaps because of orders from a wise Commanding Officer, our hut was never visited by an Orderly Officer nor by anyone else except the coke cart to fuel our stove in the centre of the hut. This situation suited me in particular for I have always been one of the untidiest people on Earth. As it happens I had taken up a couple of correspondence courses before arriving at Burn, but the books didn't catch up with me until I was on ops. Before enlisting for Aircrew I had been at art school with the aim of becoming an art teacher, though with some hope of becoming an architect. Therefore I had entered into a course on the History and Appreciation of Painting and another on History and Methods of Architecture. My bed-space, in the corner of the hut was strewn with books and papers, under the bed, on the bed, around the bed. My desk was the hut card-table propped up between the bed and the corrugated wall of the hut. I still have the essays on the development of Egyptian temples, Greek and Roman styles, and portrait painting as well as the books I used. One great advantage of being in the Armed Services for a student such as myself was that such correspondence courses were available free of charge and also we had access to all local libraries, even in South Africa. I was also freely able to attend evening classes in art schools where ever I happened to be.
But tragedy overtook my architectural ambitions. On my 21st birthday, which I celebrated on 13 April 1944 by going to a Sergeants Mess Dance (ruining a few WAAF stockings, and trying to drink my first Guiness [sic] – which was over-ripe and frothed all over the bar), my parents gave me a fine set of Architectural Drafting instruments in a hansome [sic] chamois leather case.
Although I had never had anything stolen in the RAF I decided to take my birthday present with me tucked into my battledress top during a bus trip to Pontefract. Returning to Burn I ran for the bus only to discover immediately that my case was missing; although I jumped off, ran back, searched madly, reported to the police and bus company I was never to see my beloved instruments again, and that was the end of my career as an architect. But as an art teacher I was never out of work and eventually became Head of a University Department.
At the end of the tour, all nervous wrecks, the whole crew felt the need for a long rest from each others company. On the other hand we did not want to fly with any other crews, so we voted to apply for an immediate second tour on Special Duties (spies, saboteurs and all that). But by September 1944 the Second Front was well on its way and spies weren't needed any more. So we were all sent off in different directions and never met all together again.
Colin Joseph Dudley (Joe)
August 1994
ADELAIDE Sth Austrilia
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Six chapters of wartime memories
Description
An account of the resource
A Short Personal View of a Bit of History (interview with Jim Allen)
'Based at Burn' Introduction by Jim Allen
One More Chalked Up
A Trip to Remember
Sabotage on 578 Squadron at Burn by Joe Dudley
Memories of 578 Squadron at Burn 1944 by Joe Dudley
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jim Allen
Joe Dudley
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Navy
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
France
France--Calais
Belgium
Germany
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Stuttgart
England--Yorkshire
France--Villers-Bocage (Calvados)
France--Neufchâtel-en-Bray
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
24 typewritten sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BAllenJHAllenJHv1
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1995-05
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
1944-06-30
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Roger Dunsford
4 Group
578 Squadron
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bomb struck
bombing
Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940)
faith
fear
Gee
H2S
Halifax
Halifax Mk 3
Heavy Conversion Unit
incendiary device
Master Bomber
military living conditions
military service conditions
Mosquito
navigator
Nissen hut
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
observer
Operational Training Unit
Pathfinders
prisoner of war
RAF Burn
RAF Farnborough
RAF Woodbridge
submarine
tactical support for Normandy troops
training
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1231/15136/LSmithWJ1141900v1.1.pdf
ddd0f90a01e8c4fff87ca9722048f791
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Smith, Walter John
W J Smith
Wally Smith
Description
An account of the resource
22 Items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant Walter John Smith (1141900, Royal Air Force) and contains his log book and photographs. He flew 51 operations as a flight engineer with 12 and 463 Squadrons.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Andy Smith and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Smith, WJ
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Walter John Smith’s navigator’s, air bomber’s and air gunner’s flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Navigator’s, air bomber’s and air gunner’s flying log book for Walter John Smith, flight engineer, covering the period from 22 April 1943 to 7 March 1945. Detailing his flying training and operations flown. He was stationed at RAF Lindholme, RAF Wickenby, RAF Winthorpe, RAF Syerston and RAF Waddington. Aircraft flown in were, Halifax, Lancaster and Stirling. He completed 31-night operations with 12 squadron and 20 operations with 463 squadron Royal Australian Air Force, 5 Daylight and 15 Night. Targets were, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Wuppertal, Bochum, Krefeld, Mulheim, Gelsenkirchen, Cologne, Turin, Hamburg, Mannheim, Milan, Peenemunde, Berlin, Nurnberg, Munchen-Gladbach, Munich, Hannover, Hagen, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Givors, Trossy St Maximim, Russelsheim, Stettin, Koenigsberg, Boulogne, Karlsruhe, Wilhelmshaven, Nuremburg, Harburg, Dortmund Ems canal, Urft Dam, Politz, Houffalize and Siegen. His pilots on operations were Flying Officer Wright, Wing Commander Craven and Squadron Leader Radford.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LSmithWJ1141900v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Belgium
France
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
Poland
Russia (Federation)
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Belgium--Houffalize
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Yorkshire
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
France--Creil
France--Givors
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Dortmund-Ems Canal
Germany--Euskirchen Region
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Hagen (Arnsberg)
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Harburg (Landkreis)
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Krefeld
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Mönchengladbach
Germany--Mülheim an der Ruhr
Germany--Munich
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Peenemünde
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Germany--Siegen
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Germany--Wuppertal
Italy--Milan
Italy--Turin
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
Poland--Szczecin
Russia (Federation)--Kaliningrad (Kaliningradskai︠a︡ oblastʹ)
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Urft Dam
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
1943-05-23
1943-05-24
1943-05-25
1943-05-29
1943-05-30
1943-06-11
1943-06-12
1943-06-13
1943-06-21
1943-06-22
1943-06-23
1943-06-24
1943-06-25
1943-06-26
1943-06-28
1943-06-29
1943-07-03
1943-07-04
1943-07-08
1943-07-09
1943-07-10
1943-07-12
1943-07-13
1943-07-24
1943-07-25
1943-07-27
1943-07-28
1943-07-29
1943-07-30
1943-08-09
1943-08-10
1943-08-12
1943-08-13
1943-08-17
1943-08-18
1943-08-23
1943-08-24
1943-08-27
1943-08-28
1943-08-30
1943-08-31
1943-09-01
1943-09-03
1943-09-04
1943-09-05
1943-09-06
1943-09-07
1943-09-27
1943-09-28
1943-09-29
1943-09-30
1943-10-01
1943-10-02
1943-10-03
1943-10-04
1943-10-05
1944-07-24
1944-07-25
1944-07-26
1944-07-27
1944-07-28
1944-07-29
1944-07-31
1944-08-03
1944-08-12
1944-08-13
1944-08-17
1944-08-18
1944-08-29
1944-08-30
1944-09-03
1944-09-26
1944-10-05
1944-10-20
1944-10-21
1944-11-11
1944-11-12
1944-11-21
1944-11-22
1944-12-08
1944-12-21
1944-12-22
1945-01-05
1945-01-13
1945-01-14
1945-02-01
1945-02-07
1945-02-08
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
12 Squadron
1656 HCU
1661 HCU
27 OTU
463 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
bombing of Hamburg (24-31 July 1943)
Bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943)
Bombing of Trossy St Maximin (3 August 1944)
flight engineer
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operational Training Unit
RAF Lichfield
RAF Lindholme
RAF Syerston
RAF Waddington
RAF Wickenby
RAF Winthorpe
Stirling
training
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1039/11411/AMulhallJE160823.1.mp3
673bbe19930c11fe8fca198bcc140a3e
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Title
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Mulhall, James
James Edward Mulhall
J E Mulhall
Description
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Two oral history interviews with James Mulhall (b. 1924, 224223 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a flight engineer with 75 Squadron before becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-08-23
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Mulhall, JE
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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JM1: This interview is being conducted for the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is Julian Maslin. The interviewee is James Mulhall. The interview is taking place at Mr Mulhall’s home in Heaton Chapel, Stockport on the 25th of August 2016. Jim, could you tell us a little bit about your life before you joined the RAF and what it was that motivated you to enlist?
JM2: The main thing I should imagine, I was born in Gorton, at 151 Hyde Road, which was my grandmother’s house and subsequent schooling was at Catholic schools, the last one being St Roberts in Longsight. I, er, was tending towards mechanical things at a fairly early age but I was apprenticed as a plumber to a man called Frank Butler for some years before the Blitz became something of a nuisance in Manchester. So, it was while I was in — my sister and mother used to nip down to the Anderson shelter in the garden but I was too lazy to do this and used to stay in bed, until a bomb dropped nearby which decapitated a man in the next street and forced me under the bed, and I didn’t like this idea at all, so I decided when the time was ripe I’d join the Air Force and get a little bit of my own back. So, er, this is how it transpired I became an Air Force [slight cough] member. The — I was inaugurated at Dover Street in Manchester, went to Padgate for initial training, was sent to Skegness for the usual square bashing and then on from there to St Athan to train as a mechanic, and from there back to Henlow to assemble hurricanes as a mechanic. They came over from Canada in boxes and we put them together, put the wings on and flew them off to squadrons. From there on I decided — well, I was able to go into aircrew and I went back to St Athan to train as a flight engineer and that began the system that we’re talking about now.
JM1: Thank you and what year was that please?
JM2: 1942. In November I joined up and I left in February 1946.
JM1: Right. From St Athan did you go straight to an Operational Training Unit?
JM2: We went to, er, RAF Stradishall to con on Stirlings because I was trained on Stirlings. Spent thirteen weeks, believe it or not, in learning every nook and cranny of this aircraft which was a horrible, awful airplane from my point of view, all electrical and a real nuisance to get about because of this. It had four radial engines, twin row, fourteen cylinder, sleeve-valve, air-cooled engines which are a nightmare to maintain. However, while, whilst doing Con Unit we got the opportunity or were offered to change to Lancasters which we did to a place called Feltwell. And while everybody else’s job was the same, mine was totally different. I had four liquid cooled, twelve cylinder, in line engines to cope with as well as completely diff— different systems of doughty and pressure volumes for the various systems in the aircraft. I got a fortnight to do this and I didn’t enjoy it at all I must admit so presumably I learnt as I went along in Con Unit more or less and got away with it fortunately.
JM1: When you were operating Lancasters did you work closely with the ground engineers?
JM2: That was my job entirely [emphasis]. The rest of the crew weren’t interested in the aeroplane as a mechanical object. All they were interested in really was in flying in it. But my liaison with the ground crew was uppermost in this system because I had to go to every morning, well at least after every operation, after I had a sleep to go and run the engines and get the aircraft ready for flight either that afternoon or evening and sign the 700, which I might point out was always the pilot’s duty in the years before, but when it came to four-engine aircraft and the flight engineer being trained to look after these systems he [emphasis] had to sign the 700, which for a nineteen-year-old was quite a, a thing to do because it hands the aircraft over to me, away from the ground crew. They then relinquish all [slight cough] responsibility for it so, yes, I had a great deal to do with the ground crew.
JM1: And when you were posted to 75 Squadron — I’ll go back a bit. When you crewed up with your crew how was that done please?
JM2: [laugh] In the most ambiguous way you can imagine. The crew had been working together as a crew, six members, flying Wimpys, Vickers Wellingtons, and so were well acquainted with one another over a period of two or three months I would imagine. Then one evening, when we’d passed out as engineers, they assembled all these crews that they intended to crew up with the engineers into the theatre at St Athan, which was quite a massive affair, and when they were all seated nattering to themselves us crews were ushered in and said, ‘Go and find yourself a crew.’ [laugh] We were flabbergasted there’s no doubt about it. Literally we were faced with all these pancake faces who we didn’t know from Adam and had to sort ourselves out and I finished up by going up to one chap I fancied the look of and I said, ‘Do you fancy me as an engineer?’ And he turned out to be Hugh Rees and he said, ‘Certainly. What’s your name?’ I said, ‘James Mul—’ ‘No.’ He said, ‘What’s your name?’ ‘Oh.’ I said, ‘Jim’. He said, ‘Well, I’m Hugh, this is Westie and this is Rees [?].’ And that’s how we went from there on in and it worked.
JM1: That’s remarkable isn’t it?
JM2: It surprised me I must admit.
JM1: It must have been difficult for you in that, in that atmosphere. It must have been very stressful.
JM2: I was very much the new boy with the cloak of fear, as you might say, surrounding the whole thing, yeah.
JM1: And were you then posted to 75 Squadron?
JM2: No. We had to con from there on in. We went to Stradashall to start flying Stirlings. All of us being strangers to that aeroplane and it was whilst we were there that the offer came. Well, more or less it came nearly as an order to tra— because of the losses in Bomber Command on Lancasters, which had a, a height minimum of five foot six before and I was five foot five and a half and others were small, as small as me, particularly the gunners, and, er, from there on in we transferred to Lancasters at a place called Feltwell and, as I’ve already said, that was the initial inauguration with the aeroplane and we had to come to terms with it from there on in.
JM1: But the posting to the squadron was something that you didn’t have any choice about. You, you were posted to 75?
JM2: No. We didn’t have any choice from that, no. We were posted as a crew to 75 Squadron.
JM1: And of course 75 was unusual because it was a New Zealand Squadron.
JM2: It was but there was a pretty scarcity of New Zealanders on the base, whether from losses or otherwise, I wouldn’t know. We had one New Zealander, New Zealander in our crew, and that was Westie, the bomb aimer. Westie his name was. A pretty ferocious character in his way and he wouldn’t mind me saying this but, er, he was always looking for trouble [laugh]. I never got on with him really because as he was on Stirlings he was second pilot on the Stirling where I was posted way, halfway, down the fuselage with all my gear as the flight engineer, but when we conned on Lancasters I [emphasis] became the second pilot and, unfortunately, Westie was dismissed into the bomb pit and he never got over this, so if he could drop me in the fertiliser he would do [laugh] and on some occasions did.
JM1: In what way?
JM2: Well, we came home one night and it was nearly dark and I was always last out the aeroplane. I had a lot of breakers and stuff to do and gather things up and I was always last out the aeroplane. As everybody else got out as quickly as they could, you know, to breathe the fresh air from the confines of the aeroplane and, er, when I came to get out of the rear door there’s no ladder. There used to be a little short ladder there and it’s about five, six foot to the ground and I said, ‘Where’s the ladder? Well, I don’t know. It must have fell out.’ Colloquial language to that effect and I didn’t get any reply from the darkness and I thought, ‘Somebody’s playing up or what. Come on.’ Anyway, I thought, ‘Oh, never mind.’ And I threw my bag out to one side so I wouldn’t drop on it when I jumped out. Decided to make the jump in the darkness, completely black, and I did so and landed in the largest puddle you’d ever seen in your life, to roars of laughter from everybody roundabout. So that’s one of the instances where Westie set me up and there were others of course along the way.
JM1: Did you get your own back?
JM2: Eventually. Unhappily [laugh] but anyway that’s another story.
JM1: OK. So once you were posted to 75 Squadron. That was at Mepal?
JM2: Meth— Mepal.
JM1: Mepal. Mepal. Could you tell us what it was like serving at Mepal in Cambridgeshire? What sort of a, a base was it?
JM2: It was a bit rough and ready. It’s, er, it was a satellite drome. Witchford was next door and Waterbeach was about ten or fifteen miles away. It was the parent aerodrome at that time. It was a bit uncomfortable in its way. The food was alright but the Nissan huts we were put, billeted in had no heating. We had a little potbellied stove which we used to steal coke to try and get warm and we used to steal it from the cookhouse, which we weren’t very popular with, er, but warmth was always at a premium on the base particularly in the later months, October and November, but the villagers were very good and fortunately I struck up an acquaintance with one of a girls in the village, so that made life a lot more pleasant [laugh] at 75.
JM1: Was it one crew per Nissan hut or more than one crew per Nissan hut?
JM2: We had two and sometimes spare bodies but there was no more than two full crews in a Nissan hut.
JM1: And did you ever have occasions where you had returned but the other crew were lost?
JM2: Unfortunately, yes, on many occasions when they came round, the SPs, Special Police, came round bundling up the kit into bags and emptying the lockers, and we knew then that, er, not only were they missing but they weren’t expected to come back.
JM1: How did you cope with that as a crew and as an individual?
JM2: We were all very young, you see, and you, you tend to adapt. I was only nineteen and I don’t think anybody was older than about twenty-two or twenty-three. In fact, the skipper was a month younger than I was. Fancy being in command of a Lancaster at nineteen years of age. Hugh Rees was his name. In fact, my son-in-law is in contact with his son at this particular time, yeah. So, er, you cope with it. Its empty tables around the mess for, for meals. Empty seats was another thing you learnt to cope with, so — but as I say being young you just adapted. You were thankful to survive.
JM1: Can we turn now to your operations? Could you tell us a bit about your first operation? How you felt and what happened?
