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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1566/27654/YArthurEG431155v1.1.pdf
0f2478218672e23a6e81aa8b128c359a
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Arthur, Eric Garnet
E G Arthur
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-12-01
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Arthur, EG
Description
An account of the resource
33 items. The collection concerns Eric Arthur (1923 - 2019, 431155 Royal Australian Air Force) and contains his diary, an audio recording, a newspaper cutting, and 30 photographs. He flew operations as a navigator on 627 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Eric Arthur and Alan Arthur. It was catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[black and white photograph of five airmen in front of an aircraft]
RIC WITH GROUND STAFF AT WOODHALL 1944
[page break]
[RAF Wings]
627 SQUADRON [underlined] PARTHFINDER [sic] WINGS [/underlined]
WORN ON LEFT POCKET
THERE WERE 3 PARTHFINDER [sic] SQUADRONS – OTHER 2 HAD LANCASTERS
AUS 431155.
[signature]
N.Y May. ‘44
1943-1945 PAGE 1 to 199
1946-1996 PAGE 200 TO 216
1997- PAGE 216 TO
1923 – PAGE 230 TO 254 LIFE SUMMARY
1946 POSTWAR PAGE 255.
[page break]
[blank page]
[page break]
[header] NAME – ADDRESS – TEL [/header]
Miss L. Buck. – 8 Wellington Rd Oxton Birkenhead Eng. – [blank]
Mr & Mrs G. Duncan-Brown – “Glenleigh” Kingmoor Rd. Carlisle. Cumberland. – [blank]
Mrs J. Bolton (BOB’S PARENTS) – Tailem Bend. Sth Aust. – [blank]
Mrs C. Clark – 31 Snowdon Place Stirling Scotland – [blank]
Miss Evelyn H. Currie – “St Rogwald.” Blackbank Gretna Carlisle. – [blank]
[page break]
[blank page]
[page break]
[header] NAME – ADDRESS – TEL [/header]
Mr & Mrs Stinson Studio – Suva – [blank]
Mr & Mrs W. H. Shaver – Box 459. Midland Ontario. – [blank]
Mr & Mrs R. W. Rose – 110 Glenmore Rd., Toronto – [blank]
Mr R. W. Thorn & Mrs J. Cameron. – Collingwood Ontario – [blank]
Mrs C. W. Tyson – 15 Westminster Rd. Summit New Jersey. – [blank]
Mr G. M. Shepherd. – Navana Ltd. 29 New Bond St. London W1. – [blank]
Mr C Bennet. – Navana – [blank]
Mr H. Samson. – Kodak. – [blank]
[page break]
[blank page]
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 1941. [/underlined] OUR BROTHER COL MISSING IN FLYING IN BLIZARD [sic] IN CANADA
MY ARMY CALL UP NOV 1941 AT AGE 18.
ARMY TRAIN TO ADELAIDE AND GANLER CAMP
[underlined] 1942 [/underlined] TRAIN TO GELONG BUSH CAMP
PUCKAPUNYAL ARMOURED DIVISION
[underlined] 1943 [/underlined] JUNE TRANSFER TO RAAF POINT COOK THEN AIR OBSERVER COURSE 2 2 AOS MT GAMBIER [/inserted]
[underlined] 1943. [/underlined]
Posted from 2 A.O.S. on Nov 30th. – beginning 3 AOS Pt. Pirie Dec 6th.
Xmas ’43 – 3 days’ leave in Adelaide with Glenn Cliff. Xmas dinner with the Berry family. [inserted] (GLENN CLIFF – ANOTHER TRAINEE) [/inserted]
[underlined] 1944. [/underlined]
Jan 1st. Glenn & I celebrated New Years’ Eve in Pt. Pirie – show after midnight.
Jan 4th Bombing examinations. Phoned John [inserted] DOBSON [/inserted] at Gambier on his return from U.S.A.
Jan 6. Temp 112 to 115 – warm at low level, 600’ bombing.
Jan 7. 4 details at low level.
[page break]
beginning at 7 AM take off. Mighty hot!
Jan 8. 3 days’ leave, - Glenn & I in Adelaide. Swimming at Glenelg.
Jan 11. Began gunnery, flying in “Battles” in afternoon. Bombing exam results – 87 percent – 9TH
Jan 22. Glenn & I visited Williams family. – swimming at Glenelg.
Began Astro. Nav. on Feb 3rd – weather still hot.
Feb. 5th. Aileen Berry’s 21st.
Feb. – Continuous night Astro. Nav. flights.
Feb 14. 42 Course interview with C.O. (W.C. Hedlem).
[page break]
Astro exams began Feb. 26th – finishing course on 29th.
Mch 2. Beginning of 9 days’ home leave.
Glenn & I stayed at the S.P.F. hostel.
Mch. 4. Travelled by Bonds to Gambier.
Mch 5 & 6. On leave at “Colwyn”
Mch 7. Left for Melbourne – with Mum & Joy at flat. Peter born at 11.40 P.M.
Mch 9. Called on Glad & Peter with Joy & Mum.
Mch 10. Return to Adelaide & Pirie.
Mch 13. Glenn in hospital.
[page break]
Mch 14. Beginning of 3 weeks extra course. – flying etc. & gardening.
Mch 19. Glenn out of Hospital Church with Brenda, Clarrie & others.
Continuation of Day flying.
Mch 27th. Trip by plane to Gambier for Court Martial [inserted] NOT FOR ME! WAS CREW ON THE AIRCRAFT. [/inserted] – leave for 1 day at home.
April 1st. Pre-embarkation leave began. At home ‘till Tuesday 11th.
April 11th Left for Melb. at 1 AM. – stayed at “Stratton Heights”
April 12 Reported to E.D. at M. Cricket Ground. Issued with overseas equipment.
[page break]
April 15. March through Melbourne at head of A.T.C. lads.
April 16. Called on Pascoes. Tea at Glenn’s & dance at his club. Wrote home – Posting overseas definite.
April 17. Dinner with Bucknall family – Win & I to a show in town.
April 19. Dance at Leggetts’ with Glenn & lads.
April 20. Show at “State” with Lilian Pascoe.
April 22. Lectures by returned chaps. Final issues of equipment Evening at flat with Bob Bolton, Jim Allsop & Alan Boase!
[page break]
April 23. Spent the day with Ron, Joy & Lilian – drove to Upway. Saw Auntie Lil and Sid.
April 24. Final embarkation preparations – ‘phoned home Received letters from Mum, Dad & Rev. Fearon. Anzac Eve – dance.
April 25. Called on Uncle Dick
April 26. Parade & March past of all overseas draft before the G.O.C.
April 27. Early parade & prep. of gear. Leave from mid-day – called on Auntie Bess. Tea with Win Bucknall – concert, Luna Park and “Ye old Galleon.” A Grand night!
[page break]
[underlined] April 28. [/underlined] Early embarkation parade – arrived at ship at 11 o’clock.
We steamed from the Melb. wharf at about 1800 hours.
Glenn Cliff, Bob Bolton, Wal Brue, Jim Alsopp, Alan Boase, Alan Beavis & yours truly joined in a fitting farewell to Melbourne – for how long? We only wished we knew!
April 29 Our first day at Sea found us more or less satisfied, but mostly wandering with our minds many miles away.
The sea began to become rougher, but the “Mariposa” did not roll much, so I slept as well as usual. – but from 7 P.M, a little earlier than I used to.
After a few days at sea we were becoming used to
[page break]
the strange “refrigerator” taste of the food, & the most unusual 2 meals a day.
May 1. We sighted New Zealand in the late afternoon, but continued straight between the two islands, passing Wellington to port at about 9 P.M.
From here meals seemed to improve, but we only ate because we had to – the monotony of the trip and the really tasteless food were most depressing!
On Teusday [sic] May 2nd, we were given another vaccination and crossed the international Date Line. – thus Teusday [sic] was repeated and we were almost a day behind “Aussie”
The sea continued to be fairly calm, much to our disgust, & thus added to the monotony of our trip.
[page break]
May 4th. This was my 21st
I did not forget it, I guess, & soon after breakfast, opened the small parcel which Mum had sent me in Melbourne, and asked me not to open ‘till this day.
It was a grand surprise, & meant so much to me – with letters and cards. It was not exactly a “happy” birthday but was one which I shall never forget. The book enclosed in the parcel, from Mum & Dad, was a mighty fine one – “Combat Report” and I was soon enjoying reading it. Guess it was read by most of my cobbers before the close of the trip – thanks to the two most wonderful People in the world!
May 5th. We steamed into a mild storm, and our
[page break]
speed was much reduced.
May 7th
Mothers’ Day – a very impressive service on deck.
May 8th. We passed the Pitcain [sic] Islands – weather warmer & day fine. 18 hours behind Victoria.
Days passed and we listened to operational lectures, read & played cards - & of course spent [underlined] some [/underlined] time sleeping!
May 12. 15th day at sea – weather became warmer & we changed into shorts & shirts. We also began some washing, but had very little fresh water, so soon left it alone.
May 13. We were all rather pleased to see a Mariner
[page break]
flying boat circling the ship on a patrol flight.
May 15. I met Laurie Hall, of Penola – he was on our draft, but 3 courses ahead of me in training.
We expected to sight land before sunset on Sunday 14th & as was our usual custom after our rather early dinner (1600 hrs), we soon found ourselves reading on the starboard deck, using life jackets as pillows etc.
The sea was very calm & the air rather misty – Wal Brue, Bob Bolton & I then settled to resting on deck & listening to the piano broadcast from the Padre’s office & then a short religious service.
After settling in our cabins at about midnight, we were able to catch about six hours
[page break]
sleep before being awakened by some claims that land was in sight. The ship’s engines had been throttled back, & thus it would take some time to reach the harbour, so guess I did the best thing & turned over to sleep a further hour.
However, it was not long before I was out on deck, & was able to watch our progress into Panama harbour for about an hour before breakfast. As we continued, the welcome sight of the numerous green islands was really grand – gosh! how green everything appeared. And how refreshing after 18 days at sea.
I would certainly have liked a movie to record the colour combination – red rooves & mottled cliffs.
As we moved to berth at the wharf, the whole harbour
[page break]
showed signs of much activity with jeeps & military vehicles of all kinds & numerous ‘planes in the sky.
It was not long before an announcement – “No leave for RAAF personnel” – settled us to being satisfied with what we could see from the boat, which was not very much, I’m afraid!
So, it was another early night to bed – it was sultry so we slept on deck again.
May 16. soon came along & the morning soon passed uneventfully. At 2 P.M, we sailed from Panama & began our trip up the canal – 50.27 miles. It had been warm & steamy during the morning but the sky was now overcast & stormy.
We followed our progress
[page break]
up the canal with much progress in our geography & it all proved mighty interesting.
The cutting was not as wide as I expected, but the whole proved a wonderful piece of engineering & at this time of the war is best left undiscribed. [sic]
We were lifted about 90’ in the 3 locks & then lowered again to continue into the Atlantic. The boat was held steady in the centre of the canal by cables & electric trains which were controlled by negroes.
These negroes were just as one had seen them in the movies – “baggy” clothes, big hats & huge boots, and to finish it off, they mostly carried ancient umbrellas, as it was now raining!
We made good progress
[page break]
& at about 9 P.M found ourselves at the wharf at Colon.
Steady rain was falling, when we made our beds on the deck under the main open deck. – we had little trouble in falling asleep, once more.
At about 2 AM., Bob Bolton woke me by yelling something about “WATER” – and gosh! was it raining! I’ve never heard rain come down like it, & of course we were soon in the midst of a swamped deck, & quickly gathered blankets and all, and after some strife, found our way to our cabins.
However, we came thru’ O.K. & were O.K in the morning.
May 17. We expected to set out for either Boston
[page break]
or New York this day – which it was, we had not been told!
We witnessed the flying of all types of planes before we began moving again at about 2 P.M. - & so we left Colon and headed for the Carribean [sic] Sea.
May 19 was the next day on which we saw land, - only a small island or two, but quite good to see after a couple days at sea again.
We passed between Peurto [sic] Rico and Hispaniola at night, it seemed.
We had estimated the sun to be directly overhead at this latitude.
Our course was then made direct for Boston - & as far as we were concerned,
[page break]
the sooner we arrived, the better.
May 20. This was the last night on which we were still able to see the Southern Cross. The trip continued O.K in quite calm waters, & time passed rather quickly with lectures, medical & Pay Parade etc.
May 22. We began preparing for our arrival at Boston – and came into the harbour at about 3 o’clock.
The city band was out at Boston to welcome someone – guess the Yanks we had on board, but we were soon tossing coins on the wharf & everyone soon knew the “Aussies” were there!
Once again we had
[page break]
to remain on board for another night - & little happened before be [sic] turned into bed at the close of our 25th day at sea.
We were now 14 hours behind Melbourne.
I had written quite a few letters during the trip, but was disgusted to find at this stage that we were unable to mention anything at all about our trip - & as they would not pass the censor, I tossed them all out.
May 23.
We made an early start this morning and disembarked quite early. This was the first time we had set foot on Mother Earth since leaving Melbourne. – next time I go on a boat I shall
[page break]
take a box of soil so that I’ll always be in sight of land! We were soon on the train and heading south to New York.
The country was very interesting & the whole of it through which we passed, was very green & rather thickly timbered with weeping willow, & elms etc!
Our train trip took us thru’ Brooklyn & in the distance we were able to see New York’s skyscrapers against the skyline! A grand sight for the first time. - & we sure were all eyes!
We arrived at Fort Hamilton per ferry at about 4 P.M. - & soon settled into our quarters.
Of course we were all rather anxious to get away
[page break]
on leave, but found we could not go until the following day, so were quite content to settle into bed quite early to prepare for a good week, & little sleep ahead!
May 24. – Wednesday.
This was our first day on leave in New York. – we left Fort Hamilton at about 5 P.M. after gathering all the final pay we could; my financial situation now being quite fair.
Our first port of call was the Anzac Club. – which we found later to be of wonderful assistance to us. Here we were able to get a concession ticket to stay at a hotel – the Century for the night. As we had
[page break]
not yet had tea, we were soon bundled off to a Service Club in E56 st. [sic] near Central Park. – what a place to find after being in N.Y. for about an hour. However, all was O.K & Bob and I soon sought a good feed & after being given pamphlets about the city & being told as much as possible too, we set off to find our hotel!
This was relatively simple & right from the beginning we found the city very well laid out, & its streets simple to follow.
It was about 1 AM. when we were shown to our room – we had heard all about tips & had it “sewn up”, so sent the lad off with his 10c. tip – no trouble at all!
However, we were then
[page break]
wondering if we should happen to find a milk bar open at this unearthly hour. – certainly not in Melbourne, but maybe we could here.
O.K! we set out to find one –
But gosh! we bumped right into Broadway, & what a surprise we got!
Everything was open – drug stores, milk bars, theatres, jewellers & all!
What a show! – it was then after 3 AM before we returned to the hotel.
It impressed us as a really amazing city right from the start - & we went looking for a milk bar!!!!!!
May 25.
We found our
[page break]
way from the Century & began walking in search of the Gramercy Park Hotel, where Mrs Gilkinson lived, - it was some distance but we had too much to see to notice it.
Bob & I had quite a chat to her & arranged to see her again in the afternoon.
We returned to the Anzac Club for lunch - & spent the afternoon wandering about the city before calling for Mrs Gilkinson. She took us to Miss Beaty’s – for “supper” as they termed it! She is a most delightful lady & helps entertain many of our chaps – Bob & I enjoyed it all very much.
This is where John met Mrs Gilkinson & her
[page break]
daughter, Jane!
Bob, Wal Brue & Hilton Bruce and I visited a theatre later – we obtained free tickets for it, but were not at all please with the show, so left half way through, & spent the remainder of the night, ‘till 12, on Broadway!
We stayed at the S. Army hostel this night.
May 26.
We arrived at the Anzac Club early this day to arrange for a billet for the weekend. – this was soon fixed O.K. and we left with the Padre & others for a tour of Rockefeller Centre.
We had lunch at the 2 in 1 Club, & soon
[page break]
buzzed off to obtain free tickets to “Pin-up Girl” – at a theatre on Broadway.
This was an excellent show – stayed at the Century again!
May 27. Anzac Club had arranged for us to go to stay at Summit – about 25 miles from N.Y - & we left the city at 11 AM.
Bob & I were still able to stay together – we were doing well that way, & I certainly enjoyed being with him. He proved to be one of the best, so I was mighty lucky to have such a cobber – it made a mighty big difference when there was so much to do, & we both enjoyed doing similar things!
This was a grand
[page break]
break for us, & we looked forward to staying with the people whom we were to meet at Summit, in the green, thickly wooded hill country of New Jersey!
Mrs Henderson met us in her car at the station, & at once made us feel quite at home.
It was a grand day, & after we had settled in at her home & enjoyed a really good lunch, Mrs Henderson, Barbara (aged 12), Bob & I set out for a walk to a Scout camp, which our host & young “Bo” were attending for the day.
We soon met Mr Henderson, & as Bob & I had much in common with him in the scouts, so all was well, - & we returned home together.
[page break]
In the evening we were taken to an excellent “movie show” - & spent some time at home later talking. They were very interested in all we had at home – family & all - & also in Australia.
They were both very good to us - & we sure were as near to “home” as possible.
May 28.
A really excellent day – visited the Presbyterian Church with Mr & Mrs Henderson and later drove to Surprise Lake. This was amidst thickly timbered hills & a delightful spot.
Took numerous snaps, & we all had a grand picnic & afternoon.
About 8 of the Henderson’s friends visited us in the evening & once again
[page break]
passed an enjoyable few hours. This was a wonderful weekend for us, & we sure did appreciate all Mr & Mrs Henderson did for us.
[underlined] May 29. [/underlined] Bob & I returned to Fort Hamilton – to obtain leave for a further six days.
[underlined] May 30th [/underlined]
Left camp early & first booked into the council club, where we stayed ‘till the end of the week.
From 99 Park Avenue we obtained tickets (free) for the Music Hall in Radio City & for NBC studios.
The Statue of Liberty was our next interest & we spent a couple hours to, [sic] at & from this really
[page break]
interesting monument!
We saw quite an amount of the city before we finally arrived for the 6 P.M show at the Music Hall – this is a continuous show, as are all “movies” in N.Y. It was a marvellous show, with “The White Cliffs of Dover” and a wizard stage show – the stage & theatre was colossal & I’d never seen anything like it before!
We visited the NBC studios at about 11 P.M. – mighty interesting & we were sure pleased to see the whole works of television as well as other radio programmes being broadcast.
This was in Manhattan – Rockefeller Centre – so up we went still further to the observation roof; about 60 stories. – it
[page break]
was a wonderful sight from up there at night, as everything was so clear & there were lights by the thousand – or maybe million?
Rather a late night, so let’s away to bed!
May 31st.
We were into the Anzac Club early again this morning & Bob & I were fortunate to obtain free passes to “OKlahoma” [sic] for the following night – what luck!
Also obtained free tickets to a show for this night and then visited the Empire State with Neil Bilney & “Pete” Curtis.
Bob & I then made our recordings to send home, & had them sent from Anzac Club.
[page break]
We then spent the remainder of the afternoon at the Hayden Planetarium – a really wonderful place – lecture on “Planets & Meteors.”
Had time to write home before setting off for the evening’s picture show – namely “Mr Sheffington”.
June 1st.
We were mighty pleased to receive our “OKlahoma” [sic] tickets from the Anzac Club - & then set out for a further tour of the city taking numerous snapshots. Bob soon became accustomed to using my camera – so I was in a good many which were taken.
We saw “The Little Church around the Corner” - & then to the Empire State. We could not use cameras up there, but Bob & I had a photograph taken & so, all was well. In the
[page break]
afternoon we visited the Hayden Planetarium – a wonderful place where we spent a few hours.
“OKlahoma” [sic] was a marvellous show, & one which I’ll never forget.
June 2nd.
This was our last day in the city, as we were to leave on billets to the country in the afternoon. Thus, Bob & I spent some time shopping & seeing all we could. I bought some “OKlahoma” [sic] records from Macy’s - & sent them off home, hoping they would travel O.K. Then souvenirs etc. & slippers for Peter!
After obtaining directions from Anzac Club, we left later in the afternoon for Summit, where we were to stay again with people for the weekend. We could not
[page break]
stay with the Henderson’s, as Mr. H. was away on Business – so we were met at the station by a Mrs Tyson who impressed us at once as being an excellent hostess!
We soon met all the family – Mr. Tyson, a mighty fine chap – “Wusty”, he was about 9. – Louise, 6 & Helen 4 1/2.
They all made us feel “at home” & we knew we were going to enjoy another excellent weekend.
We all enjoyed the evening at a show in a nearby township to which we drove in the Buick.
June 3rd.
Bob & I collected 10 petrol tickets allowed to us - & then helped Mrs Tyson with her shopping. We had a grand day – played baseball & then dozed in the sun.
Mr & Mrs Tyson took us out to dinner & then two
[page break]
WAG’s, Bob & myself spent a grand evening with four lasses who had joined us at dinner.
June 4th.
It was good to be able to sleep ‘till about 10 this morning, but then we had to bustle to church to get there in time. We enjoyed this very much & then after taking a few snaps, we set off on a drive to Princeton.
It was the first long drive Mr & Mrs Tyson had taken for a couple years, so were pleased that we could obtain the petrol tickets. We had a marvellous day – the weather was good & the country O.K. Princeton University & other well known buildings were very interesting.
We had dinner before returning late in the evening – a 40 mile drive which almost brought to a close,
[page break]
our weekend!
June 5th.
We were very sorry to leave Mr & Mrs Tyson and family, - had to be at camp at 10 AM. We certainly had hopes of seeing them again some day, whenever that would be – as they had done so much for us during the weekend. The children were well trained, & both Bob & I took a liking to them, and enjoyed their company very much.
However, we were soon back at Fort Hamilton & prepared to move on across the Atlantic.
June 6.
We made use of what time we had to buy a few articles at the canteen - & we were pleased to be able to buy some large boxes of chocolates which we posted to
[page break]
Mr & Mrs Henderson and Tyson.
We joined a ferry in the late afternoon & after steaming around the tip of Manhattan to the other side of the island, we embarked on the “Queen Mary.”
June 7.
When I awoke this morning we were already under way & almost out of the harbour.
Gosh! what a ship – we were only allowed in a certain section, so could not see much of it. Meal lines were terrific – there were as many thousand on board as there are miles for “Colwyn” to Pt. Mac D.; Breakfast carried from 6 AM till 12 noon – Tea from 2 P.M till 8 P.M. some show!
Meals were better than on the “Mariposa” & altho’ we had less room, all was O.K.
[page break]
June 8.
We were now beginning to find our way about O.K, & spoke with many of the Yanks – some of them had never seen our uniform before & quite a few were hazy as to Australia’s whereabouts. Could buy chocolate etc from the canteens, so we were not hungry this time.
June 9th.
The weather seemed to be becoming warmer, & so we were not sure what course we were on – we had spoken to quite a few Yanks, but many knew little, if anything of Aust.
Most of them were only a very ordinary type of chap, - some were really decent tho’.
The “Queen Mary” was certainly interesting to us & we saw all we could whilst aboard her.
[page break]
June 10.
Sea calm – glorious day
Spent from noon ‘till 3 PM on submarine watch from the bridge – was O.K. & now I have seen right over the ship! The view from the bridge is great – gosh! what a ship.
June 11th. Sea rough – weather cooler. “The Mary” swayed a fair amount causing many Yanks to take to the rails, but I guess we were used to it. We spent quite some time wandering about the boat – the beautiful veneers & panelling appealed to me & the huge dining room which was used as our mess, was really marvellous. We could easily notice that we were well north & so took to warmer clothing.
[page break]
June 13th.
Was pleased to find the ship had stopped rolling & we were at anchor in Glasgow harbour – had to remain on board ‘till afternoon to be taken ashore by ferry.
The “Mary” made a marvellous picture in the bay as we left her, & for the first time I realised how really big she was. We were well looked after by ladies of the American Red Cross – with doughnuts & tea. Our trip southward by train was very interesting & altho’ we did not set out until 10 P.M, we travelled for 2 hours in twilight before it became dark. It was amazing to see children out at that hour of the night, in broad daylight. The country was very green & hilly- & the homes rather quaint!
June 14th.
We slept well for a few hours on the trip, but at 4 AM it was light again, so we once again became interested in the countryside. It was not long after seven that we found ourselves at Padgate, & settled to quite a decent breakfast. We spent the day filling out the usual papers etc & listening to all sorts of lectures on “what to do & what not to do” etc.
Sent off a cable home – much cheaper than from USA. We found it pleasing to be using similar coins to our own, altho’ we had little trouble with “bucks”, dimes” etc.
Met Vic Berry & had quite a chat to him. – had to leave writing Airgraphs as we had missed a fair amount of sleep & had to catch up on it.
[page break]
June 16th.
Spent yesterday tearing about as a squad having identity cards etc. attended to - & then away to begin some drill. Was able to write quite a few Airgraphs home, - along with a cable.
Tonight, Bob & I visited Warrington, about 3 miles from here – guess it is a typical English town, & we sure did find it an ancient spot!
The township was rather busy & we noticed quite an abundance of food, clothing & all else in the shops. As the streets are [inserted] of [/inserted] cobble stones & very narrow, the double decker buses which buzz around them, leave very little room when they pass.
Left a couple films at a chemist’s to be developed.
On our return walk to camp, we had a good stroll - & before long found ourselves in the midst of
[page break]
rather heavy drizzle. Bowls was being played by old men – coats off & in the rain!
The time was eight o’clock but still quite twilight.
This night was the first I had spent sleeping between sheets whilst in camp anywhere I had been since joining the army.
It was really good!
June 17th.
Saturday – we were given leave soon after lunch & set out for Manchester. The train trip was O.K through well cultivated country, & in surprisingly good trains compared with what I expected.
We found the city very interesting but rather dirty & with very narrow streets. Quite a number of buildings had been flattened in raids about 18 mths
[page break]
before – there was hardly a car to be seen anywhere, & this allowed people to wander all over the place & along the main roads. We found ample stocks in the shops, - many articles there, had not been seen in Aust. for years.
Saw quite an amount of the city before we paid a visit to a theatre & saw “Pimpernel Smith” & returned to camp on the last train.
June 18.
After our church Parade at camp, Bob & I decided to go to Liverpool & then to visit Auntie Lil in Birkenhead – we had little trouble finding our way there & spent a few hours telling her all about home. She was certainly pleased to see us, & actually became very
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excited & could not speak fast enough. She showed me letters from “Colwyn” – the remains of a cake from Joy, etc.
She seemed well - & Beatrice too, was very nice & looked out for our afternoon tea.
We returned to Padgate after seeing “Pygmalion” – the railway tunnel from Liverpool to Birkenhead is very good & far ahead of those in New York.
June 19th.
A year ago I began at Somers – arrived at I.T.S. from Pt. Cook on this day.
However, things are much different now – but all is well. Bob & I took our washing into the laundry to prepare for our leave next week. I am certainly lucky to have him for my cobber now – he is such a mighty
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fine lad & I’m sure he could never be led off the “straight & narrow.” As in the army, I have found the young chaps being very easily led astray – Glenn does not even pay any attention to me nowadays, & after our long friendship, I cannot make it out. He seems to prefer other company, & appears to be dropping back quickly, - drink has upset him too! Guess I will see if I can wake him up before he goes too far, but am afraid it will be tough. I thought I had helped him quite an amount, but guess he doesn’t think so!
However, Bob is far more reliable than he & altho’ of the same age, he could be taken as much older. We certainly get along well together, & is one of the finest chaps I’ve met in the
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past few years. I met Vic Hill, of Gambier today.
