1
25
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1486/26761/YClarkB1578273v2.2.pdf
561c50fe9e9f73880104d5e04258e1b9
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Warburton, William
W Warburton
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-02-17
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Warburton, W
Description
An account of the resource
Ten items. Sergeant William Warburton (1911 -1944, 1067053 Royal Air Force) flew operations as a flight engineer with 61 Squadron. He and his crew failed to return from operation in january 1944. Collection contains a scarpbook with contributions from most of the crew, letters to his father, letter to A Brander's father as well as Brander's logbook, research on his aircraft loss and locating relatives of the crew by M Warburton (nephew) and extracts from B Clak's diaries for December 1943.<br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Michael Warburton and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br />Additional information on William Warburton is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/124345/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IBCC Losses Database</a>
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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The Diary Extract of Sgt. Bernard Clark ROYAL AIR FORCE VR Dec 20th 1943
Sgt Bernard Clark was 35 when he volunteered for the RAF and was nicknamed 'Granddad' by his fellow crewmembers. All the crew were lost in action in January 1944 whilst returning from a bombing mission over Berlin, in their Lancaster Bomber DV400 QR-Y.
CREW LIST: F/O R.A.West (Bob) Pilot. Sgt W. Warburton (Bill) Flight Engineer. Sgt B. Clark (Bernard) Wireless Operator. P/O F.Langley (Frank) Air Gunner.
F/O A.V.Beetch (Alan) Navigator. F/Sgt L.W. Brander (Phil) AUS Air Gunner P/O L.W.Cuming (Lloyd) CAN Bomb Aimer.
…… A better morning as regards weather, did the usual DI. Bob and Allan came up to 'Y' Good news, ops on.
Checked everything up ok, back to the flights for briefing, low and behold, Berlin for our first op!! Transport to the mess for the ops meal egg and bacon, bread and butter and coffee.
Bill, LLoyd, and I dashed off to change into long underwear. Phil collected coffee and orange, we were transported, all of us, back to the crew room and final briefing then out to the aircraft with half an hour to go to zero.
All excited, engines revved up and down the taxi path with a full load of cookie and incendiaries nickels etc. Quite a crowd to cheer us off, then off we go 6.40pm, climbing up and up then the first snag, Monica packs in on one side. (Device for locating enemy aircraft.)
I go back to check up and find the fuselage door open, the wind pressure was terrific I can only just close the door but cannot fasten it, so back comes Bill (Flight Engineer) with a piece of rope and ties up the door. I manage to get Monica on the go and everything seems grand with first contact with base. Next thing we are over the enemy coast near Amsterdam, tons of cloud and some flak bursting: on to Berlin at about 21,000ft.
Not very cold: We appear to be well on time and in the stream ok, in between Bremen and Hanover right on the markers and bang on track. Lots of flares but cloud too thick for searchlights, up comes the target right on time.
Rear gunner Frank calls back on the intercom to say he has trouble with the oxygen and feeling awful. Bob (Pilot) asks him to hang on till off the target if possible and on we go. LLoyd espies the target markers and we fly level on to them and zump! Bombs gone!! Ok from LLoyd. My thoughts as I felt the floor of the aircraft jerk when the cookie went were: take that one and those and share between you!
Faint call for help from rear gunner Frank and lots of gurgles over the intercom, so Bob asked me to see what I could do for him. Armed with a portable bottle (oxy) I went down to the back of aircraft with the aid of my torch. The back door was open about two inches and by Jove the wind came through like a knife.
I managed to open Frank's doors in his turret, putting my hand and arm under his arm, I stretched up and tried to break ice from his oxygen mask, I could see lots of flares and
lights outside: talk about November 5th!! Just then some tracer shot by us below and behind (luckily.) Frank, although almost out, turned his turret in the direction of the tracer on the port beam, so I was trapped by my arm in between the turret and the rear of the fuselage. I felt scared because I only had 2 minutes left in my oxygen bottle.
I struggled out after what seemed to be ages and then I dropped my torch and lost it, making matters worse.
After what seemed an age I plugged my oxygen tube into the elsan spare and recovered my breath a bit, it was hellish cold although it was only 25 degrees below on the gauge.
I struggled back to my place forward and told Bob how hopeless things were with Frank (we were still well in the flack and flares area in fact a flare just whizzed by our tail, a near thing for us)
Bob gave me a long oxygen tube (spare) and taking two or three portable bottles and another torch I went down to see Frank, he was just all out, I got his doors open again and pulled him flat on his back on the wooden plank (from his turret to the tail cross-member) then I pulled his oxygen mask off and plugged the spare one on to the elsan oxygen point and popped the new mask on his face. After about 5 or 6 minutes he began to flicker his eyes about and try to sit up, but I made him lay still and told him to take his time then get back into his turret leaving the door open, still using the spare mask.
I then went up to the front and started to work again. All this time we were getting away from Berlin and just missed Rostock and on to Denmark, across Denmark and out over the North Sea with lots of flack on the Danish coast. Although Bob had come down several thousand feet to help Frank, we dived through the barrage ok.
Frank gradually got back to normal except his electrical suit did not work and he was very cold: we carried on until we got just off the coast nr Cromer. The cloud only 700 ft high so we kept on until we got back to base.
Base Gave us no 7 position and in we came to make a wizard landing about 12.39 midnight. The ground crew cheered us in and we soon got down to breakfast after interrogation, we eventually got into bed at 2.45 am.
So ended our first operational trip, Bob had already had his baptism of fire before at Leipzig. Glad to say Frank soon felt better; but was quite sick due to rushing about, I think without oxygen etc.
December 20TH was the last date recorded in Sgt Bernard Clark’s diary.
