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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/194/27209/MAdamsHG424504-170215-01.2.pdf
1081940cd3d5fc25972f96a05b4902d4
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Title
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Adams, Herbert
Herbert Adams
H Adams
Herbert G Adams
Description
An account of the resource
88 items. Collection concerns Herbert George Adams DFC, Legion d'Honour (b. 1924, 424509 Royal Australian Air Force). He flew operations as a navigator with 467 Squadron. Collection contains an oral history interview, photographs of people and places, several memoirs about his training and bombing operations, letters to his family, his flying logbook and notes on navigation.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Herbert Adams and catalogued by Nigel Huckins and Trevor Hardcastle.
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-02-15
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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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Adams, HG
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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[inserted] (There is some duplication of notes for Ops [symbol] 1 to [symbol] 14 as I wrote something at different times (years apart.)) [/inserted]
[inserted] [symbol] Soon after we feathered that engine over “A” Flight commander flew up on our wing top & feathered 3 engines & kept up with us! He was giving us some assurance that a lightly loaded Lancaster could fly level (for a while) on 1 engine … reassurance for a new crew [/inserted]
My navigation Logs & Charts of our operations with 467 (RAAF) Squadron at Waddington, near Lincoln, from 10.9.44 to 16.1.45, with extracts from a publication giving some details of every operation by 467 & 463 Squadrons from 10.9.44 to 25.4.45.
[circled 1] [underlined] LE HAVRE, 10.9.44 [/underlined] 21 from 467, 20 from 463 as part of 992 bombers on 8 different German strong points outside of Le Havre. The targets were accurately marked and bombed, with no losses from Waddington. We took off at 1522, flew to Syerston (nearby), then did a radius of action on a track of 260oT so as to be back at Syerston at 1604 at 8000’. The winds were about what was forecast, 025/15; we bombed at 1723 at 12100’, bomb load was 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500 lb H.E. Two minutes after we dropped our bombs our Port Outer motor stopped (stray AA – fire?), we feathered the prop & flew home OK on 3 engines, airborne for 3h 55 min.
[symbol] On 11.9.44, 218 bombers from 5 Group attacked the German positions still holding out at Le Havre, with no losses. 2 British divisions were attacking Le Havre & the German garrison surrendered a few hours after the raid. The British wished to capture the port intact, but the German garrison had laid mines, and blown up most of the docks, and so it was several weeks before the port could be used.
DAMSTADT, 11.9.44. 226 Lancasters from 5 Group bombed at night, losing 1 crew (all K.I.A.) from 463 Sqdn. Our pilot, Peter Gray-Buchanan, did his “Second Dickie” on this raid.
[circled 2] [underlined] STUTTGART, 12.9.44. [/underlined] 20 from 467, 14 from 463, of 204 from [underlined] 5 Group [/underlined]. (On the same night 378 Lancasters bombed Frankfurt with success.) Post-war, a German expert – Heinz Bardau – wrote that the northern & western parts of Stuttgart city were erased in this concentrated attack… a [underlined] fire-storm resulted [/underlined], with 1171 people killed, the city’s highest fatality figure for the war.
[page break]
STUTTGART (Con’t)
467 Sqdn lost 2 crews (F/L D. Brown, 5 KIA, 2 POW, F/O Bright. 5 KIA, 2 POW.)
We took off at 1916 & set course at 1919, staying at 2500’ until 2137 when we began climbing, to 16000’ by 2233. Our last GEE fix was at 2232 and the next (after bombing OK at 2316) at 0022… so nearly 2 hours of Dead Reckoning with some map reading. (The Germans jammed our GEE receiver so that the screen was filled with “Grass”). The actual winds were about as forecast 160/15 at the target. Our bomb load was 1 x 4000 lb “cookie” & 13 J clusters (of incendiaries). Two minutes after bombing our gunners saw a fighter (they think a Do217) at about 400 yards, so we began to “corkscrew”. We continued corkscrewing until 2329, seeing one plane (unidentified) at about 50 yards! and another with a light on (!). We were airborne for 6h 51 min.
[circled 3] [underlined] BOULOGNE. 17.9.44. [/underlined] We took off at 0806 & flew to Syerston, then did a Radius of Action (on track of 260oT) to return to Syerston at 0837 at 6000’, where we did a circuit to port to lose height & get into formation at 3000! We had an uneventual [sic] trip to the target where we bombed at 8100’, dropping 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500 lb. We were airborne for 3h 26 min. 19 Lancs from each of 467 & 463 joined 762 bombers dropping more than 3000 tons of H.E. bombs on German positions around Bologne in preparation for an attack by Allied troops. The German garrison surrendered soon after the raid.
[circled 4] [underlined] BREMERHAVEN 18.9.44. [/underlined] 19 Lancs from each of 467 & 463 were part of a total of [underlined] 206 from 5 Group [/underlined], with no losses from Waddington. The post-war assessors found that this 5-Group attack, with less than 900 tons of bombs, started a [underlined] fire-storm [/underlined] which destroyed 2750 buildings in the main port area, & that [underlined] 30000 [/underlined] people were made homeless & had to live in the open until evacuated several days later.
[page break]
Extracts from a publication giving some details of every wartime operation by 467 & 463 Squadrons (loaned by Sam Nelson) RED = Daylight. BLACK = Night BLUE = We weren’t on it.
[circled 1] 10-9-44 LE HAVRE 21 from 467, 20 from 463 as part of 992 bomber raid on 8 different German strongpoints outside Le Havre. The targets were accurately marked and bombed. No losses.
D. 3h 55m. 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500. 12000’ (We lost P.O. engine during bomb-run).
Day 11-9-44. LE HAVRE. 218 bombers from 5 Group attacked German positions still holding out at Le Havre. Two British divisions were now attacking Le Havre and the German garrison surrendered a few hours later. The British wished to capture the port intact as a supply port for the armies, but the German garrison had proved spiteful – they had mined and blown up most of the docks, and it was a number of weeks before the port could be used.
[inserted] Night [/inserted] 11-9-44 DAMSTADT. 226 Lancasters of 5 Group.
Our pilot (Peter Gray-Buchanan) did his “second dickie”. 1 A/C from 463 lost (7 KIA).
[circled 2] 12-9-44 STUTTGART. 20 of 467, 14 of 463, of 204 from 5 Group. (Same night 378 Lancasters on Frankfurt … with success.) Post war, a German expert, Heinz Bardau, wrote that the Northern + Western parts of the city were erased in this concentrated attack, & that a fire-storm resulted … 1171 people killed. Stuttgart’s highest fatality figure for the war. 467 lost 2 crews: F/L D. Brown .. 5 KIA, 2 POW; F/O Bright … 5 KIA, 2 POW.
F 6h 50m 1 x 4000 + 13 J clusters. 15750’
[circled 3] 17-9-44. BOULOGNE. 19 from 467, 19 from 463, of 762 bombers dropping more than 3000 tons of H.E. bombs on German positions around Boulogne in preparation for an attack by Allied troops. The German garrison
[page break]
surrendered soon afterwards.
D. 3h 25 m. 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500. 8100’
[circled 4] 18-9-44 BREMERHAVEN. 19 of 467, 19 of 463, of 206 from 5-Group. No losses from Waddington. The post-war assessors found that this 5-Group attack, with less than 900 tons of bombs, started a fire-storm which destroyed 2750 buildings in the main port area, & that 30000 people were made homeless & lived in the open until evacuated several days later.
D 4h 45m. 18 cans (incendiaries – 150 per can). 15250’
[circled 5] [inserted] 19-9-44 [/inserted] RHEYDT/MUNCHEN-GLADBACH. 19 of 467, 16 of 463, of 227 Lancasters of 5-Group bombing the twin towns. German reports state that only between 267 and 271 people were killed. 467 lost one Lanc, crashing on returning (4 KIA, 1 POW, 2 evaded, including pilot, F/O Findlay) Master Bomber was W/C Guy Gibson, VC, DSO, DFC (of Dambusters fame) flying a Mosquito … which crashed in flames near the Dutch coast. He and his navigator (S/L J.N. Warwick, DFC) were killed and buried at Steenbergen-en-Kriesland. (Orbited target for 17mm – marking delay). 11000’
D 5h 5m 1 x 2000 + 12 J clusters.
[circled 6] 23-9-44 DORTMUND-EMS CANAL (Aqueduct). 19 of 467, 17 of 463, of 136 Lancs. from 5-Group mounting a special attack on the aqueduct at Ladbergen on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. The canal was breached, but losses were heavy 10% of the force were lost. 467 lost F/O G.A. Brown and crew. (5 KIA. 2 POW). (Orbited target losing height for 15 min extra there. Meant to bomb 14000’ but 6400’ due to cloud)
C 5h 25m 14 x 1000
[page break]
[inserted] On the unused back of one of the logsheets are some sketches (rough) of GEE BOX & the kind of blips, scales etc, displayed [/inserted]
(BREMERHAVEN, Con’t).
We took off at 1832, orbited base until 1844, when we set course at 2000’. At 1915 we needed to alter course southwards to regain our track as the winds were from about 085oT rather than 060oT (forecast). Our last GEE fix (before jamming) was on track near turning point A, and we’d climbed to 15000’, from which height we bombed at 2103. Our bomb load was 18 cans of incendiaries. The Lancaster bomb-bay, (quite long & wide, under the floor) had 14 ‘hooks’, so to use 18 cans, 3 of the hooks had a framework added to hold 3 cans side by side. The bomb-aimer could select all 14 hooks to release independently, usually at fairly short time intervals to produce a “stick” of bombs usefully spread. Each can of incendiaries released 150 small bombs about 5 cm diameter & about 40 cm long, each capable of starting a fire.
It was an easy trip for navigation, with GEE only jammed for about 1/2 hr before & after the target. We were airborne for 4h 46 min.
[circled 5] [underlined] RHEYDT/MUNCHEN-GLADBACH. 19.9.44 [/underlined] 19 Lancs from 467, & 16 from 463 were part of a total of 227 from 5 Group bombing the twin-towns. German reports state that only between 267 & 271 people were killed. 467 Sqdn lost one Lanc. crashing on returning (4 KIA but pilot, F/O Findlay, & one other evaded, & the 7th was imprisoned). The Master-Bomber was W/C Guy Gibson VC, DSO, DFC, of Dambuster fame, flying a Mosquito which crashed in flames near the Dutch coast. He and his navigator (S/L J.N. Warwick, DFC) were killed and buried at Steenbergen-en-Kriesland. We took off at 1856 and did a Radius-of-Action (track 260oT) to arrive back at Base at 1913, at 2000’. The winds were about as predicted, we kept close to track & time, and arrived at target at 2139 at 11000’, but were told to [underlined] orbit [/underlined] (to port) due to marking problems. At 2148 we were told to [underlined] orbit again, [/underlined] until, at 2151 we we [sic] told to “attack Green spot fires direct”, which we did at 2155, at 11000’.
[page break]
[photograph] D-Dog at Waddington, 1944
[photograph] [symbol] Peter at pilots window
[photograph] Our gunners
Left: Ken Nicholls, Rear Gunner
Right: Ray Giles, Mid-Upper Gunner
[page break]
RHEYDT/MUNCHEN-GLADBACH (Con’t).
At 2159 1/2 I logged “a/c hit ground – explosion – flame & smoke”
At 2201 1/2 I logged “a/c on ground, bears 000o, 2 min (51o23’, 05o51’E).
At 2211 we saw an unidentified fighter so went into the corkscrew routine, at about 51o30’N 05o00’E.
At 2213 1/2 , while in starbord [sic] turn saw unidentified fighter above us, at about 51o31’N 04o53’E, so continued to corkscrew.
At 2221, I logged “possible a/c hit ground 3 mi on port beam, about 51o32 1/2’N 04o19’E. Our bomb-load was 1 x 2000 lb & 12 “J” clusters. We were airborne for 5h 5 min.
[circled 6] [underlined] DORTMUND-EMS CANAL [/underlined]. 23.9.44. 19 from 467 & 17 from 463 of total 136 Lancs from 5 Group mounted a special attack on the aquaduct at Ladbergen. The canal was breached, but losses were heavy … 10% of the force. 467 Sqdn lost F/O G.A. Brown & crew (5 KIA, 2 POW).
We took off at 1906, did the usual Radius-of-Action to be back at Base at 1931 at 2000’. We crossed the Channel at 4000’ then climbed to 6000’, keeping nicely to track until 2047. GEE was being jammed, and the next 2 fixes showed us 10 & 20 mi North of track … they may have been wrong. We continued by dead-reckoning through cloud climbing to 14000’ and arriving at the target on time at 2148. (We were told by Master-Bomber at 2146 “to bomb 150 ft N.W. of Red Target Indicator (flare)” J. But we were in thick cloud, so [underlined] orbited to port [/underlined] losing height … very dangerous in cloud. At 2155 the Master-Bomber said “cloud base is 8000’, come in and bomb”, but we were still in cloud & had to do [underlined] another orbit [/underlined], losing height to 6300’, so that finally we could see the target at bombed at 2203 from 6400’.
At 2205 I logged “a/c hit ground & exploded 8 mi S.E. of [symbol], (at about 51o59’N 07o53’E.”
At 2228 1/2 I logged “crossed river; a/c hit ground, port beam, 3 mi.”
At 2229 “a/c directly under us hit ground, 52o15’N 06o11’E.”
At 2231 1/2 I logged “a/c hit ground ahead about 10 mi” [brackets]
At 2236 1/2 I logged “a/c (same one?) on port beam, 5 mi [brackets] 52o10’N 06o00’E
[page break]
DORTMUND-EMS CANAL (Con’t).
After leaving the target area, the winds must have been stronger than predicted from the South.
At 2253 I logged “Strong searchlights ahead … Bomb-Aimer thinks its Rotterdam” (about 10 mi North of desired track). So we immediately turned 40o to port, but copped some flak.
At 2303 we saw searchlights over the OVER FLAKKEE area, and at 2304 got our first GEE fix since our last good one at 2047 putting us about 11 mi north of track.
Our bomb-load was 14 x 1000 lb. We were airborne for 5h 25 min.
[underlined] CALAIS. 24.9.44. [/underlined] 8 from 467, & 7 from 463 of a total 188 from 5 Group. 8 were shot down, including 1 from 467 Sqdn, F/O R.A. Jones (3 KIA & 4 POW).
[circled 7] [underlined] KARLSRUHE 26.9.44 [/underlined]. 17 from 467, 14 from 463 of a total 227 from 5 Group. A short German report states “that there was damage throughout the city & lists several important buildings destroyed”. 467 Sqdn lost F/O K. Miller (1 KIA, 6 POW).
We took off at 0055 & did the usual radius-of-action to be back at base at 0113 at 3000’. The winds were much as predicted and we kept close to track & timing, our last reliable GEE fix was at 0337; we arrived at target at 0408 and Master-Bomber told us to “bomb direct on mixed Red & Green T.1’s” But we had 10/10 cloud below us, so we “went round again” & managed to bomb at 0414 from 11500’. Our first reliable GEE fix on the way home was at 0444, only just over 1 hour of jamming.
Our bomb-load was 18 cans of incendiaries, and we were airborne for 6h 50 mins.
[circled 8] [underlined] KAISERLAUTERN 27.9.44 [/underlined] 16 from 467, 15 from 463 of a total of 217 from 5 Group, did the only major raid of the war by Bomber Command. 909 tons of bombs were dropped causing widespread damage to this medium-sized city. A local German report complained that the town was not a military objective, but went on to list a catalogue of small factories destroyed. We took off at 2205,
[page break]
24-9-44. CALAIS. 8 of 467, 7 of 463, of 188 from 5-Group. 8 were shot down. 467 lost F/O R. A. Jones & crew (3 KIA, 4 POW)
[circled 7] 26-9-44 KARLSRUHE. 17 of 467, 14 of 463, of 227 from 5-Group. A short German report states that there was damage throughout the city & lists several important buildings destroyed. 467 lost F/O K. Miller & crew (1 KIA, 6 POW).
J 6h 50m 18 cans incendiaries 11500’
[circled 8] 27-9-44 KAISERLAUTERN. 16 of 467, 15 of 463, of 217 from 5-Group on Kaiserlautern, a medium-sized city, in the only major raid on it by Bomber Command during the war. 909 tons of bombs were dropped a widespread damage was caused. A local German report complains that the town was not a military object, but goes on to list a catalogue of small factories destroyed.
H 6h 20m 18 cans incendiaries 4000’
(Sept. Summary: 467 flew 199 sorties; lost 6 crews (23 KIA, 17 POW, 2 Ev.) 4 tours completed.)
[circled 9] 5-10-44 WILHELMSHAVEN 17 of 467, 16 of 463, of 227 from 5-Group. 10/10 cloud, marking by H2S. The Wilhelmshaven Diary states that only 12 people died and one bomber was shot down. 467 lost 1 crew (they ditched … hadn’t got to the target … at about 11 am. They were finally rescued about 5pm next day. After short leave, they returned to ‘ops, and were all Killed-in-Action on the Harburg raid.
(This was the only ‘trip’ on which we were allowed to use H2S (they thought enemy fighters could use its transmission to find us). We couldn’t see the markers, so bombed by H2S.)
C. 5h 5m. 18 cans incendiaries. 15000’ (We flew to target in formation escorted by long-range Mustangs
[page break]
did a Radius of Action to be back at base at 2228 at 3000’. We stayed at 3000’ until 0010, then climbed to 4500’ and stayed at 4500’ until close to target, when told to bomb from 4000’, which we did (1 1/2 min early), dropping 18 cans of incendiaries. We kept close to track all the way and only lost GEE for an hour. We were airborne for 6h 20 min.
[circled 9] [underlined] WILHELMHAVEN. [/underlined] 17 of 467, 16 of 463, of 227 from 5-Group, a daylight raid flying in formation to the target, escorted by long-range Mustang fighters. The met. forcast [sic] was for considerable cloud at the target, and we were given the most unusual priorities for bombing:-
(i) drop them visually if target is clear;
(ii) use H2S if target is obscured; or (!)
(iii) drop when you see another bomber drop its load.
We took off at 0755, did a Radius of Action to be back at base at 0811 to join formation at 1500’. My GEE set was not working, but being in formation I didn’t have to navigate anyway. Ted Pickard, the new assistant Nav. Officer, criticised my lack of effort to have some practice. At 1010 we began to climb to 15000’ at the target where at 1106 there was 10/10 cloud below. Our Bomb Aimer & I operated the H2S and aimed at the NW corner of the town and dropped our bombs at 1110 and noticed two other Lancasters dropped theirs immediately after. We flew home independently, but other Lancs were visible so we followed the stream. At 1212 I took over flying a plane for the first & only time, keeping straight & level without much trouble for half an hour. We did a bit of map-reading for the last 1/2 hour, and landed at 1306, being airborne for 5h 5 min. Our bomb-load was 18 cans of incendiaries. The Wilhelmshaven Diary states that only 12 people died and that 1 bomber was shot down. 467 lost 1 crew … they ditched before the target at about 11 am & were (finally) rescued about 1700 the next day. After short leave they resumed ops., but were all K.I.A. on the HARBURG raid on 11.11.44. Our bomb-load was 15 cans of incendiaries
[page break]
[circled 10] [underlined] BREMEN [/underlined] 17 of 467 Sq., 18 of 463 Sq., of 246 from 5 Group, a night raid on 6.10.44, with bomb-load 18 cans of incendiaries dropped from 17250’. Air borne at 1736 & did Return of Action arriving back at base at 1753 at 5000’. A good navigation trip keeping close to desired track, but winds were lighter than expected, so, despite reducing air-speed twice (10 mph each time) we did a 60o – 120o triangle to lose 7 min. This was the last of 32 major Bomber Command raids on Bremen of the war. This raid, based on the 5 Group marking method, was an outstanding success. 1021 tons of bombs were dropped, of which 868 tons were incendiaries. A detailed report (local) is available which was compiled by an official who stated that: “the night was clear, with 3/4 full moon. A huge fire area was started. Classed as destroyed were 4859 houses, 42 factories, 2 shipyards, the Focke-Wulf works & the Siemens-Schubert electrical works. The transport network was seriously disrupted.” This raid, by no more than 1/4 of Bomber Command (& hardly mentioned in the British War History) had finished Bremen … it was not attacked again in the war.
We landed at 2233 after a trip of 4hr 55 min.
[circled 11] [underlined] FLUSHING [/underlined] (WEST DYKE on WALCHEREN ISLAND in the Scheldt Estuary.) 12 of 467, & 11 of 463 of a total of 121 of 5 Group, a daylight raid on 7.10.44. We each did 2 runs dropping a stick of 7 each run (all 1000 lb HE bombs). The sea-wall was breached and virtually all the island was flooded except the rest of the sea-wall, the central tour (Middleburgh) & the town of Flushing. English newspapers had a photo of the flooded island the next day. We had no losses despite plenty of A.A. [inserted] [two indecipherable words] [/inserted]. On the same day 846 of Bomber Command attacked Kleve-Emerich & Kembs Dams. 617 Sqn. used Tallboys (12000 lb bomb) on Kembs to destroy the floodgates to [underlined] prevent [/underlined] the Germans flooding the valley in the face of the American & French advance.
We were airborn for 3h 10 min.
[page break]
[circled 10] 6-10-44 BREMEN. 17 of 467, 18 of 463, of 246 from 5-Group. This was the last of 32 major Bomber Command raids on Bremen during the war. The raid, based on the 5-Group marking method, was an outstanding success. 1021 tons of bombs were dropped of which 868 tons were incendiaries. A detailed local report is available which was compiled by an official who stated that the night was clear with 3/4 full moon … A huge fire area was started. Classed as destroyed were 4859 houses, 42 factories, 2 shipyards, the Focke-Wulfe works and the Siemens Schubert electrical works. The transport network was seriously disrupted. This raid, by no more than 1/4 of Bomber Command (and hardly mentioned in British (War) History, had finished Bremen and the city was not attacked again by Bomber Command.
D 4h 55m 18 cans incendiaries 17250’
[circled 11] 17-10-44 FLUSHING (WALCHEREN ISLAND – WEST DYKE)
12 of 467, 11 of 463, of 121 from 5-Group to successfully breach the sea-wall near Flushing. No losses. (The same day 846 of Bomber Command attacked Kleve Emerich & Kembs Dams … 617 Squadron used ‘Tallboy’ bombs on Kembs. (The idea was to destroy the floodgates to [underlined] prevent [/underlined] the Germans flooding the Rhine valley in the face of French & American advances … this was done OK.)
D 3h 10m 2 sticks of 7 x 1000 6100’ Extra 6 min. orbit for 2nd stick.
[page break]
DAY 11-10-44 FLUSHING. 14 of 467, 20 of 463, of 115 from 5-Group attacked gun positions on N. bank of Scheldt Estuary near Flushing. No losses from Waddington.
[deleted] NIGHT [/deleted] [inserted] DAY [/inserted] 14-10-44 DUISBURG Bomber command sent 1013 heavy bombers, and 473 fighters, Americans sent 1251 heavy bombers and 749 fighters … the raid was carried out on a directive from Allied H.Q. to show the Germans the power of Bomber Commands.
NIGHT 14-10-44 BRUNSWICK 19 of 467, 20 of 463 to join 233 of 5 Group. The most effective of numerous raids on Brunswick. Using the 5-Group low-level marking method, Brunswick was finally destroyed. A German report simply lists the number of hectares burnt out. 23000 people were rescued from air-raid shelters and only 200 perished. A special train was sent from Bavaria to help feed the 80000 homeless.
DAY 17-10-44 WESTKAPELLE 2 of 467, 9 of 463 of 47 from 5-Group attacking sea-wall at Westkapelle. Bombing appeared to be accurate but no report is available. No losses.
[circled 12] 19-10-44 NUREMBERG (& DUISBURG) 20 of 467, 20 of 463, of 263 from 5-Group with 7 Mosquitoes in a special low-level-marked attack on Nuremberg. The target was completely cloud-covered and low-level marking could not be used. The raid was effective but not the ‘knockout’ as hoped. (There were 103 bombers from another Group on Stuttgart and other targets, losing only 0.9%). 467 lost F/O E. Rodwell & crew (7 KIA)
D 8h 10m 1 x 2000 + 12 J clusters. 17400’
[page break]
On 11-10-44, 16 of 467, 20 of 463 of total 115 (all 5 Group) attacked big gun positions on the bank of [underlined] Scheldt Estuary [/underlined], near Flushing. The big guns prevented a sea attack to open the Estuary for Allied supply shipping (a minefield had to be cleared too), and they menaced the Canadian Army who were attacking south of the Estuary, but couldn’t match these big guns for range. I think the weather was bad, poor visibility maybe no great harm done to the guns.
On 14-10-44 there was a big daylight raid on [underlined] Duisberg [/underlined], carried out as a directive from Allied H.Q. to show the Germans the power of Allied Air Power. Bomber Command sent 1013 heavies & 413 fighters, the Americans sent 1251 heavies & 749 fighters.
That night, (14-10-44) 5 Group sent 19 of 467 Sq & 20 of 463 Sq of a total of 233, to [underlined] Brunswick [/underlined], using the 5 Group low-level marking method, Brunswick was finally destroyed. A German report simply lists the number of hectares burnt out. 23000 people were rescued from air-raid shelters & only 200 perished. Special train sent from Bavaria to help feed the 80000 homeless.
On 17-10-44, 2 of 467, & 9 of 463 Sq. of total of 47 of 5 Group attacked the sea-wall again near Westkapelle on Walcheren Island. Bombing appeared to be accurate but no report was available.
[circled 12] [underlined] NUREMBERG [/underlined]. 5 Group sent 20 of 467 Sq. & 20 of 463 Sq of a total of 263 with 7 Mosquitos to do low-level marking. There was total cloud cover which prevented the low-level marking. The raid was effective but not the knock-out hoped for. The rest of Bomber Command raided Stuttgart & other nearby targets, only losing 0.9%. 467 Sq. lost F/O Rodwell & crew (7 KIA). We took off at 1713, did a Radius of Action coming back to base at 1718 at 2000’. We reduced speed to 150 mph but still had to lose 6 min doing 60oL, 120oR, then got to [symbol] OK but had to orbit as directed.
Bombed 15 min late at 17400’ on Red & Green Target [deleted] [indecipherable word] flares [/deleted]
[page break]
Our bomb-load was 1 x 2000 lb HE, and 12 ‘J’ clusters (incendiary). After leaving the target we descended to 6000’, & flew on dead-reckoning, south of Stuttgart & Strasbourg for 2 hours until I got the first GEE fix, nearly 20 miles north of our track, but safely over France. Sid discovered that we had one of the ‘J’ bombs “hung-up”. We went to the jettison area in the Channel & tried to release it manually … did 2 orbits as we kept trying, but without success. So we flew on home to base at 4000’, landing after 8hr 9 min airborne, by far our longest flight so far.
[page break]
[inserted] [symbol] Don Coults (Engineer went to Ireland to visit his parents there. [/inserted]
After our 11th Op at Flushing we went on the usual 6-day leave, after only about 4 weeks after we started our tour. The crews were put on a roster for leave, usually each 6 weeks, but you could go earlier if a few crews before you on the list went missing.
A few items from a diary I kept then … 7th Oct: On our return from the Flushing op, we “shot-up” the ‘drome (low level) for W/C. Brill who was going home to Australia. Wrote up log book. Went to a dance with Jackie from our Mess.
8th:- Applied for leave passes. Got paid. Packed.
9th:- Collected subsistence money, & petrol coupons for bike, [symbol] got leave passes. Caught train to London, missed by Ken. Booked in at A.C.F. Club for the night. Ken arrived at 10 pm. We booked in for the rest of the leave. Nice room.
10th. Had breakfast at the Boomerang Club. I looked around & spotted Kirk Beddie from Mendooran. I’ll just go back in time to our first couple of operations to relate a coincidence. When our 8 new crews arrived together, our Nav. Leader, F/Lt Arnold Eastman, was still doing Ops himself, yet was responsible for in-service training of the navigators (especially us new ones). So he delegated the checking of log & charts, and giving advice to some of his senior navigators (Who’d lasted, say 10 ops or more). The first one who helped me twice was called Scotty – I didn’t find out his surname, it was strictly teacher & pupil, especially as he looked elderly … moustache & bald patch … (actually he was about 26). I didn’t see him again at Waddington – we had about 300 air-crew Flight sergeants there.
Anyway, at the Boomerang club, I said good-day to Kirk, we told each other what we’d been doing … he was well into a tour as captain of Sunderland crew – doing Atlantic patrols.
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I remarked that it was a coincidence that the only two fliers [sic] from Mendooran should be on leave at the same place & time. He said ‘-“Oh no, there’s another Mendooranite over here, Vernon Gall, who was the teller at the Bank of NSW there.” I replied that I didn’t know him. Kirk said:- “Well you might not have met him as you were at High School at Mudgee when your parents came to Mendooran, then you worked in Sydney, went into the Army, then the Air Force – you rarely were in Mendooran. Well, what do you know – there he is, I’ll bring him over & introduce you.” Kirk came back with Scotty. We laughed about that coincidence! After the war, when I bought the sports depot in Mudgee & transferred my bank a/c to the Bank of NSW there, Scotty was the teller.
[symbol] At the Club I also met Joe Barber & Eric Gentle who’d been with me at Cootamundra. Ken saw 4 chaps he knew at Lichfield, and I met Rupe Brown the Australian ground-crew corporal who looked after the 3 Lancs & ground crews at our dispersal corner. We went to a play, but didn’t enjoy it - - too serious. Back at A.C.F. played table-tennis with Ken & darts with Sid.
11th: Got some free theatre tickets with Sid & the play was quite enjoyable. Cinema after lunch .. Red Skelton in “Bathing Beauty”, very funny. Game of darts at the Club. Met Jack Freer, who played the saxophone on the ship across the Pacific.
12th. Ken & I got tickets for a play … a good comedy. Darts at the club after supper.
13th Got tickets for a show on Monday. Bought a wireless for £12/3/4.
[symbol] After the war, I found that Ray Meers (Rear Gunner) & Lindsay Francis (Wireless-Operator-Gunner, of Mendooran had both done tours with B.C. about the same time as I.
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14th. Bought more Xmas cards. Had lunch with Peter Dunn from Mudgee at the Club. Saw a newsreel, went to the Windmill theatre, a few beers with Ken, Supper, then table-tennis.
15th. Rupe left to return to Waddington (he’d shared our room
Visited Mme Tussauds waxworks Museum .. very good.
Walked through the Zoo. Saw a newsreel.
16th. At Boomerang Club met Ken Vidler’s crew (I think they were killed a bit later.) Walked the Embankment, saw Cleopatra’s Needle, down Whitehall, got a glimpse of 10 Downing St (cordoned off by Police). Saw the show we’d booked “Happy & Glorious”, easily the best show we’d been to. Had a few drinks with 2 girls who sleep in the railway station at Gloucester Road to be safe from air raids – they’d been doing that for years!
17th: Rain all day. Went cinema that featured 3 films … 4 1/4 hours. Had a steak (!) for 5/- then another film; couldn’t find the ‘steak’ cafe again.
18th. Packed, Sid came back from Exeter & Bristol. Played crib on the train with Sid, all the way to Lincoln. Lunch at 3, collected bike & rode back to camp.
19th. Flew at once for high-level-bombing practice … too much low cloud, so we got a fighter & did some affiliation practice. Then lunch & briefing at 1.30 for a “trip” to Nuremberg, the scene of one of B.C.’s worst losses sometime earlier, when about 500 heavies were caught below high cloud, searchlights lit them up & (from memory) nightfighters, mainly, & flak brought down 49 for a loss rate of 9%. This time it was cloud below us and 467 only lost 1 crew, F/O Rodwell’s … all KIA.
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[circled 13] 23-10-44 FLUSHING. 21 of 467, 20 of 463 of 121 from 5-Group attacked gun positions near Flushing. Visibility was bad and the bombing scattered.
D 3h 20m. 14 x 1000. Briefed to bomb at 6500’ but forced to descend (bad visibility). Bombed at 4000’
[circled 14] BERGEN 28-10-44. 20 of 467, 15 of 463, of 237 from 5-Group, to attack U-boat pens at Bergen. Target was cloud-covered and master-bomber called off the attack after only 47 planes had bombed … from below 5000’ (Mountains within 10 miles of track nearly 4500’!)
D 7h 30m. 12 x 1000 Briefed to bomb at 9000’. Orbited once [inserted] extra 6 min there [/inserted] and lost height using GEE to avoid mountains … bombed at 3800’ Diverted to Marston Moor on return (fog over Waddington). Returned next day.
[inserted] (On our final run there was AA fire from [underlined] above [/underlined] us (mountains) as well as below!) [/inserted]
[circled 15] 30-10-44 WALCHEREN ISLAND. 13 of 467, 13 of 463, of 102 from 5-Group attacked gun positions near Walcheren. The attack was successful and the Allied ground forces commenced their attack on 31st. No losses
Briefed to bomb at 6000’. Cloud over target. Two orbits made – 20 min over target area – bombed at 3500’.
D 3h 20m. 14 x 1000.
OCT ’44 SUMMARY: 467 flew 157 sorties, lost 2 crews (7 KIA, 7 Ev): 5 tours completed, incl. (C.O.) W/C. Brill completing his 2nd tour. 1 crew ditched, rescued & returned.
DAY 1-11-44 HOMBERG. 19 of 467, 17 of 463, of 226 from 5-Group attacked the Meerbeck oil plant at Homberg. Marking was scattered + only 159 planes attempted to bomb. No losses from Waddington.
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After nearly 2 hours on the way home we tried to jettison a J-Cluster (incendiary) which had “hung-up”. We turned back to try to realease [sic] it manually, but failed. So we brought it home & it was safely removed. We landed 1/2 hour late, time airborn was 8hr 9 min. Our bomb-load was 1 x 2000 lb HE & 12 ‘J’ clusters dropped from 17400’.
[circled 13] [underlined] FLUSHING [/underlined] 5 Group sent 121 incl. 21 of 467 Sq & 20 of 463, to attack big gun positions near Flushing on Walcheren Island on 23.10.44. Visibility was bad & the bombing was “scattered”. We took off at 1429, did a Radius of Action & got back to base at 1434 at 2000’. Had a good navigation trip but had to descent from 6500’ to 4000’ to see the target. 1 1/2 min before we bombed our gunners reported a Lanc. hit the sea behind us (I plotted it at 56o33’N, 03o27’E). Quite a few planes were lost and a lot of A.A. damage – we had many holes. Our bomb load was 14 of 1000 lb HE, and 1 of them “hung-up”. We tried to jettison it but couldn’t. We were airborn [sic] for 3h. 19 min.
[circled 14] [underlined] BERGEN (NORWAY) [/underlined] 5-Group sent 237 of which 20 from 467 Sq + 15 from 463, on 28-10-44 to attack U-boat pens at night. We took off at 2221 & did a Radius of Action & got back to base at 2250 at 1500’ which we maintained until 0120 (up till then we were over the N. Sea) when we climbed to 9000’ & increased speed to 180 mph as we were 3 min behind time. When we got to the target we were in cloud. The master bomber told us to come down to 5000’ … we had to orbit carefully as there were mountains East of Bergen over 4000’. I used GEE position lines to descend safely away from mountains to 3800’ when we bombed … about 10 min after the planned time. It was nice to have GEE all the way (no jamming like over Germany) & we kept nicely to track all the way. Our bomb load was 12 x 1000 lb HE. There was plenty of flak around Bergen … some from mountain tops nearly level with us! There was a lot of cloud (& maybe smoke-screen) at the target … master bomber cancelled the raid after only 47 of us bombed
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30.10.44. [symbol] 15 WALCHEREN ISLAND (FLUSHING). 13 from 467 Sqdn & 13 from 463 of 102 total (all 5 Group), daylight raid on big gun emplacements on the Southern edge of Walcheren Island. The Germans also held the Southern banks of the Scheldt Estuary. The Allies had always wanted to capture Antwerp (50 miles inland, the biggest port for unloading tanks & other heavy equipment). While ever these big guns covered both sides of the Estuary, the Allies couldn’t go in to clear the minefields. In fact the Canadian army trying to take the South bank was held up by bad weather (flooded terrain), lack of petrol & ammunition (Patton was partly to blame along with Eisenhower) for so long that eventually, [inserted] our [/inserted] [deleted] Armies [/deleted] [inserted] Marines [/inserted] took Antwerp from the East & finally [inserted] 8 NOV [/inserted] captured Walcheren Island by “sailing” through gaps in the sea-wall from the East! It then took [inserted] nearly [/inserted] another month to clear the mines & winter had set in … too late to use Antwerp for the big offensive they may have been able to mount had they cleared Antwerp 3 months earlier.
We took off at 1340, did a R. of A. & got back to base at 1356 at 1500’. The navigation was easy & we stayed on-track & on-time to the target. We’d been told to bomb at 6000’, but found cloud below, so had to orbit [inserted] twice [/inserted] lose height to 3500’, finally bombing 22 min later than planned. Our bomb load was 14 x 1000 lb HE. We had no losses. The attack was successful, and the Canadian army began their attack along the S. bank the next day.
We dropped 14 x 1000 lb HE; the flight took 3h 20 min. For October, 467 Sq. flew 157 sorties, lost 2 crews (7 KIA, 7 Evaded); 5 tours were completed; 1 crew ditched, were rescued & returned.
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Nov 1st. 226 Lancs of 5 Group (19 from 467 & 17 from 463), in daylight, raided the Meerbeck oil plant near Homberg. Weather was bad, the marking was scattered and only 159 attempted to bomb. No losses from Waddington.
2.11.44 [symbol] 16. DUSSELDORF. 5 Group was part of a big raid (992) by Bomber Command, 15 from 467, 15 from 463. Detailed German reports listed 5000 buildings destroyed, many of them industrial & production works. There were other raids that night too … a total of 1131 sorties. We took off at 1651, 15 min. late. We climbed to 17000’ & increased speed to 170 mph to catch up. At 1920 (at 18000’) we were “coned” by searchlights … very dangerous as ‘flak’ then could be fired visually. We shook them off & bombed at 1925, & I noted that an aircraft was hit about 10 mi ahead, our heading 220o.T. On the way home in the next 26 min, I made 12 more log entries of aircraft crashing to the ground with estimates of their bearing & distance from us.
The RAF had set up 2 more GEE “chains” based in Europe. I tried the RUHR chain, but found the readings “wouldn’t plot”.
Our bomb-load was 11 x 1000 lb & 4 x 500 lb HE.
The trip took 5h 20 min.
467 Sqdn lost F/O Langridge & crew (3 KIA, 5 evaded).
Dusseldorf taken (on Cook’s tour 19.6.45
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[circled 16] 2-11-44. DUSSELDORF. 15 of 467, 15 of 463 as part of 992 of Bomber Command. Detailed German reports list 5000 buildings destroyed, many of them industrial & production works. (There were other raids that night too … a total of 1131 sorties.) 467 lost F/O L. Langridge & crew (3 KIA, 5 evaded).
C. 5h 20m. 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500. 18000’
NIGHT 4-11-44 DORTMUND-EMS CANAL. 12 of 467, 12 of 463, of 174 from 5-Group attacked the canal near Munster. The banks of the canal were breached again. A report from Albert Speer to Hitler dated 11.11.44 was captured at the end of the war. Speer stated that the raids on the Dortmund-Ems canal, with attacks on the rail system, produced more serious setbacks to the German war industry at this time than any other type of bombing.
[circled 17] 6-11-44. EMS-WESER CANAL. 19 of 467, 16 of 463, of 235 from 5-Group attacked near the junction of the Ems-Weser and Mittland canals, near Gravenhorst. Markers had considerable difficulty in finding the junction due to ground haze, until a low-flying Mosquito (pilot: F/L L.C. de Vigne, and Aust. navigator, S/L. F. Boyle of 627 Sqdn) found and marked the target with such accuracy that the marker fell into the water and was soon extinguished. Only 31 planes bombed before the Master-Bomber ordered the raid be abandoned. 10 planes lost in the raid, 3 crews from 463 (all KIA). Waddington was fog bound on return & most planes were diverted to Seething. We were perhaps the last to land (in v. poor visibility).
D 5h 25m. 14 x 1000 (but did not bomb). Orbited target once, for extra 10 min. over it.
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4.11.44. 174 Lancs of 5 Group, 12 each from 467 & 463 Sqdns, attacked the Dortmund-Ems Canal, near Munster. The banks of the canal were breached again. A report from Albert Speer to Hitler dated 11.11.44 was captured at the end of the war. Speer stated then:- “that the raids on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, with attacks on the rail system, produced more serious setbacks to the German war industry, at this time, than any other type of bombing.” (In early 1945, the raids on oil targets may have been even more damaging to their war effort.)
6.11.44 [symbol] 17. EMS-WESER CANAL. 235 of 5 Group, 19 from 467, 16 from 463 attacked the Ems-Weser junction with the Mittland Canal, near Gravenhorst. The markers had considerable difficulty finding the junction due to ground haze, until a low-flying Mosquito (pilot: F/Lt L.C. de Vigne, & Australian navigator, S/Ldr F. Boyle of 627 Sqdn) found & marked the target with such accuracy that the marker landed in the canal & was soon extinguished. Only 31 planes bombed before the Master-Bomber abandoned the raid. 10 planes were lost, 3 of them from 463 Sqdn (all KIA).
We were supposed to take off at 1633 but actually took off 28 min late, so once we climbed to 11000’ we boosted our I.A.S. to 180 mph & were on-time by 1915. I logged a Lanc. crashing at 1923 1/2; we had to orbit twice [inserted] (12 min) [/inserted], at the target (due to the marking problem) … very dangerous. Logged 4 more planes crashing [deleted] at [/deleted] in the target area, & another at 1943, after we’d left the target without bombing. I couldn’t get any “joy” on either of the 2 new GEE chains. The trip took 5h. 25 min. We brought back our 14 x 1000 lb H.E. bombs.
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The weather deteriorated on the way back … the bumps were so bad that I had to hold all my navigation gear down to stop them hitting the roof, & brace my knees under the nav. table to avoid joining them there. The visibility at Waddington was bad due to fog, and most of our planes were diverted to Strubby; however, Peter did an abbreviated circuit (so he could actually keep the runway in sight) & then came in as if in a Tiger Moth, almost clipping the caravan stationed near the “funnel” (where they might use a Verey to send-you-round-again), but he landed safely … and then they closed the airfield.
Besides getting the 2 new GEE chains (RHEIMS & RHUR) to help with navigation over Germany, we now had LORAN fitted. It was similar in some ways to GEE, but depened [sic] on the radio signals being reflected from the ionosphere (only at night). The stations were widely separated … I think England, Norway, Italy … and each single reading had to be made & timed, then another [deleted] one [/deleted] tuned-in, read & timed … probably 2 min or more later, & the running -fix method used. On 9.11.44 we did at [sic] Cross-Country, using Loran, over England, ending with some high-level bombing practice … 3 1/4 hrs trip. The trailing aerial had to be used to receive Loran signals.
11.11.44 [symbol] 18. HARBURG. A 5-Group raid of 237 planes, + 8 marker Mosquitos, 19 from 467, 14 from 463 … a night raid on the Rhenania-Ossag oil refinery, near Hamburg. This refinery had been raided several times by American daylight bombers. We took off at 1627, did a R. of A. to be back a [sic] base at 1634 at 3000’.
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(HARBURG)
We climbed to 15000’ & later to 16000’ to get out of cloud, & kept nicely to track all the way to the target, getting a bit behind time all the way (no worries we were over the sea nearly all the way). We bombed 8 min late from 16000’. Our WOP (Eric) told us the Master Bomber said to bomb the centre of the Red Target Indicators (there were 4), but to ignore outside Indicators which were dummies (set up by the Germans). Half an hour before the target I wanted to use LORAN, but Eric (our WOP) said he’d been ordered not to use the trailing aerial. I relied on Dead-Reckoning from the target and got my first GEE fix 50 min later about 15 mi. N. of track.
Our bomb-load was 1 x 4000 lb “cookie”, 6 x 1000 lb, & 6 x 500 lb H.E. We could still see the plant burning from 100 mi away on our way back. Our squadron lost F/O Fedderson’s crew (7 KIA) & F/O Eyre’s crew (6 KIA, 1 POW) … one of these killed was Geoff (“Bushie”) Goodfellow, their navigator, one of my best friends … we played a lot of cards together & we bunked opposite each other in our room. He came from Tooraweenah (father ran the “Mountain View” hotel there), & he said I was the only person he’d met that had even heard of the place, let alone been there, which I had.
F/L Kynoch’s plane was hit & badly damaged, but he crash-landed it at Manston (an emergency ‘drome on the coast) & he & the crew survived.
The flight lasted 5h. 35 min.
On 13.11.44 we did our “20 SORTIE CHECK”, on a flight of 55 min. We’d only done 18 ops plus the 2 BULLSEYES at Lichfield & Swinderby.
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[circled 18] 11-11-44 HARBURG. 19 of 467, 14 of 463, of 237 from 5-Group, plus 8 Marker Mosquitos attacked the Rhenania-Ossag oil refinery at Harburg (near Hamburg). This had been attacked several times by American (day) bombers. Brunwig’s ‘History of Hamburg & Harburg’ (air-raids), gives the raid a brief mention. (We could still see the plant burning 100 miles away on our way home.)
467 lost F/O. M. Fedderson & crew (7 POW), and F/O. T. Eyre & crew [inserted] (G Goodfellow was the Nav) [/inserted] (6 KIA, 1 POW). F/L Kynoch’s plane was hit and badly damaged – he crash-landed at Manston (an emergency ‘drome on the coast).
D 5h 35m. 1 x 4000 + 6 x 1000 + 6 x 500 16000’
[circled 19] 16-11-44 DUREN. 15 of 467, 15 of 463, as part of 1188 from Bomber Command, attacked Duren, Julich & Heinsburg in support of the American 1st & 9th armies which were about to advance on this area. Raids were made by 1239 American heavy bombers on targets in the same area. (this was the biggest raid we took part in … there were planes to the horizon all the way, heaps of fighter escorts.) 9400 tons of bombs dropped. The result was disappointing. Heavy rain and wet ground prevented much of the tank assault and slowed the supplies of artillery ammunition and the armies’ advance was slow and costly. (For our part, the centre of Duren was reduced to rubble.) G/C. Bonham-Carter, O/C of Waddington led our Group, as ‘second dickie’ to the crew who had bombed the wrong target on a daylight raid on Flushing (23-10-44?), killing some Canadians.
D 5h 25m. 12 x 1000. 10500’
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16.11.44 [symbol] 19. DUREN (daylight). 15 planes from 467, & 15 from 463, were part of a big effort by Bomber Command (1188 planes) attacking Duren, Julich & Heinsburg in support of the 1st & 9th American Armies which were about to advance in this area. Raids were made on other targets in this area by 1239 American heavy bombers. This was by far the biggest raid we took part in … there were planes to the horizon all the way with heaps of fighter escort … [deleted] B [/deleted] 9400 tons of bombs were dropped, but the result was disappointing. Heavy rain & boggy ground prevented most of the tank attack and slowed supplies of artillery ammunition with the result that the advance was slow & costly. For our part, the centre of Duren was reduced to rubble – it may have needed bulldozers to clear a path through it! The base commander at Waddington, Gp/Capt Bonham-Carter, led 5 Group as ‘second dickie’ to one of our crews who had bombed the wrong “target” (a smoke-generator) on an earlier daylight raid near Flushing on 23.10.44, killing some Canadian army men.
The navigation was easy. Our bomb-load was 12 x 1000 lb H.E. dropped from 10500’. Flight time: 5h 25 min.
[two photographs]
Snaps of Duren taken on the “Cook’s Tour” I did on 19.6.45.
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Extracts from Diary –
18.11.44 navigators briefing at 1.30 for a v. long trip. Not enough time for preparation. Our crew just got out to the “kite” when the trip was “scrubbed” …joy! After tea we went down to the local Horse & Jockey (Hotel). Saw a bloke about his car, & bought it for £3 … a little Morris 8 HP Sedan
19.11.44 To navigation section before lunch for another briefing, to the same place as yesterday, more time for preparation & less to do. No lunch … sandwiches at briefing … then it was scrubbed again. Collected car.
20.11.44. Went to briefing for another daylight raid on the Dortmund-Ems canal, but it was scrubbed. Went to town with Ken Nichols & Ken (of ground crew) … wanted to go to the theatre, but all seats were sold, so we went to the cinema & saw “White Cliffs of Dover.”
21.11.44. Briefed again for the same canal raid as yesterday, chart was already done. [symbol] It was scrubbed at the 11th hour & we missed lunch … again had sandwiches in the briefing room.
21.11.44 [symbol] 20 DORMUND-EMS CANAL
We took off at 1726, did a R. of A. & got back to base at 1754 at 2000’. The winds were light & fairly consistently Westerly at first, then N.W. It was easy to keep on track & close on-time. At 2020 I logged “Lanc, crashed & blew-up 15 mi. astern”. We’d been at 10250’ until 2058 when WOP told us to descent to 3-4000’ … we did so, fast, and bombed at 2103. At 2108 I logged: “Aircraft crashed below us 3 mi. past other target.” At 2232 we jettisoned a hang-up bomb in the sea. Landed at base at 2337, time airborne 6h 11 min. Our bomb-load was 13 x 1000 lb H.E.
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21.11.44. [symbol] 20. DORTMUND-EMS CANAL, near LADBERGEN.
15 from 467, 15 from 463 bombed Dortmund-Ems & Mittland Canals; as part of Bomber Command maximum effort of 1345 heavy bombers attacking 6 targets in this general area.
No losses for 5-Group.
We took off at 1726, did a R. of A. getting back to base at 1754 at 2000’. I had a good navigation trip, GEE from England lasted until 2020, then the RUHR chain worked to the target area. I logged a Lanc. blowing-up 15 mi astern at 2020. We were briefed to bomb at 10500’ but, 5 min before out T.O.T our W.O.P. (Eric) got word that we descend to 3 – 4000’ to get below cloud. We descended quickly & bombed 5 min later at 4500’; then began climbing again into the clouds. Tried Loran for fixing without success. We had a bomb hang-up, but jettisonned [sic] it in the sea at 2222.
Our bomb load was 13 x 1000 lb H.E.
The trip took 6h 10 min.
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This is an enlargement of the smaller print of the area bombed repeatedly … DORTMUND EMS CANAL.
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[photograph] Open bomb-bay of a Lanc. loaded with 1000 lb H.E. bombs. Bomb-aimer could select each one to drop separately at predetermined intervals (usually close together as a “stick”.)
[photograph] Our Mid-upper gunner Ray Giles, near his turret – 2 Browning .303 machine guns
[photograph] Lanc’s in formation on a daylight raid. Nearest is PO-J
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On a low-level “Cooks Tour” from Wigsley on 19th June, 1945 (after war’s end in Europe), I took some photos with the old box Kodak.
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The Dortmund Ems canal where it was built above a stream, shown clearly in the left photo. The embankments here were bombed repeatedly, 8 times I think. We did 3 of Ops there and one at the nearby Ems-Weser canal.
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Broken bridges over the Rhine at Duisberg – we didn’t bomb there, but 5 Group did.
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The Krupps works at Essen, which was regularly bombed by the RAF during most of the war. Including some 1000 – bomber raids.
[photograph] Wrecked bridges at Cologne, another regular RAF target; somehow the Cathedral survived.
[photograph] The railway marshalling yards at Hamm received plenty of “attention”
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Dusseldorf was regularly bombed … we did our 16th Op. there
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[circled 20] 21-11-44. DORTMUND-EMS CANAL, (near LADBERGEN). 15 of 467, 15 of 463 as part of 1345 Bomber Command heavies attacked 6 targets in this general area. 5-Group targets were the Mitteland and Dortmund-Ems canals … without loss.
D 6h 10m. 13 x 1000. Briefed to bomb at 10250’, got 5 min warning by radio to descend to cloud base … bombed at 4500’.
[circled 21] 23-11-44. TRONDHEIM. 16 of 467, 4 of 463 of 171 from 5-Group, incl. 7 Mosquito Markers, to attack U-boat pens at Trondheim. The target was covered b y a smokescreen and could not be marked. The Master Bomber ordered the raid abandoned. No losses. (The weather was bad; big wind changes. Many jettisoned bombs in North Sea or diverted to North Scotland due to fuel shortage … we were the only one to return to Waddington with bombs still aboard.)
D 10h 55m. 9 x 1000 (brought home).
26-11-44 MUNICH (Our rear gunner, K. Nickols, went on this trip as ‘spare bod’.) 270 Lancs from 5-Group, 467 lost F/O Findlay & crew (crashed – out of fuel … their Nav. vomited and blocked his oxygen supply, went unconscious and they got lost in cloud. But all survived the crash and were flown home by the Americans on 1.12.44.
NOVEMBER SUMMARY 467 did 148 sorties, lost 4 crews (9 KIA, 8 POW, 11 Ev) 8 tours expired. 2 were badly wounded.
NIGHT 4-12-44 HIELBRONN. 282 from 5-Group (Main force attacked Karlsruhe). 467 lost F/O J. Plumridge & crew (6 KIA. 1 POW). F/L Bill Kynock & crew attacked by fighter, rear gunner killed (F/S R. Steele), and plane badly damaged (we think it was ‘D’.), crash landed at Manston (emergency airfield).
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23.11.44 [symbol] 21. TRONDHEIM (Norway). 5-Group sent 171 planes (including 7 Mosquito markers) to attack the U-boat facilities there. This was a very long trip mostly over the North Sea at low-level (1000’) in bad weather, rain & severe wind-changes. Tankers topped us up with petrol at the end of the runway before we took off at 1609, 12 min late. GEE ran out at 1848 … over 2 hours before we’d reach the target. We were unable to identify where we crossed the coast, so we continued on northwards and at 2050 saw the target lit up by flares to our left. A wind velocity to use for bombing was received by radio, and at 2055 we saw yellow Target Indicators about 10 mi to Port. We turned to a Westerly course. At 2102 we were told to abandon the raid as a smoke-screen obscured the target. We continued by Dead Reckoning & B.A. (Sid) identified a pin-point at 2112. We descended from 9000’ to 1000’, and at about 2130 discovered that the earlier pin-point was wrong, giving a new one near Smolen Island. At 2248 I got my first GEE fix (after 1 1/2 hr since the target) … about 50 mi NW of where we thought we’d be … big wind change. Pilot (Peter) & I decided to aim to land at LEUCHARS (Nth Scotland) as we had a head-wind. Then, at 0024 I got a good fix & found the wind had eased & changed to NE, and by 2130 was from the NW & getting faster. Pilot & Engineer consulted with me & we decided to try for Waddington, cutting our speed back from 190 to 170 mph. The wind held about NW & increased to about 45 mph, so we reached base OK & landed at 0302, with only about 80 gallons left. Most of our planes jettisonned [sic] bombs in the North Sea, or landed at Leuchars. We were the sole plane to bring our bombs home to Waddington. Trip-time 10h 53 min.
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26.11.44. 5-Group sent 270 heavies to MUNICH. Our rear-gunner, Ken Nicholls went as a “spare-bod” in place of a sick crewman. One of the 467 crews crashed, out of fuel. Their navigator had vomited and blocked his oxygen supply, he went unconscious, and they were lost in cloud. They all survived the crash-landing and were flown back by the Americans on 1.12.44.
November summary for 467 Sqdn: 148 sorties, 4 crews lost (9 KIA, 8 POW, 11 Evaded); 8 tours expired. 2 men were badly wounded.
4.12.44 (night). HEILBRONN was attacked by 282 from 5 Group, while the main force of Bomber Command attacked Karlsruhe. 467 Sqdn lost F/O Plumridge & crew (6 KIA, 1 POW). F/Lt Bill Kynoch’s plane was attacked by a fighter, his rear-gunner killed (F/Sgt R. Steele) & the plane badly damaged … we think it was our favourite “D”. They crash landed at the emergency ‘drome, Manston, & we heard that “D” was a write-off.
6.12.44. GIESSEN (night) attacked by 255 of 5-Group (19 from each of 467 & 463 sqdns) while the rest of Bomber Command bombed Osnabruck & Leuna (oil plant).
8.12.44 URFT DAM [symbol] 1. 205 of 5-Group (10 of 467, 15 of 463). 9/10 cloud over target, no result observed. No loss.
10.12.44 URFT DAM [symbol] 2. 5-Group (15 [inserted] each [/inserted] of 467 & 463). All were recalled before the target due to bad weather & visibility.
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More extracts from Diary.
23.11.44. No operations on. Went to Lincoln with Peter & Don in my car to see about getting Peter’s car fixed. Went to the pictures.
Feeling very crook … terrible cough.
24.11.44. Went on sick parade. The Dr. reckoned I was OK for flying … I didn’t. had heard there was to be a long trip that night & saw the Dr. again .. he put me into Sick Quarters & I slept!!! about 20 hours a day. Our crew wasn’t listed for the operation that night, but our rear-gunner, Ken Nichols, opted to go with Bill Kynock’s crew … but the trip was scrubbed anyway. Ken visited me.
25.11.44. Still in sick-quarters. No ops. Ken, Don & Rupe came to see me, then they went to an ENSA concert on the base.
26.11.44. Out of sick-quarters. Ken went with Kynoch’s crew to MUNICH in crook weather. It was OK at the target, quiet & a good ‘prang’. Went over to [deleted] 3 Sqdn [/deleted] SICK QUARTERS to see Ted Pickerd who’d been our Navigation analysis ‘joker’ for some months. Played pontoon, won 10/- Kynoch’s crew were diverted to Langham.
27.11.44. Went to Swinderby & got 3 gal of petrol in the car. Ken & Kynocks crew came back from Langham.
28.11.44. No ops. Made up a list of comments on ops that had to be done … big job. Flew to Thornaby [deleted] to bring [/deleted] & back in ‘D’ [deleted] back [/deleted] with a ferry crew for their plane.
Navigators party on tonight … too bad Ted Pickerd is still in sickquarters. Des Sands (o i/c A flight … Sqn Ldr, DFM on 2nd or 3rd tour) Lionel Hart & I took others in cars, the rest used bikes. Wionderful show. Bags of beer & fun.
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NIGHT 6-12-44 GIESSEN 19 of 467, 19 of 463, of 255 from 5-Group. (Main force attacked Osnabruck & Leuna).
DAY 8-12-44. URFT DAM [symbol] 1. 10 of 467, 15 of 463 of 205 from 5-Group. 9/10 cloud over target and no result observed. No loss.
DAY 10-12-44 URFT DAM [symbol] 2. 15 of 467, 15 of 463 … 5-Group. All recalled before reaching target due to bad weather and visibility.
[circled 22] 11-12-44 URFT DAM [symbol] 3. 15 of 467, 15 of 463, of 233 from 5-Group, with Mosquito Markers. Hits observed but no breach seen. (We brought our bombs home, despite doing an orbit … (hoping for gap in clouds) … against orders … extra 7 min. in target area. Very accurate radar-directed flak; we lost P.O. motor.).
F 6h 5m. 14 x 1000 (brought home) (9750’)
[circled 23] 17-12-44 MUNICH. 22 of 467, 19 of 463 of 280 from 5-Group, with 8 Mosquito Markers. (Main force attacked Duisburg, Ulm and Munster … a total of 1310 heavies, 1.1% loss.) Reconnaissance showed severe damage. 467 lost F/O T. Evans & crew (all 7 Ev) … they collided after bombing with an engine on fire.
M 9h 45m 1 x 4000 + 9 cans + 1 MONROE 11750’
[circled 24] 18-12-44 GDYNIA. 19 of 467, 15 of 463 of 236 from 5-Group. 2 crews from each flight attacked 2 pocket Battleships anchored near the port (which was the main target) … we hit “Lutzow” with 3 of our bombs (& 1 v. close in water) nicely near funnel area. Considerable damage to port area.
M 9h 45m. 10 x 1000 S.A.P.
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29.11.44. No ops. Went into Lincoln to try to register car … no joy; had to go to Sleaford, but no time. Tore around garages [inserted] for [/inserted] a battery & brake adjusters, but no joy. Finished off the navigation comments from yesterday. Decided to sell my autocycle & got a buyer. Played pontoon, won 3/-.
30.11.44. No ops. Went to Sleaford, got car registered & oil changed. Got coupons for petrol to go on leave, packed up, got leave pass, laundry & shoes. Went into Lincoln with Ken & got petrol & a new battery. Saw about trains for Ray & Eric for tomorrow.
1.12.44. Went out to our dispersal where mechanics helped get new battery in & working after a lot of trouble … bludged a couple of gallons of petrol from Ken (ground crew). Left at 10.10, had lunch at Nottingham & then went on to Birmingham, getting to where Don was staying at 3.30. had tea there, played solo until 1.30 am, went down to “Old Farm” at [inserted] ? Wesley [/inserted] Westly Castle for the night.
2.12.44. Duck eggs for breakfast! Lunch at Police Station (don had been a policeman in Birmingham before he enlisted for air crew.) Then tea at Mrs Benlays (friend of Don). Met Ken & Mrs Smith & Margaret from next door. Played solo. Went to Police Club for drinks. More solo ‘till 2 am. Slept next door at Smiths.
3.12.44. Breakfasts on both at Smiths & Benlays. Called at jewellers for Ken’s watch, but no luck. Set off for Swindon. Lunch at Swan’s Nest in Stratford. Looked over Shakespeare’s birthplace, got postcards & saw Home Guard parade. Went on to “Stow-in-the-Wold” & stayed the night in a nice little pub. Played darts, crib & drank beer.
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[photograph] Engineer Don Coutts & Mid Upper Gunner Ray Giles, Birmingham
[photograph] Rear Gunner, Ken Nichols, & Ray Giles at Benlay’s place at Birmingham where we stayed on leave 1/2 Dec ’44.
[photograph] Ray Giles, at Benlays’ place, Birmingham
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More from the Diary.
4.12.44. Rachel Swindon for dinner. Found our way out to Clyffe-Pyhard & saw Bunty Duff & got back just before dark. Had tea at fish & chip shop & went to pictures – saw Jon Hall & Maria Montez in ‘Cobra Woman’.
5.12.44 After breakfast towed an Engineers car to get it started. Bought side-lamp for car. Reached Slough via Reading for lunch & called [deleted] on [/deleted] at Margaret Vyner’s place … she was in London meeting Hugh Marlowe, home from France on 72-hours leave. Saw Mrs Vyner & Hugo, had afternoon tea & went to Slough, booked in at Salthill Hotel & had tea. At pub, picked up 2 girls & took them home but got lost on the way back. Turned in at 12.30.
6.12.44. Looked around a lot of shops in Slough & finally got some bulbs for dash-lights. Met an old Aussie-Scot, Macintosh for yarn & drinks; he showed us his home at 26 Windsor Rd. Slough. Drove to Windsor & looked over Eton College on Founders Day, … going for 504 years. Saw Windsor Castle & had tea there. Played cards with Ken, before & after tea.
7.12.44. After breakfast caught train to London & booked in at A.C.F. Club. Met Scottie Gall & Kirk Beddie again; had steak (!) & mushrooms at Athens Cafe; went to pictures & saw “Casanova Brown”. More steak with onions then a variety show at the Empire in Finsbury Park. Went back tp pub at Gloucester Rd & saw girls we knew from last leave in London. Also ran into Syd & Peter.
8.12.44. Arranged to meet Peter on the way to Cambridge. Got car at Slough & was 1 hr late in meeting Peter. Had lunch at Cambridge Arms. Saw a good picture “Love Story”. Met a navigator I knew at Brighton … Cameron, who’d done 35 ops in Mosquitos. More steak & onions for supper.
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9.12.44. Looked at some of Cambridge University … not much to see. Had lunch at roadside pub and got to Lincoln about 4.30. collected photos, had drinks at the Saracens head & went to a show at the Royal Theatre. Peter’s car had a flat tyre. Got battle-dress from cleaners & put overcoat in. A good leave
10.12.44. Welcomed back to nav. section. No ‘war’ today. had an interview for commission with Group-Captain Bonham-Carter. W/Cdr Bill Brill had told us not to apply for a commission until we’d done about 20 “trips”. But after he left, in October, the new C.O. W/Cdr J.K. Douglas invited anyone interested in a commission to apply, regardless of the number of ops. I did, but didn’t impress him with my answers (especially when I said “probably not” to his question “would I be more use to the air force with a commission?”. He didn’t recommend me. But Bonham-Carter said something like this: “I have 2 W’ Cdrs here, at 467 & 463; one C.O. recommends virtually all applicants after they’ve done 20 trips; the other (Douglas) likes to interview them at depth & knocks a few back. I have to make the final decision. You seem to be doing well. I’ll look at you again next month.” (He saw me in Mid-January with only one Op (Brux) to go, and recommended me without any further questioning.)
11.12.44. Took laundry & boots down but didn’t have time to check them in … there’s “war” on. Went to briefing room & sorted out Gee charts. The briefing was hurried; the plane we got, (F), was slow, climbed poorly, and we were late getting to the target.
(con’t on next page)
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11.12.44 [symbol] 22. URFT DAM No 3. Daylight raid by 233 from 5-Group (15 each from 467 & 463 Sqdns), with Mosquitos doing the marking. Hits were observed but no breach seen. We brought our bombs back despite doing an orbit (against orders) hoping for a gap in the clouds … we spent 7 minutes extra over the target, and experienced very accurate radar-directed flak just after leaving. We lost our Port-Outer motor.
We took off at 1205, did a R. of A. returning to base at 1219, at 6000’. We climbed to 12000’ & “cruised” at 170 mph, but gradually got behind time (5 min late at 1350) but only 3 min. late at the target. This plane, F, would not go any faster with our bomb-load of 14 x 1000 lb. H.E. Pilot feathered our Port Outer motor at 1554 (maybe some flak damage). Jettisonned [sic] 2 bombs at 1645 which took extra time … ending up 47 min. late home. Flight time 6h 5 min.
17.12.44 [symbol] 23. Night-raid on MUNICH by 280 from 5-Group, (22 from 467, 19 from 463), with 8 Mosquito markers. The rest of Bomber Command attacked Duisberg, Ulm & Munster, a total of 1310 ‘heavies’, for a 1.1% loss rate. Reconnaissance showed severe damage. 467 lost F/O T. Evans & crew (all 7 Evaded) … they collided after bombing with an engine on fire; they baled out before the plane crashed.
We took off at 1636, 3 min late, and immediately began climbing on course, south for Reading, then into France near Le Havre, mostly at 4000’, very bumpy, tried 5000’ to get out of cloud, then down to 3000’ & back to 4000’. As we neared the SW corner of Switzerland we climbed to 15000’ & skirted its southern border, seeing lights on in some villages.
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We had a good navigation trip to the target, keeping close to track & timing OK. We used GEE until 2026, then some LORAN fixes (some inaccurate) but sighted target at 2152, descended to 12000’ to bomb at 2211.
At 2214 I logged “air-to-air firing up – qr. to beam”
At 2215 1/2 “ “ “aircraft went in 40 mi ahead”.
We began descending in steps to 5500’ & continued to use LORAN until 2350 when GEE came good.
I got very airsick about 2250 (first time since Cootamundra!), and at about 2310 saw flak coming up from Mulhouse, so we turned to Port to avoid it. At 0110, the GEE box went unserviceable (U/S), and we read PUNDITS back to base where we landed at 0220. Flight time was 9h 45 min, bomb load was 1 x 4000 lb “cookie” & 9 cans of incendiaries & 1 Monroe.
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18.11.44. [symbol] 24. GYDNIA (“A” Target: Pocket Battleship LUTZOW).
A 5-Group raid, 236 planes, 19 of 467 & 15 of 463 Sqdn, on the Naval base. Considerable damage to the port area was reported. Two crews from each flight of both squadrons were to arrive at their targets … two pocket battleships, 9 min before the rest of the Group were to start bombing; the markers & the accompanying flare-force (they dropped lots of long-burning flares to light up the area for the Markers) arrived then too. We were supposed to see the battleships in the light of the flares & do our bombing between 2151 & 2156. Our bomb-load was 10 x 1000 S.A.P (Semi-Armour Piercing) bombs … unlikely to be really damaging, although the decks of the pocket-battleships were much thinner than on “real” battleships (although they had 16” guns, the same.)
We took off at 1712, already 10 min later than planned, & flew at about 3 – 4000’ at 180 mph until 2000, when we climbed to 11500’. GEE had given out at 1850, but LORAN was OK & I got good signals at 1920, but we hadn’t been given Loran charts that covered beyond 56oN. So it was dead-reckoning & the hope of a pin-point later. Then, at 2055 1/2, I got a Loran fix, on track, just below the 56oN latitude, which could be plotted. I got another dubious fix at 2105 1/2, about 5 mi Sth of track, then another good one at 2122 1/2, on track again. I got another good Loran fix at 2133 which allowed me to estimate the wind velocity at 190/23. We turned on dead-reckoning 3 min late at point E, & arrived at point F, on dead-reckoning 2 min late, and steered visually for our target. At 2150, Syd, our Bomb-Aimer, reported a smoke screen starting over the battleships area. The flares went down at 2150 1/2, but didn’t penetrate the smokescreen. At 2153 our Pilot, Peter, decided to “go-round” again. As we turned Syd saw the Lutzow, [indecipherable word] behind us now. We flew North East
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for a while, did a timed run, using his stop-watch, to be back over our target at 2158. But again, the smoke-screen obscured our target. We turned Northwards & repeated the timed run. All this time we experienced a lot of radar-predicted flak, close enough to keep rocking our plane. While we were doing this 3rd orbit, Peter said: “If we can’t bomb this time, we’ll go round again and lose height to bomb at low-level.” Syd said: “Geez, that would be bloody dangerous.” At 2206, the target was clear & we bombed accurately. On the photograph which we saw back at base the next day, 3 of our bombs hit the deck amidships, one very close to the funnel, and a 4th bomb right alongside in the water. We’d actually bombed from 11750’ at 150 mph (I.A.S.), heading 260oT. At 2208 I logged: “Lanc. crashed Stb. Bow, 20 mi.” We crossed the coast at 2216 and got a Loran fix at 2222 1/2, only 3 mi. S. of track. The rest of the trip home was uneventful, we kept close to track and landed at 0303, flight-time 9h 51 min.
[drawing of area map]
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I did some research about the Lutzow & Admiral von Sheer. They were both damaged and the Lutzow was towed to Swinemunde, the Admiral von Sheer to Keil, where, on the night of 9/10 April ’45, a raid using 591 planes, sank the von Sheer, and so severely damaged the light cruised Emden & the heavy cruiser Hippo, that their crews then scuttled them … they were unable to put to sea. Then on the night of 16/17 April, 617 Squadron attacked Swinemunde, & effectively disposed of Germany’s last pocket battleship, Lutzow, although I read that its crew also finally scuttled it, as it was beyond repair
[symbol] [underlined] 25 [/underlined]. 27-12-44. 5-Group sent 200 planes (15 of 467 & 12 of 463) to bomb [underlined] RHEYT [/underlined] (our [symbol] 25 trip), the railway yards there, part of Munchen-Gladbach, where we’d done our 5th trip. We took off at 1204, did a R. of A. to be back at base at 1220 at 6000’. We were supposed to fly in formation but there was a lot of confusion … we finally flew individually until 1309 when we joined the formation. Near the target, the other planes began turning towards the target long before reaching the GEE lattice line we were told to follow. We did as we’d been told, and bombed at 1505 1/2 from 17200’. The trip home was uneventful, the navigation easy, as we had GEE all the way, using the RHUR chain over Germany. We had some flak going close just after the target at 1512 1/2. We landed at 1705, flight-time was 5h., bomb-load was 14 x 1000 lb. H.E.
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[deleted] [circled [indecipherable number]] [/deleted] NIGHT 21-12-44. POLITZ. 17 of 467, 17 of 463, of 207 from 5-Group attacked synthetic oil plant. 3 Lancs lost over Europe, but 5 crashed in England on return … 90% of airfields were fogbound … most were diverted to Scotland, but some were so short on fuel they had to try to land in fog. (F.L. Kynoch crashed ‘M’ at Waddington, but no injuries.)
[circled 25] 27-12-44 RHEYDT. 15 of 467, 12 of 463, of 200 from 5-Group, attacked railway yards at Rheydt. No loss
C 5h 0m. 14 x 1000. 17200’
DAY 28-12-44 MOSS SHIPPING (OSLO FIORD). 4 of 467, 6 of 463 of 67 from 5-Group attacked a large naval unit off Oslo Fiord. No direct hits claimed.
30-12-44 HOUFFALIZE. 12 of 467, 12 of 463 of 166 from 5-Group attacked the German supply bottleneck at Houffalize. Cloud obscured target. (Main force of 500 heavies attacked Kalh-Nord railway yards near Cologne … results obscured by cloud.)
DEC ’44 SUMMARY. December ended in a long spell of cold, fog & snow which restricted operations and serviceability. 467 flew 172 sorties, losing 2 crews + 1 gunner. (7 KIA, 1 POW, 7 Ev) 8 crews finished tours. 1 crew crashlanded [sic] and were rescued.
(The 2 Lanc. Squadrons (467 & 463) had learnt that the 5-Group method of marking was the most cost-effective way of striking heavy flows to the enemy. From 17.8.44 (when Bomber Command returned to attacks on Germany proper, after the many short trips for 2nd Front, a total of 72881 sorties from which 696 aircraft were lost (… about 1%). In this period of 137 days [deleted] 467 & 463 [/deleted] [inserted] Bomber Command [/inserted] made 530 sorties per day (av.) & lost 5.1 planes per day (av.) … 265708 tons of bombs were dropped.
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[circled 26] 1-1-45. DORTMUND-EMS CANAL 18 of 467, 5 of 463 of 102 from 5-Group, breached the canal near Ladbergen, (the Germans had repaired the canal again.) They were using an enormous number of slave labourers (‘Todt’ workers … 40000 we heard) to repair these vital links in their transport system. (And so when the barges began to run again they ‘knew’ the Lancs would soon come, and they were ready with AA & fighters … it was a hot spot.)
(On this trip F/O Merv Bache got an immediate DSO … their B/A. was Sam Nelson (WaggaWagga) … onfire, [sic] crashed just inside Allied lines … they’d all baled out in time. F/S Thompson of 9 Sqdn. got a posthumous VC also.)
B 6h 40m. 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500. 10900’
Landed at STRUBBY on return, due to fog.
NIGHT 1.1.45 MITTELLAND CANAL (GRAVENHORST). 4 of 467, 6 of 463, of 152 from 5-Group with 5 Mosquitos. No loss. During all this period, Waddington, and most of England, was deep in snow. Aircraft were buried in snow, and runways could not be kept open for them. Landing on icy runways was difficult. (On 1.1.45, Bomber Command flew 598 sorties day & night, and 5 planes crashed trying to land.)
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More about the DORTMUND-EMS on 1/1/45.
Many years after the war I got to know Sam Nelson, (also a golfer), who was the Bomb Aimer in Merv Bache’s crew. He told me that his navigator was in the process of writing a small book covering their ‘troubles’ that day. I mentioned that I still had my logs & charts, including for that day, so I posted them to him, with the result that parts of my log & chart were photocopied (reduced size) and included in his book … and I received a copy; later a few more pages were sent about what happened to their crew members thereafter. Several of their crew had a reunion in Canberra just at the time when they refurbished the Lancaster display in the War Museum. They told the staff of their “trouble” on 1/1/45, and were given the privilege of going inside the Lanc, even though it was not then open to the public.
I’ve made a “pocket” at the back of this folder for that book.
On pages 33/4 of that book is some details about a major German air attack on Allied aircraft & airfields on the same morning as our daylight raid on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. It may have been fortunate for us that most of their fighters were otherwise-occupied that morning.
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[circled 27] 4.1.45. ROYAN (S. France).
8 of 467, 16 of 463, of 344 Lancs & 7 Mosquitoes. F/O R. Eggins (467) had a mid-air collision with another Lanc., they baled out & were rescued.
Stubborn German garrison holding out at Royan prevented Allies from using Bordeaux as a port. (the Americans had kept a big force in that area, hoping to capture Bordeaux much earlier.) Bomber Command was ordered to bomb the town. It appears that the order was cancelled, but that order not received by the Squadrons concerned. But the French people there were told of the cancellation. As a result 700 French people were killed & soured relations with Britain.
We took off at [deleted] 0122 [/deleted] 0104, did the usual Radius of Action to be back at base at 0140 at 2000’. We flew southwards crossing the coast near Portsmouth. We had GEE all the way 7 so kept nicely on-track; the winds mainly from NNE varied between 35 & 60 mph.
When just short of the target we got a message at 0359 1/2 “do not bomb for 2 min.” We were due there in about 1 min. I wrote “Have to orbit I think.” Then at 0400 1/2 we were told “Come in & bomb”, which we did at 0401 without having to orbit, at 6250’.
We had an easy trip home, airborne for 6h. 30m. Our bomb load was 1 x 4000 (“Cookie”), & 16 x 500 lb HE.
On the back of my chart are several diagrams showing what the displays looked like on the GEE-BOX, and an indication of the curves on our GEE Charts.
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NIGHT. 5-1-45 HOUFFALIZE. 10 of 467, 8 of 463, of 131 from 5 Group, with 9 Mosquitos attacked supply bottleneck at Houffalize in the Ardennes. Target was hit with great accuracy. No loss. (Main force of 664 attacked Hannover, losing [underlined] 4.7%. [/underlined])
[circled 28] 7-1-45 MUNICH. 11 of 467, 16 of 463, of 645 Lancs. and 9 Mosquitos. This was the last major raid on Munich by Bomber Command; the industrial area was severely damaged. 467 lost F/O W. McNamee & crew (all KIA) … Severe icing caused high fuel consumption … they ran out of fuel and baled out over the sea 5 mi. from Eye, but were not found.
V 8h 45m. 1 x 4000 + 6 J clusters.
(The winds on this trip were forecast at about 80 mph from NW, so the route to the target was direct across Germany, then home south of Switzerland. (Usually, on Munich trips, we’d go out south of Switzerland, hiding from radar behind the mountains – maybe – then come home, faster across Germany.) The winds, in places, exceeded 100 mph. We were forced to ‘waste time’ on the way to the target (dangerous over Germany!). We took 3 hours to reach Munich loaded, then 6 hours to come home empty!)
[inserted] I haven’t got my log & chart for this trip – mislaid when I was teaching ATC cadets at Forest Hills [/inserted]
NIGHT 13-1-45 POLITZ. 17 of 467, 14 of 463, of 218 Lancs & 7 Mosquitos from 5-Group, attacked the oil plant near Stettin. Intended to be [inserted] a [/inserted] blind H2S attack, but the target was clear and the 5-Group low-level-marking was used in an accurate attack. Photo-reconnaissance stated that the oil plant was reduced to rubble. No loss from Waddington.
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NIGHT 14-1-45 MERSBERG-LEUNA. 14 of 467, 14 of 463 of 573 Lancs & 14 Mosquitos attacked the synthetic oil plant at Leuna. Albert Speer wrote … “this was the most damaging raid on the synthetic oil industry”. (The remainder of Bomber Command raided Grevenbroich & Dulmen … a total of 1214 sorties.)
[circled 29] 16-1-45 BRUX. 16 of 467, 12 of 463 of 231 Lancs & 6 Mosquitos of 5-Group, attacked the synthetic oil plant in western Czecho-slovakia [sic] (the plant had P.O.W. camps quite close by). The raid was a complete success. Speer also mentions this raid “as a particularly severe setback to oil production”. (Bomber Command attacked 4 other targets this night with a total of 1238 bombers. All were successful … the loss rate was 2.4% (about 30). No loss from Waddington.
D 10h. 0m. 1 x 4000 + 12 x 500 (Not dropped – bomb circuit U.S.) 14250’
(The bombing circuit was faulty – we made 3 orbits of the target, taking 20 mins, but could not remedy the trouble. We set out for home with bombs aboard and flew home at fairly low altitude – varying between 4500’ & 8500’, our airspeed 15 – 20 mph slower than the rest of the force. Then we had to make a diversion into the North Sea jettison area to manually release one bomb fitted with anti-handling fuse. The result was that we were last home, nearly an hour late. As this was our last trip we were ‘expected’ to come home faster than usual & be ‘first home’ … many thought we were unlucky enough to ‘get the chop’ on our last trip. The aircraft had severe problems (besides the bomb circuit and resulted in a tragic crash on 2.2.45, killing all but one of the crew … included were T. Paine & W. Robinson from Mudgee.)
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I met Chris Jarret at a University conference in the 60’s and heard from him what happened to them in ‘D’ on the night of 2-2-45.
He was lucky to survive, although it was easy for the Bomb-Aimer to be first out when told to “Bale-Out”. The next man out would have been Tom Paine, the Rear Gunner, & he told me that he was the only other one to get out & open his ‘chute in time to avoid death, but that Tom landed over the crest of a hill & was killed by the plane crashing & bombs exploding near him, while Chris had landed on the other side of the hill.
Tom Paine was in my classes at Mudgee High right from 1st year in 1936.
Bill Robinson must have started in 1935 as he was a year ahead of us; but I can remember him as the school was rather small (about 400) compared to the 1000+ when I taught there in the ‘60s.
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NIGHT 22-1-45. GELSENKIRCHEN. 0 from 467, 1 from 463. (photographic)
JANUARY SUMMARY. The month ended with heavy snow and bad visibility. 467 did 90 sorties losing 3 crews (7 KIA, 14 Ev.) 4 crews ‘tour-expired’.
NIGHT 1-2-45 SIEGEN (Railway Yards) 21 of 467, 19 of 463 of 271 from 5-Group. 467 lost one crew – the navigator was our A-flight commander, Des Sands DFM, an Australian in the RAF on his second tour … he survived, parachuted, captured.
NIGHT 2-2-45 KARLSRUHE. 19 of 467, 16 of 463, of 250 from 5-Group. 467 lost 2 crews (14 KIA (incl. a ‘second dickie’ pilot) 1 POW. ‘D’ was one of the two. F/O A. Robinson [inserted] (pilot) [/inserted] and Rear Gunner – Tom Paine – went to school with me at Mudgee High – Tom was in the same class. (See extract from ‘The Bulletin’ for story by Bomb-Aimer survivor, whom I met accindentally [sic] at an external studies school at UNE (Armidale) in the ‘60’s.)
NIGHT 7-2-45 DORTMUND-EMS CANAL (near LADBERGEN)
13 from 467. 467 lost c.o. W/C J. K. Douglas & crew (+ second dickie Bomb-aimer) … 3 KIA, 4 POW, 1 Ev.
NIGHT. 8-2-45 POLITZ. 15 of 467, 16 of 463 of 163 total (5-Group was 1st ‘Wave’, other groups followed and put this important oil plant out of action for the remainder of the war. 1020 bombers attacked other targets including Krefeld.
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13-2-45 DRESDEN. 17 of 467, 19 of 463 of 144 Lancs and 9 Mosquitos from 5-Group attacked Dresden as the 1st wave of a 2-part attack, dropping 800 tons. The second wave, 3 hours later, dropped 1800 tons, mostly incendiaries, causing a devastating fire-storm. German report says that more than 50000 people died.
14-2-45 ROSITZ. 16 of 467, 16 of 463 of 224 Lancs + 8 Mosquitos from 5-Group, attacked the oil refinery near Leipzig. The rest of Bomber Command attacked 4 other targets – a total of 1316 ‘heavies’, loss rate 1.7%.
19-2-45 BOHLEN. 19 of 467, 16 of 463 of 254 Lancs and 6 Mosquitos from 5-Group. Raid was unsuccessful. The Master Bomber, W/C E.A. Benjamin DFF + Bar, was shot down by flak & killed. Only superficial damage was caused.
20-2-45 MITTLELAND CANAL near GRAVENHORST. 10 of 467, 10 of 463, of 154 Lancs & 11 Mosquitos of 5-Group … raids on the canal by now were called “the milk run”. A comment (in the Waddington report) … “5-Group had bombed the canal so often that the Germans could leave their guns aimed ready for the next raid”. The Master Bomber abandoned this raid when it could not be marked properly due to heavy low cloud. (The Main Force – of B.C. – did 4 raids using H2S. Total of 1283 sorties, loss rate 1.7%)
21-2-45 MITTLELAND CANAL (again). 10 of 467, 10 of 463 of 165 Lancs & 12 Mosquitos from 5-Group. Weather was clear, and the canal was breached.
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The Main Force raided 4 other targets, 1110 sorties; losses 3.1%. 463 Sq. lost their C.O. W/C Forbes on his last trip of 2nd Tour … shot down by German nightfighter ace, Major H.W. Schnaufer.
NIGHT 23-2-45. PFORZHEIM. 1 of 463 (Photo) 367 Lancs of 1, 6 & 8 groups. 1825 tons of bombs dropped … “The 3rd most effective raid of the war … killed 17000, and 83% of the town destroyed by a fire-storm.
DAY 24-2-45 DORTMUND-EMS CANAL. 18 of 467, 11 of 463, of 166 Lancs & 4 Mosquitos from 5-Group … The target was obscured by cloud and the raid abandoned. No Loss.
FEBRUARY SUMMARY. The weather was often bad. 467 did 158 sorties, lost 5 crews + 3 who baled out + 3 “2nd dickies”. (25 KIA, 15 POW, 1 Ev.) 3 tours expired. 1 Crew crashed in training.
NIGHT 3-3-45. DORTMUND-EMS CANAL. 15 of 467, 15 of 463, of 212 Lancs + 10 Mosquitos of 5-Group breached the aqueduct near Ladbergen in 2 places, putting it out of action until after the war’s end. 467 lost F/O R.T. Ward and crew (7 KIA); F/O R.B. Eggins & crew (6 KIA, 1 POW), and the C.O. W/C E. Langlois & crew (5 KIA, 2 POW) … he had only become C.O. on 9th Feb. 8 Lancs lost over Ger. 20 over U.K.[inserted] loss [/inserted] 3.6%
(This night the Luftwaffe mounted “Operation Gisela” sending 200 night fighters to follow various bomber forces into England (& so not being detected). They took the British defences by surprise and they shot down 20 bombers over England (some were Lancaster training planes … a couple at Wigsley, where I was Duty Navigator in the control tower!) The bomb dump at Waddington was attacked but wasn’t blown up. 3 German fighters crashed flying too low.
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NIGHT 5-3-45 BOHLEN 15 of 467, 15 of 463 of 248 from 5-Group, attacked synthetic oil refinery. Target was cloudy but some damage. Bomber Command made 1223 sorties for 31 lost over Germany and 10 crashed in England … “visibility had detiorated [sic] for returning aircraft”. (Percy Jobson, of Wagga Wagga, a friend of hockey years, was shot down, parachuted, on this trip … a big write up given.)
NIGHT 6-3-45. SASSNITZ - - a port on the Baltic Sea.
NIGHT 7-3-45 HARBURG. oil refinery (5-Group). Bomber Command total (on various targets): 1276, loss 41 (3.2%)
DAY 11-3-45 ESSEN by 1079 bombers … the largest day raid by B.C. … “paralysed Essen until the Americans entered. 467 lost 1 crew (all KIA) on collision with a Hurricane near base in F.A. training.
DAY 12-3-45 Dortmund. 1108 planes, record tonnage 4851 tons … with fighter escorts, over 2000 planes … “put the city out of the war”.
NIGHT 14-3-45 LUTZKENDORF. 5-Group attack on oil refinery, losing 18 (7.4%). Main Force of 568 attacked Zweibrucken & Homburg & other minor targets … 2.8% loss
NIGHT 16-3-45 WURZBURG. 5-Group, 225 Lancs & 11 Mosquitos, dropped 1207 tons with great accuracy in 17 minutes … 89% of industrial part of city destroyed. 467 lost F/O Thomas & crew (6 KIA, 1 POW). Main force attacked NUREMBERG with 480 planes, losing 28 (4.2%), due to night-fighters joining the bomber stream before the target
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DAY 19-3-45 ARNSBERG RAILWAY VIADUCT. 37 Lancs of 617 and 9 Sqdns (and 1 photo Lanc. from 463) dropped 6 ‘Grand Slam’ 10-ton bombs … the ‘earthquake-effect’ collapsed the viaduct … the film was spectacular.
NIGHT. 20-3-45 BOHLEN. 5-Group. The main force was on Hemingstedt with 675 planes, loss rate 1.9%.
DAY 22-3-45 BREMEN. 5-Group. Rail bridge.
NIGHT. 23-3-45 WESEL. 5-Group. 1000 tons in 9 minutes from 9000’ … as close army support … “British Army crossed the river before the bombers had left the area”, and Wesel was in British hands before midnight (the bombing ended at 2239). Wesel claims it was the most heavily bombed town in Germany … 97% of buildings destroyed in main town area; population reduced from 250000 at outbreak of war, to 1900 in May ’45.
DAY 27-3-45 FARGE Oil Storage, 5-Group plus 2 of 617 attacking U-Boat shelters with 23’-thick concrete roof. 2 of the Grand-Slam bombs penetrated the roof and brought down thousands of tons of concrete and rubble, rendering the shelter ineffective.
MARCH SUMMARY 467 flew 185 sorties, lost 4 crews (24 KIA, 4 POW), 4 crews completed tours.
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DAY 4-4-45 NORDHAUSEN. 5-Group … Military barracks Many ‘forced labourers killed’.
DAY 6-4-45 IJMUIDEN … on ships … raid abandoned due to bad weather.
NIGHT 7-4-45 MOLBIS. Benzol plant … “all production ceased”.
NIGHT 8-4-45 LUTZKENDORF. 5-Group. Oil refinery. ‘Put out of action until end of war’. Main force was on Hamburg 440 planes, & other targets, total of 918 planes … 1.3% loss.
DAY 9-4-45 HAMBURG .. oil storage (5-Group) and 617 Sq attacked U-Boat shelters with Grand Slam bombs, and Tallboy bombs. Both raids successful. On this raid German ME 152 & 153 jet fighters attacked the Lancs for the first time.
NIGHT 16-4-45 PILSEN 5-Group. Rail Yards.
NIGHT 18-4-45 KOMOTAU 5-Group.
DAY 23-4-45 FLENSBURG Railway yards. (Abandoned – cloud)
NIGHT 25-4-45 TONSBERG Oil Refinery & U Boat pens (Norway)
463 Sq. lost the last Lancaster of the war (crew survived)
3300 Lancasters lost in the whole war.
467 Sq from Nov ’42 to 26 Apr ’45 – flew 4188 sorties, used 214 Lancs. lost 110 by enemy action, 4 damaged – crashlandings but recovered. 590 KIA. 117 POW. 8E Ev. 5 DSO, 146 DFC. 2 CGM. 36 DFM
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[underlined] 467 SQUADRON – R.A.A.F. [/underlined]
467 Squadron was formed at SCAMPTON, LINCOLNSHIRE 7-11-42.
Moved to BOTTESFORD by 30-11-1942. Moved to WADDINGTON 11-11-1943.
Bottesford Station Commanding Officers: G/C. SWAIN, F.R.O: OBE: DFC.
From 3.3.43. – G/C. McKECKNIE, W.N: DFC.
[underlined] 467 SQAUDRON moved to WADDINGTON 12.11.43 [/underlined]
Waddington Station Commanding Officers:
16.4.43. G/C. S.C. ELWORTHY, CCB, CBE, DSO, MVO, DFC, AFC, MA.
31.3.44. G/C. D.W. BONHAM-CARTER, CB, DFC.
14.4.45. G/C. E.D. McK. NELSON, CB.
1.8.45 G/C. D.D. CHRISTIE, AFC.
24.8.45. G/C. A.E. TAYLOR.
467 SQUADRON COMMANDERS:
7.11.42. W/C. C.L. COMM, DSO, DFC. _ _ _ KIA 16.8.43.
19.8.43. W/C. J.R. BALMER, DFC, OBE. _ _ _ KIA 11.5.44.
12.5.44. W/C. W.L. BRILL, DSO, DFC & Bar _ _ _ Died 1964.
12.10.44. W/C. J.K. DOUGLAS, DFC, AFC. _ _ KIA 8.2.45.
9.2.45. W/C. E. le P. LANGLOIS _ _ KIA 3.4.45.
4.3.45. W/C. I.H. HAY, DFC. _ _ To disbandment.
467 STATION ADJUTANTS: F/L. BURFIELD_CARPENTER.
F/L. A.D. McDONALD (A18121): F/L. J.M.W. LOVE.
467 SQUADRON moved to RAF METHERINGHAM 16.6.45 and were disbanded there October, 1945.
[underlined] 467 STATISTICS COMPILED FROM OPERATIONAL RECORD BOOKS [/underlined].
First Operational Sortie – 2/3.1.1943 – To FURZE _ Minelaying.
Last Operational Sortie – 26/26.4.45 – to TONSBURG.
[underlined] OPERATIONAL SORTIES ATTEMPTED [/underlined]:
No. of a/c actually took off on operations: 3977
No. of Operational sorties completed: 3795
No. of Operational sorties failed: 182
[underlined] REASON FOR FAILURE OF SORTIE [/underlined]:
a/c failed to return – listed missing 105
a/c early return due to Engine Failure: 28
a/c early return due to Electrical Failure: 10
a/c “ “ “ to Armament Failure: 9
a/c “ “ “ to Oxygen Failure: 9
a/c “ “ “ to Instruments, radio, intercom failure: 12
a/c “ “ “ to Ice in flight & ice damage: 6
a/c “ “ “ to Navigational Error: [underlined] 3 [/underlined]
[underlined] 182 [/underlined]
No. of Sorties completed in a/c damaged by Enemy Action: 230
No. of Aircrew listed in Operational Record Books as flown on ops from 467 Sqdn, RAAF: (inc. RAF, RNZAF, RCAF): 1814
No. of Aircrew listed in ORB’s as War Casualty from 467 Sq: (includes) RAAF, RAF, RNZAF, RCAF): 760
No. of whole crews posted to 467 Sq. for Ops: 258
No. of whole crews finished tour of ops – 30 or more: 74
No. of whole crews lost on Ops: 115
No. of whole crews still operating when hostilities ceased 8.5.45. and not tour expired: 31
No. of whole crews posted to other Squadrons during tour: 34
No. of whole crews with no Ops. before hostilities ceased: 4
No. of crews from 53 Base who flew on ops from 467 Sqdn and not listed as posted to 467 Sqdn. 6
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[inserted] Extract of “WAR” List for an Operation … late 1944. [/inserted]
F/S J.W. Singer (Can) – Sgt A. Carson – [missing name]
PB. 193 ‘W’ – F/O R.J. Harris – P/O J.T. Adair – Sgt T. Andrews – Sgt R. Walker
P/O H.F.C. Parsons – F/L R.W. Cook – Sgt S. Saunders
EE.136 – F/O A.L. Keely – F/S W. Chorny (Can) – Sgt A.E. Wotherspoon – Sgt C.H. Connwell
F/S L.W. Tanner – Sgt S.D. Chambers – Sgt J.E. Johnson
LM.713 – F/O C. Newton (Can) – Sgt P. Grant – Sgt W. Gregory – Sgt E.H. Cooper (Can)
Sgt R. Flynn (Can) – Sgt L.G. Kelly – Sgt R.S. Stevens (Can)
LM.715 ‘O’ – F/O R.W. Ayrton (Aus) – Sgt M.J. Herkes – Sgt H.K. Huddlestone – Sgt D.K. Chalcraft
F/S N. Bardsley – Sgt W. Scott – Sgt J.A.W. Davies
ME.809 – F/O R.C. Lake – P.O J.A. Peterson (Can) – Sgt R.W. Baird – Sgt R.A. Morton
W/O G.B. Watts (Can) – F/S G.E. Parkinson – P/O R.D. Kerr (Can)
No. 467 Squadron, Second Wave
NF.908 ‘C’ – F/L J.K. Livingstone – F/L D.O. Sands – F/O E.G. Parsons – F/O R.N. Browne
P/O W.D. McMahon (Aus) – F/O J. Pendergast – F/O T.C. Taylor
PB306 – F/O R.J. Mayes (Aus) – F/O L.J. Hart (Aus) – Sgt D.H. Hamilton – F/S J. Manning
F/S A.R. Edgar (Aus) – F/S J.G. Muir (Aus) – F/S K.W. Cary (Aus)
LM.100 ‘D’ – F/O P.R. Gray-Buchanan (Aus) – F.S. H.G. Adams (Aus) – Sgt D.M. Coutts – F/S J.R. Giles (Aus)
F/S B.J. Payne (Aus) – F/S E.J. Taylor (Aus) – F/S K. Nichols (Aus)
PD.215 ‘F’ – F/O L. Landridge (Aus) – F/S D.G. Beverley (Aus) – Sgt J. Halstead – Sgt D.J. Allen
F/S K.C. Woollam (Aus) – F/S W.C. Denny (Aus) – Sgt B.A. Davies
LM.542 ‘K’ – F/O T.A. Gummersall (Aus) – F/S L.C.C. Chalcraft (Aus) – Sgt J. Clemons – F/S E.R. Baldwin (Aus)
F/O F.A. York (Aus) – F/S S.J. Anders (Aus) – F/S W.H. Bradbury (Aus)
LM.233 ‘M’ – F/O J.J. Sheridan (Aus) – F.S G.W. Gould (Aus) – Sgt B.J. Ambrose – Sgt J. Hodgson
F/S A. Raymond (Aus) – F/S W. Branagh (Aus) – Sgt R. Ward
LM.677 – F/O J.J.J. Cross (Aus) – F/S D.F. Edwards (Aus) – Sgt K.M. Pope – F.S W.K. Perry (Aus)
F/O V.L. Drouyn (Aus) – F/S W.V. Maurer (Aus) – F/S M.D. Wilkie (Aus)
NF.910 – F/O G.H. Stewart (Aus) – F/O R. Faulks (Aus) – Sgt G. Hopwood – F/S D.J. Morland (Aus)
F/S R. Galov (Aus) – F/S M.J.H. West (Aus) – F/S F.H. Skuthorpe (Aus)
NF.917 ‘Q’ – F/O R.S. Forge (Aus) – F/O H.M. Bissell (Aus) – Sgt W.C. Bradley – Sgt H. R. Harvey
F/O R.H. Darwin (Aus) – F/S E.J. O’Kearney (Aus) – Sgt R. Haire
ND.473 – F/O R.H. Mellville (Aus) – F/S J.L. Klye (Aus) – Sgt R.J. Brady – F/S D.D. Suter (Aus)
F/S J.F. Tongue (Aus) – F/S B.T. Hoskin (Aus) – F/S R.C.M. Newling (Aus)
NF.908 – F/O L.R. Pedersen (Aus) – F/S J.S. Hodgson (Aus) – Sgt D.R. Ba.dry [sic] – Sgt E.W. Durrant
F/S P.K. Garvey (AUS) – F/S V.J.M. McCarthy (AUS) – Sgt A.E. Dearns
NN.714 – F/O E.B. Rowell (Aus – F/S R.L. Morris (Aus) – Sgt A.J. Halls – Sgt. A Thomson
F/S D.J. Taylor (Aus) – F/S A.S. Smith (Aus) – Sgt A. Thomson
F/S D.J. Taylor (Aus) – F/S A.S. Smith (Aus) – Sgt J. Hodge
No. 463 Squadron, Third Wave
ND.133 ‘X’ – W/C W.A. Forbes (Aus) – F/O J.A. Costello – P/O W.A. Martin – F/S A.J. Norman
F/O W.J. Grime – P/O W. McLeod – P/O K.L. Worden
PD.311 ‘O’ – F/O P.J. Bowell (Aus) – F/S E.A. Petersen (Aus) – Sgt W. Forster – F/S W.H.J. Butcher (Aus)
F/S W. Plumb (Aus) – W/O J.R. Williams (Aus) – F/S I.D. Dutfiield [sic] (Aus)
LM.130 ‘N’ – F/O A.G. Stutter (Aus) – F/S P.L. Wilkinson (Aus) – Sgt H. Walsh – F/S M.F. Woodgate (Aus)
F/S P. O’Loughlin (Aus) – F/S D.J. Browning (Aus) – F/S H.R. Holmes (Aus)
PD.337 ‘L’ – F/O F.H. Smith (Aus) – Sgt E. Moss – ?
F/S B.A. Donaghue (Aus) – F/S R.T. Simonson (Aus) – F/S E.R. Cameron (Aus)
ND.977 – F/O G.T. White (Aus) – F/S G.D. Smith (Aus) – Sgt C. Jackson – Sgt V.G. Dunn
F/S H. Robinson (Aus) – F/S J.J.B. Middleton (Aus) – Sgt W. S. Bayne
PD.330 ‘F’ – F/O K.P. Brady (Aus) – F/S E.D. Rees – Sgt C.R. Levy – F/S G. Berglund (Aus)
F/S G.W. Boyes – F/S J.D. Stevens (Aus) – F/S J.E. Cox (Aus)
MD.332 – F/O B. Ward-Smith (Aus) – F/O R.W. Markham (Aus) – Sgt E. Taylor – F/S A.J. Tyson (Aus)
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[underlined] 5 Group, [/underlined] the biggest of 6 in Bomber Command.
Our 467 squadron was one of 18 Lancaster squadrons the Group. They were:-
9 at Bardney
227 at Balderton
[missing number] 4 (Rhod.) “ Spilsby
[underlined] 463 & 467 “ Waddington [/underlined]
49 “ Fulbeck
619 at Strubby
50 & 61 “ Skellingthorpe
630 “ East Kirkby
57 “ East Kirkby
617, 627 “ Woodhall Spa [symbol] Mosquitos
83 & 97 (Pathfinders) Coningsby
106 Metheringham
189 Fulbeck
207 Spilsby
[underlined] Some notable raids [/underlined]:
1944 Sept. 12/13. First operational use of [underlined] Loran [/underlined].
“ 23/4. Dortmund-Ems canal breached by [underlined] Tallboy [/underlined] (12000 lb bomb, designed by Barnes Wallis).
Oct. 3 Sea wall at Westkapelle (Walcheren Is) breached.
“ 14/5 Biggest night ops by Bomber Command of the war.
“ 23/4. Part of 1055 plane raid on Essen.
“ 25 “ “ 771 “ “ “ “, finishes it.
Nov. 2/3 “ “ 992 “ “ “ Dusseldorf.
“ 4/5. 174 Lancs breach Dortmund-Ems canal again.
“ 12 Tirpitz sank at Tromso by 9 & 617 Sqdns.
1945 Jan 1/2. 157 Lancs breach Mittleand canal.
“ 4/5. raid on Royan kills many French civilians.
“ 7/8. Part of 654 a/c; last raid on Munich.
Mar 14. Bielefeld aquaduct [sic] broken using Barnes Wallis’s new 22000 lb Grand Slam bomb. by 617 Sqdn.
“ 27. U-boat shelter at Farge blown up using the Grand Slam bomb, by 617 Sqdn.
Feb. 20/21 First of 36 consecutive night raids on Berlin by Mosquitos of 627 Sqdn.
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[circled 8]
[underlined] 5 Group [/underlined] Sqdns. As at 22.3.45.
Lanc I, III
9 Bardney
44 (Rhod.) Spilsby
49 Fulbeck.
50 Skellingthorpe
57 East Kirkby
61 Skellingthorpe
106 Metheringham
189 Fulbeck.
207 Spilsby
227 Balderton
463 [brackets] RAAF Waddington
407 RAAF Waddington [/brackets]
619 Strubby
630 East Kirkby
[symbol] 617 Woodhall Spa.
[brackets] 83 PFF Coningsby
97 PFF Coningsby [/brackets]
627 Woodhall Spa. Mosquito IV, XX, 25.
(83, 97 & 627 on loan from 8 Group.)
[inserted] [underlined] 1944. [/underlined] [/inserted]
Sept 12/13 First operational use of LORAN.
“ 23/4. Dortmund Ems canal breached by Tallboy (12000 lb).
Oct 3. Sea wall at Westkapelle (Walcheren Is) breached.
14/15 BC. biggest night ops of war.
23/24. 1055 raid on Essen. 25th 771 on Essen finishes it.
Nov 2/3. 992 on Dusseldorf.
4/5. 174 breach Dortmund Ems canal again.
12. Tirpitz sank at Tromas by 9 & 617 Sq.
Jan 1/2. 157 breach Mittleand Canal.
[inserted] 1945
Jan 4/5 Royan – many French casualties.
7/8 Last raid on Munich 654 a/c
Mar 14. Bielefeld aqueduct broken … Grand Slam 22000 lb.
27 U boat shelter at Farge successful using “ “ “
Feb. 20/21 first of 36 consecutive night raids on Berlin by mosquitos. [/inserted]
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Extracts from “The Hardest Victory – RAF Bomber Command in WW II by Dennis Richards. (Hodder & Stoughton, 1944.)
