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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2433/44159/MSaundersJWG1324708-180307-04.1.pdf
c412fbe271bc6a4e2cff141b11a2b6f3
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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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Saunders, John Walter Gifford
Description
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69 items. The collection concerns Sergeant John Walter Gifford Saunders (1922 - 2003, 1324708 Royal Air Force) and contains correspondence, documents, and photographs. He flew one operation as an air gunner with 44 Squadron and became a prisoner of war, during which time he befriended Iga, a polish airwoman in an adjacent camp with whom he corresponded. This collection includes <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2565">a folder with a diary and photos of his training in Africa</a>. <br /><br />The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Clive Saunders and catalogued by Lynn Corrigan, with additional contributions by Ella Keogh and Lucy Liu (TOU9156, AA 22-23).
Date
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2018-03-07
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
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Saunders, JWG
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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Going on Leave
[drawing]
ISSUED BY AIR MINISTRY (DAFW) FOR EX-PRISONERS-OF-WAR
[page break]
CONTENTS
So This is Britain . . . Chapter I
Reception Centre . . . Chapter II
On reporting, what happens?
Rations . . . Chapter III
Food
Sweets and tobacco
Clothing . . . Chapter IV
Useful hint for officers
Kit and clothing claims
Claim for expenses incurred when escaping
Coupons – Petrol . . . Chapter V
Pay, Allowances and Accounts . . . Chapter VI
Officers
Airmen
Identity Card – Form 1250R Chapter VII
On Leave at Home . . . Chapter VIII
Food
Shopping
Fuel
On Leave in Town . . . IX
London
Outside London
On Leave in Town (contd.) Chapter IX
London accommodation
Dominion & Allied Services Hospitality Scheme
Hospitality for Empire P.O.W.s
Cheap travel facility
Baggage and kit storage facilities
On a Station Again – Is it the Same? . . . Chapter X
Manning position
Leave
What about station welfare?
Legal Aid
Are They All Right at Home? . . . XI
R.A.F. Benevolent Fund
SSAFA
Soldiers', Sailors', and Airmen's Help Society
Citizens' Advice Bureaux
County Welfare Organisation
Conclusion . . . XII
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I. SO THIS IS BRITAIN
At last the great day has arrived. The day that brings the complete end of Kriegiedom. How often in the top or bottom bunk of some miserable Kriegie camp have you lived this day in your imagination! How often have you discussed it with your fellow Kriegies! Each one of you has his own particular picture, and the object of this pamphlet is to give you the necessary gen.
Is Britain the same old country? – London the same old city? No – you won't find it the same.
A great many changes have taken place in these years of war. You and your people at home are older than when you last saw them, they too have had a good deal to tackle – remember this, it will help you to find your bearings. And life generally isn't going to be quite what you have pictured. So tell yourself there have been many changes in home life and in the nation's life. You will need to realise and remember that.
People stand in queues waiting for their turn to be served with rations of meat or groceries. The trains are usually packed, because many have been taken off owing to war traffic. It all needs good humour – so get it ready and don't let your own war weariness get you or your friends down.
You have done your share in the first fighting stage of the world crisis; nevertheless, there is still the colossal task of defeating the Japanese, for which many will be needed. Others will be released to civilian life to take their part in clearing up the chaos and destruction of war in this country. But, whichever you are called upon to do, you must now fit yourself physically and spiritually to play your full part.
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II. RECEPTION CENTRE
Don't panic if you are detained at the Reception Centre for three or four days. Remember that those annoying and often frustrating regulations are necessary to help get you home quickly.
You will be granted at least 28 days' leave as soon as you have said "How do" to the M.O. and something not nearly so polite to the numerous forms you will have to fill in. Incidentally, there will be any number of efficient types wanting to help – don't hesitate to make use of them. They're there for that. There will also be a number of Welfare Officers ready to help with your difficulties and worries. Don't be shy about asking for assistance. They will try and get you the answers and will deal with your problems sympathetically and in strict confidence.
On Reporting, What Happens?
The procedure is almost the same for all ranks.
You will have to fill up the usual forms. The efficient types will tell you where to go, see that you get the right forms and, if you are in doubt, tell you how to fill them in correctly.
No doubt your first anxiety after arrival at the Reception Centre will be to know something about your future. But nothing can be decided until the completion of your repatriation leave, when you will return to the Reception Centre for a Medical Board, which will determine your medical category.
III. RATIONS
Food
You will be given an emergency ration card to enable you to purchase rations at double the civilian scale to cover the period of your initial leave if not more than 42 days.
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Don't lose it. If you go home without it you won't be popular. If you go to a hotel or a club, they will let you have your meals there for four days without asking for your ration card. But if you stay for five or more consecutive nights you must surrender the food coupons for a minimum of a week's rations whether you stay the seven days or not.
Ration cards are not required for casual meals in hotels and restaurants, and the cost of any meal is limited to 5/- excluding coffee. But remember that in many of the more expensive places there may be a house charge, a cover charge, a band charge or a cloakroom charge, and you would do well to check up on this before you sit down at your table.
If you go to Eire on leave you will not be issued with ration cards; instead you should go to the nearest Garda (Police) station in Eire, where you will be given a temporary Eire Government ration card to cover your leave period.
Sweets and tobacco
Chocolate and sweets are rationed through NAAFI to Service personnel, so you can't buy at a confectioner's. You have to buy chocolate and sweets through the Officer's Mess, Sergeants' Mess or Service Institute – the NAAFI receives an allocation from the Ministry of Food sufficient to ensure that you get not less than the weekly amount of the civilian ration (3 oz.).
You will obtain your weekly allowance of privilege price cigarettes in the same way. This is at present about 40 cigarettes per man per week, or tobacco on the scale of 1 oz. equalling 30 cigarettes. About half of the allowance of cigarettes will consist of the cheaper varieties. The privilege prices are 1/6 for 20 Players, Gold Flake, and
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others of similar standard, and 1/1 for 20 Woodbines and other cheap varieties. The normal prices of these cigarettes are 2/4 and 1/6 respectively. You will find the quality a little inferior to that of those you received in Red Cross parcels. As you probably know, most Red Cross issues were pre-war quality and duty-free.
If, before you go on leave, you have not been able to obtain your allowance of chocolate and sweets and privilege price cigarettes, then you will be issued with a Form 578E which is a special permit valid at any NAAFI Institute or messing store throughout the country. Full instructions as to the use of this form are printed on it.
IV. CLOTHING
Officers will be issued with clothing coupons at the Reception Centre. They will be able to buy war service dress at that unit provided they surrender coupons. You can get all the gen on this from the Equipment Section.
Airmen will be issued with all the necessary articles to kit them up to scale. As the country has to be severely rationed for clothes, airmen are not issued with coupons for civilian clothes.
The reason that officers receive coupons while airmen do not is because an officer is responsible for purchasing his own kit and all articles of personal wear, for which he is obliged to surrender coupons to any source of supply whether it be the trade or Equipment Stores. Airmen's requirements are covered by free issue, but this does not include handkerchiefs, which the airman can buy without coupons on the certificate of his C.O. at the Reception Centre or, at a later date, from the C.O. of his unit or station.
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At the Reception Centre officers will be issued with coupons, which they should treat with respect. The standard annual allowance for maintenance is 88 coupons. If in the course of a year, which begins on 1st June, an officer buys two pairs of shoes (9 coupons each), half-a-dozen shirts (5 each) with a couple of collars to match (one each), plus half-a-dozen pairs of socks (2 each), and one pair of pyjamas (8 coupons), he has spent 80 of his year's 88 yearly allotment. And one day that officer will need a new uniform (26 coupons) and odd things like ties, handkerchiefs, gloves, and underwear.
Useful hint for officers
A.M.O. A.205/44 has given officers the privilege of buying certain clothing through Equipment Stores. You don't save any coupons that way, but you do save money, and in most cases the quality of the goods is much better than you could get in the shops for the same money. Underwear especially is worth buying – also towels and shoes (warrant officer pattern). You will probably be well advised to defer using your clothing coupons until you have settled down on your new station, and have had a word with the Equipment Officer. It is possible to purchase second-hand uniforms from some tailors; this may save about 50 per cent. cash but it does not save coupons. If you are thinking about buying a new uniform ask the efficient types about the A.M.O.s which deal with the control of prices.
Kit and clothing claims
The Accountant Officer at the Reception Centre will assist in preparing any claims you have for compensation for the loss of kit, and will explain the position about any deductions for the cost of clothing which, if you are an
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officer, may have been issued to you. He will also advise you how you can claim for coupons on form CRSC1a for kit lost by causes other than enemy action (i.e., loss by civil damage, theft or in transit).
Claim for expenses incurred when escaping
If you have a claim for reimbursement of expenses incurred in escaping or attempting to escape from captivity, you should write, giving details and dates and the names of persons who can substantiate your claims, to the Accountant Officer at the Reception Centre.
V. COUPONS – PETROL
Every P.O.W. is entitled to 300 miles of motoring as an active service recreational allowance whilst on leave. You may purchase petrol for this purpose if you or your wife possesses a motor car or motor cycle which is or has been licensed in either of your names.
Petrol coupons for this purpose may be obtained from any R.A.F. station, Combined Recruiting Centre, County Territorial Association Office or Territorial Association Social Welfare Officer, on production of the registration book for the vehicle and Form 780 or 295 or its equivalent endorsed "Leave following active service overseas". In the absence of this endorsement no petrol will be issued and you should therefore ensure that your papers are properly marked.
Should the applicant's car not be currently licenced, a motor vehicle leave permit for a period not exceeding 29 days may be obtained from the same place as petrol coupons (except Combined Recruiting Centres) on production of the registration book showing ownership and certificate of insurance or cover note.
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These privileges are available to all ranks and all branches of the Service who are returning from a theatre of war.
After you have finished your leave and have been posted to a unit, ask your Adjutant for information about other motoring privileges you may become entitled to. Check up on A.M.O. A1067/43.
VI. PAY, ALLOWANCES AND ACCOUNTS
Officers
Immediately on arrival at the Reception Centre you will be able to draw £10 advance of pay from the Senior Accountant Officer. Further advances of pay will be made only in exceptional circumstances, e.g., if you are not in receipt of Agent's Pay. You are therefore advised to get in touch with your bankers at the earliest opportunity in order that funds may be drawn from your banking account.
If you were commissioned during captivity you should ask the Accountant Officer as soon as possible for the necessary form to enable you to be issued with pay through the R.A.F. Agents.
Airmen
Immediately on arrival you will be able to draw £2. In addition, the following advances will be made before departure on leave –
Warrant Officer – £10
F/Sgts. and Sgts. – £8
Corporals and L.A.C.s – £7
Other airmen – £6
Every endeavour will be made by the Accountant Officer to balance your pay account and issue to you as early as possible the credit balance in your account.
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VII. IDENTITY CARD – FORM 1250R
Service identity cards, Forms 1250R, complete with photograph, will be issued at the Reception Centre.
You must take every precaution against the loss, theft, or damage of your 1250R. Any card lost may assist the enemy and, in any case, its loss will compromise and weaken the Service identification system generally. So keep your Form 1250R in a safe pocket.
Besides assisting security, your Form 1250R may be useful to you in many ways whilst on leave. You will certainly get into a spot of bother if you can't produce it in the U.K. when challenged.
If you are unlucky enough to lose your 1250R, report the loss at once to the nearest R.A.F. D.A.P.M. or R.A.F. station, and also to the Civil Police in the neighbourhood where you think it was lost. If you are travelling to Eire, you must take extra-special care of your F.1250R, but if, despite precautions you put up the major black of losing it in Eire, report the loss immediately in writing to the Air Attache, Office of the U.K. Representive [sic] to Eire, 50 Upper Mount Street, Dublin, and also in writing to The Under Secretary of State, Air Ministry (P.M.2.), Kingsway, London, W.C.2.
VIII. ON LEAVE AT HOME
Food
You will be astonished that after five years of war there is still such a variety of food. You will wonder what all the talk was about in Kriegiedom of the spartan life people were living in the old country. In administering supplies and controlling prices, the Ministry of Food has been so efficient that, so far, hardship in the real sense and as one thought of it in the early days, simply does not exist. There
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are shortages, of course, chiefly those of imported food-stuffs, but you will be surprised how successfully your womenfolk have managed to overcome the difficulties.
There are one or two points you should watch. Don't help yourself to tea, sugar, butter and jam or marmalade as if you still lived in the piping days of peace. These are housewife's headaches. (Incidentally, it is extremely difficult to buy pipes now.)
In the same way, your ration card gives you the right every now and then to an egg ("shell egg" as we call it now), but the local supply position may be good enough to provide only regular customers with eggs, and you, holding an emergency ration card, may be out of luck. It will be best for you to hand the card over to the lady of the house and leave it to her, as she will know how to get the best value out of it.
Shopping
Shopping conditions vary a lot from locality to locality but, generally speaking, the housewife spends much more of her day than she likes standing in queues. The queues are mostly but not entirely caused by those in search of non-rationed goods. The ration card system itself works really well, and if you keep in touch with your suppliers you can always get your fair share of what is available. Queues for rationed and non-rationed goods are almost inevitable because many of the former shop assistants are doing war work, and clipping ration books takes time. It is a well-worn joke nowadays that the customer, not the shop, is always wrong.
Fuel
You will probably find the house a bit cold. The fuel ration has been gradually decreased since the war began,
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and conditions have become worse, not better, since you were last home. Allowance for the period from March to May, 1945, for example, was only 5 cwt. per month – and that is not much if the kitchen stove is antiquated and uneconomical, or the rooms are high and draughty. You can no longer expect a piping hot bath morning and evening, and everyone is asked to restrict the amount of water used to 5 inches. You will be doing less than your duty if you poke the fire when you need not, or complain about the cold.
IX. ON LEAVE IN TOWN
Whether you take your leave in London or go there only for a day, you should read the Air Ministry booklet "Going to London?" which will be available for you to consult at the Reception Centre. A knowledge of its contents may save you much expense and trouble.
London to-day is not cheap. The minimum bus fare is 1 1/2d. A stall at a theatre costs from 12/6 to 18/-. Bed and breakfast at a good class hotel costs up to £1, and 8/6 to 10/6 is the normal charge at hotels which before the war charged 5/- and 6/- bed and breakfast.
You can still obtain a good low-priced meal at the popular chain restaurants, but you can do infinitely better at one of the many Service clubs and canteens which have been started within the last two or three years. Bed and breakfast charges at these clubs for officers range between 4/- and 8/-, and charges to airmen vary between 1/8 and 5/-.
The booklet "Going to London?" gives you the whole story. You will be grateful to note the facilities for recreation and entertainment that are available – free to Service personnel who find themselves in London. For instance,
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there's an Anglo-American Stage Door Canteen at 201, Piccadilly, and Lord Nuffield has opened a Nuffield recreational Centre at 15 Wardour Street, both of which are for non-commissioned ranks. The voluntary organisations are doing wonders, and the women and girls who run the clubs and hostels do all they can to help you.
Outside London
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Nottingham, Birmingham, and other big cities and towns, though not as fully equipped as London, all have hostels, canteens and recreational centres. All you have to do in any town or even village is to get in touch with any of the following organisations, who will give information –
Citizens' Advice Bureau – situated usually in the centre of the town;
W.V.S. – Women's Voluntary Services;
Y.M.C.A.;
Salvation Army.
If you can't find any of these (which is most unlikely) ask a policeman or enquire at the Post Office. If you can't find them (which is even more unlikely) ask the R.T.O.
NAAFI have opened super-clubs for non-commissioned ranks in a number of towns including Southampton, Leeds, Manchester, Norwich, Nottingham, Darlington, Plymouth, and Sleaford.
London Accommodation
Arrangements have been made to provide accommodation at several hotels for the use of officers on permanent or temporary duty or on leave in London. The scheme is restricted to those of or below squadron leader rank.
The wives (Service or civilian) of officers are eligible to use these hotels with their husbands, and the husband
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(Service or civilian) of W.A.A.F. officers are similarly eligible. You will find further information on page 11 of the booklet "Going to London?" But remember that London is full of people and these and all other hotels are always booked up well in advance.
If you are in London and can't find a bed, don't wander around but go (if you're an officer) to the Wings Club or the King George's Club. If you're an airman go to an R.T.O. or Services information bureau and ask for the address of the nearest hostel. If the place you go to hasn't got a bed they will do their best to find one for you.