1-1-44 OPS Berlin 14-1-44 OPS Brunswick 27-01-44 OPS Berlin
2-1-44 OPS Berlin 20-1-44 OPS Berlin FAILED TO RETURN
5-1-44 OPS Stettin 21-1-44 OPS Magderburg
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Extract from Bernard Clark's diary
Description
An account of the resource
Transcript of diary entry for 20 December 1943. Includes crew list. Account of their first operation to Berlin on. He was wireless operator. Mentions anti-aircraft fire over coast, problems with Monica system, problems with oxygen, problems with rear turret and gunner and return to base. Concludes with list of operations in January 1944, the last of which they failed to return from.
Creator
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B Clark
Format
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Two page typewritten document
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Diary
Identifier
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YClarkB1578273v2
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
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Germany
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Braunschweig
Poland
Poland--Szczecin
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-12-20
1944-01-01
1944-01-02
1944-01-05
1944-01-14
1944-01-20
1944-01-21
1944-01-27
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
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David Bloomfield
61 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bomb aimer
bombing
flight engineer
killed in action
Lancaster
military service conditions
navigator
pilot
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1486/26760/YClarkB1578273v1.1.pdf
aa56d3b8c08edc66acaf34fed6efeb7a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Warburton, William
W Warburton
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-17
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Warburton, W
Description
An account of the resource
Ten items. Sergeant William Warburton (1911 -1944, 1067053 Royal Air Force) flew operations as a flight engineer with 61 Squadron. He and his crew failed to return from operation in january 1944. Collection contains a scarpbook with contributions from most of the crew, letters to his father, letter to A Brander's father as well as Brander's logbook, research on his aircraft loss and locating relatives of the crew by M Warburton (nephew) and extracts from B Clak's diaries for December 1943.<br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Michael Warburton and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br />Additional information on William Warburton is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/124345/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IBCC Losses Database</a>
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
The Diary of Sgt. Bernard Clark RAFVR Nov 30th-Dec 20th 1943
Sgt. Bernard (Bunny) Clark 1943. He was 35 when he volunteered for the RAF and was nicknamed 'Granddad' by his fellow crewmembers. He was lost in action in January 1944 whilst returning from a bombing mission over Berlin in Lancaster Bomber DV400 QR-Y.
CREW LIST: Sgt Bernard (Bunny) Clark. Flt/ Sgt Phil Brander. P/O Frank Langley. F/O Alan Beetch. P/O LLoyd Cumming. Sgt Bill Warburton. F/O Bob West.
Orders to pack and be ready to move by 1600hrs. Everybody binds away at moving in the evening, especially as we know the conditions that exist where any NCO has to report after ordinary duty hours, nobody wants you, nobody cares, it’s each man for him self. At 1630 hrs after a very hurried tea we climb aboard an ordinary RAF truck bound for Skellingthorpe, No. 61 Squadron.
The WAAF MT driver informed us that she did not want the job as she has a date in Lincoln so we had better hold on, and away we go. By Jove we did go! Slung from one side of the lorry to the other, Bob shot a bit of a line and sat up front with the WAAF.
We reported to the guardroom about 5pm. Just as we surmised nobody expected us or had any idea we were on the way. Bob and Allan went to the officer's mess to try their luck and find out if the orderly officer was available, but instead they found Squadron Leader Moss, actually our CO. He was very decent and having a few minutes to spare (ops had been scrubbed) he fixed us up with billets. Back to the old nissen!
The boys Phil, LLoyd and Bill went to the ENSA show, Alan and I made the 2 mile journey to the nearest telephone box to make our whereabouts known to our respective Ball and Chains! Of course Audry was pleased to hear me once again or at least she seemed to be. So, back to the Sgt's mess for me, and the officer's mess for Alan. After a reasonable supper we made our way back across site 3, through the woods and across a field to our site 4. I had an interesting chat with one or two of the inmates, all members of 61 Squadron and so to bed.
2.
Dec 1st
We had breakfast and met Bob, Alan and Frank, all walked up to the 61 Sqdn flights and checked in OK. I reported to the signals and met all the boys and signals officer F/Lt Newbound, quite an enthusiastic Australian, unfortunately he is posted to go away Friday. After lunch we all had an interview with the squadron leader Moss (our wing commander is away on leave) he gave us quite a pep and gen talk and quite an interesting description for what to expect whilst on ops.
Frank and I went into Lincoln and saw the pictures "5 Graves to Cairo", and of course, we had to call in one of the locals for an odd one, night cap!!
Dec 2nd Reported to signals at 0930 we went out to one of the planes and did a DI; had quite a lot of interesting new gen. After lunch we all (the crew) caught the camp bus to Waddington (main station) to visit pay accounts etc arriving back at Skelly for tea.
We played cards in the billet, LLoyd, Bill, Phil and I and by heck did I catch a cold!!
I couldn't do anything right, anyway I managed to hang out till suppertime without being too much in debt. Had a very primitive bath after supper in fact I was almost as dirty by the time I managed to get dressed owing to the layers of mud on the bathroom floor!
We finished the evening up with a game of table tennis and snooker. All the boys were away- Berlin! There was hardly anyone in the mess at all.
Dec 3rd
Reported at 0930 again, did a DI on M for Mike. M had been to Berlin but was in good shape (no faults). Changed my flying boots for new type, very good idea (new boots I mean). Reported to section after lunch and had a nice job of reading all the standing orders. I see they have copped me for group exercise tomorrow nice and early, Phil was down on the list for operations with another crew but the aeroplane was u/s. Bill has been detailed as F/E stand by, Bob fixed up with his 2nd dicky trip and Alan has had to practice the flight plan just as if he was going on the trip. Frank and LLoyd have disappeared into town, so I have spent most of the evening trying to get our stove alight with wet wood: what a job!! Had supper and so to bed.
Dec 4th
Boys all still landing at 8am from Leipzig Bob got back ok and had quite a good trip. My watch let me down. Instead of 7.15 getting up I didn't get going until 8am, had to report to signals by 8.20 for group W/T exercise. Hell of a cold morning lots of frost. Fortunately, I managed to get a lift up to Flts.
