1
25
20
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1001/11333/PJosephD18010001.1.jpg
06e49b35684953f5e514f522f50982ff
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1001/11333/PJosephD18010002.1.jpg
45fba4c268648a26ed512d1f4dd8e218
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
Joseph, David
D Joseph
Description
An account of the resource
22 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Joseph (1576383, Royal Air Force) and contains his decorations, log book, memoirs, correspondence and a list of prisoners of war at Stalag Luft 4. He flew operations as a pilot with 76 Squadron from RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor until his aircraft was shot down on 18 March 1944 on an operation to Frankfurt and he became a prisoner of war. The collection also contains a letter to Mrs Ramsay about the loss of her son, Flying Officer Kenneth Ramsay and photographs of his final resting place. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Brian Joseph and catalogued by Barry Hunter.<br /><br />Additional information on Kenneth Grant Ramsay is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/223173/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-05-22
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Joseph, D
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
35 airmen
Description
An account of the resource
35 airmen arranged in four rows. David Joseph is on the rear row, fourth from the left. On the reverse '17. Pre-AFU Course, Perth April-May 1943' and 'Subject back 4th from left'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PJosephD18010001,
PJosephD18010002
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
Scotland--Perth
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
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
navigator
observer
pilot
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2067/34118/BFranceAMStimpsonMCv1.2.pdf
f0ed0aa35f635faae6cf52796ddc629a
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
Stimpson, Maurice Cecil
Description
An account of the resource
124 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Maurice Cecil Stimpson DFC (1921 - 1944, 155249 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, photographs, documents, and pennants. He flew operations as a pilot with 156 Squadron and was killed 15 February 1944. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Tony France and catalogued by Barry Hunter. <br /><br />Additional information on Maurice Cecil Stimpson is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/226992/">IBCC Loses Database.</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-09-22
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Stimpson,
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] This is the time line for the life of Flt Lt Maurice Cecil Stimpson
(08-09-1921 / 15-02-1944) Service Number 155249 Log book No. 68466. [/underlined]
08-09-1929 [sic] Born in Harrow Middlesex
Parents Harry Stimpson and Nellie Louisa Stimpson (nee Titbbit.
Living at Parkfield Lodge, Headstone Lane, Hertfordshire.
Attended Headstone Lane School now known as Nower Hill School Pinner.
There is now a Wooden Monument to Maurice. (Not sure yet when this was created and who paid for it.) It was rededicated by the RAF on Friday the 9th of November 1984.
Attended by Maurice Sister also Nellie Louisa France (Nee Stimpson born 09-03-1915 and passing 24-04-1986 and her surviving son Tony France born 10-03-1948.
There is no date for Maurice starting or finishing at Headstone Lane School yet.
Mr. Nagle current liaison with Nower Hill has been asked if he can provide this information.
01-09-41 joined RAF almost twenty.
01-09-41 / 04-10-41 LONDON A.C.R.C. (Number 1 Aircrew Receiving Centre, that was a receiving centre for new RAF recruits, in Lords Cricket Ground in London between 1941 and 1944.)
04-10-41 / 16-12-41 SCARBOROUGH 10 I.T.W. (The six week training programme at the ITW was designed to improve discipline, physical fitness and mental alertness and provide a sound basic knowledge of the Royal Air force.)
17-12-41 / 07-01-42 PERTH E.F.T.S. (With the outbreak of war the RFS became No 16 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) and the head of Air Schools was re-commissioned as an RAF Officer. ... If they were considered suitable they were posted to begin their training at an RAF Elementary Flying Training School to fly light aircraft.)
Diary comment Flying duel Tiger Moth D.H. 82 7hrs 55minutes
14-01-42 / 01-02-42 MANCHESTER P.D.C. (The Professional Development Center (PDC) provides resources and tools needed to become self-motivated, competent, highly skilled leaders and followers)
01-02-42 / 13-02-42 Chateau Therry [sic] Ship from Greenock to New Brunswick.
Chateau Thierry (AP-31) was built in 1921 and served with the Army until transferred to the Navy on 15 July 1941. 1941 – The ship was transferred to the Navy on 15 July and was commissioned on 6 August.
13-02-42 / 23-02-42 Moncton CANADA 31 P.D.C.
25-02-42 / 29-03-42 Turner Field U.S.A. (Construction of the base and airfield, named Air Corps Advanced Flying School, Albany by the United States Army Corps of Engineers began on 25 March 1941.
Diary Comment Flying P.T.17
29-03-42 / 02-06-42 PRIMARY DARR AREO TECH U.S.A. The 29th Flying Training Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Western Flying
[page break]
Training Command, and was disbanded on 16 June 1946 at Napier Field, Alabama. The wing controlled World War II Phase One primary flying training units of the Army Air Forces Training Command. Headquarters at Moody Field, Georgia for most of its operational service, it controlled contract civilian-operated pilot schools primarily in the Southeastern United States.
02-06-42 / 05-08-42 BASIC MACON GA U.S.A On August 17, 1941, the first class of British Royal Air Force cadets arrived at Cochran Field. Until June 1942, Cochran was used exclusively for British training. Liaison was maintained between the RAF and the Army Air Force through a Royal Air Force Administrative Officer. British cadets differed significantly from American cadets. Firstly, British physical requirements were much lower than for American cadets. The British were either from 17 to 21 years of age or over 27 years old. Many of the older cadets, married with children, worried about their families back home. The giving of tactical training and attendant discipline, along American lines and pursuant to traditional American policy, concerned and irritated the British cadets. They believed that if they had to be trained in the U.S.A., they should be subject to British discipline and be taught British tactics – the Americans should handle flight training only. In addition, unlike American cadets who grew up operating a farm tractor or automobile, the most complicated device operated by the average British cadet was a bicycle. Some training bases reportedly taught British cadets how to operate a motorcycle before attempting any flight training. The last British cadets completed training in the U.S.A. in March 1943.
05-08-42 /09-10-42 ADVANCED VALDOSTA GA U.S.A These facilities were home to nine school squadrons and three base squadrons that supported a maximum capacity of about 4,100 personnel. The initial group of 140 military personnel arrived at Moody on November 25, 1941. Although the $11.5 million construction of Moody Field would not be officially completed until June 1942, the first class of 50 U.S.A. Army Air Corps Aviation Cadets arrived Feb. 19, 1942. By the spring of 1942 the personnel at Moody numbered 3,000 enlisted, 350 officers, 450 flying cadets, and 20 nurses.
09-10-42 GRADUATED
12-10-42 / 27-10-42 MONCTON CANADA P.D.C
27-10-42 / 06-10-42 Possibly travelled home on the Chateau Therry Ship from New Brunswick to Greenock. The ship name has been deleted form[sic] the personal diary.
Boarded the ship on the 27th set sail at 10.00 hours on the 30th anchored on the 4th of November in thick fog delayed disembarkation left ship on the 5th at 15.00. Marvellous reception by the people. Train journey home arrived at 04.00 having started travelling at 09.00 the day before.
05-11-42 / 15-12-42 P.R.C. HARROGATE
15-12-42 / 27-12-42 6.P.A.F.U. LITTLE RISSINGTON
27-12-42 / 18-02-43 6.P.A.F.U WINDRUSH
[page break]
18-02-43 / 01/03/43 1517 B.A.T.CHIPPINGWARDEN
01.03.43 / 30-03-43. 6. P.A.F.U. WINDRUSH
30-03-43 /17-06-43 30. O.T.U. HIXON / 30. O.T.U. SEIGHFORD
07-06-43 MADE PILOT OFFICER BACKDATED FROM 11-09-43.
22-06-43 / 09-07-43 1662 CON. UNIT LINDHOLME
09-07-43 / 17-07-43 1662 CON. UNIT BLYTON
[underlined] 23-07-43 156 SQUADRON OPERATIONAL [/underlined]
24-07-43 HAMBERG, Lancaster ED990
CREW Leonard Overton. Bomb aimer, Clements Navigator, John Arcari wireless, Thomas Cable Flight Eng, D. Davies second Nav, Fredrick Sunderland Air Gun, Alfred Barnett Air Gun, Maurice Stimpson 2nd Pilot.
27-07-43 HAMBERG, Lancaster ED990
CREW Leonard Overton. Bomb aimer, Clements Navigator, John Arcari wireless, Thomas Cable Flight Eng, D Davies second Nav, Fredrick Sunderland Air Gun, Alfred Barnett Air Gun, Maurice Stimpson 2nd Pilot. (This entree was not on the 156 squadron list but is recorded in red in the log book)
02-08-43 HAMBERG Lancaster W4950
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton. Comment Returned Icing
17-08-43 PEENEMUNDE Lancaster JA697
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson, Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
22-08-43 LEVERKAUSEN Lancaster JA674
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson, Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
23-08-43 BERLIN Lancaster JA921
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson, Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton. Comment Returned early.
27-08-43 NUMBERG Lancaster JA674
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton. Comment Landed Tangmere shortage of Petrol.
[page break]
31-08-43 BERLIN Lancaster JA674
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
03-09-43 BERLIN Lancaster EE173
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
05-09-43 MANNHEIM LANCASTER EE173
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton. Comment combat with E/A 109.
06-09-43 MUNICH Lancaster EE173
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton. Comment 1st Marker.
16-09-43 MODANE Lancaster EE173
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
29-09-43 BOCHUM Lancaster JA912
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Harry Toon, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
04-10-43 FRANKFURT Lancaster JA975
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
07-10-43 STUTTGART Lancaster JA912
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
8-10-43 BREMEN Lancaster JA912 CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson
Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
29-10-43 PATH FINDERS BADGE
[page break]
29-10-43 FLIGHT LIEUTENANT BACK DATED FROM 01-11-43
22-10-43 Frankfurt Lancaster JA912
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
10-11-43 MODANE Lancaster JB113
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
[underlined] 29-10-43 Pilot Officer M.C. Stimpson (155249) AWARD OF PATHFINDERS BADGE [/underlined]
17-11-43 MANNHEIM Lancaster JA912
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
22-11-43 BERLIN Lancaster JB228
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
23-11-43 BERLIN Lancaster JA674
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
26-11-43 BERLIN Lancaster JB228
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, Harold Robinson Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner A N J Hinds, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
02-12-43 BERLIN Lancaster JB228
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, W Coyne Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
03-12-43 LEIPZIG Lancaster JB228
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, W Coyne Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
16-12-43 BERLIN Lancaster JB228
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, R Hill Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
20-12-43 MANNHEIM Lancaster JB223
[page break]
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, R Hill Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
23-12-43 BERLIN Lancaster JB228
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, R Hill Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
29-12-43 BERLIN Lancaster JA925
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, R Hill Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
01-01-44 BERLIN Lancaster JB228
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, R Hill Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
02-01-44 BERLIN Lancaster JB228
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, R Hill Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
05-01-44 BERLIN Lancaster JB228
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, John Wright Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
27-01-44 BERLIN Lancaster JB226
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, R Hill Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
28-01-44 AWARDED THE D.F.C.
28-01-44 BERLIN Lancaster ND453
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, John Wright Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
30-01-44 BERLIN Lancaster ND504
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, John Wright Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
[page break]
10-02-44 PRESENTED TO THE KING AND QUEEN AT WARBOYS. Recorded in personal diary and the occasion is detailed on page 94 in the book The Pathfinders (picture of the King and Queen)
10-02-44 Gentleman's evening Pinner with the Colne Valley Electrical Company. Presentation of a cheque and mug for being awarded the D.F.C. Also picture of the evening and paper report. (Maurice's employer before joining up.) Recorded in personal diary.
14-02-44 Went to picture with Hunts, Joe, Johny and I went to see Crash Dive by Tyrone Power. Quite good. (Last diary entry)
15-02-44 Last letter he wrote home was to Marion (Not sure who this lady was but many letters were sent to Marion)
15-02-44 BERLIN Lancaster ND504
CREW Pilot Maurice Stimpson, Bomb aimer Johny Jackson, Navigator, John Wright Wireless Walter Catchpole, Flight Eng Joe Gurton, Up Gunner Bill Smith, R Gunner Roy Dutton.
[underlined] COMMENT: FAILED TO RETURN [/underlined]
[underlined] Personal details of some of the crew. [/underlined]
Bill Smith – 24 Fore Street Seaton Devon.
Roy Dutton – 136 Arabella Street Cardiff.
Joe Gurton – 44 Mountgrove Road Highbury, London.
Walter Catchpole – 294 Beccles Road Lowestoft (Possibly Oulton Broad after Beccles Road)
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
A Biography of Maurice Stimpson
Description
An account of the resource
A biography of Maurice covering his birth in 1921 to his death in February 1944.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Harrow
England--London
England--Scarborough
Scotland--Perth
England--Manchester
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
United States
Georgia--Albany
Georgia--Valdosta
Georgia--Macon
England--Harrogate
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Peenemünde
Germany--Leverkusen
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Munich
France--Modane
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Leipzig
France
Georgia
New Brunswick
Germany
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Lancashire
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.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BFranceAMStimpsonMCv1
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Seven typewritten sheets
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
156 Squadron
1662 HCU
30 OTU
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
bombing of Hamburg (24-31 July 1943)
Bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Flying Training School
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
killed in action
Lancaster
Operational Training Unit
Pathfinders
pilot
RAF Blyton
RAF Chipping Warden
RAF Hixon
RAF Lindholme
RAF Little Rissington
RAF Seighford
RAF Warboys
RAF Windrush
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/834/18873/YGeachDG1394781v2.2.pdf
60427241f61034da5e5899391012c1a2
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
Geach, David
D Geach
Description
An account of the resource
<a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/218400/"></a>52 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer David Geach (1394781 Royal Air Force) and contains his diaries, correspondence, photographs of his crew, his log book, cuttings and items relating to being a prisoner of war. After training in Canada, he flew operations as a bomb aimer with 623 and 115 Squadrons until he was shot down 24 March 1944 and became a prisoner of war. He was instrumental in erecting a memorial plaque to the Air Crew Reception Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. <br />The collection also contains a scrap book of photographs.<br /><br />Additional information on his crew is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/218400/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Harry Wilkins and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-03-14
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
Geach, DG
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] S.O. Book 136. (Indexed) [/underlined]
Code 28-74-0.
G [crest] R
[circled SUPPLIED FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE]
T. 1599. Wt. 10569. 16,500 Bks. 2/38. P.I.
[page break]
[underlined] BOOK 1 [/underlined]
COMMENCING MY LIFE IN THE R.A.F. UP TILL THE END OF I.T.W.
[page break]
[underlined] Monday February 9th. [/underlined]
Something gave me the wild idea, of trying to keep a diary of my life in the R.A.F. and try is the right word, for I doubt if it will last more than a fortnight. I was sworn in as a U/T Pilot last August & have been waiting until to-day when I at last entered the R.A.F. My first day is now over.
Five of us from work, met & arrived here at 10 A.M. Bill Wren was separated from us, as he is an Observer, then Frank P & Frank B, were put in Flight 6, whilst Len Bacon & I went in Flight 9. We hung about this morning at Lords Cricket Ground, filled in numerous forms, & had a quick medical. Later we marched to the clothing stores, this is a converted garage, a big place, & out of it recruits were pouring with, kit-bag
[page break]
articles of clothing, on their arms, & tin helmet on their head, a most comical sight. Inside we hurried from counter to counter & emerged in the same rag-a-muffin state as the others, the evacuation of Dunkirk had nothing on us.
We marched to our quarters then, a big block of flats, called Hall Rd. [indecipherable word], & then to dinner. It was then 4-30 P.M. & I had been since 8 a.m. without a bite. Food isn’t too bad not cooked well though. After, we went back & made our beds, & checked the kits, then we were found to be in the wrong room, some corporals fault, so we undid the beds & dragged them away. We had to stay in to-night other nights we have 5-30 – 10.30 off Sat, 1.30 – 23-59 Sun 12.30 – 10.30. Lights out are at 11.0 p.m Reveille 6 A.M. I’ve written a fair bit about my first day so being tired I’m off to [deleted] bed[/deleted]. bed.
[page break]
[underlined] Thursday Feb. 12th [/underlined]
Our first week is well under way now, it’s a swine in the morning, reveille at 6 A.M, & we should be washed, dressed, shaved, beds made, room swept, kit cleaned & at breakfast by 6.30. Its pitch black & we have to queue in the dark & cold for about half an hour before we get in the dining hall, its underground. As I said before, food is none too good. Our day consists mainly of marching, lectures & drill. Weve [sic] had 2 hours Morse & have to receive 4 w.p.m at the end of the week, & 2 hours maths yesterday & 2 tomorrow, exam is at end of week also. These exams decide whether we go to I.T.W or Brighton (for further training) or stay here a bit longer. Had a lecture by Group Captain – name is Gillighan was a Kent cricketer
[page break]
decent chap – at Swiss Cottage Odeon. Haven’t been home or out any night yet.
[underlined] Friday Feb 13th [/underlined]
We no longer jump out of bed at reveille, we’re all dog-tired & half-asleep in the day. Had our final 2 hours Maths to-day & then the exam this afternoon, we went to Regents Park Zoo for it. Funny to sit & watch lions walking round, while doing maths. Dont [sic] think I did too well, guess its Brighton for me. [deleted] [indecipherable letter] [/deleted] Tailor saw our uniforms Wednesday, & we took them to the stores for alteration yesterday. Got them back to-day & all tried them on, doesn’t look too bad, all nice & new though. We have to scrub our room to-night for C.O’s inspection to-morrow. Dont [sic] think I mentioned it,
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we have to put our 3 ‘biscuits’ (small mattresses) with blankets & 2 sheets in certain order & position, & towel laid on bed every day, & if anything’s an inch out theres [sic] hell of a row. Am meeting Mary at dance to-night if I can make it.
[underlined] Monday Feb 16th. [/underlined]
Got to dance with Len Bacon, & saw the old pals at office, only had 1 1/2 hours there. On C.O’s inspection he saw a pair of boots on a bed instead of under, & a case in sight, so he declared the room disgraceful, & we stayed in for our Saturday afternoon, washing doors, while every one else had gone out or home. I just managed to catch Mary in time at Holborn Stn. & we went to the ‘Globe’ & saw Evelyn Williams in his play “The Morning Star” Got back by 11-10 P.M. On Sunday we
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marched around trying to find a church for church parade, as the one we should have attended didn’t hold 1500 like they claimed. The padre was decent & only said a prayer lasting 3 mins so we would be able to get home early. Booked out & was home at ten to one. All asked hundreds of questions. Mary came over, I slept most of time, arrived back at 10-10.
Yesterday was busy day, went to Odeon for lectures in morning, did P.T for first time in the afternoon, in gym kit, pretty cold. Then gas lecture & had to march & drill with bare necks, & no greatcoats in the street. Regular swine our corporal, tiny chap too, guess he’s after his third stripe. Wrote letters
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this evening. We’ve got our inoculations to-morrow, & we’re in a funk, according to the tales we’ve heard most of the chaps faint on the spot. Also on guard all night so we should be in a sorry state by Wednesday.
[underlined] Tuesday (afternoon) Feb 17th [/underlined]
Well our inoculations are over, & they’re not too bad so far. Marching there we saw a couple of fellows who had had it, being helped along, so it didn’t cheer us. We had two in the chest and Vaccination & Blood Testing in the arm. About three or four came over groggy & faint in our flight, we’ve got all the afternoon off until 5-30 p.m when we parade for guard, our arms are beginning to stiffen, & our chests ache so will need something to get us through it.
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[underlined] Thursday Feb 19th [/underlined]
Feeling quite A.1 again now, we did our guard, although by Army Regulations, we should have 48 hours off after inoculations, 44 of the flight had light duties – like pickets etc. & had the usual nights ‘sleep’, but I happened to be one of the unlucky ones, and I with five others did guard at the door, 2 on & 4 off, & got snatches of sleep somehow but was half asleep all yesterday. Light day though only fitted for oxygen masks & collected identity cards & discs, my plate in it looks as though I’ve all the cares of the world on my shoulders. Today we had our first pay parade, terrific amount of waiting etc. all for 30/-. This afternoon we had a lecture by the padre, a
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real decent fellow, a pilot of the last war incidentally. He particularly impressed upon us that many of us would come off the pilots course a
& finish as an [deleted] bomber [/deleted] observer or W.O.P. – Air Gnr. Marched half-way round London & dashed to Abbey Lodge for a medical. Somehow I didn’t have to have one as my last was only six months ago, four others were in the same position. So am looking forward to a quiet night and a good bath, tonight if I can make it.
[underlined] Tuesday Feb 24th [/underlined]
Have let this slip for a bit, so have lot of writing to do. Same old bind marching, drilling etc. & cursing the corps. guts, in the C.Os inspection the gas-capes weren’t rolled with the buttons dead in the front. Maybe this sort of stuff will
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make us better pilots, I don’t quite see how though. Got home alright Sat & Sun, stood waiting for an hour before Church parade Been trying to get our thirteen pieces of webbing into one for the march past on Wednesday. We assemble it, roll the gas capes dead to 15 ins, & then have to take it down, put it together again, nothing but messing around. Have been shown films of engineering, inventions, road-building, & farming, so were [sic] beginning to wonder what were [sic] here for, anyway we sleep through them. We do P.T in Regents park, talk about brass monkeys, were nearly frozen. Had to parade in full webbing & kit packed to be inspected to-day, & stood for an hour in it, our backs were nearly broken
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We were supposed to have an Inter Flight Drill competition to-day, but the C.O said we were the smartest [inserted] - ? [/inserted] easily, so it isn’t being held. We should worry about the honour, our corp. will be a good way to getting his third stripe, out of our sweat, but will find nothing extra in our pay packet. Every other flight have their grading results, but 9 Flight, last as usual, has nothing. We might get our posting to-morrow – expect we’ll all be for the Sunny South. We’re leaving here Saturday anyway, & are confined to camp Friday night, so it will be good-bye to A.C.R.C. or assie-tassie as they call it, we won’t weep tears over leaving anyway, wonder if anyone will do the corporal on a dark night.