JM2: [slight laugh] It was, er, a daylight raid to the U-Boat pens at St Nazaire and as we were under radar, flying at under two thousand feet, and only climbing to the operational height of ten thousand as we approached the target. As we were the third wave in we were startled to see the sky literally black with ak-ak puff smokes and as a green crew this, er, didn’t look very pleasant to us at all but we were to learn of course that these weren’t the things which we were to worry about. It was the ones that we didn’t see that we had to worry about. However, we got through the, the business of dropping the load on the U-Boat pens, notwithstanding seeing a flamer on the left and a flamer on the right, going down both the port and starboard sides, which wasn’t encouraging. However, we got through it and the frightening period [unclear]. We were never ever that frightened again, I don’t think, in targets unless we were coned over search— over on the run in to Rüsselsheim we were coned by searchlights and that was a pretty scary time because we were blinded by the searchlights. We couldn’t see a thing, ducking and weaving and we managed to outfly them with little damage. That was another scary raid but most of them were just enduring the cold and getting through the operation as safely as possible.
JM1: So, when you came back from that first trip to St Nazaire, how long did you have before you had your second operation?
JM2: Oh, I can’t remember that. I think it was about three or four days. The battle order used to be posted up on the, on the mess door, and that was always the thing we looked at first when we got up in the morning before breakfast. Check the battle order, see if you were on it and, er, that’s four or five days I think. Let us settle down before they flung us in again.
JM1: If you, if you were flying that night, if you were on operations, your day would start quite early as the flight engineer presumably, helping getting everything ready?
JM2: Yeah, yeah. Even if I weren’t on battle order I’d still be going up to flights to check the aircraft and see if anything needed rectifying in, in the meantime even if we weren’t. I can only remember two occasions when we weren’t on the battle order, to be quite candid. So, er, we pulled our weight I think.
JM1: I’m sure you did. How many of your operations were daylight operations?
JM2: Oh, I can’t remember that now.
JM1: Roughly.
JM2: I’d say about ten. Nine or ten operations were in daylight, yeah.
JM1: And when you first started to operate at night did that give you as an engineer extra problems in terms of reading the gauges and controlling the engines and the fuel?
JM2: Well, I had to make a log out every twenty minutes and so I had to use a shaded torch to do this. I might have taken my gloves off incidentally which was a dangerous practice. We all had three sets off gloves, silk, cotton and leather and these we kept on all the time until I had to make log out when I had to take the gauntlet and the, er, cotton gloves off so that I could write my log out easily with a pencil and the shaded light. But there was a danger in this, in-as-much-as, the outside temperature of the aircraft round about twenty-two thousand, twenty-four thousand feet was often minus forty degrees, and this meant that the skin of the aircraft and metal things inside it was a similar thing, and if you happened to not use our gloves — and Tee Emm used to report this often enough — and reach for the tank cocks in a rush realising you should have changed cocks before. If you got hold of those with your bare hands that’s where you stayed because the sweat on your hands froze, your fingers, to any metal you touched near the skin of the aircraft. So, I was always careful to keep my gloves on obvious. But some engineers wouldn’t write with cotton gloves on and there were a number of occasions when this happened and was reported in the aircrew magazine of Tee Emm, pointing out the dangers of not doing this.
JM1: So, Tee Emm was an official document or an unofficial?
JM2: It was an official document, a magazine, circulated to aircrew. [laugh] The editor being Pilot Officer Prune who was always subject to these kind of things, yeah.
JM1: And for the record I think it was TEE EMM, wasn’t it? TEE EMM.
JM2: Yes, TEE EMM.
JM1: Thank you. And, in order to do your duties when the aircraft was flying, you wouldn’t be keeping still, you’d be walking up and down the side of the cockpit to the various controls?
JM2: I had a little collapsible seat, which I used I could, but most of the time because I had to reach behind for tank cocks and checking gauges the engineer’s panel was behind the seat on the star— on the starboard side of the aircraft. So it was a nuisance to keep getting up out of the seat. I used to stand most of the time and just lean down with my shaded torch, and flash it slightly, and the luminosity from the gauges would tell me what was going on.
JM1: Did you have any occasions where your aircraft had to return because of mechanical problems so you didn’t complete a sortie?
JM2: No. But we had one occasion I once lost an engine entirely in a Stirling but that’s a different story. The — I once had a CSU go geodetic, which meant that I couldn’t change the pitch, the revs, of the engine concerned, which was the starboard outer, and I reported this. We would take-off roughly at three thousand thousand RPM plus four boost, and we can maintain that for up to nine minutes, but then we have to reduce the revs to take the wear out of the engine, and this was my job to reduce it to climbing power once we’d reached the required height, but I couldn’t shut down the rev counter. I said, ‘This is going to make the engine overtired in its way and become a danger to the aeroplane and I suggest that we return.’ So the pilot said, ‘What can you do about this?’ And I said, ‘Nothing really. I can’t. It’s gone geodetic at the engine end and I can’t pull the lever back so I can’t reduce the revs.’ I said, ‘All I can do is try to keep it cool with a little bit of boost now and then and just hope it doesn’t exceed the limits of heat that it can stand. Because if it does it will cease and the prop will fly off and it will probably come in our direction if this occurs. It might even shake itself out of the bearings. I don’t know. I’ve never had a ceased up engine. I’ve never had a runaway before.’ So he said, ‘Well do the best you can. We’ll press on.’ I thought, ‘This was a rash decision in my opinion but there’s nothing I can do. He’s the captain of the aircraft.’ Fortunately, within half an hour we had an abort. The raid was called off, so we were able to run back to the aerodrome with an emergency and land with the aircraft running at full revs. That engine run for an hour and half at full revs and never missed a beat. Congratulations Rolls Royce. It was changed of course but, er, incredible really for an engine of that size.
JM1: Jim, Jim could I ask you to explain what you mean the word “boost” for those listening?
JM2: Oh, this is a question of pumping more fuel into the cylinders to improve the volume metric efficiency of the engine at that time. Plus four gives us the best we can do. Plus two is what we usually fly at. Our normal air speed is a hundred and eighty, hundred and ninety knots and it depends on height really how much you can boost but plus two is normal at two thousand two hundred revs.
JM1: Your memory, your memory for operating the Lancaster is remarkable.
JM2: Sometimes, in the dark hours [slight laugh], it seems like yesterday.
JM1: Jim, could you tell us a little bit about the atmosphere in the aeroplane when you were operating at night over Germany or enemy occupied Europe. What was it like there?
JM2: Its — you have to remember that there’s literally hundreds of aircraft converging on one target and the risk of collision at night is very, very high and this is one of the things that I think we feared most. In fact, on one occasion, we had on the bomb run, we had six incendiaries from another aeroplane hit our aeroplane because they were above us at a height they shouldn’t have been at, presumably to escape the — most of the flak, which was at operational height, and those incendiaries only failed to ignite because the pins were frozen in. They have a — it’s, about two foot long but hexagonal in shape and the igniter pin sticks out at the side but they’re held in by straps when they’re carried in the canisters that were in the aeroplane, but when they‘re released this little pin springs out so that when they hit the ground the detonator will go off and the magnesium will flare, but because they were frozen in they didn’t ignite when they hit our aircraft. So that was — we, I fished one out from underneath the navigator’s table. One of them knocked my engineer’s pile [?] down on the starboard side and one finished up on the platform of the mid upper gunner’s position. None of them ignited but three others were found by the ground crew piercing each wing and where the tail — the rudder stands up and the tail plane is horizontal — right in that nick there was another incendiary buried in that nick. Why, why the rudder didn’t come off I don’t know [laugh] but that, that was a case of being very close to another aeroplane at night. It was a fear most of us carried I think, collision at night. In fact, er, there’s one instance of we actually saw another plane below us because of the fires on the target. What he was doing down there I don’t know but he was below us. Fortunately he was to one side. But we could see him he was silhouetted against the flare of the fires and we were on the bomb run. What he was doing there I don’t know. I hope he got away with it. Most of it was radio silence because you had to keep intercom clear for emergencies.
JM1: I was just going to ask about that and how did you address one another? Was it pilot to flight engineer or was it first names?
JM2: No, it was always by the designation: pilot, engineer, bomb aimer, mid upper, wireless op, whatever, to make it clear who you were talking to and who was talking to you.
JM1: Yes. Did you have any, um, attacks from night fighters during your operational tour?
JM2: Curiously enough we were flying — when we went to Stettin, we overflew Denmark and Norway and our mid upper who was forty-two years old and well above the age for flying — he should — flying’s limited to people of thirty-five years. How he got away with that I don’t know. He must have been [unclear] somewhere. He had the finest eyesight I ever came across and while we were going over Norway he happened to see a flare path and we what? We were round about ten thousand feet I think. We weren’t too high. And these neutral countries used to fire flak up towards us but always well away from us, never with any no intention of shooting us down, but a token resistance as it were. And he happened to see a flare path at that distance and an aircraft with its nav lights on, going along that flare path, and he warned the skipper of this and he actually, he kept its nav lights on for quite some while, in fact until it was about a thousand feet below us when it switched off. It was obviously being vectored onto us and we watched it rise up along the side of us until our mid upper said to the rear gunner, Charlie, not rear gunner, but Charlie, ‘Let me have the first squirt at it.’ [slight laugh] And it actually rose alongside us about a hundred yards away with the pilot obviously looking upwards to look for our exhaust flames. We’d got eight blue exhaust flames going underneath the aircraft wing which were easily seen at night, particularly from underneath, and he must have been looking for those and not either side of himself. And both gunners had a, what they called, a squirt at it and it fell away but they didn’t, they only claimed a probable. We didn’t know what happen to it but it certainly fell away.
JM1: Had you ever discuss as a crew whether you would [emphasis] open fire because I know some gunners decided not to because they were afraid of drawing attention to themselves?
JM2: Well, funnily enough, we got some tracer coming towards us when we were getting close to the target and we didn’t know what, where it was coming from, but it passed underneath us. But the following day the ground crew dug a 303 bullet out of the tail wheel rims, so it was obviously a friendly aircraft. And the tail wheel had the double rims on it to stop it shimmying and it was that thickness of rubber that caught the, the bullet and they were able to dig it out and prove that it was a 303. So it was a friendly aircraft that had a go at us for some reason.
JM1: How about the weather that you experienced on operations?
JM2: This was always a problem. You’ll get ten tenths cloud over the target. Yeah, tell that to the marines. It was obviously ten tenths all the way, you know. There’s another thing flying in cloud that used to be unnerving to say the least, even in daylight, because you never know — people — we had a direction compass on but you never know when there’s a fault and an aircraft will drift in your path, yeah. In fact, often enough, you would hit the slip stream of an aircraft in front of you and you’d would drop easily four, six hundred feet like a brick because you’ve got no airflow over your wings with the turbulent air that you met in the slip stream, and that used to pin me against the roof of the canopy in no uncertain terms so, er, apart from the cursing [?] we got used to it.
JM1: [slight laugh] Did you ever have to land in very bad conditions?
JM2: Only once. We were diverted by fog to a fighter aerodrome. I forget what — North Weald I think it was — however, the short runway meant that it was a bit of a hairy do to get, to get it down on a short runway which our skipper was pretty good at and made a good job of it. Unfortunately, their ground crew did not know anything about Lancasters, so it fell to me to climb up the following morning, up into the cells. In each cell there’s a little calor gas pump which you have to prime the engine with before you try and start it, and in full flying gear I had to climb up on the main wheel and operate these things, using the bomb aimer as communication between me and the cockpit, and the ground crew with a starter [unclear] and that was a real sweaty job believe me. Up in the confines pumping this calor gas until we got the engines started. I think that was another time when Westie dropped me in it, maybe did it twice. So I had to do that in both the cells and I was sweating like a pig when I got back into the aircraft. But that was the only problem with landing in a different aerodrome, the short runway and having to do the mechanics myself, yeah.
JM1: As, as the tour progressed did, did you feel that you were more or less likely to complete the tour?
JM2: I don’t think we, I don’t think we thought about it really until the last four. When, when we’d done the thirty we thought, what shall I say? We, we were testing fate there a bit. We were pushing the boat out a bit but we were determined to finish as a crew so we, we carried on with the odd four but as I say which turned out to be a fatal decision.
JM1: Because members of the crew had not been able to do all the flights in sequence. One or two were injured or sick?
JM2: That’s right. As I said before our bomb — our, er, wireless operator picked up some shrapnel over the Walcheren Islands and he was in hospital at the time and we had the signals leader with us. It was his one hundredth operation and you can imagine his mind, mind when he had to bail out at that time, [slight cough] notwithstanding the fact we all had to do.
Jm1: Will you tell us about that last operation please?
Jm2: It’s, er — we were due to pick up which was known as a yellow tail, which had special Oboe equipment for, er, target finding, and this was supposed to be done over Lincoln. We were supposed to be number two in a vic of three with any loose aeroplanes fitting the box afterwards. The box formation was for fighter defence [slight cough] primarily but unfortunately we didn’t pick up a yellow tail over Lincoln and we had to settle for going in the box, which was unpleasant place to be really, and we continued to target in this way until on the run in to target we got [slight cough] caught by what was known as predictive flak. This is four guns controlled by radar, which fired a burst of four shells, and if we’d been able to manoeuvre it was fairly easy to avoid but because we weren’t able to manoeuvre — it’s usually about seven to nine seconds between bursts so if the first burst missed you you’ve got this moment in time to change the aircraft latitude, speed or location so that the next burst doesn’t find you where you should be. So, you get used to this system and its fairly easy to devoid, to avoid predictive flak, but we were stuck in the box and not able to move and it slowly crept up, as reported by the rear gunner, getting close and closer, until one shell went through the back of the aircraft, without exploding, fortunately enough, but took away the bunch of controls that lead to the rudders and elevators and part of the tail plane and made the aircraft virtually uncontrollable. At this point they were — it was decided with the damage so obvious that to turn away out of the stream and, er, as the bomb doors were still closed, the bomb aimer did — went through his jettison programme but it doesn’t matter because until the bomb doors are fully open the bomb aimer’s gear will not work for obvious reasons. If he dropped them with the doors closed it would tear the bottom of the aircraft out [slight cough]. So, it was my job to open the bomb doors and jettison the bomb because Westie already gone. He didn’t hang about. He’d gone.
Jm1: Went out through the front hatch?
JM2: Yes. He jettisoned the hatch and went out there and I went behind the pilot’s seat where my parachute was. We had clip-on parachutes. The, the skipper had a sit on parachute. He had a base parachute and he sits on his. So, as I went to get it out of the rack the, er, the navigator and the wireless operator went past me and out through the hatch and I [unclear] harness pin and I went through the hatch as well. And the skipper had apparently had — I met him later on in Dulag Luft, near Frankfurt, in — his fingernails were all torn where he was — the aircraft went into a vicious spin as soon as he let out the ailerons. That was the only control he had, was ailerons, and he went out through the top hatch but he had quite a struggle against the slip stream because it was pinning him to the fuselage with the increased speed. He must have been doing well over two hundred miles an hour, two-fifty miles an hour when he was trying to get out the hatch, which we didn’t have because we went out through the bottom hatch.
JM1: And the gunners went through the rear door didn’t they?
Jm2: Indeed. In fact, I heard them both say, ‘Rear gunner leaving.’ And, ‘Mid upper leaving.’ But funnily enough the mid upper, the, the rear gunner has no memory of leaving and wasn’t completely conscious until about 5 o’clock that night and yet I clearly heard him say, ‘Rear gunner leaving.’
JM1: And what height were you when you bailed out?
Jm2: We were twenty-two thousand [unclear] and I’d say we were between eighteen and twenty thousand or something like. It didn’t take very long.
JM1: No. When you came down tell us what happened when you landed please.
Jm2: I got my rigging lines a little bit crossed and I was trying to untangle the rigging lines and did so, managed to do so, and then I blacked out through lack of oxygen, lack of oxygen. I’d been without the oxygen for quite some time in the manoeuvring inside the aeroplane and I just blacked out through lack of oxygen and I didn’t come to until, oh, about four thousand, three thousand feet or so from the ground and I hit rather hard on a bunch of rubble and the Wehrmacht was waiting for me as a reception committee and I was a bit knocked about a bit and I came too really being frog-marched into a police station in Niebruch [?] and stuffed into an underground cell there.
JM1: Were the other members of your crew there?
JM2: No, on my own. We were widely separated because of the difference in bailing out.
Jm1: Right.
Jm2: [clears throat] I don’t know where the others landed although I must have been told when we met at up Dulag Luft. I can’t remember now.
JM1: How were you treated by the Wehrmacht?
JM2: The, er, the ordinary soldiers I think, I think they were a blessing in disguise because they kept the civilians away from us who were naturally a bit unchuffed about all this business. And, er, but I was put in a cell. They took my flying boots off me and put me in this bare board cell which was underground and, er, I didn’t have anything to eat for, er, quite some while. The following day the, er, sergeant of the police elected to interrogate me, by the simple means of sitting me in front of him at his desk, un-holstering his luger, sliding the [clears throat] breech back, pushing the safety catch off and pointing the barrel at me as he laid it on his desk, which felt a bit uncomfortable because I’ve fired a luger and know how hair trigger they are. So with him speaking German and me speaking English we didn’t get very far I must admit so we gave it up as a bad job and I went back in the cell. But, er, the following night I was moved from there to a Luftwaffe aerodrome on the back of a lorry and in the darkness [laugh] a voice said, ‘Have you got a fag, mate.’ Which I didn’t. The soldiers that picked me up took my wristwatch off me and pinched my cigarettes. I had a pack of cigarettes. They took the cigarettes out and put the cigarette case back in my pocket, surprisingly, but they pinched my cigarettes. I said, ‘No, I haven’t mate, sorry.’ But it turned out to be a Canadian gunner who’d gone down presumably nearby in the same raid. I said, ‘No I haven’t mate. I’m sorry.’ Anyway after a short journey through the all the rubble in the city. [unclear] used to clear a road through cities just to get transport through and they put me in this Luftwaffe transport base in a cell in, er, this ready room and whilst I was in there — I hadn’t had anything to eat for two days by then or drink — and one of the, er, Luftwaffe members, one of the ground crew saw me eyeing up his meal, er, two slices of bread and butter with molasses in. He saw me eyeing this up and he came over and give me [clears throat] half of it and this turned me really. It was the only kindness I ever saw off a German throughout me — in fact, it made me quite emotional, as I am now. He gave half his lunch to an enemy you might say, mm.