June 22nd.
The past few days we have had little of interest to do – just arranging billets for leave, etc. Bob & I paid a visit to Warrington last night to arrange an order for a bicycle. As the shops had been shut since midday, we had to go in again tonight - & now all is O.K. Our flight had a swim parade in the local baths this morning & it was O.K. Was a test to swim 100 yds. – Alan Beavis, Bob & I called again at 7 PM for another dip.
June 24th.
Saturday – After spending the morning on night vision tests, etc Bob & I set out for Warrington
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to pick up my films & then met Gordon Curtis & Alan Beavis to go by train to Liverpool.
After seeing over the city once again we booked into a hostel & crossed by tunnel to New Brighton. This seemed quite a good spot & we spent some time about the sideshows - & even had a ride on a donkey.
Returned to Liverpool & decided to have a look at the well known tunnel roadway. We managed to bludge a ride both ways thru’ & we certainly were pleased we had the experience – it is a wonderful piece of work.
June 25.
We had some trouble finding a way to Chester, where we had intended spending the day. As we had to wait until 2 P.M. for a train,
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we called on the Liverpool Cathedral (C. of E.) – It was an amazing place, & a terrific size, but owing to the echoes we were unable to follow much of the service, as we were well to the rear of the church.
Chester proved very interesting, as it is a city enclosed by a huge wall with bridges, & forts or such like on the corners. It was from one of these that Charles Ist saw his army defeated – we were supposed to have stood at the same window.
The gardens & river were very beautiful – typically English & the township was cleaner & better than others we had seen.
We spent a couple hours at a modern & really good theatre - & returned to Warrington by road. It was a mighty good trip - & I sure do hope we can pedal the bikes
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through that country, some time.
June 26th.
I managed to pass my second attempt at night vision this day – sent another cable home to tell of my leave etc.
Weather turned wet & rather cold – hope we will be moving to Brighton again, soon!
June 28th. Yesterday & today we continued doing little other than preparing further for the future days, - this afternoon we were issued with our flying gear & personal issues which were later handed into the store, for us to collect when posted!
I blew into Warrington again after tea – Bob was not with me as he hadn’t a shirt to wear until I returned from the laundry – was able to buy a rather good booklet
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of road maps of England, & then, after looking without success to find an electric iron, I returned to camp. Was rather surprised to find the electrical pressure in the lines over here at 230 V. – same as ours at home - & I could then have brought Glad’s Iron with me.
However, on my return to camp, I received the best surprise I had had since leaving home – my first cables & letters. There were cables from Mum & Dad, Joy & Murray, & Ralph! Also 2 air mail letters from Ralph, which only took 4 weeks to come over.
It was a great show, - & I arranged with Norm Deady to send some cables in answer for me – as we were to set out on our leave early next morning. This news from home set me sleeping like
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a top as soon as I “hit the pillow”.
June 29th. We were out soon after breakfast to set out north on leave - & Bob & I certainly made sure we weren’t late!
43 course arrived into Padgate as we prepared to leave – Ted Belcher was among them, so that makes another Gambier rep. over here!
We caught a train to Manchester, altho’ later we found we could have gone direct from Warrington far better. – Alan Beavis & “Brucey” were with us. At Manchester, Bob & I left the others to find our way north to Kendal – this was quite easy, and after I had ‘phoned Mrs Huggins we left Manchester. We were met at Kendal by Mrs Huggins’ daughter & taken home. P/O Ferguson was staying with them – we met Mrs Huggins, who is a wonderful
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person & has helped so much with the Lady Ryder scheme to billit [sic] we chaps! Her address is – Mrs Huggins, Helme Bank, Nr. Kendal (Sedgwick 63).
Mrs Huggins gave us our address where we were to be billited [sic] - & we caught our train to Carlisle
Mr Brown, our host & his small son, Keith (about 11) met us at the station, & soon we were home and had met Mrs. Brown & her daughter, Joyce (19). At once, we were taken into Mr & Mrs Brown’s home, as two of the family. Gee! it was grand. – I thought we may wander over the whole of England without finding such a home.
We were early to bed this night – the Brown’s address
Mr & Mrs [inserted] G. [/inserted] Duncan Brown,
“Glenleigh”
Kingmoor Road.
Carlisle. Eng.
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June 30th.
Gee! what a sleep – guess I didn’t know much about it ‘till Mrs Brown awoke Bob & I at about 9 AM. with a grand breakfast! We managed a shave & bath & were ready for an early lunch to leave with Mr Brown at about 11 to go with him by car on a business trip up north. We crossed into Scotland & then turned off along to Gretna Green – saw the old blacksmith shop where the runaway marriages became famous. The country through which we passed was most interesting & amidst the sunshine we had for the day, - I saw the typical Scotch countryside at its best. So old, & quiet yet full of abundant crops & progress – it sure did make my heart beat & my eyes dart from side to side.
We moved on to Annan
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& then to Dumphries [sic] Bob & I saw quite an amount of this town whilst Mr Brown was busy & took numerous snaps. The return trip was just as enjoyable & then we spent the evening at home.
July 1st.
Saturday - & as this was holiday week in Carlisle, there were numerous people about town when Bob & I were shown about by Keith – we called on several places which advertised bicycles for sale. In the afternoon Bob & I called on the Carnival grounds – to see the sideshows & horse displays for holiday week.
Even in war time Carlisle has its holiday week & most business houses close during this period.
In the evening Bob & I joined Joyce & her girlfriend in a bicycle ride of about 10 miles – the twilight hours enabled us to enjoy this till about
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10 o’clock.
July 2nd.
Once again we were awakened to be given our breakfast in bed by Mrs Brown – what a life!
It was another damp day, so we had an early lunch & did little else before setting off for a cycling tour to Port Carlisle with Joyce & her girlfriend.
We were fortunate in as much that we missed any showers which were about, - & all four managed rather well pushing the “beaut” cycles.
I had Mr Brown’s bike with a 3 speed gear – was O.K, too!
We called on relatives of the Brown’s & after spending the afternoon around the bay & amidst fields in which I tried my hand at shooting rabbits etc. Our return trip was O.K. too, - was rather late when we arrived home. It was rather strange to sit down to quite a meal of salad etc. for supper
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but at about 10 P.M. – this seemed the usual thing, but of course it was still quite light & Mrs Brown had some trouble getting Kieth [sic] to bed before 9 PM.
July 3rd. Our usual breakfast in bed was really fine – Bob & I did not rise ‘till late & then only had little time to write our airgraphs home before lunch.
In the afternoon Mr Brown accompanied us to an auction sale where we had arranged to buy a bike & an iron if the prices were O.K. However, we missed them both, so, as Mr Brown had a business trip to Annan, to attend to, we set out in the car for that town & purchased two “beaut” cycles with all fittings & spare parts.
Mr Brown, being a commercial traveller in the clothing line, - was able to take us about the
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country quite an amount – we sure were lucky. The bikes were sent to Carlisle per train, so, in the evening after we had collected them from the station, Bob & I called for Joyce & we buzzed off to a Noel Coward show in town. Joyce was on fire watch after this, so we left her to it & returned home to our usual supper & good bed!
July 4th. Teusday [sic] – we were up early, for a change, as Mr Brown, Bob & I were to leave on a full day trip around the lakes district at about 9.
We were on our way in the good little Austin ‘ere long, & altho’ the clouds seemed to have burst, we hoped the rain would soon stop – as we were looking forward to seeing the scenery in good weather. However, the
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rain continued to pelt down – similar to our winter, but of course this was a bad week & unfortunate that we should meet it! Had to have the bus tuned at a garage before we had gone far!
Saw Neil Livingstone whilst waiting here – then on to Penrith. The country between Penrith and Appleby was just as interesting as ever – so green & with rows of hedges and unusual stone walls. The roads were all very good – winding up hill & down dale, through farms & villiages, [sic] so much so that my head darted to and fro the whole time. All the roads were of bitumen & seemed in good repair actually – in the towns we found numerous quaint old cobble stoned roads.
So this continued, into the county of Westmorland to Kirby
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Stephen where Mr Brown attended some business – we saw 3 WAG’s who were also being billited! [sic]
At Sedberg we wandered off while Mr Brown was busy – we saw the large boys’ school there, with a huge field for cricket – quaint old houses all about, & absolute peace. One would certainly not think there was a war on to see this quiet spot! We were able to buy numerous postcards of the surrounding country, - thru’ Kirby-Londsdale [sic] & then to Kendal.
We passed Mrs Huggin’s home & spent a short time in the town.
Quite a few hundred people had been coming to this district from London – the “flying Bombs” were raining down at this time.
The drive from Kendal to Bowness on Windermere was most interesting – the stone fences
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here changed – they were made of irregularly shaped stones & curved all over the hillsides in most fascinating patterns. This was good dairying country - & we were pleased to be able to buy a few eggs!
Bowness was a really beautiful spot on the lake – this is where Seagrave used to race & was killed when his craft hit a log in the water! Took some snaps there & purchased postcards. – the drive through here & along the lake was really marvellous & altho’ the sun was not shining we were amazed at the marvellous scenery – it was really a wizard show. Photographed an old church on the road to Wythburn – was the smallest & oldest in the country!
The scenery right through to Keswick & back to Carlisle was wizard - & some day soon I hope to
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have the good fortune to see it all in better weather! After returing [sic] home we spent an hour or so until about 10 P.M. at Mr Browns Victory garden & collected quite a few good vegetables. Spent the evening at home with the Brown family – our days tour covering about 140 miles. We were sure pleased that Mr Brown’s job took him over so much country.
July 5th.
Once again Bob & I were spoiled with breakfast in bed, by Mrs Brown – I rose a little earlier than usual, after this, & began adjusting & fitting up my bike a little. Managed to saw some wood for Mr. Brown – don’t think he expected me to do it, as I’d joked about it before! He is a mighty fine chap, too – Gosh! we sure had enjoyed the whole week with the Brown family & now, the
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close of our leave was coming far too quickly! They sure had looked after us & even had the winder on my watch fixed for me. After lunch we took photos of the family & Bob & myself.
Bob & I cycled about town during the afternoon & were later joined by Kieth, [sic] who showed us all the sights. We were pleased to spend the last hours of our leave with the Brown family at home – we had a good walk in the evening amidst some of the first real sunshine of our leave! Had a rare supper of chips & beans at 11 P.M – what a show.
July 6th.
What a grand day too! Sun shining & all and we had to be up to an early breakfast to catch a train at 8.20.
Gosh! we sure were sorry to
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leave Mrs Brown & Joyce – Mr Brown & Kieth [sic] came to the station to see us off! So came to the close, our first stay in an English home – we found hospitality, & the people grand!
We arrived back at camp on the “beaut” bikes soon after Midday. Wrote an Air Mail Letter home & an Airgraph to Ralph – also sent a cable home.
On my first leave in this country I found to my surprise that the town shopping centres had every thing in abundance, & altho’ food, sweets & clothing were rationed people lived well & had all they could wish for in war time.
In the country, - the narrow winding roads, numerous hedges & trees – stone walls, power lines, the lack of road & rail crossings & thus the use of numerous bridges, and the
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large number of double decker buses & cycles throughout the country appealed to me to be the most fascinating pints of interest
July 7th.
Had little to do so I filled in the day after lunch with letter writing. Had an interview with the Categorisation Board at 9.30 AM – think I’ll probably be a Nav. as my results are too high & my night vision a bit low for Bombaimer! Collected our kits & sorted it out – then a beaut Air Mail letter home & airgraph to Ralph & Bet Bailey!
Bob & I cycled into Warrington to see “Phantom of the Opera” – Nelson Eddy etc. – quite a good show. We were caught in a shower on our way home but the bikes proved a big help & we were in camp in no time but the NAAFI was
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closed & we missed our supper!
July 8th.
Saturday: - had a quiet morning & managed to buzz about camp to see Norm Deady & then write letters. Met Bill Braithwaite in the mess at lunch time. Alan Beavis, Gordon Curtis, Wal Brue & Hilton Bruce left by train with Bob & I for Manchester in the afternoon.
Bob & I left them & booked in at the YMCA for the night.
We saw the “Desert Song” – an excellent show, & then at 7 PM set out for “Belle Vue”.
The sun began to shine about then so, it was quite a break – we called in at the speedway straight away, & were amazed to find motor bike racing on just like it was in Melb. in peace time. Took a few snaps – one at the bend using F 3/5 at 1/300 sec.
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We certainly enjoyed the racing – it was a wizard show, & the dipper etc was also extra!
July 9th.
Set out early from Manchester for Blackpool – train was crowded & we sure were surprised to find such a mob at the station when we arrived.
The weather was typically English when we came out into the street, but we soon found our way to the sea front & on to one of the mighty large piers!
There were amusements all along the coast & all the many thousands of people were spending money galore. They were holiday crowds – many were evacuees from London!
We drifted into the “Tower” there – a huge building with a zoo, & roof gardens, aquarium, ballroom & all!
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We spent two hours in the huge ballroom theatre listening to an organ recital – a chap from London played everything under the sun.
Wandered around more later & finished up with ice cream (“artificial” but O.K). & fish & chips for tea.
The train back to Manchester at 7 PM was crowded & we had to bludge into the line to get on!
July 10th.
Spent this as my first of three days in a dark room on Night Vision training
Wrote home by air mail & to Mrs Brown & Auntie Lil.
Bob & I rode into the laundry with our shirts in the evening – then to the “Southern Cross” & supper at the NAAFI. Plenty of rain!
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July 12th – Yesterday & today I found myself rather flat out on night vision – Alec Brown was with me!
Bob & I saw “the Man from down Under” last night at the station cinema – was about Australia, & altho’ amusing, it was no good impression of life at home.
Tonight I rode into Warrington after tea & as my films weren’t finished, I returned immediately – Bob & the other chaps in my hut went to Liverpool on a tour of the docks & my night vision left me out of it. They were away all day, & after making their beds & getting some cake from the NAAFI for them I buzzed to bed & was asleep when they returned!
July 13th. – Had a hell of a shock today to learn that after the night vision I had been put into “pool” – Bob & the boys were already on lectures & this
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meant that I would be the only one split up from them – looks like this is where I leave them anyway, & expect I’ll go to EFTS next week. Received an airgraph from Bet & a cable from home telling of receipt of letters – gosh! waiting & not receiving mail is not the best & it sure makes one feel flat!
Bob had quite a few airgraphs from home - & is of course quite pleased. Wal, Alan Beavis, Bob & I rode the bikes quite a distance out toward Leigh after supper at about 9 P.M. – good show!
July 14th.
On 24 hour duty of orderly Sergeant – Received airgraphs from Dad, Ralph & Win - & also Ted Pedley!
A great day to receive first letters – sent cables & letters in return!
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July 15th.
As I was still in “pool”, I had little to do in the morning, so managed a few odd jobs & some more letter writing. Called for our mail – Bob & I received our first surface mail. I had six in my bundle, all written about May 1st, soon after we set sail.
Bob & I set out to spend the weekend at Ripon with Mr & Mrs Hebden – friends of Bob’s Grandparents. We arrived at Ripon, after quite a long trip, just in time for a late tea. – we found the old people very interesting, and as they had been out to Australia, we had much to talk about.
In the evening we walked down to the township to see a huge horn blown at 9 PM by a fairly old chap in a fascinating uniform & old three cornered hat – it is an old tradition [inserted] or custom [/inserted] & has been kept up for hundreds of
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years without a break. That was in the former market place, which was once made of cobble stones but is now concrete! We then spent quite some time in their very interesting cathedral – one of the many beautiful ones in this country. The stained glass windows & carved wood were really wonderful. I noticed that it was becoming dark at about 10.30, as we returned home. – the days were already becoming shorter!
July 16th. Sunday.
This was a beautiful day & proved to be the best we had seen since our arrival. – we saw blue sky all day! It was grand, & we had the good fortune to spend the morning with Mrs Hebden’s two nieces at the ruins of the cathedral of Ripon. They are the largest ruins in England, & with the
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spacious grounds & numerous huge green trees, it was all very fascinating on this fine day.
These were the first ruins we had seen, & I took a few snaps whilst there – the place sure was old & it made one wonder how the monks in those days had ever managed to lift the huge, hand cut stones up such terrific heights.
The stones were cut out of solid rock – many were now missing, as the nearby farmers in days gone by, had built homes of the stones from the ruin. Some of the walls were four feet thick & the huge archways were perfctly [sic] made & fitted by hand.
We walked quite some distance about the district – everything was so fresh & after seeing the dirty industrial cities, this was truly a good tonic. Bob & I had some
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strife returning to camp, & altho’ we left Ripon at 9 P.M, we did not arrive at Padgate ‘till 7 AM. – had to wait from 11 to 3 AM. at Leeds!
July 19th
The past couple of days had meant a few odd jobs in stores etc. about camp, whilst in pool – Bob & the remainder were still on lectures, & I missed beginning this week too, so guess I will be moving to go to EFTS with them now!
Bob sent a cable to Glad for her birthday today – I left camp at about 10 AM with about 20 other chaps whom I did not know, for a tour of Liverpool.
On our arrival there, we were taken by a member of the British Council Club to the Cathedral, which I had previously visited with Bob. It was 40 years today that the foundation stone was laid - & it is still under
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construction. The architect had done a wonderful job – began at 21 & is still working on it at 63. The building is of really wonderful modern design!
After lunch at the club, we took the overhead railway along the docks – the battleship King George V was in harbour. We then went by ferry to Brighton, which I had also visited with Bob – so I set out immediately to call on Auntie Lil in Berkinhead. [sic]
Returned to Padgate at about 10 PM. – Bob & Wal had been into town on the bikes to collect my films, so they had them, my supper & bed made when I arrived!
July 20th. Just another day spent at stores etc. working on all odd jobs. – No letters from home yet!
Wrote to Dad by air mail & enclosed my first negatives.
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July 22nd. Spent the morning at the ration store carting bread from Warrington – sent negatives to [inserted] No. [/inserted] 27 to Dad before lunch.
Bob, Alan Beavis, Gordon Curtis & myself cycled to Chester soon after lunch – it was a good trip of about 20 miles & we sure did enjoy it!
However, on our arrival, we found there was not any accommodation at all in the town – we had hoped to stay at a roadside inn but they were all full, as there were people all over the place, including hundreds of evacuees from London! After spending some time along the river & the shops we returned to camp by train. Chester has one row of shops above the other - & there are two footpaths at these levels.
It was most unusual to see this, & it is [inserted] the [/inserted] only one of its type in the country.
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July 23rd. Sunday.
Was really good to be able to remain in bed until about 10.30 this morning – was the first Sunday that Bob & I had spent in camp since our arrival. There was very little for us to do, so I wrote letters & after tea we four set out again on a cycle tour. At 7 PM we came back into Warrington to see “40,000 Horsemen”. – was just as good a show as ever, but rather cut about, & worn out.
We had to make good time back to camp to arrive in time for supper – the bikes sure were proving very useful.
July 25th. Received more surface mail – 2 from Dad & Mum & some from Wal Metters. Still in pool – Bob & I saw a show at the camp gymnasium in the evening.
Rather wet in the afternoon – had set in at night.
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July 28th. Left Camp at about 9 AM. with a party of chaps for a tour of Manchester by the Council Club.
The day was passed by visits to quite a few historic buildings.
Bob & Wal Brue called in town for my films, so when I returned to camp my “beaut” bed was already made, with supper, mail & the snaps awaiting me. Good old Bob!
Received an airgraph from Mum.
July 29th.
Besides my usual odd jobs for the morning, I arranged with the Southern Cross for our billet for the weekend. – then ‘phoned Mrs Morris, at Southport! Had to register our bikes with the camp S.P.’s by noon – so now we have to carry registrations with us too. We arrived at Southport at about 4 P.M & took a bus to the home of Mrs. Morris, our hostess for the weekend. We were soon
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making ourselves at home, & amidst the usual afternoon tea – however, we were surprised to find ourselves at a Vicarage – our host was the Canon of the All Saints Church.
ie – Canon & Mrs H. Morris
The Vicarage
1 Rawlinson Rd.
Southport. Lancs.
In the evening Bob & I saw the show – “Half Way House” with Mary, Mrs Morris’ married daughter who had 3 young daughters. (3 yrs to 9).
July 30th.
Bob & I accompanied the family to the morning service – was quite a fine day then, but it was soon overcast again, so besides a walk to Southport, we did little but rest!
Returned to camp in the first darkness we had seen for some time. – about 11 o’clock.
Days are becoming shorter now –
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August 2nd.
Bob & the remainder of the course joined us in pool today - & we continued on the usual odd jobs.
We cycled to Warrington tonight to pick up more prints & see if we could find some stain for Dad. – saw “Destination Tokio,” [sic] a very good show at a new theatre, which is the best we have seen here. It even had an organ!
Aug. 3rd.
Alan Beavis & I were interviewed today before being posted to an A.F.U. somewhere. – on mediums!
We found that we were due to go to Half-penny Green – in the Midlands! I tried to have Bob posted with us, & at the interview thought it would be O.K, but it did not come off. He was no more pleased than I was today; & thus it seems that we will only have a few more days together.
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Aug. 5th Bob & I had checked up on our leave for today, & managed to leave camp at about 9 AM. to catch the 10 o’clock train to Carlisle. ‘Twas a really extra day – the trip was O.K & the scenery very good & we were met by Mr Brown & Joyce at about 2.
As soon as we arrived at “Glenleigh”, Mrs Brown settled us to a good meal – then out into the garden.
Joyce & a girlfriend accompanied Bob & I to rather a good dance in the evening, & altho’ hot, it was O.K.
Aug. 6th. We were well looked after, as usual, with Breakfast in bed, & All! Spent a very enjoyable quiet day at home – was a grand day & we saw plenty of sun in the garden.
It was really good to be able to feel so much at home – it was O.K.
We left Carlisle on a midnight train, arriving at camp in time
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for breakfast.
Aug. 7th. Alan Beavis & I had a busy day arranging gear etc. in preparation for our posting.
We had to take our bikes into the station in the evening – Bob & I spent some time, later, writing at the “Southern Cross.” & then to supper.
We were not at all pleased that this should be our last night together!
Glenn Cliff came in later in the evening & I had quite a good chat to him. – only wish we three could have stuck together all along. It was not the best of jobs, saying au revoir to all the chaps we had known for so long!
Aug. 8th
Alan & I had to rise fairly early to be at breakfast before 7. – It was tough having to say goodbye to Bob. We left in rather unsettled spirits!
Left Warrington station at
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about 10 AM. – took train back to Wolverhampton. We had a couple hours in the town, & even managed to buy a new iron for £2. On arrival at Halfpenny Green, we found that we were the first “Aussie” Navs. to be on the station. Had soon been told that we may be on Mosquitos – here’s hoping.
The ‘drome, - set amidst some really excellent countryside & hills, is about 11 miles from Wolverhampton!
Alan & I had a good long stroll about the station before bed – all was O.K. but the canteen was not the best!
Aug. 9th. After spending most of the day on “arrival duties” & lectures by the C.O etc., Alan & I had a grand surprise to see Bob walk in at about 5 P.M.
Thought he may come, - &
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now we were set again – a great show that we three should be together again! & all goes well!!
Aug. 10th. Our first day at work again. – settled to our first lectures on Nav., Briefing etc. The 20 chaps (16 Sgts & 4 P/O’s) on our course went into Stourbridge at 3 o’clock for dinghy drill & swimming at the local baths. – passed tests O.K.
Aug 12th. Spent the whole of yesterday in the D.R. instructor. – “the horror box”. Had a sore head after the day was thru’ & then had to go on guard in the night.
Had a tough day of lectures today – received quite a few airgraphs from home.
Aug 13th. Sunday: - Spent most of the day catching up on bombing g.g. – had my first flight in the afternoon on a 3/4 hour bombing trip.
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Aug. 14th. Had this as a day off – rose at about 9 AM in time for morning tea at the NAAFI – then Bob, Alan & I set off to cycle to Wolverhampton. It was [deleted] always [/deleted] [inserted] O.K. [/inserted] along the country lanes - & a good day for cycling. Had a good look about the town – bought some stain for Dad, etc! We saw “Fanny by Candlelight” – a good show. Also visited the West Park, etc. before returning – we were more or less last on our return ride & took some time to find the camp.
Aug. 15th.
Lectures all day – went on a bombing trip in the afternoon & managed to get the best score of the mob. – 72 X from 10,000.
Aug 17th.
1st day flying exercise – as bomb aimer. Two trips, the first at 8 AM. – had to rise at 6 to get to briefing. Second at 2.30.
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Aug 20th. Continuing lectures as usual – some details of flying have been scrubbed during the past few days thru’ bad weather.
Received a.g’s from home O.K yesterday – course proceeding O.K.
Saw a show at the camp cinema in the evening.
Aug. 22nd.
Flying was once again cancelled last night – very poor vis. & plenty of rain. Today was our day off. – but far too wintry to use our bikes so most of the chaps in our hut & Bob, Alan & Self took the bus to Wolverhampton.
The day was so miserable that we had little to do after some shopping & I had posted the parcel of stain to Dad. – so we saw “Gone With the Wind” & after tea, “This is the army.”
We took fish paste & raisin bread back to camp for supper & future use.
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Aug 23. Usual nav. lectures & plotting. Received SAFFCF parcel from London – no mail from home for some time. Sent cable to Ted for his graduation.
Weather still poor & visibility very little.
Aug. 24th.
Rose at 6 AM. to fly at 7. – Two 3 1/2 hour exercises over the Irish Sea. – late returning from 1st exercise, so I missed out on dinner. Took off at 2 PM on 2nd exercise – all went well.
Quite an amount of mail was awaiting me on my arrival at tea at 7 P.M. – wrote to Ralph in evening, but was pleased to turn into bed after my shower.
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Aug. 25th. After a day of lectures, I wrote my letters before beginning night flying. – we took off at about 10 P.M. & our trip took us south to Southport, then to Northhampton [sic] & Coventry. Was clouded over at base when we returned – too thick to land, so we had to fly to Leichfield. [sic] – landed O.K. & settled to bed there at about 4 AM. after a good supper.
Aug. 26th. Rose at about 11 AM – had a good lunch at the Sgts. mess. This station was a RAAF. O.T.U. so we saw a good many “Aussies”. – Took off again for H.G. at 2 P.M. On returning we found that one of our “kites” had pranged. – killing one of our course, P/O Trusty. Bob had come back to base early, with engine trouble & landed O.K. Alan landed at another ‘drome & returned O.K today!
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Aug. 27th. We flew on one detail last night – I was NAV. & had a good trip. Turned into bed at about 3 AM. - & rose in time to write letters home at the mess before lunch!
Aug. 29th
Spent yesterday flat out in the DR. trainer – quite a good day tho’ & with Bob acting as pilot, we did quite a good exercise. Our former exercise was not very good tho’ – ie the whole course’s exercises - & the C.I. decided to cancel our day off, so we have [inserted] had [/inserted] to work today. We were to be posted straight to Bomber command as st. Navs. but our course has been extended another week to keep us as Nav B.
Will probably be on Mosquitos or Transport now!
Received ag. from home today.
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Aug 31st.
On lectures all yesterday - & then rather a busy day today in the D.R.I.
Received quite a few letters today from home - & locals from Alex Brown & Wal Brue at Brighton! PD.R.C. Shifted down there a short time ago from Padgate, & are now having a marvellous time.
We were given the news of our posting this afternoon – Alan, Bob & I are to go direct to the Mosquito Training unit at “Warboys” – a ‘drome about 80 miles north of London, near Huntingdon. We missed out on a week’s leave & the other 3 “Aussies” on our course will get it, & so [inserted] will [/inserted] be a course behind us from now on.