1944. March to June. The Transportation Plan, preparatory to OVERLORD … the invasion in Normandy. As part of the plan to convince the Germans that the landing would be in the Pas de Calais, far more bridges and railway workshops and marshalling yards were attacked North of the Seine than South of it. In this phase Bomber Command dealt with 37 of the railway centres, 8th American Air Force heavies 26, & AEAF (fighters, fighter-bombers, light & medium bombers, & recon. aircraft, a mixture of RAF & USAAF squadrons) 20. Bomber command dropped nearly 45000 tons on these centres, twice the tonnage of the other 2 put together. Harris in “Bomber Command” wrote:- “Bomber Command’s night bombing proved to be rather more accurate, much heavier in weight & more concentrated than the American daylight attacks, a fact which was afterwards clearly recognised by SHAEF when the time came (later) for the bombing of German troop concentrations within a mile or so of our own troops.”
In this phase, Bomber Command made 69 attacks, 9000 sorties & lost 198 planes (1.8%). They did enormous damage. In the end about 2/3 of the 37 centres were classed as completely out of action for a month or more, and the remainder as needing only some further “attention” from fighter-bombers.
Unhappily, the toll of friendly civilian lives was sometimes more than the “prescribed” limit of 100 – 150 per raid … (Coutrai 252, Lille 456, Ghent 482), but overall the total was much less than the 10000 “limit”.
The attacks on rail centres by all 3 air forces proved catastrophic for the Germans. Only about 12% of rolling stock was fit for use. A division from Poland took 3 days to get to West Germany, then 4 weeks to the Normandy battlefront!
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[duplicate page]
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[circled 2]
A particularly important raid, both in technique & results, was that on 5/6 Apr. (’43) on the Gnome et Rhône aero-works at Toulouse. 144 Lancs from 5 Group, with Leonard Cheshire of 617 SQN doing the initial marking at low level from a Mosquito. 2 Lancs of 617 reinforced the marking with great accuracy & this led to a raid which completely destroyed the factory. Thenceforth, Harris normally entrusted 5 Group (the largest in the Command) with its own marking, independent of the Pathfinder Force.
Bomber Command’s biggest task just before the invasion was to help silence the enemy’s coastal batteries … most nights since 24/25 May, & for deception purposes many of them outside the intended invasion area. But as D-Day neared, so the assault stepped up. On 2/3 June, 271 bombers attacked 4 batteries in the Pas de Calais (where the Germans most expected the invasion). On 3/4 June, 135 bombers attacked batteries at Calais & Winereux. On 4/5 June, 257 a/c attacked … this time in the invasion area. On 5/6 June (when invasion fleet was under way) Bomber Command put on max. effort … 1136 a/c (1047 attacked) [inserted] 5000 + tons of bombs. [/inserted] against [deleted] the [/deleted] 10 of the main batteries on the invasion coast. Other air formations & naval bombardment also attacked there & between them 9 of the 10 batteries were made incapable of sustained fire against the invasion forces.
In the week after D-Day, B.C. flew 3500 sorties to prevent reinforcements getting to the front. In the most skilful attack, 8/9 June. Lancs of 83 Sqn lit up railway tunnel at Saumur, then marked by Mosquitos, then 25 Lancs of 617 Sqn. dropped new 12000 lb “Tallboys” [inserted] [symbol] designed by Barnes Wallis. [/inserted] blocked the tunnel & delayed the Panzers.
[page break]
[circled 3]
During the struggle in Normandy, B.C. operated in strength close to battlefield. 14/15 Jun, 337 vs troops & vehicles at Aunay & Evrecy (near Caen). 30 Jun first B.C. daylight there … 266 Lancs & Halis & a few Mosquitos & Spitfire escort bombed a road junction at Villers-Bocage from 4000’ & frustrated a panzer attack. Of B.C.’s 5 other attacks in close support the biggest was 18 Jul .. GOODWOOD (max effort) … 1056 from B.C., 863 of AEAF & 8th A.F. to help the push SE of Caen towards Falaise …. but had bad weather & unsubdued anti-tank guns stopped the offensive (only 6 miles max.). But it impressed the Germans … Von Kluge who’d just replaced Rommel, wrote to Hitler on 21 Jul:- “There is no way by which, in the face of the enemy air forces’ complete command of the air, we can discover a form of strategy which will counterbalance the annihilating effects [underlined] unless we withdraw [/underlined] from the battlefield. Whole armoured formations allotted to counter-attack were caught beneath bomb carpets of the greatest intensity so that they could be got out of the torn-up ground only by prolonged effort … The psychological effect of such a mass of bombs coming down with all the power of elemental nature on the fighting forces, especially the infantry, is a factor which has to be taken into very serious consideration. It is immaterial whether such a carpet catches good troops or bad. They are more or less annihilated, and above all their equipment is shattered ...”
(He suicided a month later when Hitler wouldn’t allow a withdrawal)
On 7/8 Aug. 1019 a/c of B.C. raided 5 points in advance of Allied troops … helping Canadian 1st Army to open the way to Falaise.
Allies had 14000 a/c against German 1000 in those weeks.
25 Aug. Paris was free. 3 Sept. Brit 2nd Army in Brussels.
Resumption of oil targets delayed by V-1 threat.
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[circled 4] Jan (1944)
Hitler had hoped to begin V-1s vs London as ‘New Year present’ but damage to ‘ski” sites, & Fiesler works at Kassel & their own trouble with getting the bomb to operate reasonably – caused set-backs. Allied bombing of railways held up delivery of launchers & bomb components.
12/13 Jun first V-1 attacks. 7 of 55 sites managed to fire total of 10 … of which 3 reached England. But they improved. Bet. 15/16 & 16/17 Jun. 144 crossed Kentish coast & 73 reached London.
Operation CROSSBOW … B.C. + AEAF + 8th A.F. attacked V-1 sites from mid June to mid-August … using 40% of B.C. strength Targets were the modified launch sites, supply depots, & ‘large sites’ (V-2 rockets [deleted] maybe [indecipherable word] [/deleted]. B.C. attacked these day & night. B.C. flew 16000 sorties, 59000 tons vs the V-1 targets only losing 131 a/c ([symbol] 1%).
By mid-Aug, less need [symbol] defences (AA & fighters redeployed & more effect … + proximity fuses [symbol] [symbol] 20% reaching target; + balloons + finally our armies overrunning the launching sites.
Every day but one from 5 to 11 Sept Harris sent out 300 or more a/c to bomb [deleted] h [/deleted] [underlined] Le Havre [/underlined] area. (We did our [underlined] first trip [/underlined] on 10 [deleted] 8 [/deleted] Sept. 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500 lb.) that day 992 sorties. Total for the week 2500 sorties, 9750 tons … the ground attack after the last air raid on 11 Sept. succeeded & only c. 50 fatalaties [sic]. [inserted] (our 3rd) [/inserted] [underlined] Boulogne [/underlined] [inserted] we dropped 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500 lb. [/inserted] had become the next objective. We were in big raid on 17 Sept. by 762 a/c, opening the way for attack by Canadian army, … garrison gave in on 22 Sept, in diary of captured German officer: “Sometimes one could despair of everything if one is at the mery [sic] of the RAF without any protection. It seems as if all fighting is useless & all sacrifices in vain.”
[page break]
[circled 5]
Germans still held Dunkirk & Ostend … it became clear that key to faster supply to our armies was Antwerp, 40 miles up R. Scheldt. Allies captured Antwerp on 4 Sept. but Germans still held river banks, South Beveland & [underlined] Walcheren Is. [/underlined] dominating its approach from the sea. Allies tried, MARKET GARDEN, airborne troops to capture bridges over Maas, Wasl & lower Rhine … a disaster, losing 1st Airborne Div’n. [symbol] Try to open the Sheldt Estuary. B.C. began attacks on Walcheren Is. in 3rd week of Sept. Hitting batteries proved difficult. Canadian army told to capture Is. … their C.O. suggested bombing might breach its sea-walls & flood some low-lying batteries. Oct 2nd .. leaflets & broadcast to locals. Oct 3. .. Pathfinder Mosquitos in waves of 30 created a big gap in wall 60’ thick at top & 204’ at base. (617 Sqn with Tallboys not needed … took ‘em home!)
Many parts of Is. now flooded, but no surrender. Further attacks on walls on Oct 7, 11 & 17. We did our [underlined] 11th op [/underlined] [inserted] on 7 OCT. [/inserted] on [underlined] Flushing dyke [/underlined] walls, 2 sticks of 7 x 1000 lb, 2 runs at fairly low alt. & achieved a good breach.
We also bombed gun batteries on [underlined] Walcheren [/underlined] Is again on Oct. 23 (14 x 1000 lb) and Oct 30 (14 x 1000 lb) … [underlined] our 13th op [/underlined].
The plan was to take Wal. Is by amphibious assault & to ‘soften it up’, B.C. raided c 277 on Oct 28; then on Oct 29 with 358 a/c, then on [underlined] Oct 30 with 110 a/c [/underlined]. [inserted] [underlined] our 15th [/underlined] [/inserted] (us). On 1 Nov. Canadian & Scottish troops began a week of hard fighting … Royal marines sailed landing craft through the gaps in the sea-walls. B.C. flew 2000+ sorties in 14 raids there, 9000 tons of bombs … only lost 11 a/c ([symbol] 0.4%).
Antwerp not used for another 19 days … time taken to clear the estuary of mines.
[page break]
[circled 6]
B.C. continued to attack towns in Germany & coastal targets in the autumn & winter of 1944.
On [inserted] 12th [/inserted] Sept. we did our [underlined] 2nd trip [/underlined] on [underlined] Stuttgart [/underlined] (1 x 4000 lb + 13 J clusters). (Our skipper had been [deleted] there [/deleted] [inserted] to [underlined] Danstadt [/underlined] [/inserted] the previous night as “2nd-dickie”). Then our [underlined] 4th [/underlined] on Bremerhaven on 18 Sept. (18 cans). & 5th on Munchen-Gladbach the next night 19 Sept (1 x 2000 lb + 12 J clusters) on which Guy Gibson as master bomber went missing (KIA). Our [underlined] 6th on [/underlined] 23 Sept. was our first of 4 raids on [underlined] Dortmund [/underlined] Ems canal “the vital link between the Ruhr & North Sea”. (14 x 1000 lb). B.C. did about 10 raids on the canal, “each time draining the canal for several miles & leaving scores of barges stranded. And this was not simply a one-off piece of temporary damage. As soon as, by the effort of 4000 (Todt) labourers, the canal was once more fully working, B.C. breached it again - & went on doing so as required until the end of the war.” (It was a fairly “dicey” target – they [underlined] knew [/underlined] we’d be coming & [underlined] where [/underlined] (where the aqueduct was above ground level.)
Sept 26. Op [symbol] 7 on Karlsruhe (18 cans)
“ 27 [symbol] 8 “ Kauserlauten (18 cans).
Oct 6 [symbol] 10. Bremen (18 cans)
Oct 5. Daylight formation (!) on Wilhelmshaven (18 cans). - - cloud obscured target & we (& others) bombed by H2S … the only time we used it on ops … mostly we were denied its use because they reckoned German fighter &/or flak could pick us up from its transmission.
Oct. 19. Op [symbol] 12. Nuremburg (1 x 2000 lb + 12 J clusters).
Oct 28 op 14 Bergen (Norway) U-boat pens … but brought bombs back due to smokescreen over target. Had to descend to near mountain tops to clear cloud – did so safely using GEE.
[page break]
[circled 7]
“In the last quarter of 1944, nearly half the tonnage dropped by B.C. was aimed at Urban areas in general rather than on more specific targets. … eg. Stuttgart, Nuremburg; [underlined] Dusseldorf (our 16th [/underlined] on Nov 2nd, 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500) Munich our [underlined] 23rd [/underlined] on Dec. 17 (1 x 4000 + 9 cans + 1 monroe). & [underlined] Munich [/underlined] again our 28th on Jan 7th (1 x 4000 + 6 J clusters).
Our [underlined] 18th [/underlined] on 11 Nov. on Harburg oil refinery (near Hamburg) caused huge fire visible 100 miles on way home (1 x 4000+ 6 x 1000 + 6 x 500 lb).
16 Nov, Our 19th a daylight on [underlined] Duren [/underlined], part of a huge effort to react to battle of bulge destroyed the town to rubble. (12 x 1000 lb).
Our 24th Gdynic .. Dec 18, on Pocket Battleship ‘Lutzow’ (also there the P.B. Admiral Von Sheer) … may have caused enough damage to have Latzow towed (?) to Swinemunde where 617 Sqn finished it off on 16/17 April ’45 (10 x 1000 SA.P.).
5 Group. HQ Grantham, then Moreton Hall, near Swinderby.
[underlined] AOC’s [/underlined] Harris 11.9.39. Bottomley 22.11.40.
Slessor 12-5-41. Coryton 25.5.42. Cochrane 28.2.43
Constantine 16.1.45.
A/C. Hampdens, Manchesters, Lancasters, Mosquitos.
[underlined] B.C. casualties, Aircrew [/underlined] Operational K. 47120
Died as POW 138
Missing now safe. 2868
POW “ “ 9784
Wounded. 4200
[underlined] Non-operational [/underlined]
K. 8090
Wounded 4200
[page break]
A brief summary of the Bache crew’s experiences after the Operation to the Dortmund-Ems Canal on 1st January 1945.
A number of entries in the 160 pages that I wrote during 1945 in the second of my three war diaries refer to events connected with, or as a result of, the Bache crew’s experiences on 1st January of that year. (The three diaries contain a total of some 420 pages which cover only some sections of my overseas service in the RAAF, mainly while travelling to and while in Canada doing my navigator training, the Operation on 1st January 1945, that period which is summarised below and my trip back home from England. Unfortunately they do not cover any of the crew’s other Operational Sorties in detail but an amount of information on these is available from other sources in my possession)
The following very short summary makes use of extracts from some of the entries in my second diary, (other than from the 17 pages which contributed to my chronicle of events directly associated with our 16th Operation on 1st January 1945). It then goes on to refer to information that I have received since from various members of our crew covering their individual moves after the crew broke up in May 1945, plus each one’s post war status.
However, for the sake of brevity, this summary does not include any detailed references to those of our Operational Sorties which we flew between 19th February and 18th April 1945 – and some other of the events in which the crew were involved between January and May of that year – but which were not as a direct consequence of the Operation on 1-1-45 These matters may (possibly?) be covered at some future date.
So, picking up this account from a point part way through January 1945 –
My additional navigational duties during 1945.
During the period early in 1945 when our crew was non-operational, while we waited for Ernie and Cec to recover from their injuries received on 1st January, I was employed in the squadron’s navigation section in various ways. Some of these duties continued after we returned to Ops – particularly on the occasions where our crew was not flying on that Op.
Amongst other things, I had been requested by the squadron navigation leader to assist him by looking after the navigation Order Book, which covered matters such as changes in navigational procedures as these came through from No 5 Group Headquarters, as well as setting up an improved system for bringing this information to the notice of the navigators on the squadron. I was also asked to devise ways of drawing attention to cases or areas in which we should take steps to improve navigational performance.
I “dreamed up” a cartoon type character of a navigator who I named “Ayling-Rouse” (who was something like a mixture of the infamous idiotic pilot character, P/O Prune and the well known ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius) to assist with this and it seemed to be quite successful in getting the guys’ attention! – the style being recommended for use elsewhere in the Group.
I was also shown by the section’s navigation assessment officer how to assess the squadron navigator’s Operational flying log sheets and plotting charts – and learned how to get the navigators away on “cross-country” training flights etc.
I was then introduced by the squadron navigation leader to Operational navigation briefing procedures and other of his duties – and taken to some of the pre-Operation navigational planning conferences, which were held via a Group telephone hook up between
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the various squadrons just prior to our squadron Navigators Briefing for the Op. concerned.
As an upshot of all this, I was made deputy navigation leader and eventually stood in for the squadron navigation leader on occasions – including the conducting of the Navigators Briefing and the navigation specialist officer’s briefing contribution at the Main Briefing which followed, for those of No. 467 Squadron’s crews who were to participate in the daylight Bomber Command attack on “Hitler’s Hideout” at Berchtesgaden, in April 1945.
As it turned out – like so many other planned attacks – this Operation had to be “scrubbed” (ie cancelled) at the last minute because of bad weather in the target area – but was carried out a day or so later by 359 Lancasters – of which some were from other squadrons in No 5 Group and some from Nos. 1 and 8 Groups. However it so happened that Nos. 463 and 467 Squadrons were not available to go there with them on that day due to our station’s involvement in an attack on Tonsberg in Norway which required take-off later in the same afternoon.
(As a result of the additional navigation section work which I had carried out while our crew was “off Ops” waiting for the return of Cec and Ernie and also after we returned to Ops, the squadron navigation leader, when he was informed by the squadron commander early in May that the Bache crew had been selected as one of several crews for a voluntary posting from No. 467 Squadron to Transport Command, tried to convince me not to go with them. He indicated that I was being recommended for a navigation leader’s training course – and would then probably go with the squadron on its intended transfer to the Far East theatre of War.
However, because of the close crew bonds developed during our earlier Operations – and particularly as a result of the events on 1st January 1945, I decided to stick with Merv, Sam and Cec in their transfer to Transport Command.)
Ernie returns to the crew and we return to Operations.
As events turned out, Ernie was declared fit for flying after several weeks and we resumed Ops with him back with us on 19th February, as by this time we were starting to “champ upon the bit” again. However we had to make use of the substitute wireless operators – Cec still being out of action.
Merv’s promotion and his new role on the squadron.
By then Merv had been promoted to the rank of Flight Lieutenant and on occasions had acted as O/C of our “A” Flight, then as O/C “B” Flight, to which our crew was transferred some time in March.
Cec returns to the crew for our trip in “S Sugar”
According to my diary, Cec – who had been recovering from his ankle injury in the RAF hospital at Wroughton, near Crewe, (as was Ernie after they were both transferred from the hospital in Holland) – was flown back to the squadron by Merv and I when he has discharged from there on 22nd February.
However he did not stay, but went to a convalescence place near Liverpool and remained unfit for flying for the remainder of our Operational Sorties – rejoining the crew just in time for our flight to Jouvincourt in France in PO-S on 6th May to bring a planeload of ex-prisoners of war back to England.
Page 2
[page break]
End of the war in Europe and its effects on No. 467 Squadron.
Hostilities in Europe ceased on 7th May 1945 and No. 467 Squadron was one of the Bomber Command squadrons selected for transfer to the Far East theatre of War.
Part of the Bache crew transfer to Transport Command.
Cec then joined Merv, Sam (who had been commissioned in February) and I, in our transfer on 11th May from No 467 Squadron of Bomber Command to Transport Command – to which we were posted as one of five “part-crews” from Waddington.
(These crews were taken from those who were apparently classified as “nominally tour expired” – ie those who had carried out 28, but in our case 25, Operations).
We went to the recently transferred RAAF No. 466, ex No. 4 Group Bomber Command Halifax squadron at Driffield for Transport Command flying training.
Sam’s Departure from Driffield.
We thought that the bomb-aimers who were transferred with us to No. 466 Squadron would have been trained as load masters for Transport Command flying crew “cargo supervision etc”, but were informed shortly after arrival on No. 466 Squadron that it had been decided they were now not required.
So Sam was to leave us! However the blow was softened considerably when he received notification that, because of his long period of service in the RAAF (including time served as a medical orderly in ground staff in the New Guinea theatre of war), he was to be repatriated back to Australia where he would be eligible for discharge from the Service.
He was first of all transferred to the Australian Aircrew Holding Centre at Brighton, on the south coast of England – to await a draft back home aboard a troopship.
Merv, Cec and I continue Transport Command training on No. 466 Squadron.
Merv, Cec and I continued on with No. 466 Squadron at Driffield – where we picked up an Australian Second Pilot (Merv becoming Senior Pilot) – and then converted to and flew in their Halifax bombers.
We then went with the squadron when it relocated to RAF Bassingbourn in September.
From Halifaxes to Liberators.
At Bassingbourne the squadron converted from Halifaxes to 4 engine Liberator bomber type aircraft – American designed and built – and a somewhat different aircraft from the 4 engine British designed and built heavy bombers in which we had previously flown. (It was not long before I christened the Liberator “the Flying Brick” after comparing its flying characteristics with those of our beloved Lancasters).
After we had completed a number of familiarisation exercises in the UK we were scheduled to undertake training flights and later, service transport operations, between UK and India.
The end of World War II in the Far East and the disbanding of 466 Squadron.
We were about to carry out our first training flight to India when the war in the Pacific area suddenly ended – resulting in the squadron being disbanded on 26th October 1945.
Page 3
[page break]
So the four of us, including the Australian Second Pilot, were transferred to Brighton for repatriation back home and discharge from the RAAF.
Our return to Australia.
As things turned out, all the Australian members of our crew, except for Sam, who had left England much earlier – finished up finally going back to Australia together on the same ship – the Athlone Castle.
Our return by sea to Australia is another story – including us becoming involved in a Mutiny aboard the first ship, the Orion, on which we were embarked – and from which we were later disembarked again, back in England, after it broke down in the Bay of Biscay!
Return Home and Post War
Sam
Sam, who received his promotion to Flying Officer in August, returned to Sydney in NSW for discharge from the RAAF. He and his wife, Valda, now live in Wagga, N.S.W.
Merv
Merv returned to Adelaide in South Australia for discharge as a Flight Lieutenant. He and his wife, Ethel, continued to live there until he died in 1974.
Cec
Cec returned to Brisbane in Queensland, for discharge, by which time he had been promoted to the rank of Flying Officer. He married Dawn there and they continued to live in Brisbane, but later moved northwards to Caloundra, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland – where he died from a war related complaint in 1997.
Les
Les, Jim and Ernie remained at Waddington – Les transferring to No 463 Squadron to join Jack Blair’s crew (also ex 467 Squadron, on which they had done 24 Ops prior to the end of the war in Europe). They subsequently moved with the squadron to RAF Skellingthorpe in July. Here he remained until the war in the Pacific concluded, after which No. 463 Squadron was disbanded on 25th September 1945 and all of its RAAF personnel were repatriated back to Australia. He had the rank of Pilot Officer when he was discharged.
Les married and he and his wife, Norma, now live at Seymour, Victoria.
Jim
Jim remained on No. 467 Squadron at Waddington after Merv, Sam, Cec and I left for Transport Command – and while there joined F/O C F Stewart’s crew (which had done 6 Ops on 467 Squadron prior to the end of hostilities in Europe) – as mid upper gunner.
They were posted to No. 463 Squadron, which was also located at Waddington, on 4th June – and went with this squadron when it was relocated to RAF Skellingthorpe on 3rd July.
They remained with No. 463 Squadron until it was disbanded on 25th September 1945 – after which Jim was transferred to Brighton along with all its other Australian members and then returned to Australia for discharge from the RAAF. He was promoted to the rank of Warrant Officer sometime during this period.
Jim married and he and his wife, June, live in Sydney, N.S.W.
Page 4
[page break]
Australian War Memorial
Page 1 of [missing number]
No. 467 Squadron
No. 467 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force was formed at Scampton in the United Kingdom on 7 November 1942. Although intended as an Australian squadron under Article XV of the Empire Air Training Scheme, the majority of its personnel were originally British. The replacement of these men with Australians was a gradual process and it was only towards the end of the war that the squadron gained a dominant Australian character.
The squadron relocated to Bottesford on 23 November 1942 and commenced operations on 2 January 1943. A year later it moved to Waddington, which remained the squadron’s home until the end of the war. Equipped with Avro Lancaster heavy bombers, and forming part of 5 Group, RAF Bomber Command, the squadron’s operational focus for much of the war was the strategic bombing offensive against Germany. Bombing almost entirely by night, it participated in all of the major campaigns of the offensive including the battles of the Ruhr, Berlin and Hamburg. In addition to Germany, the squadron also attacked targets in France, Italy, Norway and Czechoslovakia. On 20 June 1943, 467 was the first Bomber Command squadron to participate in the “shuttle service” where aircraft would leave the United Kingdom, bomb a European target, and then fly on to an airfield in North Africa. There they would refuel and rearm and then bomb another target on their return flight to Britain. The German port of Friederichshafen was the outbound target, and the Italian port of Spezia the inbound one.
In addition to the strategic bombing offensive, 467 Squadron was also employed in support of ground operations prior to, and during the D-Day landing, during the drive out of the Normandy beachhead in mid-1944, and during the crossing of the Rhine in March 1945. The squadron also participated in the offensive to remove the threat posed by Germany’s terror weapons and participated in raids on the weapons research facility at Peenemende, and on V1 flying bomb and V2 rocket assembly and launch sites in France.
467 Squadron’s last bombing raid of the war was an attack on the oil refinery and tankerage at Vallo in Norway. Even before the cessation of hostilities, the squadron was employed to ferry liberated Allied prisoners of war from Europe to Britain and it continued in this role after VE Day. The squadron was one of several identified to form “Tiger Force”, Bomber Command’s contribution to the strategic bombing campaign against Japan. It relocated to Metheringham to prepare for this role, but the war against Japan ended before “Tiger Force” was deployed. 467 Squadron disbanded on 30 September 1945.
Between January 1942 and April 1945, 467 Squadron flew 3,833 sorties and dropped 17,578 tons of bombs. It suffered heavily in the course of its operations – 760 personnel were killed, of whom 284 were Australian, and 11 [missing number] aircraft were lost.
References AWM 64, RAAF formation and unit rolls [2 symbols] ORMF 0118, Roll 95 [2 symbols] 1/426 December 1942 – December 1943 [2 symbols] 1/427 January – December 1944 [2 symbols] 1/428 January – October 1945 [2 symbols] 1/435A December 1942 – March 1945; Units of the Royal Australian Air Force; a concise history. Volume 3, bomber units, (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1995).; H.M. Blundell, They flew from Waddington! 463 – 467 Lancaster Squadrons, Royal Australian Air Force, (Sydney: W. Homer, 1975).
Category Unit
http://www.awm.gov.au/unit/U59451/
4/10
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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463 & 467 Squadron Notes on Ops
Description
An account of the resource
Extracts from publications giving details of all operations by 467 and 463 Squadrons from 10 September 1944 to 25 April 1945. Details include number of aircraft, target, bombloads and losses. Interspersed are details of operations carried out by Herbert Adam's crew on 467 Squadron between 10 September 1944 and 16 January 1945 which include many extracts from his diary describing operations and daily activities. Included are photographs of aircraft, crew members, air to ground views, targets, cook's tour and a map diagram. Details of 5 Group Squadrons, Extracts from books and a summary of Bache crew's experiences after operation to Dortmund Ems canal.
Creator
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H G Adams
Format
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Seventy eight page handwritten book
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Memoir
Text. Personal research
Identifier
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MAdamsHG424504-170215-01
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Conforms To
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Pending review
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
France
France--Le Havre
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
France--Pas-de-Calais
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Germany
Germany--Darmstadt
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Bremerhaven
Germany--Rheydt
Germany--Mönchengladbach
Germany--Dortmund-Ems Canal
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Kaiserslautern
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Braunschweig
Netherlands
Netherlands--Walcheren
Netherlands--Vlissingen
Germany--Nuremberg
Norway
Norway--Bergen
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Germany--Hamburg
Norway--Trondheim
Germany--Munich
Germany--Heilbronn
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Harburg (Landkreis)
Germany--Giessen (Hesse)
Germany--Euskirchen (Kreis)
Poland
Poland--Gdynia
Belgium
Belgium--Houffalize
France--Royan
Germany--Merseburg
Czech Republic
Czech Republic--Most
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Siegen
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Pforzheim
Germany--Sassnitz
Germany--Essen
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Halle an der Saale
Germany--Würzburg
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Nordhausen (Thuringia)
Netherlands--IJmuiden
Germany--Flensburg
Norway--Tønsberg
Germany--Düren (Cologne)
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
Czech Republic--Plzeň
Germany--Herne (Arnsberg)
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-09
1944-10
1944-11
1944-12
1945-01
1945-02
1945-03
1945-04
1944-04-05
1944-04-06
1944-06-14
1944-06-15
1944-06-30
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
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Tricia Marshall
463 Squadron
467 Squadron
5 Group
air gunner
aircrew
bombing
bombing of Toulouse (5/6 April 1944)
Cook’s tour
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
Grand Slam
H2S
killed in action
Lancaster
Mosquito
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
nose art
RAF Waddington
searchlight
tactical support for Normandy troops
Tallboy
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1467/26611/MSangerEW125630-151104-01.2.pdf
6890eaae4de6f63cebbd438fa968c10d
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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Sanger, Eric William
E W Sanger
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2015-11-04
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Sanger, EW
Description
An account of the resource
10 items. The collection concerns Pilot Officer Eric William Sanger (b. 1915, 125630 Royal Air Force) and contains his prisoner of war log, documents and a photograph. He flew operations as an observer with 9 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Trevor Denis Simms and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
A WARTIME
LOG
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[Blank page]
A WARTIME LOG
FOR
BRITISH PRISONERS
“The Moving Finger writes: and having writ
Moved on: nor all thy Piety or Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it”
Rubiyat of Omar Khayham.
Gift from
THE WAR PRISONERS’ AID OF THE Y.M.C.A.
37 Quai Wilson
GENEVA SWITZERLAND
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[Blank page]
Stalag Luft 3.
[Cartoon of a Duck in flying helmet behind bars] POW 202
“I Wanted Wings”
[Page break]
H. Williamson (“Willie”)
Chesterville,
Ont.
“Spit” (Swoop over France Feb. ’43)
A Mackay (“Wimpy”)
6 Apex St Naremburn
North Sydney
Australia
Or C/O C S R Coy Ltd
Fiji Islands
[Underlined] Swordfish [/underlined]
Glan Evans
DOLYCOED
GORSEWON
SWANSEA
GLAM
Sea off Le Havre. Dec ‘42
Grant McRae [Underlined] “Lanc” [/underlined]
231 Kensington Ave.
Westmont Que.
Canada
Suttgart July ‘44
F Burnett
55 Lamorna Grove
Stanmore, Middlesex
Lanc 7 Sqdn
Russelheim Aug ‘44
RF Chalk
630 Lauder Ave
Toronto Ont
Canada
[Underlined] (Halifax) [/underlined]
Brunswick Aug ‘44
D C Hetherton, [Underlined] 55 Sqdn [/underlined]
Paul Winn & Co Ld
32, Bishopsgate
London, EC2
Tern (Italy) April 44
(Baltimore)
Jack J. Walker (Halifax)
11, Zetland Terrace
Saltburn-by-Sea
Yorkshire
A J McInnes (Lanc 83 Sq)
11 Watt St,
Box Hill
Victoria
Australia
Magdeburg Jan 44
[Page break]
[Boxed] 65/11 [/boxed]
[Deleted] T J Austin. [/deleted]
7 Sqdn [Underlined] Stirling [/underlined]
J N Harris
12 Hewitt Ave.
Toronto
LL.1064
HAMBURG July 42
[Underlined] 10 Sqdn Halifax [/underlined] ESSEN June ‘42
Richard M Speer,
515 King Edward Ave.,
Ottawa,
CANADA.
F W McKay P.R.V.
28 Burnett St
Dunedin
New Zealand
[underlined] (Mosquito) [/underlined]
Engine troub
Belgium Oct 42
AB. Anderson Carrick Rd.
Ayr.
P.R.U.
[Underlined] “Spitfire” [/underlined]
Kristiansand Norway Jan 43
[Underined] 408 Sqdn [/underlined] “Gus” Walker
Mortimer
Woodstock N.B.
Canada
(Lanc) Schweinfurt Feb ‘44
F J AUSTIN:
58, High St.,
North Berwick
East Lothian
[Underlined] AND [/underlined]
128, Rosefield Rd,
Smethwick,
Staffs.
149 [underlined] “Stirling” [/underlined]
LUBECK July ‘42
Ron Lunney
19 Hillside Gdns
London E 17
7 Sqdn [Underlined] Stirling [/underlined]
Stuttgart April 43
MR Laloge
Pauce Coupé
B.C.
Canada
Halifax 408 Sqdn
Dan Tomms
51, Harrogate St.,
Barrow-in-Furness
Lancs.
(SWORDFISH)
In sea off Le Havre Dec ‘42
[Page break]
JOURNEYING ON THE CONTINENT IN WAR
25th FEBRUARY 1943. 2230 HRS. B.S.T. Shot down over Nuremburg. Port wing afire.
26th Feb. 0830 hrs B.S.T. Captured in village and locked up. Later interviewed by local policeman
1400hrs. Taken by car to Police Station in Nuremberg Rest of crew arrive later.
800 hs. Taken under armed escort in lorry to Luftwaffe aerodrome. Put in cells
27th Feb Entrained for DULAG Arrived mid-day. Put in cells
4th March. Enter compound
9th March Arrive SCHUBIN XXIB
7th April Arrive SAGAN LUFT II
28th January 1945 Leave SAGAN
4th Feb. 1945 Arrive LUCKENWALDE 3A
[Page break]
[Diagram of a Lancaster showing crew positions]
[Underlined] CREW OF LANCASTER “W” – WILLY SHOT DOWN NUREMBURG 2230 HRS – 25th FEB, 1943 [/underlined]
[UNDERLINED] BOMB AIMER F/O E.W. SANGER. RAF. [/underlined]
[Underlined] SKIPPER F/O J.A. MITCHELL. RAF [/underlined] (KILLED)
[Underlined] FLIGHT-ENGINEER SGT. DOBSON. RAF. [/underlined]
[Underlined] NAVIGATOR SGT. G. QUINEY. RAF. [/underlined]
[Underlined] WIRELESS/OPERATOR SGT. W. CUTLER. RAF. [/underlined]
[Underlined] MID-UPPER GUNNER SGT. LAWSON. RAF. [/underlined]
[Underlined] REAR-GUNNER P/O. V.C. SHERRING. RAF [/underlined] (KILLED)
[Page break]
[Underlined] LYING IN THE DARK [/underlined] (N COWARD)
(1) Lie in the dark and listen –
It’s clear tonight so they’re flying high –
Hundreds of them – thousands perhaps
Riding the icy, moonlit sky.
Men, machinery, bombs & maps,
Altimeters and guns and charts –
Coffee, sandwiches and fleece-lined boots,
Bones and muscles and minds and hearts.
English saplings with English roots
Deep in the earth they’ve left behind,
Lie in the dark and listen!
(2) Lie in the dark and listen –
They’re going over in waves & waves
High above villages, hills and streams
Country Churches and little graves
And little citizens’ worried dreams.
Very soon they’ll be over the sea
And far below them will be the bays
And cliffs and sands where they used to be
Taken for summer holidays –
Lie in the dark and let them go
Theirs is a world we will never know –
Lie in the dark and listen.
(3) Lie in the dark and listen –
City magnates and steel contractors,
Factory workers and politicians,
Soft, hysterical little actors.
Ballet dancers – reserved musicians,
Safe in your warm civilian beds,
Count your profits – count your sheep
Lie in the dark and let them go.
There’s one debt you’ll forever owe
Lie in the dark and listen!
[Page break]
[Underlined] MISCELLANEOUS, Pages 2-52. GERMAN PRESS CUTTINGS [/underlined]
[Underlined] P. 54 [/underlined] Journeying on the Continent.
[Underlined] APPENDIX TO P. 54 – [/underlined] SNAPS. CREW LIST. “STOOGE DAY” CAMP FERRET – LANCASTER – “GOON BOX” “MY PIT” –
CONTENTS
P.1 “LYING IN THE DARK” N. COWARD
55 “RACKETS” by F.J. AUSTIN [circled] 55 [/circled] RAFVR
60 “SPORTING BLUES” S. D. TIMMS 60 RNVR
65 DESIGNS FOR MODERN KITCHEN. Self 65
67 VIEW OF EAST CAMP. S.L.3. Self 67
68-9 }
+83 } ROOM MATES + CAMP ACQUAINTANCES. 68-9 + 83
70 SUGGESTIONS FOR A TOUR OF ENGLAND. 70
71 THE GREAT TREK FROM SAGAN 71 + 75
72 THE KRIEGIE BLUES – Self!!! 72
77 COPY OF GERMAN POSTER – ESCAPE 77
79 SONG OF STALAG 79
80 “THE PRISONERS” A POEM – S/LDR E. SIDNEY-SMITH 80
81 BARTER PRICES AT STALAG 3A 81
[Page break]
[Blank page]
[Page break]
OST-LAGER S.L.3.
[Diagram of huts in a compound]
[Page break]
BLOCK 65. ROOM 11
F J AUSTIN (C/O MISS W.A. AUSTIN. KING’S NORTON IN B’HAM PHONE BOOK)
58, HIGH. STREET
N. BERWICK
SCOTLAND
+
128, ROSEFIELD RD
BIRMINGHAM
(OBSERVER)
STIRLING. [underlined] 149. Sq [/underlined]
LUBECK
July 1942 (Flak)
A B ANDERSON (PILOT)
41, CARRICK RD.
AYR
SPITFIRE, P.R.U
KRISTIANSAND
January 43(F.)
F.H. BURNETT (FLIGHT ENGINEER)
55, LAMORNA GROVE
STANMORE, MDSX
EDGWARE 3939
LANCASTER. [underlined] 7 Sq [/underlined]
RUSSELHEIM
AUGUST 1944 (F.)
R G CHALK (W/OP)
630, LAUDER AV
TORONTO
CANADA
HALIFAX. 434 Sq
BRUNSWICK
AUGUST 1944 (F)
J.N. HARRIS (HANK) (PILOT)
12, HEWITT AV.
TORONTO
CANADA
STIRLING (7 Sq)
HAMBURG
JULY 1942 (Flak)
R.H. LUNNEY (OBS.)
19, HILLSIDE GDS
LONDON. E 17
STIRLING 7 Sq.
STUTTGART
April 1943 (F.)
D C HETHERTON (OBS)
C/O PAUL WINN-CO LTD
32, BISHOPSGATE
LONDON. E.C.2
BALTIMORE 55 Sq
TERNI (ITALY)
April 1944
(Blew up)
[Page break]
G.S. McRAE (B/AIMER)
231, KENSINGTON AVE.
WESTMOUNT, QUEBEC
CANADA
LANCASTER 619 Sqd
STUTTGART
July 1944 (F)
R N SPEER (A/G)
515, KING EDWARD AV.
OTTAWA,
CANADA
HALIFAX 10 Sqdn
ESSEN (Flak)
June 1942
GUS WALKER (MORTIMER) (W/OP)
MEDUCTIC
WOODSTOCK. NB
CANADA
LANCASTER. 408
SCHWEINFURT
February 44
(Fighter)
JACK WALKER (PILOT)
1, ZETLAND TERR,
SALTBURN-BY-SEA
YORKS
HALIFAX. 10 SqN
LEIPZIG
Feb. ’44 (F)
ALAN. F. McIINES (OBS.)
1, WATT STREET
BOX HILL, VICTORIA
AUSTRALIA.
LANCASTER. 83 Sqd
MAGDEBURG
JAN. 1944 9Fight)
ERIC H BODMAN
LA TRAPPE VINERIES Village de Putron
ST MARTIN’S GUERNSEY
Or C/O Henry Fraser Esq., Lochton, Arbroath, Angus, Scotland
HALIFAX 78 Sqdn
MAINZ (Flak)
August 1942
EDWARD RANCE (Flip)
C/O LADY THOMAS
57 PLYMOUTH RD
PENARTH, GLAM
OR LONDON PHONE BOOK
BEAUFORT (217)
BAY OF BISCAY
August 41
[Page break]
Suggestions for a “Tour” of England
I)
The Angel Grantham
The George – Glastonbury
Shakespeare – Stratford-on-Avon
New Inn – Gloucester
Feathers – Ludlow
Lygon Arms- Broadway
Beaufort Arms – Chepstow
White Hart – Salisbury
Royal – Falmouth
Bedford – Brighton
Savoy or Ritz – London
Kings Head – Rochester (Ted Chapman)
II)
The Ship – Mere
The Talbot – Mere
The Bull – Watton-at-Stone
The Blackbirds – Hertford
The Plough? – Hertford
The Saracens Head – Ashford
The Maid of Kent – Ashford
[Page break]
THE “GREAT TREK” FROM STALAG LUFT 3
1945
28th January. Left [underlined] SAGAN [/underlined] 0900 hrs with sledges loaded with all transportable belongings + food. Rough day – being the first.
Arrived [underlined] HALBAU [/underlined] 1800 hrs
Billetted in R.C. Church No heat, no water 17 Kms
29th. January Moved to school in Halbau
30th January Left [underlined] HALBAU [/underlined] 0600 Hrs
Destination [underlined] PRIEBUS. [/underlined]
Arrived [underlined] LIPPA [/underlined] 1600 hrs. 20 Kms
Billetted in Church
Very cold night
31st January Left [underlined] LIPPA [/underlined] 0600 hrs
Via [underlined] PRIEBUS [/underlined]
Arrived [underlined] MUSKAU [/underlined] 1800 hrs 30 Kms
Billetted in Glass Factory
Warm. Had first decent wash in HOT water, and shave. Dried our clothes
1st February Spent whole day + night resting up Collected 1 1/2 R.C. parcels between 6 “bods”. Hank Harris rackets some Beer.
(Continued P.75) 67 Kms
[Page break]
Stalag 3A Luckenwalde
He lay on his bed, hungry and miserable and as he lay there, into his mind came and passed with monotonous regularity, visions of succulent repasts – till his mouth watered, his belly rumbled and his soul writhed
Before his vision appeared and disappeared roast chicken, brussels sprouts, floury baked potatoes, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, steak and onions, bacon and eggs – an endless panorama of rich appetising food.
His mind rebelled at such exquisite torture, and he endeavoured to change the subject. Across the way on an opposite bed another “Kriegie” was munching away at a slice of bread. The resulting track of though led his mind to ruminate upon the inadequate and
[Page break]
deplorable German rations on which he had to exist. Five slices of sour bread and margarine per day, a small quantity of watery unflavoured soup and - five potatoes boiled in their jackets. A really excellent feast!!
At once he was back again to another old thread of the confused maze of thought at the back of his mind. Red Cross Parcels!! Would they ever arrive? He doubted the fact very much He thought of all the parcels left behind at Sagan, the food tins strewn in the snow – the food he was forced to leave behind on the road when his sled failed him on the first day of the march. Once again, the torture
[Page break]
became too great. No use thinking back – it is bad for morale and makes things worse. Now his mind jumps forward to the limit of his reserves. Home. With all its comforts and its food. Huge rock cakes, heavy with fruit, made by his mother’s skilful hands, rolls and fresh butter, strawberry jam, stacks of small cakes, tarts and scones. Poached eggs on toast, strong, sweet, steaming hot tea!! Oh God, how long before I’m there?
Overcome with the thoughts which his empty belly forces to his mind, he groans, takes up a pencil and writes down this rigmarole, while he waits
[Page break]
for his supper of - five potatoes.
13/2/45
[Underlined] 26-2-45 – Potato Ration reduced from 400 – 360 gms!! [/underlined]
[Underlined] “THE GREAT TREK” continued [/underlined] 67 Kms
2nd February Left [underlined] MUSKAU [/underlined] 1200 hrs
Arrived [underlined] GRAUDIN [/underlined] 1800
Slept in Barn. Plenty of
Straw. Sleds no good. 18 Kms
3rd February Left GRAUDIN 0900 hrs
Arrived SPREMBURG 1400 10 Kms
Soup at Army barracks
March to station and entrained in goods wagon – 40 men per wagon. 1730 hrs.
Left SPREMBURG 2130.
4th February Arrived Falkenberg at dawn. Train stops & shunts for hours
Eventually arrive at LUCKENWALDE 1615 hrs. 100 Kms
Reach STALAG 3A at 1800 hr
SHOWER, SEARCH & BED 0200 hrs. [underlined] 195 Kms [/underlined]
[Page break]
[Blank page]
[Page break]
[Underlined] WARNING POSTER EXHIBITED IN ALL P.O.W. CAMPS AFTER THE SHOOTING OF 50 BRITISH AND ALLIED OFFICERS IN APRIL 1944 [/underlined]
[Underlined] TO ALL PRISONERS OF WAR [/underlined]
[Underlined] THE ESCAPE FROM PRISON CAMPS IS NO LONGER A SPORT. [/underlined]
Germany has always kept to the Hague Convention and only punished recaptured P.O.Ws with minor disciplinary punishment. Germany will maintain these principles of international law. But England has, besides fighting at the front in an honest manner, instituted an illegal warfare in non-combat zones in the form of gangster commandos, terror bandits and sabotage troops even up to the frontiers of Germany. They say in a captured, secret and confidential English Military Pamphlet
[Underlined] THE HAND-BOOK OF MODERN IRREGULAR WARFARE. [/underlined]
“The days when we should practice the rules of sportsmanship are over. For the time being every soldier must be a potential gangster and must be prepared to adopt these methods whenever necessary.
“The sphere of operations should always include the enemy’s own country, any occupied territory, and in certain circumstances such neutral countries as he is using as a source of supply”
(cont)
[Page break]
ENGLAND HAS WITH THESE INSTRUCTIONS OPENED UP A NON-MILITARY FORM OF GANGSTER WARFARE
Germany is determined to safeguard her homeland and especially her war industry and provincial centres for fighting fronts. Therefore it has become necessary to create strictly forbidden zones, called death zones, in which all unauthorised trespassers will be immediately shot on sight.
Escaping P.O.W’s entering such death zones, will certainly lose their lives. They are therefore in constant danger of being mistaken for enemy agents or sabotage troops.
[underlined] Urgent warning is given against making future escapes [/underlined]
In plain English. Stay in the camp where you will be safe!! Breaking out of it is now a damned dangerous act.
[Underlined] The chances of preserving your life are almost nil! [/underlined]
All police and military guards are given the most strict orders to shoot on sight suspected persons.
[Underlined] ESCAPING FROM PRISON CAMPS CEASES TO BE A SPORT!! [/underlined]
[Page break]
[Drawings]
SING A SONG OF STALAG
DAYS WITHOUT END
BAGS & BAGS OF KRIEGIES
ALL “AROUND THE BEND”
WHEN THE GATES ARE OPENED
THE GOVERNMENT WILL SING
IF THAT’S THE CREAM OF BRITAIN’S YOUTH
OH DEATH! WHERE IS THY STING?
[Drawings]
[Page break]
[Underlined] “The Prisoners” [/underlined] E Sydney-Smith
“We are the ones who flew – “failed to return,”
And deathwards, half the long dark journey made,
For us no everlasting lamp shall burn
Nor hero’s wreath on any tomb be laid.
Yet, short of death, we fell not back to life,
But down the still dark abyss in between
To idly sit and hear the nations’ strife
And sometimes woo the sleep that might have been.
We are not always sad, for each one clings
To memory, and the dreams of what he thinks
He left and still shall find, the far, dear things,
The shades that come in dreams and burst our links.
But if the years’ slow stream shall flow too wide,
We may return, to find that we have died.”
[Page break]
22/2/45
BARTER PRICES FIXED AT LUCKENWALDE
FOOD CIGS.
GERMAN BREAD PER LOAF [deleted] 20 [/deleted] 40
GERMAN FLOUR PER KILO 20
BRATLING POWDER (SOUP) 10
SACHARINE (100 TABLETS) 5
PEAS DRIED PER KILO 10
PORRIDGE OATS PER KILO 20
BARLEY PER KILO 20
MARGARINE PER 1/2 KILO 35
SUGAR PER 2lb. 15
MEAT (IN TINS) PER KILO 60
FRESH MEAT PER KILO 40
RED CROSS AMERICAN CHEESE 1/2 lb 20
AMERICAN COFFEE 2 oz 30
CANADIAN COFFEE 8 oz 40
KLIM 40
SPAM, CORNED BEEF 40
MEAT & VEG 30
SALMON 20
SARDINES 10
CANADIAN TEA 4 oz 30
(continued)
[Page break]
CIGS
RED CROSS AMERICAN JAM 6 oz 10
RED CROSS CANADIAN JAM 1lb 30
MARGARINE 1lb 40
“D” BARS 4oz 20
MILK CHOC 4oz 25
COCOA 1/4 lb 20
PRUNES 1lb 20
RAISINS 1lb 20
PÂTÉ 15
[Page break]
NAME & ADDRESS
Edward Chapman
Hope Lodge
Macclesfield Road
Buxton, Derbyshire
OR GEO G. SANDEMAN SONS & CO LTD.
20 ST SWITHIN’S LANE, E.C.4.
A/SR Launch 143
Cap’d 12 1/2 miles S of Dover
8th May 1941
TIMMY TITHER
411, WATEERY LANE
SUTTON OAK
ST HELENS
LANCS
WELLINGTON III
ENGINE TROUBLE DITCHED 40 mls W. BORKUM
27-7-42
John Orpe Pakeman Jnr.
County Surveyor’s Dept
County Hall
CHICHESTER
Sussex
Halifax
Night Fighter
Dachsundhausen
Δ Frankfurt
20.12.43
Stephen Douglas Read
16 Compton Park Rd,
Mannamead,
Plymouth,
Devon.
Wellington III
Night Fighter 110
Arnhem.
Δ Osnabrück
10 Aug 42
[Page break]
EVENTS PRIOR TO RELEASE
21st APRIL 1945 – Germans leave Stalag 3A and General RUGE (Norway) assumes command, and Camp Defence Scheme comes into operation. Citizens of LUCKENWALDE evacuated by police order. German general threatens to fire on the camp where 8 rifles taken from his men were returned. Rifles returned. Russian artillery shell the town. Only 1000 Volksturm & Hitler Youth reported defending town.
22nd April At 0300 hrs Mayor of Luckenwalde offered to surrender the town to the camp authorities. 0600 hrs Russian tanks arrive in camp & infantry seen in the woods. 1000hrs tanks & armoured cars arrive in camp. Luckenwalde occupied by Russian troops by 1100 hrs Little resistance. Germans loot shops in the town. Russian P.O.W’s leave Camp fired on by German civilians. 4 killed
[Page break]
23rd APRIL. German soldiers surrender to the camp. A little air activity FW 190 fires at the kitchen. No casualties. Russians send 12 [indecipherable word] into camp.
24 APIRIL Reported 4 German divisions in the area. Being mopped up by 1 Russian division.
General Ruge returns from visit to Marshal Konief’s HQ. Reported that we shall go home westwards and not via Odessa.
Luckenwalde quiet.
26/27th April Uneventful day Russian operational troops move out and are replaced by occupational types.
27th April SEE TYPEWRITTEN SHEETS IN BACK COVER
28th April Russian Repatriates board arrived with 50 lorries of Food and Clothing.
29th April First unescorted walk outside camp Visited German village saw Russian squad searching for
[Page break]
Germans
30th April Quite a battle going on near the camp. 3 German soldiers shot near West gate. War seems to be getting nearer.
1st May Battle still going on. Shell landed in Sports Field!! Intended move to Adolf Hitler Lager – 6 miles away, to improve our living conditions.
2nd May Adolf Hitler Lager (now renamed Josef Stalin Lager or “Joe’s Place”) swamped by crowds of refugees. Place looted and spoilt.
3rd May Skeleton staff who went to Lager return owing to being unable to cope with loads of refugees – some of them armed. Move now definitely off
4th May American Press Correspondent arrives says that Allies are unaware of our being liberated Capt. Beatty flies to see Gen. Gesenover to get us out of here
More tanks arrive and
[Page break]
we are informed that we are to be evacuated to-morrow. – the Russians permitting
5th May. The great day arrives. About noon ambulances arrive and, Russian permission having been finally obtained, the sick are evacuated. Rumours of large convoys to take the rest of us home and bring food.
The officer I/C Ambulances inform us that a huge convoy is expected to-morrow (Sunday) and it is hoped to evacuate Americans, British & Norwegians by to-morrow evening
Three lorries arrive with Bread and Army Rations. Russians also bring in five loads of food. Hopes of moving to-morrow are high, but after so many disappointments, Kriegies won’t be convinced till the lorries arrive and we embark
[Page break]
Intended route is Schoenberg – 240 miles to Haldesheim and then flying to England. I hope it is true this time!! 90 trucks of food from Russia arrive to-night. A little late
6th May. Still waiting for the lorries. 22 arrive, but Russians refuse to allow evacuation to proceed Say they have no orders.
7th May W/C Collard resigns as Senior Allied Officer, and sends written protest to Russian Commandant
[Underlined] W/C COLLARD’S LETTER [/underlined]
FROM Senior British Officer
TO Russian Commandant for Repatriation
May 7th 1945
In order to avoid misunderstanding I am putting into writing the principle statement which I made at our conference last night
[Page break]
The situation of the British at this camp is now as follows
From 22nd April, I, at the request of the Russian authorities have been responsible for the administration and security of the whole camp of 16 000 mixed nationalities. The work of this camp during this time has been carried out mainly by British and American officers and men. It should, however, be appreciated that, owing to Russian orders [deleted] req [/deleted] re confinement to camp etc we have had to continue to all intents and purposes as prisoners. That these orders were a military necessity is of course clear but nevertheless the result has been the lowering of the spirit of all ranks. It is important to understand and make allowances for the mental attitude of prisoners of war who have been liberated but are still denied their freedom.
The food situation up to yesterday
[Page break]
was precarious, and the daily ration even though assisted by American supplies, is still grossly inadequate. It is realised that the Russian authorities overcame great difficulties in providing food at all under harassing circumstances: but it will also be agreed that the supply organisation of this camp performed most of the work. Furthermore, the camp has become even more overcrowded owing to the influx of Italian refugees. The problems of sanitation are considerable and the general health is threatened.
In spite of all this, the Russian orders were obeyed and control maintained up to 5th May On that day an American officer, representing Supreme Allied H.Q. arrived with instructions to evacuate Americans and British in that order. His credentials were not accepted by the Russian authorities here, who stated that they could
[Page break]
not allow such an evacuation to proceed since they had no orders on the subject An ambulance convoy which also arrived on this day was permitted to evacuate all American and a few British sick.
Yesterday the American representative from Supreme Allied HQ returned with a convoy to carry out his orders. Captain Tchekerov, acting as deputy for Capt Medvedev who was sick, refused to allow him to proceed with his duties. Later, [inserted] when [/inserted] an attempt was made to proceed with the evacuation, armed force was used against American troops to prevent their leaving the camp.
No doubt this whole affair is due to a misunderstanding but the situation created is extremely serious In spite of continual assurances that we were to be repatriated with the least possible delay, we now see the Russians actively
[Page break]
preventing such repatriation. It is impossible for me to explain or justify, such action in the eyes of my officers and men. I warned Capt. Medvedev on May 4th. that such a situation was likely to arise, and that, if it did, I could not be responsible for the consequences.
Last night I was informed, for the first time that the chief obstacle to our repatriation was that the registration was not complete. I have repeatedly offered to undertake the whole task of registration, I could have completed it by now if my offer had been accepted. In any case, I cannot believe that the Russians intend that vital interests should be threatened for the sake of a mere formality
As the Senior British [inserted] officer [/inserted] here, I am responsible, above all else, for the welfare of my officers and men
[Page break]
This welfare is seriously endangered by the present situation I therefore demand that the position may be clarified without delay, and that our repatriation may be proceeded with immediately
Failing this, I must ask to be enabled to communicate with my Government
Finally I must point out that the present situation as Senior Allied Officer untenable. I therefore resign that position, and from now must be regarded as responsible only for the British.
“Unconditional surrender on all fronts.”
Rumours of 200 lorries have arrived to evacuate the Americans & British and refuse to leave until it is performed. Russian General expected every minute Arrived late – no details.
[Page break]
8th May [underlined] “V” Day [/underlined]
American lorries are sent away empty.
2 Russian Colonels arrive and start repatriation talks.
NB Unofficial evacuation has been taking place ever since Yanks first arrived owing to chaps walking off on their own to Allied lines & getting aboard the lorries without official permission. Estimated 500 officers & 1,000 O R’s have left.
[Underlined] 9th May [/underlined] 100 lorries arrive from Russia and late at night the Norwegians leave.
[Underlined] 10th May. [/underlined] Repatriation now lies in the hands of Allied Commission, so camps resigns itself to a long wait!
[Underlined] 11-19th May [/underlined] Uneventful Boredom!! Only high spots were move to better Quarters,
[Page break]
and the marriage of 3 officers to women refugees!!
[Underlined] 19th May [/underlined] – Evening announcement of impending move next day received with hope blended with scepticism.
[Underlined] 20th May [/underlined] We leave Buchenwald in Russian lorries Cross the Elbe at Coswick & enter American lorries.
Arrive at HALLE late evening.
[Underlined] 25th May [/underlined] Leave HALLE + fly in American D.C.3 to BRUSSELS Reception centre and given marvellous welcome by Canadian Staff.
[Underlined] 26th May [/underlined] Fly in LANCASTER to Oakley. Spend night at BICESTER
[Underlined] 27th May [/underlined] – By train to COSFORD
[Page break]
[Drawing of a prison guard] [Underlined] A CAMP FERRET [/underlined]
[Page break]
[Underlined] Lancaster I [/underlined]
[Drawing of a Lancaster flying]
[Page break]
[Drawing of a guard post]
THE POSTEN IS A LONELY MAN
HE HAS A LITTLE BOX..
[Page break]
[Drawing of bunks and furniture in a hut]
MY “PIT” (SAGAN)
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
Contains drawings, names and addresses of other prisoners, dairy of events on being shot down, his crew and diagram of Lancaster, poems, stories of life in camp, Lists of prisoners in his hut, aircraft they flew and when and where shot down. Diagram of Stalag Luft 3, daily diaries of long walk and liberation/repatriation, German warning notice, barter prices for food and other items.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
E W Sanger
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Forty page handwritten notebook with cover
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Text. Diary
Artwork
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MSangerEW125630-151104-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Poland
Poland--Żagań
Germany
Germany--Luckenwalde
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-02-23
1943-02-27
1945-01-28
1945-02-04
1945-02
1945-04
1945-05
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Title
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Wartime log
Eric Sanger's prisoner of war log book
Contributor
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Anne-Marie Watson
aircrew
arts and crafts
Dulag Luft
Lancaster
prisoner of war
shot down
Stalag 3A
Stalag Luft 3
the long march
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/530/26014/PShawSR1640.1.jpg
2efba0dc1589f11529276897000218a7
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/530/26014/PShawSR1641.1.jpg
b04fd3e8089a906ce3ea771a42f60906
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
Shaw, Stanley R
S R Shaw
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Shaw, SR
Description
An account of the resource
37 items. An oral history interview with Stanley Shaw (3002545 Royal Air Force) Photographs, documents and his log book. He served with a Repair and Salvage Unit and attended many crashes. He later served in North Africa and the Middle East.
The collection also contains two photograph albums; one of his RAF service and one of his time in a cycle club.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Stanley Shaw and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
2016-01-14
2016-02-11
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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Lancaster Recovery
Description
An account of the resource
Three copies of photographs of a Lancaster being recovered. It is annotated 'Aircraft No ME476 Coded TV No 1660 HCU (Heavy Conversion Unit) Swinderby Lincs 550 Sqdn Feb 45 5 MU SOC Feb 46'. On the reverse is an address of The Dalesman Pub Co Lts' and The original photographs were borrowed by Ralph Hoene & Ross Sharpe and were never returned'.
Format
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Photocopied sheet with three b/w photographs
Language
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eng
Type
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Photograph
Identifier
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PShawSR1640, PShawSR1641
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
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-02
1946-02
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
1660 HCU
550 Squadron
crash
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
RAF Swinderby
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1418/25208/PMackayWJ1501.2.jpg
bac5d489d01fcbabd6b139b45b8ea409
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1418/25208/AMackayWJ150527.2.mp3
fade94a1fbdc51da1006bfe0f8d75e48
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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Mackay, Jeff
William Jeffrey Mackay
W J Mackay
Publisher
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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.
Date
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2015-05-27
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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Mackay, WJ
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Jeff Mackay (b. 1922). He flew operations as a navigator with 460 Squadron.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
My, my name is Jeff Mackay. William Jeffery actually and I was born in 1922 in Ballarat, Victoria in Australia. My parents were Australian although my father was of Scottish ancestry and my mother English ancestry and we, born in Ballarat but I really grew up in suburban Melbourne, a suburb known as Caulfield where I went through the normal education process. I went to the local state school and later to Melbourne High School and at the age of sixteen I started working as a cadet engineer in a local suburban council as a, as a cadet engineer. By the, the war broke out in 1939 after I’d been working about six months and the, after a few months I joined the Army and found myself driving trucks in Southern Victoria until the Japanese entered the war in nineteen, on December the 7th 1941 when the situation in Australia changed and people who were, went in to the Army and Navy et cetera voluntarily it became more of a compulsory effort because of the threat of the Japanese. So, after a short break I joined the RAAF and found myself being trained for aircrew although at the time a cousin, a New Zealand cousin of mine who was in Britain wrote to my mother and said, ‘I’ve heard that Jeff has joined the Air Force. Tell him on no account to get in to Bomber Command if he can help it.’ But of course, once I was in the Air Force I I had no option. I had to go where I was sent. The, so we trained at the, in Sydney and at the end of our training they split the number of trainees in to, some were being sent to fly in northern Australia and the other fifty percent were sent to Canada to train to fly in Europe. So as, as it happened I was in the section to go to Europe and before long I found myself in a boat called the, I’ve forgotten temporarily the name of the boat but it was loaded with German Afrika Korps troops in the holds who’d been captured at El Alemein and were taken to prison camps in America to be incarcerated for the rest of the war. We had been sailing out of New Zealand away across the Pacific. It wasn’t long before the German Africa Korps members who were being led, led up on deck morning and afternoon for a period for air began jumping overboard and this was a cause of concern. I suppose in total there were probably about a dozen of these troops who didn’t, who were reluctant to go to America. Probably because of their Nazi training. But the German commandant approached the captain of the ship and asked if anything could be done to stop this. So it was the advice to, the idea was that they’d have a concert in the holds of the ship and the call went out to the Australian recruits who were being taken to Canada to be trained. The call went out did anyone have musical instruments they could lend to the Germans to put on this concert? As it happened, I had been learning the steel guitar shortly before I left, I joined the Air Force and I was taking along this steel guitar with me so I I said yes. Well, they could borrow my steel guitar and there were several other members amongst the Aussies who had different musical instruments. They offered to make these available. So in due course the Germans arranged the concert and they invited any, anyone who had lent them a musical instrument to come along as guests. Well, this was early in 1943 at a time when the German, the German enemy was regarded as such and the five or six other blokes who came with me to the concert which was in the bowels of the ship we went down and the Germans had arranged a raised stand for us to stand on at the back of the, the back of all the troops. There must have been in all about three or four thousand who were closely guarded. But the, the concert went on. One song I remember was Lily, “Lily Marlene”, which was played and sung by some of the German troops and it was remarkably good quality. It stuck in my mind for a while. But at any rate we, at that time as the German was the enemy a few of them were turning around and looking at us and funny looks, a few of them grinned at us because the, I suppose they were glad to have us. It was a change from just being locked up. But the concert passed without them bashing us up and we were glad to get back to our, our end of the ship. But it was an interesting little incident on the way over. Another, another incident that happened with the German prisoners while we were sailing across the Pacific was the British troops who had been guarding them since they were brought round from North Africa were getting a bit sick of their job and they thought that some of the Australian trainees should have a turn at guarding the troops. So, as it happened I was given the opportunity to guard, to stand in the mess room when they came through to eat in the morning and afternoon and I was stationed up at the one end of this vast old, vast dining hall where the, where they came. Now, they gave me a sten gun which I’d never handled before. And I was standing at one end and there were several other Aussies along the walls of the hall and the, while the, when the troops were coming up the stairs and pouring in to the room I thought gee I don’t want to shoot any of them, I’d better uncock this gun which I used to do with my P rifle on the farm. But when I tried to uncock it it had a much stronger spring than the little P rifle I used to have and so the gun started going off and I I sprayed the walls and ceiling before eventually it stopped. By this time there was panic in the dining hall and the Germans, some of them had been trying to get out. But I was grabbed by the, we had, actually it was a Dutch boat, the Niew Amsterdam was the name and I was grabbed and marched off and the sten gun taken off me. Taken back to explain why the gun, why I had done this and I was put in the brig for a day in punishment. But those are the incidents which stuck in my mind and the sort of thing that happened [coughs] pardon me. When we got to America and did our, did our training as navigators in the plains of Winnipeg. Around Winnipeg and Minnesota. That was another experience. And when that was completed we were put on the ship for a quick race across the Atlantic on a ship with a name, I can’t recall that either at the moment. But we were crammed in this boat and they relied on speed to get us across so that German submarines wouldn’t get us. So [coughs] pardon me. We, by the, by the time we reached Britain we were put in, Britain was in the middle of the war. Our first impression on getting to Britain was how pale everybody was with the lack of sunshine and that’s the remaining impression I had. But it wasn’t long before we were marshalled in the, separated in to the different groups depending on what we were, we were intended, what was intended for us and we went through the process of advanced flying. Learning to fly under British conditions from a, an aerodrome in North Wales at a place called Llandwrog. From there we were processed to a place in Staffordshire called Hixon where the different category, trained as navigators, gunners who’d trained as gunners et cetera et cetera. We were all brought together at this aerodrome in, at Hixon and formed in to bomber crews. The process consisted, I was approached by a rather dapper looking fella with a, not very big in stature but very self-confident in the air and he said, he came up to me and said, ‘Are you Mackay?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Well, we’re forming a bomber crew. I’ve got a gunner, I’ve got two gunners and a wireless operator. Would you be interested in joining the crew as a navigator?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ It was a time of quick decisions. I glanced at him and the others and said, ‘Yes. Yes. I’ll, that’ll do, I’ll join.’ So he took me over and introduced me to the other members of the crew. One, one was a, one gunner, the mid-upper gunner was a thirty year old ex-taxi driver from Sydney. A tough looking bloke who played in the front line of a rugby team in his spare time and, well actually he was the mid-upper gunner. The rear gunner was a nineteen year old boy from, Snowy Johnson from Perth. The wireless operator was a, another young fella, about twenty from Sydney, Logger Dowling. The bomb aimer was a Scotsman with another little black moustache from Glasgow. And there was me. That was the six. Six of us. The captain said, ‘Right. Well, we don’t know each other. To get to know each other we’ll go down to the pub tonight.’ So, before, the taxi driver looked at me and said, oh, you know, ‘Do you drink?’ and I said, ‘No. No. I don’t drink.’ ‘Do you smoke?’ I said, ‘No. I don’t actually smoke either.’ He said, ‘How do you feel about women?’ I said, oh I could see that I was really getting the right answers as far as he was concerned, so I said, ‘Oh, I like women.’ Which I did. So with that he sort of accepted that there was no further worry. He said something like, ‘Oh we don’t want any too good fellas in the crew. They say only the good die young so we need a bit of rough stuff.’ So that was the method of forming a crew and it turned out to be a really good crew. Very laid back, very casual but very loyal to each other in the air so a good crew spirit developed. Well, we went to the pub and I thought I’ll have a drink. There was no, there was never anything really against. So, it was only a little pub in Staffordshire called the Barley Mow and there was only, it was too small place to have many people but in the corner of the, one corner of the bar there was an elderly gentleman with a bowler hat. And there was no, the entertainment, you had to entertain yourself in those days and as I remember it the, the apart from chatting to each other and telling stories the bomb aimer, the Scotsman, the Scots bomb aimer said he could sing. So, we said, ‘Righto, Jock. Well, give us a song.’ And so, Jack, err Jock approached the elderly fellow with the bowler hat and said, ‘I’m going to borrow your bowler hat to give a song.’ And his name was Jasper. I remember it well, and Jasper lent Jock the bowler hat and Jock got up on the table and sang a song. I think was called, “The Wife,” which we all applauded. It wasn’t much of a song but it was a bit of fun and [cough] pardon me. The next night, the next time we went for another drink Jasper was there again with his bowler hat and Jock again borrowed Jasper’s bowler hat to give a song. And we went several more times and each time Jasper would lend a hat and Jock would give his song about the wife and, until the day we were getting near leaving. We told Jasper, ‘Well, we won’t be borrowing Jasper, your hat soon Jasper because we’re being posted to another, another training place and the next night will be our last.’ So on our last night Jasper arrived at the pub with his hat in a brown paper bag and said, ‘Look boys,’ he said, ‘I’ve enjoyed the, your company and the singing.’ He said, ‘Would you take the bowler hat as a keepsake?’ So, the reason I’m telling this story is that that became our sort of talisman that when we were on our bombing trips when we could see the lights of the target ahead the crew would say to the skipper, ‘Have you got the hat on, Tich?’ Who was the pilot’s nickname, and Tich would say, ‘Yes, the hat is now on.’ So we, we would say hello to the target with the skipper, with the bowler hat on his head and we all felt a bit safer. So, it was something and of course we hung on to the bowler hat and it came back to Australia with the skipper who has since died but actually the hat is now in the Australian War Museum in a glass case with a little insignia below explaining the significance of it. So that’s the story of the bowler hat. The, well the, I should say something about our bombing missions that I can think of. One [pause] one occasion which was a bit embarrassing for me was when we were bombing Hamburg on a daylight raid and I had to leave to go to the toilet which was a container at the back of the aircraft. And I I told the skipper over the intercom that I’d have to go back and had to unhook the oxygen supply. I was in a flying suit which had to be lowered down when I went to the toilet and had to reconnect my intercom and when I was there and I reported to the skipper that I was back where I was suddenly the aircraft dropped in a, in a dive which they call a curve of a pursuit which was a manoeuvre that bomb, Lancs had to go in to if they were attacked by enemy aircraft. They would go down in a fast spin off course and go down and then like that and weave and then come up again to get back on course to throw, to make it difficult for the attacking aircraft to hit the bomber. In this case I didn’t know what was happening apart from the fact I was, I was rising off the seat when he went in to the dive and of course when he climbed again I sat down on the seat and stuck to it because it was about minus forty on the metal seat. I remember thinking if I get out of this I’ll never be scared of anything again [laughs] But I got out of it. And later on there were a few smirks on the face of the rest of the crew so, they said that we’d been attacked by a German aircraft but of course, I was in the dark. I couldn’t tell what was happening and I was always a bit suspicious but that was one incident I remember happening. What else should I relate at this? I’m afraid I’m running out of —
PE: If I can just ask you, you really are doing well, Jeff. Thank you for that. If I could ask you a few questions. When did you arrive at Binbrook?
JM: It would be February 1945.
PE: Right.
JM: I remember years.
PE: How many missions did you fly?
JM: Eleven. We flew eleven before the war ended. The last one was at Nuremberg.
PE: Yeah. So, I was, I was going to ask you which, you know where did you fly? Where did you go? Where were your operations?
JM: The [pause] I’m not sure if I can remember them all. The first one was Nuremberg. Hamburg.
[pause]
PE: Don’t worry if you can’t remember.
JM: I’m struggling to remember at the moment.
PE: That’s alright. It’s alright.
JM: Hamburg [unclear] I’m sorry, it’s just —
PE: No. Don’t worry.
JM: It’s a bit hard to.
PE: When, when you were flying the missions were you ever frightened about what you were doing?
JM: Frightened? Not, no, not frightened although on, when we went on our first operation I remember going to the plane and saying, sort of going, ‘Oh, Nuremberg and back,’ to the rest of the crew. So I was a bit, a bit optimistic. But when the, we were approaching the target the bombs, the mid-upper gunner suddenly said, ‘Don’t look at that ahead.’ There were a couple of Lancasters, it was a night mission, blew up. Burst in to flames near us and I remember the mid-upper gunner, the tough taxi driver making the remark, and I remember I was entering my log and my hands started shaking a bit but I wasn’t scared but I just couldn’t control it for a few moments, control my hand. That’s one thing I remember distinctly. But I don’t think, I think we thought we had a feeling of resignation that if it happens it happens and the fact that we were all together gave, gave a certain amount of confidence. The fact we were together as a crew. I think we did. We tended to strengthen each other. Yeah.
PE: I mean obviously a lot of your other squadron members were lost during the, during these missions. How did you feel about that? Did that affect you at all?
JM: Sort of numb really I suppose would be the expression. We would, for instance in the, in the nav, when we were plotting our course in the nav room before we went on a mission there would be, you know the fellas on the other tables that were plotting their course then on the map and then the next night the fella that was next to you at the seat there would be someone else there. And you were [pause] you were sort of aware of that. But the other, the main feeling was we can’t do much about it. We can’t do anything about it. The mid-upper gunner, the fella, over thirty year old, after the first trip said, ‘I’m going LMF,’ which was lack of moral fibre and that involved being stripped in front of the squadron on parade. Stripped of your, your insignia and then, and then being put in jail and put in the thing for a few days. And he said, ‘Well, I’ve had enough of this,’ you know. ‘I’m not doing that again.’ He said, ‘I’ve got two children at home in Sydney and I’m just, whatever I’m going to go through I will.’ But something happened when he came out after the interview with the, the senior officer that interviewed him. He said, ‘I’ve changed my mind. I’ll keep going.’ And I think because we were only in our very early twenties you tended to think I don’t think it’ll happen to me. That’s as well as I can remember. I think we were a bit resigned and you couldn’t, you couldn’t face the humility of, with the other people saying, ‘Yes, I’m not doing it any more.’ I think it did happen to odd people but not much. And so I think it’s a fairly, resignation. Well, we’re here. We’re in it. Do the best we can.
PE: How did you feel when you were bombing cities and towns in Germany knowing full well that places like London were being bombed here?
JM: Yes. Well, to be, well generally we sort of you don’t like the thought of what was happening down there but the, while you were actually, while you were doing the job your main concern was doing your job. I had to get to the target. I had to get them there on time and that was the main concern while you were doing it. Naturally, the thought of women and children, you know, in another country that really hadn’t affected you directly you didn’t like the thought of what you were doing but you didn’t think really about it. You thought, oh well, I’ve got to survive. I’ve got to. The job has got to be done. One day, one morning, early one morning we were flying back from one of our raids. I think it was one when we went to Nordhausen which was another place. The dawn was coming and there were, were flying over part of rural Germany coming back and the, the mid-upper gunner said that, ‘Look, we’ve had one or two hangups,’ Bombs that hadn’t released, ‘There’s these places there. We’ll let them have it as we go past them because we could see that they would do it to us.’ But the rest of the crew said, ‘No. No. We won’t do that at all. They, they haven’t hurt us. We’ve, we’ve done what we’ve dropped the bombs on the towns.’ So there was a bit of [unclear]. One of, one of our group would have let them have it. So I think the feeling was in the crew was that there was no real hatred or anything like that. No. It was a case we had to do the job and if possible survive. That’s as I remember it.
PE: That’s good. Can you remember when you left Binbrook?
JM: When I left Binbrook?
PE: When you left Binbrook. When did you go back to Australia?
JM: Well, when the war in Germany ended they asked for volunteers to go on in what they called Tiger Force which was they were going to reform 460 Squadron and were going to go out to Okinawa and bomb Japan and they asked for volunteers. The rest of my crew said, ‘No. We’ve had enough. We’ll go back to Australia.’ And I, for some reason decided no. Well, I was prepared to go to another crew. So they formed us in to a second crew. We started training to go. Go out. But then the war ended in, early in August and the whole thing was finished so we never had to. But that was August 1945. It was a very nice summer and we were suddenly free of the, the threat of being killed and so it was a case of just relaxing and enjoying yourself. And by this time I’d met my wife, Olive a couple of months before and so we spent a bit of time together taking her to the pictures and that sort of thing. One incident, I took her to the pictures one, one afternoon and I said, ‘I’ll get you an ice cream.’ So, well at the interval I go to get her an ice cream and the lights went out. Well, I had the two ice creams but I didn’t know where Olive was so I had to eat the two of them. When the lights came on I was sitting a few seats a few in front of her which she, she thought I’d run out on her but, one thing I remember. But then as it was September I was working with other jobs to do flying. We were flying. We were given the opportunity to fly troops back from Italy which was rather touching. They were very emotional as some of them had been away from England for ten and eleven years. And, and also we dropped, there was the Dutch were starving so we dropped food in the Operation Manna, I think. We had a few trips dropping food to the Dutch. And then that was it. [coughs] Pardon me. Sorry about that.
PE: It’s alright.
JM: My parents, my parents were, by this time were writing saying, ‘When are you coming home? Johnny Hodson in the next street, he’s home. He’s home. Why?’ But I was having, I was enjoying England. At any rate the, the order came back. I had to go back to Australia so that’s what I did. Got on the boat with all the rest of them and came back to peaceful Australia. Landed, when we landed at the wharf there were people all waving to see us. To see you all back. Quite a quite nice seeing my mum and dad and the family were all there along with thousands of other people and it was quite a happy occasion.
PE: Did Olive go back with you at the time?
JM: I beg your pardon?
PE: Did Olive go back with you at the time?
JM: Oh, no. No. We, we wrote to each other for four years after I came back. And I I was doing a course to study civil engineering at Melbourne University and I kept thinking I’ll, I’ll go back to embarkation and propose to her. I kept writing but the bald story is my sister said, ‘What are you going to do about that girl in England?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m going back in embarkation to her.’ She oh she said, ‘Don’t be silly. You’ve waited too long. Write to her and ask if she’d like to come out and hurry. Hurry up and she can stay with me.’ It was rather intimate I suppose as a part of our life. But any rate I wrote to Olive and said will you can come out [unclear] about matrimony. She said yes. And, and that was it. That was in 1952 she arrived at, because there was a shortage of shipping space and at any rate we came out and everything’s has been pretty good since then. We’ve got three sons. They’re men now in their fifties. And we’re still getting along well together.
PE: Yeah. Yeah. So you’ve had your golden wedding.
JM: Yes. We’ve been married sixty two, sixty two years.
PE: Sixty two.
JM: Sixty two years.
PE: Right.
JM: Going on sixty three.
PE: So, what’s that? Is that, that’s diamond isn’t it?
Other: Diamond.
PE: Diamond wedding is it? Yeah.
JM: Olive’s a bit [unclear] deaf.
PE: Yeah. Congratulations.
JM: Could you hear what I said, hun?
OM: Yes. I heard you.
JM: Oh.
OM: Sixty three years.
JM: Yeah.
PE: So, is that diamond wedding is it? Sixty two.
OM: I think so. Yes.
PE: It’s in the sixties anyway. Yeah. Yeah. It’s the diamond wedding. Yeah.
JM: Yes.
PE: Well, thank you very much, Jeff.
JM: Yeah.
PE: That was really good. Have you got any questions you wanted to ask?
Other: No. I mean you’ve covered most of the questions I was after anyway.
PE: I think you got a story in there anyway.
JM: And can, can you scramble out the coughing?
PE: Yeah. Yeah. No, we’ll edit all that out.
JM: Yeah.
PE: Don’t worry about that.
JM: Yes. Yes.
PE: You did remarkably well. Can I just check one thing?
JM: Yes.
PE: You’re in your mid-nineties now.
JM: I’m ninety three.
PE: Ninety three.
JM: Yes.
PE: That’s what I thought. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you did very well to remember all that and you actually told a story which is quite unusual. One of the things that I like to do is find unusual stories in what anybody tells me. We know about your activities in 460 Squadron and the contribution that you made but the interesting thing was your voyage over to America with the German prisoners of war.
JM: Yes.
PE: Now, I’ve never heard that story before.
JM: No.
PE: And that’s very interesting in its own right. So, thank you for that.
JM: Yes. Yes. Well, that’s true. That’s, that’s how it happened.
PE: Good.
JM: Yeah.
PE: Well done. You did very well, Jeff. Thank you.
JM: Oh, thank you.
PE: Thank you. It’s been an honour to meet you. A privilege to talk to you. Thank you very much.
JM: I like to talk about myself [laughs]
PE: Most people do [laughs]
JM: Yes [laughs]
PE: Nothing wrong in that.
JM: Yes.
PE: Well, thanks a lot. That was brilliant.
JM: Yeah. Okay. My pleasure.
PE: That makes quite a good interview—
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 Jeff Mackay
Creator
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Paul Espin
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-27
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.
Format
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00:34:45 Audio Recording
Identifier
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AMackayWJ150527, PMackayWJ1501
Type
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Sound
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
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eng
Description
An account of the resource
Jeff Mackay was born in 1922 in Ballarat, Australia and was working as a cadet engineer. He joined the Army but when the Japanese entered the war in 1941 decided to join the RAAF, and after boarding a ship he trained as a navigator in Canada and then went to the UK to commence operational training. After flying training at RAF Llandwrog he was sent to RAF Hixon where he crewed up. It was at a local pub that he and his crew met a gentleman who wore a bowler hat and he befriended the crew and the singer of the crew would borrow his hat to sing songs. When they announced that they were being posted away he gave them the bowler hat, and his skipper would wear the hat on operations. He and his crew were posted to 460 Squadron at RAF Binbrook flying Lancasters and flew eleven operations, the last being on Nuremburg.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1943
1945-02
1945-08
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Australia
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
Netherlands
United States
England--Lincolnshire
England--Staffordshire
Germany--Nuremberg
Wales--Gwynedd
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Carolyn Emery
460 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
entertainment
lack of moral fibre
Lancaster
military ethos
navigator
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
prisoner of war
RAF Binbrook
RAF Hixon
RAF Llandwrog
superstition
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1391/24703/MDunmoreG635201-160526-03.1.pdf
66e9cdc7b6b0f6706fc2113aa115abfb
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
Dunmore, George
G Dunmore
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-05-26
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
Dunmore, G
Description
An account of the resource
17 Items concerning Flight Lieutenant George Dunmore DFM (5601) who flew 45 operations as a flight engineer on Lancaster with 83 Squadron at RAF Scampton and then as part of the Pathfinder Force at RAF Wyton. Commissioned in 1944 he continued to serve in the general duties branch as flight engineer and then equipment branch until 1967. The collection contains his logbook, an account of a maximum effort operation, official documents and letters, a history of an individual aircraft, pathfinder certificate, recommendation for DFM, career notes as well as photographs and memorabilia. A sub-collection of 58 photographs of aircraft under repair or being manufactured in factories.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Louise Dunmore and catalogued by Nigel Huckins
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
OPERATIONAL HISTORY OF [underlined] AVRO LANCASTER IB R5868 MERLIN XX [/underlined]
29 Jun 42 Joined No 83 Squadron RAF Scampton – a/c letter “Q”
[underlined] OPERATIONAL FLYING WITH 83 SQUADRON [/underlined]
[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 8/9 Jul 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC Wilhelmshaven 1,260 x 4 IB 4 13 [space] 11 Jul 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC Danzig 5 x 1,000 10 5 Daylight. 14/15 Jul 42 P/O J.E.Partridge Bordeaux Mining 1 x 22 1 x 14 1 x 13 set 6 1 x 22 7 40 [space] 18 Jul 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC Essen – Krupps Works 6 x 1,000 4 0 Daylight. 19/20 Jul 42 F/Sgt Calvert D. Vegesack 6 x 1,000 6 0 [space] 21/22 Jul 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Duisburg 112 x 30 IB 3 41 [space] 25/26 Jul 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Duisburg 1 x 4,000 6 x 500 2 x 250 3 32 [space] 26/27 Jul 42 P/O J.E Partridge DFC* Hamburg 1,260 x 4 IB 5 8 Holed in port wing on way out by flak ships. 5/6 Aug 42 W/C D.Crighton-Biggie Mining in Gironde River 22 – 13 set 2 13 set 6 44 – 13 set 1 7 14 Slight flak damage. 6/7 Aug 42 P/O J.Marchant Duisburg 1 x 4,000 900 x 4 IB 4 3 [space]
-1-
[page break]
[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 9/10 Aug 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Osnabruck 1 x 4,000 900 x 4 IB 3 57 Alternative target. 10/11 Aug 42 P/O J.Hodgson Mainz 1 x 4,000 8 x 30 IB 5 38 [space] 18/19 Aug 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Flenxburg 14 x 4 Flares 5 5 PFF. No attack. 24/25 Aug 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Frankfurt 112 x 30 IB 5 45 [space] 8/9 Sep 42 F/Sgt Jackson L.T. Frankfurt 6 x 4 Flares 8 x 250 IB 5 24 No attack. Flares dropped but cloud and haze plus intercom failure prevented bombing. 13/14 Sep 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Bremen 1 x 4,000 6 x 4 Flares 4 24 [space] 14/15 Sep 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Wilhelmshaven 6 x 4 Flares 8 x 250 IB 4 6 W/Op wounded by frire from another 4-engined twin fin a/c overtaken on return flight over the sea! 2/3 Oct 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Krefeld 4 x 7 Flares 10 x 250 inc 3 40 [space] 5/6 Oct 42 F/Lt J.E.Partridge DFC* Aachen 8 x 4 Flares 2 x 7 Flares 1 x 4,000 HC 5 45 No attack. Weather u/s. 2 x 4 flares dropped, remainder brought back. 6/7 Oct 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Osnabruck 1 x 4,000 HC 9 x 4 Flares 1 x 4 Flares 4 25 [space] 13/14 Oct 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Genoa 10 x 4 Flares 6 Flares internally 1 x 4,000 HC 9 20 Landed at Mildenhall (weather).
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[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 7/8 Nov 42 S/L J.K.M.Cooke DFC Genoa 10 x 4 Flares 6 Flares loose 1 x 4,000 HC 7 10 [space] 9/10 Nov 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Hamburg 9 x 4 Flares 1 x 3 whole and ! green with stars 1 x 4,000 HC 5 0 [space] 13/14 Nov 42 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Genoa 9 x 4 White 3 x 1,000 RDX 7 55 [space] 15/16 Nov 42 P/O R.N.H.Williams DFM Genoa 9 x 4 Flares 3 x 1,000 GP 7 20 [space] 29/30 Nov 42 Sgt Partridge H.A. Turin 1 x 4,000 gel 4 x 500 GP 7 25 [space] 2/3 Dec 42 P/O J.Marchant Frankfurt 10 x 250 inc 1 x 4,000 gel 5 55 [space] 21/22 Dec 42 F/Lt J.Hodgson DFC Munich 1 x 4,000 gel 7 07 [space] 15/16 Jan 43 S/L R.L.Hilton DFC* Berlin 1 x 4 Green 1 x 4 White 6 T.I. Red 6 T.I. inc 1 Red Flare int 7 20 No attack claimed. Flares brought back except 1 x 4 White. 11/12 Feb 43 F/Sgt Partridge H.A. Wilhelmshaven 6 x 4 White Flares 3 T.I. Green 1 x 4,000 HC 3 x 500 GP 5 23 Flares and T.I.s brought back as instructed. 13/14 Feb 43 F/Sgt Partridge H.A. Lorient 6 x 4 White Flares 4 T.I. Green 1 x 4,000 gel 4 40 [space] 14/15 Feb 43 S/L J.K.M.Cooke DFC Milan 9 x 4 White Flares 1 x 4 Red Flares 2 T.I. Red 1 Green Flare 1 x 4,000 HC 7 35 9 x 4 Flares brought back.
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[page break
[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 16/17 Feb 43 S/L S.Robinson DFM Lorient 8 x 4 White 4 T.I. Red 1 x 4,000 HC 4 22 Bomb sight u/s. 18/19 Feb 43 F/O F.J.Garvey Wilhelmshaven 1 x 4,000 gel 12 x 8 x 30 inc 4 22 Rear turret u/s for 3/4 of trip. 19/20 Feb 43 W/C R.L.Hilton DFC* Wilhelmshaven 4 T.I. Red 6 x 500 GP 4 07 [space] 25/26 Feb 43 F/O F.J.Garvey Nurnberg 1 x 4,000 gel 10 x 8 x 30 inc 6 24 [space] 26/27 Feb 43 F/O F.J.Garvey Cologne 1 x 4,000 HC 12 x 8 x 30 inc 3 24 Dropped but bombing circuit u/s – bomb doors damaged by bombs falling on them. 28/1 Mar 43 P/O U.S.Moore DFM St Nazaire 8 x 4 White 4 T.I. Green 1 x 4,000 HC 4 34 [space] ½ Mar 43 P/O U.S.Moore DFM Berlin 4 T.I. Green 1 T.I. Yellow 1 x 4,000 HC 6 15 Minor flak damage. 8/9 Mar 43 F/O F.J.Garvey Nuremburg 2 x T.I. Yellow 2 x T.I. Green 1 x 4,000 HC 8 x 8 x 30 inc 6 47 [space] 11/12 Mar 43 F/O F.J.Garvey Stuttgart 4 x T.I. Green 6 x 4 Flares 2 x 90 x 4 inc 1 x 4,000 HC 5 37 Mid-upper and Gee both u/s 12/13 Mar 43 F/O F.J.Garvey Essen 4 x T.I. Green 1 x T.I. White 1 x 4,000 HC 2 x 250 GP LD 1 x 250 GP LD 4 08 [space] 27/28 Mar 43 F/O F.J.Garvey Berlin 6 x T.I. Green 6 x T.I. Yellow 1 x 4,000 HC 2 x 250 GP (LD) 6 56 [space]
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[page break]
[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 29/30 Mar 43 F/O F.J.Garvey Berlin 2 x T.I. Yellow 1 x Green with Red 3 x 4 White 4 x T.I. Red 1 x 4,000 HC 7 08 Flak damage. 2/3 Apr 43 F/Sgt McNichol G.A. St Nazaire 4 x T.I. Red 6 x 1,000 GP 4 x 500 GP 4 36 [space] 23/24 May 43 F/O F.J.Garvey Dortmund 4 x T.I. Green 1 x T.I. Green (LB) 4 x 1,000 GP (NF) 1 x 4,000 HE 2 x 1,000 GP (LD) 4 33 [space] 25/26 May 43 F/O F.J.Garvey Dusseldorf 1 x T.I. Yellow (LB) 1 x T.I. Green (LB) 3 x T.I. Green 1 x 4,000 HC 3 x 1,000 GP 1 x 1,000 GP (LD) 4 08 [space] 27/28 May 43 F/Sgt King R. Essen 1 x 4,000 HC 4 x 1,000 GP 6 x 500 MC 4 34 [space] 29/30 May 43 F/O M.R. Chick Wuppertal 1 x 4,000 HC 1,008 x 4 inc 72 x 4 ‘x’ inc 4 48 [space] 11/12 Jun 43 F/O M.R.Chick Munster 1 x 4,000 12 SPC x 8 x 30 4 52 [space] 12/13 Jun 43 F/O M.R.Chick Bochum 1 x 4,000 HC 1 x 1,000 GP 1 x 1000 GP (LD) 12 x 90 x 4 inc 4 36 [space] 16/17 Jun 43 F/Sgt Cummings M.K. Cologne 1 x 4,000 HC 12 x 90 x 4 inc 4 07 [space]
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[page break]
[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 19/20 Jun 43 P/O H.Mappin Moutchanin 5 x 1,000 MC 8 x 500 MC 3 45 [space] 21/22 Jun 43 F/O M.R.Chick Krefeld 1 x 4,000 HC 12 x 90 x 4 inc 4 18 [space] 22/23 Jun 43 F/Lt F.J.Garvey Mulheim 8 x T.I. Green 1 x 4,000 HC 6 x 1,000 GP 4 07 Flak damage. 24/25 Jun 43 F/Lt F.J.Garvey Elberfeld 1 x T.I. Green LB 4 x T.I. Green 1 x 4,000 HC 6 x 1,000 GP (2LD) 4 24 [space] 28/29 Jun 43 F/Lt F.J.Garvey Cologne 3 x T.I. Green 1 x T.I. Green LB 1 x 4,000 HC 6 x 1,000 MC 4 19 [space] 3 Jul 43 F/Lt F.J.Garvey Cologne 1 x T.I. Green LB 3 x T.I. Green 1 x 4,000 HC 6 x 1,000 MC Backer Up 4 48 Windscreen holed. 12/13 Jul 43 F/O W.R.Thompson Turin 8 x 500 GP LD 6 x 8 x 30 inc 9 30 [space] 24/25 Jul 43 S/L R.J.Manton Hamburg 1 x 4,000 HC 4 x 1,000 MC 1 x 12 x 20(F) 6 11 [space] 25/26 Jul 43 F/Lt F.J.Garvey Essen 1 x 4,000 HC 3 x 1,000 MC 2 x T.I. Green (LB) 3 x T.I. Green 4 39 Passenger: General Anderson USAF
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[page break]
[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 27/29 Jul 43 F/Lt F.J.Garvey Hamburg 2 x T.I. Green LB 3 x T.I. Green 1 x 4,000 HC 3 x 1,000 GP LD 5 34 [space] 29/30 Jul 43 S/L R.J.Manton Hamburg 1 x 4,000 HC 10 x 500 MC 5 42 [space] 12/13 Aug 43 F/Lt F.J.Garvey Milan 2 x T.I. Green LB 2 x T.I. Green 1 x 4,000 7 47 [space] 14/15 Aug 43 F/Lt F.J.Garvey Milan 4 x T.I. Yellow 1 x 4,000 3 x 500 8 07 [space]
[underlined] OPERATION FLYING WITH 467 SQUADRON (BOTTESFORD) – a/c letter “S”
*27/28 Sep 43 P/O A.M.Finch Hanover 1 x 4,000 HC 104 x 30 1,260 x 4 inc 5 23 Recommended a/c after [underlined] 78 [/underlined] trips unreliable for ops. *29 Sep 43 P/O N.M.McClelland Bochum 1 x 4,000 HC 104 x 30 1,260 x 4 inc 4 50 [space] *2/3 Oct 43 F/Lt H.B.Locke Munich 1 x 4,000 HC 84 x 30 600 x 4 inc 8 17 [space] *3/4 Oct 43 F/O J.A.Colpus Kassel 1 x 4,000 HC 24 x 30 1,440 x 4 inc 6 11 [space] *4/5 Oct 43 P/O B.R.Jones Frankfurt 1 x 4,000 HC 1,440 x 4 inc 6 51 [space] *7/8 Oct 43 F/O J.A.Colpus Stuttgart 1 x 4,000 HC 72 x 30 990 x 4 inc 6 50 Landed at Tangmere
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[page break]
*18/19 Oct 43 P/O N.M.McClelland Hanover 1 x 4,000 HC 104 x 30 1,260 x 4 inc 5 15 This aircraft ‘S’ is only fit for a conversion unit *3/4 Nov 43 P/O N.M.McClelland Dusseldorf 1 x 4,000 HC 108 x 30 1,560 x 4 inc 4 21 [space] *10/11 Nov 43 P/O A.Fisher Modane 1 x 4,000 HC 44 x 30 840 x 4 inc 7 35 [space]
11 Nov 43 Moved with Squadron to Waddington.
*18/19 Nov 43 P/O N.M.McClelland Berlin 1 x 4,000 HC 52 x 30 1,170 x 4 inc 8 21 Shot-up over Bonn. *23/24 Nov 43 P/O N.M.McClelland Berlin 1 x 4,000 HC 48 x 30 900 x 4 inc 6 31 [space] *23/24 Nov 43 P/O N.M.McClelland Berlin 1 x 4,000 HC 64 x 30 1,230 x 4 inc 6 31 [space] 26/27 Nov 43 F/O J.A.Colpus Berlin 1 x 4,000 HC 56 x 30 1,050 x 4 inc 7 46 Had collision with another Lancaster just after bombing the target. Went into severe dive to port, but by use of rudder aileron and engines, aircraft maintained height and landed at Tholthorpe. 15/16 Feb 44 P/O J.W.M.McManus Berlin 1 x 4,000 HC 6 x 30 900 x 4 ‘X’ 6 48 [space]
* Sorties credited to other aircraft in the official records for which there is sufficient evidence to indicate that they were flown in R5868.
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[page break]
[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 19/20 Feb 44 P/O J.W.M.McManus Leipzig 1 x 4,000 HC 36 x 30 1,050 x 4 150 x 4 ‘x’ 7.24 [space] 20/21 Feb 44 P/O J.W.M.McManus Stuttgart 1 47 DNCO (Did Not Complete Operation) Port Outer shaky on take-off, cut at 13,000 ft. Bomb load jettisoned. 24/25 Feb 44 P/O J.W.M.McManus Schweinfurt 1 x 4,000 HC 104 x 30 900 x 4 inc 7 32 [space] 25/26 Feb 44 P/O J.W.M.McManus Augsburg 1 x 4,000 HC 92 x 30 650 x 4 100 x 4 ‘x’ IB 7 45 [space] ½ Mar 44 P/O J.W.M.McManus Stuttgart 1 x 4,000 HC 72 x 30 800 x 4 100 x 4 ‘x’ IB 8 08 [space] 18/19 Mar 44 P/O J.W.M.McManus Frankfurt 1 x 4,000 88 x 30 1,200 x 4 inc 150 x 4 ‘x’ 5 58 [space] 22/23 Mar 44 P/O J.W.M.McManus Frankfurt 1 x 4,000 60 x 30 1,500 x 4 inc 5 12 Tail wheel tyre collapsed on landing (possibly flak damage). 24/25 Mar 44 P/O J.W.M.McManus Berlin 3 19 No attack. Port outer failure. Port inner oil leaks. Bombs jettisoned. 25/26 Mar 44 P/O R.E.Llewelyn Aulnoye 13 x 1,000 MC 5 15 Bombed with port outer engine failure – returned at 5,000 ft resulting in just making Tangmere. 11/12 Apr 44 P/O A.B.L.Tottenham Aachen 16 x 5000 MC 30 x 4 inc 4 11 [space]
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[page break]
[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 18/19 Apr 44 P/O A.B.L.Tottenham Juvisy 14 x 1,000 M fused 6 hr delay 4 15 [space] 20/21 Apr 44 P/O A.B.L.Tottenham La Chappelle 18 x 500 MC 4 17 [space] 22/23 Apr 44 P/O A.B.L.Tottenham Brunswick 1 x 2,000 HC 12 x 500 ‘J’ clusters 5 27 [space] 24/25 Apr 44 P/O A.B.L.Tottenham Munich 6 x 500 ‘J’ inc 144 x 30 inc 9 39 Landed at Market Harborough. 26/27 Apr 44 P/O A.B.L.Tottenham Schweinfurt 1,800 x 4 inc 150 x 4 ‘x’ IB 8 58 [space]28/29 Apr 44 P/O A.B.L.Tottenham St Medard-en-Jalles 6 x 1,000 (USA) GP 5 x 500 MC 7 29 [space] 3/4 May 44 P/O T.N.Scholefield Mailly 1 x 4,000 HC 16 x 500 MC 5 33 [space] 6/7 May 44 P/O T.N.Scholefield Sables-sur-Sarthe/Louailles 13 x 1,000 GP (USA) 4 46 [space] 10/11 May 44 P/O T.N.Scholefield Lille 1 x 4,000 HC 16 x 500 MC 3 28 [space] 11/12 May 44 P/O T.N.Scholefield Bourg Leopold 3 36 Ordered NOT to bomb. Fighter attack for 9 1/2 mins by 2 Ju 88s. Successfully forestalled 9 or 10 attacks carrying full bomb load. 5/6 Jun 44 F/O I.Fotheringham St Pierre du Mont 11 x 1,000 GP (USA0 4 x 500 GP 4 12 [space]
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[page break]
[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 6/7 Jun 44 F/O I.Fotheringham Argentan 2 x 1,000 MC 2 x 1,000 SAP (USA) 10 x 500 GP 3 59 8/9 Jun 44 F/O I.Fotheringham Rennes 12 x 500 GP 2 x 500 LD 2 x 1,000 SAP (USA) 6 11 Landed Metheringham. 12/13 Jun 44 F/Sgt Millar K.V. Poitiers 11 x 500 MC 2 x 1,000 GP (USA) 12/13 Jun 44 F/Sgt Millar K.V. Poitiers 11 x 500 MC 2 x 1,000 GP (USA) 1 x 1,000 MC 6 35 [space] 14/15 Jun 44 F/O I.Fotheringham Aunay sur Odon 11 x 1,000 MC 4 x 500 MC 4 35 Army Support. 24/25 Jun 44 F/O G.C.Skelton Prouville 14 x 500 MC 2 x 1,000 MC 3 22 ‘P’ Plane Installations. 27/28 Jun 44 F/O I.Fotheringham Vitry 9 x 1,000 GP (USA) 2 x 500 GP (USA) 2 x 500 GP LD 72 hrs 7 31 [space] 29 Jun 44 F/Sgt Johnson M.G. Beauvoir 11 x 1,000 4 x 500 3 25 Buzz-Bomb site. Daylight attack.4/5 Jul 44 F/O W.R.Williams St Leu d’Esserent 11 x 1,000 4 x 500 4 23 Buzz-Bomb site. 7/8 Jul 44 P/O M.G.Johnson St Leu d’Esserent 11 x 1,000 4 x 500 4 49 Buzz-Bomb site. 14/14 Jul 44 P/O M.G.Johnson Villeneuve St Georges 16 x 500 GP 2 x 500 GP 6 hr LD 6 44 [space] 18 Jul 44 F/Sgt Cowan I.R. Caen 11 x 1,000 SAP (USA) 4 x 500 MC 3 30 Daylight.
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[page break]
[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 18/19 Jul 44 F/O M.G.Johnson Revigny 10 x 1,000 MC 12 hrs LD 3 x 500 12 hrs 5 07 [space] 8 Dec 44 W/C J.K.Douglas Urft Dam 14 x 1,000 4 25 Daylight attack. Landed at Ford. 17/18 Dec 44 S/L E.L.Langlais Munich 1 x 4,000 9 09 [space] 18/19 Dec 44 F/O P.K.Shanahan Gydnia 9 x 1,000 9 19 [space] 21/22 Dec 44 F/O G.A.Stewart Politz 1 x 4,000 HC 5 x 1,000 MC 10 51 Landed at Leuchars. 27 Dec 44 F/Lt M.G.Johnson Rheydt 13 x 1,000 MC 4 53 Daylight. ½ Jan 45 F/O W.K.Boxsell Gravenhorst-Mittelland Canal 13 x 1,000 MC 6 38 Landed at Lossiemouth. 13/14 Jan 45 S/L E.L.Langlais Politz 1 x 4,000 HC 9 x 500 MC 2 x 500 MC LD 10 10 [space] 14/15 Jan 45 F/O J.J.J.Cross Merseberg 1 x 4,000 HC 9 x 500 GP 9 11 Landed at East Moor. 16/17 jan 45 F/Lt F.Lawrence Brux 1 x 4,000 HC 10 x 500 MC 2 x 500 MC LD 9 43 Hit by light flak. Bomb Aimer slightly injured. 1/2 Feb 45 F/Lt F.Lawrence Siegen 1 x 4,000 HC 16 x 500 MC 6 11 [space] 2/3 Feb 45 S/L E.L.Langlais Karslruhr 1 x 4,000 HC 12 SBCs (150 x 4 inc) 7 04 [space] 16/17 Mar 45 F/Lt P.K.Shanahan Wurzburg 1 x 4,000 HC 11 SBC (150 x 4 inc) 6 40 [space]
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[list headings] [underlined] Date [/underlined] [underlined] Pilot [/underlined] [underlined] Target [/underlined] [underlined] Hrs Mins [/underlined]
[list] 20/21 Mar 45 F/O L.W.Baker Bohlen 1 x 4,000 HC 14 x 500 MC 8 19 [space] 22 Mar 45 W/C I.H.A.Hay Bremen 14 x 1,000 MC 5 19 Daylight attack. 23/24 mar 45 F/O L.W.Baker wesel 13 x 1,000 MC 5 32 [space] 27 Mar 45 F/O L.W.Baker Farge 11 x 1,000 4 35 Daylight attack. 7 small flak holes in wings. 4 Apr 45 W/C I.H.A.Hay Nordhausen 1 x 4,000 HC 16 x 500 MC 7 09 Daylight attack. 6 Apr 45 S/L W.M.Kynock Ijmuiden 14 x 1,000 MC 3 18 Daylight. No attack made. Army already there. Turned back by the Master Bomber. 9 Apr 45 W/C I.H.A.Hay Hamburg 13 x 1,000 MC 4 18 Daylight. 16/17 Apr 45 F/O R.A.Swift Pilsen 1 x 4,000 HC 13 x 500 MC 8 23 Landed at Boscombe Down. 18/19 Apr 45 F/O L.W.Baker Komotau (Czechoslovakia) 18 x 500 MC 8 08 Landed at Lyneham. 23 Apr 45 F/O L.W.Baker Flensberg 8 x 1,000 MC 6 x 500 MC 5 24 No attack made Weather u/s.
Grand Total of Operational Flying = [underlined] 795 25 [/underlined]
Bombs Dropped Operationally = [underlined] 466 tons approx. [/underlined]
[underlined] POST-WAR HISTORY [/underlined]
[list] 23 Aug 45 to 15 MU – exhibition aircraft. 16 Mar 56 Struck off charge as an exhibition aircraft and transferred to 13 MU Wroughton to the Historical Aircraft Collection (Museum). 1959 To Scampton – for display. 24 Nov 70 to 71 MU for refurbishing. 12 Mar 72 To RAF Museum, Hendon.