JM1: That’s quite something isn’t it?
JM2: It was for me, mm.
JM1: Yes and from there you went to Dulag Luft?
JM2: Yes. Frankfurt am Main for interrogation, er, ten days isolation, solitary confinement, in a ten by eight foot cell, which had a little window barred up, high up, and the only communication was a lever you had inside the inside wall which, when you turned it, dropped a signal out on the outside in the corridor to let the guard know that you wanted to come out for some reason or other. That’s the only communication you had with the outside world for ten days, apart from meals that were brought to you.
JM1: And you were interrogated again at Dulag Luft?
Jm2: Yeah. [slight laugh] The — I think there was a bit of smartness there because the — while I was being interrogated, the usual rank, name and number, and trying invoke information off you which I didn’t have much of any way. I didn’t have much to tell but what there was wasn’t worth telling so I didn’t bother. But during this, imagine I’m quite scruffy and dirty and unshaven and they brought in a young woman, a stenographer of some kind, to jot down the answers, all glammed up to the eyebrows, to make me feel as uncomfortable as possible, which it certainly did. [laugh] I felt a real scruffy object in front of this glamorous female. Yeah, a bit of psychological warfare there.
JM1: I, I’ve read that sometimes the interviewers, the interrogators, knew more about the squadron than you did. Did you get that?
JM2: They did. They told me who my flight was and who my flight commander was. Another psychological trick I would imagine but I was aware enough by then. I’d had a few meals and I didn’t respond to it. There’s no point. If you respond to it they pump you harder. You were told about this. The more you give away, the more they pump you, so you keep your mouth shut.
JM1: And where did you go from Dulag Luft please?
JM2: Stalag Luft VII in Upper Silesia, Poland. Quite chilly and that. It was December by then.
JM1: This was December 1944?
JM2: Yes.
JM1: Yes and what was it like in that camp?
JM2: A bit rough and ready. Food was the real problem. Food was always the main topic t of conversation in captivity because you never got enough of it and what the Germans doled out was pretty rough. Their sauerkraut was — I wouldn’t have give it to a dog but we’d have it. We ate it in most cases. We had what was known as pea soup and we used to separate the peas, and inside each pea there used to be a little tiny beetle, and we used to split the pea open and open the people [?] and get a little row of tiny beetles and we would save them while we scoffed the peas. Believe me this is quite true.
JM1: I believe you.
JM2: It’s hardly credible from a civilian point of view but beetle soup it became known as, yeah. Hunger was always the problem.
JM1: And Red Cross parcels?
JM2: Infrequent and, er, often we had to share one parcel between four or two and not, not, not — very few of them. In fact, there’s a record of them in here that, er, of the people who kept diaries. David’s done a log of the times that we’d done but it’s hardly worth bothering with now.
JM1: David is your son-in-law?
JM2: Yes. He is indeed. He’s the instigator of all this stuff except for the models. I brought the models in.
JM1: Were you concerned that your family should know that you were still alive?
JM2: That was another thing. They were allowed to write one letter, for the Red Cross gave us one air mail letter to write to our families, which I understand my mother never got for some reason or other, and from the telegram she got when I was posted missing she heard nothing from, for six months, almost the entire captivity period, except for a couple in Scotland, who had a, a fairly powerful short wave radio and they used to listen to the prisoners recorded by the Red Cross as being prisoners of war and my name was mentioned on one of these broadcasts, and they took the trouble to find out from the Air Force where my mother lived and informed her I was alive and well at that time, but for all that period she didn’t know whether I was alive or dead.
JM1: And what about camp entertainment? How did you spend your time?
JM2: [Laugh] Oh, er, we rigged up what was known as a, a pantomime for Christmas and called it “Pantomania” because we were all blokes in it and one amusing incident came out of that. We had a pirate scene and we organised a cannon, er, that was all papier-mâché and tubes of all sorts of things and at the back an elastic flap, which would propel a, a black ball of paper out the muzzle and this was coordinated with a flash of, um, magnesium. I don’t know where the hell they got the magnesium from. I’ve no idea. But they had it anyway. We used to get people working out. They used to pinch things all over the place. However, during the pantomime we turned this, the — they allowed us to run this pantomime provided a number of German officers could watch what was going on and, er, not allow anything what they didn’t like. [slight cough] However, we managed to turn this cannon in this scene, fire the ball of — black ball towards the audience with the flash, and this made the German officers jump up and quickly snatch their lugers out and start waving them about, wondering what the heck was going on. And it was only a black ball of paper but they stopped the show and it as quite some time until we persuaded them to let us get on with it. So that was an amusing incident that came out of it [slight laugh].
JM1: Was there any talk of escape at this stage in the war?
JM2: Well, they found a tunnel under the, er, under the stage where we were. It wasn’t much of a tunnel but they found it under the stage and there was a number of organisations in the camp, which I was never part of, that leant themselves towards this idea but nobody — it was too near the end of the war to chance anything particularly dangerous. I admired one chap, one particular at Colditz. They used to — they organised a playing field away from the castle, down below the castle heights. They managed to persuade the Germans to let them have a game of football because the quadrangle was too small at Colditz and they did this a number of times until somebody had the bright idea of pole vaulting over the wire fence that they surrounded this playing field with. And he took the sections of the pole vault down his trousers, assembled it on the playing field, and pole vaulted over the wire and made a home run home from that daring escape so late in the war, yeah. Incredible that, weren’t it? That was a record by the way.
JM1: Incredible. I get the impression the morale of RAF personnel was quite high in the camp?
Jm2: Yes, yes it was pretty good, yeah, I would, I would say so. The [laugh] one amusing incident came when we first went there, at Stalag Luft VII, we were on the same level as the sentries patrolling outside the wire but the various tunnels or starting tunnels that they did, we used to have to drop the soil out through our trouser legs on the walk around the edge of the camp, the periphery we had to, used to, walk round for exercise. They used to allow us so far away from the goon boxes, about fifty yards or so away, and the number — they, they took so much earth and we dropped so much earth through the bags in our trousers, walking round, that we found ourselves above the level of the sentries outside the wire. [laugh] Would you believe? [slight laugh]
JM1: Incredible.
JM2: Incredible. We didn’t realise this at first until we found ourselves looking down on the sentries walking round the wire.
JM1: Just before we move on, you’ve, you’ve mention a couple of phrases I think need clarifying. Goon boxes?
JM2: Ah, these were stationed every, I would say hundred yards or so, round the perimeter wire of the yard [?] and they stood up on stilts, about roughly fifteen feet or so above ground level, on a, on a narrowing tower. Each contained a searchlight and a machine gun and two serving officers, Wehrmacht officers, er, Wehrmacht personnel. So that, er, if you — there was a, a trip wire about fifty yards inside the main wire which you must not [emphasis] step over on fear of being shot at, night or day, and this searchlight was used at night to patrol this area at night, and you certainly would be shot at. In fact one person was shot at while I was there and he was killed. I think he went a bit mental and went scrambling up the wire and they shot him.
JM1: Now that’s different from the box that you were describing when you flew to the target. That’s a formation? An aircraft formation?
JM2: Yes. A vic, a three vic, an aircraft of three in a vic and the box at the back that we were in for the fighter protection.
JM1: So it’s an aircraft formation?
JM2: Yes.
JM1: And the yellow tail I think. Can you just explain that for the record please?
JM2: It was known as G-H bars [?]. Why? I have no idea. I don’t know what the latter stands for but the aircraft that carried yellow stripes on the rudder had this Oboe equipment which guided them to the target more accurately than anything up to that day.
JM1: So we’re dealing with navigation and target finding electronic equipment?
JM2: Yes.
JM1: So, can we turn now to the fact that you were one of those who was released and were on the Long March?
JM2: Yes. That was — we warned about this for some while, er, when we were doing the pantomime which was just before Christmas, but the Russians were, er, getting fairly close to the camp at this stage. By close I mean about fifty miles or so and the Germans were getting a bit edgy and it came out later that Hitler was pulling all POWs back towards Berlin, presumably to use them as some kind of hostages. But however, we were turned out once and then sent back into the billets, er, in January but then on, I think it was the 19th of January, at half past three in the morning, to start the march which was, turned out to be two hundred and ninety-seven kilometres in a snow bound country in Upper Silesia in Poland when Poland was experiencing the worst winter it had ever known. It was just a wasteland wherever you looked. The only indication of road that we were on was the telegraph wires that were on poles alongside the road to indicate where the road was that we were supposed to be on, often trudging through quite deep snow, which was trodden down by — I think there was about two thousand-odd of us on the march — but two thousand, two hundred and ninety-seven kilometres in twenty-one days, a hundred and eighty miles, which was quite a feat by people who were half-starved. In fact a lot of men died on that particular march.
Jm1: And where did you end up at?
Jm2: A place called Luckenwalde about fifteen kilometres south of Berlin and, er, we, we became in the middle of a shell swap between the Germans and the Russians at one time. In fact one, one Russian shell, presumably it was Russian, landed in our compound and exploded harmlessly, as it happened, but by this time the German guards had gone away from the camp and left the camp to us. They had retreated to their own lines, or whatever, and we were running the camp ourselves at that particular time. And, er, eventually these Russians came and mowed down the wire and said, ‘You’re free now.’ And liberated us and the following day put the wire up again and contained us, which was a bit of a [unclear] at the time as we had no contract, transport and we had nowhere to go so we just had to stay in camp until eventually the Americans stopped the Russians from crossing the Elbe back into their territory until the Russians allowed us [emphasis] to cross the Elbe back into American territory. Then the Americans sent lorries and picked us up and took us back to their territory.
JM1: And how did you get home from Germany?
JM2: We were flown from, er, Leipzig. They took us by lorry to Leipzig, to a German wireless school at the time, and then they flew us to Brussels in the courses [?] and then from there flew us home in Lancasters, eight at a time, back to England.
JM1: And that was your last flight in a Lancaster was it?
JM2: It was indeed, yes [slight laugh]. Not a very comfortable one on my side because I knew there was a little — we were strung along the aircraft, nose to tail, eight of us, to try a keep the centre of gravity in the aircraft, and I got myself near the wireless ops’ window because I knew there was a little window there I could look out. I was a crafty arse. And I was looking through this, timing the crossing and more or less from anybody who had a watch and I thought we should be seeing — and I saw the Seven Sisters in the distance and I said, a pal [?] said, ‘Pass it along. We can see Seven Sisters. We’re almost there.’ With that everyone had to have a look [slight laugh] and then about five minutes later the pilot sent the wireless operator back and said, ‘Tell the lads we can see Seven Sisters.’ [laugh] Oh, dear. This isn’t the end of the tale. When we came to Cosford we realised from the engine, well, all of us realised from the engine notes that we were in finals and the silence from the engine cooked, not knowing we were near touchdown, and we bounced along the runway like a ping pong ball. Oh lordie me, I forgot what — g-doing, g-doing, g-doing. I thought, ‘When are we going to finish this lot.’ You know. I don’t know how long but it seemed forever to me and finally we were rolling along comfortably [laugh] and the wireless op said, ‘I’ve come to tell you we’ve landed lads.’ Dear, oh dear. I don’t know who the pilot was, bless him.
Jm1: [laugh] So, once you got back you had some survivor’s leave?
JM2: Yes. Well, we had to go through all the uniform delousing and stuff like this that was going on and, er, what were we doing? We got a fortnights’ leave, yeah, and sent home. [laugh] I remember coming home with the kit on my back, a kit bag full of gear, all brand new gear, and it was night and I got home, knocked on my front door and my sister, pardon the — my sister came to the door and it was completely dark. It was still black at that time. It was about 9 o’clock at night. I said, ‘Have you got anything for the Red Cross?’ And she shouted back to my mother, ‘Have you anything?’ And my mother rushed out, pushed her to one side and grabbed hold of me [laugh]. She’d heard my voice. That was enough.
JM1: Did you stay in the RAF?
JM2: I was in till the following February. I was posted to the Isle of Man because I got married whilst I was in the Air Force and it was a compassionate posting, to, to Calvary at first and then finally to Jurby on the Isle of Man.
JM1: And did, did you maintain contact with your crew members in peacetime?
JM2: No. The only one I — well, two actually I saw. I was — we went from Calvary to Newcastle. They were changing the, er, position of the squadron, turning it into a teaching squadron, up at on the other side Newcastle and whilst we were up there they said to, to complete the complement they needed a fire engine for the aerodrome up at Newcastle and it was to be collected from a place called Witchord, Witchford. ‘Does anyone know where Witchford was?’ I said, ‘I know it. It was the next aerodrome to me in Mepal when I was operating there.’ And the flight said, ‘It would be you. Clever arse again.’ He said, ‘Well you’d better collect it.’ So I got the job of collecting it and it was a six wheel Fordson, painted in drab colours, and a water tank on the back and various things. Not a red fire engine but a Fordson and I went down and collected this thing and stayed with the family of the girl in Mepal overnight and ferried it up to Newcastle. But while I was on the way I somehow remembered the address of the navigator and I said —while I was on the way I stopped in Darlington and asked directions to this address. Unfortunately I didn’t know the number. I knew the road but I didn’t know the number and I knocked on a house and asked if anybody knew the Air Force officer and they did and gave me the number. I knocked at the door and Ray came to the door [laugh]. Oh, that was a good reunion, yeah. That was the first I’d seen him since Dulag Luft in Frankfurt and we had a good natter there and I carried on up to Newcastle. The other time was when I was working for Cravens in Civvy Street and I went back to Mepal. I hired a car and I wanted to, er, see if the rear gunner still lived in Thatchford, so I went to Thatchford with this hired car and called in the local pub and asked, ‘Does anyone know Charlie Anderton. He was my rear?’ He said, ‘If you’re lucky you might catch him. He’s just left.’ And I saw the back of him disappearing on a bike over a field so that’s all I saw of Charlie Anderton, yeah. I did see him but I didn’t meet him, no.
JM1: When you look back on those times how, how do you feel about what you went through and how Bomber Command was treated politically?
JM2: I think you tend to forget the nasty times. You seem to get a mental block at them. As I say, sometimes during the dark hours it seems like yesterday and then it gets a bit hairy. But, um, you tend to block this out I think during normal life. We were only very young, as I say, and the young are adaptable and, er, it’s over seventy years ago. It’s a long while ago.
JM1: Jim, thank you so much. You’ve given a marvellous interview. Thank you for your detail and clarity and information and emotion.
JM2: Thank you for listening. It’s a very ordinary tale I feel.
