1
25
37
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2191/39891/PReidK1814.1.jpg
faaa75e30279e74f41f657090c42de15
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2191/39891/PReidK1815.2.jpg
b476d6212af6b292fc9e5836d8f23530
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
Reid, Kathleen
Reid, K
Reid, Kathryn
Reid, Katy
Description
An account of the resource
92 items and a <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2219">sub-collection with thirty-seven poems/songs</a>. The collection concerns Kathryn (Katy) Reid (Royal Air Force) and contains memoirs, correspondence, poems and photographs. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by David Stuart Miers Reid and catalogued by Nigel Huckins
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-01-23
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
Reid, K
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
Group of airmen at RAF Sutton Bridge
Description
An account of the resource
Group of fourteen airmen wearing tunics and side caps. One sitting in front, three kneeling and ten standing in two rows. <br />
<p>On the reverse '9 West-End road billets - left to right, Inglis - Penicuik, Reid - Cardenden, Hay - Glasgow, White - Hawick, Little - Maxwell Town Dumfries, Lauder - Duns-Scotland, McDonald - Edinburgh, Cpl Arnold - Morecomb, McMaster - Oban, Leith - Kirkaldy, Doughty - Preston Pans/Edinburgh, Money - Glasgow, Jenkins - Glasgow, Menzies - Dundee'.<br /><br />In the photograph is Kathlen's future husband, Andrew Reid from Cardenden in Fife was an aircraft engineer who served in North Africa and Italy</p>
<p>Additional information about this item has been kindly provided by the donor.</p>
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Midlothian
Scotland--Penicuik
Scotland--Fife
Scotland--Cardenden
Scotland--Glasgow
Scotland--Roxburghshire
Scotland--Hawick
Scotland--Dumfries
Scotland--Berwickshire
Scotland--Duns
Scotland--Edinburgh
England--Lancashire
England--Morecambe
Scotland--Argyll and Bute
Scotland--Oban
Scotland--Kirkcaldy
Scotland--Prestonpans
Scotland--Dundee
England--Lincolnshire
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PReidK1814, PReidK1815
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
RAF Sutton Bridge
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2088/34567/SWeirG19660703v080001-0020.1.jpg
ea398019efd16f472752b5e3ed6cab38
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
Langworthy, Max. Langworthy one
Description
An account of the resource
31 items. Photographs of travels in United States and Great Britain as well as colleagues and friends. Includes photographs of and from aircraft as well as of 462 Squadron pilots in March 1945.
Collection catalogued by Nigel Huckins
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-26
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
Weir, G
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
Edinburgh and Forth Bridge
Description
An account of the resource
Top left - people walking in street with statue of man on horse on far side with castle on hill in background. Captioned 'Princes St and Edinburgh Castle, 24.8.44'.
Top right - two airmen wearing battledress with brevet and side caps standing in street either side of two women. Captioned 'Slumming in Edinburgh, 28.8.44'.
Bottom left - view of side of Forth Bridge with trees and houses in foreground. Captioned 'Forth Bridge, 24.8.44'.
Bottom right - view d=from side along Forth Bridge. Captioned 'Forth Bridge,24.8.44'.
This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-08-24
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-08-24
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Edinburgh
Scotland--South Queensferry--Forth Bridge (Railroad Bridge)
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 Australian Air Force
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four b/w photographs mounted on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SWeirG19660703v080001-0020
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
aircrew
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2088/34566/SWeirG19660703v080001-0019.1.jpg
d4fbe22c0b0d199d11323d09646f99d4
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
Langworthy, Max. Langworthy one
Description
An account of the resource
31 items. Photographs of travels in United States and Great Britain as well as colleagues and friends. Includes photographs of and from aircraft as well as of 462 Squadron pilots in March 1945.
Collection catalogued by Nigel Huckins
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-26
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
Weir, G
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
Gloucester and Edinburgh
Description
An account of the resource
Top left - view down a wet town street with two story buildings either side. On the right a pub. Submitted with caption 'Coach & Horses Gloucester, 8.7.44'.
Top right - photograph removed. Captioned 'Kay Ferry, Idlicote - Shipston, 23.7.44'.
Bottom left - view of castle on hill with trees in foreground. Captioned 'Edinburgh Castle from Princes St, 28.8.44'.
Bottom right - castle at the top of steep bank. Captioned 'Edinburgh Castle from other side, 28.8.44'.
This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-07-08
1944-07-23
1944-08-24
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-07-08
1944-07-23
1944-08-24
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Warwickshire
England--Gloucestershire
England--Gloucester
England--Shipston-on-Stour
Scotland--Edinburgh
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four b/w photographs mounted on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SWeirG19660703v080001-0019
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/2085/34530/SWeirG19660703v060018.2.jpg
39a6936dcb6f325081a5d431b309caef
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
Weir, Greg. Oakes, Ken
Description
An account of the resource
Forty-two items. Collection concerns Flying Officer Kenneth Stanley Oakes (Royal Australian Air Force). A Halifax tail gunner, he flew operations on 466 Squadron from February to August 1944. Collection contains a memoir describing some of his operations, a training note book, documents, correspondence, photographs and his log book.
The collection was catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-26
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
Weir, G
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
Rugby match ticket
Description
An account of the resource
For Scottish services verses the Royal Australian Air Force.
This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-02-10
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-02-10
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Edinburgh
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 Australian Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Printed ticket
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SWeirG19660703v060018
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
sport
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2085/34501/SWeirG19660703v060017-0001.1.jpg
0eb84968f50ee01aa8892f00ba620ba1
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2085/34501/SWeirG19660703v060017-0002.1.jpg
e9afdea1e00fb07969d75ae70c24eefc
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
Weir, Greg. Oakes, Ken
Description
An account of the resource
Forty-two items. Collection concerns Flying Officer Kenneth Stanley Oakes (Royal Australian Air Force). A Halifax tail gunner, he flew operations on 466 Squadron from February to August 1944. Collection contains a memoir describing some of his operations, a training note book, documents, correspondence, photographs and his log book.
The collection was catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-26
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
Weir, G
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Kenneth Oakes
Description
An account of the resource
Half length portrait of an officer wearing tunic with air gunner brevet. On the reverse 'Jas Bacon & Sons Ltd, 130 Princes Street, Edinburgh'.
This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Edinburgh
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 Australian Air Force
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SWeirG19660703v060017
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
air gunner
aircrew
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1996/31981/SHoganPJ436464v20004-0001.1.jpg
c83382387b2f6321e36397e85e813b93
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1996/31981/SHoganPJ436464v20004-0002.1.jpg
ff13346123539b68f4bc2d7d4bb314a2
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
Hogan, P J
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
2017-12-05
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
Hogan, PJ
Description
An account of the resource
Ninety-six items and a sub-collection with twenty two items..
The collection concerns Flight Sergeant Pat Hogan (436464 Royal Australian Air Force) and contains letters home to his family, his flying log book, accounts of his aircraft being shot down and him baling out, official documents, certificates and photographs.
He flew operations as a navigator with 466 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Elizabeth Anne Lusby and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Caricature of P J Hogan
Description
An account of the resource
Pencil drawing caricature of an RAAF officer wearing peaked cap and holding a glass. On the reverse 'Believe it or not but it is supposed to be me in a pub in Edinburgh one night'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w drawing
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SHoganPJ436464v20004
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 Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Edinburgh
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.
arts and crafts
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1765/30740/E[Author]LayneAJ450621-0001.jpg
21541336b4920603c6bc62ea0841e5e4
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1765/30740/E[Author]LayneAJ450621-0002.jpg
29df29a111501ab173fd0ddd9661fbdf
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
Layne, Wally
Walter Henry Layne
W H Layne
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-06-07
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Layne, WH
Description
An account of the resource
100 items. The collection concerns Walter 'Wally' Layne (b. 1916, 963012, 40348 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, prisoner of war diary, personal and official correspondence and photographs. He flew operations as a wireless operator with 97 Squadron and became a prisoner of war after being shot down.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by D Layne and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
25, Newlands Avenue,
Edinburgh, 10.
21/6/45.
Dear Mrs. Layne,
Thank you so much for writing me. I must confess that I have gone on hoping that perhaps there was a
[missing line]
[page break]
son.
I trust that you are all well and if you are ever in this part of Scotland I shall be delighted to see you.
With my sincere thanks & very best wishes for the future.
Kindest regards
Yours sincerely,
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter to Mrs Layne
Description
An account of the resource
Letter with missing content (torn in half). Thanks for the letter and invites her to visit if she is nearby.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-06-21
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
E[Author]LayneAJ450621
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
Scotland--Edinburgh
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-06-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1543/28488/BDowardATansleyEHv3.1.pdf
7ee1a6ee87c18b7758195aeb66f26dc7
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tansley, Ernest Henry
E H Tansley
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-09-22
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Tansley, EH
Description
An account of the resource
98 items. <br />The collection concerns Pilot Officer Ernest Henry Tansley (1914 - 1943, 149542 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a pilot with 57 Squadron and was killed 2 December 1943. Collection consists of photographs, letters, memoires, biographies, accounts of operations, logbook extracts and official/personal documents.<br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Anne Doward and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. <br />Additional information on Ernest Tansley is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/122894/">IBCC Losses Database.</a>
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Pilot Officer Ernest Henry Tansley 149542 VR
Ernest Henry Tansley was born on 22 January 1914, West Ham, Essex. The middle son of Albert Edward and Mary Ann Tansley. Brothers - Albert Edward 1911 - 1992 and Frederick George 1915 - 2001. Ernest married Irene Florence England on 30 November 1935, in Thundersley, Essex. She was the daughter of Herbert Percy and Elizabeth Charlotte England, born on 24 July 1915, Thundersley. Children - Peter John 1936 - 2001, Anne Elizabeth 1940, Robert Ernest 1944. Ernest started work as a clerk for a Shipping Agency in London, later as a Foreman Stevedore at King George V Docks in London. When war broke out, he was one of the many dock workers who were transferred to Gourock Docks in Scotland. Being in a reserved occupation, Ernest was not required to enlist but he did so, at Edinburgh, on the 19th March 1941 to join the RAF. As a Volunteer Reservist, he was put on the reserve list and was eventually called up at the beginning of August. 4 August 1941 - joined No 1 Air Crew Reception Centre at St. John's Wood, London. 23 August 1941 - now as AC2 1345042, he moved to No. 4 Initial Training Wing at Paignton, Devon where he spent about eight weeks. 17 October 1941 - now an LAC he went to No. 18 Elementary Flying Training School at Fairoaks, Surrey. This was one of 12 schools controlled by 50 Group Pool and Ernest would have learnt to fly the Tiger Moth. After a short spell which included some embarkation leave, he arrived at Heaton Park Holding Centre in Manchester, awaiting news of his overseas posting to America. 21 November 1941 - Ernest's journey began by returning to Gourock Docks where he had previously worked and boarding the waiting troop ship which would take him to Canada to train under the Arnold Scheme. Firstly they disembarked at Halifax, Nova Scotia and then journeyed onwards to the Royal Canadian Airforce Station at Moncton, New Brunswick. 2 December 1941 is when they arrived at Moncton. 18 December 1941 - the long journey south had been made to Maxwell Field Airforce Base in Alabama where he stayed for about a month. 11 Jan 1942 - arrival at Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida where he learnt to fly the Boeing Stearman bi-plane. This was the first of three flying schools for Primary, Basic and Advanced training. 29 March 1942 - arrival at Cochran Field, Macon, Georgia for the Basic training course. This was a U.S. Army Airforce School run along the very strict West Point system. Here Ernest would learn to fly the Vultee Valiant BT 13A mono plane. Because Ernest had been hospitalised on two occasions with the measles and then a septic arm, he was required to repeat the whole six week course.
[page break]
5 July 1942 - this was the final Advanced training course at Moody Field, near Valdosta where they had the AT-6 Harvard and the twin-engined Curtiss AT-9 and Cessna AT-17. He graduated from here on 6 September 1942 when he received the coveted USAAC silver wings. As he was chosen to train as a Bomber pilot, he was to be sent back to the UK. He journeyed back to Moncton in Canada to receive his RAF wings and to await a ship for home. After several weeks wait, Ernest boarded the "Stirling Castle" and arrived back at Gourock Docks on 7th October 1942. Now a Sergeant Pilot, he was sent to No. 3 Personnel Reception Centre in Bournemouth and was able to meet up with his wife whom he hadn't seen for over a year. 3 November 1942 - now at Windrush in Oxfordshire, the home of No. 6 Pilots Advanced Flying Unit where he was trained to fly the twin-engined Airspeed Oxford. During Christmas week he was sent on a B.A.T. course at Bramcote near Birmingham to fly Fairey Battle aircraft. 2 March 1943 - left Windrush for No. 16 Operational Training Unit at Upper Heyford, still in Oxfordshire. On No.51 course he would have learned to fly his first twin-engined heavy aircraft, the Vickers Armstrong Wellington. Stationed here for about 12 weeks, Ernest would now have chosen the other members needed for his crew. After two weeks leave, this new crew met up on 28th May at 1661 Heavy Conversion Unit, Winthorpe in Nottinghamshire. This is where the Manchester, Sterling and Lancaster aircraft were based. The crew were in 'C' flight which was attached to R.A.F. Scampton in Lincolnshire. Their last training flight ended here on the 5th July and Ernest and crew were posted to 57 Squadron at Scampton on the 7th July 1943 after two long years of training. 12th July 1943 - this was Ernest's first taste of going on Ops as he accompanied Lieutenant Jack Russell, an American pilot, on a raid to Turin. He was flying as a second pilot and was allowed to fly the Lancaster, ED 655 on the homeward flight until they reached England. Landed at 08:49 on the 13th. 24th July 1943 - this was the first time Ernest experienced an operation with his own crew, flying in ED 655. It was the first of four raids on Hamburg code-named 'Operation Gomorrah'. 25th July 1943 - target Essen in the Ruhr. Take off 9:49pm, back at Base about 2am. ED 655 27th July 1943 - Hamburg again, taking off at 11pm and one of four planes landing back at Dunholme Lodge 4:20 am. ED655. 9th August 1943 - target Mannheim. Take-off 23:28 safely back at Base 05:32 on the 10th. ED655. 10th August 1943 - target Nuremberg. Take-off at 10pm returning at 05:35 on the 11th. This time flying in W4797. 12th August 1943 - target Milan, an eight and a half hour trip flying in W5008.
[page break]
15th August 1943 - back in ED655 the target was Milan again. They lifted off just before 20:30 and touched down 4:30 on the 16th. 17th August 1943 - this was the important raid on Peenemunde to attempt to destroy the experimental rocket site. No.5 Group, to which 57 squadron belonged, would be in the last wave with No.6 Group and would be in most danger as they would be flying time-and-distance bombing in bright moonlight. A total of 596 bombers took off; forty were shot down with a loss of 288 aircrew plus two more from Mosquitos. 245 of these young men were killed and 45 taken P.O.W. 5 and 6 Groups. as expected, suffered the most casualties losing six times as many men as the other groups. Taking off in ED 655 just before 10pm they returned safely to Scampton at 04:14 on the 18th. 22nd August 1943 - Leverkusen was the target this time. Take-off was at 9:35pm returning 4 hours and 50 mins later. 23rd August 1943 - after a short sleep, Ernest found they were on Battle Orders again that evening. This time the target was Berlin, his first time to the "Big City". Take-off was at 20:35, landing back at Scampton at 4am on the 24th. W4948 'S' - Sugar. 27th August 1943 - again in W4948 'S', target Nuremberg. Take-off shortly after 9pm landing back at Dunholme Lodge about 4am. It was at this time that the squadrons based at Scampton were moved in order that concrete runways could be laid down to replace the existing grass. 57 went to the newly built airfield called East Kirkby. On the 29th of August 1943, Ernest made the short flight in ED655 to their new home. 12th September 1943 - on this date Ernest returned to Scampton to attend Course No.1 for Newly Commissioned Pilots and back at East Kirkby, as it was the moon period when no operations were ordered, all aircrew personnel underwent a week long training programme. 22nd September 1943 - Hanover was the target and ED 655 took off at 19:08. They returned to base shortly after midnight, after having shot down a JU 88 and scaring off a second one. 27th September 1943 - Hanover was the target once again and in JA 872, take-off was at 7:45 pm and on the return, landed at Mepal at 01:25, because of bad weather. 28th September 1943 - the short flight was made back from Mepal. 29th September 1943 - set off to bomb Bochum but did not reach the main target. Returned three and a half hours later after bombing the last resort target ...Texel airfield. JA 872. 3rd October 1943 - the target was Kassel. Take off was at 6:45 in the evening and the crew returned safely five and a half hours later. ED 994 was used this time. 7th October 1943 - the target was Stuttgart and take off time was 8:19 in the evening in ED655. Returning at 3:35 on the morning of the 8th, there was another operation lined up for that night. 8th October - this was to Hanover in ED655 again. Taking off at 22:47, they returned safely to East Kirkby at 3:41 on the morning of the 9th.
[page break]
It was the 18th of October until another raid took place because it had been the moon period when no operations were carried out. The crew were on home leave during this time and Ernest had been taken ill. 3rd November 1943 - was the first operation of the month and the crew found themselves in possession of a new Mk. 111 Lancaster, JB 529 DX-W. The target was Dusseldorf and take-off from East Kirkby was 17:06, returning back at base at 21:24. 10th November 1943 - this time to bomb a railway junction set amongst the mountains in Modane. Take-off in JB 529was shortly after 9pm. 14th November 1943 - this was to be a dinghy search in JB 485 accompanied by one other aircraft. The search was for an American crew who had ditched in the sea but was, unfortunately, unsuccessful. After a three and a half hours search they were diverted to Manby, a gunnery training school as East Kirkby was fog bound. Returned to East Kirkby the following day. 18th November 1943 - this operation was to Berlin, the start of what was to be known as "The Battle of Berlin". JB 529 now bearing code letter DX-P took off at 17:25. This was a long eight hour trip. 26th November 1943 - this was to Berlin again and P-Peter took off at 5:10 pm. On return, they were diverted to Pocklington owing to bad weather at East Kirkby. They returned to East Kirkby two days later. Ernest wasn't needed to fly on another Op. until December. 2nd DECEMBER 1943. What a sad day this turned out to be.... Battle Orders once again showed the target to be Berlin. Ernest in JB 529 DX-P, and with an extra crew member on his first trip as a second pilot, was one of the first to take off at 16:19 and his estimated time of arrival should have made him the third to reach the target. Unfortunately, the aircraft met with unexpected winds en-route differing so much from those forecast that many planes were blown completely off course, ending up many miles off target. 650 aircraft should have been on this 'Maximum Effort' raid but 200 Halifaxes were withdrawn because of fog over their airfields in Yorkshire. After take-off, nearly a tenth of the remaining planes had to turn back when they encountered severe icing, technical problems or suffered crew sickness. This left just 415 to continue with the mission. Because the bomber stream was late arriving and was very scattered because the strong winds had blown them off course, there were many fighters waiting to pick them off. 'P' for Peter was shot down by a night-fighter at approximately 23:00 hours German time, over the small town of Trebbin about 25 miles south of Berlin. All eight crew were lost, even though Ernest stayed in his beloved Lancaster until the end trying to avoid a small row of houses and hoping his crew would have time to bail out. Although the houses were saved as Ernest managed to land in an adjacent field, the rear gunner had been shot and was still in the turret. Only one crew member had managed to open his parachute and Ernest, of course, was still in his seat.
[page break]
A gentleman who had witnessed the combat said that despite the loss of two thirds of the wing and engines, the flames emanating from the front of the aircraft and other serious damage to the fuselage caused by the explosion, the pilot was still clearly flying his crippled Lancaster in an effort to land in a nearby field. In his words “It was an aeronautical miracle”. A very sad end for eight young heroes who will always be remembered with pride.
[page break]
[underlined]COMBAT REPORT [/underlined]
Lancaster x (ED. 655) of 57 Squadron over target on night 22/23rd September 1943 2142 hours at 18,000 feet. No moon, coned in about 25 searchlights over target, no other unusual phenomena. Monica gave warning of enemy aircraft just after bombs had been dropped and Lancaster was commencing to carry out banking search again. As enemy aircraft (identified as JU.88) came in to attack, searchlights went out. M.U. was first to see E/A on port quarter up approximately 300 yards. M.U. and R.G. simultaneously opened fire (firing 200 rds.) and hits were observed. E/A returned fire causing damage to Lancaster. E/A dropped starboard wing and dived to starboard leaving a smoke trail behind. When E/A was directly below Lancaster, flame was seen to emerge from starboard engine, but it was impossible to observe if E/A crashed, as another E/A then came in to attack from starboard quarter up. E/A (also identified as JU.88) came into attack at 600 yards range and R.G. opened fire (firing 50 rounds), but hits were not observed. E/A did not return fire. R.G. ordered the pilot to turn to starboard and dive, E/A broke away to starboard and was not seen again.
First E/A definitely claimed as destroyed.
M.U. could not get his guns to bear on second E/A.
Damage to Lancaster – Engine sub-frame Cat AC.
