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Interview with Harvey Hayward Bawden
Harvey Bawden, from Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, volunteered for the Royal Australian Air Force in 1942 at the age of 18. After initial training school and assessment as an air gunner, he was shipped to England via the United States. After crewing…
Interview with Hayden Philip Rose
Hayden Philip Rose was born on the 27th of July 1924. After leaving school he worked in the Simmonds factory office before joining the RAF in 1943, training as an engineer. His brothers also joined, becoming a pilot and a navigator. Upon meeting his…
Interview with Hazel Carby
Hazel Carby discusses her father Carl's early life in Jamaica, his experiences training in Canada and serving as aircrew in the RAF, and how he and his family were treated in London in the post war period.
She also discusses her research into her…
She also discusses her research into her…
Interview with Heather Hindley
Heather Hindley was a young girl living in Nottingham and attending private school when war was declared. She discusses air raids, sleeping in her grandparents’ shelter and rationing. She talks about the experience of moving to the countryside at…
Interview with Helga Cent-Velden
Helga Cent-Velden (b. 1926) recounts her life in Berlin, living under constant threat of bombing. She describes how her father tried to locate a suitable air raid shelter for the family and, especially, how he ruled out the Shell House because of a…
Interview with Helga Wynne
Helga Wynne was born into a family of twelve in 1926 in Kiel, Germany. She describes her childhood and her father working as a shipbuilder in the dockyards. She left school at 14 and went to work on a farm. She fell through the hayloft opening,…
Interview with Helga Wynne and Gordon Atkinson
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…
Interview with Helmut Köhler
Helmut Köhler (b. 1928) recalls his wartime experience as Luftwaffenhelfer. He provides a first-hand account of two attacks on Kassel, the first on the 22 October 1943 and the second in March 1944. He describes his time spent inside the air-raid…
Interview with Henry Moss
Henry grew up in Bradford and left school just before the outbreak of war. He had various jobs like working in the mill, a greengrocer’s shop, the dye works and then garment cutting for the army. At 17 and a half was called up in London where he…
Interview with Henry Pollock
Harry Pollock grew up in London and worked as an apprentice floor layer and as a fireman on the London Midland Scottish Railway before he joined the RAF in 1943. After training, he completed 36 operations as an air gunner with 78 Squadron from RAF…
Interview with Henry Townsley
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…
Interview with Henry Wolfe Wagner. Two
Henry’s aircraft was shot down when the fuel tank exploded on the starboard wing and came down in Holland. Henry was the only member of the crew to bail out. Their target had been the armament works in Duisburg. Henry drifted across the River…
Interview with Herbert Adams
Herbert Adams grew up in New South Wales, Australia and joined the Air Training Corps as soon as it was established. He later joined the Royal Australian Air Force and, after training, he completed a tour of operations as a navigator with 467…
Interview with Herbert James Wylde
Herbert James Wylde was working in local government in Glasgow before he volunteered for aircrew training with the RAF. He started pilot training and had gone solo when he was sent to Canada to continue training. While there he began training as a…
Interview with Herbert Tinning
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…
Interview with Hilary Crozier
Hilary’s uncle, William Frederick Burkitt (known as John), was born in North London. He joined up in October 1943 and after training as a flight engineer, was sent to RAF Bardney. During their first operation they were badly hit and the rear…
Interview with Honor Saunders
Honor Saunders lived through the London Blitz. She was initially evacuated but returned to London. Her father was a fire watcher and on one occasion took her to the road bridge near her home to watch London burning. Their own home was damaged by a…
Interview with Hubert Draegert
Hubert Draegert remembers his wartime experiences, first in Berlin and then as an evacuee at his uncle’s farm near Wroclaw. He mentions the bombing of the Berlin State Opera and the repeated efforts made to rebuild the gutted building. He remembers…
Interview with Hugh Lorimer
Hugh Lorimer skipped school to see a flying circus and won a flight in one of the aeroplanes. He later volunteered for the RAF and began training as a wireless operator. He was, initially, posted to Special Duty Flight test flying in India. However,…
Interview with Hugh Parry. One
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…
Interview with Hugh Parry. Two
Hugh Parry was a member of his local ATC and was awaiting the time when he would be able to volunteer for the RAF. His slightly older friends had qualified to train as pilots, navigators or bomb aimers, but because of a backlog of trades they were…
Interview with Ian Henderson
Ian Henderson was born in Lockerbie and studied law at the University of Edinburgh for two years before joining the Royal Air Force. He travelled to Canada onboard the RMS Mauretania to train as a pilot, after two months near Edmonton on Oxford and…
Interview with Ian Petrie
Ian Petrie found himself struggling to find employment in recession hit New Zealand when he saw the advertisement to fly with the RNZAF. He couldn’t contemplate the thrill of flight at a time when opportunity for such travel was rare. He was…
Interview with Inge Heinrich
Inge Heinrich (b.1922) describes the bombing of the Berlin borough of Kreuzberg and recalls how she had dreamt of being buried alive under the rubble but surviving in the end. She tells of how the patent agency building, in which she was working, was…