1
25
143
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1236/17619/PThompsonKG15010057.1.jpg
9a0730c73802e49100006e508589f868
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
Thompson, Keith G
K G Thompson
Description
An account of the resource
95 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Keith Thompson DFC (1238603 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, photographs and training material as well as his navigation logs. He flew operations as a navigator with 101 and 199 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Mark S Thompson 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
2015-09-07
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
Thompson, KG
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
ELIZABETHAN NEWS
Series 10, No. 1 THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1943 Two Cents
[underlined] TUNISIA [/underlined]
ALLIED ADVANCE NEAR MATEUR
Picked German troops were thrown out of strong positions near Mateur by British infantry supported by tanks and aircraft, states a message from Allied headquarters in north Africa. They occupied several high points and
[map depicting the Axis defense [sic] line and the Allied attacks]
beat off a number of strong enemy counter-attacks.
German reinforcements rushed up to assist in the attacks were heavily bombed by Allied aircraft and fell back in disorder.
A brief later message states that in another outbreak of fighting a very important line of hills 15 miles west of Mateur and 20 miles south of Bizerte have been captured after a fierce battle.
Flying Fortresses bombed Sfax, where a big power station was left in flames. Sousse was also heavily attacked.
New Fifth U.S. Army
A new Fifth United States Army, commanded by Lieut.-General Mark Clark, is being formed in Tunisia to fight with the British First Army.
U.S. AND BRITISH PLANES IN SWEEPS OVER BURMA
American and British aircraft carried out attacks on many Japanese positions throughout Burma during the day.
American planes attacked enemy positions at Mandalay and shot up railway yards and timber warehouses, while R.A.F. machines raided river and coastal craft along the whole west coast of Burma, damaging over 60 of them.
Two direct hits were made on a large Japanese ship in the Irrawady river and it was left in flames.
CHILE TO BREAK WITH AXIS
The Chile Government is expected to break off diplomatic relations with the Axis Power next Friday. This will leave Argentina as the one remaining larger south American Republic friendly towards Germany, Italy and Japan.
In the Caucasus
GERMANS FLEEING BEFORE SMASHING RED ARMY BLOWS
Moscow announced in a midday message yesterday that the Germans are in full retreat in the Caucasus following the capture by the Russians of Nalchik and that six more towns were captured during the day’s advance.
Another arm of the great Russian Caucasus offensive struck in the vicinity of Mozdok, east of Nalchik, and it is reported that 500,000 crack German troops are fleeing before the fierce attacks of Russian tanks, artillery and Cossack regiments.
In their retreat the Germans are blowing up bridges and mining roads in efforts to check the Red Army advance. Pravda says the retreat is becoming disordered and that the Cossacks are causing very severe losses to German and Rumanian troops.
Narrow Bottle-Neck
The Russians are pursuing the enemy down a narrow bottle-neck and more than 150,000 Axis troops are believed to be in danger of isolation if the soviet forces can continue their westward drive. It is thought that a number of Germans have managed to escape the trap but this does not lessen the importance of the Soviet advance.
Large quantities of German artillery have fallen into Soviet hands and many prisoners have been taken. The enemy dead is placed at a very high figure and special Russian forces are remaining in the rear to bury them.
Surprise Attack
To the south and south-west of Stalingrad Soviet troops are still moving forward in spite of desperate German efforts to stem the advance.
To the west of the city Russian forces launched a surprise blow and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy.
Forging Ahead
The Red Army is forging ahead in the middle Don area, and south-west of Velikie Luki the capture of several inhabited localities is claimed.
78TH U.S. CONGRESS OPENED
Senator Sam Raeburn of Texas was again elected Speaker of the House of Representatives by a majority of 11 votes over Senator Martin of Massachusetts, when the 78th Congress of the United States was opened in Washington yesterday.
Thousand of Bills will be dealt with during the session.
PRESIDENT LEBRUN MYSTERY
The Fighting French radio at Brazzaville stated yesterday that President Lebrun had arrived in north Africa.
Rallying Effect
This was denied in London although it was pointed out that if the President did reach north Africa it would have a great rallying effect on all Frenchmen everywhere.
12,000 TONS OF BOMBS ON MALTA DURING 1942
More than 12,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Malta during 1942 by Axis aircraft, it was revealed yesterday. In reply the island ground and air defences destroyed 955 enemy aircraft, and there were 300 “probables.” R.A.F. fighters destroyed 773 of the planes, while 182 were shot down by ground defences. R.A.F. losses were 195 planes, but the pilots of 89 were saved.
Convoy Attacks
In addition, island-based planes attacked 46 enemy convoys, 6 single ships and 5 naval vessels. More than 50 ships were definitely sunk and 40 probably sank after attacks. Eighty-three ships were set on fire and their cargoes destroyed.
BRITISH NEARING MISURATA
An unconfirmed report by Radio Morocco says that the British Eighth Army is on the outskirts of Misurata, 125 miles from Tripoli and less than 200 miles from the Tunisian border.
[underlined] SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC [/underlined]
JAPANESE SHIPS BLASTED IN RABAUL RAID
Allied aircraft made a very heavy raid on Japanese shipping concentrations at Rabaul on Tuesday, according to a south-west Pacific report. The planes attacked in two waves and bombed the targets from medium height, destroying nine and probably ten Japanese ships, totalling more than 50,000 tons. They were set on fire with direct hits and when last seen were in a sinking condition.
Seven Planes Destroyed
Munda, on New Georgia island, and Bougainville were also attacked by Allied planes. Seven Japanese planes were destroyed during the raids for the loss of two American fighters.
Japanese Fleet Massing
Messages from the south-west Pacific indicate that the Japanese are massing a large fleet in the Solomons – New Britain area for another attempt to land troops on Guadalcanal to try to seize Henderson airfield.
NEW EASTERN STATES’ PETROL AND OIL FUEL CUTS
The O.P.A. announced in Washington yesterday that all pleasure motoring will cease on the eastern seaboard from noon on Thursday.
Heating Cuts
Heating fuel cuts in the eastern States are expected shortly and it was stated yesterday that people would have to decide between running their cars or heating their houses.
Massachusetts Shortage
Oil fuel is reported to be so low in Massachusetts, says a Boston message, that many houses and apartments will be soon untenable.
United States shipyards are now launching four merchant ships daily and by May the figure will be raised to five a day.
ODDS AND ENDS
PETS
A column in a London newspaper headed “Unlovable Pets: No. 1, The Goat”, ended: “Goat’s milk is very rich, nutritious, unappetising and obnoxious. It turns red litmus paper blue. So do goats,”
At the foot of the column was added: “(Tomorrow – No. 2: Pierre Laval.)”
[symbol] “He made his bed, now he’s lying out of it.”
EMBARRASING
A man was troubled by an inability to remember names, at times even those of old friends. He was dining one day and looked up from his newspaper to see a familiar face. But the name escaped him.
He stood, shook hands warmly with the man, and said: “How are you, where have you been? Will you join me?” and other polite remarks while he was trying to recall the name.
“I’m the waiter, sir,” said the embarrassed fellow.
[symbol] Married life is like a bath – not so hot after you get used to it.
COULD BE
Golfing on links adjoining the Paramount studios, Bob Hope passed a set where a Western mob scene was being filmed. The crowd of extras, ugly, tough, unshaven, had little to do except shout and shake their fists.
“Paramount shareholders, I presume,” said Hope to his companions.
[symbol] “Her waist, like the Equator, is an imaginary line.”
BLOOD CURDLING
A practical joker stepped into a hotel elevator with a friend and began talking as though continuing a conversation: “So I turned on the light and there was this girl in the middle of the floor. Her throat was slit and there was a great puddle of blood. Beside the body was a knife. I was in a spot. If I called the police, there’d be a nasty row, and if I didn’t somebody’d find me there. So I took out my handkerchief and carefully . . .”
At this point the elevator stopped and the two men stepped out, leaving everybody in the car goggle-eyed with astonishment.
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
'Elizabethan Times' Thursday 7 January 1943
Description
An account of the resource
Front page of military newsheet, Series 10 Issue 1. Two cents. Covering world wide military activity. Leading articles cover advances by the allied forces in North Africa and Russian successes in the East. Shorter reports on attacks on the Japanese base at Rabaul and air attacks over Burma. Other notes mention the campaign based around Malta and the shortage of fuel in the eastern American states. There is also an Odds and Ends column.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-01-07
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page printed newsheet
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
PThompsonKG15010057
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
United States Army Air Force
Royal Air Force
British Army
United States Army
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-01-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Burma
North Africa
Malta
Morocco
Papua New Guinea
Russia (Federation)
Tunisia
Papua New Guinea--Rabaul
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
propaganda
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1246/16776/MNealeETH1395951-150731-096.1.jpg
9acaf92c3b098433ec6d5f9c53c08321
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
Neale, Ted
E T H Neale
Description
An account of the resource
123 items. The collection concerns Edward Thomas Henry Neale (b. 1922, 1395951 Royal Air Force) who served as a navigator with 37 Squadron in North Africa, the Middle East and Italy. The collection contains his training notebooks from South Africa as well as propaganda leaflets dropped by the allies in the Mediterranean theatre.
The collection also contains a photograph album, navigation logs and target photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Alison Neale 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
2015-07-31
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
Neale, ETH
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[crest] 205 GROUP ROYAL AIR FORCE [crest]
Albania, Jugoslavia, Bulgaria, Syria, Iraq, Rhodes, Crete, Piraeus, Corinth, Leros, Daba, Capuzzo, Fuka, Halfaya, El Adem, Martuba, Tobruk, Benghazi, Tripoli, Mareth, Gabes, Cape Bon, Tunis
[map]
Palermo, Pantellaria, Syracuse, Messina, Salerno, Anzio, Viterbo, Guilianova, Verona, Turin, Pisa, Leghorn, Trieste, Milan, Sofia, Budapest, Steyr, Valence, Munich, Fiume, Bucharest, Ploesti, Danube
In the 1939 – 1945 World War
205 Group provided the only mobile force of heavy night bombers in the Mediterranean theatre. During the North African and Italian campaigns the Wellingtons, Halifaxes and Liberators of the Group, operating as a tactical force, attacked communications and concentrations of Rommel’s Africa Korps and of the Italian armies during their advance to the Quattara Depression, the Battle of El Alamein and during their retreat until their final capitulation in Tunisia. Without respite they operated against Kesselring’s army during the invasions of Sicily, Italy and the South of France. As a strategical force their targets – ports, airfields, marshalling yards, oil refineries and factories-ranged over the Mediterranean area and Europe. Aid was given to patriots in France, supplies and arms’ were dropped to Partizans in the Balkans and to the patriots in Warsaw. The Danube was mined persistently.
Shining courage is the epitaph of those who died.
We will remember them.
JUNE 1940 MAY 1945
[indecipherable word] A.B. Rud
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
205 Group Royal Air Force
Description
An account of the resource
A commemorative poster with a map of Southern Europe and North Africa. Around the outside is a list of locations where operations were carried out. There is a paragraph with details of the operations.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
205 Group Royal Air Force
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One printed sheet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MNealeETH1395951-150731-096
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Albania
Austria
Austria--Steyr
Bulgaria
Bulgaria--Sofia
Croatia
Croatia--Rijeka
Danube River
France
France--Valence (Drôme)
Germany
Germany--Munich
Greece
Greece--Corinth Canal
Greece--Crete
Greece--Piraeus
Greece--Rhodes (Island)
Hungary
Hungary--Budapest
Iraq
Italy
Italy--Anzio
Italy--Giulianova
Italy--Livorno
Italy--Messina
Italy--Milan
Italy--Palermo
Italy--Pantelleria Island
Italy--Pisa
Italy--Salerno
Italy--Syracuse
Italy--Trieste
Italy--Turin
Italy--Verona
Italy--Viterbo
Libya
Libya--Banghāzī
Libya--Martuba
Libya--Tobruk
Libya--Tripoli
North Africa
Romania
Romania--Bucharest
Romania--Ploiești
Syria
Tunisia
Tunisia--Mareth Line
Tunisia--Qābis
Tunisia--Sharīk Peninsula
Tunisia--Tunis
Egypt--Fukah
Greece--Leros (Municipality)
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
bombing
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1826/33147/MScottEW188329-170406-05.2.jpg
8d339628d989d4029271af63a73ee7c5
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
Scott, Eric William
E W Scott
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-06
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
Scott, EW
Description
An account of the resource
139 items. The collection concerns Flying Officer Eric Scott (1425952, 188329 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, a memoir, correspondence, documents, newspaper cuttings, a flying course handbook and photographs. He flew operations in North Africa as a bomb aimer with 142 Squadron and then after an instructional tour in Palestine started a second tour on 37 Squadron in Italy where he was shot down and finished the war as a prisoner. <br /><br />The collection includes three albums.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2040"><span>Album 1</span></a> <span>Photographs of Jerusalem, Bethlehem. Tel Aviv, Haifa and friends.</span><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2041">Album 2</a> <span>Photographs taken during training in the United States and England and during his service in North Africa and Italy.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2046">Album 3</a> Correspondence, newspaper cuttings, documents and the last issue of the Prisoner of war Journal.<br /></span><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Jacqui Holman and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
205 GROUP ROYAL AIR FORCE
[map]
ALBANIA
JUGOSLAVIA
BULGARIA
SYRIA
IRAQ
RHODES
CRETE
PIRAEUS
CORINTH
LEROS
DABA
CAPUZZO
FUKA
HALFAYA
EL ADEM
MARTUBA
TOBRUK
BENGHAZI
TRIPOLI
MARETH
GABES
CAPE BON
TUNIS
JUNE 1940
PALERMO
PANTELLARIA
SYRACUSE
MESSINA
ANZIO
VITERBO
GUILIANOVA
VERONA
TURIN
PISA
LEGHORN
TRIESTE
MILAN
SOFIA
BUDAPEST
STEYR
VALENCE
MUNICH
FIUME
BUCHAREST
PLOESTI
DANUBE
MAY 1945
[indecipherable name] A.B. Read.
In the 1939 – 1945 World War 205 Group provided the only mobile force of heavy night bombers in the Mediterranean theatre. During the North African and Italian campaigns the Wellingtons, Halifaxes and Liberators of the Group operating as a tactical force, attacked communications and concentrations of Rommel’s Afrika Korps and of the Italian armies during their advance to the Quattara Depression, the Battle of El Alamein and during their retreat until their final capitulation in Tunisia. Without respite they operated against Kesselring’s army during the invasions of Sicily, Italy and the South of France. As a strategical force their targets – ports, airfields, marshalling yards, oil refineries and factories – ranged over the Mediterranean area and Europe. Aid was given to patriots in France, supplies and arms were dropped to Partizans in the Balkans and to the patriots in Warsaw. The Danube was mined persistently. Shining courage is the epitaph of those who died.
We will remember them.
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
205 Group Royal Air Force Battle Honours
Description
An account of the resource
Map showing Mediterranean Sea and surrounding countries. Provides a history of of the group who provided the only mobile force of heavy bombers in the Mediterranean theatre. Wellington, Halifax and B-24 acted as a tactical force attacking communications and Italian and German forces throughout the North African campaign. Continued to support operations in Sicily, Italy, The Balkans and South of France. On the sides the locations of many of the targets attacked by the groups aircraft.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page coloured map and printed text
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Map
Artwork
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MScottEW188329-170406-05
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.
Albania
Yugoslavia
Syria
Iraq
Greece
Greece--Rhodes (Island)
Greece--Crete
Greece--Piraeus
Greece--Corinth Canal
Italy
Libya
Libya--Tobruk
Libya--Banghāzī
Libya--Tripoli
Tunisia
Tunisia--Mareth Line
Tunisia--Qābis
Tunisia--Sharīk Peninsula
Tunisia--Tunis
Italy--Palermo
Italy--Pantelleria Island
Italy--Syracuse
Italy--Messina
Italy--Salerno
Italy--Anzio
Italy--Viterbo
Italy--Giulianova
Italy--Verona
Italy--Turin
Italy--Pisa
Italy--Livorno
Italy--Trieste
Italy--Milan
Bulgaria
Bulgaria--Sofia
Hungary
Hungary--Budapest
Austria
Austria--Steyr
France
France--Valence (Drôme)
Germany
Germany--Munich
Croatia
Croatia--Rijeka
Romania
Romania--Bucharest
Romania--Ploiești
Danube River
North Africa
Libya--Martuba
Egypt--Fukah
Greece--Leros (Municipality)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1945-05
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
B-24
bombing
Halifax
Warsaw airlift (4 August - 28 September 1944)
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/188/2481/BWardCWWardCWv1.2.pdf
18f5d8d6f561999052eca73c0631f2ed
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
Ward, Charles and Margaret
C W Ward
M Ward
Margaret Pratt
M Pratt
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. The collection consists of an oral history interview with cipher operator, Sergeant Charles William Ward (7015946, British Army) and wireless operator, Margaret Ward née Pratt (17546, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry). Both served in the Special Operation Executive in North Africa, Italy and Greece. The collection also contains a diary, British Army paperwork, and four photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Charles and Margaret Ward and was catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-05-18
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, C-M
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
ARMY HISTORY OF CADET ENSIGN MARGARET PRATT & SERGEANT CHARLES WARD
As the war clouds gathered over Europe in 1939 the government decided that as a precaution young men aged 20 would be called up for six months to train as a reserve for the armed forces. My call up papers arrived telling me I was to report on Salisbury Plain to train in the Royal Artillery.
However, before the due date arrived war was declared and I was switched from the Artillery to the London Irish Rifles and on October 18th I was to report to one of the main London railway stations from where we were taken on the underground railway, our destination being Southfields station, SW18.
On disembarking we were marched down Wimbledon Park Road to Barkers Sports Ground which was next to Wimbledon Tennis Courts. There we were kitted out with our Army uniforms, part of which were puttees which, I suspect, were left over from the First World War.
Training began, often in the tennis court grounds and on Wimbledon Common, which included marching, rifle and Bren Gun training. Once proficient we were moved around the country doing guard duty in various places including the [underlined] Air Force Records Office in London and Tangmere Airport. [/underlined]
This was followed by a stint in the south which included Chichester and Goodwood race course during which time we were engaged in erecting Danet Wire defences on the beaches against an expected invasion. We were somewhat alarmed one day when we encountered a small party of army personnel with mine detectors sweeping the sand who said that the previous day they had lifted three mines.
We then had quite a few more moves which included spells at Gorleston, Thetford where we were employed in harvesting sugar beet, Altrincham, London Colney, Knutsford, Malvern, Haverfordwest, and Tenby. During most of this time I was engaged in the training of new recruits, mainly from London, who, once up to the required standard, were posted on to other units.
The repetitive nature of this training routine began to [underlined]pall so when volunteers were called for as pilots in the RAF I decided to volunteer. [/underlined] This entailed a day in London where med1cal and educational tests were earned out and I emerged with a document which I was [underlined]told to present to the CO on arrival at my first RAF station. [/underlined]
However, this was not to be as our unit was immediately posted to Cumnock, Scotland, to be part of a new special Brigade of tanks and infantry which [underlined]meant all transfers to the RAF were stopped. [/underlined]
This was my first time in Scotland, we were under canvas in a field that had quite a slope to it and the rain went on and on and on. The rainwater was constantly running under the duckboards of the tents and the field was a quagmire. Going out in the evenings meant carrying a clean pair of boots under one's arm to be changed into once we reached the road, the mud coated pair to be left under a hedge and changed back into on our return to camp. Eventually the Brigadier came to inspect and immediately ordered billet accommodation to be found.
[underlined]We were then shipped to North Africa as part of the 151 Army invasion landing at Algiers. [/underlined] From there we were moved by train up the coast towards Tunisia. The train, of course, was all cattle trucks and there was a dearth of fuel for the engine so quite a few stops were required to gather wood, though that wasn't our worry.
Our worry was liquid refreshment and during one of the fuel stops we managed to find a sheet of metal which we placed on the floor of the cattle truck so that we could light a fire and make tea. This only happened once as the heat from the fire set light to the floor of the truck.
Arriving at our destination we disembarked and dispersed into an orchard which gave us good cover, especially from the air. After this I began to keep a brief diary of events which follows.
Dec. 7th, 1942
Travelled in TCVs [troop carrying vehicles] over high mountain range from hide out area. Crossed into Tunisia. Slept in open.
Dec. 8th.
Woke up wet through. Raining like hell. All trucks bogged down and had to be pushed onto road. Eventually moved off still miserable and wet. Stopped the night on side of road. Slept, or attempted to in TCVs. No wash or shave.
Dec. 9th.
Still raining but managed morning cup of gunpowder. Continuing our nomadic existence we dished up breakfast on the move. Stopped for a couple of hours and made dinner. TCVs left us and we started to march. Still no wash or shave. Took up defence position on knoll in range of mountains. No food. Rained all night. Slept with greatcoat and gas cape among rocks. Worse than last night. Fell half-way down cliff face in dark.
Dec. 10th.
Still raining. Clouds all around hill top. Made shelter to sleep in. Had to carry food etc up to knoll. Everything still wet through but stopped raining in evening. Still no wash or shave.
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Friday Dec. 11th.
Fine morning except for mist. Stand to. Breakfast. Had quite a good night's sleep. Everybody washed and shaved. Carried all ammunition up. Laid tele[telephone] line from 15 pi to us. Sent out patrol up mountain track for about 5 miles. Did guard. Fine night except for short shower of rain.
Saturday Dec. 12th.
Very good morning with few clouds and sun out. Most things were dried out. Made shelter for all section. Sent out another patrol about 10 miles through mountains to El Agula. Good night's sleep.
Sunday Dec 13th.
Another fine morning but a little cold. Very fine day. Nothing unusual so far. Called out to stand to at 20.10 hrs. Stood down at 21.30 hrs.
Monday Dec 14th.
Another quiet day with everything normal.
Tuesday Dec 15th.
Same as yesterday. NAAFI supplies came up so we had a few extra cigarettes, soap etc.
Wednesday Dec 16th.
Reached the ripe old age of 24. I am getting old. First air mail letter card issued to us. Guaranteed to reach home for Christmas.
Thursday Dec 17th.
Plenty of air activity this morning. Constant rumble heard in distance all round.
Friday Dec 18th.
Best day yet. Saw three dive bombers but long way off.
Saturday Dec 19th.
Cloudy today with occasional showers. Warned to move off at dusk. Moved about 9 miles back to rest of btn. [battalion]
Sunday Dec. 20th.
Settling down in new position. Cold and showery. Orders to pack up ready to move again at 11.30. Took up fresh positions and dug in.
Monday Dec 21st
Moved again after breakfast nearer road. Stayed there rest of day and moved up towards Medjez-el-Bab in evening. Stayed night in farm. Slept in haystack.
Tuesday Dec 22nd
More air activity. Moved into building. Good sleeping quarters. Rained like hell during night.
Wednesday Dec 23'd.
Still bad weather holding up attack.
Thursday Dec 24th.
Still raining. Warned to move up and stop Germans taking Skins (Enniskillen Fusiliers) prisoners. Averaging eight a night. Moved up into position after dark. No sign of enemy at all. Dug in. Rained hard all night.
Friday Dec 25th.
Still occupying positions in hills. Still no sign of enemy. Suspected to be occupying farm. Attacking tonight.
Saturday Dec 26th.
Moved forward in early hours and attacked farm but enemy had evacuated. Rest of day spent resting. More rain. Moved back to coy. [company] position. Very cold.
Sunday Dec 27th.
Quiet all night. Rested all day. Attacked another farm at dusk still without success.
Monday Dec. 28th.
Called out in early hours but false alarm. Weather turning very nice again. Evacuated position at dusk.
Tuesday Dec 29th.
Took up position guarding AT [anti-tank] guns on hill. Weather fine but very windy. Letters arrived, five for me. Village in valley shelled and taken by enemy.
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Wednesday Dec 30th
Orders to be ready to move within one hour. Travelling south to Sfax and Souse. Outlying farms shelled from village. Quite a good day, warm sun.
Thursday Dec 31st.
Not moved yet. Artillery duel going on in valley. Convoy shelled. Move cancelled.
Friday Jan 1st 1943.
More shelling today. NAAFI supplies arrived. Went out on standing patrol all night. Extremely cold.
Saturday Jan 2nd.
Came back from patrol and slept morning. Increased air activity. One plane shot down. More shelling in Goubellat.
Sunday Jan 3rd.
Went out on day patrol visiting farms on Goubellat plain. Nothing doing. More mail.
Monday Jan 4th.
Hell of a wind and rain during night. Still windy in morning but no rain. More air activity.
Tuesday Jan 5th
Nothing much today. More shelling and air activity. Capt. Grant, Sgt Silverman, Rflm [rifleman] Scanlon and Sherrif failed to return from patrol.
Wednesday Jan 6th.
Smashing day so far. Wind dropped and sun very warm. Nothing doing.
Thursday Jan 7th.
Took over 13 platoon position for day while they did patrol.
Friday Jan 8th.
Dug dugouts for section, now sleeping below ground level. Quite dry.
Saturday Jan 9th
Strong wind got up during night and slight rain. Improved trenches in morning. Compulsory rest in afternoon as whole coy [company] on patrol at night. Went out on patrol but nothing doing. Took over rest of platoon as pi com [picket commander] and sgt [sic] patrol out.
Sunday Jan 10th.
Rested all day after night patrol. Rained like hell all day and night.
Monday Jan 11th.
Rain stopped during night but still a bit cloudy. Tank battle in progress on Goubellat Plain. Enemy tanks ran but ground very bad and tanks getting bogged. H Coy sent out to capture anti-tank gun in farm. Took position but suffered casualties. Two sgts [sic] and two riflemen dead and some wounded. We in reserve were to go and cover bogged tanks until LAD [light aid detachment] got them out but they managed to get out themselves before dusk. Two tanks were knocked out, one burned all night. Plan altered, 14 pi [picket] to go out and help H Coy in. Got there but H Coy had started back on different route. We came back and met them on road. Got back to camp at approx. 01.30 hrs. hot soup, cup of tea and a small nip of rum very welcome. Good show by H Coy and supporting groups which included mortars, machine guns and artillery plus the tanks. Enemy abandoned guns and ran. Stuff captured included bottles of champagne, boxes of cigars, rations, guns, rifles, pistols etc.
Tuesday Jan 12th
Slept during day getting over long trek last night. Artillery again active firing onto plain. Bombs dropped by plane just behind our position.
Wednesday Jan 13th.
Went out on standing patrol on road junction. Too confident of position and wound up in Goubellat. Got 3 tins of beef and one carrot which we ate when we got back to the road junction. Stan went out on patrol at night and laid mines. Bumped enemy and got machine gunned but no casualties. 15 platoon came back from all-day patrol had been mortared. Two very slight casualties.
Thursday Jan 14th.
Nothing doing today. Terry went out on all-night patrol. NAAFI supplies up again. Rumours of mail again.
Friday Jan 15th
Orders to be ready to move at dusk. Busy packing during day. Moved at 01.30 hrs Sat. morning.
Saturday Jan 16th.
Northants regiment took over position in early hrs. One of first Battns [battalions] to land. Got within nine miles of Tunis before they knew big push was off. Had with them one prisoner who had run of Bttn [sic] [battalion]. Ate, slept and went into action with them bringing back wounded and dead. Helped generally all round. Moved by TCV to harbour near El Arrouser where we slept all day. Moved off in early morning into farm.
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Sunday Jan 17th.
Stayed in farm all day. Everything quiet.
Monday Jan 18th.
Big battle raging this morning. Took up position and dug in. Rumoured seven enemy tanks knocked out and they're on the run but still plenty of firing going on. Dive bombed on road. One JU 88 shot down and burst into flames. Good show. Bags of low level bombing on roads and Bou Arada. Got one shot off at one plane. Ten spits escorting bombers came over. Saw one plane go down in distance and nine spits came back, looks as if one lost. RAP bombed and evacuated to our farm. Skins reported to be doing well. Plenty of artillery going. Truck going forward all day with ammo. Misinformed - all Spits returned, must have been enemy plane shot down making two on this plain. Moved up left of Bou Arada, took up position from RB. Res [Royal Engineers] blew up enemy tank during night near our position.
Tuesday Jan 19th.
Orders to move at 11.30 to take up position near Skins. Moved onto plain through Bou Arada and got mortared to hell. Managed to dive into wadi but one landed right in and Stan got hit bad. Don't think he'll pull through. Connery and Ted also hit but will survive. Mr Hardwick hit but made his own way out. Continued and took up position on hill. Dug in.
Wednesday Jan 20th.
Went in to take hill in early hours. Moved forward with 13 and 15 forward, 14 in reserve. First hill clear. Second hill clear. Third hill all hell let loose. 14 platoon and a few odds and ends drew back into hollow. Moved out to help other coy take hill. Reached top but driven back by tanks into hollow. Mortared in hollow for hours. One dropped in own mortar pit. Cpl Howe and three others caught it. Another dropped near and Blair got a piece in his back. Major went back for MO [medical officer]. FOO took over (Capt [sic] Atkins). Hell of a man. Cool as a cucumber. Got injured out. Got artillery to lay smoke screen then all dashed out back to wadi. Checked up on strength of approx. 30 men left in coy. Got food up, blankets etc. and other coys went forward to hold position on first hill. Our coy slept in wadi.
Thursday Jan 21st
00.300 hrs. Hell let loose again. Attacked by tanks supported by infantry. Caught entirely by surprise and scattered. I made off with Terry in direction of Bou Arada. Machine gun fire all along top of wadi. Got out and crossed road into ploughed field and ran like hell. Tracer flying everywhere especially to our right and left into farms where 25 pounders were. Got right away to farm where we first came to and met Les. Walked along road (met Boe?) to El Arousa and picked up by water truck and arrived at A echelon. Had good breakfast and got down to sleep about 10.30. woke up at 11.45 and told we had to go back by truck with rations. Got nearly up there and mortars started in front of leading truck. About turned and went back to El Arousa. Stayed there until dark then went half way up by truck and walked the other half. Got to carriers position and had food and slept there all night. Reported back to battalion and coy was less than a platoon strong.
ELABORATION OF BRIEF DIARY ENTRY
lt was described to us as the final squeeze on Rommel's army with our objective the capture of Medjez el Bab, the gateway to Tunis. My company of the London Irish Rifles were in the hills on the right of a gap to the Goubelat Plain but were to launch our offensive from the hills on the left of the gap. This was on Wednesday, Jan 20th (see diary).
lt was decided to move us across the gap in broad daylight, which meant we were a sitting target in full view of the enemy through the gap until reaching the cover of the hills on that left hand side. Sure enough they allowed us to get into the middle and then opened up with everything they had.
We moved as quickly as possible between the stops we had to make going to ground when the sound of incoming shells were heard. We eventually reached a wadi which we thankfully dropped into and began moving in comparative safety towards our final position.
As a down to earth Yorkshireman I don't think I imagine things but from where I do not know I suddenly heard one word which brooked no argument, Run. Calling to my section to run I set off at high speed along the wadi and had just rounded a bend when I heard a shell explode behind me. I quickly returned and found that the shell had fallen right in the wadi on the spot from where I had started to run. Whether they had not heard me or whether they were slow off the mark I have no idea but the end of my section had been hit and two of my men (Lance Corporal Ted Gant and Rifleman Connery) and Corporal Stan (I think his surname was Meager) the leader of the following section were lying badly wounded. I patched them up as best I could and stayed with them until the medical corps personnel came and evacuated them.
I have checked on the Commonwealth Graves Commission web and found all three died of their wounds, Stan Seager and Connery are buried at Medjez el Bab and Ted Gant at the Thibar cemetery. I have written complaining to the War Graves Commission that their records list all the London Irish casualties as being members of the Royal Ulster Rifles yet all the gravestones give the London Irish Rifles, which could be most confusing.
The next morning we launched our attack which turned out quite a disaster and the remains of our company were holed up in a large depression in the ground being constantly shelled. With us was the Ras [royal artillery’s] forward observation officer and his wireless operator. He ordered me to go to the top of the depression to locate the source of the constant shelling. At the top I found a small hollow in the ground, and I thought at the time it was about the size of a grave. From there I saw the shells were coming from a farm house on the plain. Returning to the depression I discovered that a shell had fallen in the place where I had been lying and others who had been with me were injured.
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The officer decided that our position was much too dangerous and sent a message to the guns to lay down a smoke screen and under that cover we all rapidly retreated to a wadi which gave us much better protection.
DIARY CONTINUED
Friday Jan 22nd.
Btn [battalion] in terrible state, only about 300 strong but people rolling up all day. Took up defensive position on hill at night. Everything quiet tonight except for a bit of artillery duel.
Saturday Jan 23rd.
Came down from hill for day and got a little organised. Three letters from Elsie but lot missing. Weather beautiful lately.
Sunday Jan 24th.
Nothing much today. A little shelling but no air activity. Reinforcements arrived.
Monday Jan 25th.
Same as yesterday but spits put in an appearance. They got Paddy Ward and a L/Cpl [lance corporal] from F. One of the boys suggest we stay awake tonight and watch the Eighth army go by. Took over one of H Coy's [companies] position as two of their platoons have gone on jobs. Mail up again. Five letters.
Tuesday Jan 26th.
Little shelling by us today but no reply so far. Capt Atkins the FOO [forward observation officer] with us in the hole reported killed today by enemy patrol in OP[operation] at Mosque Hill. NAAFI supplies up today. 100 cigs, 2 bars choc and bottle of beer. Poles reported to be giving themselves up.
Wednesday Jan 27th.
Rain today. Ground in terrible state. Pay. Preparations for moving out destination unknown. Heavy shelling by our guns. One or two shots fired in reply. Two spits just gone over. Aircraft from both sides very scarce these days. Moved out at dusk. Took us practically all night to move four miles.
Thursday Jan 28th
Looks like rain but it's kept off so far. Artillery still banging away. Rumours we're taking over that memorable hill 268 from the Guards. Spits over again this morning.
Friday Jan 29th.
Moved out at 05.00 hrs. Relieved by RBs. Went back about four miles into olive grove for rest and reorganisation.
Saturday Jan 30th.
Good night's sleep. Not much work during day. Everything quiet.
Sunday Jan 31st.
Other coys sending small numbers back to A echelon for 48 hrs complete rest. Managed to get a much needed hair cut. Still quiet.
Monday Feb 1st
Marvellous bath today, first since we arrived. Went about fifteen miles for it but was worth it. Some of the lads saw Stan and Connery's graves.
Tuesday Feb 2nd.
Bags of rumours but nothing definite yet. Moving out at dusk to take over from RBs on road junction. Five from platoon went back for 48 hrs. NAAFI up again. Bottles of beer, bags of fags, no wonder they're scarce in England, soap, blades, envelopes, paper etc. Everything now packed ready for move. Sent home £15 today. Moved up and took over from RBs.
Wednesday Feb 3rd.
Fairly quiet day. Some shelling by us and a little by them. Two planes came down and machine gunned on plain. Dive bombers on other side of plain.
Thursday Feb 4th.
A few planes over this morning. New Coy [company] Com [commander] took over this morning. Stukas over at tea time again. About 15 dropped bombs behind hills other side of Bou Arada. One shot down in flames.
Friday Feb 5th.
Nothing much today. A little shelling by us but only three shots in reply. Mail up, 6 this time.
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Saturday Feb 6th.
Very cold today. Rain in afternoon. We're sending one or two shells over just to let them know we're still here. Rumour we're going out of front line for refit. Hope it's true. Wrote five letters. Terry accidentally shot himself in leg.
Sunday Feb. 7th.
Rain during night but not too bad now. More mail 5 this time. Patrol went out but found nothing.
Monday Feb 8th.
Cold this morning. Stukas over plain just after breakfast. Too close to be comfortable. Hurricane Bombers with Spit escort over Goubellat plain. Rumoured they were after tanks.
Tuesday Feb 9th.
Shelled this morning, couldn't expect much else gulley looks like a car park. We replied but don't think they've got him. Quietened him a bit though. Stukas over plain again.
Wednesday Feb 10th.
Nothing much again today. F Coy patrol had clash last night. Two casualties. He dropped another two shells pretty close today. No damage though. Rained like hell in evening and all night.
Thursday Feb 11th.
Rain off but still dull. Knee-deep in mud. Good news. Communications cut between Tunis and Bizerta. Bebe and five warned for patrol tonight.
Friday Feb. 12th.
Nothing much today. Few shells very close. Still too bad for aircraft. Guns 48 hrs silence.
Saturday Feb 13th.
Fine day. Fighter bombers over at tea time dropped shower just over the hill. Thought he was after us for a minute. Guns broke silence plastered Jerry digging in on hill.
Sunday Feb 14th.
Another good day. Few NAAFI supplies up. Lot of activity at night near Skins position, guns blazing away practically all night.
Monday Feb 15th.
Haze over both plains today. Guns still bashing away at intervals. Planes over plain, 1 down.
Tuesday Feb16th.
Moved section over to new day-time position. Name submitted as compositor for First Army newspaper. Shells dropped three hundred yards away. Advised pi. com. position was no good and moved back to old place.
Wednesday Feb 17th.
Fairly quiet today. Spits over. Put up tents. Got new suit and boots. Look good enough to go to a dance.
Thursday Feb 18th.
Quiet day today. Very misty.
Friday Feb 19th.
Went to Gafour for a bath. Spent day there, quite a change. Rained in evening.
Saturday Feb 20th.
Nothing today. Haze over plain again.
Sunday Feb 21 51.
72 guns moved up and some Churchill tanks. Think the 11th Armoured are relieving us soon. Went for information on the PIAT. Earmarked as instructor for NCO's cadre when Batt. comes out of front line.
Monday Feb. 22nd.
Nothing in morning. Stukas over twice in afternoon, bombs dropped 400 yards away. Few shells over too.
Tuesday Feb 23rd.
Quiet today, four shells about four. Few shells again after Skins put on a small show. Killed about thirty, took eight prisoners.
Wednesday Feb 24th.
More shells and Stukas over again on Skins position. Left in evening for 48 hrs rest at A Echelon.
Thursday Feb 25th.
Went to Gafour for a bath. Baths moved. Returned to camp for dinner to find tanks and lorry borne infantry had broken through at Tally Ho corner. Rumoured F Coy surrounded. Two tanks knocked out and one surrounded. Action still going on.
Friday Feb 26th.
Full night's sleep. Everything seems to be under control this morning.
END OF DIARY
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At the end of hostilities in Tunisia we had a time of relaxation and on the touchline at a football match our CO found me and said he had received a communication which meant he had to ask me, as I had earlier been accepted to be trained as a pilot, if I was prepared now to volunteer as a glider pilot. I had no hesitation in saying I would much rather have an engine to rely on as a pilot. It was also suggested I be given a Field Commission but I felt it prudent not to accept as the German snipers were taking a heavy toll of officers in the area.
We subsequently did a training exercise which entailed quite a long march, followed by a mock attack practising house clearing, then a march back to base. I got a knock on the knee during this which aggravated an old injury I had earlier sustained playing football which left me with a swollen knee and a pronounced limp. On the march back the CO, going by in his vehicle spotted this and stopped to ask what the trouble was. He ordered me onto a truck and said I must report sick on arrival at base.
This eventually resulted in concentrated treatment of hot and cold compresses, which didn't do very much for the situation so I attended a medical assessment panel and was regraded A2 on 23rd July 1943. I was sent back to a transit camp at Philippville, which was a very boring time - no reading matter, and walking anywhere was impossible, just eating and sleeping. After some time I was transferred to the transit camp near Algiers- back to where I had first set foot in North Africa. But still the same routine until one day I espied on the [underlined] notice board an announcement that an educational unit would be coming to the camp and requesting volunteers to undergo tests with the object [/underlined] of finding suitable work for them. Mine - was the first name on the list.
We spent a morning doing maths and English papers. During the assessment of these in the afternoon there was a mechanical aptitude test. Then an interview to discuss which kind of employment would be suitable. I had previously applied for employment as a compositor on the Stars and Stripes newspaper which we had heard was to be started in Algiers so suggested this as a possibility. The [underlined] officer didn't hold out much hope of that materialising and suggested I would good cipher operator. I welcomed this and waited patiently for the outcome. [/underlined]
A week or so later I was called into the office where I was given a moving order for six people. Quickly scanning through to see where we were going I couldn't find a destination so returned to the office only to be told we were to be picked up by truck. When the truck arrived I asked the driver where we were going. Much to my surprise the answer was "I'm not allowed to tell you.
I wondered what I had let myself in for and was even more puzzled when we arrived at a camp gate with armed guards and everything enclosed in barbed wire. On entering the camp I was even more surprised to find it occupied by Army, Navy, Air Force, civilians and girls (members of the FANY, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry). There were also a number of other nationalities.
[underlined] This was Massingham, a wireless station sending and receiving messages to [/underlined] and from agents dropped into southern France and Italy. It consisted of a number of holiday villas right on the beach of the Mediterranean. As all the villas were fully occupied we were directed to a tent as our accommodation.
We then embarked on our training as cipher operators. This meant serious concentration working on squared paper doing double transposition. One mistake and the message wound up gibberish. Once up to the required standard we were then assigned to a team, alongside FANY coders and wireless operators working in shifts to cover 24 hours. If we ran out of current wireless traffic we then tackled the indecipherable messages.
[underlined] My only meeting with Colonel Gubbins was a surprise.[/underlined] On duty one evening the telephone went and on answering a voice said come down to villa ? (I don't remember the number) and collect a message for London. I replied that I would send someone down immediately. Back came a rather impatient "You'll come yourself” and the caller rang off. Somewhat aggrieved I hastened down fully intending to have words with this man only to discover it was Colonel Gubbins, I didn't even know he was in the camp.
[underlined] Margaret and I met at Massingham. She was a Cadet Ensign in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (EANY). [/underlined] We worked shifts covering 24 hours sending and receiving messages from the agents, all of whom had a particular time for contacting base.
Leisure time was non-existent outside the camp so the sergeants' Mess decided to organise a few dinner dances to which the FANYs were invited. Over a number of these Margaret and I became dancing partners. This came to an end when a number of us got a moving order to join a group being sent into Yugoslavia. We were to fly to Bari in Southern Italy to-join them.
Margaret and I exchanged addresses with the suggestion that if ever either of us were in the vicinity of the other we would endeavour to make contact.
On the night we were due to fly out we had the most violent thunderstorm so the flight was postponed until the following night, We took off in a Dakota to fly directly to Bari but half way there one of the plane's engines began to misfire. The pilot decided there was no possibility of getting over the mountains to Bari so we made an emergency landing at Naples.
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After this further delay we eventually arrived at Bari and were taken just down the coast to Torre-a-Mare only to find that the group we were to join had been assembled at Monopoly ready for entry into Yugoslavia and the numbers had been made up from personnel at Torre-a-Mare and we then had to take their place Torre.
Margaret and I corresponded between Massingham and Torre until some weeks later I deciphered a message from Massingham with a list of names of FANYs who were being sent to join our unit. By this time I was beginning to realise how much I had been missing Margaret and quickly scanned the list to see if she was one of those joining us. Imagine how excited I was to discover that her name was there.
I quickly made contact with her and resumed our friendship. Our love for each other blossomed and we spent much time together in our off duty periods. We also managed to get a wonderful week's leave in Rome together with two friends, Joyce and John. The two girls stayed in a hotel which had been taken over by the YWCA [Young Women’s Christian Association], and john and I stayed at a nearby house owned by a very pro British Polish Countess who stipulated "no vino and no signoritas”. [sic] She was very happy to learn of Margaret and Joyce at the YWCA.
We got engaged on 28th February 1945 sitting on the rocks by the sea at Torre-a-Mare but we kept it under wraps as two of our friends had been married in Bari, I was best man, and they had been posted apart shortly after the wedding.
In May 1945 I was granted one month's home leave under the LIAP scheme and we began writing to each other every day we were apart.
Eventually Margaret was sent up to Sienna from where she got leave and hitch-hiked almost the length of Italy to spend time with me at Torre.
When she was posted back home I got some leave and hitch-hiked up to Sienna to see her before she sailed. I managed to get a lift on the baggage truck carrying the kit of the party gong home and we had a last evening together in Naples.
I returned to Torre-a-Mare and was then transferred to The Royal Corps of Signals. There I was trained to operate Type X cipher machines.
Along with a wireless operator I was then posted to an Italian -division which was supposed to be based at Rimini. Disembarking from the train we went into the RTO's [rail transport officer] office to find where the division was only to be told it was at Lake Como.
After a night in Rimini we caught a train up to Lake Como which, on arrival, looked an ideal place to spend the rest of our time until demob.
However, we soon found out that was not to be as it was just a training unit. The division was at Verazze on the coast west of Genoa. To get there we had to first get a train to Milan then another from Milan to Genoa. We managed to eke out our stay in Milan for a few days before getting the train for Genoa.
This was a single carriage train and I found myself placed technically in charge even though I had no knowledge of the workings of a railway, let alone an Italian one. The journey through the mountains was very enjoyable and the scenery through the mountains breathtaking.
At Verazze we were billeted in a hotel right on the beach so most of our time was spent swimming and sunbathing as the only work we had consisted of enciphering and sending to HQ a weekly message to report that we had passed no groups of traffic during the previous week.
This holiday lifestyle eventually came to an end and I was transferred to Athens from where I was demobbed. We sailed from Pireas to Taranto but on arrival the sea was too rough for us to dock so we anchored in the bay until such time as the rough sea abated. Washing and shaving on deck in the morning was quite a feat as one had to continually grab the bowl of water before it slid out of reach.
From Southern Italy we then journeyed by train in stages across Europe to the channel port before crossing to England and being demobbed at Aldershot.
I then journeyed to Wimbledon Park station and walked down Wimbledon Park Road to No. 50 where Margaret's parents lived so I began and finished my war service in the same road, a place I had not heard of before. We married soon after in march [sic] 1946 and are still very happy after 65 wonderful years together.
Recently we were clearing out our loft and discovered the letters we wrote to each other and have spent some interesting evenings re-reading them.
8
Dublin Core
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Title
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Army history of cadet Ensign Margaret Pratt and Sergeant Charles Ward
Description
An account of the resource
Memoir and diary covering Charles Ward's call up to the Army and early training. Mentions that he applied to transfer to the Royal Air Force and although accepted, all transfers were cancelled due to imminent operations. Describes in detail fighting in Tunisia. Explains that after North African campaign was over, he was transferred to secret work as a cipher operator in the Special Operations Executive. Describes how he met his future wife Margaret a wireless operator and some details of Special Operation Executive activities.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Charles Ward
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Eight typewritten pages
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Text. Diary
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BWardCWWardCWv1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
British Army
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Algeria
Algeria--Algiers
Italy
Italy--Bari
Tunisia
North Africa
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
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.
final resting place
love and romance
Special Operations Executive
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2247/40854/LRossB1610215v1.2.pdf
7b5247561438257d8e890678e1fac335
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Ross, Bernard
Description
An account of the resource
37 items. This collection concerns Warrant Officer Bernard Ross (1610215, Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs and service record. Ross flew as an air gunner in Royal Air Force Transport Command, towing gliders, dropping supplies to resistance groups and carrying paratroops. He also took part in some bombing operations to Germany.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Paul Ross and Amanda Burnham, and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-07-25
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
Ross, B
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
Bernard Ross' observers and air gunners 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. Transport Command
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 booklet
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LRossB1610215v1
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
Description
An account of the resource
Bernard Ross’ Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book covering the period from 05 of April 1943 to 22 April 1945. Detailing his flying training and operations flown as Air Gunner. He was stationed at RAF Penrhos (9 OAFU), RAF Seighford (30 OTU), RAF Thruxton (297 Squadron), RAF Hurn, RAF Brize Norton and RAF Earls Colne (296 Sqn) and RAF Tilstock (1665 HCU). Aircraft flown in were Blenheim, Wellington, Whitley, Albemarle, Oxford, Stirling and Halifax. He flew on two night bombing operations with 296 Squadron and and 22 glider towing/parachute drops and SOE operations with 296 Squadron and 297 Squadron, including D-Day, Arnhem and the Rhine Crossing. Bombing targets were Gravenbosch and Rees. His pilots on operations were Warrant Officer Beetham, Pilot Officer Godden and Flying Officer Fraser.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-04
1943-05
1943-06
1943-07
1943-08
1943-09
1943-10
1943-11
1943-12
1945-01
1945-02-02
1945-02-14
1945-03
1945-04
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Oxfordshire
England--Essex
England--Staffordshire
England--Hampshire
England--Dorset
England--Lincolnshire
North Africa
Tunisia
Tunisia--Sidi Ameur
Germany
Germany--Rees
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Terry Hancock
1665 HCU
296 Squadron
297 Squadron
30 OTU
Advanced Flying Unit
air gunner
aircrew
Albemarle
Blenheim
Halifax
Hamilcar
Heavy Conversion Unit
Horsa
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
RAF Brize Norton
RAF Earls Colne
RAF Hurn
RAF Penrhos
RAF Seighford
RAF Thruxton
RAF Tilstock
Special Operations Executive
Stirling
training
Wellington
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1339/21965/SValentineJRM1251404v10038.1.jpg
953644f6d9e07aa065f8ed018d2f6a61
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
Valentine, John. Ursula Valentine's newspaper cutting scrapbook
Description
An account of the resource
131 items contained in a scrapbook. Mainly newspaper cuttings of events from May 1942 to 1945.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
LONDON, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1942
BIG RUSSIAN PUSH ON MOSCOW FRONT
Soviet Troops Advance 20 Miles over Wide Area
10,000 NAZIS DIE
Five Divisions Routed: 300 Localities Liberated
Big Soviet successes in a new offensive launched on the Moscow Front were officially announced by the Russians last night, while in the Stalingrad area an Axis army of 250,000 men was struggling to escape Marshal Timoshenko’s trap.
A special communiqué, received in London at 11 p.m., stated:-
ON THE RZHEV FRONT, Russian troops smashed the German defence lines in three places and advanced from eight to twenty miles.
IN THE VELIKYE LUKI AREA the Nazi line was broken over a front of twenty miles.
Axis troops killed in the first phase of the offensive totalled 10,000.
More than 300 Soviet inhabited localities were liberated.
Four German infantry divisions and one tank division were routed.
TUNISIA: GERMANS ON DEFENSIVE
FORCES AWAIT BRITISH PUSH FOR TUNIS AND BIZERTA
ALLIED BLITZ SUPPLY PORT
Following the repulse of their counter-attack at Tabourda, fifteen miles west of Tunis, the Germans are believed to have retired behind their defences ringing Tunis and Bizerta to await the British First Army’ s onslaught.
A spokesman at Allied Headquarters, North Africa, stated last night:-
“It is significant that the Germans are now on the defensive while at first it was not sure whether they were strong enough to launch an offensive.”
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
Big Russian push on Moscow front and Tunisia: Germans on defensive
Description
An account of the resource
Article 1. Headlines: big Russian push on Moscow front, Soviet troops advance 20 miles over wide area, 10,000 Nazis die, five divisions routed: 300 localities liberated. Article 2. Headlines: Tunisia: Germans on defensive, forces await British push for Tunis and Bizerta, allies blitz supply port.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-11-29
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two newspaper cuttings mounted on a scrapbook page
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
SValentineJRM1251404v10038
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
British Army
Wehrmacht
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Russia (Federation)
Russia (Federation)--Moscow
Russia (Federation)--Volgograd
Russia (Federation)--Rzhev
Russia (Federation)--Velikie Luki
Tunisia
Tunisia--Tunis
Tunisia--Bizerte
North Africa
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-11
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 Bloomfield
Steve Baldwin
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Workflow A completed
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1172/26601/LSouthwellBR402261v1.1.pdf
a2c03b7c6160c890aef8c60668774910
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
Southwell, Brian Robert
B R Southwell
Description
An account of the resource
17 items. An oral history interview with Brian Robert Southwell (b. 1916, 402261 Royal Australian Air Force), his log books, documents and photographs. He flew operations as a pilot with 148 and 178 Squadrons.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-09-03
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
Southwell, BR
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Brian Southwell's log book. One
Description
An account of the resource
Pilot’s flying log book covering the period from 21 October 1940 to 7 June 1943. Detailing his flying training and operations flown as pilot. He was stationed at RAAF Mascot (4 EFTS), RAAF Amberley (3 SFTS), RAF Bassingbourn/Steeple Morden (11 OTU), RAF Harwell (15 OTU), RAF Portreath (1 0ADU), RAF Gibraltar (1 OADU), RAF Luqa (1 OADU), RAF Burn (1653 Flight), RAF Lyneham (1445 Flight), RAF Gibraltar, RAF Aqir (159 Squadron), RAF Shandur (159, 178 Squadrons and Special Liberator Flight), RAF Gambut (Special Liberator Flight), RAF Derna (148 Squadron), thence Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Portugal to UK, RAF Lichfield (27 OTU). Aircraft flown in were Tiger Moth, Anson, Wellington and Liberator. Targets were Benghazi, Tobruk, shipping strikes, Maleme, Tunis and Tripoli. He flew a total of 22 operations with 159 and 148 Squadrons. His first or second pilots on operations were Flight Lieutenant Willatt, Wing Commander MacNair, Sergeant Carrigan, Flight Sergeant Russell and Warrant Officer Carter.<br /><br /><span>This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form: no better quality copies are available.</span>
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Terry Hancock
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
LSouthwellBR402261v1
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
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. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1941
1942
1943
1942-09-22
1942-09-23
1942-09-25
1942-09-26
1942-10-01
1942-10-11
1942-10-16
1942-10-21
1942-10-22
1942-10-25
1942-10-27
1942-10-28
1942-10-29
1942-10-30
1942-10-31
1942-11-01
1942-11-04
1942-11-05
1943-01-06
1943-01-10
1943-01-11
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
North Africa
Egypt
Sudan
Nigeria
Portugal
Gibraltar
Greece
Libya
Tunisia
Greece--Maleme
Libya--Banghāzī
Libya--Tobruk
Libya--Tripoli
Tunisia--Tunis
Mediterranean Sea
11 OTU
148 Squadron
15 OTU
1653 HCU
23 OTU
27 OTU
aircrew
Anson
B-24
Flying Training School
Heavy Conversion Unit
Operational Training Unit
pilot
RAF Aqir
RAF Bassingbourn
RAF Burn
RAF Harwell
RAF Lichfield
RAF Lyneham
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/886/10903/MHudsdonJD755052-151029-02.1.pdf
38d7e34619fdcdb68f2597e6f5a30421
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
Hudson, Douglas
James Douglas Hudson
J D Hudson
Description
An account of the resource
529 items. Collection concerns Pilot Officer James Douglas Hudson, DFC (755052 Royal Air Force) who joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in June 1939 and trained as an observer. While on route to Malta in August 1940 his Blenheim crashed in Tunisia and he was subsequently interned for two and a half years by Vichy French in Tunisia and Algeria. After being freed he returned to Great Britain and after navigator retraining completed a tour of 30 operations on 100 Squadron. The collection contains letters to and from his parents and from French penfriends while interned in Tunisia and Algeria, newspaper cuttings of various events, logbooks and lists of operations, official documents and photographs. A further 23 items are in two sub-collections with details of navigator examinations and postcards of Laghouat Algeria.<br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Elizabeth Smith and Yvonne Puncher and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br />
<p>This collection also contains items concerning Louis Murray and Harry Bowers. Additional information on <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/202827/">Harry Bowers</a> and <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/220410/">Louis Murray</a> is available via the IBCC Losses Database.</p>
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
2015-06-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Hudson, JD
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Camp Echo
VOL. 1. No 6 EVERY WEDNESDAY. FREE. GRATIS.
[drawing of countryside]
THERE’LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND.
[page break]
[drawing of a ship]
MON. JAN 19TH
LT. LAMB. D.S.C.
