Browse Items (86 total)

  • Tags: ditching

MCurnockRM1815605-171114-010.pdf
The news-sheet of the RAF ex-POW Association. This edition covers the award of an OBE to the Association's President, the Prisoners of War memorial at Hendon, Trooping the Colour, the annual parade of the Air Cadets, a visit to RAF Cranwell, Lunches,…

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PCoxOV2003.jpg
Owen Cox went to a grammar school in York and joined the Home Guard when the war started. At 18 he joined the Royal Air Force, although his parents were not keen. His initial trade was ground wireless operator (Morse), waiting to attend a gunnery…

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PSearleROJ17060008.jpg
Six photographs from an album.
Photo 1 is the nose of Halifax 'W' with the nose art of 'Willie the Wolf' depicting a naked woman pursued by a wolf. There are 44 operations marked.
Photo 2 is an airman on top of a Halifax.
Photo 3 is underneath the…

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PStachiewiczM17010029.jpg
A chart of central England used for navigation. It is annotated with navigational fixes. The position of a dinghy is marked with the date 23/6/42.
In the top corner is a photograph of an airman in the cockpit of his aircraft.
There is a yellow post…

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SWatsonC188489v1-1.pdf
A memoir written by Cliff Watson divided into 20 chapters.

The Earliest Years.
Born in Barnoldswick, then in Yorkshire, now in Lancashire in 1922. His father ran a wireless business until 1926. He describes his years at schools and a move to…

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Five Group Newsletter, number 27, October 1944. Includes a foreword by the Air Officer Commanding, and features about operations, gardening, signals, tactics, air bombing, navigation, this month's bouquets, radar navigation, training, second thoughts…

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Five Group Newsletter, number 25, August 1944. Includes a foreword by the Air Officer Commanding, and features about sports, engineering , war effort, gunnery, training, equipment, photography, gardening, war savings, second thoughts for pilots,…

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Five Group Newsletter, number 24, July 1944. Includes a foreword by the Air Officer Commanding, and features about second thoughts for pilots, gardening, war effort, signals, armament, war savings, navigation, radar navigation, navigation training,…

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MHuntleyR1436327-171005-03.jpg
Top left a half length portrait of a man sitting in shirt sleeves. In the background other people. Captioned 'Ron Huntley'. Bottom right - air to sea view of a high speed launch on the right heading left towards a dinghy bottom left. Captioned 'This…

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BLillieCFLillieCFv1.pdf
Account of the operation to locate a German submarine and shooting down of a United States Navy PB4Y-1 Liberator by a Ju 88 in February 1944. Author is the nose gunner/bomb aimer and describes the operation, attack by fighters, ditching, escape to…

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MCruickshankG629128-150428-290001.jpg
Procedures for all seven crew positions for ditching stations, exit and order of leaving aircraft, order of boarding dinghies, actions before ditching and action immediately aircraft comes to halt after ditching.

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Five Group Newsletter, number 23, June 1944. Includes a foreword by the Air Officer Commanding, and features about gunnery, air bombing, navigation, armament, navigation training, public relations, signals, gardening, equipment, air sea rescue,…

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Five Group Newsletter, number 22, May 1944. Includes a foreword by the Air Officer Commanding, and features about armament, war savings, flying control, engineering, flight engineers, gardening, prisoner of war fund, air bombing, navigation,…

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Five Group Newsletter, number 21, April 1944. Includes a foreword by the Air Officer Commanding, and features about process of servicing, gardening, navigation, honours and awards, signals / radar, tactics, air bombing, radar / navigation, link…

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Five Group Newsletter, number 20, March 1944. Includes a foreword by the Air Officer Commanding, and features about processes of navigation, signals/radar, photography, gardening, Gee, flying control, H2S, decorations, tactics, flight engineers, war…

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Five Group Newsletter, number 18, January 1944. Includes a foreword by the Air Officer Commanding, and features about training, signals, gunnery, accidents, bombing, decorations, photography, engineering, armament, navigation, flying control,…

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SHollisAN124522v10013.jpg
List of aircraft with aircraft letter, what happened to the aircraft, and some with hours or number of operations..

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PCheshireGL1819.jpg
A group of aircrew wearing tunic and side or peaked caps standing looking into a swimming pool where a rubber dingy is floating. Reported to be possibly 102 Squadron. On the reverse 13.08.40 No. 4. Additional information about this item was kindly…

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PPattersonGE1901.jpg
Before joining the Royal Air Force on 4 February 1942, Ernie worked as an apprentice joiner. On being called up he went to RAF Blackpool for training, which included Morse code. Following training at different places he then attended the advanced…

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PWynneH1825.jpg
Helga (00:00-34:00) was born in Kiel in 1926. Her father was a sailor, who then worked at Krupp shipbuilding yard; her mother was a tram driver during the war. None of her brothers were called up, either because of age or disability. She mentions…

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PStonemanMW1801.jpg
Maurice Stoneman was posted to 57 Squadron at RAF East Kirkby as the flight engineer on Lancasters in 1943. He recalls that on returning from operations they used to fly around the Boston Stump and around Lincoln Cathedral before finally landing. In…

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AMarshallJ180116.mp3
Jack went to New Zealand in 1937 and became a steward in a gentleman’s club in Napier, where he stayed two years until the war broke out. He joined the Royal Air Force and went to England where he did train at RAF Uxbridge to become an air gunner.…

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ALeithJM170112.mp3
James McKenzie Leith was a swimming instructor before he joined the RAF. He trained as a gunner and was posted to 429 Squadron at RAF Leeming. On their first operation their aeroplane was damaged and they attempted an emergency landing but this was…

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PHuntleyR1702.jpg
Ronald Huntley enlisted in the Royal Air Force as a flight mechanic, before volunteering to join Air Sea Rescue. Born in Edmonton, London, he represented his school in athletics at Crystal Palace and witnessed its destruction by fire in 1936. After…

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PGoldbyJL1701.jpg
John Goldby was born in Kent but the family moved to London the year after. He was inspired to join the RAF when a schoolfriend joined and became a Spitfire pilot. John believes that it was a mid-air collision with a night fighter that led to his…

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