Didn't do too well on exercise, too cold and too many people talking and interfering. Did the usual DI afterwards on E for Easy, had lunch and collected my laundry, back up to the flights by 2pm. We all got ready for our cross-country take off 8.45 put forward to 6.45, we managed to wangle sandwiches from the mess and all filled our flasks.
After waiting all evening and eventually getting out to the aircraft, the exercise was scrubbed. Aircraft u/s and the weather closing in too quickly. We all sat in the crew room and ate up the food, finished up the tea and enjoyed Bobs talk on his experience over Leipzig. We managed to get to bed about 1030.
3.
Dec 5th
Another white frosty morning and some fog. Took boots in for repair and did a DI on E for easy again. We got down for lunch early, as we were going to fly first after lunch.
Fog clamped down again so flying scrubbed. We spent a good 2 hours getting lots of new gen. All had tea, then Bill and I walked to the phone at Swanpool, got through to Audrey ok, and had quite a chat for 4-5 minutes, then back to our billet-chorus when we walked in
-where the heck have you been? Bob Alan LLoyd and Phil playing bridge and waiting for Bill and me to play Poker! There goes my last financial means; I nearly always loose. We didn't play after all; the bridge game was too exciting for them to leave, anchored down about 10.30.
Dec 6th
Real bull inspection Adj and Squadron Leader Moss came round at 9am everything ok. Too foggy (to) fly again so the usual DI and the dinghy drill complete with Mae West and Harness in W for William. We walked down to the mess for lunch. A very stormy mess meeting at 13.15 due to bad food and general conditions in the mess and the dining hall. Back to the flight for general discussion group for the topic- Will bombing win the war?
Some bright ideas put forward and quite a good show. Walked back to the mess had my haircut at the camp barbers- quite a good job for a change. Had tea with Bill all the others changed quickly and went into Lincoln (still very foggy). Bill and I spend the evening in the billet, good fire and a good book.
Dec 7th
Up at the usual time 7.30, breakfast improved (after the mess meeting) did the usual DI and then lecture for all of us. After lunch too foggy for flying again and had short lecture on RDF, then met Alan, Frank and Bob, caught the camp bus into town. Did a bit of shopping, not much in the shops although thousands of people about. We went into Boots for tea, in came LLoyd and then Bill so we all had rissoles and chips and welsh rabbit, bread and butter, tea and mince pies. We all went to see the good old film 'The Four Feathers' still very enjoyable, we all had a drink or two afterwards before catching the bus at 10pm. What a struggle, lots of fellows left behind to walk 5.5 miles; And so to bed ; at 11pm.
Dec 8th
Still too thick to fly did the usual DI, nothing doing, so a spot of dinghy drill with our complete clothing on. After lunch another lecture and down for tea at 4.30. Bob and Alan came along and we played poker and for once I won 5/8pence to be exact. Bed about
10.30. Phil made a few snares and set them in the wood behind the hut.
4.
Dec 9th
Phil and I up a bit earlier to have a look at the snares, but no luck. Fog not so bad, prospects of flying! Did the usual DI, and then did a spot of painting in the helmet room. Had lunch and got back to the section ready to fly, all dressed up in Mae West, harness, boots etc. Gunners in their electrical suits and in the bus ready to go out to the aircraft. Met sent an urgent message cancelling the trip, as the fog was closing in too fast, so back we go cursing the weather etc. Took a photo of the whole crew, but the camera stuck, hope I can have it done ok. Tea about 5pm, then Bob and Alan came along for poker and chess I actually won 3/8 pence-wonders will never cease.
Went along to supper about 9pm dogs and bread! And back to bed 10.30. Dec 10th
Up at usual time DI. on M with Phil and Frank. Lectures after lunch, changed and went to Lincoln with Frank. After tea we went to the pictures 'China' (not too bad). Popped in for one or two and caught the bus back to camp 10pm. Phil, Bob and LLoyd played cards all evening and so to bed.
Dec 11th
Up in the morning at the usual time. Up to the flights, find we are down for our cross country take off 3pm. Did the usual DI. Collected food after lunch for the boys and got out 'R' Rodger. It seemed to have quite a lot of hold ups and there were lots of ground staff fellows working on it.
Airborne at last 3.30 climbed up to 22,000 only 37 deg. below but lovely and warm in our cabin. Stood and looked out of the astrodome. The sunset was really marvellous, all the colours of the rainbow, and layers of snowy clouds far below us looked like deep snow everywhere. Our route was from base, Upper Hanford, Wales, up the Irish Sea in between the Isle of Man and across Scotland down to Doncaster then out to Winglet. We could not do our bombing as the R T packed up on us.
I sat down on a box; the plane was bouncing all over the place due to our flight just under the clouds. I couldn't fix the TX so we packed up and went back to base, soon got down and then we dived into the sandwiches and tea.
After taking off flying clothes we all went down to the mess for supper, jumped into bed about 10.30 pm.
5.
Dec 12th
After breakfast we went up to the flights and did the usual DI. Took my boots in for repair, cleaned up the helmets and Mic's after yesterday's trip as oxygen always makes them wet with condensation etc.
After lunch finished of the helmets and cycled down to the billet; did a spot of mending socks etc. Afternoon lecture over, back to tea at 4pm, and down to billet, played cards and so to bed.
Dec 13th
Met Bob and the others after breakfast, then up to flights. We were down for fighter AF but after hanging about all morning vis too bad.
After lunch Bill, Frank, Phil and I went out to 'Y' our new plane, just gave her the once over, seems ok. After tea Bob rang up we go out to fly at 5.30pm practice bombing trip take off at 6.30 for about 2 hours Wainfleet range.
