1
25
21
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1939/37264/BBarryCGBarryCGv1.1.pdf
3ad447a1e9fa6577251414f6e7674dec
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
Field, Peter L and Cynthia G
Peter L Field
P L Field
Cynthia G Field
C G Field
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-09-19
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Field, PL-CG
Description
An account of the resource
144 items and five photograph albums in sub-collections. The collection concerns Peter L and Cynthia G Field and contains memoirs, correspondence, photographs. Peter Field (b. 1920) served as a wireless operator and Cynthia (b. 1921) served as a WAAF in 2 Group. <br /><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2137">Album One</a> Photographs of various people.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2138">Album Two</a> Photographs of people and places, postcards.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2141">Album Three</a> Photographs of parents house over the years.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2144">Album Four</a> Photographs of family events, places and people.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2146">Album Five</a> <span>Photographs of wartime colleagues, Cook's tour aerial photographs of bomb damaged German cities, and family and friends as well as two letters home.</span><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Susan Elizabeth Field and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
A memoir of life in the WAAF during the war
Description
An account of the resource
Starts with description of feelings and actions beginning of the war. Mother had tried to persuade her to join land army and mentions brief experience and unsuitability for farming. Decided to join the RAF. Details enlistment and initial training with description of training, facilities and food at West Drayton. Continues with telephonist training at Worcester and subsequent posting to 11 Group at RAF Uxbridge. Describes Uxbridge: accommodation, food, work, manning switchboard and working conditions. Continues with detailed description of actions during Battle of Britain. Goes on with description of bombing of London and living through raids to London and local area. Gives detailed description of living accommodation, colleague, room mate and activities. Mentions tying for commission, turning down re-mustering as wireless operator. Continues with posting to Biggin Hill and describes unit and work. Subsequently sent o HQ 2 Group at RAF Huntingdon. Describes location, work, people and activities at new location. Mentions promotions to corporal and sergeant. Gives detailed description of off-duty activities and entertainment. Continues with very detailed description of her work and activities of Bomber Command and the group including Mosquito operations, friends and colleagues. Mentions thousand bomber raid against Cologne and other highlights. Continues with account of the rest of her time at 2 Group and subsequent move to Norfolk. Finally in early 1944 posted to RAF Leeming. Describes location, facilities, work and NCO s course at RAF Wilmslow as well as resident squadrons, aircrew and other personnel. Gives account of getting to know a whole crew well who subsequently volunteered for Pathfinders and went missing on operations. Continues with account of time at RAF Leeming and RAF Skipton on Swale. At the end 36 photographs of her father, his army units, her mother, friends, herself, WAAF colleagues, family, family home as well as Ian Hay, her NCO course, WAAFs and airmen at Leeming and some post war photographs of bomb damage in Germany.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Sergeant C G Barry
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1940-08
1941-11
1942-05-30
1942-05-31
1944
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Worcestershire
England--Worcester
England--Middlesex
England--Kent
England--Huntingdonshire
England--Huntingdon
England--Yorkshire
England--Cheshire
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Fighter Command
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Format
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Seventy-six page printed document with text and thirty-six b/w photographs
Conforms To
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Pending text-based transcription. Allocated
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BBarryCGBarryCGv1
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
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
105 Squadron
139 Squadron
2 Group
427 Squadron
429 Squadron
bombing
bombing of Cologne (30/31 May 1942)
ground personnel
Halifax
Lancaster
military living conditions
military service conditions
Mosquito
RAF Biggin Hill
RAF Leeming
RAF Skipton on Swale
RAF Uxbridge
RAF Wilmslow
training
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2559/43586/SLambertBrownP19330417v10009.2.pdf
3b873664b4f9c9724a4cf5b381ef9ed5
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Lambert-Brown, Peter
P Lambert-Brown
Description
An account of the resource
12 items. The collection concerns Peter Lambert-Brown (b. 1933 Royal Navy). A collection of documents compiled for the Admiralty detailing the bombing of the Royal Navy Dockyards in Malta. The collection covers the siege of Malta and includes the various vessels and docks that were damaged, and the repairs that were undertaken carried out.
The collection was donated to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Jacqueline Sherman and catalogued by Benjamin Turner.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2023-05-12
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LambertBrown, 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
Appendix VI- Table of Raids
Description
An account of the resource
Each page documents a table of attacks on the docks of Malta. The air raids detailed in the table record the raid number, number of casualties, damage (both place and extent) and damage to ships and equipment.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1940-06
1940-09
1941-01
1941-03
1941-04
1941-05
1941-07
1941-08
1941-10
1941-11
1941-12
1942-01
1942-02
1942-03
1942-04
1942-05
1942-06
1942-07
1942-10
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Malta
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 Navy
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
25 page typewritten report
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SLambertBrownP19330417v10009
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.
bombing
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1009/11249/PMadgett15010017.1.jpg
da9e7f71696ed6ba3ee4bd9ec14bd3ed
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1009/11249/PMadgett15010018.1.jpg
ceb014c62e6ff502123371d1c3c34de2
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
Madgett, Hedley Robert
H R Madgett
Description
An account of the resource
250 items. The collection concerns Pilot Officer Hedley Madgett DFM (1922 - 1943, 147519, 1330340 Royal Air Force), a pilot with 61 Squadron. He was killed 18 August 1943 on the last operation of his tour from RAF Syerston to Peenemünde. The collection consists of letters, postcards and telegrams to his parents while he was training in the United Kingdom and Canada. In addition the collection contains memorabilia, documents from the Air Training Corps, artwork, a railway map, diaries, medals as well as his logbook, photographs of people, places and aircraft. Also contains letters of condolence to parents and a sub collection containing a photograph album with 44 items of his time training in Canada'.<br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Joan Madgett and Carol Gibson, and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span>Additional information on Hedley Madgett is available via the </span><a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/114690/" title="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/madgett-hr/ ">IBCC Losses Database</a><span>.</span>
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
2015-03-17
2019-06-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Madgett, H
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bill and Lucy
Description
An account of the resource
Two airmen in flying suits standing in snow embracing on a step in front of the door to a building. On the reverse 'Bill + Lucy, 32 EFTS, Swift Current Nov 1941'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PMadgett15010017, PMadgett15010018
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Saskatchewan--Swift Current
Saskatchewan
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
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.
aircrew
pilot
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1009/18822/MMadgettHR147519-190610-01.1.pdf
5d8942aadc77c0904774304781f07647
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
Madgett, Hedley Robert
H R Madgett
Description
An account of the resource
250 items. The collection concerns Pilot Officer Hedley Madgett DFM (1922 - 1943, 147519, 1330340 Royal Air Force), a pilot with 61 Squadron. He was killed 18 August 1943 on the last operation of his tour from RAF Syerston to Peenemünde. The collection consists of letters, postcards and telegrams to his parents while he was training in the United Kingdom and Canada. In addition the collection contains memorabilia, documents from the Air Training Corps, artwork, a railway map, diaries, medals as well as his logbook, photographs of people, places and aircraft. Also contains letters of condolence to parents and a sub collection containing a photograph album with 44 items of his time training in Canada'.<br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Joan Madgett and Carol Gibson, and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span>Additional information on Hedley Madgett is available via the </span><a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/114690/" title="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/madgett-hr/ ">IBCC Losses Database</a><span>.</span>
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
2015-03-17
2019-06-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Madgett, H
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CALGARY WINGS
[Underlined] HR Madgett. [/underlined]
[Drawing]
November, 1941 25 Cents
[Page break]
V … -
City of Calgary
A real Calgary welcome is extended to the Officer Commanding, the Officers and Other Ranks of No. 37 Service Flying Training School, Royal Air Force.
We are honoured in having this splendid unit training in our city and are sincerely desirous of making their stay a happy and pleasant one.
ANDREW DAVIDSON
Mayor
J. M. MILLER
City Clerk
“There’ll Always Be An England”
[Page break]
“CALGARY WINGS”
A monthly magazine produced and published by personnel of No. 37 Service Flying Training School, Royal Air Force, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Managing Editor:
CORPORAL B. J. BARNES
Business Managers:
CORPORAL A. LEY
A-C. S. WINTERFORD
Officer I-c:
F-LIEUT. M. T. MAW
NUMBER 1. NOVEMBER, 1941.
INTRODUCING OURSELVES
IN entering the magazine market so soon after our arrival from Britain, we feel that some explanation is needed. The object of producing a monthly “Calgary Wings” is primarily to record in literary and art forms our lives in Calgary. That means that we must produce a magazine not only for our airmen, but also for our friends in Calgary. It is difficult to see how so many guests, permanent and temporary, can live, sleep, and have their being in so charming a city as this, without joining to the full in Calgary’s life – business, professional, educational, literary, musical, art, social, religious and night.
CALGARY has no weekly newspaper as we understand a weekly paper to be. At the moment we have not considered supplying that need. Both news and opinions are reflected accurately enough in the city’s two newspapers. We do not in any sense regard these two worthy contemporaries as our rivals (Heaven help them if we did!) but would rather regard ourselves as complimentary to them in holding the mirror up to Calgary’s culture.
This adventure of ours is and must remain solvent, or else die. We do not believe in the subsidizing of any vehicle of expression of so-called public opinion. If all goes well, this should be our worst effort.
WE shall say what we think and honest-minded citizens will not be offended. We shall always welcome suggestions, criticism, and contributions, although we shall not pay for the latter. We are serving the cause and not ourselves. The whole of our organization is voluntary and the work is done secondarily to our efforts in the Empire Air Training plan. Any profits we may make will be firstly set aside to improve the quality and size of the magazine, and secondly to assist service charities.
[Page break]
A MESSAGE TO CALGARY
FROM
GROUP CAPTAIN W. H. POOLE, A.F.C., M.M.,
Officer Commanding No. 37 S.F.T.S.
“WELCOME stranger” is the password given us by Calgarians. We are neither the last nor the first English, Scot, Irish, or Welshmen to invade the “brave new world” of Canada. This is an invasion. I make no bones about it. Influence infiltrates unconsciously and we are learning much from you and hope to contribute in return.
Thanks to your hospitality, public and private, we who have come so far from our families and familiar haunts are realizing the meaning of commonwealth, of a cousinship throughout the British Empire, strengthened by common danger and the personal acquaintance which has resulted.
We are indeed grateful to our hosts.
“Calgary Wings” will be a chronicle of our interests and activities here, intimate details of our present life staged in your beautiful city in the heart of Canada.
We do not forget that we came here (so unexpectedly for the majority) to carry out a job of work and our endeavour to do it well shall prove our appreciation for your welcome.
Here, taking advantage of your famous dry climate, undisturbed by the alarms of air raids and the retarding influence of black-out, we plough steadily forward playing a small but important part in furthering and hastening the far-seeing Empire Air Training plan.
In this we must not and shall not slacken. To work and train to the highest pitch of efficiency is our only justification for being here in security, comfort and plenty.
Many of you must have pondered over the seeming awkwardness of authorities in sending your sons to the east and abroad and in bringing our sons so far west as this. In thoughtful moments we dimly see a great conception in this movement of large numbers of men, a vision of restless power of combined action – a sweeping flood of trained and trusted comrades – who knows?
[Advert for Penley’s Dancing Academy]
[Advert for Central Photo Studio]
2
[Page break]
RETREAT FROM GREECE
THE following letter may be of interest to readers of “Calgary Wings”. It was written to my brother from Crete, following the safe evacuation of his unit from Greece. He was an officer in a London Territorial Unit equipped with Bren Gun Carriers, forming part of a mechanized division. Subsequently he was taken prisoner in Crete, being the only officer in his Company to survive the ordeal.
F-Lt. M. T. Maw.
May 8th.
My Dearest Mother:
Now that I have some time to spare I’ll try to write in more detail about the events of the last month. My writing may not be so hot, as we are still living in the “rough” and this is written on my knee. I’ll try to tell you of the lighter side of things, as I’m quite sure you won’t want to hear much that happened.
Although we escaped from Greece on April 28th, we are still in operational role “somewhere” waiting for the Boche to attack us. This time we will be on equal terms with him if he comes, and we are confident that on anything like equal terms we can thrash him. I last wrote during the first few days of April.
At 9.30 a.m. During a service on Sunday, April 6th, we heard that the “balloon had gone up.” I immediately moved my carriers forward three miles of the rest of the Company and occupied the village of Petros in Macedonia. For the first time the local inhabitants who had always been extremely friendly and kind, threatened trouble.
At 10 p.m. on the first night they came out of their houses (although we had imposed a curfew) and the Greek police told me to get out of the village! The situation was soon in hand and they calmed down. At dusk on April 8th, I had an order by wireless to withdraw to Armgatin (about 40 miles).
The Boche had penetrated through Yugoslavia, and had completely outflanked us. It was a race against time, it was raining like hell, and a very difficult journey over the mountains.
Many more such journeys were to come, with bad narrow roads winding up the mountain side by hair-pin bends when a skid or a slip on the wrong side meant a fall of 2,000 feet or more.
We arrived at Vere in the southern mouth of the Phlorina Gap at 5 a.m. before the Boche and occupied a hasty defensive position at dawn. All day on the 9th we spent digging in on the mountain side behind Vere.
At 4 p.m. my wireless carrier came up again with ammunition, and inconveniently “threw” a track in a bad ditch in the village. I spent all night in recovering it, and (although unknown to me), there was a German patrol in the village. It was bitter cold, and as I walked through to find a despatch rider, a Greek soldier offered me some Cognac which I gladly accepted.
Had I but known I was in the middle of 12 Germans dressed in Greek uniforms. Those same swine one hour later shot one of our sentries with a Tommy Gun. I sent back for another carrier which arrived about 2 a.m. and promptly “threw” a track too, in the process of towing out. I risked a third which arrived at 9 a.m. next morning, and we cleared all the carriers by 11 a.m. I tried to get my wireless up the mountain side, but she “threw” the other track! My luck was out. We eventually got her out by 6 p.m., and all this happened in full sight of the enemy reconnaissance unit.
Meanwhile Boche tanks in large numbers had shown themselves 8 miles down the valley, and our field guns were quick to find their mark. Our bombers, escorted by fighters, flew over again and again to drop tons of bombs on the German lines of communication, and we cheered each time when we saw just as many planes come
3
[Page break]
[Advert for The Hudson’s Bay Company]
4
[Page break]
back: Our artillery fired all day spasmodically from about noon. I had banked on getting my carrier away over the mountain but had found it impossible.
There was only one alternative as we had blown up the road after the other two had gone through, this was through a mine field. I’ve never gone more gingerly, and to make matters worse our artillery started ranging on the village road as I came down it.
We made it all right and I left the carrier for the night with an anti-aircraft battery behind us.
VILLAGE FULL OF BOCHE
Climbing up the mountain again with one of my sergeants, I found that the village was full of Boche (it was dark by now) and we could hear them shouting orders in gutteral [sic] tones. John wanted the village shelled instantly, so off I went again to a phone line at the foot of the mountain. It was now about 10 p.m. and I had had no food since breakfast. I was nearly on my knees.
I got through to our heavy guns who were shooting at a range of about 8 miles, and in 10 minutes they opened up and blew the village to hell. I struggled back to the top of the mountain again and spoke to John Lascelles on the phone.
I found that a large German patrol in Greek uniform had penetrated the Aussies on my right flank taking 12 prisoners and capturing an Aussie machine gun post 50 yards from my right flank position.
A whole section of mine had gone to its assistance, been overwhelmed and taken prisoners or killed. I made my way hurriedly over to my platoon with an Aussie officer, but we too ran into the patrol, were surrounded, but escaped.
From the outset it was we were fighting very superior numbers, and it turned out later that we had in front of us the best part of the two crack S.S. divisions including the Adolf Hitler regiment itself. Furthermore my company took the whole brunt of the attack, our other Companies together with the Aussies were barely touched.
By about 2 a.m. on the morning of Good Friday, April 11th, we managed to reform our line in our alternative position.
The whole day was fairly quiet, with intermittent artillery exchanges and machine gun fire on both sides.
About 9 a.m. it started snowing very hard, and it continued for two days. Never in my life have I felt more miserable, we were wet through lying in the snow for hours on end and dog-tired already. We had no food or water and we fell to eating the snow.
We were all out of tobacco and cigarettes, having shared around what few any of us had left. In the evening we were brought some food, some tea and a primus with empty petrol tins to boil the tea in. The tea tasted strongly of petrol, but it was the most enjoyable drink I think I ever had!
We faced another dreaded night in the snow when we knew that every man must continue to keep awake; the penalty we knew could easily mean a bayonet in the stomach from the German patrol.
This night we arranged for every man to stay in our section position from 9.30 p.m. till dawn the next morning, shooting on sight any man moving about whether he was Greek or German.
Soon after dark a German field gun opened up on our position and this was all the more disturbing as we had no tools to dig in with. It continued for 1 1/2 hours, and the miracle was that no one was killed.
John Lascelles was slightly hit in the leg and John Husky had his bottom badly bruised. One shell fell against a three foot stone wall behind which I was kneeling with my batman. We were covered with stones and earth but unharmed. All night we fired intermittently at dark shapes, many of them figments of our vivid imagination. But after dawn on the 12th we crawled out and found a goodly harvest of dead Boches lying in the snow.
These were the first definite indications of the presence of the Adolf Hitler regiment. At 9.45 a.m. on the 12th the battle started in earnest. The whole force of the attack came in on my company’s position starting with a terrific barrage of shelling and helped by heavy machine guns.
This was followed by an infantry attack which was initiated on my platoon position. I was holding the key position on the top of a ravine, and I still had eight Bren guns in action. The Boche came over the ridge literally in mass formation and we mowed them down; they must have suffered terrific casualties.