[underlined] Thursday Feb 26th [/underlined]
Still preparing for this march
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past, it still hasn’t come off. We spent most of yesterday standing around in our full pack & webbing until in the afternoon we were inspected by the Squadron commander. He found various little faults as usual, & we had to stay in to correct them, I with 24 others were ordered to have hair-cuts, they even have Air Force regulations for this – no hair should be longer than two inches. Then we had to wait for our pay books making the time 8.30 P.M. I was going home to say good-bye but it was then impossible. My night vision is above average, only a couple of others had that, doubt if it will mean anything.
Had our posting results to-day, I’ve been graded C, that’s passed signals, failed maths,
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so I’m going to Brighton. Out of those from work, Bill Wren & Len Bacon are going to I.T.W, & Frank P, Frank B & Ken Wyatt are coming with me. Our famous flat 32 (we’ve been in more trouble than any other flat in the building, had the honour of being the first flat to be kept in by [deleted] him [/deleted] [inserted] Caesar [/inserted] is well split up. Ken, Ray & Frank are going to one I.T.W (incidentally Ken went sick to-day & that defers his posting) Len & Tom to another I.T.W, whilst Pete, Ernie, George Mike & Bill, & myself head south. “Taffy” & Ralph aren’t posted yet for they are undergoing eye training. We shan’t be sorry to leave this place, but its a shame our flat couldn’t stick together. We’re waiting for another inspection to-day, by the Squadron Comdr. If we’re kept in to-night
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there’ll be almost a riot. An order has come through that we have to acquaint ourselves with the Group Captain’s car, & salute it every time it passes in the street. I guess that is supposed to shorten the war somehow. [inserted] – Farmer and then Bill Wren is for Brighton like me. [/inserted]
[underlined] Three Hours Later [/underlined]
C.O’s inspection now over & wonder of wonders he said, we were about the best he had seen & it was a [underlined] very good show [/underlined]! So we’re free now at four ock, [sic] so am going home at 5.30 when we can book out, & enjoy the last night with the family and Mary.
[underlined] Friday Feb 26th [/underlined]
This is the last entry I shall make at A.C.R.C. we leave tomorrow morning, the times of departure will be announced to-night. We have just finished packing
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& its a hell of a job to get everything in our packs. Tomorrow we all go our various ways, its a shame really to break all the crowd up, for they’re all decent chaps, wonder when we shall meet again. Felt the first twinge of pride in the R.A.F, that the Fl/lt was always lecturing about, yesterday, when after all our sweating & cursing at the corporal, we marched along, the smartest turn-out there, I guess it was for our own good after all.
We have done nothing but hang around to-day, its been nice & easy for a change. I’ve been posted to ‘M’ Flight at Brighton. I wonder what kind of a place it is and what the fellows are like, still I’ll know soon enough. Seeing its our last night I guess all ‘Flat 32’ will go out on the beer & wake up feeling awful to-morrow – well next time I write will be at Brighton.
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[underlined] Monday March 2nd [/underlined]
We’re now at Brighton & are viewing it with mixed feelings I don’t like it so much as A.C.R.C. Our billet is the Hotel Metropole & is a fine big place overlooking the sea. There are three others in this room, Frank P, Bill Monk, who was in my flat at Hall Rd, & a chap named John, who came off a WOP/AG’s course. The room has bare stone floor which isn’t so bad, but there is no heating, & no wash bowl, & about four roomfull’s [sic] of fellows use the one opposite, that makes about 25 chaps to one wash-basin. All windows & doors are open throughout the day & a perpetual gale sweeps through.
This seems to be a worse place for red-tape – we have a stronger word for it. I’ll give a few examples, we have to green
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blanco the respirators – against K.R’s by the way – which makes them an evil green & destroys their water-proofing ability. White blanco our flashes, do own P.T shoes all over with blacking, even John who has brown shoes. A coat-hangar is issued & the gas-cape is hung in a certain manner – different to that at A.C.R.C. – over it. The blankets etc. are folded the same, but sheets must be rolled & flattened until they are the same thickness as the blankets. Towel is laid out touching the biscuits & kit-bag laid under the bed with end of it in line with edge of towel. Boots & P.T shoes & water-bottle are stood in order at the foot of the bed. The mug – issued to us – is placed in the centre of the towel, with knife handle downwards in centre, spoon on the left & fork on the right, oh! & the handle of the mug must point to the right. All this & 67 miles across this water – Jerry is training like hell to smash us.
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The food here is cooked by women however, & is decent, we actually had [underlined] egg [/underlined] & bacon for Sunday breakfast. No church parade yesterday & after 12 we viewed the town & sea, visited a cinema at night, lot longer show than in London. I am now in ‘B’ Flight, & there are 151 in this, our day is from 7.40 parade. – then classes from 8 A.M. till 12-35 & 2.0 P.M. till 6.15 P.M. so were [sic] gonna be busy. With all this cleaning etc. we won’t have many evenings out either. Fellow in room opposite heard his brother – Spitfire pilot – was killed on ops’ yesterday, so applied for compassionate leave. C.O was away so they told him to wait until to-day & some pilot officer (ground staff) airily remarked “Oh: well weve [sic] all got to go sometime you know”. He got leave to-day. Well will see what life is [inserted] like [/inserted] here this week.
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[underlined] Thursday March 5th (morning) [/underlined]
It is a difficulty to find a moment to make entries in this diary, down here. Out time is fully occupied, parade 7.40 then classes at 8-0 till 12.30 with 1/4 hours break, we queue for dinner then, & parade again at 1.40 for classes at 2.0 until 6-15 when we queue for tea. It is like a school for we change from Signals to Morse or Lecture etc every hour. We certainly have enough Maths, and I only pray I’ll pass the exam. Queuing for meals is better than Hall Rd, it winds in single file right up the stair-cases to the 5th floor, but they certainly get rid of them quickly.
Our room is on the 5th floor & we have 145 stairs to climb each time. The routine of blanco etc. hasn’t been as binding as we thought & time passes quickly.
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The C.O. doesn’t seem too bad after all, a bit strict but he’s fair. The chaps billeted in the Grand Hotel next door have a worse time than us, their food isn’t so good, & the squadron-leader they have for a C.O. well – I spoke to some fellows who were on ‘Jankers’ & asked their offences. One got 7 days jankers for a tunic button being dirty, another two had 7 days one for speaking and the other for looking round when they had been ‘Standing at Ease’ for half-hour. On an inspection this C.O. takes a piece of string with him & runs it up the blanket pack & if its 1/4” out [deleted] they get [/deleted] of the required width they get a warning & 3 days fatigues, if it happens to be 1/4" out again – jankers. All these little trimmings are added because ours is supposed to be a disciplinary course.
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One good thing, we’ve had nothing like the amount of “square bashing” I expected. I’ve got a huge lump like a tumour [deleted] come up [/deleted] [inserted] appear [/inserted] on my left knee, so I reported sick. The M.O. felt it & said it was nothing, & when I asked if it would go away he replied he doubted if it would, - it didn’t trouble him as long as it doesn’t injure my body in any way that would prevent me doing the job the R.A.F. wants, it reminds me in a disgusting way of breeding cattle. Its strange really because most of the M.O’s are really decent & know their work from A – Z & look after you ever so well.
Did my first guard here Tues. night, I was black-out patrol, a nice early ‘mike’, I had usual sleep. Owing to being on guard though, I missed swimming in the Organised Games afternoon, and I regretted that a great deal.
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[underlined] Saturday March 7th – (afternoon) [/underlined]
One week is now over, had our first real drill period on Friday, but was nothing compared with that at A.C.R.C. On Thursday after I had made the last entry we went to the ‘Princes’ Hall, a ball-room taken over by the R.A.F, & had a lecture by a Wing-Comdr. from Air-Sea Rescue. We had heard most of the stuff before but he gave us some interesting tales. Out of 1800 rescues made only 2 have worked perfectly from the time of ditching to the rescue, snags nearly always crop up. Another time a Hun pilot landed in the drink in mid-Channel, & E-boats & our H.S.L’s both went for him. The Messerschmitt escort shot up two of our boats & the crews took to the life-boat. So we sent three Hurricanes
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who shot down one Messerschmitt, & chased the other two back. So along came 12 Mess & back went our 3 Hurricanes, Fighter-Command didn’t like it so up went 12 Hurricanes & ding-dong it went. Meantime the Navy had sent our surface craft to clean the Channel of E-boats – so a small war waged all over one man. It only ended with coming darkness, for both sides had reinforcements standing by, & because an E-boat picked up the Hun. Some of the things they have on these rubber dinghies are still hush-hush. One is an invention which marvellously changes a quarter of a pint of sea-water into [underlined] drinking water [/underlined]. Another was a tin of soup & you lit a small tab on the top with waterproof matches & in 7 mins there was a can of hot soup. A small wireless is now included & they are experimenting with a
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rocket-kite to be fired from a pistol to carry up the aerial about 200 ft. Other gadgets such as floatable torch, floatable knife certainly make it a wonderful achievement. Had our usual quota of maths & signals. Today because a couple of rooms were dirty on inspection, we were all confined to barracks this afternoon & this evening, but cheers! its now been cancelled. I’m off to try & find a photographer’s to record this ugly dial.
[underlined] Tuesday March 10th (afternoon) [/underlined]
Had a look round the town Saturday, visited photographers, & then we finished with visit to cinema. Sunday was a nice restful day, with [underlined] egg, [/underlined] bacon & sausage for breakfast again, then church parade. There is a lot less hanging around for the Church parade than at A.C.R.C.
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In the afternoon we spent a lovely lazy afternoon, lounging on a seat in the sunshine, on the prom. I filled the afternoon by writing, a letter to Mary & sun-bathing at the same time. A short alert was sounded, first I’ve heard for ages, only gun fire was heard in the distance. On news it was announced that a Heinkel was shot down at Worthing by the convoy we had seen pass through. A M.T.B & a cable-ship were hove-to here most of the day. There is ample opportunity for aircraft rec. here as numerous types are constantly skimming the houses. Sunday evening was spent in the usual cleaning routine. A good part of Monday was spent in drill, but was most enjoyable in the sun, its marvellous the amount of people who stop to stare, we’d be the envy of all buskers. There’s certainly no war –
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- effort noticeable among a throng of pleasure-seekers, & nice wealthy people who have left the noise of bomb-battered London. Two hours were spent this morning in cleaning the room to the nth degree for Wing-Comdr’s inspection. Marvel of marvels he found no faults & some late passes were actually issued. I collected the photographs to-day & they were so lousy I promptly destroyed them. I have a break now as it is Org Games this afternoon & I intend to go swimming.
[underlined] Wednesday March 11th (dinner-time) [/underlined]
We had an enjoyable swim yesterday afternoon, in a small sea-water baths 25 yds by 10 yds. There were 90 of us in it, but when it cleared it was pretty comfortable. In the evening we went to the Theatre Royal, where the management allow us in the 3/6d seats for 1/-
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pretty decent of them. The show was “Other People’s Houses”, I had seen it at the Ambassadors, but this was a good performance. One point I forgot to mention [deleted] was [/deleted] in the previous entry was that on Monday we set up a record for dressing, washing & making bed-packs. We slept until 7.20 & had to parade at 7.40, boy! did we move but we made it alright. Yesterday they tried to catch us napping without our respirators, by letting tear-gas loose without warning, but we got through alright. Today its been pouring all day, & I guess we were down for drill, for we’ve been hanging about doing nothing, so I seized this opportunity of making this entry. Some baa-lamb annexed our electric light bulb last night & substituted another dim one, so it looks like a raiding expedition for us to-night. Ah! dinner-time I’m off.
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[underlined] Friday March 13th (morning) [/underlined]
Usual programme of maths, signals, drill etc. beginning to get keyed up for the exam on Tues, one moment I think I can certainly pass & then the next I can’t see how I can possibly do it, still we’ll just have to wait and see. Its Friday 13th to-day & although I’m not superstitious, I’m wondering if Fate has any surprises in store. We all returned from our ops’ Wed. night complete with bright new bulb, no casualties though a few narrow squeaks. The fellow who is the sorry owner of the dim bulb, will now do some switching & so it goes on.
Yesterday all the airmen down here that could possibly be spared, paraded for the Wing march-past. We all paraded just by the Aquarium on Marine Parade, & then all marched past
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the Wing Comdr who takes the salute. This bright idea & waste of time originates from him only, and the dais he stands on to take the salute, was built just for that purpose, of, concrete, bricks & steel, all materials needed for the war-effort, at a cost of £120. Then a semi-patriotic address followed, in which he excused the petty rules, such as position of drinking mug etc. as training to make us good pilots. He is the one responsible for blancoing the respirators, some of these pocket dictators make me sick. Still maybe it will end one fine day, & we’ll really get cracking on what we joined up for.
Last night I was on guard & got fire-picket, 2 0n, 4 off, as usual. We cut for different guards & with my usual abomidable [sic] luck, I drew a 3 & last guard, so only had 4 hours sleep, well I’ll never be able to make that up so will probably fall asleep in classes.
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[underlined] Monday March 16th (morning) [/underlined]
The week-end seems to have flown by, it usually does, but this week-end has gone [deleted] unuas [/deleted] unusually quickly, due to the fact no doubt, that both our Maths & Signals exams are to-day. Signals is next hour & Maths this afternoon, naturally were [sic] in a blue funk, still maybe all will come right in the end.
We’ve met no end of fellows who’ve passed here, gone to I.T.W, then they gave them a similar exam, right away, heaven knows why, & there chaps [deleted] made [/deleted] [inserted] came [/inserted] a cropper & back they came. This is about the easiest course to become discouraged and ‘browned-off’ on. Here are we desperately wanting to fly & fight, & they do everything they can to stop you, & cause failures by exams which have no bearing on the course. Lord knows how many, excellent pilots-to-be have been put off, just because
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they were rusty on Equations or another minor branch of Maths. It certainly drives me into the frame of thought, that it is impossible to even be a pilot.
Frank & I had a most pleasant surprise yesterday, when Ken Little & Frank Jose, shouted to us on the prom. They were on their annual leave & had started on a cycling holiday, & their first stop was Brighton. It was like a bolt from the blue to see some-one from the office down here - & fairly knocked us back. Frank B then came along, & we three listened to all the news they had of the office. Ken was attested for the R.A.F last week, so we gave him all the ‘gen’ on our course.
A terrific amount of activity was going on here yesterday, with planes whizzing around, M.T.B’s scurrying along with convoys, a miniature invasion almost. ‘A’ & ‘C’ flights have been drafted for overseas, I don’t know whether I envy or pity them.
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[underlined] Wednesday March 18th [/underlined]
Well our exams are over now, I managed to scrape 100% in Morse, the other three also got through, we’re all hanging on now just waiting for the maths results, its pretty binding. Tuesday saw us taking another exam, this time the Gas exam still it was pretty easy & it doesn’t count with posting. The rest of the day was usual routine.
On Wednesday afternoon we had the Organised Games, & being as it was persistently raining, they abandoned football, rugger & swimming & we were all supposed to go on a 5 mile run. The prospect of running through the rain had no attractions for us, so about 9 of us stayed in a room until the transport had left, luckily there was no roll-call. The buses were supposed to take them 5 miles.
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out & they had to run back, half of them jumped out at the first corner. This evening we’re going to a Wing Concert at Prince’s Hall – should be good.
[underlined] Friday March 20th [/underlined]
Feel bucked now, our results have arrived, all four of us have passed, & we went on posting parade. Once more the splitting up begins, Frank & Bill are going to 8 I.T.W Newquay, John is staying here for a week, whilst I am going to 12 I.T.W at St Andrews. Phew! what a journey its over 500 miles from here & I guess we’ll move off to-night. Guess we’ll have to struggle with the packs and everything once more, still we should be able to snatch some sleep, one of the fellows said its supposed to be under snow there – Anyway I guess we’ll know soon enough, I’m a bit sorry to leave this station it
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has been fairly ‘cushy’ considering, & besides missing old Bill & Frank, I shall be at a station without another fellow from the office for the first time. A week ago Ken Wyatt was taken to hospital with a temperature of 103o & he’s still no better – poor chap. I don’t know where Bill Wren is posted to, he’s on this floor.
The Wing Concert on Wednesday, was an excellent show, & they only had a week to rehearse it. The C.O & his wife were there and they enjoyed the cracks made at him. About the biggest laugh came when in the middle of an act a fellow in pyjamas came out rubbing his eyes & enquired “Anyone seen a broom?” – we shall certainly remember Brighton by this cry. For in the morning when we have to sweep our rooms in a short space of time, there are about 5 brooms to
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70 rooms, hence the plaintive cry. Another pet phrase is “You’ve had it,” meaning its your lot” “or your end is in sight” thats [sic] about as near as it can be translated. One fellow in his gas exam said “Apply anti-gas ointment to a mustard gas burn within two minutes otherwise – you’ve had it.” Ah! well I guess I might as well draw this diary’s life at Brighton to a close, it goes on a 4 – 500 mile journey to-night, like me it is certainly seeing life. Well the next entry will be made in the land of the heather.
[underlined] Monday March 23rd [/underlined]
Here I am safe & sound across the border, & the week-end and introduction to our course are now over. The actual travelling time was 19 hours for the journey we paraded at 4.45 p.m Friday at Brighton & reached St. Andrews dead at noon Saturday. There
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wasn’t a great deal of hanging about which is so usual on postings – but the night express to Edinburgh was 2 1/2 hours late owing to thick mist. It was my first visit to Scotland, & I expected very rugged scenery, but being on the East Coast the countryside is very pleasing.
St Andrews is very old-worldly, & the architecture seems a trifle grim to my English eye, but it’s a very nice town. We have a comfortable billet in a nice small hotel named Abbotsford. Oh! by the way I forgot to mention our journey was accomplished on 3 small sandwiches, a pork pie – our rations & 6d sustenance allowance – they certainly think we’re tough here. To resume everything is top-hole here – the food, accomodation, [sic] beds & a hundred other small details that can make or mar a billet. If we’re lucky
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& don’t fail our maths exam on Weds week, (& I’m praying to the Lord that I don’t for I want to stay on this course) then we complete a ten week course & go on a weeks leave at the end of it.
The course itself means constant swotting from the word go, we take our exams in Aircraft Recog. – we have to know 86 types – Signals – 6 w.p.m in sending & receiving both buzzer & Aldis lamp – Navigation, Law & Administration, [inserted] Anti-Gas [/inserted] Hygiene, & Armaments. We’ll certainly have to get cracking. We started work to-day & have to know 27 types of planes at the end of the week & as I know practically nothing about it I’ll have to make it somehow. The drill here is very lively 140 to the minute all the time for marching [deleted] bu [/deleted] but as the air is very bracing it should keep us fit, also we have 2 Organised Games a week.
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The officers & N.C.O’s here are very decent & the C.O. seems a sport, our corporal is a real decent guy, a Scottish Rugby international – Barry – we also have a Middlesex cricketer here so were [sic] among stars.
We had 2 hrs maths to-day we only have 10 hrs before the exam Also we had our first tuition on the Vickers G.O. Gun to-day & the corporal came out with one of the smartest cracks I’ve heard – we asked when the guns we use for dismantling were last fired - & he said he guessed it was when Pontius was a Pilate (pilot). Very neat I thought. Also they are absolutely keen on cleanness & this squadron is a crack-one & we never wear great-coats – being as it is fine weather its alright now. Well I guess I’d better get cracking on some home-work, & some button-cleaning then a bath & off to bed.
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[underlined] Thursday March 26th [/underlined]
There is not a lot of time to keep a diary at this station either, but I’ve managed to grab this opportunity of bringing it up to date. We are now approaching the end of our first week in St. Andrews, & its about the [deleted] easiest [/deleted] [inserted] best [/inserted] place we’ve struck yet – some of the fellows who have 3 years service in think the same. We have Tues & Friday afternoons off for organised games & Saturday afternoon & Sunday, so things are very pleasant. Mind you with our lectures & everything we certainly have to work as well – but there’s no cause for complaint.
The food is still excellent although I don’t care for the porridge, still I don’t think it is “pukka” Scotch porridge so I can’t criticise their famous body-building diet.
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We have been cracking at aircraft rec. this week & are supposed to know 27 [inserted] planes [/inserted] by Monday, that means know them perfectly. We’ve also had 2 lectures on the Vickers Gas Operated Gun – still we’re not troubling about any of those until we pass or if we pass our maths. I don’t think the Maths tuition we get here is as good as Brighton, still that was a Maths course. Exercise abounds – we get a tidy quota of drill & games, our P.T. instructor is sick at the moment. Last night seven of us went rowing out into the bay, we got in before darkness fell. It was grand, the sea was fairly choppy, & we rose & pitched like a cork – the sea certainly has its attractions. I also went for a sail on our Games afternoon Tues. – as my knee is still ‘whoozy’ &
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I didn’t chance football – and we went a hell of a way out, & the Beauforts from the nearby drome made dummy attacks at us.
Today saw us doing a 3 1/2 mile cross-country run, the first 5 will compete in the Wing run. Our crowd kept together & stayed just with the front few for most of the course to satisfy ourselves we could do it & then dropped back. Only the Wing run is on a Saturday & were [sic] sure we’ll be doing something important then. The inspections here are about the strictest I’ve met, both personal & room inspections. They certainly keep one looking smart & insist upon smart walking always as well. If we stay to finish this course we should be well licked into shape. Guess I’d better get on with some studying now.
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[underlined] Monday March 30th [/underlined]
Our first week here is over now, there should have been a ‘D’ Flight come in here Saturday but it was cancelled, so we still have the place to ourselves. Which is very nice seeing we have plenty of food & all is nice & cosy. We covered a good deal of ground with our lectures & had plenty of work to do in the evenings, at present we’re concentrating on Maths for we have that exam Wednesday. So we’re offering up our prayers for we don’t wish to be taken off the course now.