We used Vis Rdf for the first time; it seems wizard, Frank and Phil ok at Gunnery. Had supper and went to bed at 10pm.
Dec 14th
Awful morning, fog and frost walked out to 'Y' did the DI, all the others did their stuff too. After lunch went back to the billet and mad up ye old stove and cleared up a bit. Phil caught his victim in a snare. Problem now is how to cook the same. Lectures in the afternoon and back to the billet. After tea wrote a couple of letters, in the mean time Phil cleaned the rabbit and skinned it all ready for the pot, so on it goes. In bed about 10.30. Dec 15th
Not too good again, so up to the flights, did runners job to ops room and orderly room. Went out to 'Y' did a spot of cleaning up, as W/Commander had an inspection of all aircraft in the afternoon we buzzed around until 4.15. After tea Bob and Allan joined us in a game of poker until 8pm. All went across to supper and back to bed at 10.30
Dec 16th
Better morning as regards weather, did the usual DI. Bob and Allan came up to 'Y' Good news, ops on.
Checked everything up ok, back to the flights for briefing, low and behold, Berlin for our first op!! Transport to the mess for the ops meal egg and bacon, bread and butter and coffee.
Bill, LLoyd, and I dashed off to change into long underwear. Phil collected coffee and orange, we were transported all of us back to the crew room and final briefing then out to the aircraft with half an hour to go to zero.
All excited , engines revved up and down the taxi path with a full load of cookie and incendiaries nickels etc. Quite a crowd to cheer us off, then off we go 6.40pm, climbing up and up then the first snag, Monica packs in on one side.
6.
I go back to check up and find the fuselage door open, the wind pressure was terrific I can only just close the door but cannot fasten it, so back comes Bill with a piece of rope and ties up the door. I manage to get M on the go and everything seems grand with first contact with base. Next thing we are over the enemy coast near Amsterdam tons of cloud and some flak bursting, on to Berlin at about 21,000 ft.
Not very cold we appear to be well on time and in the stream ok, in between Bremen and Hanover right on the markers and bang on track. Lots of flares but cloud too thick for SL, Up comes target right on time. Frank calls back on the intercom to say he is in trouble with the oxygen and feeling awful. Bob asks him to hang on till off the target if possible and on we go. Lloyd espies the target markers and we fly level on to them and zump! Bombs gone!! Ok from Lloyd. My thoughts as I felt the floor of the aircraft jerk when the cookie went were: take that one and those and share between you!
Faint call for help from Frank and lots of gurgles over the intercom, so Bob asked me to see what I could do for him. Armed with a potable bottle (oxy) I went down the back with the aid of my torch. The back door was open about two inches and by Jove the wind came through like a knife. I managed to open Frank’s doors in his turret putting my hand and arm under his arm, I stretched up and tried to break ice from his oxygen mask, I could see lots of flares and lights outside; talk about November 5th!! Just then some tracer shot by us, below and behind (luckily) Frank, although almost out, turned his turret in the direction of the tracer on the port beam, so I was trapped by my arm in between the turret and the rear of the fuselage. I felt scared because I only had 2mins left in my oxygen bottle, I struggled out after what seemed to be ages and then I dropped my torch and lost it make matters worse.
7.
After what seemed an age I plugged my oxygen tube into the elsan spare and recovered my breath a bit, it was hellish cold although it was only 25 degrees below on the gauge.
I struggled back to my place forward and told Bob how hopeless things were with Frank (we were still well in the flack and flares area in fact a flare just whizzed by our tail, a near thing for us)
Bob gave me a long oxygen tube (spare) and taking two or three portable bottles and another torch I went down to see Frank, he was just all out. I got his doors open again and pulled him flat on his back on the wooden plank (from his turret to the tail cross-member) then I pulled his oxygen mask off, plugged the spare one onto the elsan oxygen and popped the new mask on his face. After a bout 5 or 6 minutes he began to flicker his eyes about and try to sit up but I made him lay still and told him to take his time and then get back into his turret leaving the door open, still using the spare mask.
I then went up to the front and started work again. All this time we were getting away from Berlin and just missed Rostock and on to Denmark, across Denmark and out over the North sea. Lots of flack on the Danish coast, but although Bob had come down several thousand feet to help Frank, we dived through the barrage ok.
Frank gradually got back to normal except his electrical suit did not work and he was very cold, we carried on until we got just off the coast nr Cromer. Cloud only 700 ft high so we kept it there until we got back to base.
Base Gave us no 7 position and in we came to make a wizard landing about 12.39 midnight. The ground crew cheered us in and we soon got down to breakfast after interrogation, we eventually got into bed at 2.45 am.
So ended our first operational trip, Bob had already had his baptism of fire before at Leipzig. Glad to say Frank soon felt better; but was quite sick due to rushing about, I think without oxygen etc.
Dec 17th
Foggy again, we got out of bed, 12-15, lunchtime and LLoyd was actually awake first! Wonders will never cease! After lunch went out "Y" and cleaned her up inside and then Alan and I went into Lincoln to do some shopping; unfortunately by the time the bus came and we got to town the shops were already closing, we were unlucky.
We had some tea in Boots' cafe; it was quite nice, Welsh Rabbit and chips. Phil came in and we all went to the Ritz to see "Batann", which was quite a blood thirsty picture.
Afterwards we just popped in for a quick drink and then met Frank before catching the bus. We all managed to climb on the bus at 10-15, it was always crowded and everyone trying to get on, it was terrible. We finally arrived back at camp around 11pm and fell into our beds.
8.
Dec 18th
Thick fog again, no flying. Did the usual D I on "Y", checked all the helmets and had a look at the results of the raid. Quite a good concentration on the target, although we lost 30 bombers in the process. Our photograph was quite good, another Lanc was flying quite a long way below us and it came out pretty good in the photo.