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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
Operational history of Lancaster 1B R5868
Description
An account of the resource
List of 135 operations flown by Lancaster R5868 from 8/9 June 1942 until 23 April 1945. List includes pilot, target, bomb load. hours flown and comments. Was with 83 Squadron at RAF Scampton and Wyton then 467 Squadron at RAF Bottesford and then RAF Waddington until the end of the war.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942-06-29
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Thirteen page typewritten document
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MDunmoreG635201-160526-03
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
England--Lincolnshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England
Germany
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Poland
Poland--Gdańsk
France
Germany--Essen
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Vegesack
Germany--Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Germany--Flensburg
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Krefeld
Germany--Kiel
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Germany--Aachen
Italy
Italy--Genoa
Italy--Turin
Germany--Munich
Germany--Berlin
France--Lorient
Italy--Milan
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Cologne
France--Saint-Nazaire
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Bochum
France--Montchanin
Germany--Kassel
France--Modane
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Schweinfurt
Germany--Augsburg
France--Maubeuge Region
Germany--Braunschweig
France--Bourg-en-Bresse
France--Saint-Médard-en-Jalles
France--Mailly-le-Camp
France--Sablé-sur-Sarthe
France--Lille
Belgium
Belgium--Leopoldsburg
France--Saint-Pierre-du-Mont (Landes)
France--Argentan
France--Rennes
France--Poitiers
France--Villers-Bocage (Calvados)
France--Abbeville Region
France--Vitry-en-Artois
France--Beauvoir-sur-Mer
France--Creil
France--Caen
Poland--Gdynia
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
Germany--Rheydt
Germany--Mittelland Canal
Germany--Merseburg
Germany--Siegen
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Würzburg
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Nordhausen (Thuringia)
Netherlands
Netherlands--IJmuiden
Czech Republic
Czech Republic--Pilsen Basin
Czech Republic--Chomutov
Germany--Düsseldorf
Great Britain
Germany--Münster in Westfalen
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Stuttgart
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Great Britain
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
1943-07-24
1943-07-25
1943-07-27
1943-07-28
1943-07-29
1943-07-30
1944-04-18
1944-04-19
1944-05-03
1944-05-04
1944-07-04
1944-07-05
1944-06
1944-07
1944-08
1942-07
1942-08
1942-09
1942-10
1942-11
1942-12
1944-02
1944-03
1944-04
1944-05
1944-12
1945-01
1945-02
1945-03
1945-04
1944-06-05
1944-06-06
1944-06-14
1944-06-15
1944-06-24
1944-06-25
1944-07-18
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Robin Christian
467 Squadron
83 Squadron
bombing of Hamburg (24-31 July 1943)
Bombing of Mailly-le-Camp (3/4 May 1944)
bombing of the Creil/St Leu d’Esserent V-1 storage areas (4/5 July 1944)
bombing of the Juvisy, Noisy-le-Sec and Le Bourget railways (18/19 April 1944)
bombing of the Normandy coastal batteries (5/6 June 1944)
bombing of the Pas de Calais V-1 sites (24/25 June 1944)
Lancaster
mine laying
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Pathfinders
RAF Bottesford
RAF Scampton
RAF Waddington
RAF Wyton
tactical support for Normandy troops
target indicator
V-1
V-weapon
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1607/24381/PWatsonJB15010022.1.jpg
c9eb3c31bba1d3dacc25ddc04b6a29e1
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
Watson, Joan. Watson, K. Album
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-08-25
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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Watson, JR
Description
An account of the resource
28 items.
Covering K Watson’s service from training onwards and in Bomber Command and then Coastal Command. Includes sketch maps and mementos.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Germans Give 6 Captives Champagne
Then Surrender – 60 of Them
SIX men whose heavy bomber, dropping supplies, crashed in flames behind the German lines in Normandy came back with one of the oddest stories of captivity – and 60 prisoners.
Flight Lieut. Gordon Thring, Canadian pilot of the bomber, told of their two days in German hands.
Told how he and his fellow prisoners [indecipherable words] water and got champagne, [indecipherable word] German troops bowed and said: "Excuse, please, British soldier" when they passed [missing words] and how at last [missing words] asked to be taken [missing words]
[inserted] Ops. "Tonga"
[underlined] "D" day June 5.6-6 – 10-11 1944. [/underlined]
Ops. "Arnhem"
[underlined] Sept 17.18.19.21 1944 [/underlined]
Ops. "Rhine"
[underlined] March 24 1945. [/underlined] [/inserted]
[photograph]
Fairford "D" day Line Up.
[photograph]
The "Old Robin Hood"
[photograph]
Mr & Mrs Fisher of The "Old Robin Hood" Leics.
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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Operations, D Day and The Old Robin Hood
Description
An account of the resource
Five items on an album page.
Item 1 is a newspaper cutting about Germans giving an aircrew champagne, then surrendering.
Item 2 is a handwritten list of three operations and their dates.
Item 3 is a photograph of a number of Stirlings captioned 'Fairford "D"-day Line Up'.
Item 4 is a photograph of a building across a street with two cars, captioned 'The "Old Robin Hood".
Item 5 is a photograph of a man and women at a doorway captioned 'Mr and Mrs Fisher of the "Old Robin Hood", Leics.
Format
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One newspaper cutting and three b/w photographs
Language
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eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWatsonJB15010022
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
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Gloucestershire
England--Leicestershire
England--Leicester
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.
1944-06
1944-09
1945-02
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
aircrew
crash
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
pilot
prisoner of war
RAF Fairford
Stirling
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/812/23579/PEllamsG16030002.2.jpg
37c915a306322e67896a6786488f76d5
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
Ellams, George
G Ellams
Description
An account of the resource
60 items. An oral history interview with George Ellams the son of Wing Commander George Ellams OBE (b. 1921), and documents and photographs concerning his fathers service. He flew operations as a wireless operator with 223 and 199 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Stephen Ellams and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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
2016-10-06
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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Ellams, G
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
Bomber Command No 223 Squadron, RAF Oulton, No 199 Squadron, RAF North Creake
Description
An account of the resource
First is of a crew of eight, standing by left mainwheel of a Stirling captioned 'The crew'. ' The crew of aircraft 'N' for Nan. no 199 Squadron from Nov 1944 till April 1945'.
Second is of ten individuals standing and kneeling in front of a Stirling, captioned "The Mechanics".
Format
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Two b/w photographs on two album pages
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Identifier
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PEllamsG16030002
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. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Norfolk
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.
1944-11
1944-12
1945-01
1945-02
1945-03
1945-04
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
199 Squadron
223 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
flight engineer
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
navigator
pilot
RAF North Creake
RAF Oulton
Stirling
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22597/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-025.1.pdf
47b29512fd6a29e7ba8653c928204f37
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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Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
No. 58 February 1945
BRITISH PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES’ ASSOCIATION
NEWS SHEET
V [Drawing] V [Drawing]
16 ST JAMES’S STREET,
LONDON, S.W.1
Telephone: ABBEY 3520.
President:
THE RT. HON. LORD VANSITTART, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.
Chairman:
Mr. J. CRAIG HARVEY
Secretary:
Mr. W. LAING.
Founder and Organising Secretary:
Mrs. P.M. STEWART.
Hon. Treasurer:
Mr. R.H. HYDE-THOMSON.
Editor:
ELIZABETH EWING.
[Boxed] IN THIS ISSUE.
PAGE
Far East Prisoners write Home 3
Camps as Schools of Citizenship 6
I.R.R.C. Visit Far East Camps 7
Far East Camp Problems 9
Letters from Germany 12
Activities in Provinces 15
Late News 16 [/boxed]
COMMON PROBLEM
BRITISH prisoners of war, from home and all parts of the Overseas Empire, now number nearly 300,000. That figure, given recently in the House of Commons by Mr. Churchill in the course of a survey of war casualties, is a telling reminder to the general public that prisoner of war problems are wide enough to be a matter of considerable moment to the community as well as to that section of it bound by blood and affection to the men who, in captivity, are at once so utterly out of the war and so pressingly in it. It is a reminder, too, that the restoration of the prisoner of war to normal life must be considered generally as an integral part of that reshaping of the world around us which is the post-war responsibility of all.
Relatives’ Part.
As is natural and to be expected, the main driving power behind past and present activities on the prisoner of war’s behalf has come from his relatives. They have provided, in their letters, his main personal link with normal life. They have, in the case of men shut off in that Far East which is living up, unfortunately, to its reputation for inscrutability, striven to the last ounce of their energy to achieve contact – and are still striving. They have sent personal parcels, with the individual needs which mean so much, to camps in Germany and, earlier in the war, to Italy too, and have contributed, by money and work, to the immense activities of the Red Cross in succouring prisoners. Among themselves relatives have got together and have endeavoured, by discussion and the exchange of views, to picture the world of the prisoner and enter into his thoughts. They have co-operated to help the families of prisoners in cases where need arose. That solidarity of the relatives will, when the story comes to be told, be one of the outstanding examples of how suffering can draw people together and bring out the best in them as well as enabling them to aid to the utmost of their power their prisoner of war sons and husbands and brothers.
The Future.
As regards the wider issue of the future of the prisoner of war, there is evidence that the community in general, as well as the relatives, is giving considerable and steadily growing thought to this problem. At the present moment the return of the prisoner, as distinct from that of the fighting man, has secured a dramatic hold on the public mind. The surge of Allied armies on to German soil from East and West makes this irresistible. As liberation draws near, it throws into bold outline the drama of those long years of captivity. It makes the modern prisoner of war one with the age-long wanderer and exile who comes back to a world he scarcely knows and which scarcely knows him. This is one of the oldest of human dramas, persistent from Homer’s Odyssey to Tennyson’s Enoch Arden, and that it should thus be revived in the persons of this war’s prisoners is for the most part a good thing. To see our present and personal problems in the magnifying glass of general human history is beneficial if it clarifies them.
A Danger.
There has, however, been evident of late a serious danger arising out of this – the danger of the prisoner war being regarded as a “problem” upon whose solution will be let loose an army of psychologists and other high-geared experts all on the lookout for symptoms of abnormality or strain in him. There has already been a tendency to impress this upon relatives, to explain to them in advance that all sorts of difficulties and maladjustments are likely to confront them when their men come home. This has at times reached the extent of a certain amount of scare-mongering, and something like a “bogey” is being created in various directions.
[Page break]
2 B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet
At times the talk and discussion resembles that which a few years ago seethed round the so-called “problem child” who, we were told, must be allowed to set the drawing room curtains on fire if he felt like it and who was encouraged to get rid of his inhibitions by riding round town all day in a taxi if he felt an inclination that way. So easy is it to be swept along to absurdities like this that a clear vision of the prisoner of war must be kept in mind by those at home if the difficulties of family reunions are to be met fairly and squarely.
Voice of the Prisoner.
For this purpose, we publish in this issue a forceful and reasoned letter on the subject written by a medical man who has been a prisoner of war since the Greek evacuation of 1941 and who has been attending prisoners professionally as well as living as one of them in Stalag IX B. His refutation of the idea of any general “problem” among prisoners of war is emphatic and categorical. He deserves to be listened to. Equally conclusive are the letters from camps, a cross-section of which we publish monthly as a means of giving in some ways a more just and balanced picture of the prisoner’s life and thoughts than can individual correspondence. Most of these letters tell of that inexhaustible, inspiring human miracle of adjustment to alien surroundings; of humour and balance preserved; studies proceeded with, careers prepared for. Among men who have been repatriated the same spirit prevails. The Far East is not an exception; remember Gunner Wilson, selected by the B.B.C. to broadcast his experiences and recalling among other lighter touches, how our men “had some fun” with the roll-call – “The Japanese couldn’t understand English in the beginning, and when they gave us the order to “number” it went something like: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace.”
Prisoner’s Point of View.
But the problem of the prisoner is not wholly resolved by the reminder that normality has not left him. If we imagine this is so, we are taking too self-centred a point of view. What is his attitude to us going to be? What will he think about the world to which he returns?
“All the world’s queer except me and thee. And even thee’s a little queer,” is a saying which voices a truth from which only the wisest and mentally most honest of us are immune. The plain fact is that to returned prisoner this world of ours will seem very queer indeed, and in many ways unpleasantly so. Thousands of prisoners of war know nothing of rationing of any sort. They are unaware of the revolution wrought on the home by the servant problem, the disappearance of the car, the shortage of fuel, the inability to repair and renew household goods. They have no knowledge of the mental and emotional upheaval caused by long evacuation, by the damaging of one house in three all over Britain by enemy raids. They do not know how five years have broken ties and changed friendships and destroyed settled habits and created new ways of daily life.
A Bleak Life.
Looking back on memories of pre-war existence they will no doubt find our present life narrow and bleak in many ways, lacking in graciousness and cordiality. Strain, overwork, lack of leisure have taken their toll of us gradually though in everyday life we are unaware of them. To men who return to us after years such things will stand out a mile. It is we who will in many ways be the problem, not they. It is ourselves who should be considering and our own adjustment to the future which should give us thought. That is the real lesson we can learn from the thought of the return of the prisoner.
Balanced View.
It may be that we shall consider some of the changes in ourselves beneficial. We may applaud the end of hypocrisy and invidious class distinctions and hail the creation of a more equitable world. In that event we can recall that prisoners, too, have written in their solitude, that their enforced withdrawal from the world has had a beneficial effect on them, has cleared away cobwebs from their minds and made their purpose in life clearer. We can, accordingly, prepare to move hand in hand with them out of the chaos into the future. There is no doubt that returned prisoners will welcome this, for no man of worth wishes to be regarded as a prisoner or to be set aside from his fellows for longer than is called for by the mere mechanics of getting back into normal life. Having served his country he wants to share its future along with those at home who, in the hard conditions of modern war, share with him in body and mind the scars of the conflict regardless of their age, occupation and station.
P.O.W.R.A. CONFERENCE
In London in March
THE BRITISH PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES’ ASSOCIATION will hold a CONFERENCE at the CAXTON HALL, WESTMINSTER, LONDON, on SATURDAY, MARCH 17th, 1945.
This meeting will be open to all Individual Members of the Association, Members of Affiliated Associations and Societies and their friends.
The President, Lord Vansittart, has promised to address the gathering, and other speakers will include senior officers of National Organisations which have the welfare of Ex-Service Men and their rehabilitation as their special concern.
An Informal Session will be held in the morning, commencing at 11.30, when the Officers of the Association will be available to deal with individual enquiries concerning Prisoners of War. During the Afternoon Session, commencing at 2 p.m., ample opportunity will be afforded to relatives to put forward their views on the future policy of the Association. Formal Resolutions will not be put to the vote on this occasion, as the Conference is not confined to representative members. It is requested that all those who wish to speak will confine their remarks to matters of general interest to those who attend the meeting, and will be brief and to the point.
Thailand Relatives
Meeting Arranged
Owing to many requests we are arranging an informal Meeting at ALLIANCE HALL, CAXTON STREET, WESTMINSTER, LONDON, S.W.1. on Saturday, March 10th, at 3 p.m. for the relatives of P.O.W. and Civilian Internees in Thailand only.
This will be mainly in the nature of an experiment to sound the opinion of these relatives as to whether they would support future similar meetings in London for the purpose of exchanging views and information on matters relating to Thailand.
We suggest that any attending should pin a ticket on the coat indicating the camp in which the respective Prisoner or Civilian is interned.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES.
Membership of the B.P.O.W.R.A., which includes the News Sheet, is 12s. per annum. In cases of limited means, reduced rates are considered.
[Page break]
B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet 3
FAR EAST PRISONERS WRITE HOME
What Their Letters Say
How are we at home to form a true picture of the Far East camps where 300,000 of our own people from home and the Dominions and of the Allied nations are in captivity? Life in that dim world of the Pacific, spread over hundreds of thousands of square miles, is unbelievably hard for those who have never been there to imagine, and the effort is made ten times harder by Japanese obstructiveness over allowing communications to be set up.
Gleams of light come from the stories of men who have been repatriated, from radio messages that trickle through from the erratic flow of correspondence. When, just before Christmas, 60,000 letters and cards arrived from prisoners of war and civilian internees in Japanese hands, this record mail did more than any other single happening to shed light on the Far East.
Singly, these communications brought comfort to relatives, who, in many cases, had never had word from near and dear ones on captivity in the Far East. Together, and aided by the comments and notes of the recipients, they are of even greater value. To help to fill out the picture, other information has come from other parts of the world to P.O.W.R.A.
A friend in Melbourne, for instance, sends a very helpful letter.
“I am,” she writes, “a member of an Auxiliary in Melbourne, the personnel of which is composed entirely of N.O.K. of prisoners of war in Japanese hands.
“Recently I have been lucky in receiving what is a comparatively large amount of news from my husband. Two letters arrived in the large distribution of mail some weeks ago. Two radio messages have come since then, and last week I had another letter written on May 17th of this year. In the first radio message (which was only picked up in the U.S.A.) my husband said: ‘I am working on a farm and studying Eastern History.’ I have good reason to believe that he was at Tamagato last year and I imagine he is now in Camp No. 4, though, of course, I have no proof of this. The letter received last week stated: ‘The second lot of Red Cross parcels have arrived.’ The first lot arrived in April, ’43, and was enough meat and sugar apparently to last for four months. I don’t suppose they realize that what they have had is a lot more than many of the camps. A great many of the details of camps in Malaya and Thailand are now known owing to the evidence of the prisoners who have recently been rescued by the Americans and who arrived here a couple of weeks ago. The evidence is indeed grim and one cannot but be grateful when one’s husband is in a camp further north.
“The letter which arrived last week had German censor marks on it, which was rather puzzling. Probably some of these letters have arrived in England too. There were only forty-two in the whole lot for Australia, so we do consider ourselves extremely favoured. There was no other actual news in this letter. It was written in verse on heavy lined paper. There were exactly ten words on every line and exactly a hundred words in the whole message. Both the papers and the envelope (inside and out) was streaked with blue and orange paint which is, I am told, the method of testing for secret writing.”
From Bristol comes a lighter touch in the story of how a Bristol corporal, sending one of the formal printed cards from No. 2 Camp, Thailand, beat the Japanese censor with a touch of humour.
Having solemnly declared in cold print that his health was normal, that he was
[Picture of a house on a beach, with palm trees] A pre-war memory from Singapore.
working for pay and so forth, he delighted his mother by writing on the two lines provided after the printed “My best regards to”-“ yourself, all the family, Giles, Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davey, Dan Widder, Uncle Tom Cobley.”
Elsewhere, scattered bits of news throw light here and there. The aunt of an artillery officer in No. 4 Camp, Thailand, received on December 22nd last a postcard dated January 15th 1944, saying that no mail had arrived but the writer was in “usual” health and working for a monthly salary. On January 2nd, 1945, she received another postcard dated June 10th, 1944, announcing that mail had been received and health was still as “usual.”
Another gunner, in a Borneo camp, sent five undated postcards to his wife, who received them all during the recent Christmas holiday.
“They are all in my husband’s writing,” she explains to P.O.W.R.A., except one, which is printed, and he has filled in the blanks. He says he is interned in Sandakan, and is working for pay. Also that health, climate and spirits are excellent and that we must not worry. He sounds quite cheerful. Unfortunately he has received no letters yet.”
Other letters from prisoners speak for themselves. Here is a selection recently received:-
HAKODATE.
Undated.
In excellent health and spirits still. Hope this applies to you. Have just enjoyed gift of American Red Cross parcel and clothing. We shall soon be re-united – God bless you all.
2/5/44.
My seventh card saying all is well, no mail yet, but some expected soon. Keep writing and send photographs. Just received more --, Red Cross food, boots, and toilet kit, love to you all.
16/5/44.
This is to say I am still safe and well, and receiving good treatment. Hope you are all well. Am receiving Red Cross supplies fairly frequently now, and am expecting mail soon. Needless to say, I am always thinking of home and hope we shall soon be reunited. Keep writing meanwhile.
24/7/44.
In excellent health and spirits. Delighted to receive twenty-three more letters, and an air card only three months old. Keep it up, with more local news please. We write monthly. Please send photographs. Hope you like mine. Have received no personal parcels yet, but still hoping. Sincerely pray Hugh is safe and well. What stories we shall be able to exchange when reunited. G. and G. safe when last seen, October, 1942. Love to everyone. Chins up. Reunion soon.
28/4/44.
Am still in good health and spirits. Glad to receive another letter and air card, dated May, 1944. My thoughts always with you all, especially Hugh, whom I pray is still safe. Am receiving excellent treatment still, but parcels and photographs would be most acceptable. Please send more local news when you write Am no longer with my original friends, but D.F. was well when last seen March, 1943. Am longing to see you all again, and feel that the time is not long now.
7/9/44.
Am still well. Hope you are all right. I trust Hugh is still safe and well. Am confident that we shall meet again before long. Am still receiving excellent treatment, but needless to say shall be glad to
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4 B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet
see Suffolk again. I expect harvesting is now in full swing. Hope it is a good one. My best wishes to all my friends. Am looking forward to more mail. My best wishes for Christmas and peace in the New Year.
CHOSEN (KOREA) DETATCHED No. 1
16/4/44.
Delighted to send eighth card – two days ago overjoyed to receive fourteen from you, two from Hilda, no one else.
I hope your neuritis improves and you are in good health as I am. Rest and take care of yourself, Mum. Remember my money is yours. I shall be sorry if I find you have “needlessly wanted” at all. Am pleased you are able to go about occasionally.
Glad to hear family well with exception of Harry. I hope he improves quickly. Those at home will seem changed when I return, but I always think of you as you were when I last saw you. I have a photo of you and my dear Father, which I treasure above all else. You express a desire for a stone for my dear Dad’s grave. I wish it also and we can do that when I return.
Fred D—is a friend of mine here and is O.K. You met his wife at a Red Cross meeting. The R.C.S. is doing good work and would do more if it were not so restricted. In one year we have had one American parcel, a very good one too. Summer is beginning and today is sunny and warm. It is Sunday and my rest day. We have every other Sunday off work. I have had my hair cut today by an Aussie. You would laugh, it is only half an inch long on top. Still it is healthy.
We have a garden which we hope will help fill our stomachs and we have eight pigs. They are funny ones, have profuse long black hair and are so small. No one seems to know what they eat besides fish-heads. We have footballs, etc., and they look good on a show-case.
The Pope gave us 50 sen each, very kind --- (here quite four or five lines are blacked out).
Very best wishes to all family and neighbours and tell my nieces not to grow too much or I shall feel an old man.
In anticipation of a day not far distant, for which we must pray.
FUKUOKA CAMP No. 2, KIUSHU, JAPAN.
Undated.
This is my fourth letter, not heard from you yet. Am fit and well, treatment is O.K. Pray you are all the same. Remember me to all friends and relatives. Patience, all my love.
CAMP No. 4, TAIWAN.
8/7/44.
Most letters to July ’43 received, one December. Glad you wrote so many long ones – love re-reading twiddlies! Thank you, Anthea Rob lovely letters. Pictures jolly good – adorn wall above my bed. Am well, cheerful. Also read Plato; learning German, shorthand. Home soon.
5/8/44.
Time I answered some your letters! Our rabbit’s white, Anthea with pink eyes! I’ve not tried sketching – no paints – but wrote a little music and, for magazine, music articles. I read mainly philosophical, scientific, and historical novels and textbooks. Now enjoying Sparkenbroke. Also poetry means much more. Faith stronger. Think much of you and the children and future. (Army – certainly awhile – Church? Business? Politics?) Made several permanent friends. Bless you all.
TAIWAN
27/3/44. (Received December 25th, 1944.)
I have just received your letters of June, August, November, 1942, and April, 1943. Wonderful stimulation in the news of you and everybody’s doings, but almost painful in its revival of memories grown dull. Nevertheless, the same mixture in future letters, please.
I am still well and our treatment is everything you can imagine. The Y.M.C.A. has been our best friend, recently sending us books, a medicine ball, a gramophone and records and some musical instruments. We are allowed concerts and at each one the officers do a sketch which would make the Crazy Gang seem highbrow.
Although we have no news our spirits are high and my fellow-rankers think the war will end next month. I hope they’ll soon be right, so please don’t worry about me.
25/5/44. (Received December 23rd, 1944.)
Since my last letter to you I have received yours of July 20th, 1943 – not the latest I’ve had but full of interesting news.
Great excitement here as we have each received (via the Gripsholm, I presume) a 10 lb food parcel from the American Red Cross. After a year without them, such things as Klim, butter, cheese, chocolate, coffee and Spam represent the wildest luxuries. We also received such odd comforts as soap, shaving soap, toothpaste, tobacco, razor blades, etc., and our doctors received a wonderful selection of drugs.
What with this and increased facilities for sport, life is getting more cheerful. Under difficult conditions I’m becoming quite a baseball addict. Both the Y.M.C.A. and Red Cross have sent quite a lot of books and I’ve got enough decent literature to go on with.
Don’t worry about me as I’m very well.
23/7/44. (Received January 1st, 1945.)
Since last writing to you I have received fifty letters, all between June ’42 and July ’43, and two airmail postcards of March 27th and April 10th, ’44. All letters, photos ae worth their weight in gold.
Don’t worry about my wearing rages – a minor point. Anyway, I have no immediate shortage. I don’t smoke and have smaller appetite than most. I am still well, have books to read, and enough to eat. We amuse ourselves with football of a sort in the evenings and an occasional concert.
23/3/44.
Am quite well. Hoping you are all fit. Received no mail yet. Am working for pay. Has Maurice been called up yet? Is Fred married, if so give him my congrats. Give my love to Sylvia and Fred. Keep smiling. Fondest love.
28/4/44.
Hope you and all at home are well. I am well and working. Received no mail yet. Give my regards to everyone. Tell them I still remember them. Give my love to Sylvia, Maurice and Fred. Keep your chins up and keep on smiling.
24/5/44.
Received no mail yet. Hope you are all well. I am well and healthy. I have received a Red Cross parcel. Give my fondest love to Sylvia. Remember me to all at home. To-day is Empire Day and I hope things are happening. Fondest love.
26/6/44.
I was delighted to receive eight letters dated up to July 1943. Glad to hear you ate all O.K. I would like some snaps very much. Give my love to everyone. Keep your chins up. Ever your loving son.
26/8/44.
Hoping you are all well and cheerful. I am receiving mail. Very surprised at change of address and business. I have received one letter from Maurice, very much blue pencilled. Give my love to all, keep your chins up.
No. 4. THAILAND.
15/1/44.
Your mail received with thanks. My health is good. I am working. Best regards.
10/6/44.
Your mail received with thanks. My health is good. I am not working. My best regards to family and all friends.
ZENTSUJI CAMP No. 1.
23/5/44.
Since I wrote the first letter I have received letters and postcards from you. The first batch of letters, of which I received two, and two postcards, arrived on April 17th, 1944. The dates of your letters were May 25th, 1943, to June 24th, 1943. Earlier letters from you arrives a little later here, because they were addressed to Malaya.
I am quite well, and am labouring in the open air. I often wondered if Aunt Emily had visited the District. She will, no doubt, have given you an idea too, of the type of food we get. It is not what we are used to, of course, but occasionally we get bread instead of rice.
The postcard you wrote the day before my twenty-second birthday arrived the day before my twenty-third, so your wish of many happy returns came just right for that date.
All the boys here are now longing for a parcel from home. We still get the Red Cross gifts of food, toilet requisites, boots and clothing. The Red Cross really do a marvellous job for us.
The camp entertainments here include games of football and table tennis. We have a gramophone with English and American records.
10/9/44.
Once again permission to write to you has arrived. Your letters, I am pleased to write, are getting here after about six months.
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B.P.O.W.R.A. New Sheet 5
Prisoners and Parliament
Many Questions Answered
Total numbers of prisoners of war in all ranks of British Commonwealth and Empire Forces were given in the House of Commons by the Prime Minister on January 16th, 1945.
Including Service internees, the totals are as follows:-
United Kingdom (including men from overseas serving in these Forces) … 161,020
Canada … 7,128
Australia … 25,597
New Zealand … 7,153
South Africa … 10,765
India (including 22,803 officers and other ranks missing but presumed to be prisoners of war) … 76,023
Colonies … 6,752
[Underlined] 294,438 [/underlined]
Prisoners of war in Stalag IV C are working twelve hours a day, seven days a week, with one Sunday off a month, stated Mr. T. Driberg, M.P., in the House of Commons, when he asked the Secretary of State for War if he would make appropriate representations through the Protecting Power.
Sir James Grigg said in reply that he was well aware of this and other matters in connection with Stalag IV C, and that repeated representation had been made, so far without satisfaction. They would continue to be made so long as there was the slightest hope of their achieving any result.
The dissatisfaction of relatives with the arrangements made for repatriated prisoners of war suffering from tuberculosis was voiced by Miss Irene Ward, M.P., when she asked Sir James Grigg if in view of this he would consider an alteration of the present policy.
In reply, the Secretary for War stated that according to Army regulations soldiers suffering from tuberculosis were discharged as soon as possible, so that they could if necessary enter civil sanatoria near their homes. They became the charge of the Ministry of Health. Repatriated prisoners of war were given special consideration, and as there was sometimes a delay in their entering sanatoria through lack of accommodation the Minister of Health had set aside a number of beds in E.M.S. hospitals specially for service patients awaiting transfer to sanatoria.
In reply to a further question by Miss Ward, Sir James Grigg promised to pass on to the Minister of Health the information that his arrangements were regarded as unsatisfactory and that improvements were needed in future.
Information was sought by Mr. Collindridge on the subject of promised cablegrams from prisoners of war in Japanese hands. Mr. George Hall, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, replied that no cablegrams had yet been received from prisoners of war or civilian internees in Japanese hands, under the scheme sponsored by the I.R.C.C.
Miss Ward asked the Secretary of State for War for an assurance that pay and allowances to prisoners of war in the Far East about whom no authentic information was available were being continued for the next twelve months, Sir James Grigg said in reply that so long as a man was recorded as a prisoner of war, in the Far East or elsewhere, his pay and allowances admissible for his dependents continued.
Major Peto asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether aby escaped British prisoners of war were imprisoned in Spanish prisons at the present time. The answer was “No.”
CAMP VISITS BY Y.M.C.A.
Special Needs Supplied
Charcoal driven automobiles are used by seven Swiss and Swedish “Y” secretaries who constantly visit our men in German prison camps. These cars are carefully equipped for the needs of the particular camps each worker serves. For example, the car used for visits to the surgical-orthopaedic hospital in Germany, and a special camp for prisoners who have suffered eye injuries, is loaded with short-wave apparatus, a special motor for diathermy, transformer bulbs, and modern Swedish instruments for the blind. All other available space within the car is crowded with hospital games, handicraft materials, braille books, masseur books, pipes, pencils, notepaper, and a hundred miscellaneous items. On the roof, ten sacks of charcoal provide an ever-present filling station!
A total of 1770 such personal visits were made by representatives of War Prisoners’ Aid of the Y.M.C.A. from February, 1940, to December, 1943, in order to promote and establish religious, educational and recreational activities for our men in German prison camps. During 1944 visits have been increased.
BRITISH PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES’ ASSOCIATION.
Council of Management, 1944-45.
The Viscountess Acheson, Barclay Baron, Esq., O.B.E., Lady Bracken, L.E. Davis, Esq., Violet, Countess of Ellesmere, Mrs Ferguson, Mrs Fitton, Major-Gen. H.W. Goldney, O.B.E., M.C., R. H. Hyde-Thomson, Esq. (Hon. Treasurer), Mrs. Constance Gold, Sir Leonard Lyle, Bt., M.P., Humphrey H. King, Esq., Mrs. Mitchell, Mrs Harold Palmer, Colonel T.C. Sinclair, C.B.E., J.E. Sixsmith, Esq., Miss Irene Ward, C.B.E., M.P., Brigadier H. Willan, D.S.O., M.C.
LONG TERM PRISONERS OF WAR
Sir Leonard Lyle, M.P., who has been urging the repatriation of long-term prisoners of war in the hands of the Germans as well as of the Japanese, has received a letter from Mr. Eden, the Foreign Secretary, in which he writes:-
“Up to the present time, and in spite of frequent pressure from the Swiss, no reply has been received to the proposals which we put forward to the German Government in April last regarding able-bodied long-term prisoners of war.
We are, therefore, now considering whether there is any alternative proposal which we can put forward, and which might have a better chance of acceptance by the Germans. If one is found, you may be sure that it will be forwarded at once through the Protecting Power.
It is only just that it should be made clear to the relatives, and other inquirers, that the fault is with the Germans, and that without their co-operation no progress can be made.
With regard to prisoners in the Far East, the Japanese Government have, up to the present, refused to repatriate even the sick and wounded.
[Picture of a pleasant country scene] Konigstein, once a popular tourist resort, where Stalag 383 is situated.
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6 B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet
PRISON CAMPS AS SCHOOLS OF CITIZENSHIP
Doctor Denies Fellow P.O.W.s are Problem Cases
There may be an acute danger of too much being made of the “problem” of the returned prisoner of war. Even if due to an excess of zeal and devotion on the part of his people at home, this can be psychologically harmful as well as the cause of much needless friction in personal and business life. As a considered statement of how the real facts of the case present themselves to a Liverpool ophthalmic surgeon who allowed himself to be captured in the Greek Campaign of 1941, and who has since declined two opportunities to be repatriated, we reproduce, by courtesy of the Editor of “The British Medical Journal,” the following letter which appeared in the issue of January 6, 1945.
The writer, Major Charters, is a prisoner of war in Stalag IX B.
Sir,
Because there is a delay in the arrival here of my Journals I have only recently read the correspondence on the prisoner of war mentality. I am amazed to find in Dr. Harkness’s letter of April 22nd, 1044, the statement that “the very large majority of our returned prisoners of war will be problems for their lifetime.” It has been my privilege for the last three and a half years to administer the medical affairs of large groups of wounded and disabled prisoners. These groups consisted of some of the worst of our “grands blesses” – the totally blind, the double or single amputated, the extensively burned, the paralysed, and the major orthopaedic cases. Nearly all of these patients had known several years of captivity; nearly all of them had suffered hard disappointment when the first attempt at repatriation broke down at Rouen in October, 1941, and they returned to the prison camps instead of going home.
No one realises more acutely than I do the pressing psychological problems which in certain cases have resulted from years of enforced idleness, of monotony, and of physical suffering and disablement. If any group of prisoners of war was likely to present psychological problems it was the kind of group with which I had to deal. Nevertheless I most emphatically deny that anything approaching a majority of prisoners will be “problems for their lifetime.” Rather I would say that the majority of these men have gained in tolerance, understanding, patience, forbearance and courage. They have acquired a bigger concept of comradeship and of community life. They have more fully recognised the need for the individual to pull his weight in the interest of the group. If a man was disabled it became a matter of pride to him to be one of the “muckers” – the man who was ready to “muck in,” to lend a hand, and accept his responsibilities. The average prisoner has demonstrated a high standard of adaptability, and will do so again when he returns home to a post-war world. He will be out of touch in much the same way as any normal man who has been abroad during the changes of the last few years. He will need time to pick up the threads of his life again, but he will not have a peculiar mentality. I have shown Dr. Harkness’s letter to several of the men here – cheerful, average, level-headed individuals. They expressed themselves as follows: “Afraid he doesn’t all together know what he is talking about: a few special cases, yes! but not the very large majority.”
By all means let us arrange for physical and mental rehabilitation where it is needed. By all means let us make some allowances for the fact that the average prisoner of war is not adjusted to the change of the last five years. But so not let us discuss the majority as if they were psycho-pathological problems. Above all, let us avoid discussing their “mentality” in the lay press. If Dr. Harkness’s statement were true, and if we were to follow his recommendation for wide publicity, “the powerful advocacy of the press” would hardly be sound psychological treatment for the prisoner; nor would it encourage employers to select him as a worker. It is my belief that the responsible Departments of the Government will make a true assessment of the problem, and will provide adequate means of rehabilitation. It will not be difficult for them to obtain accurate information based on actual observation by medical officers and by laymen, who have been with the prisoners over long periods and under changing circumstances.
I have lived with prisoners of war of all ranks, of all the services, from all European fronts. On their behalf I resent any implication that they are below average in the qualities of balance, steadiness, patience, perseverance, tolerance, or good humour. The average prisoner is not a “problem” to himself, his companions or his future employer. Surely Dr. Harkness takes a very pessimistic view of the mental and moral stamina of our race.
I am, etc.,
D.L. CHARTERS
Major, R.A.M.C.
(P.O.W. No 23911).
Next-of-Kin Parcels
Points to Watch
With reference to the instructions issued by the Red Cross in December regarding next-of-kin parcels, it should be noted that the allowance of 20 extra coupons (and extra chocolate and soap) made to compensate for 1944 issues missed owing to the suspension of despatches can only be made up to the end of February, and only by next-of-kin who still hold a 1944/3 label (or earlier 1944 issue) with 20 coupons.
The extra allowances cannot, in any circumstances, be made with a 1944/4, or any 1945, label.
Applications should state clearly whether the next-of-kin holds an issue of label and coupons, and if so, its number.
It is important that next-of-kin who qualify, and apply for, the extra coupons for use with a label already in their possession, do not despatch a parcel with this label before they receive the extra coupons, because these must be accounted for at the same time as the issue already held.
In cases where the parcel is sent in and the extra coupons are not accounted for at the same time, they will have to be sent back to the Packing Centre for clearance, before any subsequent label can be issued.
In consequence of the very great number of parcels received since the beginning of December and the difficulty of obtaining extra labour, the despatches from Finsbury Circus and Glasgow are about one month in arrears.
The issue of labels and coupons is also consequently delayed.
All possible steps are being taken to overcome the difficulties, and next-of-kin are asked to help by not making enquiries about the despatch of their parcel and the issue of their next label and coupons until at least two months have elapsed since they posted their parcel.
[Photograph of a man in water, with a model boat] Making the best of it: an R.A.F. prisoner in Stalag Luft III steers the steamboat he has made from scrap metal from Red Cross parcels.
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B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet 7
International Red Cross Visit to Far East Camps
Re-assuring Features of Daily Life
(Translated from Revue Internationale de la Croix Rouge.)
On the 16th and 17th of September Mr H. Angst visited the main Hakodate camp, in which are housed more than 200 British (seven of whom are civilian internees), 40 Americans, 50 Netherlanders, and some Australians, Canadians and Esthonians.
The camp consists of thirteen wooden bungalows (with plank floors) ten of which are of recent construction. The lighting and ventilation systems are adequate; fire-precautionary measures have been installed and anti-air-raid trench shelters have been constructed. The washing and bath facilities (in the Japanese style) are adequate. The food is the same as that of the camp guards. This is the normal amount, but the prisoners would like to receive more Red Cross parcels. The kitchen contains five cauldrons, some stoves, an ice-box, and two store-rooms for provisions. And there is a hut in which vegetables can be kept. Nine prisoner of war cooks, one of whom is a professional, prepare the meals. The infirmary comprises nine rooms capable of accommodating 60 patients, and the isolation quarters, which consist of three wards, can accommodate a further 20. The dental equipment is, apparently, complete, save for a lack of the material necessary for manufacturing artificial dentures. The camp has, moreover, a group of specially chosen laundrymen, but soap is scarce.
The camp commandant allots to each man a task suitable to his wishes and qualifications, in electrical works, or other factories, the work including such things as carpentry, porterage, etc. Prisoners of weak constitution are occupied in the camp itself, where also there is a carpenter’s shop. More than 200 prisoners are employed in labour detachments. All workers have a quarter of an hour’s break for rest during the morning, and another in the afternoon, as well as an hour in which to take their mid-day meal; every Sunday is a free day.
These men are not insured, but the national laws in regard to employment apply to them and, in case of being the victims of an accident, they receive the same relief as that to which ordinary workers are entitled by law. The prisoners keep cows, pigs, chickens and rabbits, and cultivate an area of 2970 square metres. Weekly walks are allowed; indoor and out-of-door games such as volleyball, catchball and boxing are organised. In the summer the men may bathe in the sea every day. They have a library, consisting mainly of books donated by the Y.M.C.A., and they also have some musical instruments.
Religious services can be held at will. The prisoners hold these themselves in English and Dutch.
The commandant had no complaints to make. He stated that discipline was good and that the morale of the men was satisfactory, but he confirmed the need of the prisoners for warm clothing and especially for footwear.
Mr. Angst also visited a branch camp which depends on Hakodate main camp, and which accommodates more than 100 British (of whom four are civilian internees) and some Americans, these latter all being medical staff.
This camp is situated beside the sea; it comprises five wooden bungalows of recent construction. The latrines and baths are installed in the Japanese style. The food rations are the same as those in the main camp, but prisoners who do heavy work receive some extras. The kitchen possesses three cauldrons and two store-rooms; a bread oven in in the process of construction; five military cooks prepare the meals.
The infirmary can take in ten patients; prisoners who are seriously ill are taken to the infirmary of the main camp.
These prisoners hold their own religious services.
One hundred men work in a cement factory; the others are engaged in camp maintenance. The prisoners have a sports ground as well as a piece of ground, measuring 1320 square metres, where they cultivate vegetables; some pigs and rabbits are raised in this camp too.
The commandant of the camp had no complaints to make in regard to the prisoners, but he passed on to the delegate of the International Red Cross Committee the requests of the prisoners, which were numerous, the men being particularly anxious to receive some warm clothing, some footwear and some food parcels.
Future of Prisoner of War
ABERDEEN LOOKS AHEAD
Measures to safeguard the future of men who have spent several years in prisoner of war camps have recently been discussed by the Returned Prisoners of War Association (Aberdeen Area).
The Committee of this Association has been considering the Government’s White Paper on the reallocation of man power between the defeat of Germany and that of Japan.
This resolution was agreed to unanimously at a special meeting:-
“That the Committee, having studied the Government’s proposed Demobilisation Plan, notes that on their repatriation, men who have spent long years of captivity in Germany will be retained in the Army and required to await their turn for demobilisation according to their release group number. That the Committee, without wishing to suggest that returned Prisoners of War should receive priority over other Service men, feels that there are reasons why those who have spent a number of years in captivity should not be retained un the Forces longer than is absolutely necessary. That the Committee is of the opinion that those who have spent more than two years as a Prisoner of War should not again be sent, except voluntarily, on overseas service. That in the event of any priority in demobilisation being given to men who had overseas service, then the Committee is of the opinion that Prisoners of War should receive at least as favourable treatment.”
GERMAN CAMP MAP ON SALE
The new coloured Red Cross map showing the principal camps for British and Dominion prisoners of war in Germany can be supplied on application to B.P.O.W.R.A. Headquarters, 16a St. James’s Street, London, S.W.1. The price is: small size 2d. (by post 3d.); large size 1/- (by post 1/2). Remittance should be sent with order. The map is correct according to information available up to June 30th, 1944.
New Light on Rescued Thailand Prisoners: Miss I. Ward, M.P., obtains facts
Certain questions arising out of the recent rescue of torpedoed Thailand prisoners of war by an American ship and their subsequent return to this country have been answered as a result of correspondence which has passed between Miss Irene Ward, M.P., and the Foreign Office.
In answer to the query as to whether there were any officers on board the sunk transport it was stated by the Foreign Office that the names of all officers were known and that their next-of-kin had all been informed.
As rumours were current to the effect that everyone was being moved from Thailand camps to Japan, information was sought by Miss Ward on this point. There is, it is stated, a tendency to remove prisoners from the Southern to the Northern area, including Japan, and this was happening in the case of the torpedoed transport. But a large number of prisoners remain in Thailand. Their relatives should continue to write to the Thailand camp, the Japanese Government having provided an assurance that correspondence for transferred prisoners of war will be redirected to their new address.
Broadcast messages from Japanese stations, including broadcasts by prisoners and messages from them, have been the subject of some discussion. Every word spoken over the enemy radio is monitored in the British Empire, some in Australia, some in India, some in London. Messages by or relating to prisoners of war are passed on to the next-of-kin as soon as possible.
Efforts were made by Australia to establish a system of broadcast messages to and from prisoners of war, but to this the Japanese Government refused to agree. The New Delhi system has proved unsatisfactory for various reasons, including the lack of assurance from the Japanese that messages to prisoners would be handed on.
Relatives of prisoners of war in Thailand have expressed the desire that representatives of Government Departments should attend a meeting of the Thailand Fellowship to answer questions and provide information. It is explained by the Foreign Office that this would be difficult in view of the great pressure at which the officials concerned are working, both on behalf of relatives and with the direct purpose of alleviating the conditions of prisoners in the Far East. It is suggested, however, that the Thailand Fellowship could serve a very good purpose by keeping records of and disseminating all available information, referring questions when necessary to the Prisoners of War (Far East) Enquiry Centre, Curzon Street House, Curzon Street, London, W.1.
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8 B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet
Red Cross Parcels and German Camps: DETAILED REPORT
PART PLAYED BY EMPIRE
News of parcels for prisoners of war in Germany is included in information issued by the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation.
During October the International Red Cross Committee is reported by the Red Cross to have despatched to the camps in Europe for British prisoners of war 53,068 British Red Cross, 13,920 Canadian and 5,524 Indian food parcels. In addition, food in bulk from Argentina was sent to the equivalent of 21,374 parcels, and 285 kilos. of bulk food was sent from Brazil. Other despatches during the same month were 39,215 medical and 1,236 tobacco parcels.
Acknowledgements received from the camps by the I.R.C.C. during October were of 107,641 British Red Cross, 211,130 Canadian, 10,276 Indian and 15,963 New Zealand food parcels. Food in bulk from Argentina equalled 30,092 food parcels and 603 kilos. of bulk food was received from Brazil. Acknowledgements were also received of 33,470 medical and 6,145 tobacco parcels, in addition to forty-four cases of cigarettes and tobacco, of which thirty-nine were from New Zealand.
During December the staff of the Shipping Section of the Stores Departments of the Red Cross worked at high pressure, dealing with the many consignments arriving from overseas of supplies for prisoners of war and British Red Cross Commissions overseas. The Section received, unpacked and distributed 121 consignments of gifts during the month. These included 25 from the American Red Cross and in all there were 7,600 cases and packages, including 1,065 boxes of eggs from Argentine, dried bananas, cigarettes, boiled sweets from South Africa, hospital supplies, clothing, blankets and eighty bags of raw coffee.
Two shipments of supplies for prisoners of war were assembled, packed and despatched. They amounted to 20,138 packages, weighing more than 1,100 tons, and their total value exceeded £500,000. The first contained Army clothing and toilet requisites. The second consisted of outdoor sports equipment, musical instruments, next-of-kin parcels, books, artists’ materials, clothing, towels, boot polish and cigarettes and tobacco.
G.P.O. and Far East: New Instructions
It should be noted that considerable differences in the procedure for sending communications to prisoners of war and civilians in Japan and Japanese-occupied territories are announced in the Post Office Leaflet (P.2327 B), now being supplied to enquirers. The existence of these changes may not at first be clear, because the new leaflet bears the same number as the earlier one, but the date is December, 1944.
[Photograph of a building, fronted by trees] The Sick Bay at Stalag 344.
HANDS ACROSS THE SEA
News from American P.O.W.R.A.
Cordial New Year greetings have been received from the American P.O.W. Relatives’ Association, whose officials send a message of good cheer to all the British relatives, wishing them a speedy reunion with their kinsfolk.
The American Association was formed in Buffalo in 1941 by Miss Helen Wade Jackson, now Organising Secretary, for the purpose of assisting British prisoner of war and especially men of the Rifle Brigade, on whose behalf appeals had been made. The National Chairman of the Association, Mrs. John Knight Waters, provides a strong link with the European Theatre of War, because she is the daughter of General Patton. Her husband, Lieut.-Col. Waters, is second in command at Oflag 64. Living in Washington, Mrs. Waters has done invaluable work by keeping the American P.O.W.R.A. in close touch with the War Department and the National Red Cross Headquarters.
At the start of its career, the American organisation sent parcels to men of the Rifle Brigade and to other British prisoners of war. This work was stopped when parcels were restricted to those with next-of-kin permits, but regular supplies of Canadian cigarettes are still sent, and books are provided in response to specific demands. In addition, packing centres have been set up where next-of-kin can be advised on the best items to send and the most nourishing foods, and assisted to obtain them. If any family cannot afford to send a really good box, the Association offers to pay for it.
“Cousin Helen.”
To hundreds of men in prison camps Miss Jackson has become known as “Cousin Helen,” so close is her interest in their well-being. She has also had hundreds of letters of thanks from British relatives, expressing gratitude for help being given to prisoners of war from America. She now asks us to convey her thanks for these letters, which it is unfortunately impossible for her to answer personally, but which have been profoundly appreciated by all those who have taken part in the work.
“I shall always feel I have many good friends in England,” writes Miss Jackson “and am looking forward to the time the war is over and I can hope to come over and meet some of them. The undaunted spirit of the British people at home in a fitting match to the magnificent attitude of their men who have spent long years shut away from the world, enduring loneliness and privation so bravely.”
Recently a number of repatriated officers have spoken at spoken at branch meetings of the American P.O.W.R.A., whose members have found their understanding of prisoners of war problems greatly widened as a result of this. As in this country, interest is centred strongly on what can be done for prisoners of war on their return home. “As you probably realise,” concludes Miss Jackson. “the return of the prisoners of war is almost a new experience for this country, and I think we should profit by whet you people have to ‘offer’ in the way of plans and suggestions.”
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B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet 9
FAR EAST CAMP PROBLEMS REVIEWED IN FULL
WHAT AUSTRALIAN RED CROSS HAS DONE
Below we reproduce the second half of the Address given by Dr. J. Newman Morris, C.M.G., Chairman, National Executive, Australian Red Cross Society, at a conference called at Melbourne on May 12th, 1944, by the Australian Red Cross Society for the purpose of exchanging information about prisoners of war in Japanese hands. The first half of the Address appeared in our January issue, and we are indebted to the Australian Red Cross for permission to reprint this comprehensive survey of the situation. Particular attention should be paid to dates.
Over a period of many months, the Japanese have taken the position that they will not discuss any relief matter until every reported incident of aerial attack on Japanese hospital ships has been fully clarified.
Since the storm of public opinion raised by the publication of maltreatment of prisoners, the Japanese are apparently more active in helping to effect the prompt distribution of goods sent by exchange ships. There are indications that these goods are actually reaching the prisoners at practically all points.
Red Cross Co-operation.
As it has been said, co-operation between National Red Cross Societies has grown steadily in the face of the common problem and culminated in a conference held in Washington the latter part of last year, and confined entirely to consideration of prisoners in Japanese hands.
We gave full authority to the British delegates to act for us. There has been constant interchange of information and consultation between Governments over this problem, but it was not until the final session of the Washington Conference that Government representatives and Red Cross representatives met around one table.
It would be informative and perhaps helpful to include here the full text of some of the cables that passed between Washington and Geneva arising out of that conference.
Cable sent to Geneva from Washington Conference on October 1st, 1943:-
“Because of increasingly grave concern over lamentable situation of prisoners of war is Japanese hands and over failure to date to secure them protection and relief which would be in accordance with principles of Prisoner of War Convention, Amcross* (*American Red Cross Society) has convened conference of Red Cross Societies of British Empire. This Conference is now in session and united action in form of conference machinery and otherwise as may be proper will continue as long as there is hope of solution being found to present impasse. Representatives of Red Cross Societies here attending have full power to deal with situation as above generally described.
It is unnecessary to recapitulate the individual representations which have been addressed to you over the last two years by the Red Cross Societies concerned and to the Protecting Power by the respective governments. You are cognizant of all these and interchange of information which has been continuous throughout and has now been further consolidated has established that views of all Red Cross Societies are wholly in accord as regards vital importance of problem. We recognize unanimously also that we are dependent upon good offices of I.R.C.C. † († International Red Cross Committee) to secure conventional solution; that difficulties in your way have been uniquely great owing to position of Japanese authorities vis-a-vis the convention and their general attitude towards humanitarian issues involved.
Nevertheless failure to secure adequate solution conventional or otherwise is intolerable and if such failure is perpetuated it is bound to have prejudicial effect upon future reputation and potency of national Red Cross societies and indeed whole Red Cross structure. It is even now difficult to satisfy public opinion in our countries that sufficient effort has been made and this difficulty will constantly increase. We know well that fault lies mainly or wholly within Japan, but we feel bound to emphasise foregoing aspects of matter on which we all feel so strongly and which we know must be equally close to the heart of I.R.C.C.
It seems possible to us that current development of hostilities may provide timely psychological opportunity of further and strengthened reaffirmation of requests to Japanese authorities for compliance in all material aspects with provisions of convention regarding communications between prisoners and the Red Cross and the securing to them of traditional Red Cross relief of material kind and specifically regarding the appointment of I.R.C.C. representatives in sufficient numbers in all areas in which prisoners are detained with freedom to inspect and report on welfare of prisoners.
We attach highest importance to this latter safeguard. Japan’s recent request for Red Cross reciprocity may further be interpreted as offering hope of willingness to approach problem more in the spirit which other belligerents have displayed, and which combined with admirable arrangements by I.R.C.C. has resulted in favourable conditions to prisoners in Europe.
We earnestly request therefore that you will review very urgently in the light of the above the previous representations you have received from the individual Red Crosses on the subject, the most recent representations in particular, and will inform us by cable fully on the following points:-
1. What action have you felt able to take vis-a-vis the Japanese authorities on the representation already received and what response has been made by the Japanese authorities of a kind on which you feel entitled to build hope? A full and definite summary covering this would be of great value to the present deliberations.
2. How would you view a proposal that we should send you an expression of protest and redoubled request for relief facilities for formal transmission to Japanese Red Cross or other Japanese authorities, such communication being expressed as representing unanimous view and wishes of Red Cross societies here in conference. Would such communication which amongst other things would be designed to bring world opinion to bear on subject be likely to make impression on Japanese authorities? Would it in your opinion be liable to prejudice any effort that you may already have in hand and from which you have some present reason to hope for progressive good result? A full and frank statement of your views on these special issues would be greatly appreciated.
3. Have you any fresh suggestion of your own to make which we could usefully consider here? Since we are assured of your sympathy in the views we hold and the objective we aim at, we fell we need not apologise for the force with which we now direct this representation. It is sent with the full and unreserved concurrence of the Amcross, and Britcross, Cancross and other Red Cross societies of the British Empire, and we hope to receive a very early reply to enable us to decide upon next step to be taken in consultation and agreement with you. – NORMAN DAVIS, Amcross.”
The following cable was despatched to Geneva on December 2nd, 1943:-
“We have carefully studied your cable of October 9th and wish to express our appreciation of the efforts which have been made by you and the International Red Cross Committee to alleviate the conditions of prisoners of war and civilian internees in the Far East. We continue to be hopeful that your further diligent and patient efforts will eventually result in the creation of forms of transportation and communication which will enable a continuous flow of relief goods and mail in both directions between east and west. After thoughtful consideration we have decided, if you so concur, to transmit the following joint appeal to the Japanese Red Cross:-
“The American, Canadian and British Red Cross Societies, the British Red Cross Society representing all other Red Cross Societies of the British Commonwealth, have met in Washington in a conference convened by the American Red Cross to consider the situation of American, British Commonwealth and Netherlands prisoners of war and internees held by Japan, and the means of securing them the full measure of Red Cross protection and relief to which they are entitled under Geneva conventions and usage hitherto universally recognised. The conference has studied carefully the whole series of representations which have already been addressed to the Japanese Red Cross by the American and British Red Cross societies acting individually, and has examined every aspect of the present position which causes us grave concern.
It is abundantly clear that the high humanitarian ideals jointly professed by the Red Cross societies of the world, which in the present war have been observed by other belligerents, have not been given full effect by Japan in the two following respects:-
1. Facilities have not been given for shipments of appropriate supplementary food, medicines, and comforts from abroad;
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10 B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet
2. The International Red Cross Committee and its delegates have not been given full scope at all points to exercise their traditional functions of safeguarding the legitimate interests of all prisoners of war alike.
The conference of the Red Cross Societies assembled in Washington feels it is its duty to present this view with grave emphasis to the Japanese Red Cross bearing in mind the solemn adherence to Red Cross principles and practice for which the Japanese Red Cross has stood, notably in the International Red Cross Conference held in Tokyo in 1934, and again in its pronouncement on the humane treatment of prisoners of war published in its bulletin of 1942. It is common fundamental ground that however fully a detaining power may be prepared to provide by its own means for the welfare of prisoners, the prisoners themselves are entitled to the special humanitarian services rendered by the National Red Cross Societies through the International Red Cross Committee, and the relatives of the prisoners are correspondingly entitled to the comfort and assurance which the close intervention of this neutral and independent agency alone can give.
In response to requests from the Japanese Red Cross, the American and British Red Cross Societies have already guaranteed through I.R.R.C. that Japanese prisoners within their jurisdiction will receive Red Cross services in the fullest measure. What is now required of the Japanese Red Cross is reciprocity in the practical form which the circumstances of the case necessitate. The most urgent problem at present confronting the American and British Commonwealth Red Cross Societies is that of the means of transporting to the prison camps the relief supplies which have been sent to Vladivostok for the prisoners, the Japanese authorities having suggested this stage in the movement of Red Cross relief.
The Red Cross Societies are prepared to co-operate in any practical way. The Japanese Red Cross Society has here a great opportunity of Red Cross service to humanity and it is earnestly requested that the Japanese Red Cross will offer constructive advice and suggestions as regards the means of onward transportation to be provided, replying as soon as possible.’ – AMCROSS”
The Japanese attitude is indicated by a cable sent on February 24th, 1944, from International Red Cross, Geneva:-
“Intercross has been informed by its delegate in Japan that after delegate’s repeated efforts to obtain satisfactory solution problem Vladivostok shipments, delegate was informed by Japanese Official Information Bureau that question was being studied by Japanese Naval Authorities and Japanese Foreign Office that intervening events render pursuance this problem rather inopportune at present moment. At same time, Intercross has received message from Japanese Red Cross replying to various communications sent them from Amcross through Intercross concerning supplies Vladivostok stating that upon receipt of each cable Japanese Red Cross had taken up with proper authorities question of acceptance and distribution relief and requested authorities to take the subject into consideration. Japanese Red Cross itself prepared to give every facility when relief arrives in Japan. In spite remarks mentioned first part this cable Intercross following this subject.”
Memorandum from Washington.
There is a permanent British and British Commonwealth Red Cross representative in Washington representing us all and continuing to work in consultation and co-operation with American Red Cross. From him we received yesterday the following memorandum on the present situation in regard to Far Eastern relief:
“In the memorandum issued by this Mission on February 21st to Red Cross Societies of the British Commonwealth, the position in regard to relief for the prisoners of war and civilian internees in the Far East was summarised up to date. No further memo has been issued since then, mainly because there have been no concrete results to report.
This, however, does not imply that no action has been taken. The effect of the atrocity disclosures on public opinion in America was strong, and considerable pressure was exerted in February on the United States Government and on the American Red Cross to make further endeavours to open up the supply routes. This resulted in the formulation of proposals put forward by the American Red Cross, with the approval of the State Department, toward the end of February, for another approach to the Japanese through the International Red Cross. This proposal, which involved the use of neutral shipping to convey supplies to a point in Far Eastern waters where the ships would be taken over by Japanese crews, was considered jointly by the Red Cross Societies and Government Departments in London and Washington in the first week in March. It was agreed that, although there were some defects in the proposals, they should go forward to Geneva, with the request that they should be sent on to Tokyo after enquiry by the International Red Cross whether neutral shipping would in fact be available if required.
It is now learned that this enquiry has been answered in the affirmative, and that the proposals have been sent on to the International Red Cross delegate in Tokyo.
It is not possible to predict what will be the reactions of the Japanese to these proposals. Their general attitude since the atrocity disclosures has been that when their own grievances in regard to the bombing of hospital ships, etc., have been cleared up they will be ready to consider moving supplies forward from Vladivostok. This is an improvement, if only slight, on their attitude last autumn, and it is possible that they have been affected by world opinion sufficiently to make them more disposed to listen to suggestions for the opening of the supply routes. It must, however, be emphasised that there as yet no evidence to show that this is the case.
Such reports as are received come solely from the northern camps in Japan, Formosa and northern China. These show that conditions, if not good, are tolerable. But the bulk of Commonwealth prisoners are in the camps in Burma, Siam, Malaya and Java, about which we have no official, and very little unofficial information. It is to be feared that conditions in these camps are bad.
Enclosed with this report is a statement showing the information which has reached the Mission regarding the distribution of supplies sent by the American, Canadian, British and Australian Red Cross Societies on the American exchange ship Gripsholm. These supplies appear to have been distributed to the camps round about Christmas time, except for those which were sent to Yokohama, some of which are still lying there.”
RELIEF SUPPLIES CARRIED ON SECOND AMERICAN-JAPANESE EXCHANGE SHIPS
AUTUMN, 1943
Supplies sent to Far East:
American Red Cross:
Cases of Food, Clothing, Medical Supplies and Toilet Articles … 44,424
Canadian Red Cross:
Cases of Food, Medical Supplies, etc. … 3,177
British Red Cross:
Cases of Medical Supplies … 891
Y.M.C.A.:
Cases of Recreational Supplies … 225
National Catholic Welfare:
Cases of Religious Supplies … 40
--- 48,757
1. Distribution of Supplies Reported:
Malay P.O.W. Camps … 637
Malay C.I. Camp … 164
Thailand P.O.W. and C.I. Camps … 2,293
Sumatra P.O.W. and C.I. Camps … 748
Java P.O.W. and C.I. Camps … 274
--- 7,333
Philippines P.O.W. and C.I. Camps 21,624
2. Off-loading of Supplies Reported:
Yokohama for Japan, Korea, Manchuria and Formosa 13,239
(Of these 8,270 cases have been sent to camps in Japan and Korea)
Yokohama for Hong Kong 1,921
(Not yet shipped to Hong kong)
Shanghai … 4,408
(Actual distribution to camps not yet reported) --- 19,628
Total … 48,585
Cash Relief.
While it is satisfactory that a certain amount of success has been attained in forwarding cash, it cannot be considered a real substitute for relief goods.
Money has been sent to all areas, both from Australia and from the United Kingdom, from the United States and from other countries.
Up to the end of 1943, 240,000 dollars had been supplied by American Red Cross for local relief to be spent in Shanghai, Hong-kong, the Philippine Islands and Japan itself. Where there are recognised International Red Cross Delegates, the spending of this money is entrusted to them for the purchase of supplementary food and clothing, and it is estimated that it is necessary to spend 150,000 dollars per month in these areas.
Early in 1943 Australian Red Cross received a message from the International Red Cross Committee requesting reimbursement to them of the sum of 20,000 Swiss francs, or £1,462 Australian, which had been made available to a member of our imprisoned unit in Malaya. This sum had been sent for the general relief of our prisoners of war in that area. In refunding this sum to Geneva in February, 1943, we asked if arrangements could be made for forwarding further finds to our unit in Malaya for this purpose.
Later we forwarded 81,000 Swiss francs, or £5,921 Australian, in April 1943. Recently we received a copy of a promissory
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B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet 11
note signed by Mr. Campbell Guest in Malaya covering this last advance. So that from March, 1943, there has apparently been available some money for local purchases of comforts and medical supplies for those of our men in Malaya.
Since that time and in order to co-ordinate our joint Red Cross efforts, we have forwarded contributions through British Red Cross, which acts for us in this regard with International Red Cross. By the end of last year approximately £25,000 had been placed at the disposal pf the Swiss Consul at Bangkok for the purchase of medical, clothing and toilet supplies for the benefit of prisoners of war in Siam. This Swiss Consul has purchased and transmitted to the prisoners of war certain supplies for which he has received receipts, which indicate that some supplies have reached their destination. In fact, we have recently received news that some of the medical supplies thus purchased have succeeded in saving the lives of some of the British prisoners.
The Swiss Consul in Bangkok has been authorised to send money to the camps for local purchase of food and for this purpose £12,000 Australian per month is being made available by the British Red Cross War Organisation. Australian Red Cross contributes its proportion of this amount.
To Internees.
In Malaya and Singapore International Red Cross has been able to arrange for a Swiss citizen, Mr. Schweitzer, to act as its agent, and through him to purchase local limited relief supplies. The greatest proportion of this relief has been given to the civilian internees in Changi Camp, but he has been able to do a very little for prisoners of war. It was through this Mr. Schweitzer that funds were sent to our unit in Malaya early last year. We have no details of the use to which the money has been put, but we have the greatest confidence that if any freedom of action has been allowed to our Commissioner, he will spend the money to the best advantage.
Advice from Geneva dated 18th January, 1944, stated that Schweitzer had been able in December last to distribute approximately 97,000 dollars monthly, as before stated, to internees. He had hoped to cable a complete summary of the loans and purchases for the prisoners of war from September 1st to December 31st, 1943.
Communications to Prisoners of War and Internees.
During my visit to Washington, Ottawa and London I became fully aware of the constant pressure being brought by all the Governments on to the Japanese Government on the important matter of the notification of lists of prisoners and the forwarding of mails. I think I saw copies of all the correspondence passing between Governments in this regard. I was also shown their comments on the almost complete failure of the Japanese Government to adhere to the terms of the International Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war. One can only fully realise the deprivation imposed by the Japanese on our prisoners of war by the knowledge of the relevant articles of this Prisoners of War Code. I shall read these in full in order to refresh your memory:
ARTICLE 36 of the Convention lays down that each of the belligerents shall fix periodically the number of letters and postcards which prisoners of war … shall be permitted to send per month, and shall notify that number to the other belligerent.
These letters and cards shall be sent by post by the shortest route. They may not be delayed or withheld for disciplinary motives.
Not later than one week after his arrival, or similarly in case of sickness, each prisoner shall be enabled to send a postcard to his family notifying them of his capture, and the state of his health. The said postcard shall be forwarded as quickly as possible, and shall not be delayed in any matter.
ARTICLE 37 states that prisoners of war shall be authorised to receive individually, postal articles containing foodstuffs and other articles intended for consumption, or clothing. The parcels shall be delivered to the addressees and receipts given.
ARTICLE 39 states that prisoners of war shall be permitted to receive individually, consignments of books which may be subject to censorship. This same Article also permits duly recognised and authorised associations to send works and collection of books to the libraries of prisoners’ camps. The transmission of such consignments to libraries may not be delayed under pretext of difficulties of censorship.
Finally, part of ARTICLE 40 states that any prohibition of correspondence ordered by the belligerent for military or political reasons shall be only of a temporary character, and shall be for as brief a time as possible.
Lists of Names.
With regard to the notification of names, it has always been very apparent that the persistent and typical evasiveness of the Japanese character ruled the negotiations. They in effect wanted a one-way traffic. You are all probably fully aware, only too well aware, of the gaps in our lists of names. If reliance were placed entirely on official Japanese notification, we would have a very small amount of comfort.
All sorts of excuses have been put up for the Japanese, some no doubt authentic, but International Red Cross early in 1942 informed us that a Prisoner of War Bureau would be set up in Tokyo that would exchange information about prisoners of war and civilian internees.
Three months later our first list comprising a few hundred names came from Tokyo through I.R.C.C. This included the names of some of our men in Singapore, but mostly covered names in other areas. It was not until November, 1942, that the first list of men captured in Malaya reached Great Britain. From then on names began to come in greater volume. As we all know, there is still a large number of whom nothing has been heard officially or unofficially. It is not the purpose of this report to deal with statistics, but it is well always to remember in considering the problem, that there are upwards of 300,000 Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees in the Far East.
Now relief measures are a joint enterprise; everything that gets in is for the common good – each for all and all for each. Although Australia is probably on a per capita basis more deeply involved in the grave problem that we are studying than any other of the United Nations, it is not possible to arrange differential treatment. The Japanese make some distinction as between civilian internees and prisoners of war in favour of the civilians, but maintain the same evasive cynical attitude to all national protests and suggestions. While referring to this joint effort, permit me to quote the words of Sir Ernest Burdon in summing up his impressions of the Washington Conference:
“Our consciences can now be clear, and we were able to show the world that the Red Crosses really did take every possible step and try their utmost to get relief to those in the hands of the Japanese. Nothing as yet had been achieved with the Japanese, but at any rate new ways and means of pressure had been devised and should the Japanese open the door wider the joint machinery was set up and ready to take the actions it was desired to take by all.” Thus joint consultation by all the Red Cross bodies concerned can now take place in Washington, and the fullest advantage be taken of any opportunity to reach our men in Japanese hands.
Mail communications, while not a Red Cross responsibility in any way, have been the subject of many negotiations, and, of course, considerable anxiety. It has been a great comfort that some messages have got through, that some letters have been received by some of the men. As you all know, for a long time we were completely in the dark as to whether the Japanese would deliver any letters sent from Australia. The route for transmission of letter via Russia has always been available, but we knew that letters sent by this route would take months to reach their destination.
Send Correspondence Direct.
The latest communications we have with regard to mails is the following cable from Geneva dated 28th January:
“Japanese Red Cross asks us to communicate following message: Considerable correspondence addressed to internees, prisoners of war under Japanese authority has reached us from enemy countries by the last exchange boat. The Japanese Government has already communicated to them the names of the internees, prisoners of war. Therefore we should like them hereafter to send correspondence addressed to these internees, prisoners of war directly to their camps and to send us the rest.”
You will see by that again another illustration of the tendency to put all the blame on us, naturally enough, perhaps, but it would appear obvious that the Japanese Government has misled the Japanese Red Cross because in so many cases the camp addresses of internees and prisoners of war have not been communicated.
(Here follow comments affecting Australian mails only, which owing to lack of space we omit.)
Broadcasting Policy.
The policy with regard to this means of communication is a Governmental matter. You are all familiar with the history of Japanese action regarding broadcast messages. There is no doubt that they have given a very great deal of information not otherwise available, and have provided a considerable amount of comfort, despite the apparent motives behind the Japanese action in this regard.
Owing mainly to the necessity of first ensuring that regular mail communications are established, and probably to Government pressure of work on short-wave stations, the Commonwealth Government has not given approval for broadcasting of messages from Australia to prisoners of war and internees in Japanese hands.
(Continued on page 16.)
12 B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet
LETTERS FROM GERMAN CAMPS
WINTER DAYS AND FUTURE PLANS
MARLAG O.
Welcome Cigarettes.
31/10/44.
Two cigarette parcels have arrived from the Worcester P.O.W.R.A. Branch. Would you acknowledge and thank them for me? Three weeks since tour last letter arrived, dated September 9th. Many of your letters are missing, it seems. I’ve only had two July ones, and no August ones as yet. Are my letters getting through? I went out for a walk to-day. Although the weather was misty and damp it was pleasant to get out for a bit.
5/11/44.
My model yacht is nearly finished. Am having great difficulty cutting a decent set of sails. My powers of “seamstering” are not great and material is limited to the remains of an old shirt.
OFLAG VII B.
Coal Short.
10/11/44.
We have had snow for the past two days and are all preparing to hibernate for the winter! Coal is very short – much less than last year, which was less than the previous year. We are still on half rations of Red Cross parcels, but a number of private parcels have come in recently. The new conductor of the orchestra now holds weekly promenade concerts and I very much enjoyed the first one last weekend, as I also did a show given by our orderlies and a choral and orchestral concert. We have just had another number of our Camp Magazine Touchstone in which there is an able article on land nationalisation. No, I have not had any more parole walks or cinema visits. These were stopped by higher authority in the autumn and for the main body of the camp have not been re-started. Recently I have been reading translations of Virgil, Horace and Aristophanes, etc. Only wish I could read the originals.
Half Parcels.
30/11/44.
I am afraid I have not written you a Christmas letter this year. In fact I completely forgot until it was too late, so I now wish you all New Year Greetings and hope you have had as good a wartime Christmas as possible. The postcards we are sending for Christmas Greetings have not yet materialised.
I was interested to hear that both John S. and Angus P. are on the Continent. I was most pleased to hear that you are to have extra rations – a very good sign. As you know, we have been on half rations for over two months, and stocks in the camp will last at this rate until the New Year so we do not look like having anything special for Christmas. A small Handicrafts Exhibition was held last week-end – as good as usual. A new Dance Band Show opens to-night, which I shall see on Monday, and on Saturday I go to hear the orchestra playing a programme of ballet music. There is going to be no pantomime this year – ideas have run out after producing four!
A Bright Idea.
31/10/44.
A good week for mail. Mum’s of August 26th and September 16th and 24th, and Pop’s of July 18th, August 25th and September 19th. I’ve also had the sunglasses you sent. They are fine glasses, but you need something better than them to see the sun these days! As a matter of fact the weather hasn’t been too bad, but it is getting colder now and I have only had one game of hockey since I wrote. I’m still having fun with the gearbox – it’s a lot easier to have a bright idea than to get it to work out, even on paper. In the flesh I expect it would burst or melt or something. There hasn’t been anything very exciting in the theatre – an orderlies’ concert and some orchestra stuff.
[Boxed] Extracts from letters from prisoners of war and civilian internees in Germany and the Far East are welcomed for reproduction in these pages. They should deal with subjects of general interest, such as camp life and conditions. Copies of letters only should be sent and should be written on one side of the paper, with the prisoner’s camp number, address and date od writing clearly marked. Interesting camp photographs are also cordially welcomed, and will be returned with care. [/boxed]
Welcome Gramophone Records.
10/11/44.
I am very well – only one letter this week, Mum’s of July 2nd. A slip for some more records has arrived but I haven’t had them yet. It’s getting beastly cold here – we’ve had a good old blizzard the last two days and we’re only getting a third of the coal this year to what we had last! That and half parcels makes this winter look most uninviting to say the least of it. Yes, I’ve been thinking pretty hard on what to da after we get home. I’ve definitely decided against getting a regular commission and this exam which won’t turn up was going to be a step towards getting a job. I’ve taught myself quite a bit here, but the snag is I’ve no real experience and am getting a bit old for an office boy. Anyhow, one of the first things I shall do is run around and find what sort of vacancies, if any, there are with big firms like G.E.C. and get some experience with them if I can.
20/11/44.
Two of your letters this week: Mum’s of July 16th and 30th, also H.’s of June 29th. Thank you very much also for two records. They are La Traviata and two short sides of symphonies. They always arrive intact and undamaged, much better than anything else. I’ve had a most energetic day. I am on a small party that goes out to collect fir cones. We do a week at a time and go out for about four hours in the afternoon with haversacks and a handcart. Every now and then we get a horse and cart, so you collect like hell and then bring back what you can, leaving the remainder for when the horse and cart comes out. I don’t think I’ve worked so hard for ages, and of course it had to pour with rain just as we were starting back! Heigh-ho, anyway. French without Tears has opened and is a great success.
Fir Cone Collection.
30/11/44.
No mail this week. I have finished the cone collecting and am feeling much better for the fresh air and exercise, although I was pretty weary by the end of the week. We are losing the Canadian who has been messing with us and hope to get a friend of V.W.’s into the room, so we shall still mess as a four. Our crossword has appeared in the camp magazine Touchstone, and I’ve already been accosted and told how difficult it is! Anyway, someone has tried to do it. French without Tears is over and we have a Dance Band show starting the end of this week. The Dance Band is definitely better than I’ve heard it before, although some of the turns between tunes are not up to scratch. Victor blows a trombone in both dance and symphony orchestras and has got a good arrangement he has done of Sunny Side Up in this new show.
[Photograph of two rows of men] In Oflag VII B. Back row: Charles Watt, Richard Clark, Peter Hanbury, Dan Cunningham, Ian Garnett Orme, Peter Fraser, Brian McIrvine. Front: Iain Cobb, Andrew Craig Harvery, Jocelyn Abel Smith, Graeme Panton, Brian Wilson.
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B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet 13
OFLAG IX A/H.
Birthday in Captivity.
15/10/44.
Well, once more we come round to my birthday. You will need no telling that it is my fourth in captivity and my third in this camp.
I see that in my letter of October 10th, 1943, I wrote: “I should think it is practically certain that my next birthday will be spent in England.” However, the fates have decided otherwise and that is that. We can only carry forward the slogan anther year with definitely better grounds. If the war is not over soon all long term prisoners will be feeling that something ought to be done (as happened in the last war) for us to be sent to a neutral country or even repatriated.
OFLAG IX A/Z.
Hard Winter.
3/11/44
I was pleased to receive two letters from you yesterday; the dates were August 23rd and September 27th. The weather has got very cold lately. I think we are in for a hard winter, which is not what I am looking forward to, especially as the food situation is not the same as it was last year. Anyhow we shall get through O.K., and I can look forward to getting home next year.
OFLAG 79.
Good Scheme.
12/10/44.
I was delighted to get your letter dated September 17th this morning – very quick. I have had almost no August nor other September letters at all. We are all growing very impatient to be back and it looks doubtful now whether we shall make Christmas or not. Life has been quieter here lately, but the repatriated people could tell you something about the state of our nerves a month ago. They have recovered a bit, fortunately, and mine have not suffered as much as most. I have read the Government’s proposed demobilisation scheme and I think it fairly good.
STALAG IV A.
News from London.
13/11/44.
I’ve had some cigarettes lately, and tobacco from you, so am O.K. for smokes for a bit, but hope a supply of parcels comes soon as we are nearly out of them. We have had some more chaps here, including some who were in London at the end of September, so have some idea of things with you after such a long break.
STALAG IV B.
26/10/44.
Note new address (cut out Luft 3). Received your letter from Bedford, September 25th. Parcels are almost finished but will manage O.K. Went to an excellent Schubert Symphony concert at the Empire this week. The orchestra was made up from British, Dutch and French musicians. Some of the Arnheim boys have gone out on “kommando” but more arrived today. They had a pretty tough time in Holland, but were praised by Jerry. These longer evenings make us think of the home fire burning. See you soon.
New Arrivals.
9/11/44.
I went for a walk the other week to the ---. It is a quaint little place and very quiet these days. However it is a change to get out of the cage for a spell. I shall probably go again this Friday, as we can go once every week. This only applies to the hospital staff, so there are about twenty on each walk. It has been very wet lately and it gets cold at night, but it will not be long before the spring comes. We have had a lot of new arrivals lately, including a fellow who was repatriated way back in early 1943 from Camp 43. I have been trying to get a French Grammar Book for quite a while but without success. If possible could you have a Neath’s French Grammar sent? My transport books have not arrived yet, unfortunately.
Pay Problems.
17/11/44.
I had a letter on Monday – yours of October 7th. I had another letter from the Paymaster which was as clear as mud, at the same time it makes me mad that after suffering being a prisoner of war you get further complications about pay. It has been fairly cold here of late but nothing
[Photograph of three men with musical instruments] “Music Hath Charms” for this happy trio at Stalag IV A.
to worry about. I generally get to bed about 8 p.m. and read until 9.30 p.m. I still do not like sleeping in blankets, but of course I would not be without them. Two I have carried all the way from Italy to here. There is another week gone by, but it is one nearer home. I guess I have just lived for that day, whenever it may be. It’s a long time since I saw you.
A Record Mail.
9/11/44.
In the last ten days I have received over 60 letters, dated from April to September, from all the usual sources. Sorry you have been unlucky, but I would point out that the ration is only two letters per month and four cards. All goes well here and I am still fairly busy. Parcels have just run out but more are expected.
I have just seen a demonstration of hypnotism. Amazing but true. I will write more about it anon.
College Prospects.
3/10/44.
The age of miracles is not yet passed! I have just received three letters and a parcel of 500 cigarettes, dispatched by Dad on May 5th. Sincere thanks. They are
[Picture] This Christmas Card was sent home to relatives by men in Oflag IX A/H.
more useful than ever now that the issue of Red Cross parcels in cut down to half owing to difficulty of supplies. The letters were from Dad (May 5th and 15th) and G.C. (August). Nice work.
Have you heard about the National Further Education Scheme? In brief it says that a cash grant will be made to University students who broke their studies for the duration, sufficient to pay both tuition fees and also the cost of living. Just think of it: my final year at College with all expenses paid! I am itching to get back and get stuck in. What do you think about it? The immediate future is certainly taking shape fast. I haven’t any room for news. No matter, there isn’t any, anyhow. Do you see I am in a cheerful mood? Must go now – there’s a train to catch.
Post-war Planning.
2/9/44.
I have had no mail or parcels for many weeks now, but that is only a minor detail and no explanations are necessary. I don’t think you will receive this, but here goes. In case my earlier letters have not arrived I will briefly outline one of my post-war plots. Three of we ex-aviators are contemplating opening up a building venture – to wit Sid, Bill (F.A.A. pilot) and yours truly. Sid is a master builder and the working part of the firm, while Bill and I intend to watch from a safe distance. I will tell you more shortly, but for the present I wonder if Dad would kindly mind making a few crafty enquiries at the Ministry of Works and Buildings re the forming of new companies, etc., and also the allocation of contracts for bomb damage repairs? Sid has been in the business all his life and certainly knows his onions. If there are restrictions on the forming of new companies, by virtue of our position as prisoners of long standing we shall do our best to obtain special concessions. What do you think of the scheme? I think it should be a good scheme, particularly as no work is required on my part! I may say that we have thought out this idea very carefully. More anon.
[Page break]
14 B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet
STALAG VII A.
Camp Newspaper.
16/10/44.
I have started a camp newspaper in conjunction with another officer and our first bi-weekly number appears to-morrow. I have just received your first letter, dated August 26th, though from its contents I gather that it is not the first you have written. From all accounts my letters arrive quicker than yours.
STALAG XVIII A.
Paid in German Marks.
8/10/44.
You are certainly very optimistic about the finish of the war, and I hope among your flags you have a Greek one. (The writer was captured in Crete. -ED.) Religion seems to interest you quite a lot by the trend of your letters. You should read some modern books such as The Age of Reason. We are now paid in German marks instead of camp money – twenty-one marks a month. Quite a change of policy. We are now allowed more than thirty marks. Personal parcels are starting again next week for all of us.
Exciting Times.
22/10/44.
Nothing this week except six parcels. To-day more Red Cross parcels, and during November we are to receive one a fortnight. We have plenty of excitement nowadays, and spend quite a bit of time in the evenings with no lights.
1/10/44.
What are the chances of putting the car on the road when I return? Your views are wanted on this subject. Just fancy the old bus has been laid up five years yesterday.
STALAG XX A (3).
Together in Thought.
12/11/44.
My 29th birthday has passed me by most uneventfully. Maybe, after five years behind the wire, this birthday, and the approaching Christmastide, will be really the last I shall spend in captivity, but who can say?
However in spite of minor setbacks – no mail from you for several weeks, no permit cigarettes for a very long time, no personal parcel later than last January’s, and a very elusive, curtailed Red Cross food ration – I manage to keep cheerful and happy. How could I be anything else, when you are always with me to add extra heart to this long wait in isolation?
We tend to become such hardened fatalists, living this unnatural life, that any though of good news to come – as it undoubtedly will – seems unable to pierce the hard armour, fashioned in five long years away from all one loves and holds most dear. We just await “the day” – but after so many disappointments, dare not imagine when that day will be. This must not in any way convey I am “down in the mouth” for I am no such thing – I can still count my blessings on both hands.
I think this letter should arrive in time to send you every possible loving greeting for a happy Christmas Day. If the parcels arrive on time, we shall make the [missing word] in the camp as usual, and manage
(Continued from previous column.)
to do so anyway, even if the parcels are delayed, as we have been warned to expect.
I am quite fit again following my recent operation, and the three weeks in hospital was a real rest. This new camp if wooden huts is well situated, and healthy. I am keeping house with two other lads, one an Australian. As they both work in the cook house you can imagine I am getting well cooked meals. They have made me Q.M. so I try to rule rations with an iron hand, as we are only allowed one Red Cross food parcel per man each fortnight.
STALAG 344.
Fourteen Ovens.
12/11/44.
This past week has seen our first fall of snow, and I think the winter has started now. The outlook for Christmas is not too cheerful; we are on a half parcel per week now and I believe that finishes this month. Still we are consoling ourselves with the thought that this is definitely the last winter. How grand it will be to be home! Next week we are making an oven for cooking on in the barrack round. It is funny, practically every combine in the barrack room is making itself a small stove. By the time they are all finished there will be some fourteen or fifteen fires in the barrack. Still it will keep us warm this winter. I went to a variety concert to-night which I enjoyed.
STALAG 383.
At a Rest Camp.
1/11/45. [sic]
Still at the Rest Camp in Bavaria – nearly seven weeks now since we arrived, and my mental and physical condition is greatly restored. Mentally I am much calmer and able to concentrate. I must admit that before, like many others, I had become very nervy.
With the long walks and long views my limbs and eyes have had a good stretching, so now I can wait in greater peace of spirit for as long as proves necessary.
I can rejoice in spirit with some of my friends. I hope you can write and possibly help ---. These families gave us the finest help and affection. We had five months of the greatest hospitality that could not have been better had they been our own families. We should like you all to help them, for they will probably have been in great need of it. Some of them lost their husbands and brothers in the evacuation of Greece. I hope the country will remember this.
ATHLETICS IN GERMAN CAMP
Some Fine Achievements
A warm tribute to the “grand sporting spirit” of our prisoners overseas was paid recently by Percy Rudd in the News Chronicle. In the second of two articles he writes:-
A week last Saturday I told the story of the swimming activities of British prisoners of war in a German camp, Stalag 383, where two Londoners, Cpl. G. Stacey and Sgt. W. Cole, had been acting as instructors and organisers.
Stacey’s father has now sent me a photograph of these two which he has just received from his son and which is reproduced in the adjoining column.
It is a magnificent example of what swimming can do on the score of physical fitness, even for prisoners of war, and of how much we are indebted to the Red Cross for its practical encouragement among our men in the German prison camps.
Since writing that article I have received details of an athletic meeting held on August Bank Holiday of last year at another German camp, Stalag 344, which typifies the grand sporting spirit of our prisoners overseas.
To create the illusion of home, the competing teams bore such famous names as Polytechnic Harriers, Herne Hill Harriers, Achilles Club and Milocarians.
Everything was done in the manner of a big meeting in this country. There was a march-past of the competitors, headed by the camp pipe band, the salute being taken by Lt.-Col. D.M. Crawford, R.A.M.C.
All the track events included in the Camp Championship were team or relay races and Rifleman Wood, a pre-war member of Poly. Harriers, who at one time trained with Syd. Wooderson, was first in two of these. Wood is unbeaten in camp distance races and on this occasion he won the 1,600 yards team event in 4 min. 9 3-5 sec. and the 3,200 yards in 10 m. 26 1-10 s.
In the band race competitors had to play instruments as they ran, but three of them preferred to walk behind the runners, derisively playing “Colonel Bogey.”
Shields, given as prizes, were made by craftsmen in the camp – the medallions carved and burnished from waste metal.
[Photograph of two men in swimming costumes] Courtesy News Chronicle Cpl. Stacey, Sgt. Cole.
[Page break]
B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet 15
ACTIVITIES IN THE PROVINCES
PARTIES AND MONEY-RAISING PROJECTS
Bridlington.
Well over a hundred children enjoyed a tea and party given in the Christ Church Parish Hall, under the auspices of the local P.O.W.R.A. The young guests were the children of prisoners of war. The Mayoress (Mrs. Newby) presented a large cake which augmented a fine display of good things. A big Christmas tree was provided by the Corporation Gardens Superintendent. Every child received a toy, an apple, a bag of sweets, and Father Christmas distributed sixpenny pieces. Entertainment was provided by the “Tiny Tots” from Flambro and Mr. E.L. Maples, conjuror.
Brighouse.
A very enjoyable afternoon was spent by relatives at a meeting attended by the Mayor of Brighouse (Mr. F. Bottomley), who accepted the invitation of the club to be its president. Mrs. M.M. Middleton was in the chair.
Bristol.
Two hundred and fifty children, close relations of prisoners of war, came to Bristol Cathedral for toys
from a Christmas tree provided for them. Each child received one large toy, one or more small ones, a book, money and a bag of sweets, and the event was a great success. The association reached its parcels fund target of £10,000 on December 31st, 1944. This is passed to the Red Cross to cover the cost of Bristol Prisoners’ Food Parcels.
Burnley.
Competitions held at meetings have raised substantial sums of money for the association, and gifts of sweets contributed to the success of the children’s Christmas party, which was attended by about 180 children. The Mayor of Burnley was present.
Members took an active part in preparing the petition, with 4,300 signatures, which was recently sent to the Borough Member, Mr. W.A. Burke, urging more interest in the welfare of prisoners in the Far East on the part of the Government. A reply was subsequently received, giving assurances of unremitting pressure on the Japanese to improve the treatment of prisoners of war.
As parcels cannot be sent to the Far East, money is being set aside as gifts for the men when they return.
Caterham and District.
Many activities were carried out in 1944, starting with the second birthday meeting and annual children’s party. In early spring meetings were transferred to the afternoons owing to raids, and although crowded meetings took place in May and June, activities had to be suspended for the next three months owing to raids and evacuation. Crowded meetings were held again in October and November, when an ex-prisoner, now stationed in the district, brought his band to entertain members and received a very warm welcome. During this month the Hon. Secretary opened a gift shop for a week, which raised nearly £330 for the special Far East Fund. The aim of this fund is to give every Far East prisoner a substantial money present on his return to make up for the lack of parcels during captivity.
At the December meeting a local man rescued from the Japanese, was the guest of honour and received the branch’s usual welcome home present. Christmas week saw a tea party for the relatives of the seventy local people in the hands of the Japanese. Private Wiles, the local returned prisoner, had an individual chat with each relative. On January 1st, 1945, the third birthday party was held.
During the three years over 300,000 cigarettes have been sent to prisoners of war in Europe. The Hon. Secretary has kept in touch with the relatives of over 200 prisoners on the branch’s books.
Clitheroe and District.
The fourth Christmas party was held on December 16th at the Conservative Club, when fifty children of prisoners of war were entertained. The room was festively decorated with a huge illuminated Christmas tree loaded with toys presented by local people. The Mayor and Mayoress (Councillor and Mrs. J. Wilkinson) were guests of the party and presented gifts. Father Christmas, assisted by the Mayoress, distributed toys and a money gift from an anonymous donor. On leaving each child was given a new two-shilling-piece, an apple and sweets. Tea, ices and music from a barrel organ contributed to the fun.
Durham and District.
A “Bring and Buy” Sale was held in the Town Hall in December in aid of the Duke of Gloucester’s Red Cross Fund, to be used for prisoners of war in the Far East. The Mayoress, Mrs. Bell, opened the sale, which resulted in a cheque for £60 being sent to the Red Cross.
Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
Details of what is being done for prisoners of war were given by Mrs. P.M. Stewart, Organising Secretary of B.P.O.W.R.A., at a meeting held recently. The Mayor of Cleethorpes presided, supported by the Mayoress and many other well-known people, including representatives of the British Legion, S.S.A.F.A. and the Red Cross. Mrs. Stewart dealt with mail and parcels for prisoners, with difficulties in the Far East and with the need for considering whether the Association should continue to exist after the war for the purpose of assisting prisoners to settle down in ordinary life again.
Congratulations on the work of the association were extended by Miss Elise Sprott of the B.B.C., and thanks to Mrs. Stewart, the Mayor and Mayoress and others were proposed by Mrs. Meller, Mrs. Frank Robinson and Mrs. Hazelgrove. Musical items were rendered by Mrs. Frank Bannister’s trio.
Hungerford and District.
A dance was held in the Church House to raise money for prisoners of war on their return to civil life, and the net proceeds amounted to £10 4s. 6d. A Fur and Feather Whist Drive was held in December, the prizes being donated by various people in the district. As a result £16 10s. 0d. was raised as a further contribution towards helping returned prisoners.
Kendal.
The second Christmas party for all Kendall children whose fathers are prisoners of war was held in the Y.W.C.A. Hall on January 3rd, when the Rev. E.H.E. Bowers presided and some fifty children enjoyed the tea provided by the Association and friends. The Mayor of Kendall, Councillor W.F. Pennington, attended and congratulated the Association on the happy, healthy appearance of the children. A conjuring display was given by Prof. Fox of Morecombe, and games were organised by Miss Deighton. A Punch and Judy show followed, and before leaving each child was given a present from the Christmas tree.
Newbury.
A largely attended meeting held on December 14th listened with great interest to Mr. S.G. King, of the Far Eastern Section of the British Red Cross, who described the latest developments in the prisoner of war situation in the Orient.
He told of the efforts being made continuously to ship further Red Cross supplies and of the cash remittances made to neutral representatives to enable them to purchase necessities for our men. He dealt also with the latest reports from the camps, the delays in transmission of mail and hopes of the eventual commencement of a cable service.
Mr. P.B. Brown, the Chairman, announced that the Association had made a donation of £250 to the British Red Cross, half this sum being earmarked for the Food Parcels Fund and half for Far Eastern relief. The Toc H./P.O.W.R.A. Joint Fun Fair held recently had realised a net profit of about £750.
The despatch of cigarette parcels to prisoners of war from Newbury now in German Camps had been resumed.
North-East Cheshire.
The North-East Cheshire Branch of the Prisoners of War Relatives’ Association held its Christmas party on Saturday January 6th, at their headquarters, Unity
NEW AFFILIATED BODY
Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire.
Honorary Secretary: A.A. Nicholson, Esq., 57, Bordon Place, Stratford-on-Avon.
[Page break]
16 B.P.O.W.R.A. News Sheet
Hall, Greek Street, Southport. Eighty-five members and children of prisoners of war attended.
A very bountiful tea was enjoyed and games were conducted by Mr. W. Stephen in which children and many of the parents joined.
Father Christmas (Mr. Titterton) visited the party and gave each child oranges, apples and sweets, and a small gift.
At the conclusion of the afternoon Mr. H.C. Hindley, treasurer, presented each child with Savings Stamps to the value of 7s. 6d.
Oldham.
During the past year the number of prisoners has increased from 425 to 618 – 408 in Europe and 210 in the Far East. Forty-nine men have escaped or been repatriated since the beginning of the war, and 14 have died in camp, the majority of the latter being in the Far East.
The Committee still attend every Friday afternoon at 112a Lees Road, to give advice and help with the next-of-kin parcels. Nearly 800 parcels were packed during 1944 and £2,121 was expended on food parcels sent from London.
The Association meets twice monthly, one of the meetings being for the Far East and one for Europe.
The Committee have fourteen adopted prisoners.
Meetings have been held regularly and donations have been received from many sources.
Reading and District.
A performance of Christmas Carols held in the Town Hall, Reading, realised the sum of £14 to be used for the Reading Prisoners of War (Welcome Home) Fund. The carols were sung by the Reading Temperance Choral Society and the Reading Postal Choir, the soloists being Doris Coles and Geoffrey Tristram and the conductor Frederick Drew. The district’s first repatriated prisoner, Cpl. Norman Bennett, has been appointed to the Committee, and Captain A. Henson has been made an additional Trustee.
At the monthly meeting of the Reading branch of the Association last week, Capt. A. Henson being in the chair, it was announced that the Mayor had accepted a vice-presidency of the association, and he said he would do all he could to help. The secretary said the Prisoners of War Welcome Home Fund stood at £3,800, and the proceeds of the November and December efforts to provide for a re-union and reception of local prisoners of war as soon as practicable after their return had realised £213 10s. 5d.
The Christmas sale of toys realized £44 10s. 2d. and the Christmas competition £47 11s. 11d.
Spen Valley.
A seasonable address was given at a Christmas meeting by the club’s padre, Rev. T. Abell, and carols were sung. Greetings were extended to all by the chairman, Mr. A. Helliwell.
Far East Problems Reviewed
(Continued from page 11.)
Red Cross Messages.
The Red Cross Message Service may be mentioned here. It began to operate from Japan and Siam as early as the end of February, 1942, giving the first news of the welfare of certain individual British nationals.
Thousands of Red Cross messages have been sent from Australia to the Far East, and where Red Cross is well organised, as in Shanghai, a large number of replies to messages have been received.
The position as regards messages to and from Malaya and Java is obscure, but we will hope the Japanese Government will make an announcement in this aspect at an early date.
I have presented a short, probably incomplete, statement of the history of negotiations and the results obtained by the Red Cross efforts in co-operating with Governmental action. You will, I trust, see that the position has in no sense of the word become static; that there is continuous session machinery for co-ordinated United Nations Red Cross effort.
However pessimistic the Government attitude may be, we feel justified within the Red Cross movement in maintaining the attitude of constant pressure in spite of the heavy clouds of doubt and frustration. There does seem to be a little rift in the clouds at the present moment. We trust it will be widened at a very early date.
The future programme concerns the obligations placed on us by opportunities which may, and we trust will, arise for service even while our men are in captivity, and secondly the prosecution of preparations for relief on the release and repatriation of prisoners and civilians concerned.
Firstly, a new Prisoner of War Department has been created, concerned solely with the organisation of service to prisoners of war and internees, both now and during the process of repatriation. This brings us into line with the practice of the British Red Cross Society and other Empire Red Cross Societies.
Secondly, the maintenance at its full efficiency of the Bureau for Missing, Wounded and Prisoners of War in relation to Searcher Service and communications. We feel that the day is approaching when the doors will open on the prison gates of our fellow citizens and relations, and we are in close consultation with the Government Departments in the preparation of plans. We have allotted the leader of the Commission, whom it is hoped will accompany the liberating forces. He is busy selecting the remainder of his team, who will undertake concentrated training for the work ahead of them. Our Stores Department, Medical Department, Library Services and Information Department and others are already involved in the preparation of the special contributions they can make to the service.
Complete lists of names are being prepared by the Central Bureau, so that every effort will be made to get in touch with the men whose names are on those lists, and so that our Searcher Service will be completely equipped to fill in the gaps in the information relating to each individual member of the forces.
(Continued at foot of next column.)
(Continued from previous column.)
Finally, we consider we are acting firstly as an Official Auxiliary of the Government in this matter, but that our services will be always carried out as the agency of the people in this country for relief work in this regard. We look for and expect he mutual co-operation of the special interests represented here to-day.
LATE NEWS
P.O.W. Military Mission in Moscow
We are informed that a British Military Mission is now established in Moscow for the purpose of assuming responsibility for British Prisoners of War in the event of their being released by the advancing Russian armies.
Japanese Statement on Far East Parcels.
Reuter reports Tokyo wireless statement that Japanese Government will send a ship to Singapore, Sumatra and Java with Red Cross parcels and gift to prisoners of war. Date and route will be published later.
Food Parcels in German Camps.
“A German order came out yesterday saying that we must consume all the food in the camp by January 14th,” states a letter just received from Oflag VII B and written on December 20th. “The Germans,” it continues, “say that after January 14th parcels will come in once a week and must be consumed as they arrive.”
Broadcast by Returned Thailand Prisoner of War.
For the information of those who did not hear the broadcast by Gunner Wilson on Christmas Eve and January 10th, the script was printed in the Listener of January 4th, 1945.
Repatriated Prisoner of War.
Names of sick and wounded repatriated prisoners of war brought home on hospital ships Leticia and Arundel Castle were (states The Times of February 1st) communicated in advance to next-of-kin from lists compiled in Switzerland. Nearly 1,500 men have returned to this country, and 370 will shortly sail from Marseilles to their homes in India, South Africa and New Zealand.
FAR EAST MAP OUT OF PRINT
The Far East map is out of print and no orders can be taken meantime. A new, more detailed map is being prepared and an announcement will be made as soon as it is available.
ERRATUM.
January Newsheet, page 16, col. 3.
Far East Exchange of Prisoners of War and Internees.
The last paragraph under this heading should be deleted. It should read “It is learned that this situation is not confined to civilian internees in Hongkong.” It is incorrect to assume that this applies to Prisoners of War.
Published by British Prisoners of War Relatives’ Association, 16 St. James’s Street, London, S.W.1 and Printed by Speedee Press services, Ltd., 27a Pembridge Villas, London, W. 11
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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News-sheet of the British Prisoners of War Relatives' Association February 1945
Description
An account of the resource
The news-sheet covers the return of prisoners of war and issues that they will face, POW letters from the Far East, Prisoners and Parliament, Camp visits by the YMCA, Prison Camps as schools of Citizenships, Next-of-kin Parcels, International Red Cross Visit to Far East Camps, Future of Prisoners of War, New Light on Rescued Thailand Prisoners, Red Cross Parcels and German Camps, News from American POW Relatives Associations, Far East Camp Problems Reviewed in Full, Letters from German Camps, Athletics in German Camp and Activities in the Provinces.
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The British Prisoners of War Relatives' Association
Date
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1945-02
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16 printed sheets
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Identifier
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MCurnockRM1815605-171114-025
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--London
Australia
Victoria--Melbourne
Japan--Hakodate-shi
Malaysia--Sandakan (Sabah)
Korea
Japan--Fukuoka-shi
Taiwan
Thailand
Japan--Zentsūji-shi
Germany--Königstein (Pirna)
United States
Washington (D.C.)
Russia (Federation)--Vladivostok
Thailand--Bangkok
Canada
Ontario--Ottawa
England--Worcester
England--Bridlington
England--Brighouse
England--Bristol
England--Burnley
England--Caterham
England--Clitheroe
England--Durham
England--Grimsby
England--Cleethorpes
England--Hungerford
England--Kendal
England--Newbury
England--Cheshire
England--Oldham
England--Reading
England--Spen
Russia (Federation)--Moscow
Poland--Żagań
Poland--Tychowo
Poland
Singapore
Victoria
Malaysia
Ontario
Germany
Japan
Russia (Federation)
England--Durham (County)
England--Gloucestershire
England--Berkshire
England--Lancashire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Surrey
England--Westmorland
England--Worcestershire
England--Yorkshire
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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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.
Temporal Coverage
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1945-02
Contributor
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Anne-Marie Watson
aircrew
arts and crafts
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
demobilisation
entertainment
prisoner of war
Red Cross
sport
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
-
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Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
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IBCC Digital Archive
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Curnock, RM
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2016-04-18
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Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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THE
Prisoner of War
[Emblem] THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR DEPARTMENT OF THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, ST. JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON, S.W.1. [Emblem]
VOL. 3 No. 34 Free to Next of Kin FEBRUARY, 1945
THE FOOD SITUATION
By Maj.-Gen. Sir Richard Howard-Vyse, K.C.M.G., D.S.O.,
Chairman of the Prisoners of War Department
I know well that many of our readers are much distressed by letters from Camps which indicate a lack of food, and I am writing these lines in order to explain the situation and, I hope, to provide some comfort.
By the month of May, we had established in Geneva a stock of some twelve weeks’ supplies, or about two million parcels. Thereafter, while the parcels continued to leave Geneva at the rate of 160,000 a week, they ceased to flow in, because the port of Marseilles was closed, first owing to unfortunate accidents to two of our ships, and then because of the invasion of the South of France.
In September, for fear of being left with no parcels at all, we were compelled to reduce issues to a parcel a fortnight. There could have been no worse moment to do this, with the cold weather approaching, and hopes vanishing of release before Christmas, and it is only too natural that our prisoners should feel depressed as well as hungry.
The situation was further aggravated by the decision of the German High Command not to allow reserves of food parcels in Camps, inconsequence of which some Camps were compelled to consume not half a parcel, as they should have done, but as much as two or even more parcels in one week. This resulted, of course, in the disappearance of the rest of the Camp reserves which had been built up against such an eventuality as stoppage of despatches from Geneva. But, from the latest information we have, it seems likely that this order will be considerably modified, so that, as soon as transport is available, Geneva may be able to establish such reserves once more.
In some Camps, too, numbers have been greatly increased by transfers from other Camps, as well as by newly captured prisoners. The worst instance of this is Stalag 357, which has been swollen by practically the whole of Stalag Luft VI, who apparently were not allowed to bring their food reserves with them. In view of the train shortage which must exist in Germany to-day – and which, incidentally, must be materially helping to shorten the war – it is perhaps unfair to attribute this entirely to ill-will on the part of the enemy.
Now for the brighter part of the picture. In the first place, I want to stress that, while we ourselves are pretty fully informed as to the situation, practically all our news and more besides, is in the hands of the International Red Cross Committee of Geneva, who of course get it before we do. The Committee therefore possess what everyone must have before they can act; I mean Information. The point is, have they the means to act?
As to this, the situation which originally obliged us to reduce the issue has vanished. The resumed flow via Marseilles, plus supplies which are going in via Sweden, is establishing once more a reserve in Geneva. The full issue of a parcel a week can now be resumed as soon as there are sufficient stocks in Camps. It is entirely a question of rail transport through Germany. It would not be surprising if the shortage of this were acute, but as a matter of fact, we have at the moment two reasons for feeling hopeful. One of the principals of the Relief Section, of whom I happened to see a great deal when I was myself in Geneva, has sent us a distinctly encouraging report of a visit he has just paid to Berlin. And the International Red Cross Committee have told us that they hope to get the Christmas parcels to all Camps by the middle of January. In view of the Russian advance it is dangerous to prophesy about the future. (Contd. overleaf)
[Picture of a horse with cart being unloaded by four men] Red Cross parcels being unloaded at Stalag 344, one of the largest camps in Germany.
[Page break]
2 The Prisoner of War FEBRUARY, 1945
The Editor Writes –
At the time of going to press no confirmation has been received of reports that camps in Poland, East Prussia, Upper Silesia, in the line of the rapid advance of the Russian armies, have been moved back into Central Germany. Camps likely to be affected include Stalags XXA, XXB, 344, VIIIB, Luft VII, B.A.B. 20 and 21, Oflag 64, Ilag Kreuzberg, and the hospitals at Marienburg and Cosel. The War Office announced recently that assurances on the highest level had been received that provision will be made for the protection and welfare of all British Commonwealth prisoners of war liberated. The War Office also stated that “our plans are complete and the necessary staffs in readiness for action at short notice.”
