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25
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1875/46458/SHarriganD[Ser -DoB]v250002.mp3
8a097d5b21ae450b8b5f698d153762aa
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
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Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire
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
2017-06-19
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire
Description
An account of the resource
34 items. Interviews with veterans recorded by Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire.<br /><br />Interview with Bertie Salvage <br />Three part interview with Dougie Marsh <br />Interview with Terry Hodson <br />Interview with Stan Waite Interview with John Langston<br />Interview with Nelson Nix <br />Two part interview with Bob Panton <br />Interview with Basil Fish <br />Interview with Ernest Groeger <br />Interview with Wilf Keyte <br />Interview with Reginald John Herring <br />Interview with Kathleen Reid <br />Interview with Allan Holmes <br />Interview with John Tomlinson <br />Interview with Cliff Thorpe and Roy Smith <br />Interview with Peter Scoley <br />Interview with Kenneth Ivan Duddell <br />Interview with Christopher Francis Allison <br />Interview with Bernard Bell <br />Interview with George Arthur Bell <br />Interview with George William Taplin <br />Interview with Richard Moore <br />Interview with Kenneth Edgar Neve <br />Interview with Annie Mary Blood <br />Interview with Dennis Brader <br />Interview with Les Stedman <br />Interview with Anthony Edward Mason <br />Interview with Anne Morgan Rose Harcombe<br />
<p>The following interviews have been moved to the relevant collections.<br /><span>Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46454">Kathleen Reid</a></span><br />Interview with Wing Commander <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46467">Kenneth Cook DFC</a><br />Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46456">Colin Cole</a><br />Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/46464">Charles Avey</a><br />Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46470">John Bell</a><br />Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46459">Les Rutherford</a><br />Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46460">James Douglas Hudson</a></p>
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Interviewer: This is an interview with Mr Wilf Keyte on the 15th of November 2010 at his home in Lincoln regarding his experiences in the Second World War.
WK: I joined the RAF in December 1937 and I eventually made my way to RAF Scampton and joined 83 Bomber Squadron and I was working in the stores, in the Maintenance Flights of 83 Squadron. It had recently moved down from Turnhouse in Scotland and I stayed with the squadron until 1940 [pause] 1940, when I was posted down to RAF Henlow in Bedfordshire where I was, I was working on such things as the Queen Bee which was a guided missile aircraft which we had and it was used quite a lot in those days. But I eventually left. Left Henlow and was posted to the Orkney Island to RAF Skeabrae where I was the barracks, in charge of the barrack stores in in the Orkneys. I was only supposed to have stayed there for a maximum of nine months but in fact I was there from January 1942 until November 1943. I was given a home posting so they said to RAF Swinderby in Lincolnshire and I found myself in charge of the barrack stores at Swinderby. We had, it was a heavy bomber Conversion Unit where they were converting crews from twin-engined aircraft to four-engined aircraft. A mixture of Stirlings and and Lancasters they had there. I stayed, I stayed at RAF Swinderby for the best part of two years and I used to live near a village called Burton and the most remarkable thing about living out there that there was the ditches were filled with thousand pound bombs on the roadside. In fact, I had a bungalow which was next, next door to a bomb dump and I used to ride through this bomb dump to get to Swinderby. I stayed at Swinderby until in 1945 and I was, I was posted to RAF Syerston and at RAF Syerston I found myself involved with a force which was called the Tiger Force which was supposed to be to assemble a force of Lancasters, three squadrons I think it was to fly to Okinawa and the intent was to bomb Japan from Okinawa. And I was told that I was due to fly out to Okinawa in a Lancaster on the 15th of September 1945. Events of course took place with the bombing of Japan with atomic bombs which meant that the Tiger Force was was cancelled and they wrote, all the people were being sent here, there and everywhere. That as far as I was concerned it went on for about three months where I was sent down to number 5PDC I think it was. It was based at, in London and the Viceroy Court was the block of flats that we had. And we were repeatedly let go on leave and I finally finished up with amongst us there were six of us that had been there since August waiting to go overseas and the CO saw us. We decided that we’d had enough of messing around with waiting for this movement and we went off to the orderly room to ask if we could go on leave. And the CO came out and saw us and he said, ‘What are you —’ so and sos, ‘Doing here?’ And we said, ‘Oh, we’re waiting to go on leave sir.’ He said, ‘Oh, I’ll fix you.’ Well, the result was that next day we found, we found that we were, we were on orders to move and we went up to Waterbeach in Cambridge and we eventually flew out of Waterbeach in a Liberator and I was down in the bomb bay of this Liberator. We flew to Malta and stayed overnight and then the next day we went on to place called Castel Benito in Libya. It was called Idris Airport afterwards but we flew on from there the next, not the next day because we sat. There was no movement the next day. We flew on to Cairo and we stayed in Cairo for five days and then we flew on to Habbaniya in Iraq. And we eventually the next day we flew on to Karachi which is now in Pakistan of course and there they decided where we were going. Somewhere in India. And I was one of the people who was selected to go. Go down to Puna. What it was that the, we’d been going to the cinema and playing bingo and we started checking on how much was being paid out in prizes because we found out that the sums that were given in prizes didn’t work out how much people were paying. They did. The army were running it and they weren’t very pleased with us and they got rid of us to Puna over Christmas in 1945 and we stayed at, stayed at Puna until after Christmas. Then I went on to where I was scheduled to go and that was Avadi, which was a big base near Madras. And that’s when I came up against the Tiger Force again where I found out that the base had been built for springboard for the attack against Japan and it was for all three services. Fifty miles of rail tracks gives you some idea of the size of the place and we had even three English style pubs there. But before I left England I’d been selected for a commission and I went on from Avadi. I was given a hot weather posting up to a place called Kanpur in the Central Provinces. And it was while I was at Kanpur that a posting came for me to go down to Ceylon to do the officer’s training. And I was down in Ceylon at a place called Kandy which was up in the hills and I then found out why Mountbatten had moved his headquarters from Delhi, actually and the rest of the command had moved it from Delhi because it was beautiful in Kandy. It was like a warm summer’s day. And I completed my course, courses at Kandy and went back to where I came from which was Kanpur in India. But the wing commander I worked for said it was unfair for me to be promoted or commissioned on the same unit as I’d been working as a flight sergeant and he thought I should be posted but the CO said, ‘If he’s any good now’s his chance to prove it.’ But it didn’t last very long because they had a vacancy for an equipment officer at a place called Chakulia which was in the state of [Baha.] That was out towards the east side of the country and I went. I went to Calcutta where the headquarters was and I went in to see the group captain administrator and I was told I’d got to close this unit within a fortnight. And I visited the unit. It was three hundred and twenty miles from Calcutta and said, ‘No. It will take me six weeks to close that station down.’ And there was a door opened in the office and I didn’t take any notice of it but then the AOC walked in and he said, ‘The trouble with you people at Chakulia is that you’re away from all discipline and you’re enjoying yourself out there.’ And the group captain finally got a word in and he said, ‘He’s only been there forty eight hours, sir.’ Anyway, I went back to Chakulia and it did take six weeks because there were, there were several storehouses full of equipment plus a lot of vehicles we had to get rid of and the only place we could get rid of the vehicles was a place called Ranchi which was a two hundred mile trip by road and then you had to wait for the drivers to come back before you could send any more vehicles. But I finally did finish it and went back to Barrackpore near Calcutta and when we got there we were told, ‘Well, you’ve wasted your time because we’re scrapping all this stuff.’ And that’s what happened. It was all put up for sale. Everything that we had there. And I was sent to, to the on another closure job which was at RAF Dum Dum which is now Calcutta Airport and to close that station down and one of the things that we had there was, there was some Spitfires which were being shuffled from England out to Australia and they, we couldn’t get any pilots to fly them and so we were told to put the axe through them and make them unflyable. Well, eventually we moved. We did. We did manage to close the station down and took all the airmen out to Delhi for them to be sent elsewhere and I went up to Delhi and reported into the air headquarters and I was told by two flight lieutenants ‘Oh, you’ll be going to Singapore now but you’ve got to wait to see the wing commander.’ And I waited to see the wing commander and he said, ‘Oh, you’ve been here long enough. Go home.’ So that was the end of my tour in India. And I came home and eventually I was sent up to a unit called RAF Montrose. Eventually I found myself having to close Montrose down. I was, I was made the officer in charge of the marching out and I had to go through all the buildings handing them over to the Works Department to close RAF Montrose. And we moved up to a place called Edzell which was twelve miles inland and they tried to get me posted earlier but the CO said, ‘No. You wait until he’s finished his job,’ and they said, ‘Well, you’re not going to keep him.’ And they sent me down to the Group Headquarters at Hucknall and I left. I left that all behind me. Eventually I got to a place called Kidlington near Oxford. I’d been on an explosives course on handling and sorting explosives and I found myself closing units down all below. They were getting rid of all the bombs from RAF stations and they were being shipped and dumped out to sea. And I finally finished that job and I found myself being posted overseas again. So that’s, that’s the end of the story as it were.
Interviewer: You were, your time in the Orkneys attached to Fighter Command.
WK: Yeah.
Interviewer: Can you tell us what you were doing? Your job more specifically?
WK: Well, I was, I was, I went up there and I was in charge of the barrack stores.
Interviewer: Right.
WK: And I found, found myself getting another job because the RAF was expanding and the Navy were pulling out of a place called Grimsetter just outside Kirkwall and I was sent over, sent across to Grimsetter to go around and check all the barrack equipment. Blankets etcetera. In other words take over the station so that the RAF could move back into Grimsetter and that took me several months of course. Two months when I was working with the Navy.
Interviewer: And you had your family up there.
WK: Yes, we were fortunate enough that my wife and two sons they came up to the Orkneys and we, we lived on a farm in [unclear] and they enjoyed the life there. The one thing they didn’t enjoy was the wind which [laughs] because there was a paper in those days in the Orkneys which was called, “The Orkney Blast,” and it was aptly named, “The Orkney Blast,” because I was blown off my bicycle several times with the strong wind and even our coal lorry was blown off the road with the strong winds. But we lived with the cold wind in the Orkneys. You got used to it but when we left in November 1943 and we got on this ship at Stromness the sea was flat calm. It was just like sailing across a sheet of glass. It was most uncanny because the Pentland Firth is well known for the ferocious seas that you can get up there.
Interviewer: Pathfinders.
WK: Well, not so much the Pathfinders as it was. It was the [pause] I can’t remember the name now. The Tiger Force.
Interviewer: Oh.
WK: Yeah.
[recording paused]
WK: When I was in India I had, I’d been selected for an officer’s training before I left and I arrived, when I arrived in India they knew all about it and they sent me down to Ceylon and there was, there were two squadrons of Dakotas in those days. One was based, well both were based at Karachi and one flew eastabout and the other flew westabout and I went on the eastabout route which we took off at 6 o’clock in the morning because of the weather conditions. The heat was uncomfortable for flying and we landed for breakfast and then we flew on for another two hours and landed for lunch and night stop and it took a week to fly from Delhi down to Ceylon and [pause] sorry. Oh yes. The, when I, my final unit in, in India was in a place called Dum Dum. It was a village which had a reputation for rebels and one the reason it was named Dum Dum was because that was where the Dum Dum bullets were made originally which were well known worldwide for use by terrorists and the, they were flying the people out from Dum Dum when we, when we closed down up to Delhi and the CO decided that we were not going to. He and I were not going to fly in these Dakotas. That he sent the rest of the station and we we were sent aboard a BOAC York flying first class up to Delhi and the pilot was very kind to us. He did a circuit around Calcutta so that we could take a last look of it before we went home. Where they used to get, used to get tea —
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 Wilf Keyte
1018,1019-Keyte, Wilf
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SHarriganD[Ser#-DoB]v25
Creator
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Claire Bennett
This Interview was recorded by Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2010-11-15
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Language
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eng
Type
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Sound
Format
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00:20:26 audio recording
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Pending revision of OH transcription
Pending OH summary
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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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.
