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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/600/8869/PLongTCA1601.1.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/600/8869/ALongTCA160611.2.mp3
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Dublin Core
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Title
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Long, Thomas Charles Arthur
T C A Long
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Long, TCA
Description
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Eight items. An oral history interview with Pilot Officer Arthur Long (1920 - 2016, 1578331 Royal Air Force) and seven photographs, including several with his future wife, Joyce. He flew operations as a navigator with 75 Squadron.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
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2016-06-11
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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.
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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GB: This interview is being recorded for the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is Gill Barnes and the interviewee is Arthur Long. The interview is taking place at Mr Long’s home in Leicester on the 11th of June 2016. Also present is Mrs Joyce Long and my husband Andrew Barnes. Arthur, I’m really looking forward to hearing about your life and experience in the RAF. Starting at the beginning where were you born?
AL: You don’t want to go back just before that ‘cause — oh wait a minute. Before that I was in the Home Guard at Quorn.
GB: Yes. Whereabouts in England were you born though?
AL: Quorn.
GB: In Quorn. That’s right. You were telling me. Yes.
AL: Quorn. Yes. I was in the Quorn Home Guard.
GB: Right.
AL: Before that but that was while I was working at the Brush at Loughborough designing buses, tramcars.
GB: Were you an engineer?
AL: I was a draughtsman.
GB: Right.
AL: Designing body work of buses and tramcars for Blackpool, Leicester and people, places like that.
GB: That’s right.
AL: London too.
GB: And where did you go to college to learn that?
AL: Loughborough College. I didn’t go daytime.
GB: Right.
AL: I went night school to Loughborough College.
GB: Right.
AL: Passed my National Certificate.
JL: Higher.
AB: Higher National Certificate.
AL: That was when I was working at the Brush and I was on a reserved occupation.
GB: Right. And about what time was that? What year roughly?
AL: ’41.
JL: 1940.
AL: Sorry?
JL: 1940.
AL: Around about 1940.
GB: 1940.
JL: ’39/38.
GB: Ok.
AL: Yes.
GB: And did you go to school in Leicester?
AL: I beg your pardon?
GB: Did you go to school in Leicester?
AL: Yes. It was just an ordinary school. No. In Quorn.
GB: In Quorn.
AL: In Quorn.
GB: Yes.
AL: But I did night school in Loughborough College.
GB: Right.
AL: And took my National Certificate there.
GB: Yes.
AL: I was in the middle of the Advanced National Certificate when I volunteered ‘cause I volunteered you see.
GB: Yes.
AL: That being an reserved occupation — that my friends were all in the army or were serving. Been called. So I thought something had to be done about this man Hitler. He was running rife.
GB: Yes.
AL: And my friends in Quorn, a lot of my friends in Quorn.
GB: And what —
AL: And that was at the time I met up with Joyce.
GB: Right. Where we —
JL: ’41.
AL: We were both in the same choir at the same church.
GB: Oh gosh.
AL: And in the Youth Club too at Loughborough, at Loughborough Baxter Gate Church.
GB: Right.
AL: About that all about that same time.
GB: Yes.
AL: The 1940s.
GB: And what drew you to join the RAF as opposed to the other services?
AL: Well you had to. To get out of a reserved occupation. I wanted to join the RAF but you couldn’t get out of a reserved occupation unless you joined the RAF and so and crew. RAF as a crew member. So I was put on the reserves. I got a reserve badge as a volunteer reserve and I had to go to Birmingham to get a medical and then I was put on the reserve for about six months. They didn’t take you straight away. Anyway, that is when they, I was finally called up to ACRC. Lord’s Cricket Ground, London.
GB: Yes.
AL: And that was, this photograph is of, at St John’s Wood just outside Lord’s Cricket Ground. You know it.
GB: I know it.
AL: We used to eat at the Zoo [laughs] and we used to go, used to march from St John’s Wood to the Zoo cafeteria and the apes would start howling and we helped them along. The boys did of course. We were woken up very early at St John’s Wood by bashing dustbin lids to waken everybody up. It was still dark. We had a lantern at the front and marched down to there for breakfast at Lords, at er the Zoo. So that was my first experience.
GB: And what did you learn there? What were they, what was the training?
AL: Oh no training. Purely, purely medicals and things like that.
GB: Oh right.
AL: Aircrew. ACRC is Aircraft Recruitment Centre. It’s just a recruitment centre.
AB: Yeah.
AL: Now I was sent on to Newquay then. ITW at Newquay and Newquay we were there that’s where we started our training in navigation, astrology, [pause] communication.
GB: Yeah.
AL: By Aldiss lamp and —
GB: Did you choose to become a navigator?
AL: No. Now there’s a story behind that. Quite a story. We get to that because I was sent on from there er trying to remember exactly where we went but I did most of my training in Canada. Went over on the Queen Elizabeth on its own. Not a convoy. It zigzagged across the Atlantic and one day we found ourselves getting quite warm and had gone quite south to miss the U-boats.
AB: Gosh.
AL: And we finally finished up at Halifax way up north and got the, got the train down. Got our first orange, taste of oranges. [Laughs]. We had that for some time. And went down to Moncton which was another holding station. Very cold there but the people were nice at Moncton. If you went to a church in Moncton you got invited to their families. Well, wherever we went, if you went to a church you were invited to a family. Of course we finished up at Quebec. I was invited there as well. But when Churchill was there at Quebec with Stalin and various at Chateau Frontenac in Quebec and we, that takes me into the start of our training because we went on a bombing and gunnery course as an observer not as a navigator. They started and this became strengthened as you will find later on. I went to, I forget, I’ve got the names of the places down here but, there was, [pause] I don’t know what it was called.
GB: Why did they send you to Canada to train?
AL: I’m trying to think of the names of the places I was at in Canada. There was that. Oh. Oh it was at. Oh. Oh that was Monkton that was so it was after that. Air Observer. RC. Royal Canadian Air Force. Number 8 Air Observer’s Course. Oh that was until, now that was Quebec.
GB: Right.
AL: Where I got my observer badge which was sent in by a Princess Julianna of the Netherlands. Now Princess Juliana became Queen.
GB: Yes.
AL: And that was because there was quite a lot of Dutchmen on that course that I was taking. That was training in navigation. Everything, everything to do with being an observer and as an observer you had to be, it was a Coastal Command thing. Anyway, it was Princess Julianna of the Netherlands who presented me with my brevet and we —
GB: Were there many English people being trained in Canada?
AL: Yes. Oh yes. In Quebec. Yes. They were English people and they were very nice. Very helpful. We were supposed to be reviewed by Winston Churchill himself but he couldn’t get away so he sent his daughter Sarah Churchill. So she reviewed us which was a bit of a let-down.
GB: Where did you do your officer training?
AL: I beg your pardon?
GB: Where did you do your officer training? To become a pilot officer.
AL: I became a pilot, now that’s a [laughs] that comes a bit later because —
GB: Right.
AL: The RAF, after my operations which I’ve got yet to talk about, after the operations I was seconded to BOAC, British Overseas Airways Corporation to start it up. Nobody had heard of BOAC. They thought I was in the French Navy when I wore their uniform. It was dark blue. So, anyway, I went with BOAC for twelve months and while I was training at Ossington air force, Ossington Training School for a first class navigator’s certificate the RAF’s certificate wasn’t enough for BOAC. I had to train for first class navigator’s certificate which difference being mainly concentration on —
JL: Stars.
AL: On the stars.
AB: Astronomy.
AL: Astrology.
AB: That’s it.
AL: Being using a sextant and everything and astrology. I know I had to, with, with BOAC I think one of the earliest days out our computer went. Not computer, compass. My compass went. I had to correct it, our course by taking sextant shots of the sun.
AB: Yes.
AL: To get us back on course.
AB: Ok.
That was when we were flying down the Gold Coast. I think we had to cross Africa but that was during BOAC. That was after.
GB: Yeah.
AL: I was in the air force. So, after the air force I came back on the Mauritania. Going out on the Elizabeth we were in cabins but in the Mauritania coming back we were in the hold in hammocks and that again was a long journey zigzagging back to England. Dropped us at Liverpool. Now, when we landed at, when we were over in America er in Canada I did a hitch hike down to America and back and I bought Joyce a ring.
GB: Oh.
AL: I, to be sure, make it safe I hung it around my neck. I’m glad I did because the other things that I brought as gifts back, I brought them back to Liverpool and the stevedores — and Liverpool, doesn’t hold any good memories for me — Liverpool, the stevedores broke my knapsack open and stole the gifts that I’d brought but they couldn’t steal that ring because I’d got it around my neck. Anyway, we landed. Again, another bad mark for Liverpool was we, it was Christmas and we were due to go Christmas leave and they said, ‘Oh we’re going to make you navigators.’ We said, ‘No. You can’t. We passed out as observers.’ ‘Well we won’t let you go on leave unless you put up your navigator badge you see. So what could we do? We [un-? ] the observer’s badge, put on the navigator badge. Got our leave put the observers badge back on again and went home. [laughs] Got our leave. Anyway, that —
GB: Was there any more training?
AL: A bad, bad mark for Liverpool.
GB: Absolutely. Was there any more training after that, Arthur?
AL: Oh yes. Yes. Yes. We had to go to Halfpenny Green.
JL: Lincolnshire.
AL: For training to jump with a parachute. You jumped off a high platform so that was that sort of thing. Now when we were at Moncton in, in Canada we tried to build up an unofficial navigation course but they were more interested in doing [calls?] like helping at the infirmary and if you had to go to a hospital that had medics on Moncton Centre. You had to walk way up in the freezing weather [laughs]. Anyway, it was quite an experience. Twenty five degrees below I think it was. Very cold.
GB: How long —
AL: I was on duty at Moncton once and you had a brazier. You could always put your hand in it it was so cold. Anyway, that was at Moncton. And I’ve jumped on a bit. I was at a bombing and gunnery school at another place which I’ve forgotten the name of. No. I can’t remember. My memory goes. It’s so bad.
AL: That’s —
GB: But then we went on to Wing which was where we crewed up. At Wing. And there I think we did our first flight over over Germany or somewhere. It could have been Poland. I forget where but we dropped leaflets. Leaflets for —
AB: Propaganda.
AL: Yes. What do you call it? One was in Polish and one was in German I think.
GB: Oh right. Yeah.
AL: I don’t whether —
JL: Propaganda.
GB: Absolutely.
JL: Propaganda leaflets. Never mind.
GB: So that was your first experience of flying on a mission.
AL: That was, that was first crewed up experience.
GB: Yes. How did you come to —
AL: Harry. Harry Tweed.
GB: Ok.
AL: He was Henry Tweed really but we all knew him as Harry.
GB: Right. How did you come to join 75 Squadron?
AL: Well that was, that was that was part of, that’s when we were at Wing.
GB: Right.
AL: We were at Wing then. Of course when you crew up you are given a choice of postings. And so we talked it over among, among ourselves and the only one that we could think of was at Mepal which was our rear gunner’s, tail-end-Charlie’s, his home was near Mepal.
GB: Yeah.
AL: And that was, that was 75 Squadron at Mepal.
GB: It was. Yes.
AL: It’s been in the news lately I think.
GB: Yes.
AL: They found a skull there in a quarry there I think or something.
GB: 75 flew a number of aeroplanes. They started, well they had a phase of flying Wellingtons and then they went on Lancasters.
AL: That’s right. Well we went straight on to Lancasters.
GB: Right.
AL: So I was in A Squadron. We’ve got that photograph of B, we’ve got a big photograph of B Squadron but we didn’t seem to get one of A Squadron. So I wasn’t on that.
GB: And who was in your crew?
AL: Did what?
GB: Who was in your crew?
AL: Well there was Harry Tweed was the pilot. Benjy was the mid upper gunner. Benjamin. We called him Benjy.
GB: Yes.
AL: They’re in there I think.
GB: Yes.
AL: Complete with names. There was, I sat at, you know how it is to get into a Lancaster. Well, laden with sextant and maps you had to, you got into the aircraft alright but then you had to climb up, clamber over the D spar. You more or less fell over the D spar. It’s about this high you got over. Next to the pilot.
AB: Right.
AL: There’s a pilot, there’s an engineer, all the names is down there and I forget them.
GB: That’s fine.
AL: They’re all written down in there.
GB: Yes.
AL: And then there was the tail-end-Charlie was, his father was a farmer and we used to go to his house and they used to lay on dances and things. They were very very good. So we used to, I had a motorbike then and they had a car. The rest of the crew had a car. They would go off in the car and I would follow up with the motorbike or whatever. [They would away?]. That was very helpful.
GB: Ultimately 75 Squadron went on to become a New Zealand Squadron. Were there any —
AL: Well I thought it was always a New Zealand Squadron.
GB: Oh right. Ok. So were they, were you, were there any New Zealanders in your –?
AL: And the reason why it was a New Zealand Squadron. We joined it, 75, we had one New Zealander in the crew.
GB: Right.
AL: That was the bomb aimer. Alan John.
GB: Right.
AL: The bomb aimer. And he was Shorty. We used to call him Shorty and he didn’t like that [laughs]. Anyway, he liked to think he was good but he wasn’t that good.
GB: So what year are we now? You’ve got your crew. You’re flying Lancasters. Roughly what year was that?
AL: Forty. Oh my logbook’s upstairs. It’s down in there.
GB: Ok.
AL: It’s in my logbook but that was, when I when I was at Ossington at training for, it was, Dunkirk. No it couldn’t have been. No. No. No. No. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Dunkirk. [Pause]. My, my could you get my logbook from upstairs? You know where it is. Dunkirk is when we had the end of our, my flying on ops. Or was it the beginning? No. It could have been the beginning. It could have been the beginning of my ops and that’s when we were bombing gun sights in France near Calais to help the evacuation. I’ll be able to give you a better date when Joyce gets my book. But I’m pretty sure that was one of, one of my earlier operational flights. Yeah. Here we are. Here. Do you see? It won’t take long. You had to enter it in your logbook. You had to enter all your operational flights in red. So here we are. Daylight operation at Calais on the September the 15th ‘44. That was, yes ‘44 was daylight operation. Calais gun emplacements. Again. Gun emplacements.
GB: So that was, that would have been after the landings. D-day landings.
AL: No.
GB: Before.
AL: Evacuation this is.
GB: Oh right.
AL: Dunkirk. Not D-Day.
GB: No.
AL: D-day happened, I think, while I was at BOAC. No. This was, this was the evacuation of our troops from France and from which I’ve just received a Legion d’Honneures medal for that and that’s in the front. I got, I only got that recently. I’ve, I have rung the Association, the RAF Association to ask them how you display it but they haven’t replied. I don’t know which order you put it relative to your other medals ‘cause I’ve got a row of other medals as well but —
GB: So you and Harry Tweed are flying Lancaster bombers.
AL: Yeah.
GB: Where were your missions taking you?
AL: All over the Ruhr mainly. Well that one was France but and it was, it was our first flights actually but then we went on from daylight [Coln/Kohlen?] Stuttgart, Essen [Weskapau?] Cologne Duisburg [pause] Daylights. Sollingen. Sollingen, Koblenz, Dortmund. Daylight at Cologne. Oh. That’s where we got shot at quite a lot. Got holes [laughs]. [unclear?] and interestingly during that period we had to do, at home we had to do a fighter affiliation flight when they developed the radar and we were two of the aircraft in the Squadron were fitted with the radar. Ours was one of them and you had radar and you had the other radio beam navigation. That was where it was quite different to BOAC because BOAC was mainly stars. You didn’t have the radar etcetera which were only lease-lend Dakotas that we flew in.
GB: Yes.
AL: With BOAC.
GB: Harry, I can see there are so —
AL: Ahem.
GB: Sorry Arthur I can see there are so many missions there.
AL: Pardon?
GB: There were a lot of missions and sorties.
AL: Oh well we were hard pressed. Flying every, yes we did it very quickly. Between our first mission was in September 20th 1944 and my last one was —
JL: January.
AL: December.
JL: ’45.
AL: 29th also in ‘44.
GB: Oh right.
AL: So I remember we were on the thousand bomber raids. Do you remember there was a particular raid called the thousand bomber raid? We were part of that and —
GB: Were you going up almost every night?
AL: Went, went twice one night. Off twice. Very very pressurised. Very pressurised.
GB: Mainly from where?
AL: Mainly night time but some daytime.
GB: And mainly from which base?
AL: From Mepal.
GB: Mepal. All Mepal.
AL: All my operations were from Mepal.
GB: Right. And did you have any scary moments? Any difficult times?
AL: Oh yeah. Well most of them were.
GB: Yes. Silly question I’m sorry.
AL: As I say once we counted the holes in the aircraft from flak.
AL: Flak.
GB: But one, one difficult time in particular was nothing to do with the Germans. We went on, over and as you can see it was turning cold in late winter and we’d been over, I don’t know where it was, we’d been over somewhere. Harry was a very good pilot. He held it steady all the way through. It didn’t matter what was happening around. I I happened to look, be able to look out. I couldn’t look out often because I had to plan for the next leg and out but on one occasion I looked out ahead. Saw one of our people I knew, aeroplane shot down. Exploded in the air. Shot down. But on this particular occasion we were coming back home and we suddenly discovered one of the bombs had frozen in its hooks. It hadn’t gone and it was rolling around. I think it couldn’t have been a very big bomb. It was rolling around in our —
JL: Hold.
AB: Bomb bay. Yeah.
AL: Undercarriage
AB: Undercarriage. Yeah.
AL: In our, oh my memory goes on words.
JL: Hold.
AL: Anyway, if you’re relying on my memory you’re not on a very good thing. My memory’s not very good. Not now. Anyway, we managed to jettison it over the English Channel. So, hopefully, it was, when Harry gave the command to jettison, open the flaps, open the flaps, that’s it. Bomb doors. Open the bomb doors sorry. You don’t open the flaps, you just up and down. Opened the bomb doors I’m pretty sure he’d make sure it was fairly clear down below when he did but that was a scary time. [laughs]
GB: Were you more afraid of flak or the Luftwaffe?
AL: Pardon?
GB: Were you more afraid of flak or the Luftwaffe?
AL: Oh loads of flak. Always. Every time. You had to fly through it. And if, if you were above if you didn’t maintain the height they’d told you you’d got to do. If you went above to get out of it you were put on a court martial. Yeah. So you had to stay in that line and Harry did. He, he’d got a nerve of steel and he went straight through. He was very good. Very good you see. And none of our crew. Alan John, the bomb aimer is still alive I think. The others aren’t and he’s in New Zealand. I’ve been over there to New Zealand since. We’ve been twice actually. I’ve got relations over there too.
GB: Did you see any Messerschmitts 109s?
AL: Well I’m sure the gunners did. I didn’t see much.
GB: No.
AL: I had my head down in front of the D spar. Head down. Keep, keeping ahead of the aircraft. I always had to be ahead, ahead of the aircraft so I had my head well and truly down. I could feel it. I could hear it. But you could hear our gunners saying, ‘Over there.’ ‘What’s that?’ ‘Harry, there’s a fighter over there,’ or something like that but we had our helmets on and we could hear it. I could hear it going, all going on. Even when the flak hit the plane you could hear it but never, I couldn’t see very much.
GB: How did you know when they had dropped the string of bombs?
AL: I I gave Harry the next course and as soon as he said, ‘Bombs gone,’ Harry was off on the next course. I think I wrote it down if I remember right. I plotted it for the next course back.
GB: Did you try to fly over the sea as much as you could to get home?
AL: Over the sea?
GB: Yes.
AL: Oh no. Straight across the English channel.
GB: Right.
AL: No. The most time we spent crossing over the sea was a different occasion because on a different occasion we laid mines in the Baltic and we had to go out at sea level over over Norway and Sweden. That direction. And they used to fire. I don’t know what happened but we were way up by the time we got there but right across the sea we were at sea level and we went into the Baltic and this is where we used radar. Towns came up as blobs and I, the bomb aimer was supposed to navigate me by the screen where these blobs were but he didn’t. I had to do it myself. And the other thing I had to do was aim for a headland in the Baltic on a certain course. Give Harry a certain course after we’d taken a fix as to where we were. After a certain course head for a headland and then I had to tell him every so many seconds or, yeah, seconds to drop a mine and at the same time I had to take a photograph of the screen to, so that when I got back they knew.
AB: A record.
AL: Exactly where they were dropped. So I had to do all this. It was, it was pressurised I can tell you. You were always ahead of the aircraft. You had to be ahead of the aircraft. You had to tell them what to do at what time and which heading.
GB: Everything depended on you.
AL: Oh yes. Yes. Yes. Very much so. And take this photograph at the same time. Click with the camera.
GB: Did you —
AL: I never found out. I could never, the trouble was getting back to base they never showed you what your efforts were and I never did find out but I only concluded that when they recommended me for BOAC that I must have did ok because they must have [recorded?] and that was when they gave me my, I was at Ossington training for my First Class Navigation Certificate when I received my commission.
GB: Right.
AL: Notification.
GB: Yes.
AL: It wasn’t until after I was in BOAC that I got the [laughs]. I was then called a navigation officer by BOAC. I’d been that since I’d passed out.
GB: Yes. What was the social life like at Mepal?
