1
25
98
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/957/9622/SMathersRW55201v10018.2.jpg
28379816b7a13ac302ad369afe996dca
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Mathers, Ronald. Album
Description
An account of the resource
45 page scrapbook of Squadron life and The Goodwill Tour to the United States by 35 Squadron in 1946. It includes photographs, newspaper cuttings, and programmes. The tour visited stations on both the East and West coasts of the United States and the airmen were entertained with visits to Hollywood.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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SMathersRW55201v1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-17
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[missing letters]Y. JULY 19, 1946 23
WINGS OF PEACE OVER NEW YORK
[photograph]
HIGH, WIDE, AND HANDSOME. Here on goodwill mission, dozen four engined Lancaster bombers fly over New York, giving inkling of the might that was blended with U.S. warbirds to produce victory in air over Europe. Shot of British planes was made by News aerial fotog flying above formation.
[page break]
[photograph]
[underlined] BEER AND HOT DOGS AT THE PONY RACES [/underlined]
[photograph] [photograph]
[underlined] THE SWIMMING POOL MITCHELL FIELD. L to R:- PETE, JERRY , PENNY & I [/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
Wings of Peace over New York
Description
An account of the resource
Item 1 is a newspaper cutting with a photograph of 12 Lancasters over New York. Photograph 1 is a group of airmen seated in tiered rows. It is captioned 'Beer and Hot Dogs at the Pony Races'. Photograph 2 and 3 are four airmen seated at a round table with a parasol. Behind is a swimming pool and diving board. It is captioned 'The swimming pool Mitchel Field, L to R Pete, Jerry, Penny and I.'
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-07
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v10018
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)
New York (State)--New York
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.
1946-07
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One newspaper cutting and three b/w photographs on a scrapbook page
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
35 Squadron
entertainment
Goodwill tour of the United States (1946)
Lancaster
Pathfinders
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1292/17608/PPearceAT16030012.2.jpg
409a0acbe0ef44cb7e3a33520792820e
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Wings of Peace over New York
Description
An account of the resource
Newspaper cutting with photograph showing 12 Lancasters over New York City. 'High, Wide, and Handsome. Here on goodwill mission, dozen four-engined Lancaster bombers fly over New York giving inkling of the might that was blended with U.S. warbirds to produce victory in air over Europe. Shot of British planes was made by news aerial fotog flying above formation.'
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-07-19
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One newspaper cutting mounted on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PPearceAT16030012
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Civilian
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Geolocated
35 Squadron
aerial photograph
Goodwill tour of the United States (1946)
Lancaster
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2562/43846/PBraithwaiteW19010043.2.jpg
4896f4ca714c55667f2f258b633d4ed5
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Title
A name given to the resource
Braithwaite, Walter. Album
Description
An account of the resource
49 items. Photographs of Walter Braithwaite's training.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-10-22
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Braithwaite, W
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Urban scenes
New York
Description
An account of the resource
The photograph on the left of the left page shows cars and other motor vehicles on a road with buildings lining either side of the street.
The photograph on the top centre of the left page shows women walking down a street. Signs are being carried in the background of the photograph.
The photograph on the right of the left page shows some military personnel. The man on the left of the photograph can be seen shaking the hand of the man on the right of the photograph. The man on the right can be seen wearing a cape.
The photograph on the bottom centre on the left page shows four tepee tents behind a picket fence.
The photograph on the top left of the right page is looking along Time Square, New York. A large sign along a building reads ‘Trouser Suits’.
People can be seen crossing a road, with various motor vehicles in the background. Buildings are lining the streets. An American flag can be seen hanging from the building on the left of the photograph.
The photograph top right of the right page shows people walking down Broadway at the junction with W47th street. Cars can be seen parked by the side of the pavement and buildings are lining the street. The Strand Theatre, Howards menswear at 1600 Broadway, and The Cotton Club are visible. There is a billboard advertising the film Desperate Journey.
The photograph on the bottom left of the right page shows cars driving along Park Avenue, New York, in the distance is Grand Central Terminal. The peaked building above it is The Helmsley Building. Park Ave tunnel is bottom left.
The photograph on the bottom right of the right page shows a park with a body of water situated in the middle of the photograph. Trees can be seen surrounding the shoreline.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
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Eight b/w photographs
Identifier
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PBraithwaiteW19010043
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)--New York
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Stilgoe
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
First nation
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1827/33533/EWeedneRCCartwrightI430517-0001.2.jpg
9a751d4ab798d81232e546b9d399a477
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1827/33533/EWeedneRCCartwrightI430517-0002.2.jpg
ea9033a05c2c96f500d1475dea96b34b
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Weeden, Reginald Charles
R C Weeden
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
2017-04-09
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
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Weeden, RC
Description
An account of the resource
89 items. The collection concerns Reginald Charles Weeden (b. 1922, 1602823, 153661 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, letters, documents, badges, medal ribbons and photographs. He flew operations as a navigator with 75 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Scott Weeden and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MRS. I. CARTWRIGHT
416 COWLEY ROAD
OXFORD
ENGLAND
002153
1602823 LAC. WEEDEN R.C.
NO. 1 A.O.S.
MALTON
ONTARIO
CANADA.
17-5-43
[underlined] PART. 1 [/underlined]
My dear Mum,
I expect you will be wondering when am I going to write but I hope the following will explain the delay. Firstly last week-end we were issued with a 48 hour pass from Friday night until Monday morning. This was the opportunity I had been waiting for, so quickly packing a few essential things I was bound for New York with my two pals. After travelling all night we arrived at Pennsylvania Station at 8.30 am Saturday. The next thing was, we reported to the Maple Leaf Club on 5th Ave. and before we could do anything we had an invitation for lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York’s finest hotel, next tickets for a show, then two dances lasting until 3 am. What a day? [sic] and a scorcher too. We crawled back to our hotel The Chesterfield, dead beat. Sunday commenced with a tour of the Empire State Building, followed up by another show, what a riot, jitterbugging in the aisles, and finally a tea-dance at the Biltmore Hotel, from here we caught our train back to Montreal.
Continued ¬--------
[page break]
MRS. I. CARTWRIGHT
416 COWLEY ROAD.
OXFORD.
ENGLAND.
002280
1602823 LAC. WEEDEN R.C.
NO. 1 A.O.S.
MALTON
ONTARIO
CANADA.
17-5-43
[underlined] PART. 2 [/underlined]
On reporting back to our station – Lachine we were posted to Air Observer School and so once again we were off packing etc., and managed to get away by Wednesday afternoon. I hope you received my cable which I sent Tuesday night. We arrived at Toronto about 9 pm and as we had a few days leave until Sunday we decided to tour the States. Thursday saw us in Niagara Falls. Buffalo, Erie, and Cleveland. Friday we arrived at Detroit and spent a grand evening with a Yank instructor. Saturday we were bound for Malton, via Windsor, London, Hamilton and Toronto, so ended the most hectic week I have ever experienced. Malton is about 15 miles outside Toronto which is quite handy to get in for a week-end, but from all accounts I shall have my hands full, flying until midnight, late classes til [sic] 11 pm, both these twice weekly and then of course private studies which is most essential for I intend to pass this course. Closing now, thanks for birthday cards which I received today. Regards to Den & Bill.
To Evelyn xxxxx Love Reg xxxxx
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Title
A name given to the resource
Two part airgram from Reginal Weeden to his mother
Description
An account of the resource
Part 1. Explains delay in writing due to 48 hour pass which allowed him to go to new York. Describes activities there.
Part 2. On return was posted to air observers school and was packing to go. Arrive in Toronto and did tour including Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland and Detroit as well as other locations in Canada. Writes about training schedule at observer school at Malton Ontario.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
R C Weeden
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-17
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two pages of handwritten airgram forms
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
EWeedenRCCartwrightI430517
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.
United States
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)--Buffalo
New York (State)--Erie County
Ohio--Cleveland
Michigan--Detroit
Canada
Ontario--Malton
Ontario--Windsor
Ontario--London
Ontario--Hamilton
Ontario--Toronto
Great Britain
England--Oxfordshire
England--Oxford
Michigan
New York (State)
Ohio
Ontario
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-17
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription. Under review
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
military living conditions
military service conditions
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/194/27236/BAdamsHGAdamsHGv3.1.pdf
b629d8156eacb9d34cd9571706ae198a
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Adams, Herbert
Herbert Adams
H Adams
Herbert G Adams
Description
An account of the resource
88 items. Collection concerns Herbert George Adams DFC, Legion d'Honour (b. 1924, 424509 Royal Australian Air Force). He flew operations as a navigator with 467 Squadron. Collection contains an oral history interview, photographs of people and places, several memoirs about his training and bombing operations, letters to his family, his flying logbook and notes on navigation.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Herbert Adams and catalogued by Nigel Huckins and Trevor Hardcastle.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-02-15
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Adams, HG
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
The War … Training.
Towards the end of 1941, the Air Training Corps was formed. Terry Cooke & I joined at once, and, due to my surname, my number was 10 001, the first in NSW. We trained at Ashfield in Whitehurst’s garage (the showroom floor was devoid of new cars by then), and Whitehurst himself was the Squadron Leader in charge – he was an ex-pilot from WWI. One of the benefits of joining the A.T.C. was that it gave you accelerated position on the waiting list for air-crew … then about 8 months. Air-crew enlistment was very popular, I guess partly due to the Battle of Britain publicity & the realization that air power would play a big part in the war. The Japs had shown at Pearl Harbour that planes could sink battleships (putting them out-of-date forever!)
Our training in the ATC consisted mainly of learning Morse Code, aircraft & ship recognition of both Allied and enemy planes & ships. Terry was already an accomplished plane modeller, & he added several to the growing collection hanging from the ceiling … we studied them, learnt their names & tried to recognise them at a distance and in subdued light.
We also did some P.E. The “old” tubby Squdron [sic] Leader surprised us early in the piece. He got us all to do as many push-ups as we could. No one got beyond 30, several couldn’t do 10. He then proceeded to do 50! He had a table-tennis set up & was quite adept, so we all got a go at that. In the city at that time the world doubles champions had an academy in Pitt St. He invited them to put on an exhibition for us, including a set of singles for some of us against one of them. Two of their ‘stunts’ stood out. Zabados [sic] (the older) would say, “it’s an easy game, see” while returning shots with his back to Keelan (who was good enough to put the ball onto his bat.) Zabados [sic] then turned, faced Keelan & returned several balls using the edge of the bat!
[page break]
I had a set against Keelan, and despite him “setting up” chances for my topspin forehand, he won 21-6.
We were promised uniforms in the spring of 1942. But, although we were then on the waiting list for call-up for aircrew, compulsory national military training had begun. In June, Terry was called up for the Army, & sent to North Sydney for Artillery training. As both our birthdays were in February, I enquired why I wasn’t called up too. We both realized that 6/- a day with everything found made us rich compared with public service wage of about £3 a week … paying board & fares.
I was surprized [sic] to learn they had me “in reserved occupation”! After a lot of phone calls and a consultation, that was scrubbed and I was called up for the Army on 3rd July & sent to Dubbo for basic infantry training .. 54th Company of 5th Infantry Training Brigade, army number 252661. We did the usual rifle, bayonet, machine-gun, anti-tank gun, mortars, grenades, & gas-drills, parade ground drill (not too much), P.E., routemarches ending in the “mad-mile” … obstacle course … a bit like we see at Kapooka on T.V. It was a solid month. Then our corporal invited any of us who could drive a truck to step forward … for a course at Moorebank for a month, likely to have us become a driver on infantry transport. All 30 of us stepped forward! After trying us out in 3 ton Fords, about 20 of us convinced them we could double-shuffle … (one chap never managed to change from low … just grind, grind, grind … so he didn’t go.), & we got on the course.
At Moorebank (next to the big Army camp at Liverpool) we spent most days on practical work, especially on Bren gun carriers, including some driving. The gear linkage was a mirror-reverse of normal gear H pattern …. a bit hard to learn. Gentle curves could be made with the steering wheel which put a bed in the tracks, but for sharper turns, we’d change down 2 gears, hit the accelerator & turn the wheel sharply, which [indecipherable word] one track
[page break]
The carriers were quite heavy (1/4” armour all round) & driven by a Ford V8 Mercury engine, so there was a lot of stalling learning to do sharp turns. Some of the heavier work was repairing broken tracks. We also did a lot of learning how to take-apart carburettors, petrol pumps, mend punctures, change wheels etc. Then, each night we had lectures on all sorts of things to do with transport, including how engines worked, clutches, diffs, steering, electrical etc. I managed to skip a few of these night sessions, but still studied the manual they provided. At the end of the month we had a written exam. A couple of lads hadn’t learnt to read & write very well, and I guess many of the them [sic] hadn’t excelled at school. Anyway, I came top of the class & was invited to do a 6-month course at Sydney Tech College & come out Warrant Officer instructor, age 18! Wartime promotion! I was tempted, since it was well known that the loss rate in Air Crew was high. However, I turned it down, went back to Dubbo for a few more weeks … mostly working on Bren gun carriers, until I got the call-up for air-crew .. on 12th Sept to Bradfield Park, No 2 I.T.S. (Initial Training School).
[black and white photograph of Herbert Adams in Australian Army uniform]
This is my only photo in Army uniform, taken at “Springfield” Mendooran, about the end of August ’42, probably on a short leave after completing the course at Moorebank, on the way back to Dubbo.
[page break]
At Bradfield Park we were 32 course (one a month since the [inserted] Empire [/inserted] Air Training Scheme began early in 1940 to provide aircrew for Britain … training done in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa & Australia.) Each course was divided into several “flights” graded according to our tested speeds at receiving Morse Code. I was one of 25 in 32D flight, … I think there were 7 flights. We all wore “goonskins” & berets.
Photo taken on 6/10/42
[black and white photograph of four rows of men wearing boiler suits and berets at the side of a hut]
Front Row: F. Morgan, J. Chigwidden, R. Roeder, C. Dowie.
Second Row: E. Cunningham, R. McCallister, R. Schneider, P. Rutherford, L. Davies, J. Boatswain, J. Thorne
Third Row: J. O’Brien, J. Weekes, K. Burns, A. Marshall, R. Loton, P. Skerman, B. Adams, D. Nicholls
Back Row: M. Coleman, D. Milliken, G. Lumsdaine, G. Benson, P. Brander, D. Placell, A. Dufty.
[page break]
The course at Bradfield Park lasted about 3 months. There was a lot more Morse Code training, aiming at 20 words/min for us all. There was a lot of introductory training about Theory of Flight, Meteorology, Guns & ammunition, bombs, elementary radio, principles of navigation & bomb aiming. We also got an indication of what further training would occur, & where, for the main categories:- pilots, observors [sic] (combined navigation, bomb-aiming & air gunnery), & WAG (wireless operator/gunner).
All got a dental overhaul. I think there were some ‘trainee’ dentists. I was supposed to get 6 fillings one day. After drilling until only a shell remained on one tooth; in trying to extract it, it broke off & so had to be a cut-job to get the root out. I had that happen 5 more times, about a week apart. No doubt my teeth were chalky. I got a new bigger plate.
Sometime during the course I got a mild case of mumps & was sent to the isolation hospital, Prince Henry, near Malabar.
When I got back I became part of 33 course, but then they decided that part of 33 course would be “rushed” to join 32 course … more places to fill at the various training venues. Those chosen had to be reasonably fast at Morse Code; I qualified & so rejoined 32 course.
We did a lot of P.E. One of our regular tasks was a run down to Fullers Bridge & back (uphill). The P.E. instructors gave us recruits a lot of “get a move on you soft ------- s”. It’s true most of the recruits were soft, straight from civvy street, many from desk jobs. But a couple of us had been toughened up by infantry training & told them not to be so tough. The upshot was a challenge who could get to the top first – us or the P.E. instructors. We won, I guess partly because they could have been at the NCOs canteen after work … we had to be tee-total.
There was a lot of emphasis on marching; we found out why … we we [sic] the main lot to march
[page break]
in Sydney in support of a War Loan Rally. We marched 12-abreast & on some corners collided with onlookers & barricades due to the tendancy [sic] of marchers to push outwards on corners.
The food at Bradfield Park was generally fairly good except for their scrambled egg … it was made from egg-powder & found to be so distasteful that garbage bins were overflowing outside the mess huts with discarded scrambled egg. Yet, later, in England we enjoyed scrambled egg made from egg powder. Better cooks maybe?
Towards the end of the course there was a co-ordination test … perhaps to indicate suitability for pilot training. (The bulk of us young fellows wanted to be pilots.) The test required use of a joystick & rudder pedals to cause a light spot to follow a projected light spot. When our course was briefed to do this I was at the dentist & so had to do it later on my own. I suspect I wasn’t given adequate briefing; but the main drawback was because, as a youngster, I had a flivver … you steered it with your feet just the opposite way that rudder pedals work on a plane; it had a handle worked to & fro joined to a crank to the back wheels, like the old railway fettlers ‘trikes’. Whatever the reason, I knew I’d performed badly on the test. So when it came to ask for Pilot, Observor [sic] or WAG, I said observor. [sic] the reply was …”don’t you want to be a pilot? Why observor?” [sic] So I said that I knew I’d done badly on the coordination test, but I’d done well in Maths & Science at High School so I thought I’d make a good navigator (the main task of the observor) [sic] .. What I didn’t say, if I asked for pilot & they’d said no, you can train as a W.A.G. They agreed for me to train as an Observor [sic] at Air Observors [sic] School (No 1 A.O.S.) at Cootamundra, starting on 10 Dec. ’42 after a few days leave.
[page break]
We arrived by train at Cootamundra in the morning. As I threw my kitbag on top of the truck-load of them, I fainted & woke up in the local hospital. A doctor wanted to operate at once for appenicitis [sic] but needed written parental permission as I was under 21. They’d phoned home but had no way to get written permission in time so he got me to sign it. I think I was dilerious [sic] for 2 or 3 days. Mum & May had arrived & stayed at a hotel for a few more days. I was treated (lucky for me) with penicillin, which was relatively new in hospitals then. A large needle was taped to a buttock & graduated doses squirted in … so many CC’s, wait a few hours, more CCs, wait, etc. … it took 24 hours to complete. I had a rubber tube in my side which oozed out grey pus. After 2 weeks I thought I might go home. But I was kept there for 4 weeks. Then sent home still with an open hole in the centre of the scar which had to be dressed & covered … no swimming. Just as I was leaving they said “You’ll have to go and have your appendix out in about 3 months time … all we’ve done has been to teat your infection .. sort of gangrene.” I had 2 weeks sick leave at Mendooran, & did wade in the dam a few times while Beryl & Meggs swam & dived.
[black and white photograph of Herbert Adams in uniform]
This photo was probably taken during that leave in January ’43 at Springfield.
The white strip on our berets signified “aircrew trainee.”
[page break]
When I returned to Cootamundra, I was put on “Light Duties”, in the Navigation Instruments section where they stored, issued, repaired & received maps, dividers, parallel ruler, & C.S.C.’s (courses speed calculators). One person could easily handle it so I did almost nothing. In our spare time I helped his little money-maker – making brooches etc from moulded plastic (he got that free) … all he bought were the safety pins embedded in the back.
I actually joined 35 Course for a while and attended some of the lessons, but didn’t fly with them. However I did get to attend their passing-out dinner at the Albion Hotel, .. the lads normally drank there or at the Globe, opposite, on Sat. afternoons. Some of them did literally pass-out due to too much beer.
On 30th March ’43, I entered Forest Hill RAAF hospital where a big-name RAAF surgeon from Melbourne took out my appendix, kept me there for 2 weeks then I got 2 weeks leave.
On 29th April I got back to Cootamundra and did a few weeks with 37 Course, actually doing my first plane flight ever with them on 11th May … being airsick twice in 3 hours. I attended their passing-out dinner too, and finally began the Observors [sic] course 38A.
In the classroom we did a lot of dry-swim exercises of plotting air-plots, fixes, wind-finding as well as learning more meterology, [sic] signalling, radio, ship & plane recognition, compasses & map projections, & photography. On any flight over 2 hours I got air sick, as did several others … the inside of the old Anson actually smelt like vomit, which didn’t help. I & a few others got some treatment at sick quarters for motion sickness which entailed sitting (strapped in) in a machine than [sic] combined swinging & rotating. It didn’t seem to help. The Ansons were not heavy planes, but one day we taxied to the far corner, it was only a grass ‘drome in those days), & got bogged as we turned to take off. The 3 trainee navs. & the W.O.P. got out & pushed & we got it out.
[page break]
Here’s a bit about the Anson from an old book we used to learn aircraft recognition.
[four drawings of an Anson aircraft]
[black and white photograph of an Anson]
AVRO ANSON
Valuable operations against U-boats stand to the credit of the Avro Anson, a coastal reconnaissance machine readily distinguished by its long windowed “greenhouse” cabin. It carries a crew of three, is driven by two 350 h.p. Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah IX air-cooled radial motors and armed with fixed machine-guns in nose and turret. The wooden wings have a span of 56 ft. 6 in.; the fuselage is metal, with fabric covering. The Avro Anson is also used extensively as a training machine. Top speed, 188 m.p.h.
We, later, also flew in Ansons at Parkes doing the Astro-navigation course, and at Llandwrog (North Wales) where we did “Advanced” (not very) Flying … really an introduction to navigating in Britain.
[page break]
At Cootamundra we flew 17 times for a total of 51 1/4 hrs, mostly day-time. Usually 3 trainee nav’s went on each flight, doing 1/3 of the actual navigation each. The other two practised map-reading, drift-taking, bearing taking (with hand-held compass). Our longest trip was to Parafield (S.A.) where we stayed the night. On the way over we flew above cloud nearly all the time, so no map-reading. The W.O.P. tried to get loop bearings on radio stations but these were often difficult to pick up & notoriously inaccurate. We got lucky – below the only break in the clouds appeared the town of Donald (surrounded by many miles of “nothing” for map reading). This gave us a chance to find the wind-velocity, readjust our course for Parafield & our ETA. We had a passing-out dinner, a weeks leave and a posting to Evans Head.
Below is the assessment for the A.C.S. course at Cootamundra … maybe a bit faint for copying from my log-book.
[table from log book between 27.5.43 and 19.9.43]
[page break]
On 20th Aug. ’42 we arrived by train at Casino, then RAAF transport lorry to Evans Head’s site of No 1 B.A.G.S. (Bombing & Gunnery School). We did a lot of classroom work on bombsights, bomb construction, and later on air-to-air & air-to-ground gunnery – the deflection problem, & operation of the Vickers Gas Operated machine gun. Our flying was done in Fairey Battle planes, some of which had survived the retreat from France (many didn’t, as they were no match for Me 109’s.). Although the Observor [sic] lay on the floor with his face just behind the radiator when bombing, getting hot glycol fumes, I was never airsick in them. Others were who hadn’t been sick in Ansons. For a typical bombing exercise we carried up to 8 practice bombs, dropped in separate runs on a patch of sand at the bombing range, where our error could be gauged & recorded. Before bombing, we’d use the drift recorder in 3 directions to find the wind to set on the bomb-sight. If our wind was wrong we’d get a bigger error than otherwise. My average error for 131 bombs was 123 yards although this included 45 from low level where the errors were smaller. I did only one night exercise with 3 bombs averaging 74 yards .. better than day-time. Total flying time for bomb-aiming was 60 1/2 hours for 19 flights.
For air-gunnery we would dip the .303 bullet heads in paint, load them into circular drum magazines and shoot at drogues towed by another Battle. Four different gunners, using different coloured paint, could fire at the same drouge [sic] before it was dropped & the number of hits recorded for each colour. The last of the 4 would often be shouted a mock dog-fight with the drouge [sic]-tower after he’d dropped the drouge. [sic] It usually included a loop the loop. The worst part of gunnery was cleaning the paint out of the magazines. I reckon my deafness may be due to the 1656 rounds fired with left forearm below the barrel, cheek alongside the breech-block of the gun mounted in the open rear cockpit on a spigot. My best result was 22 percent of 200 rounds worst 0 percent of 86 rounds (my first try) & overall average about 4 percent, I didn’t find it easy to allow the proper deflection.
[page break]
This is a bit about the Fairey Battle, from the same old aircraft recognition book.
[seven drawings and one black and white photograph of a Fairey Battle]
FAIREY BATTLE
This well-known medium bomber, which won an early reputation on the Western Front, has a distinctive feature in its long cockpit enclosure, terminating in the rear gunner’s position. A second machine-gun is situated in the starboard wing. Fuselage is slim and oval in section and the sharply tapering wings have a span of 54 feet. Power is provided by a 1,030 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin II or III engine giving a top speed of 257 m.p.h. and a range of 1,000 miles.
[page break]
We left Evans Head on 10th Oct, (no leave) and arrived at Parkes on the 11th, for a 1 month astro-nav. course. 1 A.N.S. (Air Nav. School). I think we were all promoted to L.A.C. after Cootamundra, getting (I think) an extra 6d a day. When we pass out at Parkes most of us will become Sergeants, some Officers and we’ll get our big O wing (O for observor [sic]), a sergeants pay goes up to 10/- a day.
Most of our days are spent in a classroom. We only did 6 flights (4 at night) totalling 20 hrs, in Ansons again. There was a lot to learn, including the names of the brightest stars in the Southern skies. The bubble sextants we used had a manual averageing [sic] mechanism. You turned the knob until the sun (or star) filled the bubble, pulled the trigger (back to zero) & did it again & again … I think 10 times, then read the average of your 10 sights … and in the air took the time at start and end, to the second (for most of us the first time we’d used a watch with a second hand). We began taking ground sights (so we knew where we were!) & ended up doing 92 of these on stars, the sun & a few on the moon. Our first “moving” sights were from the back of a truck on the smoothest, straightest part of the road Parkes to Forbes .. nice bitumen for those days. Every 4 sights took 2 pages of graph paper & calculations & for each one a position line drawn and error calculated. To keep the bubble centred & steady there needs to be [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] no acceleration or change of direction, so the back of lorry shots were rather inaccurate … and we had to calculate our position on the road to find our error. I still have 2 science graph books full of the working we did at Parkes as well as a Sight Log Book with all the details recorded, including those we did later in Wellingtons … all signed for & certified correct. During our 6 air flights I took 31 star shots, 7 sun, 3 moon and 1 planet, overall averaging about 5 miles error.
For air shots the plane needs to be kept straight & level with speed constant … later with autopilot in Wellingtons we got better accuracy.
[page break]
All those ground shots had to be done in our “spare” time, yet we were in the classroom all day 6 1/2 days a week except when flying. The peacetime course of 6 months had been compressed into 1 month. We had Saturday afternoon free & our instructor said he expected none of us to be sober by sundown. There was a written exam at the end of the month & I did well. I was made sergeant & we went straight to Bradfield Park again on 11th Nov. ’43 to await embarkation. I think we had a few days leave, then sailed on the SS Mt Vernon on 26th. It was an American troop ship with 600 of us RAAF & a lot of wounded/sick Yank soldiers who’d seen a hard time in the Pacific. We didn’t see much of them. We were all in one hold, 4-tier bunks, [deleted] all [/deleted] only narrow aisles between, portholes covered at night & no lights allowed as well. Luckily, we had a lad who played the saxophone well, so each night we’d have a few hours of songs before sleep-time.
The Pacific Ocean was fairly calm for about 10 days, we got our sea legs I think, because we then ran into 3 days of stormy weather (there were logs from the storms floating in San Francisco harbour when we arrived), but few of us were seasick. It was 10th Dec. ’43.
When we docked all our sea-kit bags were unloaded and the 60 of us observors, [sic] who’d been booked for Canada to do a Reconnaisence [sic] course there, were told they’d changed their plans for us, so we had to load our 60 kit bags onto a truck. Then they asked for volunteers to accompany the truck & load them onto the train there … promising that the volunteers would be into town ahead of the others. We’d heard of the “Top of the Mark” Hopkins hotel & agreed we’d all meet there. We volunteers were an hour later than the rest & when we got there they’d run out of all beer except Mexican, and it was worse apparently than American (which was sweet & fizzy). The real disappointment was missing the trip to Canada with the safe prospect of patrols in long-range Liberators over the Altantic, [sic] but instead destined for Bomber Command.
[page break]
[extract from a log book signed by Chief Instructor of the Air Observers Advanced Navigation Course]
[black and white photograph of two men and one woman. Herbert Adams is in uniform and the other man in a civilian suit]
October, ’43. Bert, Beryl & Meggs, just after completion of course at 1 B.A.G.S. Evans Head … on leave before going to 1 A.N.S. at Parkes.
In San Francisco we spent the night in a Transit Camp called Fort McDowell. The next day I bought a new watch with sweep second-hand, as we were told (before we sailed) that there was not enough issue watches in England for all Navigators. We didn’t have much time for sightseeing, saw the Golden Gate, Alcatraz & crossed the Oakland bridge to board the Southern Pacific train at Oakland on 11th Dec. It was a troop train, but with pullman cars like we’d seen in movies … aisle in the middle & little compartments to seat 4, but only 3 occupants, because at night a Negro porter pulled down an upper bunk for 1, & converted the lower seats & table to a double bed … he put on the sheets & blankets too. We all chipped in at New York & gave him a decent tip. There were steam pipes below the seats which worked well, except for the top bunk where I slept … on most mornings there were icicles hanging from the roof from my condensed breath.
[page break]
Our train rarely stopped for us to get off – it was often shunted on to a side track, to allow passenger &/or freight trains to pass.
[black and white photograph of a train]
This is one such diesel Steamliner express at Denver, about to leave for Chicago.
We were allowed off at Denver for 2 hours. I stopped at a chemist shop which also sold watches and asked if they could fix my new watch which had stopped after 1 day! The man fixed it in a few minutes with a dab of oil I think. He didn’t want any payment, but said he’d like an Australian kangaroo penny. I gave him the 4 I had. He thought that too generous! and came forth with a gift of a leather wallet … generous American.