Friday was our second games afternoon, but I didn’t do anything in particular, for I’m having trouble with the knee again. Incidentally I reported sick with it to-day, & the Sqdn Ldr who is the Chief M.O. told me it was
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unusual, so he thought it might be a torn ligament protruding, & I have to report again in 4 days, & might see a specialist.
Saturday afternoon we decided to walk across the links to – an operational ‘drome there, & get a look round. We splashed through all the mud where the tide had retreated, to try and make a short cut, & then over ploughed fields. We never reached there however, & were just starting a 4 mile tramp along the road back when two W.A.A.F’s gave us a lift in a lorry – bless ‘em. I had a crack at dancing in the evening & found various things different from the English way, but we got on alright. Church parade was over Sunday by 10.0 A.M. – we have a good padre he certainly has faith. – In the afternoon I was deciding to
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try to learn the ancient game of ‘gowf’, we couldn’t find any golf-balls though, so it squashed the whole idea. Today an Air-Marshall came visiting, he saw us when we were in the hall seeing slides for aircraft rec.
Well I certainly feel A.1. & on top of life here & eating like a horse. Yesterday evening we had a fine ‘scratch’ game of soccer on a smooth stretch of sands – we get plenty of exercise in every way. At [deleted] pres [/deleted] [inserted] the [/inserted] moment we’re practising for a drill competition, though I doubt if we stand much chance of bringing it off. It was a Scotch holiday or else just a merchants holiday to-day & all shops were closed and lots of bagpipe skirlings came from the University. Ah! a final plunge into the maths book, & with Gods Help next time I write I may have safely negotiated the exam
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[underlined] Wednesday April 1st [/underlined]
I am making this entry whilst on fire-picket, this is an easy guard duty at this station also, I was lucky enough to get this last week as well. We have [deleted] long [/deleted] nothing to do as long as we stay here & about 10.0 – 11.0 the Orderly officer generally turns us out on a practice fire. Last night they were turned out at 9-30 & 4 were missing, - they are on fatigue’s tonight. Then they had the shock of their lives for at 11.0 the Wing Cmdr, the Earl of Haddington by the way, arrived & turned them out. Half of them didn’t know where the appliances were or how to use them, but I don’t think any complaints were made.
We didn’t do anything out of the usual yesterday morning – an extra maths period was given us.
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The afternoon was our Org. Games afternoon, but owing to the weather – it rained on & off all day – no games were arranged. So Bob, Bill & I went out in a rowing-boat, there was a hell of wind & current running, & then a beauty of a storm descended on us. We could only run before it, & when it lifted we were drenched through, & a good way from the harbour, we had to row like the dickens to get back.
This morning we took the exam at 8-30 A.M. & I think all our room got through – thank the Lord – for we didn’t want to be split – it wasn’t so bad. For two hours to-day we’ve been on rifle drill for a lot didn’t know any when mounting guard – it reminds me of the days in the H.G. – a bind though – Blast that’s the O.O turning us out must dash off –
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[underlined] Saturday April 4th. [/underlined]
The last few days the weather here has been dull & squally, & we’ve had to drill on the sea-front in driving rain – we got thoroughly soaked yesterday. Today was a decent day though & we had the drill competition – as I thought, we didn’t win it but we were by far the newest flight in it. We were complimented by the adjudicating officer on our show & he said it was better than his regiment could have done - & he was a Lt-col in the Seaforth’s so all was not lost.
This week we had a dental inspection & practically everyone is a ‘victim’, I have to have about 2 filled, & the ‘executions’ started Thursday – I think my turn is on Monday. Now our maths are over we have commenced our Navigation, which is the main
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subject in our course. the other night we had some excitement in a rowing-boat Bob & Bill, & myself were out together, & were having the deuce of a time keeping into the bay against a strong current & wind, when suddenly a storm broke. It rained & then hailed, & being as we were in jackets we we [sic] drenched, but the worst part was we were swept out from the harbour. When the weather cleared it took us about 3/4 hour to row back, the boat-man told us when he saw us go, he was about to [deleted] settl [/deleted] set out in the motor-launch. For two cadets were all but drowned the week we arrived. Still it was fun.
A new flight, ‘D’ arrived from A.C.R.C. to-day. It seems they are mainly D grade – all grades are posted to I.T.W’s now, not like us – still I think they lose
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by not going to Brighton. It will seem a bit crowded here now. My knee seems better although not cured – but I have finished with sick parades. We had another 4 mile run on Thursday – if this keeps up we might be able to give Wooderson some tips.
Looking back I find I haven’t mentioned who the five other fellows in this room are. Ron is from Goodmayes, Carl from Yorkshire, Alan from Maidenhead, & Bill & Bob from Glasgow. So actually I am the only one from London. The other night Bill got muddled in the dates & the night he should have been on guard he was playing golf. He was placed on a charge, but luckily got away with only 3 days ‘jankers’. Well its Easter Saturday to-day & I guess ordinarily I would be working so I guess I’m a lot better here.
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[underlined] Thursday April 9th. [/underlined]
Been pretty busy this week & had no time to keep this up-to-date. Our lectures have become more concentrated lately & we have had a lot of evening work to do. We are rapidly progressing in our Navigation which promises to be an interesting subject. Our drill seems to have been shelved lately – most probably on account of the uncertain weather. On Monday though, when Corporal Barry was taking us the Sqdn Flt/Sgt crept across the golf-course & took us for drill. He did everything in his power to make us mess it up as much as possible. Its impossible to describe it, but orders barked unintelligibly, constant marching backwards & forwards – anything to bind us.
Our games Tues afternoon I played rugger in a drizzling rain, and was well knocked about – I was
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just recovering from those aches & pains when I had to attend the dentist & had two teeth drilled. To complete the day in the afternoon we were given 2 inoculations – 3 times as strong as those at A.C.R.C. and it certainly shook us. I know my arm ached like the very devil, & the mild attack of fever we had gee! it was - & still is awful. This morning we felt sick, & hot & cold by turns, although we are recovering now, our arms seem to be locked with pain. Tomorrow I return to the tender care of the dentist for another filling.
This morning 12 fellows were put on a charge for being in bed 1/2 hour after reveille (one was in our room – Ron) they all got 3 days jankers – tough luck seeing they felt queer. Bob has obtained a week-end pass & his girl has leave – so he’s home to Glasgow – he hasn’t seen her in uniform she joined the [deleted] AA [/deleted] WRNS – 4 months ago.
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[underlined] Sunday April 12th. [/underlined]
Taking advantage of our one real restful day in the week, I am making this entry. The latter part of each week always passes far more quickly than the first, for Friday afternoon is reserved for games & Saturday afternoon & Sunday are free so we don’t overburden ourselves with work then. My visits to the dentist are at an end, & he declared me ‘finished’, in exactly what sense of the word I don’t know. My arm is less painful now, so I am beginning to feel A.1. again.
During the past week we have had 8 A.T.C. officers attached to the Sqdn – to get an insight on R.A.F. life. One took us for drill the other day he was quite O.K. – On Saturday we went out onto the dunes and had our first experience at reading
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Aldis lamp – I progressed none too well. The same day we also elected our C.F.C. ([deleted] chief [/deleted] [inserted] cadet [/inserted] flight commander), who takes control if the corporal is absent. Our P.T.I. – a corporal – has returned from sick leave - & he looks a nagging baa-lamb, guess we’ll see him tomorrow. We have also a Law test in the work we’ve covered – that stuff wants some stomaching.
The time is beginning to slip by though, & our leave approaches, what a day that will be. This week-end we’ve spent a good deal of time over on the putting green – but owing to a high wind – no good scores were recorded. I guess Bob will be back from Glasgow soon, its getting late. Also Ron – he obtained a day pass to see his brother in the Navy just docked at Queensferry. I expect they’ll both come back cursing the all too short time – Had Maths results this week I got 93% only 1 failure in the flight.
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[underlined] Thursday. April 16th [/underlined]
I happen to be on fire-picket to-night, we only get it every tenth day, now that ‘D’ flight are here. The weather has been glorious lately, I guess it will be a fine spring, short summer, & long winter again. We are well up to schedule with our lectures, so most of our time this week, has been spent on P.T etc. The P.T.I. is a decent chap after all – Irish - & we’ve had some good times. Nearly every day we’ve been down to the beach and had exercises & games. We strip down to shorts & slippers and its grand to dive about at rugby touch in that sun.
On Wednesday we went on a 7 mile route march, it was a very warm day, & we certainly welcomed the 15 min break at the turning-point. The beer is pretty good around here, but I guess
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anything would have gone down nicely then. We must [inserted] be [/inserted] beginning to toughen up now though for we hardly felt any ill effects or aches & pains.
On Wednesday night we had a surprise, in the middle of the night the air raid siren was sounded. The alert only lasted for about half an hour and no events were recorded. We are now doing Morse on the Aldis Lamp & find it more difficult than the buzzer – though I guess it’s a case of becoming used to it.
We have been feeling pretty tired during the day-time lately, & frequently falling asleep. I was intending to have an early night to-night, but as we have our gas exam to-morrow, I suppose I should get cracking on swotting up my notes.
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[underlined] Monday April 20th [/underlined]
Have just started our fifth week here at the end of this week, we will be exactly half-way through our course, time certainly flies. Which reminds me its about time I got really down to swotting each time I look at the work it seems more. Now that our Anti-Gas exam is over we took it on Saturday we have resumed our Armaments, we’ve practically forgotten the little we knew of the Vickers. A pal of mine at 8 I.T.W. Newquay wrote & told me they have changed to the Browning about twice as much to learn, don’t know if we will. ‘D’ Flight take their maths exam on Wednesday they were given an extra weeks tuition being as they haven’t passed any exams yet.
We had a lousy piece of news on Friday, at least it was for us, Corp. Barry has got his third stripe & is being posted from
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here. He is on leave at present, I think he’s going to Brighton – what a bind for him – bags of bull, thought I guess it wont be as bad for him as it was for us. We’re sure raving to lose him a real white man. – I wonder what kind of a D.I. we’ll get in his place.
St. Andrews holds its Warship Week this week & it was officially opened on Saturday with processions of the three services & bands, mechanical stuff driven by the Poles. Then followed a galaxy of Home Guard, O.T.C. A.T.C. A.R.P. W.V.S. & every single thing imaginable right down to the tiny “Cubs” & “Brownies”. There were two good pipe bands there – really smart, the only hitch was their timing was a good deal faster than that of the Polish brass band, who have a very slow step & it rather complicated matters. everything went off very well though.
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We spent the usual lazy Sunday, except for in the morning when we had to be ready with gas capes rolled, steel helmets on & all in readiness for a gas alarm. Then we surged out onto [deleted] [indecipherable letters] [/deleted] the green opposite & hung around for 3/4 hour. Whether they think we will be warned in advance of a gas attack & be able to have our kit ready I don’t know.
Today we had a thrill when we were issued with our flying kit, I suppose we wouldn’t be natural if we didn’t. It packs out a kit-bag & there are still some items left out & it is valued at over £50, our battle-dress was also issued. Should we fail to pass our exams we will have to hand all the kit back, which won’t be so good. The stuffing in the Triple lining is certainly warmth-giving we were literally sweating, still maybe at 20,000 feet its none too warm.
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[underlined] Thursday April 23rd. [/underlined]
The weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse today, and we have been pessimistically assured by local inhabitants that although St. Andrews is reknown [sic] for its bracing weather, it is by no means fine weather, so we are unfolding our ground sheets in readiness. The other day after rugger touch on the sands, we were allowed in the sea to wash our feet, & a few hardy chaps took the plunge. They assured us it wasn’t too bad, but it reminded me of the Arctic too much so I guess I’ll bide awhile before taking the first dip of the year.
On Tuesday it was Bill’s 21st birthday but as he had visited the dentist that day & had 3 teeth removed he didn’t feel up to a celebration so we postponed it until to-night. For three nights running now there have been clashes between C & D flights, & good old-fashioned pillow fights & raids.
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They are not so gentle as one reads of in School Stories, & last night, 2 of our fellows had teeth knocked out, one his mouth split, & one K.O’d. Still its great fun – we nearly had it on Wednesday though – somebody had what they considered a brain-wave & got 3 stirrup pumps in action. The Orderly Officer came up & caught us amidst a mass of water, & we should all have been charged by the Sqdn Ldr next day, but it was dropped.
They have made a rule that everyone must play some game on games afternoons – as a good few were always giving it a miss. On Tuesday they had some photographers from the Picture Post here to take some photos of the R.A.F. at work and play. We have almost finished our Hygiene, & the Law & are being tested in them next week. 7 failed Anti-“Gas but they resat & then passed”, for a change I wasn’t one of them.
[underlined] Sunday April 26th. [/underlined]
Our course is precisely half over & we have now reached the end of the fifth week & have another five weeks to go, as the last week consists of exams, we have four weeks of studying left. Bob has been happy, for his girl friend is on leave from the W.R.N.S. & came down here to spend 3 days, I think she returns to-morrow, he’ll be down in the dumps alright then. Different flights are constantly arriving here & we are getting quite senior, in fact we are the senior flight in 3 Squadron. ‘B’ flight arrived the other week & comprise of 1 W/O 4 sergeants 9 corporals 18 L.A.C’s, & A.C.1’s with a few A.C.2’s scattered around.
We celebrated Bill’s 21st birthday on Friday night, at the Conservative Club, & got slightly merry. That isn’t a bad club, but there’s an excellent
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club, called the “60” club, one of the most comfortable places I’ve been in. They had a ball at the Town Hall to close Warships Week – admission 10/- needless to say there was a scarcity of R.A.F. – I don’t know how much St. Andrews achieved I think they reached the mark though.
I had the misfortune of being on guard last night, and the orderly officer a canny swine, must have found out that between 7.30 & 9.30 some of the fire-pickets were always over at the N.A.A.F.I. Anyway he turned us out at 8 p.m. & two fire-picket fellows were missing – needless to say they’re on a charge, unless they can produce a perfect excuse.
On Monday we are having a test in Hygiene, & on Tuesday a test in Law, I don’t see the point of learning that stuff, but the powers that be have decreed it, and who are we to argue with such.
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[underlined] Wednesday April 29th. [/underlined]
The end of the month is on us, & in 2 days time we’ll be saying, “This month we take our exams”, as we begin to realise that we have only 3 weeks left to get moving with our studying, bags of panic are visible. We had our Hygiene test, but the Flt. Comdr put the Law test off – luckily for us as we know sweet fairy ann on that subject – I guess our sins will find us out.
For the Games afternoon yesterday as there wasn’t much on the programme Bill & I decided to walk 6 miles to the aerodrome of L –. We were lucky to get a lift right into the station & spent a pleasant afternoon looking over the kites & standing by watching the patrols take off. Boy! would I like to be on ops’ right now. Especially now our bomber boys are giving the Hun such a pasting at
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Rostock and Lubeck.
I had a letter from my pal at home today, & he’s finally received his papers for the Navy which was always what he wanted. I guess he’s as bucked as I was when I got into the R.A.F. The lucky beggar won’t have to go through all the bull-shine & exams like us though. Still I expect all that comes under our disciplinary course - & makes one obey orders without question which is very necessary in this game.
We are wondering if we can reserve some compartments on the London Express when we go home. As there are a good few of us travelling on it & we dont [sic] fancy a 10 hour stand. There has been a colossal wind blowing here lately & it makes Aldis Lamp reading a hell of a job as our eyes start swimming – I’m not so hot on that lamp. We have only had one period of P.T, & a cross-country run was cancelled so we’re not grumbling.
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[underlined] Sunday May 3rd. [/underlined]
Usual routine has brought another week to an end, time certainly is passing swiftly. This week, the Wing Commander began interviewing our flight with regard to recommending them for commissions. At an I.T.W. the Flight Commander, the Squadron Leader, & Wing Comdr. all make separate decisions whether a cadet is fit for a commission or not. My interview with the Wing Comdr. may come off to-morrow.
The weather is still glorious here, & after 2 hours P.T. & games on the beach, Friday Morning, some of us took the first dip of the year. I enjoyed that swim, although it was very cold. At present the bottom of the open-air swimming bath is being scraped, so we cannot swim in that, although I prefer that to the sea. It is sea-water & is filled every tide. But there are no waves one can get a decent swim in.
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‘D’ Flight received their maths results this week and it shook them rather. Eleven of them came a cropper, and out of those only four have been granted a second try. Two of the failures are remustering W.O.P./A.C.s and two are taking straight A.G’s. The remaining three had such a low percentage in the exam that they have been taken off flying training altogether.
The usual flight photograph was taken at the beginning of the week, but owing to the extremely strong sunlight it didn’t turn out too well, still we’ve had it. Alan managed to get an introduction to a [deleted] [indecipherable letters] [/deleted] flying officer on Beauforts at L-. Today he was taken up for 1 3/4 hours on torpedo dropping exercises, and he returned here full of it – boy! is he lucky. Owing to the fact that they are doing ‘ops’ most of the time it looks as though we will be unable to have a ‘flip’ – which is a disappointment to us.
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[underlined] Wednesday May 6th [/underlined]
Although we were assured by our Flt/Comdr that this would be a very stiff week and we would have lots of studying so far it has been the easiest week of our course. A lot of time-wasting subjects have been inserted even though we are only 3 weeks from our exams. Today we were supposed to go clay pigeon shooting & accordingly they sent 10 at a time down, but all they got was one hours instruction. Then they had a squadron photograph taken right in front of the club house, with a terrific wind blowing sand across the exposed links. So I guess half of the people in it will come out with closed eyes & distorted faces. One flight is taking there [sic] exams this week & go on leave Friday, so we have to have our Navigation in a temporary class-room which isn’t so hot.
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On Monday we had an Aldis lamp test and partly owing to climatic conditions, & partly myself I hardly received any of it. I have heard it ‘pukka gen’ that one really has to pass this exam & there is no wangling through – so I’m panicking alright. For a failure means not getting ones LAC & waiting here until we pass – which at this rate seems about Xmas. The other evening we had some boxing bouts, & my opponent had done a fair amount of it in peace-time. Still I acquitted myself fairly well, he split my lip, & I split his, & made his nose swell, so it was nice and friendly. As a minor distraction I have been inducing the hairs upon my upper lip to form into a moustache lately, but the results don’t seem too promising. I should have been on fire-picket tonight, but Mac asked me to change & go on tomorrow, as there was a lot of coal for them to shovel I willingly agreed.
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[underlined] Monday May 11th [/underlined]
Another entry into this rapidly growing diary of mine, and another week has slipped swiftly past. The room was half empty last week-end as Ron had a week-end pass to go and see his brother at Queensferry, and Bill and Bob slipped home for the week-end. Today we heard the far from pleasant news that our baa-lamb of a flight-sergt. who takes squadron parade, had been promoted to Station W.O. This shook us, & we’ll certainly have to watch our step. He sports the shoulder-title CANADA, although he may have seen those shores for about a week, certainly no more by his lack of accent, his disposition. Which reminds me it was our turn to be inspected by the Squadron-Leader to-day & after he had passed us, I nearly fainted when somebody pointed out, I’d omitted to wipe the dried polish off my buckle.
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Today we were given the most staggering piece of news & most momentous for us, we’ve ever received. The Sqdn. Ldr. told us all that the Air Command had decided that a second pilot in a bomber was a waste of a man as he was seldom used. He is to be withdrawn & a specialised man in bombing replaces him. He is the Air Bomber & in future Observers will only do Navigating & be Navigators. Should a pilot be wounded the crew are to fly it home on the automatic Pilot & then bale out at the base, & leave the kite to crash. It seems a fine waste of a £40,000 bomber to me. This of course we were told cuts the pilots required down to about half, & as they will have all those in reserve from the bombers, it will be a great chance if we even get a pilot – in fact we might never get a chance to fly at a Grading School – this certainly [indecipherable word] us I can
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tell the world.
Should the pilot be wounded & is a stretcher case – Lord knows what they’ll do for ‘em, they can’t let them crash. Why the obvious solution to train second pilots as air-bombers as well didn’t strike them I don’t know. For if he isn’t needed as a pilot as they say, well he carries his bombing duties out as they want. Then should the pilot be hit which is by no means uncommon, he is at hand to bring the aircraft back safely as the Air Bombers course is only a 60 week one it wouldn’t be much to add on a pilots course. Still I guess the powers that be have decreed it - & it is so. It isn’t our place to criticise knowing nothing about it really, but we can’t help but imagine the scheme is devised by some-one behind a big desk at the AM. However I’m praying to the Lord I will still make a pilot – but it seems awfully remote now.
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[underlined] Sunday May 17th [/underlined]
Haven’t been able to make an entry in this diary at all in the week, owing to hectic work. We only had two easy breaks, one on Wednesday when we went clay pigeon shooting, I just struggled along with an average score. Then on Friday we went on the range with .303’s, I had better luck then & managed to get 108 points out of a possible 125. My last card was the best – 10 rounds with no support – I got 8 bulbs & 2 inners. We have just about finished our Navigation syllabus, & will be able to get in a weeks revision before the big event. There is only a weeks practice on the Aldis Lamp left & we still aren’t able to pass the tests. It’s always the way on this course, bags of exams and bags of panic before them all. Still with luck we’ll see those ‘props’ yet.
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Our Flight Commander has started a childish sceme [sic] of points for the tidiness of rooms. The rooms are already smart & in order as this is compulsory, but he knocks off points for silly little things, a room which is obviously bad, often has its faults missed, & he has a most erratic system of points. It amuses us rather than irritates. Apart from these systems however, he is a really decent chap, and would do anything for us.