AL: Well only when we went to the rear gunner’s home. There was no social life otherwise. I remember sleeping in barrack er in Nissen huts but social life I can’t remember.
GB: When you were waiting to fly were you all in one hut or one place?
AL: No. No. You had to go to, [pause] you had to go up into the airfield and you were briefed. That was the only time when you came together. The crew were more or less together but with other people you were briefed and then that was fairly short. And the same when you got back. You were debriefed. When you got back from an operation you were debriefed. Yes. I can’t —
GB: Did you, did you meet up with your crew socially apart from –?
AL: After, after the war.
GB: Yes. Right.
AL: Yes. Post war. One of them got married. Oh Harry got married I think, to a Welsh lady, Harry did and they came over to that. We got together. Mostly most of the crew got together. I don’t think the upper gunner. He seemed to be a loner for some reason after the war. During the war he wasn’t a loner because he used to hang around with the rest of the crew but I know I did dance but if they went to a dance I used to stay at the rear gunner’s home. He’d got, they’d got children so I used to entertain the kids. The kids.
GB: So —
AL: But they’re all, they’ve all passed on.
GB: Did you always fly in the same planes or did your plane change –?
AL: No. We finished up in C for Charlie.
GB: Right.
AL: But I think they had a different plane now and again but it was always A Squadron. But I can’t, I can’t remember what other. It’s got the name of the aircraft in my logbook here.
He was a Flight Sergeant Tweed then. I think he became a, he got his commission and went on. Lancaster 3 AAJ. That was the first flight. Lancaster C DKE. That’s an F. It may an E. No, it’s an F I think. I flew in different aircraft but C we finished quite a few. C for Charlie. I do remember that. CCC. I went on B there. It must have been B. But that was B. The photograph is B Squadron.
GB: Was it cold in the plane?
AL: Yes. But we wore goon suits as they called them. Goon suits. Silk gloves. Yes. Well, well protected. Excuse me. We were well protected. Yes, it was cold and it was noisy. That’s, that’s a product of the noisy plane both in RAF and BOAC because BOAC were Dakotas. Lease lend Dakotas and they were noisy too.
GB: So —
AL: Nothing like flying today.
GB: No. So in 1944 you’d been flying on Lancasters.
AL: Yeah.
GB: And then how did the link happen to BOAC?
AL: How did what?
GB: What made you join BOAC?
AL: Oh [laughs] well they came. After that tour, the last tour, they called me into the flight office and said, ‘We’ve got a posting. Would you, would you like it?’ I said, ‘What is it?’ And they said, ‘Well it’s a, it’s for a private airline trying to bring back to life again.’ It was British Airways before I think. Or something.
AB: BEA wasn’t it?
AL: But it was BOAC by the time I joined. British Overseas Aircraft and they had a, so, well I said, ‘I’ve never heard of them but I’ll try it.’ [laughs] So they said. ‘No. You’ll have to go on a course to get a First Class Navigators Certificate.’ I thought, ‘Ok.’ I was on that for a short time. It’s all on there. All my BOAC flights as well.
GB: What? You were flying Dakotas. Where did you go? Was it commercial?
AL: Cairo a lot. West Coast of Africa down to Accra. Down to Lagos. Used to swap planes at Accra or Lagos and then fly across Africa to, to, what’s in North Africa. North Africa and Sudan. And then, I know I’ve been in locust plagues and things when we got there. And we even got a basket, a laundry basket upstairs which I brought back from on the way to Cairo. But then on, [pause] I was twenty years doing that and towards the end of that year I was down in Cairo and the day before we were getting married on June the 22nd which is coming up. The day before we were getting married I was down in Malta and got stuck there because with Dakotas we didn’t have pressurised aircraft so you couldn’t get over the Alps back home and I was wondering whether I was going to get back in time but we did. The weather lifted and I got back home the day before.
JL: I know you did.
GB: And that was 1945.
JL: Six.
GB: Oh ‘46
AL: Yeah. I brought back bananas and things and oranges for our wedding which they’d never had. Yeah so —
GB: The first civil aircraft to land at Sweden.
AL: I was demobbed after that.
GB: He didn’t mention that.
AL: It was after that that I was demobbed. After we were married I did one flight didn’t I?
JL: Yeah.
AL: One flight from Bristol. I flew. I had to stay, with BOAC I had to stay at home in Quorn and they would send a telegram saying please report for duty. So I had to go down the day before. I had, I had to rent a room in Bristol. I hadn’t permanently near Clifton Bridge and I had to go back there and they go to Bristol airfield and where there was a plane which took us. The plane. A Dakota I think, I think it was which took us down to Bournemouth. We picked up our passengers at Bournemouth. Now one of the flights I went on, you’ve probably never heard of this but there was a Lancastrian built. It was a Lancaster with only twelve seats. It was a VIP plane. A VIP Lancaster with portholes down the sides and I had to navigate that from, from Bournemouth to Karachi and we only had one stop. Tel Aviv. We, every other flight we did we had to keep putting down to get fuel. Refuel, with Dakotas but with this Lancastrian it did Tel Aviv and then Karachi. Quite, quite a long and the same coming back so it was quite a long quite a long flight.
GB: When you —
AL: And it never flew again. I don’t think. The Lancastrian.
GB: When you were flying the Dakotas were you mainly flying passengers or cargo or both?
AL: Passengers.
GB: Passengers.
AL: Always passengers. Any cargo, not much cargo. We got cargo, a bit of cargo coming back with a few bits and pieces the crew had picked up on the way back.
JL: What about your first trip to Sweden. When you went you were the first civilian airline to land at Sweden at Ahlberg.
GB: You flew to Sweden.
JL: Oh you say it.
GB: You flew to Sweden I believe with BOAC.
AL: Yes. Yes. I did. Yeah. With BOAC. A flight to Sweden. I’ve got a picture in there of the plane. It had to land at Aalborg with a forced landing.
GB: Oh right.
AL: And Aalborg in Denmark and we were the first civil plane to land in Denmark after the war.
GB: Wow.
AL: But it was the forced landing. We had to. So we stayed in Aalborg for two or three days. For a few days while waiting for a part to be flown from England.
GB: When you were demobbed did you want to stay in flying or navigating?
AL: Well BOAC asked me. I said, ‘Well I’ve got a profession to go back to because I’m a road transport designer.’ And I finished up designing motor cars at Rootes. Rootes [Humber] Hllman, Sunbeam-Talbot and finished up with Peugeot. I’m still, they’re still, I’ve a Peugeot pension [laughs]. Anyway, no they asked me would I stay on and I said well I’ve a profession to go to and I’m fed up with living out of a suitcase. So I said, ‘I want to get my feet back down on the ground,’ and so came back to Longwall Green.
JL: Bristol.
AL: Coachworks designing luxury buses and tradesmen’s vehicles that you know, that went around carrying goods around.
GB: Yes. So you lived in —
AL: That was all [timber?] work but then I came, I got fed up with the manager at that place eventually. The chap at the top was very nice but the manager he had a foul mouth and I couldn’t put up with him so I said, ‘I’m leaving.’ I told him, ‘I’m leaving,’ and I came back to Leicester to build aluminium built, with, what’s the name?
JL: Castles.
AL: Castles. Castles. Yes. They, they did display vehicles. They did display vehicles. Fire engines I designed, which I designed for them. Again I wasn’t really too happy there and I got worried about Rootes. They were on a better pay than I was at Rootes Group for and I was there for many years.
GB: Gosh.
AL: Well until I retired.
GB: Yes.
AL: It wasn’t Rootes. They sold that to the Chrysler.
GB: That’s right.
AL: I was with Chrysler.
GB: Yes.
AL: Designing for them. I went over to America. Did take a big full size layout of one of the cars that we, that we draughted, put on to draught. The models took [points off ?] big clay models and gave it to us. We drafted it and then I took this big roll, big as a car and took it over to Detroit and then they sold out to Peugeot Citroen and I finished up at Peugeot Citroen. That’s where, I retired in France.
GB: Oh. Did you live in France at all?
AL: For a year. Yes. I used to fly back home. When I say I lived there. Not, not really but I I was —
GB: You worked.
AL: In France for a year and Joyce came over for my retirement party at St Germaine.
GB: Lovely. Good. So, when, Arthur when you think back to flying those Lancaster, flying in those Lancasters do you have any particular highlight memories? Any really difficult missions?
AL: Well only the one with the, (pause) I took it in my stride really. I didn’t, as I say I had my head most of the time.
GB: Yes.
AL: But the time that we’d got the bomb rolling around underneath. That was a nasty nasty moment but I was trying to think. At Mepal I think I knew a family or two in Mepal. We used to go out but mainly to the one, mainly, which was a little way away mainly with the rear gunner’s home.
GB: Yes.
AL: Yeah.
GB: And 75 Squadron then had the New Zealand connection. And that, did that continue?
AL: It’s always. That’s how I always knew it.
GB: Yes.
AL: I always knew it as 75NZ.
GB: Right.
AL: I never knew at as no other.
GB: Yes.
AL: It was always 75NZ.
GB: Yes. And were you proud to be a member of that Squadron?
JL: I don’t think you thought about it.
AL: Well as much as I was proud to be of the RAF.
GB: Yeah. Yeah.
AL: As a whole. [Laughs]
GB: Yes.
AL: Yes. But as I say —
JL: Just got on with it.
GB: Yeah.
AL: The only thing that I was sad about was seeing the crew that I knew fairly well shot down in front of us over one, one of the targets and I forget which target it was.
GB: Yeah.
AL: But I remember it being shot down and they didn’t return. Like a lot of the others didn’t.
GB: Yes. Well thank you very much for that Arthur.
AL: But if if —
JL: Kettle on. I’m sure you could do with a cup of tea.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with Thomas Charles Arthur Long
Creator
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Gill Barnes
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-06-11
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00:57:08 audio recording
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ALongTCA160611
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.
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Civilian
Description
An account of the resource
Thomas Charles Arthur Long was born in Quorn, England. He was in the Home Guard and worked at Brush as a draughtsman, also gaining a Higher National Certificate from Loughborough College. He decided to join the RAF being that the only way to get out a reserved occupation. He was on the reserve for months and eventually sent to Aircraft Recruitment Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground / St John’s Wood. He was then post on to Newquay Initial Training Wing, followed by training in Canada in Halifax and Moncton. Recollects Winston Churchill at the First Quebec Conference, and provides details of training on a bombing and gunnery course as a Royal Canadian Air Force observer. Badge was presented by Princess Julianna of the Netherlands since many Dutchmen where on the course, and Sarah Churchill also attended the ceremony. Upon returning to Great Britain, he retrained as navigator at RAF Halfpenny Green, Lincolnshire and crewed up with 75 Squadron at RAF Mepal on Lancasters. He went on operations over Germany dropping propaganda leaflets, bombing Calais gun emplacements, Kohlen, Stuttgart, Essen, Cologne, Duisburg, Solingen, Koblenz and Dortmund. Discusses social life and keeping in touch with the crew post war, mine laying, anti-aircraft damage, jettisoning stuck bomb over the English Channel, flying conditions and military ethos. After the last tour, he was offered the chance of being a navigator in the BOAC British Overseas Airways Corporation, flying to various locations in Europe, Africa and Middle East including a VIP Lancastrian trip. He got married, demobilised in 1946, and went to work a motor cars designers with Rootes, Castles, Hillman, Sunbeam-Talbot, Peugeot and Chrysler
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Lincolnshire
England--Staffordshire
Canada
Nova Scotia
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia--Halifax
New Brunswick--Moncton
Germany
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Germany--Köhlen
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Essen
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Solingen
Germany--Koblenz
Germany--Dortmund
England--Newquay
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
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1942
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
75 Squadron
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
Bombing and Gunnery School
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
civil defence
crewing up
demobilisation
Home Guard
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lancastrian
military ethos
military service conditions
mine laying
navigator
observer
propaganda
RAF Halfpenny Green
RAF Mepal
recruitment
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1048/11426/ANeilsonW151116.2.mp3
98c9bdf26e9131b0392322666ce6b3a1
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Neilson, William
William Arnott Neilson
W A Neilson
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Flying Officer William 'Bill' Neilson (1923 - 2021, Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a pilot.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2015-11-16
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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Neilson, W
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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WN: Yeah.
[pause]
WN: I’m William Neilson. I was born in Fife in 1923. And my elder brother Jim and I were raised by our mother, Jessie. My father and my mother’s two brothers had all emigrated to America in 1925 to escape the post-war depression in the UK. My mother stayed here to look after my grandmother as it was the duty of the daughter in those day to do so. Grannie died in 1933 at the age of seventy three. There were some photographs at home of my Uncle Willie who had been a pilot in the Flying Corps in the First World War. Among the aircraft he flew were a Sopwith Pup. A Sopwith 1 ½ Strutter and a Bristol fighter. When war was declared in 1939 I still had another two years to go before I could sit my final exams and would be free to leave school. I finished my Scottish Highers and with my mother’s reluctant permission I went to Edinburgh to join the Air Force in 1941. On the morning of the first day there were about thirty five to forty volunteers of whom nineteen were soldiers. These nineteen were all hoping to be accepted as air gunners but none were. By late afternoon on the second day only five of us were sworn in for aircrew duties, one of whom was Alex Steadman from Dunfermline. We kept in touch with each other during the next six months of deferred service and became friends. We remained so for the rest of our lives until his death in 2008. I was best man at his wedding in 1944 and he was mine in 1945. We were duly called up in March 1942 and had to report to Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. We spent the next three weeks being kitted out, learning to march, being shouted at, inoculated and learning about beer. Our first payday took place outside the Monkey House in London Zoo. After all this I was posted to 12 ITW at St Andrews. That’s only thirty miles from my home. Alex Steadman was posted to Scarborough. We did the usual ITW things but navigation, Morse code, transmitting and receiving, using the Aldis lamp, aircraft recognition, assembling and stripping down a Vickers K machine gun. More marching. And swimming lessons in case we got shot down on operations later on. The North Sea in April and May was very cold and I’d never done it in all my life until then. After a fortnight we were told that two forty eight hour passes would be on offer every fortnight. There were only two Scots in our fifty strong flight so we got them until the end of the course. I’d only been away from home for five weeks before I came home on the very first weekend pass. Later my one time school friend said I was in the BEF — back every fortnight. All fifty Cadets were interviewed by our CO during the training period. When I asked, when I was asked about my father’s job I said he was professional golfer. When asked what I could tell him about golf my answer was that it was a game invented by the Scots for the torment of the English. Now, the CO was a Scot. He was vastly amused. The pilot/navigator/bomb aimer scheme was introduced during my time at ITW to split the observers work into two separate categories of navigator and bomb aimer in the new four-engined bombers coming into service. After three months at ITW I was posted to 11 EFTS at Perth for pilot training. I went solo after six hours. I learned, I did all my flying from a big grassy field owned by some farmer out in the sticks. The trainees were bussed out there and back every day because Perth Airfield wasn’t big enough to cope with the number of trainees coming through. I know for certain that five trainees from my ITW flight got their pilot’s wings because I met them by chance years later. All these trainees were disbursed to Canada, Rhodesia and America so we lost touch with each other. I had two months waiting in Heaton Park in Manchester between August and September 1942 and met up again with Alex Steadman. We were both posted to 31 Personnel Depot in Moncton, New Brunswick in Canada knowing that we were going to America to continue our pilot training. From Manchester we took an overnight train to the Clyde and embarked on the Queen Mary which had had a collision with the cruiser Curacoa on a trip from Canada. Her bows were all stoved in and been filled with concrete to make her watertight. After five days at sea we docked at Boston, Massachusetts where the Queen Mary was to be repaired. We then had a wonderful rail journey up the east coast through New England and the vibrant colours in the Autumn trees was magnificent and unforgettable. We spent another month at Moncton before getting on a train to Oklahoma — to a place called Ponca City. That took four days. All the instructors there were civilians employed by the Darr School of Aeronautics. My course was the eleventh to be trained there since it opened in December 1941. With a hundred and sixteen members it was the largest to date. There were twenty Americans included and they were all required to have a college education and at least a hundred hours flying experience. It was said that their superiors in the American Air Force didn’t want their trainees to suffer by comparison with us RAF trainees who had come in off the streets with whatever education they had and only a few hours flying at grading school with a maximum of fifteen hours. I went solo again after seven hours on a Stearman PT-17 and went on to a total of seventy hours. Next step up was to the AT-6A or Harvard as the RAF named it, for another hundred and thirty hours. We flew during the course on either the morning or afternoon with ground school during the other half of the day. We were free to roam the skies when we flew solo and could dogfight or chase horses at ground level or fly at trains to frighten the passengers. I never heard of any complaints from the train company about this latter activity. We flew day and night across country and all of us were hoping to fly at the required standard and thus avoid being washed out. That meant being sent back to Canada to be trained as a bomb aimer or a navigator. One of our more curious pupils on my course found out that the flying instructors were prone to leave the door of their rest room unlocked at the end of the day. We were thus able to find out what sort of marks we were being awarded for our flying ability. All recorded on coloured cards with the highest being on white cards. I was pleased to see that most of mine were white which did wonders for my self-esteem. There was no entitlement for leave during the course but mother nature intervened with a heavy snowfall which stopped all flying. There were four courses going through training at any one time so there were about three hundred pupils affected. We were given a week off and five of us who used to hang out together decided to head south for Texas. We got a hundred miles down to Oklahoma City and found out that the snow extended down to Texas as well. So we stayed in Oklahoma City. There was drinking and dancing and dates at 11pm with girls who didn’t finish work until then as well as sightseeing and taking express lifts to the tops of sky scrapers. We were photographed by, many times by Americans who wanted to know, ‘What outfit we belonged to.’ They were confused by our RAF blue uniforms. During the last week in April 1943 all the pupils on my course were sent on a long cross country with another pupil. I was paired with Don McCready. There were seven legs between airfields to the [unclear] so we tossed up to see who would get to fly four legs and navigate three. And I lost. The route was from Ponca City to Amerillo in Texas. Then to La Junta in Colorado. Albuguerque in New Mexico. El Paso, Midland and [Hensley?] in Texas and then back to Ponca City. We spent the night at Midland and were lined up waiting to take off the next morning when three trainee pilots from an American flying school came in to land on the main runway in a cross wind. One after another they all ground looped. Schadenfreude. I didn’t do too very well with my navigation and did a bit more map reading than I should and Mac wasn’t much better but when we got back to Ponca City no one in authority seemed to mind. Maybe they were just relieved to see us back safely after eighteen hundred miles. All the other pairs got around safety except one pair who ground looped at La Junta and were sent back on a twin-engine Beechcraft. The wings exam came at the end of the course in May 1943 and a pass in all subjects was mandatory. I failed in meteorology so I had to re-sit. I hadn’t really got my head around the way the first meteorology exam had been structured so I was very happy to find the format for the next was more to my liking. Ten percent was knocked off because it was a re-sit. So the maximum I could get was ninety percent. I got eighty nine percent. We left Ponca City during the last week in May 1943 and returned to Moncton. The successful Americans went to fly Dakotas in the US Transport Command and eventually DC4s. Twenty three RAF trainees and three United States trainees were washed out during the course. That was a failure rate of fifteen percent for the US and twenty five percent for the RAF. We boarded the train for another four days travel to Moncton and spent another month waiting for a boat back to Britain. My [pause] we sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia on a French liner called Pasteur heading for Liverpool. The Pasteur broke down in mid-Atlantic and took the best part of the daylight hours to mend. We feared the appearance of U-boats while we wallowed in the swell but after the war I learned that there were few U-boats in the mid-Atlantic. The ones on the American side were being refuelled by long range tankers and those in the European side by calling into ports in Germany and France. On our return to the UK we were billeted for six weeks at the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate. I was then posted with Alex Steadman to 40 Advanced Flying Unit in Banff where I was converted to flying twin engine Airspeed Oxfords and added another hundred hours to my flying time. I was expecting that the next posting would be our usual progression to OTU but instead was posted on the 1st of November to 1 Air Armament School at Manby in Lincolnshire as a staff pilot to fly Blenheims. Alex Steadman came as well. He had been posted to fly Ansons at a wireless op school on the Isle of Man but he wangled a change of posting to come with me. From a book I bought in 2014 I learned that in 1941 at 1 Air Armament School the station commander was Group Captain Ivans with the nickname of Ivan the Terrible. He followed regulations to the letter. Every week there was a station parade at which uniforms had to be immaculate and the staff, men and women, were expected to be perfectly groomed. Some engineering and ground staff worked from 6.30 in the morning till 10.30 at night so they didn’t take kindly to being disciplined for being poorly turned out. At the following week’s parade the entire base personnel were assembled in full uniform to salute the raising of the flag. As soon as the lanyard was pulled up a large pair of WAAFs nickers unfolded and started fluttering at the top of the flagpole while a wave of laughter spread across the parade ground. Group Captain Ivans was apoplectic with fury. He demanded to know who was responsible. Only to be met with a stony silence. He then announced that everyone was confined to barracks for seven days. There would be a colour parade every day and after normal working hours all personnel, including WAAFs would march around the perimeter of the airfield in parade dress. This would continue until the culprit confessed. It was clearly an outrageous punishment but within a few days he was replaced in 1943 but when I arrived in 19 [pause] In 1943, when I arrived he was back in charge as station commander once more. Three, three weeks went by before our instructor thought the weather was suitable to fly. I went solo on a Mark 1 Short Nose Blenheim after an hour and a half. I then had another six hours circuits and bumps on the Long Nosed Mark 4 before I was let loose with two bomb aimers to drop practice bombs on the beach north of Mablethorpe. There were four bombing ranges. Each separated by five hundred feet distance from the next. For obvious safety reasons. We flew a clover leaf pattern to drop bombs. That became my working life for the next five months. Weather permitting we were expected to bomb as high as possible up to ten thousand feet. Something went wrong on one occasion and two Blenheims collided over the target area with a total loss of life of all six crew members. Only one body was ever recovered and that came ashore in The Wash. In the Blenheims we practiced low level bombing at two hundred feet to educate bomb aimers destined for Coastal Command. Normally low flying was banned so we made the most of our legal opportunities. I remember low flying up the Yarborough Canal which runs from Louth in the direction of Grimsby. Our low level bombing target was set in a farmer’s field near the canal. So it was a temptation to fly up along the canal after we’d finished bombing. Temptation for me that is because the bomb aimers didn’t have any say on the matter. The swans on the canal would take off in an attempt to escape and would look back at the plane as it got near them. They would never fly out the canal but would land with a great splash of water. Great fun. In May 1944 a Wellington 13 arrived and all pilots were converted to fly it. I had an hour and a half instruction before I went solo and another three hours solo before I was let loose on the bombing ranges. This time with three bomb aimers. I flew both types until the end of July 1944 when the Blenheims were withdrawn. I only had two troublesome occasions with a Blenheim. On the way back to base after an exercise I noticed smoke coming from the port engine. Both engines were throttled back as I was descending to circuit height and the instruments didn’t indicate any engine trouble. There were no visible flames and I had to keep the engine going for safety reasons. I landed with no further problem and ran off the runway on to the grass to leave the runway clear. There had been an oil leak which dripped on to the exhaust and that had caused all the smoke. That was all. On the second occasion I had, had to fly two engine fitters with some spares to Bardney near Lincoln where one of our Blenheims had landed with an engine problem. After dropping off my passengers with their spares I left. I was very interested with the close-up views of so many Lancasters that I forgot an essential part of pre-flight check and off I went. At a hundred and sixty miles an hour I still couldn’t get the aircraft off the ground until I wrenched the control column hard back and raised the undercarriage to reduce drag. I was flying but not gaining height and all the time I was checking for a reason. I discovered I’d forgotten to close the cowling gills. This had spoiled the lift from the upper wing surfaces. The response was immediate and I was up and away. When the pilot of the other Blenheim came back to Manby he met me in the mess and said he’d watched my take off from the control tower. He admired my, ‘Lovely low take off.’ I advised him not to try to emulate me and told him the reason. It was decided to try night bombing. So, in August two other pilots and myself were sent to Catfoss to practice night flying on Wellingtons. The weather turned nastier and nastier and we were sent home after two days. In September we returned to Catfoss for another go and managed to get five nights circuits and bumps before being recalled. Since the Wellington was a heavier aircraft than the Blenheim it was decided that low level bombing in a Wellington should be carried out at four hundred feet. Some of the bomb aimers had trouble getting used to the low level bombsight for, that was used in Coastal Command and they asked me to drop the bombs for them. On the run in to the target I would watch for the triangulation target to disappear under the nose of the aircraft, count to three and use the master switch in the cockpit to drop the bomb. It was dead centre every time. The bomb aimers learned by observation when to drop their bombs at the correct [unclear], so it really wasn’t cheating. It was just a different way of helping them to learn. In November I had another sessions of circuits and bumps at Strubby. Only seven miles south of Manby. For some unknown reason the night bombing proposal was dropped but it was useful experience for me. I found out after the war that my wife’s brother in law, also a pilot, had done his operational tour of thirty ops from Strubby but was on leave in London when I was night flying there. I had only one problem with a Wellington while I was at Manby. I was on a wind finding exercise with three bomb aimers. One was in the nose measuring drift. One was seated at midship and the third was standing in the cockpit just looking about. He looked out at the starboard propeller which had started to vibrate massively. He thought the propeller was about to come off and then would come through the fuselage where he was standing. He’d pulled out his intercom plug and dived into the back of the aircraft. What I then saw was the spinner and the propeller both wobbling about in a very unsafe manner. I promptly pressed the feathering button and throttled back on that engine. Just before the propeller stopped the spinner came off and disappeared over the starboard wing. I felt it hit the tailplane before it fell clear. The prop stayed on but I concluded it was the spinner vibrating loose that had caused the propeller to vibrate. I didn’t restart the engine again in case some damage had occurred that I couldn’t see. I cancelled the remainder of the exercise and flew back to base to make my second single-engine landing at Manby. A policeman on his bicycle eventually found the spinner. I did only once have a bomb aimer who wasn’t keen to fly in a Blenheim when he saw the mag drop and wanted to use another aircraft. I explained my point of view. We could transfer to another aircraft but in any event they would all have the same five hundred revs drop. I said I flew them every day despite the mag drop and was happy to do so. It was normal. He accepted my reassurance and off we went. I flew Wellingtons there until I reached the top of the operational posting ladder. And on the 24th of April 1945 I was posted with Alex Steadman to 10 OTU at Abingdon with an additional four hundred and twenty six. [pause] Is that somebody at the door?
