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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/247/7524/YDorricottAArmy2465v.1.pdf
16cef0bde6e585ad0ab8bee9626b6e37
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
Dorricott, Leonard William
Leonard Dorricott
Len Dorricott
L W Dorricott
Description
An account of the resource
72 items. An oral history interview with Rosemary Dorricott about her husband Flying Officer Leonard William Dorricott DFM (1923-2014, 1230753, 1230708 Royal Air Force). Leonard Dorricott was a navigator with 460 and 576 Squadrons. He flew 34 operations including Operation Manna, Dodge and Exodus. He was one of the crew who flew in Lancaster AR-G -George, now preserved in the Australian War Memorial. He was a keen amateur photographer and the collection contains his photographs, logbook and papers. It also contains A Dorricott’s First World War Diary, and photographs of Leonard Dorricott’s log book being reunited with the Lancaster at the Australian War Memorial.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Rosemary Dorricott and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-10-07
2015-11-05
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Dorricott, LW
Access Rights
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Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
3 Deseado
A Dorricott
2 Besford Sq
Belle vue
Shrewsbury
Salop
[underlined] Oct 28th 1914 [/underlined]
Embanked for [one indecipherable word]
29th Oct 1914 at South Hampton, [sic] on a passenger boat named SS Deseado, set sail about 7.30pm
[page break]
On the 30th sea fairly calm but weather stormy. On 31st fine day. We were [deleted] in the bay of Biscay on Sunday 1st Nov. It was very ruff [sic] it tossed us about and cleared all the crocks off the tables when we were having dinner.
We came in view of land on Tuesday
[page break]
between the coasts of North Africa and Portugal also of Spain. The rock at Gibaraltar [sic] were a site [sic] worth seeing we could see them fairly well although it was a bit misty. All round the coast it was very mountainous. We could see the forts very plainely, [sic] and we could see them
[page break]
signaling [sic] from the one side to the other.
The towns in Spain looked very funny the houses were all white.
The rock Giberaltar [sic] stood out in the water more than the other, and it is a very high rock, the fort [sic] are placed at the very edge. There were
[page break]
some very high Mountains on the coasts of North Africa, they were also very picturess. There is about 8 boats with soldiers and horses in with us besides crusers [sic] to guard us.
We passed some of the troops from India going to the front, we passed them at Giberaltar [sic] on Tuesday,
[page break]
about 5pm they were 4 and 5 Borderers.
[deleted] The last sight of land again on Tuesday morning. [/deleted]
It is the finest day we have had since we started, the sea looked splendid. We could see one of the towns [inserted] in North Africa [/inserted] lited [sic] up from the ship, on Wednesday night splendedly [sic] We also passed the 2nd Shropshires going to England on
[page break]
Thursday about 7pm they are going to have 6 days furlow before going to the front.
We passed more troops going to England on Friday Nr Malta about 4pm. We landed at Malta about 4.30.pm on Friday, and ankored [sic] there for the night, about 2 mile out
[page break]
from the shore Malta is a very nice town and is situated close the to the shore. we could see the lights of the town very plainly, and when the surch [sic] lites [sic] came over us it lit the boat up like day.
We had to wait for escorts at Malta because our other
[page break]
left us, to take the troops to England that we met from India.
The building in Malta look to be very well built their [sic] are some very fine churches their [sic] We started from Malta on Saturday morning aboat [sic] 8.30 [inserted] am [/inserted] with a fresh escort of Battle ships and torpeado [sic] boats we also had
[page break]
a submarine with us it was tugged by another boat. It was very ruff [sic] on Sunday again especialy after tea. It was not quite so ruff [sic] as last Sun when we were in the Bay of Bisky [sic] We were inockulated [sic] on Tuesday 10th Nov, we also reached Port Said on Tuesday about
[page break]
9 pm and stayed their [sic] till 5am on Wednesday morning we could see some of the streets, and see some of the Hotels. The natives are a tan colour. They were working all night, they were shouting all the time, makeing [sic] very funny noises There is a very big dock their [sic] with
[page break]
all kinds of boats in it. We saw them loading the vessels with coal, they carry it in wiskets from of [sic] a coal lanch [sic] We came into the Suez canal about 7pm There is a railway running along the side of the canal it run’s [sic] for miles and miles. Most of the native’s [sic] live in tents other’s [sic] live in stone build [sic]
[page break]
sheds, with a [inserted] slightly [/inserted] slooping [sic] roof, there are some very picture’ss [sic] building such, as “Palais. D Administration. Du. Canal” this is a very fine building We saw droves of camels, donkes, [sic] and mules, on the desert we also saw them drawing the [deleted] the [/deleted] sand and, spar from the hillocks The spar resembled [deleted] britez [/deleted] britze very
[page break]
much. They get it from big hillocks close to the canal They fill truck which run on rails for the donkey’s [sic] and mules, to pull, with slime, and the camals [sic] have to take the big lumps on there [sic] backs, in wooden boxes, the boys lead them about, and the men load them up
[page break]
The nataves [sic] run after the ship after pennies which the soldiers threw to them. The canal is about 100 yards wide and about 90 miles long. We passed a ship load of English passengers at “Gare De. Ballah, near the railway station We saw a lot of Royal Engeniers [sic] from [deleted] Lankeshire [/deleted]
[page break]
Lancashire at “Gare. De. Kantara the barricks, [sic] in which they stayed were very good looking building’s, [sic] build [sic] [deleted] of [/deleted] with stones, the roofs [sic] were flat.
We had five of the natives on board selling, tirkish –[sic] delite, [sic] post cards, cigeretts, [sic] and matches. We saw about 7 dredgers at work
[page break]
in the canal.
It is supprising [sic] to see the number of natives that work in the hillocks getting the spar The engins [sic] on the railway are something similar to the Midland railways Company’s engins, [sic] they go about 30 miles per hour.
The trees are very different to ours
[page break]
there is one class of tree that looks [inserted] like [/inserted] our fir, We saw some of the Kirkers’ from India at “Gare. De. Kantara camping in tents. We had to stop again for a fresh escort just out side a town called “Port Suez” or the town of Suez on Wednesday
[page break]
night, we were also there all day on Thursday.
On Friday we went on shore in coal boats drawn by a tug. When we got on the shore we went for a march around the town of Suez and to a-nother [sic] town about 1 mile away. The town is a lovely place. the houses are build [sic]
[page break]
of stone, and then plastered [deleted] over [/deleted] over There is generaly [sic] a lot of fancy wood work in the front of the houses which makes them look pretty. It is supprising [sic] to see the different coulors [sic] of the people there, there are some white people their, [sic] mostly French and Spaniards
[page break]
Then there are the natives which are tan coulored, [sic] also a lot of niggers. When we were on the march they stopped us and told us to go and paddle in the sea, which we enjoyed very much, as it was very dusty, and our feet were hot from marching. Then we went and had some
[page break]
thing to eat, a hard roll like a dog biscuit and a sardines.
Then we went to see a football match between the right and left half [indecipherable word] of our brittalian [sic] they had to finish before the proper time as it was getting dark, we then made our way to the shore but it was to [sic] ruff [sic] to go across to our ship in the coal
[page break]
boat, so we had to stop the night in a cargo boat called “Neghileh” we were packed like sardines in a box, some of us had to sleep on the top deck, our company were sleeping in a poky old hole were [sic] there had been a lot of hay, and which smelt [sic] of tobacco [indecipherable word] very bad, we
[page break]
had to sleep in our cloths [sic] and had our boots for a pillow, we did not have much to eat and only water to drink. We came back again on (Sat) morning about 9pm and glad we were to get a good breakfast. We saw some of the native police x they look very well in there [sic] uniform
[page break]
but I should not like there [sic] job as the natives are a ruff [sic] lot to deal with, the mounted police have splended [sic] horses. I only saw 2 bicicles, [sic] and I did not see a motor car at all their. [sic]
There has about 75 thousand Indian troops come into the harbour today Monday 16th Nov
[page break]
for the front.
We started again from the Suez harbour on Wednesday morning about 9am. The town of Suez is in Arabia. Our company were inockulated [sic] again on Thursday 19th Nov. We have two big gun’s [sic] on boat they are 4.7 bore. I saw the sailors practising
[page break]
this morning Friday our sailors are very good with them they hit the target almost every time, we have been rear guard biggest part of the way yet.
We [deleted] got to Aden on Monday at 11am were [sic] we stayed to post letters, and waite [sic] for a fresh escort. On Tuesday
[page break]
there several vessels came into the harbour with Austrailian [sic] and New Zeland [sic] troops on them, they were going to Aldershot for a short time and then going to the front if they were wanted. Aden is a very quiet place it look’s [sic] a lonely place to live at.
[page break]
There is a big barracks their, [sic] were [sic] they bring rigements [sic] that have disgraced there [sic] self as a punishment. They do not keep [inserted] them [/inserted] their [sic] more than 12 months because it is so lonely [insered] and difficult to get water [/inserted] We started from their [sic] on Thursday at 1.30 On Sunday 29th I was vaxanated [sic] most of the company were done on (Sat)
[page break]
[underlined] December 1914 [/inderlined]
We reached Bom Bay [sic] on Tuesday Dec. 1st at 7pm we ancored [sic] just outside the town till Wednesday morning and then we went in the dock, we were allowed [sic] off the boat from 4pm till 9pm to go just around the dock buildings
[page break]
only. Bom Bay [sic] is a very pretty place. Their [sic] is a big Y.M.C.A. their [sic] They use bullocks mostly to do the hauling an ploughing and use ponnies [sic] to do the cab work There is a splended [sic] market their, [sic] it is much bigger than the one at Shrewsbury.
[page break]
We started from Bom Bay [sic] for Calcutta on (Thur.) about 12 oclock. We were traveling [sic] on the Great Indian Peninsula and the Bengal Nagpur railways. The [indecipherable word] ride through the cuntry [sic] was lovely we saw droves of cattle, sheep, and goats, and a lot of monkeys
[page break]
India is a cuntry [sic] with a tremengous [sic] quantity of fruit growing in it We saw large quantites [sic] of bananas Oranges and [deleted] coca [/deleted] cocoa [sic] nuts We were three days going from Bom Bay [sic] to Calcutta we only stoped [sic] just to get our food at different stations.
[page break]
We landed at Calcutta on (Sun) about 3.30. We went on a [indecipherable word] boat called the “City of Marseilles” as soon as we could after landing. It was not so fine a boat as the Deseado We started from Calcutta on Monday morning about 7.30 for
[page break]
Rangoon. We arrived at Rangoon on Thursday morning about 7am. We disembarked about 10am. the natives brought us roses, cigars and matches and gave them to us. We then marched through the town up to our barracks, we had 3 bands
[page break]
playing us up there. The barracks are very nice places, we each have a bed and a locker of our own. Rangoon is a splendid place by what I have seen up to now. There are several other barracks were [sic] we are with different rigements [sic] in them.
[page break]
Part of our company and D company had to march back to the ship about 4 pm because we had to go back [inserted] to [/inserted] an island about 300 miles from Rangoon to guard convicts. the island is called Andaman island. We were allowed to go off the ship from
[page break]
3pm till 9.30 pm on Friday I went for a strool [sic] through the town and afterwards to the picture palace Rangoon is a buisness [sic] like town you can get almost everything you can menshon [sic] from the shops.
The shops are [indecipherable word] very much
[page break]
different to what they are in England. There is very [inserted] little [/inserted] frontage to them they are all open in the front so that you can see them making the things inside them. There are a good many British people in Rangoon. I was in the Y.M.C.A. on
[page break]
Saturday evening it is a lovely place. On Sunday morning the Wostershire [sic] regiement [sic] came on the boat they were going to England and then to the front. We are going to get of [sic] at Port Blair on one of the Andaman, [inserted] isles [/isles] and then the boat is going to take
[page break]
the Wostershire [sic] regiement [sic] on to Calcutta.
We left Rangoon about 11.30 [inserted] am [/inserted] on Sunday, we reached Port Blair on Tuesday morning at 7am. [inserted] Dec 10th 1914 [/inserted] Port Blair is a nice little place we have decent barracks, nearly the same as those at Rangoon
Dec 21st my birthday
[page break]
Dec 22nd I was on guard for my first time I was on guard with 2 more at a wireless station on the Aberdeen island about 1 mile from Ross island There is about 13000 prisoners on the two island There is a very big prison on
[page break]
the Aberdeen island were [sic] most of the prisoners are kept We did not have a very good day on Christmas day we had stew for dinner, and each man had 1 packet of cigarettes and a cigar, we also had a bottle of pop. we did not have any milk in our tea and
[page break]
very little sugar. On New Years Day we had bacon and 2 eggs for breakfast, beef and potatoes and pudding for dinner we were also allowed 1 [inserted] tin [/instered] herrings between 3 for our tea, so that is all the Xmas and New Year we have had.
[page break]
On New Years Day we selebarated [sic] what is called procklumation [sic] day in India the chief commisoner [sic] was there.
Ross island [inserted] is [/inserted] a very small island it is about 2 miles all around it It is very quiet here [inserted] there is [/inserted] no place of ammusement [sic] of any kind
[page break]
The natives of these islands are called Andamanese. They are supposed to be one of the lowest tipe [sic] of umanity [sic] there is in exstance [sic] They wear no cloths [sic] at all except a string tied around their middle and some of them not even that.
[page break]
They are not very big about 4’2” or 3” in hight [sic] with very black curley [sic] hair There [sic] skin is also very black.
Up to about 50 years ago they were savages, and used to kill everybody that went into their quarters unless they belonged to their tribe. Their [sic] is twelve tribes
[page break]
of them, At one time they were a very big race of people and used to cover biggest part of Burma, but have been driven down by the other races from the north, till their [sic] is very few of them left, these islands are the only places their [sic] are any left except a few in
[page break]
the south of Burma They are very good shots with bows and arrows, and live entirly [sic] by fishing and hunting. Their [sic] is one tribe still that are savages called gallowoys, and often when convicts go to cut timber from the part off [sic] the island in which they live,
[page break]
they kill them Since we have been at Port Blair there has been a fight between the gallowoys and the other Andamanese It was over some of the convicts cutting some cocoa [sic] nut trees down the gallowoys killed several convicts, then the other Andamanese
[page break]
that are more civelezed, [sic] and are emploued [sic] by the government of India to keep the gallowoys quiet went to stop them and then they started to fight but it did not last but a day or two or we should have had to have gone to help the Andamanese
[page break]
The reason they started this settlement here was because years ago when sailing boats were mostly used, in stormy weather this part becomes very rough so that boats used to get drifted onto these islands when crossing the bay of Bengal these islands
[page break]
are in the direct line boats take when crossing the bay.
When the boats got drifted unto the islands, and were waiteing [sic] for the sea to get calm the Andamanese used to rush down upon them and kill them and take all the things belonging them
[page break]
This was a big loss to the government (then the so called East Indian company) So they determined to start a settlement here so that if any boats got drifted the [inserted] people [/inserted] would be able to come on shore in safety, They had very great diffucalty [sic] in starting it they had to drive
[page break]
the natives off. and had many big battles with them, but after a time they began to get more freindly [sic] towards one another They afterwards started a convict settlement [sic] and build [sic] a big prison on Aberdeen Island which has about 13000 convicts in it.
[page break]
On Sunday 28 Mar I saw a shark which the convicts had caught, with a ordainary [sic] fishing line. it was only a younge [sic] one and was exactaley [sic] 8 feet long. its two side fins are 20 inches long and the fin on the tope [sic] of its back is 15 inches long.
[page break]
We left Port Blair for Singapore on Good Friday Apr 2 we started at 6pm on board a small troop ship called Mayo. The 2nd forth [sic] Somersets realeived [sic] us. We landed at Rangoon on Sunday morning (Easter Sunday) about 8.30. We were allowed to [inserted] go [/inserted] off the boat from 10am
[page break]
to 6pm. I first went up to the barracks to see some off [sic] my pal’s [sic] that were in the hospital that had been left behind the rest of the brittalion [sic] when they went to Singapore. After dinner I went to see the pogoda [sic] it is a magnificunt [sic] place, it is the
[page break]
finest pogoda [sic] in the world and is supposed to be one of the seven wonders of the world. It would be useless to attempt to describe it. We saw some very find carveing [sic] at the show room at port Blair but it is nothing to be compared with
[page break]
the carveing [sic] in the pagoda. Their [sic] is four entrances to it and you have to go up a lot of steps to get to the palace were [sic] [indecipherable words] are along the bottom of the steps there are people selling all kinds of things, especialy [sic] candles, also a lot of natives begging The natives have
[page break]
to take off their shoes before approaching the idle [sic] which they wish to worship. I afterwords [sic] went to the enclousure [sic] were [sic] the wild [inserted] beasts [/inserted] are kept. I saw several kinds of snakes, bears, lions, tigers, elephants, camels, dears [sic], monkeys, parots [sic], and many more things I cannot remember
[page break]
the names off [sic].
We started for Singapore on Easter Monday with the men that were left in charge of the lugage [sic] at Rangoon and those that were left behind in the hospital that were [inserted] now [/inserted] able to travell [sic]. We reached Singapore on Sat 10th Apr; Singapore
[page break]
is a very fine place, must hotter than Port Blair.
We started from Singapore on Tuesday 13th for Hongkong [sic] in China on a boat called Eumaeus. We reached Hongkong [sic] on Sun. 17th Apr.
[page break]
[2 blank pages]
[page break]
[numbers]
[page break]
[6 pages of addresses]
[page break]
[notes]
[page break]
[addresses]
[page break]
[list of locations and other notes]
passed a ship full of English passengers
[list of locations]
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 Dorricott's army diary
Description
An account of the resource
A handwritten notebook containing the war diary of A Dorricott from October 1914. He embarks the SS Deseado at Southampton and sails through the Bay of Biscay, past Gibraltar to Malta. They continued with naval escorts to Port Said, through the Suez canal, a stop at Aden then on to Bombay, Calcutta then finally Rangoon. After a stay there he sails for Singapore then Hong Kong. He describes the trip with comments about Australian and New Zealand troops on their way to the Western Front, the coaling station, his living conditions, the food, and the animals he saw.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A Dorricott
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One handwritten notebook
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Diary
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
YDorricottAArmy2465v10001,
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Nicki Brain
Alan Pinchbeck
Karl Williams
David Bloomfield
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Burma
Burma--Rangoon
China
China--Hong Kong
Egypt
Egypt--Port Said
Egypt--Suez Canal
Great Britain
England--Southampton
India
India--Mumbai
India--Kolkata
Malta
Singapore
Yemen (Republic)
North Africa
England--Hampshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1914
1915
animal
military living conditions
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/297/25291/PMcBeanLW16010095.1.jpg
786978288812dddbf75ef2f4123e2bf3
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
McBean, Lachie
Lachlan William McBean
Lachlan W McBean
Lachlan McBean
L W McBean
L McBean
Description
An account of the resource
117 Items. Collection concerns Lachlan William "Lachie" McBean (1924 - 2019, 430629 Royal Australian Air Force). He was a pilot whose crew had just finished their course at a Heavy Conversion Unit when the European war ended. Collection consist of an oral history interview and photographs of people, places and aircraft.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Lachlan McBean and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-22
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
McBean, LW
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
Approaching Bombay
Description
An account of the resource
View, across deck crowded with people, of a city in the distance across water. Captioned 'Approaching Bombay'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph mounted on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PMcBeanLW16010094
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
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
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/495/17740/PCollerAS17010007.2.jpg
61a4110a53c62a96fc5c29d1951b0578
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
Coller, Allan Stanley
A S Coller
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Coller, AS
Description
An account of the resource
17 items. An oral history interview with Allan Coller (1924, 1874018 Royal Air Force). Also a number of other items associated with the Air Cadets and his service in Sri Lanka and India including a scrapbook of photographs.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Allan Coller and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
AS Coller Scrapbook Page 7
Description
An account of the resource
11 items on a page of a scrapbook.
Item 1 - programme for a revue 'Let's Have Another One' taking place on RMS Scythia on 5-8 November 1945.
Item 2 - photograph of A C Coller in tropical uniform standing beside two local boys who are sitting on either side of him.
Item 3 - three women sitting on a steps in front of a wooden building. One is holding a small dog. It is captioned 'Rita, Gail, Rita'.
Item 4 - stamp with a phoenix.
Item 5 - photograph of the sign for RAF Kankesanturai.
Item 6 - photograph of a dormitory.
Item 7 - photograph of a nurse sitting on a chair, captioned 'Matron 48 IGA Bombay India'.
Item 8 - head and shoulders portrait of A C Coller in tropical uniform and wearing a brimmed hat. He has a moustache.
Item 9 - head and shoulders portrait of A C Coller in tropical uniform.
Item 10 and 11 are photographs of beds in a dormitory.
There is a handwritten caption '[obscured] Malana & Colombo holding camp. We found out, soon after getting there that the camp was often raided by gangs who would cut the moskito [sic] nets which would fall over us so I adopted a dog to sleep under my charpoy who could warn me. We also chained our tin boxes together. This worked until moving on to Negombo air station. The dog was ok with a new owner.'
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page from a scrapbook
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PCollerAS17010007
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Sri Lanka--Kankesanturai
Sri Lanka--Colombo
Sri Lanka--Negombo
Sri Lanka
India
India--Mumbai
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
animal
entertainment
military living conditions
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/495/17741/PCollerAS17010008.2.jpg
e3111955aadb0c7041c96bd677dd2f97
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
Coller, Allan Stanley
A S Coller
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Coller, AS
Description
An account of the resource
17 items. An oral history interview with Allan Coller (1924, 1874018 Royal Air Force). Also a number of other items associated with the Air Cadets and his service in Sri Lanka and India including a scrapbook of photographs.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Allan Coller and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
AS Coller Scrapbook Page 8
Description
An account of the resource
12 items on a page of a scrapbook.
Item 1 - photograph of an airman standing beside a monument, captioned 'Birt Littlewood Kandy Ceylon'.
Item 2 - photograph of an airman seated, captioned 'Birt Littlewood Kandy Ceylon' and 'Our leave at Queen's Hotel, Kandy, Ceylon'.
Item 3 - photograph of an airman in tropical uniform beside a sign 'To AHQ Ceylon and SHQ Kandy'.
Item 4 - photograph of a hotel behind a lake, captioned 'Queen's Hotel Kandy Ceylon'.
Item 5 - photograph of a sign pointing one way to AHQ Ceylon and WAAF Camp and the other way to SHQ and Training Wing.
Item 6 - photograph is of a lake captioned 'Lake near Queens Hotel, Kandy'.
Item 7 - photograph of a street scene, captioned 'Road leading to docks Colombo Ceylon'.
Item 8 - photograph of a tower with a man on a bike at the front. It is captioned 'Clock Tower Jaffna Ceylon'.
Item 9 - photograph of the clock tower captioned 'Clock Tower not far from docks Colombo. Chatham Street Colombo Ceylon'.
Item 10 - photograph of a large building captioned 'Town Hall Jaffna Ceylon'.
Item 11 - the cover of a guide to Andaman and Nicobar Islands captioned 'A posting that never happened. We were landed in Bombay this was a typical happening'.
Item 12 - Souvenir of Voyage on the 'Duchess of Bedford'. Rangoon to Liverpool November-December 1946.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page from a scrapbook
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PCollerAS17010008
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Sri Lanka--Colombo
Sri Lanka--Kandy
Sri Lanka--Jaffna
Sri Lanka
India
India--Mumbai
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
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/297/25298/PMcBeanLW16010101.1.jpg
fd448535c7e7fb83e6ce3115997170ef
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
McBean, Lachie
Lachlan William McBean
Lachlan W McBean
Lachlan McBean
L W McBean
L McBean
Description
An account of the resource
117 Items. Collection concerns Lachlan William "Lachie" McBean (1924 - 2019, 430629 Royal Australian Air Force). He was a pilot whose crew had just finished their course at a Heavy Conversion Unit when the European war ended. Collection consist of an oral history interview and photographs of people, places and aircraft.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Lachlan McBean and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-22
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
McBean, LW
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
Athlone Castle alongside
Description
An account of the resource
Single funnel liner tied up alongside wharf on right with cranes and buildings.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph mounted on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PMcBeanLW16010101
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
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
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/297/25297/PMcBeanLW16010100.2.jpg
c2f24599d4623483ba274ace6cf3b5e5
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
McBean, Lachie
Lachlan William McBean
Lachlan W McBean
Lachlan McBean
L W McBean
L McBean
Description
An account of the resource
117 Items. Collection concerns Lachlan William "Lachie" McBean (1924 - 2019, 430629 Royal Australian Air Force). He was a pilot whose crew had just finished their course at a Heavy Conversion Unit when the European war ended. Collection consist of an oral history interview and photographs of people, places and aircraft.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Lachlan McBean and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-22
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
McBean, LW
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
Athlone Castle alongside wharf
Description
An account of the resource
Single funnel liner tied up alongside wharf with cranes. There are several figures near bow and railway track on the right.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph mounted on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PMcBeanLW16010100
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Stilgoe
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/297/25296/PMcBeanLW16010099.1.jpg
175b75cb1a6f3e36b3e2e1e75e9ae272
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
McBean, Lachie
Lachlan William McBean
Lachlan W McBean
Lachlan McBean
L W McBean
L McBean
Description
An account of the resource
117 Items. Collection concerns Lachlan William "Lachie" McBean (1924 - 2019, 430629 Royal Australian Air Force). He was a pilot whose crew had just finished their course at a Heavy Conversion Unit when the European war ended. Collection consist of an oral history interview and photographs of people, places and aircraft.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Lachlan McBean and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-22
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
McBean, LW
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
Athlone Castle Bombay
Description
An account of the resource
Single funnel liner tied up alongside a wharf with cranes. Captioned 'Athlone Castle - Bombay'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph mounted on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PMcBeanLW16010099
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
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
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/163/2130/PBanksP15020123.1.jpg
f5c2251847873e6981c7aab61f3ed2cb
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
Banks, Peter. Album two
Description
An account of the resource
The album contains a varied collection of photographs taken whilst based at RAF Feltwell from 1937 onwards. There are aerial views of Windsor and Buckingham Palace, Harrow aircraft, plus social and service events. Post-war he was transferred to Singapore via India and Burma. The album reflects his social life with occasional photograph of his service activities at RAF Seletar. His return to UK via Bombay at the time of Indian independence is recorded, followed by scenic shots round Wick in Scotland. Finally there are some photographs of Angkor Thom in Cambodia. It also contains pages from newspapers dated 18 and 19 June 1940. <br /><br />Return to the <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/140">main collection</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One photograph album
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP1501
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
Barnaby Docks Bombay
Description
An account of the resource
Nine photographs taken from the ship looking down on people on the dockside.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1947-07-17
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Nine b/w photographs mounted on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP15020123
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Navy
British Army
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--Mumbai
India
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1947-07-17
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/163/2129/PBanksP15020122.2.jpg
386c968c2df1337f88dc7cf9285d516d
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
Banks, Peter. Album two
Description
An account of the resource
The album contains a varied collection of photographs taken whilst based at RAF Feltwell from 1937 onwards. There are aerial views of Windsor and Buckingham Palace, Harrow aircraft, plus social and service events. Post-war he was transferred to Singapore via India and Burma. The album reflects his social life with occasional photograph of his service activities at RAF Seletar. His return to UK via Bombay at the time of Indian independence is recorded, followed by scenic shots round Wick in Scotland. Finally there are some photographs of Angkor Thom in Cambodia. It also contains pages from newspapers dated 18 and 19 June 1940. <br /><br />Return to the <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/140">main collection</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One photograph album
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP1501
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
Barnaby Wharf Bombay Docks
Description
An account of the resource
Photographs 1 and 2 are from the deck looking down at people on the quayside. Photograph 3 and 5 are a clock tower at the dockside. Photograph 4, 7, 9 and 9 are views of the docks.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1947-08-17
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Nine b/w photographs mounted on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP15020122
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1947-08-17
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India--Mumbai
India
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/163/2131/PBanksP15020124.1.jpg
3595c8948db04cd39af383a556e1012e
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
Banks, Peter. Album two
Description
An account of the resource
The album contains a varied collection of photographs taken whilst based at RAF Feltwell from 1937 onwards. There are aerial views of Windsor and Buckingham Palace, Harrow aircraft, plus social and service events. Post-war he was transferred to Singapore via India and Burma. The album reflects his social life with occasional photograph of his service activities at RAF Seletar. His return to UK via Bombay at the time of Indian independence is recorded, followed by scenic shots round Wick in Scotland. Finally there are some photographs of Angkor Thom in Cambodia. It also contains pages from newspapers dated 18 and 19 June 1940. <br /><br />Return to the <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/140">main collection</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One photograph album
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP1501
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
Barnaby Wharf Bombay Docks
Description
An account of the resource
All photographs taken from the side of the ship showing people and marching soldiers on the dockside.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Nine b/w photographs mounted on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP15020124
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
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--Mumbai
India
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/297/25292/PMcBeanLW16010095.2.jpg
786978288812dddbf75ef2f4123e2bf3
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
McBean, Lachie
Lachlan William McBean
Lachlan W McBean
Lachlan McBean
L W McBean
L McBean
Description
An account of the resource
117 Items. Collection concerns Lachlan William "Lachie" McBean (1924 - 2019, 430629 Royal Australian Air Force). He was a pilot whose crew had just finished their course at a Heavy Conversion Unit when the European war ended. Collection consist of an oral history interview and photographs of people, places and aircraft.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Lachlan McBean and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-22
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
McBean, LW
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
Bombay Docks
Description
An account of the resource
View across water many ships toed up alongside docks. Captioned 'Bombay Docks'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph mounted on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PMcBeanLW16010095
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
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
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1689/27163/PMooreD16010025.2.jpg
e7c102f5bd60d87721e6bc1a3fa34a15
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1689/27163/PMooreD16010013.1.jpg
82ff9f0161259b5c463750e022cc24eb
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
Moore, Dennis. Album Two
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Moore, D
Description
An account of the resource
35 items. An album of photographs from Dennis Moore's post war service in the Far East.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-06
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Butch, Ernie and Billets
Description
An account of the resource
Five photographs from an album.