I was employed digging the garden the other night for speaking in the ranks. The chap with me, had had a good share of ‘jankers’ here, & was often in trouble. This time it proved his last punishment here. For he had 14 days for playing cards in church – quite a rip. Anyway as well as this he has been taken off the flying course. So to use the familiar term – “He’s had it”.
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[underlined] Wednesday May 20th [/underlined]
Today marked the beginning of the last week of intensive studying. Our flight-commander has drawn up a chart of our work throughout the week & we are getting lots of general study periods – and we need them. Lately we have had a great number of lamp receiving periods & although I am not able to pass tests I am getting a bit better. Alan was on fire-picket Tuesday, & was preparing to get ready for parade, when he had a great surprise. The corporal shouted for him & when he went down he found his brother standing there. He is a Spitfire pilot at present on delivery, & he brought a Spit. up to the nearby ‘drome and dropped in to see Alan, & stayed the night at a hotel. Alan promptly got his fire-picket changed and went out for the evening with him. They had a fine time.
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I visited the cinema on Saturday for the first time since I’ve been here, it was a neat little place. The film was “Rebecca” very old, but very good, & as I had missed it before, I took this opportunity of seeing it. Preparations are going ahead for the flight supper, next Monday, it should be pretty good. It’s a party & carousal combined with the Flt/Cmdr & Sqdn Ldr. there – but they’re both good sports. They have managed to get the radio going now & we are able to catch up with the swing music before proceeding on leave. I have arranged with Mary to book seats at two shows, so I should enjoy my leave, I only hope the weather remains fine. We have filled in the forms for our railway warrants, gee! if only we didn’t have to take all these exams before we went it would be heaven. Still such is life in the RAF.
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[underlined] Sunday May 23rd. [/underlined]
Our last clear week is over, & now we commence the fateful week of examinations, oh! well sink or swim we go on leave Friday. I think we should do alright, although we are not excellent at the subjects, still with God’s Help we’ll get through them A.1. We have the Aldis Receiving exam Monday, so it’s a bit of a baa-lamb to start off with, then come the rest of our Signals exams on the next two days. On Wednesday we have Armaments, then Thursday is a big day with Aircraft Rec. Law & Hygiene, this is a big sweep & leaves only Navigation on Friday. That is the one that is worrying me most.
It’s a funny thing we have done 9 weeks of binding for these and in one swift rush they will be all over and done with, anyway I intend to forget the word
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examination when I’m home and settle down & have a really good time. I’m glad Mary has managed to get her summer hols. at the same time. If we get embarkation leave after Grading School, that supposing with the help of the Lord we fly, I’m hoping she will be able to get more time off then, still its miles & miles ahead.
They are talking about what times the trains are from St. Andrews Friday, as they are only letting 10 travel on each train, to relieve congestion. This seems tripe to me for we can all come back together that makes no difference, & anyway there are only 53 in the flight & not all are going the same way. I hope that us who are travelling to London are able to get on a train early enough, to enable us to start queuing in Edinburgh to catch the [deleted] E [/deleted] London Express.
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[underlined] Friday May 29th [/underlined]
The great day has arrived at last, all the exams are over, though not forgotten, and in a few hours, we will all be proceeding on our various journeys, but each to the same place – home. It seems a long while to go 4 months without leave, & I guess it is really. I was right in the assumption that once the exams had commenced, time would fly by and it most certainly did. Last Sunday Ron took some snaps of us & of view-points around here, he’s just collected them and they came out ever so well.
This morning has been one mad rush, we were up early, and it would fall to my luck to have my turn to clean the wash-bowel, so I had to hurry alright. Promptly at 8.30 we were sitting in the Navigation rooms and we
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commenced the Navigation paper. It was a fairly stiff one, the stiffest we’ve seen for a while, but I think I’ve got through, I hope we all have. We dived in the Y.M.C.A. for the usual cup of tea, and paraded at 11 A.M. for pay, we drew a fortnights, being the week of leave, then we were paid £1 for ration money. After that we were given our passes & railway tickets, and there was nothing more to do but wait for our train, so here I am hanging around until 4.5 when we say goodbye to Scotland for a brief while.
I’m still praying that the weather will break as this doesn’t seem any too cheerful, still who knows it may turn out fine. I can see way across the valley a puff of smoke leaving Leuchars so it must be our train, & I must fly, next time I open this our treasured leave will be over.
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[underlined] Monday June 8th. [/underlined]
Back in harness once more, and naturally feeling ever so sorry that its over, especially as Mary has another week’s holiday & will have to spend it by herself. I had a grand time & marvel of marvels the weather broke at the beginning and we even had a heat wave, I never expected that, it looks like my prayers were answered alright. The journey to London was uneventful, we arrived Kings X – 8.10, an hour late, we had [deleted] a [/deleted] seats & that was worth queuing for. Returning to Edinburgh we arrived 40 mins late for no apparent reason, seeing that it was perfect weather, & we were on time up to Berwick where we stopped on a deserted part of the line for a quarter of an hour. The train from Leuchars should have gone
[page break]
at 8.35 P.M. but it waited for us, and we caught the last bus from Leuchars and arrived here at 11.35. We were dead tired, & hungry so after satisfying that need we made our beds & turned in.
This morning found reveille at 6.15 again, but we were so tired that we were unable to get up. Later I got up & started to shave (we all missed breakfast) when I was horrified to hear “On Parade” shouted, Bob & Bill dashed around & I rushed my shave & how I got down in time I don’t know. Then to put the tin hat on it, the Flt/Comdr. inspected us, just back from leave & not unpacked or anything, I thought that a bit thick. As my buttons weren’t cleaned I was put on fatigues tonight, still we can’t grumble. I’m only glad there wasn’t a room inspection right
[page break]
away, as my bed wasn’t made, and all my shaving kit was lying around.
We weren’t to be spared though for the Wing/Comdr. decided to have a room inspection so everyone had to fly to unpack & sort things out & get the general layout ready. Then we were paraded for the things we have been waiting for the exam results. Only 3 failed Navigation, one of them unfortunately being Ron Cooling in our room, they are going before the Sqdn/Ldr. tomorrow to see if they can have a second chance, I hope they get it. My marks were Navigation 80% Buzzer Sending 100% Buzzer Receiver 97% Lamp Sending 90% Lamp Receiving 97% Aircraft Recognition 100% Law 87% Hygiene 88% Armaments 90%. Then Anti-Gas & Maths results were added mine were 66% & 93% respectively, this gave me a total percentage of 89 9/11%. We should be posted as L.A.C.’s soon & then if we are lucky our prayers may be granted & we really might learn to fly.
[page break]
[underlined] Thursday June 11th [/underlined]
It is now a fully fledged Leading Aircraftsman who is writing this. Yes, our posting in D.R.O’s came through & we were issued with our ‘props’ & spent most of our games afternoon Tuesday engaged in sewing them on. As at Brighton they qualified us for expert house-keepers so we will be in the expert gardeners class when we leave here. Most of our time for there is not much for us to do is spent in knocking the garden into shape. I must confess that I haven’t put much time in, but I don’t see the sense in it. We are just doing anything that may enter our Flt/Comdr’s head, we had a route march of 8 miles on Wednesday at a pace of 130 per minute & to make an impression upon our return into the town he quickened the pace to 184.
[page break]
The only subjects we still take [deleted] is [/deleted] are Navigation, Signals & Armaments. At Navigation the course officially is “Revision”, but we have been bound rigid with lectures on the stars, gee! the flight lieutenant is a bit of a dope but he sure is a wizard astronomer. At signals we have done some Aldis receiving, and have learned a little of the Browning gun at Armaments.
We [deleted] h [/deleted] will have a lot of guards & fire-pickets to do when ‘D’ flight go on [deleted] g [/deleted] leave this Friday I guess. I was on fire-picket Tuesday night but we chanced it & slept up in our rooms. On Wednesday our room managed to get down for breakfast for the first time. On Tuesday we were up at 7.20. so I guess the effects of our leave are wearing off & were [sic] falling into the easy routine again, - gee did I say easy then I’ve developed the old soldier style already.
[page break]
[underlined] Sunday June 14th [/underlined]
So ends our first week back here, & it has drawn itself out so much it seemed like a month. The weather has been lousy, cold & rain & I’ve developed a beauty of a cold, having to muck around in the garden. The other day we had to fill in a pro forma stating our order of choice as to which other categories of air-crew we wished to remuster to if we failed as pilots. It appears we go on a Grading Course to Perth or Carlisle where we should go solo. We then get 7 days leave and are sent to an ACDC (Air Crew Distribution Centre) where we are told whether we are to become pilots or not. Somehow I’m afraid that there isn’t much chance of ever wearing a pair of wings, but I’m praying to the Lord that I might be one of the lucky few to get through.
[page break]
‘D’ flight have gone on leave & we watched them go with envious eyes. On Friday night special posting came through & 12 of our flight were on it, in a way I’m glad I wasn’t for they went straight away for 12 days embarkation leave yesterday, & the posting is supposed to be to Rhodesia. Bill, Bob, & Alan were on it, & Ron is being re-flighted & given another chance at Navigation (with the other 2 chaps that didn’t pass) so that leaves Carl & myself the only ones left out of our room. The eternal process of splitting up of friends always occurs in the R.A.F. I marvel how the chaps in the “Thin Blue Line” so luckily managed to stay together all the time.
Yesterday we had a most interesting 2 hours at navigation, it was on a machine called the
[page break]
Map Tutor. We were given a strip of cardboard with a section of countryside on it 30 miles long and 3 miles wide. We then saw it slowly slipping by on this machine painted on a moving roll of linen & we gazed through a glass panel & it gave exactly the same effect of looking out of an aircraft. Various exercises were given us to carry out such as E.T.A’s fixes etc, they even put a sheet of cotton wool over the glass with a few holes in it to give a cloud effect. It was an interesting machine, & beneficial too.
They have cut out the fire pickets & are having six on guard so that means we do just 2 hours each, no 2 on & 4 off etc. thank the Lord. – Today is Allied Nations Day & a procession has just passed similar to that of the Savings Week, the R.A.F. cadets swinging along in it with bags of ‘bull’.
[page break]
[underlined] Tuesday June 16th. [/underlined]
It has come at last, out of the blue a posting came. 9 of the remainder of the now depleted flight are going to Perth Grading School. While 19 more of us, including myself, “Knocker” Davies & most of the boys are going to Carlisle. So once again we are crossing the border though only just. It is No 15 E.F.T.S. I wonder what life is like there, we’ve heard that life is a lot easier than anything we have struck yet.
These last two days have been fairly easy ones for us with nothing to do. Five of us were put on to sand shifting for no apparent reason, & then at our break-time we weren’t allowed to
[page break]
go out. So we climbed up the face of the building in at a window & got out that way. Of course there was a stink about it & we were on fatigues all the afternoon.
In some ways I shall be sorry to leave St. Andrews for it is a nice place, yet I am feeling rather cheesed after 3 months here. On Sunday just as I entered church a voice behind me, called my name & turning round I saw one of the chaps from the office. I knew he was in the R.A.F. I never dreamt he would come to St. Andrews, it seems out of touch with everywhere so, To cap it all who should I bump into in the Y.M.C.A. but Ken Wyatt. He had been at Brighton ever since
[page break]
we left there. He was in ‘dock’ with pneumonia & had a bit of a hard time, then he went home for 14 days sick leave. His face was well sun burnt & he [deleted] ac [/deleted] certainly looked the picture of health, it’s a shame that he is 10 weeks behind in his course though, through the illness. Naturally he was all athirst for the gen regarding his course & his exams, so we gave him some & told him it wasn’t a quarter as bad as fellows made out.
Ron Cooling & the other two who are being re-flighted expect to go Thursday, and are pretty cheesed about it. I guess I would be too, being in their position, fancy having to face another 10 weeks up here, Ron has also been told by the Signals
[page break]
master (who always was a binder) that he will have to take his Signals [deleted] Couse [/deleted] Course again, for he failed on Aldis Receiving.
This morning we received our back pay for our ‘props’ & drew the magnificient [sic] sum of £5, quite a small fortune for us. In the afternoon we had to tog up in our best blue, for an inspection & farewell address by the Wing Commander. Tons of bull & he only dashed round to make sure our ‘props’ were sewn on. A flight of Poles were also there & it was interesting to watch them being inspected. They stand at ease until the inspecting officer reaches the man next to them, then they snap rigidly to attention, wait till the officer looks at them & then passes to the next chap, then they
[page break]
stand how they like once more.
The squadron leader came over in the evening & shook hands with all of us & wished us “Good Luck.” He is a real decent chap one of the best, if not the best officer I’ve ever met. We certainly were lucky to be in 3 squadron for our sojourn here. Our flight comdr. too gave us each a farewell chat & some useful tips & an invitation to look him up at any time at his home. It’s a pity we cant keep the same instructors all through our training – still there it is.
Well, time is flowing by and I must turn in for the last time here, & say goodbye to all the ground training & look forward to the real stuff. So with thoughts of ‘kites’ ‘solos’ ‘wings’ & various other magical dreams I say Good-Night.
[page break]
CONCLUDING BOOK 1 AND MY GROUND TRAINING
[page break]
[blank page]
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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Book 1, Commencing My Life in the R.A.F. up till the End of I.T.W.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Geach
Description
An account of the resource
First of David Geach's diaries, covering training in London, Brighton and St. Andrews from 9 February 1942 to 16 June 1942.
Format
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One handwritten diary
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Diary
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
YGeachDG1394781v2
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Brighton
England--Newquay
Scotland--Edinburgh
Scotland--Glasgow
Scotland--South Queensferry
Scotland--Perth
England--Carlisle
Scotland--St. Andrews
England--Sussex
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
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Tricia Marshall
David Bloomfield
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-02
1942-03
1942-04
1942-05
1942-06
aircrew
Beaufighter
bomb aimer
entertainment
faith
ground personnel
Hurricane
Initial Training Wing
killed in action
military living conditions
military service conditions
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
Spitfire
sport
training
wireless operator
wireless operator / air gunner
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/834/18874/YGeachDG1394781v3.1.pdf
0ac2178ce957f882e1ba3691a9434011
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
Geach, David
D Geach
Description
An account of the resource
<a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/218400/"></a>52 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer David Geach (1394781 Royal Air Force) and contains his diaries, correspondence, photographs of his crew, his log book, cuttings and items relating to being a prisoner of war. After training in Canada, he flew operations as a bomb aimer with 623 and 115 Squadrons until he was shot down 24 March 1944 and became a prisoner of war. He was instrumental in erecting a memorial plaque to the Air Crew Reception Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. <br />The collection also contains a scrap book of photographs.<br /><br />Additional information on his crew is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/218400/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Harry Wilkins 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
2016-03-14
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
Geach, DG
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Cover Page]
PJZ4 HUT 7
PER ARDUA AD ASTRA MIM
[/Cover Page]
[page break]
[underlined] BOOK 2 [/underlined]
COMMENCING MY FLYING TRAINING, AND MY ADVENTURES UP TILL THE TIME OF LEAVING ENGLAND
[page break]
[underlined] Saturday June 20th [/underlined]
Our first stage in flying training has commenced, we are no longer cheesed with periods of studying, drilling, & various other binding pastimes. Our journey from St. Andrews to Carlisle was pretty uneventful, we caught the connections, & arrived here at about 1 p.m. Dragging those two kit bags around was pretty deadly, & we were glad to dump them. All the lot of us, 19, are in a large room of a hut, rather a collection of huts called the town-centre. This is just opposite the station, the actual station is about 4 miles out from Carlisle & the name of it, is Kingstown.
I know it seems early to form an opinion, but we all dislike this place intensely. It is very hard to describe, but we have never known a place to cheese one so completely. The general air of the place & the slip-shod way it is run all contribute to discourage us more than anything.
[page break]
There is a civilian here parading around in a W/O's uniform although he has the badge of a civil airways on his arm. He goes under the title of S.W.O. - what cheek, & we have to address him as Sir. Although he is unable to put us on a charge he can give us an hours digging on fatigues, & he makes good use of that. From what we can see he practically runs this station, despite the officers.
That is one of the main faults here, the place is half R.A.F. half civvie, & a general fiasco ensues. The food is catered, & served by civilians, & one word describes it, disgraceful, honestly! I never thought food could be served out in such a state. It is not my personal feelings, everyone is the same, & one only has to see all the cadets eating hot meals in the Y.M.C.A. to realise it. The officers cant [sic] do much about it only request [?] the chap who is in charge of the mess to alter things, needless to say there isn't much difference.
[page break]
In a big gloomy converted hangar now called the 'Crew Room', why I don't know, are our lockers. We have one ordinary sized steel locker between two of us, & we both have to keep our flying kit, kit-bags, P.T. kit, & books in this, it is almost impossible to close the doors. P.T. is every day & we change behind the lockers, have a terrific long roll-call, run to a nearby field for about 10 mins. P.T. & run back again. Hurriedly changing we rush to the N.A.A.F.I. & find a large queue there, the time being 11.a.m. & the N.A.A.F.I. closing at 11.15 a.m. we never get it. So we never have a cup of tea while we are here in the morning.
Another annoying rule is that once we enter the gate in the morning at 8 a.m. we are not allowed out till 6 p.m. even during the dinner-time, so we drift around aimlessly. There being only 4 lavatories & 3 wash-basins available for the couple of hundred cadets here, we even have to queue for those necessities. Yes I have never seen a station where there are so many things wrong and so few right.
[page break]
The ground lectures are a farce, and they might just as well scrap them. First thing every morning or afternoon we have Aldis practise, [sic] & I have heard it rumoured that some people take it. We have had one Navigation lecture, stuff we did right at the beginning of I.T.W. Armaments, a chap came & nattered about the Browning Gun, the Signals Officer is a P/O an Observer from the last war, who seems slightly wrong in the head! A large part of the programme consists of going to the Cinema Hut for M.O.I [sic] films, of, the Enemy has Ears, variety, some of these bring home to one how vital it is to be guarded in conversation.
For entertainment each Sunday and Monday night they have a movie film, free, Bing Crosby & Bob Hope are on this Sunday in 'Road to Zanzibar'. Once a fortnight there is a dance in the mess and a good few women from the town come. They had one the evening we arrived it was a pretty good band. Well being tired I don't feel like writing any more so will close.
[page break]
[underlined] Wednesday June 24th [/underlined]
We have been here exactly a week now, & are wishing we had gone to Perth for it must be better than here. I don't know whether the A.M. realises it, but a place like this & a training system like these Grading Schools is enough to make anyone completely fed up with flying. I remember last week the first time I went up, I guess it was the biggest thrill I have ever had. Strapping myself in with the Sutton harness, I waited & then we gradually moved forward, gaining speed & all of a sudden I had a shock for looking over the side I saw the ground about 50 feet below us, I had not noticed that we had left it. Sitting there admiring the view I felt a strange sense of exaltation, as if I had left worldly things behind, & was all alone in the universe. I was jerked out of my isolation by the instructors voice crackling through the inter-com, & we began the business of flying.
[page break]
Being the first time the instructor didn't give me any of the patter, he just let me get used to the new sensation. I had rather a shock when he cut the motor, & announced he was going to practise [sic] a forced landing, although he didn't actually touch down he would have made it easily. Coming [deleted] [one indecipherable word] [/deleted] [inserted] back [/inserted] he flew low along the course of the Eden, & this was great, I got a bigger kick out of the low level flying than anything. The following lessons were all graduated each hour for teaching one thing e.g. the first lesson - straight & level flying, then medium turns, climbing, gliding etc. on to take-offs. landings & spins. It certainly is marvellous how correctly trimmed the aircraft will fly by itself almost smoothly, yet as soon as we touch the controls she lurches about - gremlin trouble - maybe.
I think the whole idea of Grading Schools are a farce though, & every instructor & pilot on 'ops' that I have spoken to agrees. They maintain that it is impossible
[page break]
to discern whether a fellow will make a pilot in 12 hours or not, the time is too short. A fair amount depends upon one soloing in the time, & yet a fair few well known pilots today soloed after 12 hours. Another point is that the instructors can't take any real interest in a fellow for no sooner have they got him up to the soloing stage, when he goes & someone completely new comes in his place. So I guess no-one can blame them for feeling cheesed & not being able to give the individual attention to us that we need. All these points & the atmosphere of this station as well all go to make us lose heart in the flying & ask are we being given a fair deal.
From our point of view we definitely are not, for we know that if we had received our papers a couple of months before we did, we should have missed this scheme & gone abroad as usual, & stood
[page break]
a much better chance of getting our wings being, as we would be on a full E.F.T.S. course. From the A.M's [sic] point of view I suppose they are fully justified. They are short of Observers, & these new Air Bombers, so the easiest way is to just whizz a few [one indecipherable word] potential pilots off the course, & re-muster them. As they say it being for the good of the country our personal feeling don't count. It certainly is hard when you have set your heart on being a pilot, & volunteered for it to be just placed on one side, without a fair trial of one's capabilities. Still there it is, but it seems ever such a great waste of youthful enthusiasm & keeness [sic] to me, I can see, and also feel it myself, the old spirit gradually dying away & being replaced with a browned-off feeling, & a 'nothing matters' outlook. It is the way that this country has always been though, & I guess it always will be. Who are we to question the wisdom of the great.
[page break]
[underlined Sunday June 28th. [/underlined]
The end of the week, and a fast-moving week at that, things sure have happened speedily. Four of the boys have finished their course already & are going on leave tomorrow. This is embarkation leave, just in case we should get a pilot, which I doubt. Amongst those going are 'Nob' Davies & Cooper, they were withdrawn from lectures & their flying speeded up to four hours a day at times. Consequently they often reached a period when the instructors words would go in one ear & out the other, they just couldn't take any interest in it. Cooper soloed at 10 hrs 25 mins, but 'Nob' didn't. The way they are rushing us through with this flying, they are either desperately short of aircrew, or else are getting our 12 hours over with just because the training system is so choked & they have to get as many through as possible. I think the latter is the case, & as usual it benefits all but us.