It rained like blazers in the afternoon, came down form the flights at about 3pm. We all played cards for the rest of the afternoon and then about 5pm, Phil, Bill and I scrounged off to the mess. We managed to get a good supply of bread and butter and piping hot tea for our flasks. Back at the billet LLoyd supplied us a spread from out of his Canadian parcels, smashing, we had toast and sardines and there was spam aplenty. We finished it all off with a wizard fruit cake, stiff with fruit and nuts.
We continued to play cards until 10 o'clock and I had amassed the princely sum of six shillings before we had finished. The weather has been awful this evening, wet and windy. I wonder whether it will be ops tomorrow. Our passes have all gone in to the orderly room, ready for our leave. And so, off to bed.
Dec 19th
Fine morning but very cold. Went up to the flights and did the usual DI. Fixed up to go to Waddington. Stopped for an early snack before boarding the 12-30 bus to Waddington. I had a very nice lunch in the Sergeants' mess and then on to pay parade at 2pm.
(Lord Nuffield 5/- per day whilst on leave) just what the doctor ordered! And two weeks pay! Caught the bus back to camp, had tea, met Bob, Alan and Frank and off we went to Southwold, roughly a two hour trip and we arrived at approximately 7-30. We got back in the mess for supper and then on to the billets for bed.
PPS...Did manage to ring Audrey from Waddington and when I got back a letter from her was waiting for me in the mess with the news about Brown being killed.
Dec 20th
Up to the flights, very cold strong wind, did the usual DI in "Y". Rumour circulating that ops were on. Complete panic, ops are on, rush to check everything and then down for lunch. Briefing at 12-45 and then we had bacon and eggs before we went back down to site for change underwear. Back for business, Frankfurt the target! Early take-off, all out to "Y" in good time. We have 13000lbs of destruction on board, 1 cookie, 4x 1000lbs and the rest incendiaries. Take-off okay, what a relief to get off the deck, gained height and set off. Had some bad luck, three or four minutes had passed when the inner engine started bumping, M and G very jumpy so Bob decided couldn’t go any further.
Out to sea, jettisoned the bombs and bought back the incendiaries. Turned round, heading back towards port all the time loosing height rapidly. Landed early, we then had supper and got ready for leave. We heard that Frank was grounded by the MO, so we had young Chapman in the rear turret (his 19th op). We were very disappointed, although it was better than pranging over there. Leave tomorrow, we hope. 12-30, bed.
DECEMBER 20TH WAS THE LAST DATE RECORDED IN DAD’S DIARY.
He then went on leave for Christmas. After his leave he completed 7 more operations. The first two were taken from his log book; the remaining five were taken from squadron records:
1-1-44 OPS Berlin
2-1-44 OPS Berlin
5-1-44 OPS Stettin
14-1-44 OPS Brunswick
20-1-44 OPS Berlin
21-1-44 OPS Magderburg
27-1-44 OPS Berlin….. FAILED TO RETURN *
Crew list of Lancaster Bomber DV400 QR-Y
F/O R.A. West (Bob) Pilot
F/Sgt A.P. Brander (Phil) AUS Air Gunner P/O F. Langley (Frank) Air Gunner
F/O A.V. Beetch (Alan) Navigator
P/O L.W. Cuming (Lloyd) CAN Bomb Aimer Sgt B. Clark (Bernard) Wireless Operator
Sgt W. Warburton (Bill) Flight Engineer
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Extract from Bernard Clark's diary
Description
An account of the resource
Transcript of the Diary of Sgt. Bernard Clark RAFVR 30 November – 20 December 1943 with notes by M Warburton. Includes head and shoulders portrait of an airman wearing greatcoat and side cap. Includes crew list of his aircraft. Entries contain details of daily activities including daily inspections, flying and operation to Berlin and Frankfurt. Concludes with list of operations in Jan 1944 including last where they failed to return.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
B Clark
M Warburton
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Lincoln
Germany
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Braunschweig
Germany--Magdeburg
Poland
Poland--Szczecin
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-11-30
1943-12-01
1943-12-02
1943-12-03
1943-12-04
1943-12-05
1943-12-06
1943-12-07
1943-12-08
1943-12-09
1943-12-10
1943-12-11
1943-12-12
1943-12-13
1943-12-14
1943-12-15
1943-12-16
1943-12-17
1943-12-18
1943-12-19
1943-12-20
1944-01-01
1944-01-02
1944-01-05
1944-01-14
1944-01-20
1944-01-21
1944-01-27
Format
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Nine page printed document
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Diary
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
YClarkB1578273v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
61 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
bombing
flight engineer
killed in action
Lancaster
military living conditions
military service conditions
navigator
pilot
RAF Skellingthorpe
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1009/11267/YMadgettHR1330340v4.1.pdf
dd60ad5138604bcfae53e895a1ee4833
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Madgett, Hedley Robert
H R Madgett
Description
An account of the resource
250 items. The collection concerns Pilot Officer Hedley Madgett DFM (1922 - 1943, 147519, 1330340 Royal Air Force), a pilot with 61 Squadron. He was killed 18 August 1943 on the last operation of his tour from RAF Syerston to Peenemünde. The collection consists of letters, postcards and telegrams to his parents while he was training in the United Kingdom and Canada. In addition the collection contains memorabilia, documents from the Air Training Corps, artwork, a railway map, diaries, medals as well as his logbook, photographs of people, places and aircraft. Also contains letters of condolence to parents and a sub collection containing a photograph album with 44 items of his time training in Canada'.<br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Joan Madgett and Carol Gibson, and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.<br /><br /><span>Additional information on Hedley Madgett is available via the </span><a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/114690/" title="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/madgett-hr/ ">IBCC Losses Database</a><span>.</span>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-03-17
2019-06-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Madgett, H
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
THE
AIR FORCE
DIARY [page break]
[Inside front cover of diary]
XMAS 1942
To Hedley [?]
From Dad Mum [?]