Photo 1 is captioned Butch standing in the garden at 10 The Mall.
Photo 2 is captioned Ernie on the beach at Bombay.
Photo 3 is captioned No 10 The Mall (Our billet) taken from the NW. Typical Indian House, looks like a prison.
Photo 4 is a row of tents captioned 'How they live at Rangoon! 267 Sqn Billets'.
Photo 5 is three men, captioned 'Indian [indecipherable] outside the mess'.
There is a second copy.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five b/w photographs on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PMooreD16010013, PMooreD16010025
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India--Mumbai
Burma--Rangoon
India--Kolkata
Burma
India
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.
mess
military living conditions
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/38524/PNyeAF22020135.1.jpg
5ccf8f53f022a1af7f7b268ac53c963b
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/38524/PNyeAF22020136.1.jpg
4a97609a040a5287bef8f6130b849a2d
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
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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.
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
Café Victory and Stores with servicemen
Identifier
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PNyeAF22020135, PNyeAF22020136
Description
An account of the resource
A four storey flat roofed building with balconies in the top three floors on a corner position on a street with pavement. A sign for the 'Cafe Victory & Stores' on the ground floor, with a few steps leading up to the entrance. A group of servicemen, children and civilians on the pavement. A brick building with a clock tower with a domed roof. A circular advertising sign with a star is visible on the right.
Ruston Court at the junction of Dr Annie Beasant road and R.G. Thadani Marg. Worli, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400030, India. The tower on the left (still there behind trees) is part of the M.A Podar hospital.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
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
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IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Stilgoe
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/39818/PNyeAF22020205.2.jpg
d7ed8e9f10b66a59e4a4c4b716ea21ac
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/39818/PNyeAF22020206.2.jpg
832c21412c196ccf64eeb63b06a45cd6
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
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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.
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
Cargo ship at Mumbai
Description
An account of the resource
A cargo ship moored in port with a second ship next to it. Floating crane and two barges visible; long, low buildings in the background.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
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
PNyeAF22020205; PNyeAF22020206
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.
Contributor
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Oscar Verhoeven
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/40194/PNyeAF22020281.2.jpg
77ac8adfda564cf178ed9ac778c9b477
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/40194/PNyeAF22020282.2.jpg
923a81d1dc11aa3fdb4cf9c58891ac44
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
Charni Road Railway Station
Description
An account of the resource
An electric multiple unit passenger train numbered 4 in a station with a covered roof. On the head unit, the sign reads "Churchgate". A second track is alongside the platform on which a number of men in Indian dress stand. There are electric wires overhead and a number of buildings, mainly of five storeys, alongside.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
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
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PNyeAF22020281, PNyeAF22020282
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Frank Schilder
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1401/27272/BMooreDMooreDv1.1.pdf
6f33157a0b1575c878747146f837b62b
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
Moore, Dennis
D Moore
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-06
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
Moore, D
Description
An account of the resource
37 items and two albums.
The collection concerns (1923 - 2010, 1603117, 153623 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, documents, photographs and two albums. He flew operations as a navigator with 218 and 15 Squadrons.
Album one contains photographs of his family and his training in Canada.
Album Two contains photographs of his service in the Far East.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Terrence D Moore and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Dennis Moore
28.06.1923 – 30.10.2010
[photograph]
Autobiographical notes
DM Memoirs (Second Edition)
Compiled and edited by Terry D Moore
[censored lines]
1
[page break]
2
[page break]
Foreward
In late 1991, following the end of the Cold War and the cessation of hostilities in Iraq. the Government's "Options for Change" defence review led to the disbandment of several RAF squadrons, one of which was XV Squadron which had played a significant role in the first Gulf War. As a former member of this squadron, in which he flew as a Lancaster Navigator during the Second World War, my father was invited to attend the disbandment ceremony in Laarbruch, Germany, and I had the privilege of accompanying him as his guest.
Although he continued to serve in the RAF until 1964, Dad had never talked about his wartime experiences but, during the long car journey to and from Germany, all that changed – the memories flooded back as though it were yesterday. The stories became very familiar to me as they were regularly recounted at the many air-shows and Squadron Reunions we attended over almost two decades
Sadly, he did not live to celebrate his birthday on 28th June 2012, the day on which Queen Elizabeth II unveiled the long overdue Bomber Command Memorial in London's Green Park. However, my wife Penny and I proudly attended as his representatives
[photograph]
The ceremony, honouring the 55,730 airmen who lost their lives during the Second World War, was attended by more than 5,000 second world war veterans and it brought to mind the last words of the Antarctic explorer, Captain R.F. Scott: "had we survived I would have had a take to tell . . . . . . ." Well he did survive – a thirty-three sortie tour with Bomber Command, and his tales are told in the form of these "Autobiographical Notes" which he compiled following our trip to Germany in 1991.
I spent many hours editing his notes, which I illustrated with photographs from his albums and, thankfully, was able to get his seal of approval before he died. Since then I have added more photos and later material which I found in his papers. I am certain that he would have approved.
[photograph]
Terry Moore, July 2012
3
[page break]
[photograph]
"60 years on" – with PA474 at RAF Lossiemouth, May 2005
[photograph]
Pam and me at XV Squadron "90th Birthday" reunion, Lossiemouth
4
[page break]
Dennis Moore
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
1923 – 1939
I was born at 98 Camden Crescent, Chadwell Heath, Essex on 28th June 1923. The youngest child of Thomas and Mary Moore 1, brother to Thomas (Owen) 2 and sister Joyce 3.
About 1926/7 the family moved to 150 Croydon Road, Beddington, Surrey.
My education began at Bandon Hill School, Wallington.
At the age of 7 I fell ill with infantile paralysis (Polio). I was taken to St. Thomas's Hospital in London where I spent nearly 3 months. I was immobilised in a body splint but do not remember much about the treatment except having pins stuck in the soles of my feet periodically (mostly in middle of night!). Apparently I was very lucky to have been diagnosed so quickly and affected in whole body rather than in particular limbs. I only remember there being some form of epidemic in the ward and visitors were not allowed for three weeks or so. The doctor promised me 5 shillings (a lot of money for an eight year old in those days) if I could walk unaided from the end of my bed to the end of the bed opposite by the time my parents were allowed back in. He had to pay up! All together I was off school for nearly a year. I started back in a wheel chair but soon discarded it!
In 1934 I got a place at Wallington County School for Boys. I was not very good at school but just about managed to keep up, though mostly somewhere near the bottom of the form! I only once ever obtained good results in exams when I managed to come [italics] first [/italics] in a science exam, and that was only because, by chance, I had swotted up the night before on all the right things!
I joined the school Scouts (9th Wallington {County School} Troop) and did quite well. Our Scout Master, A. D. Prince, was the school science master. I became Patrol Leader of the 'Owls' and eventually obtained the King's Scout badge and the 'Bushman's Thong'. Nearly every holiday was spent camping or 'Trekking'. In 1937 I attended the Scout Jamboree at Zandfoort in Holland (pictures in green photo album). None of us liked the very militant contingent from Germany who threw their weight about at all the 'get-togethers'.
[photograph]
Joyce, Dad, Mum and me
I represented the Scouts at swimming and the school 2nd XV at Rugby. All my spare time was taken up with tennis at Beddington House Lawn Tennis Club, playing and helping to maintain the tennis courts.
My swimming ability arose from the Polio recovery therapy. Long daily sessions were spent in the hospital pool and then in the local swimming baths in Croydon.
Our house was quite close to Croydon Airport and two of my friends lived actually overlooking the airfield. We could recognise all of the airlines and aircraft that we saw landing and taking off each day. This aroused my life long interest in flying.
1 Thomas Henry Moore (1892-1967), Mary (née Tait) (1893-1984)
2 Thomas Owen (b. 3 October 1917, d. 2 November 2010)
3 Joyce (b. 11 July 1919, d. 16 May 2012)
5
[page break]
1939
Mid-June – our summer holiday at The Hartland Hotel, Hartland Point, Devon was delayed so that I could take the last exam of Matriculation (Economics) but I did so badly that we need not have wasted the extra day. I left school at the beginning of July, aged 16
War started on 3rd September and we listened to the radio broadcast by Neville Chamberlain, which was immediately followed by the Air Raid warning and all of us really though that we were about to be annihilated.
I started work at 'CUACO' (Commercial Union Assurance (Marine Department)) in Lime Street, London. Starting Pay was 21 shillings & sixpence (£1.12 1/2) per week and a railway season ticket cost 13 shillings (60p) per month. My boss was called Godin. I spent most of the time making onionskin copies of documents – before the days of photocopiers! The Underwriters were almost like gods and had to be treated as such. The firm had a lunch club in Ropemaker Street (near Moorgate Tube Station). It was a very old and decrepit building and we had one of the top floors, which could only be reached by very rickety stairs. It was well worth the 10-15 minute walk to get there, through the many alleyways and quick-cuts through other buildings, as the meal was free!!! Later, this building was destroyed by bombing and the Barbican now stands on the site.
I joined the AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service) as a Messenger.
1940
Joined the CUACO Tennis club. Played on the sports ground in the Sidcup area. In late summer I witnessed the bombings in the surrounding area.
The evacuation of Allied Forces from Dunkirk, following the German advance through Belgium, Holland and France, took place at the end of May and was completed around 3rd June. I had holiday from work a few days later and went on a cycle tour of Devon. I caught the train to Exeter, then cycled & stayed at YHA's from there. I passed many camps of army people who had just got back. They were not allowed to send mail without it being censored, so I acted as 'Mail Boy' for many of them who called me over from inside the fence. One of the hostels I stayed at was at Waters Meet (now a National Trust site) and the Warden and I were the only two people there. He took me into Lynton (or perhaps Lynmouth) and introduced me to real cider. It did not take much of this to wake up next morning with a very thick head! However, a long hike up the river soon altered that. At Salcombe, I managed to hire a motor boat (dinghy) and could not understand why the chap who hired it to me insisted that there was a full tank of petrol. I now imagine he must have thought that I was going into the Channel to pick up more 'Dunkirk Survivors' – I must have been very naive at the time!!
The 'Battle of Britain' started in earnest about 12th August. I had been playing tennis at Sidcup when the first bombing of airfields started. On the 15th (or possibly the 18th), I was in the garden at 150 Croydon Road Beddington when aircraft flew over with bombs dropping from them aimed towards Croydon aerodrome. The following day I was called to the Bourjois factory with the AFS to try and get underneath some girders to see if anyone was trapped. A few days later, Dad took us all to live with the Robsons in Charlton Cottage, Copperkins Lane, Amersham, which they rented for a short while. I joined the local Scout Troop (1st Chesham Bois) and met the King family. After short time, by general consent, I was made Troop Leader.
I travelled up to London daily by train with George King & his brother. On one occasion, after a very heavy night raid, it took two hours to walk from Paddington to Lime Street through the devastated city. I camped out at weekends at Chalfont Heights and Great Hampden.
The Blitz was at its height during this period and London and the surrounding area were seemingly bombed every night.
6
[page break]
1941
Early in year the folks moved back to Beddington but I stayed on and lived with one of the King family at 'Rose Cottage' in Chesham Bois. I visited Len Reynolds (see Gunboat 658) who worked for Sun Insurance and had been evacuated to Wrest Park, Silsoe, Beds. I cycled from Amersham via Luton and was chased by a dog for a long way up the A6. Recent visits to Wrest Park are somewhat nostalgic.
24th April 1941, on leaving Chesham Bois, I was presented with a Photo Album by George King and members of 1st Chesham Bois Scout Troop.
[photograph]
Len Reynolds and myself in uniform
Changed jobs soon after a devasting German bombing raid on London on 10th May and started with Gold Exploration & Finance Company of Australia, which had been evacuated to Sandroyd School, Oxshott. The first few days were spent in the old office in Basinghall Street helping to move files and papers from the partially bombed building. During the week I lived at Sandroyd (in a small house called Kittermasters) and cycled home to Beddington at weekends. By the end of the summer the Blitz had more or less finished but a German bomber (or parts of it!) crashed in the grounds of Sandroyd one evening while we were out drinking in a local pub!
Volunteered for RAF and attended the selection centre at Oxford University (not sure which college – visits in recent years in no way help me to recognise anything about it). Had a long session with medics to decide if my previous infantile paralysis (Polio) would allow me to be considered for Aircrew. After an interview with four Senior Officers, it was decided that I had passed 'A1' and was 'sworn-in' for deferred service. My actual service in the RAF counted from then. Mum was very upset when I informed her as she was convinced that I would be unfit for any service in the Forces due to my previous medical history and Dad was upset that I had volunteered for the [underlined] RAF [/underlined] because he had already booked me as a nautical apprentice with a post on the Prince Line vessel "Black Prince". I had actually done myself a great favour as the ship was sunk quite early on with the loss of all the crew!
Took part in amateur dramatics at Sandroyd together with others from English, Scottish & Australian Bank (ES&A). Performed in Xmas panto as a character in sketches of the Weston Brothers type. They were very popular Radio characters of the time.
7
[page break]
1942
Early spring, I was called up as U/T Aircrew and reported to Aircrew Receiving Centre (ACRC) at Lords cricket ground and billeted in "Viceroy Court" (one of numerous apartment blocks in Regents Park area). During the first week or so we were kitted out, received inoculations, vaccinations, took night vision tests and attended numerous lectures in various part of the cricket ground. Many of the staff were well known cricketers of the day. Spent about eight or nine weeks here with some odd short periods of leave (weekend passes) so I was able to get home quite easily.
[photograph]
At home in the garden 150 Croydon Rd, Beddington
Posted to RAF Bridgenorth & RAF Ludlow where I helped to build the camps. We lived in tents and were treated like 'dirt'. Most of the time was devoted to learning how to 'skive-off' each evening and get back into camp without being caught! Ludlow was famous for the large number of pubs and we took advantage of this to avoid being seen by the SPs (RAF Police). Fortunately, both postings were quite short lived.
Summer was spent at Initial Training Wing (ITW) Newquay. Billeted in the "Penolver Hotel" on the seafront. I seem to remember it being next door to the "Beresford" (pictures in album). Our Sergeant, called Sgt. Hannah, was very strict but fair and we got on well with him. In the photos I recall many of the faces but I cannot put names to any of them. A certain teaspoon, still in use, came from a little cafe where we had our brief coffee breaks! A glorious summer – spent much time on the beach and in the sea, as well as clay pigeon shooting on the cliffs.
Since I had elected not go to pilot basic training selection but [italics] to train as a navigator [/italics], I remained at Newquay with 2 others while the rest of the course did their 'Tiger Moth' time. We met up again at Heaton Park, Manchester after they had finished their pilot checkouts. Had a miserable time hanging about waiting for next posting. Billeted in a filthy boarding house with a scruffy landlady and every one of the NCOs seemed to make life difficult.
8
[page break]
1943
Early in the year I finally got a posting to Empire Air Training in Canada. We entrained to Greenock (Glasgow) and boarded the Troop ship [italics] Empress of Scotland [/italics].
[photograph]
RMS Empress of Scotland (formerly Empress of Japan)
Hundreds of us were bundled together in tiers of bunks in makeshift accommodation on the port side, fairly well forward on the boat deck. It was a blessing being able to get out into the open quickly as some of the others were down below, almost in the bilges. We spent hours queuing for food but it passed the time quickly. We sailed on our own and had numerous alerts but nothing was seen or heard. Eventually we docked in New York, although we all thought we were going to [underlined] [italics] Halifax! [/italics] [/underlined]
By train up to No. 31 Personnel Depot Moncton (New Brunswick), stopping for nearly a day in sidings in Portland (Maine). People were very hospitable and made us meals and food for the rest of the journey.
It was freezing cold in Moncton but the huts were very warm and I remember barrels of apples at the end of each hut, which were always kept topped up with crisp, juicy, sweet red apples. Although well below zero outside, we never seemed to feel the cold. Time-off was spent in the town of Moncton, mostly in Macdonald's(?) drug store, eating very cheap T-bone steaks and drinking pints of milk. No shortage of food made it a regular paradise after rationing. We also spent hours ten-pin bowling, both in Moncton and in the alley back at camp.
I cannot remember what we did on duty, but do remember coming into contact with a Welsh corporal by the name of Gee who was the most obnoxious individual I have ever come across and who made our life a misery. It was a relief to join the epidemic of Scarlet Fever that swept through the camp. I was quite ill but lucky to find that one of the doctors was the husband of one of the girls that I had worked with at Sandroyd. He helped me when I was fit enough for convalescent leave by suggesting that I didn't go on my own to Montreal but to stay with one of the local families who took in Service people and looked after them. He introduced me to a couple called Tait who lived in Shediac, a place some 50 miles away, near or at the coast. They seemed to like me and 2 days later arrived back to take me home with them. They already had a number of Australian 'Tour Ex' aircrew staying with them, a couple of whom were in a very bad state and were being sent home by way of Canada and America.
[photograph]
The Tait residence was a huge detached property and they had a lovely red setter dog called Terry who took an immediate fancy to me for some reason and was my constant companion for the rest of my stay with them.
The Taits cosseted me right from the start and were most intrigued to find that Mum's maiden name was the same as theirs. They were most concerned when they saw my patched pyjamas and other clothes and really didn't understand when I told them about
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clothes rationing and all the other shortages. They immediately took me shopping to buy a whole set of new clothes and underclothes. Early in my stay they asked if I had ever had oysters and when I said no they immediately took me to a place called Pointe du Cheyne(?), which was 75 miles away up the coast, for an evening meal out. The place specialised in fried oysters and I had a whole plateful of them. They were marvellous and the taste still lingers on even though I have never had them again since. They seemed to think nothing of a 75-mile drive each way just for a meal out. I was introduced to all the inhabitants of Shediac – or so it seemed – and during my stay with them took me all over New Brunswick, visiting all the towns and villages and spent a day in Fredrickton visiting various relatives at the University.
It was a terrible break to have to leave them and get back to real life. One thing however was somewhat sobering and that was the discussions I had with the Australians before they left. I learnt from them what it was really going to be like to go on Bomber operations once training was finished.
Almost as soon as I reported back to camp in Moncton I was posted to No 1 Central Navigation School – Rivers Manitoba. The trip was a 3-day ride on the train and that in itself was a fascinating experience. Eventually I arrived at the town of Brandon after a short stop off in Winnipeg.
No. 76A Navigation Course began almost as soon as I had arrived and lasted from 17th May 1943 to 1st October 1943. After nearly a month of groundwork, I had my first flight in an aeroplane on 5th June 1943. I spent 3 hours 10 minutes in Anson 6882 flown by P/O Davey. [underlined] [italics] I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. [/italics] [/underlined]
[photograph]
76A Navigation Course 17th May – 1st October 1943,
No. 1 Central Navigation School, Rivers Manitoba, Canada
The others on the course were an amazingly good bunch and a number of us used to work and play together in almost perfect harmony. Only three pupils were 'scrubbed', for various reasons, during the course and the list of those completing the course is in my green photo album. Seven of us formed a small group.
Paul Bailey
Ken Waine
Joe Meadows
Doug Holt
Rick Richardson
Don Finlayson
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We were given regular 48-hour passes and the 75 miles on the train to Winnipeg was quite an easy journey. At Eatons, the major department store, we were able to arrange to stay with local people. Nearly all my visits were to a family living in Assiniboine Drive but quite early on Don Finlayson discovered that he had a relation in Winnipeg that he had never heard of before and we spent most of the time at his place, only going back to the others to sleep. I do not remember the name of the people I used to stay with, although I have a vague recollection that their name might be Oliver.
Finlayson's relatives had a youngish daughter and before long all seven of us paired up with other girls. As can be seen from the photo album we enjoyed many happy hours in the Cave Supper Club and danced to the music of Marsh Phimister (Marsh was still around in 1979 when we returned to Winnipeg to visit my cousin Tom Moore4 & his wife Marg!).
THE CAVE SUPPER CLUB
[photograph]
Date SEP 15 1948 No. 9 GIBSON
On one 48-hour pass I travelled to Toronto (or Montreal, I can't remember which) to meet my cousin Tom, whom I had never met before, but still managed to find him amongst the crowds on the Mainline Station. He took me to Hamilton Ontario were [sic] he was billeted. I think we also went to London Ontario but am not certain. He looked after me quite well and we seemed to get on well together, although it was a very short visit before I had to get back to camp.
Although I had never done very well at school, I suddenly discovered that I was just as clever (if not more so) as the others and I began to do well on the course. In the end I managed to finish 2nd on the course and along with 6 others was given an immediate commission as a Pilot Officer whilst all the others were promoted to Sergeant.
About the 5th October I returned to Moncton and almost straight away entrained to Halifax and boarded the Aquatania (or was it the Mauretania?). We sailed without a convoy again but had air cover at both ends with only a small gap in the middle. It was a smooth crossing, in much superior accommodation to that on the journey out. I met a Canadian who, it subsequently turned out, used to work opposite Tom Moore at Ogilvy Mills in Medicine Hat. – Small world!
We landed back at Greenock and I was posted to Harrogate for Officer kitting-out and indoctrination. I stayed at the Queen's Hotel in some luxury and, as there were lots of Civil Servants evacuated to Harrogate, the social life was extremely good. Went to numerous dances and parties including Christmas and New Year.
4Tom Moore (1916-1992) Margaret (nee Rutherford) (1914-1999)
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1944
Posted to No. 1 (O) A.F.U. (Advanced Flying Unit) Wigton, Scotland on or about 10th January and started No. 193 Air Navigators AFU Course.
Towards the end of January I 'went sick' with an undulant fever. Local Medical Officer did not believe me until I got rapidly worse and eventually was transferred to Hospital near Stranraer where Glandular fever was diagnosed. Whilst there, a survivor from a crashed Anson was brought in and all the 'stops' were pulled out to help him survive. Although nearly every bone in his body was broken he gradually rallied and started to make a miraculous recovery. Having recovered from Glandular Fever, I was diagnosed to have a mild leukaemia and started getting massive injections of iron and ate liver until it almost came out of my ears. Walked for miles in the surrounding countryside with some of the other patients and after a while felt fitter than I had for a long time.
I rejoined No. 226 Course on 7th April and finally finished there on 2nd May. I was posted to No. 12 O.T.U. (Operational Training Unit) at a place called Chipping Warden near Banbury. I arrived at Banbury railway station on my own and started enquiring about transport to the RAF Station. I met a Squadron Leader Pilot who informed me that he had already arranged for transport, which would be along in 'about an hour'. We sat and talked and I learned that he was called Nigel Macfarlane (Mac), a Rhodesian, who had already done a 'tour' in Hampdens. He told me that we were both two days late for the start of the course, although through no fault of our own. He seemed to be quite interested in me and my background.
When we arrived on the course, we discovered that most of the others had already had time to choose their own crews and Mac immediately asked me to be his navigator. Together we then looked around for the rest of the crew.
Eventually we got ourselves sorted out and finished up with
Pilot – Squadron Leader Nigel G. Macfarlane
Navigator – Pilot Officer Dennis Moore
Bomb Aimer – Pilot Officer Fred H. Shepherd
Wireless Operator – Sergeant 'Napper' Dennis Evans
Mid Upper Gunner – Sergeant Jimmy Bourke
Rear Gunner – Sergeant 'Nobby' Clarke (655)
The Flight Engineer, Sergeant 'Johnnie' Forster (later to become Pilot Officer), joined us later – after we had left Chipping Warden.
Fred Shepherd wore an 'N' brevet as he had completed a Navigation Course but for some reason had been re-mustered to Bomb Aimer at the end of his course?
The OCU aircraft identification was 'FQ'. All the flying was done in Wellingtons and it is worth noting that one of these – Z1735 – 'S', actually set a record of longevity by operating at this unit from early 1942 until January 1945. We only flew in this aircraft once. During the course both Fred & I were made Flying Officers and the Sergeants promoted to Flight/Sergeant.
We were on an exercise on the night of 5/6th June (D-day), and at the time could not understand why there were so many other aircraft in the sky!
On the 10th July we completed our first Operational flight on what was called a 'Nickel'. We dropped leaflets over Angers in France. The trip was successful and no difficulties other than 'Flak' were encountered.