[page break]
I guess I should have finished my flying by the end of the week, & be on leave, it seems rather absurd to be home on leave again, seeing I only left a fortnight ago - still I'm not grumbling. I had my 7 hour progress test with the F/Lt. in charge of C flight & didn't do too bad, I learnt afterwards I had 555 marks which is average. As long as they don't rush me with my flying I'll be alright. One of the fellows from St. Andrews have [sic] been taken off because he gets nervous every time he goes up. It's hard lines on him, for some people are made that way & he has gone through his I.T.W all for nothing.
There is a fair in the park in town & we will go there tonight, for it is Carlisle's stop-at-home holidays week & they have different attractions. Carlisle itself is quite a nice town, a lot more livelier than St. Andrews, & a very fine park. They have a large Y.M.C.A. here - the John Peel Hut, & it
[page break]
really is a fine place. If people only knew how much these places matter to service men I am sure they would receive more support.
Cooper has received a letter from a pal at Manchester who has been classified as a pilot. He said it is a matter of luck what percentage of pilots they require at the classification time, whether we get a pilot or not. I must say it doesn't sound too hopeful, still maybe whatever happens is for the best.
I did spins for the first time this week, it is a queer feeling when the aircraft stalls & lurches forward & the earth spins round & round. This was a thing I managed to get hold off [sic] quite easily & could do pretty well. My instructor did half an hours aerobatics yesterday & I hardly knew if I was on my head or heels. He is a real decent fellow though, never binds a bit even when I make silly mistakes, not like some instructors.
[page break]
[underlined] Wednesday July 1st. [/underlined]
My brief period of flying is over, it certainly was short & sweet, it lasted under a fortnight, & from that someone can tell whether I would make a pilot after a few hundred hours flying - maybe. Right at the last couple of hours my instructor was changed because another instructor didn't like his pupil, there was a switch & now my instructor has the chap. This other one binds more, but I [deleted] [one indecipherable word] [/deleted] [inserted] was [/inserted] not worrying about that for I had [deleted] [one indecipherable word] [/deleted] at last got my landings O.K. So he promised me half an hour to go solo on Tuesday, but it seemed that right at the last Fate took a hand. For on Tuesday I was called out of lectures & told I would have to let my solo go & do my last two hours, & get my 12 hours test over that morning. Feeling pretty cheesed I did & did fair in my test. They told me the fact that I was about to solo would go on my record yet I doubt if that will cut much ice.
[page break]
Today I & Jack Dawsett [?] have been dashing around with our clearance chits, trying to locate people, who don't want to be located. We managed to get them in the end & got our clothing settled. Because a few chaps flew on Sunday they issued Daily Flying Returns with everyone down as having 'Attended Lectures' being as we didn't know we omitted to sign, so Dodds the W/O fellow, put us on an hours digging tonight, our last night too, I'd like to meet him outside.
Still my outstanding thought, is thank the Lord we are leaving this place. Tomorrow we only have an F.F.I. & get our warrant & ration cards then we are away, & most probably will be able to catch the midday train - then home and some good food. I expect Mary will get a shock when she sees me. Ah! well I'll close this my last entry at Carlisle, my first flying school, & not the last I hope.
[page break]
[underlined] Sunday July 12th. [/underlined]
It is a week & a half since I have made an entry, only I never enter anything when I am on leave, don't combine business with pleasure in this case. I am now at my fifth station, as I have mentioned, Manchester in this case. After enjoying seven days leave I was due to report here on Friday at midday. To do that I would have had to catch the 4 a.m. train from Euston & sleep on the station all night. So I took the 8.15 am. with Jack Dawsett & practically all other cadets went on it as well. We arrived at London Rd Station about 1.45 p.m. & caught a 1d services bus to Victoria Stn. where we connected the train to Heaton Park. This type of train is electric & reminded me of a cross between a London Metropolitan Train & an armoured train. We finally arrived at the park at 2.30 pm. Nobody said anything, all was bustle & confusion, hundreds of cadets wandering around, harrased [sic]
[page break]
N.C.O's endeavouring to get some semblance of order, what a panic.
To anyone who has never been to Heaton Park the word "Park" is apt to be misleading. The place is over 500 acres of natural country, complete with hills, vales, woods, streams, lakes, and in peace-time must have been a really lovely place. It was originally owned by an Earl, his name escapes me, & he presented it to Manchester Corporation for a public park, which in its turn was taken over by the R.A.F. At the time of writing the mansion itself forms No. 1 Squadron's offices, the officers mess, & various other rooms contain service branches. The huge lawn is a parade ground - can hold over 2,000 men. The Cafeteria built for the public is our mess, & another one has been built for No 2 Squadron's Mess. In the natural theatre by the stage & pavilion are lots of tents & more by the tennis courts, & everywhere one looks, ugly Nissen Huts have served [?} themselves up.
[page break]
It certainly has spoilt the appearance of the park, but I'm afraid we don't care about the beauty a lot. We are constantly moaning about the terrific distances we have to walk from place to place on the station. Talk about dispersal, everything is miles away from anywhere else. Jack & I are in billets outside the camp, we are both in nice houses, I have good rooms. The only trouble being in the morning when we have about a 2 mile walk to get to the mess for breakfast. I always have to dig Jack out, & sometimes we miss it.
The food here on the whole is pretty good, & one thing there is plenty of it. Being as there are about a thousand cadets here, they certainly handle the queues quickly. Not so with the N.A.A.F.I. this is in the tea-bar that is by the boating lake, & it is a devil of a wait outside, then a mad scramble at the counter with no orderliness at all. Consequently tea fly's [sic] over everyone & tempers become short.
[page break]
We got fixed up pretty quickly on the day we arrived, issued with mugs etc. and all the usual performances were got through, that always have to be done on joining a new station. After some searching we located our billets & nearly dropped dead getting our kit-bags there. The following day we commenced the programme, what there is of it. Nothing is hardly done here, for it is just a Classification centre, & then a posting Centre. Discipline is very slack indeed nobody pays any attention to the N.C.O's & people slide off when & where they like, there is rarely more than 3/4 of the flight present when a check is taken. This is rather a rest cure in some ways.
I have met 'Nob' Davies & Cooper, they arrived on Tuesday, & are in tents! We have Saturday afternoon off, but have to come all the way over to the park on Sunday, just to answer a roll-call. For the church parade is held on Wednesday. Well, thats [sic] enough for now, I'll describe the station & Manchester more next time.
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[underlined] Wednesday July 15th. [/underlined]
Life just slips uneventfully by, and we [deleted] [one indecipherable word] [/deleted] slide along in a regular rut. Most of our day is spent in dodging off, our sergeant is one of the nervous & conscientious type, & fusses like an old hen. The [deleted] trob [/deleted] trouble he takes to get us all in the open-air swimming bath is marvellous, but then he never succeeds. The fellows in camp are allowed out till 11 p.m. each night excepting Friday & Saturday when it is 23.59. Almost the entire camp pours into town, by means of the electric train service, or various buses.
Manchester is more after my idea of fun, for it is large like London, and very busy. There are bags of up to date cinemas, the prices are rather high though. There is a good theatre the Palace, they sometimes have productions there prior to them opening in the West End. Strangely enough there are poor facilities for troop canteens, one
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Y.M.C.A. which is always packed, a C.W.L. canteen, equally crowded, and a Forces Canteen on Victoria Stn. which is pretty good, but with limited accommodation like the others.
We certainly lead a gay life, and we pay for it, the money really pours away, we spend £2 pocket money a week easily. Admitted about 15/- a week goes on food in the cafes, but we also go to the films about 3 or 4 times weekly & dances twice. The Ritz Ballroom is a pretty good place, but gets very packed. There was a dance in our mess in the week & that was well crowded.
Coming back from town we catch a train they run at every ten past & twenty to in the hour & the late ones are very crowded but we generally make it. Jack and I get out at Bowker Vale the station before Heaton Park, as it is right by our billets, I don't stay out late though, about 10 to 10.30 p.m – so far.
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treated as children, & numbers, but never human beings, and last of all, these long hanging about periods, all tend to dull the edge of the keenest appetite. It certainly is a shame, there are thousands of young fellows who volunteered to join Air Crew, & I am not line shooting when I say we are treated as though we were the last people that were needed in this war.
We had Navigation the other day, in a long Nissen Hut, one can't really whip up any enthusiasm here. Most of our days are the same we always try to slip off early to tea, before the colossal queues appear, then we can get an early start into town. I believe we might get a 48 hr pass this weekend, I hope so, for I feel as though I have been away ages. That sure is a rush on the London train, and also coming back, Sunday night, still I wont [sic] mind that as long as I get home.
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[underlined] Tuesday July 28th. [/underlined]
Today is my 19th birthday, and has been quite an eventful day, I had a Greetings telegram from Mary & cards from the family & friends. Beside this however it was our classification day, & I am now a A/T Air Bomber. The parade was held this morning, we were all marched, through the rose gardens, down to a beautiful green, with a small lake, a truly peaceful spot. There we layed [sic] upon the grass & listened to the Wing Comdr. reading out our destinies. There were about 30% pilots out of this parade. I felt sorry for one fellow who was made a Navigator, he flew so well at Grading School, and went solo in a record time, that he had a letter of congratulations from Group. Yet after that he was made a Navigator, ah! well it is a funny system.
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[underlined] Wednesday July 18th [/underlined] [pages in wrong order]
The lady with whom I am billeted informed me upon my arrival that it would be unlikely I should be here more than 10 days, well, that has passed, so we are wondering how long we will be here, it won't be longer than 3 weeks I should say. 'Nob' is expecting to be classified Monday or so, I wonder what he will get. It is a weird way they appear to classify them, nobody knows how they do it. A fellow who got a pilot the other day was taken off the flying coarse after 5 hours & told he would never be able to fly. Still I wouldn't mind an Air Bomber, its [sic] a nice short course, & that's what attracts me at the moment. We may be classified at the same time as 'Nob' I hope so, might as well get it over with. There'll be some disappointments, I guess.
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There is a familiar cry at this place, "Stand Still!" Every time we are on parade someone screams that, an officer or an N.C.O. everyone of them love saying it. Parades are fairly lengthy here for after the roll calls etc. long lists of fellows are called out for various reasons. Then the N.C.O's in charge of the flights are called out at the double & their instructions issued regarding the day's programme. This place is apt to get rather deadly after awhile, life becomes too monotonous.
I hear they are opening a new N.A.A.F.I. for 2 squadron, this should ease the pressure on the other one. The complement of the station is growing for fellows are coming in & none being posted. The weather is lousy rain and more rain and one never sees a blue sky, oh! give me the Sunny South!
[underlined] Wednesday July 22nd [/underlined]
The Classification Parade was held on Monday, but our flight wasn't on it. 'Nob' Davies, was made an Air Bomber, he was pleased over that, Cooper a pilot, Brayshaw a Navigator, there were about 40% pilots, I should say a rather large total. I thought we should have been classified, well, maybe we will have our chance next week, if I get an Air Bomber I'll be happy.
We have been on Camp Co-operation lately, this is rather a farce. On a camp this size, & so short staffed, there are bags of work that has to be done by the cadets so different flights are detailed for these. They are varied these fatigues – beg pardon – if anyone should make the mistake of referring to them as fatigues, they can be placed on a charge. Anyway, we sweep clean, paint, build
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fences, tend vegetables, dig, and everything imaginable! Needless to say there is bags of skiving, (or slipping off) as its [sic] called. Salvage is the biggest dodge, practically all the cadets are on this after the Church Parade, Wednesday. The S.W.O. who is a decent little fellow, has 27 years service in, is pretty keen on salvage.
I am not feeling bitter or anything, when I express the sentiment that the Press should know the full details of Air-Crew Training, I am merely voicing the feelings of almost every cadet under training. For in practically every case one sees, keen enthusiasm, turn into a oh! – what the hell attitude, it is unavoidable. The Wing Comdr here, admits this but states this can't be helped, I don't think so, if it were all reorganised, by young brains we could really get somewhere This changing from station to station, being bound at by dumb N.C.O's
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I am pleased with myself though, if I can get a posting pretty soon, the course is only 12 - 14 weeks, & I shall be home on leave for Xmas as a sergeant. The stations we are posted to are Dumfries, Stourbridge, Isle of Man, & it is rumoured that there is a station opening at Reading, I would like to be posted there, its [sic] near enough to London. I am now in 'H' flight with a decent crowd of fellows, & a really smashing corporal, he's the opposite of the sergt [sic] we had, this one wangles us off everything, & gets plenty of opportunities for skiving. It was only a rumour we were having a 48, I didn't really credit it, for we had, had one the previous weekend. This certainly is a station for rumours, anything is believed here, postings, different methods of training, everything wildly buzzes around amongst the cadets. Now my next worry is when I shall be on a posting I guess, ah! well I shall remember my 19th birthday.
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[underlined] Saturday 1st August [/underlined]
Well, there is a posting of Air Bombers, but I am not on it, 'Nob' Davies is though. It was the first half of 'F' flight & as I am in H flight, we will have to wait awhile I guess. It is to Bobbington near Stourbridge I believe it is a pretty good station, they are due to leave tomorrow evening. So at last 'Nob' is on his way, 12 weeks & then he will have his tapes, [?] lucky guy.
We are definitely getting cheesed with this place, we can thank the Lord for having Oxenbury for a Cpl, he is about the best N.C.O. I've ever met. He gets us off different things & plays around, boy he sure takes a lot of the burden off us. I guess we'll stroll around this afternoon & have tea in John Lewis's cafeteria, that is quite a nice place, than finish off with a show. The cinemas are about the best choice for the
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dances are so crowded, we sometimes go to the dance in the Y.M.C.A. though. On our first Saturday here, we went to Belle Vue, I didn't think a lot of the fun fair, it was rather dear too. We went into the Speedway & enjoyed quite a good programme, we were going into the all-in wrestling after, but decided we didn't have time. What a job it was to get back, though, thousands of people dashing for the buses, huge queues everywhere. Phew! I thought we would never [one indecipherable word] but luckily we jumped on one & got back O.K.
They are having a regatta here on the lake, shortly, I don't mind watching as long as it isn't on our Saturday afternoon off, they can pull little tricks like that, all too easily. We have had Navigation again this week, we professed not to know the computer again, so the instructor went through that. Ah! well anything that averts work is a good thing.
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[underlined] Sunday 16th August [/underlined]
I haven't made an entry in this diary for a fortnight, owing to the fact, that there has been hardly anything to enter. Life has just slid along in the hum drum way it does at Manchester, without anything important happening. By every right we should have been on a 48 hour pass this [deleted] [one indecipherable word] [/deleted] week end, [sic] it was our turn, but they jumped us heaven knows why, so two sergeants in our flight are going to have an interview with the C.O. about it. I hope we get it next weekend, heaven knows I need it, I feel I have been here for months.
This certainly is a meeting place for everyone, from all different times in ones life. I have already met Frank Young who was in my room at Hall Rd, he is a Navigator W/T, & will 'cake' the wireless, being [deleted] [one indecipherable word] [/deleted] a wireless officer in the Merchant Navy, before he
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joined up. In my flight now is 'Bill' Bailey who was in my class at school, I never knew he had joined up, I had a great surprise, when I met him. Also another chap I have bumped into was Jimmy Twigson [?] who I worked with first of all, he is an Air Bomber, so far I haven't met any fellows from the office who joined up with me.
The regatta finally got cracking after it had been washed out once by a torrential downpour of rain, number 2 squadron won it. Last night we had a pretty good time, we generally get pretty tight in the Gaumont Long Bar, one of the few places that we can get Youngers at. I have had a letter from 'Nob' giving all the 'gen' on the course and it seems there is a fair amount of work more in fact than I thought. Still whatever it is the sooner we are on it the better.
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[underlined] Monday 24th Aug [/underlined]
Well, we had our 48 hour after all the week end just passed. The two sergeants had an interview with the C.O. & he expressed surprise that we had been missed, & agreed to grant one. We were lucky to get away a bit earlier than usual, and after a frantic struggle managed to catch the 2.15 p.m. from London Rd. What was more akin to a miracle was the fact that I acquired a seat, something very much out of the ordinary. I spent a most enjoyable week-end, & naturally finished up feeling pretty cheesed at having to return. Then followed the old scramble for the midnight train at Euston, with crowds of cadets everywhere. Then we would try to snatch some sleep during the journey & arrive in Manchester around five. The grey dawn would be breaking & there would be the lucky ones who were huddled up, waiting for an early train to take
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them into London on leave - how I envied them. Our eyes would be continually closing & we could hardly keep awake & then we would trudge to Victoria Stn. for the first train to Heaton Park. 48's sure are fun but hellishly short, & terrible to return from.
The past week we have had another corporal, helping Oxenbury, & what an object. He was in the band, & had two fingers in plaster maybe he caught them in his harp, & he had the queerest voice I have ever heard. Nobody could tell whether he was shouting Left or Right, or what, it was a perfect mess. He doesn't seem to be with us now thank the Lord. There are rumours circulating of an Air Bombers posting, but we have heard so many ones like this that we are inured to them now. I think I will go to the WAAF's dance at the Bowler [?] tonight, they are generally pretty good.
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[underlined] Saturday Aug 29th. [/underlined]
The rumours of a posting weren't rumours after all, we are actually going, but there is a lot of doubt & puzzlement in our minds. When they announced the place we were going to - Hastings, I nearly jumped for joy when I heard that, for I had never dared to hope I would be so near London. Then we found out that all the Air Bombers, 400 of them were going, which seemed rather strange, & now the news has gone circulating round, that this place isn't anything more than another Manchester - we just have to await a posting from there. I'll leave this entry awhile & finish it tonight, something may have turned up by then.
It is now night & our fears have been realised, the Wing Comdr. in his address to us, told us Hastings was another pool from where we would be posted. Still it is nearer
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to London, & I might be able to get home, it does seem silly to have a station so near to Jerry I think. We are leaving tonight, there will be a glorious beer [?] up before we leave I guess.
This afternoon there were the Inter-Squadron Sports, & although it was Saturday afternoon no-one was allowed to leave the camp, everyone had to watch it. Even us who were leaving that night, weren't allowed out for our last few hours, it doesn't seem much, when one mentions it, but believe me, when one experiences how you can be pushed & pulled around well it isn't so hot.
I think I'll trot out with "Bud" Flanagan tonight, on a pub-crawl, & drawn my sorrows. We have to report back at 9 p.m. for a check & supper & then after the usual delay, I guess we will be on our way. So it finally is goodbye to Manchester, I seem to have been here ages, ah! well, it wasn't so bad after all.
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[underlined] Wednesday 2nd Sept. [/underlined]
Here I am down in the sunny South again, & it certainly is a change to see a lovely blue sky again after Manchester. Yet what wouldn't I give to be back there I never realised how easy it really was. Still theres [sic] no time to cry over spilt milk and I'd better recount what happened when we left.
As I guessed we all went out and became gloriously tight, & rolled back into Heaton Park for the final checks. What a shambles – they first tried to call the roll in the dark - heaven knows why. Trying to do that with 400 fellows at least 300 of them well under the weather, was just asking for trouble. About twenty voices would answer for each name called out, as nobody knew who was present & who was not. Then some fellows began throwing pieces of earth at the officer holding the flashlight, gee! it was a fiasco.
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Then, finally it penetrated the official mind, that, it would be a lot easier if they went into the mess hall where it was light - so in we went. Here they got through a roll call of a sort, & as time was passing they decided we had better have supper. This was easily the best meal I have had at Manchester & one of the best in the R.A.F. It was fried egg, or was it eggs I wasn't sober enough to remember, & a lovely golden brown potato ball, it went down well I know. They finally moved us off then, & we were passed through the door one at a time, between two officers so they were able to get a proper idea of who was missing at last. 'Taffy' Evans was there tight to the eyebrows & screaming himself with laughter at another fellow who had a few flowers stuck in his great pack. All the time Taffy, unknowingly, had a terrific bunch of them, sprouting all over his pack & webbing! When he passed the officers, one reached out despairingly to stop
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him, but as if he said "oh! whats [sic] the hell", let him go.
We marched to the gate, laughing and singing, & there came to a halt, we waited half an hour & moved across into the station. The train arrived after a little while and we all dived in with the usual scramble for seats. I got settled with the three Scotties, Bob, Bill, & Jock, & tried to snatch some sleep. Our carriage had the windows hermetically sealed, & believe me, they put a good few men on troop trains, fellows sleeping on the floor & everywhere, phew! it was hot. Being a troop train it was going right through with no changes, a blessing. I awoke early next morning cramped & thirsty & attacked my meagre rations, some of which where bad. I had the devil of a shock when some while later we pulled into Willesden Junction, I thought we had crossed the Thames long ago. It was heart breaking to pass right through London & across Chelsea Bridge, so near & yet so far to home, but not a chance of reaching there.
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We picked up speed when we were clear of London, & were soon rushing through Tunbridge & on & on till we finally arrived at St. Leonards.
Our worst fears were realised when we saw our reception party, all the N.C.O's had smart uniforms, terrific creases, dazzling boots & buttons & worst of all brilliant white blancoed [sic] belts. It certainly was a home of bull we judged - & we were right. They fell us into line & away we went, with them constantly whipping up our step, I thought bitterly it won't be long before they have broken us in. After a tidy march we reached our quarters, Marine Court, a magnificent huge modern block of flats. What a target for Jerry I thought, about 12 floors of huge glittering white stone & glass. The usual settling in process followed, bedding, rooms, wash, eat, 'gen' chats by different officers & the C.O. details of parades, all the old routine, then time to ourselves. One's first job on such occasions is always to dash off letters with the new address to all & sundry. Being late, & myself being tired I'll close this until the next entry.