5
[Page break]
[Cartoon of an aircraft and a bear in the mountains] RODBER. 41
6
[Page break]
TASTE OF DIVE BOMBING
My platoon continued doing that until about one o’clock, when I was told by my batman, much to my consternation, that the rest of the Company had been ordered to withdraw, and the order had not reached me! I was left surrounded on three sides and I was being fired on at close range by more than one machine gun. We actually withdrew without losing a single man killed, although four were wounded.
I lost the whole of my belongings and I had to carry a wounded Corporal down the mountain.
Later that afternoon the Colonel furnished us with seven Bren guns to cover the withdrawal of the whole of the rest of the British force on a railway station.
The Boche got round our flank on both sides and machine-gunned us from the rear, but we hung on for three-quarters of an hour and then withdrew, not only through this fire but also through a barrage of shelling, and when I tell you that shells burst in the station we were occupying on the line down which we withdrew, only 20 yards ahead, and all around, truly the hand of God was protecting us.
I only lost one man, killed. All that night we withdrew arriving at Procestin near Phosemais at 2.30 a.m. on Easter Sunday, April 13th, to fight our next delaying action. We were in position before dawn and the Boche arrived about 11 a.m. They started with a huge tank attack, employing between 100 and 150 in all.
We beat them off and when they put in their infantry we took as heavy a toll as we had the day before.
That day we had our first taste of dive bombing and machine gunning by M.E. 109s, which was far from pleasant, but as we got it from dawn to dusk every single day till we left Greece, we soon got accustomed to it.
Every place we stopped, we hastily dug split trenches which afford good protection and when attacked on the move we used to stop and lie in ditches.
By the evening of the 13th a position was very grave. A number of enemy tanks had outflanked us and got in our rear, more were moving up the last 200 yards in front of our position. I may say that we knocked out a considerable number of them all day with our anti-tank guns.
Just as dusk was falling at about 8.30 p.m. the Brigadier ordered our withdrawal in the nick of time as it turned out. We sped down the road covered by our own heavy tanks, and it was comforting to see the German armour-piercing tracer bullets going a little too high over our bonnets.
We passed a blazing tank, a reminder of what might happen to us. My only remaining despatch rider rode with his head down under the cover of my own armour, and so we again escaped through a thin line of enemy tanks.
Another long journey of 40 miles ahead of us to the main bridge over the river Alechnon, where I arrived at 4 a.m. The Brigadier stopped me with four of my carriers and ordered me to defend a bridge 30 miles down river where I arrived about 10 a.m. on the 14th.
The rest of the Battalion went back to Pcoma to rest, but I was unlucky. I had not slept at all since Petros on April 7th. My task was well nigh impossible.
I asked the sapper sergeant how much he wanted to blow the bridge on my orders and he replied in broad Scotch, “I canna blow it, Sir, there is not enough dynamite under it”! I only had four carriers and to make matters worse, a German troop-carrying aeroplane landed two miles away.
At 2 p.m. I wirelessed back with this information and demanded reinforcements; the Colonel glibly said this was impossible, and I made it clear that I would not hold myself responsible for the bridge. I was told that the Boche had got round them at Grevena, 35 miles in my rear!
My withdrawal route took me over two ravines, both bridged, and a very dangerous mountain pass.
The Boche bombed those bridges all day, but mercifully never hit them. At 8.45 p.m. I was ordered to withdraw and arrived safely at Grevena at about 2 a.m. on the 15th, negotiating innumerable bomb craters on the way.
We moved to take up our next position at Elenthovion, hoping to negotiate the worst pass of all before the dive bombers were about.
Hoards of Greek refugees completely blocked the pass, and when daylight came there were vehicles stretching for eight miles head to tail, a perfect target if there ever was one.
(Continued on page 28)
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RELIGION
By REV. S/L HOOPER
THE CITY OF KINDLY PEOPLE
IN spite of difficulties inevitably involved in getting a new station fully under way there is already evidence here of such amenities as will go a long way to providing first rate recreation in the long winter months ahead of us. For one thing we are beginning to realise that we are near a city of kindly and hospitable people. The welcome to R.A.F. personnel by private invitation, by the I.O.D.E. and the Red Triangle Association is typical of Canadian hospitality.
One can only guess the planning and work involved in entertaining nearly two hundred airmen at dinner and special Remembrance services at Wesley United and Crescent Heights United Churches on November 9th.
On the same day a party of about a hundred men set off under a sky of cloudless blue to, to visit Banff as guests of the Calgary Rotary Club and the Board of Trade.
Of course many a kindness goes unmentioned. The gracious lady who recently took two sick airmen to Banff in her car would be the last to wish her name recorded in our annals.
On the Station itself the Y.M.C.A. canteens and postal service are a veritable boon. The popularity of their bi-weekly cinema shows is attested by the crowded audiences.
Thanks to the generosity of local ladies of the Jewish faith the reading room is more comfortable than we could have hoped. The Station Dance Band id admittedly superb and the last two Wednesday concerts have merited the thunderous applause which greeted a widely varied entertainment.
GOOD MUSIC FOR ALL
There are further offers of outside talent sufficient to provide us with many an evening’s enjoyment. We are fortunate, too, in securing the services of one of Canada’s finest choirmasters in the training of a Station Male Voice Choir. There is still room for many more to swell the chorus.
Good music is available on Sunday evenings in the large canteen. Whilst seats are not altogether obtainable at the voluntary Sunday service, a worth start has been made by the Religious Discussion Group which meets on Monday nights.
Whatever the privations of our enforced exile we do not intend to rely entirely on Canadian generosity for our entertainment.
One excellent way of repaying their hospitality may be to go to town with a really first rate concert party.
Meanwhile let us keep our folk at home well bombarded with cheery letters. There is a good side to this life and it would be a pity to wait until we get home to tell them about it.
The United Empire Loyalists who were organizing the hostess dances at the Y.M. last week were originally the descendants of those sturdy Empire loyalists who trekked northwards into the Maritime Provinces during the American Civil War. Calgary president is Mr. L. F. Clarry.
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[Two scenic photographs of rivers and mountains]
BOW RIVER
BANFF NATIONAL PARK
Top – Photograph by PO. V. R. Borman, 1-50th F-22. Noon – Super XX.
Right – By F-Lt. R. G. Maddox. 1-50th F-8 Super XX.
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[Two cartoons of the Allied Leaders and Hitler]
Mr. Schicklegruber
By CORPORAL PREECE
Left: Mugs, and the breaker of mugs.
Below: The Runaway.
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[Advert for Calgary Ginger Ale]
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[Two photographs of mountains and rivers]
BOW FALLS
BANFF
Above – Bow Falls from above by PO. V. R. Borman, 1-100th at F-16. 3 p.m. Super XX.
Left- The Falls from below by F-Lt. R. G. Maddox. 1-50th at F-8. 3 p.m. Super XX.
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OUT OF THE SUN
A Fighter Pilot in Combat
IT was 4:30 a.m. All was quiet in the crew room, but for the snores of weary and worn pilots, and rustling of mice nibbling at discarded chocolate papers on the floor.
Br-r-r-r-r! The silence was broken by the harsh ringing of the telephone. The operator reached from his bed, still half asleep, and mumbled a very feeble “Hello” into the mouthpiece. He listened, was galvanised into action, and rushed out shouting “Scramble”.
In five seconds the whole crew room was awake with tousle-haired pilots leaping from bunks, pulling sweaters over gaudy pyjamas, and grabbing Mae Wests from hooks on the walls.
The ground crews were already sprinting for the shadowy outlines of the Spitfires lined up on the tarmac, and one by one, the powerful Merlin engines roared into life and coloured flames stabbed the half light of early dawn.
A metallic voice grated from the loudspeaker: “Patrol Dungeness Angels 25”, and we made a dive for our machines where our crews waited to help us on with our parachutes. One tubby and very bald Sergeant Piot shouted as he ran, “It’s going to be d--- cold up there without my woolies on.” – It was!
One by one our machines taxied out, following the C.O. and within five minutes of the telephone call, we were all in the air, winging our way towards the coast, climbing steadily to gain as much height as possible before reaching our rendezvous.
The C.O. contacted the controller back at base. “Hello, Poppy. Topper Leader calling. Are you receiving me. Over.” Quickly came back the reply. “Hello, Topper Leader, Poppy answering. Receiving you load and clear, are you receiving me. Over”.
When the C.O. had told the controller that all was O.K. he ordered Topper Blue 2 to take zero and pip squeak, and we settled down for our patrol, while the weavers, white section, fell back to their monotonous task behind the squadron.
UNSEEN ATTACKERS
The early morning sun glistened on frost covered wings as it rose above the low banks of mist which enveloped the Channel. The radio crackled most of them in our ears, then an important message came over the air, “Vector – one, form – zero. 15 plus approaching you from the East. You should see them almost at once.”
I sat up and began to search the sky even more closely than before for the Hun. Suddenly, from white 2 came an excited cry of “There they are, just below us to port. Don’t think they’ve seen us yet,” and the C.O. cleverly manoeuvred us into the sun, positioning us for attack, while the weavers closed in.
As we looked down we saw 24 ME 109s and below them a squadron of JU.88s.
We were now ready for a crack at the Huns, being stepped up into the sun in sections echelon port. Leading Red section the C.O. dived straight at the bombers closely followed by Yellow and Black sections.
He made a beam attack, going down through the escorting MEs, and as these, suddenly realizing what had happened, dived on our boys, “B” Flight, Blue Green and White sections, went down and mixed it up a bit more.
Under our withering fire, the bombers broke and fled, while two of them spun down in flames. The MEs fought a rear-guard action to cover the retreat.
I was leading Green section, and as one of the enemy planes flashed across my sights, I gave him a squirt, but had no time to observe results, as there were two others on my tail. I could hear their machine guns stuttering, and it took immediate evasive action by closing my throttle and lowering my flaps, causing one of my assailants to overshoot. (This is an old Polish custom).
I jumped on his tail and let him have it. He turned over and went straight down, flames belching from the cockpit. At that short range it was almost impossible to miss.
Continued on Page 17
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AIRMEN PAY TRIBUTE ON ARMISTICE DAY
Chaplain Speaks at Memorial Service
OFFICERS and men of No. 37 S.F.T.S. formed part of a large parade of airmen who marched smartly through the sun-lit avenues of Calgary on Remembrance Day morning. It was our first participation on a large scale in a civic function and it was certainly a noteworthy one. Leaving the School in buses and lorries, three flights formed up with the parade on 4th Avenue between 2nd St. E. and 1st St. W. Led by the band from No. 2 Wireless School and preceded by flights from No. 3 S.F.T.S., No. 10 Repair Depot, H.Q. No. 4 Training Command, No. 2 Wireless School , and another band from No. 7 S.F.T.S. Macleod, they marched south on 2nd St. E. to 7th Ave., west to 5th St. W. south to 8th Ave., then east on 8th Ave. to 4th St. West and south past the Cenotaph at the Memorial Park.
Here hundreds lined the pavements and surrounded the Cenotaph, watching the rhythmic stepping of the long, regular files of airmen, and noting the changing uniforms – R.C.A.F., Australian, New Zealanders, and R.A.F.
As each flight passed the Cenotaph, and other officials, the salute was given.
When all the airmen had marched past, there came, after a short interval ex-service men and women, and women’s service groups, headed by the Elks’ blue-uniformed band, and officers of the R.A.F., R.C.A.F., and Army, representatives of all of whom laid wreaths at the base of the cenotaph.
Earlier, a special service had been held in the Canadian Legion Memorial Hall at which Calgary’s Mayor, Mr. Andrew Davison presided.
It was here that as 11 a.m. approached, Major C.H. Westmore led the ceremony of Light of Toc H; the “Last Post” was sounded, and after two minutes’ silence, came the “Reveille”.
[Photograph of a military parade] The first of our three flights led by S-Ldr. E.W. Heath, F-Lt. C.J. Gilmour-Wood, F-Lt. M.T. Maw and W. O. H. Aulton.
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[Photograph of the Remembrance salute at the Cenotaph] SQUADRON LEADER E. TURNBULL, giving the salute at the Cenotaph after laying a wreath from officers and men of No. 37 S.F.T.S.
The Rev. (S-Ldr) R. J. Hooper, our chaplain then delivered the address.
“This is a day in which every man of us must take his stand”, he said. Amongst the evils which we fight are those which can never be defeated by physical force alone.
“In this spiritual struggle every man is responsible before God for his spiritual condition, for the state of his soul, for the spiritual power he radiates through his personality. And today I, with you, have solemnly to ask why am I allowed to live since these have passed on?
“It is not enough to make subscriptions, it is not enough to send comforts. There must beat through our life and constant prayers the full-blooded will for a harmonious community, or the narrowness, the ignorance, the comfort, the sloth of ordinary men and women will balk the way to the world for which our comrades gave their lives.
“It is right that the centre of this service should be a silence – more eloquent than if one could speak with the tongues of men and of angels. For who shall speak of them, of all that we so proudly recall, of their glad word and ready smile, of every swift and daring deed, of their greatest gift of life itself? ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’.
“The men we remember in grateful humility would have us know they count it worth their shortened lives that there are still lands where freedom is held dearer than life, that there are still homes wherein children are taugh [sic] the fear of God and the sanctity of Truth.
DAY OF DEDICATION
”What is this day of Remembrance if it is not a day of dedication to live in the spirit of their sacrifice? We have lived in an age in which the teaching of the Master has been mildly tolerated and too rarely practised. We have lived through to be faced with a force that is brutally intolerant and frankly pagan.
“The power that has changed that symbol of shame into the most glorious sign of our history is still with us. That power will never be defeated. It is the nation that is ruled by God that has no fear of the ultimate issue.”
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[Advert for Heintzman & Co]
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Holiday Atmosphere Surprised British Airmen
THIS was the first large scale parade in which our personnel had taken part; yet to many it not fit our preconceived notions as to what an Armistice Day parade should be.
Most noticeable was Calgary’s holiday atmosphere. The big stores and shops had closed for the day; schools were empty; only the city’s entertainment life, transport and press continued as usual.
I stood by the Cenotaph from 10.45 until mid-day and wondered at the somewhat festive gathering.
I heard no guns, no sirens, no whistles. I stood expecting some audible sign that a two minutes’ silence was about to be observed. Old men talked, women gossiped, and young boys and girls played about awaiting the march past of Empire airmen.
The inclusion of young girls dressed in a sort of white uniform in a civilian parade of ex-service veterans seemed incongruous.
I was thinking of lives given to establish peace 27 years ago; I thought of besieged Britain and white snows of Russia stained with the blood of millions; and it came hard to approve of sex appeal sandwiched in an Armistice parade.
Admittedly November 11th in Britain in recent years had lost something; but the outbreak of the second world war gave it a new significance; a new restraint, and fresh hope.
[Boxed] Should Those Awake
SHOULD those awake, who died in days gone by,
Who died to keep their fairest country free,
No world-wide peace, no freedom greets their eye,
But tyrant’s rule, and despot’s tyranny,
‘We died for peace and not for war’, they say –
‘For sake of peace were we laid in the grave;
Why, therefore, are more mortals, day by day
Compelled to join the valiant Dead, the Brave?’
They gaze, they are disgusted; each recalls
That unleashed cataract of Stygian gloom
He knew as Death; each staggers then and falls,
And, disillusioned, crawls back to his tomb!
AIDOS. [/boxed]
From Page 13
Seeing the 88s fleeing fast, the 109s broke off the engagement and we were ordered to “pancake”.
“Good show” crackled the radio.
READY FOR THE NEXT
The Intelligence Officer met us on the tarmac, and spent some time obtaining “gen” from us, while the machines were being re-fuelled, and re-armed, and the bullet holes were patched up.
We were back at 1400 hours, expecting a busy time, but, during the afternoon, although the weather was perfect for Jerry we had no more alarms.
The C.O. by fair means or foul, had obtained some bows and arrows and some of us had a little target practice of a different nature.
At about 18:30, the C.O. assembled us in the crew room where he informed us that “B” Flight were to take off at 19:00 hours and proceed to Dover to escort a large convoy through the Straits.
We all started to “bind” knowing only too well that it meant at least an hour and a half of ceaseless vigil – and vigil despite its purpose is sheer boredom.
At the appointed time we were over the convoy which we had approached very cautiously, having on previous occasions received a warm recaption when the matelots mistook us for Huns.
The convoy steamed calmly along without interruptions whilst up above we stooged back and forth, searching and searching, seeing nothing.”
Apparently Jerry had had enough for one day and as another squadron came to relieve us we thankfully turned our machines in the direction of our base.
We were released soon after we landed, so we all piled into “Mrs. Frequently”, (an ancient and dilapidated Alvis) and tore down to the local where we spent the rest of the evening, very pleasantly drinking lemonade (?), playing darts and shooting horrible lines”. Then home to bed giving thanks for a day of ease and pleasant living.
S. T. R.
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PARADISE FOR SPORTSMEN
P/O S. DAVIES
I HAVE often heard Canada described as “The Sportsman’s Paradise”, but I never knew the full meaning of this until after a week’s sojourn here. I think it a very apt description now for almost any game you can think of is played in Canada. Our British football and rugger may not be flourishing in Calgary but these games have a very strong following in some parts especially on the West Coast. And, of course, at ice-hockey, curling, and basket ball, Canadians are “King-Pins”, but what I do like most of all is the tremendous energy and enthusiasm they show in their games.