With best love
“Happy landings”
Whoopee! [page break]
[underlined] Personal Memoranda [/underlined]
Name. H.R. MADGETT
Address. 127. LONGLANDS ROAD
SIDCUP. KENT.
Telephone No. Foots Cray 1695
Motor Car No. FLO 311
Driving Licence No. 4/4445
Due. 1/4/43
[underlined] Train Service [/underlined]
To Town
A.M.
4.16
4.49
6.26
6.34
6.54
7.4
7.16
7.23
7.40
7.50
8.3
8.14
8.32
8.38
8.45
8.56
9.10
9.19 [page break]
Memoranda from 1942
[blank]
[page break]
JANUARY 1 Friday 1943
Sick leave 23rd. Dec. to 13th. Jan. (3 weeks). Appendics [sic] out Dec. 25th. [page break]
[Pages from 2 January 1943 to 7 January 1943 have been left blank]
JANUARY 8 Friday 1943
Took Mum & Peter to see Tommy Trinder in “Best Bib & Tucker” at Palladium. Quite good effort. Up to George Black’s usual standard. [page break]
JANUARY 9 Saturday 1943
Took Mum & Dad to Lewisham Hippodrome this evening – Billy Cotton, Adelaide Hall, Nan Kenway & Douglas Young (very tasty, very sweet!) were the well known ones. Very good show really.
[Pages from 10 January 1943 to 12 January 1943 have been left blank]
JANUARY 13 Wednesday 1943
10.10 a.m. train from Kings X [smudged] X [/smudged] change at Grantham for Lincoln. I was in Waddington just after 2 p.m. 1661 Sqdn. Con. Unit has moved to [inserted] W [/inserted] inthorpe nr. Newark & think my kitbags in store have gone there also. Medical Board Inspection at Rauceby not til [sic] 18th. so no work yet. Only report to S.W.O. office every day at 9 a.m.
Its [sic] going to be very boring doing nought. Was told that I would pick up another crew at Con. Unit. If so, am not making application for transfer to light bombers as had intended. [page break]
JANUARY 14 Thursday 1943
No trace anywhere of my 2 kit bags.
In afternoon went to Lincoln to look round, had tea at a café & and then saw Abbot & Costello in “Pardon My Sarong”. Pretty good & very funny. Palled up with an AG I met in the cinema & we had supper in the town N.A.A.F.I. which is quite a modern place. [page break]
JANUARY 15 Friday 1943
[underlined] Pay day - £7-10s. [/underlined]
Still looking for my kit. To Winthorpe, nr. Newark in afternoon looking for kit – no results. Its [sic] a sea of mud over there, and everything half-finished in construction. No time to see Brom himself at Bottisford [sic] (10 miles from Newark) Had meal in N.A.A.F.I. Lincoln & came back just before warning went, & later actually saw a night fighter shoot a Jerry down which had just bombed Lincoln. Good shooting. [page break]
JANUARY 16 Saturday 1943
Rang up Brom at lunch time at Bottisford [sic] after 2nd attempt to find him. Says he put my kit into discip. office, not stores. So I enquire at all discip. offices here & ring Winthorpe. No success but ringing again tomorrow.
Our aircraft over Berlin this night
JANUARY 17 Sunday 1943
I’m orderly Sergeant today. Quite easy job. Rang Winthorpe again twice at last found the missing kit & and was now in Winthorpe Gaurd [sic] Room. [page break]
JANUARY 18 Monday 1943
[underlined] Memo: [/underlined] 12.45 hrs. report S.S.Q. for transport [underlined] to Rauceby Hospital [/underlined]
Got through Medical Board at Rauceby O.K. & am now A.1. flying fit again.
M.O. took pulse before & after jumping on and & off a chair five times & then did the old mercury blowing affair. Did O.K. on 2nd. go, but first time did not take big enough breath to start with. Collected my kit at long last at the Gaurd [sic] Room this evening after being sent over from Winthorpe. [page break]
JANUARY 19 Tuesday 1943
Reported to M.O. that I passed Medical Board & asked him if he could not hurry my papers through for posting to the Con. Unit – he rang up Adjutant & he has done something so M.O. gave me 3 days leave for the posting to come through.
Got 3.45 p.m. train from Lincoln arrived home at 10 p.m. [page break]
JANUARY 20 Wednesday 1943
Spent morning in hanging around doing nothing in particular, but in p.m. went shopping with Mum in Eltham Stayed in in evening. I was going round to see Diana Tatnal [sic] but put it off as it started raining.
During dinner time there was an alert & guns going. 6 out of 30 Jerry kites had reached London & dropped their bombs. They were F.W. 190’s & Me 109’s. 10 of them shot down but a lot of children in a London [deleted] shcool [/deleted] school killed. No balloons up or warning till all over. Somebody ought to catch a packet for being aslepp [sic]. [page break]
JANUARY 21 Thursday 1943
Went round to see Mrs. McJames with Mum. She had just come out of a week in hospital with a poisoned little finger, & has had several ops. on it. It is getting better now though.
Stayed in in [sic] evening to write Rosemary. Have not heard from her since being in dock nor from Edna. [page break]
JANUARY 22 Friday 1943
Had bath in morning & caught [deleted] 9 [/deleted] 2.35 p.m. from New Eltham as there was an unexploded bomb [deleted] on [/deleted] near the line to Sidcup.
4.00 p.m. train from Kings X and 6.45 p.m. [deleted] tr [/deleted] local train from Grantham to Lincoln where it was pouring with rain having left London in quite decent weather. I got in camp 8.30. p.m. – i.e. 4 ½ hours from home.