We are on night flying tonight!
Sept 1st. Friday.
After two exercises last night, I crawled into bed at about 6 AM this morning - & was I tired!!
We were to fly tonight but
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the weather was lousy, - & it wasn’t “scrubbed” till the last minute.
Spent some time in the mess this afternoon writing letters – rose at about 3 P.M., so was kept busy!
We are all pleased that the whole of our course are going to the M.T.U. on “mossies” – they are all a fine lot of chaps & we get along well together!
Sept 2nd. The last of our days of lectures at Halfpenny Green – we had leave at midday so Bob, Alan & self, set out for Wolverhampton by bus at about 4 P.M, & after having a “beaut” meal, came back to camp as it was far too cold & miserable to stay in there. The bus stopped at the local pub. – so we had to finish walking a mile to camp.
Sept 3rd. 5 years since war was declared – a wet & miserable day here, so we did little but
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prepare for our departure from 3 (0) AFU.
Sept. 4th. After spending quite some time obtaining the last of our clearances, Bob & I caught a bus to Wolverhampton at 4 p.m. – I collected my first cake from home, at lunchtime so I sent a cable to that effect & also one to Ralph for his birthday.
Was grand to receive the cake – can see we’ll be enjoying some for supper before long. Tried to buy a wireless in town – no luck. so Bob & I saw “Her Jungle Love” – an old show, actually, which I saw at home!
Sept. 5th. We left Halfpenny Green at about 10 AM. - & left by train from Wolv. For London.
The country changed, & became more level as we went south – we passed many ‘dromes & also a good many modern factories.
It was quite impressive, & the
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whole was much better & more modern than any city I had seen here. We arrived at Paddington & had to wait quite some time before we managed to get a Yank transport to take us to King’s Cross station!
Had hoped to be able to spend the night in London, as we were too late to make the train scheduled for us, but the RTO refused permission to stay, so we had to head for Huntington. [sic]
Had rather an interesting drive thru’ London, to the station. – the buzz bombs had almost stopped now, as most of the sites across the channel had been captured!
Some fell earlier in the morning, but we missed them O.K. – the city was very busy & the whole atmosphere was O.K.
It was a really good day - & the sun brightened the city so, that I was amazed just
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how good the city looked. – the gardens & all made it equally as neat as N. York.
We arrived rather late at Hunt. & ‘twas well after midnight before we saw bed.
Sept 6th.
Buzzed off to begin finding our way about the camp. – it sure had us tricked. & the whole was so scattered that we had 2 miles almost to go from our hut, in a roundabout route, to reach the ‘drome & H.Q.
We were sure pleased we still had our cycles!
There were the 4 Canucks & we three – so the canadians [sic] had a fair amount of walking to do. The other chaps of our course were given a week’s leave – we missed on it!
We had a busy day & after interviews & all, setted [sic] to tea & some writing in the
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mess! We found a wizard Club. – Warboys’ Club. – ideal for our evening writing, & the whole was O.K. The meals were good & so we made a very good beginning.
Mosquitos, Lancs & Oxfords flew about all day – it would not be long now before we were twiddling “G” on the “mossies.”
Sept 8th.
Yesterday we began lectures & so far have heard so much gen. on ops & the general goings on in Europe that we have been fully concentrating to take it all in.
Bob, Al & I were put straight on the course, but the Canucks are now in pool, - we have a W.C, Sq. Leaders & other officers with us. They sure are gen men & we feel strange to be in the midst of all them.
At this rate we should
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be on ops. in “Mossies” in a month.
We crew up later at Wyton!
Received a.g. from home today – they had received my records from U.S. Finished up after writing letters in the Club, with cake for supper. – sure is a good reminder of home!
Sept 10th. Gosh! we sure have been getting some gen. today – all secret stuff which we must remember & not take in notes. – is best forgotten ‘till it is needed.
Have still a couple days of lectures before beginning flying.
Sept 11th. Our first day on “G” – found out all about it & after the lectures etc. all was O.K & we had the subject more or less sown up!
Had an early tea, & at 4.30. our course (32) left by bus for Cambridge to do dinghy drill. – had to hurtle off the
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platform in flying gear this time.
Bob, Alan & I strolled about the town afterwards – a really fascinating place! The colleges were very interesting – typically English, & with excellent grounds.
Saw some extra good souvenir spoons – but shops were closed
We saw a show in the evening – “the Lost Angel.” On coming out of the theatre, we found ourselves in the blackout & were lucky to have remembered our way back to the bus!
Was sure pleased to crawl into bed after all that!
Sept 12th.
Had rather a lively day on “G” today – along with practice in a “dry swim”! Bob, Al & I had to go bombing at 6 P.M. – my first trip in an oxford.
Was quite a good show – but we did not get back to the
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mess for supper ‘till late!
Was sure pleased to get an air mail letter from Dad, today – photo of our march in Melb. was enclosed! Mail is coming thru’ well from home now – is mighty good, too, as it makes home seem only a short distance away - & as we are not far off operations now, they go a long way to keeping one’s mind off the task ahead.
Sept 13th Wednesday
“We three” spent this morning in the decompression chamber – at 37,000’ for 2 hours! Bob felt pains in his shoulder, but Al & I didn’t have any trouble at all – we were all O.K, after that!
Sept 14th.
I now have crewed up with my pilot – W/O. John Herriman (RAAF) He is a really decent chap & rather a gen. man
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I am fortunate to have him, as we get along so well together – it will sure make a difference in our job, too. Hope to fly with him soon in a “Mossie” – he soloed a few days ago and is progressing well. He thinks they are wizard “kites.”
As he is rather a practical sort of chap & is really keen on photography, we have much in common, I think, & I am looking forward to some interesting days ahead especially at the squadron
We went thru’ dinghy drill together on Monday – quite a good show!
Went to Wyton to see over a bombing “Mossie” today – it sure is a wizard station & I’m looking forward to going there!
Sept 15th. First cross country flight using “Gee” this afternoon
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- a really good show! Received letter from Jean Rogers.
Had another chat to John tonight – getting all the “gen” on mossies.
Sept 16th. – Saturday, & Ralph’s birthday – was wondering all day just what he was doing.
Received “Over to you” from Mum today – will keep me busy on some interesting reading during spare time (just where that comes from, I do now know!)
However, all is O.K & I also heard from Whem, Glenn & Aunt Lily. Flew this afternoon – had a good trip on “G”, but was not able to drop my bombs.
Sept 17th. Clocks were put back an hour at 3 AM. – had to rise at 6, to be at 7 o’clock briefing. However, we had to wait ‘till 9 AM for the fog to clear off the ‘drome, so all
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our early rising was to no advantage! Flew 2 trips of 3 hours, bombing on each!
So, it was late when I finally returned to the mess for tea. - & so another Sunday passes (one would never know it actually).
On such days as this, one sure does realise how grand & peaceful it is at home on Sundays – where one does as he likes, when he likes!
Had a letter from Wal Brue today – he is on 9 days leave in Glasgow & had hoped to see us on his return to PDRC.
Couldn’t wire him, so guess we won’t meet him now! The lucky blighter is still bludging at Brighton - & the P/O’s such as Alec Brown & Jim Allsop are with him. They will soon be F/O’s & we’ll be on ops as Sgts! – what a difference!
However, we’re going along
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O.K & expect to go to Wyton on Tuesday.
Had an orange for lunch yesterday & another today – the first I had seen since leaving the USA.
Sept 18th.
Returned to lectures today for the final few days before moving to Wyton. Bob, Al & I had hoped to catch a bus to Huntingdon tonight just to get a break from camp, but we missed it, so we returned to the mess to a picture show. We managed supper at the Warboys Club. – chocolate biscuits & tea! Quite a good show.
Sept 19th. Had a quizz [sic] this morning summing up the whole of the course – we came out well! John sure is a “gen” man, & I’m looking forward to getting on to the real thing with him. Bob had a RAF
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F/O chat him about crewing up, so he has a pilot now. – Al is missing out still & I don’t know what he’ll be doing. We hoped to have a day’s leave tomorrow – but we are required to do another “Gee” flight before leaving here so that is all scrubbed. & our next leave is still a fair way off!
Had our usual letter writing programme tonight at the club. - & later found a really excellent supper at an evening in the mess. We were speaking to the AOC. – A. Vice M. Bennett of Brisbane for about 15 mins. He was quite interested in our progress - & we now feel that things are moving along O.K.
Sept 20th. Found today that we were to make another trip before proceeding to Wyton. – so, as soon as the fog had lifted from the ‘drome, (10 AM.) a RAAF pilot & I set out, & had a good trip on “G”
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Was really warm above the clouds & we sure did enjoy it.
Spent the afternoon getting clearance – but Al then found that, as he didn’t have a pilot, he had to stay ‘till he was able to get one. So Bob & I were due for Wyton, & as we didn’t have to be there till Friday at 2 P.M. we buzzed off to catch a train to London for a day’s leave.
To ride 5 miles to Huntingdon in a hurry was a bit much for us at this stage so we decided to hail a car – quite some traffic passed along these roads. There were three ‘dromes together here, so things were always busy.
Our train took over 3 hours to reach London – yes! eight o’clock when we landed at King’s Cross, & altho’ the total blackout had now been lifted, - it sure was dark. And, to our disgust, we had forgotten
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a torch – so there we were, in London, along with its almost total blackout! Which way does one go in a city of 8,000,000?
After ‘phoning a hostel, we found it had nothing in the way of accommodation – but were informed of another near Marlebone [sic] Station, so we buzzed by the underground to this spot.
We were amazed to learn that there were no hostels there & were directed along further – then somewhere else, then on again by two policemen until we found after walking for about an hour along black streets we managed to come to the hostel we ‘phoned in the first place!
We managed to get a room here O.K. - & sure were pleased to stay until daylight before exploring further.
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Sept 21st.
At breakfast Bob & I had quite a chat to some AIF chaps who were on their way home after being POW’s in Germany since Greece & Crete. It was grand to see the old uniform again.
We then set out for Sth. Aust. House. The city appeared quite neat & tidy, and I was amazed to see numerous modern shops & very good statues & gardens. My idea of London had been quite different. – expected to see something dirty & ancient like Liverpool.
A very nice lass from Adelaide was at Sth A. House – she directed us to the Boomerang Club.
There were many of our chaps at Aust. House – we signed books etc. &
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arranged for something in the “Advertiser.” Met Mrs. Bruce & had a chat to her.
I bought a tiny Koala to send to Browns as a souvenir.
Bob & I then set out to see the beaut city – all the well known spots, such as Waterloo Bridge, Tower Bridge Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament. Big Ben struck three, while we were there.
The Thames made a typical London scene – fog & boats all over the place. We spent some time wandering about & used the camera quite an amount – Buckingham Palace & the gardens & broad road leading to it, which had witnessed the coronations – were just as I had expected. Guess the King
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& Queen must have been away – the flag was down!
We saw Piccadilly Circus & the main shopping centre before returning to the club.
Managed to buy some oil colours for Dad. – the shops are well stocked but one can’t usually get what he wants, or at least, I can’t!
We returned by train this evening & settled for our last night at Warboys.
Sept 22nd.
We were sorry to leave Warboys. – the fortnight we spent there were really most enjoyable! Alan had left on a week’s leave, so we didn’t see him – he sure was lucky to get that.
We settled into Wyton
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before lunch & had quite a good chat & interview to the O.C. – we were pleased to see how well organised the show was, & we were looking forward to our next fortnight!
Sept 23rd.
Began the day well today with P.T at 7.30, - was O.K & then a shower after it made me really fresh & ready for breakfast.
John took rather a dim view of the P.T – but all was well as we had puffed rice & eggs for breakfast, & took to it very well!
Today we had lectures on Mosquito flying & an interview with the Adj. – getting along fine now & as all the officers here are really decent, all should be well. Had my first trip in a “Mossie” today – John
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& I took off at about 1400. – he did 3 circuits & bumps in 1/2 hour.
Was really good – they are wizard “kites” & he makes a good job of handling them. Dropped eight bombs – John had not been on bombing for ages & we stooged all over the place, & finished putting our first on the wrong target – that nearly cost me 6. Finished up really well, tho’ – my score was the best they had had on the Holbeach target for a while!
Sept 24th.
Sunday
We were to go on our first cross country at 25000’ today, but weather was really foul – flying was scrubbed in the finish so we had an interesting day figuring out all our gen.
We are having excellent meals here – eggs & cereal for breakfast (haven’t seen them since
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leaving U.S. Three course meals for lunch go very well – was as cold as could be today, & gosh! I could have well sat before a fire to warm myself tonight!
Sept 25th.
Rose at 7. this morning to begin P.T. at 7.30 – what a show! Gosh! it sure is cold these mornings & I’ll be taking to long trousers for PT from now on! John & I flew this afternoon on our first cross country in a “mossie” – all went well.
Flew at 25,000’ – cloud came right up to us, & we were unable to carry out bombing!
Sept 26th. Had an early start on a cross country this morning – we were up for nearly 4 hours & thus covered 8 – 900 miles. Was a very good trip, mainly D.R. & as I was only 15 miles from the target after all that time, it was
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considered a good exercise!
So, on our return we prepared for a night trip. – ‘twas a really grand night tonight & we were the last to take off.
Once again had a good trip – but what a day! Gosh! was I pleased to hit the old bed!!!
Sept 27th.
We sure were tired this morning & it took me all my time to rise at midday to be at briefing for tonight’s trip. John & I tested two mossies this afternoon – was good experience & practice for us, but I sure had to move fast to be ready to take off for a cross country tonight. All went well & we were back at midnight!
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Sept 28th. Thursday.
Had to ferry a “mossie” to De Hav.’s drome near London this morning. John & I spent the day there at the works – picked up some extra good photos of the Mosquito from the boss. We returned here tonight – picked up by a W/Cmd in an oxford.
Received first mail from home today for three weeks. – don’t know why the family didn’t write in between this time, but I sure missed the letters & hope they continue to come O.K now!
Sept 29th.
Spent the morning in the Intel. library getting all the “gen” here – John was feeling the effect of his cold today so we did not fly tonight. Tested a kite this afternoon, but soon
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settled to washing & pressing clothes & ironing etc in the earlier part of this evening.
Have had little time to spare of late – gosh! I’ll be needing a wife to look after me if this keeps up!?
Oct. 1st. Yesterday afternoon we stooged up to Holbeach to do some practice bombing – cloud very low & vis. was poor. We returned without dropping any “eggs.”
Night flying was cancelled at the last minute, so Bob & I soon wizzed into our blues & caught a bus to Huntingdon. Have a new “O” wing up now, as the “N” doesn’t go with us any more.
We were very disappointed with the township – people were in great long queues waiting for the shows we intended seeing. ‘Tis only a fairly small villiage [sic] - & we saw
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people (typically English villiagers [sic]) gathered around the Salvation Army Band near the bus stop. Light rain was falling & ‘twas rapidly becoming dark, so Bob & I set off to see what else we could find. That, we found ended up to be nothing, so, after buying a small cake & eating same between us at the bus stop, we returned to camp.
Today, John & I did an hour & half of bombing before lunch – stooged all over the place practicing target runs!
Spent a couple hours before tea this afternoon writing in the mess. – a peaceful Sunday afternoon!
We took off fairly early tonight for the last of our cross country exercises – had a U/S kite so was late when we finally set off. Had a good trip, returning soon after midnight.
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Oct 2nd.
Posted the oil colours & photo of the “mossie” home to Dad today
Was hoping to be able to buzz off on a few days’ leave today, but we have an interview with the group Nav. officer tomorrow.
Bob & Alan still have night flying to complete, but as it was scrubbed tonight we called on the camp cinema for the evening – the first show I had seen for some time. It was “Hit the Ice” with Abbott & Costello – a really good show & we sure had a grand laugh.
Oct 3rd.
Today, after spending the morning obtaining clearances etc, I left camp to buzz to Carlisle for a couple days. Bob still has flying to complete, so couldn’t be with me.
Had a rare time hitch-hiking to Peterborough so that
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I could catch an express to London – made it OK after being in about 3 trucks & 2 cars!
Was a long trip from London to Carlisle & we were to arrive at 4 AM. – however there were numerous stops & starts and long waits on the line, & I was amazed to find we were still going at daybreak. Nearly had forty fits to see mountains etc, which I had never seen before, & thought I must have been asleep when we passed Carlisle. What a show – guessed I’d have to make a trip back from Glasgow!
However, I found that we had made a deviation owing to a smash on the main line & we rolled into Carlisle quite O.K at about 8 AM.
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[underlined] Wednesday [/underlined]:
Mr & Mrs Brown were home when I buzzed in – we were soon busy talking & I was quite at home at a good breakfast in no time!
After a bath & clean up I joined “Dunc” at morning tea – we returned home early for lunch & then I spent the afternoon peacefully before the fire, writing letters.
‘Twas grand to get back to see Mr & Mrs Brown, Joyce & Kieth [sic] again – they are just the same after two months or more having passed since we saw them.
Oct 5th.
Was grand to have the usual breakfast in bed this morning – Mrs Brown still looking after me as usual!
I was out for a rest
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these two days, so I made the most of it, & did very little before lunch.
Mr Brown had the afternoon off – so I made them a “hotbox” & we set some boiling water in it to test it. Proved O.K, & I hope it will cook O.K, too!
Was quite a nice afternoon so we walked to the Cathedral & the Tower, - then home to another few hours spell before my return trip.
I wished Bob could have been with me – it was grand to be able to spend a couple days with them, & gosh I had all I wanted.
Mrs Brown gave me a “Le Havre” spoon to send to Mum.
Made the return trip thru’ Newcastle & Peterborough & arrived at camp by 9 AM.
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Oct 6th [underlined] Friday [/underlined]
John returned a little after me this morning – I rode the good old bike from Huntingdon, so managed to get in a bit before him. We soon found from the Adj. that we were posted to 627 Sqn. at Woodhall Spa, near Boston – gosh! what a show! This didn’t appeal to us.
And so the time had come when I found that it really seemed like leaving Bob & Al - & that last couple hours I had with them passed all too quickly.
We made our train connections O.K & after making four changes at all sorts of out back stations, we managed to reach Woodhall & find an “Aussie” WAAF to drive us to the drome – good show!
But gosh! were our spirits flattened when we saw the
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the place. – a dispersed ‘drome (one of the many in this country)
‘Twas so different from Wyton, & it sure was a blow to find we had been dumped here!
There was only another crew besides us sent to this spot – we sure were unlucky this time!
And so we began – John had ideas to be moved elsewhere as soon as we knew the running of things here! It was a grim show, & I was pleased to hit the old bed & sleep it off!
Oct 8th.
We sure were feeling rather flat yesterday – spent the day finding out all we could about the squadron & everything else! Dive bombing & the prospects of a very long tour of ops did not appeal to us, as we told the C.O. – W/Cmd Curry, when we were inter-
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viewed. Today we did little more of interest – was a typical English winter Sunday. Gosh! it is might cold & damp here even now, so I don’t know what it will be like in a couple months if we are unlucky enough to still be here!
We have started things moving now. – John has written to H.Q to try for a move elsewhere!
Oct 10th.
Since my arrival at this spot these English “bods” have annoyed & sickened me more than ever. – I never have been dead keen on them, & now that John & I are the only “Aussies” about here, there is definitely something amiss. & thus I’d sure like to find ourselves on a RAAF station with people who think & talk as we do. We
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have certainly had bad luck to be sent here - & the dull, damp atmosphere of the place, and prospects of a very slow & uninteresting tour of ops. ahead, have sure made us feel flat!
Guess Bob is now on a fairly good station & maybe already on ops – he has sure had a good spin! John & I spent last evening at the camp cinema – rather a boring show, but it managed to break the monotony & ease our depression!
This morning I was peacefully making up a “Gee” homing card when John burst in. - “We’re Airborne” he says! “O.K Let’s go”, I answer, rather stunned by this sudden outburst of life on behalf of the beaut squadron!
So, off we buzzed in a “beaut” old MK IV & completed our dive boming [sic] before lunch.
No mail today – poor
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show! Can’t make out where my airgraphs have gone.
Oct 12th. Today I received quite a budget of mail – on top of some from Mum, Dad, Glad, Auntie Bess which came yesterday.
So all is well again, & an answer to my letter to “Auspo” re. airgraphs tells me that air letters are definitely best now, - so they should continue O.K.
This place was making me feel mighty flat, but some mail sure makes a difference & I don’t mind now if I’m left here a while before beginning ops, as I can pick up quite an amount to help me.
John & I blew across to Conningsby [sic] this morning, to get the hang of using T.I’s etc on targets – in a special training arrangement. ‘Twas a huge place like a B.T. - & we
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peered down on the target, from a balcony as if we were in a “kite” at about 10000’ seeing a dinkum raid. It would make a really good sideshow for post war days. – something like “How the RAAF did it!”
Was well worked out tho’ & mighty interesting with red, green & yellow markers going down, flak bursting & searchlights on!
We thought it quite a good station – gosh! why should we be sent to a wicked place like Woodhall! Hope to have a chance to begin something for our move before long!
Oct. 13th. All we navs. had a lecture by the C.O this morning – on much secret “gen.”
John & I set out on a bombing trip soon after, but we developed a mighty big swing on take off. - &
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skidded off the runway & flat out towards the control tower – was funny to watch everyone run for trucks etc. expecting things to happen, but we came round O.K & began taxying back to the flight – brakes were soon U.S so we left the “kite” on the perim. track!
Visited Coningsby again this afternoon to get some more secret “gen” – good stuff!
Oct. 15th.
Continued with the usual “genning” today & at 11 this morning John & I took a F/LT to Oakington – good show! I’ve now at least put foot on the place even if we don’t get our move there! Set out to do some wind finding on our way back. – instruments went U/S on us, so we had to forget it!
Tonight there was a grand show on in the mess – a party for one & all apparently! We
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had to take off on a practice marking trip at 10, so it was all over when we returned at midnight. We dropped 250 lb. T.I’s which went down O.K. – but I forgot to fuse them! What a show – thats [sic] twice I’ve done it (first & last) I hope.
Had a late supper & piled into bed at about 1 A.M.
Oct 16th.
‘Tis impossible to express the rotten feeling I’ve had all day. – Bill Read’s letter, telling me that Bob was missing after a raid on Berlin last Wednesday night, came this morning. Gosh! it hardly seems possible – I go back over all the good times we have spent together, & gee! I’m just hoping & praying that he’ll be O.K. I wrote to Mrs. Bolton a couple nights ago – will write again now.
Contacted H.Q in London today
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& hope for some news of him before long! Wrote also to Bill Read, & hope to hear from him again soon – Alan Beavis is now with him at Downham Market!
Oct 17th.
John & I had to make an early start this morning on a special wind finding trip. We Made [sic] two trips – took some shots today of the “kites.”
I wrote to Brown’s last night – it will be a hell of a shock to them to hear of Bob’s misfortune.
Oct 19th.
Yesterday we were flying early again – then on bombing in the afternoon. Were due to take off at 1900 for wind finding – dropping incend. & spot fires.
It was a rotten night – we had to wait ‘till midnight before we could get off but it was raining so heavily when we
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began taxiing out, we had to switch off & the whole was cancelled. – Was sure pleased to hit the old bed at 2 AM.
Oct. 22nd. Sunday
Have had rotten weather the past few days & most of our flying has been scrubbed because of fog & rain. The only way to keep the dampness out of our huts is to keep a fire on the whole time – but fumes etc. soon cause us to open all windows, so I don’t know [deleted] hh [/deleted] what we’ll do as it becomes colder.
Have not yet had any news of Bob. – received a cable from home yesterday, so the family all know of Bob’s misfortune!
Oct. 23rd.
The weather sure is “clamping down” here now. – fog & rain usually greets us in the morning,
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& gosh! everything seems so miserable! It usually clears up in the evenings, tho’ - & so we are then able to fly, & it is OK as long as we get back before the fog begins to gather again.
Went out to Wainfleet on bombing again last night – T.I’s didn’t burn very well tho’. Today I was a pal-bearer at the funeral of an RAF chap who was unable to bale out of a “mossie” in time a few days ago. – was not at all enjoyable!
Had a letter from Mr Brown today with snaps from my last film enclosed – they came out rather good & there were quite a few we took in London when Bob & I were last there on leave.
Still no news of Bob – guess it may yet be some time before any comes along! Am saving
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some chocolate to send to him as soon as I have his P.O.W. address, as he likes it best of all!
Gosh! I’ve really “had” this place now. – we have had everything go wrong lately & I sure would like to get away for a while. Mr Brown’s letters are always grand to receive – they are wizard people & I sure do owe a lot of my happiness here to them! John’s wizard sense of humour keeps me going O.K too. – we get along well together & without him there would not be much of interest for me! We have hopes of some good ops soon - & maybe make the grade to ferry a “mossie” home!
Oct 25th.
Firstly today – a change of ink & so we proceed.
Today was the great day – as it seems we are to be on this Squadron for some time,
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I found the opportunity to apply to the Adj. for the required form 1020 for my application for a Commission – so it is now on its way, & maybe in a few months’ time I’ll hear something of it! Has yet to be passed by our W/C Curry – who no doubt will require a very interesting interview before he passes it on!
Still no news of Bob. – a fortnight tonight since he was missing, so I sure hope he is O.K as a P.O.W. & if Jerry has finished his interrogation, I may hear something soon!
Oct 27th.
We are still on training – gosh! we have “had” this place & only wish we could get on to the real thing. I’m afraid I’m looking forward to leaving England – as far as I’m concerned, the
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whole place makes one feel so miserable, & I’d sure dislike being here very long.
John & I flew a few hours on a X. country this afternoon.
Oct. 28th.
Had a couple hours’ trip in a Lanc today – using H2S. There sure is plenty of room in them compared with the “mossie”!
Was grand to receive Mum’s parcel today too – it only took a little over 2 months. Dad had enclosed some films, so I’ll be taking the camera with me to get some shots of the “kites” when I next fly.
Oct 30th.
Yesterday was quite fine - & the sun helped brighten things a little.
Had intended cycling to a nearby castle, but we had to fly, so that settled that. Wrote to Mr & Mrs Bolton again before lunch. – John & I set out to
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begin a bombing exercise early in the afternoon, & to our delight a large formation of Fortresses were streaking along up above with Con-trails galore. – so up we wizzed to 20,000 after our bombing to do likewise.
It was really a grand Sunday afternoon’s flying. – the old “mossie” did a good job!
Today another crew from 627 Sqn. is missing – had to bale out over their target, so should be O.K.
Oct 31st. Teusday. [sic]
My “Flight” actually came through today – only a month overdue, so I must now find some crowns to put up!
Have received quite an amount of mail from home – letters & papers & “Waltzing Matilda” from Mum & letters from Dad.
No further news of Bob has yet come to hand. – I sure do
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hope I’ll know of him soon – have now quite a supply of chocolate for him, & will send it on as soon as I have his address. This makes me remember how well we both used to like chocolate. – the chocolate cakes & ice cream of New York are a vivid memory.
Nov. 5th Sunday.
The past few days have been rather hectic & as we’ve had quite an amount to do on Loran etc., time has passed rather quickly.
I blew into the flight office & had our well over-due leave fixed up – for Monday 6th.
John & I have been on a fair amount of bombing practice the past few days - & with some link practice & some “gen” on flying the “mossie”, John managed to show me how to handle the “kite” – found it O.K & I sure would like to get in a dual control job.
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We saw “Goodbye Mr Chips”, last night at the station cinema – really enjoyed it again, & it sure made one feel like fighting to keep such lads as those out of this business. The moral of the film was very impressive.