JM1: Not at all.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with James Mulhall. One
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Julian Maslin
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-08-23
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AMulhallJE160823
Format
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01:04:05 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
James was born in Gorton, attended Catholic schools, and became an apprentice plumber. In November 1942 he joined the Royal Air Force. He then trained as a mechanic at RAF St Athan before being posted to RAF Henlow to assemble Hurricanes. He then went back to RAF St Athan to re-muster as a flight engineer. His next postings where at RAF Stradishall on Stirlings, which he thought were awful aircraft, and at RAF Feltwell on Lancasters. His crew was posted to 75 Squadron, serving at RAF Mepal where there were sometimes two full crews in a single Nissen hut. The crew’s first operation was a daylight operation to the U-Boat pens at St. Nazaire. On a run to Russelsheim they were coned and blinded by searchlights but managed to escape them with little damage. James said most of the flights were just enduring the cold and getting back as safely as possible. He elaborates on service conditions on board, recollecting instances of incendiaries hitting their aircraft. After completing the thirty operations (among them nine or ten daylight ones) the crew decided to do a final four together which proved to be a fatal decision. Those who bailed out ended up at Dulag Luft for interrogation. James was then moved to Stalag Luft VII in Poland in December 1944. He describes the conditions, food and treatment in the camps. James was in the long march which ended at Luckenwalde when they escaped. Prisoners were taken to Leipzig before being flown to Brussels and then home. James left the RAF in February 1946.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Bedfordshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Norfolk
England--Suffolk
Wales--Vale of Glamorgan
France
Germany
Poland
France--Saint-Nazaire
Germany--Oberursel
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Poland--Tychowo
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1942-10
1943
1944
1944-12
1945
1946
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending revision of OH transcription
75 Squadron
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bale out
bomb struck
bombing
crewing up
Dulag Luft
entertainment
escaping
fear
flight engineer
Hurricane
Lancaster
military living conditions
military service conditions
Nissen hut
Oboe
prisoner of war
RAF Feltwell
RAF Henlow
RAF Mepal
RAF St Athan
RAF Stradishall
searchlight
Stalag 3A
Stalag Luft 7
Stirling
submarine
the long march
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/171/9859/LAtkinsAH418514v1.2.pdf
2442259ebfd050afd9ef5293f8203e96
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Atkins, Arthur
A H Atkins
Description
An account of the resource
24 items. An oral history interview with Arthur Atkins DFC (d. 2022, Royal Australian Air Force), his logbook and 23 photographs. Arthur Atkins grew up in Melbourne, Australia and joined the RAAF. After training he flew 32 operations as a pilot with 625 Squadron from RAF Kelstern.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Arthur Atkins and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-01-05
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
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Atkins, A
Conforms To
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Pending additional content
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Arthur Atkins’ flying log book for pilots
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for Arthur Atkins, covering the period from 12 November 1942 to 12 July 1945. Detailing his flying training, operations flown and instructor duties. He was stationed at RAAF Benalla, RAAF Somers, RAAF Malalla, RAAF Ascot Vale, RAAF Point Cook, RAAF Bradfield Park, RAF Brighton, RAF Andover, RAF Greenham Common, RAF Long Newnton, RAF Lichfield, RAF Church Broughton, RAF Boston Park, RAF Wescott, RAF Blyton, RAF Hemswell, RAF Kelstern, RAF Sandtoft and RAF Gamston. Aircraft flown were, DH 82 Tiger Moth, Wackett, Anson, Oxford, Wellington, Halifax and Lancaster. He completed a total of 31 operations with 625 squadron, 15 night and 16 daylight. Targets were, Orleans, Foret de Croc, Caen, Saumerville, Wizerne, Kiel, Russelsheim, Tours, Le Havre, Rheine-Salzbergen, Saarbrucken, Fort Frederik Hendrik, Essen, Ardouval, Stuttgart, Le Landes, Pauillac, Fotenay le Marmion, Stettin, Ghent-Terneuzen Canal, Raimbert, Frankfurt, Calais, Emmerick, Duisberg and Koln. His pilot for his first 'second dickie' operation was Flying Officer Slade.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
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One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
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LAtkinsAH418514v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Australia
Belgium
France
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
England--Berkshire
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Derbyshire
England--Gloucestershire
England--Hampshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Staffordshire
Belgium--Ghent
France--Calais
France--Calvados
France--le Havre
France--Les Landes (Region)
France--Orléans
France--Pas-de-Calais
France--Saumur
France--Forêt du Croc
France--Tours
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Emmerich
Germany--Essen
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Germany--Saarbrücken
Germany--Salzbergen
Germany--Stuttgart
Netherlands--Breskens
Netherlands--Terneuzen
New South Wales
South Australia
Victoria--Benalla
Victoria--Point Cook
Poland--Szczecin
Victoria
England--Sussex
Poland
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
France--Pauillac (Gironde)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
1945
1943-11-13
1944-07-04
1944-07-05
1944-07-06
1944-07-07
1944-07-12
1944-07-13
1944-07-18
1944-07-20
1944-07-23
1944-07-24
1944-07-25
1944-07-26
1944-07-27
1944-08-02
1944-08-04
1944-08-05
1944-08-06
1944-08-07
1944-08-08
1944-08-17
1944-08-18
1944-08-19
1944-08-25
1944-08-26
1944-08-29
1944-08-30
1944-08-31
1944-09-05
1944-09-06
1944-09-10
1944-09-12
1944-09-13
1944-09-16
1944-09-17
1944-09-27
1944-10-05
1944-10-06
1944-10-07
1944-10-11
1944-10-14
1944-10-15
1944-10-23
1944-10-24
1944-10-31
1944-11-01
1662 HCU
1667 HCU
27 OTU
625 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
bombing
Flying Training School
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 5
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Andover
RAF Blyton
RAF Church Broughton
RAF Gamston
RAF Hemswell
RAF Kelstern
RAF Lichfield
RAF Sandtoft
RAF Westcott
tactical support for Normandy troops
Tiger Moth
training
V-1
V-weapon
Wellington
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/376/7869/PHouriganM18010043.2.jpg
37bd3cad49ed7c61a240f2d42ac87fbf
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/376/7869/PHouriganM18010044.2.jpg
8c659d6d833ddadab3c440ca074469dd
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hourigan, Margaret
Margaret Hourigan
M Hourigan
Description
An account of the resource
158 items. An oral history interview with Margaret Hourigan (1922 - 2023, 889775 Royal Air Force) and 156 target photographs taken by 50 and 61 Squadron aircraft during 1944. Margaret Hourigan served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force as a plotter with Fighter Command before being posted to RAF Waddington and RAF Skellingthorpe with Bomber Command.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Margaret Hourigan and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-04-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hourigan,M
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Russelheim
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-08-12
1944-08-13
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PHouriganM18010043, PHouriganM18010044
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-08-12
1944-08-13
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Description
An account of the resource
Target photograph of Russelheim. Many points of light and larger balls of light. Captioned '3°F', '12B', '1987 SKELL.12/13.8.44.//NT.8" 20250' arrow] 355° 0024 RUSSELHEIM RD.A.1X2000.12JX500.31secs.F/O MARTIN.A.61'. On the reverse 'F/O MARTIN RUSSELHEIM 12/13 8 44'. '3 Dummy runs prior', '5 bombing'.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Hourigan, Margaret. Folder PHouriganM1801
61 Squadron
aerial photograph
bombing
RAF Skellingthorpe
target photograph
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/407/6865/LAnsellHT1893553v1.1.pdf
edfc366bd5e7a30081d45f021fab8420
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Ansell, Henry
Henry Ansell
H T Ansell
Description
An account of the resource
28 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Henry Thomas Ansell, DFM (b. 1925, 1893553 Royal Air Force) and contains his logbook, his release book, a school report, two German language documents and several photographs, his medals and other items. Henry Ansell served as a flight engineer with 61 Squadron and 83 Squadron Pathfinders.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Vicki Ansell and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-07-30
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ansell, HT
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Harry Thomas Ansell's flying log book for flight engineers
Description
An account of the resource
The log book covers the training and operational duties of Flight Engineer Sergeant Harry Thomas Ansell, from 14 April 1944 to 24 May 1945. He trained at RAF Torquay, RAF St Athan, RAF Stockport and was stationed at RAF Wigsley, RAF Syerston, RAF Skellingthorpe and RAF Coningsby. Aircraft flown in were Stirling and Lancaster. He flew 34 operations with 61 Squadron, 15 daylight and 19 night, and 18 night operations with 83 Squadron. Targets in Belgium, France, Germany and Norway were Limoges, Prouville, Vitry, Doullens, Chalindrey, Villeneuve-St-Georges, Caen, Revigny, Courtrai, Kiel, Donges, Saint-Cyr, Lyons, Stuttgart, Cahienes, Joigny-Laroche, Pas de Calais, Bois de Cassan, Saint-Leu-d'Esserent, Secqueville, Châtellerault, Bordeaux, Rüsselsheim, Königsberg, Rollencourt, Brest, Le Havre, Darmstadt, Boulogne, Bremerhaven, Rheydt, Munich, Heilbronn, Glessen, Politz, Merseberg, Brux, Karlsruhe, Ladbergen, Dresden, Rositz, Gravenhorst, Bohlen, Horten Fiord, Molbis and Lutskendorf. His pilot on operations was Flight Lieutenant Inness.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Belgium
France
Germany
Norway
Great Britain
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Devon
England--Greater Manchester
England--Lancashire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Yorkshire
Wales--Vale of Glamorgan
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Belgium--Kortrijk
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
France--Brest
France--Caen
France--Calais
France--Chalindrey
France--Châtellerault
France--Creil
France--Doullens
France--Joigny
France--Le Havre
France--Limoges
France--L'Isle-Adam
France--Paris
France--Saint-Nazaire
Germany--Bremerhaven
Germany--Darmstadt
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Heilbronn
Germany--Hörstel
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Merseburg
Germany--Munich
Germany--Rheydt
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Wettin
Norway--Horten
Russia (Federation)--Kaliningrad (Kaliningradskai︠a︡ oblastʹ)
Germany--Böhlen
France--Lyon
Russia (Federation)
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LAnsellHT1893553v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
1945
1944-06-19
1944-06-20
1944-06-23
1944-06-24
1944-06-25
1944-06-27
1944-06-28
1944-06-29
1944-07-12
1944-07-13
1944-07-14
1944-07-15
1944-07-18
1944-07-19
1944-07-20
1944-07-21
1944-07-23
1944-07-24
1944-07-25
1944-07-26
1944-07-27
1944-07-28
1944-07-29
1944-07-30
1944-07-31
1944-08-01
1944-08-02
1944-08-05
1944-08-07
1944-08-08
1944-08-09
1944-08-10
1944-08-11
1944-08-12
1944-08-13
1944-08-14
1944-08-26
1944-08-27
1944-08-31
1944-09-05
1944-09-10
1944-09-11
1944-09-12
1944-09-13
1944-09-14
1944-09-18
1944-09-19
1944-09-20
1944-11-26
1944-11-27
1944-12-04
1944-12-06
1944-12-10
1944-12-21
1944-12-22
1945-01-13
1945-01-14
1945-01-15
1945-01-16
1945-01-17
1945-02-02
1945-02-03
1945-02-06
1945-02-07
1945-02-08
1945-02-13
1945-02-14
1945-02-15
1945-02-20
1945-02-21
1945-02-23
1945-02-24
1945-03-20
1945-03-21
1945-04-07
1945-02-08
1945-02-09
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944
1945
1654 HCU
61 Squadron
83 Squadron
aircrew
Bennett, Donald Clifford Tyndall (1910-1986)
bombing
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
bombing of the Pas de Calais V-1 sites (24/25 June 1944)
Distinguished Flying Medal
flight engineer
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Pathfinders
RAF Coningsby
RAF Skellingthorpe
RAF St Athan
RAF Stockport
RAF Syerston
RAF Torquay
RAF Wigsley
Stirling
tactical support for Normandy troops
training
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Title
A name given to the resource
Rüsselsheim [place]
Description
An account of the resource
This page is an entry point for a place. Please use the links below to see all relevant documents available in the Archive.
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/171/2319/AtkinsAH1501.1.jpg
830d36dbb0e2983788b5232c59af5c29
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/171/2319/AAtkinsA151121.1.mp3
a335b230e07e85171cab65215eb6d2d2
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Atkins, Arthur
A H Atkins
Description
An account of the resource
24 items. An oral history interview with Arthur Atkins DFC (d. 2022, Royal Australian Air Force), his logbook and 23 photographs. Arthur Atkins grew up in Melbourne, Australia and joined the RAAF. After training he flew 32 operations as a pilot with 625 Squadron from RAF Kelstern.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Arthur Atkins and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-01-05
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Atkins, A
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending additional content
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
AP: So this interview for the International Bomber Command Centre’s Digital Archive is with Arthur Atkins, a 625 squadron Lancaster pilot during the Second World War. The interview is taking place at Arthur’s house in Kew in Melbourne. My name’s Adam Purcell. It’s the 21st of November 2015. Arthur we’ll start from the beginning if you don’t mind.
AA: Right.
AP: Tell us something of your early life, what you were doing growing up, and what you did before the war.
AA: Yeah well I was born at 212 Prospect Hill Road in, Prospect Hill Road oh what was the suburb? Surrey Hills, Surrey Hills. Then we moved to Canterbury when I was about eight or nine and I attended the Canterbury state school up to grade six. Then the equivalent of grade seven I started Scotch College. I was there for six years and I mainly concentrated on business subjects because that’s what I thought I would be going into and I did. I worked in an insurance company for about three or four years. I didn’t do any flying then but I, when I was a small boy and I was in the Cubs, you know, the junior Boy Scouts, they, one Saturday afternoon, we went down to the old airfield on Coode Island and I had my first flight in an aeroplane at about the age of nine, I should think. Eight or nine. Two cubs in the one cockpit. I don’t know who sat on whose knee. I can’t remember that but we were both in the cockpit half standing looking out over each side I should imagine but that was my first experience of flying and then I entered the Sun News Pictorial’s competition for someone most likely to fly, be able to fly an aeroplane and they’d get a free instruction to pilot licence but I didn’t, I didn’t win. There was, I think there was about a hundred people went for it and I was just one of them. I flew the aeroplane, an old Avro Avian I think it was. Single engine thing. I flew it for a little while because I’d flown model planes a lot and I knew exactly what it should do. I thought I did alright but no, I didn’t win it but then in my last year at Scotch I went in, tried to get in to the Point Cook pilot’s training system. I think there was about twenty vacancies or something and I think there was about two thousand people volunteered for it so I didn’t get that one either. However, when the war broke out I got in to the army militia I think in the middle of 1944. Well, that was alright. I didn’t mind it. September ‘44 it was and I had three months. September, October, November. I decided I’d get out so one day when I was on leave I called in to the recruiting office in Russell Street, for the Air Force that is, and they immediately signed me up. Gave me a piece of paper showing that I was a member of the RAAF and my rank was AC2. Aircraftman class 2. And then I had to attend about three times a week at various places to fit me for going into the initial training school. Mathematics and so on. Anyway, I got in and I, that was in nineteen, but the thing was going on to the reserve where I had to do these exercises and so on, lectures, about a fortnight before Pearl Harbour. This. About two weeks before that and the date of that is, December the 7th. I think it was about November the 20th or something that I enlisted in the Air Force. Just as well because I wouldn’t have been able to get out of the, the army as easily as I did and I was unfortunately of course it was mid-winter at Somers. Coldest place I’ve been in my life and some people used to wear their pyjamas under everything else because they only gave us very sort of flimsy one-piece overalls to wear in the midwinter at Somers. By September things were looking up a bit and I finished the course then and they called me in to tell me where I’d be going to next as everyone had depending on your results and they said, ‘We want to make you a navigator,’ because I was very good at mathematics at that stage and I was also a qualified accountant at that stage but I said, ‘No. I don’t want to be a navigator. I want to fly the aeroplanes. Thanks.’ And they said, ‘Well, you came top of your course.’ Course number 28 at Somers. ‘So you actually have a choice of what you’re going to do.’ They didn’t tell me that at first. Only when I objected to being a navigator. And they said well seeing you came top you can choose to train as a pilot and I went up to Benalla and flew Tiger Moths. I was there for two or three months. It’s all there in the logbook but Benalla was good fun flying the Tigers. I never broke one or landed one badly or anything like that and I came out of that alright and they sent me then after about three months, around about Christmastime ’44, ‘44 I suppose it would have been. No, no, would have been Christmas, Christmas ‘43 because I got to England in, in ‘43. Yeah, it would have been ’42. Yeah. Christmas ‘42 would have been the date I finished at Benalla and went to Mallala, South Australia about forty miles north of Adelaide. Looked like the desert and felt like it. I think it was a hundred and eight degrees for three or four days on one occasion and the beds inside the iron huts were that hot you couldn’t sit on the iron bedsteads because they were too hot to be comfortable. But anyway that was, it was quite good. I was there for, until about April or May. Mallala, South Australia, yeah, I’ll put my glasses on. I can read what I’ve written. Yeah. Yeah so I left Mallala on the, in April ‘43 and went to Ascot Vale showgrounds and I was there, only there for two or three weeks with, and fortunately I had a friend I was with, a fella named David Browne and we used to just wander around the city for a while doing nothing just waiting for something to happen and then finally in May, about the middle of April, 25th of April I was sent to Point Cook to do a course on blind approach. That is flying the beam in to land and had quite a bit of other, other work too. In fact, for about ten days I was in charge of the control tower at Point Cook. Not that any accidents ever happened so I wasn’t tested there. I just looked out the window and talked to the, the blokes from the fire cart and the ambulance from down below the control tower and I remember saying, ‘What happens if something goes wrong? What am I supposed to do?’ They said, ‘Send a signal.’ ‘Signal?’ I said. ‘What’s a signal?’ Apparently they meant send some sort of a telegram to, to someone or other. The boss of the group, of that particular group. Anyway, that only lasted a little while and then I was on flying there on Oxfords. Airspeed Oxfords. Mostly under the hood, you know, blind flying on the beam. After that I went to Bradfield Park in Sydney just prior to catching a boat to San Francisco and they put us on a, an American, converted to troopship so a small, sort of, it had been a coastal [trader] I think or something like that. Proper steam steamship called the Mount Vernon which was something to do with George Washington’s home town or something like that and we headed out across towards New Zealand. I was seasick but my friend David Browne wasn’t. I was a bit envious of him. He could still eat these rather sickly, sickly looking thick drinks that he used to get from the canteen while I was chuntering out over the rail. And we got in, finally we got in to New Zealand on the North Island. Auckland. And that was quite interesting. We got off the ship. We were allowed to stay to see New Zealand in four hours so we did that and two or three, there was a group of two or three of us just walking along in Auckland somewhere and we got picked up by a couple of girls who said, ‘Come home and have dinner with us.’ You know, and being generous to the troops so we followed them and went home and spoke to all their family and had a very nice dinner, the three of us, for nothing, you know, just because we happened to be in navy blue uniforms and the New Zealanders had the grey blue uniform of the RAF. But a funny thing happened. While we were just lolling around after dinner the fiancé or boyfriend of one of the girls arrived at the front door and everyone was a little bit embarrassed about that, picking up strange troops, you know, foreign troops, on in the street. So we said, ‘Oh well, we’re off now anyway. Thank you very much,’ we went back to the boat but the bloke who came to the front door was wearing a New Zealand Air Force uniform. He’d been on some island, I think, just north of New Zealand somewhere on duty and he’d just got some leave to come back to Auckland. Anyway, we got back on the boat and then the next thing we knew we’d, we were pulling into San Francisco harbour and sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge escorted in the last part of the trip to there by a blimp and we also saw a submarine. And there was a bloke working on a ship unloading it or loading it. An American ship alongside where we were and a couple of blokes sang out to him, ‘What are you doing sport?’ or something like that. He said, ‘Go home limey.’ [laughs] He thought we were British. He’d probably never heard of Australia. And while we were, we had about a month in America which was one of the most delightful times of my whole life because the Americans were very generous at handing out food, lifts here and there. We went down to New York on one occasion and we had a weekend in New York, in New York in 1943 which not many people from Australia ever experienced. And up, up the, up all the skyscrapers, the Empire State, and we went around to the theatre where the Rockets were dancing around the stage, about a dozen of them, high kicking on the stage. That that was sort of interesting. But then we, we found out that we could go in to any of the night clubs and just have a drink at the bar, and pay for it but you couldn’t sit down. You didn’t have to pay fifty dollars like the Yanks had to, to go in and sit down at a table. We could just go in and stand at the, at the bar and have a drink and watch what was going on and at one stage we were in the Astor Roof Nightclub and the band leader who was Harry, someone or other. Betty Grable, his girlfriend or wife, was sitting in the front row near the band. We were in the table a bit further back. We’d been, we were standing at the bar, a couple of friends and myself, air force people, and this bloke came over and said, ‘Would you like to sit at our table.’ I think there must have been just the two of us by that stage. One of them had gone off somewhere else and I said, ‘Yeah, that’s alright,’ and he sat us down at a table. He had his wife and two women. Married women probably. And we made up a nice party of six people all at his expense. Very good. Then we went back to his hotel afterwards and had a few whiskies I think, if I remember rightly. But that was how the Americans were with us. They asked some funny questions like, ‘Where did you learn to speak English?’ at times. I think they thought we came from Austria or something. Confused Austria with Australia. So, they didn’t know much about Australia, the Americans but we had, in New York, we had all the, comforts like free food, free breakfasts and so on that they had. Then a little later we got on to the Queen Elizabeth which was to take us to England or Scotland actually and it set off and I think there was a half a dozen of us together got into the, into the cabin which was allocated to us. Seven of us got into the cabin but there were only four, four, four bunks in it but fortunately I was one of the early ones getting in. I got one of the bunks. The last man in got the floor. Four days. The Queen Elizabeth mark one it was of course at that stage zigzagged all the way across the Pacific, the, sorry, the Atlantic to Scotland, one way, alternate turning movements you know with not all exactly the same but, so that was to fool any submarines that were watching and I think they, they said the speed they were doing at one stage was forty knots, the Queen Elizabeth. Well that’s about what forty five miles an hour or something like that. Not bad for a big boat like that. Anyway, nothing happened to us. We didn’t even see any submarines. Oh but yes that boat we travelled to in New Zealand and San Francisco on got sunk about three trips later by a Japanese torpedo so I’m lucky to be here. Anyway, the boat pulled in and then we went down to Brighton on the train. The same day the boat pulled in in the morning we got, all climbed on a train and went straight to Brighton in Sussex on the south coast. That was a beautiful time too. I liked Brighton. I could have stayed there for years but they only left us there for weeks and sent us to an RAF station at Andover. There wasn’t much flying going on there. I didn’t notice any. We were only there for, what, a couple of weeks doing ground subjects. Learning the way the RAF worked but the one thing I did notice we had a very nice room to sleep in and we had, we were all sergeants then by the way. The RAF conditions were way and above anything the Australian Air Force had ever thought of and you know we had people to clean the huts, sweep the floors out, make the beds and it was just like officers would have got in Australia if they were lucky and then and weren’t living in New Guinea or something like that but that was okay and then the next move was to Greenham Common where we were once again flying Airspeed Oxfords and an interesting thing happened the first day we were there. We got there in the afternoon and a couple of us, a couple of other fellas and myself walked out across the airfield the airfield a bit. Down one end of it where they, and they weren’t flying at the time we walked there. Must have been late in the afternoon. Anyway, we got to the runway and there was a big black patch about fifty or sixty feet across and we went and had a look at the black patch and we could see someone’s braces ends here and a bit of red meat there and so on. Someone had crashed an Oxford the night before and had burned out and they hadn’t scraped everything off the runway. They’d got most of him but they probably put a few bricks in the coffin because I was detailed because my name started with A and I was just taken off the top of the list and told, ‘You’re going to carry this coffin and load it on the train this morning.’ And that was my introduction to RAF flying, carrying what remained of the pilot to the local railway station where we shoved it into the guards van and said, ‘Goodbye Sport,’ and that was it. After that there was no accidents that I can remember at Greenham Common. We were flying, practicing flying on Oxfords and I got a, above average rating for flying Oxfords there because I’d had all that practice flying them at Point Cook. A bit unfair but I didn’t knock it back but then we went to a little place from Greenham to an airfield called Long Newnton. Long Newnton N E W N T O N. A pilots’ advanced flying unit. Well so was Greenham Common. That was 15 PAFU. They moved out, moved them all out because the Americans wanted somewhere to land, to store their invasion gliders so they shifted us from Greenham Common to Long Newnton and I remember we all got loaded into a bus or train or something and got out at the local station or was dumped off at the airfield at Long Newnton. Of course we didn’t hang around there. We thought we’d wander down and have a beer at the local pub. It wasn’t very far from the airfield. We walked in to the pub in the Cotswolds it was. The Cotswolds. And as we, we went into the bar and there was a couple of blokes in there. They must have been farmers. They were wearing just ordinary clothes which was a bit unusual in England at that time to find ordinary civilians in odd little clubs, they were mostly in uniform of some sort. And one of them said to me, ‘What do you think of the Cotswolds?’ I said, ‘Cotswolds? Is that where we are?’ And we were in the Cotswolds. I’d heard of them of course. I knew almost as much about the geography of England as I did of Victoria because I’d, you know, been buying books when I was a kid. All English comics and so on and a book called “Modern Boy” or something which consisted mostly of aeroplanes and steam trains and so on and we found it was quite a pleasant place, Long Newnton and we just continued to fly our Airspeed Oxfords there and train on them but we had one bad experience. We had to do night flying. Night, night cross-countries. A triangular course. You’d fly north, then northwest, then south west and bring yourself back to the, to the base. Navigating in the dark. Just flying on instruments and if you missed, missed one of the beacons, they had beacons were flashing lights like A for one of, one of the turning points and perhaps F or something for the next turning points. You had to know your Morse code so you knew where you were and then you knew where you were and one of our blokes didn’t come back. You know, it was all at night. Black as night. And England was black as pitch most of the places except for the odd airfields and the beacons, air force beacons like that. I think they were red but I can’t quite remember. There were two types. There was red beacons and white beacons and we were flying on the, I think the red beacons but he didn’t come back and we were just waiting around. Waited around for about another hour or so and someone came out and said, ‘You can all go home now. We’re cancelling the, the, the rest of the exercise tonight. That bloke’s crashed his Oxford and killed himself and we won’t be doing any more flying tonight.’ But it didn’t stop all the flying the next day. But after we’d spent a fair bit of time flying Oxfords we were put on to Wellingtons at um where was it? Lichfield, in the Midlands. 27 OTU. We never flew them. They, some, they split this particular group I was in into two parts. One of them, one part stayed at Lichfield and did all the practising on Wellingtons and the rest and the other half of the group did the Wellington flying at a place called Church Broughton. Church Broughton. And that was where I had my experience with one engine and when we were doing practicing circuits and bumps on approaches on one engine. Then you’d fire both of them up together and not actually land. Just practicing flying around on the one engine on the port engine. The starboard engine was, let me see, no, I think we had to, yeah, we had to power off on the port engine and just use the starboard engine for getting around. On the Wellington you weren’t supposed to fly against the good engine because, I don’t know, there was some reason for it. The Wellington didn’t have enough spare [?] in it to just fly very well on one engine and if you flew against the good engine you could be giving yourself a bit of bother. You mightn’t be able to control it. So, when the starboard engine went out and I was doing a left hand circuit as usual I didn’t quite know what to do and because, according to the rules we should have done a very big circuit around to starboard and landed and done a clockwise circuit. It was always anti-clockwise normal landing circuits in the RAF except on special occasions when the airfield mightn’t have suited a clock, an anti-clockwise approach. After that, well I was on Halifaxes. Halifaxes. Yeah, I haven’t got a picture of one of those here. They, they were quite good. We were flying Halifaxes for a month and, oh yes because I, with this engine off getting back to the Wellington with the crook starboard engine it was still giving some half power but there were sparks and things and black smoke coming out the back of it from somewhere and it had it there. We knew the engine had had it but I just, because it was giving us a little bit of power, I kept going on the anti-clockwise circuit and landed. Did a quite good landing too. Smooth landing but when we came to a stop on the runway and I tried to fire the engines up to taxi back to our parking spot I couldn’t do that. It just kept going around in circuits on the, on the good engine so we had to, we were all fitted with radio of course so I called up the control tower and said, ‘Send us out a tractor. You’re going to have to drag us in. We can’t taxi,’ and I got into trouble for not bailing the crew out which I’d never heard of them doing just because they had lost an engine and what else didn’t I do right? Oh I should have feathered the, feathered the propeller on the starboard engine. All good experience and I said, ‘Well it was still giving me a bit of power so I used it to pull us around into, into the landing, landing position.’ They said, ‘Oh that’s no good. You should have, you should have bailed the crew out and feathered the engine.’ Well I’d never had those instructions. I didn’t argue after that because he was, Australian he was the flight commander. He was a sour puss, I noticed, always. He got sourer than ever when I came back next day and he found the engine had to be changed but at least he didn’t have to change the bloody Wellington and he didn’t have to change the crew. They, we wouldn’t if I had bailed them out by the time they all got out I don’t think all their parachutes would have held them, held them up off, would have opened quickly enough to save them but that didn’t oh worry him. He just didn’t like, didn’t like the rest of us I think for coming in safely and not feathering one engine but I’ve read a lot of stories about Wellingtons trying to land on one engine and about fifty percent of them crashed and killed the crew. It’s probably through the wrong engine going or something like that. I don’t know. Anyway, after that we were on the Halifaxes. They were alright but we had a few worrying moments. The Halifax had four engines of course and there were a lot of Halifax squadrons flying at that time but they were mostly flying on the radial engine Halifaxes. What, we were training on the ones that had been rejected for operations and had the old early model Merlin V12 engines, you know and they had various faults. The Halifax used to have a bad habit of swinging to the left when you landed it. I was warned about that. Then I found out afterwards that they ran out of brakes. If you did, if you did a fair bit of taxiing you found you couldn’t, your brakes had ran out of air or vacuum or something. I don’t know whether they were vacuum brakes or air brakes but the brakes didn’t work if you’d run out of certain, certain distance. Anyway, the first landing I did in a Halifax, they were still using it for bombing here and there, the first landing I did in a Halifax I did a very smooth landing. I always did smooth landings and I was very pleased with myself. We just coasted down the runway just about, you know, ready to turn off in a cross runway and back to the parking area and suddenly the Halifax, I was quite relaxed, suddenly it swung around to the left like I’d been warned about, ‘Don’t let it swing on you.’ Well, I took that with a grain of salt and didn’t take a great deal of notice but fortunately, the, er the instructor who’d actually had done a couple of circuits with me on this practising single engine flying had got out and he wasn’t watching us. He saw us come in to land and he thought that was very good, got on his bike and rode off to the mess and then by the time the, the Halifax swung around to the left and did a circle, a half a circle on the grass he was in the mess on his pushbike, with his pushbike and no one in the control tower said a word to us about it afterwards. Anyway, it swung so far we went down the runaway and swung right around and was facing the way we came, on the grass. It swung to the left. The, I think the Lancasters had a, a tendency to swing to the right. You had to, when you, when you flew a Lancaster with the four throttles in your hand you had to push one further forward to, to stop the thing turning or running off the runway. When you were taking off that was. They were alright when you were landing her but they had a little tendency when you put the full power on to go one way or the other so you had the four throttles in one hand. You pushed one throttle ahead of the other. I don’t know whether it was the little finger or the first finger. I think the Lancaster tended to swing to the right. Well if it did you’d have to put a bit more power on the, on the outer, starboard outer engine to prevent that swing. But anyway, I, I just taxied the Halifax which was on the grass facing the way we’d come in, taxied on, got it back on the runway, took it down to where we parked it, got the truck back to the or our bikes probably at that stage, bikes back to the mess and nothing was said by anyone. Not even flying control. They hadn’t seen it and the instructor hadn’t seen it so we didn’t say anything to anyone about it but it was good experience though and I never did it again. I landed Halifaxes practically every day for the next month but I never swung off the runway again. I was watching it. You couldn’t relax until the thing had stopped, stopped rolling at your, at your parking spot. Then we went to a place called, I was commissioned by that time. I, I started off as a flight sergeant at, on the Halifaxes at, at Blyton which is in Lincolnshire and I was a sergeant pilot for a couple of weeks and then I was, I went to London and got my uniform as a pilot officer and lived in the officers’ mess which was not, nothing very special but it was better than, better than the sergeants’ mess but not much. Not much better but I liked that and I didn’t have to hand in my old uniform either. I’ve still got it. I think it’s in a trunk upstairs in the roof, roof space with a couple of officers’ uniforms. But I did alright with Halifaxes and the next move was to Lancasters at what was known as Number 1 Lancaster Finishing School at, at, Hemswell, Hemswell in Lincolnshire and we had about a fortnight there I think at Hemswell and then we were given a bit of a run-around at various holding units for a couple of days until we were, we’d finished our ten-day course at at Hemswell. Eleven days to be precise. Number 1 Lancaster Finishing School. No problems there at all. I’d had my problems with the Halifax and the Wellington. Hemswell was a piece of cake until we got to our operational station called erm Kelstern. I should remember that. It’s on the front of the house. Kelstern. And we were immediately given leave to go to London. You know, they probably had their hands full at the time. It was a busy station so we had a week in London on leave. Of course all this other stuff we had, weeks in London or the countryside and I went, used to get a ticket to Scotland, the northernmost railway station in Scotland so I could go anywhere between Lincolnshire or wherever I was. I wasn’t necessarily even in Lincolnshire. I could have been in the Midlands and I would just get a train. I think it was third class while I was a sergeant and first class when I was a pilot officer but I normally travelled third class because I found there were more interesting people to talk to in third class than in first class on those trains. And, um where was I? Oh yes when we finished our London, London leave on Kelstern which was 625 squadron they sent me up on a flying, on a, just a flight around the local neighbourhood to get used to the area and the approach to landing and so on. In a Lancaster of course because I was fully qualified Lancaster pilot by that time. Ten days at the Number 1 Lancaster Finishing School. Ten days instruction on Lancasters and low and behold we were just flying around the countryside admiring the scenery and then the flight engineer says to me. ‘The starboard outer engine is overheating.’ Cheers. [laughs] I’d learned my lesson so I just said, ‘Well feather the engine. Feather the prop. Turn it off and feather it.’ So we continued our flying on three engines, two on the left side and one on the starboard side and I had flown them on three engines. In fact I’d flown them at LFS on two engines and I knew they handled perfectly well on three engines so I didn’t hesitate to feather the, to shut that starboard engine down and feather the props so we just landed and I can remember the Lanc flew almost exactly the same on three engines, two on one side and one on the other, you know, on the approach to the strip, to the runway and just did a normal landing, and we just taxied it on the two inner engines to its parking spot and I, I said to the flight sergeant in charge, ‘You’d better have a look at that engine. It’s not working.’ He said, ‘Ok.’ The next day I went out to see how he’d got on with it and he said, ‘Oh there was nothing wrong with the engine. It was just the sender on the, and it wasn’t overheating it was just a sender on the, on the engine itself was faulty and it was sending out the wrong message to the gauge on the, the, um flight engineers panel.’ He had, he had the gauges in front of him. He could, he used to watch. And then I knew I’d got on to a good aeroplane. A couple of days later we were on our first operation because we’d had our leave. It didn’t take long for them to put us on to ops and about half of our crew flew with the remains of another crew piloted by a bloke called Flight Officer Slade and flight officer is not an RAF rank. It’s an American Air Force rank and he was an American and he wore a khaki uniform, the American flying uniform and when he was around in the mess or something he had on the American officer’s uniform. A flight officer, an American flight officer, was the equivalent of a pilot officer in the RAF. But that, that trip, oh when we were flying Wellingtons of course we did a lot of night flying too and we did fly over, over France one night with a load of leaflets and this was in the Wellington and that was all we carried. We had two cans. Two small bomb container cans which were about six foot long by eighteen inches high and wide packed tight with leaflets and when you got to the correct spot the bomb aimer who was down in the nose pressed the right button and the bottom of the canister after he’d opened the bomb doors of course and all the leaflets fluttered down below. Well, for some reason or other he had a nervous attack just before he, he had to release the leaflets over Chartres was the town about forty miles south, southwest of France. Anyway, we got to Chartres alright or the bomb aimer reckoned we were over Chartres so he pressed the button and in his haste he pressed the wrong button and this great canister, six foot long canister packed tight with leaflets hanging on a bomb hook disappeared from the aeroplane and went down with all its leaflets packed tight. When we got back they wanted to know where the, where the other canister was. I mean it could have killed someone, that canister, if it had landed on someone or put a big hole in the roof of the Chartres cathedral. I believe they have a cathedral in Chartres but we never heard any more about that apart from the bombing, bombing leader quizzing the, our bomb aimer as to why he’d just come back with one empty container and he had to explain what had happened. One of the reasons it might have happened because when we were crossing just before we were crossing the French coast heading for Chartres, this was at night of course, someone in the crew said, ‘There’s a searchlight on us.’ Well of course that rattled everyone including the bomb aimer. Searchlights. And after a while we found the searchlight was following us. Well searchlights are not mobile. Not that mobile.