“Sidelights of the Merchant Navy”
7-15 pm
[drawing of an anchor] [drawing of a ship]
THUR. JAN. 15TH
SGT. LLOYD-SMITH
“Behind the Scenes”
[drawing of a theatre stage]
HAVE YOU ANY PHOTOGRAPHS OF TOPICAL OR HISTORICAL INTEREST?
Quite a number of people in this camp would like to add them to their collections.
SEE. SGT. L-SMITH. Room. 17.
“GREECE.”
[drawing of playing cards] [underlined] Twin In! to [/underlined]
[underlined] MC. TAVISH & CO. [/underlined]
[page break]
JAN 14. 1942 CAMP ECHO Page 3
OUR C.O’s Weekly Letter
A week ago the camp was suffering from the strange phenomenon of smoke without fire. Now we have fire without smoke. Cigarettes are expected tomorrow but to-day was tomorrow yesterday.
A couple of days ago a stork was seen flying over the camp. It is to be hoped that New Year’s Eve has not proved too much for Bertie Brain’s Young Ladies.
I have been informed that since the first of January the charges for all telegrams have been increased. I am endeavouring to find out what the rates are and if I can get a list it will be put up.
A telegram has been received from Mr. Warner of the Red Cross in London wishing us all a very happy Christmas and New Year.
From England comes something which was overheard one evening “It takes longer in the Blackout does it not Colonel.”
OUR RAMBLING REPORTER
“RECKLESS RUDY”
We are glad to welcome “Peter the P…” back on the staff – he at least keeps the officer class in order, although I fear he has a single track mind c’os [sic] when showing him my very torn and dirty sheets, and asking what he thought they represented, he replied, “I should say about 15 days”.
We hear reinforcements are coming for next search.
Jamaica Johnny the [underlined] Ex [/underlined] – Cigarette King was last heard doing good business on the Stock Exchange. His ‘phone number is 281 Banana.
RUDY’S RELIABILITY SERVICE.
[underlined] Do you miss your Radio? [/underlined]
Why run risks when we have a selection of discreet deposit places for “Chosen Defendus”?
All patrons and articles covered against “15 Daisies” and Loss, by our famous Parole D’honneur Policy.
KNIGHT SERVICE IS THE RIGHT SERVICE.
[page break]
Page 4 CAMP ECHO JAN.
VARSITY NEWS by THE PROFESSOR
In recent years comfortable fortunes have been made by a legion of correspondence schools all over the world, and when one sees some of the courses and instructional service one wonders how on earth the schools pay even expenses. The answer is that generally a completed course does not pay: the money is made out of the many students who start off with more enthusiasm than staying powers.
So far a correspondence school at Laghouat wouldn’t be making much, but the next two months are the critical ones. Let’s keep at it.
The practical and immediate value of study in our long idle days has been fully recognised by many.
In the great demobilisation after the last war both British and Dominions Governments made available to suitable students generous scholarships and liberal concessions for the commencement and completion of all types of professional courses. Such opportunities will undoubtably be provided after this war, in fact it seems clear from B.B.C. talks that arrangements are already being made. Ex-soldier students after the last war found, however, that after four years of blood, mud and routine, getting down to study was an uphill fight. Undoubtedly an interné who kept his mind polished would start off with a great advantage.
Secondly it is clear that though the British Empire is a long way from wanting Lebensraum and has in the last 20 years shirk[inserted]ed[/inserted] some of it’s responsibilities, the post war mess can only be cleared up by a large extension of British influence in Middle and Far East, if not actually in Europe. Such an extension will call for a large number of men with language and technical qualifications. Where there is demand, there also lies opportunity for those who can grasp it.
This week’s motto… Tempus Fugit – roughly… We have no time to waste.
IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO JOIN ________________
Enroll now!
[page break]
14th 1941 CAMP ECHO Page 5
[drawing] SCIENCE CORNER [drawing of a Bunsen Burner]
Since last week I have read another very interesting book, called “The Basis of Modern Science”, by J.W.L. Sullivan. Although written as long ago as 1928, this book has suffered little from the author’s ignorance of developments which have been brought out in later years.
Beginning with the works of the Old Philosophers, Sullivan has traced the evolution of scientific theory, dealing most interestingly with the rather laborious Space-Time-Mass calculations of Newton, and the highly imaginative ether and electro magnetic theories of Maxwell’s day. Modern atomic and electric theory is built up for the reader, rather than placed before him as an accepted fact and I was left wondering why such logical advances had not been made more rapidly.
Short chapters on Relativity, The Universe and certain of the problems facing modern physicists, tend to become rather vague and boring, but a little concentration brings out some extremely
[underlined] continued from previous column [/underlined]
interesting, if incredible, facts.
For the confirmed materialist, this book provides a wealth of data, while the Searchers After Knowledge will find the Table of Elements, and the explanations of the similarity of various metals of added interest.
STAMPS by PHILATELIST” [drawing of stamps]
Stamps being either recess printed, or photgravure, [sic] great care should be taken in removing them - Recess printed stamps lose their colour in contact with water either, cold or warm - unless a person is an expert in the various methods of stamp printing, water should be used with care. The best way to remove stamps without fear of damage is by damping two pieces of clean blotting paper and to lay the envelope in between for three minutes. The stamps will come away freely.
[page break]
Page 6 CAMP ECHO JAN.
Book Review
From the Athenaeum
Last week I discussed two works by H. G. Wells, “Joan & Peter” and “Mr. Britting sees it Through”. Both these books were comparatively early works, having been written during the 1914-1918 struggle, but nevertheless even in these one discovers the same underlying political message constantly peering out from between the lines, as has coloured the majority of Well’s more recent books written within the last ten years. I wonder how many readers of his have in all sincerity noticed and analysed the primary motive behind such as “Things to Come”, and endeavoured to separate this motive from the fantasies which so skilfully embellish it. There is a very strong one behind H. G. Wells, stronger, I believe, than behind any other present day author of fiction, and the message that inspires Wells is a message which all the world might do well to heed.
The other day I was glancing through some essays by Matthew Arnold and came across a passage dealing with the creative power in the production of great works of literature. I will not quote the passage itself but rather the essence of the passage as far as it bears reference to the subject of the motive in creative literature. Arnold emphasises in fact that when dealing in literature the elements with which the creative power works are ideas [underlined] current at the time. [/underlined] In other words, that the main work of a literary genius is not so much the discovery of new ideas, but rather, the synthesis and exposition of those ideas with which he finds himself surrounded at the time. The writer then must have an atmosphere: he must find himself amidst the order of ideas in order to work freely, and being happily inspired by these ideas he can present the fundamental truths that lie behind them in the most effective and attractive combination to suit his style. For the creation of a lasting works of literature then, two powers must concert, the power of the man, and the power of the moment.
[underlined] To be cont. [/underlined].
[page break]
14th 1942 CAMP ECHO Page 7
IS IT NECESSARY? By CASSANDRA
Possibly everybody here has missed something from his room at one time, or another. Let us suppose that one, Sgt. Shanks, decides to drink a cup of wine one afternoon but finds that his cup has gone. His first reaction, naturally, is to give vent to his emotions: which he does by indulging in a pretty savage Burnettian phrase. The ensuing search is quite fruitless – nobody has got his cup - nobody borrowed his cup - nobody has ever seen his cup. The days pass until one day we find him warming his hands over the stove in Room Eleventeen. [sic] His friends are brewing some tea, and, what is his surprise when he sees them using his long lost cup - as a “dipper”. Five minutes later his friends are just beginning to gather what Shanks has been talking about when one of them says: “Oh yes, that is your cup all right Shanker old boy. I borrowed it a few days ago. I meant to take it back but I forgot. I was going to tell you about it”.
There seems to be a certain amount of misunderstanding in this camp concerning the difference between stealing and borrowing. Stealing is - taking away articles etc. secretly for one’s own use without right or leave. Borrowing, on the other hand, is obtaining temporary use of articles etc. to be returned. I want you to pay particular attention to the definition of borrowing. It says obtaining .. “”and that means that one must both ask and receive permission to make temporary use of …. etc.
There is far too much, so called “borrowing” --- which is really stealing taking place amongst us. Sgt. Shank’s story is typical. Those of us who have been in the same position as Shanks know how annoying and inconveniencing it is to have had something “borrowed”. Would not this camp be a happier place to live in if we all showed more consideration for others. The most appropriate conclusion to this article would be to say that we should all do unto others as we would that they should do unto us.
[drawing Will you hold this a minute dear!]
[page break]
Page 8 CAMP ECHO JAN.
FISHIN’ [drawing of man in boat fishing]
E.S.C.
Nah yer gotter know two fings afore yer starts - where yer goin ter fish, an what yer goin to fish for. As a bit of a hangler [sic] meself as yer might say, yer might do wuss [sic] than take this ‘ere advice I’m goin to give yer. Firstly, yer’ll alwiz [sic] find fish somewhere near water - fresh, or salt, though they runs a bit bigger in size in the salt. The best fish ter fish for is flat fish course yer can fold ‘em up much easier like fer yer pockit. [sic]
Regarding yer howjerme - do’s yer fishin tackle I means, yer needs a nice rod, pole, or perch, a corkscrew and ‘ooks. Yer must ‘ave ooks. Big ‘uns fer the whoppers, medium fer the between ‘uns, and little uns fer the tiddlers as yer might say.
Nah, yer must ‘ave Nourishment when yere [sic] fishin, and I finks as ‘ow Whitbreads is best, or Guinness, tho’ Johnny Walker makes fishin’ much more interestin’ and the bottles float kinder different like.
If yer dont [sic] catch nuffink don’t be destituted, [sic] try more nourishment next time an bigger ‘ooks. Wm. Smith,
(Hon. Sec. Anglers Rest Fishin Club)
[drawing of a hand] I HEARD . .
Humour and adventure were the keynote of Captain Cooper’s lecture last Monday, and he combined the two to such effect that I class his as one of the best lectures we have heard. The interest in his subject was apparent from the unusually large audience - all keen to learn more about “The Toughest Mob in the World”. The extreme severity of the training and discipline, and the “Camaraderie” amongst the men of this, the most International of all armies, were described, as well as the magnificent fighting efficiency and spirit of the Legion.
Stories of campaigns, of Legion characters, of personal adventures and incidents, and of lead-swinging dodges practised by Legionnaires (greatly appreciated) held the audience throughout the whole lecture period, and made the enforced ending of the lecture regrettable.
However, Captain Cooper has kindly consented to write some articles for the “Echo”, so watch these pages.
We thank you Captain Cooper for a most enjoyable lecture.
Listener.
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14. 1942 CAMP ECHO Page 9
[drawing of a pencil] [underlined] BLUE PENCIL [/underlined]
The idea that the Camp Echo should be censored, by persons other than the editor, is a hot one. Apart from being manifestly impracticable the scheme is all wet and in direct contrast to those principles for which most of us have been fighting. Although thanks to the power wielded by influential advertisers, the term “Freedom of Press” has become largely a catchword (in England) it is, never-the-less, an ideal which should be lived up to as far as possible.
The “Echo” unlike many of it’s larger contemporaries, is open to all -- all that is, who can write English and have something to write about. Therefore, if an accusation is made against a person, or persons (and this would appear to be the base of the trouble) in it’s columns, space will always be available in the next issue for a refutation of that same accusation, if unjust. Indeed absence of refutation will probably be construed as admission of guilt. It is surely better that grievances - real, or imaginary - and suspicions - be they justified, or not, should be publicly aired, rather than muttered about in dark places. At least the accused, or suspected, [inserted] SHOULD [/inserted] know of what he is suspected, or accused, so that he may adequately defend himself against calumny.
While loath to suggest that this journal should become an enlarged amateur edition of “Walter Winchell’s Column”, it does seem to me that the itch to Blue-pencil personalities should be suppressed. After all “if the remark be apposite -- albeit not maliciously intended -- it’s pertinence shall be it’s justification: if not then let it’s impertinence be thoroughly and nimbly castigated. If the excising crayon must be used, then may it be wielded ruthlessly to efface “good-natured chaff” _ _ than which few things are more nauseating -- or for that matter, insincere. Against [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] sound abuse one can call up good reserves of obloquy, but in the face of well meaning ridicule one’s only course is to cover up and retire from the field. Therefore, we shall publish and be damned.
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Page 10 FOR HONOUR [drawing of a castle wall] [underlined] Capt. A. Cooper [/underlined]
During the summer of 1923 a squad from the Penal Battalion of the Foreign Legion were constructing the road from Djelfa to Laghouat. Légionnaire Dubar was sitting on a hill talking to his friend Roland when he saw five new arrivals approaching. Suddenly he gripped Roland’s arm and turned pale. One of the replacements detached himself and drawing a knife rushed at Dubar, who fled from his attacker.
For the following nine months Dubar and his would be assassin Delbray avoided each other while Roland and Delbray became firm Friends. Delbray would never divulge the reason for the existing enmity.
In May 1925, during the Riff campaign, Delbray, now a Sergeant Major, commanding the outpost of Taounat, now had as his second in command Roland. Delbray received orders to indent for ten reinforcements and was given permission to choose the men he required. To Roland’s surprise he included Dubar on the list. When the reinforcements arrived and were presented to Delbray, Dubar’s terror was obvious.
Some weeks later the outpost was surrounded by the Riff tribesmen. On the third day of the siege the decision was taken to abandon the fort. Delbray paraded and addressed his men in the following words “I am proud to say that as commander of this outpost I shall remain behind to destroy the ammunition and that Légionnaire Dubar has volunteered to stay with me.” The parade knowing of Dubar’s cowardice and the feud between the two did not believe that Dubar had volunteered.
At 8 p.m. a letter was handed to Roland by Delbray to be carried to the Commanding Officer at Headquarters. All the ammunition was piled up in the courtyard ready to be detonated. The gates were flung open and a sortie was made. Roland, who was the last to leave, looked back and saw
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JAN 14. 1942 CAMPECHO Page 11
Delbray sitting on the ammunition holding Dubar beside him. A few moments later there was a tremendous explosion and Roland knew that both Delbray and Dubar had perished.
On arriving at Headquarters, Delbray’s letter was read out to the Légionnaires - It said “I have the honour to state that Légionnaire Dubar volunteered to blow up the outpost with me and that he is my brother.” Both men were awarded posthumously the Legion of Honour.
Now here is the true story of Delbray and Dubar as told to Roland two hours before he evacuated the fort.
Delbray and Dubar were brothers, sons of a well known Parisien [sic] University professor. Dubar had forged a cheque in his father’s name and the blame had been attached to his brother who was sentenced to five year’s imprisonment at Fresne. During the time he was away Dubar seduced his brother’s fiancée, who afterwards committed suicide.
A short time before Delbray was due to be released Dubar, fearing his brother’s revenge, joined the Legion under this assumed name. Delbray learning of this also joined.
Learning that his brother Dubar was in the Penal Battalion Delbray did all in his power to get sent there, and after a great deal of difficulty managed to succeed. At first he wanted only revenge, but finding that his brother was not only a forger, but a coward as well, decided at the first opportunity to save the family’s name. His final act not only accomplished this, but enabled both the brothers to die as Heroes.
NEXT WEEK THE MOST FAMOUS LEGION COMMANDER
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Page 12
[drawings]
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Page 13
[drawings]
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Page 14 CAMP ECHO JAN.
IS IT Really Necessary?
By. AUDAX
Last week, Cassandra assumed unto himself the mantle of literary snob, and looked down with jaundiced eye onto the popular novelist. Such novelists were “hash-writers [sic] and as such were beneath contempt”. Now “hash-writers” I take to signify those who write not for art’s sake, but for monetary gain, and I must ask: “so what”? “Surely if one has a talent for amusing a certain section of the public one cannot be classed as beneath contempt because that talent is used to bring money where money was not”?
Was Shakespeare worried about ethics, when he discovered his writings to be such a success that he was no longer forced to be an ostler for his living? When Goldsmith, Dickens, Scott (to mention but three classical authors) were in debt, did they no shoo the wolf from the door by visiting their respective publishers and asking for advance monies on their next work?
No, no, my Cassandra, if a man has a certain gift he is not beneath contempt if he attempts to better himself by exploiting that gift!
HEALTH NOTES by Scrubbing Brush.
Some of the sanitary arrangements of these camps would undoubtedly turn a British M. O. grey overnight, and if one of our official visitors at Aumale “found no sign of malnutrition, or illhealth” amongst us, it was probably due to an initial reserve of resistance. When one first arrives he is naturally careful of the more obvious dirt dangers, but after a while familiarity tends to breed contempt.
Here are a few points:
[underlined] Bath House: [/underlined] The annual clean out having been interrupted by the war and being ideal winter and summer resorts for microbes, it is well to avoid bare feet on any area but that washed by the showers. Each foot should be put directly into shoe after having been washed. Soap should be kept away from dirt.
[underlined] Beds. [/underlined] Frequent airing of sheets blankets and mattresses will keep beds both fresh and warm.
[underlined] Water: [/underlined] Don’t use water which has been standing about in the dust, draw fresh supplies.
[underlined] Underclothing: [/underlined] The wearing of the same underclothing day and night is unhealthy and conducive to chills.
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14. 1942 CAMP ECHO Page 15
[drawing] WHAT WE THINK [drawing]
AND CAMP LIFE
If a certain section of our readers have the right to dictate what we must publish, then the policy upon which this journal has been founded would cease to exist.
A better understanding and closer cooperation among all our community is the goal at which we aim. If there be muttered grievances which [deleted] to [/deleted] tend to foil this purpose, then we shall shed a light upon them, even unto the extent of incurring wrath in high places.
That high-falutin phrase “The Freedom of the Press” must be as jealously preserved here, in our small way, as it is supposed to be in our own country. All must have the right to say what they think and providing that it is kept within the bounds of decency and is not malicious we shall publish it.
Freedom of expression is a good and sane outlet for repressed emotions, and if one feels the prick of another’s pen then he too can retaliate with the same weapon.
Let us make it clear, however, that this journal is not intended as a medium for scandal, but for open and just criticisms.
[underlined] ABDULLAS. [/underlined]
The editor deeply regrets the misunderstanding which occurred with regard to the above, and in apologising he trusts that the matter has been cleared satisfactorily for all concerned.
[underlined] TALENT. [/underlined]
It is very gratifying to note the talent that is now coming to light as is evidenced by this issue, but we still think there is more hiding under the “bushel”. We need your whole-hearted co-operation to ensure that subsequent numbers will be an improvement. Therefore, will all those who have original ideas give us their help. We shall more than appreciate it.
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Page 16 CAMP ECHO JAN
[drawing of a face with a camera] Press Photography
SGT. BORROW R.AF.
The rapid advance made in the development of Press Photography may best be gauged by the fact that when King George V was crowned newspapers were unable to publish pictures of the event, yet, when he died they devoted twelve more pages each to photographs illustrative of his life and reign.
The first newspaper illustrations consisted in the main of line drawings depicting the fashions of the day: together, with these were occasionally published drawings of well know personalities. The half tone block, to which photographic illustrations as apart from drawings - owe their existence, was first introduced in about 1912.
During the war vast strides were made in the development of pictorial journalism, chief among them being the devotion of the entire back page of daily newspapers to pictures. This considering news in those days was plentiful, and the paper consisted of only four sheets, testified that pictures had arrived. With the coming of peace Fleet Street recognising the true importance of photography to journalism set out to improve production, and to find something new in pictures. The introduction of night aerial photography in 1931 when the first aerial pictures were taken of an oil refinery fire at Southampton, was an epoch in Press Photography.
The difficulties confronting picture editors was, that while the story of an event could be ‘phoned, or cabled, from most parts of the world, and be published within a few hours, pictures sometimes took days, and even weeks before they could present a pictorial record.
The discovery of photo-telegraphy by Marconi in 1930 made it possible to transmit pictures at the same speed as the stories were being cabled. The first picture to be published was that of the Tunney-Dempsey fight transmitted from America to England.
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14th 1942 CAMP ECHO Page 17
The Compleat [sic] Wangler
By Robert Johnson
The Compleat [sic] Wangler was written, as everyone knows, by a famous jobbing-gardener called Isaac Walton, or Newton, or Pitman, or somebody. What everyone does not know, however, is the story behind the somewhat obscure title of this work.
It all started back in the reign of Charles Two, sometimes known as Bonny King Charlie - but not to be confused with Charles the Great, who is’nt [sic] dead yet - when Newton was doing a little gardening job in his little jobbing garden, wondering why gardening was such a job. Suddenly, he felt the urge to chop down apple trees, and when Walton chopped down apple trees he did so in no uncertain matter. On this occasion he tackled the job with so much energy that a large apple fell on his head, conclusively proving the Gravity of Chopping Down Apple-trees.
At this moment his father, seeing him apparently practising party-games with an apple, decided than now was the time for all true men to come to the aid of said party, and promptly split the Apple in two pieces, and half a jiffy with an Arrow (no connection with Arrow on the Ill) Whereupon Pitman, realising that he had discovered something important, exclaimed, “Eureka, I cannot tell a lie”, and they called him William Tell.
This started quite a craze for balancing apples on heads, but all most people discovered was that they either had Square-heads, or Round-heads, which caused quite a lot of rivalry amongst the Fat-heads. The result was that the Round-heads declared war on the Square-heads, the Fat-heads joined up with the Thick-heads and the King only got away by a Short-head – which only goes to show that you can’t put a Round-head in a Square-deal.
The only person who realised the Gravity of the Situation was Pitman, who tried to make everyone friends by Inventing the Force of Gravity and opening a school of wangling for Round-heads, Square-pegs, High-hats, Low-brows, Long-horns, Short-hands, etc, and writind [sic] a text book on wangling.
Hence the somewhat obscure title of his masterpiece.
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Page 18 CAMP ECHO JAN.
[drawing of a man’s shoe] SHOE DESIGN [drawing of a woman’s shoe]
By SGT. Cook R.A.F
The creation of the shoe design is the first stage in shoe manufacture, this is best analysed under two headings:-
(1) [underlined] Mens. [/underlined] A shoe must be primarily so designed as to facilitate the ingress and exit of the foot and have a secure means of fastening of fairly simple device, being strong enough to withstand the normal stresses likely to be imposed upon it. Care must also be taken in the design to permit the foot it’s normal and necessary movement with as little restraint as possible.
(2) [underlined] Ladies. [/underlined] Besides all the rules governing the design of men’s shoes, fashion, including style and colour, has also to be taken into consideration. The design is also greatly affected by the height of heel.
When designing a shoe for bulk manufacture the sale price has to be taken into consideration to ensure that the processes entailed will not prove too costly.
The efficient shoe designer should possess a fair knowledge of the articulation of the 26 bones in the foot and the changes in their movement which take place during walking. He should be acquainted also with the various processes in shoe manufacture, as they are nearly all affected by the design.
Pattern cutting follows immediately after designing and is commenced by reproducing the surface of a last, or model, upon a flat surface. A selected design is then drawn upon this outline forming what is known as a standard and from this the various sections are cut.
The last, or model, is the foundation upon which the shoe is made. It consists of a shape in wood made as similar to a normal foot as is practicable for shoe manufacture, attention being given to effect and smart appearance. A pattern intended for bulk manufacture is cut to a size 7, or 8, last for mens, and a 4, or 5, last for ladies. This pattern is then reproduced in zinc, or iron, and from the sections a complete set, mens 5 to 11, and ladies 3 to 8, is graded on a machine in fibre board. The edges of the patterns are bound with brass wire to make them more durable.
Next week:- The Cutting of Uppers.
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14th 1942 CAMP ECHO PAGE 19
[symbols]
[underlined] NAT THE NATURALIST writes [/underlined] :-
Calling in for a chat this week with my old friend Farmer Wines P/O (A) I was noticeably struck by the agility of his partner. I afterwards could not help saying “Only God can make a tree”.
I later visited the estate of Mrs. Clayton and Miss Wilkins and could not avoid noticing how bare the old “patch” looks after the removal of the fungus. A few months of lying fallow should produce excellent results and perhaps even be in time for New Year’s Eve 1942.
I trust readers will excuse the remainder of my column this week as I have been occupied composing the following ode, for which I gained inspiration on Appel the other day.
Mrs. Thompson’s thatching is progressing quite rapidly these days, and already hangs well over the roof. This Old English Style appears to be all the fashion for the Spring.
[drawing of a camel and palm trees]
[underlined] DITTY NO. 2 [/underlined]
We have a little prairie flower
A new arrival to the bower:
Everyone eyes it, me as well
I know a secret, I won’t tell.
. . . . .
People questioned all around
Coming out, or homeward bound?
Others brushed up smart as H. . .
I know a secret, I won’t tell.
. . . . .
Oh when will be the fateful hour
And who will pluck our prairie flower?
Nobody yet has rung the bell
B U T . . .
I know a secret, I won’t tell
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Page 20 CAMP ECHO JAN.
[drawing of a goal post] ICE HOCKEY [drawing of a goal post]
SGT. LEWERY. R.A.F.
Before the war Switzerland possessed a very good ice hockey league, the standard of hockey of the best teams comparing very favourably with that of the London National league.
The teams were actually run by the hotels for the entertainment of the visitors, and such resorts as Davos, Grindelwald, Wengen, Murren, Chateau d’Eaux, Arosa, St. Moritz and Interlaken were well represented.
The players were a rather cosmopolitan crowd. Those players who did not run hotels, or own businesses of some description, were provided with all necessary expenses by the Committee.
All teams played two games a week, one at home and one away, and had a short practice most days. The rinks were always open and the ice natural, thus making a very fast game. The pure mountain air often appeared to stimulate players to greater effort and fights were often predominant.
The unfortunate part to playing on natural ice is that the season is rather short, so December to March is the normal Swiss ice hockey season. It is a great pity there are not a few more places like the Jungfrau where there is a rink built inside a glacier, thus providing skating the whole year round.
Few British teams journey to Switzerland, but Oxford and Cambridge Universities send over a team every year. Unfortunately for them they are invariably beaten, but as they have no home ice to practice on, that is only to be expected. Another British team to make the trek is the Princes Ice Hockey team of the London Provincial League. They always put up a good show, but the results of their matches vary considerably.
At the end of the Swiss ice hockey season Davos generally produce the best players of Switzerland to send over to England. They generally play exhibition games with the London Leagues=
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14th 1942 CAMP ECHO Page 21
GOLF [drawing of a golf green]
Last week I said the necessary amount of clubs was seven, and to prove that seven is a maximum I quote the abnormal success of “Five-Club Competitions”: in which average players have excelled themselves by returning scores which give the lie direct to their handicaps. This again brings us to the one point I am always trying to hammer home – better a small selection of clubs than a large one. The aim of such tournaments is to teach players which are the necessary clubs, and from this [inserted] is [/inserted] built up confidence and a speedy summing up of what may seem an awkward situation. There is not the same deadly seriousness around “Five Club Competitions” that there is around the “Monthly Medal Tournament”, but nevertheless I incline to the opinion that because of this “we’ll-try-any-shot” – attitude, the average player improves his game each time he enters. (Did Shakespeare once mention “Vicious Circle” If so, I make no excuses if I also wander around in a like manner).
Sgt. Mackie.
LAMBS LIMELIGHT ON SPORT
Here am I, an innocent man with no stain of ink at all on my character, endeavouring to prop up the column in Larry’s absence. I can assure all readers that this “propping” is very temporary: for one thing, Larry is finding his feet slowly, and for another – well, why the heck should I be chosen to deputise? I mean to say, boxing gloves and skipping ropes actually give me an acute attack of the “jitters” whenever I have been asked to use them. The Editor has not yet noticed that, so here am I.
Still, in my capacity as limelight operator I did manage to focus a beam on Cpt= A. Cooper’s “Unarmed Combat”, and I came away from the class convinced that this was for the more vigorous.
I’ve been asked to broadcast an S.O.S. for one soccer ball, which was last seen a few days before Christmas. Anyone who has information on the subject should communicate with Room 23. After all there is a darned good sports ground on the other side of the wall.
-LEONIS-
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Page 22. CAMP ECHO JAN. 14. 1942
[symbols] MUSICAL RAMBLINGS [symbols]
By “MIKE”
Many are the phases of Jazz which have been condemned by self-styled highbrows, but surely none has received so [inserted] MANY [/inserted] brick-bats as our old friend “scat-singing”.
This child of song, incidentally, is not so modern as many people believe.
Many years ago (no doubt Bookworm could tell us the exact number) our greatest lyric writer sat himself down and wrote:
“It was a lover and his lass
With a hey and a ho
And a hey-nonni-no”.
Whether Dr. Arne composed the music for the lyric, or Shakespeare took the tune and put words to it, I don’t know, but the words I have quoted seem to me to be nothing more than an example of “scat”.
There have been many arguments as to whether the music or the lyric is the more important ingredient of a number, but it is significant that in most of the bard’s writing for music, he leaves many lines to be sung without actual words, trusting the singer to improvise with just sounds.
He was [underlined] one [/underlined] man, certainly not a despised lowbrow, who did not dub the forefathers of Cab Calloway as “rowdy madmen”
I am not suggesting that all “scat” is good. Harry Roy to me is a pain in the neck, as are many others like him, but I [underlined] do [/underlined] say that this type of vocalising, when practised by musicians like the Mill’s Brothers, requires more than an elementary knowledge of music by it’s exponents, and it annoys me when people condemn “scat” generally without attempting to examine it’s musical properties.
(By the way, while I am annoyed, why cannot some of you swing fans appreciate that a man named Chopin wrote some of the best swing music for the piano ever put to paper: take the trouble to listen to some next time you have the opportunity, and when I say listen, I don’t mean music like this to be used as a background for conversation in the kitchen).
[underlined] Answers to last week’s Quiz [/underlined]
1. Nat & Bruts Gonella play in the New Georgians.
2. La-Rocca wrote “Tiger-Rag”.
3. Vet, Mortho & Connie Boswell.
4. The Mill’s Brothers combination consists of three brothers, their father and a cousin.
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PAGE 23.
BERTIE BRAINS’, BARNSTORMERS. [drawing of masks]
[underlined] “Forthcoming Production.” [/underlined]
TALENT WANTED
[underlined] Apply – F/O BRAIN D.F.C. [/underlined]
DOCTORS RECOMMEND:-
RANDALLS
Sold at all Chemists.
-NEW FLAVOURS-
VANILLA, COCOA, LEMON
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PAGE 24
LOWESTOFT for SUNSHINE
DEAL is so BRACING.
Weston-super Mare for Golden Sands.
COME AND HAVE A “SWELL” TIME.
“SATISFYING” HOLIDAY FOR GIRLS.
[underlined] consult:- [/underlined] CRASHS’ HOLIDAY BUREAU
(also suppliers of “JAY TEA”)
[drawing of R.A.F. uniform] WHY WALK ABOUT LIKE A TRAMP.?
YOU TOO! CAN HAVE A R.A.F. UNIFORM FOR CHURCH NEXT SUNDAY
[underlined] Apply SHAGS’, SECOND HAND SUIT STORE [/underlined]
ALL TYPES IN STOCK (PILOT. OBSERVER. AIR-GUNNER)
Medals attached to order
Room 17
PRINTED & PUBLISHED FOR THE LAGHOUAT ECHO NEWSPAPERS LTD
BY MESSRS HUDSON SHIPLEY & WILKINS OF LAGHOUAT EO. OFFICES
ROOM 23 VIS UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS. EO. O.W. RANDALL PH. LAG.402
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[underlined] “CAMP ECHO” SOUVENIER [sic] NUMBER. [/underlined]
COMPILED AND PRODUCED
BY
THE EDITOR
(SGT. D.W. RANDALL R.A.F.V.R.)
[underlined] ART WORK [/underlined]
LIEUT. C.C. THORNTON R.N. (A)
SGT. ERIC SHIPLEY R.A.F.V.R.
SGT. W.A.C. TURNER R.A.O.C.
[underlined] ILLUSTRATIONS [/underlined]
SERGEANT K.F. WRIGHT R.A.F.V.R.
SUB. LIEUT. D. GRANT R.N. (A)
[underlined] HEADINGS [/underlined]
SERGEANT J.Y. BURKE R.A.F.V.R.
LDG/AIRMAN W. THOMPSON R.N.
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY MC. TAVISH PRODUCTS LIMITED
(MANAGER – P/O R.W. FERGUSON R.A.F.)
. . . . LAGHOUAT. . . .
. . . . . ALGERIE. . . .
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Let’s couple the future of our internment with the past of our internment: the hardships and trials which are over, and the sorrows which are over too:- Let’s drink to our brother Officers and N.C.O.’s who went to cells and to our hearts that went with them:- Let’s drink to the battles and oppositions, to our Captors, they made a strange heaven out of unbelievable hell, and let’s hope that this internment which we hate so much will quickly end, and again find our old allies once more at our side.
In presenting this souvenir copy of the “Camp Echo” to the Rev. & Mrs. Dunbar of Tunis, we remember and appreciate the many kindnesses performed on our behalf during our sojourn at Le Kef from Aug. 1940 to April 1941
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AN ENGLISHMAN IN N. AFRICA [drawing of a man laid under a palm tree]
My first connection with the French nation was through hearing from my grandmother the graphic story of her governess’ life in Paris during the siege of that city in the war of 1870 – 71. The governess hated the Germans with an intensity that she had no difficulty in communicating to my grandmother. In my most impressionable years, this distaste for Germans was grafted into me. A hatred of Germans implied a sympathy and liking for the French. The war of 1914 – 18 increased these predilections, since my father returned from France with a low estimate of the inherent kindliness of Germans.
Hitler’s war of 1939 has done nothing to change my inherited opinions. I did not have the good fortune to be sent to France before the defeat of the French and British armies in 1940: but my unpremeditated arrival in North Africa while cuting [sic] short my brief R.A.F. career, has only showed me what I missed by not receiving my calling-up papers until after the evacuation of Dunkirk.
The hospitality of the French is proverbial. So soon as they realised that I had arrived in North Africa, they took good care that I should not be left alone for one moment. To them, I knew, solitude was unutterable boredom. Their interest even extended to the almost embarrassing point of insisting upon escorting me to the cabinet, and remaining there with me so long as I felt it incumbent upon me to seek this salutary and, hitherto, accustomed loneliness.
I can never fully express my gratitude for their sense of responsibility. The French must have guessed intuitively, (cherchez la femme) that in civilian life, my “money sense” was little if not negligible. Appreciating this failing, they very kindly undertook to look after the few hundred francs which the American Consul, I am told, sends me each month. Not only that, but they have undertaken to
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see that I do not overspend my allowance. I can never thank them enough for ensuring that when I order some article in the town, I shall invariably fail to receive it. This I realise fulfils the bourgeois creed that money spent is money lost (c.f. the French determination to spend no money on their Air Force before the present war).
La cuisine francaise was only a name and, indeed, legend, to me before this war. But never again can I not say that we in England know how to cook. The food in N. Arfrica is truly remarkable and while, presumably, representing French taste, it is doubtful whether its pleasant idiosyncrasies could be enjoyed elsewhere. I need only mention the oiled lentils, and the “carrots au Laghouat” to bring memories to the minds of my readers which will never be eradicated.
The European battle in France is a comparatively recent innovation – it has not yet reached North Africa – I believe. When it does, we may expect that our hosts will make use of it with the same puerile enthusiasm that they now show for the fasces and the swastika.
Nevertheless, in my very sober moments I occasionally wonder what my grandmother’s governess who say Frenchmen defend the city of Paris to the end would think of all I have seen.
I think the German censor would not allow the French papers to publish her opinion.
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1942 CAMP ECHO PAGE
GOT THE KIT BY FOO
The mellow golden sunlight slanted across the grass and there was a late afternoon quiet over everything disturbed only by the gentle rustling of the leaves on the old oak at the edge of the lake. But hark! What is this muffled throaty throb that can be heard increasing in crescendo? It is an aircraft winging its way home.
The pilot bold, confident and alert checks his course and competently scans the various instruments in duplicate and triplicate and with deft, precise movements moves a switch here, and alters a dial there. Then with a relieved air he cuts out “George the aumatic [sic] pilot”: (automatic-pilot): takes the controls (folding and stowing his maps, charts, pencils and instruments away) adjusts his seat and flying controls. Leisurely with an accurate sweep of his arm and delicate finger touch he fades out Henry Hall and resets and retunes the transmitter on his right, switches on and calls “He…llo Python: Suppa Yellow Six calling: Winding in to land: Over.” He next places in the off or neutral position the switches and dials for battery charging, cockpit heating, pressure head and de-icers, cameras and gun sights, Death-Ray and Location: reels in aerial and checks fuel contents and cocks, engine revs and magnetos, cages gyros and places a blob of well chewed gum on the knob of the super-sensitive altimeter. After checking brake and compressed air pressure and disconnecting oxygen supply lines he throttles back the two 2000 H.P. radial engines and adjusts the trimming controls meanwhile keeping a sharp lookout and pushing the hydraulic lever “on”, winding out cooling gills, trimming aircraft, lowering undercart, altering airscrew pitch, throttling back, turning into wind, approaching to land, testing undercarriage safety switches, adjusting controls, putting flaps down, testing flaps, checking up on controls, instruments, obstacles, wind, flying speed, altimeters…. but suddenly the engine throttles are rammed fully open and with a roar the aircraft crosses the field at 200 m.p.h. and disappears over the horizon, the pilot pushing, switching, adjusting, checking, trimming, winding, sweating, cursing . . . . . . . . . It is the wrong bloody aerodrome!
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PAGE CAMP ECHO 1942
[drawing of a teacher] VARSITY NEWS by ‘PROFESSOR’
In recent years comfortable fortunes have been made by a legion of correspondence schools all over the world, and when one sees some of the courses and instructional service one wonders how on earth the schools pay even expenses. The answer is that generally a completed course does not pay: the money is made out of the many students who start off with more enthusiasm than staying powers.
So far a correspondence school at Laghouat wouldn’t be making much, but the next two months are the critical ones. Let’s keep at it.
The practical and immediate value of study in our long idle days has been fully recognised by many.
In the great demobilisation after the last war both British and Dominion Governments made available to suitable students generous scholarships and liberal concession for the commencement and completion of all types of professional courses. Such opportunities will undoubtedly be provided after this war, in fact it seems clear from B.B.C talks that arrangements are already being made. Ex-soldier students after the last war found, however, that after four years of blood, mud, and routine, getting down to study was an uphill fight. Undoubtedly an interné who kept his mind polished would start off with a great advantage.
Secondly it is clear that though the British Empire is a long way from wanting Lebenaraum and has in the last 20 years shirked some of it’s responsibilities, the post war mess can only be cleared up by a large extension of British influence in Middle and Far East, if not actually in Europe. Such an extension will call for a large number of men with language and technical qualifications. Where there is demand, there also lies opportunity for those who can grasp it.
This week’s motto… Tempus Fugit—roughly We have no time to waste.
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SCIENCE CORNER
It is always most exasperating to be cut off from news of the latest developements [sic] in any sphere of interest, and those of you whose interests are centred in the scientific world must be, by now, wondering how far modern theory and invention have advanced since the beginning of the war. In war-time, unfortunately, the greater part of our researches must be directed towards the invention and improvement of scientific weapons…. mines, bombs and wireless must be developed, and more satisfactory methods of counteracting them perfected. Consequently, we can expect very few startling achievements in the way of new principles: rather, an enormous advance in those we saw already in their infancy. We have in the Library, however, a few comparatively recently published science books, some of which give us at least an idea of the trend of modern developements [sic]. The best of these seems to be “Science Front 1939”, a brief but quite comprehensive review of the latest advances made in Chemistry, Medicine, Physics and Electrics up till the end of 1939. Commercial processes and products, as well as Lab. Research, are described with an extremely interesting clearness, which leaves no doubt as to the successes we can expect in the near future.
STAMPS
Penny Blacks all have watermarks, the first series having a small Imperial Crown and the last a Garter.
In 1852 the 2d. Blues made their appearance. They were exactly the same design as the 1d. Black but a few months later two white lines were incorporated in the stamp, one line above and one below the Queen’s head.
Like the 1d. Black the 2d. Blues also had letters on each corner, starting A – L above and L – A below, right through the alphabet. The reason being to stop the habit then prevailing of cutting in half one stamp and incorporating it on another. The 2d. Blues like all other British stamps were issued on sheets of 124. They also had no perforation, every stamp having to be cut with scissors. The dye, however, was very strong and deep blue and, although of the same design, it was a much nicer looking stamp than the 1d. Black.
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[drawing of PoWs entering Laghouat]
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[drawing of a horse] RACING
By SGT. D. WILLIAMS R.A.F.
Having read with some interest the articles on motor cycling as the most interesting sport in the world may I, as a horse-lover, say a little in favour of the most faithful of all animals.
Who is there that can dispute the fact that horse-racing is known the world over as the “Sport of Kings” also, who in G.B. at some time or another, has never had his or her fancy for some such race as the G. N., Lincolnshire, Derby or S.L.. These are only four races which only occur once a year, where-as racing is full of interest all the year round, flat racing from March to November, steeple chasing from August Bank-Holiday to Whit-Week of the following year.
To my mind the best time to see steeple-chasing is during the period that flat and jumping clash. These meetings are held usually at some not so very well known towns such as Newton Abbot, Totnes, Ludlow etc..
I will now try to convey to you the thrill in watching a race in which a horse named “Thanos” was so far ahead when jumping the last fence that he made a bad mistake which resulted in his suffering a broken leg. His jockey, W. Parvin, tried to pull him up but the horse seemed to know that that was not the place where races were won, he kept fighting for his head and struggled on to win by half a length.
The most interesting I ever witnessed was the Cheltenham Gold Cup in ’35, when Golden Miller and Thomond [underlined] 11 [/underlined] ran two miles of their three and a quarter mile journey in heavy going, each carring [sic] twelve stone, in record time an average speed of 31. something m.p.h. Golden Miller won by one and a half lengths and almost broke his heart which was the cause of his losing the G.N. the same year. He was never much good afterwards which is nothing to his discredit. Having told you of the pluck and courage of two different horses, I shall leave it to you to judge for yourselves if that is not sport at its best.
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TRIPE WRITING FOR BEGINNERS or What the Editor needs [drawing of a quill and ink stand]
As a result of numerous requests, the almost unceasing appeals of the Editor, and a quite unceasing pain somewhere in the region of lasts [sic] night’s supper (probably due to not enough supper and too much Editor) the camp has not till now been privileged with any sample of my literary genius. And yet, astounding though it may seem to my many admirers, editors, readers, creditors, and the people who steal my wine ration, even my friends too, our “Camp Echo” still enjoys a quite unqualified success!
However you can’t keep a good man down, as the Bishop said to the Actress, so I propose, the Editor willing, weather permitting, all things being equal and everything in the garden lovely, to give a few words of advice to the budding journalist.
The first essential when starting out to write an article, or even only a particle of an article, is to find a subject – or the article becomes farcical, the Editor becomes wrathful, the reader becomes speechless, and the author stays penniless. Having found your subject then, and probably lost your temper, you must have an object, because if there is no object in writing about your subject, we might as well all pack up and get repatriated.
Now, if you haven’t already forgotten what it was you were going to write about before you remembered you’d forgotten to borrow that leaky fountain pen with the leaky holder, try to decide whether you know more about your subject than your reader, because if you do they won’t believe you, and if you don’t, what the hell are you writing for anyway?
The best way to decide this is, of course, by means of the “Haggis McFergus I.Q. Swindle.” (You’d be surprised what I.Q. stands for: any reasonable guesses may be submitted, accompanied by a hundred francs in cash and a stamped un-addressed envelope).
All the preliminaries having been gone thro’, run thro’, pulled thro’, scratched thro’, and forgotten, you can get on with writing the confounded article, chronical, canticle, or whatever it was.
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LAMBS LIMELIGHT ON SPORT
It is sad to think that we have a football pitch and no football. Mr. Fisher of Barclay’s Bank, Casablanca has been asked to supply us with one, and until we can take advantage of his generosity we must go without. The padre says that there is no such thing in Algerie.
We can borrow the Spahis ball if anyone wishes to play basket-ball, providing the pitch is not required by them. Basket or baseball can be arranged any day of the week if we ask at the morning appel. Let me know in good time, and I will make the necessary arrangements.
Newcomers please note that boxing training, and P.T. for non-pugilists, has begun again. For the benefit of tentative beginners, I will repeat that throughout training I make absolutely sure that no one is hurt. This is your opportunity to learn painlessly. You will never get another. Why not take the chance?
I would like to see a bigger attendance at 1400 hrs. every afternoon. This suggestion includes officers.
WE MUST GET FIT.
ARE WE MEN OR MICE?
[drawing of a scout hat] ROVERING [drawing of a stick]
Rovering is really Scouting inits [sic] most practical form. Our badge, now borrowed by the International Red Cross Society for their war-time organisation, contains the motto “Service”: and doing useful jobs of service is the basis of Rovering.
Here, of course, successful Rovering will be difficulty because advertising ourselves to undertake any job of service to this community would make us immediately “Everybody’s Stooge”, and we should probably be presented with a large variety of unnecessary tasks to test our sincerity.
We do intend, however, to take on any job which will be really of genuine Service, and we hope that by so doing we shall be able to bring the true aspect of Scouting more forcibly to your notice, and provide a certain amount of peaceful propaganda for the Movement.
The Crew already has seven members, but the support of any Old Scouts or Rovers will be greatly welcomed. So far, however we have only succeeded in gaining the interest of one outside the Movement, but we are hoping to arouse greater interest before the Crew is much older.
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Last week I commenced a review of “Exile” by Warwick Deeping, but found myself cut off in the column owing to lack of space. However, “Exile” is a book I recommend to those who have grown weary of Edgar Wallace “Thrillers” and other “Penny-Dreadfuls”, and wish for something more deep and moving than the average everyday novel.
The action of the book takes place in the popular tourist resort of Tindaro in Southern Italy, where a small but completely derelict crowd of British exiles find themselves picking up the threads of a scandalous life in the fly blown cafés of this lethargic place. The Britisher abroad in this novel presents no pretty picture.
We have in Tindaro itself what we have in every British gathering throughout the world – The English Library and Club, the Hall Mark of British decency and respectability. At the other end of the scale we have the Café Ceres and its coterie of English “down and outs”. Regularly at mid-day these human dregs gather round the Café’s marble table tops and drink the sun down. These are the exiles proper, men who are tied to Tindaro because of the murkiness of their pasts, and the utter hopelessness of their futures. Unfortunates who have lost the thread of normal existance [sic] and smashed the perspective of healthy decorum and conventionality. A community which sets no standard, holds no illusions as to social prestige and has Long ceased to keep up any appearance of being anything but what it is. The main characters in “Exile” are well portrayed, Julia Lord, the backbone of decent Tindaro, a mixture of Victoria rigidity and deep hidden sentimentality. Firm of flesh, white of hair, upright in carriage. Julia Lord sweeps away the smut and dirt that tends to besmirch the morality of more decent Tindaro, and strides proudly forward – the true Britannia in exile.
Oscar Slade, the moral pervert, who surrounds himself and his degenerate exiles with an atmosphere of incipient vice and immoral intrigue. Heavy scented, supercilious, irreverent, almost oily in his movements, he forms a deadly and poisonous menace to the British code of respectability that exists in the Tindaro of Julia Lord.
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Presented by Hitler to all German soldiers in the Russian campaign to assist them to find their way. The last line would appear to be inaccurate.
[underlined] THE ROAD TO MOSCOW. [/underlined]
The road to Moscow goes thru’ Umsk,
Thru’ Dumpsk and Umpskidumpski,
And all the way from Omsk to Plomsk
You’re walking on your tumski.
From Omsk to Minsk a thousand miles,
From Plonsk to Plinsk is further,
From Plinsk to Plonsk you can’t go wronsk
Tho’ all the way is muder.
They have no tramsk from Tomsk to Omsk,
No taxis up to Plopski,
The trains are bad to Leningrad
And petrol not a dropski.
So Heil to Omsk and Tomsk and Plonsk,
And Heil to Plinsk and Plunski,
And Heil to Tanksk that do, not Knoksk,
So now we shan’t be longski.
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PAGE CAMP ECHO 1942
Our Cassandra’s attitude[deleted]d[/deleted] towards what he calls trash in literature (vide “Camp Echo” 7.1:42) exists, perhaps in a greater degree, in the realm of music, for one finds that seventy five per cent of people who have been raised on the classics, enjoy looking down on the lover of swing as a person not possessing the intelligence with which they themselves have been endowed.
An almost similar atmosphere is noticed when your swing fan talks about the highbrow, for he reckons the man who appreciates his Wagner as something of a freak, because the latter listens to music which the jazz-fiend has never taken the trouble to try to understand.
Apparently, it is “not done” for he who visits the Proms. to admit a liking for Benny Goodman, and the chap who raves about the band of the Hot Club de France is afraid to own to a sneaking regard for a Beethoven work he has heard, for fear of being ridiculed as a “poseur”.
Thus, a barrier has appeared between the two schools of listeners, a barrier of intolarance [sic] which, to my mind, should not exist at all, as it is possible to enjoy equally well both Ellington and Mozart, and often an appreciation of one promotes an understanding of the other. I would ask you highbrows, therefore, to make up your minds to attempt to pick the melody out of the arabesques which are being woven, the next time you hear a Louis Armstrong or a Coleman Hawkins playing. Remember that Brahms composed many variations on tunes to Haydn, and notice that the musician to whom you are listening is doing exactly the same, except that in all probability he has not put the notes to paper before he picked up his instrument. Forget that you are listening to despised swing, and because of your tolerance you will find, I am sure, something which will strike a chord in your musical minds.
In the same way, I am certain that if swing fans will take only the trouble to listen to something classical once in a while, they will discover that such music holds more than just a little which is enjoyable, and we will be a mite nearer breaking down that barrier which I mentioned earlier on
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1942 CAMP ECHO PAGE
Letters TO THE Editor
Dear Editor,
I take exception to the illustration appended to that excellent article written on Libya by Sgt. Latter. The depiction of the Army retreating in such a manner shows not only complete ignorance of the method of retreating under rearguard action but shows poor taste.
One doesn’t depict the sinking of the Repulse of the Prince of Wales, or the failure to sink the Scharnhorst and Gneisnau as being funny.
The talk of “running away” is all too common amongst a minority who apparently got an issue of bravery (Mk. 2) with their Blue Uniforms, and it is the cause of hard feeling from those who, like myself, shared in one of our glorious failures.
Your aim should be to promote good-feeling Mr. Editor, not to attempt to destroy it.
E.S. Clayton. (Royal Corps of Signals)
P.S. Other Army men have expressed similar sentiments.
Villa Labladji,
Rue Lucien Raynaud,
ALGER.
15-2-42.
Dear Sir,
Your paper has given me so much pleasure that I cannot refrain from writing to express my appreciation of it. I consider that it is far superior to any other weekly periodical in circulation in this district.
I must tell you how the English Colony look forward to receiving further copies of the “Echo”.
Although we receive news from you at Laghouat through various channels, your paper brings your daily doings nearer to us. Here’s to a brilliant success for your paper, but not a long one I hope.
Very best wishes,
Evelyn M. Butcher
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PAGE CAMP ECHO 1942
[drawing of man with gun] Shootin’ By Sub. Lt. HOPKINS R.N.
There has been artikles [sic] written in this paper about fishin’ and huntin’ and so I says to meself: “Begorra, ‘tis toime and article was writ about shootin’ and then the “Echo” would be really upstage and county”.
Now there is a lot of things can be said about this foine sport an’ I don’t want ye t’think that havin’ a bang at a rabbit that’s sittin’ still is the best fun ye can get out of it. The imminent gintleman who does be wroitin’ about fishin’ seems t’think that danglin’ a worm on th’ end of a bit a sthring [sic] into a stream is the best sport in the world. A course ye must have a little bell for te wake ye up every toime ye do get a bite. Masha, if that’s what ye call fishin’ t’was wastin’ me toime I was, and I with the best case of flies in two counties.
Well now, there’s some people thats apt to look upon shootin’ entirely as a sport an’ they don’t mind what they’re shootin’ at. They’re just as likely to have a bang at a sparrow as a pidgin, an’ twice as likely to hit the sparrow. There’s others that goes out lookin’ for somethin’ t’put in the pot and enjoys the fun at the same toime, and then again there’s more farmin’ people mostly that carries a gun t’keep rabbits an’ pidgins an’ such like from eatin’ the crops.
The most common implements of destruction now-a-days are the .22 bore rifle and the 12 bore shorgun -- not countin’ the weapons that’s used in war toime to kill men. If I had the space here I would tell ye about the different types and the respective merits of these firearms and how ye should go about buyin’ yerself a gun, but I’ll have to leave that till a later date, I’ll also be able to tell ye the best way to go about shootin’ all kinds of water fowl and also game birds includin’ grouse on the Irish moors, and I’ll even give ye some tips about deer stalkin’ so that instead of stalkin’ after the deer ye get the deer to stalk after yerself.
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Some of the sanitary arrangements of these camps would undoubtedly turn a British M.O. grey overnight, and if one of our official visitors at Aumale “found no sign of malnutrition, or ill-health” amongst us, it was probably due to an initial reserve of resistance. When one first arrives he is naturally careful of the more obvious dirt dangers, but after a while familiarity tends to breed contempt.
Here are a few points:
[underlined] Bath House [/underlined]: The annual clean out having been iterrupted [sic] by the war and being ideal winter and summer resorts for microbes it is well to avoid bare feet on any area but that directly washed by the showers. Each foot should be put directly into shoe after having been washed. Soap should be kept away from dirt.
[underlined] Beds: [/underlined] Frequent airing of sheets, blankets and mattresses will keep beds both fresh and warm.
[underlined] Water: [/underlined] Don’t use water which has been standing about in the dust, draw fresh supplies.
[underlined] Underclothing [/underlined]: The wearing of the same underclothing day and night is unhealthy and conducive to chills.
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Upon picking up a newspaper and seeing the picture of an event, known to have taken place many miles from Fleet Street but an hour ago, do we give any thought as to how its publication became possible? Probably not, but were we to do so we should be made aware of the truly prodigious developement [sic] made in the field of photo-telegraphy since its inauguration a mere fifteen years ago.
Actually, the picture in this particular instance owes its appearance to photo-telegraphy’s latest and greatest improvement, the portable apparatus, which is used in the following manner. An operator accompanies the photographer on his assignment taking with him the portable photo-telegraphy apparatus and a tent, which may be used as a dark room when no studio is available. Immediately the photographer has exposed his negative he hands it to this operator, who, having developed it, makes a print which he wires to his office. The value of the apparatus is shown by the fact that it may be used from any point in telephonic communication with Fleet Street, in other words from most parts of the British Isles.
Although, of course, numerous experiments had been made previously, photo-telegraphy may, broadly speaking, be said to have been introduced into England about 1929. In those days all pictures were wired to and from one central office, but to-day there can be no newspaper, or newspaper group, that does not possess its own photo-telegraphy installation, which, apart from outside use, serves to create a picture liaison between London and Manchester, where most newspapers are published simultaneously.
When the results of some of the earlier transmissions were handed to the artists they had difficulty in discerning the details of the pictures they were called upon to touch up. Consequently, technicians set out to improve the clarity of these transmissions, and, at the same time, to increase the distance over which they could be sent. In the former project they have succeeded to such an extent that during the present war pictures have been wired from Berlin to New York, and re-transmitted from there to London, their details being well preserved.
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[underlined] Pukka Gen, old boy. [/underlined] !
In the early days of this war, one of the more important cogs in the British propaganda machine was that whose duty it was to suppress idle rumours and unjustified statements. The great harm that may be caused to a people at war by the declamation of opinions and ideas as fact is manifest, while the inconvenience and annoyance which may be brought about in any community, by the same means, is equally obvious.