The National Anthem runner at the camp show is an old one – with an Anson in part of it. It always reminds me of our days in the old Anson’s at home – gosh! how many times have Bob & I been in them, - & its amazing to think how things are for us now.
This afternoon we were not able to fly owing to bad weather – so, after a great effort by the whole squadron to run the 3 1/2 miles round the ‘drome, I was pleased to get into a bath & so begin preparing to go on leave.
Left camp at 4 P.M by bus for Boston & after a
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considerable wait, managed to get to Peterborough. The train to Newcastle was packed – so I had to stand in the corridor & freeze! I never want to see another train after this business is all over – especially an English one.
Was a terrifically cold night - & I was pleased to arrive at “Glenleigh” in time for breakfast.
Mr Brown, & a friend of his were going to Coldstream by car, so I bundled in with them - & off we went before lunch! It was quite a good drive & the country we passed thru’ very interesting – however I was pleased to return home, as I had missed out on all my sleep the night before.
Wednesday 8th.
After a lazy day yesterday, I actually rose early (about 8.30) this morning, to go off with
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Mr Brown on his trip to Edinburgh.
We had a really good day – the sun was shining & all was O.K. Passed thru’ Hawick & Galashiels & many of the hills about were already covered with snow.
Arrived in the “big smoke” at about 2 P.M, so were able to have a good look about before tea. – we stayed at a small hotel! Visited the Castle & took snaps about the place.
In the evening Mr Brown & I went off to a show, in which Will Fyfe, the Scottish comedian was the main attraction – it was very good, & we sure did enjoy ourselves.
Nov. 9th.
We managed breakfast O.K this morning & set out to see all we could of the city.
‘Twas very smoky & hazy but we found our way to the old Castle & Cathedral!
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I was able to buy “This, my Son” at a bookstall, to give to Mrs. Brown. We then caught a bus for the Forth Bridge, & spent an hour or so there – ‘tis truly a wonderful piece of work & I wished Ralph were there too.
Our trip back took us along a slightly different route – had been cold the night before, so there was quite an amount of snow & ice along the roads.
Met trouble on the road, with a blowout, so had to change the tyre in a slight snow storm.
Sunday.
Came along all too quickly & soon ‘twas time to board a train again.
My week at Carlisle was one big bludge – but it was grand to be in such a homely atmosphere again!
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Mrs Brown fitted me up with biscuits & powdered milk, so all should be well for supper now!
Monday 13th.
Arrived at camp at midday – things were well fogged up, so there was little doing in the Squadron.
Saturday 18th.
John & I had hoped to get an interview with the C.O this week, but he was on leave when we returned, so we must wait a couple days yet - & in the mean time continue our daily “stooges” & training about here. Made a trip in a Lanc. on Loran today – out to the North Sea. Was O.K but I’d rather have a “mossie” any day!
Have not had any further news of Bob yet – a letter from his mother came a few days ago.
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Wednesday 22nd.
Last night John & I were on our trip to Munster – O.K.
Had a grand day for mail today – quite an amount from home, & one also from Glenn & Clarrie. Glenn & I may be able to coincide our leave – I sure do hope we can make it O.K!
Sent off the last of my Xmas Air Letters today. – was scrubbed from the op tonight – “kite” U/S.
[deleted] On Munich – via Manston [/deleted]
We had a snow storm today, but was very light.
Saturday 25th.
On our return from T.I. dropping at Wainfleet tonight, we collided with a Lanc. at the perimeter track. The “mossie” wasn’t touched much, but the Lanc. broke in two – I shall never forget the sight of the fin suddenly appearing in front of us.
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No one was touched in the collision so all is well so far!
Sunday – We were on Munich tonight. – had a very wet afternoon with some sleet & snow Trip via Manston!
Monday 27th Nov.
Spent today at the inquest to our accident – we are in the clear, as it was the Lanc. chap’s fault & he is in some strife! Received parcel from home & Tyson’s today.
Wednesday 29th.
Our trip to the River Weser was spoilt by cloud over the target – otherwise O.K.
‘Twas 5 AM. before we at last made bed!
Wrote to Glenn today to hope to arrange Xmas leave together. Have no further news of Bob, yet!
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Monday 4th. We were out tonight on Halcunn rail centre – good trip. 13 Lancs missing
Teusday: [sic] Today more papers came from home, with four parcels & one parcel from SAFFCF.
On ops. again tonight – but they were later scrubbed, after us getting up at 1 A.M, having a meal & preparing for the trip.
Dec 6th. Raid a rail junction near Frankfurt tonight – quite O.K.
Dec 8th. We had our first real heavy fall of snow today – gee, it was cold. Had to practice ditching drill too!
Received a letter from Mrs. Francis – Allen Boase’s friends who want me to spend my next leave there. So I may go there before visiting Brown’s
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but hope to see Glenn also!
Dec 9th
John & I had a flight this afternoon on blind windfinding – we were to be on ops tonight but it was “scrubbed.”
[underlined] Sunday: [/underlined] Rather a miserable day – kept the fire in the crew room warm & with sheepskin etc & flying boots to keep me warm, completed some letter writing & met. swotting – also Loran manipulation.
On the link this afternoon – a heavy fall of snow began at about 2 & continued ‘till after tea. Gosh! what a mess! ‘Twas rather unusual to see the snow over buildings & all, as that which I have seen at home is all in the hills! Lit the fire in 126 tonight – John & I spent the evening reading & munching
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almonds & sultanas etc. from my parcels. – supper of cocoa & a piece of cake made a good combination while the wind & rain outside made all outdoors rather miserable!
Wednesday:
Have been on bombing & wind finding the past few days. – days always foggy with hardly any vis. in the morning, & to make the situation worse, some very heavy frosts, which now last all day. We were not put on the battle order for tonight.
Received quite an amount of mail from home yesterday – Dad said the photo of the mossie had arrived O.K. Allan Beavis wrote today – his leave has been put back & we should now spend Xmas together at Brown’s – he has now done 15 ops.
Mine laying at Bremen – 45 ships “bottled up”
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Dec 14th. Received three more parcels this morning – a cake from Mum & also one from Mrs Bartlett, & a beaut tin of yo yos from Gwen. – Gosh! all this is grand, & such incidents brighten things quite an amount. – the cake contained a card for Xmas & a large print of Mum & Dad. Gee! it is good to have their photo – often look through all I have, with many pleasant memories.
Flt/Lt Jackson & I went for a ride around the country this afternoon – ‘twas might cold!
Friday: -
Received another parcel from home today. – four films enclosed.
Saturday 16th.
We were put on an op. this morning – left at 7 P.M for Marston for a late take off. Weather was very poor – we put down there O.K, with a
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ground staff “chappie” in the nose. –
Op scrubbed at 1 A.M – so we settled to sleep in a really miserable hut.
Sunday: -
A vile day – we tested the mossies & hung round for final gen. on the op. Set course in quite fair weather, - hit Munich & came back without any troubles. The lights in Switzerland were showing very plainly – we were on marking tonight.
Once again spent a few hours sleeping in a miserable hut. – rose at 9 AM. & returned to Woodhall!
Had some strife this afternoon preparing for our leave – but finally managed to get everything set! Spent this evening writing & dusting the cobwebs off my “blues”. – all set for a “bang on week”. Sent a wire
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to Allan today & hope to meet him in London.
Monday passed O.K, so John & I, after fixing up my log for the last op, caught the midday bus to Boston. All done up & somewhere to go. – they say we “Aussies” have the pick of all uniforms here, & today we managed to keep up the good name.
With the help of Fl/Lt Tice, I had my leave extended to Dec 28 – 10 days – as John has an R/T course to attend in London.
We arrived at the AFC at Kensington Gardens in good time – settled for a room, which altho’ in an annex, was very good. Wizzed out then to Liecester [sic] Square to have a look around – ‘twas now about 8 PM.
We blew into a cafe – had some wizard sandwiches & tea, and then began sorting out the theatres.
The crowds were thick & the
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city quite bright with the blackout partly lifted. – ‘twas amazing to watch the city more or less humming with activity whilst above our “kites” were heading across the way. We saw a newsreel show - & returned to the Club. Teusday [sic] over, we come to –
Wednesday 22nd Dec.
After a wonderful sleep, we managed to make breakfast with a few minutes to spare – we soon noticed the excellent atmosphere of the club. The chaps all looked so clean – it was typically Aust.
Today we spent pondering thru’ bookshops etc. – time soon passed, as we were made to wonder at the interest London has for its Visitors.
The underground, especially struck me more than ever as being a truly wonderful piece of engineering. The city itself
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was not so bright – we had run into a London fog, & one could just see across the road.
Saw Michael Redgrave in “Uncle Harry,” tonight – an excellent show.
[underlined] Thursday: [/underlined]
John had to attend the R/T course today so he had left the club before I awoke. At Breakfast I met Geoff Mitton, so, as I had to go along to have the “Power of Attorney” from Dad, witnessed, we went along together to see Sir Chas McCann & then to Kodak House. Had hoped to visit Parliament House, but were too late, so we tripped along to the Boomerang Club to lunch. Met quite a few chaps I knew including Paul Smith.
At 2 PM. four “Aussies” including “yours truly”, set out for
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Ealing – thence in a taxi to Paramount’s Ealing Studios.
We were met with much enthusiasm – once more it seemed our chaps had a good name - & I was in my element seeing all I could of the place.
Tom Walls was making a film at the time – we saw a few shots being made & pottered all over the sets which were under construction.
I met John back at the Club – we had tea, & later set out for Euston, to get my train to Carlisle.
We arranged that he should follow me in a day or so. – I left him hoping to see him at Brown’s for Xmas! My trip was O.K. – I arrived at Glenleigh just in time for breakfast.
‘Twas good to see the Brown’s again & they were pleased
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that I had at last arrived.
I sorted out the local bookshops - & came home with some “gen” on photography. A wire from Allen told us of his time of arrival – met him after tea, & spent a very pleasant evening having a good chat.
Was just like old times – three months since I last saw him - & it sure did remind me of the days he, Bob & I spent together.
The Browns began looking after us right away – they were grand!
A wire from John let us know he would arrive about midnight. However, I missed him at the station, as he was on a second part of a train which was late.
Saturday: John came along this morning before Al
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& I were up. – we were having our usual “breakfast in bed.
Our next few days were carefree & lazy, but happy & it was wonderful to relax so in such homely surroundings!
It was grand we could all get together. – Xmas Day was a grand surprise & we had a really hearty meal.
For the rest – so much happened that the time passed all too quickly.
Firstly, Allan set out again for London & then John & I returned. I was not at all pleased having to leave. – the Brown’s had been marvellous to us & we spent a Xmas of reunion I shall not forget.
I often thought of Bob. – if only he could have been with us too!
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Friday Dec 28th.
When we arrived back at Tattershall last night, we were amazed to find the place covered in ice & frost & gosh! was it cold. Apparently it had been this way for some days. – the road was slippery & John and I had quite some fun attempting to keep up!
Today John’s commission came thru’ & he is now an F/O.
Received two parcels from home & one from Henderson’s today – along with “bags” of letters.
Saturday: -
We were on a battle order this morning – early lunch, but was in time to collect my mail. – another parcel arrived, but there was not time to collect it before we left. Flew in formation of 6
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to Peterhead – spent the night
[underlined] Dec 31st [/underlined]
Arose at 6 AM – bleak, cold & miserable morning with snow on the ground. Weather cleared & we set course when the sun was rising – was as clear as could be as we climbed up & the effect above the clouds was extra. The formation looked grand passing over the Norwegian mountains, which were well covered with snow. – we arrived at Oslo amidst a beautiful clear day.
Divebombed the Oest. H.Q there & wizzed off home on the “dick”.
Noticed some skaters on a large lake as we left the town. – Flak was heavy, but we came out with only a glycol burst. Dicky Doyle & F/L Gaunt were wounded.
John & I returned to Woodhall in a Lanc – our kite was U/S so we left it behind.
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[underlined] 1945 [/underlined]
January 1st.
John & I had early supper last night – too tired to bother seeing the New Year in!
[underlined] Wednesday: [/underlined]
John had moved to another hut today, so I moved also across the way with most of the chaps I know!
Tuesday 9th. All has been going along O.K. – have only been flying on practice bombing etc. as the weather has been foul.
Has been snowing for a couple days – we are now well in the midst of the cold season.
Went to Lincoln today for dinghy drill – had a really good swim in the baths. John came back in the bus, but “Johnnie” Caragatta & I stayed on – saw a show & bought a kettle & some eats before our return.
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Jan 10th Received 4 parcels today – two beaut cakes included! They were nos. 10, 11 & 12. One cake was from Joy! They were dated Oct 30th.
Heavy falls of snow again today – ‘tis now about 4” deep.
John is still busy writing his “Sallies of Youth” – we spend most of the time in the crew room! I have to prepare for my comm. interview – so “swotting” is in full swing, plus “link” etc.
Get along well with everyone here at the squadron, & we are actually very lucky. Have a fairly easy time in between flying & with all this snow of the past few days, we’ve had no flying, so I can catch up on quite an amount of photography etc.
With my parcels, & others “Johnnie” Caragatta etc. get, we have some good suppers, so
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have only the cold to complain about.
Jan 13th.
John & I made an early start this morning – was just beginning to get light at 9 AM. when we piled into a Lanc. to go to Peterhead to collect our “kite” which we left there after the Oslo trip. She was not completed so it meant spending the night there – I sure did notice it strange to have John in the officers’ mess, but I met Ken Brand & Laurie Armstrong, two WAG’s who came on the boat with us, & we four went off to a show later on in the evening.
Wherever we go here, we can always meet some RAAF chaps – it sure is great to see them. By all accounts a good many of our chaps at Brighton are on their way home.
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Jan 14th
It was after lunch before we were able to get the “mossie” completed. - & ‘twas 6 P.M before we landed back at Woodhall. – 285 N. miles in 64 minutes is quite fair cruising! We found the squadron on an op. - & had been on one last night too!
Mum’s grand Air Mail, with the photo of herself, Glad & Peter was awaiting me in the mess!
Jan 17th. Received more mail from home today – also from Dad, on his last day in Melb. & from Cath Page, during her stay at “Colwyn”. I’m sure pleased she is staying at home – she must be a fine lass, & it will be great to meet her. All this recalls all Bob used to tell me of her – they are a good pair & I only hope news of Bob will soon be thru’
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for her. – Past few days have been finer, & we’ve been practice bombing at Wainfleet, & T.I. dropping at night.
Jan 22nd. Have had heavy snow the past few days – about a foot fell between 6 & 7 AM this morning.
We have only flown on a few bombing trips
Today my commission was put thru’ by W/Cmd. Curry – this is his last day as C.O of the squadron. Our new C.O. seems to be O.K.
Spent a couple hours this evening shovelling snow from the runway lights etc. – caught up to us at last. “Pop” Levigne, F/O Willis, F/L Bob Boyden have all finished up! – Bob is going back to Canada.
Stalin’s big drive on the eastern front is well under way, - & if he keeps up, the RAF will have a few more targets less to look after, - & maybe we can
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soon get tracking home!
Wednesday 24th
Heavy fog today – stand down for the squadron. It sure is thick, too!
Received Cath Page’s letter with snaps of them taken at home. – first photos I have of her, & she is still just the same as in the ones Bob had of her!
Monday 29th.
Received parcel of fruits from Glad today – plus mail from home. Mine laying at Kiel
Wednesday: 31st – River Elbe “gardening”
Thursday 1st.
Weather has cleared well – on an op. tonight to Dortmund Ems. F/LT Baker & Doug Betts missing
Feb. 2nd.
On ops again tonight to Karlsruhe – landed at Woodbridge.
Passed over Alan Beavis’ drome as we returned.
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Wednesday 7th.
Weather clearer with some rain – quite mild.
On ops tonight to upset Jerrys railways
Thursday 8th.
Long trip to Politz near Stettin tonight – received Mum’s cake (14) & Gwen’s parcel today. Mail still delayed.
Saturday 10th.
After raid assessment this morning I caught the midday bus to Boston, & with “Freddie” Nash, went to London. John left before me, by car, but I booked into the A.C.F Club & was having tea when he arrived.
We had a fairly early night, rose for breakfast – the usual fruit & cereals.
I left for Brighton before
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lunch, but did not see Alec Brown or the other chaps I hoped to find down there. – the sea was mighty rough & the day miserable so I returned to London.
John & I saw “Henry V” tonight.
Monday 12th.
Bought my book – “the theory of the photographic process” by Kenneth Mees & a few odds and ends, then had lunch at Boomerang Club. We saw the film “Lady in the Window” in the evening!
Feb. 13th. Sent off some photos home & Mum’s birthday card to Ralph this morning - & caught a train to Leamington soon after lunch!
Found my way to “Sixteen” by the help of a taxi.
Was soon made at home by Mr & Mrs Francis & Joan
Wednesday: Had a late breakfast
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& then cycled around town with Mrs Francis! We all had a grand time at the dance tonight – was not up till 10 A.M. & then I set out to explore the town.
[underlined] Friday: [/underlined] As usual, I had a quiet time today – visited Coventry & met Joan after work!
Alan Boase & a cobber came Saturday afternoon – we had a good chat, but they left early on
Sunday 18th.
Allan & Ted left at 7 AM. – I got their breakfast & took tea up to Mr & Mrs Francis! “Pop” & I spent today on the first stages of the boat shed.
Monday 19th. I left Leamington at 12.30 PM. – after buying some more stain for Dad.
Met John & F/L Tice in London –
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had tea & saw a show in Boston & landed in hut 120 Echelon at about 2300. “Blue” Dalton had got my parcels & mail for me – Nos 16, 18 & 19 – so ‘twas late when I hit the pillow.
[deleted] [indecipherable letter] [/deleted] Tuesday 20th. On ops. tonight to Dortmund Ems.
[underlined] Wednesday: [/underlined] Landed at Coltishall after last night’s trip. On ops. to the canals again tonight – our 14th trip.
Friday 23rd.
On op to HORTON tonight – marked first; “kite” caught some flak in port radiator.
Did not rise ‘till 11 the next morning – had interview with the Base Commander at 1 PM.
Sunday: - John & I flew during the afternoon on a fuel
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consumption test, & on Monday we took off again on a similar job in a MK XVI “Mossie” – we had fuel sprayed all over us, & could hardly breath from the effect of the fumes – had petrol galore on the floor on landing & we sure were “walking on air.” Took the same kite up in the afternoon – all was O.K. & we had a great time dodging among the clouds.
Teusday: [sic] we spent mainly on bombing op. to Wesel rail Junctions.
Wednesday 28th.
Further fuel tests on climbs etc.
March 2nd.
Today, John & I took a “mossie” down to Cambridge for a check up – he used to instruct there on “tigers”! We were able
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to spend a couple hours in the villiage [sic] - & met John’s former landlady. We returned in the afternoon – the ‘drome there is only grass & very small, but the old “mossie” made it easily with + 9 boost!
Saturday 3rd.
We were on the Dortmund Ems Canal again tonight – had rather a hot reception over there but all was O.K. & we pushed the kite along to get back well before the heavies. Had not been on the ground long before we found that some of Jerrie’s kites had come across in the bomber stream.
We had two shooting up the drome & dropping A.P. bombs. – it continued till after I “hit the pillow” but all settled down O.K. Only one civilian driving a car was killed. This is the first we’ve seen of “bandits” – will be back well before the heavies from now!
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We did not know till we landed that we had a .303 bullet in the tail of the kite.
Monday 5th. Bowled along to Coningsby to get some pay today – found I had £140. credit, so will have to invest in a car for the summer.
Received mail from home, & from Cath Page.
Sent a cable for Peter’s Birthday.
Teusday [sic] Mch 6th. We were on an op. to Sassnitz, near Stettin, tonight – 1400 miles, a 5 hr. trip – will be pleased to have cushions from now! Terrific light flak in the harbour, but all went well!
Friday 9th. Weather poor these past few days. – calling for practice bombing & ground training on our new “gen” box.
Raced a Mustang today
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coming back from the range – left him at 250 K.
The chaps nearly collapsed tonight when I went along into Boston – saw a show & then went to the dance with Blue Dalton, G. Swales & Co.
Tuesday 13th.
Last night I collected my Xmas parcel from the comforts fund – then “Geordie” Swales, “Johnnie” Caragatta & I went to Woodhall for supper. Met Bill Carey in there.
Today Jim Allsop was posted to 627 – talking to him for a short time.
Thursday 15th.
Went on op. to Halle last night – landed at Woodbridge & returned this morning.
Received parcel from Joy today.
We went along to Boston
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on the 5.30 bus. – saw a show & then went to the St. Patrick’s Ball – quite a good show!
Saturday Mch 17th.
On our 32nd op. last night – to Zurburg. Engine failed on the way out – came back with only the starboard & landed very well with only the one.
Received parcels 20 & 21 from Mum today – sent 3/1/45 whilst Cath Page was at home.
Wednesday 21st.
On a target near Leipzig last night – landed at 6 A.M. today. John awoke me at 1.30 P.M. – to go for a “mossie” from Coningsby. We wizzed across in the Oxford.
Thursday 22nd.
Packed up & set out on leave soon after lunch – booked
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into the A.C.F Club. London & saw a “News” show before John arrived.
Saturday: After spending yesterday about the “Big Smoke”, I caught the train to Carlisle at 10 AM.
As I passed thru’ Warrington I was reminded of the first time Bob & I visited the Browns!
On my arrival, Mr & Mrs Brown had my telegram of congrats etc. for my commission, from the C.O – thus I would have to return via London
Saturday 31st
John arrived on Sunday at Glenleigh, & we had a grand lazy spell with the Browns. Returned to London yesterday, collected all my gear from Kodak house, & arrived at Tattershall about 8 P.M – just before dark.
Had to take off my stripes
[page break]
& put on the narrow band before turning into bed, as my battle dress was at the cleaners.
Learnt on our return here that “Johnnie” Day & F/O Barnett had been missing for a few days – ditched near the Frisians.
Sunday April 1st.
Easter Sunday - & my first day in the officers’ mess – all went well, but nobody seemed to treat me as a “sprog” & ‘twas all taken for granted!
Thursday 5th.
Began high level bombing
Monday – on Battle Orders Monday & Wednesday. Jim Allsop & I went into Boston tonight – saw “Bathing Beauty” & then called in at the “Gliderdrome”.
Friday: - Op. to Prague.
[page break]
Saturday 7th. On ops to oil plant near Leipzig tonight. – received letter from H.Q. to the effect that Bob was posted as killed.
Monday 9th. Yesterday was a grand spring day – Jim Allsop & I went for a ride after tea.
My day off today – ‘twas very foggy when I left on the bus to Boston to wizz down to London.
Collected my gear & cap from Stores & after being fitted for a uniform, settled to waffles & ice cream at Boomerang Club. Met Jerry Donoghue & Kevin Barry.
Returned late this evening, & had the chat I had expected with John before bed – all is well now!
April 10th. Ops took us near Leipzig again – DR Compass U/S.
April 11th. Ops tonight scrubbed when we were almost ready to go, as
[page break]
the yanks were almost to Leipzig but it was put on again at 3 AM.
John wrote this poem whilst we were at Brown’s – he thinks it’s O.K, wonder to whom he’s referring!
Oh! I’ve taken off my stripes,
I’ve taken off my crown
Hey nonny nonny, derry derry down.
No longer am I “Chiefy”
A non-commissioned clown,
Hey nonny nonny, derry derry down.
I wear a stripe upon my arm
And write with greenish ink
I fill the “erks” with wild alarm
I’m quite important – don’t you think?
I wear a lovely peaky cap.
My clothes are simply smashin’,
I’m such a clever sort of chap,
So debonair – so splashin’.
I hob-nob with Society
When I go to town,
Hey nonny nonny, derry derry down
On cheap but dull sobriety
Contemptuously frown.
[page break]
Yet when this war is over,
I’ll be feeling somewhat brown,
Tha’ll [sic] be no “nonny nonny”,
Only “derry derry down.”
J.W. Herriman?
April 14th. Received fair amount of mail from home today, parcel from Mum No 22. & one from Cath Page & Auntie Lil.
Monday 16th. Wing/Cmd. R. Kingsford-Smith took over the squadron today – W/Cmd. Hallows is to have an operation & will not come back here. Berchesgarden today.
April 19th. Last two trips have been to Czechoslovakia – near Prague. Had innoculations today.
Sunday 22nd. Op. laid on for tonight. back at 8 AM.
Monday, briefing again for
[page break]
another at 8 P.M. – 41st.
Tuesday 24th.
John & I flew a “mossie” to Cambridge – then in an oxford to Hatfield. Saw air tests of a new “kite” before leaving to return to Woodhall.
London to Woodhall, 17 mins – 3 1/2 hrs by L.N.E.R. We enjoyed the trip. Another op. laid on tonight was scrubbed – put on again on Wed. Night.
Thursday 26th. On an op. to Norway tonight – near oslo. [sic]
Saturday 28th. Flew a “mossie” to Cambridge again yesterday & also brought one from there today. S/Ldr Oakley posted from here today, also.
Ops tonight to Denmark.
May 1st. Our day off today – left on the noon bus for Lincoln, & after lunch went
[page break]
along to West’s garage – decided on a 500 cc Ariel (£80) after much consideration. Will collect it at the end of the week, so we returned by bus.
Teusday [sic] 2nd. (sorry Wednesday)!
Today Hitler is reported to have died – all is mixed up here & it looks as if we have completed our last op. from this country. Allan Beavis finished his tour last week & is now on leave with Vic Berry at the Brown’s.
Wrote to Glenn Cliff today. P.O.W. ferrying put on twice this week.
Friday May 4th.
Weather quite fine today – John & I had a bombing exercise & flip about the countryside before lunch. Had the afternoon off to write mail & read at leisure in the sun!
[page break]
[underlined] Saturday: [/underlined] Went to Lincoln on the noon bus – collected the Ariel & owing to shortage of fuel, returned as far as Woodhall Junction by train.
May 6th.
Flying today – weather O.K. After obtaining petrol, we tried the bike out up thru’ Woodhall.
Tuesday May 8th.
Today was V.E Day – we were not allowed to fly, so spent the morning on the bike out at the flights. Parade in the afternoon. Received a cake from Merle Kilsby today.
We took the bike half way to Boston after tea – was cute to see the flags out in the villiages. [sic] Were celebrations in the Sgts. Mess.
[underlined] Thursday: [/underlined] All “kites” still grounded – only Lancs to fly. Trip to
[page break]
Dortmund Ems, Germany with “Winco” to collect POW’s yesterday.
John & I tuned up the bike & went to Lanrick, near Boston to get some tools.
Saturday: “Barney” found – “Johnnie” Day reported drowned in ditching. Allan Beavis posted to Pershore.
Tuesday 15th
Airborne this morning for bombing practice at Wainfleet. – after lunch I began my “VE 48” leave. Arrived at Birmingham about 7 P.M. – booked into the Provost Hostel. On Wed. I went to Birkenhead via Manchester – stayed with Aunt Lily ‘till about 7 P.M.
Thursday 17th.
Met one of our WAG’s last night, so after I had been out to Ariel works, we spent the day together – bought books on Walt Disney etc.
[page break]
Returned via Lincoln – John had been to London & was waiting for me at Coningsby with “Euphemia.”
Sunday 20th.
Yesterday we learned of the reforming of 627 Sqn. – so expect to get word of our return home very shortly.
“Johnnie” Caragatta & the other 3 Canadians are leaving tomorrow on the first stage of their trip home – quite a few new crews are already coming in.
May 21st.