[recording paused]
April 1945 I was posted with Alex Steadman to 10 OTU at Abingdon with an additional four hundred and twenty six hours flying time. I was certainly a more experienced pilot than if I’d gone straight to OTU from AFU. And the first question one asks at a new station was usually about the local beer. Where was the best pub? In Abingdon it was the Lion in the High Street that got the vote. I duly made my way there. By 6 o’clock we were standing in the doorway when I was hailed by an old friend from my Ponca City days. He was there with a WAAF to whom he had just said he had just seen my name on the arrivals list and wondered if he’d see me. We spoke for about a half an hour and he introduced me to the WAAF. He had to go for his last cross-country to complete his flying programme and off he went. I never saw him again. So obviously he’s [unclear] I got myself a crew and started training but after a few weeks I was pulled out and given a more experienced crew from the course ahead of me who had lost their pilot througFh illness. I did another seventy hours flying. Forty by day and thirty by night. I was then posted to 1668 Heavy Conversion Unit at Cottesmore in Rutland. I remember one daylight cross-country in the western extremity of the UK and the second leg was along the south coast. A very strong wind was blowing and had blown all the usual smog away and we could see for miles. Down in to the Bay of Biscay. All along the northern European coastline as far as the Frisian Islands. We could see the east coast of the UK past the Thames Estuary. Past The Wash and up as far as the Humber Estuary. The Lancaster was a delight to fly and so easy to take off and land. I once put a Lancaster down after a cross country to Wick and I couldn’t feel the slightest transition from flying to landing. I was sat there with the stick in my lap and the throttles closed. I glanced at the speedo that showed I was doing fifty miles an hour and could no longer be flying. That’s the best landing I ever made in all my flying career. I was told during the course that our night navigation exercises were going to include astral navigation because we were to be posted as replacements to the ten Lancaster squadrons known as Tiger Force. These squadrons were to be sent to Russia to bomb Japan from the north to supplement the bombing campaign being carried out by the Americans. Luckily for us the war ended and the plan was abandoned. We were, I was then posted to 16 Ferry Unit in Dunkeswell in Devon with a view to ferry aircraft to the Middle East. That proposal fell through and we were informed we would be flying aircraft to the Far East instead. That scheme was also cancelled because our demob numbers would be coming up before we could really be used for a useful time. My remaining few months in the RAF were just frittered away in a holding unit at Bruntingthorpe near Leicester. And I was demobbed in 1946 with four and a half years’ service. 6 BFTS turned out fifteen hundred pilots during its existence. I left the RAF as a flying officer on a salary of six hundred pounds per annum. Started at the Ordnance Survey on two hundred and twenty three pounds ten per annum. For the first year I was paid weekly but thereafter monthly. So we had to save hard in that first year so we could survive for a month before being paid monthly in the second year. I joined 14 AFS at Hamble in 1949 and flew Tiger Moths again and then Chipmunks until the year it closed in 1953. I joined the 6 BFTS Club with annual meetings, the Aircrew Association with local meetings in Southampton and Project Propeller with an annual flight in June in a civil light aircraft to various airfields around the country. That’s still ongoing. The first two Associations have now disbanded due to a lack of members as we all become older.
[recording paused]
WN: Civil pilot. We went out to Canada. I went on down to America. Came back and when I came back we were back at Moncton. And the fellow I’d been going around with at ITW, I hadn’t seen him since he’d left ITW, he comes in to the washroom where I was having my morning, doing my morning ablutions. We had a brief five minute conversation and he went out the door. I never saw him again. But there was five of us went around together in the American Flying School. They were all civvies. And Johnny Thompson got washed out. He went back. Became a bomb aimer. The rest, the other four of us we got our their wings. Albert Slade went on to a squadron and he got killed on his first. He was shot down over Denmark. They were on a mine laying operation. He was shot down over Denmark on the night of the 14th 15th of May 1944. So Alex Steadman and I survived because we’d both gone to Training Command for a, for a, it took me seventeen months to get to the top of the operational posting ladder. And he stayed in as I say. He would have been, he was eligible for a group captain’s post but he, he got caught up in one of these financial rearrangements that the Labour Party were so found off. You know, they were cutting money. Cutting money for that. So he was certain there were too many wing commanders you see. So he got, and he had, I think he had four pensions. He had his old age pension [laughs] He got an RAF pension. He’d got, he’d become a civil servant and he worked for the Air Force. He knew the duties of a flight lieutenant, a squadron leader and a wing commander. When these fellas were coming, being posted at the Group headquarters he was able to advise them. Keep them on the right track. Right. And then he got a [pause] he’d, he’d got a, the odd thing is that we were so keen to fly and we got the wish but sitting in the middle of four Merlin engines it made us deaf. You see, that’s the sting in the tail. So your pension. He got a, no he didn’t — yeah. He got a pension for that ,see. So, I went and had my ears examined but it was a nineteen percent reduction. So I didn’t get a pension. I got, I got, I think a lump sum of I about three thousand odd quid which of course was a windfall but with all windfalls you spend it on something you wouldn’t normally spend money on. So, I, I was a warrant officer by the time I got to OTU which pleased me greatly because it tells anybody who wants to know that you’ve been up at least, at least two years flying experience in your, in your pocket you know. But they started then, at OTU they started commissioning pilots so I’m a pilot officer. Could have, could have come straight from a flying school and nobody would know. Then after six months I was a flying officer so that stayed until I came out, yeah. I’ve had a good life. And that, when I was posted to Abingdon Dave [unclear] sitting there talking to this WAAF and he introduced me to her and away he went. He did a night cross-country. I never saw him again. But I was very much taken with this WAAF so I chased her for ten weeks. Used to say I chased her until she caught me and at the end of ten weeks I was waiting for her coming off her shift work at midnight and asked her to marry me. She said yes. I didn’t go down on one knee. I didn’t get a kiss to say seal it with a kiss. She said, ‘I’m starving. The girls have got my supper ready for me. I’ll see you tomorrow.’ Of course, the girls said, what did, ‘What did he want?’ She said, ‘I think I’m engaged to be married.’ The girls said, ‘You can’t marry him. You’ve only known him ten weeks.’ They all worked together. They all knew intimately the others lives you know. Well, she said, ‘Oh, I’ll ask him to wait for six months.’ But being a man I went off and saw a minister and arranged for the wedding to be in, call the banns for three weeks, you see. And get the wedding to the fourth week. So, fourteen weeks after I’d met her we were married. Sixty eight years it lasted. Sixty eight years. We were made for each other. Two and a half years ago she went. So, now as I say my mother looked after me for eighteen years. The air force looked after me for four and a half years. My wife looked after me for sixty eight years. And the last two and a half years it’s been, I’ve been going solo. It’s quite an illuminating experience you know. Because one thing I have learned — never to be afraid to speak to anybody because you never know what you’re going to get back in return and it’s sometimes quite surprising. Yeah. Anyway, I was bloody near killed at Shoreham back in the summer. You know it? Do you know about Shoreham?
MJ: On behalf of the International Bomber Command Archive Unit I’d like to thank Bill Neilson at his home in Southampton for his recording on the 16th of November 2015. Once again I 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/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with William Neilson
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Mick Jeffery
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
2015-11-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ANeilsonW151116
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:31:20 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Training Command
Description
An account of the resource
William Neilson grew up in Edinburgh. After training as a pilot in Canada and the United States he served as a staff pilot at Number 1 Air Armament School RAF Manby. He discusses low level bombing practice. He was demobbed in 1946 and became a civil aviation pilot.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Great Britain
United States
England--Lincolnshire
England--London
New Brunswick--Moncton
Oklahoma--Ponca City
Oklahoma
New Brunswick
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
10 OTU
1668 HCU
6 BFTS
aircrew
Blenheim
bombing
British Flying Training School Program
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
love and romance
Operational Training Unit
pilot
RAF Abingdon
RAF Cottesmore
RAF Manby
Stearman
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/358/9540/LHayleyCA1463437v1.1.pdf
1d7dfc7af85642fd8b30ffce42664f2b
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
Hayley, Jack
Jack Hayley
C A Hayley
Cecil A Hayley
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. Collection consists of a log book, an interview and other items concerning Flight Lieutenant Cecil 'Jack' Alison Hayley DFC. Items include photographs of aircraft and people, a letter concerning his Distinguished Flying Cross and well as newspaper cuttings concerning operations, his wedding and the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross. After training he completed tours on 625 Squadron at RAF Kelstern, then 170 Squadron at RAF Hemswell before going on to a bomber defence training flight flying Hurricanes and Spitfires.
This collection was donated by Jack Hayley and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hayley, CA
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.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-25
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
Jack Hayley’s Royal Canadian Air Force pilots flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for Jack Hayley, covering the period from 9 June 1942 to 30 June 1950. Detailing his flying training, operations flown and post war flying. He was stationed at, RAF Newquay, RAF Clyffe Pypard, RAF Heaton Park, RCAF Moncton, RCAF Dewinton, RCAF Estevan, RAF Harrogate, RAF Bournmouth, RAF Little Rissington, RAF Windrush, RAF Docking, RAF Madley, RAF Peplow, RAF Sandtoft, RAF Hemswell, RAF Kelstern, RAF Dunholme Lodge, RAF Peterborough, RAF Scampton, RAF Defford and RAF Celle. Aircraft flown were, Magister, Tiger Moth, Stearman, Anson II, Oxford, Dominie, Wellington, Halifax, Lancaster, Master, Spitfire, Hurricane, Lincoln, York, Hoverfly, Prentice, Tudor, Meteor, Devon, Mosquito, Harvard, Vampire, Wayfarer, Firefly, Canberra, Brigand, Valetta, Auster, Hastings, Athena and Shackleton. He flew a total of 31 operations, 8 daylight and 4 night operations with 625 Squadron and two daylight and 17 night with 170 Squadron. Targets in Germany and France were, Le Havre, Frankfurt, Rheine-Siezbergen, Eikenhorst, Calais, Neuss, Fort Frederick, Duisberg, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Bochum, Duren, Wanne-Eickel, Frieberg, Karlsruhe, Leuna, Essen, Ludwigshaven, Ulm, Osterfeld, Nurnberg, Munich, Merseburg-Leuna and Zeitz. He flew as a second pilot on operations with Flight Lieutenant Banks and Flying Officer Eckel.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LHayleyCA1463437v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1944-09-05
1944-09-06
1944-09-12
1944-09-13
1944-09-17
1944-09-20
1944-09-23
1944-09-25
1944-09-26
1944-10-11
1944-10-14
1944-10-15
1944-10-19
1944-10-20
1944-10-27
1944-10-30
1944-10-31
1944-11-01
1944-11-02
1944-11-03
1944-11-04
1944-11-05
1944-11-16
1944-11-18
1944-11-19
1944-11-27
1944-11-28
1944-12-04
1944-12-06
1944-12-07
1944-12-12
1944-12-15
1944-12-17
1944-12-31
1945-01-02
1945-01-05
1945-01-07
1945-01-08
1945-01-14
1945-01-15
1945-01-16
1945-01-17
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
France
Great Britain
Germany
Alberta--De Winton
England--Gloucestershire
England--Hampshire
England--Herefordshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Norfolk
England--Shropshire
England--Wiltshire
England--Worcestershire
England--Yorkshire
France--Calais
France--le Havre
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Celle
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Düren (Cologne)
Germany--Essen
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Freiburg im Breisgau
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Leuna
Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Germany--Merseburg
Germany--Munich
Germany--Neuss
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Osterfeld
Germany--Rheine
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Ulm
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Germany--Zeitz
New Brunswick--Moncton
Germany--Duisburg
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
England--Cornwall (County)
Saskatchewan--Estevan
Germany--Düsseldorf
New Brunswick
Saskatchewan
Alberta
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
1667 HCU
170 Squadron
625 Squadron
83 OTU
83 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
bombing
Dominie
Flying Training School
Halifax
Halifax Mk 5
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hurricane
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
Lincoln
Magister
Meteor
Mosquito
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Clyffe Pypard
RAF Defford
RAF Dunholme Lodge
RAF Heaton Park
RAF Hemswell
RAF Kelstern
RAF Little Rissington
RAF Madley
RAF Peplow
RAF Peterborough
RAF Sandtoft
RAF Scampton
RAF Windrush
RCAF Estevan
Shackleton
Spitfire
Stearman
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2198/40182/BNeilsonJFNeilsonJFv1.2.pdf
dcaeed662d00c7fb69a5c420288b3f26
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
Royal Air Force ex-Prisoner of War Association
Description
An account of the resource
97 items. The collection concerns Royal Air Force ex-Prisoner of War Association and contains items including drawings by the artist Ley Kenyon.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Robert Ankerson and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-01-29
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
RAF ex POW As Collection
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
JF Neilson's memoir
A Love/Hate Relationship with a Halibag
Description
An account of the resource
Growing Up -The Hard Way WAR -1939
He joined the Local Defence Volunteers at first then realised he did not want to become infantry. He did mount road blocks and fire watches. He applied to join the RAF and was accepted. Training was at Blackpool, then Bicester, then Fairoaks.
At Heaton Park he was assessed as a future Navigator and was sent to Canada via New York on the Queen Elizabeth.
Then they were sent by train to Three Rivers, Manitoba via Moncton.
On completion of that stage of the training he came back via Liverpool. Further training was at Lossiemouth then operations at Leconfield. His aircraft engines started losing power on the way to Stuttgart and he bailed out. After some time they were captured by Germans.
They were sent by train to Frankfurt for interrogation then onwards to Stalag Luft VII. As the Russians advanced they were marched to Stalag III. They were eventually helped to escape by the Americans and he ended up in Brussels before being flown to the UK. This section ends with photographs taken during his training.
The Long March.
A document written by a Senior British Officer to the Russian authorities. Food supplies were inadequate and the Russians refused to allow the Americans to release the prisoners.
Report of a Forced March made by Occupants of Stalag Luft 7, Germany.
The report describes in detail the miseries endured by the POWs on a daily basis.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
JF Neilson
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Blackpool
Scotland--Gourock
United States
New York (State)--New York
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
Manitoba
England--Liverpool
Wales--Anglesey
Ireland
Atlantic Ocean--Firth of Clyde
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Stuttgart
Scotland--Edinburgh
France
Germany--Hamburg
Poland
Belgium--Brussels
England--London
Scotland--Airdrie
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Nuremberg
Europe--Elbe River
Scotland--Stirling (Stirling)
Germany
New Brunswick
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BNeilsonJFNeilsonJFv1
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
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
Civilian
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
28 typewritten sheets
4 Group
640 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
B-17
bale out
Blenheim
bomb aimer
bombing of Nuremberg (30 / 31 March 1944)
C-47
civil defence
crewing up
Dulag Luft
entertainment
evading
firefighting
flight engineer
Flying Training School
ground personnel
Halifax
Hampden
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Home Guard
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Manchester
Me 110
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
navigator
Operational Training Unit
pilot
prisoner of war
RAF Bicester
RAF Church Fenton
RAF Cosford
RAF Heaton Park
RAF Leconfield
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Padgate
RAF Riccall
Red Cross
Spitfire
Stalag 3A
Stalag Luft 7
the long march
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
Whitley
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/240/26908/LCoxJ133397v1.2.pdf
5116cf4dfbde297c183ecd34852b6838
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
Cox, John
John Cox
J Cox
Description
An account of the resource
Seven Items. Includes an oral history interview with John Cox (133397 Royal Air Force), his logbooks and photographs. He flew operations as a pilot with 626 Squadron before becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by John Cox 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
2016-10-14
2016-03-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Cox, 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
John Cox’s pilots flying log book. One
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LCoxJ133397v1
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for John Cox, covering the period from 9 January 1942 to 12 June 1944. Detailing his flying training and instructor duties. He was stationed at RAF Perth, USAF Tuscaloosa, USAF Gunter Field, USAF Turner Field, USAF Kelly Field, USAF Ellington Field, RCAF Moncton, RAF Speke, RAF Calveley and RAF Newton. Aircraft flown were, Tiger Moth, Stearman PT17, Vultee BT13, Cessna AT17, Curtis AT9, Fairchild 20, Beechcraft AT10, North American AT6, North American BC-1, Dakota, Oxford and B-17.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
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.