Much of our flying here was from the 'satellite' airfield of Edgehill which was some distance away and actually on the site of the old battlefield.
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We finished our training about the 15th July, by which time we all seemed to work well together and all the instructors rated Mac very highly.
Posted to No. 1653 HCU (Heavy Conversion Unit) Chedburgh, Suffolk, on or about 28th July after leave. Flying on Stirlings commenced on the 14th August, firstly on 'A' Flight doing mostly circuits and bumps by day & night and then on 'C' & 'D' Flight doing Cross Country, followed by high level bombing practice. During the course we had 2 undercarriage collapses but otherwise the Stirling was quite a pleasant aircraft to fly in.
We did a fair bit of interchange of jobs except that our flight engineer, Johnny Forster had now joined us and he got the major share of actually flying it. I had a short lesson and also a session in the rear turret. It was here that I discovered that I did not feel at all happy looking down. I actually dropped a stick of practice bombs and did very well. On the ground we also did exercises at each other's job and on the gunnery range my '4 sec' burst disintegrated the moving target!
Whilst doing each other's jobs we found out that Mac (the pilot) had attended the Specialist Navigators Course just when the war started (he had come over from Rhodesia and joined the Air Force in 1938). This made three of us who were so-called navigators and it could have presented a problem, particularly as Fred Shepherd rather fancied himself in that role. However, on one trip, Fred started to try and give changes of aircraft heading to Mac from 'pinpoints' that he had observed on the ground without letting me know. Mac had no hesitation in telling the whole crew that, although there were two others who 'at a pinch' could possibly take over, there was only one navigator in the aircraft whilst he was Captain and that was me!! – and he had every faith in my ability to look after all of us as far as the navigation was concerned. This certainly boosted my ego and from then on we all got on famously.
The course was completed on the 4th September and we were quickly posted to No. 3 LFS (Lancaster Finishing School) at Feltwell where we arrived on 7th. Feltwell was a grass airfield with no runways but, nevertheless, we finished our conversion in 4 days and then rushed to No. 218 Squadron at Methwold so that Mac could take over the job of c/o 'A' Flight. We discovered that a few nights previously the Squadron had lost 5 aircraft, one of the crews being the Flight Commander. This was somewhat of a shattering experience to start off with but fortunately our first operation was a relatively easy one, bombing by daylight 'V1' bomb sites at Boulogne. 'Flak' (Anti-Aircraft shells) was quite heavy but there was no fighter activity.
During the rest of September we did two more daylight trips and 1 night trip to Neuss near Dusseldorf. During the early days of Oct. we converted to a form of specialised bombing called 'G.H' – an extension of OBOE. This used a tracking beam and a crossing beam for the release point. On this system the bomb aimer only had to set up the bomb release and I did the actual bombing run and release. The exercises we did proved to be extremely accurate and we regularly dropped practise bombs to within 50 yards from 20,000 feet.
Methwold was built just before the war but had no permanent brick buildings and accommodation was in Nissen huts dispersed in the woods, some over a mile from the Mess, which could only be reached over muddy footpaths. It started to get quite cold in these huts quite early on and scrounging for fuel for the stoves became a major pastime. Barbara Sharp, who used to live five doors from us in Beddington, turned up at Methwold but she did not stay for long. The film 'Journey together' was shot at Methwold and David Tomlinson the actor (of 'Bedknobs & Broomsticks' with Julie Andrews) was on one of the Squadrons. The author – Miles Tripp was a bomb-aimer on the Squadron and his book "The Eighth Passenger" tells of his crew and what happened to them both during and after the war. He talks of one trip taking off at a certain time when we actually took off 1 minute before him on the same operation. My experience and his seemed to differ completely on this particular occasion (see copy of his book obtained 20/01/1994!!).
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During October we completed 2 daylights and 3 night ops and after 1 trip (at night) in November Mac was posted to Mildenhall as Commanding Officer No. 15 (XV) Squadron and promoted to Wing Commander. The next day he sent an aircraft over to fetch us and we then joined the Squadron officially. As the C/O's crew we did less trips than anyone else and as Mac decided to act as a check pilot for the first trip with all new crews, we were asked to fly with one of the Flight Commanders called Flight Lieutenant Pat Percy (known to us as 'Tojo'). This was not a popular move as he was not of the same calibre as Mac but for special trips Mac flew with us and the difference was noticeable by everyone. Tojo was promoted to Squadron Leader in mid-December and we finished the month carrying out 3 daylight and 3 night trips. One of these was as 'Master Bomber' on the Schwammenauel Dam with Mac.
[photograph]
Mildenhall, December 1944
XV Squadron crew, with Lancaster "C" Charlie, ME844
[photograph] [photograph]
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1945
New Year's day opened the month with a 6 hour 5 minute night trip and during the rest of the month a further two night ops and three day trips were completed. On the 14th, returning from Saarbrucken, the East Anglian weather deteriorated so much that all aircraft had to be diverted. We finished up at Predannack in Cornwall and it was an absolute shambles. It is amazing that there were not any collisions as aircraft with very little fuel left tried to get into unknown airfields.
Most of our spare time when 'ops' were not in the offing we used to spend at the Bull at Barton Mills. Mac had his wife Margaret (from Nottingham) and his baby son Ian living there and the whole crew went to keep her company, particularly when Mac himself was not able to be there (see note at end of 1945). He often went with 'Sprog' crews on their first operation, to try and make sure that they were capable of operating on their own. We made many friends from No. 90 Squadron based at Tuddenham, which was also nearby and particularly with a Squadron Leader Pete Dunham and his crew who we subsequently saw blowing up on a daylight operation (see scrapbooks)
Only 2 trips in February (1 day – 1 night) both with Mac, and during this time Johnnie Forster was commissioned and Fred & I took him to London to get kitted out.
About this time I first met Pam. She was going out with Fred and visited him at Mildenhall. For some reason or other we were walking back to camp from the village as a group and Fred chose to go off with somebody else and Pam walked back with me.
Also around about this time I had bought a car and 'passed my test' by driving on leave with 4 passengers down through the centre of London. BAU 62 was a blue Ford saloon named 'EROS' which I bought for £30 at an auction of the effects of a deceased pilot.
Sometime during the month, my sister Joyce came up to visit. She stayed at a small pub quite near the main camp. I have always thought that it was called the George but visits in recent years have failed to find a pub with this name. [italics] (27/05/2014 – Fred Shepherd confirmed that it was "The Bird in Hand" which is just outside the old main gate – Ed) [/italics]
7 Daylight ops during March and mostly with a Canadian bomb-aimer called Tom Butler who stood in for Fred who was deputising for the Bombing Leader. On most of these we led either the Squadron, the Base (No. 32) or the whole Group. A Base was a small group of RAF airfields & 3 Group comprised all the Heavy Bomber Squadrons in East Anglia. All these 'daylights' were flown in quite tight formation – depending on the opposition! To boost moral back at the Squadron, our return over the airfield was always in as tight a formation as possible. On 23rd March we bombed a very precise area on the German side of the Rhine at Wesel (we were the lead aircraft), in preparation for our troops crossing. From all the aircraft bombing, 80 despatched and 77 actually bombed, only one bomb fell outside the perimeter (not us!) and that was as a result of a 'hang up' and not the fault of the crew. In Dudley Saward's authorised biography of "Bomber" Harris, this attack was listed as – 'perhaps the best example of direct support of the Army were the attacks on troop concentrations in Wesel on 23rd March by seventy seven heavies dropping 435.5 tons of bombs immediately prior to the Army launching its crossing of the Rhine and capturing Wesel'. Montgomery wrote to Harris – "My grateful appreciation of the quite magnificent co-operation you have given us. The bombing of Wesel yesterday was a masterpiece and was a decisive factor in making possible our entry into that town before midnight".
At this stage of Bombing Operations in Europe the number of 'Ops' required to complete a 'Tour' changed week by week. At the beginning of the year it was more or less standard at 30 but then it went up, first to 35 then to 40 before coming back down to 35 again in early March. When we went on our 33rd trip on 14th April we still expected to have at least another two to do. It was very much of a pleasant surprise to be told that we had finished as the tour had just been reduced again to 30!! One of the most difficult of trips was always the last with the crew
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so worked up that inevitably things went wrong and the crew failed to return. We were lucky not to have had to go through that trauma. Although so late on in the war, losses were still extremely high, with aircraft being shot down by flak and the more modern German fighters even by rocket aircraft. Losses averaged 5% per trip right up to the end. The end of the European war (VE Day) came on my last day of 'End of Tour' leave and after some celebrations on the way eventually got back to camp to find the mess having a huge party which spread onto the front lawn with fireworks and a colossal bonfire.
Without having much time to think about what was happening, the crew split up and I was posted to Catterick for "Disposal", leaving on the following day. I drove up to Catterick on official petrol coupons and went through the boring process of half choosing and half being told where to go next. At the time it seemed like a good idea to elect for Transport Command to get away from having to stay in Bomber Command and being posted to the Far East in what was known as 'Tiger Force'. I had hoped that I could get on to routes in-and-around Europe!!
After a further leave, when I had to drive on 'acquired' petrol, I was eventually posted to No. 109 Transport OTU Crosby-on-Eden near Carlisle, arriving around the beginning of June. After 4 weeks 'Ground' school – after a false start, I crewed up with:
Pilot – Flying Officer 'Butch' Harris
Signaller – Warrant Officer Ernie Omerod
and flying on DC3 (Dakotas) began on the 7th July and finished on 27th August. On the 1st August the unit was reorganised as 1383 Transport Conversion Unit and it was here that the news of the dropping of the Atom Bombs was announced, as well as the end of the war. Another tremendous party to celebrate.
I was then posted to India! Departed for Morecombe to await transit instructions. Pam came up for few days and we went fishing for Dabs with the others! On 7th October departed for Holmsley South (Hampshire) and the following day we left in a York (MW167) of 246 Squadron for Karachi via Malta, Cairo and Shiebah, arriving on the 10th. Spent a whole month kicking our heels in Mauripur (Karachi) before moving on (see photo album).
On 16th November departed in Sunderland (ML786) for Calcutta. Had a 7 1/2-hour flight, taking-off and landing in the appropriate rivers and enjoying the luxury of a civilian aircraft even though flown by a Wing Commander.
Arrived on 52 Squadron at Dum Dum, Calcutta and almost immediately started route flying in Dakotas. Places visited:
Akyab
Bangkok
Bombay
Canton
Chakulia
Chittagong
Comilla
Hong Kong
Meiktila
Nagpur
Rangoon
Saigon
Although now 3 months since the war finished, there were still the last of the Japanese soldiers (now prisoners) working at various places we flew to and there was much evidence of the utter destruction caused by their occupation. Most of our flights were to ferry the civil and military occupation forces back and forth and even to the more remote areas.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent on a round trip to Rangoon via Meiktila where our Xmas Dinner was a bacon 'sarni' (we actually had flown in the bacon!)
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1946
New Year's day was spent en-route to Bombay having only returned the night before from Rangoon again. During the month we flew some 71 hours.
Until 5th May we flew with only very short breaks in between and in one month (March) flew 106 hours. It was in March when we had to divert whilst flying over Hainan Island and the only option open to us was to go to Canton (China). We became the first British aircraft to land there since the beginning of the war. As I was the senior British Officer on board the aircraft, the British Consul would only talk to me even though I was not Captain of the aircraft. He was virtually useless and was going to try and arrange for various families to accommodate us in ones and two? The American Consul offered to put everyone up in his Headquarters and I agreed to this much to the annoyance of the British bloke (I seem to remember his name was HALL). Within a few minutes everything was arranged and all 30 odd people allocated a bed, even though somewhat crowded. The crew adjourned to the bar and, as the song 'Rum & Coca-Cola' was all the rage at the time, that's what we decided to have. It slid down very easily and after eating out at a local Chinese Café we eventually returned rather noisily, tripping over various passengers beds in the process. In the morning 7 of the passengers refused to fly with us and decided to return to Hong-Kong by boat. We did the trip in a matter of minutes whilst they took nearly the whole day. To give them their due, when we met up again in Hong-Kong, their spokesman apologised to us and admitted that we knew our own job better than they thought we did and then he bought us all a further round of 'Rum & Coke'.
Soon after this episode we were allocated a very young 2nd pilot called Terry Glover, who ousted me from my usual position in the right-hand seat. After a very scary let-down into Hong-Kong (letting down well out to sea and flying very low level over the water and between the numerous islands) we were guided by our new pilot into a dead-end which was not very popular with 'Butch', who immediately climbed very rapidly, put me back in the right-hand seat and then did a smart 180 before doing another letdown. This time I was lucky enough to find the right way through the islands and from then on I always sat in the front unless the conditions were CAVU (Clear and Visibility unlimited). In 1946 Kaitak airfield was a very different airfield compared to today. The main runway was usually only used from one end (from seaward) as a 1200ft. mountain blocked the other end. It was just possible to land the other way by just scraping the top of the 'Hill' and cutting back on everything, dropping like a stone then pulling out at the last moment!! We did it a number of times but only when the weather was good and even then it was quite exciting. After the war the whole of the mountain was removed and dumped in the sea at the other end of the runway, thus extending the runway considerably. Photos in the brown embossed album just about show this hill. More pictures in the album show various other views and other places. We stayed in a transit 'Hotel' called the 'Arlington' and did a great deal of sightseeing. Bearing in mind that the colony had only just been recovered from the Japanese, there was plenty to see and do. A suite in the Peninsular Hotel (the largest at the time) had been occupied by the Japanese General commanding the colony and was fitted out to remind him of home and even had a little stream running through the bedroom!!
One of the delights of our stays in Hong-Kong was the chance to be able to drink fresh cold milk and we always made a beeline for the local Milk-Bar as soon as we arrived and indulged in the luxury of a long cold pint!! Food also seemed plentiful and we fed well in one or the other of a Russian Café on the mainland, which was called "Timoschenko's" or the "Paris Grille" over on Kowloon.
Our stops in Saigon were also not without their drama as well as relaxation. The French always resented our having taken over from them and a continuous subtle 'infighting' was always taking place. The airfield was run by a joint-force and both the French and British Flags flew side by side on separate flagpoles over the airfield Control Tower. The British troops started one night by taking the French pole down and sawing a foot off the end before putting it back up so that their flag was slightly lower than ours. Apparently it took them a long time to notice but when they did, they reciprocated. Eventually new flagpoles were required and these
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got progressively longer and longer. One evening we arrived to discover the French very much up in arms because the following day their General Leclerc was coming on an inspection visit and they had caught our chaps taking their flag away altogether. As a result we were prevented from parking our aircraft in its usual position and were made to place it in part of a semi circle of aircraft on the tarmac in front of the Control Tower. We told them that we needed to leave at our usual time the following morning (around 8.30 to 9.00) to give us plenty of time in daylight for the 6 1/2-hour flight to Hong-Kong. They chose to ignore us and insisted we park where they told us, despite our protests. When we arrived early the next morning from our hotel in the town, French troops and a large band were already drawn up inside the semi circle, awaiting the arrival of General Leclerc. We carried out our normal preparations, including starting up the engines and testing them out! This infuriated the French and when we went back into the Control Tower for Met. and Flight Clearance briefing, they threatened to arrest us. The British staff winked, gave us a full briefing, with both Met. and the arrival times of visiting dignitaries, and assured us that they would give us taxi and take-off clearance. Walking casually through the French ranks, we informed one of the officers that they would need to move whilst we taxied out but nobody moved. We then decided that it was time to go, so started up our engines again and called for taxi clearance. We got no reply so started to move forward very slowly. The troops decided to give us room to get through and moved aside, but as we turned it was necessary to rev up the port engine and this we did somewhat more enthusiastically than usual. When we managed to look back the bandsmen were chasing their sheet music all over the airfield, so we gave an extra blast just to complete the havoc. As we did so the controller came through advising us to take off immediately and clear the area. Once airborne, the British controller bid us 'good-day' and thanked us for our 'co-operation' and we could hear the glee in his voice. Almost immediately we were formatted upon by 4 Free French Spitfires and we had visions of them shooting us down. However, they stayed with us for nearly 10 minutes before breaking away sharply and going back the way we had come. We found out on the return visit that they thought we were the General's aircraft and that the General's aircraft had landed before they got back. Apparently he was NOT amused to have to arrive without an escort and the Band still not fully reformed!!
On top of all this there were Dacoits and Bandits operating in the area, and there were gunfights around the airfield and Saigon on a number of occasions. Despite all this we enjoyed our leisure in Saigon, the French Club 'Ciercle Sportif' (see Photos).
About this time, I had applied for a job with BOAC through Mr. Robson who was something to do with the Ministry of Transport. I had been given a very good character assessment by our Squadron Commander (see his remarks in my Log-Book) and had hoped that the experience of 'route' flying would stand me in good stead.
In mid May we were given 2 weeks leave and we decided to find the coolest spot we could, so decided to visit Darjeeling. We went by train to a place called Siliguri, which is at the base of the Himalayas. By the time we got there we were hotter than ever and did not relish another train ride up to Darjeeling. However, we joined a miniature train which slowly but surely wound its way up the mountains and it got progressively cooler all the time. When it got near to the top it was going round and round like a corkscrew and in many places it was possible to step off the train, as it was moving very slowly, and then walk up a few steps to meet the line again and wait for the train to come past again. There is a picture of this in the photo album and this little railway is in fact quite famous. By the time we reached Darjeeling I was freezing cold and we had to hang about whilst accommodation was arranged for us. I remember flopping down on a bed in a dingy "guest house" and the next thing I remembered was waking up in the local Forces Hospital. It seemed that I had gone down with a severe bout of flu and some other chest bug as well. I was extremely well looked after in this hospital and there were a number of Sikh and Ghurka officers in the place as well. They all had serious complaints of some sort but as I got better they were a good crowd to be with. Towards the end of the 14 days leave, the others that I had come up to Darjeeling with departed back to Calcutta and I was given an indefinite extension, with sick leave on top. Before leaving the hospital, I was taken by the others to visit the highest racecourse in the world. It was at a place called Lebong and was at 14,000 feet. It was about the size of a large football ground and spent most of the time in
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cloud. Betting was a hazardous affair, as it was not unknown for the horses to disappear into cloud on the far side of the curse, only to re-appear in a completely different order when they came back into view! However, it was very pleasant to be able to sit in a reserved box, rather like the Royal Box at Epsom, drinking our cool drinks and placing a bet when the mood took us. We never ever won anything but nevertheless didn't lose much either. One morning, very early, a whole gang of us hired horses and rode the 15 miles or so to a place called Tiger Hill where we hoped to witness sunrise over Everest. We did see Everest but the sunrise was not quite where we had thought it should be. It was a magnificent sight, however, and well worth the effort to get there. The ride back was less pleasant and we all finished up vowing never to ride a horse again. Needless to say I never have.
One of the patients from the Hospital was a chap called Captain Weston who had a very rare skin complaint which was caused by the heat and humidity of the climate on the plains. His skin peeled off in layers and as a result he nearly died. It was only in the cool of the hills that his skin was able to grow again but as soon as the Medics tried to get him back home the whole process started again. Apparently on one occasion they got him as far as Calcutta ready to catch a plane out but unfortunately the aircraft takeoff was delayed and they had to rush him back to Darjeeling having already lost nearly the whole of his skin again and once again seriously ill. I have often wondered what ever happened to him when I left.
So many people out in India and the Far East suffered from skin problems as well as the dysentery types of disease. Apart from the time in Darjeeling I cannot remember being free from some form of diarrhoea varying from slight to chronic as well as 'Prickly Heat'. We all took Malarial prevention tablets called Mepachrine, which gave a yellowy tinge to the skin. Having the 'Trots' while flying was somewhat of a problem in itself. The Dakota only had one toilet and with 35 odd passengers most of whom suffered from the same problem made things somewhat complicated!! The prickly heat was no respecter of rank and once we had an Air Commodore on board who asked if he could come up front so that he could take his Bush Jacket off and get some cold air to his body. I had never before seen anyone who was so badly affected. His whole body was one mass of it and most was infected through scratching. We opened the side windows for him and after about an hour's flying he got some slight relief. He was most grateful to us and thanked us profusely before going back to the cabin to exercise his authority over the more junior members of his party. The Medics had no cures for any of these problems in those days although they could bring some help to the dysentery sufferers.
I was very reluctant to leave the cool of Darjeeling but eventually had to and took a mad taxi ride down through the tea plantations to the railway at Siliguri and almost finished up with a heart attack as the driver was desperate to show off his skill at negotiating hairpin bends on two wheels and only one hand on the steering. The road drops from about 12,000 feet to sea level in something like 15 miles and did not seem to go more than a few hundred yards without at least one hairpin to turn back on itself. The heat at sea level hit me like an oven and the train ride back to Calcutta was enough to make me swear never to complain about being too cold again. When you are cold at least you can find some way of keeping warm but there was absolutely no way out there that you could cool off when you were too hot.
Back in Calcutta the Monsoon had started with a vengeance but I was immediately informed that I was on the next 'demob' contingent and also that I had been offered a job as Navigator with BOAC as soon as I was 'demobbed'. Very soon after I was on the train again, en-route to Bombay. This took 3 days and we played cards nearly the whole time. I swore that I would never play 'Solo' again after that. It was sweltering hot the whole time and we had all the windows open to catch the air from the movement of the train but most of the time we just got the smoke and smuts from the engine. Food was only available at each of the many stops and since the train was only carrying troops it was a mad rush each time and more often than not we had to scramble back onto the train as it started to pull out of the station without having got anything.
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At Bombay we waited in the transit camp at WORLI until our turn came. After about two weeks we finally boarded the SS Samaria, a small passenger boat, which we were told would take 13-14 days to reach home. As we sailed out of the harbour a large liner steamed in and we were told that it would embark its passengers and sail again within 12 hours and only take 7 days to get home. Sure enough the following day we were galled to see it steaming passed [sic] us with all the troops on her decks jeering at us as they shot past. We were absolutely livid at the time and as everyone was anxious to get home as soon as possible we all felt hard done by. However, we heard later that the liner had broken down and had turned round and gone back to Bombay during the night. Like the tortoise and the hare the laugh was on us as we chugged slowly but surely and arrived in Liverpool after 12 days.
After disembarking we were quickly put through the 'demob' procedure including handing in our air force kit, medicals and being issued with civilian clothes and a rail warrant home and with the minimum of fuss we caught the train to London. All this happened within 24 hours of disembarking and, similarly quickly, arrangements were made for our Wedding on 19th October at St. Andrews church Leytonstone. After a Honeymoon in Hastings I was due to start with BOAC at the beginning of November. However, following a visit to my old civilian company to tell them that I did not want my old job back, I was introduced to Air Commodore Powell who was running SILVER CITY AIRWAYS and decided to join them instead, which I did on 5th November. On the 8th I was navigating an Avro Lancastrian G-AHBW (City of London) from London Heathrow to Nairobi Eastleigh, Captained by Ex-Wing Commander Johnny Sauvage DSO & bar, DFC, arriving back to the 4 huts of Heathrow on the 24th. During December we did 3 trips to Malta and back, one of them in the then record time of 4 hours 55 minutes (see cutting from the Malta Times). Thus ended a very eventful Year.
[photograph]
Sliver [sic] City Airways – December 1946
Johnny Sauvage and crew with Lancastrian G-AHBW “City of London”
20
1947
At the end of my RAF Transport Command Course at Crosby on Eden in 1945, I had been
awarded a certificate which was recognised by the Department of Civil Aviation. Also in February 1946 I had been awarded a Second Class Navigation Warrant number 422, which was also recognised by the D of CA. Whilst working in the office of Silver City Airways (1 Great Cumberland Place, London), I was able to study the additional subjects required to obtain a Civil Aircraft Navigator's Licence. I passed all except [underlined] signalling [/underlined] and re-took this and one other subject to obtain full First Class Civil Licence in May. After another full aircrew medical, licence number 2116 was issued on 7th June 1947.
On 13th June I started flying again with Captain Storm-Clark in G-AHBV "City of Canberra" to Verona. After a further 2 months in their office (during which time Terry was born, we moved from 63 Fladgate Road, Leytonstone, to38 Warham Road, South Croydon, as well as attending a XV Squadron reunion at the Holborn Restaurant on 22nd August), I joined up with Captain R. C. "Hoppy" Hopkins as his navigator on a VIP Dakota G-AJAV. This aircraft was very luxuriously fitted out, with only 6 seats and very superior accommodation. Hoppy immediately 'promoted' me to 'pupil pilot under instruction' and I spent most of my flying time with him sitting in the second pilot's seat, often on my own, while he chatted with the passengers. We flew to France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Iceland, as well as locally. I was very disappointed when the aircraft was chartered to fly Churchill out to Marrakesh and I was taken out of the crew. Another pilot took my place to act as formal second pilot/navigator. Hoppy was very upset particularly as the new chap was not a very experienced pilot and had never previously acted as navigator. He had long arguments with the MD of the company (Air Commodore Powell) expressing the opinion that he 'would rather fly with an experienced navigator who at a pinch could fly the aircraft than fly with a not very experienced pilot who, at a pinch, might possibly be able to navigate the aircraft'. Unfortunately the MD would not give way and blamed the charterers, who had insisted on there being two qualified pilots on board and the firm could not afford to have a crew of four (excluding stewards etc.).
In the event I was sent to Belfast to pick up a crew to ferry a Sandringham flying-boat to Buenos Aires. The pilot was called 'Pappy' Carreras (because of his age) and we got on famously together. As well as navigator I was 'promoted' to become 'Mooring Officer', which meant that I stood in the bows to slip the mooring before take-off and had to attempt to catch the mooring buoy with a boat-hook on landing. I had thought that slipping the mooring would be very simple but more often than not it was impossible to do as the aircraft was pulling against the tide and the loop would not come off without the engines being revved hard to take up the slack. Often we surged forward so quickly that I did not have time to get the loop off before we were passing the buoy – still attached to it. Mooring after landing was also just as tricky and I lost a number of boat-hooks before I finally mastered the technique!!
On the way we ate and slept in the 'boat' as the accommodation and cooking facilities were superb. On the leg between Dakar (West Africa) and Natal (Brazil), Pappy commented that although he had done the crossing a number of times, he had never seen Saint Paul's rocks. I gaily said that this time we would see them, not realising how small they were in the wide expanse of ocean. He immediately took me up on it and some 8 hours later (the crossing took 10 hours 20 minutes) was more than astonished when I suggested that if the others were to look out of the starboard windows they might see the rocks in about 5 minutes time. More by pure luck than anything to do with me, we passed them some 6 minutes later about 1/2 mile away. From then on I could do no wrong!!
Pappy had flown during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 but unfortunately for him – on the wrong side – so that he was no longer able to go home. His flying with F.A.M.A. (Flota Aerea Merchante Argentina) meant that he had to be very careful not to ever get diverted to Spain.
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Christmas day was spent in Buenos Aires and I was able to buy some presents there that I could not get at home. (A Tri-ang bus (No. 15) and Xmas Decorations – some of which are still in use today!!) We arrived back in London on New Years Eve (without Pappy who of course normally operated from B.A.)
As a result of my various trips abroad I did not spend much time at home, although when I did, I usually was able to have plenty of time-off from work.
