IBCC Digital Archive]]> Sparkes, Ned. Album]]> Photograph]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Malta]]> 1977]]> James Sheach]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Sam Harper-Coulson]]> Julie Williams]]> Pending review]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Second generation]]> Great Britain]]> England--Shropshire]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> England--Cambridgeshire]]> Germany]]> Alabama]]> Australia]]> Florida]]> Germany]]> Germany--Düsseldorf]]> Netherlands]]> United States]]> Germany--Ruhr (Region)]]> 1940-01-10]]> 1942]]> 1943]]> 1977]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> eng]]> Photograph]]> Royal Air Force]]> Germany]]> Germany--North Rhine-Westphalia]]> 1977]]> A news cutting reporting the squadron disbandment and another from October 1976 reporting 41 Squadron's 60th birthday celebration.]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> eng]]> Artwork]]> Text]]> Photograph]]> Royal Air Force]]> Great Britain]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> 1976]]> 1977]]> Eric describes his basic training in London and Torbay then recollects his technical training at RAF St. Athan. He then went to 1652 Heavy Conversion Unit at RAF Marston Moor and joined his Halifax crew. In 1944 they were posted to 102 Squadron at RAF Pocklington where there were told that they wouldn't last three weeks.
Eric and his crew carried out a vast range of strategic bombings including daylight operations on V-1 sites, night operations on The Ruhr and Essen, night and daylight operations to oil targets, minelaying in the Baltic. They also provided tactical support in support of Allied troops near Caen and in the Ardennes, where they were badly damaged by a fighter and the mid-upper gunner received serious injuries. After landing at RAF Woodbridge in fog using FIDO he was hospitalised and did not fly again. The crew also supplied petrol to troops in Belgium, enjoying the low-level flying on these trips
Eric describes the sound of shrapnel hitting the aircraft, recalls a bomber exploding in flight, but dismisses the Scarecrow theory. He describes the use of Schräge Musik against the bombers; how search lights in the Ruhr operated, the use of H2S and how the master bomber controlled the rest of the formation.
At the end of his tour Eric remustered and was posted at RAF Jurby as airfield controller. From there he went to RAF Topcliffe and was demobbed in January 1947. Eric went back to the railways for ten years before working in local government. He retired in 1978, moving to Cornwall. While at RAF Pocklington he dated Cora noting that her parents made feel like a son. But he then ended the relationship because, with his own life in such jeopardy, he thought it was unfair on her. After the war he married Ellen, who he had met when starting his first job with the railways.]]>
Chris Brockbank]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Julie Williams]]> Andy Fitter]]> Pending revision of OH transcription]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Great Britain]]> England--London]]> England--Bedfordshire]]> England--Devon]]> England--Suffolk]]> England--Yorkshire]]> Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Isle of Man]]> Wales]]> Wales--Vale of Glamorgan]]> France]]> France--Ardennes]]> France--Caen]]> France--Pas-de-Calais]]> France--Nieppe Forest]]> Germany]]> Germany--Essen]]> Germany--Ruhr (Region)]]> Atlantic Ocean]]> Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea]]> Denmark]]> Denmark--Bornholm]]> 1923]]> 1937]]> 1939]]> 1940]]> 1944-01]]> 1944-02]]> 1944-07-25]]> 1944-09]]> 1945]]> 1946-05-25]]> 1947-01-02]]> 1957]]> 1974]]> 1975]]> 1976]]> 1977]]> 1978]]> 1981]]>
Glen Turner]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Jim Sheach]]> Julie Williams]]> Pending revision of OH transcription]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Royal New Zealand Air Force]]> Great Britain]]> United States]]> Alabama]]> Alabama--Montgomery]]> Canada]]> Ontario]]> Ontario--Trenton]]> England--Buckinghamshire]]> England--Cambridgeshire]]> England--Norfolk]]> Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea]]> Germany]]> Germany--Peenemünde]]> 1943-04-25]]> 1943-07-25]]> 1944-01-08]]> 1945-02]]> 1945-04-24]]> 1977]]>