Description
An account of the resource
Wilf Keyte joined the RAF in 1937 and was based with maintenance units. He was posted to Scampton and Henlow where he worked with the Queen Bee missile unit. He was then posted in charge of stores to the Orkneys and then RAF Swinderby. Wilf was then posted to India where again he was in charge of stores and was given the task of closing stations in India before returning to the UK where again he continued this role including working with the Royal Navy to close their station at Grimsetter to return it to the RAF.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1942
1943
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
India
England--Bedfordshire
England--Lincolnshire
India--Delhi
Scotland--Orkney
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
ground personnel
RAF Henlow
RAF Swinderby
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1875/46442/SHarriganD[Ser -DoB]v110002 BellGA.mp3
e0b67d2a2816cebb32e23f476d305ba7
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
Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire
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
2017-06-19
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
Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire
Description
An account of the resource
34 items. Interviews with veterans recorded by Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire.<br /><br />Interview with Bertie Salvage <br />Three part interview with Dougie Marsh <br />Interview with Terry Hodson <br />Interview with Stan Waite Interview with John Langston<br />Interview with Nelson Nix <br />Two part interview with Bob Panton <br />Interview with Basil Fish <br />Interview with Ernest Groeger <br />Interview with Wilf Keyte <br />Interview with Reginald John Herring <br />Interview with Kathleen Reid <br />Interview with Allan Holmes <br />Interview with John Tomlinson <br />Interview with Cliff Thorpe and Roy Smith <br />Interview with Peter Scoley <br />Interview with Kenneth Ivan Duddell <br />Interview with Christopher Francis Allison <br />Interview with Bernard Bell <br />Interview with George Arthur Bell <br />Interview with George William Taplin <br />Interview with Richard Moore <br />Interview with Kenneth Edgar Neve <br />Interview with Annie Mary Blood <br />Interview with Dennis Brader <br />Interview with Les Stedman <br />Interview with Anthony Edward Mason <br />Interview with Anne Morgan Rose Harcombe<br />
<p>The following interviews have been moved to the relevant collections.<br /><span>Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46454">Kathleen Reid</a></span><br />Interview with Wing Commander <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46467">Kenneth Cook DFC</a><br />Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46456">Colin Cole</a><br />Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/46464">Charles Avey</a><br />Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46470">John Bell</a><br />Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46459">Les Rutherford</a><br />Interview with <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/show/46460">James Douglas Hudson</a></p>
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Interviewer 1: Hello. One two one two. Testing. Testing. Testing. One two. One two.
Interviewer 2: I’m just about to hit the button now.
GB: Right.
[recording paused]
GB: George Arthur Bell. Born in Boston, 18.4.25.
Interviewer: So, George we’re going to be talking about then. Now, part of your life —
GB: Yes.
Interviewer: Was around Boston as the war broke out.
GB: That’s right.
Interviewer: And I will begin there. What were your memories of that?
GB: Well, my mother died when I was seven and there were three children. I’d got a sister sort of four years older and a brother four years younger and life was a bit difficult. We lived in Sydney Street. I was born in 75 Sydney Street and next door was my in-laws, my grandparents. My mother’s mother and father they lived there and they were quite helpful in their way but mainly we seemed to go, they were Shepherds their name and we mainly used to go to my father’s side, the Bells at Frithville where he was born and his mother and father lived there. And we spent of course you did everything on your bicycle then. There were no, not many cars and early on it was, we can just, you just got on your bike and went. But of course, I went, I went to school at Carlton Road. The, what was, what they called Elementary Schools then. I did sit the exam for the Grammar School but I wasn’t actually keen to go to the Grammar School really because I got on well at Carlton Road, I was into sport and football and that sort of thing, and I didn’t, didn’t get in. And there was another thing you could apply for which was the free place but I didn’t say anything about that so I didn’t enter that. I kept silent [laughs] But later, as it turned out later on both my teachers at school thought that I was material perhaps to go to the Grammar School and they got on to my father a bit and he said, ‘Well, right. We’ll, I’ll pay for you to go.’ And we applied to the Grammar School to go but it was getting on a bit and we got a rather curt note which I’ve still got from the headmaster saying that the places were full and that was it. So quite funny really. It’s not what you know it’s who you know but who you know. But —
Interviewer: Very true. Very true.
GB: But there we are so I eventually left school at fourteen and started work with my father who was a jobbing brick layer. A builder in a small way. He’d been in the trade all his life. He was actually left school when he was thirteen. I’ve got all his books and what he left at school and the work he did in well maths and writing and everything. It, and these days with all the advances in so called education it’s pathetic really what what’s turned out and his stuff when he was, when he was thirteen. But anyway, he worked for several local builders and I’ve got an example of his work is in that. In the book I’ve written in Boston.
Interviewer: Yeah. The name of your book is what George?
GB: The name of the book is, “Living the Lincolnshire Life.” Of course, the picture of the book on the front pages is my grandfather on the engine and, and his man Harold Evison called, his nickname was Keck. Keck Evison. I don’t know why oh why. And that’s one of my uncles. Uncle Fred. He was, eventually went to London and got in to the fish and chip trade.
Interviewer: So what year was this then? Was this building up to the war was it?
GB: Yes. Building up to the war. Yes. Yeah. And well it would be 1939 it would be because I left school in 1939 and started work with my father. I got fifty pence a week which is not a lot really. Not these days [laughs] for a forty eight hour week. I had a weeks holiday. My father was a fairly hard taskmaster in a way which he’d been brought up that way. He’d actually served four years during the First World War. He joined up when he was eighteen and came out when he was twenty one or two and had been awarded a military medal.
Interviewer: Oh right.
GB: In 1917. Which I’ve still got. And so he’d sort of been there done that. Seen quite a bit.
Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah.
GB: Lucky to get.
Interviewer: Yeah.
GB: But —
Interviewer: There was some hard men coming out of that war.
GB: Aye. Yeah, but, and times, times were hard. I mean in those days well just after the war, well even when I first started you could fire a man in two hours. Just give him two hours notice and that was it like. No, no appealing or anything like that so [pause] but and we of course during the summer which was, we enjoyed it, it seemed a good summer as they did in those days really. And we used to go to Frithville up at where my grandparents lived and they were quite receptive and we used to do a fair bit of swimming with the neighbour’s sons. The Sergeants. They had a garage and they had two boys, Reg and John. Well, John eventually went on. He joined the Air Force and was awarded the DFM as it, as it so happens.
Interviewer: So, this summer then really was the halcyon summer before the big conflict.
GB: Before the, before the war.
Interviewer: Yeah.
GB: That’s in September. Then it started, didn’t it? Well, of course prior to that in 1938 there was a scare. The Munich scare that came on. Everybody was, they were busy you know sandbagging various places and whatnot and the playing field on Sleaford Road they dug a series of trenches which within about a month were full of water [laughs] so, useless really.
Interviewer: Yeah.
GB: But that was, that was how it went on. But —
Interviewer: I guess so we move on now then. Obviously, it’s just gone past the summer and we enter into —
GB: Into the —
Interviewer: September now so —
GB: Yes. Well, war broke out and we were quite busy really because father did a lot of the farm repair work which was, well needed and was sort of a Reserved Occupation and he got, got me, well not deferred but he got on as an apprentice. An indentured apprentice which was for five years which meant that you know subject to everything I should be eighteen and I should be nineteen before I should be conscripted. But which in some ways it, looking back it helped a bit. The war could have been won.
Interviewer: I wouldn’t say it was easier though.
GB: No. No. No, it wouldn’t. And we did a lot of work on local farms all around Boston and District and repairing things and you came across various things. I mean several aircraft crashed around about. I saw the one come down at Sibsey Northlands where the Memorial Service is held every year.
Interviewer: Right.
GB: I was working at a barn about, well about a couple of miles away. I didn’t actually see the plane come down but I heard it and saw the plume of smoke come up and —
Interviewer: Was this a bomber or a fighter?
GB: It was a bomber. It was a Lancaster.
Interviewer: Right.
GB: And of course they were still in there the blokes were. They never got them out or anything and they had this annual Memorial Service at Sibsey Northlands. You probably may have seen it.
Interviewer: Yeah.
GB: I did see that but of course you didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know then that it was a Lancaster that had crashed but you knew something had gone on but you, things were hushed up always really. You know, it didn’t [pause] Well, news was hard to come by really that, but that’s, that was one thing I saw. There was another on down Frith Bank towards Anton’s Gowt and a Manchester crashed down there on Cartwright’s farm.
Interviewer: Ok. That’s interesting.
GB: You could see that.
Interviewer: That must have obviously come from Waddington then.
GB: Well —
Interviewer: Because that’s where they were based wasn’t it?
GB: Aye. Maybe. I don’t know where it came from. You could see it, you know. As you went past the road you could see it you know about well a half a mile away in the [pause] And another episode was that –
Interviewer: What year was that? Can you remember what year that was? 1941? Something like that?
GB: I should think it, well it would, I should think it would have been 1941 ‘42. They phased Manchesters out, didn’t they?
Interviewer: They did. Yeah. Yeah.
GB: Because they were the two engines job and they went to four with the Lancs, didn’t they? And another, my uncle farmed at Lade Bank at Old Leake and there was a fighter crashed on his farm and it flipped over and killed the pilot. I think it was, I’m not sure whether it was a Hurricane or a Spitfire but two or three days later we walked to the farm, walked down and you could see where it had gauged the ground out and landed and of course it would have gone. Gone and picked up and away really. But that was another incident there.
Interviewer: So, working on the land then or you were working obviously —
GB: Yeah.
Interviewer: During this period.
GB: Yes. Yeah.
Interviewer: What changes did you notice really? Was there —
GB: Well, not a, not a lot really. But it, you know you worked from half past seven to five and [laughs] and then when you got home you went swimming or fishing or something to do with something like that.
Interviewer: Did you notice a lot of troops in the area? Was there —
GB: Not a lot. There were quite a few because they were I, eventually when I was fifteen joined the St James Men’s Club. That was, it’s now, oh gone. Where? Well, it was the St James Hall and the Church. The Church is all gone and the Hall’s gone and it was Wickes and now Wickes have moved and the whole caboosh has gone and this was a Men’s Club. In fact, I’ve got all the minutes of the whole set up from when it started to when it ended. They’re quite interesting. When you joined and who you were and all the rest of it and, and I was lucky to get in because the age you were supposed to get in was sixteen but with it being wartime and they, you know —
[recording paused]
Interviewer: Aye, are you ready?
GB: Yeah. Yeah. Well, there was quite a few Land Girls of course. Girls seemed to be sparse in those days somehow [laughs] Didn’t, there wasn’t a lot of social life and we used to go to Frithville and they organised, well most villages did and you know whist drive and dance sort of things. Social evenings. And they were always well attended and they were quite fun. And we worked around about. I remember at, well the farm I was working on when I saw the Lanc come down or that incident there were three girls there. Roberts, I mentioned a bit in the book I think and there were, there were three girls. Aileen, Ena and Hilda and they were well Aileen was about, well three or four years older than me and she went on to marry a pilot, a bomber pilot and I think she’s still alive.
Interviewer: Oh right.
GB: But she must be a good age now. But I tried to contact them but they don’t seem to want to know anything really. That’s how people are.
Interviewer: For some people it was a long time ago now.
GB: Aye, yeah. Yes, but, and of course Ena she was about my age and we were working at one, on their farm and she, when the thrashing machine came to thrash the stacks and whatnot she of course you had to have a waterboy. It wanted a lot of water the engine did and she was waterboy and of course you know with working there and I would see this girl come and [laughs] I thought she was a bit of alright like [laughs] I was sixteen then. I’ll let you –
Interviewer: [laughs] Didn’t get to see many around here.
GB: No. No. And my cousin. Then they had a sister, Hilda. She was a bit younger but they all went to the High School at Boston. They biked. Likewise, at Sibsey Westhouses. We worked there for, then at the Everards. They were brother, two brothers worked at farm at either side there. Sibsey Westhouses and right at the bottom end there was another farm Tommy Farr farmed. He had four daughters and they would come from their farm and you would see them sort of and they biked up to Boston, the High School, from there and, you know.
Interviewer: You know during this time you know obviously rationing occurred.
GB: Yeah. Yes.