Canada
Great Britain
United States
Alabama--Montgomery
Alabama--Tuscaloosa
England--Cheshire
England--Liverpool
England--Nottinghamshire
Georgia--Albany
New Brunswick--Moncton
Scotland--Perth
Texas--Houston
Texas--San Antonio
Alabama
Georgia
Texas
New Brunswick
England--Lancashire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
B-17
C-47
Flying Training School
Oxford
pilot
RAF Calveley
RAF Newton
Stearman
Tiger Moth
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/201/9631/LBaileyJD1583184v1.1.pdf
2e9c51cb48a073b0119651195b7a083c
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
Bailey, John Derek
John Derek Bailey
Bill Bailey
John D Bailey
John Bailey
J D Bailey
J Bailey
Description
An account of the resource
17 items. Two oral history interviews with John Derek "Bill" Bailey (b. 1924, 1583184 and 198592 Royal Air Force) service material, nine photographs, a memoir and his log book. He flew a tour of operations as a bomb aimer with 103 and 166 Squadrons from RAF Elsham Wolds and RAF Kirmington.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by John Bailey and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-12-07
2017-01-13
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Bailey, JD
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
John Derek Bailey’s Royal Canadian Air Force flying log book for aircrew other than pilot
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LBaileyJD1583184v1
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
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
1946
1944-05-24
1944-05-25
1944-08-29
1944-08-30
1944-08-31
1944-09-03
1944-09-05
1944-09-10
1944-09-12
1944-09-13
1944-09-17
1944-09-24
1944-09-26
1944-09-27
1944-10-19
1944-10-20
1944-10-23
1944-10-25
1944-10-28
1944-10-29
1944-10-30
1944-10-31
1944-11-02
1944-11-04
1944-11-11
1944-11-21
1944-11-27
1944-11-28
1944-11-29
1944-12-04
1944-12-06
1944-12-07
1944-12-12
1944-12-13
1944-12-21
1944-12-26
1945-01-05
1945-01-06
1945-01-07
1945-01-14
1945-01-15
1945-01-16
1945-01-17
Description
An account of the resource
Flying log book for aircrew other than pilot for John Derek Bailey, bomb aimer, covering the period from 6 July 1943 to 5 September 1945, detailing his flying training, operations flown and instructor duties. He was stationed at RAF Regents Park, RAF Ludlow, RAF Paignton, RAF Brighton, RAF Heaton Park, RCAF Moncton, RCAF Carberry, RCAF Picton, RCAF Mount Hope, RAF Harrogate, RAF Kirkham, RAF Penrhos, RAF Llandwrog, RAF Peplow, RAF Lindholme, RAF Sandtoft, RAF Hemswell, RAF Elsham Wolds, RAF Kirmington, RAF Lossiemouth, RAF Moreton-in-Marsh, RAF Worksop, RAF Wigsley, RAF Swinderby, RAF Acaster Malbis, RAF Blyton, RAF Catterick, RAF Wickenby, RAF Bicester and RAF Scampton. Aircraft flown in were, Anson, Bolingbroke, Wellington, Halifax and Lancaster. He completed a total of 31 operations, one night operation with 83 operational training unit, 2 night and 8 daylight operations with 103 Squadron and 16 night and 5 daylight with 166 Squadron. Targets in France, Germany and the Netherlands were Criel, Stettin, Agenville, Eindhoven, Le Havre, Frankfurt, The Hague, Calais, Cap Griz Nez, Stuttgart, Essen, Cologne, Walcheren, Dusseldorf, Bochum, Dortmund, Frieburg, Karlsruhe, Merseburg, Kattegat, St Vith, Hannover and Zeitz. His pilot on operations was Flying Officer Knott.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Atlantic Ocean--Kattegat (Baltic Sea)
Belgium--Saint-Vith
England--Gloucestershire
England--Lancashire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Oxfordshire
England--Shropshire
England--Yorkshire
France--Calais
France--Criel-sur-Mer
France--Le Havre
France--Pas-de-Calais
France--Somme
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Essen
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Freiburg im Breisgau
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Merseburg
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Zeitz
Manitoba--Carberry
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Netherlands--Hague
Netherlands--Walcheren
New Brunswick--Moncton
Ontario--Hamilton
Ontario--Picton
Scotland--Moray
Wales--Gwynedd
Poland--Szczecin
Poland
Ontario
New Brunswick
Belgium
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Manitoba
103 Squadron
1654 HCU
166 Squadron
1660 HCU
1667 HCU
20 OTU
83 OTU
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
Bolingbroke
bomb aimer
bombing
Bombing and Gunnery School
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 5
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lancaster Mk 3
mine laying
Operational Training Unit
RAF Acaster Malbis
RAF Bicester
RAF Blyton
RAF Catterick
RAF Elsham Wolds
RAF Heaton Park
RAF Hemswell
RAF Kirkham
RAF Kirmington
RAF Lindholme
RAF Llandwrog
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Moreton in the Marsh
RAF Paignton
RAF Penrhos
RAF Peplow
RAF Sandtoft
RAF Scampton
RAF Swinderby
RAF Wickenby
RAF Wigsley
RAF Worksop
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1895/35584/SGillK1438901v20023-0001.1.jpg
f2e7f0f794603ab6a6a49439fb9899d6
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1895/35584/SGillK1438901v20023-0002.1.jpg
21bb6c4846b63a78b71af5184a9de720
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
Gill, Kenneth
K Gill
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-09
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
Gill, K
Description
An account of the resource
One hundred and sixty-four items plus another one hundred and fifteen in two sub-ciollections. The collection concerns Flying Officer Kenneth Gill DFC (1922 - 1945, 1438901, 155097 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, photographs and family and other correspondence. <br />He flew operations as a navigator with 9 Squadron before starting a second tour with 617 Squadron. He was killed 21 March 1945 having completed 45 operations.<br /><br />The collection also contains two albums. <br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2114">Kenneth Gill. Album One</a><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2117">Kenneth Gill. Album Two</a><br /><br />Additional information on Kenneth Gill is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/108654/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Derek Gill and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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
K Gill's service record
Description
An account of the resource
Gives personal details, dates of service as airman and recommended for commission 26/7/43. Lists postings for training and to 9 Squadron. Mustered as pilot, then observer and navigator.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-06-26
1943-07-26
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Fife
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
New Brunswick--Chatham
United States
Georgia--Albany
Florida--Arcadia
Florida
Georgia
New Brunswick
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page printed document with handwritten entries
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SGillK1438901v20023
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
9 Squadron
aircrew
navigator
RAF Leuchars
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1895/35556/SGillK1438901v10013.2.pdf
560ed9f1d59ba4257564f21bcc9c2824
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
Gill, Kenneth
K Gill
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-09
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
Gill, K
Description
An account of the resource
One hundred and sixty-four items plus another one hundred and fifteen in two sub-ciollections. The collection concerns Flying Officer Kenneth Gill DFC (1922 - 1945, 1438901, 155097 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, photographs and family and other correspondence. <br />He flew operations as a navigator with 9 Squadron before starting a second tour with 617 Squadron. He was killed 21 March 1945 having completed 45 operations.<br /><br />The collection also contains two albums. <br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2114">Kenneth Gill. Album One</a><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2117">Kenneth Gill. Album Two</a><br /><br />Additional information on Kenneth Gill is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/108654/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Derek Gill and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Charles Letts’s
DIARY
[page break]
Telephone Numbers
Name Number
[page break]
Memoranda from 1941
Left home July 7th for London
Left London July 26th for Leuchars.
Left Leuchars Oct. 3rd for 9 days leave.
Left home Oct. 12th for Leuchars.
Left Leuchars Oct. 17th for London
Left London Nov. 22nd. for Clyffe Pypard
Left Clyffe Pypard Dec. 13th for 14 days leave.
Became engaged Dec. 16th to my darling.
Left home Dec. 27th for Heaton Park.
[page break]
Memoranda from 1941
[printed information]
[page break]
January 1 Thursday 1942
Were issued with extra kit, vests, gym. kit, overalls, new towel & a new kitbag.
Had to mark bags with code letters etc.
Wrote letters to Vera & home.
Had bath & went to bed.
[page break]
2 Friday 1942
Had two teeth out at 12.25pm. at Bowlec Station. What a job it hurt quite a bit & bled a lot.
Hugh McCoy went with me.
Had rest of day off.
Code words altered.
[page break]
3 Saturday 1942
Gums still sore but a lot better, had mouth-wash after breakfast & had nothing to do till 1.30pm.
Pay parade at 2.15pm received £2 what for beats me.
Finished at 4pm.
Wrote letter to Betty Hughes & one to Vera.
Rang up, [indecipherable words] out & rang again & Vera was out. Spoke to Mrs. Longden.
4 Sunday
Took in kitbags not wanted on voyage.
Went with Pete to tea at Alcocks’. Good night Wish Vera could have some.
Tried to get through but couldn’t.
[page break]
5 Monday 1942
Went to pack & messed about & got embarkation cards. Seems we’re going at last. Tried to ring but couldn’t get through. Wrote V & home.
Left Byron’s at 10.30pm for Park. Had supper & stayed there till 2.30am. Marched to station & got on train at 3.00am.
Woke up at Glasgow.
[page break]
6 Tuesday 1942
Arrived at 12.0a.m. on docks at Gourock. Went aboard steamer & was taken out to troopship, not bad accomodation [sic]. Sleep in hammocks & on mess-tables.
The lads are all here.
Wrote to V & home.
Had a bit of fun getting hammocks set up right. Slept in our clothes.
[page break]
7 Wednesday 1942
Got up at 6.30a.m. not bad night.
Was given guard duty for 24hrs, 1 on & 2 off. My post on bow of ship.
Left Gourock at 2.0p.m. & had a Yank destroyer to acompany [sic] us.
Quiet night. Running down the Irish Sea.
[page break]
8 Thursday 1942
Bacon & egg for breakfast. Finished guard at 9a.m.
Ran in to Milford Haven at 2- pm.
Left at 4 pm. With 2 Yank destroyers & 1 troopship with soldiers aboard.
Heading back up Irish Sea. Ship rolling a bit.
[page break]
9 Friday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Good night
Just out of Irish Sea. P.T. on deck after lifeboat drill.
Was given job of sweeping up decks every day.
Went up on boat-deck.
Heavy seas coming up
Was sick seven times in afternoon & evening.
Decided to sleep on mess-table.
Clocks put back an hour.
[page break]
10 Saturday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Fairly good night. Was sick again before breakfast. Had a kipper & kept it down. Just has pudding at dinner-time & a [indecipherable word] Powder. Heavy seas & gale-warning. Cleared out scuppers & lashed everything down.
Sea came over lower decks & Boat rocked awful.
11 Sunday
Everything in a mess on the floor. Heavy seas still running. Chicken for dinner. Read 2 books in afternoon. Don’t feel too good. Another gale coming up.
[page break]
12 Monday 1942
Clocks back another hour.
Nearly slid off table last night. Decks had all been awash. Heavy seas again. Was sick before breakfast. Ship rolling very badly.
One destroyer gone back owing to engine trouble.
Feel O.K. just now.
Nothing interesting.
[page break]
13 Tuesday 1942
Fairly good night, but sea still rough.
Ships pitching so much that propellors [sic] come out of water.
Feel fairly well.
Nothing interesting.
[page break]
14 Wednesday 1942
Good night, although sea was very rough.
Porpoises seen on port side after dinner.
Had a talk by a Yank officer.
Ropes put on deck for holding on to.
Battened down after tea. Lower decks perpetually awash. Sea came in twice at portholes.
A few lads were knocked over by waves & soaked.
Other destroyer packed up & gone away. Troopships on our own now.
[page break]
15 Thursday 1942
Decent night, storm calmed a little, sea still very rough. Should be in on Saturday now.
Some chaps had their money changed or rather given in today.
[page break]
16 Friday 1942
Good night. Heavy sea again. Spray coming over like rain.
Seems we just missed U-boats during night.
[page break]
17 Saturday 1942
Good night. Sea a bit calmer. Much colder, it snowed in afternoon. Picked up Yank destroyer so must be getting nearer.
Nothing unusual.
18 Sunday
Fine morning, rather cold. Chicken for dinner again. Should see land tomorrow. Wrote home & Vera.
Nothing unusual.
[page break]
19 Monday 1942
Up at 6-0a.m. On deck at 7-0a.m. Very cold. No land in sight yet. Sighted land at 9.30a.m. At last the journeys ended.
Stayed on board till 9.15 p.m. then boarded train for Monkton.
Seems very strange seeing so many lights.
Sent cable to Mum, cost 3/6 but it was worth it.
[page break]
20 Tuesday 1942
Arrived at Moncton [sic] at 5-0 A.M. & trudged through snow & rain to camp. Were given billets & then had egg & tomatoes for breakfast. Had a rest on bunk till dinner.
Pay parade at 2-0p.m. received 3 dollars. Cabled to Vera.
Went round Moncton & had a banana split & then to pictures. Plenty of fruit here, everything seems very strange & lights seem unreal.
Very cold here but it’s a dry cold & not so bad really.
[page break]
21 Wednesday 1942
Up at 6-30 a.m. Breakfast & then parade for flighting.
Pay parade at 2.0p.m. & received 10 dollars (American).
Received our other kitbags then sent both kitbags by lorry to the train.
Our 1250’s came back at 9-0p.m. and then to billets & bed.
[page break]
22 Thursday 1942
Up at 4-0a.m. Breakfast at 5a
Paraded at 6-15a.m. & went down to station. Roads very slippery. Entrained at 8-0 a.m.
Grand scenery, rivers & lakes frozen over. Dinner lovely, negro waiters. Crossed to U.S.A. at 2-30p.m. Clocks put back an hour. Dinner at 6p.m. grand food. Changed trains at 8-0p.m.
Still in snow area.
No beds have to sleep on seats.
[page break]
23 Friday 1942
Woke up at New York at 5-30a.m. Ham & eggs for Breakfast Changed trains at Washington at 10-30 a.m. Very hot sun.
Grand dinner, chicken.
Country very dry & parched looking. Passed tobacco plantations & cotton fields & orange orchards.
Should be in tomorrow morning.
[page break]
24 Saturday 1942
Woke up at 4-0 a.m. at Atlanta dining cars taken off. Passed some fruit farms & tobacco fields
Population nearly all negro.
Arrived at Turner Field, Georgia about 9-0 a.m. Billets are fine. Breakfast grand food & waiters. Gave in blankets. Dinner fine. Collected kitbags, filled in forms etc. & had grand tea. Lecture on discipline etc. Went back to rooms at 7-45p.m. Lights out at 10-0p.m. Fine place here, very big & plenty of room.
25 Sunday
Up at 6-0a.m. Bacon & eggs etc for breakfast.
Were shown how to lay out our rooms. Haircut in morning. Scrumptious dinner.
P.T. at 1-30pm. to 3-30p.m. Played basket-ball.
Lecture again. Tea. At 5-0p.m. “Open Post” after tea while 21-00hrs. Went into Albany not much there. Bed at 10-30. p.m.
Very hot here, better than our summers.
[page break]
26 Monday 1942
Up at 5.45a.m. Breakfast then P.T. for an hour. Shower then lecture on system of guards. Break. Wrote to Vera & sent it by Letter Mail 5c. Drill period for an hour & a half. Very funny trying to learn American drill. It seems rather babyish to us & not half as smart.
Wash & Brush up then dinner.
Parcelled up laundry ready for collecting. Started writing home. Very warm. Lecture on “customs & courtesies”. Clothing inspection. Athletics, played touch rugby. Tea [deleted] h [/deleted] at 4.30p.m., very nice. Drill after tea. Went to see Bert in evening. Made out a list of all the Leuchars lads & got their signatures, put on it preference for Lakeland, Florida.
Bed at 10-0pm.
[page break]
27 Tuesday 1942
Up at 5-0a.m. Washed & dressed than had 40 winks while assembly sounded. P.T. after breakfast very stiff.
Lecture on Guard Systems of Air Corps then drill. We combine our own & their drill now, makes it a bit better. Shower then dressed for dinner. Took in list to Orderly Room & was O.K. Dinner fine, served potatoes & tea today. Customs & Curtesies [sic] again after dinner.
Issued with text books and manuals.
Thunderstorm & very heavy rain. Took in laundry to stores then to tea. No “open post” tonight. Read a bit, then wrote home.
Had a shower & then to bed after cleaning up.
[page break]
28 Wednesday 1942
Up at 5.45a.m. Washed & dressed then breakfast. Much colder today Americans wearing greatcoats. P.T. after breakfast then lecture on “guards” Seems we’ll have to do it soon. Drill followed & had to take a squad. Dinner at 11.30 a.m. Took in boots to be repaired to stores. Had lecture on Military Law, then athletics till tea time. No Open Post again tonight. Had a shower, then read old letters etc. . then retired to bed at 9-0p.m.
[page break]
29 Thursday 1942
Up at 5.45 a.m. washed & dressed, then breakfast. Warmer today than yesterday. Calisthenics after breakfast.
Drill followed, then had to line up in formation & sign a form, what it’s for I don’t know. Saw officers that came over with us on boat.
Dinner at 11-30pm [sic] . Lecture on Civics; then on Terminology used at Training Schools.
Athletics till tea-time, played touch rugby. , Very warm.
No “Open Post” again, lads getting discontented & “browned off”.
Cleared up, washed and so to bed at 9-30p.m.
[page break]
30 Friday 1942
Up at 5-45a.m. Breakfast. Raining hard, ground soaked. No P.T. Lecture on Terminology. Gave in size of collars & trousers. Dinner at 11-30a.m. Lecture on Civics, very tiring, bad speaker. Marched down to stores & drew rifles & bayonents [sic]. No athletics. Tea at 4-30p.m.
“Retreat” formation; did it very well indeed. “Open Post” till midnight.
Went to town with basket-ball players. Went to see “Manpower” at “Clair”. Not bad. Wandered round & got back at 10p.m. & so to bed.
[page break]
31 Saturday 1942
Up at 5-40a.m. Raining very hard.
No P.T. Soon cleared up. Inspection by Commanding Officer. Nothing to do till dinner. Finished at 12 o’clock. Washed & changed & went out at 1-30p.m. Called at Y.M.C.A. & Services Club. Tea at “Georges” very nice. Saw “Across the Sierras”, bought shirt & towel & cleaning rod for rifle. Back in camp at 10p.m. Cleaned gun. Bed at 11-0p.m.
February 1 Sunday
Up at 5-50a.m. Breakfast. Laid on bed & read till dinner time.
Wrote to Vera. Went to see Bert after dinner. Tea at 4-30p.m. read paper then went to see “Corsican Brothers” very good
Bed at 11-0p.m.
[page break]
2 Monday 1942
Up at 6-0a.m. Calisthenics before Breakfast. Lecture on Terminology then drill for an hour. A little warmer now than first thing this morning.
Break for an hour then dinner.
Took up positions for possible air-raids on hillsides.
Film on Military Hygeine [sic] after that. Collected boots at stores then ‘Retreat’ formation with rifles.
Tea at 5.45p.m. Cleaned rifle & bayonet & boots. Finished letter to Vera. Bed at 9.30pm.
[page break]
3 Tuesday 1942
Up at 6-0 a.m. P.T. before breakfast. Lecture on Terminology then rifle drill for an hour. Lecture on Civvies then break while dinner.
Athletics, played touch-rugby. Brought back laundry, not too good. Film on Personal Hygiene.
Retreat formation with rifles & bayonets. Tea at 5.45p.m.
No open Post. Cleaned up, packed up laundry etc. Had a shower & so to bed at 9.30p.m.
Am playing t. rugby tomorrow for Platoon.
[page break]
4 Wednesday 1942
Up at 6-10a.m. P.T., wore our overalls over gym-kit.
Breakfast. Took in laundry, then lecture on History.
Drill with rifles & bayonets. Practice formal guard mounting. Break for an hour, then lecture on Geography. Dinner at 1.0pm.
Athletics, played T. rugby, no score. Film on Courtesy & Customs.
Retreat formation. Open Post. Went to Y.M.C.A. & watched basketball.
Had supper & arrived back at 11.0p.m. then bed.
[page break]
5 Thursday 1942
Up at 6.10a.m. P.T. a little warmer today. Breakfast, then lecture on History. Drill and Rifle Inspection. Mounted guard at 12.0 o’clock. Am on 3rd. relief Went on at 4.0p.m. at water tower. Off at 6.0pm. then tea. Wrote home. On again at 10p.m. till 12.0p.m.
Not bad doing guards here.
[page break]
6 Friday 1942
Off at 6.0 a.m. Calisthenics for others Breakfast then relieved guard for 1/2hr. On again at 10a.m. & off at 12.0a.m. Dinner. then parade for pay. Received 20 dollars. Bought two singlets from store. Read in afternoon after check-up. Weigh 158 stripped. Said I’d been payed in dimes & nickels.