In this happy band of men of which we are members, formerly negligible items of news assume an importance out of all proportion to their ultimate significance. Thus – the intimation of the arrival of a further batch of “Colis de Ravitaillement” at Djelfa is of more immediate consequence than the news of Japan’s entry into the war, while many a good man’s evening has been spoiled by incorrect information as to the menu of his evening meal. Happily sanguine of a pleasing dish of “cous-cous” porridge and having anticipated its arrival by preparing a plentiful supply of “Domo” milk, borrowing the large saucepan and overcoming his more prudent self in voting a further inroad on his sugar supply, who cannot but sympathise with his agony of horror when a plateful of macaroni discovers the baseness and knavery of his informant. Whose susceptibilities, too, have not been injured by the generous minded but misguided individuals who award non-existant [sic] letters – or even, in an ecstasy of magnanimity, parcels – to all and sundry?
Such canards, be they well meant or no, must be eradicated from our midst: should the yen for spreading false report prove insuppressible, then let its addicts confine themselves religiously to matters of more far reaching import and be content to tell us that New Zealand has invaded Australia rather than circulate an optimistic lie concerning the date of arrival of our cigarettes.
Should this insidious practice of rumour-spreading not be extirpated I can forsee a life of contimual packing and unpacking for all of us, and a final unpreparedness, through disbelief, when the great day of repatriation finally arrives.
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ICE HOCKEY
[drawing of an ice hockey player]
Ice Hockey in England is a comparatively new game, the first organised ice hockey club having been formed in 1931 at the Westminster Ice Rink by the London Queen’s Ice Hockey Team. At about the same time another team was formed at Hove Ice Rink and challenge games were arranged between the two. The standard of play was rather poor due to the lack of experienced players and the very few practice facilities, so that when the Hove Ice Rink closed in 1932, ice hockey in England was just about at a standstill.
Nevertheless ice rinks began to spring up here and there, and foresighted ice ring [sic] managers saw possibilities in ice hockey with the result that in the autumn of 1935 a few teams were brought over from Canada, and the London National League was founded. There were seven teams in all, namely the Wembley Lions, Wembley Monarchs, Brighton Tigers, Richmond Hawks, Streatham, Earl’s Court Rangers and Southampton Imperials.
That first season of Canadian hockey was really appreciated, expensive seats were always booked up weeks ahead, and enthusiastic English lads clamoured for a chance to learn the game. In the majority of rinks practice became available, but the cost of buying ice hockey kit, together with subscriptions to the clubs, made it prohibitive to all but a few.
During the season 1936 – 7 the Canadians brought over better teams, the people began to take a keener interest in the sport, and London Provincial League was formed. It must be admitted that the mainstay of these teams was the Canadians, resident in England.
The war, of course, finished ice hockey in England, most of the London teams, moved to Scotland where many new rinks had been built: there they stayed for the first winter of the war but at the end of the season all players returned to Canada.
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[caricature drawing of two ladies and some sailors]
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Why is it that the majority of people in the world to-day persist in reading what can only be described as trash? It is not proposed in this article to make an attack on the unfortunate imbeciles who labour under various ill-conceived pseudonyms and call themselves authors. They know that if they write ten thousand words a day they will earn the wherewithal to keep body and soul together. They are hack-writers, and as such are beneath contempt. It is the object of this article to point out the utter futility of reading the greater part of the books available in the world to-day.
For every good book which is published, there are hundreds of inferior books placed before one in attractive covers.
About twelve years ago a school-master found me reading a penny-dreadful, probably “the Adventure” or “The Wizard”. He said “why do you waste your time reading such trash when there is more good English literature in the world than one could possibly read in a lifetime.” He was right --- Our Library here is not extensive, but there is a certain amount of first-class literature available.
When you return “The Blood-Stained Gun” or “Bayswater Bessie” or whatever you are reading now, why not choose something more serious for a change. Read something which will make you think about God, or Religion, or love, or somebody else’s philosophy of life. You will be educating yourself, broadening your intellect, influencing personality and forming character. You will not be wasting your time here+
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1942 CAMP ECHO PAGE
[drawing] TYPHOONS By Lt. Cdr. HARE D.S.C., R.N.
I was asked the other day whether I thought it possible for the Almighty to send a typhoon to scupper the Armadas of the Japanese as surely [inserted] as [/inserted] the Spanish Armada was scuppered. Speaking as a met-man the answer is “No, not yet”, but then (as everyone is so keen to tell them) met-men are always liable to be wrong.
Typhoons are nothing more nor less than very intense depressions and their cause has never been properly decided upon, but they occur north and south of the Equator.
They are funny things, (not so funny if you happen to meet them) they obey quite a lot of rules for quite a long time in their career, unlike most meteorological phenomena.
For instance, although they usually come to life near the islands of Yap and Guam (N. Hemisphere) they have got to have at least 5o of latitude before they get going, the Equator is always free. Then they all religiously go W.N.W. like homing pigeons towards the Philippines. Having arrived there they might do one of three things, they might recurve to N. and N.E. (met language for alter course) deciding to give Formoss and Japan the benefit of their attention. They might carry straight on N.W. and tickle Southern China and Indo-China, or they might even start going West or W.S.W. across the South China Sea. The met-man usually uses his triple sided dice to decide which – one of the most useful of his gadgets.
Like hurricanes you can apply the tag June too soon, July stand-by, August go-as-you-must, September remember, October all over. Actually they happen all the year round but less frequently in other months and they usually fade away or recurve before reaching the Philippines.
In the typhoon season you may have as many as three on one chart each up to their tricks, but their radius of intense disturbance is seldom more than a hundred miles from the centre. Think of a 60 knot gale and imagine one of a 160 knots that struck Hong Kong in September 1938 casting on the beach 23 ships of tonnage varying from 1,000 to 22,000 tons. The Almighty might play a joke on the yellow-bellies, but I reckon He is the kind of guy who plays to the rules.
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PAGE CAMP ECHO 1942
You’re next By P/O FERGUSON. R.A.F.
The best attitude to adopt is to stand aloof: feet together and with an intelligent expression of refined “resignation”. Do not appear on the scene grinning from ear to ear and wearing confidence like a halo. You must expect the very worst. The Gestapo will acknowledge your presence by a lift of the left eyebrow and you reply fluently with a used up smile “Yes, all that belongs to me”. You should have no further part in the conversation because it will avail you nought. The Gestapo is as versatile as a safety pin and soon your letters, pencils, books, and blankets are strewn around the floor: shaving gear, pants, shirts, ties and socks are left unmolested because in all probability you have none.
You must be prepared to see the undermentioned articles pounced on with an expression of gluttonous possessiveness and to receive a glance best described as withering as each one is brought to light – Picture Post-Cards (of Brighton, Southend, and Chipping Norton in particular) fur-lined gloves, Gold Flake Cigarettes and tin, bottles of Eau de Vie, old shoes, old boots, hats, caps, scarves, and drawing pins, Tinkabell Peas, Sardines, Boracic Powder and last week’s paper, your private personal address book and spare toothbrush, empty Klim Milk tins old tea leaves, envelopes with used stamps of any nationality – especially Australian, your bread ration and silver paper, toothglass and drinking water bottle, egg-beater and other mechanical contraptions.
“The richest intercourse between two human beings proceeds from the response by one to the other’s enthusiasm”. The Gestapo gets more and more excited and enthusiastic as these articles are whipped off and the remaining unmauled furniture is inspected and piled in a heap and the virgin wall closely scrutinised for code messages.
The performance ends with an impromptu strip-tease and you are left naked amongst the debris – and alone – the distance swallows the sounds of their retreating footsteps.
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1. Why the French General took the trouble to inspect a recent meal served to internees?
(Since we could have told him all about it at firsthand)
2. Why all “achats” were recently prohibited?
(Since it is beyond the power of the French to purchase what is not there).
3. Who appropriated the two bottles of wind from the Officers’ Mess at a recent gala night?
(Since contrary to optimistic misdirection, it was not an Arab).
4. Why we never see the American Consul?
(Since it was stated in the House of Commons that British Internees in Algeria received frequent visits from this legendary individual).
5. The identity of the kleptomaniac who purloined young Hadji’s saucer and sleeping blanket from outside his master’s room?
(Since it was not a hopeful of the army of North Africa).
6. Why the recent excavations indulged in by the French, instead of clarifying the Sanitary problem, only provided a bad local smell?
(Since any internee could have told them that four latrines, French Mk. 1, were insufficient for nearly a hundred prisoners).
7. Why the “slug” should value us dead at Frs. 2,000 and alive at Frs. 1,000?
(Since a corpse is always worth less to the Boches than an internee).
[page break]
[underlined] Continued from previous page. [/underlined]
8. Why Lieutenant Montgomery should suffer from a perpetual cold?
(Since the climate of North Africa is anything but inclement).
9. Why the R.C’s were not allowed to assist at Mass after the bombardment of the Renault Tank Works at Paris?
(Since they had not taken part in the raid).
10. Why the French prefer to use the word “demain” to the word “jamais”?
(Since, to them, the words are synonymous).
11. Why the local bootmaker should take all laces from boots sent to him for repair?
(Since, if he had told us he was destitute, we would joyfully have subscribed towards the purchase of a new pair of boot laces for him).
12. Why the French should imagine we appreciate the privilege of going naked, unashamed, and with no seats to our trousers?
(Since, if Darlan spoke to Goring, we could have plenty of battle dresses and R.A.F. uniforms – left behind in France).
13. Why the subtraction of parole cards coincided with an epidemic of typhus in the locality?
(Since no one broke his parole).
14. Why some should have supposed that the sudden demise of Lulu would have automatically ensured a clean football (?) ground?
(Since evidence of human excreta still persist).
15. Why the British are detained at all in North Africa?
(Since many of us went to France to help the French).
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Lights out at 9.30 p.m. provides its own problem. Six hours sleep for a man, eight hours for a child, ten hours for a fool, ten and a half for an internee. Certainly, but how is an internee to ensure that these ten and a half hours are spent, not in profitless recrimination, but in beneficial sleep. This problem may have perplexed others besides myself. If my experience is of material assistance to my readers, my time in writing this will not be wasted.
Faced with a long period of hopeless darkness, I tried evoking the picture of sheep jumping a gate and myself as shepherd counting them. There was no result. I thought of women, with even less result as far as sleep was concerned. I played a round of golf with Cotton, stroke by stroke, over a course we both know. At the fifteenth, I was four up and three to play – and as wide awake as ever in my life. The time was 1.30 a.m. What to do now. “Qu’est ce que nous pouvons faire.” I thought of London. Then the brain wave of my internment came to me. I would go on a solitary pub-crawl…
It was 7.30 in the evening – a summer’s evening in London. I was opposite the Law Courts in the Strand and my next appointment was in the “King Lud” underneath the railway bridge over Ludgate Hill at 10 o-clock. How on earth should I fill in the time?
“Well, at least there is the “George” – right opposite the Law Courts – and a half pint would not come amiss. I went in and the beer was pre Hitler’s war. When I came out I had spent [missing number]/3. – bitter (Saloon Bar) at 5d. a pint.
“Walking eastwards, I passed Twinings, the tea merchants – and spat in the gutter. Then “The Cock”. Ten minutes past eight. I went into the Long Bar. The barmaid I knew. Not well, but quite well. Another pint: and I passed through into the dining room. As often in the past, I ordered: Roast Sirloin of Beef, Roast Potatoes, Cauliflower. Despising puddings – I finished with Stilton butter and celery. [underlined] And [/underlined] a pint of bitter.
“Fortified, I emerged and proceeded eastwards along Fleet Street. 9 p.m. Past the Bodega. Past the small wine shop facing Chancery Lane – where, while most people see only dusty bottles in the window, it is not generally appreciated that excellent wine can be purchased by the glass – as samples.
(Continued over)
[page break]
“Past Hoare’s Bank – the only Bank in London where depositors can withdraw money without signing a cheque and incurring a twopenny excise tax. So to “the Falstaff” – about to close. Still feeling hungry, I had a dozen oysters and two bottles of Guiness. The barman was glad to see me go. 9.45 p.m.
“Still having time to spare, I turned aside into “The Bell” and had another pint. Good beer but the pub was empty. 9.50 p.m.
“Only one more pub before I reached Ludgate Circus – “the Punch”, there I was welcomed – the barmaids sleep in. Another pint. 9.55 p.m.
[deleted I [/deleted] Elated I crossed Ludgate Circus, I should reach my rendezvous at the “King Lud” right on time. I pushed the swing doors open, on the counter the customary Welsh Rarebit was simmering, “A pint please Miss”, it tasted good, “How much does it cost now Miss”? I asked. “It’s free, Sir, glad to see you back”.
[underlined] I KNEW I WAS ASLEEP AT LAST. [/underlined]
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Sgt. Latter’s remarks in our last issue have prompted me to take up my pen on behalf of that much maligned person - John Citizen – the typical average Englishman.
Although much has been written about him by people from other lands, his natural reserve has made him chary of courting publicity, rarely, therefore, do we find him refuting the statements of his critics.
In the big cities up and down the country you will find him engaged in a variety of professions. From Monday to Saturday he travels to and from his business in the public conveyances, an inoffensive sort of man who cloaks his inherited “reserve” behind a daily newspaper. Seldom will he commit himself to his fellow passengers, apart perhaps, from a gruntled comment regarding the weather to those of his more intimate acquaintances. If he is one of the 4 1/2 million black-coated workers, his life is humdrum, but although he may at times grumble at this lot he takes it in a philosophical manner. His thoughts alternate between his garden behind his little suburban villa and the possible chances of acquiring a fortune through the medium of the football pools.
His evenings are spent either around the fireside or in his favourite “pub”, where over a pint of beer and a pipe he relaxes from the day’s toil. The steady hum of conversation emanating from the bar parlour testifies that he has found congenial company to whom he can expound his knowledge of world affairs. Recriminations against the Government are a source of absorbing interest from which spring many witty and humorous remarks that have made John Citizen a universal character.
Sunday that day of rest – finds him pottering amongst the flower beds of his garden – lost to the cares of a dreary business world in the seclusion of his family circle, illustrating to the full the old axiom that “an Englishman’s home is his castle”.
To-day his desk has been vacated to his female counter part: John Citizen has answered the call to arms and donned a uniform, grimly resolved to defend his country against aggression.
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The Editor writes of the Thirties. Fresh from England he asks me to tell you what the same 4 1/2 million are doing in the Forties. Having done nothing since my arrival in Laghouat, I can think of no excuse for refusing bluntly and ungraciously – and so – within the last eight weeks, this is what some of the 4 1/2 million were doing.
John, aged 48, in 1939 running a department in a large office, with his own staff of twelve, now runs the same department with one girl, a young boy and a resuscitated pensioner of sixty-seven. This occupies ten hours a day. In the evening he returns to Reigate, and four nights out of six, spends four hours at the observer post on Reigate Hill watching for German ‘planes that no longer come.
William, served in the last war, joined the Home Guard. We travelled in the same carriage three or four times each week coming up from Waterloo. I have not seen him for some time. He was killed by the bomb that hit the Treasury Building in Whitehall in 1940.
The office boy who worked in the insurance office with me in 1939, was lost in Crete. Pte. Ballard would perhaps have known him, if Dunkirk had not intervened. They belonged to the same regiment.
So on, and so on. The auxiliary fireman, jeered at in 1939, when nobody did anything, but accepted, welcomed, praised in 1940. The A.R.P. – about whom the jesting Services sang derogatory songs. The ambulance drivers, rescue squads all recruited largely from the same source. The special constables, fat, fifty and unworried.
The women also. In 1940, my wife saw more active service than myself. On less food and more income tax, the John Citizen of 1940 – 1 saw more of the Nazi pleasantries than he ever expected possible.
In the meantime, I sit in Laghouat idle, dopey, indolent and critical. But thank God for a free press.
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MOTOR CYCLING
“VELOMAN” for Tourists “TORRENS for Sportsmen
[drawing of a track]
To my mind other outdoor activities simply fade into the background when compared with the fun and exhilaration of motor cycling. The thrill of “battling” along a fast road astride a good machine, the wind whistling past your ears, the exhaust note a mere burble, and a goodly stack of m.p.h’s on the clock, is the very wine of life to an enthusiast.
The camaraderie existing amongst riders is exceptionally good, and many are the good times to be had amongst clubmen and lone riders at wayside houses. A rider with a broken down bike is never alone for long. [underlined] Always, [/underlined] other motor-cyclists will stop and give every assistance.
Before one can savour to the full, the many pleasures open to a motor-cyclist, there is a “growing-pains” period, and it is to assist budding riders past this period – which is, nevertheless, good fun – that I am writing this series.
Next week my subject will be the learner buying his first machine.
Ulster! Donnington Park! Isle of Man! These are only place names to many people, but to the ardent motor-cyclist they conjure up visions of the finest sport in the world.
To those who would like to venture into this field of sport (at a later date) I hope these articles will prove to be very enlightening. You may ride a motorcycle during your week-ends, or holidays, perhaps you have had the pleasure to witness some Club Trials, or Track Racing. Finding these events very exciting you may have wished to enter yourself, but for the mere fact of not knowing how to go about it you have been denied this pleasurable, perhaps profitable, sport.
In the following series I shall tell you how to join a Club and endeavour to point out the snags you are likely to encounter in trials, Road Racing, Track Racing, and the most suitable types of machines to use for these events.
The authors realise that they will have a certain amount of criticism from their readers on the types of ‘bikes that will be mentioned.
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During the summer of 1923 a squad from the Penal Battalion of the Foreign Legion were constructing the road from Djelfa to Laghouat. Légionnaire Dubar was sitting on a hill talking to his friend Roland when he saw five new arrivals approaching. Suddenly he gripped Roland’s arm and turned pale. One of the replacements detached himself and drawing a knife rushed at Dubar, who fled from his attacker.
For the following nine months Dubar and his would be assassin Delbray avoided each other while Roland and Delbray became firm friends. Delbray would never divulge the reason for the existing enmity.
In May 1925, during the Riff campaign, Delbray, now a [deleted] [indecipherable letter] [/deleted] Sergeant Major, commanding the outpost of Taounat, now had as his second in command Roland. Delbray received orders to indent for ten reinforcements and was given permission to choose the men he required. To Roland’s surprise he included Dubar on the list. When the reinforcements arrived and were presented to Delbray, Dubar’s terror was obvious.
Some weeks later the outpost was surrounded by the Riff tribesmen. On the third day of the siege the decision was taken to abandon the fort. Delbray paraded and addressed his men in the following words: “I am proud to say that as Commander of this outpost, I shall remain behind to destroy the ammunition and the Légionnaire Dubar has volunteered to stay with me”: the parade knowing of Dubar’s cowardice and the feud between the two did not believe that Dubar had volunteered.
At 8 p.m. a letter was handed to Roland by Delbray to be carried to the Commanding Officer at Headquarters. All the ammunition was piled up in the courtyard ready to be detonated The gates were flung open and a sortie was made. Roland who was the last to leave, looked back and saw Delbray sitting on the ammunition holding Dubar beside him. A few moments later there was a tremondous [sic] explosion and Roland knew (Continued)
[page break]
that both Delbray and Dubar had perished.
On arriving at headquarters, Delbray’s letter was read out to the Légionnaires – It said: “I have the honour to state that Légionnaire Dubar volunteered to blow up the outpost with me and that he is my brother.” Both men were awarded posthumously the Legion of Honour.
Now here is the true story of Delbray and Dubar as told to Roland two hours before he evacuated the fort.
Delbray and Dubar were brothers, sons of a well known Parisien [sic] University Professor. Dubar had forged a check in his father’s name and the blame had been attached to his brother who was sentenced to five years imprisonment at Fres During the time he was away Dubar seduced his brother’s fiancée, who afterwards committed suicide.
A short time before Delbray was due to be released Dubar, fearing his brother’s revenge, joined the Legion under this assumed name. Delbray learning of this also joined.
Learning that his brother Dubar was in the Penal Battalion Delbray did the best in his power to get sent there, and after a great deal of difficulty managed to succeed. At first he wanted only revenge, but finding that his brother was not only a forger, but a coward as well, decided at the first opportunity to save the family’s name. His final act not only accomplished this, but enabled both the brothers to die as heroes.
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In early times a great variety of commodities – or perhaps things would be a better word – were used for the purposes of money. It seems natural enough that at the outset things in general demand were used as a common denominator of value, and it is said that oxen were often used for the purpose. The ox is not however, easily divisible – at any rate not when living and is subject to a great fall in value at an[deleted]t[/deleted]ny time from the fact that a dead ox does not usually possess the same worth as a live one. Hence the disadvantages which attach to this form of currency are obvious. In the case of warlike tribes even weapons and slaves were used as money.
It can thus be seen that some of these earlier forms of money would be restricted to certain areas: that is to say, they would be local in character, and as intercourse developed with more distant tribes, or peoples having different customs and requirements, the means of exchange, or payment acceptable over a wider area would make itself felt.
In course of time it was found that metals served this purpose much more successfully than products of the soil, or cattle. Although gold and silver were used by the early Egyptians as a means of exchange, tin and iron were used by the Greeks, and later the Romans employed copper and bronze coins. Gradually, however, the base metals, with the exception of bronze still used for subsidiary coinage, came to be less and less employed, and gold and silver, omitting for the moment paper money, became the principal means of money throughout, what we are pleased to term the civilised world. The reason for this is not at first sight perfectly clear. Gold and silver are not particularly useful: their colours are, however, pleasing to the eye of most, and they have, therefore, from the earliest times been used for decorative purposes. This combined with their comparative scarcity and other qualities such as durability, malleability, divisibility etc., which will be described later, has made them denominators of value and the means of exchange of the greater part of the world.
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The word England conjures up memories – almost forgotten amongst the kerosene carrots and sand of Laghouat. What does one think of first [inserted] on [/inserted] hearing the word – England? Not, so far as I am concerned, white cliffs. Not Stratford-on-Avon. Not a Jubilee procession. My first mental impression is rain: adrizzle [sic] that we might have called miserable. Wet pavements in London. Street lamps – no obligatory blackout. A pawn shop at the corner of the High Street. Costers’ barrows down the side streets: kippers (prime) 4d. a pair. A cinema on the right – most expensive seat 1/3d., including tax – bright lights, a queue for the sevenpennies. A pleasant smell of hot fat – fried fish rock salmon. Better still, shrimps. By the first – eaten with butter and alittle [sic] bread – nothing better in the world: the drizzle continues. Who cares? I wish I could get my feet wet now.
Away from towns. England – an autumn evening in the Cotswolds. Leaving London on a Friday afternoon – through Oxford. Perhaps a pint in the “Clarendon”. Then Witney – where England begins and blankets are made. Rolling hills. No bloody rock and sand. Names to make one homesick. Moreton-in-the-Marsh. Bowton-on-the-Water. Temple Guiting. Guiting Power. The last a village of eighty nine inhabitants. The constable visits it every third Saturday evening – on a bicycle. The the [sic] “Half-Way House” closes punctually. To-night is Friday – custom is brisk and ceaseless. There are nine drinking in the inn. No nonsense about a bar parlour. There isn’t one. Everyone uses the room of the cottage set aside for guests. The atmosphere can be cut with a knife. No scent in the world like it. Beer, wet clothes, wood smoke, tobacco and man. Ned, 28/6d. a week and happy, the same as afortnight [sic] ago – except that to-night he has a pheasant in his pocket. George, fresh from ploughing, has an increase in his family. The others, well recognised acquaintances have red faces and beery breaths. Thank God there is no wireless. A penny in the automatic produces two minutes of tinny music – the nearest we reach to modern civilisation, nobody really likes it – but the presence of the machine suggests progress. A pint of bitter costs 4d. Nobody cares about Hitler – perhaps unfortunately.
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It is not a question of knowing what to wear that confronts the British Military Internee at Laghouat, but rather of knowing how to wear it. In spite of this I think readers will agree that we should take off our hats (if issued with same) to Mr. Robert, that much harassed gentleman who continues to exercise every endeavour to try to keep his “tailor’s shop” equipped with suitings to suit all. This is no mean task and some of his shelves are beginning to look very bare already, doubtless owing to the difficulties of local “ravitaillment” coupled with the inevitable “blocus”.
On account of general financial distress (outsiders have cornered the money market) Mr. Robert has been compelled to do business at terrifically cut prices entailing unusually long terms of credit. “Suits for ridiculous figures” has been the moan of this martyr and a very justifiable moan as all will agree, who, of late, have witnessed the bulging extremities of certain habitués whose clothing has long since ceased to serve its original purpose of sheltering the entire human form.
Have we not in our midst an unprecedented example of the tailor who has discovered that it does not pay to advertise and who would really welcome strong competition?
This tailoring establishment is not to be confused with Shag’s Secondhand Suit Store which is run on entirely different lines where those desirous may hire garments, generally for a small (?) consideration decided by Shag himself. Here the “habits” to be obtained are military style and smart, much smarter than the habits practised by the wearers in general – Shag’s boast. The uniforms of R.A.F. pilots are mostly sought after and comand [sic] the best prices due to the exalted effect of wearing them, when cares and worries of internment take wings on flight of imagination. These uniforms certainly appear to bring out the sterner stuff from their temporary possessors. “Shag’s Products Produce Personality” will be his advertising phrase in future.
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[underlined] Continued from previous page. [/underlined]
To return to our other Good Samaritan bear in mind that it is on him we must rely when the laundry fail to return our small clothes and the authorities confiscate our greatcoats, wind-breakers and one time well fitting slacks purchased in Algiers. Already he is attempting to fulfil the requirements of the black-coated in our midst, as witness the new pair of striped trousers to be seen at “Appel.” But where is the bowler hat Mr. Outfitter? And the umbrella? Recalling how our late Prime Minister went accoutred to Munich, and remembering that fire-arms are forbidden to B.M.Is., we must have something with which to present arms when our day to take the Salute arrives.
[page break]
The outstanding event to mark this week’s alcoholic activity was the old Keffian’s Reunion – held appropriately enough, in the Canteen. There was no doubt in the minds of those present as to the new C.O’s having the right stuff in him.
A new dish – Lamb and spring onions gained great popularity in prominent circles. The Lamb should be well stewed in its own liquor before a hot fire and then garnished with the onions. A raw turnip, or two may be added to taste. (Mrs. Claude Belcher’s recipe).
S/L Brickell – one of our less steady attendants, was an unofficial camp policeman the night the wine achats arrived. Having ascertained by the approved conversation test that an inanimate body leaning against the quarters was quite incapable of speech he carried out his Duty and ordered its removal to bed. [underlined] Did [/underlined] anyone find a tree-trunk between the sheets.
Our member from Wales is very well house-trained and can now be trusted off the leash Indeed, he is better off it than on owing to his penchant for [underlined] other [/underlined] people’s doorsteps.
Tanks are a fascinating subject to most people, and I think that everyone of us who gathered together last Monday to listen to Cpl. Williams (R.H.A.) was keen to hear the latest “gen” on the Army’s “battle wagons”.
He started explaining the mechanism of caterpillar tracks and the difficulties of their maintenance, using as an example the simplest of armoured vehicles, the ‘Dragon” and its brother the “Bren Carrier”.
Interest livened when Cpl. Williams carried his lecture to the point of explaining the armament, its disposition and the work of the crews of tanks. I was impressed by tank fire-power, particularly of the bigger types, and by the speeds attainable by these mobile fortresses.
I thought it very funny when the lecturer, never at a loss – unable to define the tenth member of a Cruiser Crew, said, “Oh well, he must be a fifth columnist, or something”.
Most types of tanks came within the scope of this talk including several experimental types that Cpl. Williams had had experience of.
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They were having a swell time in their jerry built shack down by the river, husband, wife and kid: Frank, Lucy and Peter, all very much in love. Lucy wore the pants, Frank the armchair out and the kid what he was told to wear.
One day the old man’s cousin (Anna, a swell dish) parks her carcase on the doorstep and says, “Here I am, and here I stay for my vacation.” She’s had an illegitimate, and Lucy don’t go nothin’ on her. Being jealous, she even suspects “Hubby” of having something to do with it, and gives him the works. Naturally he gets sore, and seeing that Anna is such an eyefull, [sic] there’s dirty work on the towpath. Lucy gets to know this and gets in a flat spin. While in this daze she rams a launch into the old man’s row-boat, and there’s hell to pay. Papa dies, mama cries, Anna goes home and Pete don’t give a damn.
The dame takes over Hubby’s old job, sends the brat to school, and everything’s “hunky dory” for some years until the kid leaves school. Lucy get the bullet from her job, and instead of letting the young man work and keep her, she chars and starves for five years to let him go through Medical University. She must have been a mug. The old woman’s smart, though. She thinks that Pete will keep her in luxury, when he’s a fully fledged sawbones, and she sure gets a shock when the new quack packs his trunk and pushes off with a skirt named Rose. The old dame think’s this is a dirty trick. I think the old girl’s screwy, and Pete thinks Rose is swell. Say, I’d have left my winger for Rose, let alone Mama.
Lucy looks a bit of a hag now and a bit more screwy than she has been all along. However, she sees the light, and it’s a bit dim, so she enters a convent to see it clearer. After a month she gets cheesed, after six months tells “La Bonne Mere” what she thinks of her, and instead of catching the 11.58 home she catches pleurisy. Bravely fighting her illness she struggles home, and just manages to peg out before seeing her son. Bad luck on the old girl, her three loves (Frank, Pete and Religion) all turning out phoney, but being such a mug all her life she couldn’t expect much else.
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In July of last year the ship I was then in had just completed a refit which was occasioned by being mined in January and close missed several times in the Liverpool blitz of March We had done various gunnery exercises, but the gun crews were still far from efficient and on doing a full power trial certain engine defects had become apparent which necessitated our available speed being reduced to 15 knots. We were on the point of returning to a dockyard when we received orders to proceed to a certain port.
Having arrived there we worked day and night loading our mine decks with various forms of high explosive: in all about 400 tons, which all had to be shored and wedged to prevent any movement while we were at sea. The port for which we were bound was kept a close secret and it was not until we had left our next port, which was in Iceland, that we knew we were bound for Archangel.
At this time the Germans had a free hand in the North of Norway and an unknown strength of ships and aircraft based in the harbours of Petsamo and Kirknaes and were known to be running convoys north from Marvik and several Met. flights to the North of Nord Kap. Our chances of getting to Archangel were anything but rosy, as being lightly armed, reduced in speed, unescorted and full of explosives we were a fairy good target. The one bright spot being that the harbours of Petsamo and Kirknaes were to be attacked aerially by a force to the southward of us.
Despite our misgivings the trip was uneventful and we were duly met at the entrance to the White Sea by a Russian destroyer and escorted into the Port Economica, about twelve miles down the river from Archangel. The only incident was when an aircraft was seen to be shadowing us and was thought to be unfriendly but it was later identified as a Catalina and all was peace once more.
We berthed quite close to the Russian destroyer, which I may remark was quite the cleanest ship I have ever seen, and during our four days stay we saw a lot of her officers, their Vodka and their Caviar. Our first job was to get shot of our unpleasant cargo and then to enjoy ourselves.
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[underlined] Continued from previous page. [/underlined]
The Russians gave us a wonderful time and some truly historic “heads”.
One day some of us went up the river to Archangel and on the way saw what I feel must be the largest timber yards in the world. For twelve miles as far as one could see on either side of the river was pile upon pile of cut timber. Archangel was much like any far northern town and was mostly built of wood in one longish main street. Some of the bigger buildings were made of lath and plaster but were finished to look like concret [sic] Most of the people were poorly dressed though there seemed to b [sic] very little real poverty, and the people appeared to be as happy as can be expected in a country full of secret police. Our guide was a woman, a member of O.G.P.U. and was not giving away much, nor were we allowed to see anything we were not meant to. She spoke very fair English though she had met very few English people: the officers on the other hand only spoke very little, but the language difficulty was got over in a mixture of French and German.
The next day there was an official reception on board my ship followed by a football match which the Russians won, and then the usual Vodka and Gin depending on which ship one was in. This latter entertainment went on until the small hours as each officer had to see his opposite number home and then be seen home himself.
The following morning our host presented the ship with 20 bottles of Vodka, 20 bottles of Champagne and a very large tin of Caviar for the officers and two bottles of beer for each man. Everyone received 40 cigarettes and so our visit came to an end with just a few more stirrup cups.
Our cargo for the return journey consisted of 60 Kgs. of platinum, 14 British Army Officers and other Ranks who had escaped into Russia from Germany and one R.A.F. Officer who had been shot down in the attack on Petsamo. The only point worth noting on the return home was that for 600 miles we were north of 75o which is the furthest north I have ever been, and in due course we returned to our base after being away just about a month.
So ended a historic journey as we were the first naval ship of our size to enter the river Dvina for over twenty years., Much to everyone’s surprise the engines held together and we had not been attacked.
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
Camp Echo Magazine
Description
An account of the resource
An edition of Laghouat Internment camp weekly magazine with many articles covering a wide range of topics.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-01-14
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
35 double page and cover printed magazine
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
MHudsdonJD755052-151029-02
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
British Army
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Tunisia
Tunisia--El Kef
Algeria
Algeria--Laghouat (Province)
North Africa
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1942
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
David Bloomfield
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.
arts and crafts
prisoner of war
sanitation
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/886/23850/EMortonJBHudsonJD401127-0003.1.jpg
c8c92178432449bbbeaa8814d449bbfd
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/886/23850/EMortonJBHudsonJD401127-0004.1.jpg
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hudson, Douglas
James Douglas Hudson
J D Hudson
Description
An account of the resource
529 items. Collection concerns Pilot Officer James Douglas Hudson, DFC (755052 Royal Air Force) who joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in June 1939 and trained as an observer. While on route to Malta in August 1940 his Blenheim crashed in Tunisia and he was subsequently interned for two and a half years by Vichy French in Tunisia and Algeria. After being freed he returned to Great Britain and after navigator retraining completed a tour of 30 operations on 100 Squadron. The collection contains letters to and from his parents and from French penfriends while interned in Tunisia and Algeria, newspaper cuttings of various events, logbooks and lists of operations, official documents and photographs. A further 23 items are in two sub-collections with details of navigator examinations and postcards of Laghouat Algeria.<br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Elizabeth Smith and Yvonne Puncher and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br />
<p>This collection also contains items concerning Louis Murray and Harry Bowers. Additional information on <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/202827/">Harry Bowers</a> and <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/220410/">Louis Murray</a> is available via the IBCC Losses Database.</p>
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
2015-06-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Hudson, JD
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Envelope]
[underlined] PRISONERS OF WAR POST [/underlined] [postmark]
No. 755052 HUDSON: J.D. (SGT. CHEF),
[censor stamp] CAMP DE SEJOUR SUIRVEILLE,
S/COURENT COMMANDANT D’ARMES,
LE KEF
TUNISIE
[underlined] NORD AFRIQUE. [/underlined]
[page break]
3-1-41 Miss J. B. Morton
Beamar
Montgomerie Road
Prestwick
[postmark] [underlined] Ayrshire [/underlined]
Scotland
[circled] VA27 [/circled] [censor stamp]
[page break]
[decorative Christmas card] bells, flowers best wishes
[Page break]
[drawing] May your Christmas be happy and the New Year full of joy.
Though often changes may befall, Our thoughts once more old times recall And bring to mind fond memories sweet, This happy Christmas Morn to greet.
Love from J. B Morton [underlined] Beamern [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Douglas Hudson Christmas card
Description
An account of the resource
Sent by J B Morton. Flowers and bells on the front with green ribbon. Woman at post-box inside front. Christmas greetings inside right.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
J B Morton
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-11-27
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Card and envelope
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EMortonJBHudsonJD401127
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Tunisia
Tunisia--El Kef
Great Britain
Scotland--Ayrshire
Scotland--Prestwick
North Africa
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-11-27
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
Robin Christian
prisoner of war
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/886/10947/NSmithEA151029-040002.1.jpg
307f2af461b7203f8bc85de84b5bc2a5
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
Hudson, Douglas
James Douglas Hudson
J D Hudson
Description
An account of the resource
529 items. Collection concerns Pilot Officer James Douglas Hudson, DFC (755052 Royal Air Force) who joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in June 1939 and trained as an observer. While on route to Malta in August 1940 his Blenheim crashed in Tunisia and he was subsequently interned for two and a half years by Vichy French in Tunisia and Algeria. After being freed he returned to Great Britain and after navigator retraining completed a tour of 30 operations on 100 Squadron. The collection contains letters to and from his parents and from French penfriends while interned in Tunisia and Algeria, newspaper cuttings of various events, logbooks and lists of operations, official documents and photographs. A further 23 items are in two sub-collections with details of navigator examinations and postcards of Laghouat Algeria.<br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Elizabeth Smith and Yvonne Puncher and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br />
<p>This collection also contains items concerning Louis Murray and Harry Bowers. Additional information on <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/202827/">Harry Bowers</a> and <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/220410/">Louis Murray</a> is available via the IBCC Losses Database.</p>
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
2015-06-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Hudson, JD
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[inserted] Blenheim crash landed on Cap Bon. [/inserted] R.A.F.’s LOSSES
[inserted] Navigator Hudson J.D
Pilot Riddick known as John but probably Sgt. D.C.B.
Air Gunner Randall D.W.G. (known as ‘Tony’)
Two Brothers Killed in Action
Meades, 536703, Sgt. S.E.; Shalley, 746984, Sgt. D.F.; Smitheram, 41074, P/O J.C.; Weaver, 70719, Actg. F/Lt. P.S.
[circled] MISSING [/circled]
Arthur, 42090, P/O C.J.; Baker, 935961, Sgt. B.; Baker, 751839, Sgt. J.; Bann, 581165, Sgt. J.; Bayliss, 44057, P/O G.L.; Bentham, 552444, Sgt. H.; Berry, 39959, F/O E.R.; Borg-Banks, 41659, P/O T.H.; Bowers, 743077, Sgt. H.; Bruce, 39853 F/O D.C.; Carter, 628721, Sgt. H.W.; Child, 616033, L/A/C A.G.; Churchill, 41255, P/O R.S.A.; Clarke, 743056, Sgt. J.C.; Coghlan, 37719, Actg. F/Lt J.H., D.F.C.; Coverley, 70142, F/O W.H.; Cox, 747188, Sgt. R.C.R.; Cunningham, 90194, F/Lt. J.L.G.; Cutts, 40804, P/O J.W.; D’Arcy, 561093, Sgt. B.M.; Davis, 44271, P/O D.H.; Dean, 975058, A/C 2 H.W.; Dickson, 626161, Sgt. G.M.; Doulton, 90235, F/O M.D.; Dunkels, 42822, P/O C.O.; Dunnington, 612371, Sgt. H.; Dymond, 580059, Sgt. W.L.
Edmeads, 751841, Sgt. A.C.H.; Fawcett, 41005, P/O. N.B.; Fitzpatrick, 79540, P/O. W.E.; Francis, 42211, P/O. C.D.; Garvey, 741796, Sgt. P.K.; Gibson, 751217, Sgt. A.; Gordon, 42120, P/O W.H.G.; Hall, 510251, L/A/C E.A,; Hamilton, 39316, F/Lt. H.R.; Hibbert, 538174, A/C 1 G,; Hill, 567598, Sgt. M.; Hillcoat, 90256, Actg. F/Lt. H.B.L.; Hogg, 33486, P/O. R.M.; Hood, 26110, Sq. Ldr. H.R.L.; Howard, 566374, Sgt. H.G.H.; [underlined] Hudson, 755052, Sgt. J.D.; [/underlined] Hynes, 41707, P/O. T.G.; Inskip, 581339, Sgt. I.; Johnson, 520406, Sgt. J.I.; Johnston, 580546, Sgt. N.R.; Jones, 536553, L/A/C. C.P.; Lampard, 615948, L/A/C. C.D.; Lawes, 567002, L/A/C. W.F.; Lovett, 37543, Actg. F/Lt. R.E. D.F.C.; Macdonald, 74679, P/O. D.K.; Martin, 633385, L/A/C. E.; Maxwell, 967872, Sgt. W.; Moody, 81046, P/O H.W.
Newson, 755404, Sgt. F.H.; Norris, 565646, F/Sgt. H.N.; O’Reilly, 535507, L/A/C. J.P.; Parvin, 33441, P/O. J.H.K.; Pearce, 742651, Sgt. E.A.; Pigg, 39678, F/O. O.St.J.; [underlined] Randall, 905742, Sgt. D.W.G.[/underlined]; Reay, 626591, A/C. 1 G.; Rhodes, 42529, P/O. R.A.; Rhodes-Moorhouse, 90140, F/Lt. W.H., D.F.C.; [underlined] Riddick, 1004679, Sgt. D.C.B.[/underlined]; Rigby, 532880, Cpl. G.A.; Riley, 741996, Sgt. C.P.; Riley, 550943, Sgt. E.A.H.; Ringwood, 629710, Sgt. E.A.; Rolls, 615888, Sgt. H.; Rushmer, 90192, F/Lt. F.W.; Sawyer, 638724, Sgt. F.C.; Sherriff, 362116, F/Sgt. W.D.; Smith, 755623, Sgt. J.S.; Stephenson, 550132, Sgt. J.W.; Stiles, 639949, Sgt, R.C.E.; Sully, 581542, Sgt. A.P.; Thomas, 37332, Actg. Sq. Ldr. F.G.R.; Wainwright, 581127, Sgt. L.H.; Walker, 615619, Sgt. A.E.; Webb, 966677, A/C. 1 D.C.; Westmoreland, 741143, Sgt. T.E.; Wicker, 746715, Sgt. R.M.; Willcox, 590740, Sgt. R.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
Douglas Hudson missing
Description
An account of the resource
Newspaper cuttings noting that amongst other casualties that Sergeant J D Hudson is missing. Also noted 'Blenheim crash landed Cape Bon, navigator Hudson J D, pilot Riddick, known as John but probably Sgt D C B N, air gunner Randall, D W G (known as Tony). Hudson, Randal and Riddick are underlined in Missing paragraph.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One newspaper cutting
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
NSmithEA151029-040002
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.
Tunisia
North Africa
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
Blenheim
missing in action
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1801/40369/LStewartEC87436v1.2.pdf
9aaa3cce2399f4099304ff401ba6257d
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
Stewart, Edward Colston
E C Stewart
Description
An account of the resource
272 items. The collection concerns Edward Colston Stewart DFC (b. 1916, 87436 Royal Air Force) and his wife, <span>Flight Officer </span>Ann Marie Stewart (nee Imming, b. 1922, 5215 Royal Air Force). It contains his log books, documents, bank notes and photographs. He flew 50 operations as a pilot with 1446 Ferry Flight and 104 Squadron. After the war they served in the Far East. <br /><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2013">Ann Marie Stewart collection</a><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2012">Bank notes</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Paula Cooper 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
2017-02-24
2022-06-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Stewart, EC
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
Edward Stewart's pilot's flying log book. One
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for E C Stewart, covering the period from 2 July 1940 to 25 November 1944. Detailing his flying training, instructor duties and operation flown. He was stationed at RAF Sywell, RAF Cranwell, RAF Ansty, RAF Walsgrave, RAF Cirencester, RAF Little Rissington, RAF Moreton-in-Marsh, RAF Kabrit, RAF Luqa, LG237, RAF Church Broughton, RAF Wymeswold and RAF Lyneham. Aircraft flown were Tiger Moth, Oxford, Tutor, Wellington, and York. He flew a total of 50 operations; 3 unnamed daylight with 1446 ferry flight and 47 night operations with 104 Squadron. Targets were Fuka, Sardinia, Tunis, Catania, Comica, Bizerta, Gerbini, Palermo, La Goulette, Sfax, Sousse, Tripoli, Gabes, Mareth Line, Kattana, El Hama and El Maou. Other targets are listed as battle area. He flew as a second pilot on operations with Squadron Leader Leggette and Flying Officer Parker.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
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. Transport Command
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 booklet
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
Mike Connock
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LStewartEC87436v1
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1941
1942-08-07
1942-08-09
1942-10-27
1942-10-28
1942-11-01
1942-11-02
1942-11-03
1942-11-12
1942-11-13
1942-11-14
1942-11-19
1942-11-20
1942-11-22
1942-11-23
1942-11-24
1942-11-26
1942-11-27
1942-11-29
1942-11-30
1942-12-01
1942-12-03
1942-12-04
1942-12-05
1942-12-06
1942-12-09
1942-12-10
1942-12-12
1942-12-13
1942-12-14
1942-12-15
1942-12-16
1942-12-17
1942-12-18
1942-12-19
1942-12-21
1942-12-22
1942-12-25
1942-12-26
1942-12-27
1942-12-28
1942-12-31
1943-01-01
1943-01-02
1943-01-03
1943-01-05
1943-01-06
1943-01-07
1943-01-08
1943-01-09
1943-01-10
1943-01-12
1943-01-13
1943-01-14
1943-01-15
1943-01-18
1943-01-19
1943-02-24
1943-02-25
1943-02-26
1943-02-27
1943-03-02
1943-03-03
1943-03-11
1943-03-12
1943-03-20
1943-03-21
1943-03-22
1943-03-23
1943-03-24
1943-03-25
1943-03-26
1943-03-27
1943-03-30
1943-03-31
1943-04-04
1943-04-05
1944
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Egypt
Great Britain
Italy
Libya
Malta
Tunisia
Egypt--Cairo
Egypt--Marsá Maṭrūḥ
Egypt--Suez Canal
England--Derbyshire
England--Gloucestershire
England--Leicestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Northamptonshire
England--West Midlands
England--Wiltshire
Italy--Catania
Italy--Palermo
Italy--Paternò
Italy--Sardinia
Italy--Sicily
Libya--Tripoli
Tunisia--Bizerte
Tunisia--La Goulette
Tunisia--Mareth Line
Tunisia--Qābis
Tunisia--Sfax
Tunisia--Sūsah
Tunisia--Tunis
Egypt--Kibrit
North Africa
Egypt--Fukah
104 Squadron
21 OTU
28 OTU
aircrew
bombing
Flying Training School
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Ansty
RAF Church Broughton
RAF Cranwell
RAF Little Rissington
RAF Lyneham
RAF Moreton in the Marsh
RAF Sywell
RAF Wymeswold
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1339/22014/SValentineJRM1251404v10064.2.jpg
df25418137f03d3697503d22f607385c
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
Valentine, John. Ursula Valentine's newspaper cutting scrapbook
Description
An account of the resource
131 items contained in a scrapbook. Mainly newspaper cuttings of events from May 1942 to 1945.
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
Eighth army's new victory
Description
An account of the resource
Article headlines: eighth army's new victory, 500 guns blast hole in Akarit defences, infantry's overwhelming assault, junction with American forces. Cutting headlines: eighth army in close pursuit, nearly 10,000 prisoners taken, northern attack continues, German forces evacuate Pichon.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
The Times
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-04-08
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two newspaper cuttings mounted on a scrapbook page
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
SValentineJRM1251404v10064
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
British Army
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Tunisia
North Africa
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-04
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1242/16300/MAllenJH179996-160512-010001.1.jpg
8f914d3e85e2803331348d25adc60d69
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1242/16300/MAllenJH179996-160512-010002.1.jpg
df4a2b2ee2711e1412df3e97ea923a42
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1242/16300/MAllenJH179996-160512-010003.1.jpg
467dd630cd7ce2fce6f75e33c13c0c75
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1242/16300/MAllenJH179996-160512-010004.1.jpg
2e6c461dde4a7aa7e0a1e90e0c455d57
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
Allen, Jim
J H Allen
Description
An account of the resource
18 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant James Henry Allen DFC (b. 1923, 179996 Royal Air Force). He flew a tour of operations as a pilot with 578 Squadron. The collection consists of a number of memoirs, photographs and a diary. It includes descriptions of military life and operations and his post-war life and work.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Steve Allen 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
2016-05-12
2019-02-05
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. 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
Allen, JH
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB 200
ELIZABETHAN NEWS Nov 11/12 1942
ISSUED DAILY ON RMS QUEEN ELIZABETH 1942.
[stamp crown OFFICIAL PAID]
[page break]
[coloured drawing of R.MS. QUEEN ELIZABETH]
R.M.S. ‘QUEEN ELIZABETH’.
[page break]
ELIZABETHAN NEWS
SERIES 5, No. 2 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1942 ONE PENNY
EIGHTH ARMY IN MERSAH MATRUH
SOLLUM, SIDI BARANI BESIEGED
Highlights of yesterday’s reports on the victorious Allied sweep through the desert include:
Mersah Matruh was occupied by British troops on Monday;
Enemy rearguards at Sidi Barani and Sollum are being engaged;
Axis columns are being chased by armoured units south of Daba;
Rommel’s forces are estimated to have retreated 250 miles in 6 days.
The Germans are still fighting in their retreat, and it is expected that a number of rearguard actions will have to be fought before the main enemy forces are engaged.
The enemy have numbers of guns left but few tanks.
Regrouping Forces
Rommel is believed to be regrouping what remains of his forces for a stand along the frontier.
DEVASTATION IN MATRUH
When British troops entered Mersah Matruh they passed through a devastated town. Hardly a house was left standing after the heavy shelling and bombing by the R.A.F. Every few yards there were burnt-out vehicles of all kinds.
Harbour Damage
In the harbour, a large tanker was lying on its side. Other ships were sunk. A small dock hanger was a mass of debris.
ALLIED NEW GUINEA SUCCESS
Allied troops in New Guinea overwhelmed on enemy position near Guarali.
Runways and buildings on a Japanese airfield were bombed and an enemy transport was so badly damaged that it had to be beached.
ADVANCE AT GUADALCANAL
American troops at Guadalcanal made another advance east of the airfield.
JAPANESE DESTROYER SUNK
In the Solomons area a Japanese destroyer was hit by bombs and sunk.
HEAVY RAID ON HAMBURG
The R.A.F. made a heavy attack on north-west Germany. Hamburg was the main target.
Heavy clouds and icing conditions hampered the raiders.
Fifteen bombers failed to return.
[underlined] SHIPBOARD NEWS [/underlined]
ANOTHER CONCERT TOMORROW
Weather and other circumstances permitting, Capt. Graham, U.S. Army, hopes to repeat the concert for the troops in the main mess hall tomorrow (Thursday) evening.
ORAN SURRENDERS;
‘JEAN BART’ ABLAZE;
F.D.R.’s TUNIS MOVE
ORAN SURRENDERED TO AMERICAN FORCES AT 3 P.M. YESTERDAY, AFTER THE TOWN HAD BEEN SURROUNDED AND 2,000 PRISONERS TAKEN.
Stiff resistance is reported from Casablanca, where French air forces and light naval units have been very active. The Vichy battleship Jean Bart was badly damaged in a naval engagement on Monday and was reported yesterday to be burning fiercely. Admiral Darlan is officially a prisoner of war in Algiers. Marshal Petain has assumed control of all Vichy forces.
THE FALL OF ORAN
Brief despatches from war correspondents on the fall of Oran, state that American troops penetrated to the rear of the town and occupied Valmy, 10 miles to the south. Other units simultaneously captured St. Cloud, 13 miles east, and Perraguax, 40 miles south-west of the town.
With the town surrounded and 2,000 prisoners in Allied hands, the French leader surrendered.
No heavy French naval units were in action in this area, and no hostile air forces were reported.
GLAD TO BE CAPTURED
Lieut.-General Eisenhower, in command of all operations, speaking of the obvious unwillingness of the French to fight Americans, said, “Prisoners taken at Oran did not attempt to conceal their pleasure at being captured. Their only anger was at the United States forces inflicting injuries, although the Americans themselves had casualties.”
‘Decisive Blow’
[black and white photograph of headshot of Winston Churchill]
Speaking at the Mansion House, London, yesterday, the Premier, Mr Winston Churchill said, ‘We have gained a decisive victory over the Axis. We have gained new ground to open a new battle front from which to attack Hitler.
“President Roosevelt was the author of the French North African campaign while I was his ardent lieutenant.”
CASABLANCA RESISTANCE
Brief reports from the Casablanca area mention a naval engagement on Monday in which the 35,000 ton Jean Bart was badly damaged, and was reported yesterday to be burning fiercely.
French air forces and naval units contested Allied landings at Casablanca more strongly than in any other area. The situation has been complicated by the arrival of shiploads of women and children evacuated from Dakar.
Surrender Offer
General Patton, in charge of local operations, went ashore under a flag of truce with terms for the surrender of the town. These were refused and fighting broke out on an increased scale after the General had returned to his ship;.
TWO TOWNS TAKEN
American forces have occupied Fedala, north of Casablanca, and Saffi, to the south-west of the town. More troops were landed at Agadir and Mogador.
DARLAN A PRISONER
It was officially stated in London yesterday that Admiral Darlan is a prisoner of war in Algiers.
Petain Takes Over
Marshal Petain announced that he had assumed control of all Vichy forces.
U.S. NAVAL FORCE
The United States naval forces in the North African attack consisted of three 35,000-ton battleships, four aircraft carriers, seven cruisers and numerous destroyers and light naval craft, stated a Washington message.
The Paris radio declared yesterday that in addition to a very large British convoy which left Gibraltar on November 6, another British convoy of about 30 units left there next day.
ANOTHER LANDING
A despatch late last night said that American troops had landed at Phillipeville, 50 miles west of Bona, neor [sic] the Tunis-Algeria border.
Bona airdrome was reported to have been bombed.
ROOSEVELT ASKS TO MOVE TROOPS INTO TUNISIA
President Roosevelt has asked permission for Allied troops to go through Tunisia into Libya to attack the Axis forces from the rear.
In a message yesterday to the Bey of Tunis, the President said he hoped Allied troops would be allowed to pass through French Tunisia.
He referred to the indomitable spirit of French Tunisia and hoped for the great privilege of accomplishing the task of completely eliminating the forces of evil from north Africa.
Convoy in Five-Day Battle with U-Boats
A big Atlantic convoy has arrived safely at a British port after a running fight for five days with a pack of U-boats.
Warships escorting the convoy attacked the enemy, and it is definitely known that two U-boats were sunk and several others were probably severely damaged.
570 SUBMARINES DESTROYED
The First Lord of the Admiralty announced in London yesterday that over 570 enemy submarines had been definitely destroyed.
Three weeks ago, the First Lord stated that 530 U-boats had been sunk.
FIGHTING IN RUSSIA QUIETENS
Yesterday’s Moscow communique stated there was no important change in the situation from the Black Sea to the Baltic. German attacks everywhere were slackening in intensity.
In Stalingrad the Russians have beaten off more enemy attacks, while south-east of Nalchik the Germans have suffered heavy losses.
ODDS AND ENDS
Two humourous [sic] items taken from yesterday’s despatches from the Libya battle front:
During mopping-up operations at Mersah Matruh in the last few days, a German prisoner was asked to what unit he belonged. He replied that he did not really belong to anyone. He had arrived from Greece some days previously and had been waiting at a cross-roads until he was picked up.
Members of a R.A.F. unit captured a new type of booty. It consisted of many brass band instruments which had been sent across from Italy to play Field Marshal Erwin Rommel – in a white tank, maybe – and his victorious Afrika Korps into Alexandria.
PAL!
Obituary taken from church paper:
LOUIS R. MARCH; Feb 7, 1867, d. April 16, 1940; joined – church in 1884; leaves widow and 15 children; W.W. Smart assisted.
ADDLED
A member of a Ladies Aid Society in a small town went to the bank to deposit, as she told the banker, “some aid money.”
Unfortunately the banker thought she said “egg money” and said:
“Remarkable, isn’t it, how well the old hens are doing these days?”
CAUTIOUS
A hotel chambermaid was tipped and asked not to give away the fact that a couple just arrived were newly married.
Going along the corridor a woman guest stopped her and said: “Honeymoon couple in the end room, aren’t they, Mary?”
Loyal to her tip, Mary replied: “No, madam, you’re quite wrong. They’re just friends.’