Dominion and Allied Services Hospitality Scheme
Under arrangements made by Lady Frances Ryder, C.B.E., and Miss Macdonald of the Isles, C.B.E., this scheme provides private hospitality and accommodation throughout the country to Dominion, Colonial, and Allied personnel. It is available to men and women of all ranks, and offers free hospitality and accommodation varying from a few hours to several days, in homes and private houses in London and in town and country districts.
Application should be made either by letter or a visit to 21B Cadogan Gardens, London, S.W.3 (Sloane 4647), open from 10.00 to 22.00 hours daily. Alternatively, Australian and New Zealand personnel may apply to Miss Browning, The Southern Cross, Arpley Street School, Arpley Street, Warrington, Lancashire; and Canadians to Mrs Richards, St. Catherine's Vicarage, Heathfield Road, Gloucester.
If this scheme applied to you and you're interested, call at any of the above addresses, if possible, and state your personal interests, preferences, and favourite pastimes, e.g., whether you wish to visit a farm, spend your time fishing, sight-seeing, etc.
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Hospitality for Empire P.O.W.s
Empire prisoners of war who, having come from camps on the Continent, are in Great Britain pending return to their homes overseas, may arrange for private hospitality on application to the Office for Hospitality for Empire Prisoners of War, Charles II Street, S.W.1. (Whitehall 6422). This office co-ordinates the work of the Empire Societies.
Cheap Travel Facility
London Transport offers to all ranks who are on leave or 48-hour pass a ticket for 1/- which entitles the purchaser to travel anywhere in London on any route between 10.30 hours and the last bus or train of the day. You must be in uniform and must produce an authorised leave form or pass or, if you are an officer, a Form 1250R.
These tickets may be bought at any main line railway station, Y.M.C.A., or Services information bureau, and at most hostels and clubs in London.
Baggage and Kit Storage Facilities
If, on arrival in London (or indeed any large town), you want to dump your kit somewhere, you can leave it in the care of the R.T.O. at one of the Service cloakrooms which have been set up at most main line railway stations where there is an R.T.O. and/or canteen. Usually kits may be stored free for up to 24 hours. Most of the larger hostels also have kit storage facilities and, in London, you can make use of the Pall Mall Safe Depository, 10 St. Albans Street, Haymarket, W.I. (Whitehall 4545), where, in addition to normal baggage, bicycles and flying kit may be stored for any period at a small charge.
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X. ON A STATION AGAIN. IS IT THE SAME?
You will probably find many strange differences in station life. The station will probably be dispersed over a wide area, and you may have long walks between sleeping and dining quarters, etc.
Manning Position
You may be surprised at the large number of W.A.A.F. now doing work which used to be done by R.A.F. The assistant adjutant is usually a W.A.A.F. officer, and some stations have a W.A.A.F adjutant as well. Messes are staffed almost entirely by airwomen and "serve yourself" is almost a general rule. Many aircraft are serviced by airwomen fitters and riggers, instruments are checked by airwomen in overalls or battledress. A.C.H.s are rarer than ever, the tradesmen often have to be employed on odd jobs. There days everyone has to lend a hand in Service life, just as they now have to do – only to a still greater extent – In civilian life.
Leave
Leave – unless suspended completely for operational reasons – is better organised and more regular. Except for aircrew personnel, the entitlement is seven days and one 48 hours' pass every quarter. To cut down travel you are encouraged to take your 48 at the same time as your 7 days' leave, so that you can usually have 9 days' leave every three months and, in addition, one whole day off a week. Aircrew have special entitlements of leave, but all leave is subject, of course, to that old tongue-twister, the exigencies of the Service.
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Free Warrants
Four free warrants to your leave address are granted each leave year, which now runs from 15th August. Concession tickets at reduced rates are available at most times (the exception being over public holidays such as Christmas and Easter), provided you produce your Form 1250R. The number of tickets issued at concession rates for wives and families is now restricted to four for every six-monthly period, but extra tickets can be obtained in cases of illness. The orderly room will give you the details.
Travel Restrictions
So far as possible, your day off each week is designed to give you an opportunity to visit the local town, do your shopping, meet your friends, and enjoy whatever recreational facilities there are going. For that reason, you are not intended to travel long distances from the station.
Fuel and light
It is a punishable offence to drive a Service vehicle a yard off its scheduled route. Service transport at Home is a very different thing from Service transport overseas.
Strict economy in lighting and fuel is rigidly enforced, and offices and barrack blocks are not heated until well into the autumn, unless the weather is exceptionally cold. Don't leave a room empty without turning off the light.
Station Food
You will be favourably surprised at the standard of messing. The same rations are issued to officers', sergeants', and airmen's messes, and the daily messing charge in officers' messes for extra is now usually about 9d. In consequence, officers and sergeants will find that mess
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bills for food are much smaller. On the other hand, they will find that quenching their thirst is a bit more expensive.
What about Station Welfare?
In 1941 the Directorate of Air Force Welfare was formed at the Air Ministry to be responsible for welfare throughout the R.A.F. and the W.A.A.F.
A Welfare Committee should exist at all stations, its function being to assist the C.O. to look after the welfare of all personnel at that station. Its three main objects are to eliminate private worries, to improve living conditions, and to provide recreation facilities.
If you have any private worries, domestic or otherwise, a member of the Welfare Committee will be able to help you, and your problem will be treated as confidential, of course. If you don't know whom to consult ask the officer i/c your section or flight or consult the poster "A.B.C. of Welfare" (Form 2746) which should be displayed in some conspicuous place.
Suggestions for the improvement of living conditions should be made to a member of the Welfare Committee, who will see they are impartially considered by the whole committee, even though it may not always be possible to carry them out.
Recreation is amply catered for at most stations. The problem is usually how to find the time to enjoy all the recreational activities available.
Increased educational facilities have been made available to all members of the R.A.F. If you want to study in your free time, consult your Station Education Officer who will advise you and make the necessary arrangements.
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Discussion groups are organised at most stations and provide opportunities for discussing current political and social problems. Most stations, too, have now added an Information Room to their amenities. There you can consult current Service and civilian publications and regulations, read the papers, look up the local bus services or cinema programmes, study the progress of the war on wall maps, and, in fact, "find the answer".
The "Royal Air Force Journal" is issued monthly to all stations, and should be read regularly as it contains a good deal of useful and interesting information. It is bright, entertaining, in great demand, and is issued on a basis of one copy to every 25 personnel. It is written and edited entirely by Service personnel and is, in fact, the R.A.F.s own magazine.
Legal Aid
The Free Legal Aid Scheme, which was started for the Army only, was extended to include the Royal Air Force in 1942. The scheme is operated through a number of regional legal aid sections at Home and overseas, each staffed by legally qualified personnel drawn from both Services, with the assistance of voluntary Unit Legal Advisers whom you can consult.
The purpose of the scheme is to secure to any airman or airwoman of the rank of sergeant or below the advice and help which, if he were a civilian, he might hope to get from a poor man's lawyer or similar voluntary association.
Free legal representation can be obtained under the scheme only in the High Court (including the Divorce Court). Cases involving Service discipline and criminal law cannot be dealt with under the scheme. Legal Aid
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Sections and Unit Legal Advisers may and do give advice in County Court and non-criminal Police Court matters, prepare the cases, as far as possible, and then place the applicant in touch with a solicitor who will be prepared to represent him in the Police or County Court at his own cost.
Free advice from surveyors and valuers is also provided on problems arising from War damage, leases, mortgages, etc.
XI. ARE THEY ALL RIGHT AT HOME?
At all stations a member of the Welfare Committee is appointed to deal with problems connected with the families of officers, airmen and airwomen. He is often called "The Welfare Officer", and is in close touch with the various nation-wide voluntary organisations whose object is to provide help for Service or ex-Service men and women and their families.
The best-known of these organisations are -
The R.A.F. Benevolent Fund, which helps all R.A.F. and W.A.A.F. personnel, whether regular or non-regular, and their dependants. Applications for relief covering all kinds of financial distress and hardship are considered during service or after return to civil life. No genuine case of distress is turned down by the Fund. Financial assistance is given towards the maintenance of widows and the fatherless, towards the education of children of personnel who die or are disabled in the course of their service, and to ex-Servicemen to help in re-establishing them in civil life. The Fund is administered to provide relief in the most just manner possible. It exists primarily
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to meet those many cases which are outside, or need more than can be provided within, the scope of Government assistance.
SSAFA – The Soldiers', Sailors', and Airmen's Families Association, 23 Queen Anne's Gate, London, S.W.1. Its objects are – (a) To pay special attention to the welfare of the families of Service and ex-Service men and women (excluding officers) and wherever possible, to help them to find employment; (b) To help with temporary grants those families of Servicemen who are in special distress; (c) To help applicants to obtain assistance from official sources and from other Service funds. SSAFA has numerous branches, the address of the nearest being obtainable from the local Post Office.
Incorporated Soldiers', Sailors', and Airmen’s Help Society, 122 Brompton Road, London, S.W.3, whose objects are – (a) To help non-commissioned men and women of the Forces during their period of service and after discharge; (b) To arrange for free hospitality for Service women during leave; (c) To assist towards the cost of removal of homes of personnel while serving or after discharge; (d) To provide fares for visiting sick or evacuated families; (e) To make settlement grants to facilitate a new start in civil life; (f) To provide, where necessary and in deserving cases, civilian clothes to Service men and women. And the Society does much other work, too.
Citizens' Advice Bureaux are operated under the auspices of the National Council of Social Services, 26 Bedford Square, London, W.C.1, in almost every town in England, Scotland and Wales. They advise citizens on
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any subject about which wartime regulations have been made.
County Welfare Organisations. Help can also be obtained through County and Local Welfare Officers – there's a Local Welfare Officer in almost every town in the country, address being obtainable from the local Post Office.
If your family is in need they can obtain the names and addresses of the local representatives of the above societies from their nearest Post Office. Your best plan is to consult your C.O. and make your application through him. See A.M.O. A511/1944. All these organisations work very closely together, by the way.
XII – CONCLUSION
Well, that's the gen. You'll probably have many other questions to ask besides. If so, tackle the Welfare Officers at the Reception Centre – they're there to advise you.
Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Chorley & Pickergill Ltd, 51–1686
20
[page break]
[blank page]
[page break]
Birthday Wishes
[page Break]
STALAG 1VB, MÜHLBERG ON ELBE.
GERMANY. 6th JULY 1944.
[page break]
Good Luck
from
Joe. & Tony
& Luck from the 'Canny' Combine.
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
Going on Leave
Description
An account of the resource
A booklet providing information on resettlement of ex prisoners of war.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Air Ministry
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One 20 page printed booklet
Identifier
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MSaundersJWG1324708-180307-04
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
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Sue Smith
prisoner of war
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1807/44140/MKilburnG[Ser -DoB]-170310-01.pdf
79c2d3b0ae7f020f56459b76e79d5870
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
Kilburn, Gerard
G Kilburn
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
2017-03-10
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
Kilburn, G
Description
An account of the resource
6 items. The collection concerns Gerard Kilburn (Royal Air Force) and contains a memoir about the bombing of Liverpool and photographs.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Gerard Kilburn and catalogued by Benjamin Turner.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underline] Some memories of the war (1939-1945) [/underline] from a woman who was a teenager then.
War broke out on 3rd September 1939. This was a hot sunny Sunday in Liverpool where I lived.
[underline] Evacuation [/underline].
That week the [underline] Evacuation of children [/underline] began. Children were sent away from the big cities to the countryside for safety.
Lime Street Station was filled with children of all sizes and ages with gas masks in cardboard boxes over their shoulders; labels pinned to their lapels gave their name and identification number.
Everyone had to carry an identity card.
I wasstaken [sic] was taken by train into the country- the journey was long. The whole school was taken on arrival to a church hall, and we waited to be collected by ‘someone’. We did not know who it would be. Those children who were not taken by someone were taken by bus to a house or cottage for the duration of the war.
Not all children stayed that long. The cottage I was sent to had no gas, no electricity, no running water or indoor toilet. The toilet was in a hut at the very bottom of a long garden. There was no bathroom- we had our baths in a tin bath in front of the kitchen fire. My mother was not happy about me being away from home and she came to collect me after one week. She said that if we were going to die then it would be better to die together. It so happened that we all lived safely through the war.
[underline] Sounds of War [/underline] – [underline] An Air Raid [/underline]
The sounds of war were very different from the sounds of a country at peace. When there was an air raid the sirens wailed loudly and eerily. We would look at the clocks quickly before running to our Anderson shelter in the garden. If it was 10 or 12 o’clock pm we knew there would be a long night of bombing to come. If it was 2 or 3 a.m. then maybe it would only last a matter of hours.
Sometimes there were two or three air raids in the same night and some in the day-time too.
As we ran we would see the searchlights scanning the sky for the enemy aircraft.
[page break]
The sound of enemy aircraft was different from our own planes.
They used to switch their engines off to avoid being detected. We would then hear a drrm…drrm…drrm…drrm…. This was an ominous sound.
You could also hear the scream of the bombs as they fell through the air. First there would be a ‘descending’ whine, then an explosion which was sometimes louder than thunder and at other times a dull ‘crump’ in the distance.
We would listen hard for the comforting sound of our own anti-aircraft guns and rockets fighting back at the enemy. Sometimes, however, these were silent-especially during the May Blitz in Liverpool, when the bombing was long and incessant for ten nights from 1st -10th May.
The most wonderful sound of all was that of the ‘all clear’. The siren would sound again but this time it did not wail but gave out a long, clear, steady note to announce that the ‘raiders’ had passed. Maybe, though, we would return to bed, only to hear the air raid siren again and so rush back to the shelter.
[underline] Sights in Liverpool [/underline]
Incendiary (fire) bombs were a real danger. Huge metal tanks full of water were positioned on almost every street corner. These were called [underline] E.W.S tanks [/underline] Emergency Water Supply tanks.
More E.W.S. were carried in huge pipes. (about 35cm in diameter) which were on the edges of the pavement and had to be stepped over.
People in uniforms could be seen too. [underline] Air Raid Wardens [/underline] wore overalls and tin hats; [underline] soldiers [/underline], sailors and airmen were often in Liverpool en route between North America and Europe. Liverpool was the Western approaches port and the town was always busy. There were Americans, Canadians, Poles and Norwegians. The French sailors wore little ‘pom-poms’ on their hats.
[underline] The Black Out [/underline]
For fear of air raids it was necessary to ensure absolute darkness at night. This would make places less easy to find. At first no torches could be carried. When it was eventually allowed they had to have black tape over them so that only a little light would show. Torches always had to be carried pointing downwards. Car lights also had to be covered.
[Page break]
(A few cars had huge ‘balloons’ full of gas on top of them to save petrol).
At the windows you could see blackout curtains or windows with nets of tape pasted over them to prevent glass shattering.
People never moved about without their gas masks- these had to be carried elsewhere.
In the sky were huge barrage balloons.
We didn’t see a banana for over six years.
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
Some memories of the war
Description
An account of the resource
Memoir detailing a teenage girl's experiences of the war. The document details experiences of evacuation, the blackouts, sounds of the war during air raids and what they saw on the streets of Liverpool.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1939-09-03
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lancashire
England--Liverpool
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three page type written document
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription. Under review
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MKilburnG[Ser#-DoB]-170310-01
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
William Cragg
Air Raid Precautions
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
childhood in wartime
evacuation
home front
incendiary device
shelter
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2519/44085/PBraithwaiteW19020030.2.jpg
0d280d615a22fd4f77f53d9c3cc2e854
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
Braithwaite, Walter
W Braithwaite
Description
An account of the resource
21 items. The collection concerns Walter Braithwaite (1293577 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, note book and photographs. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 77 and 171 Squadrons. <br /><br />There is also a photograph <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2562">album</a> with 49 items. <br /><br />The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by M Braithwaite and catalogued by Benjamin Turner.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-10-22
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Braithwaite, W
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
RAF Swinderby Rugby team
Men in sportswear
Description
An account of the resource
Men in sportswear on a grass field. A Royal Air Force officer can be seen sitting in the middle of the photograph with a rugby ball between his feet on which is written Swinderby 1945-46.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBraithwaiteW19020030
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
1946
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
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.
RAF Swinderby
sport
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1409/43997/ATaplinJA880609.2.mp3
ce1338ceb3ea72f9cbb39e7d692cf4af
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Taplin, J A
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-01-05
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Taplin, JA
Description
An account of the resource
128 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant John Albert Taplin (b.1919, 1268696 Royal Air Force) and contains correspondence, documents photographs and two audio interviews. He flew operations as an air gunner with 408 Squadron before he was shot down and became a prisoner of war.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Kevan Taplin and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with J A Taplin. Two
Identifier
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ATaplinJA880609
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Stevenage Heritage Project
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1988-06-09
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Format
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01:33:11 audio recording
Conforms To
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Pending OH transcription
Pending review
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.
