Browse Items (864 total)

  • Spatial Coverage is exactly "North Africa"

ABellGW161221.mp3
Gerald Bell worked on a poultry farm before being called up in the RAF, where he served as ground personnel. He remembers his training at RAF Finningley and RAF Balderton. Tells of his posting to North Africa in 1942, where he initially was working…

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ADayMH171128.mp3
As her father was in the Royal Navy, Margaret attended school in Gibraltar, Portsmouth, and (after her mother’s death) Malta, before returning to Gosport in the UK when she was eleven. In 1939, she was fifteen and working for a company making soft…

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AReadeJC180206.mp3
Jeremy Reade recalls the memories of his father, Charles Sturrock Reade. Charles was born in Belfast and grew up in Portrush. On leaving school, Charles spent a short time working at a solicitor's office, before joining the Royal Ulster Constabulary…

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PSearleROJ1709.jpg
While Rex Searle was an air frame fitter with 601 Squadron he was evacuated from France at the start of the war. He returned home for a short leave but didn’t want to wake the family so waited patiently from 4am until 6am when his mum started her…

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AStevensonWR151202.mp3
Walter Raymond Stevenson volunteered for the RAF as soon as he was eighteen and trained as a wireless operator/air gunner, learning Morse code at RAF Yatesbury. He flew with 'sprog' pilots as they trained and was posted to Number 3 Air Gunnery School…

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ATownsleyH180314.mp3
Henry Townsley was born near Workington and left school at fourteen years of age and started work as an apprentice vehicle fitter. After a spell as a junior engineer in the Merchant Navy he volunteered, in April 1940, for the RAF, rather than the…

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PWatsonC1704.jpg
Clifford Watson at first wanted to join the navy because of a high demand in pilots. After being rejected, he joined the RAF and was sent to Rhodesia for pilot training, but then remustered to become an air gunner. He flew seventy-six ops in total.…

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PDidwellRNW1601.jpg
Robert joined the RAF at the end of 1938 when he was 18. He flew with 99 Squadron, spending three and a half years overseas. Robert recalls how his older brother was a regular soldier before the war in the 1920s, and his mother was a kitchen maid.…

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AYeandleBA181229.mp3
After leaving school, Bertram Yeandle joined the RAF apprentice scheme and trained as an engine fitter at RAF Halton. After completing his apprenticeship at RAF Cosford, he was posted to 148 Squadron, RAF Harwell, where he serviced Wellingtons. In…

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SHarriganD[Ser#-DoB]v260002.mp3
Les Rutherford was called up for the Army just short of his twenty first birthday. He was in France at the time of Dunkirk and made it to the beach of St Valery where they were under constant bombardment. He and another soldier found a door and…

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SHarriganD[Ser#-DoB]v350002.mp3
Stan Waite worked on one of the farms in Scampton in the pre-war years. He stopped his farming job to help with airfield construction when he found out he could more in one day than he earned in a week farming. He watched the first planes arrive…

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MNealeETH1395951-150731-0250001.jpg
A menu signed by Ted Neale and others for the Christmas meals. Final page has 'ETH Neale, his effort'.

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SWatsonC188489v1-1.pdf
A memoir written by Cliff Watson divided into 20 chapters.

The Earliest Years.
Born in Barnoldswick, then in Yorkshire, now in Lancashire in 1922. His father ran a wireless business until 1926. He describes his years at schools and a move to…

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MCurnockRM1815605-171114-109.jpg
A permit allowing Dick Curnock to visit his brother, ill in hospital.

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EHudsonJDHudson(Fam)410426-010001.jpg
Writes about moving from El Kef to Médéa in Algeria. New arrangements organised for internees by American and British governments with cooperation of French. Explains that conditions are much better that at El Kef where they were very rough. They…

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ACattyMA180822.mp3
Martin Catty grew up in London and was evacuated to Westward Ho! with his school at the beginning of the war. He completed a short training course at Cambridge University in 1942 and joined Air Force. After training he flew 40 operations as a…

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PBrownG2301.jpg
Geoff grew up in Grimsby and remembers picking a butterfly bomb up and taking it home.

Geoff was born and lived in the same area of Grimsby all his life, at the date of his interview he was 93. The first part of the interview concentrated on his…

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YGeachDG1394781v5.pdf
Fifth and final diary kept by David Geach chronicling his time training and on operations. He writes about his return from Canada on the Queen Elizabeth then his training in England which began with arriving at the Posting Centre in Pannal Ash,…

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PTaylorEC1701.jpg
Squadron Leader Eric Taylor joined the Royal Air Force in 1942 and served as a navigator. He served in North Africa and completed a tour of operations against targets in Italy before becoming an instructor in England. He describes the differences in…

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ATinsleyR150604.mp3
Dick was from a farming background and joined the Royal Air Force in 1944. After going to Bedford, he was sent to Lord’s cricket ground. Those passing as a pilot went to a flying school near Coventry to be assessed for pilot training on a Tiger…

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ACookJ150709.mp3
Jack Cook was born in Mexborough. He left school at 14 and went to work at a Gentlemen’s Outfitters. At 16 he worked on the footplate for LNER. At the age of 18 he volunteered for aircrew and trained as a wireless operator/air gunner; joined 100…

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AMinnittPB170314.mp3
Bruce Minnitt served in the Second World War flying Wellingtons on maritime reconnaissance in the Mediterranean and B-24s in India. When war started Bruce joined the Home Guard, and in 1941 when reaching 18 years of age, he enlisted in the Royal Air…

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PDeanJEH1701.jpg
John Dean’s childhood memory of watching a Spitfire and a German aircraft having a dogfight in the sky above him spurred him to want to become a Spitfire pilot. He didn’t achieve his aim of becoming a Spitfire pilot and instead became a…

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PSouterKP2131.1.jpg
Kenneth Souter was born in Sunderland. His father ran a business importing wooden pit props. Kenneth learned to fly at Cambridge, and his first air experience flight was on the 5th of July 1939, and after training he went solo on the 31st of July…

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AHackerHA170819.mp3
Harry Hacker first came into contact with aeroplanes at the age of sixteen whilst working as an apprentice for Rootes Motor Group who were making Wellington aircraft. He was a member of the Home Guard and after applying to join the RAF went for…

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