FINALLY –
A Dutch civilian charged by the Gestapo with espionage was found Not Guilty by a Nazi military court. Fair play is suspected.
[page break]
ELIZABETHAN NEWS
SERIES 5, No. 3 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1942 ONE PENNY
Dramatic moves in Europe and the Mediterranean have followed the brilliant Allied African offensive.
GERMAN FORCES MARCH INTO VICHY FRANCE;
HOSTILITIES CEASE IN NORTH AFRICAN ZONE;
CASABLANCA OCCUPIED BY ALLIES
German troops, in swift moves, raced into Unoccupied France yesterday, taking Vichy and Lyons, moving towards Marseilles, and reaching the northern Spanish border. Casablanca capitulated to American forces yesterday, and fighting has ceased in the North African zone. Axis air-borne forces have landed in Tunisia; Italian divisions are at Bizerta. Vichy fleet units suffered severely in naval actions at Casablanca; twenty-four destroyers were sunk or damaged in the harbour.
FIGHTING CEASES
It was officially announced from the Allied headquarters in Algiers yesterday that with the capitulation of Casablanca, hostilities between Allied troops and the French North African forces had ceased.
After two full days’ fighting, American troops secured the last of the important bases in the operational zone, and they are now preparing for possible Axis reactions.
NAVAL ACTION AT CASABLANCA
An entire force of French destroyers and other fighter craft were wiped out at Casablanca, according to war correspondents’ cables. The battleship Jean Bart is a blazing hulk and a heavy cruiser was badly damaged.
Twenty-four Vichy destroyers in the harbour were sunk or severely damaged.
Admiral Hewitt threw in the entire weight of his battle fleet, including dive bombers, to overcome the bitter French resistance.
American trooos [sic] moved in to occupy the city after armistice terms had been arranged.
FRENCH WELCOME U.S. TROOPS
Allied forces have now completely occupied Algiers and Oran. The French people gave them a warm welcome as they marched in.
“French are our Friends”
General Eisenhower said yesterday he did not think of Oran as a military victory. “The French are our friends and we wish to think of them as our friends,” he declared.
PRESIDENT REVEALS OFFENSIVE PLAN
[black and white photograph of headshot of President Roosevelt]
President Roosevelt revealed in Washington yesterday how the details of the Allied offensive were planned. He stated the plan for the North African campaign originated last December, when he invited Mr. Winston Churchill to visit the United States.
Various ideas were put forward for an attack across the English Channel. Military and naval opinion at that time believed a frontal attack would be possible. But, he said, after preliminary preparations had started, it became more and more apparent that an offensive against the Belgian coast could not be carried out with reasonable success in 1942.
The same question arose during Mr. Churchill’s visit to America in June, continued the President. They discussed whether to launch a very large-scale offensive in the middle of 1943, or to start a smaller-scale offensive this year. By the end of June there was general agreement on the African offensive. By late July certain fundamental details, such as the number of men necessary and the points of attack, had been determined.
PETAIN PROTESTS AGAINST OCCUPATION
German troops, without warning, began moving into Unoccupied France yesterday morning as “a measure to protect the French Fleet and to forestall a possible Allied attack on Corsica and the south of France,” Hitler declared.
Vichy and Lyon were occupied. Troops have reached Pan, north of the Spanish border, in the Pyrenees foothills. Other forces are rushing across France to seize key-points, including Marseilles. Italian troops have joined in the occupation.
London believes the occupation may be a prelude to the long-expected German invasion of Spain and Portugal.
Marshal Petain protested to General von Runstedt, military commander of Occupied France that “All the German decisions are incompatible with the Armistice terms.”
DE GAULLE’S BROADCAST APPEAL TO FRENCHMEN
General de Gaulle made a broadcast appeal yesterday afternoon to all French soldiers and sailors to join the Fighting French forces. French sailors were urged to take their vessels to Gibraltar or Algiers, and to scuttle them if escape was impossible.
AXIS AIR TROOPS LAND IN TUNISIA
Some German troop-carrying transports, escorted by fighter planes, landed in Tunisia during darkness yesterday, according to a late London message. The exact location was not stated, nor the extent of any possible French opposition.
Several Italian infantry divisions landed at the Tunisian port of Bizerta from Sicily and Sardinia. Other divisions were reported to be moving into the country from Libya.
According to a German report yesterday, the Bey of Tunis has agreed to the passage of American troops through Tunisia.
(GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE. – Tunisia is strategically placed between Libya and Morocco. It dominates, with Sicily, the “bend” in the Mediterranean, and overlooks the island of Pantelleria, Italian air base.)
What Do We Do Now?
Hitler and Mussolini, and possibly Laval, were believed to have met either in Rome or Berlin yesterday to discuss the present situation in North Africa, and the strengthening of Italy’s coastal defences against a possible Allied invasion.
DARLAN PRO-ALLIES?
Admiral Darlan, who is both prisoner and guest of the American commander in Algiers, was abused all day by the German radio yesterday.
Suspicions were cast on his reason for leaving France, and the speakers definitely stated that the Admiral is likely to join the Allies.
Organise Armed Forces
The radio declared that the Vichy Vice-Premier went to North Africa with the intention of organising the armed forces in support of the Allies.
INDO-CHINA DEMONSTRATIONS
Anti-French demonstrations broke out in French Indo-China yesterday as a result of the situation in north Africa.
The Vichy Governor General has ordered all French officials to remain at their posts, and issued a decree forbidding anyone to listen to Allied broadcasts under severe penalties.
ARMISTICE DAY
[black and white photograph of headshot of King George VI]
The King laid a wreath at the Cenotaph yesterday. He was accompanied by the Queen.
There was no official ceremony at 11 a.m.
FRENCH DEFY BAN
Defying a Vichy ban on demonstrations, Armistice Day Silence was observed throughout France, in churches, factories and shops, at noon.
AXIS DRIVEN FROM SIDI BARANI
British forces drove the enemy from Sidi Barani and engaged rearguards at Buq Buq, about 30 miles from the frontier, stated yesterday’s Middle East communique.
The huge task of collecting prisoners and equipment continued.
ROMMEL QUITTING RUMOUR
Reports are circulating in Madrid that Rommel has sent urgent messages to Hitler asking for sufficient ships to evacuate the remains of his battered forces as quickly as possible.
FIGHTING IN NEW GUINEA NEARS DECISIVE STAGE
Fighting in New Guinea is nearing a decisive stage, states a message from General MacArthur’s headquarters.
American troops, which were recently flown from Australia, are closing in on the Japanese, who have suffered heavy losses around Buna.
The message states that the enemy have been almost cleared out of Papua.
Remarkable “Bag” by British Submarine
The British submarine Proteus, operating in the central Mediterranean, sank five enemy supply ships and a troopship of 8,000 tons, and torpedoed a second troopship, besides a tanker, an escort vessel and another medium-sized supply ship.
Later, the submarine sank a large enemy supply ship and seriously damaged another.
QUIETER AT STALINGRAD
In the Stalingrad factory area, fighting has slackened, enabling the Russians to consolidate positions.
In one counter-attack, Soviet troops won some positions and occupied three block houses.
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
Elizabethan News
Description
An account of the resource
A newspaper issued on board the RMS Queen Elizabeth. On an envelope is handwritten 'Elizabethan News Nov 11/12 1942 Issued daily on RMS Queen Elizabeth 1942'. There is a coloured drawing of the ship and two pages of news.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
RMS Queen Elizabeth
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-11-11
1942-11-12
Format
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Two newspaper sheets, an envelope and a coloured drawing
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
MAllenJH179996-160512-010001,
MAllenJH179996-160512-010002,
MAllenJH179996-160512-010003,
MAllenJH179996-160512-010004
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
British Army
Royal Navy
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Tunisia
France
North Africa
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-11
Contributor
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Tricia Marshall
arts and crafts
bombing
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1209/43003/NWyldeHJ220721-01.2.jpg
be0162a79c9289684dc9388347c18e8f
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
Wylde, Herbert James
H J Wylde
Description
An account of the resource
49 items. An oral history interview with Flight Lieutenant Herbert James Wylde (1922 - 2021, Royal Air Force) his log books, maps, documents and photographs. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 90 Squadron.
The collection was 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
2016-12-18
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Wylde, HJ
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
Elizabethan News
Description
An account of the resource
A newspaper published on the troopship enroute to North America.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-11-12
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Morocco
Morocco--Casablanca
Tunisia
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
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One printed sheet
Identifier
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NWyldeHJ220721-01
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-11-12
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Mussolini, Benito (1883-1945)
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1339/20886/SValentineJRM1251404v10026.1.jpg
9ea8482739ac71ddedbb73ca52aecfa6
Dublin Core
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Title
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Valentine, John. Ursula Valentine's newspaper cutting scrapbook
Description
An account of the resource
131 items contained in a scrapbook. Mainly newspaper cuttings of events from May 1942 to 1945.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12 1942
GERMAN TROOPS OCCUPY VICHY FRANCE
ARMISTICE AGREEMENT AT AN END
HITLER’S MESSAGE TO PÉTAIN
“DEFENCE AGAINST IMMINENT ALLIED ATTACK”
German forces yesterday entered Unoccupied France. In a message to Marshal Pétain, Hitler asserted that they were doing so for the purpose of defending southern France and Corsica against an imminent allied attack. The Marshal immediately protested against this violation of the armistice terms.
Crossing the demarcation line early in the morning, German troops occupied Lyons, Limoges, Agen, Pau, and Vichy itself.
Laval, who was absent in Germany when the German forces moved, later returned to Vichy and conferred with the Marshal. Our Diplomatic Correspondent points out that Hitler’s message indicated that Laval had acquiesced in a military arrangement with the Germans.
CAPITULATION OF ALGERIA AND MOROCCO
16 AXIS AIRCRAFT DESTROYED
ENEMY FIGHTERS AND BOMBERS LANDED IN TUNISIA
French forces in Algeria and Morocco capitulated yesterday morning and the first phase of the North African campaign has ended. American and British forces have occupied Bougie, 110 miles east of Algiers. Axis fighters and bombers have arrived in Tunisia.
THE VICTORY IN EGYPT
MR CHURCHILL’S SURVEY
AXIS LOSSES 59,000; OUR 13,600
CHURCH BELLS TO BREAK SILENCE
GRATITUDE FOR MERCIES
The following statement has been issued from 10, Downing Street:-
It is thought right that the church bells should be rung throughout the land next Sunday morning in celebration of the success granted to the forces of the Empire and our allies in the Battle of Egypt, and as a call to thanksgiving and to renewed prayer. Although the future of war is always full of hazards and uncertainties, nevertheless there are occasions when thanksgiving for mercies received may be offered in all humility.
After consultation with the leaders of the Churches, the Government ask that all clergy and ministers will, so far as possible, arrange for the bells in their churches to be rung before the mid-morning service next Sunday morning, November 15.
The Government ban imposed in June, 1940, on the ringing of church bells, except as a warning of enemy attack, is waived for this purpose to cover any period between the hours of 9 a.m. and noon next Sunday.
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
Four articles: German troops occupy Vichy France, Capitulation of Algeria and Morocco, the victory in Egypt, church bells to break silence
Description
An account of the resource
Article 1. Headlines: German troops occupy Vichy France, armistice agreement at end, Hitler's message to Pétain, defence against imminent allied attack. German forces enter unoccupied France to defend against allied attack. Article2. Headlines; capitulation of Algeria and Morocco, 16 axis aircraft destroyed, enemy fighters and bombers landed in Tunisia. Article 3. Headlines: the victory in Egypt, Mr Churchill's survey, axis losses 59000 ours 13600. Article 4. Headlines: Church bells to break silence, gratitude for mercies. Announces church bells would ring following Sunday to celebrate victory in Egypt.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-11-12
Format
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Four newspaper cuttings mounted on a scrapbook page
Language
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eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
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SValentineJRM1251404v10026
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Wehrmacht
British Army
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Morocco
Algeria
Egypt
Tunisia
Great Britain
North Africa
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-11
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
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David Bloomfield
Claire Monk
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Workflow A completed
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1339/22019/SValentineJRM1251404v10069.2.jpg
e7b2a1e12fe31420aa5565bed03e7142
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
Valentine, John. Ursula Valentine's newspaper cutting scrapbook
Description
An account of the resource
131 items contained in a scrapbook. Mainly newspaper cuttings of events from May 1942 to 1945.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
THE TIMES THURSDAY MAY 13 1943
FINAL AXIS COLLAPSE IN TUNISIA
ALL ORGANIZED RESISTANCE AT AN END
MOUNTING TOTAL OF PRISONERS NOW 150,000
VON ARNIM CAPTURED
A GREAT VICTORY ACCLAIMED
THE KING’S CONGRATULATIONS TO GENERAL EISENHOWER
MARSHAL STALIN’S TRIBUTE
The victory in Tunisia has been widely acclaimed. The King has sent a message of congratulation to General Eisenhower. Mr. Churchill has received messages from Marshal Stalin and General Smuts.
ALLIED CONFERENCES IN AMERICA
PRIME MINISTER AND PRESIDENT
FIELD-MARSHAL WAVELL IN BRITISH PARTY
Mr. Churchill, who, as announced in later editions of “The Times” yesterday, has arrived in the United States for conferences with President Roosevelt, is accompanied not only by the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the First Sea Lord, and the Chief of the Air Staff, but by Field-Marshal Sir Archibald Wavell and the Commanders of the other fighting services in the Indian theatre.
THE AFRICAN VICTORY
PRISONERS EXCEED 200,000
FORCES THANKED BY PARLIAMENT
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, NORTH AFRICA, May 18. – General Eisenhower, allied commander-in-chief in North Africa, announced to-night that the total count of prisoners taken in Tunisia now exceeds 200,000. – [italics] Reuter. [/italics]
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
Four cuttings: final axis collapse in Tunisia, great victory acclaimed, allied conferences in America, the African victory
Description
An account of the resource
Cutting 1. Headlines: final axis collapse in Tunisia, all organised resistance at an end, mounting total of prisoners now 150,000, von Arnim captured. Cutting 2. Headlines: a great victory acclaimed, the King's congratulations to General Eisenhower, Marshall Stalin's tribute. Cuttuing 3. Headlines: allied conferences in America, prime minister and president, Field-Marshall Wavell in British party. Cutting 4. Headlines: the African victory, prisoners exceed 200,000, forces thanked by parliament.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
The Times
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-13
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four newspaper cuttings mounted on an album page
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
SValentineJRM1251404v10069
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
British Army
Wehrmacht
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Tunisia
United States
North Africa
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05
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.
Contributor
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David Bloomfield
Steve Baldwin
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Workflow A completed
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1890 - 1969)
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
-
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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
Hayhurst, Jose Margaret
J M Hayhurst
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-25
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
Hayhurst, JM
Description
An account of the resource
108 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Jose Margaret Hayhurst (2073102 Royal Air Force) and contains decorations, uniform, documents and photographs. She served as a radar operator in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Andrew Whitehouse and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
German War Over
Description
An account of the resource
A newspaper with details of the end of the war with Germany.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-05-07
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Manchester
England--Croydon
Switzerland
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Portugal--Lisbon
England--Henley-on-Thames
Germany--Kiel
France--Dunkerque
Austria--Vienna
Tunisia
France--Paris
France
North Africa
Germany
Austria
Portugal
England--Oxfordshire
England--Lancashire
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
NHayhurstJM170725-020001, NHayhurstJM170725-020002, NHayhurstJM170725-020003, NHayhurstJM170725-020004, NHayhurstJM170725-020005
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.
1945-05-07
Bismarck
bombing
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
sport
Stalin, Joseph (1878-1953)
-
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/2330/43393/LClarkHA532059v2.1.pdf
5b3fb05ff0650d27a3ac2e68c5cf300c
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
Clark, Herbert Ashton
Description
An account of the resource
Two items. The collection concerns Wing Commander Herbert Ashton Clark (b. 1911, 532059, 43414 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books. He flew operations as a pilot with 37 Squadron from the UK and North Africa.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Wayne Clark and catalogued by Nick Cornwell-Smith.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2021-12-02
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
Clark, HA
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/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LClarkHA532059v2
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Title
A name given to the resource
Herbert Ashton Clark's pilots flying log book. Two
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
Description
An account of the resource
Pilot’s flying log book for Flight Sergeant Herbert Ashton Clark from 8 March 1937 to 20 August 1956. Detailing operational posting in Iraq with 70 Squadron. On return to England further training with 215 Squadron. Conversion to the Wellington at 11 OTU followed by posting to 37 Squadron in August 1940. Posted to the Middle East in November 1940. Promoted to Squadron Leader and then Wing Commander during this posting. Awarded DSO and DFC.
Stationed at RAF Hinaidi, RAF Driffield, RAF Manston, RAF Honington, RAF Bramcote, RAF Bassingbourn, RAF Feltwell, RAF Shallufa. Returned to England post-war staying in the RAF. Aircraft flown were Valentia, Harrow, Wellington, Magister, Lysander, Maryland, Fiat CR42, B26, Harvard, Auster, Proctor, Anson, and Prentice.
He flew 1 propaganda leaflet drop with 11 OTU, 1 day and 21 night operations with 37 Squadron in Europe. Targets were St Omer, Eindhoven, Soest, Osnabruck, Frankfurt, Stockum, Bottrop, Hannover, the Black Forest, Gelsenkirchen, Hamm, Flushing, Bitterfeld, Rotterdam, Mannheim, Leipzig, Kiel, Hamburg, Berlin.
12 day and 18 night operations with 37 Squadron and 257 Wing in the Middle East. Targets were Benina, El Adem, Derna, Berca, Bardia, Tobruk, Benghazi, Rhodes, Brindisi, Halfaya, Marble Arch landing ground, Heraklion, Misurata, Homs, Palermo, Gabes, the Mareth Line, El Hamma, Kourba, Pantelleria, Villa San Giovanni, Vibo Valentia, Adrano, Cape Peloro. Posted to HQ RAF Middle East where carried out 28 day supply dropping operations.
Post war career included postings to Air Division Control Commission Germany, Flying Training Command, 41 Group, 22 Maintenance Unit and RAF Negombo, Sri Lanka.
Log book also contains Form 3921 – Aircrew Qualification Record, a 1949 calendar and Form 2745 Record of Service, Educational and Professional Qualifications.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-08-09
1940-08-10
1940-08-15
1940-08-16
1940-08-17
1940-08-18
1940-08-19
1940-08-20
1940-08-24
1940-08-25
1940-08-26
1940-08-27
1940-08-29
1940-08-30
1940-09-01
1940-09-02
1940-09-04
1940-09-05
1940-09-07
1940-09-08
1940-09-12
1940-09-13
1940-09-14
1940-09-15
1940-09-20
1940-09-21
1940-09-29
1940-09-30
1940-10-02
1940-10-03
1940-10-05
1940-10-08
1940-10-09
1940-10-10
1940-10-11
1940-10-14
1940-10-15
1940-10-16
1940-10-17
1940-10-21
1940-10-22
1940-10-23
1940-10-24
1940-10-25
1940-10-26
1940-12-08
1940-12-10
1940-12-11
1940-12-13
1940-12-14
1940-12-17
1940-12-18
1940-12-20
1940-12-21
1941-01-02
1941-01-05
1941-01-13
1941-01-14
1941-01-20
1941-01-22
1941-02-16
1942-11-07
1942-11-08
1942-11-25
1942-11-26
1942-12-02
1942-12-03
1942-12-22
1942-12-23
1943-01-08
1943-01-16
1943-01-17
1943-02-03
1943-02-04
1943-02-24
1943-02-25
1943-03-17
1943-03-19
1943-03-20
1943-03-25
1943-03-26
1943-04-13
1943-04-14
1943-06-10
1943-06-27
1943-06-28
1943-07-15
1943-07-16
1943-08-01
1943-08-08
1943-08-09
1944-02-29
1944-03-02
1944-03-25
1944-05-05
1944-05-15
1944-05-31
1944-06-01
1944-06-02
1944-06-09
1944-06-10
1944-06-16
1944-06-27
1944-07-03
1944-07-12
1944-07-25
1944-07-27
1944-08-03
1944-08-15
1944-08-17
1944-08-19
1944-08-22
1944-08-25
1944-08-29
1944-09-07
1944-09-12
1944-09-16
1944-10-13
1944-10-21
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
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 booklet
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Yorkshire
England--Kent
England--Norfolk
England--Suffolk
England--Warwickshire
France
France--Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais)
Germany
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Bitterfeld-Wolfen
Germany--Black Forest
Germany--Bottrop
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Hamm (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Soest
Greece
Greece--Ērakleion
Greece--Rhodes (Island)
Iraq
Italy
Italy--Adrano
Italy--Brindisi
Italy--Palermo
Italy--Pantelleria Island
Italy--Vibo Valentia
Italy--Villa San Giovanni
Libya
Libya--Al Adm
Libya--Banghāzī
Libya--Bardiyah
Libya--Darnah
Libya--Miṣrātah
Libya--Ra's Lanuf
Libya--Tobruk
Netherlands
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Netherlands--Vlissingen
Syria
Syria--Homs
Tunisia
Tunisia--Mareth Line
Tunisia--Qābis
North Africa
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Nick Cornwell-Smith
11 OTU
215 Squadron
37 Squadron
70 Squadron
9 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
B-26
bombing
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Service Order
Harrow
Harvard
Lysander
Magister
Operational Training Unit
pilot
Proctor
RAF Bassingbourn
RAF Bramcote
RAF Digby
RAF Driffield
RAF Feltwell
RAF Honington
RAF Leconfield
RAF Manston
RAF Shallufa
RAF Silloth
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/637/8907/PSeaggerA1612.1.jpg
e8d1c1c8d9913588e942d59defb32bda
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/637/8907/ASeaggerA160729.1.mp3
498806bf0218ec4587be49c6fe5b4a64
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
Seagger, Alan
A Seagger
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Seagger, A
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Alan Seagger (1920 - 2019, 1186497 Royal Air Force). He served as ground personnel with 33 and 41 Squadrons in Italy, North Africa and the Middle East.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Alan Seagger and catalogued by Barry Hunter. Additional identifications provided by Giusi Sartoris and the members of the 'Sei di foggia se' and 'Le grandi battaglie della storia' Facebook groups.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-07-25
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.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
HD: Helen Durham recording for the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive on Friday the 29th of July 2016 and the time is 10.15.
AS: Spot on.
HD: I’m here to interview Mr Alan Seagger from xxxx in Grimsby. Good morning.
AS: Good morning to you.
HD: Thank you so much for allowing us to come and interview.
AS: Yeah.
HD: First of all I’d like you just to tell me a little bit about what you did before the RAF.
AS: I was an apprentice in electrical. On, what shall we say? Really it would be not normal house wiring or anything like that? It was on heavy generators because everything or most things I should put in those days was DC direct debit — Direct Current as against what it is today which is a normal AC but yes I was apprenticed. I was getting a bit concerned what would happen to my apprenticeship when I left but fortunately it was covered alright and I was alright so. Then I got on draught to the place in — near Bedford where —
HD: This is when you joined the RAF.
AS: Yeah. That’s when I got my number and everything else and it was, it was quite a nice camp. Wasn’t there all that time. Got kitted out and all that sort of thing and then —
HD: And what year was this?
AS: ‘40. Probably. Yeah ’40. What are you shaking your head for?
HD: So you went to Bedford.
AS: Yeah
HD: And how long were you there for?
AS: Not very long but I couldn’t really tell you. Then we was told what they wanted us for which wasn’t in the electrical side of it. But still — I didn’t mind in the end because it was all, what shall we say, something that once I got used to it all I was quite happy. And then I went away on a course. I don’t know whether it was St Anne’s, St Athan’s or something like that. And then after that I was, I think I went home on a short leave and from the short leave I was posted to Binbrook. And —
HD: That was Binbrook in Lincolnshire.
AS: In Lincolnshire. Yeah. Which was a very strange posting at the time when I had to get out at a place called [pause] at a place called —? Was it Middle? What —?
HD: Right.
AS: Yeah. Something like that. What is it Beverley?
HD: Middle Rasen?
AS: What’s the two stops? There’s two. Little. Before you get to Lincoln.
BS: Middle Rasen. Market Rasen.
HD: Market Rasen. Yeah.
AS: Rasen.
HD: Yes. Right.
AS: And I had to get out there and I was very puzzled on how I got to the camp so the — I think he was probably the porter on the platform said, ‘Oh give them a ring. They’ll come and pick you up.’ And that was a journey from there to Binbrook. Why I couldn’t come all the way to Grimsby I don’t know. And I don’t think they knew it either at the time.
HD: No. And how long were you at Binbrook for?
AS: Oh [pause] Do you know I got posted abroad and that could be — what? The best part of a year I suppose? Might be a little bit longer. But in that time was a bit that I forgot to tell you about the other time. I was in a small party to go to [unclear] something like that. I’ve got it down here somewhere. [pause] Oh [unclear] anyway because there was two squadrons just arrived there and they’d got the same aircraft as I’d been on and we were to give them instruction on inspections and things like that. But the Poles, general notice they were Polish. Two squadrons. And I think off hand it was 300 and 301. I think that’s what it was. We were only there for a few days giving them general instruction. They were quite pleasant. Several of them spoke English and we came away back to camp and we carried on normal camp. I was there — there I should think about four days. Three or four days.
HD: Can you tell me a bit about your journey abroad? Where did you go?
AS: Where? What?
HD: About your journey abroad. Where? Where were you sent?
AS: Oh journey abroad. Yes. When we got posted abroad we had to go to Liverpool. And we got on a troop ship there called the Mooltan. Mooltan. Mooltan. And it was an Indian ship. Indian crew and everything. And we set off from Liverpool across the Atlantic towards America. Course we got in a big massive convoy. For protection for one thing. And then we travelled down the coast, the east coast of America until we were in line with that — and I still can’t remember the name but it was where this big disease was a little while ago. One of our nurses had to go —
HD: Sierra Leone? Sierra Leone.
AS: Yeah it was on the coast of Sierra Leone and we stayed there — I suppose a day. It might have been two days. Yeah. We came out of there, went down the coast of Africa, around the Cape until we got to Durban where we got off and we were camped on the racecourse there. We were there, oh, a couple of weeks probably and then we had instructions to go back to the docks —altogether like. And it was a lovely ship we saw there. We jokingly said to one another, ‘Cor it would be nice to go on that.’ And it was a Dutch liner that had just won the Blue Band of the Atlantic. And it was a gorgeous — it was a — the little I can say about it it was a ship inside a ship so you virtually — there was little or no getting seasick which I was all the way up the coast there to — that was the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea and into the Canal where we got off at the Canal end and we were on detail where we had to go. And we had to go to a camp called Shallufa which was in the Canal Zone. Course the Canal Zone was full of aerodromes when we got there but we went to Shallufa. I was at Shallufa a little while. Not long I don’t think. And that’s when, unfortunately when I got to Shallufa I should have been with 40 Squadron but I was taken out of that and put with 37 and I moved from Shallufa into Egypt itself which was [pause] I can’t think of the name of the camp at the moment. Anyway, that’s where I joined up with the new squadron and, and —
HD: What was it like being in Egypt at that time?
AS: Nothing but really if you like to look at it in that sense — troops. There was plenty of them. The Indian, New Zealand, Aussies, English. All of them. And then we moved out of, out of the camp to join, to join some of the squadron and —
HD: What was your job whilst you were there? What did you do?
AS: It was classed as Fitter 2 ‘cause I’d taken an extra exam when I was at Binbrook. At Lindholme ‘cause my money went up which was all we was interested in in those days and joined up with the rest of the squadron there. Or a lot of the squadron.
HD: So you were part of the ground crew.
AS: Oh yes. All the time.
HD: And how many members would be in your team?
AS: Oh. There’d be quite a number really because there’d be so many to an aircraft which would include, what should we, say — airframes, engines, [pause] instruments, and who else? You didn’t see many armourers because there was no need. Only on, when they were bombing up. Oh and then there was all the people who were filling the tanks up on, on petrol. Yeah. There was quite a few of those. And then as far as I know General Wavell had the dirty played on him in a sense. We thought it was the dirty but it probably was. They took a load of his soldiers away from him and put him to, over in to Greece and the islands there. And of course the Germans got to know and that opened them up and they pushed us all out virtually in a very very short time. But the man who was in charge in those days of course, he lost his command — Auchinleck. That’s right. General Auchinleck. He took over and he, he kept drawing the Germans on and on and on and pushing us all out of it ‘til it got to part of a village where was El Alamein in the end. But Jerry couldn’t get through it all that easy because it was high hills either side. So it suited him and he stopped them there and then and we all were — Abu Sueir — that’s the camp I was thinking of. I mean we went back to Abu Sueir getting ready to — whatever was to get ready because there was a lot of heavy bombing as well. Apart from the shelling there was bombing as well of the Germans and things like that. And [pause] I don’t know whether I told you about the trick that when Auchinleck lost his command then and after a lot of umming and ahhing one man who should have got the job got killed in an air crash and Monty took over then. And he kidded the Jerries by sending a load of the troops towards the south part of Egypt. Of course when they got to know about it they, they thought, right, this is the time to have a go here but they were waiting for them so after a lot of, and it was a lot of, what shall we say? A lot of gunfire and shells and things like that they broke through and starting pushing the Jerries back. And once they started there was no stopping them. The only place that I can think of off-hand where Jerry held the troops a bit was at a place called Tobruk because the Aussies were in there. They’d taken it over. Eventually they were got out anyway. And the move still pushed on and on and on. Got to Libya and from Libya they ran into what’s the next after that? Tunisia. And like we were following up as best we could and there was one part, when we got to Tunisia we were put in camp and it was an orchard but it was on a very high slope and it was apricots. That’s it. And we made pigs of ourselves probably with the fruit but still. Unfortunately, during the night there was a cloud burst which was something you never saw in the desert but it was pretty common in Tunisia and we got flooded out. Our equipment got washed away but still we overcome it in the end and packed up ready for the next move. And our next move was — oh it was near a church there. An old fashioned church and a lot of, where a lot of burials had taken place but still we moved on towards Tunis itself then. And, oh that’s when Jerry completely packed in virtually. I think Rommel cleared it off back and got as many troops out as they could. But we as I say we was there. Oh and we had a good thing come through for us all. Or we thought it was good at the time. Half the squadron would be given three days leave in Tunis. When we’d had our three days the other half could go which they did do. And then once we all got back together again they said, ‘Right. You’re on the move. You’re going to the port now.’ And I think the port was something like Bizerte. Something like that anyway. And we boarded this American troop carrier ship and we set off from there across the Mediterranean and we were going to [pause] first we were told we were going to Cyprus. Not Cyprus. What’s the island there at the base of Italy? Anyway, it got all diverted and we went around and in no doubt — like everybody else has heard about the lady’s foot and we went right the way around to to the port where we got off. I think I made a note of that one ‘cause I couldn’t remember it.
HD: Was it Sicily where you were?
AS: Bari.
HD: Bari.
AS: We landed at Bari or Bari or whatever they liked to call it. And that’s where we loaded. We landed. It was pitch dark. It was coldish and wet but still we’d landed and we knew we were in another country virtually then and —
HD: So were you moved around quite frequently?
AS: Yes. Yeah.
HD: How often did you stay at a place?
AS: You never really knew. Might be a couple or three days. Might not be. Anyway, from — from Bari or Bari whichever it was we headed to a place more towards the middle of the country called Foggia where we unloaded everything. Our aircraft caught up with us and things like that. Where we had to have new ones we got new ones and it was a little while after we’d been there so we were virtually [pause] there’s a proper word I think was we were seconded to the Americans. They didn’t actually give orders but they were in because they’d already landed on the west coast there. And then —
HD: Can we go back a bit and when you were in these various camps. What was it like living there?
AS: There was no real camps. There were no real camps. Once we’d left Egypt there were no real camps. You made your own camps and if you were fortunate, fortunate enough to find a place that had been used by Jerry for aircraft well your aircraft could use it but there weren’t so many ‘til we got to —more till we got to where all that trouble is just lately. There. Course there was a big aerodrome just outside.
HD: So what were the living conditions like?
AS: Well it was a bit tough. It was a bit tough but if you’d got yourself equipped properly, put it that way and funnily enough the best part of your equipment then was your greatcoat because it was so cold at night and you’d pitch your tent on a bit of proper decent land and, and — of course you didn’t hang about a lot. I’ll say that. You’d get moved on and on. Libya. That’s what I was trying to think of and there was this big aerodrome just outside. We stayed quite near to that and from there as I would say we moved on towards Tunisia then and in Tunisia we was in this orchard or whatever you would like to call it until — and even we liked it a little bit because the [pause] if any aircraft had landed there at night instead of us having to guard it the mounted Arab people — they took over and they used to gallop all around the camp and make sure, make sure everything was alright.
HD: How did you get on with the people?
AS: Well you didn’t have many outsiders. They’d be your own, you’re own people mostly.
HD: You didn’t mix with the other cultures.
AS: Yeah. Yeah. You didn’t mix. Well, you didn’t, you didn’t really see many others. Like we saw these mounted Arabs but they did a good job. They saved us a lot of work. But then we moved off right into Tunis. That’s where we got the time. And then Winston Churchill came out there and he had, of course there would be a big parade as you can imagine. And he was supposed to have said, I didn’t hear him say it, but he was supposed to have said, ‘I’m going to take the air force back to England.’ But we didn’t go. So we started, once we got into Italy, the bombing started and things like that. We took —
HD: So what year was this?
AS: El Alamein was 1942. It could have been the end of — or part of 1943 and part of ‘44 probably. And we had, as I say, taken over or were at the point of taking over to liberate although we were still operating with the Wimpies, the Blenheim and things like that and it was from there I was going to tell you a little bit. It’s a bit more juicier than any other part. We’d gone up into the mountains ‘cause one of our aircraft had crashed up there and when we eventually found it because it wasn’t easy trying to find exactly where they were and when we did find it it wasn’t a sight to see. No. And some of the crew had come out of the aircraft and they were laying there nude because they’d all been robbed of their clothes and things like that and there wasn’t a lot we could do about it. We did, where possible, if I remember rightly, we took their discs off ‘cause you know you have your discs and I think we had to hand them over to the police people. Anyway, we were glad to get away from that because we, we’d had to dig our truck out a few times because of the rain and mud. Anyway, coming back off that in the hope we’d be going back to the squadron in Foggia but that got stopped. We were met at this village and — by the Redcaps. The army Redcaps. They said, ‘Sorry. Off the road.’ So we got off the road. Unfortunately, where they stood it was like a bit of a space before you saw any houses and that so we were lucky to drop into that space and the reason why we had to do that and they hadn’t started then but we heard them coming along. There was the fourth Indian div were changing sides. They were moving from the west side, that’s right, to the east side. That’s right. And that took the best part of four days because you had your tanks going through. Your armoured vehicles and guns going through. ‘Course they weren’t hard up together. There was a slight gap all the way through. And I was an NCO then and the — it appears that the village doctor said I’ll, and he must have said this to the sergeant or flight sergeant who was in charge, ‘Two of you come to dinner on Saturday.’ Or Friday. Whichever it was. Which we did — we didn’t — and it was a strange way of eating at home I’ve ever noticed. You don’t get everything put in to dishes on the table. You started, what did we start with? I think we started off with a poached egg. Then started off with some meat or sausage and that’s why everything gets put on separately. Anyway, there was a glass of wine so we didn’t mind and we stayed there with them a couple or three hours before we came out and made sure everybody else was alright. They — that had been our biggest worry when we had got pushed off the side. They were getting food rations for us all. But —
HD: What was the food like whilst you were travelling around?
AS: Well, mostly it started off with — I’ll tell you its proper name — corned beef. We used to call it desert chicken. And from there you’d probably get a tin of vegetables which was [McConicky’s?] [McConicky’s?]. That’s it. And then you’d get something else that was — for making a cup of tea. You’d get the tea and then you’d get some powdered milk in it and if you took it then you could perhaps get a bit of sugar but not very much. There was never much sugar. And you made your own tea all the time when we moved up in the desert part. We made — you made your own tea. And of course petrol being in abundance you was alright to — perhaps this is not right to say but I don’t know, I’ll tell you anyway. We used to get some petrol and you always saved a can. Empty can. And you’d put whatever you were making tea in that and set fire to the petrol and in no time because it didn’t take long to boil you made yourself a cup of tea. And that’s how that went on and it even went on when I was in Italy. We used to do that sort of thing. If we, if we’d got the rations for a cup of tea. Anyway, we got back. After they’d, it was a good four days to the Indian Div going through and all waving and things like that. They waved to us and we returned it and then we moved on back to Foggia where we had to report as best we could to everything that we knew. There wasn’t a lot to report. But the crews. Although they were all dead. There was nobody alive and the plane was virtually a write-off. The — that was the responsibility of the police. What they called the gendarmes. Something like that. And they had to see to all that. Picking them up. Taking them away. But, as I say, it was a sight.
HD: How did you feel whilst you were moving?
AS: I wouldn’t want to see it again. Anyway, we, we got away in the end and got back to camp. That’s how things were then. The Germans in Italy packed in before those in Europe. It was only a matter of probably a week if it was a week. But in that time I was notified that as I’d been abroad quite a while I was to go back to England. It wasn’t, it wasn’t a fortnight’s leave. It might have been nine days or ten days leave. Which I did do. I had to travel up there through Switzerland. Simplon Tyrol it was called and but when we got to the station we weren’t allowed to even put a foot on to the platform. We had to stay on the train as best we were.
HD: This was in Switzerland.
AS: There was crowds there to see us. We moved on from there up through the rest of France and I think I came from Dieppe actually. I think I did. Dieppe to Folkestone I was on and the rations were very poor on the train travelling and so was the trains. They were hard seats and everything else. And then I got my leave and came into England and I was fortunate to see my parents again.
HD: So what was the time difference from when you went into the air force and then you got a break? You were able to come home? Was it a few years that you hadn’t seen your parents?
AS: I got, I got — we used to get weekend leaves from Binbrook. And, oh yes we also used got seven days leave from there. At times. Not very often. But at times. But —
HD: So when you were abroad how many years was it until you saw your parents again?
AS: Four years. Yeah. And then when my leave was up I had to make my way all the way back to where I started from. I think it was Foggia again. To meet up with my squadron. That’s when the rest of the lads said, ‘Oh don’t bother to unpack. We’re on our way back to Egypt.’ And we went all the way back. First of all I went back to Shallufa again. When I got to Shallufa I saw my first Lancaster bomber. It hadn’t got any ‘drome, aerodrome squadron letters on it or anything. It was brand new. Where it had come from I wouldn’t know. And after we’d been there the first couple of days they said, ‘Would you do an inspection on that Lanc that’s there?’ Well we were working blind to a sense but we got through. We knew near enough what we had to do. Then we left that and I went all the way back to Shallufa in Egypt again.
HD: What did you think of the Lancaster bomber?
AS: Oh it looked fantastic to me. It was, it was, as I say there was, there was no painting on it for what squadron it was going to or anything. We didn’t know anything about that. But it looked fantastic. Probably a better word for us — fantastic. And anyway, we did an inspection. Signed for it because you had — in the air force you signed for everything like that. One was for a daily inspection and you’d get a weekly one and then it would get bigger and bigger and bigger when it got to umpteen hours the aircraft had done it got sent to a repair and salvage squadron which was part of your unit and of course they would virtually strip it right down. And from then on after I’d got back there had another good word — ‘You’re on your way home.’ So what we had to do again —
HD: So did you make good friends in the RAF?
AS: Oh you always do. You probably don’t make a lot of [pause] people that you would call friends but you would call them people that you knew that, well, you know, you’d get chatting to and things like that. The only friend I made in the air force was when I was at Binbrook and I remember him coming there and we got talking and he said, ‘What are you doing tonight?’ I said, ‘I’ve got enough money. I’ll go into Grimsby.’ He said, ‘Oh can I come?’ I said, ‘Yeah. If you like.’ I said, ‘We’ll catch a bus here and that’ll take us to the old bus station in Grimsby which is by the level crossing. It’s not. I think they use if for coaches now. I’m not sure. And from there we went in the Pestle and Mortar and had a pint. Perhaps we might have had two. And that’s how things were. Then we got back to camp and then it became regular that if neither of us was on duty we’d come into Grimsby. And we used to go to the old, the old dance hall there. And of course you could only get a cup of tea in there. There was no spirits or drinks. You might get a, you might get a sandwich if you was lucky but — and that’s where Owen first met Beverley’s mother.
HD: So the gentleman’s name was Owen Clark. His name. Was it?
AS: Yeah. Yeah.
HD: Yes.
AS: And as I say all the time until I was on demob we came out together. Well even when he got posted when I was in Italy I met him. We was in, in the camp and he, our SP called me out the tent, He said, ‘Somebody wants to see you.’ And it was Owen and his whole crew. All on Wimps they were. One, two, three, four, five. About five of them and he was on his way to 40 Squadron then. Oh I got him his breakfast. That’s it. And he said, ‘Well keep in touch.’ Send a message to one another whenever we can which wasn’t always easy. Not in those days because 40 Squadron was a hell of a distance away from where I was at Foggia. But that’s how things got going.
HD: But you always kept in touch after the war.
AS: We kept in touch. And then after. Well he did afterwards because I was out probably long before him and we always sent one another Christmas cards. If we didn’t send anything else we sent Christmas cards ‘cause the next I heard he’d, he’d got married to Eva. And [pause] and the next bit of bad news I got was when he passed away.
HD: What year was that?
AS: Beverley could tell you. Something six. Six at the end. What was that?
BS: ’66. ’66. 1966. [unclear]
AS: And that’s when I had, I think it — I got a feeling it was Nancy that sent me the letter anyway that said that he’d passed away and I said, oh yeah, I said to Nancy what was Eva’s phone number? And she told me and I wrote it down and I phoned her up. I said, ‘I’ll come as soon as I can for a weekend but I don’t know how soon the soon can be.’ So, I eventually got out pretty quick anyway and I travelled up and they were both here when I came in. Nancy was the older sister and they were like blood brothers if you like. Put it that way. Where one was the other one was. And ‘cause in those days you couldn’t leave your car outside. You had to lights on it at night but the lady who lived in the end bungalow said to her, ‘Oh tell him to put it on our bit of land.’ So I didn’t have to put lights on it and that’s how things went on. I stayed till, I stayed till the Monday and I had to get back then and I said, ‘I’ll been in touch.’ And I used to phone her every night or she phoned me every night.
HD: Where were you living at the time?
AS: I was living in Worcester Park which is a suburb. Well it’s in Surrey and in those days it used to be called something in the London area. And I had a few weekends up and even even took Eva or even my parents came up a few times as well because to me in those days Grimsby was a smashing place. There was no hustle and bustle of traffic like there was in London and there was no what shall we say? Rowdyism as there is now unfortunately. And I came up and after a few weekends Eva and I decided to get married. And she — and I always remember she came down to, we stayed down in London for a while and she suddenly stopped. We were in Oxford Street then. She said, ‘I’ve made my mind up.’ I said, ‘What?’ She said, ‘If you want me you’re going to have to come and live with me.’ And —
HD: So where did you first meet Eva?
AS: Pardon?
HD: Where did you first meet Eva?
AS: In Grimsby. There was Owen and I. He knew her before I did.
HD: And she was in the RAF as well?
AS: No. No. No. I think she was a busy girl working somewhere. I think she even worked in the jam factory. What was — no.
BS: She was in the laundry.
AS: Oh. But before that.
BS: No. She was in the laundry when you met her.
AS: Oh when I met her. Oh yeah. And that’s from there life began and we got married and —
HD: So is there — whilst you were in the RAF is there one experience that really stands out for you?
AS: Yeah. I suppose there was one thing could have stood out for me was they put the Wellingtons on bombing of Berlin which — it was a pushed job really. We had to fit false wings, well not wings, petrol tanks on them to take up the extra mileage they were doing but even then they never really got back. Fortunately they could land in Suffolk or somewhere like that. And we were bombing then. Oh and then there was a right panic but we never knew about the full story. Never did know. They were saying, ‘Right. We are going to bring canisters out of poison gas because Jerries’ using poison gas,’ but what they got out they put back in stock again here. They never used it. Never loaded it up. But it was, that was one of the panics that were on. Then there was another panic that was supposed to have happened because [pause] Owen and I were in the pub in the village and it came on the tannoy system, ‘Return to camp immediately everybody.’ There was quite a raid going on on Binbrook camp and it was said afterwards, I don’t know whether it was true or not because I didn’t see it but they said that one of the German aircraft landed and took off from Binbrook. ‘Cause there was no real runway at Binbrook then. It was all open fields on top of the hills there and they said one landed and took off again. Whether it was a leg pull on there but I think there could have been some truth in it.
HD: So going back to when you were in Egypt and travelling around Africa — when you had time off duty what did you do?
AS: Never had time off. You might have done if you was at base camp and you might say, ‘Oh let’s pop into Cairo for a couple of hours,’ or something like. But once you got on the move there was no — no leisure time as such. We had our own leisure to make do which you either played cards or, and things like that which was got through a bad hour or two. But normally all the good news come if you were at base. If you were at base they might say well nothing for you today like. Tonight. And you might say, ‘Oh well we’ll pop in. Into Cairo or anything like that.
HD: How did you feel when you were on these trips? How did you feel?
AS: Oh not bad because I got to know a nice little café in Cairo where we used to go and have our breakfast if we were early. And it, cor, the chap there used to pile us up and really looked, he didn’t mind. He’d say, ‘Oh if you’re hungry during the day come back. I’ll see what I’ve got,’ And things like that. He was a, he was a real gentleman actually. And that’s what he used to say, ‘Oh come back and have something to eat.’ But mostly if we went there, there was, on the corner of one of the main roads was — was like a restaurant really. You could go in even then and have a drink or whatever you wanted. And I always remember being in there one night, Owen and I, and some bigwigs — Egyptians — came in and sat quite near us actually but we didn’t know them or who they were. Though the boss did tell us that one of them was later to become one of the presidents but he was talking to us in the pub and well they even offered to buy us a drink. Which, we probably said yes. And that was it. But actually what his name was I didn’t really know but if that was him I remember him coming in and talking to us and things like that. ‘Cause —
HD: Were you ever frightened whilst you were working?
AS: Frightened? You might be a bit. Not necessarily frightened. You might be a bit edge on whether there was going to be a raid or not or anything like that. Yeah. Yeah. You’d be concerned. I wouldn’t say frightened because to be frightened — it’s a funny word I think when there’s other troops in the army. They would never use the word “frightened.” They would use the word that they [detained by?] and moving up or and we got to know quite a few army people when we were out there. As I say there was Aussies, New Zealanders, Indians, British. Moving out was quite something really. And I don’t know whether there was a photograph. Was there a photograph in there with Churchill talking? Well that was Tobruk. And we saw him coming from Tobruk. He came on to the squadron but he didn’t have anything to say. Montgomery used to ‘cause he was a [pause] nothing against him, he was a very religious type of person and if he wanted you for something if it was the whole squadron or if it was the army you had to shut your mouth ‘cause he’d say, ‘I’m doing the talking.’ And that’s how he carried on. We met him once or twice. He came in when he knew the squadron was moving on or — oh yeah. That was the sort of thing that went on but to say leisure time in the desert. No. Because if we, if we were fortunate enough to get near to the Mediterranean we could nip in and have a good splash around. Have a wash and have a swim because water was rationed. You had your water bottle that you had and the only blessing probably we had over the army lads that if we had an aircraft going back to base he’d come back with some water and probably a few bottles of wine and things like that where probably the army lads couldn’t get that sort of thing. And it was, it was in Italy that I did lose somebody that I got attached to I think. He was a wireless operator air gunner he was. Scotch lad. And he came up to me one day. He’d managed to have got hold of —whether he’d just been to base or not himself I don’t know but he’d got a bottle of wine and he said, ‘Al, will you come around my tent later on?’ which I did do. And he said, ‘It’s my twenty first today.’ So we drank this bottle up. And he said, ‘Well I’d better get ready ‘cause I’m on ops tonight.’ I said, ‘I might see you on take-off then because I shall be there.’ So he said, ‘Yeah.’ But unfortunately that was the last I saw of him. He went on to Romania that night. It was a big, big — oh a hell of a load of aircraft it was because that’s where Jerry was getting a lot of his petrol and stuff from and I think they bombed the hell out of it actually but unfortunately he must have been shot down or something like that. I don’t know but I never saw him anymore. All I know that his name was on that do at Runnymede but up to this day I can’t remember his name. There’s a lot of names I can’t remember but — and a lot of things I can’t remember.
HD: Well thank you so much for conducting this interview. It’s very kind of you.
AS: And I did like — he was a nice lad and I — things in general yeah I did like them.
HD: Good.
AS: I had some good times in the air force. I don’t know whether I told you I never regretted joining the air force. A lot of people did. They moaned from the day they got in until the day they got out but I didn’t mind it. You had to do what you had to do and you had to do what you was told to do but there you are. Yeah. Yeah. I met quite a few — what shall we say? Well known footballers, I think, when I was in the air force. There was Dodds. And there was several of the England team in those days that I got to know. Of course a lot of them joined up at virtually the same time as I did. They were all in the same queue as it were and we got chatting as you do.
HD: Well thank you Mr Seaggar. It’s been wonderful to hear your experiences.
AS: I hope it’s been some use to you.
HD: Most definitely. Thank you very much. So the interview finished at 11.20
AS: Right. Thank you. ‘Cause as I say, the air force, I’ve no grudges against them.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with Alan Seagger
Creator
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Helen Durham
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
2016-07-29
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ASeaggerA160729, PSeaggerA1612
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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01:04:35 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
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Egypt
Great Britain
Italy
Sierra Leone
Tunisia
North Africa
Egypt--Suez
England--Lincolnshire
Italy--Foggia
Italy--Bari
Egypt--Cairo
Description
An account of the resource
Before the war, Alan was an electrical apprentice. He joined the RAF and was posted to RAF Binbrook before being posted overseas. He was at RAF Shallufa for a time and was placed with No. 37 Squadron, who moved to Egypt. There were troops of different nationalities. After Libya, he moved to Tunisia, and he reports on a visit by Churchill to Tobruk. There were difficult conditions in the camps. He discusses the food rations and an unusual way of making tea. He also describes the very few occasions when they had free time, going into Cairo and swimming in the Mediterranean.
Alan refers to the failures and successes of the commanders during this period: General Wavell, General Auckinleck and Montgomery. Alan was classed as fitter, part of ground crew. Alan subsequently sailed to Bari in Italy and then on to Foggia. He talks of going to find an aircraft which had crashed in the mountains. He did not see his family for four years. He returned to Foggia and then went back to Egypt, initially to RAF Shallufa where he was impressed with his first Lancaster. Alan describes the inspections carried out. Alan recounts a couple of his wartime experiences and the sad loss of a 21 year old wireless operator/air gunner.
Contributor
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Sally Coulter
crash
fitter airframe
ground crew
Lancaster
military living conditions
military service conditions
RAF Binbrook
RAF Shallufa
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/188/3512/PWardC-M1609.2.jpg
f90d4fbaaa1556accc59969f06af006b
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/188/3512/AWardC-M160219.2.mp3
fd12fd656fedc1f1c9c5db125ddaf11e
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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Ward, Charles and Margaret
C W Ward
M Ward
Margaret Pratt
M Pratt
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. The collection consists of an oral history interview with cipher operator, Sergeant Charles William Ward (7015946, British Army) and wireless operator, Margaret Ward née Pratt (17546, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry). Both served in the Special Operation Executive in North Africa, Italy and Greece. The collection also contains a diary, British Army paperwork, and four photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Charles and Margaret Ward and was catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
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2016-05-18
Identifier
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Ward, C-M
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. 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.
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: My name is Chis Brockbank and its Friday the 19th of February 2016 and I’m in Aylesbury with Charles and Margaret Ward, both of whom were in the SOE, the organisation people weren’t supposed to know about but, er, was dealing with clandestine work not just in Europe but elsewhere. And I’m going to start talking with Charles with his earliest recollections and how he came to join the SOE and what he did. So Charles what’s the starter on that?
CW: I was born in Yorkshire in a mining village and, um, eventually went to school at, a grammar school, and eventually I — there was no, very much work around up there but eventually an uncle and aunt came to visit us, who lived in Dartford in Kent, and they said where he worked it was a printing firm in Dartford, and where he worked they needed an apprentice, and I was fifteen at the time and they said if I would like to I could come and live with them and be trained as a compositor. So, I jumped at the chance and so I moved down to Dartford in Kent and, er, was being trained as a compositor. When the war clouds were gathering around, er, the Government decided that twenty-year-olds would be called up and trained ready for war and I received papers to join the Royal Artillery on Salisbury Plains but before the due date to report I was — war was declared — and I was called up to the London Irish Rifles and had to report to a station in London and, um, reported there. From there, from there we then trained onto the London Underground and taken to Southfield Station in South West London, um, marched down the road to Barkers Sports Ground, next to Wimbledon Tennis courts, where we were to do all our square bashing and training. And this happened for several weeks, er, before we were fully trained and then from then on we were stationed in many parts in England, various places, and eventually the battalion was training new recruits to go and be transferred out to other units and, um, I got fed up with the repetition that this was giving us [slight laugh] and by that time the Bat— the Battle of Britain had started and they were running short of pilots so they said they’d like volunteers from the Army to join the Air Force, so I volunteered. I was taken down to London, interviewed and passed all the tests and they said, ‘We’ll train you as a pilot. Go back to your unit and then you’ll hear from us.’ Having got back to my unit the, um, we was — then a few weeks later I — they stopped all transfers to the Air Force. We were taken up to Scotland to join a special unit being formed of tanks and artillery. This was prior to being shipped out to North Africa. So we went out to North Africa and landed at Algiers. From there we moved forward up into Tunisia where we had over a year of fighting the Germans in North Africa. It was quite a horrendous time really. We lost quite a few of our people and I have been out since to visit the graves of three of my men that got killed out there. And then, stop, I don’t know where I’ve got to.
CB: So we’ve talked about Charles joining in 1940. Then he moved around a lot he said. What, what were you doing in that time specifically?
CW: We were doing guard duty on airfields and RAF records office and things like that. I distinctly remember my twenty-first birthday was on guard duty at the RAF offices in the snow [laugh] and, er, after that we were training up people being drafted in to us and then once they were trained they were drafted out to other units. And this was getting too boring so I volunteered for the RAF and got accepted and, having got accepted, they then decided that our unit would join a special unit being assembled in Scotland ready to go out to North Africa of tanks and artillery.
CB: So which year are we in now?
CW: That’s 1942.
CB: Right. Operation Torch.
CW: Yes.
CB: Right, OK. And where did you land?
CW: We landed in Algiers. It was a troop carrier just in, in the port in Algiers. We were then trained and taken up the coast to towards Tunisia where we were then taken into the mountains, er, as a defence ready for attacking the Germans.
CB: And were you at this stage on tanks or were you on anti-tank weapons or what were you doing, infantry?
CW: We didn’t see the tanks in, on that occasion apart from on the plain, the Gudlat [?] plain in front of us. You could see the tanks moving but we were stationary until we did an attack one day on hill 286 and, um, we had we had to move from our position in broad daylight to get into positon to start an attack the next morning at dawn and this was in full view of the enemy and I said to my people, ‘As soon as we get in the middle of this area we’re gonna — all hell will break loose. We shall be bombed.’ Which we were and the only casualty we had was our platoon commander got shrapnel in his back and we eventually dropped into a wadi, which I thought would be quite safe, and we moved down this wadi and — to get to the position where we would form up for the attack the next morning. And, er, moving down this wadi what I heard from nowhere, I don’t understand where it came from, which is probably my guardian angel, one word which said, ‘Run.’ So I shouted to my chaps, ‘Come on!’ Ran down the wadi, turned the bend and no sooner got round the bend then a shell fell right in the wadi, injured three of my people. I went back, patched them up as best I could and stayed with them until the stretcher bearers came, er, then continued on to do the attack the following morning. The following morning we did this attack, um, because we’d lost our platoon commander the, the other two platoons were in advance and we were in reserve and we went over the hill and nothing happened; over the second hill, nothing happened; over the third hill and all hell broke loose and they, they were just machine-gunned. We lost about seventy-five per cent of our personnel during that battle [sniff] and then we were formed up in, dropped into the wadi again, for protection, stayed there overnight but at dawn the next morning there was a counter attack, so we just had to get out of it and, er, we all retreated and after that battle we were rested, er, and [sniff] can you stop a minute? [background noise]
CB: Right, we’re just getting a bit more detail on this [clears throat].