Indeed the enthusiasm has proved infectious for personnel of No. 37 are “going to it” in great style. Up to date the school sports activities have been confined to football, rugby, badminton, basketball, volley-ball, boxing, roller and ice skating, but as soon as the school’s ice rink is completed we hope to tackle ice hockey.
On the entertainment side we have had four station concerts and three dances, and hope to have our airmen’s dance and once concert per week. We have “unearthed” considerable talent at our concerts, but there must be a lot more “dark horses” in our midst, so please come along to our concerts and help to make them a great success.
Full use in being made day and night of the Recreation Hall. Physical training classes are held each morning, and personnel off duty in the daytime are coming along for their “daily dozen”, or to participate in a game of badminton.
Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights are Badminton nights, Tuesday and Thursday nights are cinema nights, Wednesday is a concert night, and on Friday nights the airmen “trip the light fantastic.”
SOCCER….
Since being here the school have played soccer and rugger matches against other R.A.F. and R.C.A.F. teams, and intersectional matches within the school.
Our soccer team hold the grand record so far of having played and won four matches, with a goal average of 21 against 3.
On Saturday, November 1st they succeeded in beating No. 31 E.F.T.S. by 4-1, thus winning the Cavanaugh Trophy Cup and at the same time causing No. 31 to lose their first match.
The M.T. section are still unbeaten and are willing to take on all comers.
RUGGER…
The school rugger team has not been so successful, but that is not because of lack of enthusiasm. The three games played so far have unfortunately all been lost, but the team is finding its feet and improving all round.
On Saturday, November 8th the opposition was provided by a New Zealand XV and the final score was 25 points to 9 in their favour. We are hoping that when the next football season comes round, officers and men of No. 37 will rally round and produce two good teams for these sports.
BADMINTON…
In the near future we are hoping to arrange badminton tournaments in the station, and badminton and basketball matches between teams on the station and against outside teams. We have a number of promising players in each sport and look forward to some good games, especially so since they are hard at practice every evening.
DANCE BAND…
The Station No. 1 Dance Band has proved itself to be very efficient and popular on all its appearances.
To date they have provided music for three dances on the station and have played at outside dances and concerts. At present the band leader is busy forming a
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No. 2 Dance Band and with sufficient practice they will prove to be a good combination.
BOXING…
The boxing team has had many successes and they put up a good show at the inter-services boxing tournament held at the armouries.
Although we didn’t manage to carry of any of the titles our boys gave a good account of themselves, wining most of the bouts of the evening. They are looking forward to return matches with some of their opponents from the Army and Navy.
Those of us who form the staff of the Recreation Hall will welcome any newcomers in these and any other sports, and help them as much as possible.
In the language of the Blackfoot Indians Calgary was “Mokk-inistsis-in-aka-apervis”. The Cree Indians called it “O-toos-kwa-nik”.
As the train was leaving the Station a passenger leaned out of a window and seeing a cat on the platform, shouted to the porter “Manx?”
“No” shouted back the porter “10.55.”
[Boxed] Says Lon Cavanaugh
LON Cavanaugh, Calgary Sportsman who presented the Cavanaugh Soccer Cup for the champion Service Soccer team in and around Calgary was interviewed by a “Calgary Wings” representative the other evening.
Said Lon C. “I thoroughly enjoy the way you English lads play soccer. Its a great game and certainly yours. It must be pretty popular in the Old Country when over 80,000 can still turn up to an international soccer game”.
“Not bad for a country that’s been badly bombed.”
The Lon Cavanaugh Soccer Cup is of course held by No. 37 S.F.T.S. after administering a first defeat on the De-Winton boys of No. 31 E.F.T.S. [/boxed]
Eyes Wrong – “Marched to the Cenotaph, where they gave the “eyes right” – extract from a local newspaper. The cenotaph was on the left of the parade.
[Advert for the Grand Theatre]
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AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
TWO pupil pilots of the Royal Air Force, newly arrived in Calgary, found themselves one Saturday morning in a stationer’s shop on Eighth Avenue, buying pennants for souvenirs. The assistant got them what they wanted, except for a certain Indian pennant which a search through two full drawers failed to bring to light.
The value of the pennant was twenty-five cents, or as the assistant would certainly have described it, two bits. The cadet finally said, with great sincerity, that it did not matter. “I know we have one some place,” said the assistant cheerfully. “I’ll go through those drawers again a little later, and maybe you could call back next time you’re in town.” Then, business being over, she asked us what part of England we came from.
“Fourscore and seven years ago”, said Abraham Lincoln on a certain memorable occasion, “our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
The continent of North America, in spite of the passage of a further seventy-eight years since the consecration of the cemetery at Gettysburg, is still dedicated to that remarkable proposition.
I say remarkable, because at first sight it appears to run contrary to all human experience. We know, as a matter of biological fact, that human beings are not created equal. The aborigines of Patagonia, for example, are not equal in physique, intelligence, or indeed in any human quality, to the average Englishman or North American. But apart from such obvious differences, there exists even within the same race, the same society, inequalities almost as striking and of far more practical importance.
But this rather obvious kind of inequality, this unfairness on the part of Nature, is not the root of the matter. What Americans mean when they say that all men are equal, is that, since all men are endowed with immortal souls, the difference between them in birth, wealth or attainments are only of accidental importance, and that in everyday life it does us good to be reminded of this alarming fact.
As the parish priest in a Spencer Tracy film beautifully expressed it, when young Tracy declared that somebody’s father was a tramp and “a big tomater” – “We’re all big tomaters in the sight of God.” That, and not the so-called democratic system of government, is true democracy.
The ordinary Englishman is rather doubtful of American democracy; he is inclined to suspect that it is in the nature of an act put on for the benefit of the rest of the world.
To speak to a man with familiarity does not mean that you feel yourself his equal; still less if you greet him with insult and abuse. A London taxi-driver may talk to his fare as familiarly as you please, but he does not talk to him as he would another taxi-driver.
To people brought up in the old world of social graduations it is almost inconceivable that any other system of living can in practice exist. That it does exist, and flourishes, in North America today is a fact that can be vouched for by any Englishman who now finds himself, owing to circumstances beyond his control, a resident in the United States or the Dominion of Canada.
From the moment of stepping off the boat he is forcibly reminded that he has stepped into a new kind of society. It is this new and strange way of living, which we feebly call “democracy”, that is the real difference between England and America.
The immense spaces, the blue skies, the ice-capped mountains, the unending dark-pine woods – these are but factors, “ciphers to this great accompt”; the permanent, enduring, astonishing reality is the fact that here in North America, the boss, the customer, the rich man, is still a man; and he has the priceless privilege of being abused, persuaded, praised, ridiculed, or admired, not as if he were a fabulous creature in a fairy-tale, but as one man to another.
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INTRODUCING MODELS
By F/O J. E. BELLINGHAM
PLEASE forgive the title which may be misleading and perhaps lead to disappointment. We are going to try and start a successful model aircraft club at this school and for the benefit of you who are new to aeromodelling here are a few facts which might awaken your interest.
Building and flying model aircraft is a scientific hobby, calling for ingenuity and skill. You’ll get lots of fun out of building your models on long winter evenings and lots of thrills flying them when the better weather comes along.
There are types of models to suit every taste (no wisecracks please) duration models both rubber driven and petrol powered, speed models, scale models, flying boats, aeroplanes and sailplanes.
Four to five minutes is an average duration for rubber driven models and only the quantity of gas limits duration of gas-powered models.
Good weather conditions and wide open spaces make this district ideal for model flying, the aeromedellists favourite pastime of tree climbing is practically unknown here.
This is a cheap hobby and requires very few tools, a razor blade and some sandpaper being the chief weapons.
Some of us here have had previous experience of model aeronautics and would be keen to give every assistance to budding aeromodellists.
You’ll be intrigued with the most fascinating of hobbies, the thrill of seeing the product of one’s own hands soar gracefully into the air for the first time is something that has to be experienced to be believed.
A meeting to discuss the forming of a club will be held in the near future. Will everyone interested please come along?
HOSPITALITY
(From a very personal letter by an airman to his wife in London. No comments are surely needed.)
“NOW that I’ve satiated my black-out eyes on the multi-coloured lights of Calgary’s night life, drunk my fill of cafe coffee, eaten myself to repletion, and grown tired of pacing the streets and avenues, I find I spend many pleasant evenings in the house of Mrs. Z.
“She is, I suppose, a second mother to me. I rapidly overcame my shyness and now feel thoroughly at home.
“If you could see me some evenings, sitting comfortably in my shirt sleeves, smoking my pipe and wearing a borrowed pair of slippers (which are kept for me under the sofa) you might feel a mixture of jealousy and happiness that I am really being cared for so well – and so far from you all.
“Books, piano, radio, company, cards, good talk – they’re all here. I’m one of the family, except in name. Incidentally I’ve been to Church more times in six weeks in Calgary than I did in the last six years in England.
“If Z’s son who is in England now in khaki drops in some time – I’ve sent him your address – well, heaven help you if you don’t treat him as well as I’m being treated here.”
[Advert for The McDermid Drug Co., Ltd.0
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AN INSTRUCTOR’S VISION
TO me upon an afternoon a vision was revealed,
As fifty training aeroplanes careered about the field
My pupils landed back to front, they landed upside down
But I was lying fast asleep and there was none to frown.
I DREAMED that on a certain course a certain pupil came
And in the Flight allotment he was drawn against my name.
A blackhaired rapscallion with a falling lock of hair
And a stupid little clipped moustache that shouldn’t have been there.
HE said he meant to fly and get it over soon
As his patience was exhausted with the old man in the moon.
He said I’d better hurry up and teach him all I knew
Or he’d label me forever as a plutocratic Jew.
HE said his name was Shicklegrub; he said it wasn’t fair.
He ripped the Order Book to shreds and tossed them in the air.
He bit his parachute in half and screamed in mortal pain
Till I strapped him up securely in our oldest areoplane.
I TOLD him all he had to do was wind the tailtrim back
And loosen well the throttle-nut to make it really slack;
I warned him that when taking off the flaps should be depressed,
And the stick pulled firmly backwards till it hit him in the chest.
I BEGGED him to make no mistake before he hit the trail
But make quite sure the wind was blowing strong behind his tail.
I told him the mixture knob should always be in “weak”
And the radiator shuttered off in case it sprang a leak.
I ORDERED him if things went wrong my good advice despite
To rudder strongly to the left and bank towards the right
To throttle back one engine and to climb at twenty-five
And then return to safety in a screaming power dive.
I SENT the ambulance away and set its driver free
I told the fire tenders crew that it was time for tea
Then all my preparations made and all the orders right
I authorized Herr Hitler for his first and final flight.
- O.C. CHAVE.
[Advert for Lewis Stationery Company]
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[Advert for The T. Eaton Western Co. Limited]
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NURSERY RHYMES FOR AIRMEN – 1.
SING a song of six cents, we’re a busy little school,
Working hard from morn to night; no time to play the fool.
When at last our day is done, with many weary sighs
We lie down on our pallets and we gladly close our eyes.
We rarely go to Calgary to spend our hard-earned pay
We never thumb a lift in cars to help us on our way.
We always walk on the left hand side: Of course we’re all in step
With shoulders proudly squared to show we’re full right up with pep.
And if at times we have a dime which we think we can spare
We spend it in the canteen where there is ample fare.
We all know that the pennies spent on things that we may buy
Help to swell the Station Funds, you know, the P.S.I.
We love parades and every day we’re up before the lark
Singing and whistling joyfully while outside it is dark.
Then we go to the airmen’s Mess where hungrily we eat
The lovely food they give us: It really is a treat.
And when the Orderly Dog comes round to ask us for complaints,
We stand up straight and shout “No Sir”. We’re perfect little saints
We like the camp, we like the air, we like the Calgary beer,
There’s nothing that we do not like. We’re so glad to be here.
And when it come that we must pack and leave this pleasant land,
We’ll do so with a heart-ache – but - By gum. Won’t it be grand!
- ANON
[Advert for Birks]
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CALLING ALL CAMERA FANS
WE are lucky to have several expert photographers among us and they have offered their services to instruct the members of our Camera Club in the various branches of photography. We have a dark room and a club room at our disposal for the use of members, and in a very short time we hope to have the use of an enlarging lantern and other equipment.
So if you can hold a camera and take a picture, come in. We will teach you to develop and print the results. You will gain an additional interest in your camera.
Roll up, join. There is room for everyone.
P/O L. ROWSON.
PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION
Six cash prizes will be awarded for the best photographs submitted by personnel of No. 37 for our December issue.
They will be judged independently by three experts for their pictorial composition, technical excellence, and topicality.
Send your prints to “Photography Competition”, “Calgary Wings”, at the School Post Office, or S.H.Q. Orderly Room, and don’t forget to put your name and number and any technical data on the reverse of the prints, in pencil.
Entries should be in before December 10th.
TO THE LADY
LADIES gracious, ladies fair
Some with golden corn for hair.
Some as dainty as a bird,
Some whose laughter I have heard
In a rippling mountain stream;
Some as lovely as a dream;
Some who gaily passed me by,
These I have known, and many more
In the years of long before –
Yet you it is who speaks to me
Of all that I love in England.
Fortnightly gramophone recitals for music lovers are held in the Coste House, Amhurst St. Mount Royal, Calgary on alternate Sundays at 3:30 p.m. Airmen invited to go along and hear talks and records and meet other music lovers.
[Boxed] Notes To Contributors
COPY for “Calgary Wings” should be written on one side of the paper only. If typed, double spacing should be used, and a wide margin left on either side of the paper.
Feature articles should not exceed a thousand words in length and should be in some way related either to aviation, Calgary, or both. Short stories must be crisply written and not exceed 750 words.
Cartoons and sketches should whenever possible be line drawings. Photographs on glossy paper are preferred. The owner’s name should be written on reverse in pencil only.
All contributions should be addressed to The Editor, “Calgary Wings”, No. 37 S.F.T.S., Calgary, or handed to F-Lt. Maw or Cpl. Barnes. [/boxed]
Record – At the camp cinema show on Tuesday, the advertised film was not shown. The one that was, had only four breaks.
[Advert for Gas & Oil Products]
25
[Page break]
THE WORK OF THE Y.M.C.A.
By A. A. ALDRIDGE
IN this article the Y.M.C.A. Supervisor at No. 37 S.F.T.S. explains how the Y.M.C.A. is financed for its war work and outlines a few of the benefits that soldiers, sailors and airmen are receiving in Canada.
With the outbreak of the war the Auxiliary Services that had taken part in the previous struggle once more came into being but on a slightly different basis. It was decided to appeal for funds to carry on the work of the five most important ones by means of one drive; in order to save asking the Canadian people so often and to decrease the expense of conducting the drive.
The organizations are the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Salvation Army, the Knights of Columbus, The Canadian Legion, and the Y.M.C.A. The 1941 drive asked for six million dollars but some seven millions were raised.
By means of this money it is possible for the services to offer some assistance to the boys in the camps. The only notable war organization not included with the other groups was the Red Cross but the present intention is for this group to be considered along with the others next spring. Of course, this would require that the amount be increased sharply.
This brief explanation will convey to you some idea of where the Canadian Y.M.C.A. gets its money to provide picture shows, and so forth, to the lads in the R.A.F. camps.
Contrary to some opinion, chiefly Canadian, the profit realized from the dry canteens is not used by the “Y”, but is returned to the airmen through the P.S.I. of the particular camp in which the canteen is operating.
We are often asked about the connection of the Canadian “Y” with the mother organization in the Old Land. It is the same in origin as we all respect the name of George Williams, founder of the Y.M.C.A. but in practically all other respects we are independent.
Not being familiar with the policies of the parent body I will not attempt to point out similarities or differences. Sufficient to say, there is a big job to do during the present conflict and if the “Y” can help in that job then it justifies its existence as an auxiliary service.
THE FIRST YEAR
There is rather an interesting pamphlet, which we will be pleased to let anyone have, entitled “The 1st Year” dealing with the “Y’s” work during the first year of war.
Immediately on the outbreak the 72 buildings of the association from coast to coast were thrown open to the men of the forces.
Fifteen Red Triangle huts or centres were organized and soon provided concerts, games and off-duty programmes.
Most of you are familiar with the work of the Red Triangle Hostess Club in Calgary and you will agree that they are interested in doing what they can to make the spare hours more enjoyable.
Just a few of the services rendered can be gleaned from the knowledge that the “Y” has a standing order for 4,000 lbs. of magazines to be shipped overseas each month; 92,000 men were provided with sleeping accommodation in the Halifax Hostel during its first year of operation. Almost 700 mobile canteens are in operation in Britain. In Alberta of 29 military and Air Force centres the “Y” is operating in 14 of them. In the month of November, 1940, the tea cars in England made 403 trips and served 82,545 men. Free cinema shows are operated by the “Y” in all camps where it is represented. Millions of sheets of notepaper have been given away.
We hope you do not get the impression that the “Y” is anxious to boast of what it had done but rather that some picture may be obtained of the magnitude of the task.
It is my desire to do whatever possible in the way of rendering service in No. 37 in the capacity of supervisor. Our work is auxiliary, and that means helping. So let us help if we can.
Congratulations to “Calgary Wings” in the success of this, its first issue.
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ST. JAMES’ St., LONDON
POINTING north and sloping south
Thirty score of paces long,
Stretching from a Palace park
To a seething, restless throng,
Standing dauntless through the years,
Hearing laughter, seeing tears
Is the street that’s called St. James’.
(St. James’ St. connects St. James’ Palace with Picadilly [sic] – It has been bombed periodically).
THE TRIVIAL TASK
YOU may think it’s a little thing
But still it must be done.