Should any official information of a prisoner’s change of address be received, next of kin will be notified immediately; but the chances are that they themselves will hear from the prisoner first.
“Victorious Vanguard”
The Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Telegraph quotes a French sailor who escaped to Sweden from the Baltic Port of Kolberg, as having said that British prisoners who were being evacuated from camps in East Prussia, Poland and Silesia were in the highest spirits. The sailor said that there was a striking contrast between them and the Volkssturm battalions which filled the roads leading to the front. “As the British passed them they sang ‘Roll Out the Barrel’ and ‘Tipperary,’ and turned up their thumbs.”
The way in which these prisoners passed through the town, said the Frenchman, deepened considerably the wave of pessimism which had swept over the whole of that part of Germany. “You would think they were not prisoners, but the vanguard of a victorious army.”
Welcome to Repatriates
Of the 1,500 British and Dominion men in the latest repatriation, arrangements were made for British and Australian to come to this country and Indian and other Dominion repatriates to go straight home on another ship via Suez. Besides seven welfare officers who went out to Marseilles to meet the men, Mrs. Boyd-Moriarty, representing the Australian Red Cross, made the journey out and home on the Arundel Castle, and Miss Noyes went out representing Indian Red Cross to accompany those men who are to go straight back to India. Supplies of the Arundel Castle included 600 Indian Red Cross parcels for the use of homeward-bound Indians.
“They Shall Have Music”
Gramophone records and accordions from the Indoor Recreations Section were in the charge of Welfare officers on board for the entertainment of the repatriates. General comforts included cigarettes, bars of chocolate, slippers, stationery sets, socks, scarves, gloves and news – in the shape of Sunday newspapers and a special sports summary prepared for the Red Cross and St. John Press Section by the Daily Mail was flown direct to Marseilles.
Theatre Ban Lifted
Last month I mentioned that according to an order from the General in Command, all theatrical performances in camps situated in Wehrkeis (military zone) VIII had been forbidden, though concert and variety shows were still allowed. Readers will therefore be reassured to hear that in his latest report from Stalag VIIIA at Gorlitz, one of the camps affected, the British Man of Confidence writes: “In the middle of October the ban on theatre entertainments was lifted by the authorities and we are now permitted to put on one dramatic show per month, as well as the usual musical concerts.”
Situation Improved
I am most grateful to Mr. W.B. Morrison for a piece of good news which he has recently received from his son in Oflag IVC. He points out that in our December issue the visitors’ report on Oflag IVC stated that the prisoners could only take one shower every ten days. His son has written saying “The past week has been very hot … I spend most of the day getting in and out of hot, beg pardon, cold baths, which fortunately are plentiful.” It appears, therefore, that the situation has been much improved.
Marking Time
Under the title of “Marking Time,” prisoners of war who escaped from Italian prison camps into Switzerland and were interned in St. Gallen, created a monthly magazine. The first cover design showed an “evadé” sitting at a table, mournfully looking at a bottle of beer, waiting for things to happen. The magazine caught on. Its popularity extended far beyond the scattered community of internees, and requests for it poured in from British subjects in all parts of Switzerland. Donations were received, the paper was enlarged in size, and later, when the technical difficulties were overcome, became a self-supporting weekly.
Channel Islanders
A letter, written by a Channel Islander interned at Biberach in Germany to her nephew in this country tells that she was allowed to write to the Channel Islands. The Red Cross ship Vega which took the first batch of relief supplies to the Channel Islands will be familiar to my readers as having carried supplies of P.o.W. parcels on several occasions. Among other Red Cross supplies for the Channel Islands which have been earmarked for the future are 600,000 food parcels, 20,000 invalid diet supplements and further supplies of drugs. These plans will not in any way affect the flow of supplies to p.o.w.s in Germany.
THE FOOD SITUATION (Continued from page 1)
Now I want to ask a favour of you. A curious thing to do, I know, from people who are suffering from disappointment, who are receiving depressed letters from their prisoners, and who, especially those whose men have been captives for years, are full of anxiety.
Many of you work in offices of one sort or another, and know the difficulties of obtaining office staff. We here are suffering acutely from such difficulties, and, to put it frankly, have been snowed under with correspondence etc.
Will you please try to be patient, and not send us enquiries about the food situation until you have seen whether or not my own forecast proves to be justified. We, for our part, promise to keep you informed, through the pages of this Journal, if anything transpires to alter that forecast.
If you will do this, we shall be very grateful indeed to you, and you will be enabling us to reply more quickly to other, and perhaps more urgent, enquiries.
[Page break]
FEBRUARY, 1945 The Prisoner of War 3
The Brighter Side
At the Special Request of Stalag XIA, we are featuring this Month Extracts from Their Own Reports of Camp Entertainments and Sport there.
[Photograph of a group of men, most in sports kit] League Champions, July 1944, III Division at Stalag 344. Left to Right: (Back) Dick, Charlie, “Jock,” “Steve,” “Hank,” Ginger. (Middle) Robin, McGinty, “Nobby,” “Tanky,” “Tidler.” (Front) “Jock” and Frankie.
In sending special reports of camp activities prepared by prisoners in Stalag XIA, the president of their Entertainment Committee requested that these might be published in the Journal, adding: “We wish also to thank the B.R.C.S. and the Y.M.C.A. for the tremendous help they have given us.” As a gesture of appreciation the camp music maestro has written and composed a march and called it B.R.C.S. (British Red Cross Society).
Entertainment at Stalag XIA
A sergeant has written the account of camp entertainments. He begins: “On recalling to ins the recent entertainments in our camp, one is struck by the similarity between the presentations here and those that take place in the big cities outside. We in our little world have been presented with a continuous programme, which has given almost the same expectations, thrills, laughter and relaxation experienced by all who followed the seasons of theatreland before the war. Just as the Haymarket in London gives its public that atmosphere and attraction so dear to theatre fans, our ‘Haymarket’ renders full justice to its existence.”
Music and Variety
Music is provided by Roy and his “Music Makers,” fourteen in all, “who never fail in obtaining a merited success.” Fred’s “Haymakers” supply plenty of rhythm, while Sid and his “Mandoliers” give concerts of light music. “Both Roy and Sid have played their own compositions, which have more than shown their ability as musicians.” Variety shows have been “outstanding because the player have that skill and enthusiasm to show their talent in various ways, their main theme being laughter and song.” Vic’s production of “Leilani” transported them to the South Seas the moment the curtain rose on his show, and the audience was apparently “overwhelmed with fun, song, wit and charm.” Then Bob, the president of the Entertainment Committee, produced and presented within three days Bob’s Variety, a show that proved to be one of the best yet.
Repertory Theatre
There is also a flourishing Repertory Theatre, which appears to have “gaiety” as its motto, for all the plays produced to date have been comedies. Pee-Wee’s Tilly of Bloomsbury, which was adapted for the stage from the book, provided an hour and a half’s hilarity, and Vic’s production of The Man Who Came to Dinner was also a success. Spud has produced You Can’t Take It With You – “the antics of the Martin Vanderhof family kept a packed audience in hysterics. We were informed that at times the players themselves had difficulty in not laughing.”
Future attractions will include Vic’s pantomime, Cinderella, and Terry’s The Petrified Forest.
The sergeant’s report does not confine his praise to the stars of these entertainments. He points out: “In every walk of life there are unsung heroes. We owe a great deal to the lads who work in silence to make the entertainment what it is.” Particularly praised are “the sterling capabilities and skill” of Harry and Lew, who backstage ”perform such miracles as you would expect of the fairy with her magic wand.” The report concludes: “Yes, we spectators certainly do appreciate our luck in having such entertainment which goes a long way in relieving the ‘barbed wire’ feeling.”
Sport
Association Football
According to “Onlooker,” football in the camp has been “going great guns these last six or seven months.” At the end of March, Alf Smirk, a professional forward from Southend United, arrived in the camp and took over the Lager XI. His team has played five games against combined “other National” sides and has a splendid record, winning four and drawing one, with an aggregate of 22 goals to 8. The first League run in the compound was won by Staff. The first seven-a-side contest was won by 12C (since disbanded) and the second by Staff.
Two knock-out competitions have been held and were both won by 14A, for whom Alf Smirk plays.
Rugby
Since February of this year Rugby has been played regularly in the cooler months, and, according to the corporal who writes the report of this season’s games, “by praying for rain we have worked in an occasional game over the summer.” He continues: “Despite the fact that the ground is only 50 yards wide, we play fifteen a side, but even with this congestion the backs, at times, perform very well.
“We have players from the British isles and all the Rugby-playing Colonies, some very good, some just good, but all very keen – this last has been the means of keeping the game going. We have had some very good games. The first, South Africa versus the Camp, was won by the Camp. England v. Colonies was won by England by one penalty goal in a very strongly contested match. On St. Patrick’s Day the Colts played England (with Kiwis, Springboks and Wallabies included in the side), for which they qualified, and won 6 – 5.
“Since then we have had various new prisoners (mostly recaptured from Italy) v. ‘Old,’ followed by a series of Anzacs v. Camp, which the boys from
[Page break]
4 The Prisoner of War FEBRUARY, 1945
What to Send Your Prisoner Now
[Photographs of musical instruments, boardgames, books and magazines] Among the many articles sent to prisoners of war by the Indoor Recreations Section at St. James’s Palace are musical instruments, artists’ materials (paints in pans), crayons, plays, books and games. They go direct from this country and from reserve supplies held by the I.R.C. at Geneva.
This typical selection includes new books of every type from the fine arts to Wild West thrillers. Remember all books must pass a severe censorship.
Music is scarce and in great demand in the camps. Clean, unmarked copies will be warmly welcomed by the Indoor Recreations Section.
THE BRIGHTER SIDE
(Continued from previous page)
‘Down Under’ won 2 games to 1. We are most grateful to the Red Cross Society for supplying us with the gear to make all this possible.”
In Other Camps
In Stalag XVIIIA they take their musical entertainment seriously and according to a trooper who writes, just produces a “Cavalcade of Music,” illustrating the progress from primitive music, through the minuet, opera, music-hall, ragtime and swing to the modern symphonic jazz, closing on the optimistic note, The Song of Dawn. By contrast in Stalag VIIA they seem to take a far from serious attitude. One prisoner, writing, admittedly on a Saturday evening, says: “I and a chap from Paddington have just finished dancing the Big Apple, Jitterbug, Charleston, and anything that Fred Astaire can do. I don’t know what the Germans think of us, but they certainly must think we are a Crazy Gang. The noise and shouting is terrific, with a background of six mouth-organs.”
Camp Shows
The Dramatic Club in Stalag 357 have hit on a new idea. They are working on a scheme for producing a series of “Radio Plays” and revues which will tour the huts throughout the camp. The plays are read from behind a curtain of blankets. One is to be a murder play, The Silent Witness.
In Oflag IXA/Z they produced Busman’s Honeymoon, the three “female” characters being afterwards presented with bouquets. Two of these were of a fairly orthodox nature, but the third, for the charwoman, was composed of a couple of large sunflowers, complete with about 5ft. of stem! The lieutenant who has recently produced Hamlet at Marlag und Milag Nord writes: “I have never pictures myself before as a producer, and I have been startled at the result. The audience sat on hard seats for three and a half hours and would have taken more.”
R.A.F. Raise Money for P.O.W’s.
At and R.A.F. station in the Midlands they recently presented a play, the proceeds of which are to be devoted to buying play scripts for their colleagues still in Germany. The warrant officer who wrote telling us of this added: “The total collected was £25 from this and neighbouring stations. Might I suggest that other stations follow suit?”
[Page break]
FEBRUARY, 1945 The Prisoner of War 5
The Letters They Write Home
From a Padre
Stalag IVC. 21.8.44.
After a wait of almost six weeks I am now posted to a working kommando in this stalag. As far as the censorship allows I will proceed to give you an idea of the place. Until just recently it consisted of about 1,200 men, but another kommando has been moved here and we now total about 1,800 British troops. They are made up if men from the British Isles, South Africa, and a few from Australia and New Zealand. The men are at various jobs of work and are extremely fit; most of them are very bronzed, walking about in shorts only.
My billet is at the end of one of the long wooden huts, and at the moment I am sharing it with a Cypriot M.O. The room is about 12ft. to 14ft. square. We have single spring beds and a table with a blue check cloth on it. The floor is concrete, which is clean and cool in this grilling weather. The walls have been painted yellow with a white frieze and ceiling. Altogether a comfortable spot! Two windows overlook the compound, and we have our own tiny entrance hall.
Padre Brown is about a quarter of a mile up the road in a kommando of 2,000 men, so you see that between us we have a pretty large parish.
… The men seem pleased to see a chaplain, and as I have at least a year more of service as a p.o.w. than most of them, I am looked upon as a bit of a Methuselah. I tell them that I am a good example of the work of the Red Cross. Bodily fit with the constant supply of food parcels – we have enough here until Christmas – mentally sound through the constant flow of those grand letters of yours and books, etc., sent out by the Red Cross.
A Camp Tour
Marlag und Milag Nord (Milag). 28.8.44.
I’ll just show you round the camp this week for a change.
This is my bunk; twelve men sleep here. Look out of the window and you’ll see my tomatoes. Yes, that is where I cut hair too! Do you like the poster? Over there is the fire pond. See the ducks? They all belong to the inmates here. You ought to see the model steamboats and yachts out there some days. The former run on dubbin fuel.
This is the cinema-cum-galley. There’s a film this week, Hello Janine – all-German talkie, singing and dancing. I went yesterday. Not too bad.
The gardens look well, intermingled with the rabbit hutches and hen coops. All kinds of pets kept here. You’ll see some puppy dogs presently. You get a good view of the countryside just here. This is the officers’ galley and mess hall, which is used for games in the evening.
You cannot go any farther this way, so come back the other side. As we return we pass the hospital. There is the main gate and guard room, adjoining is the ratings’ galley and mess hall, which resembles Monte Carlo in the afternoons. There are wheels and games on which you can get rich quick or, like me, broke quick.
The next point of interest is the theatre. The show running is called Choraina, a cavalcade of all the shows we’ve had. Not seen it yet. Going further we pass into a smaller compound which is the sports ground, where there are pitches for football, baseball and cricket. The Yanks are playing baseball. Football starts next month.
Come back now and the combine will stand you a cup of tea.
From Another World
Stalag 344. 10.9.44.
Met a new chap who has just arrived, only taken 15 days ago. Talking to him makes me feel like a savage from another world. He is only 19 and so he was just a school-kid when I left Blighty. Seems to look on us as relics of a bow and arrow era. Maybe he is right too!
[Boxed] SEND US YOUR PICTURES AND LETTERS
Ten shillings will be awarded each month to senders of the first three letters from prisoners of war to be printed. Copies instead of the originals are requested, and whenever possible these should be set out on a separate sheet of paper, showing the DATES on which they were written. The Editor welcomes for other pages of the journal any recent NEWS relating to prisoners of war.
Ten shillings will also be awarded for photographs reproduced across two columns, and five shillings for those under two. Photographs should be distinct, and any information as to when they were taken is helpful.
Address: Editor, “The Prisoner of War,” St. James’s Palace, London, S.W.!. The cost of these prizes and fees is defrayed by a generous friend of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation. [/boxed]
[Photograph of six men in uniform] A few of the prisoners at Stalag XVIIA.
We start on half a Red Cross parcel per week next week. Cannot think what we should do without the Red Cross – bless them! I shall have to tighten up my belt, but I am not worried as I don’t think we shall be collecting them much longer!
New Arrivals
Oflag 79. 22.10.44.
It is amusing to observe the new prisoners as they come in (we have a number from Arnhem). It reminds one of one’s own early days “in the bag.” The number of signs and symbols they wear on their arms is amazing to us old kriegies! Of course they give us the latest news from home. Most of them seem to be very young. They are well looked after as soon as they arrive and given extra clothing and other kit.
I am very well, as we all are, except for occasional bouts of the “crowd-complex.” Naturally, living in these conditions we all get a bit tired of being on top of one another and feel sometimes we should like to get to a quiet spot in the country and live alone for the rest of our lives. But the feeling soon passes if you get on with your work, or go to bed, as I am doing just now.
His Room
Stalag VIIA. 31.8.44.
Things are the same here – work, play and sleep. The room in which I sleep holds six – four other Englishmen, one South African, whom we rag and jape from morn till night. Each night we keep the rest of them awake with our guitar and mouth organs. Our room is called Sunshine Corner if it’s quiet,
[Page break]
6 The Prisoner of War FEBRUARY, 1945
[Photograph of six men] A group of prisoners at Stalag Luft III where they make a point of celebrating birthdays.
which is seldom. When the orchestra is playing it is called the China Tea Shop.
How They Live
Stalag 357. 3.12.44.
We live in bungalows, each having four rooms, all joined end on. Each room holds 72 men on double-tier bunks. Four bungalows make “A” compound.
The day begins at 7 a.m. with a brew – on alternative mornings in bed! A wash and shave and then roll call at 8 a.m. We are counted and then dismissed until the next “count” at 4 p.m. We sweep the hut, draw bread and potatoes and then until noon, when we have a hot soup or stew, we play or watch football, rugby, hockey or volley ball.
We have an excellent library, a gymnasium, and use the church hut as a quiet room during the week. We are allowed out and around the camp from rev. till 7.15 p.m. from which time until lights out (now 9 p.m.) we have talks, lectures, whist, bridge or crib drives, quizzes, a dance band or gramophone.
Work and Play
Stalag 344. 5.11.44.
I was very amused at the way you go to business, through clover and wheatfields and over stiles. We have a similar three-mile walk (slow pace), then a little work with a little shovel, and back to camp at a faster pace. We take tea with us and brew up on the job, just like a gang of navvies in the streets of London.
I was interested to know you had seen the Prisoner of War Exhibition. The main camps are like that, but I am at a working camp of 55. We have more facilities and much more comfort.
We hold conferences on world events every day – generals and cabinet ministers have nothing on us!
Two Counties Club
Stalag Luft VII. 16.8.44.
We have just formed a Lancashire and Cheshire club and there are only two from Stockport. The majority come from either Manchester or Liverpool. The club is going to contact the Manchester Evening News, giving names and
[Photograph of a group of men in three rows] The [underlined] SHEFFIELD & DISTRICT [/underlined] Club 1943 Stalag 383 – GERMANY. 1944
addresses of all who live in the Manchester district. So keep a look out.
By the way, I was fortunate enough to be selected to play for England at cricket. The match was played on Bank Holiday Monday, and after a very exciting game we won by 46 runs.
A Hard School
Stalag 357. 30.9.44.
We are in better billets, in spite of the fact that they are not quite completed, and the Detaining Power seems to be helping us to get settles and comfortable as much as they can, for which we are all grateful. We will soon be wishing each other a “Merry Christmas.” It seems hardly possible that I have been away from you so long, and I often wonder if you will think me a lot changed when I return. If I am, I assure you it will be for the better. This is the finest, if the hardest, school in which to learn patience and understanding. I have learned more of human nature since being a P.o.W. than one would normally learn in a lifetime, but how I long for home comforts, a proper bed and plenty of freedom. Believe me, it will take something to move me once I get back.
A Library Arrives
Stalag Luft IV. 29.8.44.
I have at last got hold of some technical books which will help me. When we moved from Stalag Luft VI, I parted company with my entire kit, including all my notebooks and textbooks, as did most of my companions. However, the technical library has arrived intact, so I can continue studying, and while I have no stationery I am managing on cigarette wrappings.
A small amount of Red Cross clothing and toilet articles has arrived and I have been lucky enough to win the cut for the following: 1 toothbrush, 1 comb, 1 razor and soap, 3 razor blades and 1 light vest. This comprises my entire belongings, together with the following which I arrived in: 1 great coat, 1 jacket and trousers, 1 short pants, 1 pair socks and boots, 1 shirt and 1 handkerchief.
We are all in the very best of spirits and exceedingly optimistic and get plenty of fun out of kriegie life.
How He Lives
Stalag IVD. 8.10.44.
You ask me if I live at IVD. No, I am at B.E.I., which is a working party of 170 men. As far as the billets are concerned, they are fairly good. We
[Picture] 1944 A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR ILAG VII 1945
A drawing of the canteen at Ilag VII sent as a Christmas and New Year Card by a Guernsey civilian internee to his mother.
[Page break]
FEBRUARY, 1945 The Prisoner of War 7
live in rooms; three rooms in a bungalow, twenty men to a room, two men to a bed, one above the other. I am on the top as I think it is better – it is for reading, anyhow.
We now have our own shower-house and wash-place, which is very convenient. Of course, we are locked, barred and bolted in every night, not to mention being counted far too often for my liking.
From German to Drawing
Stalag IVG. 17.9.44.
I have given up trying to learn German; it would take too long. Instead I’ve been spending most of my time lately drawing. I have been able to borrow some paints, but I’m not much of a hand with these.
Our tomato crop must have reached the 5cwt. mark, but it is falling off now as the weather gets colder. It is just about cold enough for snow at the moment.
A Good Cake
Stalag 344. 1.10.44.
I think it’s unfair that you torment me with writing about special apple pie! Of course, by now I’m a pretty good cook myself; last week Gus and I made a grand cake out of the bread ration, two tins biscuits (hard), sugar, raisins, salt, Klim and Nestles. Apart from the fact that it was slightly burnt outside, slightly undone in the centre and slightly heavy, it was a good cake.
Sport - and Stitching!
Stalag Luft III. 15.9.44.
This week there was a big volley-ball competition, with a tote to make things interesting. All the boys wagered with cigarettes, and it was just like Derby day. Through “inside information” I managed to make a few, but as I smoke the old pipe most often, it mattered little.
One America v. Britain series which I mentioned before, ended in a win for the “Yanks,” but it was a lot of fun and time well spent.
Have just finished knitting a khaki scarf, which is useful at this time. What with the sewing, washing, knitting, etc., that I do, I would make a good wife for someone, but I guess that is out of the question.
Varied Activities
Stalag IVB. 26.9.44.
Things here are not bad, bags of entertainment such as football, boxing, etc. We also have a theatre, and last week I saw a show The Barretts of Wimpole Street, and it was excellent.
I do some tailoring now and again and so earn a few cigarettes a week.
We get our Red Cross parcels every week and receiving them is the main event of the week.
I have read in the camp newspaper that the black-out is finished now. I guess it suits you fine.
PERSONALITIES AT STALAG XXB
DESCRIBED BY A P.O.W. THERE
[Photograph of two rows of men in uniform]
BACK ROW. – I will begin from left with the big blonde, “Spite” H., Liverpool, whose ambition is bigger and better boxing gloves and cowboy books. Next is “Bull,” who is happy with a car, the dirtier the better. I come next: I want a good armchair and a radio. Next is my pal “Bun,” London, whose ambition in life is parties. Next is Lewis also from London. He is not fat but can he eat! Next is “Wog” from Bradford, our interpreter, the Lover No. 1. His pal Ron next, also from Bromley, London, whose hobby is cycling, now aims to learn the piano accordian and don’t we know it!
FRONT ROW from left.- The chap with the beret, Bull’s brother, just loves to argue and waits for the time when he will be slicing bacon again (by the way they are Scotsmen). “Pudding” comes next from Leeds, who just lives for his bed and says, “Why can’t you stay in bed all day?! Next is “Fitz,” also Scotch, who longs to be home with his wife and kiddy. Last is “Busty,” our singer, whose ambition is to be on the films.
Birthday Celebrations in the Camps
TIME-HONOURED birthday traditions are observed in the camps with great gusto. They are made occasions for special celebration as a change from the usual routine.
“A happy birthday to you“ in chorus greeted a member of Stalag Luft 3 on the morning of his anniversary, and he was treated to a cup of tea in his bunk. On the previous day a companion had spent six hours grinding up biscuits, dried barley and semolina to make flour for some “wizard” meat patties. Corned beef and onions were used for the filling, and the savoury result marked the occasion at lunch. A “gorgeous” chocolate pudding was produced for sweet at dinner after an excellent course of fried spam in egg-powder and vegetables, and apricot tarts at supper completed the day’s menu. Rations had to be saved for weeks to make enough for this “real do.”
A flying officer, also at Stalag Luft 3, writes home that he did not expect to spend his 21st birthday in a prisoner of war camp, but says that the best was made of a bad job. He was presented with an iced cake and much speculation was aroused as to how the colouring had been obtained. The cake was voted an excellent effort and later the secret was revealed – a drop of red water-colour paint!
One prisoner in Oflag 79 tried to keep his birthday dark, but someone had not forgotten it. The result was a very fine cake for which the ingredients were ground biscuits, raisins, egg flakes and margarine. The mixing and decorations in chocolate and jam were carried out by a fellow-officer, who before the war demonstrated cake-mixing and was able to add the deft professional touch.
On roll call at 8.30 a.m. a letter arrived from home wishing him many happy returns – timed almost to the hour!
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8 The Prisoner of War FEBRUARY, 1945
Linking Relief for the World
THE WORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS
By Colonel Charles de Watteville (Chief of the London Delegation of the I.C.R.C.)
[Photograph of people working on a map]
[Photograph of two women sorting letters] (Left) Working on one of the large maps showing German prison camps at the Central Office at Geneva, and (Right) sorting letters into alphabetical order. Each square represents one letter of the alphabet.
I was particularly pleased when I was asked to write this article for The Prisoner of War because I am often struck by the number of people I meet who are confused by the term International Red Cross. I shall begin with a very brief description of the Red Cross movement as a whole.
The Red Cross first came into being eighty-one years ago as a result of the experiences of a Swiss citizen – Henri Dunant – on the battlefield of Solferino, and the conclusion in August 1864, of the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field. To-day the International Red Cross movement, which is governed by Statutes drawn up at The Hague in 1928, is comprised of:
The national Red Cross Societies (numbering sixty-two in 1939) with a total adult membership of over twenty millions.
The International Red Cross Committee – founded in Geneva in 1863 by a Committee of five Swiss citizens (now limited to a membership of twenty-five), and the forerunner of the whole Red Cross movement.
The League of Red Cross Societies – a federation of all the national Red Cross Societies, founded in 1919.
These aspects of the world-wide movement are linked by the International Red Cross Conference which meets every four years and is described in the Statutes as “the highest representative of the International Red Cross.”
The aim of the Red Cross is always to bring relief, whether in war or peace, to suffering humanity, and to this object the various national Societies, organised on a voluntary basis, devote themselves in every country. The International Red Cross Committee, with its headquarters in Geneva, is a completely independent and neutral organisation, composed entirely of Swiss citizens. It is in wartime the link between the national Societies and is the only organisation which, as the result of the trust placed in it by all belligerents, can work for the welfare of the war victims of both sides.
History of the Movement
Ever since 1870 the International Committee has set up in spheres of conflict, agencies for information and the relief of wounded and sick soldiers and prisoners of war. On the outbreak of the 194-18 war the International Agency for Prisoners of War was created in Geneva with a staff of 2,000 Swiss citizens, the majority of whom were voluntary workers.
The agency dealt with requests from thirty belligerent countries; its delegates visited five hundred internment camps; facilities were obtained for the evacuation of civilians from occupied territories and for the repatriation or hospitalisation in neutral countries of sick and wounded soldiers and medical personnel. The Committee organised the repatriation and exchange of prisoners of war of all nationalities after the first World War and co-operated closely with the national Red Cross Societies and other organisations in medical relief and reconstruction work in war-stricken countries. And between the two World Wars the Committee’s services were called upon for China and Abyssinia, in the Gran Chaco in 1936-39.
In 1929 there was signed in Geneva the Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, and under this Convention the International Red Cross Committee is expressly charged with the establishment of a Central Agency for the Exchange of Information about Prisoners of War.
In 1939, therefore, the Committee immediately began this work, as it had done in previous wars, and in June, 1944, its staff numbered 3,289, all of whom were Swiss and more than half of whom were voluntary.
By September, 1944, the index of the Central Prisoners of War Agency contained over 23,000,000 cards relating to prisoners of war and interned civilians; permanent delegates in forty-five countries had made some four thousand visits to camps and in all seventy-seven coun-
[Photograph of rows of card index files] This huge card index system contains over 23 million cards relating to prisoners of war and interned civilians of all nationalities.
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FEBRUARY, 1945 The Prisoner of War 9
tries had been covered by delegates and special missions. The incoming mail numbered 36,489,000 letters and cards, and the outgoing 38,225,000; in one month 134,200 letters and 5,900 telegrams passed through the Committee’s different departments. Over 1,000,000 books had been forwarded to prisoners of war and civilian internment camps, and over 26,000,000 parcels, valued at approximately 2 1/2 milliard Swiss francs, had been handled by the Committee’s Relief Division up to September, 1944.
Civilians, Too
The Committee’s work does not, of course, stop at caring for sick and wounded prisoners of war and interned civilians, but has been extended, in the face of almost superhuman obstacles, to bring aid to civilian populations – especially women and children – in countries overrun by the war.
For this purpose what is known as the International Red Cross Joint Relief Commission was set up in 1940 by the International Red Cross Committee and the League of Red Cross Societies, and it was this organisation which, together with the Swiss and Swedish Red Cross Societies, was able to bring food and medical relief to the famine-stricken populations of Greece and to the children of Belgium.
Another activity of the International Red Cross Committee is the Civilian Message Scheme, by which civilians in one belligerent country can make contact with relatives and friends in another enemy or enemy-occupied country. By September, 1944, nearly 17,000,000 of these messages had been transmitted to and from people separated by the war.
The Committee’s Section for Civilian Research had handled over 500,000 cases by the same date, some necessitating as many as fifty separate enquiries. The Central Index of the Dispersed Families Section will no doubt form the basis of a great post-war task of linking members of families who have become separated.
The Committee has its own Maritime Transport system known as the “Foundation for the Organisation of Red Cross Transport.” It runs a fleet of twelve ships (three of which
[Photographs of parcels in storage and being prepared for sending] (Left) Parcels for p.o.w.s who were transferred to Germany from Italian camps, as Basle Station ready to be readdressed by the International Red Cross. (Above) The routine inspection of parcels of goods for the camps.
are owned by the “Foundation”) which ply between North and South Atlantic and Mediterranean ports, and carry relief goods for prisoners of war and civil populations. These ships, which are marked “International Red Cross Committee” and sail under neutral flags, all have on board a representative of the Committee. By September, 1944, they had transported 265,486 tons of relief goods.
Countless Services
Possibly one of the Committee’s most important and delicate tasks is that of watching over the application of international conventions and in constantly appealing to belligerent Governments on behalf of war victims.
It will be realised that all this work, of which only a bare outline has been given here, is very costly. The Committee’s expenses for the year 1943 amounted to 8,700,000 Swiss francs. Two-thirds of the donations received came from Swiss sources; the remaining third is contributed by certain Governments and a small number of national Red Cross Societies.
I feel I cannot do better than conclude this article with a quotation from a recent publication of the International Red Cross Committee: * *”The International Red Cross in Geneva – 1863-1943” – Page 5.
“it is not to be avoided, in an organisation of such dimensions as the Red Cross, and so largely dependent upon helpers who are neither trained experts nor, in all cases, permanently available, that errors and delays sometimes occur. Where special, privileged channels are open to certain groups, or can be used for an isolated case here and there, it is obvious that enquirers will be satisfied more promptly. But the International Committee and its Agency view their mission above all as a service, not for some only, but for all without privilege or distinction. They rejoice to know that tens and hundreds of thousands are helped by other means than theirs; but the millions who have no access to special favours and whom nobody takes care of otherwise must also be served, and served first. The services demanded of the Committee are countless; they range from the transmission of prisoners’ names by the tens of thousands from Government to Government, to the search for a single missing individual; from supplying a sick prisoner’s request for some remedy indispensable to him, but unobtainable in the enemy country, to rescuing whole sections of populations, such as the children in countries suffering from famine.”
[Boxed] NUMBER PLEASE!
Please be sure to mention your Red Cross reference number whenever you write to us. Otherwise delay and trouble are caused in finding previous correspondence. [/boxed]
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10 The Prisoner of War FEBRUARY, 1945
Official Reports from the Camps
[Boxed] In every case where the conditions call for remedy, the Protecting Power makes representations to the German authorities. Where there is any reason to doubt whether the Protecting Power has acted it is at once requested to do so. When it is reported that food or clothing is required, the necessary action is taken through the International Red Cross Committee. [/boxed]
OFLAG VIIB, EICHSTAETT
Strength on the day of visit, 1,504 officers and 236 other ranks. Since the last visit in June, 1944, two new huts are in the course of erection for further living quarters. A small kitchen in each hut allows for the cooking of private parcels.
Prisoners can only have two hot showers a month. The general health of all prisoners remained good. Recreational facilities inside the camp are good, but all parole activities such as walks and visits to the cinema have been suspended for no given reason.
Censoring at this camp is unsatisfactory and mail is reported to be very slow. There is a new Commandant who is considered reasonable and fair. The camp is still overcrowded.
(Visited October, 1944.)
STALAG LUFT VII BANKAU
There are 800 prisoners of war of the R.A.F., Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force in this camp. They are all non-commissioned officers.
At the moment the prisoners are all in temporary “standard huts” of which there are 190, each accommodating six prisoners. New barracks are being complete, and when these are ready for use it should be the best accommodation so far found in any prisoner of war camp in Germany. There is no lighting or heating in the temporary huts, but due to the hot weather and the long days, there was, up to the time of the visit, no necessity for such facilities. When the new accommodation is ready there will be both lighting and heating.
Sixteen of these huts are available for special purposes, such as sick rooms, school rooms, offices and library. A large barrack for the kitchen has been erected. The prisoners cook their own food, the only complaints being that there were not enough kitchen utensils, and so far no ration scale has been supplied. There is no stock of Red Cross parcels, but a supply has been despatched from Geneva. As is usual in most of the camps, there is very little on sale in the canteen.
There is no provision for either hot or cold showers, but the men take daily cold showers underneath a pump in the open air.
There was no British doctor or medical orderly in the camp; the German authorities have asked for them. The German medical officer calls twice a week, and a German medical orderly looks after the sick. All prisoners have been inoculated against typhus.
The clothing situation is poor. There is a cobbler and tailor attached to the camp, but there is very little repair material to be had.
The German authorities have asked for a Roman Catholic and a Church of England padre, who are expected to arrive shortly. At present a Methodist Minister is holding services.
Outdoor recreation is very satisfactory. There is a large free space where all sorts of games are played. Half of the kitchen barrack is being used as a ping-pong room where there are three tables available.
Mail is rather poor – in particular the receipt of private parcels. The German camp commandant is said to be satisfactory and on good terms with the prisoners of war. When the new barracks are completed this camp should be very good indeed.
(Visited September, 1944.)
HOSPITAL RESERVE LAZARET, EBELSBACH
The number of patients on the day of the visit was 10 Americans and 47 British. There is one British medical officer and three medical orderlies. The only material change since the last visit in May, 1944, was the construction of an excellent air raid shelter; a second is still being built. At present bed-patients are taken on stretchers to the completed shelter and doors are opened for the other patients to walk to a nearby wood, where there are natural shelters.
Owing to the number of other Allied prisoners of war in this hospital, the one barrack assigned to the British and American patients remains overcrowded.
Every patient has a hot bath once a week. There has been no shortage of water this summer. The food is reported to be better now than it has ever been in the past. There is a good stock of Red Cross parcels. Beer and a few matches are occasionally on sale on the canteen. Clothing is still satisfactory.
A new recreation hall has been opened which gives great satisfaction to all the prisoners. The mail from England has just started to arrive again. Medical treatment is most satisfactory. The British and American doctors are given an entirely free hand to run their section of the hospital, and all essential drugs have so far been supplied by the Germans. Surgical dressings are rather limited, but the gap is filled by Red Cross supplies. There were no complaints.
(Visited September, 1944.)
[Photograph of a group of men in three rows] STALAG IXC A group from a concert party held in this camp where there are 380 British prisoners of war. The general health of the camp is good.
STALAG IXC, MUEHLHAUSEN
The strength of this camp is 380 British prisoners of war, including 178 N.C.O.s, one medical officer and two chaplains. More than 100 prisoners had left this camp since the last visit in July.
Bathing and washing facilities are satisfactory and there were no complaints about food or cooking facilities. The order sent by the Red Cross to cut the issue of parcels to one per man per two weeks was accepted by the prisoners with understanding. The clothing situation was satisfactory.
Church of England and Roman Catholic services are held in the camp, but a recent order by the Germans forbidding chaplains to visit work detachments at
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FEBRUARY, 1945 The Prisoner of War 11
any great distance from the main camp rather limits the padres’ activities.
Outdoor recreation is very satisfactory. The prisoners are able to go out for sports every afternoon from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., as well as on Sunday mornings. Indoor entertainments were curtailed after the prisoners had written and acted a sketch which, in the opinion of the Germans, insulted their country.
Mail, as everywhere else, has become very slow, the arrival of private parcels being particularly bad. The general health of the camp is good, and in spite of the recent orders mentioned above, the spirit of the camp is still excellent.
(Visited September, 1944.)
LABOUR DETATCHMENTS
DEPENDENT ON STALAG IXC
Working Detachment No.1278, Gleichamberg was visited for the first time. The compound is situated in a beautiful wood about 1,800 feet above sea level. The present strength of the camp is 37 British prisoners of war who work in a stone quarry near the camp. Working hours are 10 per day, Sundays are always free. There were no complaints about working conditions.
The prisoners live in a stone-built house containing one dormitory, one day room, a kitchen and a wash-room. There are double-tier beds with two German blankets for each prisoner, and most of them possess additional private ones. Lighting and heating are satisfactory. The roofs are reported to leak very frequently, but repairs are promised. Washing facilities are somewhat primitive, but cannot be considered as inadequate. The men receive the correct German heavy workers’ rations. The prisoners have their own cook, and a supply of Red Cross parcels for four weeks.
Medical attention is given by a civilian doctor and there is a British medical orderly in the camp. Dental treatment is good. The general state of health is satisfactory.
Although there is only a small stock of clothing in the camp, each prisoner has at least one uniform. Some have two. The camp has never been visited by a padre due to the recent order of the German High Command. The prisoners have had little chance to play games, but have been granted permission for a regular Sunday walk. In general this camp makes a good impression.
Labour Detachment No. 1401, Bleicherode, is still reported to be a good working camp. 133 British prisoners work in a salt mine. The air-raid shelter provided at the mine for civilian workers is also available to the prisoners. There
[Photograph of three rows of men in uniform] OFLAG VIIB A group of officers at this camp which is still reported to be overcrowded.
are no bugs now. The Men of Confidence from Detachments No. 1416, Sollstedt, and No. 1015, Bischofferode, came to Detachment 1401 for interviews with the visiting delegate, and their detachments are reported to be good.
At No. 1416, 65 British prisoners of war work in a salt mine for nine hours a day, with every Sunday free. The Man of Confidence confirmed that this is the best accommodated camp in the Stalag area. The 127 prisoners at No. 1015 also work in a salt mine for nine hours per day; every second Sunday is free. There were no serious complaints.
Detachment 737, Menterode. – The 138 British prisoners of war are employed in a salt mine near the camp. Some men work underground and others on the surface. There is no overcrowding in the barracks, and the interior arrangements are satisfactory. Some of the sleeping rooms are slightly infested with bugs, but arrangements for gassing the rooms are being made. Facilities for cooking private parcels are most primitive. Clothing is in order. Medical attention is given by a civilian doctor. Detachment 199, Springen, was expected to be moved shortly. The conditions are Springen were satisfactory. Detachment No. 106, Dornoff, where 58 British prisoners of war are employed in a potash mine, is also a good detachment. Some clothing had arrived recently, and this matter is now better except for a lack of small-size shoes. The potato ration had been increased.
Detachment No. 1039, Craja. – The work in the salt mine at this Detachment is considered dangerous, and the delegate insisted that the 90 prisoners should be moved.
(Visited September, 1944.)
STALAG 357, OERBKE, nr. FALLINGBOSTEL
This camp was transferred from North-eastern Germany at the beginning of August, 1944. It is situated in a country area about 2 km. from the very small town of Oerbke. The camp is composed of six compounds, the prisoners being able to move freely from one to another. The centre compound (E), which is very large, has plenty of spare space which can be used as sports fields. Also in this compound are several buildings for general use, such as four brick barracks installed as kitchens, six wooden barracks used as offices for the Men of Confidence; chapel, libraries, schoolrooms, workshops and two large laundries.
Compound “R” has 16 wooden barracks. Each of these barracks composes one large room, 72 prisoners sleeping is each on double-tier beds, and have two blankets each.
Compounds “A,” “B” and “C” each have six large brick barracks, which are divided into eight large rooms, each one accommodating 72 prisoners with the same sleeping arrangements as for Compound “R.”
Compound “A” is not yet occupied, as the barracks are still undergoing repair. When it is ready for use the Camp Commandant hopes to be able to reduce the number of prisoners in each room to 60, which will alleviate the overcrowding which at present exists.
Compound “D” is also unoccupied, but it is intended to use one of the two large brick barracks as a theatre and some schoolrooms and library, and the other as a church and some store rooms. The prisoners will be able to help in the work of repairing these barracks.
Air-raid trenches are being prepared, but as the camp is situated in a rural district it is said to be relatively safe.
On the day of the visit there were 6,512 prisoners in the camp, of whom 3,162 are R.A.F.N.C.O.s, who are not segregated from the Army personnel. This total also includes 645 Canadian, 349 Australians, 225 New Zealanders, and 415 South Africans. There were only three British prisoners of war in the camp hospital.
Daylight is insufficient in most of the brick barracks. It is intended to en-
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12 The Prisoner of War FEBRUARY, 1945
large the existing windows and to open new ones in the two end rooms. There will be no electric lighting at all in the camp until the work of installing the fittings throughout the camp is finished. Each room has two stoves, except for Compound “R,” where the stoves are ready for installation.
Washing and toilet facilities are adequate; in Compound “R” there is a large wash-house with 150 cold water taps, and hot water in large boilers every day.
Compound “C” has wash-rooms at the end of each barrack. Compounds “A” and “B”, when completed, will have the same arrangements; in the meantime the prisoners from these compounds can use one of the large laundries in Compound “E.” Each man is able to have a hot shower about once in ten days.
The prisoners cook their own food. They receive the same German rations as all other British prisoners of war. There was no complaint about the quality of the food. The chief difficulty is the lack of fuel for the boilers. There is no canteen at present in the camp, but the camp authorities promised to open one as soon as Compound “D” is completed. However, there is very little for sale.
At the time of visit there was no stock of Red Cross food parcels owing to the large increase in personnel. Nor was there any stock of clothing, and some prisoners are without greatcoats.
There are three chaplains in the camp, one Church of Scotland, one Church Army, and one Methodist. Arrangements are being made for Roman Catholic and Church of England clergymen to visit the camp.
So far little has been done in the camp with regard to recreational facilities. The prisoners will be allowed to start on the work of completing Compound “D” so that they may have a theatre, library, school, etc. There is plenty of room for exercise within the Compounds, including football and cricket, for which the prisoners have the necessary sports gear. The general state of health in this camp can be considered as good.
STALAG XIB, FALLINGBOSTEL
Of the 56 British prisoners of war in the main camp, four are N.C.O.’s and remainder other ranks. 1,981 British prisoners of war are in 10 work detachments based on the main camp.
There was an adequate supply of Red Cross parcels in the camp and labour detachments at the time of the visit. A new shipment of clothing had arrived and the position had consequently improved. Boot repair material is still short.
A Church of England padre arrived during June and is able to visit the working detachments. The camp leader is also able to go and visit the men stationed away from the main camp whenever he wants to.
The conditions in the camp hospital and infirmary are very good. On the day of the visit there were 22 patients in the hospital and three in the infirmary. The German authorities agreed to the transfer of four tubercular patients to the sanatorium at Elsterhorst as soon as transport was available.
No. 7004, Barum (Labour Detachment dependent on Stalag XIB) was visited for the first time since it was opened in December, 1943. 179 prisoners of war are engaged in laying a private railway line and live in two barracks situated in open country. There are nine rooms, each accommodating 20 men. A third barrack is used for washing purposes.
Interior arrangements are very satisfactory. There is plenty of space, and the heating, lighting and ventilation are good. Each man has two German blankets. A stove is available for cooking Red Cross and private parcels. Washing facilities are adequate. Cold showers daily and one hot shower weekly. The prisoners do their own laundry. Health is at a high standard and there is a good supply of medicaments in the small six-bed infirmary.
Every Sunday afternoon the prisoners are allowed to swim or play football. There is a supply of indoor games and musical instruments in the camp. Beer is delivered, but other canteen stocks are practically non-existent. Mail is rather slow at present.
(Visited August, 1944.)
Reports from other detachments dependent upon Stalag XIB, Nos. 7002-3 and 7004-7, appeared in last month’s issue.
[Photograph of men in uniform around a coffin] The funeral with full military honours of a prisoner of war from working detachment 855 attached to Stalag IVA, who died in hospital last year.
STALAG IVC
Repeated representations have been made through the Protecting Power concerning British prisoners of war in Stalag IVC, who are said to be working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with one Sunday off a month. Sir James Grigg said in answer to a question in the House of Commons on January 16th that so far no satisfaction had been received, but that representations would be continued to be made as long as there is the slightest hope of achieving results.
CIVILIAN INTERNMENT CAMPS
ILAG WURZACH
Since the date of the last report on this family camp (see issue for May, page6) there have been some improvements, but the camp cannot yet be considered as entirely satisfactory. It is crowded; there are still vermin, and there is little free space within the camp perimeter, although walks can be taken in the monastery garden every day and the sports ground is available once a week.
Kitchen equipment is very modern and the internees can prepare their own food from the official rations and from the contents of Red Cross food parcels. White bread and milk are provided for the sick and for the children. Each internee can have one hot shower a week. Medical attention is satisfactory, and the state of health is good.
The camp library contains several thousand books and the internees have some musical instruments and indoor games. They have formed an orchestra and a theatrical company. The children receive instruction from professional schoolmasters and the kindergarten in well equipped.
The situation as regards clothing is satisfactory, but there is a lack of repair material.
Last visited by the Protecting Power on the 1st June, 1944, and by the International Red Cross on the 7th September.
ILAG LIEBENAU
Since the date of the last report on this civilian internment camp (see issue for May, 1944, page 6) there have been no great changes. Materially, the camp makes a good impression, the convent and adjoining buildings being of modern construction, while the garden and courtyard are well looked after. It has, however, been necessary recently to take steps against vermin. Each internee can have a hot bath or shower every week.
(Continued on page 15.)
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FEBRUARY, 1945 The Prisoner of War 13
Groups from the Camps
[Photograph of three rows of men, some in uniform, some in sports kit, two lying on the ground at the front] STALAG XXA
[Photograph of three rows of men] OFLAG VA
[Photograph of three rows of men in uniform] STALAG IVB
[Photograph of four rows of men in uniform] HEILAG IVD/Z
[Photograph of three rows of men in uniform] STALAG III D
[Photograph of three rows of men in uniform] STALAG VIII B
[Photograph of two rows of men in uniform] MARLAG U. MILAG NORD
[Photograph of two rows of men in uniform] STALAG 383
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14 The Prisoner of War FEBRUARY, 1945
EXAMINATION SUCCESSES
During 1944 the number of examination entries more than doubled that of the previous year. Over 6,000 examination scripts have now been received, and over 3,000 results were announced last year. The proportion of total passes for the year was 78.5 per cent., a figure reflecting great credit on instructors and candidates.
In a recent pass list issued by the Royal Society of Arts, there were 29 first classes out of 147 entries. Two of those who gained first classes also gained distinction in the oral test in French.
[Photograph of a group of men] The Theological Society at Oflag 79. This photograph was taken during the summer of last year.
Information has been received from the Institute of Book-keepers that one of their examination candidates, who was awarded a prize in the summer examinations, has written to them saying that the certificates he gained have been instrumental in obtaining for him a good position since his repatriation to Australia.
A Rover crew has been started in Stalag 383. Some of its members have sent home studies for Part I of the 1943-44 Scout Woodbadge Papers, and they have been forwarded to the Scout Headquarters in London.
A pass list for July to December, 1944, is in preparation and will be available soon. Application should be sent with 3d. in stamps to the Educational Books Section at the New Bodleian, Oxford .
Y.M.C.A. SPORTS MEDAL
Won by District Man of Confidence
The Y.M.C.A. sports medal, which was described in the January issue of the journal, may be awarded to any prisoner of war who has done especially good work in the interests of his fellow-men in captivity, as well as for outstanding sportsmanship. It has recently been won by a district man of confidence at Stalag IVA for carrying out his duties in “a most efficient and wholehearted manner during his term of office” on the recommendation of the chief man of confidence as a token of esteem.
His Tasks
The tasks of a district man of confidence in looking after the interests of the detachments in his area are exacting and varied. He is responsible for the distribution of Red Cross parcels, cigarettes, clothing and boots, Y.M.C.A. sports equipment and games.
He also sees that boots are repaired and clothing renewed when necessary, organises inter-detachment sports and football matches, and changes books and gramophone records to ensure that there is a steady flow of new material.
Infinite patience and understanding are required in answering the numerous questions put to him by the men; and his settlement of any little troubles which arise must be just.
[Boxed] How They Help
In addition to those mentioned below, we wish to thank the many kind readers whose help to the funds this month we cannot find room to record here individually. [/boxed]
Those who have been fortunate enough to be repatriated do not forget their companions they have left behind in the camps, and from many of them have come sums to be devoted to those who are still prisoners of war. Among them, Pte. F. Harffey, of Hastings, who was released from Switzerland, sends a contribution in appreciation of what the Red Cross was able to do for him and “to help my fellow-prisoners who are having a bad time in Germany.” Men who are still in the camp frequently ask their relatives to forward donations for them to the Red Cross, and Mrs. Burton, of Stafford, is one of the next of kin who has forwarded £5 from her husband.
At the present time money from many of the past year’s efforts is arriving. Mrs. McKinder forwards £55 from Hull, her third annual contribution, achieved by pickling onions, selling garden produce and fancy articles. “It has been hard work, but I have loved it,” Mrs. McKinder assures us, and she is already planning another year’s work. Mrs. Crowson, who lives in Lincoln, saves sixpence for every issue of “The Prisoner of War” which she receives, and among a host of regular supporters are Mrs. Huxford, of Woodbridge, and Mrs. Galloway, of Maida Vale, who send contributions every month.
Christmas sales of work find eager customers and once again we are indebted to those who have so successfully planned them to help the Red Cross. From a sale of home-made gifts and toys organised by Mrs. Francis (who had previously raised £69 by her own efforts) and three helpers at Wrexham has come £168. The 4th Whitby (County School) Guides have sent a cheque for £20, the result of a Christmas sale and entertainment which they arranged, while the Rayleigh Methodist Youth Club raised £60, also from a sale and concert, their fourth effort of this kind. A money order for £4 15s. has been sent by the pupils of Tynyrheol Council School, near Bridgend, as a special Christmas greeting and a Christmas gift of £10 came from Percymain School, Cullercoats.
Mrs. Brinkworth, of Forest Gate, has been busy stitching gloves for sale among her friends, and slippers made by Mrs. Fry have been purchased by people in Andover to the value of £10. £1 6s. has been sent by Mrs. O’Neill, of Preston, for her daughter, Pat, whose uncle is a prisoner of war, and has sold some of her precious story books to collect this money.
P.o.W.s Gifts for Children
Members of the Lothian and Border Yeomanry who are in Stalag 357 have sent home £100, asking that it should be spent to provide presents at Christmas-time for the children of their less fortunate comrades who have fallen in action.
£50 has also been received by the Welfare Fund of this regiment from men at Stalag 383, who made the same generous gesture of remembrance and loyalty to their comrades. As the money reached this country too late for Christmas, it will be used to send the children toys and savings certificates for Easter.
[Page break]
FEBRUARY, 1945 The Prisoner of War 15
Red Cross Exhibition Coach
Over 23,000 people in five Lancashire towns have now visited the Red Cross mobile Exhibition Coach, which continues its 4,000-mile railway tour of England. The Exhibition is contained in a bob-damaged dining car which has been repaired, equipped with show-cases and lent to the Red Cross and St. John Penny-a-week Fund by the L.M.S.
Red Cross activities displayed include services to prisoners of war of food parcels, comforts and training schemes; and work for the wounded shows their transports to hospital, comforts, medical and surgical stores, and some of the reconstruction done during convalescence.
The coach will be on view at the station of at least 60 towns, and this month’s programme is as follows:-
February.
1st, 2nd, Bradford (Forster Square).
3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, Leeds City (South).
8th, 9th, 10th, Darlington.
12th, 13th, 14th, Newcastle-on-Tyne (Central).
16th, 17th, Sunderland.
19th, 20th, West Hartlepool.
21st, 22nd, Middlesbrough.
23rd, 24th, 26th, York.
27th, 28th, March 1st, Hull (Paragon).
CAMP REPORTS
(Continued from page 12)
Food is still excellent and there is a good supply of Red Cross food parcels. Medical treatment is satisfactory and the general state of health is remarkably good. The supply of clothing, however, especially shoes, is proving something of a difficulty.
Recreational and educational facilities are as good as ever, although it was reported in June that the camp theatre had been closed for three months. The German authorities promised, however, to take the necessary steps to enable the internees to give performances again.
Last visited by the Protecting Power in the 2nd June, 1944, and by the International Red Cross on the 7th September.
ILAG KREUZBERG
Since the date of the last report on this camp (see issue for July, 1944, page 6) there have been no outstanding changes. There are approximately 370 internees in the camp, some of whom are volunteers working in four different working detachments.
Every internee enjoys a weekly bath. Arrangements for private cooking are satisfactory, and there is a stock of Red Cross food parcels. There was, however, a complaint that too many dried vegetables were being received.
The state of health of the internees is generally satisfactory. Recreational and exercise facilities are still excellent.
Last visited by the Protecting Power on July 24th, 1944.
KNIT THIS
Cosy Cap
[Photograph of a knitted hat]
[Instructions for knitting the pictured hat]
A Prisoner’s Poetry
SGT. R.P.L. MOGG, a journalist by profession, who was shot down over Germany and taken prisoner early in the war, vividly expresses his experiences of flying with the R.A.F. in six moving poems written during captivity.
A fellow prisoner of war, Sgt. J.W. Lambert, has contributed striking pictures to illustrate the poems which he has lettered beautifully in Gothic style.
The collection, under the title of the first poem, For This Alone, published by Basil Blackwell (8s. 6d.) is printed in facsimile just as it was received from the prisoner of war camp. It includes verses on the vigil of airmen’s wives and a flight of bombers, which reveal a sensitive imagination, and the “Requiem for Dead Airmen,” with which the book ends is remarkable for its simplicity.
An introduction by Edward Alderton reminds those who might accuse the author of being morbid that the dividing line between operational flying and death is of a very nebulous character.
For This Alone is an unusual book which demonstrates once again the patience and creativeness with which prisoners of war master their circumstances.
[Boxed] FREE TO NEXT OF KIN
This journal is sent free of charge to those registered with the Prisoners of War Dept.as next of kin. In view of the paper shortage no copies are for sale, and it is hoped that next of kin will share their copy with relatives and others interested. [/boxed]
[Page break]
16 The Prisoner of War FEBRUARY, 1945
[Underlined] Please Study This Carefully [/underlined]
NEXT-OF-KIN PARCELS
With reference to the instructions on page 26 of the Prisoner of War for December, please note that the allowance of 20 extra coupons (and extra chocolate and soap) made to compensate for 1944 issues missed owing to the suspension of despatches, can be made only up to the end of February and only to next of kin who still hold a 1944/3 label (or earlier 1944 issue) with 20 coupons.
Next of kin who qualify, and apply for, the extra coupons for use with a label already in their possession, are particularly requested not to despatch a parcel with this label before they receive the extra coupons, because these must be accounted for at the same time as the issue already held.
If a parcel is sent in without the extra coupons being accounted for at the same time, they will have to be sent back to the packing centre for clearance, before any subsequent label can be issued.
The extra allowances cannot, in any circumstances, be made with a 1944/4 or any 1945 label.
Applications should state clearly whether the next of kin holds an issue of label and coupons, and if so, its number.
IMPORTANT. – Please note that no applications for an extra allowance of coupons to be used with a 1944 label will be considered after February 28th, 1945. Applications received after that date will not be answered.
DESPATCHES FROM FINSBURY CIRCUS AND GLASGOW
In consequence of the very great number of parcels received since the beginning of December and the difficulty of obtaining extra labour, the despatches from the Packing Centres at Finsbury Circus and Glasgow are about one month in arrears.
The issue of labels and coupons is also consequently delayed.
All possible steps are being undertaken to overcome the difficulties, and next of kin are asked to help by not making enquiries about the despatch of their parcel and the issue of their next label and coupons until at least two months have elapsed since they sent their parcel.
FOUR REMINDERS
Here are four reminders from Finsbury Circus Packing Centre which, if followed, will help Red Cross workers to deal with your parcels with the least possible delay:-
1. When packing your parcel, please be careful to see that it is not overweight. If it is, some important article may have to be returned to you.
2. When ordering chocolate and soap it must be remembered that the final weight of the parcel after the addition of these articles must not be more than 10lb. Money for chocolate or soap, also invoices, coupons and acknowledgement card must be sent inside the parcel – not by separate letter post.
3. All articles intended for inclusion in a parcel should be sent together; it is exceedingly difficult to link up articles sent at different times.
4. All three copies of the invoice which accompany each parcel to the Packing Centre should be clearly written so that they can be checked quickly.
STAFF WANTED
The Prisoners of War Department, St. James’s Palace, S.W.1, is urgently in need of staff, i.e., correspondence, filing and indexing clerks; shorthand and copy typists (women only). Full time or part time (30 hours weekly).
Offers of assistance, voluntary or salaried, would be much appreciated, and should be addressed to:-
The Personnel Officer, Prisoners of War Department, B.R.C.S. and St. John, St. James’s Palace, S.W.1.
Hours of interview: 10.30 a.m. to 12 p.m. or 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., with the exception of Saturday afternoons.
Money from P.o.W.s
As many enquiries about remittances from prisoners are still being addressed to St. James’s Palace, we reprint this notice.
Arrangements have been made with the German Government which enables a prisoner of war to transfer any part of his credit balance in Germany to this country. These arrangements operate as from November 1st, 1943.
Notification of the prisoners’ wishes are received by the Government on lists transmitted through Switzerland, and relatives will understand that these lists take longer to reach this country than letters from individual prisoners informing them of the impending remittances.
Enquiries should not be addressed to the Red Cross, which is not concerned in such payments. Relatives will hear in due course from the Paymaster or Bank concerned.
[Boxed] YOUR ENQUIRIES
The Prisoner of War Department at St. James’s Palace is very busy and very short of staff.
To enable essential enquiries to be answered with as little delay as possible, will you please make your letters as SHORT and CLEAR as you can. [/boxed]
CHANGE OF ADDRESS
If you are expecting your prisoner home in the forthcoming repatriation, do not forget to notify the appropriate Service Department or Record Office and the local Red Cross P.O.W. representative of any change of address.
P.o.W. Exhibition Catalogues
A few copies of the catalogue of the Prisoners of War Exhibition held in London last year are still available (price 6d., or 7d. including postage).
Those who wish to order a catalogue as a record of their impressions of the exhibition should apply to:-
Mr. Tomlins, Red Cross and St John War Organisation, Publicity Department, 24, Carlton House Terrace, London, S.W.1.
COUNTY REPRESENTATIVES
Please note the following change of address:-
ESSEX: Mrs. Hanbury, The Central Library, Duke Street, Chelmsford.
HAMPSHIRE: The p.o.w. representative is:
Mrs. T. Dodd, Old Library House, Dean Park Road, Bournemouth.
Printed in Great Britain for the Publishers, THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, 14, Grosvenor Crescent, London, S.W., by THE CORNWALL PRESS LTD., Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London, S.E.1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Prisoner of War February 1945
Description
An account of the resource
The official journal of the Prisoners of War Department of the Red Cross and St John War Organisation. This edition covers the Food Situation about food parcel delivery, Editors comments, Sport reports from the Camps, suggestions for parcel contents, POW letters, Personalities at Stalag XXB, Birthday celebrations in the camps, Linking Relief for the World, Official Reports from the Camps, Group photographs from the Camps, Exam results, charitable contributions, news about the Red Cross exhibition coach, a knitting pattern for a woollen cap, a poetry book and next-of-kin parcels,
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-02
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
16 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-024
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
France--Marseille
Germany
Germany--Bleicherode
Germany--Eichstätt
Germany--Görlitz (Görlitz)
Poland--Kołobrzeg
Poland--Malbork
Great Britain
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Channel Islands
England--Bradford
England--Cullercoats
England--Hull
England--Leeds
England--Lincoln
England--Liverpool
England--London
England--London
England--Stockport
England--Woodbridge (Suffolk)
Wales--Bridgend
Wales--Wrexham
Netherlands
Netherlands--Arnhem
Sweden
Sweden--Stockholm
Switzerland
Switzerland--Geneva
Switzerland--St. Gallen
Lithuania
Poland
Lithuania--Šilutė
Poland--Tychowo
Poland--Żagań
Germany--Bad Fallingbostel
Poland--Kędzierzyn-Koźle
England--Northumberland
England--Suffolk
England--Yorkshire
England--Lancashire
England--Lincolnshire
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation. Prisoners of war department
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
Anne-Marie Watson
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-02
aircrew
animal
arts and crafts
entertainment
prisoner of war
Red Cross
sanitation
sport
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 6
Stalag Luft 7
-
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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
Horton, Arthur
Arthur Leslie Horton
A L Horton
Description
An account of the resource
21 items. The collection includes an oral history interview with Gordon Atkinson, letters from Canada and a Canadian soldier, and photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Gordon Atkinson and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-08-02
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
Horton, AL
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
C.A.A.F.
[postmark]
Mrs. D. Atkinson.
Flixborough.
Scunthorpe
Lincs
England.
[censor stamp]
[page break]
H.12167 Gnr. Horton. H.R.
[page break]
Feb. 26th 1945.
Germany.
Dear Effie
Received your most welcome letter two days ago. I hope you received my letter which I wrote telling you I had received the parcel O.K. Im [sic] sorry I can’t write you more often but it is really hard to find the opportunity at times when we are on the move the way we are now. As you will be able to tell by the news of the Canadians we are closer to Berlin than any of the rest though, and we are going to be first there
[page break]
II
too, and will that be a happy day. It sure looks like the Russians will beat us there though, I don’t care who gets there if it helps to shorten this war, the Americans have started again so I guess we are keeping them hopping on all fronts, Well Effie I’ll have to ring off now and drop a line to dad. He’ll be wondering how I am. So I’ll say cheerio for now. Your Loving Cousin Hugh.
Received papers O.K. Thanks.
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 Effie from Hugh
Description
An account of the resource
An envelope addressed to Mrs D Atkinson, Flixborough from Gunner Horton, CAAF. Inside is a letter to Effie from Hugh. He thanks her for her letter and parcel. He is in Germany and closer to Berlin than 'any of the rest'. He expects that the Russians will reach Berlin first. He signs off as 'cousin Hugh'.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hugh Horton
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-02-26
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One handwritten envelope and two page letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EHortonHRAtkinsonD450226-0001,
EHortonHRAtkinsonD450226-0002,
EHortonHRAtkinsonD450226-0003,
EHortonHRAtkinsonD450226-0004
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
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
Tricia Marshall
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-02
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
-
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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
Horton, Arthur
Arthur Leslie Horton
A L Horton
Description
An account of the resource
21 items. The collection includes an oral history interview with Gordon Atkinson, letters from Canada and a Canadian soldier, and photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Gordon Atkinson and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-08-02
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
Horton, AL
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
C.A.A.F.
[Canadian Legion War Services crest]
1 CANADIAN
A.B.P.O.
18 FEB 45
Mrs. D Atkinson.
Flixborough
Scunthorpe
Lincs.
Eng.
[censor stamp]
[page break]
H12167 Gnr Horton H.R.
[page break]
Feb. 14th 1945.
CANADIAN LEGION WAR SERVICES Inc.
CANADIAN KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS WAR SERVICES
ON ACTIVE SERVICE
CANADIAN Y.M.C.A. OVERSEAS
THE SALVATION ARMY CANADIAN WAR SERVICES
Dear Effie
Awfully sorry I haven’t written and thanked you for the parcel I received. Everything was enclosed that you mentioned, I think you will find the reason most parcels are opened is because they pass through British Army postal Corp while the ones you send me come through Canadian and they certainly aren’t so fussy, you will notice we have been on the
[page break]
II
move in our sector again. The weather is very mean to us though certainly not giving us many breaks. Mail from Canada is very scarse [sic] but I received 900 cigs in the last three days which is very nice. Tell your Ma I had a letter from her and will answer as soon as I can find some spare time. I should be seeing you all sometime in April if all goes well. Untill [sic] then. Cheerio and I’ll write when I can get time.
Love to all Hugh.
XXXXXX
The coffee was grand.
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 Effie from Hugh
Description
An account of the resource
The envelope is addressed to Mrs D Atkinson, Flipborough [sic], Scunthorpe, Lincs, England. Envelope printed with 'Canadian Legion War Services' and CAAF. Reverse of envelope '4.12167 Gnr Horton, H R'. Inside is a letter to Effie from Hugh. He thanks her for a parcel that she sent him, that post from Canada is very scarce and that they are on the move again.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hugh Horton
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-02-14
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One handwritten envelope and two page letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EHortonHRAtkinsonD450214-0001,
EHortonHRAtkinsonD450214-0002,
EHortonHRAtkinsonD450214-0003,
EHortonHRAtkinsonD450214-0004
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
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.
1945-02
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
-
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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
Hopgood, Philip David. Album
Description
An account of the resource
Photographs of Philip Hopgood's family and friends and then his training in Canada and Great Britain.
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
Hopgood, PD
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
Northampton Christmas 1944
Description
An account of the resource
Three photographs from an album.
Photo 1 is of six people, captioned 'Self, Joan, David, Mum, Aunt May & Dad'.
Photo 2 is of Philip Hopgood with his friend sitting on a metal fence, captioned 'Joan & Self'.
Photo 3 is a snow scene, captioned 'St Athan February 1945 The Village'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PHopgoodPD16010049
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Northampton
Wales--South Glamorgan
England--Northamptonshire
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
1944-12
1945-02
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.
1944-12
1945-02
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1297/20292/MBoltonJD67631-170906-01.2.pdf
720ef5ca80dd062d27d51d412648dc93
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
Bolton, J D
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. The collection concerns John Derek Bolton (915543, 67631) and contains two Log books and squadron maintenance log containing a memoir. He flew 80 operations as a pilot with 455, 571, 608 and 162 squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by David Bolton and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-09-06
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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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Bolton, JD
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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[Front of book]
[Page break]
P. = photo
[Underlined] 162 SQUADRON. [/underlined]
[Underlined] CREW STATE. 23RD MARCH,1945. [/underlined]
[Underlined] PILOTS. [/underlined]
W/Cdr. Bolton. DFC.
[Underlined] “A” FLIGHT. [/underlined]
P S/Ldr. Eddy, DSO.
F/Lt. Lucas.
P F/Lt. Bland.
P F/O. Connor, DFC.
P F/Lt. Whitworth.
F/O. Knights, DFM.
P F/Lt. Marson.
P F/Lt. Haden, AFC.
P W/O. Hanley.
P/O. Jones. E.G.
P F/Lt. Finlay, DFM.
F/O. Philip.
P F/Lt. Skillman.
F/O Rawsthorn. DFC.
[Underlined] NAVIGATORS. [/underlined]
P S/Ldr. Waterkeyn.
P F/Lt. Fawcett.
F/O Barnicoat, DFC.
P F/O Layton.
P P/O Chappell.
P F/O Tulloch.
F/S Robjohns.
F/Lt. Forrest, DFC.
P F/S Nichols.
P F/O. Clark. J.
F/Lt Snelling, DFC.
F/S Walker.
P F/O Allsop. DFM.
F/O Kennedy.
P F/O Tempest.
F/O Grant.
[Underlined] ‘B’ FLIGHT [/underlined]
P S/Ldr. MacDermott. DFM.
F/Lt Marshall.
P/O Jones. B.D.
P/O McGown. DFC.
F/O Lowe, DFM.
P/O Inkpen.
P P/O Richards.
P F/O Watt.
P F/Lt Hopkin.
P F/O Spurr.
P F/Lt. Waller.
P F/Lt Abraham.
F/O. Burgess, DFC.
F/O Smith, DFM.
F/Lt Goodman. AFC.
F/Lt McClelland. DFC.
P F/O Morrow.
P F/O Crabb, DFM.
P F/O Hagues, DFC.
P F/O Fisher.
Sgt. Heggie.
F/O Lawrence.
P F/O McGregor.
P P/O Clark. PF.
P F/S Hanrahan.
P F/O Kilpatrick.
P Sgt Grigg.
P F/S Gannon.
F/O Wallis, DFC.
F/O Booth.
F/O Kerr-Jarrett
F/O Sergeant.
P F/Lt. Alexander.
[Page break]
C.O.
[Underlined] No: 162 Squadron. [/underlined]
[Underlined] Date. 8th. April. 1945. [/underlined]
W/Cdr Bolton. DFC. J.D.
[Underlined] ‘A’ Flight. [/underlined]
S/Ldr Eddy. DSO.,DFC W.E.M.
F/Lt Lucas. W.E.
F/Lt Bland. H.V.
F/O Connor. DFC. B.A. {Aus).
F/L Whitworth. J.L.
F/O Knights. DFM. B.M.
F/O Marson. J.
F/Lt Haden. DFC., AFC. F.A.
W/O Henley. W.J.A. (NZ).
F/O Jones. E.G.
F/L Stewart. C.O.
F/L Finlay. DFM. T.
F/O Philip. R.T.
F/L Skillman. D.W.
F/L Rawsthorn. DFC. R.J. (Aus).
[Underlined] NAVIGATORS [/underlined]
S/Ldr. Waterkyn. DFC. S.R.
F/Lt. Fawcett. DFC I.J. (Aus).
F/O. Barnicoat. DFC. I.H.
F/O. Layton. F.
P/O. Chappell. B.W. (Aus).
F/O. Tulloch. W.A. (CAN).
F/Sgt. Robjohns. J.K. (Aus).
F/Lt. Forrest. DFC. H.L. (Can).
F/Sgt. Nichols. D.T. (Aus)
P/O. Clark. J.
F/Lt. Snelling. DFC. R.G.
P/O. Walker. H.G. (Aus).
F/O. Allsop. DFM. G.
F/O. Kennedy. A.E.
F/O. Tempest. K.
F/O. Grant. D.E. (N.Z.)
[Underlined] ‘B’ Flight. [/underlined]
S/Ldr MacDermott. DFM. P.A.C.
F/L Marshall. A.J.
P/O McGown. DFC. W.L.
F/O Lowe. DFM. M.C.
W/O Inkpen. H.
F/O Richards. J.H.B.
P/O Watt. J. (N.Z.)
F/Lt Hopkin. B.H.B.
F/O Spurr. C.W. (Aus).
F/L Waller. R.R. (Aus).
F/L Abraham. G.C.
F/O Burgess. DFC. E.F.
F/O Smith. DFM. P.A.F.
F/O Goodman. AFC. A.P.
F/L McClelland. DFC. D.
F/O. Morrow. DFC. T.M.V.
F/O. Crabb. DFM. J.L.
F/O. Fisher. A.H. (Can).
Sgt. Heggie. A.
F/O. Lawrence. J. (Can).
F/O. McGregor. D.G. (Can).
P/O. Clark. R.F. (Can).
F/Sgt. Hanrahan. I.T. (Aus).
F/O. Kilpatrick. J.P.P.
Sgt. Grigg. W.K.
F/Lt. Gannon. B.H.
F/O. Wallis. DFC. A.G.
F/O. Booth. C.H.
F/O. Kerr-Jarrett. DFC. I.
F/O. Sergeant. R.A.
[Underlined] Tour Expired. [/underlined]
F/O Jones. B.D. (N.Z.)
F/O. Hagues. DFC. A.
F/Lt. Alexander. DFM. J.
[Underlined] Detached. [/underlined]
Swain. D.H.
F/O. Bayon. M.H.
[Page break]
[Underlined] RECOLLECTIONS OF 455 (AUSTRALIAN) SQUADRON [/underlined]
[Underlined] AUGUST 1941 – APRIL 1942 [/underlined]
After nearly 35 years it is difficult to remember much detail, and incidents that stick in one’s mind tend to be personal ‘line-shoots’. The following notes are mainly such recollections and throw regrettably little light on individuals in the Squadron, - either aircrew or ground crew.
From a pilot’s viewpoint the Hampden, as a medium bomber, handled vastly better than the Wellington whose controls seemed to be connected by elastic, or the Whitley which felt a very heavy bomber indeed. Its only vice was something which few people experienced – a kind of spiral descent with the rudders locked hard over, resembling a spin except that it took place in a fairly flat attitude and above stalling speed. It was apparently induced by heavy-footed application of the rudder with little or no bank, and recovery was said to be difficult once the rudders had locked themselves. On one occasion W/Cdr. Sheen at Upper Heyford set out to investigate the phenomenon; I cannot remember what success he had, but he certainly survived the experiment.
In retrospect and the light of subsequent statistics there seems no doubt that Bomber Command‘s effort up to the middle of 1942 was largely a waste of time, money, aircraft and men. Losses were very heavy and results almost negligible. Most navigators, like the rest of us, had little training or experience and there were virtually no aids. Some had a smattering of astro but were seldom able to use it, and D.F. loop aerials were usually out of effective range of suitable stations or subject to ingenious enemy interference. In conditions of cloud and darkness visual pinpoints were infrequent, and most navigation was unaided D.R. – a process not far removed from wishful thinking. There were, of course, spectacular and successful attacks by bomber forces and by individual aircraft, but these were exceptions to the normal routine. One sortie in which we played an inconspicuous but reasonably successful part was to Lubeck (March 28th./29th. 1942); [inserted] Satur 27 [/inserted] conditions were unusual in providing clear moonlight and a coastal target which was easy to identify and almost undefended, so that careful and accurate bombing runs were possible without the distractions of flak and searchlights. When no ground detail was visible one was apt to suppose that the target lay under the heaviest defences, - an assumption sometimes invalidated by elaborate decoys with flak, searchlights, dummy fires and bomb-bursts. Early in 1942 the introduction on a small scale of radar for navigation and target-marking began to change the picture. The first marking efforts may or may not have been accurate but I am afraid our reaction was sceptical – “They think the target is over there; still, they’re not doing too badly tonight”. When 8 Group really got going, however, the situation improved dramatically.
Individual names and vaguely remembered faces:-
W/Cdr. Gyll Murray, the Squadron’s first C.O.; his successor W/Cdr. Lindeman who took things very seriously; Derek French and “Runt” Reynolds the original flight-commanders; later flight-commanders Jimmy Clift and Dicky Banker (whose pipe and old 3-litre Bentley radiated solid invincibility); P/Os Metcalf and Tony Hibell who, with their crews and ourselves formed the initial English contingent; my first crew Sgt. Redwood (a quietly efficient navigator), Sgt. Baynes (a rather lugubrious but always willing wireless-operator) and P/O ‘Twon’ Symonds (who shared my discovery that the inter-comm. was an excellent medium for imitating Robertson Hare, the phrase “Oh Navigator” coming over particularly well); P/Os Mick Martin (of later fame) and Jimmy
[Page break]
Catanach (an irrepressible character); Flt. Lt. Fleming (a gunnery specialist who seemed old enough to be our uncle); P/O Gordon Lind (a cheerful and determined navigator who took Sgt. Redwood’s place). With some interchange through illness or injury, and the loss-rate then prevalent, crew members tended to come and go but P/O Lind put up with me for 25 trips, Sgt. Baynes for 22 and P/O Symonds for 11 (until he was lost with another crew). One can only admire the navigators, wireless-operators and gunners who blithely entrusted themselves to pilots with as little experience as most of us had.
Line-Shoots, (not, I hope, too coloured by the passage of time) :-
[Underlined] Fuel Shortage [/underlined]
Returning from an expedition to Hamburg in our early days (September 15th./16th. 1941) [inserted] Sortie ③ [/inserted] we aimed to re-cross the coast north of the Wash. In due course the coast appeared with a sizable inlet on the port side, and we continued westwards with no anxieties except the readings of the fuel gauges. Searchlights seemed to be playing a new game which we watched with curiosity; several would point vertically upwards and swing down in unison to concentrate on an area ahead of us, repeating this behaviour again and again. At last the penny dropped when we saw what they were illuminating; our inlet was not the Wash but the Humber, and directly ahead was the Hull balloon barrage. A hasty alteration of course saved this situation, but the fuel readings were now very low indeed. None too soon a Drem system appeared, and without waiting for R/T contact we dropped the wheels in a tight circuit, encouraged by a green Verey light from the flare-path. Turning in for the final approach one engine began cutting in and out intermittently and, at the end of the landing run after a rather snake-like arrival, something roared overhead and disappeared.
The place turned out to be Hibalsdstow, a night-fighter station, and after reporting our night’s doings and asking for a message of thanks to be conveyed to the searchlight crews we repaired to the Mess. Over bacon and eggs someone came up and asked whether Twon and I were in the Hampden that had just landed. He proved to be a Beaufighter pilot who had followed us for some time under the hopeful impression that we were hostile, but had fortunately identified us visually. We, to our shame, had not seen him but Hibaldstow was his base and the green light had been intended for him. Dipping the tanks the following morning revealed almost no detectable fuel.
[Underlined] Unthinking Reaction [/underlined]
Apart from the corkscrew at a later date pilots were not taught evasive action, the official view apparently being that such behaviour was unworthy and that the efforts of ground defences should be ignored. When massive bomber streams developed as a defence against radar the collision risk made it essential to fly straight and level; in 1941/2 however we were operating in comparatively small numbers, and early in this period each crew planned its own route to the target. In such conditions it seemed to me foolhardy to sit still while being shot at, although the theory existed that one was as likely to weave into a shell-burst as out of one. Whether or not it was effective the feeling of doing something was of psychological benefit, and I began to ponder the best form of action to take. Radar-controlled flak and searchlights were just coming into use, though some enemy defences still relied on the old method of sound location. (This was well illustrated by the searchlight belt which stretched, as far as I remember, roughly from Hamburg to the Ruhr. It was often possible to cross this belt undetected provided one did so in a glide; as soon as the throttles were opened the searchlights sprang up behind). Whatever system was in use it was evident that the chap on the ground must assess the aircraft’s height, track and groundspeed to have a hope of hitting it, and had shot his bolt once he had pressed the trigger. Thereafter, the aircraft had the time of flight of the shell, which might be 15 seconds or so depending on height) in which to get out of the way. Until the advent of “Boozer” much later in the War there
[Page break]
Was no sense of telling whether anyone was aiming at you, but gun-flashes were easy to distinguish and those some distance away could be ignored. The requirement therefore seemed to be to spot gun-flashes which might have personal intent and, unless on final approach to the target, to vary immediately one’s height, track or groundspeed. (At one stage the Germans were reputed to be cheating in this game by using flashless powder). If all three factors could be changed simultaneously the effect would obviously be greater, and the simplest way of doing this seemed to be a steep diving turn (as beloved by film-producers of the period), subsequently climbing back on course. The penalty was a small change in E.T.A. but no other appreciable effect on navigation, and time on target was not then critical. For want of anything better the same manoeuvre could be used when caught by searchlights, and I therefore set out to react instinctively with a steep diving turn whenever hostile activity was directed at us from the ground. At first the navigator grumbled, since he often had to grub around the floor for his pencils and instruments, but clusters of shell-bursts on our previous track made his concede that there might be something in it.
Disaster, however, nearly resulted from a ‘gardening’ expedition to the channel between the Friesian Islands and the mainland. The mine-laying process involved searching, at 1000 feet or so, until a prominent feature of the coast could be identified immediately below, and making a short timed run from this landmark to the planting point for the ‘vegetable’ which had to be released at controlled speed and a height of about 500 feet, in order that it should not drift too far on its parachute or break up by hitting the water too fast. On this occasion it was dark below cloud-base at about 1200 feet, and while looking for our pin-point we were suddenly coned by several searchlights. I reacted instinctively, and a few seconds elapsed before something occurred to me; we normally lost about 1500 feet in this manoeuvre, but had only started at 1000. The Hampden staggered out of the dive, the searchlights had lost us, being unable to depress sufficiently, but in their light reflected from the cloud we saw wave tops apparently flashing past the window. There was, perhaps, a second to spare.
[Underlined] A Heaven-Sent Opportunity [/underlined]
Some genius, presumably at Bomber Command, proposed that 5 Group Hampdens should help the rapidly vanishing Blenheims in low-level daylight operations, - an employment with a distinctly limited future. The role was filled very successfully by 2 Group Mosquitoes a year or two later, but the Blenheim and Hampden were far too slow and vulnerable for the job.
By way of a start we were given an exercise one afternoon (December 17th. 1941), which involved coming in over the coast and attempting to reach the ‘target’ represented by a level-crossing in East Anglia, without being intercepted by a squadron of Spitfires. The golden phrase at briefing was that we should ‘make use of natural cover’. East Anglia not being rich in mountains and valleys the cover, such as it was, must surely consist of vegetation. The opportunity was too good to be missed, since low flying without good cause was a serious crime.
At the first attempt we crossed the coast off track, and I remember a lighthouse-keeper looking down on us from his balcony. This seemed to be wrong, and we retreated out to sea for another approach. With the right landmarks all seemed to be going well and I settled down to the process of crossing a field, lifting to clear the far boundary and dipping down into the next field. We found that the Hampden’s tin belly made a most satisfying ‘zip’ as it touched the twiggy bits at the top of a tree, and I was enjoying things immensely; the rest of the crew, to their credit, made no comment though Sgt. Baynes from time to time reported sadly “Hit a tree”. I noticed a milkman, apparently startled by our approach, sprinting down someone’s garden path to catch his horse before it bolted.
Near our intended track was a wireless station with fairly tall masts,
[Page break]
and I was anxious not to come on this unexpectedly. Aiming to clear the trees ahead I glanced aside to look for the masts, but lurking behind the line of trees was another much taller one which seemed to fill the entire view when I again looked where we were going. It was too late to do much, and we passed through the upper part of the tree with a splintering crashing sound.
There seemed to be no serious damage and each of the crew confirmed that he was unhurt, except the navigator. This was worrying, as Gordon Lind had been down in the nose below the pilot’s compartment and was not replying on the inter-comm. A slot in the floor by the pilot’s feet communicated with the bomb-aiming compartment and through this slot, while Sgt. Baynes was going forward to investigate, came two bloodstained fingers in rather a rude gesture. Gordon had seen the tree coming and instinctively recoiled, jerking his inter-comm. plug out of its socket as he did so. The perspex nose was smashed, subjecting him to a good deal of wind and noise, but he was fortunately unhurt apart from a cut on the face. We decided at this stage that it was best to go home but a problem arose on arrival, as the throttle would not close fully and the aircraft persistently drifted off the runway. We finally landed at the third attempt, and on reaching dispersal located the trouble. A control-rod inside the tailplane leading-edge had been severed so that one of the twin rudders was no longer connected, and pieces of wood lodged in the engine cowling were jamming part of the throttle linkage.
Feeling rather foolish, and with visions of charges of hazarding one of His Majesty’s aircraft, I was summoned before the C.O. who said simply the briefing should not be taken so literally. Perhaps my impression that he lacked a sense of humour was unjustified. I still have, or had until recently, a twig and fragment of perspex to illustrate this incident, but the low-level daylight Hampden proposal died a natural death.
J.D. Bolton. June, 1976.
[Page break]
[Underlined] No 162 Squadron. [underlined]
[Underlined] CREW STATE. 22nd January 1945. [/underlined]
[Underlined] PILOTS. [/underlined]
W/Cdr Bolton, DFC.
[Underlined] ‘A’ FLIGHT. [/underlined
+ S/Ldr Eddy. DSO.
F/Lt Lucas.
F/Lt Bland.
F/Lt Hutchinson.
F/O Connor. D.F.C.
F/L Whitworth.
F/O Knights. D.F.M.
+ F/O Marson
F/Lt Haden. AFC.
W/O Henley
F/O E.G. Jones.
F/L Stewart.
[Underlined] NAVIGATORS. [/underlined]
S/Ldr Stanbridge.
F/L Alexander D.F.M.
F/O Barnicoat. D.F.C.
F/L Layton. D.F.C.
P/O Bird. D.F.C.
F/S Chappell.
F/O Tulloch.
F/S Robjohns.
F/L Forrest.
F/S Nicholls.
Sgt. Calrk.
F/L Snelling.
F/S Walker.
[Underlined] ‘B’ FLIGHT. [/underlined]
S/Ldr McDermott. DFM.
F/Lt Owen.
+ F/L Marshall.
F/O B.D. Jones.
F/O McGown. DFC.
F/O Lowe. D.F.M.
P/O Way.
W/O Inkpen.
+ F/O Richards.
P/O Watt.
F/Lt Hopkin.
+ F/O Spurr.
F/O Morrow.
F/O Crumplin. D.F.M.
F/O Crabb. DFM.
F/O Hagues.
F/O Fisher.
Sgt Heggie.
Sgt Fossitt.
F/O Lawrence.
F/O McGregor.
F/S Clark.
F/S Hanrahan.
F/O Kilpatrick.
+ Denotes crews on 7 days leave.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 162 SQUADRON [/underlined]
[Underlined] LIGHT NIGHT STRIKING FORCE [/underlined]
MOSQUITO MK. XXV, XX.
BOURN
DECEMBER 18th 1944
[Underlined] BATTLE ORDERS [/underlined]
[Signature]
[Page break]
1 [Underlined] 19.12.44 [/underlined]
3 aircraft
A S/Ldr Eddy
B F/Lt Owen
G W/O Way
Reserve H
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Nav. S/Ldr Stanbridge
Brief Nav. 1400
Brief Main 1445
Coffee & sandwiches 1500
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
[Underlined] 20.12.44 [/underlined] 2
6 aircraft
A S/Ldr Eddy
B F/O Jones
C F/Lt Bland
F W/O Henley
G W/O Way
H F/Lt Owen
Reserve E
O.C. W/Cdr Bolten
Duty Navs. S/Ldt Stanbridge
F/O Tulloch
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
3 [Underlined] 21.12.44 [/underlined]
6 aircraft (3 early Windowers COLOGNE and 3 BONN)
A S/Ldr Eddy
B W/O Henley
C F/Lt Lucas
F F/O Connor
G F/Lt Bland
E F/O Jones
Reserve H
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Tulloch
Meal 1315
Brief Nav. 1400
Brief Main 1500
A very good show all round. Visibility 800 yards for take-off and 1500 yards for return. All aircraft windowed and bombed successfully. Take-off somewhat straggling but should improve. Bombing-up completed only just in time owing to lack of armourers.
F (F/O Connor) lost top hatch on first attempt to take off, but was fitted with another, got off 10 minutes late and reached target with other aircraft. All slightly late due to wind change.
A (S/Ldr Eddy) landed at FORD.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 22.12.44 [/underlined] 4
6 aircraft (3 early windowers and 3 )
E F/O Jones }
F F/Lt Marshall } E.W. 1844
G F/Lt Bland }
B W/O Henley }
C F/O Whitworth }
D P/O McGown }
Reserve H
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Lawrence
F/O Barnicoat
[Deleted] Brief Nav. 1400
Brief Main 1500
Coffee & sandwiches 1515 [/deleted]
Call 2300
Meal 2330
Brief Nav. 0015
Brief Main 0100
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
7 [Underlined] 25.12.44 [/underlined]
[Drawing of a sprig of holly]
[Page break]
SECRET – NOT/WT
[Station Stamp]
[Circled] 14 [/circled]
EMERGENCY
BOU T. BOURNE
GSD T. GRANSDEN
DOW T. DOWNHAM
LTS T. L/STAUGHTON
UPW T. UPWOOD
WTN T. WYTON
WBS T. WARBOYS
V GPH GPH 66/25 ‘O’ ‘O’
FROM PATHFINDERS 1130A
TO ALL P.F.F. STATIONS
SECRET COY BT
C. [Underlined] XMAS PUD AT 1930 [/underlined] (DURATION T.F.N)
22/105 + 25/109 + 14/139 + 15/128 + 15/142 + 14/571 + 140
+ 14/608 + 14/692 + 8/162 + 16/7 + 16/35 + 16/156
+16/405 + 16/582 + 16/635 + 6/1409 + ANY ODDS AND SODS
OF 1655
D. MXEXXX
[Underlined] METHOD [/underlined] WILL BE UNCONTROLLED MUSICAL CHAIRS.
(1) [Underlined] BLIND (DRUNK) MARKERS [/underlined] WILL FURTIVELY MARK THE A/P WITH LIGHT AND DARK BROWN T.I’S FROM TIME TO TIME.
(2) [Underlined] MASTER AND MISTRESS [/underlined] WILL ATTEMPT TO CONTROL THE PARTY (AND THEM SELVES) BUT IF CONDITIONS MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE, THEY WILL RETIRE FROM THE FESTIVITIES.
(3) [Underlined] LONGSTOP. [/underlined] (THE DRUNKEN ? – )
WILL SEE EVERYONE ELSE OFF AND FINALLY STAGGER INTO THE GLOOM SINGING LOUDLY AND UNMUSICALLY.
(4) [Underlined] BACKERS UP [/underlined] WILL DROP IN AT THEIR OWN DISCRETION.
(5) [Underlined] SUPPORTERS [/underlined] WHO [underlined] MUST [/underlined] BE ON TIME, BUT WILL NOT KEEP SOBER, WILL DROP EVERYTHING AND RUN AT THE FIRST SIGN OF ATTACK.
(6) THERE WILL BE NO EARLY RETURN OR CANCELLATION.
ALL CREWS WILL TURN TO PORT AFTER ATTACKING THE TARGETS
(M) [Underlined] BOMBLOADS [/underlined]
2 X 12 FIRKINS + 6 NOGGINS + 1 LONG DELAY (6 TO 36 HOURS)
ALL T.I’S FUSED VERY LOW.
(N1) [Underlined] ROOT [/underlined] BASE – BAR (A/P = PIG’S EAR) – BASE.
(N2) [Underlined] GEE WHIZ [/underlined] (LAVATORY CHAINS NORMAL)
[Underlined] JAY [/underlined] + JOHNNY WALKER
(N3) THE VILLAGE INN WILL BE OPEN.
BT 1130A
OO
TOD 1155A/K.WILCOCK
(COLD SOBER)
OPS
Stn Cdr
105 CO
162 CO √
AS FOR K WITH R
BOU K WITH R
R1200A FER AH
[Page break]
[Underlined] 26.12.44 [/underlined] 8
6 aircraft ( )
E F/O Whitworth }
G W/O Henley } From GRAVELEY
F F/Lt Hutchinson }
A F/O Marson }
B F/O Lowe } From BASE
C F/O Knights }
Reserve H
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr Eddy (Graveley)
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Hagues
F/Lt Alexander (Graveley)
Meal 1300
Brief Nav. 1345
Brief Main 1430
Transport for Graveley 1200
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
9 [Underlined] 27.12.44 [/underlined]
[Deleted] 7 [/deleted] 4 aircraft (E.W. OPLADEN)
E F/O Whitworth }
G W/O Henley } From GRAVELEY
F F/Lt Hutchinson }
A F/O Marson }
B F/O Lowe } From BASE
C F/O Knights }
H F/S Marshall }
No reserve
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr Eddy (Graveley)
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Sgt Chappell
F/Lt Alexander (Graveley)
Meal [deleted] 1315 2015 [/deleted] 0115 Call 00.45
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1400 2100 [/deleted] 0200
Brief Main [deleted] 1445 2145 [/deleted] 0245
Transport for GRAVELEY 1245
Target changed 3 times and postponed twice. Graveley aircraft finally cancelled owing to ice.
Ground-crew chiefly responsible to very poor take-off. All aircraft very late – one 19 minutes.
H (F/Lt Marshall) and C (F/O Knights) did very well to make up time and arrive punctually on target . Other 2 aircraft late.
A (F/O Marson) had oxygen trouble which may have accounted for poor navigation.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 28.12.44 [/underlined] 10
6 aircraft (FRANKFURT)
E S/Ldr McDermott
A P/O McGown
D F/Lt Lucas
F F/O Connor
G W/O Inkpen
H F/O Jones
No reserve
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Fisher
P/O Bird
Meal 1315
Brief Nav. 1400
Brief Main 1500
G (W/O Inkpen) cancelled. Pitot head u/s and only spare head found also u/s.
A much better take-off and quite a good attack.
E (S/Ldr McDermott) had U.H.F. and generator failure on take-off but bombed target successfully, visually identifying built-up area.
[Page break]
11 [Underlined] 29.12.44 [/underlined]
6 aircraft ( )
A F/Lt Marshall
H F/Lt Owen
B F/O Lowe
F F/Lt Hutchinson
D F/O Knights
E F/O Marson
No reserve
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Nav. S/Ldr Stanbridge
Meal 1315
Brief Nav. 1400
Brief Main 1500
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
[Underlined] 30.12.44 [underlined] 12
10 aircraft (8 HANOVER and 2 spoof DUISBERG)
A S/Ldr Eddy }
H F/Lt Owen } [deleted] 1835 [/deleted] 2050
G F/Lt Marshall }
E F/O Marson }
F F/Lt Hutchinson }
T W/O Inkpen }
B F/O Lowe } 1830
C W/O Way }
U [deleted] R [/deleted] P/O McGwon }
D F/O Knights }
Reserves [deleted U, [/deleted] V
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs, S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Sgt Chappell
[Underlined] E C [/underlined]
Meal 1315
Brief Nav. 1400 1630
Brief Main 1445 1715
A very good effort on the part of aircrews, but ground crews still disorganised. Armourers late with bombing-up, and several aircraft not filled with oxygen. All aircraft took off exactly on time except T which had no oxygen. Nearly all were on target on time. Both attacks quite successful.
D (F/O Knights) had oxygen trouble and engine failure after leaving target. Returned on one engine and landed at WOODBRIDGE.
G (F/Lt Marshall) swung off flare-path on landing and ended up on belly – apparently undercarriage failure. Crew unhurt.
[Page break]
13 [Underlined] 31.12.44 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (2 E.W. OSTERFELD and 10 BERLIN)
C F/Lt Marshall }
X W/O Way } E.W. 1845
V S/Ldr McDermott }
A F/Lt Lucas }
U F/Lt Owen }
F F/Lt Connor }
Y F/O Jones } 1855
H F/Lt Hutchinson } or 1830
T W/O Inkpen }
E F/O Marson }
R P/O McGown }
B F/O Lowe }
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
Reserves Z,S.
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Lt Alexander
Meal 1315
Brief Nav. 1400
Brief Main 1445
C, Y, A, and B cancelled – u/s.
A chaotic start, due to aircraft not being ready; some had not even been refuelled. – N.C.O. i/c on a charge. Several which did get off were late, but crews did well to make up time and both attacks were quite successful.
F (F/O Connor) had stbd. engine fail and catch fire at enemy coast. Port engine would not run smoothly above +3lb boost. Bombed near TERSCHELLING and returned to base on port engine at +3lb. boost, WOODBRIDGE being covered with low cloud. Landing excellent in spite of drift.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 1.1.45 [/underlined] 14
10 aircraft (2 E.W. DORTMUND and 8 HANAU)
E F/O Connor }
V F/Lt Marshall } E.W. 1915
A S/Ldr Eddy }
B F/Lt Lucas }
H F/O Knights }
Y F/O Jones }
X F/O Lowe } 1855
R P/O McGown }
U [deleted] Z [/deleted] W/O Way }
T W/O Inkpen }
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
Reserves G, [deleted] U.
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Lt Forrest
P/O Bird
Brief Nav. 1400
Brief Main 1445
Coffee & sandwiches 1500
A much better take-off, though port engine of Z would not start, apparently due to c/o over-doping as pilot took reserve aircraft, and engine started perfectly immediately afterwards. – Clueless ground crew and pilot. Both attacks successful. Only one Oboe T.I. dropped on HANAU, but all crews saw and bombed it.
H (F/O Knights) early return. Rough running, wavering revs, and loss of power on one engine. Landed WOODBRIDGE.
[Page break]
15 [Underlined] 2.1.45 [/underlined]
10 aircraft (3 E.W. NUREMBURG and 7 BERLIN)
Y F/O Jones }
V F/Lt Owen } E.W. 1930
B F/Lt Lucas }
A S/Ldr Eddy }
S F/Lt Marshall }
C F/Lt Hutchinson }
X F/O Lowe } 1900
G F/O Marson }
R F/O Connor }
Z F/O Knights }
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
Reserves T, U.
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Morris
F/O Lawrence
Brief Nav. 1345
Brief Main 1430
Coffee & sandwiches 1445
Take-off and landing times good – 6 aircraft down in 9 minutes. Both attacks very successful and all aircraft on BERLIN within 2 minutes.
Z (F/O Knights) landed at MANSTON with engine, generator and hydraulic trouble.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 3.1.45 [/underlined] 16
9 aircraft (6 and 3 )
Y F/O Jones } }
B F/Lt Lucas } }
X F/O Lowe } }
V S/Ldr McDermott } }
A F/Lt Hutchinson } } 2200
U F/Lt Owen } }
E F/O Marson } }
T W/O Way } }
R P/O McGown } }
Reserves G, C.
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Lawrence
Meal 1630
Brief Nav. 1715
Brief Main 1800
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break}
17 [Underlined] 4.1.45 [/underlined]
10 aircraft (2 attacks on BERLIN)
V S/Ldr McDermott }
E F/O Marson }
X F/O Owen } 1950
T F/O Connor }
H F/Lt Hutchinson }
Y W/Cdr Bolton }
U F/Lt Marshall }
B F/Lt Lucas } [deleted] 2250 [/deleted] 2350
C F/O Knights }
G W/O Way }
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
Reserves S, Z.
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy
Duuty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/O Hagues
F/O Lawrence
I
Brief Nav. 1500
Brief Main 1545
Coffee & sandwiches 1600
II
Meal 1830
Brief Nav. 1915
Brief Main 2000
B, C, and G cancelled owing to snowstorm at take-off time.
Both attacks ruined by 139 Sqdn’s poor timing and scattered marking.
T (F/O Connor) landed at FOULSHAM due to generator and A.S.I. failure, and icing.
H (F/L Hutchinson) landed at LITTLE SNORING with generator and hydraulic trouble “LARGETYPE” very helpful and ingenious in giving him his fixes.
S/Ldr Stanbridge did trip with oxygen tube in mouth, owing to lack of connecting socket. Passed out near BREMEN when tube fell out, but revived at 14,000’ and navigated successfully to target.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 15.1.45 [/underlined] 18
10 aircraft (4 E.W. HANOVER and 6 BERLIN)
A S/Ldr Eddy }
Y F/O Jones }
B F/Lt Lucas } E.W. 2150
X F/O Lowe }
S F/Lt Marshall }
J F/Lt Bland }
U W/O Way }
C F/O Knights } 2215
V [deleted] Z [/deleted] P/O McGown }
E W/O Henley }
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
Reserves G, [deleted] V [/deleted]
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Morrow
F/O Crumplin
Meal 1615
Brief Nav. 1700
Brief Main 1745
A very successful night. Take-off still slightly straggled, but both attacks went very well.
[Page break]
19 [Underlined] 6.1.45 [/underlined]
9 aircraft (2 E.W. HANAU and 7 )
S S/Ldr McDermott }
A F/O Marson } E.W. 1900
U F/Lt Owen }
C F/O Knights }
Y F/O Jones }
B F/O Connor }
Z W/O Way }
H F/O Whitworth }
E W/O Henley }
Reserves G, R.
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Lawrence
F/Sgt Robjohns
Brief Nav. 1400
Brief Main 1445
Coffee & sandwiches 1500
U, C, Y, B, Z, H & E Cancelled – Weather
Both aircraft off on time and both windowed successfully on time. Only glow of markers visible owing to cloud.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 7.1.45 [/underlined] 20
10 aircraft (3 E.W. MUNICH, and 7 HANOVER)
U F/Lt Owen }
H F/O Connor } E.W. 2230
Y F/O Jones }
A S/Ldr Eddy }
V F/Lt Marshall }
B F/Lt Lucas }
Z W/O Way } 2150
C F/O Whitworth }
R [deleted] D [/deleted] W/O Henley }
W F/O Marson }
[Grid of MINS LATE, START, A/B and S/C times]
Reserve [deleted] R [/deleted]
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Layton
F/O Lawrence
Meal 1600
Brief Nav. 1645
Brief Main 1730
Take-off very poor indeed. Only one aircraft on time – B (F/Lt Lucas). C (F/O Whitworth) 22 minutes late owing to frozen snow on airscrews. Last snow had fallen at 1500 hrs. and no attempt had been made to clean it off since then. ‘D’ not refuelled owing to bowser breakdown. Average time late – 7 minutes. ‘Y’ had not been bombed-up. Several aircraft had no dinghies.
H (F/O Connor) took off with pitot-head cover on. Fault of aircrew & groundcrew; rigger on charge. Completed trip & landed at WOODBRIDGE.
R (W/O Henley) sent V.H.F. message saying trouble with fuel feed from main tanks; preparing to abandon aircraft. Aircraft missing, but crew believed safe in HOLLAND.
[Page break]
21 [Underlined] 8.1.45 [/underlined]
6 aircraft ( )
S F/Lt Owen
D F/O Knights
Y F/O Richards
T W/O Inkpen
G F/Lt Bland
J F/O Whitworth
Reserve W
O.C. S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/O Hagues
Brief Nav. 1415
Brief Main 1500
Coffee & sandwiches 1515
Cancelled – Weather
[Page break]
[Underlined] 9.1.45 [/underlined] 22
8 aircraft ( )
W F/Lt Owen
H F/Lt Whitworth
X F/O Richards
F F/Lt Bland
T W/O Inkpen
C F/O Knights
S P/O Way
E F/O Marson
Reserves A, V.
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Crabb
[Deleted] Brief Nav. 1400
Brief Main 1445
Coffee & sandwiches 1500 [/deleted]
Meal 2030
Brief Nav. 2100
Brief Main 2200.
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
23 [Underlined] 10.1.45 [/underlined]
9 aircraft (HANOVER)
B F/Lt Lucas
V [deleted] U [/deleted] F/Lt Owen
W W/O Inkpen
F F/Lt Whitworth
X F/O Richards
G F/Lt Bland
D F/O Knights
S F/O Jones
E F/O Marson
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
Reserves A, [deleted] V. [/deleted]
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Lt Alexander
F/Sgt Chappell
Brief Nav. 1400
Brief Main 1445
Meal 1515
X Cancelled- weather doubtful and inexperienced crew.
An excellent show all round. All aircraft off on time in spite of difficult conditions of snow on aerodrome. Attack very successful, and all aircraft on target within 1 minute. Weather very poor for return with low cloud and more snow, but all crews coped very well.
B, W, and D diverted to WYTON.
Remainder landed at base.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 13.1.45 [/underlined] 24
12 aircraft (6 and 6 spoof)
V S/Ldr McDermott }
A F/Lt Whitworth }
Y F/O B. Jones }
C F/O Knights }
U P/O Watt }
G F/Lt Bland }
S F/Lt Marshall }
F F/O Connor }
X F/O Richards } Spoof 2245
B F/O E. Jones }
T W/O Inkpen }
E F/Lt Haden }
Reserves D, W.
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Crumplin
F/O Barnicoat
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
25 [Underlined] 14.1.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (4 E.W. MERSEBURG and 8 BERLIN)
V S/Ldr McDermott }
S F/O Spurr }
F F/O Connor }
T F/O Richards }
U P/O Watt } 2100
H [deleted B [/deleted] F/Lt Haden }
Y F/Lt Hopkin }
A F/Lt Stewart }
D F/Lt Whitworth }
B [deleted] C [/deleted] F/O Knights }
X P/O Way } E.W. 0001
G F/Lt Bland }
Reserves [deleted] H, [/deleted] Z
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Crabb
F/O Crumplin
[Underlined] E.W. Others. [/underlined]
Meal 1845 1545
Brief Nav. 1915 1615
Brief Main 2000 1700
A very good effort especially by new crews. Take-off good in spite of being very rushed owing to H hour being brought forward. Marking on BERLIN very scattered and defences mor effective than of late. MERSEBURG aircraft off rather late owing to last-minute change of flare-path. Attack successful.
T (F/O Richards) returned on one engine from BERLIN and landed at FRISTON. – A very good effort for his 1st operation.
