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Interview with Ray Parke. Two
Ray Parke trained as a flight engineer. During a training flight the pilot wanted to get back to base as soon as possible because he had a date but they were flying a Stirling. The pilot made an error on landing and the wheel stayed in the ditch and…
Interview with Raymond Moore
Raymond Moore flew 31 operations as a flight engineer with 408 Squadron. He describes initial training at Skegness and then further training at Cosford, Halton and St Athan. He describes the crewing-up procedure at Eastmoor and describes the…
Interview with Reg Dunbar
Reg Dunbar enlisted for the RAF in Liverpool and it was suggested that he join as a wireless operator. He went to RAF Cardington initially and then to Yatesbury for training. He also trained as an air gunner, and after training was posted to 37…
Interview with Reg Freeth
Reg Freeth grew up in Wales and worked for the Civil Service in the Labour Exchange before he volunteered for the Royal Air Force. He trained as an observer in South Africa and flew operations served as a bomb aimer with 61 Squadron from RAF…
Interview with Reg Harrison
Reg Harrison grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada and enjoyed watching aircraft when they flew over. He had his first flight as a youngster after borrowing five dollars from a shopkeeper. He volunteered for aircrew as soon as he was of age and…
Interview with Reg Payne. One
Reg Payne was born in Kettering, he left school at fourteen and worked for the British Legion. He volunteered for the RAF when he was seventeen and a half and trained as a wireless operator and air gunner. He describes his training learning Morse…
Interview with Reg Payne. Two
Reg Payne was born in Kettering in 1923. He left school at the age of fourteen and just before he was eighteen he volunteered to join the RAF. He did his basic training at Blackpool learning Morse Code in the tram sheds. From there he did his…
Interview with Reginald Tween
Reginald joined the Royal Air Force in 1943, becoming a flight engineer with 415 Squadron, Bomber Command. He tells of his love of making and flying model airplanes and that, although he wanted to be a pilot, his love of anything mechanical made him…
Interview with Renate Rothaler
Renate Rothaler (b. 1937) recounts her wartime experiences in Gotha, where she lived with her mother and sister, while her father was drafted. She mentions a bombing in spring 1944 when she watched ‘silver birds’ that soon started to drop bombs,…
Interview with Renato Cardarelli
Renato Cardarelli (b. 1923) remembers his youth as an altar boy and then sexton at the church of San Paolo in Rome. He mentions his decision to enter the seminary at 18, where he spent two years, and explains how he was deemed temporarily unfit for…
Interview with Renato Maldarelli
Renato Maldarelli (b. 1937) describes the 1943 bombing of Naples. He remembers being woken up by the alarm, his mother wrapping him in a blanket and going down to a cold shelter. He does not recall the fear of being buried alive under his collapsed…
Interview with Rex Alan Austin
Rex Alan Austin was born in Werribee, Victoria in Australia on 4th of January 1924. Rex’s father served in World War One in the middle east and then transferred to the Australian Flying Corps, later known as the Royal Australian Air Force. Schooled…
Interview with Rex John Arnett
Rex was born in Toronto Canada in 1924 and grew up there, at aged 18 in 1942 he joined the RCAF as aircrew. He initially started training as the second member of a Mosquito crew but was later changed to wireless operator/air gunner and having…
Interview with Rex Searle. Two
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…
Interview with Rex Statham
Rex Statham was born in Luton. His father died in a motorbike accident when he was very young. Although Rex had been very keen to join the Navy he volunteered for the RAF as a flight mechanic. When he realised that many trained mechanics were being…
Interview with Rhona Hay
Rhona Hay was a very young child during the war and lived with her mother while her father was away serving in the RAF. Her brother was also in the RAF and was killed during a training accident. She recalls the acceptance of the bombing and so on as…
Interview with Richard Curnock
Richard Curnock was born in Grantham and joined the Royal Air Force in 1941.He achieved the rank of warrant officer and served in 425 Squadron. Richard tells of how he followed his two older brothers into the services, and his time serving in the Air…
Interview with Richard Harrison
Richard Harrison was born in Cologne in 1924 to a German mother and English father. His desire to be aircrew was thwarted initially by a failed medical, something he later surmises could be on account of his mother’s nationality. A member of the…
Interview with Richard Hollis
Richard’s father, Arthur Hollis, went to Dulwich College as a day boy. He left at sixteen to join the Home Guard , then worked for a firm of accountants for a couple of years before joining the Royal Air Force. He was sent to Manchester University…
Interview with Richard Overy. One
Richard Overy discusses the bombing war. Richard became interested in air power whilst doing doctoral research at Cambridge, studying German aircraft production during World War Two. He started as an economic historian but became a military…
Interview with Richard Overy. Two
Richard Overy discusses how Bomber Command has been remembered. Extracted audio from video interview
Interview with Richard Suchenwirth
Richard Suchenwirth recalls his wartime memories as a Flakhelfer in Pasing, a district of Munich. He tells of his father who was the author of three books on the Luftwaffe, the founder of the Austrian Nazi Party, a political orator and initial…
Interview with Rinaldo Sarani
Rinaldo Sarani reminisces about the bombings of Pavia describing widespread damage at Borgo Ticino and people being extricated out of rubble. Stressed the importance of bridges: ponte della ferrovia, ponte vecchio, ponte dell’impero, ponte della…
Interview with Rita Brooks
Rita’s late husband was Flight Lieutenant Edward Brooks DFC, DFM. He was in the Home Guard before he enlisted with the Royal Air Force in February 1941, and sometime later went to RAF Uxbridge. Following his training at Blackpool the recruits…
Interview with Rita Chapman
Rita Chapman lived in London during the Blitz. She witnessed the sight of the burning docks from her garden. Her family sheltered in their Anderson shelter but twice got buried and had to be dug out. The rescue crews asked them to keep singing until…