As a group of us were walking back to the train a civilian noticed our little AUSTRALIA strips on our shoulders and said to us .. “Say, boys, I didnt [sic] know AUSTRIA was on our side in the war.” He was keen then to ask us all where in Australia we were from, a bit about our training & the boat trip.
Americans cooked our meals, which were then brought through the carriages by rotating teams of volunteers. For each meal we got a big stainless steel ”tray” of 5 compartments; if it was lunch we’d likely get a ladle of meat in one, a ladle of vegetables in each of 3 spaces, a ladle of sweets in the last & then a ladle of what we reckoned was plum jam spread over the whole lot! But it was nice food.
At Chicago we stopped for about an hour in a huge marshalling yard several tracks away from a platform. As there was snow on the ground most of us got out to have a snow-fight (I’d never seen snow). We soon got back in the train … it was -30o outside, & a chilly wind!
[page break]
On the train, as on the boat, we spent a lot of the daylight time playing cards, mostly pontoon for money but sometimes 500 for fun. Pontoon is a bit like Blackjack, but fairer to the non-banker players, and, I think allows a lot more judgement & maybe skill. On the train we put the limit bet up to 25C (from 2/-), which meant the maximum win possible after double & redouble, getting 5 under 21, which pays double, for $8 win … although that rarely happened.
At New York we went to a Transit Camp, Fort Slocum on 19th Dec. We had 2 days free in the city. I can’t remember much that I did besides going to the top of the Empire State building, going to an ice hockey match at Madison Square Garden, (I hadn’t realized what a rough game it was) sitting so high & far from the rink that I couldn’t see where the puck flew to when a shot missed the net, and having a leisurly [sic] drinking session – their beer seemed light & fizzy at Jack Dempsey’s Spagetti [sic] Bar. We tried the spagetti [sic] … I’d only ever had it from tins with tomato sauce, but there, it was just a big plateful of boiled spagetti [sic] with hard, dry, grated cheese in a shaker, no ketchup either.
From Fort Slocum we were taken to the harbour & loaded aboard the I’le de France on 22nd Dec. It wasn’t a very big troopship, but was stacked with American Army men going to U.K. ready for the invasion in June. Our lot was crammed into a cramped hold (?) below water-level, near the stern … the sides we [sic] quite sloped; the only access to the showers & toilets on the deck above us was up 2 vertical latters [sic] & through round waterproof doors (if closed) in the roof.
[page break]
And they had a plumbing problem with that bathroom, the toilets had overflowed onto the floor … we had to paddle through a couple of inches of watery muck to up more stairs to another bathroom. We were not happy, especially when they did a Boat Drill next day & it took our lot 2 hours to get up on deck.
Still we sailed on the morning of Xmas Eve, got as far as the Statue of Liberty, where the ship broke down – engine trouble, - and was towed back. Eventually, we were fed sandwiches about 9 p.m. The next morning they said we could wait on board for a meal (sometime) and get paid, or go off to the city without either, where there would, maybe, be American civilians willing to take us home for Xmas Dinner. We did that and a nice man Mr Richie took 3 of us to his home in Mt Vernon.
We got there about 1 pm, found the lounge room beautifully decorated for Xmas, a tree lit up, and drinks offered round. We were hungry & wondered when the dinner would begin. But the talking and sipping continued until about 7 pm when we sat down to a sumptuous meal, he carved the turkey, we had second helpings & they remarked that we had good appetites. He took us back to Fort Slocum & arranged to meet us at his factory on the 27th.
[black and white photograph of the front of a house]
Mr. Richies home in Mt Vernon, N.Y.
[page break]
His factory, among other things, made good quality hankerchiefs. [sic] He presented each of us with 1/2 dozen very nice ones, then took us to a businessmens’ [sic] club where we had a few drinks .. we weren’t allowed to buy … it was all paid by the member himself signing a chit … no cash appeared. He took us back to Fort Slocum for the night and we had 3 more days to wander about New York, spend what little money we had left; I think I went to a cinema or two, but can’t remember the films I saw.
On New Year’s Eve we were loaded aboard the Queen Elizabeth which had been converted to a troop ship earlier in the war … some of the cabins had been finished, other parts not … which allowed for even more bunks for troops. We got a double cabin with bathroom … each 6’ of wall had 3-tier bunks so 18 of us fitted in the cabin. We found that on the 3 (I think) open decks where there was a walkway about 10’ wide all round between the rail & cabins walls that they had 3-tier bunks, bolted to the cabin walls and U.S. Army men used them to sleep in 12 hour double shifts. I heard that they put over 20 000 troops aboard. We went to big dining rooms for a meal, twice a day. It took 4 hours for the first meal, a clean up, then 4 hours for the second meal. When it came to Boat Drill all the decks were crammed, all the big wide staircases & still many in corridors. Big fast ships like the Queens travelled alone relying on their speed for safety, cargo ships went in convoys at the speed of the slowest ship, escorted by the Navy & shephered [sic] by long-range aircrafts. A couple of days out we were told
[page break]
that they thought there was a U-boat pack waiting in Mid-Atlantic & so this ship was going to divert well North … up towards Iceland, at maximum speed. They told us to put on warm clothes as they would turn off the cabin heating to get more heat for the engines! One of the crew told us at Greenock, later, that they got to about 40 knots.
The Atlantic was fairly rough & all the rails seemed to be occupied by seasick Americans, but our 2 weeks on the Pacific apparently cured us. We spent most of the time playing cards – the pontoon games were now lowered to a 2C limit. Anyone who’d managed to retain a few dollars could get into crap games (dice) which the Americans played a lot of.
We actually sailed from New York on the morning of New Years Day, and arrived at Greenock, Scotland, near Glasgow, on 7th Jan. Several of the crew were Australians, and one of them took a few of us for a tour of parts of the ship not normally open to passengers. We climbed up inside the mast on narrow steps to, I guess, the crows-nest … it was so high as to be scary even though it only swayed a little, being anchored. He showed us a big gun near the bow … about 6” I think, and maybe 40’ above the water. He said that on a previous crossing ploughing through big waves that the previous gun had been torn from its mountings (bolts about 2” thick). We saw the kitchens & engines … it was great.
By nightfall we’d been loaded onto a train which arrived next morning at Brighton where the RAAF had taken over 2 of the big hotels on the waterfront the Grand & the Metropole, both about 8 floors high.
[page break]
We stayed at Brighton, No. 11 P.D.R.C, until 21st Jan. There were some lessons, a chance to begin learning the main stars ion the Northern Hemisphere – even on cloudy nights we could make use of a planisphere to learn the names & relative positions of those stars. I guess they consulted our records & maybe our log-books, but here they decided who would be navigator, who bomb-aimer, which pilots would go to Bomber Command & which to Fighter or other smaller planes. Sid Payne who’d trained at Cootamundra with me after earlier doing EFTS at Narromine and being “scrubbed” during SFTS at Uranqunity, became a bomb-aimer & I a navigator.
However, the first thing that happened after we got to Brighton was to be sent on leave for a few days. They had an arrangement called the Lady Ryder Scheme, where new arrivals could go to a private home as a guest for a week. My hostess was Mrs Adams, who had a nice house (modernised internally), called Huntercombe Farmhouse, Huntercombe Lane, Taplow, Buckinghamshire, not very far from Windsor. She made me feel at home but had to be absent almost the whole week – she gave the doorkey & said to help myself & recommended I visit Margaret Vyner, an Australian actress, who lived at Dorney Village, between Taplow & Windsor, & who was reputed to like having an Australian visitor. I did that & also met her husband Hugh Marlowe, a handsome English actor (he played The Saint in a film). They took me to the nearby Pub for a drink & yarn. While there, David Niven turned up in uniform (Army Captain) just back from North Africa on leave, with a case of brandy.
[page break]
I guess I was pretty much ignored as they’d been friends for years, & once they started on the brandy I took my leave. While staying at Mrs Adams’ place I visited Eton College and Windsor Castle.
[black and white photograph of Mrs Adams’ house]
Mrs Adams’ house, Huntercombe Farmhouse, Taplow, Bucks.
[black and white photograph of the pub, The Palmer Arms, with a bicycle leaning against the wall]
The Pub next door to where Margaret Vyner & Hugh Williams lived in Dorney Village, between Taplow & Windsor.
[black and white photograph of Eton College]
Eton College
[black and white photograph of the chapel at Eton College]
The Chapel
[page break]
During my first visit to London, Jan ’44.
[black and white photographs of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben]
Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben
[black and white photographs of the interior and exterior of St Paul’s Cathedral]
St Pauls Cathedral
[black and white photograph of Buckingham Palace]
Buckingham Palace
[page break]
[black and white photograph of Eton College]
Eton College
[black and white photograph of the chapel at Eton College]
The Chapel
[black and white photograph of Windsor Castle]
Windsor Castle
[black and white photograph of Windsor Castle]
From the Railway Station
[black and white photograph of Windsor Castle]
From the Soccer Fields
[page break]
On the short rail trip back to London from Taplow, David Niven was in the same compartment, with 6 other people. We merely said good-day; I think he had a hangover.
Back at Brighton, towards the end of our time there, a few of us navigators were interviewed by Group-Captain (later Air-Vice Marshall) Bennett, in charge of Pathfinders. He told us that when he first formed Pathfinders and asked the squadrons for proficient crews to volunteer, a lot of them got rid of crews who were troublemakers and their navigators not often their best. He offerred [sic] us the opportunity of skipping the other training we’d normally do, to go direct to Pathfinders where they’d train us their way; but of course, we’d have to do a second tour straight after the first tour. The end of the war seemed still a way off, and Pathfinders had to spend extra time at each target, so he got few takers, certainly not I.
I’ve saved a few postcards of Brighton, printed pre-war. In wartime they dismanlted [sic] a section of the 2 piers to prevent enemy landings.
[black and white picture postcard of East Cliff and Palace Pier, Brighton]
[page break]
[three black and white picture postcards of Brighton Pier, Brighton Beach and Preston Park, Brighton]
[page break]
While at Brighton we had a few hit & run air raids at night … it wasn’t far across to France. At first we went down to the basement, but stayed in our rooms for the others. Late on 21st Feb. we got on a train, which after a change or two and a truck ride we arrived at Llandwrog, North Wales, No 9 (O) A.F.U. on the 22nd. It was a war-time dispersed camp, several miles south on the coast from the narrow [inserted] Menai [/inserted] strait next to Angelsea, [sic] where Sid Payne was to do his Bomb-Aimers A.F.U. (Mona airfield)
The sleeping quarters were in Nissen huts below sea-level separated from the beach by a sea-wall. Therefore, there was no running water or sewerage. We had garbage tins between each hut to use as urinals at night … sometimes they ran over. There were hundreds of RAAF bicycles … you could take any you saw and leave it where you liked. To our east were the runways, then the hangars, the messes & toilets, showers & laundry facilities, about 1 1/2 mile ride.
We were to spend just over a month there; the flying in Ansons again. We found map-reading difficult; whereas in the Riverina there was lots of open spaces devoid of railway lines, towns etc, in the U.K. there seemed to be too many roads, rivers, towns … difficult to tell one from another, especially since there was mostly a lot of cloud about.
Our aerodrome was only a few miles from Mt Snowdon, the highest mountain south of Scotland. We were told that 13 Ansons had crashed on it during training flights (not all from Llandwrog). So beware. Our staff pilots, when returning to where the navigator said was (below the clouds) our ‘drome, they’d fly west for 10 minutes to descend over the Irish Sea, … just in case.
[page break]
On each flight, 2 trainee-navigators were on board, one to do the exercise and be assessed on it, the other to do practice map-reading, astro shots, drift reading etc. We did just under 36 hours of flying in 13 flights. In Australia, none of the Ansons had heating for the crew, but here it seemed after 5 flights, that they all did. Until the night of 5th March. We took off at 1910 & flew for almost 3 hours, & the plane was nice & warm, as usual, so we just wore our battle-dress uniform. After de-briefing, we were sent on another similar flight at 0250 (early morning), for 2 3/4 hr flying. But the plane wasn’t heated and it was about -30o at 4000! I was supposed to take sextant shots which required tracking a star, eye to the eyepiece for 2 minutes while the clockwork mechanism averaged a lot of readings (maybe 60). It was hopeless. The tears in my eyes began to freeze and I saw circular rainbows before the 2 min. elapsed. We just had to suffer the cold. The heating worked on our remaining 5 flights. My assessments ranged from 65 percent to 81 percent, with a mean of about 71 percent and a remark (written in log book): “average navigator, works hard and is keen.”
One funny thing happened there. Between the hangars & the mess was a wide expanse of bitumen. We saw two airmen on bicycles riding towards each other (not very quickly, luckily) … both tried turning away on the same side, then both back, until their front tyres met squarely head on catapulting both to fall on the tangled bikes.
We had a day off at weekends and visited Caernavon [sic] & Conway castles.
[page break]
[black and white photograph of Herbert Adams and another airman leaning against a hut]
With Col McLaughlin beside the instruction hut at Llandwrog.
[black and white photograph of Herbert Adams, smoking, standing in front of a Nissen hut]
Beside our Nissen hut, below sea-level at Llandwrog, N. Wales,
[black and white photograph of Herbert Adams standing at the bottom of steps at Caernarvon Castle]
At one of the entrances to Caernarvon Castle.
When Val & I revisited in 1994, Val took a photo of me in the same spot.
[page break]
[cutting with photograph detailing the Tail Drift Sight, Mk. IVA]
We seldom used the tail drift sight, preferring to use the bombsight fitted to the Ansons, (not all) but the Fairey Battle had one something like this (simpler). Once we got on to Wellingtons (& later) we had GEE and no longer bothered to find drifts.
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Title
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The war - training
Description
An account of the resource
Writes that he joined newly formed Air Training Corps at end of 1941 as this would give an accelerated position on the waiting list for aircrew. Describes training and sports. Called up into army 3 July 1942 and describes training in basic infantry and as a driver. After exam, was offered course at technical college and position as warrant officer instructor but turned it down. Called up into Royal Australian Air Force 12 September 1942 and initial training at RAAF Bradfield Park and writes about training there. Describes coordination test as pilot which he believed he fails and opting for navigator training. Posted to Cootamundra he fell ill which delayed his course but when recovered goes on to describe his early navigator training on Anson. There followed in August 1932 bombing and air gunnery training school at RAAF Evans Head where he flew in Fairy Battle followed by astro-navigation course at Parkes NSW. He then goes on to describe his journey to the United Kingdom(departed 26 November 1943) via the United State (crossed by train) and then by ship from New York to Greenock. Covers activities in England in Brighton and other locations before training in North Wales on Anson which he describes in detail. Memoire also contains photographs of people, aircraft and places as well as a diagram of the tail drift sight MkIVA.
Creator
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H G Adams
Format
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Thirty page handwritten document
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Memoir
Photograph
Identifier
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BAdamsHGAdamsHGv3
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
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Australia
New South Wales--Ashfield
New South Wales--Liverpool
New South Wales--Lindfield
New South Wales--Evans Head
New South Wales--Parkes
United States
California--San Francisco
Illinois--Chicago
New York (State)--New York
Great Britain
Scotland--Greenock
England--Sussex
England--Brighton
England--Berkshire
England--Eton
England--Windsor (Windsor and Maidenhead)
California
Illinois
New York (State)
New South Wales
Temporal Coverage
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1942-07-03
1942-08-20
1943-10-22
1943-12-22
1944-01-01
1943-10-26
1944-06-21
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
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Tricia Marshall
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
Battle
Bennett, Donald Clifford Tyndall (1910-1986)
Bombing and Gunnery School
military living conditions
military service conditions
navigator
Nissen hut
Pathfinders
RAF Llandwrog
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/711/17279/MBlairJJ[Ser -DoB]-160509-01.pdf
e2e9d8182bf6e54b5b01c95e7baedfa6
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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Blair, John
John Jericho Blair
J J Blair
Description
An account of the resource
38 items. The collection concerns John Jericho Blair DFC (1919-2004). He was born in Jamaica and served in RAF from 1942-1963. He flew a tour of operations as a navigator with 102 Squadron from RAF Pocklington. The collection includes numerous photographs of him and colleagues, several photographs of Jamaica, a document detailing his life and an interview with his great nephew Mark Johnson.
The collection also contains three interviews with Caribbean veterans including John Blair recorded by Mark Johnson.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Mark Johnson and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-05-09
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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Blair, JJ
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Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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The Story of Flight Lieutenant John J Blair, DFC 102 (Ceylon) Squadron and 216 Squadron Royal Air Force
1942 to 1963
Author’s Note
This story is primarily the transcript of a taped interview with my Uncle John Blair that took place in 1997. Following the creation of the raw transcript, I researched several aspects of the story to fill in some gaps. Very sadly, Uncle John began to suffer the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease soon after I spoke to him, and he was unable to review this text. Any errors of fact contained in the story are therefore mine.
Mark Johnson
London, 2008
Chapter 1: On the Pedro Plains
Let’s start the story from the beginning, bearing in mind the fact that I was born way back in 1919. This was in the Pedro Plains district of the Parish of St. Elizabeth, in south‐western Jamaica – a real country parish where families barely got by on farming and fishing.
There were eight children in my family and I happened to be the last one. In fact, I really came out of the blue because the sibling I followed was seven years ahead of me. So I was the “little last one”, what they used to call in those days a “wash belly” child. Well anyway, there I was and so off I went, trying to catch up with the rest of my family.
Life in rural Jamaica had a very slow pace back then, there being no motor vehicles around, no television or radio, no electricity in fact, nor anything else that depended on that. Our farming and fishing community was labour intensive and used techniques that go way back to the olden days. Life followed the seasons; not those of the northern hemisphere, but ‘rainy season’, ‘hurricane season’ and even ‘mango season’!
We experienced long, dry, hot periods in Pedro Plains and rainfall has always been scarce there. The soil is very red and it’s a dusty place, with few trees. At many points sharp limestone rocks stick up out of the ground like little mountain peaks. When I was a child, most people still lived in thatched cottages. You made do and you recycled everything.
One of my brothers and two sisters, as well as my brother‐in‐law were all teachers, and in time the two men rose to prominent positions in the field of education in Jamaica. In those days, teachers were amongst a group of people who were held in high esteem within the community, as were nurses and doctors, veterinarians, police constables and the local postmistress. Nowadays it’s all about lawyers, politicians, musicians, gunmen and drug dealers, but back then, in Jamaica at least, we still lived by the old values.
As I was so much younger than my brothers and sisters, I didn’t have the opportunity to go to school at the same time as them. In fact, when I eventually started school one of my sisters, Jemima Blair, was already the teacher there. In the 1920s these country schools were tiny places with only a single class made up of children of all ages, and just the one teacher. This was old style primary education. The teacher stood at the front of the class and taught, while we sat at our little wooden tables and recited. When you weren’t supposed to be reciting, you kept quiet or else you would know what was coming next; a good hiding! You didn’t raise your hand and ask questions; questions were asked of you, and you had better know the answer.
I actually started school before I had reached the required age at that time, which was seven. I started at the age of five, and this created some interesting problems. One day there came a visit by a School Inspector. (In those days of British colonial government, the Inspectors were all Englishmen – we would have called them ‘white men’.) I recall that I was literally pushed out of the back of the building by my sister when the Inspector arrived so that questions about my age would not arise!
I remained in school in St. Elizabeth until I was ten years old and then my parents were forced to move away for work for a while, and my eldest sister, Clarissa, took me in. She was also a teacher and had married yet another teacher, a Mr. Enos Bertram Johnson, or ‘E.B.’ Johnson as he was called.
They lived in a teacher’s cottage in the parish of St. Mary, almost at the other end of the island. Mr. Johnson was a serious and imposing figure and a respected educator. He also led the local scout troop and I can remember the boys parading, all smartly dressed in their khaki uniforms, but barefoot – most of them could not afford shoes in those days. I spent about a year and a half with the Johnsons until my brother Stanley returned home from the Cayman Islands. Stanley was the other teacher in my family, and he later became a School Inspector himself. I moved to live with him where he was teaching in St. Ann and eventually, after yet another move, Ocho Rios is where we ended up.
Stanley’s teacher’s cottage was a ramshackle affair and in very poor condition. There was little in it in the way of furniture or fittings and things were so tough for the pair of us that as soon as my parents had returned to Pedro Plains, I was sent home. In reality, home was not much better than my brothers’ cottage that I had just escaped from. Nevertheless, I spent the rest of my time in elementary school there and, all in all, I can say that I received a good basic education.
When I reached the age of seventeen, I decided to become a teacher like many of my siblings and I made an attempt to enter the Mico Training College in Kingston as a trainee. Mico was highly regarded and competition for places there was intense. It took two attempts, but eventually I was successful and I spent three years at the College, and experienced life in the ‘big city’. I left there as a qualified teacher in elementary education and I soon joined the Greenwich School near Tinson Pen, Kingston where I taught for about a year and a half.
By now the Second World War had been in progress for a year and many local people were volunteering to serve in uniform, irrespective of their qualifications. Some were selected to do manual labour and others were considered capable of more sophisticated activities. Although we lived far from the centre of things, we all knew about what was taking place in Europe. In those days our educational curriculum was set by the Colonial Government, and it was essentially the same as that studied by English children. We were therefore more familiar with British history than we were with our own, and goings on in the war with Germany had been well publicised. I recall that a couple of my younger Johnson nephews in Kingston (E.B. and Clarissa’s sons) kept a map of Europe on their bedroom wall, and plotted the course of the war from the information they heard on the BBC news broadcasts. Their hero was the Soviet general, Zhukov.
The general view of Hitler was that he was a man who needed to be stopped. Although a lot of Jamaicans resented colonial rule, I don’t think anyone was confused about the difference between that and what the Nazis stood for. We felt that we were all in it together – all the small countries of the world.
So, it was with this attitude that I applied to the Royal Air Force (RAF) as ‘aircrew’, and I was accepted for training. Up until this time the official British policy was that only 'British born men, of British born parents, of pure European descent' could receive officer’s commissions in any of the services. The RAF was the first to relax the restriction as their officer casualties had been so high in relation to the other services, but the colour ban was not lifted in the Navy or the Army until 1948. It was for this reason that so many of the West Indian volunteers opted for the air force. Altogether, I understand that about a thousand West Indians served as RAF aircrew during the Second World War, while thousands also served in various ground staff capacities.
Having returned home briefly to bid farewell to my family, I left St Elizabeth on the fish truck that ran to Kingston regularly from in front of the old Post Office. My nephew George Henry was amongst those gathered to see me off and he told me much later that his earliest childhood memory is of me coming to say goodbye to his mother Jemima – my sister and former teacher. George was about three when I set off and he remembers that behind the Post Office fence there was a lot of broken glass lying on the ground. He thought at the time that this was where the war was!
That trip to Kingston on the fish truck was no small affair – it took hours. When we left St Elizabeth and started the long climb up Spur Tree Hill towards the town of Mandeville, the truck would begin to overheat. The brakes were so poor that when we stopped to top up the radiator, we had to jump down quickly and ‘cotch’ the rear wheels with large stones, otherwise the thing would just roll backwards down the hill and a lot of fish would be lost! In those days, by the time you got to Kingston you were in need of a vacation.
After a short period of orientation at Up Park Camp in Kingston about thirty of us, all RAF volunteers, left the island by ship in October 1942, bound ultimately for Canada. We were off to commence our training for war. So there I was, a 23 year old elementary school teacher from Pedro Plains, St Elizabeth, Jamaica, on my way to fly against the Nazi war machine.
Chapter 2: Cold Like the Devil!
Our journey from Jamaica was really quite comical at the outset. We were ordered to board an American ship and I remember the crew just looking at us coldly and pointing below decks, saying ‘You all go down there’; remember that in most parts a black man couldn’t even vote back then! When we descended to the first level, we saw a lot of empty bunks, so everyone selected a bed and we started to make ourselves at home. However, we did not have time to get too comfortable because within a few minutes an officer appeared and shouted, ‘No, not here, go down two more levels!’ And so we volunteers spent the rest of our time on that ship sitting in the hold!
This was my first time on the open sea, and my first time out of Jamaica, so I was fortunate to be in a good group. That ship pitched and rolled like crazy, and it was dark, hot and damp down there in the hold. Several men were sick and the smell in that confined place got quite bad, which didn’t help.
We stopped for a short time in British Honduras, as it was known then (now Belize) where we took on board some forestry workers who had volunteered for labour duties, as well as a few more RAF fellows. I chatted with some of the workers as our enlarged group squatted down below decks, and they said they were going to Scotland where they would be working in the forests, cutting timber – or so they believed. They probably ended up loading cargo, in the rain, in an English port somewhere.
We travelled together as far as New Orleans where we all disembarked, with a great deal of relief. The RAF party then travelled up to New York and spent about two weeks there waiting to be told where we should go next. This was an opportunity to have a good look around, and we made full use of it. Leo Balderamos from Belize joined me on a trip to the top of the Empire State Building, then the tallest structure ever built. Now that was something! Finally our orders arrived and we set off once again, bound for the largest RAF station in Canada, Monkton in New Brunswick.
That camp covered many acres and held a large number of trainees. I don’t know how many people were there in total, because all students coming from various parts of the United Kingdom to do their Air Force training came through there. Whether you were bound for training in Canada or in the United States, you would be shipped through this base, so it was a very, very large place indeed, swarming with recruits. Before we left Monkton, we got our first issue of uniforms and we were given our basic training.
This ‘basic training’ activity had nothing to do with flying; it was just the initial qualification for getting into any of the services. A lot of our time was taken up with morning parades, and this parade and that parade, and saluting here and saluting there, stamping your feet at every chance, and using rifles, which I had never touched before in my life. It was quite an initiation.
Our first uniforms were uncomfortable and they made you itch. In addition to the trousers and jacket, we had a heavy greatcoat and great big, black leather boots, with nails in the sole. These made a crisp sound as you marched and you felt as though you were already set to jump on the Germans. We had brass buttons to clean every night, as well as our boots, and lots of brass bits all over our belts and webbing. A lot of cleaning and polishing had to be done and the evenings were generally spent sitting on the edge of our bunks in the barrack room, shining our gear, and telling jokes or speculating about the future.
We left Monkton at the end of November 1942, there being twenty‐one of us remaining in our group now, and we were sent to an RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) training base. We spent more time there being familiarised with the Canadian military and Air Force systems.
Our group was what we would today describe as ‘multi‐cultural’. There were only two Englishmen and the group covered all shades from black to white to grey! One of the Englishmen was a teacher like me, although he taught at a college in the UK, and the other had been living in Belize. In those days it was common practice to describe a man by his colour, and it wasn’t necessarily derogatory – it depended on the tone and context. We all travelled together and lived together without tension.
After about three weeks of further basic training we were sent to Toronto. It was here that we would be classified for different roles, so this was a critical period for anyone who had ambitions to fly. We had lectures and exams on a variety subjects and the results determined which end of the airfield you were destined for. This was our ‘ironing out’ phase.
Those who failed to qualify for flight training went off to be trained for ground staff roles while those who had qualified were assigned to the next phase of training, in preparation for flying school or navigator’s training. The process really was conducted purely on the basis of qualifications, not race. Our two Englishmen were selected for preliminary flight training from our group, as was Arthur Wint (the famous Jamaican athlete) LO Lynch from Jamaica (who later won the prestigious) RAF Air Gunner’s Trophy) Leo Balderamos from Belize, and myself.
We spent quite a long time in this stage of training, and this was in the deep, dark Canadian winter, which I had never experienced before. I can remember that the snow was up around your knees if you were not careful where you went walking. Once they had broken us down into groups, those of us who were selected for flying were sent to McGill University, where we spent about 4 weeks in the classroom. Suddenly, myself
and Arthur Wint were sent to a special school up in Ottawa. Whatever unearthly reason there was for this was not explained at the time – it seemed the authorities had just pulled our two names up out of a hat. They hadn’t even made provision for our accommodation and we had to sort that out ourselves. Anyway, off we went as ordered, and on arrival it dawned on us that the Canadians had somehow got the idea that we didn’t know anything about maths.
When these special classes started, we realized that we were being taught the most basic levels of algebra and trigonometry and on the very first day we looked at each other and said, ‘This is a joke!’ Arthur said to me, ‘Look, let’s try and see what we can do to show these people who we actually are’.
When the teacher came into the room for the second session he set up a simple algebraic calculation on the blackboard and Arthur spoke up and asked him to set us a tougher challenge. The fellow looked at Arthur and said ‘Alright’; you could see that he thought Arthur was going to make a mess of it. Arthur got up and solved the problem on the board, and I recall that it was quite a complex one. Well, all I can tell you is that in no time flat we were back in training with the rest of our group!
Not long after this, almost as compensation, Arthur and I were sent on another special training course. This time we arrived at our destination to find that the course was an advanced flying course for experienced pilots. Once again, we were sent packing! Confusion reigned!
We now went to what was known as the Initial Training Wing. This was more advanced than anything we had done before and the place had a very modern feel to it. We knew that when we finished this stage of training we would be assigned our area of specialisation, becoming trainee pilots, navigators or bomb aimers. Although Arthur and I were joining a week late we joined forces and quickly caught up with the group.
Not long after we arrived, we were told that we had to attend a flying medical, which is more difficult to pass than the basic medical all servicemen and women had to take. At this stage, my flying career almost ended before I got off the ground.
We’d been out drinking up in Montreal, and we got back to base by train at about four o’clock in the morning. Almost as soon as we had arrived I heard a voice call out, ‘Blair! Medical!’ It took them all of ten minutes to ‘wash me out’ of aircrew!
I was now an outcast, sent away to what was known as the ‘Holding School’ in Toronto. This was an old exhibition hall, made up of several huge buildings with a variety of strange fixtures here and there (now empty) for the displays. I was alone as I left my group behind, and I arrived at the Holding School alone. It was a horrible feeling and when you walked into the place there were bunk beds stretching away as far as you could see ‐ nothing but beds! Anyway, at least I got a bed for myself this time.