Interviewer: Was in force.
GB: Yes. Yes.
Interviewer: How did that affect you?
GB: Well, you didn’t have a lot of butter or anything like that and you just made do really. It’s, and just accepted it. It was just there and you got on with it.
Interviewer: Did you live off the land though a bit better?
GB: Well yeah. I think you did. Yes. Well, your folks were farmers weren’t they?
Other: Yes. Eggs and —
GB: Eggs and butter and that and milk and that sort of thing was.
Other: Yes.
GB: You were better off really.
Other: Yes.
GB: Well, near Bury St Edmunds you farmed, didn’t you?
Other: Yeah.
Interviewer: I was thinking about the pheasants as well in the fields around.
GB: Ah, well that’s right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it was quite, but and then during that time, well when mother died my sister and I went to, during the funeral and afterwards we went to stay at, well my uncle, well this great uncle actually at Stickney where they farmed and I used to spend all my holidays there from then on. From sort of eight up to leaving school and I really, you know enjoyed it and got on proper well. It was quite interesting working on the farm.
Interviewer: Yeah.
GB: I mentioned a bit in the book about the duck shooting and rabbits and hens and that sort of thing and one, one chap well this was in Butterwick because it’s actually one incident where they were having a shoot and one of the farmers as you did on the last breed when they all broke. The pheasants and game broke out from the last breed and you would chase after the rabbits and whatnot and this farmer they were, he got carried away a bit with his gun and clubbed the rabbit and shot himself and killed him. Yeah. His name was Lyons. Bill Lyons.
Interviewer: Oh dear.
GB: And that but —
Interviewer: That brings us in now really coming up towards the summer of 1944 really.
GB: Aye. Yeah. Yeah.
Interviewer: And obviously something arrived through the letterbox, didn’t it?
GB: Well, that’s it, yes. Eventually it came through like, you know. It was inevitable which I expected and off I went to Lincoln then to join the Army. Which was, well a bit of a shock in a way really but you know you just got on with it.
Interviewer: What did you go in as?
GB: As a soldier. A private soldier.
Interviewer: Yeah.
GB: In the infantry. It was the barracks at Lincoln.
Interviewer: Yeah.
GB: The Lincolns were stationed there. The York and Lancs and the Sherwood Foresters.
Interviewer: And which regiment were you?
GB: It was Lincolns.
Interviewer: You were the Lincolns then.
GB: The Lincolns. Yeah. Yeah. But it was quite an interesting experience there. Discipline was pretty strict you know as it was but I mean on every Thursday you would have what they called a doubling day and you had to double. If it was doubling day north you doubled. And then on sort of once a month it was doubling all the way like. North, south, east and west like. You just, it was —
Interviewer: So, were you, were you leading up to D-Day then and —
GB: Well, not, not, yeah I suppose we would be really. We did sort of six weeks primary training, then twelve weeks infantry training. Then after that it was, you know just you didn’t quite know what you were going to do and where. And we, well I thought perhaps because I was, I was nineteen then and they sort of put us as if we were going abroad. Not in, not to France and Germany. And I went to a holding camp near Nottingham. Whatton they called it. It’s a prison now. And from there on, you know we used to go into Nottingham a bit. Nights out and whatnot and then eventually we, well got on a troop train from Gourock and went out to India. But you know it was about, well for about a week we were on a boat. Well, five weeks I should think.
Interviewer: Wow.
GB: And we went out. It was, well it was about a week before we set out from Gourock funnily enough and what not. I think there was about five thousand boats on there. And we then you had to go right out to almost to America and turn around because of the U-boats. Then once you got to Gib you were ok. The Mediterranean was clear then.
Interviewer: Right.
GB: Which was quite pleasant. But going to, well the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic it was pretty horrendous. It was rough and sort of about five thousand blokes were sick [laughs] And you know, what a mess.
Interviewer: I can imagine.
GB: And we were in the bottom, the bottom deck. H8 starboard. That was what —
Interviewer: What was the name of the ship? Can you remember?
GB: The Orion.
Interviewer: The Orion.
GB: Yeah.
Interviewer: Ok.
GB: Yeah. P&O.
Interviewer: Right.
GB: Yeah. The Orion. And we were right at the bottom and, you know if we’d been torpedoed well, I mean you’ve no chance like to get out of there. But we got to Gib and then we went to Aden and to you know through the Suez into Aden and, and then we stopped at Port Said for a, just a bit of a refresher and clean up and what not and it was quite interesting and it was, it was warm the weather.
Interviewer: Yeah. So what time of the year did you arrive then in India?
GB: In India? It was January 1945.
Interviewer: 1945.
GB: Yeah.
Interviewer: So you were still expecting to go into Burma.
GB: Well, that was it. That was what it was all about like, yes. You didn’t know where you were going to go in India or what. But, but I suppose somehow somebody did and you were allocated and you know got off the ship and went to a train and where it took you and we went to Jhansy to start with and then got on another train. Went off to Delhi where, and then joined the battalion. Second Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
Interviewer: Oh. Right.
GB: Who were stationed there then on what they called internal security because India then was a bit of a hotbed in a way prior to the segregation and you know the split as it were. But and of course a lot of people don’t know but the Indian, there was an Indian Army that fought for the Japanese.
Interviewer: Fought with the Japanese.
GB: For. Yes.
Interviewer: Oh right.
GB: With them. Yeah. Yeah. What they called [pause] I don’t know whether it was a Free Indian Army but there was definitely a sort of formation of I think about twenty or thirty thousand. A division anyway that fought with the Japanese.
Interviewer: That’s interesting. So did you actually get, get up by the time then obviously getting into 1945 was the most of the fighting done or —
GB: Yeah. Well, yes. We got into, we had been stationed in Delhi for quite a while and during that time it wasn’t, you didn’t see any tourist sights or anything like that. You know, if you went to [unclear] you didn’t see the Taj Mahal or anything like that sort of business [laughs] But it was quite interesting in a way. It was a bit of a peacetime station because you see the battalion had been stationed in Burma prewar because Burma was part of the British Empire then.
Interviewer: Right.
GB: Which not a lot of people knew or know and they were stationed at a place called [unclear] About forty miles north of Mandalay. It was sort of a hill station sort of thing. I’ve got books about it actually but and when the, when the war broke out they were pushed out and they had to scarper. Well, they were pushed back and had a bit of a trip, a rough trip to get back into India which, well they lost quite a few. But they’d not got, they had a new station in Delhi on what they called internal security which were sort of they had to keep peace in Delhi and well I mean four companies and a battalion and we always had one company stationed in the Red Fort at Delhi because that was the old city. And in case anything broke out they were there to quell it and —
Interviewer: Yeah. It was quite obvious at that time that the Indians were wanting partition as well.
GB: Yes.
Interviewer: And independence, wasn’t it?
GB: Yes. It was. Yes, it was quite obvious then because I remember doing guard duty on the Presidential Palace which, what it is now, it was Wavell he was the Viceroy then and he was in residence then. We used to have to do guard duties all spick and span and a fair bit of bull and that sort of thing like, you know. [laughs] But —
Interviewer: Yes.
GB: And I think Auchinleck was CnC but there’s not —
Interviewer: So it seems everybody that didn’t make it in the desert were sent to India then was it? Yeah.
GB: But during that time I got a bit, well I don’t know, I got a bit fed up really like that but you’re that age and I thought well the call came for, they wanted some volunteers for the Parachute Regiment. Paratroops. So I thought, well I’ll have a go at that. I can’t think why. Anyway, we had to go before the CO and you know say why you wanted to go or this, that and the other. I can’t exactly remember what I did say. Why I wanted to go or anything like that but in the end nothing came of it because the battalion were then ordered to move. To go down to Southern India for jungle warfare training. Sort of a completely different set up to what they’d had in in Delhi. I mean in Delhi it was in a way a bit like peacetime. I mean they’d got the regimental tailor and the [dersi?] wallah. I mean and you could get a shave in bed. A bloke, a shave wallah would come around and shave you in bed [laughs] The NAAFI was well stocked.
Interviewer: The empire was alive and well.
GB: Well, you believe what [laughs] anyway we got all I was in the advance party and up we shot down to near Ootacamund. It’s right in southern India which is a hill station. Well, we weren’t stationed there but it wasn’t far away. We were about forty fifty miles from it. A place called Gudalur at, I think it’s mentioned a bit in the book and one or two odd pictures and what not and we had this sort of six, six good weeks there doing jungle warfare training prior to moving on to Burma and what have you and which the, it was run by the Australians. They were sort of doing the [unclear] and what not. The training. They were a bunch of, well they were macho characters really. They’d been in New Guinea survivors really. They had seen service in New Guinea and they used to tell us you know sort of you join the Navy and you see the world and you join the Army you see the next — [laughs]
Interviewer: It's very true isn’t it? It’s very true. Yeah. We’ll be coming to the end. So you finished then in India what? About 1946 as a timeline.
GB: That’s right. Yes. Yeah.
Interviewer: Came back to Blighty that year.
GB: Yeah. Yeah.
Interviewer: So when you came back then did you more or less just find yourself quickly demobbed.
GB: Yeah. That’s right. It was. I mean the war finished in August in Japan. August the 15th and it was another well fourteen months before I got demobbed and even then I was Class B because I was a builder and had got a trade. You could advance. Get out a bit quicker. So I came out under Class B but —
Interviewer: Did you return to Lincolnshire immediately then?
GB: Yeah, I came back to Boston and started off with the well I had two or three days with another builder in Boston [Van Pleusen?] and then I got back with my father.
Interviewer: Yeah.
GB: And we just resumed.
Interviewer: Right. Was there any war damage to repair around the local area?
GB: Well, quite a bit of bomb damage in the area of Boston. It’s documented in the diaries in the two years when. When and where. In fact, there was, well you wouldn’t know but on the corner of Rosegarth Street, you won’t know where that is I should think. In West Street. No. Not far from the Railway Station into Boston in West Street. I’ve got some pictures of it actually where they dropped a bomb on the Royal George, the pub. There was a pub there and a bakery, Loveleys Bakery and it, two girls were killed that I went to school with. There was a family of four or five and the girls were killed. I knew them both well but that was quite —
Interviewer: Did you ever, I mean the Americans were based just a few miles down the road at several bases. Did they ever come up to Boston or did you see them?
GB: Well, not a lot. We didn’t see a lot of Americans. Not really, no. Mainly we had the paratroops. The, I’ve forgotten what division they were now but and our English —
Interviewer: Were they English or American?
GB: English.
Interviewer: Ok.
GB: And they were all local about here and their headquarters were at, where did we go to when they [pause] the Garden Centre out towards Newark. We’ve been there. Got the odd plants.
Interviewer: Belton?
GB: No. Not Belton. But it’s a house there where, where the headquarters anyway but you know we used to play when I was at the club. We used to play various battalions. Well, you know they’d go up to the club and have a game of billiards and they would organise matches. Snooker and table tennis and that sort of thing which was quite interesting really.
Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s been fascinating talking to you George. I think we’ve covered a great deal really and thank you very much for giving your time. What we were looking for you’ve described beautifully.
GB: Well —
Interviewer: That’s your younger experiences prior to joining the Army in Boston.
GB: Aye. Right.
Interviewer: We’re very thankful for that. So that’s the end of the recording then with Mr George Bell.
GB: Yeah.
Interviewer: In Boston. And thank you very much.
GB: Aye, well that’s alright. Yes.
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 George Arthur Bell
1005,1006-Bell, George Arthur
Identifier
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SHarriganD[Ser#-DoB]v11
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Dave Harrigan
This Interview was recorded by Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire.
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
Civilian
Language
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eng
Type
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Sound
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
Pending OH summary. Allocated C Campbell
Format
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00:30:36 audio recording
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.