Sometime round about October, Terry had gone into Great Ormond St. Hospital to have a growth removed from his neck. It was more difficult to remove than had originally been thought and when he was able to come home he became very ill with Gastro Enteritis and was taken to the Mayday Hospital in Croydon. He was desperately ill to start off with and took a long time to recover.
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1948
Worked mostly in the office until April, having attended a 52 Squadron Reunion at the Waldorf Hotel on 20th February when, on 8th April, I ferried a MOSQUITO out of Turkey via Jersey & Rome landing at IZMIR. Had trouble with Turkish Customs over three wooden deer bought in Rome. They could not seem to understand way anyone should want to buy such things! An insight into to [sic] the mentality of the Turks we came into contact with is highlighted by the fact that the Turkish government had purchased 100 odd SPITFIRES and a similar number of 'Mossies'. The deliveries were almost complete by the time we took ours out there but they only had managed to have one Mosquito & two Spits' remaining serviceable by that time. The story goes that one Spitfire XI was delivered one evening and the pilot handed it over to the ground crew asking if there was anything they wanted to know about it. During the night it rained hard and when they were getting it ready for a test flight they discovered that the cockpit had a pool of water in it. To cover up the fact that the cockpit hood had been left open in the rain, one bright spark took his drill with the biggest bit that he could find and bored a series of holes in the floor and to let the water drain out!! The Turkish pilot duly took off but came back in after a fairly short flight and refused to sign the acceptance certificate because the aircraft would not pressurise. Apparently the Spitfire XI was one of the first aircraft to have cockpit pressurisation!!!
In May we went to Canada to pick up a Dakota which had just been converted for a company in South Africa. I stayed in Montreal whilst the rest of the crew went down into the States to pick it up. At the time I thought the whole set-up seemed strange but the fact that aircraft were being flown illegally into Israel at the time never occurred to me. Eventually we set off from Montreal to Newfoundland but I didn't prepare properly and we wandered miles off course and I was unable to get a pinpoint fix because I could not recognise any ground feature. Since I had been sitting in the second pilot's seat I eventually decided to go back and try to fathom out why we were 'lost'. After a long period I suddenly realised what I had done wrong – I had borrowed a Canadian map that had the various airline tracks marked on and along the side were the courses to steer. What I had not noticed was that they were magnetic and not [underlined] true [/underlined] bearings. I had applied a correction for the wind and applied variation as usual to arrive at the course for the pilot to steer. As variation in that part of the world was something like 30 degrees, we had in fact been flying 30 degrees off course!! Once I had sussed this out I was soon able to recognise where we were and to start pointing us back in the right direction. Sighs of relief all round!! If we had had some decent radio equipment aboard it would not have been so bad but the aircraft was stripped right down to bare essentials – In retrospect another odd thing.
When we landed at GANDER my preparation was suddenly very much more thorough, the next leg being across the Atlantic. With the fuel that we could carry there were three choices of route bearing in mind the winds that could be expected in the weather systems that existed. First, to head straight across to Ireland and make for Shannon – this was ruled-out as there would be barely enough fuel to do it. Second, to go southwards to the Azores. This was the best for fuel, wind & weather but without radio navigation aids was rather risky – if we missed our landfall there was nowhere to divert to within range of the fuel remaining (if any!). Third, to head for Iceland, which was much the nearest. Unfortunately, with the low-pressure system to the north, the winds would be headwind and very strong. This would again leave us very short of fuel and, as well as this, the landing conditions forecast were not very good. As a result of our discussions we decided that unless we waited a couple of days for the weather to improve, we should consider a fourth possibility of taking the short leg to Greenland, refuelling and then heading for Iceland the following day. This would only, so we thought, take one more day and would allow us to assess the fuel situation when approaching Iceland and perhaps carry on direct to Scotland and, in fact, save us time. This we finally decided to do and although we were unable to get clearance due to radio interference, the controller assured us that it would be alright as he would radio through later on whilst we were on our way. After a very frightening flight to Bluey West One, up a long fiord, we arrived only to be refused landing permission as the flight had not been cleared. Since there was no way we could get back to Gander and there were no other diversions they eventually agreed to let us land. When we did
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the aircraft was surrounded with soldiers and we were told that we would be interned until clearance could be obtained from Washington because of the Israeli situation!!
So there we sat for 7 days whilst the powers-that-be decided what to do with us. We had all bought loads of food to bring home as meat was still rationed and other foodstuffs were in short supply. We had a small fridge on board the aircraft but they would not allow us to run one engine to keep it cold and they would not store it for us. There we were, surrounded by huge Glaciers, whilst all our 'loot' went slowly off. In the end we had to dump nearly all of it. I got sunburned sitting on the nearest glacier and this did little to improve our tempers. Eventually on the 7th day we were allowed to file a flight plan to Weeks (Iceland) and we took off at 22.45 that night. At that time of year it was still almost broad daylight and we landed and refuelled in Iceland, at night but still light enough to see. Two hours later we were off again and landed at Prestwick after a 5hr 40min flight.
After this I was transferred back to flying with Hoppy but in a Bristol Wayfarer (freighter) this time. The first trip was to Karachi via all the short legs possible. We were delayed in Nicosia whilst a new propeller was sent out and we helped the engineer to change it. There was no help forthcoming from the locals (civilian & RAF) although I cannot remember why. This took 7 days and then we were delayed for a further 9 days by the Iraqi Government, so that the whole trip had taken 24 days. It was about the time of Partition in India and the whole of the region was in turmoil. I met a chap that I knew well who was running some form of charter company out there, who offered me a job on the spot, at a ludicrously high salary, if I would join him the same day. The offer was so attractive that I was sorely tempted but I did not want to break my contract with Silver City and leave Hoppy in the lurch. I suspected that the job was either gun running or illegal transport of refugees, so in the end I turned it down. I was to learn later, that the day after we left he tried to take off from Karachi and the plane was so grossly overloaded in the tail that it stalled just after becoming airborne and all aboard were killed outright. As we suspected the cargo was found to be arms and ammunition!!
The next trip was out to Iraq on charter to IPC (Iraqi Petroleum Company) and we flogged up and down the oil pipelines. Having been stuck in Baghdad last trip we had all suffered from the lack of liquid refreshment (alcohol banned and water somewhat 'iffy'), so I bought two bottles of orange squash in Malta to take with us. When I opened my case in Baghdad I discovered a somewhat wet and sticky mess where one of the bottle tops had come loose. Just about everything was covered in juice but it was not until we got to Bahrein that I was able to get everything washed and the case swilled out! It was lucky that we stayed there an extra day or else I would have had to bring the whole soggy mess back home with me. As it was the case was never the same again, even when I relined the inside with brown paper. Terry had the case for a number of years and finally gave it back to me in 1991!
At the end of September I, along with a number of other navigators, was made redundant and then I started my first experience of having to hunt for a job to keep the family fed!! I applied for a job with Flota Aerea Merchante Argentina and, along with another navigator from Silver City called Ross Plews, was called for an interview in their offices in the West-End. We were horrified to see a crowd of 20 or 30 people waiting and spilling out on to the pavement outside. We debated what to do and had decided that, as we were almost the last ones there, it was not worthwhile waiting. We were just about to walk away, when who should try to push past us than Pappy Carreras, who immediately asked me what the crowd was about. When we explained her said, "Wait there while I check in". This we did and within minutes we were called to the front of the queue, much to the disgust of most of the others, and both of us went into for interview to discover Pappy sitting at the long desk with three other officials and I was introduced to the others by him. He then said, "this is the chap I have flown with down to BA and he is the one I would choose without seeing any of the others. If his friend is as good as him we may as well take him on as well – has anyone any objections? – No! – Good! – That's it then! – Let's send all the others away. Welcome to FAMA Dennis – You are hired”.
That's how I came to be flying on an Argentinean York, en-route to Buenos Aires in the first week of November. We were delayed in Natal for three days whilst an engine fault was
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corrected and I got badly sunburned whilst swimming in the sea when there was no shade. Having arrived in Buenos Aires we were met with welcoming arms and I started to look around for somewhere to live but very shortly after a new decree was issued by Eva Peron (she was the power behind throne!) limiting the number of non-nationals working in the country. As FAMA was 75% British, 15% German and the rest Argentinean, this caused immediate problems and, since we were the last to arrive, we were scheduled as the first to go. I was offered the opportunity to navigate a force of Lincolns as a show of strength over the 'Malvinas', provided I gave up my British nationality and took on Argentine citizenship. This I refused to do and so started a week of negotiations to collect some form of compensation and what was already due to me. The expression 'mañana' really came into play and it took all our wits to find someone high enough in the organisation who had the power to do something about our plight. They, in their turn, did everything they could to beat down our demands. Once again it was Pappy Carreras who came to our rescue and we eventually got a flight back with Pappy (see 'Crossing the Line' certificate) landing back in London on the 3rd of December. We came via Madrid and Pappy had been given permission for the very first time to re-enter Spain. Even then he decided to stay in the Airport – just in case.
Once I got back I was quite surprised to get a number of phone calls from various firms offering me a job and I was able to pick and choose, finally agreeing to start at the beginning of the New Year with Flight Refuelling, the firm founded in 1934 by Sir Alan Cobham to investigate the use of air refuelling, and who's pioneering system is still in use today. The BERLIN AIRLIFT was under way and all the Charter firms were fighting for the work that it generated.
[logo] Berlin Airlift [emblem]
[drawing]
[inserted] TX 276/1281 [/inserted]
AVRO LANCASTRIAN – FLIGHT REFUELLING LTD
47403
On 23 June 1948, the Soviet forces occupying the eastern part of Germany blockaded all rail, road and waterway supply routes from the Allied Western Occupation Zones in Berlin. With less than one month’s supply of food and fuel, the prospects for the two and a half million Berliners looked bleak. Only three severely restricted air routes remained as a lifeline between the besieged city and the western world. The Allies responded immediately with a miracle of logistics – The Berlin Airlift. Codenamed Operation Vittles by the USAF, and Operation Plainfare by the RAF, over a period of 11 months Allied aircraft made thousands of flights into the cramped airspace of Berlin and succeeded in supplying everything the city needed. Every available aircraft from RAF Transport Command was in service, as well as hundreds of USAF aircraft and even civil charter firms were called upon to supplement the effort. The operation became so skilled that the Soviet Command eventually realised that they had failed and on 12 May 1949 the blockade was finally lifted.
Avro Lancastrian G-AGWI represents an aircraft which was originally delivered to British South American Airways (BSAA) at Heathrow in January 1946. The aircraft was registered to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for a short period in 1948 before being sold to Flight Refuelling in January 1949. The aircraft was then allotted fleet no. Tanker 26 and flew 226 sorties on the Berlin Airlift.
[inserted] I FLEW IN 13 OF THEM [/inserted] [diagram]
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1949
I report to Flight Refuelling at Tarrant Rushton and am crewed up with a very experienced ex-Air Lingus pilot. It was not until later that I was to discover that he had been sacked from them due to being drunk in flight! After an air test we departed in a Lancastrian for Wuntsdorf just outside Hanover on 13th January. The airfield was RAF and being used by them to fly Yorks on the airlift. It was very crowded with both aircraft and people and we were billeted in a small place called Bad Nenndorf about 10 miles away. There was a reasonable sized Hotel where all Flight Refuelling crews were accommodated. The following day we did two trips into Gatow carrying PETROL.
B.T. O'reilly was the name of the pilot and he became somewhat of a legend on the lift. However he was not a very reliable pilot when sober and, although he boasted that he could land the aircraft better 'on a sea of gin' than any other time, sometimes he was positively dangerous. On one occasion whilst flying into Gatow, I saw him climb out of his seat and then push past me and go to the back of the aircraft. I thought it would be a good idea to go forward and keep an eye on the instruments to make sure 'George' was doing its job properly. To my consternation, I saw that the aircraft was trimmed into a shallow dive (perhaps to counter his moving to the toilet at the rear of the aircraft?) and there was no sign of him returning back to his seat. When we descended below 1,000 feet I decided to get into his seat and was absolutely astounded to discover that the autopilot was not even engaged. I climbed it back up to the proper altitude and called the wireless operator to go and look for 'BT'. He reported back to say that 'BT' was 'out cold' on one of the seats at the back and he could not get him to register that he was needed! At this point we were committed to carry on towards Gatow as we were in the air corridor in the Russian Zone, so I decided that I would make up some story to over fly Gatow and hope that by the time we had got back to Wuntsdorf 'BT' might have surfaced. In the event, just as we approached the Beacon to start letting down to land, 'BT' pushed up to the front and demanded to know why I was in the pilot's seat. We swapped over and I pointed out that he had not put 'George' in when he went down the back. His reaction was happily to say, "these aircraft fly themselves!!" and then carried on to make a perfect landing. I was must relieved when I was asked to take an aircraft back to Tarrant Rushton with another pilot and never had to fly with him again. I was crewed up with a better chap on our return to Germany.
At the end of April we moved to Hamburg and started flying into Tegel instead of Gatow. In June I was allocated yet another pilot who was very young and inexperienced and I was not over happy with him either. When we were withdrawn from the airlift in mid-July, I had completed 89 flights back and forth to Berlin and also carried out a number of ferrying flights to Tarrant Rushton. (See Lecture Notes and 50th Anniversary Celebrations 1999)
[photograph]
With Col. Gail S. Halvorsen – "The chocolate pilot"
Berlin Airlift 50th Anniversary, Berlin 1999
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Two books fully detail the Berlin airlift and the part played by the civil participants (they have been suitably annotated). The one by Robert Rodrigo is the better of the two.
The end of the airlift deposited hundreds of aircrew (many of whom had only just come back into flying for the good money) on to the job market and I was unable to find another flying post. Thus ended my civil flying career.
After flying for so long, finding an ordinary job where my abilities would be of some use and would be recognized by prospective employers, was very difficult. One day I saw a friend from schooldays called Peter Filldew whom I had met at Mildenhall during the war, where he was the orderly-room clerk. He suggested he might be able to get me a job with his firm of Estate Agents (Fielder & Partners) in South Croydon. He obviously gave me a glowing recommendation as my interview was quite short, and I was offered a job as a Negotiator with a very low salary but very good commission on completion of any property that I obtained for their books or was instrumental in selling. The work was very hard and I had to spend long and unsociable hours including Saturdays & Sundays but I managed reasonably well once I gained the necessary confidence.
Soon afterwards we moved house to 248 Croydon Road and this stretched our resources to almost breaking point. The car, BAU 62, which I had bought during the war, had to go and I only managed to get £5 for it and it almost broke my heart to see it being driven away. The bungalow cost something like £1,200 and I got somewhat into debt to raise even the 10% and buying fees. Everything was based on my getting the commission on sales that I thought I should be able to earn. 1949 ended with me still working for Fielder.
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1950
One day at Fielder's, I overheard the receptionist speaking on the phone to someone called Macfarlane and casually asked what were his initials. On being told that they were N.G., I asked to speak to him and asked if he recognised my voice which, after a short pause, he did and we immediately arranged to meet. This caused uproar from the sales manager called Chillcot, who insisted that Mac was already one of [italics] his [/italics] clients and I was not to be allowed to deal with him. All my explanations fell on deaf ears and I had to phone from home to explain this to Mac. He agreed to phone up and cancel the appointment we had made and say that he was not interested anymore. We arranged to meet one lunchtime and go home to our bungalow. I then told the Sales Manager that through his stupidity we had lost a good client and this started an antagonism between us.
The meeting with Mac was quite an event and he suggested that I should re-apply to come back into the RAF and he would back my application if he could. He was still a Wing Commander but holding a post at the Air Ministry and he thought he should be able to pull a few strings.
As a result of this meeting I decided to apply and, after a long wait, was called for interview by a panel, who seemed to feel that wartime service was not a good recommendation for a peacetime commission and they did not even listen to what I had done subsequently. After a further long wait I received a letter addressed to Flight Lieutenat [sic] D. Moore informing me that they were unable to offer me a commission but they would be prepared to let me return as 'NAV 2' (which was the same as Sgt.) As much as I would have dearly loved to have got back into the Service, my pride would not let me accept such a reduction in rank and I therefore wrote back straight away telling them what I thought of their offer.
Working for Chilcott became very difficult and it was obvious that things would come to a head soon. Just when I was expecting to start collecting my first big commissions I was told that I was no good at the job and 'fired'. They would only pay me up until the last day at the basic rate, and no commission money. I appealed to Fielder but he was obviously being influenced by his sales manager and would not help me.
On the job market again, I could only get menial jobs, first as a temp in what then equated to the DHSS issuing new National Insurance Cards and then a more permanent job in the Gas Company working in their costing department. My job was to cost out all the job sheets for the week from the job rates for the various jobs and individuals. This job was running weeks behind when I joined and it did not take long before I was able to catch up and sit waiting for the current week's work dockets to arrive. When the head of my section saw this he 'warned me off' and checked every item of my work so that we looked as though we were still working weeks behind time again. This got very frustrating and I started to look around for another job.
Through the good offices of the Officers' Association I was passed a number of job openings and eventually was interviewed by a firm of grocery distributors called Harvey Bradfield & Toyer. They wanted a salesman to help introduce a Milton's product called Deosan to cafés & restaurants as a means of getting to be their suppliers for groceries as well. I was given the whole of South London to canvas and had to do it all by 'cold selling' and without the use of any transport of my own. Fortunately I made my number with the Public Health Office and frequently got called by them to visit establishments that they had found to be 'unhealthy' and I was able to introduce 'The Deosan method of food hygiene' to them quite easily. I found that the standard of cleanliness in most places I visited to be almost non-existent and the large 'posh' Hotels were the worst. I found this job quite interesting but although I did not feel I was doing a very good job of it, the firm seemed quite happy with my work.
1950 ended with me still trudging around south London and hardly making enough money to live on. Christine had been born on May 28th and this did not make things any easier.
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1951
At the beginning of the year I was still working for H.B.T. and being called-on to visit various places in the South London Area. I asked for a special visit to the Head Office to discuss my work with my boss, who still seemed quite happy with what I was doing but made no effort to increase my wages. I do not remember exactly what I actually earned each week but it was round about £50 per month.
During the last week in March I was in Croydon on a visit and decided to call again on my friend in the Recruiting Office, and here I was asked if I had thought about applying to rejoin the RAF. When I explained about having applied once already and had only been offered 'Master Aircrew' which I had turned down, the Senior Recruiting Officer asked if I would mind if he phoned Air Ministry to find out what the latest situation was. I was quite happy for him to do this and did not expect anything to come of it. It was quite a surprise when he phoned me the next day to say that if I were to apply again I would be given every consideration, so I got him to help me fill in the necessary forms which he duly sent in. It was only a few days later that I was called for interview at the Air Ministry and I went with a totally different attitude to the previous time. When asked the first question which inevitably was 'Why do you want to rejoin the RAF' I decided to take the offensive and replied 'I am not sure if I do – I want you to convince me that I should'. From this point on I could do no wrong.
A greater part of the interview came from a Group Captain on the panel who kept asking me questions about the Argentine and seemed genuinely interested in the answers that I gave. The panel were all smiling when I left and the 'Groupie' asked me to wait for him outside. He then told me that I would be hearing within the next few days – at which I laughingly said that the last time I had heard that remark it had taken over 6 weeks for them to contact me. He assured me that he literally meant 'the next few days' and then asked me if I would wait for him and walk down to the Tube with him. This I did and he told me that he was due to be posted as the next Air Attaché in Buenos Aires hence his interest in my comments.
Two days later I was called for an Aircrew Medical and, having passed this easily enough, was offered a new commission in the RAF as a Flying Officer to start at Air Ministry on April 16th (this was barely 3 weeks since I visited the Recruiting Office in Croydon). Needless to say I accepted and duly reported for duty on the day required and then spent a month getting kitted out and doing some odd jobs for a Wing Commander in one of the departments there. Along with 13 other people reported to Central Navigation School at Shawbury on 23rd May for a Navigation Instructors Course. I teamed up with Jimmy Cuthill (with whom I shared a room) and Bob Hunter (who was a Canadian serving in the RAF).
[photograph]
Navigation Instructors Course, Shawbury 1951
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On 17th June I went with most of the others to Sick Quarters to have our inoculations brought up to date and as soon as I had had mine I began to feel odd. We all trouped back to the classroom and settled down to a lecture on 'how not to lecture' and I could feel myself 'blowing up like a balloon' and my heart racing like mad. I bemoaned the fact that I had never had a reaction to 'jabs' before and I really did feel rough. The Instructor eventually noticed that there was something wrong and told me to go back to the Mess and lie down. I remember 'floating' back and one of two gardeners asking me for the time and me just laughing back at them because I could not see the time on my watch. The next thing I knew was someone asking me how I felt and me just laughing like a mad thing again, and then later somebody standing over me and saying "I am just going to inject some adrenalin into you – you will find yourself shaking but try not to fight it – just let yourself go". I was then carried out to an ambulance and taken to the Station hospital. It seemed like hours before the shaking stopped but eventually it did and I felt very much better – in fact even asked for something to eat as I was hungry! Needless to say, I did not get a meal but was allowed a drink. After a while the M.O. (doctor) came to see me and explained what had happened. I had suffered an 'angino-neurotic' type of reaction to the inoculation and this was extremely rare and quite often fatal unless caught in time. It seems that when the lesson finished everyone wandered back to the Mess for lunch and, since it was a little late, everyone went straight in to eat except Jimmy Cuthill, who decided he ought to check up to see how I was. He found me unconscious on the bed and immediately called for the M.O. but could not find him. Fortunately he looked in the dining room and when he saw him eating his lunch insisted that he came up to our room immediately. The M.O. told me that if I had been left much longer I could very well have died. The humorous part of the story was that, after a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast in bed, I felt completely fit and was allowed to rejoin the others in class. They were all sitting moaning about sore arms and feeling rotten and I was 'feeling no pain' and was able to 'lord' it over them for the rest of the day!
Flying started on my Birthday on Mark XI Wellingtons! and the course finished with an overseas flight using special navigation techniques (Grid Navigation). I was then posted to No. 1 Air Navigation School at Thorney Island and I reported there on 13th August. This was a prime posting and I was very pleased to get such a good one. However, it soon became obvious that something was not quite right. When I applied for married quarters I was told that I would not be considered "just yet" and no explanation was given when I queried this. When I tried to find out which courses I would be looking after I was allocated as course tutor and then, a little later, told that I was to be held in reserve pending the arrival of another course tutor. I then learnt that this new chap was Les Dibb who had been in the same Group at Shawbury and had hoped to be posted to Thorney but had eventually been posted to Lindholme. It then became fairly obvious that some 'string pulling' had been going on by someone at Thorney.
For the Open Day at Thorney I had arranged for Pam to bring Terry down for the day to look around and see the show. Nobody was more disappointed than me to have to tell her when she arrived that we were not going to be staying, since I had just been informed that my posting to Thorney was cancelled and that I was to report to No. 5 Air Navigation School at Lindholme on 19th September. Terry enjoyed the show until two aircraft flew over and dropped bags of flour (to represent bombs) and fake bangs designed to simulate the explosions & the crashes from the 'Anti Aircraft guns' frightened the life out of him. He yelled his head off and did not want to see anything else and all he wanted to do was to go home.
Just before leaving Thorney I met Ernie Ormerod (signaller) from back in 1946 as well as another signaller that I knew called 'Chuck' Radcliffe who was also on 52 Sqn. I really did not have enough time to do more than say hello before I was on my way.
I duly reported to Lindholme somewhat bitter about the whole thing but was immediately made Course Tutor under Flight Lieutenant 'Mick' Munday on No. 2 Long Navigation Refresher Course. This comprised 6 Officers and 1 NCO who had either been off flying for some long time or who had just come back into the Service. One of them, Flt.Lt. Willis, had been on the same course as me at ITW in Newquay. At the time he was re-mustering from Corporal SP
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(RAF Police) and we had given him a hard time during 'rough and tumble' games on the Beach. He subsequently became the Navigator with Prince Charles when he was learning to fly. They were a good crowd and I got on well with all of them. Our Classroom was a concrete hut, which had been used by the Poles as a church during the war and all the walls had been panelled with carved wood and decorated with religious artefacts. I could not get into quarters so I started looking around for somewhere to live (without much success), so I had travel up and down to Beddington whenever I could manage a weekend off. Without a car it was very difficult but I did manage to get lifts from time to time.
[photograph]
[underlined] No.2 L.N.R. COURSE. [underlined]
BACK ROW:- F/LT. CARR, F/O. GREEN, SGT. JONES, F/O. SWINFIELD.
FRONT ROW:- F/LT. WILLIS, F/O. D. MOORE, F/LT. H. MUNDAY, F/LT. HINGE, F/LT. ROWLAND.
NEGATIVE No LIND 290G 9 UN52/UNCLASSIFIED
When the Long Nav. refresher course finished we started to run navigation courses for National Service people. We found this to be very frustrating as most of those on the course were not the slightest bit interested in what they were doing and they had only chosen to become 'Navigators' as an easy way to spend their time instead of becoming 'PBI' (soldiers!) It was further made much worse when we were informed from a higher source that none of them were to be 'failed' (some political reason no doubt). One of them (a Pilot Officer Simpson) was so bad and such a bad influence on the others that we fought tooth and nail to get him 'scrubbed' but all we did was to made [sic] trouble for ourselves for 'making waves'. I shall always remember his face when he eventually 'passed out' as a navigator and was promoted to Flying Officer. He boasted openly that he was cleverer than us because he had 'beaten the system'. At the time I could only hope that he never had to put a flying crew at risk, as he would surely kill them all and himself as well. I often wonder what happened to him.
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1952
In the New Year we decided to sell the Bungalow and find somewhere up near Lindholme whenever we could. I negotiated with a Sergeant Paine who wanted to sell his car, and he agreed to accept a deposit and the balance as soon as we had sold the house. I did make it clear that I could not possibly pay him until the money came through from the solicitors and we had not even found a buyer for the Bungalow. At the time he seemed quite happy to agree to this but later had doubts and then started to cause me hassle. The car was a Hillman Minx Reg. No. FA7136, which served us well until about 1956.
In the meantime I found a house that the RAF were prepared to take on as a 'hiring' in Crabtree Drive at Five Lane Ends, Skellow, Just off the A1, about 7 miles North of Doncaster and I was able to start setting up a home there. Nowadays the Motorway around Doncaster rejoins the A1 just there and you can just see the road from the Service station at the junction.
The Bungalow sold quite quickly and we got £2,850 for it, having paid about £950 when we bought it. It took a while for all the loose ends to be tied up but eventually I got the money, paid off Sgt. Paine and moved the family up to the new place. Pam was sadly disappointed with it but the people were all very friendly and she began to like it after a while. We had a number of excursions from there and went to the sea at Hornsea on two or three occasions.
Having done well with No. 2 LNR Course I applied for a permanent commission but the Group Captain (Laine – I think) told me that I did not have the right kind of experience to suit me for a permanent career and turned me down. The Chief Navigation Instructor was Wing Commander Hickey (nicknamed 'Bone dome'), who also did not think much of me either. I rather think it had something to do with my leaving Thorney Island under odd circumstances.