Other occupant of my room due back from leave today. [page break]
JANUARY 23 Saturday 1943
Reported to M.O. in morning & he told me I was already posted to Winthorpe. Caught 2.50 p.m. train from Lincoln to Newark where got a taxi as had my kit. Lot of bother finding the airfield. Nobody knows what I’m here for – typical Raf [sic] as all crews are complete here. Will see adjutant first thing tomorrow. The mess is terrible – wrotten [sic] food & little of it. Also hell of a lot of mud everywhere.
JANUARY 24 Sunday 1943
C.G.I. is fixing me up a crew. Only 2 more members to get hold of, & probably will be posted to another Con. Unit. Heard old Brom. has died. Something wrong with his oxygen mask on Berlin raid on [sic] Jan. [page break]
JANUARY 25 Monday 1943
A wretched day from all points of view. C.G.I. out all morning and got wet in the pouring rain going again in the afternoon to his office but was informed he had this day off! So I couldn’t do anything except get wet again going back to the mess.
The meal for tea was an improvement & was quite good – cheese-potatoe [sic] & mash potato & sauce. But we still have no jam or marmalade. Stayed in the mess all evening & got to bed early at 10.30 p.m. [page break]
[Pages from 26 January 1943 to 27 January 1943 have been left blank]
JANUARY 28 THURSDAY 1943
Arrived in Cambridge at 5.30 p.m. after having an hours wait for a train at Ely. Bob Grimwade (at Marshall’s Airport which is a short bus ride out of town) could not be found. Presume he had gone out so am calling again tomorrow.
Saw “In Which We Serve” with Noel Coward. A very good picture & very moving in places. It is supposed to be the best film ever produced. All about a destroyer – H.M.S. Torrin. [page break]
JANUARY 29 Friday 1943
Spent all morning finding Bob Grimwade with no success; learnt at last he was on leave & due back tonight. Had dinner in the mess and caught [deleted]010[/deleted] 1300 train to Liverpool Street. Next train to Hornchurch where Bob lives was too late for me to catch him, so went straight on home.
Wonderful weather for a change. Quite a warm sun. [page break]
JANUARY 30 Saturday 1943
Many heavy hail storm showers today & very windy. Took Mum & Dad to Odeon and saw Diana Barrymore in “Nightmare”. Pretty good. Also “Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch”. I did not like this much – old fashioned style.
JANUARY 31 Sunday 1943
Rain all day and extremely windy. Left Sidcup in pouring rain; caught 8.20 p.m. King’s Cross & arr. Newark 11.45 p.m. only 16 min. late. In my bunk by 12.20 a.m. [page break]
[Pages from 1 February 1943 to 2 February 1943 have been left blank]
FEBRUARY 3 Wednesday 1943.
Up late. After tea caught 5.33 p.m. train from Newark for Nottingham again, & met there in a pub Sgt Dundas & Sengus [?] & few others ex Kinloss. Dundas has done one trip to Berlin as 2nd. dicky and did a Lorient raid on their own. Went to the other dance hall – Victoria Ballroom – but did not like it so much as the Palais.
Stayed for the night at same place as on Monday night. [page break]
FEBRUARY 4 Thursday 1943
Got up too late to catch 9.15 a.m. train back so caught 11.30 a.m. & in meantime played snooker at Y.M.C.A. with Canadian soldier.
Did not go out in evening but wrote letters to home & Rosemary. Have not yet heard from her for ages now. I wonder why? [page break]
[inserted] Paid £7 – 18s -0d. (for 1 month) [/inserted]
FEBRUARY 5 Friday 1943
In the afternoon was one of the coffin bearers in the Aussie A.G’s funeral, who was killed in a prang on Monday night. Very cold as we could not wear greatcoats. After this had a meal in town with some Flight Engineers and went to see Jean [sic] Tierney in “Sundown” which I have seen before.
Then back to camp for the mess dance. Plenty of beer drinking but dance itself not so hot. Music supplied by Horace Finch on the Organola. He played O.K. but awful to dance to. At piano was George (?) Cohen of [deleted] Abl [/deleted] Albert Sandler’s trio. Bed at 1.00 a.m. but did not get a date. [page break]
FEBRUARY 6 Saturday 1943
This evening went to a dance at the Technical College down town with Harry Robinson who I have palled up with and is to be my Flight Engineer. His tart got me in as a ticket was required, the reason very few Raf chaps there. Harry’s tart’s friend was Mary & was a real bundle of fun. Was a nice crowd & bags of fun & girls who were very nice. Took Mary home & made telephone date for Monday.
FEBRUARY 7 Sunday 1943
Down town with Harry for free cinema show news, a cartoon, “Crime Does Not Pay” Serial, & Wallace Beery in “Barnacle Bill”. Bang on show! [page break]
FEBRUARY 8 Monday 1943
Very cold today.
Stayed in mess in evening for a change & wrote letter home. Bed early. [page break]
[Pages from 9 February 1943 to 9 March 1943 have been left blank]
MARCH 10 Wednesday 1943
Posted to 61 Squadron, Syerston. Notts. [page break]
[Pages from 11 March 1943 to 21 March 1943 have been left blank]
MARCH 22 Monday 1943
First op. to [underlined] ST. NAZAIRE [/underlined] as 2nd. pilot to F/LT Barlow, an Aussie & very nice chap. I acted as Engineer.
Rather uneventful trip – very little flak or search-lights. Back over base we were diverted to AYR because of vis.[sic] At AYR had best meal ever in R.A.F. – egg, chips & bacon in big helpings.
6.15 hrs.
14 S.B.C.s
MARCH 23 Tuesday 1943
Flew back to base this afternoon – 1.35 hrs.
[Pages from 24 March 1943 to 25 March 1943 have been left blank]
MARCH 26 Friday 1943
2nd. op. as 2nd. ‘dickie’ again to F/LT Barlow to [underlined] Duisburg [/underlined]. Moderate flak.
5.00 hrs. In our own aircraft “B” (ED 722) Christened “Brenda”. It is practically brand new & this is its 2nd. op. it is the latest type of Lanc – type III.