Description
An account of the resource
George Bell grew up in Lincolnshire. He was called up to the Army and was posted to India and Burma.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Burma
Great Britain
India
England--Lincolnshire
India--Delhi
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
bombing
crash
ground personnel
Lancaster
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1982/41571/LHope169139v1.1.pdf
6a2e8afbad645abb80eee3881f3c0b42
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
Hope, Arthur Denis
A D Hope
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
2017-11-12
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
Hope, AD
Description
An account of the resource
26 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Arthur Denis Hope (169139 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, correspondence, documents, newspaper cuttings and photographs. He flew operations as a wireless operator with 62 Squadron before becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Bruce Neill-Gourlay and Pat Hoy and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Frankfurt. Shot Down 19,40 Hrs over target. Five of crew blown to pieces two survivors. Taken prisoner 21st Dec 1943. repatriated [inserted] by Russian Allies [/inserted] Nearly lynched twice by civvies. [Inserted] Ju 88 Nightfigter belly/astern attack [/inserted]
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
A D Hope’s navigator’s, air bomber’s and air gunner’s flying log book. One
Description
An account of the resource
Navigator’s, air bomber’s and air gunner’s flying log book one, for A D Hope, wireless operator, covering the period from 15 December 1942 to 28 April 1949. Detailing his flying training, operations flown, instructor duties and post war flying duties with 62 squadron, 1382 transport conversion unit and 240 operational conversion unit. He was stationed at RAF Madley, RAF Upper Heyford, RAF Swinderby, RAF Skellingthorpe, RAF Wymeswold, RAF Syerston, RAF Palam, RAF Dum Dum and RAF North Luffenham. Aircraft flown in were Dominie, Proctor, Wellington, Manchester, Lancaster, Dakota, Valetta, and Devon. He flew a total of 20 night operations with 50 squadron, the aircraft being shot down on his 20th operation and he became a prisoner of war. Targets were Nuremberg, Milan, Leverkusen, Munchen Gladbach, Berlin, Munich, Hannover, Hagen, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Modane.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Germany
Great Britain
India
Italy
England--Herefordshire
England--Leicestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Oxfordshire
England--Rutland
France--Modane
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Hagen (Arnsberg)
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Leverkusen
Germany--Mönchengladbach
Germany--Munich
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Stuttgart
India--Delhi
India--Kolkata
Italy--Milan
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LHope169139v1
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
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943-06-03
1943-06-04
1943-08-10
1943-08-11
1943-08-15
1943-08-16
1943-08-22
1943-08-23
1943-08-30
1943-08-31
1943-09-01
1943-09-03
1943-09-04
1943-09-06
1943-09-07
1943-09-27
1943-09-28
1943-01-01
1943-01-02
1943-01-03
1943-01-04
1943-01-05
1943-01-07
1943-01-08
1943-01-20
1943-01-21
1943-11-10
1943-11-11
1943-11-18
1943-11-19
1943-11-22
1943-11-23
1943-11-24
1943-11-26
1943-11-27
1943-12-16
1943-12-17
1943-12-20
1943-12-21
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Conncock
16 OTU
1660 HCU
50 Squadron
aircrew
C-47
Dominie
Heavy Conversion Unit
Ju 88
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
lynching
Manchester
Operational Training Unit
prisoner of war
Proctor
RAF Madley
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Skellingthorpe
RAF Swinderby
RAF Syerston
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Wymeswold
shot down
training
Wellington
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/731/10730/ABurtenshawF180218.2.mp3
3ae35c5e1a49af72a408f7545f1c56aa
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
Burtenshaw, Francis
F Burtenshaw
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Francis Burtenshaw (b. 1924, 14650932 Royal Air Force).
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
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
2018-02-18
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
Burtenshaw, F
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
FB: Yeah.
TO: So, what year were you born?
FB: 1924.
TO: And where did you grow up?
FB: Where did I grow up? In Teddington, where I left and turned the key on my house that’s thirteen months ago to sell my house to come here. Yeah. And I failed my 11 Plus, but it didn’t go against me in anyway because, you know I seem to, when I went to the Council School they were a very good school and believe me there's none about them now. There's no schools about them right now. The masters although they were very strict we respected them. We respected the masters and the headmaster. He even interviewed my mother and father to see how I was getting on and everything at school. We had everything there. Sports. Swimming. Everything. Athletics. You know. And then I left. I left there in 1938 and I was, you know, automatically sent a letter from Hawker Aircraft to say that I was assigned there and would I report there. And that's where I went. All I started doing was fetching and carrying. That's all I knew about aircraft. And then as time went on I used to sit in all the Hawker Hurricanes that they fought the Battle of Britain with. I actually sat in them, you know. Yeah. And a Scottish engineer called Jock Golds. He was a very very clever engineer. He sat me down one afternoon and he said, ‘Now, Frank,’ he said, ‘I'm very pleased to have this interview with you.’ He said, ‘I’ve just come to see what you know.’ After an hour he said, ‘Well, Frank,’ he said, ‘You don't know a lot. But we're going to teach you.’ And they did. Oh yes. They did. Yeah. And then I got my calling up papers for the Army. 1938. Yeah. No. No. Not 1938. 1942. And I reported to the Royal West Kent Regiment at Maidstone in Kent and we went through six weeks of constant, I mean all us lads, we were all fit from school and you know you could stand it but I mean we had to climb over walls, climb through barbed wire. Your name it you had to do it, you know. Physical training twice a day. And do you know who brought that in? General Montgomery. Under his orders. Twice a day physical training. Yeah. And then I went to, I went to an Army Battle School and from then onwards I my eyesight is very short sighted and I went before a medical board and there were some quite high-ranking officers there and they asked me all questions. And I said, ‘Well, you know we don't think you're fit for combat. Not with your eyesight. But we’ll, we’ll put you in a, in other activities.’ Which they did. And then it came on and on and we were sent to India. Yeah. We went there and I got, I got to Bombay and there’s a big military hospital there called [unclear] And I was put in there because I had constant haemorrhaging from the nose and I collapsed. I didn't know where I was and they put me in the military hospital in Bombay. And then as time, there were some wonderful specialists in the Army then. There was the ENT specialist operated on my nose his name is Major [unclear] and they did it all properly. It was done in a big operating theatre and all my nose was cauterized and everything and then they decided that my blood count was very very low so they decided that they would start treating me. Well, you couldn't get any blood plasma in those days. It was all there for the lads down up at the front at Kohima. So, we had oh, what was it? Injections of what was it, Sandra? Liver. Liver injections we had in there twice a day and it built me up again. And then they discharged me from there and then onwards I went and I got put on this draught for India and we went on board the SS Strathaird. P&O Liner. Twenty five thousand tonnes. How many troops on board? I'd better tell you what it was designed for. It was designed for the Australia first class run. P&O. Now, of course it was taken over by the Army so we were put on this Strathaird and there was five hundred first class passengers on the SS Strathaird before the war to go to Australia. How many of us do you think was on there?
TO: About three thousand.
FB: Six. Yeah. And we were so lucky because the German Air Force, and the Rommel, you know, the German Army, they were advancing on Cairo. And the two officers that stopped them going was Wavell and Alexander. Wavell was the Viceroy of India. Did you know that? Yeah. That’s where my office was. Right next door to Wavell’s office in Delhi. Yeah. Yeah. And, yeah we had some very high-ranking officers. Have you ever heard of General Auchinleck? There you are then. Yeah. And he was the commander. He was. Him and Wavell was transferred to India Command and they sent Wavell and, and Alexander to the Western Desert to fight the, with the 8th Army. Yeah. And then I saluted Auchinleck so many times in the HQ. Used to walk past him you know. He had a massive Great War room there. You've never seen anything like it. How, how the, how the allies got everything together to fight that war considering the Japanese had got the upper hand I'll never know. I'll never know how they did it. The organisation in those, a bit different than what they got in Westminster now. They couldn't organise a tea party. They couldn't organise a tea party up there, all the old, you know. It's so sad really. All fighting one another except they should be, you know, doing other things. But as time went on in Delhi I, my friend, two friends and I when we, when we arrived at the training camp in Doolally, it was called Doolally, just outside Bombay we were summoned to the major’s office and he said, ‘Well, you chaps.’ He said, ‘How did you manage this?’ So we said. ‘We don't know, sir.’ ‘The posting you've got is unique.’ And he said, ‘Report to the station tomorrow morning with your kit. You'll have your own carriage and you’re going to New Delhi.’ And then we were introduced to all the people in Delhi because we had to do, had to do all this work on intelligence and we produced a resume of activities every week. That’s three of us did that. But that was all done by the other staff and it was all, do you know what a Roneo is? Oh. That's a very old-fashioned printer. And the old, the old Indian [unclear] they used to print it off but the girls in the office they were stenographers. You know, typists. And they had a, I can never remember what that was they used to print it on. Once they did a sheet it goes. It went on to the Roneo. Then they, we had to send all these things out to all the various Commands you know. Yeah. Yeah. So as time went on of course we were, we were, three of us were made Sergeant because we were handling classified information, you know. And I used to ride about Delhi on my bike with my dispatch case and, and you know I wasn't at all afraid or anything like that. No bother there then. No. Delhi was quite quiet, you know. But then in 1947 Mahatma Gandhi, he stopped the fighting because the Muslims and Hindus and the Sikhs were all fighting one another. And I came out in April ‘47 and that started in ‘48. That did. Yeah. Then as time went on because we used to live in the bungalows at the [Arun?] Stadium in Delhi. That was a stadium, you know for things and yeah, we used to live there. But I see you are to do with Bomber Command well Bomber Harris heard of him?
TO: Yes. Yeah.
FB: Oh sorry. I thought you must have heard of him and of course the Germans laid waste to the East End of London you know. But the point about the German Air Force was in the Battle of Britain they'd got antiquated aircraft. They've got quite a lot of aircraft they’d had before that period of time. The only one that was, that stopped us was the Stuka. Now, that, all the time you know. Yeah. And what about them poor devils that are on the beaches of Dunkirk? Yeah. Stukas. Coming down all the time dropping bombs on them. Yeah. Oh yeah. And then yeah of course Teddington where I live you now do you know Teddington.? Well, you should go there one day it's a very nice little place and there's a plaque on the, on the docks on the, I'm lost for words now Sandra.
Other: Locks.
FB: The locks. The Teddington Locks. And that's where a lot of the boats went to Dunkirk. And they were organised by Mr Tough, Douglas Tough and Bob Tough, his son had just started and they were the ones. They said to all the skippers that had private yachts to come immediately and be interviewed and make sure you’re sea worthy to go where you are wanted to go. And they organised the whole lot. Yeah. Because we had the British Navy as well. I mean they were, played a part. They played a big part in the invasion in 1944. You know. The Germans were behind the Western Wall. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Sandra said to me, ‘Shall I tell you who my Colonel was?’ Enoch Powell. Heard of him?
TO: Yeah.
FB: Oh right. Yeah. He was my Colonel. He was deputy director of [unclear] Yeah. Yeah. Yes. He, he was a good man but he stepped out of line didn’t he? You know. A lot of problems there. Here you are. I think he did a good job while he was in his, in his office you know. Yeah. Bur of course, we got bombed at Teddington, you know. The Royal Air Force were chasing these bombers and they were coming back over our town because they were fully loaded with bombs and they dropped two bombs right near my house. Yeah. Yeah. They, they were definitely being chased, you know. Then they went all the way along the river to Kingston and our factory only got one hit. One hit. Yeah. One hit they got. But yeah, I mean the [pause] have you heard of, heard of what is it now? Have you heard of Sydney Camm and the Hurricane?
TO: I think so. I'm not sure.