After only a year and just getting settled into the house, I was surprised to find myself posted yet again. This time it seemed like a real improvement but very much a 'desk' job as one of the Navigation Examiners at the Command Examination Board, Flying Training Command at Shinfield Park just outside Reading. Our offices were in old huts a little removed from the main building and here began one of the more interesting posts of my career. We managed to find a bungalow to rent from a Mrs Samways at 36 Wood Way, Woodley and we were able to move from Doncaster quite quickly.
Having settled in, I was allocated the exams for the navigator's finals that I would be responsible for. These were: astro-navigation, maps & charts and magnetism & compasses. I also had to set the general navigation paper for pilots. I did not have much time to think before having to do a full set of exams and, only by Christmas, start to really appreciate the scope of the job.
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1953
To start off with, I had discovered that the questions on the subjects that I was to specialise in had previously been picked out by the examiner from a 'bank' of questions based on what had been set previously. After thinking about it for a while and based on my own experience decided that it was possible for the Instructors at the various Training Schools to work out a permutation which would more or less guarantee to predict over 60% of the questions.
All the exam papers were vetted by the newly appointed Chief Examiner (Gordon Arkley) and I did not have much difficulty in convincing him that we should be a bit more professional and he agreed that I could start-off by changing the system in one subject to be going on with. I started with astro navigation and set what I considered to be a very practical paper instead of the usual theory one. I sat back and waited and on the day of the exams the phone stated [sic] to ring and complaints came in thick and fast – 'Unfair', 'Not what we have been used to'; 'We were not able to prepare the students!' etc., etc. As a result, I was asked to attend a high power meeting of all the Chief Navigation Instructors and the senior people on the Examinations Board. In the meantime, I received all the papers for marking and the results showed that one school did very well but all the others failed miserably. When I was grilled at the meeting I was very pleased to have the backing of my own boss. When all of them were presented with the evidence that, apart from the one school, the others had not covered the syllabus properly and 'only taught what was necessary to get the students through the exam', there were a number of red faces and I was not very popular with them. However, the Chief of the Examination Board asked the schools to go back and put their houses in order and told them that from here on in, [underlined] [italics] all [/italics] [/underlined] examinations would be based on the new method and not on the 'Question Bank' method'. He then congratulated me on setting a fair and very practical paper, which should have been welcomed instead of being complained about. So began a new regime and after a while everyone agreed that things were much better than they used to be. We also move into better offices.
Gordon Arkley dabbled in amateur dramatics and had contacts with the film studios at Pinewood. One day he took me across there for lunch and introduced me to Glynis Johns and Robert Newton as well as a couple of other famous film stars whose names escape me. After a very 'boozy' lunch, we went across to the film-set and watched for a couple of hours. I cannot recall which film it was but it became one of the big hits of the 1950's. It was a most interesting experience.
During the year, I managed to get in a few hours flying from White Waltham airfield, mostly in Ansons, to visit other Flying Training Command units (to the Isle of Man and also to Northern Ireland). I also flew in a Procter, a Prentice and a Chipmunk.
It was just before Christmas, when I was sitting at my office desk, busy painting the air traffic control vehicle with black and white squares for the model airfield that I was making for Terry's Xmas present, when the Air Officer Commanding (Sir Arthur Pendred) chose to make his inspection (without notice) of the Examination Board's offices. I really thought I was in for big trouble for doing private work in duty time. When asked what I was doing, I decided to say precisely what, and why I was doing it! He did not blink an eyelid, had a good look at the model and then, as he turned for the door, wished me a happy Christmas and hoped that I managed to get it all finished in time!! Needless to say I put it all away quickly and tried to get on with some 'proper work'. I still expected that there would be repercussions but there never were. Some 5 year later (16/7/58), I was stationed at Pershore and I was flying with Group Captain Innes-Crump to a meeting at West Malling. When we entered the Bar in the Mess to get a drink before lunch, there was a large group in the corner surrounding a very senior officer – It was Sir Arthur! I was never more surprised in my life when he broke off talking to the others and called across to me to come and join his party. He greeted me as though I was a long lost friend and, remembering my name, ordered drinks for me and the Group Captain before asking me, with a smile on his face, if I ever managed to get [italics] that [/italics] Xmas present finished in time!! A marvellous man.
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1954
Started building model aircraft again and flew them in the fields at the back of the bungalow. After losing a glider, I made a Hawker Hunter powered by a 'jet' engine (in fact it was a pellet that had to be lit!) and Terry became quite upset when it got lodged up a tree. He started school in Woodley and has been back there recently to retrace his steps.
Bob Hunter, a Canadian who had been on the same course as me at Shawbury, was also based at Reading and he was always popping round to our place. He and his wife Marg are pictured, in the photo album, with us at the New Years Eve Party.
Having sat and worried about what happened last Xmas, was quite surprised to be offered, in February, a job on the Air Staff as Command Search & Rescue Officer & also to look after the Command Film Library. Apparently there was considerable opposition from some of the others working there (mostly Wing Commanders and above) as normally only 'Permanent Commission' officers were offered this sort of post. However my new boss, Wing Commander Bagott, made it quite clear that someone 'on high' had approved my appointment and immediately suggested that I apply for a permanent commission (my original commission was 'Short Service' – i.e.: 8 years). When I pointed out that I had already applied and been turned down and was reluctant to go through it all again, he offered to have the necessary forms filled in and all I needed do was sign them! By the end of the day this was done, and two days later I was called away from my office to attend an Assessment Board. I was totally unprepared for this but was assured that I did not need to go and get 'dressed up' and 'not to worry'! The interview took about 2 minutes and was a complete farce – we just passed pleasantries! Within a few minutes I was told that, of the 13 candidates having been seen, I was the only one to be recommended. After a few days I was called for another interview with an AVM Allison who carried out a proper 'grilling' but he was very pleasant about it and made it quite plain that it was just a formality.
Shortly afterwards I was offered a brand new Married Quarter and we then moved into 15 Salmond Road, Whitley Wood – right opposite the Baggots! The appointment to a Permanent Commission was not confirmed until 25th August and backdated to 1st June 1954. (I had already been informed verbally quite early on).
[certificate]
In my new job I did a fair bit of visiting and on one occasion, whilst flying with Group Captain Alvey stopping off a [sic] various Units, I had a further brief meeting with Mac (my 'skipper' on Bomber Command). Due to my interest in model making I also got involved in the RAF Model Aircraft competitions and was 'asked' to act as a Judge on a couple of them (see pictures in album).
Here I was introduced to my first flight in a jet aircraft – the Canberra. I have to say that I did not particularly enjoy it (I got air-sick).
My work was very absorbing and most of the dissenters soon began to accept me. I enjoyed mixing with quite senior officers and only found it difficult to get on with some of the 'upward pushing' more junior people. We became very friendly with our next-door neighbours – The Lacey's and we all got on very well together. Christine had started school here and most of the children from 'The Patch' went there as well.
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1955
Having got nicely settled down in our Married Quarter I was somewhat disappointed to receive a Posting Notice in early January. However, I was told that it was supposed to be a prestige posting and about two weeks later I left Reading in a heavy snow blizzard on my way to the Royal Radar Establishment Flying Unit at RAF DEFFORD, near Worcester.
The Mess was deserted when I arrived in the gloom of a Sunday evening, with the snow still pelting down. Later, one or two others came in for a drink and were so friendly that I began to feel a little less dejected than I had been during the journey there. So began almost 5 years of a marvellous posting.
Initially, I lived in the Mess and immediately started flying in various aircraft, on trials of equipment designed by the 'boffins' at the Royal Radar Establishment at Malvern. My first flight was in Hastings TG503 piloted by 'Bert' Welvaert, aged 36, who claimed to be 'the youngest grandfather in the Air Force'. I next met up with Bert at the Berlin Airlift 50th Anniversary in May 1999
[photograph]
Bert Welvaert and myself standing if [sic] front of Hastings TG503’.
This aircraft is now on permanent display at the Allied Museum in Berlin.
I flew in the following types (in no particular order) during my stay on the unit (over 1000 hours all told):
Hastings
Lincoln
Shackleton
Dakota
Varsity
Ashton
Wayfarer
Marathon
Hermes
Devon
Valetta
Meteor
Canberra
Vampire
Whirlwind (Helicopter)
Fairly early on, I quite often flew with a pilot called Flt. Lt. Chase in a Hastings and around March time was scheduled to fly with him again on a trip to Farnborough. One of the other navigators, a Canadian (whose name I cannot remember), asked me to swap with him as he needed only a couple more hours to make up his first '1,000 hrs' before he left the unit to return to Canada. I agreed to do so just to do him a favour, but in the event I did myself a very special one as the aircraft crashed on take off from Farnborough, killing the navigator and severely injuring the flight engineer. The pilot and signaller were less severely injured and the two passengers in the back escaped with only minor injuries. When the news was first
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received, many of us were briefed to quickly break the news to the various wives and families. I was allocated the flight engineer's wife, wishing like mad that I had been able to go to the signaller's instead. However, as it turned out I was lucky again, as the signaller, whose wife had been told that he was "OK and not too badly hurt", had a relapse the following day and died from 'secondary shock'. On the other hand, John Mills the flight engineer, who had not been expected to live, remained in a coma for nearly a month and suddenly woke up one morning demanding to be fed as he was [italics] starving [/italics]! Although he finished up with a plate in his head, he actually returned to flying about six months later. The pilot recovered enough to return to flying but was posted away quite quickly when it was established that he had attempted to take off with the flying control locks still in place (i.e. [underlined] Pilot Error [/underlined])!
It is worth pointing out however, that the Hastings had mechanical locks of a new type instead of the old wooden blocks that fitted on the outside and had to be removed before getting into the aircraft. With the new method there was a lever in the cockpit that had to be actuated to release the locks. If the lever was operated whilst the aircraft had airflow over the wings etc., it did not release the locks as it was designed to do. As a result of this accident a modification was introduced to rectify the fault.
The funeral of the navigator took place in the local church in Pershore and I was a Pall Bearer for the funeral of the signaller in Scarborough. Once these funerals were out of the way, life gradually got back to normal.
After a short while I managed to find a 'hiring' – a large detached house in a very nice spot – 'Severn Croft', Bevere, in Worcester – and moved the family away from Reading. We have lots of expensive furniture, curtains etc., which has to be put away in store for safety. Started to make friends with the 'Lentons & Skeers' for Terry & Christine.
Peter was born in December and a new house is started in the field next to us. I did not fly at all this month and managed a fair bit of time off.
Pictures of us at the Summer Ball are in the photo-album.
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1956
The new Flight Commander (the unit split into two flights – 'A' Flight for piston engined & 'B' for jet aircraft), Sqn Ldr Tebbutt, shared an interest in model making and he started building a model boat whilst I stick to aircraft. I made a Tiger Moth, which flew well, and we used the airfield at weekends. Other aircraft that I made seemed to crash too easily and the Radar servicing Manager suggested that I use radio control. He offered to help me build it but I decided to put it into a model boat rather than aircraft as this was much safer.
Early in the year I got myself elected Mess Secretary, which slowed down the flying somewhat – sometimes to only 10-12 hours each month.
Being Mess Secretary became an almost full time job and, mixed in with developing a new radio control system to put into the destroyer that I built, my time was fully occupied and very rewarding. Two major Mess functions during the year and, as this was such a small Unit, I found myself suggesting, designing and constructing all the decorations for both of them. Fortunately the civilian component of the Unit made sure that I was able to get marvellous procurement & engineering assistance.
Peter was 1 year old just before the Christmas Ball and lots of locals attended his party.
1957
Started flying helicopters and was allowed to take the controls on odd occasions, eventually having some 'formal' instruction. I was told that fixed wing pilots are somewhat difficult to convert whereas other aircrew categories with good 'air sense' usually learn quite quickly. After about 10 hours dual I became reasonably competent and passed the 'brick wall' of it being in charge of you, to you being in charge of it!!
[photograph]
RRFU Defford, 1957
Group Captain Innes-Crump took me under his wing and nominated me as his navigator. We did various trips to conferences etc. and eventually he let me do most of the flying and some take-offs & landings (in a Devon). Many of the pilots started to let me fly the aircraft from the right-hand seat and eventually I even landed a Hastings all on my own (or at least I thought I did).
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[photograph]
Lincoln at zero feet!
Flying with Group Captain Innes-Crump (OC, RRFU Pershore)
At end of October the Unit moved from Defford to Pershore and took on a somewhat more formal atmosphere, which was not to everyone's liking.
10th December 1957, Peter's 2nd birthday and disaster on the Unit. One of 'B' Flight jet aircraft went missing and presumed crashed in the hills over North Wales. I had to visit the wife of one of crew members to warn her that her husband 'would be late home'. A dreadful story to delay the almost inevitable. As a result I was also 'late home' for the Birthday Party and could not say why – I was not very popular!!
Next day, along with others, flew a 4-hour sortie to see if we could find the crash site. Although flying very low ourselves amongst the treacherous hills, we could not find anything. Just before we were due to leave the area, we received a message that Mountain Rescue team had found the site and both crew had been killed. It was some way from where we had been looking near 'Drum Hill'. Another funeral to attend, and just before Christmas too. However see picture in album of us at Xmas Ball a few days later!
1958
Lots of flying each month this year mostly in:
Hastings
Varsity
Devon
Valetta
July – see item, 5th paragraph of 1953 re. Sir Arthur Pendred. Also see article & photos in 'Air Clues'.
The atmosphere at Pershore was not the same as at Defford. However, we all became very settled in at Bevere and friendly with neighbours – Lentons around corner, the Hucksters at the back and the next-door families on both sides. – A very pleasant year.
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1959
At beginning of year got in regular flying each month. Flew in a Meteor for the first time with Wing Commander Lawrence as pilot. Also did some more helicopter piloting but had become quite stale after so long.
April was particularly busy, flying, but after the first few days in June got caught for admin work.
On 10th July I was handed a signal informing me along with others (but not Flt. Lt. Smith mentioned in signal – see photo-album), that passage was booked on the FLANDRE, sailing 17th July, to attend a training course on the 'Thor Missile' in the USA. Mad panic to get ready and needed to get a Dinner Jacket for the voyage and other items at a time when I was particularly low on funds. Pam was not very happy with the idea of me being away for so long and having to look after everything on her own. Fortunately the neighbours at Bevere were all very supportive.
Travelled First Class by train from Worcester via London where we were joined by another group of RAF but who considered themselves very superior and tried to keep apart from us as much as they could. The Flandre was a French passenger liner of some 15,000 tons and the First Class passengers (mostly American – and us of course!) were extremely well looked after. After a very enlightening voyage and a charter flight to TUCSON Arizona, we started our training on Thor missiles at Davis Monathon AFB. Our group consisted of: self; Flt. Lt. Colin Reeve; Flt.Lt. Walker; Flt. Lt. Evans & Flg. Off. Nancarrow, together with Americans: Captains Jim Hadsell; Mel Schaffer & Carl Heintz. After an intensive 'ground' training period there, we travelled by car with Jimmy Hadsell via the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam to Vandenberg AFB California.
[photograph]
Davis Monathon AFB, Tucson Arizona
Standing (in uniform), L-R: Flight Lieutenants John Evans, Jeff Walker, Colin Reeve, Myself
Below: USAF Captains Jim Hadsell and Mell Schaffer, Flying Officer Frank Nancarrow,, Captain Carl Heintz
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When the training had finished, another charter flight back to New York and thence on the SS America back to Southampton, where I was met by the family, who had been driven there by Mr Lenton.
Posted to No. 82 Squadron SHEPHERDS GROVE as Launch Control Officer in December.
[photograph]
RAF Thor Launch, July 1959
Vandenberg AFB, California
1960
Found a bungalow in Diss – about 10 miles from Shepherds Grove – to take on as a 'Hiring'. We moved from 'Severn Croft' on a very bleak and foggy day. It was very nostalgic as we had started to 'put down roots' in Worcester and very difficult as far as Schools were concerned. The journey was very hazardous as the car was loaded down with all the last minute items – Including the animals. At one point near Diss we finished up in a field because the fog was so thick – but eventually got to Diss about 4 hours later than planned.
I had not been in the Bungalow for long and was at home one lunchtime, when a Victor en-route for Honington, passed overhead quite low making a horrible roaring noise. We all rushed outside to see the aircraft on fire and will the crew to eject (we did not know at this time that only the pilots had ejection seats). Eventually, parachutes were seen to open but the aircraft dived into the ground about 2 miles away. As I was in uniform, I decide to drive towards the crash sight [sic] to see if I could help – but before I could get within a mile of it I was held up by masses of sightseers crowding the narrow lanes. In the end I gave up and returned home. It transpired that 2 of the crew had been killed – one of them opening his 'chute too late and the other (one of the pilots) getting out too late.
Spent the whole of the year on shift covering 365 days a year and having responsibility for 3 Thor nuclear missiles every time I was on shift.
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1961
Was selected to join the Feltwell Thor Missile Training Flight after categorisation by Bomber Command. [italics] Second US trip, this time to Vandenberg AFB, California for THOR test firing] [/italics]
[photograph]
82 Squadron crew. With RAF THOR Missile, Vandenberg AFB
1962
[inserted] Fl/L Moore [/inserted]
Headquarters Bomber Command,
Royal Air Force,
High Wycombe,
Bucks.
[underlined] Order of the Day [/underlined]
[underlined] To all Thor Squadrons and Stations [/underlined]
The decision to phase out the Thor Force of Bomber Command in no way detracts from the vital role which the force played in the past, and the significant part it will continue to play in future, until the very last missile is withdrawn.
Thor was the first strategic missile system operational in the West. At a time when the threat to this country came almost entirely from manned aircraft, you were the most formidable part of the defence of the United Kingdom, and the Western Alliance.
You in the Thor force have maintained a constant vigil day and night for almost four years. You have maintained a higher state of readiness in peacetime than has ever been achieved before in the history of the Armed Forces of the Crown. I am well aware of the sacrifices, so willingly accepted, that this constant readiness has imposed on the officers and airmen of the force.
I am content that History will recognise your devoted service in the cause of peace. I know that I can rely on you for the same devotion during the rundown phase, as you have shown since the birth of the force in 1958.
[signature]
(K. B.E. CROSS)
Air Marshal.
Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief.
Bomber Command
2nd August, 1962.
Announcing the rundown of Britain's THOR missile defence programme
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1963
A very severe winter and had great difficulty travelling back and forth. On the way to Shepherds Grove, while driving along a cutting through a snowdrift, a car coming the other way crashed into me. Although my car was damaged, after temporary repairs I managed to drive it back to Diss and put it in to garage for proper repair. In the meantime, I used the Vespa scooter to get to the Units to do my categorisations. Strange, but everyone seemed to know I was coming, so the grapevine seemed to be working overtime.
All the pipes froze up at 102 Victoria Road, including the underground ones from the mains. Had to get water from our next-door neighbours, who remained unaffected. The Council eventually cleared the mains by passing an electric current in some way.
In July I was informed that [underlined] [italics] my services were no longer required by the RAF [/italics] [/underlined] and that I was to have a 'Last Tour Posting' somewhere nearby. I was shattered by this news as I had very high ratings in my job and good yearly assessments. I appealed to the Group Captain who was as much astounded as I was, particularly as other officers were being kept on whom he would 'court martial' given half a chance. Eventually he informed me that somewhere, someone with 'influence' didn't like me, and I must have upset whoever it was. So no reprieve!
Middle of July, I was posted to 721 Mobile Signals Unit based at Methwold as Commanding Officer – very strange! I was met with the results of a drunken brawl amongst members of the Unit under the previous CO and it took all of my energy and some very smooth talking to get it sorted out. Managed to restore unit pride with only two people being posted away and reprimands for a couple of others. It turned into a happy posting once I got everyone on my side. Managed to get damage fixed without any further problems.
The unit acted as a bomb plot for the "V" Force and had the call sign 'BRANTUB'. Unfortunately in October the unit was ordered to move to Lindholme. So much for it being a 'Last Tour Posting' [underlined] [italics] near [/italics] [/underlined] present residence.
1964
The Lindholme posting was not as bad as expected. Fell ill with flu just as move took place and when I finally drove up there from Diss I found the Unit on an isolated site, well away from the rest of the Station (see photos in 'Nostalgia' album). Everything was in good order and working well, all thanks to the good spirit now on the unit and a Warrant Officer who worked wonders to get it going. I now had an assistant, Pilot Officer Frank Moss, who was a navigator on Vulcans. Since we were acting as a "Bomb Plot" for the "V" Force, I think the idea was for him to persuade me to give good scores despite some of the dismal results they had been getting previously!
Made a number of suggestions for improving our lot on the Station and moral was very high. Managed to get us out of AOC's inspection and this also went down well. On the operational side I was able to invent a means of our not having to listen to the sound put out to simulate "Blue Steel" bombing. This was achieved by converting the sound signal into a visual meter display so that we could watch rather than having to listen for 10 minutes each run. Everyone at Bomber Command were surprised that nobody had thought of this before.
After we had settled in and were given a good result from the Bomber Command Inspection Team, I managed to arrange our shifts so that I could get away for longer periods. Finally, at the end of October, I was given a firm retirement date. I was given a very emotional farewell from the Unit and, although the practice was frowned upon in higher circles, I was given an inscribed watch as a going away present from all the members of the Unit (some 26 people excluding myself).
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From Lindholme I was finally posted to Honington to begin formalities to leave the Air Force. I only spent a few days there, handing in Kit and obtaining all the necessary clearances. On 19th November I drove away from Honington having finally 'retired'. I shall always remember it being rather like a dream but I do recall listening on the car radio to a program featuring Pam's cousin, Christopher Gable, who was leaving the Royal Ballet to take up an acting career (Christopher's last performance with the Royal Ballet was in 1965. He died in 1998).
The break was so great that I was hardly able to make any plans for the future.
Right: The final farewell
[Ministry of Defence Crest]
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
MAIN BUILDING, WHITEHALL, LONDON, S.W.1.
TELEPHONE WHITEHALL [indecipherable number]
29th October 1964
Dear Flt. Lt. Moore
The Secretary of State for Defence has it in command from Her Majesty The Queen to convey to you on leaving the Active List of the Royal Air Force her thanks for your long and valuable services.
May I take this opportunity of wishing you all good fortune in the future.
[signature]
Flight Lieutenant D. Moore
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1965
I managed to get a job with Marconi at Southend working with the modifications team and liaison with the RAF! It was very poorly paid but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.
We decided to move away from Diss and chose Chelmsford as the best place to settle down. It was the nearest into London that I wanted to go and the furthest out that Pam wanted to be. We started looking around and were particularly interested in some new houses being built on a development on the edge of town on Springfield road. They were more than I could really afford and the one we liked was suddenly sold to someone else. We needed to move quite quickly and when we saw a chalet bungalow, which Pam seemed to like, we decided to set the wheels in motion to buy it. No sooner had we paid a deposit than one of the new ones came back on the market, even before the walls had been built, so we decided to buy that one instead. I managed to commute half of my £500 a year RAF pension and the £250 translated into a cash sum of nearly £6,000, which only left a small mortgage requirement. The purchase proceeded reasonably smoothly and we finally moved into 2 Llewellyn Close on 9th April 1965. Moving into a newly built house was not such a good idea and all sorts of snags were encountered.
Only earning a pittance and very unhappy with what was expected of me, I started to look around again for another job.
1966
Got a job as Training Officer with Littlewoods operating out of Basildon, visiting all their stores in the south of England. Found it very difficult as all the lady supervisors were very suspicious of me and not at all co-operative. Was suddenly called up to Liverpool and made redundant with no reason given.
1967
Spent the whole year job hunting and at last got a job with John Zinc just outside St. Albans.
1968
21/10/68 – 13/12/68. Completed a Training Officer course (construction Industry) in Slough.
Finally got a reasonable job with Balfour Beatty in Bread St. London but had to leave after they moved to Croydon.
1970
At last I got a decent job! Started with Powell Duffryn, Great Tower St. London on 19th January but made redundant when they de-centralised
1971
After spending most of the year job hunting I finally started working for Letchworth and District Printers Group Training Scheme on 1st December
44
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1972
After travelling the 43 miles back and forth to Letchworth every day and finding it very tiring, we decided to look around for housing in Letchworth. I made up my mind that I wanted to be as near to work as possible and not have to travel any distance at all. Unfortunately this was a period of 'gazumping' and although our offer on the nice house we found in Cloisters Road and had been accepted, suddenly they had another buyer prepared to offer more. Reluctantly we bid for our present house and once again the offer was accepted. At the time of the year it looked much better than it actually was and, to make things worse, the day after swapping contracts the house in Cloisters came back on the market. We had easily sold our Chelmsford house and had completed on that, so we could not afford to change our minds. We finally moved into 116 West View on 15th May 1972.
Having been promised help in re-location by my employers, the Committee that had originally made the offer changed and all the new lot were prepared to give me was £100. I was not very happy about this and made my feelings very plain. But they just shrugged their shoulders.
1973 – 2010 No further entries
[photograph]
Celebrating my 80th Birthday
DM Memoirs (second Edition) Compiled and edited by Terry Moore, October 2010
Appendix and additional photographs – January 2011
Postscript – May 2012
Foreword – July 2012
[italics] The editor accepts no responsibility for inaccuracies [/italics]
45
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Postscript
The funeral service for my father took place at Harewood Park Crematorium, Stevenage, on Thursday 11th November 2010, attended by family, friends, representatives from the XV Squadron Association and colleagues from the North Herts. Branch of the Aircrew Association, of which he was president.
Like most airmen of his generation, Dad had a great affection for the Avro Lancaster, in which he spent many flying hours as navigator in both war time and peace, so it seemed most fitting that his ashes be scattered from the only remaining Lancaster still flying in this country.
[photograph] [photograph]
In May 2011, my wife and I made the ninety-mile trip to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire where the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is stationed and left the casket in the care of the Public Relations Manager who was to make the necessary arrangements.
[photograph] [photograph]
Dad took his "last flight" on 29th August 2011 in Avro Lancaster PA474 escorted by the Spitfire and Hurricane of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. His ashes were scattered over North Norfolk, England.
[chart]
BBMF flight schedule for 29/08/2011
Terry Moore, May 2012
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1945 Appendix 1 Operational Sorties – September 1944 – April 1945
[underlined] NO 218 SQUADRON RAF METHWOLD Aircraft Letters "HA" [/underlined]
[underlined] 17/09/1944 [/underlined]Sortie No: 1 (Daylight). Target [underlined] BOULOGNE [/underlined]
Aircraft – PD277 Code "A". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 2 hours 45 minutes
762 Aircraft – 370 Lancasters; 351 Halifax; 41 Mosquito. Dropped more than 3000 tons of Bombs on German positions around Boulogne in preparation for an attack by Allied troops. The German garrison surrendered soon afterwards.
1 Lancaster & 1 Halifax lost.
[underlined] 23-24/09/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 2 (Night time). Target [underlined] NEUSS [/underlined]
Aircraft – PD256 Code "J". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 4 hours 35 Minutes
549 Aircraft – 378 Lancasters; 154 Halifax; 17 Mosquito. Most of the bombing fell in the dock & factory area. A short local report only says that 617 houses & 14 Public Buildings were destroyed and 289 people killed/150 injured.