R.G. Sgt. MOAD – No. 3 B & G. S. McDONALD, MANITOBA. 16 O.T.U. UPPER HEYFORD, 1661 CON. UNIT, WINTHORPE
M.U. Sgt. LEWIS 24 C.A.O.S., MOFFIT, RHODESIA, 16 O.T.U. UPPER HEYFORD, 1661 CON. UNIT, WINTHORPE
Signed
[underlined]Gunrary Leadrer, No. 57 Squadron.[/underlined]
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Title
A name given to the resource
Pilot Officer Ernest Henry Tansley 149542 VR biography
Description
An account of the resource
Covers background, marriage, civilian occupation and family. Followed by service history including basic and flying training in England and the United States and then advanced flying training and operational conversion back home. Posted to 57 Squadron at RAF Scampton. List his operations from 12 July 1943 up until 2nd December 1943 when he was shot down and killed. Describes his last operation to Berlin. Concludes with a combat report from 57 Squadron on 22/23 September 1943 on Lancaster ED 655 which was attacked by night fighters gunners engaged fighters..
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Five page printed document
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Personal research
Identifier
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BDowardATansleyEHv3
Coverage
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Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Essex
England--Thundersley
England--London
Scotland--Edinburgh
England--Devon
England--Paignton
England--Surrey
Canada
Nova Scotia--Halifax
New Brunswick--Moncton
United States
Alabama--Montgomery
Florida--Arcadia
Georgia--Macon
Georgia--Valdosta
England--Dorset
England--Bournemouth
England--Oxfordshire
England--West Midlands
England--Birmingham
England--Nottinghamshire
Italy
Italy--Turin
Germany
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Essen
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Nuremberg
Italy--Milan
Germany--Peenemünde
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Germany--Leverkusen
Germany--Berlin
England--Cambridgeshire
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Kassel
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Düsseldorf
France
France--Modane
England--Yorkshire
Germany--Trebbin
Germany--Hannover
Florida
Alabama
Georgia
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Hampshire
England--Warwickshire
Temporal Coverage
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1914-01-22
1935-11-30
1941-03-19
1941-08-04
1941-10-17
1941-11-21
1941-12-02
1941-12-18
1942-01-11
1942-03-29
1942-07-05
1942-10-07
1942-11-03
1943-03-02
1943-05-28
1943-07-05
1943-07-07
1943-07-12
1943-07-24
1943-07-25
1943-07-27
1943-08-09
1943-08-10
1943-08-12
1943-08-15
1943-08-17
1943-08-22
1943-08-23
1943-08-27
1943-08-29
1943-09-12
1943-09-22
1943-09-27
1943-09-28
1943-09-29
1943-10-03
1943-10-07
1943-10-08
1943-10-18
1943-11-03
1943-11-10
1943-11-14
1943-11-18
1943-11-26
1943-12-02
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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IBCC Digital Archive
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David Bloomfield
16 OTU
1661 HCU
5 Group
57 Squadron
6 Group
air gunner
aircrew
Battle
bombing
bombing of Hamburg (24-31 July 1943)
bombing of Kassel (22/23 October 1943)
Bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943)
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Ju 88
killed in action
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 3
Manchester
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Bramcote
RAF Dunholme Lodge
RAF East Kirkby
RAF Mepal
RAF Paignton
RAF Pocklington
RAF Scampton
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Windrush
RAF Winthorpe
recruitment
shot down
Stearman
Stirling
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
-
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Hook, Ken
Kenneth Gordon Hook
K G Hook
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IBCC Digital Archive
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2018-07-04
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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Hook, KG
Description
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53 items. The collection concerns Flying Officer Kenneth Hook DFM (b. 1923, 1335989, 195765 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, documents, photographs, objects and correspondence. He flew operations as an air gunner with 75 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Iain Hook and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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Ken Hook
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Photograph of Ken with an unidentified individual, upper torso, leaning on a canon, other canon in background, Post it note 'Subject left ? Edinburgh'.
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One b/w photograph
Language
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eng
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Photograph
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PHookKG18030005
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Royal Air Force
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Scotland--Edinburgh
Scotland
Great Britain
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1623/24991/PCothliffKB15110012.1.jpg
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Cothliff, Ken. Folder 1511
Description
An account of the resource
77 items. The collection contains photographs.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Ken Cothliff and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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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. 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.
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Cothliff, K
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Jim Moffat at Edinburgh Castle
Description
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Jim Moffat, in uniform standing in front of the cannons at Edinburgh Castle.
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One b/w photograph
Type
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Photograph
Identifier
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PCothliffKB15110012
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
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Great Britain
Scotland--Edinburgh
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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aircrew
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1613/24540/MMoffatJ[Ser -DoB]-151020-010021.jpg
1b3fb949d8977729d1093df13ba9ee0e
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Title
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Cothliff, Ken. Jim Moffat
Description
An account of the resource
7 items. The collection contains photographs of Jim Moffat and his crew, and extracts from his log book.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Ken Cothliff and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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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. 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.
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Cothliff, K
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Title
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Jim Moffat at Edinburgh Castle
Description
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Jim Moffat, in uniform, standing beside the guns at Edinburgh Castle.
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One b/w photograph
Type
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Photograph
Identifier
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MMoffatJ[Ser#-DoB]-151020-010021
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
Scotland--Edinburgh
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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.
aircrew
-
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Title
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Thomas, Arthur Froude. Album 2
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IBCC Digital Archive
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Thomas, AF
Date
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2020-02-11
Description
An account of the resource
33 items. An album containing photographs and postcards from Thomas Arthur's wedding, honeymoon and holidays.
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Title
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The Palace of Holyrood House
Description
An account of the resource
Photo 1 is a view of the outside.
Photos 2 and 3 are postcards of the Palace with Arthur's Seat in the background.
Photo 4 is Queen Mary's bedroom.
Date
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1952
Format
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Four b/w photographs on an album page
Language
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eng
Type
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Photograph
Identifier
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PThomasAF20020050
Coverage
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Civilian
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
Scotland--Edinburgh
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
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1952
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1366/22988/PThomasAF20020047.1.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1366/22988/PThomasAF20020048.1.jpg
da68da4e10588dbdd0f02e1a7dac3a97
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1366/22988/PThomasAF20020049.1.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
Thomas, Arthur Froude. Album 2
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Thomas, AF
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-02-11
Description
An account of the resource
33 items. An album containing photographs and postcards from Thomas Arthur's wedding, honeymoon and holidays.
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
Edinburgh 1952
Description
An account of the resource
Photo 1 is Edinburgh Castle viewed from Princess Street gardens.
Photo 2 is a postcard of Princess Street looking west with the Scott monument.
Photo 3 is a postcard of Edinburgh Castle and the Ross fountain in the gardens.
Photo 4 is a postcard of the Scottish National War Memorial.
Photo 5 is a postcard of John Knox's house on the Royal Mile.
Photo 6 is a postcard of the Castle with a ceremonial guard.
Photo 7 is a postcard of Whitehorse Close, Canongate.
Photo 8 and 11 are the floodlit castle at night.
Photo 9 and 10 are views from the Castle.
Photo 12 is St Margaret's Chapel at the Castle.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1952
Format
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11 b/w and one colour photographs on three album pages
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
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PThomasAF20020047,
PThomasAF20020048,
PThomasAF20020049
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
Scotland--Edinburgh
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.
1952
memorial
-
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/.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Scotland--Edinburgh
Title
A name given to the resource
Edinburgh [place]
Dun Eideann; Duneideann
Description
An account of the resource
This page is an entry point for a place. Please use the links below to see all relevant documents available in the Archive.
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1560/35630/BMillingtonRWestonFv1.2.pdf
8f0a70969cd59c55fef62f5a0d5a383d
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
Weston, Fred
F Weston
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-11-13
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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Weston, F
Description
An account of the resource
20 items. The collection concerns Fred Weston DFC (1916 - 2012, 126909 Royal Air Force) and contains documents and photographs. He flew operations as an air gunner with 101 and 620 Squadrons.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Catherine Millington and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Air Gunner
Based around the WWII service of Fred Weston DFC RAFVR
Description
An account of the resource
A biography of Fred. In addition it includes histories of aircraft and squadrons he served in, Details are included of airfields he served at. Additionally there are biographies of various servicemen associated with Fred's squadrons and service.
At the end there is a biography of the officer in charge of Arnhem, Lt-Gen Sir Frederick Browning and his wife Daphne du Maurier.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Roger Millington
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2005-01
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cambridge
England--Letchworth
Wales--Bridgend
Wales--Penrhos
Egypt--Heliopolis (Extinct city)
Singapore
France--Cherbourg
Netherlands--Eindhoven
France--Brest
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
France--Dunkerque
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
France--Brest
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Berlin
Italy--Turin
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
France--L'Isle-Adam
France--Quiberon
France--Boulogne-Billancourt
Germany--Essen
France--Le Creusot
Germany--Leverkusen
France--Caen
Netherlands--Arnhem
Norway
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Belgium--Brussels
England--Rochester (Kent)
Northern Ireland--Belfast
England--Longbridge
France--Arras
England--Darlington
Italy--Genoa
England--Longbridge
Yemen (Republic)--Aden
Europe--Frisian Islands
Germany--Peenemünde
Germany--Nuremberg
Italy--Sicily
France--Normandy
Netherlands--Arnhem
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Netherlands--Nijmegen
Wales--Pwllheli
England--Yorkshire
England--Leicester
England--Sunderland (Tyne and Wear)
Scotland--Edinburgh
England--Rochford
England--London
England--Cornwall (County)
Scotland--Ayr
England--Friston (East Sussex)
England--Gravesend (Kent)
England--West Malling
England--Hailsham
England--Yelverton (Devon)
England--Bentwaters NATO Air Base
England--Great Dunmow
England--Heacham
England--Weybridge
Wales--Hawarden
England--Blackpool
England--Old Sarum (Extinct city)
England--Kent
England--Folkestone
England--Hambleton (North Yorkshire)
England--York
Scotland--Scottish Borders
England--Cambridge
England--Thurleigh
England--Darlington
England--Hitchin
England--Lancashire
Italy
France
Egypt
Germany
Belgium
Netherlands
Great Britain
Yemen (Republic)
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Bedfordshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Devon
England--Durham (County)
England--Sussex
England--Essex
England--Herefordshire
England--Norfolk
England--Suffolk
England--Surrey
England--Wiltshire
England--Worcestershire
England--Leicestershire
England--Swindon (Wiltshire)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Royal Air Force. Fighter Command
British Army
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal New Zealand Air Force
Free French Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
85 sheets
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
BMillingtonRWestonFv1
1 Group
100 Group
101 Squadron
103 Squadron
105 Squadron
114 Squadron
139 Squadron
141 Squadron
148 Squadron
149 Squadron
162 Squadron
1657 HCU
1665 HCU
18 Squadron
180 Squadron
2 Group
208 Squadron
214 Squadron
239 Squadron
3 Group
301 Squadron
304 Squadron
342 Squadron
6 Group
6 Squadron
620 Squadron
7 Squadron
75 Squadron
8 Group
9 Squadron
90 Squadron
97 Squadron
99 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
air gunner
aircrew
B-17
B-24
B-25
bale out
Beaufighter
Blenheim
bombing
Bombing and Gunnery School
Boston
Caterpillar Club
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
crash
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
ditching
evading
final resting place
Gee
Gneisenau
H2S
Halifax
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Horsa
Hurricane
Ju 87
killed in action
Lancaster
Lysander
Manchester
Me 109
Meteor
mid-air collision
mine laying
Mosquito
navigator
Oboe
Operational Training Unit
P-51
Pathfinders
prisoner of war
propaganda
radar
RAF Bicester
RAF Biggin Hill
RAF Boscombe Down
RAF Bottesford
RAF Bourn
RAF Bradwell Bay
RAF Bramcote
RAF Chedburgh
RAF Chipping Warden
RAF Coltishall
RAF Drem
RAF Driffield
RAF Duxford
RAF Elsham Wolds
RAF Evanton
RAF Fairford
RAF Finningley
RAF Great Massingham
RAF Halfpenny Green
RAF Harwell
RAF Hendon
RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor
RAF Honington
RAF Hornchurch
RAF Horsham St Faith
RAF Kenley
RAF Lakenheath
RAF Leconfield
RAF Leuchars
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF Little Snoring
RAF Ludford Magna
RAF Manston
RAF Marham
RAF Martlesham Heath
RAF Mildenhall
RAF Newmarket
RAF Newton
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Oakington
RAF Penrhos
RAF Pershore
RAF Ridgewell
RAF Shepherds Grove
RAF Sleap
RAF Stradishall
RAF Tangmere
RAF Tempsford
RAF Tilstock
RAF Tuddenham
RAF Waterbeach
RAF West Raynham
RAF Woodbridge
RAF Wratting Common
RAF Wyton
Resistance
Scharnhorst
Special Operations Executive
Spitfire
Stirling
target indicator
Tiger force
training
Typhoon
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1198/11771/PWilkieD1601.2.jpg
ad66d1412d06fa51a7bd05bb25899ef6
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1198/11771/AWilkieD161102.1.mp3
246c576d22ca9f5147b67f48e24ac092
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Wilkie, David
D Wilkie
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Flight Lieutenant David Wilkie (b. 1924, 1821776 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a flight engineer with 432 Squadron.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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
2016-11-01
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
Wilkie, D
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
RP: This interview is being conducted on behalf of the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is Rod Pickles. The interviewee is David Wilkie. The interview is taking place at David’s home in Christchurch, Dorset on the 2nd of November 2016. Also present is Adrian Goodwin. David, good afternoon and thank you for inviting me here. This interview is all about you so if we could sort of go back to the beginning and your, your days when, where you were born and when you left school and what your thoughts were about joining the RAF. So first, tell us where were you born?
DW: I was born in Edinburgh. Well, part of Edinburgh on the 3rd of May 1924. I went to a school from five right on until I left it at fifteen, sixteen. Trinity Academy, quite a good school.
RP: So that’s one school from primary through secondary education?
DW: Yeah.
RP: That’s a good idea.
DW: All the way. Which is very good and it was a good school, good playing fields which made me happier than being at school because I was quite an athlete and very keen on games and rugby and so on.
RP: What was your, your best sport you were the best at would you say?
DW: My best sport was actually rugby but on the other hand I was pretty good at a number of athletics, running around tracks and things like that.
RP: You’ve got the build of a fly half to me, what position were you?
DW: I was fly half but also on the wing.
RP: Oh right.
DW: But we’ll say fly half and in fact, at that time, my ambition was to become a teacher at a school, doing, what do you call it, jobs? Not jobs.
RP: Teaching, teaching physical education.
DW: Teaching.
RP: Games.
DW: Games and the like.
RP: So what, what persuaded you to another career then?
DW: Well I think the realities of the situation. When I got to fifteen, sixteen I left school and in fact I went into, by persuasion from my parents I went into a solicitor’s office for a time. That was a local one. But I wasn’t keen on that very much so it didn’t take me too long to volunteer to get into the RAF.
RP: Was there a particular reason you chose the RAF? Was there any family association or was it just a good idea?
DW: No family association at all, my father had been in the army of course and so forth. But no, I just liked the idea of flying and I was, accepted for pilot navigator observer trainee but there was a huge queue for that and I wasn’t yet, we were told to go away. Come back. Go away. ‘Join the ATC and we’ll have you back as and when there’s room.’ That seemed to go on forever. That was what had been discussed because by then we were in the ATC so we decided that, in fact, three of us did, that it was too long to wait. But they are looking for flight engineers so why don’t we volunteer for that? Which the three of us did and we were trained and we had training of course down at Wales mainly and that’s about a year’s training or so.
RP: Whereabouts in Wales were you?
DW: It was down near Cardiff, between Cardiff and Swansea.
RP: St Athan, would that have been?
DW: It was in fact St Athan.
RP: Yeah.
DW: Thank you for helping me with that I should know that quite well.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And of course I met my wife down, Kathleen down —
RP: Oh right. So that’s why you’ve got memories of Wales then.
DW: We’ve been back and forward. She died about eight years ago now.
RP: But it must have been interesting when Scotland played Wales at rugby then.
DW: Absolutely. But there was an agreement in the family that, you know, when Wales was playing anybody else England or whatever it was I’d vote for Wales and likewise Kathleen would vote for Scotland if in fact it wasn’t playing Wales. And so on.
RP: That’s an amicable solution.
DW: Absolutely. Now we, we, in fact we’ve been married, or would have been married seventy years this year.
RP: Goodness me.
DW: But she died a bit sooner.
RP: So was she in the forces then? What was she?
DW: She was an ATS.
RP: Oh right.
DW: I’ve got a picture of her there somewhere.
RP: Ok.
DW: ATS. But just as a normal private, didn’t do anything special. So, let’s see, that was that. I’m still on score or should I be talking about —
RP: You were at St Athan, you were in St Athan.
DW: St Athan.
RP: You’d finished your training, where did you go to from St Athan and when you’d finished training in Wales?
DW: From there I went up north to East Moor I think it was and then we were allocated of course, in due course.
RP: Yes.
DW: To a crew. I say allocated but what happened, once you were ready to go in, to join a crew and go into Bomber Command and fly we all met in a big hall.
RP: So this was, did you go to an Operational Training Unit before that then? An OTU?
DW: An Operational Training Unit would go, we’d go to that after we’d joined a crew.
RP: Oh right. So you joined a crew first, I see, yeah.
DW: I think so, yeah.
RP: Yeah.
DW: I’m sure we did.
RP: Yes, Yeah.
DW: Anyway, we centred around this big hall looking for a crew and which was rather difficult, you’re looking around and looking around but then a group of four came and approached me and somebody said, ‘You’re a Scotsman.’ I said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Right, We’re happy to have a Scotsman in our crew, would you like to join us?’
RP: Oh, that was nice.
DW: So I looked at them and well, rather quickly I said, ‘Yes. Sure’ and that was it.
RP: This was, were they Canadians?
DW: Canadian.
RP: Was it a Canadian squadron?
DW: It was a Canadian squadron.
RP: And what number was that?
DW: 432.
RP: That’s four, so that was mostly Canadian aircrew with a —
DW: Practically so. They didn’t have any engineers.
RP: Oh right.
DW: So of course that’s why we were allocated.
RP: I see, yeah.
DW: Allocated because I don’t suppose they, whoever did it decided they had to find engineers for them so that was that. Then we did some more training obviously at, well it was just north of York and before we went on to actual —
RP: So —
DW: Operations.
RP: Before, from joining a squadron how long was it before your first operation? How much training did they give you?
DW: Quite a bit. The training of course was a whole year and part of that and I think probably about five or six weeks when you got to know the, your crew.
RP: What aircraft was this you were flying?
DW: This was, I flew with a Halifax.
RP: Ok.
DW: A Halifax 3 or a Halifax 5 as it happened. These had the radial engines and that happened to be what I liked rather than the inline as it happened. Lancaster's were more popular but in fact I liked the idea of radial engines and there it was. So we joined 432 Squadron as Number 6 Wing up north and just beyond York and we did our tour from there.
RP: So what was your first operation then? Can you remember that?
DW: First operation. Yes. Was [pause] I’m desperately trying to think which one it was now. I know where it was but [pause] sorry about that. You don’t mind if I hesitate.
[recording paused]
RP: Ok David. So, your first operation was to where, sorry?
DW: To Caen in France.
RP: And that was on D-Day.
DW: And that was on D-Day.
RP: So did you just —
DW: The night, well the night of the 6th of June 1944.
RP: Yeah. So —
DW: And of course D-Day was that morning.
RP: Yes, yeah. So you were part of the D-Day attack.
DW: Yes indeed.
RP: Right. Did you know? Did you know —
DW: No.
RP: It was sort of D-Day as such.
DW: No, no.
RP: You didn’t, oh right.
DW: No, not then.
RP: No.
DW: But of course coming back over The Channel here we saw this mammoth —
RP: The mammoth fleet. Yes, so you realised something was on, yeah.
DW: Big, big ships and all the rest of it, so at that particular point the whole crew saw this and — it must be D-Day [laughs]
RP: So you were able to see them yourself, yeah, you had a look and sort of saw the ships. It must have been an amazing sight.
DW: It was an amazing sigh , it was. We saw an armada of battleships, destroyers and landing craft heading for the beaches of France. Of course we had not been told it was D-Day but, which was still a secret but in fact the pictures made it crystal clear as to exactly what —
RP: Yes exactly.
DW: Yeah and I must say in our hearts, I’ve got a wee note here, in our hearts we prayed for those brave soldiers, many of whom would not see the end of that day.
RP: Of course, yes.
DW: Which is true.
RP: So that was the first one. Can you remember any other particular sorties for any reason? Where do you think you suffered the most flak that you were flying over on one of your missions? Can you remember that?
DW: Well the longest journey we did was the one I told you about to [pause] What did we say to?
RP: Stuttgart.
DW: Stuttgart.
RP: That’s a distance. That’s a fair.
DW: That’s a long trek.
RP: A long trek.
DW: About nine or ten hours.
RP: Good grief. That is a long time isn’t it?
DW: A long journey. So that was a long that was probably the one that figures most in my mind because it was a difficult one. We had more, well, guns firing at us on route and so forth. So that was on D-Day. Yeah and of course we had then, on the way back, saw the Normandy landings and then we knew it was D-Day. We hadn’t known that before.
RP: Gosh. That’s an historic moment isn’t it?
DW: Very much so.
RP: So you carried on with more, more sorties.
DW: Yeah.