Within this facility there was a holding office specifically for RAF people who had failed their courses and were going back to England without doing flight training. So it appeared that I too would go to England without any training, and with all these strange Englishmen! And boy, let me tell you, I had never seen so many of them in one place before. There were about five hundred men in my area alone, and if you take into account the whole compound, there were probably several thousand men there waiting to be shipped home. But I was there now on my own as I didn’t know anybody else in this large assembly.
After about three weeks cooling my heels, feeling rather low about my plight, I went and saw the Canadian Medical Officer. I told him what the problem was, and he said ‘Alright, we’ll give you another try’. He ran a series of tests, most of which involved looking at various coloured pictures and telling him what I saw. It was a hell of a job to do but I just told him what I saw and the very next day I was given a full medical. Two days later everything was cleared up and the MO called me to his office and said
‘Alright, we are going to send you back to the training school.’ That was a relief, I can tell you.
However, as I had missed almost a month of classes, I was now placed in a new group, and I was the only Jamaican, the only coloured man there; all my coloured friends had gone on ahead. This was a new experience for me, but as it turned out it was not a problem at all. I was treated just like another member of the team. In fact, I never had any problems with racism or unfair treatment throughout my career in the Royal Air Force, right up to 1963. This might be because I felt I knew what the dangers were and I didn’t expose myself to them. But I believe that one’s attitude was the most important factor.
I focused on the task at hand, and towards the end of this period I was informed that I had been selected for Navigator training. This was quite a responsibility because after the Pilot, the Navigator is the key man in the crew. I would have to navigate the route to and from the target, normally at night, using some complicated scientific aids, and often while under attack.
I was told that I had to know my aircraft’s position at any time, regardless of bad weather or enemy action to ensure the survival of aircraft and crew. This would all involve working constantly during any flight to keep my aircraft and its crew on track and on schedule. With my head down over the maps and instruments I would always be aware of the fact that any deviation from the prescribed course can take the aircraft across the path of the hundreds of other craft in the stream behind me, or leave us prey for enemy night fighters. Great concentration would be required, and for much of the flight the only contact I would have with the rest of the crew would be a few instructions and remarks on the intercom.
At flight school we flew a total of sixty four hour’s day flying and thirty eight hour’s night flying between 5th September 1942 and 28th January 1943, before we took our examinations and attempted to qualify. I passed the Navigator’s Course, which included
Navigation, Signals, Aircraft Recognition, Photography, Armament Training, and Day and Night Flying. It was intensive as we worked seven days a week, and very comprehensive, but enjoyable, and we were feeling increasingly confident about our potential. However, at this stage you were not yet ready for operations, no matter how cocky you might be feeling. In operational terms, you were just a baby that’s learning to walk, only half ready for the real thing.
We trained on Ansons, twin‐engine things, and the only navigational equipment we had back then was a map, a compass and a radio you had to tune in order to obtain your bearings. You had nobody else there to help you. The Anson only had room for the pilot, myself sitting behind him, and a second trainee Navigator who would sit in the co‐pilot’s seat. The other trainee and I would alternate, and whoever was navigating would scribble directions on course and airspeed for the pilot onto message pads and pass them forwards. The second Navigator would practice map reading as well, and also wind the landing gear up after takeoff and down before landing.
I remember my first flight as though it were yesterday. We squeezed into the aircraft, weighed down with all our gear, and sat there a while waiting for things to start. I was looking out of one of the windows at the little strip of runway beside me and thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ The Pilot goes through his procedure, flicking a few switches and calling out the steps on his checklist. Then the port engine makes a kind of whining sound, then a splutter with lots of black smoke being whirled around by the propellers, and finally the engine roars into life and the whole aircraft starts to vibrate. That black smoke is worrying the first time you see it, but you soon get used to it.
The Pilot goes through the same procedure for the starboard engine, and before you realise what’s happening you are rolling down the runway. You speed up slowly, bumping along, and finally the Pilot heaves back on the stick and the aircraft seems to claw its way into the air. Looking out of the window, I could see the buildings, roads and fields diminishing in size below me until they looked like little toy structures.
You didn’t really go anywhere, each flight being a set piece event lasting between two and three hours, navigating from waypoint to waypoint. We also had to do of bombing exercises against dummy targets, so it was starting to feel like the real thing. I still have a picture of that particular course with only one black man in it! The rest are all Canadians and there’s that old Anson behind us.
Once I had completed this phase of training I was sent back to Monkton. On the way I stopped off in Toronto to visit one of the people I got to know there when I was at the Holding School, and who should I see while I was sitting at the railway station but Arthur Wint! Out of nowhere, there he was, big and tall, walking up to me. I was surprised, but happy to see him. Like me, he was now wearing a little white flash on his cap, to indicate that we were now ‘Flying Trainees’.
So after a long period without the company of my countrymen, I was able to travel with Arthur, back to Monkton. And we were big men now! Qualified! Arthur was a Pilot and I was a Navigator – it was a good feeling and we knew that we were part of a small group who had achieved something unique for that period in history. I remember that when we got to Monkton it was cold like the Devil! Oh man, the snow was falling, let me tell you, and I can still see Arthur and I struggling through it with all our bits and pieces. We were reminded that we were Officers now, and so we went to live in the Officers’ section of the base. We were well taken care of there and we met up with more Jamaicans who had also qualified. I recall that one of them was a Navigator and the other was a Bomb Aimer, but I no longer remember their names.
Although we were officers, we didn’t hear very much more about the progress of the war than we got on the news and in the papers. So, with all the training and preparation we had been doing we were just hoping to get into the front line before it was all over. It was now January 1944, and we knew that the Allies were winning. We were ordered to board ship once more, but this time we were bound for the UK and the war. There were still three of us from the original group travelling together, Arthur Wint, myself and one other.
We didn’t sail as part of a convoy although submarines were still active at that time. We sailed from Halifax on a huge troopship full of Canadians and landed in Glasgow. On this voyage we weren’t stuck in the hold, but space below decks was very limited all the same because of the large number on men on board. During the entire voyage I didn’t see another vessel and I know that we went far to the north, close to Iceland before turning south again. This route was the best for avoiding enemy submarines, although nobody mentioned that threat.
On arrival we were given forms to take to the local tailors, and there we were fitted for our new Officer’s uniforms. These were a great improvement on the kit we had been wearing up to that point. We were due some leave, but before we could head out into public view we had to get ourselves properly dressed.
There was no negative reaction to us at all from the people we met around our base ‐ they were glad to see us. For us, however, it was a very strange feeling at first to put on our new uniforms and walk into an English pub, although a few pints gave us some relief from the great pressure we felt. People expressed gratitude when they saw us. We would walk into a pub full of strangers and within a few moments someone would walk over and say ‘Please have a beer with me’. These were Yorkshire men and I will always have fond memories of those kind and friendly people.
It took us a fortnight to get fully kitted out, and as soon as we had achieved that we all headed in to London to enjoy our three week’s leave. The RAF had reserved hotels for its personnel in the city, and we were given free accommodation in one of these. We spent the next three weeks touring the city and seeing its famous sights for the first time, and of course drinking occasionally.
When we returned to our base in Yorkshire we were sent on a Battle Course which included the use of weapons in combat and many other aspects of infantry training – this was done in case we were shot down over enemy territory and had to fight to survive. Next it was back onto the Ansons for familiarisation flying over the UK. There
was a big difference between navigating in the wide open spaces of Canada where you really can’t lose your way, and England, where there is a new town every few miles which makes it much more confusing and challenging.
We were closer than ever to the day when we would have to go to war and once the familiarisation was finished we were posted to RAF Kinloss in Scotland. This was the stage when Pilots, Engineers, Gunners, and Bomb Aimers would be teamed up to form the crews who would fly and fight together. We were assembled in a large group in a cold hangar, and I don’t think any of us knew more than five or six of the other people in the group. Each Pilot was simply told, ‘Pick the rest of your crew’ from the group, and he would just walk around and pick people he liked the look of. Now, I was the only coloured man there as neither Arthur Wint nor the other Jamaican fellow who had come with us from Monkton had been posted to Kinloss.
So, I just stood there in this cold, noisy hangar and eventually a Canadian Pilot who was older than the average and who turned out to be very quiet person, came up to me and asked, ‘Will you come and fly with me?’ This was Ralph Pearson who would be my Pilot for the duration of the war. He then selected the two Gunners, one of whom was named Morris, and the Flight Engineer, Laurie Wilder, as well as his Wireless Operator. The Bomb Aimer would join us later, and he also turned out to be a Canadian. We were all strangers in this crew of seven. In a sense it’s an effective, if haphazard process, but at the same time you are now going off to war with a group of strangers, without so much as a formal introduction. Of course, we would soon get to know each other much better, and the strangers would become human, with good points and bad like any other person.
To start the process of building crew spirit and cohesion we were assigned a rather old aircraft now, a twin‐engine Whitley. We spent four weeks flying that old Whitley, and when I look back on it now I can only say that we must have been mad! That was an old aircraft! But it was tough. The Whitleys were solidly built because they were
designed just before the start of the war when the British realised they would have to fight, but it was built with pre‐war knowledge and this was by now a modern war.
Looking at my flying log today, I realise that we had to learn very quickly; fifty hours flying is not much time to prepare to fight with a new crew. As the Navigator, I was now using a radio system called Gee. This gave me directional readings from a beam transmitted from the ground. We had none of the new radar systems that some of the heavy bombers were equipped with. We only had the radio bearing from various points, a look out of the window to plot our track on the ground when the cloud cover allowed, and the Met reports – if you could actually find the wind blowing in the right direction that would put you on track and help you to stay on track.
Chapter 3: The Real Thing
Finally, our long and exhaustive training was over and we were considered ready for posting to an operational squadron – we were off to war. I was posted to 102 (Ceylon) Squadron, based at Pocklington in Yorkshire. During the Second World War the Squadron flew bombers, first Whitleys, and then the Halifax 2 from 1942 to 1944. In 1944 they were upgraded to the Halifax 3 and then with the Halifax 6 in early 1945, and I flew the last two Halifax models during my tour of duty.
The addition of the word ‘Ceylon’ was granted to the Squadron after the inhabitants of what we now call Sri Lanka adopted the Squadron and set aside some of their savings towards its maintenance. The squadron was made up of men from Great Britain, Canada, Ceylon, the West Indies, Australia and New Zealand, among other places.
The squadron history says that 102 (Ceylon) saw non‐stop action over Europe from 1939 to 1945. In 1944 the Squadron flew its highest number of sorties. (A sortie means one aircraft on one operational mission). 2,280 were flown of which 308 took place in August. The Squadron supported the D‐Day landings in June 1944 in Normandy, bombing a coastal gun battery that could have opposed the Allied operation. Other major targets during the war included Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, and the Ruhr industrial area, Turin, Genoa and Milan, all of which were struck from our base in Yorkshire.
I arrived at the squadron in December 1944 and if you just look at a sample from the list of 102’s losses for that period you can get a hint of what we were about to face. We lost eight aircraft out of a total of twenty four in just the first three weeks following my arrival, and six of those went down over Germany – that’s 50% losses in less than a month, and I still had five months of wartime flying ahead of me!
24 Dec 1944 – Halifax MZ871DY‐G, target Mülheim, crashed near Neuss, Germany, two crewmembers killed, one missing, four taken prisoner.
24 Dec 1944 – Halifax LW168DY‐O, target Mülheim, hit by flak and crashed near Krefeld, Germany, one crewmember killed, one missing, five taken prisoner.
29 Dec 1944 – Halifax MZ426DY‐D, target Koblenz, damaged in combat, one crewman wounded.
01 Jan 1945 – Halifax LW158DY‐P, target Dortmund, undershot on landing and hit house, entire crew injured.
02 Jan 1945 – Halifax NR186, training, overshot and crashed, crew uninjured.
05 Jan 1945 – Halifax MZ796DY‐M, target Hannover, hit by flak and crashed at Neustadt, Germany, five crewmen killed, two taken prisoner.
05 Jan 1945 – Halifax LL597DY‐X, target Hannover, shot down over Germany, five crewmen killed, three taken prisoner.
05 Jan 1945 – Halifax NA602DY‐Y, target Hannover, shot down over Germany, seven crewmen killed, one taken prisoner.
16 Jan 1945 – Halifax LW179DY‐Y, target Magdeburg, shot down over Germany, all eight crewmen killed.
So, this was it. We had a short familiarisation course on the Halifax, just twenty one daylight hours and eight at night and then we were thrown into the thick of it; “There’s your plane, there’s the target, now get on with it”!
Our first flight was a bombing exercise with the new aircraft, because it was even more sophisticated than the one on which we had done our training. We also did some cross‐country flying to ensure that we were familiar with the country around our base. This was on a Halifax Mark III. The crew was all lined up by now, and a good crew it was too! Together we would survive the next five months of battle, and thirty three bombing missions over Germany, without a single casualty.
Sixty years on, I am embarrassed to admit that I can’t recall all the names. However, the Pilot was the Canadian from Vancouver, Pearson, who had first picked me
out of the crowd in that hangar in Scotland. I remember that the two Gunners were Englishmen, one for the mid‐upper turret, and one for the tail. The Wireless Operator or Radio Operator was a Scottish fellow, the Engineer was an English gentleman from around Liverpool, the Bomb Aimer was from Canada, and of course there was I –all the way from Jamaica! It was an international crew all right, but we all got on well together, and worked as a tight knit team.
We all had to learn the special language of the air force. Many people, particularly the more senior officers, really did talk in the fashion that you only hear in old war films today. By now, this manner of speech had become a habit for me also, and I recall that when I returned home it caused some amusement.
On the 21st of December 1944 we took off for the real thing. The target for our first operational mission was Cologne, classified as an ‘Industrial Target’ and the scene of many casualties on both sides during this stage of the war.
A lot goes on during a mission, both before and after takeoff, and much of it is just a blur now. I had been afraid of feeling fear, if you understand what I mean, but when the time came I found that I had so much to do that I simply didn’t have time for feelings. I experienced this on all the operational trips I made ‐ you just don’t have time for it. During the flight you have to make sure that you stay with your group and your timing must be absolutely right. There is simply no room for error.
During our briefing we were told when to get to each waypoint, one after the other, and finally the time to be at the bomb release point, which was absolute and inflexible. You see there was not just one aircraft on missions like this; there would be hundreds of planes up there with you, sometimes as many as a thousand. We would typically have two hundred or more aircraft attacking any on one target at a time. We would fly to the target in a long column of aircraft, called the ‘bomber stream’ and you needed to know exactly which section you were in, where you were in relation to the
other sections of the stream, and where you needed to be next, to avoid colliding with any of the hundreds of planes in the air around you.
Collisions were commonplace and they caused many casualties. It wasn’t unheard of for the bomb load to detonate as well, and I know of at least one case where this happened and three nearby aircraft were brought down, along with the one that exploded first.
Let me try to describe the experience of setting off on my first mission. I had finished an intensive and extended period of training and I felt ready for this first operational flight, but let me tell you, it’s not an easy thing to do; it’s a hard, hard thing. That first morning we were all told that we were scheduled to fly that night. ‘On duty tonight’ they said. We were given this warning at about ten o’clock in the morning, and the mission took place between ten that night and two o’clock the following morning. In that four hour period we would have had to complete the total course to the target, drop our bombs and get back to the UK, but as the Navigator I also had a lot of work to do in the time remaining before takeoff.
We had lunch, and then, clutching our navigational charts, the navigators from each Squadron aircraft headed off to our briefing, where we were told the identity of the target and the track to be flown. Most of the crew was still in the dark, and didn’t yet know where we were going, so they had more time to ponder. I took out my maps and drew in the route. This zigzag course is designed to confuse the enemy. It was made up of a series of legs, each ending at a waypoint, and each going in a different direction, because if you just fly straight to the target, the enemy will be fully prepared, ready and waiting.
Walking out to the aircraft for that first operational flight was like walking through deep mud, or a strong wind. I felt as though we were moving in slow motion and my legs didn’t seem to want to carry me out there. Mentally though, I wouldn’t say I was afraid as such. I was just unusually aware of my surroundings and completely focused
on the task at hand to the exclusion of all other thoughts. The time for thinking was past; it was time for action now.
I sat at my little table with the charts laid out before me, and listened to the talk on the intercom as the Pilot went through the now familiar procedures for takeoff. Then we were trundling over the surface of the airfield towards the runway, the four engines drowning out all other sounds. A brief pause at the end of the runway followed, while we awaited clearance to takeoff from the Controller. Then the engines went to maximum power as Pilot Officer Pearson set the throttles to full, and we started to bounce and vibrate our way down the runway, gradually picking up speed, before straining into the air. The vibration ended, the undercarriage came up with a heavy ‘thunk’ and we were airborne. Eventually the engines settled to a steady drone, and we turned and climbed to form up with the rest of the Squadron. The takeoff and ensuing climb allowed us to gain the prescribed height, but the real action began when we crossed the English coastline and headed towards Europe.
The pilot didn’t have the vast array of gauges and instruments that the pilots of a modern bomber possess. There was an altimeter, to show the current height above sea level, a tachometer to display airspeed, an attitude indicator that showed the angle of the aircraft relative to the horizon, RPM indicators for each of the four engines, a compass and a few other dials. Flying a heavily loaded bomber in congested airspace with none of today’s tools required real skill and could be physically demanding.
In those old Halifax’s and even in the Lancaster I flew in later, the Navigator couldn’t see or hear much at all. I sat behind a little curtain because I didn’t want to expose a light that might attract a night fighter. We kept red lights on to read the maps and the fighter would be on the lookout for any little flash of light in the black sky. Initially, he would have used radar to find your approximate location, but in those days radar wasn’t yet accurate enough to guide him precisely to you. The Germans had jet fighters in the air as well at this stage of the war, and let me tell you, they didn’t waste time – quick as the devil those things were.
The two gunners had a different perspective. The Mid‐Upper Turret Gunner had his head literally protruding from the top of the aircraft, protected from the elements by a Perspex cone. This gunner would be constantly revolving his turret throughout the flight, scanning 360 degrees for any sign of enemy aircraft. The Tail Gunner sat alone at the rear of the plane and he had a more limited field of view. His mount was a ball‐ shaped device that also protruded form the body of the aircraft, and he could swivel his guns left and right, but to a limited extent.
As I said, I couldn’t see a great deal from my position and for most of the journey I had my head down over my charts and instruments, working hard to keep us on track. In addition to several maps of northwest Europe and a collection of odd bits of paper, protractors, rulers and various coloured pencils, I had repeats of the altimeter, airspeed indicator, and the compass in front of me. I recall that next to these in a Lancaster was also a device called the Air Position Indicator which indicated our latitudes and longitudes, but I don’t recall whether we had this tool in the older Halifax bombers. Occasionally, I would get up to take a quick look outside to check the Met and get a fix on our position, but while we were over the target I couldn’t see the effect of our bombs or indeed any of the flak that was exploding outside the aircraft.
So, the work of guiding the pilot there and guiding him home again, is the navigator’s, and it’s is hard work I can tell you. And while we were doing this twisting and turning there were hundreds of other aircraft in the black night sky beside us, above us, below us, everywhere, but you couldn’t see a single one. This entire thing was done at night!
I recall that for this mission we were divided into three waves, and these were further broken down into flights of aircraft. Our wave, the first, would be over the target at midnight, and we would take ten minutes to pass over it, releasing our payload of bombs as we went. The first flight would bomb at the appointed time precisely, while the flight behind would bomb a minute later, and the next flight a minute after them until the entire wave of bombers had finished and the second wave would start. So it
stretched on over a fairly long period of time, and a large slice of the sky, and in order to be on time you had to work out exactly what your speed needed to be with great accuracy. Getting that right was very important indeed.
The first thing we noted as we approached the enemy coast was the searchlights and we knew that German night fighters were out there in the dark looking for us. Then, as we approached Cologne there were more searchlights and lots of flak (anti‐ aircraft fire) over the target. The actual bombing run, the last leg leading in to the target, only took about ten minutes between the time we turned onto it and the time we released our bombs. When the bombs fell from the bomb bay, in the belly of the aircraft, the plane leapt upwards as it was now much lighter. I felt my heart leap upwards as well, happy to be rid of all that high explosive. After the bombs were safely away, we twisted and turned as we left the target in case there were enemy fighter aircraft waiting to hit us, and then we made our way home through the dark, back to our base away over the sea.
Once we had cleared the target and cleared the zone where we could expect to meet enemy night‐fighters, I felt quite relaxed. I think that my experience was shared by many other crew members. We had too much work to do and everything you did had to be re‐checked, because you can’t make mistakes. A mistake in those conditions could be fatal.
Throughout the flight I could hear the other crew members talking on the intercom. When the gunners spotted a fighter they would call out its position and the whole crew would be aware of the threat. If you were some distance from the target you could manoeuvre up and down, but not sideways. Once in the bomber stream you can’t go left or right, and if you were to turn in there, across the path of the stream, God help you!
On that first night we had attacked the important Cologne/Nippes rail marshalling yards which were being used to serve the final German offensive in the Ardennes. No
aircraft were lost and the target was cloud‐covered, so only a few bombs hit the railway yards but I later read that these caused the destruction of 40 wagons, a repair workshop and several railway lines.
I don’t know if photographs of the results of that raid are still available, but the picture below, showing the Giessen yards in March 1945 will give you some idea of what was involved. In the centre you can just make out the railway tracks with several trains on them, and all around you can see the craters made by the bombs when they detonated.
Three days later, on the 24th December, Christmas Eve, we set out on our second operational mission (‘Ops II’ as it’s called in my log book) to bomb Mülheim. There were ‘bags’ of flak waiting for us and the attack was what we called ‘a complete hang up’; a nasty business. Altogether there were 338 aircraft on this mission, attacking the airfields at Lohausen and Mülheim (now Düsseldorf and Essen civil airports).
Three Halifax aircraft on the Mülheim raid were shot down, two of which were from my squadron. I later learned that of the fourteen men who went down in those two aircraft, three were confirmed killed, nine were taken prisoner and two were listed as missing. I think the missing men eventually turned out to have died.
You see, the danger we faced was not just in the air. Even if you were shot and down, managed to escape the aircraft and parachute to the ground you were still in a great deal of danger as you were descending on the very people you had been engaged in bombing only a few minutes earlier. When you think about it, it’s really amazing that anyone was ever taken prisoner.
While I flew that second ‘Op’, Sergeant Arnie Coope and his crew from 102 Squadron were among the three crews shot down. This is what he later wrote about his experience on that night.
“As I hung suspended, (in my parachute) frightened and all alone, I watched the rest of our bombers complete their mission and head back home for the Christmas festivities and at this stage I looked at my watch – it was only 1430 hours.
“As I neared the ground, I could see people converging towards where I was expected to land and I got the distinct impression that I was shot at several times. I thought that I had better do something about this so I jerked around in the harness and just hung limp until I hit the ground with a thump. I was immediately surrounded by a hostile crowd, but before they could do something to me, soldiers arrived.”
It’s a very sad thing, but the truth is that some of 102 (Ceylon) Squadron crews shot down on the same mission were lynched by angry mobs of German civilians. You can only speculate on the chances of survival for a Jamaican airman landing in Hitler’s Reich! Luckily for me, I was in one of those aircraft that Arnie Coope could see, still flying overhead.
Ops III and IV saw us heading to Koblenz on the 29th, when Halifax MZ426DY‐D was damaged in combat and one crewman was wounded, and then back to Cologne on the 30th of December. In spite of the damage to one of our squadron aircraft, no aircraft were lost and at least part of the bombing of each raid hit the railway areas. The Koblenz‐Lützel railway bridge was out of action for the rest of the war and the cranes of the Mosel Harbour were put out of action by our group.
Our attack on the 30th December, 1944 was directed at the area of the Kalk‐Nord railways yards, near Cologne. There was heavy cloud cover over the target and we could not observe the effect of our bombing, but later reports indicated that two ammunition trains had blown up, and that we had badly damaged the yards, two railway stations and the nearby Autobahn. The cumulative effect of these raids, and many of those that followed, was to severely hinder the German’s ability to move troops and critical supplies to the battlefront.
Between 2nd and 22nd January, 1945 we flew another six missions (Ops V to Ops X) dropping our bombs on Ludwigshafen, where we destroyed the IG Farben chemical works (this company produced the gas used in the Nazi extermination camps); Hanau where the wind scattered our bombs over a wide area of the city; Saarbruken railway yards which were hit accurately; Dulmen Luftwaffe fuel storage depot, where our bombs landed in open fields; the city of Magdeburg, an area target; and Gelsenkirchen where residential and industrial zones were targeted.
Our crew didn’t fly on the 5th January, but the Squadron did attack Hannover and had a rough night, losing three aircraft at the cost of seventeen men killed and six taken prisoner. I believe that at least one of our squadron aircraft was shot down by a night fighter piloted by Hauptman Georg‐Hermann Greiner, who shot down a total of four of our bombers in only ten minutes that night, the other three being Lancasters. Greiner was a Luftwaffe Ace, who shot down a total of 51 allied aircraft during the war. At the time we didn’t know much at all about the identities of the enemy pilots, but later I was able to learn that several hardy and highly skilled German night fighter aces continued to engage us right up to the end of the war and some of the top enemy pilots survived the war.
On the Magdeburg run, on 16th January, our compasses stopped working, and we had to navigate without them (quite a challenge) but we got home in one piece. We suffered heavy losses during this attack, which also destroyed 40% of that city. Altogether, 17 Halifax aircraft were lost, representing 5.3% of our attacking force. Halifax LW179DY‐Y from our own Squadron, and flown by Squadron Leader Jarand, was shot down over Germany on this mission with all 8 crewmen killed, bringing the total number of men killed in 102 Squadron to 29 in just 4 weeks. Nevertheless, although we didn’t know it then, we were through the worst. In the last months of the war our squadron lost only another 5 aircraft. Other squadrons were less fortunate and continued to lose men and aircraft right up to the end.
The effect of our bombs on the target was devastating, particularly when large cities were struck. Later in the war when daylight raids were more frequent, I had the chance to observe some of these targets from the air, and as the photographs show, there was almost nothing left standing in most German city centres.
On 29th January 1945 we headed for Stuttgart on Ops XI. This time our bomb load ‘hung up’, meaning that the bombs wouldn’t release and we had to release them manually. This was a difficult business at twenty thousand feet, the crew labouring over the high explosive cargo with the bomb doors open and the screaming dark rushing by beneath their feet. We finally got the bombs away and landed at Tangmere. A combination of cloud, dummy target indicator rockets set off by the Germans, hilly terrain and dummy target fires, also started by the enemy meant that our bombing was very scattered and in this final RAF raid against this city, and casualties on the ground were relatively light on that night.
I continued to feel as though a great weight had been lifted off me each time the bombs were released. We still had flak and fighters to face, but at least we were rid of all the explosives we had been carrying. There was a collective sigh of relief, because if we had been hit with the explosives still on board – oh Christ! A hit in those circumstances means that there is a chance that the whole aircraft would simply blow up before we even hit the ground. Even if we did hit the ground in one piece, we would certainly explode.
Only a third of my way through the tour, I was already a veteran. Our squadron had already lost 8 aircraft out of a full strength of 24 since I joined. Of course, each loss was replaced as it occurred, so we were generally at full strength. And so the sequence repeated itself, night after night. Sitting in the briefing room with my fellow navigators, listening to details of the weather and the target, noting the details of flak positions on my charts and trying not to think about enemy fire. Walking to the aircraft in the evening twilight with the rest of the crew, clambering aboard through a narrow hatch
and sitting at my navigation table, listening to the nervous chatter on the intercom. The aircraft engines starting, belching that black smoke, their whine rising to a roar, the aircraft lumbering and jolting down the runway, taking me with it regardless, straining to lift itself off the ground, clawing at the cold air and climbing up into the night sky. The long, bumpy flight over dark countryside and black waters, turning this way and that. The long hours of waiting and then the enemy night fighters coming out of nowhere at high speed, guns firing all around, other aircraft burning as they fall, their crews dying, beyond any help I could offer. Then the flak and searchlights over the target, the aircraft leaping upwards as the bombs fall away, the steep dive to low‐level flight, and skimming over the trees and the black water back to base, for hot tea and eggs and bacon, and sleep, and trying not to think about the comrades who would never come home again.
On 2nd February, our bombing was again frustrated by cloud and it is reported that we did not hit the oil refinery we were trying to get at. We then lost an engine due to enemy fire over Wanne Eickel, and once more we flew home on three engines. There was the usual crack of flak going off around us, and then we heard a sudden loud bang and the aircraft was shaken violently. Our starboard outer engine died immediately and we lost some altitude before the pilot was able to level the aircraft. A mission over Bonn followed, and then we had a tough time with the flak over Goch on Op XIV and at Wesel, where cloud forced us to abort the attack, on Op XV.
The anti‐aircraft fire was always extremely unpleasant, but we soon learned that we just had to live with it. On most missions, our commanders would attempt to route us around known enemy flak concentrations so that our route through the air to the target would depend on the position of the gunners on the ground. But many of those guns were mobile and the Germans would switch locations so that at least some of their fire simply couldn’t be escaped. In those circumstances you had to fly on through the shell bursts and hope for the best. Of course, there was always plenty of flak
surrounding the target. We knew that wherever the target was, it was going to be loaded with flak, and once we got there we just had to say, well, ‘Here goes!’
The Goch raid comprised 464 aircraft and was intended to prepare the way for the attack of the British army across the German frontier near the Reichswald; the Germans had included the towns of Goch and Kleve in their strong defences there. Our Master Bomber ordered us to come in below the cloud with the rest of the Main Force and as the estimated cloud base was only 5,000ft the attack was very accurate at first. However, the raid was stopped after 155 aircraft had bombed, because smoke was causing control of the raid to become impossible. We didn’t bomb for this reason, but our course took use through the smoke and directly over the target, nevertheless.