5 Lancasters & 2 Halifax lost.
[underlined] 26/09/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 3 (Daylight). Target [underlined] CAP GRIS NEZ [/underlined]
Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlare [sic]
Flying Time – 2 Hours 55 Minutes
722 Aircraft – 388 Lancasters, 289 Halifax; 45 Mosquito – 531 aircraft to CAP GRIS NEZ (4 Targets) and 191 aircraft to 3 Targets in CALAIS. Accurate and intense bombing of all targets.
1 Lancaster lost
[underlined] 28/09/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 4 (Daylight). Target [underlined] CALAIS [/underlined]
Aircraft – PD277 Code "A". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 2 Hours 35 Minutes
341 Aircraft – 222 Lancasters; 84 Halifax; 35 Moquito. [sic] Target area covered in cloud but Master Bomber brought the force below cloud to bomb visually. Bombing was accurate.
1 Lancaster Lost
[underlined] 14/10/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 5 (Daylight). Target [underlined] DUISBURG [/underlined]
Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 4 Hours 5 Minutes
This raid was part of a special operation. (See page 601 of Bomber Command Diaries)
1013 Aircraft – 519 Lancasters; 474 Halifax; 20 Mosquito with RAF fighters escorting.
3574 Tons of HE & 820 Tons of incendiary.
13 Lancasters & 1 Halifax lost.
[underlined] 15/10/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 6 (Night time). Target [underlined] WILHEMSHAVEN [sic] [/underlined]
Aircraft ? Code "C". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 4 Hours
506 Aircraft – 257 Halifax; 241 Lancasters; 8 Mosquito.
Last of 14 Major raids on Port of Wilhemshaven [sic]. Bomber Command claimed "severe damage caused."
No record of any losses noted.
[underlined] 19/10/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 7 (Night time). Target [underlined] STUTTGART [/underlined]
Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 6 Hours 30 Minutes
565 Lancasters & 18 Mosquito in 2 forces 4 hours apart.
Serious damage caused to central and eastern districts (including BOSCH factory)
6 Lancasters lost.
[underlined] 23/10/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No. 8 (Night time). Target [underlined] ESSEN [/underlined]
Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 5 Hours 5 Minutes
1055 Aircraft – 561 Lancasters; 463 Halifax & 31 Mosquito. This was the heaviest raid on Essen so far in the war and the number of aircraft also the greatest number on any target. (These results achieved [underlined] without [/underlined] the Lancasters from 5 Group!! 4538 Tons of Bombs dropped.
[underlined] 29/10/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 9 (Daylight). Target [underlined] WESTKAPELLE (WALCHEREN) [/underlined]
Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 2 Hours 15 Minutes
358 Aircraft – 194 Lancasters; 128 Halifax & 36 Mosquito.
11 different ground positions attacked. Visibility was good and results were accurate.
1 Lancaster lost.
47
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[underlined] 04/11/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 10 (Daylight). Target [underlined] SOLINGEN [/underlined]
Aircraft – NF 934 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 4 Hours 30 Minutes
176 Lancasters of 3 Group. The raid was not considered successful as bombing scattered.
4 Lancasters lost
Note: Aircraft NF934 Code "G" went "missing" on 12/12/1944
Squadron Leader N.G. Macfarlane promoted to Wing Commander and posted as Officer Commanding No: XV Squadron RAF Mildenhall in mid-November and sends aircraft to fetch whole crew from Methwold
[underlined] NO: XV SQUADRON RAF MILDENHALL Aircraft letters "LS" [/underlined]
[underlined] 28/11/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 11 (Night time). Target [underlined] NEUSS (DUSSELDORF) [/underlined]
Aircraft – HK 695 Code "V". Pilot – Wing Commander N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 4 Hours 40 Minutes
145 Lancasters of 3 Group & 8 of 1 Group. GH Bombing attack. Modest damage.
No losses.
[underlined] 05/12/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 12 (Daylight). Target [underlined] SCHWAMMENAUEL DAM [/underlined]
Aircraft – ME 844 Code "C. Pilot – Wing Commander N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 4 Hours 40 Minutes
MASTER BOMBER – 56 Lancasters of 3 Group attempt to "Blow up" this Dam on river ROER to help American Army. Target covered in cloud. Only 2 aircraft bombed. No losses.
[underlined] 06/12/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 13 (Night time) Target [underlined] LEUNA MERSEBURG [/underlined] (Near LEIPZIG)
Aircraft – NG 357 Code "K" Pilot – Flt. Lt. Percy
Flying Time – 7 Hours 20 Minutes
475 Lancasters bombed Oil Target in Eastern Germany, 500 miles from UK. Cloud cover but considerable damage to the synthetic oil plant. 5 aircraft lost
[underlined] 08/12/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 14 (Daylight). Target [underlined] DUISBURG [/underlined]
Aircraft – NG 357 Code "K". Pilot – Flt. Lt. Percy
Flying Time – 4 Hours 20 Minutes
163 Lancasters of 3 Group bombed on GH through cloud on railway yards. Good results.
No losses.
[underlined] 14/12/1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 15 (Night time). Target [underlined] MINING KATTEGAT [/underlined] (off KULLEN POINT)
Aircraft – NG 357 Code "K". Pilot – Flt. Lt. Percy
Flying Time – 7 Hours (Landed LOSSIEMOUTH)
30 Lancasters & 9 Halifax. Mines accurately laid. (see H2S photo) Diverted to Lossiemouth on return. No losses.
[underlined] 28/12//1944 [/underlined] Sortie No: 16 (Daylight). Target [underlined] COLOGNE [/underlined] (GREMBERG)
Aircraft – HK 693 Code "B". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 4 Hours 50 Minutes
167 Lancasters of 3 Group. Marshalling yards. Accurate bombing. No losses
[underlined] 01/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 17 (Night time). Target [underlined] VOHWINKEL [/underlined]
Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 6 Hours 5 Minutes
146 Lancasters of 3 Group. Successful attack on railway yards. 1 aircraft lost
[underlined] 03/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 18 (Daytime). Target [underlined] DORTMUND [/underlined]
Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 4 Hours 45 Minutes
99 Lancasters of 3 group. GH attacks through cloud on Coking plant (HANSA). Accurate bombing. 1 aircraft lost.
[underlined] 07-08/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 19 (Night time). Target [underlined] MUNICH [/underlined]
Aircraft – HK 618 Code "G". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 7 Hours 45 Minutes
645 Lancasters from 1,3, 5, 6 & 8 Groups – Very successful raid causing severe damage (see Terry's book – "Fliegeralarm" – Luftangriffe auf München 1940-1945)
11 aircraft lost and 4 crash in France
[underlined] 13/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 20 (Daylight). Target [underlined] SAARBRUCKENt [/underlined][sic]
Aircraft – ME 849 Code "L". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 6 Hours 20 Minutes
158 Lancasters of 3 Group attack Railway yards. Accurate but some overshooting
Divert to Predannack on return because of bad weather at base.
1 Aircraft lost
48
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[underlined] 16-17/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 21 (Night time). Target [underlined] WANNE EICKEL [/underlined]
Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 5 Hours 5 Minutes
138 Lancasters of 3 Group attack Benzol plant. 1 Aircraft lost
[underlined] 23/01/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 22 (Daylight). Target [underlined] COLOGNE [/underlined] (GREMBERG)
Aircraft – PD 234 Code "E". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 5 Hours 55 Minutes
153 Lancasters from 3 Group attack Railway Yards. Good Visibility – Results variable
3 aircraft lost and 1 crashed in France
[underlined] 09/02/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 23 (Night time). Target [underlined] HOHENBUDBERG (DUISBERG KREFELD) [/underlined]
Aircraft – PD 234 Code "E". Pilot – Wing Commander N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 5 Hours 10 Minutes
151 Lancasters from 3 Group attack Railway Yards. 2 Lancasters lost
[underlined] 19/02/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 24 (Daylight). Target [underlined] WESEL [/underlined]
Aircraft – NG 444 Code "Y". Pilot – Wing Commander N.G. Macfarlane
Flying Time – 5 Hours 15 Minutes
168 Lancasters from 3 Group. Good attack with best results around railway area
Leading Aircraft for whole of 3 Group. (I navigated and everyone else followed me!)
1 Lancaster lost
[underlined] 02/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 25 (Daylight). Target [underlined] COLOGNE [/underlined]
Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 5 Hours 30 Minutes
858 Aircraft – 155 Lancasters from 3 Group. Only 15 aircraft from 3 Group bombed because of GH failure. All other bombing highly destructive. Cologne captured by the Americans 4 days later. 6 Lancasters lost
[underlined] 04/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 26 (Daylight). Target [underlined] WANNE EINCKEL [/underlined]
Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 4 Hours 55 Minutes
128 Lancasters from 3 Group bombed on GH. No losses.
[underlined] 05/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 27 (Daylight). Target [underlined] GELSENKIRCHEN [/underlines]
Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 5 Hours 35 Minutes
170 Lancasters from 3 Group. Leading Aircraft for whole of 3 Group.
1 Lancaster lost
[underlined] 11/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 28 (Daylight). Target [underlined] ESSEN [/underlined]
Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 6 Hours 5 Minutes
1079 Aircraft – 750 Lancasters. Attack accurate and Essen paralysed.
Leading aircraft for 32 Base. 3 Lancasters lost
[underlined] 22/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 29 (Daylight). Target [underlined] BOCHULT [/underlined]
Aircraft – PA 235 Code "E". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 5 Hours 15 Minutes
100 Lancasters from 3 Group. Leading aircraft for Squadron. Town seen to be on fire.
No losses
[underlined] 23/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 30 (Daylight). Target [underlined] WESEL [/underlined]
Aircraft – PA 235 Code "E". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 4 Hours 35 Minutes
Special GH attack to support Rhine crossing. 80 Lancasters from 3 Group.
Signal from General Eisenhower congratulating the crews concerned on their very accurate bombing.
[underlined] 29/03/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 31 (Daylight). Target [underlined] HALLENDORF [/underlined] (SALZGITTER)
Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 7 Hours 5 Minutes
130 Lancasters from 3 Group. Attack on Benzol plant using GH. Leading aircraft for Squadron.
No losses
[underlined] 9-10/04/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 32 (Night time). Target [underlined] KIEL BAY [/underlined] – MINING
Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 6 Hours 10 Minutes
70 Lancasters. No loss on Mining but 4 lost on main raid on Kiel (Very accurate - Pocket Battleship Admiral Scheer hit and capsized. Admiral Hipper Emden badly damaged.)
49
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[underlined] 14//04/1945 [/underlined] Sortie No: 33 (Night time). Target [underlined] POTSDAM [/underlined]
Aircraft – NG 358 Code "H". Pilot – Squadron Leader Percy
Flying Time – 8 Hours 35 Minutes
500 Lancasters. Attack successful and severe damage caused
1 Lancaster lost to night fighter.
Tour completed because the tour requirement was reduced from 40 to 30 whilst we were over Potsdam.
References Air 27 1352 (218 Sqn)
Air 27 204 & 205 (XV Sqn)
[photograph]
End of Tour, Mildenhall, April 1945
Lancaster "H" Howe, NG538
L-R: P/O Johnny Forster (flight engineer), Flt Sgt Jimmy Bourke (mid-upper gunner),
Ft Sgt 'Nobby' Clarke (rear gunner), Sqn Ldr Pat "Tojo" Percy (pilot), Flt Sgt Dennis "Napper" Evans (wireless op.)
F/O Tom Butler (bomb aimer), F/O Dennis Moore (navigator)
[photograph)
End of Tour, Mildenhall, April 1945
Lancaster "H" Howe, NG538
Squadron Leader Percy & Crew with ground crew
50
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1945 Appendix II
[underlined] Lancaster NG 358 Mark B1. XV Squadron (15) Coded LS-H [/underlined]
This aircraft was built by Armstrong Whitworth at their Baginton factory and was one of 400 delivered to the RAF between July 1944 & February 1945. The previous LS-H was HK 648 and NG 358 first appeared on the squadron in Mid-December 1944. It was finally 'Struck off charge' on 19/10/1945
[photograph]
Dates actually flown in this aircraft:
30/12/1944 Day 1450 'GH' Bombing Exercise
1-2/01/1945 Night 1610 6.05 VOHWINKEL 146 a/c, 3 missing
03/01/1945 Day 1250 4.45 DORTMUND 50 a/c
16-17/01/1945 Night 2307 5.05 WANNE EINCKEL 138 a/c, 1 missing
27/01/1945 Day 1005 Air Test
02/03/1945 Day 1200 5.30 KÖLN Led 32 BASE, 531 a/c, 6 missing
04/03/1945 Day 0946 4.45 WANNE EINCKEL 128 a/c
05/03/1945 Day 0940 5.35 GELSENKIRCHEN Led 3 Group, 170 a/c, 1 missing
11/03/1945 Day 1200 6.05 ESSEN Led 32 BASE, 750 a/c, 3 missing
29/03/1945 Day 1230 7.05 HALLENDORF Led SQUADRON, 130 a/c
09-10/04/1945 Night 2000 6.10 KIEL BAY MINING 70 a/c
14-15/04/1945 Night 1825 8.55 BERLIN (POTSDAM) 500 a/c, 2 missing
The crew of 'H' – 'HOWE' on the above flights was:
Pilot Squadron Leader Pat Percy
Navigator Flying Officer Dennis Moore
Bomb Aimer Flying Officer Tom Butler (Canadian)
F/Engineer Pilot Officer Johnnie Forster
Wireless Op. F/Sgt. Dennis Evans
Mid Upper F/Sgt. Jimmy Bourke
Rear Gunner F/Sgt. Nobby Clarke
Other 'operations' in other aircraft were flown with Wing Commander N.G. Macfarlane as Pilot. (see note below)
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[underlined] Explanations: [/underlined]
Bomber Command was split into GROUPS (mainly 3 & 5 Group) – each Group split into 3 BASES and each Base comprised 2 or 3 airfields on which there were usually 2 SQUADRONS. Each Squadron was normally split in two FLIGHTS although sometimes they had three. 3 Group Base were Nos. 31; 32 & 33. 31 Base comprised STRADISHALL & WRATTING COMMON plus one other; 32 Base comprised MILDENHALL, LAKENHEATH & METHWOLD. 33 Base comprised WATERBEACH, WITCHFORD & MEPAL. The other Squadron at MILDENHALL at this time was No 622 (Australian). Each Squadron normally had 24 aircraft and a 'MAXIMUM EFFORT' was achieved when all of them flew on an OPERATION ('op').
All daylight trips were in tight FORMATION and Bombing was done on 'GH' – which was operated by the navigator who actually 'pressed the button'. The Bombing Leaders were distinguished by the double yellow bars on the tailfin/rudder. All others in the flight bombed on the Leader. A limited number of Squadrons & Aircraft in No 3 Group were fitted with this equipment, which was extremely accurate.
Note. Mac (or Nigel, as I now am allowed to call him) lives in a retirement home near Capetown, South Africa. At the Mildenhall register meeting in May 1995 I was told he had died. The following day I was able to contact his son Ian (whom we had 'baby-sat') who is now a Harley Street Consultant and he put paid to this rumour.
Nigel & Margaret visited the UK June 2000 to celebrate their 60th Wedding Anniversary and Pam & I were invited to their Party. Not able to drive at the time so unable to go. Terry offered to pick him up and take him with us to Squadron 85th Birthday celebrations at Lossiemouth. Unfortunately he was not well enough so Terry & I went to Lossiemouth on our own.
1945 Appendix III
[italics] The Operational Sortie which the crew decided had turned me from being a "very Good" Navigator into an "ACE" Navigator. (Their words - not mine!!) [/italics]
An operational order was "posted" quite early in the morning of the 7th January 1945 and the fuel load was 2154 gallons (the maximum) so we all knew that we were in for a long haul. At the pre-flight briefing Munich was announced as the target and we were allocated HK618 "G" (George) with Squadron Leader Percy as pilot. We learned later that 645 aircraft from 1;3;5;6 and 8 Groups loaded with 1 x 4000 pounder (Cookie) and clusters of incendiaries, carried out a very successful bombing raid causing very severe damage. (See photos in Terry's book). A total of 11 aircraft were lost and another 4 crashed in France (nearly 3%, which was quite high at this time).
Getting airborne at 1830, the flight out was quite uneventful from a navigational point of view with 'Gee' working well and covering a good way down into France. Having bombed on a well lit (burning) target, the Alps were now the only visible landmarks and, at the appropriate time, we turned onto a northerly heading based on the wind component calculated on the way down across France. We kept going on this heading, expecting to pick up something to give us a 'fix' but unfortunately nothing was forthcoming, and at the ETA at the French coast I asked if any of the crew could see anything. Nobody else could see through the cloud but the rear gunner (who had a good downward view) finally called to say that we had just passed over a 'Pundit' flashing what turned out to be Manston!! Quickly turning on the IFF (identifying friend not foe) and crossing the Thames estuary, a quick calculation, the message" Maintain heading – ETA base in 17 minutes" was passed to the pilot. EXACTLY 17 minutes later the pilot reported "overhead base – joining circuit. Well done Navigator" Thus ended a 7hour 45 minute flight and the very tired but elated crew gathered in the briefing room to be met, as usual, by the padre dishing out the rum ration for those that wanted it. I was quite happy to have my share while we were being de-briefed, with a crew enthusing over my marvellous navigation (all the way back from the south of France without having to change heading once!!) and then off to the quarters behind the Mess to a well earned sleep.
What was never mentioned to anyone – and the crew in particular – was that, had the heading been just ONE degree to starboard, we would have gone sailing – literally – up the north sea and, because of the cloud cover, not know why we never made it back to base – if we had survived the ditching in the dark and subsequent days adrift in the North Sea – that is!!!
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1945 Appendix IV
[underlined] Dakota Flights (as Navigator) July 1945 – May 1946 [/underlined]
109 OTU Crosby on Eden
08/07/1945 – 23/07/1945 DAY 18.55, NIGHT 7.45
PILOTS: Flt/Lt Mason & Flt/Lt Samuael
Aircraft registrations: FZ609 KG502 KG619 KG658 KG664 KG666
B Flight 1383T/C.U
26/07/1945 – 27/08/1945 DAY 49.55, NIGHT 26.15
PILOTS: P/O Zygnerski & Flt/Lt Herringe
Aircraft registrations: FL652 KG373 KG392 KG638 KG726 KG644 KG649 KG657 KG726
52 Squadron RAF DUM-DUM CALCUTTA
01/12/1945 – 08/05/1946 DAY 345.25, NIGHT 13.50
PILOTS: Mainly F/O Harris but also Flt/Lt Ruddle, F/O Lofting, Flt/Lt Earwalker & F/O MacArthur
Route flying from Calcutta to Bangkok, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh), Hong Kong, sometimes calling into Chittagong, Meiktila, Hmawbi, Rangoon, Canton
Aircraft registrations:
FL507 FL612 KG212 KG502 KG573 KG923
KJ813 KJ814 KJ820 KJ904 KJ963 KK190
KN211 KN219 KN231 KN239 KN240 KN299
KN301 KN308 KN341 KL507 KN534 KN573
KN600 KN604 KN630 KN633 KP211
Total Hours: DAY 413.35 NIGHT 47.10
Appendix 1949
[underlined] "Lancastrian" G – AGWI/1281/TX276/111 [/underlined]
I flew 13 Sorties as Navigator in this Aircraft on the Berlin Airlift.
Registered 28/11/1945 to Ministry of Aircraft Production.
Certificate of Airworthiness No: 7283 24/01/1946.
Delivered to BSAA (British South American Airways) Heathrow 27/01/1946
Named 'Star Land'
Registered to Ministry of Civil Aviation 16/08/1948.
Sold to Flight Refuelling Ltd. 16/01/1949 and Registered to them 18/01/1949.
Allotted Fleet No. 'Tanker 26' and flew [underlined] 226 [/underlined] Sorties on Berlin Airlift
Scrapped at Tarrant Ruston 26/09/1951.
Berlin Airlift
[logo] Berlin Airlift [emblem]
[drawing]
[inserted] TX 276/1281 [/inserted]
AVRO LANCASTRIAN – FLIGHT REFUELLING LTD
47403
On 23 June 1948, the Soviet forces occupying the eastern part of Germany blockaded all rail, road and waterway supply routes from the Allied Western Occupation Zones in Berlin. With less than one month’s supply of food and fuel, the prospects for the two and a half million Berliners looked bleak. Only three severely restricted air routes remained as a lifeline between the besieged city and the western world. The Allies responded immediately with a miracle of logistics – The Berlin Airlift. Codenamed Operation Vittles by the USAF, and Operation Plainfare by the RAF, over a period of 11 months Allied aircraft made thousands of flights into the cramped airspace of Berlin and succeeded in supplying everything the city needed. Every available aircraft from RAF Transport Command was in service, as well as hundreds of USAF aircraft and even civil charter firms were called upon to supplement the effort. The operation became so skilled that the Soviet Command eventually realised that they had failed and on 12 May 1949 the blockade was finally lifted.
Avro Lancastrian G-AGWI represents an aircraft which was originally delivered to British South American Airways (BSAA) at Heathrow in January 1946. The aircraft was registered to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for a short period in 1948 before being sold to Flight Refuelling in January 1949. The aircraft was then allotted fleet no. Tanker 26 and flew 226 sorties on the Berlin Airlift.
[inserted] I FLEW IN 13 OF THEM [/inserted] [diagram]
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Dennis Moore Autobiography
Description
An account of the resource
Dennis Moore's autobiography, compiled and edited by his son, Terry Moore.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Dennis Moore
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
53 typed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
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BMooreDMooreDv1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Germany--Weeze
England--London
England--Wallington Garden
Netherlands--Zandvoort
England--Croydon
England--Hartland
England--Lynton
England--Salcombe
England--Amersham
England--Newquay
England--Manchester
Scotland--Greenock
United States
New York (State)--New York
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
Maine--Portland
New Brunswick--Shediac
New Brunswick--Fredericton
Manitoba
Manitoba--Brandon
Manitoba--Winnipeg
Ontario--Toronto
Ontario--Hamilton
Ontario--London
Alberta--Medicine Hat
England--Harrogate
Scotland--Stranraer
France--Angers
Germany--Neuss
England--Carlisle
England--Morecambe
Pakistan--Karachi
Malta
Egypt--Cairo
Burma--Rangoon
India--Mumbai
China--Guangzhou
China--Hainan Sheng
China--Hong Kong
India--Darjeeling
England--Liverpool
England--Hastings
Kenya--Nairobi
Italy--Verona
Morocco--Marrakech
Northern Ireland--Belfast
Senegal--Dakar
Brazil--Natal
Argentina--Buenos Aires
Turkey--İzmir
Israel
Newfoundland and Labrador--Gander
Greenland
Iceland
Cyprus--Nicosia
Iraq--Baghdad
Bahrain
England--Blandford Forum
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Hamburg
England--Skellow
England--Worcester
England--Scarborough
England--Pershore
Arizona--Tucson
California--Vandenberg Air Force Base
England--Diss
England--Chelmsford
England--Basildon
England--St. Albans
England--Slough
England--Letchworth
England--Stevenage
France--Calais
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Essen
Netherlands--Walcheren
Germany--Solingen
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Munich
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Bocholt
Germany--Salzgitter
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Potsdam
England--Coventry
England--London
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Saarbrücken
Québec--Montréal
India--Kolkata
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Vietnam--Ho Chi Minh City
England--Southend-on-Sea
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
Italy
France
Arizona
California
Maine
New York (State)
Egypt
Ontario
Québec
New Brunswick
Alberta
Newfoundland and Labrador
Germany
Brazil
Burma
China
Cyprus
India
Iraq
Kenya
Netherlands
Pakistan
Turkey
Great Britain
Vietnam
Senegal
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Berkshire
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Cumberland
England--Devon
England--Essex
England--Herefordshire
England--Kent
England--Lancashire
England--Norfolk
England--Northumberland
England--Sussex
England--Worcestershire
England--Yorkshire
England--Warwickshire
England--London
Atlantic Ocean--Kattegat (Baltic Sea)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
12 OTU
15 Squadron
1653 HCU
218 Squadron
3 Group
5 Group
52 Squadron
6 Group
8 Group
82 Squadron
90 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
air gunner
Air Observers School
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
arts and crafts
bomb aimer
C-47
crewing up
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Service Order
entertainment
flight engineer
Gee
ground crew
H2S
Halifax
Hampden
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lancastrian
Lincoln
Master Bomber
memorial
mess
Meteor
mine laying
Mosquito
navigator
Nissen hut
Oboe
Operational Training Unit
pilot
Proctor
RAF Bridgnorth
RAF Catterick
RAF Chedburgh
RAF Chipping Warden
RAF Farnborough
RAF Feltwell
RAF Honington
RAF Lakenheath
RAF Lindholme
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Mepal
RAF Methwold
RAF Mildenhall
RAF Shawbury
RAF Shepherds Grove
RAF Stradishall
RAF Thorney Island
RAF Tuddenham
RAF Waterbeach
RAF Wigtown
RAF Witchford
RAF Wratting Common
Shackleton
Spitfire
Stirling
Sunderland
Tiger force
Tiger Moth
training
V-1
V-weapon
Wellington
wireless operator
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1243/16482/PAllenBW18010017.1.jpg
ef65f419b102e9a5118f4b120337f586
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Allen, Bert
B W Allen
Description
An account of the resource
22 items. the collection concerns Bert Allen (1923 - 1993, 1898094 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book and photographs, including some taken in Mauripur and Mumbai. He flew operations as an air gunner with 207 Squadron from RAF Spilsby. He was subsequently posted to India and was demobbed in 1946.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Mathew Allen and catalogued by Peter Adams.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-05-03
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
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Allen, BW
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Four uniformed men in front of the Mumbai Royal Institute of Sciences
Description
An account of the resource
Four men in tropical uniform standing in the middle of a street in front of the Mumbai Royal Institute of Science. They each have a camera. Bert Allen is on the right. To their left are two civilian men in turbans.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PAllenBW18010017
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
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.
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2111/34998/PColeFIG18010146.2.jpg
28acc3791b4f5956c611d6bd60424782
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2111/34998/PColeFIG18010147.2.jpg
0481780c0f415366ab69875d0009f358
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Cole, Ivor. Photographs
Description
An account of the resource
101 items. A photograph album of Ivor Cole's post war service in Singapore.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-09
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Cole, FIG
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Gateway of India and Taj Mahal Hotel
Description
An account of the resource
Mumbai water front with the Gateway monument and the Taj Mahal Hotel. The reverse is printed as a postcard.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Language
A language of the resource
eng
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
PColeFIG18010146, PColeFIG18010147
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.
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/39838/PNyeAF22020239.2.jpg
d3892c4fe3b5c1b1402d5f3ac7c5a9c3
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2182/39838/PNyeAF22020240.2.jpg
f4c1a21c59fb7f997d512c99310134cf
Dublin Core
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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
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Title
A name given to the resource
Gateway of India, Mumbai
Description
An account of the resource
Men standing alongside the Gateway, across an open space, with cars parked in front of the structure. On the reverse is noted 'Gateway of India, Mumbai built 1911'.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
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
PNyeAF22020239; PNyeAF22020240
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.