RP: I just wondered, on the D-Day one is your first, in your first one as you climbed into the aircraft were you thinking, crossing yourself or thinking here we go, or praying? Were you worried or apprehensive or it was just something you had to do?
DW: You were conscious that you were going in to, you could be going into a lot of trouble but, and we were conscious of that but nonetheless we seemed to be fired up to go there, although we were very conscious of the dangers.
RP: Yes.
DW: That we might have but certainly, we didn’t sit around and just worry, worry, worry, it wasn’t like that.
RP: It was just, it was the job you had to do basically.
DW: Yeah.
RP: That’s how you approached it.
DW: The only time that there were comments was during the initial [pause] well the initial discussion with the senior people telling us where we were going and then of course they didn’t tell you they just took a screen off the map.
RP: Right.
DW: And there were either sighs of horror or —
RP: Yeah. And then you find out where it was.
DW: Where you were going and as I say the first one we had was to Caen which wasn’t bad.
RP: But I noticed that obviously from some of your, the sorties, some of them obviously to Germany, to Hamburg and other places but also you were doing a lot of bombing on the French ports weren’t you?
DW: Yes.
RP: Because that was obviously to stop the German shipping I suppose.
DW: Absolutely.
RP: You did one to St Malo I see there and Brest, Brest I think was where the submarine pens were. Was that the mission?
DW: That is right.
RP: The mission was to bomb the submarine pens, you think?
DW: Yeah, quite correct.
RP: Was that successful? I think that was quite successful. I don’t know which squadron but I think they did eventually wreck them didn’t they?
DW: I think so but of course we don’t, we didn’t always know about the total result.
RP: No you just did it.
DW: Of what we were doing.
RP: Yeah, course.
DW: And our interest of course was basically what we were doing ourselves.
RP: Yes, yes.
DW: And it might have taken some time for the intelligence people to get to us and say what had happened. So that was D-Day and —
RP: So with your Canadian crew then was it a good, a good bonding with them?
DW: Oh yes, very good.
RP: Very friendly.
DW: Very good.
RP: And how did you operate with ground crew then? Were ground crew allocated to you or did it-
DW: No, we had two ground crew.
RP: Right.
DW: That were allocated to us throughout.
RP: Oh right.
DW: And whatever time of the day or night we went, these two ground crew were there.
RP: So they were part of your team as such.
DW: Absolutely.
RP: So there was a lot of camaraderie you think?
DW: Very much so.
RP: Canadians.
DW: In fact, somewhere or other I probably have some pictures of them because they were part of the —
RP: Yeah.
DW: You know we saw them as part of our group.
RP: In serviceability terms was the Halifax a good aeroplane?
DW: Well, we thought so.
RP: You never had—
DW: That was our allocation mark you but —
RP: Can you ever remember having to cancel a sortie because your aircraft —
DW: Sorry?
RP: Can you ever remember cancelling a sortie because your aircraft was not ready?
DW: I think that only happened on one, one occasion.
RP: Well that’s a pretty good rating really isn’t it?
DW: Yes we found the aircraft was very good. We had no, no problems with it and people said, well Lancaster's are better and we might say that’s a lot of nonsense.
RP: There would always be that sort of us and them wouldn’t it? Yeah.
DW: Yeah. And of course, one of the reasons that I favoured a Halifax is because it had radial engines. I seemed to be more comfortable with that,
RP: Yeah.
DW: During our training.
RP: Which is fine.
DW: Rather than the inline.
RP: Yes.
DW: And so, it was as simple as that.
RP: So, when they, when you were actually training, is it, are you doing circuits and bumps or going on bombing ranges? Or, how do you — what are you training?
DW: Well you are actually doing both but mainly circuits and bumps. That was your initial training, you got the crew and you had to join up with them but they had already joined up and the flight engineer actually was —
RP: Right.
DW: The last guy to be hauled up and it was just a big hall and people were moving around, looking —
RP: Yeah.
DW: For the rest of a crew.
RP: So, it’s just becoming familiar with the aircraft you were training once —
DW: Yeah.
RP: So once they think that — were you ever assessed then? Was somebody assessing the pilot?
DW: I’m sure the pilot was assessed. [unclear]
RP: Yeah. And when they felt you were ready to go.
DW: The, they had already gone all the crew bar a flight engineer.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And they had already gone through some training.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And the pilot of course had gone training on other aircraft too.
RP: Of course. I mean we all, I think we all know the tremendous losses that Bomber Command took.
DW: Yeah.
RP: Were there many on your squadron? Did you lose many?
DW: Oh yes we lost some but of course, you didn’t [pause] if you lost a friend who might have been there that was hard going but people, I mean we lost about fifty percent of our —
RP: God.
DW: Off the squadron.
RP: So a lot of people you’d made friends with.
DW: And also some were prisoners of war.
RP: Yes.
DW: Had to bale out and so forth, a whole mixture.
RP: But I mean to come to the end of your time, your tour, it’s quite unusual really isn’t it? A lot of people didn’t.
DW: Absolutely.
RP: Yeah. So you were, you were blessed in that way.
DW: Blessed and I recognise, pretty lucky.
RP: Fate, fate.
DW: Fate.
RP: Well that’s what it’s about, fate. Do you ever, have you been in touch since then with any of your crew at all?
DW: Well, I kept in touch with a couple of them. One was the navigator and the pilot but of course they went back home and retired in Canada.
RP: Yes.
DW: Whilst I went out to the Far East to start flying out there but in the event the atom bomb was dropped five days after I got to Bombay.
RP: Right.
DW: And that was the end of it.
RP: So where, were you heading for an Indian airfield? Yeah?
DW: We went to Bombay to begin with.
RP: Oh right. Yeah.
DW: And then you were allocated to another airfield.
RP: So, what was the intention? That you should fly? What aircraft would you have flown if, if it had continued?
DW: I suppose it would be a Halifax.
RP: Still a Halifax. Yeah.
DW: But in fact I really didn’t do any flying because the war finished and instead of that I was already commissioned. I was allocated to a wing or a squadron and as adjutant. So I was an adjutant at one time and subsequently I went on to a wing job.
RP: This is in India.
DW: In India, well in Ceylon, Sri Lanka by then.
RP: Oh, so what, what was the RAF station in Ceylon where you were actually based?
DW: Trincomalee.
RP: Oh right, that’s up in the north east.
DW: Yeah.
RP: Yeah, yeah.
DW: On the coast, yeah, so we did a bit of flying.
RP: Very nice too. Were they, were there Flying Boats there?
DW: There were Flying Boats there yeah because we were right on the coast.
RP: Yeah, it’s right on the coast isn’t it? Yeah and so in Ceylon you, your flying career over you became an administrator.
DW: Yeah.
RP: What work did you work in Ceylon then? Could you tell us a little about that?
DW: Well, by then I was, well, flying officer but in fact I was then allocated to HQ Ceylon.
RP: Right.
DW: Which was the headquarters.
RP: And where was that?
DW: HQ, that was in, well Colombo to begin with.
RP: Right.
DW: But in fact we moved up to a smaller place in [unclear] I can’t remember now, I’ve got it somewhere.
RP: Right. That’s ok.
DW: But we moved about a wee bit.
RP: Right, yeah.
DW: As a headquarters. So I stayed in headquarters as HC, HQ as they called it and I was then running courts martial, courts and crime.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And the like.
RP: So you were making sure the criminals were caught. Well what was the most serious offence that you can remember for courts martial? What sort of offence?
DW: Well nobody, nobody had been killed.
RP: No.
DW: But there were certainly serious offences of people bashing each other up.
RP: Right.
DW: On occasion, not too many, not too many.
RP: Yeah, were these normally airmen or officers or —
DW: Normally airmen.
RP: The worker's, ok [laughs]
DW: The workers.
RP: Right.
DW: Oh, we did have a little trouble with some of the —
RP: Yeah.
DW: Officers but —
RP: Do you think this was just high spirits?
DW: Probably a bit more.
RP: High spirits or just downright bad behaviour then?
DW: I think bad behaviour was quite common.
RP: Yeah, right, that’s a shame.
DW: And I suppose the feeling that the war is finished in Europe, let’s get home.
RP: Yeah, was there a delay in repatriation from the Far East do you think?
DW: Well it took me about two years to get away from there. That depended on your [pause] the number of your let out and I think I had a number of twenty two.
RP: Right.
DW: So it went on a bit.
RP: So you were in a sort of, on a waiting list that was sort of slowly.
DW: You were on a list.
RP: Slowly going up.
DW: As soon as your group, twenty two I think was mine.
RP: And when you reached the top you went?
DW: Yeah.
RP: If I could just go back a little bit. I think when you started flying you were NCO aircrew. Yes?
DW: Yes.
RP: So at what point, do they decide to commission you or do you decide you wanted to be commissioned? Or is it just one of those things that happened?
DW: I think it’s one of the things that happened but indeed I suppose some of us thought it would be nice to be officers and in fact that happened after I was finished flying because I was still part of, Sergeant.
RP: Yes.
DW: And the others were, or the pilot was commissioned.
RP: Yes, I noticed in your logbook.
DW: Later on.
RP: He was NCO aircrew initially wasn’t he?
DW: Yeah, yeah, we were all NCOs.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And I was, they were flight Sergeants.
RP: Yeah.
DW: I was just a Sergeant.
RP: Oh right.
DW: At that time.
RP: So your commission came as you moved to Ceylon really then? Yes? Just before?
DW: No, before that.
RP: Just before that.
DW: And then, then I was posted to Ceylon.
RP: Ok.
DW: As a, well probably a flying officer by then.
RP: Right, so your, your time in Ceylon is over. How did you get back to England then? Did you fly or did you have to sail back?
DW: No, by boat.
RP: Oh my goodness that’s, that’s a fair trip then.
DW: And quite, well I was there for about a couple of years and in HQ Ceylon as I say it, the Headquarters and then court martial and courts of enquiry and things like that.
RP: I suppose the fact that you were sailing back in what 1947 ’48?
DW: Yeah.
RP: At least you know there are no U-boats out there.
DW: Well, that’s very true.
RP: So where did you dock when you came back then? Were you docking?
DW: I think it was Liverpool.
RP: So from Liverpool where did they send you then? Or by this time were you actually demobbed by then?
DW: We were getting demobbed.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And I think I went back to York somewhere.
RP: Oh you went back to East Moor.
DW: And then I finished off of course immediately back home in Edinburgh.
RP: So you went, so from, you were demobbed in Yorkshire, and — so what sort of provision did the RAF or the government make for your civilian career? Did they help you at all?
DW: Yes, indeed, very much so and again that depended on, well frankly your commission or whatever it was and I was flight lieutenant by then. So we, we had a two year course in, in Edinburgh. Well it was, it is now a university but at that time it was a, well a top school and I think I had two years there altogether and then subsequently from there you had to join a company if that’s what you wanted to do, say in engineering although I wasn’t an engineer I always worked in an engineering company as an accountant. I finished training for that. That was my profession.
RP: Right.
DW: And we, I guess we were posted up in to Scotland for two years having to learn some of the ropes of management.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And so forth and so on. So that was pretty good too, good training.
RP: So by this time, had you married by this time? Were you married by then?
DW: We married, we married quite soon.
RP: Yeah.
DW: Because, in fact we were married. I was, well Kathleen would have been nineteen when she married.
RP: Right.
DW: And I was twenty one.
RP: So you were married.
DW: [unclear] For some time.
RP: Just as the war ended then about that time.
DW: Yes.
RP: Oh.
DW: It had ended.
RP: So she was there when you moved back to Edinburgh. Was she with you in Ceylon? Or did she have to stay here?
DW: No, no.
RP: She had to stay behind.
DW: Ahum.
RP: So that was a long separation then.
DW: A long separation but I remember the first time I saw Kathleen was, she was on the dance floor of the [pause] yeah the time I was down in Wales.
RP: Oh yes. Yeah.
DW: And her big sister, elder sister could only be, go to dancing at the officer’s mess if she had her sister with her.
RP: Right.
DW: Kathleen was a wee bit young for that but I must say that I really made up my mind when I saw this charming lady dancing.
RP: Yeah.
DW: With somebody else, around, I thought that looks like someone I would like to meet which I did.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And in fact I got to know her then.
RP: Yeah. So where were you married? Where? Were you married in Wales?
DW: In Wales yeah, in Cowbridge.
RP: Right.
DW: Small, small town.
RP: So when you arrived back for demob did you get to see Kathleen quite quickly? When you’d been demobbed?
DW: Oh yes. Yes we had, she came up, and then, well before then of course we had well we were demobbed and so forth but we both went up to stay in Edinburgh with my parents for a time and then subsequently I went on this government scheme and finished up in, in Fife or in yeah, in Fife.
[recording paused]
RP: So, thinking about the civilian life then you sort of completely changed away from what you had been doing in the RAF.
DW: Yeah.
RP: And so where did that take you after you’d finished your sort of courses? Engineering and accounting. Where did you end up?
DW: Well I became a chartered secretary.
RP: Right.
DW: Company secretary and that was the channel I went in to for one reason or the other and it depended sometime on how much training you then had to do. I mean, I did think about becoming a chartered accountant but there it was. There were certain difficulties in terms of time about that. So I became a chartered secretary and then of course that meant I had more training in Scotland and became a chartered secretary in due course. Then of course I finished up most of the time as, as an MD.
RP: So who did you work for? What was the company?
DW: It was a company which became part of the quite well known group but it was — oh dear. I’m terrible aren’t I?
RP: Oh no, no.
DW: You forget these things.
RP: Don’t worry it was a long time ago.
DW: It was. I know them very well.
RP: I think you mentioned earlier when we were talking, about Champion.
DW: Champion. Champion were, well it wasn’t Champion there.
RP: It was the initial group and then they became amalgamated.
DW: They amalgamated and my company went, which was in Scotland and Wales, sorry, not in Wales, in Fife.
RP: Right.
DW: In Alloa, Clackmannanshire, so, and I stayed with them becoming Managing Director of that.
RP: So, there you are in Clackmannanshire and how do we end up here in Christchurch then? All the way from Alloa, it’s a long way from Alloa.
DW: That was said before. Well that was because before I got into Champion I had to get a job and one job that was offered to me which was very attractive was one down in the south coast.
RP: Oh right.
DW: And that became part of Champion.
RP: I see.
DW: It was taken over by Champion.
RP: So when did you move to Christchurch then? When did you come to the south coast? How long have you been down here?
DW: I’ve been down here a large number of years.
RP: Gosh.
DW: We came down in [pause] when did we come down? Sorry about some of this. I’m not sure I have anything.
RP: No, no, it’s ok. I was just wondering because you’ve been here, obviously a few years after you qualified then.
DW: Oh yes, yes.
RP: So it’s a long time.
DW: Absolutely.
RP: So, you could call yourself a citizen of Christchurch.
DW: I think so.
RP: If you look back to your RAF days David, what would you say would be your outstanding memories of your RAF career? If someone says, ‘What did the RAF do for you?’ What would you say? What was the memory you have of your time?
DW: Well the memory I have of my RAF career was of course bombing and flying with aircraft chasing after you and so forth.
RP: Did you ever come —
DW: That’s the memory I have.
RP: Yeah. Did you ever come under, did you come under attack very often?
DW: Oh yes, sometimes by other aircraft, sometimes we lost an engine, well, we have done that more than once.
RP: Yeah and this is where you, your job becomes more important then. Yes?
DW: Yes, that’s true.
RP: I take it when you lose an engine you have to balance them all out for the power do you?
DW: Yes indeed.
RP: And to make sure you keep, keep it level.
DW: You have to know which engine is gone of course and so on.
RP: Yes, yes and in terms of being attacked by another aircraft then was the Halifax manoeuvrable in that sense to avoid?
DW: Yes, quite, quite manoeuvrable but of course if you were in a group it was sometimes difficult because your neighbours were your own crews.
RP: Yes.
DW: But it tended, it tended to get lost in that because you know people were keeping you away from each other in case there was an accident which there were, particularly initially when, when you first started off.
RP: Well yes, I think you have to be very careful but was it, did it have enough armament, the Halifax, to defend itself?
DW: I think it did very well, you had a front gunner.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And, sorry a rear gunner and an upper gunner.
RP: Yeah.
DW: The front gunner was, there was a gun available but that was usually a position taken over by the chap who was going to guide us to drop the bombs.
RP: The bomb aimer. So the bomb aimer was the front gunner basically yeah?
DW: Yeah.
RP: So he had a sort of dual role, he’d be on the guns and when you were over the target —
DW: Yeah.
RP: He would —
DW: He would be busy directing the pilot just exactly where he should be going.
RP: So he becomes the most important man on the aircraft at that point then.
DW: Could be, there were seven people in the aircraft.
RP: Yeah.
DW: Pilot, navigator, bomb aimer, flight engineer.
RP: Yeah.
DW: How many’s that? That’s four.
RP: And you’ve got three gunners. You got —
DW: We had two gunners.
RP: Did you have the co-pilot then? Or just the one?
DW: No. In fact, there was a co-pilot but when they then put flight engineers into it the flight engineer then hopefully became the co-pilot.
RP: Oh right, I see.
DW: And sometimes one of the other crew, particularly the bomb aimer maybe had been trained in some way in flying an aeroplane.
RP: Yeah.
DW: But in fact if, if our pilot, Bob, wanted a break he just let me fly.
RP: Oh right.
DW: So I did a bit of flying too.
RP: In the sense of keeping it level on the trim and making sure it was ok, yeah?
DW: Yeah, yeah.
RP: But I take it the arrangement was that RAF tended to do night bombing. So, did you ever do daylight bombing?
DW: I’ve done some but it was mainly night.
RP: Yeah because obviously daylight you’re even more of a target I would imagine.
DW: Sure but having said that it didn’t take the Germans too long to be able to fire their guns up at a stream of bombers —
RP: That’s right.
DW: Going over.
RP: Yes, although of course I suppose as 1945 came around they were retreating further and further back so they didn’t have quite so many aircraft I guess or did you find there was no change?
DW: The Germans?
RP: Yeah, towards the end of the war.
DW: Yeah.
RP: Do you think there was less attacks in sort of, say, February, March of ‘45? Did you feel —
DW: I don’t think I was flying in ’45.
RP: Right. You’d finished before then.
DW: Finished before then.
RP: After, after the D-Day.
DW: 1944.
RP: So you had gone to Ceylon so, yeah. That’s amazing, thank you for that. It’s been a pleasure to talk to you David. I appreciate these memories. It’s been
DW: [unclear]
RP: It’s been a privilege to hear you tell me all about your stories. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with David Wilkie
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rod Pickles
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-11-02
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.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AWilkieD161102, PWilkieD1601
Format
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00:35:06 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Description
An account of the resource
David Wilkie was born in Edinburgh. He volunteered for the RAF and began training as a flight engineer. While training at St Athan he met his future wife, Kathleen. He was posted to 432 Squadron with a Canadian crew. He witnessed the gathering of the armada sailing towards the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. After his tour he was posted to Ceylon as an administrator dealing with court martial cases.
Contributor
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Julie Williams
Yvonne Walker
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Great Britain
India
Sri Lanka
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
England--Liverpool
England--Yorkshire
France--Brest
France--Caen
France--Saint-Malo
Germany--Stuttgart
India--Mumbai
Scotland--Edinburgh
Scotland--Fife
Sri Lanka--Colombo
Wales--Vale of Glamorgan
Germany
England--Lancashire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
432 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
crewing up
flight engineer
Halifax
military discipline
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
RAF East Moor
RAF St Athan
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1794/35730/MWilsonRC1389401-170113-100002.1.pdf
2eae94bb927f83b9bbfa6215308853ca
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
Wilson, Reginald Charles
R C Wilson
Description
An account of the resource
166 items. The collection concerns Reginald Charles Wilson (b. 1923, 1389401 Royal Air Force) and contains his wartime log, photographs, documents and correspondence. He few operations as a navigator with 102 Squadron. He was shot down on 20 January 1944 and became a prisoner of war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Janet Hughes and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-01-13
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
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Wilson, RC
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] MY POW DAYS - POSTSCRIPT [/underlined]
Caterpillar Club
I became a member of this Club soon after the end of WW2. I registered that I had saved my life, having baled out of an aircraft on fire and out of control. In freefall, I manually pulled the ripcord of my Irving parachute, which released the parachute canopy and supporting shroud lines.
The Club has no structure, committees or branches, but is still famous for its huge worldwide membership of airmen who have saved their lives by parachute.
The Wright Brothers of America designed and launched their rudimentary Wright Flyer aircraft at Kittyhawk in 1903. But it was many years before an acceptable parachute was designed to save the lives of aircrew escaping from disabled aircraft.
The Centenary of the 1903 event was celebrated at the Biggin Hill Airshow in 2003, when Barbara and I were invited to a VIP Marquee with a number of the Caterpillar Club members who resided in the London area.
Leslie Irving was the American pioneer who developed the successful parachute. In 1911 at the age of sixteen he jumped from a static balloon, and continued his interest in designing parachutes. In 1919 he designed a parachute pack, using pure silk for the large canopy and the shroud lines, and a ripcord for manual release of the parachute after baling out. His design proved that you could parachute safely from an aircraft in flight. However there was doubt that it was safe to bale out from a stricken 'plane. Until in 1922, Lieutenant H.R. Harris made an emergency jump using this Irving parachute. As a result of his experience the American Air Force adopted the Irving design that same year. And in 1925 the RAF chose the Irving seat pack parachute for their use. WW2 brought about a huge demand for parachutes (seat and chest packs).
