Browse Items (1517 total)

  • Tags: flight engineer

PKeyEG1701.jpg
Ted Key was a flight engineer. He was born to a large family in London which he remembers coming down from Norfolk to visit. His father was in the Navy as a chief petty officer and away a lot. Ted was in the air defence cadet corps before he joined…

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APaineFE160824.mp3
Two of Evelyn Paine’s three brothers joined the RAF. She discusses the service of her brothers Philip Jenkinson and Peter Raeburn Jenkinson. Philip Jenkinson trained as an air gunner. He was was shot down on his tenth operation and after evading…

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PSearleROJ1709.jpg
Rex Searle joined the RAF in 1938 as an air frame fitter. He was based at Hendon and then at Biggin Hill with 601 Squadron before the squadron was split and he moved with them to France. He was evacuated back to the UK via Boulogne as the German army…

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PSearleROJ1709.jpg
While Rex Searle was an air frame fitter with 601 Squadron he was evacuated from France at the start of the war. He returned home for a short leave but didn’t want to wake the family so waited patiently from 4am until 6am when his mum started her…

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AStapleyVA160802.mp3
Victor Stapley was born in Ilford in Essex, where he was fond of playing cricket. He left school at fifteen and worked at a tobacco company. He then became a shipping manager, a job which involved shipping spaces whilst not having any telephones in…

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PHorshamES1602.jpg
Eric Horsham was born in East London in 1923. Leaving school at 14 he was a messenger at the Royal Ordnance Factory before working for the railways. In 1937 he joined the Air Training Corps and learned about aircraft maintenance. On his first attempt…

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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…

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PWatsonJ1501.jpg
John Robert Watson joined RAF Bomber Command in 1943, volunteering after he witnessed his next-door neighbour's house being destroyed by a bomb. Against his father's wishes, John joined Bomber Command initially as a wireless operator, before…

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PMayBJ1601.jpg
Ben was born in 1925 in Kent and his first job was in the gas works. A member of the Air Transport Command, he was called up in 1944 and, after initial training at RAF Locking, he joined No.4 flight engineers’ course at RAF St Athan for one year.…

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PPackmanDE1601.jpg
Doug grew up in Kent. He joined the Royal Air Force at 18, as a flight engineer for 630 Squadron at RAF East Kirkby in 5 Group Bomber Command, flying Lancasters. He carried out 34 operations, followed by time as an instructor at RAF Syerston,…

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PBridgesCH1701.jpg
Cyril Henry Bridges was born in Ramsgate and served as a flight engineer in the RAF. He tells of his father, a deep-sea fisherman, who fought in the First World War and later helped evacuate troops from Dunkirk. Remembers his early life, taking on…

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PDeverellCRE1901.jpg
Colin Deverell was born in Croydon. Upon leaving school, he worked for Oliver Typewriter Company, where he gained engineering skills to become an amateur rigger for Imperial Airways, before finding employment with Rollaston Aircraft Services in 1939.…

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AMorganVT170908.mp3
Vernon Morgan, from Cardiff, joined the civil service working at the Royal Ordnance Factory, volunteering for the RAF in 1941. After pilot training in South Africa he returned to several different roles: CO of a satellite aerodrome, pilot for…

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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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BSaundersCSGSaundersJWGv10001.jpg
Recollections of John's service career, by his son Clive, including a letter from 44 Squadron Association. It describes John taking fellow RAF volunteers' compulsary swimming tests in their stead and his initial training in Rhodesia. He flew in…

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BMuirCMuirRWLv1 copy.pdf
Written by his nephew, a narrative of Reg's early life, his participation in student exchanges in Germany, joining the Royal Air force, training, life on the station and the crash in which he died, together with air gunners Sergeant Leslie Johnson…

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PPollockHAJ1619.jpg
Five men and one woman at a reunion. They are sitting at a table. One man is holding up a vase of flowers. On the reverse -
'L - R
2 9 Alan Wilmer
3 Mr Polloc [sic]
4 B/A Tommy Noton
W/Op Daniels
F/E Stan Knight'
The reverse is stamped…

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EGarnerDSimpsonHEW440608.jpg
Expresses sympathy over news of Sergeant Henry Simpson who was flight engineer of an aircraft that failed to return from an operation to Versailles.

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SGillK1438901v20027.pdf
Gives service history of Kenneth Gill including training in Canada as navigator, training in England, operations on 9 Squadron with list of his crew. Details targets attacked. Commissioned and awarded Distinguished Flying Cross. After tour on…

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EIvesonDJosephBC440319-0001.jpg
The letter refers to Mr Joseph's son, Flight Sergeant David Joseph who is reported as missing in action. A list of his crew is included. The list does not include Sergeant Louis Makens who joined the crew as mid under gunner and became a prisoner of…

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Harry Parkins.jpg
Before the war, Harry Parkins worked in furniture restoration in Hackney, before later selling bomb-damaged goods in Bethnal Green, working for an engineering firm in Islington until it was bombed and finally as an invoice and warehousing clerk…

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AParkinsHW150612.mp3
Harry shares several memories of his time as a flight engineer in the Royal Air Force. He describes their initial accommodation in luxury London flats, and dinghy training at the local swimming pool. He recounts how in June 1944 they received 17…

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AMcCulloughF210621.mp3
Fred McCullough discusses his series of abstract art works which are an homage to his uncle, Sergeant Harry McCullough, a flight engineer with 61 Squadron. He was killed on his tenth operation and is buried at Durnbach Cemetery.

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SHarriganD[Ser#-DoB]v150002.mp3
Interview in two parts.
Part one.
Chris Allison served as a flight engineer. He answers questions from school children about what it was like to fly in a Lancaster.
Also taking part in this interview was Tony Bradley who was a child in Hull…

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YGeachDG1394781v5.pdf
Fifth and final diary kept by David Geach chronicling his time training and on operations. He writes about his return from Canada on the Queen Elizabeth then his training in England which began with arriving at the Posting Centre in Pannal Ash,…

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