Considerable damage was caused in Goch but I read later that most of the inhabitants had probably left the town. Kleve was also attacked, and the photograph of that town below shows the effect. One of our aircraft was lost during this attack, and although several of the crew parachuted to safety and returned to Pocklington, the pilot didn’t get out in time and he burned to death in the crash.
On the 21st, while hitting the city of Worms, of which 39% was destroyed, we had an extended tangle with German fighters. Several of these infiltrated our formation and made good their attacks and 25 bombers were shot down over various parts of Germany that night, 8 of them from our mission. Hauptmann Greiner was active again, shooting down two of our aircraft. Flying with him that night were three more German aces; Gunther Bahr, Heinz Schnaufer and Heinz Rökker who between them accounted for 24 of the 25 bombers downed. So you see, some of these enemy pilots were coming up at us and shooting down 6 or 7 bombers each in one night, single handed. You can read about the fellows I named here in the Appendix.
I judge that the stress put on a German fighter pilot must have been much greater than that put on the crew of one of our bombers, simply because we had more eyes watching the night sky around us. We were flying in such massive formations that, as
long as we stayed on course and on schedule, the odds of a fighter targeting our plane specifically were relatively low. At the same time, as we were flying a big, heavy bomber, we would never go off chasing the enemy.
So, if he chooses to attack the main bomber stream, the fighter pilot finds that he’s operating at a major disadvantage. If he does come close (and many did) and picks a target, all the nearby aircraft would swing their guns towards the single fighter and he would find himself facing very heavy fire. It took great courage on the enemy’s part. At the same time, all of our gunners, excluding the ones in the aircraft actually being attacked, would know that they were in no immediate danger and they could operate without that pressure. They knew that they had a chance to get the fighter while it hadn’t a hope in hell of hitting them.
What this meant was that, nine times out of ten, the fighters would go after the stragglers and ‘strays’ – aircraft that had dropped out of formation due to damage or poor navigation. Imagine, if you can, a huge, dense stream of aircraft, with the odd wayward fellow off to one side, below, or lagging behind. These were the ones who would most likely be picked off by the night fighters, who would come in like sharks, nibbling at the edge of the ‘fish’ in the bomber stream.
The majority of the German night fighters were actually modified fighter‐bomber and light bomber aircraft that were no longer effective in daylight. These twin‐engine planes had been fitted with radar and extra armaments to enable them to find and destroy allied bombers in the dark. The crews were specialists who flew only at night, and they belonged to elite ‘Nachtjagd’ or night fighter units.
Most of those enemy fighter pilots would attack us from behind and below, because that was our blind spot. The enemy aircraft often had special gun mountings, fitted to point slightly upwards to support this direction of attack, in a configuration the Germans called ‘Schräge Musik’. This meant that the Tail Gunner was critical to our defence and he had to be constantly alert. Many tail gunners were killed during the war
and it wasn’t unknown for the whole tail gun assembly to be shot off, with the gunner in it. That was a hard way to go and there was no way to bail out of a tail gun position as it spun to earth. As soon as either of the gunners saw an enemy fighter coming in they would call out, and the whole crew would know that we were under attack.
We rarely had prolonged engagements with the enemy fighter pilots. They would come in fast and try and get in close, but our gunners were very good and the enemy would generally be chased off after one or two passes, because for obvious reasons they were not for pressing forward when our fire was accurate. Navigation was an important factor in this. If you could stay on course you would have the company of many other aircraft with all the tail gunners and top gunners in your vicinity firing simultaneously. The enemy didn’t approve of that. You needed steady nerves and lightening reflexes to survive however, and the wayward paid a heavy price.
Below is one of the claim forms the enemy would fill out if they shot you down, so that their victory would be recorded against their name. I am happy to say that I was never referred to on any of these!
The month of February 1945 came to a close with attacks on the huge Krupps armaments works at Essen where the Germans recorded that we were very accurate, dropping 300 high explosive and 11,000 incendiaries on the target. We also made an attack on the synthetic oil plant at Kamen. In the final week of the month we were upgraded to the Halifax VI bomber, which had better engines and a longer range, and on the 25th we flew a cross country to familiarise ourselves with this aircraft.
We returned to Cologne for the third time on Ops XIX on 2nd March 1945. That city really took a hammering from us and others during this period, and the damage was very extensive, as the picture shows. There really was almost nothing left in the centre of most of these German cities. Four days after this raid, American troops captured what remained of Cologne.
Another trip to Kamen the following night saw us being hit by intruders once again, this time on the return leg as we crossed the coast of England. The enemy had adopted a new tactic that involved attacking our forces as we were preparing to land, and on this first occasion it caught us completely by surprise. Once again we had been forced to fly home on three engines owing to a technical problem. I don’t know if Greiner was in the air near us, but Luftwaffe records show that he shot down three more Lancaster bombers on that night. This time, however, we had hit the synthetic oil plant without suffering any losses in our squadron, and that plant never went back into production after that attack.
In the week that followed we struck Chemnitz and dropped mines in Flemsberg Fjord. The Chemnitz raid required us to takeoff in icy conditions, and one squadron lost several aircraft due to mid‐air collisions.
One of my 102 Squadron pilots, Flight Lieutenant Jim Weaver, wrote this account of a raid on Stuttgart in July 1944, which gives a good idea of what the experience was like for most of us.
“It was a nice run up to the target with instructions from the Master Bomber, then ‘Bomb doors open’, ‘Left, left’, ‘Right, right’, ‘Steady’, ‘Bombs gone!’ The Halifax jumped up, relieved of its burden and now there was the long 25 seconds while the photo was taken and then ‘Bomb doors closed’. This whole procedure was not long in time but seemed to be the most intense part of the trip, especially over the most heavily defended targets.
“Leaving Stuttgart, it gradually became quieter, but exceptionally dark when suddenly, all hell broke loose. Tracers and cannon shells were tearing into the tail assembly and port wing. Almost instantaneously, I reacted with a dive to starboard, away from the tracers as, obviously, the fighter was astern. I shouted to the rear gunner ‘Paul – get that guy!’ It was a Junkers 88 astern, below and to starboard. The defensive
action we took brought him up in full view of the rear gunner who shot him down, seeing it break up with a fire and explosion around one of its engines.”
I was lucky as I was too busy to be frightened. But there were others who weren’t busy enough! I wouldn't have wanted to be sitting down there all alone in the tail of the aircraft as a tail gunner, waiting for a night fighter to come in and take pot shots at me. Nor would I want to have been a pilot, forced to hold the aircraft straight and level while flying into flak, able to see everything that was coming up at me. With all that twisting and turning and with the need to be accurate at all times I was simply too busy to worry. As I told you before we never seemed to fly in the same direction for more than 50 miles. Every five minutes we would turn left or turn right, descend or ascend in order to make sure that the enemy couldn't train their guns on us.
It was the same on every mission and I was always just three or four minutes from the next turn, working like crazy to get everything ready. Some of the other crewmembers really had nothing to do, unless the fighters came in to attack us. They were the men who suffered, you see, because they were just sitting there waiting, and that is a hell of a lot of pressure to put on anybody. We navigators were too busy to think about what could happen, and fortunate to have this responsibility.
We hit the shipyards in Hamburg on the 8th March, and then on the 11th we took part in the last ‘thousand bomber raid’ on Essen. Essen was a major target in the heart of Germany’s industrial centre, the Ruhr, and large raids had headed this way repeatedly. RAF reports said later that 1,079 aircraft of all bomber groups attacked Essen this night. This was the largest number of aircraft sent to a target so far in the war. Three Lancasters were lost but 4,661 tons of bombs were dropped through complete cloud cover. The reports stated that the attack was accurate and that this great blow virtually paralysed Essen until the American troops entered the city some time later. This was the last RAF raid on Essen, which had been attacked many times. Most of the city was now in ruins. 7,000 people had died in the air raids and the pre‐war
population of 648,000 had fallen to 310,000 by the end of April 1945; the rest had left for quieter places in Germany.
Wuppertal, Bottrop and Witten were attacked by us between the 13th and 19th March. The flak over Bottrop on 15th March was very bad and one Halifax was shot down. The Witten raid was an area attack and it destroyed 129 acres of the city, or 62%, including both industrial and residential districts.
We then had two dream missions, with almost no enemy action being observed, over Dulmen and Osnabruck at the end of March, although we lost an engine due to technical problems on the 25th and had to return from Osnabruck on three. I was getting used to that by this time. These were both area attacks, and we could see large fires and lots of dust and smoke as we flew away from the target.
With only four Ops to go to complete my tour, and counting down, we returned to Hamburg for the last time on 8th April, 1945 to attack the shipyards. Altogether, 3 Halifaxes and 3 Lancasters were shot down that night, and this also turned out to be the final RAF raid on the city. The following night we dropped more mines into the Flemsburg Fjord.
On 13th April we bombed Nuremburg, the future site of the war crimes trials. This city had a special meaning for me as a black person. It was here that the huge Nazi rallies were held, and here that the German race laws were created in the 1930s. I could recall hearing mention of this place many times in my late teens and early twenties. To be flying in one of the aircraft assigned to bomb the city provided a reminder that the journey I had taken and the risks I had shared were in a just and important cause.
Finally, on 18th April, 1945 we flew our last mission of the war, Op XXXIII, thirty three operational flights being the compulsory allotment. On this final mission we attacked a fortified island near Heligoland called Wangerooge, and that was a hell of a
‘prang’, I can tell you. This place was armed and defended like no other place in the world, but we really gave them a hammering, although 3 Halifaxes were also lost.
I don't recall exactly how many aircraft were committed for this attack, I think it was a hundred, but I can tell you it was a large force because of the heavy fortifications on that island, which included thick reinforced concrete bunkers and many antiaircraft batteries. It was one hell of a blast and the attack was made in daylight. We carried very heavy bombs specially designed to pierce the thick ceilings of the enemy bunkers, and there were also fighter‐bomber aircraft involved, smaller than the heavy bombers, that carried rockets to attack and suppress the antiaircraft positions.
On that final raid, after we had dropped the bombs, we did something that was totally wrong; for the first and only time we went around and circled the target. We knew that there was nothing left down there to touch us. In fact there wasn’t a single gun firing, just lots and lots of smoke. We could see explosions as well from bombs being dropped by aircraft that had flown in behind us and secondary explosions caused by munitions or fuel stored on the ground being hit. Following our assault two more squadrons went into that target and essentially wiped it out militarily ‐ there was just nothing left.
Of course you know by now that Heligoland was just one small military target while many of our missions were directed at industrial targets and large cities; this was what they called ‘total war’. It had been declared as such by Hitler and we were now paying him back.
The massive quantities of bombs that we carried and dropped on a target were bound to cause large numbers of casualties on the ground. You would try your hardest to navigate accurately and to bomb with precision but you can never be right on target every time. You think you have the right wind direction, you think you have the right wind speed, and that there won’t be any deviation between the wind at your height and the wind nearer the ground, but at the end of the day if you're going to drop that kind of
weaponry from that sort of height you know that you're really just going to wipe out whatever is on the ground below you. Remember, we were bombing from 30,000 feet which meant that there were several miles of air beneath us, with winds blowing this way and that, and we were unable to observe or measure any of those deviations.
On many occasions we were confident that we had the aircraft perfectly aligned, just as it should be; the bomb aimer had his sights on the target, all his calculations had been completed and the aircraft was ready for a perfect bomb run, but when he released the bombs they just didn’t fall where he intended because of a wind shear somewhere beneath us. The wind would just take the bombs off target and they would land some distance away, often on civilian areas that were not being targeted. You would do your best, but there were just too many factors to take into account, many of them out of your control. That’s the nature of the beast. You tried your best.
So, that was that. Thirty three operational missions, all of them over Germany at the climax of the air war, with just over 197 operational hours and 25 non‐operational hours, for a total of 223 hours aloft with no casualties amongst our crew.
Sadly, many of our comrades were not as fortunate. In the course of the war 102 Squadron had the third heaviest losses in Bomber Command. We lost over 1,000 men out of a Bomber Command total loss of 55,000, suffered the heaviest losses in Number 4 Group (shared with 78 Squadron) and had the highest percentage losses in the Group. As I explained earlier, these heavy casualties continued almost to the end of the war.
It’s also important to bear in mind the fact that, although we were only four or five months away from the end of the war in Europe, 46% of the total tonnage of bombs dropped by Bomber Command during the entire war was dropped between September 1944 and May 1945. It’s very sad, but with a strength of 120 or so aircrew on the Squadron more than a third (47) had been killed during the last six months of the war, 2 were missing and 18 had been taken prisoner.
The courage of my comrades is reflected in the fact that a total of 74 Distinguished Flying Medals (DFM) and the Distinguished Flying Crosses (DFC) were awarded to squadron members between 1939 and 1945, along with one CGM. I was one of the recipients of the DFC, awarded for my service with 102 Squadron, although it was not presented until after the war had ended and I had transferred to another unit. I also received the 1939 to 1945 Medal, the France/Germany Cross, the Defence Medal and the War Medal. I don’t know specifically why they gave me the DFC. They kept that secret from me.
Our commitment was limited to those thirty‐three operational missions. A few fellows got really worked up about the length of it, affected by the stress of constant flying and exposure to danger. In those cases the RAF would quickly pull them off flying duty and put somebody else into the crew. The affected person would be given a rest and in most cases he would eventually be put back on duty once he had recovered. There was a pretty modern attitude towards that kind of thing, even in those days, and we felt that we were fairly treated.
My operational tour ended before the end of the war. After I finished my tour it was time to go and get drunk! It was a big relief to come through that alive, yet I am sure that if the war had continued I would have signed up for another tour of duty straightaway. I can't really explain why, it's just something to do with the way I felt at the time, that we were doing the right thing, that it was important.
I know there were people who would go up for their first flight and then decide that they weren't ready for this at all, that they were not going back. I have to admit that I don't think that what we did was something that most people would do in the same circumstances. Without meaning to sound conceited, I believe that the process of selection and the intensive period of training brought a special group of people to the top of the pile.
Ralph Pearson, our pilot, one air gunner and I all volunteered to join the Pathfinder Force. The Pathfinders were an elite force trained to arrive at the target first and to drop flares and incendiaries to mark it for the main force bombers. Our applications were approved and we were posted to the Pathfinder training school to train on the Lancaster bomber. However, after about two weeks of this familiarisation the war in Europe came to a close as the Germans surrendered.
Well, with that our pilot Pearson just disappeared; in fact I tried to contact him before he left, but he was going straight back to Canada as the Canadians were being taken home very quickly by their authorities. Pearson was more or less engaged to a girl up in York, so he rushed off to join her about three days before the actual end of the conflict, while I was stuck at the training centre cooling my heels.
As soon as the fighting had ended I hopped on the first train to York, but I couldn't find Pearson. I visited everybody I knew trying to get some information about his whereabouts but I wasn’t able to contact him. Eventually I gave up and, as I couldn't get a room in a hotel anywhere, what with everyone returning from overseas, I ended up spending the whole night sitting in the railway station. Thank God it wasn't too cold. The next day I caught the first train back to my base and I never saw Pearson or heard from him again. He left so quickly, you see that I never got his address.
Chapter 5: My World Tour
I actually stayed with the RAF until 1963. I transferred to Transport Command and I even ran for the RAF track team, my events being the two‐twenty and four‐forty. I was formally entitled to wear the RAF Athletics Blazer, something that required written approval. At the end of my career I was serving as the Chief Navigation Officer for 216 Squadron, which operated the De Havilland Comet, a brand‐new jet aircraft suited to carrying passengers. The Comet was really the first genuine passenger jet.
In 1959 or 1960 I flew out to Vancouver, where Ralph Pearson had lived before the war, as a navigator in the Comet. While there I wrote several letters to various addresses in an attempt to contact Ralph but I still couldn't find him in spite of sending letters here, there and everywhere. I don’t know if he eventually married that girl from Yorkshire.
I did stay in touch with Laurie Wilder, our Flight Engineer. He was posted to the Middle East for a time, but when he came back he took ill and he died a few years ago. Of the others in my crew, I met only one after the war. I was walking along a street in London and I heard someone walking behind me. I knew it was a policeman but I didn't worry about that as I knew they were just walking past me. Suddenly, one of these policemen turned around to face me and said, ‘Excuse me, sir’. I thought he was going to arrest me, but as it turned out it was Morris, one of the mid‐upper gunners, who had now joined the police force. I exclaimed, ‘My God!’ I had a shock you know, as I just heard this uniformed gentleman say ‘Excuse me, sir’ and when you hear that from a policeman you know that the next words coming are, ‘You are wanted for questioning down at the Station’!
I used to work on the de‐mob ships coming back to Jamaica with Jamaican servicemen from the UK. I was on duty, in my uniform, and it felt good to walk the streets of Kingston and to meet up with members of the family, dressed as a flyer returned from the war. On the first trip, I took sixty days leave and went home to see my family for the first time in four years. I was proud of what we had done, and I’m not ashamed to admit that. I also believe that people really looked up to us and appreciated our efforts.
I did about three de‐mob trips out here, and we actually had some serious trouble on a few occasions because of the long drawn out demobilisation process for Jamaican servicemen, and the rough conditions they were forced to endure. Men from other nations appeared to have been given priority treatment when it came to repatriation, and our men felt that they had been badly treated.
I was down in Middle East in November 1945 and for some unearthly reason heavy rain started to fall. In addition, at this time in England they had one whole month of fog, and we were supposed to fly via Italy to pick up some passengers and carry them home to the UK. When we were ready to leave Italy the controllers told us, ‘Well you can’t move because you can’t get in; you can’t get into any airfield in England’. After sitting there for two full weeks, we were told to fly over to Naples. We then spent about two weeks flying over to the heel of Italy, and bringing people over to Naples to catch a ship home from there.
We finally got back to England in December 1945, after almost a month of trying. They must have had a hell of a lot of fog there. We left Naples with about twenty‐five soldiers on board, which was the standard load, and believe it or not, we got as far as the Channel and then we had to go all the way back to Marseilles, as we still couldn’t fly in.
Finally, the following morning, with the wind against us, we were able to get into our UK base and drop off our passengers. This was a Saturday with Christmas right around the corner. As I climbed down from the aircraft I saw three or four staff cars and a gaggle of senior officers standing there waiting for us. I said to myself, ‘What the hell did we do wrong?’ That’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see a gathering like that ‐ something must be wrong! Well, they stepped away from the cars, and I saw the Wing Commander at the head of the group. He said ‘John Blair come here!’ So I went over, trying to work out what kind of trouble I was in when he handed me something and said, ‘This is yours! You’ve been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross! Well done!’ And I said, ‘For what?’
There were no less than three Squadron Leaders standing there with the Wing Commander, and one of them said, ‘What the hell is this? You won a DFC and you didn’t say anything to anybody! But here you are; you have been awarded the DFC for the work done during your tour with the bombers in 102 Squadron.’ There was no
particular mission or event that caused them to give me that award, just my overall performance during the whole tour.
So that was it – I was surprised, I can tell you. There was a citation and a short letter from the King enclosed with the medal, but I have lost those unfortunately. All I can say is that I did the best job as a Navigator that I could have ever done. Well, we came through thirty‐three missions and many, many crews did not.
Of course, that night after they gave me the medal was a terrible night! From whisky to beer to whisky again! Beer by the barrel‐full and whiskey by the bottle! That was after suffering in Italy for a whole month, and since I had even had to go and buy new shirts down there, money was tight. I really couldn’t afford that medal.
With Transport Command I went all around the world, flying as a Navigator in Hastings aircraft and also the Comet. I met my future wife Margaret on an aircraft flying into Hong Kong. I was navigating and she was idling! She was the Senior Flight Sister but with nothing to do as there were no patients going outbound, although we would take patients on the journey back, mostly army personnel. That aircraft was actually a hospital ward with stretcher patients and seated patients. The Sisters were kept busy when they had casualties to attend to, but fortunately for me we were empty on that flight.
Later, I was based out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean dropping off cargo destined for Christmas Island in the period leading up to the British nuclear tests. I went fishing before the tests and caught a few really big ones.
In 1995 I was invited to represent Jamaica at the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the end of the war, held in London. Several of us represented Jamaica, including my friend John Ebanks, who had been a Navigator/Bomb Aimer in a Mosquito Squadron. Well, that was quite something. It was very well attended indeed and I had never before seen the streets of London with so many people on them. We marched from Greenwich up to big, old Buckingham Palace. On both sides of the street all the way to
the Palace, people must have been standing more than twenty deep. It felt as though there were millions of people there on that day.
While we were fighting we never thought about defending the Empire or anything along those lines. We just knew deep down inside that we were all in this together and that what was taking place around our world had to be stopped. That was a war that had to be fought; there are no two ways about that. A lot of people have never thought about what would have happened to them here in Jamaica if the Germans had won, but we certainly would have returned to slavery. If a youngster today should ever suggest that we had no business going to fight a ‘white man’s war’ I would just throw my foot at him where it hurt him the most!
EPILOGUE
Flight Lieutenant John J Blair, DFC, 1919 to 2004
Remembrance for
Flight Lieutenant John Jellico Blair, DFC 1919 – 2004
Read at his funeral service by Mark Johnson, nephew
What motives led John Blair to tread the path he did and what must he have felt as he travelled from the dusty plains of southern St Elizabeth, Jamaica, to the air over Germany in 1944; from educator to Royal Air Force navigator, to lawyer and air accident investigator; from poor rural roots to a Distinguished Flying Cross and a career as one of the first West Indians to serve in the officer’s ranks of His Majesty’s Forces?
Uncle John went to school in Pedro Plains, to be taught by his elder sister Jemima; what a fate that must be, to be taught by one’s sister! There was a single class for children of all ages and he was actually told to start school two years early. When the English schools inspector came to visit, Aunt Jem would push him out of the one‐room school by the back door, so that she wouldn’t get into trouble.
As a child, John was moved around between his home, his brother Stanley’s teacher’s cottage in St Ann and his sister Clarissa’s house in St Mary. In the latter, John used to watch his brother‐in‐law, Mr E.B. Johnson, leading the local scout troop. The troop was smartly dressed, with uniforms and scarves, just like their English counterparts, but they were all barefoot! None of them could afford shoes for day‐to‐day use.
In the late 1930s, John left St Elizabeth to study at the Mico Teachers Training College, and he graduated as a teacher in elementary education after the 2nd World War had already started and in the words of Uncle John’s lifelong friend and RAF comrade, John Ebanks, ‘Hitler was a bully who had to be stopped’. John Blair decided that he would be one of those who would do the stopping.
So this reserved, 23 year‐old school teacher from the countryside volunteered to join the Royal Air Force, and in October 1942 he was put on a ship in Kingston harbour along with twenty other Jamaican volunteers and sent to Canada for training, by way of Belize, New Orleans and New York. This was a man who had never held a gun, never before left Jamaica, and never once flown in an aeroplane.
That experience on board the American ship stayed with Uncle John, and he found it both ironic and amusing. When his group went on board, they were told to go below. As they arrived on the first deck they found empty bunks waiting for them, so they started to unpack. However, an officer soon appeared and told them that their proper place was two decks further down; in the hold! And that’s where they travelled all the way to New Orleans, via Belize!
John trained in Canada as a Navigator in bomber aircraft, and he said it was “Cold like the Devil!” As the navigator, John Blair was responsible for telling the pilot how to get to the target and how to get home again after the bombs had been dropped. This was done mostly at night and with very limited technical assistance, just maps, compasses, a radio signal for taking bearings, star sightings and a regular look out of the window at the ground below, when you could see it. No radar. No computers. And no lights!
And while doing all this, with hundreds of other aircraft all around them in the night sky, the bombers were under attack by enemy fighters and anti‐aircraft fire. Understand this – Uncle John’s squadron (102 Ceylon Squadron) possessed 16 Halifax bombers, each with a crew of 7 men taken from many nations. During the first 3 weeks of his service with the Squadron, 8 of those 16 planes had been shot down over Germany; that’s 50% of his squadron in less than a month, with most of the crews being killed. John Blair would fly for a total of 5 months, and fly 33 bombing missions in that period.
Imagine, if you can, just a few moments in this long period of strain and tension; John Blair sitting in the briefing room with his fellow navigators, listening to details of the weather and the target, noting the enemy flak positions on his charts and trying not to
think about the effect of their fire; John walking to the aircraft in the evening twilight with his crew, clambering aboard through a narrow hatch and sitting at his navigation table, listening to the chatter on the intercom. The aircraft engines starting, belching black smoke, their whine rising to a roar, the aircraft lumbering and jolting down the runway, taking him with it regardless, straining to lift itself off the ground, clawing at the cold air and climbing into the night. Imagine a long, bumpy flight over dark countryside and black waters, turning this way and that, long hours of waiting and then the enemy night fighters coming out of nowhere at high speed, guns firing all around, other aircraft burning as they fall, their crews dying, beyond any help he could offer. Now picture the flak and searchlights over the target, the aircraft leaping upwards as the bombs fall away leaving it so much lighter, the steep dive to low‐level flight and then skimming over the trees and the water back to base, for hot tea and eggs and bacon, and sleep, and trying not to think about the comrades who would never come home again, or the fact that it would all need to be over again the following night, and the next, and the night after that.
That is what this man did.
He admitted that this was a hard, hard thing to do; there was fear and danger, and there was discomfort. Thousands of airmen died on both sides, and his Squadron suffered the second highest losses of any RAF squadron during the entire Second World War. The enemy was expert and resolute and many of the German pilots who attacked John’s squadron were combat aces with years of experience.
For example, Hauptman Georg Hermann Greiner, who downed an aircraft from 102 on 5th January 1945 was a Luftwaffe Ace, who shot down a total of 51 allied aircraft during the war. Major Heinz‐Wolfgang Schnaufer, who attacked the squadron on 21st February 1945 bringing two planes down, shot down a total of 121 allied planes during his career. In fact, on that night Schnaufer, Greiner and two other German pilots accounted for a total of 25 allied bombers in less than 30 minutes.
So this was serious business; it was life and death, and more often death than life for the allied aircrews.
What did John Blair do when he had completed this tour? Well, he volunteered for a second tour with the elite Pathfinder Squadron, and he was accepted. He also went out and got drunk with his crew, and I wonder if he didn’t get drunk first and volunteer afterwards! For his service with 102 Squadron Flight Lieutenant John Jellico Blair was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the 1939 to 1945 Medal, the France/Germany Cross, the Defence Medal and the War Medal.
At the end of the war in Europe, Uncle John stayed in the RAF and transferred to Transport Command, flying all over the world. It was on one such flight to the Far East that he met his future wife Margaret. She was the Senior Flight Sister on board and they were on their way to pick up British casualties and ferry them home. As Uncle John put it, ‘I was working and she was idling!’
He also flew as a navigator in the Comet aircraft, the first passenger jet, and he remained in the RAF until 1963, a total of 21 years. John and Margaret Blair had two children, John Julian and Sarah, both of whom now live in the UK but who are here with us today. The family returned to Jamaica in the 1970s, and John Blair practiced law, worked as Deputy Director of Civil Aviation and tried his hand at farming.
Severe illness struck Uncle John in the late 1990’s. Throughout his long illness his wife Margaret and their children demonstrated the incredible devotion and strength that John himself had displayed throughout his life. How should we remember that life? In keeping with his own style, I propose just a few simple words; devotion to duty, to his country and to his people; love for his wife and for his children; compassion and humility; respect for others and concern for all mankind; self‐sacrifice. Let us remember him thus, let us thank him and his comrades for risking their lives to secure our freedom, and let us hope that each of us can be just one tenth the human being that was John Jellico Blair.
Appendix A
Transcript of an Interview with John Ebanks July 1997
I was a very religious young man and even now I can't understand my motivation for going to fight in the services. In 1940 I was the youngest lay preacher in the Anglican Church in Jamaica. But I was just annoyed when I listened to the news and heard how Hitler was just bulldozing his way through those little countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia. I was hurt ‐ he was just a dammed bully using his strength to dominate those people, and that triggered my decision.
I had five brothers and six sisters and came from a very traditional family background but I didn't tell my parents what I was planning to do until I had already been accepted by the RAF. I waited till the last minute to tell them.
My father was a teacher from St Elizabeth in Jamaica. In fact, there's a story in the family that states that by rights we should be in the owners of the whole of Treasure Beach where my good friend John Blair comes from. There were two brothers from Scotland call Eubanks (Ebanks is a corruption) who decided to leave their father’s carpet making business and follow in the footsteps of Columbus. Well they set sail and they reached as far as the Cayman Islands, where one of them settled. The second brother continued but his ship ran into a storm and they were shipwrecked on the South West coast of Jamaica at what is now called Treasure Beach. And so that's how the family came to Jamaica, and up to 40 years ago anywhere you heard the name Ebanks you could be certain that you were talking to someone who hailed from St Elizabeth. In 1954 there were only two Ebanks in the telephone directory and now there are about 30.
In 1939 I was a teacher. One day I was sitting with the headmistress listening to the radio when suddenly Churchill came on and we heard that amazing speech, “We will
fight them on the beaches”. I was very moved. The Germans were just rampaging across Europe, and these people were going to stop them.
So the following day I made an application to the RAF. That was in 1940 but I didn't hear from them until the middle of 1941 when they told me to report to Kingston for medical and mental tests. Incidentally the educational tests we got out here were much tougher than the ones we received when we arrived in England. We didn't actually join up here in Jamaica. There was a committee here and they were very strict because at that time all the fellows who applied were applying for aircrew duties ‐ no one was applying for anything else. My first choice was to be a pilot but I received a 100% score in the mathematical aspects of the test and apparently the English school system wasn't turning out as many good mathematicians as were required. So I was asked to become a navigator, given my skill at math. I didn't mind because I already knew that this was a critical job and that many aircraft were lost not because of enemy fire, but due to errors in navigation. It was common to hear of planes going off course and flying into mountains or heading far out to sea never to return.