Left after lunch on “Euphemia” for Leamington arrived in time for tea with the Francis family – all as good as ever!
Next day we pottered about the town & then stripped the bike in the afternoon.
[page break]
Wednesday 23rd.
Arrived in London soon after lunch & after booking in at the A.C.F club, wizzed along to Kodak House & stores.
Met a chap on Thursday whom I saw in Birmingham – we saw a play at the Wintergarden – “Three’s a family”.
John & I saw “The Three Caballeros” & another excellent play. Met Lloyd Howard Gordon Curtis & Bob Dennis.
Saw “Fantasia” with Joan.
Saturday 26th. Set out from Leamington for Stratford on Avon – were not able to book for a play ‘till Tuesday.
Made a trip out to Pershore on Sunday, hoping to see Al Beavis, but he was on leave.
Monday: - took us to Bath. – a most ancient place, found the
[page break]
Roman baths mighty fascinating.
We returned to Leamington via an indirect route – quite an excellent day & trip.
After tea John & I went to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre to see “She Stoops to Conquer”.
Wednesday 30th.
Returned to camp this afternoon – a good trip We covered about 500 miles in all. Had quite an amount of mail, & my new uniform awaiting me!
Received a cable from Norm Page asking if I could see him in London re Bob’s fate. – wrote to him tonight. Letter also from Glenn, at Bottesford.
Learnt from the Newsletter that All Beavis had the DFM. – the first for 42 course!
[page break]
Friday 1st June
Cross country over the Continent again today – Frank Armstrong landed at Brussels.
Strong reports that at last we should fairly definitely go home.
Received parcel No 22A from Mum – yoyos from Gwen & cake from Cath Page.
Saturday: -
Parcel from Glad & John came today.
Wednesday 6th.
Anniversary of D Day.
Been on lectures etc. this week but W/Cmd K.-Smith gave us the news that we were posted to 54 base for repatriation. Will remain here until required at Brighton.
Friday June 8th.
Went to Huntingdon for P.F.F Board – have been given permanent P.F.F. wings.
[page break]
Saturday: - Our day off – ‘phoned Mr Francis after breakfast, as Alan Boase wondered if I could obtain leave. John & I then set off on “Euphemia” for Bottesford to see Glenn Cliff. I had quite a good chat to him & found that he is soon to go on indefinite [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] leave.
Sunday 10th.
Orderly Officer today – received the painting of the “mossies”. Asked “Smithy” about our leave – guess we should get some soon!
Tuesday 12th June
Posting to Gamston came thru’ yesterday, given week’s leave – after clearing, wizzed about the flights & set out on the Ariel at 2.30 for Carlisle.
Several heavy showers on the way. – arrived about 11 P.M.
[page break]
[underlined] Wednesday: [/underlined]
Allan Beavis’ leave extended a week – we decided to strip the bike, to have it rebored. We had an easy week – all went well, altho’ the weather was a bit poor.
Mr Brown, Joyce, Al & I played tennis on Friday evening – was very good!
[underlined] Sunday: [/underlined] after making & trying to fly a kite for Kieth, [sic] we all went off to Pt Carlisle for a picnic – ‘twas very good & we had quite a time with the kite etc. John & I rode back. Allan left in the evening for London.
Wednesday 20th. Put the bike together last night – set out from “Glenleigh” at 10 AM. Took it easy going thru’ the Lakes – had quite a good trip.
[page break]
Arrived at camp for supper – many new crews in, & had quite some strife finding a bed!
June 22nd.
Our P.F.F Certificates came along yesterday – squadron party in the evening! Left Woodhall after lunch today – very good trip across to Gamston.
June 26th. After four days at Gamston, preparing to go home, we were given a week’s leave – Met “Andy” before setting off on “Euphemia” for Lincoln where we sold her.
Stayed at the ACF club in London.
June 29th. Spent two days about London – Visited Kodak
Saw “Tomorrow the world”, an excellent show! Also “Princess & the Pirate” at the
[page break]
Liecester [sic] Sq,. Theatre.
Today we tripped off to Newquay – quite a good trip thru’ Plymouth, Devon & Cornwall. & found the ACF club O.K in time for dinner! We were taken down by a taxi chap – rather amazing that he could get away with charging 2/6 for a 300 yd. run!
Monday 2nd July.
Weather has not been so very good the past couple days – had a swim yesterday, but the old Atlantic was a bit fresh. The beach & surf were very good.
We then took a bus to Truro & Penzance – very ancient places, altho’ we did not see much of them. The bus could just squeeze down the narrow streets.
Returned to the A.C.F.
[page break]
club today – hoped to see “The Pirates of Penzance” at the Kings, Hammersmith, tonight but could not get in!
The D’Oyle Carte players are there, so we hope to have better luck next time.
Wednesday: -
On our return last night I found I had 7 parcels awaiting me. 24 25 26 27 from Mum – one from Gwen, Joy & Cath Page!
We will now be having leave ‘till 20th so I’ll be calling on the Brown’s again!
Expect to go on a draft at the end of the month.
Met Wal Brue & Lloyd Howard today – Glenn should be in here soon!
Friday 6th.
We were given another lot of leave till July 20th – so John
[page break]
& I left for London – stayed at the YMCA Officer’s club, Cromwell Rd.
Saw “Blythe Spirit” on following evening –
Monday 9th. Visited Denham & came back to see “Olenthe”. at the Kings.
July 11th. I left London for Leamington, spent a night & then on to Brown’s via Birmingham.
John joined us at “Glenleigh” in a couple days. – we had a few good days including a trip to Edinburgh, before he left again for Birmingham
I remained with Brown’s – Vic Berry stayed a few days then Neil Bilney, Bill & Fred came along.
I made up the side fence & a dish drier in my spare time – met Evelyn Currie
[page break]
& we all had some grand times. I soon became to know Ev. quite as one of the Brown family – she has such a grand character!
Left Glenleigh on July 29th for Gamston, as we were to have extended leave ‘till the end of September.
Monday July 30th.
Arranged all as was necessary for my two months’ proposed work – John turned up after dinner, to my surprise. He brought along the camera & as he insisted I should accept it, I decided it was the only course for me to take & maybe some day in the near future I could reciprocate with something worthwhile!
Tuesday: - After having my
[page break]
teeth attended, I left Gamston for London.
We were due to spend another two months on leave before setting sail, so I soon contacted Kodak & thru’ Mr Samson, became part of Navana Studios, where I spent most of my time after Mr Shepherd’s return from holidays.
Visited Buntingford for a weekend & stayed with Mr & Mrs Maughan – then VJ Day!
London was in a grand state – Mrs Maughan & Ann spent the last week of the celebrations in London.
‘Twas then I saw the tennis at Wimbledon & the last test on Lords!
Our leave was cancelled after Aug 31st & we were to return to Gamston. I obtained another nine days’ leave & wizzed up to Carlisle.
[page break]
Believed this to be my last leave with Brown’s – had a grand week, easy to remember!
Sept. 10th. Left Carlisle late last night – found myself on a draft, on arriving at Gamston, & we are due to go to Brighton on Sunday.
Should sail about 22nd. Neil Malkin, Bill Braithwaite & Ken Barry should be on our draft too!
Sept 16th. Left for Brighton at 8.30 A.M. – met John in evening at the Metropole Hotel.
Tuesday 18th. Spent today in London – called on Mr. Shepherd, bought some material for Mum’s costume & visited Neil Bilney.
Thursday: ‘Phoned Mr Brown –
[page break]
final clearances for our departure!
Saturday 22nd.
Our gear was soon all put on its way & after a show in the evening we waited in “the” “Tuckerbox” ‘till our train left at 4.30 A.M.
‘Twas 9 AM. before we reached Southampton, but we were soon on board the “Andes” & I was lucky to be able to “clamp onto” quite a good bunk.
Our first meals were a complete “shambles” – but it seemed the food situation was good & with a canteen, all should be O.K. Met F/O Olliver, Buckley & (N.Z.) – so we have most of old 627 on board.
Monday 24th.
Last Night 10 P.M. we passed the first lights of
[page break]
Northern Spain – ‘twas grand to have all lights on at night now.
Today we passed Lisbon, at about 5 miles from the coast – slowed up by fog, but passed “Gib.” about 1 A.M.
Thursday 27th.
Today brought us to Malta which we passed at about 11 P.M.
Watches on 2 hours so far.
Wrote mail today to post at Port Said.
Saturday 29th.
Entered Pt Said 2200 today. – found the natives at the boat early next morning selling cheap goods. Began trip up the Suez in afternoon.
Oct 1st. Left Suez early this morning, & headed out into the Red Sea!
[page break]
Thursday 4th.
Past three days have been hardly bearable below decks – we are now sleeping on deck. Temperature is well up. – we passed Aden last night & now have altered course in the Arabian Sea & have begun on the “home straight”
Sea is unusually calm, giving a strange glassy appearance right to the horizon!
Saturday:
Crossed the equator at 1430 today – sky overcast making the atmosphere rather heavy with the high humidity. Sleeping on deck.
Thursday 11th. Life has been just as usual this past week – time passing quite quickly but little of interest happening. Changed back to “blues”, today, as the weather is decidedly cooler.
[page break]
Was grand to hear a rebroadcast from the A.B.C today – seems ages since we heard the once so familiar voices & programmes!
Sunday Oct. 14th.
Early this morning we came opposite the W.A. coast & saw the last of it at about 10 A.M. – 3 days left for our trip.
Oct 17th. It was 1 A.M when at last the first lights of the Melbourne heads came into sight. – yesterday we were again fascinated by the albatross etc flying after the boat, & now it was but a few hours when we’d be tied up at the wharf which I left 19 months ago.
Was out for breakfast early & on deck at 7.30 for a parade – we we [sic] then passing St Kilda. After
[page break]
being tied up at the wharf for about half an hour, I was amazed to see Ralph standing below me. – we had quite a chat & all seemed in a whirl as I didn’t expect to see him there. Was soon to find, as I left the boat, that Dad, Glad, John, & Peter, Lilian & Aunts were awaiting me at the gates – was grand to see them all again & even then hard to realise we were at last back home, but the whole was a scene I shall never forget – with the banner “Eric Arthur you beaut, here we are” well to the fore.
Was soon clear of the RAAF & we had a grand reunion in the flat, “Stratton Heights.”
Spent the afternoon with Margaret & Ralph – [deleted] caller [/deleted] called on Mr Sims & had a great day amongst the fruit!
[page break]
Had quite a crowd at the flat in the evening – a grand reunion!
Thursday : -
Glad, Dad, Peter & I left in the Standard at about 9 A.M for home, & were soon making good progress along the Princes Highway.
Called on Mrs Woods at Colac & then after mending a puncture & wasting time cooling the engine we arrived at “Colwyn” at 6.30, after quite a good trip.
Found Mum looking fine – gee! ‘twas great to be back amidst all I’ve known so well, & to find everyone much as I had left them.
Friday Nov. 2nd.
Left by Bonds at 7 A.M to go to Tailem Bend – arrived at about 3 P.M. in the midst of a dust
[page break]
storm. – Spent a very pleasant weekend with Mr & Mrs Bolton, & Mary.
Met Cath Page. – Mary & I went to Murray Bridge for her 21st on Sunday. Travelled on to Adelaide on Monday – stayed at the Officers’ Club. Unable to go far there owing to tram strike.
Returned home on Friday with Whem & Col McDonald.
Thursday Nov. 15th.
Flew to Melbourne with “Whem” – Dad followed next day for Lilian’s wedding on the Saturday.
Monday Evening: -
Flew to Hobart arriving at about 11 P.M. – week with Glad, John & Peter. John & I spent Saturday & Sunday touring to Launceston & Deloraine.
Met Ted Pedley for a short time.
Monday Nov. 26th. Flew back
[page break]
to Melbourne – was at the Exhibition Buildings, 1 P.D at 10 A.M to begin on my discharge.
Discharge completed Dec 3rd.
December 20th. Ralph returned home for Xmas after receiving his discharge!
Xmas Day was very hot. – Joy, Murray & David joined us at “Colwyn”.
New years’ Day, ’46.
Spent the day at the Bay – first trip the old “Stude” had made for many a day” Ralph left to visit Margaret on Jan 5th.
Monday Jan 7th.
Mr & Mrs Bolton arrived at 3 P.M. – stayed ‘till Friday 18th.
Trips to Pt. Mac, Portland & Caves at the River.
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
Eric Arthur's diary
Description
An account of the resource
Diary starts in early 1944 and describes in some detail his journey to England and his travels around Britain when on leave. Eric was called up into the Australian Army in November 1941 and transferred to the RAAF in June 1943. Went to No 2 AOS at Mt Gambier for Air Observers course and then to No 3 AOS at Pt Pirie. It begins in detail when he leaves Melbourne aboard the Mariposa as an aircrew sergeant. The ship passed through the Panama Canal and docked in Boston. Eric had some time on leave in New York before crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary He eventually arrived at the No 3 (O) AFU at RAF Halfpenny Green in August 1944. Eric was crewed with a second tour RAAF pilot at the Mosquito OTU at R.A.F. Warboys and RAF Wyton. They were posted to 627 Squadron at RAF Woodhall Spa in October and did their first operation on 26 November to Munich. They remained there until the war in Europe ended in May 1945.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Eric Arthur
Format
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Printed book with handwritten annotations
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Diary
Text
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
YArthurEG431155v1
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 Australian Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
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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Tricia Marshall
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1944-08
1944-10
1944-11-26
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Australia
Germany
Great Britain
United States
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Staffordshire
627 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
Air Observers School
aircrew
bombing
entertainment
military living conditions
military service conditions
Mosquito
observer
Operational Training Unit
Pathfinders
RAF Halfpenny Green
RAF Warboys
RAF Woodhall Spa
RAF Wyton
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/834/18899/YGeachDG1394781v5.2.pdf
10162827a32d552c966e4454065fa9f0
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
Geach, David
D Geach
Description
An account of the resource
<a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/218400/"></a>52 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer David Geach (1394781 Royal Air Force) and contains his diaries, correspondence, photographs of his crew, his log book, cuttings and items relating to being a prisoner of war. After training in Canada, he flew operations as a bomb aimer with 623 and 115 Squadrons until he was shot down 24 March 1944 and became a prisoner of war. He was instrumental in erecting a memorial plaque to the Air Crew Reception Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. <br />The collection also contains a scrap book of photographs.<br /><br />Additional information on his crew is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/218400/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Harry Wilkins and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
2016-03-14
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Geach, DG
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[blank page]
[page break]
GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
NO. 288
[page break]
[underlined] Wednesday 17th March. [/underlined]
Back in England again, gee! its great to be home, I don’t know how fellows must feel being overseas 10 years or so, 8 months was enough to make me feel really thrilled at the sight of old England again. Beg pardon! I should have said Scotland, for it was up the firth of Clyde we slipped and anchored off Greenock. It was a nice morning & the fields & hills looked really pleasant in the sunshine. As we slid along we were shot up by Hurricanes and Martletts from the Auxiliary Aircraft Carriers. There were quite a few of the latter, converted merchant men turned into A.C. Carriers, quite large some of them. Beside this, the usual swarm of naval craft lay around. Destroyers, & corvettes slipped past, & occasionally the sleek black hulk of a submarine would slide along; in the distance. There was a Catalina station, with quite an amount of activity going on. One of the “Cats” landed quite close to us in a flurry of foam, nice looking jobs! We anchored just by three aircraft carriers & the modern battleship Howe, there was quite an amount of Aldis flashing, but far beyond our limited 8’s. I was glad I was on guard as I had a fine view, whilst all the others weren’t allowed up on deck.
[page break]
We docked on the 15th about 3 pm and it was 24 hrs. before we got off her. Being as there were no large docks as at Boston & New York everyone had to be taken off in lighters, & there were a good few thousand to go ashore. The lighters seemed like little toys alongside the Queen Elizabeth, although in reality they were quite large two funnelled vessels. Pumping oil in was a large tanker she really was a size, a smart looking American ship, with the T of the Texaco Oil Coy. on her funnel covered by the grey war paint. We struggled into the boat in full webbing lugging the kit bag, that everyone had crammed with cigarettes, chocolates, cosmetics, & heaven knows how many with stockings, for everyone at home. Quite a delay ensued before the lighter was packed to capacity, then away she went. My God as we passed alongside the Q.E. we could get an idea of her size, she was immense. As we drew further away, & saw the cluster of ships around her, dwarfed to doll size, looking like a duck with a swarm of ducklings we realised what a prize it would make for Jerry U Boats. No wonder they had claimed to have sank her, that made us laugh when we were on it. She really had a rakish cut, though, and as we neared the dockside, gazing back through the [deleted] Deff [/deleted] half mist, I was glad I had had the opportunity of travelling on the two largest ships afloat.
[page break]
On the dockside we had the inevitable hours wait with packs, full webbing on, but being as it was our priviledge [sic] to moan we indulged in it to the full, & were cheered by it. The troop trains were drawing away and at last our turn came. Comfortable seats were taken, our mass of webbing crowded everything out of the way but nobody worried away we [deleted] wend [/deleted] went, into a lovely drizzling evening, it may sound dim, but were we glad to see the rain again, after months of continuous snow without a drop of rain. It must have appeared depressing to the Canadians, raining on their arrival, bearing out tales of the island when it always rains, that they had heard, but to us it was home & heaven. Everyone waved out of windows & from streets as we slid along, everything was so friendly. Some of the fellows tackled the canned rations they had of Beans & Hash etc. but I stuck to the Biscuit & Sweet ones. Into Glasgow we rattled, onto Edinburgh when the NAAFI gave us tea on the platform, & so to Harrogate. Here we were assembled in the [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] dim light & pushed into lorries & away we went to Pannel Ash, three miles out of Harrogate to a large school. Here we whizzed around getting bedding & filling forms and having an eagerly awaited breakfast. However I am getting tired so I’ll continue in my next entry.
[page break]
[underlined] Sunday 21st March [/underlined]
As I said we arrived here at Pannel Ash, about 5.30 AM. on the 17th & they told us to be on parade at 8 A.M. to start the whirl of kitting, form filling and heaven knows what else before we went on leave. It sounded a line of bull to us, but the magical word leave was enough to keep us moving. We rapidly discovered that there were two of the biggest b-s I have seen here, & the two most influential. No 1 the C.O. and No 2 the W.O. I can truthfully say the C.O. or Sqdn/Ldr was the most illiterate fellow I have ever seen holding a commission. They say [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] he was an N.C.O. pre-war & just got a lucky push. The W.O. vies with him for our hatred, he is a fat red faced guy & a real nasty piece, just loves to catch one of us N.C.O’s with something wrong. It is something like a Gestapo purge, they are [deleted] [indecipherable letter] [/deleted] possessed with the idea, that because we have come back from overseas we are no longer fit for aircrew, are a pack of scare-crows, are unruly & undisciplined etc. etc. Admittedly the Guards could give us a few points on smartness but hell! we haven’t had time to get back into the rut of drill again. Our job doesn’t depend on whether we can drill smartly either, a point which they always try to hammer in.
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We have whizzed about filling in reams of forms, kitting up to the English scale once more, this was a scream Some of the fellows had thrown away nearly all their service kit in order to make room for their presents, & they certainly had some 664B action. When they can’t think of anything for us to do, we drill, with the C.O. binding continually. The latest purge is haircuts, & as mine hasn’t been trimmed for about 6 – 7 weeks I’m right in the line of fire, guess I’ll need a lawn mower on my mop. On the evenings that we can get away we generally walk into town to see a show, the trouble with this town is it is [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] lousy with aircrew. When we first arrived we were so tired that we got some bed hours in, & wrote letters with the old 2 1/2' stamp on again. It was quite good to write a letter, & in a couple of days get a reply come buzzing back. The family & Mary had a surprise as they didn’t think I would be home for a couple of days, Mary is trying to get leave at the same time as myself. We should be going on leave pretty soon now, yippee! will we hit the high spots, & guess I’ll be glad to hand over their presents after lugging them quarter way round the world & guarding them, ah! well it wont [sic] be long now.
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[underlined] Thursday April 8th [/underlined]
Time certainly has flown by, but in a glorious fashion, since I made my last [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] entry. In the last couple of days we got packed, stowed our flying kit, & personal kit in the in the cellars & were all ready to move. The great day was Wednesday the 24th. and the coaches came to take us to the station. All the A.G.’s had gone a couple of days before, but only for 7 days, as they needed them, I felt sorry for them as we were all getting 14. After some waiting the train drew in, & we piled in heartily, it was well organised, all the London fellows were in one train those going South, Portsmouth etc in another, & Midlands & North a third. We got a good seat & old Fred Porce was opposite me so we arranged to travel on the Met to Plaistow together. On the journey we dozed & ate a little of the rations, & thought & made plans of what we would do on leave, then finally we drew into London, bang on! Fred had a monster kit bag crammed with tinned goods, & it certainly was a weight, we both had to drag it along to get on the Met. Sinking into a seat, not daring to remove our packs, for fear we wouldn’t get them on again, we soon became wedged, & I had the devils
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own job to struggle out, when we reached my station. It was really great to get home again, there was a great welcome, everyone saying things together & I know, I forgot lots of the things I wanted to tell them. Mary & my sister certainly were enthusiastic over the cosmetics, most probably be run in for hoarding.
Leave time as usual simply whirled by, shows & films, different people to see, & places to go. I saw Frank Pritchards mother, apparently I just missed him at Greenock, he went back on the Queen Elizabeth, they must have embarked the morning after we disembarked. Life always seems to be like that just missing people, well, I hope he likes Canada, one thing he won’t get the hellish winter conditions I had. I could kick myself missing the mildest winter England had for 17 years, & catching the coldest Canada had for 19 years. Anyway time flew, & yesterday it was time for me to return, they ran a special train for us, good show, & at 5 PM I met Norman & all the boys, & back we travelled swapping stories of leave. Harrogate once more, & in the Grand Hotel, where we were billeted when we arrived from Hastings, & so here I am.
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[underlined] Wednesday 14th April [/underlined]
We are ‘squaddied’ now, (placed in a squad) and waiting for the lectures to commence. Still the memories of our leave keep coming back to torture us, in heaven knows when we will be home again. Won’t be till after O.T.U. I’d wager, some fellows say we get some after AFU but I doubt it. Most of the fellows here whilst they are waiting for a posting are sent to Whitley Bay on a 4 week Commands Course with the RAF Regiment, I don’t quite know whether I relish the idea or not. The first few days we were back we didn’t do anything merely route marches, occasionally if we had a decent fellow in charge we would lay down in a field for the afternoon, but that wasn’t often. That state of affairs rarely lasts long however & we were soon put in a squad and commenced lectures. These are held at the Majestic Hotel, & we parade and march there each morning and afternoon. The lectures themselves are the same as they are anywhere the inevitable Signals, Armaments, Aircraft Rec, & Bombing Theory, they certainly cheese us, & I have a hell of a job to keep awake.
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There is quite a bit of P.T. as well, & we always have to run up to the Crag or thereabouts then turn off, for a general town of Yorkshire, around 5 miles or so. A fellow who was already in our room when we arrived, (a pilot on singles) is on the permanent P.T. squad, this is a hell of a racket. You are put on this when you have finished all the lectures. They parade in the morning in P.T. kit, or more often than not trousers, vest & jacket, then after roll call, go for a run by themselves to the Cing Café & sit there gazing at the view, & eating scones & supping tea till nearly dinner time, then they trot back for their midday meal. In the afternoon they repeat the process, maybe add a game of football, if they feel energetic, always ensuring that they finish in plenty of time for an early tea, & a quick get away to the cinema. Still you can’t blame them, they’ve been here nearly four months & I’d be really fed up.
Looking around at the thousands of aircrew here, & hearing of the thousands of Canadians & Australians at Bournemouth it amazes me. All these aircrew hanging around waiting to get onto operations and they can’t, & it goes right to the
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bottom of the ladder, to the fellow just joining up for aircrew who has to wait nearly a year after he has been accepted, to get into the RAF. If only we could clear the bottlenecks & get all these fellows on ops’ what a mighty bomber fleet we should have. Surely it isn’t the shortage of aircraft, we should be turning out enough by now. It must be a bottleneck at O.T.U. & AFU & not enough to cope with the flow of crews, or the most likely explanation they have been piling up here, owing to there being limited flying during the winter. I daresay there will always be the same situation here, though. As for myself I’m quite content, we have a decent room, Norman, Henry, Jack, & Ron & myself all together. There’s a wash basin in the room & a bath room next door, which is good. The food isn’t bad either, it is a rush for meals now that we are on [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] lectures. There isn’t much to do in town but go to the cinema I have been six nights running, but there’s nothing else available. One thing about coming in at night the lights are switched off at 10.30 PM by a master control, so we always creep in, in the dark, stumbling over things. Rumours of leave here are as prevalent here as at any other posting centre, but after a while we discredit them all.
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[underlined] Wednesday April 21st [/underlined]
Norman, Harry & myself are still here, but Ron & Jack are at Whitley Bay now, getting that cave man complex on the North Sea now. The went off in the traditional RAF style full webbing etc, & kidding us about our getting posted up there when they had nearly finished. Us not to be outdone assuring them, that there was an AFU posting on the way & they were merely clearing the dim ones out. I wouldn’t mind betting we’re “joes” though & get sent up there shortly. In the meantime we are just continuing with lectures, we have had one period of wet dinghy drill. We went in the swimming baths, belonging to a school, now occupied by the Civil Service. Being as the changing accommodation in the boxes is inadequate a lot of fellows changed on the spectators seats at the far end. There are a lot of full length windows, & as the boys changed & stood there in the altogether, quite a lot of the female Civil Servants opposite found a sudden lack of interest in their work. We have to don full flying kit and Mae Wests, & as a crew jump in & swim to the dinghy & climb in. It wasn’t so bad in the water, but when one went to climb into the dinghy, their weight
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soaked, with water, became apparent, & it really was a struggle to get aboard.
I have been with Norman to visit his Aunt & Uncle living here. His Uncle is in the Civil Service & took us to their club they have on the Ground Floor of a Hotel. Its a nice place with refreshment bar, dance hall, games & card rooms, we went to a nice dance there the other day. It is so nice to meet someone like that, because Harrogate is a hell of a place if one knows nobody. Being as it is crammed full of aircrew & soldiers, every place of entertainment is bound to be packed. There is nowhere to go but the cinemas really cos the dances are pretty dear. Most probably with the idea of keeping the services away, because the citizens really resent the troops being here, & hate the war being forced on them. It really is a “Forget the War”, town. The solitary Y.M.C.A. & a couple of small Forces Canteens do sterling service, but are overwhelmed & can’t cater for all their customers This leaves the troops at the mercy of the money grabbing café owners. The Copper Kettle being one, 2 small sausages & a few chips being 3/6’, out of an ordinary soldiers 2/6 a day its not even funny. Yes this town certainly wants re-organising & a few of the rackets squashed.
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[underlined] Tuesday 27th April [/underlined].
We are on the point of recommencing our flying in England we have arrived at our Advanced Flying Unit, at Bobbington near Stourbridge. So we did steal a march on Ron & Jack after all, I bet they are annoyed about it, but still most probably they will be posted soon. They called us all out together all our little clique, & when they said Bobbington we jumped for joy as most of us are Southerners and didn’t fancy going up North again. There was quite a dash around & quite a bit of bull with kit inspections & parades, clothing parades, & Heaven knows what else. Bags of waiting around & queuing as usual, arguing and scrambling for different things. At last all was done & our kit was left downstairs in the lobby ready to go next morning. We went out in the town to have a last night celebration, I am a bit sorry now that I have left there, as it was pretty good there, and I had some decent times with Norman’s Uncle & Aunt. Still there it is the training system doesn’t worry about individuals, & it is the only way I guess. Anyway after that last night we staggered in rather merry & noisy stumbling through the pitch black corridors of the hotel.