4 aircraft hit by flak.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 16.1.45 [/underlined] 26
12 aircraft (3 E.W. and 9 )
F F/O Connor }
C F/O Lowe } E.W. [deleted] 2030 2115 [/deleted] 2215
V F/O Spurr }
A S/Ldr Eddy }
Y F/Lt Hopkin }
B F/Lt Stewart }
W P/O McGown } [Deleted] 2030 2040 2140 [/deleted] 0030
G F/Lt Bland }
S F/Lt Marshall }
H F/Lt Haden }
U F/Lt Owen }
E F/Lt Whitworth }
Reserves D, X
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Lt Forrest
F/O Morrow
Meal [deleted] 1500 [/deleted] 1515 1900
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1530 [/deleted] 1600 1945
Brief Main [deleted] 1615 [/deleted] 1645 2030
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
27 [Underlined] 17.1.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (MAGDEBURG)
A S/Ldr Eddy
U F/Lt Owen
C F/Lt Bland
W P/O McGown
B F/Lt Whitworth
Y F/Lt Hopkin
H F/Lt Haden
Z F/O Richards
D F/Lt Stewart
X F/O Lowe
E F/O Marson
S F/Lt Marshall
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
Reserves F, V
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Morrow
F/Sgt Clark
CALL 2359
MEAL 0030
BRIEF 0115
Brief Nav. 1415
Brief Main 1500
Coffee & sandwiches 1515
Take-off very poor but attack successful. Fires still burning in larger area from attack on previous night by heavies. Nearly all aircraft hampered for speed and height apparently by icing and some were late owing to this.
S (F/Lt Marshall) found incorrect wind and used it, with result that he saw no T.Is and returned 30 minutes early.
C (F/Lt Bland) landed at WOODBRIDGE with electrical trouble, changed batteries, and returned to base.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 18.1.45 [/underlined] 28
12 aircraft (STERKRADE)
F F/O Connor
X F/O Lowe
B F/Lt Haden
V F/O Richards
E F/O Marson
W F/O Spurr
G F/Lt Stewart
U P/O Watt
A F/Lt Hutchinson
Z P/O Way
D F/Lt Whitworth
S F/Lt Marshall
Reserves H, Y
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. F/L Alexander
F/O Morrow
F/Sgt Robjohns
Meal 1930
Brief Nav. 2015
Brief Main 2100
Take-off 2 minutes late. Attack a complete wash-out owing to 10/10 cloud up to 25,000’ A few crews caught glimpses of T.Is which disappeared immediately and all bombed on GEE. Weather very rough for return but all crews coped very well.
[Page break]
29 [Underlined] 19.1.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (2 E.W. and 10 )
S F/O Spurr }
Y P/O Watt } E.W.
A S/Ldr Eddy }
V S/Ldr McDermott }
E F/O Knights }
Z P/O Way }
D F/O Connor }
X F/Lt Marshall }
B F/Lt Hutchinson }
U F/Lt Owen }
G F/Lt Bland }
W P/O McGown }
Reserves C, H
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Lt Forrest
Sgt Heggie
Meal 1515
Brief Nav. 1600
Brief Main 1645
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
[Underlined] 20.1.45 [/underlined] 30
12 aircraft (6 spoof , and 6 )
U F/Lt Owen }
E F/O Marson }
J F/O Spurr }
G F/Lt Bland } Spoof [deleted] 2045 [/deleted] 2345
X P/O Watt }
F F/O Connor }
S P/O Way }
D F/Lt Stewart }
W P/O McGown }
C F/Lt Haden }
Y F/Lt Hopkin }
A F/Lt Hutchinson }
Reserves H, V
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O McGregor
F/Sgt Robjohns
[Underlined] Spoof Remainder [/underlined]
Meal 1830 1430
Brief Nav. 1915 1500
Brief Main 2000 1545
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
31 [Underlined] 21.1.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft ([Deleted] 3 E.W. [/deleted] and [deleted] 9 spoof [/deleted] 12 KASSEL)
D F/Lt Hutchinson } }
J F/O Spurr } } [deleted] E.W. 0015 [/deleted]
H F/Lt Haden } }
B S/Ldr Eddy } }
S F/Lt Marshall } }
E F/O Marson } }
X F/O Richards } } [deleted] Spoof oo25 [/deleted] 2030
F F/O Connor } }
Y F/Lt Hopkin } }
G F/Lt Bland } }
W P/O McGown } }
U F/Lt Owen } }
Reserves C, V
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Tulloch
Sgt Fossitt
Meal [deleted] 1900 [/deleted] Brief Nav 1615
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1945 [/deleted] Brief Main 1700
Brief Main [deleted] 2030 [/deleted] Coffee & sandwiches 1715
Take-off very rushed owing to fooling about with targets, routes, times, winds, etc. Crews had only 10 minutes from end of briefing to get into aircraft, but coped very [inserted] well [/inserted] and only P/O McGown was late off. Attack very successful with marking concentrated at first though becoming a little scattered. Too much backchat on R/T during landing.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 22.1.45 [/underlined] 32
12 aircraft (3 E.W. DUISBURG, 3 E.W. GELSENKIRCHEN, and 6 HANOVER)
V S/Ldr McDermott }
C F/O E. Jones } E.W. 2000
W W/O Inkpen }
A F/Lt Hutchinson }
Y F/O B. Jones } E.W. [deleted] 2015 [/deleted] 2230
H F/O Haden }
G F/Lt Bland }
U P/O Watt }
D F/Lt Whitworth }
S P/O Way } 1915
E F/Lt Stewart }
X F/O Lowe }
Reserves B, J
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Barnicoat
F/Sgt Hanrahan
[Underlined] E.W.1 E.W.2. Remainder. [/underlined]
Meal 1500 1745 1415
Brief Nav. 1545 1830 1445
Brief Main 1630 1915 1530
A very successful night. All 3 take-offs quite good and all attacks successful. 2 excellent ground-detail photographs from S/Ldr McDermott on DUISBURG, and one from W/O Inkpen
V (S/Ldr McDermott) 2 miles 205° from A.P. heading S.W.
W (W/O Inkpen) 3 3/4 miles 310° from A.P. heading S.E.
[Page break]
33 [Underlined] 23/1/45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft ( )
B F/Lt Lucas
J P/O McGown
H F/O Connor
V P/O Watt
D F/Lt Whitworth
X F/Lt Hopkin
A F/O E. Jones
Z P/O Way
E F/Lt Stewart
Y F/O B. Jones
K F/O Knights
U F/Lt Owen
Reserves [deleted] G, [/deleted] S
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Layton
Meal [deleted] 2359 [/deleted] 1400
Brief Nav. [deleted] 0030 [/deleted] 1445
Brief Main [deleted] 0115 [/deleted] 1530
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
[Underlined] 24.1.45 [/deleted] 34
12 aircraft ( )
B F/Lt Lucas
U F/Lt Owen
H F/Lt Haden
J P/O McGown
A F/O E. Jones
V W/O Inkpen
E F/Lt Stewart
X F/O Lowe
F F/O Connor
Z P/O Way
D F/Lt Whitworth
Y F/Lt Hopkin
Reserves G, S
O.C. S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Morrow
Meal 1415
Brief Nav. 1500
Brief Main 1545
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
35 [Underlined] 27.1.45 [/underlined]
8 aircraft ( )
B F/Lt Lucas }
J P/O McGown }
F F/O Connor }
Z P/O Way }
D F/Lt Whitworth } 1910
U W/O Inkpen }
C F/O Knights }
Y F/Lt Hopkin }
Reserves E, V.
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Morrow
Meal 1415
Brief Nav. 1445
Brief Main 1530
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
[Underlined] 28.1.45 [/underlined] 36
12 aircraft (2 spoofs MAINZ and 10 BERLIN)
E F/Lt Stewart }
B F/O Connor } Spoof 2018
S [deleted] V [/deleted] W/Cdr Bolton }
A F/Lt Hutchinson }
Y F/O B. Jones }
C F/O Knights }
W P/O McGown }
D F/Lt Whitworth } 2040
Z F/Lt Hopkin }
J W/O Inkpen }
U [deleted] S X [/deleted] F/O Lowe }
G F/Lt Bland }
Reserves [deleted] S U [/deleted], H
O.C. S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. F/O Morrow
F/O Barnicoat
Meal 1500
Brief Nav. 1545
Brief Main 1630
V cancelled – u/s and all reserves.
Take-off quite good in both cases, and attacks fairly successful. Crews need to estimate their own positions for making calls on circuit to speed up landing procedure. Present average landing interval 2 mins between aircraft.
W (P/O McGown) damaged tailplane through swinging when running up without chocks on dispersal. – His 2nd accident through carelessness. Group suggest course at Sheffield.
[Page break]
37 [Underlined] 29.1.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (8 BERLIN and 4 spoof)
B F/Lt Lucas }
Y F/O B. Jones }
D F/Lt Whitworth } [Deleted] 1945 [/deleted] 2145
V F/Lt Hopkin }
H {deleted] A [/deleted] F/Lt Hutchinson }
X P/O McGown }
G F/O E. Jones }
U P/O Watt } [Deleted] 1935 2005 or 1905 [/deleted] 1935
E F/Lt Stewart }
Z P/O Way }
K {deleted] C [/deleted] F/O Knights }
J W/O Inkpen }
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
Reserves [deleted] H, [/deleted] S, C
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
Sgt Clark
F/Sgt Nicholls
Spoof
Meal 1400 1615
Brief Nav. 1445 1700
Brief Main 1530 1745
Spoof cancelled – Weather
Take-off spoilt by Spitfire making an emergency landing, followed by Stirling landing without permission. Attack quite successful but all aircraft diverted to MANSTON owing to snowstorm at base.
G (F/O E. Jones) landed at BRADWELL BAY.
All others landed at MANSTON.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 31.1.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (4 spoof and 8 )
B F/Lt Lucas }
W F/O Spurr }
C F/Lt Bland } Spoof 0245
A F/Lt Hopkin }
S F/Lt Marshall }
F F/O Marson }
Z P/O Way }
G F/O E. Jones }
V F/O Lowe }
D F/Lt Whitworth }
T F/O Richards }
Y F/O B. Jones }
Reserves
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Sgt Nicholls
Sgt Clark
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
39
[Underlined] SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 1945 [/underlined]
OPERATIONAL NIGHTS 14
NUMBER OF ATTACKS 23
AIRCRAFT CALLED FOR 133
AIRCRAFT DESPATCHED 128
CANCELLED BY UNIT (WEAHTER) 4
CANCELLED BY UNIT (SERVICEABILITY) 1
EARLY RETURNS 1
OTHER ABORTIVE SORTIES 1
ENGINE FAILURES 2
AIRCRAFT DAMAGED BY ENEMY ACTION 5
AIRCRAFT DAMAGED BY ACCIDENTS 4 (minor airframe damage)
AIRCRAFT MISSING 1 {crew safe)
CREWS AIRCRAFT
STRENGTH AT BEGINNING OF MONTH 18 16
STRENGTH AT END OF MONTH 22 18
TARGETS ATTACKED BERLIN 7
HANOVER 4
HANAU 2
DORTMUND 1
DUISBURG 1
GELSENKIRCHEN 1
KASSEL 1
MAGDEBURG 1
MAINZ 1
MERSEBURG 1
MUNICH 1
NUREMBURG 1
STERKRADE 1
PROMOTIONS:- F/O WHITWORTH to F/LT
F/LT OLSEN to A/S/LDR on posting to 163 Squadron.
COMMISSIONS:- W/O WAY
DECORATIONS:- S/LDR STANBRIDGE D.F.C.
F/LT DOWNES (Adjutant) D.F.C.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 1.2.45 [/underlined] 40
⑱ aircraft (2 spoof DUISBURG, 10 BERLIN I, and 6 BERLIN II)
K [deleted] G [/deleted] F/Lt Bland }
W F/O Spurr } Spoof 1905
F S/Ldr Eddy }
Z F/Lt Hopkin }
H [deleted] D [/deleted] F/Lt Whitworth }
Y F/O B. Jones }
A F/O Marson }
V F/O Lowe }
B F/Lt Lucas } [Deleted] 1955 [/deleted] 2025
T F/O Richards }
C F/O E. Jones }
S F/Lt Marshall }
D [deleted] H [/deleted] F/Lt Hutchinson }
J P/O McGown }
K F/O Knights }
U P/O Watt } [Deleted] 0230 [/deleted] 0400
E F/Lt Stewart }
Z P/O Way }
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
No reserves
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
Sgt. Clark
F/O Lawrence
I II
Meal 1415 [deleted] 2045 [/deleted] 2245
Brief Nav. 1500 [deleted] 2130 [/deleted] 2330
Brief Main 1545 [deleted 2215 [/deleted 0015
D cancelled Swung & bogged on take-off. Reserve u/s.
A disastrous night. One aircraft failed to take off, one returned early and 3 were damaged in accidents. Attacks fairly successful.
D (F/Lt Hutchinson) swung on take-off and bogged. Got into reserve aircraft but found petrol cocks jammed.
W (F/O Spurr) taxied into gun-pit – sheer carelessness.
Z (P/O Way) apparently forgot flaps, came in much too fast, overshot and finished up on belly – also carelessness.
K (F/O Knights) early return. Landed WOODBRIDGE where tail-wheel collapsed.
[Page break]
41 [Underlined 2.2.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (2 E.W. WANNE EICKEL, 4 spoof MANNHEIM, and 6 MAGDEBURG)
H F/O Bland }
U F/O Spurr }
F F/Lt Hutchinson }
V F/Lt Marshall } 2000
B F/Lt Lucas }
T F/O Richards }
G F/O B. Jones }
E F/O Marson } E.W. [deleted] 2215 [/deleted] 2345
D F/Lt Witworth }
Y F/Lt Hopkin }
C F/O E. Jones } Spoof [deleted 2224 [/deleted] 2354
S F/O Lowe
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
No reserve
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Lt Alexander
F/O Lawrence
[Underlined] I E.W. & Spoof [/underlined]
Meal 1445 [deleted] 1715 [/deleted] 1830
Brief Nav. 1515 [deleted] 1800 [/deleted] 1915
Brief Main 1600 [deleted] 1845 [/deleted] 2000
A very successful night. Take-off the best so far, and landing times also very good. All crews on MAGDEBURG claim to have bombed within 15 seconds of H hour.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 3.2.45 [/underlined] 42
10 aircraft (4 OSNABRUCK, 2 E.W. BOTTROP, and 4 spoof OSNABRUCK)
Y W/Cdr Bolton }
D [deleted] F [/deleted] F/Lt Stewart }
V P/O McGown } [Deleted] 1940 [/deleted] 1925
C F/O Knights }
A F/Lt Lucas }
T F/O Richards } E.W. [deleted] 1915 [/deleted] 1930
G F/Lt Bland }
U P/O Way }
E F/O Marson } [Deleted] Spoof 1910 [/deleted] 1925
S F/Lt Marshall }
Reserves [deleted] D, J, [/deleted] H Z
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/Lt Snelling
F/O Kilpatrick
Meal [deleted] 1415 1445 [/deleted] 1430
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1445 1530 [/deleted] 1515
Brief Main [deleted] 1530 1615 [/deleted] 1600
A very good take-off and both attacks successful. All aircraft late on target at OSNABRUCK but markers late as well, due to wind change. G, U, E and S dropped green T.Is, well grouped with 139’s yellows. Visibility very poor for return due to smoke haze. Camera serviceability much improved, and only one electrical failure. 8 photographs of T.Is out of 10 attempts.
D (F/Lt Stewart) swung on take-off, but taxied back very quickly and got off on time. This aircraft seems to have a marked tendency to swing.
[Page break]
43 [underlined] 4.2.45 [/underlined]
11 aircraft (3 E.W. BONN, and 8 HANOVER)
A S/Ldr Eddy }
T P/O McGown } E.W. [deleted] 1945 2028 [/deleted] 2045
E F/Lt Stewart }
W [deleted] Z [/deleted] F/Lt Hopkin }
H F/Lt E. Jones }
Y F/Lt B. Jones }
C F/O Knights } [Deleted] 1940 1940 [/deleted] 1940
U P/O Way }
B F/Lt Whitworth }
S F/O Spurr }
V F/O Lowe }
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
Reserves [deleted G [/deleted] F,J
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. [deleted] S/Ldr Stanbridge [/deleted]
F/Lt Alexander
F/O McGregor
F/Sgt Nicholls
Meal 1415
Brief Nav. 1500
Brief Main 1545
Take-off again excellent. Aircraft windowed successfully at BONN, but cloud interfered with heavies’ attack. HANOVER attack spoilt by 139 Sqdn. dropping the first T.I., the only one on time – in the wrong place, apparently on NIENBURG.
T (P/O McGown) steered the wrong course after leaving the target and arrived back 54 minutes late – not a very bright effort.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 5.2.45 [/underlined] 44
12 aircraft (3 spoof, and 9 BERLIN)
Y F/O B. Jones }
F F/Lt Stewart } Spoof
J F/O Spurr }
A F/Lt Lucas }
U F/O Richards }
D F/Lt Whitworth }
V F/O Lowe }
E F/O Marson }
Z F/Lt Hopkin }
[Deleted] S [/deleted] G F/Lt Bland }
S F/Lt Marshall }
H F/O E. Jones }
Reserves C, W
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
P/O Bird
Sgt Fossitt
Meal [deleted] 1830 1845 [/deleted] 1945
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1915 1930 [/deleted] 2030
Brief Main [deleted] 2000 2015 [/deleted] 2115
Spoof cancelled – Weather.
Remainder – Take-off rather ragged and attack spoilt by cloud up to 27,000’. A few crews caught glimpses of Tis and bombed their glow. The others had trouble with Loran and bombed on D.R.
[Page break]
45 [Underlined] 6.2.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (6 and 6 )
B F/Lt Lucas }
W P/O Way }
E F/O Marson }
V F/O Lowe } 0100 to 0200
G F/Lt Bland }
Y F/O B. Jones }
S [deleted] Z [/deleted] F/Lt Marshall }
C F/O Knights }
J F/O Spurr }
H F/Lt Hutchinson } 0100 to 0200
T F/O Richards }
F F/Lt Stewart }
Reserves D, [deleted] S [/deleted] Z
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/O Fisher
F/Sgt Hanrahan
Meal 2030
Brief Nav. 2115
Brief Main 2200
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
[Underlined] 7.2.45 [/underlined] 46
12 aircraft (8 E.W. CLEVE and bomb DUISBURG and 4 MAGDEBURG)
G F/Lt Bland }
[Deleted S [/deleted] W F/Lt Marshall }
C F/O E. Jones }
V F/O Lowe }
A F/O Marson } E.W. [deleted] 2000 [/deleted] 2200
T F/O Richards }
D F/Lt Whitworth }
J F/O Spurr }
B F/Lt Hutchinson }
Y F/O B. Jones } 1950
F F/O Connor }
U [deleted] Z [/deleted] W/O Inkpen }
Reserves H, [deleted] U [/deleted]
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/O Fisher
Sgt Fossitt
Meal 1445
Brief Nav. 1515
Brief Main 1600
Take-off good. Attacks on CLEVE and DUISBURG successful. Nothing visible at MAGDEBURG, owing to 10/10 cloud from 31,000’ to below 19,000’, but all crews bombed on Loran.
[Page break]
47 [Underlined] 8.2.45 [/underlined]
10 aircraft (E.W. [deleted] WNNE EICKEL [/deleted] WANNE EICKEL and [deleted] bomb [/deleted] 6 BERLIN, [deleted] and 6 [/deleted] )
Y F/O B. Jones }
F F/O Connor } E.W. [deleted] 2030 [/deleted] 0400
U W/O Inkpen }
A F/Lt Hutchinson }
V S/Ldr McDermott }
C F/O E. Jones }
T {deleted] S [/deleted] F/O Spurr } 2230.
B F/Lt Lucas }
Z P/O Way }
D [deleted] E [/deleted] F/Lt Whitworth }
Reserves E, G, J.
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. [deleted] S/Ldr Stanbri [/deleted]
F/Lt Alexander
F/Lt Fawcett
F/O McGregor
1st Meal [deleted] 1700 1630 [/deleted] 17.00
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1715 [/deleted] 17.45
Brief Main [deleted] 1800 [/deleted] 18.30
2nd Meal [deleted] 23.00 [/deleted] 00.30
Brief Nav. [deleted] 23.45 [/deleted] 01.45
Brief Main [deleted] 00.30 [/deleted] 02.00
Take off on Berlin spoilt by F/O E. Jones who took off 10 mts early! Rest of 1st take off good. A very good raid on Berlin, all our crews bombed very nearly on time, and reported exceptionally good marking by 139.
On 2nd take off 3 a/c off on time, but W/O Inkpen got boged [sic] leaving dispersal, got off late in Res a/c (25 mts late) & was late on E W run but bombed successfully.
A good raid.
[Page break]
48
12 aircraft (3 EW and bomb, and 9 )
V S/L McDermott. }
F F/O Connor. } E W 22.30
J F/P Spurr. }
B F/L Lucas. }
S F/L Marshall. }
E F/O Marson. }
Z P/O Way. }
C F/O E. Jones. } 20.00
U F/O Lowe. }
D F/L Whitworth. }
T F/O Richards. }
G F/L Bland. }
Reserves H & Y.
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy.
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge.
F/L Fawcett.
Meal 15.00
Brief Nav. 15.45
Brief Main 16.30
E.W. Meal 17.30
Brief Nav. 18.15
Brief Main 19.00
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
49 [Underlined] 10.2.45. [/underlined]
12 aircraft [deleted] 2 E W on HANOVER and 10 [/deleted]
B F/L Lucas }
Z P/O Way } [deleted] E W 19.30 [/deleted] 23.30
A S/L Eddy }
T F/O Richards. }
E F/O Marson. }
W P/O McGowan. }
C F/L Hutchinson } 23.30
U F/L Lowe. }
F F/O Connor }
J W/O Inkpen. }
G F/L Bland. }
S F/L Marshall. }
Reserves D.Y.
O.C. S/Ldr McDermott.
Duty Nav. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/L Alexander .
F/O Morrow.
Meal ① 14.45 ② 23.00
Brief Nav. 15.15 23.45
Brief Main. 16.00 00.30
Take off good and attack very successful. All a/c bombed between -1 & +2 except one with instrument trouble, which bombed at H+5. A good concentration of Red T.Is. All a/c stacked over base [inserted] on return [/inserted] while 105 took off. Landing v. good, but unnecessarily noisy (on VHF)
[Page break]
[Underlined] 11.2.45. [/underlined] 50
12 aircraft. [Deleted] HANOVER [/deleted]
Z [Deleted] P/O Way. [/deleted] F/O B. Jones }
B F/L Lucas } EW [deleted] 22.00 [deleted] 03.00
V S/L McDermott. }
D F/L Whitworth. }
W P/O McGowan }
[Deleted] A [/deleted] E F/O Marson. }
T F/O [deleted] B. Jones. [/deleted] Richards }
G F/L Bland. } 03.50
J F/O Spurr. }
[Deleted] H [/deleted] H F/O E. Jones. }
U P/O Watt. }
A F/L Hutchinson. }
Reserves [deleted] H.C. [/deleted] S.C.
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy.
Duty Nav. S/Ldr Stanbridge.
F/L Alexander.
Sgt. Clark.
Call 22.00
Meal 19.00 22.30
Brief Nav. 19.45 23.15
Brief Main 20.30 24.00
Cancelled.
Weather
[Page break]
51 13.2.45.
12 aircraft 8 on [deleted] Magdeburg [/deleted] MAGDEBURG, 2 EW on [deleted] Bӧhlen [/deleted] BOHLEN, 2 spoof on [deleted] Bonn [/deleted] BONN.
U [deleted] B F/L Lucas. [/deleted] P/O Watt } GQ 1514
J F/O Spurr. } E.W. 22.00
S F/L Marshall. }
H F/O E. Jones. } Spoof. [deleted] 20.45 [/deleted] 00.20
Y F/O B. Jones. }
D F/L Whitworth. }
T. F/O Richards. }
E F/O Marson. }
V W/O Inkpen. } [Deleted] 21.45. [/deleted] 21.55
F F/O Connor. }
B {deleted] U P/O Watt. [/deleted] F/L Lucas }
A F/L Hutchinson. }
Reserves W. (normal) G (Tis)
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy.
Duty Nav. S/Ldr Stanbridge.
F/L Fawcett.
Sgt. Heggie.
F/O Morrow.
Meal [deleted] 16.00 [/deleted] ① & E.W. 16.30 Spoof. 19.15.
Brief Nav. [deleted] 16.45 [/deleted] 17.15 20.00
Brief Main [deleted] 17.30 [/deleted] 18.00 20.45
Off 19.30 22.20
Take off and landing excellent.
A very good attack on Magdeburg, our a/c on time, marking concentrated.
Aircraft windowed successfully at Bonn, but the Spoof at Bӧhlen was spoilt by high cloud. Tis went out of sight at once.
[Page break]
14.2.45. 52
12 aircraft. 6 on [deleted] Berlin [/deleted] BERLIN 6 on [deleted] Dessau [/deleted] DESSAU.
1. V S/L McDermott. }
B [deleted] H [/deleted] F/O E. Jones. }
Y F/O B. Jones. }
D F/L Whitworth. } 21.00
T W/O Inkpen.}
A F/L Hutchinson. }
[Deleted] F F/O Connor. [/deleted]
2. Z F/O Lowe }
G F/L Bland }
U P/O Watt. } [Deleted] 01.50 [/deleted] 00.20
[Deleted] E [/deleted] F F/O Connor. }
[Deleted] F/L Hutchinson. [/deleted] }
C W/O Henley. }
W P/O McGowan. }
Reserves. [Deleted] EB. [/deleted] S or J.
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy.
Duty Nav. S/Ldr Stanbridge.
F/O Kilpatrick.
F/O Barnicoat
Meal (1) 16.00 (2) 19.15
Nav. Brief 16.45 20.00
Main Brief 17.30 20.45
Take off and landing on both attacks excellent. Only two markers dropped on Berlin, our a/c bombed the floaters the Tis were not seen owing to cloud. A fairly good attack.
The attack on Dessau was also fairly good although the Tis rapidly disappeared in cloud.
[Page break]
53 15.2.45.
12 aircraft, 4 on Mannheim, 8 on Berlin.
F F/O Connor. }
Z W/O Inkpen. }
D F/L Stewart. } 19.35.
W P/O McGowan. }
A S/L Eddy }
S F/L Marshall. }
E F/O Marson. }
T F/O Richards. }
B F/L Lucas. } 20.00
Y F/L Hopkin. }
G F/O Knights }
J F/O Spurr. }
Res. H. [deleted] K. [/deleted] V.
O.C. S/Ldr McDermott.
Duty Nav. S/Ldr Stanbridge.
F/S Nichols.
F/S Clark.
Sgt Grigg.
Meal 14.30
Brief Nav. 15.15
Brief Main 16.00
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
16.2.45. 54
12 aircraft.
J F/O Spurr }
F F/L Stewart }
W P/O McGowan. } [Deleted] 19.35 [/deleted] 04.40
A F/L Hutchinson. }
Y F/O B. Jones. }
F F/O Marson. }
T F/O Richards. }
B F/L Lucas. }
Z F/L Hopkin. } [Deleted] 20.05 [/deleted] 04.40
D F/O Knights }
U P/O Watts. }
G F/O E. Jones. }
Reserves H. V.
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy.
S/Ldr McDermott.
Duty Nav. S/Ldr Stanbridge.
F/O Crabb.
F/L Fawcett.
Call 23.00
Meal [deleted] 14.30 [/deleted] 23.30
Brief Nav [deleted] 15.15 [/deleted] 00.00
Brief Main [deleted] 16.00 [/deleted] 00.45
Off 02.10
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
55 17.2.45.
12 aircraft
J F/O Spurr. }
H F/L Stewart }
Y F/L Hopkin. } 19.35
B F/L Hutchinson. }
A S/Ldr Eddy. }
V F/L Marshall. }
E F/O Marson. }
Z W/O Inkpen. }
G F/O Connor. } 20.05
W F/O Watt }
D F/O Knights. }
T F/O Richards. }
Reserves [deleted] X [/deleted] Y. W. X.
O.C. S/Ldr McDermott.
Duty Nav S/Ldr Stanbridge.
F/L Snelling.
F/S Nichols.
Meal 14.30.
Brief Nav 15.15
Brief Main 16.00
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
[Underlined] 18.2.45 [/underlined] 56
8 aircraft ( )
V S/Ldr McDermott
B F/Lt Lucas
Y F/O B. Jones
F F/O Connor
W P/O McGown
C F/O E. Jones
U P/O Watt
H W/O Henley
Reserves A, J
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Sgt Nicholls
Meal 1415
Brief Nav. 1500
Brief Main 1545
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
57 [Underlined] 19.2.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft ([Deleted] 8 [/deleted] 12 ERFURT [deleted] and 4 [/deleted])
A F/Lt Lucas } }
Y F/Lt Hopkin } }
F F/O Connor } }
U P/O Watt } }
C F/O E. Jones } } [Deleted] 1950 [/deleted] 2000
T F/O Richards } }
E F/Lt Stewart } }
J F/O Spurr } }
G W/O Henley } }
W F/Lt Waller } }
D F/O Finlay } } [Deleted] 1950 [/deleted] 2000
S W/O Inkpen } }
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
[Deleted] O [/deleted] Reserves H, V
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. F/O Morrow
F/O Hagues
F/Sgt Robjohns
Meal 1430
Brief Nav. 1515
Brief Main 1600
A very successful night. Take-off excellent, - 12 a/c in 7 minutes, - and landing times also good. All aircraft bombed T.Is, from heights varying between 12,000’ and 6,500’. Bombing very concentrated, with 2 large explosions and 2 fires. Built-up area seen, and also flying debris from bomb bursts.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 20.2.45 [/underlined] 58
12 aircraft ( 9 BERLIN and 3 spoof MANNHEIM)
B S/Ldr Eddy }
S F/Lt Marshall }
C F/O Knights }
V F/Lt Waller }
E F/O Marson }
W P/O McGown } 2130
F F/O Finlay }
Y F/O B. Jones }
A F/Lt Hutchinson }
Z F/Lt Hopkin }
H W/O Henley } Spoof [deleted] 0015 0040 [/deleted] 0050
T F/O Richards }
Reserves D, U
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. F/O Morrow
F/O Lawrence
F/Sgt Nicholls
Main Spoof
Meal 1600 [deleted] 1915 [/deleted] 1945
Brief Nav. 1645 [deleted] 2000 [/deleted] 2030
Brief Main 1730 [deleted] 2045 [/deleted]
A [deleted text] good night. [Deleted text] Both take-offs [deleted text] good, and [deleted text] attacks successful. [Deleted text] Gee release on MANNHEIM seems to have produced a fair concentration of markers.
[Page break]
59 [Underlined] 21.2.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (9 BERLIN and 3 E.W. WORMS)
S [deleted] V [/deleted] S/Ldr Mc Dermott }
A F/Lt Hutchinson } E.W. [deleted] 2045 [/deleted] 2030
X F/O B. Jones. }
B F/Lt Lucas }
J F/O Spurr }
D F/Lt Stewart }
T W/O Inkpen }
F F/O Connor } [Deleted] 2300 2240 [/deleted] 0015
U P/O Watt }
C F/O Knights }
W P/O McGown }
H F/O E. Jones }
Reserves G, [deleted] S [/deleted] Z
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/Lt Forrest
E.W. Main
Meal 1600 [Deleted] 1745 1730 1830 [/deleted] 1900
Brief Nav. [Deleted] 1645 [/deleted] 1630 [deleted] 1830 1815 [/deleted] 1945
Brief Main [Deleted] 1730 [/deleted] 1715 [deleted] 1915 1900 [/deleted] 2030
Both take-offs and landing times good, and attacks successful. Searchlights active on both targets, but not much flak. Decoys very active over BERLIN, especially to the north.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 22.2.45 [/underlined] 60
12 aircraft (BERLIN)
1 Y F/Lt Hopkin
2 E F/O Marson
5 S F/Lt Marshall
11 G F/O Finlay
7 V W/O Inkpen
4 C F/O E. Jones
6 W F/Lt Waller
3 D F/Lt Stewart
9 Z F/O Richards
10 H W/O Henley
8 U P/O Watt
12 F F/O Connor
[Grid of START, A/B and S/C times]
Reserves A, [deleted] X [/deleted] B
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Lt Fawcett
Meal 1500
Brief Nav. 1545
Brief Main 1630
Quite a good attack, though cloud obscured results. Running-up time and taxying time reduced to 9 minutes for runway 252, which seems successful in daylight.
[Page break]
61 [Underlined] 23.3.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (BERLIN)
A W/Cdr Bolton
Y F/Lt Hopkin
H W/O Henley
W P/O Way
C F/O Knights
U F/Lt Waller
G F/Lt Bland
J F/O Spurr
B F/O Finlay
S F/Lt Marshall
E F/O Marson
D F/Lt Whitworth
Reserves T, X
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. F/O Morrow
Sgt Heggie
Meal 1500
Brief Nav. 1545
Brief Main 1630
Attack spoilt by 10/10 cloud from below 14,000’ to above 27,000’. A few crews managed to bomb T.Is, and one, P/O Way, obtained a photograph.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 25.2.45 [/underlined] 62
12 aircraft (ERFURT)
S [deleted] Y[/deleted] F/Lt [deleted] Hopkin [/deleted] Marshall
D F/Lt Whitworth
J W/O Inkpen
B F/Lt Stewart
W P/O Watt
E F/O E. Jones
T F/O Richards
F F/O Connor
X F/O Lowe
G F/Lt Bland
Z [deleted] P/O Way [/deleted] F/Lt Waller
C [deleted] F/O Knights [/deleted] W/O Henley
Reserves H, Y
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Kilpatrick
F/O Allsop
Meal 1500
Brief Nav. 1545
Brief Main 1630
A good attack, though drifting cloud made it difficult to see T.Is. Some crews descended to 5,500’ to bomb, and saw built-up area, fires and flying debris from bomb bursts. Weather very rough for return with cloud @ 700’ A very good show all round.
C (W/O Henley) landed at WOODBRIDGE.
B (F/Lt Stewart) slightly damaged by flak.
[Page break]
63 [Underlined] 26.2.45 [/underlined]
10 aircraft (BERLIN)
V S/Ldr McDermott
B F/O Marson
[Inserted] POSTAGRAM Originator’s Reference Number:- BC/S.23191/P.
TO: X [Underlined] No. 162 Squadron X [/underlined] (Copies R.A.F. Station,
BOURN, H.Q.No. 8(PFF) Group, and Air ministry,
S.10.A., Kingsway.
Date:- 20th March, 1945.
From: Headquarters, Bomber Command. [Initials]
His Majesty, the King, on the recommendation of the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, had approved the Immediate award of the Distinguished Flying Cross to Flight Lieutenant F. A. HADEN, AFC., (119529).
[Signature]
[Underlined] Group Captain. [/underlined]
[Stamp] [Signature] 162 Sqad. [/inserted]
Meal 1500
Brief Nav. 1545
Brief Main 1630
An excellent attack. Target area burning well from American attack during the day. Weather clear and ground detail clearly visible; T Is concentrated and plottable visually; timing very good and attack over by H+3.
A (F/Lt Haden) hit by flak on bombing run. Pilot slightly wounded by perspex splinters in face but carried on to bomb.
[Page break]
63 [Underlined] 26.2.45 [/underlined]
10 aircraft (BERLIN)
V S/Ldr McDermott
B F/O Marson
Y F/Lt Hopkin
H [deleted] C [/deleted] F/O E. Jones
W F/O Lowe
A F/Lt Haden
J F/O Spurr
G F/O Finlay
G F/O Richards
D F/Lt Stewart
Reserves [deleted] F [/deleted] Z, U
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
Sgt Fossitt
Sgt Grigg
Meal 1500
Brief Nav. 1545
Brief Main 1630
An excellent attack. Target area burning well from American attack during the day. Weather clear and ground detail clearly visible; T Is concentrated and plottable visually; timing very good and attack over by H+3.
A (F/Lt Haden) hit by flak on bombing run. Pilot slightly wounded by perspex splinters in face but carried on to bomb.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 27.2.45 [/underlined] 64
12 aircraft (BERLIN)
A S/Ldr Eddy
U P/O Watt
H W/O Henley
W F/Lt Waller
G F/Lt Bland
S F/Lt Marshall
F F/O Connor
Z P/O Way
E F/O Marson
Y F/Lt Hopkin
D [deleted] C [/deleted] F/Lt Whitworth
J F/O Spurr
Reserves [deleted] D [/deleted] C, T
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/Sgt Robjohns
Meal 2145
Brief Nav. 2230
Brief Main 2315
A fair attack. Marking somewhat scattered and, owing to cloud, only floaters visible. All crews bombed these, but [deleted word] 50% paid little attention to the correct heading.
[Page break]
65 [Underlined 28.2.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (BERLIN)
U [deleted] S F/Lt Marshall [/deleted] P/O Watt
D F/Lt Stewart
T F/O Richards
E F/O Finlay
J F/O Lowe
C F/O E. Jones
Z P/O Way
B F/Lt Haden
B F/Lt Waller
H W/O Henley
Y W/O Inkpen
F F/O Connor
Reserves [deleted] U [/deleted] S, V.
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Morrow
Meal 1515
Brief Nav. 1600
Brief Main 1645
Good take-off and landing times, with 11 aircraft down in 15 minutes. Attack well timed and successful with 2 large explosions. A good ending to excellent month.
[Page break]
66
[Underlined] SUMMARY FOR FEBRUARY 1945 [/underlined] (LAST MONTH IN BRACKETS)
OPERATIONAL NIGHTS 19 (14)
NUMBER OF ATTACKS 33 (23)
AIRCRAFT CALLED FOR 224 (133)
AIRCRAFT DESPATCHED 223 (128)
CANCELLED BY UNIT (WEAHTER) – (4)
CANCELLED BY UNIT (SERVICEABILITY) 1 (1)
EARLY RETURNS 1 (1)
OTHER ABORTIVE SORTIES – (1)
ENGINE FAILURES – (2)
AIRCRAFT DAMAGED BY ENEMY ACTION 3 (5)
AIRCRAFT DAMAGED IN ACCIDENTS [deleted] 3 [/deleted] 4 (4)
AIRCRAFT MISSING – (1)
CREWS AIRCRAFT
STRENGTH AT BEGINNING OF MONTH 22 (18) 18 (16)
STRENGTH AT END OF MONTH 25 (22) 18 (18)
TARGETS ATTACKED:- BERLIN 12 (7)
MAGDEBURG 3 (1)
BONN 2 (-)
DUISBURG 2 (1)
ERFURT 2 (-)
HANOVER 2 (4)
MANNHEIM 2 (-)
WANNE EICKEL 2 (-)
BOHLEN 1 (-)
BOTTROP 1 (-)
CLEVE 1 (-)
DESSAU 1 (-)
OSNABRUCK 1 (-)
WORMS 1 (-)
PROMOTIONS:- F/O MARSON to F/LT
P/O BIRD to F/O
COMMISSIONS: SGT CLARK
DECORATIONS F/O HAGUES D.F.C.
[Page break]
67 [Underlined] 1.3.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (BERLIN)
V S/Ldr McDermott
D F/Lt Whitworth
W F/O Spurr
B F/Lt Haden
T W/O Inkpen
G F/Lt Bland
Y F/Lt Hopkin
C [deleted] A [/deleted] F/O Knights
S F/Lt Marshall
F F/O E. Jones
X F/O Lowe
A [deleted] C [/deleted] F/O Marson
Reserves H, U
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. F/Lt Fawcett
F/Sgt Clark
Meal 1515
Brief Nav. 1600
Brief Main 1645
A fair attack with marking rather scattered and poorly timed. 139 failed to adjust H hour and most crews had to waste over 10 minutes.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 2.3.45 [/underlined] 68
12 aircraft (3 BERLIN and 9 KASSEL)
A F/Lt Bland }
Y F/Lt Hopkin }
C F/O Knights } 2000
S F/Lt Marshall }
H W/O Henley }
U P/O Watt }
B F/Lt Stewart } 2030
X [deleted] Z P/O Way [/deleted] F/O Richards }
F F/Lt Whitworth }
Z [deleted] X F/O Richards P/O Way [/deleted] W/O Inkpen }
E F/O Finlay } 2000
W F/Lt Waller }
Reserves G, V
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
F/O Lawrence
Meal 1515
Brief Nav. 1600
Brief Main 1645
Both attacks successful though TIs quickly went into cloud at KASSEL. Cloud was thin however, and most crews, after running up on a glow, could see TIs & bomb. Defences fairly active on both targets.
[Page break]
69 [Underlined] 3.3.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (BERLIN) 3 Y and 9 bombers
L F/Lt Stillman }
M F/Lt Abraham } Y
B F/Lt Lucas
Y F/O B. Jones
A F/Lt Haden
X [deleted W [/deleted] P/O McGown
H W/O Henley
E F/Lt Stewart
S F/Lt Waller
G F/O Finlay
Y P/O Watt
T F/O Richards
Reserves R, Z
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Tulloch
Sgt Heggie
Meal 1515
Brief Nav. 1600
Brief Main 1645
Neither Y aircraft marked owing to poor range, and most 139’s markers were late and scattered, which caused a poor attack.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 4.3.45 [/underlined] 70
[Deleted] ⑮ [/deleted] 12 aircraft (9 BERLIN and 3 siren-tour KIEL, LUBECK, HAMBURG< WILHELMSHAVEN)
V S/Ldr McDermott }
C F/O Knights }
U F/Lt Hopkin }
[Deleted] B F/O Philip [/deleted] }
{Deleted S F/O Burgess [/deleted] }
D F/Lt Whitworth }
[Deleted] T F/O Smith [/deleted] }
G F/O Rhys } 0330
Y F/O B. Jones }
Z P/O Way }
B [deleted A [/deleted] F/Lt Haden }
W P/O McGown }
M S/Ldr Eddy }
R F/Lt Bland } U/T Y
L F/Lt Lucas }
Reserve F, T.
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Stanbridge
S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/Lt Alexander
P/O Clark
F/O McGregor
Y [deleted] Bombers [/deleted] All a/c
Meal [deleted] 1645 1630 1530 [/deleted] 2215
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1730 1715 1615 [/deleted] 2300
Brief Main [deleted] 1815 1715 [/deleted] 2345
139 again late on BERLIN, though quite well concentrate.
R (F/Lt Bland) attacked 4 targets but mistook WESERMUNDE for WILHELMSHAVEN.
M (S/Ldr Eddy) spent an hour looking for HAMBURG, and dropped 2 bombs on WILHELMSRAUSAS.
L (F/Lt Lucas) dropped all bombs on WILHELMSHAVEN.
[Page break]
71 [Underlined] 5.3.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (9 BERLIN and 3 siren tour KIEL, LUBECK, HAMBURG, HANOVER.)
M F/Lt Stewart }
R F/Lt Bland } U/T Y
L F/O Knights }
W F/Lt Waller
B W/O Henley
U P/O Watt
A F/O Philip
V F/O Smith
Z F/O Lowe
C F/O Rhys
S F/O Burgess
T F/O Richards
Reserve G
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Hagues
[Deleted] F/Sgt Nichols [/deleted] F/O Tulloch
Meal 1515
Brief Nav. 1600
Brief Main 1645
R cancelled. Spinner could not be fitted.
Attack on BERLIN scattered. M (F/Lt Stewart) and L (F/O Knights) both failed, apparently owing to inexperienced set-operators, and dropped full load on KIEL.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 6.3.45 [/underlined] 72
6 aircraft (Formation on WESEL) Daylights.
U S/Ldr McDermott
G F/Lt Bland
[Deleted] A [/deleted] Y F/O B. Jones
A F/Lt Whitworth
S P/O Way
R F/O Rhys
Reserve T
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
Brief Nav 1300
Brief Main 1330
A very fine effort by all concerned. Attack laid on at 2 3/4 hours notice when some of the crews were still airborne on N.F.Ts. Aircraft got ready and bombed up on time but briefing very rushed and crews had only 15 minutes from end of briefing to start up. Aircraft started up in the correct order and took off very rapidly in pairs behind 105’s leaders. Only 2 crews had previous experience of this type of operation, but formation was excellent and attack completely successful. Very slight opposition – no fighters.
[Page break]
73 [Underlined] 6.3.45 [/underlined]
4 aircraft (BERLIN)
M F/L Skillman }
R F/L Abraham } Y
A F/L Hopkin
B F/O Finlay
Reserves L, X
O.C. S/ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Barnicoat
Meal 1515
Brief Nav. 1600
Brief Main 1645
A very successful attack. Both ‘Y’ aircraft marked after excellent runs, within 60 seconds of correct time.
L (F/Lt Skillman) obtained photograph showing ground detail of TEMPELHOF aerodrome.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 7.3.45 [/underlined] 74
12 aircraft (10 BERLIN and 2 siren tour HANOVER, BERLIN, DESSAU)
D F/Lt Whitworth
Y F/O B. Jones
G W/O Henley
X F/O Smith
G F/Lt Haden
Z F/O Burgess
A F/O Philip
W P/O McGown
E F/O Knights
U P/O Watt
M S/Ldr Eddy }
R F/Lt Lucas } U/T Y
Reserves L, T
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/O Layton
Main Y
Meal 1645 1945
Brief Nav. 1730 2030
Brief Main 1815 2115
A cancelled – swung twice when attempting to take off, and finally went across main road into ploughed field.
Attack on BERLIN quite good, though 3 aircraft – W (P/O McGown) Z (F/O Burgess) and U (P/O Watt) bombed DESSAU owing to poor navigation while time-wasting.
M (S/Ldr Eddy) and R (F/Lt Lucas) had a very successful siren tour.
[Page break]
75 [Underlined] 8.3.45 [/underlined]
11 aircraft (6 BERLIN, 3 spoof HANOVER, and 2 siren tour OSNABRUCK, HANOVER, BREMEN)
R F/Lt Bland }
M F/O Connor } U/T Y
B F/Lt Haden }
T F/O Richards } Spoof
E F/O Rhys }
Y F/Lt Hopkin
Z F/O Lowe
W P/O McGown
G F/O Finlay
S F/O Burgess
U F/Lt Waller
Reserves L, J
O.C. S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Morrow
F/O Kennedy
[Underlined] Spoof and Main U/T Y [/underlined]
Meal 1530 1730
Brief Nav. 1615 1815
Brief Main 1700 1900
A concentrated and successful attack on BERLIN, and a good spoof on HANOVER.
M (F/O Connor) had a successful siren tour.
R (F/Lt Bland) had Y U/S and bombed BREMEN on GEE.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 9.3.45 [/underlined] 76
12 aircraft (11 BERLIN and 1 siren tour OSNABRUCK)
M F/Lt Skillman }
R F/Lt Abraham } Y
L F/Lt Lucas U/T Y
Y F/O B. Jones
B F/Lt Stewart
T F/O Richards
D F/Lt Whitworth
W F/Lt Waller
A F/O Philip
V F/O Smith
E W/O Henley
U P/O Watt
Reserves F, Z
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/Sgt Chappell
F/Sgt Hanrahan
[Deleted] Y Main [/deleted]
Meal [deleted] 1700 1645 [/deleted] 1530 [deleted] 1845 [/deleted]
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1745 1730 [/deleted] 1615 [deleted] 1730 [/deleted]
Brief Main [deleted] 1830 1815 [/deleted] 1700 [deleted] 1815 [/deleted]
A good attack on BERLIN with concentrated marking. T.Is disappeared quickly into cloud but all crews bombed either glow or floaters above. Both Y aircraft marked.
L (F/Lt Lucas) had Y U/S on siren tour and bombed OSNABRUCK on GEE.
[Page break]
77 [Underlined] 10.3.45 [/underlined]
9 aircraft (BERLIN)
M W/Cdr Bolton }
R F/Lt Abraham } Y
A F/Lt Haden
Z F/O Lowe
G F/O Finlay
T F/O Burgess
S F/Lt Goodman
C F/O Knights
E R/O Rhys
Reserves L, B
O.C. S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
P/O Clark (Can.)
Meal 1530
Brief Navs. 1615
Brief Main 1700
Quite a concentrated attack though even floaters showed only as a glow in cloud at 20,000’. Occasional glimpses of TIs were obtained when vertically overhead. One ‘Y’ aircraft marked,
R (F/Lt Abraham). The other had ‘Y’ U/S and dropped bomb only.
C (F/O Knights) hit by flak which fractured fuel pipe. Landed at COLTISHALL.
T (F/O Burgess) had engine trouble, bombed estimated position of HAMBURG, and landed at CARNABY.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 11.3.45 [/underlined] 78
12 aircraft (9 BERLIN and 3 siren tour HANOVER, BRUNSWICK< MAGDEBURG)
M F/O E. Jones }
L F/O Spurr } U/T Y
R F/Lt Goodman }
V S/Ldr McDermott
G W/O Henley
U P/O Watt
J F/Lt Whitworth
Z F/O Smith
E F/O Marson
W P/O McGown
Y F/O B. Jones
A F/O Philip
Reserves C, F
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Hopkin
Duty Nav. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/Sgt [deleted] Hanrahan [/deleted] Walker
F/O Crabb
Meal 1530
Brief Nav. 1615
Brief Main 1700
A good attack on BERLIN with markers very concentrated and well timed. All 3 ‘Y’ aircraft successfully completed siren-tour.
[Page break]
79 [Underlined] 13.3.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (6 BERLIN, 4 spoof BREMEN, and 2 E.W. HERNE)
L F/Lt Lucas }
R F/Lt Bland } U/T Y
Y F/Lt Hopkin }
W [Deleted] P/O McGown [/deleted] F/O Rhys } E.W. [deleted] Spoof [/deleted]
A F/O Philip }
U P/O Watt } Spoof
S F/Lt Marshall
G F/O Knights
Z W/O Inkpen
E F/Lt Marson
[Deleted] T [/deleted] V F/O Burgess
B F/Lt Haden
[Table of times for some aircraft]
Reserves D, F
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Stewart
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Booth
P/O Clark (Scot.)
Meal 1545
Brief Nav. 1630
Brief Main 1715
Planning chaotic, largely owing to Group’s failure to provide details in time for briefing. All 3 attacks nevertheless successful with large explosion on each target.
L (F/Lt Lucas) marked BREMEN
R (F/Lt Bland) had Y U/S and dropped bombs only.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 14.3.45 [/underlined] 80
12 aircraft (10 BERLIN and 2 siren tour BREMEN, HANOVER. BERLIN)
L F/O Jones }
R F/O Spurr } U/T Y
F F/Lt Stewart
Z P/O Way
B F/Lt Haden
T W/O Inkpen
D F/Lt Whitworth
U F/O Burgess
A F/O Philip
S F/Lt Marshall
C F/O Knights
Y F/O B. Jones
Reserves G, W
O.C. S/Ldr McDermott
F/Lt Lucas
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/O Fisher
F/O Tempest
Meal 1600
Brief Nav. 1645
Brief Main 1730
A very successful attack on BERLIN, with marking again well timed and concentrated. Both Y aircraft had equipment U/S. R (F/Lt Spurr) bombed BREMEN only; L (F/O Jones) bombed BREMEN and HANOVER.
F (F/Lt Stewart and S (F/Lt Marshall) plotted 2100x and 3000x respectively from A.P. Centre of marked area about 2300x from A.P.
[Page break]
81 [Underlined] 15.3.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (10 BERLIN and 2 siren tour ERFURT, WEIMAR, JENA)
L F/Lt Bland }
R F/Lt Goodman } U/U Y
B F/Lt Lucas
U P/O Watt
G F/O Rhys
Z F/O Smith
E F/Lt Marson
Y F/O B. Jones
D F/Lt Whitworth
W P/O McGown
F F/Lt Stewart
S F/Lt Hopkin
Reserves A, U.
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/Lt Gannon
F/Lt Snelling
Meal 1600
Brief Nav. 1645
Brief Main 1730
A good attack on BERLIN, marking well timed though not so concentrated as of late. Aircraft still early on target, in spite of time in hand being cut from 5 to 3 mins. (Average 1.85 mins.)
Bot ‘Y’ aircraft attacked all 3 targets, though only one, L (F/Lt Bland), marked ERFURT.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 16.3.45 [/underlined] 82
12 aircraft (4 BERLIN, 6 spoof HANAU, and 2 siren tour OSNABRUCK, BERLIN, BRUNSWICK)
L F/O E. Jones }
R P/O Way } U/T Y
V S/Ldr McDermott
A F/O Philip
T W/O Inkpen
U P/O Watt
B F/Lt Haden }
W P/O McGown }
C F/O Knights }
S F/O Burgess } Spoof
E F/Lt Marson }
Y F/O Smith }
Reserves F, G
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Skillman
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Kilpatrick
P/O Clark (Scot.)
Meal 1600
Brief Nav. 1645
Brief Main 1730
Fair attacks on BERLIN and HANAU with cloud obscuring T.Is from time to time on both targets. Both ‘Y’ aircraft attacked OSNABRUCK and BERLIN, but had equipment U/S before reaching BRUNSWICK.
[Page break]
83 [Underlined] 17.3.45 [/underlined]
8 aircraft (2 Y BERLIN and 6 spoof NUREMBURG)
L F/Lt Skillman }
R F/Lt Abraham } Y
W F/Lt Hopkin
D F/Lt Whitworth
Y F/O B. Jones
A F/O Philip
T F/Lt Marshall
G W/O Henley
Reserves F, V
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Lucas
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/Lt Forrest
F/O Jarrett
Meal 1600
Brief Nav. 1645
Brief Main 1730
Spoof attack good, though 1 oboe T.I. went wide, apparently a hang-up.
R (F/Lt Abraham) marked BERLIN, 3 minutes late owing to U/S R/T and uncertainty of adjusted H hour.
L (F/Lt Skillman) had equipment U/S and, with TIs only, had to return. Oil-and-water trap exploded on way home damaging much equipment. Eventually undercarriage collapsed after swing while attempting to land with no brakes at WOODBRIDGE.
[Page break]
[Stamp] 32
BOU K WITH R
R 1523 ACG AR
STAND BY FOR B/CAST
B/CAST V GPH GPH101/17 OP OP
OAK
GRY
GSD
WTN
WBS
DOW
BOU
LTS
UPW
HBC
EDR
FROM GPH
TO ALL P.F.F. STATIONS
INFO [deleted word] HBC EDR
SECRET QWM BT
GPH 93/17 171355A FORM B 573. CORRECT IN PARA (C) 1. WHITEBAIT
6Y/139 + 2Y/162 + 5/128 ETC
NOT 27/162 AS SENT
BT 171535A
TOD 171535A BRINDLEY/AS FOR K WITH R
105 CO 162 CO
THANKS [initials]
[Page break]
[Underlined] 18.3.45 [/underlined] 84
10 aircraft (8 BERLIN and 2 E.W. WITTEN)
R W/Cdr Bolton Y
D F/Lt Stewart
Y F/O Smith
C F/O Knights
V F/O Burgess
E F/O Rhys
W P/O McGown
B F/Lt Haden
U P/O Watt }
T P/O Inkpen } E.W.
Reserves A, G
O.C. S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/O Tulloch
Sgt Fossitt
[Underlined] E.W. Main [/underlined]
Meal 2330 1600
Brief Nav. 0015 1645
Brief Main 0100 1730
Both attacks very successful. T.Is disappeared fairly quickly into cloud at BERLIN but floaters remained clearly visible and were well concentrated. ‘Y’ aircraft marked 25 seconds late.
Good photographs of widespread fires from the 2 early windowers at WITTEN.
[Page break]
85 [Underlined] 19.3.45 [/underlined]
[Deleted] 10 [/deleted] 6 aircraft (BERLIN)
R F/Lt Skillman Y
[Deleted] W F/Lt Waller [/deleted]
[Deleted] G F F/O Connor [/deleted]
Y R/O B. Jones
[Deleted] E F/O Rawsthorn [/deleted]
[Deleted] F/Lt Goodman [/deleted]
A F/O E. Jones
U [deleted] F/O Richards [/deleted] F/Lt Marshall
D F/Lt Whitworth
Z F/O Lowe
Reserves [deleted] B, Z, J [/deleted] G
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Hopkin
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Kennelly
Meal [Deleted] 1600 1615 10 [/deleted] 2245
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1645 1700 [/deleted] 2330
Brief Main [deleted] 1730 1745 [/deleted] 0015
A good attack with T.Is well concentrated. Y aircraft marked on time. Effort reduced by 4 owing to doubtful weather.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 20.3.45 [/underlined] 86
10 aircraft (1 U/T Y BREMEN, and 9 KASSEL)
R F/Lt Lucas U/T Y
W F/Lt Waller
C F/O Connor
U P/O Watt
E F/O Rhys
V F/Lt McClelland
G F/O Rawthorn
T F/Lt Goodman
A F/Lt Bland
Z P/O Way
Reserves B, J
O.C. [Deleted] W/Cdr Bolton [/deleted] S/Ldr McDermott
F/Lt Stewart
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Wallis
F/Sgt Nichols
[Underlined] Y Remainder [/underlined]
Meal 2330 2230
Brief Nav. 0015 2315
Brief Main 0100 2359
Z (P/O Way) cancelled. Engine failed to start. 1st reserve had mag. drop and 2nd also failed to start. Query P/O Way’s system of starting. (Same trouble on 1.1.45)
Attack on KASSEL quite successful. R (F/Lt Lucas) had H2S failure on turn at BREMEN, and dropped bombs only.
[Page break]
39
WTN 251 OAK 544 GRY 375 DOW 366 GSD 562 BOU 226 UPW 989
V GPH GPH8/22
FROM AOC. PFF. 221245A
TO OFFICERS COMMANDING R.A.F. STATION, UPWOOD WYTON OAKINGTON GRAVELEY BOURN GRANSDEN LODGE AND DOWNHAM MARKET
QWM BT
A.195 22/MAR THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE HAS BEEN RECEIVED FROM THE A.O.C.-IN-C. BOMBER COMMAND. BEGINS. CONGRATUALTIONS TO ALL CONCERNED IN THE UNBROKEN SERIES OF THIRTY CONSECUTIVE NIGHT ATTACKS ON BERLIN. A MAGNIFICENT EFFORT. END. I HAVE REPLIED. BEGINS. YOUR MESSAGE OF CONGRATULATIONS WILL BE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED BY ALL CONCERNED. I KCAN [sic] ASSURE YOU WE SHALL KEEP ON PRESSING UNTIL THE END. ENDS.
BT 221245A
CC LINE 6 CWQ I CAN ASSURE
TOD 1334 HATFIELD
SHQ –
162 CO
195 CO
162 CO. √
Stn. C.O
[Page break]
[Stamp] 34
B/CAST V GPH GPH3/22
247 WTN T 128 SQDN 163 SQDN
985 UPW T 139 SQDN
558 GSD T 142 SQDN
540 OAK T 571 SQDN
362 DOW T 608 SQDN
371 GRY T 692 SQDN
223 BOU T 162 SQDN
FROM A/V/M BENNETT 221030A
TO ALL RANKS NOS 128= 139 = 142 = 571 = 608 = 692 = 163 = 162 SQUADNS BT
P. 140 22/MAR YOUR MAGNIFICENT EFFORTS LAST NIGHT MADE A CONTRIBUTION IN THE RISING CRESCENDO OF ATTACK ON THE GERMAN CRIMINAL. IT WAS A NIGHT WHICH THE BERLINERS WILL REMEMBER TO THEIR SORROW. THE HEAT HAS BEEN TURNED ON AND YOU ARE KEEPING IT ON MAGNIFICENTLY. CONGRATUALTIONS.
= DONALD BENNETT.
BT 221030A
AS
TOD 221129A BRINDLEY/AR+
162 CO. √
Stn. C.O
[Page break]
87 [Underlined] 21.3.45 [/underlined]
⑳ aircraft (2 attacks BERLIN)
R F/Lt Skillman Y
Y F/Lt Hopkin
F F/O Connor
Z P/O Way
G F/Lt Bland
U F/O Lowe
A F/O Rawthorn
S F/Lt Marshall
B F/O Rhys
V F/Lt McClelland
C F/O Finlay
D F/Lt Goodman
W P/O McGown
T F/Lt Waller
E F/Lt Haden
Z P/O Inkpen
F [deleted] R D [/deleted] F/Lt Whitworth
W [deleted] V [/deleted] F/O Burgess
B [deleted] J [/deleted] F/O E. Jones
U F/O Smith
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/Lt Fawcett
F/O McGregor
[Underlined] I II [/underlined]
Meal 1600 2230
Brief Nav. 1645 2315
Brief Main 1730 2359
A very successful night except for indifferent marking by 139. Ground crews and armourers coped very well in getting aircraft off again within 1 3/4 hours of landing.
R (F/Lt Skillman) had H2S failure and with TIs only, had to return.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 22.3.45 [/underlined] 88
8 aircraft (BERLIN)
R F/Lt Skillman Y
Y F/O B. Jones
B F/Lt Lucas
U P/O Watt
G F/O Finlay
Z P/O Way
C F/Lt Whitworth
S P/O Inkpen
Reserves A, J
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
Sgt Grigg
Meal 1630
Brief Nav. 1715
Brief Main 1800
A very good attack, with clear weather and marking well times and concentrated.
R (F/Lt Skillman) successfully marked 30 seconds early, and obtained an excellent photograph showing ground detail. Plotted A.P. 183° 2100 yards.
Y (F/O B. Jones) on last trip had undercarriage trouble and tail-wheel collapsed on landing.
[Page break]
89 [Underlined] 23.3.45 [/underlined]
10 aircraft (BERLIN)
C [deleted R [/deleted] F/O Lowe [deleted] U/T Y [/deleted]
D F/Lt Stewart
W F/O Burgess
G F/Lt Bland
S F/O Smith
B F/Lt Haden
Z P/O Inkpen
A F/O Rawsthorn
V F/Lt Hopkin
F F/O Connor
Reserves J, T
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Marshall
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Barnicoat
Meal 1830
Brief Nav. 1915
Brief Main 2000
‘A’ cancelled – Dinghy unserviceable and reserve aircraft had mag. drop.
A good concentrated attack both accurate bombing. Built-up area seen in light of bomb-flashes.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 24.3.45 [/underlined] 90
10 aircraft (BERLIN)
R S/Ldr Eddy U/T Y
B F/Lt Goodman
D F/Lt Whitworth
T F/O Richards
C F/O Finlay
U P/O Watt
F F/O Rawsthorn
V F/Lt McClelland
G F/O Jones
Z F/Lt Waller
Reserves J, S
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Lucas
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/Sgt Hanrahan
Meal 1615
Brief Nav. 1700
Brief Main 1745
‘R’ cancelled – Brakes U/S and tyre burst at taxying point.
A good attack with marking and bombing concentrated.
V {F/Lt McClelland) arrived 3 minutes early and complained of a scarcity of marking. This was hardly surprising as T.Is were due to go down at -3 and -2. The point was repeatedly stressed at briefing.
[Page break]
91 [Underlined] 25.3.45 [/underlined]
10 aircraft (BERLIN)
R F/Lt Skillman Y
S F/Lt Marshall
F F/O Connor
T P/O McGown
B F/Lt Haden
Z F/O Lowe
A F/Lt Bland
U F/O Smith
D F/Lt Stewart
V F/O Burgess
Reserves C, J
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Hopkin
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/Sgt Hanrahan
Meal 1615
Brief Nav. 1700
Brief Main 1745
All cancelled (weather) except:-
R F/O Lowe U/T Y
Crew reported quite a good run, but photograph plot shows them to have been 13 miles south of A.P., heading WNW.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 27.3.45 [/underlined] 92
10 aircraft ([Deleted] BERLIN [/deleted]) (9 BERLIN and 1 siren tour BREMEN, MAGDEBURG, HANOVER)
R F/Lt Abraham Y
M F/O Connor U/T Y
F F/Lt Haden
Z P/O Inkpen
A F/Lt Whitworth
T F/Lt Waller
G F/O Finlay
Y F/O Burgess
B F/Lt Lucas
W P/O McGown
Reserves C, V
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Kennedy
F/Sgt Robjohns
Meal 1615
Brief Nav. 1700
Brief Main 1745
Quite a good attack on BERLIN. ‘Y’ aircraft marked 4 mins late as ‘H’ hour was brought forward 10 minutes and he could not make it. Photo-flash failed to ignite, and some mixed green/yellow TIs also seemed to fail. Built-up area seen in light of bomb flashes.
M (F/O Connor) had generator failure before take-off. Bombed BREMEN on D.R., assisted by visual pin-point.
[Page break]
93 [Underlined] 28.3.45 [/underlined]
10 aircraft ( )
R W/Cdr Bolton Y
M F/Lt Marson U/T Y
C F/O Knights
T F/O Spurr
D F/O Rawsthorn
V F/Lt McClelland
A F/O Philip
Y P/O Inkpen
B W/O Henley
S F/Lt Marshall
Reserves G, W
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy
F/Lt Abraham
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/O Layton
F/O Alsop
Meal 1615
Brief Nav. 1700
Brief Main 1745
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
[Underlined] 29.3.45 [/underlined] 94
6 aircraft (3 BERLIN and 3 siren tour BREMEN, HANOVER)
L S/Ldr Eddy }
R F/O Lowe } U/T Y
M F/Lt Marson }
S F/Lt Marshall
B F/O Knights
W P/O Inkpen
Reserve G
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Lucas
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Morrow
P/O Chappell
Meal 1630
Brief Nav. 1715
Brief Main 1800
Marking on BERLIN somewhat scattered, and TIs obscured at times by cloud in various layers.
All 3 aircraft successfully completed siren tour, though M (F/Lt Marson) was very late on target.
[Page break]
95 [Underlined] 30.3.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (5 BERLIN, 5 ERFURT, and 2 siren tour HAMBURG, KIEL)
M W/Cdr Bolton Y
J F/Lt Waller
G F/Lt Bland
U F/Lt McClelland
E F/O Rawsthorn
B W/O Henley
T F/O Richards
A F/O Philip
W P/O McGown
F F/O Finlay
L F/O Connor }
R F/O Spurr } U/T Y
Reserves D, V
O.C. S/Ldr [deleted] Eddy [/deleted] McDermott
[Deleted] F/Lt Abraham [/deleted]
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/Lt Snelling
F/O Lawrence
F/O Crabb
[Underlined] M,U,J,G,E,L,R, T,W,B,A,F
Meal [deleted] 1615 [/deleted] 1630 1845
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1700 [/deleted] 1715 1930
Brief Main [deleted] 1745 [/deleted] 1800 2015
‘R’ (F/O Spurr) cancelled – Mag. drop and V.H.F. u/s
Good attacks on BERLIN and ERFURT, with large explosions and columns of smoke at ERFURT. River clearly visible at BERLIN. ‘Y’ aircraft marked – plotted AP 120° 1.6 miles. Siren tour successful
E (F/O Rawsthorn) had navigator pass out from oxygen failure. Made second run over BERLIN at 12,500’ to ensure release of bomb.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 31.3.45 [/underlined] 96
10 aircraft ( )
L F/Lt Lucas }
R F/O Spurr } U/T Y
M F/O Jones }
T S/Ldr McDermott
F F/Lt Whitworth
W P/O Inkpen
B [deleted] A [/deleted] F/Lt Haden
S F/O Burgess
C F/O Knights
U F/O Smith
Reserves [deleted] B [/deleted] A, Y
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Marshall
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/Lt Gannon
F/O Fisher
Meal [deleted] 1630 [/deleted] 2130
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1715 [/deleted] 2215
Brief Main [deleted] 1800 [/deleted] 2300
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
97
[Underlined] SUMMARY FOR MARCH 1945 [/underlined] (LAST MONTH IN BRACKETS)
OPERATIONAL NIGHTS 27 (19)
NUMBER OF ATTACKS 64 (33)
AIRCRAFT CALLED FOR 285 (224)
AIRCRAFT DESPATCHED [deleted] 285 [/deleted] 279 (223)
NUMBER OF MARKER SORTIES 16 (-)
PERCENTAGE SUCCESSFUL 69% (-)
CANCELLED BY UNIT (WEATHER) – (-)
CANCELLED BY UNIT (SEVICEABILITY) 6 (1)
EARLY RETURNS 1 (1)
OTHER ABORTIVE SORTIES 2 – “Y” U/S (-)
ENGINE FAILURES 1 (-)
AIRCRAFT DAMAGED BY ENEMY ACTION 2 (3)
AIRCRAFT DAMAGED IN ACCIDENTS 3 (4)
AIRCRAFT MISSING – (-)
CREWS AIRCRAFT
STRENGTH AT BEGINNING OF MONTH 25 + 0 (22 + 0) 18 + 0 (18 + 0)
STRENGTH AT END OF MONTH 28 + 2 (25 +0) 16 + 3 (18 + 0)
TARGETS ATTACKED:- BERLIN 29 (12)
BREMEN 6 (-)
HANOVER 6 (2)
OSNABRUCK 3 (1)
ERFURT 2 (2)
HAMBURG 2 (-)
KASSEL 2 (-)
KIEL 2 (-)
BRUNSWICK 1 (-)
DESSAU 1 (1)
HANAU 1 (-)
HERNE 1 (-)
JENA 1 (-)
LUBECK 1 (-)
MAGDEBURG 1 (3)
NUREMBURG 1 (-)
WEIMAR 1 (-)
WESEL 1 (-)
WESERMUNDE 1 (-)
WILHEMSHAVEN 1 (-)
WITTEN 1 (-)
PROMOTIONS:- NIL
COMMISSIONS:- W/O INKPEN, F/SGT CHAPPELL, F/SGT CLARK, F/SGT ROBJOHNS, F/SGT WALKER.
DECORATIONS:- S/LDR EDDY, S/LDR WATERKEYN, F/LT ALEXANDER, F/LT FAWCETT, F/LT HADEN. F/O MORROW. (ALL D.F.C.)
[Page break]
[Underlined] 1.4.45 [/underlined] 98
12 aircraft
L F/Lt Abraham Y
T F/O Richards
C F/O Knights
J F/O Burgess
F F/O Connor
Y S/Ldr McDermott
B F/Lt Lucas
U F/O Smith
E F/Lt Whitworth
A F/Lt Haden
M F/O Jones }
R F/O Spurr } U/T Y
Reserves G, W
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/O Layton
P/O Clark
Sgt Grigg
Meal 1615
Brief Nav. 1700
Brief Main 1745
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
99 [Underlined] 2.4.45 [/underlined]
14 aircraft (12 BERLIN and 2 siren tour HAMBURG, LUBECK)
L F/Lt Abraham Y
C F/O Knights
S F/Lt Marshall
A F/O Finlay
V F/Lt McClelland
E F/O Rawsthorn
W P/O McGown
F F/Lt Whitworth
Y P/O Inkpen
B W/O Henley
J F/Lt Waller
G F/Lt Bland
R F/O Lowe }
M F/O Connor } U/T Y
Reserves T, U
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy
F/Lt Haden
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/Lt Fawcett
F/Sgt Nicholls
Meal 1900
Brief Nav. 1945
Brief Main 2030
A very good attack on Berlin with marking and bombing concentrated. Two large explosions seen. ‘Y’ aircraft marked but photo flash as usual failed to ignite.
‘R’ and ‘M’ had successful siren-tour.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 3.4.45 [/underlined] 100
12 aircraft (10 BERLIN and 2 siren tour MAGDEBURG, BERLIN)
L F/Lt Lucas }
F F/O Spurr } U/T Y
M F/O Jones }
S F/Lt McClelland
G F/O Rawsthorn
J F/O Burgess
Y F/O Smith
W F/O Spurr
V S/Ldr McDermott
E F/Lt Marson
T F/Lt Richards
B W/O Henley
C F/O Finlay
Reserves F, W
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Tulloch
Sgt Heggie
[Underlined] S,G,J,Y Remainder [/underlined]
Meal [deleted] 2045 [/deleted] 1915 [deleted] 1730 [/deleted] 1915
Brief Nav. [deleted] 2130 [/deleted] 2000 [deleted] 1815 [/deleted] 2000
Brief Main [deleted] 2215 [/deleted] 2045 [deleted] 1900 [/deleted] 2045
‘R’ cancelled – Hydraulics U/S. Crew took ‘W’ on main attack.
A very concentrated and successful attack on BERLIN, with good marking.
L (F/Lt Lucas) had successful siren-tour.
M (F/O Jones) had Y U/S and dropped bombs only on MAGDEBURG.
[Page break]
101 [Underlined] 4.4.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (5 BERLIN, 6 E.W. MERSEBURG, and 1 MAGDEBURG)
M F/Lt Abraham }
L F/O Jones } Y
Y F/Lt Hopkin
F F/O Connor
U P/O Watt
A F/Lt Stewart
V P/O Inkpen
C F/Lt Marson
S F/Lt Marshall
B F/Lt Lucas
J F/Lt Waller
R F/Lt Goodman U/T Y
Reserves G, T, Q
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Nav. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Booth
F/O Kilpatrick
F/O Grant
Meal 1730
Brief Nav. 1815
Brief Main 1900
All attack successful. Weather clear at BERLIN but thin cloud at MERSEBURG. U/T Y aircraft marked MAGDEBURG. Excellent ground detail photographs.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 5.4.45 [/underlined] 102
12 aircraft ( )
M W.Cdr Bolton Y
C F/O Knights
V F/Lt McClelland
A F/O Philip
W F/O Richards
L F/O Connor }
Q F/O Spurr } U/T Y
B P/O Henley
S P/O Watt
E F/O Rawsthorn
Y F/O Smith
G F/O Finlay
Reserves F, S
O/C S/Ldr McDermott
Duty Navs. F/O Kerr-Jarrett
P/O Walker
Meal
Brief Nav
Brief Main
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
103 [Underlined] 6.4.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (
R F/Lt Abraham }
M F/O Jones } Y
S F/Lt Marshall
B P/O Henley
T F/O Richards
F F/Lt [deleted] Stewart [/deleted] Marson
Y F/O Smith
E F/O Rawsthorn
V F/Lt McClelland
C F/O Knights
L S/Ldr Eddy }
Q F/O Spurr } U/T Y
Reserves A, W
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
P/O Clark (Can)
F/Sgt Hanrahan
Meal 1730
Brief Nav. 1815
Brief Main 1900
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
[Underlined] 7.4.45 [/underlined] 104
[Deleted] 14 [/deleted] 10 aircraft (
Q F/Lt Abraham }
M F/P Jones } Y
[Deleted] R [/deleted] K F/O Spurr }
L F/O Connor } U/T Y
[Deleted] Y F/Lt Hopkin
B P/O Henley
J V F/Lt Waller
G F/O Finlay
U P/O Watt
E F/O Rawsthorn
W P/O Inkpen
C F/O Knights
T F/Lt Goodman
F F/Lt Stewart [/deleted]
Y F/Lt Hopkin
G F/O Finlay
J F/Lt Waller
F F/Lt Stewart
U P/O Watt
T F/Lt Goodman
Reserves A, S
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
P/O McGregor
F/O Sargeant
Meal 1730
Brief Nav. 1815
Brief Main 1900
Cancelled
Weather
[Page break]
105 [Underlined] 8.4.45 [/underlined]
14 aircraft (2 Y and 2 U/T Y BERLIN and 10 DESSAU)
Q F/Lt Abraham }
M F/O Jones } Y
L S/Dr Eddy }
K F/O Spurr } U/T Y
J F/Lt Waller
B [deleted letter] P/O Henley
T F/O Richards
G [deleted] letter] F/O Finlay
Y F/O Smith
A F/O Philip
U P/O Watt
F [deleted] B [/deleted] F/Lt Stewart
V F/Lt McClelland
E [deleted letter] F/O Knights
Reserves [deleted] E [/deleted] W, S, R
O.C W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Marshall
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Morrow
F/O Barnicoat
Meal 1745
Brief Nav. 1830
Brief Main 1915
BERLIN attack fair; all Y aircraft [inserted] dropped [/inserted] but both U/Ts were a long way from A.P. Oboe attempted this target for the first time, and were also some distance from A.P., according to photographic plot. DESSAU attack a complete failure owing to total absence of markers from 139. Issue further complicated by 100 Group fooling about with TIs in the area. Some aircraft bombed these, others used GEE, & remainder joined heavy attack on LUTZKENDORF.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 9.4.45 [/underlined] 106
12 aircraft (5 BERLIN, 3 HAMBURG, and 4 E.W. KIEL)
Q F/Lt Abraham }
M F/O Jones } Y
T F/O Richards
B F/Lt Lucas
W W/O Inkpen
E F/O Rawsthorn }
Y F/Lt Hopkin }
A F/O Philip } E.W.
S F/Lt Marshall }
K F/Lt Marson }
R F/Lt Goodman } U/T Y
L F/O Connor }
Reserves J, F
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Stewart
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Hagues
P/O Robjohns
Sgt Grigg
Meal 1730
Brief Nav. 1815
Brief Main 1950
All attacks very successful. Both Y aircraft marked BERLIN, and 2 U/T Y marked HAMBURG. K (F/Lt Marson) had H2S U/S and dropped bombs only. Heavies going very well on KIEL with some opposition.
[Page break]
107 [Underlined] 10.4.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (7 BERLIN and 5 CHEMNITZ)
M S/Ldr Eddy }
Q F/O Spurr }
L F/O Connor } U/T Y
R F/Lt Goodman }
K F/Lt Marson }
U P/O Watt
C F/O Knights
V F/Lt McClelland
G F/O Finlay
W F/O Smith
B P/O Henley
J F/Lt Waller
Reserves E, T
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt [deleted] Hopkin [/deleted] Lucas
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/O Crabb
F/O Kennedy
Meal 1730
Brief Nav. 1815
Brief Main 1900
BERLIN raid very successful with fires close to A.P. from previous attack. All U/T Y aircraft marked CHEMNITZ, but marking was scattered and generally undershot by 2 1/2 miles owing to Group having worked out the method incorrectly.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 11.4.45 [/underlined] 108
12 aircraft (7 BERLIN and 5 U/T Y singly BERLIN)
[Deleted] L W/Cdr Bolton } [deleted]
[Deleted] F/Lt Abraham } Y [/deleted]
L S/Ldr Eddy } H+12
M F/Lt Lucas } H+38
R F/O Spurr } U/T Y H+18
K F/O Finlay } H+5
Q F/Lt Marson } H+30
Y [deleted letter] F/Lt Marshall
F F/Lt Stewart
W [deleted letter] P/O Inkpen
A F/O Philip
T F/O Richards
E F/O Rawsthorn
U P/O Watt
Reserves B, V
O.C. [deleted] W [/deleted] S/Ldr Eddy
F/Lt [deleted] Hopkin [/deleted] Skillman
Duty Navs. F/O Hagues
F/O Tempest
F/Lt Fawcett
Y,F,W,A,T,E,U. L,Q,M,R,K.
Meal 1730 1945
Brief Nav. 1816 1815
Brief Main 1900 1900
All attacks successful in clear weather with good marking by Oboe. Fires seen burning close to A.P. Ground-details photographs from L (S/Ldr Eddy), M (F/Lt Lucas) and Q (|F/Lt Marson)
S/Ldr Eddy nearest – plotted A.P. 360° 1550 yards.
[Page break]
109 [Underlined] 13.4.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (2 Y STRALSUND, 8 HAMBURG, and 2 U/T Y HAMBURG)
Q W/Cdr Bolton }
L F/Lt Skillman } Y
M F/O Connor }
K F/O Lowe } U/T Y
V F/Lt Hopkin
A F/Lt Bland
T F/O Richards
F F/Lt Whitworth
W P/O McGown
B F/Lt Haden
J F/O Burgess
C F/O Knights
Reserves U, S
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy
F/Lt Abraham
Duty Navs. F/Lt [deleted] Fawcett [/deleted] Alexander
F/O Allsop
F/O Lawrence
Q,L,M,K Remainder
Meal 1830 2000
Brief Nav. 1915 2045
Brief Main 2000 2100
TI’s [inserted] glow [/inserted] visible through 10/10 cloud at HAMBURG though no results seen. Good spoof at STRALSUND but ‘L’ had H2S U/S and ‘Q’ had bombing gear U/S.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 14.4.45 [/underlined] 110
[Deleted] 12 [/deleted] 7 aircraft (BERLIN)
G F/Lt Bland
W [deleted letter] P/O McGown
B F/Lt Haden
J F/Lt Waller
C F/O Philip
S F/Lt Marshall
F P/O Henley
P F/O Spurr }
K F/Lt Marson }
Q F/Lt Goodman } U/T Y
L F/O Lowe }
M F/O Finlay }
Reserves E, V
O.C. [deleted] S/Ldr [/deleted] W/Cdr Bolton
S/Ldr Eddy
Duty Nav. F/Lt Gannon
F/O Wallis
Meal 1815
Brief Nav. 1900
Brief Main 1945
U/T Y aircraft cancelled – Weather
A very successful attack. Weather clear and Oboe marking good. Several large explosions with black smoke. Large fires seen at POTSDAM.
[Page break]
111 {underlined] 15.4.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (BERLIN)
M S/Ldr Eddy }
[Deleted] R F/O Finlay [/deleted]
K F/Lt Marson }
P F/O Spurr } U/T Y
L F/O Connor }
Q F/Lt Goodman }
Y F/Lt Hopkin
B F/O Knights
J F/O Burgess
E F/O [deleted] Whitworth [/deleted] Finlay
T F/Lt Richards
[Deleted] F/Lt Stewart [/deleted]
Reserves G, S
O.C. W/Cdr Bolton
F/Lt Abraham
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
P/O Clark (Scot)
P/O Clark (Can)
Meal 1730
Brief Nav. 1815
Brief Main 1900
F cancelled – Tyre burst and reserve a/c u/s
A bad start. F/O Tulloch went sick at briefing and the crews’ place was taken by F/O Finlay & F/O Allsop who returned U/S from 1st attack but got going again very quickly. F (F/Lt Stewart) had tyre burst at caravan & got into reserve a/c but found it U/S.
[Page break]
[Underlined] 16.4.45 [/underlined] 112
12 aircraft ([deleted] 4 [/deleted] 3 Y + 7 MUNICH)
Q F/Lt Abraham Y
L F/O Connor }
[Deleted] F/Lt Goodman [/deleted] }
[Deleted] F/O Finlay [/deleted] } U/T Y
P F/O Lowe }
K F/Lt Bland }
C F/O Finlay
W P/O McGown
G P/O Henley
J F/Lt Waller
A F/O Philip
S F/Lt Marshall
E F/Lt Haden
Y F/Lt Goodman
Reserves [deleted] C, Y [/deleted] T
O.C W/Cdr Bolton F/Lt Stewart
Duty Navs. S/Ldr Waterkeyn
F/Sgt Hanrahan
Meal [deleted 1730 2200 [/deleted] 2230
Brief Nav. [deleted] 1815 2245 [/deleted] 2315
Brief Main [deleted] 1900 2330 [/deleted] 2359
T (F/Lt Bland) had engine cut on take-off. A/C swung and finished by running 50 yards backwards into dispersal.
Attack very successful in clear weather. 5 good ground-detail photographs all of same area.
E (F/Lt Haden) plotted on A.P.
[Page break]
113 [Underlined 17.4.45 [/underlined]
12 aircraft (4 Y BERLIN and 8 INGOLSTADT)
Q W/Cdr Bolton }
L F/Lt Skillman } Y
P F/O Spurr }
K F/Lt Marson } U/T Y
W F/Lt Richards
E F/Lt Stewart
S F/Lt Waller
G F/Lt Bland
J F/O Burgess
A F/Lt Whitworth
Y F/Lt Hopkin
C F/O Knights
Reserves U, V, M/R
O.C. S/Ldr Eddy
F/Lt Marshall
Duty Navs. F/Lt Alexander
F/O Morrow
F/O Fisher
Meal 1730
Brief Nav. 1815
Brief Main 1900
Severe Cu. Nim with lightning, icing thermals etc. on way to Berlin. 3 of the 4 Y aircraft last ASIs on going through. 3 also had Y U/S but bombed on GEE. Attack on INGOLDSTADT airfield very successful. Airfield afterwards estimated 75% u/s.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
162 Squadron Light Night Striking Force Battle Orders
Recollections of 455 (Australian) Squadron August 1941 - April 1942
Description
An account of the resource
162 Squadron crew lists and record of operations from 19 December 1944 to 17 April 1945 and John Bolton's memoir.
Creator
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John Derek Bolton
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
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.
Format
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Handwritten booklet and seven typewritten sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
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Text
Text. Memoir
Text. Service material
Identifier
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MBoltonJD67631-170906-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Conforms To
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Pending review
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Suffolk
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Bonn
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dessau (Dessau)
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Erfurt
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Hanau
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Lübeck
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Germany--Ingolstadt
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
1945-01
1945-02
1945-03
1945-04
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anne-Marie Watson
162 Squadron
455 Squadron
aircrew
Bennett, Donald Clifford Tyndall (1910-1986)
bombing
Distinguished Flying Cross
Hampden
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
mine laying
Mosquito
navigator
Pathfinders
pilot
RAF Bourn
RAF Woodbridge
searchlight
Wellington
Whitley
Window
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/544/19188/SHookerFJ1805487v10019.1.jpg
8e18870779233b830243a71430e5e8b3
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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Hooker, Fred
Fred J Hooker
F J Hooker
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Hooker, FJ
Description
An account of the resource
31 items. Two oral history interviews with Sergeant Fred Hooker (b. 1924, 1850487 Royal Air Force) and his scrapbook containing photographs and documents. He flew operations as a mid-upper gunner with 102 Squadron and became a prisoner of war on 12 September 1944.
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
2016-05-25
2017-08-26
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Forced March
Description
An account of the resource
A sketch map of the route taken by the prisoners from Stalag Luft 7. It names the towns passed through, the numbers of prisoners killed and their rations for 21 days.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-02
Format
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One hand drawn sketch map on two pages of a book
Language
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eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Map
Text
Identifier
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SHookerFJ1805487v10019
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Poland
Germany--Luckenwalde
Poland--Tychowo
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.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-02
prisoner of war
Stalag 3A
Stalag Luft 7
the long march
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1309/18536/PWatsonC17010037.1.jpg
b0c7a29933a17ff76e74f41582cb5b25
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
Watson, Clifford. Scrapbook
Description
An account of the resource
Clifford Watson's scrapbook containing photographs and documents.
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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Watson, 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/.
Description
An account of the resource
Photo 1 is a head and shoulders portrait od a pilot, annotated 'F/O Bates'.
Photo 2 is a full length portrait of three airmen, annotated 'F/O Bates W/O Jennery (Nav) Sgt Weston (Flt. Eng)'. and 'Feb 45'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-02
Format
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Two b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWatsonC17010037
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
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.
1945-02
Title
A name given to the resource
Flying Officer Bates, Warrant Officer Jennery and Sergeant Weston
aircrew
flight engineer
navigator
pilot
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/877/18456/PHolmanR1804.2.jpg
6169534e19480b4eea2a0b605e57e777
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/877/18456/PHolmanR1805.2.jpg
38c53d89c2ab1e55d77617d602abc16a
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
Holman, Robert
R Holman
Description
An account of the resource
14 items. An oral history interview with Aircraftman Robert Holman (1925 3020209, Royal Air Force) official documents, a service history and photographs. After training as an engine fitter he served on HQ 5 Group servicing section as a mobile engineer carrying out major servicing at large number of 5 Group bomber stations. In 1945 he transferred to the Fleet Air Arm before demobilisation in 1946.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Robert Holman and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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
2018-02-08
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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Holman, R
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
5 Group Servicing Section
Description
An account of the resource
A large group of airmen sitting and standing in three rows in front of a Lancaster. All are wearing tunic and side cap. An officer in centre of front row is wearing peaked cap. On the reverse '5 Group Servicing Section taken at RAF Swinderby on 31.2.45 [sic]. Before our party started, you should have seen us afterwards. Party at HQ RAF Morton Hall'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-02
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PHolmanR1804, PHolmanR1805
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Language
A language of the resource
eng
5 Group
ground crew
ground personnel
Lancaster
RAF Morton Hall
RAF Swinderby
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1300/17898/PGreenJ1901.2.jpg
b14602c2b2a5a0d0f474ee6b3099f4cf
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1300/17898/AGreenJ190307.2.mp3
c4c66aa1cf8bc65f3c03434e1d4d9290
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Green, John
J Green
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with John Green (b.1921, 1213252 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as an air gunner with 100 and 12 Squadrons.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-03-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Green, J
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
GT: This is Thursday the 7th of March 2019 and I am at the home of Mr John Green, born 22nd September 1921 in Penge, South East London, England. John’s home is in Auckland, New Zealand. John joined the RAF in June 1942 as a drogue operator on the Isle of Man. Later, John volunteered for bomb disposal, and after fourteen months he volunteered for aircrew and trained as an air gunner in early 1944. From June 1944, John crewed up with pilot Flight Sergeant Leslie Flooder, or Podge, an Australian, at 30 Operational Training Unit, Hixon and then 1667 Conversion Unit at Sandtoft, Lancaster Finishing School at Hemswell and then on to operations with 100 Squadron at Grimsby late October, completing sixteen operations and posted to 12 Squadron at RAF Wickenby for fifteen operations. All on Lancaster Mark III aircraft. John completed his RAF operational flying in May 1945 with a total of one hundred and eighty four hours, day and night flying. John, thank you for allowing me to interview you for the IBCC Archives, so please tell me why, and how, you joined the Royal Air Force.
JG: Right. Well, when war broke out, I, all your mates were joining up, and I think I was eighteen at the time and I thought myself well if I wait till I get called up they’ll put me in the Army, and I didn’t want to go in the bloody Army I said! So I went down to the recruiting centre and joined in the RAF just as an ordinary airmen, nothing special. They said okay, we will call you when we need you. I think it was another year gone by before they called me up.
GT: And what were you doing while you were waiting?
JG: I was working in engineering factory and when I got the call up I was posted to Blackpool for six weeks training, you know, fitness training and education and all that.
GT: But that was a far cry from you riding a bicycle wasn’t it?
JG: Yeah!
GT: What was the bicycle thing about?
JG: Oh, the bicycle, that was in one of me jobs, was, I was, what d’you call them, errand boy! That was when I left school at fourteen, I went as errand boy riding a bike with a big basket on the front delivering all the goods and that to people who’d bought them from the shops.
GT: And whereabouts did you grow up there, and born?
JG: In Penge. Grew up in Penge, joined, volunteered in Penge, and then I got posted from Blackpool, I got posted to the Isle of Man; a General Duties airman. And when I got the Isle of Man they wanted drogue operators, people to volunteer to fly, which you got an extra shilling a week by doing that which I was interested in, cause a shilling was a lot of money in those days!
GT: What was the role of a drogue operator?
JG: He dropped the drogue. In the bottom of the aircraft, mainly Lysanders, or whichever one I was in, you had a trapdoor. You open the trapdoor and in front of you, you had like a drum, a big drum with three metal drums on it, filled with wire and you used to clip one of these wire onto one of the drogues and try and drop ‘em out the aircraft, then you stood up and controlled the speed of the drum with a handbrake until you got near enough all you want out, you lock it up and then the aircraft used to fly around, towing the drogue, training all aircrew to fire at it.
GT: So the other aircraft would bead on to you and -
JG: On to the drogue and fire.
GT: Your log book states you flew Lysander, Fairey Battle, Anson and Blenheim aircraft and that was all with the drogue operations.
JG: No, Lysander and Fairey Battle, and what was the other one?
GT: Anson and Blenheims.
JG: No, Anson, Anson they done, I flew doing me camera work. Instead of guns, instead of having bullets, you had a camera and you used a camera firing. and the Blenheim, Blenheim was just a trip you wanted and I think it flew me, flew me I was going on leave.
GT: So that were the gunners flying, aircraft, to shoot at the drogues, the Defiants or aircraft like that?
JG: Yeah, any, could be even the Anson used to fly along the side, and they used to open the window and poke their cine camera out, or the guns out and if you had usually three gunners in your aircraft they had different colour bullets so when they got the drogue back, dropped back, into a, had a special field you should drop the drogue back then fetched it back to headquarters then they could count the bullet holes whether they were red, blue, black, or yellow, they knew how many hits you had.
GT: They just dipped the bullets into paint, didn’t they.
JG: Yeah, to get the colour bullet and that’s how they knew, and course with the camera, they had a cine camera. Because one day I was up there doing camera and I saw, I think it was an Anson coming along, towing, towing a drogue so I took a photo of me shooting this Anson down! I got a right bollocking for it! [Laugh] But good laugh, but it was such a good target, I said, it’s there. And I didn’t use a lot of film!
GTL Any close calls? Did any of the aircraft nearly shoot you down instead of the drogue?
JG: I think it happened once on our station, drogue operator got killed like that. Whoever was using it, instead of firing at the drogue away from the towing aircraft they fired while they were coming in and the bullets carried on and hit the towing aircraft.
GT: They were all three nought three machine guns, yes.
JG: Yes, 303s.
GT: So you liked that, is that something you wanted to carry on with or you went to volunteer for something else?
JG: No, I liked that, getting paid and then it came up they wanted volunteers, you get fed up with it as a youngster, wanted volunteers on this Bomb Disposal Unit so I thought oh, that’ll be a change, so joined that and I was posted to Bath, Barford Manor, that’s a country village outside of Bath in this big manor house what the RAF had commandeered. I spent I don’t know how long, quite a long time there, and from there I joined up from, into aircrew training.
GT: What explosives disposal training did you have?
JG: Bom disposal, oh just the lessons on the fuses and how defuse and listen, if they were ticking and that.
GT: So the bombs could have been ticking and did you have something to tell you?
JG: Oh yeah, you had like an instrument you got here, stuck on there and if it was ticking, if the fuse was ticking that meant it was alive, ready to go off. It’s timed.
GT: So what did you do?
JG: Run! [chuckles] Yeah.
GT: And if they wanted to dispose of them, how did they dispose of them?
JG: They had a disposal officer who used to go, get down a hole, and it was surprising, the bomb, could unscrew the cap which allowed him to get to the fuse and he could undo the fuse and slowly [emphasis] get it out to defuse the bomb.
GT: It was the officer doing that?
JG: Yes, that was the officer’s job.
GT: And these were mainly German bombs you were training on?
JG: They were practically all German bombs. A few of them were English ones where the plane, English planes had crashed.
GT: So did they send you out on daily, or night?
JG: Yeah, whatever it was needed. I mean when we wasn’t out digging up, or digging after the bombs, we were in the schools training, what to do, you know, learning all about it.
GT: Did you lose any men?
JG: No, not on bomb disposal.
GT: That’s good. So from bomb disposal you looked at aircrew and they obviously accepted you. Was it difficult to do?
JG: Yes, took a long time to get accepted. You had to go to school, you had to pass exams and that, for education purposes, and once you pass all them exams then you start your bomber training, your air gunner training.
GT: So when you were doing your training though, did they look back at what you did at school?
JG: No, no.
GT: Was it open to everybody? Everybody had to do that training. School.
JG: Well everybody who was going to be a gunner like, it might be my turn to go to the aircraft to take the guns out and take them to the armoury and then strip the guns and clean it all and check the barrel, cause on one occasion, that was I think after I shot down that Ju, when I clean and checked it, the barrel had no rifling left, was smooth, and the other three was okay, so that meant the barrel was useless, you had to put a new barrel in the gun..
GT: So did they choose you to be an air gunner or did you ask them that you wanted to be one?
JG: I chose, I chose to be an air gunner.
GT: And you had good eyesight, good health.
JG Yeah, I had good eyesight, hearing, everything was good and I didn’t, well I wasn’t intelligent enough to be a navigator, and wireless operator, I couldn’t stand that dat dat dat dat dat Morse code and of course the engineer you had to study specific engineer, studied all the instruments and the engines, navigator, that was the main job in the Air Force, was navigator. I think he was the most important man in the aircraft. I think he was more important than the pilot. He was the one who got you there and got you back, or told you, to get there and get back.
GT: Did you end up back on the Isle of Man in the aircraft doing the drogue shooting or did you do that at another place?
JG: No, I think we might, I’m not sure, no, didn’t land on the Isle of Man again. Once I left there I went to Waltham like the training stations, the different ones. The main two was Waltham and then Wickenby and then when I, that was it and when I was and waiting for demob I was at a RAF training unit for all new people coming in, joining in; I was in charge of the stores.
GT: So how long was your gunnery course?
JG: I don’t know, only by looking, offhand, you know, quite a long time, cause you used to start off wearing a cap with a white bit in.
GT: As a cadet.
JG: That signifies you’re a cadet for an air crew.
GT: Once you were, graduated and completed, that was what, late 1943?
JG: Yeah, the training.
GT: And you moved on to crew up somewhere?
JG: Yeah, Hixon, should be, should be 30 OTU, Hixon.
GT: And your log book shows that to be the 9th of June 1944 when you met there, on Wellingtons, so you met your future crew there.
JG: On Wellingtons, yes.
GT: So tell me about your skipper and your crew.
JG: He was, well what they used to do to crew you up, all the aircrew are posted to this aerodrome and when you come out, or in the mess for a meal, you meet all the other airmen. You get friendly with one, or they get friendly with you, and then by the time, I think it was only about, only about a week, I got friendly with the rear gunner, he wanted to be a rear gunner, I wanted to be mid upper, so then we met Barney, he’s the navigator, oh we met Podge walking round and we said, you go up to him and hi, you know, and have you got a crew, no I’m just getting crewed up. Did you want a couple of gunners? Yeah, he said, right, that was me and Jack and a pilot, carried on walking, we picked up the bomb aimer, navigator and a wireless operator, he was Australian, that was six of us and we done a lot of training there before we got posted to another station where all the engineers had been posted to and we made up our seventh member of the crew.
GT: What was the aircraft types that you did your OTU work with? Wellingtons?
JG: Wellington and Halifaxes, Halifax. It shows you there in the book how many Halifax, and then from that, Halifax, we went to er -
GT: Well your Conversion Unit was 1667 and you flew in Halifaxes there for about two weeks.
JG: Yeah. That’s right, that was coming off the Wellington onto that Conversion Unit and we flew Halifaxes and then from there we went to another station, Lancaster Finishing School.
GT: You only did five days flying for that!
JG: That’s all! Yeah, then that was it, then you were posted to your, you know, whatever squadron you were going to be; got posted to 100 Squadron
GT: You were 100 Squadron at Waltham and did your first operation on Cologne on the 31st of October, 1944.
JG: That was something I always remember about that first trip. We wasn’t, we wasn’t scared to start with, but we was once we was up there, but being in the mid upper gunner that had a three hundred and sixty degree turn, where you turned all the way round and when your guns got round and it was your own aircraft, they had something there where you couldn’t fire ‘em. But as I was turning round, I looked up the front the way we were going and all I could see was one big mass of red, where Cologne was alight, and the flashes of the flak and that exploding and all the FE, all, it frightened the bloody life out of me. I never, ever [emphasis] looked again where we were going to go, until after we left. That once, I only looked that once, and that was enough. I looked a couple of times, Heligoland is in there, that was towards the end, that was with the other pilot. And that was, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and there wasn’t a German fighter in the sky either. We could fly round there as if we owned it, you know, they just didn’t have the fighters left, not the Germans.
GT: Well John, I’ve just got a list of your crew and if you’ll allow me I’ll just quickly read them out, for the record here. Flying Officer Flooder, Australian Air Force pilot; Sergeant Barnes, RAF navigator; Sergeant Williams, RAF flight engineer; Flight Sergeant Maslin, Australian Air Force, wireless operator and Flight Sergeant Armstrong, RAF bomb aimer. And yourself Sergeant John Green, as RAF mid upper gunner, [dog barking] and the rear gunner was Sergeant Everly. So you stayed together for your first part of your flying, on 100 Squadron.
JG: The first fifteen ops, yeah.
GY: And for those fifteen ops.
JG: Until he got grounded.
GT: It was your skipper that was grounded, was that right. What was the story with him?
JG: After the Dresden raid there, it’ll be in the log book, after the Dresden raid we got back all right. Next night, next day they sent us down out Chemnitz after we’d done canals flying, we were put on, and the navigator, we’d been flying about an hour, and said I’ve had enough of this skipper, I can’t do my job, I’m too tired. So he come back, he told the pilot to come back and the pilot got the rollocking for it, for not carrying on, you know, regardless, dropping the bomb sort of thing.
GT: So he brought the bombs back to base.
JG: Yeah, and then what happened we got back to base you’ve still got all your bombs on, go out somewhere the North Sea and drop the cookie and we had to go and drop the cookie to get rid of it.
GT: Did you drop them armed? Were they armed when you dropped them? Did you make them explode or just?
JG: The cookie? No, we just dropped it. No, what the, there’s one op there, that, we dropped the bombs, and I’ve got it in, got: ‘Dropped cookie manually on spare’. That it? What happened there -
GT: It was the 15th of December 1944.
JG: Yeah. We got out and bombs away the pilot said, and then as we went away, he said, “Bluey,” that was the bomb aimer, Bluey, “are you sure all the bombs have gone, he said it feels heavy, the way it’s flying, so he said, “all right I’ll press all these switches, John will you get down and have a look?” So I get out the turret and look through a window in the floor of the aircraft and I could see the bomb. I said no, the bloody bomb’s still here! So they said right what we going to do? I’m sure it was the bomb aimer: let’s go round and drop it. And all of us: no you f-ing well don’t! We, no, we’re not going round there again! So I said to ‘em look, we’ve got to fly back, we’re gonna fly over, somewhere over Germany, you notify when we’re getting near where to the bomb aimer and skipper, when he gets out, I’ll drop it, I’ll pull the lever and drop it manually. And that’s what we done. We suddenly come up, there’s a town ahead, John, place called Spau in Germany, and then I’m talking to the bomb aimer and he’s saying, “right John get ready, get ready, when I tell you go, pull that lever, get ready, go!” Pulled the lever and the bomb dropped, and we just carried on. We just saw a big flash on the ground and that was it.
GT: What height would you have been at to do that?
JG: About fourteen, fifteen thousand feet. Cause we all, all [emphasis] of you kept above ten thousand.
GT: You’d have been on oxygen at the time.
JG: Yeah, yeah. Though when I, actually, what I done, get out my turret, and then at the side of your turret’s a small oxygen bottle, pull that out, clip it on to your oxygen mask so you’re on oxygen from the bottle, not from the aircraft. Yeah. That’s how they done it.
GT: And that was an eight thousand pound cookie.
JG: Yeah, er, four thousand pound cookie, but they finished up making them twelve thousand, that one they built, imitation up at MOTET haven’t they. They built that one. Must’ve made a bloody big ‘ole!
GT: So that was on the 15th of December, you did a further three operations there, 24th Christmas Eve, 1944.
JG: That’s when we landed at Rattlesden.
GT: Ooh! So tell me about that. What happened there?
JG: When we got back, I believe our engine caught fire.
GT: Ah, okay, was that from enemy damage, or did it?
JG: I don’t know, just so, put the fire out [cough] and when we get back it’s a bit foggy and that, and we didn’t have, only three engines, we didn’t have the mucking about, so we got ordered to land at Rattlesden. Rattlesden was American drome, and that’s when they pinched me bloody gloves, thieving bastards!
GT: Did the Americans not have much kit?
JG: No, they, Americans, course everything with the Americans was souvenirs. Course when we landed, we’d taken one, two, four pairs of gloves, the gunners had, and they were all left in the turret and of course we went you know, for a meal and briefing and for a meal, and then bed. When went up the next morning to fly back, we get to the aircraft and me gloves and that were gone and we couldn’t fly back cause our plane was unserviceable. I can’t, I believe it says there, come back as a passenger.
GT: So you lost all four pairs of gloves, to the Americans?
JG: Yes.
GT: Did they grab anything else?
JG: No, and they, I know when I come back and reported it, the CO, oh, I was put on a charge because losing your kit, and the officer who interviewed me over it was a New Zealander and he said, look he said, you couldn’t lock up. I said no, we had no locks on the door, he said so how the bloody hell can you, either take all your kit with you, how can you stop if you can’t lock the aircraft up? And he made a verdict of not, well, I wasn’t charged, it was dismissed and I was issued a new set of gloves. Through this officer, Wheatley.
GT: Your log book states that was about the 18th of November that that particular incident happened. You managed to get back to your home base. So what happened then with your skipper? You were telling me that your skipper -
JG: Yeah, well when we got back from the Chemnitz raid, you’ve got Chemnitz there, haven’t you, Dresden ten hours.
GT: Yup, what happened after that?
JG: We were flying, next day we flew to Chemnitz, and that’s when we returned, the pilot, the navigator said he was ill, that’s when they grounded the pilot, said his eyesight is not good enough to fly a four engined bomber, and he’d already done seventeen trips.
GT: So the pilot took the rap for the navigator’s -
JG: Yeah, more or less, yeah. He wasn’t, obviously, that was when the Station Officer, was a real cocky sod, but he come unstuck cause Podge, being Australian, imagine coming, going to Australia and saying this is what they’re gonna to do to me, because they kicked up a hell of a bloody stink.