Description
An account of the resource
John volunteered to join the RAF in 1940 wanting to become aircrew as a wireless operator as he had an interest in early radios. While awaiting his aircrew application to be processed he did his initial training at Blackpool and then onto RAF Yatesbury to train as a ground wireless operator. He was initially posted to Group headquarters at Huntingdon as a ground wireless operator. John then went back to Yatesbury for a wireless mechanics course and then moved to RAF Horsham St Faiths to 139 Squadron with Blenheims, while he was there he was locally trained and flew as an air gunner.
He then went back to Yatesbury for an aircrew wireless operators course then on to Penrhos for an Air Observers and gunners course. From there John went to 10 OTU at Abingdon, while there he flew on one of the 1,000 bomber operations in a Whitley flying from Stanton Harcourt.
Having finished his course John was posted to 10 Squadron at RAF Leeming, still on the Whitley, the squadron converted to the Halifax, John flew in the Halifax II fitted with Merlin engines. The squadron then moved to RAF Melbourne, in Sept/Oct 1942 John’s crew were posted to Leeming to a new squadron No 408 (RCAF) as part of 6 Group.
On an operation to Hamburg 2/3 February 1943 John’s aircraft was badly damaged and the crew baled out, he recounts the difficulties of bailing out from an out of control aircraft. He landed in a tree and evaded capture for three days.
As a prisoner of war, he exchanged identities with a soldier. He was also on one of the long marches from January to April.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1942
1943-02-02
1943-02-03
1945
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
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Trevor Hardcastle
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
England--Norfolk
England--Yorkshire
England--Wiltshire
Germany--Hamburg
10 OTU
10 Squadron
408 Squadron
6 Group
aircrew
bale out
Blenheim
bombing
evading
ground personnel
Halifax
Operational Training Unit
prisoner of war
RAF Horsham St Faith
RAF Leeming
RAF Melbourne
RAF Yatesbury
shot down
the long march
training
Whitley
wireless operator
wireless operator / air gunner
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2573/43995/PUreIL1801.1.pdf
98494b46f0ae693603cf5fc9e71662e6
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Ure, Ivan Lochlyn
I L Ure
Description
An account of the resource
27 items. The collection concerns Ivan Lochlyn Ure (b. 1922, 1323004 Royal Air Force) and contains his memoirs, prisoner of war log, correspondence, documents, and photographs. He flew operations as an air gunner with 10 Squadron before he became a prisoner of war.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Tim and Heather Wright and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-08-15
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
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Ure, IL
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/.
Description
An account of the resource
Dairy contains drawings, poetry, names and addresses, and cigarette packets.
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PUreIL1801
Title
A name given to the resource
Ivan Ure's prisoner of war diary
Ivan Ure's wartime log
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ivan Lochlyn Ure
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
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
Polskie Siły Powietrzne
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Poetry
Artwork
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Lithuania
Poland
Germany--Barth
Lithuania--Šilutė
Poland--Tychowo
aircrew
Battle
Halifax
military living conditions
prisoner of war
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 6
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2556/43914/MLongNJ1581956-190516-01.2.pdf
eed9f017f42bc56ad98f0cc2f870849f
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Long, Norman J
N J Long
Description
An account of the resource
12 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Norman J Long (1923 - 1994, 1581956 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, correspondence, documents, and photographs. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 460 Squadron.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Kathryn Lawrence and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-05-16
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
Long, NJ
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
ROUTINE ORDER BY GROUP CAPTAIN K. R. PARSONS D.S.O. D.F.C
COMMANDING R.A.F. STATION, BINBROOK.
Serial No. 39
Page. 1
Date. 12.5.45.
427. SPECIAL ORDER OF THE DAY by AIR CHIEF MARSHAL SIR A. T. HARRIS. KCB. OBE. AFC.
“Men and Women of Bomber Command.
More than 51/2 years ago, within hours of the declaration of War, Bomber Command first assailed the German enemy.
You were then but a handful. Inadequate in everything but the skill and determination of the crews that sombre occasion and for the unknown years of unceasing battle which lay behond [sic] horizons black indeed.
You, the aircrews of Bomber Command, sent your first ton of bombs away on the morrow of the outbreak of war. A million tons of bombs and mines have followed from Bomber Command alone. From Declaration of War to Cease Fire a continuity of battle without precedent and without relent.
In the Battle of France your every endeavour bore down upon an overwhelming and triumphant enemy.
After Dunkirk your Country stood alone in arms but largely unarmed between the Nazi tyranny and domination of the world.
The Battle of Britain, in which you took great part, raised the last barrier strained but holding in the path of the all conquering Wehrmacht, and the bomb smoke of the Channel ports choked back down German throats the very word ‘Invasion’; not again to find expression within these narrow seas until the bomb disrupted defences of the Normandy beachheads fell to our combined assault.
In the long years between much was to pass.
Then it was that you, and for you long alone, carried the war ever deeper and ever more furiously into the heart of the Third Reich. There the whole of the German enemy in undivided strength, and scarcely less a foe the very elements, arrayed against you. You overcame them both.
Through those desperate years, undismayed by any odds, undeterred by any casualties, night succeeding night, you fought. The Phalanx of the United Nations.
You fought alone, as the one force then assailing German soil, you fought alone as individuals isolated in your crew stations by the darkness and the murk, and from all other aircraft in company.
Not for you the hot emulation of high endeavour in the glare and panoply of martial array. Each crew, each one in each crew, fought alone through black nights rent only, mile after continuing mile, by the fiercest barrages ever raised and the instant sally of the searchlights. In each dark minute of those long miles lurked menace. Fog, ice, snow and tempest found you undeterred.
In that loneliness in action lay the final test, the ultimate stretch of human staunchness and determination.
Your losses mounted through those years. Years in which your chance of survival through one spell of operational duty was negligible. Through two periods, mathematically Nil. Nevertheless survivors pressed forward as volunteers to pit their desperately acquired skill in even a third period of operations, on special tasks.
In those 5 years and 8 months of continuous battle over enemy soil your casualties over long periods were grievous. As the count is cleared those of Bomber Command who gave their lives to bring near to impotenance [sic] an enemy who had surged swift in triumph through a Continent, and to enable the United Nations to deploy in full array, will be found not less than the total dead of our National Invasion Armies now in Germany.
In the whole history of our National Forces never have so smaller band of men been called to support so long such odds. You indeed bore the brunt.
To you who survived I would say this. Content yourselves, and take credit with those who perished, that now the ‘Cease Fire’ has sounded countless homes within our Empire will welcome back a father a husband or a son whose life, but for your endeavours and your sacrifices, would assuredly have been expended during long further years of agony to achieve a victory already ours. No Allied Nation is clear of this debt to you.
I cannot here expound your full achievements.
Your attacks on the industrial centres of Northern Italy did much toward the collapse of the Italian and German Armies in North Africa, and to further invasion of the Italian mainland.
Of the German enemy two to three million fit men, potentially vast armies, were continuously held throughout the war in direct and indirect defence against your assaults. A great part of her industrial war effort went towards fending your attacks.
[Page break]
You struck a critical proportion of the weapons of war from enemy hands. On every front.
You immobilised armies, leaving them shorn of supplies, reinforcements, resources and reserves, the easier prey to our advancing Forces.
You eased and abetted the passage of our troops over major obstacles. You blasted the enemy from long prepared defences where he essayed to hold. On the Normandy beaches. At the hinge of the Battle of Caen. In the jaws of the Falaise Gap. To the strongpoints of the enemy held Channel ports, St. Vith, Houffalize and the passage of the Rhine. In battle after battle you sped our armies to success at minimum cost to our troops. The Commanders of our land forces, and indeed those of the enemy, have called your attacks decisive.
You enormously disrupted every enemy means of communication, the very life blood of his military and economic machines. Railways, canals and every form of transport fell first to decay and then to chaos under your assaults.
You so shattered the enemy’s oil plants as to deprive him of all but the final trickle of fuel. His aircraft became earthbound, his road transport ceased to roll, armoured fighting vehicles lay helpless outside the battle, or fell immobilised into our hands. His strategic and tactical plans failed through inability to move.
From his war industries supplies of ore, coal, steel, fine metals, aircraft, guns, ammunition, tanks, vehicles and every ancillary equipment dwindled under your attacks.
At the very crisis of the invasion of Normandy, you virtually annihilated the German naval surface forces then in the Channel, a hundred craft and more fell victim to those three attacks.
You sank or damaged a large but yet untotalled number of enemy submarines in his ports and by mine laying in his waters.
You interfered widely and repeatedly with his submarine training programmes.
With extraordinary accuracy, regardless of opposition, you hit and burst through every carapace which he could devise to protect his submarines in harbour.
By your attacks on inland industries and coastal ship yards you caused hundreds of his submarines to be still born.
Your mine laying throughout the enemy’s sea lanes, your bombing of his inland waters, and his Ports, confounded his sea traffic and burst his canals. From Norway throughout the Baltic, from Jutland to the Gironde, on the coasts of Italy and North Africa you laid and relaid the minefields. The wreckage of the enemy’s naval and merchant fleets litters and encumbers his sea lanes and dockyards. A thousand known ships, and many more as yet unknown, fell casualty to your mines.
You hunted and harried his major warships from hide to hide. You put out of action, gutted or sank most of them.
By your attacks on Experimental Stations, factories, communications and firing sites you long postponed and much reduced the V. weapon attacks. You averted an enormous further toll of death and destruction from your Country.
With it all you never ceased to rot the very heart out of the enemy’s war resources and resistance.
His Capital and near 100 of his cities and towns including nearly all of leading war industrial importance lie in utter ruin, together with the greater part of the war industry which they supported.
Thus you brought to nought the enemy’s original advantage of an industrial might intrinsically greater than ours and supported by the labour of captive millions, now set free.
For the first time in more than a century you have brought home to the habitual aggressor of Europe the full and acrid flavours of war, so long the perquisite of his victims.
All this, and much more, have you achieved during these 51/2 years of continuous battle, despite all opposition from an enemy disposing of many a geographical and strategical advantage with which to exploit an initial superiority in numbers.
Men from every part of the Empire and of most of the Allied Nations fought in your ranks. Indeed a band of brothers.
In the third year of the war the Eighth Bomber Command, and the Fifteenth Bomber Command, U.S.A.A.F. from their Mediterranean bases, ranged themselves at our side, zealous in extending every mutual aid, vieing in every assault upon our common foe. Especially they played the leading part in sweeping the enemy fighter defences from our path and, finally, out of the skies.
[Page break]
Nevertheless nothing that the crews accomplished and it was much, and decisive could have been achieved without the devoted service of every man and woman in the Command.
Those who tended the aircraft, mostly in the open, through six bitter winters. Endless intricacies in a prolonged misery of wet and cold. They rightly earned the implicit trust of the crews. They set extraordinary records of aircraft serviceability.
Those who manned the Stations, Operational Headquarters, Supply lines and Communications.
The pilots of the Photographic Reconnaissance Units without whose lonely ventures far and wide over enemy teritory we should have been largely powerless to plan or to strike.
The Operational Crew training organisation of the Command which through these years of ceaseless work by day and night never failed, in the face of every difficulty and unpredicted call, to replace all casualties and to keep our constantly expanding first line up to strength in crews trained to the highest pitch of efficiency; simultaneously producing near 20,000 additional trained aircrew for the raising and reinforcement of some 50 extra squadrons, formed in the Command and despatched for service in other Commands at home and overseas.
The men and women of the Meteorological Branch who attained prodigious exactitudes in a fickle art and stood brave on assertion where science is inexact. Time and again they saved us from worse than the enemy could ever have achieved. Their record is outstanding.
The meteorological reconnaissance pilots, who flew through anything and everything in search of the feasible.
The Operational Research Sections whose meticulous investigation of every detail of every attack provided data for the continuous confounding of the enemy and the consistent reduction of our own casualties.
The scientists, especially those of the Telecommunications Research Establishment, who placed in unending succession in our hands the technical means to resolve our problems and to confuse the every party of the enemy. Without their skill and their labours beyond doubt we could not have prevailed.
The Works Services who engineered for Bomber Command alone 2,000 miles of runway track and road, with all that goes with them.
The Works Staffs, Designers and Workers who equipped and re-equipped us for battle. Their efforts, their honest workmanship, kept in our hands indeed a Shining Sword.
To all of you I would say how proud I am to have served in Bomber Command for 41/2 years and to have been your Commander-in-Chief through more than three years of your Saga.
Your task in the German war is now completed. Famously have you fought. Well have you deserved of your country and her Allies.”
[signature]
Adjutant.
R.A.F. Station. Binbrook.
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
Special Order of the Day by Air Chief Marshall Sir A.T. Harris
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Arthur Harris
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-05-12
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
France--Dunkerque
France--Normandy
France--Caen
France--Falaise
Belgium
Belgium--Saint-Vith
Belgium--Houffalize
Germany
Germany--Rhineland
Italy
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
Wehrmacht
United States Army Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three typewritten sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MLongNJ1581956-190516-01
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription. Under review
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.
Description
An account of the resource
Message from Arthur Harris to all Bomber Command Personnel.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kathryn Lawrence
aircrew
bombing
ground crew
ground personnel
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
mine laying
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
RAF Binbrook
tactical support for Normandy troops
training
V-weapon
-
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55052da46c98024ec736a5103e94a5b7
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1586/43721/EBallyAHuntH450919-0002.1.jpg
6de14c23d18e4eeb6c7bf534b91b095b
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1586/43721/EBallyAHuntH450919-0003.1.jpg
95f7c7de42193d5b57a3e0a8f453c13f
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1586/43721/EBallyAHuntH450919-0004.1.jpg
e96e50e8156da6d5e2c80fa17e3aa90a
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
Hunt, William Richard
W R Hunt
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
2020-01-27
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
Hunt, WR
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Nine items including a photograph album of 18 items. The collection concerns Sergeant William Richard Hunt (520376 Royal Air Force) and contains documents and photographs. He flew operations as an observer with 35 Squadron and was killed 19 May 1942.</p>
<p>The collection includes an <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2561">album</a> with scenes of Gibraltar and Oran (Algeria), pre-war aircraft and RAF stations.<br /><br />The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by William John Hastings and catalogued by Benjamin Turner. <br /><br />Additional information on William Richard Hunt is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/214002/">IBCC Losses Database</a></p>
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Golbey, le 19 Septembre 1945
Bien chère Madame.
Je me permet de vous écrire cette lettre pour vous faire connaître que j’ai bien reçu votre lettre dans laquelle vous m’avez fait savoir que vous me remerciez des détails que j’avais bien voulu vous donner au sujet de la mort de votre malheureux fils.
Croyez bien Madame que j’ai fait tout ce que j’ai pu pour vous donner satisfaction et pour permettre au cœur d’une mère éprouvée d’être rassuré sur le sort d’un être doublement cher.
Je m’excuse tout de suite de ne pouvoir vous adresser cette lettre en traduction anglaise. J’ai disposé un certain temps d’un interpréte bénévole. Hélas, cette personne a quitté la région et je suis maintenant placé dans l’obligation de m’exprimer dans ma langue maternelle.
Croyez bien qu’elle n’en est pas moins aussi sincère à votre égard. Au cours de la guerre 1939-40, j’ai vécu assez longtemps dans un secteur et avec des militaires de l’armée britannique. Croyez que j’ai pu les apprécier à leur juste valeur et que je puis que leur exprimer à tous ma satisfaction personnel pour leur attitude et leur conduite qui a été des plus correctes vis à vis de notre pauvre pays de France.
Il est des choses dans une existence qui ne s’oublient pas. Celle ci restera toujours gravée dans ma mémoire et soyez persuadée que je garde vis à vis la Nation Britannique tout entière la plus profonde reconnaissance.
Vous me faites connaître sur votre lettre que vous ne savez comment me remercier? Puis-je me permettre de vous faire une humble demande? Pendant mon séjour auprès des militaires britanniques, j’ai apprécié en de maintes occasion l’arome et la délicatesse de votre tabac blond.
Serait-ce trop vous demander que de vouloir bien me faire un petit envoi de ce cher tabac? Vous me croirez certainement bien osé, mais c’est une petite excuse pour moi, car je suis un enragé fumeur et le tabac en France est rare. Je vous en serais extrémement reconnaissant.