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[underlined] Sunday Sept 6th. [/underlined]
To continue with the life of this station, the C.O. seemed very gruff & hellish bad tempered at times, but he was alright if everything went right. A Flight Lieut Observer there, everyone hated the sight of, a supercilious cocky guy, a last war Obs. incidentally with Gen Service & Victory Medals up. Our squadron C.O. seemed one of the biggest baa-lambs under the sun a hell of a binder. I think everyone retired with some misgivings on Sunday night as to what the morrow would bring. Our rooms were lovely, I was in one on the 7th floor with three other fellows, the room had French windows opening onto a balcony overlooking the front & the rear, the balconies were out of bounds.
Reveille was at 6.15 a.m. and up we scrambled, & came down five floors to the dining hall. The food here was terrible & very little of it, there were scores of complaints that day, but very little action. We waited for awhile [sic] before we were served, here they have a ticket punching
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idea, that ensures nobody goes around twice for a meal, I can't imagine anyone that would. After breakfast we scrambled [?] beds, & then followed a rush of bulling brasses sweeping the room, & making bed packs, & then we dashed down in time for the parade at 8 a.m. This was held in a tiny street at the rear of Marine Court. After a helluva lot of 'attentions' & Stand at Ease', there came the familiar "For Inspection Open Order March", & then we came under fire. I have been on many inspections but never one like that, the A Sqdn C.O. P/O Stuttaford, was meticulous to the point of ridiculousness, ever such tiny faults were magnified into major offences, it was terribly cheesing. At last it was over & after the usual 'guff' about making ourselves 'lots smarter', the days [sic] programme commenced.
We were soon to become familiar with the curriculum, first we marched to the streets around Warren Sq for 2 hours drill. Foot drill after our I.T.W was long passed go it was binding, then we were marched back & given a quarter of an
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hours [sic] break, during which it was impossible to get ones nose in the N.A.A.F.I. & we weren't allowed out to any cafe's. Right after this we paraded in P.T. kit & ran about 2 miles to White Rock Park, where we had 2 hours P.T. & then ran back again. Dinner followed that, then the whole afternoon was devoted to a route march. It was hellishly long & I know it crippled a lot of the older N.C.O's the F/Sgt didn't show his nose in any again. This programme was adhered to rigidly every day of this week. In the end we began to wonder if we were on a Commando Course or what the hell. The bull was continued all the [one indecipherable word], the usual stuff of rooms being scrubbed with trimmings like polishing the brass on the window frames & black polishing gum boots. Our food has improved slightly but not a lot.
Yesterday we went to a local cinema for a 'gen' chat by a Flt/Lt. Observer, just off 'ops' who is taking a hand with a course they are organising. It seems to me rather a farce being mainly
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I.T.W subjects & hardly anything we will get on our course, we are too cheesed off to worry now though. There is leave as the C.O. graciously calls it one 36 hour pass once a month, & this is stopped at any time if there is any little thing wrong with the rooms. The laundry is a decent one here thank the Lord, but the system of giving out mail is chronic, instead of giving it out to each flight N.C.O. 'Chiefy' or F/Sgt Tate shouts it out for the whole squadron, bloody poor system.
He is one of the biggest binders I have met, & thats [sic] saying something here. On inspections in the morning, what with him, Stuttaford & half a dozen others screaming 'Stand Still', 'Take his Name', I realise what the Guards go through. One hardly expects it in Air Crew though. To make up for the lack of food in the barracks we eat a lot in the cafes, there seems to be plenty of food in town, luckily there are bags of fruit too. Gee! but I guess we will all heave a sigh of relief the day we leave here.
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[underlined] Thursday 10th Sept. [/underlined]
This certainly is a lot quieter than Manchester, when we drill in the streets it sends a shiver down my spine at times; They are all deserted & nearly all the large boarding houses empty & boarded up with broken windows paint peeling off, & cracked walls, it is a ghost town in some parts. Around London Rd there is plenty of life, though, & also in Hastings itself. Most evenings we spend in cinemas, the films are very old at times, but the seats are good, & at cheap prices too.
Our routine is the same this week as it was last, but I am feeling lovely & fit now. With bright sunshine most of the time & the sea air it is a lovely change. On Sunday I dragged my 'biscuits' [?] & pillow out onto the balcony & lay there sunbathing all day. Strangely enough most of us like the route marches now. Admitted Sgt. James (one of the best) generally takes them & we march 3 miles & then lay down in a
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field & sunbathe.
I now have a 'distinguished' post, I am 'A' Squadron's Messing Representative, and it was marvellous the way I was given the position. After returning from a route march one day, we were dismissed & I happened to be standing around with my hands on my pockets. 'Chiefy' Tate pounced on me immediately, "Name & Number?" he said, getting out his note-book, I argued thinking I was on a charge, but he took my name, & then said, "For having your hands in your pockets, you are A Squadrons messing representative", ho! ho! such is service life eh!
I think I shall put in for a pass this week end, for I'm getting a little cheesed & the way things go on this station one never knows when they will be cancelled. This certainly is the place for alerts, there's a warning every hour, but hardly any action at all. I'm expecting a real 'do' one of these nights. I hope it isn't tonight anyway for I feel really tired and want a good nights [sic] sleep.
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[underlined] Monday 14th Sept. [/underlined]
This is a fine bloody station I am now on "jankers", and this is how it happened. I got my week end pass after a bit of humming & hawing, & spending the Saturday morning on rifle drill. I caught the train O.K. & got home about 5.30, after a meal & a wash & brush up I went over for Mary. We had a swell weekend, well I say weekend it was only a day really, too short. However I caught the train from Victoria O.K. & although I had to stand all down I didn't mind it was a nice trip. All the cadets poured into Marine Court & handed in their passes & then so to bed. I got into my room and put on the light to get into bed, when in walked an S.P. & [deleted] [one indecipherable word] [/deleted] took my 1250 for having the lights on after lights out. Holy Mackerel! "Lights Out" was at 10.45 p.m & this was just gone 11 p.m. & not allowed a light for a few minutes to get into bed. This is an example of red tape carried out to the maximum. Anyway we were marched before P/O Stuttaford
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& after him having his little bind, he awarded us 4 days – 4 days hell! in this place it equals 7 days on any other station just for a little offence like that – anyway today I started.
Its [sic] wonderful what scam they get for S.P's the sgt. in charge of the jankers parade screamed and bawled as if we were the most hardened criminals, oh! its [sic] not worth describing it. He gave me an ultimatum to get my hair cut tomorrow or else – . We worked for two hours from 6 - 8 p.m. cleaning lavatories – oh! to be in air crew. The parades each day are at 7 a.m. (that means early rising) 1 p.m. to make sure we can't get out in the dinner - time. Then 6 p.m. when we work till 8 p.m. parade again at 9 p.m. & at 10 p.m. Ah! well the first day is nearly over anyway. I hear that C Squadron when charged with the same offence were only awarded 2 days, there will be a do about this, the sooner we are off jankers the better.
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[underlined] Wednesday 16th Sept. [/underlined]
My jankers have finished, so short & sweet they were too. As I [deleted] [one indecipherable word] [/deleted] prophesied there was a moan over C Squadron only getting 2 days & us 4, & it had its results this morning. We were on drill in Warrior Sq when old Stuttaford came round & called us out. In a big hearted tone he told us that owing to our rooms being very clean (he'd moaned about them the day before) he would let us off the last 2 days jankers. Quite an amusing effort on his part to save his face. Still we didn't bother to query the if's & buts we were off and that's all that mattered.
I nearly dropped in for it again this afternoon though – in fact I'm not sure whether I have or haven't. Being Wednesday afternoon I went to the Messing meeting and made the usual complaints over the food, which has improved considerably but is still fairly bad. After this I found everyone was down in the garage
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on Armaments, not feeling like this, I went up to my room & dropped my biscuits & pillow out on to the balcony & lay out there reading a pile of Daily Mirrors.
I heard footsteps in the building but took no notice of them, happening to look up I saw Stuttaford gazing, horrified at me. Boy! I thought here's where I really get it, opening the door he screamed "Come in here", there followed quite a scene, & finished by him shouting for Sgt. Tasker [?] to take my name & no. Tasker [?] was decent & he may do something for me, I hope so anyway.
Think I'll go to the cinema with Bob & Bill, "They Died with their Boots On" is in Hastings. This course or farce of a course is getting pretty binding, I'll be glad when its [sic] over I know the Sten Gun inside out. The Sgt. Pilots & Observers who take us are as cheesed as we are, so its [sic] a fine state of affairs
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[underlined] Monday 21st Sept. [/underlined]
Events moved fairly quietly up to the weekend, I was never charged for being on the balcony, so I guess old Tasker was able to get it "washed" [?] he's a decent old stick. I felt sorry for Taffy he had a pass for the week end & had arranged with his girl, for her to travel from Birmingham to London & he would meet her there. Then on Wednesday Stuttaford came round in an even worse temper than usual, and swore his mug (that is displayed on the bed lay out) was dirty. It wasn't much good arguing with him, Taffy was awarded 3 days 'jankers', Thursday, Friday, & Saturday. So he lost his weekend pass as well, & had to wire his girl, cancelling the arrangements – all that just for a drinking mug – reputed to be dirty, its [sic] funny what swines there are in the world. I'm gonna fight like hell for a pass on Oct 16th as Don and Betty are being married & I must be there.
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This morning what I had been expecting to happen did, it was like this:- The morning was devoted to a swimming parade in White Rock Baths, an event which was appreciated by all, even though we did have to pay 6d each to get in. We paraded promptly about 8.45 a.m. in the little street at the rear of Marine Court & away we marched. As usual we marched through the streets of the town & then out onto the promenade by Warrior Sq. Hardly had we marched onto the prom, when there was a roar of aero engines, which made us look out to sea hastily. There was a low lying mist which suddenly parted & two F.W. 190's flying about 20 ft above the water rushed in. Luckily they were between us & Marine Court, consequently being unable to fire upon us without altering course. Before we had time to move at all they lifted off the water & each released, the 500 Kgm bomb, they had slung underneath, at
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Marine Court.
There was a minor explosion as one entered, but being on D.A. we took advantage of the delay to dive for cover, then with a roar it exploded. The other missed the building & exploded in the small park behind. Everything had happened so swiftly & with such surprise that not a shot was fired at the raiders. We continued on to the Baths, but all agog to get back & see what had happened. As we turned onto the gradient next to Marine Court, we observed that the 7th, 8th, & 9th floors, above the dining hall were blown in & quite an amount of damage done to the 10th, quite a lot of damage for one bomb, but it wasn't a very solid place, more for show in summer time. I must record here, our true feelings when we saw the damage, onlookers standing around apparently expected us to burst into tears, but if they had, had the time we did there I daresay they would have acted the same.
[page break]
We cheered, & meant it, and cries of "Bullsh– Mansion Gone at Last", & Critchleys Palace Destroyed", (Critchley was reputed to have shares in every place we were billeted) greeted the night. One dear old soul gazing at us, & apparently hard of hearing for she couldn't have heard our remarks, said loudly "Ah! the 'boys' will get their own back for this", needless to say the 'boys' received this with obvious merriment. Bob, Bill, & myself had dinner in a cafe we weren't intending to hang around for hours, upon returning we were told to go down to the car park in the basement. Here lots of salvaged equipment was heaped & we settled down. Each floor was ordered upstairs in turn to clean their rooms or what was left of their rooms. At last came the 7th & up we trooped, [?] glad at last to get a look at what was going on.
Some boys on the salvage party were having a fine time slinging stuff around. Our room wasn't damaged except for a few cracks & the door
[page break]
blown in. We staggered up & down to the basement (9 floors in all) carrying kit bags & bedding, until we were cheesed & skived off for a rest. Leaning on the balcony of the 11th we watched the demolition party at work. The street below that we had paraded in 15 mins before Jerrie's arrival, was covered with large [deleted] [one indecipherable word] [/deleted] blocks of stone & debris, so I'm glad they insisted on punctuality there. Anyway the demolition party were throwing pieces of stone etc. onto the pile and amusing themselves & the onlookers by aiming them at a lamp standard underneath, & in this way succeeded in completely ruining it.
About 5 p.m. we were told to parade on the prom, & were then marched past Warrior Sq about 110 yds. to the Eversfield Hotel which was our new quarters. It was a dark & dingy place, and we didn't like it as much as Marine Court, but Taffy & I got a room to ourselves, with our own wash bowl, quite lucky. Naturally our first action was tea, then unpack & well here I am
[page break]
[underlined] Friday 25th Sept. [/underlined]
I am writing this amidst constantly changing surroundings – on a train. You see, we settled down to normal work again on Tuesday lessons in the Victoria Hotel once more, & apart from numerous clothing parades for those who had to be re-kitted, & wangling of kit by a good few more everything went on the same. The C.O. came & shot an awful line about the bombing happening, because a few had disregarded orders & gone out on the balconies when a reconnaissance plane had come over at 25,000 ft a couple of days previous. He apparently overlooked the fact, that on the day of our arrival he himself had told us the Hun would know we had arrived. Even if this was so, he greatly under rated the German Secret Service (particularly active in Hastings), & also I would have liked to have met the fellow who could see a human being from 25,000 ft. Well everything was O.K until yesterday & I went to a messing committee meeting at Marine Court & had hardly returned to Eversfield when with a roar, 11 F.W's or ME 109's roared past the window about 30 fit off the deck. A few
[page break]
seconds later came the clump of exploding bombs, getting nearer, I ducked & waited. Nothing happened, so I looked out of the windows again, the raiders were already well out to sea, & three others who had been circling round in the sun ready to take a hand if any of our boys came along joined them.
About 11 bombs had been dropped, three up on the hill leading to the sports field one on a blind home, two by the Victoria Hotel, and three in Warrior Sq, where I had been a minute before. A single V.G.O. was mounted at each end of Marine Court, & one fellow got off a good few rounds at them – a good show. Unfortunately not like the Monday, when nobody was injured there were a fair few civilian deaths & casualties, also our boys didn't escape. They had been marching back from football, when they were spotted, a F.W dived & let his bomb go on the houses nearby & two others side slipped to roof top height & opened with cannon & machine gun. I think about 6 chaps were killed & 30 injured, it was a swine being unable to strike back.
[page break]
'Nobby' Clark appeared in the mess last night & said he had contacted the A.M. & we would leave Hastings as soon as possible. He was right too, they woke us up at 3 a.m. this morning & we packed, hung around & had breakfast & then left at 6.30 a.m. It was a 4 mile walk to the station – to carry 2 loaded kit bags it was impossible, I carried them for a bit, then dragged one, & finally sat down by the road with some others, really worn out. P/O Stuttaford came along carrying a suitcase (he had sent 6 fellows down to the station with his stuff) and shouted at us like pigs to get moving, my blood boils when I think of it. We struggled on for a bit, & then rested again - he screamed at us again then a Sgt took pity & said he'd take charge of us, & we hopped on a bus. We got in the troop train, I think there were about three and at 8 am. we moved off, our destination is secret, [deleted] [one indecipherable word] [/deleted] but everyone knows it is Harrogate. It broke my heart to travel through old London, & not be able to get out. We stopped for a 1/4 hour about 2 miles from Mary's place, we expect to arrive in Harrogate about 5 p.m.
[page break]
[underlined] Tuesday Sept 29th [/underlined]
I certainly get around I'm writing this at Manchester & am on a draft at last. We were billeted in the Grand Hotel at Harrogate, & received us so well that after 13 hours on 2 sandwiches & an apple, they gave us two slices of bread, no butter, & a few pieces of cheese – a fine supper. People hear of the glory of the R.A.F. its [sic] a pity they don't hear how they train aircrew. I was put on a draft right away with 18 others, & we spent Saturday getting kitted out & wasting time. I am glad I shan't be staying in this hotel, it used to be a WAAF's billets. [sic] There is plenty of 'bull' here, polished floors & everything, lights put out with a master switch & everything. Saturday afternoon we looked round the town, it wasn't a bad place, high prices & queues & everybody endeavouring to forget the war, but bags of women, there being all the Civil Service, a WAAF & AT.S training place. I saw a girl I worked with before she was evacuated to Harrogate but didn't speak to her. We saw Abbott & Costello in " Rio Rita" in the evening.
[page break]
Next morning away we marched to the station, "Nobby" gave us a farewell talk, & W/O Roberts bound to the last, "Chiefy" Tate unbound a little but I doubt if the meant it. The journey to Heaton Park didn't take long and we arrived here Sunday afternoon & passed through the old familiar gates, we had a good meal upon arrival. As our so called embarkation leave was 3 months previous we were entitled to another 7 days & naturally expected to hear something about it. On Monday though we were paraded & marched straight off to camp co-operation. My God! nobody knew anything about us, the C.O apparently didn't want to see us, we could get no 'gen' from anyone, here we were on the point of going overseas & being denied a chance of saying cheerio to our people. Its [sic] funny how they can bugger you around when they fancy to. When we were entitled to leave & to be put on fatigues & told nothing that was too thick, its [sic] funny how C.O's appear devoid of human feelings. Well, we will just have to wait hear [sic] eating our hearts out.
[page break]
[underlined] Wednesday 7th Oct. [/underlined]
I am writing this aboard the Queen Mary now under the name of HMT 02. we came on board this morning. No leave was granted to us at all at Manchester, we hung around all that time & could have had 7 days leave easily. Nothing was done until the last two days, we did fatigues all the time. Pat Kinsella had an interview with the C.O regarding leave, but was told it wasn't definite how long we would be at Manchester, how delightfully vague, still I guess there is no good crying over spilt milk.
We were allowed out into town for the last afternoon and had to report back fairly early. There followed the same old roll calls and a fine supper, just the same as when we went to Hastings. We entrained just after midnight, at Heaton Park, & being a troop train it was crammed as usual with little ventilation. We travelled through the night & arrived at our port at 8.30 am.
[page break]
Our port of embarkation was Greenock & we stood by on a tender for a couple of hours, engrossed in the busy scene on the Clyde. Every variety of naval craft, destroyers, corvettes, transports, cruisers, an aircraft carrier, & scores of landing craft dodging about, truly a busy scene. At last we moved out to our transport which we could see was a large one, & by hookey! it was a size when we got alongside. We passed in through a door way down in her side, & were given a berth number. In each cabin, they used to be single or double I should imagine are 12-15 bunks, pretty crowded, its [sic] a lovely ship though. The dining hall is colossal, one can't imagine they are afloat, we shall have that fact borne upon us, after tonight I guess as we sail then.
I'll close this now & on my next entry we will be a 1,000 miles away from land. This closes this book, and my next one will be about our trip and my experiences over in Canada.
[page break]
CONCLUDING BOOK 2 AND FINISHING MY GROUND TRAINING IN ENGLAND.
[page break]
[Faint handwritten dates on outside of back cover]
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
Book 2, Commencing my Flying Training and my Adventures up till the time of Leaving England
Description
An account of the resource
Second of David Geach's diaries, describing his training for aircrew at Kingstown, Heaton Park, Hastings and Harrogate until his embarkation to Canada on the Queen Mary. Covers the period from 20 June 1942 to 7 October 1942.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Geach
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One handwritten diary
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Diary
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
YGeachDG1394781v3
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Carlisle
Scotland--Perth
England--Manchester
Scotland--Dumfries
England--Stourbridge
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Isle of Man
England--Reading
England--London
England--Hastings
England--Harrogate
Scotland--Greenock
Canada
Scotland--St. Andrews
England--St. Leonards (East Sussex)
England--Berkshire
England--Sussex
England--Worcestershire
England--Lancashire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-06
1942-07
1942-08
1942-09
1942-10
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joy Reynard
David Bloomfield
aircrew
bomb aimer
bombing
entertainment
Fw 190
gremlin
ground personnel
Me 109
mess
military living conditions
military service conditions
navigator
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
observer
pilot
RAF Heaton Park
sport
training
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/777/10683/PFalgateD16030089.2.jpg
1cd2befe65bfe7cb741e9db349125b4b
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/777/10683/PFalgateD16030090.2.jpg
0a853225bbb1b0f077e3b2bf2cbd3b04
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/777/10683/PFalgateD16030091.2.jpg
8b7d6357d1d4a2182e33394378282fac
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
Falgate, Donald
D Falgate
Description
An account of the resource
69 items. The collection concerns Squadron Leader Don Falgate (136896 Royal Air Force) and consists of 68 pre-war, wartime, and post-war photographs and a handwritten detailed account of his tour. Don Falgate trained in Canada and flew operations as a bomb aimer with 463 Squadron from RAF Waddington.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Paul Falgate and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-07
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
Falgate, D
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[photograph]
[page break]
A.J. Painter
J. Moore
Norman H. Gale
B. Draper.
E.C. Cox.
AW Daines
[signature]
JS Parnell
R R Kirkby
[page break]
STUDENTS OF PRE AFU (ADVANCED FLYING UNIT) RAF PERTH SCOTLAND – ABOUT JANUARY 1943.
SELF SECOND ROW FROM FRONT AND SECOND FROM RIGHT.
WE ARE NOW WEARING THE NEW RAF BREVET (WING) ON OUR UNIFORM ENCLOSING LETTER ‘B’ TO DENOTE BOMB AIMER/NAVIGATOR. SOME ARE PILOTS SOME STRAIGHT NAVIGATORS
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
Don Falgate's pre - AFU course photograph at RAF Perth
Description
An account of the resource
Don Falgate's pre-Advanced Flying Unit formal course photograph, 32 Officers and senior non-commissioned officers, arranged in four rows. Signatures on the reverse. Captioned 'Students of pre AFU (Advanced Flying Unit) RAF Perth Scotland, about January 1943. Self second row from the front and second from right. We are now wearing the new RAF brevet (wing) on our uniforms enclosing the letter B to denote Bomb Aimer/Navigator. Some are pilots some are straight navigators.'