FB: He designed the Hurricane. Yeah. And he designed several other planes. Yeah. Of course, the other man, who designed the Spitfire was Mitchell. Yeah. Yeah. I'll tell you they were wonderful planes and the pilots were alas a lot of our pilots got killed, you know. You know, they did a good job in breaking up the German advance but, you know they had to pay for it. Barnes Wallis said when it came through that they had penetrated the dams, ‘I am so delighted.’ And he broke down. And he said, ‘Fifty young men's lives have been cost in doing that. What I have done.’ You know. He was so cut up about it, you know. He’d lost all his, lost all the men. Yeah. So, you know, Teddington where I was born is a very nice town, you know. Yeah. Well, I came back from India in ’47 and my father was a fishmonger in Teddington and he and my mother had been running that shop all through the war getting whatever they could for the local people. And I didn't know what I was going to do. Now, I've got a letter, my son's got it, it’s, it’s sent to me by General Auchinleck. And it said, “I am very pleased to hear that you were part of our team and thank you for all your services.” My son’s got it. Another one from the First World War is one my father got. Signed by Winston Churchill. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My father was in the artillery in the First World War. And then I didn't know what to do so I thought I'll go in and give it a try and I gradually built a business up. And when I left there in ‘90, in ‘90 it was, it was a going concern. Nobody wanted it then but I reckon somebody would do now. Nobody wanted it. No. No. But yeah, my friend, one of my friends he lived in Halifax. That's where he came from and his father was Chief Inspector of Police. Yeah. He was. His father. Up there in Halifax. And another one of my customers was Superintendent Wilfred Dawes, Chief of the Murder Squad. He was one of my customers. Yeah. So, you know. Is there any, is there any other topic you want to talk about, you know.
TO: Could you tell me a little bit more about your time at the aircraft plant?
FB: Oh yeah. The aircraft factory. Yeah. That's what I was going to say. I’m rattling on here. I’m not going on about what you want. Yeah. Yeah. Hawkers in Kingston was a very antiquated factory and even the stairs when you went down you were doing this it was so antiquated. Anyway, they, they started to update it and they put all modern machinery at the, in the base of the aircraft factory and gradually built it all up you know. They had a day and night shift there. Yeah. Day and night shift. Oh yes, of course two friends of mine who worked in Teddington for a builders in fact a friend of our they went to Hawkers. Why do you think they went there for?
TO: Hurricanes.
FB: Yeah. To build the Hurricane fuselage on a, on a jig. On a jig, you know. Do you understand what I mean? Goes over the air frame. Well, the first Hurricanes they built were wood. The fuselage was wood and the fuselage was covered in canvas and dope. That was what, it smelt terribly, you now. The men that used that they were, had to drink milk all day long, you know. They tightened up all the wings then. Then of course they improved on it and they started putting [unclear] on the Hurricanes then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, my old friend the Scottish man [Jock Gold] he was, he was the Chief Inspector of flight at Dunsfold and he was the one that said if a plane was alright or it wasn't, you know. Yeah. He was a very nice man he was. Yeah. So yeah. Oh we had, see what they did they, they put all these smaller aircraft units all over the country so that they weren’t you know open to all the bombing, you know. And the coaches used to come every day to Kingston and take the men to wherever they wanted to go. To the factories you see. Yeah. Yeah, there was, because it was, it was there was a lot of labour people around the government during the war. There was a mixture like, you know. And there was [pause] there was a man, the Minister of Food. His name was Mr Woolton. He commanded all the food in the country. And then there was, who else was there? A minister of aircraft production. What was his name?
TO: Was that Beaverbrook?
FB: You’re right. You’re right. Correct. Beaverbrook. Correct. Yeah. You’re correct. Beaverbrook. And because he was a very wealthy man and now, what was he? He owned, he owned newspapers, didn’t he? Beaverbrook. I think he did.
TO: I’m not sure.
FB: Yeah.
TO: Something like that.
FB: He was a quiet man you know. You see, my sister lives at Seaford and her neighbour Mr John Anderson. Are you familiar with the word Anderson?
TO: Oh, the Anderson shelter.
FB: Correct. Yeah. Anderson shelter. We had one in our back yard. I never went in it. I was, we were sitting in our lounge one night and these bombs came down my mother had two scientists that were billeted with my mother. My mother used to look after them and, you know while they were at the[MPL and these two bombs came down. I don't know how my, how my house sustained it but like that you know. It's got a good foundation my house. Yeah. But yeah, of course they’re thinking about the German side of it. You know, because they were, the trouble was the Nazi Party were very nasty people. Well, like the Japanese really. I mean, they were the same. But yeah, but Herman Goering he was the commander of the Luftwaffe but you know I’m just trying to think what else happened at Kingston. You know. I used to, I used to go there every day on my bike, you know to the factory. But I don't know what other activities well you know we used to have light activities you know. We used to have the Hawker Club at [Hamm] which you know you’d go there for relaxation, you know. But yeah I could still see a lot of the, I mean we had all the craftsmen there at Kingston. Tin bashers, you know. They used to mold, you know the front of the aircraft and that. And there was, what were the other men? Oh, coppersmiths. They, they made the undercarriage for the —
TO: For the fighters?
FB: Pardon?
TO: The undercarriage for the fighters was it?
Yes, but what was the name of it? A very famous man who invented that. It was, the only word that comes to mind with me is pneumatic but it was it was a marvellous invention that because they went on later on in the years where you’re seeing all these big planes landing with four hundred people on board. The same thing, you know. Yeah. I’m just thinking about the coppersmiths. Hydraulic. That's the name. That's the word. Hydraulic. And yeah, if course what enabled the Spitfire and Hurricanes they set up a plan where all the girls that were in the lookouts you know. They knew the radar. They knew they were coming and they used to put the word out and before they even arrived to bomb the airfields they’d taken off. And then when the airfields were built, were bombed as soon as they'd gone they used to fill them in again so they could land. They landed on grass, you know. The two fighters. The Spitfire and the Hurricane. Yeah. Merlin engine. Very clever. Clever. Yeah. That was in the Merlin engine was in the, in the big bomber. What was the big bomber now?
TO: The Lancaster.
FB: Correct. Yeah. Yeah. That was a Lancaster. My friend flew one of those. He trained in Canada, in Calgary and he married a Canadian girl. My wife and I were invited out to stay with him after the war. Yeah. In Canada. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, there was, there was other aspects about [unclear] my friend Peter Hall sadly passed on in 2005. He was in command of a gun boat in the Channel and he got into trouble with the Germans and he got sunk. So, he was immediately, was assigned to another boat and where do you think he had to come and get it?
TO: Teddington.
FB: Correct. Yeah. Built by Tough brothers. And yeah, and my mother was in the shop this morning, this is a true story and she heard this shuffling ch ch ch. What's that? All of a sudden this voice shouted out, ‘Eyes left for Mrs Burtenshaw.’ That was my mother. That was Peter. Come to pick up his boat. Oh yeah. I’ve got some stories I’ll tell you. Yeah. Yeah. He, he was in command of a minesweeper in the Channel on D-Day. Yeah. Old Pete. Have you heard of Hampton Grammar?
TO: No, actually.
FB: No.
TO: No.
FB: Well, it was a very famous school there. A lot of the boys from there went into the Air Force, you know and it was a very good Grammar School. There's another one around here called Latymer. That's, that's a quite a good school. Yeah. Private school. But yeah, I'm just trying to think about other aspects of, of course Kingston you wouldn't know it now to when we were there you know. Not with the factory. That's all gone. That's one of the law courts now. See. The Guildhall at Kingston is the law court but the Hawker factory and all that’s all gone. Yeah.
TO: How would you describe the working conditions inside the factory?
FB: Pretty poor in ‘38 and a bit precarious. Those stairs that we used to, you see what happened was we were getting the men on the roof, you know what they called overlooking the situation. You know, as soon as they got the signal that the bombers were coming they used to sit it the signal and we all had to evacuate downstairs into fallout shelters you see. They were only brick shelters. If we'd got, if we'd got a direct hit we were a bit, we wouldn’t have survived. But then of course it was a modernised, you know. Yeah. Yeah. As the war went on. Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot of good engineers there. Mr Viney. He was the chief of the machine shop. No. He’s, oh, I’m getting the department I was in, inspecting them was run by Mr Jefferson. He was the Chief Inspector. He lived in Teddington. Yeah. But yeah. Any other. Any other things you can think of?
TO: What was your everyday routine at the factory?
FB: Factory. Well, when I first went there I was fetching and carrying as a boy. I had a senior man with me. He used to give me a tick on the pack and he used to say, ‘Now, Frank. I want you to go and get this.’ But the point was that all the spare parts and jigs and everything else were, you know, very scarce so if I got the order that I got to get to a jig it will probably be in the hands of a welder. So I used to go and see the welder and he would say, ‘Well, come back in half an hour and you could take it.’ You know. He’d done his job with it and that was the job I’d got on. I used to have to go to the drawing office and get all the drawings and that was the [unclear]. The [unclear] and the, you know they were all there. All those drawings. Yeah. But you see and then I advanced. A very menial job I had. I, we used to stamp all the parts you know and all the parts that went into the aircraft were called, they were put in annealment. Annealment troughs, acid to protect them against whatever they wanted to do, you know. But yeah, that was my general thing because the Chief Inspector came up to my, up to my address, my bench and he said, ‘How would you like to go into the Inspection Department, Frank?’ So I said, ‘That would be nice, sir.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘Report there on Monday morning and you can start there. And that's where I learned a lot of things, you know. Technical drawing and everything I learned when I went there. Yeah. Yeah. And of course, that was the end of me there. I wasn’t considered value enough to stay there so I had to join the Army.
TO: Don’t forget your drink by the way.
FB: Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah.
[pause]
TO: Do you remember the preparations that were being made for the war?
FB: Well, I was only fourteen. Shall, I tell you where I was when the air raid siren went off? I was fourteen years old and I was standing at the top of my road and the air raid siren went off. Mr Chamberlain said we have no known reply from the Chancellor of Germany. We are now at war with Germany. That was the start of it. But I mean, I still can't get through my mind how they organised everything because the Americans after Pearl Harbour they came in and they helped us a lot of course, you know. All our Liberty ships. Heard of them? How many did they used to turn out a week of those? I don't know. Loads. They were all, launched them sideways you know. Yeah, and yeah, because the Americans they, it was Churchill. I mean are you going to go and see the film?
TO: May do. Maybe.
FB: Not worried.
TO: I don’t know. I’m not sure. I don’t go to the cinema that much.
FB: Yeah. Well, you know what, you know what it’s called don’t you?
TO: Yes.
FB: Churchill. Yeah. The man had just got the award for it, hasn’t he? Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, preparation. Yeah. There was a lot that went on, do you know but it didn't go on fast enough because Churchill kept on saying to the government do this, do that, you know. They knew what was going on in Nazi Germany but of course in the end of course he became Prime Minister and things started to move then, didn't they? Yeah. So, yeah, preparation was as much as it could have been, you know. But I mean we, we could have, if it hadn't been for twenty two miles, no Channel Tunnel there then we would have been overrun. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, yeah that was, that was our defence really.
TO: What did you think of Churchill?
FB: Well, a wonderful man. What could you say? Made mistakes. He made mistakes but who doesn't make mistakes when you're in command of a, you know, that sort of thing you know. They sent, they sent two battleships to the Pacific the Repulse and the Renown both sunk by the Japanese. No air cover. No air cover. Yeah. The Japanese torpedo planes came over. That was it. You know, and there was about eight hundred men were there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah I'll never forget Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he said, I can't, I can't pronounce the word he said but he said the Japanese government have just performed the most historically, I think it’s not quite the right word, act against the United States. And he said we will do our best to stop them, you know. They had to drop the atom bomb on them in the end because they couldn't, you know they couldn't think how they were going to get rid of them, you know. It could have taken another three years to win that war. The Japanese. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah the, yea, those two fellas in Teddington, they were both carpenters and they both worked for a local builder and they, they went and started work on the fuselage in the, in a Hurricane. And then, oh yes another man he used to make his own cycles his name is CR Philbrook and he uses to walk around in his work coat and everything and he got, you know when you heat up things? It was in the back of his shop. He used to mould all these various parts for the, they were his own make, you know. His name is CR Philbrook. He was in Teddington. Yeah. Sir Charles Darwin was at [MPL] Yeah. He was there. Have you got any other ideas of what you want to ask about?
TO: When you were sent out to India —
FB: Yeah.
TO: Was there a concern that Japan would invade India?
FB: Pardon?
TO: When you were sent out to India —
FB: Yeah.
TO: Was there a concern that the Japan would attack the country?