De mon côté, je me ferai un plaisir de vous accueillir chez moi, si un jour au cours de l’un de vos pélerinages en France sur la tombe de votre cher fils, vous daigniez venir me faire une visite.
Comme vous me le demandez sur votre lettre, je vous fais parvenir les épreuves des photos prises au cimetière d’Aiglemont (Ardennes). L’épreuve marquée d’un X vous indique la tombe où repose de son éternel sommeil votre regretté garçon.
Avec mes meilleurs souvenirs, je vous prie d’agréer Madame l’expression de mon profond dévouement.
A Bally T.S.V.P.
[page break]
Mon adresse.
Monsieur BALLY, Auguste.
Adjudant de Gendarmerie à GOLBEY.
(Vosges)-France-
[page break]
Golbey, 19th Sept. 1945
My dear Madame,
I am writing this letter to let you know that I duly received your letter in which you thank me for the details I have been able to give you on the subject of the passing of your dear son.
Believe me dear madame that I have done my utmost to give you satisfaction and permit a mother’s heart to be assured of the fate of a Being doubly dear.
I ask you to excuse me for addressing you in French, but I have lost the services of a kind interpreter He has left this vicinity, and I am now obliged to write you in my mother tongue.
Believe me however that my words are no less sincere. In the course of the War 1939 – 40 I lived in a sector with British soldiers, and learned to appreciate their true value, and I express to them my personal satisfaction with their attitude and conduct which was always correct in my poor country of France.
It is one of the things in my existence which I shall never forget. It is graven in my memory, and be persuaded that I shall [word deleted] look to the entire British nation with the most profound gratitude.
You ask me in your letter how you can thank me. May I be so bold as to make a suggestion? During my stay with your soldiers I appreciated many, many times the aroma and delicacy of your light tobacco. Will it be too much to ask you to send me a small parcel of that cherished tobacco. You will certainly think it is very bold of me, and the only excuse I can offer is that I am a desperate smoker and tobacco in France is rare. I shall be very grateful to you.
From my side, it will be a great pleasure to [deleted] meet [/deleted] [inserted] receive [/inserted] you at my house, if one day in the course of a journey to France to see the tomb of your dear son you will do me the honour to visit me.
As requested, I am sending you the negatives of the photos taken at Aiglemont. The negative marked with a cross indicates the tomb where reposes your son in his eternal sleep.
My best wishes, etc etc.
[page break]
Paris 258K
2 1/2 hrs
3 miles North E of mezieres – charoevlle
Railway mezieres to Givel[deleted] l [/deleted]
Paris
8.30 Sunday
11.04 [indecipherable word]
[indecipherable word] station
Paris
11-13. to Gwett.
12.35
Brussels to Gwett
9am 10.50.
Cooks
9-50 Heathrow Brussells 10-40.
Brussels
9.25
L
10.20
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter to Mrs Hunt
Description
An account of the resource
A letter written in French, with accompanying English translation sent to Mrs Hunt. The French letter was written by an Auguste Bally, an Adjudant in the Gendarmerie. The letter is sent as a reply to Mrs Hunt, thanking Bally for information on her son's death and details of his burial. Bally reminisces his time with British soldiers. Bally later asks for some tobacco. The reverse of the English translation details various times and locations handwritten.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Auguste Bally
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-09-19
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940
1945
1945-09-19
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
France--Golbey
France--Ardennes
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
British Army
Language
A language of the resource
fra
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Type written double sided letter with accompanying translation
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Benjamin Turner
Frances Grundy
Steve Baldwin
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBallyAHuntH450919-0001, EBallyAHuntH450919-0002, EBallyAHuntH450919-0003, EBallyAHuntH450919-0004
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
final resting place
-
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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
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
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
LambertBrown, P
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[postmark]
Y.L 1097.
[underlined] HISTORY OF MALTA DOCKYARD DURING WAR [/underlined]
A. L. D. 13594/45 of 21.6.45 (1446).
SECRETARY OF THE ADMIRALTY.
The attached papers give a general “history” of Malta Dockyard during the War as requested in Admiralty letter D. 13594/45 of 21st June 1945.
2. (a) [underlined] The General Narrative [/underlined] (Appendix I) was written by Mr E.W. Colvill, the Secretary, who was in Malta for the whole period.
(b) Workpeople. (Appendix II)
(c) [underlined] Important Items of work [/underlined]:
(i) New Construction. (Appendix III)
(ii) Major refits and/or Battle repairs etc. (Appendix IV) For details of the repairs to USS. “SAVANNAH” and USS. “PHILADELPHIA” see Yard letters Nos. 15 of 6th January 1944 and No. 894 of 9th September 1944. These were the two largest jobs.
(iii) Other work. (Appendix V (a) to (f)).
(d) Air Raids. (Appendix VI)
(e) Narrative of Dock. (Appendix VII)
(f) List of vessels sunk. (Appendix VIII)
(SD.) PIERS K. KEKEWICH
COMMODORE SUPERINTENDENT, MALTA.
[indecipherable words]
[underlined] [indecipherable words] [/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
History of Malta Dockyard During War
Description
An account of the resource
A letter written by the Commodore Superintendent Piers Keane Kekewich to the Admiralty, detailing the various reports on the the Malta Dockyard during the war.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Piers Keane Kekewich
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-09-29
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1944-01-06
1944-09-09
1945
1945-06-21
1945-09-29
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
Typewritten letter
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Benjamin Turner
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SLambertBrownP19330417v10002
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/2559/43601/SLambertBrownP19330417v10001.2.jpg
b70ed19959a6938f7eb1fe9fa8c7afd2
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
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
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
LambertBrown, P
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] APENDIX V(f) [/underlined]
FROM Manager, Engineering Department.
DATE 2[indecipherable]th September, 1945.
Ref. No.
TO COMMDORE[sic] SUPERINTENDENT, MALTA.
With reference to Admiralty Letter D. 13594/45 of 21st June, 1945 (1446) the following remarks regarding special items of work (other than on H. M. Ships) undertaken by this Department are submitted.
2. While the majority of men were employed on work in the Dockyard and various items for the Civil Government, parties were employed continuously on work of servicing guns of the defences and on special jobs at the Aerodromes. These latter included synchronizing and repairing guns of aircraft, bomb disposal, timing and setting parachute flares, fixing bombs and torpedoes on aircraft, lighting the flare path for night landings, salvage and clearance work of crashed aircraft, etc.
3. The more important items of work carried out in the Dockyard and for the Civil Government, Royal Air Force and Army, are shewn on the attached sheets. Approximately 2000 other requisitions by these Services on this Department have perforce been omitted.
MANAGER, ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT.
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 V(f): Letter to the Commodore Superintendent
Description
An account of the resource
Letter written by a manger an engineering department, detailing the work done by the department sent to the Commodore Superintendent.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-09-27
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
1945-06
1945-09
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
Typewritten letter
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Benjamin Turner
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SLambertBrownP19330417v10001
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/2559/43584/SLambertBrownP19330417v10007.2.pdf
0bb2050b60b291b538babc1c2a62613e
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
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
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
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 V(a, b, c, d) Vessels Docked at Malta
Description
An account of the resource
A list detailing the different types of vessels that were docked at Malta between September 1939 and May 1945. Classes of ship are listed with the number of each vessel that was docked. Ships also refitted at the docks are recorded, by name and how long the refitting work took. Landing craft repairs and alterations are also recorded, with what work was done and how long it took.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1939-09
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1945-05
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
Four page typewritten report
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SLambertBrownP19330417v10007
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.
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2559/43581/SLambertBrownP19330417v10006.2.pdf
2e3a15b1078f86c9ed9f451b2cc312fd
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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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
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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
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LambertBrown, P
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Title
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Appendix IV. Large collision & enemy action repairs carried out since September 1939
Description
An account of the resource
List of 68 vessels that were docked in Malta’s yards for repairs from September 1939: Chenonceaux, Franconia, Garland, Keppel, S.S Cornwall, Imperial, Decoy, Hotspur, Havock, Andromeda, Illustrious, Coral, Beryl, Essex, Ploughboy, Encounter, Medusa, Fermoy, Trusty Star, Sydney Star, City of Calcutta, Rowallan Castle, Aurora, Lance, Gloxinia, Beryl, Decoy, Girl Margaret, Robust, [indecipherable], Boxol, S.S. France, Badsworth, Matchless, Hebe, Coral, V.Y. Lighter, M/V Brisbane Star, Tanker Ohio, M/V Rochester Castle, Lance, Ancient, No.3 Caisson, Kingston, Derwent, No.2 Caisson, Bicester, Speedy, USS Swanson, Eskimo, Brissendon, Indomitable, Cleopatra, Newfoundland, USS Mayrant, USS Shubrick, USS Savannah, Boston, Warspite, Uganda, Delhi, Laforey, Linnet, Blankney, Ulster, Dido, USS Philadelphia, Abercrombie. Majority of the vessels were docked due to damage from collisions, torpedoes and bombs. Repairs were undertaken throughout the war until the last recorded vessel was completed in July 1945.
Temporal Coverage
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1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Spatial Coverage
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Malta
Coverage
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Royal Navy
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Format
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Three page type written report
Identifier
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SLambertBrownP19330417v10006
Conforms To
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Pending text-based transcription
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Paul Baguley
William Cragg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2433/43471/ESaundersSorkiewiczMSaundersJWG[Date]-010001.jpg
96bae47f6344d88f9ec2e0a0b917dcb6
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2433/43471/ESaundersSorkiewiczMSaundersJWG[Date]-010002.jpg
df33b53a1274400a7553e8b97ce53eef
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, John Walter Gifford
Description
An account of the resource
69 items. The collection concerns Sergeant John Walter Gifford Saunders (1922 - 2003, 1324708 Royal Air Force) and contains correspondence, documents, and photographs. He flew one operation as an air gunner with 44 Squadron and became a prisoner of war, during which time he befriended Iga, a polish airwoman in an adjacent camp with whom he corresponded. This collection includes <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2565">a folder with a diary and photos of his training in Africa</a>. <br /><br />The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Clive Saunders and catalogued by Lynn Corrigan, with additional contributions by Ella Keogh and Lucy Liu (TOU9156, AA 22-23).
Date
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2018-03-07
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
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Saunders, JWG
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Letter to John from the woman's camp
Description
An account of the resource
From Iga a prisoner of war in an adjacent camp telling John of her move to a women only camp near the sea.
Creator
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Jadwiga Sorkiewicz
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943
1944
1945
Temporal Coverage
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1943
1944
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Poland
Poland--Tychowo
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Polskie Siły Powietrzne
Language
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eng
Identifier
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ESaundersSorkiewiczMSaundersJWG[Date]-010001, ESaundersSorkiewiczMSaundersJWG[Date]-010002
Type
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Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
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Two handwritten sheets
Conforms To
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Pending text-based transcription
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.
aircrew
prisoner of war
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1564/43465/MCurtisA1579599-161130-02.1.pdf
6ade64adf230bddeecdea07af9f1c55d
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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Curtis, A
Curtis, Len
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-11-30
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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Curtis, A
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. The collection concerns "Len" Curtis (1579599 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents and a manuscript. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 106, 630 and 617 Squadrons.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Cary Curtis and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
LANCASTER J B 139
[drawing]
DARK VICTOR
[Page break]
[Photograph]
Don Cheney’s crew (photograph taken in London circa December 1943).
Back row (L-R): R. Pool, J. Rosher, W. N. Wait, McRostie. Front row (L-R): R. Welch, D. Cheney, A Curtis
L’équipage de Don cheney [sic] (photo prise à Londres vers décembre 1943).
Debout, de gauche à droite: R. Pool, J. Rosher, W. N. Wait, McRostie.
Assis, de gauche à droite: R. Welch, D. Cheney, A Curtis.
[Page break]
617 Squadron’s campaign against the V-Sites in the Pas de Calais had concluded with the final assault on the V-1 site at Siracourt on 1st August, 1944. The Pas de Calais had been over-run by various units of the Allied Armies, positively breaking out from the consolidated beach-head area, and sending the German forces into headlong retreat along the whole front, save for the various French coastal redoubts, which the Allies initially by-passed without making any strong effort to subdue them.
617 Squadron, in company with other squadrons of Bomber Command, had pulverised the enemy’s E-Boat flotillas in the French harbours of Le Havre and Boulogne, forcing the remnants to retreat to the comparatively safer harbours of Holland, notably Ijmuiden. These units now had a much longer voyage to oppose the invasion support convoys and this, together with the short summer nights, had rendered their efforts against these convoys almost innocuous and very costly in the casualties inflicted by the convoy escorts.
With the underlying threat of the V-Sites firmly removed, 617’s efforts were re-directed against the French Biscay ports of Brest, Lorient and La Pallice. The aim was to deny these ports and their facilities to the ocean-going U-Boats and to drive them to other, and more northerly lairs. There was an additional purpose in the matter of Brest. Strong American forces had broken out of their bridgehead area and were deploying rapidly and with great purpose through the “bocage” country of Normandy and Brittany. American units had isolated the German garrison in Cherbourg, one of the planned redoubts, whilst other motorised and armoured columns were making all speed towards Brest. The Allies needed to capture a large established
[Page break]
deep-water port as soon as possible. Thus, the German garrison in Brest, with their numbers greatly increased by the many other German units which had sought refuge from the American advance, needed to have demonstrated to them just exactly what the total Allied air supremacy would bring to them during any period they might resolve to hold out. “Drive out the U-Boats and intimidate the garrison” . . . these were the deadly purposes of the assaults about to be launched from the air on Brest.
Flying Officer Don Cheney eased Lancaster “KC – V“ (JB 139) into the air at 0949 hours on Saturday, 5th August, 1944, from RAF Woodhall Spa. The squadron effort was sixteen Lancasters, each armed with a Tallboy bomb, and “V – Victor” was the ninth aircraft to get airborne. Beside the pilot, Flight Sergeant Jim Rosher prepared to ease back the throttles and later set the “revs and boost” his captain would request for the climb to height, once the full take-off procedure had been fulfilled. Flight Sergeant Len Curtis prepared to take his Bomb Aimer’s position in the nose from his perch on the step immediately below the flight engineer’s position. At the navigation table Pilot Officer Roy Welch was busy “setting out his stall” . . as was the wireless operator Flight Sergeant Reg Pool at the W/T set. In the mid-upper turret Warrant Officer Ken Porter settled himself comfortably, whilst Pilot Officer William Noel Wait did likewise in the rear turret. Both gunners prepared to unlock and test their turrets when the engines were throttled back and it was safe to do so.
The aircraft circled the airfield until the navigator warned that it was almost time to set course. Don brought the Lancaster round on to the
[Page break]
required heading over the airfield and commenced the long, unhurried climb to the operational height of 18,000 feet.
It was a beautiful summer’s day . . . very warm with almost cloudless skies affording continuous sunshine. The mighty Merlins lifted the heavily-laden aircraft effortlessly and without one discordant note. Don checked with each member of the crew that all systems were operational and that there were no snags. He actioned the occasional slight course correction offered by the industrious navigator. When the aircraft had reached the operational height, Don called for the necessary cruising “revs and boost” to be set on the dials, checking the readings when he had Jim Rosher’s assertion that this had been carried out.
Don felt quite elated that another operational phase was beginning for the squadron against the U-Boat pens, with formidable Brest as the first target. He had found the tasks on 617 much more self-satisfying than those long, and very demanding, hauls in the enemy darkness, to bomb Target Indicators laid by other unknown crews. In the daylight raids of 617, captains were required to identify their aiming-points visually and to aim their bombs at this point . . often able to observe the success of the squadron’s effort before the confirming reconnaissance photos were available. Even on the 617 night operations, the Lancaster crews knew that the target had been identified and marked with meticulous accuracy by the squadron’s Mosquito marking force, so that the red spot fires could be bombed with the certain knowledge that they were on the aiming point. Don’s mind slipped back to the attack on the Watten V2 site in the Pas de Calais on July 25th, when the very accurate flak defences had knocked out one engine of his aircraft and so severely damaged the hydraulic system that all turrets became inoperable: the bomb doors hung limply open and the
[Page break]
availability of the undercarriage became a matter of conjecture and prayer. The fuselage was awash with hydraulic oil and filled with the acrid smell of cordite. Miraculously, the intercomm was working and Don had raised all the crew, save the mid-upper gunner, the Aussie “Mac” McRostie. Don instructed the wireless operator to investigate the silence, in case the gunner was in need of assistance. A shaken Reg Pool appeared beside him some moments later, puled Don’s right earpiece aside and yelled “Mac’s gone!”. Don banked the aircraft, to bring it round course back to the UK, at the same time surveying the area below. His eye picked up the white silk of a parachute against the background of green countryside. It was about four thousand feet below the Lancaster and drifting gently inland. Mac’s prisoner-of-war status had been reported to Allied sources within a few days by the Resistance network. Don had taken stock of the damage to the aircraft during the return flight, and was greatly relieved to discover that no fires had started and that no member of the crew was injured. Some desultory heavy flak was aimed at them as they neared the French coast, but it was inaccurate and did no damage. Jim Rosher called Don’s attention to something overhead and there, sitting some thirty feet above the Lancaster, and sliding gently across and back again, was a Spitfire. The Spit then perched just off the starboard wing, with he pilot giving “Thumbs Up”, until the English coast was reached and then, with a salute of farewell, it peeled off to starboard and was gone. There was a temptation to “drop in“ at one of the many ‘dromes en route, but dogged persistence drove them on to Woodhall Spa. Fortuitously, the emergency air bottles “blew down” and locked the undercarriage and “T for Tare” flopped in without ceremony or waste of time, on clearance from the Control Tower.