Open Post. Didn’t go out.
Went to canteen, then library. Read a bit & then to bed at 10p.m. Rather tired.
[page break]
7 Saturday 1942
Up at 6.0a.m. Breakfast. No P.T. Cleaned up, then inspection. Nothing to do till dinner. Read in afternoon. No “Open Post”. Went to Camp Cinema to hear violinist. Very good show. Saw “Marry the Bosses’ Daughter”, not so good, bad acting. Bed at 10-30p.m. Bert came “home” today from hospital.
8 Sunday
Up at 6.0a.m. Breakfast. Ready for 8.30a.m. Left camp for Sylvester. 75 of us. Church first then split up for dinner. Bert & I went to Cooks. Grand time. Had to come back for retreat. No “Open Post”. Went to see Mac. Read & then to bed. Clocks on an hour.
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9 Monday 1942
Up at 7-0a.m. Breakfast then Calisthenics. Drill then break. Lecture on history Before dinner. Bought two pairs of underpants at store. Dinner at 12-30pm.
Talk on Aircraft Rec after dinner. Went to sleep again as usual.
Athletics, played touch-rugby.
Big parade for Wing Commander Hogan. Says we’ll be moving in 12 days time. Tea after that, then Retreat. Went to see Mac, with the boys. Read a bit and then to bed.
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10 Tuesday 1942
Up at 7-0am. Breakfast then Calisthenics. Rifle drill after for an hour. History lecture before dinner at 12-30pm. Film on Aircraft Recognition after dinner, not so good. Lecture by Mr. De Lom on Army & Customs etc. very good.
Athletics played touch-rugby again & won. Tea at 5-30p.m. then Retreat. Started raining. “Open Post”. Got a lift to “Adam’s Inn”. Still raining so Bert & others went back. Arrived at Sylvester at 8-30pm. Had a grand supper. Very nice people indeed. Left at 11-10p.m. Mr. Cork ill so couldn’t drive me back. Got a lift on a petrol waggon & arrived back just in time, only just too. Still raining, but I had a grand time.
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11 Wednesday 1942
Up at 6.45a.m. Breakfast. Johnie stayed in bed. No Calisthenics, ground too wet. No drill either. Saw “Target for Tonight” at camp cinema. Break then dinner after History Lecture. Aircraft Recognition lecture sleep as usual for half an hour. Bert took my trousers to be pressed at camp tailors.
Athletics & more touch-rugby, won again.
Tea at 5.30pm. then Retreat. John & Ted went to a dance in Albany for R.A.F. boys only.
Bert & I went to P.X. read a bit & then to bed.
The lads came in at 2.0a.m. had a good time.
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12 Thursday 1942
Up at 6-45am. Breakfast then Calisthenics. Supply Formation, drew extra Cassack bag.
Lecture on History, went to sleep.
Dinner at 12.30pm. Film at 2-0pm. on Aircraft Recognition.
Lecture on Customs & Courtesies. Athletics till tea-time, played touch rugby, & won; champions of squadron. Tea then retreat formation. Won colours for being smartest squadron. “Open Post”. Bert & I left at 7-30pm. with staff sergeant. Went to pictures to see “North of the Yukon” Drove out of town & passed all the “Barbeques, Joints, & night-clubs etc.
Stopped at “The Esquire” for a 7 up drink. Left at 11-25pm Called for a “hamburger with” in town & got back at 11-55p.m.
Very good evening out.
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13 Friday 1942
Up at 7-00a.m. Breakfast. Calisthenics, rather cold wind.
Drill for an hour with rifles.
Lecture on Organisation; went to sleep as usual. Dinner at 12-30 a.m.
Lecture on Aircraft Recognition, slept.
Athletics till tea time. Played touch-rugby, drew with “B” squadron champions. Replay needed. Lost at football.
Tea at 5.30p.m. then Retreat formation. Won colours again for smartest squadron. No “Open Post”. Wrote home. Shower, cleaned up and then to bed.
Bought pipe from P.X. not bad.
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14 Saturday 1942
Up at 7-0a.m. Breakfast. No P.T. Took in bed-sheets. Cleaned up, cleaned windows. Inspection at 10-30a.m. Everything O.K. Dinner at 12.30p.m. Got changed and left camp. Caught bus to Sylvester & arrived at 1-45p.m. Drove around town & picked up two girls Betty & Margery. Went to a dance & tried jitter-bugging, easy enough. Back to Cook’s for tea, scrumptious. Drove round country, & called back at dance for 10 minutes. Left at 10.30p.m. & back in billets at 11-45p.m.
Grand day.
15 Sunday
Up at 7.0a.m. Breakfast. Back to bed till dinner time. Dinner. Filled in diary wrote home. Frank got blood-poisoning. Rain all day. Tea at 5.30p.m. Went to P.X. Boys went to pictures. Bed at 10p.m.
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16 Monday 1942
Up at 7-0a.m. Still raining. No Calisthenics. Back to bed for 1/2hr. Breakfast at 8.45am. Air Corps Lecture at 10-0a.m. Not much good.
Drill at 11.0a.m. Rained again. Lecture on discipline at 1-00pm by a Lt. Colonel.
Dinner at 2-0p.m. No Athletics
Collected clean laundry from stores. Tea at 6-45pm.
Went to Albany with Eric, very close & sweaty. Went to see “It Happened in Bombay” at “Clair”. Caught bus back to camp. Bed at 12.00pm.
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17 Tuesday 1942
Up at 7-0a.m. Ground too [missing letter]et no Calisthenics. Start guard [missing letter]t 1-0p.m. Lecture on Bombardment Aviation. Dinner at 2-0p.m. Went on guard at Water Tower [missing letter]gain. American guard there too. Off at 5-0pm. Tea at 6-45p.m. read a bit, had a coffee & on at 9p.m. Coffee at 11-10p.m. then bed till 2-45a.m. [Off at 5-0am & bed again while 8-30a.m. Breakfast & on again at 9-30a.m. Finished at 11.0a.m. Dinner at 2-0p.m. Gave in rifles and bayonets. Tea at 6-45p.m.] see over.
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18 Wednesday 1942
Finished guards at 11-am. Dinner at 2-0p.m. Gave in rifles & bayonets at stores. Slept till tea-time.
Read a bit, had a coffee & then to bed. No Open Post as we were late for parade yesterday.
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19 Thursday 1942
Up at 7-0a.m. Calisthenics, rather cold. Breakfast at 8-45a.m.
Lecture on Observation & Reconnaisance [sic] by Lt. Honeycut, very good.
Drill for an hour.
Gave in books before dinner.
Dinner at 2-0p.m. Athletics in afternoon. Played touch rugby & won again, finals tomorrow some time.
Read a bit, then retreat formation, did very well.
Tea at 6-45p.m. Boys went to see McCoy. Went to P.X. for an hour, then wrote to Vera.
Bed at 10p.m.
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20 Friday 1942
Up at 7.0a.m. Calisthenics as usual. Breakfast at 8.45a.m.
Lecture by Lt. Lamb, had a good time, sang a few songs.
Drill for half an hour. Break till dinner. Bought new ‘Parker’ pen at P.X. $8.75 down to $5.25. Dinner at 2.0p.m. Pay parade, received our money handed in on boat & $11 pay.
“Open Post” after Retreat. Went to Albany, had steak & chips. Went to Services Club, party on, had a good time, College graduation dance. Called in at Clubroom then caught a wagon back to camp. In at 11-45p.m.
Bed at 12-15a.m. Tired.
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21 Saturday 1942
Up at 7.0a.m. Didn’t go to Calisthenics slept under Johnies bed. Breakfast. Cleaned up, then to P.X. bought new tie. Had photo taken. Finished Vera’s letter.
Dinner at 2-0p.m. Went to town with the lads. Saw “They Died with their Boots on”. very good.
Had tea at Georges’. Walked round and caught bus at 9.10p.m. In bed at 10.30p.m.
Leave at 8-0pm. tomorrow.
22 Sunday
Up at 7.0a.m. Breakfast at 9-0a.m. Received kit at stores. 3 shirts, 2pr. pants, 4 sets underwear, 6prs of socks. Packed kit & cleaned room out. Dinner at 2p.m. Tea at 6p.m.
Put kit on waggons. Entrained at 7.30pm.
Left at 8-0p.m. for Arcadia.
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23 Monday 1942
Woke up at 7.0am Not a very good night. Arrived at 7.30a.m. Taken by truck to camp. Grand place, rooms for four, lockers, shower and washplace to each room. Kit arrived at 10.a.m. Cleaned up & put kit away in lockers.
Dinner at 1-30pm. Grand food & mess hall. Went to stores and drew leather jacket, goggles, helmet & books. Room inspection. Tea at 6.0pm. Talk at 8.0p.m. by officers. Raining hard.
Bed at 10-30p.m.
Very nice place here, tennis courts, swimming pool, basketball court etc. Large rooms, good lighting, table & chairs.
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24 Tuesday 1942
Up at 6.25a.m. Cleaned up & breakfast at 7.0a.m. Paraded at 8.0a.m. & went down to Flight Line. Given some instructors & shown kites. Had controls etc. explained. Seems we’ve a lot to learn.
Dinner at 1.10p.m. Medical check after dinner. Went to lecture block and drew text books. Nothing to do till tea-time except retreat formation.
Tea very good. Cleaned bathroom, took all evening but looks good now. Had a shower & then to Bed at 10.30p.m.
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25 Wednesday 1942
Up at 6.25a.m. Breakfast at 7.0a.m. Went down to hangers and flight line at 7.30a.m. No flying, left at 9.0a.m. Had a coffee & came back to billets. Calisthenics at 11.45 to 12.45. very good. Dinner at 1-10p.m.
Classes at 2.0p.m. till 5.30p.m. Didn’t do so much 45 mins. on & off.
Retreat formation then tea. Cleaned up, had a shower & to bed at 10.30pm
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26 Thursday 1942
Up at 6.25a.m. Breakfast at 7-0a.m. Went down to hanger.
Had lecture on take-offs, circuits, wind directions, drift, S bends etc.
Very warm now, still in blues. Did Calisthenics for an hour, Sun very warm & turning red a bit. Shower & then dinner at 1-10p.m.
Classes at 2.0p.m. to 5.30p.m.
Retreat Formation at 6.15p.m. then tea. Had a chat with American Cadets.
Had a shower, wrote up notes on Navigation & so to bed at 10.30p.m.
Sent dad cablegram for his birthday, cost $2.85. about 14/3 approx.
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27 Friday 1942
Dad’s Birthday, hope his Cablegram arrives in time.
Up at 6-30a.m. Breakfast at 7-10a.m. Went down to Flight Line. Mr. Jones was absent. No flying, heavy squalls & Nor-west wind. Read Manual for an hour. Left at 10.0a.m. Had a coffee then looked up Theory of Flight.
Went to P.X. & Bert bought a camera. Dinner at 1-10p.m.
Classes 2. to 4-30p.m. Left early to watch tennis exhibition.
Took some snaps. Retreat Formation at 6.15p.m. Tea after retreat. Wrote up notes on Navigation. Bed at 10-30p.m. after a shower.
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28 Saturday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7-10a.m. Down at “Ready Room” at 7-50a.m. No Mr. Jones again. Read Handbook again. Calisthenics at 11.45a.m. for an hour. Played football. Dinner at 1-10p.m.
Groundschool at 2.0p.m. to 5-15p.m. Left early, went to canteen for orange soda & ice. Retreat, then tea. Wrote home, then did notes on Meteorology. Bed at 10-30p.m.
March 1 Sunday
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7-10a.m. Calisthenics at 8.0a.m. for an hour Very cold. Down at Ready Room at 9-30a.m. Mr Tanquay our instructor.
Up at 10.20a.m. for 40 mins. Grand plane. Dinner then Ground school till 5.30p.m. Retreat then tea. Wrote notes on Flying.
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2 Monday 1942
Didn’t get up while 7.0a.m. Missed breakfast parade. Went to canteen and had coffee & ham sandwiches. Rained very heavy. No Calisthenics. Down on Flight Line at 9.30a.m. No Flying, ground too wet. Stayed in hanger with Mr. Tanquay, explained Army Forms 1 & 1a. stalls, & forced landings.
Had a coffee, then dinner at 1.10p.m. Ground School 2pm to 5.30p.m. Changed into blues for Retreat. Tea after. Inspection at 8.30p.m. Demerits for speck of dirt on toilet. (Hope his rabbit dies)
Wrote letter to Vera. Bed at 10-30p.m. Received [deleted] lett [/deleted] cable from mum.
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3 Tuesday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7-0a.m. Calisthenics for an hour. Down on Line at 9-30a.m. Up at 10-20a.m.
Did. climbing turns, stalls, medium turns & landed after 50 mins. Received 1 demerit for leaving mop & broom in room.
Dinner at 1-10p.m. Ground school at 2.0p.m. Had exams in engines & Theory of Flight. Retreat formation at 6.20p.m then tea.
Wrote to Vera, then wrote up notes on Flying.
Bed after a shower.
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4 Wednesday 1942
Up at 6-30a.m. Breakfast at 7-0a.m. Calisthenics for an hour. Down at Flight Line at 9.30a.m. Went up at 10-0a.m. Took off on my own. Did turns, stalls, and spins. Down after 45 mins.
Dinner at 1-10p.m. Changed into blues. Ground School for 3 1/2 hrs. Has sandwiches in canteen then waited for bus. Arrived in Sarasota at 8.30p.m. Went down to U.S.O. on pier and were invited to stay at the “Gulf View” Inn. Car took us & manager showed us round & introduced us to his guests. Band in dancehall, had a grand time. Pedro & I sang “Yours” and others joined in singing popillar [sic] songs, negro waiter sang [inserted] poor [/inserted] blues. Marvellous place, very welcome. Rooms for two with single beds. Bed at 1-0a.m. Very Tired.
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5 Thursday 1942
Up at 6.45a.m. Washed & dressed and went down for a walk on the beach. Waited in the lounge for the boys & then to breakfast. Read in lounge while girls came in then went down to the beach.
Went in for a dip but found it rather cold.
Dinner at 12-30p.m. Left at 1.30p.m. by bus to Sarasota. Bought a camera and a swimsuit.
Had a look round then went to a picture show as it rained. Caught bus at 5-30p.m. and arrived in Arcadia at 7-0p.m. Had tea in a restaurant then got bus back to camp at 8.30p.m. Bed at 9-45p.m.
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6 Friday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. rather tired. Breakfast at 7-0a.m.
Calisthenics for an hour.
Went down on Flight Line at 9.30a.m. Rain had soaked field, no flying, no instructors. Back to billets and wrote up notes on Flying.
Dinner at 1.10p.m. Ground school 2 to 5-30p.m. Pay parade after, received $16.
Retreat formation at 6.20p.m.
Tea at 7.0p.m.
Cleaned up room for inspection. Played basketball. Shower and then to bed at 10-30pm
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7 Saturday 1942
Up at 6-50a.m. Breakfast at 7.15a.m. Calisthenics for an hour then changed for flight line. Flew at 9.50a.m. Took off did climbing turns, stalls, spins. Did spins on my own, not too bad. Dinner at 1-10p.m. then groundschool at 2.0p.m. to 5-30p.m. Warmer today than yesterday. Played basket ball again. Shower & bed at 10-30p.m.
8 Sunday
Up at 6-30a.m. Breakfast at 7.10a.m. Down on “Dawn Patrol” this week. No flying, ground too wet. Calisthenics for an hour. Dinner then groundschool, didn’t do much. Tea then wrote home.
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9 Monday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Dawn Patrol. No flying, ground too wet. Gave in note-books for checking. Mr. Tanquay seemed pleased.
Didn’t do Calisthenics, wrote home instead. Dinner at 1.10p.m. Groundschool 2.0p.m. to 5.30p.m. Had exams in Navigation & Meteorology, did them O.K. Retreat formation then tea. Open Post. Managed to get on bus for Sarasota at 7-0p.m. Arrived at 8.30p.m. Booked a room at Hotel Watsons. Went with boys round towns to night-clubs etc. Had a good time & bed at 3-0a.m.
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10 Tuesday 1942
Up at 9-0a.m. Had breakfast at a restaurant then wandered round town. Bought a watch $4 quite good too. Saw Mr. Whipple at U.S.O and were invited out to dinner. Seven other chaps out there too.
Had a fine time on beach, sea very nice. Plenty of people there too. Saw Priscilla and Annette. Left at 4-30p.m by taxi. Got on bus at 5-3p.m. & arrived in Arcadia at 7-0p.m. Had ham & eggs at cafe then got bus back to camp. Booked in at 8-0p.m. Cleaned up, had a shower & then to bed at 9-30p.m. Very tired.
The lads are very red with the sun.
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11 Wednesday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7.15a.m. Dawn Patrol. Bert up first, Johnie, then me. Took off, climbed to 2,500ft. did stalls power on, then power-off. Did a spin, not too bad. Landed at auxiliary field & took off again O.K. Landed again at field & taxied up to line, & parked ship. Calisthenics for an hour then dinner. Groundschool 2-0p.m. to 5-30p.m. Had exam in Theory for Flight. Retreat formation then tea. Played basketball, had a shower then wrote up notes on flying. Bed at 10.p.m.
Six of our lads solo’d today.
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12 Thursday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7-10a.m. Dawn Patrol again. Heavy ground mist no flying till 9-0a.m. No 1 ‘T’ pos changed to No 2 ‘T’ Pos at 10.0a.m. Up for 15 mins. Taxied to line, took off, climbed to 1500ft. did gliding turns, entered traffic, & landed again. Not too bad.
Calisthenics for an hour, played football, very warm. Took some snaps on Flight Line. Dinner at 1.00p.m. then Ground School 2.0p.m. to 5.30p.m.
Retreat formation at 6.20p.m. then tea. Wrote up notes on flying then started letter home.
Entered log-book up.
Bed at 10-30p.m.
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13 Friday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. breakfast at 7.10a.m. Dawn Patrol again. Johnie up first. Heavy ground fog came up & flying was suspended. “T” pos. changed from No. 2 to No. 4 & flying resumed at 11-0a.m. Didn’t go up. Calisthenics for an hour.
Took film in for developing. Dinner at 1-10p.m. Groundschool at 2.0p.m. to 5.30p.m. Plot to do in navigation easy enough. Retreat then tea-parade.
Played basketball till 8.0p.m. Had a shower, then read notes for exams tomorrow.
Bed at 10-0p.m.
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14 Saturday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7.10a.m. Dawn Patrol again. Johnie & Bert up. Cloud came in low, flying stopped. No flight again for me. Left line at 10.35 a.m. Calisthenics for an hour. Dinner at 1.10p.m.
Groundschool at 2.0p.m. to 5-30p.m. Exams in engines & theory for flight. Retreat at 6-15p.m. then tea. Finished letter home. Bed at 10.15p.m.
15 Sunday
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7.10a.m. Calisthenics for an hour then down on Flight Line. Flew for an hour, nothing right. Dont fly regular enough. Dinner at 1-10p.m. then Groundschool. Retreat then tea.
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16 Monday 1942
Up at 6.30am. Breakfast at 7-10a.m. Calisthenics for an hour then down on Flight Line at 9.30a.m. Flew for 33 mins, a lot better today. Dinner at 1.10p.m. Groundschool at 2.0p.m. to 5.30p.m. Retreat formation then tea at 6-30p.m.
Played basket-ball for an hour, cleaned up for inspection, which didn’t come off. Wrote up notes on flying. Read a little then to bed at 10.0p.m.
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17 Tuesday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7.0a.m. Down on line at 9.30a.m. Flew at 10.15a.m. for 47 mins. Did stalls, spins, landings & take-offs. Not so good today. Dinner at 1-10p.m. Groundschool at 2.0p.m. Exams in Meteorology & Engines. Retreat formation then tea at 6.30p.m. Wrote to Vera, then to bed at 10-15p.m.
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18 Wednesday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7-0a.m. Calisthenics for an hour.
Down on line at 9-30a.m. Heavy low clouds, thunderstorm broke at 11.30a.m. Heavy rain. Had a talk with Tanquay on flying generally.
Dinner at 1-10p.m. Groundschool 2.0 to 5-30p.m. “Open Post” till 12.p.m.
Went to Arcadia with the lads, walked round a bit then went to skating rink & had a good time.
Caught last bus and got in to camp at 11-45pm.
Bed at 12p.m. very tired.
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19 Thursday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7.0a.m. Cleaned room, then Calisthenics for an hour.
Down on line at 9.30a.m. Flew at 10.5a.m. for 45 mins. Did stalls, spins, S. turns, & rect. courses. Had a good day today.
Dinner at 1-10p.m. then groundschool, test in Theory of Flight. Retreat at 6-20p.m. and tea at 7-0p.m. Wrote up notes on flying then to bed at 10-30p.m.
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20 Friday 1942
Up at 6-30a.m. Breakfast at 7.10a.m. Calisthenics for an hour then down on Flight Line.
Flew for 45 mins. Take-offs & landings O.K. Stalls not so good. Dinner at 1-10p.m.