FB: Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. They had come across the water to Singapore and there was no stopping them. But they, they got to Imphal and Kohima and my old friend, there's his watch look, his uncle was in the battle of Kohima and he was blinded, his uncle was. But the, yeah they were well dug in there but, you know, but, you know, the 14th Army, you know they, once they started to win the Japanese started to run down to Rangoon. You know. And then that was, you know the start of the better time for us. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm just trying to think. I used to make, when I was at home you know I had a little workshop in my garage and I used to make all sorts of things that I learned to make in Hawkers you know. But yeah, it was, they, they reckon today at the moment there's only sixty six apprentices that are qualified at the moment, you know. And they are all, they are employed by a [unclear] company. Yeah. They often give it out on the TV, you know. But these people who are employing these people are now skilled you know. My son got an apprenticeship and he did well for himself. He’s been twenty one years now, San. Yeah. Twenty one years of it.
Other: What for?
FB: Andrew.
Other: What his business?
FB: Eh?
Other: What? His business?
FB: Yeah.
Other: Forty one.
FB: He’s a professional Carpenter. Yeah. He’s very fussy about his work Yeah. He’s not doing so much work now because you know he was, well he's taken on all sorts of work isn’t he. Yeah. Yeah. You’re, where did you say you were based at?
TO: Well, I'm actually doing this independently as a hobby.
FB: Oh right.
TO: But I share the recordings with the International Bomber Command Centre.
FB: I see.
TO: So, they have it preserved. So —
FB: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Ever been to Manston?
TO: No, actually. No.
FB: No.
TO: No.
FB: That was another aircraft aerodrome, you know and there are pictures in there. My friend lives in Broadstairs, and her cousin was on the, on the raid on the dams and his picture’s in there. Yeah. Yeah. Peter. Yeah. He was a, in one of those things but yeah we used to go there quite often to the Manston Airport. Had our lunch there and had a ride around in the bus and all that, you know. Yeah.
TO: What was your impression of General Auchinleck?
FB: Auchinleck? Well, I presume he must have done a very good job in India, you know but I’ve not really got a lot of, you know, knowledge about him. Yeah. There's a book called, “The Unknown Soldier.” That’s about him. Yeah. Yeah. Cawthorn was one, he was in India but yeah but it's very, the word went around that all that we’d been sent to India for originally was to defend the empire, you know. To stop the Japanese getting into India. All that was wasted because you know they got this partition came along. Muhammed Ali Jinnah, Pakistan and Pandit Nehru, India. They were the two main ones. Are you familiar with their names? Oh, you are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
TO: What was your, what do you remember about Enoch Powell?
FB: Well, I'll tell you he was a very very reserved man. I mean I, when I was sitting in my office in Delhi I could do that and touch him on the shoulder, you know. But he didn't have a lot to do with us. General Cawthorn, he was the one that always used to speak to us, you know. But Cawthorn was higher than him but he, he couldn’t, you know, we couldn’t really, in direct contact with him. But I took my files to the Houses of Parliament to see Enoch Powell. I was invited there and we arrived one afternoon and the sergeant at arms at the House of Commons tapped me on the shoulder. ‘Mr Burtenshaw, Mr Powell will see you now.’ And we went into his room to see him, you know. Talking about Delhi and all that. You see he was in the western desert. Yeah. Yeah. Some of those people had a really rough time. Yeah. Yeah, cause the Chindits they were very brave people. Oh dear. I knew several. I knew several officers that used to go behind the Japanese lines. Yeah. And they always survived, you know. Yeah. They always survived. So, yeah, all the old airfields in England, I don't know if they sold a lot of them off. I went to Malta to Gozo and they had an Air Force unit and of course the Germans very nearly got in to, nearly got in to, that's gone isn't it? Gozo. Malta. Malta. Yeah. Malta. Yeah. You know, my general admiration is for those people that organised that war. They really knew what they were doing. Can you imagine all the people that had to be employed? Civil servants sending out calling up papers. You know. And not only that, railway passes. Report here. Report there. You know. Get on a train. Because they had military police at most of the stations. You know, you didn't get past them unless you’d got a pass. Yeah. But yeah, I mean the, of course Bomber Command it got so massive in the end under Bomber Harris that you know they, what was it? Where was it they bombed?
TO: Do you mean Dresden?
FB: Was it Dresden? It was wasn’t it?
TO: Yeah.
FB: Bomber Harris. Yeah. Yeah. He got rolled over the coals over that didn't he? Yeah. Yeah. Old Bomber Harris. Yeah. Yeah.
TO: What do you think of General Wavell?
FB: Wavell. A very good man. He was the one that stop the Germans from getting to Cairo with Alexander. And then Montgomery and Alexander took over in the western desert. But yeah, he did a very good job in, you know, in defence. I mean they got very close to Cairo, you know. They could have easily captured it. Yeah. So yeah, they could have done. Yeah. Wavell. Peter Montgomery. One of my officers. the Viceroy's social secretary. He used to organise all the Viceroy's things that went on in the Viceroy's Palace. He came in our office and he said, ‘How would you three chaps like a nice treat tonight?’ So, we said, ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘Well, get yourself up to the Viceroy's Palace and you’re invited to a band concert.’ And we got there and were seated and then all of a sudden the band struck up, “God save the King.” Wavell and Lady Wavell appeared. He was in his Army uniform with his red sash and Lady Wavell was in a white crinoline gown with a blue sash. Then we all sat down and the concert started. That wasn’t the finish of it. Captain Montgomery said, ‘Are you fellas hungry?’ So, we said, ‘Well, we are a bit, sir.’ ‘Go and see what's in the next room.’ Couldn't believe it. It was all laid up in there with all the various people, you know eating all this. Yeah. Yeah. Of course, the people that lived in India say back in the 20s or so had a very good life. And at Singapore. The same thing. All had servants and there wasn't and of course it all gradually [pause] oh, sorry, it all gradually went pear shaped in the end, didn't it? The old British empire. Yeah.
TO: You can have some of your drink whenever you want. It’s fine.
FB: Pardon?
TO: You can have some of your tea whenever you want. It’s fine.
FB: Oh. Oh, it is my tea, is it? Yeah. Well, yeah I don't want to bore you with things but I've, I’ve got one or two things that, you know I don't like too much about my general make up now but you can't do anything about it. It's just one of those things, you know. You know and I, I mean I, I I put down how I survived to my mother. She was a very good mother, you know. And also Sandra’s mum. She did a lot to help me, you know. Yeah. I’ve got, like this illness this elements I got that put me in here was a [pause] what was it called Sandra?
Other: Duodenal ulcer burst.
FB: Pardon?
Other: Burst duodenal ulcer.
FB: Yeah. Burst duodenal ulcer. Five weeks I was in there. Yeah. I was lucky to get away with that. Yeah.
Other: At your age. Yeah.
FB: Yeah.
TO: Do you remember anything else about Wavell at all?
FB: General Wavell. Well, I mean I saw him enough in Delhi. He used to, you wouldn't dare in a foreign country now, you wouldn't dare arrive in an open car like Kennedy did and Wavell used to go around in all his full regalia in his Rolls Royce. Yeah. Yeah, everywhere he went he had an escort but you know. Yeah. Oh yeah, we, I used to go down to the Royal Engineer’s Headquarters in Delhi every week and pick up the maps of China and India and all those maps us, three of us had to put them all in envelopes and post them to the various Commands where they were all in, you know. They all knew what they were about, you know. Oh yeah. Yeah. I can still remember two officers. General Carton de Wiart, [unclear] and Major [Fox-Holmes] Chinese Intelligence, Chinese Intelligence Wing, Calcutta. Yeah. And he came, he came to join us, major what did I say his name was? [Fox-Holmes]. That’s right. [Fox-Holmes]. He came to join us in Delhi and he said to me one day, ‘I’ve got a job for you, sergeant.’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Well, be careful, won’t you?’ I said, ‘Well, where am I going?’ Well, he said, ‘You’re going to the old city on your bike and I want you to go to Olivetti.’ You know the one. No?
TO: Typewriters?
FB: Typewriters. And he said, ‘I want you to go there to Olivetti and get a portable typewriter and bring it back here.’ And I did. I went all the way into the old Delhi and got it and brought it back. Yeah. Yeah. We had quite a lot of interest but my most interesting job was on my bike everyday to the Viceroy's Palace. That was my most interesting job. Yeah.
TO: And what did you, what was your impression of the Viceroy's Palace?
FB: Magnificent. I’ve been sat in the throne room where the King and Queen used to sit. I sat on that. All beautiful polished floors. All the buildings were beautiful in India. Oh yeah. The British, the British Raj they did quite a lot for India. I mean railways they built and everything else, you know. But, yeah, Wavell, he [unclear] [That's what I don't like about these places is not a lot of activity, you know] But yeah Wavell he was quite a high up officer you know because one of the officers that came before him was Kitchener. You’ve heard of the Battle of Omdurman? You have. Yeah.
TO: Churchill was there.
FB: Yeah. Yeah. That’s correct. Four years it took to get that back. They murdered General Gordon in Khartoum and they had all these, [unclear] who they were, the enemy were all on camels and horses and they overran the British Army. So, what did Kitchener do? He loaded all his artillery on to all the dhows in the, in the Nile and took them up the Nile to Khartoum and lined them all up along and when the Mahdi started to attack they got a shock. Artillery. That was the end of them. But the British, the British have been in so many, involved in so many things in their lives, you know. The British people. Army and that. My uncle was in the Army. He was in the Army. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think Wavell played his part all right.
TO: What were the, what were your working conditions like in India?
FB: Working?
TO: Your working conditions [unclear]
FB: Yeah. We were in the government buildings, you see. Oh yeah. Very good. Yeah. And the living conditions as well. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I’ve lived out in the sticks in India in tents. That’s not so good. I managed to progress from that.
TO: And what were the, were you working with people of different nationalities in the office?
FB: Yeah. Well, we had all Indian messengers, you now. Mainly [pause] what were they? Not Sikhs. I don’t know what they were now but yeah we were well organised in our office. We had everything to hand and everything, you know, for coping with all what we got to do, you know. Yeah. Every week we used to send out hundreds of envelopes for the Commands, you know. Yeah. Yeah. We did. Then came the day in 1947 when we were told, ‘You’re on your way home.’
TO: Did you have to take medicine?
FB: Pardon?
TO: Did you take a lot of medicine in India?
FB: No. The only medicine I had to take when I had my, when I was in Bombay I had to take a medication called M&B. Have you heard of that? No. Well, that was the forerunner to the [pause] one they’re using now a lot.
Other: Antibiotics.
FB: Antibiotics. Yeah. Yeah. M&B. Yeah. Yeah. All in all I had a very interesting time, you know while I was there. Yeah.
TO: And when you were handling these classified documents were you ever concerned that there might be spies around?
FB: Oh, absolutely. But not, not really. I think it was so quiet in India then. At that particular time. I used to ride from the office up to the Government Buildings and I never ever gave it a thought that anybody was going to attack me or anything, you know. No. And the secretary to the Viceroy, he was an English, oh a very thorough gentlemen, you know and I used to take the dispatch case in to him. He used to come out and he used to say, ‘Good morning, Sergeant. How are you today?’ I'm very well, sir. Thank you.’ ‘That’s alright. I won't keep you long.’ And he used to take all the paper that he wanted out of the, and put the ones back in and I used to take them back to the, to the office again, you know. So purely and simply our job was admin, you know. It wasn't combat. You know. I mean I I mean I, I hadn't got any idea I was going to go into combat. I'd been to Battle School. I’d been to one but, you know. Not too bad. It wasn't too bad. I’m glad I went there because it was very interesting. Very interesting. Yeah. Indian Railways, you know, Indian Railways were a marvellous thing that the British built, you know. Yeah. Yeah. All the hill stations and everything, you know. Yeah.
TO: Did you have to sign the Official Secrets Act when you joined the Service?
FB: I can't remember if I did or not but I mean we were all under the thumb, you know. You daren’t, I mean even to this day what I’ve told you I would never have told anybody else in those days. No. You were just silent, you know. Didn't say anything. One of the captions in England during the Second World War was, “Walls Have Ears.” Yeah. Yeah. “Walls Have Ears.”
TO: And when did you hear about the Battles of Kohima and Imphal?