Though hard the race and fast the pace
It shall at last be won,
And Empire’s flag immaculate, defiantly shall fly,
Ruling the earth and freedom’s seas beneath a peaceful sky
So our children’s children fearlessly
Shall live their span – then die.
THE OFFICER – THE N.C.O. – THE PLONK
Knows ladies like him and his uniform. – Knows ladies like his uniform. – Knows ladies like him in spite of his uniform.
Knows he is smart. – Thinks he is smart. – Just smarts.
In peacetime was a Bank Manager. – In peacetime was a foreman. – In peacetime was Happy.
Orders N.C.O.s. – Orders Plonks. – Orders arms.
Thinks the Service makes a man. – Knows the Service makes a man. – Thinks the Service breaks a man.
Reads prayers. – Leads prayers. – Needs prayers.
Uses cream-laid notepaper. – Uses writing pads. – Says the Y.M.C.A. paper is a good size anyway.
Calls to the N.C.O. – Calls to the Plonk. – Calls to Heaven.
Hands the can to the N.C.O. – Hands the can to the Plonk. – Is canned.
Gets up early for health’s sake. – Gets up early for good example. – Gets up early because he has to.
Likes all Parades. – Likes some Parades. – Likes Pay Parades.
LONELY NO MORE
The moon is walking knee-deep among the clouds
And over my shoulder shines amid stars in the Bow.
In the crisp night air I feel my flushed cheeks glow
As you hold my hand and whisper “No”.
The moon dips madly and swoons from my sight
And the broad Bow rushes the bridge to caress.
How suddenly hot the night air, as you bless
My long-lonely heart and murmur “Yes”.
[Advert for Dominion Café]
27
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From Page 7
BOMBED TO HELL IN LARISSA
The first bomber, a big Dornier, flew at 500 feet over the column, but bombed wide and unfortunately for it flew nearly down the barrel of an A.A. gun which sent it spinning in flames into the ravine below.
So it went on all day, very gradual progress and masses of attack by M.E. 109s. My carrier again shed a track and it chose the hottest spot of all near the bridge, but we worked feverishly, taking refuge in a bomb crater every time we were directly attacked, and got going in time to reach our position on the opposite side of the pass at about 4 p.m.
Again we had miraculously escaped from the Boche. By this time I was so damned tired that I could hardly think, and John ordered me to sleep all night, which I thankfully did. I am glad that I had that opportunity because I had five days after that before I got another shut eye.
It amazed me afterwards that my endurance was so great. Early on the morning of the 16th we learned that the Boche had again got round behind us and might easily cut us off at Kalabaka, 30 miles in the rear.
The withdrawal started at 9 a.m., but being last away we started off at 5 p.m. with a terrible drive ahead of us of 250 miles to our next stop behind the line at Thermopylae. I will skip over this quickly, we went through Kalabaka again, escaping by a lane two towns Irinkale, Larissa , and by the coast road via Volos and Uma to Thermopolea and Atlantis.
Having had much difficulty with my carrier, I insisted on being sent back a new bogey wheel for which I waited four hours, very valuable hours. At Kalabaka I became the last vehicle on the road.
I collected several of my own carriers on the way back and moved independently, not catching up with the battalion until 2 p.m. on the 19th at Atlantis, where we arrived 24 hours after them and found that they had slept those 24 hours!
For our part we had driven all day and all night, scrounging petrol when our tanks were empty, and after Volos I found an abandoned airfield which saved our skin with some aero spirit. One of my carriers broke down in the middle of Larissa, well known to be hell on earth for its bombing.
Soon 37 Heinkels appeared at about 20,000 feet and got down to business. They dived incessantly for about 30 minutes which seemed like an eternity, and left it in flames with dust and debris all around. Again we were not so much as scratched.
When I reached Volos I learnt that the Boche were in Larissa, this was about 4 p.m. and we left at noon. As I was making a detour 15 miles to avoid the worst pass in Greece over which I doubted my carriers would go, I was faced with the ominous possibility of being cut off at Urania by the Boche, taking the direct route.
We wasted two more valuable hours near Volos refuelling and changing another bogey wheel and then set off at top speed while daylight lasted. The Greeks insisted on showering us with flowers as we passed through the village, which seemed a curious thing when their own army had capitulated and we ourselves were fighting a rear guard action.
It was not surprising that we frequently fell asleep at the wheel, but there was no time to waste. Once again we beat the Boche to Velonia and arrived at Thermopolea at about 10 a.m. on the 19th, (the first German tank attacked this line that afternoon).
Behind Thermopolea we stopped and washed in a hot spring and made some tea and ate a wonderful breakfast. We pushed on and I met a very anxious John Husky at the Battalion headquarters. I expressed the hope that we were not moving before morning, but was told that the Battalion was moving on to Thebes at 8 p.m.
We barely had time to refuel and maintain our carriers, get some food and shave. Shave! I hadn’t shaved since Petros 12 days before, so you can imagine I had a bit of a beard.
We set off just before dusk but we broke two track pins three miles out, and again got left behind. The Battalion arrived near Thebes at 3.30 a.m. on the 20th, and we caught them up at 10 a.m. We were caught soon after dawn by a number of bombers, so we drove away from the road and cooked breakfast.
I shot a nice fat pigeon with my rifle (I am afraid it was a sitting bird) and ate
28
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it later for lunch. We spent about three days resting here and slept nearly all the time. Then we moved back for two days for embarkation.
On the evening of the 24th we were to move down to the beach, but at midday came the unwholesome news that the Boche had landed by sea near Khalkis in front of us. The Battalion moved off to take up a defensive position covering the beaches at Maslena.
I was ordered to go forward to take up an outpost position and my force consisted of four carriers, a cruiser tank and an armoured car. I spent a very anxious birthday waiting all day for the Boche to come, knowing I was the only post between him and the Battalion 25 miles behind.
We were bombed all day, and when I got orders to withdraw just after dusk I was not sorry. I reached my Company position at 3 a.m. on the 26th.
I spent most of the time asleep, and then prepared for the night move to the beach at Rafina. At 7.30 p.m. we set off on the last journey in Greece. With the Colonel and a sapper Major we brought up the rear, blowing up all remaining bridges on the road which had previously been prepared, as we went.
We reached the beach about 9.30 p.m., and I had the unpleasant task of blowing up my faithful carrier which had taken me all the way from northern Macedonia, but I preferred that than let the Boche use him.
With that, of course, I lost everything except what I could carry the 1 1/2 miles to the beach.
I took my flag from the wireless aerial, and I’ve still got it. Having arrived at the beach the slow process of embarkation began, and we sat waiting for our turn.
The men were wonderful and never attempted to break ranks. At 2.30 a.m. on Sunday, April 27th, came the most shattering blow of all.
The Brigadier told me the ship was full, and in order to have a chance of saving the lives of the men on board she must sail without delay. With very heavy hearts we told our men and set off for the woods a mile away where we were going to hide.
Again the men never murmured, although they fully knew how grave the situation was. The Boche were close on our heels and could easily get us if they knew where we were.
The Brigadier had decided to surrender, as he said “in order to save the lives of so many men who had fought so valiantly for him, rather than have them massacred in a hopeless light without weapons and ammunition.”
That Sunday was like an Eternity. We all hoped and prayed a boat might come in next night for if it didn’t there was no hope for us. I certainly had the utmost faith and I think my men never despaired.
At midday we discovered there would be a boat 17 miles to the south, so we decided to make a forced march rather than risk the non-arrival of a boat at Rafina.
Our feet were terribly sore and we still suffered from frost bite from Vere Ridge. My feet were so swollen that my boots pinched and there was bleeding on the soles, many others were in the same plight.
We set off on our march at 6.30 p.m. but had to turn back after a few miles as the Boche had cut us off. Again we waited and waited. Midnight came and still no boat, but I think it was then that I did despair.
John Husky and John Lascelles and I lay down together and wrapped ourselves up in our blankets, it was very cold. I tried to sleep but couldn’t. I was trying to plan an escape somehow as the enemy were now reported two miles down the road, and held up by our last demolitions.
I knew that if no help came the order would be “Every man for himself.”
Soon after 1 a.m. on the 28th I sat up and saw a dark shape in the bay and declared it was a boat. We became frantically excited, and soon afterwards it was confirmed.
Then a launch came and a blue-jacket shouted “Anybody there?” to which one of our boys shouted, “Like hell there is”! It was a famous destroyer that we’ve heard a lot about in practically every sea battle of the war except the River Plate.
It was not long before all 1,500 of us had climbed on board where they gave us wonderful hot cocoa laced with rum, and sandwiches. The navy had certainly saved
29
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us in the nick of time, and at 4 a.m. we sped off at 30 knots away from the Germans.
The officers and men of that destroyer gave us everything, even their cabins and mess. I had the most enjoyable pipe in the world, lying on the floor of that cabin, for, of course, we could not smoke in the dark for fear of giving ourselves away.
At 11 a.m. we landed at this “somewhere” where we now remain for only a short time.
I’ve told, if somewhat lengthy, something of our experiences in the Greek campaign, and I hope you’ve not been bored, it probably sounds like a terrific rout, but in fact it was an inevitable rear-guard action, after the failure of the Jugs, on whom our government relied implicitly. Actually our Battalion has made itself famous out here, and the press has made a story out of it.
You see, the Greeks never fought at all and the British forces were outnumbered by about 10 to one, consequently we had to fight without rest of any kind.
The Adolf Hitler regiment was so badly cut up by us at Vere Ridge and Proshin that it had to be withdrawn, a poor tribute to the Crack Storm-Troopers’ division of the German army. Throughout, the morale of our boys was magnificent.
Under the continuous air strafing to which we were subjected for days on end, they remained completely confident and never disguised their joy when a Boche was seen diving in flames and smoke.
On one occasion we shot down a M.E. 109 with small arms fire, it had been machine gunning us up and down the road.
The pilot bailed out, and every rifle for miles around together with machine guns barked in anger at him. He was not hit, but later complained to his captors that he had been shot at, and this after what he had done to us. I especially mention the morale of our boys, the only infantry from England in Greece, in comparison with other infantry. Although we have been only away for six months it seems like years.
I suppose I have seen many beautiful things, including the snow-capped Greek mountains with green valleys, covered with violets and other spring flowers, but I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s nothing more beautiful than the English spring, which by now has about gone.
I should like to be back in England to see you all, but maybe it will be much sooner than we realize. Somehow this period of waiting, after so much activity, becomes very tedious.
We can get nothing to read here, which makes matters worse. I found a copy of Hamlet on our withdrawal, so that is what I am reading at the moment. I must close now and will write again after I’ve got some news from John. I hope you will let my brothers have all the “low-down.”
I’ve often wondered since our reverse at Rafina how many men out of the hundreds who must have prayed ever gave thanks. It was a miracle. I hope I shall soon get some more letters from you all, but lots must have been lost.
Very much love to you all. Your very affectionate sone,
DAVID.
(The above letter has been passed by the official censor)
[Advert for Modern Cleaners]
30
[Page break]
CLEAR-RUNNING WATER
CALGARY – a Gaelic word means “clear running water”. It was the name of the old home of Col. Macleod in the Isle of Mull, Scotland, and was first used by him when he was in charge of the North West Mounted Police fort which he established at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers in 1876.
Calgary is 840 miles west of Winnipeg; 620 miles east of Vancouver; 138 miles north of the boundary with the States; and 87 miles from Banff.
Calgary’s coat of arms shows the upper third – the Rockies; the lower two-thirds – the red cross of St. George mounted by a Maple Leaf (Canadian Emblem) inset by a buffalo bull. The supporters are a horse and a steer, representing the basic wealth of the district.
Calgary chimney sweeps are licensed at a cost of $5 per year. After sweeping each flue they give a certificate showing the date it was swept, and this certificate has to be produced in case of fire.
CALGARY’S public library, built in 1912, cost $100,000, $80,000 of which was given by Andrew Carnegie, and $20,000 provided by the City Council. It was the first in Alberta. On 12th Ave. and 2nd St. West (Memorial Park), it is open from 9 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays. Airmen pay nothing to join and can borrow five books at once.
Population of Calgary was 506 in 1884; 55,000 in 1911; 81,636 in 1931, and 85,726 in 1937. In 1942 it will be ….
[Advert for Marion Fawdry, Photographer]
[Advert “Wishing Calgary Wings Every Success” for The Albertan Publishing Co. Ltd.]
31
[Page break]
[Advert for Capitol Theatre]
FRANKLY SENTIMENTAL
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS FROM HOME
“Today she came to us carrying an attache case and wanted to kiss us good bye. N. said “Where are you going?” and she replied “To Canada to see my Dad”. We had to laugh it came out so pat. Anyhow she trotted to the gate with case and handbag. When she came back N. asked her what her daddy had said. She answered “Very well and just safe.” We do have some laughs over her.”
“Thanks for your long letter describing the scenery of Canada. I’m not at all interested in the scenery. I want to know what you’ve been doing, what you’ve been up to.”
[Advert for West End Dairy]
32
[Page break]
[Advert for The McAra Imprint]
[Advert for J.J. Fitzpatrick]
[Advert for the Model Laundry Ltd.]
[Page break]
[Advert for General Supplies Limited]
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
Calgary Wings magazine
Description
An account of the resource
A monthly magazine produced by personnel of No 37 Service Flying Training School, Royal Air Force Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Contains message officer commanding and articles on retreat from Greece, religion and local area, a fighter pilot in combat, armistice day, sport, American democracy, model aircraft, photographic competition, the work of the YMCA, being bombed in Larissa and the meaning of Calgary in Gaelic.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
No 37 Service Flying Training School
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
32 page magazine with cover.
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
MMadgettHR147519-190610-01
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.
Canada
Great Britain
Greece
Alberta--Calgary
Greece--Larisa
Alberta
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
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.
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anne-Marie Watson
arts and crafts
displaced person
entertainment
faith
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1009/11246/PMadgett15010013.2.jpg
175578e06ef27d329ead5eb543ae0fce
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1009/11246/PMadgett15010014.2.jpg
53e0fc80c15e63dcd52734b3f33c9c2a
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
Madgett, Hedley Robert
H R Madgett
Description
An account of the resource
250 items. The collection concerns Pilot Officer Hedley Madgett DFM (1922 - 1943, 147519, 1330340 Royal Air Force), a pilot with 61 Squadron. He was killed 18 August 1943 on the last operation of his tour from RAF Syerston to Peenemünde. The collection consists of letters, postcards and telegrams to his parents while he was training in the United Kingdom and Canada. In addition the collection contains memorabilia, documents from the Air Training Corps, artwork, a railway map, diaries, medals as well as his logbook, photographs of people, places and aircraft. Also contains letters of condolence to parents and a sub collection containing a photograph album with 44 items of his time training in Canada'.<br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Joan Madgett and Carol Gibson, and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span>Additional information on Hedley Madgett is available via the </span><a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/114690/" title="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/madgett-hr/ ">IBCC Losses Database</a><span>.</span>
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
2015-03-17
2019-06-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Madgett, H
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
Central Avenue Swift Current
Description
An account of the resource
View of street running bottom to top with two story buildings either side. There are cars parked on both sides and people on sidewalks and crossing road in the distance. On the reverse 'Swift Current, Nov 1941, Central Ave'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PMadgett15010013, PMadgett15010014
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Saskatchewan--Swift Current
Saskatchewan
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
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.
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/161/2033/PCushwayAW16010011.1.jpg
6fef3e5231b4ba335cf04fc2c499a3e1
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
Cushway, Arthur. Album
Arthur Cushway's photograph album
Description
An account of the resource
28 items. A photograph album with multiple pages. It contains pictures taken during Arthur Cushway's aircrew training in Great Britain and in Canada. Subjects include airmen and aircraft and sightseeing in Great Britain and North America, including Niagara Falls, Ontario, New York and Reykjavik in Iceland.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Rosemary Lester and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-07-04
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PCushwayAW1601
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
Environs of Port Albert
Description
An account of the resource
Environs of Port Albert. The first photograph is a view over Lake Huron into the setting sun. Captioned 'Sundown, Lake Huron, September 1941.' The second is a view along a road. The trees are bare of leaves. Captioned 'Typical road scene. November 1941.' The third is of an airman leading on the back of a railway carriage, captioned 'Goodbye to Pt Albert December 1941'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-09
1941-11
1941-12
Format
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Three b/w photogrpahs on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PCushwayAW16010011
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. Training Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Ontario
Ontario--Port Albert
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
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.
1941-09
1941-11
1941-12
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/814/22697/PEvansD1704.2.jpg
5607d46cc89438d1b417e36b945450a4
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/814/22697/PEvansD1705.2.jpg
a8bcaf066219b34e65424bd3bea2518d
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
Evans, Ernest Darwin
D Evans
Description
An account of the resource
71 items. An oral history interview with Darwin Evans (1921 - 2017, 1049547 Royal Air Force) and photographs, including several of Lancaster nose art, Lancaster W4783 AR-G George, and crashed or damaged aircraft. Darwin Evans served as an assistant to the Navigation Officer in 1 Group.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Darwin Evans and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-11-01
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Evans, D
Access Rights
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Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[photograph]
[page break]
J W J Rowland. A Phillips. F Shuedle L Dantrie (AIR REC).
[signature] [signature] F. Ross W L Bowditch. (MORSE).