After a few months in England I was posted to Canada for training. We had a good time in Canada. There was no blackout, there was plenty to eat and the girls were very nice, but that didn't interest me! What disturbed me was the comment that people trained in Canada as navigators were very poor in their performance operationally, because there was no blackout and so navigation was easy compared to Europe.
When I joined my squadron I was the only non‐commissioned officer on the station so I was stuck in a great big, big building all by myself. Eventually I was transferred to a place named Oakington.
I recall that during our bomb aiming training, on my first flight with live ordinance, I believed I had dropped the bomb on the target, but as we were returning to base we realised that the aircraft wasn’t handling properly and indeed the bomb was still attached! I said to my pilot, ‘I don't believe the bomb is gone!’ Now at this stage we
were at 30,000 feet and I said let's go down another 10,000 feet because I suspected that ice was the cause of the problem. When we had descended to 20,000 feet I pressed the button again and the aircraft jumped up about 4000 feet as the bomb left us. After that experience we never had any doubts as to whether or not the bomb had gone.
All in all I flew 50 sorties during the war. I think my most dangerous moment was over Hamburg. We lost one of our engines hit by flak, the starboard engine as I recall, and that occurred at 25,000 feet. Then suddenly the second engine packed up apparently because of an airlock. So we were just gliding with no engines at all. By now we were over the North Sea and the pilot told me to prepare to bail out. I said ‘Master, you can bail out but I not bailing out’. This was one time I was not obeying any instructions, because when you looked down below you know it was as black as pitch, it being two o'clock in the morning. No way was I going to bail out at night in the winter over the North Sea ‐ I would prefer to die in my plane.
When we got to 5000 feet the blockage cleared up and engine started and we were able to land on an emergency strip on the east coast of England. You see no matter how bad things get there is always a chance something will happen and you will scrape through. I just wasn't prepared to bail out because you had no chance of surviving you would freeze to death in two minutes in the water.
I also recall another occasion when we lost an engine and had to turn back to the UK. Now, each squadron leaving the UK had a designated re‐entry point at which you could fly back in to the UK. As long as you flew on the correct course you were expected, but if you were tempted to return on another route there was always a chance that the gunners on the ground will treat you as an enemy aircraft. As we hit the coast on this flight the English antiaircraft batteries, or ‘ack‐ack’, opened fire on us. But fortunately we always carried a Verey pistol with the flare of the day, a specific colour that everyone knew, and as soon as I fired that thing the anti‐aircraft firing stopped as though by magic.
I remember that I flew as part of a force of 30 mosquitoes to mark the target at Cologne for one of the thousand bomber raids. Well I'll just let you imagine what happens when 30 aircraft attack a target that’s defended by 600 guns. And yet, as we left the area weaving and turning violently to avoid the enemy fire I saw one aircraft circling the target, taking a look. It turned out to be one of the squadron commanders. Of course, he was shot down and killed.
When I got back to Jamaica I didn't find the adjustment difficult, but I had a hell of a time getting a job. At every interview I was told that I had a brilliant war record and that they had no place for someone like me.
I was at a gathering recently when a fellow came up to me and said “Oh! So you are one of those who went to fight for King and country.” I got very angry and I told him in no uncertain manner that I did not go to fight for King and country, I went to fight for myself. I went to fight for freedom, for Jamaica, and for all the little countries of the world that would otherwise be controlled by bullies.
John Ebanks 1997
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Title
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The Story of Flight Lieutenant John J Blair, DFC
102 (Ceylon) Squadron and 216 Squadron
Description
An account of the resource
A 52 page document detailing the history of John Blair's RAF service from 1942 to 1963, and his childhood in Jamaica. Introductory note says it was based on a taped interview with John Blair by his nephew in 1997.
John was born in 1919 to a poor but educated family. He was the youngest of eight children. At the age of 17 he started training as a teacher but war had broken out. He was accepted by the RAF as aircrew and after brief training in Jamaica was shipped to New Orleans then onward to Canada.
He trained as a Navigator and after crew selection at Kinloss, training on Whitleys he was sent to Pocklington, Yorkshire.
He completed 33 operations - there is great detail about the operations.
After the war he transferred to Transport Command and flew Hastings and Comets around the world. He was a successful athlete for the RAF.
Included is a eulogy for John written by his nephew, Mark Johnson.
An appendix covers a colleague, John Ebanks who served as a bomb aimer at RAF Oakington. He undertook 50 operations.
Creator
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Mark Johnson
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008
Format
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52 typewritten sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MBlairJJ[Ser#-DoB]-160509-01
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
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
Jamaica--Pedro Plains
Cayman Islands
Jamaica--Ocho Rios
Jamaica--Kingston
Belize
United States
Louisiana--New Orleans
New York (State)--New York
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
Ontario--Ottawa
Québec--Montréal
Ontario--Toronto
Nova Scotia--Halifax
Iceland
England--Yorkshire
Sri Lanka
West Indies
Australia
New Zealand
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Munich
Italy--Turin
Italy--Genoa
Italy--Milan
Germany--Mülheim an der Ruhr
Germany--Koblenz
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Magdeburg
British Columbia--Vancouver
England--Liverpool
France--Ardennes
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Essen
Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Germany--Saarbrücken
Germany--Dülmen
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Germany--Goch
Germany--Bonn
Germany--Reichswald
Germany--Kleve (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Worms
Germany--Kamen
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Flensburg
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Bottrop
Germany--Witten
Italy--Naples
France--Marseille
Europe--English Channel Region
China--Hong Kong
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany
Jamaica
Italy
France
Germany--Osnabrück
Jamaica--Saint Elizabeth
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Wangerooge Island
Louisiana
New York (State)
Ontario
Québec
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia
China
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Lancashire
Jamaica--Saint Ann's Bay
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
David Bloomfield
102 Squadron
216 Squadron
4 Group
78 Squadron
African heritage
air gunner
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
bomb aimer
bombing
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
crewing up
demobilisation
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
entertainment
Gee
ground personnel
Halifax
Halifax Mk 3
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
incendiary device
Ju 88
killed in action
Lancaster
medical officer
mid-air collision
military service conditions
mine laying
missing in action
Mosquito
navigator
Pathfinders
pilot
prisoner of war
radar
RAF Kinloss
RAF Oakington
RAF Pocklington
RAF Tangmere
searchlight
sport
training
Whitley
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/957/9621/SMathersRW55201v10017.2.jpg
3ee3becbe6616c2bb1eebfca320b874e
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
Mathers, Ronald. Album
Description
An account of the resource
45 page scrapbook of Squadron life and The Goodwill Tour to the United States by 35 Squadron in 1946. It includes photographs, newspaper cuttings, and programmes. The tour visited stations on both the East and West coasts of the United States and the airmen were entertained with visits to Hollywood.
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
SMathersRW55201v1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-17
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[photograph]
[page break]
[missing letters].F. THRILLS [missing letter]EW YORK
[missing letters]m Johnson Turner
[missing word][italics] Chronicle special cor[missing letters]ent with the Lancaster [missing letters]all mission now in U.S. [/italics]
[missing word] YORK, Saturday. – The [missing word] thrill for New Yorkers [missing word] was the spectacular [missing letters]ion flight of the 16 R.A.F. [missing letters]sters over the city’s sky[missing letters]rs.
[missing letters]ough the crews were unused [missing word] violent air currents that [missing word] in America at this time [missing word] they handled their planes [missing letters] ficently as they roared down [missing letters] ngth of Manhattan in the [missing letters] at possible formation.
[missing letters]tain’s youngest Wing-Com[missing letters]er, Alan Craig, D.S.O. D.F.C.
“This was one of the most [missing letters]alt formation flights the [missing letters]ron have ever made. I was [missing letters]g as much as five hundred [missing letters]n the most violent bumps.”
[missing word] add to the crews’ discomfort [missing word] interior of the planes were too [missing word] to touch and most of the men [missing word] bathing trunks.
MONDAY, JULY 22, 1946 and Morning Post Printed in LONDON and MANCH[missing letters]
[photograph]
LANCASTER BOMBERS of the famous Pathfinder Squadron No. 35 in flight over the East River, New York, last Thursday. These R.A.F. planes have been sent on a good will mission to the United States.
[underlined] 18 JULY 1946. [/underlined]
[photograph]
The crew with Eddy (centre), Tommy, Self, Jack, Paddy, Ted, Tedney, Chalrie
Bronxite in RAF on Goodwill Visit
The Bronx has a Yank in the R.A.F. He is Tech Sgt. Edward S. Machonis, 728 Elton Ave, who has been placed on detached service with Squadron 35 of the Royal Air Force, now on a good will tour of the United States.
Because of his rating as chief operator of the Army communications service at Mitchel Field, the sergeant was assigned to brief the crews of the giant four motored Lancaster bombers on American communication data.
He was flown to Gander Field, Newfoundland, to meet the 16 bombers on their flight from England.
“I was taken up to Newfoundland by Squadron Leader Pearson, who preceded the main flight.
It was my job to see they were thoroughly informed about radio ranges and communication facilities that would be encountered during their trip,” he said.
Crews Were Briefed
The visiting airmen were grouped in a hangar on the field, and the 24-year-old American sergeant presented the information to them. Following his talk, he invited questions.
With all routine matters taken care of, the flight to New York continued. “We had prefect weather coming down. It couldn’t have been better if we personally ordered it,” the sergeant said.
The 207 officers and enlisted men of the British Squadron were welcomed at the Long Island airport on Wednesday by civil and Army officials, which included Col. L. R. Parker, base commander of the field: Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, Gen. Jimmie Doolittle and Frederick Reinicke, New York City Commissioner of Aviation.
[photograph]
Tech. Sgt. Edward S, Machonis
Flew Over City
On Thursday, the 16 huge bombers flew over the city as the first mission of their tour. Sgt Machonis, supervising the radio communications, lauded the cooperation and efficiency of the crews.
“Their lead navigator,” he said, “told us we would be over the Empire States building at exactly 1.20 p.m. We hit it right on the second.”
Headed by Wing Commander Allan J. I. Craig, the Lancasters will tour the States as guests of the Army Air Forces and will hold the position of honor [sic] in an aerial review to be held on Air Force Day, Aug. 1, over Los Angeles. On Aug. 18, the squadron will arrive at Mitchel Field and will then return to England.
Sgt Machonis, who lives with his Australian wife, Iris, and their nine-months-old baby Michael, is not impressed with the unusual duty that has been assigned to him.
The sergeant has been in the Army over four years and intends to make a career of it.
[photograph]
A good load for an equally good kite Crew and Passengers
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Royal Air Force at Mitchel Field
Description
An account of the resource
Photograph 1 is a line of airmen and a guard of honour in front of a Lancaster. Item 1 is a newspaper cutting referring to the arrival of the Lancasters over New York. Item 2 refers to the arrival of the Lancasters and includes an air to air shot of 12 Lancasters over New York. It is dated 18 July 1946. Item 3 is a newspaper cutting 'Bronxite in RAF on Goodwill Visit'. A native of the Bronx is on detachment to 35 squadron. The cutting refers to the arrival of 35 squadron in New York. Photograph 2 is seven airmen captioned 'The crew with Eddy (central) Tommy, Self, Jack, Ted, Tedney, Charlie'. Photograph 3 is 12 airmen standing in front of a Lancaster captioned 'A good load for an equally good kite Crew & Passengers'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-07-18
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMathersRW55201v10017
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)
New York (State)--New York
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-07
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.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs and three newspaper cuttings on a scrapbook page.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
Steve Baldwin
35 Squadron
aircrew
Goodwill tour of the United States (1946)
Lancaster
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1292/17652/PPearceAT16030035.1.jpg
a8037a649fd2a4aaab6091424f6c1181
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[photograph]
Southwark ‘Pathfinder’ on goodwill mission
WARRANT Officer A.J. Pearce, DFM, of 70, Whitworth House, Falmouth-rd., [sic] Southwark, is to be rear gunner of a Lancaster bomber of the famous No. 35 Squadron, RAF, when the unit flies to the United States shortly on a goodwill mission.
Altogether 16 Lancaster bombers and two York aircraft are to visit America to take part in Air Forces Day on August 1. They will visit New York, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Denver, Long Beach, California, San Antonio, Texas West, Palm Beach and Florida.
During the war W/O Pearce completed 44 operations against the enemy, including a period of service with the Pathfinder Force. He was awarded the DFM in December, 1945.
Born at Blackfriars in 1923, he was educated at St. Michael’s School, Camberwell, and he enlisted in March, 1943.
No. 35 Squadron is a veteran bomber and Pathfinder squadron and was to have formed part of “Tiger Force,” organised to join American Super-Fortresses, in bombing Japan.
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
Southwark 'Pathfinder' on goodwill mission
Description
An account of the resource
Top left - Arthur Pearce in the rear turret of a Lancaster.
Bottom right - Arthur Pearce leaning out of the rear door of a Lancaster rear turret which is rotated fully to port.
Bottom left - newspaper cutting title 'Southwark "Pathfinder" on goodwill mission'. States that Warrant Officer A.J. Pearce of Southwark will be a rear gunner of a Lancaster of 35 Squadron when it flies to the United States on a goodwill mission. 16 Lancasters and two Yorks will visit America to take part in Air Forces day on 1 August. They will visit New York, St Louis, Los Angeles, Denver, Long Beach, San Antonio and West Palm Beach. It adds that during the war W/O Pearce completed 44 operations including some with pathfinder force. He was awarded the DFM in December 1945.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-07
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two b/w photographs and one newspaper cutting mounted on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PPearceAT16030035
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
United States Army Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)--New York
Missouri--Saint Louis
California--Los Angeles
Colorado--Denver
California--Long Beach
Florida--West Palm Beach
Texas--San Antonio
Great Britain
England--London
Florida
California
Colorado
Missouri
New York (State)
Texas
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-08-01
1945-12
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
35 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Distinguished Flying Medal
Goodwill tour of the United States (1946)
Lancaster
Pathfinders
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1632/25742/PBowerFG20010041.1.jpg
8e412b74db2e358fefab6e9898132870
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1632/25742/PBowerFG20010042.1.jpg
3e02e21ca912be46985a016a9c43da12
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
Bower, Frank Geoffrey. Album
Description
An account of the resource
An album of photographs from Frank Bower's training in Florida.
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
2020-01-23
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
Skyscrapers
Description
An account of the resource
Photo 1 is the Empire State Building
Photo 2 and 3 are views looking up the side of the Empire State Building.
Photo 4 is a street view with tall buildings behind.
Photo 5 is a view across tall buildings.
Photo 6 is the Freedom Tower, Miami.
Photo 7 is a large building with a small tower.
Photo 8 is a large building.
Photo 9 is the Biltmore Hotel, Miami.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Nine b/w photographs on four album pages
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBowerFG20010041,
PBowerFG20010042
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)--New York
Florida--Miami
Florida
New York (State)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1153/34166/BThomasJHThomasJHv1.1.pdf
9a596508c094843367071bcd8c323d5f
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
Thomas, John Henry
J H Thomas
Description
An account of the resource
Seven items. Collection concerns John Henry Thomas (b. 1923, 424515 Royal Australian Air Force). He flew operations as a pilot with 102 Squadron. Collection contains an oral history interview, memoirs of his service and other events and a painting.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by John Thomas 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
2018-01-22
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
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Thomas, JH
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
SERVICE RECORD
JOHN HENRY (JACK) THOMAS
A424515
DATE OF BIRTH: 14TH September 1923
Enlisting in the R.A.A.F. in December 1941 my call-up was delayed until September 1942, as the Army had conscripted me in early 1942. My concern was that the Army was reluctant to release me and I was prevented from accepting the June, July and August call-ups by the Air Force. In early Septeber an R.A.A.F. recruiting van arrived at Hume Camp, Albury and the following morning I was on my way to Sydney for discharge from the Army.
I became an Aircraftsman 11 on the 12th Septemner 1942 at Bradfield Park, Sydney, completed the twelve week initial training course and was classified for pilot training.
On the 9th December 1942 I was posted to No 8 Elementary Flying Training School, Narrandera N.S.W. for training on Tiger Moth aircraft. After completion of a course lasting eight weeks, my logbook recorded 7 0 flying hours.
The next post was to No 1 Service Flying Training School at Point Cook, Victoria, arriving there on the 7th February 1943. Flying training was on twin engine Airspeed Oxford aircraft operating from satellite airfields at Werribee, Lara and Little River. I received my Pilot's brevet on 16th June 1943 and became a Sergeant Pilot with 200 flying hours in my logbook. The ground subjects were rather onerous, but navigation being a form of Trigonometry and having been in an army artillery survey unit I found it an interesting subject. A Tasmanian trainee and self finished equal first in the course.
After Embarkation leave and a short stay at Bradfield Park I went by train to Brisbane, stayed two days in an army camp in West Brisbane and then boarded a U.S. army transport for the voyage to San Francisco. "NOORDAM" was a Dutch 2nd class passenger/cargo ship of 11,000 tons and the sea trip was an 18 day non stop run. Four days were spent in a U.S. army camp on Angel Island in San Francisco bay. The ferry to Angel Island also called at Alcatraz. Ken Jagger and I stepped onto the wharf and a guard, with Tommy gun and loud hailer, situated in a tower promptly ordered us back on board the ferry; we complied even more promptly.
The next part of the journey was from San Francisco (Oakland) to New York by troop train. In New York boarded the "AQUITANIA" a 46,500 ton sister ship of "TITANIC". The voyage to Greenock in Scotland was a solo trip of 5 1/2 days. On board were 4,000 air force personnel and 7,800 American troops. Meals were twice daily only. In New York harbour the capsized French Ship 'NORMANDIE' was at the adjoining wharf.
The train trip from GREENOCK TO 11 P.R.D.C. Brighton on the English South Coast took place overnight, and in mid September was seconded (with Ken Jagger) to Empire Central Flying School, Hullavington. The purpose of this secondment was for comparison of training standards throughout the Empire Air Training Scheme. There
[page break]
were 96 types of aircraft at this establishment. Shortly after returning to Brighton I was post to No 18 Pilot Advanced Flying Unit at CHURCH LAWFORD (near RUGBY) IN WARWICKSHIRE. Completed course on Airspeed Oxford aircraft and now had 284 flying hours in logbook.
I was then posted to 21 Operational Training Unit Moreton in Marsh Gloucestershire and teamed up with crew. Unfortunately Navigator and Bomb Aimer dropped out and had to wait for next intake to complete crew. Completed course on Wellington Bombers on 27.4.1944 and now had 388 flying hours. It was at 21 O.T.U. sustained spinal injury in landing accident caused by instructor and failure of safety harness. Next posting was to 4.G.B.S. (Ground battle School) at Acaster Malbis in Yorkshire. Trained with the Kings Rifle Corps and the Coldstream Guards in self defence and escape routines plus night vision improvement. At the end of May posted to 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit (Riccall) in East Yorkshire where our crew was increased by the addition of Flight Engineer and totalled seven men. Completed course on Halifax MK2 Aircraft and had now 427 hrs, in logbook. Was posted to 102 (Ceylon) squadron Pocklington in East Yorkshire located 12 miles from York on the Hull/York road. After conversion onto Halifax MK3 Aircraft commenced operational duties on 12th July 1944 and completed tour of operations on 22nd January 1945.
The last five sorties the crew numbers had increased to eight now by the addition of a Mid Under[?] Gunner in a nacelle using a point 5 calibre Machine Gun.
[centred] CREW LIST [/centred]
FLYING OFFICER JACK THOMAS PILOT RAAF
PILOT OFFICER JACK WHITE BOMB AIMER RAAF
SERGEAMT DEREK TURNER NAVIGATOR RAF
FLIGHT SERGEANT ROSS PEARSON WIRELESS /OPERATOR RAAF
SERGEANT JOHN HUGHES FLIGHT ENGINEER RAF
SERGEANT NAT GOLDBERG MID UPPER GUNNER RAF
FLYING OFFICER NEIL DAVIES MID [deleted] UPPER [/deleted] [inserted] UNDER [/inserted] RAF
FLIGHT SERGEANT JOHN WILLIAMSON REAR GUNNER RAAF
Now had 613 flying hours in logbook, thereafter I was posted to 21 O.T.U. Moreton In the Marsh, as a screen (instructor) Pilot where I remained until 22nd June 1945. Logbook total 693 hours. Then posted to Brighton for Repatriation to Australia. Travelled on R.M.S. "STRATHEDEN" arriving in Sydney mid November 1945 and was discharged on 7th December 1945.
[page break]
[centred] SORTIES CARRIED OUT [/centred]
12-7-44 Les Hauts Buisson Night raid returned with bomb load as unserviceability of equipment prevented bombing
17-7-44 Bois De La Haire Daylight raid
18-7-44 Vaires Daylight raid on Paris Rail Depot
20-7-44 Chapelle Notre Dame Daylight raid
03-8-44 Foret De Nieppe Daylight raid
05-8-44 Foret De Nieppe Daylight raid
01-8-44 Novelle En Chausse II Daylight raid
07-8-44 Battle Area 3 Night raid on the Falaise Gap east of Caen & attack destroyed a Panzer division, 70.00[?] ton ammunition dump and allowed British and Canadian armies to attack the defending German forces.
08-8-44 Belle Croix Daylight raid
11-8-44 Somain Daylight raid on Marshalling yards
15-8-44 Eindhoven Holland Daylight raid on Philips Electrical works
16-8-44 Kiel Night raid on Submarine Pens & supporting factories
18-8-44 Sterkrade Night raid on German Synthetic oil refinery
25-8-44 Wemars Capelle Daylight raid
31-8-44 Lumbres Daylight raid
09-9-44 Le Havre Daylight raid cancelled with 7/10 cloud over target, bombs dropped in English Channel narrowly missing H.M.S. Warspite and H.M.S. Black Prince bombarding Le Havre, but well out of their assigned zone, trespassing in R.A.F. bomb disposal area
10-9-44 Le Harve Daylight raid
11-9-44 Gelsenkirchen Daylight raid on German Synthetic Oil refinery intense flak barrage
12-9-44 Munster Daylight raid, 400 fighter escort Mustang & Spitfires
20-9-44 Calais Daylight raid
7-10-44 Cleve Daylight raid with large fighter escort
14-10-44 Duisberg Daylight raid, RAF dropped 4,500 tons mid morning, USAAC bombed early afternoon and RAF bombed before midnight. Total bomb load 10,000 tons
15-10-44 Wilhemshaven Night raid on Naval Base
25-10-44 Essen Daylight raid
30-10-44 Cologne Night raid, Target covered by cloud P.F.F. used sky markers and target was successfully bombed by main force
02-11-44 Dusseldorf Night raid with a Night Fighter firing & missing
[page break]
18-11-44 Munster Daylight raid and Master Bomber in a Lancaster lost rear turret from a bomb dropped from above. He passed in front of me and I could see right up the fuselage to the cockpit.
I became hospitalised with severe tonsillitis at this time for a period of two weeks. Subsequently I had a tonsillectomy in March 1945.
From 25-11-44 to 20-12-44 Britain experienced the coldest winter for 40 years and air operations were at a standstill. Low cloud, snow, and ice were constant. The coldest day was 2 Fahrenheit.
24-12-44 Mulheim Airfield Daylight raid when RAF and USAAC bombed 8 major German airbases under the protection of an enormous fighter cover ... On take-off our airspeed indicator became unserviceable and navigational aids and bombsight were rendered useless. Target was successfully bombed by closely formatting with another Halifax. Landed at Carnaby as home airfield under cloud cover.
28-12-44 Munchen-Gladbach Night raid
29-12-44 Koblenz Daylight raid
02-01-45 Ludwigshaven Night raid
05-01-45 Hanover Night raid, near collision when a FW190 crossed our bow from right to left.
13-01-45 Saarbrucken Night raid
16-01-45 Madgeburg Night raid
22-01-45 Gelsendirchen Night raid
Typical procedures carried out in preparation for night bombing raid over Germany
Daylight 0745
0630 Reveille {broadcast over Tannoy}
0700 to 0830 Breakfast available in Messes
0830 Pilots report to flight office {if not already booked for 1 hour Link trainer session}. Other crew members report to their respective sections.
1000 Notification of operartions[sic] planned for tonight. War list drawn up in each flight office in accordance with number of aircraft by Operational Plan.
1100 Check of aircraft to operate, pilot and flight sergeant in charge of ground crew talk over vital points and airtest aircraft where necessary
1200 to 1300 Lunch available at Messes.
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1.30pm to 3.30pm Crews take rest
3.30pm Report back to sections, Shortly, call for all operational crews to go to respective messes for operational meal (Bacon, eggs, tomato, toast, tea etc.) thence proceed to briefing Room at 4.15pm
4.15pm Briefing room. All operational crews taking part are assembled. The squadron commander (wing Commander rank) arrives, says "sit down gentlemen" turns to the covered map on the wall, removes cover and announces the target for tonight (Magdeburg). The map has the route to the target indicated by a coloured tape, with changes of direction to avoid defended areas. The return flight is indicated by a coloured tape, again with changes of course to avoid defended areas. The Wing-Co states time of take off, E.T.A. (estimated time of arrival) having an accuracy of plus or minus 15 seconds.
He then says adjust your watches and everyone synchronises their wrist watches. The Wing-Co concludes his briefing and is followed by the intelligence officer, meterology officer, navigation leader, bombing leader, wireless leader, flight engineering leader and finally the gunnery leader. It is now about 5.15pm and the sun has set about 1 1/4 hrs ago.
The crews now travel to the Parachute section where they pick up their chute, don cold weather gear including flying boots and the gunners collect their heated flying suit. It will be cold, -45deg.c. at 24,000 feet.
The crews re-enter the crew buses and are transported to their respective aircraft which are around the airfield in dispersal bays. It is now about 5.35pm and take off has been set for 6pm. The aircraft nearest to the runway in use will start its engines in about 5 minutes and each aircraft thereafter will start engines so that when the first aircraft taxies from its dispersal point, onto the perimeter track, an orderly file of all the other aircraft involved begins.
The noise level created by the twenty, four engined Halifaxes moving round to the take-off position is very loud. As the first aircraft swings onto the runway it travels forward to ensure the tail wheel is straight before being locked in position. With brakes fully on, each engine in succession is run up to full revs and returned to idle. Now all four engines are opened up to 2,000 revs and the brakes released. The aircraft moves and begins to pick up speed as full revs (3,100 per minute) are achieved. Minimum take off speed, 120mph. is reached after a run of 1,200 metres, but usually held aircraft down until 130ph. showing, then lift off, squeeze brakes, lift undercarriage then the 5deg. of flap used for take off. At 160mph. engines throttled back to 2,300 revs. and climb to 2,000ft. level off, circle drome and set course for Germany. Each aircraft followed the above procedures and took off at little more than 20 second intervals.
The first 120 miles is flown at 2,000ft. to stay under enemy radar, then climb begins at 160 mph., 1,200ft. per minute initially but declining as the air gets thinner. The
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Dutch coast is crossed about one hour after take off at a height of 12,000ft. Climb continues and 24,000ft. is reached; it is now 1 1/2 hrs. since take off. At 160mph. indicated air speed, the aircraft is now travelling at true air speed of 227mph. We are now well and truly in the danger zone as German rader[sic] is tracking us and directing their A/A guns and night fighters. At 24,000ft. it will take 1 1/2 hrs. to reach Magdeburg. It is very cold and the air is clear. I had my side window open on the climb and when I tried to close it, no luck, it was frozen tight. Later I found the heel of my left thumb had been frost bitten through three glove layers from trying to force the window shut.
For 1 1/2 hrs. the aircraft, weaved, skidded and undulated to avoid being a steady target for any night fighters trying to home in. By this time the inside of the windscreen had iced up so there was no forward vision. The bombd aimer became the forward eyes of the aircraft. The target area comes into view and the P.F.F. flares are visible; now the Master bomber could be heard on the R/T directing traffic. This is the most dangerous time of the operation. Steady course, steady speed, aircraft straight and level, bomb doors open, bomb aimer watching the target marker slide along the bombsight until it reaches the cross, Bombs Gone. The sudden release of 9,000lbs. of bombs in just over 1 second causes the aircraft to suddenly rise 200 feet. Bomb doors shut, but fly straight and level for one minute for aiming point photo. Then turning (rate 1 turn) to starboard to go on reciprocal course for home.
Now its nose down 220mph. which is 297mph. true air speed for eight minutes and levelling off at 16,000ft. on course at 160mph. Indicated (205 T.A.S.) This part of the return flight takes 2 1/4 hrs., constantly weaving, skidding, undulating. After this, descent commences at 300/400ft. per minute crossing the coast again at 10/12,000ft. and continuing until 2,000ft. then level off, and the aircraft, because of its lightened weight cruises easily in the range 210/230mph. After some 14 minutes of flight the outer circle lights of Pocklington Airfield are sighted and after receipt of permission to land, taxy to dispersal area, leave aircraft and ride on bus back to parachute section then to debriefing. The aircraft had been airbourne for 6 hours 15 minutes. After debriefing back to mess for meal, as before, then to bed.
P.S. As Britain was subject to sudden cloud and fog cover, three emergency airfields were established, at Manston, Woodbridge and Carnaby, ringed by petrol filled piping, which ignited dispersed cloud or fog for safe landings. They were known as F.I.D.O. (Fog Intensive Disposal Of.).
Dublin Core
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Title
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Service record John Henry (Jack) Thomas
Description
An account of the resource
Covers enlistment and early training in the Royal Australian Air Force. Continues with description of journey to England via the United States and training in England. Lists his crew formed during training. Joined 102 Squadron with Halifax Mk 3 on 12 July 1944 and completed tour 22 January 1944. Lists 36 operational sorties. Goes on to give a detailed description of a typical day's preparation for night bombing raid over Germany.