GT: But the station officer’s accused your pilot of being -
JG: Lack of morale fibre, that’s what he was going to do, to stop him flying, but then I heard it was six months after, he was sent back to Australia.
GT: Did he fly again?
JG: In Australia he did, but I don’t know what though.
GT: But what happened when he went to London, to the Australian Consul?
JG: He went to Australia House, and course Australian, as they said, that’s the RAAF, it’s got nothing to do with you, and you’re on loan to him, he can’t make you lack of moral fibre and not only that you’ve done seventeen bloody ops, and course their, whoever’s in charge up there, he kicked a hell of a stink up. It’s getting to know the people who to kick up the stink with, and said this bastard’s not going to do this to one of my men, Australian. Next thing we knew, I think it was about, must have been about the second day, that next, we saw him, one of the crew saw Podge, he said oh he’s had to apologise to me, the CO, he’s had to apologise for what he said and done. It made him look a real right fool, cause everybody, all of it, all the news went round the squadron, about it.
GT: So that was coming up into mid February 1945 in your old log book, you’ve noted that your pilot was grounded. Was that the end of your time on 100 Squadron?
JG: Yeah, cause then, we wanted another pilot and they said no, we, other station was short of gunners and they posted me straight away to that gunnery, to RAF Wickenby.
GT: So your crew, incidentally disintegrated.
JG: Crew was finished, yes. Oh, they give no thought, for you or anything, you know, not when you’ve got an officer like that in charge of you.
GT: So there’s about two or three weeks in between the squadrons in your log book here, so on the 7th of March, is your first flight with 12 Squadron. So how did it work then, did you join another crew straight away or did you have a choice?
JG: No, that was when, as I said to you, when I got there they posted me to, I gets in the squadron, you have to call in the guard hut, as you go through the gates, and they said right go to the Gunnery Leader and send you over there. I went there and that, he said to me well John look, I can’t see you now, and I told you, we’ve got ops on, so I’m busy, come back and see me tomorrow morning. That was when they posted me to this crew that got killed. And that’s when I went back to him.
GT: Tell me about that, what happened there, you visited another crew that night?
JG: They were getting dressed and we were talking and they said how many you done John? I said I’ve done sixteen, they said oh, we’re lucky then, I said why and they said we’ve done twenty nine, we’re doing our last one tonight. Never got back.
GT: You were in their nissen hut were you?
JG: In the nissen hut. I woke up at six o’clock in the morning with the noise, it was all the Special Police coming to collect all their gear, collect all their belongings and everything; it’s all taken away. Then when I went back to see the Gunnery Leader he said, that’s when he said right we’ve got three crews all want gunners, you fly with all the three and choose one of them. And you can see the three there through, one of them was Castle was it?
GT: You’ve got Raymond, Dickie and Granham.
JG: That’s it.
GT: So why were they short of gunners? What happened to the other gunners?
JG: Well one of ‘em, I asked that question. One of them had a bomb, what you call ‘em, little bombs, incendiary bombs, drop through the mid upper turret.
GT: From above, another aircraft.
JG: Yeah. That killed him. Another one, he was sick, in the oxygen mask, and obviously the pilot, his pilot hadn’t kept in touch with him enough, got lack of air, and I don’t know about the third one. But anyway, I chose one of the three and the other two got shot down on the next time we all went on a raid. So I was lucky. That’s when I got with Granham, but you know I can’t remember any of the names, except Granham of that second crew. There wasn’t the same feeling between the first crew and the second crew. I mean the first crew we was all mates, always out together at night and that, and the second crew, I know you’re friends and that, speak and everything, it’s not the same what you call it, camaraderie there, I can’t even, all I know is one was named George, I can’t remember the names of all, any the others, and the pilot.
GT: And you did fifteen ops with that new crew.
JG: Sixteen with ‘em, yeah. Or fifteen.
GT: On your log book, mid March you’ve got one thousand bomber raid on Dortmund.
JG: Yeah, I think we, I went on three or four, that was when, towards that time of the war, they had all these aircraft, used to send everything up, Bomber Harris.
GT: That’s March 45 that was Dortmund and Essen, so what was that like, you were mid upper at that time?
JG: No, I was rear gunner then. It should say there.
GT: Rear gunner. Oh yes, it does. So what was it like with all these aircraft around you, and above you, and below?
JG: Well, during the day it was all right, but at night you didn’t see, only when you nearly had a smash with one, we crossed like that, that’s how close we were and you know, nobody, he didn’t see us, we didn’t see him, and, was something else to do with flying.
GT: But you were able to warn the skipper of any aircraft above you.
JG: Oh yeah, I remember, oh with Granham, oh that was when this Ju88, perhaps that’s why I didn’t get sighted, because we’re flying along and next minute tracer bullets come up, come up underneath [emphasis] the tail plane and over the top of the wing, big long stream of tracer and the pilot - what the hell’s that, and I said it’s all right skipper, it’s only tracer bullet, just like that, not even thinking, and then I gave the order corkscrew starboard go, and he dived down.
GT: So that was on your twentieth operation to Nuremburg, on the 16th of March 1945, eight hours thirty at night and your log book states: ‘combat with Junkers 88, fired five hundred rounds, fighter destroyed, crashed in flames, exploded on ground, brackets: confirmed.’
JG: Yeah. That’s what, it was confirmed by this other man from another station but they said, I mean there was a lot of talk about Granham getting the DFC and me getting nothing. But.
GT: So your skipper at the time was Flying Officer Granham.
JG: Granham. Yeah.
GT: Granham is his surname there. So he already had the DFC.
JG: Yeah, already had the DFC. He got the bar to it.
GT: And he was awarded a second with a Bar directly for shooting down.
JG: Yeah. Shooting down.
GT: And you shot it down and you weren’t awarded anything.
JG: That’s what a lot of ‘em were saying on the station. How is it that he got a Bar to his bloody DFC and the gunner got nothing and he shot the plane down.
GT: You were a sergeant at the time? Flight Sergeant.
JG: Not sure, probably Flight Sergeant. Then.
GT: So you don’t know if you’d been accredited with the kill.
JG: No, never bothered about, you know.
GT: There was distinction there that you should have been awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal for your action.
JG: Yeah.
GT: And that never happened.
JG: That never happened. And then that’s how that came about, Paul.
GT: But in this case though your DFM, that others had been awarded for the same thing, you found out later that there was great disparity between -
JG: Oh yeah, between officers and airmen, non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers, big [emphasis] disparity, you try and get, and check out how many DFCs were awarded and how many DFMs were awarded.
GT: Did you find out the quantities of that?
JG: Yes, I’m almost sure it was what I said: twenty thousand DFCs and six thousand DFMs.
GT: And the shooting down of that Junkers that night for you saved your crew, and your aircraft.
JG: Well yeah, and if I’d have shot us down, I mean it’s lucky that the tracer bullets, if that’s your aircraft, come up under, underneath the tail plane, over the wing. That’s how.
GT: Normally every one tracer you see is another is four or five of rounds that are.
JG: All depends what they do, I think we had five, sometimes six, sometimes seven and then one tracer put in, you know, there.
GT: That’s pretty good shooting with three nought threes, to be able to get a Junkers.
JG: Yeah, but, that’s another thing what made me smile. On the training they’re telling you about your gunsight, your gun ring, you got a fifty, fifty percent crossing speed by half the gun sight, against a full gun sight, how you do this and that, and I said to ‘em, when they spoke to me about it after, some of the men, I said it’s biggest load of bullshit. What do you mean? I said I’ve ordered the pilot, I said, he’s corkscrewing like that, I said, all you’re supposed to aim at fifteen degree part I said all you’re doing is you’re firing a gun, the bullets are flying around and you hit lucky enough, hit a part of the engine what caught fire. And how the hell when I read sometimes on there or I read they got air gunners shot five or six, dunno, how the bloody hell, you couldn’t aim your gun, aircraft going like that. That was that you know, corkscrew come up the same way and then it went down again, till you ordered it, the captain, to stop. I know when we come up and the pilot, on one occasion, we’d just come out above the cloud, we’d dropped the bombs, flying back and he come above the clouds and it was beautiful [emphasis] clear and the pilot said Johnny, it’s pretty clear up here and we can be seen, what do you want me to do? I said can you go just in the cloud, just in the cloud so, and that’s what he done, for probably ten mile or so, flying just in the cloud. Made it a bit awkward, bit bumpy and that, wasn’t very good, but at least they couldn’t see us. Cause when you’re up, I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, probably you haven’t but, if you’re about the cloud like that, that looks like sea above it, nothing there, just your lot, just looking at the cloud, yeah.
GT: On 75 New Zealand Squadron there was little documentation, but I’ve interviewed one chap who was an under [emphasis] gunner. Did you have any experience on 12 and 100 Squadron of Lancasters having under gunners?
JG: I know towards the end that’s when they found out the Junkers, instead of, he was firing upwards.
GT: Schrage musik. Upward firing cannons.
JG: Upward firing cannon. That’s why we lost so many aircraft before anybody knew about it! Then after that, when we’re searching, the mid upper gunner, the pilot every so often had to turn the plane down so he could look below and that way make sure there’s nothing underneath it.
GT: So the squadrons didn’t employ under gunners in any of the aircraft.
JG: No, not like the Americans, Americans had gunners in their Flying Fortresses. They had ten, ten gunners in their Flying Fortresses.
GT: For the gunnery side of things for you John, did you, that Junkers 88 you shot down did you have any other chance, or any other shooting opportunities with other attacking aircraft?
JG: Duren, we dropped, the Master Bomber called us down from seventeen thousand, called us down to five thousand feet, in Duren, dropped the bombs from five thousand, that was almost as if you’re on the ground, he called us down: it’s lovely down here. And we answered back and joked, yeah it’s f-ing lovely up here an all! We’re staying here! Of course, the Master Bomber couldn’t do nothing, he had no idea who it was!
GT: So you did all joined him?
JG: Yeah, so we slowly went down and joined him. You know, you’re talking amongst the crew, what do you reckon? Well look. if we go down, there’s a lot gone down, we’ve got more chance being in the crowd than staying up here on our own.
GT: But you risked being, having bombs dropped from those still above.
JG: Yeah, well that was my argument, but after this, seeing this plane dop bombs on another plane, how the hell, we were supposed to be the highest crew, usually round about sixteen, sixteen five, seventeen, seventeen five, eighteen. All depends how, I think on that particular night we were, our height was eighteen five hundred and yet there’s aircraft above us, and course we were talking, we’re supposed to be up the top, and the pilot saying what do you think they want these aircraft with these propellors for! They can go up higher! So long as the navigator knows, that if it’s, if he’s due to bomb at say sixteen thousand, then the instruments all set, but if we’re flying at seventeen, as long as the navigator knows, he can work it out, fiddle it out, that we’re a thousand feet higher than we should be.
GT: So by your twenty sixth operation which was Heligoland, in your log book you’ve stated: very good prang. Why was that a very good prang?
JG: Oh, l there wasn’t, well there was no cloud, it was a perfect sky like you get here, there wasn’t a cloud or anything in sight, not a fighter, no flak, you just flew round Heligoland. It was a u-boat place where all the u-boats dock, at Heligoland. That’s when they, they couldn’t, our bombs and that what we had, wouldn’t go through until they built the twelve thousand.
GT: Tallboy and the Grand Slam.
JG: That went through the bloody –
GT: Concrete.
JG: Concrete.
GT: So on the 29th of April, you started doing something different - Operation Manna. Tell us about Operation Manna, please.
JG: Yeah well, now we were given, [pause] first of all we were all told at a meeting that Holland is starving and that they’ve done a deal with the Germans that we won’t load our guns or fire on anything in Holland and we can drop the food, which we did do, the first time at six hundred feet I think it was. Was it, the first time?
GT: You’ve three entries in your log book for Valkenburg.
JG: Yeah, that’s Valkenburg was the first one.
GT: End of April beginning of May.
JG: So, and what happened, when we saw, it’s all in sacks, all stacked in the bomb bay, had a hell of a job with the bomb bay just opening like that a little bit to get the stuff in and course when it dropped, hit the ground we saw flour bursting and that, and we said, got back and reported it’s too high. They said right, go lower and the pilot said yeah, we can go lower, there’s nothing in the way at Valkenburg, and I always remember the second op Valkenburg, we’re going along, looking back and everybody’s running round the field and you’re dropping all these bloody great big sacks of food, and then we flew up the High Street and when I looked out the window, the church steeple’s up there! [emphasis] And we’re up the High Street and all the kids waving and that, to you, and you’re down flying up the Hight Street like a car and the church bloody steeple, I think Christ skipper, I said I want to go to Heaven but I don’t want to go this way yet! You know, and laughing and joking and all that, and then what we done then, on our particular, and evidently it was done. We used to fill up milk bottles and you know razor blades, how thin they are, you could bend it, bend it enough to put in the top and it used to open up, the blade used to open up jammed in the bottle and when they, you threw them out the turret it made a screaming noise, we used that a lot to frighten ‘em and what we done on our third trip to Holland, everybody on the station either had rag or handkerchief and cotton, you know the cotton, you know, parachute, you make your parachute, you tied it four corners and tied it round the choc bars. We all threw out we could see all the kids running with these little parachutes with the chocolate bars. Because that’s why, that’s why in the letters some of what Jack wrote, he went to Holland for two years running, they invited him over on the day they celebrate us dropping the food to ‘em, and the last time was Rotterdam, racecourse, flying along the racecourse about fifty, sixty foot high. Of course the pilots used to love it. So did we, flying like that! See when you’re young and that you never thought of danger, how dangerous it was. I think from what I was told, we only lost one aircraft on that and that was a Flying Fortress, on the way back, or something.
GT: Did you see any of the American aircraft doing the food drops as well, which was their Operation Chow Hound?
JG: No I never saw them, it was different timing and different places, you know.
GT: How many Lancasters would have been involved with the food drops that you saw?
JG: A few hundred, and then a lot of them, while that was carrying on, they went to pick up the prisoners of war.
GT: Juvencourt.
JG: Yeah, pick up all our prisoners of war, I wasn’t on that.
GT: Would you have wanted to be?
JG: One of me mates who was on it, he said we had twenty on the way back, prisoners of war, in our plane. Picked up twenty of ’em. Yeah.
GT: So you didn’t manage to do any more Operation Manna trips after that lot?
JG: No, I only done the four.
GT: That was your thirty one trips all together.
JG: Yeah. They posted me out.
GT: And you found out later why.
JG: He wanted to do some flying! I don’t blame him, I mean.
GT: Was that your gunnery leader?
JG: I went home on leave, they, I met the wife, and fourteen weeks I was home, fourteen weeks leave and while I was home on leave, I was a Flight Sergeant, I got a letter, on the, I got a letter on me demob leave promoting me to Warrant Officer which was another hundred and twenty pound!
GT: Good grief! That would buy a house, wouldn’t it! Now there were a couple of funny things that happened, funny when you look on them now, and one was when you were a mid upper on your first tour and the Lancaster above you was about to drop its bombs. They missed you but they got an aircraft below you.
JG: Missed us but got another one.
GT: What happened to the other aircraft?
JG: That’s what I said, the bombs had all dropped, we’d dropped our bombs and all, and the smoke cleared and the rear gunner, that was Jack, we’re on fire! I said shut up you silly sod, I said it’s not, I said it’s some poor sod’s had bomb’s dropped on ‘im! As the smoke cleared away, this other Lancaster bomber was turning like that, slowly turning to get back on course, with a bomb jammed in the wing. Told the skipper, and the skipper, we were going round, we went near enough to see it all and then skipper just carried on, you know, to get back himself, and we found out afterwards he landed, he made it, kept asking the people involved in our station and he said oh yeah, he landed okay, he landed in France on the emergency drome.
GT: The bomb hadn’t had time to arm itself before it hit the wing. Must have been so fortunate. That’s amazing. Now there was also a bit of an own goal, you were telling me about seven pound jam tins!
JG: That was the time I emptied it out the side.
GT: Tell me the story, come on, from the beginning!
JG: All the gunners had a big empty jam tin from the mess to use as their pee bucket cause we couldn’t get out our turrets to use the Elsan and this particular night I filled it up and I thought well what am I going to do? Am I going to empty on the floor, which it can go out through the bottom of the turret. I thought well, if I do that, the ground crew won’t be very happy that they’ve got to wash that out, and I slid the window at the side of me, in the turret.
GT: And what height would you have been at?
JG: Probably around eighteen thousand feet, I slid that open, and emptied the jam tin out. Within one second it had all gone round, straight back through the front of the turret – cause we had no windows, we took ‘em all out – all over me. We had no windows in our turrets, all the gunners took their windows out in front of ‘em, just had the guns there.
GT: So that would have been minus twenty, minus forty, is it?
JG: Sometimes it were really cold. We were cold, the rest of the crew were bloody ‘ot!. But the two gunners were nearly always cold. We had electric heated suits in the end, and I was colder still. Course when I told ‘em I looked like a bloody ice block, all they done was laugh. So did all at the station.
GT: So it all came back at you.
JG: Yeah, they couldn’t stop, they all thought how funny it was.
GT: And the jam tins there you said they were seven pound jam tins and the WAAFs managed to save these for you.
JG: Yeah. That’s what they used to have as their food: seven pounds of jam, in tins. That’s what all the RAF stations had, and I suppose the Army, Navy, and everything.
GT: Gee, you were lucky to not to have something frozen off.
JG: Yeah!
GT: So, the other thing was that during Operation Manna you’ve seen a photograph with the tulips and there was -
JG: Yeah, ‘Thank you boys.’
GT: There’s a photograph in one of the IBCCs books showing that and you remember seeing that.
JG: Yeah, I remember it was red tulips and ‘Thank You Boys’, probably from where we were about six foot long, so they must have had dozens and dozens of workmen overnight, planted all these in the middle of this field of tulips: ‘Thank You Boys.’
GT: You saw action with your, active bombing operations and then you did the Operation Manna and they classified that as an operation too.
JG: Oh yeah, we didn’t think they were going to, but they did in the end. Cause, and I remember at, what they done with the aircrew finished, they posted all the officers to one station and as many men to another one, filled up and they, let me tell you now, they got us on parade and said right, we’ll call your names out, just repeat your last number, your last three numbers and go and stand over there. They were calling all the names and this great big crowd got smaller and that one got bigger, and bigger and bigger, and in then end there was only about six of us left here, and we wasn’t in it. They were all going, being sent to Japan, against Japanese, Japan, we were too close to being demobbed, so they said it’s just a waste sending you out there, you’ll be sent back, and that’s when we got demobbed, you know. When we got our log book back, our pay book, there.
GT: The difference between the two, did it strike you then, that from doing the bombing operations that finally you were saving lives, of our allies?
JG: Oh yeah, with the food dropping, cause where we dropped, where we dropped the food at Valkenburg, it was surrounded by Germans. Actually I saw one German standing in the corner of the field, but, they had done a deal with the RAF not to take pictures and all that, and load the guns – like hell! We had our guns loaded, we weren’t going to take that chance with ‘em, but nobody got fired on.
GT: And nobody fired their guns.
JG: No, because, I found out afterwards by talking to somebody, of course they wouldn’t, cause they were starving as well. They wanted some of the food you were dropping: they were starving as well. Cause it was like, like a field, this part surrounded, all the rest is, a different, this part of Holland was surrounded by the Germans.
GT: You know there’s an Operation Manna Memorial in Rotterdam?
JG: I didn’t know.
GT: They hold a service every year and they thank you for your service to save them. It’s very special for the Dutch.
JG: I believe they’ve got to the last one or something, yeah. I know Jack used to go.
GT: Jack was your ex?
JG: Ex gunner. He used to go. Had a wonderful time he said. Said you never spent a ha’penny, you never spent anything. You wasn’t allowed to pay for anything.
GT: All the streets around the area are named after the commanders that organised everything in respect.
JG: What, actually what did annoy me, was this Dresden business, you know. Over the years they had meetings, cause they said there was three hundred thousand killed, in Dresden. Well it wasn’t all that long ago, only a few months ago, they had their last meeting over Dresden and they, all the people involved in the meeting are settled on nineteen thousand killed; well we had that in London! And they settled on nineteen thousand, killed in Dresden and not the three hundred thousand what they tried to say, you know, and that was only people over here, not over here, over in England. A lot of the do gooders, you know, you’re terror bombing, dropping bombs like that on Dresden and what annoyed me was Churchill blamed Bomber Harris for bombing Dresden, he said he had no need to do it! He went on the, yeah, he did, something there somewhere, I don’t know where I got it from, but he had no need to bomb Dresden. Well Bomber Harris had a letter from Churchill, ordering [emphasis] him, and he said I can prove how, I call him fat guts Churchill, whisky drinking gut, do you know if anybody speaks to me of Churchill, I say don’t talk to me about that fat gut! I said he put the blame on Bomber Harris for all these people being killed, I said, and he was the one who gave the order: him, Stalin, Roosevelt, at a meeting.
GT: And the very reason Bomber Harris was never given a peerage.
JG: That’s why though, when he finally come back here, they did do didn’t they, Memorial, they got the shock of their lives the way the people supported it.
GT: The Bomber Command Memorial in the Green Park. Now in 2011 and 2012 when New Zealanders went across, you being a British person.
JG: Couldn’t go.
GT: You were not involved, or not allowed to be involved with that. Have you been, yet, back to England?
JG: No, I’ve never been back; I won’t go back. I’ve never wanted to go back to England.
GT: Now if we can just move a little bit back from there. You emigrated to New Zealand in?
JG: 1979.
GT: And you followed your sons then, because you and Beatrice, or Betty, you had two sons.
JG: Yeah, and one of ‘em who’d already been back once to England, he went back home again and this time, he broke up with his wife.
GT: So you’ve got Mike who’s aged seventy two, living in Kent.
JG: In Kent.
GT: And you’ve got Paul here, living in New Zealand.
JG: Just over there.
GT: Who is fifty five, so you have your son close, and obviously you had a great time, Betty and yourself, here in New Zealand.
JG: You can go and see his garden, Paul’s gardens, see his swimming pool and all that.
GT: Fabulous, so Betty, she was, what did she do when you came to New Zealand?
JG: She was a dress maker, machinist, and in the end she had, we had a big machine up in that garage there, we made it into a, like a workshop for her.
GT: Fabulous. Now, at the, when you demobbed from the RAF, you went back as an engineer and then into the fishing tackle game, selling in London there. So you became a store owner, was that right?
JG: See, in England fishing tackle is a lot different to New Zealand. In New Zealand, I hate to say this, but all they think about is trout. Trout, trout. Can you eat it? If you can’t eat it they don’t want to catch it! Whereas the poms, we do it for the fun of catching the fish.
GT: You do the coarse fishing.
JG: Coarse fishing. And course, so therefore, the shop in England was selling ten times the amount of stuff than what they do in New Zealand, cause there’s so much, such a bigger range.
GT: And where was your shop?
JG: Down, opposite, opposite Penge Police Station funnily enough.
GT: And you sold that up to come out to New Zealand in the early seventies.
JG: Yes.
GT: You’ve already said you didn’t want to go back. Did you get homesick for England?
JG: I didn’t. The wife’s been back, twice, but I didn’t. Never been homesick and wanted to go back. And I told me son, when he left here and went back home, I said that’s the second time, don’t expect me to follow you, I won’t be following you, which I didn’t do, I didn’t want to chase after him. He’s happy enough, he’s married a Russian woman, got divorced. His wife was one of these moaning types, always got something to moan about! [Chuckle]
GT: Fabulous. So you’ve managed to keep your home that you purchased as soon as you arrived here. And so, when did you lose Betty?
JG: Eleven years ago.
GT: You’ve been very active here with the New Zealand Bomber Command Association.
JG: Yeah, I used to go there every Wednesday.
GT: So you were part of the, now in New Zealand we have a Lancaster that’s been rebuilt and is on display at the MOTET, which is the Museum of Transport and Technology.
JG: That’s right. We used to clean that.
GT: Right, so you were part of the Wednesday Bomber Boys. Was a group of you veterans over the years.
JG: Every Wednesday up there, and why I stopped in the end, driving here to there took nearly an hour, driving back was under half hour and driving on that motorway with all that, everybody going into Auckland, I couldn’t take it any longer and I had to pack it in. The Wednesday Boys.
GT: So for those who are unaware of our Lancaster here in New Zealand, it was donated by the French Navy and it was not an aircraft that had served during World War Two but was just after. But it sat for many years here and finally a group was put together to get it back to display status, and it’s a magnificent aircraft at the Museum of Transport Technology and at the current time it has 75 Squadron markings on it. But for your factor John, did you spend much time inside the aircraft when you were fixing it up?
JG: No, we, one of the jobs I had was, every week., four of us used to sit round the table with all log books, reading out what this one done, oh this one he flew so and so, so and so, and somebody like yourself is making a note of it, and all that was reduced to a disc, so that if you wanted, if you had a father or grandfather who was one of the aircrew got lost, you wanted to know what happened. Instead of you searching through all the records: it’s on the disc.
GT: Under that guy’s name.
JG: Under that guy’s name, and that would tell you everything. And that’s what we done. We used to sit there for hour, or couple of hours then it was tea time, cup of tea and a bun, and then some of us used to have a duster and clean the aircraft up. We, I took me mates up there once and they were, they had to pay to get in! [Laugh] They said no lads, sorry, but. I said they’re my mates, and he said yeah I know, he said but if we let them in then others will want it. I mean I didn’t have to pay, I could go in there any time: One of the Wednesday Boys.
GT: How many Wednesday boys were there all together? A dozen?
JG: Oh, couple of dozen. Yeah.
GT: Any left, besides yourself?
JG: Yeah, oh yeah, there’s still, still two or three left – like Peter Wheeler, I’m sure he was one of the Wednesday Boys.
GT: Peter’s not a veteran though, but he’s the executive of the New Zealand Bomber Command Association. He looks after the aircraft for MOTET, the aircraft’s not the MOTET particularly, it’s part of the Bomber Command Association.
JG: The last time, which is years ago, they had a Sunderland flying boat, outside.
GT: It’s inside now.
JG: That’s inside is it.
GT: It’s all been painted up.
JG: I know they were doing this Lancaster up, somebody said these two brothers got together and paying it out, paying for it out their pocket.
GT: You’re talking about the Panton brothers at East Kirkby, Lincoln. It’s Just Jane.
JG: They reckon there’ll be a couple of Lancasters flying.
GT: They’re looking at that. And this is where the International Bomber Command Centre has come about, now it’s not far, and this is where this recording will end up, with them in their archives and it’s been fascinating. Now what you have on your wall here is a huge framed effort with your rank slides, your medals and some photographs, and some badges of the squadrons you flew with, which is fascinating. Your son built that for you?
JG: No, he had it built by the chap owns the bed and breakfast at Russell, you know Russell? He owns the bed and breakfast [cough] right on the front of Russell. I don’t know, I think it cost a couple of thousand to do that. What he was charging.
GT: Awesome. That’s pretty neat there.
JG: Paul paid for all that.
GT: To have your information up on the wall.
JG: And then trouble is, one of the cards has slipped down and it’s too much bother to undo the back, because it’s sealed, so we just left it.
GT: So we see that you managed to secure the Bomber Command Clasp at least. So that’s good to see. Now John, you’re now coming up, in September it was your birthday, you were ninety -
JG: Seven.
GT: Ninety seven. You’re feeling good about yourself?
JG: Well, I’ve got all this problem now what’s going to happen about when they start knocking down my wall and pulling up me carpets.
GT: Bit of a flood in the laundry yesterday.
JG: I don’t.
GT: But the other thing too, John, you’ve just survived an accident on the road! Gosh, what happened there?
JG: Well that, on that mobility scooter, I’ll show you if you like before you go. Well coming down Buckman’s beach road you’re supposed to stay on the pavement, well I’ve been using the road, but on this particular time there was a lot of traffic so I went on the pavement. Coming down Buckman’s each but you know the houses’ driveways are slanted up like that, going along and we got to house and it was quite steep so I went to move over to the right to get nearer the wall of the house, and what I didn’t know, in front of me, the pavement ended, it was mud. And the wheel, ruddy wheel went down and threw me over the top.
GT: Were you hurt?
JG: I’ve done all this, out gardening more or less stopped now.
GTL And you also attend a lot of the Bomber Command services.
JG: Well I shall, I’m going this one June 9th at ten thirty. I’m going to phone up Kerry and Don, Paul said he would take the four of us there, you know, to the service. Well if he does, if they come, and we stop in the restaurant there, I’ll tell ‘em I’ll treat ‘em to breakfast. I know Carrie and Don won’t eat much - Paul will! [Laughter]
GT: So, the service is all about the Bomber Command stuff, right.
JG: Yeah.
GT: So, and you’ve been doing this every year?
JG: Every year, yeah, and Peter met, Peter said I haven’t seen you, was last year you saw me, cause he came here, Peter, to interview me over something. I will have to find his phone number and phone him up.
GT: The other thing John you mentioned to me, was that during your operational tours, you had a white scarf.
JG: Yeah, a white silk scarf.
GT: Tell me about that please.
JG: It was about eighteen inches wide and over six foot long, and every op when I come back, I used to take it with me on ops, when I come back, I had this WAAF used to embroider the name of the town we’d been to bomb. Even when we shot down that Ju 88, she embroidered a swastika on it. So I had sixteen names at the top and fifteen names, and fifteen names at the bottom with a swastika and I gave them to John Bannon to put on show.
GT: Well we’ll find out more about that.
JG: See if you can.
GT: It’s fascinating that you actually had that done.
JG: He died. When he suddenly died, I thought meself I wonder what happened to my scarf?
GT: We’ll have a look for that. So have you been up to see the Lancaster lately?
JG: No I don’t get out there now. You know, I mean I’ve got the address, 9th of June, Paul’s already, I can make a note, yeah, we’ll take you dad, him and his partner and I’m going to phone up Carrie or she’ll come over, and Don, see if they want come with us.
GT: Well you have got a amazing amount of your historical documents here: your log book is safe and is being scanned and copied. You have a folder full of all of the New Zealand Bomber Command Association newsletters for quite some years, you have some from the 100 Squadron in England.
JG: There’s two there.
GT: There’s two that you have managed to secure, and see what they have been doing and been up to, I have now given you have some IBCC material I brought back from England last year with me so you have some material there to check on, and when I arrived here to visit you today you were looking at your photographs on your big tv which is fascinating to see.
JG: I fetched the flying, the Lancaster flying with it, with it the Hurricane and Spitfire flying along there and then I fetch them flying over, practicing on that dam, all on my, but I’m not so good now with the computer, getting it, you know, cause I play poker a bit on it, on the computer.
GT: What did you do when you came to New Zealand? What was your career, job? What did you get up to?
JG: Er, [pause] I had a job with Shatlocks. You know, Shatlocks, I worked for them.
GT: The company that made stoves.
JG: They made all the stoves down Dunedin. All the electric ones and that, and Fisher and Paykel got their name on one of them.
GT: Fischer and Paykel are a very famous brand here in New Zealand aren’t they, John, making cooker tops and such.
JG: Well they done, well they didn’t actually make the cook tops, it was Jack Shatlock, Shatlocks made ‘em, made all the cookers.
GT: And you were a technician or a salesman?
JG: Technician. I’ve got, actually, see that red tin there, up there, there’s a red tin up the garden, there’s about twelve up there, that was what they used to enclose the dishwashers in and all the aluminium sheets up there, was all part of the plate what came out your cooker.
GT: You’re in a very large house here, with a large back yard which is not the same as what many English households have.
JG: I used to do a lot [emphasis] of gardening, but now, half hour and that’s me lot. I’ve realised now, when I start getting tired, I just come and sit down, read.
GT: And you’re the last man of your crew that you know of, John?
JG: Yeah, Jack was the, Jack was, he died a year ago now, and some of the others have been dead a few years you know, slowly getting less and less.
GT: You were involved with two different crews though. Did you keep in contact much with any of the other chaps?
JG: No, none at all.
GT: Once you demobbed.
JG: No, none at all, not even.
GT: Other than Jack of course.
JG: Jack and, talking to Podge cause he used to come over from Australia to stay at Jack’s place and he invited me, I spoke to him on the phone one day when he was visiting England, he said John, if you’d like to come to Australia and pay for half the petrol, I’ll take you all around Australia, flying, he had is own aircraft, type like Tiger Moth. And I never did go, but I could have flown all the way round Australia.
GT: You stlll can.
JG: All you got to do he said was pay for half the petrol.
GT: That’s amazing. You are amazing for the New Zealand Bomber Command Association to be one of the few left here in New Zealand, so, John, I am very honoured to be able to interview you today for the IBCC especially. You and I have crossed paths for many years at the services, this is my first time to sit and chat to you so I’m quite honoured to spend time with you today. I think is there anything else you would like to speak to with your interview here?
JG: No not really I think I’m quite surprised, you know that, I’m glad Peter Wheeler’s still there. I can have a chat with him, when I go. I will phone him up though.
GT: But this is your story, this is about your -
JG: If you remember, try and have a look for that scarf.
GT: I can do that too. But for your history and your remembrance of your time, serving with the Bomber Command itself, long before you were in New Zealand. I know I certainly can be proud to thank you for your service and you obviously served with distinction and pride.
JG: Thank you.
GT: And memories of those days: good, bad?
JG: Yes. Some good, some bad. I can think to myself, I must have been bloody mad volunteering for this when I was up there flying at times, when we was in trouble, you know, but then I realise, now, how lucky I was to be one [emphasis] of the men who got back. Like all, evidently, all [emphasis] that crew who you saw there, every one of them, survived. I don’t know how many ops Jack done, but I know he done a lot less than me, cause he done six food, no seven food drops, he told me, he done seven there so, if he done seven of them he didn’t do many, that’d been seven ops left. Can’t get, I’m lucky to have a son like Paul over there.
GT: Well John, I’m going to finish our interview here now, sadly, because I’d love to keep talking with you, but thank you very much for your time here, and I’ll make sure the IBCC have the recording from this, sent to them and I hope you enjoy reading their cards I’ve left with you.
JG: I will read all that. I’ll sort it all out and read it.
GT: They will have now your contact details and I’ll make sure they’ll send some to you. From me, from Glen Turner, of 75 Squadron Association, the secretary of the Association and my friendship with the Bomber Command gentlemen, I thank you and I thank you on behalf of the IBCC.
JG: I think thank you for taking the trouble to, you know, do this sort of thing. There.
GT: My pleasure for you. Thank you, John. Goodbye.
JG: Bye-by.
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 John Green
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Glen Turner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-03-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AGreenJ190307, PGreenJ1901
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
01:28:12 audio recording
Description
An account of the resource
John Green was born on the 22nd of September 1921 in Penge, South East London. He registered for the Royal Air Force to prevent being called up by the Army and was drafted in 1942. He was posted to the Isle of Man, where he volunteered as a drogue operator during training operations, before transferring to bomb disposal in Bathford. In 1944, Green volunteered for aircrew and opted to train as an air gunner. He formed a crew at 30 Operational Training Unit, RAF Hixon, converted from Wellingtons to Halifaxes at RAF Sandoft, and attended the Lancaster Finishing School at RAF Hemswell. The crew joined 100 Squadron, RAF Grimsby, in October 1944. He recalls the conditions inside the mid-upper gunner turret, manually releasing their bombs over Speyer, and failing to complete their sixteenth to Kemnitz, which resulted in a Lack of Moral Fibre accusation to ground the pilot and disband the crew. In March 1945, Green was posted to 12 Squadron, RAF Wickenby, and completed fifteen further operations. He describes the lack of camaraderie with his new crew and shooting down a Ju 88 on an operation to Nuremberg, for which the pilot received recognition but he did not. For Operation Manna, he undertook three trips to Valkenburg, and one to Rotterdam, and recalls dropping chocolate bars for children and viewing a message of thanks written in tulips. Green describes his career after demobilisation, his opinion regarding the treatment of Bomber Command, emigrating to New Zealand in the 1970s, and his active membership with the New Zealand Bomber Command Association.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tilly Foster
Anne-Marie Watson
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
New Zealand
England--Bath
England--Lincolnshire
England--Somerset
England--Staffordshire
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Speyer
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Isle of Man
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Netherlands--Valkenburg (South Holland)
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. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1944-06-09
1944-10-31
1944-12-15
1945-02
1945-04
1945-03-16
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending revision of OH transcription
100 Squadron
12 Squadron
1667 HCU
30 OTU
air gunner
aircrew
bomb disposal
bombing
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
Halifax
Heavy Conversion Unit
Ju 88
lack of moral fibre
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
military service conditions
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Operational Training Unit
perception of bombing war
RAF Grimsby
RAF Hemswell
RAF Hixon
RAF Sandtoft
RAF Wickenby
recruitment
shot down
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/711/17245/PBlairJJ1602.1.jpg
daa4e39b715daa33431606cbadba5a6b
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
Blair, John
John Jericho Blair
J J Blair
Description
An account of the resource
38 items. The collection concerns John Jericho Blair DFC (1919-2004). He was born in Jamaica and served in RAF from 1942-1963. He flew a tour of operations as a navigator with 102 Squadron from RAF Pocklington. The collection includes numerous photographs of him and colleagues, several photographs of Jamaica, a document detailing his life and an interview with his great nephew Mark Johnson.
The collection also contains three interviews with Caribbean veterans including John Blair recorded by Mark Johnson.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Mark Johnson and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-05-09
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Blair, JJ
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
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
Cologne
Description
An account of the resource
A vertical photograph taken of the destruction of Cologne. Almost every building has been destroyed. The cathedral is in the bottom right corner. Submitted with caption: 'The results of bombing on the centre of the German city of Cologne, February 1945'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBlairJJ1602
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
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-02
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-02
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Geolocated (cumulative polygon)
aerial photograph
bombing
reconnaissance photograph
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1246/16399/MNealeETH1395951-150731-0590001.1.jpg
83253f05586a3f80cd93ee0a69141704
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1246/16399/MNealeETH1395951-150731-0590002.1.jpg
ca005decae8b91539976c1190f32734a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Neale, Ted
E T H Neale
Description
An account of the resource
123 items. The collection concerns Edward Thomas Henry Neale (b. 1922, 1395951 Royal Air Force) who served as a navigator with 37 Squadron in North Africa, the Middle East and Italy. The collection contains his training notebooks from South Africa as well as propaganda leaflets dropped by the allies in the Mediterranean theatre.
The collection also contains a photograph album, navigation logs and target photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Alison Neale and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-07-31
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Neale, ETH
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[inserted] with driver & 5 passengers 2 1/2 TON [/inserted]
TEMPORARY PASS-PORT OF
Permesso d’entrata Temporaneo nel Porto
MILITARY
Name [inserted] RICH J. [/inserted]
[italics] Cognome e Nome [/italics]
No. of Identity Card [inserted] 1587295 RAF [/inserted]
[italics] No. della Carta d’Identità [/italics]
Available from
[italics] Valido dal [/italics]
Until [stamp] 28 FEB 1945 [/stamp]
[italics] fino al [/italics]
Employer:
[italics] [indecipherable letter]mpiegato da[indecipherable letter] [/italics]
Stamp of issuing Authority
Date [stamp] FEB 28 1945 [/stamp]
[italics] Data [/italics]
Signature of Bearer [inserted] John Rich [/inserted]
[italics] Firma del Titolare [/italics]
[Ink Stamp]
[page break]
This pass must be returned on expiry.
Loss must be reported immediately.
This pass does not entitle holder to board ships.
Alla scadenza questo permesso deve essere restituito.
In caso di perdita di questo permesso si deve fare subito un rapporto.
Il titolare non ha il diritte di accedere alle navi.
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
Temporary Pass-Port of John Rich
Description
An account of the resource
A document issued to John Rich (1587295 Royal Air Force). Written across top 'with driver & 5 passengers 2 1/2 ton'. Printed in English and Italian.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-02-28
Format
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One printed sheet with handwritten annotations
Language
A language of the resource
eng
ita
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MNealeETH1395951-150731-0590001,
MNealeETH1395951-150731-0590002
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy
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.
1945-02
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
Angela Gaffney
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Workflow A completed
aircrew
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/177/11659/MBattyPH220759-161014-040002.1.jpg
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1aea05a7cbe33731dea52fa7be948e63
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
Batty, Philip
Phil Batty
P Batty
Description
An account of the resource
19 Items. The collection consists of one oral history interview with Philip Batty (b. 1925). He discusses the death of his older brother Dennis early in the Second World War, his wartime service with 50 Squadron at RAF Sturgate as a wireless operator/ air gunner, and his long post war career. The collection also includes a number of group photographs of airmen after training, photographs of aircraft in southern Africa, his log book and propaganda material.
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
2016-10-14
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Batty, P
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] Das ist das Ende: [/underlined]
Patton über den Rhein südlich Mainz
[/underlined] MONTGOMERY ERZWINGT
ÜBERGANG ÜBER NIEDERRHEIN
Amerikaner vernichten 7. Armee
und 1. Panzer-Armee
Pfalz und Saargebiet überrannt
Über 1 100 000 Gefangene
seit der Invasion
[italic] Bleibt am Leben! [/italic]
[page break]
[3 crests]
DEUTSCHLANDS ZUKUNFT
Roosevelt erläutert die Beschlüsse der Krim-Konferenz
Die nachstehenden Erklärungen über Deutschlands Zukunft stammen aus dem Bericht dem Präsident Roosevelt am 1, März 1945 dem amerikanischen Kongress erstattete. Er behandelte darin die Beschlüsse, die von den Vereinigten Staaten, Grossbritannien und der Sowjet-Union auf der Konferenz in Yalta getroffen würden.
„ Wir werden in unseren Anstrengungen nicht einen Augenblick nachlassen bis zur bedingungslosen Kapitulation des Gegners. Das deutsche Volk und de deutschen Soldaten müssen sich darüber klar sein: Je eher sie den Kampf einstellen und die Waffen strecken – sei es in Gruppen oder als Einzelne – desto eher werden ihre gegenwärtigen Leiden vorüber sein. Und weiter muss sich das deutsche Volk darüber klar sein: Nur duren restlose Kapitulation kann es den Anfang damit machen, wieder ein Volk zu werden, das die Welt als gesittete Nachbarn anerkennt. Wir haben es in Yalta eindeutig ausgesprochen, und ich wiederhole es jetzt noch einmal:
[underlined]
Bedingungslose Kapitulation bedeutet nicht die Vernichtung oder Versklavung des deutschen Volkes.
[/underlined]
Diesen Teil der Yalta-Erklärung hat die nationalsozialistische Führung dem deutschen Volk in Presse und Rundfunk bewusst vorenthalten. Die Nazi-Führer wollen dem deutschen Volk weismachen, die Yalta-Erklärung bedeute Versklavung und Vernichtung des deutschen Volkes. Denn auf diese Weise hoffen die Nazis ihre eigene Haut zu retten, durch diese Täuschung wollen sie das deutsche Volk zu weiterem, nutzlosem Widerstand antreiben.“
Roosevelt über die Bedeutung des Begriffs „Bedingungslose Kapitulation“.
„Aber wir haben auf der Yalta-Konferenz keinen Zweifel darüber gelassen, was bedingungslose Kapitulation für Deutschland bedeutet. Kapitulation bedeutet: Zeitweilige Überwachung Deutschlands durch Grossbritannien, Russland, Frankreich und die Vereinigten Staaten. Eine Kontroll-Kommission, bestehend aus den Vertretern der vier Weltmächte mit dem Sitz in Berlin, wird die Verwaltung der vier Besetzungs-Zonen koordinieren.
Bedingungslose Kapitulation bedeutet ferner das Ende des Nationalsozialismus und der NSDAP mit all ihren barbarischen Gesetzen und Einrichtungen. Bedingungslose
[page break]
Kapitulation bedeutet das Ende aller militaristischen Einflüsse im öffentlichen, privaten und kulturellen Leben Deutschlands.
Für die nationalsozialistischen Kriegsverbrecher bedeutet bedingungslose Kapitulation schnelle, gerechte und empfindliche Bestrafung. Kapitulation bedeutet auch die völlige Entwaffnung Deutschlands, die entgültige Beseitigung des deutschen Militarismus, die Vernichtung allen deutschen Kriegsgeräts, das Ende der deutschen Rüstungsindustrie, die Demobilisierung aller deutschen Streitkräfte und die entgültige Auflösung des deutschen Generalstabs, der so oft den Frieden der Welt erschüttert hat. Den von ihm angerichteten Schaden wird Deutschland in Sachleistungen gutmachen müssen – durch Auslieferung von Industrie-Anlagen, industrieller Ausrüstung, rollendem Material und Rohstoffen.
Wir werden nicht wieder, wie nach dem vorigen Krieg, in den Fehler verfallen, Wiedergutmachung in Geldleistungen zu verlangen, die Deutschland niemals aufbringen kann. Wir wollen nicht, dass das deutsche Volk Hunger leidet oder eine Last für die übrige Welt wird. Die Absicht, die uns bei der Politik gegenüber Deutschland leitet, lässt sich in wenige Worte zusammen fassen: Wir wollen kommenden Generationen den Frieden sichern.“
[line]
Roosevelt über die Aufrechterhaltung des Weltfriedens.
„ Die Krim-Konferenz war eine erfolgreiche Aktion der drei führenden Nationen, um eine gemeinsame Basis für den Frieden zu schaffen. Sie bedeutetet das Ende das Systems der einseitigen Aktionen, der exklusiven Bündnisse, der Interessensphären, der Gleichgewichtspolitik und aller anderen Experimente, die in den letzten Jahrhunderten versucht wurden - und fehlgeschlagen haben.
Wir beabsichtigen statt dieser Systeme eine Weltorganisation zu schaffen, in die allmählich alle friedliebenden Nationen eintreten können. Ich bin zuversichtlich, dass der Kongress und das amerikanische Volk die Ergebnisse der Konferenz gutheissen werden, als eine Basis für den Frieden, auf der Zukunft, in der unsere Kinder und Kindeskinder – die Kinder und Kindeskinder von uns allen, vor der ganzen Welt – leben werden.“
[line]
Der Bericht Präsident Roosevelts wurde vom amerikanischen Kongress mit überwältigender Stimmenmehrheit gutgeheissen und angenommen.
[pencil characters] WG 49A
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
Deutschlands Zukunft
Roosevelt erläutert die Beschlüsse der Krim-Konferenz
Description
An account of the resource
Reports that the American Army has crossed the Rhine near Mainz and provides a summary of President Roosevelt’s report to the American Congress on the Yalta Conference: the need for Germany’s unconditional surrender; the nature of Germany’s post war supervision by the four major powers; the end of National Socialism and military influence in German public life; the prosecution of war criminals; the destruction of Germany’s capacity for war; the nature of reparations; the creation of an international organisation to promote world peace.
Format
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One printed sheet
Language
A language of the resource
deu
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MBattyPH220759-161014-040001
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Ukraine
Germany--Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Ukraine--I︠A︡lta
Rhine River
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.
1945-02
1945-03
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Frances Grundy
propaganda
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Staves, Malcom Ely
M E Staves
Description
An account of the resource
77 items. The collection concerns Flying Officer Malcom Staves (1924 - 2012, 1591418, 203137 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, items, documents, photographs, and training notebooks. He flew operations as a wireless operator with 207 Squadron. <br /><br />There is also a sub collection concerning Flight Lieutenant <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/1020">D A MacArthur.</a><br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Christina Chatwin and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-26
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
Staves, ME
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] RAID ASSESS )MENT MEETING. HELD ON 10th. FEB/45 [/underlined]
[underlined] LADBERGEN. 7/8th. February 1945. [/underlined]
C.O. [missing letters]over details of weather experienced. Cloud possibly made attack ineffective and in any case difficult to assess results.
Defences stronger than previously.
[underlined] S/L.ROSSIETTER. [/underlined] 44/E. was cancelled due to defective spark-ing plugs in port outer engine.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] In the case of “probable” A/C. “made up” crews are to be allotted to the A/C which is most likely to become serviceable.
[underlined] GARDENING (Forget-me-nots). 7/8th. Feb/45. [/underlined]
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Not satisfactory attack. Training thought to be insufficient or faulty.
[underlined] F/O.STANCER. (207 Squadron). [/underlined] One crew took wrong reference point.
44 Squadron crews – Faulty camera manipulation and P. .I. photographs only taken of vicinity and not yet plotted, 44/C landed away.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] 44/C landed Carnaby. Why?
[underlined] S/L.FERGUSON. [/underlined] 44/C landed Carnaby with engine u/s. Had three good engines and no apparent reason for landing away.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Will S/L.Ferguson supply reason for 44/c landing away?
I will speak to Squadron Commanders after this meeting to discuss methods to raise standard of gardening.
[underlined] POLITZ. 8/9th. Feb/45. [/underlined]
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] No. 1 Group attacking later say target was a mass of flames looking as if our attack was successful. However, 50% of photographs which were plotted reveal errors of over 1.000 yards. Possibly errors were caused by enemy decoy markers.
One crew bombed direct without having run up on markers and another bombed on wrong heading.
[underlined] W/C.BLACK. [/underlined] These were pilot’s errors due to new inexperienced crews who have been spoken to on the matter and are unlikely to repeat the errors. In the second case he did not continue his turn after passing over T.I’s to get on correct heading. When B/A said “Now” pilot straightened out without attempting to correct heading.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Flak over Sweden increased. One A/C seen shot down over Sweden.
[underlined] S/L.HARISON. [/underlined] Possibly lowest we’ve been over Sweden.
[underlined] W/C.BLACK. [/underlined] Crews reported definitely shot at.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] In future consider Swedish flak at Flight Planning. There were two early returns. 1.u/s Bombsight. 2. u/s Oil Gauge. 207/L.
[underlined] P/O.YOUNG. [/underlined] Servicibility [sic] of instruments is mentioned at briefings
(continued)
[page break]
[underlined] RAID ASSESSMENT MEETING. 10/2/45. [/underlined] (continued) [underlined] SHEET. 2. [/underlined]
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] One A/C of 44 Squadron abortive as late.
[underlined] S/L [missing word]. [/underlined] This was due to faulty D.R.Navigation.
[underlined] GENERAL. [/underlined]
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Overshoots. Crews to be reminded that they may have to return and land on shorter runway. Some crews seem to think that call-up height is 1.200 ft instead of correct height of 2.000 ft. Some crews landing without R.T.
[underlined] F/L.DOUGHTY. [/underlined] Caused by window as A/C are coming back with window on aerial. A/C unable to “get through” without aerial and would not know of u/s aerial until return.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] 44 Squadron Gunners are letting off rounds on airfields. S/LFERGUSON to report.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Five crews from each Squadron to be detailed for E.T.R. procedure and for wind finding.
Any improvement in number of crews using H2S ?
[underlined] F/O.WALLACE. [/underlined] Only four or five crews from each Squadron.
[underlined] [missing letter]/L.BAUD. [/underlined] Low level of return was reason for not using H2S on last operation.
[underlined] F/O.WALLACE. [/underlined] The only way we can test the instrument is by operation in the air. Therefore it is essential that H2S be tested in air whenever possible.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] It is now to be an [underlined] order [/underlined] that crews use H2S whenever possible.
[page break]
[inserted] File [/inserted]
[underlined] RAID ASSESSMENT MEETING. 16th. FEBRUARY 1945. [/underlined]
[underlined] ROSITA – 14/15th. FEB/45. [/underlined]
1. [underlined] C.O. [/underlined] There was delay in take-off caused by Navigators waiting for Met. winds.
[underlined] F/O.STEELE. [/underlined] Amendment to winds came through late and had to be written on blackboards in briefing rooms.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] If amendment to Met. winds comes through before one hour previous to “first time off” then it is in order to pass the information to Navigators direct. Amendments coming through within one hour of take-off are to be referred to the station Navigation Office-r [sic] for him to decide whether the information is sufficiently important to be passed to crews.
2. [underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Further delay caused by an A/C. becoming bogged, due to standing on a French drain. Crews are not to stop on these drains.
[underlined] S/L.HOWES. [/underlined] Captain of this A/C. has been spoken to on the matter.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Two tractors should have been there.
[underlined] S/L.GARDINER. [/underlined] Tankers were sent first, then second tractor sent.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Drill should be to turn A/C. immediately, in view of uncertainty as to speed with which bogged A/C. can be moved.
[underlined] W/C.NEWMARSH. [/underlined] Suggested not too long a line of A/C. be allowed to build up between end of runway and intersection.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Agreed! 4-5 A/C. a suitable number. Will speakto [sic] S/LDR.Gardiner about this.
3. [underlined] C.O. [/underlined] These delays resulted in only 8 A/C. of 44 Squadron and 11 of 207 Squadron doing support run over target.
4. There were three early returns in 207 Squadron, crews having been instructed to return from Position ‘C’ if there was no chance of making up time.
[underlined] S/L.HOWES. [/underlined] F/O’s Howard and [indecipherable word] could not have made up time and were justified in returning. Not so in the case of F/[missing letter].Downing.
F/O.Howard was the only one to attempt to cut across over LONDON area, or to East of LONDON. It is thought that it would be helpful if a ruling could be obtained as to whether it is permissible for late A/C. to do this.
[underlined] S/L.HARRISON AND S/L.GARDINER. [/underlined] Prior/clearance would be necessary.
5. [underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Supporting A/C. were affected by icing on Perspex having come down through cloud to bombing height.
[underlined] S/L.FERGUSON. [/underlined] This/icing was not severe and should have cleared before bombing.
[underlined] F/O.BAKER. [/underlined] Thought crews slow to use de-icing equipment. Possibily [sic] forgot to use it.
(continued)
[page break]
[underlined] Page 2. [/underlined]
[underlined] HARBURG. [/underlined] (1) Marking carried out slightly too early controller ordering “Come in and bomb” at H-3. Winds were passed at H-5. The fact that some crews arrived early increased time over target. Heavy losses due to fighters – 13 in Group, 2 from this Station.
(2) F/Lt.Linnett reported that three aircraft of 207 Squadron had large errors shown by photographs but this was due to pilots carrying out turns at the time of photograph, to avoid other aircraft.
(3) 44 Bombing Leader said that several aircraft had difficulty in keeping straight and level after bombing for this reason.
(4) Headings in 44 Squadron were mainly O.K. 207/H attacked practically on reciprocal of correct heading W/Op had difficulty with W.T. and had to rely on “magic eye”.
(5) S/Ldr.[indecipherable name] thought routeing over Hamburg may have upset headings.
(6) 207/V had no photograph of bombing as film was expended during jettison action on way to target. This action was necessary to reduce load owing to engine trouble.
[underlined] TAXYING. [/underlined] (1) C.O. stated that taxying of both squadrons is still too fast owing to aircraft leaving dispersals too late.
This possibly due to crews not entering aircraft early enough. They should be in aircraft 10 minutes before time to leave. a contributory cause may be that first aircraft off is taking off too soon.
[underlined] R.T. DISCIPLINE. [/underlined]
(1) C.O. stated that R.T. discipline bad and that too much chattering is going on.
[underlined] E.R.T. and LANDING PROCEDURE. [/underlined]
(1) 207 Squadron aircraft have been returning early possibly due to desire to get back “while the going’s good”.
S/Ldr.[indecipherable name] said that crews while willing to adjust speed are disinclined to carry out “dog-legs”.
[page break]
[underlined] Page 3. [/underlined]
[underlined] E.R.T. and LANDING PROCEDURE (contd). [/underlined]
(2) C.O. reported that last return was complete shambles. This was thought to be due to0 the Funnel not being switched on rather than the fact that lighting was originally on quarter strength. Crews must have [missing letter].D.M. set on D.R. compass. S/Ldr.Ferguson had [missing letter].D.M. set O.K. and found runway alright although lighting was rather dim and aircraft on [indecipherable word] looked bright by comparison. He had to overshoot twice owing to being too close to other aircraft. Aerodrome was visible at distance of 10 miles at 2000 ft although not recognisable. S/Ldr.Ferguson considered quarter strength sufficient on a dark night.
[underlined] R/T. FAILURES. [/underlined]
(1) F/Lt.Doughty said all failures were due to loss of aerials. W/Op should go over to 1155 and briefed each time to do this. It takes 3 minutes to change over.
(2) W/Cmdr.Newmarsh and S/Ldr.Bird considered 1155 unsatisfactory owing to background of noise and suggest such aircraft wait until other aircraft have landed. C.O. ruled that crews must go over to Marconi and if reception is not good enough then wait until end.
(3) W/Cmdr.Newmarsh said that one of the main troubles is that crews do not realise soon enough that R/T is not working properly.
[page break]
File
[underlined] RAID ASSESSMENT MEETING. 16th. FEBRUARY 1945. [/underlined]
[underlined] DRESDEN – 13/14th. FEB/45 [/underlined]
1. [underlined] C.O. [/underlined] There was one swing on take-off (F/O.Craig of 44 Squadron). Caused by starboard inner engine failure. Odd that this should result in a swing to port.
[underlined] S/L.FERGUSON. [/underlined] F/O.Craig reports that he had full rudder control. Possibily [sic] he anticipated starboard inner engine cutting(because fuel lights came on) thereby causing swing to port.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Squadron Commanders to brief crews concerning swings on take-off, particularly with regard to slow opening of throttles and straightening of tail wheel.
2. [underlined] C.O. [/underlined] E.T.R. procedure went wrong. E.T.R. had to be amended to 0308. In the case of the ROSITZ raid the following night, the E.T.R. again had to be amended and 7 crews from this station did not receive the amendment. This was due to non-compliance with instructions to return Group Frequency for second broadcast and presumably crews assumed there would be no amendment. E.T.R. discipline evidently slacking off,
[underlined] W/C.NEWMARSH. [/underlined] Found to be well ahead of Flight Plan timing on return trip. Possibly due to fairly prolonged period of increased speed at time of “coming down in steps”.
[underlined] P/O.STANCER. [/underlined] Thought to be better to keep to Flight Plan [underlined] timing [/underlined], unless it becomes necessary to reduce speed by more than 5-10 mph, in which case it would be preferable to keep to planned [underlined] speeds [/underlined].
[underlined] S/L.HOWES. [/underlined] Considered crews are trying to keep to E.T.R. procedure but that they are experiencing difficulty. Scheme would work successfully if it were a question of keeping to either Flight Plan times [underlined] OR [/underlined] speeds.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] F/O. Stancer to take this matter up with Group using the ROSITZ operation as an example.
3. [underlined] F/O.STANCER. [/underlined] Crews are now operating H2S wherever possible.
4. [underlined] S/L. GARDINER. [/underlined] Some crews are still entering circuits below 2000 ft.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Further briefing on this point is necessary in view of call-up height having been 1200 ft some time previously.
5. [underlined] S/L.HARRISON. [/underlined] Read over P.R.U. report confirming that this operation was successful.
6. [underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Still reports of incendiary bombs being jettisoned on track.
[underlined] S/L.FERGUSON. [/underlined] Crews were specifically briefed again about keeping bomb doors closed. No reports of jettisoned I/B’s after ROSITZ attack. Always reported after Incendiary attacks.
[page break]
[underlined] Raid Assessment Meeting. 16th. February 1945. (contd) SHEET 2. [/underlined]
6. [underlined] C.O. [/underlined] Fighter activity again slight.
[underlined] F/L.CLARKE. [/underlined] Two combats in 44 Squadron. One A/C. reporting a S/E. A/C. carrying diffused light in belly presumably for the purpose of blinding bomber crews.
7. [underlined] C.O. [/underlined] A lot of dust is present on the runways.
[underlined] S/L.GARDINER. [/underlined] Runways are brushed once a fortnight, difficulty being experienced in obtaining a driver from M.T. Section. The top surface is in need of repair.
[underlined] C.O. [/underlined] See about getting a driver from M.T. Also see that a Control Officer goes round the airfield half an hour before take-off to ensure it is cleared of workmen.
[inserted] [INTELLIGENCE stamp] [/inserted]
[page break]
[underlined] RAID ASSESSMENT MEETING 9 th MARCH 1945. [/underlined]
DEFECTS: (1) S/L Rossiter mentioned that engine defects usually occur between 360 – 395 hours. Engine defects not considered to be due to bad handling by flight engineers.
[inserted vertically] [INTELLIGENCE stamp] [/inserted vertically]
(2) 207/H D.R. compass U/S owing to break in supply lead due to being struck or hung on by someone. Pilot had experienced slight trouble with it before, but did not consider it sufficiently serious to report. W/C Black to interview this Pilot.
(3) 44/C Compass U/S due to failure of master unit. This had been reported 3 days previously..Caused Pilot to fly over Rhur [sic] and run the gauntlet of considerable Flak defences. Eventually he had to return without bombing.
(4) 44/M Crew reported failure of bomb release mechanism. W/C Newmarsh said electrical section unable to discover any technical failure. S/L Bird of the opinion that crew did not carry out drill correctly owing to excitement.
(5) 207/X Had valve trouble on Gee indicator.
(6) One mine hung up. Orders are that a percentage check of mines loaded is to be carried out.
SASSNITZ. (1) Gardening errors were high. F/O.Stancer reported that crews did not obtain best possible photographs. On this occasion they were briefed by F/Sgt.Bremage and F/O. Baker. F/Lt.Linnett mentioned that all new crews are lectured on the camera and its use. Crew of 44/Q did not carry out correct drill which is marked on the camera. This crew mined successfully on the previous gardening operation. Commanding Officer pointed out that it is finally the responsibility of the Bombing or Gardening Leader that the release points are correctly worked out.
(2) Swedish flak reported by W/Cmdr.Newmarsh to be less than encountered on previous operations. S/Ldr.Harrison pointed out that searchlights apparently more active this time.
[page break]
[underlined] RAID ASSESSMENT MEETING. 23rd MARCH 1945. [/underlined]
[indecipherable word] 20/21 March, 1945.
1) C.O. went over Flight Plan which seemed to have been correct strategy.
2) S/Ldr. BAUD reported three small deviations from Flt. Plan by 44/[indecipherable letter]-F/L.JORY, 44/N – P/O.DALTON, 44/A – F/O. WALKER. F/L. JORY denied that he was 500 ft. below planned height in front line area. S/Ldr. BAUD said that where Captains and Navigators disagree , there is no alternative but to take the written evidence of the Navigator.
CO., ruled that Navigator must use Captains readings. CO., remarked thatin [sic] this instance it appeared that some crews had commenced descent slightly too soon and that it is very important to keep correct heights, particularly over front line areas.
3) S/Ldr. BAUD reported one slight deviation in 207 Squdn. By 207/V – F/Lt. VERRALLS who was too high at 090E. This was justifiable as the purpose was to gain cloud cover.
4) CO., remarked that the T.I’s on the spoof target of HALLE were inaccurate and F/LO. LINNETT said they were 4 miles West of the Town.
5) F/Lt. LEATHER reported that some crews on BOHLEN bombed early. Squadron Bombing Leaders reported that [indecipherable word] from Spilsby did this.
6) C.O. mentioned that attack was successful. The value of bombing photographs was instanced in this raid as it was immediately apparent that it was unnecessary to attack BOHLEN again the succeeding night.
7) Intruder activity ceased at 22.45 and did not, after all, interfere with take – off at 23.15.
8) F/O.KING, 2078 Squadron, reported that in each of the last two operations M.T.drivers had no clue as to the positions of the dispersals. C.O. ruled that new drivers are not to be put on night duty.
9) S/Ldr.BAUD reported that majority of crews endeavour to keep to E.T.R.
But two or three are not doing so. On This operation three of 44 Squadron were back early and one was late, five of 207 Squadron were in excess of 7 minutes one way or the other.
C.O. remarked that it will be necessary to order early crews to “Bograt”.
10) S/Ldr.GARDNER reported that Control had no difficulties on this night. S/Ldr.BIRD said that Channel “B” was noisy. C.O. said that take-off was slow.
11)
S/Ldr.BAUD said track keeping was mostly O.K. Winds were the main snag. 207/X was late in spite of having flown correct speeds. The A.S.I. is being checked but no report yet received. Different crews had experienced the same trouble with the same aircraft.
[underlined] “HAMBURG D.P.A.G.” [/underlined] 21/22 March, 1945.
1) C.O. went over Flight Plan. Question was raised at Flight Planning as to whether it would be better to come down to 3-5000 feet over Kiel Canal or keep high and risk fighters. A.O.C. decided to accept risk of light flak. Some crews experienced considerable light flak over the canal and others none – possibly due to patchy cloud conditions. One Ju.88 was seen over Hamburg and another enemy aircraft before the target was reached.
[page break]
[underlined] Page 2. [/underlined]
2) Engineering Officer reported flak damage to 44/J and 44/H.
3) F/Lt.JORY saw one aircraft crash in Kiel Canal area. Aircraft concerned was to starboard of track.
4) C.O. and S/Ldr.FERGUSON discussed the difficulty caused because one aircraft in target area had V.H.F. on “transmit”.
5) P/O.JONES reported that all 44 Squadron bombed as planned. F/Lt.LINNETT said two crews of 207 Squadron bombed direct. W/Cmdr.BLACK had told these crews that bombing is to be as planned unless instructions are received to the contrary.
6) C.O. remarked that most photographs were good. S/Ldr.BIRD said one crew of 44 Squadron had 6000 yards undershoot due to trouble with the bombsight which the Bomb Aimer could not correct. F/Lt.LINNETT explained that one error (2700 yards undershoot) was due to photograph being affected by the aircraft being in a dive, also due to over anxiety of new crew.
7) S/Ldr.FERGUSON reported difficulty in climbing to specified bombing height adding that he just reached correct height in time and that he was in a lower height band than some.
S/Ldr.BAUD reported that 4 crews from this Station bombed below correct height. Wind velocity in target area was 3300/50 i.e. from port quarter.
[underlined] DEFECTS. [/underlined]
1) F/Lt.KENNEDY reported one early return (44/Y) due to U/S rear turret. Caused by small hole in main pressure gauge pipe resulting from chaffing. This is inspected at every minor inspection. MA.P. have the matter in hand.
2) Engineering Officer reported an early return (44/S) due to loss of oil pressure and coolant overheating. The overheating was due to radiator flap being closed but no cause can be found for the other defect. Pilot (F/Lt. SIMONS) said gauge read zero. The gauge is serviceable.
3) F/Lt. HERBERT reported one A/C had trouble with Master Bomb Switch which, having been checked “on” was subsequently found to be knocked “off”. Thought to be caused by Engineer knocking the switch while in the act of windowing. 44/A – F/O. WALKER struck sea on way back. No instrument failure evident. S/Ldr. BIRD said it was due to “low flying”.
S/Ldr. BAUD said 44 Squadron were under a misapprehension as to the purpose of the master bombing switch which should be always be locked “ON” except in certain circumstances. C.O. ruled that instructions should be given at Navigators Briefing.
4) F/Lt. HERBERT said that ultra – violet lighting in aircraft, though not required at present may be necessary in future.
(End.
[page break]
(Date) 2/3.2.45 (Aircraft Type & Number) Lancaster I PD.782(Crew) F/O. CHAMBERS F.E., Sgt. Tait A, Sgt. Davies J.H., F/Sgt. Mirfin R.J., Sgt. Jewish W.H.R., Sgt. Sutherland D, F/Sgt. Walsh D.W.A. (Duty) Bombing (Time Up) 20.26 (Time Down) 03.46 (Details of Sortie or Flight) [underlined] BOMBING ATTACK KARLSRHUE. [/underlined] Bomb load 1 x 4000 Minol + 1800 x 4 lb incendiaries. 10/10th cloud over target. Target identified by one big red glow from fires. Bombed at 23.31 hrs. from 13.000 ft. heading 1100 IAS.175 mph. Centre of red glow + basic delay of 8 secs. One big glow. One green T.I. and two reds seen going down many miles to port. High oil temperature on both outer engines. This delayed us. Engine trouble prevented us from catching up withthe [sic] main bombing force in time to the supporting run and also from reaching the bombing height laid down – 16.000 feet. SORTIE COMPLETED. (Reference) 1 [deleted] 4 [/deleted]
(Date) 7/8.2.45 (Aircraft Type & Number) Lancaster I LL.902 (Crew) F/O. Watters. D.R., Sgt. Henderson J., Sgt. Stewart J.M., Sgt. Moore R., Sgt. Staveaz M.E., Sgt. Verney E., Sgt. Watkins. C.H. (Duty) Bombing (Time Up) 20.52 (Time Down) 03.23 (Details of Sortie or Flight) [underlined] BOMBING ATTACK LADBERGEN. [/underlined] Bomb load 14 x 1000 MC. Fzd. 8/10th. St. Cu. Tops 8-10.000’. Target identified by illuminating flares: Red and Green T.I.’s: Gee. Bombed at 00.02 1/2 hours from 11.500 ft. heading 0640 IAS. 160 m.p.h. Glow of red T.I.S.’s (Controller instructed “bomb first red T.I. as you go in”). SORTIE COMPLETED. (Reference) 1 [deleted] 4 [/deleted]
(Date) 7/8.2.4.5 [sic] (Aircraft Type & Number) Lancaster I PA.183 (Crew) F/O.Chambers, Sgt. Taito A., Sgt. Davies J.A., F/Sgt. Mirfin R.J., Sgt. Jewiss W.H.R., Sgt. Sutherland D., F/Sgt. Walsh D.W.A. (Duty) Bombing (Time Up) 20.59 (Time Down) 03.35 (Details of Sortie or Flight) [underlined] BOMBING ATTACK LADBERGEN. [/underlined] Bomb load 14 x 1000 MC. Fzd. 53A 10/10ths cloud. Target identified by two Red and Green T.I.’s Gee. Bombed at 00.04 hrs. from 10.000’ heading 0420 IAS. 180 mph. Westerly red T.I. In cloud until 10 sec. before release. Observation impossible. Defences considerably stopped [sic] up. SORTIE COMPLETED. (Reference) 1 [deleted] 4 [/deleted]
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
Raid Assessments
Description
An account of the resource
Five 'raid assessments' carried out at RAF Spilsby. Detail of problems encountered in each operation. Final sheet is an extract from Operations Record Book by three different Lancasters.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945
Format
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13 photocopied sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MStavesME203137-160226-350001,
MStavesME203137-160226-350002,
MStavesME203137-160226-350003,
MStavesME203137-160226-350004,
MStavesME203137-160226-350005,
MStavesME203137-160226-350006,
MStavesME203137-160226-350007,
MStavesME203137-160226-350008,
MStavesME203137-160226-350009,
MStavesME203137-160226-350010,
MStavesME203137-160226-350011,
MStavesME203137-160226-350012,
MStavesME203137-160226-350013
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
Poland
Sweden
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Dortmund-Ems Canal
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Steinfurt (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Thuringia
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
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.
1945-02
1945-03
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
207 Squadron
44 Squadron
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
flight engineer
H2S
incendiary device
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 1
mine laying
navigator
RAF Spilsby
Window
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1052/11430/POatleyK1701.2.jpg
be795ca0b07853007aa77c562bfeb00c
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1052/11430/AOatleyK170321.1.mp3
9f337a41a3840e6e82e8841355f9d0a1
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
Oatley, Ken
K Oatley
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Ken Oatley (b. 1922). He flew operations as a navigator with 627 Squadron.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-05-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Oatley, K
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
DK: I’ll just introduce myself, so, this is, this is David Kavanagh introduce, interviewing Ken Oatley at his home [file missing] borne, 21st of March 2017. So, I’ll just put that down there.
KO: Surely.
DK: Hang on, If I keep looking down I’m just making sure it’s still working
KO: Still functioning,
DK: Still functioning, yeah. It’s, it can be a bit temperamental at times, that looks, that looks ok. [unclear] that. I’ll just like to ask so first of all, what were you doing before the war?
KO: I was going to be a professional violinist.
DK: Really?
KO: My father, I won a scholarship to the Royal Academy when I was fifteen,
DK: Right.
KO: But I had no one to live with in London so I had to put it off for another year, then I had to take an examination that year to get the exhibition the year after that which actually brought me up too far close to the war and, even then, I had a year to go before I could get into the Air Force so I joined the Home Guard, did my duties as far as I could from then, and at that time, it was the 13th of September I think of ’39 that I was in headquarters and the phone rang and call out all the home guard, we’re anticipating the invasion immediately, so that passed over of course and October came and I thought, well, really it’s time and I just was old enough then to volunteer so I volunteered for aircrew in October of 1940.
DK: [unclear] back to me, when you were in the Home Guard, what were your sort of roles then? What were you actually doing, were you guarding anything or?
KO: No, I was in headquarters most of the time, but I had to take out messages or anything that required, you know, but I was there nights and so forth.
DK: So were you mostly young men there waiting to be called up or sort of [unclear]?
KO: No, no, they were all a lot much older than me.
DK: Alright. Alright, so you applied then to the Air Force, so
KO: Mh.
DK: It was always your intention then to,
KO: I always wanted to fly.
DK: Alright. Yeah, so did you actually go into pilot training then?
KO: Yes, in, I started flying in April of ’41, it was April so, anyway. And did the usual six weeks at Blackpool and then waiting for a course to come around they sent me to Northern Ireland guarding an auxiliary airfield there against the IRA and then in Maytime they sent me over then to Scone, that Scone, there was at, oh God! This is, my memory is, north of, in Scotland,
DK: Ah, ok.
KO: On the east coast top, anyhow that was the biggest town north. We were there prepared to go down to ITW then at Scarborough, by, by June then I was flying from Sealand on the wirrell
DK: What type of aircraft were you flying?
KO: Tiger Moths.
DK: Ah!
KO: Which I did, I loved flying and I had the aptitude for it and I really thoroughly enjoyed my time there, it was wonderful.
DK: What did you think of the Tiger Moth?
KO: Oh, I liked it very much and I, our last hour or two that we had on the course, my friend and I, we were supposed to be going out for three quarters of an hour flight at night in the evening, come back and report and then go back and do another three quarters of an hour so I said to my mate, well, this is a bit of a waste of time, I’ll meet you over the river Dee and we’ll have a dogfight, which we did. When time came to, to come back to report in, he disappeared and I thought, well, I don’t know where the heck I am [laughs], we wandered about somewhat for three quarters of an hour so I had, eventually I had to give up and I saw a farm with smoke coming out of the chimney and I decided, well, that looks alright so I made a forced landing into this field, knocking out a host of surveyors posts on the way down and a ditch that was half way across which I hadn’t noticed. Anyhow I landed there and a motorcyclist came in and I got out and spread my map on his handle bars and asked him where I was and he gave to, I was in the middle of Lancashire so I flew back and,
DK: You’ve gone that far south?
KO: Yes. So, anyway, I was up for the wing code the next morning,
DK: Were you able to take off out the field then?
KO: Yeah, I did, half the field
DK: Yeah, so that was
KO: It was,
DK: Damaged the aircraft?
KO: No, no, it was a bit dodgy, there was a wood at the end of the field and I just caught the width to the corner of it and I managed to get through, anyway we landed there and the next morning I was up in front of the CO and charged which it was going to be a court martial but he let me go on [unclear] cause I was the first one to solo [unclear] thirties so I thought, you know, I’m made for this and so I was taken off the Spitfight posting and ended up in Canada flying Oxfords. We were on the Oxfords for some while and then there was, Bennett was just do the Pathfinders setup and he had no navigators, only map readers really, observers, don’t tell him I [unclear], but he had no navigators so he took five pilots off of every pilots course in Canada, brought us home to do the Middle course on the navigators, then go onto flying,
DK: So, you were actually on a pilot’s course in Canada.
KO: Yeah, yeah.
DK: Got called off by Bennett,
KO: Yeah,
DK: Because he needed navigators,
KO: Yeah,
DK: How did you feel about that at the time?
KO: Not very happy, I must admit, but anyway.
DK: How were you chosen, was it almost a lottery or?
KO: Well, I don’t know, I think probably I wasn’t landing them very well. I came down [unclear], the approach was hundred percent, I touched down on the wheels, nice and quietly, as soon as the tailwheel had dropped, which off the runway we’d had, my instructor never once told me that I should be doing three point landings, never mentioned, then when the CFI took me up, I did the same thing and he then asked my instructor whether he’d taught me three point landings, of course he said, oh yes, of course he has, and so I was one of the five that got tucked out.
DK: So, it might have been poor training on the trainer’s part, not I suppose, [unclear]
KO: Well, I mean, it seems simple enough, things say you should be doing three-point landings. I landed quietly and smoothly, you know, and,
DK: And this would have been the Oxford, would it?
KO: Yeah, yes. Anyhow I came back home, nearly torpedoed on the way home.
DK: Can you remember which ship you came back on?
KO: [unclear] Dam and just out of Halifax I was on my sway hammock and there was an enormous bang, I thought, my God, we’d been torpedoed, and I bet, I was four flights down and I bet I was, tops of that before anybody else [laughs]. However, there happened to be a torpedo, a destroyer had come alongside and for no apparent reason, and he happened just to take the torpedo and the thing was sunk with all hands and we just carried on, there was fire
DK: You can’t remember the name of the destroyer that was lost?
KO: No, no, no.
DK: No. Did you actually see it go down or?
KO: No,
DK: No.
KO: But we were told.
DK: Yeah.
KO: But you see, we were in two passengers, well, one was obviously a passenger ship and we were in a sort of half and half but there were five hundred aircrew on board ships, then we had several destroyers flying around us all the way back across the Atlantic. It took three weeks coming home cause we went all over the place and got back to England and put me on the navigation course which we did one course at Grand Hotel, oh, Eastbourne,
DK: Right. Yep, yep.
KO: Six weeks and then we were sent off on a ship again, I thought, we are going back to Canada again, which I didn’t like cause I got engaged to a girl in Canada while I was out there. Anyway, we went to South Africa and I was, from start to finish it was nearly eight months, wasted out of my flying time, going down there, doing the course and coming back again and we spent three weeks at Clairwood race course in tents. Then they moved us to East London and we were there for another six weeks and while we were there I met somebody there quite out of the blue, he asked me what we did, what our hobbies were, said well, I played the violin, oh, he said, I know somebody who’d be interested in you so he took me up the road to this gentleman and he said, would you like to play me something? So I played him one of the better class pieces that I used to perform and he said, would you like to play with the municipal orchestra on Sunday? This was Thursday, so I did that and did that the following month, so that was the virtually, the last time I played the violin at all, really.
DK: So you never played it since then?
KO: No, not really, no.
DK: No, no.
KO: So, anyway we got back and messed about for ages and I did,
DK: How did you feel when all this was going on, you were going to South Africa [unclear] was there a certain amount of frustration or?
KO: Yes I, you know, it was very enjoyable,
DK: Yeah.
KO: But it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Anyway we got back and there was so many aircrew trained here messing about Bournemouth was full of them all the time, they didn’t know what to do with us, anyhow we ended up at Harrogate, we were sent off on a commander course to start with at Whitley Bay, six weeks and then they sent me up to Scone to sit in the back seat of a Tiger Moth with a [unclear] recently qualified pilot in front and I was another six weeks messing about there, well, that was barely started the navigation course properly so I don’t think I was gonna get there.
DK: Was navigation something you took to easily, was it?
KO: Oh yes, I was, no worries about that, and then I was onto OTU and from what I understand I was, uhm, was the top of the class in both flying and ground subjects and,
DK: Can you remember which OTU it was you went to?
KO: I can never remember the name of it, was north of Oxford.
DK: Right. Is not in there, in the logbook.
KO: It would be, I suppose. It’s more likely in the back of my pilot’s, pack of pilot’s
DK: That one.
KO: But in the back,
DK: Oh, right, ok. So, what year are we talking about now then? It’s,
KO: That’ll be ’42.
DK: ’42, alright. So that’s the Oxford, so that’s ’41, ’74, you are still flying in ’74.
KO. Oh that’s, that’s flying here.
DK: Right.
KO: It’ll be very, very close to, no, but it wouldn’t be in there, yes, on the back, on the back page, I got all the
DK: Ah, right.
KO: All the,
DK: Ah, right, ok, so ’40,
KO: In, here, up here.
DK: [unclear] ’43.
KO: And here.
DK: 16.
KO: 16.
DK: Ah, right, so, I’ll just say this for the benefit of the tape so it’s 16 OTU Upper Hayford. So you were there from the 10th of August 1943,
KO: Yeah,
DK: Yeah.
KO: Then we went onto Scampton and then to Swinderby.
DK: And that was,
KO: On Stirlings
DK: 16
KO: We did Wellingtons at
DK: 16 OTU
KO: 16 OTU,
DK: Yeah,
KO: And then we went on the Stirlings
DK: And that was at Swinderby
KO: Yes and then the Lancs
DK: Right, so, at 1660 Conversion Unit, Swinderby, that was the Stirlings.
KO: Yes.
DK: Yeah, and then at Syerston,
KO: Yes,
Dk: That was 5 Lancaster finishing school.
KO: Yes.
DK: So, at Upper Hayford was the Wellingtons?
KO: Yes.
DK: Yes, so what was your feeling about the Wellington then as an aircraft?
KO: Oh, fine and my pilot that I had there, although he hadn’t all that many arrows in, he was fine and we got on very well, our crew was first class and everything we did, we were quite well appraised for.
DK: So how did your crew get together then?
KO: Oh, we all, they put us in a hangar and said, I’m sorry, sort yourselves out, so to speak, you know.
DK: You just found yourselves a pilot,
KO: Yes, from
DK: Do you think that worked well?
KO: Yes, it did in our case.
DK: Yeah.
KO: I had an excellent crew and I was very sorry that we went on from there to Metheringham,
DK: Right.
KO: With Gibson squadron.
DK: 106 Squadron.
KO: And my pilot went on a Second Dickey trip with his, with a crew that were on their last operation,
DK: Right.
KO: And failed to return. So, we were sent back to Scampton again in to be recrewed. If they’d given us another pilot, which would have been more sensible, they split the whole crew up as far as I can [unclear] gave us another crew of odd bodies that they had and he wasn’t too bad, he wasn’t as good as my other pilot, you know, they were a little bit lumpy, but see my trouble was, my navigator’s seat was well back from the front and as I remember it seems I had a little office of my own now, the only,
DK: This was the Wellington,
KO: Stirling.
DK: Stirling, right, ok.
KO: And my only chance of talking to the pilot was on the intercom.
DK: Right.
KO: So I never was anywhere near him. It was when we got on to Syerston to the Lancaster, I was sitting right behind him as you realised and he had the most dreadful body odour that you could ever imagine, it really was out of this world,
DK: Oh dear,
KO: And so I took the crew up to the wing commander after we’d just sort of finished the early stages with the Lanc and I said, I can’t fly with this bloke, we all agreed, nearly court martialled, I [unclear] go for, go for a [unclear] you know and anyway we sent back to Scampton again and,
DK: So, you’ve gone back to Scampton for a third time.
KO: Yes, yes.
DK: Alright. When you, just going back to 106, you never met Gibson then, did you?
KO: No.
DK: I, just for the, slightly confusing that for the tape, just for the benefit of the tape, what I’ll say here is where you were, so initially it was Upper Hayford with 16 OTU from the 10th of August 1943, then it was Scampton 15th of December ’43, then 1660 Conversion Unit at Swinderby from the 8th of February ’44 on Stirlings,
KO: Yes.
DK: Then 5 Lancaster finishing school at Syerston,
KO: Yes.
DK: from 28th of March ’44, obviously on Lancasters, then 106 Squadron your pilot went missing as a Second Dickey, so back to Scampton again, then Swinderby,
KO: Yes.
DK: Then 5 Lancaster finishing school, Syerston again,
KO: Yes.
DK: Then back to Scampton because it’s problems with the pilot,
KO: Yes. On 106.
DK: On 106, and then on, I’ve got here, then onto 627, so that was, that’s the next question,
KO: Yes, yeah.
DK: Yeah, ok. So, you’ve complained about your pilot then and what happened then?
KO: Oh, they didn’t do him any harm or anything, I’m just, my memory gets so bad at times, other times I can go with, like, you know, what was the question?
DK: It was, you’re back at Scampton and you complained about the pilot, cause of the body odour,
KO: Yes.
DK: So what happened then?
KO: Well, straight away I was sent to Woodhall Spa from there.
DK: Right, ok. And that’s with 627 Squadron.
KO: 627 Squadron, yes.
DK: Yeah, ok. So, what were you flying at 627 then?
KO: Mosquitoes.
DK: Yeah. What did you think about the Mosquito?
KO: Oh, marvellous.
DK: Yeah.
KO: Yes, I, never complaints about the Mosquito.
DK: Was it a bit of a shock when you’ve gone from four engine bombers?
KO: It was lovely.
DK: Yeah. So you,
KO: Oh. Beautiful.
DK: So you never flew any operations on the four engine bombers?
KO: No, not again, no, no, no. It was all on the Mosquitoes from there on.
DK: Alright.
KO: And then of course the first, the move from Metheringham to Woodhall Spa was like chalk and cheese, you know, [unclear] it, well, every moment we, there we enjoyed the flying and the operational side of it and,
DK: Yeah.
KO: It was just something once in a lifetime, you know.
DK: What was Woodhall Spa like as an airfield then?
KO: It was big enough for what we wanted cause they were flying 617 from there as well so they had to cover the twenty thousand pound bomb weight on runways cause it was just a small camp, on the outside there was no main buildings to it at all, we were very much countryfied.
DK: Did you go to the Petwood Hotel at all?
KO: No, that was 617’s privilege that was,
DK: Ah, right.
KO: We were in the Nissen huts.
DK: [laughs] oh, ok.
KO: Which was a bit of a comedown.
DK: Did you get to know anyone of the 617 crew?
KO: I did but I can’t remember the names now. [laughs] Funnily enough, one of the well known ones that flew with Gibson on the dams, I went into the sergeants mess one day and he was playing cards with a table full of crews there for 617 and he said, can you lend me a pound? So, I lend him the pound, never expecting to get it back again, when I came out of the Air Force about four years after that, I happened to be standing in front of my restaurant in Northampton and who should come in? This chap I’d lent the pound to. So, I caught him and I got me pound back on it [laughs].
DK: [unclear] oh excellent, [laughs], well he did owe it to you.
KO: Yeah, having done the dams raid he was lucky to.
DK: Yeah. So, you can’t remember who that was then now?
KO: I, a flash came into my head, I got an idea whose name, was Monroe, was it?
DK: Les Monroe? Yeah, Les Monroe.
KO: Yeah.
DK: The New Zealander?
KO: Yeah.
DK: Yeah, yeah. He owed you a pound [laughs].
KO: Yeah. He just walked in the shop, not knowing I was there.
DK: Yeah.
KO: I just recognized, I said, hey you.
DK: I actually met Les a couple of times when he came over to UK, last few years. So, you’re now on a Mosquito squadron, so what was your actual role then as 627 Squadron, what were you?
KO: We were at 99 percent for marking, for main force.
DK: Right.
KO: And we were the only squadron that did what we did. We were way ahead of everybody else, and we had to dive, we introduced dive bomb marking which was not heard of before 627 Squadron was formed. But they started off the first two or three months joining in with the, flying backwards and forwards to Berlin in those days and then when we moved up with 617 Squadron, we started doing what we did, that was our thing, and that was flying ahead of main force and being there three minutes before the actual time we needed to be there because that was ten minutes between, let me try to explain it a different way, the flares, the target was illuminated by one or two squadrons of Lancasters from our station to drop thousands of luminating shares over the target area and five of us went out separately to the target and stood off until the first markers went down illuminating, lights went down and on the, dead on the spot, they were there ten minutes before the time for bombing and we went in, in that ten minutes under the flares, dive bombed the marker onto the target for about, well, anything from three, two, three hundred feet, from fifteen hundred feet and it was purely up to the pilot because he dropped the bomb, the had a china graph pencil mark on his windscreen and he, that was his only guide he had to drop his markers, and they used to put that according to how they saw it in height and that sort of thing that needed to be very careful and then we would drop off the markers at about two hundred feet, something like that.
DK: Two hundred feet.
KO: Well, we, we flew round Dresden at three or four hundred feet, probably five hundred feet for nearly ten minutes.
DK: Yeah, yeah. So, the illuminators went in first,
KO: Yes.
DK: They illuminated the target area.
KO: Yes.
DK: So you could then see where to drop your
KO: That’s right.
DK: drop your indicators by
KO: Yes.
DK: [unclear] moving on the target.
KO: Yes.
DK: And then the main force came in.
KO: After that, yes.
DK: Yeah. So, how was that controlled then? Was it?
KO: Just on timing.
DK: Literally on timing, so there’s no one there.
KO: No, no, no, no, we had to be there three minutes before the, ten minutes if you like,
DK: Right, yeah.
KO: Thirteen minutes, three minutes we had to get in our track in to go in and do our dive in.
DK: Right.
KO: That was just for error, for coming from, over from Holland down to Dresden, we had that little margin of difference, so at ten to the target, the Lancasters then came in, they had ten minutes to bomb on the markers that we had laid.
DK: So, can, just stepping back one bit, can you remember where your first operation was to then?
KO: Uhm, Bremen.
DK: Bremen. And how many operations did you actually do then?
KO: I, we did twenty-two operations altogether.
DK: Twenty-two.
KO: They were spread over a little bit but, see we only did, we had enough crews that we only did one every five.
DK: Right.
KO. We had thirty crew, thirty crew men on the, for fifteen aircraft and we only ever sent five aircraft out on an operation, so we had, there was, sort of,
DK: It’s quite a long period between flight then,
KO: Yeah, yes.
DK: So, can you remember when the tour started and when it ended, how long it was for, roughly?
KO: The first tour?
DK: Yeah.
KO: I’m having a particular bad day today, I don’t know why it is, but, oh Jesus! [laughs] I’m lost.
DK: Is it, will it be recorded in here anywhere?
KO: Yes, it was about, the middle, the middle of June-July of forty
DK: ’44.
KO: ’44.
DK: Ok, here we go, yeah, so, that’s 627 Squadron
KO: Yes.
DK: At Woodhall Spa.
KO: Yes.
DK: So, on the 25th of July
KO: Yes.
DK: ’44, so that’s all practice
KO: Yes. Our night operations were in red.
DK: Right.
KO: So, we did, only did one in every three.
DK: Ok, that way we’ll, so, that’s all practice so, uhm, cross country, practice.
KO: We practiced at least five times for every operation we did.
DK: Alright. Ok, so we got off ways to see if we got Gladbach, that’s Monchen Gladbach presumably.
KO: So, that was where Gibson got lost,
DK: Right, alright, ok.
KO: So, that was his own fault.
DK: [laughs] We’ll come back to that in a minute. Ok, [unclear]
KO: Yes, I think we did four in one week, which was an exceptional.
DK: Right.
KO: My first op was a day run to L’Isle-de-Adam, a bomb dump north of Paris. We had a fairly leisurely time as you can see.
DK: I see there is an awful lot of practice between the actual raids, isn’t it?
KO: Yeah, it was about five, one in five. Really, what brought that about was we had to have the aircraft on for that night, and they had to have a morning test before,
DK: Right.
KO: And we used the test to go and do a bombing run on the sands at
DK: [unclear]
KO: [unclear], yeah.
DK: So, navigation then and timing clearly needs to be very accurate.
KO: Yes.
DK: Yeah.
KO: But we didn’t do anything really, we flew, normal thing was that we flew out to Holland and turned from just over the coast of Holland, turned down to the, wherever we were going, from there it was, we had no troubles [unclear], we went more or less our own way, we knew what time we had to be there and that but.
DK: So, I think this is your first operation the 6th of October ’44 to Bremen.
KO: That was the first time when we used our dive bomb technique.
DK: Right, ok.
KO: It was, they didn’t know really what it was gonna be like and they told the CO that he wasn’t to go on that operation.
DK: Oh, alright. So, then you got the Mittelland Canal on the 6th of November ’44.
KO: They were easy.
DK: So, it’s got bolted flares over [unclear]. And then you’ve got, 21st of November the Dortmund-Ems Canal.
KO: Mhm, there were two or three of those.
DK: And then I’ve got here the 13th of December ’44, the Cologne and Emden ships cruisers.
KO: Yes, that was in, that was in the Oslofjord, but they moved them by the time we got up there and it was a wasted trip.
DK: So, this is [unclear] called off by marker one.
KO: Yes, well.
DK: So, it was a
KO: I can, this, as I was saying to my friend today, I’ve worried about that ever since and I cannot understand because I was absolutely dead on track all the way up there, I said the only thing I can excuse myself in is that the pilot was running ten miles an hour, he was on three hundred and twenty instead of three hundred and thirty and he would jump down my throat if I suggested that but I couldn’t find no other reason for being late cause we were dead on course for everything.
DK: Yeah, [unclear] this, that’s [unclear].
KO: That’s, that was stacked down for a purpose. Probably made a mess of it so.
DK: So, then we got 14th of January ’45 and it’s oil refinery at Mersberg. So, that’s and it’s got here two times one thousands, so that’s two one thousand pound bombs.
KO: Yeah.
DK: And the red target indicators. So that’s [unclear] what you’ve dropped and. So, then it’s 2nd of February ’45 Karlsruhe. It says target obscured by cloud. Sky marking only.
KO: Yes.
DK: So then, 2nd of Feb, Dortmund.
KO: Dortmund.
DK: It says one target marked.
KO: I’m doing well, aren’t I? [laughs]
DK: And then, 8th of Feb, Politz-Stettin, oil refinery. Stettin oil refinery, yeah. And then the 13th of Feb ’45, ops Dresden. Marker two. And then backed up, one one thousand pounder, red TI. So, just talking about that then, what actually happened on the Dresden raid? Was..
KO: Well, the, there was a trade wind blowing to start with and normally, starting off from home, we would climb to the operating height, going out and we would take a fix every three minutes and find an average wind which we would calculate to fly us on from there to Dresden. But this MIG wasn’t working particularly well and when we got to the turning point, it was a question of hops and choices to how you carried on from there. So I part guessed well I could [unclear] what I’d got already to choose from and then I realised that the thing that we had installed in the aircraft which I’d never used before, I’d never been instructed on because it was introduced while I was on leave, I thought, well, I’ll give it a go and see if I hadn’t have the charts with me and so, I took him, took him down on that, bearing as it was, there was a line running straight through Dresden that I could put up on the machine, that was terrible cause on a Gee box you had to two stroves running like that, but on this particular case, when I went on to the LORAN, it was like that and right across the thing as you couldn’t tell which was which, you had to take a guess at it and fortunately I guessed right and I didn’t navigate all the way down there. I just kept on one line and then I could, guide him down along this line all the way down to Dresden and then there was a one, there was another line crossing the second line there which went through Dresden and as soon as I kept switching backwards and forwards to that, and when that line came up, I said, right-oh Jock, we’re here now. We were three minutes early and doing the right one turn, another one [unclear] the arrival and then the main force came, we had the, the uhm, the squadrons that were dropping in there, illuminating flares came in at ten to eleven and we were just on the edge of the city, sitting there, waiting for them. We had to put those down and then we went in and dived in and we were just, just about to call out marker two, tally-ho, and number one tally-ho didn’t just in front of us so we had to go round again and
DK: So you, so marker one got his markers in first
KO: He was the flight commander anyway,
DK: Right, ok.
KO: So, couldn’t, he couldn’t
DK: Right. So, your markers then were the second to go.
KO: Yes.
DK: Right.
KO: Btu we were the most accurate.
DK: Right.
KO: On that.
DK: And how low would you’ve been when you dropped the markers?
KO: About three hundred feet.
DK: As low as that.
KO: Well, we were so low, that as we flew away from there, my pilot was looking back to see if he could see where they’d dropped and I had a shout at him because we were just gonna hit the spires of the cathedral, so I had to pull him up on that one. And then we just circled around Dresden for three or four minutes at five hundred feet and then we came home.
DK: And did you see much of the main force bombing then in that five minutes?
KO: They just started to bomb,
DK: Right.
KO: And I think they let a couple of four hundred, four thousand pounders off as we weren’t all that high and we could feel the, [unclear] get out quick now
DK: I just, for the benefit of the tape, I just read what it says here, so, 13th of Feb ’45, you took off at 2000 as, Mosquito F, so your pilot was flying officer Walker and your navigator so it says, ops Dresden, marker two, which you mentioned backed up, so is that meaning you backed up marker one?
KO: Yes.
DK: Yeah.
KO: Well, we got in, it was a football stadium
DK: Right.
KO: We got our marker in the football stadium.
DK: Alright, ok.
KO: And the others were in a bunch, nearly [unclear] a hundred yards,
DK: Yeah.
KO: Way but,
DK: So, your second ones down was actually the more accurate and then it’s got one thousand, so you got a thousand-pound bomb and red
KO: They were a thousand-pound flares.
DK: Oh sorry, so you dropped one-thousand-pound red target indicators
KO: Yeah, yeah.
DK: Sorry, yeah, so one thousand red target indicator. And you
KO: And the others all backed up after that.
DK: Yeah. So, you arrived back at 0540?
KO: I know my, my history today to you doesn’t sound very much but on my claim for a commission, my squadron commander and the camp squadron commander both put down that we were the best crews, one of the best crews of the squadron.
DK: Oh!
KO: We did do well, I mean, we felt that we, if we dropped our markers that was bloody well close on it and of course the last operation we did was at Tonsberg oil refinery at the
DK: Right.
KO: The, first up towards Oslo and
DK: So, were all the operations with Walker?
KO: Yeah.
DK: Yeah. And was he a good pilot?
KO: He was a good pilot and he was good at dropping the bombs too. We were the best on that one as well. But, I know it sounds terrible, our successes and that sort of thing but sometimes they went right and sometimes they didn’t and sometimes if our radar wasn’t working up to scratch, we
DK: So, when you were briefed for Dresden then, it was just an ordinary briefing
KO: Yes.
DK: And an ordinary target.
KO: Yes. When I was allocated onto a new job I’d only been on the squadron about six weeks, two months when I was sent to RAF Wyton 1409 Met Flight
DK: Right.
KO: For a two week crash course on wind reporting then I found myself that we were doing a big operation in south Germany and we had to stop at Manston to refuel and my job then was to decide two hundred miles from the target whether it was gonna be satisfactory for the main force to continue on to attack the target and if I didn’t think it was gonna be satisfactory, my job was to call them out and send them home.
DK: So, you’ve gone out and checked the weather in effect then.
KO: No, that was all we were supposed to be doing,
DK: Yeah.
KO: But fortunately the fog came down and we were, the thing was called off. It was never reinstated again but I think that somebody up a loft had said, well, this is a bloody silly idea in the first place.
DK: That, was that with 1409 Met Flight?
KO: Oh, that was where I was sent for those two-week crash course.
DK: Right, ok. Ok, so you’ve done the training at 1409 Met course.
KO: What there was there of it.
DK: Yeah. So, you, did you get?
KO: I was
DK: Did you get back to Manston then or?
KO: Oh yeah, yes, well we uhm, I think we came in that night, I think we came into, probably into Woodbridge.
DK: Alright. Cause there’s one here you’ve been here the 12th of October ’44, it says from Manston, yeah. You went to Manston the day before. So that idea of going out early and
KO: Cause we used the wing tanks up, you see, we needed all the petrol that we could carry to get there and back so we’d use the wing tanks up going down to Manston until we had to refuel then and while that was being done, we were a little bit early, the fog came down and the whole thing was scrubbed.
DK: Alright. That’s what it’s saying here that you remained at Manston. Yeah. So, just going on here then, 16th of March ’45, Wurzburg, ops to Wurzburg.
KO: Wurzburg.
DK: Yeah, so you’re marker two. So, one thousand [unclear] red target indicator, one one thousand yellow target indicators,
KO: That’s what we carried.
DK: Right. But we carried a red, yellow and a green, as the Germans had a funny act of if the red ones went down they’d light another red one up somewhere away from it, you see, to distract it, so we’d have to go back in again and drop the green beside the red or whatever and
DK: Is this when you’ve got the master bomber’s there then that were telling
KO: Yeah, the master bomber’s up there.
DK: Yeah. So he’s then telling who, the rest of the main force who, which coloured markers to bomb. Has he mentioned you on the same operation that Gibson was lost on
KO: Yeah, yes.
DK: You didn’t know him cause he flew a 627 Mosquito force [unclear], didn’t he?
KO: Yes, yes.
DK: You didn’t meet him there then?
KO: I’ve met him on several occasions but, you know, not sort of personally, we were, [unclear] had social occasion or on one occasion he tried to, he came into our little bar, as you can imagine, we were in Nissen huts and they were all posh in and they came down to our officer’s mess and we, that was an airman’s hut actually, the whole mess, and the kitchen that was all part of it but we had no bar arrangements or that, so we had a builder of one of the boys in the squadron, so he built the bar and built a fire in there for us so we could have an officer’s drinking area. And one night my pilot and three Australians were in there having a drink and the door opened and Gibson appears and nobody sort of moved and he came, don’t you normally stand to attention and when a senior officer comes in? And they looked at each other, said, no, no, no. So, anyway, he created such a fuss, they grabbed hold of him, took him outside, took his trousers off and told him not to come in again. The next morning, there was an officer’s parade which he officiated, went down the line and of course the Australians all six foot something in their dark uniforms and my pilot who was a real dural Scotsman,
DK: This was Walker, was it?
KO: Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
KO: He was standing at the end of the line and he got him and he put him in the glasshouse for three weeks. So, he didn’t remain very popular with our crowd.
DK: Alright.
KO: So I was flying odd bits with anybody who was needing it, the navigator, flew all that three weeks when he was
DK: Well that, I mean, that meant you had another pilot you had to fly with then that. So you, you weren’t too pleased about that then?
KO: Well, we didn’t [unclear]
DK: Alright, ok. They were just
KO: I might have gone on a night flying test.
DK: Alright, so you didn’t do any operations while he was in [unclear]
KO: No, I mean, I had a very, very nice round of it really, I mean, some of the ops we did, we, yeah, you had to have your head on and I was, I was considered to be one of the better navigators although it didn’t sound like it. You know, you don’t know the circumstances of how things go.
DK: So, what was it like then if you were, you know, you are flying the Mosquito there, you’re over enemy territory, what does it feel like, it’s very dark and you’re being shot at?
KO: Well, we weren’t being shot at, that was just the point you see. Everybody else, the main force went out on allocated circuit. We went out, there was only five of us, we went out and more or less did it the way we thought we would, we didn’t stick to any plan as long as we were there sort of three minutes before the flares went down
DK: Right
KO: Thirteen minutes before the bombers came in. So rise up and up and when cross sort of thing on the machine I said right-oh, Jock, we’re here now and three minutes early, do a right one turn, wind off three minutes and that should bring us on time, that moment in time, the flares started to come down and we turned to going to find the thing and the number one saw it just as, we were just, there’s a story in my book there, he pressed the [unclear] just at the same time my pilot was just going to so we had to go off and go round again. And that happened several times and on one, where we had to bomb Wesel, because the commanders had taken over, they crossed the river there and they were outside of Wesel, we had to mark Wesel and we went, there was five of us, we went in and we had to put our markers on the, uhm, the, what’s, I don’t know what you call it, uhm, on the stone part of the pier sort of thing
DK: Alright, ok.
KO: On the river
DK: Yeah.
KO: And both our pilots [unclear] at the same time, both pressed the button, that cut out transmission then we couldn’t hear anything else. We went in, they went in, and we went in, dropped our markers at the same time and they landed in the same, virtually the same place at the same time so how far we were apart where we dived in there, we couldn’t have been more than twenty feet apart, never saw them and they didn’t see us.
DK: I’m just reading there from your logbook, so, that’s the 23rd of March ’45 and it’s ops to Wesel, army support. And you’ve marked with a thousand-pound red target indicator. So, you both dropped at exactly the same time.
KO: And exactly the same spot.
DK: Onto a pier.
KO: Yeah.
DK: On the river.
KO: Yeah. We didn’t realise what had happened until we got back.
DK: So then just going on here, I’m just reading this out for the recorder here, so, you then got the 10 of April ’45 ops the marshalling yard near Leipzig. So, backed up number two, thousand-pound red target indicator, carrying a thousand-pound yellow target indicator.
KO: Yes.
DK: So that probably would have been your last operation then, would it or?
KO: [unclear] read, read.
DK: Oh, ok.
KO: I know that [laughs] I found out that since that my sister married a family in Northampton, they’re apparently of Jewish extraction and they came down to the grandfather had had property in East Germany,
DK: Oh, right.
KO: And nobody knew where it was or anything and it wasn’t until after the war that they set the wheels rolling and apparently there’s two blocks of very luxury apartments and we’d blown one block up and so they only got reparations for the one, who’d been getting the rent for the other one [unclear] up until that time nobody came to the fore.
DK: Oh, hang on, there’s another op here, so, uhm, so Norway, so 25th of April ’45 Tonsberg, Norway.
KO: Yes, that’s the last one I did.
DK: That’s the last one, yes, so [unclear]. So at that point the war’s ended, how did you feel then?
KO: Well, that was about the first or second op I did from commissioning.
DK: Right. So you were commissioned at this point. Yeah.