In 1922 Irving decided to form a club of those who had saved their lives and Harris was to be the first member. Irving named it the Caterpillar Club and by 1945 there were 34,000 members! (The caterpillar is symbolic of the silk worm which descends gently to earth from heights, by spinning a silky thread from which to hang.)
The Irving Parachute Company gives every member a certificate and a gold tie/lapel pin, shaped like a caterpillar, and with red eyes (red eyes if the aircraft was on fire). The recipient's name and rank are engraved on the reverse.
1
[page break]
The Post War Years
One month after WW2 ended, our surviving crew of four met at Laurie Underwood's wedding. This was a time of great celebration for us and we didn't waste time reminiscing about the RAF or the previous 15 months in captivity!
I remained in the RAF until August 1946 but no longer on flying duties. During this time I was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. I had several months on leave after which I attended an RAF Administration course and eventually was posted to RAF Hornchurch, where I was in charge of the Overseas Holding Unit. This Unit was responsible for looking after RAF personnel, serving in Germany and on leave in the UK. Some, who were on compassionate leave, needed more time to deal with their problems; some, on normal leave, had applied for an extension of leave on compassionate grounds (often 'passionate' rather than compassionate!); some just went absent without leave and had to be arrested by the RAF police! It was not the most exciting job, but I was able to live at home and it filled the time until I was back in 'civvy street'.
After we were all demobbed, the ensuing years were spent on developing our careers etc. I returned to Unilever and eventually became a management consultant. George Griffiths continued flying as a pilot in a civilian air transport company and then, a senior captain with British Airways. Laurie studied accountancy and eventually, as sales manager of Philips, sold mechanised and later computerised accountancy equipment. Johnny Bushell developed tuberculosis shortly after the war, contracted as a result of poor conditions in Stalag1VB. He had one lung partially removed and was awarded a full war disability pension. He was still able to work and became a housing officer for Bedford Council. Johnny remained a bachelor, but George, Laurie and I married and raised families, which gave us little time to muse about our wartime experiences.
Remembering our wartime experiences
Apart from exchanging Christmas cards and an occasional meeting up with Laurie and John, in my business travels around the UK, we didn't meet as a group. I had lost contact with George Griffiths until, sometime in the 1970's, I managed to locate his wife's parents in Craven Arms and they gave me his address. He was still serving with British Airways when, some time later, I phoned him - at precisely 8 o'clock GMT on 20 January (the anniversary of the exact time when we were shot down). This became a pleasant ritual, and every year by this means, we congratulated ourselves on our lucky survival.
I retired in 1984, and George who lived in Ruislip retired some time later. Barbara and I managed to visit George when we stayed over at Northolt to see Barbara's mother - this would be in the early 1990's. George had done some retirement research at the RAF Museum at Hendon, and had obtained photographs and information about the four crew we had lost. They were all killed. Two were buried in the 1939-45 Berlin War Cemetery, and two were
2
[page break]
remembered on the Runnymede Memorial, as they had no known graves. Also, George had obtained (through a German archivist) details of how and where we were shot down. We were not shot down by flak, or a bomb through our wing from one of our aircraft above as first throught, but by an ace night fighter pilot. The archivist had also traced the crash point of our plane in Berlin. In support of this information he had sent George a photograph, a 'history' of the night fighter pilot, and a map of the exact point where the 'plane debris had fallen. (George had landed in waste ground, amongst the wreckage.)
Our 50 year reunion
All this information, and reading several books about Bomber Command and the Berlin Raids, stimulated my thoughts, which had remained dormant on this subject for many years. As a result, we and our wives arranged to meet at a Peterborough Hotel on our 50th Anniversary, to exchange our personal experiences and to celebrate our survival. We dined and raised our glasses "to absent friends" at the exact hour (8pm GMT, 20 January 1994). This was our first meeting as a group since June 1945!
A cousin of Laurie Underwood, hearing about this celebration, contacted the BBC and arranged that a TV Team and a Radio car would attend this meeting, in the afternoon prior to our dinner at 8pm. We were requested to bring any memorabilia we had; which meant we were able to fill in a number of gaps in our experiences. Johnny and I learned how George, when the plane was 'on fire' over Berlin, had been held in his seat, with his head thrust forward and the throttle levers behind his ears, when the plane went into a spiral dive. He had a vivid recollection of seeing the altimeter 'unwind' from 17000ft through 7000ft before he blacked out! He regained consciousness and was 'in the air' in freefall, after the plane's fuel tanks had exploded and he had been blown out of the aircraft. He was now only hundreds of feet from the ground, but managed to pull his parachute ripcord. His parachute opened but was still 'on the swing' when he hit the ground, with the debris of the aircraft around him. Although in shock he had landed virtually unscathed.
Laurie told Johnny and I how, immediately after arriving at Stalag Luft3 Poland in February 1944, he was recruited as an extra lookout, whilst they completed the escape tunnel 'Harry' for the Great Escape. Laurie being a latecomer was not included in the escape. He was lucky, as 50 of the 76 who did escape and who were recaptured, were murdered on the orders of Hitler. Laurie and George, like me, had to march away from their prison camp as the 'Front Line' approached at the end of January 1945. In their case it was the Russians on the Eastern Front. They marched in freezing conditions and then entrained on 2 February to Malag camp, where they stayed until 10 April. They then marched again for two weeks across Northern Germany, and were liberated a week later on 2 May 1945, just south of Ludbeck on the Baltic, by the British Army.
3
[page break]
Thus, by the end of our celebrations at Peterborough, we had learnt more4 about each other's experiences. BBC made a three minute video tape of the occasion, which was sent out over Yorkshire and Look East Television on the Eight O'clock News that night. George and I were interviewed in a BBC radio van and a three minute radio tape of the interview was broadcast from Cambridge also. The tape was so popular that it was broadcast three times.
Following this occasion I began to compile some of my experiences in Bomber Command, and assemble documents, and letters received after being shot down etc.
Runnymede War Memorial
In August 1994 Barbara and I attended the annual Memorial Service, arranged by the Aircrew Association, at the Runnymede War Memorial. This was particularly important to me as we were able to view the names of the two of the four members of my crew - Flight Engineer L Bremner and Mid-upper Gunner C Dupueis - who were killed and have no known graves. Their names are recorded within in the cloisters of the Memorial, and 1994 ws the 50th anniversary of their death. The Memorial lists some 22,000 names of RAF personnel without known graves, who were killed in WW2.
Laurie and Beryl's Golden Wedding in Wetherby and other Yorkshire visits
In June 1995, it being Laurie's Golden Wedding Anniversary, we all met again, this time in Laurie's home town Wetherby, Yorkshire. After the celebrations we took the opportunity of visiting the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington, which was a satellite airfield to RAF Pocklington during the war. They were in the process of rebuilding a Halifax Mk 3 Bomber to represent the most famous wartime Halifax, 'Friday 13th', which achieved 128 bombing missions. It was displayed on Horse Guards Parade in London after the war and then broken up!; whereas a Lancaster has a 'place of honour' in the RAF Memorial Flight, and another is displayed in the RAF Museum at Hendon for all time.
There were over 6000 Halifax aircraft built during the war. They were used for over 80,000 bombing and mine laying missions in Europe in Bomber Command, and supported the other armed forces on D Day and in the continuing liberation of Europe. They operated in the Middle-East, and in Coastal Command attacking U-boats in the North Sea and North Atlantic. They also towed airborne troops in gliders to Normandy on D Day, later to Arnhem and, in the final stages of the war, to the crossing of the Rhine.
It beggars belief that any Government would scrap every Halifax built, taking into account its contribution to the success of WW2 and its place in history, but they did!
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It was not until 1983 that there was enough historical interest to consider restoring a Halifax. Yorkshire being the 'birthplace' of the aircraft, it was natural that the Yorkshire Air Museum would take on the task. In 1984, they found the fuselage of a Halifax that had crashed in the Hebrides in 1945. It had been bought by a farmer and used as a hen house! This was acquired by the Museum and moved to Yorkshire. Parts were collected from almost all corners of the world. Pieces from at least three Halifax aircraft were used: the wings came from a post-war Hastings and the engines were donated by the French Air force, (who flew Halifax bombers from Elvington in 1943). The nose section had to be rebuilt from scratch with the help of British Aerospace, aided by volunteer engineers. When we visited the Museum the aircraft was still only partially assembled. It was some years later before it was completed and is now on display, as 'Friday 13th', in its own hanger[sic]. As far as I know, contributions to its construction, both in effort and cost, were all voluntary; no Government money was ever offered.
We also took the opportunity, mainly for the benefit of Laurie and George, of visiting another Museum in Yorkshire. (This site was originally a British POW Camp for German prisoners of war and now converted to a WW2 Museum). One of its exhibits was the replica of the escape tunnel 'Harry' used at Stalag Luft3 for the escape of 76 RAF prisoners (50 of whom were murdered when recaptured). The tunnel was of particular interest, as it displayed the pump system for providing ventilation and the novel trolley mechanism for moving the escapees along its whole length, to the end of the tunnel.
Tom Nelson and Stalag1VB
On 23 December 1995, the Daily Mail had a double page spread featuring life in Stalag1VB, and particularly what happened at Christmas in 1944, when American prisoners of war arrived. Taken prisoner at the Battle of the Bulge, they were in a very sorry state, physically and mentally. The article had been supplied by Tom Nelson (and included a large photograph of him). I did not know Tom Nelson in Stalag1VB as he had been in another barrack block whilst I was there. But I met him in OflagV11B when we were both moved to this camp in February 1945. We shared the same room with two Australian army chaps, until we marched out on 15 April 1945. Apart from a chance meeting, and a fleeting hello in London in 1946, I had not seen him since our liberation at the end of April 1945.
I got in touch with the Daily Mail, and they agreed to forward a letter to him but they would not give me his address. I wrote him a letter and included photocopies of my drawings of OflagV11B, from my wartime logbook. In particular there was a drawing of 'our room', which he and I had signed, along with our two Australian colleagues.
A week or so later I received a phone call (at least two hours long) from an amazed Tom Nelson. He said his memory of OflagV11B was a bit hazy but the signature on the drawing was without doubt his, and we agreed to meet at the RAF Club in Piccadilly and renew our memories.
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After Tom was demobbed, he worked for several American airlines in flight operations, and married Pat, an American. He spent time in America and Germany and returned to UK to run a travel agency. It was then that he joined the Stalag1VB ex-POW Group and attended their annual reunions in Edinburgh. As a result he had collected photographs, drawings, poems and various records about 1VB. He brought these along to the RAF Club, and I was able to copy them.
The most important information I learnt from him, was what had happened to the Muhlberg Stalag1VB Camp Site in 1945, after this area in Germany became part of the Russian Zone. At first Stalag 1VB ex-kriegies, returning to visit the Camp Site post war, were told by the Russians or members of the GDR (German Democratic Republic), that it had been occupied by German refugees who had nowhere to live. And as there were barracks, electricity and water available here, they had made it their home. These were complete lies:
The Camp had become Special Internment Camp No. 1 (with even more barbed wire than Stalag1VB), where Germans who were considered to be a danger to the Soviet State, or for any 'reason', could be interned without any evidence or trial. They were not allowed visitors, parcels, or help of any sort, and were not able to communicate with anybody outside the camp. In a short time it became a filthy, disease-ridden place. This camp remained open until November 1948, during which time about 22,000 'victims of communism' passed through it. Some 6700 of them died of starvation or disease during this period and were buried in mass graves, just northeast of what previously was the RAF compound when I was there. Many others were moved to Soviet camps and never heard of again. All this information was withheld from the general population, and those who did know were threatened with punishment if they disclosed it.
After the closure of the Camp, the Russians removed all the wooden barracks for workers' huts elsewhere. Other structures were sold to local farmers. In the end nothing was left except the concrete foundations of the washhouses,[sic] the barracks, and the 40-holer latrines and the static water 'reservoirs'. The Russians then decided to obscure the place by planting birch trees overall. Soon the site became overgrown with trees and brush.
Now that the Russians have left, East and West Germany unified, and the lies and cloak of secrecy exposed, many of the relatives of those who died in the camp have visited the site. They have put crosses in the area of the mass graves and the place has become a shrine, with its own Memorial.
I met Tom several times in the next few years at the RAF Club but later, he suffered from double vision and did not travel on his own. He put me in contact with Stalag1VB ex-POW Group, which by now was much depleted, and with fewer members had moved their venue south, to Peterborough.
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Public Records Office at Kew
In August 1999 Barbara and I visited the Public Records Office as I needed some more detail for my RAF memoirs on my operational flights in 102 Squadron. Also, as my first pilot had been killed, I wanted to know the circumstances in which my second pilot Sqdn. Ldr. G. A. Harvey, withdrew from flying on medical grounds, yet was later awarded a DFC. This left our crew 'headless' and meant we were destined to fill in as 'spares' until another pilot was posted to the squadron. Being a spare was not an enviable roll to have in operational flying, especially if you were the navigator!
I found the Records Office a fantastic place for providing information. All operational squadrons had their records held on microfilm and every operation throughout the war was accessible. Other documents such as RAF Station records and medal award citations were the original documents, but surprisingly still available on request. Harvey's DFC citation was in great detail and stated his award was long overdue. He had clocked up 390 operational hours in the Middle East in 1940-41.
Mel Rolfe and 'Flying into Hell'
During the period 1999 - 2000, Laurie was in touch with Mel Rolfe, the author of two successful books about crews' experiences in Bomber Command, and was planning to write a third book. As a result of this meeting, Laurie, Johnny and I (but Laurie being the prime subject) featured in one of 20 chapters in the book entitled 'Flying into Hell', which was published in 2001. Our chapter focussed on our first operation, mine-laying, during which we were badly hit by flak and had to bring damaged mines back, in an aircraft without radar or hydraulic power. And our last operation, when we were shot down over Berlin by an ace night fighter plane, with incredible escapes for the four survivors.
In order to advertise his book, Mel Rolfe contacted local newspapers and BBC Radio and gave them the addresses of those mentioned in the chapters. Laurie, Johnny and I, all gave newspaper interviews. Laurie and I also gave 25 minutes live radio interviews, Laurie from Leeds and I from Essex. We were able to get copies of the newspaper articles and tapes of the radio broadcasts. Sadly George Griffiths, our pilot, who had the most remarkable escape, had died suddenly in 1998 and thus could not be featured in any interviews.
Planned visit to the Stalag1VB site
In year 2000 the son of a member of Stalag1VB ex-POW Group, Tony Drewitt, offered to organise a visit to Muhlberg and the Stalag 1VB site, which was enthusiastically taken up by the members of the Group (this included Tom Nelson, Johnny Bushell and myself).
In 1944 Tony Drewitt's father (Harry Drewitt) had lost his best friend in 1VB. His friend had been shot dead by a guard, as he leaned over the trip wire to pick some wild strawberries. In recent years Tony and family have gone to
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Germany, visited Muhlberg Stalag1VB site and the Berlin 1939-45 War Cemetery. His friend and all those British & Commonwealth POWs who died in Stalag1VB, (previously interred in Neuburxdorf cemetery), are buried there.
On these visits to the Stalag1VB site, the Drewitt family met Mayor Brendel and others who, since 1990 (after the Russians and the GDR had left), have openly publicised the atrocities perpetrated in Muhlberg Special Internment Camp No. 1, (previously Stalag1VB). To this end they have formed the Munlberg Initiative Group, to make the Muhlberg Camp a permanent memorial. They have cleaned up the main road through it, marking out the various areas of the camp, and where the mass graves and memorial of the Special Camp No. 1 is situated. Where possible, they have revealed the foundations of the cookhouses, barrack washhouses and latrines etc, which is all that is left of the original camp - see my notes about Stalag 1VB under 'Tom Nelson'.
Mayor Brendel and the Muhlberg Initiative Group welcomed the idea that a party of British ex-POWs and families might wish to visit the site, and said that Muhlberg would like to host to the visit.
Every year ex-kriegies from Poland, France and other countries visit the Neuburxdorf cemetery (about 4000 POWs who dies in 1VB were buried here originally). It now has a War Memorial to represent all the nations who had prisoners there. This visit is now combined with the service, held in the Muhlberg Camp, for the German civilian post war victims who died in the Special Internment Camp No. 1.
As a result, Tony Drewitt agreed with Mayor Brendel that she would arrange the hotel accommodation in Muhlberg, and host an evening dinner with the Initiative Group. The date would coincide with the remembrance services at Neuburxdorf cemetery and Muhlberg Camp site. Coaches would be available for all planned visits.
Visit to Berlin, Muhlberg, Stalag1VB, related sites and Colditz
Day 1
There were over 90 ex-POWs, family and friends including Tom Nelson, Johnny Bushell, Barbara and myself, who flew to Schonefeld, Berlin on 6 September 2001. (The airfield was only a few miles from where I landed by parachute on 20 January 1944)
We were taken in two coaches (which, with their drivers and guides, were to 'look after us' for the rest of our visit), to Treff Park Hotel, about 6 miles southeast of Brandenburg Gate. We had dinner, and then a coach tour of central Berlin. Although the tour was impromptu, with a helpful but inexpert guide, it was sufficient to give us a glimpse of the contrasts between 'East' and 'West'. We had a passing view of the main shopping centres which showed that the 'East' looked deprived with poor buildings, displays and lighting etc. We also viewed the famous graffiti on the remains of the Berlin
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Wall and, at my request, the new Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church alongside the ruins of the original. The original church was destroyed on 22 November 1943, the second Berlin raid that I was on. It was a somewhat similar Memorial to that of Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in 1940, with the exception that Coventry Cathedral was deliberately destroyed.
Day 2
The following morning we were taken to the 1939 - 45 British War Cemetery, where nearly 2900 RAF aircrew, killed furing the Battle of Berlin and other raids in East Germany, are buried. (Only 800 of the 4000 shot down in the Battle of Berlin, survived this operation - John and I are two of these). Many whole crews are buried together, in lines of seven graves, running up to the Stone of Remembrance and on as far as the Cross.
The Cemetery is situated in an area of woodland, which is part of the Grunewald Forest in the district of Charlottenburg, west of Berlin. It was beautifully maintained, as are all British War Graves. Barbara and I together with Johnny Bushell, took some time locating and placing poppies on the graves of our two crew members who are buried here: F/Sgt. K F Stanbridge (Co-Pilot), and P/O. E Church (Wireless Operator), as they were not side-by-side, but on opposite ends of the Cemetery. We found Ken Stanbridge's grave first and I remembered that Ken had passed George Griffith's parachute to him, not long before the aircraft went into a spiral dive. George lived and Ken didn't. Visiting Eric Church's grave had a particular significance for me, as he had helped Laurie Underwood and me, kick out the jammed escape hatch, and he should have followed us out. But the 'plane must have gone into the spiral dive immediately after we had baled out, and he had no chance to bale out - just a few seconds, between life and death. George, Laurie, John and I, were incredibly lucky to survive this event.
Following personal visits to the graves of colleagues, Reverend Michael Whelton (a friend of Tony Drewitt who was acting as the 'Padre' for the party) held a short but emotional service. Then a wreath was placed on the Stone of Remembrance before we continued our itinerary to the centre of Berlin.
I was glad that Johnny and I had been able to make this visit to the Cemetery after so many years and it closes a chapter in my mind.
In Berlin, we first visited the Brandenburg Gate. This also had some significance for me, for it was 18000 ft. above here that we were attacked by a night fighter and shot down in 1944. Our target had been Hitler's Chancery which was just south of the Gate. Our second visit was to the Reichstag, a short distance away. The Reichstag was not destroyed during WW2. After the re-unification of East and West Germany in October 1990, when Berlin became the Capital again, it was to house the German Parliament. It was renovated by the British Architect Sir Norman Foster, who had been chosen to do the work. His idea was to enlarge the Plenary Hall and add a new modern glass cupola, from which the public could view Parliament in action - its main feature. The task was completed in 1999. Although the cupola could be seen
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from outside the building, we didn't have time to go inside to view it, before we continued our journey south to Muhlberg.
We travelled about 75 miles to Muhlberg through mostly open countryside, passing several buildings or barracks that were once occupied by the Russians, and were now in a dilapidated state.
Muhlberg is a small town on the river Elbe, noted for its number of Renaissance buildings (which luckily escaped damage when the Russians advanced through it on their way to Berlin in April 1945). But today the town is also remembered for its close proximity to the Prisoner of War Camp, Stalag1VB which, post-war, became 'Special Internment Camp No. 1' where German civilians suffered under Russian Occupation.
On arrival we were met by Mayor Brendel and a number of helpers, who took us to our small hotels or private accommodation dotted around the town. In the evening we were invited to a reception in the Town Hall organised by Mayor Brendel and the Muhlberg Initiative Group.
The reception was addressed by a Representative from Berlin, to all of us from the Stalag1VB ex-POW Group and those connected with the Muhlberg Initiative Group; this being the 11th. Anniversary of their Memorial and Remembrance Meetings.