[Page break]
It was this series of events that had introduced Ken Porter into the crew. Ken had finished his first tour with 619 Squadron at Coningsby and had immediately opted to join 617. By coincidence, Don Cheney had been the pilot of the Lancaster which had flown the short distance from Woodhall Spa to Coningsby to pick him up and effect his transfer to his new squadron. Don was very pleased to have a fellow Canadian in his crew, for all the other members were from the United Kingdom and . . . Len Curtis’ voice broke in on his musings. “English coast coming up, navigator . . . we look to be OK on track and I’ll give you “crossing coast” when we’re overhead”. Roy Welch duly acknowledged the message and Don alerted himself for the passage across the Channel and into enemy territory. Once over the sea, both gunners performed the ritual test of the turret guns and reported all guns serviceable. ”V – Victor” crossed the enemy coast without any opposition manifesting itself, with the promised Spitfire escort ranged above and around the assembling 617, as they marshalled at the rendezvous point. Don took his allocated position in the “gaggle”, which proceeded on its stately and irrevocable purpose. The bomb-sight data passed between the navigator and the bomb-aimer, to be re-checked once it had been fed to the bomb-sight and before the aircraft was committed to the bombing run. Then the formation swung sharply to starboard, denying confirmation to the defenders of Brest that the port was really the objective of the operation until the last possible moment., The campaign against the U-Boat bases had begun in deadly earnest.
The run-up to the target was some twenty miles in length. As always, the Stabilised Automatic Bomb-Sight demanded the closest tolerances of height, course and airspeed from the pilot and Don Cheney’s total concentration was
[Page break]
on these three factors. He knew from Len Curtis’s calm voice and quiet, unhurried directions that the bomb-aimer had the target well and truly lined up in his bomb-sight. Sweat trickled into Don’s eyes and down the side of his face, soaking into the collar of his shirt . . . not much longer now, and the Tallboy would be on its lethal way and he would have the luxury of drying himself with his handkerchief . . . not much longer for that blessed relief . . . not much longer. Suddenly, the voice of the rear gunner broke into the intercomm. “Looks as if some quite heavy barrage fire is coming up, skip!”. Don did not answer, his whole being concentrated on the final crucial moments of the bombing run. Ken Porter swung his turret to check the rear gunner’s observation. A second string of black bursts appeared above the black cotton-wool of the initial salvo and his experienced eye could see that the salvos were creeping higher and nearer. Don heard the dulled explosions . . . under the nose and to each side, he surmised, but the bomb-aimer’s directions held him in thrall. Then came the memory-stirring clangs and thumps as direct hits struck the aircraft with giant hammer-blows. A gasping cry came over the intercomm but still the bomb-aimer continued his relentless commentary. The cockpit filled with cordite fumes and again fiery red bursts erupted around the aircraft. Another involuntary cry came over the intercomm, almost drowned by the triumphant cry of “Bomb Gone!” from the bomb-aimer. With the main duty now performed, Don began the task of extricating the crew from the serious situation in which they obviously were. He banked and dived the Lancaster to port to elude further predicted bursts. Jim Rosher folded his seat and moved towards the navigation table. Don was still holding the dive from the danger zone when Jim came on the intercom. “Roy and Reg are both hurt, Don” he reported. “I’m attending to Roy . . . Ken and Noel have come forward
[Page break]
[inserted] 7 [/inserted]
and are attending to Reg”. “Any idea of the damage, Jim?” asked Don. “All the gauges on the Engineer’s panel are wrecked, Don” replied Jim. Ken Porter came on the intercom. “I got down from my turret after the first strike, Don, to see what the score was . . and then the second shell struck home, just aft of the main spar, I figure. I almost choked on the fumes from the explosion of that shell! The damage seems to be confined to the starboard side of the kite, in the wing-root area”. “There’s a large hole in the nav table” interjected Jim “and the radio compartment is pretty badly smashed!”. “Thanks both” replied Don. “Could Roy give me a course for Base when he’s ready?”. Jim Rosher realised that Don did not quite know the extent of the navigatgor’s [sic] wounds. Shrapnel had struck him in the face, tearing away the oxygen mask and removing his upper teeth and gums. Jim had just applied a field dressing to the area . . . despite the pain he was suffering, Ron had managed to smile crookedly when the pad was put in place. When Don’s request came over the intercomm, and to Jim’s utter amazement, Roy sat up in his chair, pored over his log and wrote some figures on a clip-board pad. He then stood up with a great effort. Aware of movement on his right, Don turned quickly. Roy was standing by the pilot’s seat, one hand grasping the high, armour-plated back and the other carrying the clip-board. His face was covered from nose to chin with a large antiseptic pad. There were large spots of blood on his shirt collar and on the side of his head. He was unable to speak but relinquished his grip on the seat-back, to hold the clip-board where Don could read it, indicating with his pencil the message he had written. “Heading 060”. . Don gave him a grateful nod and set the course on his compass repeater. Roy tottered back to his seat for Jim Rosher to continue to minister to his wounds. Len
[Page break]
Curtis had switched off the SABS and all the bombing gear and brought the First Aid kit to assist the two wounded members.
Don continued the descending turn to port, aiming to bring the Lancaster on to the course so gallantly proffered by the navigator. He had noted that Ron was not on oxygen and assumed that Reg was in the same predicament, so he had increased the rate of descent in order to get down below oxygen height as quickly as possible. The compass needle was nearing a southerly heading in the continuing turn, when he felt a poke in the side. He looked to his right and saw Jim Rosher pointing to the starboard wing. Don looked along the raised wing and was appalled to see a large jagged hole between the two engines. It looked large enough for a man to crawl through! Beyond this chasm, was a number of smaller holes, from which were emerging small light blue flames and wisps of smoke. He continued the diving turn to port, to keep the possible fire hazard away from the fuselage. He mentally summed up the prospects and gave the order “Prepare to abandon aircraft! Prepare to abandon aircraft!”.
Jim Rosher checked that his ‘chute was readily to hand. He saw that Len Curtis was still busily engaged, ministering gently to the badly-wounded Wireless Operator, who had sustained wounds in the chest and legs from large jagged pieces of shrapnel. Jim lowered himself into the bombing well to prepare the escape hatch for abandonment, a duty which normally Len would have performed. He was lifting the hatch from its location when he noticed that Len Curtis’s ‘chute was lying loose on the floor. Fearing that the slipstream might suck it from the aircraft when the hatch was jettisoned, Jim let go of the hatch, which by this time was half-way out of the aircraft. The impact of the slipstream jammed the hatch across the
[Page break]
escape exit. Jim crawled carefully around the partially-blocked exit and secured the rogue ‘chute in its proper stowage. He then endeavoured to deal with the recalcitrant hatch cover. He managed to budge it a few inches but that was all. He gave up and returned to his post beside the pilot.
On receipt of the captain’s order, Ken Porter and Noel Wait immediately went back to their ‘chute stowages to clamp their parachutes on their chests, leaving Len Curtis still ministering to the wireless operator. Noel Wait was having some trouble with his ‘chute pack and Ken Porter went to help him. Noel must have thought that Ken was on his way to the rear door, for he called urgently “Wait for me!” . . . which Don heard on the intercom and he sought to reassure the rear gunner that the order was only preparatory at that time. Suddenly the starboard inner engine failed and began to belch flames and black smoke. Jim Rosher quickly feathered the engine and threw the appropriate graviner switch to quell the flames in that engine. This seemed to deal effectively with the situation. “Both wings are holed, Don” reported Jim “and the fuselage is badly holed and torn in many places!”. Don could see a blue flame burning ominously in the No 2 fuel tank. It seemed to be growing even as he watched. He could feel heat building up from the starboard side of the cockpit. There was not a moment to Lose! . . “ABANDON AIRCRAFT! ABANDON AIRCRAFT!” he ordered.
At the rear of the aircraft, Noel Wait had plugged into the intercomm socket whilst Ken Porter had secured the rear door open. Ken saw that flames were streaming back from the starboard wing, almost the length of the fuselage. The flames and smoke dispersed suddenly, but hard on the heels of this Ken received a visual signal from Noel that the order to
[Page break]
abandon aircraft had been given. He signed for Noel to go first, but Noel indicated for Ken to lead the way. Ken sat on the door sill with his legs dangling in the slip-stream. He leaned back and then tried to roll himself forward, as had been so easy in the practice drills. But due to the aircraft’s “starboard wing up” attitude, the roll forward took a great deal of effort and Ken found himself leaving the aircraft much closer to the fuselage than he might have expected. However, that seemed to ensure he was well clear of the tail assembly. He had no doubt that Noel would quickly follow him.
Jim Rosher slid forward into the bombing well and tried desperately to free the jammed hatch. Suddenly he was aware that Roy Welch was beside him, ‘chute clipped on and a large dressing still strapped across his face. In spite of his injuries, Roy assisted Jim to such effect that, although their efforts failed to free the hatch cover, it was moved sufficiently to allow a somewhat cramped escape route. Roy waved his hand in farewell to Jim and, with some difficulty, launched himself from the aircraft. Jim turned to see that Len Curtis was now in the bombing well. He put his mouth close to Len’s ear and said “How’s Reg?” “He’s right behind me!” replied Len “You leave now and I’ll follow you!” Immediately Jim manoeuvred himself through the restricted escape exit and was gone. Len edged his way around to his ‘chute stowage, clamped the ‘chute on to his harness and returned to the jammed hatch cover. He could see that he was not going to be able to negotiate the exit as he constituted at the moment, being, in his own words, “somewhat portly”. He tried without success to budge the jammed cover. Reg Pool was sitting dazedly on the fuselage floor, above the step leading into the bombing well. Len signalled Reg to retreat a bit, to give Len more
[Page break]
room, but it was obvious that Reg just did not understand what Len was indicating. Len released the ‘chute straps from his main harness, whilst keeping the ‘chute secured in the clamps. He used both hands to raise the pack above his head and sat down at the escape exit with his feet through the narrowed opening. Gripping the pack above his head as tightly as his fingers would allow, he uttered a silent prayer and thrust himself into space. His stratagem worked and he cleared the aircraft without difficulty.
Don Cheney had ceased turning the aircraft to port on issuing the order to abandon and held it at height on a southerly course whilst his crew got out. He could see that the aircraft was just out to sea and felt that his crew would have a better chance of escaping capture in the area south of Brest, if the surge of the German retreat had been pell-mell northwards towards Brest once Wehrmacht units had been appraised of the American “break-out in great strength” some days previously. One of Jim Rosher’s last acts before leaving the aircraft had been to lay a ‘chute pack under Don’s seat, to expedite Don’s own departure from the Lancaster. Don had been fully informed of the situation with the jammed hatch cover. He was aware of the departure of the navigator, flight engineer and then his bomb-aimer. He knew that the two gunners had left by the rear door and appreciated that the badly-wounded wireless operator and himself were the sole remaining aircrew. He climbed down from his seat and, holding the aircraft as steady as possible by keeping his left hand on the control column, he strove with his right arm to help Reg to his feet. Slowly he managed to raise Reg and used both hands to steady the weakened aircrew. As soon as he had taken his hand from the control column, the aircraft began to wallow ominously from side to
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side. Don was forced to regain his seat and settle the aircraft again. Reg clung precariously to the side of the seat whilst this was happening. When he was satisfied that the aircraft was on even keel again, Don left his seat and clipped his wireless operator’s ‘chute on to Reg’s harness. Reg had been holding the pack, but was obviously too weak to do this task for himself. The Lancaster insisted on nosing into a steep dive each time Don took his hand from the controls and repeatedly Don had to regain his seat to bring the aircraft out of the dive. Eventually, Reg had been prepared for abandoning the aircraft. In one of the Lancaster’s “behaviour lulls”, Don was able to lead him down to the escape exit. Reg dangled his feet through the escape exit and, with Don’s help and guidance, was able to grasp the silver D-ring. Again, Don had to leave him to “recover” the aircraft from a dive. As soon as he could, he returned to Reg’s side. Don had some misgivings about Reg’s capacity to act correctly once he had left the aircraft and sought to reassure himself, although there really was no alternative to what had to happen. Don removed Reg’s helmet and, putting his mouth close to Reg’s ear, he said urgently “You will be OK, Reg, won’t you? . . . once you’ve left the aircraft?” The injured man nodded a couple of times. Somewhat reassured, Don continued “Keep hold of the ring, Reg and don’t pull it until you are well clear . . . understand?” Again he was answered with nods of the head. Don put his hands under Reg’s armpits, lifted him and eased him gently through the exit. Suddenly, Reg was gone without any further hurt or hindrance. Don peered through the exit but failed to pick up any sign of a parachute. He became aware that the aircraft was diving again and hurried back to regain control and to prepare for his own departure.
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Don had scarcely retrieved the situation when there was a surge of heat from the starboard side of the fuselage. Instinctively he turned to the engineer’s panel and was aghast to see bubbles appearing in the yellow paint of the panel. He climbed down from his seat and stooped to retrieve his ‘chute pack and clipped it to his chest. He had to remove his hand from the controls to effect this and immediately the Lancaster went into a steep dive. A noise like a roaring tornado developed as the slipstream tore in through the escape hatch and ravaged through the battered fuselage to escape at the open rear door. The engine noise was rising to a crescendo! . . . he fought his way back into his seat and with a superhuman effort, brought the nose up . . up . . up . . and then pushed the column forward until a semblance of “straight and level” flight was assumed. His mind had been racing ahead . . . no way was he going to be able to get down into the bombing-well and launch himself into space before the stricken Lancaster went into its final death-dive . . . no way could he reach the rear door exit, either! No, it HAD to be through the ditching hatch above his head! He turned in his seat, so that he was able to kneel on the seat cushion and jam his rump against the control column. He gave the release handle a firm twist and the hatch cover windmilled off into the slip-stream. The wind-noise increased ten-fold! Don removed his helmet and sun-glasses and tossed them towards the floor, but they were immediately whisked off down the fuselage. With his feet now on the seat, he forced his head and shoulders through the hatch opening but found he was unable to clear it. Urgently, he sought to get first one foot and then the other on the seat armrests . . . and then was shattered to find that the ‘chute pack prevented him from getting through the hatch! He crouched back again inside the cockpit. The
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aircraft was in a steep dive and his best efforts could only bring the nose up slightly. He knew he HAD to get out NOW! He resumed his attempt to get through the dinghy hatch, but this time was able to flip the pack upwards and clear of the hatch before beginning to wrestle the rest of his body through the opening. He stood on the armrests again and managed to get his right knee on the edge of the hatch. His left foot groped frantically for additional purchase below. Miraculously, he made contact with the back of the seat . . . felt his way upwards until his foot was at the top of his seat which provided a promise of firm leverage. He paused to gather all his reserves of strength and then gave a tremendous push on his left foot. He bulleted out into a roaring cacophony of sound. The blurred hump of the mid-upper turret flashed past and, with that peculiar human sense that allows one to observe the innocuous in moments of great personal stress, he gave mental thanks that Ken had remembered to depress the turret guns. The two large tail fins loomed and went safely by and with them the W/T aerials that could have cut through him like a wire through cheese . . . and then he was tumbling in space, with his knees drawn up to his chest. In his gyrations he saw blue sky and white clouds framed between his flying boots . . . then water . . . then land . . . then the sky and clouds again to complete the cycle. His consciousness was no longer dominated by the roar of the aircraft. Instead, there was a rushing of air past his ears. He felt around the pack for the release handle and seized it thankfully. He waited a further five seconds and gave it a very firm pull. It gave with incredible ease and he was conscious of holding the D-ring in his hand, with a two-feet length of wire attached to it and not the slightest slackening of his speed of fall! “Hell!” he thought “I’ve pulled it too
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hard and the “chute just isn’t going to work! What an ending after all I’ve escaped!”. A definite “whumpf” halted these thoughts in their tracks . . . his headlong fall was arrested . . . he assumed an upright position . . . no more rushing air in his ears. He was floating gently aloft, with only the gentle flapping of the beautiful white canopy above him to break the silence of that lovely summer afternoon. He heard the drone of an aircraft and looked around to see “V for Victor” in its death throes. It had reared from its downward plunge, with its nose rising until the Lancaster toppled over. For one frightening moment Don felt that there was a distinct possibility of the aircraft banking round and perhaps striking him, but then it went into a gentle spin towards the sea. An eternity seemed to pass before it finally struck the surface with one final roar. A great burst of red flames and thick black smoke was followed by a boiling circle of churning sea. The Don saw a series of smaller splashes as lesser debris hit the water, but finally nothing remained to mark the grave of “V for Victor” but a column of spiralling smoke which the sea breeze quickly dispersed.