KO: But I didn’t, I didn’t bother, we didn’t know what was going to happen to us though, where we were going to go, and what happened, what happened then lot of the Ozzies were sent home and we brought in some new people because there was the Far East war and we were going to take part in that and so we were going out there to mark for 5 Group, was only 5 Group that was going out there and we were the Pathfinder Force for 5 Group but we weren’t going to do our dive bomb marking there, somebody got the bright idea of using H2S and we would fly over the target two thousand feet straight and level for two minutes and drop our markers out. You know, that was a ridiculous idea, we wouldn’t even know where the bloody markers had gone and we would’ve much rather continue what we were doing previously and knowing where it was but.
DK: This would’ve been part of Tiger Force then.
KO: Yes, this was Tiger Force and we were supposed to be leading it.
DK: So, the atomic bomb’s dropped then, how did you feel that you weren’t now having to go out to the Far East?
KO: I was a bit disappointed in some respect because I rather looked forward to the exploratory flight out there really but on the other hand, see, there was a five hundred miles from Okinawa to the landfall in Japan,
DK: Yeah.
KO: And we didn’t have that great deal of overlap of petrol to do that, so we were waiting for Mark 40 Mosquitoes to come, which were pressurized and we were flying at forty thousand feet out, taking the trade wind to blow us there, then we go down and do our marking role for drop our markers whatever to do there and then we were gonna come back at sea level because the trade wind would,
DK: Yeah, yeah.
KO: Well that was what the theory was anyway, that would blow us back, blow us there and blow us back. Which we weren’t particularly thrilled with the idea.
DK: Oh, I can imagine.
KO: As you can imagine, sort of being dropped in the sea in the middle of the Pacific there.
DK: [unclear] Get blown back [laughs].
KO: [laughs] No, some people spark ideas, I don’t know.
DK: So the war’s ended then, what were you
KO: Yeah.
DK: You carried on [unclear]
KO: What happened then was, I was supposed to be leaving the [unclear] and they started sending the Ozzies back then because the war was,
DK: Yeah.
KO: Virtually finished then and they started importing a few other crews to come in, to go on the Okinawa job and [unclear] I was gonna say now, I lost the thread or something.
DK: So, the war’s ended, you’re [unclear] not going.
KO: Yes, so a lot of the new boys that they’d brought in were dispersed amongst other stations and so forth and we were just left to [unclear] we were the only crews that were taken out of the squadron and sent firstly to Feltwell and then, I can never remember the other airfield and then ended up at Marham,
DK: Right.
KO: On a bombing development unit. Now we were supposed to think up different ways of attack for future things, well, that was a waste of time really but that was all we were doing. All the rest of the them, down the squadron as it was left, cause they’d imported a lot of aircrew, and sent the Ozzies back, and they were sent to uhm, 19th Squadron, something like that,
DK: Right.
KO: And within months it was, they were all released from it.
DK: And what happened to yourself, then you, did you leave the RAF at that point?
KO: I was still on bombing development unit.
DK: Right.
KO: We just, from there we just five crews of us there.
DK: Yeah.
KO: And I stayed on till June and I was then pat to hand in me notice so to speak.
DK: So that would have been June 1946.
KO: Yeah.
DK: Yeah, yeah, you’re at Marham. So, you’ve left the Air Force in ’46 then. Yeah. So, what did you after that then?
KO: Well, it’s a bit of a long story really, I wanted to, I wanted to get engaged to one of the WAAFs in the squadron who was a parachute packer.
DK: Right.
KO: And I wanted to get engaged, this was at Christmas time, and I went home that weekend, took a photograph and my father said, no, you’re not marrying that girl. So, I sort of, I [unclear] a little bit, he said, no, you’re not going to marry that girl, if you do, he said, we shall sell the business up, we shall go back to America cause my parents were American born.
DK: Alright, ok.
KO: So, I said very briefly, well, that’s what you want to do, that’s what you left to do. Anyhow, they didn’t go back, the father bought a bungalow outside the town and I left myself thinking that this was the route I was going to take, that he changed his mind about being awkward and he bought two limited companies in Northampton and when I came out to take on the businesses which was a great help to me because I only had one other option which was to stay in the Air Force.
DK: Yeah.
KO: But that wasn’t very good because they really didn’t want anybody else in the, in there but that’s. So where I went and I was in Northampton then for five or six years working on the family business and then we divided up from there into the different companies and so forth.
DK: [unclear] The family business actually involve?
KO: A restaurant and bakeries.
DK: Oh, alright, ok. So, so looking back now, after all these years, several years, how do you feel about your time in the Air Force?
KO: I mean, for good or bad?
DK: Both [laughs]
KO: I thoroughly enjoyed it.
DK: Alright.
KO: No, it was a great experience, I learned a lot really from it, you know, and I wouldn’t have missed a day of my experiences there I mean [unclear] fly in the Air Force, when I came home and joined the local flying club and I was flying several hundred hours [unclear].
DK: So you did eventually get your private pilot’s license, then.
KO: I got my private pilot license, yes.
DK: Yeah. And, one other question I’ve got, did you know anything about the controversy of 627 Squadron moving from Bennett’s 8 Group to
KO: Oh, it was a bit of an argy bargy about that.
DK: Yeah.
KO: But, no, that’s what, what came away and that’s what we accepted.
DK: So, when you initially joined 627, you were part of 8 Group, were you, under Bennett.
KO: Yes. And 6
DK: And then moved to 5 Group under Cochrane.
KO: Yes. And 617 Squadron were on the same station with us.
DK: Right.
KO: So, it was quite a nice association really.
DK: Yeah. And you got on well with 617 Squadron.
KO: Oh yes.
DK: Yeah, yeah.
KO: Was a really good arrangement really.
DK: So, that controversy then, you just accepted you were going to another group.
KO: Well, that was all you could do really.
DK: Yeah.
KO: Hadn’t got a great deal of option [laughs].
DK: Ok. Well, absolutely marvelous.
KO: I’m sorry I’ve been so
DJK: You’ve been absolutely wonderful, brilliant, don’t worry, it’s useful having the logbook here cause we’ve gone through the various
KO: My memory seems to be worse at times than others and
DK: You’ve been absolutely marvelous, no, it’s been good
KO: Good. It’s been absolute rubbish from my point of view.
DK: That’s been good. Right, I’ll turn that off now.
KO: Ok.
DK: Ok, thank you very much.
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 Ken Oatley
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Kavanagh
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
2017-03-21
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AOatleyK170321, POatleyK1701
Format
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01:03:33 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Civilian
Description
An account of the resource
Initially too young to enlist at the outbreak of war, Ken Oatley served in the Home Guard until he was able to enlist in October 1940, when after initial training he undertook pilot training. After basic flying training he went onto Canada training on Oxfords. It was whilst there Donald Bennett was forming the Pathfinder Force. Five pilot trainees were taken from each course to retrain as navigators and Ken was selected for transfer. Eventually posted to 627 Squadron at RAF Woodhall Spa on Mosquito aircraft, Ken flew a total of 22 operations. He describes how 627 Squadron operated within Bomber Command operations, explaining how their role was to arrive and illuminate the designated targets for the following bombers. This included the operation on Dresden in February 1945. At the end of the war, Ken served with the Bomb Development Unit at RAF Marham, before being demobbed in 1946.
Contributor
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Ian Whapplington
Peter Schulze
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-10
1945-02
1946
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Great Britain
England--Norfolk
Germany
Germany--Dresden
England--Lincolnshire
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
106 Squadron
16 OTU
1660 HCU
617 Squadron
627 Squadron
aircrew
Bennett, Donald Clifford Tyndall (1910-1986)
bombing
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
civil defence
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
Heavy Conversion Unit
Home Guard
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Master Bomber
Mosquito
navigator
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
Pathfinders
RAF Manston
RAF Marham
RAF Metheringham
RAF Scampton
RAF Sealand
RAF Swinderby
RAF Syerston
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Woodhall Spa
Stirling
target indicator
Tiger force
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1047/11425/PNeilsonNS1604.2.jpg
ef8755be2443de302fe785868107d14a
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1047/11425/ANeilsonN160422.1.mp3
ba1b75c4a9c7d0004c895ce3bc5ca186
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
Neilson, Norman
Norman Stephen Neilson
N S Neilson
Norrey Neilson
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Flight Sergeant Norman Neilson (b. 1924, 1823749, Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a flight engineer with 103, 582, 550 Squadrons.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-22
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
Neilson, NS
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
BW: This is Brian Wright interviewing Flight Sergeant Norman Steven Neilson, also known as Norrey on Friday the 22nd of April at 10.30 in the morning at his home in Longton near Preston. Also with me is Norrey’s son, Ian. Ok. So, Norrey, if you would please just confirm your service number and your date of birth.
NN: 1823749. 18 23 749.
BW: And your date of birth was?
NN: 12 2 ‘24.
BW: Ok. Let’s put that further up there. And where were you born?
NN: In Glasgow. Springburn.
BW: Ok. And within your family how many of you were there? Did you have any brothers and sisters?
NN: Yeah. Six of us.
BW: Six.
NN: Six wasn’t there?
BW: And what, what were, what were they? There was, was there two boys and four girls?
NN: Four boys and two girls. Yeah.
BW: Four boys and two girls.
NN: I think it was. Yeah. Yeah. Stuart, Tommy — he was lost in the Navy.
BW: So there was Stuart, Tommy, yourself.
IN: Jackie. Jackie and Margaret.
NN: Jackie. Margaret.
IN: They were, they were twins.
NN: Eh?
IN: Jackie and Margaret were twins.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And who was your other sister?
IN: May.
NN: May.
BW: May.
NN: She was the good one [laughs]
BW: And what was, what was your family life like in Glasgow at the time?
NN: Oh it was fairly good. Yeah. We didn’t have much but we always, we always enjoyed ourselves. Looked after each other.
BW: Was it, were you living in the town centre or were you sort of out of in the country a bit.
NN: No. I was in a big tenement building wasn’t it?
IN: A big tenement. Yeah.
NN: Yeah.
IN: And then he moved to Springburn.
NN: To Springburn. Yeah, a long way.
IN: You joined the Springburn Harriers.
NN: The Springburn Harriers. Yeah.
BW: So that, that was when you were — when we were talking before and you said you started running at an early age.
NN: Yeah.
BW: What sort of age would you be there? Pre-teens or something like that?
NN: Yeah. About fourteen, I think. Wasn’t it?
BW: And the club was called Springburn Harriers.
NN: Springburn Harriers. Yeah.
IN: That was one of the first running clubs in Britain wasn’t it?
NN: Yeah. And I won the championship there didn’t I?
IN: You won the cross country championship.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Right. And whereabouts did you go to school?
NN: [unclear] school.
IN: Only —
NN: Eh?
IN: Only until you were about ten or eleven or something.
NN: Yeah.
IN: That was in Springburn and all wasn’t it?
NN: Springburn. Yeah.
BW: And I believe from there you left school and you joined St Rollox Locomotive Works.
NN: That’s right. Yeah. Apprentice engineer. I was a, I was good as well.
BW: And what attracted you to that? Why did you want to go in the railway yards?
IN: Well —
BW: The locomotive works.
NN: Well —
IN: His brothers were —
NN: I wanted to go to university but we couldn’t afford that so it was the next best thing.
IN: Well, they said, the headmaster said that he was good enough to go to university but his parents couldn’t afford to get him there.
NN: Yeah. I was good enough.
IN: And his two brothers were in the railway yards weren’t they?
NN: Yeah. He was, even at that age I said, ‘You’re talking, talking daft. Me go to university. No chance.’ When your father was a labourer. Six kids in the family. How could he get me into university? And the teacher said, he was always saying. ‘We could get you in to university.’ I said to him [unclear] I knew better.
IN: Yeah. Was it because your brothers were in the railway that you went?
NN: Yeah.
IN: I think you said that your mother had found, had a friend who said there was a place for you.
NN: What?
IN: Your mother said there was a place for you in the railway.
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: Go along.
NN: Yeah.
IN: Yeah.
BW: And you arranged an interview there. You had the interview and you met another apprentice called Andy Stirling. Was that right?
NN: Andy Stirling. Yeah. My old mate. Andy Stirling. Yeah.
IN: He went to India, didn’t he?
NN: India was it?
IN: I think you said he went to India.
NN: Yeah.
IN: And went to work on the railways in India.
NN: Yeah.
IN: He was trying to help them to —
NN: Yeah. He did well.
IN: Do everything to keep the railways going in India.
NN: Aye. Aye.
IN: So he, so he didn’t join up with you.
NN: No. Oh no. He was a bit, he was cleverer than me. He was a smart lad he was.
IN: Yeah. Well you tried to get them all to join didn’t you?
NN: Yeah.
IN: But that was the Navy.
BW: And your brother Tommy.
NN: Yeah.
BW: At this time had joined the Navy once war had started.
NN: Yeah.
BW: I understand he volunteered for the Navy.
NN: Yeah.
BW: What, what happened to him?
NN: He was lost in a submarine. Talisman.
IN: Talisman. Yeah.
NN: It was called the Talisman. Yeah.
IN: Record —
BW: Do you know what happened to the submarine?
NN: Well, no, you know —
IN: Seen the records on the internet. It just said that they think it was blown up by a mine off the coast of Sicily.
NN: Yeah. Called the Talisman.
BW: What was he in the crew? Do you know what role he did in the, what his function was?
NN: Engineer.
IN: Engineer.
BW: Like yourself.
IN: He was on the railways as well.
IN: Yeah.
BW: And so at this time in the early, very early parts of the war what prompted you to join the RAF?
NN: Because since my brother they wouldn’t let me go. I was looking into, there was something about occupation. I said, ‘Why can he go?’ ‘Oh. He’s volunteering for aircrew.’ ‘So put me down as well. I’ll be aircrew.’ And that’s how I got in. I wanted to join the Navy but I finished up in a Lancaster.
BW: So originally you wanted to join the Navy.
NN: Oh yeah.
BW: And that I believe, was it because Tommy had been killed that you wanted to join up?
NN: Yeah. He was. Yeah. He was, he was lost in the Talisman submarine.
BW: But the [pause] is it correct that your manager wouldn’t let you join the Navy? You tried to get all your mates to join up.
NN: Yeah. Yeah.
BW: And he wouldn’t let you.
NN: No. ‘You’ve got to stay at home, lad. We need you here.’ But anyway, when I found out that this other lad had got, ‘Well why is he going then?’ Well, he’s volunteered for aircrew.’ ‘Well, put me down.’ I wanted the Navy but I finished up on aircrew. I did a good job there as well.
BW: But he, he made a model, didn’t he? Of the submarine.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Or of a submarine.
NN: That’s right. Yeah.
IN: I still have that model.
NN: Pardon?
IN: I still have the model don’t I?
NN: Yeah. You have. Yeah. Yeah. He was the good one. He was the favourite. I wasn’t the favourite but we, we were he was the best of the lot.
BW: He was the best of the lot.
NN: I was a bad boy I one. I was. I was a bad egg. I wouldn’t take any, I wouldn’t take anything for an answer.
BW: Did you ever, did you get in trouble at all?
NN: Oh I always was.
BW: During your early life.
NN: All the time. I was always in trouble. Shooting my head off.
IN: Outspoken.
NN: I was a terror. I were a terror I was. I wouldn’t take anything from nobody.
BW: So what year was it when you joined up? When abouts would it be?
NN: 19 — it was wasn’t it?
IN: 1944. I think.
NN: Twenty. ’43.
IN: 1943.
NN: ’43. Yeah.
BW: And you went into, presumably the Recruiting Office in Glasgow.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And, and signed up.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Did you tell anybody in your family you’d done it?
NN: No. No. I didn’t. I didn’t, I didn’t want to upset my mother because she already had lost one son. But anyway I kept that quiet.
BW: And what about —
IN: You said you were working south didn’t you?
NN: Eh?
IN: You were going south to work.
BW: What about your other brothers? Did they join up as well?
NN: No. They were, they came, they went after the war, wasn’t it? Stuart.
IN: Stuart had bad eyesight.
NN: Bad eyesight. Yeah.
IN: Same as your father. He tried to join the First World War and his eyesight.
NN: Yeah. Yeah.
IN: Was to no good.
NN: Yeah.
IN: And then Jackie was too young.
NN: Too young. Yeah.
BW: And when you went to the air force did you know what you wanted to do as a trade? Or, or were you just open to whatever they offered you?
NN: Oh yeah. Yeah. I wanted to fly. I wanted to, I wanted to end the fight. So when they said, ‘You can be a flight engineer.’ ‘Ok. I’ll do that.’
IN: You went to Cardiff didn’t you?
NN: Yeah. Cardiff. Yeah.
IN: For the training. I think that was towards the end of ’43 wasn’t it?
NN: Yeah. ’42. Yeah.
IN: No. ’43.
NN: I liked Cardiff. It was great down there.
BW: And what was your training like? Do you recall much of your training at Cardiff? Your engineering training. Was it —
NN: Yeah.
BW: Was it good?
NN: It was a good training. It was really good. It was. It was — how long was it?
IN: I think you were six months weren’t you?
NN: Six months. Yeah. Six months training. Yeah. Come out on top.
BW: You finished on, on top of the class.
NN: Yeah. I was, I was always there.
BW: And from there what happened? Did you go to a training unit or did you, did you meet up with your crew? What happened next after you’d finished at Cardiff?
NN: I’m trying to think.
IN: Went to St —
NN: I went —
IN: I can’t think of the name the place in Bedfordshire. You went to Bedfordshire didn’t you?
NN: Pardon?
IN: You went in to Bedfordshire.
NN: Bedfordshire. Yeah.
IN: And you met a crew there that you were going to join.
NN: Yeah. That’s right. Bedfordshire.
IN: Yeah. But they, didn’t they say they had a friend coming that was going to join them so you said you’d get the next crew. Do you remember that? They were —
NN: Who?
IN: So, the crew that you were going to join they said they had another friend that was going to join them.
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: So you said you’d join the next crew.
NN: Yeah. That’s right. Yeah.
IN: Yeah. And then you met Ron Wright.
NN: Yeah.
IN: Right Ron.
NN: If I’d have gone on that crew — they got lost didn’t they?
IN: Yeah.
BW: So the original crew that you met and you said because they’ve got a friend coming I’ll join the next one.
NN: Yeah.
BW: They went off on their first mission the day after and —
NN: Were lost.
BW: Were lost.
NN: Yeah.
BW: But the crew that you then teamed up with.
NN: Ron Wright.
BW: Yeah. How did, how did you meet them?
IN: It was in this place in Bedfordshire wasn’t it?
NN: Aye. I went. I meet them. They come in. And the crews came in and they said oh ‘You’re going with this crew. So this is Ron Wright.’ That’s the way. You went there. The crew you got they’d been flying in small aircraft. Now they’re getting an engineer like me so they are going on to Lancasters so they make the proper crew. So I was the end. I said, ‘Right. I’ll go with them.’ Yeah. You know.
BW: And it was —
NN: There was, they had a crew but they wanted an engineer to go on to Lancasters. So, so I said, ‘I’ll go with him. Yeah. Sure.’
BW: And this was Ron Wright.
NN: Ron Wright. He was a good lad, Ron. Lost him didn’t we?
BW: And do you recall the names of the other crew men?
NN: [unclear] the Welsh. There was a Welshman wasn’t there? He was the, he was a grandfather.
BW: Grandpa. The oldest one of the crew.
IN: He was thirty two wasn’t he? Or something.
NN: Yeah. Thirty two. He was a straight one.
IN: I think you said he went, he was English but he went to Australia and joined the Australian Air Force and then got sent back here.
NN: Yeah. A Scottie here. A little Scottie here. A little Scottie here. And he was, and he was from [pause] he was Scottish. From Dundee. He was from Newcastle was it? Framlin. He was a Canadian.
BW: Framlin was a Canadian. Yeah.
NN: Canadian. Yeah. And he was a youngster wasn’t he?
IN: The names —
NN: Edward. Edward. Eastwood.
BW: Eastwood. Jack Eastwood.
NN: Jack Eastwood. He was a good lad. I used to, used to pal up with him a lot. We were good together. Yeah. Eastwood.
BW: So there was, there was yourself. There was Sergeant Ron Adam who was the mid-upper.
NN: Who?
BW: Ron.
IN: Adam.
BW: Adam. Ron Adam.
NN: No Adam. No. Ron Wright.
IN: No. There was the gunner.
NN: Eh?
BW: The mid-upper.
IN: I think he was the upper gunner.
NN: Who?
IN: Adam.
NN: Oh, John Adam.
IN: John.
NN: Oh yeah. He was a real Scottie.
IN: Right.
BW: And there was Norman Kelso.
NN: Kelso. That’s right.
BW: And he was the navigator. He was the Australian navigator.
NN: Norman Kelso. Yeah. He was from, he was in the Australian Air Force wasn’t he?
IN: You said he was being paid more than you.
NN: Pardon?
IN: Because the Australian Air Force were paying people more.
NN: Yeah. That’s right.
BW: And Ron Wright the pilot.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Jack Eastwood the wireless operator.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And then Framlin. Do you know what, what was Framlin’s first name? Was it George?
NN: Fram. Oh Framlin. Where was he supposed to be? Used to call him Fram. Gerald. Gerald Framlin.
BW: Gerald.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And he was the bomb aimer.
NN: Yeah. He was a good lad.
BW: And then Garrick.
NN: Gary.
IN: Garrick.
BW: Garrick, the rear gunner.
NN: Garrick. Yeah.
BW: What was his first name? Was it John?
NN: No.
IN: Was it James?
NN: Eh?
IN: Was it James?
NN: We just called him Gary.
BW: Gary.
NN: Gary.
BW: And you were given — when you arrived at Elsham Wolds.
NN: Yeah. Elsham.
BW: You were known as Ron’s crew. Is that right?
NN: Yeah. Yeah.
BW: Or Wright.
IN: Wright’s crew.
BW: Wright’s crew. Yeah.
NN: Ron Wright’s crew.
IN: Wright’s crew. Yeah.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Did you have another nickname for the crew?
[pause]
IN: Some of them was never there. What did they used to call it because one person never turned up?
NN: Yeah.
IN: The phantom crew was it?
NN: Eh?
IN: They called them the phantom crew.
NN: Aye. The phantom crew. That’s right. There was always, there was always somebody missing.
BW: And what, what were the guys like? What were the crew, what were the other crew members like?
NN: Oh alright. We got on alright together. All went out drinking together.
BW: All went out drinking together.
NN: I didn’t drink much. I was sober. I was sober. I always made sure they got home.
BW: So you were always the sensible one.
NN: Yeah. I was the sensible one. Yeah.
IN: Always refusing cigarettes weren’t you?
NN: Pardon?
IN: You were always refusing cigarettes.
NN: Oh I wouldn’t have cigarettes. I wouldn’t have it.
IN: Just exchange.
NN: They were always saying, ‘Have a smoke.’ No. Because we got, we got a special —
IN: Ration.
NN: Ration. So I used to give them my ration.
IN: Swap them for sweets.
NN: Eh?
IN: You would swap them for sweets.
NN: Sweets. Yeah.
IN: Send them home to the kids.
NN: They would always say, ‘Have a smoke.’ I’d say, ‘I don’t want your smoke. I don’t want your smoke.’ Never did.
BW: And you, was that because you were keen on your running?
NN: Running. Yeah. That’s the job. ‘I’m a runner. I don’t want your smoke.’ It’s not good for you anyway.
IN: Yeah. They didn’t know the problems in those days as much did they?
NN: No. They didn’t.
IN: And did, you always stayed sober as well. Even when you went out socialising you never drank.
NN: Oh yeah. No. I never overdid it. Never overdid it. Maybe just once I think. Just —
IN: Remember that time? That time in —
NN: I would always stop.
IN: That time in Huntingdon when you went to the dance.
NN: Oh yeah. They were going to throw us out.
IN: What happened when the MPs came for you?
NN: The MPs come.
IN: And what were you doing in the street?
NN: Pardon?
IN: What were you doing in the street? You’re going to have to talk and tell.
BW: You were doing a doing a — you were doing a Hitler salute.
NN: We were doing the Nazi salute, ‘We’re going to join the German Air Force. They’re doing better than you. Better than you’ve done for us.’
IN: You were marching up the street shouting.
NN: Beg your pardon?
IN: You were marching up the street shouting. You were joining Hitler’s Air Force. Yeah. No one —.
NN: The Luftwaffe. Yeah.
IN: And then what happened? You got arrested didn’t you? And then they tried to court martial you.
NN: Yeah. And this, this guy got us off.
IN: Yeah.
NN: He was a good, a good solicitor.
BW: What was —
NN: He said, he said, ‘Just tell me exactly what you said.’ I said, ‘But you don’t want that.’ ‘Tell me exactly everything. Don’t leave anything out.’
IN: They were in the courtroom and they had to show them what, they had to show them what happened.
NN: So he got, they started getting all this stuff out and I thought, Oh God. And then this solicitor said, ‘Right. All that stuff is nul and void. You can’t use that.’ And he got me off. And I’d been in the —
IN: Yeah.
NN: [unclear]
IN: But you were the only that wasn’t drunk.
NN: Pardon?
IN: You were the only one that wasn’t drunk.
NN: Yeah. I was in [unclear]
BW: And did you, did you fly the same aircraft each time? Were you regularly on the same Lancaster?
NN: No. Not really. No. Sometimes we swapped them. Mainly that one was we always landed up with. Whichever one was available they put you on it but we stuck. Seemed to finish up with this one.
BW: And did you have a nickname for your plane? What did you know it as?
NN: [unclear]
IN: I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned that.
BW: That’s alright. Did you, did you have any preparations or rituals before you got on the aircraft? Once you’d been briefed what would you do as a crew then?
IN: How would you check, check the plane out?
NN: Yeah.
IN: Just make sure it worked alright.
NN: Yeah. Check it twice. Check everything twice and then we’ll go.
BW: And I believe your first operation was to Stettin.
NN: Oh Stettin. Oh.
BW: What do you recall of that?
NN: Oh it was terrible was that. We went there.
IN: How many hours were you in the plane?
NN: Eleven hours wasn’t it?
BW: Eleven hours.
NN: Yeah. Oh it was a terrible flight that was. The first one we got. We got back. I don’t know how we got back at all but we got back. We finished.
BW: What, what happened? What was significant about the flight?
NN: I think the wheels had stuck up. Was it? The wheel. One of the wheels had jammed up and we had to go around and around and try and shake them off. And he finished up with saying, ‘Right. We’ve got to go in and land. So we landed then. We landed on the wheel and we were down, bang. Luckily the wheel went down and we crash landed. We got away with it.
BW: Nobody was injured.
NN: Pardon?
BW: Nobody was injured.
NN: Nobody was injured. No.
IN: What happened on the way back though? I mean you were talking about jumping out and going to Sweden.
NN: Sweden, aye. Yeah. Sweden. Yeah. Neutral country. ‘We’ve had enough of this. Let’s, let’s go to Sweden Joe.’ [laughs] Anyway, the navigator, ‘If you tell that I’ll tell on you. I’ll tell what you’ve done.’ So we had to just get out of that and get back.
BW: The navigator was the oldest guy in the crew.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Wasn’t he?
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: And he didn’t want to jump because he couldn’t swim.
NN: Yeah. He wanted to get back. You’d think he would have made it. Oh we were a rum crew we were.
BW: And then the next time or one of the early missions was to Stuttgart.
NN: Stuttgart. Yeah.
BW: Stuttgart. What do you recall of that?
NN: It wasn’t very good. I don’t think it was. We got caught in the searchlights. One of the wings got shot up and we had to stagger back. Anyway, we got back. Eventually we got back. I think one of the wings was damaged. We had to do a crash landing. We got away with that as well.
BW: Were you diverted from your normal airfield?
NN: Yeah. We went to —
BW: Somewhere in Oxfordshire was it?
NN: Oxfordshire. Yeah. It was. What was the name of the place? What was it?
IN: Lincolnshire was foggy wasn’t it?
NN: Pardon?
IN: Lincolnshire was very foggy.
NN: That’s right. Yeah.
IN: You couldn’t land there.
NN: We had to get diverted.
IN: Yeah. As you were coming in to land there was two fighter planes coming at you.
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: Shooting at you.
NN: Yeah.
IN: You jumped in to fire at, back at them.
NN: Yeah.
IN: And then you fell into the nose cone didn’t you?
NN: Yeah.
BW: So on the way, on the way in to this diversionary airfield your aircraft was attacked.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And what, what do you recall of that?
NN: We had to do, do evasive action. And he would [pause] I told the pilot, ‘Dive. Dive down. Go as long as you can then pull out and swing around. And we just managed, makes me sick now, managed to pull out in time before we hit the ground. We got around again and then we landed.
BW: And I believe that one of the fighters was coming head on.
NN: Yeah. Yeah.
BW: And —
NN: Anyway, then we shot, we went down he went over the top of us.
IN: You were down in the nose cone shooting at them.
NN: Yeah.
BW: So you dived. You told the pilot to dive.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And to take evasive action.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And the fighter went over. Overhead.
NN: And I was firing at it all the time.
BW: From the front turret.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Did you see any strikes on the aircraft?
NN: Well I think —
BW: Or did you just scare him off.
NN: We thought we’d hit it but we said we didn’t find out any more about it. I thought I’d damaged it anyway. Because I was in the nose going like hell.
IN: Yeah. And then your foot slipped and you dropped down the stairs.
NN: That’s right [laughs] finished down in the nose.
IN: When the plane landed the tyre burst didn’t it?
NN: Yeah. It burst. Yeah.
BW: So you were lucky to get away with that one.
NN: We were. Yeah. Lucky. That was a rum one that was.
IN: Yeah. And in the morning you had a look at what, where you were didn’t you?
NN: Couldn’t believe it.
IN: How far away were you from the conning tower?
NN: About ten yards or something.
BW: Really?
NN: We were heading for the conning tower.
BW: So you were that close to the air traffic control.
NN: And then he put the brake on.
BW: And were you, did you say you were trying to brake the, to apply the brakes?
NN: Yeah.
BW: On the aircraft.
NN: Yeah. And it stopped. I don’t know where we were when we got out, when we went out there and saw the ground. Oh God. We were going straight ahead to the control tower. Only about twenty yards away or something like that.
BW: Wow. And then going into October you were tasked with a raid on Cologne.
NN: Oh yeah.
BW: But it says in your log that you returned early. Do you recall what happened?
NN: I’m trying to think what it was. Something was. We had to turn back hadn’t we?
IN: Was there a problem with the engines?
NN: Might have been. A problem with something. Something. Probably the engines. One of the engines was acting up. I think it was. And so we couldn’t manage so we decided to turn back. And we got away with that.
BW: And what, what happened in those sorts of situations? When you had to turn back were you interrogated by the senior officer or anything?
NN: Oh yeah. Yeah. When you got back. Why did you do it? And all that. Well, you told them why. And they said oh you were right enough to do that. That was the right thing to do. Right again.
BW: Well, you’ve got to make the decision as the engineer.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Whether you’re going to push on or you’re going to save people’s lives and come back.
NN: Yeah. That’s right.
BW: And then following on from from that there was an attack on a ball bearing factory in Holland.
NN: Holland. Holland. Yeah. Where was that now?
IN: That was the guy that wanted to go across there with you and stayed at so many feet above. He was higher up above giving you the orders to go down.
NN: He wanted to have a look. A better look.
IN: He was cut out by the Germans wasn’t he?
NN: Yeah. I said, ‘If you want a better look you go yourself. We’re going on. We’re carrying on.’
IN: And wasn’t that —
NN: Eh?
IN: Wasn’t that the one where two planes were shot down in front of you?
NN: Yeah.
IN: Yeah. Because the Germans had cut down him out on the —
NN: Yeah.
IN: And said it was alright to go down.
NN: Yeah. It was a ropey do that was.
IN: You didn’t like it did you? When you got back?
NN: No.
IN: Because they said it was a successful mission.
NN: Some successful mission that was.
BW: So, during these, these sorts of operations, during these flights what are you generally doing as a flight engineer? What kind of things are you doing?
NN: Looking at everything. Checking everything. Seeing everything was alright.
IN: What happened if an engine got hot?
NN: Oh, used to turn it down. Cut the engine off. Let it cool down a bit and leave it for about ten, twenty minutes and open up again. They was alright. Ok again. It cooled down because it was, it was overheating. If you leave it and it overheats you’d lost the engine. So I used to say, ‘Right. Shut it down and fly. Fly for about twenty minutes. Then try it again.’ And it was alright. Oh, I always checked. Check everything. Make sure it was right.
BW: And so, on a, this would be done regularly on a trip. That you would in effect I suppose rotate your engines.
NN: Yeah.
BW: If they were getting hot.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Shut one down. Feather the prop.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And then run it back up again.
NN: Yeah. That’s it. Yeah. Give it up to twenty minutes then start it up again. See if it goes and was ok. Off we went.
BW: And were you able always to keep with the other bomber force doing that?
NN: Oh yeah. Yeah. We managed.
BW: Did you, did you or the pilot have to run the other engines at a higher speed to make up for the loss of the fourth engine or not?
NN: Yeah. Some of the time. Yeah. If you were on three engines and had one idling. And when it had a rest you start it up again and it was ok like. Four engines again. Oh yeah, you had to look after them. A lot of lads used to let it go and you lost that engine. That was it. You never said it. I always say give it a rest. Give it twenty minutes. Try it again. And then it was alright so you had four engines on again. A lot of them they didn’t do things like that. They’d say that engine was cut. Gone. Flying on three engines. Then when you’re on three engines then your down to two engines. You were worse then.
BW: So in a way they were riding their luck weren’t they?
NN: Oh they were. Yeah. I always checked. I always, I always looked after the engines. Give them a rest. We always finished up on four engines. Every time. That’s what I wanted.
BW: And you were given at one point the Phantom of the Ruhr.
NN: Oh aye.
IN: And it had already done a hundred and twenty one missions.
NN: Yeah. That’s right.
IN: And you were given this aircraft to fly.
NN: Yeah.
IN: What did you think about that?
NN: Made a fuss about it. It was a hundred and twenty. A hundred and twenty missions it had done, I think, hadn’t it? I think it wanted a rest. Anyway, we took it and managed to get it back.
IN: What happened though? You took it up and you brought it back again didn’t you?
NN: Pardon?
IN: You took it up and you brought it back again because it was, wasn’t working properly.
NN: Oh no.
IN: And they tried to court martial you for it.
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: Do you remember?
NN: And the sergeant got me off.
BW: And that was the, you’re getting two things mixed up I think. Remember you said that you were on your way on the mission.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And the engines were so bad.
NN: Yeah.
BW: You rang up to say we’ll have to take the second plane.
NN: Yeah.
IN: But they said that had gone. You know, the spare plane.
NN: Yeah.
IN: And that had gone hadn’t it?
NN: That had gone.
BW: But you said you had to make a decision whether to carry on or go back.
NN: Yeah.
BW: You went back.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And they put, told you to stay in the barracks until —
NN: Yeah. They were going to court martial.
BW: But they found that it was wrong didn’t they?
NN: Yeah. Oh it was. Yeah.
IN: And what was wrong with it?
NN: It was something to do with the engines. It was faulty.
IN: The engines were no good but the fuselage was —
NN: Yeah.
IN: What? Like a corkscrew.
NN: Yeah. Was like a corkscrew.
IN: And one of the wings was hanging down low.
NN: Yeah.
IN: Yeah.
NN: Oh aye. You didn’t get away with much with them lot but they had you out there. When this, this, the guy we had he looked. He said, ‘You were right. You did the right thing.’ So we got away with that.
BW: But your pilot stood by you didn’t he?
NN: Oh he did. Yeah.
BW: He asked your opinion of what the faults meant.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And it seemed that you could make the target.
NN: Yeah. My pilot said, ‘My engineer said.’ That’s what he, the pilot said, ‘My engineer said —'
IN: Yeah.
NN: [laughs] Oh God.
BW: So you could —
NN: He knew I was right.
BW: You could make the target.
NN: Yeah.
BW: But you couldn’t get back.
NN: Couldn’t get back. Yeah.
BW: And so were you hauled up before the CO?
NN: Yeah. And, and in front of him this flying officer come on and he turned it all around and he got me off with it. They were going to court martial me for good then.
BW: Well, if they had found that the aircraft was actually serviceable.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And you had called them back.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Then yeah you’d have been court martialled.
NN: Yeah. But it was this lad got me [laughs] he made it right. Said, ‘You were right to do that.’ Yeah. Because you’d have, you’d have lost the crew. That’s what I was thinking about. I was thinking about them. Not only myself. Six other boys relying on me. I had to make a decision so I decided on that. Six lads. Look after them. Anyway, he got me off. He was a, he was good, that guy. He knew his job all right. He got me off with it.
BW: And so you what, what sort of indications were you getting then because this, this was happening in mid-air wasn’t it?
NN: Oh yeah. I didn’t think we were going to get anywhere with it.
IN: Didn’t you say the engine sounded really bad.
NN: Yeah.
IN: You said it sounded so rough. And the —
NN: Yeah.
IN: Meter readings on it were all over the place.
NN: Yeah.
IN: Because they had to be at a certain level on the instruments.
NN: Instruments. Yeah. Yeah they wanted. So I told them what I thought and they decided ok, you’re going on a court martial. I said ok. Anyway, he got me off. I did the right thing.
BW: And so what happened to the bombs? Because you hadn’t gone over the target.
NN: We had to —
BW: Presumably you couldn’t land with a full bomb load.
NN: No I didn’t. Just ditched them. Made sure it was over Germany. We were dropping them on Germany. Make a good job of it. I think it was Bremen it was.
BW: Near Bremen.
NN: Near Bremen it was. They’d be sorry about me.
BW: But you managed to get the aircraft back.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Safely.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And then when you landed you’d gone before the CO and explained to him.
NN: Yeah.
BW: But you were then detained for three days in barracks weren’t you?
NN: Yeah. Till it was all sorted out. ‘Don’t speak to anybody. Don’t say anything. Stay there.’
IN: You went to find out about it didn’t you? Find out what had happened. You went to the, to where the plane was to see what had happened with it. What did the engineer there say?
NN: Eh?
IN: What did the engineer say to you?
NN: It was rubbish it was. It’s a shambles.
IN: It had already been taken away hadn’t it?
NN: Yeah. Taken away to scrap. They’d have scrapped it. I got away with that as well. Anyway, the thing is when you’re the engineer six other lads are relying on you making the decision. So I had to do it. That’s what I did. It’s not just for yourself. There’s another six crew members.
BW: And did they, did they appreciate what you’d done afterwards?
NN: I think so. Yeah. Yeah.
BW: So, as a, as a crew during these sorts of missions what was the atmosphere like on the, on the squadron? Were you, were you sort of living for today as it were?
NN: Oh yeah.
BW: Was there that sort of atmosphere? Let’s —
NN: Yeah. Just take each day as it comes. Take each day as it comes. Yeah. We carried on. Carried on regardless.
BW: And where were you? Where were you billeted on the base? Were you in quarters or were you in a Nissen hut or something?
NN: We were in quarters weren’t we?
IN: I don’t know. I wasn’t there [laughs]
NN: It was. Yeah. We were all together we were. All the crew. Always stuck together. Even the pilot. He went, he came with us as well. He was an officer like but he went with us. All stuck together. He was a good lad he was.
BW: And you, during 1944 you were flying missions over France as well as Germany.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Did you notice any particular difference in terms of targets? Difficulty. Were they, were they easier when you went to France or more difficult in Germany? Or —
NN: No. I don’t think they were really. Some of them, some of them were awkward. The awkward ones you had to be very careful about what you did. Took it easy then.
BW: And with the long trips did you have plenty to keep you occupied?
NN: Had to keep awake.
BW: Was that the hardest thing?
NN: Oh yeah. Keeping awake. Keep drinking.
IN: Night missions weren’t they?
NN: Pardon?
IN: They were all night missions.
NN: Yeah. They were.
IN: The Americans had the day.
NN: Aye. They did.
IN: Because they got lost otherwise.
BW: So how did you, how did you manage to keep awake? What did you —
NN: I don’t know how I managed to keep. I had to keep awake. Keep kicking myself.
BW: Yeah.
NN: And another cup of tea. Aye. It was hard work really because when you’re eleven, eleven hours in the air it’s hard work. Aye. It wasn’t easy.
IN: Did you talk a lot to Ron?
NN: Pardon?
IN: Did you talk a lot with Ron?
NN: Yeah.
IN: A lot of talk.
NN: Yeah. Aye. I miss him alright. I couldn’t believe they sent him off because I had to, I had to stay behind. They sent him with another crew. They couldn’t wait for five days though. I was away only for five days. They couldn’t wait. Put him, put him with another crew.
IN: And was this towards the end of your tour?
NN: Yeah. Yeah. It was running. When I went to —
IN: White City.
NN: Eh?
IN: White City.
NN: White City. Yeah. For running. Yeah. When I got back they said, ‘Oh, you’re going with another crew.’ They didn’t tell me what had happened. Ron went with another, another flight engineer.
BW: And was this the time when Ron and Jack, was it when Ron and Jack Eastwood were away flying together or was this —
NN: Yeah.
BW: Was this a different time?
IN: That was when they went away wasn’t it?
NN: Pardon?
IN: When you went to White City they went.
NN: Yeah.
IN: That’s when they had their accident.
NN: Yeah.
IN: Yeah.
NN: Ron. Jack.
IN: There was only a skeleton crew because they were only doing circuits.
NN: Circuits and bumps. Yeah.
BW: And so you’d been selected to run.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And you attended the races at White City.
NN: White City. Yeah.
IN: The RAF wasn’t it?
BW: Yeah. And your crew was sent on another mission and they were killed.
NN: Yeah. I said, ‘Why couldn’t they wait for five, five days?’ Go, go, go. Pushing and pushing. But I mean when you were in a crew you knew what each other were going to do. I relied on the captain. He relied on me making the decision. When you get somebody else in well that goes to pot.
BW: And you said before you had a good working relationship.
NN: Oh yeah.
BW: A very good relationship with Ron Wright.
NN: Oh yeah. He knew what he was going to do and he knew what I was going to do. And we knew. And that’s the way it had to be. You had to realise what he would think and what you would think. That’s the way it went. But I couldn’t understand them going. Sending him with another crew just for that. Only for five days. What was the rush? They never told me though until later. I found out later.
BW: Between, between 103 Squadron and the end of your tour you did a short time on 582 Squadron. Is that right?
NN: 582. Yeah.
BW: Which was Pathfinder force.
NN: Pathfinding. Yeah.
IN: That was after the Phantom of the Ruhr wasn’t it?
NN: Phantom of the Ruhr. Yeah.
IN: Yeah.
BW: And what kind of — was there a different approach to a mission as a Pathfinder than with a regular squadron?
NN: Yeah. Well yeah. They had a big talk before, you know. Before you went. What things are and what you were going to do and all that. But it was just, you just got to think what, got to think together what — the pilot and the flight engineer get together and decide what, how we’d manage it all and carry on.
BW: And how far ahead of the main force would you be?
NN: Well, with Pathfinders you’d be about be about [pause] you’d be about, you’d be quite a long a long way ahead of them because you had, you had to mark the target and then get out. And they would come up and follow. Follow the route.
BW: And did you have to linger around the target while the main force hit?
NN: No. Well, you had, you went around and round, and then you took off. Then they followed up.
IN: Did you have bombs as well?
NN: Pardon?
IN: Did you have bombs as well? Or just, just flares?
NN: Just flares. Yeah.
BW: Did not carry incendiaries?
NN: You had some incendiaries. Yeah.
BW: And that was at Little Staughton.
NN: Little Staughton. Little Staughton. Yeah.
BW: And you managed to stay together as a crew.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Moving from one squadron to 582 and then when you went on to 550 Squadron.
NN: 550. Yeah.
BW: How did you manage to achieve that? How did you manage to stay together as a crew and continue through three squadrons? Did you request it?
IN: I’m not sure. Did you go to 550 or was that just Ron?
NN: Pardon?
IN: Was it Ron? I’m not sure whether Ron and, I think 550 was when you went to White City wasn’t it? And they were moved on.
NN: 550. Yeah.
IN: I’m not sure that dad was in 550.
BW: Oh, I see.
IN: I think he went to White City and they were moved to —
NN: Yeah.
IN: To that one. To 550 afterward.
NN: Yeah. They were saying that when I come back they were going with another crew.
IN: That would be [unclear] day.
BW: So that, right. So that accident when they were killed happened when they were on 550 Squadron.
IN: Yeah.
BW: But you didn’t transfer with them.
IN: He stayed there.
BW: At that point.
NN: No.
BW: So your last unit was 582.
NN: Yeah. 582. Yeah.
BW: So, how many, how many operations did you fly with 103? Did you, did you do thirty missions with your first squadron and then continue with 582?
NN: 583.
IN: 103 was your first.
NN: Pardon?
IN: 103 was your first.
NN: 103. Yeah.
IN: That’s where you first met and you were transferred to the Pathfinders as a crew weren’t you?
NN: Yeah. Yeah.
IN: After the situation with the Phantom of the Ruhr.
NN: The pilot.
IN: The whole crew was moved.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Because you hadn’t, you hadn’t got your full number of operations by that stage had you?
NN: No.
BW: So you were only part way through your first tour when you were moved.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And you mentioned this being in relation to the situation with the Phantom of the Ruhr. Do you think that that might have been some sort of — well punishment might be the wrong word but —
NN: Yeah.
BW: Do you think there was a repercussion of bringing that plane back?
NN: Yeah.
BW: That resulted in you moving to 582 Squadron.
NN: Yeah.
IN: That’s what he thinks yeah.
BW: Yeah.
IN: He thought they were trying to get him out of the way.
NN: Yeah. They didn’t, they didn’t like me. People at the top didn’t like me.
BW: Did you have run-ins with your CO before or something?
NN: Pardon?
BW: Did you have run-ins with your CO before?
IN: Well, he tried to punch him, didn’t you? When —
NN: Pardon?
IN: That one when they, you went to Holland and dropped the bombs on the ball bearing company.
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: Factory. When he came back you wanted to punch the CO didn’t you?
NN: You what?
IN: You wanted to punch him because you’d lost two planes in front of you.
NN: Yeah. Aye. They had to hold me back.
BW: So you, he called it a successful mission.
NN: Yeah.
BW: This raid on the, on the ball bearing factory.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And you said it’s not a success because I’ve lost two.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Crews. Good mates.
IN: Yeah.
NN: They were holding me back, ‘Don’t. They’ll do you for that. You can’t go and punch one of them.’ Oh I was well mad.
BW: Did, did you know the guys on the other planes well?
NN: Pardon?
BW: Did you know the guys on the other planes well that had been lost?
NN: Yeah. I was [pause] What was the name? I can’t remember the name.
IN: You’d be out drinking together anyway wouldn’t you?
NN: Pardon?
IN: You would have all been out drinking together and —
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: You know, in the mess together.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And one of your last operations was in February 1945 and you were in the third wave over Dresden I believe.
NN: [unclear]
IN: Dresden.
BW: Dresden.
NN: Dresden. Yeah.
BW: What do you recall of that?
NN: A bit shaky it was.
IN: Can you remember it was seeing all the fire?
NN: Pardon?
IN: Seeing it all lit up.
NN: Yeah.
IN: And one of the crew wanted to take a photograph.
NN: Aye, well yeah, ‘You can forget about that. We’re going back.’ He wanted to go around again. I said, ‘I’m not going around. If you want to go on you go by yourself.’
BW: You had to go around twice didn’t you?
NN: Yeah.
BW: Because smoke obscured the targets?
NN: That’s right. Yeah.
BW: And you had to go around a second time.
NN: And then he wanted to go around again to get a photograph. I said, ‘You can get a photograph yourself. I’m not going.’
IN: That was a bad night for the RAF though wasn’t it?
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: They got condemned for it.
NN: You what?
IN: They got condemned.
NN: Aye.
IN: For Dresden. Even though it wasn’t their fault.
NN: What?
IN: Even though it wasn’t their fault.
NN: No.
IN: It was the wind that whipped up the flames.
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: And set all the wooden houses aflame.
NN: Yeah. Yeah. Burned them down. Yeah.
IN: Ended up with a fire storm.
NN: Yeah. Fire storm. Right. All these places. Aye.
BW: Was that the only time you’d seen a city destroyed like that?
NN: Yeah. Fire. Terrible fire it was. Everything was [unclear] everything up. There was this firestorm wasn’t it?
IN: Yeah.
NN: All the wooden buildings as well. Everything on fire.
BW: And even, even at that stage was it — did you feel it was still heavily defended?
NN: Yeah.
IN: They were still firing at you.
NN: Pardon?
IN: Were they still firing at you?
NN: Oh yeah. It never stopped. Kept going. And we got out. Oh aye it was terrible. The fire was terrible. Couldn’t believe it. As you said all wooden houses wasn’t it? Every one of them up on flame.
BW: And afterwards were you told what had happened to the city afterwards? How did you find out later on what had happened?
NN: Who was it told us? [pause] Well, we couldn’t believe it, what had happened. Really. We knew it had been a fire storm like but we didn’t realise how bad it was really.
BW: Was much said about it afterwards?
NN: Pardon?
BW: Was much said about it afterwards?
NN: People. I think a lot of people didn’t like it.
IN: Yeah. It wasn’t. Do you think Harris should have been blamed for it?
NN: Eh?
IN: Do you think Harris should have been blamed for it?
NN: Not really. No. He got blamed for it didn’t he? Yeah. It was too much. But it was, it was a war wasn’t it? It was war. You had to keep on going. You had to do what you had to do.
IN: Wasn’t it the Russians that wanted you to bomb the communications there?
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: The Russians there said they wanted to get the communications bombed so that they could come into eastern Germany.
NN: Eastern. Eastern Germany. Yeah.
BW: And so at this point in February ’45 what was your sense of the war and its progression at that point? Was it, were you conscious of it coming to an imminent end or not?
NN: Oh. I thought it was. I thought it was coming to an end. Yeah. Felt things were. We’d got on top of things by then. I think it was, it was all going to be over.
BW: You were still having to fly missions though weren’t you?
NN: Oh yeah.
BW: And did they feel as tough in early ’45 as they did in ’44?
NN: Yeah. Not really. No. We thought we should have just left it, you know. We didn’t need to bomb any more. I mean the Germans were finished really weren’t they?
BW: And what happened when it was announced that the war was over? Do you recall where you were when you heard the announcement and what happened?
NN: I don’t remember really. It’s like that. It’s all over now, isn’t it?
IN: Where were you at the time?
NN: Where was I?
IN: You were in the army camp. No. The air force.
NN: Pardon?
IN: You were still in the air force weren’t you?
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: You were in the camp.
NN: Camp. Yeah.
IN: You didn’t celebrate.
NN: What?
IN: You didn’t celebrate.
NN: No. We didn’t celebrate. No.
BW: How long did you continue in the RAF for after that?
NN: Pardon?
BW: How long did you continue in the air force?
NN: Oh. Not long.
BW: Not long.
NN: No. As soon as I got out I was ready to get out. I’d had enough.
IN: You went to do some rescue missions though didn’t you?
NN: Oh I did do. Yeah. On the — over in Holland.
IN: Holland. Yeah. You went over that bridge that —
NN: Holland.
IN: Yeah. The Remagan Bridge.
NN: Remagen Bridge. Yeah.
IN: You saw it still standing when you went over it.
NN: Yeah.
IN: And then on the way back it had collapsed.
BW: Did your squadron help repatriate prisoners of war?
NN: Yeah.
BW: You did.
NN: Oh, we did. Yeah. We flew a lot of them back didn’t we?
IN: Dropping food parcels as well weren’t you?
NN: Pardon?
IN: Dropping food parcels.
NN: Food parcels. Yeah. Brought. Went to Germany. A lot of the camps, brought them, brought them straight back instead of them having to go all, all the way in trains and stuff. We flew in to, in there and brought the people from the camps. Put them on the plane. Flew them straight back. They were kissing the ground.
BW: They were so happy to be home.
NN: Oh aye.
BW: Kissing the ground.
NN: Oh aye. They got out the plane and they were [unclear] they were so relieved. We were glad to see them. It was a good effort really. Go there. Get them straight back. Not go on trains and boats. Straight in there, on the planes, straight home. And they kissed the ground.
BW: So you’d pick them up so they wouldn’t go on trains and boats.
NN: Yeah.
BW: You’d pick them up. Fly them straight back.
NN: Yeah.
BW: How many could you get in a plane? If you were flying Lancasters how many would you squash in?
NN: I think about twenty of us.
BW: Really?
NN: Yeah. All pushed in together. Oh, they were just put. They didn’t care. Get in there. They didn’t care where they were. And they’d never flown in an aircraft before. They were in, in the middle of it.
BW: So were they, they weren’t necessarily RAF guys you were picking up.
NN: No. No.
BW: They were army POWs as well.
NN: Army. Yeah. Everybody. Oh aye. But I mean they were glad to get back they were. Oh aye. Kissing the ground when they got back. Hallelujah. Aye. It was a great effort that. It was great doing that. Getting the people. Getting them straight back as soon as you can instead of going on boats and trains and everything.
BW: And you also flew sorties to drop food for the Dutch.
NN: The Dutch. Yeah. The Dutch yeah. They were starving they were. Plenty of rough stuff over there.
BW: Could you see much from the height at which you were flying?
NN: Yeah. You could see them there. They were all, all waiting there for the stuff coming down in parachutes. Bale them out.
BW: So the food parcels were in, were on parachutes.
NN: Yeah. Oh yeah. Aye. They were actually, they were starving. Really were. They were glad to get it. That was a really good effort they did. Glad to do that. Aye. Because they had a hard time during the war they did. Oh aye.
BW: And do you recall were you flying quite low over the cities to —
NN: Eh?
BW: Were you dropping the parcels over the streets and buildings?
NN: Yeah.
BW: Or were you aiming for fields on the outside? Where did you do it?
NN: In fields on the outside. Yeah.
BW: Ok.
NN: Getting inland. Get them on the land. Don’t, don’t go in the sea. Get them on the land and they can pick them up. Oh yeah. They must have been welcoming those parcels from the air.
BW: And were there people in the fields that you dropped the food parcels over?
NN: Yeah. Yeah. They were there gathering them up. Yeah. Aye. It must have been great for them. We enjoyed it anyway. Aye.
BW: Make a change from dropping bombs wouldn’t it?
NN: Oh it was. Yeah. Helping people. Aye. They must have been starving there.
BW: Do you know how many trips roughly you had to make?
NN: Pardon?
BW: Do you know how many trips you had to make to do that?
NN: I think it was about seven, I think.
BW: About seven.
NN: Yeah. Yeah. They were. They welcomed us anyway. Some of them were out of sight. You had to chase after them and get them. They got them back. Aye. They were good days they were. Helping. Helping somebody. Instead of dropping bombs drop food.
BW: And so as the war ended what happened then? You said you were demobbed. You wanted to be out straight away.
NN: Yeah.
BW: What happened for that process? For you to be demobbed. What took place? Do you recall?
NN: We had to wait hadn’t we? We couldn’t get demobbed right away.
IN: You had to go to Blackpool didn’t you?
NN: Went to Blackpool. Yeah.
IN: You decided you wanted to keep the greatcoat.
NN: Pardon?
IN: You decided you wanted to keep the greatcoat.
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: Because it was cold.
NN: Frozen.
IN: I’m doing that.
NN: And it was in Blackpool of all places.
IN: And you had, you went back to your apprenticeship didn’t you?
NN: Yeah. Apprenticeship. Yeah. Engineer.
BW: In the railyards.
NN: In the railyards. Yeah.
BW: And so they’d held your job open had they?
NN: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.
BW: And so from Blackpool. You were there presumably a few weeks and then you —
NN: Yeah.
BW: Moved back home to Glasgow.
NN: Yeah.
BW: To be with your family.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And what, what happened after that? You resumed your apprenticeship and —
NN: Yeah.
BW: Did you re-join Sunburn Harriers?
NN: Springburn Harriers. Yeah.
BW: Springburn Harriers.
NN: Yeah. Yeah. Went with them again.
IN: You met, you’d met my mother in the air force hadn’t you?
NN: That’s right. Yeah.
IN: And you decided to get married.
BW: When did you meet her?
IN: Was it 103 Squadron?
NN: Pardon?
IN: Was it the 103 Squadron?
NN: 103 Squadron. Yeah.
IN: She was on the telephones wasn’t she?
NN: Yeah. She saw me and I saw her and that was it.
BW: And it, where was it? Was it, was it at a party or a dance or was it just on the base?
NN: Just on the base. Yeah. Yeah. Her father didn’t like me though.
BW: Her father didn’t like you.
NN: Did he? Her father. Her father didn’t like me.
IN: There wasn’t many people she liked.
NN: She did. She did. Her mother did. The grandmother did.
IN: Yeah.
NN: Oh.
IN: Yeah.
NN: The grandmother. The wee Swedish grandmother.
IN: Oh the Swedish one. Yeah.
NN: Oh she was wonderful. She was a wonderful person. She loved me. She, ‘You’re the greatest thing that’s happened here. I’m glad you’ve got here.’
IN: That was the Lonsdale side of the family.
NN: Lonsdale. Yeah.
IN: Yeah.
NN: The grandmother. She was a grand person. She was Swedish. She was lovely. She loved me. She said, ‘You’re great. You’re the one we want.’ Aye.
BW: And when, when did you get married?
NN: When I was —
IN: It was, you still had your uniform.
NN: Yeah.
IN: There’s a picture there.
BW: Oh yeah.
NN: Uncle Ron was it?
IN: 1945 wasn’t it?
NN: End of 1945. Yeah.
BW: So that’s very soon, very soon after you’ve been —
NN: Yeah.
BW: Demobbed.
IN: Demobbed.
NN: Yeah. Aye. Her father didn’t like me. He thought, he thought she should have married one of nature’s gentlemen. What did he think I was? One of the nature’s gentlemen. Aye.
IN: A bit rough and ready at that time though weren’t you?
NN: Pardon?
IN: You were a bit rough and ready [laughs]
NN: Aye. He thought she’d marry one of nature’s gentleman. I couldn’t believe that. I did laugh at that. Some bloody people [laughs] he didn’t, he wouldn’t take to me very much. But the grandmother would. She was lovely. The Swedish grandmother. She thought I was the greatest thing that happened.
BW: And what was your wife’s name?
NN: Enid.
BW: Enid.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And where was she from? She’s got Swedish heritage.
NN: She wasn’t. I mean —
BW: She’s got, her grandmother was Swedish but —
NN: Swedish. They were in Yorkshire.
BW: Right.
IN: The original story is that they was the Clegg’s weren’t they?
NN: Cleggs.
IN: Wasn’t the, think originally the Cleggs that came over. There were the Klings and the Cleggs.
NN: The Klings.
IN: Yeah. That came over from Sweden to Hull on the way to —
NN: Oh.
IN: To America. They stopped at Hull on the way to America. And the husband got ill and died in Hull. And left the three young girls and their mother stranded in Hull. And they sort of had to make their way in life living in Hull. And one of them was the grandmother that he’s talking about.
BW: Right.
IN: And her daughter, which was Bertha married my grandfather who was a Maynard.
NN: Maynard.
IN: Yeah. Became — my mother’s Enid Maynard.
NN: Yeah.
IN: They had three children. Two boys and a girl. And my grandfather set up the Maynard’s fruit and vegetable shops in Hull.
NN: Yeah. Did do. Yeah.
IN: Five fruit and veg shops.
BW: Right.
NN: He didn’t like me though, did he? He didn’t think I was good enough, but I was. I was good enough.
BW: And how long did you continue to work in the rail yards as an engineer?
NN: When I went to, I went to Glasgow didn’t I?
IN: Yeah.
NN: I worked in the railway. And then —
IN: I think you were just finishing you apprenticeship weren’t you?
NN: Yeah.
IN: Probably six months or something.
NN: Yeah.
IN: It wasn’t very long.
NN: No.
IN: And then you went back to Hull and you started working in the fruit and vegetable shops.
NN: Fruit and vegetable. Yeah.
BW: So you, you moved across to Hull to be closer presumably to your wife’s family.
NN: Yeah. Yeah. They didn’t like that did they? Didn’t like the poor bloke.
IN: Because of you and my grandfather were always falling out you decided that you were going to emigrate to Canada. So in 1953 you went to Canada.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Right.
IN: And we followed on.
NN: Yeah.
IN: About three months later. My mother and my sister and myself.
BW: So this is where you’d had some [pause] was it during this time before you moved to Canada you were trying to get in the Olympic running team?
NN: Oh yeah.
BW: And this, this was for the marathon was it?
NN: Yeah. Marathon. Yeah.
IN: You won the Hull Marathon didn’t you?
NN: I did.
IN: The first ever Hull Marathon.
NN: Yeah.
IN: And the second year you ran it again and won it again.
NN: Yeah. And you’d think when I went there I had to go down there and they were there already. Up in the morning.
IN: You had driven to Glasgow to run in the marathon.
NN: Yeah.
IN: The day after the Hull Marathon.
NN: And all these others had been there for weeks and weeks before and I landed the night before and just expected to run. What chance did I have? None.
IN: Well, you came second.
NN: I was leading. I was leading for the first fifteen miles and then [unclear] I faded.
IN: That was, that was a different one. That was the Boston marathon.
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: No. The Glasgow one you came second.
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: Yeah.
NN: Aye. The Boston Marathon I didn’t manage it. Aye. Up at 6 o’clock in the morning. How can you run a mile in that like that?
BW: So you ran the Glasgow Marathon.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And then the day after you ran the Hull one. And at this stage they were trialling for the Olympics. Is that right?
NN: Yeah. Yeah.
BW: And you just missed out.
NN: Yeah.
IN: Yeah. They could only afford to take one person.
NN: Yeah.
IN: So they took the person who won.
NN: Yeah, aye that, yeah. I could have beaten him really.
IN: Yeah.
BW: And so when you moved to Canada you also tried for the Olympic team in Canada.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Presumably you must have been a naturalised Canadian.
NN: Yeah. No. I wasn’t.
BW: Or got Canadian citizenship. Did you not?
NN: I wasn’t.
BW: No.
IN: You’d only been there four years.
NN: I wasn’t there for enough.
IN: No. You had to be there five years.
NN: Five years. Yeah.
IN: To get into the Canadian system.
NN: So I missed out again.
BW: And did you come back after four years in Canada?
IN: No.
BW: Or did you stay on?
NN: No. I went back.
IN: Lost, well he was working for Avro Aircraft Corporation.
NN: Yeah.
IN: Designing. Well, on the design team for the Avro Arrow and the Americans sort of pulled out of the scheme that they had for this plane and they closed the plant down. So he came back here to work at English Electric as it was then.
NN: English Electric. Worked there.
IN: And started working on the TSR2 and the Lightning.
NN: TSR2.
BW: So were you on the design teams for those aircraft?
NN: Yeah. Oh aye. I was good I was. I knew my stuff. A lot of them didn’t like me though.
IN: Went to Vickers Armstrong working on the Polaris submarine. And to Spadeadam on the Woomera rocket engines and the Blue Streak. And then the Isle of Wight working on the Hovercraft.
NN: Yeah. Isle of Wight. Yeah. I was there. I liked it down there.
BW: So it must have been a bit of a shock and a disappointment for you when they cancelled TSR2.
NN: Oh yeah.
BW: And having been, having been on the design team.
NN: Yeah.
BW: How did that, how did that feel to see it fly though?
NN: Yeah. Fly.
IN: I saw it fly once.
BW: Did you?
NN: It was a good plane.
IN: It went over the school where I was in St [unclear]
NN: It was a good plane alright.
IN: Tree top bomber.
NN: Eh?
IN: A tree top bomber.
NN: Yeah. They could have bought it.
IN: That was, I think it was Harold Wilson’s government that decided they didn’t want to spend any more money on it.
NN: Yeah.
BW: And you worked on the Lightning as well.
NN: Yeah. The Lightning. Yeah.
BW: What did you think of that?
NN: That was a good plane really. I liked it.
IN: That was the only one that can still go straight up in the atmosphere and come back down in that atmosphere.
NN: The Lightning. Aye. That was the one wasn’t it?
IN: Yeah.
BW: And so when, when you look back now at what you were tasked with doing in Bomber Command how does that make you feel? Or what do you think of the coverage that’s been given to bomber crew more recently?
NN: What?
BW: What do you think of the coverage or the attention that’s been given to bomber crew more recently.
NN: Not much.
IN: Well they were rejected for a long time weren’t they?
NN: Pardon?
IN: They were rejected for a long time weren’t they?
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: Because of Dresden. You know they looked at us as something not to talk about.
NN: Yeah they didn’t, didn’t like to talk about it.
IN: But they’ve made that Memorial now haven’t they?
NN: Yeah.
IN: In Lincoln.
NN: In Lincoln. Yeah. Went down to see that.
IN: Yeah.
BW: What did you think of that when you saw it unveiled?
NN: Very good. Done something at last.
BW: Done something at last.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Did you get to see the Hyde Park Memorial? The one that was unveiled in 2012.
NN: No.
IN: Not been to London for a long time.
BW: No.
NN: No. I didn’t see it.
IN: No. I heard about it.
NN: What?
IN: I heard about it but I don’t think you remember it.
NN: Yeah.
BW: So is it good that the bomber crew are being remembered now?
NN: Yeah.
BW: In Lincolnshire?
NN: Yes. Time too. They did a lot of good they did. Aye. Aye. We lost a lot of good lads we did. I don’t know why I’m still here. Why me?
IN: It shortened the war though didn’t it?
NN: I know it did. Why did I survive?
BW: I think it was just —
NN: Somebody was looking after me.
IN: I think the British government were thinking that they might have to go to Canada. They were looking like they might lose it rather than win it. I think Bomber Harris at least.
NN: Bomber Harris.
IN: Changed the way the war went. Even though he was over the top sometimes. He made the difference.
BW: Do you think the same Norrey? Do you think Bomber Harris changed the war? The course of the war.
NN: I don’t think so. No.
BW: No.
IN: What? Bomber Harris.
NN: Oh yeah.
IN: Bomber Harris changed it didn’t he?
NN: Oh yes. He was all right. Old Bomber. Old Bomber Harris. We loved him. Everybody loved him.
BW: I believe he visited 103 Squadron at one point.
NN: Yeah.
BW: Did you get to meet him? Did you get to see him or not?
NN: No.
BW: No.
NN: No.
BW: But you just knew of his reputation.
NN: Yeah. He would have wanted to see me [laughs]
BW: Like a royal visit.
NN: I might have said something wrong. Might have told them where they went wrong.
BW: Good. Well, I don’t, I don’t have any further questions for you. Are there any other incidents or recollections you want to add?
IN: He’s finding it hard to remember things these days.
NN: Pardon?
IN: You’re finding it hard to remember things these days.
NN: Yeah. It is a bit. Yeah.
BW: Do you think you’ll get to see the Memorial again when the Centre is open?
NN: Yeah.
BW: Do you think you’ll see the Bomber Command Memorial when the Centre is open again?
IN: I can take him down there. Yeah.
NN: Yeah. Where’s this?
BW: At Lincoln.
IN: Lincoln.
NN: Lincoln.
IN: On top of the hill.
NN: Lincolnshire. Yeah. Aye. Lincolnshire. Good old Lincolnshire. The 103.
BW: Ok. That’s, that’s everything I think. So, on behalf of the Bomber Command Centre thank you very much Norman Neilson for your time.
NN: Yeah.
BW: It’s been a pleasure to talk to you.
NN: Yeah. They were a good lot.
BW: Thank you very much.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with Norman Neilson
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Brian Wright
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-22
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ANeilsonN160422, PNeilsonNS1604
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
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01:21:13 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Norman Neilson was an apprentice engineer at St Rollox Locomotive Works when he volunteered. He had originally wanted to join the Navy but joined the RAF because the only way he could be released from his position was to volunteer for aircrew. His brother had been killed in a submarine and so he kept the fact that he had joined up a secret from his mother. Norman joined 103 Squadron and found himself threatened twice with court martial. He stressed that he had a huge responsibility for the safety of the rest of the crew. After the war Norman completed his apprenticeship and went on to join the design teams working on such aircraft as the Lightning, TSR2, and Arrow. He also worked on the Polaris submarine and the Blue Streak rocket and then the Hovercraft on the Isle of Wight.
Contributor
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Julie Williams
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Isle of Wight
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Dresden
England--Hampshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945-02
103 Squadron
582 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
flight engineer
Lancaster
memorial
military discipline
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Pathfinders
perception of bombing war
pilot
RAF Elsham Wolds
RAF Little Staughton
submarine
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/944/11387/PMakensL1701.2.jpg
05b7ba41508ba4dde289a303dae307f7
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/944/11387/AMakensL170117.1.mp3
f837a144815b5928751ae6cb9c78ae50
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
Makens, Louis
L Makens
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Sergeant Louis Makens (1921 - 2018, 1442236 Royal Air Force). He flew six operations as an air gunner with 196 Squadron before being transferred to 76 Squadron. He joined a new crew as a mid under gunner and their Halifax was shot down 18/19 March 1944 on his first operation with them. He became a prisoner of war and took part in the long march.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-01-17
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
Makens, L
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
DK: Right. So this is David Kavanagh for the International Bomber Command Centre interviewing Louis Maken.
LM: No. No. No.
Other: Louis.
DK: Louis. Sorry. Sorry. Louis Makens.
LM: My grandson. He don’t like it.
DK: Misinformed. I was misinformed [laughs] 17th of January 2017. If I put that there.
LM: Yeah.
DK: If I keep looking down I’m not being rude I’m just making sure it’s still working. I’ve only been caught out by the technology once. It was a bit embarrassing.
LM: It wouldn’t take a lot to catch me out.
Other: No. It wouldn’t.
DK: Right. Ok. What I’m going to ask you first of all was going back now what were you doing immediately before the war?
LM: I worked on a farm.
DK: Ok.
LM: Market gardening and ordinary agriculture on a farm.
DK: Ok. So and then war started. What made you then want to join the RAF?
LM: We had, we were called up weren’t we? We had to register and I went for an interview and they gave me the choice of what you’d like to do and not being very smart I volunteered for air crew.
DK: Right.
LM: And went back to work and I suppose it must have been about a few months. Something like. I was about nineteen I got my call up papers saying to report to Uxbridge.
DK: Right.
LM: That was where they had done all the interviewing.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And they asked you silly, well not silly little questions I suppose but half multiplied by half. That was one of the questions on, at the interview. And another one was if the Suez Canal got blocked how would the transport, how would they get cargo around to England?
DK: Oh right.
LM: And which was a long way around.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: The Cape of Good Hope, wasn’t it? And from then on I just had my papers come in. Called up. Report to Uxbridge and then from Uxbridge I went to a place called Padgate. We were kitted out at Padgate and I actually volunteered wireless operator air gunner.
DK: Right.
LM: And I’d done Blackpool in 1942 and there were some old hangars there where we used to do Morse Code [coughs] Morse Code in and I had a spell there and they asked for straight air gunners which was a lot quicker course.
DK: Right.
LM: Why? I don’t know why I volunteered for that. I don’t know to this day. Anyway, I volunteered and I was taken off the course there and from then on I had a life of leisure.
DK: Right.
LM: I went to a place called Sutton Bridge. That was a fighter OT Unit.
DK: Yeah.
LM: General duties. From Sutton Bridge the whole squadron moved up to Dundee and under the Sidlaw Hills. And there was a Russian aircraft landed at the airfield at Dundee.
DK: Oh right.
LM: And the camouflage was really marvellous.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And that was where I was on general duties up there as well. What we were doing going around with little bits and pieces. Anything. Anything there was to do which you’d gather what general duties mean.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: Everything. And then I was called to, I got my call up from —
DK: Just stepping back a bit you never found out what the Russian aircraft was doing there then.
LM: Yes. Molotov.
DK: Oh right. Ok.
LM: Molotov came over.
DK: Oh.
LM: I’m sorry about that I should have —
DK: Did you actually see him?
LM: Yeah. No I never. No. No.
DK: No. Oh right.
LM: Only saw the plane at a distance.
DK: Oh right.
LM: Oh yeah.
DK: Wow.
LM: And it was quite funny really because I wouldn’t have believed it. There was a Scottish lad worked with me and he said to me, ‘Louis,’ he said, ‘How would you like to my parents and just meet my parents and just have a cup of tea with them.’ They lived in Dundee.
DK: Yeah.
LM: I had to get him to interpret what they said. I [pause] Dundee was really broad and I felt a really Charlie because you had to say, ‘Sorry. What did you say?’ and I had, I had to say things like that. But from there on I got called back to a place called Sealand.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: And that’s where I met up with two lads who had already been the same thing as me further afield but they’d been on a wireless so they had decided to remuster as well. Quicker course. We’ll get in to action. Silly weren’t we?’ Anyway, Stan Gardiner was one of them and Harold Lambourn and how, I think Stan Gardener was a welterweight boxer. I didn’t realise that at the time.
DK: Oh right. Yeah.
LM: But I often wonder. We parted because they remustered as pilots.
DK: Right.
LM: And I remustered to straight air gunner. Well, while we were at Sealand we used to go with a Polish squadron and fly with a Polish squadron in Lysanders. Dive bombing for the ack ack training. And we used to fly up the Dee and almost looked up at the houses because you approached and then they’d quick climb and then dive on their guns.
DK: Yeah.
LM: But then I was posted to, from there I left them and I was posted to [home] house in London. That’s where we done the Lord’s Cricket Ground. Was it Lords or the Oval? One of those. And that’s where we’d done gas training and things like that and from there I was posted on to Bridlington and that’s where I done my gunnery, ITW for the second time.
DK: Right.
LM: And from there I was posted on to Stormy Downs.
DK: What did, what did the training involve then at ITW?
LM: At the ITW?
DK: Yeah.
LM: It was back to square one. You know what I mean by square one? Square bashing.
DK: Oh right.
LM: But we did go in to, Bridlington had on the front there was a shooting range. A twelve bore shooting range. Clay pigeons.
DK: Yeah.
LM: I won the competition and won twelve shillings and sixpence. And there was —
DK: You obviously went into the right duties then as an air gunner.
LM: I came away the best shot of the lot. I suppose I must have been. But no. But cutting it short there at Bridlington and then Stormy Down. From Stormy Down we went to Stradishall.
DK: Yeah.
LM: First we were on Wellingtons and then Stradishall was conversion on to Stirlings.
DK: Right.
LM: Now, I think —
DK: Just stepping back can you remember what it was you were flying at Stradishall? Just —
LM: Stirlings at Stradishall. I’m trying to think where I’d done my OTU. I’m not so sure where the Wellington, when I’d done the OTU on. I went to so many places. I’m not sure if I could swear blind.
DK: No.
LM: Where the Wellingtons were stationed. Where we, they had so many of them.
DK: Yeah.
LM: But I finished up at Stradishall and that’s where we were crewed up and already crewed up and I happened to be the seventh member of the crew.
DK: Right.
LM: Which I was a top gunner. A mid-upper.
DK: How did the crewing up work?
LM: Just, I was just introduced to them.
DK: Right.
LM: They were already crewed up.
DK: Right.
LM: But as they —
DK: They needed a gunner.
LM: As a yeah. They had to have a top gunner.
DK: Yeah.
LM: For the start of the four engines. Then finished Stradishall. And that’s where I’d done the odd circuits and bumps and that sort of thing. And one particular night I was laying in bed and I heard this machine gun fire and it was a Focke Wulf had come back that night. I got up the next morning. A Focke Wulf had come back and shot one of our planes down doing circuits and bumps and the only one hurt or I think I’m sure the news was that he got killed and he was Canadian. And he was a screened pilot. What we called a screened pilot.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Was one who, you know —
DK: Already done a tour.
LM: Already done his tour and I think he was teaching us to land.
DK: And he was killed in a, back in the UK while training others.
LM: Yeah. A fighter come back with the bombers to wherever they were going to or from and must have picked up Stradishall and that was how. So the next night we had to go. I was on the next night on circuits and bumps and of course the warning was if there’s a bandit in the area all the ‘drome lights would go out.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And of course, what happened? All the lights went out didn’t they? And we were still stooging around, stooging around, stooging around, waiting for well we didn’t know what was going to happen. Everybody was on edge and all of a sudden the lights come on. It was a dummy run. So we were a bit relieved about that but then after my OTU there and the, and the conversion at Stradishall I was posted to 196 Squadron Witchford.
DK: Right. Ok.
LM: As the mid, mid-upper gunner.
DK: Still on Stirlings.
LM: Still on Stirlings.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Yeah.
DK: So what were your thoughts about the Stirling then when you first saw it and flew in it?
LM: Well, as we went to Stradishall they stood behind almost on the edge of the road where we went.
DK: Right.
LM: And they were massive and if you can imagine what a Wellington was like. Quite low down.
DK: Yeah.
LM: You could almost touch the nose. These Stirlings. They’re twenty two foot to the nose in the air. I have to be careful what I say if this is going down on there. But —
DK: We can edit the bits out later.
LM: Well, yeah. You’ll better cut this piece out because I think what happened our pilot who he’d been out in Rhodesia, flying out in Rhodesia and I think when he saw them he got a fright.
DK: Really?
LM: We had [laughs] we had some near misses. Or near tragedies. When you come in to land you’ve got your three lights. Red too low.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Green. Lovely. Amber too high. We would come in on no lights at all.
DK: Right.
LM: Nose down. And I just used to sit there like that. ‘Christ, what’s he doing?’ And I could have landed the plane quite easily because when you sit in that top turret a beautiful view and I used to sit on the beam like that and check, check, check and I could get that to a tee. I’m not boasting about how. I couldn’t fly a plane anyway. But the bomb aimer, the wireless operator he had his parachute like that every time we landed and we came in —
DK: Not giving the pilot confidence is it? Or having confidence in your pilot if he’s doing that.
LM: No. None whatsoever.
DK: No.
LM: We’d been to Skagerrak mine laying and we came in this night and I got caught sharp a bit. Get down a bit. Down a bit. A bit high. Came in. Bang. We hit the ground, smashed the undercarriage up.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Soared up unto the air and of course came down again and the undercarriage had gone because we went down on to one wing and slid, as luck would have it we went off the runway onto the grass. We never did land on the runway or take off on it. There was either run off at the end or whatever. Oh, you have got to watch what you put on there haven’t you? [laughs] He might be alive. I don’t know what happened. Later on I was, we didn’t, we went on, went from Witchford to Leicester East. Irby.
DK: Right. Just going back to Witchford can you remember how many operations you did from there?
LM: Altogether there was six.
DK: Right.
LM: That was the seventh one. Number seven on the night we got shot down.
DK: Right.
LM: And that was the first time on the first raid we’d done with, first I’d done with Halifaxes.
DK: Right. So when did you convert to the Halifax then?
LM: Well, I didn’t convert. I was just, we were made surplus.
DK: Right.
ILM: We went towing gliders and that sort of thing and eventually that was what they called we were transferred to what they called the AEAF. That’s the Allied Expeditionary Air Force so therefore they decided they didn’t want a top turret. Extra drag. Which you would get wouldn’t you?
DK: Yeah.
LM: With the top turret on so we were made redundant in a way.
DK: Right.
LM: And there were six of us were taken off 196 Squadron and we were posted to Marston Moor and from Marston Moor we were then sent up to Holme on Spalding Moor. They had then fitted a gun emplacement, a beam if you’d like to call it that underneath the plane.
DK: And that’s on the Halifaxes.
LM: That was on the Halifaxes.
DK: It was like a belly gun in effect.
LM: A mid-under they called it.
DK: Yeah. Right.
LM: It wasn’t a turret as such it was just a, it was a piece of metal stuck on the bottom as near as near as I can explain it.
DK: Right.
LM: You had a .5 between your legs.
DK: Was that something the squadron itself had done or was it an official —
LM: It was what they were trying to get.
DK: Yeah.
LM: We were getting so many attacks from below.
DK: Right.
LM: Because as you know you can’t see below your own height can you?
DK: Yeah.
LM: It’s very difficult to see. You can see upwards but you can’t see below your own horizon.
DK: And were you aware at the time that a lot of the attacks by the Germans were from underneath?
LM: It was known.
DK: It was known.
LM: It was well known.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Oh yes. Yeah. That was well known. That was the idea of fetching this gun underneath.
DK: Right.
LM: And the Germans knew very well that we were [pause] well no protection underneath at all coming up from —
DK: So, you’re now with 76 Squadron at this point.
LM: That was 76 Squadron.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: Yeah.
DK: So, you’re now in the, in the belly.
LM: That’s it.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Well, I had never met my crew that I flew on that night with.
DK: Right.
LM: We went to briefing. We went, we’d done a little bit of training on it. There weren’t all that much more training to do. It was only sort of getting used to a .5 and that sort of thing and a fair old go on that.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And the first time I actually met my crew was when I was a prisoner of war.
DK: Oh right.
LM: Well, after I’d been shot down I should say.
DK: Right. So you only did the one operation [unclear]
LM: That was the very first one.
DK: And you were shot down.
LM: We were shot down the very first night. There was six of us went and I think there were three of us allocated to go that night.
DK: Right.
LM: March the 18th 1944. I should have been at a wedding.
DK: Can you recall where the operation was to?
LM: Yes. Oh yeah. Frankfurt.
DK: Frankfurt. Ok.
LM: Yeah. Frankfurt. And we were about twenty, twenty minutes from the target.
DK: Right.
LM: And everything was quiet. Not a very good thing in a way and we hadn’t crossed any borders as such for anti-aircraft or anything like that and every now and again the pilot would just call up and say, ‘Are you alright?’ And so forth, ‘Gunner.’ So forth. And the next thing I knew there was a blaze of bullets, well incendiaries, you couldn’t see the bullets. Incendiaries. And I sat in the turret like that you see facing the rear and the bullets came through, went between my legs. Almost. I was stood. They went between my legs. Well, there was the pilot looking out the front. There was the navigator [pause] could have been I suppose. The bomb aimer should have been in the, in the astrodome looking out. Top gunner in the top turret. The only two of us who saw the bullets were myself and the rear gunner.
DK: And this was from a German aircraft presumably.
HLM: That was [laughs] that’s hard to say.
DK: Oh right.
LM: I don’t know. We never saw the plane. It was head on.
DK: Right [unclear]
LM: So was it one of ours?
DK: Ah.
LM: Well, I’ll never know.
DK: No.
LM: I don’t think so.
DK: No.
LM: But they were fairly heavy. It weren’t small machine gun fire so it could well have been a night fighter. And when you think that no one up front saw the tracers at all.
DK: Were they an experienced crew do you know? Or —
LM: Were they —?
DK: Were they an experienced crew that you —
LM: They’d done, they’d done seven nights. They’d already done seven operations.
DK: Right. Ok [unclear]
LM: Yeah. And four that night.
DK: Right.
LM: Yeah. Yeah. They weren’t over experienced. Like I was I suppose. But, but they hadn’t, they, I sometimes think how ever I got away with being missed in that dustbin when you think of the midair of that aircraft wing as mid —
DK: Yeah.
LM: Fuselage.
DK: It’s, you’re in there then.
LM: That’s right. That little bit underneath.
DK: Yeah. Do you know what other damage was done to the aircraft then? Or —
LM: Well, we caught on fire.
DK: Right.
LM: Yeah. They hit the inboard. The inboard starboard engine and I thought well that’s all right. With the old extinguishers put the flames out. Anyway, we went on a little while and there was quite a, it was getting quite light then because we were on fire and the pilot, David Josephs was my pilot. Never knew him at the time.
DK: Yeah.
LM: But I found out later on and he said, ‘Prepare to bale out.’ Which is the first thing, isn’t it? So I opened my hatch up and just stood there. Kept on the intercom. Kept on oxygen and the top gunner he’d already got out of his turret and he came down and opened the back hatch.
DK: Right.
LM: And he must have thought because it was quite light because of the flames and so forth and he thought, I think he thought I’d been hit because I was still in the turret and standing up. He came back and he went to get a hold of me like that and I went, ‘Ok. I’m alright. I’m alright. I’m ok.’ Well, the pilot hadn’t told us to bale out then. But he did eventually say, ‘Right. Well, better get out. Bale out.’ So that was myself and the top gunner. We went to the back hatch and when you go out you have to roll out otherwise you’re likely to hit the tailplane or the fin.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: Which is easily done. So it was quite comical in a way. It must have been a comedy act. We stood near the hatch or laid near the hatch arguing who was going out first. I’d, I’d seen it happen. People who baled out and they’d extinguished the flames, the [unclear] switch or something like that.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And put the flames out and they’d flown back.
DK: Right.
LM: I thought I’m not going to be, I’m not going to be here on my own so we, Spider went out first and I toddled out behind him. But I went out with my arms folded like that because when I put my parachute on you don’t wear it all, you sort of have it beside you.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: So I quick put on my hooks.
DK: So you [unclear] then
LM: Clipped them on the hooks.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: And I think what happened you’re supposed to leave, lose speed count up to seven because you’re travelling at a hundred and something, a hundred and eighty mile an hour. The first thing I knew, bang. The parachute had, whether the slipstream caught my hands and my parachute, must have pulled the parachute, the rip cord.
DK: Yeah.
LM: The next thing I knew that was bang. Oh, the pain, the jerk on your neck. People don’t realise it’s a —
DK: As the parachute opened.
LM: Oh yeah.
DK: Yeah.
LM: It almost feels like you break, you know.
DK: So is it is it a chest ‘chute you’ve got then?
LM: Yeah. Chest.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Chest it was. No seated ones then. We always carried them and just stuck them in the little hole at the side of the, of your turret.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And anyway, I don’t know how long it was coming down but when I looked down I thought, oh shite. Water. I thought I can’t be over water. That’s one thing I always dreaded. Coming down in the, in the sea. And what it was the plane was on fire and that had gone down and there was snow on the ground and little hillocks that looked like waves.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: And [unclear] It just looked like a patchwork of little waves. Anyway, the lower I got they disappeared. Anyway, I hit, the next thing I knew I was laying on my back groaning. I can remember now as if it was yesterday I laid there and thought oh, oh. I sort of shook myself up and of course up I got and I tried to pull the parachute in and got caught on a tree.
DK: Right.
LM: Right on the edge of a wood. As I went to pull the parachute in I thought, oh Christ there’s someone there. One of my old crew. So I sort of called out. No answer. It was just somebody falling in.
DK: Yeah.
LM: It wasn’t a crew at all. It was a piece of grass that was just doing that with the back light, the back sight of the flaming plane where it had gone down on the horizon.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Was casting this little piece of grass going along. I could imagine someone pulling a parachute in.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Anyway, I couldn’t get the parachute off the tree. I tried to get it down and I had to leave. What I’d done I just curled up under a hedge and I don’t know where the hell [pause] escape kit. Lost it. I had it, you had it park it on the side of your leg and it must have come out as I was upside down or —
DK: What would have been in the escape kit you’d got [unclear] ?
LM: Oh, you’d got a map.
DK: Right.
LM: Chocolate. One or two. Quite little bits of ration material.
DK: Right.
LM: A compass, etcetera but I lost them and so I curled up under a hedge and I had to sleep until it was daybreak. And I got up the next morning and when I woke up and I thought now sun is coming up in the east. If I go towards the sun I might make my way to France. But I wasn’t anywhere near France, was I? [laughs] Not really. I wouldn’t have met, I don’t think I would have, I don’t know. But anyway, I knew I wanted to go east because of the sun coming up and Germany here, France going in that direction sort of business and I thought if I make my way that way I might be able to come up against somebody but I went and I travelled for a day and never saw anybody. The next day I was walking what do you do? I covered my, took my boots and covered them up. I was lucky in a way digressing a little bit normally you know the old flying boot we used to have?
DK: Yeah.
LM: The old fleecy lined things.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Huge things. Well, I hadn’t. My equipment hadn’t arrived at 76 Squadron so I borrowed the squadron leader’s equipment. His flying boots. And we had, I had an electrically heated suit.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Because it was cold. We are talking about twenty two frost and I had an electrically heated suit. That’s your socks and just a jacket and I had his size elevens flying boots. Normally your flying boots fly off which they will do quite easily. That just shows the force of the parachute opening doesn’t it?
DK: Yeah.
LM: And how I kept them on I can only imagine I had electrically heated socks inside them. That’s how I think, the only way I can think I kept those shoes or flying boots three times the size of mine.
DK: So they were wedged in there with the sock.
LM: They must have been fairly —
DK: Yeah.
LM: No end of people. That’s the, my pilot lost his.
DK: Yeah.
LM: He was walking about with a, when I saw him last, the first time I met him he had got pieces of rag wrapped around his feet and that was one of the problems. Getting frostbite.
DK: Yeah.
LM: I think I got a little bit of frostbite on that ear and it’s still there. But lucky I didn’t get any more and no one else did. Anyway, I eventually I got, I did walk into two, I’d compare them with our Home Guard.
DK: Right.
LM: Two old boys walking over a bridge and where the village was, God knows, I have no idea and these two old lads walked towards me and all of a sudden they walked towards, crossed the road towards me like that and he pulled out a big revolver and I, that’s it. So I put my hands up. ‘Flieger. Flieger.’ And they took me back to their headquarters all dolled out with Hitlerites and all that sort of thing on the wall and they weren’t very, they didn’t seem too bad. They were the oldest of people and they took me to their little headquarters and then they had to get the Army to come and pick me up and they took me to another, somewhere else. Got above, it was only a walk from somewhere else to there. Well then, they sent in ex-RAF. The Luftwaffe.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Two of them came and picked me up and I was a little bit lucky in a way because we were walking along. They didn’t bother too much about whether you’d got hit or not. The Germans didn’t care. If somebody hit you with a hammer even. We was walking along and it was a Hitler Youth I think. Something in that region. He came up, he said, a lot of them spoke good English. He said, ‘Did you raid Cologne? Were you on a raid on Cologne?’ I said, ‘No. No. No. No.’ I said, ‘This was my first raid. First time.’ Well, it was a lie because I’d already got the 1939 43 Star on my tunic.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And he didn’t think nothing. He couldn’t have been, he couldn’t have fathomed that one out because well he probably didn’t know what they, what it was anyway.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And he just went away because Cologne was awful one wasn’t it? That was an awful thing.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And eventually they took me to their barracks and they were good. They gave me, the Germans, they gave me a lovely piece of black bread and jam. I’d had one taste of it and I threw it across the bloody cell. I thought, oh Christ and I couldn’t eat it. I just could not eat it. Which I learned different later on. Well, I went and laid on this old bunk of a bed sort of thing and the next thing I knew there was a boot in my back and they, then they brought the pilot. They’d got the pilot.
DK: Right.
LM: And one, I think that was the rear gunner. They’d picked them up as well. And that’s the first time I had met my pilot.
DK: Bizarre.
LM: And we were on our own until we got on with the crew itself.
DK: Yeah.
LM: But for some reason David Josephs, name spelled Joseph, J O S E P and do you remember Keith Josephs?
DK: The politician?
LM: Yes.
DK: Oh yes. Yes.
LM: He was the dead spit.
DK: Oh Right. Oh.
LM: Exact. Exact. Well he palled, why I don’t know.
DK: Yeah.
LM: He palled up with me.
DK: Right.
LM: Not his crew.
DK: Did you think he was related then or —
LM: Well, I would have swore blind he was. He never said. We never spoke about private life. We never told each other what we’d done, or what we did or what we hadn’t done or anything like that. It was just you met them and that was it.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Like when we left we never left any, I often wish I had have done. Kept in touch perhaps with two of the lads I escaped with. I would have loved to have known what happened to them.
DK: No.
LM: But you don’t. You’re so keen to just carry on. Carry on. Carry on regardless of what goes on around you really. It’s —
DK: So were you then sent to a proper prisoner of war camp at that point?
LM: I was taken back. Now this is the bit that really peeved me at one time because I often think of it. They took me back to Frankfurt.
DK: Right.
LM: And I saw Frankfurt’s Railway Station what they were doing to Germany that we were doing or we were getting over in London and I thought the very same thing. There was people on the station with a, one particular person there was a woman with a little child and they’d got a basket, a linen basket like that between them.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And I suppose they were trying to get out. Mind you that was two days after they’d been bombed quite a bit then day and night you see. We were full incendiary. That was all we carried that night was incendiaries.
DK: Yeah.
LM: But that, then I’d done solitary confinement. They put you in solitary there and there was a raid on that night and that [pause] we had all sort of a, there was solitary confinement and there was a blind you could almost it was like a slab of blind and the light, you could even see the lights flashing through this sort of one of these old plated blinds sort of things.
DK: But flashes of the explosions.
LM: Yeah. Of the, of the raid.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Yeah. And I was there three days and they asked you all sorts of questions and a corporal he must, think he was a corporal he looked like it to me. Got a couple of stripes of some sort and he came down and he interviewed so forth to this. He’d got a big list where I’d come from. You only say what you know. Or you’re supposed to say name, rank and [pause] name, rank and whatever.
DK: I was going to ask that. If I could just take you back a bit did you have training as to what to do if you were caught as a —
LM: None whatsoever. We were —
DK: Ok [laughs]
LM: We were just told the general thing. Name, rank and number.
LM: It was a general thing. Name, rank and that’s all.
DK: So you had no other training if you ever were captured.
LM: No. No. that’s all we, never even had trained parachute jumping. Never had. Never had a [pause] The art is the falling over and rolling over you see.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Well, I hit the ground straight legged.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And I think that’s why I knocked myself out. I think that’s the reason. I must have hit the ground straight legged.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Instead of doubling up and falling over.
DK: Yeah. And rolling. Yeah.
LM: Which is the correct way.
DK: Yeah.
LM: I knew the way but you can’t tell how far off the ground you are you see.
DK: At night. Yeah.
LM: And the last fifteen feet or the last little bit was like jumping off the wreck and like jumping off a fifteen foot wall when you hit the ground quite hard.
DK: Yeah.
LM: So that was part and parcel. They’d never done, I don’t know if it was the pilot’s fault or not. I don’t know ‘til this day if he should have made his crew take part in —
DK: Training. Yeah.
LM: Escaping or whatever or what to say what not to say. No one else did. We never had any training of that at all.
DK: And, and dinghy practice. Did you ever have any of that?
LM: No. we were, I did learn to swim.
DK: Right.
LM: At Blackpool and if we could swim a width.
DK: Right.
LM: That’s all you had to do.
DK: So you had no training on what to do if you crashed on water, baling out or — [unclear]
LM: No, we had none.
DK: No.
LM: I think some did.
DK: Yeah.
LM: We had no training whatsoever.
DK: Wow.
LM: Never had. They just, all they told us was when you go out to roll over the hatch.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Rather than the other way.
DK: Avoiding the —
LM: I had seen a lad. He had knocked his teeth out. He’d hit the tailplane. But apart from that we didn’t. It was —
DK: Yeah.
LM: The discipline I suppose we were treated very leniently.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Because when I I thought I was going to get out of a church parade so when I joined up they say religion. I said none. I thought I’ll get out of church parade doing this and they put atheist on my dog tags.
DK: Oh right.
LM: So they were on until the day I lost them.
DK: Oh right. Can I just take you back then to Frankfurt? You were interrogated there after three days.
LM: Yes.
DK: Solitary confinement, so you’ve only given name, rank and serial number and that. What happened after? Next after that?
LM: They don’t [pause] they will keep you there and keep asking you questions and they showed me a list. I thought good God. They could have shown, they could have told me much more than I knew. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. If I’d have wanted I couldn’t have told them anything.
DK: So their intelligence then on the aircraft, the squadron —
LM: They knew every airfield. They knew every airfield and what there was. They got this map of every, almost every airfield in this country.
DK: Wow. Did they know who was based there on these airfields?
LM: They knew the squadrons as well. They’d got the squadrons down. My old squadron 196.
DK: Yeah.
LM: That was down there. I may have shown that because I thought 196 I just and the realised then that —
DK: Yeah.
LM: You don’t think that they’re using you know on the spur of the moment. I thought 196 and Witchford.
DK: So they had all that intelligence. Did they have names at all as to who the commanding officers were?
LM: No idea.
DK: No. No.
LM: No. I don’t. What on the German side you mean?
DK: On the other side. Yeah.
LM: No. I wouldn’t. No. No. There was the treatment we got in the prison camp we can’t grumble.
DK: Right.
LM: I mean we went over there.
DK: Can you remember which prison camp it was?
LM: Yeah. After leaving, after leaving Frankfurt.
DK: Yeah.
LM: On the old cattle trucks and we were going along and I thought oh whatever is that smell? Christ. And there was a lot of us in this cattle truck. I didn’t realise at the time it was an American and he had been, he must have been loose a little bit for a while before he got caught because he’d got frost bite and his foot had got gangrene and I’d never smelled anything like it. He sat with his shoe off and he was like that and I realised then what he’d got. And his foot was absolutely. I don’t know what it was like inside the sock but he’d obviously got frost bite and it had turned to gangrene.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And we called at a place called Sagan. That’s Stalag Luft 3.
DK: So it’s Stalag Luft 3.
LM: That’s the officers.
DK: Yeah.
LM: That’s the officer’s camp.
DK: Right.
LM: Stopped at the officers off or whatever there was to get off there and from there on we travelled through Poland by train and I can’t tell to this day how long so I weren’t one of those who made notes of where we were, what we’d done, it was just one of those things. You accepted what had happened and eventually arrived at a place called [pause] up in Lithuania [pause] Sally, what was the name of it?
Other: I weren’t there grandad.
LM: Anyrate, it was not, not all that far away from, now when you get to my age that happens you know. You lose your train of thought a little bit don’t you?
DK: I do now [laughs]
Other: Yes. So do I [laughs]
LM: But no, I —
DK: So it was a camp in Lithuania.
LM: Stalag Luft, no, Stalag Luft 6.
DK: Stalag Luft 6. Right.
LM: Up in Lithuania.
DK: Right.
LM: That’s right.
DK: Ok. Ok.
LM: Anyway, with the name Twy, I think it was [Twycross] or something like that. We were the furthest north of any camp.
DK: I was going to say that’s someway east isn’t it you were?
LM: Yeah. We were right up near the Russians.
DK: Russians. Yeah.
LM: Because it was a bit [pause] Dixey Dean. A great footballer wasn’t he?
DK: Yeah.
LM: He was our camp leader.
DK: Oh right.
LM: Yeah. Dixie Dean.
DK: Did you get to know him well?
LM: No. No.
DK: No.
LM: Oh no. Didn’t. Well, I knew him.
DK: Yeah.
LM: But he didn’t converse with very [pause] He could speak fluent German.
DK: Right.
LM: Been a prisoner of war for a long while and he used to go to Sagan the officer’s camp and converse with the Germans there on the conditions of camp and all that.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Because he knew the Geneva Convention backwards.
DK: Oh right.
LM: And when we could, 19th June 1944 when, the Second Front —
DK: Yeah.
LM: Now, they knew that in the camp but no one said.
DK: So, it was a decoy then.
LM: They wouldn’t let us know.
DK: No. Right.
LM: They knew that Dean and his escape, whatever they were radio, they’d got a radio because they used to come around and give us the news each night. Someone would come around and just and sometimes a German would do that.
DK: Yeah.
LM: The old goon would.
DK: So how big was the camp there? How many prisoners were there roughly.
LM: I don’t know but I’d hazard a guess. In our camp compound alone there would be one, two, three, four, five, six, sixteen, six, eight. Oh, three or four hundred if not more.
DK: Right.
LM: Yes. They were all officers. All NCOs.
DK: NCOs. Yeah.
LM: And then —
DK: And what were you in? Were you in sort of cabins or Nissen huts or —
LM: One long, one long hut.
DK: One long hut.
LM: There were bunks.
DK: Right.
LM: And if the weather was nice and we were going on parade and roll call then some of the lads would play up and they would nip up or make a count wrong. We reckoned they could only, they could only count in fives the Germans. So we said they could only count in their fives and the lads would play up a bit. But if it was raining.
DK: Yeah.
LM: We used to put a head out the end of the pit and they would come along and count you and we behaved ourselves then.
DK: Right.
LM: But there was a case where we came, we could, later on it must have been getting towards August we could hear the Russians from where we were.
DK: Right.
LM: The tales we heard about what happened to the Russian guards and the German guards when they got taken by the opposite side.
DK: Yeah.
LM: They didn’t take prisoners.
DK: No.
LM: They didn’t take either side. They didn’t touch the prisoners but the guards they shot them. So there was no love lost between them.
DK: No. So —
LM: Well eventually, yeah —
DK: As I say could you briefly describe what the camp looked like? Presumably you’d got barbed wire as a —
LM: Yeah.
DK: Watch towers and —
LM: Yeah. You had the old, I’ve got a couple of paintings upstairs that a fella had done in the prison camp.
DK: Right. Right. So it’s a compound thing.
LM: It was a big, what it amounted to was, was a big area.
DK: Right.
LM: And your huts one, two, three, four. Long huts. About must have been more than twenty yards I suppose all tiered both sides. You had an odd table in the middle and around the outside of that was your walking area.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Always had that. Then you had a warning wire. They called it a warning wire. That was just a little board that ran along. You mustn’t put your foot over that otherwise they would shoot you.
DK: Yeah.
LM: If you put your foot over the warning wire. Then you had your barbed wire.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And then the goons were up in their —
LM: In towers.
LM: Towers.
DK: And you were just watched the whole time.
LM: Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah.
DK: So, what, what did you do to pass the time because days must have —
LM: Walk around the, we weren’t allowed to go out. Now, early on they were allowed to go out as working parties but there were so many RAF tried to escape.
DK: Right.
LM: Escape. And they stopped it. We weren’t allowed outside the camp. Once you were in there you didn’t come out until they wanted to move you which they did us. From the Russians you see.
DK: Right.
LM: And no, we weren’t allowed outside the camp.
DK: And —
LM: It was —
DK: And with the restraints there would have been were you treated well then? Or treated [unclear]
LM: In the camp there was no hard [pause] no. But I don’t think I would say I was treated badly. We went over there to kill them but to me we were treated fairly. Geneva Convention. They abided by that.
DK: And what was the food you got then?
LM: Well, that, now that’s sauerkraut.
DK: Right.
LM: And there was an American parcel and an English parcel. Now, the English parcels, well obviously England was struggling to even feed their own people, weren’t they? So they weren’t the serviceability of the package wasn’t very good because we would get in the British parcel or English parcel we would get condensed milk.
DK: Right.
LM: Well, that weren’t, that wouldn’t keep. But the American parcels were in a nice cardboard box and we’d get oh quite a little bit of chocolate etcetera etcetera and you know different things in there.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And used to tide us over. You’d only get a parcel between perhaps four or five or six or seven of you.
DK: And are these parcels that have gone through the Red Cross then?
LM: Yeah.
DK: So they were done, made up in Britain or America by the International Red Cross.
LM: They were already sent. Yeah.
DK: Somehow —
LM: They were the Red Cross. Yeah.
DK: Right.
LM: But they used to puncture them before they came. They couldn’t empty them but they could puncture the tins before they came in.
DK: Right.
LM: And this went on until when we, we knew the Russians weren’t far away. We could hear gunfire in the distance and we were told this and that, this and that. And then eventually they said we would have, they were going to move us out of the camp to another camp. So we deserved what we got in a way because there used to be what they called in the American parcel it was called klim. It was a lovely powdered milk. It was milk spelled backwards.
DK: Oh right. Yes.
LM: See. That was called klim. Milk spelled backwards.
DK: Yeah.
LM: We had, when you said did they treat us alright we weren’t badly treated as such at all but the food weren’t, it was a bit sparce. I mean we got a loaf of bread and that was black bread between seven.
DK: Right.
LM: And no argument as one would cut it up in seven pieces and you just had a slither of a loaf. No argument at all about how big yours was and how small it was or whatever.
DK: I suppose you had to get on with your fellow prisoners then.
LM: Oh yes. Yes. Because you could soon lose your old temper. I’ve seen that happen but not not very often. Not very often because when well I suppose in a way we were very, everybody was an individual in their way because we weren’t like the Army as such. We didn’t mix like the Army did because you were a crew on a crew.
DK: Yeah.
LM: You just kept your crew. You had somebody look after you when you went in for your meals and so forth in the sergeant’s mess and that sort of thing. But then we had, they told us we were going to evacuate to a port. We had to walk to a port called Memel. That was in the Baltic.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Well, we could hear the Russians firing and so forth and whatever was happening and we decided we couldn’t take all this stuff with us because we’d got quite, as we came out of the camp they were crafty in a way because before we came out of the camp we thought well we’ll not, we won’t leave anything. What people can eat or do so we had Oleo margarine and they were tins about that big. Quite a lot we had of that. And we stood them up and we were throwing these tins at each other. Had the bloody tins stood up. And there was also this klim milk. Now that was really you mixed that up and it would make, you could make a real nice cream of it.
DK: Right.
LM: So we thought we’re not leaving that. So what we’d done I don’t know whether you’d call it carbolic soap. What they used to call Sunlight? You know the old, what they used to wash.
DK: Yeah.
LM: The old ladies used to wash with. We grated that up. We put that in with the milk and we left it there and I reckon the Germans must have, they must have tried that and instead of them getting a nice cream there was this powdered milk. This powdered milk all mixed in with the little grated —
DK: Just soap.