In the address he explained that Initiative Groups were formed all over Germany (after the Reunification in 1990), by survivors of the Special Internment Camps, to remember and make known the atrocities perpetrated by the Russians during their occupation. To this end the Initiative Groups have preserved sites like Muhlberg, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen etc, and set up small museums, containing documents and photographs, so that the younger generations (their children and grandchildren) will know about these dark days of their history. To these memories they have added the wartime atrocities of Nazi Germany, in their own country and the occupied countries of Europe. In Muhlberg, they have also included Stalag1VB, as it is said hundreds of thousands of POWs from all over the world, passing through the camp from 1939-1945, suffered from cold, damp, overcrowding, poor inadequate food and lack of hygiene. There were many deaths, many more than those recorded in Neuburxdorf Cemetery, including thousands of Russian POWs who died of typhus in the early years of the war and were buried elsewhere.
After the address, to complete the evening we were hosted to a fantastic buffet dinner, provided by the people of Muhlberg, who really did appreciate our visit to their town.
Day 3
The following day (punctuated by heavy bouts of rain) we visited the small Muhlberg museum which had, apart from their local history, records, drawings and artefacts donated by ex POWs from 1VB. This was followed by a lunch of
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soup, goulash, hunks of bread and coffee (warming and very welcome), provided by the Town Fire Service. Luckily it was in a Marquee, erected for the occasion, which sheltered us from the drenching downpours.
In the afternoon we were taken in our coaches to Neuburxdorf and we viewed the railway sidings, where all POW's had 'disembarked' from their cattletrucks, for their march to the sinister Stalag1VB in the middle of the flat fields of Saxony. I recall the ground was covered with slushy snow and the camp site looked as if [it] were in the extremities of Siberia!
After the visit we proceeded to the Neuburxdorf Cemetery to attend the annual memorial service for all POWs (Polish, French, British, etc.), who died in 1VB and were buried here. During this service, our exPOW Stalag1VB Group dedicated a plaque, which was laid in the Cemetery as a Memorial to the 60 British POWs, who were buried here and now removed to the Berlin site. The plaque was donated by the Canadian RCAF.
To complete the day's visits we travelled the short distance to the Stalag![1] VB site. We drove through what was originally the East Gate. The lagerstrasse or main road was still there, but now flanked with birch trees and undergrowth which covered the whole site. As described earlier, the Muhlberg Initative Group and associates had cleared some parts of the camp to reveal the concrete foundations of washhouses and latrines. They had marked out the areas of the various compounds and the two cookhouses. As my barracks was close to the French cookhouse, Barbara, John, Tom Nelson and I, were able to locate the area of the barracks, but due to the undergrowth we were unable to reach it. But we were able to get to the site of our 40-holer latrine, which still had (though somewhat crumbled) the concrete foundation and septic tank below. It still had four open channels in the concrete base. Over each channel there had been a long wooden rectangular box as a seat with ten holes in it, (so 40 of us could be there at one sitting!)
We were only a short distance away from the mass burial site of the victims of Special Camp No. 1, just a few yards to the north-east of us. Here, there is now a large Cross erected as a Memorial to the 6700 German detainees who died of starvation and disease (1945-48). Amongst the undergrowth, near the Cross, there were many smaller crosses put there by relatives and friends over previous years.
We joined the Muhlberg Initiative Group, again in a drenching downpour, with relatives and friends (of several nationalities), for their annual service of remembrance, at the Memorial. Then we made a further inspection of the remnants of the Camp, nearer the West Gate entrance, before returning in our coaches to Muhlberg.
So we said 'goodbye' to the site of Stalag1VB and Special Camp No. 1. It was now a 'sleeping forest' of birch trees, encompassing (in this terrible place) the memories and miseries of probably hundreds of thousands of 'prisoners' from many nations, who passed through it during the war years and the aftermath.
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On return to Muhlberg, we attended yet another Memorial Service in the Church, just for ourselves this time, before we had our evening meal in the Town Hall. This was followed by Lew Parsons (our Chairman) giving a slide presentation of photographs of Stalag1VB to local people, including some older children, who afterwards asked us questions about the camp and WW2.
Day 4
On our 4th day we visited two preserved POW Camp sites, Jacobsthal and Zeithain. Both were originally slave camps for Russion POWs. Later Jacobsthal was a punishment camp for Stalag1VB I believe, (though Zeithan seemed to have more evidence of Russion prisoners). We were told that many tens of thousands of Russians who died of a typhus epidemic in 1941-42, are buried in mass graves beneath the lawns at the entrance to this camp. It now has a Memorial Archway, erected by the Russians during their occupation after the war.
At Zeithain, the Initiative Group had built a wooden hut to illustrate the type of barracks used to house POWs. We had to criticise it, as it did not illustrate the conditions under which prisoners had to live. It had no rickety three-tier bunks, it was not overcrowded or dilapidated, it had no floor of bricks set in earth, and it did not indicate the unhygienic state of living. They also had a small museum which included photographs showing guards and others, mistreating and punishing prisoners.
Our next visit was 30 miles or so southwest, for a tour of Colditz Castle. We had lunch in a restaurant first and then (in the pouring rain again), we made our way up hill to this gaunt formidable place.
Colditz Castle, first mentioned in 1014, built on a hill overlooking the rive Mulde, was never used as a stronghold. It was destroyed by fire in 1504, and rebuilt in 1583. Used as a residence and then a hunting lodge, the building was not popular and fell into decay. In the 1800s the State took it over as an alms house and then a workhouse. In 1929 it was used as an asylum, then a prison for anti-fascists and finally an old folks' home until 1939, when it became a POW Camp until 1945.
Colditz was used for high ranking officers and persistent escapees, as it was considered to be, because of its design and location, virtually escape proof. In fact it became an 'academy for escapers'. Over the period of the war, 300 escape attempts were made - only 120 prisoners got out but were recaptured, 31 escapees got home. The camp was a hive of ingenuity, manufacturing German uniforms, forging documents, and finding ways to get out via the main gates. The most audacious plan was to build a glider for two escapees, to be launched from the roof. It was to be catapulted to give it gliding speed to get over the river Mulde. This was to be achieved by dropping a bath tub filled with concrete, 60 feet 'through' the floors of the castle, to pull a cable attached to the glider. The glider was built in an attic, behind a false wall above the Chapel, but the plan was never carried out as the war ended sooner than expected. (Later another glider was built to the plan specifications and tested
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successfully!) One of the first British escapers to get home was Airey Neave. Post-war he became an MP and was murdered by the IRA, when his car was blown up by a bomb in the Palace of Westminster car park.
Our visit to Colditz covered only a small part of the building, mainly the rooms adjacent to the spiral staircase. At the top of the building we saw a copy of the famous glider and some of the rooms of the high ranking POWs. A museum covered several floors with photographs, displays of escape clothing, forged keys and documents, 'rubber stamps' for approving passes etc., a sewing machine made of wood and several other artefacts. A 'tunnel' constructed by the French POWs was exposed. It was unusual, in that it was made up of channels located between walls and floors and not as you would think, dug underground. My general impression was that Colditz was a claustrophobic place compared with the three camps I experienced. But they were probably better supplied with food than we were and had better amenities.
The camp was liberated on 16 April 1945 by American forces. They had made rapid advances to the east and did not know that this castle was a POW camp. The Germans were still defending the town and castle approaches. The Volkssturn ('Home Guard'), now integrated with the Wehrmacht by Hitler, were also active in its defence. The American Commander was just about to order the shelling of the Castle, when Allied flags were waved from windows high up in the building! This saved the day and the order was cancelled - another bout of 'friendly fire' was averted, and no doubt casualties as well!
After this visit we returned to Muhlberg, stopping on the way to view Strehla on the river Elbe, where the Americans and the Russians met in April 1945. It was fifteen miles or so south of Torgau, which was later named as the official meeting place, on 4 May 1945. In the evening we returned to the Town Hall for our final meal of the tour.
Day 5
After breakfast we assembled at the Town Hall and said goodbye to the people of Muhlberg. We travelled, accompanied by Mayor Brendel, to Holzdoff Airbase (where her son was stationed) for a presentation by the Stn. Commander.
Holzdoff was a Helicopter Base (a part of the new German Airforce) and was involved in civil duties. The Commander gave a detailed talk about the work of the station. We were given a tour of the hanger[sic] responsible for the maintenance of the helicopters and a demonstration by the fire fighting services. This was followed by a snack, before we continued our journey to Schonefeld and back to Stansted.
We arrived back in Stansted on the evening of 10th September, after a very busy and successful tour. We were to find that we were back 'in the present day' - just a few hours before the atrocities perpetrated by terrorists in New York (nine/eleven!) were to make a 'world change' of momentous proportions.
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Tom Nelson and his American wife, both knew New York well, and were very upset about what had happened. Sadly Tom, who had not been completely fit for some time, died suddenly later that year, in November 2001.
Stalag1VB ex-POW Group Reunions in Peterborough
The 1VB reunions were held every year over the weekend nearest to the 23 April, which was the day the camp was liberated by the Russians. Barbara and I have attended these in April, years 2002-4 and we will attend next year, which will be the 60th anniversary of liberation day, Saturday 23 April 2005, and the final reunion for the Group. This will be a memorable occasion. No doubt the day will end with an even more rousing rendition of 'Land of Hope and Glory' which is sung every year. It was sung in 1VB, in place of the National Anthem, which was disallowed.
Medals
After my 80th birthday I decided that, for the sake of my children and grandchildren, I should claim my medals. According to my assessment I was entitled to four. If Bomber Command had been awarded a campaign medal, it would have been five. Air Chief Marshall Sir Arthur Harris said that 'every butcher, baker, and candlestick maker' within 200 miles of the front got a campaign medal ... but not Bomber Command'. The post-war government was embarrassed about the heavy loss of life in the bombing of Dresden, and the aircrews got the blame for it! As a result a campaign medal was not granted, despite their courage and dedication, in high risk bombing operations night after night. Bomber Command aircrews, mostly in their early twenties, carried out orders in a total war situation, and suffered the highest casualties of all the British and Commonwealth forces during the whole of WW2.
In fact my claim for medals finally amounted to three; the fourth medal, the Defence Medal, required three years' non-active service. After deducting elevan and half months training time abroad, I could only muster two years nine months, even adding my Home Guard time before I joined the RAF. The rest of my war service (one year three months) was as a POW, and I was told by a civil servant in the Medal Agency, that the time as a POW didn't count! (In America, there was an additional medal - for being a POW!)
My medals are:-
* 1939 - 1945 Star - active service.
* Aircrew Europe Star - aircrew active service Europe 1939 - D Day 1944
* War Medal - general service.
These are still in a small cardboard box with a piece of ribbon for each rolled up in it, sent to me by registered post. There was no covering letter, only a printed list of all the medals available, with their ribbon colours, so that you can match the medal to the ribbon yourself.
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Footprints on the Sands of Time (Bomber Command Prisoners of War in Germany 1939 - 45) by Oliver Clutton-Brock
This unique book, published in 2003, covers the German POW Camps. It includes anecdotes and stories of aircrew in the camps, covering capture, escape, liberation, those who were wounded, suffered illness and many that were murdered. It lists all the 10,999 POWs, who did not suffer in any way like those in the 'Holocaust' yet, nevertheless, experienced poor living conditions in German hand. They owe their health and many of them their lives, largely due to the food, clothing etc. supplied to the camps by the International Red Cross.
I add a few comments here about the treatment of POWs featured in this book, which I have not referred to directly in my experiences. It is important to include them here, as they are the additional risks that aircrew were exposed to, when they baled out near or in the target area, in the last two years of the war.
Also I refer to escaping and getting back to England, which only a tiny number succeeded in doing, despite the large number of prisoners who attempted it.
Additional risks to Aircrew in 1943-45
From mid-1943 onwards, after baling out into enemy territory, the treatment received on capture was a matter of luck. Many were humiliated, beaten and murdered. It was estimated, that one-in-twenty captured aircrew never returned home, overall more than 800 RAF were lynched or shot.
Personally my capture was reasonably civilised. Apart from the hint, at a suburban police station, that I was a 'terrorflieger', and experiencing with a part of other captured RAF, ugly threats from a crowd of civilians at a Berlin main railway station, I was ok. But of course we were under armed guard at the time!
Interrogation at Dulag Luft for me was a relatively mild experience, and the 'heat treatment' I received lasted only a couple of days. However this book states the Kommandant and some of his staff were tried for War Crimes in 1945, and he was given five years' imprisonment for his use of heat treatment (from 1943 onwards), and for withholding urgent medical attention from some wounded aircrew whilst they were being interrogated.
Following the Hamburg raids in August 1943 when the port and town were virtually destroyed, Himmler ordered the police not to interfere with the lynching of aircrew (who had baled out) by the civilian population. In March 1944 after the murder of the 50 escapees from Stalag Luft 3 POW Camp, Hitler ordered that airmen making emergency landings in Germany should not be protected by Wehrmacht from the atrocities perpetrated by the enraged population. In June 1944 Goring, Ribbentrop, and Himmler stated that airmen
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strafing trains, non military targets etc, would not be protected as POWs. In 1944 generally, there was a 'drip down' from the Nazi leaders to all the Military and Luftwaffe, not to interfere when civilians had taken action against captured airmen. They were also encouraged to take the lives of the hated 'terrorflieger'. After the Dresden bombing in February 1945, Goebbels stated that the 1929 Geneva Convention wasn't worth the paper it was written on. He hinted to the neutral Swedish press, that more heavy raids could result in all RAF and American airmen POWs, now in custody, being summarily executed! Hitler subsequently dropped the plan.
Churchill, early in 1945, was fearful of reprisals against all POWs in Germany. He suggested to Roosevelt and Stalin that a warning to Germany - not to maltreat prisoners - should be made by the Allies. But it was not until 23 April 1945, (due to the prevarication of Stalin,) that warning leaflets were dropped over Germany. By that time the war was almost over.
The worst excesses of murder happened during the last 12 months of the war and this book describes a number of them. The following example relates to what happened to a flight sergeant rear funner from my squadron (102). On 24 December 1944, a Halifax on a raid to Mulheim, was shot down near Neuss. All seven crew baled out, but only F/Sgt J G Williams was known to be captured at the time. He was taken by car, by the police, and handed over to Kreisliter Johannes Esser (Nazi Party Official) who took him to a room where he was reproached and beaten for bombing the town. He was then shot in the head and his body taken to a cellar, where it was wrapped in paper and sacking and tied with string. Esser and another, then took the body by car and threw it into a stream running into the Rhine.
On 28 September 1946, Esser was sentenced to death by a Military Court and hanged in Hameln prison, on 23 January 1947.
It is possible that the pilot and mid-upper gunner were also murdered on the same day. No details are known, but a letter from the MOD, as late as 1982, to their next of kin, suggests that a war crime was committed against them and four Germans were tried for the killings, in 1948. Looking up 102 Squadron records, I find that three of the crew were killed (murdered?) and the remaining four survived as POWs. This is an example of the 'hairs breadth', between life and death, when members of the same crew were captured by different Germans, probably only a few hundred yards apart.
Escaping - 1939 to 45
Despite the large number of Bomber Command POWs, there were only 34 successful escapes from prison camps, of aircrew, during 1939 - 45. Most of these were by aircrew, exchanging their identities with working parties who worked and lived outside the main prison camps. There were eleven (over the war period) who made their escape from Stalag V111B by this means. Not all got back to England in good time; some former Polish aircrew (now in RAF) stayed with the Polish Resistance until the war ended! Others stayed with Underground Forces until liberated by the Allies.
16
[page break]
There were two escapes, both from Stalag Luft 3 that were made via tunnels. The most famous, the 'Great Escape': 76 POWS (out of 200 planned) managed to get out before the tunnel was discovered. Unfortunately 73 were recaptured and Hitler ordered the murder of 50 of them, as a reprisal. Only three, two Norwegians and one Dutchman, all in the RAF, managed to get back to England.
The other, earlier escape, planned at the beginning of summer 1943, 'The Wooden Horse', was probably the most ingenious and most successful of them all. Everyday a wooden vaulting horse was carried out to the same spot, only 30 metres from the wire. While other prisoners exercised, Eric Williams, Michael Codner and Oliver Philpot, would dig from a trap door beneath it. After 114 days of work, the three men finally escaped on 29 October 1943. All three, Oliver Philpot separately, caught a train from the local station, Sagan. Philpot posing as a Norwegian reached Danzig, slipped aboard a ship and arrive in Sweden on 3 November and was taken by police to the British Legation in Stockholme the next day. The other two got to Stettin, then by ship to Copenhagen, and finally to Sweden and the British Legation in Stockholm on 13 November. After being delayed by a spell of bad weather, they were flown home at the end of December.
I met Oliver Philpot at the end of the 1950s, when he was Chairman of Truefoods (a Baby Foods Company), then owned by Unilever. I was in Organisation Division and doing an assignment there. Shortly afterwards he was made the Head Office Manager of Unilever House.
Memories of my RAF service
1. These are contained in the following documents, computer files and on floppy disc:-
BOMBER - deals with my time in the RAF until I was shot down.
NOEL COWARD - a poem paying tribute to Bomber Command
POW DAYS - covering my prisoner of war days to the end of the war
POW Days Postscript - covering events post war until 2004
2. There are also other records and papers:-
* Pilots Log Book and Observers/Navigators Log Book.
* A wartime log written as a POW, which also contains photos and sketches (unfortunately not completed).
* Two binders
Red - containing telegrams and letters from relatives and friends, and memorabilia, after I was shot down and became a POW.
Blue - containing details or [of] my bombing raids and when I was shot down over Berlin, with drawings and photographs.
17
[page break]
* All my POW letters to my parents.
* There are short one-page descriptions of the following events
- 'RAF arrive with pyjamas'
- 'Friendly Fire'
- Our Incredible Escape'
* The following events covered in my documents have supporting records
- 50th anniversary of our survival, celebrated at the Post House, Peterborough: there are photographs, a 3 minute video tape broadcast over the BBC 'Look East' network; a 3 minute radio tape of me and George Griffiths (Pilot) broadcast several times over BBC Cambridge Radio; Laurie Underwood also produced a video tape of the whole event.
- Attending Runneymede Memorial Service (ACA) to pay our respects to the two of our crew who have no known graves - photographs and programme of the service.
- Laurie Underwood's golden wedding anniversary, visit to the Yorkshire Air Museum to see the Halifax Bomber being rebuilt - photographs
- Tom Nelson meetings - his Daily Mail newspaper article re Christmas at Stalag1VB, photographs, drawings, poems of Stalag1VB, also photographs obtained from the Stalag1VB website
- Visit to Kew Public Records Office - extracts from 102 Squadron micro film operational records, original records of Pocklington Station and S/Ldr Harvey's DFC citation.
- Visit to Germany covering Berlin, Muhlberg, Stalag 1Vb site etc. - photos and data (including descriptions of Stalag 1VB post war from the German Muhlberg Initiative Group). There is also a map of the area highlighting places connected to our visit and when I was shot down.
- Two local newspaper articles and two 25 minute radio tapes (also recorded on a CD), of live interviews of me at BBC Radio Essex and Laurie Underwood via a telephone link to BBC Radio Leeds, used to advertise the book 'Flying into Hell'.
3 A number of books about Bomber Command, the Berlin Raids, a book and two journals about 102 Squadron, and two books about RAF POWs were used in making my own records
18
[page break]
4 Sundry items that support my records:-
- Banner of all Bomber Command Squadrons
- Banner of all Halifax Bomber Squadrons
- My Commission Parchment
- Framed picture and separate copies (one black & white and one coloured picture) of Stalag 1VB layout.
- Photo album of my training days in USA and Canada
- Photo of a Halifax 3 Bomber and a large model, made by my son-in-law, David Hughes
March 2005
19
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
My POW Days - Postscript
Description
An account of the resource
Reg starts with a page about the Caterpillar Club then describes his life after the war. Over the years he had many reunions and he undertook research regarding the four crew members who died the night they were shot down. In 2001 he and 90 or so ex-prisoners of war went on a tour of German war graves, Stalag IVB and Colditz.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Reg Wilson
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2005-03
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Craven Arms
England--London
England--London
England--Peterborough
Germany--Lübeck
England--Runnymede
England--Wetherby
Scotland--Edinburgh
Germany--Mühlberg (Bad Liebenwerda)
England--London
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Colditz
Germany--Torgau
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Mülheim an der Ruhr
Germany--Neuss
Poland--Żagań
Poland--Gdańsk
Sweden--Stockholm
Poland--Szczecin
Denmark--Copenhagen
Poland
Germany
Denmark
Sweden
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Shropshire
England--Sussex
England--Yorkshire
England--Surrey
England--Bishop's Stortford
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 Canadian Air Force
Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Memoir
Format
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19 printed sheets
Identifier
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MWilsonRC1389401-170113-100002
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
Conforms To
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Pending text-based transcription. Under review
Contributor
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Sue Smith
102 Squadron
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bale out
bombing
Caterpillar Club
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Dulag Luft
escaping
final resting place
Goebbels, Joseph (1897-1945)
Goering, Hermann (1893-1946)
Halifax
Halifax Mk 3
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Lancaster
memorial
mine laying
navigator
pilot
prisoner of war
RAF Elvington
RAF Hendon
RAF Hornchurch
RAF Pocklington
Red Cross
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 3
Stalin, Joseph (1878-1953)
the long march
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/934/36538/MLovattP1821369-190903-74-01.1.pdf
fb8bdc0a3359bad330631a99725ecf91
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/934/36538/MLovattP1821369-190903-74-02.1.2.pdf
518e2b514f18dba39e9302770bce90ba
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Lovatt, Peter
Dr Peter Lovatt
P Lovatt
Description
An account of the resource
117 items. An oral history interview with Peter Lovatt (b.1924, 1821369 Royal Air Force), his log book, documents, and photographs. The collection also contains two photograph albums. He flew 42 operations as an air gunner on 223 Squadron flying B-24s. <br /><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/1338">Album One</a><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2135">Album Two</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Nina and Peter Lovatt and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-09-27
2019-09-03
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.