CW: When the attack went in and the two platoons in front were machine-gunned, um, the rest of us were left in a large depression in the ground being shelled and I suddenly discovered with us was a, a Royal Artillery observation officer with a wireless set and he, he ordered me to the top of the hill to find out where the gun was firing from. So, off I went to the top of the hill, saw that it was coming from a farmhouse down on the plain, got back to where our positon was and found out a shell had dropped exactly where I had been lying.
CB: Wow.
CW: So, um, that was —
MW: Smokescreen.
CW: Yeah. He then ordered a smokescreen and we were then able to get back to the wadi and then —
CB: He got his guns to fire a smokescreen?
CW: Yeah. He radioed back and got the guns to put a smokescreen down so that we could get out. So, off we went and back to this wadi and from the wadi we had the counter-attack. So we had to retreat and reform up eventually with only twenty-five per cent of the battalion.
CB: Amazing. OK. So then you rested a bit, then what?
CW: We, we were rested and re-enforced and we did an exercise, which was a ten mile march and, er, did a mock attack of house clearing, during which I banged a knee, which had been damaged in football previously, which began to swell and we did a ten mile walk, marched back and half way back I was limping with this knee problem. The CO drew up in a truck beside me and said, ‘What’s your trouble?’ [slight laugh] And I said, ‘I just banged it and, you know, it’s swollen up.’ He said, ‘On the truck. Report sick when you get back.’ Which I did and, er, we had hot and cold compresses and [unclear] on it, which had no effect whatsoever and eventually they said, ‘Well, you’re no good to be infantry. We’ll have to down-grade you.’ So, from being A1 I was downgraded to B1, sent back to a transit camp at Philippeville. There with — I couldn’t walk about because it was painful, I had nothing to read and it was so boring [slight laugh] I was just going mad. I then was transferred to another transit camp at Algiers, just outside Algiers, and same thing, nothing happening, nobody took any notice of us. We just stagnated there until one day on the notice board there came a notice to say that an education unit would be arriving and anybody could volunteer and they would try and find you something to do. So, I was top of the list and they came. Education test in the morning: English, maths, geometry [?], starting from the simplest and going up as far as you can, even Pythagoras and beyond if you could. And whilst they marked the papers in the afternoon they would give us a mechanical aptitude test. They threw you a locking piece and said, ‘Put that together and then you’re going for an interview.’ And, um, the officer said to me, ‘What would you like to do?’ And I said, ‘I’d heard they were starting an Army newspaper in Algiers and I was a compositor. I would go on the army newspaper.’ And he just laughed and said, ‘I don’t think there’s not much chance of that. What else would you like to do?’ So I said, ‘I don’t care as long as I do something. I’m going mad just doing nothing.’ He said, ‘I think you’d make a good cipher operator’. I said, ‘Suits me.’ [slight laugh] A week later I’m called into the office and given a move— moving order. There were six of us on this moving order and I walked outside, quickly looked to see where we were going to — no destination. So I shot into the office and said, ‘There’s no destination on here.’ ‘You’re being picked up,’ he said. So, the driver came and I said, ‘Where are we going?’ And he said, ‘I’m not allowed to tell you.’ [laugh] So, I wondered what I’d landed myself in for. Off we went in the truck and the other side of Algiers it was a, a large holiday home complex built on the sands, villas all on the sands, being surrounded by barbed wire, guards on the gate, and in we went. Going inside there was Army, Navy, Air Force, civilians, and everybody including girls [augh] and this was a radio station which was — belonged to SOE, working to the agents in France and Italy and Yugoslavia. There I was trained as a cipher operator and worked there for quite — a year, worked there for a year. During that time the sergeants’ mess decided that for entertainment we would do dinner dances about every fortnight and invite the FANY girls who were on the camp. They were radio operators and secretaries and, um, there we had these dinner dances. I teamed up with a Margaret, a different Margaret, I teamed up with a Margaret as a dancing partner until such time she went on leave and then I teamed up with Margaret, who’s now my wife, and we had a year working together on the same camp until such time I got a moving order to say I had to go to Yugoslavia. We exchanged addresses and said, ‘If you’re my way pop in, you know, it would be good to see you.’ And, er, off I went to the airport. We had to fly to Bari, then down to Taranto and then get the boat over to Yugoslavia. Having got to the airport there was the most violent thunderstorm. The plane couldn’t take off so a twenty-four-hour delay. Took off the next night. Halfway across the Med, er, one of the twin engine, one of the engines of this twin engine Dakota, started misfiring so the pilot said, ‘We’ll never make it over the mountains to Bari. We’ll have to land Naples.’ So, down we went to Naples, another delay. Eventually we got to Bari, walked into the office in Bari and they said, ‘Oh, sorry. We’ve sent people from here to Yugoslavia. You’ll have to take their place here.’ So, er, settled in at Bari. So, a month later I’m de-ciphering a message which said the following FANYs will be joining your unit so I quickly looked down and fou— found Margaret Pratt was on the list. And I quickly made contact with Margaret and we had another year together in Torre al Mare, just below Bari, in Italy. There we got engaged. Can you stop there?
CB: So, we’ve talked about you being in Algiers and then going to Bari in Italy. At this time you’re a trained cipher operator but what exactly did a cipher operator do?
CW: He made plain language into codes which could be transmitted by wireless and we started off with the agent had, um, a book, a book and we had to copy exactly the same and they, um, used pages and lines and the number of words in the line on squared paper. And then the A in the line was numbered 1 and second A, 2 and all through the alphabet. So we had numbers on top of the lines and then you read down and wrote across for a second identical one. So it’s a double transposition and, um, this was then transmitted by wireless and the agent could reverse the process the other end to get the plain language out but it had to be exactly right because if they made a mistake or if you made a mistake it was indecipherable. So, we had a number of indec— indecipherables obviously and when we weren’t busy with doing traffic at the time we had to work on the indecipherables to see — and we got to know that some agents did certain things so we could remember and do exactly the same to get them back to plain language. And then eventually we moved on to one-time pads which were figures, er, which were just ad-lib figures, you know, nothing about them. So, you had a one-time pad and the agent had a one-time pad and they had theirs on silk, printed on silk, which was easily got rid of if, er, if they had to if they were captured.
CB: So, here we are in a situation where you’re in the home station and the agent is, in this case, Yugoslavia, how did they get out there, the agents, and the, other staff?
CW: They had submarines and boats, um, which went across at night and this is one of the things that we decipherers had to send the night recognition signals and the places where they were going to be landed so that was — and if, if they didn’t get the recognition signals by flashlight they would— they wouldn’t row ashore.
CB: Right, and to which extent were aircraft used in this job from Italy?
CW: They, they were used as well to drop agents in, er, mostly dropping them rather than landing them. All the landing I think was done by sea.
CB: So, would they take any equipment with them or would that be a separate sortie in order to supply them?
CW: Mostly they took their wireless sets with them but, er, if they got damaged or anything we had to drop others by parachute.
CB: OK, and did they stay they all the time or were they plucked out every so often?
CW: They came back for reports occasionally.
CB: They did? Right. What was the survival rate like?
CW: We don’t know really because it never, the news never got to us.
CB: Right. I’ll just pause there a mo. It’s just worth stating here that this isn’t a regular Army operation, this is SOE, so you had a reporting line that wasn’t directly in the Army was it?
CW: No it wasn’t but before the SOE this is, I was on a football match, um, when we — after the North African campaign finished, um, on the touchline watching the football, and the CO came round and pulled me out and he said, ‘I understand they accepted you for training as a pilot two or three years ago?’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s right.’ He said, ‘They want to know if you’ll volunteer as a glider pilot.’ Which was obviously for the invasion of Sicily of Italy and I politely refused. I really didn’t fancy not having an engine with me.
CB: Yeah. Interesting so this is your CO? How did the rankings go? I mean, that was the same as a military rank but you were kept separate, same as an army rank.
CW: Well this is Army, before the SOE.
CB: This was before, sorry, right. So, now going to SOE, what, how were you categorised there in terms of — because you were separated, how did that work?
CW: We were still Army ranks and obtensibly in the Army, what they call it? Signals unit. The stations had various names. The one in Algiers was called ISU6 or Massingham. We had an air, an aerodrome at Blida, inland, where the dropping containers were filled for dropping in southern France.
CB: So, Massingham is the, the station code name for North Africa in Algiers?
CW: Yeah. That was the station called Massingham, yes.
CB: Yeah. So, was there a dedicated airfield for your people?
CW: Blida. Well it was at Blida but because it was so secret [slight laugh] it wasn’t, er, common knowledge. We also had a submarine in the harbour at Algiers.
CB: Oh did you?
CW: That went over to France and surfaced and rowed people ashore, yes.
CB: So, you were training people, were you? To go to Blida, the aircraft, Air Force station before being delivered or were they trained before they came to you?
CW: They were trained on the camp at Massingham.
CB: They were? Right. Yeah. And this is really for supplying France before you got, before the North African war finished, is that it?
CW: No, that’s after the war had finished.
CB: It had finished. OK, so when you went to Italy, to Bari, that was well after the invasion of Italy?
CW: Yes. The war was going up. Po valley was still a war zone, up in the Po valley.
CB: Right up in the north, yes, so they had capitulated anyway but we’re talking about 1944, are we?
CW: Yes that’s right. It was at the tail end of the war.
CB: OK, so how did it progress after this supply you were talking about, Yugoslavia. How long did that go on for and what happened afterwards?
CW: Well, that was quite involved because, um, you had Mihailović they backed to start with and eventually they moved over to Tito and —
CB: Mihailović was the loyalist, royalist? Yeah.
CW: I think most of the people were more concerned with what happened after the war rather than what was happening during the war.
CB: Right, so Tito was the communist and he was the one you were backing then?
CW: Yes, that’s right.
CB: OK, so we’ve come to — have come to the end, have we reached the end of the war yet or did you go somewhere after Bari?
CW: Yeah, when the war finished —
CB: What did you do?
CW: I did, er, a quick course on Typex machines, which is a keyboard, and then transferred to Athens where I spent a few months before being shipped home for demob.
CB: And what did you do in Athens?
CW: Well, basically enjoyed ourselves [laugh]. There was nothing much to do really. The war was over and we just had various messages to transmit, encipher and decipher but not many.
CB: Right, right. So, just going back a bit on the SOE front, the ordinary forces didn’t know about SOE?
CW: No.
CB: And how did you explain away that you were separated from them and why?
MW: We never mixed with them did we?
CW: Yeah. It didn’t occur. The only time we had any trouble really, if any of our people were picked up by the military police and then they were [laugh] had to be got out of gaol, as it were, by people from our camp, to go and say well, ‘These are our people. You’ll have to let them go.’
CB: But not knowing, not telling them why?
CW: Yes. ‘Cause the Unit said they didn’t know about ISSU6 and Force 399 and Force 133 —
CB: OK.
CW: All odd names they had.
CB: Yeah. So mentioning those, in sequence, what were they? So, ISSU6 iss MI6?
CW: ISSU6 was at Algiers but it was also called Massingham.
CB: Right. OK.
CW: And then going to Italy it was Force 399.
CB: Right. OK. Technically a signals unit as far as you were concerned?
CW: Yes.
CB: OK. Then what, what else were there in titles? What were you called when you went to Athens?
CW: I was back in the Army then. I was transferred from SOE back into the Army.
CB: Oh were you?
CW: After the war was over and trained on Typex machines and doing enciphering and deciphering for the Services.
CB: Right, so in the light of the fact the SOE was the “invisible force” you couldn’t talk about it. How did you assimilate back into the army without people tumbling to what you’d been doing?
CW: Nobody ever asked any questions, just assumed that I’d been transferred from a different army unit.
CB: Right. Right. OK. [background noise]
CW: Initially training on rifles.
CB: In the Army.
CW: In the Army on Rifles, Bren guns, and the PIAT, the projector [?] infantry anti-tank gun, but with the SOE there was no need to carry arms at all.
CB: So you went, after the end of the war in Europe, you returned, you reverted to the regular Army. Was that the point at which you did?
CW: Back, back into signals.
CB: VE, on VE Day.
CW: Yes.
CB: Right.
CW: Yes, into Signals and posted to Athens.
CB: Yeah, and what happened in Athens? Did you stay there right until your demob in 1946?
CW: Yes, I was demobbed from Athens, back to Taranto all the way up to Italy.
CB: By train.
CW: Up the French coast by train.
CB: Then after the war what did you do Charles?
CW: After the war, interestingly enough, um, I made straight for somewhere I’d only been once before which was Southfield Station, where I marched the other way down Wimbledon Park Road to where Margaret’s parents had a house [laugh] met her [laugh] and where we got married. So, having started the war there I ended it there.
CB: That’s where you met Margaret in the first place was it?
CW: No, Algiers. I met her in Algiers where I met her in the first place.
CB: Oh you didn’t meet her until then even though she was on the doorstep. Right. So, you’re out of the Army, what did you do then?
CW: Continued my training as a compositor for, er, six months before I was fully qualified, worked at two or three printing offices before joining the News, Chronicle and Star newspapers.
CB: And how long did you work there or what did you do there? Did you always do compositing or did you do something different later?
CW: I was a Lerner type operator and I —
CB: Which is a type of printing machine.
CW: Yes, it does the metal from which you print the newspaper from and, um, I did this and until such time as the owner of the News, Chronicle and Star decided to sell the newspaper and we were made redundant. From there I went on to the Daily Mirror as a Lerner type operator until such time photo composition came in. And I’d done some teaching at the London College of Printing and kept up with technology so I knew a little bit about this. So I was one of twenty people who were training the rest of the staff at the Daily Mirror in the new technology, um, until such time everybody was trained up and they employed another hundred people while we trained them and then when these, they’d all been trained they asked for vol— volunteers for redundancy so I retired two years early.
CB: And in retirement what have you been doing?
CW: In retirement [laugh] we bought —
CB: Well, its some thirty years ago.
CW: We then bought another nine and a half acre smallholding [laugh] which was basically to help our two sons out. They bought a business with agriculture machine and they had nowhere to store it so we decided this, this [cough] could be where they could store it but we didn’t bargain on nine and half acres with thirteen triple-span greenhouses [laugh] so, so we worked there, we filled these with strawberries which was a nightmare because, um, we had to employ many people, picking strawberries, and because they were in greenhouses they had to be very careful they didn’t touch the strawberries themselves. They had to pick them by the stalk and, of course, we had to employ all sorts of people and this went on until such time as the Ministry of Agriculture asked us to do, to do an experiment with a new variety they’d brought in from Holland. So, they supplied us with the plants for a whole greenhouse and these we grew until such time they were ready for harvest and, er, Margaret went out one day and these nice looking strawberries were all flopped and this was vine weevil. They’d got into the plants and as they — it spread so quickly everywhere we had to have the whole of the greenhouses sterilised and, um, and then we, then we went over to the production of asparagus. We filled them with asparagus.
CB: Less temperamental.
CW: [slight laugh] And didn’t need so many people to harvest.
CB: Yeah. Right.
MW: We did that for twenty, twenty-seven years.
CB: So asparagus worked as well as a good earner.
MW: Oh yes.
CW: Well, because it was early we got it in early in the greenhouses it commanded a good price and we took it, had it shipped down to Convent garden
MW: And Spittalfields.
CW: Yeah and one day, um, the wholesaler phoned up and said, ‘That lot you sent today, we want the same lot tomorrow. It’s going to the, um, the Queen’s banquet when Lech Walesa comes over.’ [laugh] Which was rather —
CB: All the way from Poland.
CW: Yeah.
CB: Gosh. Right. What did you do? Did you sell it or the kids ran it?
CW: Well, we ran it until — how long ago is it? Ten years ago now?
MW: Ten, yes.
CW: And then we sold it and retired.
CB: Aged eighty-six. Yes. Very good. We’ll stop there a mo. [pause] So, we’ve talked about the fact that when you were in the war your unit was quite separate from anyone else so there wasn’t a temptation to get into conversations with other units [clears throat] about what you did. But after the war, we’re now in civilian life, people tend to be nosy. To what extent did the, er, history of your experiences in the war come up in conversation and how did you avoid indicating anything about SOE?
CW: By and large for myself because I done quite a bit in the army proper, as it were, I could say what there was to be told about that and keep quiet about SOE.
CB: But did you have to be on your guard all the time?
CW: Not much. I don’t remember people, you know, delving deep about these things at all.
CB: No. So, why didn’t people talk about their experiences in the war?
CW: I think they were just happy that the war was over —
MW: And they wanted to forget it.
CW: They’d had a tough time, er, rationing was still in being. So I think they were just happy to get on with their lives and rebuild the —
MW: And we, we started a family straight away didn’t we?
CW: Yes.
MW: And you just put the rest all behind you. I mean they, they like, they like the fact now that we have kept records and they’ve got it all down now.
CB: Yeah, but in the earlier time when children are younger children have a huge curiosity so to what extent did they try to prompt you to tell you, tell them.
CW: I don’t remember them ever asking about the war. It’s not until you get into the teens or older that people begin to enquire.
CB: So at what stage do you think it was the wraps came off and you were about to talk about SOE freely.
CW: Well, it was after sixty years.
MW: Yeah. Once there started being publications. I mean I’ve got, I’ve got one that’s got my —
CW: Photograph in, yeah.
MW: Yeah, one, er, that the FANY officer did. The book “In Obedience To Instructions” is the title of the book, um, and the other girl who was at university [background noise] who got, got us to supply her with information. And I mean in the thing, you know, they put at the back, people that have contributed information —
CB: The credits at the back
MW: But that was well, well on.
CB: We’re talking about the ‘90s?
CB: Before the sixty years were up, um, certain publications began coming out by the higher ups more than we did. [background noise]
CB: Yeah, OK. Right. Thank you. So, after talking with Charles we’ll move to Margaret —
MW: Yeah, I’m going to move out to the bathroom, OK?
CB: That’s alright. What was the thing that was most memorable in what you did then Charles?
CW: [slight laugh] A message from Mr Churchill to his son Randolph, who was in Yugoslavia, to say, ‘Congratulations on your birthday’ [laugh] and one going back the other way from Randolph to Mr Churchill saying, ‘Congratulations on your last speech.’ [laugh]
CB: Which you could take how you like. [laugh]
MW: When you got the phone call from, from Gubbins you didn’t know it was him.
CB: And the other, other funny one, yeah — Gubbins being the top man.
CW: Top man in SOE.
CB: Yeah.
CW: In Algiers I was on duty, on night duty, and the phone rang and I picked up the receiver, ‘Will you come down to villa number so-and-so?’ I can’t remember the number. ‘I’ve got an urgent message for London.’ ‘I’ll send someone down,’ I said. ‘You’ll come down yourself.’ Bang went the phone [laugh]. When I got down there [laugh] it was Colonel Gubbins, head of —
CB: And you didn’t know he’d come there?
CW: Didn’t even know he was on the camp.
CB: Such was the secrecy of what you did that nobody knew who was anywhere I suppose.
CW: Obviously he’d been the Cairo.
CB: And he was on his way back.
CB: One final thing, did you have a code name?
CW: No but agents did.
CB: Right. Now we are going to talk with Mary, er, Margaret about her experiences. Now Margaret started earlier on. Can you start with the earliest recollections you’ve got and how you came to join the FANY and SOE?
MW: Right, er, I was born in Southfields, South West 18, in London, and went to the local school and eventually progressed Greycoat Hospital Girl’s School in Westminster. The present Prime Minister’s daughter goes there now. All the girls in our family went to Greycoat Hospital. When the war broke out I was fifteen and I was on holiday with my mother in Ireland. My father was head of Ministry of Pensions and because of the threat of bombing if the war started they’d already evacuated up to Blackpool. My father contacted us and said under no circumstances were we to return to our home in London. We had to come straight to him in Blackpool, which we did. My father had always wanted one of the family to be a civil servant and he was delighted when he was able to get me a job as a part-time civil servant, the lowest grade there was, so low that it is recorded in Hansard that I earned thirteen shillings and sixpence per week less four pence for a stamp. It became very evidence that the landlady looking after these civil servants who’d moved up there was not keen on housing relatives as well, so we were able to persuade my father to let us go back to London, on condition that we moved out if bombing got serious. So this we did and I did one or two jobs. I think one was with a printing firm and then, er, I was just coming back from work and the sirens were going. I was on my bike and I got back in, quickly got under the stairs with my mother and a friend and the house began to shake and, er, the next thing we knew, or discovered afterwards, a land mine had fallen in the street backing onto us and blown out our back door etcetera. So, as we promised my father, we moved out to Leatherhead and the old, what would have been the old Hoover company there was being used as a, as an arms, you know, what do you call it? For making arms and I had to test the strength of shells. A most boring job.
CB: This is an ordinance factory?
MW: Yes, whatever it was called, um, but I also helped at the, what had been a blind school normally in peace time but it had been taken over from one of the London hospitals that were being cared for, mostly diabetic children, and I enjoyed the work there and I, I admired the way the, the si— the sisters, the ward sisters, cared for people and I began to think this is something I would like to do. At sixteen I was allowed to get a job at Epsom, er, in a hospital there but I was longing for the day when I was eighteen and could start training properly. Unbeknown to me, my mother who hated being on her own had gone off to Guildford RAF Recruiting Office and said she would like to join the WAAF but knew she was over age but the officer there, the recruiting officer said, ‘Well, you don’t look over forty so you won’t have to give me a birth certificate. Just fill in this form.’ When my mother looked at the form, my brother who was nine years older than me was al— already a Fleet Air Arm pilot, my sister, six years older than me, was in a res— reserved occupation as a qualified physiotherapist and English teacher. So my mother realised that the mathematics didn’t add up, that this was possible, if she put their ages in. And the officer said just put in ‘of age’ for your more older children and put my true age which she did because she didn’t want to stop me from doing what I wanted to do, was do full training as a nurse in London. So, that was her off, off into into the WAAFs and she knew she couldn’t at all attempt an, an officer’s post because she’d have to produce her birth certificate. She did her square bashing funnily enough at Fleetwood which was just next door to where my father had got his Ministry of Pensions job in Blackpool. I did a year’s training and was on, put on skin ward and as a result of that, handling ointments and various medication, my hands both broke out in bad eczema so I was given six, I was given a month’s sick leave and when I got back they said, ‘We’ll put you on the wing, the where you don’t have to do scrubbing up and what have you, diabetic wing.’ That’s it. And, er, within a month it was all back again so they said, ‘Well, we’re very, very sorry but I’m afraid you’re going to have to finish your training. We can’t keep you on.’ So, I rang a friend who I knew had to give up and I said, ‘What am I going to do? I won’t get through the medicals for Army, Navy, Air Force, I’m no good for the land army and I don’t want to have to finish in a munitions factory after what I’d had to do with these wretched shells. So she said, ‘Go to this address in Baker Street. I can’t tell you any more but you won’t have a problem.’ So, along I went and the first thing they said to me was, ‘Well before we can talk to you need to sign the Official Secrets Act and you will be bound from conveying anything that you’re told here. You won’t be able to speak about it.’ So, I thought, ‘Oh gracious, what have I got ahead of me here?’ So, I did that and then had an interview and they said, ‘Well it will mean we think you’ll make a good wireless operator but it does mean joining the FANYs which is the First Aid Nurses Yeomanry.’ So I went along with all this so went to Henley to train with Morse code and after some months the sergeant came in and said, ‘They want volunteers for overseas. I’ve got forms here. Put your hand up if you’re interested.’ So I stuck my hand up and he said, ‘If you’re under twenty-one you must have parental consent you know, I’ve got the forms here for you if you want them.’ I then wrote a letter to my father, um, not thinking, you know, it was anything special, just to say, ‘Please can you sign the enclosed form? I want to go overseas.’ It was a time when all the troop ships were being torpedoed in the Med and yet, bless him, he agreed to sign it. Then, um, I’m trying to think what happened then. Yes, I — I’ve just written all about this to the — do you want to see?
CB: We’ll just stop for a mo. [background noise]
CW: An account I’d written of my embarkation and I thought the FANYs might be interested in it because the so-called colonel had taken over the, all of the other information. I had this embarkation letter and it’s amusing reading it all. I mean I don’t know if this would be useful.
CB: That would be useful. Just keep rolling. Can you tell us please?
CW: So, this was all about the embarkation and a disguised description of how we got to Liverpool and got on the dock and most of the group went off somewhere but another girl and myself were put in charge of the luggage. And we were standing on the port side and the troops all up on the ship. I never realised how big the ship would be and it was the Monarch or Bermuda (I’m allowed to say that now). And the chaps on board were throwing pens down, pens, pennies down to us and my friend and I were gathering all these up and luckily found a Salvation Army chap we were able to hand them over to. And then once our luggage was dealt with we were able to join the others and go on board and that was when the next thing we knew we were in Algiers.
CB: OK. So on the boat you’ve got lots of people, literally thousands?
MW: Yes the FANYs were allocated some very nice accommodation, about ten in a cabin. There was a little bit of controversy with the Queen Alexandra nurses, who thought we were in their cabin and they were in ours, but we got that sorted out. I was absolutely amazed when we went for our first meal to see beautiful white cloths and white bread which I hadn’t ever seen for years with rationing and the way you couldn’t have white bread in England and when we had time to go round the ship I was horrified to see how all the ordinary soldiers just had to sleep on, on slings just tied up.
CB: Hammocks.
MW: Mm?
CB: Hammocks.
MW: And we were in complete luxury really. I got a top bunk with a porthole window beside it and, you know, we just enjoyed the journey really.
CB: So you’re on the boat and you find yourselves —
MW: We arrived at Algiers and we were transported to this wonderful camp, if you can call it a camp, it was a long expanse of lovely sand dunes, right adjacent to the Mediterranean, which had been a holiday place for French people with these beautiful —
CW: Villas.
MW: Villas, um, dotted all along it. So about six of us shared a villa where we could just run out of the front of it, straight into the water. We were even able to swim on Christmas Day which was wonderful. And that side of things was fine. We had a team of wireless operators like myself and we used to work on schedules, day and night schedules. I hated the night schedules because when you wanted to get back to your bungalow at night in the pitch darkness you’d got troops patrolling all the time and most of them were, were troops that that been, were found they couldn’t cope with the sev— severity with actual fighting so I was always afraid that one of them would suddenly turn round and think I was an enemy approaching. Other than that I think was all quite straightforward. There was these dinner dances that the sergeants’ mess ran and that’s where I came in contact with my husband Chas. The —we were supposed to have meet with the officers’ mess but we found the sergeants’ mess a far more lively place to be and we worked on our schedules and you had to be very, very carefully because the Germans were always trying to van— to jam the air lines and you’d got to be careful that you listened intently so that you didn’t make mistakes and avoid asking the agent to repeat anything. And one strong rule was that if ever you were on the air and — contacting an agent and he put in Q U G IKAK, which in ordinary language, is ‘I’m in imminent danger, close down.’ And you weren’t allowed to put another pip on your key and then the rule was for weeks and weeks afterwards you still kept trying to contact the due schedules for that agent in the hope that he hadn’t been —
CB: Compromised one way or the other.
MW: And I was delighted the once it happened to me, it was about six weeks later the agent came up in his due schedule, his or her, because we never knew whether it was a man or woman that we were contacting.
CB: And what country was he in?
MW: In, in France.
CB: He was in France. Right, OK. So, all of yours were in France at that time?
MW: Yes.
CB: Not Italy?
MW: Not so far as I was aware.
CB: No. OK. So, just taking a step back, when you were in the FANYs what rank were you and how did the promotion go?
MW: You just went in straight away as a cadet ensign.
CB: You did, right. And would you like to describe what is an ensign is in those days?
MW: I haven’t a clue.
CB: It’s an officer’s rank isn’t it?
MW: Mm?
CB: It’s a woman officer rank.
MW: Nobody every explained it to us. That was what we were and that was it.
CB: OK.
MW: The actual bases which is just out of Bari.
CB: So, you’re in Massingham and you’re there for how long?
MW: A year.
CB: And then what?
MW: And then transferred to Italy.
CB: And what did you di there?
MW: Carried on the same way, sending and receiving messages.
CB: Where were the agents of yours then?
MW: They could have been anywhere. They could have been in Italy. They could have been in Yugoslavia?
CB: But not France?
MW: I think we, had we finished in — you’d better switch off.
CB: So, in your perception Mary you’re dealing with, as a radio operator, which is different from doing the other side that Charles was doing, so the agents you, you saw them did you at Massingham before they went?
MW: Yes, you know, they had all the agents there obviously.
CB: And they, when they then went from Massingham to the airfield, which was where?
CW: Blida.
CB: Blida and then they were flown. Do you know what planes they were flow in?
MW: No idea.
CW: No. We were never told.
CB: The security worked so tightly you didn’t know the simple steps because that would compromise what was happening?
MW: We knew that some of them were going over in our little subs and going ashore there.
CB: And the others were parachuted in?
MW: Yes.
CW: And the arms and ammunition and uniforms and things were done up in containers and dropped from Blida.
CB: That was done separately was it?
CW: Yep.
CB: So you would know what the signals were. Were you telling them, when you were doing the radio part?
MW: Well this was the part that was disappointing in a way because he knew what the message was but it didn’t mean a thing to the wireless operator so you’ve no idea what message you’re sending them.
CB: No. So you got the boring message which is vital but Charles has got the detail which is being coded?
CW: Yes. The recognition signals, the coordinates where you dropped he agent or supplies or what have you. Yes it was all —
CB: Yes and how did you make contact with the agents yourself Margaret?
MW: Well, by schedule. You were given a schedule, at a certain time you were given a code that you’d got to put in, you know, in Morse code to make contact with that agent and what to expect.
CB: And you’d wait for a reply would you?
MW: Reply, yes.
CB: Was it like the nine o’clock news or did the contact time change? So, what I’m saying is did you always contact the agent, each agent, at the same time or would it vary?
MW: I think it varied but we, you know, were told what the schedule was, what time we were supposed to be on to that person.
CB: Right. How often did you meet agents yourself?
MW: Well, they were around all the time at Massingham weren’t they?
CW: I never met any personally.
MW: Not to talk to did we?
CW: There were a lot trained on the camp but they were all separate, you know, we never got —
CB: So on the camp there were cells effectively cells of operation was there, so there was just to do with radio, one that was to do with cipher, different hats?
CW: Well, it was a radio station, you know, the, they all worked together, you know, on the thing but the agents were trained there and I never got contact with any of the agents. I just knew they were being trained.
CB: What nationalities were the agents Mary, Margaret, sorry?
MW: All sorts weren’t they Chas? Very difficult to know.
CW: Well, a lot were English, French-speaking English. Men and women. French people as well. One, a special one was an Indian, Khan, he was —
CB: Khan is a famous one actually, isn’t he? Yes, yeah, right, OK. So, after Italy, so you’re there in 1944 and ‘45, what happened when the war stopped? Where did you go from Italy?
MW: In, in Italy I, it’s again quite a comical thing, family thing, that my father had always said, ‘By the time you’re twenty-one they’ll be nothing left for you to do.’ What it turned out to be on my twenty-first birthday we were due to fly up to Sienna up to the north of Italy, um, a group of us, and there was fog and problems. So, the plane couldn’t take off so we had to go back to our billets and try again the next day and I thought well now my father can’t say there was nothing left for me to do when I was twenty-one because that was my first trip in an aeroplane. When we got to Sienna there was very little, um, messaging going on. We were just pursuing hobbies and needlework and various things to pass the time until, of course, the end of the war came. During that time I was in Sienna obviously I was missing Charles very much so I got some leave and I did a hitchhike down to Naples, stayed at the YWCA overnight, and then asked them where I ought to get a vehicle to take me across the mountains to Bari and they said, ‘Well, go to this filling station, get an American or a British truck. Whatever you do don’t get on an Italian truck and you must be mobile by 10 o’clock otherwise you won’t be over the mountains before dark.’ It got to 10 o’clock and no American or British truck had come in and I thought when you’re twenty in those days you didn’t know the sort of things that go on now. I thought, ‘Oh blow it. I’ll chance an Italian truck.’ I was sitting up between these two Italians driving up the mountainside where the drop was absolutely sheer on the right and if it went over it would be completely down the bottom and we got flagged down by an American despatch rider and he was horrified when I got out the cab. ‘What on earth are you doing there?’ ‘It was the only vehicle I could get.’ And so, he immediately flagged down an American jeep that had got one soldier in it and said, ‘Where are you going?’ And he said, ‘Right down the toe of Italy.’ ‘Well then in that case can you take this young lady? She wants to go to Bari.’ And I got in there as happy as Larry.
CW: But he flagged it down because it was badly loaded.
MW: Yes, the — that’s why he flagged the lorry down because he said any minute he could go down the mountainside because it was so badly loaded so obviously that’s why they told me not to get in an Italian truck.
CB: Fascinating. So, when did you learn about your demob?
MW: When we were up in Sienna. It was sort of November-time wasn’t it, when —
CB: November ‘45.
MW: Yeah, and there again he was very crafty, my husband. He got some leave and came up to officially in quotes “see me off” and he got very friendly with our commandant, and he duly shook hands with her and said, ‘Goodbye.’ And away we went. At our first comfort stop who should bail out of the luggage truck was Charles. So that we had another evening in Naples before I embarked for home.
CB: Fantastic and from Naples did you take a boat?
MW: Yes.
CB: Where did that go? Marseille, Southern France, was it?
MW: Yeah. Must have done. I can’t remember where it went,, I just knew i was going home.
CW: It was home back to England.
CB: When you got back to England then what?
MW: Well, then I went back to Southfields, to where my mother and father’s home was and waited, got the — oh, that’s another thing. I did get a job there while I was getting ready for the wedding. We were going to get married as soon as he got back and I took a job in a day nursery, looking after little toddlers, and the cook there was a very ample lady. She said, ‘I hope your husband’s got a good job because you won’t manage on less than ten pound a week.’ And I thought, ‘Horrors, he’s got his, his apprenticeship to finish. There’s no way he’s going to get ten pounds a week and he’s got to get to Dartford every day from Southfields.’ But I didn’t dare tell anybody that there was no way going to afford it. But we managed, didn’t we? We got all sorts of second hand stuff and we got though.
CB: So how long did your job going on for or it didn’t last?
MW: Oh once we were married because we wanted a family.
CB: And your mother came out of the RAF?
MW: Oh she came out. She did about three years I think but as I say all the different officers she worked with said you ought to ask for a —
CW: Commission.
MW: Yeah but she didn’t because she knew she’d have to find her birth certificate. We were crazy.
CB: Right. What would you say would be your most memorable point of your service in the SOE?
MW: I don’t know that there was — I suppose the most memorable point was that we knew, I knew, we were going to go where he’d gone.
CB: To Bari.
MW: Yeah. That was the highlight.
CW: Yes because I, having supposedly gone to gone to Yugoslavia, I was in Bari and I wrote to her that I was in Bari and not Yugoslavia. [laugh]
CB: Right. So that made you feel better.
MW: Yeah.
CB: Right. So, we’re back talking with Charles a bit more about the delivery of agents into places like France. So, how do did that work then?
CW: Hughenden Manor worked — did maps for the pilots, detailed maps for the pilots, as to where they had to go to, which was absolutely brilliant, and this went on all through the war.
CB: And, er, the pilots that delivered, this is where they’d land but not just that but it’s where they were parachuting dropping as well?
CW: Yeah parachute drops and dropping agents and dropping agents up, not only dropping agents, Government people as well.
CB: Oh were they? Yeah. Any prisoners?
CW: No. I don’t think they brought any prisoners back as far as I know.
MW: But they brought agents back didn’t they? Picked up people as well as dropping humans.
CB: Yeah, and what was the major activity really of the, of flying people? Was the delivery of arms, ammunition and stores in general pretty busy?
CW: It, it was especially in the last bit of the war where —
CB: From D-Day.
CW: Yeah, where the Mace [?], yeah after D-day the Maces [?] were all organised and armed and used to delay German troops coming up to the coast.
CB: Right, so doing you cryptography, your coding, then you were seeing all the instructions?
CW: Yes. Yes.
CB: And the detail must have been quite fine in terms of finding the places?
CW: Yes it was all coordinates for exactly where they were but really and truly it didn’t mean anything unless you’d got a map where you could sort it all out but we didn’t have the opportunity.
CB: Right. Good
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AWardC-M160219
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Interview with Charles and Margaret Ward
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Type
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Sound
Language
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eng
Format
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01:18:11 audio recording
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Pending review
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Chris Brockbank
Description
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In 1940 when Charles was twenty he received papers to join the Royal Artillery and went into the Royal London Rifles. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and was accepted but instead of joining the RAF he was ordered up to Scotland to join a special unit of tanks and artillery, then posted to North Africa in 1942. Charles describes a battle in Tunisia in which seventy-five per cent of the battalion were killed. While confined to camp with an injured knee an education unit arrived and, after taking a number of tests, he was posted to Special Operations Executive and worked in Algiers and Italy as a cipher operator. Charles describes his work as a cipher operator including giving coordinates for planes to drop agents and supplies. He met his wife, Margaret while in the Special Operations Executive and Margaret gives an account of her work as a wireless operator. She also describes how her mother joined the WAAF even though she was over forty.
Coverage
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British Army
Spatial Coverage
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Algeria
Algeria--Algiers
Italy
Tunisia
North Africa
Contributor
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Christine Kavanagh
aircrew
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
ground personnel
Special Operations Executive
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1186/11758/AWatsonC170628.2.mp3
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Title
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Watson, Clifford
C Watson
Description
An account of the resource
Five items. Two oral history interviews with Flying Officer Clifford Watson DFC (1922 - 2018, 1384956, 188489 Royal Air Force), a memoir, his service and release book, and a scrapbook containing photographs and documents. He flew operations as an air gunner with 150 and 227 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Clifford Watson and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-06-28
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
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Watson, C
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is the 28th of June 2017 and I am with Clifford Watson at Fenstanton near Huntingdon to talk about his life and times in the RAF. So, what were your first recollections of life, Cliff?
CW: I was born in Barnoldswick, 1922 about three years after my father returned from the war, he opened a radio shop and was building radios and he was getting kits of radios from Pye in Cambridge and I went to the local infant school which was about fifty yards away from the shop. Two years later, my sister joined me there, that’s about the age of ten, my family moved to Keighley in Yorkshire, my father was engineer and manager of the radio relay system. Three years later we moved to Norwich where he established another radio relay firm rather, few years there we moved to London. Went to school at the age of ten, I was at the local elementary school in Norwich. At the age of thirteen, I went to the Norwich junior technical school and two years later to Unthank college in Norwich which a very different curriculum. I hated English literature there but I got a credit in the school’s certificate, by reading, another book overnight and I took the exam with a different book from the one I’ve been studying, I’d read it overnight and I got a credit. When I left the college at sixteen, I was, I was then, what’s the word? I was then with a firm of accountants in St Paul’s Churchyard and when I used to look out, yes, the war had just started and I used to look out through the window into that churchyard, there were a number of graves there and on one of them there was a double cross and it said neath this SOD, is another SOD, Adolf Hitler, it didn’t actually say SOD of course, it said it, yes, well, then the Blitz started and the family firm was in real trouble cause all the engineers had been called up, well, most of them, so I abandoned accountancy and went and helped the family firm in Battersea, I’d been there just a few months when four ladies came for a job, one of whom was a lady of eighteen and Hilda became my future wife, right from now.
CB: I stop, I stop for a minute. Just going back from your school days, what were the things you excelled at there?
CW: Well, at the elementary school, the age of thirteen, I wanted to get to the Norwich junior Tech but I needed recommendation for that, I had to do something and show that I was capable. My father got me a kit of parts for a radio, agreed it was a simple radio, it was from a [unclear] by Telecom, [unclear], I built the radio and gave a talk on it, demonstrating the thing working and I drew the circuit on the blackboard as I went along, told them how it worked, and that secured me a recommendation for the tech but there of course it was all physics, chemistry, mechanics and so on and two years there onto Unthank college, very different, I had, I carried on with tuition, with tuition in chemistry, physics I enjoyed, maths I enjoyed and all went well, that gave me five credits which gave me access to training as an accountant.
CB: Ok. You were talking a bit earlier about the shortage of engineers because they’ve been called up, so, your father tried to engage ladies, how did that go?
CW: Well, my father at that time was in Abyssinia and there was a manager there with little technical knowledge and instead of being a foreman with about six wiremen, there was me and four fourteen year old schoolboys and we were working on overhead lines, I was working about fifteen hours a day, I was earning, yes, fifty shillings a, yes, fifty shillings a week, at the end of the Blitz, well, almost the end of the Blitz, I’d had enough, and I thought the manager was, oh, I, one evening I was, I filled in my paperwork for the day, I put it in the secretary’s tray and there was an official looking document with my name on it and the manager was trying to, it was case it was the Ministry of Labour to get Clifford Watson exempt from callup. And I was furious, I tore the thing up, the next day, instead of going to work in overalls, I went in my best suit, well, my one and only suit and that’s when I went up town [unclear] made a beeline first for the Fleet Air Arm and things worked from there.
CB: So, when you went to, when you tried for the Fleet Air Arm, what happened? You went to the recruiting office.
CW: Well, I couldn’t get further than the door at the Fleet Air Arm.
CB: What did the man say?
CW: Can I help you, lad? That’s when I put on my Yorkshire accent [laughs] which wasn’t difficult at the time. The following, about a week later, I went to industrial house and there was very young [unclear] there, there’s a fairly big hall, half a dozen doors, each leading into a fairly small office and in each place there was I think five Lieutenant and a sergeant, when I went in, we were given a form which I filled in and I was given a card with a number on it and it was the number above the door or two numbers in fact, the doors were numbered and there was another number, when that number comes up on that [unclear] or those two numbers come up, you go through that door and I was interviewed by the officer and the sergeant and they said, this is a very, very preliminary interview, just want to give you some idea of how things go, and they asked a few questions: What did your father do? What do you do? Why do you want to join the RAF? And so on. Ok, there was an interview, there were about fifty people waiting and it was very pleasant, very pleasant too, they said, alright, we wish you luck, and you should hear from us within a few weeks. So I went back home, letter came, report to some place near Euston and I went there, we had three one-hour written papers and then an interview and a medical. At the interview I remember two questions, one was, which is colder, minus 40 Fahrenheit or minus 40 Centigrade? I pretended to work it out, I said, same thing, same temperature, well, I knew the answer, I didn’t need to work it out, but I pretended to do. Right, he said you’re, you know, in a flimsy belt, you’re half a mile offshore, a breeze is trying to take you, what was it [unclear] get it right, the breeze is trying to take you inshore, the tide is taking you out of shore, so in practice you stay put, you’re infested with alligators, all sorts of, animals in the sea but you’ve got to get ashore, what do you do? I said, I think the answer you want is that I lower the boat in the sea, increase the tide, the effect of the tide and reduce the windage, I think that’s your answer but I don’t like it and he laughed, yeah, he did laugh, he said, quite right. That was the two questions. [laughs] After that, that was about the interview, we already had the three written papers and there was nothing there particularly tricky and then there was a medical, half a dozen or so medical people, we went to each one and everything seemed alright, said, right, good show, we’ll let you know and I had a letter, a few weeks later, telling me to where to report but before I reported, I was to see a dentist for one filling and, two fillings and one extinct
CB: extraction
CW: One extraction. I did that and two fillings and one extraction at a cost of three shillings. Imagine today. Anyhow, I don’t question. And that was it. Eventually I was told where to report, meanwhile two other chaps locally had found that I was joining, I joined the RAF, so had they and the three of us got together and we travelled to Newquay together and in fact to Rhodesia together but years later, the one, the first one became captain of a Stirling and disappeared on his first trip. The other one, like me, came off the pilot’s course, I nearly said failed but I don’t agree with that term, I came off the pilot’s course with the other fellow and then carried on. He became a rear-gunner of a Stirling and they were shot up on all three trips which he did, different crew each time, first trip he ditched in the sea, two, he plus two survived, second trip they had to bail out, he and one other survived, third trip, they landed tail heavy, the turret came adrift with him in it, the aircraft bounced, blew up, killing everyone on board and Tommy woke up in hospital, that was there, carry on. [unclear] Whilst in Rhodesia, we were seven weeks at sea getting to Rhodesia, oh, getting to Durban and in Durban we had no money, we’d handed all the English currency in and they were to exchange it for local currency when we got to were [unclear] we were going and on the main track in Durban with no money and outside a Barclay’s bank was a rotary insignature, insignia and it said, Durban welcomes local visiting Rotarians, well, I wasn’t a Rotarian but my father was, I went in, could I see the manager please? I had an introduction card from Battersea Rotary. Let’s see the manager, please, well, the three of us walked in, saw the manager and I said, I’d like to borrow a couple of quid and send it back to you when we get to wherever it is we’re going. He reached into a drawer and gave each of us an envelope with the equivalent of ten pounds in each, he said, that with a compliment to a Rotary, don’t try to send it back, he said, you’re in Africa now, that was it.
CB: We’ll stop there just for a moment. Just quickly before we go on to your, more details of your flying training, Clifford, you mentioned the fact that you were interested in joining the Navy, as Fleet Air Arms, so-
CW: The reason, the reason I went to the Navy was the first one, all I wanted to do was fly and Fleet Air Arm needs pilots, it said, and as you’d heard, I got no further than the door, Fleet Air Arm pilots don’t work, that’s it, and I did, and that was the end of my naval experience. All I wanted to do was fly, that’s all, fighter pilot of course, but that didn’t matter, if anybody had said you prefer bombers or fighters, we’d seen plenty of fighters, it would have been fighters.
CB: There was a glamour in being a fighter pilot
CW: Mh?
CB: There was a glamour in being a fighter pilot at that time.
CW: Oh, everybody, all the boys wanted to be
CB: But, after being rejected
CW: Well, having seen bombers going down in flames and fighters getting away with it, fine, naturally they wanted to be fighter pilots
CB: Yeah. So, the effect of the rejection of the navy man, made you do what?
CW: So, the?
CB: The effect of talking with the man from the navy, that, what was the effect of that on you? You went home and then what?
CW: It didn’t worry me, except that I had this ridge across my nose, and I thought there’s no point in going into the RAF medical with a ridge on my nose
CB: From your glasses
CW: But, from the, yes, from the bridge as, but that disappeared, was only just a mark, so I left my glasses off and it made no difference, I passed the medical alright, in fact, quite often during the war I did wear glasses and I wore them flying in place of the goggles. The goggles were there but didn’t really need them, cause I did wear glasses, I remember a briefing one day and I put the glasses on and one of the officers was looking at that [laughs], a rear gunner wearing glasses? Oh, dear me! They made no difference,
CB: Just going to your experience in Rhodesia, so you did pilot training, how many hours did you do?
CW: Oh, I did eight hours flying with five different instructors and then, in six weeks, and a day or two before the end of six weeks, I got in a further three hours with a sergeant pilot who claimed to have been a Hurricane pilot in North Africa which we didn’t believe, so at eleven hours they were still, let’s get it right, yes, after six weeks, out of the course of fifty, there were still thirty on the course, only fifteen of whom had gone solo and I was one of the other fifteen who hadn’t and that fifteen had to see a fly test and everybody was scrubbed, everyone failed. Well, of that fifteen, twelve of us notified a grievance, we went through the grievance procedure, why had we failed? Why had I failed? And the CO pretended to look up his notebook, Watson you failed on two counts, a, you did wheel landings instead of three pointers, secondly you took off and climbed at half throttle. Well, I said, firstly, I landed exactly as I was instructed and secondly, if it took off and climbed at half throttle, I prefer a miracle and we could all do with one of them, I spoke twice out there, I remember and that was it, there was no appeal, everybody was taken off for some silly reason. A year later, Wing Commander Powell, Speedy Powell, who was in charge of all flying training became our group captain in North Africa and I was about to tell him it was a scam when he told me, he said, no, you didn’t fail, he said, they were just not in a SFTS, he says, to cope with the numbers from EFTS and there were hundreds of you waiting after EFTS to go to SFTS, so they established an air gunner training school and observer training school at Moffat near Gwelo. We were given the option of an observer course and they said, there’ll be a little, there could be a delay in getting on to the observer course, maybe a week or two delay, well, we’d already met people the previous night who’d been there for six months waiting for the thing, so they were not, they were dishonest, there was only one thing to do, and that was re-muster to air gunner and we, there were forty five of us on the course, there’s a picture of that with all those chaps in there.
CB: So, you became an air gunner
CW: Yes, it was an, I think it was an eight weeks course
CB: And where was that held?
CW: That was at Gwelo, aerodrome was called Moffat, at Gwelo near Marandellas in Rhodesia, I spent quite a lot of time on the farm at Marandellas, where there was a little girl called Wendy and I remember repairing a puncture on her bicycle, we had to do something in return for the hospitality. Everybody seemed to pass the air gunner course, I won’t comment too much on that [laughs]
CB: So, did you get your brevet at the end of that course or did you get it later?
CW: Oh, at the end of the course
CB: Then what?
CW: Yes, the two instructors there, they weren’t even qualified air gunners [laughs], I should delete that,
CB: What did you do the training on for air gunnery?
CW: They were Anson aircraft and Anson aircraft, yes, and there was a scarf ring with a Vickers gas operated guns and the only firing we did was on the beam at a drill [unclear] by a Miles Magister, Miles Master, which was, she was
CB: So, how did you get on with it?
CW: Oh, it’s rather, on the way back, we came via Cape Town and whilst we were in the transit camp the three of us went to, went to, oh my Gosh, I can’t recall the name, Muizenberg yes, we were in the beach in Muizenberg and a lady came to us about ten o’clock, she said, look, chaps, what are you doing for lunch? So, well, we’re not [laughs] see that big house over there? Come and see me there half past eleven, come and have lunch with us and we did, at the door ask for Mrs Macbeth. Ask for Mrs Macbeth, right, we duly went to the door and I asked for Mrs Shakespeare [laughs] Many, many years later I was on the [unclear] talking to an amateur in South Africa, I told him where I was and he said he was in Muizenberg and I said, I remember Muizenberg and I told him about that, he said, that place is now a guest house and that’s where I stay and that’s where I’m speaking from, not only that, but he said, whereabouts are you in Mbeya? And I told him, and I said, I’m in what’s the boys quarters at the back of the transferring station in the back of the cottage there in the boys quarters and he said, have a look through the, can you see the back door of the cottage? And I bent down, Yes, yeah, he said, is there a hole in the door, about a foot off the floor, in the middle? Yeah. He said, if you’d been down and looked through that hole, you’ll see a mark on the wall back, there’s a passageway, a mark on the wall. Have a look and I did, and it’d been, it had been plastered over, he said, that’s where my gun went off when I was careless, he was stationed there during the war. And, now, there were two coincidences, million to one, millions to one, infinitely to one, he was told about Mrs Shakespeare and we’d, he’d sat in the same seat during the war. Amazing. [unclear], Rhodesia was a wonderful place.
CB: And the local families, when you had time off, when you had time off from training, what did the local families do?
CW: Oh, on the farm? Oh, they were farmers, we tried to help out on farm, I did a bit of wiring whilst I was there, a lot of wires on pylons and they were in a bit of a state and I did a bit of tidying up there, I remember that
CB: Did they feed you?
CW: Oh yes, yes, was wonderful, Marandellas, that was. Yes, we were entertained quite royally in Rhodesia.
CB: So, we were talking about your holding point at Cape Town when that, what happened there? From Cape Town what happened?
CW: Well, from Cape Town we got on the boat and came back. It was a passenger liner, we’d gone out to Durban in the Mooltan, that was a cargo ship and we were down in, on the bottom deck, about three decks below, coming back we were on the Empress of Bermuda and there were people on it from the Middle East and quite a few Italian prisoners and we came back straight ten days, straight line ten days, the U-boats didn’t stand a chance, going out we had a terrific escort and must have been a dozen ships in that convoy, a dozen navy ships, coming back we were on our own and in a straight line [laughs]
CB: Cause it was fast
CW: It was fast, yes
CB: So, where did you dock?
CW: Where did we dock? Yes, Greenock, came back to Greenock, we had to carry our own kit bag, get our kit bag off the ship, we had full pack, a suitcase, and in fact we had two kit bags and we had to hang them over, one was for the flying kit, which was exactly as it was when we left, we didn’t even open the stuff, we didn’t need it in Rhodesia
CB: Because of the warmth.
CW: Mh?
CB: Because it was so warm.
CW: Yeah. We were and we lined up on the dock with all our kit and our red cap came along and recalled us to attention, right turn, double march, we just stood there with mouths open, double march, with all that clobber? there were no trollies, anything like that, we had to walk. I think we went straight to a train, I think the train is coming to the dock, I’ve got that picture, got on the train and we went back to West Kirby on the wirral. And that was it. From there, train down to Brighton and from, actually managed my pay book said I was, air gunner UT wireless op, which is what I said I wanted to do and he said, well, you can have the wireless op course if you wish, but it means going back to where they say, and you lose your tapes and you go back to where they say, forget that, he said, apply for another pilot’s course when you’ve done a couple of tours. Yes, oh yes, we were at Brighton, I was at Brighton for three weeks in a hotel, we would go in one direction, couple of miles and we’d have a lecture, then a few miles more and do a bit of swimming and that sort of thing, somewhere else do a bit of drill, bit of PT here there, just filling in time which all we wanted to do was get on. [pause] and we were posted straight to OTUs and I went to Finningley near Doncaster and that’s when I skivved off for Christmas and went to see my mother and got caught up in the time, was called out. Doncaster, there was an ENSA concert whilst we were there and the posters gave the impression that it was a real variety concert and they made it very clear, once you are in, you stay in, you don’t come out [unclear], you stay in, watch it, ok, it wasn’t a variety concert, it was an orchestra playing there, all playing classical music which was not really our kettle of fish. The only other ENSA concert I saw was at Kairouan when the Queen Mary came up, you know, the flat top thing, the Queen Mary came and there was a double grand piano on the back and a trailer where the pianist lived, it was Rawicz and Landauer and that was very good, I just sat there on my notebooks watching the, this on the piano and that was a real, they played stuff which appealed to us.
CB: Just to clarify the point, the Queen Mary is an aircraft recovery trailer.
CW: Yes, it was a big flat top carrying anything, tanks, aircraft
CB: So, you appreciated the music
CW: Yes, yes, it was good, was very good, but they were the only two ENSA concerts I saw
CB: So how long were you at the OTU?
CW: That’s a good point, about three months
CB: And you, what were you flying there?
CW: That was Wimpeys. Some Wimpey 1 Cs and then Wimpy 3s, mostly 3s.
CB: And from there where did you go?
CW: I gotta think.
CB: So, after the OTU you went to an HCU.
