Browse Items (1152 total)
- Temporal Coverage is exactly "1945"
Sort by:
Interview with William Horace Shaw
Bill was a wireless operator/air gunner. He joined the Home Guard in 1941 and registered for conscription to the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1943. He reported to Lord’s Cricket Ground and went to an Initial Training Wing at RAF Bridgnorth. Bill then…
Interview with Kenneth Trent
Ken grew up in London and joined the Royal Air Force on his eighteenth birthday as a pilot. After exams and interview at RAF Uxbridge, he went to Number 9 Receiving Wing in Torquay and an Initial Training Wing in Stratford-upon-Avon. He then trained…
Interview with Charles Henry Clarke. Two
Charles Clarke joined the RAF aged 17 and began training as a pilot but he became ill with mumps and later trained as a bomb aimer. His aircraft was shot down on an operation to Schweinfurt and he became a prisoner of war. He took part in the Long…
Interview with Daphne Baptiste
Daphne joined the Air Ministry at 17. She initially joined the Civil Service, as she believed it would be a safe job with high wages. Throughout the war, she was stationed at Ladies’ College in Harrogate and was in charge of supplying water to many…
Interview with Gerald Walter Bell
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…
Interview with Posy Clarke
Posy Clarke had an idyllic childhood in the house her parents renovated in Kingshill. They were very great friends with Air Chief Marshall Harris and his family who lived next door and who often visited for meals and drinks. Posy and Jackie Harris…
Interview with Thea Coleman
Thea Coleman was born in 1933 in Holland. She experienced the invasion of her country and the increasing restrictions. When walking once with her father they were forced to stand and wait while prisoners were brought out of prison and executed while…
Interview with Margaret Helen Day
As her father was in the Royal Navy, Margaret attended school in Gibraltar, Portsmouth, and (after her mother’s death) Malta, before returning to Gosport in the UK when she was eleven. In 1939, she was fifteen and working for a company making soft…
Interview with Andrzej Jeziorski
Andrzej Jeziorski was born in Poland and, when war broke out, fled to Britain, where he flew as a pilot with 304 Squadron. Remembers the 1st of September 1939. Talks about his father, a Navy officer who served in the First World War. Mentions his…
Interview with Edward George Key
Ted Key was a flight engineer. He was born to a large family in London which he remembers coming down from Norfolk to visit. His father was in the Navy as a chief petty officer and away a lot. Ted was in the air defence cadet corps before he joined…
Interview with Maurice William Marriott
Interested in aircraft through the Air Training Corps, Maurice joined the Royal Air Force in 1942 and went to Cardington. In July 1943 he went to the Air Crew Reception Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground, followed by 17 Initial Training Wing in…
Interview with Philip Peel
Mike Peel was a Lancaster pilot and served on two squadrons before becoming a prisoner of war late in 1944. He was an active sportsman and played tennis in his eighties but unfortunately is no longer with us. Using his logbook, letters, and…
Interview with Jim Penny. Two
After volunteering for the RAF Jim Penny began his training which also took him to USA. He was present when the announcement of Pearl Harbour was made and all RAF trainees could openly wear their uniforms as the two countries were officially Allies.…
Interview with Jeremy Reade
Jeremy Reade recalls the memories of his father, Charles Sturrock Reade. Charles was born in Belfast and grew up in Portrush. On leaving school, Charles spent a short time working at a solicitor's office, before joining the Royal Ulster Constabulary…
Interview with Margaret Saint
Margaret Saint was employed by Airworks Limited as a civilian office worker throughout the Second World War, and met her future husband, Trevor, an air gunner, who she married in June 1945. Daughter of a Welsh miner, the family moved to the Cotswolds…
Interview with Frederick Donovan Say
Frederick Say went to Tottenham County High School and when he left school he went to study agriculture. He joined the RAF and was posted to RAF Tangmere and worked in the Operations Room as a clerk and was promoted to Leading Aircraftsman Special…
Interview with Rex Searle. One
Rex Searle joined the RAF in 1938 as an air frame fitter. He was based at Hendon and then at Biggin Hill with 601 Squadron before the squadron was split and he moved with them to France. He was evacuated back to the UK via Boulogne as the German army…
Interview with Rex Searle. Two
While Rex Searle was an air frame fitter with 601 Squadron he was evacuated from France at the start of the war. He returned home for a short leave but didn’t want to wake the family so waited patiently from 4am until 6am when his mum started her…
Interview with James Swaffield
James Swaffield was born and grew up in West London and flew as a navigator in the RAF. He discusses with the interviewer his life before, during and after the war. Highlights include: remembering his father, who served during the First World War and…
Interview with Eric Horsham
Eric Horsham was born in East London in 1923. Leaving school at 14 he was a messenger at the Royal Ordnance Factory before working for the railways. In 1937 he joined the Air Training Corps and learned about aircraft maintenance. On his first attempt…
Interview with Katherine Thompson and Roy Briggs
Katherine Ellen Thompson remembers her time in Rotterdam during the war and particularly during Operation Manna. Mentions various episodes: food shortage, bartering linen and silver for food, members of the Dutch fascist party paraded through the…
Interview with Henry Wolfe Wagner. Two
Henry’s aircraft was shot down when the fuel tank exploded on the starboard wing and came down in Holland. Henry was the only member of the crew to bail out. Their target had been the armament works in Duisburg. Henry drifted across the River…
Interview with Clifford Watson. Two
Clifford Watson remembers his training as a pilot in Salisbury, Zimbabwe, but being scrubbed at the flying test. Tells of when he flew a Ju-88 at RAE Farnborough. Talks about the different wages in various trades. Tells of an emergency landing at RAF…
Interview with Vivian David Williams
Vivian joined the Royal Air Force in July 1938 as a flight mechanic and served for seven and a half years. After square drills at RAF Uxbridge and a course at RAF Manston, he did a basic engineering course at RAF Henlow. After six months at RAF St…
Interview with John Harry Waye
John Waye grew up in London. He was ten years old when he was hospitalised with diphtheria. When he was discharged he discovered his mother had died while he had been in hospital. John was working in the retail trade and was in the ATC before he…