AP: [not that fast] anyway.
AA: And I found someone had knocked the switch. It could have been me. It could have been anyone else on the crew. It could have been the ground staff left it switched on and knocked the switch that turned the landing lights on. Well, in the Wellington the landing light normally, not being used, points straight down. When you want to use it you pull a lever and it swings the landing light forward on a hinge so that it points forward where you’re going to land. We never used it, we never used landing lights all the time, the RAF weren’t using them at the time because they had such good flare paths. Electric flare paths. Anyway, this light followed us and it wasn’t until we were well over the coast, flying over German occupied France with this bright light shining straight down and all I can think was the Germans must have looked at that and said, ‘Oh well that’s someone practicing. It wouldn’t be a foreign plane you know, flying with a light like, on like that,’ so they didn’t bother sending anyone up to investigate. I was lucky. Every now and again someone got shot down on those exploits. They called them nickels. N I C K E L S. Nickels. Dropping leaflets and practically everyone had to do a nickel as part of their course on the Wellingtons so we did ours. Anyway, we, he got the right switch for the second one, he didn’t drop that. He just opened the bottom and all the leaflets went flutter, flutter, flutter down to, down to the cathedral underneath, hopefully. Or just the town of Chartres, I don’t know where they went. Might have all gone down on someone’s farm. That was a bit nerve-wracking especially when we found the searchlight was on us. The next time I found a searchlight was on us when we were bombing um a town in Germany. It was the, er, near Frankfurt, just a little town southwest of Frankfurt where there was a General Motors factory. General Motors, USA. Opel. It was just described as an Opel factory which was still a General Motors subsidiary at that, well it was had been a subsidiary of German motors for some time. The Opels. Opel cars. And we had to do a turn on a town south, south of Frankfurt. It turned out to be a fairly hot town because approaching this town of, let’s see. I’ll just um [shuffling of papers] yeah I started my tour on Bomber Command in, in July. On the 4th of July, that was my first, with Flight Officer Slade. There, just trying to work oh Russelsheim. The Opel works at Russelsheim. That’s where the factory was and we had a turning point of probably about sixty or eighty miles south of Rüsselsheim. We were flying eastward. Basically directly east and then we had to turn north and fly north to Rüsselsheim. That’s right. Rüsselsheim and the turning point was over a town called Mannheim. Now, it was a stupid place to have a turning point because that had been bombed quite a few times and it was full of anti-aircraft guns and searchlights and we could see the searchlights and we could see anti-aircraft fire bursting in front of us as we approached, approached Mannheim and it wasn’t very long before we got picked up by a blue tinged searchlight, radar controlled from what we were told. We’d heard about these blue tinged searchlights, blue lights, and they were directly controlled by radar from the ground and if the radar picked up a Lancaster flying they could just about pinpoint it with the searchlights but they would have needed about five, about five hundred radar controllers down below to pick up every one but they used to pick out one and have a go at it. Well, instead of everything being black we got his blinding light lighting up the whole plane. I could hardly see the instruments because I was blinded. I had, you know, flying through the night to get your night vision then suddenly a thousand candle power light’s shining in your face practically and I remember thinking, ‘Jesus I’ve done all this training and now I’m going to be killed,’ I thought to myself. I pushed the stick forward fortunately and she dived quickly and I immediately lost the blue tinged searchlights. You see, when they, when they put that blue tinged light had about another half a dozen focussed on you. They could see the blue light and they, they, we had about six searchlights altogether lighting us up but we lost the light. Immediately black as pitch. And we went into a manoeuvre called the corkscrew and you sort of fly in a down to your left. Then when you are half way down to where you’re going you turn to the right and keep diving. You’re diving. You’re going very fast and then when you get down over to the right you swing it to the left and come up again and do two or three of those. Well, we were basically told that they were, you know, to evade, avoid if you get a fighter behind you if you get the words from the rear gunner, ‘There’s a fighter on you. Go into a corkscrew,’ at night and mostly we flew at night anyway. Half the time we flew at night and half the time I flew in daylight. That was, that was a different thing altogether but and you could go into the corkscrew. That was all I could think to do and I looked at the instrument panel, the airspeed indicator, just as we got near the bottom of where I was going to pull out and I think I was doing four hundred miles an hour. The top diving speed of a Lancaster at that time was three hundred and sixty miles an hour. So we were doing four hundred miles an hour. Actually, it was calibrated in knots. I’ve converted it to miles an hour and we had a full bomb load on. Rüsselheim, yeah we had a four thousand pound bomb on. That’s the high explosive one. What did they call that? They used to have a nickname for that one. Blockbuster or something like that and I don’t know what the other ones were but um oh yes we had just one high explosive bomb, one four thousand and the rest were incendiaries. It made a nasty mess if it landed on you. Anyway, it was a total of, oh I don’t know what it would be, about six or seven thousand pounds sitting underneath us so I was very careful to pull out gently from the bottom of the dive. I didn’t want to leave the wings behind which could have happened to us if you did it quickly. I think on that same raid I saw a picture of a Lancaster that came back with, with both of its ailerons useless. He’d dived too fast and pulled out to fast like the same thing I did but I pulled out fairly gently. I knew quite a bit about flying aeroplanes theoretically as well as, as well as practically and I knew you couldn’t pull out quickly ‘cause I knew what could happen but it didn’t so we just carried on and bombed the, bombed the General Motors plant and then came home again. That was one of the most interesting ones. Another interesting trip I did much later though. We did, did this trip out over the Bay of Biscay. There was an estuary, the Gironde Estuary not far from the, what would have been the Spanish border of Spain and, and the Bay of Biscay, French coast but anyway this Gironde Estuary, oh there’s some wineries up there, up the Gironde. Someone heard I’d bombed near the wineries. He said, ‘Well you’re lucky you didn’t bomb the wineries because I wouldn’t be speaking to you if you’d spoilt my, spilt my wine.’ But we didn’t. We flew from Kelstern almost due south right down to the south coast, then turned right, south, just before the south coast and flew down out to Lands End and at that stage flying to Lands End we took it down to fifty feet going over Lands End and we flew all the way around out into the Atlantic at fifty feet. Fortunately, it was a very fine day and not much wind and round in a big wide circle fifty feet all the way. I think we had four hundred Lancasters on that one. Something like that. And we had an escort though to fly over the Bay of Biscay, escorted of long range Mosquitos, fighters, in case some German type decided to have a go at us but, no one, no one showed up because we were flying at fifty feet. That was to be under the German radar of course and they never spotted us till us we were over, over the river and then they didn’t have time to get, get there and do anything. We’d gone by the time they woke up to what happened but I remember we did this two days running. We did it was the same, same town almost, almost the same spot in the Gironde Estuary. We came hammering over the Bay of Biscay at fifty feet. As we got to the coast we had to rise up a bit because there was about a thirty foot lump of hillocks and trees and stuff there so we went up a bit and as we crossed the beach I looked down and there was an old horse. You could see it was an old horse because we were only fifty or thirty feet from him looking down. It was slightly to my left just plodding along. An old draft horse it was and the driver was sitting up on the cart. He didn’t look up and the horse didn’t look up. No one, neither of them looked up. We just shot over the top of them at about thirty feet above them because they had come up on this slight rise, this twenty foot rise from the, from the sand where the estuary started and I don’t know what happened to them afterwards. We didn’t drop anything or do anything nasty to them. They were probably French anyway. Not that that would have stopped me if I’d, if I’d had to bomb them but we didn’t have to bomb them. We just went along the estuary until we found the fuel oil tanks that we were going to do a bit of damage to. They were, they were used from time to time by submarines that’d sail up this estuary at night and fill up there. We were, this flight was in daylight of course. Beautiful day. No wind hardly. Blue skies. Not a cloud in the sky. A delightful day. I think I had my twenty sixth birthday that day so I got a nice birthday present. A nice trip to southern of France to the Gironde Estuary at fifty feet over the Bay of Biscay and we dropped bombs on it and I’ve got photographs of the, of the target area with a ship lying on its side. It wouldn’t have been our bomb because it was someone in front of me rolled the ship over with a bomb. He was supposed to bomb the tanks but he might have just bombed the ship instead. Now that was, that was August the 5th. I know that because it was my birthday the next day. No. August the 4th that’s right. August the 5th was my birthday. The second, the next day we, we did exactly the same route. Flew down to the south coast of England, turned right, almost to the south coast, and went down through Somerset and all those places to Lands End and off the end of Lands End at fifty feet, gradually taking it down to fifty feet as we got near Lands End. And this was the second day and we were all going hell for leather towards the er the Gironde Estuary as usual at a little town call Pauillac. P A U I L L A C. Pauillac. This was the second day and they were both, both in Pauillac but slightly different positions in Pauillac and we had ten thousand pounds of bombs on board approximately. Ten thousand five hundred pounds of bombs carrying on that one and it took us seven hours fifty five minutes altogether but as we were approaching the estuary out over the bay the rear gunner called up, ‘Someone’s going in.’ I looked around and there was a great splash of water still hanging in the air. One of the Lancs had dived into the, into the water but what had happened he’d collided with one of his friends from the same squadron. They were showing how close they could fly together which was the last thing they ever did. One of them survived but one didn’t. Anyway, on that, that, that occasion we, we didn’t go back to Kelstern because there was something wrong with the weather by the time we’d gone. To have two bright, sunny days over England in a row was a bit unusual and it was just the usual thing you know. It had clouded over or something. This was August. Well August can be cloudy or it can be very nice in England. Yeah but anyway it was too cloudy or foggy or something to land there so we landed at a different airfield, a place called Gamston. Gamston. That was a Wellington training base I think, at the time. Gamston. So they had a nice, nice long runway. One interesting thing happened with that. We had to just fly back to our base next door. We just had one night there sitting in chairs, sleeping in chairs, in the mess. Well the next day we returned, the weather cleared at Kelstern. Took us fifteen minutes to get from Gamston in the Midlands, more or less, to Kelstern in Lincolnshire and I remember taking off. I didn’t think, didn’t think of it at the time but we didn’t need to take off like we had nine thousand pounds of bombs on board at all. You know, we had very little fuel. See, that trip was a fairly long trip. Took us almost eight hours in the air and we didn’t have much petrol left when we got back and they didn’t fill it up. They said, ‘Oh you’ve got enough fuel to get back to’ [Gamston], or to ‘Kelstern alright.’ I just took off as usual and as usual was I usually took off in a Lancaster with about fifteen thousand pounds of bombs on it something like that and about two thousand gallons of petrol which I carried on a short trip and I just opened the throttles up and she lifted off, off the ground in about two hundred yards or less, a hundred and seventy, a hundred and eighty yards or something. Just floated up in to the air. I realised then that I didn’t need to open it up to full bore really. I could have probably opened up and we’d never been trained to take off a Lancaster when it was a light load. You were always shown how to take off in a Lancaster as fast as possible with the load that you’d got but of course I flew it a few times with only a light load and I knew what I was doing but the excitement of the trip and seeing the Lancasters behind us causing a great splash in the Bay of Biscay had changed, took my mind off what I was doing I suppose but up she went and we were home in about ten minutes or fifteen minutes I put down here I think. Fifteen minutes trip back to Kelstern. That includes landing it too. And that was about halfway through my tour but we kept going various places. Le Havre, that’s right on the French coast when they, they were trying to get Germans out of the forts that they had or buildings they had taken over in Le Havre which is on the coast of France opposite England. We bombed them in daylight of course. Half of my trips were in daylight. Sixteen. I did thirty two altogether. I did one more than I really needed to so sixteen night and fifteen day or something like that and I used to like the daylight ones because you’d look up and you’d see about two hundred spitfires and about a hundred something else, American fighters, sitting above you, about one or two thousand feet just above where you were flying so we mostly did our, our operations at about fifteen thousand feet. Frankfurt for instance. We did that at about seventeen thousand eight hundred feet. That was a good one. I liked Frankfurt. That was the night one of my best friends on 467 squadron, which is an Australian squadron near, near the town of Lincoln. Just south, south east I think of Lincoln. 467 squadron. I think you mentioned you had a friend in 467 squadron. Yeah, Bomber Command, 467 squadron crew. A relative of yours -
AP: Correct
AA: Flew. Right?
AP: Yeah. A few months before that but yes.
AA: Yeah. Yeah. So he was in March or April.
AP: May, it was.
AA: Yeah, 10th of May that’s right. Yeah, well I had this friend of mine in, in, in 467 squadron he was a deputy flight commander and he said they’re having a very rough time at the moment because people are getting shot down all the time including our flight commanders and they made him a deputy flight commander as a flight lieutenant which was one rank higher than I was. I was a flying officer but fortunately for us I wasn’t in a, in a squadron where they were having a lot of calamities. It was just a little less than average. I think it was because I think it was because it was a more disciplined squadron. The RAF was a lot more disciplined than the RAAF. Particularly the RAAF squadrons in England. They were noted for a bit of a lack of doing the right thing a lot of the time. I know they didn’t do the right thing by me because I visited, that Australian squadron, 460 squadron at Binbrook two or three times for various reasons. Sometimes to deliver a Lancaster there or bring one back from there. It was only about four miles from us because the, the, and the circuits interlinked so you had to be a bit careful that you didn’t fly into a 460 squadron Lancaster going in the opposite direction. But what I didn’t like about it I hung my cap, fortunately it wasn’t the round cap just the four and a half cap on the hook in the hall like I, in the, in the ante room like I did in my own squadron and I found someone had stolen it immediately. I wasn’t there that long. I just had lunch there. Took about half an hour. I thought I was doing alright. I go back and no cap. Well, I didn’t need it to fly a Lancaster because I had a flying helmet which I still had that in the, in the Lancaster or something like that but anyway you had to have a flying helmet. I hadn’t lost that. Just the ‘fore and aft’ cap. So I reckon the Australian squadron of [inclined] to be full of ill-disciplined, bloody thieves in a large, large section of them and that was, that was my opinion of the RAF as against the Australians like comparing the Australians were like a bloody Boy Scout troops except not quite so honest as the Scouts would be. And I didn’t like them. My, my old friend Dave Browne was, he had a bit of bad luck. He was, he got to his twenty sixth operation. I think they’d just made him a flight lieutenant, second in command of his flight and he did a couple of operations the same night as I did. I bombed Frankfurt September the, September the 12th 1944 Frankfurt and Dave Browne got shot down on that same night so it wasn’t much good him being a flight lieutenant and second in charge of the flight. It didn’t do him any good. Frankfurt. We bombed from seventeen thousand eight hundred feet and one thing I noticed about Frankfurt as we flew over it in a, in a sort of south easterly direction and came around, swung around to the left and flew back past it and you could look down and see Frankfurt and it looked just like Melbourne at night with the streets were all lit up but it wasn’t lights it was the burning buildings on each side of, of the street. Frankfurt was on fire that night and I set fire to most of it. Or a lot of it. Anyway, we had a good one on that. Frankfurt. Yeah. You probably think it’s a bit rough to think of burning people alive but it didn’t worry us. I’d seen, I’d seen Coventry in England. I’d seen Brighton. I’d seen a street in London where I used to go past and walk down part of. It was there from the first time I got to England in 1943, about July ‘43 and I’d seen this little street. Very attractive houses still intact and one night around about this time I happened to be in London again and it was a complete shambles. The Germans had sent up a special, special group of planes, probably not very many and bombed the hell out of it or it could have been those flying bombs I don’t know. Probably more likely to be that. The buzz bombs. They would do that. They were quite erratic. You never knew where they were going to land. I was in London when the first ones came over on leave. I looked out of the window of the hotel I was on the third floor of. A private hotel. It was the top floor and I heard this bop bopbopbopbop sound going across the sky. Just sounded just like my old motorbike. My 350 Calthorpe. Same sound except that there was this light at the back of it. My Calthorpe never had a light at the back of it. Oh it had a little red light you could hardly see but never had a big white glow at the back of it and it certainly didn’t go as fast as the buzz bombs but I can remember the anti-aircraft guns in London were firing at the thing but they never hit it and I could see what was happening. I could hear shrapnel starting from the, the exploding bomb started to land on the roof. I was up on the top floor and I could hear the things clang clanging on the top of the roof. Steel pieces from the, from the shells that they were shooting up at the flying bomb and not getting anywhere near it. I got under the bed for a while but I thought, ‘What will I do?’ There was no air raid shelter there so I just stayed under the bed till things quietened down and stopped firing. You could hear the guns going off as well as the buzz bomb flying over London. Everything went quiet after a while and I heard where it landed. It landed somewhere near a railway station up in er it would have been north east London a bit. North east somewhere. I’ve used that station afterwards when on my trips. I went, I did about half a dozen trips to, back to Europe, after the war, after I was married, with my wife and we went all over England and Scotland and Germany too. France and Germany. I liked the Germans. We got on very well with them. My last trip to Germany was in 1993, 1993 I think it was. We went with a group from the RAF association over in, it was in South Yarrow then. Frank. A bloke called Frank someone or other was the leader and apart from a lot of trips around England which we did which was very nice that included a visit to the Victory ship down on the south coast somewhere. We cruised, we visited the battle areas in France and then when we got to Germany we got to, I think we flew to Berlin and they had a, a small bus waiting for us and with two German air force pilots as drivers. One’s the driver. One’s the, one’s the navigator. Very nice blokes and they drove us all over middle Germany and East Germany, Not the north and not the very south either but the middle Germany. Berlin and then over to the French border where the southwest part of Germany is and they took it in turns to drive and navigate and when we got back to Frankfurt where I had done so much damage they’ve got a new, big new wide boulevard through the centre of Frankfurt. I knew the name of it at one stage but I can’t remember it now but they can thank me for putting that there. I removed a lot of old scruffy houses from a great strip in the middle of Frankfurt and they’ve got a big boulevard like St Kilda Road runs through it. Well, I did that, half the work for them. But anyway these two German blokes we got on very well with them and they took us to a couple of their airfields on the east border of Germany which used to be East Germany. It had just been changed, just amalgamated with West Germany in about 1995 or something like that.