CW: No, no, we were on Wimpys. From 25 OTU Finningley we went to 30 OU, 30 OTU at Hickson, in Stafford and there we did more cross countries and whilst there we did three trips to France and then we were, then we joined, we went from there, we were there about three months, we went to 150 Squadron at Snaith. We didn’t do any flying from Snaith, one flight from Snaith was being detached overseas, they didn’t say where, we went to, one flight has to go, to go overseas, the other flight stays over Germany, so if you’d both give a preference of what you want to do and we opted to stay over Germany which meant of course that we went overseas. Our entire crew had trained overseas and we wanted to stay in England for a while but, no, from there we went back to West Kirby, back to West Kirby and we boarded a big, boarded a ship and on the deck there was some very big crates and the address Murmansk, it had been partly painted out, the name partly painted out. I said, Crickey, surely enough, we found later that they’d written Murmansk and partly rubbed it out so that the enemy looking at that thought we were going to Murmansk but that’s, that was what they said but we didn’t. We then from there down the Clyde, into the Med, then we went to Algiers, the troop ship just ahead of us was torpedoed and staggered into [unclear] and all the air gunners were on the deck of our troop ship, one air gunners, we’ve never seen the Oerlikon guns before, anyhow, that was it, and we disembarked in Algiers and in Algiers, yes, from Algiers we were stationed thirty miles south at Blida and there was a cargo ship unloading bombs and the bombs were put on ordinary bomb trolleys and trundled with tractors all the way to Blida and Blida is a very busy place, the Americans were there with all sorts of funny aircraft and we operated from Blida on Wimpys.
CB: Ok, we will stop there for a minute. Two, three disappointments in the RAF, yeah.
CW: No, two
CB: Two
CW: One was coming off the pilot’s course
CB: Yeah.
CW: [unclear] on 227 Squadron I was, the gunnery leader disappeared after a couple of weeks and I was a warrant officer then and I became acting gunnery leader and I stayed that way for six months as a flying officer doing the job and the wing commander commented on that and the adjutant oh, Cliff hadn’t done the gunnery leader course, so he said, better do the gunnery leader course. Couple of weeks later, I went up to Yorkshire somewhere and on the course thirty of us arrived to do it, we were given a test on arrival, we arrived on Sunday afternoon, Monday morning we all had a test and at the end of that we were divided into two flights, A and B, fifteen in each, I was in B flight and B flight was told to assemble in the hut next door, in the next hut, we did that, and we were each, we are not recording?
CB: Yeah, it’s ok.
CW: No, not.
CB: You don’t want to?
CW: No.
CB: No, ok. So you had a trip from Sir Archibald Sinclair. What did he say?
CW: Well, Archibald Sinclair thought we would be pleased at coming back through Sicily, Italy, France and so on, we weren’t amused but at Kairouan our diet was bully beef and biscuits. Each morning one member of the crew would go to the mess tent, collect two tins of bully and if we wanted, a few biscuits but they were big biscuits about six inches in diameter, but we used to go into the [unclear] city and I saw, we saw there once, oh, we had a Volkswagen there, a Volkswagen which had been abandoned, we shouldn’t really have gone anywhere near it, we were in big trouble for doing that, anyhow we went to this Volkswagen and one of the chaps fixed it, we more or less pinched the petrol, hundred octane petrol which didn’t do the engine any good and we used that at Kairouan, eventually it was confiscated by the military police, anyway in Kairouan, in
CB: Kairouan
CW: In Kairouan there was a vegetable stall in the market and there were some watermelons and we were admiring those, and the chap invited me to take one so I took it and gave it to him, he cut it up and we enjoyed this watermelon, it was lovely, I thought we could do with some of these back on camp, I bought two hundred of them [laughs] and oddly enough we could afford two hundred between us and we gave them in at the mess tent, some went over to the officer’s mess but when it came to use these watermelons, they were not watermelons at all, they were marrows, that didn’t matter to much because we stuffed them with bully beef, well the cooks did, how on earth, we loaded those watermelons into the Volkswagen but they turned out to be marrows we got there so, how that happened we don’t know, we just can’t understand. But, that was Kairouan, it was from Kairouan we saw this armada of Dakotas and gliders and they were going to Sicily and of course, soon after that we took off. A very interesting operations from, in North Africa, we felt we were dealing there with the Germans, with the military as apart from civilians, bombing them from four or five miles up, we were right down there with them, was a better feeling somehow, we felt we were a little bit nearer.
CB: What were your targets?
CW: Well, there’s a list of them here. In North Africa, all in North Africa, oh no, there’s a page full here.
CB: Ok.
CW: Tunis, Monserrato, Decimomannu, Tunis, Tunis again, Bizerta, Trapani and then there Villa Credo, Palermo, Napoli, Cagliari, Rome, Alghero, Castelvetrano, Chieti or something, Borezzo, Pantelleria, Sardinia, Sardinia, Sicily, Pantelleria, Napoli, Pantelleria, Pantelleria, that was in one night, twice to Pantelleria that night, Siracuse, Pantelleria, Messina, Napoli, Siracuse, Rome, Salerno, Bari, San Giovanni, Messina, Trapani.
CB: So, we are talking about largely mainland bombing, are we, what’s the balance between daylight and night bombing?
CW: This was all night bombing.
CB: All night bombing. Right.
CW: All night bombing.
CB: And how did you conduct the operations? Were you in a bomber’s stream or
CW: No.
CB: Were you in formation? Just as a gaggle.
CW: We’d take off one after the other independent to navigation all on the same route, ETA time on bombing, all the same, but operating independently, at maximum effort there, there were only twenty-six of us
CB: Right, how did you keep a sufficient spatial distance?
CW: What, from the others?
CB: Yeah.
CW: I didn’t even see them.
CB: Right. And you were all set the same height to operate from, were you?
CW: Yeah. Yes, yeah.
CB: And you, the speed was dictated in advance?
CW: Same, was the same, maximum economic cruising speed, it was the same for everybody.
CB: What would that be?
CW: I don’t know, it wasn’t my problem.
CB: No.
CW: One sixty-five knots. And, you can’t quote that, I’m not sure. I was the rear gunner.
CB: Right. Of course, yeah. So, in an operation, after dropping the bombs, you made your own way back
CW: Yes
CB: How easy was it to find the airfield that you started off from?
CW: Well, if, the navigator was pretty good, it was all dead reckoning now, there were no navigational leads at all or no electronic aids, then the navigator had a drift sight, I had a drift sight in the rear turret, I could, coming back over the sea, could drop a flame float, put the guns on that and of course, with the wind on the side and so on, we’re crabbing along, relative to the ground, the nose is not going straight forward, it’s on the
CB: You’d forward the deflection.
CW: There was a deflection
CB: To the navigator.
CW: And I could measure that deflection on the thing at the side and I would tell the navigator, we got sort of three degrees starboard drift or whatever and he would plot that, he could also measure the drift on his drift sight, and it was good, and of course, you hit the North Africa coast, and can see it and fly along if [unclear], if you’re too far east when you hit it but there were no other aids.
CB: So, the role of the gunner is to defend the aircraft. How many times were you attacked by German or Italian aircraft?
CW: No German aircraft, we saw a couple of Italian aircraft, one came up and we looked at it and looked as how it was, be a bit offensive, I fired at the bloke but he cleared off, we’d no trouble in North Africa. We got a bit closer to the enemy attacking, we were supposed to be strategic air force, that was the title but a lot of our work was tactical
CB: Supporting the army
CW: Supporting the army, attacking trains
CB: Yeah
CW: And so on. Low level stuff
CB: When you say, low level, what height are we talking about?
CW: Three hundred feet. Attacking a train at three hundred feet, there’d be three of us, we did two trips like that on the railway line from Suez up to Tunis, a German troop train on there, there’d be three of us, one aircraft would go directly above and bomb it and invariably stop it, stop the train. We would come upon the right, two hundred yards and strafing it, the train was stopped, the Jerries got off at the other side and they tried to get away a bit and that’s when the other fellow came in, number three, blazing with the front turret, and one beam gun and that was it, the three of us would carry on, turn round and then it depends what had to be done then, we didn’t want to derail, we didn’t try to derail the train, anything like that
CB: No, cause you needed the line
CW: We wanted the line for the army
CB: Army did, yeah, so
CW: One of the last things, in Tunis the Germans were evacuating from Bizerte, Bizerte?
CB: Yeah.
CW: Yes. And we was attacking the troop ships, we cut it down, well, I don’t know if it was us or one of them, anyway one of us caught a direct hit on a troop ship, which turned back and beached. And about a thousand British soldiers got off it. Three of them were killed, three British soldiers were killed by us but that was, that ship was full of POWs and it should have been lit up, by international law it should have been well illuminated
CB: Like a hospital ship
CW: But it wasn’t, there were no lights and there was nothing to tell us there were British on board, as far as we were concerned it was a German.
CB: Yeah.
CW: Anyhow, it beached, three thousand troops got off it and we met some of them in Tunis and we weren’t very popular
CB: No
CW: Because we’d killed three of their chaps but they didn’t think [unclear] the rest of us had done lucky [unclear] to be here, they did a good job and they didn’t think so
CB: Cause the Germans were evacuating with ships but also aircraft, so, did you have any role in trying to intercept the aircraft that were escaping? They had the big transport planes, the Arado
CW: We didn’t see any German aircraft, having said that I, I’ve got a vague idea we did once, there were two, one night we were on the way to Italy and at briefing they gave us position of a U-boat reported on, reported, a U-boat in that position and briefing officer, he said, if you see it, make it crash-dive, said, don’t try to bomb it, cause you won’t hit it, I wonder [unclear], speak for yourself, mate [laughs] just divert off normal track to that U-boat, if you see it, make it crash-dive, do a couple of circuits when you get to that spot and try and do that and we saw it and we went for it but we didn’t see it crash-dive but it, when we saw it, the bomb aimer saw the shape, it was just submerged, and he saw this cigar shape, we went down on it, and it’s big trouble when we got back. Can’t you tell a U-boat from a Royal Navy submarine? [laughs] How could we?
CB: No. No way. It’s a good thing you didn’t hit it then, with your bombs.
CW: The bloke was right. Don’t try to bomb it, you won’t hit it.
CB: No, Yeah. On that topic
CW: Speaking of submarines
CB: On that topic of U-boats, the U-boat base was at La Spezia in North West Italy, did you bomb La Spezia?
CW: I don’t think so. I don’t recall the name, no, it’s not here, we were told there was a refueling base, U-boat refueling at Alghero, refueling base, there’s a, oh dear, what do you call it?
CB: A long jetty
CW: A long jetty out, U-boat refuel at the end of the jetty and the oil is trundled down there, if there’s no U-boat there destroy the jetty, but try not to damage the town, strafe it but don’t, no, no bombs, use them on the jetty, and we did and we strafed the town but there was no U-boat there. It was an innocent fishing village but we were told that the U-boat refueling
CB: And this is before the Italian surrender of course, isn’t it?
CW: Oh yes, yes.
CB: In 1943. Yeah. Ok, so you, what else did you do during your tour?
CW: In Africa? Well, it was interesting, but we felt we were part of the war there. Between Sicily and mainland there are ferries going all the time and we bombed both terminals, we put [unclear] to the [unclear], to the, and we hit those terminals.
CB: You’d be flying at a higher level for that, what level would you be flying at?
CW: Six thousand feet was our normal bombing height. We were halfway there on Sunday, that was at three thousand feet.
CB: Were you? What sort of flak did you encounter?
CW: On Italy? A bit of light flak, that was all. On Rome, probably however six thousand and that was supposed to be an open city, we weren’t supposed to fight.
CB: What were you bombing? What were you bombing in Rome?
CW: On Rome, on the city, we dropped leaflets,
CB: Ah.
CW: Then we bombed the marshalling yards then down the Tiber to the Lido di Roma, seaplane base and we bombed that, we didn’t see any seaplanes, but we bombed the, we hit the hangars.
CB: So, what level of accuracy would you say you normally achieved?
CW: I would say pretty good, it wasn’t carpet bombing anywhere, we had, it was pinpoint bombing. Mind you, there were only twenty-six of us, maximum twenty-six.
CB: How many did you lose?
CW: We did lose one or two, we lost five percent, it was twenty-odd when maybe one wouldn’t get back, the losses were the same as over Europe, on average, which I know that’s surprising, probably for different reasons.
CB: So, you came to the end of your tours, then what?
CW: When we finished in, when we finished at Kairouan, we went on the Queen Mary up to Tunis, we had a spot of leave on one occasion, just after Tunis was liberated, or just after Jerry was kicked out, we went up to Tunis, there were several canteens and that’s where the bomb aimer ran into trouble, there were five of us, the canteen was crowded and four blokes got up just as we sort of got near the table, they got up and we sat down but there were five of us, so then the bomb aimer saw a spare chair a few yards away, picked it up, place was crowded, he put it over his head and walked towards our table and some happy soldier looked up, saw the chair hovering over his head, it went round and it gave such a [unclear], knocked him out, well, almost knocked him out, knocked him down, silly devil with a chair over his head.
CB: Yeah.
CW: And the red caps came and he was arrested and put in jail and the, was in at the police station and we moved from where we were staying to a hotel next to the police station, at 49 Rue De Serbie, I remember that address and Chadderton was in jail, was in prison, well we went into [unclear], the canteens were all crowded but there was another we came to, officers only, so, our tapes were just on one arm, on an elastic band, off with the tapes, off with the hat, and we went in, into the, into this posh hotel and sat there having a beer. About half an hour later, the bomb aimer, he almost turned white. I looked round and Speedy Powell was there, our group captain [laughs]. And of course, we got an [unclear], hello chaps, I didn’t realize you chaps were all commissioned [laughs], what are you drinking? [laughs] I thought, oh Crickey, we are in trouble here, so, I like to see a bit of initiative, jolly good, very good show, chaps [laughs], he spoke like that, Speedy Powell [laughs].
CB: How were you notified about
CW: He said, I’m going back, when you’re going back to Kairouan, he said, couple of days? He said, I’m going back tomorrow, give you a lift if you like and he did, he took us back to Kairouan. But first of all, we went to that prison, to the police station and he got Chadderton out, 49 Rue De Serbie, that’s where we were.
CB: So, you got back to camp, then what?
CW: Well, we got back and our tour was nearly finished, whilst at Blida we’d sleep, it was a question of crew but one aircraft per crew, you stuck to the same aircraft, that was yours whilst you’re here, well, there was no vacancy at the when we got there, we’d a spare week waiting for the aircraft and we went to a place called Setif on the coast, a big hotel there and we stayed in that hotel at RAF expense for a week, that was good. And the rooms were already occupied and there was real French entertainment, you see what I mean [laughs], that was, that shouldn’t have been really, anyhow sorry I digress.
CB: That’s alright. So, how did you know that you were at the end of your tour?
CW: We’d done two tours, we’d done, I think it was fifty four trips there, we could have come back after thirty five, it was normally thirty over Europe and thirty-five in the Med but we could opt to stay and do, carry on, which I preferred, and we did fifty-five, in fact we did more than that because a trip under three hours and there are quite a few, well, there are several, a trip under three hours only counted as a half [laughs], so you’d do trips to, well, like those trips to Pantelleria and Lampedusa just under three hours, but it was, you only, was credited with a half, and again you see, if you can’t take a joke, shouldn’t have joined [laughs], there was a Luftwaffe base on Lampedusa and we didn’t know it, we didn’t see it, we were bombing the harbour.
CB: So, did nobody attack the airfield?
CW: No, we didn’t do, I don’t think, I don’t know, we knew there was one, we were not told of any airfield, our job was the harbour
CB: So, you reached the end of the tour, what happened then?
CW: Well, we went on the Queen Mary to Tunis, then
CB: From Tunis, yeah
CW: And then in lorries to Algiers onto a troop ship and back to England, back to Greenock.
CB: What was it like on the troop ship?
CW: I’m just trying to think, yes, well, it was full of troops, I don’t think there were any Germans aboard
CB: Prisoners?
CW: I don’t, don’t remember much about it, the first troop ship coming back that was Empress of Bermuda, what was that airport we got from?
US: Bengasi?
CW: Down the road
US: Where are we?
CW: Mh?
US: Where are we?
CW: Monarch
US: Stansted?
CW: Monarch of Bermuda, that was, I think that was the, it was on that trip Monarch of Bermuda and they’re luxury airliners
CB: Right
CW: Luxury liners
CB: Yeah
CW: And it was good
CB: As a warrant officer, what facilities did you have? Sharing a room or four to a room?
CW: Oh, it didn’t make any difference,
CB: Right.
CW: Rank didn’t really mean very much and the skipper was the squadron leader, the only time we called him sir was if we had to, if there was any VIP nearby then, we might call him sir, otherwise it was Chess, his name was Chester, squadron leader Chester, he never did an OTU, he was- we’re on this thing.
CB: Yeah, go on. We’re stopping for a moment. We’ve restarted as you arrived in Greenock, what happened then?
CW: Well, we’ve come back from
CB: From Tunis. So, you’ve returned from North Africa to Greenock at the end of your two tours.
CW: Yes, from there we went by train down to Brighton, and of course and there it felt it split up and I was posted to, yes, I was posted to 84 OTU and second day I was there I was given a schedule of duties, lecture on the Browning gun, lecture on combat manoeuvre, the corkscrew and so on and I had this schedule, I said, I don’t like this, I haven’t done a course on the Browning gun, I’ve been using one for two tours but I’ve never done a course on it, what’s this corkscrew business? You’ve never heard of the corkscrew? No, what is it? The corkscrew, yes, on a bottle, well, I became an instructor on the corkscrew after I’d had some instruction and combat tactics, what can you do except move and fight it out, he said, what you need is an air gunner course, yes, I said, by all means, ok, I’ve done the job but that doesn’t make me a good instructor, no, I’m not instructing, so they gave me eight sprog air gunner trainees, to shepherd, I became a course shepherd and in doing that, I gradually picked up what really goes on and the corkscrew, you know about the corkscrew
CB: Yeah.
CW: I’d love to do another one [laughs], well, eventually we had, there was a complete crew and we went to Winthorpe and converted to Stirlings and on Stirlings we did a week of circuits and bumps and then cross-countries and then the first cross-country we went North towards Scotland to a bomb site, a bombing range rather, did an exercise there and on the way, or maybe the way back over Yorkshire, you’ll be attacked by a Hurricane, we need a good picture, make sure your guns are on safe and get a good picture of the Hurricane. We were attacked and the rear gunner hadn’t the vaguest idea, he said, weave skipper, weave, he was yelling, weave, it’s coming, it’s nearer and I thought, what the hell is that? He got no idea and the aircraft came from down starboard quarter, came right at us and then came in again and same again from the port quarter, nothing happened, and it came in, I was mid upper by that [unclear], it came in from the beam on the starboard and I gave, well by then was a textbook type of commentary winding up its corkscrew starboard go and nothing happened and the aircraft went underneath, came up on the quarter, more textbook but corkscrew port go, and that time we went dump up [unclear] up board, up starboard, down starboard, that was obviously the screen pilot the instructor.
CB: Ah.
CW: That was good. When, then, he said, on the way back, we’re going down on a raft off the Lincolnshire coast, we’re supposed to fire, strafe that raft but that’s what you’re supposed to do but don’t do that, there’ll be, there are seals on the raft, they live there, I knew that, they’ve been there dozens of times, just give a short burst in midair, fire at the moon, fire as it were , we did that and I just fired a short burst with one gun [laughs], cause they had to be cleaned afterwards, I fired a short burst, the rear gunner didn’t, ok, rear gunner, says the screen pilot, oh, no sir, the guns are faulty, I felt, Christ, was sort of physiology is that? They weren’t US, they were faulty, mid upper gunner, have a look, go and fix him. I went back to the rear turret, opened the flimsy door, and [unclear] pushed him aside, the guns weren’t even cocked, I said, where is your cocking toggle? He said, he didn’t understand, he didn’t know what a cocking toggle was, well, his hat was there, his fancy hat, remember that hat was there but took [unclear] the cockpit, number three gun I saw the thing, cause it was on safe, so I took the safety catch off and I yelled at him, now pull the trigger, botch the trigger, pull it, and he did, he nearly fell off the seat, he would have done if he hadn’t been tied down, said, now do the same as that to the other three, they’re the other two guns, cause one was a camera gun, and he hadn’t the vaguest idea so I did the same to the number four gun, fired that and he just, he hadn’t a clue, and ok but we’d fired from the rear turret. Next morning, the gunnery leader when I booked in as it were, he showed me a report from the screen pilot, do you agree with this? And it was that the rear gunner, he doubted if the rear gunner had had any operational training, did I agree? I said, not only I agree, I don’t believe he went to gunnery school, if he did, he didn’t learn anything literally and that’s what he wanted to know. I said, I’d like to see his logbook, well, it was the end of the month and the logbooks were in the flight office so I went to get them and I got them for the whole crew and I looked at this fellow’s logbook, he’d done no flying at all except at Winthorpe circuits and bumps, and the odd cross-country, that cross-country would have entered but there was nothing there except circuits and bumps but in the back was a certificate that he’d completed the air gunner course, very sad. Anyhow, we got rid of him, I said, he’s finished, that fellow, he’s not flying in my rear turret. I developed a little problem; would you mind if I?
CB: We’ll stop
CW: Nip up there for a second?
CB: So, you find the gunnery school
CW: Is that off?
CB: It’s on now, yeah, right
CW: Rear gunner had the faintest idea and he was sent to Eastchurch, he’d finished
CB: Now
CW: Now on the grapevine, all the information everybody seemed to know what was going on and the chap, the warrant officer on the clay pigeon shooting asked me what was happening, and in fact I didn’t know but he said, look, I want to join a crew and in fact he did, he joined our crew but he was a mid-upper gunner and I said, that’s fine, show me, you can have the mid-upper, I’ll have the rear, if they gunnery leader will agree and he did and the skipper agreed and we acquired a very good mid-upper gunner. Pete Foolkes, Pete Foolkes who eventually went to Canada, and stayed in and joined the Canadian Air Force, nice bloke.
CB: So that’s how you got into mid-upper, sorry, rear gunner, that’s how you became a rear gunner.
CW: I’ve always been a rear gunner.
CB: Yeah, quite.
CW: It was just that
CB: On the Stirling.
CW: I preferred the rear turret.
CB: Did you feel more comfortable with four guns?
CW: [laughs] That’s quite right, the mid upper did just have two, didn’t he, did?
CB: Yeah.
CW: I wasn’t too familiar with the mid-upper, I think you’re right, it’s bound to be [laughs].
CB: There was only space for two. There was only space for two guns.
CW: Yeah. Yes, yeah.
CB: So, you were at the OTU, after the OTU where did you go?
CW: Oh, OTU, right I’m with it again, we that was
CB: Winthorpe
CW: That was a conversion course
CB: Yes
CW: After an OTU.
CB: Alright, a conversion course
CW: A conversion course at Winthorpe
CB: Yes
CW: Well, from there, we went to Bardney
CB: Yeah.
CW: The skipper was promoted to squadron leader and he became flight commander, of A flight and A flight it worked in, with I think it was up at 9 squadron for a few weeks, I did the odd trips with, I think the first two trips from Bardney as part of 9 Squadron really at [unclear], from there we went to Strubby, did a couple from there and then on to Balderton, where the Americans had just left Balderton we moved in and B flight was already at Balderton. We then became a complete squadron of two flights and we operated from there, first trip was on Bergen, I did six trips with that squadron leader, first trip was on Bergen, and we were told to be a very careful run on a specific point in the docks, whatever’s there at that point, if anything, that’s the point to hit, be very careful and we went to the East and coming back, westerly course over Bergen, on the bombing run and there was an awful bang, a bit, wing went down, nose went down, we went down and the skipper, he was trying to hold back on the control column, nothing much was happening and we were going down and it was the navigator who went forward, crawled forward and turned it tail heavy, turned the elevator back and we came out and we came out at three thousand feet. What the bang was we’ve no idea, there was no damage anywhere but of course, the bomb doors were open and we came out at three thousand feet but we came out of it on quite a steep climb and we climbed up to eight thousand and the bomb aimer woke up, say skipper, can you go round again, we still got the goddam bomb [laughs] and Ted was the navigator, [unclear], oh, we are going round again and he pulled the jettison toggle and the bomb rolled [unclear], the bomb just went in the sea, complete waste of time the whole thing and we then came back and landed at Milltown and [unclear] Bergen.
CB: Where is Milltown in Scotland?
CW: Oh, Bergen, 28th of October 1944. Squadron leader Chester.
CB: So, this is with 9 Squadron.
CW: Oh no, no, that was all in the [unclear] of 227.
CB: Oh it was, right.
CW: Bergen, the next one was another fiasco to Walcheren. Walcheren, that was on the Zuiderzee and we were to bomb the sea wall, bomb the, not the sea wall, the, what it was called?
CB: The dikes.
CW: Dike, we were to bomb the dike and ahead of us, mind you, I’m in the rear, I didn’t see all this, there was another Lanc ahead and he went across the dike, stick the bombs right across and of course they all went in the sea, it only needed one bomb on the dike but they all went in the sea and our skipper, I can understand him, he thought, well what a ruddy silly way to destroy the dike, we were in the destruction business afterall, so we went round to the east and came in and went over the dike and dropped a whole stick of bombs all the way along the dike and destroyed it for half a mile, all they wanted us to do was make a hole in it so the water could come through, that’s what we were supposed to do, dug a hole in it and we were actually briefed to bomb a gun emplacement but that gun emplacement was already under water and the barrels were sticking out, there was no point in bombing that, we’d no secondary target so we decided, the skipper decided to do the job that he thought the others were going to do and we destroyed that wall for half a mile and it took, what was it? The pioneer corps I think it was, the pioneer corps took six months after the war to repair it and the skipper was in real trouble for doing that but that was a second trip on there. Next one was an ordinary trip to Hamburg and then Harburg which was a subsidiate, well, in the suburbs of Hamburg, that was long after the destruction of Hamburg, Heindbark, oh, that was a dam, Politz [laughs], Politz, a night raid of course, they were all night raids, Politz on the Baltic, night raid and the navigator, five minutes to Politz but everything was quiet, but by that time there should have been some action ahead, and two minutes to Politz, bomb doors open, ok, bomb doors open, and we, everybody thought, well, we are running up on Politz and we were over Politz and was absolute dead quiet, everything was quiet and then it started twenty miles to the south, fireworks below, twenty miles south and, oh Crickey, we’re twenty miles north of the target, and both the skipper, both the navigator and bomb aimer said, we are over Politz, we’re over the coast, but down there’s not over the coast, we are, we are over Politz, and the skipper wouldn’t have it, everybody is bombing there, we’ll join them and we did, and we destroyed an awful lot of good agricultural land. It was Pathfinder force, no, we weren’t using 5 Group Pathfinders, it was 8 Group Pathfinders, they put the markers down in the wrong place and that agricultural land was in a hell of a mess [laughs]
CB: [unclear]
CW: Many years later, I was talking to the air traffic controller in Nairobi, I was in charge of the con centre at night and we were having a little natter, and he mentioned the, he said, he told me, one night, when everybody bombed twenty miles south where they should have done, and I said, that was Politz was it? Politz! Yes, yeah! We were there at the same time and didn’t know it of course. But the interesting things like that you, happen, Politz, Houffalize, Houffalize, oh, that was the Falaise gap, yes, that’s when Jerry broke through, the Falaise gap, and it was very foggy, there was a film made with that raid, which was a lot of rubbish.
CB: Cause we are talking about France now in July ’44
CW: Yes, well, this was December ’44, Houffalize
CB: That’s not Falaise, is it?
CW: Mh?
CB: That’s not Falaise?
CW: Houffalize.
CB: Houffalize, right. Yeah.
CW: Wasn’t that the Falaise gap?
CB: No.
CW: Well, what was Houffalize?
CB: This is after Arnhem you are talking about now?
CB: [unclear] check it out. Yeah.
CW: Karlsruhe then Politz, Rositz, this is, can’t read that, these were spare boat trips, our skipper had finished by then
CB: Right.
CW: He did six and
CB: Where did he go?
CW: He went on a board of, no, he went on a summary of evidence, he was helpless, in fact at a reunion, many years later, the wing commander said, Chester was the biggest disaster that our squadron had, oh, he wouldn’t have said that if he didn’t mean it
CB: No.
CW: He got rid of him.
CB: Who was he replaced by?
CW: He was replaced with wing commander Balme, BALME, wing commander Balme, although he didn’t take up the point position of flight commander but he was there as a supernumerary, he did the job but didn’t sort of get recognition as a flight commander because he was more senior, I saw him in hospital in Nairobi, wing commander Balme.
CB: So, how many more ops did you do after that change?
CW: I did exactly twenty.
CB: Twenty, did you? Twenty more? Twenty in total? Ok.
CW: I was crazy to do with seventy-six, that was the number of ops, but I counted the halves as whole ones.
CB: Yeah.
CW: I don’t accept that it was half,
CB: It was a [unclear].
CW: Half a tour because
CB: Half an op. So, what caused the end of the twenty? Was it?
CW: Had finished D-Day.
CB: Right. No, ended the war, VE Day
CW: VE Day, sorry, VE Day.
CB: Yeah. So, from VE Day
CW: D-Day occurred when I was at OTU as instructor
CB: Yes
CW: VE Day, D Day, then we went to Molbice, Leipzig,
CB: Leipzig, yeah.
CW: With flight lieutenant Hobson to Leipzig, seven hours, Lutgendorf and Leipzig again, I went to Leipzig three times in all, twice on our own behalf and once with the Yanks [laughs]. Because we diverted to Norwich on one occasion, on one of those occasions, to, and Norwich, not Norwich airport as I knew it then but Horsham St Faith which became Norwich airport
CB: Which became Norwich airport, yeah.
CW: And that’s where I got the idea of a washing machine, that’s a different thing, and in Norwich, what a weird hang-up, I don’t know, not mentioned that have I?
CB: No
CW: No. We diverted to Norwich, and we were resting in a lounge, and very early morning a top sergeant came in, he said, say bud, who’s the headman? I said, him, woke up, what’s the problem? He said, we can’t get the overload tank off. Oh, don’t worry about that, the fighter engineer overload tank, we didn’t know what a tank, yeah, sure, it’s downgrade thing, and the bomb aimer woke up, I did describe it. Crikey that’s odd, that’s a four thousand pounder, no, don’t make bombs that big, that’s a four thousand pound bomb, what do you want, leave it! What are you doing? Anyhow, the skipper sent the flight engineer and the bomb aimer out to go out to look, they tried to take it off, it was, and the tannoy blared everybody to evacuate a mile from the Lancaster [laughs], oh dear, while we were three days in Norwich, which I’d welcomed because I’ve been to school there and I went to see an old girlfriend, Joyce, used to go to school with Joyce, and I went to see her in number one Chester Street and the warrant officer came to the door, I met Joyce and it was good, and he was flying Lysanders, anyhow and a crew came up from Balderton and moved the, took the bomb off [laughs]
CB: That’s why you were there so long because they hadn’t got anybody to move the bomb.
CW: No, they wouldn’t, they, the thing was on its own, they wouldn’t go near it after that.
CB: No
CW: But our own chaps came and shifted it
CB: Cause it would have been fused at that point, would it?
CW: No, it couldn’t have been, it wouldn’t have been.
CB: No. So, when you went on a, when you went
CW: The bomb aimer should have checked when we landed, make sure it’s got, in fact he should have checked before we landed,
CB: Before you landed, yeah.
CW: After we supposed we had dropped it, he should check
CB: So, thinking of fusing, when you got airborne with a full load, at what point were the bombs fused, ready for dropping?
CW: On the bombing run.
CB: Cause what I meant was that this bomb, if all the other bombs went, why would this one not be fused? So, there was a pin extraction job to do.
CW: [unclear] that’s a good point
CB: Cause the hang-up and the fusing are not related.
CW: I haven’t given thought to that one, I wouldn’t think it was fused, I don’t think it could have been
CB: I can’t see how it couldn’t have been, if you’ve dropped all the other bombs, but I don’t know of course, cause I wasn’t there.
CW: I think we bombed, I think we bombed out now, with the [unclear] if they were not fused, could be done,
CB: Yeah, the answer is I don’t know, something worth looking at but I would have thought that the fusing would’ve taken place in a, some time before release, all of them together, that’s what I meant
CW: Normally
CB: But had you dropped
CW: minutes to when you start the serious
CB: On the running
CW: left, left, steady business, yeah
CB: But on that particular op, did you drop bombs in earnest?
CW: I don’t remember, but I think we did
CB: Rather than dispose of them at sea?
CW: I’m not sure which raid it was actually was on
CB: Anyway, so, we’ve got to VE Day, what happened then?
CW: We got to VE Day
CB: You all stood down
CW: Oh, the war was about to end, isn’t it?
CB: Yeah.
CW: But Leipzig was the last raid,
CB: So, did you take part in Operation Manna to supply the Dutch civilians?
CW: No.
CB: And did you?
CW: [clears throat] long after the war I went to a reunion and there was a fellow there, he said he’d been shot down three months before the end of the war, he’d been shot down, he was looked after by a German family who was, didn’t like it. He was released, he left the family and joined when the Americans got close he joined the Americans and they got him back to Mildenhall by air and from there he hitchhiked back to Balderton, this is what he said, got back to Balderton and he said he arrived just in time to take part in Operation Manna and to bring prisoners back from Germany. And I listened to all this, he was a gunner, an air gunner, well, I didn’t recognize the bloke which that was not conclusive, I said, who was your skipper? Oh, he said, I didn’t have a permanent skipper, I did all the spare boat trips, remember Mcgilleyfrey, gunnery leader? Yeah, I said, who could forget? Mcgilleyfrey, I said, yeah, he said, who could forget old gilley. I said, remember Cliff Watson? No. I said, I was acting gunnery leader over that period, Mcgilleyfrey I’ve just invented, 5 group did not take part in Operation Manna, and what was the other point? And we didn’t bring prisoners, neither did we bring prisoners back from Germany, we didn’t take part in that and they came back from Belgium in any case, not Germany. I’d like to see your logbook, oh, he said, I’ll go and get it, he went out to his car and we never saw him again, but there’s lots of things like that going on. The navigator was at a reunion and he, there was a chap giving a talk on his experience in Malta, and one of the, he said, one of the chaps there was in Malta and he said that bloke’s talking an absolute load of rubbish, nothing of what he said actually happened. And I said, I was there, he’s challenged him, and he was on a lecture tour all over the place, lecturing on all this had happened to him in Malta and all a lot of nonsense
CB: Amazing.
CW: I worked with a chap in Nairobi like that, oh, he’d been everywhere, he’d flown Sunderlands from Belfast down to Southampton, from the factory in Belfast to Southampton, he’d been torpedoed in the Pacific, he’d done everything, he was working as a radio officer in Nairobi and we kept a card index system of his [unclear] [laughs]. It was a medical book, not a word of truth in any of it, he had on his briefcase, Slate VC, and he created the impression and deliberately set about to do so the impression that he had a VC, his name was Vivien Charles Slate, the VC was his initials, Slate VC, Vivien Charles [laughs] and everybody thought he had a VC, except some of us who knew better, oh, he’d flown everything, he wasn’t even a pilot, he’d been a pilot, a wireless op, he’d done it all, in actual fact he’d done nothing, he was a traffic control assistant, ok, might have done a good job, but [unclear] done [laughs], Slate VC
CB: Just quickly for background, the repatriation was Operation Exodus, just for the tape. That’s been fascinating, so I’m gonna stop the tape now. Thank you very much because you’ve had a good run and we’ll pick up the other bits later. Thank you very much indeed, Clifford.
CW: Oh, it’s a pleasure.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Clifford Watson. One
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Chris Brockbank
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-06-28
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AWatsonC170628, PWatsonC1704
Format
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01:57:17 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Clifford Watson at first wanted to join the navy because of a high demand in pilots. After being rejected, he joined the RAF and was sent to Rhodesia for pilot training, but then remustered to become an air gunner. He flew seventy-six ops in total. Was posted to North Africa and recounts various episodes: targeting enemy trains; flying operations over Italy; the accidental targeting of a ship full of British prisoners of war during the German evacuation of North Africa. Flew to Bergen with 9 Squadron and operations targeting dams in Holland. Recounts an operation to Politz on the Baltic, where they bombed the wrong target.
Contributor
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Peter Schulze
Steph Jackson
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
Norway
Poland
South Africa
Netherlands
Tunisia--Qayrawān
Zimbabwe
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
Netherlands--Walcheren
Norway--Bergen
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
North Africa
Tunisia
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944-10-28
227 Squadron
25 OTU
30 OTU
84 OTU
9 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bombing
entertainment
Operational Training Unit
RAF Balderton
RAF Bardney
RAF Finningley
RAF Hixon
RAF Strubby
RAF Winthorpe
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/337/3501/PTaylorEC1701.1.jpg
acbcb633c679d09f01c94a0f7e54d530
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/337/3501/ATaylorEC170928.2.mp3
9a15f4d3f4e54369b0747cf28be0b8eb
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
Taylor, Eric
Eric Charles Taylor
Eric C Taylor
E C Taylor
E Taylor
Description
An account of the resource
One oral history interview with Squadron Leader Eric Charles Taylor.
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
Taylor, EC
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
DK: So this is David Kavanagh for the International Bomber Command Centre, interviewing Squadron Leader Eric Taylor at his home on the –
BT: Where are we?
DK: 28th of September 2017. So if I just put that there, put that that there –
ET: Yeah.
DK: Put that there. I’ll keep looking down, I’m just making sure that it’s working.
ET: Yes.
DK: That looks okay. So if we leave that, yeah that looks okay. Well, what I wanted to ask you first was what, what were you doing immediately before the war?
ET: School.
DK: Right, so you went straight from school to –
ET: I left school in the June forty-three –
DK: Mhm.
ET: Sorry, [pause] –
DK: It would be 1943 wouldn’t it?
ET: Yeah it is forty-three.
DK: Yeah, yeah. So you went straight from school, straight from school to the RAF?
ET: Yes.
DK: So what made you want to join the RAF then?
ET: Because I, I joined the, the LDV I think they called it –
DK: The Home Guard.
ET: The Local Defence Force.
DK: Mhm [BT laughs].
ET: And they put me through hours of drill [laughs], and I didn’t like that very much. I thought I’ll probably better join the Air Force, and you used to get all these magazines of course, you know, with all the things about the –
DK: Yeah.
ET: Battle of Britain and that type of thing. That’s what encouraged me to, to join. I went to Edinburgh for a testation [?] which was delayed for six months, so I actually went in, in the February –
DK: Is that on? Yeah, okay.
ET: Forty-three.
DK: Right. So –
ET: That was wrong, I told you –
DK: You’re right, it says forty-two in here.
ET: Must have been forty-two [emphasis].
DK: Right.
ET: Twenty, 1923 and something.
DK: That’s 1940 isn’t it? Okay, don’t worry, don’t worry.
ET: 1940.
DK: Yeah.
BT: 1940, you’d be seventeen.
DK: Yeah.
ET: Must have been forty-one then.
BT: Forty-one was it, okay.
ET: Left school.
BT: Yeah.
DK: So forty-one.
ET: Yeah, because it was forty-two –
DK: That you joined the Air Force.
ET: That I joined the Air Force.
DK: Yeah, yeah, okay.
ET: That’s right.
DK: You left school in 1941 and then joined the Air Force –
ET: Yeah.
DK: In 1942. So what, what was your first posting in the Air Force then? Where, where, can you remember where you went to?
ET: Well the first , well I went to London, and the – ooh we attended several lectures, you know, mainly about venereal disease [all laugh] and all the rest of the things.
DK: Yeah.
ET: And the, from then on I went up to, I trained at Staverton, Gloucestershire, Number Six AUS [?].
DK: Right.
ET: And that took about a year.
DK: So at this point you were already training as a navigator?
ET: Yeah, oh initially I did a small six hours course. I went in as a PNB.
DK: Right.
ET: Pilot, navigator or –
DK: Bomber aimer.
ET: Bomber aimer. Didn’t quite make the pilot stakes [?] so I became a navigator.
DK: Right.
ET: And then I went to the CUS [?]. That was the first straight navigator course, because before that they had the air observers, they called them.
DK: Yeah.
ET: Yeah, so we didn’t do any bombing aiming at that time. Course I went through them very quickly [emphasis], it only took about a year.
DK: Yeah.
ET: Then from there I went to Stratford-on-Avon to the OTU.
DK: Yeah.
ET: Operational training unit.
DK: Yeah. Just going, winding back a bit. What, what was the training as a, as a navigator? Were you actually flying [emphasis] at the time then?
ET: Yes, yes.
DK: So what sort of aircraft were you –
ET: Anson
DK: Ansons, right.
ET: Anson mainly. And then we came onto the Wellington when we came onto the OTU.
DK: The operational training unit.
ET: Yeah.
DK: Yeah, so that was Number 16 Operational Training Unit?
ET: That’s right.
DK: Yeah, and that was at RAF Upper Heyford?
ET: No.
DK: Oop, sorry.
ET: It’s at, it was at, it, just past Stratford-on-Avon.
DK: Stratford-on-Avon, right, okay.
ET: Yeah.
DK: So that’s 16 OTU at Stratford-on-Avon. And, and what aircraft were you training on there?
ET: Wellingtons.
DK: And is that where you met your, your crew then?
ET: Yeah. Well we all met [emphasis] –
DK: Mm.
ET: And just somebody would say, ‘would you like to fly with me?’ It was very, it wasn’t a rigid [?] thing at all, you know.
DK: No. So how did that work then? Were you all pushed into a hangar and you all had to work –
ET: Well we’re in a big hall, yeah, and the pilots were there and [laughs] –
DK: Right. How did you think that worked, ‘cause it’s quite unusual for the military. Normally you’re ordered to go somewhere.
ET: Well that’s right.
DK: This was quite an unusual way of where you –
ET: Yes.
DK: Picked your crew.
ET: Anyway, that’s how they did it and it seemed to work out there pretty well.
DK: And you found your, your pilot there then did you?
ET: Yes.
DK: And can you remember your pilot’s name?
ET: Yes, Cyril Pearce.
DK: Right.
ET: I think he’s no longer with us –
DK: Yeah.
ET: I don’t think any of the crew are with us now, you know.
DK: So you would have met your pilot?
ET: Yes.
DK: And –
ET: I met them all, the bomb aimer –
DK: Bomb aimer.
ET: And the wireless operator.
DK: Yeah.
ET: And the gunner.
DK: Mhm. And, and did you all get on well together when you –
ET: Yes, we seemed to, yeah.
DK: Yeah.
ET: Yeah. And I – the navigator didn’t do a lot of the pilot training on the aircraft, you know, the local flying circuits and mops and that.
DK: Yeah.
ET: But on the cross countries of course, we, we all went on those.
DK: Mm.
ET: Some had a dual instructor and others smaller [?].
DK: Yeah. What did you think of the Wellington as an aircraft?
ET: Actually quite good after the [laughs] – it was a bit bigger. The big thing I remember is – I think the model’s a 1-C that we trained on.
DK: Right.
ET: At the OTU, but then we got a mark three I think. ‘Cause we took an aeroplane out with us when we went to Tunisia.
DK: Right.
ET: And that was a long flight.
DK: Mm.
ET: We had to go miles out to sea to avoid the Bay of Biscay, you know, ‘cause all the Germans –
DK: Yeah, yeah.
ET: Were there, and we flew from Portreath to a place called Ras el Ma –
DK: Right.
ET: On the west coast of Africa. The big thing I remember there was there was always an enormous amount of flies [DK and ET laugh]. You had a plate of soup, had a quick swipe [DK laughs], put your spoon in quickly [laughs]. And from there we just, we went on through Blida and then ended up at the Kairouan.
DK: Right.
ET: With aircraft – 142 Squadron and 150 had both just gone there. There was nothing, there were no facilities at all. There wasn’t even a latrine initially [laughs].
DK: So, so out your training then, you’ve done the operational training unit and really cross country flights around England.
ET: That’s it.
DK: And then your posted to your squadron and you’re posted out to Africa.
ET: Yes [emphasis].
DK: Oh right.
ET: Actually we just cleared [?] Africa, North Africa. Well we arrived there –
DK: Right.
ET: And when I was, we were there, we had the invasion of Sicily of course.
DK: Mm.
ET: And Italy. And most of our bombing were, they were to, you know, targets in Sicily.
DK: Right.
ET: And several, going up the coast to Italy.
DK: Right, and this was with 142 Squadron?
ET: 142 Squadron.
DK: Yeah. So can you remember how many operations you did in the Middle East and Italy?
ET: Yes I, thirty.
DK: Thirty [emphasis]? Oh right.
ET: That was a tour then.
DK: Yeah.
ET: And I came back to UK. Oh I went with a journey from Tunis to Algiers –
DK: Mm.
ET: By train, and on the carriage I’ll always remember it said, ‘forty orm [?] or five [laughs], what were they, sivar [?] horses’ [ET and DK laugh]. Took five days, the journey, and then you got on a boat, came back to Liverpool.
DK: Right.
ET: This was at the end of forty-three –
DK: Uh-huh.
ET: And the – I thought I’d move to Scotland so I went all the way up to a place called Edsoff [?] where I used to live and the last bit I had to do by bus, you know, train then bus.
DK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
ET: Then I met this girl on the bus and she said, ‘what are you doing?’ And I said, I said ‘I’m going home [emphasis], what did you think?’ She says ‘I think they’ve moved’ [laughs]. Ah, I had then to go and search where they’d gone to.
DK: And this was your family?
ET: That’s my family –
DK: They’d moved while you were away [laughs].
ET: My parents – well I didn’t get the letter of course to say they were moving.
DK: Oh of course.
ET: And they’d moved to Woodhall Spa would you believe.
DK: Oh right.
ET: In Lincolnshire.
DK: Yeah, yeah, know it well [DK and ET laugh]. So when you were in Africa then, your parents moved from Scotland –
ET: Yes.
DK: To Woodhall Spa.
ET: Yeah.
DK: And you didn’t, you didn’t know [laughs].
ET: Didn’t know.
DK: No. If I could just go back a bit, your operations in the Middle East. Did you find navigating something that came to you easily or –
ET: Quite difficult.
DK: Difficult? Right, because –
ET: Actually, we did have one, one navigation error which a very lucky to get away with it in many respects because coming back from Italy, we hit this land [emphasis] and I thought it was the north coast of Africa –
DK: Right.
ET: It turned out to be the north coast of Sicily [emphasis], going along.
DK: Yeah.
ET: And, course there’s some very high mountains there. Our signaller, our wireless operator finally got a , what we’d call a QDM –
DK: Mm.
ET: You know, a course to steer.
DK: Yeah.
ET: So we turned on that. Of course we’re getting short of fuel and all sorts of things, and we threw out the guns onto the turret to make the aircraft lighter, and coasted at quite a low altitude –
DK: Mm.
ET: Thinking of the mountains there –
DK: Yeah.
ET: And landed , there was an emergency airfield right on the tip of, which we landed at.
DK: On Sicily?
ET: No, no, in North Africa.
DK: Oh North Africa was it, right.
ET: Right at the top there.
DK: Right, oh right.
ET: So that was a real bit of luck there.
DK: Did you, did you get into any trouble for navigating?
ET: Not really.
DK: No, good [DK and ET laugh].
ET: What I remember is my pilot got in trouble because there was a taxi accident.
DK: Right.
ET: That’s the worst thing that can be done, you know. I think the wing hit it [unclear] on one and knocked [?] it up and twice, and I remember the station [?] commander at briefing for an operational trip. He’d see [?] pilots in front of him and say, ‘look at these men, traitors to the cause.’ I always remember that.
DK: Yeah.
ET: Terrible thing to say really.
DK: Bit harsh isn’t it?
ET: They felt bad enough as it is.
DK: Yeah. And one of those, one of those was your pilot was it?
ET: Yes [emphasis].
DK: Stood up – so he had to stand in front of everybody and get told off?
ET: Well there was three of them.
DK: Three of them, right.
ET: Yes, two’s [?] being blamed for the trip, you know –
DK: Yeah.
ET: That night. And this came out.
DK: Oh dear. It’s not very good is it? [Laughs].
ET: Very unsympathetic.
DK: No. Were commanding officers like that then? Were they a bit tough?
ET: This is a copy, what’s it? [Papers shuffle]. Is there something in there called “Blida’s Bombers?” A book. Oh yeah, it’s about him.
DK: Oh right.
ET: There’s something in [papers shuffle, pause]. All this mail, that’s Kairouan [laughs].
DK: Right. Just for the recording, it’s a magazine or a pamphlet called “Blida’s Bombers.” B-L-I-D-A, Blida. That’s, that’s in Algiers isn’t it?
ET: That’s right.
DK: [Unclear].
ET: That was a big base, as the Army. We started going in with the first army –
DK: Right.
ET: [Unclear].
DK: I actually went there many years ago, to Blida in Algiers. And just for the recording, this is “Blida’s Bombers” by Eric M. Summers. Did you know Eric M. Summers?
ET: No.
DK: No, no.
ET: But there was a Group Captain Powel, his photograph was in there which I was trying to, to find.
DK: Right.
ET: He was a man that –
DK: Oh, Group Captain Powel –
ET: Yeah.
DK: Here he is.
ET: Yeah, but there’s a picture of him with his –
DK: That’s in there.
ET: Fly [?]. He always used to fly [laughs].
DK: So he was your commanding officer was he?
ET: He was the station commander actually –
DK: Station commander, right.
ET: Group captain, yeah.
DK: And was it him who told your –
ET: Yes.
DK: The three pilot off?
ET: Yeah.
DK: Well that’s for the recording then, Group Captain Powell [laughs]. Ah there he is, there is he is.
ET: That’s him.
DK: Yeah.
ET: That’s exactly with his – yeah.
DK: Oh, so just for the recording here. It’s Group Captain Powell, briefing for Radan Recina [?]. And it looks like he’s got a fly swat there.
ET: That’s right. He always used that as a pointer [DK and ET laugh].
DK: He looks like he must have been a bit of a character. Oh wow.
ET: Quite a forceful –
DK: Forceful, I can imagine [?].
ET: Yeah.
DK: So there’s the Wellingtons –
ET: Probably [unclear], that’s him, yeah.
DK: You were flying.
ET: Yes, yeah.
DK: So this is all – the book itself is about the Tunis campaign then?
ET: What I can remember is when we got later [?], the power, the whole, the whole instruments used to shake and [laughs].
DK: [Unclear] my phone’s on. Sorry about that. So you got Noel Coward’s poem [?] there, ‘lie in the dark and listen.’
ET: Yes.
DK: Yeah, ah. So while you were in North Africa then and you’re bombing targets in Italy, were you, was your aircraft ever hit at all or, can you recall?
ET: Er, not really. Should they call it sometimes [?], few peppered.
DK: Right.
ET: But nothing direct.
DK: Nothing serious.
ET: Direct hit.
DK: So you never got attacked by German aircraft –
ET: No.
DK: At all?
ET: No.
DK: Right. So what did you, what sort of targets were you hitting there in –
ET: Mostly airfields.
DK: Mostly airfields.
ET: There, [papers shuffle] here you are –
DK: Right.
ET: I don’t have the – oh [unclear]. That’s how we got there.
DK: Right okay, so that’s, for the recording here, that’s your logbook.
ET: That’s my logbook, yeah.
DK: So –
ET: Number one.
DK: Your pilot then is Pearce.
ET: Yes.
DK: Sergeant Pearce, and you’re the navigator down on here.
ET: We’re all sergeants –
DK: You’re all sergeants, right.
ET: At the time. There was very few, very few commissioned there on the squadron.
DK: Right, so the whole crew was sergeants then?
ET: Yeah.
DK: Yeah, so from the logbook then, so you’ve gone from Portreath to Ra –
ET: Ras el Ma.
DK: El Ma. Ras el Ma to Blida.
ET: That’s right.
DK: Then Blida to Kairouan.
ET: Kairouan.
DK: And I’ll spell that for the recording. It’s K-A-I-R-O-U-A-N. And so your base was Maison Blanche?
ET: No the base was Kairouan.
DK: Kairouan was it?
ET: Yeah.
DK: Right okay.
ET: It looks as though someone must have taken an aeroplane or something up there.
DK: Oh right [something pings in background].
ET: And I don’t know how we came back but it –
DK: Right. So you’ve done operations then to Nissena [?] –
ET: Yeah.
DK: And that’s in a Wellington, 19th of June 1943. So Nissena [?] seems to be a regular target, hmm. So Nissena [?], Italian airfield, Syracuse.
ET: Syracuse, yeah.
DK: Yeah.
ET: Masala [?].
DK: So quite a number of – so you said you did thirty operations there in North Africa?
ET: Yeah.
DK: Hmm, the Nissena beaches I noticed [page turns]. So what were the, what were the briefings like in North Africa? Were you sort of in a tent and – what were the facilities like?
ET: Yes, was all under canvas, the whole thing. The food was corned beef –
DK: Yeah.
ET: For everything. In fact, I got an attack of jaundice –
DK: Oh right.
ET: Through that. I went into hospital and they gave me tinned fruit –
DK: Rivht.
ET: And I thought this was a most wonderful thing to, to get. In fact, there was a big American camp near us and they – we used to trade whiskey [DK laughs] for tinned fruit –
DK: Yeah, yeah.
ET: You know, that they had.
DK: [Tape moved] I’m not sure that that’s such a good spot now [laughs].
BT: No.
ET: Not now [laughs].
DK: Not now, no. Oh right.
ET: I suppose thank goodness for corned beef otherwise the [laughs] –
DK: So at, at the briefings then, presumably you’re sort of sat down and told what the target – were you told what the targets were?
ET: Told what the target is, yes.
DK: Right. So in North Africa, were they mostly military targets, airfields and –
ET: Yes.
DK: I noticed here you’ve got here [reading from logbook]: ‘30th of September 1943, ops. Port engine caught fire on takeoff [emphasis].’ Do you remember that?
ET: Not really [both laugh].
DK: Well it says you landed okay after twenty-five minutes.
ET: Yeah we always – obviously we’d have just gone –
DK: Yeah.
ET: Round and there –
DK: And landed again.
ET: And landed again.
DK: So then you’ve had, got several places in Italy then. I noticed you’ve got Pisa is one, ops to Pisa.
ET: Yes.
DK: Yeah [paper turns].
ET: I remember the vehicles [?], I remember we were on that night, bobbing and the beaches, you know, before the army got in.
DK: So that’s 142 Squadron then, and you’ve done two hundred and forty-two hours, fifteen minutes operations then.
ET: Is that the end?
DK: Yeah that’s the end there, yeah.
ET: Yeah [page turns].
DK: So you’ve, you’ve come back to the UK then, you’ve come back to England. What, where –
ET: I was an instructor then.
DK: Right [laughs].
ET: Or so – we didn’t have half the instrumentation that the UK aircraft had.
DK: Right.
ET: So it was like an idiot teaching an idiot really [laughing], until we got used to –
DK: Right. So you, you went onto training then did you? You were –
ET: Yes.
DK: Right.
ET: It, I did a year –
DK: Right.
ET: Mainly at a place called Barford St. John –
DK: Right.
ET: Which is not far from Oxfordshire. Oh it’s about three miles away from, what’s the name of the town [pause], starts with a B I think.
DK: Bedford?
BT: Bicester?
DK: Bicester?
BT: Bicester, yeah?
ET: B – well down that way, yeah.
DK: Right. And that was in Oxfordshire was it?
ET: Yeah.
DK: Right.
ET: And then the –
DK: So what, what aircraft were you flying doing the training there?
ET: Wellingtons.
DK: Wellingtons again, and that, you said they were better equipped than the ones you were flying in the Middle East?
ET: Yes [DK laughs]. There’s a thing in navigation called G [emphasis] –
DK: Yes.
ET: Which we didn’t have out there, you know. It was a wonderful aid, very accurate –
DK: Mm.
ET: But I had to learn [laughs], I had to learn that, you see, when I came back .
DK: So although you were training people, you yourself didn’t know –
ET: Well [laughs].
DK: Oh right.
ET: You know radio, you know, out there, about thirty-five miles was the range of our radio. You know –
DK: Mm.
ET: If you did want to call our base [laughs] –
DK: Yeah.