A dull, muted droning of aircraft engines became faintly audible. Peering into the distance, Don could make out the specks of other 617 aircraft which, having delivered their bomb-loads, were now haring back to Woodhall Spa. Soon they were gone and an unbroken silence descended. Don could see no other ‘chutes in the sky around him. To all intents and purposes he was completely alone.
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Len Curtis was greatly relieved when the billowing silk canopy of his parachute arrested his headlong fall through space. He became aware that, whilst he had been wrestling his way through the narrowed escape hatch, the racing slip-stream had torn off his right flying boot, and for a few moments he was non-plussed . . . why hadn’t his left flying boots joined its companion? But he was swiftly dragged back to reality when he saw the Lancaster turning towards him in a shallow dive. For a few agonising moments, he was sure that it would hit him, but suddenly it resumed straight and level flight and the danger passed, but too close for real comfort. Len examined the area around and below him but failed to pick up the ‘chutes of Roy Welch and Jim Rosher. He began to assess his own situation and estimated that he would enter the waters of the bay some two miles from land. The sensation of rapid descent increased as he neared the water. He prepared himself for the plunge by unlocking the quick-release unit of the ‘chute. When he judged himself to be about fifteen feet above the surface of the sea, he struck the unit with his clenched fist, at the same time operating the automatic inflation lever on his Mae West. He fell out of his ‘chute and harness, which drifted away, clear of the spot where Len eventually hit the water. He went down only a few feet before rising buoyantly to the surface. He surveyed the geography of the bay and found himself in the broad base of its sweep. Undaunted, he commenced to swim towards the shore, deflating his Mae West slightly to allow himself to assume a comfortable swimming posture. He was glad to find that the water was quite warm and felt that, under less intimidating circumstances, it would have been quite a pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon. He glanced at his watch . . it had stopped at 1220 pm.
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He made steady progress towards an outcrop of rock and estimated that he had been in the sea for about two hours, when a burst of automatic fire split the silence. He heard the hiss of the bullets as they passed overhead and he turned to face the direction from which they had come. He made out a knot of German troops on the beach. About half-dozen had their weapons trained threateningly on him, whilst one beckoned him imperiously to change his direction towards them, making it plain what would happen if he refused. Cursing his luck, Len swam towards them and soon he was standing on the beach, dripping wet, surrounded by Germans. They expertly removed all his valuables and possessions, which they pocketed with great satisfaction, but the reception was generally cordial. Obviously, they remarked between themselves on his missing boot. Len discarded his Mae West, and it was immediately examined by the interested troops. Len was disgusted to find that they were armed with Sten guns . . . the guns that the supply squadrons regularly dropped to the Resistance! His captors were obviously a platoon under the command of a Corporal, but quite soon a car appeared from which emerged a Wehrmacht officer. He strode across to Len, who stood to attention, as military etiquette demanded. The German studies Len for a few moments. “Ah, Feldwebel” he said and motioned Len into the car. With Len flanked in the rear by two “Sten-armed” soldiers, and the officer in the front passenger seat, the car moved off. It sped through a town which Len was to learn later was Douarnenez and on for some way until it reached a small military camp. Len was escorted to a cell and a meal of German field rations and hot black erzatz coffee was provided, again with the same cordiality that had reigned on the beach. He rested for an hour or so, when the door was unlocked and a Feldwebel beckoned him out. He was taken to an office block and escorted into a room where a different
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Wehrmacht officer sat at a table. Len saluted as he entered and the officer indicated the chair which faced him across the table. Len sat down and prepared himself for the interrogation. “Number . . . rank and name” he was asked, in quite reasonable English and Len provided this information, which was entered on the form in front of his interrogator. “Unit?”, came the next question. Len shook his head “I am afraid I cannot give you that, sir” he replied. The officer looked at him quizzically and after a few moments, pushed himself back from the table and left the room through a door behind his desk . . . Len heard a muffled conversation between perhaps three or four voices and then the officer returned. “Sergeant, you will be taken to Quimper airport tomorrow and handed over to the Luftwaffe. The information you have given us will be forwarded, as required, but we have more important things to do at this moment than to interrogate RAF prisoners.” He called for the Feldwebel and soon Len found himself back in his cell. Relief allowed him to sleep quite soundly that night.
In the morning he was given a meal and transported under guard to Quimper airfield. Before he left the camp, he was handed a pair of German Army issue boots. Len took a grip on the leg and boot of his flying boot with a few swift jerks, separated them by breaking the stitching, as provided by their design. He tore out the silk linings of the legging, folded them into small packs, and put them in the back pockets of his battle-dress trousers. He managed to have some conversation with his guards on the drive to Quimper and discovered that the majority of the troops holding this part of France were Austrian and Czech formations. There was an awareness of the American break-out from the invasion beaches and Len was left with the distinct impression that his guards wanted nothing more
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than to be captured in one piece and get out of this war! This cheered him no end, and went a long way in explaining the cordiality with which he had been received.
At Quimper airfield, he was placed in the custody of a Luftwaffe corporal, who seemed to be the only Luftwaffe representative left. His Wehrmacht guards and driver insisted on shaking hands with him before they left, and Len was becoming more and more at ease with his situation. The Luftwaffe corporal turned out to be a conscripted Czech who had a few similar Czech troopers under his command. He was quite amenable and spoke some English. Len gathered that the corporal was hourly expecting orders to evacuate the airfield and this would mean moving a band of about two hundred French Algerian prisoners-of-war . . and Len! He spent a not unpleasant day at Quimper and could see that morale amongst the German “mercenaries” was plunging.
The following day, Monday 7th August, the Luftwaffe corporal informed Len that orders had come through to evacuate the airfield and move all prisoners into the Crozon Peninsular. It was estimated that a march of some 45 kilometres lay ahead, which Len interpolated as around 28 miles. The corporal added that the march would be accomplished at night, since the Allied Air Forces had made the roads in Brittany very dangerous for the movement of large formations in daylight hours. Len rested most of the day in preparation for what lay ahead. At about 1700 hrs, the corporal and his troop began the thankless task of assembling their French-Algerian prisoners, many of whom had so many large packages draped about them that they looked like pack-mules! Just before 1800 hrs the party, in some fifty
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files of four abreast, trudged out of the camp, en route for the Crozon Peninsular, with the corporal pushing his beloved bike. It was a warm clear evening, with the guards anxiously scanning the skies and straining their ears for the first possible warning of an air attack. Fortune favoured the column in this respect and dusk fell with no interference from marauding Allied fighters. Dusk turned to night, with bright moonlight effectively lighting the road. The party, which had had a degree of compactness at the outset, was now strung out over a distance of some four hundred yards. Consequently, the escort became ever more thinly spread along the length of the column. They passed through what appeared to be sleeping French villages, although Len was certain that curtains were raised in darkened upstairs windows to observe their progress. He wondered if “underground” radios were passing the information on to Maquis squads and fervently hoped that no clandestine ambush would be laid against the party before its identity had been checked.
Occasionally a halt was called for a short break, generally in the area of a village pump, or public water supply. The dispersal of the marchers had one advantage, in that it made for less crowding around the drinking area. It also allowed the mass to coagulate somewhat, although the more lightly-weighted elements were soon ahead of the “beasts of burden” once the march was resumed. Len’s feet became blistered, and so he sat down on a grassy bank, removed his German field boots and put his feet in the cool water of the brook that ran past. He soaked some of the linings from his flying-boot and carefully bound up his blistered feet, revelling in the relief that the silk pads immediately afforded. He became aware that many of the Algerians now passing him were limping badly. Ignoring the guards, Len called to them, indicating for them to sit on the bank and bathe their feet as he had
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done. They did this gratefully. Len set to work to minister to as many as he could until his lining stock was exhausted, but he still signalled to others to bathe their feet. The guards shrugged their shoulders . . . some even joined their charges in their ministrations.
Still the trek dragged on its weary way. Fruit trees and occasional root crops gave sustenance to the prisoners, for no ration provision had been made for them when the march was ordered. Len quite understood when he saw them stuffing items into their baggage after each “windfall” . . . they were providing against what might lie beyond their next camp.
Len was padding along beside the bike-pushing corporal, who was becoming quite concerned about the spread of the column, now that their destination was about two hours walk ahead. The corporal called a halt for the prisoners at the head of his party and indicated to Len that he would be going back to “chivvy along” the stragglers. He left his bike in Len’s charge and strode back down the road. When he was out of sight, Len mounted the cycle and pedalled off towards the squad of prisoners ahead. Some of the Algerians thought he was escaping and gave him encouraging cheers, but Len felt his best bet in the obvious chaotic battle situation was to accept his present captivity until a genuine opportunity presented itself to make contact with Allied troops. In the meantime, using the corporal’s bike would take the weight off his blistered feet! When he was almost upon the leading batch, he dismounted and rested by the roadside. When the first file of the laggards hove into hearing and view, he remounted the bike and caught up with the leaders once more. He continued this routine of “riding and resting” for an hour or so before actually riding through the ranks of the pace-setters and finally making the guards understand that their batch should wait for the remainder of the prisoners
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to catch up, so that the party could arrive as a whole unit at their destination, which could not be all that far ahead. The prospect of a break appealed to the guards and the prisoners and they were quite content to rest for the hour it took the whole of the rear party to catch up. The corporal was pleased with Len’s arrangements but took the precaution of reclaiming his bike, so that Len finished the trek on his own two well-rested feet.
It was just after 1100 hours on Tuesday, 8th August that the whole party arrived at their destination in the Crozon Peninsular, some eighteen hours after leaving Quimper airfield. The Algerians were marched on to a makeshift camp, but Len was taken by the Czech corporal to a house that had been commandeered by the Wehrmacht. Len was accommodated in a bedroom converted into a cell and was asleep almost as soon as his head touched the rough pillow.
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Len was kept in this location for two days, with very little restriction on his movements. His corporal “friend” accompanied him on exercise walks in the immediate areas and Len was “on the ration strength” of the guard-room staff, eating the same food as they did. Len observed that the Wehrmacht were just as opportunist at supplementing rations as any other army in the field and included him in the share of the “extras”.
On the evening of the third day, a small Wehrmacht lorry stopped outside the guard-room. The driver produced orders for Len’s transfer to Brest and Len was duly handed over, after hand-shakes all round, much to the amazement of the lorry driver who proved to be a genuine ”German” German! Two Wehrmacht soldiers with fixed bayonets watched over him in the body of the truck, but they also showed great concern about the almost-continuous aircraft engine noise that accompanied that nocturnal journey to what proved to be Brest, but, to the great relief of all, they made the journey without incident. Len was initially kept in a small school, barricaded with barbed wire, along with mainly American Army prisoners, although he did come across two more RAF aircrew during his stay.
Yet again the Germans decided to move him and he was transplanted within the Brest boundaries to a castle which housed some one hundred and fifty American soldiers. He was occasionally included in the fatigue parties that were roughly assembled and marched down into the dock area to help clear the rubble-strewn streets, the legacy of the many bombing raids that the port was enduring. Low-flying and dive-bombing American fighter-bombers strafed and bombed the port’s defences continually throughout the daylight hours, with great effect. Len was crossing a street when he heard a bomb coming down that he knew was going to be very close. He dived into the
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gutter, with his face turned in towards the kerb and his hands clasped behind his neck. He sensed more than heard the explosion but felt the blast on his hands. He leapt to his feet and headed for a shelter like a scalded cat. He literally dived into the shelter which was mainly filled with German personnel but they made room for him and no-one objected to his presence.
On another occasion in the dock area he took shelter when the Air Raid sirens screamed their warning and an ominous silence descended on the port for a few minutes, until the heavy flak began to spit in anger. Instinct told Len this was a “heavies job” but he didn’t stand in the open to decide whether it was the RAF or the Eighth Army Air Force. A few minutes later the walls of the shelter trembled as salvos of bombs plummeted into the harbour area, although Len was pretty sure they were not Tallboys!
The Germans decided to move the prisoners from Brest. The military situation was becoming extreme for them and they could no longer spare the considerable number of front-line personnel needed to maintain the prisoner-of-war organisation. These guards were now needed as replacements for the defenders killed by the Allied Air Forces. The column of prisoners was moved out at night and marched, via the town of Le Fret, to the small seaside resort of Rostellec, in the Crozon Peninsular.
The days passed, with the food stocks dwindling. All French civilians had long been cleared out of Rostellec and Len and his immediate companions began to scavenge for food to supplement their meagre fare. It was a great find to discover onions in the overgrown wilderness of what had once been a lovingly tended vegetable garden of one of the village houses. The military population of the Crozon Peninsular grew each day, as the German troops
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retreated before the American mobile forces. Rostellec provided Len and the other Allied prisoners with a grand-stand view of the bombing of Brest by RAF and American aircraft. Soon the concentrations on the Peninsular were bombed heavily and regularly by light bombers and fighters, inevitably causing casualties among the American prisoners and some of the members of the French Resistance confined with them. Over fifty were wiped out in one raid alone.
Eventually, on Monday, 18th September, six weeks after he had been shot down, liberating forces of the American Army rolled into the Crozon Peninsular. The bottled-up Germans had had enough and the surrender was swift and unanimous. With magnificent perception, among the early arrivals with the US Army were large lorries liberally laden with “PX supplies” and soon field-kitchens were providing almost “peace-time” meals for the hungry hordes of prisoners. Len ate and drank his fill before slipping off to find a comfortable billet for the night. He found himself in a house that had been an impromptu Mess for Wehrmacht officers. The beds were clean and comfortable. He lowered himself thankfully into the depths of the most inviting of them and was soon sleeping that sound and deeply refreshing sleep which was known in the Air Force as “a short course of Death”.
The sun was well up when he surfaced again. He lay luxuriating in the bed, gathering his thoughts and making plans for the day. He would have to make contact with some US officer who could arrange transport . . or offer help . . to get him back to England and Woodhall Spa. Eventually he sat up and began to dress, when suddenly he became curious to know what might be contained in the furniture with which the room was furnished. The chest of drawers
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revealed nothing of interest but the wardrobe yielded a pair of German officer’s field boots! The leather was beautifully soft and shiny. Len drew them on, scarcely daring to breathe, and he almost shouted with delight at their perfect fit. He drew his battledress trouser-legs down over them which served to make it appear that he was wearing normal shoes. He finished dressing and made his way to the nearest field-kitchen where he was supplied with food by the American cooks without demur. When he was finished, he approached a huge sergeant-cook and asked where he could find a US officer. The sergeant stared at him for a moment “A god-dammed Limey!” he said “Jeez, they had one of everything in this place!” “Officers? Boy, they’re as thick as flies around here” he continued “Just walk around and you’re sure to find one!”. Len took his advice and soon saw a jeep with an American officer and two sergeants aboard. He approached the jeep, threw up a smart salute and said “Excuse me, sir!”. The dust-covered American looked quite startled but Len pressed on. “I am a bomb-aimer in the RAF. I was shot down six weeks ago and am anxious to get back to my unit in England. Can you help me?”. “Not personally, sergeant” replied the officer. “You see, there’s this war on and we’ve got to gather in all the Kraut prisoners and ship out all our own captured personnel for assessment and re-allocation . . and that’s quite a job in any man’s army!” He paused for a moment and then went on “Just down there, on the right, they’ve established an MT compound and Mess. Your best bet is to speak to one of the quartermasters. The lorries are running supplies from the dump at Rennes and the boys from up in the wild blue yonder have a makeshift airfield at Rennes . . chances are you can thumb an aerial lift there”. “Thank you, sir . . very helpful” replied Len, saluted and turned away. He heard one
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of the sergeants say “These Limeys! Always correct and military, even when they’ve been six weeks adrift!”.