FB: Oh, well, in Delhi of course. We were in direct with the 14th Army. Oh yes. We knew about that very well all the time, you know. Yeah. But yeah, that was where they met their match there. The Japanese. All the Japanese Army were peasants. They’d never had anything in their life and they was determined to get what they wanted. Right. They mistreated a lot of our men. Terrible. Yeah. Yeah.
TO: Did you have any contact with Lord Louis Mountbatten?
FB: I saw him. In my room here there’s a picture of Wavell presenting a Gurkha with his Victoria Cross. It’s in my room here. Yeah. Mountbatten was sent out there by a Labour government to expedite our exit from India. Didn’t make a very good job of it. Caused a lot of bloodshed, you know. We should have stayed there another year. Yeah. Sandra and I, we used to go to the reunions every year in London. India Command. Didn’t we? A friend of mine, he was, he was the Viceroy's Gardener. Charlie Reader. He’d been in service of the Indian government for fifty years. He was in charge of all the gardens. Yeah. Yeah. All the Viceregal Gardens, you know. Yeah.
TO: And what kind of rations did you have in India?
FB: What for?
TO: What kind of rations did you have in India?
FB: Oh, well, where I was very good. We had a mess. Sergeants and WO’s mess and we had all this food. Yeah. Great Army cooks.
TO: Sorry. I’m just going to pause for a second.
[recording paused]
FB: They were all Indian. Anglo, because there was a lot of Anglo Indians in India you know. Intermarriage. A lot. You know. Most of the girls in my office were married to Englishmen, you know. And there was a special place like a village where they all used to live, you know. Most of them were Army, you know. Yeah. But yeah, I'm just trying to think what's the name of that place was where they were. I forget that. When we had very hot seasons, forty or fifty and we used to carry our beds. And the Indian word for bed his charpoi and we used to carry them outside and we got mosquito nets on poles and we used to carry them outside and then over the fence from us was the [unclear] It must have been hundreds and hundreds of years old and it must have been a lot of battles based around Delhi, you know. And every night the wolves howling. We were one side of the fence and they were on the other. Oh dear. Yeah. Yeah. It was quite an experience. Oh, we went, we went through on the Bay of Biscay on a trooper. Four days rough seas. None of us could do anything. Terribly rough. Very rough. Yeah. Very rough.
TO: Were you afraid of a U-boat attack?
FB: Well, not really because we got, we got, we got right up to the Suez Canal and we hadn’t seen anything and we were told that the German Luftwaffe made a raid on the week before we got there but we didn’t see anything and we went straight through the Suez Canal. You know. but because that was the Battle of the Atlantic really. You know. German U-boats. Very bad. Yeah. Very bad. Yeah. Are you, do you work or are you at college?
TO: I’m at, I work for the Civil Service at the moment.
FB: Oh yeah.
TO: In Ofgem.
FB: In where?
TO: Office of Gas and Electricity Markets.
FB: Oh, I see. Yeah.
TO: What did you think of Chamberlain?
FB: Chamberlain?
TO: Yeah.
FB: Neville Chamberlain. Well, he tried his best to keep us out of the war but I'm afraid it didn't work. You know. He went to Munich. He was trying to, you know maintain the peace but in the end it didn't work. So that was it. We had to go to war with Germany. Yeah. We’ve had some famous statesman in England you know. All the, Gladstone and all those people. You know. All famous politicians. Yeah.
TO: Do you remember hearing about Dunkirk?
FB: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Of course, being in Intelligence. [unclear] the boats. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We all heard about that. Yeah. That was a bit of master planning to get them out of there with the Germans all around, you know. Get them out of Dunkirk. Yeah. Yeah. A friend of mine [pause] what was his name now? In the Army. Oh yeah, there was a, we were on the troop ship and I was walking down the, one of the gangways and I spotted this young officer. So, I went up to him and I said, ‘Sir.’ ‘What can I do for you, Private?’ ‘Well, Sir, I know you.’ ‘Do you?’ ‘Yes, I do and I know the school you went to.’ He was a local boy from Teddington. He was an officer in the British Army. He’d just become a sub-lieutenant. Yeah. Quite a surprise he was. Yeah.
TO: And what did he say then?
FB: Pardon?
TO: What did he say when he knew, when he realised it was you?
FB: Oh, you know, he didn’t actually know me but I said, ‘I know you because of the school you went to.’ You know. Yeah. Yeah. And I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had been at Kohima, you know. They were all young officers, you know. Yeah.
TO: At the, at your office when you heard about Kohima was anyone worried that Japan would win?
FB: It was a vital battle. Yes. Vital. The Japanese didn't have enough backing to get in there. They were stopped at Kohima and Imphal. Yeah. The battles. Yeah. Yeah, [unclear] very good. Very good Army. A disciplined Army. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's [pause] yeah. Sorry.
TO: Sorry. Were you going to say something?
FB: No. That’s alright.
TO: Ok.
FB: Yeah.
TO: Before the war started had you read about Hitler in the papers?
FB: Yeah. Yeah, we didn't seem to be unduly worried then. Of course, they all, everybody was getting issued with a gas mask in a little cardboard box. Everybody got one. Yeah. Gas masks. They thought the Germans were going to use gas. Yeah. But yeah, it was, yeah it was, it wasn't too bad really because as soon as the war started the rationing came in, you know. You were only rationed with certain commodities, you know.
Other: They were still on rations when I was born.
FB: Eh?
Other: They were still on ration when I was born.
FB: Yeah. It was. Yeah. That’s right. Yeah. It was. Yeah. And they were, clothing and everything was rationed, you know. You got coupons, you know. Petrol was rationed.
TO: Do you remember, did you have any favourite wartime entertainers?
FB: Oh yes. Lots. George Formby. Tessie O'Shea.
Other: Vera Lynn.
FB: Eh?
Other: Vera Lynn.
FB: Vera Lynn of course. She went to Burma. Yeah. Entertained the troops. She's over a hundred now. Yeah. Yeah.
TO: And what do you remember about the Blitz?
FB: Well, you see being in Teddington we were lucky. They were flying over us and that's when I told you that I reckon they were being chased by the RAF and unloaded their bombs on us. But we were lucky we, we didn't get blown up. But, oh the Blitz was terrible. My father went up there one, well he run, he managed to get through on the phone to the market. Can you imagine? All that bombing the night before and they told him that if he could get there he could have as much fish as he wanted. So he thought, I'm going to go and have a go and he went up there and he got over the London bridges, all the hosepipes and everything and got to the market and came home with quite a lot of valuable fish for people, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, it was, oh, my father he was a, you know, a tough man he was. Oh yeah. Really really tough. Yeah. The Blitz was terrible but you see the trouble was that a lot of the people used to go down to the shelters at night and one of the shelters got a direct hit. That was terrible. Yeah. One of the shelters got a direct hit. Yeah. Yeah.
TO: And what were the conditions like in the shelter at your factory?
FB: Well, they were only fall out. They weren’t, they weren’t, you know, just all you, all you did was just sit in there and we all thought well what are we sitting here for? There’s nothing happening. So, that’s when they started to put these Observer Corps men on the roof. And as soon as they got word that the Germans were coming over the, over the Channel we got the word in Kingston. Everywhere, you know. Because you know I think that saved a lot of lives. We didn’t get bombed during the day in Kingston. Only at night. One night only. Yeah. Yeah. One night only. Yeah.
TO: And what were your, what about, I was going to ask you about rationing in this country.
FB: Pardon?
TO: I think I’ve already asked you about rations in this country?
FB: About?
TO: Rations in this country.
FB: Rations?
TO: Yeah.
FB: Well, anybody living in the country was alright because they could get the chickens and rabbits and eggs but people in the town they got very meagre meat rations, you know. Anything like that was very meagre. Yeah. But we used to, I’d sell a lot of rabbits in my shop. Fresh rabbits. Wild rabbits. Everybody came and bought them. They, you know they couldn’t get meat, you know. Meat and fish and that sort of thing. You couldn’t get meat. No. You had to sort of have a look around and see what you could find, you know.
TO: What can you tell me about your, the training that you went through in the Army?
FB: Pardon?
TO: What training did you go through in the Army?
FB: Oh, God. Yeah. I, we had physical training twice a day by order of Montgomery. I went to a Battle School and we had to lay on the floor under barbed wire and they were firing live ammunition over our heads. And the Sergeant major said, ‘Don't put your head up otherwise you'll lose it.’ Yeah. That, that was it so after the war my last posting was a German POW camp and I was in the office with several other sergeants and I used to have to go down to Retford in Nottingham to a hotel and arrange for three lots of accommodation for lecturers coming from Germany to lecture prisoners of war. I used to do that very often. And then one day I was told to take a trainload of German prisoners to [pause] Oh, God, where did I go with them? Yeah. I forget where we went but you know we were, we were transferring them back to Germany, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know and of course I finished my days up there, you know. Yeah. Retford in, Retford in Nottingham. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of farms around there where the Germans were working, you know. [unclear] Farms. All sorts of farms they were working on. Yeah. Even today they're telling us they can't do without the immigrants because they’re all working on the farms. Nobody else would. Nobody else would do the job. Yeah. Yeah. So, there you are. Do you have to travel a lot in your job?
TO: No, not really.
FB: No. It’s an office job is it?
TO: Well, yeah.
FB: Mainly. Yeah. Yeah. Where is it you actually live?
TO: I live in Chiswick at the moment.
FB: You live in Chiswick? Do you really? Oh, right. Yeah.
TO: Were you never worried that Britain might lose?
FB: There was times. Yes. There was times. Yeah. You see, but you see the Germans were planning that. Were planning an invasion of England but our people had got so many inventions, you know. I mean, they to my mind what they were going to do when the Germans came over they were going to set fire to the sea, you know. To stop all the invasion boats coming in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Churchill. Well, Churchill went to America several times. He was flown there to the White House to have words with the president and he said to the president, ‘We are very very short of destroyers.’ You alright?
Other: Yeah.
But he said if you've got any. They gave us fifty destroyers. Of course, they were all antiquated so they had to, you know do a lot of work on them before they could even use them in operations. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, of course the two ships that were built in Scotland. Eighty five thousand tonnes. The Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary. You know that, don't you? How many troops do you reckon they brought to England at a time?
TO: Ten thousand.
FB: Fifteen thousand.
TO: Wow.
FB: Sleeping at night and sleeping during the day. Yeah. And they had this all worked out when they came across the Channel so the U-boats couldn’t get there, you know. Yeah. Oh yeah.
TO: Did you have any relatives who were in the Forces?
FB: You know, I —
Other: Tony.
FB: Eh? Oh yeah. My brother in law. Tony. He was at an American air base. Yeah. He was RAF. Yeah. I can't think there was anybody else.
Other: Of your generation.
FB: No.
Other: It was World War One.
FB: Yeah.
Other: Most of them were in.
TO: And do you remember, what do you remember about VJ Day?
FB: My daughter’s got that. You’d like to see that. She’s got all the memorabilia. She’s got the VJ and VE Day both. What are they called Sandra? Pamphlets. She’s got them. And Delhi. Delhi Victory Parade in 1945 and ‘46. Yeah. A fantastic parade, you know. Oh yeah, all of the people in London went mad didn't they? Yeah. Yeah. To think that they’d the last they’d been under great deal of pressure, you know. Yeah. They did very well really. The civilians. It was all a bit of aggro at the time. Yeah. A friend of mine had a fish shop in Chiswick. I think they sold it to either Marks and Spencer’s or Sainsbury's. They owned a lot of shops, my friend and he sold the, you know, things down.
TO: Do you remember the reaction in your office when the news came in that the war was over?
FB: Oh, yeah. Well, terrific, you know. I mean we got it pretty quick in Delhi, you know. Very quick. Yeah. Very quick. Yeah. Yeah, it was over. They didn’t stop fighting finally for a few days I don’t think, you know. Yeah. War is a horrible thing. Oh. God, I don’t know what to say about it all really. You know. The Germans they really did bomb London very heavily. They did. Yeah. They did. Yeah. We had to be, oh, yeah, a customer of mine he built all the waste land in London. His name, his name was National Car Parks. Remember them? That was him.
Other: Hobson.
FB: Eh?