ET: You had to be within thirty-five miles of it.
DK: So not very far then?
ET: Not very far at all, no.
BT: Banbury, it was.
DK: Banbury.
ET: Banbury [emphasis] was the place –
BT: I just looked it up.
ET: Yeah sorry, Banbury, Banbury’s where – it was just outside Banbury. And anyway, at the end of the year they changed from Wellingtons to Mosquitos.
DK: Right, okay.
ET: So I just stayed there and did the course, met the pilot. He was a very good pilot. He, when he finished training in Canada they kept him on as an instructor.
DK: Right. So you’ve come – I slightly misread this earlier and I want – for the benefit of the tape, your initial training was at Number Six Air Observation School at Staverton.
ET: That’s right.
DK: And then you went to 21 OTU, Morteon-in-the-Marsh.
ET: That’s correct.
DK: Then [emphasis] to North Africa.
ET: For operational training –
DK: Then to North Africa –
ET: North Africa.
DK: Sorry I misread this, with 142 Squadron.
ET: Yes.
DK: Which we’ve just covered.
ET: That’s correct.
DK: So you’ve come back then and you did a year’s training –
ET: Yes.
DK: Instructing, and that was at 16 OTU, Upper Heyford [?].
ET: Yes, that was the main base –
DK: Main base.
ET: But as I say, I spent it all at Barford –
DK: Right okay.
ET: St. John.
DK: Right. So then in early 1945 then, you’re now converted onto the Mosquito?
ET: That’s right.
DK: Can you remember your pilot’s name on the Mosquito?
ET: Yeah, Green, Dave Green.
DK: Dave Green.
ET: We didn’t have a – he was married, the chap in the, well obviously [unclear] he met a girl out there and married her, and so we didn’t spend a lot of social time together at all.
DK: Right.
ET: He didn’t drink at al so l [laughs].
DK: Was that quite unusual in the Air Force then? [Laughs].
ET: Well a bit. But yeah he was a good chap.
DK: Right. And would he have been a pilot officer or –
ET: He was a flight lieutenant.
DK: Flight lieutenant, right. So that’s Flight Lieutenant –
ET: I expect –
DK: Dave Green
ET: If you, if you finished top of your course –
DK: Yeah.
ET: You were normally commissioned, the top. So as he did well, kept him on as an instructor, I suspect he was –
DK: And you say he was an Australian?
ET: No, no, he was English.
DK: English, right okay. So, and you’re in the Mosquitos then. What did you think of the Mosquito as a aircraft?
ET: Oh it was great [laughs], with so much speed.
DK: Mm.
ET: Amazing aircraft because to carry that load, to carry one four thousand pound bomb, was like a big oil tank, you know.
DK: Mm, yeah.
ET: Oil drum, for the business. And course we’d overload tanks on the wings as well, so she was pretty heavy.
DK: Yeah.
ET: But it was wonderful. We used to bomb at twenty-five thousand feet.
DK: Right.
ET: And when the bomb went of course you shot up about three [DK and ET laugh], three hundred feet.
DK: And this was at 571 Squadron?
ET: 571, yeah.
DK: And –
ET: It was very short lived – each squadron, they were created [emphasis], you know, and of course the war, the war finished –
DK: Right.
ET: And they disappeared again.
DK: Can you remember, can you remember where you were based with 571?
ET: Yes, Oakington.
DK: Oakington, right okay.
ET: Which is a big –
DK: Housing estate now [BT laughs].
ET: Oh is it?
DK: Yeah, afraid so. It’s all been knocked down.
ET: But did it, did have all these refugee, I don’t know what they were, refugee centres?
DK: It was for while, yes.
ET: Yeah.
DK: It was a refugee centre –
ET: Yeah.
DK: After the war.
ET: Oh but, but I haven’t mentioned that I – when the war finished, they asked for volunteers to ferry the aircraft back from Canada.
DK: Oh right.
ET: SO I volunteered for that. I got out to Canada, went out by boat, and they said ‘oh you’re not wireless trained’ [laughs].
DK: Mm.
ET: ‘So you can’t do that.’ So I ended up doing about thirty hours in Dakotas.
DK: Oh right [DK and ET laugh].
ET: And I was there for about three months, and came back in a BUAC [?] Liberator.
DK: Right.
ET: [Laughs] to Prestwick, I remember that.
DK: Just, just going back a little bit to your time in the Mosquitos.
ET: Yes.
DK: Can you remember how many operations you did on Mosquitos?
ET: Yes, I did twenty.
DK: Right, so that was thirty operations, Wellingtons in North Africa –
ET: Yes.
DK: And another twenty –
ET: When we were operating on the Mosquito, we had sort of two nights on and one night off.
DK: So what was your role with the Mosquito, because you weren’t really flying with the main Bomber force were you? Were you separate to them?
ET: Well, it was diversionary [emphasis] normally. We went to targets to make them think that the –
DK: Right.
ET: Main force was going there. You had your sneaky little – I went to Berlin thirteen times [laughs].
DK: Right. What was it like flying over Berlin?
ET: Well it’s quite, quite intense. The flak was, you know, they had these predictions, the marshal [?] –
DK: Yeah.
ET: Predicting –
DK: Predicting flak –
ET: You’re very happy if you saw it bursting a bit beneath you, you know, thinking ‘oh they haven’t got it right.’
DK: Mm.
ET: And they had these incredible searchlights, and a marshal would come on you, and then all the sleeves [?] [unclear]. It’s a really lovely feeling [laughs] being all lit up at night.
DK: So when that happened, what did your pilot do? Did he –
ET: He couldn’t do much at all really –
DK: Right.
ET: For that. Because with that height, you know, it would take a long way to –
DK: To get out the searchlight. So you’re, you’re being fired on all the time while you’re in the searchlights?
ET: Well, you might be or you might not, you know. It didn’t – we had a little indicator on the aircraft, a light it was, which was supposed to switch on if you were being attacked.
DK: Yeah. So you, did you fly out with a number of other Mosquitos?
ET: Yes.
DK: And could you see them at night, or –
ET: Well that’s the amazing thing is, there’s all these aircraft together –
DK: Yeah.
ET: You suddenly see, if another one gets lit up by the searchlights you think, ‘I didn’t realise he was there,’ you know.
DK: Mm.
ET: You were like a loose formation I think, you weren’t in flying formation.
DK: Right, so you never saw other aircraft then?
ET: Not very often.
DK: So your role was then, the main force would go off to one target and you’d attack somewhere else to, to draw –
ET: Yes.
DK: Their defences there –
ET: Yes.
DK: Presumably.
ET: Of course, we had the Pathfinders.
DK: Yeah.
ET: Who would – now this, well a secret as it was at the time, called Oboe.
DK: Mhm.
ET: And they used to drop on that, and this thing was amazing. Two different aircraft flares go down, you go down one on top of the other. You’d think it was out of one aircraft, you know.
DK: Right.
ET: This was getting towards the end and –
DK: So when you saw these two flares go down, what was your, what did you have to do then?
ET: Well, I’d, it would tell you, or, if it was some apart [?] it would tell you which one to go for. Well, I had to get down into the bomb bay, and, well about ten, you had a ten minute run in when you had to stay rock steady, you know, and I had to get down into the front and set up the bomb, bomb site.
DK: Right.
ET: ‘Cause one night, an incident was that I got down there and I wasn’t making sense about it to my pilot, and he was very quick at knocking my oxygen off [laughs].
DK: Oh.
ET: And he quickly catched on what was wrong and put the switch –
DK: Right.
ET: Back on.
DK: So he switched the oxygen off then, right.
ET: Yeah just getting, getting down into the – I had a harness [?] on, you know –
DK: Yeah.
ET: Just to –
DK: So, so although you were navigating then, on the Mosquitos you actually acted as a bomb aimer as well then did you?
ET: Yes, I did both jobs.
DK: Right.
ET: Yes, I did a small bombing course with a Mosquito conversion. We did a course on –
DK: Right.
ET: With Oxfords [emphasis] it was this time, which was a training aircraft.
DK: Mm.
ET: Used to bomb in the Wash.
DK: Mm.
ET: You know, the target.
DK: Yeah.
ET: The Wash.
DK: Yeah, so, so you said you went to Berlin thirteen –
ET: I think it was about thirteen –
DK: Thirteen times.
ET: Times if you –
DK: So for the recording, I’m looking at the logbook again so, so 1st of March 1945, Mosquito. You’ve gone from ops to Erfurt, E-R-F-U-R-T.
ET: Erfurt, yeah.
DK: So you’ve got one four thousand pound bomb.
ET: That’s a bomb we carried, just one.
DK: And then 3rd of March forty-five, Wurzburg, one four thousand pound bomb again.
ET: Yeah.
DK: And then it says here Berlin on the 5th of March, the 7th of March, 9th of March, 11th of March, 13th of March. So every other day there for about a week, you were going to Berlin.
ET: Yeah.
DK: So each time it’s one four thousand pound bomb. So those trips to Berlin, can you recall, were those diversional then, or part of a, a main attack on Berlin?
ET: I, I don’t think it was a main attack because we didn’t see other aeroplanes there really.
DK: Right, so the main force has gone off somewhere else?
ET: It’s more a nuisance, you know, morale type thing I think –
DK: Right.
ET: On that.
DK: So you’re also going out there then to, not as diversions as such but to just keep the defences alert?
ET: Keep it going, yeah.
DK: So then 15th of March, Erfurt again [page turns]. [Laughs], and then here 21st of March, Berlin, 23rd of March, Berlin and the 24th of March, Berlin [page turns]. Think the people in Berlin must have got a bit fed up of you turning up [all laugh]. So your, and it says here, so the same pilot, Flight Lieutenant –
ET: Yes.
DK: Is it, was it Dave Green? Dave, Dave Green, was it? Green?
ET: Dave Green, yeah.
DK: Dave Green. And just reading for the recording here –
ET: Yes.
DK: So 4th of April, Magdeburg, and then 8th of April, Berlin, 10th of April, Berlin, 12th of April, Berlin [BT laughs], 13th of April, I’ll spell this out for the recording. It’s S-T-R-A-L-S-U-N-I, or S-U-N-D, Stralsund I think it is. 17th of April, Berlin, 20th of April, Berlin again, 23rd of April, Flensburg [page turns]. So the end must be coming to an end here then. And finally, 25th of April, a power station at Munich.
ET: That’s right, that was the last one.
DK: Mm.
ET: It, I had a son out there [laughs].
DK: Right.
ET: He worked with the, what’s it called, you know, the –
BT: Eurofighter.
ET: Eurofighter.
DK: Oh right, oh okay.
BT: After the war you want to add [DK and BT laugh].
ET: After the war, oh yes.
DK: Yes.
ET: But I said, ‘I probably passed this part,’ I said, ‘I probably bombed [emphasis] that part’ [all laugh].
BT: Yeah.
DK: So years later, your son was working on the Eurofighter in Europe?
ET: He was in the Eurofighter, yeah.
DK: So can I, if I just add those up [page turns]. Where are we, that’s Berlin. One, two, three, four, five [page turns], six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. Yes as you say, thirteen.
ET: That was –
DK: So out of those twenty operations in Mosquitos, thirteen of them were to Berlin.
ET: Yeah.
DK: And your trips to Berlin, it’s obviously quite a long way. I mean, are you fired on all the way or is it mostly quite dark and quiet?
ET: Bits and pieces.
DK: Mm.
ET: Sometimes flak would come up, you know, you could see it at – you just hoped they hadn’t predicted you, your height.
DK: Hmm. But in a Mosquito you’re a lot higher than another aircraft.
ET: Twenty-five.
DK: Mm, twenty-five thousand feet.
ET: We were, and sometimes we used to get to thirty coming back, you know.
DK: And can you recall, were you ever attacked by German aircraft at all?
ET: Not that I know of.
DK: No.
ET: No.
DK: So as you’re, as you’re approaching the target then, you’ve got down into the –
ET: I get down into the, the bomb bay –
DK: So –
ET: And set up the wind and that –
DK: Yeah.
ET: On the – in fact, so that we could keep together more of the navigation, you’re trying to navigation –
DK: Yeah, yeah.
ET: The leading aircraft might pass back the wind, so as we’re all using the same wind to, to part [?] with our drift and that –
DK: Right.
ET: So as we’d keep –
DK: ‘Cause presumably wind change can really affect your navigation?
ET: Oh yeah, well effects your drift and everything you see, so if you get different winds you could be offsetting differently.
DK: Right, what was it like, if I can ask – you’d obviously have a briefing beforehand –
ET: Yes.
DK: And, and this is in the building at Oakham. What were your feelings like when you saw what your target was going to be?
ET: Well you think –
DK: Presumably they have curtains and they put it back and –
ET: Well they tell you where it is. Oh, the routine was, you take the aircraft up for an air test –
DK: Right.
ET: Up there about fifteen minutes, see it’s alright in the morning, and then, this being the morning, then the afternoon you would go to briefing. Told you where it was, you had to make charts up, you know –
DK: What was your thoughts when you saw Berlin again? Were you –
ET: [Laughs] yeah, ‘can’t you find somewhere else to’ –
DK: So you now know the target, so you’re now doing your charts presumably as the navigator?
ET: Yeah.
DK: So you’re, you’re told the winds and –
ET: Got to put a tracking of where we’re going and that, all these sort of things. Oh yeah, you get briefed by the MET officer of the winds and the weather.
DK: Mhm.
ET: And after that, you had a meal, and then you went back. The worst thing I found was you went back to your billet and then you’d devour [?] away these hours –
DK: Right.
ET: Until, ‘cause it’s always at night of course, you know, until you’re ready for takeoff.
DK: So it came as a bit of a relief then, when you got to the aircraft to takeoff?
ET: Oh yeah, once you get going, you’re too busy really to think about anything else, provided you didn’t swing. It was quite a nasty aircraft to swing in on takeoff –
DK: Mm.
ET: Mosquito, you know, the propellers going the same direction –
DK: Yeah.
ET: Until they got the tail up for a bit of –
DK: Yeah.
ET: Control.
DK: And your pilot then, Dave Green, was he a good pilot?
ET: Yes [emphasis]. But just as I say, he was a quiet chap so I didn’t really see much of him –
DK: Right.
ET: Apart from work which, which was fine [laughs].
DK: But did you – I’m presuming you’d have to work well [emphasis] together then.
ET: Oh yes.
DK: So you worked well together?
ET: Yeah.
DK: We’ve covered what you did over the targets, so you’ve come back after the operation and your landing. How did you feel then as you got back?
ET: Relieved once you got down but of course you’re coming back, you’re all coming back together aren’t you? In these airfield, the seconds [?] they overlapped.
DK: Yeah.
ET: So it was a bit dodgy at times. We landed once at the wrong airport [laughs].
DK: Really?
ET: You know, the wrong way, direction was the same.
DK: Yeah.
ET: We ended up at Wyton [laughs].
DK: Right.
ET: Anyway, they just briefed us and, and that was it. I think we took off in the morning to get back to base [DK and ET laugh].
DK: So you, once you’ve landed then, what’s the procedures then?
ET: Oh you go for a briefing.
DK: Right, a debriefing [emphasis].
ET: De –
DK: Yeah.
ET: Debriefing.
DK: And, and who would take that?
ET: Intelligence.
DK: Mm.
ET: Officers.
DK: Mm, and what sort of questions did they ask?
ET: Did you hit the target, did you think you hit the target?
DK: Right.
ET: We used to take a, a film [emphasis]. Some were better than others, you know –
DK: Mm.
ET: Of the target area and when it happened.
DK: So a photo would be taken when you –
ET: A photo when you pressed the plunger for, to release the bomb a photograph would be taken –
DK: Oh right.
ET: A little later.
DK: Right. So you’ve got back then and you’ve got feelings of relief. What happened then, you just went to bed?
ET: No.
DK: Ah.
ET: Went for a meal.
DK: Right, okay [DK and ET laugh].
ET: And a beer.
DK: Mm.
ET: And a few beers [DK laughs], otherwise I never slept really, you know.
DK: Right.
ET: It’s all night [?], but oh, it was a relief [emphasis] –
DK: Mm.
ET: Really. I mean we were very lucky in the Mosquito, we didn’t have near the number of losses –
DK: Mm.
ET: That the – the loss that I saw, well, the loss that I saw was at – one aircraft completed [?], he was up on his air test and of course he came and tried to beat up the, what we called the flight hock [?] [emphasis], you know, where our ground crew were.
DK: Yep.
ET: And these, these overload tanks in the wing. He hit a tree and knocked one tank off, and the aircraft just [unclear].
DK: Cartwheeled.
ET: I watched this –
DK: Yeah.
ET: Just rolling [emphasis].
DK: Yeah.
ET: And it went straight in the front of the, the sick quarters.
DK: Mm.
ET: That was a complete waste of lives. Another accident we had was at the – one chap lost an engine and he came roaring in far too fast. Oh no sorry, he spun [emphasis] in and of course, they were killed. It happened a second time to another person, and he thought ‘I’m not going to stall’ [laughs], so he came rolling in too fast and [taps four times] wasn’t able to stop at the far end. And then the disciplinary thing at Sheffield, so they sent them to Sheffield. [Unclear] fly –
DK: Right.
ET: But just for discipline [laughs].
DK: But at least he survived that one.
ET: He survived that one, yeah.
DK: But got into trouble for it, yeah. Okay that’s, that’s great. Just ask you, after all these years how do you look back at your time in, in Bomber Command? How do you look back on that?
ET: I don’t really look back on it all that much nowadays.
DK: Mm.
ET: I think – well I was occupied, of course seeing an Air Force and getting in transport we had the Berlin Airlift –
DK: Right.
ET: For a year.
DK: So you got involved with the Berlin Airlift then did you?
ET: Yeah.
DK: Yeah, so –
ET: I did three hundred lifts on that.
DK: Oh right. So you’ve, let, you’ve – so just reading here, that’s three hundred and two lifts –
ET: Yeah.
DK: To Berlin.
ET: That took a year.
DK: And, and what aircraft were you flying?
ET: York.
DK: Right, the Avro York. So what, what was Berlin like when you, you went there after the war?
ET: Oh they were very, very grateful that we’re keeping away from the Russians I think was a big thing, you know, there.
DK: Mm. ‘Cause it’s, it’s kind of strange ‘cause one moment you’re dropping bombs [BT laughs] and then the next –
ET: Three years later, yeah.
DK: You’re giving them food.
ET: That’s right. It’s amazing when people have nothing, you know. If anybody had a bar of soap or something like that –
DK: Mm.
ET: It was like a gold [emphasis] to them, you know.
DK: Yeah.
ET: Things like that.
DK: So what kind of stuff were you carrying in the Avro Yorks then?
ET: Oh you name it, everything.
DK: Food and –
ET: There was coal.
DK: Right.
ET: Actually the aircraft – I forget they were a lot heavier when they finished, it was all this coal dust.
DK: Mm.
ET: They erm, hay for horses, all the natural stuff that people eat.
DK: Right.
ET: Anything like that.
DK: So flying into Berlin then, did you have to stick to certain routes or –
ET: Yes –
DK: ‘Cause you’re flying over –
ET: The Northern – we used to go up north and then go down from a northern corridor, and come back at a centre corridor.
DK: Right.
ET: ‘Cause basically, Onsturfrun [?]
DK: So you went to Onsturfrun Gateaux [?].
ET: Onsturfrun [?] to Gateaux [?] yeah, yeah that’s right.
DK: Right.
ET: And –
DK: So they’re just continuous flights then, going –
ET: Yeah.
DK: In the northern route and coming out the southern route.
ET: Oh it was a shambles in this case. We had lots of different speed aircraft, you know. There was, there was Yorks, there was the Dakotas –
DK: Mm.
ET: Valettas, and what was happening, supposed to go off on waves but one wave was [laughs] overtaking the other wave, you know –
DK: Right.
ET: And things like that. It’s amazing there weren’t more accidents than there were, but after they got it settled it worked very well. You just went along, you got in. If you missed, if you couldn’t get in you came straight back, you didn’t, you couldn’t go round again, you know –
DK: Right.
ET: To Gateaux [?]I mean.
DK: So you, you had to land first time?
ET: You had to land, that’s right.
DK: Yeah.
ET: But it worked very well. And we went down to two lifts. Initially we had to do three lifts. It was a tremendously long day ‘cause you had to wait for the aircraft to get ready and complete your three lifts.
DK: Mm.
ET: That was it, but they put it down to two [emphasis] so we did a night shift or a day –
DK: Yeah.
ET: Day shift. It was well organised towards the end.
DK: Was it easier for you as a navigator, doing that then, because they –
ET: Oh I didn’t do very – there wasn’t very much navigation at all.
DK: Right.
ET: For – you just, it was a corridor, you know –
DK: Right.
ET: And took me an hour coming back ‘cause you flew over quite a bit of Russian territory coming in.
DK: Mm.
ET: The only, the odd fighter used to come and have a look at you [laughs]. Think ‘I hope you go away again,’ you know.
DK: Oh right [ET laughs]. So after that then, you’ve remained with transport and –
ET: Yes.
DK: Yeah. Just looking, so you were in Valettas, Varsitys, the Beverlys?
ET: Yes.
DK: So that was, you went out to Aden then, and –
ET: Yes.
DK: And Iran? Yes.
ET: Yeah, did two years in Aden.
DK: Was that during the conflict out there or –
ET: There, there was a bit of conflict –
DK: Yeah.
ET: But [coughs] there was a lot of trouble in – what do you call that country?
DK: Yemen?
ET: Yemen.
DK: Yemen, yeah and Aden, Aden is Yemen I think, isn’t it? Oman?
ET: There’s another one I think, further east.
DK: Right. So, so what were you doing there? Was it supplying –
ET: Oh just loads of [?] – it was wonderful, a place called Macierz [?] –
DK: Mm.
ET: Which was about eight thousand feet high, and from Aden was very steamy, you know [laughs], and you get up there, your stockings fall down because it’s so dry up there.
DK: Yeah.
ET: Byt they’ve got stuff in there you didn’t know if you could get before, you know.
DK: No.
ET: Like quite big trucks and that type of thing.
DK: So what was, what was the Beverley [emphasis] like as an aircraft then? They’re quite big, quite bulky things aren’t they?
ET: Oh dear [DK laughs]. It was slow [emphasis], it was noisy [emphasis]. In fact the navigator’s table used to be on an angle, you had to, you had to [tapping] flatten it and you had to [tapping], they tried to [?] bounce on it, you know [DK laughs]. And that had a fixed undercarriage, and if you got into icy conditions, these legs used to ice up which meant you even go slower [emphasis] than [DK and ET laugh]. But it had this great capability of short landing in –
DK: Yeah.
ET: In getting into these airfields, you know.
DK: So then you’ve gone onto the Britannia.
ET: That’s right.
DK: So what, what was the Britannia like?
ET: Oh it was lovely.
DK: Yeah
ET: Yeah, I did five years on.
DK: And what was that, mostly trooping flights was it? So whereabouts did you use to go to?
ET: All over the place [coughs]. Did a lot to Norway because the commander was a not [?] – always went there from January to March –
DK: Mm.
ET: They go for their winter training –
DK: Right.
ET: So we’d lots of flights there and back. That was an adventure [?]. We had a lot of flights out to Woomera –
DK: Right.
ET: You know, the atomic –
DK: Oh right, the atomic bomb tests.
ET: It was a little box.
DK: Oh.
ET: Didn’t know what it was [DK and ET laugh]. But we used to go down to Adelaide.
DK: Probably best not to ask [all laugh].
ET: Well, quite a lot.
DK: Yeah.
ET: When all these tests were going on.
DK: Yeah.
ET: And just [coughs] –
DK: You, you didn’t witness any of the tests then did you?
ET: Oh no.
DK: No, no.
ET: We used to use an Edinburgh field recorder, it was a RAAF base. That went on quite a lot. We did trips to Singapore and back –
DK: Mhm.
ET: But when it first started, you know, there was no slipping [emphasis] crews –
DK: Yeah.
ET: You just had a – everyday it took five [emphasis] days to get to Singapore, you had two days off there and five days to come back. And I think what a waste of aircraft it was really [DK laughs]. I suppose we had so many we didn’t bother. That was on the Yorks [emphasis] then.
DK: Yeah [ET laughs]. So finally you’ve become ATS navigator instructor.
ET: That was on Belfasts.
DK: So you’re, you’ve – and then 53 Squadron on the Belfasts?
ET: That’s right.
DK: So, so what was the Belfast like as an aircraft?
ET: Oh it was nice, nice. Well lovely, very palatial for the crew.
DK: Mm.
ET: Just the pilots could get in from the outside of the aircraft into the seat, you know, being a big aircraft –
DK: Right.
ET: It was very palatial for the crew.
DK: So what sort of loads would you have on the Belfasts?
ET: All sorts, helicopters.
DK: Yeah?
ET: Tanks, just stuff like that.
BT: You took the Concord engines didn’t you as well? Concord engines.
ET: Oh I had a big, yeah. Oh my big flight was I went – we carried an engine for Concord once. It went on a world tour.
DK: Oh right.
ET: Well, went to Far East sales pitch. It never needed the engine [laughs].
DK: Right, so it was just a spare –
ET: But it was a few pictures somewhere of that. Is it in there [shuffling].
BT: Yeah that’s the one, that’s the Concord.
DK: Ah.
ET: There’s one with the tours [?] on.
BT: I’ll have a look [ET laughs].
DK: That’s the original prototype isn’t it?
ET: Yeah.
DK: DBSST.
ET: That’s right.
BT: Oh wow.
DK: Okay, so I’ll just finish this off. So you retired in 1978 as a squadron leader.
ET: That’s right.
DK: Ah.
ET: They eventually decided to promote me after [laughs] –
DK: So they promoted you just before you retired?
ET: Yes.
DK: Ah [laughs]. Okay, well I’ll stop that there because I’m conscious of you talking for a whole hour there, but thanks very much for that. I’ll switch that off now.
ET: Well –
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ATaylorEC170928
PTaylorEC1701
Title
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Interview with Eric Taylor
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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IBCC Digital Archive
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Sound
Language
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eng
Format
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00:54:10 audio recording
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Pending review
Creator
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David Kavanagh
Date
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2017-09-28
Description
An account of the resource
Squadron Leader Eric Taylor joined the Royal Air Force in 1942 and served as a navigator. He served in North Africa and completed a tour of operations against targets in Italy before becoming an instructor in England. He describes the differences in instrumentation between the North African and English aircraft, such as the Gee navigational aid. He flew nuisance and diversion operations in Mosquitos over places such as Wurzburg, Erfurt and Berlin thirteen times. He was involved in the Berlin Airlift and then spent a couple of years serving in Aden and the Middle East, and remained in the Air Force until 1978 when he retired as a squadron leader.
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
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Algeria
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
Tunisia
England--Cambridgeshire
Algeria--Blida
Algeria--Râs el Ma
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Erfurt
Germany--Würzburg
Tunisia--Qayrawān
North Africa
Contributor
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Katie Gilbert
Temporal Coverage
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1940
1941
1943
1945
142 Squadron
16 OTU
571 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
civil defence
crewing up
Gee
Home Guard
Mosquito
navigator
Operational Training Unit
RAF Moreton in the Marsh
RAF Oakington
RAF Upper Heyford
training
Wellington
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/706/10104/ABellGW161221.1.mp3
9f6081f87bc9ed1ae80c509b7527e12c
Dublin Core
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Title
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Bell, Gerald Walter
G W Bell
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Corporal Gerald Bell (b. 1921, 185210 Royal Air Force). He served as ground personnel.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-12-21
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Bell, GW
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is the 21st of December 2016 and I am with Gerald Bell in Weston near Towcester in Northamptonshire and Gerald worked on the ground throughout the war and we are going to talk about his life and times. So, what’s the first thing you remember about life, Gerald?
GB: Going to school I suppose.
CB: Ok.
GB: At five. Yes.
CB: And where is that?
GB: Hickling. School.
CB: Which was near where? Hickling?
GB: [unclear]
CB: In Norfolk.
GB: Yes.
CB: Yes, in Norfolk. Ok. And what did your father do?
GB: He was getting people.
CB: And how many children?
GB: [unclear]
CB: Did he really? Balance, mixed balance between boys and girls or?
GB: Six girls and four boys.
CB: And where you in the pecking order?
GB: Number seven.
CB: Right [laughs]. And mother had a fulltime job?
GB: Yeah.
CB: Looking after you.
GB: Yeah.
CB: So, you went to Hickling school. The primary school. Where did you go for the secondary education?
GB: Never had a secondary education.
CB: Didn’t you?
GB: Left school at fourteen.
CB: Right, ok, and then what did you do?
GB: Me first job was, worked on a poultry farm. That was until I was sixteen.
CB: Yeah.
GB: Then me wages went up and they sacked me [laughs], oh yes, yes, that was quite normal those days. Rather than pay you cause [unclear] I suppose.
CB: Yeah, so then what did you do?
GB: Then I went on the farm. I was the yardman, I did the milking, feed the cattle and the pigs, did the milking.
CB: And how long did you do that for?
GB: Just trying to think.
CB: Well, the war came in 1939, by which time you were eighteen.
GB: I was working, oh, I left the farm
CB: Yeah
GB: Because the governor died
CB: Oh!
GB: And everything was sold off of course and I got a job on a food farm and I was there until I was called up, that was in 1940.
CB: What kind of fruit was it growing?
GB: Well, all sorts. Yeah.
CB: So, when you were called up, where did you go for your attestation?
GB: At Cardington.
CB: After that?
GB: I went back to work of course, I was called up to Stockton
CB: Yeah.
GB: And there I did me basic training, I can’t remember the name of the
CB: This is on the east coast near Whitby.
GB: No, further up
CB: Further up than that. Ok.
GB: Yes, that
CB: Scarborough.
GB: No, no, further up. It’s that place that had the iron things shut, [unclear]
CB: Shutten, no, that’s north west.
GB: Further up.
CB: Yes, up near Middlesbrough. OK, well, we’ll come back to that, yeah.
GB: It’s a seaside
CB: Seaside place.
GB: Yeah.
CB: Yes.
GB: Quite well known.
CB: Ok.
GB: It I [unclear] think of it.
CB: Need a map. [laughs] right. How long were you there doing that training?
GB: About six weeks, I think. Then I went to Finningley
CB: Did you?
GB: Yes.
CB: Right. So, you are now, what rank are you?
GB: Ordinary AC plonk.
CB: Yeah, AC plonk. Right. And what did you do at Finningley?
GB: Any general duties.
CB: So, you were a general duties ground staff
GB: Yes, yes.
CB: So, what would that entail?
GB: Any job that wanted doing, cleaning up, anything.
CB: All outside or was some of it office work or what was it?
GB: No, no, it was all outside.
CB: Ok.
GB: Yeah.
CB: So, what sort of places would needed to be cleaned up?
GB: Anywhere, the [unclear] or anything like that, you know, anything, general duties,
CB: Ok. So, if there was a fuel spill outside, would you have to go and clean up the fuel spill [unclear] aircraft?
GB: No.
CB: No, you wouldn’t. Was there any gardening to do?
GB: No. [unclear] garden in those days.
CB: No. So, what other things could you remember that you did there?
GB: No, nothing special, really.
CB: And how long were you at Finningley?
GB: I transferred to Balderton, yes, and I suppose I was there about twelve months.
CB: Ok.
GB: And I got posting, overseas posting.
CB: Right.
GB: Yes.
CB: So, before we do that, what did you do at Balderton?
GB: Same thing, general duties. Yes. Nothing special.
CB: Who was, who were you reporting to in that case?
GB: [unclear] in charge, that’s all.
CB: Which section would that be?
GB: I was [unclear] to general duties
CB: The general duties section
GB: Yeah.
CB: Yeah. So, did you enjoy being at Balderton or was it boring?
GB: Nothing was boring, no, because I lived in the village, I been far away so everything was new
CB: Yes.
GB: Yes.
CB: So, the bright lights you came to
GB: Yes.
CB: So, what did you do in your time off?
GB: Chasing the women
CB: Did you really?
GB: And drinking of course [laughs], yes.
CB: Was that confined to the station or were you
GB: No, [unclear]
CB: Yeah? How did you travel around from the station to
GB: They had lorries.
CB: Yeah. What was the nearest big town?
GB: Doncaster, yes.
CB: So, that had lots of service people in it?
GB: Oh, quite a few, yes.
CB: Yes.
GB: Lots of people from Finningley went to Doncaster.
CB: Yeah. What sort of time did you have there?
GB: Oh, enjoyed myself of course.
CB: What was the main activity when you went out, apart from drinking and, dancing did you do?
GB: Not a lot of dancing,
CB: No?
GB: I don’t think.
CB: Cinema?
GB: Yes.
CB: So, the lorry would take you and then collect you, bring you back at a certain time.
GB: Yes, yes.
CB: If you missed the lorry, then what?
GB: You had to get back on your own.
CB: How did you do that?
GB: Yeah, walk back [laughs].
CB: How long did that take?
GB: [unclear] Couple of hours, something like that, yes. You had to creep in the camp without anyone knowing [laughs].
CB: What was security like on an airfield?
GB: Pretty good, you used to have to lift up the barbwire and get underneath.
CB: Did you?
GB: Oh yeah [laughs], To get in.
CB: How many times did you get caught?
GB: I didn’t get caught [laughs].
CB: But some people did.
GB: Oh yes, yes.
CB: And then what happened?
GB: I don’t know, I supposed they went before the [unclear] and that was that. Well, you didn’t get away with anything if they caught you.
CB: Who was the person on the station you feared most?
GB: Oh, I suppose, the SWO.
CB: Yes, Station warrant officer.
GB: Yeah.
CB: He had a lot of power, did he?
GB: Yeah [laughs]. Keep out of his way.
CB: Why were people worried about him?
GB: I don’t know, I suppose everybody looked up at him, didn’t they? Yeah.
CB: Even the junior officers were worried
GB: Yes, yes.
CB: So, on the station, what sort of entertainment was there there?
GB: Oh, there was quite a few of the, what was it, not naafi, I forget the name of the people that used to do the
CB: The WVS, was it?
GB: No, it wasn’t, no, it was the [unclear], I suppose they were actors, not professionals.
CB: Oh, ENSA, yes.
GB: Yes. That’s right.
CB: ENSA, yes.
GB: ENSA, yes.
CB: They came and did performances.
GB: Yes.
CB: Where would they do that on the station?
GB: I was just trying to think, it must be one of the hangars.
CB: Ah, right.
GB: Yes. Yes, yes, we didn’t have anywhere else to go, in the winter we used to do roller-skating in the hangars.
CB: Right. How popular was that?
GB: Oh, that was very popular.
CB: So, how did people keep fit during their service in the RAF in the war?
GB: Cause they got us fit when we did the training sort of thing and we never bothered after that really.
CB: And when you were off duty, then you ate in the airmen’s mess, did you?
GB: Yeah.
CB: Yeah. And what was the food like?
GB: Not bad, I suppose, yes, yeah. Yes, never heard any complaints.
CB: And to what extent did you link up with the aircrew?
GB: Not much, not really,
CB: What was
GB: Only if we were on guard duty and they come up [laughs]
CB: How often did you have to do guard duty?
GB: I don’t know. One fortnight, something like that.
CB: So, the guard be on a shift system, what were the shifts for that? Certain number of hours on and then and a certain number of hours off.
GB: Yes. Yeah, I think it be about two on and four off, something like that, yeah.
CB: Yeah. So, did you manage to arrest any aircrew who were trying to get in late?
GB: We wouldn’t arrest anyone [laughs], we knew the most of them anyway.
CB: Yeah. But to be effective you had firearms, didn’t you?
GB: Yes, yeah.
CB: And did you have live ammunition?
GB: No.
CB: So, did that have any restriction on the deterrent?
GB: I suppose they knew as well as we knew.
CB: Yeah, yeah. And so Finningley and Balderton, were both Bomber Command organisations, what was going on at those airfields?
GB: What was it, they were just previous to the [unclear] on the bomb.
CB: Yeah.
GB: So,
CB: So they had the operational training unit
GB: Yes, right.
CB: At Balderton, yeah.
GB: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
GB: And Finningley.
CB: And Finningley, right, ok. So, what were the planes that they were flying to do that? Do you remember?
GB: I think they were mostly Wellingtons.
CB: Right, yeah. And what were their flying hours day and night,
GB: Yes,
CB: Did they, both day and night? Was it?
GB: Yes.
CB. And what about accidents from the training?
GB: Yes, a few.
CB: Were they? What sort of things went wrong?
GB: I don’t know, they never really let on what has happened to them.
CB: Right. Did any happen on the airfields?
GB: No, no, no,
CB: So when you got, you finished at Balderton, what time of year was that?
GB: I can’t remember all.
CB: So, that’s 1941 anyway.
GB: Yeah.
CB: So, you then posted overseas. Where did you go?
GB: We had to go to, oh, blimey.
CB: Did they have an assembly point in Britain before you embarked? Because you had to
GB: I’m just trying to think where we went to, to meet up sort of thing
CB: Yeah.
GB: The whole lot of us, was always [unclear] about fifty of us, on, blimey, I can’t think of the name of the place.
CB: Where is it near?
GB: On the south coast.
CB: Ah, right.
GB: Where they used to control the aircraft.
CB: On the radar stations?
GB: Yeah.
CB: Right.
GB: The main one. But I can’t remember.
CB: But it was on the coast.
GB: Nearly on the coast, yes.
CB: Yeah. And then everybody assembled, who were all these people, were they mixtures of ground and air crew or what were they?
GB: They weren’t aircrew at all, these were all
CB: All ground crew.
GB: All ground.
CB: All ground personnel.
GB: Yeah.
CB: So, when you were assembled, then where did you go?
GB: You had to go down to Sidforth for training with the army, the Dorset, was it Dorset?
CB: Yeah.
GB: We had training there.
CB: What type of training were you having?
GB: Army training sort of thing, yeah, we were getting fit and all that sort of thing, yeah, yes.
CB: Yeah. A lot of marching?
GB: Yeah, yeah, quite a good bit of marching.
CB: And then live firing of ammunition?
GB: No, no, we never had any firing at all.
CB: What were they training you up for to do?
GB: They were training us for the, we went to [unclear], it was the 893 AMES Air Ministry Experimental Station, that’s right.
CB: Oh, what did that do then?
GB: That was a mobile radar.
CB: Whereabout?
GB: We did that down in Dorset, there was one there.
CB: Ah, there was one there, was it?
GB: Yeah.
CB: So, were you effectively part of a defence, like airfield defence, is that, was that the job?
GB: No, we had separate people on our course that were for defence
CB: RAF regiment, yes. Right.
GB: RAF regiment sort of thing, yes. Anyway, we went from there to up to Scotland to get on the boat for North Africa.
CB: Right. Where was that? Glasgow?
GB: I think it was Glasgow.
CB: And where did you sail to?
GB: Algiers. On the way there the ship being [unclear] broke down, so we had to leave the convoy and they sailed on, they got it started again, woke up one morning and we were on our own. But we could see the destroyer over the far distance [unclear] far behind that, looked after us, that sort of thing. But we caught up eventually.
CB: Did you?
GB: Yeah.
CB: What went wrong with the ship then?
GB: I don’t know, they didn’t say much, you don’t know, you hear all sorts of things. They said the gaffer or the ship captain got recommendation for getting it going again.
CB: Was this an old holiday liner or was it a special troop ship?
GB: No, [unclear], it was a special troop ship.
CB: Right. How many people on the ship?
GB: Don’t know, I wouldn’t know, there’s no end of them.
CB: Did you get a bunk or a hammock?
GB: Hammock, yeah.
CB: What time of year was this? In the winter or the summer or?
GB: I couldn’t tell you. I can’t even remember the date of the invasion there.
CB: No. North Africa.
GB: Yeah.
CB: 1942.
GB: Yeah.
CB: Ok, so you got to Algeria,
GB: Yes.
CB: Then what?
GB: We had to, wait our turn to get into the port and all that sort of thing cause there was quite a lot there of course, all the Americans were there as well and we had to put up in the, built up a marquee in the zoological gardens in Algeria until we got our kit cause we had to wait about a week or two before we got it.
CB: Then?
GB: Eventually we got our kit, got on the road and we went as far as, into Tunisia I think, I’m just trying to think of the name of the place, Setif, but I don’t think it’s that name now, they’ve changed them, cause they were all French names, weren’t they? Now they’ve changed them all
CB: Right. This was in the back of a truck.
GB: Yes.
CB: How come, where was that?
GB: I got used to that sort of thing. They asked for volunteers to drive them
CB: But you could drive.
GB: I never, I could drive but I never volunteered, cause it was too dodgy,
CB: In what way?
GB: [unclear] you know,part road and all sorts of things. Anyway, we got as far as Setif and whether the Germans had made a push, we had to come back quick, I suppose because they were afraid that we’d get captured and they get all our stuff, cause I don’t think there was any other [unclear] like us about those days.
CB: You were all RAF people, weren’t you?
GB: Yes.
CB: How many, roughly?
GB: Roughly I suppose fifty or sixty.
CB: Yeah, the same fifty, yeah.
GB: Yeah, yeah. Cause we had to offer a day and night sort of thing. Anyway, we went back to Algiers and put up the stuff there, yes, we [unclear] from there.
CB: What were you doing in that time?
GB: You know the aerial, I suppose that
CB: For the radar.
GB: Yeah. Those days to move the aerial you had to turn the handle, that was my job, turn the handle at the aerial.
CB: Was this a constant movement as a sweep?
GB: Oh yes, yes, backwards and forwards, they had a barrel in there where all the kit was and they’d ring it, you carry on, when they ring it again, you turn it back sort of thing and you had to keep doing that until they got the two, I suppose the two planes together sort of thing, yeah. It was quite, you know.
CB: You got quite strong in your muscles, did you, arm muscles. What sort of, how did that work on the shifts for that?
GB: We had three shifts, three eight-hour shifts. And you, you know, you did all the [unclear] shift sort of thing.
CB: So, when you weren’t winding the thing round, what were you doing?
GB: It was a full-time job really.
CB: Oh, it was.
GB: Yeah.
CB: Day and night if there were three shifts.
GB: Yeah.
CB: So, what happened next? Was this a portable radar?
GB: I suppose really that was the first mobile radar there was.
CB: Yeah.
GB: Yes.
CB: So
GB: I think the Yanks used to come and visit. You know, [unclear] men come and visit to see what it was all about. But I got [unclear] well, I’d say mood, I got a bad chill and we didn’t have a doctor, we only had a first aid man
CB: Medical orderly
GB: Medical, yeah, and the thought I got pleurisy, cause they [unclear] me into hospital and of course none of the hospital would take because none of them had got the separate
CB: They needed an isolation room to take you
GB: Yes, I think I went nearly [unclear] for a year. Come back to all years now they, I managed to find one
CB: And what had you got? What were you suffering from?
GB: I don’t know, I was there for about a month
CB: Clearly more than a cold.
GB: I don’t think that it was anything more than a cold.
CB: Where did you go next? Back towards Tunisia?
GB: No, no, while I was away, while I was in hospital, they moved, I think they went to Sicily and I don’t know whether it was right or not but I was told that the ship that they were on got bombed, what happened I don’t know after that. But I went back to the, oh, [unclear] forward maintenancy unit.
CB: Ok. What happened there?
GB: Well, we followed the army, you know, into Tunisia.
CB: Yeah.
GB: Until they packed up and I went back to Algiers and finished the tour there.
CB: Doing what?
GB: General duties again.
CB: In, same place in Algeria, was it?
GB: Yes, with the
CB: But you had no radar by then because it had been moved, had it?
GB: Oh yes, they took, the whole lot went.
CB: How busy were you kept during general duties when they took you back to, when they kept you in Algeria? Were you busy or not?
GB: I think I spent most of my time on the sergeant’s mess, being in charge of the sergeant’s mess.
CB: And you had
GB: And we had Italian prisoners there doing [unclear] so we didn’t have to work.
CB: Ah right. So, what rank were you by now?
GB: LAC.
CB: LAC in the sergeant’s mess. So, what were your job then with the Italian prisoners?
GB: To see that they did the work, that was all.
CB: Who spoke Italian?
GB: No one [laughs]
CB: Nobody. So how did you communicate?
GB: I don’t know, we made them understand sort of thing, yeah, [unclear] supposed of you [unclear], no, no, no
CB: And were they willing workers or?
GB: There were some who were a bit dodgy but most of them, you had to watch them though
CB: Why?
GB: They’d nick anything, yeah, I remember one chap I caught, he got the tablecloth wrapped round him, so I discharged [unclear] [laughs]
CB: So, apart from nicking tablecloths, what else did they pinch?
GB: [unclear] as well because you couldn’t, you never had a clue really
CB: Yeah. So, when are we here now, what’s the date we are talking about now, when you are looking after the Italians?
GB: It must have been, I must have been there three years then. I was there three and a half years altogether
CB: Were you?
GB: Yeah. So that’d be towards the end of when I was there. When I got me demobbed from there.
CB: Oh, did you? So, the war was finished, the war finished, did
GB: No, I didn’t. I didn’t get me demobbed from there, we came home, now I went to Leicester East,
CB: Yeah.
GB: They were getting prepared for the victory parade and they had all the cars and lorries and that to do all ready for the victory parade.
CB: So, this is May 1945.
GB: Yes.
CB: So, what did they get you to do?
GB: I was working in the SWO’s office
CB: Were you? And what would you do in there with him?
GB: Paperwork, I suppose, mostly, yeah.
CB: So, how long were you at Leicester East?
GB: Until I was demobbed there.
CB: Yeah. You were demobbed from there?
GB: Yeah.
CB: And when was that?
GB: I haven’t a clue, really. Anyway, I got my demob and I went home, I got another three months leave, you know, two or three months, I don’t know how long it was and there was nothing there for me to do. I could have me job back but I didn’t want it, so I re-joined again and when I re-joined, I got a job, I got a job that they asked me if I wanted, it was behind the bar at the officer’s mess, at the record’s office, Gloucester.
CB: Are ye?
GB: We were stationed at
CB: Innsworth
GB: That’s right, yeah. I was in there for, cause I signed up for four years
CB: Ah, right.
GB: But, the end of the four years, they delayed releases for twelve months, I counted the, what war was on?
CB: The Korean war.
GB: Was it Korea? Yes, that’s right, yeah, they delayed the release so I had to do five years
CB: What rank were you at this stage?
GB: Corporal.
CB: Did you come back in as a corporal?
GB: Yeah.
CB: You left as a corporal, did you, at demob?
GB: No, no, I didn’t,
CB: Ah.
GB: No, I come back as a corporal, yeah.
CB: Right.
GB: And that’s where I met my better half. She was in the officer’s mess service.
CB: At Innsworth?
GB: Yeah.
CB: Yeah. So you were both behind the bar or what was she doing?
GB: No, she was in the officer’s.
CB: In the administration, was she?
GB: That’s right, yeah.
CB: So, when are we talking about now, 1951?
GB: A bit before that.
CB: ‘50.
GB: Yes, a bit before then, yes. Because I got married, she left the forces and I got married in 1948.
CB: Oh. When you were still in.
GB: I was still in, yes.
CB: Yeah. Ok, so then what?
GB: I was there for five years.
CB: Yeah. But, what about accommodation? Did they give you a quarter or what did they do, they didn’t have any quarters.
GB: They didn’t have any quarters.
CB: No.
GB: The wife stopped at her home.
CB: At. Which was where?
GB: At Eaton, in Wragby, it’s not far from here
CB: Wragby
GB: In Eaton
CB: Yeah. Right.
GB: It’s about five miles from here. Yeah.
GB: Yeah.
CB: Ok. So, you just go and see her at weekends.
GB: Yes, every other weekend I was off, come and see her.
CB: Right, so, how did you manage to travel around? What was the transport arrangement in those days?
GB: Trains, yeah.
CB: Did you get a travel warrant or did you?
GB: Yes, yes.
CB: Cause you were underage, were you? Under twenty-five. No, you weren’t, no. So, you payed for your own travel.
GB: Yeah.
CB: Ok, so you came, you did your full five years because of the extension of one year,
GB: Yeah.
CB: What did you do after that? You didn’t sign on again,
GB: No.
CB: So you went to civilian life.
GB: Well, we got the club, worked in a club at, blimey.
CB: What sort of club?
GB: Working men’s club.
CB: Working men’s, right. Cause your experience behind the bar
GB: Yeah
CB: They found that useful, did they?
GB: Yes.
CB: Right. Whereabouts in the country was that?
GB: I’m just trying and think now, blimey, Jonathan, where was
CB: Was it round here?
GB: No, no, no. You worked with the Oxford, what’s the name? [unclear]
US: [unclear] Green.
GB: No, I don’t think.
CB: Not the place, I tell you.
US: Place or [unclear] company.
CB: I tell you what, let’s do it a different way, you demobbed originally from Leicester East, when you did your four years and added one to make five years, you were demobbed, where were you demobbed from? Cause you were at Innsworth, so, where were you demobbed?
GB: I can’t remember, to be honest.
CB: So I’m thinking that perhaps the demobbed point guided you to certain jobs.
GB: No, no, no.
CB: How did you find this job?
GB: Well, I looked in the, I used to take the daily paper for the pubs.
CB: Oh, right.
GB: So, I found the job. Oh, yeah.
CB: Yeah. So, how long did you work there?
GB: I was there about three years before I got a better job.
CB: Yeah, which was what?
GB: There was another club at Maidstone in Kent.
CB: Maidstone, right.
GB: Yes.
CB: What was that club?
GB: It was originally a liberal club but I think that [unclear] anyone could join
CB: Right. And how long did you work there?
GB: I suppose I was there about four years.
CB: Then what?
GB: Then the wife was expecting so we had to get out and I got a job at Morton in Surrey. Bar manager.
CB: What sort of accommodation did you have? Did they provide accommodation with these jobs or did you have to rent outside?
GB: Well, I first, the pub, the club at Maidstone had a, above the club was house
CB: A flat.
GB: Yeah. But, when I went to Morton, they offered me accommodation, you know, temporary sort of thing until I found somewhere myself, which I did.
CB: Did you buy a house, or did you rent one or what did you do?
GB: No, I bought it,
CB: Right.
GB: [unclear], you know.
CB: Was that your first house?
GB: Yeah.
CB: Yes. So, what sort of job was it, as the manager?
GB: It’s a busy job, cause it’s a big pub. Had a ballroom, you know, they used to do midday lunches and all that sort of thing, parties at night.
CB: How long did you keep going on that job?
GB: Oh, until the boss retired, they had a new pub built down in, blimey, here we go again. On the Thames, what sort of [unclear] I can’t think of the name.
CB: Lots of places on the Thames.
GB: Yeah.
CB: So, how many years do you think you were at Morton roughly? How many years were you there or when did you move [unclear]?
GB: Oh, not long, I wasn’t there very long.
CB: Oh, weren’t you?
GB: Yeah, no.
CB: So, you sold the house and moved somewhere else.
GB: I fell out with the boss, the wife got yellow jaundice and she had to go to hospital and the boss said, I got four children then, you’d have to put the kids in a home, and I said, sod that, I’m not going to put my kids in a home, so I packed the job in and we came over to her, place in Eaton, temporarily and I got a job at Plessey’s in Towcester.
CB: Ah, right. You sold the house at Morton and bought one up here, did you?
GB: Oh yes, yes,
CB: In Eaton.
GB: I sold that and I went to, I can’t think of the name of the [unclear] place, no good at [unclear]
CB: Yeah, ok. And Eadon spelled EYDON. Right? And then you joined Plessey. So, what did you do at Plessey?
GB: Making computers or parts of them
CB: Yeah?
GB: Yeah.
CB: What was your role?
GB: Pardon?
CB: What was your job?
GB: On the machines, machines [unclear], we were operating the machines
CB: So, what were the machines doing, making printed circuits or assembling them?
GB: No, making the
CB: Switch gear?
GB: Making the small, they were like small, very small [unclear] of different, I don’t know what sort, different minerals, they were ground and punched together sort of thing and we had to test them.
CB: Right.
GB: See if they were [unclear] or the machines tested them, we had to run the machines, all massive amount [unclear] into millions
CB: Ah really?
GB: Yeah. Some of them you had to have the telescope to see what was going on, on in the machines sort of thing.
CB: Yeah. So what
GB: I was there about, I was there until Plessey packed up and I had to, I got a job on making rolling tubes, steel tubes
CB: Oh yeah? In Northampton or
GB: No, in Towcester
CB: In Towcester.
GB: Yes. And I stopped there until I retired.
CB: What age did you retire?
GB: Sixty-five.
CB: Right. And when did you move to Weston?
GB: It was before I got my job at Plessey’s.
CB: Oh, was it?
GB: Yeah. It’ll be fifty years ago next month.
CB: That you moved here. This house here, next door?
GB: Yeah.
CB: Then in retirement what did you do?
GB: In the garden [laughs].
CB: Cause you’ve got quite a bit of land. Did you do it all by hand or did you have a rotavator or?
GB: I’ve got a rotavator
CB: Right. And what was your specialty in growing?
GB: [unclear] [laughs] no, all sorts.
CB: Did you have a favourite?
GB: Not really.
CB: Plant or fruit?
GB: No, no.
CB: And after a bit, that got a bit too much, so you got somebody else to do it, did you?
GB: No, no, I’m still doing it.
CB: Oh, you’re still doing it?
GB: Yeah.
CB: Fantastic and you’re ninety-five.
GB: I had to get someone this last summer to do it because I couldn’t do anything. I was so bad that they took me round to see different houses, they wanted to rehome me.
CB: Oh, did they?
GB: Yeah, [unclear] always that sort of thing that I pulled through.
CB: Your hands are not up to it any longer.
GB: No.
CB: No.
CB: Right. Sounds like you’ve done it brilliantly well
GB: [unclear] do it, yeah.
CB: Yeah, amazingly active. That’s what kept you going. So, the final question, what, to what do you attribute your long life at ninety-five?
GB: Just luck, that’s all. Cause my wife was a better woman than I was. And she went quicker. Yes.
CB: Yeah. After the children grew up, did she work herself?
GB: Yes, she did a bit of work, yes, she was at, here we go again, blimey
CB: What sort of job did she do?
GB: Office work.
CB: But she wasn’t also at Plessey with you?
GB: No.
CB: She was somewhere else.
GB: Yes, yes.
CB: Ok. And she died in 2000, sixteen years ago.
GB: Yeah.
CB: Well, Gerald, thank you very much indeed. That was most interesting and the different things. What would you say, actually there is another question, what would you say was the most memorable thing in your role in the RAF? Something that stands out.
GB: I suppose, really was the invasion of Algiers, really. See the working to get us cracking sort of thing.
CB: Good, thank you. [file missing] So, what we didn’t do, what we didn’t do, Gerald, was to find out your return journey from Africa, where you set off from and where you landed and what happened to you.
GB: I haven’t a clue, really.
US: You told me, I remember talking to [unclear]
GB: Coming home, oh yes.
CB: Yes, coming home, which route did you take and what happened?
GB: We travelled by boat from Algiers to Naples, then we’ve come from Naples all up Italy through Switzerland to France, France to [unclear] coast and we landed at, blimey, here we go again,
CB: Newhaven.
GB: Newhaven, yes.
CB: And what was that experience like?
GB: A bit rough [laughs]
CB: Was it? In what way, did it stop at the start or did it?
GB: No, yes, roughly didn’t stop at all sort of thing [laughs]
CB: How did they look after you, was a troop train with, it wasn’t just RAF, was it?
GB: Different stages
CB: Right
GB: They had stops at different stages but
CB: Was it the same train all the time or did you switch?
GB: As far as I know because they changed engines, I don’t know.
CB: So how many days did that take?
GB: It was a fortnight.
CB: So, where did you sleep?
GB: On the train, of course. We will be going night and day sort of thing.