A Ellis. H Johnson. A L Gardner. W. B Rose (LEFT COURSE) T.A Lujden
F. Thorpe. K.L. Bench D. Conway
A.B. Ward J. C. Ryder. (LEFT COURSE) G.M. Hughes J R Heyes
F Trusler T. M. Burgess. R. G. Fewtrell John Evans. W H Olerrick
F J. Lesher L W West. C.D Ciass. C. Clarke. A Suringh Wong Bell
J. Nichol F Riley G. R. Rainey (LEFT COURSE)
Thos W Kenyon. AH Oliver G K. Taylor F Harston.
C. Miller A Phillips Edmond J Lane.
W D Lloyd J.H. Cox. W.H. Adams. G. C, Rowe.
J M Blakeburn (LEFT COURSE) F. Peace D Finlayson
J. B. Halbert [indecipherable letters] Adams Ron Rees. Stan C Jennings
A Butufel L Halsollet (NAV.)
Flying Training School Bobbington Nr. Stourbridge [circled] 1941 [/circled]
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Flying Training School Bobbington (Halfpenny Green) November 1941
49 airmen
Description
An account of the resource
49 airmen arranged in four rows. On the reverse are the signatures of those present. Additional information about this item was kindly provided by the donor. RAF Bobbington was also known as RAF Halfpenny Green.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PEvansD1704, PEvansD1705
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
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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.
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Staffordshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
Contributor
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David Bloomfield
Roger Dunsford
aircrew
Flying Training School
RAF Halfpenny Green
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1009/11241/PMadgett15010005.1.jpg
8617757a6226bcab6c9e399009d00aa0
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1009/11241/PMadgett15010006.1.jpg
d56f29512dc184fe08193bf228f9fd85
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Madgett, Hedley Robert
H R Madgett
Description
An account of the resource
250 items. The collection concerns Pilot Officer Hedley Madgett DFM (1922 - 1943, 147519, 1330340 Royal Air Force), a pilot with 61 Squadron. He was killed 18 August 1943 on the last operation of his tour from RAF Syerston to Peenemünde. The collection consists of letters, postcards and telegrams to his parents while he was training in the United Kingdom and Canada. In addition the collection contains memorabilia, documents from the Air Training Corps, artwork, a railway map, diaries, medals as well as his logbook, photographs of people, places and aircraft. Also contains letters of condolence to parents and a sub collection containing a photograph album with 44 items of his time training in Canada'.<br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Joan Madgett and Carol Gibson, and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span>Additional information on Hedley Madgett is available via the </span><a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/114690/" title="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/madgett-hr/ ">IBCC Losses Database</a><span>.</span>
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
2015-03-17
2019-06-14
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Madgett, H
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
Hedley Madgett standing in snow in front of building
Description
An account of the resource
Hedley Madgett wearing winter overall standing snow by a door to a building. On the reverse 'Me - taken by Bill!, 32 EFTS Swift Current, Nov 1941'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
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PMadgett15010005, PMadgett15010006
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Saskatchewan--Swift Current
Saskatchewan
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
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.
Flying Training School
military living conditions
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/886/46460/SHarriganD[Ser -DoB]v270002.mp3
17d8d5e67eba8aa030b63b971450808f
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
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-06-16
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hudson, JD
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Interviewer: This is an interview with Mr James Douglas Hudson on the 4th of February 2011 at his home near Lincoln concerning his wartime experiences with the Royal Air Force.
JDH: What is beginning to please me now is the increased awareness that’s arising of what happened during World War Two in Bomber Command and by those who flew in Bomber Command of whom fifty six thousand or thereabouts gave their lives without counting the cost. There has been so little recognition for all this outstanding bravery and finally more is being told and more is being how can I say made aware to a viewing public or a listening public. We’re helped with the advance in techniques of recordings that weren’t available in the days of people like Group Captain, Air Chief Marshall Cheshire and Guy Gibson. They didn’t have the facilities that we have today. So this increase in awareness by the general public and particularly the younger generation is rewarding.
Interviewer: What made you join the Air Force, Douglas?
JDH: I joined the Air Force because I wasn’t particularly happy with my peacetime, this is 1939, occupation in in Manchester in the textile shipping trade and a colleague of mine had joined Fighter Command and was having such a good time flying Spitfires and Hurricanes and I decided I would like to do the same. So I made application and I was told, this is just before the war that junior officers may be able to live on their pay. So I queried this and I said, ‘Well, what do you mean by may be able to live on their pay?’ And a cousin of mine who was a colonel in the Army said, ‘Oh yes. That’s perfectly true.’ He said, ‘But Uncle Harold,’ that’s my father, he said, ‘He’d been able to look after you there.’ I said, ‘Well, Uncle Harold it so happens,’ I said, ‘Because of the depression in the textile trade is out of a job.’ ‘In that case,’ he said, ‘He would not be able to look after you.’ And he said, ‘You’ll be very unwise to seek a short service commission.’ So instead of that I made application through the Volunteer Reserves to do weekend flying and weekend training and this was in June 1939. So a couple of months after that war was declared and I was called up immediately and my training then began at Prestwick in Ayrshire. We were called observers in those days to be renamed of course navigators.
Interviewer: Did you always want to be a navigator or did you want to be a pilot?
JDH: Initially of course I wanted to be a pilot and I was told there was a waiting list forever. But I was told that if I wished to be an air observer which now of course is a navigator I would get in just as much flying which is true. And that’s what I did. Now, I’m jumping ahead now over a couple of years because I was a prisoner of war after this for a couple of years or plus and when I came back I was given the opportunity to remuster and if I wished I could remuster and undergo pilot’s training. I refused. I said, ‘No. I was a navigator and I wish to continue being a navigator and navigation is and was my metier. Although I say it now, perhaps I shouldn’t say it I was a good navigator and my books of which I’ve written eight are based on the title, “There and Back Again.” And it’s the back again which is the important part about it. It’s one thing to get there. It’s another thing to get back and to get there and back isn’t everybody’s good fortune. In fact, fifty six thousand or thereabouts never made that. I now at the age of nearly ninety five am sitting here in my lounge at home in Heighington near Lincoln talking to this lady. I’m a very fortunate person.
Interviewer: So you did the observer’s course at Prestwick.
JDH: I did the observer’s course at Prestwick.
Interviewer: And then went to Evanton for the Bomber and Gunnery School.
JDH: Went to Bombing and Gunnery School then at Evanton and after that, after completion of the bombing and gunnery in various aeroplanes including the Fairey Battle we were moved to Bicester in Oxfordshire where I was introduced to the Bristol Blenheim and I was posted to West Raynham in Norfolk where I did two months operational flying on the Bristol Blenheim. Unfortunately, we were sent to the Middle East and I had insufficient petrol to make the journey and crash landed in Vichy French North Africa where I was taken prisoner of war for two and a quarter years.
Interviewer: Can you describe that? The conditions that you lived in and –
JDH: The conditions under which we lived were appalling. The food was an abomination. It was based on the food they gave to the Arab soldiers but it wasn’t so much the food itself it was the filthy conditions in which this food was served up to us. Our living conditions were absolutely appalling. Overcrowding was a very significant disadvantage. We quarrelled with each other in consequence. You, you could be the best of friends, if you get six, eight, ten, twelve, or twenty of you all in one room ongoing tempers fray. And this is what happened and I think this is one of the most difficult parts of being a prisoner of war and of course, being taken away from operation flying.
Interviewer: It doesn’t seem to have been as well organised as German prisoner of war camps in that you know you didn’t have much recreation or organised activities to take your mind off the conditions. Is that right?
JDH: Well, we, we didn’t have so much organised activities. We were, we were able to do our own thing up to a point. There were no specific facilities.
Interviewer: No.
JDH: No.
Interviewer: You had your Red Cross parcels.
JDH: Had it not been for the Red Cross parcels I often wonder how we would have survived. When the Red Cross parcels began to reach us there were certain days when we would just ignore the food that was sent up to us and just live for the time being on the contents of the Red Cross parcels. The one problem was particularly in the desert I was a prisoner in the desert for over a year in the Sahara Desert. A place called Laghouat, about three, three hundred and fifty miles south of Algiers and when the food, when the Red Cross parcels arrived we had what was called the Klim, K L I M, milk which came I think from Canada. It was powder and of course when we mixed this, when we added water to it we were running into trouble because the water wasn’t fit to drink. And I used to, they also sent us prunes and we used to soak the prunes overnight in water and then add this Klim milk which had been what’s the word? Reconstituted. And of course, we were inviting trouble and we got trouble. We got dysentery. So it was an awfully difficult situation. Dysentery was rife. Dysentery I think was our biggest problem in the prisoner of war camp and we’d no medications you see.
Interviewer: No.
JDH: No medications at all.
Interviewer: You mentioned in your book about being depressed at this time. This –
JDH: Being depressed?
Interviewer: Yes. Obviously, the conditions and your dysentery and everything else.
JDH: Yes, because there was no future. We’d been taken away from the activities which we’d trained for and that was to fly operationally. As you will read on in the books I was, I had the good fortune to be repatriated in November 1942 and after five or six months of ground duties I became rehabilitated as it were and became fit to fly again and the rest is history.
Interviewer: Let’s go back to your, your time in the North African prisons. What did you feel about escape? Did some, did you want to escape?
JDH: I escaped twice. In the first prisoner of war camp, a place called Le Kef in Tunisia, a fellow prisoner Ted Hart who was another Blenheim man he and I we shinned over, I use the expression we use in the book, the shithouse wall because that’s exactly what it was. It was a filthy latrine and we managed to get over this wall and drop on to the other side and escape into the night. And I spoke limited French but we walked throughout the night, a matter of some thirty, some forty miles I think to a place called Souk el Arba and went into a local hotel and noticed they had bed and breakfast available which was on a notice board in the reception room.
Interviewer: Were you dressed in your —
JDH: We were dressed in a huge army greatcoat which the French had given to us. They were French soldier’s greatcoats and they issued us with these as clothing to keep warm because we were up in the mountains. In the hills. And we went out with these on covering our uniform which was underneath. You had to have a uniform because if not we could have been shot as spies and we had to be very very careful to conceal it. And when we arrived in the hotel I said to the lady at the reception, ‘Bonjour madame, deux cafe s’il vous plait.’ ‘Certainement monsieur.’ And that’s how it began. And after that I said, ‘E deux chambre lit?’ ‘Certainement Monsieur.’ And she took me up to the room and was talking, showing us the room and I realised that I couldn’t keep up this pretence of being French in general conversation. So I just said, ‘Madame, [unclear] Francais.’ As though I was American. I said that we were Americans and that we were doing geological studies with the Vichy French and we had been working during the night. That’s why we were in this scruff. She seemed to accept that and after two or three days we managed to get a train which took us across the frontier to a place called Souk Ahras.
Interviewer: Across the frontier into Tunisia?
JDH: Into Algeria.
Interviewer: Into Algeria.
JDH: Algeria. We were then fortunate when we crossed that frontier and everybody got out to have a check of some sort of reason. There was a chap on the platform obviously checking people and we stayed where we were right opposite and two French soldiers opened our carriage door and just said, ‘Permission militaire, Monsieur?’ And I said, ‘Mai oui certainement. Bon permission.’ And off they went. Ted said, ‘Well, what was that all about?’ I said, ‘They seemed to think that we were French on leave.’ And the chap who was doing the checking on the, on the station platform could see this therefore he didn’t trouble us anymore. Now the funny part was well it wasn’t really funny was that when we were recaptured we had to come back and cross this place in reverse and he was there. I just looked at him and I just said, ‘You remember me?’ He thought we were going to drop him you see. And then I did fourteen days cells and three days dungeons.
Interviewer: So they picked you up again and put you back into Le Kef.
JDH: But I escaped again. This time in this place called Laghouat which is in the Sahara desert.
Interviewer: Who did you escape with this time?
JDH: This time we started to dig a tunnel in November 1941 and the tunnel was completed in June ‘42 and it was sixty odd metres in length. A hundred and ninety odd feet. We used two bread knives which started off being about nine inches in length and finished up by being about three. And twenty nine of us got out and twenty nine of us were recaptured. There was nowhere to go. But we’d done it right under their noses and of course their hierarchy, the French Vichy hierarchy took it out on the commandant of the camp and various people they were all dipped in rank and things like that.
Interviewer: What nationality were the guards?
JDH: Mostly Arabic. Mostly Arabic.
Interviewer: Under French.
JDH: Under French. Vichy French. Yes. Mostly Arab.
Interviewer: And their attitude to you? Or you to them as well.
JDH: I suppose we would say then in those days [unclear] comme ci comme ca.
Interviewer: They weren’t over cruel or —
JDH: Not really. No. I mean you had to excise a bit of common sense. I mean they had guns. They were armed and it paid not to be foolish. I mean you know for example we had a ligne [unclear] which was a line running around the periphery of the camp before you come to the barbed wire. You could see it actually and if we were using the, playing with the ball and it bounced underneath there don’t follow it.
Interviewer: No.
JDH: Go up to the line, look up at the guard, ‘Permission?’ And they would say [Depeche trois] You know, ‘Get a move on then,’ and they’d train their gun and you’d go and pick your ball up and acknowledge it.
Interviewer: Yes.
JDH: Acknowledge it because they were doing their duty but had we proceeded they’d have shot us. Oh they would have shot us without any doubt. Yes. And the whole thing was flood lighted you know. They floodlighted it at night. So —
Interviewer: So you got out again and got how far this time?
JDH: Oh, not very far. We were recaptured the next morning because the premier spahi which are the crack horse regiment of that part of the world they just released them into the desert and they just sort of fanned, a sort of fan movement. They just picked us up. We had no alternative. I thought they were going to shoot us because they clicked their rifles back. They were brilliant horsemen. They could ride without hands, you know and hold their rifle. So we put up our hands. I shall never forget that. Just put up our hands and it worked. I’ll say this for them three of them jumped off their horses and threw their guns across to three others and they allowed us to have some water, to drink some water. And then they just got us on the back of that, one each on the back of their horse, beautiful animals.
Interviewer: Were you punished for escaping?
JDH: Oh yeah. Had about sixteen days in the cells. Yeah. Oh, I’ve done more cells than [unclear] and back.
Interviewer: The cells, the cells sounds particularly –
JDH: There were two of us in one cell because there were so many of us they hadn’t enough cells to put us one in a cell so they put two of us in a cell and its just a stone. A sloping stone slab. And they opened the doors in the morning into a sort of courtyard to enable us if required to use their so-called toilet facilities which were pretty awful. But they had, we had the churn. It literally was a milk churn in the centre of this quadrangle which we had to use. We’d just sit on this churn or stand on it and take it in turns to empty it. You know, each one get carrying one hand. So it was a wonderful experience you know. A wonderful experience. And I remember looking at a thermometer we passed one of their bureaus, their offices on route to the place where we took this contents of the churn and this was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and the temperature was a hundred and four. And that was in early June and it soared into July August. At midday I don’t know what it reached. Probably about forty degrees centigrade, celsius or whatever it is. A hundred and twenty, a hundred and thirty degrees. Unbearable. If we did any washing we had very restricted facilities and I got some soap sent from England and I was very fortunate to get this soap. Carbolic soap. Go out to the wash trough when the water was on. It was only on for a restricted period of time. You put one articulate into the wash tub and then put it one side to do the other one by the time you’d done the second one the first one was bone dry just like a board. Unbelievable.
Interviewer: What affect did this experience have because it was about two years you were a prisoner wasn’t it?
JDH: Two and a quarter.
Interviewer: Yes, that’s —
JDH: About a year and a quarter in the desert and the other year in two other places. At one time we thought we were going to be repatriated, so did the Vichy French in exchange for the German submarine crew and we were sent to a place called [unclear] I write about it in there.
Interviewer: Yes.
JDH: I don’t know whether I do it in that book.
Interviewer: Yes, you did.
JDH: Yes, because I I refer to the brothel. Have you read about that?
Interviewer: Yes.
JDH: And the woman I was with she’d be about forty I suppose and she didn’t speak any English at all. All French. It was rather funny. She came up to the bar actually and was talking to us in French and she suddenly changed the conversation and said, ‘Pour vous monsieur dix franc.’ So Ted said, that’s my colleague, he said, ‘What was that?’ I said, ‘She’s just said to me for me it’ll be ten francs.’ He said, ‘How much for me?’ I said, [unclear] I said, ‘Same for you. Ten francs. I’ll toss you over who goes first.’
Interviewer: And that was while you were waiting when you thought this —
JDH: We thought we were going to be repatriated you see and I was terribly concerned about infection you see. This thing. And we used [unclear] potash which you put into solution and of course its virulent purple [laughs] A bit of a mess. But now, you see these are true things. This is what happened. It’s not biographical it’s autobiographical.
Interviewer: So when the repatriation fell through you then were put back again. Is that right?
JDH: Yeah.
Interviewer: So you were back in again after having your hopes built up. What did all these experiences, how did it you know colour your life afterwards or was it just a character building two and a quarter years or what?