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Up the next morning bright and early, early anyway I dunno so much about the bright. With bull to the last we had to parade in full webbing and march to the station. We got fixed up on the train O.K. & commenced our first stage of the journey to Leeds. It was crazy weather, raining like anything, when we arrived at Leeds we were going to have a stroll around but the weather deterred us. The train to Birmingham was crowded & although we had a carriage reserved, bags of civilians crowded in & as there were elderly women & women with babies, we gave them the seats, but boy! was it a squash. At Birmingham we darted around unloading the kit & dashing over to another platform to catch the Wolverhampton train. We were beginning to look like porters after lumping the kit around all the time. The train had to wait a few minutes until we had loaded everything, the guard was a bit peeved but there was nothing he could do. Off we bowled and then found we had left Norman behind, nothing could be done then so on we went. At Wolverhampton there was a lorry waiting so we loaded it all on & climbed on the kit. We were rather shaken by the distance we were from the town through miles of country lanes until we finally arrived here.
They say that first impressions are often misleading, & I hope so, because our first impressions of this place is that it is a bloody awful station. We are in a damp Nissen hut with a concrete floor, that clouds of white dust rise from on the slightest stir of anything. Being ‘pupils’ as we are termed we aren’t allowed to eat in the sergeants mess, they say it isn’t large enough. We may go into there for letter writing etc. after 5.30 P.M Our meals are in the airmen’s mess, and we queue up amongst all the a.c’s and it is no exaggeration that we get less food than them. I have experienced it many a time the WAAF has given the fellow in front a ladle full, & had one ready for the next chap. Then looking up & seeing they are aircrew they tip half of it back. The mess is terrible and so is the food. All this we have found out in our few hours of being here, tomorrow we start the course. Our ablutions is a place not finished, no bowls or mirrors, just a line of taps containing freezing cold water – grim isn’t the word for it. By all accounts aircrew are disliked on this station by all & sundry from the Groupy downwards, we meet him tomorrow. – Norman has just rolled in he followed on the next train, had quite a shock when he found we had gone.
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[underlined] Sunday May 2nd. [/underlined]
We have been here long enough to dislike the place entirely, & the sooner we leave here the better for all of us. On our first day we met the W/O in charge of the school, Alves his name is, & we didn’t take much of a liking to him. He gave us quite a few warnings with a long list of “Donts”, [sic] & impressed upon us how the “Groupy” disliked aircrew and was always ready to catch them out, then he marched us off to see the big noise himself. All the time he was marching us along in threes he was binding “Stop that talking”, and “Swing those arms”, just like the old I.T.W. back again, it gets a bit cheesing at this stage. We had the ‘welcome’ address in the station cinema a rather bare place that is still undergoing completion. The Groupy bore out all the stories we had heard about him, a rather mean faced individual. During the talk he broke off three times to tear a strip off a poor M.T. driver who had the misfortune to be starting his lorry & drowning the old man’s voice, what a type. Quite a lot of his talk was devoted to the subject of WAAF’s we weren’t to go around with them or associate to any given extent, & if he caught anyone near the WAAF site it would be too bad. Anyone would think it was a convent here, still from what I’ve seen of the WAAFs here, I can’t see anyone wanting to associate with them.
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Our day is quite a long one here, we rise & have our icy wash then dash over to the airmen’s mess to queue for our “breakfast”. Back to the hut to dash around making up our beds & sweeping the floors, then on parade at the unearthly hour of 7.45 A.M. Even at I.T.W. we went on parade at 8 A.M. nowhere have I seen it as early as this, a quarter of an hour doesn’t sound very much, but one can pack an awful lot into it in the morning. Lectures are from 8 AM. to 10.15 then a quarter of an hours break, lectures from 1.30 to 5 P.M. a half hour for tea, then back for an hours lecture 5.30 to 6.30. The latter is the worst of all I think, we have to dash from the classroom to the mess, which takes about 6 mins, queue for our meal, bolt it down then dash back to the classroom, all in half an hour, we’ll all be suffering from indigestion before long. Unless the instructor taking us is willing to let us off a little early then we are unable to catch the 6.30 p.m. bus into Stourbridge.
Each day we have an hours P.T. & there is a mad F.O. for the P.T. officer, at least we call him mad, he is one of these very keen types he used to be a champion swimmer before the war. The first
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time we went over the assault course, it was pretty gruelling. Twice round a half a mile track then into a veritable maze of climbing over walls, crawling under wire, balancing along poles ten feet high. One part was swinging along on a single rope across a pond until we were able to wrap our legs around a tree & pull ourselves in. The P.T. instructor a Cpl that was showing us got about three quarters of the way across to the point where the rope sagged the most & there he fell in. He had his long blue P.T. trousers on too, boy! did we laugh, needless to say he didn’t join in. Twice we have been on hellish long cross country the P.T. officer being bang on at running cracks along at a hell of a pace. Then he binds us because we dont [sic] do so well & shoots the bull about being fit for flying etc. We bind him back, & tell him to have a crack at aircrew it is quite a scream. The trouble is we generally arrive back at about 12.45 & have to wash & dress & dash for dinner in three quarters of an hour, so invariably we arrive back late for classes.
The NAAFI here is a pretty good one, we have our break there, they have a good selection of cakes. In classes we are doing all the old familiar Bombing Theory over again, & using the Bombing Teacher. We do our flying on Ansons, seems we are never free from them, I’m really cheesed of winding that undercart up & down.
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Yesterday, May Day, was our day off, not because the RAF favoured the Labour Party, but it just happened that way. After quite a bit of wangling they finally granted us the priviledge [sic] of getting off an hour earlier [inserted] Friday [/inserted] There was a bus running at 5.30 P.M. & we went into town on that & there caught a bus to Birmingham, we were able to book beds at the Services Club that night. Jimmy Selkirk, Harry & I went out on the beer as Norman had gone by train to Oxford as his fiancé was there spending her leave. We eventually found a pretty low dive & finished the night there. The next day we wandered around for awhile, then went to a cinema, & travelled back on the 9 P.M. bus to catch the 10.30 P.M. from Stourbridge to the camp.
The other day we had our flight photograph taken, we all agreed to look cheesed in it, to register our disappointment of this place, & it came out pretty well. We have been to the station cinema here, they charge us 1/- it isn’t too bad, if only they didn’t have rows of old seats on the same level. Because if one is sitting a fair way back it is impossible to see over all the heads on the same level as yourself. I wonder if we will get leave after this place, I hope so, there are the usual rumours floating around, first we will then we wont, [sic] I guess we wont [sic] know till it arrives.
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[underlined] Sunday 7th May. [/underlined]
I should say roughly half our time has passed here, as most chaps remain here a [deleted] fortnight [/deleted] [inserted] month [/inserted] anyway roll on the next fortnight, & lets get to hell out of here. It is a fairly hum drum existence with the lectures & so forth. On Monday we had a pleasant diversion in the form of wet dinghy drill, in Stourbridge baths, I rather like it as we are able to swim about afterwards – Turning the large bomber dinghy over when one is in the water with full flying kit, will be some job in the North Sea, I reckon. It isn’t too bad in the baths, but then there is no rough sea or wind to contend with.
The F/Sgt in charge of us is a pretty good guy, pretty quiet, & got quite a bit of service in, he is thoroughly cheesed with the station. Beside the famous old Theory of Bombing lectures he takes us on the Bombing Teacher. We were up there the other day & looking from the open window, when old Alves went dashing past. Tom Alan commented “Old Alves is on the warpath”, boy! he must have had keen ears because he called us down & bound us rigid. For the Gunnery lectures there is an F/O A.G with a V.F.M. he is a Welsh chap, shoots a fair amount of lines, but is really a good type, his lectures make a welcome break. For the aircraft rec. there is a nattering little sgt A.G. who absolutely cheeses everybody, nobody likes him. The other chap a tall F/Sgt is a good egg though, livens up the epidiascope slides with an occasional nude woman.
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The map reading periods are O.K. too. the F/O who takes us did his tour out in Abyssinia, I believe it was on Valentine or some obsolete kites. Thinking of it, it must have been a pretty easy tour, but he is a good chap, a Flt/Lt D.F.M. who is also there, shoots bags of lines, but they are worth listening to & at this stage, we are ready to lap up all lines. A chap who ‘nattered’ to us the other day about ‘ops’ in the Middle East, said at the beginning of the campaign, the crack Italian liner Rex was in the harbour at Tobruk. They were briefed to attack & did so, but they were made to bomb with 25 lb H.E. naturally they were like pin pricks, & that night she whipped up steam & was away. An Air Commodore was slung out of the RAF for that. We went out on a lorry the other day for practical map reading, & drove around the lanes, stopped & had to find where we were & make tactical sketches. About three times we did this, & then had to change into our P.T. kit, that we had brought, leap out of the lorry & run the 3 miles back to camp. It rather reminded me of the hunt with the hounds leaping from the van & tearing down the road. We have been on Groupie’s parade, & he certainly is down on aircrew, the parade was a real bully one, bags of shouting & everything. He whizzed through the permanent staff without saying much, & when he came to us, he went really slow & bound practically everyone rigid, & the W.O. almost wore his pencil out, taking names.
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Yesterday was our day off again & once more we spent it in Birmingham. We were unable to get in at the Services Club & had to go to a large house converted into a hostel, it was pretty good. This week saw the commencing of our Flying here, I made three flights all day bombing exercises. The first one was Wednesday, & came off alright, there is a village fairly near the range & that made me twitter. It is a bit more awkward to bomb from the kite than from the Canadian Anson, because there is no perspex panel in the nose. Also the sliding panel is metal, not perspex, this necessitated having it always open, causing quite a draught. On Friday Harry Jamieson & I did two more flights with an ex-operational pilot F/O Ryan. It was pretty grim because he hadn’t the technique of the steady bombing runs, like the regular B.G pilots. The kite would be bouncing around necessitating us giving corrections & sometimes we would be nowhere near the target so we had to call ‘Dummy Run’. He would scream & bind & curse like the clappers, & said “It’s a bloody good job you’re not over a target”. That kind of stuff never gets anybody places though, & only leads to a bad exercise. We do a few of these Day Bombing trips, maybe some Night bombing, & then some Night Combined exercises. These are only cross countries but they give them the high sounding titles. We’re beginning to get really cheesed with all this training, no wonder chaps get stale, & lose all their interest & enthusiasm.
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[underlined] Friday 14th May. [/underlined]
Life still flows in its uninteresting way, we have done some map reading trips. We go on a small cross country of 3 legs, with the pilot & 3 B.A’s each who map reads one leg of the trip. They are O.K. if you get a decent pilot, who puts the Forces programme on the intercom, & is fairly tolerant with the map reading. I was up with ‘Taffy’ Evans & Norman Griffin the other day & we had a binder! Poor old Taffy chopped in the mire, by losing himself completely. The pilot was one of those tricky individuals who would fly the aircraft so a village was directly under the nose, & out of sight, & then ask you suddenly where it was. We coped anyway.
I had a good laugh the other day, whilst standing by in the flight hut for a day bombing exercise. There were a couple of chaps from the previous course there, also detailed for a bombing exercise. Like us all they weren’t very keen on it, but the antics of one of them kept me in fits. He was small with dark wavy hair, & a perfect cherub face, chubby rosy cheeks etc. looking about 17. Every few minutes he would pop to the door & gaze at the sky. Any cloud, no matter however small, was greeted with a beaming smile & the exclamation “Wizard” drawing out the last syllable, as it meant there was a faint hope of the exercise being cancelled.
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Whilst every time the sun burst forth he would scowl & slump disconsolately back in his chair, resigning himself to Fate. In the end they took off & so did we.
The lectures are still as binding & unvarying. Yesterday our “Chiefy” was taking us on Bombing Theory & although he is a good chap, he is a real lousy lecturer. Bombing Theory being one of the driest subjects in itself he succeeded in putting half the class to sleep in a quarter of an hour. Then a Sqdn/Ldr Education Officer from Group slipped into the room, & after listening for 10 mins, took over the lecture. For the next half hour, it even became quite interesting, & some points were cleared up, which I for one had been doubtful over for a long time.
So far rumours that we will not get leave at the end of the course have gained strength, I hope they turn out false. When the last few days arrive W/O Alves gives the Senior Man a list of the O.T.U’s to which we are to be posted & then the course is left to sort them out amongst themselves, I hope we get some decent ones.
Norman has had an old cycle of his sent up, it is quite handy for getting around on, and half the course use it. It might be a good idea to get one if I land on one of there really dispersed drones I hear about. I played a game of football earlier & am just beginning to feel the effects, so I’ll have supper at the NAAFI & turn in.
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[underlined] Thursday May 20th. [/underlined]
We had our day off on Tuesday, & a crowd of us caught the bus outside the camp into Wolverhampton. The morning was spent looking around the town & then after dinner in a nice little café we found a decent park & spent the afternoon. After tea in the Forces Canteen above Surton’s we got down to a steady pub crawl. I have never seen a place like it, for so many girls of 16 – 17 in the pubs. Old Pete Rawlings had quite an amusing encounter with one, but this is not the place to disclose it. Anyway after closing time, four of us wandered around in a happy stupor till we sobered up a little & realised we had better look around for means to return to camp. We finally phoned a taxi who took us right into the camp, & off we bowled to bed.
As far as the flying part goes we are on the last stages, that of day and night cross countries. I don’t know which one the greater bind the latter gets it by a narrow margin, I think. It will be a relief to get to O.T.U. & go on a really organised X country. So far I have been on two day trips & five ‘scrubs’, it is an inoffensive word – ‘scrub’, but conceals a lot. When we are due for a day X country we hand our names into the Guard Room & then at 5.30 or 6 AM an S.P. rudely awakens
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us, to tear off for early briefing, breakfast & take off at 8.30 A.M. – there are afternoon X countries but I haven’t had the luck to get on one yet. It is binding to get up, see the rain, & knowing in advance it will be scrubbed, tramp 10 mins through the rain to the briefing room, & wait until they inform you officially it is cancelled. Now we are getting wise & only two going up, one with Norman’s bike to nip back & arouse the others if by chance, flying is on.
On a night cross country, our main function is winding the undercart. Actually we are supposed to do some infra red bombing, but no-one has been known to see the target, the pilot hates stooging around, & the navigator is chomping to set course. Consequently we sit & shiver in the darkness, maybe once in a while giving a beacon position to the Navigator, or taking over the controls while the pilot dives to the back. We had a little excitement on one trip when the weather was closing in over the airfield when we returned, but we got in O.K. The only good thing about it is we sleep the next day, & it breaks the monotony. A kite crashed the other day killing the occupants, they weren’t on our course. The S.S.Q. backs onto our billets though & the blood wagon was outside with the bodies in while they were getting things ready inside. It was a fairly sobering thought, but I guess we shall see more of it, the closer we get to ‘ops’.
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[underlined] 25th May. [/underlined]
Once more a change of address, I am now at my O.T.U. at Hixon, Staffs, having arrived here today. Most of us came here, some went to Whitehead & four to Lossiemouth. ‘Taffy’ Evans has gone to Whitehead & ‘Buntie’ Rogers, Norman, Jimmy, Harry, & most of our clique are still together. Naturally the Lossiemouth posting wasn’t wanted, there being no Scots on the course, so it was drawn for, I thanked the Lord my name didn’t come out of the hat.
Anyway the usual clearance procedure was got through & we were driven by lorry into Wolverhampton this morning. There was a couple of hours to kill before the train & we spent them in town. Although the distance from Bobbington to Hixon isn’t so great as the crow flies it took us a few hours by train with the changing. Transport came out after we phoned from Stafford station, & I was surprised to find the airfield was 8 miles, out from the town, at least – somebody had told me it was nearer than that.
We are all in the same hut, they are not Nissan huts, but kind of asbestos boarding & wood, on concrete bases, much better & larger than the Nissan hut. Each collection of huts is called a site & given a number, the site with the mess etc. is called Command Site, these sites are dispersed over a wide area, & are a considerable distance from the airfield. Apparently a cycle is a very handy thing, Pete Rawlings has one now.
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A course arrives here every fortnight, & we are No 17 course. After nearly a fortnight of ground training terminating with exams, we commence flying, by this time we have ‘crewed-up’ of course. This is the stage where we crowd of Air Bombers will finally split up, because inevitably after each of us joins a crew we shall go about with them, I shall be sorry, because we have been together a long while, but this breaking up of friendships happens again & again in the RAF as ours is an odd course number (17) we move to the satellite airfield, Seighford, when we have completed our ground training & finish our O.T.U. there. It is situated the other side of Stafford & is more dispersed than this, but there is a lot less discipline, as chaps say who have been there.
As usual on arrival at a new place, we have been pumping all the fellows that we can find on the various aspects of the course, & every conceivable thing attached to it. We haven’t collected much ‘gen’ yet though, beyond the fact that we parade outside the mess, after breakfast tomorrow, with the rest of training wing personnel, & then the S.W.O. will march us to the Training Wing for roll call. Apparently this is an everyday procedure & is fairly strictly adhered to. I have written off the letters to home & Mary as usual on arriving at a new station, with the address & what gen is available, & now I’ll close this entry and get into bed I think, then tomorrow I’ll start one of my last stages towards a squadron.
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[underlined] June 1st. [/underlined]
Things have changed somewhat since I last wrote. I have just returned from a compassionate 48 hr pass, which I went on when I received some very bad news from home. The C.G.I. said that I would have to revert back a course, so I am staying here on 17 course, whilst the boys on 17 go over to Seighford. We would have broken up anyway so maybe it is just as well this way. They finish their ground training this week and then my course commences the following week.
This O.T.U. course lasts approximately 3 months, after the fortnights ground training, it is all flying training with an occasional lecture slipped in. Half of the time, (the first half of the 3 months) is day flying, & the other or second half night flying. The exercises are similar in each case, we commence circuits & bumps with an instructor, then after our pilot has flown solo with us as a crew, we complete our circuits & bumps without the instructor. Then day bombing with a ‘screened’ or instructor pilot & a ‘screened’ Air Bomber after the first exercise, we do the rest alone, there are quite a few of them too. The same procedure is followed for gunnery & fighter affiliation, although most of the actual firing exercises are done with four gunners & a ‘screened’ gunner in one aircraft. Then we do a cross country with a ‘screen’, & afterwards another couple by ourselves, each longer in duration.
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The same procedure is followed for night flying, as far as is practical. Then at the end of the course comes the pièce de resistance – a leaflet [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] or “nickel” raid on France. I hope we are able to do one, as sometimes the weather prevents it & crews do a “bullseye” instead. This is an exercise over England, combining Fighter Command & the ground defences, except ack ack naturally. It isn’t that I am all that keen to see what the other side of the Channel is like, but I think it affords quite good practise, before going to a squadron and the real thing.
From what I have seen of the actual station here it isn’t too bad. The mess is about 8 minutes walk from our site, & the food is pretty good, (a lot better than Bobbington anyway) it is laid out fairly well too, & the waitresses serve us sitting down. The ante room & billiards rooms are quite large, & the station cinema, isn’t too bad, they are improving the latter I believe. Getting in & out of Stafford is rather a snag, there is a liberty bus from the Guard Room of an evening, but we are required to book seats the previous day by dinner-time, & as we rarely know that far ahead if we are going in, it is generally by taxi that we arrive there. At the moment I am acting as runner in the Discip Office until the next course commences, I wonder what sort of chaps they will be. Pete Rawlins has crewed up with the pilot that I originally had, he seemed a decent chap.
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[underlined] 8th June. [/underlined]
Well, I have been on the course nearly two days now. There wasn’t much for me to do last week stooging around in the Discip. Office, so I was given a 48 hr pass over the weekend. So I said goodbye to all the boys as they moved over to Seighford during the week end, though I shall see Norman a couple of times in Stafford if we can arrange it. I was lucky travelling into Stafford, I had just come out of the Guard Room with my pass, when an MT Corporal said “Going into Stafford, Sarge?”. So in I travelled in style, lolling back in the Groupie’s car, the driver was going to meet the Groupie at the station.
When I returned yesterday I had expected to find the billet empty, but I had switched my things to the corner bed, just on the off chance, somebody might roll in. They certainly had – a whole room of Canadians, pilots, navigators, and Air Bombers. On the whole they seem a pretty decent crowd, pretty noisy, but full of life and really generous & anxious to be friendly, I like Canadians quite a lot, anyway. I had to smile, because as soon as they found I had been on the previous course, they kept asking me all sorts of ‘gen’ about the course, in exactly the same manner as I had done a fortnight earlier. It was precious little I could give them. Then today we started the ground work, it was exactly the same as my first few lectures on the last course, they follow a strict pattern here.
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[underlined] June 13th. [/underlined]
I have arrived at a stage which will play a most important part in my immediate future – I am crewed up. In a bomber a man’s life is wholly in the hands of his crew members, and the closer they are together, and the better they are as a team, then the more chance of survival they have. I [deleted] a [/deleted] had always understood that considerably rare, and quite an amount of time was allotted at O.T.U’s for the purpose of selecting crews. Hixon has proved the fallacy of it, everyone starts the course separately as a course of pilots, & course of navigators or Air bombers – W/Ops etc. They remain in their classes for the first lot of lectures and hardly have any chance of meeting the various other categories of air crew, the only chance being in the mess or the billet. Suddenly like a bolt from the blue it is announced that everyone must be crewed up in two days or else they will be allocated by the instructors into a crew. A mad flap then starts, people go wandering about, staring into each others faces, vainly trying to sum up whether a person will be an asset to crew up with – or otherwise. Having experienced this on the previous course, I thought it best to let matters take their own course.
Friday night, I was sitting in the mess, after writing a few letters, having a quiet drink & waiting for the sandwiches to arrive for supper. At the next table to me, were two Canadian
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pilots from my billet, McCann who slept next to me & Cecil Kindt who slept opposite McCann. They had been drinking for a while and were both pretty mellow, as Kindt went out to get some more drinks he [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] leant over me and said, “Mac said would you join him at the next table”, so I moved over to where McCann was sitting.
We chatted for a couple of minutes, then he asked if [deleted] [indecipherable letter] [/deleted] I was crewed up with anyone. When I replied in the negative, he said “Well how would you like to sling in with me, and be my bomb-aimer?” I rather liked him, and so I had found a pilot. Cecil Kindt returned with the beer and we had a drink to it. Well, I think I had better put on record my impressions of Mac, as he is always called, & the other crew members. Len McCann, though I’ve never heard anyone call him Len, is only about 5’ 4”, and almost as broad. He said he has lost a lot of weight over here, & that he weighed 220 lbs in Canada, so he must have been tubby. For his weight & size though he isn’t so very fat, he has some superfluous flesh but is extraordinarily thickset under it. The amusing part of him is his neck which is very short & seems almost as thick as his shoulders are wide, actually he takes an 18 1/2" collar. The other fellows often call him for no reason at all, just to watch him turn around.
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He cannot swivel his neck as we do, but has to lift his shoulder & turn as one would with a stiff neck, yet the action is not a slow one; he takes all the kidding in very good part. In features he strikes me as very similar to the comedian Lou Costello, having the same cheery round face & turned up nose. He had his hair cropped right short in Canada & now stands up in a mass of wiry black bristles. With a short bristly moustache this completed my description of Mac, with whom I shall be for long time – I trust.
I asked Mac if he had a Navigator, & when he said he had one in mind, I told him of another one, who seemed quite a ‘gen’ chap to me. He was a Canadian & Mac knew him & told me he was a real farmer, & that he always ‘nattered’ nineteen to the dozen, so we didn’t ask him. On my advice Mac tackled the navigator he had in mind, just in case somebody else should snap him up. Nobody had, and he became our navigator.
His name is Ken Price, also a Canadian, and I cannot give a better description than say he is the exact image of Gary Cooper. It may seem as though I am rather a film fan, but the resemblance is remarkable. He is tall & lean, very quiet and reserved, and seems a thoroughly decent chap all round. By all accounts, from what the other navigators say he is a darned
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good man at his job.
Then this afternoon Mac introduced me to the wireless/op. he had chosen. Bill Bowery is his name, and he is English coming from Sunderland. He seems quite a keen type and knows his gen, his broad “Geordie” accent tickles us, but it is nowhere near as broad as Jimmy Selkirk’s was, or others I have heard. In appearance, he is about 5’ 8” well set, with straight auburn hair, brushed down, he seems to have an expression as though puzzling or enquiring over something, & that may be a good thing. Anyway there are four of us now, we shall get a rear gunner in a day or so, & the five of us do O.T.U. together.
Mid/Upper Gunners do their Gunnery School somewhere and then join us at the end of the course, generally in time for the “Nickel”. As we are flying Wimpeys there is no accomodation [sic] for them, & it would be a waste of time their coming here all through the course. Also in Fighter-Evasion Tactics the Rear Gunner gives all the instructions, as the co-operation between the pilot & him is the result of their training at O.T.U. The remaining member of the crew, the Flight Engineer we will pick up at our Heavy Conversion Unit, and then we will be a full crew of seven. I hope the other three members will be as good as these, & we should have a rattling good crew.
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[underlined] Thursday 17th June. [/underlined]
On Monday we found ourselves a rear gunner. Mac had noticed a chap who looked pretty keen, but I had heard him ‘nattering’ away and didn’t go much on him. I had another one in mind, fairly similar in appearance to the above mentioned one, and pointed him out to Mac, so he told me to go ahead and contact him.
Nobody has asked him to crew up, and he agreed to pitch in with us. He is a pretty decent kid, he is only 18, I know I’m only 19 myself but he looks very young and he is only about 5’ 5” and slimly built. He is a Londoner and comes from fairly near me, the most important thing, he seems to know his ‘gen’ on gunnery pretty thoroughly. His name is Johnny Watson.
So there we are the five of us, who will do O.T.U. together as a crew and pick up the other two afterwards. Somehow I can’t help wondering sometimes what lies in store for us, and the ability of a crew counts for such a lot in emergencies. Still ours looks pretty good to me, even though it does seem rather early to say it.
At the moment we are completing our ground lectures, and then tomorrow we start our exams. They aren’t actually long ones, or terribly important, although if one makes a pretty poor showing they are liable to be put back a course. The only subject
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I am hazy on is gun turrets, I had hardly any instruction on them at B. & G. School, then here a couple of hours were devoted to it. As it happened I was at the back of a crowded class room, and the diagram being on the wall, well I just couldn’t see a thing.
We have had some lectures together as a crew although for the majority of them we remain in our aircrew categories. There is an old Wellington Mk I in the Airmanship Hangar, & is sitting on supports, so that undercart drill can be carried out. We scramble all over it, learning the positions of various things, petrol cocks, escape hatches, crash positions, oxygen bottles, dinghy releases, & a 101 other things necessary to learn in an aircraft. A couple of times we have scrambled out of it, on dinghy or baling out drill – hope I never have to use either. The Wimpey is a real battered old thing, but it was used for the “1,000 bomber” raid on Cologne. Apparently to make up a 1,000 aircraft they called on all the old kites at O.T.U’s & anything that could get airborne was used. If the public had only known some of the old kites that were used they would have had a shock.
The airmanship instructor, Sgt Peacock, did a tour on Lancs as a mid/upper gunner and saw quite a bit of action apparently. One would think he would at least get a crown at the end of the tour, but his is well overdue.
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[underlined] 21st June [/underlined]
‘Midsummer’s Day’ – it certainly has been glorious weather too, I’m afraid the long daylight evenings mean later day flying for us and consequently less evenings off. We officially started our Flying Course today, though our crew weren’t on today, we commence our circuits and bumps tomorrow.