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-01
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PFalgateD16030089, PFalgateD16030090, PFalgateD16030091
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Perth
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-01
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
bomb aimer
navigator
observer
pilot
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1792/45129/LWilsonH1342819v1.2.pdf
52ffc531f0d4bd6890a709034f5ca53f
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, Harold
H Wilson
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
2017-01-09
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Wilson, H
Description
An account of the resource
24 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant Harold Wilson DFM (Royal Air Force) who flew two tours completing 45 operations as a bomb aimer on 9 and 97 squadrons. Collection contains an identity document, a letter, his flying log book, a memoir and photographs (including some while he was a member of a missing research and enquiry unit in Germany after the war).
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Barbara Armstrong 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
Harold Wilson's flying log book
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LWilsonH1342819v1
Description
An account of the resource
Harold Wilson’s Flying Log Book from 28/11/42 to 2/4/54, detailing training, operations and instructional duties as an Air Bomber (and later Navigator). Also contains various memorabilia including a photograph, reunion invitation and newspaper clipping about the award of the DFM. Based at: Port Elizabeth (42 Air School), Jurby (No. 5 Air Observer School), RAF Cottesmore, RAF Saltby, RAF Market Harborough (all No. 14 Operational Training Unit), RAF Wigsley (No. 1654 Conversion Unit), RAF Bardney (No. 9 Squadron), RAF Warboys (PFF Navigation Training Unit), RAF Coningsby (No. 97 Squadron), RAF Manby (Empire Air Armament School), RAF Swinderby (No. 1660 Heavy Conversion Unit and 201 Advanced Flying School), RAF Middleton St George (No. 2 Air Navigation School), RAF Scampton (No. 230 Operational Training Unit), RAF North Luffenham (No. 240 Operational Training Unit), RAF Oakington (No. 30 Squadron), RAF Perth (No. 11 Reserve Flying School). Aircraft flown: Anson, Oxford, Blenheim, Wellington, Halifax, Lancaster, Dakota.
Records a total of 45 operations (42 night, 3 day) with 9 and 97 Squadron. Targets in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands are: Berlin, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Stettin, Brunswick, Magdeburg, Stuttgart, Schweinfurt, Augsburg, Marignane, Munich, Clermont Ferrand, Toulouse, Louailles, Annecy, Amiens, Maisy, St. Pierre du Mont, Argentan, Rennes, Poitiers, Greil (Saint-Leu-d'Esserent), Culmont Chalindrey, Nevers, Courtrai, Donges, Givors, Brest, Deelen Airfield, Bordeaux, Darmstadt and Konigsberg.
His pilot on all operations was F/O Lasham.
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
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One colour photocopy
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
David Leitch
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Belgium
France
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
South Africa
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Belgium--Kortrijk
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Durham (County)
England--Huntingdonshire
England--Leicestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Rutland
France--Amiens
France--Annecy
France--Argentan
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
France--Brest
France--Calvados
France--Clermont-Ferrand
France--Donges
France--Givors
France--Haute-Marne
France--Marignane
France--Nevers
France--Oise
France--Poitiers
France--Rennes
France--Sablé-sur-Sarthe
France--Toulouse
Germany--Augsburg
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Braunschweig
Germany--Darmstadt
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Russia (Federation)--Kaliningrad (Kaliningradskai︠a︡ oblastʹ)
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Munich
Germany--Schweinfurt
Poland--Szczecin
Germany--Stuttgart
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Isle of Man
Netherlands--Gelderland
Scotland--Perth
South Africa--Port Elizabeth
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943-12-02
1943-12-03
1943-12-16
1943-12-17
1943-12-20
1943-12-23
1944-01-05
1944-01-14
1944-01-21
1944-01-22
1944-01-27
1944-01-28
1944-02-15
1944-02-16
1944-02-19
1944-02-20
1944-02-24
1944-02-25
1944-02-26
1944-03-01
1944-03-02
1944-03-09
1944-03-10
1944-03-15
1944-03-16
1944-04-22
1944-04-23
1944-04-24
1944-04-25
1944-04-26
1944-04-27
1944-04-29
1944-04-30
1944-05-01
1944-05-02
1944-05-06
1944-05-07
1944-05-09
1944-05-10
1944-05-19
1944-05-20
1944-05-31
1944-06-01
1944-06-06
1944-06-07
1944-06-08
1944-06-09
1944-06-12
1944-06-13
1944-07-04
1944-07-05
1944-07-12
1944-07-13
1944-07-15
1944-07-16
1944-07-20
1944-07-21
1944-07-24
1944-07-25
1944-07-26
1944-08-11
1944-08-12
1944-08-13
1944-08-14
1944-08-15
1944-08-16
1944-08-17
1944-08-18
1944-08-25
1944-08-26
1944-08-27
1945
1946
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
14 OTU
1654 HCU
1660 HCU
9 Squadron
97 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
Blenheim
bomb aimer
bombing of Luftwaffe night-fighter airfields (15 August 1944)
bombing of the Creil/St Leu d’Esserent V-1 storage areas (4/5 July 1944)
bombing of the Normandy coastal batteries (5/6 June 1944)
C-47
Cook’s tour
Distinguished Service Medal
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
memorial
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
Pathfinders
RAF Bardney
RAF Bourn
RAF Coningsby
RAF Cottesmore
RAF Jurby
RAF Manby
RAF Market Harborough
RAF Middleton St George
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Oakington
RAF Saltby
RAF Scampton
RAF Swinderby
RAF Warboys
RAF Wigsley
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/934/36456/BLovattPHastieRv1.2.pdf
9b3858b8c21f871c9674fb0bb2df1994
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
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
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
2017-09-27
2019-09-03
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Lovatt, P
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
Hastie DFC: The Life and Times of a Wartime Pilot
Description
An account of the resource
An incomplete biography of Roy Hastie. Only pages 1 to 46, 104 to 106, 128 to 133 and 34 additional unnumbered pages are included.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Peter Lovatt
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
Rhode Island--Quonset Point Naval Air Station
Bahamas--Nassau
New York (State)--New York
Bahamas--New Providence Island
England--Harrogate
Scotland--Perth
Scotland--Glasgow
Scotland--Glasgow
England--Warrington
England--Blackpool
Luxembourg
France
Belgium
Netherlands
France--Dunkerque
England--Dover
England--Grantham
England--Torquay
Wales--Aberystwyth
Iceland
Greenland
Sierra Leone
Russia (Federation)--Murmansk
Singapore
France--Saint-Malo
Denmark
Sweden
Germany--Lübeck
Netherlands--Ameland Island
England--Grimsby
Germany--Helgoland
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
England--Lundy Island
Germany--Cologne
North Carolina
North Carolina--Cape Hatteras
Aruba
Curaçao
Iceland--Reykjavík
Greenland--Narsarssuak
Canada
Québec--Montréal
Rhode Island
New York (State)--Buffalo
Gulf of Mexico
Caribbean Sea
Virginia
Florida--Miami
Cuba--Guantánamo Bay Naval Base
Puerto Rico--San Juan
Cuba
Florida--West Palm Beach
Cuba--Caimanera
India
Sierra Leone--Freetown
Jamaica
Jamaica--Kingston
Jamaica--Montego Bay
Virginia--Norfolk
Québec--Montréal
Washington (D.C.)
Newfoundland and Labrador
Trinidad and Tobago--Trinidad
North America--Saint Lawrence River
Newfoundland and Labrador--Happy Valley-Goose Bay
Bahamas
Florida
New York (State)
Great Britain
Ontario
Québec
Germany
Russia (Federation)
Trinidad and Tobago
North America--Niagara Falls
Europe--Frisian Islands
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Devon
England--Kent
England--Lancashire
England--Lincolnshire
Atlantic Ocean--Kattegat (Baltic Sea)
Russia (Federation)--Arkhangelʹskai︠a︡ oblastʹ
Virginia--Hampton Roads (Region)
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 Air Force. Bomber Command
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
88 printed sheets
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BLovattPHastieRv1
8 Group
air gunner
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
B-24
B-25
Beaufighter
Bismarck
C-47
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
crash
crewing up
Distinguished Flying Cross
evacuation
Flying Training School
Gee
Gneisenau
Goldfish Club
ground personnel
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Harvard
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Hudson
Initial Training Wing
navigator
Nissen hut
Oboe
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
Pathfinders
pilot
radar
RAF Bircham Newton
RAF Catterick
RAF Cranwell
RAF Kinloss
RAF Leuchars
RAF North Coates
RAF Odiham
RAF Oulton
RAF Padgate
RAF Prestwick
RAF South Cerney
RAF St Eval
RAF Thornaby
RAF Thorney Island
RAF Windrush
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
Scharnhorst
Spitfire
Tiger Moth
Tirpitz
training
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
Whitley
Window
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/934/36457/BLovattPHastieRv2.1.pdf
295406378e70aa4d2aeb43baeaddc085
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
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
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
2017-09-27
2019-09-03
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Lovatt, P
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
Hastie DFC: The Life and Times of a Wartime Pilot
Description
An account of the resource
A biography of Roy Hastie.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Peter Lovatt
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2003-10
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
Rhode Island--Quonset Point Naval Air Station
Bahamas--Nassau
New York (State)--New York
Bahamas--New Providence Island
Great Britain
England--Harrogate
Scotland--Perth
Scotland--Glasgow
England--Warrington
England--Blackpool
Luxembourg
France
Belgium
Netherlands
France--Dunkerque
England--Dover
England--Grantham
England--Torquay
Wales--Aberystwyth
Iceland
Greenland
Sierra Leone
Russia (Federation)--Murmansk
Singapore
France--Saint-Malo
Denmark
Sweden
Germany--Lübeck
Netherlands--Ameland Island
England--Grimsby
Germany--Helgoland
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
England--Lundy Island
Germany--Cologne
North Carolina
North Carolina--Cape Hatteras
Aruba
Curaçao
Iceland--Reykjavík
Greenland--Narsarssuak
Canada
Québec--Montréal
Rhode Island
New York (State)--Buffalo
Gulf of Mexico
Caribbean Sea
Virginia
Florida--Miami
Cuba--Guantánamo Bay Naval Base
Puerto Rico--San Juan
Cuba
Florida--West Palm Beach
Cuba--Caimanera
India
Sierra Leone--Freetown
Jamaica
Jamaica--Kingston
Jamaica--Montego Bay
Virginia--Norfolk
Washington (D.C.)
Newfoundland and Labrador
Northern Ireland--Limavady
England--Chatham (Kent)
Newfoundland and Labrador--Gander
Gibraltar
England--Leicester
Massachusetts--Boston
Egypt--Alamayn
Algeria--Algiers
Algeria--Oran
Algeria--Bejaïa
Algeria--Annaba
Italy--Sicily
England--Milton Keynes
Germany--Essen
England--Dunwich
Europe--Scheldt River
England--Sizewell
Germany--Hamburg
England--Kent
Germany--Stuttgart
England--Crowborough
Netherlands--Hague
England--Peterborough
England--Bristol
Germany--Homburg (Saarland)
Belgium--Brussels
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Dortmund-Ems Canal
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Belgium--Liège
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Aschaffenburg
Germany--Castrop-Rauxel
Germany--Mittelland Canal
Germany--Aachen
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Neuss
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Hagen (Arnsberg)
Germany--Leuna
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Germany--Ulm
Germany--Munich
Poland--Szczecin
France--Ardennes
Germany--Bonn
Belgium--Houffalize
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Grevenbroich
Germany--Dülmen
France--Metz
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Zeitz
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
England--Dungeness
Germany--Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Germany--Wiesbaden
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Koblenz
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Münster in Westfalen
Germany--Worms
Germany--Pforzheim
Germany--Darmstadt
Europe--Lake Constance
Germany--Bergkamen
Germany--Dessau (Dessau)
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
France--Aube
Germany--Augsburg
England--Feltwell
England--Croydon
Norway--Oslo
Sweden--Stockholm
Czech Republic--Prague
Italy--Florence
Portugal--Lisbon
Monaco--Monte-Carlo
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
Netherlands--Venlo
Netherlands--Amsterdam
France--Paris
France--Lyon
France--Digne
France--Nevers
France--Lille
Norway--Ålesund
France--Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais)
France--Bailleul (Nord)
Belgium--Ieper
Belgium--Mesen
France--Cambrai
France--Somme
France--Arras
France--Lens
France--Calais
Germany--Emden (Lower Saxony)
Netherlands--Vlissingen
France--Brest
France--Lorient
France--La Pallice
Egypt--Suez
Germany--Berlin
Yemen (Republic)--Aden
Cyprus
Turkey--Gallipoli
Black Sea--Dardanelles Strait
Turkey--İmroz Island
Turkey--İzmir
Greece--Lesbos (Municipality)
Greece--Thasos Island
Greece--Chios (Municipality)
Greece--Thasos
Bulgaria
Turkey--Istanbul
Europe--Macedonia
Greece--Kavala
Kenya--Nairobi
Africa--Rhodesia and Nyasaland
Tanzania
Sudan
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Sudan--Kassalā
Eritrea--Asmara
Yemen (Republic)--Perim Island
Ethiopia--Addis Ababa
Sudan--Khartoum
Ghana--Takoradi
Libya--Cyrenaica
Libya--Tobruk
Egypt--Cairo
Iraq
Greece--Crete
Libya--Tripolitania
Tunisia--Mareth Line
Libya--Tripoli
Tunisia--Qaṣrayn
Tunisia--Medenine
Italy--Pantelleria Island
Malta
Italy--Licata
Italy--Brindisi
Italy--Foggia
Italy--Cassino
Italy--Sangro River
Italy--Termoli
Yugoslavia
Croatia--Split
Croatia--Vis Island
Italy--Loreto
Italy--Pescara
Trinidad and Tobago--Trinidad
North America--Saint Lawrence River
Newfoundland and Labrador--Happy Valley-Goose Bay
Bahamas
Florida
Italy
Poland
Massachusetts
New York (State)
Algeria
Tunisia
Libya
Egypt
North Africa
Ontario
Québec
Germany
Croatia
Czech Republic
Ghana
Greece
Kenya
Norway
Russia (Federation)
Turkey
Yemen (Republic)
Portugal
Trinidad and Tobago
North America--Niagara Falls
France--Reims
Europe--Frisian Islands
Germany--Monheim (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Norfolk
England--Suffolk
England--Gloucestershire
England--Lancashire
England--Leicestershire
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Oberhausen (Düsseldorf)
Greece--Thessalonikē
Germany--Herne (Arnsberg)
Atlantic Ocean--Kattegat (Baltic Sea)
Libya--Banghāzī
Russia (Federation)--Arkhangelʹskai︠a︡ oblastʹ
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Jersey
Virginia--Hampton Roads (Region)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
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
142 printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BLovattPHastieRv2
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
1 Group
100 Group
101 Squadron
157 Squadron
2 Group
214 Squadron
223 Squadron
3 Group
4 Group
6 Group
8 Group
85 Squadron
88 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
B-17
B-24
B-25
bale out
Beaufighter
Bismarck
Botha
C-47
Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940)
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
crash
crewing up
Distinguished Flying Cross
entertainment
evacuation
Flying Training School
Gee
Gneisenau
Goldfish Club
ground personnel
H2S
Halifax
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Harvard
He 111
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Hudson
Hurricane
Initial Training Wing
Ju 88
Lancaster
love and romance
Martinet
Me 109
Me 110
mine laying
Mosquito
Mussolini, Benito (1883-1945)
navigator
Nissen hut
Oboe
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
Pathfinders
pilot
Proctor
radar
RAF Banff
RAF Catfoss
RAF Catterick
RAF Chedburgh
RAF Cranwell
RAF Dishforth
RAF Farnborough
RAF Horsham St Faith
RAF Kinloss
RAF Leuchars
RAF Lichfield
RAF Lyneham
RAF Manston
RAF North Coates
RAF Oulton
RAF Padgate
RAF Prestwick
RAF Riccall
RAF Silloth
RAF South Cerney
RAF St Eval
RAF Thornaby
RAF Thorney Island
RAF Windrush
RAF Woodbridge
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
Scharnhorst
Spitfire
sport
Stirling
Swordfish
Tiger Moth
Tirpitz
training
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
Whitley
Window
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1345/22185/PTyrieJSB19010001.1.jpg
c68e6caf3ffa5c55ce4ea80170edeebf
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
Tyrie, Jim. Photo album
Description
An account of the resource
An album of photographs from Jim Tyrie's service and time as a prisoner of war.
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
2019-06-01
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
Tyrie, JSB
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
Jim Tyrie, Hart and Oxford
Description
An account of the resource
Photo 1 is a front/side view of a biplane, captioned 'Hart RAFVR Perth 1939'.
Photo 2 is Jim Tyrie at the controls of an aircraft, captioned 'Oxford Cranwell 1940'.
Photo 3 is a rear/side view of an Oxford, captioned 'Cranwell 1940'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PTyrieJSB19010001
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
England--Lincolnshire
Scotland--Perth
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.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1939
1940
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940
aircrew
Oxford
pilot
RAF Cranwell
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1343/22177/LTyrieJSB87636v1.1.pdf
2593c27faef4f15089ccae84e95bc4f2
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
Tyrie, Jim
Tyrie, JSB
Description
An account of the resource
34 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Jim Tyrie (1919 - 1993, 87636 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, correspondence and prisoner of war log as well as a photograph album. He flew operations as a pilot with 77 Squadron before being shot down in April 1941.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Brian Taylor and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-06-01
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
Tyrie, JSB
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
Jim Tyrie's flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Flying log book for J S B Tyrie covering the period from 1 July 1939 to 9 August 1959. Detailing his flying training and operations flown Following which he was shot down 9 April 1941 and became a prisoner of war. Returning to flying duties 25 May 1945 to 27 October 1964 detailing his duties as instructor and with 90 squadron. Also included his flying in various aircraft including his airline flying. He was stationed at RAF Perth, RAF Hatfield, RAF Cranwell, RAF Abingdon, RAF Stanton Harcourt, RAF Topcliffe, RAF Wheaton Aston, RAF Seighford, RAF Perton, RAF Moreton, RAF Finningly, RAF Lindholme, RAF Wyton, RAF Shallufa, RAF Khormakser, RAF Hendon, RAF Gatow, RAF Shawbury, RAF Worksop, RAF Wunstorf, RAF Bruugen, RAF Chivenor, RAF Akrotiri, RAF Nicosia, RAF Sopley, RAF Watton and RAF Bishops Court. Aircraft flown in were, Tiger Moth, Oxford, Whitley, Wellington, Dakota, Lancaster, Vengeance, Anson, Lincoln, Proctor, York, Viking, Valetta, Auster, Meteor, Varsity, Prentice, Canberra, Vampire, Whirlwind, Hunter, Shackleton, Viscount, Brittania and Hastings. He flew 7 operations with 77 squadron. Targets were St Nazaire, Hamburg, Berlin, Brest and Kiel. His first or second pilots on operations were Pilot Officer Bagnall and Sergeant Lee.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LTyrieJSB87636v1
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Cyprus
Cyprus--Nicosia
Egypt
Egypt--Suez Canal
France
France--Brest
France--Saint-Nazaire
Germany
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Niederkrüchten
Germany--Wunstorf
Great Britain
England--Berkshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Devon
England--Gloucestershire
England--Hampshire
England--Hertfordshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--London
England--Norfolk
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Oxfordshire
England--Shropshire
England--Staffordshire
England--West Midlands
England--Yorkshire
Northern Ireland--Down (County)
Scotland--Perth
Yemen (Republic)
Yemen (Republic)--Aden
North Africa
Great Britain
Cyprus--Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940
1941
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1941-03-10
1941-03-11
1941-03-12
1941-03-13
1941-03-14
1941-03-23
1941-03-24
1941-04-03
1941-04-04
1941-04-07
1941-04-08
1941-04-09
10 OTU
21 OTU
77 Squadron
90 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
bombing
C-47
Flying Training School
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lincoln
Meteor
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
prisoner of war
Proctor
RAF Abingdon
RAF Bishops Court
RAF Chivenor
RAF Cranwell
RAF Finningley
RAF Hatfield
RAF Hendon
RAF Khormakser
RAF Lindholme
RAF Moreton in the Marsh
RAF Seighford
RAF Shallufa
RAF Shawbury
RAF Stanton Harcourt
RAF Topcliffe
RAF Watton
RAF Worksop
RAF Wyton
Shackleton
shot down
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
Whitley
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/240/26908/LCoxJ133397v1.2.pdf
5116cf4dfbde297c183ecd34852b6838
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Cox, John
John Cox
J Cox
Description
An account of the resource
Seven Items. Includes an oral history interview with John Cox (133397 Royal Air Force), his logbooks and photographs. He flew operations as a pilot with 626 Squadron before becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by John Cox and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-14
2016-03-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Cox, J
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
John Cox’s pilots flying log book. One
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LCoxJ133397v1
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for John Cox, covering the period from 9 January 1942 to 12 June 1944. Detailing his flying training and instructor duties. He was stationed at RAF Perth, USAF Tuscaloosa, USAF Gunter Field, USAF Turner Field, USAF Kelly Field, USAF Ellington Field, RCAF Moncton, RAF Speke, RAF Calveley and RAF Newton. Aircraft flown were, Tiger Moth, Stearman PT17, Vultee BT13, Cessna AT17, Curtis AT9, Fairchild 20, Beechcraft AT10, North American AT6, North American BC-1, Dakota, Oxford and B-17.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Great Britain
United States
Alabama--Montgomery
Alabama--Tuscaloosa
England--Cheshire
England--Liverpool
England--Nottinghamshire
Georgia--Albany
New Brunswick--Moncton
Scotland--Perth
Texas--Houston
Texas--San Antonio
Alabama
Georgia
Texas
New Brunswick
England--Lancashire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
B-17
C-47
Flying Training School
Oxford
pilot
RAF Calveley
RAF Newton
Stearman
Tiger Moth
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/828/26851/LFreemanRRE1523700v20001.2.jpg
77abbdb32fffabc666afdcfe3cc09a77
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/828/26851/LFreemanRRE1523700v20002.2.jpg
3b5fb7b4a88c68fc236452d6e43c8613
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
Freeman, Ralph
R Freeman
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Sergeant Ralph Reginald Freeman (1923 - 2019, 1523700 Royal Air Force), his log book, photographs and documents. He trained as a pilot and later flew as a flight engineer.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Susan Abbott and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-12
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Freeman, R
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
Log Book Extracts
Description
An account of the resource
Two pages from a logbook. Ralph is mentioned as a second pilot or passenger.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two photocopied sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LFreemanRRE1523700v20001,
LFreemanRRE1523700v20002
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy--Pomigliano d'Arco
Great Britain
England--London
England--Newquay
England--Gloucestershire
England--Manchester
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
Manitoba--Neepawa
Manitoba--Carberry
Ontario--Arnprior
Saskatchewan
England--Harrogate
England--Hereford
Northern Ireland--Erne, Lower Lough
England--Winkleigh
Scotland--Perth
England--Kidlington
England--Bicester
England--Crosby-on-Eden
Italy
Ontario
New Brunswick
Great Britain
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Cumberland
England--Devon
England--Herefordshire
England--Oxfordshire
England--Lancashire
Manitoba
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.