JDH: I think in some respects its almost been helpful if you like because I know I’ve done it. You see I can walk down the road here. There are people who talk to me, they call across to me and I don’t have a clue who they are but because of these books you see I’m well known. And I’m on my own now because my wife died six and a half years ago. I think this is the hard part. Particularly when you’ve been to a do like that and then come back in the evening to a vacuum, to an empty house. No. The part of the war which is the most disturbing to me wasn’t the flying. It wasn’t the operational flying it was the prisoner of war side. But I’ll tell you this. My crew on the Lancaster my flight engineer was nineteen and my bomb aimer who was a huge chap six foot two, towered above me just made, just failed to make the teens and he was just twenty. I mean they were only boys really. I at twenty six, twenty seven then was an old man. And we got coned once in the master searchlight. This is in the Lancaster and the master searchlight is almost ultraviolet and if one of those catches you the other aircraft home in on it and then they push the flak up. You don’t stand a chance. I don’t know of any crew, aircraft that’s been coned in the master searchlight that hasn’t been shot down and I just was waiting for it to happen and what was it going to be like. And the pilot promptly put the aircraft, this is a Lancaster fully bomb loaded, fully loaded with bombs put it into a dive and spiralled. No good at all. I mean you couldn’t evade, couldn’t evade this searchlight and we lost altitude from twenty one thousand to twelve. Nine thousand feet in no time whatsobe and gravity pushed my head on to the table and I couldn’t [pause] I was just waiting for the explosion. But suddenly that light went out. We didn’t evade it. It went out. The gunners were firing away like crazy. Now whether they had succeeded in firing down the beam and putting it out or whether something else I don’t know but that light went out. And this little engineer of nineteen years of age with the pilot they hauled this huge Lancaster from the vertical almost into the horizontal with a full bomb load and it didn’t break its back and we went on to the target. I thought we’d get an immediate DFC but we didn’t. We didn’t get anything.
Interviewer: If I can just mention or just ask you about how you did get out of the prison you were eventually repatriated.
JDH: We were repatriated. The Allies and that’s the Americans and the British and the Canadians, the Allied forces invaded Algeria in November 1942 and the Vichy French surrendered. We wondered what would happen to us. My fear was when we heard that this invasion had taken place my fear was that they might take us away from the prison camp and whip us into Germany before our forces landed but they didn’t. They unlocked the doors and they dismissed any guard who they thought had been difficult and brought in a fresh lot of guards who were courtesy itself and couldn’t do enough for us. It was all hypocrisy, hypocritical and we spent the last four days just using the place for the passing of time until there was transport able to take us up to Algiers and we sailed home.
Interviewer: And you came back in HMS Keren, I think.
JDH: HMS Keren.
Interviewer: Yes.
JDH: It sailed out there with American troops I think it was. And I don’t know what its cargo was but they loaded it up with oranges. The hold was absolutely filled. Of course, you couldn’t get oranges in this country so we took it back loaded with oranges. Yeah.
Interviewer: You didn’t have scurvy when you came back did you? [laughs] So how did you feel when you got back? Did you want to get back into the fight?
JDH: Oh yes. Because the first thing, basically the first thing that we were asked when we got, we landed in, where was it? In Greenock in Scotland and we were taken by train under guard. With guards. No civilian was allowed to come anywhere near that carriage. We were taken by train to London and interviewed by top brass and virtually the first thing they asked us, ‘Do you wish to fly again?’ And having said yes then that’s when I got the opportunity to remuster if I wished and train as a pilot and I said no, I’d like to take up navigation again and do a refresher course. This is what I did. And I could do that more quickly you see. I thought I’d get back on to flying more quickly. And navigation was my metier. I liked navigation.
Interviewer: So it was back to, to an OTU for a little while while you —
JDH: I went to, it wasn’t an OTU to start off with. What would you call it? [pause] A place called Moreton Valence.
Interviewer: An AFU. Number 6 AFU.
JDH: AFU. And from there we went to Wymeswold which was an OTU. Operational Training Unit. And from Wymeswold I went to, wasn’t it Lindholme? Which was a Conversion Unit to four engine. And then to the squadron and did my first operational flight on a 100 Squadron on Lancasters to Brunswick, Braunschweig in the middle of December ’44 and finished the tour at the D-Day landings and saw the flotilla going over. Then we came back and we spoke to the crew, the pilot and myself and we said, ‘How do you feel about carrying on?’ We said, ‘We’re game.’ I said, ‘It seems a shame now doesn’t it?’ I said. ‘We’ve landed on the other side, or they have.’ I said, ‘Carry on. Let’s support them.’ So we went to the squadron commander and he was delighted. We said, ‘On the condition we get our aircraft back.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘It’s gone. It’s gone out tonight or its going out tonight.' He said, ‘If it comes back —’ and it did come back, ‘Yes, you can have it and continue.’ I was in the Officer’s Mess on the following morning I think it was and the doc as we called him, the medical officer, Doc Marshall he came up to me. He said, ‘Dougie, what’s this I hear about you chaps volunteering to fly again?’ ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘That’s right, Doc.’ I said, ‘And we’re going to get our aircraft back.’ He just looked at me. He said, ‘Over my dead body.’ Just like that. I can see him saying that. I have used the quashed not squashed. ‘I have quashed it irrevocably.’ He said, ‘You don’t realise how sick you are.’
Interviewer: He could see in you strain and stress that you couldn’t feel or see yourselves.
JDH: I said, ‘Doc,’ I said, ‘They’re cross countrys from now on.’ I said, ‘We’ve landed on the other side. We’ve only got to go ahead and support them as they move along to occupy Germany.’ He said, ‘Cross country runs.’ The squadron at the end of that month lost another six Lancasters. Six. So –
Interviewer: Did you have the same crew in for nearly all your thirty ops?
JDH: No. When we finished operational flying they all went different places and I only met the bomb aimer again. I don’t know what happened to the rest. We’ve tried to contact them in the meantime you know over the period. We’ve tried on the internet website.
Interviewer: But for your thirty ops.
JDH: Thirty ops.
Interviewer: You was –
JDH: Oh, the first lot.
Interviewer: Yes.
JDH: Oh, they’re both dead. John [Riddick], he was the, he was killed in a crash very soon after we got back and my wireless operator Tony Randall there’s a picture in the book he was killed on his first operational flight on Halifaxes. I think he was from Pocklington or somewhere. I’m not sure.
Interviewer: Well, you were on the Nuremberg raid.
JDH: I was on the Nuremberg raid.
Interviewer: But because you’d gone, been one of the first to go you didn’t appreciate the catastrophe to come.
JDH: Well, as far as Nuremberg was concerned I can remember this quite clearly when we got back, back to the squadron at debriefing we were always asked the same sort of questions. ‘Well, how did it go?’ ‘What was it like?’ And I remember using the expression, ‘A piece of cake.’ The following morning [pause] firstly our ex-gunner, he got frostbite and was taken off flying and he was given ground duties and he sort of acted as a nursemaid for us for a little while until he got fit again. And he came into the billet at about mid-day or whatever when it was time for us to get up again and he said, ‘Well, chaps how many do you think you lost last night over Nuremberg?’ ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘Not many.’ I said, which is the entire command, I said, ‘Twenty.’ ‘No.’ He said, ‘Think again.’ I said, ‘More than that?’ He said, ‘Yes, more than that.’ ‘Thirty?’ ‘No.’ Then he finally said, ‘Ninety seven.’ I said, ‘Don’t talk rubbish.’ He said, ‘That’s what they say.’ And we did lose ninety seven and another thirteen failed to make their own bases and they crash landed in the UK and never got back to their base. So effectively we lost a hundred and ten aircraft that night. Ninety seven. Thirteen, a hundred and ten give or take, seven or eight hundred aircrew. And I say this, I’ll repeat it we lost more aircrew in that one night over Nuremberg than Fighter Command lost throughout the Battle of Britain. You see I know all this and therefore, oh I beg your pardon I don’t have to be prompted or asked or told. I know it. It just happened and I shan’t forget it. I never will forget it. And at ninety four, five what do I do? Do I go on? My publisher says, ‘Yes, you go on because you have a mission to fulfil.’ I said, ‘What is it?’ He said, ‘You’ll find out as you go along.’ And I think this is part of the mission. We thought we’d got five hundred pounds for that raffle.
Interviewer: This was –
JDH: Barton on Humber last Sunday.
Interviewer: This was a signing of your autobiography and –
JDH: Yes.
Interviewer: Later published.
JDH: I sold thirty five books.
Interviewer: Yes. So they see your mission is to continue spreading the word really and –
JDH: Spreading the word. Oh, I know where the book is [pause] This is my eighth book.
Interviewer: Yes. Just now, “Just Douglas: A Navigator’s Story.”
JDH: Yes. I’ve got the covers for another one called, “The Best of Douglas.” But I don’t know what to do about it. But I’m writing another one now and it’s called, “St Bernard and Puppies.” It’s a make-believe story for children of all ages. I hope to get it to East Kirkby in Easter.
Interviewer: Oh excellent.
JDH: We’ll see.
Interviewer: So you did your thirty ops of which Nuremberg was one of them and you came to the end and wanted to remuster and they wouldn’t let you. So you went to Sandtoft to do some instructing which –
JDH: Instruction work. I hated it. Absolutely hated it. It’s not so much the instruction work but I just hated Sandoft. I don’t know. It was just something about the place I didn’t come to terms with at all. And I did as much flying as I could. They’re, all the instructional flights are logged in the book. Well, I don’t think in that book but certainly in this book. So, you know what I talked to you about happened and I have the written proof of it here and I have the aircraft letters and numbers which is, is a good fortune. My wife’s family are in here too. He was a big man in the St John Ambulance. That’s my wife’s father. Her family were co-founders of Blackburn Rovers Football Club.
Interviewer: Goodness.
JDH: You know who that is don’t you?
Interviewer: Yes, I do. Just Jane at East Kirkby.
JDH: Yes. Those are the Pantons.
Interviewer: So you, you have your books to sell and you go to the various commemorations.
JDH: Yeah.
Interviewer: And that is obviously a very important part of your life now.
JDH: Very important. Here’s a great guy. Air Chief Marshall Sir Clive Loader. He did the preface for my, for that book. I’ll show you.
[pause]
JDH: Was it this one?
Interviewer: Yes, it was.
JDH: Yes.
Interviewer: There it is. It’s just by your finger.
JDH: “On Sunday the 27th of August my wife Alison and I had the great honour of representing todays Royal Air Force. I was deeply touched – ” This is Douglas Hudson, “I was deeply touched when he asked whether I would be prepared to write a forward to this, the sixth edition of, “There and Back Again: A Navigator’s Story.” I’m truly delighted to do so. Sir Clive Loader,” etcetera etcetera. He’s retired now and I don’t know whether I ought to try to contact him or not. I perhaps feel that it would be an intrusion into his retirement. I don’t know. It’s very difficult to say.
Interviewer: Can you see yourself having a different life?
JDH: Could I see myself –
Interviewer: Yes, you know it’s –
JDH: I don’t know. You see, look. It’s the life of now with so much in it which I can think about. Somebody said I’m a ladies man. So be it. That’s Sandra Morton. That’s the lady across the road who introduced you. That is Marguerita [Allen] She used to phone me from California quite regularly. She now is living in Preston. And that is Lola Lamour. In other words, Joanne Massey. Now, she and I will be re-enacting together at East Kirkby in May.
Interviewer: Well, that’s wonderful. Thank you very much Douglas. It’s, it’s been a treat to listen to you. Thank you.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with James Douglas Hudson
1024-Hudson, James Douglas
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SHarriganD[Ser#-DoB]v27
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Claire Bennet
This Interview was recorded by Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-02-04
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
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Sound
Format
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00:40:51 audio recording
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
Pending OH summary
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.
Description
An account of the resource
James Douglas Hudson followed a friend to join the RAF. He trained as a navigator and was posted to 101 Squadron at RAF West Raynham. On his final operational flight with the squadron he ran out of fuel and crashed. He was taken prisoner by the Vichy French in North Africa and spent time in a prisoner of war camp in Laghouet and Le Kef. He attempted escape twice but was recaptured. Douglas was repatriated to the UK in November 1942. He volunteered to return to operational flying duties and was posted to 101 Squadron based at RAF Waltham. One of his operations was to Nuremberg and he was shocked to hear about the losses of that raid. He and his crew volunteered for a further tour but the Medical Officer intervened and declared he was medically unfit to fly. After the war Douglas wrote books about his experiences in Bomber Command.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
1942-06
1942-11
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Algeria
Germany
Great Britain
Tunisia
Algeria--Laghouat (Province)
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Nuremberg
Tunisia--El Kef
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
100 Squadron
101 Squadron
aircrew
Blenheim
bombing of Nuremberg (30 / 31 March 1944)
crash
escaping
Lancaster
navigator
prisoner of war
RAF Grimsby
Red Cross
-
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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
Wakefield, Harold Ernest
H E Wakefield
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
2017-10-16
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. 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
Wakefield, HE
Description
An account of the resource
93 items. The collection concerns Harold Ernest Wakefield DFC (1923 - 1986, 1582185 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, training publications, decorations and badges, training notebooks, correspondence, newspaper cuttings, photographs and parachute D ring.
He flew operations as a flight engineer with 51 and 617 Squadrons.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Jeremy Wakefield and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lancaster - instructional course handbook
Description
An account of the resource
Lancaster Avro type '683' Mk 1 & II, instructional course handbook, inside first pages. Name of holder Sgt E A Blake, 617 Squadron.
This item is available only at the International Bomber Command Centre / University of Lincoln.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A V Roe & Co Limited
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Manchester
England--Lincolnshire
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
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. Training material
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWakefieldHE174040-171016-26
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
617 Squadron
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 2
RAF Coningsby
-
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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
Akrill, William
Billy Akrill
W Akrill
Description
An account of the resource
132 items. The collection concerns Sergeant William Akrill (1922 - 1943, 1436220 Royal Air Force). He was a navigator with 115 Squadron. His Wellington was shot down by a night-fighter on an operation to Essen and crashed into the Ijsselmeer 12/13 March 1943. The collection contains his photographs, letters, and cartoons as well as an oral history interview with Michael and Ann Akrill about their uncle. There is also a subcollection of letters written as a teenage boy to his father in hospital. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Michael and Ann Akrill and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. Additional information on William Akrill is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/200183/" title="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/akrill-we/ ">IBCC Losses Database</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-12-04
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Akrill, M-A
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Dear Mum, Mary & Nip.
Excuse me all of you for a combined letter but I haven’t much time for letter writing these days. Very glad to get all your letters though. Don’t be surprised if this turns out a bit queer as I’m writing this in the Orderly Room whilst on Guard Duty doing a spot of clerical work for a change. Have to book all the Cadets in and out and see to passes oc. so with the Cadets coming in and out and permanent staff sergeants rushing in and out it may be a funny sort of letter. Now sharing the watch with the dear Sergeant Brown who is busy asking me all about the Inter squadron run this afternoon. I have now attained the distinction of becoming Captain of the Squadron Team but as 4 Squadron [one indecipherable word] does any good its not much of an honour. Still led my team in today & we put up a better average and I’m hoping we can put up a better show next week though the other Squadrons are pretty hot.
We had a great excitement [deleted] last [/deleted] this week when we got our Flying Kit! We’re beginning to feel almost like airmen now. It’s the first connection with flying we’ve seen so far. Wish you could have seen us trying it on at night. Really. I looked quite like a pilot! It must have cost an amount. 2 suits— that is a “lining” which looks just like an eiderdown quilt and an overall with a grand fur collar which pleases me a lot! The helmet makes me look super with all its wireless whatnots dangling. The boots are the best, beautiful fur-lined things which wear grand. You don’t know you’ve got them on! Some chaps got sweid [sic] (pronounced swade but I can’t spell it) ones with zips just like Mary wanted but mine are
[page break]
Not so cissy and good strong wearable ones. When I’ve passed my exams I’ll have a photo done in it.
We start exams in just one week and so that means WORK. So please don’t expect further letters after this or you’ll not be seeing me in a fortnights time.
[Symbols]
Now a terrific scuffle just ended one flight just come off leave and a new flight come in & the Squadron Leaders been charging in and out in a great stew. He’s a very good sort provided everything goes alright. I’m sorry we’ve lost Flight Leiut. [sic] Dickey though. Fortunately the changed their minds about minds about the stooge who was going to take over and now we’ve got a Pilot Officer whose [sic] a good sport but no more.
Had a very good time at Mr. Elinors last Sunday. He’s a grand old man. 85 but you’d think he wasn’t a day more than 60. He had a school at Eagle, then went to Winchester & the Gibralter & finally became a Curator at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. Had tons of stories to tell & he roared with laughing whilst telling them. I had a really good afternoon. He also had a fine collection of water colours and a garden.
Had a letter from Dave this week, I think he did very well indeed. It’s hard to get into the F.A.A as a pilot.
Well mustn’t waste any more time or paper. Nothing of importance to write about. Expect me a fortnight on Sat if [inserted] when [/inserted] you see me.
Ever so glad about Sq/Ldr Henry
love
[underlined] Bill [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] Sun Morn [/underlined] [/inserted]
Must just tell you all about our Wing Church Parade this morning – an Armistice Remembrance affair Everyone except R. Catholics, Buddists [sic] and the like had to attend. I’ve never attended church under stranger circumstances. Usually on Sunday Morning C.P. the C of Es have some sort of march past be we O D’s (other denominations) just parade to the Methodist Chapel which I attend and listen to a good sermon by the Pastor whose a Methodist and a grand chap.& then we can stroll back on our own. Today the whole Wing — all four squadrons — about 1,000 men in all — was on one parade. We give a parade just by the Church but we still had to march all round the town and back again & in to Church [deleted] with [/deleted] past files of Officers. The service was a flop but as long as we marched alright nothing else mattered. When we came out again the Squadron Leader was getting more in a flap then ever he’s quite lost without our old Flt/Lt who did all the work for him. Well the Squadrons moved off again with the Band leading the way to the Saluting Base on the front. Where the Wing Com. With Squadron Leaders had rushed up to take the salute. The band took up position behind the Saluting Base and made such a din that no one heard the eyes left as we went by & that made rather a mess of things. Still our flight had been put on the front rank & we can [underlined] March [/underlined]if nothing else.