AP: Before that. 1990
AA: 1990 was it?
AP: ’89 or – [? Just.]
AA: Oh that’s right ‘93 when I was there and the remains of the war were still there the West German wall but we went to the West German border somewhere near a town called Cottbus I think and there was a, air force station. They gave us a very good reception. Nice light lunch and so on and showed us the latest airplanes they had and we climbed all over the latest fighter the Germans had. In fact, the leader, the leader of the expedition Frank Wilson, that’s his name, he was a Lancaster pilot, he managed to get inside in the cockpit and wriggle the controls of one of them which was in the, in the hangar we were standing in. Then they did a bit of a demonstration flight for us. Low flying and a few aerobatics and so on.
AP: Beautiful.
AA: That was good. Then after that they drove us, the two blokes in this small bus drove us to the river which is the border I think between France and Germany on the west somewhere near the Rhine yeah it’s on the Rhine town Wesel W E S E L Wesel and we were taken as guests, honoured guests to a annual meeting of the ex-fighter pilots association.
AP: Wow.
AA: And they were all, had all these long tables in this room there with these pots of beer and they were singing songs, you know, bouncing these songs around. Our leader, Frank, he had to make a speech. He got up on the, on the stage and spoke to them and I suppose about three quarters of them would understand. They speak a lot of English in Germany and they were bouncing their big pots on the, on the ground and I turned back to the bloke next to me, he was German but he spoke English, they made sure we had a English speaking people sprinkled amongst our travel lot so we could ask any questions. I said, ‘What are they singing now?’ You know they were stamping their feet and banging their pots on the table, wooden tables and they said, ‘Oh that’s, “We’re marching against England.” ’ That’s what he said [laughs] and I said, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ Yeah and oh I got that plaque there from him, yeah.
AP: Nice.
AA: I got, we got a couple of pictures from him I don’t think they’re here. No. Mind your feet. I’ll just get the plaque down show you we got from him. From the opposition. There you are. How’s your German? Any good?
AP: Fair, Fair [?] it’s like an association of um fighter flyers associations.
AA: That’s right. Fighter.
AP: Yeah.
AA: They’re called flyers.
AP: [? ]That’s fantastic. I might take a photo of that later.
AA: Yeah. Well that’s come out its plug.
AP: Yeah that’s alright. It’s coming through the internal microphone now.
AA: Oh.
AP: Yeah, I couldn’t make it work so.
AA: That’s one of my favourite aircraft.
AP: Ah that’s an Anson.
AA: I used to like, I could fly them at night. Anytime. They’re good. Avro Anson.
AP: Yeah. Fantastic.
AA: And that’s the uniform we used to wear. That round cap beret with a sort of a what we called a goon skins they were, sort of one piece overalls and they used to try and make us wear them at, in mid-summer, at that place in South Australia where it was a hundred and eight degrees three days running and it was so hot you couldn’t sit on the metal beds inside the huts because they send they heat out more than the hut itself but anyway we talked, talked the boss into letting us wear shorts and shirts after a while. So, we weren’t so bad. And what else? On my last operation was on Cologne. Ah yes I, when I finished my tour in, here you are on, as a middle multi engine and that’s -
AP: above average yeah I read that.
AA: Well I got that for the Airspeed Oxford too but that was for being a good pilot but I think if you got back from thirty two trips he reckoned you must be above the average so he always gave that to someone who finished a tour which I did. Not everyone finished the tour. Old Dave Browne didn’t.
AP: Many of them didn’t.
AA: When my last operation was October the 31st on Cologne. What did we carry there? One four thousand. One blockbuster four thousand pounder and the rest in high explosive bombs but a lot of the times we carried about fifteen thousand pounds of bombs. Here’s one. Oh that’s fourteen thousand feet. Here’s another one thirteen, thirteen thousand pound bombs plus four five hundred pounders. Well that’s fifteen thousand pounds altogether which is about six and three quarter tons isn’t it?
AP: [?] yeah
AA: Divided by 2240 you get about six tons, six and a quarter tonnes. That’s a lot of weight you’re carrying and then there’s the petrol as well as that. Course that’s, that’s fairly high loaded. That was in Calais. We took part really in the invasion of Germany, of Europe. A lot of our work was supporting the, the British army. When they came up against a rather sticky situation they’d call for help from the RAF and we’d do a daylight trip on them so we wouldn’t bomb them instead of the opposition that they were complaining about and you know you killed a lot of Germans that way without killing any British. We never killed any British. We knocked off a lot of Frogs working with the Germans. Mostly in a little town just on the invasion coast. Where was it? [shuffling papers]. I don’t know. Another interesting thing was I’d flown over about eight different countries in Europe in a Lancaster. Eight. Including Sweden and Switzerland and Norway and Denmark and of course France and Germany and England and Wales and Scotland. I’ve been around in that Lancaster and that was a beautiful thing to fly. It was like flying, driving a Mercedes Benz. Beautiful. And probably your motorbike. Get as much enjoyment out of it except that that’s got a smaller engine than I had in my 350. Oh, yes, here you are. Have a look at this. There’s my motorbike.
AP: Oh fantastic. When’s that?
AA: Er that was -
AP: July 1938.
AA: ’38. I got that bike in ‘36. 1936. I wish I still had the damned thing. I shouldn’t have sold these things but I wanted to buy a car so I got a few shekels for that when I sold it, not very many and then bought a Singer Le Mans. A 1938 Singer.
AP: Fantastic.
AA: I haven’t got a picture of that but up there see those two top pictures.
AP: Yep.
AA: They’re of a car I had in England. That’s a Singer Le Mans. A nineteen, they’re both pictures of a restored, one’s been restored perfectly and the other is a lash up job um restored 1934 model Singer. Singer Le Mans because they did a lot of racing of Singer Le Mans and had a lot of victories and beat the MGs but then the next year in 1935 and, or ‘36 or something they had a lot of trouble with their brakes and they didn’t do any good at all but that, see that little black one.
AP: Yeah.
AA: In the corner? That’s the real one. That’s the one I had.
AP: That’s the one.
AA: In England.
AP: Was? As in this is when you were serving in England?
AA: Oh yeah. Yeah.
AP: Yeah. So, how did you get that car and what happened to it?
AA: Well it cost me sixty pounds. It was in the, just advertised in the local paper in Louth which is the local town for Kelstern and I just went along and bought it for sixty pounds. I had sixty pounds. We were fairly well paid and I didn’t gamble like, like most of my crew. They seemed to lose all their money but I never lent them anything. No. I was thinking if they’re going to lose their bloody money it’s their own fault. One of the blokes in the crew wanted to get married and he sent me a telegram. Unfortunately he wanted to borrow twenty pounds off me but fortunately I was on leave at the time so I never got that telegram until I got back from leave after his marriage day so that got me out of that. But that had two exhaust pipes like, like your bike out there but they just came out of one cylinder, one 350cc cylinder. Now, that was a beauty. One of the most thrilling experiences in my whole life and that includes Lancasters and anything, any other bloody thing was when I got that bloody bike.
AP: That motorbike. Fantastic.
AA: Yeah.
AP: Carrying on for a moment with the car. How did you fuel it?
AA: Oh we got an issue of four gallons a month if you were operational air crew. Well, I was an operational aircrew for six months because I was still on the squadron and I did four months actual, four months actual flying in Lancasters but then the CO decided to keep me on the squadron because I had an above-average rating for flying Airspeed Oxfords. Well, he had an Airspeed Oxford at his disposal and he used to like to go to visit other squadrons and perhaps his girlfriend’s town, I don’t know, and he like me to come along the next day, with a navigator of course, and bring him and bring him his aeroplane back and he’d fly it back. So he’d fly it to from Kelstern to Westcott or somewhere like that get out there at that airfield and I’d fly it back until I heard from him.
AP: That’s not a bad job is it?
AA: Well, he, he kept me on the station from the end of October, November, December till about half way through January doing that and he gave me a DFC for it. For being a good boy. Actually, most skippers of Lancasters if they completed a tour successfully got a DFC but he made sure I got one and I used to fly him everywhere. I even did a couple of trips to London with him I think. Or at least one anyway. And most of that would be around Lincolnshire somewhere and oh yes I had to investigate a crash on one occasion and I was, this was the first time I’d flown his Lanc, his Airspeed Oxford. We had to go to a station on the, on the south east coast, the south east coast of England, you know, and one of our Lancasters, it was a very bad night. Where were we bombing that night? I don’t know. Anyway, we were coming back from the middle of Germany somewhere and we were all told to fly over, over the top of a cold front that was approaching to get home again. As they said, ‘You’re going out you don’t have to worry about the trip to’ wherever you’re going ‘but when you’re coming back fly at twenty three thousand feet to get over the top of this electrical storm which you’ll run into.’
AP: Higher than that
AA: Well I was flying at twenty four thousand feet and it was very comfortable. We had a very nice bombing trip, killed a lot of nice Germans and we were flying back and there was no chance of the Luftwaffe chasing us at that stage because the weather down below looked pretty crook at times. It was nice and clear upside where we were until the rear gunner called out, ‘Hey skipper, my oxygen has gone out. I can’t get any oxygen.’ Well, he wanted me to say, ‘Well, oh well leave your turret and come inside,’ and I didn’t want to do that. I wanted the protection from him at the back as the most vulnerable side for us. The rear. The Germans liked to follow us up from the back. If possible shoot the rear gunner and shoot the rest of us and I said, ‘Look Ron.’ Ron smith his name was. ‘Look, I’ll take you down five thousand feet and that’ll get us down to eighteen, seventeen or eighteen thousand feet. You’ll be alright there.’ And he lived. I took it down to eighteen, seventeen thousand feet and we went through the top of this electrical storm. It worried me a little bit because it was pretty rough you know. The old Lanc was bouncing around a lot and fortunately we didn’t have any load on at this stage. We were empty. Just the petrol to get home and the four propellers each had a blue ring around the tip. You could see the big round blue circle around the tip and on the windscreen this little zigzag all over the windscreen. Sparks coming down the windscreen from the lightning. We were loaded. Loaded with lightning. However, we got past there. We got through it. It was a bit rough, you know. It was a bit bouncy but that didn’t worry me much. I was, I was more concerned about what the lightning was going to do. Whether it was going to get any worse than it was but we got back and he didn’t say much when we got back. I think he was reasonably grateful but at least he could breathe on the way home. He got out of there and plugged himself in to, no, he didn’t, he stopped in the turret. That’s right. I think what he wanted me to tell him to get out and plug himself in to one of the other outlets inside not in his, he was right in the back stuck in the glass with a big opening on the back so he could see clearly and er but he stopped there and he didn’t have to warn us that there was anyone else coming up behind us. I didn’t think there would be. Not through that storm. They would have, they would have corkscrewed into the ground I reckon if a fighter had tried to fly through there. It was bad enough in a Lancaster but that day, why I’m telling you that story, we lost a couple of Lancasters and one of them that didn’t come back they found it had dived into the sand, and into the sandy soil off the beach on the, in Norfolk somewhere and I was detailed by the CO with the knowledge that I hadn’t started flying him around to his girlfriend’s houses or anything at this stage but he’d seen the logbook. He used to read through everyone’s logbook. We had to put this in every month you see and he used to read everything in it. Better than reading the “Sporting Globe” I suppose but anyway he read that something like the same thing, you know, the competition the Germans and the British but we got, we got I was just detailed to fly this Oxford which I hadn’t forgotten how to fly to this American airfield on the, on the east, southeast coast there somewhere in Norfolk or Suffolk or, no, I think it would be Norfolk really but anyway we found the spot where the Lancaster had crashed and it had dived straight down apparently and the engines were twelve feet under the ground we estimated. Just an estimate by what was left of the Lancaster sticking up out of the back of it and as we were looking at er, looking at it a farmer wandered up and said to us, ‘Good day.’ He said, ‘There’s more remains over in the trees there.’ and I said, ‘Well, look we’re just inspecting the wreckage of the Lancaster. Someone else will be coming for the remains.’ So, I didn’t want to get stirred up with the remains of the, of the crew but that was his greeting to us, ‘there’s remains over in the trees there.’ So in, at the hit, Lancaster bits and pieces including the tree must have flown in every direction to have hit and got the engines that far underground. Must have been a bad one. It must have dived down from about ten thousand feet or something. Fifteen thousand. I don’t know. Twenty thousand. I don’t know but I was very glad we missed that thing ourselves but that was the closest thing I think we had to get into trouble. But no I’ve been to Poland twice. We went across the North Sea as usual. Across Norway. Now, this trip took about nine hours. Crossed in to Sweden which was neutral. As we got to the central of the Swedish, you know, it’s a long thing, goes up and down and I think the best parts are down low somewhere on the Baltic. Turned right there and headed south and on the way down the Swedes sent up a whole lot of Bofors shells but they only go to sixteen thousand feet. We were at about eighteen or nineteen thousand and it was a very pretty show actually. They come up in their bright colours reds and greens sometimes. Mostly reds. They used come up and you could see them coming up and bending gracefully over, starting to fall and blow up there. Bofors, 40mm but every now and again some keen type of Swede or someone who didn’t like the British, in the Swedish army, would send up a shot from a German 88mm high explosive shell but fortunately they were about four hundred yards on my left as I was flying south to Stettin in er in what is now Poland and I don’t think they hit anyone on that night but certainly I never saw them hit anyone there with their shells. I think they might have been trying though. As I say there was a keen type on the end of a German 88mm gun or a Swedish 88mm gun but that’s just the same sort of explosion as the Germans had at about, you know, we were at about eighteen thousand feet. And Bofors were 40mm guns which most of the Swedes were just sending up to let the British know that they weren’t allowed to fly over Sweden on the, in the rules, I don’t know what rules ruled most in those days but they let us know that we weren’t particularly welcome unless we had plenty of money to spend sort of thing. The Swedes used to sell steel to both the Germans and the British.
AP: But they were neutral.
AA: Well so did I. So were the Switzerland Swiss but we went over a corner of Switzerland at one stage. Where else did we go? I think they were the only neutral, neutral countries we flew over. I went to Stettin. That’s in Poland now. Used to be spelled S T E T T I N when the Germans had it. Now it’s spelt S C H E and something else, you know, Polish.
AP: A Polish name.
AA: Yeah.
AP: Makes sense.
AA: That’s about it.
AP: Were there any, I’ve got a couple, a couple more specific questions that I’d like to ask if -
AA: Yeah.
AP: If you don’t mind. Were there any hoodoos or superstitions with your squadron?
AA: No. There was no superstition. Just hope. Just hope that it doesn’t happen to you.
AP: Fair enough.