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Lovatt, P
Dublin Core
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Title
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The Offensive Phase
Volume Two of Two
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Peter Lovatt
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Norway--Trondheim
France--Brest
Russia (Federation)
England--Hartland
England--Beer Head
Europe--Elbe River
England--Dover
England--Folkestone
England--London
France--Bruneval
France--Pas-de-Calais
Germany--Lübeck
Germany--Rostock
England--Norwich
England--Cheadle (Staffordshire)
England--Salcombe
England--Sidmouth
France--Cherbourg
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
France--Dunkerque
France--Cassel
England--Salisbury
Russia (Federation)--Kola Peninsula
Russia (Federation)--Arkhangelʹskai︠a︡ oblastʹ
Germany--Berlin
Poland--Szczecin
France--Desvres
France--Arcachon
France--Nantes
France--Chartres
France--Reims
England--Swanage
England--Malvern
England--Plymouth
France--Lorient
England--Lincoln
Scotland--Edinburgh
England--Hull
England--London
England--Bristol
France--Montdidier (Hauts-de-France)
England--Guildford
France--Poix-du-Nord
Germany--Mannheim
Czech Republic--Pilsen Basin
England--Harpenden
France--Morlaix
Spain--Lugo
Spain--Seville
England--Radlett (Hertfordshire)
Germany--Cologne
France--Boulogne-Billancourt
Germany--Rostock
Germany--Essen
Germany--Schleswig-Holstein
Belgium--Liège
Germany--Bremen
England--High Wycombe
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
England--Sizewell
Germany--Peenemünde
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Munich
Germany--Kassel
England--Crowborough
England--Huddersfield
Netherlands--Den Helder
England--Mundesley
Germany--Schweinfurt
Europe--Baltic Sea Region
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Germany--Braunschweig
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Wolfenbüttel
Germany--Magdeburg
France--Limoges
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Munich
Germany--Schweinfurt
Germany--Augsburg
France--Yvelines
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Kiel
Poland--Poznań
France--Dieppe
Turkey--Gallipoli
Egypt--Alamayn
Egypt--Cairo
Morocco
Algeria
Italy--Sicily
England--Ventnor
England--Beachy Head
France--Abbeville
France--Somme
France--Seine River
England--Southampton
England--Portsmouth
Scotland--Firth of Forth
Iceland
England--Brighton
France--Normandy
France--Cherbourg
England--Littlehampton
England--Portland Harbour
France--Amiens
Netherlands--Arnhem
France--Normandy
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
France--Le Havre
France--Arromanches-les-Bains
France--Bayeux
Belgium--Wenduine
France--Beauvais
England--Ditchling
England--Henfield (West Sussex)
England--Canterbury
England--Crowborough
England--Dover
England--Chiswick
Netherlands--Hague
Sweden
Belgium--Antwerp
Germany--Aachen
Germany--Trier
Germany--Siegfried Line
Netherlands--New Maas River
Netherlands--Waal River
Russia (Federation)--Kaliningrad (Kaliningradskai︠a︡ oblastʹ)
Germany--Darmstadt
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Braunschweig
Netherlands--Walcheren
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Cologne
Europe--Ardennes
Belgium--Bastogne
Germany--Leuna
Germany--Essen
Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Ulm
Rhine River Valley
Germany--Mittelland Canal
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Castrop-Rauxel
Germany--Hannover
Belgium--Houffalize
Germany--Neuss
Germany--Grevenbroich
Germany--Dülmen
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Bonn
Germany--Kamen
Germany--Dortmund-Ems Canal
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Dessau (Dessau)
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Kiel
England--Coventry
Italy
Poland
France
Great Britain
Egypt
North Africa
Germany
Belgium
Czech Republic
Netherlands
Norway
Russia (Federation)
Spain
Turkey
Europe--Frisian Islands
England--Milton Keynes
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Devon
England--Dorset
England--Gloucestershire
England--Hampshire
England--Herefordshire
England--Kent
England--Middlesex
England--Norfolk
England--Staffordshire
England--Suffolk
England--Surrey
England--Sussex
England--Wiltshire
England--Worcestershire
England--Yorkshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Warwickshire
Russia (Federation)--Poli︠a︡rnyĭ (Murmanskai︠a︡ oblastʹ)
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. Coastal Command
Royal Navy
United States Army Air Force
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
178 printed pages
Description
An account of the resource
A continuation of Peter's thesis on electronic warfare during the war.
Language
A language of the resource
eng
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
Identifier
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MLovattP1821369-190903-74-01
1 Group
100 Group
101 Squadron
109 Squadron
141 Squadron
169 Squadron
171 Squadron
192 Squadron
199 Squadron
214 Squadron
218 Squadron
223 Squadron
239 Squadron
3 Group
4 Group
462 Squadron
5 Group
617 Squadron
8 Group
aircrew
B-17
B-24
Beaufighter
Bennett, Donald Clifford Tyndall (1910-1986)
Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940)
crash
Defiant
Do 217
Fw 190
Gee
Gneisenau
Goering, Hermann (1893-1946)
H2S
Halifax
Halifax Mk 3
Hampden
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
He 111
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Hudson
Ju 88
Lancaster
Me 110
Me 410
mine laying
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
Mosquito
navigator
Oboe
Operational Training Unit
P-51
Pathfinders
radar
RAF Defford
RAF Downham Market
RAF Farnborough
RAF Foulsham
RAF Little Snoring
RAF North Creake
RAF Northolt
RAF Oulton
RAF Prestwick
RAF Sculthorpe
RAF St Athan
RAF Swannington
RAF Tempsford
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Uxbridge
RAF West Raynham
RAF Wittering
Scharnhorst
Stalin, Joseph (1878-1953)
Stirling
Tirpitz
training
Typhoon
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
Wellington
Window
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1996/32056/EHoganPJHoganM440929.1.pdf
afafe1eeee3477a93064ee443b0f6bb5
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
Hogan, P J
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-12-05
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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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Hogan, PJ
Description
An account of the resource
Ninety-six items and a sub-collection with twenty two items..
The collection concerns Flight Sergeant Pat Hogan (436464 Royal Australian Air Force) and contains letters home to his family, his flying log book, accounts of his aircraft being shot down and him baling out, official documents, certificates and photographs.
He flew operations as a navigator with 466 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Elizabeth Anne Lusby and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Aus 364 464
Ft Sgt Hogan PJ
RAAF
Aus PO
London WC2
29/9/44
Dear Marie,
I’ve just returned to a new unit after finishing a very enjoyable fortnight leave. I’m afraid my mail will take a little while to catch up but I have your lengthy airmail letter and a 3 page airgraph which one of the chaps managed to pick up somewhere.
I’m sorry I can’t let you know how your parcels are treated on route for as yet, none have come to hand, apart from Eileen’s 2 packages which were quite in order. However I’ll be looking forward to them now as I’ll explain soon. As you know I’ve let my mail go to blazes but henceforth I should catch up on it. In the first place I seemed to have created the impression that I was a bit fed up. Actually I was very weary for quite a while, & a bit strained from all the work. However this leave has made up for it , believe me.
It is funny you know how it doesn’t even occur to flying personnel that anything could happen to them, but it is amazing to note the number of chaps with whom I trained & came across & who are 6 feet under. Don’t think I’m getting cold feet or anything for I’m actually very sorry to have to admit that we don’t look like flying again for a couple of months. T present we are about to commence a P/T & Commando course which will probably ruin me after this leave but should be good fun.
Contrary to my other previous quiet leaves, this was much more hectic. I started off with the first week down South, mostly in Sussex. From there I went to Edinburgh where I picked up Shelton & Johnson & had quite a time. We started in pretty posh circumstances at one of the leading pubs. Saw a fair amount of the city & surrounds, soon tired of looking at castles & boring places of historical reference. The bridge over the Firth is of course a masterpiece but to look at is exactly is exactly the same as the thousands of photos I’ve seen of it. We saw several shows by day & invariably ended up at a dance by night.
Of course, like all aircrew when not flying we had our share of grog-you needn’t worry we don’t get too far under. It is much more tasty beer upthere & of course the whisky is as advertised. It is very hard to understand what te old blokes are mumbling about-usually trying to bite you for something so it doesn’t really matter if you can’t understand them. The women of Scotland (particularly the younger ones of course) have a very fascinating accent I always reckon. The majority are much prettier too than their Southern sisters, although far too many don’t seem to pay too much care to their teeth. We had a wonderful trip from Glasgow to Loch Lomond. At the bottom of the lake we boarded a paddle steamer which crossed from one side to the other, making frequent calls at the various towns on the banks as it went north. I’d “ had it” on the way u for it was very wet & miserable and there was no visability at all. However coming back it was vastly different & is all they sing about. It was really beautiful. It had been raining all day and as soon as it stopped, the sun came out, the mist lifted and amongst the greenery of all the hills, the clear white of the thousands of small waterfalls was really enchanting. Loch Lomond will I hope , always be vivid in my memory. You can see my point when I say that in such comparisons, I loathe the filthy stench of death of castles and ruins reeking with unessential historical references and traditions. Had several other interesting trips into the hills along the Firth & out to the coast. Accommodation always is the greatest trouble. Of course one can usually get into one of the service hostels, but I always reckon the extra comforts and conveniences of a decent hotel are well worth the cost on leave. We usually slept in fairly late although I did manage to get round to St. Mary’s Cathedral a couple of times.
I intended to spend the last day or so in Leeds. We had to change trains in Sheffield, managed to get into a luxurious pub, so forgot about Leeds. There is not much to see in Sheffield, on the surface anyway. It is down in a valley which is always shrouded in a very heavy pal of smoke. Hence everything is very dirty & even Birmingham is clean compared to Sheffield. However it as a couple of nice theatres & one of the best dance halls I’ve ever been in. Moreover there seems to be an absence of Yanks and Australians were such a novelty that people were stopping us showering all sorts of invitations upon us. Dirty and all as it is, me thinks I may visit Sheffield again one of these days, particularly that I’m now stationed in the North East of England. Of course I spent more money than I really should have but can’t let that worry me as I had a wonderful time. Sorry I couldn’t get any postcards on the trip, although must admit I didn’t try very hard. Shelton arranged a trip for us through Edinburgh’s largest breweries. It was very interesting following it through all processes, but of course we ended up with the manager in the sample room.
? page missing…
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Pat Hogan to Miss Marie Hogan
Description
An account of the resource
Writes a little of recent activities and discusses state of parcels on arrival. Writes about fatalism of aircrew and then goes on to describe recent leave in Sussex and Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland then finishing in Sheffield.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
P J Hogan
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-09-20
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Six 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
EHoganPJHoganM440929
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 Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Sussex
Scotland--Edinburgh
Scotland--Glasgow
Scotland--Loch Lomond
England--Yorkshire
England--Sheffield
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-09-20
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.
coping mechanism
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1996/31954/EHoganPJHoganM450831-0001.2.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1996/31954/EHoganPJHoganM450831-0002.2.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
Hogan, P J
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-12-05
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Hogan, PJ
Description
An account of the resource
Ninety-six items and a sub-collection with twenty two items..
The collection concerns Flight Sergeant Pat Hogan (436464 Royal Australian Air Force) and contains letters home to his family, his flying log book, accounts of his aircraft being shot down and him baling out, official documents, certificates and photographs.
He flew operations as a navigator with 466 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Elizabeth Anne Lusby and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
A436464 P/O P. HOGAN
RAAF AWSPO
LONDON
31/8/45
Dear Marie,
The mail services seem pretty good these days, don’t they? I was recalled from leave yesterday & have one from you dated [indecipherable word] . Got back from a rifle shoot last Friday & was told I was on leave. Having little time for preparations we went up to Edinburgh – 7 of us. 4 from my own crew, Jack Moran [indecipherable word] pilot Keith Anderson & another pilot Bev McVicar. We had fairly good [indecipherable words] it was raining in England. Went up to Dundee for [indecipherable words] last day I was doing a little shopping & was amazed [indecipherable words] stopped me in the street to find it was Mr Tom Adamson [indecipherable words] Dalgety. Unfortunately we’d just got our [indecipherable words] but I’ll look him up again [indecipherable words] London.
[indecipherable words] fountain pen while on leave. Still [indecipherable words] until I can [indecipherable word] up something better. As [indecipherable words] , although I wouldn’t mind going [indecipherable words] this station who are already home & [indecipherable words] about [indecipherable word] didn’t [indecipherable word] to a [indecipherable words] forbidden yesterday – a blank one [indecipherable words] of wrapping [indecipherable words]
Jimmy [indecipherable words] up here recently & got [indecipherable words] & will post it home [indecipherable words] you’ll see it eventually. It contains a few of my [indecipherable words] photo. Just something else to put away [indecipherable words]
[page break]
I’m sure it would be for Kev’s own benefit to go away to College next year. Incidentally how is the balance these days.
Well, Marie, after leave & this present rush I’ve got some work to do so I’d better get cracking. Sure the few days rest after [indecipherable word]. (sorry [indecipherable word] out your way wasn’t it) did your ‘flu a lot of good & hope you had no after effects.
[deleted] Well [/deleted] Regards best wishes & love to all at home
Pat.
[page break]
BY AIR MAIL
AIR LETTER
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED
THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT
BY ORDINARY MAIL
Miss M L Hogan
[indecipherable word] Chapel [indecipherable word]
Bendigo, Vic
Australia
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Pat Hogan to Miss Marie Hogan
Description
An account of the resource
Comments on reliability of mail lately. Mentions leave and activities in Edinburgh with other members of crew. Writes of family issue with Kevin. A large part of this letter is damaged and unreadable.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
P J Hogan
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-08-31
Format
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Four sided handwritten airmail 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
EHoganPJHoganM450831
Coverage
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Civilian
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
Scotland--Edinburgh
Australia
Victoria--Bendigo
Victoria
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-08-31
Contributor
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Peter Bradbury
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2093/34662/SWeirG19660703v090011.2.jpg
b2220d759c0f9f2b2cdf41c06469aeaf
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
Weir, Greg. Flannigan, J and McManus, JB
Description
An account of the resource
Seventeen items. Collection concerns Flt Sgt James Flannigan who flew as a wireless operator/air gunner on 77 and 76 Squadrons in 1941, he failed to return from operations 31 October 1941 and J B McManus (RAAF), a Halifax pilot who flew operations on 466 Squadron in 1944-45. Collection contains their log books, mementos, parade notes, medals, documents and photographs.
Collection catalogued by Nigel Huckins
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-26
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Weir, G
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter to Mrs A Flannigan
Description
An account of the resource
Notifying that the log book of Flight Sergeant Flannigan J has been forwarded to her by registered post.
This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Officer Commanding RAF Central Registry
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1947-07-01
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1947-07-01
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Essex
Scotland--Edinburgh
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
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One page typewritten letter
Identifier
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SWeirG19660703v090011
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
RAF Hornchurch
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1304/18134/PRumfittPA1901.2.jpg
0d65fa7438fd7bffbba43d8f3ba3f3ad
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1304/18134/ARumfittPA190701.2.mp3
d85540f625f890ed0b62b01f83bd9e9f
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
Rumfitt, Pat
Patricia A Rumfitt
P A Rumfitt
Description
An account of the resource
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-07-01
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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Rumfitt, PA
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MC: This interview is being conducted on behalf of the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewee is Pat Rumfitt and the interviewer is Mike Connock. The interview is taking place at Pat Rumfitt’s home in Lincoln on Monday the 1st of July 2019. Also present is Margaret Allsworth. Ok. We’ll make a start Pat and —
PR: Yes.
MC: I think we’ll start at the beginning with you.
PR: Yes.
MC: Just tell us a bit about where and when you were born.
PR: I was born in Thornton Heath, South London in 1927 and I didn’t meet Lister until I was fifteen. So, I think that date was possibly 1943.
MC: So you were born 1927.
PR: I was born in 1927. I met him when I was fifteen.
MC: So, so what did your parents do?
PR: My father was a stockbroker.
MC: Oh right.
PR: And so we were alternately very well off and very poor. Week by week [laughs]
MC: So —
PR: And we lived in Chislehurst in Kent.
MC: Did you have any siblings?
PR: No.
MC: None.
PR: No. My mother and father were each one of large families. My mother was the youngest one of eight. My father was the middle one of five and I think early on in their lives they made up their minds that if they ever got married they’d have one. At the most one. And so I had, I was part of fourteen cousins who all lived in Kent so I, I didn’t lack company but I had my parents to myself. Which is probably why I’m so selfish because you get very spoiled when you’re only one.
MC: What about those early schooldays? What do you remember about those? Did you enjoy them?
PR: I was, I went to a small private school for a long time in Bromley, Kent and then I went to Bromley Girl’s County School when I was nine. And I was there ‘til I was fourteen when I left and I had managed to get, pass an entry exam into Bromley Art School where I was totally at home because the love of my life is to draw and I was able to do exactly what I liked there. They thought I was quite talented and eventually I went in to commercial drawing in the fashion industry. This is all about me. And that was all by accident. I was at the college one day when, you always had people coming around to look at your work and these people came and they turned out to be from the “Tatler” Magazine. Do you remember? They used to, I don’t think there is still a “Tatler” and straight away because the stuff was all in the room, they said, ‘Who did this?’ ‘Who did that?’ And the tutor said, ‘Patricia. That’s Patricia’s work.’ They said, ‘How old are you?’ I think I was about fourteen, something like that at the time and they said, ‘Well, it’s a gift. You do this easily. Would you like a job?’ I said, ‘Oh, my mother wouldn’t let me work. Not yet anyway. I’m too young.’ They said, ‘Well, if and when you do could we be in touch with your mother?’ I think they didn’t think I had a father but I always referred to my mother for everything. I said, ‘Well, she won’t mind at all. Especially if you like the drawings because she’s very very proud of the things I do.’ Anyway, they persisted and several years later when I really did want a job I rang them up and reminded them who I was and what I did, and I got a job because the “Tatler” has a fashion page. I think it’s only a monthly magazine. It has what they called, “The Fashion Page,” and they wanted drawings of accessories or make up all around the frieze. Nicely, good taste little black and white drawings, you know. So I would draw gloves, shoes, handbags, an eye with make-up, all these things and I was good at it. It was a gift because I didn’t have any trouble doing it and they paid me very well. When my father heard what they were going to pay he said, ‘You should take the job. [laughs] You should take the job.’
MC: So growing up, growing up as a child before the war what was it like? I mean, did you —
PR: Oh, well before the war, ah well mine was quite a privileged life. We had a nice home, a nice garden and until we weren’t able to we used to go abroad once a year for a holiday. My mother liked Italy but, so we would go and I think the last time I didn’t go with them. It was 1938 and my mother went to her beloved Portofino. When they came back she, they, they were then convinced that they wouldn’t be going abroad the next year. They had already got the feeling that we were going to have a war but they didn’t have that feeling in England. They got the feeling in Italy. I don’t know whether they weren’t made welcome. I’ve no idea but when they came back I said, ‘Well, next year I’ll go with you and I can see this Portofino,’ because I’d been there with them when I was younger and I, it’s built on the side of the rocks you know overlooking the sea. It’s lovely. But it didn’t appeal to me very much. It wasn’t a young person’s place. Anyway, then the war came. I was twelve when it started and I was still at the County School. Then I left and went to the Art School which I’ve already told you. I was fourteen when I went to the Art School which was young. They didn’t really want you until you were sixteen but if your portfolio was impressive they would allow you to attend but you didn’t get much else. You only got art and that was considered a bit young to leave ordinary education but —
MC: So this was all growing up during the war.
PR: That was growing up.
MC: During the war.
PR: During the war.
MC: Yeah. So it —
PR: And of course living in Kent we were bombed most nights. I’m not saying we didn’t care. We just got used to it and —
MC: Were you affected directly by the bombing at all?
