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Interview with Geoff Rushton
Geoff Rushton worked as a bank clerk before he volunteered for the Air Force. He trained as a navigator in Canada and after crewing up flew 20 operations with 15 Squadron from RAF Mildenhall. He and his crew were then posted to 186 Squadron at RAF…
Interview with Geoffrey Charles Spencer
Geoffrey Spencer grew up in Birmingham and worked with his father in tool making, carrying out fire watching as a youngster. He joined the Air Force in August 1943, aged 18. After training, he served as a flight mechanic and fitter with 49 Squadron…
Interview with Geoffrey Whittle
Squadron Leader Geoffrey Whittle was born in London. After leaving school, at 14 he became an apprentice printer in the family business. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force on the outbreak of the Second World War and trained as a navigator and…
Interview with George Anderson
George Anderson was born in County Durham and worked in a grocery shop before he joined the Royal Air Force in 1943. At the end of the war, he flew operations from RAF Ludford Magna, as a wireless operator with 101 Squadron. In 1959 George and his…
Interview with George Arthur Bell
George Arthur Bell, (b. 1925), grew up in Lincolnshire. He was called up to the Army and was posted to India and Burma. George was demobed in 1946.
George lived around Boston a the beginning of the war. After leaving school he worked with his…
George lived around Boston a the beginning of the war. After leaving school he worked with his…
Interview with George Dunn
George was born at Whitstable and was 17 when war was declared. He joined the local Defence Volunteers which became the Home Guard. When he reached 18 he volunteered for air crew. He was interviewed at Chatham and sat an exam and selection board to…
Interview with George Eric Cromarty
George Cromarty joined the Royal Air Force as an AC2 and served as ground personnel before training as an air gunner. He flew operations as the rear gunner with 630 Squadron from RAF East Kirby. He discusses what operations and life on a station were…
Interview with George Holmes
George was born in Mansfield and was bought up by his Grandparents until he was seven when he moved back to his parents in Leicester where his Father ran a coffee shop. He was a semi-professional musician playing violin, trumpet and mandolin. He…
Interview with George Mackie
George Mackie served in the RAF as a pilot. He flew forty-four operations, fifteen as a second pilot. Was posted to 15 Squadron in 1941 and critically examines the state of Bomber Command at the time. He was posted for eighteen months to RAF…
Interview with George Patrick Smith-Leach
George was born in Chelmsford, Essex. He then moved to Clacton-on-Sea where he went to school before going to a seminary catholic college. When war broke out, he and two other boys aged 15 or 16 ran away from college and went to Ipswich to join the…
Interview with George Royall
George volunteered to be a pilot but settled for Air Observer. He talks about his selection and training in London and then in Stratford-upon-Avon, where enjoyed the theatre and how, at Brighton, illness separated him from the rest of the course. So,…
Interview with George Thomson. One
George Thomson had always wanted to fly. When he volunteered for the RAF he hoped to be a pilot but re-mustered as a navigator. He was posted to 15 Squadron based at RAF Mildenhall. On their first operation they were attacked by fighters three times.…
Interview with George Thomson. Two
George Thomson was a navigator with 15 Squadron based at RAF Mildenhall. On their nineteenth operation they came under attack and had to bale out of the aircraft. The pilot and mid-upper gunner both died. When he landed he saw a parachute stuck in a…
Interview with Gerald Joseph Abrahams
Gerald Abrahams was sixteen when war was declared. He volunteered for the RAF the day after the Armstrong Vickers factory where he worked was targeted by the Luftwaffe who bombed the local school resulting in the deaths of many children. He trained…
Interview with Gerardo Bianchi
L’intervistato è Gerardo Bianchi, nato a Pistoia il 14 dicembre 1905, professore di economia e deputato della Democrazia Cristiana. L’intervista è condotta da Claudio Rosati presso la sua abitazione a Pistoia, il 19 agosto 1983. Quando c’è…
Interview with Gerda Gentner
Gerda Gentner (b. 1934) recalls the first bombing of Dresden on 7 October 1944, and describes how she, unsuccessfully, tried to persuade a young boy to take shelter with her in the basement; she recalls her feelings when she heard that he had died as…
Interview with Gerlinde Keller
Gerlinde Keller (b. 1939) was evacuated in 1942 from Munich to the Altmühltal, in a purpose-built settlement where she lived with her aunt. She explains how the growing intensity of the bombings had made the city unsafe for children and how they…
Interview with Germana Pisa
Germana reminisces her comfortable evacuee life in Gualtieri, supported by local farmers who kept her family well supplied. Describes ditches used makeshifts shelter and daily life in Milan.
Interview with Giancarlo Savino
L’intervistato è Giancarlo Savino, nato a Trieste il 2 giugno 1933, docente universitario. L’intervista è condotta da Claudio Rosati presso la sua abitazione a Pistoia, il 25 agosto 1983. Il 24 ottobre 1943, a mezzogiorno, Giancarlo Savino…
Interview with Gianfranco Maffucci
Gianfranco Maffucci (b. 1930) recalls episodes of everyday life in wartime: bartering for food; going into the shelter when the alarm sounded; men working in the factories while women went to market. He gives a detailed description of his…
Interview with Gianfranco Nardi
Gianfranco Nardi (b. 1933) recalls the first bombing of Cesenatico in 1944, a night action carried out by 'Pippo'. He explains how the aircraft missed the train station and hit the nearby town centre; he maintains that the pilot was drunk. He…
Interview with Giglio Mazzi
Giglio Mazzi (b. 1927) recalls his early life in Reggio Emilia, born into a family with strong anti-fascist sentiments. He describes his first job at the Reggiane works, then at the local labour inspectorate, where he was attached to a debris…
Interview with Gilbert Gray
Gilbert Gray grew up in Dunfermline, joining the Air Training Corps before enlisting in the Royal Air Force as a flight engineer in 1940, aged 18 years. He trained at RAF St Athan in Wales, graduated as a sergeant and was posted onto Lancasters. He…
Interview with Gilberto Martina
Gilberto Martina reminisces his childhood in Chiusaforte and in the Canal del Ferro area: disrupted schooling, fear of Germans, subsistence farming, saboteurs, and one of his mates being killed by a bomb found in a pile of litter. Stressed how the…
Interview with Gillie Street
Gillie Street was born in Aglionby, Carlisle, and spent her early childhood in Tyneside before moving back to Cumberland, aged 11. Gillie recalls attending grammar school in Brampton and her first flying experience on a Barnstormer. Upon leaving…