1 x 4000 lb. 12 S.B.C.’s (90 x 4) [page break]
MARCH 27 Saturday 1943
Ops. to the big city – [underlined] BERLIN. [/underlined]
I was pilot & had F/O Burgess as a captain Navigator & acting as my Engineer – Robi. Did not come.
A lot of S/L’s & guns.
8.00 hrs.
1 X 4000 lb. 10 S.B.C.’s (90 X 4)
[Entry for 28 March 1943 has been left blank]
MARCH 29 Monday 1943
Ops to [underlined] BERLIN [/underlined] again with our whole crew complete.
More flak this time & we had one hole in port wing but not serious.
7.45 hrs. Weather very foul over North Sea – bags of thick icing cloud.
1 X 4000 lb.
12 S.B.C. (90 x 4) [page break]
[Pages from 30 March 1943 to 12 April 1943 have been left blank]
APRIL 13 Tuesday 1943
5th OP. to [underlined] SPEZIA [/underlined] Italy. On last leg, NAVI & I boobed & steered wrong course for 15 mins. Making us too late for target so bombed Savona & got back with very little petrol to spare.
11.00 hrs. my longest trip. [page break]
APRIL 14 Wednesday 1943
6th. O.P. to [underlined] STUTTGART [/underlined]
6.40 hrs. A good prang – moderate but accurate flak and a fair number of S/L.
8 x 1000 lbs. [page break]
APRIL 15 Thursday 1943
[blank]
APRIL 16 Friday 1943
7th. op. to [underlined] PILSEN [/underlined] Czechoslovakia.
8.20 hrs. Thought we had pranged the target good & proper, but found later everyone had bombed another village south of Pilsen. All the newspapers said Pilsen had been bombed very effectively!! Propoganda [sic]!!!!!
14 S.B.C. (90 x 4)
APRIL 17 Saturday 1943
[ blank]
APRIL 18 Sunday 1943
[underlined] 8th. OP. to Spezzia, Italy. [/underlined]
14 S.B.C.’s (90 x 4). 9.25 hrs.
APRIL 19 Wednesday 1943
[blank]
APRIL 20 Tuesday 1943
[underlined] 9th. op. Stettin. [/underlined] 9.05 hrs.
1 X 4000. 12 S.B.C.’s (8 X 30)
Bang on trip – low level on the deck. Bags of shooting up by towns & flak ships. 31 holes in our kite, but was not our own “B” Brenda. [page break]
[Pages from 21 April 1943 to 25 April 1943 have been left blank]
APRIL 26 Monday 1943
[underlined] 10th. op. to Duisburg. [/underlined]
1 x 4000 12 S.B.C.’s (90 x 4)
6.00 hrs. [page break]
APRIL 27 April 1943
[blank]
APRIL 28 Wednesday 1943
11th. op. Gardening in Baltic Sea just off Swedish Coast. 5 mines.
[underlined] 7.55 hrs. [/underlined] [page break]
APRIL 29 Thursday 1943
[blank]
APRIL 30 Friday 1943
12th. op. to Essen.
1 X 4000. 12 S.B.C. (90 X 4)
[underlined] 4.45 hrs. [/underlined]
MAY 1 Saturday 1943
[blank]
MAY 2 Sunday 1943
[blank]
MAY 3 Monday 1943
[blank]
MAY 4 Tuesday 1943
13th op. to Dortmund.
1 X 4000. 12 S.B.C’s (90 X 4)
[underlined] 5.30 hrs. [/underlined] [page break]
MAY 5 Wednesday 1943
[blank]
[Pages from 6 May 1943 to 10 May 1943 missing]
MAY 11 Tuesday 1943
[blank]
MAY 12 Wednesday 1943
14th. op. to Duisburg.
1 x 4000. 12 S.B.C.’s (90 x 4)
[underlined] 4.50 hrs. [/underlined]
[underlined] Took off after midnight [/underlined]
MAY 13 Thursday 1943
[underlined] 15th. op. to Pilsen again [/underlined]
1 x 4000. 4 x 1000.
[underlined] 2 X 500. 7.35 hrs. [/underlined]
2 ops in 24 hours !!! [page break]
[Pages from 14 May 1943 to 22 May 1943 have been left blank]
MAY 23 Sunday 1943
16th. op. to Dortmund
1 x 4000.. 12 S.B.C.s (90 x 4)
5.35 hrs. [page break]
[Pages from 24 May 1943 to 10 June 1943 are left blank]
JUNE 11 Friday 1943
[underlined] 17th. op. to Dusseldorf. [/underlined]
1 x 4000. 4 x 500 M.C. 12 S.B.C.s (8 x 30)
[underlined] 5.00 hrs. [/underlined] [page break]
JUNE 12 Saturday 1943
[underlined] 18th. op. to Bochum [/underlined]
1 x 4000. 4 x 500 M.C. 12 2/3 S.B.Cs. (90 x 4).
[underlined] 5.05 hrs. [/underlined] [page break]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hedley Madgett RAF Diary 1943
Description
An account of the resource
Entries start at home and then cover posting to RAF Waddington and Winthorpe, medical boards and leaves. Posted to 61 Squadron at RAF Syerston on 10 March 1942. Covers first 18 operations starting 22 March and ending 12 June 1943. Targets include Duisburg, Berlin, La Spezia, Stuttgart, Essen, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Bochum, Pilsen, Stettin and gardening in the Baltic.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Thirty five double page pocket diary
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Diary
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
YMadgettHR1330340v4
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Lincolnshire
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Czech Republic
Czech Republic--Plzeň
Poland
Poland--Szczecin
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Essen
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Bochum
Italy
Italy--La Spezia
Germany
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hedley Robert Madgett
61 Squadron
bombing
entertainment
mine laying
RAF Syerston
RAF Waddington
RAF Winthorpe