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J H Thomas
Temporal Coverage
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1941-12
1942-09-12
1942-12-09
1943-02-07
1943-06-16
1944-04-27
1944-07-12
1944-07-17
1944-07-18
1944-07-30
1944-08-03
1944-08-05
1944-08-01
1944-08-07
1944-08-08
1944-08-11
1944-08-15
1944-08-16
1944-08-18
1944-08-25
1944-08-31
1944-09-09
1944-09-10
1944-09-11
1944-09-12
1944-09-20
1944-10-07
1944-10-14
1944-10-15
1944-10-25
1944-10-30
1944-11-02
1944-11-18
1944-12-24
1944-12-28
1944-12-29
1945-01-02
1945-01-05
1945-01-13
1945-01-16
1945-01-22
Spatial Coverage
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Australia
New South Wales--Albury
New South Wales--Sydney
New South Wales--Narrandera
Victoria--Point Cook
United States
California--San Francisco
New York (State)--New York
Great Britain
Scotland--Greenock
England--Wiltshire
England--Sussex
England--Brighton
England--Warwickshire
England--Rugby
England--Gloucestershire
England--Yorkshire
France
France--Paris
France--Nieppe Forest
France--Falaise
France--Somain
Netherlands
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Germany--Kiel
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Germany--Oberhausen (Düsseldorf)
France--Pas-de-Calais
France--Lumbres
France--Le Havre
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Münster in Westfalen
France--Calais
Germany--Kleve (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Germany--Essen
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Mülheim an der Ruhr
Germany--Mönchengladbach
Germany--Koblenz
Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Germany--Saarbrücken
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Hannover
California
New York (State)
New South Wales
Victoria
Germany
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Memoir
Format
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Six page printed document
Conforms To
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Pending text-based transcription. Under review
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BThomasJHThomasJHv1
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
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Sue Smith
102 Squadron
1658 HCU
21 OTU
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
crewing up
flight engineer
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 3
Heavy Conversion Unit
navigator
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Acaster Malbis
RAF Hullavington
RAF Moreton in the Marsh
RAF Pocklington
RAF Riccall
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/514/11307/BGoodmanLSGoodmanLSv1.1.pdf
95e2e091735c5cb46cad20f313332cb3
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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Goodman, Benny
Lawrence Seymour Goodman
L S Goodman
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Goodman, LS
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. Two oral history interviews with Squadron Leader Lawrence 'Benny' Goodman (1920 - 2021, 1382530, 123893 Royal Air Force) and a memoir covering his activities from 1939 to 1945. He flew 30 operations as a pilot with 617 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Benny Goodman and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
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2016-04-28
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.
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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BY BENNY GOODMAN
It was September 1939. A few of us were sitting around the wireless waiting for the Prime Minister to make an announcement. He did so and told us we were now at war with Germany. I was a student, in digs, and a long way from my home in London. I decided to telephone my parents and talk things over with my father. My first instinct was to leave my studies – not a hardship really! – go home and join up. Eventually, my father agreed, much to my mother’s consternation. I discovered later. He had served four years in the 1st World War. There was no doubt in my mind I was going to join up. However, I did not want to join the navy or the army and it was only then I realised I wanted to become a pilot.
I was almost nineteen and had no idea what was entailed, but with the ignorance and cheek of youth I presented myself at the RAF recruiting office and told the officer who interviewed me what I wanted to do. He didn’t say a word, finished filling in the form he had in front of him and told me I would be hearing about my application very soon. Not long afterwards I went for a general medical and when I passed this I was sent to an RAF medical for a more involved air crew medical. Everything went well except when it came to the eye test. My eyesight had never been top class so I went to the back of the queue and learnt the two or three lines each candidate was being asked to read. I passed! After attestation, I went home to await call up. It came a few weeks later and I reported to RAF Cardington, where I was issued with a uniform and all the accoutrements for an AC 2. This is it, I thought. I shall be a pilot in a couple of weeks and will save the world!
Things didn’t quite turn out like that. After about 10 days at Cardington, we were told to pack our kitbags and were marched off to the local railway station. Rumours were rife! And if you listened to everyone, your posting was to anywhere in the world. In fact, we went to RAF Bridgenorth for six weeks square bashing and all that went with it. ‘Bull’ was the order of the day – the camp had four parade grounds) Then I and another chap were posted to RAF Abingdon. When we got there nobody had any idea we were coming and so the Orderly Room Sergeant asked us our trade. We both said ‘U.T. Pilot’ and consequently we were sent the aircrew quarters, which were in fact the married quarters on the station. Abingdon was a straight through course for Whitleys and so, with much justification, we thought we would be on the next course.
However, there was a war on! It was decided that the Whitley course running at the time would be the last one and again, no one knew what to do with us. The next day we were moved from our relatively comfortable billet to a remote part of the airfield. There was a Nissen hut with six beds, no sheets, no pillowcases and a Fairey Battle packing case as a so-called recreation room. The latrines were self-dug, but permanent. We were to be ground gunners!
It was explained to us that this was a temporary move but as such we had to learn, amongst other things, how to strip and re-assemble the C.O.W. gun and the water-cooled Lewis gun. Duties were 4 hours on / 2 hours off in the gun pit. We patrolled the airfield at night and challenged anyone on it for the password of the day. You can imagine the sort of answers we got from aircraft technicians with their bags of tools in the pitch black trying to find the Whitley they were to work on. At dawn every morning we had to march around the perimeter track with our gas masks on in case of a German paratroop invasion from the air.
Our food was brought out to us in hay boxes and so was never very warm! We used to try and sneak in once a week or so to the airmen’s quarters to see if we could get a bath, but if we were caught the airmen billeted there showed no mercy! In our off-duty time, we were sent to the coal dump to load coal bags and to carry out various other domestic duties on the camp. One of these included cleaning out the grate in the Officers’ mess before they came down for breakfast. On many occasions I did this and always had to finish by black-leading the grate and all the surrounds. Some years later I went back to Abingdon as the Adjutant of the Overseas
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Ferry Unit. When I went into the mess, I looked at the grate and the few officers sitting around it in armchairs and thought to myself: “If only you chaps knew how many times I cleaned this thing!”
A posting came through eventually to start pilot training and I was sent to Stratford-upon-Avon, which was a Reception Centre. As I walked into the Orderly Room to report my arrival, a voice shouted “Airman, you’re on a charge”. I looked around and saw no one else -I had the horrible feeling that I was already in trouble, and this was the case. Having spent some months as a ground gunner and living in my uniform it was, to say the least, scruffy, as was the cap. Not very politely I was told I was a disgrace to the service because of the state of my uniform. All the other chaps, of course, were wearing brand new uniforms and I stood out like a sore thumb. I tried to point this out to the Sergeant but he wasn’t interested. Next morning, I appeared before the O.C. unit who was sympathetic but clearly felt he had to back up his Orderly Room Sergeant. Seven days jankers was my reward.
A posting duly came along to Initial Training Wing (I.T.W.) and there we did six weeks of ground school prior to E.F.T.S. Just about everyone passed and I was sent to 17 E.F.T.S. Peterborough for ab initio training on Tiger Moths. The course was about 48-50 hours and to the horror of another chap and myself, we were posted to RAF Woodley for an instructors course. Both of us could just about manage to fly the Tiger Moth and so to be told we were going to be instructors frightened us considerably. Following this, after a couple of weeks at Clyffe Pypard a holding unit, and a spell at a Manchester park, awaiting posting, we were sent to Canada to do a S.F.T.S. on Ansons. Boy! This was living. A twin engine aircraft with retractable undercarriage, even though we had to wind it up! The course included night flying, the first time I had experienced this, and I can truly say that on my so-called first circuit I varied between 600 ft and 1,500 ft AGL and lost site of the airfield completely. I hadn’t got a clue. To my surprise, my instructor didn’t seem at all phased and by the end of the detail I had at least got the circuit and the heights more or less sorted out. What a brave man he was! After another night sortie, I was passed fit to do a solo circuit and I truly believed I was just about to die! However, all went well and I was then sent to Kingston, Ontario, to – believe it or not – instructing on Harvards. This aircraft is still in use to this day.
The thought of flying this monster, let alone instructing on it, made me feel quite sick. Kingston Ontario was an RAF station dedicated to the training of Fleet Air Arm pilots “is everybody mad?” I thought. The other instructors, all of whom had done an operational tour (and one was Fleet Air Arm) readily accepted me – the sprog in every way. The Flight Commander took me up and put me through my paces on the Harvard and pronounced me fit to start instruction. However, he showed me and tested me one lesson at a time, so that I could take up an acting leading naval airman and show him the particular procedure. Nobody else had a clue how inexperienced I was, except the other instructors in the flight who thought it was a great joke. So, I started with one lesson at a time and over a few weeks built up to the whole syllabus. I have to say the Harvard was a wonderful and responsive aircraft to fly and, despite the tales of woe and misery about ground looping, I never saw one instance of it … and that includes me!
By this time I was a Pilot Officer and because there was no room in the Mess I had digs in the town and even bought myself a Chevrolet with a dicky seat. My Canadian driving test consisted of reversing the car about 2 feet, and being told to ‘stop and get out, come into the office’ … and I was presented with my Canadian driving licence. In a short time, I had come from cleaning the grate in the Officers Mess as an AC 2 to a Pilot Officer Instructor, with a car and living in digs! Was I dreaming?
All good things come to an end and I was posted back to the U.K. to prepare to go on ops. We set sail on the Awatea from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and of course nothing ever goes well for long. Twenty-four hours later in the Atlantic, we were torpedoed. Fortunately for us, a US Navy destroyer intercepted the torpedo and took most (90%) of the subsequent explosion and sank, leaving us damaged. We had no rudder and there were several other things wrong with the ship; we went round in circles for some time. Rough repairs were made and we went back to Halifax. We kicked our heels there for a while and then were put on a train journey which lasted for several days, to New York. There we transferred immediately to the Queen Mary. There were huge numbers of American troops and O.C. Troops was an American Officer. He called all the officers together before sailing to tell us that, if we were torpedoed
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We must remember that the officers were last to leave the ship. Bearing in mind our recent experience, this didn’t exactly cheer us up. We did arrive safely in the U.K. and I found myself flying Martinets for a time, carrying out simulated air attacks on Wimpeys and for their air gunners to cine-gun their replies.
At last a posting came through to an O.T.U. at Silverstone. By this time I had already met Tony Hayward, who wore an Observers brevet, and we became good friends. We went to the O.T.U. together and there we picked up our full crew. Crews selected each other in what seemed a very haphazard manner, by talking to those we thought would be suitable, but I can’t remember ever meeting any crew member who was subsequently dissatisfied and wanted to leave his original crew. In the end, everyone was crewed up.
From Silverstone we went to the Heavy Bomber Conversion Unit at Swinderby flying Stirlings, and then to the Lancaster finishing school at Syerston. At the end of my course, the Flight Commander sent for me and my crew said: “What the hell have you done, Benny?” I protested my innocence but everybody laughed. When I entered the Flight Commander’s office I felt sure I had done something terribly wrong because there, facing me, were the Flight Commander, O.C. Flying and two or three other officers. My heart sank into my boots and the only thing I could think of was a ‘court martial’. I felt slightly cheered when the Flight Commander seemed quite friendly as he spoke to me and one or two of the other officers questioned me about my flying and the practise bombing results that we had obtained. I felt further heartened and, knowing the results, couldn’t believe that was what I was being called in about. After a couple more questions, one of the officers said to me: “How would you like to join 617 Squadron?” I truly didn’t believe that I had heard correctly and said: “Excuse me, sir. Did you say 617 Squadron?” He answered: “Yes”. I felt a heavy weight suddenly had been lifted from my shoulders and said that I and my crew would be delighted to do so.’ At that time the only other crew which had been invited to join the squadron had come and had come directly from training was headed by Tony Iveson, and he had been a Battle of Britain pilot. He had been on the Lancaster course immediately before me.
I was told that we had been selected for 617 and to report for duty within 48 hours. When I got back to the crew and told them the news, at first they didn’t believe me. Eventually, I convinced them and we all packed up and got transport to Woodhall Spa.
On arrival and after checking in at the Mess and going through the usual procedures, I reported to the Squadron Adjutant. I waited a few minutes and was ushered into Wing Commander Tait’s office, who was O.C 617 Squadron. We had a chat, or more accurately – he spoke to me and allocated me to a flight. I reported to the Flight Commander Jonny Cockshott. He welcomed me and told me that the crew would have to go on a short training course devised by the squadron and, importantly, to get used to the S.A.B.S. bombsight and to obtain bombing results within the limits prescribed by 617 Squadron. We did this and found ourselves accepted as fully operational on the squadron.
My first trip was with Flight Lieutenant Bob Knights … without my crew but with his. I sat in the dicky seat where the Flight Engineer usually sat. I couldn’t have been luckier in the choice of captain I was to fly with. Not only was Bob an extremely nice chap but he was most helpful as well. To give you an idea of his value, he was a Flight Lieutenant with a D.S.O. and I think you know there aren’t many of those to the pound.
I did a full tour of thirty trips with the Squadron. The first trip as a crew was to Brest and, of course, being a sprog crew things had to happen, didn’t they? Over the sea, I suddenly found the cockpit full of smoke and the wireless operator telling me his radios were on fire. He and the navigator were trying to make sure the fire didn’t spread. Just the sort of confidence booster you need on your first sortie on a new squadron! I opened the D.V. panel and fortunately the combined efforts of the wireless operator and navigator dealt with the fire … we carried on. One thing was certain: none of us could have faced a return to the squadron without completing the trip saying: “We couldn’t do it. We had a fire on board.” How’s that for luck?
Some of the trips we did were quite well known. There was the Tirpitz trip (13 1/4 hours) and a 9 hour 25 minute night trip to Politz-Stettin. That was the first time I could truthfully say that, at 18,000 ft with
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4
oxygen masks on, I can remember smelling cordite from the flak that was thrown at us. That may sound like a line shoot, but it certainly wasn’t at the time. A further notable op was against the Arnsberg viaduct, when we were selected to drop the 22,000 lb Grand Slam on the viaduct.
We received Grand Slam in March 1945. To carry this a number of modifications were made to the Lancaster – a Lincoln undercarriage was fitted to allow for the increase in weight; mid-upper and front turret were removed, along with the wireless operator’s equipment and the W/Op himself. Other armour plate was taken out and the ammunition load reduced, all to save weight. The bomb doors were removed and replaced by fairings and a chain link strop with electro-mechanical release was fitted to hold Grand Slam in place.
As I recall it I was number three to release a Grand Slam, Jock Calder was the first, and Johnny Cockshott the second. This was in March – yes we are still in March, and Arnsberg Viaduct was the target. On release I remember the aircraft went up vertically about 100 – 200 feet. My flight engineer recalls hearing a loud bang at the same time, as the release slip parted.
In all 617 dropped 41 Grand Slams before the end of the war in Europe. I like to think Grand Slam punched its weight. We were the only squadron to have this bomb.
Another op that had high squitter value was against Hamburg. We had the misfortune to have a hang-up and the bomb dropped a few seconds late, which meant that it didn’t fall on the target but into the residential area beyond the target. We didn’t feel good about this, but there was nothing we could do. We set course for home. About fifteen minutes later my flight engineer nudged me and nodded his head toward what I thought was the instrument panel. I looked but could see nothing wrong, so went on flying. He nudged me even harder and moved his head rather more urgently towards the starboard side. I looked out and to my horror saw the latest German twin engine jet fighter, a Messerschmitt Me262, in formation with us on our starboard wing. I thought I must be dreaming but I knew very well I wasn’t, and thought: “This is it.” It seemed to me that if I tried a 5 Group corkscrew we wouldn’t have a chance against the German aircraft. We had no mid-upper turret and clearly the rear gunner was completely unable to train his guns on him. So, there we were at the mercy of the Luftwaffe. The flight engineer and I looked at each other again and then I looked at the German pilot, but there was no friendly wave from him – so much for fellowship of the air! Suddenly the Me262 disappeared as quickly as it had appeared and I wondered if we had all been smoking opium the night before! It was only some years later when I was talking to Air Commodore John Langston, who at the time was a Flying Officer navigator, that what appeared to be the same aircraft had attacked and shot at John’s aircraft. The German pilot must have just left training school because, although he clearly used all his ammo on John’s aircraft, he hadn’t shot him down. I thought later how fortunate we both were.
Three more incidents out of a number of lucky escapes makes one ask the question. Did Lady Luck really play a part?
On one raid during the bombing run the nose section of the fuselage was hit. Everyone seemed okay, but after landing back at base the bomb aimer discovered that both heels of his flying boots were pitted with shrapnel. An inch or two either way?
On another raid the wireless operator was tuning his radio and leaned a little closer to the set. As he did so, a large projectile or piece of flak entered one side of the fuselage and exited the other. After we landed, the wireless operator sat normally in his seat and we measured the two holes and the position of his head. If he had been sitting in this position at the time of the attack, the projectile/flak would have pierced one side of his head and exited the other. An inch or two either way?
There were three Tirpitz sorties. The first trip involved a direct flight from the U.K. to Yagodnik, Russia, land there, refuel and stay the night. From thereon the next day, the first Tirpitz attack was attempted. This was a hazardous plan as it included flying over Europe both ways and in the end the attack was not successful. However, we unfortunately lost one aircraft.
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For the second and third Tirpitz trips, amongst the modifications, two large fuel tanks were fitted inside the fuselage. Health and safety, eat your heart out! The flight engineers had to master the new fuel system very quickly, and indeed they did. Both these trips were made from an advanced base at Lossiemouth. On both occasions the squadron flew up to Lossiemouth with Tallboys already on board, refuelled and attended final briefing. On the second trip, at midnight, we lined up around the perimeter track, taking off in turn at a green signal from the control tower. The weather was unkind – low cloud and rain – just the job for a night low level trip across the sea! Our turn was approaching and I was having a last look around the cockpit when the flight engineer poked me in the ribs, pointing at the canopy. I looked up and saw a massive pair of main undercarriage wheels heading straight for us. There was nothing I could do as there were aircraft either side of me. We both sat there, like rabbits caught in the headlights, and waited for the inevitable. At the last moment, the wheels cleared our canopy and all was normal again. Just the sort of experience you need before take-off on a foul night!
Later we discovered the errant aircraft was flown by Tony Iveson. He had suffered engine surge on the point of leaving the ground. By a masterful piece of crew co-operation and training he and his flight engineer finally kept the aircraft straight and it just cleared the top of our canopy. But we were all young and I suppose took it in our stride. Now, I’d have the vapours. Lady Luck again.
Due to cloud and an efficient smokescreen, it was not possible to bomb the Tirpitz with any accuracy and we returned to Lossiemouth. However, on the third trip – a replica of the second – 617 Squadron finally sank the Tirpitz.
My last trip was to Berchtesgaden, the Eagle’s Nest, and I understand we were followed by Main Force. We, 617, certainly made a mess of the Waffen SS barracks. This was my last trip with the squadron although we were already made aware of a possible raid, I believe to Denmark. However, a truce was declared before this. After the war, I went into Transport Command but everything seemed so tame after 617 Squadron.
Finally, but certainly not least, I pay tribute to the ground crews. Working out in all weathers, often in wind snow and rain-swept dispersals they were always there to ensure the serviceability of our aircraft. Despite working long hours, they were always there to see us depart, and waited in uncertainty, eager to witness our return… …and woe betide us if we damaged [underlined]their [/underlined] aircraft! For 365 days and nights they made it possible for us to do our job. All of us who flew knew their worth, but why were they never publicly recognised? We would have been wingless wonders without them.
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Title
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Service History of Benny Goodman
Description
An account of the resource
Begins with his decision to cease his studies and join the Royal Air Force. Covers recruitment activities and life during initial training including employment as ground gunner while waiting for flying training. Describes basic training on Tiger Moth at 17 E.F.T.S. followed by Anson and Harvard in Canada. Relates being torpedoed on return voyage home and subsequent return to Halifax, train to New York and return to United Kingdom on the Queen Mary. Tells of flying Martinet as targets for air gunners course, crewing up at O.T.U and subsequent training on Stirling at Heavy Bomber Conversion Unit and eventually Lancaster finishing school. Describes selection to go to 617 Squadron and his arrival there. Mentions that he did 30 operations with the squadron and describes some in detail including first sortie to Brest as well as against Tirpitz, one of which involved landing in Russia. Mentions Grand Slam operations as well as one to Hamburg and another where they were formated on by an Me 262. States that his last trip was to the Eagles Nest at Berchtesgaden.
Creator
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B Goodman
Format
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Seven page printed document
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
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BGoodmanLSGoodmanLSv1
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Bedfordshire
England--Shropshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Peterborough
England--Berkshire
England--Woodley (Wokingham)
Canada
Ontario--Kingston
Nova Scotia--Halifax
United States
New York (State)--New York
Germany
Germany--Hamburg
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
France--Brest
Germany--Berchtesgaden
Russia (Federation)
Russia (Federation)--Arkhangelʹskai︠a︡ oblastʹ
France
New York (State)
Ontario
Nova Scotia
Russia (Federation)
Temporal Coverage
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1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Contributor
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Ashley Jacobs
David Bloomfield
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
617 Squadron
Anson
bombing
crewing up
Flying Training School
fuelling
Grand Slam
ground crew
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Martinet
Me 262
military discipline
military living conditions
Operation Catechism (12 November 1944)
Operational Training Unit
RAF Abingdon
RAF Bridgnorth
RAF Cardington
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Silverstone
RAF Swinderby
RAF Syerston
RAF Woodhall Spa
sanitation
Stirling
Tallboy
Tiger Moth
Tirpitz
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/319/8279/MRaettigDW1136657-160623-02.1.pdf
81c370e5968c55674463d37afab85df1
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
Raettig, Dennis
Dennis William Raettig
Dennis W Raettig
D W Raettig
D Raettig
Description
An account of the resource
72 items. The collection concerns the wartime service of Leading Aircraftman Dennis William Raettig (b. 1920, 1136657 Royal Air Force). Joining the Royal Air Force reserve in 1941 he trained as a flight mechanic (Engines) before being posted to 104 Squadron (Wellingtons) at RAF Driffield. This squadron number was later changed to 158 Squadron flying Halifax at RAF East Moor, followed by moves to RAF Rufford and Lisset. The collection consists of a memoir, correspondence with family and acquaintances, family history, service and personal documentation, lucky charms,personal items, cap, boots, squadron tie, research on bombing in Hull as well as photographs of air and ground crew and aircraft. It also includes an oral history interview with Joan Raettig (Dennis Raettig's wife).
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sue Burn and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-06-23
2016-07-08
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Raettig, DW
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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Raettig
Family
In
England
[page break]
Dennis William Raettig
After his general education at the Hull Grammar School Dennis commenced a yearlong course at a commercial college before entering employment in 1936, with M Harland Ltd., Printers, in Manor Street, Hull, in the Estimating Department. Dennis used to travel to work each day from the family home in Anlaby. In September 1939 father, mother Dennis and his two brothers, were together at home when war was declared. Father who as [sic] on leave at the time rejoined his ship. Grandmother came from her home in Hull to stay with in Anlaby. Father’s ship was laid up for repairs near Marseilles and mother together with the two of the officers’ wives went to join their husbands,. During the next few months Max volunteered for Service in the Royal Navy. And brother join [sic] volunteered for the royal [sic] Air Force.
Grandmother died and Dennis had the sad duty to arrange for her funeral.
Dennis joined the RAF and commenced his training as an Engine Fitter at Squiresgate, [sic] near Blackpool. He was billeted in Blackpool and for a short time he was able to meet his brother John who was undertaking his training as a wireless operator.
Dennis was posted to RAF Station Lisset, a bomber station, in East Yorkshire, as an Engine Fitter working on various aircraft, including the :Lancaster.
He married Joan Wray in 1952. They had two children, Susan who was born on May 17, 1953, and Peter who was borne on 16 June 16, 1959. Dennis set up his business as a Printer one of his main jobs was the production of the Jewish Magazine “The Watchman” which he continued with until his retirement in 19**. Both Dennis and Joan were keen gardeners.
[page break]
[underline] THE RAETTIG FAMILY IN ENGLAND [/underline]
[underline] FURTHER THOUGHTS [/underline]
My grandfather, Carl Friedrich [underline] Max [/underline] Rättig was born in Wittenberg (East Prussia), on the 3rd. February, 1864, he had a younger sister, Bertha. Their father Edgar died on the 13th. June, 1871, and their mother Luise died in July 1880. Mac, then aged 16, and Bertha aged 13 went to live with their uncle. It was intended that Max should become an architect or surveyor, he however had other ideas and joined the crew of a sailing ship.
His ship often visited the port of Hull where he met his wife to be, Edith Bell. He took up the trade of fisherman, in small open sailing boats. at [sic] first he sailed witha [sic] skipper named Tognola but he soon gained his Skipper’s Certificate and became a very successful trawlerman with a crew of his own. He fished off the Dogger Bank and the Silver Pit, in the North Sea, sometimes staying at sea for three or four weeks.
Both two eldest sons, Max Edgar (my father) and his brother Ralph, intended to follow a life at sea and attended the Trinity House School in order to learn to be sailors. Grandfather insisted that his eldest son should start his career by signing on as apprentice on a sailing ship. So his first ship was the s.s. “Clan Graham”. The ship had been built at Russells shipyard in 1893 and was sister-ship to the “Clan Galbraith”, the last two members of the Dunlop “Clan Line”. Her length was 282.9 feet, beam 40.4 feet, depth below water 24.6 feet, her gross tonnage was 2,200. She sailed under the British flag for 16 years before being sold to a Norwegian company. It was finally sunk by a U-boat in 1917. A framed painting of the ship that father first sailed in is still a treasured family possession of my brother Max. In 1972 I had a photograph of the “Clan Graham” in port, with bare masts, from this, and with reference to the Register of Shipping, I was able to get a young artist, Michael Bonner, to paint for me an impression of the “Clan Graham” in full sail.
Father gained his Master Mariners Certificate by the age of 20 and sailed through World War 1 with the Blue Funnel Line, his ship was torpedoed by a U-boat, he was decorated for his work in convoys during that war. He joined the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company, all its tankers were named after sea shells! I list in alphabetical the ships he served in:-
M.V. “Bullysses”.
Captain 1935 – 1938, Asia & Australia. Whilst Master of this tanker, Capt. Raettig rescued 8 Formosan seamen who had been shipwrecked for 12 days at sea. He received acknowledgement of his “gallant and kind treatment of these men”, from the Japanese Consul General.
M.V. “Cobis”
Chief Officer, 1921, China & East Indies.
M.V. “Conch”
Master.
[page break]
2.
M.V. “Elax”
Master, 1946-1950, launched Short Brothers, Belfast.
M.V. “Goldmouth”
Master. 1944 – 46, I stood on the quayside by Smiths Dock, South Shields, to meet my father for the first time since 1939, I saw father on the ship’s bridge as the ship was manoeuvring alongside; the pilot, who was at the starboard lookout, told me to jump aboard. When I went to see father, who by now was at his desk below, he did not recognise me – I was in R.A.F. uniform. The movement of ships was still under the strictest security, so he was very surprised to learn from me that mother was arriving from Durban to Liverpool the next day. I met her at in Liverpool and brought her back to North Shields, this completed my seven day leave and I returned to R.A.F. West Drayton.
M.V. “Liparus”
Master.
M.V. “Scalaria”
Master, East Indies.
M.V. “Trocas”
Master.
M.V. “Roseshell”
Chief Officer, This was a large corrugated steel plated, motorised oil barge of experimental design. Apparently oil cargo was pumped into the forward tanks and the vessel began to sink by the bows, oil was pumped into the after tanks and the vessel then cracked amidships and sank. Father was dressed in a white tropical uniform, nevertheless he dived overboard and swam ashore!
Other ships:-
s.s. “Mary”
Master. 1924. During the Depression, father had been ashore for many months waiting to be given a ship. He was approached by an agent and who asked him to deliver a small Coaster the s.s. “Mary” from Hull to Newcastle. Since most of father’s sailing had been in far eastern waters, he asked his father to assemble a crew and to sail with him as first mate. On its way down the River Humber the “Mary” began to take in more water than the pumps could handle. After a brief consultation with his first mate (his father), the Captain turned the ship back and eventually had to beach her at Paull, just a mile or two east of Hull! It was a “coffin” ship.
[page break]
3.
s.s. “Rhodi”
Master. 1941. this [sic] was a prize passenger ship, captured from the Italians and lying in harbour at Malta. Mother and father had been stranded in Malta at the early part of the war; father’s tanker had broken down with engine trouble. The Navy asked his father to take his crew onto the “Rhodi” with a number of Polish Troops and sail for Egypt. The Navy created a diversion, but the Italian Air Force caught up with the “Rhodi” and sped it on its way with machine-gun and cannon fire. It managed to make its way to Alexandria with no casualties and little damage.
S.T. “Kingston Emerald”
On retirement, he was asked to navigate a trawler. For Skipper Shaugnessy, to a point off Greenland. I drove him to the dock and was troubled to see that all the crew, except the Wireless Operator, were very drunk. By the time they reached their destination all were sober!
Oil Installation.
After delivering the “Rhodi”, father became manager of an Oil Installation at Ras Gharib, providing fuel for tanks and shipping for the war. Later he was given command of another tanker and supplied fuel for the Burma Campaign.
Father was decorated for his work in World War II. He was one of the six senior masters in the then 100 vessel company and was appointed Commodore.
[underline] Grandfather’s Dog. [/underline]
My brother Dennis found a stray dog which he and I took round to give to our grandfather. It was of uncertain breed, black and brown, medium sized, curly tailed, with an uncertain temper. Bonzo became grandfather’s friend and comrade until he died. On One [sic] occasion we visited him at the Riverside Quay, Hull, on the s.s. “Spero”. The ship was high in the water, having no cargo. There were small waves on the water making the ship bump against the quay. Bonzo was at the top of the steep gangway, crouched down and barking at us, as we climbed up he backed away and dropped down into the water. A ladder was lowered down between the ship and the quay to prevent Bonzo being crushed to death, we got a long boat hook around his collar and hauled him up. Grandfather was in tears at the thought that his faithful friend might have been killed.