Groundschool at 2.0p.m. to 5.30p.m. Pay Parade after. Received $21 dollars. Arranged to go with boys by car to Sarasota.
Retreat then tea. Played basketball, then wrote up notes on flying. Bed at 10.0p.m.
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21 Saturday 1942
Up at 6-30a.m. Breakfast then down on Flight Line. Flying not so bad today. Calisthenics for an hour then dinner. Changed into blues I then went with boys to Sarasota in private car. Touched 97m.p.h. & arrived in 45 mins. 54 mls.
Had a good time at the Lido & went in sea for a while. Drove round & had tea in town. Left at 8-15p.m. and arrived in Arcadia at 9-20p.m. Drove round & then back to camp for 10p.m. Tired.
22 Sunday
Up at 6-30a.m. Breakfast then down on Flight Line. Flying not so good. Check tomorrow. Calisthenics then dinner. Groundschool after, exam. in Meteorology not so bad.
Tea at 6.30p.m. Wrote up notes on Flying.
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23 Monday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7-10a.m. Down at Flight Line at 7-45am. Check ride, progress, with Flight Commander Eckart. Flying not so good, passed on to Army for another opinion. Calisthenics for an hour then dinner at 1-10p.m.
Groundschool in afternoon, test in Navigation, fairly easy. O.K.
Retreat then tea at 6-30p.m. Cleaned up for inspection which didn’t take place. Had a coffee, then cleaned buttons, boots etc. Read a little then to bed at 10p.m.
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24 Tuesday 1942
Up at 6-30a.m. Breakfast at 7-10a.m. Down on Flight Line at 7-45a.m. Up for Army Check. Took it at 12-15p.m. Got through it, flying not so good though. Calisthenics for an hour, then dinner.
Flying again this afternoon. Went for another Check Ride with Lt. Flophenstein & was eliminated for mechanical & dangerous flying. Back to Moncton next Tuesday.
Tea after Retreat. Received February’s News Letter from Dick Thomas.
Wrote to Dick after a coffee at canteen. Read a book & then to bed at 10-30p.m.
20 lads went back to Moncton today after being eliminated.
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25 Wednesday 1942
Up at 6-30a.m. Breakfast at 7-10a.m. Cleaned buttons & boots etc. then cleaned room a bit.
Hung around all morning waiting for board meeting. Dinner at 1-10p.m. Went round camp and took some snaps of swimming pool & flight line etc. Retreat formation then tea. Had a coffee at canteen then read a while. Bed at 10.3p.m.
Seniors had Graduation Dance tonight, good band. Listened to band while 12p.m. then dropped off to sleep.
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26 Thursday 1942
Up at 7.30a.m. Didn’t go to breakfast. Had sandwiches in Canteen. Wrote letters home, to Vera & Betty Hughes. Went to try & get leave but have to wait for board. Dinner at 1.10p.m. Read book all afternoon. Retreat then tea.
Read a while, cleaned up, then to bed at 10-p.m.
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27 Friday 1942
Up at 6-30a.m. Breakfast at 7.10a.m. Cleaned room up, then went to see if boys had heard when board was to be. Filled in diary.
Board meeting at 11-0a.m.
Nothing much in it. Said I’d do for Observer, dangerous flying, & mechanical flying too. George & I managed to get leave while Monday noon. Had dinner then cleaned up. Tea at 6.30pm. then got bus for Sarasota. Arrived at 9-0p.m. Went to U.S.O. then on to Casa Madrid & saw film.
Called in at Manhattan & met Mr & Mrs Harris, & Mrs Bauer. Invited us out to hotel.
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28 Saturday 1942
29 Sunday
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30 Monday 1942
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31 Tuesday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7.15a.m. Gave in blankets & sheets etc. Took kitbag to Administration block at 9-0a.m. Signed papers at 9.30a.m. & gave in Clearance Form.
Got kit ready, then went to the boys. Had dinner at 11-30a.m. Saw Maxine & Flossie, then the lads & then departed with kit for train. Saw Kathryn in Arcadia. Left at 1-15p.m. for Moncton.
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April 1 Wednesday 1942
Bad night, didn’t sleep very well.
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2 Thursday 1942
Crossed border at Vanceboro’ at 7-0a.m. Had passport checked & baggage. Dinner at 12-0a.m. very good. Arrived at Moncton at 3-45p.m. Walked up to camp & messed about giving in particulars for an hour. Billeted in same block as Jack Kellet & boys. Went into town & had tea. Walked round then went to pictures to see “Shanghai Gesture” very good too. Arrived in camp at 11-30 p.m. and so to bed.
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3 Friday 1942
Stayed in bed till 11-0a.m. Cleaned up & then had dinner
Went to town & met Mr Grant & had a ride round in his car. Had tea at his house & then late dinner at 7-0p.m. Stayed until 11-30p.m. then Mr Grant brought us back to camp.
Had a grand evening very nice evening & can go there when we want to.
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4 Saturday 1942
Up at 6.45a.m. Cleaned up, then breakfast. Paraded at 9.0a.m.
Went up to pay accounts & drew $5 as a casual payment. Went into town for dinner. Walked round then had tea. Went to pictures at night to see “Ride Em Cowboy” with Abbott & Costello. Back in camp at 10-p.m. Had a shower & then to bed.
5 Sunday
Up at 6.45a.m. Cleaned up then breakfast. Church parade 9.0a.m. Went into town for dinner. Walked round then back to camp for tea. Pressed trousers & jacket, filled in diary. Bed at 10-30p.m.
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May 11 Monday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. Breakfast at 7-0a.m. Paraded at 8.0a.m. Drill for an hour, went to Medical Quarters for a check-over. Filled out forms etc., then dinner. Saw minister of United Church. Met our officer & had a chat with him.
Tea at 4.0p.m. Parade at 5.0p.m. for retreat. Wrote letters.
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12 Tuesday 1942
Up at 6-30a.m. Breakfast at 7-0a.m.
Paraded at 8.0a.m. Went to lecture block at 9-0a.m.
Went to hangar and had flying kit issued. Not so good.
Dinner at 12.0a.m. Went & had signals test, not so bad. Was shown round plane & had things explained. Were fitted with parachute harness. Drew issue of books, & instruments etc., Tea at 4.0p.m. Paraded at 5p.m. received passes & left camp at 7.0p.m. Had a coffee then went up to the social at St. Lukes. Had a grand time & left at 11.30p.m. Arrived back in camp at 12-10a.m. & so to bed.
[page break]
13 Wednesday 1942
Up at 6.30a.m. breakfast by 7-0a.m. Paraded at 8.0a.m. drilled for a while then Signals course. Navigation till dinner time.
Dinner at 12.0a.m.
Signals at 1-30p.m. for an hour then Bombing for two hours. Tea at 4-30p.m. Retreat 5-15p.m. Signals 6.30p.m. for an hour.
Filled in diary.
Paraded at 9.0p.m. made bed & did a bit more of diary.
[page break]
14 Thursday 1942
[page break]
Notes for 1943
[page break]
Cash Account – January
Date Particulars Received Dollars. Paid
3. English £2-0-0
20. Canadian. 3 - -
21. American. 10 - -
[page break]
Cash Account – February
Date Particulars Received Paid
6TH. Feb. American. $20-00
20TH. Feb. American. $11-00
[page break]
Cash Account – March
Date Particulars Received Paid
6TH. MAR. American. $.16 - -
20TH. MAR. American. $21 - -
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
Kenneth Gill 1942 Diary
Description
An account of the resource
Starts with account of movements in RAF for 1941. Continues lwith entries for daily activities. Embarks Greenock, Leaves Milford Haven on 8 January for voyage across Atlantic and describes voyage to Canada. Arrives Moncton 20 January describes daily routine. Left for United States on 22 January. Describes train journey via New York, Washington, Atlanta and arrived at Turner Field, Albany Georgia 24 January. Goes on with daily entries describing activities mentioning food, lessons, sport, weather, rifle training, social activities and physical training. Mentions visit to Sylvester. Transfers to Arcadia, Florida 22 February. Starts flying training at end of February. Continues with description of ground school, flying and other daily activities. Mentions visit to Sarasota. Failed pilot flight check on 24 March 1942 an was sent back to Moncton, Canada. Entries for a few days activities and entries then peter out for April and May and then cease.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
K Gill
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-01
1942-02
1942-03
1942-04
1942-05
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-01
1942-02
1942-03
1942-03-24
1942-04
1942-05
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Glasgow
Wales--Pembrokeshire
Wales--Milford Haven
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
United States
New York (State)--New York
Washington (D.C.)
Georgia
Georgia--Atlanta
Georgia--Albany
Florida
Florida--Arcadia
Florida--Sarasota
Florida
Georgia
New York (State)
New Brunswick
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
United States Army Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Diary
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Multi-page printed booklet with handwritten entries
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
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SGillK1438901v10013
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Peter Bradbury
aircrew
entertainment
military living conditions
military service conditions
pilot
sport
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1505/28863/BDaviesMJDaviesLAv1.1.pdf
763f7838c00c66324015cd1da0a86c44
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
Davies, Leslie and Jack
Leslie Alfred Davies
L A Davies
John Richard Davies
J R Davies
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-28
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
Davies, LA-JR
Description
An account of the resource
49 items. Collection concerns Leslie Alfred Davies (1922-1996, 1581024 Royal Air Force) and his brother John Richard Davies ( - 1944, 1580941). Leslie served as a Lancaster navigator on of 50 Squadron completing his tour of 30 operations in March 1945. John served a Lancaster bomb aimer on 166 Squadron He was killed in action 3 August 1944. Collection consists of Leslie's crew's individual logbooks and biographies, operational histories, photographs of people, aircraft and a grave, documents and correspondence. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Murray Davies and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. <br /><br />Additional information on John Richard Davies is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/105795/">IBCC Losses Database.</a>
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
Leslie Alfred Davies and crew
Description
An account of the resource
Biographies of navigator Leslie Davies and all his crew. Includes photographs of Lancaster, 50 Squadron, his crew, Leslie Davies himself, training course photographs. Covers his tour from 7 October 1944 to 22 March 1945. List his crew and aircraft used on operations. Followed by biography of Leslie Alfred Davies early life, training and post tour marriage. Continues with biography of pilot Frederick David Jones including early life, training in Canada, operations and later life. Followed by biographies of Norman Parrinder, tail gunner; George Jarmy, bomb aimer; Gilbert John Mellefont, mid-upper gunner; Ernest Marrs, wireless operator and Robert M Smith, flight engineer. Continues with description of the tour including map with targets and descriptions of many of their 30 operations before concluding comments on groundcrew and bomber command in general. Contains many photographs including targets, aircraft, one of battleship SMS Schleswig-Holstein, several of remains of Lancaster bombers, groundcrew at work, bombs, anti-aircraft guns and the bomber command memorial in Green Park London.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
M J Davies
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Eighty-two page document
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
BDaviesMJDaviesLAv1
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
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-10-07
1945-03-22
1943-08-02
1945-02-16
1945-01-14
1944-11-21
1944-09-27
1945-01-14
1945-01-15
1944-10-07
1944-10-11
1944-10-19
1944-11-02
1944-11-06
1944-11-11
1944-11-16
1944-11-21
1944-11-26
1944-12-04
1944-12-17
1944-12-18
1944-12-21
1945-01-01
1945-01-04
1945-01-05
1945-01-07
1945-01-13
1945-01-14
1945-02-02
1945-02-08
1945-02-13
1945-02-19
1945-02-21
1945-02-24
1945-03-05
1945-03-20
1945-03-22
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
South Africa
South Africa--Port Alfred
Wales--Gwynedd
England--Leicestershire
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
United States
Oklahoma
Oklahoma--Ponca City
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Isle of Man
France
Ontario--St. Thomas
England--Lancashire
England--Barrow-in-Furness
England--Herefordshire
Wales--Vale of Glamorgan
Netherlands
Netherlands--Vlissingen
Germany
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Mittelland Canal
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Düren (Cologne)
Germany--Munich
Germany--Heilbronn
Poland
Poland--Gdynia
Scotland--Aberdeenshire
Belgium
Belgium--Houffalize
France--Royan
Germany--Merseburg
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Bremen
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
Ontario
New Brunswick
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
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.
10 Squadron
14 OTU
1654 HCU
50 Squadron
6 BFTS
Advanced Flying Unit
aerial photograph
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
Bolingbroke
bomb aimer
bomb trolley
bombing
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
Bombing of Trossy St Maximin (3 August 1944)
British Flying Training School Program
C-47
crash
Distinguished Flying Cross
FIDO
flight engineer
Flying Training School
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
ground crew
Halifax
Heavy Conversion Unit
incendiary device
Ju 88
killed in action
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lancaster Mk 1
Me 262
memorial
military service conditions
missing in action
Mosquito
navigator
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operational Training Unit
petrol bowser
pilot
RAF Banff
RAF Barrow in Furness
RAF Husbands Bosworth
RAF Llandwrog
RAF Madley
RAF Skellingthorpe
RAF St Athan
RAF Syerston
RAF Wigsley
reconnaissance photograph
service vehicle
Stirling
target indicator
training
V-1
V-weapon
Wellington
-
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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
Davies, Dave
D Davies
David Howell Davies
Description
An account of the resource
26 items, including 22 letters, three photographs, and a service and release book. The collection consists of correspondence sent by Sergeant Dave Davies (1923 - 1984, 1653015 Royal Air Force) during his pilot training in Canada to his fiancée, Betty Hughes, who lived in Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, Wales. It also includes photographs of Dave Davies in Royal Air Force uniform, one with his bride, Betty, in wedding dress; and his service and release book. Dave Davies served with 48 Squadron from 28 January 1942 to 1 October 1946.
The collection was digitised on behalf of the IBCC Digital Archive by Edward Davies and catalogued by Monica Emmanuelli with additional contribution by Natalie Brimecome-Mills.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-08-10
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
Davies, DH
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[postmark]
Miss Betty Hughes
50. Portland Street
Aberystwyth.
Cardiganshire WALES.
1653015 LA.C Davies DH.
Room 37 A I Squadron
31 P.O.C. Moncton
New Brunswick
Canada.
x
[page break]
[underlined] 1 [/underlined]
1653015 LAC Davies DH.
Room 37 A I Squadron
31 P.O.C. Moncton
New Brunswick
Canada.
9/8/42.
My Dearest Darling,
Well here it comes at last darling. It has’nt [sic] been too long has it? I have written to you twice before, one from the train. and one from the boat. I also sent you a cablegram when I arrived in Canada. I hope you received them all. I wish I could tell you all about the journey we had, but I’m afraid that is impossible just yet. I’ll tell you all abot it when I come back. I’m sure you will be surprised when I tell you where we landed.
We arrived here in the middle of a thunderstorm. and we got soaking wet on the way to the camp. I thought they only had heavy rain in Aber. [sic] I have seen parts of the town already. It looks pleasant enough, but there’s too many cadets here to be comfortable. It’s built of wood entirely by the way, but there’s not much difference between it and the towns back home, exept [sic] that they are all lit up by night, and stay open longer.
I’m afraid that’s all for now darling. I’ll write again soon and wait patiently for your letter. I love you as much as ever and I miss you terribly.
Your sweetheart.
Dave
xxxx
xxxx
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
Letter from Dave Davies to Betty Hughes
Description
An account of the resource
Dave informs Betty that he wrote to her on the journey, both from the train and from the boat. He arrived in a thunderstorm and compares similarities between Canada and the towns near home.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Dave Davies
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-08-09
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Monica Emmanuelli
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDaviesDHHughesB420809
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.
Wales--Aberystwyth
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
New Brunswick
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-07
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.
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1318/19796/EDaviesDHHughesB430903-0001.2.jpg
f24112808826737d9d30213617dbf3db
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1318/19796/EDaviesDHHughesB430903-0002.2.jpg
59383afa6c4e6d9b0b2ceb45cd0b1834
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
Davies, Dave
D Davies
David Howell Davies
Description
An account of the resource
26 items, including 22 letters, three photographs, and a service and release book. The collection consists of correspondence sent by Sergeant Dave Davies (1923 - 1984, 1653015 Royal Air Force) during his pilot training in Canada to his fiancée, Betty Hughes, who lived in Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, Wales. It also includes photographs of Dave Davies in Royal Air Force uniform, one with his bride, Betty, in wedding dress; and his service and release book. Dave Davies served with 48 Squadron from 28 January 1942 to 1 October 1946.
The collection was digitised on behalf of the IBCC Digital Archive by Edward Davies and catalogued by Monica Emmanuelli with additional contribution by Natalie Brimecome-Mills.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-08-10
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
Davies, DH
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[postmark]
MISS BETTY HUGHES,
50. PORTLAND STREET
ABERYSTWYTH.
CARDIGANSHIRE. WALES.
1653015 L.A.C. DAVIES DH.
R.A.F. Station.
Assiniboia Sask.
Canada.
x
[page break]
[underlined] 4 [/underlined]
1653015 LAC DAVIES D
R.A.F. STATION.
ASSINIBOIA.
SASKATCHEWAN.
CANADA.
3/9/43
My Dearest Darling,
Well I’m still waiting patiently for a letter darling, but I expect I’ll hear before you receive this. It seems such a long time since I heard from you. I would give anything just to receive a letter just now. I miss you ever so much. It w’ont [sic] be long before I’m back though. I’m hoping to be back by the end of January. I sha’nt [sic] be here [underlined] more [/underlined] than eight weeks, and there is no waiting to be done between E.F.T.S and S.F.T.S. We were very lucky to be posted so quickly from Moncton. It’s raining heavily here today, - the first drop of rain we’ve had since we’ve been here. I have done more than twelve hours flying by now including 2 hours solo. That means I’m safe now until my 20 hour test. One of the Aberites [sic] was taken off the couse [sic] this week [deleted] before [/deleted] because he failed to solo before 10 hours. So that brings us down to three of the old gang left now, on this station anyway. I went to the station cinema on Wednesday to see "Pardon my Sarong". I had seen it twice before. I enjoyed it all the same though. I am going tomorrow again to see "Cabin in the Sky". I still hav’nt [sic] been to Assiniboia. I hav’nt [sic] been out of camp in fact, we have some much to do at night, - I mean swatting. [sic] The course is much harder than I thought it would be. I think I can manage it though. The trouble is we have such a lot to do in a short time. We get some time off for recreation though. I’ve just come back from the drill hall after a game of ping-pong. It made me think of you, when I was in there and the fun we had together. There’s a Juke Box in there, and they played a record of Dearly Beloved on it. Do you remember when you used to sing it SO [sic] often? I told Nappy [sic] that it was your favourire song, and funnily enough he said that was his girl friend‘s favourite song. I’m afraid that’s all this time darling. Think of me sometimes o [sic] remember I love you so very much.
Your darling.
Dave
xxx
xxx
xxx
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
Letter from Dave Davies to Betty Hughes
Description
An account of the resource
Dave confesses that he was waiting for Betty's letters and he was missing her. He talks about weather, flight hours, colleagues and free time.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Dave Davies
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-09-03
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Monica Emmanuelli
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDaviesDHHughesB430903
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.
Canada
Saskatchewan
Canada--Assiniboia, District of
England--Westmorland
New Brunswick--Moncton
Great Britain
New Brunswick
Canada
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.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-09-02
love and romance
training
-
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1318/19810/EDaviesDHHughesB440203-0002.2.jpg
871d587be245e38644f4a1ecb830e493
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
Davies, Dave
D Davies
David Howell Davies
Description
An account of the resource
26 items, including 22 letters, three photographs, and a service and release book. The collection consists of correspondence sent by Sergeant Dave Davies (1923 - 1984, 1653015 Royal Air Force) during his pilot training in Canada to his fiancée, Betty Hughes, who lived in Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, Wales. It also includes photographs of Dave Davies in Royal Air Force uniform, one with his bride, Betty, in wedding dress; and his service and release book. Dave Davies served with 48 Squadron from 28 January 1942 to 1 October 1946.
The collection was digitised on behalf of the IBCC Digital Archive by Edward Davies and catalogued by Monica Emmanuelli with additional contribution by Natalie Brimecome-Mills.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-08-10
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
Davies, DH
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Miss Betty Hughes
50. Portland. Street.
Aberystwyth.
Cardiganshire Wales
1653015 SGT. DAVIES. D.H.
R.A.F. STATION.
Estevan. Saskatchewan
Canada.
[page break]
1653015 SGT DAVIES. D.H.
R.A.F. STATION.
Estevan.
Saskatchewan.
3/2./44 [sic]
My Dearest Darling
Well darling I made it. Did you notice any change in the first line of my address? We had our wings parade this afternoon, much to our relief. I’ve just sent you a cable. I hope you received it.