Other: Hobson.
FB: Oh. Yes. Yeah. What was, yeah. He’s a millionaire.
Other: In Teddington.
FB: Eh?
Other: In Teddington.
FB: Yeah, he lives in Teddington. Where I lived. He’s got a beautiful house. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, I, this, all this came on me this illness and you know, I had to come in here. I didn't have enough money to, it’s very expensive here. So sadly, my Sandra there, and my son, how they did it I'll never know I just used to sit in the back. Sit there quiet as I could and they used to tell me what they were doing and what they were getting rid of. You see, my wife and I lived there for, how long was it in, San? Fifty.
Other: You lived there for seventy five years.
FB: I did. Yeah. But mum and I lived there from nineteen, what?
Other: ’55.
FB: Fifty five. Yeah. That’s right. Yeah.
Other: Until 2000, when mum died.
FB: Yeah. That’s right. I had some more built on the house, you know. Make it bigger. But —
Other: We had a shelter in your garden.
FB: Yeah. We did, didn’t we? Yeah. Yeah. Yes, we did. Yeah. Now, I’m just wondering what we’re going to do to my house. I can’t go near it I can tell you that. Yeah. My house was on the main High Street, just off the main High Street and I used to spend a lot of my time in Marks and Spencer’s and all those places, you know. Going around trying to keep me amused like, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
TO: How do you feel today about Germany and Japan?
FB: Well, it's such a long time ago now. I’ll tell you a story about that. We were, my wife and I were in Venice and we were sitting down by the unclear gondoliers and this young Japanese guy walked up with a camera and he stood on one of those things and he went and he fell in. So, me, very naughtily said, ‘That's one for our boys in Burma.’ [laughs] Yeah. I’ve had how many? Oh, Sandra's got a Honda now. If you want to buy a car.
Other: That’s not Japanese.
FB: Honda. Honda. Honda. Honda. Yeah. Anyway, Sandra had my wife’s car and some lady unfortunately bashed into it and wrote it off so we had to get another one. The one she’s got now.
Other: [unclear] machine.
FB: Yeah. Yeah. She’s had that a while now but they were only talking about Honda’s this morning. The bloke on the radio said don’t ignore Honda. Honda. They’re good. They know what they’re doing. Yeah. The one that Sandra had of my wife’s we were quite surprised it rusted underneath and they wouldn't pass it. Yeah. Which is very unusual. Yeah.
Other: That wasn’t mum’s. That was the second one.
FB: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Other: But I think it's sad about what do you, what else do you think about Japan and Germany now. How they've —
FB: Well, not really. Mrs. Merkel, of course, she's not one of our favourite friends I'm afraid. I mean Japan as well. I don't know a lot about them now. A friend of mine he was a surveyor. No. A designer. He designed a lot of places in Japan and that sort of thing. But —
Other: Well, Raffles was one of them, wasn’t it?
Yeah. Raffles in Singapore.
FB: And the Carlton Tower in London was another one my friend designed. I never hear from him now. One of my best friends. Shame, you know. I’m so sad about that. Whether they split up or not and that caused it I don't know. I really don't know. Yeah. You know, it's just one of those things. Yeah. No. The Japanese are clever. Japanese are very clever at copying. Copying things. The Japanese. You know, they can get plans and copy them and produce them, you know. Yeah. They had those aircraft carriers that attacked Pearl Harbour, you know. That was a bad bitter blow to America. Yeah.
TO: Do you remember hearing about Pearl Harbour?
FB: Oh yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. They, they, very nearly, the Americans very nearly caught a cold there but they managed to get out of it. Yeah. Pearl Harbour was, what was it? You know. A complete surprise attack. You know.
Other: Like 9/11 really.
FB: Eh?
Other: Like 9/11
FB: Yeah. Yeah. Same. Same type of planes and everything really. Yeah.
TO: During the war did you, had you already heard about the way the Japanese were treating prisoners of war?
FB: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I met some of them in Bombay. Bayoneted. You know. They didn't mess about. The Japanese. No. Very cruel people. Yeah. Have you seen the Bridge on the River Kwai?
TO: Yeah.
FB: Oh, you’ve seen that.
TO: Sure.
FB: Yeah. Yeah.
TO: What's your best memory of the war?
FB: What’s my best memory? [laughs] Coming home I suppose. Coming home. You know. You know, I wasn’t at all afraid when I was in India. You know, things were so quiet then, you know. But yeah. Yeah. We'll have suddenly notice to get packed up we came out of Delhi and got on the train. Bombay. We had to wait there some while. The ships were all full up, you see. Yeah.
TO: And what’s, what was the worst part of your war would you say?
FB: Well, I suppose that early part when I was, you know called up and in training and all that. Then when I went to India I was under tents. Under canvas for a while. You know. Yeah. We were under canvas you know. That's you see I was lucky I was born a bit late. Later on. You know. 1924. You know, I didn't actually sort of get called up that early like the others did, you know. Yeah. Yeah.
Other: You still did five years though.
FB: Eh? Yeah. Five years. Yeah.
[pause]
FB: A friend of mine, his name was Porch. He had a shop in Chiswick. Fishmongers. Yeah.
TO: What do you think of films that have been made about the war?
FB: Well, I think the Americans weren’t that well informed of a lot, you know they, they, ever heard of the, “Merrill’s Marauders?” Yeah. That was one of theirs. Yeah. Of the Americans. Yeah. Because they had a tough time in the Pacific, you know. On the islands. Okinawa and all those areas. Very tough. Oh yeah. Yeah. Alright, Sandra?
Other: Yeah.
FB: Are you sure?
Other: Fine.
FB: Yeah. So, yeah.
TO: Were you surprised when the, when the war with Japan ended?
FB: Yeah. We, we actually heard about the nuclear bomb. You know, it came so suddenly. You know, and Harry Truman, the American president and all he said was, ‘The buck stops here.’ And down went the, they had two bombs didn’t they? One at Nagasaki. And one at, where was the other one?
Other: Hiroshima.
Other: Yeah.
FB: Hiroshima. Yeah. Yeah.
TO: How do you feel today about your Service?
FB: Well, I mean I often think back and think what would have been my future, you know, if I hadn’t gone in the Army, you know. Or I could have, I probably would have been with my father, you see. You know, I probably would have been with him then but, yeah. I didn’t, didn’t regret going. No. I still see myself walking out of my factory with my toolbox. Going home. Going home and getting ready to report. Yeah. In Maidstone. Yeah.
TO: And is there anything else you remember about the victory celebrations in Delhi?
FB: Well, Americans provided a lot of entertainment, you know and oh, the Royal Marines Band was there. And a lot of English footballers you know. They played various competitions and that. But yeah, they were quite some days they were. Yeah.
TO: Did you ever see the people in India being mistreated by the Europeans?
FB: Pardon?
TO: Did you ever see Europeans in India mistreating the population?
FB: Oh no. Not really. That came, you know the Indian princes were defeated by the British Army but I mean most of them were fairly well treated, you know. The, you know, the railway workers and all that. Tough old job that was going in the Indian, Indian Railways and that. Yeah. Are you alright in that chair?
Other: Yeah. Fine.
FB: Are you sure? Ok. Yeah. Yeah. The Indian Railways went right up to the Himalayas you see. I went to the Himalayas. I went there. Yeah. Eight thousand feet up. Yeah. Then my wife and I went to Sicily and we went up Mount Etna. Yea. Yeah. We had some good times while it lasted, you know. When my wife died Sandra used to go with me to Cyprus, you know. Cyprus was good. Yeah. So all in all I suppose it didn't work out too badly.
TO: When did you hear about the Holocaust?
FB: Oh, God, that was just, I’m trying to think really now. One man I knew was in the, in the brigade that relieved Holocaust and he said they knew who they were going to shoot because all the prisoners were thin and the guards were fat so they shot them all. Yeah. All the guards, you know the guards, the Japanese guards were all fat and the other poor people were all thin, you know. More or less on their last legs. It was a terrible thing. Yeah.
TO: Is there anything you want to add?
FB: Pardon?
TO: Is there anything that was quite important to you during the war which you’ve not mentioned which you’d like to talk about.
FB: Well, I mean, I was out there for about six months before I got, before I got any mail, you know. Yeah. Are you, are you comfortable in that chair?
Other: I’m fine.
FB: Are you sure?
Other: Yes.
FB: No. well, no. It was general. I used to go to GHQ. I used to go up there on my bike and so did the others every morning about six and we used to come back about nine at night, you know. All our meals were [unclear] and everything and we had salt tablets to avoid getting what do you call it? You know when you come —
Other: Dehydrated.
FB: What?
Other: Dehydrated.
FB: Dehydrated. That’s right. Yeah. That’s right. We did. Yeah. Yeah. Dehydrated. Yeah.
TO: Anything else you want to say at all?
FB: Pardon?
TO: Is there anything else you want to add?
FB: Not really. No.
TO: Ok.
FB: I’ve gone through most of it.
TO: Thank you so much for your time.
FB: That’s alright. It’s quite alright. It's been nice to meet you anyway.
TO: It’s been nice to meet you too.
FB: Yeah. Yeah.
TO: Thank you.
FB: So, you say you’re based in Chiswick.
TO: That’s right.
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 Francis Burtenshaw
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Tom Ozel
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
2018-02-18
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.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ABurtenshawF180218
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Pending OH summary
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
01:42:45 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Description
An account of the resource
Francis Burtenshaw lived in Teddington. He worked at the Hawker aircraft factory until he was called up to the Army. He was posted to India to work in Intelligence. He worked near the bases of Generals Auchinleck, Cawthorn and Wavell and was working with intelligence regarding the war in the Pacific.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
British Army
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
India
India--Delhi
India--Mumbai
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/38464/PNyeAF22020025.2.jpg
87a622396c7d4cc5bf1480cc55e73f73
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/38464/PNyeAF22020026.2.jpg
315c0325d82eed1fb54d633a6b109c79
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
Nye, Albert Frederick
Description
An account of the resource
171 items. The collection concerns Albert Frederick Nye (b. 1925, 1877087 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, service documents and photographs. He flew operations as an air gunner with 207 Squadron before being posted overseas. <br /><br />The collection also contains an <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2237">album of his service life in India.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Lynn Corrigan and catalogued by Lynn Corrigan.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2022-03-03
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Nye, AF
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
Qutab Minar
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PNyeAF22020025, PNyeAF22020026
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Delhi
Description
An account of the resource
A view of the minaret Qutab Minar framed by an arch.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/38465/PNyeAF22020027.1.jpg
eaf13b2364b7b1c7a0f749fe4784b85d
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/38465/PNyeAF22020028.1.jpg
bf426e3604ca97379d99890185de9d4f
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
Nye, Albert Frederick
Description
An account of the resource
171 items. The collection concerns Albert Frederick Nye (b. 1925, 1877087 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, service documents and photographs. He flew operations as an air gunner with 207 Squadron before being posted overseas. <br /><br />The collection also contains an <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2237">album of his service life in India.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Lynn Corrigan and catalogued by Lynn Corrigan.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2022-03-03
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Nye, AF
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
The iron pillar of Delhi
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PNyeAF22020027, PNyeAF22020028
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Delhi
Description
An account of the resource
The iron pillar of Delhi. Annotated on the reverse 'Iron Pillar of Delhi'.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/39858/PNyeAF22020267.1.jpg
4525d6e298a001317e3715b568fa8b0e
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/39858/PNyeAF22020268.1.jpg
67af4f58bb7f8eca62a98c204c9ca325
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
Nye, Albert Frederick
Description
An account of the resource
171 items. The collection concerns Albert Frederick Nye (b. 1925, 1877087 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, service documents and photographs. He flew operations as an air gunner with 207 Squadron before being posted overseas. <br /><br />The collection also contains an <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2237">album of his service life in India.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Lynn Corrigan and catalogued by Lynn Corrigan.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2022-03-03
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Nye, AF
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
Baoli Vasant Vihar
Description
An account of the resource
A well where water is reached by a series of descending steps; called a 'stepwell'.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1967
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Delhi
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PNyeAF22020267; PNyeAF22020268
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.