{page break}
4
[italics]
To: The Master
M.V. “Bulyssess”
c/o The Rising Sun Petroleum Co. Ltd.
Yokahama.
From:- Shell Petroleum Products
The Asiatic Petroleum Co., (North China) Ltd.,
Shell Building,
No.1 The Bund,
Shanghai.
25th. May, 1937.
Dear Sir,
We have been asked by H.B.M. * Consul-General to convey to you the gist of the Japanese Consul-General’s letter regarding the rescue of eight Formosans.
The Japanese Consul-General considers the rescue of these men, who had been hovering between life and death for twelve days, a most gallant act and the men themselves state they received most generous and kind treatment on board the tanker “Bulysses”.
For the heroic work and kindness extended to the Japanese fishermen, the Consul-General for Japan expresses his profound appreciation and gratitude.
We are, dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
[signed]
For the Asiatic Petroleum Company.
[underline] [/underline]
* (His Britannic Majesty’s)
NOTE:
The Master of the M.V. “Bulysses” was Captain M.E.Raettig. (J.C.R.)
[page break]
[picture of THE CLAN GRAHAM]
[page break]
Kopie einer handschriftlich Brief von:- Max Rättig
(Mathew Reckitt)
62, English Street,
Hull (Eng.)
Nov. 7 (1936)
Nach H. u. H. Rättig, Wein,
Liebe Helene,
Liebe Hertha!
Euer Lieber Brief vom 29. Okt. hat mich zu gleicher zeit sehr überrasscht und auch betrübt. Betrübt zu hören, dass meine arme Schwester Bertha eure Mutter, nach so schwerem Leiden gestorbe ist. So bin ich nun der einzige der Wittenberger Familie Rättig der noch am Leben ist, und meine zeit ist sehr Kurz – ich bin ja schon 73 Jahre alt am 3. Februar und fortwährend kränklich mit Herzleiden, dass ich glücklich bin, wenn das Ende kommt.
Es ist wunderbar, wie euer Brief überhaupt in meine Hände gekommen ist und ich muss meine Geschickte vor dem Kreige anfangen. Est ist so viele Jahre hier, seit ich einen deutschen Brief geschreiben habe, dass es mir schwierig wird, ordentlich auszudrücken und ich hoffe, ihr werdet die Fehler verzeihen. Ich spreche ja immer englisch und habe keine Gelengenheit, deutsch zu sprechen.
Gerade vor dem Kriege 1912-1914 wohnte ich in Hessle, wie ihr wisst. Wir hatten 7 Kinder, Max, Ralph, Bertha, John, Agnes, Eva und Edith, ihr Alter ungefähr 23-21-20-18-7-5-2. Ich war schon 4 Jahre Kapitän auf einer Hull-Rhederei und stand mich sehr gut, ich verdiente ins jedem Jahre etwas mehr Geld, ich war, wie man das heir nent, ein glücklicher Mann. Da kam der Krieg. es quälte mich nicht viel, denn ich war ja schon seit vielen Jahren ein englischer Bürger. Ich hatte, wie ich in meinem Wahnsinn dachte, keinen Feind in der Welt, - wie schnell ich ausfinden musste, dass ich benahe keinen Freund hatte! Max hatte gerade sein Kapitäns Examen bestanden, Ralph seines als 2 ter Steuermann, beide gingen weg; Max als 1. Steuermann, Ralph als 3 ter. Bertha war in einem Geschäft, ich glaube es heisst Posamentier in deutsch. John war in der Lehre bei einem Baumeister. So fing der Krieg an. Zuerst war es nicht so schlimm, die leutchen in Hessle hatten nicht zu viel gegen uns. Als aber die deutsche Armeen nicht ausrissen, wenn die Engländer sich zeigten, und immer mehr und mehr Soldaten, Volontüre gefordet wurden, wurde es ungemütlich für uns. Auf einmal kam der erste Schlag, der Direktor meiner Rhederei nahm mich bei Seite und sagte, es tat ihm sehr leid, aber ich müsste gehen, er verspracht mir ja, hätte ich während des Kriegs Hilfe notig, ruhig zu ihm zu kommen und sie würden mich durchsetzen, ich wäre ja ihr bester Kapitän.
So war ich also ohne Arbeit und wenig Geld. Zur Marine taugte ich nicht, war auch zu alt schon und ein geb. Deutscher. Schliesslich nach ein paar Monaten, wenn meine liebe Frau mir ziemlich deutlich zu verstehen gab, dass si Geld nötig hatte, kam ich auf einer kleinen Schiffswerft als Arbeiter an, Gehalt 21 sh. pro Woche.
[page break]
2
Die Vorgesetzten waren mir gut, ich konnte ja arbeiten, aber die Leute, jeden Tag Schimpswörter – verfluchter Deutscher u.s.w., bis schliesslich nach einigen Wochen die Geschicte zu schlimm wurde und ich ging ab. So hatte ich wieder keine Arbeit. Da hat mich mein Schwager Albert, der Vorsteher eines Arbeitsbüros war, eingeladen, ihn zu besuchen in Goole, einem kleinen Hafen oberhalb Hull. Ich ging, und kam auf den Gedanken, unter einem anderen Namen auf See zugehen. Ich rasierete mich ganz glatt und ich war ein neuer Mann: Mathew Reckitt, Matrose. Meine Sprache war gut genug, um als geb. Englander zu passieren. Seeleute waren knapp und ich bekam sofort ein Schiff als Matrose. Nur eine Reise und der zweite Schlag traf uns: Deutchland fing an englische Städte mit Luftschiffen zu bombardieren und Hull wurde nicht verschont. Die Wut und Entrüstung der Leute war furchtbar und meine arme Familie mussste von der Polizei beschutzen, wir müssten weg. Aber wohin? Einige Damen in Hesskle kamen sogar mit einem offenen Scheck, um Edith zu helfen, wegzukommen, aber sie war zu wütend oder stolz und sagte ihnen, sie brauche keine Helfe. Schliesslich ging sie nach Grimsby – Cleethorpes (?) seitdem gewohnt. Die beiden Städte sind verbunden wie Hamburg – Altona. Sie hat ein grosses Haus und nimmt in Sommer Badegäste. C1. ist an der Mündung der Humber. Das schlecte ist, das ich in Grimsby nicht bekannt und seit 1917-1929 war ich auf einem Dampfer als Bootsmann, zuerst 8 Monate als Matrose, höher konnte ich nicht, mein Zeugnis is nur für Fischerei. Schliesslich 1929 mussste ich an Land kommen, ich war 66 Jahre alt, schon 2 Jahre über die bestimmte Zeite und die Rhederie gab mir Arbeit als Schiffs-Wächter d.h. wenn die Mannschaft, alle Hull-Leute abends an Land gehen, bin ich allein auf dem Schiff mit meinem Hündschen Bonzo, mein treuer Kamerad und ein guter Wächter; wehe dem Kerl, der seinem geliebten Herrn anfasst.
So, dies is die Lage. Edith wohnt in Cleethorpes allein, ich in Hull in einem möblierten Zimmer, koche mein Essen, wasche mein Zug und flicke es. Ich bezahle meiner Wirtin jede Woche 10 sh. und habe da Privilegium jede Woch meiner lieben Frau one Pound zu schicken. Mein Gehalt ist nich sicher, mitunter habe ich nur 12 sh. für die Wöche, mitunter 48, 6 sh. die Nacht, aber mitunter machen die Schiffe kurze, mitunter lange Reise, je nach dem Wetter.
Nun aber wird es Zeit, über die Kinder zu sprechen.
Max, jetz 45 Jahre alt, is Käpitan auf einem grossen ö1-Damfer (M.V. “Bulysses”) fährt von Singapore nach China, Japan, Australien und Neuseeland, ist immer auf 3 Jahre fort, nach dem haben 3 Monate Ferien zu Hause, Reisegeld bezhalt und Gehalt. Er is verheiratet, seine Familie wohnte in Hull und hat 3 Jungen, 19, 17, and 15.
John unser jüngster Sohn ging in die Feldartillerie 1915 und fiel vor Ypres am 17 März 1916. Dies war das erste, was Edith gegen mich setze. Ralph, unser zweiter Sohn, heiratete 1916 ein Hessle – Mädchen und was 1917 2ter. Steuermann auf dem englischen Dampfer “Elve”, ich wollte als Matrose mit ihm gehen, als auf der letzten Minute die Rhederei eine chinesische Mannschaft nahm, glücklich für mich.
[page break]
3.
Ich ging am 20 Aug. auf den Hull-Dampfer “Albano” und schon während der ersten Reise kamen unsichere Nachrichten dass Ralph’s Schiff überfällig sie und schlliesslich mussten wir annehmen, dass es ungefähr am 11 Okt. an der Portugiesischen Küste mit Mann und Maus untergegangen. Torpediert von meinen Landsleuten! Nun war Edith mit mir fertig. Von Liebe is keine Rede, kein Vertauen, nichts. Gott sei Dank, die Kinder sind treu und besuchen mich wenn möglich. Ein trauriges Ding ist, dass Ralph’s Witwe einen kleinen Sohn hatte, 4 Monate nach dem er vershollen war; sie nannte ihn auch Ralph und auch er, jetz 18 Jahre, geht zur See. Die Witwe heiratete wie der nach 4 Jahre, ich Weiss nicht mal ihren neuen Namen.
Bertha heiratete nach dem Krieg einen Reissenden, der in Hull und Umbebung für Armour travelled. Sie wohnen ausserhalb Hull.
Agnes heiratete ein Kaufman (Fehilfe), hatte einen kleinen Sobn, jetz 19 Jahre alt. Ihr Mann ist nach kurzen Ehe (2-3 J.) an Schwindsucht gestorben. Nun in Jahre 1935 heiratete sie einen Mann, der Farbe farbriziert und dir hatte einen kleinen Jungen am 15 Juni d.J. beide Jungen haben Gerburtstag am selben Tage. Sie wohnen in Grimsby, so sehe ich sie nur selten.
Eva heiratete zu Weinachten einen Mann, der Motoren zu verkaufen sucht. Er hat sein Geschäft in Croydon (bei London); sie wollte eine Krankenpfleger in werden und es kostete mich einen Haufen Geld, sie war im Hospital in Birmingham, schliesslich wurde sie kranke hatte ein Operation am Ohre, aber ohne Erfolg, und musste ihre Stelle wegen Taubheit verlassen.
Nun bleibt meine jüngste Tochter Edith. Sie hatte eine brillante Schulgeit und ging nach London ins Lehrer-Collegium auf 2 Jahre und bekam auch sofort eine Stelle als Lehrerin in Birmingham. Wieder kamen meine Erspasnisse un Studium, aber es war es wert sie ist versorgt und ich klage nicht. Nun wirds aber Zeit, aufzuhoren. Ich freue mich sehr, dass ihr beide selbständig seid. Um Himmels willen, lasst Heiraten sein. Hier bin ich verheiratet und schon seit 21 Jahren allein, immer krank diese letzen 2 Jahre und kein Hoffn8ng bis sum Ende. Adieu, bitt, wenn ihr Zeit machen könnt, schreibt wider so abld wie möglich. Die address ist:
Mr M. Reckitt,
62, English Street,
HULL.
(signed)
[page break]
Translation of letter written by:-
Max Rättig
(Matthew Reckitt)
26, English Street,
Hull (Eng.)
Nov, 7th. (1936)
To:- H. & H. Rättig in Vienna,
his cousins as well as nieces as follows:- (Copy routed to me thru’ A.S. in Berlin, forwarded to my brother Alvin, to be returned.
Dear Helene!
Dear Hertha!
I received your kind letter of the 29th. October which both surprised and saddened me. I was very sad to hear that my poor sister Bertha, your mother, has died after great suffering. I am now the only one of the Wittenberg Rättig family, who is left and I am getting old. I will be 73 on the 3rd. February, and am permanently ill with heart trouble, so shall welcome the end as a happy release.
It is remarkable that your letter reached me and I will tell you the story of what happened to me before the Great War began. It is so many years since I have written a letter in German, that I am having great difficulty in putting my thoughts on paper, so please forgive my mistakes. I only speak in English and never have chance to speak German at all.
Immediately before the War in 1913-1914, I lived in Hessle, as you know. We had 7 children – Max, Ralph, Bertha, John, Agnes, Eva, and Edith, and their ages at that time were about 23, 21, 20, 18. 7. 5. 2. I had been a well established Skipper with a Hull Trawling Company, and earned very good money in those years. I was, as you might say, a very happy man. Then the War started. It didn’t worry me much, as I had been an English citizen for many years. I thought I hadn’t an enemy in the world, but I was deluding myself, as I soon found that I had almost no friends.
Max had already gained his Master’s Certificate, Ralph had his 2nd. Mate’s Certificate and they were both working – Max as 1st. Mate and Ralph as 3rd. Mate. Bertha was working in what I think is called, a haberdashers shop. John was an architects pupil. When the War first started things weren’t too bad, as the people in Hessle had nothing against us. It was pointed out to us that the Germans had not yet advanced but if they did things would become more and more uncomfortable for us. The first blow fell when the Director of my Trawling Company took me on one side and told me that, much to his regret, I would have to leave, promising me that he would take me on again at the end of the war, he said I was probably his best captain.
So I was without work and had very little money. I was too old for the Navy (as well as being born a German). After a few months I went to work in a small shipyard, as my dear wife had let me know in no uncertain terms that she needed money.
[page break]
2
My wage was 21s. per week and I got on very well with the boss as I was a good worker, but the other workers cursed me every day – damned German etc., which I stood for for [sic] a few weeks until the stories about me got worse and I had to leave. So again I was without work, then my brother-in-law, Albert, who was the Manager of a labour exchange, suggested that I went to Goole, a small port up-river from Hull. When I got there I decided to try to go to sea again under another name. I changed my identity to – Mathew Reckitt, seaman. My accent was not too bad for me to pass as an Englishman. Sailors were scares and I got signed on a ship at once.
The second blow fell, after only one voyage, when Germany sent Zepplins over to bomb English towns:- amongst which was Hull. The rage and indignation of the people was terrible and my poor family had to have police protection. The police finally said that there were too many Germans in Hessle, for them to be able to protect, so my family had to leave. But where were they to go to? Some Hessle women brought an open cheque to Edith to help her get established somewhere else, but she was either too furious or too proud to accept it and said she needed no help. Eventually she went to Grimsby, where she had two sisters living, and she settled at Cleethorpes, near Grimsby, where she has been ever since. The two towns are joined similar to Hamburg and Altana. She has a large house and takes in guests during the summer. Cleethorpes is a resort near the mouth of the River Humber. It is a pity that I couldn’t live over there but there was no work for me in Grimsby. I had work in Hull from 1917 – 1929 as a bosun on a steamship (s.s. ”Albano”), after 8 months as a seaman, I could not rise higher because I had only a Trawler Skipper’s Certificate. I had to leave the sea in 1929 as I was 66 years old and already two years over the maximum permitted age, and the Shipping Company gave me a job as a ship’s watchman i.e. when the crew, who are all Hull men, go ashore each night I am left in charge with only my little dog, Bonzo, for company. He is a true friend to me and a good watchdog who threatens to attack anyone who approaches his beloved master.
So this is the situation we are in at the moment. Edith lives alone in Cleethorpes and I am in hull [sic] in a furnished room where I cook, wash and patch me own clothes, and pay my landlady 10s. per week, and am able to send my wife one Pound per week. I don’t have a steady wage and sometimes have only 12s. for a week, sometimes 48s. (i.e. 6s per night) depending on whether the ship makes a long or short voyage – depending upon the weather.
Now I will tell you about the children. Max, now 45 years old, is the captain of a large oil tanker (M.V. “Bulysses”) voyaging between Singapore and China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. He is always away for 3 years and then comes home for a three months leave on full pay. He is married and his family, which consists of 3 boys 19, 17, & 15, lives in Hull.
John our youngest son, joined the Field Artillery in 1915 and was killed at Ypres on 17th. March 1916. This was the first tragedy that Edith blamed me for.
[page break]
3
Ralph, our second son, married a Hessle girl in 1916 and in 1917 was the 2nd Officer on an English ship s.s. “Elve” on which I had intended to sign as a seaman to voyage with him. At the last minute, luckily for me, they signed on a Chinese crew. I left Hull on the 20th. August on the s.s. “Albano” and soon after I heard a rumour that Ralph’s ship had been lost, eventually we got the news that it sank with all hands off the Portugese [sic] coast on the 11th. October. Torpedoes by my countrymen!! Edith finished with me completely after this, so from being someone who was loved, I was cut off and isolated. Thank God the children are loyal and visit me when they can. The sad thing is that Ralph’s widow had a baby son 4 months after she lost her husband, and called him Ralph, after his father. He is now 18 years old and also goes to sea. The widow married again after 4 years but I don’t know the name of her new husband.
Bertha married after the War. Her husband is a commercial traveller for Armour’s canned foods. His area is Hull and district and they also live in Hull.
Agnes married a shop assistant and had a son who is now 19 years old. Her husband died of T.B. after they had only been married for 2 or 3 years. She remarried in 1935 to a man who is a colour mixer in a paint factory, and they had a son on the 15th. June this year, the same date as her first son’s birthday, but they live in Grimsby so I don’t see them very often.
Eva got married last Christmas. Her husband sells motor cars and has a business in Croydon, near London. She was a nursing orderly, which cost me a lot of money, and was working in a Birmingham hospital until she became ill and had to have an operation on her ears which left her deaf on one side. That leaves my youngest daughter Edith, she is a brilliant scholar and went to a teacher training college in London for 2 years, before taking up a post in a Birmingham school. All my savings went on her studies, but it was worth it as she is taken care of, so I am not complaining.
I must finish off now. I am pleased that you are both independent and marriage is in the lap of the gods. Here I am, married but on my own for 21 years, ill for all of the past 2 years and no hope of better things to come. Goodbye! Write again when you have time and it is convenient. The address is:-
Mr. M. Reckitt, 62, English Street, Hull.
(signed)
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Kopie eindander handschriftlich Brief von Max Rättig
(Mathew Reckitt)
November 1936.
Nach Alfred Schlingmann
(seiner Vetter in Britain)
Dear Alfred.
Your letter, received this morning has given me the greatest pleasure imaginable. Do I remember you? Don’t I remember how we, as schoolboys used to wander about in Berlin.
(Some pages missing J.C.R.)
shorework and very little hope of getting work of [underlined] any [/underlined] kind as soon as people found out my identity. For a few weeks at the beginning of 1915 I got work as a labourer at a small shipyard in Hessle at One Pound a week. (I had earned 1 to 2 pounds a day at sea) but after a few weeks there I had to be discharged there too. Then my brother-in-law invited me to spend a few weeks with them and I went. While there I got in conversation with a neighbour, who advised me to go in cargo boats, because they were wanting men badly and my brother-in-law and I discussed the matter and came to the conclusion to change my name and try. As soon as I could I got a ship and went as able seaman (Matrose). As usual, I got on alright with the Captain and mates and everything went well again. My wife came to see me now and then when the ship was in port and we stopped at her brother’s house. She told me several times that she had a very unhappy time among the people at Hessle, but she carried on. The worst trouble began after the air-raids began over Hull and the people became very bitter against us. One report was that we had mines hidden in the house and the police had to search the house to satisfy the people. It got so bad at the finish that the owner of the house, no doubt inspired by the police, gave Edith notice to quit. Poor woman she had 3 little childdren [sic], 2,5,7 years old and nowhere to go, at the finish, after a visit to her sister at Grimsby (also a fishery Captain’s wife) Edith decided to go and live there, and she has done so ever since. My oldest son Max made his Captains Examination in Oct. 1914 and went as first mate in the steamer “Queen Elizabeth” and she was away nearly two years. He kept the old name and does so now. About 15 years ago he joined the Shell Company and is now Capt. of a tank steamer “Bulysses” sailing between Singapore and Australian ports. He comes on leave next year, 3 months on pay. Ralph my second son made his exam. 2nd. Mate in 1914 and joined a firm of tankers as 3rd. Mate, got his 1st Mates Certificate in Shanghai and in 2 years came home Chief Mate of the same ship. Also both had a record to be proud of. John the 3rd. boy, joined the Artillery in 1915 (volunteer) and after a short training in England was sent to France. He fell before Ypres on 17th. March 1916. Ralph married in 1916, a Hessle girl and joined the Blue Funnel Line (Alfred Holt of Liverpool) and was torpedoed and lost with all hands off the Portugese [sic] Coast about Oct 11. 1917.
[page break]
2.
But that is enough of my family affairs and if they interest you at all I will tell you more in my next.
Of myself I cannot say much. I went to sea until I was 66 and then [underlined] had [/underlined] to leave the sea but the Firm gave me a job as Ships Watchman and without boasting, I may say it is the best watching job they have. I get 6 shillings p. night, and am employed 6 nights one week and 7 the next. Besides that I have the State Old Age Pension 10sh. p.w; also the Trinity House, (a Corporation of People that have to do with the sea) a pension of 12 Pounds a year, and from the Sailors and Firemens [sic] Union 5 sh. per week. Also (ich glaube dass er meint auch – z.B. nämlich. (J.R.) One pound a week and 10 sh. p.w. for my room here. My health is very poor, chiefly, heart trouble and the least exertion puts me out of breath but I live very close to the Dock and once I get on the ship I am all right. I thank you for your offers of help, but indeed I manage quite well if not in Luxury, at least I can live as long as I work.
I should like to come to Berlin, but my health forbids that no. So does the rate of exchange. I am sorry to have to close now but you have a glimpse of my life., I will tell you more another time. With a thousand greetings, your old cousin.
Max R.
Please convey my best wishes to Helene.
Are you aware if the Fischer Family is still alive.
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Letter from Helene, Vienna to Adele, New York.
Vienna, January, 15th. 1937
My Dear Cousin Adele!
Since a long time we did not hear anything from one another – the old year is over and has brought us no good things. At first my mother’s death very painfully and cutting in for my sister and me. Then in spring I was sick for five months – I had a great fever and inflammation of my joints. That was very difficult also for Hertha who was taking care of me besides her office and the home-works. And also for my own office this illness was bad – you can understand. I was missing my dear mother too much.
In Autumn I received a letter from our uncle Max in England who was unknown for more than twenty years. But the informations [sic] were not delightful. He is old and sick and quite alone in his age. His wife left him because he was a German – two sonS’s [sic] had fallen against their father’s country and she was not loving him enough to forget it. Now, we write to one another very often and I am corresponding with his youngest daughter Edith who is a teacher in Birmingham.
I have the wish to see my uncle once more and – if I remain well – I shall travel to England in April this year. This is the reason why I am learning English – you see – you will find many mistakes, but it will be better and better, I hope.
Uncle Max has changed his name – you will have heard it from Uncle Alfred in Berlin, have you? And how do you do and your brothers family, my dearest cousin? Uncle Alfred was sending me a gigantic family-tree with more than four hundred of Rättigs, I am near to be haughty to be of such a famous family. But I am a little sad; nobody of the descendants of our old German family who are residing in foreign countries has maintained the German language besides you.
I hope the journey will be cheaper this year on account for the coronation of the new king. I am looking forward with great pleasure and expectation indeed.
I am awaiting your answer soon, my lovely cousin, and remain with many greetings for your brother’s family
Yours faithfully,
Letti
P.S. From our Uncle Alfred to Berlin I received your letter with a photo of your brother Alvin – and so I read something about you after a long time. Also heartiest gsreeting [sic] from my sister Hertha to you and Alvin. If Iyou [sic] will come to us, we shall play “Schach” all evening, as you like it.
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[underlined] THE RAETTIG FAMILY IN ENGLAND [/underlined]
MAX RATTIG 1864 – 1939
Contemporaries:-
German Cousins – Elisabeth Raettig (1862 – 1922)
Carl-August Rattig II (1867 – 19 )
American Cousins – Melitta Raettig (1883 – 1887)
Alvin Ernst Raettig (1886 – 1953)
Herman William Raettig (1887 – 1898)
Adele Sophie Raettig (1889 - )
[photograph of the Raettig family]
Back Row
Ralph, Bertha, Max Edgar, John, Eva
front
Agnes, Max, Edith (with baby Edith on knee)
Max’s mother, the widow of a government surveyor in Wittenberge, Germany, died in July, 1880, leaving two orphans – Max and his sister Bertha. It was decided that they should go and live with their Uncle August (D131212), and that Max, then age 16, should continue his studies to become an architect or surveyor.
[page break]
At about the age of twenty, he decided to leave Wittenberge, he planned to avoid conscription by becoming a sailor. He joined the crew of a sailing ship which made dregular [sic] voyages between Hamburg and Hull. A shipmate, who had lodgings in Hull, invited Max to stay with him whenever they were in port. Long ago, in 1843, a fleet of Brixham fishing boats were blown off course in a storm in the North Sea; they discovered the richest fishing grounds off the British coast – the “Silver Pit”. This lead to the development of the fishing industry in Hull; many families came from Brixham to live in Hull, including the father of Edith Bell whom Max met and married on the 26th. September, 1888. During their married life they lived at various addresses in Hull and district and he subsequently took out naturalisation papers, thus began the Raettigs in England! They had seven children – Max Edgar, Ralph, Bertha, John, Agnes, Eva, and Edith.
Max sailed as a fisherman for many years, and later as a merchant seaman with the Ellerman Wilson Line, travelling between Hull and Gothenburg and Hamburg. Eventually he became too old for an active sea-going life and continued to work as a ship’s watchman until shortly before his death on the 22nd. February, 1939, aged 75 years. His widow Edith, died on the 11th March, 1946.
His sister Bertha married Theodore Heinrich Rattig in Vienna on the 25th. August, 1896.
[underlined] THE SECOND GENERATION IN ENGLAND [/underlined]
IN ENGLAND:- Max Edgar, Ralph, John, Agnes, Eva, Edith.
IN GERMANY:- Carl Theodora Elisabeth, Gottfried Johannes, Liselotte
IN AMERICA:- Eleanor Mae, Alvin Ernest.
[underlined] MAX EDGAR RAETTIG [/underlined]. (1891 – 1955)
Max was the eldest son of Max and Edith Raettig, and was born in Hull. He was educated at the Trinity House School which specialised in preparing its pupils for seagoing careers. As soon as his schooldays were over he became an apprentice on a four masted barque, the s.s. “Clan Graham”, owned by the Dunlop Line. By the age of 19 he had transferred to steamships with the Blue Funnel Line and had taken his Master Mariners ticket. During the First World War his ship was torpedoed by a U-boat, but he survived, thank God. He married Doris Jackson, who lived in Hull, they had three sons Max Donald (1917), John Charles (1919) and Dennis (1920).
Max and Doris Raettig (1947)
After the War, Max sailed as Chief Officer on an oil tanker owned by the Anglo Saxon Petroleum Company. His voyages were mainly in the far East, he came home on leave every three years. At the time of the Depression in the Nineteen Twenties he at home for many months, unable to get a ship. At home for many months, unable to get a ship. [sic] He was approached by a ship owner who wanted him to recruit a crew and to sail a small coastal steamship from Hull to Newcastle. He set sail, with his father as First Officer, - the s.s. “Mary” began to leak water while still steaming down the River Humber and it had to be beached before it sank! After the Depression he was back with the Anglo Saxon tanker fleet and quickly became a captain; he remained with that Company until he retired with the rank of Commodore Captain. He was a self-taught musician, a keen card player, golfer, and gardener. He died on the 26th. September, 1955.
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[underlined] RALPH RAETTIG [/underlined] (1893 – 1917)
Ralph was also educated at the Trinity House School, in Hull. He served an apprenticeship as a ships officer and sailed with the Blue Funnel Line. He married Molly Appleton in 1916, his ship the s.s. “Elve” was torpedoed in 1917, and he was drowned. His son Ralph was born shortly after his father’s death. Molly died on the 25th. June 1989.
[underlined] JOHN RAETTIG [/underlined] (1893 – 1917)
John had left school only four years before the outbreak of World War I. He joined the Royal Artillery Corps in 1914 and was killed in the battle of Ypres in 1917.
[underlined] BERTHA RAETTIG [/underlined] (1897 – 1972)
Bertha was the eldest daughter of Max and Edith Raettig. When she left school she worked as a shop assistant. She married Frederick Britton in 1920. They had two children. John, who became a professor of Mathematics, and Kathleen who became a lecturer in Food & Hygiene. Fred worked as a representative for a company of sweet manufacturers and later for a company who imported canned fruit. Bertha and Fred led a happy married life and were well-loved by their relations. John married Katherine M. Stewart and they had three daughters – Anne Katherine, Christine Mary, and Mary Kathleen. John’s sister Kathleen married Peter Clark on the 16th. July, 1955.
[underlined] AGNES RAETTIG [/underlined] (1907 – 1944)
Agnes lived with her mother in Cleethorpes and worked as a waitress. She married William Jackson, a fisherman, they had one son – Billy Jackson who later became a surveyor. Agnes became a widow and later married Harold Gibson, a paint blender, they had three children – Paul Gibson, Trevor Gibson, and Ian Gibson. Agnes died in 1944.
[underlined] EVA RAETIGG [/underlined]. (1909 – 1968)
After leaving School Eva became a student nurse. She married Tom Burns, a garage owner, in 1953, they lived at Sanderstead near Croydon, Surrey. They had two children, Richard who now manages the garage business, and Nita who teaches music. Eva died in 1968 and Tom died in 1988.
[underlined] EDITH RAETTIG [/underlined]
Edith is the only surviving member of the second generation. She trained as a school teacher and taught school in Birmingham. Her first husband was killed in a road accident, she had twin children, Jeremy who has a degree in chemistry and works for a firm of food manufacturers, and Jane who is married and has a small family. Sometime after the death of her sister Eva, Edith married Tom Burns, she continues to live at Sanderstead.