[page break]
I had four letters from you today, the first batch I have received for over a fortnight. Everyone has been complaining about the mail lately. I hope you are receiving mine alright. We’re all getting ready for our graduation party now, it starts at eight. I think we’ll have a good time, they usually do at these parties. I’ve been busy all afternoon sewing my wings and stripes on. I wish you were here to sew them on for me, I’d never make a tailor. Well darling I suppose I should have told you this first. I'm coming home soon, we’re being posted to Moncton from here, we’re due to arrive there on the 15th February. Those of us who have been posted to Moncton just with joy when they told us. It was a better occassion [sic] for us than it was to have our wings. That's all you can hear from the boys now is “Roll on the Boat”. Darling I'm longing so much to see you. I miss you terribly. [missing] thinking of you, and love you more than [missing] they sha’nt [sic] keep us long in Moncton, [missing] us more than 5 days to come over, [missing] have some leave with you darling. [missing] nice. You better prepare yourself for there [missing] darling. I suppose I should too. I should'nt [sic] send any more letters after you receive this one darling. I should’nt [sic] think they would send them across a second time. I'll send you an address to write to as soon as I can. Well I’ll have to close now and get ready for this party of our. Please do’nt [sic] worry about those sherries you had darling I'm afraid I sha’nt [sic] stop at two tonight. Give my love to all the folks and tell them I hope to see them all soon.
[page break]
Until I see you darling remember I still love you and ever will. Think of me sometimes and love me always.
Your darling (husband to be)
Dave.
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
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
Letter from Dave Davies to Betty Hughes
Description
An account of the resource
Dave announces that he has passed the final exam and is preparing for the graduation party. He believes leave will soon be granted and hopes to see Betty soon.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Dave Davies
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-02-03
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Monica Emmanuelli
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDaviesDHHughesB440203
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.
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.
Canada
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan--Estevan
New Brunswick
New Brunswick--Moncton
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-02
love and romance
promotion
RCAF Estevan
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/769/9359/EDexterKIDexterPC420103.1.pdf
c01d869cc0cf16ab370f08f2d5f8fa7d
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
Dexter, Keith Inger
Dexter, Dec
K I Dexter
Description
An account of the resource
33 items. The collection concerns Flying Officer Keith Dexter (1911 - 1943, 127249, 1387607 Royal Air Force ), a policeman before the war, he flew as a pilot with 103 Squadron at RAF Elsham Wolds. He was shot down and killed with all his crew on 16/17 June 1943 on operations against Cologne. Collection contains a dozen letters from 'Dec' Dexter to Phyllis Dexter,There is an extract from the 103 Squadron Operational Record Book on the loss of his aircraft and crew, maps of where his aircraft crashed, official Royal Air Force personnel records, Netherlands official documents, document about his aircraft as well as a photograph of a Lancaster over Lincoln and a crew. There are photographs of his grave as well as a group of people, including Keith Dexter being interviewed as a pilot trainee by the BBC at RAF Hatfield. There are two detailed daily diaries covering his time in the Royal Air Force from from 3 April 1941 to June 1943 which relate activities while training and on operations. There are some memorabilia, a photograph of a Lancaster over Lincoln, a painting, and an <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/770">album</a>. <br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Lieutenant Colonel Monty Dexter-Banks and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br />Additional information on Keith Inger Dexter is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/106139/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-08-30
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Dexter, KI
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[postmark]
[postage stamps]
Miss P.C. Dexter.
60 Branwen Court.
ST. John’s Wood.
[underlined] London. N.W.8. [/underlined]
[underlined] ENGLAND [/underlined]
[page break]
My letter from [indecipherable name]
Thought you’d like to see it.
[page break]
1387607 L.A.C. Dexter K.I.
31 P.D. R.A.F.
Moncton N.B.
[underlined] Canada. [/underlined]
3rd. January 1942
My dear old [underlined] Phyl. [/underlined]
Just a hurried note to thank you for your letter which reached me via Manchester & Moncton. I do hope that my letters, parcels etc are reaching Con and I’ve asked her to send them to you and Sheila – I knew she would anyway – so have’nt [sic] written direct before. So much has happened that it takes some writing twice! All I wish is that someday you all will see these things for yourselves – I’m really no good at describing such things. The colours of a sunset down here are wizard. We’re not so far away from the tropics and it seems strange to see leafless trees with a temperature of 70 in the shade!
[page break]
Still it rains now and again straight down in torrents and when its cold which it sometimes is its that penetrating variety – nasty.
Now don’t you worry about your job and that sort of thing. I’m sure everything will be all right and equally certain that you’ll drop into a damned good job in your own line when the war is over. Its [sic] your just reward for working so hard at a job that you don’t like and sticking it like that. We all admire you very much for it, my dear, and I think you’re doing a very fine thing. I never had any doubts that you’d help Con - I know you too well. So don’t worry – it will all work out all right.
Do hope everything is all right with you and that you had a cheery Christmas – also that Con came up to spend it with you. I do wish I could have been there. I thought if you all a good deal and at 5 pm on 31st. Dec. wished you all a mental “Happy New Year”.
We’re having quite a cheery
[page break]
time here in spite of everything though we’re only allowed out of camp over the week-ends. Still after a spot of bridge in the evenings we’re so tired we don’t feel like going out. We’re due to move on to a Primary Training School soon and get onto flying again. We’re all looking forward to that.
So all the very best – I think the course here has been very much shortened so may be back sooner than we think.
Love to Libby & especially yourself.
[underlined] Dec. [/underlined]
P.S. Heaps of thanks for doing those socks its jolly decent of you to worry with them. I got a cable from Con on 31st. and a parcel containing my woollen helmet on the 2nd. Also a letter from Mary [indecipherable word]. the same day – all the same way as yours!
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
Letter from Dec Dexter to Phyllis Dexter
Description
An account of the resource
Writes that he hopes communication with the family is working and encourages sister on her future employment opportunities post war. In a separate section talks of life in Canada. Although appears to be written at Moncton the letter was posted in Montgomery Alabama, United States.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Keith Dexter
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-01-03
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDexterKIDexterPC420103
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
New Brunswick
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-01
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three page handwritten letter and envelope
military living conditions
military service conditions
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1543/28497/ETansleyEHTansleyAE411211.1.pdf
c6de8c7f8d9912a5469434b97362902e
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
Tansley, Ernest Henry
E H Tansley
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
2016-09-22
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
Tansley, EH
Description
An account of the resource
98 items. <br />The collection concerns Pilot Officer Ernest Henry Tansley (1914 - 1943, 149542 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a pilot with 57 Squadron and was killed 2 December 1943. Collection consists of photographs, letters, memoires, biographies, accounts of operations, logbook extracts and official/personal documents.<br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Anne Doward and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. <br />Additional information on Ernest Tansley is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/122894/">IBCC Losses Database.</a>
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[censor sticker] EXAMINER 6896 [postmark] [postage stamp]
SEA: A.E. TANSLEY JX263230.
[deleted] H.M.S. CHASSE MARIE. [/deleted]
[deleted] TRAWLER BASE [/deleted] 43 Hanover Place
[deleted] PORTSMOUTH [/deleted] [indecipherable word] S [missing letters]
[underlined] ENGLAND [/underlined] London W. [missing letters]
[page break]
[censor sticker] P.C.90 OPENED BY
[page break]
[canadian ymca logo] “And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One (Dickens Christmas Carols)
3 Sec. 3 PLATOON. F. SQUADRON
No2. WING. No31. P.D.
R.C.A.F. STATION
MONCTON. N.B.
CANADA.
Dec. 11th. 1941.
[underlined] Dear Albert. [/underlined]
Sorry I havn’t [sic] written before but as you know it takes quite a few days to settle down in a new place, and you can probably guess how new and interesting everything is here. I sent a cable to Rene and have had a reply. Its great to know you can still maintain fairly speedy contact with the folks at home.
I guess it relieved her immensely too to know I had arrived safely here, although there is no need for people to worry about me, I am like the bad penny always turning up. Anyway there is no need for further concern, about my welfare, as I am now in a safe place far from all danger.
I joined for a bit of excitement and instead of that get transplanted thousands of miles away from all trouble and strife, into
[page break]
a land of peace and abundance; join the R.A.F. and dodge the war. Well how are you keeping, still keeping the sea lanes clear; you are doing a real job of work.
How is Dolly and Mr. & Mrs Shaw, I hope they are all well. We had a fairly rough crossing; I did not mind that though, but the conditions on the ship were awful; troops sleeping in every nook and cranny; I slept in the lifebelt racks, for preference; I had some fresh air anyway. Still one soon forgets those things, an I am accommodating myself to the new conditions here now. Seemed strange going back to the same old place for embarkation. They would not let me get away to see the chaps there; but just as we were casting off, I caught sight of Gunner Main, and we managed to exchange a few words of greeting.
It seems strange after nearly two years of blackout to come here and see everything so brilliantly lit, gaily decorated shops, cluttered with things we have not seen for many, many months. Its a grand country and the people are very hospitable -
[page break]
we get numerous invitations to spend the evenings with the local people - but it is not like home, and being with the folks who are near and dear to me.
It does not seem fair that I should have all these opportunities, to enjoy myself, while all you people at home live in such dull and dreary surrounding’s, with nothing to look forward to, living from day to day; I wonder when it will all be over, when we can live sane happy lives again.
The snow has commenced to fall here, not much at the moment, just a mere couple of feet deep, with four or five feet drifts; but it will come down in earnest very shortly.
Its a marvel how they drive their cars on these roads, if it was England they would put them by for the winter. I shall not be here much longer, in fact long before, you get this I shall be in the States, basking in the sunshine. I am afraid I shall be here very much longer than I anticipated, still I may be home for Xmas 1942, that’s if I last the course, which seems to be a
[page break]
pretty tough job out here.
I have not told you much about the place, but shall have such a lot to tell you when next I see you won’t I?
Well take care of yourself Albert and the very best of luck. Fondest wishes [underlined] Ernie. [/underlined]
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
Letter from Ernest Tansley to his brother Albert
Description
An account of the resource
Settling into new location after arriving safely in Canada. Catches up with family news and talks a little of his activities. Comments on lack of blackout compared to home and writes of hospitable local people. Mentions arrival of snow and how well the locals manage to drive in the conditions. Concludes by saying he would have a lot to tell him when they met next.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
E H Tansley
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-12-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four page handwritten letter and envelope
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ETansleyEHTansleyAE411211
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 Navy
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
England--London
Great Britain
New Brunswick
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-12-11
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
Robin Christian
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2200/40041/EDarbyCAHWellandJ430514.1.pdf
3610680b1380b0b9d60fa707b7e2bd03
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
Darby. Charles Arthur Hill
Darby, CAH
Jack Darby
Johnny Darby
Description
An account of the resource
203 items. The collection concerns Charles Arthur Hill Darby (1915 - 1996, 154676 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, documents and correspondence. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 186 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Richard John Darby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Darby, CAH
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.
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
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
An account of the resource
He is not happy that he is still at Moncton. He hitch hiked to St Johns. The camp has now raised $60000 for the Fourth War Loan. There have been bands, variety shows and boxing matches.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jack Darby
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-14
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
New Brunswick--Saint John
New Brunswick
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two doubles sided handwritten sheets and envelope
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430514
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-14
entertainment
sport
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2200/40043/EDarbyCAHWellandJ430606.2.pdf
e98549070df280313762e5a93cc5aef1
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
Darby. Charles Arthur Hill
Darby, CAH
Jack Darby
Johnny Darby
Description
An account of the resource
203 items. The collection concerns Charles Arthur Hill Darby (1915 - 1996, 154676 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, documents and correspondence. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 186 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Richard John Darby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Darby, CAH
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.
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
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
An account of the resource
He is still waiting but is working in the camp post office. He has been on parade in Moncton and walking in the countryside.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jack Darby
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-06-06
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
New Brunswick
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430606
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-06-06
ground personnel
training
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2200/40044/EDarbyCAHWellandJ430616.1.pdf
3092a3a924831da5c0df266146b19b36
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
Darby. Charles Arthur Hill
Darby, CAH
Jack Darby
Johnny Darby
Description
An account of the resource
203 items. The collection concerns Charles Arthur Hill Darby (1915 - 1996, 154676 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, documents and correspondence. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 186 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Richard John Darby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Darby, CAH
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.
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
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
An account of the resource
He discusses her letters. He has been exploring nearby towns. The weather has not been warm.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jack Darby
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-06-16
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
New Brunswick
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430616
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-06
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2200/40057/EDarbyCAHWellandJ430627.2.pdf
f7787fedeb9614fc212a310d9d006044
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
Darby. Charles Arthur Hill
Darby, CAH
Jack Darby
Johnny Darby
Description
An account of the resource
203 items. The collection concerns Charles Arthur Hill Darby (1915 - 1996, 154676 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, documents and correspondence. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 186 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Richard John Darby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Darby, CAH
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.
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
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
An account of the resource
He comments on Jean's previous letter and discusses his five years in the RAF. They had a discussion with senior RAF officers about the lack of a course. He complains about the poor pay and higher prices in Canada. They have not been promised a course for four months so he has been exploring the countryside. He has been watching films at the station cinema and ENSA entertainment shows. He complains that the Canadian girls can't dance.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jack Darby
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-06-27
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
New Brunswick--Fredericton
New Brunswick
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430627
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-06-27
aircrew
entertainment
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2200/40061/EDarbyCAHWellandJ430720.1.pdf
643f057afa721a5ab54c39269c6c2b72
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
Darby. Charles Arthur Hill
Darby, CAH
Jack Darby
Johnny Darby
Description
An account of the resource
203 items. The collection concerns Charles Arthur Hill Darby (1915 - 1996, 154676 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, documents and correspondence. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 186 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Richard John Darby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Darby, CAH
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.
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
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
An account of the resource
His move to the course location is imminent. His leave trip to New York has had to be cancelled but he has been travelling locally. He was hitch hiking through forests and ended up in a pavilion for the night.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jack Darby
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-07-20
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
New Brunswick
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four double sided handwritten sheets
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430720
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-07-20
aircrew
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2200/39892/EDarbyCAHWellandJ430308.1.pdf
605e19a35662e035907683fee29e7083
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
Darby. Charles Arthur Hill
Darby, CAH
Jack Darby
Johnny Darby
Description
An account of the resource
203 items. The collection concerns Charles Arthur Hill Darby (1915 - 1996, 154676 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, documents and correspondence. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 186 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Richard John Darby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Darby, CAH
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.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
An account of the resource
He is waiting to start his training but he is not sure when or where. Local and camp food is good. He says the beer is awful and weak. Shopping is good and he asks Jean if she needs anything. They have two cinemas with frequent change of current films. He likes the cold, dry weather and has bought a camera.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jack Darby
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-03-09
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
New Brunswick
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430308
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-03-09
entertainment
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2200/39898/EDarbyCAHWellandJ430419.1.pdf
6db7a9179455a586e1cb9cc0e79ea5b7
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
Darby. Charles Arthur Hill
Darby, CAH
Jack Darby
Johnny Darby
Description
An account of the resource
203 items. The collection concerns Charles Arthur Hill Darby (1915 - 1996, 154676 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, documents and correspondence. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 186 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Richard John Darby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Darby, CAH
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.
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
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
An account of the resource
Mail has been erratic. Jean has been gardening encouraging flippant comments from Jack. He is still at Moncton awaiting transfer but does not know when that will happen. He has been walking and attending dances. He complains that Canadian girls are not up to the quality of English girls.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jack Darby
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-04-19
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
New Brunswick
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430419
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-04-19
entertainment
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2200/39900/EDarbyCAHWellandJ430501.2.pdf
280e9e181a7967c594956d5783c0d667
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
Darby. Charles Arthur Hill
Darby, CAH
Jack Darby
Johnny Darby
Description
An account of the resource
203 items. The collection concerns Charles Arthur Hill Darby (1915 - 1996, 154676 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, documents and correspondence. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 186 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Richard John Darby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Darby, CAH
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.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
An account of the resource
They have raised $20000 for the War Loan Victory effort with dances, boxing matches, films and variety shows. They marched through Moncton. He talks about his impressions of Canada.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jack Darby
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-01
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
New Brunswick
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430501
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-01
ground personnel
training
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1376/23935/EStockbridgeJFordTA430707-0001.1.jpg
824c6627f04d3b05cd5225f9b038ce39
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1376/23935/EStockbridgeJFordTA430707-0002.1.jpg
bf093fe55bdfa1f86f4926d4df86074b
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1376/23935/EStockbridgeJFordTA430707-0003.1.jpg
cea4e6070b71ee0fd7aa53f0179bbda4
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1376/23935/EStockbridgeJFordTA430707-0004.1.jpg
99e39456e57aad2daa52285be119dd38
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
Ford, Terry
Ford, T
Description
An account of the resource
135 items. The collection concerns Terry Ford. He flew operations as a pilot with 75 Squadron. It contains photographs, his log book, operational maps, letters home during training, and documents including emergency drills. There are two albums of photographs, one of navigation logs, and another of target photographs.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Julia Burke 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
2017-03-13
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ford, T
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Royal Canadian Air Force Crest]
Sgt Stockbridge
RCAF
Bagotville
7.7.43.
Dear Terry.
Well, I suppose I should apologize for not having written for such a time, but as you know I am pretty shocking @ writing letters @ the best of times even to Girls!!!
How are you getting along on your Course? I expect you have nearly finished by now. We are finishing in 2 weeks from last Saturday & I am hoping to go on leave to New York for a few days before reporting to Moncton!! Oh boy. I have now completed 48 hrs on the a/c & honestly they are wizard machines
[page break]
especially now that we have started firing the eight machine guns, my word do they roar!!!! Its an absolutely marvelous [sic] feeling sitting in the cockpit behind a solid stream of bullets!!!! We do all sorts of things here including [underlined] bags [/underlined] of low flying & also low level attacking of islands in the lakes around here: its wizard!!!! I went up to 35000 ft the other day with another in formation & then @ that height we had a dog fight & my word I was shagged when I landed, as you can quite imagine. I would love to go back to Weyburn now & show them a thing or two about [underlined] close [/underlined] formation & my word is it close. Whew!!!! Old Kendall & another bloke were up dog fighting the other day & had a mid-air collision but luckily the a/c were landed OK & no injury to the pilots, but the wing-tip of Kens plane was badly smashed in &
[page break]
there was a large rip on the underside of the other fellows wing!!!! Such fun!!
Received a letter yesterday from my girl in Weyburn & she says that there have been two serious accidents @ 41 SFTS. One mid-air collision where one of the fellows was killed & another crash where a fellow was doing stunts over his girls house & his wing came off!!!! He was of course, killed.
When will you be going to Moncton? I may see you there! I hope so!! How are the rest of the lads getting along? they are all doing fine here. We are officially [indecipherable word] as fighter pilots now & as you can guess we are all bucked about it!!!! By the way, how did you get on in your ground subjects. I expect you came through with flying colours as you did @ Weyburn
[page break]
Well! Must close now as I am going to bed!!! Give my kindest regards to all the boys when you see them & ask Cox to let me have the photos of Bradshaw & me standing by an a/c as I would like them very much.
Cheerio for the present
your old pal.
John
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
Letter from John Stockbridge to Terry Ford
Description
An account of the resource
The letter contains news from Bagotville.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
John Stockbridge
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-07-07
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
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EStockbridgeJFordTA430707-0001,
EStockbridgeJFordTA430707-0002,
EStockbridgeJFordTA430707-0003,
EStockbridgeJFordTA430707-0004
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.
Canada
Québec--Saguenay
New Brunswick--Moncton
United States
New York (State)--New York
Saskatchewan--Weyburn
New York (State)
Québec
New Brunswick
Saskatchewan
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.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-07-07
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jan Waller
aircrew
crash
pilot
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1895/35565/SGillK1438901v10017.1.pdf
ed5601d49fc7a6f06c54ef97071a2a5a
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
Gill, Kenneth
K Gill
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-09
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
Gill, K
Description
An account of the resource
One hundred and sixty-four items plus another one hundred and fifteen in two sub-ciollections. The collection concerns Flying Officer Kenneth Gill DFC (1922 - 1945, 1438901, 155097 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, photographs and family and other correspondence. <br />He flew operations as a navigator with 9 Squadron before starting a second tour with 617 Squadron. He was killed 21 March 1945 having completed 45 operations.<br /><br />The collection also contains two albums. <br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2114">Kenneth Gill. Album One</a><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2117">Kenneth Gill. Album Two</a><br /><br />Additional information on Kenneth Gill is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/108654/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Derek Gill and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Postmark]
MR. & MRS. F. GILL.
55, KYFFIN AVENUE,
HALTON.
LEEDS.
YORKSHIRE.
ENGLAND.
[Page Break]
P.C.90
OPENED BY [missing letters] AMINER 7 [missing letters]
[inserted] Dave Middleton at Leuchars
Sgt Alvey Full Buch Station Team
Cpl McLeod looking after you Drill Instructor [/inserted]
[Page Break]
1438901 L.A.C. GILL. K.
No 31 R.A.F. PERSONNEL DEPOT.
MONCTON.
NEW BRUNSWICK.
CANADA.
JAN. 27TH. 1942.
Dear Mum and All,
Well how’s everybody at 55 going on these days? Hope you’re all well & it’s not too cold. At present it’s very hot here, hotter even than our summer, but I’ll come to that later.
Hope the cable arrived safely, I sent it from the docks when we tied up.
We got ashore at 9.15p.m. on Monday the 19th and were transported by train to Moncton (as above) arriving there at 5.0 a.m. the next day. The temperature was well below zero & the snow was very hard packed & slippery. On arriving at the depot we were given billets, a good breakfast, & told to parade again at 1400 hrs. This gave
[Page Break]
2/
us plenty of time for a few hours rest which we badly needed.
