Browse Items (849 total)

  • Tags: ground crew

PJamesHGW1705.jpg
Harry James grew up in Berkshire and, after school, began training as a plumber. He joined the RAF and completed 33 operations as a rear gunner with 166 squadron. He discusses his crew, of their different nationalities, of how the majority of their…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PBawdenHH1602.jpg
Harvey Bawden, from Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, volunteered for the Royal Australian Air Force in 1942 at the age of eighteen. After initial training school and assessment as an air gunner, he was shipped to England via the United States. After…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

ATownsleyH180314.mp3
Henry Townsley was born near Workington and left school at fourteen years of age and started work as an apprentice vehicle fitter. After a spell as a junior engineer in the Merchant Navy he volunteered, in April 1940, for the RAF, rather than the…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PTinningH1601.jpg
Herbert joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and was posted initially to a communication flight as a fitter. He managed to transfer to aircrew and describes the enlistment process. He went to Somers, then Cootamundra for navigator training…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PRobertsonH1701.jpg
Horace Robertson was working with his father as a shoe repairer in Edinburgh before he joined the RAF. He trained as an electrician and his first posting was at RAF Finningley where he worked on Hampdens. He was then posted to a salvage unit and…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PParryHP1609.jpg
Hugh Parry was born in Oswestry and joined the Air Force in April 1943 and volunteered to be an air gunner. Knowing that there was a height restriction on air gunners of six feet he hid his height by wearing baggy trousers. After training, he was…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PFranklinJB1616.jpg
Jack grew up in Liverpool. His brother was the famous ballet dancer, Frederick Franklin CBE. He describes the Liverpool May Blitz and the paper merchants’ firm, where he worked, was bombed. He returned to his job after the war.
After the Local…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PLambJ1702.jpg
Jim joined up as an aircraft technician as soon as war broke out, thinking it would not last long. He joined 75 Squadron at RAF Feltwell on Wellingtons, then went to RAF Mildenhall, returning to RAF Feltwell. He went to RAF Oakington and RAF…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PCulkinJ1702.jpg
Jean Culkin grew up in Sunderland and worked as a tea girl and then a typist in a reserved occupation. She discusses her life and her wedding to her husband, John George Mackel Culkin. He was an apprentice at RAF Halton before becoming a fitter…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PLancasterJ1501.jpg
After leaving school, Jo Lancaster was an aircraft apprentice with Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company in Coventry. After volunteering for the Air Force, he trained as a pilot and completed a tour on Wellingtons with 40 Squadron from RAF Alconbury.…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

ABondsJA180702.mp3
John Bonds was brought up in London and remembers bombs dropping near him. He joined the RAF as an engine mechanic and after training worked on Spitfires before being posted to bombers. He was injured in an accident in a hangar and spent some time in…

Tags: ; ; ; ;

PBaggJG1602.jpg
John Bagg worked as a clerk before joining the Royal Air Force at the age of twenty. He was trained as an Instrument Mechanic before remustering and completing a specialist camera course. He went on to serve on several training stations. After the…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

AOrmorodJ170207.mp3
John Ormerod left school at 14 and worked in the textile industry before he volunteered for RAF. Initially, he trained as flight mechanic but later re-mustered to be a flight engineer. He talks about synchronising props and the German speaking eighth…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PShipmanJ1802.jpg
John Shipman was born in Stathern, Leicester and as a teenager would cycle to Melton Mowbray to attend ATC meetings. He joined the RAF and started training as a flight mechanic. He joined a troop ship to start his posting and the journey took a very…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

AHicksDK151103.mp3
Ken Hicks grew up in Wales and joined the Royal Air Force as an Apprentice Mechanic at RAF Halton. He worked on Spitfires during the Battle of Britain. He was later posted to Rhodesia and survived a crash in the bush. After the war, He took part in…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PLockeBrownK1505.jpg
Kenneth Locke was born in 1923 and wanted to join the Royal Air Force, following in the footsteps of his father, who was a First World War Pilot. Between leaving school and joining the Royal Air Force, Kenneth worked as a bank clerk, before signing…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

AGreenKS150713.mp3
Kenneth Green was born on the 17th January 1922 at Pleasley, near Mansfield and worked with the Carlton Auxillary Fire Service before joining the Royal Air Force at the age of 20.
He trained as an engineer after he was unable to fly due to eye…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

ATyrellLR150929.mp3
Leonard Ralph Tyrell mentions always being keen on aircraft since he was a boy. He was sent to RAF Syerston near Nottingham for Lancaster Finishing School, and then an advanced flying unit near Wolverhampton, before heading to number 17 OTU at RAF…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

ACattyMA180822.mp3
Martin Catty grew up in London and was evacuated, with his school, to Westward Ho! at the beginning of the war. He completed a short training course at Cambridge University in 1942 and joined the Royal Air Force. After training, he flew 40…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

SRAFIngham19410620v070001-Audio.mp3
Mieczyslaw Maryszczak was born in Bokyivka, Ukraine and served in the Polish Army and then the Polish Air Force. An early memory of the war is throwing bread to starving Russian prisoners being marched from Lviv to Podlesice. At seventeen he was in…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

AHarrisNG160128.mp3
Neil Harris wanted to join the RAF because he was looking for an exciting life experience and an opportunity for further education. He started as a flight mechanic before training as a pilot. Remembers being trained in different locations across the…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PYoungP1601.jpg
Patricia’s family lived in a 500 year old thatched cottage in Waddington. There was a bakery in the grounds, which had been started by her grandparents. Patricia’s father joined the Royal Flying Corp and one of her earliest memories was of him…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

Patrick Rowland volunteered for the RAF in Belfast. He trained as a mechanic. He was posted with 149 Squadron. He volunteered for overseas posting because his brother was a prisoner in the Far East. He did not know at the time that his brother had…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ;

ACourtPR171211.mp3
Percival Robert Court joined the Air Training Corps in March 1941, volunteering for the Royal Air Force at the earliest age of seventeen and a half. Training at RAF Cardington, he became a flight mechanic. He then moved to Skegness to continue into…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

AJonesPWA171207.mp3
Peter William Arthur Jones (b. 1954) speaks about his father Thomas John Jones DFC (b. 1921, 1640434 and 184141 Royal Air Force). Peter Jones discovered a memoir written by his father, Thomas Jones, a flight engineer, just after he passed away. Peter…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

Output Formats

atom, dc-rdf, dcmes-xml, json, omeka-xml, rss2