[page break]
[underlined] THE THIRD GENERATION IN ENGLAND [/underlined]
IN ENGLAND:- Max Donald, John, Dennis, - Ralph II.
IN GERMANY:- Bernfried, Elisabeth, Rosmarie, Gunhild, Hans-Jorg, Dorothea.
IN AMERICA:- Susan Mae, Edward Ernest, Steven Francis, Leslie Ellen
[photograph of Dennis, Max, John, - 1986]
[underlined] MAX DONALD RAETTIG [/underlined]
The eldest son of Max Edgar, born in Hull. After leaving the Hull Grammar School, he became an articled clerk in a firm of accountants, R.E. Moss & Co.. During the Second World War he served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and took part in the North Africa Landings. After the war he resumed his career as a Chartered Accountant, and is a past-president of the regional branch of his professional society. He married Marjorie Robinson during the war and they have one daughter who married Peter Clarke. Margaret and Peter at present live and work in Spain and have two children – daughter Natalie and son David.
[underlined] JOHN CHARLES RAETTIG [/underlined] (b.1.11.1919)
The second son of Max Edgar. After education at the Hull Grammar School and the College of Commerce, commenced work with a firm of consulting engineers. During the war he serviced in the Royal Air Force as a Wireless Operator/Mechanic, working on the installation, maintenance and development of electronic equipment. After the war he joined the training staff of Blackburn Aircraft Company., (now part of British Aerospace P.L.C.) he became Apprentice Supervisor (over 300 apprentices) and later deputy training manager. He married Brenda Took and is the father of Michael, Gillian, Carol and Penelope. His first marriage failed and he married Susan Jarvis in 1979 and has one stepson – Guy Bernard Jarvis.
[page break]
[underlined] DENNIS WILLIAM RAETTIG [/underlined] (B.16.12.1920)
The third son of Max Edgar. After education at the Hull Grammar School and commercial college, he joined M. Harland Ltd., Printers, Hull. He served in the Royal Air Force as a Flight Mechanic (engines) maintaining mainly Halifax bombers. After the war he set up his own small firm of printers. He married Joan Wray and they have two children, Peter and Susan. Susan married Colin Burn – they have three children, Jennifer, Oliver, and Victoria.
[underlined] RALPH RAETTIG [/underlined] (b.7.11.1918)
Ralph was the only son of Ralph Raettig. He was educated at the Nautical School, Hull, and joined the Blue Funnel Line as an apprentice deck officer. He later sailed as an officer in the Ellerman Hall Line in the “City” boats. He then joined a company of ocean going tugboats and was in fact Towing Master responsible for the delivery of the floating drydock to Rotterdam. He married Stella Booth, they had one son Christopher. Ralph and Stella bought a grocers [sic] shop in Scarborough which they owned until he died in February, 1973.
[page break]
[underlined] THE FOURTH GENERATION IN ENGLAND [/underlined]
[underlined] IN ENGLAND [/underlined]:- Margaret; Michael, Gillian , Carol, Penelope; Susan, Peter; Christopher.
[underlined] IN GERMANY [/underlined:- Kerstin, Thorn, Leif.
[underlined] IN AMERICA [/underlined]:- Alexander Steven; Michelle Leigh, Mathew Edward.
[underlined] MARGARET ANN RAETTIG [/underlined]. (b.5.3.1952)
Daughter of Max and Marjorie Raettig, educated at the Rise Roman Catholic School, married Peter Clarke in 1975. Margaret and her husband have worked in various places in hotel and restaurant management and at present own a restaurant and bar in Spain. They have two children, Natalie (b.14.6.1976) and David Paul (b.24.5.1981), both attend school in Spain.
[underlined] MICHAEL ANTHONY RAETTIG [/underlined]. (b.5.1.1951)
The son of John Charles Raettig, he was educated at the Hull Grammar School and trained as an Aeronautical Engineer with Hawker Siddeley Aviation. He has remained with the company which is now part of British Aerospace and is managing the section of the Design Facility responsible for the design of the Hawk aircraft, as flown by the “Red Arrows”. He married Joyce Cooling in 1975. They have three children Nicola Jane (b.16.6.1976), Christopher James (b.5.3.1979), and Paul Andrew (b.23.12.1981). The family are living in Market Weighton, Yorkshire.
[underlined] GILLIAN ELIZABETH RAETTIG [/underlined]. (B.1.12.1952)
Eldest daughter of John Charles, was educated at the Newland High School for Girls, Hull. Attended the Medical School of Leeds University and graduated in Medicine and Surgery, specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology. She married Robert Scothern who trained with Hawker Siddeley Aviation and graduated as a Mechanical Engineer at the University of Loughborough, he is now a Chartered Engineer and works for British Rail Engineering Limited, Derby. They have four children, David Peter (b.25.11.1982), Miriam Anne (b.29.5.1984), Ruth Elizabeth (b.8.5.1986), and Rachel Esther (b.1.8.1988). At present they live in Leicester.
[underlined] CAROL ELAINE RAETTIG [/underlined]. (b.15.12.1953)
The second daughter of John Charles, was educated at the Newland High School for Girls, Hull. She worked as a child care officer for the Hull City Council, and later worked with the German evangelist, Anton Schulter, at Neues Leben, Altenkirchen, Germany. She returned to England and took a degree course in Hotel Management and Catering at the Leeds Polytechnic. She has worked in several hotels including the Hilton, Munich. She is currently Restaurant Manageress at the Parkway Hotel, Leeds.
[underlined] PENELOPE JANE RAETTIG [/underlined] (b.20.12.1961)
The youngest daughter of John Charles, educated at Kingussie School, near Aviemoor [sic], Scotland. Graduated in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery at Glasgow University, July 1986. Took up a post as Veterinary Officer with the Peoples Dispensary for Sick Animals, Hull. She married Donald Campbell in December, 1988, and went to live and work as a veterinary officer in Glasgow.
[page break]
[underlined] SUSAN PATRICIA RAETTIG. [/underlined] (b.17.3.1953)
Daughter of Dennis and Joan Raettig, was educated at the Newland High School for Girls, Hull. Trained as a teacher at the Margaret Macmillan Teacher Training College, Bradford. Married Colin Burn a graduate electronics engineer, on the 13th. August, 1977. They live at Coopers Hill, Gloucestershire, and have three children, Jennifer (b.3.8.1981), Oliver Michael (b.19.7.1983), and Victoria (b.1.1.1987).
[underlined] PETER MAX RAETTIG [/underlined]. (b.14.6.1959)
Son of Dennis and Joan Raettig, was educated at the Kelvin High School, Hull. He graduated in Computer Sciences at the Leeds Polytechnic and is working on computerised printing systems for a company that manufactures equipment for publishers., He married Nicole Thrush on the 25th. August, 1986, and live at Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire. They have a son Thomas Michael Max (b.4.5.1989)
[underlined] CHRISTOPHER RAETTIG [/underlined] (29.8.1944)
Christopher, the son of Ralph and Stella Raettig, was educated at the Scarborough Boys’ High School and later studied for and obtained his Ordinary and Higher National Certificates in Engineering at the Hull Technical College. He served an apprenticeship as an Aeronautical Engineer at Blackburn Aircraft Ltd., and worked there for some years as a Design Draughtsman. He later joined Slingsby Aviation at Pickering, Yorkshire and at present holds the post of Chief Draughtsman – Production Support.
He married Coral Kirkham on the 18th. October, 1969. They have two sons, Steven (b.26.12.1972) and Jonathon (b.16.8.1975). The family live in Pickering, Yorkshire.
[underlined] Hull.2nd. August, 1989 [/underlined]
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[family photograph]
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[photograph of a couple]
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[postage stamp]
MRS. E. GILTHORPE
Dear Mrs Gilthorpe,
I feel some-what guilty for not writing to you in reply to your interesting letter last August. Although I did ring my cousin Kate, who as you no doubt know – lives next door to your cousin Edith Burns (our Aunt), and I believe you are now in touch.
I am enclosing a copy of an old photograph which I hope will be of interest to you. You will notice that ‘baby Edith’ is on her Mothers knee – so I assume that the original is about 90 years ago. I have continued the documentation so that you can understand the photo better, which my elder brother John, compiled some years ago. As far as I am aware, we each (my two brothers and I) have a copy of the family tree going back to the middle 1600,s [sic]. It was produced by one of our Austrian relations in 1936 and sent to my grandfather.
Wishing you a Happy New Year,
Yours etc.
[page break]
[family photograph]
[page break]
[list]
[kinship of Dennis William Raettig]
[page break]
[list]
[relationship with Dennis Raettig]
[page break]
[list]
[relationship with Dennis Raettig]
[page break]
[list]
[relationship with Dennis Raettig]
[page break]
Dear Mr. Raettig,
My cousin and godmother was Edith Burns. In her last letter to me she mentioned a visit to her nephew in Hull.
I wonder if you are that same nephew – or a relative? I have traced your address from the telephone Directory.
The reason for this letter is that I am researching the BELL family. Edith Bell (formerly EALES, [inserted] her mother – Erina – [/inserted]) was my grandmother’s sister. I have very little information on Edith & family so far.
If there is a link with you would you mind if I write with further questions?
[page break]
[descendants of BELL and BARTON – family tree]
[page break]
[descendants of EALES and POWLESLAND – family tree]
[descendants of John Wilcox – family tree]
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[descendants of Georg Rattig – family tree]
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[descendants of August Herman Theodor Bothe Rattig – family tree]
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[descendants of August Herman Theodor Bothe Rattig – family tree]
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[descendants of Wilhelm Edgar Rattig – family tree]
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[descendants of Wilhelm Edgar Rattig – family tree]
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[descendants of Carl E Theophil Raettig – family tree]
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[descendants of Theodore Heinrich Arthur Rattig – family tree]
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
Raettig family in England
Description
An account of the resource
First page biography of Dennis William Raettig with information on other family members. Father was in merchant navy and brothers both served during the war in the navy and air force. Dennis joined Royal Air Force as an engine fitter. Dennis married Joan Wray in 1952 and they had two children. Other documents cover grandfather who was born in Wittenburg Germany 3 February 1864 who became a ships captain. Both his children including Dennis Raettig's father followed in merchant navy. His father served on the Blue Funnel Line in world war one when he was torpedoed. List ships and positions, letters, history of grandfathers dog and a picture of the ship 'Clan Graham'. A letter to Helene and Hertha Rättig in Vienna written in German and a translation sent 7 November 1936 telling history of family in England during world war one and after. A letter from Max Rättig to Alfred Schlingnann talking about his life as a German in England during the First World War and changing his name. Followed by other letters to members of the family in Vienna, and New York and a photographs of the family. Continues with history and biographies of the second, third and forth generations, photographs, letters, list of family and kin and family trees.
Language
A language of the resource
eng
deu
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Text. Memoir
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MRaettigDW1136657-160623-02
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Hull
Germany
Austria
Austria--Vienna
United States
New York (State)--New York
Germany--Wittenburg (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
New York (State)
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
David Bloomfield
Tricia Marshall
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1344/22142/PHopgoodPD16010048.2.jpg
361933d9c7c9bc658e8c438a53f07a12
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
Hopgood, Philip David. Album
Description
An account of the resource
Photographs of Philip Hopgood's family and friends and then his training in Canada and Great Britain.
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
Hopgood, PD
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
Quebec, Flying and Brooklyn
Description
An account of the resource
Four photographs on an album page.
Photos 1 and 2 are a sunset, captioned 'St Lawrence River at Levis November 1944' and 'Quebec Sunset'.
Photo 3 is a pilot in the cockpit of an aircraft, captioned 'Saskatoon to Dauphin October 1944, Charlie Warner driving'.
Photo 4 is a house with two people standing outside, captioned 'Brooklyn, NY November 1944. A few late arrivals. Mrs and Ritchie Boatke'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-10
1944-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four b/w photographs
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PHopgoodPD16010048
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.
Canada
Québec--Lévis
Saskatchewan--Saskatoon
United States
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)
Québec
Saskatchewan
North America--Saint Lawrence River
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.
1944-10
1944-11
aircrew
pilot
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1662/26961/PHughesCL16010025.2.jpg
9586dc079f890531a00f854a3c06c438
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1662/26961/PHughesCL16010022.2.jpg
1d49e5de79416faeb477da959d73c3cf
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
Hughes, Clarence. Photograph album
Description
An account of the resource
48 Items. 70 page album with photographs of people and local scenes while training in Albany Georgia in the United States and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island , Canada. Also includes scenes while on journeys in North America as well as people. family and places back in the United Kingdom.
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
2016-06-02
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
PHughesCL1601
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Places in the United States
Description
An account of the resource
Top left - a view of the Jefferson Memorial with tree on the right in Washington DC. Top right - a church with tall spire in the distance with houses in front. Centre middle - view over house in city with suspension bridge in the background. Bottom left - view of a factory with two chimneys. Bottom right - view of a freeway through a city and under a road. On the reverse 'Washington, Philadelphia, New York.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five b/w photographs mounted on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PHughesCL16010025, PHughesCL16010022
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
Washington (D.C.)
Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)
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.
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1615/24685/PCothliffKB15030067.1.jpg
f7242aa1a14e15eccd67f358508d34b7
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
Cothliff, Ken 427 and 429 Squadrons
Description
An account of the resource
151 items. The collection contains photographs of personnel from 427 and 429 Squadrons.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Ken Cothliff and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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. 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
Cothliff, K
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[a] POSN [b] RANK [c] NAME [d] NUMBER [e] HOME [f] AGE
[a] CAPT [b] P/O [c] Maclennan A.N [d] J19396 [e] NEW YORK [f] 23
[a] NAV [b] F/O [c] White W.L. [d] J18468 [e] WINDSOR [f] 21
[a] AB [b] F/O [c] Morgan W.B. [d] J18151 [e] VANCOUVER [f] 24
[a] WOP [b] F/O [c] Gray H.J. [d] J17605 [e] MONTREAL [f] 23
[a] FE [b] Sgt. [c] Wilson J.L. [d] 1559254 [e] GLASGOW [f] 20
[a] MU/AG [b] F/O [c] Gillies W.A. [d] J16930 [e] MONTREAL [f] 23
[a] R/AG [b] F/O [c] Vance J.R. [d] J17714 [e] OTTAWA [f] 22
[photograph]
LMG. [missing numbers]4. P/O. MACLENNAN. 427.
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
Pilot Officer AN MacLennan and Crew
Description
An account of the resource
Seven airmen arranged in a row. Their names are listed in a caption above. On the image is annotated 'LMG. ???. P/O Maclennan. 427'
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PCothliffKB15030067
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)--New York
Canada
Ontario--Windsor
British Columbia--Vancouver
Ontario--Ottawa
Great Britain
Scotland--Glasgow
Québec--Montréal
New York (State)
Ontario
Québec
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
427 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
flight engineer
navigator
pilot
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1827/33526/EWeedenRC[Recipient]430730-0001.jpg
c75993d00fe7f05085665cbe13c8ccf6
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1827/33526/EWeedenRC[Recipient]430730-0002.jpg
535c25a74dc8e579cb97cc9db6c2fee7
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1827/33526/EWeedenRC[Recipient]430730-0003.jpg
bb155ea23ac20dce058a3fcfe40db034
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
Weeden, Reginald Charles
R C Weeden
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
2017-04-09
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
Weeden, RC
Description
An account of the resource
89 items. The collection concerns Reginald Charles Weeden (b. 1922, 1602823, 153661 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, letters, documents, badges, medal ribbons and photographs. He flew operations as a navigator with 75 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Scott Weeden and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] 2 [/underlined]
to attend my graduation – Mrs Ashton said, that she would take your place, for she feels sure you would love to be there for this occasion.
Only another nine weeks to go, and then I wonder what I shall undertake, this depends on the vacancies – Instructor, Coastal Command, Ferry Command or back home to train for Ops. I am hoping to get on Ferry Command or I wouldn’t mind Instructor if I could instruct in England, but we shall see at the end of the course.
At present, we have been flying practically daily, different exercises each trip, yesterday we had a spot of Coastal Command work, flying over Lake Ontario into
[page break]
[underlined] 3 [/underlined]
the States, then back again, very interesting, but kept working during the whole trip. Tonight we shall be on a trip using the stars to plot our position and alter course accordingly to find our destination, it gets more complicated each trip, but essential to make good Navigators.
We shall be flying again this week-end so will be glad of the rest during my 48 the following week, was hoping to get down to New York again but the distance is too far to travel in this time, over 500 miles away. It’s a pity you can’t get petrol at home, for you deserve a good holiday after all the work you have put in lately. It has been cut here quite a
[page break]
[underlined] 4 [/underlined]
bit, but one of my mates at camp has a car and we still get around. When we have a spare evening we generally drive out to a dance in the village, for it’s a few miles away from camp.
It will be good to get home, and pop up to the Club, to see my old friends, I am glad Alec & Scotter called on you, [deleted] so [/deleted] hope to see Alec before he starts out on the high seas.
Well, mum, thats [sic] about all the news for now, all my best to Dennis and Bill, will write again soon
All my love
Reg xxxxx
To Evelyn.
xxxxx
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Part of letter from Reginald Weeden to his mother
Description
An account of the resource
Speculates on future employment when finished navigator training in Canada. Describes flying activity and that he was hoping to get to New York on next 48 hour pass but it was too far. Describes social activities.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three 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
EWeedenRC[Recipient]430730-Part
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.
Canada
Lake Ontario
United States
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription. Under review
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
aircrew
military living conditions
military service conditions
navigator
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1823/32442/PKentKD17010029.2.jpg
e72851aa3f2ef215ca5e55469dde6199
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1823/32442/PKentKD17010030.1.jpg
3dd5aaa2448603b94da77222cd81493a
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
Kent, Kenneth D
K D Kent
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
2017-04-04
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
Kent, KD
Description
An account of the resource
31 items. The collection concerns Kenneth Kent (b. 1922, 572440, 55219 Royal Air Force) and contains a photograph album and documents. He joined the RAF as an Apprentice in 1936, starting his training at RAF Halton later going to RAF Cosford. He completed his training as an aircraft tradesman and was promoted to corporal. He volunteered for aircrew and went to the United States and Canada for flight training in July 1942. He was commissioned in July 1943 and was posted to 106 Squadron at RAF Metheringham. He was promoted to Squadron Leader in August 1945.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Nigel Kent and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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
Niagara Falls from the air
Description
An account of the resource
Two photographs of Niagra Falls, both captioned 'Niagra Falls from the air June 1943'.
The first is of a large wide body of water cascading over the edge with large buildings close by, captioned 'The American Falls with Niagra Falls, New york State alongside'.
The second is captioned 'The Horseshoe Falls'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-06
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two b/w photographs on two album pages
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PKentKD17010029, PKentKD17010030
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)
North America--Niagara Falls
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-06
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.
aerial photograph
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2029/32637/PWellsRG17010025.2.jpg
b362afd4a2def43094b09abdec70257f
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
Wells, Ray. Album
Description
An account of the resource
26 items. Photographs of Ray's service including pictures of post war Germany.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-03
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Wells, RG
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
New York, Lake Superior, Hamburg and Gatwick
Description
An account of the resource
Photo 1 is The Statue of Liberty seen from the sea.
Photo 2 is a quay on Lake Superior.
Photo 3 is a street scene of Hamburg.
Photo 4 are prefab buildings seen from the control tower, Hamburg.
Photo 5 is skyscrapers seen from the sea, annotated 'Manhattan Island, New York'.
Photo 6 is an airman sitting on a table, annotated 'Control Tower, Gatwick'.
Photo 7 is an airfield annotated 'From Caravan to Hangers'.
Photo 8 is the Alsatian, Juonk.
Photo 9 is a house annotated 'Home Sweet Home'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
None b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWellsRG17010025
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.
United States
New York (State)--New York
Canada
Lake Superior
Germany--Hamburg
Great Britain
England--Gatwick
New York (State)
Germany
England--Surrey
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
animal
ground personnel
hangar
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2562/43850/PBraithwaiteW19010044.2.jpg
4502281aaf2b156d8db429ff5431aa7f
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
Braithwaite, Walter. Album
Description
An account of the resource
49 items. Photographs of Walter Braithwaite's training.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-10-22
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
Braithwaite, W
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
New York State scenes
Description
An account of the resource
The photograph on the left shows the Alfred E. Smith State Office Building in Albany behind some trees and a road. Cars can be seen on the road.
The photograph in the middle of the left page shows cars and other motor vehicles on a road situated outside the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Company Building in Albany.
The photograph on the right of the left page shows the same building behind a road with cars and other motor vehicles driving on it.
The photograph on the left of the right page shows the Rockefeller Center in between other buildings.
The photograph in the middle of the right page shows the Chrysler Building behind other buildings. A road with motor vehicles on it can be seen in the foreground.
The photograph on the right of the right page shows the Rockefeller Center, the top of the block is obstructed by the border of the photograph.
Identification kindly provided by Annique Asm and Michael Paré of the Finding the location WW1 & WW2 Facebook group.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Six b/w photographs
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBraithwaiteW19010044
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)--Albany
New York (State)--New York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1823/32406/PKentKD17010040.2.jpg
dfc01d7fd4923ef59efdf3d64fd05896
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
Kent, Kenneth D
K D Kent
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
2017-04-04
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
Kent, KD
Description
An account of the resource
31 items. The collection concerns Kenneth Kent (b. 1922, 572440, 55219 Royal Air Force) and contains a photograph album and documents. He joined the RAF as an Apprentice in 1936, starting his training at RAF Halton later going to RAF Cosford. He completed his training as an aircraft tradesman and was promoted to corporal. He volunteered for aircrew and went to the United States and Canada for flight training in July 1942. He was commissioned in July 1943 and was posted to 106 Squadron at RAF Metheringham. He was promoted to Squadron Leader in August 1945.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Nigel Kent and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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
New York State scenes
Description
An account of the resource
Two pictures, first shows Keith in swimming trunks, and Alan with a family and a dog on a beach, captioned 'On the beach at Ponti Shan with the Lundie's.
Second is same group on the beach captioned 'Delousing Scottie'.
Three pictures captioned 'Cooperstown, New York State Aug 1943'.
The first shows two ladies seated on wooden chairs captioned ' Mrs Clark and her friend'.
The second has four ladies with Keith and Alan all sitting on the carpeted floor and captioned 'A nice quiet drink'.
Third Keith, Alan and a young lady standing in front of a hedge captioned 'Alan, Miss Clark and Myself'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-08
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PKentKD17010040
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-08
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.
animal
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2562/43880/PBraithwaiteW19010055.1.jpg
8a9870ccb4ec0928f0ca64d882df138e
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
Braithwaite, Walter. Album
Description
An account of the resource
49 items. Photographs of Walter Braithwaite's training.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-10-22
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
Braithwaite, W
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Landry, Brown, Fletcher, F/Sgt Cartwright, Coulthard, Russell, Hulthin, Hysing, Martin, McConnell, Collins, Atkins, Farley.
Buckley, Eckoff, Rudge, Nicholson, Ettle, Dee, Galley, Hutchinson, Cooper, Wisely, Burn, Lydall
P/O Bolton, P/O Hetterley, P/O Phillips, P/O Price, P/O Bell, P/O Moydham, P/O/ Durnell, P/O McPherson, P/O Grange, P/O Linacre, Biden, Jones.
Price, Mill, Sutton, Thompson, Donavon, Millar, Nairn, Perides, Tarpey, Broadbent, Braithwaite.
[underlined] Pilots and Obs. Course No. 20 [/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
New York scenes and pilots and observers course
Description
An account of the resource
The photograph on the left of the left page shows two men in military uniforms standing next to a sign with indecipherable writing near Malahat Chalet. Aircrew brevets can be seen on the top left pockets of the men's uniforms.
The photograph on the top right of the left page shows the SS Normandie half submerged in New York harbour.
The photograph on the bottom right of the left page shows New York Municipal Building, Centre Street.
The photograph on the right of the page shows a group of military personnel with the caption "PILOTS & OBS. COURSE No.20" and the names of the military personnel photographed.
Identification kindly provided by Frank Schilder.
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 Canadian Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four b/w photographs
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBraithwaiteW19010055
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)
New York (State)--New York
Canada
British Columbia
British Columbia--Cowichan Valley
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Alan Brammer
Frank Schilder
aircrew
observer
pilot
training
-
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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
Hopgood, Philip David. Album
Description
An account of the resource
Photographs of Philip Hopgood's family and friends and then his training in Canada and Great Britain.
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
Hopgood, PD
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
New York November 1944
Description
An account of the resource
30 photographs on 8 pages of an album.
Page 34:
Photo 1 and 3 are views of a skyscraper captioned 'Empire State Building'
Photo 2 is a street scene, captioned 125th and 5th Ave Harlem'.
Photo 4 is buildings, captioned 'Grand Central Station'.
Page 35:
Photo 5 is a policeman, captioned 'Cop on Madison Square'.
Photo 6 is the bottom of a skyscraper, captioned 'Empire State in cloud'.
Photo 7 is a skyscraper, captioned 'Empire State on 5th Ave'.
Photo 8 is a large building captioned 'Cornell Medical Centre'.
Page 36:
Photo 9 is a street scene, captioned 'Times Square on Broadway'.
Photo 10 is a large building captioned 'Paramount Building'.
Photo 11 and 12 are Doug Foreman and Ron Jones, captioned 'Doug Foreman and Ron Jones in Washington Square'.
Page 37:
Photo 13 is a skyscraper, captioned 'RCA Building Rockefeller Centre'. [Two photographs put together to include the tower]
Photo 14 and 15 are the elevated railway captioned '3rd Ave "El" on 42nd St'.
Photo 16 is the elevated railway, captioned 'Canal St "El" Bowery'.
Page 38:
Photo 17, 18 and 19 are a skyscraper captioned 'The Chrysler Building from Lexington Avenue'.
Photo 20 is the Chrysler building at night, captioned '- and dimmed out'.
Page 39:
Photo 21 is a large building, captioned 'Waldorf Astoria Hotel'.
Photo 22 is a street scene, captioned '5th Ave and Central Park'.
Photo 23 and 24 are a large building captioned 'Waldorf Astoria from Park Avenue and 47th St. E'.
Page 40:
Photo 25 is a small skyscraper, captioned 'Flat Iron Building, Times Square'.
Photo 26 is a street scene, captioned 'Madison Avenue'.
Photo 27 is a large building, captioned 'Rockefeller Centre Radio City'.
Page 41:
Photo 28 is a street scene, captioned '5th Ave and 40th St, near the foot of the Empire State'.
Photo 29 is a monument, captioned 'Victory Arch, Washington Square in Greenwich Village'.
Photo 30 is a seascape, captioned 'Port of the Bay of Fundy Nova Scotia 1944'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
30 b/w photographs on eight album pages
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PHopgoodPD16010040,
PHopgoodPD16010041,
PHopgoodPD16010042,
PHopgoodPD16010043,
PHopgoodPD16010044,
PHopgoodPD16010045,
PHopgoodPD16010046,
PHopgoodPD16010047
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)--New York
Canada
Nova Scotia
New York (State)
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.
1944-11
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/161/2044/PCushwayAW16010022.1.jpg
0d2607d74227133e32889cbb3ee557be
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
Cushway, Arthur. Album
Arthur Cushway's photograph album
Description
An account of the resource
28 items. A photograph album with multiple pages. It contains pictures taken during Arthur Cushway's aircrew training in Great Britain and in Canada. Subjects include airmen and aircraft and sightseeing in Great Britain and North America, including Niagara Falls, Ontario, New York and Reykjavik in Iceland.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Rosemary Lester 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
2016-07-04
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
PCushwayAW1601
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
New York Jan 1942
Description
An account of the resource
New your buildings. The first is a view from a tall building looking towards the Hudson River. There are several tall buildings and smoking chimneys. The second is a ground level view looking up the RCA Building, 30 Rockefeller Center. The third is from a tall building looking across the Chrysler Building. In the distance Hudson River.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-01
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PCushwayAW16010022
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-01
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1662/26971/PHughesCL16010045.1.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1662/26971/PHughesCL16010044.1.jpg
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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
Hughes, Clarence. Photograph album
Description
An account of the resource
48 Items. 70 page album with photographs of people and local scenes while training in Albany Georgia in the United States and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island , Canada. Also includes scenes while on journeys in North America as well as people. family and places back in the United Kingdom.
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
2016-06-02
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
PHughesCL1601
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
New York from the Empire State Building
Description
An account of the resource
Top left - view of New York city. Top right - view of New York city. Bottom - view of New York city. On the reverse 'New York (from Empire State Building), USA'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs mounted on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PHughesCL16010044, PHughesCL16010045
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)
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.
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1823/32446/PKentKD17010023.1.jpg
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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
Kent, Kenneth D
K D Kent
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
2017-04-04
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
Kent, KD
Description
An account of the resource
31 items. The collection concerns Kenneth Kent (b. 1922, 572440, 55219 Royal Air Force) and contains a photograph album and documents. He joined the RAF as an Apprentice in 1936, starting his training at RAF Halton later going to RAF Cosford. He completed his training as an aircraft tradesman and was promoted to corporal. He volunteered for aircrew and went to the United States and Canada for flight training in July 1942. He was commissioned in July 1943 and was posted to 106 Squadron at RAF Metheringham. He was promoted to Squadron Leader in August 1945.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Nigel Kent and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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
New York 1942
Description
An account of the resource
Page captioned 'New York from the boat September 1942.' Four photographs, first water in the foreground, docks and the city in the distance, captioned 'Staten Island with the Empire State at the back'.
Second and fourth, water in the foreground, shoreline in the distance, both captioned 'New Jersey from the porthole.'
Third water in the foreground, city skyline, captioned The New York skyline.'
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-09
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PKentKD17010023
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
New York (State)
New York (State)--New York
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-09
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.