CB: And what about eating?
GB: We used to stop to eating, there were different places, they got, you know, they’d organised places to stop
CB: So, what did they do, pull the train off the main line, into a siding, so that you could eat, where they had some kind of military kitchen?
GB: I suppose that’s what it was, I can’t remember really, I suppose [unclear] more than we rather than things that were going on really.
US: I wondered on that journey you were going through Europe that had been bombed and was war torn, I just wonder what you saw and whether you were surprised at what you saw because you’d been where you were all the time.
GB: Not really, no.
US. And the train kept going, it wasn’t the trains were bombed or destroyed.
GB: Well, it was a bit dodgy, going over the river Po, I think it was, in Italy, it was a bit shaky there, that was the only thing that I remember, really.
US: Were you looking out on ruins at the cities and things?
GB: Not really, no, no,
US: What about France, did that look intact?
GB: No, no, I can’t remember anything but
CB: A fortnight’s a long time to have on a train, what did you with yourselves all that time? Apart from sitting there. Did you play cards? Did you?
GB: No, I never have played cards
CB: Just talked or slept.
GB: Or, oh yeah.
US: Do you remember what your feeling about England was when you got back? Did it look different or did it feel different at all or?
GB: Oh, it felt lovely coming back, how green it was after been out in North Africa, yeah.
CB: And being a country boy, you particularly appreciated that
GB: Yeah, yeah
CB: So, when you got back, then did you go, you can’t have gone straight to Leicester East, where did you go before you went to Leicester East?
GB: [unclear]
CB: What I’m saying is did they have a reception centre for the whole train?
GB: I’m sorry I really can’t remember.
CB: We’ll stop again there, thank you. [file missing] so, when you got back to Britain, and you had the opportunity to see family, how did you feel having been away for so long?
GB: I don’t know, I suppose I expected, I saw what I expected, nothing different really.
US: Were you, when you got home, were you excited or were you very tired or?
GB: No, I don’t think so, no.
US: And were your family asking you a lot about what you’d seen? No?
GB: No, they weren’t that interested, really, I suppose they’d had all the others come back and they heard it all sort of thing, cause all me three brothers, all were in the forces, they’d all come back alright,
CB: That was good.
GB: Yeah.
CB: And did you compare notes with them?
GB: One didn’t want to know anything about it, that was the one that joined the navy, he [unclear] he was with, he was on the HMS Howe I think it was [unclear] in the Far East, he didn’t think much of that. The other brother that was in the [unclear], he went missing and mom had a letter saying he was missing, he turned up alright and he’d never, I’d never heard him say a word about the army or anything, he never mentioned it, the other, the oldest brother was [unclear] on the army service corps, he was full of it, anywhere he went, you know, he enjoyed it sort of thing, he was [unclear] on of those
US: Was there a celebration that you got home safely?
GB: No, no, I didn’t stop at home that long, really
US: Were you already thinking about what you wanted to do with the rest of your life?
GB: I know I wasn’t go to stop at home, [unclear], no. Trouble is, I’d heard so many things from different chaps, how they’d got on, what sort of jobs they’d had, I thought, I must have some of that [laughs]
CB: And then after the war, how often did you speak about the war to other people?
GB: Not a lot, I don’t have much to say about it anyway.
US: Do you, when you look back at the whole of your life, is that, that chapter, the war years, is that very memorable, is that quite a big part of your experience? No?
GB: I forget that, yeah.
CB: So what was the
GB: I really think it was a waste really
CB: A waste of your [unclear] life?
US: Was it not an important part of your life?
GB: No.
US: [unclear]
CB: What would you say was the worst experience you had, during your military service?
GB: I don’t think I had any, of worst experiences, I was just, [unclear] to muddle through sort of thing.
CB: I was thinking, when you got to, you moved from Algeria along the coast to Tunisia, then found the Germans were actually coming back,
GB: Yeah.
CB: How did you feel about that, did that seem dangerous or did they not get close enough to you to?
GB: I don’t think, they didn’t get, they wouldn’t let [unclear] to us
CB: Because of what you’d got
GB: Because what we’d got
CB: You’ve got this radar, yeah.
GB: Yeah.
US: I’ve got one last question, is did you make friends in the RAF that you kept afterwards? Did you keep up with people?
GB: Not for long really, just for a little while, we got, you know, [unclear] the other sort of thing but it soon fell through, yeah.
CB: A number of people in their initial training found friends for life. You didn’t do that, but did you get a good friend who started with your initial training and then moved on with you during their [unclear] service?
GB: No, no, I met several that had done, I’d done the training with, you know, various times sort of thing
CB: Yeah
GB: Trouble is you never knew when you were moving so you couldn’t make too many friends.
US: Ok. I just wondered whether there was ever a moment for you, perhaps at the start, where you knew you were going off fighting for king and country and that meant something to you and was important to you?
GB: No, I’m afraid not, no. No, as I say, I never was ambitious.
US: Did you agree that the war needed to be fought to stop Hitler?
GB: Oh, well, yes, yes, yes.
US: And you agreed that you needed to be part of that, you needed to join up to be part of that fight?
GB: I was trained up, [unclear] called up, yeah, no, I wouldn’t have volunteered, I don’t think.
US: And were you with a lot of people who felt the same way that you were there because you had to be, not because you believed in it?
GB: Yeah, I think a lot of people, yeah, I think a lot of people missed doing what they liked to do sort of thing didn’t understand of doing what they had to do
US: When it came in your life at the start of what would otherwise have been the beginning of your working life
GB: Yeah
US: It got in the way
GB: Yeah. Well, there wasn’t really, even before the war, there wasn’t much to look forward to in that, you know, in that of the country, so, I suppose, really, I was glad it brought me out of it, yes.
CB: What it did was take you out of Norfolk, put you into another part of the country
GB: Yes.
CB: And you’ve always been happy in this area presumably
GB: Yes, yeah, yes. Yes, I’ve been lucky really, I’ve had four good boys, I had a good wife, can’t ask for much more really
CB: Well, no, I think [unclear], extremely good. Did your wife and you speak about the war at all?
GB: No, not really, no, no, I don’t suppose we ever sat and had a talk about it, no.
US: Do you have any idea what her war was like?
GB: Well, I don’t think she moved around much, no.
US: Did she make good friends with the people she worked with?
GB: Oh yes, yes, she is much more friendly than what I am, [unclear]
US: And did she keep those friends after the war?
GB: Yes, I suppose she did, yeah, much more than what I did, mostly because they were all round here sort of thing and she was round here.
CB: Right.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Gerald Walter Bell
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Chris Brockbank
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-12-21
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ABellGW161221
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
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01:09:10 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Description
An account of the resource
Gerald Bell worked on a poultry farm before being called up in the RAF, where he served as ground personnel. He remembers his training at RAF Finningley and RAF Balderton. Tells of his posting to North Africa in 1942, where he initially was working on a mobile radar station. After falling sick and spending a month in hospital, he went back to Algeria, where he was in charge of the sergeant’s mess and had to look after a group of Italian prisoners.
Contributor
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Peter Schulze
Spatial Coverage
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Algeria
Great Britain
North Africa
Tunisia
Algeria--Algiers
England--Dorset
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Yorkshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1941
1942
1945
ground personnel
prisoner of war
radar
RAF Balderton
RAF Finningley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/486/8370/ABurdinJR170206.1.mp3
110add58ae6a4b4edfbbb17f5230f227
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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Burdin, James
James Roy Burdin
J R Burdin
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Burdin, JR
Description
An account of the resource
Two items. An oral history interview with James Roy Burdin (b. 1920, 1109124 Royal Air Force) and his service and release book. He worked as a radar technician.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-02-06
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.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is Monday the 6th of February 2017 and I’m in Longton near Preston with James Roy Burdin and we’re going to talk about his work in the RAF in the war largely to do with radar. What is your earliest recollection of life Roy?
JRB: Living on our small holding in Longton and helping my dad from a very early age with his, with his work on the small holding.
[pause]
CB: And where did you go to school?
JRB: I started school at five I think I would be. I’d be five when I went to Longton, Longton Primary School. That’s not a very satisfactory [question?] is it? You know, the local village school. Longton Primary School and I was there until I was, I went in for the scholarship examination as we called it then. It was before the eleven plus day and it was virtually the entry to grammar school. Only the ones that the teachers at school thought had a chance were put in for the exam because we had to go to Preston to sit the examination and I passed and was awarded a place at Hutton Grammar School and I studied there for the school, for the, what did they call it in those days? It wasn’t the GCE was it? The equivalent of today’s GCE anyway and I I passed that and got my certificate for that but there was no question in those days, very few people went on to further education after that. For one thing I knew that there wasn’t money in the family to support me to go on to university or anything of that sort even if I’d been eligible for it so I I left school with that qualification and it was at the time of the big Depression in the ‘30s and jobs were very difficult to get but eventually I went to work for a small business in Preston. Radio repair and sales. Just a one man business [at that point?] but that didn’t last very long because the main trouble was that it was I had to use a bus to get into Preston. Although I’d only been with this situation for a short time the proprietor usually had calls to make on his way down to work from his home in Longridge and I was left to open up the shop although very inexperienced at the time and very often he’d be out either delivering or collecting radio sets for repair until quite late at night and the shop hours were very long anyway so my dad thought that I was, shall we say, I don’t know how to put it really. Anyway, my dad thought that I would be better off coming and helping on the, on the small holding so I went to the agricultural, or horticultural rather, training station at Hutton and took their course which was only a short course and I continued working on the holding. We had greenhouses and market garden mostly and orchards and it was quite a pleasant life but not exactly a pot of gold, you know but I was doing that until, until the war started and eventually of course as I said before, I think, I joined, I volunteered for the RAF.
CB: Why did you choose the RAF rather than one of the other forces?
JRB: Well, some of my ex schoolmates discussed it all and we thought that the RAF would be a good unit to, to get into. We thought the conditions were better for one thing and you wouldn’t get involved in the dreadful trench warfare of the previous, previous war which everybody expected might recur again and so it was actually at the time of Dunkirk that I realised, I seemed to have rather a blank in a way about the international situations and that sort of thing and I wasn’t very, very quick to realise the danger that Germany was presenting to the, to the world and when the near disaster occurred at Dunkirk and the Germans were more or less on our frontier I decided it was time to, to join up so that’s when I volunteered for the RAF. When I first went for my interviews for the RAF they said, ‘Well there will be a, a gap. We won’t take you right away. We’ll call you at a bit later date.’ So in the meantime the, what became known as the Home Guard but started off as the Local Defence Volunteers was formed and I joined the local group and we did a bit of rifle practice and general infantry training really and we had a patrol on Longton Marshes. We did a night patrol down there and from there we could see the, the German bombing of Liverpool but of course we were a little country district so we didn’t attract any of the, of the bombs and I I was with that until the RAF called me up and then -
CB: When did they do that?
JRB: I was posted to Blackpool and billeted in one of the boarding houses there. We, we were kitted out and given basic training, foot drill and all that sort of thing on the promenades at Blackpool and the Winter Gardens became a Morse school. It was all fitted out with tables with Morse keys and that was where a lot of the air crew in the RAF got their Morse training. As I mentioned to you my speed didn’t build up satisfactorily on Morse. I could, I could learn the code easy enough but I couldn’t get, I wasn’t confident enough to get any speed up and so they said, well there’s a new branch opening up and since you’ve had experience of radio repair work and actually radio had always been my hobby right from school days so they said, I think they said, ‘Do you know what a supersonic hetrodyne is?’ So I had to tell them that which a lot of people didn’t know and that got me on to the, it was, it was highly secret at the time, nobody would mention the word RDF which was our original name for the, what became known as Radar. It wasn’t until the Americans came in that they started calling it Radar but to us it was RDF which was Radio Detection Finding. So there was some delay in starting the course that I was destined to go on and in the meantime I was sent over to a place called Bircham Newton which was a Coastal Command station on the Norfolk coast and I spent some months there waiting for my course to be organised and there I was just doing ordinary general duties. You know just, it was a sort of a standby position but I saw quite a bit of the, the Coastal Command life and I was there when the, what do you call it? I’m not very good at this I’m afraid. I was there when the Fleet Air Arm, I think they were Gladiators. Would they be Gladiators?
CB: Yeah.
JRB: Or would they be -?
CB: Yeah. No. They’d be Swordfish.
JRB: Swordfish probably. The old, the old biplane.
CB: Swordfish.
JRB: I was there when they dropped in at our station to refuel and have a break and a meal before taking off to bomb the German battleships.
CB: Oh Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
JRB: Yeah. And of course most of them were lost anyway on that raid. So I was there at that time. And then I was sent to London to join a course at Battersea Polytechnic on general radio principles and that type of thing and at the time we were billeted in premises that the RAF had taken over next door to the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square so we had the whole place taken over and converted into RAF billets really. We were taken each day by coach to Battersea to do the course at what later became London University or part of London University. The end of that course I was posted to Yatesbury on Salisbury Plain and that was the first glimpse we got of radar equipment or RDF equipment. They had obviously, they’d got the school all set up there and they’d got the equipment, the transmitters, receivers and ancillary equipment for a radar station and we studied there for several months and on, on passing out there it was practically Christmas time. This would be in ‘41 wouldn’t it?
CB: Ahum.
JRB: So we were all posted to our various units and my friend and I got postings to St Bride’s in the Isle of Man. So we duly arrived at Liverpool expecting to get a sailing across to the Isle of Man but they said, ‘Oh, no more boats sailing until after Christmas. You’d better have Christmas leave.’ So we weren’t displeased about that and went off home. He to Manchester where his home was and I to Longton. And on reporting back again, beginning of January they said, ‘You’re not going to the Isle of Man anymore. You’re going down to a place called Ruislip near London.’ So we went down to Ruislip and reported there to find that it was a small unit that was building up convoys into radar stations. The, the equipment, the transmitters and receivers and other equipment were made by commercial firms obviously such as Metro Vickers, they made transmitters and Cossors and other people made receivers and so on but I think the reason they were scattered about in that way was because they didn’t want the people to know what it all, put together, what it all became when it was assembled together. Anyway, we, that was our job. To, to set up mobile radars ready for going overseas mostly. I seemed to gravitate to, to being on the transmitters which were a very massive piece of equipment made by Metro Vickers of Manchester and they were about two tonnes a piece. Well we had to manhandle those into, into vans which were on the old Crossley vehicles of which the RAF had a lot. Big hefty thumping old, old type vehicles and they, they had bodies specially made at Park Royal body builders and so on at, at London. So we had to receive these by road from the manufacturers and manhandle them with crowbars and and whatever equipment we needed to get them in to place in these vehicles. Then we had to tune them up to the required frequency and check their output and all the functions and alongside us the receivers were being treated in a similar manner. And a convoy would consist of a transmitter vehicle, receiver vehicle, a trailer for the antennae and the wooden towers which they used for the transmitters, for the signal for the aerials for the transmitters so altogether there would be oh and there would be a diesel generator on a, on a separate trailer and all that together would form a radar station and after, after us doing all the tests and cabling all the connections and everything they would be sent off to wherever the army or the RAF wanted them. So I worked on that for quite a while. Do you want me to carry on in this –?
CB: Please do.
JRB: Yes.
CB: What was the crew, the number of people who would be on this crew for the convoy? How many people?
JRB: We never saw the full, we never saw it go out as a full unit. I don’t know how -
CB: Oh so you -
JRB: There would probably be, well you see with radar it would have to work pretty well twenty four hours a day so they’d have enough people to, to form crews to cover the twenty four hours and -
CB: So these were, you were able to move them around but what, what were they used for? Was it for training other people or were they used inland because the chain radar didn’t read inland?
JRB: Oh this, no this was, the chain radar was already in place.
CB: Yes.
JRB: Now the chain radar had heavier equipment still and the transmitters for that were pretty well built on sight, you know. They weren’t moveable really but that was operating because there had already been the Battle of Britain and the chain stations were very active during that time.
CB: Yeah.
JRB: But these were mobile convoys which would go overseas and wherever the theatre of war needed them they’d, they’d go but that didn’t, that didn’t tie up directly with the chain stations because as I say they were a very, a fixed, absolutely fixed installation.
CB: Yeah. And only -
JRB: They used, they used three hundred and sixty foot transmitter towers, steel towers and they used two hundred and forty foot receiver towers. You know, the chain system had fixed antennae which, looking back on it, it seems quite a primitive type of equipment to us but in its day it was the front of technology and we all thought we were very big stuff to be associated with it. But the purpose of the chain was to cover mostly the south and east coast although there were stations further, further afield along the coast. Every so many miles you would have a chain station and they all had to work together.
CB: So those were large and static. You’re using mobile but I thought, what I want -
JRB: These were, these were very static stations.
CB: Yes.
JRB: And of course the chain with these aerials and the frequency they worked on only looked one way.
CB: Yeah. Outwards.
JRB: The transmitter aerials or antennae were a fairly widespread beam. Not the, not the highly directed beam that we associated with higher frequency stations but the, the frequency they were working on was what we would consider very low today but obviously aerials of that sort couldn’t be swivelled around on a gantry. They had to be fixed. The receiver aerials likewise on separate towers were what I refer to as cross dipoles. That means to say that one aerial is north south and the other is east west and by using an instrument known as a Goniometer the operator on the receiver could swivel this knob that was a Goniometer which was graduated in degrees of the compass and could differentiate the direction from which the echo was coming. The whole system of radar of course as you are probably well aware is that you transmit a pulse and you measure the time it takes for that pulse to get back reflected from an aircraft or whatever, it might be a flock of seagulls and when you measure that, that time interval of the return trace you know since electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light you know what the distance is so that’s how we were able to forecast the approach of bombers and the operators were largely recruited from the WAAFs and they became very adept at, at this work. From experience they could tell pretty well how many aircraft were involved. If it was a raid with say fifty aircraft in it they would be able to tell the controllers pretty well the size of the numbers involved in the raid which was very useful of course. So that was operational all during the Battle of Britain time and continued on right through the war actually but other forms of radar came along later on. Higher frequencies as you know with the, with the rotatable antennae. The first one I knew of that type was what we called CHL. That was Chain Low. CHL, Chain Low, because the original chain stations didn’t see the aircraft if it was quite low down so they wanted this other. Now that was on a higher frequency and it could detect aircraft at lower levels and also it used what we call a PPI which was a Planned Position Indicator tube which was a round tube. The original chain station drew a straight trace across the Cathode Ray tube and aircraft caused a downward deflection of that trace so it was like a V would form on the trace. That meant it was picking up a return signal.
CB: On the screen you mean?
JRB: Yeah, on the, on the -
CB: Cathode Ray tube.
JRB: Cathode Ray tube screen. Now the PPI, the aerials rotated and you had the display more like a map. It looked, as it swept around the, the location of your station was the centre point of the, of the tube and the trace would turn about it actually, axially so that you could get the direction and the distance of the incoming echo which was a big improvement really. I don’t think anybody would think of a radar receiver without that facility nowadays because now that we’re on much higher frequencies that is a generally accepted way of displaying it. So back to 4 MU at Ruislip where we were setting up the, the stations which were working on the same principal as the, as the chain station. They had fixed aerials and had the same drawbacks you might say as the, as the chain as the big chain stations but they were supposedly mobile but they were rather clumsy awkward things to, to consider as mobile. Then a lighter equipment called, what did you call them? [pause]. Anyway, it was a sort of a much more mobile and much more, much lighter equipment than the, than the forerunners and they started to arrive at Ruislip for us to set up and so there was a separate flight formed. B flight, which I was put into and we, we used to fit those into fifteen hundred weight trucks or vans and they had, they had a rotating aerial. They ran off a petrol generator which was adapted from a motorcycle engine I believe and then of course there was a receiver vehicle and the, the aerials were mounted up on the top of the same vehicle.
CB: Was the principal of these the same as chain? You weren’t on to parabolic aerials by then were you?
JRB: We’d got, we’d got a step forward on to higher frequency so that’s why we could use rotating aerials.
CB: Right. Rather than parabolic ones.
JRB: Yeah. And the whole equipment was very much lighter and more mobile than the previous one. Well some of these we were fitting into, into these fifteen hundred weight trucks which were very common in the army and the air force in those days and we also had, to accompany them, a jeep with the radio communications equipment so all told that made up a convoy which again were ready for going out to, well again they were used quite regularly in, in the desert and later on in, on the continent.
CB: So they’re main, mainly going to the desert were they in those days.
JRB: Yes.
CB: To North Africa in other words.
JRB: A lot went to North Africa and of course when we invaded D-Day at they went over to the continent with them and that was what I worked on for most my time there.
CB: So you were loading up these vehicles but who were the crews to look after them? Were you training the crews for the equipment or did they -
JRB: No. The crews -
CB: Come already trained?
JRB: The crews were trained at the radar schools, I expect. At Yatesbury and places like that you see. All we did was just put the convoys together and get them ready for operational use.
CB: And were they air force people who were running these radars or army?
JRB: Mostly air force I would say. Yeah. So that’s what we were doing.
CB: So they went to Algeria after the Torch landings and then on to Tunisia and then they were coming from the other end. That’s what you’re saying are you? In other words coming across the desert from Egypt.
JRB: Yes. So wherever radar was needed to follow up the forces. Of course the, being an RAF scheme it would be directing our aircraft where necessary to attack the enemy.
CB: And detecting the German attacks on the British forces.
JRB: Yes.
CB: Now you mentioned the fact that later version could the CHL gave you, gave the lower altitude detection. Was that only on the Gee, on the CH chain or was it on your mobile ones as well?
JRB: No. On the, on the mobiles as well. That was -
[pause]
JRB: Various other equipments came along and they more or less all passed through our hands at Ruislip. I don’t know. I think we’ll have a break.
CB: Ok. We’ll have a break. Thank you.
[recording paused]
JRB: I don’t think I’m doing, completely ready to switch on.
CB: So in those days -
JRB: [When it left us?]
CB: In those days everything was done by using huge valves, well valves anyway, but big, how big were the valves that would be used in your mobile radars?
JRB: In the mobile, in the lighter one they were very much smaller. I should say about six inches tall. Something like that. Probably a bit less than that. More like four inches.
CB: Each valve.
JRB: But -
CB: Was the different, was there a difference in valve size between the transmitting part of the radar and the receiver?
JRB: Oh definitely.
CB: So how big were the transmitter ones?
JRB: Well the transmitter ones I’m talking about really.
CB: Oh right.
JRB: Because I had more to do with the transmitters than the receivers. For some reason I always seemed to be picked to be a transmitter man.
CB: Right.
JRB: And I quite enjoyed working on the transmitters. Of course they were using very high voltages and a lot of people didn’t want to know about them. They were a bit scared of them.
CB: Yeah.
JRB: We’d a, I remember on one occasion at Ruislip we had a, I don’t know what his rank would be but he was, he was Ministry of Defence and he was not exactly like a signals officer but he was, he was, he classed as an officer and he used to come around more or less overseeing what we were doing and one day I believe that he got a bit too near the high voltage and got himself knocked out but he came around again but the transmitting side you’d be talking about two thousand five hundred volts and that sort of thing you know which were really very lethal if you didn’t know what you were doing but anyway that’s -
CB: So what was the process? You mentioned earlier that the equipment was built by different companies so that it wasn’t obvious what the package was.
JRB: What it was going to be when it was all fitted together.
CB: So it arrived with you from the manufacturer. Then what did you and your colleagues do with all these parts?
JRB: Well as I say we fitted them in to the respective vehicles and did all the cabling and necessary inter-connections and tuned then up to the correct frequencies that was designated and that was about it.
CB: And with the convoys was -
JRB: Any, any, any faults we had to correct and put new parts in if necessary.
CB: And each convoy had a generator.
JRB: Each convoy had a generator.
CB: What, what was that and what was its capacity?
JRB: Well, the, the ones for the original mobiles, that is the ones that were very similar to a slightly smaller version of the, of the chain station the, the generator was a, I think it was a three cylinder Lister diesel engine driving a three phase generator. Quite a hefty piece of equipment and these particular diesels, diesel isn’t very easy to turn over by hand anyway but there were no self-starters on them. The only way to start them was by a crank handle and in cold weather in the winter it was very difficult to, to turn that handle around. In fact we resorted to tying ropes to it and having a couple of men on either end of the rope and push pull to get, to get it over the top dead centre of the starting point but that was that. We had to use whatever equipment was sent to us. I think these, like a lot of the wartime equipment I think it had been adapted from some civilian usage but the ones for the lightweight convoys they were much more manageable. They were a two cylinder horizontally opposed engine. I think they were a firm at Coventry called Climax I believe had those.
CB: Again, diesel was it?
JRB: That was, that was a petrol driven generator. It was adapted from a motorbike engine. Now going on from that eventually we, they were stepping up the frequencies anyway. It was always, always trying to find equipment which would work on a higher frequency which was preferable for radar purposes and also it meant that the aerial size was smaller and we were supposedly, the magnetron was developed which would, which would operate where the old, the old type valves wouldn’t and we could, we could use much higher frequencies with that.
CB: So the magnetron was the key to reducing the size of the kit was it?
JRB: That was the key, the key to improving the radar system altogether really.
CB: What was the key point about magnetron? It’s ability to handle high frequency?
JRB: Well it worked, it worked on an entirely new principal.
CB: Right.
JRB: It would be a bit too to difficult to explain [unclear] but it involved especially designed core which had a number of cavities on a cylindrical pattern and by, its difficult to explain really. By subjecting this to a very strong magnetic field you could get, you could develop an oscillation from it whereas an ordinary valve wouldn’t oscillate above a certain, certain frequency so that was, that was much, a big improvement for it.
CB: So that was the key to the centimetre wavelength.
JRB: Yeah.
CB: Now when you go first, fast forward now to D-Day, how was the equipment handled there? Packaged and handled.
JRB: Well, prior to D-Day we had a programme for water proofing equipment and we had to, we had to make up convoys which were swathed in [blue?] fabric and Bostik cement to keep the sea water from getting on to them but they were still in the same vehicles so they could only go in shallow water virtually. They weren’t on a tracked vehicle of any sort but we all got in a horrible mess with all this Bostik and stuff around and it got on to all our tools and you couldn’t pick a screwdriver up without sticking to it [laughs] but that apparently saved them from being damaged on the landings. I don’t say they went in at the very first landings but they’d have probably followed on very shortly afterwards. So that was, that was -
CB: Now -
JRB: D-Day.
CB: Was, were there two sizes of equipment all the time or was it simply that they were being made smaller as time went on? In other words was there a bigger one for longer range and the shorter one was for -
JRB: No.
CB: More tactical use.
JRB: I don’t think so. I don’t. I think I think the original mobiles were sort of gradually phased out. I think we went more on, on to the lighter weight ones. LW. Lightweight Receivers they were called and there was another occasion when we, when we had a special job. At some stage, I think it was before D-Day the Germans started a night bombing campaign which became known as the little blitz. I don’t know whether you’ve ever heard of that.
CB: Yeah. Yeah.
JRB: But the little blitz was designed to renew the, the bombing campaign against Britain, against London in particular and the Germans thought that they’d got an advantage because they’d developed a rear, a rear looking radar which they would fit to the tails of the bombers and so they could see our night fighters coming up from behind. ‘Cause as you probably know the object of downing a bomber is to put the rear gunner out of action first and then it’s the bomber’s a sitting duck virtually so with this they thought they could get away with it and come up behind our our aircraft and -
CB: So how did that link in with you?
JRB: Well I was going to say, [pause] just a minute I’ve got something [unclear].
CB: This is interesting because they actually lost -
JRB: Lost something there I think.
CB: They actually lost sixty percent of their aircraft in that mini blitz, so, shot down -
JRB: I’m not talking about our raids on Germany.
CB: No. No. We’re talking about their, their mini blitz.
JRB: Of the German’s raids -
CB: Final fling.
JRB: On this renewed bombing against London. Now -
RB: You were going to say something about Meershum the other day weren’t you? Is that to do with it?
[pause]
CB: Did you get hold of one of these as a result of it being, the aircraft being shot down?
JRB: That was, wait a minute. I’ve got a bit lost I’m afraid.
CB: Ok. We’ll have a break.
RB: I’ll make another cup of –
[recording paused]
CB: So we’re just talking about the mini blitz and the fact that the Germans had got a rear facing radar detector.
JRB: That’s right.
CB: So what came out of that?
JRB: Now then, it turned out that the frequency that their rear, rear radar was working on was quite near to the frequency of our, some of our transmitters so we were asked to retune to get on to the German frequency and to put out a jamming signal which we did by modifying a transmitter so that instead of sending out the usual radar pulses it would send out a continuous noise signal which would block the display of the German rear radar and we always presumed that we were successful with that because we did a [panic?] programme, modifying equipment and setting it up. We went out on fitting parties along stations, the old chain station sites such as Pevensey, Pevensey and along the south coast and we went and fitted up this modified equipment in, in these mobile vans that we were using for the, the radar, anyway but instead of sending, you know that radar sends out a pulse from the transmitter and then it, it shuts off. It’s just a short pulse and you wait for the echo to come back. Well, now we were, we were asked to modify a transmitter so that instead of doing that it would send out a noise signal continuously and we set these stations up, mostly at the existing sites of chain stations and it wasn’t very long before the Germans called off their night raids so we always, we never got any direct feedback on it really but we always claimed that that had, that had influenced them in deciding to call it off and for some reason or other they named that Operation Meershum which of course is the name of a German type of pipe isn’t it?
CB: How is it spelled?
JRB: I think you spell it M E, M E, would it be M E E R S H U M or something like that. Meershum.
CB: Ok. We can look it up. So these mobile transmitters were placed where to achieve this?
JRB: They were sited on -
CB: On the CH stations.
JRB: Mostly the old, the old existing stations, you see.
CB: Yeah.
JRB: We were -
CB: Facing inwards.
JRB: Eh?
CB: Were they facing inwards in to the country these, these mobiles because they were on the back, the German radar was on the tail of their aircraft
JRB: They were -
CB: So to jam them they’d need to have, would they -?
JRB: Do you know I can’t quite remember.
CB: Was the idea to get the Germans before they reached the UK or more -
JRB: No. It was too -
CB: When they were inside.
JRB: After they got inside I believe.
CB: Yeah. So, so the, what I’m asking is if the mobiles were facing inside to be able to do the jamming.
JRB: Well I imagine that -
CB: They must have been mustn’t they?
JRB: The aerial would be sweeping around. On it’s usual -
CB: Ok.
JRB: Every time it came around it would -
CB: Ok.
JRB: Block them out wouldn’t it?
CB: Yeah.
JRB: I’m not quite sure about that but I know that we always thought that we stopped this mini blitz on London anyway.
CB: Right. Right. So there’s an important point here isn’t there? The CH stations only were for the protection and identification of aircraft coming towards Britain. In this particular case we’re talking about aircraft that got through the coastal area and were inside but your aerials were effectively giving a rotating beam whereas the CH stations were only directed out.
JRB: The CH stations were just directed outwards. Yeah because of course the equipment of the CH was, it would be quite impossible to –
CB: Yeah
JRB: Have it rotating anyway.
CB: Yeah. Yeah. I’ll stop there.
[recording paused]
CB: So -
JRB: The landing like Arnhem and that -
CB: They used gliders extensively.
JRB: They used gliders a lot and we, we had a, you’ve heard of the old Hamilcar glider have you?
CB: Yes. A big lifter.
JRB: A big one. Well the manufacturers sent us a dummy body of one of those to our station at Ruislip and the idea was that we were to build equipment which could fit in to this Hamilcar. So the thing was they wanted to make sure it would drive in as opposed to do it on the rule of thumb you might, might say and we had, we had specially set up equipment. These transmitters and other equipment which were in vehicles. I think the, I think the radar, yeah the radar would be in a specially built up body in a fifteen tonne truck and it had to be possible to drive it in and out of the Hamilcar so we, we had those made up locally and we’d one or two, not, not everybody could drive in those days you know.
CB: No.
JRB: And we’d one or two people who were quite good drivers and we trained them up to get these vehicles in and out the Hamilcar car. Well, we made up, I think it was six convoys like that to go with the troops and there was -
CB: That was for Arnhem was it? Or for D-day? D-day was a sea landing.
JRB: No.
CB: Was it for the vehicles.
JRB: It would be the -
CB: For Arnhem?
JRB: The river crossings wouldn’t it? The, like -
CB: Oh ok for crossing the Rhine.
JRB: Arnhem and that type of -
CB: And the Rhine. Yeah.
JRB: Wouldn’t it because that’s where the gliders were mostly used wasn’t they?
CB: Ok. Yeah.
JRB: We had special equipment for that and there was one, there was a station down near Bournemouth, Tarrant Rushton and that was a big depot for the gliders. I suppose quite near the coast to make a fairly short crossing and we took one set down there and there was some snag about it and it was suggested that I and one of my mates would accompany it. They were, they decided to do test flights to about six different stations up and down and one of them was a station near Bedford and we said well we’ll go on that one and there was a fault on it or something. I can’t quite remember just what it was at the time. So we got a trip in the glider which was quite an experience.
CB: To Twinwood Farm.
JRB: And -
CB: Twinwood Farm was the -
JRB: Yeah.
CB: Airfield there.
JRB: But you know when you, when the, when the glider casts off its rope you’re entirely at the mercy of the glider pilot and he knows that there’s no case of going around again and trying again. He’s got to put the thing down somewhere and pretty quick and it was a grass field and he, he had to land on the grass which was a bit, a bit hairy really but anyway.
CB: Were you looking our or did you close your eyes?
JRB: [laughs] No. We were looking out. But I don’t think we were very, very happy about it but of course a lot of the gliders were lost weren’t they? They were shot up and shot down before they ever got there [I reckon?]. That was about the only excitement we got with it really.
CB: What was the purpose of the tests? Was it to see whether the equipment would survive?
JRB: To see if it would be, the operational feasibility to do it, you know.
CB: I was thinking of terms -
JRB: To get out of the, to get the equipment out and rolling and get it set up isn’t it?
CB: I was thinking of the vulnerability of the valves to a heavy landing.
JRB: Well they had to take their chance didn’t they? And also it had to carry goodness knows how many jerry cans of petrol for the generator so it was a thing liable to go up in smoke at any minute sort of thing.
CB: I’ll stop there for a mo.
[recording paused]
JRB: The space between D-day and VJ, wait a minute. Not D-day.
CB: Arnhem.
JRB: No. No. I’m moving on.
CB: Oh ok so crossing the Rhine.
JRB: Yeah but after, after VE day.
CB: Oh yes.
JRB: Victory in Europe.
CB: Yes.
JRB: We concentrated on the war in the east of course and we expected that to go on for quite a long time. Now the, we got reports back that the termites were eating all the insulation off the wires and that in the, in the ordinary sets so we had to strip them all down and rebuild them with this new development. PVC wiring. Because apparently they couldn’t eat that and so we had a big job taking all the receivers and transmitters to pieces and rewiring them with this termite proof wire and things like transformers and components of that type, they had to be immersed in a solution of Perspex or something very similar and dried off so that they were coated in a something that the termites wouldn’t eat which of course as you well know the American atomic bombs put a rapid end to that war so these things weren’t really needed much longer than that.
RB: Although I suppose in, would they have termites in Korea after that.
JRB: But we’d, we’d modified quite a few equipments ready to go over there.
CB: Yeah.
JRB: But that was about the end of the war wasn’t it?
CB: So that was August ‘45. Then what did you do?
JRB: Well I stayed on at Ruislip and of course things got very quiet and we didn’t do very much more until the end of the, until getting demobbed but of course as you know we all had to wait our turns for, for demob.
CB: How did they keep you busy during that period? From August ‘45 to when you were demobbed?
JRB: What did I?
CB: How did they keep you busy from that, during that period ‘cause we’re talking about eighteen months?
JRB: I think there were one or two new developments coming out because there was one case where we, it was when the parabolic reflectors started coming out more and we had one or two sessions with developing or testing those of different types. I’ve got a photograph somewhere of, of a team of us setting up one of the parabolic reflectors but I just couldn’t lay my hands on it at the moment. But that was about it really you know just thinking about new equipments coming along and developing for peace time use I suppose. More or less.
CB: So the development of the parabolic aerial. What did that do to the overall size of the convoy.
JRB: Well it wouldn’t make much difference to the convoy but they were gradually getting more into microwave technology and just general, general developments that were coming along, you know but nothing very outstanding as far as I -. The pressure was off, you know. It was -
CB: Yeah.
JRB: But we were getting, going down to TRE and setting up -
CB: So what was TRE?
JRB: Technical Research Establishment I think it was and no, it was just, of course I suppose the modern radars are a big advance on what we were using at the time but we were just experimenting and testing out some new developments during that period.
CB: ‘Cause that was at Malvern at that time wasn’t it? So did you go up there?
JRB: Malvern was a centre for that sort of thing.
CB: How many vehicles were there in these convoys? What were, what were, what were the vehicles?
JRB: Well, the big the original ones. The heavy ones there would be a transmitter, a receiver, a communications, a trailer of the aerial and a trailer for the diesel generator so there would be about five, five items in a convoy really.
CB: And as time went on they did -
JRB: And then of course when we got on to the light, the light warning system
CB: Yeah. Yeah.
JRB: There would more or less be only a transmitter, a receiver and communications vehicle but all all very much smaller vehicles. More manoeuvrable.
CB: And where was the petrol stored when you were travelling? With the generator or in a different trailer? ‘Cause you used a lot of petrol or diesel.
JRB: Well as I say the ones that we did for the airborne landings they’d got to carry the petrol with them in jerry cans. Enough to run for a good time and then I suppose they’d get their supplies through normal channels you know but it wasn’t a good thing to be carrying loads of petrol on board when you’ve got troops in as well on the gliders. But I always think that I had a very easy and comfortable war compared with many, many people.
CB: So what was the accommodation like at Ruislip?
JRB: Our site, it was only a small unit, our site I think we’d two, two billets. Two huts about thirty men to a billet in the middle of a field. No, no heating unless you could scrounge some coke and get the coke stove going. No proper toilet facilities. No, no baths but there again you rely on somebody to keep the, keep the coke fired boiler going to give you hot water and and of course a few toilets but quite basic accommodation really at that place but we, we had to put up with that for several years. When I was promoted up to sergeant I had the choice of going either into, we, we were just across the, the railway tracks from the records office at Ruislip and I could have used the sergeant’s mess there but I elected to take up an option of being billeted with some friends in the area.
CB: Yeah.
JRB: So I finished off being in in billets with these people.
CB: You had to pay them rent.
JRB: Well that was all done automatically through the, through the exchequer, you know.
CB: Right.
JRB: I just had to, I suppose they got, they got sort of postal orders or something like that. They never complained. They always, always seemed to think they’ve been paid alright for it.
CB: They had your ration book.
JRB: They had my ration book yes. They [could draw?] my rations.
CB: So the accommodation for you -
JRB: ‘Cause you see in, in, when you were in RAF billets in the camp you didn’t need ration books anyway. They just -
CB: No.
JRB: You just had a cookhouse.
RB: Were you always segregated in the accommodation?
JRB: Well, eh?
RB: Were you always segregated? I mean, in your hut there would only be radar people or would there be other RAF personnel as well?
JRB: No. Just reckon that we, we were all working together in the radar.
RB: So you were all in the same boat.
JRB: Yeah all -
CB: What was the unit called? MU was it?
JRB: 4 MU.
CB: 4 MU. Yeah.
JRB: 4 MU. 4 MU at Ruislip.
CB: And where did you eat in the daytime?
JRB: We had a little cookhouse and meals were, meals were done there. And we had a NAAFI. Again, just sort of temporary. I think the NAAFI was just a, like a wooden hut but we were only a very small unit altogether you see. So that’s about what I -
CB: Good. Thank you.
[recording paused]
CB: Now yours was mobile radar but the whole concept was based on the original chain radar. So how did that work Roy?
JRB: Well the -
CB: And where was it?
JRB: The British aircraft carried a special piece of equipment which would send out a signal when, when it, when the initial pulse from the transmitter reached the aircraft it triggered this equipment in the aircraft which would send a, a varying signal back and if the, if the echo on the CRDF was pulsing they would know it was, it was this IFF responding.
CB: So what was IFF? Identification -
JRB: Identification Friend or Foe.
CB: Right.
JRB: IFF. So if it was a British aircraft it would be, it would enable it to send out a signal which would cause the echo on the tube to vary and that’s why they would know that it was a friendly.
CB: So where were the chain radar stations?
JRB: Where were the chain stations? Well they were all along the coast. They were at Pevensey. Isle of Wight. You name it there was a whole string of them all along the coast. Every so many miles apart. I can’t tell you -
CB: And what was the purpose of the chain system?
JRB: The purpose was virtually to detect incoming raids. ‘Cause you see there, there were various systems. They realised, when war was pretty imminent they realised that we’d no way of detecting incoming bombers until they were right overhead and they tried various systems. One of them was based on the sound of the aircraft engine. They built, they built a few of these big concrete dishes supposed to pick up the sound of an engine and amplify it and give warning in that way but of course that didn’t work awfully well at all and the principal of radar was well known because it had been used, it had been, been experimented with before the war and one of its uses that they foresaw was that they would be able to measure distance to planets and so on because the same, the same theory applies. If you, if you send out a radio pulse it becomes reflected from anything it hits so if you, if you directed it towards the solar system you could, by measuring the time lapse and converting it from the well known formula of the speed of electromagnetic waves and time you could, you could work out the distance so the scientists of the day were experimenting with that sort of thing and it was just that Watson Watt seemed to get the credit for it but I think that the principal was already known before that and I have always believed that the Germans had quite good radar equipment although we always claimed it was a British invention and it was, it was a big saviour to us. Which, no doubt, it did help a great deal in the Battle of Britain but its main reason for its success was the fact that with our coastline we could form a chain of stations which would detect incoming aircraft. Now the Germans were at a disadvantage because they had such a long and dispersed coastline that they couldn’t very well cover it anyway but I’ve always had in my mind that the Germans knew quite a bit about radar and in fact do you remember we sent over a party, RAF, an RAF flight sergeant I think in charge of it. A secret landing on the French coast to capture equipment from a German station and I’ve no doubt at all that the Germans knew quite a bit more about radar than what we would admit. We were always, always, always claiming that it was an entirely British invention but it was, I think it was common knowledge in the scientific world that a radio transmission would be reflected by a solid object.
CB: What did you do after the war? You were demobbed in ’47 so what did you then do?
JRB: I came back here. My dad had carried on with his little smallholding business all during the war years and I came back fully intending to take over because he was retirement age and becoming less able to do the work and I thought that would be my future which it was for quite a few years wasn’t it Ray? When you were born it was.
RB: About, about ten years wasn’t it?
JRB: About ten years I was, I was running that.
RB: I think it was a combination of -
JRB: And we -
RB: Of cheap imports and fuel prices.
JRB: Yeah. We were, we were producing well a very nice orchard in those days which is now defunct and greenhouses and we were making our living from that. I got married just after the end of the war and my wife came. She was a girl from London but she came up here and threw her lot in with, with me helping on the smallholding and that’s what we did for, as Ray says, about ten years and then there was a time when prices were very bad for produce and unless you’d a lot of capital to develop in a big way the small, the small units were beginning to get faded out. You know, they were getting superseded and I think it was when, we used to sell our produce on the market at Preston you see. Well you could go, you could go and set up your stall on Preston Market and sell your own produce but that all seemed to fade away didn’t it Ray? You know I don’t think they have that your way now do they?
RB: I think supermarkets really -
JRB: And supermarkets.
RB: The nail in the coffin weren’t they?
JRB: Supermarkets were beginning to come along and of course they were only interested in making contracts with the, with the big producers and it just got it wasn’t really a viable thing and of course with having had my wartime experience and knowledge of radio I applied to -
RB: The civil service. Barton Hall.
JRB: I think, there was an air traffic control centre just outside Preston just on the A6 going north from Preston called Barton, Barton Hall and that was, it, there was a Met section and what do you call it Ray? A meteorological section.
RB: Oh yeah. Yeah.
JRB: And there was a civilian section which was connected with Manchester Airport and that was, it had an airline for civilian aircraft coming down from Scotland into Manchester and that was like a first contact point this, this civilian air traffic control and also running alongside it more or less the RAF had got a emergency system. The idea being that we did twenty four hour coverage and but we had what in those days was considered to be state of the art technology which enabled us to position accurately an aircraft anywhere over the north of England virtually which was called auto triangulation. Now the idea being that we had, of course, remember this was entirely before the days of the, of the satellites and the the navigation that they’ve got today. We had a selection of RAF airfields in the area. Woodvale, Bishop’s, what were it? Bishops Court Northern Ireland, one on the Isle of Man, another up on the Cumbrian coast and one or two further inland over the Pennine areas and with this equipment which was put in by Standard Telephones we could get a position from each of these, each of these RAF stations could give you the bearing of on aircraft.
CB: They could triangulate it.
JRB: They could triangulate it by, we had this big, big screen with the map of the area on it and the position of each of our forward relay stations as we called them and if an aircraft, it was, it was designed specifically for aircraft in distress, civilian or RAF and when an aircraft transmitted on the international distress frequency it would draw traces from the various stations on our big map and a cross, well it was never a perfect cross it was always a little bit ambiguous but roughly call it, they called it a cocked hat. It would form a little, maybe like a little five sided area of probability so that you could say, you could, you could call the pilot up again on a forward relay station. You see all this, we’d got land lines, GPO lines to each of these stations so our controller could use, well, say for instance valley in the isle, in the -
CB: Anglesey.
JRB: Anglesey was one of them. We could use their transmitter if the aircraft was in that area.
CB: Yeah.
JRB: Or we could use one of the other transmitters, speak over the landline to that local transmitter and of course you’d get a better signal than if it was coming all the way from Preston and, and we could give him, give him his position pretty accurately and we could say, you know, ask the nature of his emergency and say well fly such and such a vector to such and such an airfield you see and direct him to try and get down.
CB: This is because you were using a big planned position indicator with a map on it aren’t you?
JRB: Yeah.
CB: And when he squawks then the line comes out.
JRB: We used, you know the television, the early television projector sets? They had a little, a little tube which would project on to a bigger screen hadn’t they? Not very distinct I would always thought but anyway we used those same -
CB: Same principal.
JRB: Those same tubes to project on to this big map that we had on our control desk and so it worked very well that did but we, we had to run on it on a watch system because it was covering the twenty four hours.
CB: Yeah.
JRB: And it was the emergency service you see.
CB: So what were you doing there?
JRB: I was maintaining all the equipment.
CB: Right.
JRB: At the Preston end.
CB: Now, you were, you during that period you trans -
JRB: You see, we had to, over our land line we could talk to the people at, at each station and if the, if we suspected that their signals were not quite right we’d have to call them to go and have a look at their equipment on the airfield and check and of course we, we used to have the authority over them to call them out if necessary for that sort of thing but it was quite a, quite a good system really but of course the sat nav type thing has entirely put that into the history books hasn’t it now?
CB: Yeah.
JRB: You’ll have heard of the RAF equipments called CADF and CRDF. Well they were installed on the airfields and each control tower if the, if the aircraft in his area called up his own station could give him his bearing to fly to the station but it couldn’t give him how many miles away it was or anything like that so this would give him a fixed position. So we used to have, thankfully we didn’t have a lot of emergencies, true emergencies but we used to do a lot of test, tests with aircraft in the area. So call, call up on the emergency channel and just check that everything was in order you know. It worked very well I thought.
CB: Now that was a transition. During that period you were, the technology was moving from valves to printed circuits. Well to -
JRB: Only just. This equipment -
CB: Transistors was what I meant to say.
JRB: This equipment was still on valves.
CB: Was it?
JRB: But -
CB: So we’re talking about the fifties and the sixties are we?
JRB: A friend, a friend of mine who served with me in the RAF after the war, this is Terry Parnell, he got a job at Standard Telephones and he, the two direction finding equipment that I mentioned CADF and CRDF they were in use by the RAF using the valve technology and I believe he converted it and brought out the transistorised versions of it and that worked alright for quite a long time.
CB: So when did you retire?
JRB: When did I retire?
RB: Well there was, there was another stage in your career when Barton Hall closed down in the early 70s. You went to Sealand didn’t you and you were working for the civil service at the, on laser, laser guided things.
JRB: Oh that was later on wasn’t it? Yes, of course.
RB: After Barton Hall closed down. So you actually retired from the laser -
JRB: Originally –
RB: Thing.
JRB: Originally we had five control centres. There was Preston, Barton Hall, Uxbridge and one up near the Scottish borders somewhere wasn’t there? Anyway there were about five, five areas. Well gradually they combined them. We took over the Yorkshire stations as well as our western stations and Uxbridge took over from somebody else so it was centralised from five to about three and then eventually it was centralised all on Uxbridge so of course the Barton Hall equipment was superfluous as regards this auto triangulation system. It was all being done collectively through Uxbridge.
RB: That’s when you were transferred to Sealand.
JRB: And that’s when, that’s when I transferred to Sealand which as you know is on, near Chester and I worked there until the end of the war er till the end of the, of my service.
CB: Which was 19 -
JRB: To my retirement and -
CB: 75 was it? 1970’s
RB: ‘85.
JRB: Sixty five wasn’t I?
RB: Yeah but ’85 you were sixty five.
CB: 1985
JRB: Yes I retired at sixty five and the last bit of my time there I was on, 30 MU at Sealand was a big RAF station. It had been a wartime flying station.
CB: Yeah.
JRB: And it became a central maintenance unit for airborne radio for the RAF. Most of the, most of the stations, if they had faulty equipment it would be sent to Sealand to be sorted out at that one place you see instead of each station doing their own repair work.
CB: Yeah.
JRB: It would come to a sensible point which was Sealand. So I worked on that for several years and then the Cossor’s, not Cossor’s, Ferranti’s. Ferranti’s of Edinburgh, they developed a laser equipment.
CB: At Sealand.
JRB: Now laser as you probably know is quite similar to ordinary radar but it’s using a different part of the spectrum.
CB: Infra-red.
JRB: It’s using infra-red and they, I don’t know whether it’s still in use but they fitted it in the Jaguars and I think in the new, the new fighter that replaced, well it was the Jaguar wasn’t it but I can’t remember what that was called but anyway but that was known as, I’m just trying to remember the [pause] Oh mark, laser ranger and marked target seeker. Now that had two purposes. From an aircraft it could, it could detect and range on a target or alternatively somebody on the ground, hopefully a little squaddie with a pack set, could direct this laser on to a bridge say that he wanted eliminating and that would be detected by the aircraft who could then range on that specific target you see so that’s why they called it the marked target seeker. So I worked on that which was a new technology again altogether using, as you said, infra-red instead of -
CB: To illuminate the target.
JRB: Radio waves. And I believe they used that in the Shetlands.
RB: The Falklands.
CB: In the Falklands war.
JRB: In the Falklands. Sorry. In the Falklands and one or two incidents since I believe but I don’t know whether it’s still, you see this, this is, we’re going back now what thirty years Ray. Something like that.
RB: Well yeah it was before Kit was born. Kit’s thirty at the end of this month.
JRB: Yeah.
RB: That’s my son, dad’s grandson.
JRB: Yes. That’s right.
RB: He’s thirty in a few weeks.
JRB: So presumably that equipment is now out of date anyway.
CB: Well just more sophisticated isn’t it?
JRB: It was the start of the, start of the laser usage for this purpose.
CB: Yes. Right. Excellent.
JRB: And then of course that was what I worked on right up to the end of my civil -
RB: Until you retired.
JRB: Service type of thing.
CB: So how many years did you do in the civil service? About thirty I suppose.
JRB: Something like that.
CB: ‘55 to ’85.
JRB: Something like that. Yeah. At, I was up at Barton Hall for quite a number of years wasn’t I Ray and then at Sealand again.
RB: Yeah.
JRB: About thirty years I suppose. Yeah.
CB: Right. We’re stopping there for a mo.
[recording paused]
CB: As a final point Roy what was the most memorable point about your service in the RAF?
JRB: In the RAF.
[pause]
JRB: I don’t know. It’s hard to say really.
[pause]
CB: Ok. What about in, in, when you, in civilian life? Was there a memorable part of your activities when you became a civil servant with radar, laser and so on?
JRB: No. There was nothing very exciting about it I’m afraid. It was just, just the same humdrum stuff.
CB: And what was your interests in the background in all that time? Were you keen on sport or some other -?
JRB: Never been much of a sportsman but I think, would you say our, our overseas holiday trips? That sort of -?
RB: Yeah. Well you went on foreign language courses didn’t you and did evening schools in various things.
JRB: Yes.
RB: Did you do a maths course? What was that -
JRB: No. I didn’t do a maths course.
RB: You didn’t do maths. Some, some
JRB: You see Peter, Peter -
RB: Sort of, was it a City and Guilds course you did? Something in -
JRB: Yes. Well that was more to do with my service life wasn’t it? The City and Guilds. It was qualification for -
RB: You did sort of later, qualifications in later life didn’t you?
JRB: Yes.
RB: And did you do Italian courses? And French.
JRB: Well I did one or two study courses. Yeah.
CB: Good. Thank you.
[recording paused]
CB: Just clarifying the mini blitz because clearly that was a memorable thing for you. You had to react quickly did you to this situation and so was this a particularly memorable event? The Meershum.
JRB: Yes it was because it was a sudden request that we got and we had to pull the stops out and design a modification to the equipment and get it, get it out to the airfields. We’d quite a hectic time going around and installing it at the various -
CB: At the CH stations.
JRB: Fields.
CB: Was it at airfields or CH stations?
JRB: It was at CH stations.
CB: Right. Thanks.
RB: That the [unclear?] isn’t it?
CB: Yeah.
JRB: Have you got it there?
CB: How long did it take you to do this? Literally a weekend or was it weeks?
JRB: Literally, literally just over a weekend.
CB: Amazing.
JRB: We were going all over the place, split up into different fitting parties and took one, one equipment to each station you see and set it up. So we landed down at Pevensey and that was the one that I was most involved in and the rest of our company did likewise. We were all separate, separate little fitting parties going along the various -
CB: You went by road -
JRB: Stations.
CB: I presume.
JRB: Yes.
CB: Yeah.
JRB: Yes. They laid transport on for us and of course we went, went straight to these stations.
CB: Good.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with James Burdin
Creator
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Chris Brockbank
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-02-06
Format
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01:51:55 audio recording
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ABurdinJR170206
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Language
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eng
Coverage
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
Civilian
Description
An account of the resource
James Burdin went at Hutton Grammar School and worked on radio repair and sales. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force but had to wait and joined the Local Defence Volunteers instead. He did some rifle practice, general infantry training and patrols. James had his initial training at Blackpool where the winter gardens had been converted into a Morse school. Owing his background in radio, he later went to work on radar: he discusses his postings at different training establishments and provides details of radar technical advances, installation, modify and repair, vulnerability and equipment mobility. James served in mobile equipment units in Algeria (Operation Torch), Tunisia, Egypt, Normandy (D-Day landings), crossing of the Rhine, Netherlands (Operation Market Garden), Mauthausen camp (Operation Meerschaum). Discusses the end of the war, continuing to work at 4 Maintenance Unit at RAF Ruislip developing equipment, components and technologies. He then worked at the Technical Research Establishment until demobilised in 1947.
After an unsuccessful attempt to run his family business, he applied for the civil service and worked until 1985 on radar development, auto triangulation, Cathode-Ray Direction Finder, Identification Friend or Foe, infrared devices, laser and chain radar stations.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Lancashire
England--Blackpool
Algeria
Austria
Austria--Mauthausen
Egypt
France
Germany
Rhine River
Netherlands
Netherlands--Arnhem
Tunisia
North Africa
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
civil defence
demobilisation
Gneisenau
Home Guard
military living conditions
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
radar
RAF Bircham Newton
RAF Ruislip
recruitment
sanitation
Scharnhorst
training