Well that was Church Parade with a vengeance. Can you wonder if fellows say “ Well If this is religion I don’t want any. Ah well I hope I’ll be doing Church Parade on my bike in a fortnights time. It would do with a good oiling I should think if anybody feels like it.
Glad t hear about Mar. is Mrs. H. alright?
[underlined] Bill [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Bill Akrill to mother, Mary and Nip
Description
An account of the resource
A detailed letter from Bill to his family, explaining life and events in the RAF Camp.
Includes orderly room administration duties, being captain of squadron running team, being issued with flying kit (which he details), exams, his visit to an elderly local man (who had been Curator of the National Library of Wales) and a 1000-man church parade for Armistice Day.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11-08
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jan Morgan
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EAkrillWEAkrill[Mo]411108
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
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Wales--Dyfed
Wales--Aberystwyth
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
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
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
William Akrill
faith
military living conditions
training
-
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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
Akrill, William
Billy Akrill
W Akrill
Description
An account of the resource
132 items. The collection concerns Sergeant William Akrill (1922 - 1943, 1436220 Royal Air Force). He was a navigator with 115 Squadron. His Wellington was shot down by a night-fighter on an operation to Essen and crashed into the Ijsselmeer 12/13 March 1943. The collection contains his photographs, letters, and cartoons as well as an oral history interview with Michael and Ann Akrill about their uncle. There is also a subcollection of letters written as a teenage boy to his father in hospital. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Michael and Ann Akrill and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. Additional information on William Akrill is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/200183/" title="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/akrill-we/ ">IBCC Losses Database</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-12-04
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Akrill, M-A
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
1436220 Akrill WE.
A Flight, No 4 Squadron,
No 6 I.T.W. R.A.F.
Aberystwyth.
Sat. 1 Nov. ‘41
Dear All,
Just got mum’s letter. Had a nice easy morning and have an [word deleted] hour to spare before dinner so I thought I’d better get this off. Have to go in the inter – squadron run again this afternoon though I don’t feel at all like it. It’s a terrible course up & down the biggest hill in the district. I’m expecting a gentleman calling on me at any moment. I don’t know who he is but I suppose it will be either Mr Eliner, the old gentleman or, most likely Mr Bray, the Minister.
Wer’e [sic] all getting excited about leave. It’s pretty certain we’ll get it from the 21st. though if we fail in Signals or Armaments Exams we don’t get any and if we fail in Navigation we’ll be recalled by telegram. So for the sake of leave if nothing else I’m doing my best to get through!
We’ve started with the Aldis lamp which doesn’t seem too easy at first. We’ve only a fortnight to learn it & perfect our buzzer. Navigation is getting involved but not difficult.
[page break]
Wish you could have seen us yesterday morning. We have become the “Bullshit” (that’s not being rude – it’s the usual term) of our Squadron. This means that every Friday morning we have to be inspected by the C.O. and give him an exhibition of drill on the front. He gives marks for this & for the condition of our rooms & there is a Challenge Cup for the best Sqdn. Each month. 4 Sqdn has won it for 5 months in succession. It’s up to us now & if we still do well wer’e [sic] [underlined] hoping [/underlined] for extra leave sometime. Yesterday we were marched out to the front with boots & buttons & faces shining, flashes clean & everything perfect. We took up position on the front and felt extremely important when our RAF armed guard was mounted round us. Then N.C.O’s & Warrant Officers came fussing round us in crowds, adjusting ties & caps etc. then up came the Sqdn Ldr & started issuing commands in a voice like a dying pig & N.C.O.’s & W.O’s took up positions behind us & in front of us was first the S/L then behind him the Fl/Lt. the S/Leader’s commands were so funny I nearly disgraced myself by laughing outright but just then the wing commander & his escort appeared & the inspection began. By this time half the population
[page break]
of Aberystwyth had turned up to watch. Then we put up a show of drill & apart from our slow march it was really good. For the first time Sergt. Brown gave us a word of praise & said our Quick March was very good indeed. The Sdn: Ldr. Was in raptures & we got a note in D.R.O’s congratulating us on our excellent show. We shall now have to go through this every week until we are posted. Our F/L is leaving us today & going to E.F.T.S. so may see him when we get there. Don’t like our new one much but at least he has wings.
You seem to be having plenty of weather at home. Hope it changes soon. Not too bad at all here. I got a letter from Phyllis today. You seem to be having plenty of visitors. I was ever so upset to hear that Mr Henry was leaving. Wonder why they change about so much. Is there being another change round at the drome I wonder. I suppose he will have gone before I have leave. I was so much looking forward to seeing him. Sorry to hear about Mrs. Baines. I am going to find out about trains soon. I believe there’s one leaves Aberystwyth about 1.30, so I should get somewhere near home by night & with luck get there by Saturday morning. Have to leave again on the next Saturday morning at the latest.
[page break]
You may think I’m getting it soon but I don’t. Some people such as ACW Blow seem to be home every other week. Oh yes I should get a day or two at Christmas if I’ve time to get home.
Well, best of love to all,
[underlined] Bill [/underlines]
P.S. Mr Elinor hast just called to ask me to tea tomorrow.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Bill Akrill to all
Description
An account of the resource
Bill writes before having to take part in an inter-squadron run that afternoon, which he is not looking forward to. They are all getting excited about the prospect of leave, but if they fail exams this will be cancelled for them.
He describes the run-up to an inspection by the Wing Commander which they have to go through every week, but it went very well.
Writes about news from home and the trains he will catch when he comes home for leave.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11-01
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Trevor Hardcastle
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EAkrillWEAkrill[Mo]411101
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
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Wales--Dyfed
Wales--Aberystwyth
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-10
1941-11
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
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
William Akrill
military service conditions
training
-
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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
Akrill, William
Billy Akrill
W Akrill
Description
An account of the resource
132 items. The collection concerns Sergeant William Akrill (1922 - 1943, 1436220 Royal Air Force). He was a navigator with 115 Squadron. His Wellington was shot down by a night-fighter on an operation to Essen and crashed into the Ijsselmeer 12/13 March 1943. The collection contains his photographs, letters, and cartoons as well as an oral history interview with Michael and Ann Akrill about their uncle. There is also a subcollection of letters written as a teenage boy to his father in hospital. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Michael and Ann Akrill and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. Additional information on William Akrill is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/200183/" title="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/akrill-we/ ">IBCC Losses Database</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-12-04
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Akrill, M-A
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Raf crest]
[No. 1436220 Akrill
A.4. 6. I.T.W. Raf.
Aberystwyth
Friday 14 Nov ‘41
Dearest Mum,
Just one more week!! Think of it — a week tonight you’ll be sitting up with a saucepan of milk on the little stand by the fire (which will be nearly out with some logs thrown on the cinders) You’ll have a basin ready with bread & sugar & salt & you’ll be knitting & reading & sleeping in a cold room with everybody else in bed waiting for the lost one to return. I can just picture you doing all this – just as you’ve done it hundreds of times before! I want you to take my
[page break]
advice & got to bed as it’ll be morning before I get home I expect. We’re going to find out about trains tomorrow so I’ll let you know what I can before I post this. I don’t think our train gets into Shrewsbury our nearest link with civilisation until 4 or 5 in the afternoon. It’s a terrible journey across Wales & then I have to cross England. And now for a piece of good news. Last Monday we had the Squadron Dance when the cup was presented. Well the Wing Com. said nice things about the Squadron Leader, the Squadron Leader said nice things about the Wing Commander, everybody cheered and the Wing Com. gave the whole squadron 48hrs leave and we are adding ours to our 7 days & so instead of coming back on Saturday we have to be back at 23.59 on Monday
[page break]
[Raf crest]
We don’t mind all this stupid drill & stuff if it means extra leave! I think we’ll all be ready for it. The continuous swotting is telling on everybody. I shall be very thankful when I can at last sit down to the exams.
We have Mouse Buzzer first thing Monday, Aldi’s lamp Tuesday, Armaments Wednesday, Law,, Hygiene, Aircraft Rec, Thursday and Navigation last but by no means least on Friday.
Do you know I can hardly realise that I’ll be home at last in a week. I seem to have been talking about it for months. I think I shall spend most of my time in bed. Certainly I’m going to have a quiet restful time as I’m feeling a bit tired with a cold come on this last day or two. Everyone’s the same.
[page break]
I’ll have plenty of stitching for you to do. My trousers are held with safety pins & broken braces. Can’t make buttons stay on. My tunic’s parted body from soul & split up the seams & I’ve not yet stitched on my V.R badges. Wish I could bring you my [one indecipherable word] to stich on but I don’t get them ‘till I get back, having passed all exams.
Had a parcel from the R.T.G’s as they called themselves — Balaclava, big slab choc, & some grapenuts! Must write & thank them when I get home. Well must get some work done — writing it in bad, finish it tomorrow
[underlined] Sun: [/underlined] There is a train vis Crewe& Denby arrives Nottn.] 10.11p.m.
Went to Stn. Today but it was closed (Everything closes here on a Sun) Will try again tomorrow & let you know something more definite as soon as I can.
What a scandal about Kathlene Millns! Seems to be causing a sensation all the soldiers going!
See you Fri (or Sat)
Bill.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Bill Akrill to his mother
Description
An account of the resource
Bill writes that he is looking forward to coming home on leave in a week's time. All the parades have paid off since they have been given some extra leave. Before then have a whole week of exams. Trying to find out about the trains, but will have to let her know later.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11-14
1941-11-16
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jan Morgan
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EAkrillWEAkrill[Mo]411114
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
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Wales--Dyfed
Wales--Aberystwyth
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
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
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
William Akrill
military living conditions
training
-
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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
Baker, Donald Arthur
D A Baker
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-11-13
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
Baker, DA
Description
An account of the resource
187 items. Donald Arthur Baker (b. 1921) travelled from Southern Rhodesia to England in 1940 to join the Royal Air Force. Trained as a pilot in 1941 he was operational with 144 Squadron at RAF North Luffenham flying Hampdens. He was shot down on 5 November 1941 and remained a prisoner of war mostly in Stalag Luft 3 until 1945. He return to farm in Southern Rhodesia after the war. The collection contains letters to his mother throughout the war as well as other correspondence and documents including his prisoner of war log with photographs and notes.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by June Baker Maree and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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
[postmark]
[postage stamp]
[three date stamps]
C. Baker, Esq.,
“Charlton”,
Inyazura,
Southern Rhodesia.
[page break]
P.363553/41/P.4.(A).
November, 1941
Sir,
I am commanded by the Air Council to express to you their great regret on learning that your son, Pilot Officer Donald Arthur Baker, Royal Air Force, is missing as a result of air operations on 5th November, 1941.
The only information available is that your son was captain of a Hampden aircraft which set out to bomb the enemy and has failed to return. This does not necessarily mean that he is killed or wounded, and if he is a prisoner of war he should be able to communicate with you in due course. Meanwhile enquiries will be made through the International Red Cross Society and as soon as any definite news is received, you will be at once informed.
If any information regarding your son is received by you from any source you are requested to be kind enough to communicate it immediately to the Air Ministry.
The Air Council desire me to convey to you an expression of their sincere sympathy with you in your present anxiety.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
[signature]
C. Baker, Esq.,
“Charlton”,
Inyazura,
Southern Rhodesia.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter to Donald Baker's father
Description
An account of the resource
Expresses regret that his son Pilot Officer Donald Arthur Baker was missing as a result of air operations on 5 November 1941. Only information available was that he was captain of a Hampden which set out to bomb the enemy and failed to return. Does not mean he was killed and enquiries would be sent via the International Red Cross. Please pass to Air Ministry and information received by parents.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page typewritten letter and envelope
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SBakerDA19210428v20054
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe--Manicaland Province
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
1941-11-05
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
Tricia Marshall
bombing
Hampden
missing in action
Red Cross
-
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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
Prisoners of War Camp
Air Mail
[ink stamp]
[postmark]
[postage stamps]
Sgt. J.D. Hudson
755052
Interned British Airman
Camp Militaire
[deleted] Aumale [/deleted] Laghouat
Algeria
Afrique - Du – Nord
[page break]
From
Mrs M .A Clayton
13 rectory Road
Crumpsall
Manchester
England
30 - 12 – 41
[page break]
[inserted top margin]
Love
M.A.Clayton
They are which is a good thing. It certainly is a lovely spot & beautiful garden, also [underlined] nice people [/underlined]. Much love to you dear, & the best of luck to you
[/inserted]
13 Rectory Road
Crumpsall
Manchester
Nov. 23 /41
My Dear Douglas
You will think I do not write too often, but my dear you are always in our thoughts, every day, & we are wishing you the best that you can get, again, I don’t get about & so never have any news for you & [indecipherable word] also rather afraid of saying something I ought not to. I don’t know how long this letter will take, but will you accept our love & kindest wishes for Christmas & we hope you will have as happy a time as possible under the circumstances. Perhaps you won’t be long before you can come home & what a day that will be!!! It will pay for a good deal that has gone before. John was home last week & we were talking of you. He wants me to ask if you are getting his letters, as he has not heard from you at all. He knows of course, that you are allowed only one letter in so long, but wishes he had a line from you sometime. I suppose you could not enclose all in your mothers’ letter, that we could forward. Please don’t think of writing to me. I quite understand how dear & precious they are, & I get your news from mother. How are you? I do hope very fit – that your time is so occupied that it goes very quickly. They are kind to you there? I trust your time is made up of mixed work & play because that will content you most. John is still a fixture, but not having too happy a time right now. He & another boy have bought an old bike, to help them to get about it & it saves railway [indecipherable word] when he comes home & [underlined] how [/underlined] it makes me think of those happy days when we used to see you off with all your bundles for a holiday. I am always hoping those days will come again soon & that neither of you, will be much altered. I expected your mother & dad to spend the weekend with us last Sat, because John was home, but your mother postponed it. We were so disappointed, & so was John. I had told him they were coming. They seem very well, both of them, which I am sure you will be glad to know but I wish they were back here. I [underlined] do [/underlined] miss them so much, but they love being where
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter to Douglas Hudson
Description
An account of the resource
From W A Clayton writes that he is in their thoughts and that has little news as does not get out much and is concerned about what writing about things they should not. Sends Christmas greetings and hopes he will get home soon. Hopes he is fit and time is occupied and that there will be better times in future.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
W A Clayton
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11-23
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Algeria
Algeria--Laghouat (Province)
Great Britain
England--Manchester
North Africa
England--Lancashire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page handwritten letter and envelope
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EClaytonWAHudsonJD411123
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
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
Jan Morgan
prisoner of war
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/886/22454/EClaytonWAHudsonJD411204.2.pdf
0d9e2750d2e23f2c85a11c0a947c3b90
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
Prisoners of War Camp
[airmail stamp]
{postmark]
[postage stamps]
Sgt, J.D. Hudson
755052
Interned British Airman
Camp Militaire
[deleted] Aumale [/deleted] Laghouat
Algerie
Afrique - Du – Nord
[page break]
4-12-41
Mrs Clayton
13 Rectory Road
Crumpsall
Manchester
{page break]
13 Rectory Road
Crumpsall
Manchester
My Dear Douglas
I have been a very long time writing you again, but one reason is that after your change of address, I simply could [underlined] not [/underlined] get it. Every time I saw your mother, I came away having again forgotten to jot it down we are such talkers you know, & the time goes so quickly. Then I asked John, but [underlined] he [/underlined] either forgot or missed somehow. Still my dear letters may be infrequent but it makes no difference to our thoughts of you. We are with you all the time, hoping you are well & getting [underlined] some [/underlined] benefit from your life out there, with some enjoyment too, to help pass the time. No doubt your days are a little mixed but if you have occupation (mostly agreeable I hope) you can then look forward to the happy day when you come home again & [underlined] what [/underlined] a day that will be!!!! You may be sure we are all looking forward, as much as yourself. Are you able to
[page break]
take up any kind of study. That would help tremendously now & might be an asset in the future. Besides taking it at your leisure, is so different from being obliged to swat for just a certain time on a subject. Well dear my letter seems to getting rather dull. John was home for 48 hours last week. How I wish you could have been here too. He is still at Harrogate as you will know from his last letter, not quite so happy as he was but well & still uncomplaining. We are all making the best of things & thankful to be so well cared for. How grateful all the nation ought to be. giving up things is nothing compared to our gratitude for all you boys. You are very wonderful & I hope the future will repay you for all your present trials. I went to lunch with your Mother & Father yesterday, & [underlined] at last [/underlined] got your address, they are both looking very well & are [underlined] so [/underlined] happy at Nelson. Certainly it is a lovely spot & the view is lovely too. You may be sure the garden is also very beautiful
[page break]
your two people certainly have the gift of making the earth yield what they want, & that of the best. It must be to match their kind natures. I am hoping to have them both here for a weekend, it is too far for a day trip now the days are shortening. I am always so interested to hear of your doings, so far as we are allowed of course, but I [underlined] do [/underlined] try & visualise a bit what your days are like, tho’ of course I shan’t be anywhere near the truth, with knowing your [indecipherable word] on your [indecipherable word]. We have been blessed with a quiet summer, & it has been very beautiful. So sorry if is not always summer, tho’ we should soon grumble at that no doubt. Your mother will tell you that your grandfather had paid them a visit of a fortnight & in spite of misgivings on both sides, had a very happy visit. Am sorry dear, I have so little interesting news
[page break]
for you, but I don’t see many people, & rarely go out. Your mother is beating me at that now. You know how she used to stay in such a lot, not even travels to the trades people. [underlined] now [/underlined] she goes out every day, & walks & walks. I know you will be pleased about that, one reason is a good thing, showing her feet are better, really she takes the hills marvellously & it is hilly I can tell you, so that is a great thing & [underlined] I [/underlined] am glad too. I keep hoping you boys will pick up the threads you had to let down when you joined up, & that life will be as happy for you both as then. In the meantime, patience & all the best wishes & good luck to you all & a great looking forward to seeing you again before very long. Mr Clayton joins me in love and all kind thoughts to you, so for a little while goodbye.