1945
101 Squadron
Lancaster
RAF Binbrook
RAF Bottesford
RAF Elsham Wolds
RAF Glatton
RAF Ludford Magna
RAF Market Harborough
RAF Snaith
RAF Sturgate
RAF Wickenby
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/704/11815/LBeethamMJ[Ser -DoB]v1.pdf
8f08975309682a9cca55096aaf343edb
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Beetham, Michael
Sir Michael Beetham
M Beetham
Description
An account of the resource
Five items. The collection concerns Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham GCB, CBE, DFC, AFC, DL (1923 - 2015) and contains his five flying log books. He flew a tour of operations as a pilot with 50 Squadron. After the war he flew on the goodwill tour of the United States with 35 Squadron. He remained in the RAF and rose in rank until his retirement in the 1980s.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sir Michael Beetham and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-09-09
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Beetham, MJ
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
Michael Beetham's pilot's flying log book. One
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book one for Michael James Beetham, covering the period from 2 March 1942 to 17 November 1945. Detailing his flying training. Operations flown, instructor duties and post war squadron duties. He was stationed at RAF Perth, USAAC Lakeland, USAAC Gunter Field, USAAC Turner Field, RAF Desford, RAF Church Lawford, RAF Cottesmore, RAF Wigsley, RAF Skellingthorpe, RAF Lulsgate Bottom, RAF Syerston and RAF East Kirkby. Aircraft flown were, DH82a, Stearman, Vultee, Cessna AT17, Curtis AT9, Oxford, Anson, Wellington, Halifax, Lancaster and Lincoln. He flew a total of 30 night operations with 50 Squadron and one Operation Exodus and two Operation Dodge with 57 Squadron. Targets were, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Stettin, Brunswick, Augsburg, Stuttgart, Marseilles, Essen, Nuremberg, Toulouse, Aachen, Juvisy, Paris, Schweinfurt, Bordeaux, Juvincourt and Bari. His pilot for his first 'second dickie' operation was Flight Lieutenant Bolton.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LBeethamMJ19230517v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
United States
Alabama--Montgomery
England--Leicestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Rutland
England--Somerset
England--Warwickshire
Florida--Lakeland
France--Aisne
France--Essonne
France--Marseille
France--Paris
France--Toulouse
Georgia--Albany
Germany--Aachen
Germany--Augsburg
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Braunschweig
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Essen
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Schweinfurt
Poland--Szczecin
Germany--Stuttgart
Italy--Bari
Scotland--Perth
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Poland
Florida
Alabama
Georgia
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
France--Juvincourt-et-Damary
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1942
1943
1944
1944-03-30
1944-03-31
1944-04-06
1944-04-18
1944-04-19
1945
1944-04-05
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
50 Squadron
57 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
bombing
bombing of Nuremberg (30 / 31 March 1944)
bombing of the Juvisy, Noisy-le-Sec and Le Bourget railways (18/19 April 1944)
bombing of Toulouse (5/6 April 1944)
Halifax
Ju 88
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lincoln
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operation Dodge (1945)
Operation Exodus (1945)
Oxford
pilot
RAF Church Lawford
RAF Cottesmore
RAF Desford
RAF East Kirkby
RAF Hunmanby Moor
RAF Market Harborough
RAF Morton Hall
RAF Skellingthorpe
RAF Swinderby
RAF Syerston
RAF Wigsley
Stearman
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Gallop, Roy
R Gallop
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
2017-05-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Gallup, R
Description
An account of the resource
Nine items. The collection concerns Sergeant Roy Gallop (171215 Royal Air Force) and contains a year book for Cochran Field 1942, documents and photographs.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Mike Coster and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[photograph]
[page break]
Left. to Right.
Sgts:-
Irving. Bishop. Manning. Wadge. Blair. Neil. Alldis. Neighbour. Buck. Gallagher.
Bartley. Cipriani. Starkey. Finney. Cowley. Saunders. Harrison. Gallop. Rouke.
P/O s:- Spalding. Swaine. Morrish. Playfair. Murdoch. Munday. Wilson. Williams.
O’Neil. Slotter. Hagan. Barnes. Longson. Lees. Rees.
No. 9. Pre-A.F.U Course
No. 11. E.F.T.S. Perth.
26/2/43-26/3/43
[page break]
[photograph]
[page break]
Left to Right
Sgts:- Irving. Bishop. Manning. Wadge. Blair. Neil. Alldis. Neighbour. Buck. Gallagher.
Bartley. Cipriani. Starkey. Finney. Cowley. Saunders. Harrison. [highlighted] Gallop [/highlighted] Roy. Rouke.
P/O s:- Spalding. Swaine. Morrish. Playfair. Murdoch. Munday. Wilson. Williams.
O’Neil. Slotter. Hagan. Barnes. Longson. Lees. Rees.
[page break]
Left. to Right.
Sgts:-
Irving. Bishop. Manning. Wadge. Blair. Neil. Alldis. Neighbour. Buck. Gallagher.
Bartley. Cipriani. Starkey. Finney. Cowley. Saunders. Harrison. Gallop. Rouke.
P/O.s:- Spalding. Swaine. Morrish. Playfair. Murdoch. Munday. Wilson. Williams.
O’Neil. Slotter. Hagan. Barnes. Longson. Lees. Rees.
No. 9. Pre-A.F.U. Course.
No. 11. E.F.T.S. Perth.
26/2/43-26/3/43.
[photograph]
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
No. 9 Pre-AFU Course No. 11 Perth
Description
An account of the resource
34 airmen arranged in five rows. On the reverse each individual is named.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Perth
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
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PGallupR1704, PGallupR1705, PGallupR1706, PGallupR1707, PGallupR1711
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Matthew Bruce
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
navigator
observer
pilot
training
-
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be566dd098e171422a526e81b1ce84bd
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Wareing, Robert
R Wareing
Description
An account of the resource
258 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Robert Wareing DFC* (86325 Royal Air Force) and contains his flying logbooks, prisoner of war log book, memoirs, photographs, extensive personal and official correspondence, official documents, pilots/handling notes, decorations, mementos, uniform badges and buttons. He flew operations as a pilot with 106 Squadron. After a period of instructing he returned to operations on 582 Squadron but was shot down and became a prisoner of war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Andrew Wareing and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-05
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
Wareing, R
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
Notes on Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Mentions formation of Pathfinder force. Gee, pulse phasing radar, new compasses. Continues with short note of H2S, OBOE. Lists locations and RAF stations.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page handwritten document
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWareingR86325-161005-24
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Cheshire
England--Yorkshire
England--Oxfordshire
England--Rutland
England--Grimsby
England--Chester
Scotland--Perth
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-02-23
1941-09
1941-09-16
1943-08-02
1944-04-01
1941-08-08
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
106 Squadron
582 Squadron
Bennett, Donald Clifford Tyndall (1910-1986)
Gee
H2S
Oboe
Pathfinders
radar
RAF Coningsby
RAF Cottesmore
RAF Finningley
RAF Little Staughton
RAF Upper Heyford
-
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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Williamson, Frank-249
Description
An account of the resource
24 items. The collection concerns Frank Williamson (b. 1912, 1311249 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents and newspaper clippings. He flew operations as an air gunner with 106 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Lyn Williamson and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Williamson, F
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-01-30
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
NUREMBERG WAS ‘LAID FLAT’ [inserted] No 9 27/8 1943 [/inserted]
[boxed] ‘German [missing word] H.Q. [/boxed]
Few towns, even in Germany, can ever have received so shattering a blow in 40 minutes as medieval Nuremberg, the Bavarian “holy city” of the Nazi Party, which was the target of the vast armada of bombers that roared for more than an hour over South-East England late on Friday.
The result was summed up in one pregnant sentence by a rear-gunner on his return. He said: “ I reckon we knocked the whole place flat.” Here is the story of this great raid as told to the Sunday Express by the men who made it.
‘We’ve finished the job properly’
By EDWARD J. HART, [italics] Sunday Express Air Reporter [/italics]
A Lancaster Bomber Station, Saturday.
NUREMBERG, centre of some of Germany’s most vital war industries, was a seething bonfire when our very strong force of four engine bombers left the scene. Crews returning at dawn brought glowing descriptions of the effects of their heavy bombs and incendiaries.
[2 maps]
[italics] “The searchlights be[missing letter]ween Mannheim and Frankfort were five-deep in a continuous be[missing letter]t – just like a flare-path,” said the skipper of “ R for Robert,” back [missing letter]rom Nuremberg. “Anybody caught by them would have a job to get out.” [/italics]
A solid red core of leaping flames, with columns of jet black smoke billowing up to 15,000 feet and visible 150 miles away, was the word picture painted for me by Flight-Sergeant John Crabb, of Glasgow, navigator of “S for Sugar,” making his twenty-second raid on Germany.
“I never imagined a town could burn like that,” declared the rear gunner of “A for Apple,” Sergeant Harry Smith, a Cardiff man, on his 37th raid.
Weather conditions were very favourable for the raiders. They had clear skies all the way and excellent visibility over the target.
Packed area
Despite an exceptionally large force of enemy night fighters, the attack was completed to schedule.
It lasted from 12.30 a.m. till 1.12 a.m. Lancasters, Stirlings and Halifaxes took part in it.
IN 42 MINUTES OVER THE TARGET THEY DROPPED ABOUT 1,500 TONS.
“I reckon we knocked the whole place flat,” said Sergeant Fred Lamble, of Leeds, rear gunner in “C for Charlie.” It was his 19th operation. “We’ve finished the job properly,” he added. “There’ll be no more Brownshirt parties in that part of Germany.”
Lamble seems to have had a thoroughly enjoyable night. “We had our first bit of fun about ten miles inside France on the way in,” he said.
“Illuminations”
“It would have done your heart good to see our fighters – bags of them – banging away at locomotives; pumping in their tracer bullets against a vivid background of blue searchlights. It reminded you of the illuminations in Blackpool – lovely to look at.”
NUREMBERG, HE SAID, WAS A GOOD RUNNER-UP TO BERLIN. ITS FIGHTER DEFENCES WERE HEAVIER THAN BERLIN AND COMPARABLE WITH PEENEMUNDE.
“With plenty of fire, smoke, flak and searchlights it was everything you could wish for,” he commented.
Only one thing marred his joy. In vicil [sic] life he was a concert singer. Over the target he had promised the crew the baritone solo of the Prize Song of “The Meistersingers of Nuremberg” but just as he started the intercom system failed.
Fierce combats
Lamble refuses to believe it was accidental.
Other crews brought back stories of fierce combats with night fighters. Gunners of “D for Donald” had two encounters.
Mid upper gunner Sergeant Harry Wilkins, a former municipal clerk at Hull, said a Ju.88 passed just above him while they were making their bombing run. He fired at it, but did not see the result.
His skipper, Flight-Lieut. Robert Munro, a New Zealand farmer on his 65th operation, told me: “I’ve
BACK PAGE, COL. THREE
[page break]
(Continued from Page One) [inserted] No 9 27/8 43 [/inserted]
NUREMBERG ‘LAID FLAT’
never seen so many fighters in South Germany before.”
Sergeant William Walton, of Perth, rear-gunner of “J for Johnnie,” damaged an Me.109 just north of Nuremberg.
“I saw him coming in on the port quarter about 500 yards away and gave him a five-second burst,” said Walton.
Captain of “J for Johnnie,” Flying Officer Bruce Smeaton, of Manchester, who left school to join the R.A.F., reported a heavy concentration of searchlights.
“They nearly caught us going in and coming out,” he said. This was his eighteenth trip. He was in the Berlin raid.
Flying Officer Kenneth Coates, skipper of “R for Robert,” said the searchlights were five deep in a continuous belt – just like a flare path. “Anybody caught by them would have a job to get out,” he told me.
Flight Lieutenant Gobbie, who took part in a previous raid on Nuremberg, is also of the opinion that the old town has really “had it” this time.
Several crews saw friendly torches winking at them as they passed over France. They agreed that London’s black-out last night was far from good.
“It shook me rather badly,” one officer said.
One of the Lancaster squadrons taking part in last night’s raid was the first to drop bombs on a German target in this war. On September 4, 1939, six of its Hampden light bombers attacked the naval installations at Brunsbuttel.
Lights full on
The Squadron’s commander, Wing-Commander P.W. Johnson, A.F.C., gave me this summary of the Nuremberg raid:-
“I would definitely assess it as a major success. Nuremberg is a difficult target to find. It was very heavily bombed, and fires were started on the best and brightest scale. There is no doubt that the enemy night fighter effort has increased tremendously in recent weeks, but our defence against it is improving all the time.”
The station senior intelligence officer adds this footnote:-
“It was a very successful attack with well concentrated fires. Our crews encountered hundreds of fighters, many of them with navigation lights full on. This is quite a new departure. I cannot attempt to explain it. It makes an obvious target for our boys, but it may be intended as a decoy.”
IT IS OFFICIALLY STATED THAT 33 BOMBERS ARE MISSING FROM THE RAID – A SATISFACTORY PROPORTION CONSIDERING THE SIZE OF THE OPERATION. THE GERMANS, CLEARLY AS PROPAGANDA, CLAIM THAT 62 WERE SHOT DOWN AND SAY THAT “THIS WAS PROBABLY ONE-QUARTER OF THE WHOLE FORCE.”
The enemy communiqué describing the raid rather contradicts this by describing it as “a terror attack by strong British formations,” and says that it caused casualties among the population and heavy destruction in residential areas.
The German radio added: “Irreplaceable historical monuments of cultural value, including some parts of the Old Town Wall, and numerous churches fell victims to the high-explosives of the terror planes.”
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
Nuremburg Was 'Laid Flat'
Description
An account of the resource
A newspaper article describing an attack on Nuremberg. It is annotated 'No 9 27/8 1943'.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
New Zealand
England--Lancashire
England--Yorkshire
England--Blackpool
England--Leeds
England--Manchester
England--Hull
Germany--Brunsbüttel (Schleswig-Holstein)
Germany--Nuremberg
Scotland--Glasgow
Scotland--Perth
Wales--Cardiff
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three newspaper cuttings
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SWilliamsonF1311249v10003-0013, SWilliamsonF1311249v10003-0014
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-08-27
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
Paul Ross
Steve Baldwin
air gunner
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
Halifax
Hampden
incendiary device
Ju 88
Lancaster
Me 109
navigator
propaganda
Stirling
-
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--Perth
Title
A name given to the resource
Perth [place]
Peairt
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/2067/34304/PStimpsonMC19060021.1.jpg
a0cec0bc3d9b6264700fdf880aefade5
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2067/34304/PStimpsonMC19060022.1.jpg
fa3e9b1f9bc6e442b9f59260177610a9
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Stimpson, Maurice Cecil
Description
An account of the resource
124 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Maurice Cecil Stimpson DFC (1921 - 1944, 155249 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, photographs, documents, and pennants. He flew operations as a pilot with 156 Squadron and was killed 15 February 1944. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Tony France and catalogued by Barry Hunter. <br /><br />Additional information on Maurice Cecil Stimpson is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/226992/">IBCC Loses Database.</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-09-22
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Stimpson,
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Perth 1941 Trainees
Description
An account of the resource
30 trainee airmen arranged in four rows. On the reverse 'Perth 1941'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Perth
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
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
PStimpsonMC19060021,
PStimpsonMC19060022
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
aircrew
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/596/25236/LLathamPA[Ser -DoB]v1.pdf
072ab5be42f614e5f379d1947dfc140a
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
Latham, Peter
Peter Anthony Latham
P A Latham
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Latham, P
Description
An account of the resource
Two items. An oral history interview with Air Vice Marshall Peter Latham (b. 1925) and his log book. He flew operations as a pilot with 26 Squadron.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Peter Anthony Latham’s pilots flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for Peter Anthony Latham, covering the period from 22 February 1945 to 24 January 1948. Detailing his post war flying training and flying duties with 26 squadron. He was stationed at RAF Perth, RAF Cranwell, RAF Keevil, RAF Fassburg, RAF Chivenor, RAF Sylt, RAF Ahlorn, RAF Zeltweg, RAF Gutersloh and RAF Gatow. Aircraft flown were Tiger Moth, Harvard, Spitfire, Tempest and Auster. His log book also lists him as having flown Dominie, Oxford, Vampire, Meteor and Sea Fury. This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
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.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LLathamPA[Ser#-DoB]v1
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. Fighter Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Austria
Germany
Great Britain
Germany--Celle Region
Austria--Zeltweg
England--Devon
England--Lincolnshire
England--Wiltshire
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Gütersloh
Germany--Lower Saxony
Germany--Sylt
Scotland--Perth
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
1946
1947
1948
aircrew
Dominie
Flying Training School
Harvard
Meteor
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Chivenor
RAF Cranwell
RAF Keevil
Spitfire
Tiger Moth
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/934/36497/MLovattP1821369-190903-62-01.1.pdf
e9891efa9d1c16d6be963b2ca020c36f
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/934/36497/MLovattP1821369-190903-62-02.1.1.pdf
bdbdeeb28a2c1b19b1ed1f87649c704c
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
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
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
2017-09-27
2019-09-03
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Lovatt, P
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Radio War Waged by the RAF Against Germany 1940-1945
Description
An account of the resource
A thesis written by Peter in 2002, for his Phd.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Peter Lovatt
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2002-07
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
England--London
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
England--Norfolk
England--Norfolk
France--Dieppe
France--Cherbourg
England--Norwich
England--Swanage
England--Malvern
Germany--Berlin
England--Cornwall (County)
Canada
Newfoundland and Labrador
England--Devizes
France--Paris
England--Chatham (Kent)
Austria
Poland
England--Cheadle (Staffordshire)
England--Daventry
England--Orford Ness
England--Aldeburgh
England--Bawdsey (Air base)
Scotland--Dundee
Scotland--Perth
England--Christchurch (Dorset)
Russia (Federation)
Scotland--Firth of Forth
Germany--Baden-Baden
Germany--Krefeld
Germany--Borkum
Denmark
Norway
Germany--Bredstedt
France--Brest
Netherlands
Germany--Husum (Schleswig-Holstein)
Norway--Klepp
Germany--Stollberg (Landkreis)
Netherlands--Den Helder
Netherlands--Bergen op Zoom
France--Seine-Maritime
France--Cape La Hague
France--Manche
France--Morlaix
Germany--Lörrach
Italy--Noto
England--Tunbridge Wells
England--Harpenden
England--Somerset
England--Henfield (West Sussex)
England--Petersfield
France--Dieppe
England--Portsmouth
Scotland--Orkney
England--Rochester (Kent)
England--Essex
France--Le Havre
England--Hagley (Bromsgrove)
England--Gloucestershire
England--Bridport
England--Coventry
England--Bristol
France--Cassel
France--Poix-du-Nord
England--Radlett (Hertfordshire)
England--Henfield (West Sussex)
England--Cheadle (Staffordshire)
France--Bayeux
England--Kingsdown (Kent)
England--Harleston (Norfolk)
France--Barfleur
France--Cape La Hague
France--Le Mont-Saint-Michel
France--Cancale
France--Penmarc'h
France--Groix
France--Saint-Nazaire Region
France--Saint-Malo
England--Seaton (Devon)
England--Salisbury
Wales--Swansea
England--Droitwich
France--Brittany
England--Manchester
England--Chatham (Kent)
France--Chartres
France--Vannes
Poland--Lubin (Województwo Dolnośląskie)
Egypt
Libya
England--Lydd
England--Helston
England--Chivenor
England--Marske-by-the-Sea
England--Nottingham
England--Birmingham
Slovakia
Czech Republic
Italy
France
England--Milton Keynes
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Devon
England--Dorset
England--Hampshire
England--Herefordshire
England--Kent
England--Northamptonshire
England--Staffordshire
England--Suffolk
England--Sussex
England--Wiltshire
England--Worcestershire
England--Yorkshire
England--Lancashire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Warwickshire
Germany--Kleve (North Rhine-Westphalia)
France--Ouessant Island
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Jersey
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. Fighter Command
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
80 printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MLovattP1821369-190903-62-01
100 Group
101 Squadron
109 Squadron
214 Squadron
218 Squadron
Anson
B-17
B-24
Blenheim
bombing
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Do 217
Gee
Gneisenau
Goering, Hermann (1893-1946)
ground personnel
H2S
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
He 111
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Hudson
Ju 52
Ju 88
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
Oboe
P-51
Pathfinders
Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
radar
RAF Biggin Hill
RAF Boscombe Down
RAF Defford
RAF Martlesham Heath
RAF Oulton
RAF St Athan
RAF Waddington
RAF Wyton
Scharnhorst
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
Wellington
Whitley
Window
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force