PR: Well [laughs] we were once because my father decided that my mother and I should go to a place of greater safety than Bomb Alley which was what Bromley, Kent was called which it was and we had barrage balloons, and we were four miles from Biggin Hill which of course was target number one. So if they weren’t going past us to bomb the West End or the East End of London they were going to bomb Biggin Hill. So we were, we were in the middle and so we did have, and I can honestly say we actually got used to it. I certainly got used to being told to, you went in your pyjamas and a plaid sort of dressing gown with a funny sort of cord and Wellington boots which you would go down the garden and climb into an Anderson shelter which of course almost as soon as it was put in the ground half filled with water so you could only go on to the top bunks. You certainly couldn’t sit at the bottom because it was now underwater and all the food in tins that my mother had put in there to save for later during the war all went rusty. All the underwear and woollies and things she put in they all floated away. We had to carry the dog because he was a little Brindle. And the war was a joke. It really, it was. In Kent it was a joke. Then my mother who was running the war from a sitting position, she was in the Red Cross, she was in the ARP, she was a warden, she did everything she could to help. She made tea. My father stood at the end of the drive with a garden fork. He was in the LDV. He was too old to be called up and too young to die. You know. I mean there he was in no man’s land and all he did was defend England with a garden fork with a head about this big that I couldn’t lift up it was so heavy and stood at the end of the drive in front of the house. Then he would be on fire duty and, and he was a home, most of all he was home LDV but nobody liked being on duty with him because they had three at a time. One on duty at the end of the drive and two trying to get a bit of a sleep but when it was his turn to sleep he kept the others awake because he snored. So they really didn’t want my father but it was his garage and he insisted upon being there. So he was [laughs] They couldn’t get rid of him but they put up with, they used to put him on fire duty which meant he was on the roof of the garage, the flat roof looking for the bombers, you know. I mean looking for fire bombs.
MC: Yes.
PR: A very dangerous position they gave him but I think they thought this will get rid of him [laughs] But he survived the war my dear dad. He did. He survived the war.
MC: So, as a young girl growing up what sort of entertainment did you have then?
PR: Oh, well —
MC: I mean, obviously —
PR: We had, from our point of view we were our entertainment was really in Bromley, Kent and it is loaded with pubs. I was far too young to drink but my parents took me all the time. So I would always be either left outside, during the raids of course [laughs] while they were inside drinking with everybody else. It was a fairly, it was a fairly rowdy time you know. People weren’t depressed. We were, we were a bit fed up about the food because that was very severely rationed. And then we got a pig. My mother of course, her name was Gertrude and she was a lady pig and my mother loved her to bits. We could never have her killed for bacon meat. So she lived with us for several years because my mother would not have her slaughtered and we had to give up our meat ration, our bacon ration, everything because we’d got a pig. We kept, we suddenly started keeping chickens. They didn’t lay so that was a waste of time [laughs] I remember this so well that everything was going to be alright. We’re having a chicken. We have a pig. We won’t, we’ll always have meat. We’ll always have eggs. We didn’t have either because the pig wasn’t allowed to be killed and the chickens didn’t lay [laughs] And the bombs went on every night. Then my father decided to send us to [pause] what was the name of the place? Does Berkhamsted sound like a proper place because I think that was, I don’t think that was the county? I think that was the sort of location, and the first night we got there the house next door was blown to blazes. So we were all moved back again to Bomb Alley because it was much more dangerous in Berkhamsted. Well, I don’t think they had another raid. They only had the one and it blew up the neighbour’s house. Five people in it were killed. They’d never had any raids before. I think the Germans knew that all these kids from Kent had gone there with their mothers for a night’s sleep and bang. But it, it literally took the house out. There was just a hole where it had been. It was a detached but it was only six feet from the one we were in. We lost a couple of windows at the top front but that was all. Houses further away lost their windows but we didn’t. The blast went past us.
MC: So how long were you down there?
PR: Well, we came back the next day.
MC: Oh, you didn’t stop.
PR: No. No. No. No. No. Can’t stay there. It’s obviously —
MC: Yeah.
PR: Much more dangerous than Bromley, Kent. So we, my father who had managed to get, because there was no petrol people forget this you know when they’re talking about it and you think how did they get there? But you got very very little. Sort of an eggcup, you know with a hole in the bottom. But my father saved up his coupons and my uncle gave him his coupons and he was able to take us over to this Berkhamsted. The next day he had to use more petrol to come and get us back. He was more worried about the petrol than he was about us. And we used to go to our local Country Club, Bromley Country Club for entertainment. My mother and father liked to dance and that’s where the chaps from Biggin Hill went because it was the nearest, well, only Country Club and they could swim there. They still had the open air pool and they managed to keep it clean and chlorinated and everything. So if the pilots could get away ever because Biggin Hill flew during, as you know was a daytime station. They weren’t night fighters. They were Spitfires. When the Americans came, the Eagle Squadron came there the Eagle Squadron did fly at night, but our Spitfires never did. I know that for a fact because I remember my mother would say, ‘Well, they can come over for breakfast. Then they’ll have to go back because they’ll be going off again at eleven,’ or something like that. We knew all about the timing of their sorties because of when they came and had what my mother could scrape together. We had egg. Powdered egg in tins and she used to make huge mountains of scrambled egg and they liked it. I couldn’t eat it. It was like rubber. It was horrible. But the pilots liked it. Anything they could get their hands on they ate and they of course were allowed alcohol which was forbidden to civilians. You couldn’t walk into the pub and say, ‘I’ll have a double whisky.’ I didn’t drink but I know my father was a whisky drinker and he could only get one every now and again because he knew the barman but it wasn’t really allowed. There was no spirit allowance for the civilians. I think it all went to the officer’s mess. And because we were so near to Biggin Hill we were almost under martial law really because we had, we had to keep secrets, and we had to be careful with what we said and they were careful with what they told us, you know. My mother used to make an enormous fuss of these boys, because they weren’t much older than me and it was like having a house full of sons and she’d never had any. And they loved my mother. She was all bosom and strings of pearls you know and, ‘Oh, tell me what would you like?’ ‘What will you have?’ [laughs] You know, you know I can caricature her but she was lovely. She was a lovely lovely lady.
MC: She sounds it.
PR: Oh, she was. She was great.
MC: So, how old, so let’s get on to Lister then.
PR: Well —
MC: How old were you when you met and how did you come meet Lister?
PR: How did I meet him? Well, this is quite a funny story. My mother became quite tetchy and difficult and the doctor, my father, he said, ‘Well, she’s running the war isn’t she? This is the trouble.’ ‘I think you should get her away. Has she, are any of these enormous number of sisters do any of them live somewhere like Devon, Wales, Scotland? Somewhere where they don’t know about the war.’ My father said, ‘Her eldest sister lives in Edinburgh.’ He said, ‘Well, they don’t know there’s a war on up there. Why don’t you send her there?’ My mother said, ‘I can’t leave. I can’t leave Kent.’ You know [laughs] I mean, it was almost like abdicating because she just didn’t want to go. Anyway, my father insisted. I think she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She was running left and right and everything. And my aunt in Scotland didn’t have a phone so everything had to be done in writing. And the next week we heard back to say she would be delighted to have my mother and I to stay, but the Navy was in in Leith Dockyards and the place was full of Norwegian sailors. My father [laughs] my father didn’t like the sound of the Norwegian Navy but these are all facts and I remember them and I was then fifteen. And so we went to Kings Cross. Daddy took us to Kings Cross using another egg cup of petrol. So he loaded us into a train and in those days the carriages were for eight people. Is it too cold for you? Is it?
[recording paused]
MC: So you were —
PR: We were in a carriage. In those days you had a corridor with a loo at one end, and half a dozen carriages with sliding doors. The trains weren’t like they are now. They were strange little upright, with four seats a side and sort of flock velvet you know. And so my mother, my mother sat in the corner seat and I sat next to her and there were three other people. So there were five of us in these four seats. So I was the one that was sort of like this, you know. I was obviously the youngest. I was also the tallest. I’d certainly got the longest legs. There was more of me to fold up than there was of anyone else but I got the dickie seat, and we sat there because nothing went on time. It went when it could. And I think it was a daytime train. It was normally an eight hour journey and we were on it at about 9 o’clock in the morning. Come up from Kent by car. Got in to the train when suddenly the sliding door was pulled back and there in the doorway was this beautiful young man in a uniform with a kit bag over his shoulder. My mother took one look and said, ‘Oh look. It’s one of the boys.’ She immediately thought pilot. He would be a fighter pilot from Biggin Hill. So she said, ‘Come on in. You can sit. Patsy can sit on my lap. You can sit on her seat.’ So I now lost this dodgy bit of velvet and he came and sat in it and he said to my mother, ‘I’ve got a better idea. Why doesn’t she sit on my lap?’ And my mother said, ‘Because she’s only fifteen and I’m not going to let her.’ [laughs] Anyway, he was charming and very chatty. He and my mother talked all the way to Scotland. No one could use the loo which was a bit difficult because when you pulled into some big station everybody got out and ran about looking for a loo. You were lucky if you got back before it went but needs must and so we all got off and we all got back. I still didn’t get a seat. I still had to sit on my mother’s lap. By the time we got to Edinburgh it took about eleven hours because it was stop start and there were raids. As far up as the Midlands you had to be aware that there would be an air raid. That’s quite frightening when you’re in a train strangely enough. I’d never bothered about it much in the house because you went in the cupboard under the stairs, waited for it to be over, came out, picked up all the broken things and got on but if you’re on a train you can’t do anything. You’re a, you’re a target, aren’t you? Anyway, we got to Edinburgh and my mother and the boy had a fond farewell and then she said, well I heard her say, ‘I shall be there. Not tonight but I shall be there tomorrow night,’ because he was staying at the Officer’s Club in Princes Street and this was where my mother was going to run the bar for the Red Cross. This was her holiday. She thought that she was being sent there so that she could pull Edinburgh’s socks up, you know. But she wasn’t. She was sent there because she was ill. Anyway, the following afternoon she said, ‘Now, Patsy, you’d better get yourself changed because I’m taking you with me to the Club this evening. You can do the tea urn.’ Because I was too young to be anywhere near the booze because they had plenty of alcohol in the Officer’s Club. My mother was going to see to it that this was distributed fairly. I suppose we’d been there about an hour when I recognised sir in a doorway and he went straight to my mother. She was, I was miles away. A good fifty yards long this damned great room was and I was at the far end with this wretched tea urn. We didn’t have tea bags in those days by the way. It was all tea leaves and big jugs of milk you know and only allowed so much and it was made up of powdered milk. Horrible stuff. And I saw him go to my mother and apparently, her version of it was she said, ‘Oh, how lovely. Are you comfortable? Is your room alright?’ He said, ‘Well, I’m sharing. I haven’t met the chap I’m sharing with yet but his stuff is in the room. I’ll meet him later. He didn’t come in last night but his luggage was there.’ So he was evidently sharing with another officer who had gone off to see friends or relatives or something. And she said, ‘Well, what can I get you?’ And he said, just like yesterday, ‘The girl at the end of the bar.’ And so she said, ‘I told you that’s my daughter and she’s fifteen. No. You can’t have the girl at the end of the bar.’ And he said, ‘I can wait.’ And he did, ‘til I was seventeen when we got married. But we met just like that on the train.
MC: So did you see much of him during, during that period?
PR: Yes. He came to us for his leaves and stayed with my mother and father in our house. And he wasn’t too pleased that most days it filled up with fighter pilots because when he had, he was at public school here apparently and the recruiting officers, you may know all about this apparently they went to public schools and took the cream off the top, put them into OFTU, and they, they asked him if he’d like to be in the Air Force. They weren’t going to give him any choice. They only were recruiting for the Air Force, and he said he would love to thinking he would love to, thinking he would like to fly a fighter. Anyway, he went straight in and it was quite obvious that he was mentally capable of flying a Lancaster and that’s what he was trained for. When he was twenty he came out of there.
MC: So, what was he doing up in Scotland then?
PR: On leave.
MC: Oh, did he —
PR: He just went on leave.
MC: Oh, he was only up there on leave. He wasn’t stationed up there.
PR: I don’t know where. No. No.
MC: No. Oh right.
PR: No. He went, he got on at Kings Cross. So far as I know he must have been stationed down here because he didn’t get on anywhere near Bruntingthorpe. He got on in London. Whether he’d had to go to London. I never found that out.
MC: You never knew where he was stationed.
PR: I didn’t know where he was stationed then. I only knew that at the time, at the time we got to know him and he came on leave he was always at Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire. And a couple of times I went to visit him in Leicester and I can’t even remember [pause] I stayed in a hotel in the middle of the town there and he used to come in when he could. But I never saw him in the evenings because they flew at night. He was a night bomber. And he never discussed his job. He was obviously very popular because there was always a crowd of people with him. They weren’t all his crew because they weren’t all officers. They were nearly all sergeants and he did when I, when I married him, not when I met him but by the time I married him he had completed one tour which was I believe twenty six missions. He was now half way through the second lot. He got a DFC at the end of the first lot. And for getting through the second lot he got a bar to his DFC. Got another DFC. It was automatic.
MC: So —
PR: You know.
MC: You say he was at Bruntingthorpe.
PR: Bruntingthorpe.
MC: What aircraft? Do you know what aircraft?
PR: Lancasters. Always Lancasters.
MC: Always Lancasters.
PR: Always Lancasters. I never knew him mention any —
MC: When, when did you get married then?
PR: 1945, this is when I got this certificate.
MC: So you said. 1945.
PR: 1945. When I was still seventeen. I wasn’t eighteen until the March. We got married in the February. He was twenty. And he was [pause] actively flying then. He got a weekend. An extended weekend. That’s what they called it. An extended weekend.
MC: Yes.
PR: So he would be home on Friday morning at my mother’s house and he wouldn’t leave there until Monday afternoon to get back to Leicestershire. Well, then I started going with him but we never had a home. We always, I was sort of billeted at the pub at Bruntingthorpe. I had a very nice room there. When he came off every morning he used to join me there for breakfast and of course he was allowed sausages, bacon, so forth. I was lucky to get an egg. But as a civilian you, you had no, you took your ration book and you worked your way through their rations in their pub and we didn’t get an egg a day.
MC: So, what rank was he when you married?
PR: Flying officer.
MC: Oh, he was flying officer.
PR: That’s what he is in the picture. You can see he’s got the ring. The wide ring. By the time our marriage finished and the war was over he was an acting squadron leader. Now, I don’t know whether that means he got the rank. Whether he was only. Everybody else was dead. When I said, ‘You’re now a squadron leader,’ he said, ‘Well, I’m acting squadron leader. There’s nobody else left.’
MC: So, where —
PR: I was still staying at the pub in Bruntingthorpe.
MC: So, how long did he stay in the Air Force after the war was over then?
PR: Oh, well —
MC: When did he come out of the Air Force?
PR: To my knowledge — I only sat it out for another year because I wanted a home. I was sick and tired of being in a billet which was in my case a nice hotel, a nice pub but it wasn’t my home. And I then decided to go home to my mother and that didn’t please him because he was still stationed there. And about a year after that he came out and that’s when he decided because his family were in Australia that he wished to go back there and he wanted me to go. Well, at one stage the Air Force shipped me over. I don’t know whether you know about that system but I went on a boat. It took three and a half weeks. I shared a very small smelly little cabin with another officer’s wife that I’d never met before and we went to Sydney. Well, his family were in Townsville in Queensland. That’s a long way away and I went up country as they call it on a train and I hated Australia. It was hot, dusty. I didn’t like the people. Oh my God. They were awful. Mind you this is seventy years ago. They’re probably civilised now. Apparently everybody loves it but I absolutely hated it. I thought it was [pause] well, outback was the word for it. It was so rough and the people spoke this strange lingo. I couldn’t understand them and they made no attempt to understand me because I was just foreign, you know. I mean, and his family were shipping agents in Townsville in Queensland and obviously well off. Well off enough to send him to England to public school. That took some doing I can assure you. And their house was on stilts and they had strange sort of native people that lived underneath and they were, well you didn’t need a gardener. It was just someone to rake the sand, you know. It was awful, you know. Townsville I suppose now is quite glamourous and probably has spas and clubs but then it was just rough. But it’s seventy years ago so, or more because I was still only what eighteen? Nineteen? Something like that. And I’m ninety two now so if I was even twenty it was seventy two years ago isn’t it?
MC: Yes. I mean is Lister Arrowsmith was his name —
PR: Yes.
MC: Did he have a middle name?
PR: Lister Harvey.
MC: I did do some research.
PR: Lister Harvey Arrowsmith. Yes.
MC: Yes. Yeah. His commission was Gazetted on the 17th of October 1944.
PR: Was it?
MC: 1944. To flying officer. Yeah.
PR: Yeah. He was flying officer when I married him.
MC: Yes. Yeah. But you don’t know what squadron he was with.
PR: I still don’t know the number of the squadron.
MC: No.
PR: Do you know I don’t think I ever asked.
MC: So when —
PR: He was just flying a bomber.
MC: Yeah. I know he did his first tour in 90 Squadron.
PR: Did he?
MC: Yeah. Tuddenham.
PR: Collingham.
MC: Tuddenham. Tuddenham.
PR: Tuddenham.
MC: RAF Tuddenham. T U D D E N H A M.
PR: That’s where he started was it?
MC: That’s where he did his first tour, yeah. As a pilot. But I don’t know much about, more about him than that.
PR: He had a [coughs] when people say, people used to fall back in amazement when, because he had the obviously he had a DFC on his uniform, and they all knew because it was length of service that got you that in those days. You didn’t have to do anything particularly brave. It was as he said, ‘I’m only doing my job.’
MC: Yeah, but to complete a full tour, full tour of operations on Bomber Command.
PR: Well, exactly but then he, when I took, I said, ‘Why are they so surprised that you’ve done so many? Because you don’t seem to think it’s very clever.’ He said, ‘It’s experience.’ I said, ‘How do you mean experience?’ Because he was still what, twenty?
MC: I know.
PR: And most of the people who worked with him were a great deal older and sometimes I think he had trouble with them because he had such a baby face, and he was excessively handsome. And I think most of the men thought Christ, look at this. You know. This is competition. And he was. He was beautiful. He really was beautiful. That’s why I married him. I had no other reason. I was only seventeen. I only knew how he looked.
MC: So, did you have any children with him?
PR: No.
MC: Oh. No.
PR: No, we didn’t. But we didn’t have a home either. We had great plans for having children but I always regarded the thing as a bit [pause] I think I always thought of it as temporary. I think I was too young to get married, and in the first place my father didn’t want me to. He said, ‘Patsy, you’re too young.’ And I just said, ‘Oh, you’re just, daddy you just don’t want me marry anybody.’ And he, he really didn’t want me to get married. My grandmother couldn’t wait for me to marry him because she fell in love with him the moment she saw him. My mother’s mother. And she said, ‘Oh, Patsy where ever did you meet him?’ I said, ‘I was with mummy on a train.’ And she said, ‘Well, he’s the one for you dear. Don’t you ever let him go.’ This was the first time she’d met him. She was seventy eight at the time but she just went mad about him.
MC: Did you know at the time he was from Australia? Did he have an accent?
PR: I knew that, I knew he’d been born there but I didn’t realise because when I first met him he was in an ordinary RAF officer’s uniform. It wasn’t until much later he said, ‘I’ve got to get a new uniform. I’m in the wrong thing.’ And he had to go off to Gieves and Hawkes and get another lot made and this time in the dark blue which I didn’t like at all. I didn’t like it. And then he had Australia on his shoulder then after that. But up ‘til then he’d just been RAF and of course several years in a public school had eradicated that ghastly accent so even I hadn’t ever heard it and he wouldn’t have dreamt of using it. Certainly not with my mother and father, you know because they would have said, ‘What was that? Whatever was that?’ You know. Because it is a horrible accent. It is still now. And most of them still speak like that.
MC: Yeah.
PR: Well, it isn’t a case of being snobby. It’s unattractive. It’s like the South African. It’s horrible.
MC: So what, do you know what happened to him after the war?
PR: I know he went back to Australia and when I was in my early twenties he came back here. He wanted to talk me out of getting, because I still hadn’t got it. It took me six years to get the divorce and in the end my father got it for me. I needed it because you see I had left him. He didn’t want me to go and every time we tried to get it to court our solicitor would say, ‘He doesn’t want to know. He’s not going to. You’re not going to get a divorce from him. He doesn’t want you to and you haven’t done anything. He’s not divorcing you. You’re divorcing him and he hasn’t done anything. You can’t get a divorce from him.’ And then my father, who was a stockbroker said, ‘I’ll get someone in the City, Patsy. I’ll get you a divorce lawyer. We’ll get out.’ I don’t know how he did it but on the sixth year of trying I got my divorce. But the year before that when that first started he came back here as a civilian and just appeared at my mother’s house and said he’d come for me. I was out. When he arrived I was actually out to dinner with somebody. I was horrified when I got home. Mummy said, ‘Lister’s here. He’s staying in London. He’s not staying with us.’ I said, ‘What’s he doing here?’ She said, ‘Well, he’s apparently come back for you. He hasn’t got the message yet.’ I said, ‘Well, did you explain to him that we are at last hopeful of getting — ’ She said, ‘He doesn’t want a divorce, Patsy. It’s going to be increasingly difficult. Especially as he’s now here.’ I said, ‘Well, has he come back here to live?’ She said, ‘He didn’t say. He just said I’ve come back to collect Patsy. She is my wife and I want her back.’ He wanted to take me to Australia.
MC: So, but you didn’t go.
PR: Oh, I made a mistake in going the first time. I shouldn’t have gone but I was curious because I thought well maybe I’ve got, I was grown up enough then to think well you are married and the least you can do is go and find out if it would work. The Air Force put me on a boat. They weren’t flying people anywhere. And there were mines of course. The sea was heavily mined so we took our lives in our hands those of us that went on that boat. And it was a terrible journey. Oh God, it was awful. I hated it and I liked boats but I didn’t like that one. It was very uncomfortable. Very hot.
MC: So you finished with the RAF after that then. The Royal Air Force.