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/297/25294/PMcBeanLW16010097.2.jpg
a0a950a273fc7887da2adc33ecc90c71
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
McBean, Lachie
Lachlan William McBean
Lachlan W McBean
Lachlan McBean
L W McBean
L McBean
Description
An account of the resource
117 Items. Collection concerns Lachlan William "Lachie" McBean (1924 - 2019, 430629 Royal Australian Air Force). He was a pilot whose crew had just finished their course at a Heavy Conversion Unit when the European war ended. Collection consist of an oral history interview and photographs of people, places and aircraft.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Lachlan McBean and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-22
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
McBean, LW
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Hornby Street Bombay
Description
An account of the resource
Street with trees and shops either side and people walking in road. Bus on right side. Captioned 'Hornby St Bombay'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph mounted on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PMcBeanLW16010097
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
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
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1689/27157/PMooreD16010004.1.jpg
2b24831f0a315649642485c843ccc311
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1689/27157/PMooreD16010005.1.jpg
3574ba10c37714f373b344e6b0d11128
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1689/27157/PMooreD16010006.1.jpg
ff241b18730b7e169d1d5f9e980ba2d8
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1689/27157/PMooreD16010007.1.jpg
87c96b8c33d66c34e6c1383cb586d9ff
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
Moore, Dennis. Album Two
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
Moore, D
Description
An account of the resource
35 items. An album of photographs from Dennis Moore's post war service in the Far East.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-06
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
Index of Photographs
Description
An account of the resource
A list of 42 photographs with names and descriptions.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four handwritten sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PMooreD16010004, PMooreD16010005, PMooreD16010006, PMooreD16010007
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Pakistan--Karachi
Bangladesh--Chittagong
India--Mumbai
Thailand--Bangkok
China--Hong Kong
Bangladesh
China
India
Pakistan
Thailand
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.
aircrew
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1341/21939/PShipmanJ18010015.2.jpg
efba84e359bc747686b6296352e39ed2
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
Shipman, John. Album
Description
An account of the resource
33 items. An album of photographs from his service in the Middle East and India.
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
2018-10-10
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
Shipman, J
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
Indian Life
Description
An account of the resource
Five photographs from an album.
Photo 1 is six people round a funeral pyre, captioned 'Creamation' [sic]
Photo 2 is a monument captioned 'Gateway to India Bombay'.
Photo 3 is a man, plough and cow, captioned 'Farmer' and 'Ploughing'.
Photo 4 is a man making pots on a spinning wheel, captioned 'Pot Making'.
Photo 5 is a Sikh man with a table of medicines, captioned 'Street Doctor'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PShipmanJ18010015
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
India
India--Mumbai
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.
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1198/11771/PWilkieD1601.2.jpg
ad66d1412d06fa51a7bd05bb25899ef6
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1198/11771/AWilkieD161102.1.mp3
246c576d22ca9f5147b67f48e24ac092
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Wilkie, David
D Wilkie
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Flight Lieutenant David Wilkie (b. 1924, 1821776 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a flight engineer with 432 Squadron.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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2016-11-01
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Wilkie, D
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RP: This interview is being conducted on behalf of the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is Rod Pickles. The interviewee is David Wilkie. The interview is taking place at David’s home in Christchurch, Dorset on the 2nd of November 2016. Also present is Adrian Goodwin. David, good afternoon and thank you for inviting me here. This interview is all about you so if we could sort of go back to the beginning and your, your days when, where you were born and when you left school and what your thoughts were about joining the RAF. So first, tell us where were you born?
DW: I was born in Edinburgh. Well, part of Edinburgh on the 3rd of May 1924. I went to a school from five right on until I left it at fifteen, sixteen. Trinity Academy, quite a good school.
RP: So that’s one school from primary through secondary education?
DW: Yeah.
RP: That’s a good idea.
DW: All the way. Which is very good and it was a good school, good playing fields which made me happier than being at school because I was quite an athlete and very keen on games and rugby and so on.
RP: What was your, your best sport you were the best at would you say?
DW: My best sport was actually rugby but on the other hand I was pretty good at a number of athletics, running around tracks and things like that.
RP: You’ve got the build of a fly half to me, what position were you?
DW: I was fly half but also on the wing.
RP: Oh right.
DW: But we’ll say fly half and in fact, at that time, my ambition was to become a teacher at a school, doing, what do you call it, jobs? Not jobs.
RP: Teaching, teaching physical education.
DW: Teaching.
RP: Games.
DW: Games and the like.
RP: So what, what persuaded you to another career then?
DW: Well I think the realities of the situation. When I got to fifteen, sixteen I left school and in fact I went into, by persuasion from my parents I went into a solicitor’s office for a time. That was a local one. But I wasn’t keen on that very much so it didn’t take me too long to volunteer to get into the RAF.
RP: Was there a particular reason you chose the RAF? Was there any family association or was it just a good idea?
DW: No family association at all, my father had been in the army of course and so forth. But no, I just liked the idea of flying and I was, accepted for pilot navigator observer trainee but there was a huge queue for that and I wasn’t yet, we were told to go away. Come back. Go away. ‘Join the ATC and we’ll have you back as and when there’s room.’ That seemed to go on forever. That was what had been discussed because by then we were in the ATC so we decided that, in fact, three of us did, that it was too long to wait. But they are looking for flight engineers so why don’t we volunteer for that? Which the three of us did and we were trained and we had training of course down at Wales mainly and that’s about a year’s training or so.
RP: Whereabouts in Wales were you?
DW: It was down near Cardiff, between Cardiff and Swansea.
RP: St Athan, would that have been?
DW: It was in fact St Athan.
RP: Yeah.
DW: Thank you for helping me with that I should know that quite well.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And of course I met my wife down, Kathleen down —
RP: Oh right. So that’s why you’ve got memories of Wales then.
DW: We’ve been back and forward. She died about eight years ago now.
RP: But it must have been interesting when Scotland played Wales at rugby then.
DW: Absolutely. But there was an agreement in the family that, you know, when Wales was playing anybody else England or whatever it was I’d vote for Wales and likewise Kathleen would vote for Scotland if in fact it wasn’t playing Wales. And so on.
RP: That’s an amicable solution.
DW: Absolutely. Now we, we, in fact we’ve been married, or would have been married seventy years this year.
RP: Goodness me.
DW: But she died a bit sooner.
RP: So was she in the forces then? What was she?
DW: She was an ATS.
RP: Oh right.
DW: I’ve got a picture of her there somewhere.
RP: Ok.
DW: ATS. But just as a normal private, didn’t do anything special. So, let’s see, that was that. I’m still on score or should I be talking about —
RP: You were at St Athan, you were in St Athan.
DW: St Athan.
RP: You’d finished your training, where did you go to from St Athan and when you’d finished training in Wales?
DW: From there I went up north to East Moor I think it was and then we were allocated of course, in due course.
RP: Yes.
DW: To a crew. I say allocated but what happened, once you were ready to go in, to join a crew and go into Bomber Command and fly we all met in a big hall.
RP: So this was, did you go to an Operational Training Unit before that then? An OTU?
DW: An Operational Training Unit would go, we’d go to that after we’d joined a crew.
RP: Oh right. So you joined a crew first, I see, yeah.
DW: I think so, yeah.
RP: Yeah.
DW: I’m sure we did.
RP: Yes, Yeah.
DW: Anyway, we centred around this big hall looking for a crew and which was rather difficult, you’re looking around and looking around but then a group of four came and approached me and somebody said, ‘You’re a Scotsman.’ I said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Right, We’re happy to have a Scotsman in our crew, would you like to join us?’
RP: Oh, that was nice.
DW: So I looked at them and well, rather quickly I said, ‘Yes. Sure’ and that was it.
RP: This was, were they Canadians?
DW: Canadian.
RP: Was it a Canadian squadron?
DW: It was a Canadian squadron.
RP: And what number was that?
DW: 432.
RP: That’s four, so that was mostly Canadian aircrew with a —
DW: Practically so. They didn’t have any engineers.
RP: Oh right.
DW: So of course that’s why we were allocated.
RP: I see, yeah.
DW: Allocated because I don’t suppose they, whoever did it decided they had to find engineers for them so that was that. Then we did some more training obviously at, well it was just north of York and before we went on to actual —
RP: So —
DW: Operations.
RP: Before, from joining a squadron how long was it before your first operation? How much training did they give you?
DW: Quite a bit. The training of course was a whole year and part of that and I think probably about five or six weeks when you got to know the, your crew.
RP: What aircraft was this you were flying?
DW: This was, I flew with a Halifax.
RP: Ok.
DW: A Halifax 3 or a Halifax 5 as it happened. These had the radial engines and that happened to be what I liked rather than the inline as it happened. Lancaster's were more popular but in fact I liked the idea of radial engines and there it was. So we joined 432 Squadron as Number 6 Wing up north and just beyond York and we did our tour from there.
RP: So what was your first operation then? Can you remember that?
DW: First operation. Yes. Was [pause] I’m desperately trying to think which one it was now. I know where it was but [pause] sorry about that. You don’t mind if I hesitate.
[recording paused]
RP: Ok David. So, your first operation was to where, sorry?
DW: To Caen in France.
RP: And that was on D-Day.
DW: And that was on D-Day.
RP: So did you just —
DW: The night, well the night of the 6th of June 1944.
RP: Yeah. So —
DW: And of course D-Day was that morning.
RP: Yes, yeah. So you were part of the D-Day attack.
DW: Yes indeed.
RP: Right. Did you know? Did you know —
DW: No.
RP: It was sort of D-Day as such.
DW: No, no.
RP: You didn’t, oh right.
DW: No, not then.
RP: No.
DW: But of course coming back over The Channel here we saw this mammoth —
RP: The mammoth fleet. Yes, so you realised something was on, yeah.
DW: Big, big ships and all the rest of it, so at that particular point the whole crew saw this and — it must be D-Day [laughs]
RP: So you were able to see them yourself, yeah, you had a look and sort of saw the ships. It must have been an amazing sight.
DW: It was an amazing sigh , it was. We saw an armada of battleships, destroyers and landing craft heading for the beaches of France. Of course we had not been told it was D-Day but, which was still a secret but in fact the pictures made it crystal clear as to exactly what —
RP: Yes exactly.
DW: Yeah and I must say in our hearts, I’ve got a wee note here, in our hearts we prayed for those brave soldiers, many of whom would not see the end of that day.
RP: Of course, yes.
DW: Which is true.
RP: So that was the first one. Can you remember any other particular sorties for any reason? Where do you think you suffered the most flak that you were flying over on one of your missions? Can you remember that?
DW: Well the longest journey we did was the one I told you about to [pause] What did we say to?
RP: Stuttgart.
DW: Stuttgart.
RP: That’s a distance. That’s a fair.
DW: That’s a long trek.
RP: A long trek.
DW: About nine or ten hours.
RP: Good grief. That is a long time isn’t it?
DW: A long journey. So that was a long that was probably the one that figures most in my mind because it was a difficult one. We had more, well, guns firing at us on route and so forth. So that was on D-Day. Yeah and of course we had then, on the way back, saw the Normandy landings and then we knew it was D-Day. We hadn’t known that before.
RP: Gosh. That’s an historic moment isn’t it?
DW: Very much so.
RP: So you carried on with more, more sorties.
DW: Yeah.
RP: I just wondered, on the D-Day one is your first, in your first one as you climbed into the aircraft were you thinking, crossing yourself or thinking here we go, or praying? Were you worried or apprehensive or it was just something you had to do?
DW: You were conscious that you were going in to, you could be going into a lot of trouble but, and we were conscious of that but nonetheless we seemed to be fired up to go there, although we were very conscious of the dangers.
RP: Yes.
DW: That we might have but certainly, we didn’t sit around and just worry, worry, worry, it wasn’t like that.
RP: It was just, it was the job you had to do basically.
DW: Yeah.
RP: That’s how you approached it.
DW: The only time that there were comments was during the initial [pause] well the initial discussion with the senior people telling us where we were going and then of course they didn’t tell you they just took a screen off the map.
RP: Right.
DW: And there were either sighs of horror or —
RP: Yeah. And then you find out where it was.
DW: Where you were going and as I say the first one we had was to Caen which wasn’t bad.
RP: But I noticed that obviously from some of your, the sorties, some of them obviously to Germany, to Hamburg and other places but also you were doing a lot of bombing on the French ports weren’t you?
DW: Yes.
RP: Because that was obviously to stop the German shipping I suppose.
DW: Absolutely.
RP: You did one to St Malo I see there and Brest, Brest I think was where the submarine pens were. Was that the mission?
DW: That is right.
RP: The mission was to bomb the submarine pens, you think?
DW: Yeah, quite correct.
RP: Was that successful? I think that was quite successful. I don’t know which squadron but I think they did eventually wreck them didn’t they?
DW: I think so but of course we don’t, we didn’t always know about the total result.
RP: No you just did it.
DW: Of what we were doing.
RP: Yeah, course.
DW: And our interest of course was basically what we were doing ourselves.
RP: Yes, yes.
DW: And it might have taken some time for the intelligence people to get to us and say what had happened. So that was D-Day and —
RP: So with your Canadian crew then was it a good, a good bonding with them?
DW: Oh yes, very good.
RP: Very friendly.
DW: Very good.
RP: And how did you operate with ground crew then? Were ground crew allocated to you or did it-
DW: No, we had two ground crew.
RP: Right.
DW: That were allocated to us throughout.
RP: Oh right.
DW: And whatever time of the day or night we went, these two ground crew were there.
RP: So they were part of your team as such.
DW: Absolutely.
RP: So there was a lot of camaraderie you think?
DW: Very much so.
RP: Canadians.
DW: In fact, somewhere or other I probably have some pictures of them because they were part of the —
RP: Yeah.
DW: You know we saw them as part of our group.
RP: In serviceability terms was the Halifax a good aeroplane?
DW: Well, we thought so.
RP: You never had—
DW: That was our allocation mark you but —
RP: Can you ever remember having to cancel a sortie because your aircraft —
DW: Sorry?
RP: Can you ever remember cancelling a sortie because your aircraft was not ready?
DW: I think that only happened on one, one occasion.
RP: Well that’s a pretty good rating really isn’t it?
DW: Yes we found the aircraft was very good. We had no, no problems with it and people said, well Lancaster's are better and we might say that’s a lot of nonsense.
RP: There would always be that sort of us and them wouldn’t it? Yeah.
DW: Yeah. And of course, one of the reasons that I favoured a Halifax is because it had radial engines. I seemed to be more comfortable with that,
RP: Yeah.
DW: During our training.
RP: Which is fine.
DW: Rather than the inline.
RP: Yes.
DW: And so, it was as simple as that.
RP: So, when they, when you were actually training, is it, are you doing circuits and bumps or going on bombing ranges? Or, how do you — what are you training?
DW: Well you are actually doing both but mainly circuits and bumps. That was your initial training, you got the crew and you had to join up with them but they had already joined up and the flight engineer actually was —
RP: Right.
DW: The last guy to be hauled up and it was just a big hall and people were moving around, looking —
RP: Yeah.
DW: For the rest of a crew.
RP: So, it’s just becoming familiar with the aircraft you were training once —
DW: Yeah.
RP: So once they think that — were you ever assessed then? Was somebody assessing the pilot?
DW: I’m sure the pilot was assessed. [unclear]
RP: Yeah. And when they felt you were ready to go.
DW: The, they had already gone all the crew bar a flight engineer.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And they had already gone through some training.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And the pilot of course had gone training on other aircraft too.
RP: Of course. I mean we all, I think we all know the tremendous losses that Bomber Command took.
DW: Yeah.
RP: Were there many on your squadron? Did you lose many?
DW: Oh yes we lost some but of course, you didn’t [pause] if you lost a friend who might have been there that was hard going but people, I mean we lost about fifty percent of our —
RP: God.
DW: Off the squadron.
RP: So a lot of people you’d made friends with.
DW: And also some were prisoners of war.
RP: Yes.
DW: Had to bale out and so forth, a whole mixture.
RP: But I mean to come to the end of your time, your tour, it’s quite unusual really isn’t it? A lot of people didn’t.
DW: Absolutely.
RP: Yeah. So you were, you were blessed in that way.
DW: Blessed and I recognise, pretty lucky.
RP: Fate, fate.
DW: Fate.
RP: Well that’s what it’s about, fate. Do you ever, have you been in touch since then with any of your crew at all?
DW: Well, I kept in touch with a couple of them. One was the navigator and the pilot but of course they went back home and retired in Canada.
RP: Yes.
DW: Whilst I went out to the Far East to start flying out there but in the event the atom bomb was dropped five days after I got to Bombay.
RP: Right.
DW: And that was the end of it.
RP: So where, were you heading for an Indian airfield? Yeah?
DW: We went to Bombay to begin with.
RP: Oh right. Yeah.
DW: And then you were allocated to another airfield.
RP: So, what was the intention? That you should fly? What aircraft would you have flown if, if it had continued?
DW: I suppose it would be a Halifax.
RP: Still a Halifax. Yeah.
DW: But in fact I really didn’t do any flying because the war finished and instead of that I was already commissioned. I was allocated to a wing or a squadron and as adjutant. So I was an adjutant at one time and subsequently I went on to a wing job.
RP: This is in India.
DW: In India, well in Ceylon, Sri Lanka by then.
RP: Oh, so what, what was the RAF station in Ceylon where you were actually based?
DW: Trincomalee.
RP: Oh right, that’s up in the north east.
DW: Yeah.
RP: Yeah, yeah.
DW: On the coast, yeah, so we did a bit of flying.
RP: Very nice too. Were they, were there Flying Boats there?
DW: There were Flying Boats there yeah because we were right on the coast.
RP: Yeah, it’s right on the coast isn’t it? Yeah and so in Ceylon you, your flying career over you became an administrator.
DW: Yeah.
RP: What work did you work in Ceylon then? Could you tell us a little about that?
DW: Well, by then I was, well, flying officer but in fact I was then allocated to HQ Ceylon.
RP: Right.
DW: Which was the headquarters.
RP: And where was that?
DW: HQ, that was in, well Colombo to begin with.
RP: Right.
DW: But in fact we moved up to a smaller place in [unclear] I can’t remember now, I’ve got it somewhere.
RP: Right. That’s ok.
DW: But we moved about a wee bit.
RP: Right, yeah.
DW: As a headquarters. So I stayed in headquarters as HC, HQ as they called it and I was then running courts martial, courts and crime.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And the like.
RP: So you were making sure the criminals were caught. Well what was the most serious offence that you can remember for courts martial? What sort of offence?
DW: Well nobody, nobody had been killed.
RP: No.
DW: But there were certainly serious offences of people bashing each other up.
RP: Right.
DW: On occasion, not too many, not too many.
RP: Yeah, were these normally airmen or officers or —
DW: Normally airmen.
RP: The worker's, ok [laughs]
DW: The workers.
RP: Right.
DW: Oh, we did have a little trouble with some of the —
RP: Yeah.
DW: Officers but —
RP: Do you think this was just high spirits?
DW: Probably a bit more.
RP: High spirits or just downright bad behaviour then?
DW: I think bad behaviour was quite common.
RP: Yeah, right, that’s a shame.
DW: And I suppose the feeling that the war is finished in Europe, let’s get home.
RP: Yeah, was there a delay in repatriation from the Far East do you think?
DW: Well it took me about two years to get away from there. That depended on your [pause] the number of your let out and I think I had a number of twenty two.
RP: Right.
DW: So it went on a bit.
RP: So you were in a sort of, on a waiting list that was sort of slowly.
DW: You were on a list.
RP: Slowly going up.
DW: As soon as your group, twenty two I think was mine.
RP: And when you reached the top you went?
DW: Yeah.
RP: If I could just go back a little bit. I think when you started flying you were NCO aircrew. Yes?
DW: Yes.
RP: So at what point, do they decide to commission you or do you decide you wanted to be commissioned? Or is it just one of those things that happened?
DW: I think it’s one of the things that happened but indeed I suppose some of us thought it would be nice to be officers and in fact that happened after I was finished flying because I was still part of, Sergeant.
RP: Yes.
DW: And the others were, or the pilot was commissioned.
RP: Yes, I noticed in your logbook.
DW: Later on.
RP: He was NCO aircrew initially wasn’t he?
DW: Yeah, yeah, we were all NCOs.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And I was, they were flight Sergeants.
RP: Yeah.
DW: I was just a Sergeant.
RP: Oh right.
DW: At that time.
RP: So your commission came as you moved to Ceylon really then? Yes? Just before?
DW: No, before that.
RP: Just before that.
DW: And then, then I was posted to Ceylon.
RP: Ok.
DW: As a, well probably a flying officer by then.
RP: Right, so your, your time in Ceylon is over. How did you get back to England then? Did you fly or did you have to sail back?
DW: No, by boat.
RP: Oh my goodness that’s, that’s a fair trip then.
DW: And quite, well I was there for about a couple of years and in HQ Ceylon as I say it, the Headquarters and then court martial and courts of enquiry and things like that.
RP: I suppose the fact that you were sailing back in what 1947 ’48?
DW: Yeah.
RP: At least you know there are no U-boats out there.
DW: Well, that’s very true.
RP: So where did you dock when you came back then? Were you docking?
DW: I think it was Liverpool.
RP: So from Liverpool where did they send you then? Or by this time were you actually demobbed by then?
DW: We were getting demobbed.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And I think I went back to York somewhere.
RP: Oh you went back to East Moor.
DW: And then I finished off of course immediately back home in Edinburgh.
RP: So you went, so from, you were demobbed in Yorkshire, and — so what sort of provision did the RAF or the government make for your civilian career? Did they help you at all?
DW: Yes, indeed, very much so and again that depended on, well frankly your commission or whatever it was and I was flight lieutenant by then. So we, we had a two year course in, in Edinburgh. Well it was, it is now a university but at that time it was a, well a top school and I think I had two years there altogether and then subsequently from there you had to join a company if that’s what you wanted to do, say in engineering although I wasn’t an engineer I always worked in an engineering company as an accountant. I finished training for that. That was my profession.
RP: Right.
DW: And we, I guess we were posted up in to Scotland for two years having to learn some of the ropes of management.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And so forth and so on. So that was pretty good too, good training.
RP: So by this time, had you married by this time? Were you married by then?
DW: We married, we married quite soon.
RP: Yeah.
DW: Because, in fact we were married. I was, well Kathleen would have been nineteen when she married.
RP: Right.
DW: And I was twenty one.
RP: So you were married.
DW: [unclear] For some time.
RP: Just as the war ended then about that time.
DW: Yes.
RP: Oh.
DW: It had ended.
RP: So she was there when you moved back to Edinburgh. Was she with you in Ceylon? Or did she have to stay here?
DW: No, no.
RP: She had to stay behind.
DW: Ahum.
RP: So that was a long separation then.
DW: A long separation but I remember the first time I saw Kathleen was, she was on the dance floor of the [pause] yeah the time I was down in Wales.
RP: Oh yes. Yeah.
DW: And her big sister, elder sister could only be, go to dancing at the officer’s mess if she had her sister with her.
RP: Right.
DW: Kathleen was a wee bit young for that but I must say that I really made up my mind when I saw this charming lady dancing.
RP: Yeah.
DW: With somebody else, around, I thought that looks like someone I would like to meet which I did.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And in fact I got to know her then.
RP: Yeah. So where were you married? Where? Were you married in Wales?
DW: In Wales yeah, in Cowbridge.
RP: Right.
DW: Small, small town.
RP: So when you arrived back for demob did you get to see Kathleen quite quickly? When you’d been demobbed?
DW: Oh yes. Yes we had, she came up, and then, well before then of course we had well we were demobbed and so forth but we both went up to stay in Edinburgh with my parents for a time and then subsequently I went on this government scheme and finished up in, in Fife or in yeah, in Fife.
[recording paused]
RP: So, thinking about the civilian life then you sort of completely changed away from what you had been doing in the RAF.
DW: Yeah.
RP: And so where did that take you after you’d finished your sort of courses? Engineering and accounting. Where did you end up?
DW: Well I became a chartered secretary.
RP: Right.
DW: Company secretary and that was the channel I went in to for one reason or the other and it depended sometime on how much training you then had to do. I mean, I did think about becoming a chartered accountant but there it was. There were certain difficulties in terms of time about that. So I became a chartered secretary and then of course that meant I had more training in Scotland and became a chartered secretary in due course. Then of course I finished up most of the time as, as an MD.
RP: So who did you work for? What was the company?
DW: It was a company which became part of the quite well known group but it was — oh dear. I’m terrible aren’t I?
RP: Oh no, no.
DW: You forget these things.
RP: Don’t worry it was a long time ago.
DW: It was. I know them very well.
RP: I think you mentioned earlier when we were talking, about Champion.
DW: Champion. Champion were, well it wasn’t Champion there.
RP: It was the initial group and then they became amalgamated.
DW: They amalgamated and my company went, which was in Scotland and Wales, sorry, not in Wales, in Fife.
RP: Right.
DW: In Alloa, Clackmannanshire, so, and I stayed with them becoming Managing Director of that.
RP: So, there you are in Clackmannanshire and how do we end up here in Christchurch then? All the way from Alloa, it’s a long way from Alloa.
DW: That was said before. Well that was because before I got into Champion I had to get a job and one job that was offered to me which was very attractive was one down in the south coast.
RP: Oh right.
DW: And that became part of Champion.
RP: I see.
DW: It was taken over by Champion.
RP: So when did you move to Christchurch then? When did you come to the south coast? How long have you been down here?
DW: I’ve been down here a large number of years.
RP: Gosh.
DW: We came down in [pause] when did we come down? Sorry about some of this. I’m not sure I have anything.
RP: No, no, it’s ok. I was just wondering because you’ve been here, obviously a few years after you qualified then.
DW: Oh yes, yes.
RP: So it’s a long time.
DW: Absolutely.
RP: So, you could call yourself a citizen of Christchurch.
DW: I think so.
RP: If you look back to your RAF days David, what would you say would be your outstanding memories of your RAF career? If someone says, ‘What did the RAF do for you?’ What would you say? What was the memory you have of your time?
DW: Well the memory I have of my RAF career was of course bombing and flying with aircraft chasing after you and so forth.
RP: Did you ever come —
DW: That’s the memory I have.
RP: Yeah. Did you ever come under, did you come under attack very often?
DW: Oh yes, sometimes by other aircraft, sometimes we lost an engine, well, we have done that more than once.
RP: Yeah and this is where you, your job becomes more important then. Yes?
DW: Yes, that’s true.
RP: I take it when you lose an engine you have to balance them all out for the power do you?
DW: Yes indeed.
RP: And to make sure you keep, keep it level.
DW: You have to know which engine is gone of course and so on.
RP: Yes, yes and in terms of being attacked by another aircraft then was the Halifax manoeuvrable in that sense to avoid?
DW: Yes, quite, quite manoeuvrable but of course if you were in a group it was sometimes difficult because your neighbours were your own crews.
RP: Yes.
DW: But it tended, it tended to get lost in that because you know people were keeping you away from each other in case there was an accident which there were, particularly initially when, when you first started off.