In the afternoon we received 3 dollars in Canadian money & told to go & have a good in Moncton. Needless to say we needed no second bidding & proceeded to stuff ourselves with fruit of all kinds, chocolate, candy & food etc. The cinemas are not up to much in Moncton rating somewhere on the status of the Western in Florence Street. The lights in the streets & shops seemed very unreal and made our eyes ache, although the snow may have helped a lot. The streets were frozen hard & sleighs pulled by horses were much in evidence. The next day, Wednesday we were paid 10 dollars in American money, collected our kitbags from one pile & stacked them again elsewhere for further movement to our new abode. We were issued with new Identity Cards & had our photographs taken again. The following morning we had to get up at 4.0 a.m. breakfast at 5.0 a.m.
[Page break]
3/
and parade in kit, ready for moving off at 6.15 a.m. We had to make our way gingerly along the ice-covered roads to the station. Several of the lads slid most of the way on their posteriors but we arrived safely enough. At 8.0 a.m. we boarded the train and settled down to enjoy the scenery. The rivers were solid masses of ice & the lakes were like huge sheets of glass glistening in the early sun. Passing through wooded areas was like a fairyland. The snow sparkled like diamonds & the ice dusters on the trees shone like a myriad of tiny lights. The snow on the telegraph wires had melted then frozen again, giving the effect of tinsel stretched from pole to pole. This effect lasted for several miles and it really did look grand.
Dinner-time came round & we made our way down the train to the restaurant cars. Waiters made us comfortable and then proceeded to bring in the food.
[Page Break]
4/
We started off with tomato juice, followed by salad, then pork & potatoes (roasted) beans, spinach, cabbage & carrots, after that came rice & raisin pudding with cream. We finished off with coffee & biscuits and believe me we did feel heavy on our feet after that. Tea was on the same lines as dinner.
The American border was reached at 14.00 hrs and all watches were retarded an hour. Our identity cards were stamped by an official & we found we had a temporary 6 months passport for U.S.A.
At 2000 hrs we changed trains at Portland and moved off again in about ten minutes. During the night we ran out of the snow area and I awoke at 5.30 a.m. in New York. We did not leave the train however so we didn’t get much idea of the place. Breakfast consisted of grapefruit, porridge or cornflakes, bacon and egg, coffee, bread & butter & syrup. After that I had a little snooze & woke up as we moving
[Page Break]
5/
in to Washington at 10.30 a.m.
The sun was very warm indeed and our heavy uniforms stuck to our backs.
We changed trains again & moved on at 11.00 a.m. The country round this part seemed very dry & parched, the earth being a rich red colour, and the grass very coarse and light brown.
How everything survives on it beats me, but judging by the many tobacco fields something does. Dinner was chicken accompanied of course by the lesser ingredients.
During the afternoon we passed miles of fruit trees which at a guess I’d say were oranges. The only people we saw in them were coloured people, but I suppose there were white folk somewhere about.
Tea-time brought another well-prepared meal which we justice to. The train-men said we would be in early so we retired to bed at 9.0pm.
At about 9.0 a.m we arrived at Turner
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Field, Georgia. The dining cars had been taken off and we had not had breakfast. However these Americans don’t waste time and we were soon in billets. Breakfast was served at 10.0 a.m. and consisted of corn-flakes & milk, bacon & two eggs & flapjacks, bread and butter, jam, honey, syrup etc, etc, Coloured men waited on us & boy we kept them busy.
The rest of the day was spent in collecting kitbags, returning blankets, and arranging things in general. Dinner and tea were grand meals, and if the American public are used to such food, they won’t know what’s hit them when full rationing comes in.
The beds are grand affairs & we have pillow-cases & white sheets, two wool blankets and a eiderdown. Getting out of bed on a morning is an effort that takes some concentration to say the least. On Sunday we were up at
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6.0. a.m. and had bacon & [underlined] eggs [/underlined] for breakfast them shown how to lay out our rooms. The rest of the morning was spent in getting a haircut which costs the R.A.F. 30 cents or 1/6s. After dinner we had P.T. for two hours, had a shower, then dressed again for a lecture on discipline etc. Tea was served at 5.0 p.m. and after that we were free until midnight. Naturally we moved out of camp en masse & I was lucky enough to get a lift onto town in an officers car. The town is Albany, but being a Sunday we didn’t get a fair conception of its’ size and it’s salient feature. I haven’t been in since then but it seemed to us that you walked round one block about 50 yards square and you’d had it. The usual “drug stores” were much in evidence and quite full up. A “drug store” here is a shop where you buy almost as
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as we knew at Leuchars.
After duties I wrote to Vera and sent it by ordinary mail just to see how long it takes to get an answer. We had to be in billets by 7.45p.m. but that didn’t worry us any. I was in bed by 10.0 pm. and asleep in no time.
This morning I was up at 5.0 a.m. washed & dressed then slipped under the eiderdown for a snooze until reveille at 6.0 a.m. P.T. followed breakfast, then a lecture on Guard Systems etc. Drill followed on after that & we now do our own about-turns, inclinations on the march & American everything else except the salute. The commands are entirely different & when I can remember them all I’ll send you a list. More lectures on “Customs & Courtesies” followed dinner, & after that we were issued with text-
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books and took in our laundry. Athletics was cancelled owing to a very nice thunderstorm, incidentally this was the only time when the weather resembled anything like ours. The rain came down very heavily, & they brought up wagons to carry us from the store where we were sheltering to our billets. Tea was at 4.30p.m. and as it was still raining, drill was cancelled and also “open post”. At 7.45 p.m. the bugle went and everybody had to go into billets for the night.
Well that’s as far as I’ve gone up up [sic] to now, but I’ll let you know everything we do as long as I can remember to fill in my diary.
The American people are very kind to us and treat us very well indeed, and I’m looking forward to being able to exchange views
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with quite a few before we leave here. The officers in charge of us are very nice indeed, and very considerate, realising our strangeness they go to great lengths to explain thing to us and make us comfortable. We only have to ask for things & we get them; for instance potatoes & tea are now served at meal times, and they are trying to get us a short wave radio so that we can listen in to our own news & programmes. Newspapers are brought to our rooms every morning, so we can study the American aspect of the war & life in general for 25 cents a week in comfort. I’m in the best of health & weigh about 11st stripped so don’t worry about me. We expect to stay here about three weeks before moving on to the Primary Flying School. The lads from Leuchars
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are all here, and we’ve asked to be kept together all the way through. I think that’s all for now; hope I haven’t missed anything or spelt many words wrongly, I’m too tired to read it over just now.
Will you send me Ronnie’s address in your letter please, & let me know how he’s going on. You might send him this letter on when you’ve done with it if you like.
Tell David to look after Vera for me and ask him what he wants bringing back when I come home again.
Keep well all of you & chins up.
Good-night and God Bless You All.
Your loving Son.
Ken xxxxxxxxxx
David xxxxxxxxxx
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
Letter from Kenneth Gill to his mother
Description
An account of the resource
Mentions travel by rail to Moncton and comments on cold weather. Writes of his activities, food available and local shops. Goes on to describe onward train journey to the United States including food, countryside, weather and stops. Arrived at Turner Field, Georgia and goes on to describe activities, living conditions, training and staff. Expected to stay for three weeks before moving on to primary flying school. Page 8 is missing.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
K Gill
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-01-27
1942-01-29
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-01-27
1942-01-29
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Leeds
United States
Maine--Portland
Washington (D.C.)
Georgia--Albany
Georgia
Maine
New Brunswick
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
United States Army Air Force
Civilian
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Eleven page handwritten letter and envelope
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SGillK1438901v10017
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
Claire Monk
military living conditions
military service conditions
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1895/35568/SGillK1438901v10020.1.pdf
9c512628bdc93af9f9af68bb332186a5
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
Gill, Kenneth
K Gill
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-09
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
Gill, K
Description
An account of the resource
One hundred and sixty-four items plus another one hundred and fifteen in two sub-ciollections. The collection concerns Flying Officer Kenneth Gill DFC (1922 - 1945, 1438901, 155097 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, photographs and family and other correspondence. <br />He flew operations as a navigator with 9 Squadron before starting a second tour with 617 Squadron. He was killed 21 March 1945 having completed 45 operations.<br /><br />The collection also contains two albums. <br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2114">Kenneth Gill. Album One</a><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2117">Kenneth Gill. Album Two</a><br /><br />Additional information on Kenneth Gill is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/108654/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Derek Gill and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[CANADIAN Y.M.C.A crest]
ON ACTIVE SERVICE
1438901. L.A.C. GILL. K.
No. 31. R.A.F. P.D.
Moncton.
NEW BRUNSWICK.
CANADA.
APRIL. 22ND/42.
Dear Mum, Dad & all,
Hope you are all keeping as well as I am & enjoying the spring sunshine? The weather here is grand, plenty of sunshine, no rain, and not cold at night at all.
Well I guess I’d better tell you where I am now. As I said in my last letter I went back to Moncton after being eliminated from Pilot training because of dangerous & mechanical flying (standard phrases for excuse for elimination), and after staying there for nearly two weeks we
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were sent up here to Trenton in Ontario. The other day we went past a load of officers & I re-mustered to Observer. Trenton as you will see from the map is on the Eastern end of Lake Ontario, and is also about 100 miles from Toronto.
I’ll go back a little way now and tell you a little about the stay in Moncton.
We arrived there on the day before Good Friday after a 3 day journey from Florida. After being given billets we were told to report at 9.0am. on the Saturday morning giving us a whole day off. (not bad eh!) Well George & I, by the way George is an old Leucharian & the only one in our
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our [sic] flight, consequently we hang together, made a tour of the town to see if it had changed any since our stay in January. The town was just the same, except for the snow, which wasn’t (get me), so we went back to camp & bed.
The next day, Good Friday we wandered round the town after dinner & were just coming back from the Ponticoddiac [sic] River; we’d been watching the pack ice drifting down to the sea; when a gentleman hailed us. Naturally we turned round, & he offered to drive us round in his car for a while. About 4.pm. he said “Now lads I know English folks like a cup of tea about this time so let’s
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go home & see what there is.”
The gentleman took us home & we met his wife Mrs. Grant & her two children Eleanor & Mildred & two friends of the family. Well tea followed, the friends left & we talked quite a lot then had late dinner.
During our conversation Mr. Grant spoke quite a lot about his visit to Liverpool in 1920 & again in 1930. & George who comes from there pricked up his ears a little. It transpired that Mr. Grant had stayed in the next street to where George lives at the house of Georges’ dad’s friend.
George new the daughter a little better than the father but they had quite a good chat. It just shows once again what a small world this is. We had a really wonderful time
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there & Mr. Grant drove us back to camp & asked us to dinner on the following Monday. We knew that a Teachers Convention was to be held in Moncton that week but you can imagine our surprise when we found two charming young ladies awaiting us on the Monday evening.
The girls Hilda & Laura were from the backwoods (so to speak) & taught school to the children from the lumber-jack camps. Never the less they were well schooled & we had a fine evening discussing various subjects from customs and courtesies of different nations, through various sciences to music & art. After that we showed them how to play Whist, in return we were shown how to
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play “Auction 45’s” one of the funniest card games I’ve ever seen. We left at 2.30 am. & got back into camp quite easily undetected. Well as you will guess, the rest of the week we acted as escorts & guides & had a grand time. The girls left on the Friday afternoon for home & we returned to our new home Mrs Grants.
It really did feel like home they made us so welcome, & we were free to come & go as we pleased.
Our posting came through on the Thursday morning & we said “Cheerio” to the Grants & departed on our way to Trenton. We arrived here last Friday afternoon & on the way we stayed in Montreal for an hour & had a look round. By Saturday morning we were through with the
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usual station procedure & were given leave until 6.30 a.m. on the Monday morning. Now George being a handy guy to have around remembered he had a cousin in Toronto so we decided to go. We only new his name but that didn’t worry us. The fare to Toronto was $3 return so we purchased tickets & boarded the train at 4.10 pm. Now these trains they have here are trains & then some & 70 m.p.h. is not unusual. The goods trains are often over half-a-mile long & boy do they hustle along. Well to get back to what I was saying, we arrived in Toronto at 6.45 pm & armed with just a name (Mr. Lawrenson it is) we made our way to a phone booth. Luckily there were only three Lawrensons in it so we chose the 2nd one
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and low & behold we struck lucky once again. We were [deleted] tall [/deleted] told to meet him at the station & in twenty minutes I was being introduced to George’s cousin, an Englishman of perhaps thirty or so. He couldn’t quite realise that George was the Nipper he’d been used to back in England twelve years ago but we convinced him that it was. We drove round Toronto & viewed the lake (Ontario I mean). and several interesting places then we went to a café & ate.
Harold (George cousin) is married, and later on when we had done a little more driving round we went home.
Here we were introduced to Mrs. Lawrenson (Ted by nickname) & her mother a Mrs. Cameron. By this time it was getting late so we retired to bed.
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The following morning we had breakfast & then went to church.
At the church we might have been two persons of nobility the way we received & everybody wanted to speak to us & shake our hands.
Luckily we managed to get away at last & went back for dinner.
The sun had come out grand by this time & after dinner we went for a long drive round Toronto.
It really is a lovely city & the suburbs are grand with large open gardens & no hedges or fences. The whole place seemed like a huge park with rows of grand houses placed here and there among the lawns & gardens. There was
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no snow at all anywhere & the grass was a new green & the trees starting to put on their spring clothes of brilliant greens. I wish you could have been with us it seemed like something you read about that had suddenly come true.
The time for departure soon came round & we had to leave & catch the 11.15 p.m train back to camp. We have been granted a 48 hour pass this weekend & are hoping to go to Niagara Falls with Georges’ cousin on the Saturday.
I think I’ll tell you about this camp now, it’s the finest camp in Canada & I doubt if we have one in England to touch it. Everything possible is done for the airmans’ comfort and well-being. The barracks are
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grand places to live in , with polished floors, [deleted] s [/deleted] lockers, writing tables, an electric plug for each bed for radios etc, plenty of showers, a drying room & a baggage room. The messes are grand halls & the food is excellent. We also have an Airmens Lounge with large divans, leather chairs, tapestries, grand pianos, & soft carpets.
Attached to the Lounge we have two Billiard rooms with six tables, then six table-tennis sets, darts, & a bowling alley, checkers, draughts, chess & what-have-you.
I forget the writing room in which I am now. In the large Y.M.C.A. building we have Wet & Dry Canteens, another Lounge, Reading & Writing Rooms, a Library, Barbers’ Shop, large swimming pool, showers, dressing rooms & a large gymnasium.
Then in the Sports Hangar we have a large dance-hall, a boxing ring, another gymnasium, tennis-courts, badminton courts,
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& a well-equipped Sports Store. On the Sports Field we have a running track, baseball diamond, cricket pitch, football & rugger pitches, & horseshoe courts. We also have a landing stage & launches on the lakeside & as far as I know they organise fishing matches for the fisherman. Naturally as is necessary for all stations, we have two very large drill-squares & they are made good use of too. Before I forget we also have two large cinemas with three shows every week, twice nightly for 10 cents each show. There are also excellent facilities for laundry, dry-cleaning & pressing on the camp. If anybody should wish to go out of camp for an evening, we have a Hostess House in the camp & the two venerable ladies distribute invitations from the various homes in the town for airmen to go for supper – or to a show etc.
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I don’t think I can say any more about the camp, except that the N.C.O’s & the officers here are the best lot of fellows we’ve ever had to contend with. Trenton in our opinion is the tops & we’re glad to be here.
Well I think I’ll run over your last letter of the 9th of March, which I received a little over a week ago.
Up to press I’ve had three letters from home, two from Vera & a cable; one from Auntie Glad, Auntie René, & Grandma which I have still to answer as yet (I mean the last three are to answer).
As you say dad the journey from snow to sunshine was grand & coming back was a little nicer. We left Florida in the beginning of the hot season (it reached 100°) & travelled North up the
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coast. We ran into snow & ice in north Virginia & strange as it seems we ran out of it again just across the border and it seemed to get a little warmer as we went further North.
When we reached Moncton it was quite warm & I was glad I’d packed my greatcoat. However the Good weather didn’t last long, we had a terrific snow storm three days later & we had over a foot of snow over-night with a strong wind which made deep drifts.
The sun prevailed, & in the end the snow was cleared again by the time we left. I havn’t [sic] written a letter to Ron yet, but when I do I s’pose [sic] it will nearly be a repetition of your letter. He seems to be having a little travelling to do himself these days but when you think of what he’d have to do if he was with me
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it would seem small. You know mum so far we’ve journeyed over 7,500 miles by train, 3,000 by boat, & over a 1000 miles by car; the train journeys taking over 170 hours all-told, so hows’ that.
Remember you used to say the fortune teller said one son would travel, well it seems it’s me, what do you say?
You know dad I was saying to the boys I wondered who would be digging up the gardens this year, as we usually had an illness around February & March, when your letter came & you’ve all been ill. Well I can only hope you’re all well again now. Poor mum, I bet she had a job with you all at home to ‘help’ her.
Hope the Nipper keeps up with the good work, he’ll have to be a wireless operator then he say – A for Apple himself. or will he??
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I suppose by now Gladys will be well & truly initiated to the land. At least Ron will have somebody to help him dig his garden ahem!!!
Glad to hear youv’e [sic] heard from Pip, & hope she can get over for a bit this month. Remember me to her & tell her I’m having a grand time.
No dad we don’t have “Pie-clets” over here, worse luck, we do have Flap-jacks & whaffles [sic] though & they’re quite nice with Maple Syrup or Sugar.
You know dad when I do get home I think we’d best have a family gathering affair then I [inserted] can [/inserted] see all the relations together& try & answer their questions. I’ve managed to collect a few photographs together & I’ve put them in an album so maybe they’ll help a little. Still its’ good to know people outside our family do take an interest in us dad. You know every
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where we go, people ask if we have any photo’s of the folks at home, & they all say your grand, I’m so proud of you all.
Tell Leslie to remember me to the boys in the H.G. They have a similar sort of organisation in Canada now too.
Sorry to hear the lad-o! had a bus smash, but glad he’s O.K. again now.
Tell him to give my regards to Gladys when he writes; but not to say anything about digging his gardens.
The Cook’s car sure was a beauty dad, that’s one thing the Yanks have on us. The car we used to use in Florida was an 80hp. 1941 model Oldsmobile & we managed 100m.p.h. on one occasion & frequently drove at 80 & 90 m.p.h. I remember on one occasion we we [sic] doing round about 90 m.p.h.
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and we had to slow down for a corner. Well as you know when you’ve been going very fast, you can’t judge speed properly when you slow down, & we took the corner at 60 m.p.h. in a lovely broadside skid. After that we watched the speedometer at corners & did alright.
As I said in my last letter we had three days leave from Arcadia when we were eliminated and seven of us hired the car and went off. We stayed in Sarasota for two days, swimming, & sunbathing on the Gulf of Mexico. We were invited to stay at the Siesta Keys Hotel & had a fine time there.
On the third day we got up at 8.30am & met the rest of the boys at 10.00am. & set out in the car.
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We travelled up the West Coast of Florida & passed through Bradenton, then on to Tampa, across the Davis Causeway to St. Petersburg. From there we crossed over by ferry to Piney Point & back to Bradenton. There we met some ladies at the Y.M.C.A. & they asked us if they could write to you so we gave them our home addresses. I havn’t written to them myself as I forgot to ask for their address but I hope they’ve written you.
From Bradenton we went back to Sarasota, then on to Punta Gorda & finally back to camp. We covered about 500 miles that day & boy were we tired.
I’m trying to remember everything we saw, but I suppose I’ll get a little muddled at times, we saw so much variation.
I don’t think I have any more news just now for you
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mum, hope you arn’t [sic] bored reading this lot, excuse spelling & scribble. I have to write pretty fast else I get in front of myself if you get what I mean, my hand won’t go as fast as my brain wants it to.
Give my love to Grandma & Grandad, Aunts & Uncles & remember me to everybody.
Look after yourselves & God Bless You.
Lots of love.
Your loving Son.
Ken xxxxxxxxxx.
David xxxxxxxxxx.
P.S. I got Mrs. Priestley’s brothers address a little two [sic] late to go down to Miami but I’ll try & find time to write to him.
Love Ken xxx
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
Letter from Kenneth Gill to his parents
Description
An account of the resource
Writes that he had returned to Moncton after being eliminated from pilot training and that after being boarded at Trenton Ontario, he re-mustered as an observer. Goes back to describe his activities while at Moncton including local sightseeing, hospitality of local family and people. Goes on with full description of activities with locals. Mentions visit to Toronto and provides descriptions of area and activities there. Describes new camp, facilities and weather. Catches up with family news and gossip. Goes on to recount other adventures including visit to Sarasota and other travels in Florida.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
K Gill
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-04-22
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-04-22
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
Ontario--Trenton
Ontario--Toronto
United States
Florida--Sarasota
Florida
Ontario
New Brunswick
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Twenty page handwritten letter
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SGillK1438901v10020
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
Paul Ross
aircrew
military living conditions
military service conditions
training