PR: Well, not really because it’s addictive isn’t it? The Air Force. I’ve never got I will never get divorced from Biggin Hill because that was brilliant. What a place. What a place. I wasn’t made very welcome there because I’d married a bomber so all my mother’s boys didn’t like that. Those that survived you know she heard from for years afterwards. They all married and they all had families and they all wrote to my mother. It was as if she was a sort of surrogate mother. She’d made them so welcome I think when nobody else had. She welcomed them all and gave them our rations and everything else she could lay her hands on. My father wouldn’t let her deal on the Black Market so it all had to come out of our rations and there were plenty of opportunities to deal on the Black Market but he just wouldn’t. On principal he wouldn’t. He said, ‘I couldn’t eat it. No. I couldn’t eat that. We’ve got a pig.’ [laughs] You know.
MC: So I mean obviously Lister Arrowsmith, you don’t, you don’t know much about his squadrons as you said. What squadrons he was on.
PR: No. No. I don’t know. All I know is that when I last spoke to him he was an acting squadron leader. Well, so far as everyone was. But he didn’t have, because I said, ‘Oh God, have I got to sew those rings on?’ He said, ‘No. I’m only acting.’ So I think it wasn’t established.
MC: Was he at Bruntingthorpe at that time?
PR: Yes. He was still at Bruntingthorpe but of course when he came back to England he was a civilian and he’d been a civilian for at least four years. So, as I say it took me six years from start to finish to get my divorce. And I think in the end he realised it was useless because I was a different person. By the time he came back I’d grown up and I was now working in London. I worked with my father at the Stock Exchange. In his office. His brokers. And I was totally different from the little girl he’d married, you know. I mean, you had to be. If you worked in the City you had to look as if you worked in the City and I did. I used to go up on the train with my father but my father had an enormous influence on me always. I miss him dreadfully but I don’t think, I don’t think he actually spoiled me. He just wanted the best. If I wanted something he would move heaven on earth to get it. The way he did the divorce, you know.
MC: I think that’s, you know, I mean it’s a brilliant story, Pat. I mean it’s —
PR: Yeah.
MC: It’s lovely. Thank you very much.
PR: Well, there’s nothing —
MC: Thank you for talking with us.
PR: I can’t really tell you anything. I don’t even know if he’s still alive. You can find that out on your
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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Interview with Pat Rumfitt
Creator
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Mike Connock
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-07-01
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.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ARumfittPA190701, PRumfittPA1901
Format
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00:45:49 audio recording
Description
An account of the resource
Pat Rumfitt was born in 1927 and experienced a privileged upbringing living in Kent as an only child before the war. She describes the resilient attitude to bombing in Bromley, walking to their flooded Anderson Shelter in her dressing gown and wellies, and evacuating only to return the following day after a near-miss. Rumfitt recalls her dissatisfaction with food rations and her parents acquiring chickens and a pig to ensure they had food, yet neither generating produce. She details her mother’s proactive involvement with The Red Cross and her caring nature for the pilots at RAF Biggin Hill. In 1941, at the age of 14, Rumfitt attended Bromley Arts School, where she was later offered a job with Tatler magazine and pursued commercial drawing in the fashion industry. She also visited Edinburgh with her mother in 1942, where she met Lister Harvey Arrowsmith, a flying officer based at RAF Bruntingthorpe. She married Arrowsmith in 1945, at which time, he had completed 26 operations and received the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war, Rumfitt visited her husband’s home in Australia but strongly disliked the culture and filed for a divorce, which took six years to finalise. Finally, she describes her lifelong fondness for RAF Biggin Hill, and her mother remaining in touch with the officers that she cared for.
Contributor
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Tilly Foster
Julie Williams
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Civilian
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
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Australia
Great Britain
England--Kent
England--Suffolk
England--Leicestershire
England--Bromley
England--London
Scotland--Edinburgh
England--Essex
Temporal Coverage
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1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
90 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
childhood in wartime
Distinguished Flying Cross
evacuation
home front
love and romance
pilot
RAF Biggin Hill
RAF Bruntingthorpe
RAF Tuddenham
Red Cross
shelter
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1059/17858/BCuthillMSFHCuthillMSFHv1.2.pdf
d66316de5999379fe68c605357542a50
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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Cuthill, Margaret
Margaret Scott Foster Harper Cuthill
M S F H Cuthill
Description
An account of the resource
10 items. An oral history interview with Leading Aircraftswoman Margaret Cuthill (b. 1926, 2151005 Royal Air Force) (nee Logan), a written memoir, her service and release book and seven photographs. She served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force from May 1944 to October 1947 as a teleprinter operator.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Margaret Cuthill and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-12-13
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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Cuthill, MSFH
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[blank page]
[page break]
[underlined] Oct 09 [/underlined]
[underlined] 1944/47 WAAF Life & after [/underlined]
Aged about 17yrs old I befriended a girl named Doreen at the Red Cross evening class One day she said I've volunteered for the WAAF as a Radar Operator, later on I began to feel I would like to join & train as a Nursing Orderly, but you needed to be 18yrs old & I was 17yrs & 9mths – I couldn't wait. I asked my parents if they would allow me to volunteer – they didn't mind.
[page break]
[underlined] 2. [/underlined]
So I went ahead and at the recruiting office in George St Edinburgh I was [deleted] recruited [/deleted] enrolled as a Teleprinter Operator & was off to Wilmslow training camp for 4wks on 24th May 1944.
There we were kitted out with all our uniforms, taught Service discipline, & about all ranks in the RAF, respecting your seniors, saluting officers at all times.
Our drilling & PE came rather tough for us not being use to all that exercise, but gradually
[page break]
[underlined] 3. [/underlined]
became accustomed to it. (we had to).
I soon settled down to life in a Nissen Hut. After 4wks I learned to mix in with about a dozen girls from all walks of life & many parts of the UK. I felt a little home-sick at odd times but I was accustomed to living away from home.
We were not allowed out of camp for 4wks. We were taken out on two occasions as a group & marched into Wilmslow town – to the YMCA.
[page break]
[underlined] 4 [/underlined]
Our [deleted] were [/deleted] pay parade every fortnight & you had to be well turned out – because the beady eyes of the Pay Officer [inserted] women got £3 [/inserted] Some girls went wild not having been [deleted] with [/deleted] in men's company for wks. There were two girls who broke out of camp – the disciplin [sic] was peeling potatoes & washing & cleaning ablutions (toilets) for 2 days.
After finishing Elementary Training at Wilmslow, I was posted to RAF Cranwell on a Signals Course as a Teleprinter Operator I loved the life there for 10wks. June/Jul/Aug. A very good summer
[page break]
[underlined] 5. [/underlined]
I was billetted in a married quarters house 3 girls to 1 room – not alot [sic] of space. The Sgt in charge of our house was the WAAF [deleted] Band leader [/deleted] Drum Major [deleted] on the drums [/deleted]. She was a superb person, elegant – suited her position – fair hair & tall & attractive
Our house was on the edge of the airfield – there were light aircraft trainers – we use to sit in the garden watching them. It was all very new – not having seen the flying before. (me)
[page break]
[underlined] 6 [/underlined]
The Teleprinter Operators marched to [inserted] (over TANOY) [sic] [/inserted] music [inserted] to work [/inserted] & typed to music, there [inserted] fore [/inserted] becoming touch typists The camp was not far from Sleaford – a small village/town where we would walk to the shops [inserted] and railway station [/inserted] There was plenty of entertainment on camp. On Sat evenings there was always a dance held in the Appretices [sic] Gym Hall with their own Band. Their signature tune was "You Take The 'A' Train". I loved it, – I had an Apprentice friend, but
[page break]
[underlined] 7 [/underlined]
I can't remember his name. He gave me a cap badge – it was the Apprentice Wheel – which I attached to my handbag – but that was lost. He was a very nice young fellow, several months younger than me at just 18yrs old.
Our T/Course finished mid Aug & we then had an end of Course parade in front of Cranwell College where there was a vast parade ground. Our
[page break]
8
Air Commandant of the WAAF "Lady Walsh" took the Salute while the various Apprentices Bands played and others.
Cranwell was a happy time for me in the WAAF.
From Cranwell I was posted to:- 14 MU Carlisle (Maintenance Unit). We were given 7 days leave from end of Course – so I travelled from Edinburgh to Carlisle
[page break]
[underlined] 9. [/underlined]
My train journey turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The train was rather long & mostly full of service personell [sic] – so when we arrived at Carlisle Station – I was all set to get off but being in one of the two end carriages we were not by a platform & the train pulled away I was devastated all but tears, but there were plenty of comforters – male & female around – so my journey continued to [deleted] Pre [/deleted] York.
[page break]
[underlined] 10 [/underlined]
On my return to Carlisle there are always Military Police by the gate – so I had to explain to them in order to use the transport – & [inserted] on [/inserted] arrival face the Station Warrant Officer – who starts bellowing at you about alot "bull" not a very good welcome I learned later that his nickname was "SPAM"
The Signals Section was large & accommodated many teleprinters – cable & post office machines. So we served many small units around [inserted] SE [/inserted] & Carlisle Post Office
[page break]
11.
We had civilian supervisors that is where I earned my LACW. (Leading Aircraft Woman.)
We lived in Nissen Huts about 14-16 girls. Our heating was a large coke stove in the middle of the Hut. Our beds wrought iron unsprung & 3 horse hair biscuits like large flat cushions [inserted] 2 [/inserted] white coarse sheets & 3 very rough grey blankets. 1 bolster pillow looking more like a draught excluder.
[page break]
[underlined] 12 [/underlined]
The ablutions were about – 50yds away – Baths were limited in as much as they wer [sic] always occupied [underlined] or [/underlined] there [deleted] was [/deleted] were no plugs.
The NAAFI was quite good –
We had a number of W/Indian lads there – they usually worked in the workshops – sometimes on your way into the NAAFI in the winter evenings you got [inserted] a [/inserted] scare from a few of them hanging around the entrance – black faces & white eyes piering [sic] at you.
[page break]
13
There I played netball & got my little finger (pinky) of my right hand bent.
I joined the EVT Classes Education & Vocation Training I made a leather writing case – with thonging all around the edge & a zip. My friend Mary and I use to go out to Carlisle quite a lot – to Cinema & also there was marvellous new NAAFI Club – lots of entertainment & lots boys aircrew – was the attraction. I became friendly with a fellow called Peter – he was posted into 14 MU with
[page break]
[underlined] 14 [/underlined]
many others aircrew – [deleted] he was [/deleted] they were made redundant at the end of their course – he was a navigator. I was friendly with him for a while and then he was posted away to Stafford. He came up to Edinburgh for a long weekend & met my parents, John & Renee in So Queensferry.
He had mentioned about me going over to Longtown not far from Carlisle to meet his mother however it just happened that we met by accident in Carlisle but I got the feeling I was not welcome –
[page break]
[underlined] 15. [/underlined]
There were a group of airmen & WAAF who always gathered round a table in the NAAFI – including Peter – also there was an Airman very much senior to [inserted] all of [/inserted] us & distinguished so there were lots of discussions going on. However many years later in Cirencester with Anne, Linda & a bump, I saw this man whom we named the Professor – I felt annoyed with myself for not making myself present with my family.
"that is me" –
[page break]
[underlined] 16 [/underlined]
At Carlisle we had a number of Jamacians [sic] on Camp – they all seem to fit in well & off [sic] course the girls loved to jitter bug with them (at least some of the girls).
Sometimes they wer [sic] a bit scary in the dark on our way to the NAAFI.
Our Signals Section was supervised by civilians. One of the supervisors invited Mary & me to her home in Carlisle where she lived with her mother very comfortably. She invited us to have a bath & meal & then took
[page break]
[underlined] 15 [/underlined][sic]
us to the cinema – we saw "Song of Bernadette (Jennifer Jones) I loved watching her (mainly about life in a Convent). We both thoroughly enjoyed our Sups generosity.
On 'D' Day 45' some of us WAAF stood or sat on one of those long trailer's called a Queen Mary. (a bit like one of our long car trailers we have today 2000) parading through Carlisle. (not very enjoyable).
In camp we were given a special meal served by officers
[page break]
[underlined] 16 [/underlined][sic]
& all the boys were given a cigar. Next to our camp was a small airfield 15 EFTS Kingston. They trained on "tiger moths". The Pub in Kingston was the first time I had a drink with the girls – a shandy which I disliked.
During my time in the WAAF I never went out drinking [inserted] or [/inserted] even after.
I 1946 I was posted to 90 Group Egginton Hall Derbyshire – a large country house – with a river
[page break]
[underlined] 17 [/underlined]
running through the estate. The story went that there was a ghost "A White Lady". I never saw her. – but felt nervous at times when we would have to walk by that area where she was suppose [sic] to be on our way to evening / or night shift.
Not many personnel on the station. Our Sigs Office was what would have been a servants bedroom – level with the courtyard.
There were a small number of Italian prisoners there wandering around sweeping up etc Sometimes I would push open
[page break]
[underlined] 18. [/underlined]
my [inserted] (sash) [/inserted] window level with the ground & have a chat with them.
My frind [sic] Joan was Telephonist there She liked classical music. Sometimes [inserted] we [/inserted] would [inserted] go [/inserted] into the Reading Room where you could play records. Joan liked 'Corgi [sic] & Bess' but next time we found it broken. Our nearest town was Derby for entertainment & Market Drayton was walking distance
In camp some of the girls & RAF would go moonlight bathing in the river.
I played table tennis there.
[page break]
[underlined] 19 [/underlined]
I was there for 6 months While there for a few months I was made an Acting Corporal on temp basis while they awaited a permanent one. I wasn't exactly happy – felt to [sic] conscious. However it was only a few mths. from there I was posted to 16 MU Stafford & Handforth near to Wilmslow Where I trained for the WAAF. It was a very scattered station
We lived in groups of wooden huts – isolated from our place of work
[page break]
[underlined] 20 [/underlined]
This was 1946/47 – the very bad winter where everything froze. We use to fill a pan with ice to heat [inserted] it [/inserted] up for my hot water bottle – which four of us would share the [indecipherable word] warm water to wash in a.m.
Each day a truck called a 15 tonner with seats & cover would collect us for work 800 hrs.
The ablutions were about 200yds up a slope from our huts. They were all frozen & baths
[page break]
[underlined] 21 [/underlined]
As you can imagine desperation for baths etc
Whilst living there Mary & I went to Bell [sic] Vue stadium to watch the Scramble dirt track racing. It was at this camp I had my purse stolen from my bedside locker. It upset me, mainly because the purse was a gift from an Uncle of mine & was suede in the shape of an old style lum hat. I became frindly [sic] with a Cpl there for a short time – He wanted to be serious & said we could make a go of it, but
[page break]
[underlined] 22 [/underlined]
I said no, I'm still very young & finished He was much older than me by about 8yrs. He came from Mersey. I was demobed [sic] from there Oct 1947.
Our Signals Officer – gave me a very nice report.
After WAAF life – I lived at home for a short time while I worked at Romains [sic] & Patersons in Princess St, Edinburgh for some months with their firm in Boston doing the [deleted] Ex [/deleted] Export work.
[page break]
[underlined] 23 [/underlined]
Still trying to find a job as a Teleprinter Operator. Then I found a job as a Dictaphone Opr at Bruce Peebles engineering firm, for a short time & then a job as a Teleprinter Opr MOD 'Redbrae' Prestwick. All these jobs while short term, I quite liked them – I didn't ever feel settled but I made friends, & from there I met Dad in Edinburgh & the rest is history.
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
1944/47 WAAF Life and After
Description
An account of the resource
Margaret Cuthill's account of her time in the WAAF. At the age of 17 she volunteered for the WAAF and was enrolled as a teleprinter operator. She was sent to Wilmslow for training. After four weeks of drill and physical exercise she was posted to Cranwell on a signals course. Work was interesting and there was plenty of social life. After training she was sent to a maintenance unit at Carlisle.
After the war she was posted to Eggington Hall in Derbyshire, then Handforth. She returned to Edinburgh and worked for civilian firms before becoming a teleprinter operator at Prestwick.
This item was provided, in digital form, by a third-party organisation which used technical specifications and operational protocols that may differ from those used by the IBCC Digital Archive.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Margaret Cuthill
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2009-10
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
28 handwritten pages
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
BCuthillMSFHCuthillMSFHv1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Jamaica
England--Carlisle
England--Cirencester
England--Derbyshire
England--Handforth
England--Lincolnshire
England--Longtown (Cumbria)
England--Stafford
England--Wilmslow
England--York
Scotland--Edinburgh
Scotland--Prestwick
England--Cheshire
England--Cumberland
England--Gloucestershire
England--Staffordshire
England--Yorkshire
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
Angela Gaffney
African heritage
aircrew
entertainment
ground personnel
military living conditions
navigator
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
physical training
RAF Cranwell
sanitation
sport
Tiger Moth
training
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2416/45322/E[Author]MAbbottER470922.pdf
6849c88340a65f9d55696fa097c30869
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
Abbott, E R
Ronnie Abbott
Description
An account of the resource
30 items. The collection concerns Squadron Leader E R "Ronnie" Abbott DSO DFM (b. 1913 - 1992, 44877 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, correspondence, documents, objects, photographs and an <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2608">Album of 70 pages.</a><br /><br />He enlisted in 1929 and trained at RAF Halton serving as an engine fitter in the Middle East 1934 -1936. He became a prisoner of war after being posted missing flying in a Battle in 50 Squadron. Post war he served at RAF Swinderby and Khartoum.<br /><br />The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Lindsey Sutton and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-05-10
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
Abbott, ER
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Postage Stamp]
[underlined] P.R.C. [/underlined]
[underlined] Watsralt [/underlined]
[Underlined] Polish Department [/underlined]
S/Lr E.R. Abbott. D.S.O., D.F.M.,
14, Carline Road,
Lincoln.
[underlined]
[Page break]
[R.A.F. Crest]
[Page break]
[R.A.F. Crest]
OFFICERS’ MESS,
ROYAL AIR FORCE,
WHITE WALTHAM,
Nr. MAIDENHEAD,
BERKSHIRE.
TELEPHONE: MAIDENHEAD 2300-4.
22nd September, 1947.
My dear Abdul,
Many thanks for your letter of the 3rd September. I was very glad to have your news and to learn that you have been getting about a bit. You must have had a very good time over the water: somewhat different to the last time, I’ll bet !!!!
Things with me are fairly good. I have been getting in the odd hour or two in this job which I didn’t have in my previous place. Last week I was caught at Turnhouse by the weather: but had a good look around and managed to come back via Hucknall and so had the week-end at home.
[Page break]
There is a W/C here by name of Fewtrell who you will no doubt remember. We had a good natter when I met him - talking about the old Hampden and things.
This promotion business leaves a good deal to be desired, you know. Not that it may mean anything to me personally - there are lots of people who are not really in the running for one reason or another: at least that is how it would appear. This is mainly due to the fact that promulgation of their acceptance of E.S.C. or P.C. has not found its way into the Gazette. I think mine should be in by now but I have not seen the slip.
I have done over one year of the seven and it is high time that it was published. The last promotion lists [overtyped] had a note to the effect that there were some vacancies left for those who were to be promulgated in the Gazette after April, 1947 and so we go on hoping and still hoping.
[page break]
I sincerely hope that yours will come about just [overtyped] as soon as they know that you are back in full circulation again.
Please excuse all the over-typing: it is rather chilly here this morning and the old gift has not come up to a good standard yet.
Hope all is well with Dolly and the infants. And all at the old Bull too.
Take great Care Abdul,
All best wishes
[underlined] Malcolm [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter to Ronnie Abbott from Malcolm
Description
An account of the resource
He tells Abdul (Ronnie) that he has been flying around. He asks after his wife, Dolly and the children.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Malcolm
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1947-09-22
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Hucknall
England--Buckinghamshire
Scotland--Edinburgh
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
E[Author]MAbbottER470922
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1947-09-22
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sandra Jones
aircrew
Distinguished Flying Medal
Distinguished Service Order
RAF Turnhouse
RAF White Waltham
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1666/43395/BGoodmanLBurnettWv1.2.pdf
b442e45d5519ee84cadd4b9da4dbcb01
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
Burnett, Bill
Jock Burnett
William Burnett
W Burnett
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-12-08
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Burnett, W
Description
An account of the resource
Five items. The collection concerns William "Bill"/"Jock" Burnett (1825655 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book and documents. He flew operations as a flight engineer with 617 Squadron.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Natalie Burnett and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bill Burnett's Biography
Description
An account of the resource
A biography of Bill written by his flying colleague from Bomber Command. It covers his war and post-war activities.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lawrence Goodman
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Midmar (Parish)
Scotland--Spean Bridge
Scotland--Edinburgh
Norway
Norway--Tromsø
Germany
Germany--Hamburg
India
India--Kolkata
Lebanon
France
France--Nice
Germany--Berlin
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Jersey
Greece
Greece--Athens
Gibraltar
Spain
Spain--Madrid
Turkey
Turkey--Istanbul
England--Blackwater (Hampshire)
Italy
Italy--Naples
Lebanon--Beirut
Netherlands
Netherlands--Amsterdam
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Civilian
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BGoodmanLBurnettWv1
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
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
617 Squadron
aircrew
crewing up
flight engineer
Lancaster
love and romance
RAF St Athan
RAF Swinderby
Stirling
Tiger force
Tirpitz
training