The results of the exams were posted up today. I had done well in everything but Turrets, on which I made a horrible ‘boob’ – it was as I expected Macgillvray the Canadian pilot opposite me in the billet was cursing because his Bomb Aimer, another Canadian named Dodson, had come bottom in the B/Aimer course. Apparently Dodson is a bit of a woman chaser, & didn’t bother staying in to do any swotting for the exam. Macgillvray was giving forth “He wants to get down to some studying instead of getting on the nest so much”, and so forth. The most amusing part is that Macgillvray is one of the biggest wolves I’ve known. He has a stock of Tangee lipsticks & cosmetics, with a few silk stockings which he uses as bait for the women, - he says. I have never known him to part with anything in the fortnight he has been here & he has been with a couple of women. It is dead funny to hear Mac slang him about them, as Mac has very little time for women. He isn’t a misogynist but he just doesn’t bother. Anyway most of his remarks although screamingly funny are quite unprintable.
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We are all in ‘A’ Flight, a whole course comprises a Flight which goes round in strict rotation, as the courses commence Day or Night Flying. Our Flight Commander Sqdn/Ldr. Ford seems quite O.K. he gave us a welcoming natter, and was very much to the point regarding keeping the crew room tidy, punctuality etc. still he is quite right in stressing these points. This afternoon I squeezed in an hour’s practise on the Bombing Teacher. There is a system here where the various aircrew categories each have to put in so many hours practise on exercises relating to their own particular aircrew duties Bomb Aimers have to do 20 hours in the Bombing Teacher, 10 hours on the Link Trainer, and 6 hours operating a secret navigational instrument. Navigators have to spend quite a few more hours on this instrument than we do, and also take a certain number of astro-shots. W/Ops have to get [deleted] [indecipherable word] a stated number of Q.D.M’s fixes etc. & Gunners get so many hours, spotting turret training, and other exercises, I haven’t found out what the pilots do yet. All the exercises which are carried out on the ground, that is practically everyone’s except the W/Ops have to be fitted into our spare time. That is when we are hanging around the crew room & not flying, then we can nip across & tick off an hour in the Bombing Teacher or the Link. During the rest of the course, although we are flying most of the time, we still have some lectures, as crews on matters of general interest & importance.
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[underlined] 27th June [/underlined]
Sunday again – although it is very similar to all the other days of the week, here. We have a Church Parade, first thing, all the pupils fall in at Training Wing and then march to the airfield, along the perimeter track, to a temporary parade ground outside a hangar, its about 1 1/2 miles from Training Wing. Anyway all the station is on parade there, & we take our place, the Groupie then rolls up for the flag hoisting, inspection and so forth. The flag is flown on a double line & pully attached to the extension of the hangar roof, where the door slides back into. Today the S.P. that was doing the flag hoisting pulled the flag up O.K. then when he gave a pull to unfurl it at the top nothing happened. He pulled & pulled & still no joy, the poor devil got very red in the face as the Groupie was waiting to give the order “General Salute”. However there was nothing else for it, & shamefacedly he hauled it down, & not daring to risk it again, pulled it up already unfurled. After the salute we had to march off in squadrons to another hangar where the pulpit was an RAF lorry covered with the Union Jack and a piano, for hymn singing on. When this was over we were marched off dismissed, and then everything carried on as in a normal day. On all stations when flying is done there is no break for Sundays as they had in the peace time RAF, funny how one almost loses track of the days that way.
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Although we are still on the circuits and bumps stage we are about at the end of it, and will soon be onto some more interesting exercises. All of the crew except the Navigator fly on circuits & landings, & he is lucky not to, it gets pretty binding after the first hour or so. When we first started a ‘screened’ pilot flew with ‘Mac’ giving him the ‘gen’ and everything, and after a little while let him go solo. We were a little apprehensive, in case the short time given, wasn’t enough to let Mac become acquainted with the new cockpit layout. However everything went O.K. and then we continued on our own with circuits & bumps. It hardly seems as though we are off the ground before we are getting ready for the approach & landing. Some of the landings we bump up & down quite a few times & Mac [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] refers to these as the “Grasshopper Blues”. I sit in the collapsible seat, for the second pilot, & it is O.K. seeing everything that goes on, but I wouldn’t like to be in the W/Ops position, feeling the bumps & jarrings, without seeing what was what. For some of our circuits we go over to Seighford and do them there. Actually if we could fly continually we could do them all in a couple of days. However in order to make the aircraft go round, & keep all the crews at the same stage in training, we are allotted the same length of detail. Sometimes a crew does get ahead of the others by luckily striking good weather every time, & never scrubbing an exercise through snags.
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[underlined] July 4th. [/underlined]
American Independence Day – I expect all the Americans around here are making whoopee. There are always a lot in Stafford, they come from the large transit camp at Stone, a small town 6 – 7 miles from here. All American aircrew, I believe, entering or leaving the country pass through there.
We are making steady progress on the course, we have managed to get three bombing exercises done, we are a bit ahead in that respect but behind in Fighter Application & a couple of other things. As I said before it is a matter of luck sometimes the kites are U/S & that puts us behind on that type of exercise for a while, it pretty well evens up at the end though. On the first bombing exercise we went up with a ‘screened’ pilot & a ‘screened’ bomb aimer. Mac had never made bombing runs before, it is only pilots that have been instructors, & staff pilots at B & G schools who have that experience. The ‘screened’ pilot was there to instruct Mac on how to make the corrections of course, that I asked for, & various other little points. There wasn’t very much need for the ‘screened’ bomb aimer, as bombing is very similar on whatever aircraft one flys in. The main point, he was there to point out, was in the method of giving corrections of course. In Ansons the pilots could flat turn them, thus the sighting angle was practically round when you gave “steady”, and a good pilot could hold it practically as it was. However a Wellington has to have banked turns, consequently if the bomb
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aimer waits till the target is in the drift wires of the bomb sight & then gives “Steady” – the pilot flattens out and the target is then way off to one side, so it requires some practise to estimate when to say “Steady” thus making the target come into the drift wires when the pilot flattens out.
Poor old Mac has a hell of a time on run ups, he is so small that he can just see out of the windscreen. He watches the target whilst making his run up, & then when I give a correction, he slides down in his seat to kick the rudder bars, & his head is below the windscreen level, so then he has to pull himself up again to look out. He told us he is actually just under the height standard for a pilot but flannelled his medical.
We did a low level bombing exercise yesterday, & once more took up the two ‘screens’. My first bomb overshot by about 300 yds, & so did the next, I checked every setting on the bombsight, & all were correct, so I called the ‘screened’ bomb aimer & told him, & he could find nothing wrong. So I tried the third one & that was 300 yds overshoot again, then I realised I was taking a line of sight with the back & fore sights as for high level, whereas for low level bombing the back sight, & front beads are used. I told the screen & he told me to carry on & they would make the exercise a grouping one. That is by maths they discount the different sighting & work out where the bombs would have landed, using the front beads. The exercise came out to 47 yards so it ended O.K.
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[underlined] 10th July [/underlined]
The time is slipping past and we are well on the way to finishing our day flying. We had rather an amusing incident the other day, amusing that is to everyone but Mac. He always taxies rather swiftly & as we were passing the control tower, we reached the part where the perimeter track, dips a little. Consequently we gathered speed and started to swing, instead of throttling back & braking, Mac decided to open up the opposite throttle to swing us back. However he over-corrected and we swung back across the perimeter track & onto the grass the other side, in the direction of the runway. Again Mac opened the opposite throttle, and again over-corrected, & we crossed the perry-track once more & raced towards a hangar. Mac clamped on the brakes for all he was worth but it wasn’t enough, the hangar doors were fully open, & we struck the edge of them with our port main plane & sent them thundering across. It must have shaken the people inside to see the hangar doors suddenly move swiftly. From our point of view it was quite amusing, one moment there was hardly a soul [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] in sight, then with the same effect as if someone had kicked an ant-hill, people came pouring out from the hangar, & clustered around the kite. The pièce de resistance was the fact that we had cut clean through the ropes that held the Groupie’s flag & this was now drooped nonchalantly over our astro-dome. – Groupy took a dim view of it. Poor Mac sweated blood, but he only got a strip torn off, but the kite had a mains-plane changed.
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[underlined] 17th July [/underlined]
We had an enjoyable night in Stafford this week, as usual we got set into a regular pub crawl. Old Mac is all against this, he likes to get settled in at one pub and stay there all night drinking steadily. His words of wisdom are “Jeeze, you’re wasting valuable drinking time, going round looking for other pubs, - sit here”. I have never seen anyone drink so much, and affect them so little, it is amusing. He can knock back the pints and I have never seen him, what you might call drunk, merry yes, but inebriated – never. His personality is amazing everyone everywhere gets to know him, & all like him, he will sit and ‘natter’ with people for hours, and tell the most amusing stories of his life in Ottawa, and recount anecdotes of his numerous friends. He certainly is a tonic to have around. While we were in Stafford we saw the Gunnery Leader, he is an Aussie Flt/Lt, and a real lad when he is sober. Now he was out on the beer, evidently, & was strolling down the High St, with his hat on the back of his head, a dingy old battle dress on, & swinging, a gent’s black umbrella, rolled up (where he got [deleted] [indecipherable letter] [/deleted] it from I dont know). On his other arm was a real brassy blonde – he certainly doesn’t give a damn.
All our bombing exercises are finished and two of our three cross country trips, I have one more gunnery trip to do, and so has ‘Nipper’, thats [sic] what we call Johnny now. I rather like the Air Firing trips which are carried out in Cardigan Bay, then
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they generally fly to Rhyl, & fly at about 30 – 50 ft just a little way out from the shore. There are always lots of holiday makers there. Cecil Kindt had a strip torn off the other day, through an Air Firing accident. They were sent out over the Wash to fire so many rounds into the sea, this in itself is pretty boring and the gunners always look round for some sort of a target. His rear gunner spotted some sort of an old hulk and fired at it on a couple of runs. Apparently it was a wreck & their [sic] were a couple of divers, & salvage men working on it, & one leapt into the water, because of the bullets. God knows how the rear gunner didn’t see them, anyway they got the kite’s letter, phoned to the shore, & by the time Cecil landed the pressure had been put on Sqdn/Ldr Ford as he gave it to Kindt hot & strong.
Macgillvray has been providing laughs all round with his amorous adventures. Not so very long ago he met a nurse in Nottingham, a very nice girl by all accounts, a widow, anyway it wasn’t long before Macgillvray was staying at her flat. However he couldn’t get to Nottingham very much so he began associating with a WAAF Sgt here on the camp. One thing about him he admits openly what he is after, anyway she wasn’t that type, but after a little while with Macgillvray she was. Now she is crazy over him, & runs about after him, whilst he is very off handed. At the same time he meets an A.T.S. girl, on leave who lives in a house, a couple of hundred yards from our billet. It didn’t take him very long to string her along
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as well, so there he is with three strings to his bow at the same time – no wonder he looks a wreck. The amusing incident arose the other night when the WAAF Sgt saw him coming out of a corn field with this blonde A.T.S. She was furious & drinking with him the next night she said “Don’t let me see you with that – tart again,” which for her is a very strong word. Jokingly one night she said she was the “Three-hook Wonder”, hook meaning Stripes, Macgillvray, & Mac, who also knows her well, immediately changed it to the “Three-Hook Blunder,” & later cut it down to “The Blunder,” & so it has remained – poor girl.
They are a pretty decent bunch of fellows in this hut, we have had a little reshuffle in order to get crews together. Some of the original Canucks are in other huts, whilst Johnny, & Bill are now in here so we have all our crew. Macgillvray has his Navigator – Lance Weir, & his Bomb Aimer Dodson, both Canadians in here. Weir is a really decent chap, very quiet spoken, some of the boys kid him & call him “Toody-Fruit,” because he has a habit of rubbing talcum powder over his body. Frankie Allen, pilot, Yelland, navigator, & Tom Hughes – bomb aimer, all Canucks form another crew. Hughes is very decent, I have only one pair of pyjamas & when that was at the laundry he saw me dive into bed in the altogether, & asked the reason. When I [deleted] said [/deleted] [inserted] told [/inserted] him he tossed me a Canadian Comforts pair & said “Keep it, I’ve got five other pairs”, it was good of him. Their rear gunner Rose, an English chap is here, a small comical fellow, they call him John L. after the boxer Sullivan, because he wears long pants like him. Cecil Kindt, with Sam Small, navigator, and Macdonald, b/aimer, all Canadians, complete the hut.
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[underlined] 22nd July [/underlined]
We are now the senior course here, and have now moved on to become the ‘night-flying’ flight, tonight we expect to start our night circuits & bumps, some of the chaps commenced last night. They hoped to squeeze us a 48 hr pass in between the end of day flying & the start of night, but we were a little behind as a course through unavoidable incidents, so we had had it! I am sorry the day cross country trips are over, as I really enjoyed them, we generally flew to Rhyl, and I camera-bombed the pier. Then drill was done as if we were on an ‘op’ & that was our coast we were leaving. We then flew across to the Isle of Man which separated the enemy coast, & I would camera-bomb the quay at Ramsey. With a brilliant sun, & flying in our shirt sleeves everything looked lovely. The sea was a sparkling blue and invariably there would be a huge convoy spread about, a never failing source of interest to us. However we had been warned to keep well clear of them, as the naval gunners were very trigger itchy, and one of our crews had been fired on by an aircraft carrier. We would fly across the Isle of Man, head North, then turn in at the English coast once more, & return to Cannock Chase for a bombing exercise of 12 practise bombs on the range, & then return to base. The rations were pretty good, we always saved our tin of orange juice to drink on a morning after the night before it was very good, I suppose we will get the same on night X-countries.
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On the first one we had a ‘screened’ pilot, then the next one did by ourselves, the third & largest, we carried a full bomb load of 250 lb H.E’s filled with sand, except one which was live. This I had to bomb on a sea range with and photograph the splash. We had a ‘screened’ bomb-aimer/navigator on this one, an F/O pretty decent chap. [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] [inserted] He [/inserted] asked Mac if he would let him do some tight turns over his home in Aberystwyth as we were passing over it. Mac agreed but quickly retrieved the controls when he saw we were almost stalling.
For night flying we report to the flight just after 6 P.M. to see what is on, naturally it is broad daylight then. Then if we are not on till late we can go to the Station Cinema, as we did last night. It is the usual effort, it is in the lecture hall, when we first came the cinematograph was mounted on a large table, so if one sat well back, the noise of the machine drownded [sic] the sound track. Now they have built a brick projection box, and have provided a wooden platform for the dearer seats – with the usual front two rows reserved – Officers Only.
Looking back at my last entry, I see I have forgotten to mention ‘Pinky’ Tomlin. He is a Canadian Bomb Aimer, but his pilot, & navigator are commissioned, & his W/Op & R/Gunner are in another hut so he is ‘one alone’. He is pretty tubby & really loves food, he bought himself an electric [deleted] plate [/deleted] [inserted] heater [/inserted] to use as a grill, & cooks things from the numerous parcels he receives from home. He was a scout master back in Canada – not a bad chap, rather hail-fellow-well met.
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[underlined] July 30th. [/underlined]
Night circuits and bumps are almost completed for us – Thank God! – they really are binding. We follow exactly the same procedure as with our day flying, first of all with an instructor, then Mac solo’ed and we carried on by ourselves. The first couple of times were O.K. but then it grew monotonous staring out into the blackness, with just the circuit lights to relieve the unbroken darkness. I suppose an artist gazing at them would murmur “Pearls cast upon a black velvet background”, but to us they mean “Keep me under your port wing, and fly at [symbol] 1,000 ft.” The Dren lighting takes some getting used to, the flarepath lights are only 15 watt bulbs and are hooded and secured to give a 15o vertical, and 40o horizontal spread of light, only in a down wind direction. Consequently one can only see them, immediately facing into them, as soon as we have taken off we can no longer see them. It was funny when Bill first saw this, he is generally working on the radio, then he looked out of the astro-dome for the first time on night take off, and called on the A/T “Hey! they’ve switched off the flare path now we are airborne”. Johnny has the worst job, sitting right at the end of the kite, cramped in his turret, and feeling all the crashes and jars of landing far more than us. Every now & again, I go lurching along the catwalk with coffee for him. Bill was quite eager to sit in the cockpit, so I change places with him sometimes & listen to dance music on the radio.
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We get more time off now than we did on night flying, our day off now becomes a night off. So we have the day off after night flying, then that night off & the following day until 6 P.M. Should night flying be scrubbed the night before, then one can make two nights and two days out of it, providing one hasn’t put in a pass. On a couple of days off we have been into Birmingham and stayed at the Services Club. At least we did the first time, the second time they were full up, so we had to doze in arm chairs & so forth. Mac took me into the American Red Cross, I didn’t think we could go in there, but it was O.K. The food in there is very good indeed, I believe it is sent over from the States. I took Johnny in there on our second visit and he thought it was an excellent place, they are certainly superior to our Services Clubs.
There is another instructor in the Bombing Section now, a Sgt Bomb Aimer, just finished his tour of ‘ops’, Sgt Mason his name is, quite a decent fellow. He gave us a ‘natter’ on what life was like on a squadron at the moment. It certainly cleared up a few points and provided a shock. According to him it is a pretty odds on chance that a crew will get the chop before finishing a tour. On his squadron only about 4 crews finished, as far as he could recollect all the time that he was there. It certainly isn’t a rosy future anyway, still there’s always the chance we will be one of them to come through.
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[underlined] 5th August [/underlined]
We have only about a fortnight left before we finish here, one crew became well advanced so they were sent over to Seighford onto 17 course the previous one to ours. At the moment we are on Night bombing exercises, and somehow we always seem to be ‘joed’ for the very last detail. Consequently we hang about all night waiting to take off, and finally get the exercise in between 6 & 7 A.M. when it is beginning to get light. Then we arrive back in the hut to find all the others are up and have been for hours – they nicknamed us “The Dawn Patrol”.
Our first prang on this course occurred the other night. There have been some major prangs on other courses while we have been here, and a few minor ones [deleted] [indecipherable letter] [/deleted] on our course, this was our first major one though. We were circling the airfield waiting to land, when we saw a kite overshoot, prang and burst into flames, not far off the end of the runway, we couldn’t see much detail at all. So we continued to circle and await instructions, then all lights were extinguished and we were ordered to land at Seighford. Over we went and lobbed in then with three others crews, and naturally were wondering what had happened.
We had a meal in the mess, & then as there was nobody around to fix us up with beds, we had to doze on chairs in the mess. After breakfast, which was quite early,
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we decided to sleep on in the ante-room, as Hixon was going to phone when we were to return. However the C.M.C. had locked the ante-room, & said it was always out of bounds in the morning, and would make no exception for us – nice type. So we had to sit on the grass outside the mess for a couple of hours.
I met Derek Ashton over there, they will be finished in a day or so, & so would I if I had still been on that course. I couldn’t have had a better crew than what I have now, though. Ashton said they liked Seighford better than Hixon as there was no ‘bull’ there and it was a lot easier to get into Stafford. The only snag is, it is far more dispersed than Hixon is.
We didn’t get back to Hixon before 1 P.M. as we were held up for brake pressure. It turned out to be Carr’s crew who had pranged. They were making a flapless landing with an instructor, owing to trouble with the flaps. The instructor was flying it, and he approached too fast, overshot didn’t make it, and crashed on the railway lines, when the kite immediately caught fire. Luckily they were all unhurt except Sgt Mann, the ‘screened’ bomb aimer, he was burnt slightly on the face, and has been admitted to hospital for a short while. It seems Fate that he should get through a tour unscathed and then have this happen at O.T.U.
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[underlined] 12th August [/underlined]
Only a week to go, and then most probably we shall fly over enemy territory for the first time – on a ‘nickel’, I hope we do one anyway. The course is split practically in half with the first half slightly ahead of the others – we are in the latter. I said goodbye to Norman and the boys on 17 course, when they came over here, they have to get cleared here as well as at Seighford. Pete Rawlings was chatting to me about his skipper, he was the one I would have had on 17 course. He said he was a damn good pilot, but he would ‘natter’ such a lot on the inter-com. – I should have hated that.
We certainly get good meals on night flying, they have opened, a place especially for us near the cinema. It is a pukka little cook house, with a Cpl & two WAAFs, just for our flight. The Cpl is a good type & we get steaks & eggs for our flying meals, it is bang on. Although we are not supposed to officially, we go there for supper, if there is no flying detail for us that particular night. There is a real craze for cards now, & Hughes, Mac, Bill, Johnny & myself & various others, often play Blackjack & Pontoon, of a night if we aren’t on. We start in the evening & play till the small hours & then stagger down to see what Flying supper is. The Canadians are fond of playing “Shoot”, & have a school regularly in the locker room.
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If night flying is scrubbed for everyone, most of the boys turn in at 11 P.M. or so, in order to have the next day free. However Mac & a couple of others hate getting to bed at that time, preferring to turn in late, & sleep the following day, as if night flying was on. They generally get Pinky Tomlins, electric heater out, & cook things out of their Canadian food parcels. Mac is really amusing when he gets nattering about “Chicken soup with noodles”, & “weeners” & various other Canadian foods. Naturally they kick up a fair amount of noise, and the boys trying to sleep shout out uncomplimentary remarks to Mac, as he is generally telling an anecdote or a story about back home. Then he immediately bellows back “- this is a night flying hut, get out of that bed, you lazy so & so”. The amusing part is the following day, when they are all up & about, & Mac is trying to sleep through the noise. He will sit up & shout “Quiet, let a guy get some sleep”, & they laugh & generally Hughes will give him a shake & say “Come on McCann this is a night flying hut”, & various cracks until Mac aims a boot. They are a good bunch of boys though.
Another good thing about this night flying is that we don’t bother about the C.O’s billet inspection every week. We just put a notice on the door “Night Flying Hut – Do Not Disturb”, & funnily enough nobody does.
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[underlined] 19th August. [/underlined]
Our O.T.U. Course has now ended, the perk was last night when we did a “Nickel” to Rennes. The first lot of our course left a few days ago, they had to do a ‘bullseye’ exercise to finish as there were no “nickels” laid on. They got 10 days leave, & posted to Lindholme to go on Lancasters, that is where we will go, everyone goes onto Lancs from this O.T.U. We had another cross country to do, the usual long stooge right up to the Orkneys, with airfire and bombing at Caernarvon – what a farce.
Yesterday we were told that all the remaining crews would finish with a ‘Nickel’ that night, & we have to take up the kite we would be flying in and Air-Test it. The tail trim proved to be U/S on ours & another was put on, with another crew air testing it. At evening time we assembled in the intelligence room for briefing, it was a pukka briefing, like they have on a squadron, with the Sqdn/Ldr Intelligence Officer taking it. Then the C.O. & a couple of other officers said a few words, & briefing was over, they even had an S.P. on duty outside the door. We put all our personal belongings in an envelope with our name on it, collected our escape kits & foreign money, then off to the locker room to dress.
Half of the crews were going to St. Malo, and the rest of us to Rennes, we were flying the same track & course to Isigny at the base of the Cherbourg peninsula, & then to Avranches our next pin point, where we would continue our various ways. Soon we were all dressed, then into the crew bus & out to the kites.
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They were lined up together, & as R/T isn’t allowed on any ‘ops’ take-offs, a yellow verey was to be fixed from control for the signal to start up engines, then a green verey, when it was time for the first kite to start taxying out. The photographic vans drove out with the camera magazines, & the LAC, rather a gigolo type, who handed up mine, uttered the famous words “Wish I was coming with you”. Suddenly up went the yellow cartridge & the ground crews leapt into action, and the roar of engines shattered the summer’s evening. Johnny then called up to say none of the lights would work in his turret, & the spare fuses had no effect. This caused quite a flap, ‘bods’ went dashing everywhere, & both an armourer & a fitter came dashing along when it was a job for an electrician. During this time the green verey went up & the first kite taxied out, Macgillvray was next, on our right and he waved to us, as they went out, we were still waiting there as the kites on our left followed Macgillvray out, & soon we were sitting there alone. The Groupy came whizzing over in his car to see what the electrician was doing, but at that time one came along with the fuses that had to be changed inside the fuselage. So everything O.K. at last, we taxied out by ourselves, the others all having taken off. All the officers were on the control tower and they waved as we went past, then onto the runway, a green from the A.C.P. and off we went. The others were circling base to gain height, & there was 10 mins to go before setting course, so we were O.K. for time. We set course with them, & made up our height by the first turning point.
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It was quite dusk as we crossed the coast near Southampton, & it was quite dark when Ken said “We’re getting near the enemy coast”. I strained my eyes to peer through the darkness, & after a little while made out the long narrow neck of land, that I had memorised so well as the Cherbourg peninsula. Then I saw my first flak, the sudden whitish flashes on the ground, & after a brief while, the flashes (like twinkling lights but not so harmless). I felt a sense of false confidence, as it seemed remote from us, but the truth was there wasn’t very much flak, and nobody would have worried much. I told them we were starboard of track, & we altered course & soon crossed the enemy coast. Johnny said there was quite a bit more flak going up at the chaps behind us.
I pinpointed the river at Avranches, & after a while we came to the dropping place, it was 15 miles S.E of Rennes owing to the wind. We had to follow the bombing procedure, & drop them by a distributor in order to space them out. A sudden shout from Johnny caused a flap, & as he said “There’s thousands of them floating everywhere,” I cursed him as I wanted to give the order “Close Bomb Doors”. Eventually we shut him up and returned to base. It was an uneventful return journey, & we landed tired but happy (admittedly mainly because we were going on leave). Carr got quite a bit of flak over St. Malo.
We slept in this morning for a while & then got going on our clearance chits. Mac has met the Mid/Upper who has joined our crew, but the rest of us haven’t seen him yet. Tomorrow morning we will complete our clearance chits, then off on 10 days leave, before going to a Con Unit. So goodbye to Hixon.
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[underlined] 29th August. [/underlined]
Since I last wrote various changes have taken place. On the morning of the 20th, the day we [deleted] went [/deleted] left Hixon, we reported at the Adjutant’s office for our warrants & passes. He came out very apologetically & said a last minute change of posting had occurred, we were to go on Stirlings & report to a Con. Unit at Woolfox Lodge, after [underlined] 6 [/underlined] days leave. Losing four days leave didn’t seem too good to us, also we had heard pretty duff reports of Stirlings on ‘ops’. Still off we went – the orderly room had told us the Con Unit was near Cambridge & the warrants were made out to there.
I caught the evening train back, but when I went to the Cambridge R.T.O. they said Hixon Orderly Room had boobed, & Woolfox Lodge was near Stamford. As there were no more trains that night, I had to spend the night in the Nissen hut there, rather grim. In the morning I met Johnny & Pinky Tomlin, & we travelled to Stamford, we had to change at Peterborough and there met some more of the boys. At Stamford we phoned for transport, but it was a few hours before it arrived and we had [deleted] dinner [/deleted] lunch in the George Hotel. Mac & some of the others arrived here yesterday and are in the hut near to ours, and today we have been tramping around with our arrival chits, but as the course commences for us tomorrow we won’t bother to finish them. This course has already been on a couple of days, they were as unprepared for us, as we were for coming here.
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[underlined] [deleted] August [/deleted] [inserted] September [/inserted] 5th. [/underlined]
First, I had better bring my crew up to date, as we have a full crew now. Don Keeley the Mid-Upper Gunner, who joined us as we left Hixon is tall & very dark, his face has been sunburnt so much it leaves one with the impression almost of an Indian, he is quiet a good looking chap & seems very decent. Our engineer was allotted to us by the Engineering Leader, and is a Welshman, Jack Barker. He is about 5 ft 5” with a cheerful face, & crisp wavy hair, we haven’t had a lot to do with him yet, as quite naturally he still goes around with the engineers who came with him as a course, from St. Athens, I think I can safely say that we have got a very good crew, though.