AA: Yeah. Oh no. We didn’t actually think about that much because we, when I look back I think we didn’t worry. We were used to going to town. Drink all the beer in Louth which was the local pub. I had a nice girlfriend, a WAAF, I used to go around with all the time. We used to go down to Binbrook in that black Singer. The black, the little black one in the corner there. It was the Plough Inn in Binbrook. We used to go down there and drink bottled beer. She liked bottled beer. I remember we went to, there was a dance in the sergeants’ mess. I wasn’t allowed to go. Officers weren’t allowed to go to that and I knew she was going to be there so I said, ‘Oh I think I’ll see you there.’ So, I borrowed the rear gunners, well he owed it to me for saving his life. I borrowed his, one of his spare tunics. He was a sergeant and I went along to the sergeants’ mess in it, just wearing the same blue pants that I normally had on and with his jacket on with the one wing and I’m dancing around with my girlfriend and the flight lieutenant um he was the orderly officer or something. He was, no, the squadron, the squadron something. He had some official position anyway. His job was to sort of get around and make sure everything was going all right and also collect the belongings of the people who got shot down, which happened from time to time. They used to come in at about 3am in the morning and wake me up while I was asleep and collecting all someone’s belongings. Which was, I didn’t like my sleep being disturbed like that. But what was he? Anyway, I got the job as assistant to him so that I could stay in the assistant, not orderly officer, some other name they used to use for this particular job and he used to, his main office was in the same little building as the CO’s office. And anyway, he said to me, he was allowed to be there because he’s the orderly bloke or the, what did they call him? I was, they actually made me the assistant something or other. I might think about it later. Anyway, I was being groomed to be in his, in his place when he went on leave in about three weeks’ time and we got on very well together and he looked across to me and said, ‘Ah,’ wearing my gunners uniform, ‘Ah Flying Officer Atkins,’ he says, ‘Are you enjoying the dance?’ I said, ‘Yes thanks, sir.’ ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘Oh well that’s good. I’ll see you in the morning.’ Well of course he didn’t give a damn anyway. If no one else complained he wasn’t going to complain. Fortunately, the boss, Cocky, the wing commander, wasn’t attending the dance. He was probably attending his girlfriends, girlfriend in the local pub. He used to have her stashed up in the pub at times because I, I was very friendly with one of the telephone operators and she used to tell me who he used to ring up. She just, oh that was the life. That was the one I used to take down to the Plough Inn at Binbrook and drink bottled beer with and of course it was mid-winter when I was visiting Binbrook. Very icy roads and where it went down in to a bit of a dip it was icier than ever. I remember we drifted down in to this dip, this girl and I, and only a two seater of course. There, you can see that. There’s only room for two people in those, those cars and anyway it did a complete, it slipped around did a complete circuit around this -
AP: Just like a -
AA: Black ice.
AP: Just like a Halifax.
AA: Oh yeah. Yeah but when it went right around with a Halifax I had to drive it around. This one spun around like bloody top on the ice. I must have pressed the wrong buttons or something. Anyway, we, we just drove out of it, drove out very carefully, very slowly. Drove out and parked in its usual spot outside the side of the Plough Inn in Binbrook village.
AP: Nothing happened to you.
AA: Good.
AP: You said the circuits with Binbrook and Kelstern interlinked.
AA: They crossed.
AP: Yeah.
AA: Interlinked.
AP: Were they separated in some way like levels or something like that? Or was it just a case of -
AA: No. We always used to do the circuit at a thousand feet and as far as I know no one’s ever said to me, ‘Binbrook’s going to be doing it at the same time.’
AP: Sounds a bit terrifying. I should, I should declare an interest here. I’m an air traffic controller so that sounds terrifying to me.
AA: Oh, well, if you saw a Lancaster operation that would be terrifying just to look at.
AP: I think you’re probably right. I think you’re probably right. What five miles?
AA: Talk about fireworks. My first navigator, I had him until about the middle of the tour until his nerve gave out. After he, after I, after the war I met the, my wireless operator a few times. A fellow named Trevor something. Trevor Jones. A very nice bloke and an excellent wireless operator. Never missed a beat. He got all the messages out and all, sent them all back as they should have and that had a lot to do with surviving. If there was a shift in the wind he’d know that. And this navigator was very accurate. We used to, I used to time it in minutes the time arriving at the target. I used to think back, ‘Now will these bastards be asleep or will they be open or will they be up having their breakfast or what will they be doing?’ And that would depend on whether I was there three minutes before the bombing started or about two minutes after it. After they’d, after they’d dropped their first few shots off and were loading their guns again. And he told me that when we were, every target we were over instead of, he used to say, ‘Tom,’ Tom was the navigator, ‘Tom, have a look out. It’s beautiful,’ you know. ‘There’s fireworks everywhere,’ he used to say. Well there were too. You’d see them going off. Red, green, blue, black everything. Mostly, mostly red and green. And the man in charge of the operation would be circling this town. Say it’s Stuttgart or something, circling around saying, ‘Bomb the greens, bomb the greens. The reds are too far south,’ or something like that and giving us instructions. Then, ‘Go home now,’ or something or, ‘Wait,’ wait till we get to bomb the markers in or something. That didn’t, fortunately, the waiting thing didn’t happen but I used to hear him say, and sometimes he’d just tell us to take our bombs home. He said, ‘I can’t see the target. There’s too much dust and smoke. Take your bombs home and return to base.’ That was very annoying because I liked to drop the bombs. I didn’t like to land with a load of bombs on but sometimes we had to land with six and a half tonnes underneath you.
AP: Of high explosive. Thanks.
AA: Well -
AP: Question I like asking pilots. Your first solo. What happened?
AA: What the, the first solo in what?
AP: Your first ever solo. So the Tiger Moth.
AA: Oh the Tiger Moth. I did a very good landing. That’s all I can say about it. It was nice. I was, I knew a lot about aeroplanes because I used to fly, you know, model aeroplanes. Light aeroplanes. You could, you would wind the thing up, run along the concrete path and rise up in the air. Little ones. I did that for five or six years when I was a kid. I was very interested in them so I knew what they did. I knew how you bent the wings and how you bent the tail plane to make them level and that helped me a lot. A lot of these blokes had never been in an aeroplane or never seen a toy aeroplane even and had certainly never driven a car half the time. This bloke Dave Browne who was a friend of mine I was going to go and visit him and show him my, my new car, new car [laughs] a 1934 model at, at that place near Lincoln. I don’t think he had a driver’s licence. He’d never had one. He was eighteen. Just eighteen when he, he would have been when he left school. He left school and joined the air force. Got on the reserve. Nice bloke. What question did you ask me then?
AP: First solo.
AA: Oh first solo. Yeah. Well there wasn’t anything special. I liked flying. I liked, I liked flying the Tiger Moth. I knew I could fly it alright. I knew just how to fly it. So when my first solo came up he said, ‘Ok off you go.’ I just flew it up and around exactly the same as I did when I was with him. Did just the one circuit and landed it without bouncing it unduly. Some people bounced those Tigers fifteen feet into the air.
AP: I’ve done it myself.
AA: Oh have you?
AP: I have.
AA: Oh God. Well I never did. I never bounced it more than a foot or two feet at the most I don’t think.
AP: I’ve had shockers.
AA: But er I, I have flown them since the war.
AP: Yes [that was my next question]
AA: But only with an instructor. In the, in the back seat I think the instructor was. The funny thing when we were under instruction on Tigers during the war I was in the back seat and the instructor was in the front.
AP: Yeah.
AA: Well, when I flew them for a fifty dollar flight or something I was in the front seat and it was a bit unusual and the instructor was in the back. I remember on one occasion I went up in a flight in a Tiger and I was talking to the pilot and the instructor first before we went in and said, ‘I hope you’ll let me have a go at flying this thing.’ and he said, ‘Oh, yeah. Well, have you flown them before?’ I said, ‘Oh yes. Yes, I’ve flown them plenty of times.’ He said ‘Oh? Where were you flying them?’ I said, ‘Oh at Benalla.’ ‘Oh Benalla,’ he said ,’Oh.’ He didn’t seem to know what the, Benalla was the, the head office for Tiger flying in the RAF, RAAF I mean, in nineteen, what would it have been? 1942, yeah when I was flying them in Benalla.
AP: Have you flown them much?
AA: ’42 ‘43 ‘42 ‘41
AP: Have you flown much since the war?
AA: Only in passenger planes.
AP: Yeah. [?]
AA: No. I’ve never flown anything except a Tiger Moth since the war but I have flown in the Concorde from -
AP: Oh lovely.
AA: From London to, my wife too with me, Heathrow to that big airfield near New York. What is it?
AP: JFK.
AA: Hmmn?
AP: JFK.
AA: Yeah, that’s it. Yeah and we were booked to fly in a helicopter from JFK to somewhere near the centre of New York and that was because we were doing a first class trip all around the world. I didn’t intend to do it actually do it first class but the way it happened I said, ‘Oh well first class will do,’ because they said it’ll only be about, what you’ve got to pay it will only be about five hundred dollars difference from flying first class all the way from Australia to around the world. So we went first class. I think the next time I we went first class too it wasn’t that bad it wasn’t that much difference to business class really. We used to fly business class mostly. I think we did six, six trips to England. First of all cattle class and then business class and then first class but Quantas’ first class was, it was the pits.
AP: Still, still more comfortable I imagine than a Lancaster.
AA: No. The Lancaster was very comfortable. I felt more comfortable in a Lancaster than I ever felt in a Quantas first class. Do you know where they put us? As close to the toilet door as that. The two of us. Right, right opposite the toilets. The blokes used to come in and out of the toilet doing their flies up and we were sitting, sitting there. Well that was the finish. I’ve never flown in Quantas since.
AP: Oh really?
AA: That’s right.
AP: There you go.
AA: You can tell them that. You can tell them as much as you like.
AP: I have one more question for you. It’s probably the most important one.
AA: Yeah.
AP: How, what do you think Bomber Command’s legacy is and how do you want to see it remembered.
AA: I think it will all be remembered by the people who were in it alright but well I think they’ve got this new place in the Green Park. That, that does a lot for them but I can understand why the people in, up the north decided to have a memorial. They’ve probably got relatives or sons or something or fathers or grandfathers who’ve been in it and they want to make a point of it. That they get remembered for what they did and you know the fifty thousand I think RAF types who got killed in Bomber Command. I think it was a figure something like that. I think it was about three thousand Australians in Bomber Command that were killed and I’m doing something to remember them in Melbourne. I’ve organised a new boat to be built by the rowing club in the city that I’m interested in and I’m putting David Browne’s name on it.
AP: [Beautiful].
AA: Instead of mine. They usually, if someone gives them a boat, they usually put their name on it. I had, I’ve given them a boat about twenty years ago, thirty years ago with my hard earned cash and I had my name on it. Arthur Atkins, on both sides of the point. Well they’re going to put David Browne’s name on it because he was a nice bloke. Well, that’s why I think the people in Lincolnshire are doing a good thing. North Lincolnshire? Where is it again? Where are they putting this memorial? Do you know?
AP: It’s, it’s within sight of Lincoln Cathedral.
AA: Oh.
AP: It’s on a hill. I don’t know the direction. I haven’t been there myself yet unfortunately.
AA: Ah yeah.
AP: But it’s on a hill within sight of the cathedral.
AA: That’s, that’s not in the freezing north of Lincolnshire.
AP: No. I don’t think it is.
AA: No. Well that’s where I was. Lincolnshire. Well Yorkshire was worse, of course. I drove my car from, all over England. Only one thing wrong with it. Oh well no, wrong, the most, the most, the worst thing that was wrong with it was the fact that it never had a hand brake and of course on one occasion the hydraulic main operating thing busted it’s rubber washer so I had no brakes and the funniest thing was I was going along a street and you know I just used to rev the engine and drop it down a couple of cogs if I wanted to stop it. Coming around, I came down the street like I was driving the car down here with just, fairly gently and I wanted to turn right here and just as I got turning right, you know, at about ten miles an hour or something a bloke with about four, four greyhounds were walking down the street crossed right in front of me.
AP: No brakes.
AA: No brakes at all and I wasn’t in a low enough gear to make any difference and I wouldn’t have time. So do you know what I did? I put my foot out like that and dragged it along ground and that stopped it. The foot stopped it.
AP: Like a motorbike.
AA: Eh?
AP: Like a motorbike.
AA: Well I had a motorbike once. I knew how to stop that. I knew what to do with that.
AP: Very good. Well I think that’s, you’ve been talking pretty well nonstop for two and a quarter hours now.
AA: Have I?
AP: That’s a pretty good effort.
AA: I’m sorry.
AP: No. That’s excellent. There’s some really good stuff in there. This, this is one of the easiest interviews I’ve said, I’ve done because I asked you one question at the start.
AA: Yeah.
AP: And then I sat back and just listened.
AA: Yeah.
AP: And it went. I timed it. It went for an hour and fifty before you took a break.
AA: Goodness
AP: So, thank you very much.
AA: No. I’m very, very interested
AP: Very, very much.
AA: In the air force and Bomber Command. I had a, it was the best job I ever had in my life was the air force. Especially the part when I was working for the RAF.
AP: Good.
AA: They were the real air force as they said. Not the Boy Scout air force like the RAAF.
AP: Fantastic.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Arthur Atkins
Description
An account of the resource
Arthur Atkins grew up in Melbourne, Australia. As a Boy Scout, he experienced a flight in an aircraft and knew he wanted to be a pilot. He transferred from the army to the Royal Australian Air Force and started pilot training in Australia. He travelled to Britain in 1943, via New Zealand and the United States of America. After further training at various stations, he was posted to 625 Squadron at RAF Kelstern. Among the operations he describes are leaflet drops over Chartres, the bombing of the Opel factory at Rüsselsheim, the Gironde Estuary, Le Havre, Frankfurt, Cologne and Stettin. He completed 32 operations. While stationed at RAF Kelstern he often visited the Plough Inn at Binbrook.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Adam Purcell
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-21
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Mal Prissick
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
02:13:42 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AAtkinsA151121
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Australia
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Poland--Szczecin
France--Chartres
France--Gironde Estuary
France--Le Havre
United States
Germany
France
Poland
California--San Francisco
California
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
27 OTU
625 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
control tower
entertainment
Halifax
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
promotion
propaganda
RAF Church Broughton
RAF Hemswell
RAF Kelstern
RAF Lichfield
searchlight
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/89/876/LCalvertRA1488619v1.1.pdf
a4d74b59eb8d89a89607ee6b934e1006
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Calvert, Roger
R A Calvert
Description
An account of the resource
Seven items. The collection consists of an oral history interview with Flight Lieutenant Roger Alfred Calvert (b. 1923, 1488619; 152814), his logbook, navigators training course class book and 3 photographs. Roger Calvert was a navigator with 141 Squadron at RAF West Raynham flying Mosquitos on night intruder operations. For most of his operational career his pilot was Flight Lieutenant John Thatcher.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Roger Calvert and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-04-24
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Calvert, R
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Roger Calvert's Royal Canadian Air Force flying log book for aircrew other than pilot
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LCalvertRA1488619v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Ontario--London
England--Bedfordshire
England--Herefordshire
England--Norfolk
England--Northumberland
France--Dieppe
France--Paris
France--Pas-de-Calais
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Darmstadt
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Emden (Lower Saxony)
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Germany--Merseburg
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Oberhausen (Düsseldorf)
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Germany--Schleswig-Holstein
Poland--Szczecin
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Wiesbaden
Netherlands--IJssel Lake
Netherlands--Zeist
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
Poland
Ontario
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Description
An account of the resource
Royal Canadian Air Force flying log book for aircrew other than pilot of Flight Lieutenant Roger Calvert from 25 March 1943 to 6 July 1945. Detailing training and operations flown. Served at RAF Cranfield, RAF Great Massingham, RAF Ouston, RAF Twinwood Farm and RAF West Raynham. Aircraft flown were Anson, Beaufighter, Mosquito, Oxford, Tiger Moth and Wellington. He carried out a total of 32 intruder operations as a navigator with 141 Squadron from RAF West Raynham on the following targets in France, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands: Bochum, Bremen, Darmstadt, Dieppe, Dortmund, Dresden, Emden, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Kiel, Mainz, Merseberg (Leipzig), Nuremberg, Oberhausen, Osnabruck, Pante-Lunne airfield, Paris, Pas de Calais, Politz, the Ruhr, Russelhelm, Schlesvig, Steenwjik aerodrome, Stettin, Stuttgart, Wiesbaden, Zeist and Zuider Zee. His pilots on operations were Squadron Leader Thatcher and Flying Officer Rimer. The log book is well annotated and contains a green endorsement and several photographs of aircraft flown and attacked. Notes include an air sea rescue sortie, the sighting of a V-2 and one Me-110 claimed.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944-07-18
1944-07-19
1944-07-20
1944-07-21
1944-08-07
1944-08-08
1944-08-09
1944-08-10
1944-08-11
1944-08-12
1944-08-12
1944-08-13
1944-08-16
1944-08-17
1944-08-18
1944-08-19
1944-08-25
1944-08-26
1944-08-26
1944-08-27
1944-08-30
1944-09-11
1944-09-12
1944-09-12
1944-09-13
1944-09-15
1944-09-16
1944-09-17
1944-10-04
1944-10-06
1944-10-09
1944-10-19
1944-10-26
1944-10-29
1944-11-01
1944-11-04
1944-11-06
1944-11-10
1945-01-13
1945-01-14
1945-01-15
1945-01-16
1945-01-17
1945-01-28
1945-01-29
1945-02-01
1945-02-02
1945-02-03
1945-02-04
1945-02-08
1945-02-09
1945-02-13
1945-02-14
1945-04-22
1945-04-23
1945
141 Squadron
21 Squadron
Air Gunnery School
Air Observers School
air sea rescue
aircrew
Anson
Beaufighter
bombing
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
Initial Training Wing
Me 110
Mosquito
navigator
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
RAF Cranfield
RAF Great Massingham
RAF Ouston
RAF Padgate
RAF Torquay
RAF Twinwood Farm
RAF West Raynham
Tiger Moth
training
V-2
V-weapon
Wellington