Len found the compound and watch [sic] the activity for a while. He saw that the drivers of lorries arriving with stores vacated their seats to the Camp personnel and hurried off to the large marquee which was obviously a temporary Mess. German prisoners-of-wat supplemented the American Army personnel in the unloading of the vehicles. Once a vehicle was unloaded, it was driven off the site and parked in a lager where it was refuelled and checked. After some ten minutes or so, drivers came to reclaim their vehicles which were driven off westwards at a fair rate of knots. Len wandered over to where the top-sergeant was standing and occasionally bawling. “Excuse me, sergeant . . . how can I get a lift to Rennes?” The sergeant wheeled at the sound of Len’s voice and in a voice heavy with amazement said “A god-damn Limey! I heard you were all still stuck on the beaches!” “No, I’ve been here six weeks, sergeant” replied Len innocently. “Six weeks, eh?” rejoined the sergeant “Guess you want to get back to Limeyland real quick. Best you can do is go over to the chow tent and ask around . . . most of the trucks are running from Rennes”. Len thanked him and turned towards the marquee. “Limey” called the sergeant “Make sure you take some of the hard-tack for the journey. There are no roadside cafes along that road now!”.
Len sauntered into the marquee and marvelled at the quality of the food that was being offered to the drivers. He approached one driver who seemed to be almost finished eating. “Excuse me . . any chance of a lift back to Rennes?”. The American surveyed him for a few moments and said “Who are you?”. “RAF aircrew, shot down over Brest six weeks ago. I want to get back
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to England and an officer out there said the best way was to hitch a lift back to Rennes, with a chance of getting an air trip from the airfield there”. “Your luck’s in, fellah” smiled the American “My orders take me to Rennes airfield, to load up and return to this Base. I’ll be glad of the company!”. Len waited until the driver had finished his coffee and followed him out of the marquee. From a table close to the entrance, the American grabbed two bags and tossed one to Len. “Hard tack for the journey” he explained, at the same time lifting a large Thermos flask from the side of the table. The lorry was quickly located and soon they were heading westwards, on the 150 miles journey to Rennes. The driver was most anxious to hear about Len’s previous six weeks in France and that conversation, together with the “chow break”, made the five hours journey pass reasonably quickly. It was getting quite dark when they pulled into Rennes airfield. “No night-flying from this field, Limey” said the American. “Best plan is to find yourself somewhere to sleep for the night and try your luck in the morning”. Len thanked his for his help and descended from the truck near a group of airfield buildings. He found a camp bed and a blanket in one of the rooms and settled down for the night.
Len awoke around 7 am on what promised to be another fine day. There was no sound of flying activity from the airfield as he dressed. He found a stand-pipe tap between the buildings and had a refreshing cold-water wash which revived him no end. He looked across the airfield and saw what appeared to be Dakota aircraft on the farther side and began to walk around the grass perimeter towards this dispersal. Suddenly a wonderful small of cooking assailed his nostrils and reminded him that he was quite hungry. He followed his nose, somewhat like the kids in the “Bisto” advert, and came
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upon an underground air-raid shelter from which the aroma was issuing. He called down “Anyone there?” which immediately struck his as trite, since obviously some-one had to be cooking the food! His call brought the head and shoulders of an American sergeant into view. He looked questioningly at Len, without saying a word. “Any chance of some grub, sarge?” queried Len hopefully. “What’s a Limey doing here at this time of the morning?” countered the American. Len gave him a rapid potted history of the past six weeks, which seemed to satisfy the soldier. “Anything to trade?” queried the sergeant. Len offered him the choice of the few German badges and insignia he had gathered during his sojourn in France and the satisfied sergeant withdrew into the shelter. He appeared some minutes later with a huge sandwich, which Len found to contain a large portion of beautifully cooked Texas longhorn steak, topped with two eggs, to be washed down with as much coffee as he wished. Len did not rush this meal . . . such a feast needed to be savoured and appreciated to the last crumb! Finally he took his leave of his benefactor and made his way to the dispersals, which were now a hive of activity.
A study of the area revealed to Len what appeared to be the Administrative centre. He made his way over to this hut and explained his position to the top-sergeant seated in a smaller office inside. “Yeah” said the sergeant “Plenty of flights to England! Where are you heading?”. Len explained that he needed to get to London. “Fine!” came the rejoinder “Got one flight for London due to leave in about thirty minutes! Come with me, Limey”. He escorted Len across the tarmac and introduced him to two fur-jacketed American officers. “One returning Limey prisoner-of-war to be added to your manifest, sir” said the sergeant to one of the officers and sauntered off. Len found himself outlining the last six weeks to the two very interested
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Americans. Before long, the Dakota was taxying to the take-off point with Len comfortably settled in the fuselage.
The flight took a little over three hours and the aircraft landed at what is now Heath Row [sic]. Len thanked his hosts for the lift and made his way to a cluster of huts, to locate some RAF authority to report to and from whom to obtain instructions. He explained his circumstances to a sergeant who said “Follow me, Chiefie! There’s been quite a trickle of aircrew through here this past fortnight. I’ll take you to the officer who has the “drill” off pat now!”. Soon Len was on his way to the Central Hotel in London, where returning former P.O.W. aircrew were required to report for debriefing. He arrives at the nearest station to this Central Hotel and was walking the final stage when he heard behind him “Excuse me, Flight Sergeant”. He turned round, to find himself confronted by two Service MPs, beautifully turned out and burnished. He had time to note that one was of Warrant Officer rank, while the other, a flight sergeant, began to berate him for his appearance and threatening a charge for being improperly dressed. Mentally, Len could only agree with him, for his wardrobe consisted simply of his battledress blouse and trousers, the legs of the trousers still covering the German officer field boots . . . no socks, shirt, tie, pants or vest. However, his resentment welled up within him and he explained forcefully, with many epithets thrown in, just how he had come to this pass, and advised the SPs to allow him to continue on his journey to report his return to Higher Authority. Speechless, and suitably chastened, the SPs stood mute as Len turned his back on them and arrived at his destination.
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Once his identity had been checked and proved, Len was allowed to have a bath and provided with a shaving kit to make himself presentable for the programme which followed. First, he was given the full stringent aircrew medical, which he passed without any trouble. He was then given the items of clothing he needed to assume a “smart, airmanlike appearance”, although he retained the field boots as a souvenir of his exploits. He was given a meal and then subjected to a thorough debriefing, covering the period from the moment the Lancaster was hit until his arrival at “Heath Row”. He was required to stretch and search his mind for any detail that he had observed that might prove of value to Intelligence sources. Special interest was shown in his report that the Czech and Austrian elements he had encountered appeared to be looking for the opportunity to surrender and get out of the war whole. Eventually, when he had run the full course of the Central Hotel, he was again fed, given six weeks leave, with free warrant home and the appropriate ration cards, and two pounds in cash for subsistence on the journey home . . . most of which disappeared “down the hatch” by the time his train left London.
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 JB139 Dark Victor
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
France--Pas-de-Calais
France--Le Havre
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
Netherlands
Netherlands--Ijmuiden
France--Brest
France--Lorient
France--La Pallice
France--Brittany
France--Normandy
France--Cherbourg
France--Watten
France--Douarnenez
France--Quimper
France--Crozon Peninsula
France--Rennes
Great Britain
Heathrow Airport (London, England)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
United States Army Air Force
Wehrmacht
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
33 printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurtisA1579599-161130-02
Description
An account of the resource
A memoir of an operation involving Len Curtis and his crew members. During the operation his aircraft was shot down and Len was captured. However, he was liberated by American soldiers and returned to London six weeks later.
This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
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.
1944
1944-08-05
1945
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anne-Marie Watson
617 Squadron
619 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bale out
bomb aimer
bombing of the Boulogne E-boats (15/16 June 1944)
bombing of the Le Havre E-boat pens (14/15 June 1944)
C-47
flight engineer
Lancaster
mess
Mosquito
navigator
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
pilot
prisoner of war
RAF Coningsby
RAF Woodhall Spa
Resistance
Spitfire
Tallboy
target indicator
target photograph
V-1
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2433/43456/CSaundersJWG-180307-01.2.jpg
2cd61224307e7bf96d51bed879324463
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, John Walter Gifford
Description
An account of the resource
69 items. The collection concerns Sergeant John Walter Gifford Saunders (1922 - 2003, 1324708 Royal Air Force) and contains correspondence, documents, and photographs. He flew one operation as an air gunner with 44 Squadron and became a prisoner of war, during which time he befriended Iga, a polish airwoman in an adjacent camp with whom he corresponded. This collection includes <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2565">a folder with a diary and photos of his training in Africa</a>. <br /><br />The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Clive Saunders and catalogued by Lynn Corrigan, with additional contributions by Ella Keogh and Lucy Liu (TOU9156, AA 22-23).
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-07
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, JWG
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
Stalag IVB map
Description
An account of the resource
Map of the prisoner of war camp Stalag IVB, noting barrack 14A as being that occupied by John Walter Gifford Saunders. Various individual buildings are named including the kitchen and theatre.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Poland
Poland--Tychowo
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
Wehrmacht
Language
A language of the resource
eng
deu
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Map
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One hand drawn map
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CSaundersJWG-180307-01
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
aircrew
prisoner of war
Stalag Luft 6
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2486/42971/AFantiniC181218.2.mp3
4da23830c51a182f9d25ac2b2c09b038
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
Fantini, Carla
Description
An account of the resource
One oral history interview with Carla Fantini who witnessed the bombing war in Milan.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-12-18
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
Fantini, C
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 Carla Fantini
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Zeno Gaiaschi
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-12-18
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
01:08:04 Audio Recording
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending OH transcription
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
AFantiniC181218
Description
An account of the resource
After leaving school, Carla Fantini started working as telegraph operator, which she found a gratifying and thoroughly enjoyable occupation. She describes the bombing war in Milan, stressing widespread destruction and ravaging fires. Reminisces constant fear (especially the distress of being stopped by armed patrols checking permits) which was nonetheless tempered by harmony and solidarity among the populace. Retells anecdotes revolving around social activities and shelter life. Elaborates on the perception of the 20 October 1944 bombing. Recollects the arrival of the Allies on 30 April 1945 and the amazement at seeing the first black personnel. After the war, she took early retirement and spend 60 years as state pensioner, which allow her to travel extensively abroad while enjoining a blissful married life.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1944-10-20
1945-04-30
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy
Italy--Milan
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
African heritage
bombing
bombing of Milan (20 October 1944)
home front
incendiary device
shelter
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2052/42816/LSouterKP129001v1.1.pdf
cbe847749ea7ad0bea26e83052ee0656
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
Souter, Kenneth Place
K P Souter
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2021-07-10
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Souter, KP
Description
An account of the resource
30 items. An oral history interview with Kenneth Souter (b. 1919, 129001 Royal Air Force), his log books and photographs. He flew operations as a fighter pilot with 73 Squadron in North Africa and as a test pilot. After the war he flew Lancasters during the filming of The Dam Busters film in 1954.
The collection was catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Ken Souter's pilot's flying log book. One
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LSouterKP129001v1
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Description
An account of the resource
Pilot's flying log book. One, for Ken Souter. Covering the period from 5 July 1939 to 27 April 1945. Detailing his flying training, operational flying and instructor duties. He was stationed No.43 Elementary and Reserve flying traing School at RAF Woolsington, No.22 Elementary Flying Training School RAF Cambridge, No.9 Elementary Flying Training School RAF Ansty, No,5 Operational Training Unit RAF Aston Down, 43 Squadron RAF Acklington and RAF Ismalia, 73 Squadron RAF Gazala, RAF El Adam, RAF Abu Sueir, RAF Bu Amud and RAF El Gubbi, 102 maintenance Unit RAF Abu Sueir, 108 Maintenance Unit RAF El Firdan, No.1 Delivery Unit RAF Wadi Natrun, test Pilot RAF Port Sudan, RAF Summit and RAF Sidi Henish, No.8 Air Gunnery School RAF Evanton, 867 Squadron RAF Detling, 771 Squadron RNAS Twatt. Aircraft flown in were, Tiger Moth, Hart, Audax, Harvard, Hurricane, Blenheim, Wellington, Lysander, Valencia, Tomahawk, Bombay, Maryland, Vincent, Magister, Lockheed, DC2, Oxford, Kittyhawk, Hardy, Boston, Douglas, Lodestar, JU52, Gladiator, Sunderland, DC3, Clipper, Prefect, Master, Hind, Martinet, Anson, Dominie, DH86, Hind and Corsair. He flew 41 operational sorties with 43 and 73 squadrons, these are described as patrol, scramble, search, and reconnaissance.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Egypt
Great Britain
Libya
Sudan
Egypt--Ismailia (Province)
Egypt--Natrun Valley
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Gloucestershire
England--Kent
England--Northumberland
England--Warwickshire
Libya--Cyrenaica
Libya--Tobruk
Scotland--Orkney
Scotland--Ross and Cromarty
Sudan--Port Sudan
North Africa
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940-12-04
1941-02-04
1941-02-12
1941-02-18
1941-02-22
1941-02-27
1941-03-03
1941-03-05
1941-03-09
1941-03-10
1941-03-15
1941-03-16
1941-03-18
1941-03-24
1941-03-28
1941-04-01
1941-04-02
1941-04-04
1941-04-06
1941-04-07
1941-04-08
1941-04-09
1941-04-11
1941-04-12
1941-04-13
1941-05-03
1941-05-08
1941-05-12
1941-05-13
1941-05-16
1942
1943
1944
1945
43 Squadron
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
Anson
Blenheim
Boston
C-47
Dominie
Flying Training School
Harvard
Hurricane
Ju 52
Lysander
Magister
Martinet
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
P-40
pilot
RAF Abu Sueir
RAF Ansty
RAF Aston Down
RAF Evanton
Sunderland
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2308/42018/PEwingRL19010033.2.jpg
e57ca2e72f5704c050a215637ec75920
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
Ewing, Robert Logan. Photo Album
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-11-16
2019-12-04
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
Ewing, RL
Description
An account of the resource
37 items. Contains photographs of his service life including pictures of RAF Wigsley.
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
Mosquitoes and Lancaster
Description
An account of the resource
#1 is a rear/port view of a Mosquito, captioned '627 Squadron'.
#2 is a front/nose view of a Mosquito.
#3 is a rear view of a Mosquito.
#4 is a port side view of a Lancaster, captioned 'Lanc (special) of 617 Sqn Woodhall Spa. Cut away to carry 22000 lb bomb "Grand Slam" '.
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
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four b/w photographs on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PEwingRL19010033
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
617 Squadron
627 Squadron
Grand Slam
Lancaster
Mosquito
RAF Woodhall Spa
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2308/42015/PEwingRL19010030.2.jpg
fdf6942df6e5a38ba090884938205668
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
Ewing, Robert Logan. Photo Album
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-11-16
2019-12-04
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
Ewing, RL
Description
An account of the resource
37 items. Contains photographs of his service life including pictures of RAF Wigsley.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
German Truck Notice
Description
An account of the resource
A photograph of a notice removed from the back of a German truck.
It is captioned 'This is a photo of a notice on the back of a German army truck. The notice was brought back to Woodhall Spa by an Officer who was shot down & "walked home".'
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
deu
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PEwingRL19010030
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. Other languages than English
evading
RAF Woodhall Spa
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2308/42003/PEwingRL19010018.2.jpg
cf5a181f088546d7f8aa5150b1f7ed46
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
Ewing, Robert Logan. Photo Album
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-11-16
2019-12-04
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
Ewing, RL
Description
An account of the resource
37 items. Contains photographs of his service life including pictures of RAF Wigsley.
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
Robert Logan's Family
Description
An account of the resource
#1 is a woman in a dress, captioned 'Auntie Gwlad'.
#2 is a an airman and a woman on a street, captioned 'Margaret & Snowy'.
#3 and 7 are airmen shooting in a frosty landscape, captioned '1945 [indecipherable]' and 'F/O TI Body 1945'.
#4 is a man and two women walking along a road, captioned 'Whistlefield 1944'.
#5 is a man and four women, captioned '1945'.
#6 is three women, captioned '1943'.
#8 is a woman standing beside the sea, captioned 'Montrose 1944'.