LM: We even powdered up.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Just like the milk so they really couldn’t say look at it and think I ain’t very keen on this. So I, we did pay for it later on. And anyway they marched us to this port called, it was Memel and had to go down in a coal ship. We had to go down this hatch and you left all your, whatever equipment you’d got you had to leave that on the deck.
DK: Yeah.
LM: So we said, ‘We’re not going down there. Not going down a bloody hole in a ship and go through the Baltic.’ They said, ‘If you don’t go down we’ll put the hoses on you.’ And they threatened to hose us with the, they’d got these hoses on deck and so forth so we did actually go down in to the hold of the ship. But there weren’t room to sit. Not to lay down especially. You could just squat.
DK: Yeah.
LM: The trouble was that some of the lads all they had to escape was a ladder, a vertical ladder to this little sort of porthole and some of the lads got a bit of diarrhoea as well because it wasn’t long before the food sort of affected people.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And if they wanted to go to the toilet which a lot did. They couldn’t stomach, some people couldn’t stomach this sauerkraut and things like that so they did have to go to the toilet pretty regular. I was one of the opposite. Absolutely. And anyway, we went to go down in to the ship and away we go and they had what they called the old [unclear] and that was for the mines.
DK: Right.
LM: To ships against mines. We’d already mined that with, with these acoustic they were quite a huge mine. About, they’d be about fifteen foot long.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Twelve, thirteen, fifteen long what we used to drop and that was a bit of a risk because you had to —
DK: So you would actually drop mines in to the Baltic.
LM: Yes. Yeah.
DK: And were now —
LM: I hadn’t dropped them in to the Baltic but I had elsewhere.
DK: Yeah.
LM: The RAF had.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: And they would [pause] they would, that was a bit of a hazardous old job because you had to come down almost to zero feet. You cut your, you dropped your flaps just to sort of give you a bit of buoyancy and you cut your speed down as low as possible. Just above stalling speed. You’d be down to perhaps a hundred and twenty mile an hour and only about two or three hundred feet high.
DK: Yeah.
LM: So if you were lucky you didn’t go over a flak ship but if you did then they could just blow you to smithereens. So that was, people used to say that used to count as a half an op.
DK: Yeah.
LM: But it alright maybe it weren’t because you used to go there, come back and never see a thing.
DK: But you were still on an operation.
LM: You were lucky, you were lucky if you to just get by and —
DK: Yeah.
LM: And never even have anybody fire at you but no, we I suppose the prison camp weren’t too bad and we’d done three seventy odd hours on that boat and you were allowed up on deck one at a time so you could just imagine how long, I don’t know how many I wouldn’t like to say hazard a guess how many were down in the hold of that ship. Hundreds of us. Sitting there. And we came to a place called Swinemünde.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: You’ve heard of Swinemünde have you?
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: Have you? Nuremburg was laying there. One of their battle cruisers?
DK: Right.
LM: They took us off the ship and we went, had to get in these cattle trucks and the barbed wire was across the centre of the carriage. You had a half a door, half a door where the prisoners could get in. The other half was for the guards to get in.
DK: Right.
LM: And we had to take our shoes off but what have we got and put them through the barbed wire into the side where the guards were. And then the Germans used to pee in them at night if they didn’t want to get out, couldn’t get out. They used to use them as a toilet.
DK: Wonderful.
LM: And while we were there there was a raid on or supposedly. It weren’t really a raid I don’t think because I learned afterwards that was only one plane and they put a smokescreen over the whole docks and the Nuremberg opened fire on that. It was an American plane, broad daylight and the cattle trucks you could see daylight appear between the wood. Those guns exploding, the vibration we weren’t all that far away from Nuremberg itself.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And so anyway that’s when they took us out from there. They took us across down to a place called [pause] it was quite a way we went. I don’t know the name of the place really. I couldn’t say because they were the same as us. They did block, there were no names on villages or anything like that.
DK: Yeah.
LM: We eventually arrived at our destination and I never heard this. I can honestly say I never heard it. Some of the lads who wrote, if you read the book called, “The Last Escape” they said the Germans, they could tell. They could hear them sharpening their swords, their bayonets. But I didn’t hear it. To be truthful I never heard any. Maybe if I’d heard it I wouldn’t have paid much attention to it anyway. So they unloaded us from the trucks and then made us line up in fives and I’d got this kit bag. As luck would have it I’d got my kit bag. When I got off the boat I’d got this kit bag with my name on and I grabbed that and so I carried that with me and whatever stuff you could carry on your own.
DK: Yeah.
LM: You, or somebody sorted out later on and they loaned us, took off, we come, they lined us in fives. The same old thing again and these, all the guards at that particular time that started off were young Naval lads.
DK: Right.
LM: And we reckoned they came off that they were coming from a Naval dockyard just to see. To escort us to this camp Stalag Luft 4B.
DK: Right.
LM: Not far from Stettin. Well, everybody had got their kit and I stood like that and with the kit bag down the front and this German lad came along and I’ve still got a wound, a star there I think. One of them, he stuck a bayonet in you see. He said, ‘Pick it up. Pick it up.’ So I looked at him and that’s where he stuck the bayonet. As luck would have it it went in to my finger and it came up against my belt. An old hessian sort of RAF belt. Oh. And they had to pick it up and hold it there while we were just waiting. Then they they all —
DK: Your hand’s bleeding presumably at this point.
LM: Very little.
DK: Oh right.
LM: Hardly any blood.
DK: Right.
LM: I reckon it just went right to the bone.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Quite painful. I’ve got a little scar there now which, which you can see some left me a little bit of a scar there. They’re still there today. And they started, we had to march off and it weren’t a march at all. We had to run. Well just imagine they started on the lads up the front and while they carried their kit they kept —
DK: Yeah.
LM: Jabbing. Jabbing. Jabbing, and one lad had over seventy bayonet wounds we counted on him when we got the other end and until they’d dropped their kit they kept sticking the bayonet in and so of course we being quite tail enders we were, it was like steeple chase. And then of course then they got on to us and we, when we started off we’d some little bits and odds and pieces what we’d accumulated.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Picked up here and there. When we got to the camp we’d got absolutely nothing. I’d got a shirt on, trousers, shoes and that was my lot.
DK: And everything else had been lost up the road.
LM: Everything we had to drop.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And they had machine guns all lined up beside this sort of, more or less an old cart track we had to run up and some bright erb at the back was firing a rifle or a, I believe it was the officer with a, with a revolver and we never stopped. Nobody stopped to find out who it was. We just had to run and we actually thought not combined but individually I think ninety nine percent of us thought we would run into a hole. A pit. We did. I did. I thought we was going to be shot because they’d already done that. That had already happened to prisoners. They’d took them and shot them and we again we thought this is what was happening. No one said that to each other. Never said it to each other but afterwards when we got to camp people said, ‘Christ,’ he said, ‘Well, I began to think that’s what was happening.’
DK: Yeah.
LM: And people did but they never spread it because no way would there have been any escape because they’d got machine guns lined up each side of this old dirt track and when we got to the other end I mean that was just, we were just covered in dust. It was in August so it was the middle of the summer.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And there was a fella who used to sleep right next door to me. His name was [Mcilwain]. I’ll never forget him. Well, in, while we were in the camp there was a little Pole and he was watching the Americans at the game of baseball when it was, we played it with a softball. And he was stood around here like that and one of the lads had a whack at the ball and it threw out and it hit him in the teeth and knocked his teeth out. He was a little Pole. Quite a small lad. And when we got the other end of the camp I was with [McIlwain] and [McIlwain] got hit with a rifle butt. And when we got, when we eventually got to the camp this little Pole said, ‘Cor,’ he said, ‘I was knackered.’ The language you used to pick up there. ‘I was knackered,’ he said. ‘But when I saw [McIlwain] get hit with a rifle butt,’ he said, ‘He just went like that and carried on he said, ‘I could have run on for miles.’ So, I mean there was a lot of, there was a lot of —
DK: Humour.
LM: Fun.
DK: Yeah.
LM: I mean, it was a place where you could see the funny side of it but not when, it wasn’t all that funny but later on when you look back.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And anyway, we were at that camp and then we stopped there until February 1945 and then —
DK: How were you treated in the second camp once you got there?
LM: Not badly. Not badly. All our huts were off the ground there. They were better huts.
DK: Right.
LM: And you went up a corridor in the middle and your rooms were off each side. Two, four. Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen. Sixteen in a hut.
DK: Right.
LM: Two there. Two here on each side of the door and they had a tortoise stove and David [Dewlis?] was on the bunk above me and I slept in the bottom one and the lad on the next bunk to me was a New Zealander.
DK: Yeah.
LM: A lovely lad. Long Tom we called him. He was Long Tom. He was about six foot three and he used to sing the Maori’s farewell and a little tear would run down his cheek. Oh yeah. He decided that, he didn’t make a habit of singing it but every now he would sing that little old song. I know the words to that right off. Oh yeah.
DK: I’m quite conscious we’ve been talking for an hour. Do you want to take a break or something.?
LM: I don’t mind. Yes. Yeah. Lovely.
DK: Yeah. Shall we just stop there for a moment?
Other: Yeah. That’s fine.
DK: It’s just I’m rather conscious.
[recording paused]
LM: Fine. Yeah. Yeah. Lovely.
DK: Ok. So I’ll put that back there again. So just to be — talking about the cold weather and the movements.
Other: Yeah.
DK: And prisoners. So just to recap then it’s, it’s February 1945 and you’re in the second —
LM: ’45. Yeah.
DK: And you’re in the second camp and they’re not treating you too badly. What’s happened then?
LM: January. February. They said that due to unforeseen circumstances, they didn’t say why, or why or not, or not we’d got to go. We’d got to move out of the camp and they were going to march us out of the camp. I think we were then what was there, there was somebody else interfering or something was happening and we had to move camp. That was up near Stettin we were and we could see vapour trails. While we were there vapour trails used to go up and we thought they were taking the weather. Apparently, what we were watching was the V-1s and V-2s take off.
DK: Right.
LM: Didn’t know that at the time but going back a little bit I remember a JU88 was fitted with jet engines before ours.
DK: Right.
LM: They had a jet engine fitted to a JU88. No. Yeah 88 not the 87. That was a Stuka.
DK: Right. Yeah.
LM: But the, the eighty eight, yeah. And we weren’t —
DK: You saw one of those fly by then did you?
LM: You could hear them.
DK: Hear them. Right. Yeah.
LM: And see.
DK: Yeah.
LM: You could see them when they came over and you would think that sounds unusual for an aircraft engine and —
DK: Yeah.
LM: And they must have developed that before we did because that was the Germans who brought on the atomic bomb wasn’t it? For the Americans.
DK: Yes.
LM: Their scientists.
DK: Yeah. And the rockets to the moon.
LM: Yeah.
DK: Yes. Von Braun.
LM: Yes. Yeah. And no we were told that we had got to move and we said the treatment we’d had we were not going to go out of the camp. Silly thing to say but there we are. We are not going to move. We are going to stay where we are because we got treated so badly to go to that camp we said we wouldn’t go out of this one and the major, he was an old Prussian. When you say Prussian they were the old Germans weren’t they?
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: And I reckon he was quite an oldish fella. Upright. Real slim, upright. Lovely he was. And he said he would come with us so there would be no ill treatment at all. And we didn’t get ill treated at all. We said we’d come out but the number of people within one or two days had to fall out. Blisters on their feet, had diarrhoea or something like that and my pilot David Josephs, that’s what made me think he was a bit of a politician’s son, he was, David was taken off after a second, I think it was two days he walked with us. After then they had to take him off in the little bandwagon. Whether he went to hospital I don’t know. I never knew. Even when we came home I never knew what had happened to him.
DK: No.
LM: And I kept in touch with him. Oh yeah. We kept in touch. And but at, he was, walked for an hour and we’d have a rest but when you get up again your feet began to tell on you. But that didn’t make no difference to me I’d been so used to talking over rough ground and so forth that didn’t come hard.
DK: Right.
LM: But people used to say, ‘How did you get on with monotonous walking?’ I said, ‘Yeah. What you do, all you do was just look at the persons feet in front.’ And that was just, it was just a tag along behind each other.
DK: Did you know roughly how many people were in this column as you remember?
LM: Oh, I haven’t a [pause] The whole camp.
DK: So —
LM: And there was not just us.
DK: Right.
LM: There were lots of others as well.
DK: So it could be thousands or —
LM: Oh yes. Walking through Germany what they said one morning we got was if you get attacked which there was. I didn’t see any of it to be truthful but some of them were attacked by Typhoons flown by New Zealanders and the idea was half of you would dash. We used to walk through tracks usually. Never, if you went through a village that was occasionally and the funny thing when we went through a village we used to stand up, pull ourselves up and sing and march. And the Germans didn’t like that and the guards didn’t like it either. And then after you got through the village it was like this, sort of striding along but when you walked through a village you put your parts on and started singing. But there was some got shot up.
DK: Did the villagers react to that at all?
LM: They left, the would leave water out but we weren’t allowed to touch it.
DK: Right.
LM: Because there was so much change of water. I don’t think it would have affected me at all.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Because I’d even later on I even drank out of a blasted river and so I don’t but other people it upset very quickly.
DK: Yeah.
LM: People were suffering with diarrhoea and that sort of thing and anyway we started off and a lot fell out. A lot fell out with diarrhoea, bad feet and that sort of thing. And we would have what they called after eight days you’d have a rest.
DK: What happened to those who did fall out and couldn’t —
LM: Took them back to somewhere. Hospital or something like that to give them a bit of treatment I think.
DK: Right.
LM: I couldn’t say. I don’t know what happened to them.
DK: Ok.
LM: I think, well they got back because David he got back.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And we used to write to each other just at Christmas time.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And —
DK: So how long were you on this march for? How many days roughly?
LM: February [pause] And I actually wrote a letter home. Air mail home to my mother on April the 29th. So we were walking from more or less I think somewhere in the middle of February.
DK: To the end of the war basically.
LM: Yeah. February. March.
DK: April.
LM: April. The end of April. But I had, we at the end of the march we had to during the march we could barter sometimes with the farmer. And I had a lovely Van Heusen shirt which had been sent to me by somebody so I swapped this shirt for a kilo of fat pork. Well, we had been walking across Germany with [unclear] and a biscuit perhaps a day. So you can tell what our stomachs were like. They weren’t very lined at all.
DK: Yeah.
LM: They weren’t lined at all.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And I swapped that. I said to Tom and, two of us. Long Tom and Leftie and we’ll fry it down. We’ll cut it into like chips and we’ll fry it down because to eat it as raw meat you couldn’t do that so that’s what we thought we would do. We stuck it in an old klim tin.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Lit a little fire and that night we were in this barn and the old rats would run over you and we got lousy as well. Oh, crikey yeah. And they were, they were big lice as well and we went and curled up and went to sleep. Made a sleeping bag and I used to tuck that right under your head so that no rats or anything could get in with you. And they used to run over you but you used to sort of knock them off.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And squeak and go off ahead and that night we went and [laughs] in the barn and I heard Tom, Long Tom up he got, out he went. The next thing Leftie the other side of me he was gone. And do you know I feel sick. Sick as a [pause] I feel. I’m not being sick I’m not going to. I didn’t buy that stuff to be sick. No way. And I wouldn’t go out. I laid there and I would not be sick. And I thought I’ll imagine I’m drinking a cup of cocoa and I was drinking this cup of cocoa and in the bottom of it was these chips. So it was, it was so awful that had [pause] we had lost all the lining off our stomachs. You passed blood. You would actually pass blood.
DK: So over these weeks then did you have the same German guards or were they changed?
LM: The Germans. Oh, you never knew who was with you.
DK: Right.
LM: Yeah. Some, they didn’t walk all the way with us —
DK: I was going to say —
LM: We would have different guards.
DK: You wouldn’t have different guards all the time then.
LM: Oh yes.
DK: Yeah.
LM: They were all old. Usually the old ones.
DK: Right.
LM: The old Luftwaffe as well.
DK: Right.
LM: And we walked. There was, I think there was something like, yeah, something about four hundred miles we’d done or something similar to that and then they were going to take us back towards the Russians. We’d just come over the River Elbe and I said to my two mates, Long Tom and Leftie, I said, ‘I’m not going back over that blasted river.’ They said, ‘Well, you know, I don’t fancy going back to the bloody Russians the other side.’ So we had said if we see a chance we’ll make a run for it. Well, we were going through this. We always walked through woods, lots of woods off the main track and so forth so we got a gap. ‘Ok, Tom.’ Off we, we ran off. Off we went. Mind you the guards I don’t think they were shooting at us. Never hit us anyway. They was a few shots going off but we carried on running and we came to a river. A little river. It was about as wide as this room and mind you this was time, that was in March time so a bit cold. So we thought if we cross the river, we were playing games I suppose, if we cross the river the dogs won’t be able to pick us up.
DK: Yeah.
LM: But the river was running quite, quite fast and there was little saplings been cut down beside the river so I picked one of these up and I gave it to Leftie and Leftie went across and held this stick you see and chucked one in the water, walked across sideway. So I went across and I held this stick for Tom to hold on to a branch and then come across this what we’d laid in the river. And there was a shot rang out and Tom lost his balance and he went backwards in the river. Got all his clothes on so he got out obviously and we made our way as we thought we had heard of [Saltau?] and that was where the Americans were.
DK: Right.
LM: We thought if we get to the Americans we’d be alright. Well, we got to the edge of a, it was a sort of a spinney we went through and then we came to the finish of the woods was that were open fields. So we stopped there and we decided we’d sort of camouflage ourselves. We’d put a bit of stick in. I had a, I had a German type Africa Corps hat which was a mistake I found out later but [pause] So we put this hat on and I’d got that and somebody knitted it somewhere along the line and we waited until it had got slightly dusk and then we decided we would come out of this little old wood and make our way as we thought towards Saltau. We just came out and we could hardly believe it. We turned left. I can see it even now. Turned, came out of this little wood. We turned left and walked along and we went, ‘Bloody hell.’ There was three blokes laid in the ditch. A little ditch. It wasn’t a ditch as such it was just a dry ditch. Say it that way.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Three Americans err three Australians. Three Australians laid in that ditch just been shot down and they had got escape equipment and everything. But they were also full of beans. Eggs and bacon. So just imagine us three weighing about seven stone and they had just, we’d just walked across Germany. Four or five hundred miles across there and they had just been shot down full of beans. And we walked at night and potato fields, it didn’t matter what was in the way we just walked according to the compass. And I remember particularly we came to a fence of barbed wire. A bit silly. We climbed over the fence of barbed wire. We had to walk across and all of a sudden we started to go in and in and in. Our feet began to get rather mud wet. They come up and I said to the others, I said, ‘Run. For Christ’s sake, run.’ And we ran and we ran through a bloody bog. We didn’t realise how silly we were and we came to another barbed wire, another fence and climbed over that. That was to take the animals out.
DK: Oh. Ok.
LM: That’s what we reckoned.
DK: Yeah.
LM: To keep the animals out of this.
DK: Bog. Yeah.
LM: This bog. We got the other end we took our shoes and socks off and wrang our socks out and they were full of this sort of mud. And anyway we carried on and we used to stop for about have a sort of an hour and then sat down and you would sweat, sweat, sweat when you were walking. Then you stop for five minutes. Ten minutes you’d freeze. Really we were so weak I suppose that, of course the Australians weren’t weak they weren’t weak were they?
DK: I was going to say they were —
LM: They were, oh they were fit as fiddles.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: Oh yeah and anyway we, we dodged here, dodged there and carried on and eventually we came up and we heard people in the foreground as we were going in front of us. They were German troops. Walked right into them. So I reckon he was a middle of the range officer and of course they caught us and we had to go over and he looked at us and I reckon he thought what a shower and he gave us some little tablets or sweet or whatever you’d like to call them. They were about an inch long and about a half inch wide and like the old throat lozenge.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Remember the throat one?
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: Well, these were white. I reckon they were vitamin tablets. He handed them out to us and he got the corporal to walk back with us to a little village called Bispingen. And we came back to this little village and that’s where he left us. In a hotel.
DK: Right.
LM: We were put up in this hotel and that night we went out. All six of us went out. We was talking to the German people which was no man’s land then you see.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And we were saying to the woman there, one woman Tom was talking to, he could speak fairly good German and about Saltau, she said, ‘oh,’ this is the honest truth this is, ‘Don’t go. Don’t go to Saltau. The Americans are there,’ she said, ‘They shoot anything that moves.’
DK: Yeah. They still do.
LM: That was a yarn but she said that’s what the Germans said.
DK: Yeah.
LM: She said, ‘Don’t. I wouldn’t go to Saltau.’ So we, we stayed there. Lovely hotel. We weren’t allowed to go upstairs.
DK: So —
LM: We had to sleep downstairs.
DK: So you were put up in a hotel by the Germans.
LM: Yeah. Yeah. They left us there. They didn’t want us. We were, we were a menace.
DK: Do you think the Germans at this point knew the war was lost and it just wasn’t worth —
LM: Yes. Yes, because another time they might have shot us mightn’t they?
DK: Yeah.
LM: And anyway, we were in no man’s land so they were retreating quite badly. And anyway, one particular day the sun was shining lovely. We set outside this hotel enjoying ourselves and there was a German lorry came around from the little village to where the centre of the village was. Another hotel further up the road. Came around the corner. All of a sudden it stopped and out they got and made a dive for it. Couldn’t make much out of it you see. And then I heard this plane and then looked up. There was one Spitfire. One Spitfire just going along. Of course, we, we were from, they knew us.
DK: Yeah.
LM: I mean they weren’t going to shoot us were they? They knew. There was us sitting on the front of this blasted hotel, ‘Oh yay.’ I thought you, daft sods weren’t we? A Spitfire up there never knew who we, I said to Tom, I said, ‘He could have turned around and shot us, Tom. Couldn’t they?’ But no. They were our friends weren’t they? You could see the funny side of it. Ignorant weren’t we? Plain ignorant.
Other: Yeah.
LM: Didn’t care. Anyway, we sat [laughs] they gave us a bowl of soup each day. They made a bowl of soup and there was pork cut into little old squares but they weren’t, they weren’t really all that nourishing. Weren’t all that good. Anyway, we were very pleased with it. And then a young lad came down to us. He said, ‘A Panzer. Panzer. A British Panzer.’ So lovely. Away we go. We ran up and around the corner and thought double double. There was a bloke on a half track or one of these little Bren carriers it was.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: We had to double up to them. Didn’t know who we were you see because I’d got this blasted African Corps hat on and so, anyway we had to run up to them and he stood there and when he realised who we were and then of course they gave us cigarettes and so forth. But they then put us in the hotel right at the top of the street where we ran to when they was coming in to the village. So the next morning I wrote a letter. One of the Army lads gave me an air mail to write home and that was how I remember the 29th of April when I first wrote home to my mother to say that I was ok. And the next morning they said, ‘Right. The truck will, you get in the truck it will stop twice. The second time it stops you get out and you will go back to the [echelon].’ That’s the depot isn’t it.’
DK: Yeah.
LM: So Long Tom, Leftie and myself. We got in one truck and the three Aussies got in another. So we’re, off we go. Off we go. Funny. Eventually we stopped. The Army lads said, ‘What are you doing here?’ Well, we said, ‘You’ve got to stop twice and we’re going back to the [echelon].’ He said, ‘We weren’t stopping,’ he said, ‘You should have been in the other truck.’ So there’s us three.
DK: Oh no.
LM: We’re on patrol with the blasted Army. They gave me a rifle and put me on a half-track and I thought they said the war was over for us. It doesn’t look much like it. We’re going along the road and they’re firing at bloody copse over the other side. A little old copse there.
DK: Yeah.
LM: I suppose Germans are in. They was firing. These people was firing at something. The lads up the front. So here we carried on. We went, we had a stop at this little village and we weren’t very nice. The Army weren’t very nice.
DK: Do you want me to stop?
LM: Can you turn —? Yeah.
[recording paused]
LM: Yes.
Other: Yeah.
LM: Yes.
DK: Right. So I’ve got it switched back on again. So there we go. We’ll move that there. So you’re now with the British Army.
LM: Yeah.
DK: What’s happened next then?
LM: Well, while we were with them on their, on patrol we got an old vehicle. A little old sort of a Austin 7.
DK: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
LM: In one of these villages and Tom said he could drive you see and we got this thing started. It started up and we were driving around the village in this little motor and we called and went in the shop. It was a baker’s shop. They sold everything I suppose not just bread, they had cakes and everything in there and they couldn’t wait to give us stuff. We weren’t in uniform as such. I mean not really. We were, we were looked like bedraggled bloody gypsies really. I mean just imagine what we were like. Thin as rakes.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And we went in a shop and the German women said, ‘Your bread.’ And the bread we had, the old black bread that weren’t nice at all. That had got a thick layer of Greece on the bottom. But when we, they gave us a loaf of brown bread that was like cake. It was just like cake to eat. Their brown bread. Ordinary brown bread after eating black bread and but anyway we, eventually we got back. They dropped us off and two days we were there on patrol and then they took us back. We got back to the [echelon] and had to go through a de-louser.
DK: Yeah.
LM: DDT. Take all your clothes off. Shave because that’s where the lice grow on and when I came for a medical well first of all they were spraying DDT out of a hose from a container with no masks on. I mean that stuff now. That hangs in people’s bodies. You can’t get rid of it can you?
DK: Yeah. It’s banned, isn’t it?
LM: DDT.
DK: Yeah. It’s banned.
LM: And they were just spraying this all over you, under your arms, everywhere. And I wonder how many people got affected with that. The Army lads were doing it.
DK: It’s carcinogenic. It can cause cancers.
LM: They did all the spraying. Awful stuff.
DK: So its banned now.
LM: But anyway, we had to shave yourself and and the doctor said to me, he said, ‘Ahh,’ he said, ‘Impetigo.’ I said, ‘I don’t think so sir.’ He said, ‘Yes, that’s what I —’ I said, ‘ I don’t think so.’ I said, ‘It’s lice.’ I said, ‘That’s where I’ve scratched myself.’ ‘No. No. No. No.’ So he gave me one of those blue bottles. Years ago you used to get these bottles of blue weren’t they?
DK: Yeah.
LM: From your medical —
DK: Yeah.
LM: Perhaps you don’t remember. You’re not old enough to know that. They were poisonous stuff sort of business. And you’d get them an old blue bottle about that tall. I never used it. I come home and just washed myself. It went. It wasn’t impetigo at all. It looked like it I suppose because —
DK: Scratching.
LM: And you could, the lice was nearly as big as my little nail. They were huge. Just think of them crawling over yourself.
Other: Oh, I feel sick now.
LM: We never had any in the camp though. It weren’t ‘til we came out on the march until we got lousy. There was no lice in the camp whatsoever.
DK: So how did you get back to the UK then?
LM: I came back. We were taken to [Machelen] Airfield.
DK: Right.
LM: Picked up by, they kitted us out with Army clothes then.
DK: Right.
LM: Took all our old, took our old rubbish away and gave us a new Army uniform sort of business and I was picked up on a, I can’t tell you where, I’ve no idea where we actually got to. The airfield we flew from in a Dakota.
DK: Right.
LM: And I sat in this Dakota and there was a lad came up in the, on the aircraft. He said, ‘Have you flown before?’ I looked. I said, ‘Yes. Yeah. Yeah.’ He said, ‘Oh that’s alright,’ he said, ‘We just wondered if you had never flown before.’ I never said nothing. I thought no. He don’t know any different does he like.
DK: No. I suppose some of the Army POWs may not have flown because they would have been shipped out of there.
LM: That’s right.
DK: Captured. And that was the first time they flew.
Other: Yeah.
LM: Of course, there were lots of them. I mean we had lads we called them the Wizards of Oz. There was three of them. I don’t know how they came in our hut but I reckon they swapped over with some RAF lads.
DK: Right.
LM: That’s how we always reckoned they were, they kept themselves to themselves but we reckoned, we used to call them the Wizards of Oz. there was three of them. They never give any, never said nothing you know didn’t talk much. They were Army boys really and they swapped I reckon.
Other: Oh.
LM: With three RAF lads.
DK: So did, do you think you were flown back from somewhere in Germany?
LM: Yes. Yeah.
DK: So you were in Germany.
LM: Yes
DK: So can you remember where you arrived back in the UK?
LM: Yes. Brize. Not Brize Norton. Cosford.
DK: Cosford. Right. Ok.
LM: Cosford. Yeah. Came back to Cosford. I think it was Cosford we came back. If it weren’t Cosford we landed at that’s where we got rekitted.
DK: Right.
LM: At Cosford. What was the other one where they brought all the, repatriated all these prisoners a little while ago?
DK: Oh Lyneham.
LM: No. No. No. Down that same place.
DK: There’s Brize Norton.
LM: Brize Norton.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Not Brize Norton. Was it Brize Norton?
DK: Yeah. There’s Lyneham and then Brize Norton and —
LM: Lyneham was another one.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: I think it was Cosford I came back to.
DK: Right. Ok.
LM: And they sent us on leave for six weeks. All they gave me was four for some reason. They only gave me a pass for four weeks. I didn’t mind. I didn’t, I weren’t bothered all that much.
DK: Was there any sort of debriefing about your time as a POW? Did they ask you any questions?
LM: Yes. When we came home they, we had to go and stand in front of a board.
DK: Right.
LM: And they did, just weren’t all that interested I don’t think. I don’t think they didn’t seem to worry much. I mean, we, I don’t think they were enquiring about names or anything like that. They just, well, to be honest I don’t think they didn’t give a shite about us.
DK: No.
LM: They couldn’t wait to get us home and get us on leave it seemed to me and of course I don’t think they wanted us in the RAF all that long or whether they did or not I don’t know. We were probably getting paid too much and anyway when we came home you had the chance to remuster. I volunteered. Like a bit of a silly bugger I volunteered to go out to Japan.
LM: Right.
That’s why. I said I’d fly, I said I’d love to go and fly out to Japan now and fight out there. I thought what a bloody a dickhead wasn’t I?
Other: You didn’t know did you?
LM: What. No, he said, ‘No. We wouldn’t let you to do that again.’ They said no. Wouldn’t be allowed to do that. And anyway, I took a course on, back to Morse Code.
DK: Right.
LM: I was going to do that sort of thing and I thought oh no. This isn’t for me and actually I couldn’t concentrate at all. I couldn’t concentrate. My concentration was just gone so I remustered then to a teleprinting course and we used to send, write letters home. How quickly you can pick up a typewriter.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And you had an old metronome on the desk in front of you.
DK: Yeah.
LM: You had your big blackboard. You know I expect. And no numbers or letters on the keyboard. You had to feel them. Always work from the middle bar. And, ‘Oh, shit I’ll never do this.’ But how quickly —
Other: Where is your typewriter?
LM: Huh?
Other: What happened to your typewriter, grandad?
LM: Don’t mention about my typewriter what I bought and my [pause] they gave my typewriter away.
DK: Shall we turn this off again? [laughs]
LM: They couldn’t wait. I paid forty five pounds. No. sorry. Not quite that. I thought I’ll go upstairs the other night. I thought I’ll go up. I’ll do a bit of, I’ll get my old typewriter out of the spare room because my right hand isn’t very good now. I had a bit of a stroke but I had that. That was like what they called deprivisation.
DK: Right.
LM: And I get a little pension for that. But I was ages before I got it. Nobody came. I went in A1 obviously. I came out a down B2. Never said nothing about giving me a pension though. Not a thing. Couldn’t give a damn.
DK: Well presumably, well you clearly weren’t in the best of health when you came back.
LM: No. No.
DK: But was there any medical care that you received or —
LM: No. No. I went. No. No one bothered.
DK: No.
LM: No. No. No. If you went sick you went sick. If you didn’t you didn’t. Simple as that and I just —
Other: [unclear] ever since.
LM: I took the, then I thought this seemed good to me I said what I’ll do because they didn’t mind you remustering. They knew what state we were in I suppose.
DK: Yeah.
LM: For we weren’t in the best of mental state I don’t think then. We’d got so lax and not having to do anything. Sort of just walk around a bloody compound and I mean I weren’t too bad I was only thirteen months but some of them four or five years and I took a driver’s test and I came out the, out in Blackpool and the School of Motoring. The initials —
DK: Oh, the British School of Motoring [[ yeah.
LM: Up near Blackpool. Weeton.
DK: Right.
LM: In Blackpool. And the corporal said, another lad in the back, they were Austin 7, 10s like, he said. Went out the back around these you could see the hills in front of you in the distance, sort of the wasteland at the back of Blackpool. We got away to the front, still a bit of waste ground. He said, ‘Now, I want you to get to the top of that hill in top gear.’ And there was a gateway down there. I put my foot right down and went up that hill like a bomb. Yeah. No trouble. We got pulled up and loaded on and the boy in the back he said, ‘You scared the life out of me.’ I said, ‘Why?’ he said, ‘Well you nearly hit that gate post.’ I said ‘[unclear] Through there. I said, ‘He said, the corporal said to me he wanted me to get to the top of the hill in top gear.’ He wanted me to stall it you see, didn’t he?
DK: Yeah.
LM: Wanted me to start off on a hill but I didn’t. I foot rode up this blasted hill.
DK: So, what year did you actually leave the RAF then?
LM: I had two ranks.
DK: Right.
LM: Warrant officer air gunner and an AC2 driver.
DK: So you left as an AC2.
LM: Yes [laughs] Yes, I don’t, but I passed. I could drive anything when I came out.
DK: And what year was that that you came out then?
LM: 1946.
DK: Right.
LM: Came out in ’46 and started work in, my leave was up on the 6th of September 1946 and I started work on the 6th. On a Tuesday.
DK: Doing what? What was your career after that then? What did you do?
LM: Well, I thought I really loved to work on the land.
DK: Machelen Right.
LM: I loved the horses.
DK: So did you?
LM: Especially.
DK: Did you go back to —
LM: No. There wasn’t no money in it then was there?
DK: Right.
LM: So, Vic Bale, how I knew, I went to school with him he ran foremen men at Fiddlers Garages at Stowmarket.
DK: Right.
LM: He said to me, he said, ‘Lou,’ he said, ‘Are you —.’ Oh before then I, yeah that’s right. Yes. Yes. He said, ‘Lou, are you looking for a job?’ I said, ‘No. Not really, Vic.’ I said, ‘Not for a while. Just see my leave out and I’ll have a look around,’ I said, ‘There’s plenty of place in Stowmarket.’ He said, ‘Well, my dad you see has just gone as a foreman down at the old chemical works.’ He said, ‘There’s a firm, a Swedish firm going to make boards, building boards from straw.’ So I thought well I knew old Harry, his dad. I knew him well. So I went down. ‘Yes, boy.’ He said, ‘Yes, boy. You can start tomorrow if you like.’ I said, ‘Lovely Harry. I’ll start. Make it Tuesday.’ I said, ‘That’s the end of my leave.’ So I went and that’s where I started and I was the first one to start there. Then there was another lad. He was a Dunkirk lad.
DK: Right.
LM: Frank [Wasp]. He joined the next day. And then another lad he was in the Army he was a PT instructor. He joined on the Friday. So that we three started off at [unclear]
DK: [unclear]
LM: And the bloke who came to show us how to run [unclear] hadn’t a bloody clue. He hadn’t a clue. Not any idea.
DK: So just stepping back a bit have you stayed in touch with any of the, either your crew at the time or those that you escaped with?
LM: Well. No. Never. I’d have loved to. This was what I was saying earlier on. We never kept, the only one, now I had a letter come from some while ago now from the flight engineer.
DK: Right.
LM: When we were shot down. Did I know, he’d got my address from David Joseph’s wife —
DK: Right.
LM: Because David used to write to me. Well, when I say write it was a postcard at Christmas and all we wrote on it, “How are you? Ok? Having a nice time? Cheerio.” And that’s all that was said.
DK: So you stayed in touch with your pilot for a few years.
LM: Only on a —
DK: On a card.
LM: His mother used to write to my mother.
DK: Right.
LM: During the war. During that war and David he, what made me think he was a Joseph, the old Keith Josephs offspring they lived in Shakespeare Country.
DK: Right. Yeah. They must be related.
LM: Then I got —
DK: Yeah.
LM: Then I got a card come from him. “We’ve changed our address. I’ve now bought a farm at Bourton on the Water.” So we were on, me and the wife were on holiday. We called at Bourton on the Water. There’s a river runs through the street there isn’t there?
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: A lovely place.
Other: Bourton on the Water.
LM: And I went into a Post Office. I said to the lady I said, Mock Hill, Pockhill Farm it was called. I went into the Post Office. I said, ‘Hello dear.’ I said, ‘You wouldn’t know the whereabouts of a David Josephs who live in Pockhill Farm would you?’ She said, ‘Yeah. They’re just up the road there on the right hand side.’ But he had died then. He’d had a brain haemorrhage.
DK: So you never met him again.
LM: I never met him. No.
DK: I’m rather conscious of time. I’ve just got one final question.
LM: Yeah. Yeah.
DK: And it’s really about how after all these years you feel about and you look back on your time in the RAF and a POW. How do you feel about that now? Is it something —
LM: I sometimes wish I’d have taken, what I ought to have, I sometimes think why didn’t I get a reserved job on the land? I could have been I don’t know. I wouldn’t have been I don’t know. I wouldn’t have been in a position I finished up with now at anyrate.
DK: Yeah.
LM: I had a good number when I, when I retired. A production manager at [unclear] when I retired so I wouldn’t, I was well looked after. The old governor I think sometimes that was a good thing that I went through that because otherwise I think I would have been on the farm until the day I died.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Or the time I retired. But I didn’t and —
DK: So in a strange way it was —
LM: It altered my life altogether because, yes.
DK: Some good came out of it.
LM: Because I suppose in a way I wouldn’t have gone, well a little example. When I was at school we had one day out in a year. Sunday school.
DK: Yeah.
LM: Had to go to Sunday school every Sunday. Stowupland and Creeting St Peter. I used to live at Creeting St Peter and that we used, they’d come from Stowup and pick us up at Creeting St Peter. Now, I’ve never been out of the village because we used to get to Jacks Green, that’s just nearly into Needham and somebody would ask, ‘Can you see the sea yet?’ That’s how naïve we were. Hadn’t been out of the village. When I went to London that was the first time I’d ever been in London in my life.
DK: Yeah.
LM: And I got on the Underground and it didn’t bother me at all.
DK: Yeah.
LM: No, I just asked a porter. I wasn’t afraid to ask and mostly the black ones were ever so helpful. Oh yeah.
DK: Better turn this off quick.
LM: Well, they were and in those days —
DK: Yeah. Yeah. No.
LM: I’m sorry Sally but —
Other: No, that’s fine, grandad.
LM: I didn’t say that.
DK: It was actually because we had full employment then that there weren’t enough people to work on the Underground so recruitment was actually done in the West Indies to get people.
LM: Oh right.
DK: To come over and work on the Underground and London Transport. Ok. Well, at that point we’d better stop. Well thanks very much for that.
LM: Yes.
DK: I’m turning this off now.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with Louis Makens
Creator
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David Kavanagh
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-01-17
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AMakensL170117, PMakensL1701
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Description
An account of the resource
Louis Makens worked as a farm worker before the war but volunteered for aircrew. He discusses his training on Wellingtons and operations flying Stirlings with 196 Squadron including a crash landing, and glider towing. His Halifax was shot down 18/19 March 1944 on the way to Frankfurt. It was his seventh operation, but his first as a mid under gunner with 76 Squadron from RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor. He became a prisoner of war and discusses that as an extra gunner with a new crew, he only got to know his pilot David Joseph during captivity. He describes his capture and treatment and the conditions at Stalag Luft 6, the contents of Red Cross parcels, and the prisoners' attitude to the guards. He describes the conditions on the long march through Germany away from the advancing Russians. Eventually he found the advancing Allied army. After the war, he was remustered as a driver and was demobbed in 1946. He found employment with Stramit manufacturing strawboard building material.
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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Germany
Great Britain
Lithuania
Poland
England--Yorkshire
England--Suffolk
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Lithuania--Šilutė
Poland--Świnoujście
Poland--Tychowo
Lithuania--Klaipėda
Temporal Coverage
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1944-03-18
1945-02
1945-06-19
1946-09-06
Format
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01:42:22 audio recording
Contributor
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Julie Williams
196 Squadron
76 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bale out
bombing
evading
Fw 190
Halifax
Initial Training Wing
Lysander
mine laying
Operational Training Unit
prisoner of war
RAF Bridlington
RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Sealand
RAF Stormy Down
RAF Stradishall
RAF Witchford
shot down
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 6
Stirling
strafing
the long march
training
Wellington
-
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d79a334eec7e8edd1dfa7ded9dc46172
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/900/11140/AJarmyJFD170726.2.mp3
f54aa76abd3793861cf39e00fcebb13f
Dublin Core
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Title
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Jarmy, Jack
Jack Francis David Jarmy
J F D Jarmy
Description
An account of the resource
23 items. And oral history interview with Jack Francis David Jarmy DFC (b. 1922, 134695 Royal Air Force) his log books and photographs. He flew operations as a navigator with 75 and 218 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Jack Jarmy and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2015-09-21
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Jarmy, JFD
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
GT: Ok. This is Glen Turner from 75 Squadron Association as Secretary and a certified IBCC interviewer interviewing Mr Jack Jarmy and this is for the Digital Archives to be based at Lincoln. And Jack is with me and good evening, Jack.
JJ: Good evening.
GT: Evening. So, I’m going to ask Jack some questions on the history of Jack’s life with Bomber Command in the middle and Jack can we start please by you describing your title and your service number please?
JJ: Say again, sorry?
GT: Your service number and your title.
JJ: Service number.
GT: And your trade.
JJ: Airman’s number 1337329 and officer’s number 134695.
GT: And your trade was RAF navigator.
JJ: My trade was, originally was pilot. U/T pilot.
GT: Great. Jack, can you begin with us please by stating your date of birth, where you were born and your, your years growing up?
JJ: I was, date of birth was 26th of April ’22 in Romford, Essex and I, from the age of twelve I lived with my grandparents. No. From the age of five I lived with my grandparents because my father had died when I was five. Do I go on then to joining the RAF?
GT: Yes.
JJ: I was very keen to join the RAF and I thought initially as a wireless operator but then at the age of eighteen, the very day I was eighteen I was living outside of Portsmouth, I got on my bicycle without telling my grandparents, cycled down to Portsmouth and volunteered for training as a pilot. And I was accepted on the spot actually but I wasn’t officially called up for about another eight months or so.
GT: In, in —
JJ: 1941 that would be.
GT: Jack, how well did you do at school then before that?
JJ: I did very well actually. My last examination at Ilfracombe Grammar School I was first in every subject except one and when we were having to leave my grandparents had to move away to make some money somewhere as their capital was running out the headmaster told me that I was an absolute cert. There were two university places at Cambridge in those days and he said, ‘If you could have stayed here you’d have, without a doubt you would have got one of them.’ But I didn’t know at the time until we got to Portsmouth that I was having to leave school and help in the family shop. So that was a bit of shock needless to say.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: And I did that for three years until I was eighteen and on the very day I was eighteen as I say I went down and joined the RAF and they accepted me when they saw my Grammar School report.
GT: So, all your subjects were fabulous except one.
JJ: I was first in every subject except one.
GT: And what was that?
JJ: I think that was Religious History [laughs]
GT: Fabulous. So, once you’d gone to sign up and they’d accepted you —
JJ: Yeah.
GT: Please continue that story on how long you waited and where you joined up from there.
JJ: Yeah. I waited about, I think seven or eight months before I was called up for attestation in London and then I was in the RAF. So we went to [pause] I’ve got it here. Sorry. I have it here and I can’t bloody well read it. [pause] Terrible this. I’m on the wrong page. Sorry. Oh. [pause] Here we are. 9 Initial Training Wing at Stratford on Avon, is it? Stratford on Avon. I can’t see the dates. If you want to have a look here.
GT: No. That’s alright Jack. So, you were then —
JJ: Initial Training Wing for pilot training. About six weeks and then we went, I went to EFTS at Swindon, Cliffe Pypard where I soloed fairly quickly. And I had done about twenty hours when we were informed that the system was training. They were introducing grading school for everybody but the training would be done overseas. Either in the states, Canada or, or was Africa —?
GT: Rhodesia?
JJ: Rhodesia. That’s right. So, I went across to Canada and we got on the train for three days down to Florida. And I, the first thing they told us that the scheme we were under twenty, a good twenty percent would be washed out at Primary School, another twenty percent at basic and a further twenty percent the final school because that was the way they got, the American way they got all their gunners, navigators etcetera. So I passed out fine in the Stearman at sixty hours. Lots of aerobatics. A lot more than we did in the UK. You could throw the Stearman all over the skies. It was a wonderful biplane. Then I moved on in Montgomery Alabama for basic training and of course I’d only done about seven or eight hours I think and the course ahead of us did a cross country, their final cross country and they ran into a tornado and about twenty nine out of thirty three aircraft crashed. So I think morale was a bit down that morning and when I landed I had a German instructor, Lieutenant [Kloppenstein] and he just said, ‘Mr, you’ve had it.’ Bad landing. And I was fourteen days leave and then back to Canada.
GT: So, he cancelled you from flying training.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: Because of one bad landing.
JJ: An American. Virtually one sortie I think, yeah. Twenty percent were being knocked out anyway around about then you see and I’m sure I was shaking. A friend of mine was [unclear] before so we got fourteen days leave and we went down to New Orleans. Hitch hiked down to New Orleans. Then we went back and up to Trenton, Ontario where you were re-selected. Whilst at Trenton I met two pilots who had been washed out at Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida for not being sufficiently doing well and they went back to Canada then and they put them on a pilot’s course and they got their wings whilst I was washing dishes in the officer’s mess [laughs] Met them. Three months and they’d got their wings. That was the system. Anyway, I opted for a navigation course and did well on it and then came back to the UK on the Queen Elizabeth with about fourteen thousand aircrew. Mostly Americans. And we stayed in Harrogate for a few weeks waiting for OTU. I then went to Operational Training Unit. That’s right. Where we all met in a room. About ten of each grade. Navigators, pilots, wireless operators and they just said, ‘Have a chat around and sort yourselves out into crews,’ which we did.
GT: So, so, Jack if we could just confirm the dates on here.
JJ: Ok.
GT: So, I’m, I’m just looking at your logbooks.
JJ: You’ve got the dates there, I think.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: So as a navigator January 1943 and you were then arrived at number 11 OTU at Oakley.
JJ: Oakley. That’s right.
GT: Yeah. April 25th 1943. So please tell us how you crewed up.
JJ: We just walked around with a cup of tea and chatted to people and mostly the pilots would say, ‘Would you like to fly with me?’ And this New Zealand sergeant came up to me and said, ‘Would you like to fly with me, sir.’ Because I was a pilot officer [laughs] And he seemed a nice fellow you know and I said, ‘Yeah, fine.’ And then we walked around and found a bomb aimer and a wireless operator. You didn’t get engineers then until you got to Dishforth training on to four engine aircraft. We picked up an engineer there. So we did the, the Wellington training cross countries and circuits and bumps etcetera. And then we went to Dishforth. 1335 or something HCU. Heavy Conversion Unit to convert on to the Stirling.
GT: Ok. Now, again looking —
JJ: Did I say Dishforth? Sorry no.
GT: From your logbook Jack can I just help you for a moment there? I’ve got there —
JJ: Near Cambridge.
GT: Yeah. Now, you, you completed with the Wellingtons forty seven hours day and twenty eight night and then you moved to 1651.
JJ: That’s right. 1665.
GT: 1651 Conversion Unit at Waterbeach.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: And there —
JJ: Waterbeach.
GT: That was July 1943 and you converted to what?
JJ: Converted on to the Stirling at Waterbeach and then we were posted to 75 New Zealand Squadron at Mepal.
GT: And your logbook says July 25th 1943.
JJ: Was it as late as that?
GT: Yeah.
JJ: I thought it was earlier.
GT: And then, then you became —
JJ: That was probably the first flight.
GT: You began your operations then did you not? So —
JJ: Immediately. Yeah.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: That’s right.
GT: And who was the —
JJ: You just —
GT: Commanding officer at the time, Jack.
JJ: Pardon?
GT: Who was the commanding officer at the time for you?
JJ: Roy Max I’m sure. A wonderful fellow. Absolutely wonderful. I met him later on. It was the first time an officer had called me by my first name. We just walked into his office and he says, ‘Hello Jack,’ you know, ‘Pleased to meet you.’ No officer of any rank [laughs] and I’d been in for about a year had called me by my first name before. He was wonderful. We loved him. Yeah.
GT: Fabulous. And is there —
JJ: A marvellous CO you know.
GT: And you, you completed your tour of how many operations on 75?
JJ: I think it was about twenty six because we went in to, we called it Prayer Meeting about 9 o’clock every morning which was just a meeting you know. It wasn’t no prayers or anything and the CO said, ‘Flight Sergeant Mayfield —’ and there was another crew, ‘You’ve finished your tours.’ And we sort of thought, ‘You’re joking.’ And he said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘3 Group has decided you, you know you’ve done a good tour and they’d like you to, well they want you to finish your tour now.’ So we couldn’t believe it you know. We thought we’re going to live after all [laughs] which you didn’t think you were before that you know. We lost so many crews. I think we lost twenty two out of, two out of twenty two every night.
GT: 75 New Zealand squadron at the time and they were based —
JJ: Yeah.
GT: At Newmarket for you or Mepal?
JJ: No. Mepal. They’d just moved to Mepal when I joined them. Yeah.
GT: That was a brand new airfield.
JJ: A new airfield. There was mud everywhere, you know and we were in Nissen huts but that was alright.
GT: And it had a rather terrible nickname at the time.
JJ: They were known as the Chop Squadron in 3 Group. Everybody knew 75 for some reason as the Chop Squadron because they lost so many crews. But there was nothing wrong with the crews. They were absolutely first class wonderful chaps. Never flown with anyone better and we were just, somebody had to be unlucky and it seemed that we were whether we were the start of a raid or the end of the raid, wave or something we just [pause] I’m sure one night we lost three crews. One had done twenty seven, it sticks in my memory and they were almost finished their tour. One at twenty three and I think the other one was fourteen and I think at the time we’d done thirteen. We were then the senior crew on the squadron. But three best crews like that just went. A fighter or something must have got into them you know. They were close together. But they were first class crews you know. But it wasn’t very good for morale. We lost our radio operator after one trip actually. He went LMF and we had another w/op and two more trips he went LMF. They disappeared over night, you know. You didn’t see them to say, ‘Goodbye mate.’ One was Wally [Gee] I remember. He was twenty seven. We called him grandad. He was older than we were at twenty, twenty one but a nice lad but he got the shakes and he couldn’t do anything when we got back in the circuit and he was gone in the morning and the other one the same. There was quite a lot of LMF at the time. People couldn’t cope, you know.
GT: What, what was the feeling about the aircraft? The Stirling itself. Was there a doubt?
JJ: We liked it you know. We came back several times on three engines and once on two you know and the only trouble was you rarely got about fourteen thousand six hundred feet because you know they’d had this trouble. They’d locked off, had to lop off the wingtips. They couldn’t get them in the hangar before they went in to service. And it couldn’t get the height with the bomb load. You couldn’t get, rarely got to fifteen thousand. I think we got to fifteen thousand on the trip to Turin in the cold air over the Alps. But the rest of the time it was about fourteen six for bombing. Halifaxes at eighteen and Lancs at twenty, twenty one.
GT: Were all your operations at night?
JJ: Yeah. In the first tour.
GT: And did you encounter night fighters at all?
JJ: Oh, a lot, yes. We were, we had some very close deals you know with night fighters coming in but luckily the rear gunners were good. They seemed to go somewhere else you know. Sprayed. We always came back with holes, flak holes in the wings and everywhere. Holes everywhere in fact. But, and I think about three times we had to corkscrew with a gunner coming in and you’d lose about a thousand feet like this, you know. And if you were coned the Germans, had some searchlights that were on radar and if you were coned you had a devil of a job and you were a sitting target for the night fighters then. So you did a terrific, lost a thousand feet or so over ninety degrees down and then up and my stuff on the navigation table would all hit the roof. I was hanging on to the table. I would have hit the roof. But pencils and paper and everything went up and down on the floor but you were lucky. You avoided being shot down.
GT: That was your tail gunner yelling, ‘Skipper corkscrew left or right.’
JJ: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He did it immediately.
GT: Could you hear him? Could you brace yourself?
JJ: Oh yes. ‘Corkscrew.’ So you grabbed the desk you know and you went over and down about a thousand feet and then up again and it seemed to work every time. You evaded the fighter or the searchlights. It happened I would think on the first tour at least six times because I remember blooming charts and everything going up to the roof. Trying to hang on.
GT: Was your skipper good at that?
JJ: Very very good. He was first class. Cool as a cucumber. No bother. He was. We had the utmost trust in him. He was a very good pilot. Very good. Yeah. Alan. Wonderful. I was so sorry I couldn’t get in touch with him at the end of the war, you know. I’d have liked to have done.
GT: Several, several other chaps have told me of a story of being on the toilet can in the back when a corkscrew happened and it wasn’t very pleasant so —
JJ: No [laughs] it wouldn’t be. No. Had to make your way down to the toilet you know in pitch darkness. Climb over the spar and feel your way down. They used to say take an oxygen bottle with you. I just took two deep breaths, you know and then had a whiff down there and then came back. Usually managed to wait until after the target area to go for a wee. I couldn’t do that nowadays.
GT: Yeah. Fabulous. So —
JJ: But they had a wonderful spirit in the crew despite all these losses. In all the crews you know. The only words you ever heard at breakfast someone would say, ‘Poor old Gerald Smith and Dick Tracey bought it last night.’ And that was what we always said. ‘Bought it last night.’ And that was it. You didn’t talk any more about it. I think you couldn’t. It would have upset you you know where they’d gone. You just hoped they’d baled out but you never knew. We never had the messages back. That was just, that’s all you ever said. So and so bought it last night. Oh God. Hard luck. Then you got on with your job. You had to.
GT: What was it like flying into Newmarket because I understand —
JJ: I didn’t fly from Newmarket. Mepal.
GT: I beg your pardon. Mepal.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: You were flying out of Mepal then and you had Witchford next door.
JJ: That’s right.
GT: So did the two airfields conflict at all?
JJ: Then when we came back we did a circuit around the two airfields. So there were about forty aircraft milling around and sometimes you had to put your lights out because there would be a Jerry around you know. A fighter. And, and often VHF was so bad then, the HF was the wireless operator would get the ok to go in and land, you know on the Morse. The voice communications were terrible then in ‘43. They improved later.
GT: Because Lincoln always had their cathedral to home by. What did Mepal have that you guys could home in on?
JJ: We had a light. A flashing light, you know. What do you call it? I can’t think of the light giving the two letters of the airfield.
GT: The aldis lamp.
JJ: You had, you had Gee. Gee was just starting up. The first Gee we had the Mark 1. It was terrible, of course. It wouldn’t, you would just set it up and ten minutes later it would go off frequency. But fairly quickly after in that first tour we got Mark 2 Gee and that was a great help and that was good for getting back to base. It was wonderful. You could just home down easily. It was really good if that was working and it usually was. It was a wonderful aid that was. We got that going out as far as the Dutch Coast and then you lost it so you could get good winds as far as the Dutch Coast and then you were on dead reckoning and guessing what the winds were from what they’d been wrong. The Met winds were always thirty degrees out and ten miles an hour but they were something to start with. But you usually got a wind, a good wind by the time you touched the Dutch coast from the Gee. We took pictures back I think about every four minutes or something like that while you’d still got it. Wonderful aid.
GT: And what about the the Ely church or the spire from the Ely side of things.
JJ: I don’t think we ever saw that.
GT: You couldn’t see it.
JJ: No.
GT: No.
JJ: No. We did training on it on our next tour with GH. I’ve got a lovely photograph with the tower right bang in the middle because I was the GH leader in the second tour on 218.
GT: Right. Well, I’ve got you completing your tour —
JJ: December.
GT: Well, November 26th was your last flight with 75 New Zealand squadron out of Mepal.
JJ: ’43.
GT: In 1943.
JJ: That’s right.
GT: Yeah. And, and from there where did you move to from there because your crew was —
JJ: I went direct. Myself and my bomb aimer both went to Lancaster Finishing School which was at Feltwell as instructors and my pilot went to another airfield not far away. I can’t remember where because later on one night we cycled over there and then got caught by a policeman coming back. Funny story. Do you want to hear that?
GT: Please. I’d love to.
JJ: Right. Jock Somerville, the bomb aimer and myself got a call from Alan Mayfield one day to say he’d just been commissioned because he was just a flight sergeant when he went to, I can’t think of the name of the airfield. It was only about six miles away. And he said, ‘I’ve just been commissioned. Can you get a bicycle and come over for Sunday tea?’ So we got the out the old [Senda] bike you know and we went off on the Sunday afternoon for tea. We didn’t drink. No one was really drunk in those days you know. All the times on the first tour I never had a drink of spirits or beer or anything. I don’t think the majority of the rest of the crew did. Alan Mayfield didn’t. It was difficult. I was in the officer’s mess and the rest of the crew were in the sergeant’s you see so you couldn’t have much to do with one another other than crew room and what not. But we all got on so well together but so we went over to Chedburgh would it have been? No. Not Chedburgh. That’s where I did my second tour. I can’t think of the name. Six miles away roughly. So we went over and then he said, ‘Well, you know, stay for dinner, you know.’ So we stayed for dinner and I think we did have a couple of beers because he’d been commissioned. So we were on our way back to Feltwell and there was a light ahead of us waving so we slowed up and there was a blooming policeman in the middle of the road. So, I don’t know whether Jock or I said, ‘Go.’ And he went one side of the policeman pedalling like mad and I went the other and we went about thirty yards and there was a barrier across the road [laughs] I had to stop. So of course, the policeman came along and you know we said, ‘Well, we’ve been a year, or you know, months bombing over Germany. We’ve just had a rest now.’ And he said, ‘I’m sorry. I’ll have to take your names.’ And we thought that was the end of it. We cycled on and I was lecturing about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. There was a tap on the door and there was this blooming policeman and oh, Jock had said his name was Smith and I said it was Jones [laughs] So he said, ‘Are you Mr Jack Jones.’ And I said, ‘I’m afraid so.’ He said, ‘I’m sorry but you’re going to be summoned.’ And believe it or not we were summoned to the local court for riding a bicycle without lights at 11 o’clock at night on a country road with no, no traffic or anything at all. Well, I went into Ely Hospital to have my tonsils out then. I’d had some throat trouble. Jock went along to the court and he was fined ten shillings. And then they called my name and Jock explained that I was in hospital and the judge said, ‘Fifteen shillings.’ Well, Jock was a very fiery Scotsman and he jumped up and he said, ‘You can’t do that. We were both together and you fined me ten shillings and fifteen shillings for him.’ Well, the judge said, ‘Very well, you can find, you can pay fifteen shillings as well.’ [laughs] You can’t believe it can you? In the middle of the war.
GT: Astonishing. Jeez. So —
JJ: It was quite a joke.
GT: What a joke. Jack, I’m looking through your logbook and you joined Number 3 Lancaster Finishing School at Feltwell.
JJ: Yeah. Yeah.
GT: January 8, 1944 and, and pretty much you spent all year there. Is that correct?
JJ: Yeah. Ten, ten months before I was back on ops.
GT: So how many crews would you have trained or lectured or shown?
JJ: I think the crews came for a month because they did quite a bit of circuits and bumps and then they did a couple of cross countries and then went off. Crews coming mostly from the, from Cambridge you know. There.
GT: So, you’d done a full tour on Stirlings and then went to a Lancaster Finishing School.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: Where did you get your Lancaster training from or didn’t it matter?
JJ: Oh, it just, well I mean the equipment was all the same. It was no bother. You just got in. We didn’t do much. Sometimes I flew on a cross country with a crew but that was just finishing. Most of it was circuits and bumps and lecturing in the, you know, ground school lecturing. The information you could give them. How to, you know, be sure and keep on track, not to stray off because they picked up the strays and other little tips you learned from navigating, you know. How important it was to keep in the main stream and not get out of it. Things like that we used to give them. Other odds and ends. There wasn’t a lot of Ground School but they did a couple of cross countries and we had to mark them of course and you know help them with any tips or anything on navigating. It was mainly after you crossed the coast you were on your own. You hardly got a fix on anything you see. You couldn’t get anything. You couldn’t anything in the Astro. I used to do a bit of Astro coming back but not on the way out to the target. Bomb aimer would look out and he would see probably fifteen miles away flak going up. Someone had gone off track and you knew that that was some town you know or other and you could get a bearing. He’d give me a bearing on that on the astrocompass. And that was a good ground speed check or something like that you see as you went out and you just used your Met knowledge mainly to think what the winds had changed to and then you always got a good fix over the target. That’s why I never got into the astrodome except once because you got a fix there and you got your, you could get a good wind for the last three or four hundred miles you see to use on the way back.
GT: So your bomb aimer helped you with a lot of the navigational help.
JJ: With the visual. If we, if it was clear he might be able to see crossing a river on the way just if the moonlight was out. He could say, ‘We’re crossing a river now.’ And that was a great help. You could look it up on the topographical map and that would be a hell of a good help and give an estimate, ‘Oh, there’s a town over — ’ And he’d take a bearing on it with the astrocompass coming up and say I would think it was about, you know just a guess ten or twelve miles away. Well, that was a great help. One of the greatest things was you knew if you got a lot of buffeting from time to time you knew you were in the main stream then, you know. There’s about six hundred other aircraft going that way. So you were delighted to get a bump, you know. You knew you weren’t far away from the from the main stream.
GT: When you were in the main stream did you have aircraft above you and therefore they were dropping their bombs? Did you have any near misses in that way?
JJ: We had a very near miss. I’m not sure if it was first tour or second on Peenemunde. The end of the tour I think. You know there was the rocket range there. It’s the first tour wasn’t it?
GT: So that was the V-1 flying Doodlebugs.
JJ: No. The V-2.
GT: It was the V-2s was it?
JJ: V-2s they were developing there. I think they’d done the V-1 already. Is Peenemunde? I think. I thought Peenemunde was on the first tour.
GT: Ok. So, so what happened there? The bombs went past you.
JJ: We flew up nearly to Sweden and then we were bombing from eight thousand feet coming in and the Stirlings were on the first wave. Have you found Peenemunde?
GT: That’s fine. You carry on telling the story and I’ll see.
JJ: It was the first time I’d managed to get into the astrodome because it was fairly quiet flying in. There wasn’t a lot of flak or anything and I looked up and saw a Lancaster just above us probably not more than sixty or seventy feet, maybe a hundred feet with bomb doors, bomb doors open and I screamed at the pilot, ‘Turn hard starboard now, now, now.’ And he immediately went up and as the wing went up the stick of bombs went down about twenty yards. Where we’d been. And they would all have gone through us. You see, the bomb aimer’s looking ahead. Doesn’t see something here. And that was a Lancaster actually. I reckon he was early on target. He shouldn’t have been above us. We were just eight thousand feet but that was the nearest we ever had of having bombs through the wing. I certainly wouldn’t have been here now if I hadn’t gone into that astrodome. You see the mid-upper gunner is busy looking around at his level for fighters and didn’t think to look up. But it was a very close shave.
GT: Great.
JJ: It didn’t miss us by more than twenty yards I reckon. You could see every five hundred pounder going down.
GT: Your bomb loads that you had was there anything special or everything was just cookies, five hundreds?
JJ: Usually had a cookie. Four thousand. Four thousand and made up of five hundreds and incendiaries depending on what the target was, you know. Occasionally a few thousand pounders but mainly five hundreds.
GT: Did you do any special ops or was it all just standard?
JJ: No, it was all, the first tour was all standard targets. Yeah.
GT: So, from your time with Lancaster Finishing School did the crews come to you brand new from joining up or —
JJ: Yeah.
GT: Were there a mixture of experienced —
JJ: Yeah. No. Virtually no experience. They were all new trainees. There might be the odd pilot or the odd navigator doing a second tour. The odd pilot doing a second tour. But nearly everybody coming through LFS when I was there were first tour people, you know. They’d come from overseas, done OTU, conversion on to the Stirling at Cambridge and then they came to us to fly the Lancs.
GT: So once you’d finished at LFS was that your choice and did you apply for another tour?
JJ: No. You didn’t apply. You just went where you were told. Yeah.
GT: So they put you on a second tour without you asking.
JJ: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they just came through one day. December wasn’t it? Just before Christmas and said, ‘You’re posted to 218 Squadron.’ And I was off in about a week. Had a week’s leave and away we went. But I was delighted to get on the Lanc you know. Such a good aeroplane to fly. You know the Stirling soared up at this angle and you had a job to climb in. We had faith in the Stirling but we, I don’t know we knew that we’d have been better on Lancasters, you know. We just because the height you know. You got the light flak. You got all everything at fourteen thousand five hundred feet or so.
GT: What was your main height for the Lancaster bombing raids?
JJ: They were more about eighteen. Usually about eighteen or nineteen. You could get it up to twenty one but usually bombing height was eighteen or nineteen. We did quite a lot of daylight raids in ’45 on 218 and we, we qualified as a marker, GH marker so we had two aircraft formating on us. A daylight raid you had one either side. You know, a few yards off and then you had to watch us and push the bomb tit as our bombs went and even though the bomb aimer could see the aiming point he wasn’t allowed to push the tit until I said. On the GH was very accurate. You had two intersecting lines. You kept yourself on one and then said, ‘Bomb now.’ You know and you pushed the tit for the bombs. Lots on bridges and specialised targets. Mainly on bridge crossings it was in the book there, I think. Shorter trips. And of course, we had a bit of fighter cover as well so it was a lot safer. The losses weren’t anything like they were on Stirlings in ’44. ’43/44 was a bad time for everybody wasn’t it?
GT: So, the aircraft numbers for instance. Each, each squadron generally had twelve aircraft per flight.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: So 75 Squadron had three flights of twelve. Did 218 Squadron have that many and how many did you fly?
JJ: No. Two flights I’m sure. 218.
GT: Ok. You might have gone up with twenty four aircraft a night. Or a day trip perhaps.
JJ: Say again.
GT: Did you fly with twenty four aircraft all the time?
JJ: No. You know, there was always two U/S or something or you hadn’t the crews. If you lost two crews and two new crews would arrive that day. I think on average we put up twenty. Twenty aircraft. Sometimes twenty one and very occasionally twenty two but usually it was about twenty aircraft.
GT: Can you describe for me the purpose of a pilot from a new crew arriving and going as a second dickie? Can you describe that for me?
JJ: Well, all the pilot did when you arrived on the squadron your pilot went as a second dickie with an experienced crew just to get the feel of the thing. See what it was like, you know and learn a few tips on flying and corkscrewing and that sort of thing. And then you were on your own. And you always, I think you always did two mining trips. You did what do you call it? Probably got the name in there. You did a mining trip to just off Germany. The islands there.
GT: They did some gardening.
JJ: Gardening. It’s called gardening. That’s right. So you did that low. You dropped them from I think about a thousand feet. They were on parachutes you know and you got to the area, you got quite a lot of flak on that first area. There must have been a lot of ships around us. And we, I can’t remember if it was two or four and then we did a second gardening trip down to Bordeaux and we were coming back fairly low because we’d dropped the things low. And it was a nice moonlight night and bomb aimer was sitting in the nose then and he said, ‘There’s a train down below skipper. Let’s go down and shoot it up.’ So we did and we blew it up. When we got back to debriefing the intelligence officers said, ‘Don’t you ever do that again because they’re equipping most of the trains with, you know machine guns and whatnot because the fighters had been doing a lot of this and the train had got a chap with four Bofors guns or something and you hadn’t got a chance if you flew in at a hundred and twenty miles an hour. So we thought we’d done well, you know. We were thinking everybody was going to say, ‘Well done.’ [laughs] But they said, ‘Don’t ever do it again.’
GT: You got lucky.
JJ: It was quite fun to see this train blow up.
GT: Some crews have told me that they did a whole tour without using their nose guns. Did you in your tours did they use them at all?
JJ: That’s the only time we used it. On the train. Nose and the tail. Yeah. No. We never saw anything in front. Fighters came up behind you and underneath you see. So no bomb aimer never fired those guns. He used to test them and that was all.
GT: And that was going to be my next question. Do those that man those guns in the nose was generally going to be the bomb aimer if —
JJ: The bomb aimer in the front.
GT: If he needed to.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: Yeah. So going into your second tour then Jack so you were posted off to 218 Gold Coast Squadron.
JJ: Yeah. Yeah.
GT: And Gold Coast is Australian or South African?
JJ: South Africa.
GT: South African side.
JJ: I think. I’m sure it was South African.
GT: And there was a South African connection like New Zealand had.
JJ: There must have been some connection in, you know a lot earlier. They had Gold Coast in brackets for some reason or other. We never met anybody from the Gold Coast or anything. It was probably the first war. They might have provided some people. Fighters or something and they kept the name going when they resurrected it anyway.
GT: So when you were posted on did you get a choice of a crew or did you just get given?
JJ: No. I was posted. Posted there and arrived and, ‘This is your crew.’ You know. The pilot was a first tour. I was second tour and the two air gunners were second tour. Great chaps. They were a bit older than me. They were thirty one and they’d both been gunnery leaders on different, you know, in between and they were first class they were. So —
GT: Your logbook shows that you, you did, you arrived there in February 1945.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: And you continued on from your first tour of twenty one ops and you did your twenty second op on February the 7th. So —
JJ: That’s right.
GT: So was there anything outstanding about 218? Anything that you remember that was of note.
JJ: Well, I don’t want it to go in the book. The CO. Are you recording?
GT: Yes.
JJ: No. I won’t say anything.
GT: Ok. Whatever.
JJ: I’ll tell you afterwards. Yeah.
GT: Yeah. So, so you got various. I can see day and night flights here.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: And —
JJ: We had a good, we had a good crew. We had two excellent gunners and we did get the odd other attack. I think I did a Berlin trip there didn’t we? Yeah.
GT: Right. So, I’ve got your second operational tour was completed on the 24th of April 1945 and your total operational hours by day sixty eight hours and total operational nights fifty hours. Total grand operational hours a hundred and nineteen and ten minutes.
JJ: That was a full tour anyway for me and a second tour was, was that.
GT: Now, for your work you were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: Can you tell me about that please?
JJ: There’s not much to say. I think I’d probably been a good navigator. Good results, you know from our bombing and everything. So for some reason or other I was awarded the DFC. Nobody else in either of the crews was actually so I think, I think I was a good navigator. We didn’t have any problems. We had one dicey coming back trip when we were on two engines coming across France and the engineer said we were losing fuel. We’d been shot up a bit. I can’t remember which, I think we landed right at the end. Bradwell Bay. And coming across France and I managed to pick out a diversion airfield and got us there and as we’d taxied around the, as we were going in to land the engineer said the tanks are just about empty. As we taxied around the runway all four engines cut. Another five minutes and we wouldn’t be here now anyway.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: We’d have stalled out but we’d had, we knew we were losing fuel you know and we’d had fighter attacks and whatnot but we couldn’t do anything about it. We just made it to the South Coast so that was Bradwell Bay. So we went, left the aircraft and went back on the train with parachutes and everything else [laughs] nav bags and sextant.
GT: Were your aircraft replaced pretty quickly if you lost any?
JJ: Yeah. We didn’t usually fly in the same aircraft. At 218 we did. We had Queenie that had done about fifty, sixty trips and we did quite a few trips in Queenie. And she features in some of the post-war picture books, you know. That one lasted, oh it was just about the end of the war when we finished anyway. But otherwise, you know we never had an aircraft last long enough you were different aircraft nearly every, pretty well every night.
GT: Your logbook shows Queenie to be LM577 and your total operational tally of sorties was forty one.
JJ: I don’t know.
GT: Now, for me that’s, the use of the word mission was —
JJ: No.
GT: Was not correct and you guys did operations.
JJ: Yeah. We didn’t call it missions. The Americans called it missions. We never used the word mission. No. So many ops was the term. Nobody ever used missions. No.
GT: Fabulous. Alright so and then once you had finished your last operation, your forty first one there and that was April 1945 what happened to you after that? Was it VE day to come?
JJ: I was posted. No. It was just before and I was first tour, second tour you see. The rest of the crew and the gunners were second tour. They told us we’d finished our tour. The pilot and the engineer and the wireless operator hadn’t finished. They were on their first tour so they were left and they, I went on leave for a fortnight and when I came back they started dropping the food to the Dutch. So I went along to see the CO and said, ‘I’m posted up to Catterick, you know to get me out of the way. I’d like to stay and fly with my crew.’ Well, I don’t want this to go on the — turn it off.
GT: Ok.
[recording paused]
JJ: Ok. I think the flight commander or the station commander must have put up for the DFC because I got it just, just before I finished my tour and I was the only member of that crew to get one and my other crew hadn’t either. First tour. So I had to be off to Catterick to Selection Board trying to find someone to take the place of all the bank managers and people who had been doing admin jobs. So I was sent off to be adjutant at [pause] it was near Lincoln. Fighter Sector Headquarters. Wonderful. I thought my God some people have had an easy job. It was a Fighter Sector with about sixty, seventy girls and about ten airmen and a group captain, a wing commander and a squadron leader in charge of it. And they had Group Captain Arthur Donaldson as head of them. A fighter man. Wonderful chap and he insisted on having a beer every lunchtime actually [laughs] And it only lasted about three months I think and they closed the station down, you know. They didn’t need Fighter Sector Headquarters any more. And I went from there to Molesworth which was 1335 Conversion Unit for Meteors. Jets.
GT: Now we’re talking February 1946.
JJ: That’s right. And I was the first navigator to fly in a, in a jet because they converted one on the station. The engineering officer went for the first trip and I went up for the second. That was before they had dual seats in the, in the Meteors. Wonderful. Zoom. I loved it.
GT: I’m looking at your logbook and that flight was October the 16th 1946 in EE229 Meteor 1 and your pilot was Flight Lieutenant Williams. That’s pretty fair for twenty minutes. Yeah.
JJ: Yeah. I was —
GT: So with your DFC, Jack did you get handed it or did you have to go and get —
JJ: No. I got the letter from the, signed by George, you know saying I’m sorry I can’t give it to you.
GT: In person.
JJ: But well done. That sort of thing.
GT: You didn’t have to go down to the —
JJ: Didn’t have to go down to the Palace. No. No.
GT: So, did your CO just pin it on you or —
JJ: No. Just got it in the post I think. I can’t remember the CO giving it to me.
GT: God.
JJ: He might have done but he wasn’t on the squadron, you see. I’d moved on.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: Admin jobs and whatnot there.
GT: So after the war had finished were you given an option to carry on? And you were what rank by then?
JJ: I was flight lieutenant then.
GT: Ok.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: So did you get given an option to stay on in the peacetime?
JJ: No. Just with your age they just said, you know, ‘You won’t be demobbed for another year or so.’ So then I went from [pause] I went down to Chivenor as adjutant. I went to I think Molesworth first. That’s right. Molesworth and Bentwaters. That’s where we had the Jet Training Unit. Yeah. And from Bentwaters, oh I had a chat on the phone to the [unclear] people at Command one day. They were very friendly you know and they said, ‘Is there anything you wanted to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, I want to get back on flying.’ They said, ‘We can’t do that but there’s a job going as adjutant down at Chivenor.’ So that was the Spitfire OTU sort of thing you know. They were still converting people then flying Spits. So I went down to Chivenor and I seemed to get on well with the CO there who hadn’t been a flying man during the war. He was a very nice man but we had several Spit accidents you know and I had to arrange funerals and things. Totally new. Never had any experience of all these jobs and one day he said, ‘Would you like to apply for a permanent commission?’ I think I’d been there about six months. He said, ‘I’ll recommend you if you like.’ So I was delighted. Didn’t really know what I was going to do when I went there. I wanted some different job than the one I’d been doing before you know and I hadn’t had any training. And I got a permanent commission while I was there you know. Group Captain Whitfield or something. Something like that. I can’t remember his name. But I don’t think I did any, I don’t think they had, they had an Oxford or something there I flew around in but not very much. I think I did about eighteen months there and I was constantly court martials and things. Talking to the [unclear] people at Command and I always said, ‘When am I going back on flying?’ And they came up one day and said, ‘We can’t get you back into Bomber Command. We don’t move people there.’ From where I was it was fighter I think or something or training but he said, ‘Would you like to go on to Hastings?’ I had to do all refresher courses because I’d been off flying for about three years. So I went to Swinderby on Wellingtons and then Hastings up at [pause] oh dear. By the Great North Road. You’ve got it there. Dishforth. And another refresher course at somewhere. Somewhere near there. Anyway, Dishforth was the Hastings course and I went to a squadron. 511 Squadron at Lyneham on the Hastings and I loved it and I’ve still got a, you know you had a grading system. You had to pass exams. I was sort of a fully fledged passenger and everything else. We did trips to Singapore. The Middle East mainly. Usually did about one trip a month or two months to Singapore. Did lots of trips to the Middle East freight and passengers. A lot of passengers.
GT: Jack, I’ve got you 241 OCU. You were there from December 31, 1949. And you —
JJ: About three months.
GT: You flew right there to the end of March 1950 and then you joined 511 Squadron.
JJ: 511 Squadron.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: That’s right.
GT: April 1950.
JJ: Yeah. Yeah.
GT: And you flew with them right through to [pause] well your logbook goes on up until 1952. So you were flying all over the world with the Hastings.
JJ: Yeah. Mainly the Far East. Not the world but I think we did one trip to America. I can’t remember now. Maybe not. I think we went to the Azores but I can’t remember. But mainly it was to the Middle East and the Far East. I went to Japan. The war was on then and we took winter vests out for the British who had been sent out in the middle of winter without any winter clothing. And we actually arrived there the day before Christmas and we said, they said, ‘Oh, you needn’t fly over on Christmas day.’ It was an American base you see. And we said, ‘Well these chaps need these vests. We’ll go.’ So on Christmas Day we flew over to Tokyo and we had to orbit for fifty minutes before we landed. The jets, American fighter jets were just around and around you know. The Korean War. We landed. They all came over because they hadn’t seen an aeroplane sitting up like this before [laughs] They were quite surprised. Wondered what it was and then we went back and went into the mess and they said, ‘Sorry they had lunch at lunchtime. There’s no food.’ [laughs] At that time funnily enough I had an American pilot on an exchange scheme, a Polish co-pilot and an Irish wireless operator and we had a bottle of whisky between us and went to bed. That was our Christmas. Christmas dinner. We hadn’t had any food over in Tokyo. You know. Too busy. But that was something to remember.
GT: So then you moved over to, I see Valettas. What squadron were you with there?
JJ: Valettas. Oh, what did I do in between?
GT: In Libya.
JJ: Libya. Yeah. I went out to, I was posted out to Castel Benito in Libya as adjutant and I was promoted there after about six months to squadron leader. So I was posted down to the Canal Zone and I was in charge of the, mainly with the Army dropping paratroops and doing the routes down to Livingstone and all over the place there for a bit. And then for some reason or other, oh that was it the senior admin officer at Shallufa down in the Canal Zone was repatriated for inefficiency or something like that and I was sent down as senior admin officer. There was a wing commander there and we had the Lincolns used to come out and do their bombing on the bombing range there. So I was there until probably about eighteen months. The station closed down and I actually handed over to the Egyptians and they’d all been trained at Cranwell. There was about six majors came along. Everybody on the station had gone except myself then and the Egyptians arrived and our lads, a few left to guard the place were flown home and I handed over to these Egyptians. So I’d laid on a lunch for them and it was a good lunch and the first thing they said was, ‘Have you got any whisky?’ And we brought out, luckily we’d got a crate of whisky left and they all had whisky. Lots of whisky with their lunch. Then we brought the flag down and put theirs up and I was off to Fayid. And I’d left my car. I’d bought a car at Castel Benito and I had to leave it there for eighteen months but the young MT officer used to look after it for me and I arrived back and the family were actually out there then. They did come out to Shallufa. The wife and the two boys about five and six. So we all flew back to Shallufa and I said, ‘I’m not putting my car on a boat and taking it home. I’m driving home.’ And I got the ok to drive all the way. Five thousand miles. North African coast, back through France and I arrived back about two days before Christmas Day. It took us six weeks and lo couldn’t get any film to take any pictures on the way but it all went fine, you know. We’d find a little hotel every night and booked into it. Oh, the young, we had a great help. The young MT officer was going out of the Service and he said, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘You couldn’t find room for me?’ I had the Ford Zephyr. A big car. I had big cases on the top you know and I said, ‘Oh, we can squeeze you in, Norman.’ So he came with us. Well, before we got to Algiers he said, ‘You know, the engine’s making a nasty noise. I think you’d better stop.’ So I stopped and he dipped the, I didn’t know there was a dipstick for the engine oil. The oil. Gear oil. It was dry. So he said if we’d gone on another ten miles it would have seized up. So he went, he hitchhiked about twenty miles into one of the towns. I can’t think of which one. He said, ‘I couldn’t get the proper oil. I got some oil. That’ll get us to the next town.’ And it did and we got, there was a Ford dealer there you know and Northern Algiers. It wasn’t as far as that. No. I can’t remember where it was. Anyway, we got the car checked over and it was ok and filled up with the proper oil and we carried on. Crossed over from Tangier to Gib. My eldest son, it was misty, it was just before Christmas and suddenly Gibraltar appeared. I knew the skipper of the ship because I’d met him when he was on Hastings. He used to come in the mess you see. And two days later we were in what’s the [pause] Malaga. That’s right. David who was about six and a half then. He said, ‘You know dad. I’m going to join the Navy.’ It was this strip across, you know just the thing from, so I said, ‘You’re not joining the Navy until you go to university.’ But he applied to Dartmouth and was accepted. He served a year. He loved it but he said, he came home one day and he said, ‘Dad, I’m not going to be a normal Naval officer.’ It was a bit snotty you know and he liked to do what he liked and when he liked and he said, ‘I think I want to come out.’ So I saw his CO who said, he was doing engineering he said, ‘If he doesn’t come out within three months they won’t let him out because he was doing all the, getting all this training.’ He’d just done the service training. So anyway, we didn’t have to pay much but we got him out and he applied for university and all three accepted him. He went to Swansea and got a good degree in engineering and he’s the one who’s in America now. Seventy years old. Still working. Loving it.
GT: Well —
JJ: Teaching you know modern electronics and whatnot to everybody.
GT: Well, military is obviously in your family Jack and I’m looking at your logbook from 1954 in Shallufa and I can see the aircraft types range from the Hastings to the Valetta, Beaufighter and Pembroke.
JJ: Oh, we had the Beaufighter at Shallufa.
So the, well where was that from?
JJ: Used to go down and the CO flew in and I went with him and we used to go down and get fruit and veg from Akaba because the Egyptians wouldn’t let us buy any local fruit and veg. The NAAFI. So we used to go and fill it up there. Probably got a bit of whisky as well I think.
GT: So, by, by March 1955 you were back in England and it says here you were based in [Khormaksar?]. What aircraft types did you work on from there and where did you move to?
JJ: I went to 18 Group when I came back from first of all from the Middle East. I can’t remember which station. 18 Group were the headquarters at near Rosyth. Pitreavie Castle. That was it. It was the headquarters and it controlled all the aircraft in the Atlantic you know. All the Shackletons and everybody else in the Atlantic. Anti-submarine warfare. And there again I said, ‘Can I get back flying on Transport Command?’ And again the [unclear] people said, ‘We can’t. The Air Ministry do that. But if you like we can get you on to Shackletons.’ So I jumped at it and I went up to Kinloss and did the Shackleton course and I went to Ballykelly as a flight commander then for about two years.
GT: Two years on Shackletons.
JJ: Yeah. Great. We used to do, well fifteen hour trips mainly. One a month fifteen hours which was pretty wearying and you worked all the time. You didn’t just fly around. You had a rendezvous out with a submarine somewhere in the Atlantic you know and probably a ship and you got sonar buoys tracking the submarine. You did exercises with them out, two or three hundred miles out or more in the Atlantic and you used to get the odd ship, trip to Gibraltar as a bonus occasionally. But it was all anti-submarine work all the time you know tracking Russian submarines. Very interesting work photographing them if there were warships out. Fly alongside and wave [laughs]
GT: So, your logbook reads that you were on 204 Squadron for most of that time.
JJ: That’s right. I was flight commander.
GT: And then your last entry in your logbook is from MOTU, St Mawgan.
JJ: That’s right. I was posted down at OC Ground Training at St Mawgan. Again the Shackleton.
GT: And your last flight —
JJ: Operational Conversion Unit. Yeah.
GT: And your last flight showing 29 June 1966.
JJ: What was that in?
GT: Shackletons.
JJ: Shackleton. Yeah.
GT: And your final hours total two thousand two hundred and fifty two hours fifty minutes by day, and night six hundred and ninety three twenty five minutes. That’s, that’s a huge sum of hours there Jack.
JJ: Quite a lot isn’t it. Yeah.
GT: Total.
JJ: Yeah. It was a lovely aeroplane to fly in, the Shackleton you know. It was reliable and and the crew we had five radio, five radio operators and two that rotated the jobs. One on radar, one on tracking the sonar buoys, another one looking out and observing. One probably in the galleys [laughs] And I forget what the other one did but it was enjoyable flying you know. Good crew flying.
GT: So when did you retire from the RAF?
JJ: I went out from St Mawgan to Cyprus as OC of the ops room there. Most of our aircraft we had to control the Vulcans at [pause] what’s the place?
GT: Akrotiri?
JJ: Akrotiri. That’s right. Actually, I had all the Vulcan. I had top secret. It was more than top secret. It was something else. I had the safe with all the plans for a war with Russia. Even the air commodore wasn’t allowed to look at it, believe it or not. The air commodore. And I used to give him, he wanted, he only lived across the road like that in a big thing, you know and he used to come across to the Ops Room every morning for briefing. And then he found out in the UK they had television so they sent me back to Bomber Command to do a quick course on television presenting and we got television in and so I briefed him just across the road. Pointed to the targets every morning on the television. I can’t believe it. Absolute waste of money and we used to like to see him as well because he’d have a chat. He sat in his office with his briefing on the screen. Oh dear.
GT: So the ultimate for you was —
JJ: And from there I was OC. I went out with short notice from St Mawgan. The previous squadron leader was someone I knew. He had been CO of ASWDU, Air Sea Warfare Development Unit at Londonderry. Yeah, where, I did a tour there as well. He was a very efficient chap and he fell out with the group captain and he packed him up one weekend and sent him home. Said he wanted another officer. So I was, went out because they wanted a maritime man out there. I went out at about a week’s notice to, to Headquarters and took over the ops room there. And then I was coming out. I was due out at forty nine. So I put in an application to stay in you know to normal retiring age sixty years and they came back and said they couldn’t give me a flying job, you know. You know, flying. But they offered me to transfer to the supply branch so I went as OC. I did the course, and it was funny there were two of us. Two. A pole and myself had been wartime and the other, I think eighteen students were all university. Fellas and girls and we came top of the course. We didn’t know a thing about it but you see they were out at dances every night and enjoying themselves in the pubs and we were sitting, we sat together and swatted. Anyway, we came top of the course which was very satisfying and I went to the Helicopter Conversion Unit which was good because I never put that in my logbook, you know. I had the odd flight there and worked with them and I found it was the easiest job I’d had in the Air Force. Being OC Supply for a big unit, you know. I thought my golly some people have had an easy time. And from there I was very keen to settle in Scotland and I applied for any chance of a job at Kinloss. About the only place and they said no. But they offered me a job at Carlisle. OC packaging. So I went on another course and learned about packaging and I packed everything from a split pin to an aircraft wing you know at Carlisle. And again it was good. They were all civilian. They just had one squadron leader and then they were all civilians. The rest were people in the hangars you know. But we got on well again and I found it a piece of cake you know from flying days with all the troubles and things that happened when you were flying. It was, it was easy going. Yeah. Quite fun. So that was my career.
GT: And this, you retired from Carlisle.
JJ: I retired from Carlisle.
GT: And what year was that, Jack?
JJ: I tried to get a job, fifty five and thirty two. Seventy seven. I tried to get a job and I thought I’m in packaging you know. Equipment. I went to a big furniture place in Carlisle and I told him what I’d been doing and I said, ‘You know, we’ve got the computer and we put in automatic supply when something is sold and whatever.’ Well, they hadn’t got any and he said, ‘I’m afraid you’re too experienced.’ He was afraid I was going to take over his job. I said, ‘I’m quite happy to do a menial job. I just want a job to do something.’ So he said, ‘I’m sorry. No.’ He thought I was after his. And then I decided well I’d met Joyce. My wife and I hadn’t been getting on for a long time. You’re not putting this on tape are you?
GT: No. So ok, you met Joyce and —
JJ: I met Joyce and we got married after about three years. But the reason I haven’t been, you’ve got nothing on there I would have loved to have gone to New Zealand, you know. All the New Zealand people I knew I loved them. I got on so well with them and I loved fishing and I would have loved to have gone to South Island with a caravan but because I married after I left the Air Force Joyce wouldn’t get any pension from the RAF. They changed it now but not retrospective. So if I passed out you know as I very well could have done at any time on I didn’t tell them why. I just said no. I don’t want to go. She would have got about a hundred and ten pounds a week to live on you know. No pension from the RAF and no pension from her husband who had died. He was a bank manager. So she would have had about a hundred pounds, you know. I threw away thoughts about going to New Zealand.
GT: Did you keep in contact with any, one of the people from earlier crews like 75 or 218?
JJ: No. I tried to but they said their wartime crews you see. I wrote to the New Zealand government to ask for flight, well he’d been a pilot officer then and gave his name and they said they were sorry they couldn’t disclose. Perhaps they thought there might have been something funny. I don’t know. Then I wrote to the MOD about my bomb aimer, Jock earlier than that and they said they couldn’t give me any information and I presumed he’d been killed because he went back. He went back to 75, Jock Somerville for his second tour and I never knew that until I met his son Simon all these years afterwards and he’d survived and we could have seen. We were such good pals you know flying together. So that put paid really to any keeping in touch with people.
GT: Any, any other stories you can think of from your wartime Bomber Command?
JJ: I don’t think so really. Nothing at the moment. No.
GT: So you joined up for Bomber Command —
JJ: There was plenty of, you know, excitement. We invariably I should think every three trips you were attacked by a fighter or you had searchlights on you or something like that you know and you were corkscrewing and pretty worried and short of fuel. Fuel troubles you know from flak in the tanks and whatnot. Losing fuel flying back short. Diverted. Bad weather when you got back. You were always a bit worried. Quite a lot of aircraft they put oil drums out on the, I forget the diversion airfield now. Flare path you know and you could get in there if you pushed the fog out a few yards. But, well, I would think you know one flight in three you were a bit worried when you got back you know getting down and getting short of fuel and that sort of thing. One thing I’ll never understand that our squadron, 75 we only had a tot of brandy on two occasions after a long trip to Berlin. I think both occasions I think it was and yet you hear people from other squadrons used to get it regularly you know. A nip of brandy when you finished debriefing, yeah and went off to bed. But you see we were in Nissen huts on 75. I think there were five either side officers. Well invariably you know you probably got back 3 o’clock in the morning or something like that. You’d just get to sleep and the lights would go on and the adj would come in with the station warrant officer collecting up somebody’s kit. You know. It happened almost every trip you know. You could guarantee it. It was terrible really. So many people. You see there weren’t a lot of, there weren’t many commissioned navigators. The pilots, a lot of them there were still a lot of sergeant pilots you see. I had a sergeant pilot as well. But so there weren’t many commissioned people in Nissen huts you know but most of the pilots, most of them were pilots and they’d come in and just collect. The only good thing was that the New Zealanders used to get food parcels. They used to get oysters and I was afraid I didn’t fancy oysters then. Joyce loves them. I still don’t really like them. I tried one. And fruit cake. And we used to have these lovely fruit cakes around the little fire in the middle of the room you know. Had a job to get the fuel for it in the cold weather but the lads used to dish out this fruit cake all around and, which was lovely. Always remember that fruit cake from New Zealand. But everybody got on so well you know. You were, they were great people. I just loved them all I would have loved to have emigrated to New Zealand. If I’d had, if I hadn’t got the, you know the job, the permanent commission I would have definitely gone I think.
GT: You’ll be pleased to know that Roy Max’s medals have been loaned to us in New Zealand by his wife.
JJ: Oh good.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: Good. Marvellous. Wonderful. Now, Dickie Broadbent was my flight commander. Did you ever know him?
GT: I met Dickie Broadbent quite a bit.
JJ: I say I, I only spoke to him on the phone. I’d have loved to have gone down and met him somehow but the following year I think he died. I can’t remember the other flight commander’s name or, the bombing leader was a great fellow. We used to have long chats. He and another fellow before he joined the Air Force they used to go off into the mountains shooting deer. They’d go for about four months and they’d live on deer meat and porridge stuff that they made up for four months. And they said for the other month remaining they made enough money they kept some of the tails or something and others they took photos or what. Anyway, they were able to prove how many deer they’d shot and he said, ‘In that four months we both made enough money —' he wasn’t married, ‘To live it up in a good hotel for the other eight months of the year.’ Wonderful, wasn’t it?
GT: Yeah.
JJ: I saw a programme a couple of years ago. They don’t do that now. They go in helicopters and shoot them because there are far too many aren’t there?
GT: Yeah.
JJ: South Island. Yeah.
GT: Well, the farmer —
JJ: He was a great lad. I can’t remember his name now. He was the bombing leader and gunnery leader you know. I can’t think of his name. I used to have long chats with him about New Zealand you know. Particularly the island fishing. They’d take their fishing rod as well of course up there and they’d sleep on this for four months he said and then live it up in a hotel for the other eight months.
GT: So your aircraft preference? The Lancaster or the Stirling or the Shackleton?
JJ: Say again? The —
GT: Your preference.
JJ: Preference? I think the Lancaster you know. We had the utmost faith in it. I think it was mainly because the losses were so heavy on the Stirling. We still liked it, you know. We were, we were quite heavy on it and it got us back as I say a lot of times. Very often on three engines. More often than not on three engines all the way back. One would seize up or something or get shot up with a night fighter but we always got back alright. And we, we came back on two on one occasion whereas the Lanc would fly on two grand you know. You could almost fly on one once you got rid of the bombs. And of course, two years later or a year and a half later the equipment was more reliable. We had Air Position Indicators, and we had [pause] What did we have on the Shack? The API, the Air Position Indicator was a great help when they brought that out so you didn’t have to give a manual plot all the time you see what you were steering to get your winds. You wanted your manual plot and in a fix that would give you wind. But the API would give you an air position where you’d be if there was no wind you see. Work from the air pressure and whatnot of the pitot head. That was the great thing and we did and the last few trips on the Lancaster we had the oh, the radar. What did you call it?
GT: H2S?
JJ: H2S as well. And that was a great help navigation. You know you could pick up rivers and things like that. Made it so much easier at night. You’d see when you were crossing the river and it was wonderful check on ground speed and everything and small towns as well. You could work out where you were with that. So that was, that was that was the great thing about the Lanc. Having that. Once we got the H2S, we didn’t get it until about halfway through the tour I think but when we got it it was great. But the thing I remember the most was the good comradeship always, you know. No matter rank. NCOs didn’t mean any different you know when you were together. It didn’t matter if you were a sergeant or you were a squadron leader you were all doing your job and fine, you know. In the Shack we used first names for all the sergeant AO operator. You know, air signallers etcetera in the airplane. We used, we’d use the first names and then they brought in you must say, ‘Pilot to nav.’ You mustn’t use your name. That was getting on after the war you see on the Shackletons you’d got the people in Cranwell trained in MOD who said we’d got to get back to the old systems ,you know. Keep people apart.
GT: So Jack you’ve had a marvellous career in the RAF.
JJ: I enjoyed everything too. That’s the great thing you know. I was never unhappy. I wasn’t very happy on the flying you know. When you’re on ops you think God am I going to get back or not, you know. If I’m always thought if I’m lucky I’ll bale out. Try and get back or in a POW camp but I never expected. I wouldn’t have put any money on finishing a tour you know because chaps were disappearing every night really. First class chaps you know. Just couldn’t believe it. It was upward firing young guns cannon that the Jerries had were fatal you know. Particularly in the last year of the war. God. Remember was it Nuremberg we lost about ninety bombers I think, one night. Terrible. They got something wrong. Met winds or something and it was a clear night and they just shot them down. I went to Nuremberg and we did a, Joyce and I last year did a trip on the Rhine and we went to Nuremberg and I must say they showed all the pictures you know and I thought my God I can’t believe how they’d built it all up. Skyscrapers are going, you know. Wonderful.
GT: Did you think about the damage that was happening underneath you? Was it just a job or —
JJ: I didn’t think about the damage. I used to feel for the folks and families down there, you know. You’d think, God, what are we doing this to them for? You know. Because you know although you had, although you had an aiming point and hundreds of people were getting killed and injured as well and you used to think about that. I think night time when you’re in bed you thought oh poor blighters you know. What a crazy world this is. Sort of getting nowhere by pulverising the place to death and families you know getting blown apart. I used to think about that a lot actually. I think probably everybody did but you just had your job to do. Oh, I’ll show you those two pictures.
GT: Now, Jack, what, what did you have? Bomber Harris, he was your leader.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: What was thought of him?
JJ: We thought he was a good man. He was doing a good job.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: And and who did you have visit? Did you have anybody visit you on the squadron like the King or —
JJ: No. I always seem to be falling over nowadays. I lose my balance. No. We didn’t. We had, oh no that was after the war. I was on a fighter station and was it [ ] we got sort of five minutest notice. But annual inspections you know you get a fortnight to prepare and everything was on the top line but this fighter man you’d suddenly get a message to say he’s on his way down in a Spitfire. He just came down and he said, ‘I’d like to go and see the airmen’s mess.’ That was just after the war. He came down to Bentwaters I think. A very cheery nice fellow. But he, you know they couldn’t, you couldn’t fool him what was happening on the station. He did that all over the place apparently. They got the message on the VHF about a quarter of an hour before he arrived. He just walked down and invariably went along to the airmen’s mess and sergeant’s mess and wandered around for a bit and then cheerio and back again. It was good leadership wasn’t it?
GT: Yeah. Did they mention anything about Tiger Force to you?
JJ: No. This was for the Far East wasn’t it?
GT: Yeah.
JJ: Yeah. No. I finished my second tour you see so I, but the rest of the squadron thought they were probably going out. Yeah.
GT: Well, Jack I think we’ve covered a huge part of your —
JJ: I hope its been a help.
GT: Your career.
JJ: But a very good memory now you know for names etcetera but I enjoyed chatting to you anyway.
GT: Well, thank you Jack because this this will go into the archives at in Lincoln.
JJ: I think. And polish it up and —
GT: Yeah and it’s been it’s been an honour to sit and chat with you.
JJ: Yeah.
GT: For the time that you served.
JJ: Thank you.
GT: And it’s been marvellous so —
JJ: Thank you.
GT: I’m going to sign off now. This is Glen Turner who has been interviewing Mr Jack Jarmy and Jack whereabouts do you live?
JJ: Now?
GT: Gatehouse of Fleet.
JJ: Gatehouse of Fleet near Dumfries.
GT: Near Castle Douglas, Dumfriesshire.
JJ: In Scotland. So this is the 25th of July 2017 and my interview with Jack Jarmy is now concluded and this is Glen Turner saying thank you Jack very much for your service.
GT: Ok.
JJ: And your, your time tonight.
GT: Thank you. I hope it’s been useful.
JJ: Very much so.
GT: Ok. This is now the end of our interview.
JJ: Yeah. Yeah. Ok.
GT: Please show me your photographs, Jack.
JJ: My photographs as well.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: I’ve got no photographs of 75 but I’ve got two you weren’t supposed to pinch your bombing —
GT: Oh photographs.
JJ: The flash.
GT: The photoflash.
JJ: I’ve got one there.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: You can see where it is and that was the target. You can see it was.
GT: Obliterated. Yeah.
JJ: Just about.
GT: Flashed out.
JJ: Yeah. And I’ve got one picture of the old that I got somewhere or other. The Stirling. Only one. You know, you just couldn’t get photographs or anything. This is Canada. And there’s one more. That’s right. Is it Castel or something.
GT: Yes. It is. It’s got Castel there. Yeah.
JJ: Yeah. And this was Ely when I was doing afterwards on the Shackletons for the [pause] No. Sorry, 218 Squadron that must have been. Yeah. GH bombing. Yeah.
GT: Yeah. Well that’s March ’45 you’ve got.
JJ: That was the target. That’s right. Yeah. That was the target and we qualified on that. On that picture and I managed to get that. There was something about 75 I cut out. I can’t read it now. My eyes aren’t very good.
GT: Ok. I’ll take a photograph of that tomorrow because it’s quite, quite small. So where you see that’s wrong too because it’s got the wrong crown on it.
JJ: Yeah. I see.
GT: Yeah. So where was this one? In Belgium.
JJ: They must have given us that in Belgium. Yeah. Yeah.
GT: That’s a shame.
JJ: That’s the —
GT: That’s a window with —
JJ: Yes. That’s right. When we went to this Belgian sergeant had resurrected and dug a swamp with a crowd of people obviously and got the Stirling out and they invited us over then, you know. Civic function. And they gave us a lovely time for about four days or so.
GT: What year was that Jack?
JJ: Now, it was the first year we were here so it’s, or the second year. Thirty years ago. Thirty years ago. Yeah. And that was a Stirling but I don’t know from which squadron it was but it was Mepal that arranged the trip.
GT: Ah. Ok.
JJ: You see. We went with a bunch of people from Mepal. That was in the Canal Zone and a Daily Mail reporter. That was when I was OC admin.
GT: Wow. [pause] Great photos.
JJ: Don’t know what those cuttings are. Must be something from the paper. I don’t know what there was.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: Cuttings from the paper. [pause] I don’t know what that was.
GT: It’s great It’s great that you’ve got some photographs. That you ended up on a four engine jobby again. Very good, Jack. And let’s just confirm the time for us. It is quarter past eleven at night
JJ: Ten past yeah
GT: Oh gosh. Well obviously, you’ve got a day tomorrow so we’d better —
JJ: Well just, we’ve got to get this freezer you know.
GT: Yeah.
JJ: No rush. We never go to bed before about 11 o’clock. Joyce is a night bird. She’ll stay up longer that I do.
GT: Well, those are probably —
JJ: Oh, I think that bit fell out.
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 Jack Jarmy
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Glen Turner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-26
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AJarmyJFD170726, PJarmyJFD1703
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
01:38:26 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal New Zealand Air Force
Description
An account of the resource
Jack Jarmey was born in Romford Essex. At the age of five. following the death of his father, Jack moved to live with his grandparents in Illfracolme. Despite excellent results in all his subjects at Grammar School Jack left school at 15 to work in the family business. On his eighteenth birthday Jack signed up to join the Royal Air Force as a pilot and commenced training at No 9 Initial Training Wing at Stratford-upon-Avon followed by elementary flying training school at Swindon. Flying training continued in Florida and Montgomery Alabama flying Stearmans. Following a bad landing Jack was cancelled from flying training and transferred to Trenton Ontario for navigator training. On completion of training he returned to the UK onboard the Queen Elizabeth with 14,000 other aircrew. Jack joined No 11 operational training unit at RAF Oakley in April 1943 flying Wellingtons and completed his training at No 1651 heavy conversion unit at RAF Waterbeach flying Stirlings. Posted to 75 Squadron at RAF Mepal in July 1943, Jack completed 26 operations. He commented on the much-improved Gee Mk2 navigation system which he said was very accurate up to the Dutch coast. He also recalled being in the astrodome during the operation on Peenemünde and called on his pilot to corkscrew as he could see a Lancaster above them with their bomb doors open, the Stirling he explained had a much lower flying ceiling than the Lancaster. On completion of his first tour Jack trained crews at No 3 Lancaster finishing school at RAF Feltwell for ten months before joining 218 Squadron in early 1945 for a second tour of operations flying Lancasters. Jack commented on the increased accuracy of Gee-H navigation with multiple aircraft in formation with the Gee-H equipped aircraft during daylight operations. Jack had completed a total of 41 operations and remained in the RAF following a permanent commission. He served in a number of administrative and flying roles in the Far East and the UK including Shackeltons at RAF Ballykelly on anti-submarine maritime patrols, finally retiring in 1977.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
United States
Alabama
Alabama--Montgomery
Canada
Ontario
Ontario--Trenton
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Norfolk
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Germany
Germany--Peenemünde
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jim Sheach
Julie Williams
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-04-25
1943-07-25
1944-01-08
1945-02
1945-04-24
1977
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending revision of OH transcription
11 OTU
1651 HCU
218 Squadron
75 Squadron
aircrew
Bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943)
Gee
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
lack of moral fibre
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
navigator
Operational Training Unit
RAF Feltwell
RAF Mepal
RAF Oakley
RAF Shallufa
RAF Waterbeach
Shackleton
Stearman
Stirling
training
Wellington