RP: Well yes, I think you have to be very careful but was it, did it have enough armament, the Halifax, to defend itself?
DW: I think it did very well, you had a front gunner.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And, sorry a rear gunner and an upper gunner.
RP: Yeah.
DW: The front gunner was, there was a gun available but that was usually a position taken over by the chap who was going to guide us to drop the bombs.
RP: The bomb aimer. So the bomb aimer was the front gunner basically yeah?
DW: Yeah.
RP: So he had a sort of dual role, he’d be on the guns and when you were over the target —
DW: Yeah.
RP: He would —
DW: He would be busy directing the pilot just exactly where he should be going.
RP: So he becomes the most important man on the aircraft at that point then.
DW: Could be, there were seven people in the aircraft.
RP: Yeah.
DW: Pilot, navigator, bomb aimer, flight engineer.
RP: Yeah.
DW: How many’s that? That’s four.
RP: And you’ve got three gunners. You got —
DW: We had two gunners.
RP: Did you have the co-pilot then? Or just the one?
DW: No. In fact, there was a co-pilot but when they then put flight engineers into it the flight engineer then hopefully became the co-pilot.
RP: Oh right, I see.
DW: And sometimes one of the other crew, particularly the bomb aimer maybe had been trained in some way in flying an aeroplane.
RP: Yeah.
DW: But in fact if, if our pilot, Bob, wanted a break he just let me fly.
RP: Oh right.
DW: So I did a bit of flying too.
RP: In the sense of keeping it level on the trim and making sure it was ok, yeah?
DW: Yeah, yeah.
RP: But I take it the arrangement was that RAF tended to do night bombing. So, did you ever do daylight bombing?
DW: I’ve done some but it was mainly night.
RP: Yeah because obviously daylight you’re even more of a target I would imagine.
DW: Sure but having said that it didn’t take the Germans too long to be able to fire their guns up at a stream of bombers —
RP: That’s right.
DW: Going over.
RP: Yes, although of course I suppose as 1945 came around they were retreating further and further back so they didn’t have quite so many aircraft I guess or did you find there was no change?
DW: The Germans?
RP: Yeah, towards the end of the war.
DW: Yeah.
RP: Do you think there was less attacks in sort of, say, February, March of ‘45? Did you feel —
DW: I don’t think I was flying in ’45.
RP: Right. You’d finished before then.
DW: Finished before then.
RP: After, after the D-Day.
DW: 1944.
RP: So you had gone to Ceylon so, yeah. That’s amazing, thank you for that. It’s been a pleasure to talk to you David. I appreciate these memories. It’s been
DW: [unclear]
RP: It’s been a privilege to hear you tell me all about your stories. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with David Wilkie
Creator
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Rod Pickles
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-11-02
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AWilkieD161102, PWilkieD1601
Format
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00:35:06 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Description
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David Wilkie was born in Edinburgh. He volunteered for the RAF and began training as a flight engineer. While training at St Athan he met his future wife, Kathleen. He was posted to 432 Squadron with a Canadian crew. He witnessed the gathering of the armada sailing towards the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. After his tour he was posted to Ceylon as an administrator dealing with court martial cases.
Contributor
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Julie Williams
Yvonne Walker
Spatial Coverage
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France
Great Britain
India
Sri Lanka
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
England--Liverpool
England--Yorkshire
France--Brest
France--Caen
France--Saint-Malo
Germany--Stuttgart
India--Mumbai
Scotland--Edinburgh
Scotland--Fife
Sri Lanka--Colombo
Wales--Vale of Glamorgan
Germany
England--Lancashire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
432 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
crewing up
flight engineer
Halifax
military discipline
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
RAF East Moor
RAF St Athan
training
-
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
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Burtenshaw, F
Transcribed audio recording
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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
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Interview with Francis Burtenshaw
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Tom Ozel
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2018-02-18
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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.
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ABurtenshawF180218
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Pending review
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01:42:45 audio recording
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eng
Description
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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.
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British Army
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Julie Williams
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Great Britain
India
India--Delhi
India--Mumbai
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/291/3446/ALorimerH160622.1.mp3
89e8541e9729f5d0b1d3205c8e3e4a55
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Lorimer, Hugh
Hugh Lorimer
H Lorimer
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One oral history interview with Pilot Officer Hugh Lorimer (b. 1922, 183601 and 1369405 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a wireless operator with 10 Squadron.
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IBCC Digital Archive
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2016-06-22
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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.
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Lorimer, H
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PL: Well, first of all I’d just like to say my name is Pam Locker. I am interviewing Mr Hugh Lorimer of [redacted] Knaresborough and the date is the 22nd of June 2016. And can I just start, Hugh by saying thank you very much indeed for agreeing to give us your interview. We do appreciate it. And I guess if we just start the interview by you telling us a little bit about your, your childhood and how you came to be involved with Bomber Command.
HL: My pleasure. Thank you very much in the first instance for coming along to do this interview. I’m glad to take the opportunity to pass on quite a bit of my memories to people in the future who may be interested which I sincerely hope they will be. And I thought I’d sort of start by sort of telling you why I joined the Royal Air Force in the first place. I was just a young schoolboy. I’d be about maybe twelve, thirteen years of age and I was standing outside the house one morning and I saw this fleet of biplane aircraft flying over the house at low level. I wondered what the dickens they were doing. So I made a few enquiries and discovered it was one of these flying circuses which was going to operate from a field about three or four miles from my home. But unfortunately I was told they were only there for the sort of Tuesday and Wednesday of that week and I was at school. And I thought oh my goodness, I’d love to go and see that. So I pondered it. And I found out what the entrance fee was. It was sixpence and I didn’t have sixpence. I had to scrape around for quite a few days. I found a few of my father’s empty beer bottles [laughs] and took them down to the pub and collected six pence. And in the morning they started the exhibition I did what we say in Scotland I plugged the school. Played hookey. And I ran the three or four miles to this airfield and there was these lovely aircraft. And as I went in I paid my sixpence and they gave me a ticket. And somebody said, ‘Keep your tickets. There will be a lucky draw later on.’ So I stuck it in my pocket and forgot all about it and just spent most of my time watching this wonderful exhibition. Absolutely enthralled. And then I heard people shouting, ‘We’re just about to make the draw.’ And what happens? The first number out is mine. And the prize was a trip in one of the biplanes. And then there was three or four other numbers came out and they all got the same thing. I thought we would be going up in three or four planes. Far from it. We were all piled into the one plane and I sat on somebody’s knee while we flew around the country for about ten minutes or so and then landed. And that was me. I was hooked. Hooked line and sinker on that one. And that all finished. I went back and I went to school the next morning. ‘Lorimer, where were you yesterday? The headmaster wants to see you.’ So I went to see Mr Martin who was the headmaster. He congratulated my enterprise at trying to get there he said, ‘But never mind. Hold your hands out,’ and I got six of the best. He said, ‘Next time you want to go and see the air force come and ask. We’d be pleased to let you go.’ So that was fine. School finished and the war started. And by that time I was in a reserved occupation. And —
PL: What was that?
HL: And had I not, had I not wanted to go I wouldn’t have needed to go to war. In any event I couldn’t go until I was eighteen and I still had a year to wait. So I waited for that year and I found out that being a reserved occupation the only people that they would employ in the, during the war was in the Royal Air Force. I said that’s exactly what I want. And I said, ‘Please may I join up now,’ and I joined up on my eighteenth birthday. And then I went off for my training. And I wanted to be a pilot and unfortunately I had what they called excessive long sight, hypermetropia in one of my eyes. Which they said would probably affect my ability to be able to land it properly at all times so I’d have to look for some other post. And I finished up being trained as a wireless operator as it then was.
Other: Yes. It’s me.
[recording paused]
HL: My first posting was to Blackpool of all places which I thoroughly enjoyed. We lived in one of these houses with about thirty or forty of us. They were all boarding houses. And we had tremendous camaraderie. Joined up as crews in a way. But we had a, a sergeant who was a bit of a, a whatnot. None of us really liked him and he was always trying to get us into some sort of trouble. And one day we were down on Blackpool Pier and the tide was in. Who should come marching along the pier but our sergeant. And there were seven or eight of us at the time and we all fell across him and unfortunately he, he toppled over into the water and we had to go down and rescue him [laughs] That was, that was the first of our escapades. But it was all good fun. Good spirits. And we finished our training as radio operators or wireless operators and were posted out in the first place to units where we worked on the ground whilst we were waiting to be called forward for aircrew training. Which was, it was a very good insight into what the ground crews did. Apart from the aircrews who did all the sort of, the famous stuff so to speak. The unheard of lads. And we were one of them to begin with while we experienced both sides. I was at a, on a special course one day. At Chelmsford it was. I’d just arrived to do this special course and I was recalled to go on my aircrew training and I was pleased about that. And I started my aircrew training and I went through for about six months. Went up to Kinloss on my, as an individual wireless operator and found that we were to be crewed up there. There was pilots, navigators, engineers, gunners, radio operators. The whole lot. And we were told to spend a few days getting to know each other and form our own crews. And at the end of the day that’s exactly what happened. We all gathered in the square and we formed ourselves in to crews of seven each. And we all, and I happened to be with a crew who was real cosmopolitan. We had two Canadians. An Irishman. An Australian. Two Scots. And an Englishman. We did our training on Whitley bombers. And when that was completed we moved down to a place called Rufforth which is just outside York where we converted on to Halifax bombers. At the end of that training we were posted to form a Special Duty Flight and I wondered what that was. We discovered it was two Lancasters and two Halifaxes and we were going somewhere but we weren’t told where. But we were to go and get all sorts of inoculations and we were given KD uniforms so we knew it was somewhere hot. And we set off down the Bay of Biscay. Sorry. Before we get there, there was one little point I forgot which is very important. Because it was Lancasters as well as Halifaxes in this little Special Duty Flight the pilots had to be able to fly both aircraft. And my pilot, Doug Stewart from Canada was told to go to Royal Air Force Scampton and he had to take a navigator, sorry take an engineer with him and the radio operator. So the three of us went up to Scampton and we joined the 57 Squadron then that was there and we got on our first trip. Made quite a few circuits and bumps and doing very well. And then the instructor said, ‘Well, that’s fine. We’ll do one more trip.’ And that’ll be it. You’re quite competent.’ So we took off down the runway and unfortunately the undercarriage gave way. And we were doing about just getting close to ninety miles an hour at the time and the aircraft was written off. And we had, that was our first prang. We were sort of shaken a bit about but then we all, we walked out. And that was it. We were fine. We went back to join our Special Duty Flight. And then we set off for what happened to be a rather interesting trip. We flew down the Bay of Biscay to a place called [pause ] hold on for a second [pause] The name’s gone [laughs] What the dickens was it? [pause] No, never mind. I can’t remember the name of the place but it was in [unclear] . We landed in an airfield in French Morocco. And the interesting thing was it was broad daylight after a night trip across the bay and I heard these people shouting. It was eight young natives. They were selling newspapers and what they were saying was, ‘All the English football results,’ [laughs] So we, we bought a newspaper at our first stop. We had to wait there to be told where we were to go next. Went from there along the Libyan coast to Tripoli. It was called Castel Benito then and we saw that that was our first experience of seeing the effects of the desert war and the place was absolutely bombed to bits. Wreckage everywhere. But we were operating still onwards. We were going from there to Cairo West. I wondered where the dickens we were going to finish up. We thought that would be it. Middle East uniforms. We had rather an interesting experience actually on that trip. It was extremely hot and our pilot got a bit of heat stroke actually. It turned out to be. So when he tried to land the first time he misjudged. And he misjudged twice and went around for a third time and he misjudged again. But at this time he put the revs on the aircraft because we were trying to climb to get back airborne again and the engines were overheating. And we were just barely moving and our landing wheels were still down in fact we hit the top of a sand dune. And we bounced. Not downwards but upwards. And we were able to maintain, the pilot was able to maintain control and we came around and we went and made a safe landing but we had to stay in Cairo for about two weeks whilst our skipper recovered his, his health again. We thought well that was it. Well we wondered where we would be flying from. They said, ‘No. You’ll carry on from here to Bahrain.’ We went to Bahrain and there I saw an aircraft lying at the side of the road, at the side of the runway which was in a bit of a mess. And I went into the, into the sergeant’s mess at that time. At that time I was a sergeant. And I saw this fellow standing beside me. It was one of my old school mates. I says, ‘Who did that out there?’ He says, ‘It was me.’ He said, ‘I had a bad landing.’ [laughs] So we had a long natter of course and he wanted to know what we were doing. We couldn’t tell him. We didn’t know. Anyhow, we had to move on a couple of days later and we finished up at Karachi in India. And we thought this must be it now but it wasn’t. We carried on from there to a place called Salbani in Bengal. And there we joined up with the other three aircraft, the two Lancasters and the Halifax and we set up our own special unit there. And it was the home of a Liberator squadron which was operating against the Japanese. So we were in that area and really enjoying it but our job as a Special Duty Flight, we found out when we got there was to determine how these, these four engine aircraft could operate under these tropical conditions. And that was our job. And we went for all sorts of tests. One of our tests was to see if we could get over Everest but we couldn’t make the height. We got to about twenty five thousand and that was it. The aircraft wouldn’t take any more. One of the things about the weather out there was it changed dramatically from you know, without much notice. You get thunderclouds you’d be in trouble and such like. And that’s what happened to us. We were coming in to land at Salbani and one of these tropical winds blew up and it was because of this gust of wind that I actually came to join Bomber Command. Which is part of the story. This is, this is how fate dictates what will happen to you through your life. When we hit the runway we had a nice, nice landing, we were just taxiing down and this gust of wind caught us and it turned us right over and blew us right across the airfield upside down. Wrote off the aircraft. And fortunate, for some reason again we all walked out unscathed. But we had no aircraft. That was a bit —
PL: What year? What year was this Hugh?
HL: 1943. This story is in the, in the records for it. It’s all there. So we hung around for about a good six to seven weeks while our future was decided. We were set down, down the, on course for a bit of a rest. R&R they called it, which we thoroughly enjoyed, but when we got back they told us that we were going back to Britain and this is [laughs] we had to go back by train to Bombay. Well, that was a long long long long way. We were given sandwiches and stuff to get there which petered out long before we were half way down the journey. And the train stopped at this station and right opposite us was a big buffet and I said, ‘How long will we stop for?’ They said, ‘Oh a good fifteen, twenty minutes.’ So I volunteered to go out and buy the sandwiches. But what I had not reckoned with, reckoned on was the way the natives [laughs] didn’t think about queues. They just barged in and I kept finding myself at the back of this barge. I never got the sandwiches because I suddenly realized the train was moving and there I was. And I had to turn around and run but I couldn’t reach my carriage. There was a carriage near the end which had a window open and I just caught the top of the window and dived straight through. And inside there it was full of the local natives of the rather low caste. And they were packed in like sardines and I was jammed up against this door and I thought, ‘What the devil do I do here?’ Well, I thought, I just felt my hip pocket. My revolver was still there so I just kept my hand on it and waited and waited and waited until the train came to a stop again and I got out quickly and ran along to the front where we were travelling first class and jumped in. They said, ‘Where are the sandwiches?’ [laughs] I won’t tell you what I said but it’s not repeatable.
Other: He doesn’t normally talk much my husband. He’s making up for it this morning. He reads.
HL: I’m missing my slipper [pause] So, that was just a little bit of a what I would call the humorous side of air force life. And we had a lovely trip back on a rather nice boat. And joined these, went through the Suez Canal, through all the Mediterranean in convoy because there still were submarines about. And we got to Liverpool and one of the jobs I got at Liverpool Dock was to be in charge of the baggage. I was put ashore as the baggage master. And because I went ashore I had to take some food with me because I’d be down there for quite some time. And after about an hour or so’s work supervising what was going on we all stopped for a, for a meal. Including the local lads who were working with us. And I pulled out my sandwiches. Beautiful white bread and they came over, looked at it, ‘Oh my goodness that looks really good.’ I said, ‘It’s only a, it’s only a sandwich.’ But he was having his, and it was a dirty black brown bread. It was called the National Loaf. I said, ‘Oh my goodness. Look. Do us a swap.’ He said, ‘Thank you. I’m not going to take them. I’m going to take it home to my family. They haven’t seen white bread for two or three years.’ And it suddenly dawned on me at that time you know people are suffering. Particularly in Liverpool because they had a lot of bombing. And I think of that story often. Went on from there to join 10 Squadron which was our posting. And when I got there I found myself promoted to officer rank and the rank of pilot officer. Which was totally and utterly unexpected but for some reason they thought I was good enough. And that was it. I did a total of thirty one operations with 10 Squadron. Eleven of them were over France. Started from D-Day where our job was to disrupt as much of the enemy’s supplies to their, to our boys that who on the beaches down below as far as we possibly could. I think we did a reasonable job of it. It was a success in the end. But one of the interesting things about that is that what I didn’t know at the time was that on the beaches below my own brother was there. They were at Caen. And he was a corporal at that time in the Royal Scots Fusiliers and we were comparing, you know stories some time afterwards and discovered that whilst he was fighting down there I’d been dropping bombs, or my crew were dropping bombs on German troops at a particular position not far away from where he was. And I found out that Field Marshall Montgomery had awarded him the military medal for his efforts. Just a little story but part of a family and our effort together. And because of these [coughs] excuse me. These French trips and French bombing raids. Switch off for a second.
[recording paused]
PL: Restarting the tape. So Hugh you were talking about Caen.
HL: Yeah. Talking about the bombing we did following D-Day. And I did eleven trips to various French cities. Including Paris where we bombed marshalling yards and other places like oil depots and got to Le Havre where we bombed the troops themselves. The German troops. And as a result of that, lo and behold seventy years later the French president decided to award we veterans with a Legion d’honneure. And I was one of the lads who was able to pick up this award and the rank of Chevalier. Which I understand is the equivalent of a knight in France. I don’t think it’s quite the equivalent for a knight in this country. No Lady Lorimer [laughs] Yeah. Talking about that just going back to say to my training days when I moved, talking about roughing us out as I did earlier on in this conversation we had a rather an amusing incident. One of the things we all had to do as crews was to learn escape and evasion. Just in case we were shot down as a lot of our lads were. And some did manage to escape and evade and get back to this country. A lot of others unfortunately didn’t. But one of our jobs was to go out and practise evasion and escape. And it was midsummer really which was very pleasant from our point of view. We went up as a crew and were dropped off at Kirbymoorside. It‘s a way up in the north part of Yorkshire. And we had to get back to the base which was about maybe thirty odd miles away. Certainly by sun up if at all possible. We tried to work in darkness although there wasn’t much darkness at that time of the year. We were fortunate. We managed to escape most of the people who were looking for us because everybody was out. Home guard. Police. Firemen. You name it. All looking for us and we managed to evade them. But it was getting fairly close to about five or six in the morning and we were a bit hungry. And suddenly we niffed this smell of bacon. Oh boy it sounded, it was great. We wondered where that is? And somebody for a joke says, ‘You know they just told us in this, at the briefing that the best place to look for food if you’re shot down in Germany is to go to a farmhouse. That’s the best chance you’ll have of getting any food.’ So we said, ‘Right. Let’s sniff it out.’ And we found it was coming from a farmhouse, it was just about oh seven or eight hundred yards away. And we crept our way up there and in to the farmyard. And a door opened and this nice lady came out and said, ‘Who are you?’ We told her, ‘We couldn’t avoid smelling your bacon and eggs. We wondered if there might be any chance of a rasher.’ Cheeky we were but we did it. She said, ‘Come in lads.’ And she gave us a wonderful breakfast. All seven of us. Thoroughly enjoyed it. And then at the end she just stood at the end of the table and she burst out laughing. She was laughing her head off and we said, ‘What are you laughing? Are you laughing at us? We know we’re — ' ‘Oh no. No. No. No. I’m just waiting till my husband comes in. He’s been out all night looking for you. I just want to see his face.’ [laughs] Yeah. That’s a bit of, you know, humour. We got back safely and that was it. But going back to the actual Bomber Command raids and our, the rest of my trips were primarily over Germany. Cologne. Dusseldorf. All these places. We had our share of flak and share of fighters but again for some reason we came through unscathed. But when I think of it and heard of it later on the lads we left behind in in India were still out there. They didn’t see a single raid but we’d come back and completed our tour. Anyhow the war finished and I liked the air force so very much I decided I would like to stay in. And I made an application and they accepted me and I was given the permanent commission and I finished up as a wing commander in the supply branch. They didn’t want any flyers or wireless operators in the, in these recent days. Weren’t necessary. But it’s been a wonderful life with the Royal Air Force. And here we are in Goldsborough seventy odd years later able to talk about it and look back on the all the wonderful memories, friendships, relationships that built up. And one of the things I didn’t, didn’t mention to you but I will now mention now is that for some reason the Queen decided to award me with an Order of the British Empire which I went down and got in 1977 in her Silver Jubilee Honours list. And with that I think I can say that’s about it. Do you think?
PL: So after, after, after the war ended you stayed in the service.
HL: Yes.
PL: And so what sort of things, what sort of things did you do?
HL: Well, to begin with because I wasn’t flying I had to find a job which I wanted to do. And I was given free rein on a station. I spent six, about six weeks it was going around all the departments to find out what interested me. And the one that interested me most was logistics, because you were involved in everything that way. Movement of men, materials, stores. Working with civil industry. Rolls Royce. This sort of thing. And that intrigued me. It gave me an insight into, well modern life which obviously I hadn’t seen in the five years of the war because it was a very sheltered life. So I joined the, what was then known as the equipment branch and came lots of, lots of units. We served in England obviously. Spent some time in Malta. Cyprus. Germany. And that was it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. When we, when we finished at age fifty five I still didn’t want to finish work and I wondered what the dickens I could do. And one of my mates was a, worked for British aerospace so I said, ‘What’s my chances of landing a job? I’d like to go on this [unclear] contract that the British government is doing with Saudi Arabia at the moment if it’s at all possible.’ And he came back and said, ‘Yes. They’ll have you with pleasure. Would you like to go out?’ I said, ‘Yes. I’ll go,’ So I went and spent six years with them working on the [unclear] contract on the logistics side using my experience. Which was a real eye opener to, for what happens in civil life as opposed to service life. But fortunately a lot of my ex-service colleagues were there so we had friendships all the way through. It was, it was just like being back in the air force again. Yeah. And well that’s it really.
PL: What do you think the key differences are?
HL: Camaraderie. I think that is the big difference. You see you’re one big unit in the service and we’ve each just got one purpose in life and that’s to defend our country and we all work to that cause. Be it in peace time or war time. So you worked together. As a civilian in civvy life you were very much on your own. You made a few friends but never really had the same togetherness. That’s the big difference. To be quite honest of the two lives I would choose the service life all the time. And if there’s any of you listening in to this at the moment don’t have any worries about joining any of the services. You’ll find them wonderful. Go ahead and enjoy it all because that’s what life’s all about.
PL: That’s wonderful. And just, you mentioned your brother.
HL: Oh John. Yes.
PL: And he survived the war.
HL: He survived the war but he died before — he would have got that medal that I got from the French had he been alive. But he died and of course he didn’t. He wasn’t awarded it. Yeah. Yes.
PL: So going back to your, your tour over Germany with Bomber Command.
HL: In Germany.
PL: Yes.
HL: Yeah.
PL: You were saying you went over, after D-Day you were still —
HL: Oh yes. After D-Day I did. I did all thirty one trips. Eleven of which were in France. The rest were over Germany.
PL: Did you want to say anything else about those?
HL: Not particularly. No. Because there’s enough been said about it and I’d — no. No. No, the memories are such that I just want to keep these to myself.
PL: Of course. Of course. And so as we talked a little earlier what do you think about the way that Bomber Command has been treated over the years?
HL: Well, up until that rather drastic raid as it was called — was it Dresden? - we were all treated fine. But for some reason which escapes all of us because we only did what we were asked to do from that point onwards we seemed to get a name which we didn’t really deserve. And that hurt. Hurt terribly. I felt as if I was second class at one stage. Until it suddenly dawned on me it’s not really. It’s what I think personally that matters. Not what other people think. And I knew I did a good job. And that’s all that really matters. But we were treated shabbily. We waited all these years just to get the recognition of the, that Bomber Command clasp they made out. It should have been a medal. But every little helps. But for some reason the authorities decided no. Shame on them.
PL: Absolutely. Do you think that was a political decision?
HL: I think it must have been. Yes. I can’t think of any other reason. Yeah. And yet it was taken. I often wondered. Because Bomber Harris didn’t get all [unclear] at all. And whether there was some sort of a, [unclear] between them we’ll never know. I don’t know. But it was well known that they didn’t agree on many things. It could well be the cause.
PL: Well thank you so much Hugh. That’s been a fantastic story and is there anything else?
HL: I hope I haven’t bored you.
PL: Not at all. It’s been wonderful. Is there anything else at all that you would like to be recorded?
HL: I can’t really think of anything that’s of any particular interest to tell you about apart from what I’ve, what I’ve said.
PL: Well thank you very much indeed. Thank you.
HL: I could tell you, there’s one highlight strangely enough. Yes. After the war. I was at Cranwell at the time and the cadets there exchanged places with the cadets from the Air Force Academy in Colorado. And I was asked to go out there along with a few of our other lads and look after the cadets. And we had a wonderful two weeks in Colorado Springs. At the, at the American Air Academy. One of the highlights of being an air force during, after the war.
PL: Wonderful. Wonderful. And did you keep in touch with your comrades in the —
HL: Oh yes. I kept in touch with all of them until I think I’m last. The pilot, Doug just died last, January of this year. He was ninety nine.
PL: Goodness me.
HL: Yeah.
PL: Well, thank you very much again.
HL: My pleasure.
PL: Thank you.
[recording paused]
PL: So we’re resuming the interview and Hugh you were just telling me about the special ops that went over to India.
HL: Special Duties. Yeah.
PL: Special Duties. And what happened to the other crews that were staying there.
HL: Oh they stayed there until they finished their particular job but then they finished up flying troops. They didn’t come back to the UK until the war was finished.
PL: And so were they troops who’d been prisoners of war?
HL: No. Actual, our own military.
PL: Right. Right. Right.
HL: Yes. Yeah. That’s what it was.
PL: Thank you very much.
HL: A bus service. Not my cup of tea.
PL: Thank you.
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/.
Identifier
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ALorimerH160622
Title
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Interview with Hugh Lorimer
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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Type
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Sound
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Format
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00:40:56 audio recording
Creator
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Pam Locker
Date
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2016-06-22
Description
An account of the resource
Hugh Lorimer skipped school to see flying circus and won a flight in one of the aeroplanes. He later volunteered for the RAF and began training as a wireless operator. He was initially was posted to Special Duty Flight test flying in India. However, when their aircraft was written off they were posted back to the UK. He completed a tour of operations as a wireless operator with 10 Squadron.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Great Britain
India
North Africa
Asia--Mount Everest
England--Yorkshire
India--Mumbai
Contributor
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Julie Williams
Carolyn Emery
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
10 Squadron
57 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
crash
crewing up
Halifax
Lancaster
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
perception of bombing war
RAF Kinloss
RAF Melbourne
RAF Rufforth
RAF Scampton
training
wireless operator