#9 is a WAAF sitting on a train, captioned 'Ann 1944'.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Argyllshire
Scotland--Montrose
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Nine b/w photographs on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PEwingRL19010018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943
1944
1945
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
aircrew
ground personnel
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1982/41571/LHope169139v1.1.pdf
6a2e8afbad645abb80eee3881f3c0b42
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
Hope, Arthur Denis
A D Hope
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
2017-11-12
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hope, AD
Description
An account of the resource
26 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Arthur Denis Hope (169139 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, correspondence, documents, newspaper cuttings and photographs. He flew operations as a wireless operator with 62 Squadron before becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Bruce Neill-Gourlay and Pat Hoy and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Frankfurt. Shot Down 19,40 Hrs over target. Five of crew blown to pieces two survivors. Taken prisoner 21st Dec 1943. repatriated [inserted] by Russian Allies [/inserted] Nearly lynched twice by civvies. [Inserted] Ju 88 Nightfigter belly/astern attack [/inserted]
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 D Hope’s navigator’s, air bomber’s and air gunner’s flying log book. One
Description
An account of the resource
Navigator’s, air bomber’s and air gunner’s flying log book one, for A D Hope, wireless operator, covering the period from 15 December 1942 to 28 April 1949. Detailing his flying training, operations flown, instructor duties and post war flying duties with 62 squadron, 1382 transport conversion unit and 240 operational conversion unit. He was stationed at RAF Madley, RAF Upper Heyford, RAF Swinderby, RAF Skellingthorpe, RAF Wymeswold, RAF Syerston, RAF Palam, RAF Dum Dum and RAF North Luffenham. Aircraft flown in were Dominie, Proctor, Wellington, Manchester, Lancaster, Dakota, Valetta, and Devon. He flew a total of 20 night operations with 50 squadron, the aircraft being shot down on his 20th operation and he became a prisoner of war. Targets were Nuremberg, Milan, Leverkusen, Munchen Gladbach, Berlin, Munich, Hannover, Hagen, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Modane.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Germany
Great Britain
India
Italy
England--Herefordshire
England--Leicestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Oxfordshire
England--Rutland
France--Modane
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Hagen (Arnsberg)
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Leverkusen
Germany--Mönchengladbach
Germany--Munich
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Stuttgart
India--Delhi
India--Kolkata
Italy--Milan
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LHope169139v1
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943-06-03
1943-06-04
1943-08-10
1943-08-11
1943-08-15
1943-08-16
1943-08-22
1943-08-23
1943-08-30
1943-08-31
1943-09-01
1943-09-03
1943-09-04
1943-09-06
1943-09-07
1943-09-27
1943-09-28
1943-01-01
1943-01-02
1943-01-03
1943-01-04
1943-01-05
1943-01-07
1943-01-08
1943-01-20
1943-01-21
1943-11-10
1943-11-11
1943-11-18
1943-11-19
1943-11-22
1943-11-23
1943-11-24
1943-11-26
1943-11-27
1943-12-16
1943-12-17
1943-12-20
1943-12-21
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Conncock
16 OTU
1660 HCU
50 Squadron
aircrew
C-47
Dominie
Heavy Conversion Unit
Ju 88
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
lynching
Manchester
Operational Training Unit
prisoner of war
Proctor
RAF Madley
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Skellingthorpe
RAF Swinderby
RAF Syerston
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Wymeswold
shot down
training
Wellington
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1971/41523/MMcGaughranJE427410-171017-12.2.jpg
e6e952ee9bae9ee628dfbf1f468e0166
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
McGaughran, James Emmett
J E McGaughran
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
2017-10-17
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
McGaughran, JE
Description
An account of the resource
24 items. The collection concerns James Emmett McGaughran (b. 1917, 427410, Royal New Zealand Air Force) and contains documents, photographs and postcards. He served as an air gunner.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Nichola Spencer and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Jim McGaughran's Post Office Savings Bank Book
Description
An account of the resource
Jim's savings during part of 1945
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Post Office Savings Bank
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One two page printed booklet with handwritten annotations
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MMcGaughranJE427410-171017-12
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
aircrew
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2290/41508/LJasinskiT780866v1.2.pdf
ef1421141c0652fa67b0a234e9bea737
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
Jasinski, Tadeusz
Description
An account of the resource
Seven items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Tadeusz Jasinski (1918 - 2003, 780866 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs and medals. He flew operations as a wireless operator with 304 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Nicholas Jasinski and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2021-06-24
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
Jasinski, T
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
Tadeusz Jasinski’s Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LJasinskiT780866v1
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
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Description
An account of the resource
Tadeusz Jasinski’s Flying Log Book as a wireless operator from 9 May 1941 to 14 October 1945. Carried out training at No. 2 Signal School, 4 Air Observer School (air gunner training) and 18 OTU, Posted to 304 (Polish) squadron for operations in January 1942. Undertook bombing operations and then anti-submarine sweeps when squadron was transferred to Coastal Command. In February 1944 posted to 216 Squadron (Transport Command) based in the Middle East. From November 1944, posted to 167 Squadron. His final posting was to 301 Squadron in July 1945.
Served at RAF Yatesbury, RAF West Freugh, RAF Bramcote, RAF Bitteswell, RAF Lindholme, RAF Tiree, RAF Dale, RAF Cairo West (LG224), RAF Holmsley South, RAF Blackbushe, RAF North Weald. Aircraft flown were Dominie, Proctor, Battle, Wellington, Tiger Moth, C47, B24, Warwick,
Flew on 14 bombing operations (1 day and 13 night) and 39 day anti-submarine sweeps with 304 Squadron. The bombing targets were Boulogne, Emden, Dunkerque, Cologne, Hamburg, Essen, Dortmund, Hamburg, Rostock, Bordeaux, Bremen. The anti-submarine sweeps were over the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay.
His pilots on operations were Flying Officer Kucharski (35 operations), Sergeant Janski (1 operation), Flying Officer Zurek (16 operations), Sergeant Gotebiowski (1 operation).
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-01-28
1942-01-29
1942-03-12
1942-03-13
1942-04-05
1942-04-06
1942-04-08
1942-04-09
1942-04-10
1942-04-11
1942-04-12
1942-04-13
1942-04-14
1942-04-15
1942-04-17
1942-04-18
1942-04-23
1942-04-24
1942-04-25
1942-04-26
1942-04-27
1942-05-18
1942-05-20
1942-05-23
1942-05-26
1942-05-27
1942-05-31
1942-06-05
1942-06-07
1942-06-25
1942-06-26
1942-07-18
1942-07-22
1942-07-29
1942-07-30
1942-08-01
1942-08-09
1942-08-11
1942-08-13
1942-08-17
1942-08-19
1942-09-02
1942-09-06
1942-09-10
1942-09-14
1942-09-17
1942-09-18
1942-09-24
1942-09-26
1942-09-30
1942-10-16
1942-10-21
1942-10-25
1942-10-29
1942-11-12
1942-11-14
1942-11-18
1942-11-20
1942-11-22
1942-11-26
1942-11-28
1942-12-02
1942-12-22
1942-12-30
1943
1944
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Essex
England--Hampshire
England--Leicestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Warwickshire
England--Wiltshire
England--Yorkshire
Scotland--Argyll and Bute
Scotland--Dumfries and Galloway
Wales--Pembrokeshire
North Africa
Egypt
Egypt--Cairo
Germany
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Emden (Lower Saxony)
Germany--Essen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Rostock
France
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
France--Dunkerque
Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Nick Cornwell-Smith
167 Squadron
18 OTU
216 Squadron
3 Group
301 Squadron
304 Squadron
aircrew
B-24
Battle
C-47
Dominie
Operational Training Unit
Proctor
RAF Bitteswell
RAF Bramcote
RAF Dale
RAF Hartford Bridge
RAF Holmsley South
RAF Lindholme
RAF North Weald
RAF Tiree
RAF West Freugh
RAF Yatesbury
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1523/41481/BLoveGLoveAIv1.2.pdf
80cbfc6ec80ea829173b9674b152e1d5
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
Love, Ikey
Albert Ivon Love
A I Love
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
2016-07-10
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
Love, AI
Description
An account of the resource
15 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Albert "Ikey" Ivon Love (1922 - 2016, 1815027 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, items, and photographs. He flew operations as a flight engineer with 90 and 7 Squadrons before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by G Love and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Memories of Past Times
Ikey Love 1922-2016
Description
An account of the resource
A biography of Ikey Love. Covers pre and post war life as well as training, operations and time as a prisoner of war during the war.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Bedfordshire
England--Kettering
England--Leicester
England--Sileby
Egypt
England--Ashbourne
England--Coventry
England--Redcar
Wales--Llandudno
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Lithuania
Poland
Poland--Szczecin
Germany--Dresden
England--Thurmaston
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Schweinfurt
England--Cornwall (County)
Germany
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Civilian
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944-03-22
1944-03-23
1945
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Text. Personal research
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
33 printed sheets
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BLoveGLoveAIv1
90 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
B-17
bale out
bomb aimer
bombing
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
C-47
Caterpillar Club
flight engineer
lack of moral fibre
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 3
Me 110
military service conditions
mine laying
missing in action
Pathfinders
prisoner of war
RAF Oakington
RAF Upwood
RAF Warboys
sport
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 6
Stirling
the long march
Tiger Moth
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2254/41027/PHaileyKJ1503.1.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2254/41027/PHaileyKJ1504.1.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2254/41027/PHaileyKJ1505.1.jpg
d99f4e9156b539956754c6493e38689a
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2254/41027/PHaileyKJ1506.1.jpg
0cdf799f8911282a92e64ddc32d3b26f
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
Hailey, Keith John
Description
An account of the resource
Six items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Keith John Hailey (b. 1921, 1449497Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents and photographs. He flew operations as a wireless operator / air gunner with 433 and 635 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sheila Mathison and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2022-08-30
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.
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.
Hailey, KJ
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
635 Squadron photographs
Description
An account of the resource
The first is of the aircrew with a Lancaster behind them, on the reverse caption 'Keith, back row, 11th from right'.
The second has the ground crew sitting or standing on the Lancaster, on the reverse caption 'Keith, back row on the ground, between 2 right engines, tall with hat at jaunty angle'.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Norfolk
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
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two b/w photographs
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PHaileyKJ1503, PHaileyKJ1504, PHaileyKJ1505, PHaileyKJ1506
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
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
635 Squadron
aircrew
ground crew
ground personnel
Lancaster
RAF Downham Market
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2160/41026/LSweeneyAE573980v1.2.pdf
ed313baa3dff5563a54732513ab64e74
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
Sweeney, Alfred Edward
Description
An account of the resource
One item.
The collection concerns Flying Officer Alfred Edward (Todd) Sweeney (Royal Air Force) and contains his log book. He flew a tour of operations as a pilot with 115 Squadron from RAF Witchford.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Malcolm Sweeney and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-02-20
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Sweeney, AE
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
Alfred Sweeney’s RAF Pilot’s Flying Log Book
Description
An account of the resource
Alfred Sweeney’s RAF Pilot’s Flying Log Book from 17 May 1942 to 30 July 1962 detailing training, operations and post-war duties as a pilot and instructor, including VIP duties. (Several logbooks bound into one volume).
He was stationed at RAF Stoke Orchard (No. 10 Elementary Flying Training School), RCAF Station Neepawa (No. 35 Elementary Flying Training School), RCAF Station Carberry (No. 33 Service Flying Training School), RAF Carlisle (No. 15 Elementary Flying Training School), RAF Church Lawford (No. 18 (P) Advanced Flying Unit), RAF Desborough (No. 84 Operational Training Unit), RAF Wratting Common (No. 1651 Heavy Conversion Unit), RAF Feltwell (No. 3 Lancaster Finishing School), RAF Witchford (115 Squadron), RAF Langar (1669 HCU), RAF North Luffenham (1653 HCU), RAF Waterbeach (514 Squadron), RAF Syerston (1333 Transport Support Conversion Unit), RAF Almaza, RAF Aqir, RAF Kabrit (78 Squadron), RAF Palam (AHQ(I) Communications Squadron), RAF Fassburg, RAF Lubeck, RAF Bassingbourn and RAF Waterbeach (24(C) Squadron), RAF Marham (115 Squadron and Bomber Command Jet Conversion Flight), Bassingbourn (No. 231 OCU), RAF Boscombe Down (Handling Squadron), RAF Lyneham (216 Squadron) and RAF Watton (51 Squadron).
Aircraft in which flown: DH82C, Anson, DH82A, Oxford, Wellington X, Stirling I, Stirling III, Lancaster I, Lancaster II, Lancaster III, Dakota III, Horsa, Dakota IV, Halifax VII, York, Harvard, Lancastrian, Valetta, Washington, Meteor, Canberra, Varsity, Firefly, Pembroke, Valiant, Sea Venom, Vampire, Jet Provost, Sea Devon, Hunter, Pioneer, Whirlwind, Chipmunk, Comet, Beverley, Seamew, Venom, Javelin, Gannet, Swift, Vulcan, Hastings, Victor, Skeeter, Prentice, Auster, Devon, Heron, Bristol Freighter, Dragonfly, Shackleton, Viscount, Sea Prince, Sycamore, Sea Balliol, Lincoln, Sea Hawk.
Records 30 completed operations (22 night, 8 day) on the following targets in France and Germany: Amaye-Sur-Seulles, Beauvoir, Bec D’Ambes, Biennais, Bordeaux Bassens, Brunswick, Cap Gris Nez, Chambly, Cologne, Coulonvillers, Domleger, Dortmund, Dreux, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Foret de Lucheux, L’Hey, Le Havre, Le Mans, Lens, Lisieux, Montdidier, Nantes, Ouistreham, Vaires (Paris), Valenciennes, Watten and Wissant.
Also includes photographs of various aircraft, various documents, technical notes, medal awards paperwork and VIP passenger lists (including Pandit Neru, Sir Claude Auchinleck).
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Leitch
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LSweeneyAE573980v1
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Egypt
France
Germany
Great Britain
India
Israel
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Cumbria
England--Gloucestershire
England--Norfolk
England--Northamptonshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Rutland
England--Warwickshire
England--Wiltshire
Middle East--Palestine
France--Domléger-Longvillers
France--Beauvoir-sur-Mer
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
France--Calvados
France--Dreux
France--Gironde Estuary
France--Le Havre
France--Le Mans
France--Lens
France--Montdidier (Hauts-de-France)
France--Nantes
France--Normandy
France--Oise
France--Opale Coast
France--Pas-de-Calais
France--Somme
France--Vaires-sur-Marne
France--Valenciennes
France--Watten
Germany--Braunschweig
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Düsseldorf
Manitoba--Carberry
Manitoba--Neepawa
France--Coulonvillers
France--Cap Gris Nez
Egypt--Kibrit
North Africa
France--Ouistreham
Manitoba
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944-04-20
1944-04-21
1944-04-22
1944-04-23
1944-05-01
1944-05-02
1944-05-07
1944-05-08
1944-05-09
1944-05-10
1944-05-19
1944-05-20
1944-05-21
1944-05-22
1944-05-23
1944-06-02
1944-06-03
1944-06-05
1944-06-06
1944-06-07
1944-06-10
1944-06-11
1944-06-12
1944-06-14
1944-06-15
1944-06-16
1944-06-17
1944-06-18
1944-06-21
1944-06-23
1944-06-24
1944-06-27
1944-06-28
1944-07-02
1944-07-05
1944-07-06
1944-07-07
1944-07-08
1944-07-12
1944-07-30
1944-08-01
1944-08-04
1944-08-05
1944-08-08
1944-08-09
1944-08-11
1944-08-12
1944-08-13
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
115 Squadron
1651 HCU
1653 HCU
1669 HCU
216 Squadron
51 Squadron
514 Squadron
84 OTU
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
B-29
bombing
bombing of the Le Havre E-boat pens (14/15 June 1944)
bombing of the Normandy coastal batteries (5/6 June 1944)
C-47
Cook’s tour
Flying Training School
Halifax
Halifax Mk 7
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Horsa
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 2
Lancaster Mk 3
Lancastrian
Lincoln
Meteor
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operation Dodge (1945)
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Aqir
RAF Bassingbourn
RAF Boscombe Down
RAF Carlisle
RAF Church Lawford
RAF Desborough
RAF Feltwell
RAF Langar
RAF Lyneham
RAF Marham
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Syerston
RAF Waterbeach
RAF Watton
RAF Witchford
RAF Wratting Common
Shackleton
Stirling
tactical support for Normandy troops
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
York