Yours affect. M A Clayton
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter to Douglas Hudson
Description
An account of the resource
From W A Clayton apologising for not writing and giving reasons. Hopes he is well and getting some enjoyment from life and that he will be home soon. Catches up with news about someone in the air force and other news of family and acquaintances.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
W A Clayton
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-12-04
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four page handwritten letter and envelope
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EClaytonWAHudsonJD411204
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.
Algeria
Algeria--Laghouat (Province)
Great Britain
England--Manchester
North Africa
England--Lancashire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-12
1941-11
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
Jan Morgan
prisoner of war
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1433/44668/BYatesRPYatesRPv1.1.pdf
893603c8b8a05658e79498035ad29c2c
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
Yates, Richard
R P Yates
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
2015-08-18
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
Yates, RP
Description
An account of the resource
One item. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Richard "Dick" Yates (Royal Air Force) and contains his memoir. He flew operations as a wireless operator/ air gunner with 35 Squadron and became a prisoner of war
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by R P Yates and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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
My Wartime Memories by Richard Yates
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard Yates
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Bedfordshire
England--Wiltshire
France
France--Brest
Germany
Germany--Hamburg
France--Boulogne-Billancourt
Germany--Essen
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
France--Lorient
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. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
86 printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BYatesRPYatesRPv1
Description
An account of the resource
Richard 'Dick' Yates was a wireless operator/air gunner on 35 Squadron flying Halifax. He was shot down and became a prisoner of war. Dick did his basic training at Blackpool. While at Cranwell for wireless training he flew in DH 86 and Valentia.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-10-01
1941-02
1941-04
1941-06
1941-08
1941-08-16
1941-11
1941-11-24
1941-11-30
1942-01-06
1942-02
1942-03-09
1942-03-13
1942-05-08
1942-06-08
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.
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
19 OTU
35 Squadron
Air Observers School
aircrew
bale out
bombing of Cologne (30/31 May 1942)
Dominie
Dulag Luft
forced landing
Gneisenau
Halifax
Halifax Mk 1
Halifax Mk 2
love and romance
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
Operational Training Unit
prisoner of war
Proctor
RAF Cardington
RAF Cranwell
RAF Jurby
RAF Kinloss
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF Wyton
RAF Yatesbury
recruitment
Scharnhorst
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 6
the long march
training
Whitley
wireless operator / air gunner
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/161/2031/PCushwayAW16010008.2.jpg
4a6a75ddead852a1e418ceee7633d9e1
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
Cushway, Arthur. Album
Arthur Cushway's photograph album
Description
An account of the resource
28 items. A photograph album with multiple pages. It contains pictures taken during Arthur Cushway's aircrew training in Great Britain and in Canada. Subjects include airmen and aircraft and sightseeing in Great Britain and North America, including Niagara Falls, Ontario, New York and Reykjavik in Iceland.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Rosemary Lester and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-07-04
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PCushwayAW1601
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
Port Albert, Ontario
All set, Shooting the Sun and Compass Swinging
Description
An account of the resource
Three photographs from a scrapbook. The first is an airman in a Sidcot suit carrying a bag and and a box. Captioned 'All set, with bag of instruments and sextant. November 1941'. The second is of six man sat on wooden chairs using sextants. They are positioned the 'wrong way' in order to rest their arms on the back of the chairs. Captioned 'Shooting the sun. Truscott, Myers, McCreavey, Philps, Hyde & Trott'. The third is an airman observing using a compass on a low tripod. He is crouched down. Captioned 'Compass Swinging Hyde does his stuff.'
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PCushwayAW16010008
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. Training Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Ontario
Ontario--Port Albert
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
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.
1941-11
aircrew
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/87/846/PWoolgarRLA1603.2.jpg
f182684deef68809fda699f76c7076c1
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/87/846/PWoolgarRLA1604.2.jpg
06ead15545e3f37d5193bf896ae4c6eb
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
Woolgar, Reg
Reg Woolgar
R L A Woolgar
Jimmy Woolgar
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Description
An account of the resource
<a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/items/browse?collection=87">17 items</a>. The collection consists of an oral history <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/2148">interview</a> with air gunner Reginald Woolgar DFC (139398 Royal Air Force), correspondence to his father about him being missing in action and subsequently rescued from the sea, his <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/2205">log book</a>, <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/854">service and release book</a> and nine photographs.<br /><br /> He flew operations as an air gunner with 49 and 192 Squadrons.<br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Reg Woolgar and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle. <br /><br />This collection also contains items concerning John William Wilkinson. Additional information on John William Wilkinson is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/125319/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Woolgar, R
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-06-04
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.
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Please scroll down to see all X items in this collection.
Reg ‘Jimmy’ Woolgar was born and schooled in Hove. He began working life as a valuations assistant and was training to be a surveyor, which was interrupted when, in December 1939, he joined the RAF. Although he had aspirations to become a pilot, he trained as a wireless operator/air gunner instead. His wireless operator training was carried out at the wireless training school, RAF Yatesbury. https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/87/849/PWoolgarRLA1609.2.jpg His air gunnery training on Fairy Battle aircraft was conducted at RAF West Freugh. On 15 November 1940 he was promoted to sergeant and posted to No 10 OTU at RAF Upper Heyford. https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/87/845/PWoolgarRLA1601.2.jpg Initially flying Anson aircraft and then Hampdens with C Flight, he had his first ‘Lucky Jim’ moment, on 6 February 1941, when his Hampden aircraft was forced to crash land in a field near Cottesmore, in Lincolnshire. The aircraft was written off, but he and the pilot survived with minor injuries. At the end of operational training, instead of going directly onto operasations, he spent the next 5 months as a screen operator instructor. Eventually, on 1 September 1941, he was posted to 49 Squadron, Hampdens, at RAF Scampton https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/852 where his very first operational trip (described as a baptism of fire) was to Berlin. With headwinds going out and coming back, and nil visibility, it was likely the crew would have to bail out. Fortunately, the skipper found a break in the clouds and the aircraft landed wheels down in a field near Louth. The aircraft had to be recovered back to base, transported by road, on a low loader. On another occasion, on a mine laying operation to Oslo Fjord, his aircraft was peppered with anti-aircraft fire, it returned to base with 36 bullet holes in the fuselage and mainplane. A bullet had also passed through the upright of his gun sight while he was looking through it, whilst another tore through his flying suit. The nickname ‘Lucky Jim’ was beginning to stick.
In February 1942, on an operation to Manheim, the port engine, hit by flak, cut dead. Despite jettisoning all superfluous weight, which unfortunately included all the navigation equipment, the aircraft rapidly lost height, and the pilot ditched the aircraft in the English Channel. Whilst the crew had struggled to keep the aircraft airborne, (on a single engine), it had steered on a massive curve and unbeknown to them was headed down the English Channel, before it ditched. The crew scrambled out onto the wing and managed to inflate the dingy, then had to cut the cord attaching the dingy to the aircraft using a pair of nail scissors, moments before it sunk. In the water for hours, the crew thought they were drifting near the Yorkshire coast, but were rescued by a motor anti-submarine boat, much to their surprise, near the Isle of Wight.
Operational flying was intense, Reg would feel wound up before take-off and there was much apprehension on the way out to the target. Often, they flew through intense flak that was sometimes so close they could smell it. There was always a sense of sense of relief once they came away from the target. In between operations, each day was treated as it came along with many off-duty hours spent socialising in the local hostelries https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/853
After his first operational tour (he completed two) he was commissioned and became gunnery leader with 192 Squadron in 100 Group.
After the war ended, he signed on for an extra two years and was posted to Palestine as an air movements staff officer. Luck was again on his side when, one day, he was on his way to an Air Priorities Board Meeting at the King David Hotel when the hotel was bombed, resulting in many army and civilian casualties.
After a short tour in Kenya, as Senior Movements Staff Officer, he returned to Palestine flying with 38 Squadron until August 1947. In his flying career he amassed over 1000 flying hours. For services to his country Reg was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/858
He was released from the RAF in September 1947. Initially employed as an assistant valuations officer, he studied to become a Chartered Surveyor and secured a job as a senior valuer with the City of London. He later became the planning valuer of the city. After 14 years he was made a partner at the firm St Quintin Son and Stanley. Reg retired in 1971.
08 December 1939: Joined RAF as a wireless operator/air gunner
28 August 1940: 145, 3 Wing, RAF Yatesbury - Wireless Operator training
29 October 1940 - 15 November 1940: RAF West Freugh, No 4 Bombing and Gunnery School, flying Battle aircraft
November 1940: Promoted to Sergeant
15 November 1940 - 20 August 1941: RAF Upper Heyford, No 10 Operational Training Unit flying Anson and Hampden aircraft
02 September 1941 - 24 March 1942: RAF Scampton, 49 Squadron, flying Hampden aircraft
28 April 1942 - 24 June 1942: 1485 Target Towing and Gunnery Flight flying Whitley and Wellington aircraft
02 July 1942 – 3 July 1942: RAF Manby, Air Gunnery Instructor Course
4 July – 10 July 1942: RAF Scampton, Air Gunnery Instructor flying Manchester and Oxford aircraft
25 July 1942 – 10 August 1942: RAF Wigsley, Air Gunnery Instructor flying Lancaster aircraft
3 October – 27 October 1942: RAF Sutton Bridge flying Wellington and Hampden aircraft
28 October 1942: RAF Sutton Bridge, Gunnery Leader Course
End of 1942: Awarded RAF Commission
09 Nov 1942 – 18 March 1943: RAF Fulbeck flying Manchester aircraft
14 May 1943 – 11 June 1944: RAF Sutton Bridge flying Wellington aircraft
20 June 1944 – 27 July 1945 RAF Foulsham, 192 Squadron flying Halifax and Wellington aircraft
29 April 1946 – 30 August 1946: Palestine, Air Movements Staff Officer
01 September 1946 – 21 January 1947: Kenya, Senior Movements Staff Officer
30 January1947 – 10 June 1947: Ein Shemer, Palestine, 38 Squadron flying Lancaster aircraft
13 July 1947 139398 Flt Lt RLA Woolgar released from Service.
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
Reg Woolgar
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Description
An account of the resource
Head and shoulder portrait of Sergeant Reg Woolgar in side cap with air gunner brevet, smiling looking at the camera. On the reverse 'Nov 1941 All my love darling, Yours ever, Reg.'
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWoolgarRLA1603
PWoolgarRLA1604
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
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
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.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
air gunner
aircrew
love and romance
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1627/25330/BThickettPSaundersEJv10010.1.jpg
79474b5bf6a522d9e1456223a7e2408f
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
Saunders, Ernest John. Album 1
Description
An account of the resource
A history of Sam Saunders RAF experiences complete with a biography. It is presented in an album.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Penny Thicket
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-02-13
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
Saunders, EJ
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
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So Sam came back to England, a dangerous crossing through the North Atlantic. There would have been a convoy of allied boats, the danger being German submarines. He must have had some leave and then started further training and tests at Harwell. In the logbook, his successful Night Vision Test was on 11th October 1941.
He was in Number 15 Operational Training Unit (OTU) from the 7th of November 1941 until the 25th of January 1942, he flew in Ansons and Wellingtons. These were exercises as an Air Observer and Gunner and were all cross country in the UK. At this point his total flying hours were 146.40 by day and 39.05 hours by night, none so far on ‘active’ service. This is part of the squadron he was with, perhaps at Harwell.
[page break]
In February 1942 he went to 38 Squadron, as a navigator flying across the Mediterranean in Wellingtons. He talked about being attacked by German aircraft in Malta; the aeroplanes being delivered by his squadron were destroyed on the airfield. He had to wait for more aircraft to arrive and their supplies were running out. It’s for this reason that he hated corned beef. The logbook shows that in fact this was only his 5th night with the Squadron, he flew into the eye of the storm, at night, to an island without supplies, under attack and now without hope of support. This was between the 16th February and the 4th of March 1942.
Four Wellington aircraft from a delivery flight for Malta were lost overnight. The four were among a group of thirteen which left Gibraltar in darkness heading for Luga. Italian news had reported one Wellington shot down in flames by fighters from Castel Vetrano airfield, with a crew of six taken prisoner. A second Wellington was also reported forced down at Modica by German fighters. The aircraft was undamaged but its crew of seven were captured. A third was shot down into the sea by JU88 aircraft just 45 kilometres from Malta. F/O J Willis-Richards was rescued by an Italian destroyer; the remainder of the crew did not survive. The fourth Wellington crashed on landing at Luga airfield the, the [sic] aircraft was a write-off but the crew escaped uninjured.
This is from a Malta war diary; “Enemy bombers launch yet another series of raids on Malta’s defences, this time concentrating on Luga. 36 High Explosive bombs are dropped on the airfield, including two massive 1000kg ‘Herman’ bombs. Yet again the Island’s infantry battalions are hard at work filling in craters to keep the aerodrome serviceable”.
Later in the month there were Wellington flights from Portreath in Cornwall to Gibraltar, Luxor, Shallufa, Heliopolois and Mersa Matruh, as Navigator. Total flying time so far 219 hours by day and 83 by night.
[photograph of an air-to-air view of a Wellington]
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
Sam Saunder's UK Training and Malta
Description
An account of the resource
A description of Sam's further training in the UK then operations at Malta.
Photo 1 is an informal group photograph with airmen, two WAAFs and three dummies.
Photo 2 is an air-to-air view of a Wellington.
Creator
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Penny Thickett
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2013-10
Format
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Two printed sheets with two photographs
Language
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eng
Type
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Photograph
Text
Text. Personal research
Identifier
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BThickettPSaundersEJv10010
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Malta
Gibraltar
Great Britain
England--Cornwall (County)
Egypt--Luxor
Egypt--Cairo
Egypt
North Africa
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
1941-12
1942-01
1942-02
1942-03
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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
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Alan Pinchbeck
15 OTU
38 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Anson
ground personnel
Ju 88
navigator
Operational Training Unit
prisoner of war
RAF Harwell
training
Wellington
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1339/20869/SValentineJRM1251404v10009.2.jpg
4115c6f93162138e17a09f86e23acd30
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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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
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Transcription
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THE TIMES SATURDAY JUNE 20 1942
V.C. FOR COLONEL KEYES
COMMANDO RAID ON ROMMEL’S H.Q.
POSTHUMOUS AWARD
The posthumous award of the Victoria Cross to Lieutenant-Colonel G.C.T. Keyes, aged 24, the eldest son of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes, who lost his life during a daring Commando raid on General Rommel’s headquarters in Libya in November, 1941, is announced in the [italics] London Gazette [/italics].
The official announcement says that the award, which has been approved by the King, is made to:-
Major (temp. Lieutenant-Colonel) GEOFFREY CHARLES TASKER KEYES, M.C., The Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons), R.A.C.
Lieutenant-Colonel Keyes (the citation states) commanded a detachment of a force which landed some 250 miles behind the enemy lines to attack headquarters, base installations, and communications.
From the outset Colonel Keyes deliberately selected for himself the command of the detachment detailed to attack what was undoubtedly the most hazardous of these objectives – the residence and headquarters of the General Officer Commanding the German forces in North Africa. This attack, even if initially successful, meant almost certain death for those who took part in it.
He led his detachment without guides, in dangerous and precipitous country, and in pitch darkness, and maintained by his stolid determination and powers of leadership the moral of the detachment. He then found himself forced to modify his original plans in the light of fresh information elicited from neighbouring Arabs, and was left with only one officer and an n.c.o. with whom to break into General Rommel’s residence and deal with the guards and headquarters staff.
UP TO FRONT DOOR
At zero hour on the night of November 17-18, 1941, having dispatched the covering party to block the approaches to the house, he himself with the two others crawled forward past the guards, through the surrounding fence, and so up to the house itself. Without hesitation, he boldly led his party up to the front door, beat on the door and demanded entrance.
Unfortunately, when the door was opened, it was found impossible to overcome the sentry silently, and it was necessary to shoot him. The noise of the shot naturally aroused the inmates of the house, and Colonel Keyes, appreciating that speed was now of the utmost importance, posted the n.c.o. at the foot of the stairs to prevent interference from the floor above.
Colonel Keyes, who instinctively took the lead, emptied his revolver with great success into the first room and was followed by the other officer, who threw a grenade. Colonel Keyes, with great daring, then entered the second room on the ground floor, but was shot almost immediately on flinging open the door, and fell back into the passage mortally wounded. On being carried outside by his companions he died within a few minutes.
By his fearless disregard of the great dangers which he ran and of which he was fully aware, and by his magnificent leadership and outstanding gallantry, Lieutenant-Colonel Keyes set an example of supreme self-sacrifice and devotion to duty.
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
V C for Colonel Keyes
Description
An account of the resource
Commando raid on Rommel's HQ, Posthumous award. Account of award of Victoria Cross to Lieutenant Colonel G C T Keyes for his part of a raid on Rommel's headquarters in Libya in November 1941 and an account of the action.
Publisher
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The Times
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-06-20
Format
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One newspaper cutting 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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SValentineJRM1251404v10009
Coverage
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British Army
Wehrmacht
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Libya
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-11
1942-06
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.
Contributor
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David Bloomfield
Steve Baldwin
Requires
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Workflow A completed
Victoria Cross