This station is far more dispersed than Hixon was. It is cut in half by the Great North Road, to the East of the road is the airfield itself, whilst to the West are the living & communal sites. Our billet is a quarter of an hours walk to the mess, then from the mess it is a 20 min walk, to the other side of the airfield where training-wing is. There are no ablutions on the sites, and washing kit is stolen if it is left in the ablutions by the mess, so we wash from an old rain water tub at the back of the hut.
We have a ground course of a week to 10 days here, comparable to that at O.T.U. only bringing newer work into it. At last I have met the MK. XIV Gyro Bombright, the one I shall actually use on ‘ops’ – it certainly is a bag of tricks. In a day or so we will have our exams, & then commence our flying on Stirlings.
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[underlined] 14th [deleted] August [/deleted] [inserted] September [/inserted]. [/underlined]
The exams are over, everyone passed O.K. and we are now underway with our Flying Conversion. For the engineers, this is when they fly for the first time, as they pass out from there [sic] training school, and come straight here to be crewed up, without ever having flown before. It seems pretty hard on them, to have only a few hours air experience before they arrive at a squadron and go on ‘ops’.
Stirlings are the largest 4 engined bomber there is, and the cockpit is certainly a height from the ground. They have a long undercart, & it is quite a common prang, to see an undercart wiped off, as the aircraft have a tendency to swing & if one brakes severely & swerves, the undercart is quite likely to go. I have to fly as second pilot in there, and attend to boost, revs, flaps & undercart, it takes both of us to get the kite off the deck & they take a hell of a long run.
For a lot of our circuits and bumps we flew over to a Yankee airfield, they had Fortresses. We used to fly there for 2 hours or so & then return. Before Mac had soloed, he was taking off there, & the kite swung viciously & shot across the grass straight towards a Fort. There were some mechanics working on it, and they looked up to see a Stirling thundering at them, without pause they leapt off the wing, fell over picked their selves up & dashed off. If it hadn’t been dicey, it would have seemed ludicrous, however, the screened pilot took a hand, pulled at the controls, & we took off right over the Fort. Mac soloed O.K. a little later, & now we are on X-countries.
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[underlined] 22nd [deleted] August [/deleted] [inserted] September [/inserted] [/underlined]
Our Con. Unit is nearly over, & we shall soon be on an operational squadron, different instructors speak in glowing terms of their old squadrons, & advise us to try & get posted there so we don’t know where we are. At the moment we are commencing our night X country period, this is a tricky airfield to taxi on at night.
Macgillvray has been going out with a WAAF M.T. driver here, & at last it seems like the real thing he is talking seriously of marriage. When he left Hixon, “The Blunder”, went into Stafford with him to stay the night, & then spins a 48 hr pass with him at the Strand Palace. Macgillvray was half & half about telling her to go, however when he arrived here he wrote, & told her he didn’t want to see her again. She wrote back & said as soon as she got a pass she was coming to have it out with him. Then a letter arrived yesterday saying she would arrive in the evening, & would he meet her in town. Macgillvray religiously stayed in camp all evening, & every now & again the phone would ring for him, it was her, phoning from Stamford, & it was really funny to see him keep telling chaps he wasn’t in. Suddenly, the boys came in with the news, she had come out on the 10.30 P.M. bus, & fixed up with the WAAF Officer to stay the night. Macgillvray was off to his billet like a shot. [deleted] Next [/deleted] [inserted] This [/inserted] morning, the Blunder, was in the dining hall, early, & waiting behind the servery, when Macgillvray came in, she dashed out, & told him exactly what she thought of him, in a loud voice. Everyone listened interestedly, & the cooks even ceased serving in order to hear clearly, Mac went deadly white, & after a while walked out, with the Blunder behind. Anyway that was exit to the Blunder. We’ve certainly had some laughs here.
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[underlined] Wednesday [deleted] August [/deleted] [inserted] September [/inserted] 29th. [/underlined]
At last the time has arrived, and what a time I have had to wait for it, 2 1/4 years ago I volunteered for aircrew, & right up till now I have been training for the real job, & we have arrived at last on a squadron. It is a new squadron just forming, No 623, and we are stationed at Downham Market with No 218 squadron. We left Woolfox about 8 AM. on Monday, and caught the 9.15 AM. to Peterborough, where we arrived about 10.15 AM. Deciding to spend the day we trooped out and started off with a large meal in the Silver Grill, a very satisfying start. During the afternoon we looked over the Cathedral, and afterwards went to the cinema to see Tyrone Power in “Crash Drive”, pretty good. Another large meal at the Silver Grill then off on the 6.46 PM. to Downham Market. Naturally the trains were late and we reached Downham Station around 10 PM. & phoned for transport. When it arrived we threw the kit on, we were getting rather cheesed with it by now, after lumping it on & off different trains, and out we went.
It was rather a grim reception, they told us we couldn’t have a meal, & then we found out there was no accommodation for us. So we drove round in the dark in a lorry and they found room for us in ones & twos with the erks, it was pretty grim organisation.
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They locked our kit up in a hut, my overcoat & groundsheet amongst them, so of course it poured of rain during the night & the next morning. Being as the station is all clay like most of the Fen country, it was one helluva mess. Like all Bomber Stations it is horribly dispersed, & we tramped around miserably in the wet, with our arrival chits. The mess was large and new, & very bare, & the food just happened to be pretty grim, so I’m afraid we took a rather poor view of the station, things look a little better now though.
There is a rigged up cinema & I believe they have occasional shows there, but there isn’t a lot of entertainment available. The town [deleted] of [/deleted] or village of Downham is only 15 mins walk from the mess, but there isn’t much life in there. They have one rather ancient cinema with old films & a dance hall, that is always over crowded & 21 pubs, the latter is over shadowed by Stamford’s 63. I don’t think we will be going in there very much. There were three crews arrived from Woolfox together, Pete, Macgillvray & ourselves, Carr is travelling down too today, as he hadn’t finished his flying at Woolfox. We are binding for leave as most crews get it on arrival but our efforts haven’t been successful so far. Our first two ‘ops’ here are mining trips & the pilot was a second “dickey” (pilot) trip, before we start we have to do a bullseye though.
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[underlined] Monday 4th October. [/underlined]
Things are looking quiet a bit better now, the mess seems comfortable, & the food really is good. Up till Saturday we didn’t do much, mainly hung around & had a few lectures, & got our kit into the parachute section. This is a new idea, they have a large room, with lockers, & hang our kit up properly, to dry etc, also testing it each time, then when we want something we go & ask for it & they bring it out. If they have found any stuff U/S they tell us what it is so we can change it, it’s a good scheme. The essentials such as chute, harness, helmet, boots, & ‘K’ type dinghy, are laid out already when the crew is on ‘ops’. No waiting or anything its quite a good scheme. We drew our electrical kit & our new flying boots, from stores, there [sic] boots are the new type with leather boots as bottoms, they have a knife in the side to cut the upper off, should we land in enemy territory, & thus leave a fine pair of walking boots.
On Saturday our bullseye arrived and we were briefed in the afternoon for a 7.50 PM take off. We got away a few minutes late but with no mishap & climbed over the drome then set course for Bedford, this was the starting gate of the bullseye. About 15 mins after we left there, we were coned by about 20 beams & passed on to other cones. We were diving all around the sky but we were
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held pretty well for around 10 – 15 minutes, before we got out. At Portsmouth we were held for around 2 minutes, & again at Beachy Head, then we headed for the target – London. We came in over Croydon & Lewisham to run up to our target, Westminster Bridge. There were about four cones in action with about 30 beams in each, and they all had a kite in, jerking like mad. Whilst they were occupied we were able to slip in smoothly on our bombing run without interference. The searchlights blinded me a bit though and I was unable to get a good line of sight on the bridge, but took the photographs. The black out of London was pretty grim, there were bags of lights about, & the docks were clearly lit up along the river & so were the main railway stations. I don’t think I would fancy an attack on London though, the defences seem pretty hot. After London we went to Bedford again where the bullseye finished, so we had no engagements with fighters. From here to base then up to Goole and back on another I.R. stooge. It was pretty nippy & poor Johnny & Don in the turrets were frozen stiff. There were hardly any fighter interceptions I guess the fighter boys didn’t feel like playing. Anyway back to the bacon & egg, the usual natter with the other crews on various points & then off to bed, for a nice lengthy sleep.
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When we got up at dinner time yesterday it was to be told that we were operating that night – mine laying, it rather shook us. Briefing was at 4 PM. & we learned we were going off the Frisian Is. (a fairly short trip) & taking 6 x 1500 mines. Back to the mess in the bus for the operational meal, then over to the billet, where like old men we clamber into our long flying underwear. Even though it is all pure rayon lined it makes me itch, just not used to long legs & sleeves I guess after jockey shorts & singlet. Our next move is back down to the dressing room in the parachute section, where we collect our kit. We never put the stuff on otherwise we would sweat moving around & then it would freeze when we got up & defeat the clothing. Out to the kite in the bus then, dump the kit on the grass & everyone climbs in for their last minute check of their equipment. Whoever D.I’d the first turret did a poor job, because the reflector sight was left on & the guns weren’t loaded, so I got cracking on those & tested the tuner, then climbed down for my initial bombing check. The engines were run up, tested, then shut down again & we climbed out for a smoke and sign our various forms. The Wing Comdr & Sqdn Ldr drove out to give last minute tips & see if there were any snags, then we all climbed aboard again, fully dressed now, all hatches closed, & taxied out.
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The first aircraft was due off at 7.35 and took off dead on time, we were third, got the green from the ACP opened up & away we went. They are a bit of a job to get off with a heavy load & we didn’t miss the trees by much but we made it. We set course for Cromer, where we were leaving the coast, at 1500 ft, we were staying at that height so Jerry couldn’t pick us up, then climbing to 5,000 ft at the last moment to avoid any flak ships. Everything went fine, poor old Ken was sick again, he certainly has guts to keep flying and navigating when he is often queer. We had to climb quickly at the mining area, & the revs wouldn’t increase for the minute, consequently we nearly stalled. At 1500 ft with that bomb load we would [deleted] dive [/deleted] have dived straight into the waves, it was touch & go for a minute but worked out. The mines were dropped, one [deleted] f [/deleted] could feel them drop, & back we went. When we got back to Cromer there were lots of searchlights & they picked us up, but shut off when we flicked our nav lights on & off. They suddenly coned a single engine kite so we watched it like hawks just in case, there have been a lot of intruders around this area. There was a large fire about 50 miles off the port bow, enemy activity maybe. We landed O.K. though were interrogated & off to the mess, when the siren went so we had just dodged it, still we were safe then. A bang on supper then off to bed for another good rest.
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[underlined] Thursday 7th October.. [/underlined]
Life is proceeding along fairly smooth lines, and we are pretty well settled in. The other night when we did our mining trip, the main force went to Kassel. Clarc Carr went with another pilot to get his second ‘dicky’ trip in. The pilot he went with had 23 trips in & was on the point of completing his tour, but they never returned. Poor old Clarc, he was one of the best chaps I have met, he never got in a temper with anyone, yet he was pretty tough, it’s a shame that such fellows have to go. It really shakes us when fellows we have been with for a long while get the chop, brings it home the hard way. They have sent his crew home on 3 days leave, I don’t know what they are doing after that, whether they are returning to ‘Con’ Unit to pick up a new skipper, or stay here as ‘spares’, the former would be better I should think.
Speaking of spares they grabbed Don, our mid upper to go in somebody else’s crew on Monday for the raid on Frankfurt, as their m/u.g had gone sick. It was rather a nerve I thought both asking a crew to fly with a chap they didn’t know, & worse for the gunner to fly with a strange crew. They did the same thing to Smith, Macgillvrays rear gunner, if they keep this thing up they will
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soon be doing away with the crews & just have a pool that they draw on, I always thought that if somebody was sick in a crew the whole lot was declared U/S. there is a word they have when referring to men they call them ‘bodies’ or ‘bods’, & how right it is, you are just merely a figure on paper. Every morning the big noise walks into the flight office & asks the flight commander “How many crews have you, fully operational?”, and then demands those that aren’t be made so in as short a time as possible. That is all they are interested in, is, how many crews have they available for an ‘op’, regardless of how much flying you’ve done, just recently some of the chaps have been on the main force 3 out of 4 nights. Anyway all kites returned from Frankfurt O.K. and Dan gave us a vivid description, it was very interesting but I guess we will be seeing all we want of it very shortly.
Tuesday night we were on ‘stand down’, but Wednesday we were briefed for a long mining trip to La Rochelle, right down near the Spanish border. There was a hell of a front expected at base around 6.30 so they were rushing us off at 5.50 & come back to meet the front over the Channel & battle through it. There was severe icing from 7 – 15,000 so we had to try & climb above it, not an easy job in a Stirling, the extent was possibly
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right up to the London area as well. The briefing & everything was terribly rushed & we tore around in a mad flap to get everything done, and we were all dressed & on the point of going out to the kite when they scrubbed it, what a life, tonight we were in it again but it was scrubbed once more.
Last night I decided I would see what Downham was like so I ambled in with the boys & was I cheesed. I had seen the [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] film on at the little cinema, so all there was to do was sit in a smokey pub, & swill lousy beer. At last the smoke made my eyes ache so much I came home. Macgillvray was on a short mining trip last night, & a Picture Post reporter was going along. They sent down 4 camera & news men, & took photographs of them having an operational meal & were going to take bags more in the kite, but it was scrubbed, what bad luck, a chance like that only comes once in a life time. The traditional RAF bull was in evidence, for the photograph they had a spotless table-cloth, cream crackers on the table, & a Cpl WAAF waiting on them. Actually we queue up for our meals & a long one at times & eat of [sic] bare dirty tables, & the only biscuits we see are hard dog ones. – We did our first day flying, here, today, took two kites up on air tests, we were doing a loaded climb but that was scrubbed, at least we know what the drome looks like in daylight now.
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[underlined] Sunday October 10th. [/underlined]
We look like having our first leave in a few days we are officially due to go at 0700 hrs on Thursday 14th, until the following Tuesday midnight. The chaps generally get away on the Wednesday, & if they are very lucky & they aren’t on ops on Tuesday they get away Tuesday afternoon which is pretty good. I only hope we are that lucky, Mac has to do a second dicky & if he gets that in tomorrow night we may be on ops the following night (Tuesday) & mess things up a bit. Should it be scrubbed tomorrow, Mac will go Tuesday & we can go Tuesday afternoon, I am afraid we are unscrupulous enough to hope that the weather is lousy tomorrow night. He has got his Flight through at last, & is now ‘Chiefy’ McCann, it is well overdue, but the Canadians get back pay on crowns, one of the numerous ways they are better than the RAF, so he has about £16 back pay to come. The comical part is that after all this waiting & binding now it has appeared in P.O.R’s the stores have no crowns so he is unable to wear it – poor Mac.
Friday night we went on our long mining trip, off Bordeaux in the estuary of the Gironde. We took 4 1,500 mines a fair weight, our all up weight was 69,784 lbs. The briefing was at 6.0 P.M. it shook us but they were having a late take off because the room was nearly full & they were waiting for it to die down as the German fighters have an easy time in the bright moonlight. The bus took
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[inserted] [newspaper cutting showing a WAAF with a mine] [/inserted] [duplicate page]
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us back [missing words] as our operation [missing words] wasn’t until 8.45 we had bags of time to fill in. Lots of Forts went over then & we watched them the next day we learned they had been to Bremen. We had our egg & at 10.25 the transport took us back, we didn’t have to struggle with our kit as we had taken it out in the afternoon. The run up & testing commenced, then shut down while we donned our kit & start up once more. We took off bang on time & 5 mins later set course. Old Petch who was the only other one beside us going swung on take off & hit his undercart against some iron rails for fog lighting & they wouldn’t let him take off, consequently we were the only ones from this station that went.
It was practically 10/10ths cloud down to the coast, it cleared there & I was able to get a wizard pin point on Selsey Bill, our crossing point. The moon was like a searchlight & we felt all naked illuminated up there, it set quite a bit after they told us it did, because there was the time of setting as seen by a ground observer, whereas we were at 12,000 ft. The cloud built up more & more over the Channel until it was 10/10ths again on the French Coast and we were unable to pin point. It remained like that most of the way, the least it was, was 7/10ths, approaching the target area it began
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to clear & I got down into the bombing hatch ready. I was determined to get my night vision up to scratch because if we couldn’t pin point we had to bring the mines back. The green indicator target on the VCP was glaring on my vision panel like a searchlight so I piled my long cushion over it. Then I wanted to see my target map so hopped to switch on the light for a brief second, next the cushion fell down & the light glared again, I dove back at that. I was hopping around like a rubber ball, & sweating lest I should miss the coast & be unable to pin point. Suddenly I saw it, it was pretty dark, I could make it out clearly though, then we passed out to sea over the first island & swung out to rear to clear the island defences. Then altering course we swung in for the mainland once more, I was straining my neck, thats [sic] the worst of the Stirling bomb aimers window, the Lancs have a beauty. After a bit I made it out we were heading up the Gironde estuary, so we made a left hand turn & came bang on the corner of the estuary, which was our pin point. Setting course on a D.R run we dropped the eg O.K. & set course home. Just after we left the flak began to open up on the islands & one searchlight probed around, but they weren’t near us.
Stooging along happily with thoughts of home & bed we were shaken by a show of
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flak suddenly thrown up. We had got a little port of track & were too near Nantes, they had some accurate heavy flak down there, because of the Fort raids on the U Boat Bases. Anyway they were too accurate for our liking the first burst exploded with quite a crash underneath us & burned the kite a bit. We did some hectic weaving & finally got clear, it was a sticky moment though that predicted stuff is deadly they reckon to get you on the first burst. Nothing happened on the way back beyond sighting another Stirling, the cloud thickened over England, & when we reached base they diverted us to Tangmere, although we could have got in. So we had to fly back all the way we had come down to the South Coast. Arriving there after 6 hrs 40 mins flying we found 11 other Stirlings there. We had a meal, & the guy told us you can sleep as long as you like they gave us good accommodation, boy! we needed sleep. Hardly had we laid our heads down when they dragged us out saying we had to return right away. Then we had to wait 3 hours before we were re-fuelled & away. Two squadrons of Typhoons scrambled while we were there, straight off down wind a lovely night. Flying back to base I could hardly keep my eyes open we had had no sleep for nearly 36 hours. We certainly slept well on return. Today there hasn’t been anything doing because of the lousy weather. Jack Spackly & Ron Winnitt have arrived here, they were with me from Manchester & all through Canada, I was glad to see them arrive here, they are in 623.
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[underlined] Sunday October 24th [/underlined]
It is a fortnight since I last made an entry but I have been on leave during that time, & following my maxim of never letting work interfere with pleasure I made no entries in here. I had a fine leave, Mary was able to get the time off & that made it just right we saw a couple of shows, popped around to a few friends & had a wizard time. There was one disappointment overshadowing it though, Ken didn’t come on leave with us, it all began a little while before - . A fair number of times through his earlier training, so he tells me, and during the time we were with him at O.T.U. and on Conversion Unit, he was sick during trips. He tried hard, by doing everything he knew to overcome it, but unsuccessfully. Then on our first mining trip to the Frisians he was sick at the target area & we had to rush to drop them & there was a fair flap resulting as I have previously mentioned in the kite nearly stalling in. Poor Ken, he reckons he is to blame but I don’t think he has anything to worry about, out of the lot I think he did his job the best & the smartest. He was sick a lot on the long mining as well so he reported sick a couple of days afterwards to see what the M.O. could do.
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He was given some Anti-Air Sickness capsules, & tried them without effect, so the M.O. grounded him for a little while. Then they took Ken’s case up a little more & the Wing Comdr said he would have an interview with him. This was the position on the day we were going on leave Tuesday 12th, Mac also hadn’t done his second dicky trip. So Ken was hanging around all morning waiting for the Wing Co to say he would see him, & we were worried in case he wouldn’t catch the 3.51 London train with us. We left him waiting at the camp & told him to whizz down on his bike if there was a chance of catching the train, if not, to follow us down on the later train. On the road we got a lift to the railway station in an army lorry & had a cup of tea in the café next door. Waiting on the platform later, the [deleted] [indecipherable letters] [/deleted] train was almost due in, when Ken came dashing up. Everyone was overjoyed because we thought he had just made it, but he told us the Wing Comdr. had cancelled his leave and he had to remain behind to get 15 hrs Fighter Affiliation in, to see how often he was sick & then go before a Medical Board. My God! as if anyone wouldn’t feel lousy after 15 hrs. Fighter Affil. Also with the weather as it had been, a stinking yellow fog, there didn’t
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appear to be much chance of flying. It was a hell of a twist all the way round, and poor Ken was on the receiving end. There was nothing to be done, however, so off we had to go without him. I felt pretty rotten though seeing him standing there watching us go on leave, & having to ride back & spend a week by himself.
As I said previously I had a fine time, the days flew swiftly as they always do, & the last day arrived. I had arranged with Johnny to meet at 5.30 in Liverpool St to catch the 5.40 P.M. However he arrived up from Bristol early & came over to my place, so we travelled up together, & met Jack on the station. The train was very crowded & we had to bunk in the luggage room, at the first stop, Bishops Stortford, lots of people got out & we got a seat easily. At Cambridge there was about a 20 minute wait so the three of us got out for a cup of tea. A porter told us it wouldn’t be going for a while yet & we had plenty of time. We were only in the canteen for about 3 minutes and as we emerged, saw the train about a quarter of the way along the platform. I broke into a sprint with Jack about 10 yds behind and Johnny 10 yds behind him. Down the platform we raced, porters shouted out “Clear the Way”, and people skipped
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nimbly aside, luckily the platform was fairly empty. Some people shouted encouragement, other shouted “You’ll never make it”, but unheedingly we pounded quickly on.
One American soldier told us it was just like the races, first I flashed past, and he turned to watch me when Jack whizzed by. As he swivelled his head to watch him Johnny shot past, so he ran after us to see the result. Down the whole length of Cambridge platform we raced & closed the distance to about two yards, I had already selected the door I was jumping for, when we reached the blacked out part of the platform. There were no lights at all & it was as dark as the pit, I tried to maintain speed but cracked against a pillar and spun around like a top. So the chase was abandoned & we stood watching the tail light disappear into the darkness. We were in rather a fix as all our kit was on the train, none of us had hats & Johnny had no belt either. After hunting around & getting wrong directions from a few people, we contacted a porter, and old sweat from the last war, who was very helpful & took us to a fellow, who sent off a wire to the different stations telling them to take our kit off the train & send it to Downham. That done, with certain misgivings as to whether it would work out we went over to the A.T.O.
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Here we phoned the camp and told them we would be arriving late & fixed things up. That done we adjourned to a nearby pub & treated our helpful porter to a few. After that it degenerated into a regular crawl, hatless & hands in pockets we rolled round Cambridge. Greatly warmed by the beverage, we didn’t notice the hardness of the bunks, & I didn’t suffer as I did on the previous occasion I slept at Cambridge ATO. We travelled on to Downham on the 8.13 AM. next day & arrived about 9.15. As I feared they hadn’t any of our kit there, so I thought “Goodbye to that”. It rather shook the S.P’s in the guard room when we rolled up with no hats or anything, they didn’t say anything, though, I shudder to think what would have happened at a training unit under similar circumstances. Within an hour of arriving back we were flying on an air test, maybe they thought we would forget how.
We haven’t done much since arriving back, the weather has been pretty rough. The situation regarding Ken appears pretty obscure, he didn’t get much flying in as he predicted, now he is just hanging about to see what the score is. I hope they wont [sic] take him out of the crew he is such a decent chap. Its growing late & the other guys are binding for the lights out, so I guess I’ll put more next time.
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[underlined] Thursday 28th October [/underlined]
The weather still remains duff, after days of rain, it has changed into pretty thick fog every day. The last time we flew was over a week ago when we did a loaded climb in “D”, we now have I for Ink, instead of D. For the time being Ken is out of the crew, we are all praying it wont [sic] be for long although we have another decent chap in his place, Les Gray another Canadian. The whole situation is pretty vague, Ken himself feels he would rather not go on in case he should be sick one time & we wandered into a flak area whilst he was sick. As for us, we would put implicit faith in him whatever happened, & I just hate to lose him. So nobody knows what is going to happen, we’re just keeping our fingers crossed.
To keep ourselves amused now quite a bit of our time is spent in seeing films, I have seen a couple of decent ones on the camp recently. The other day they had the power off all day, no electric light, wireless or anything, I certainly think they ought to get there [sic] fingers out with the lighting in the ante room, it is very dim. Last night seeking amusement further afield, Mac, Jack, Don, Johnny & myself went in the liberty bus to Kings Lynn. We had a good meal when we arrived there, & then saw a decent show, coming out from there, Jack, Johnny & myself
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went into a dance, while Mac & Don went to the Duke’s Head for a meal. I think they had the best of the deal, because the dance was pretty corny, & then when it finished at 10 P.M. we were tramping all over the town trying to find a place with something to eat without success, it was pretty grim.
We got back to the bus O.K. & off we went, by this time a thick mist had rolled in, add to this the fact that our driver had a fair number of drinks under his belt, & we went weaving all over the road. It wasn’t long before we went into the ditch, & a fellow raised a laugh by asking “Does this count as an op?” We lifted the thing out of the ditch, then he found he had taken the wrong turning so back we had to go. It took us 1 1/2 hours to travel a 25 minute journey, we heaved a sigh of relief when we arrived back here. It would be that night too that they had an ENSA show at the camp and who should be in it but Pat Kirkwood, I would have liked to have seen it. Our next leave is due on the 24th November & I have written to Mary & told her to book some shows up. It is rather a long chance, that we will be there on time, even providing all goes well. Still I think it is worth trying. Ah! well I’m tired we didn’t get much sleep last night so I’ll turn in.
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[underlined] Monday November 1st. [/underlined]
Friday was just one of those uneventful days, though the mist seemed to have lifted a bit, a few very keen types were speaking eagerly of the prospects of flying, but the main horde, including all of our crew, nearly, retired to the mess early & buried theirselves [sic] in the newspapers, springing up eagerly to get in the dinner queue. That evening we went into town to see an Abbot & Costello film, it wasn’t bad, with a simple meal of fish & chips, we wandered back, what an uneventful life this is. Saturday was no better, but we really put some work in on the kite harmonising all the guns. We made quite a job of it, having Bill & Jack run backwards & forwards with the harmonisation board. The only thing that marred it was the fact that both Johnny & myself broke our lateral levelling screws on the reflector sights, necessitating harmonising them over again. We have been informed that it is nigh on impossible to get any small nuts & bolts of that type, so we are waiting for them, meanwhile the kite is unable to go on ops without the two reflector sights harmonised. So a kite has to stay back because of two nuts & bolts. Just a classic example of the important part played by the small cogs in the big wheel.
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Yesterday the weather seemed to be better, but there was nothing doing in the morning so we put in quite a bit of work on the kite. In the afternoon though there was a sudden flap, to get as many aircraft airborne as possible, so off we went for our air test. We have a new kite now I Ink instead of D Dog that we used to have, yesterday was the first time we had flown in it. She seemed a pretty decent kite, if we can do a loaded climb on it, & see how much height we can get out of it, it will be O.K. In the evening I just remained in the mess & went over to the hut early, I just seem to be in a state of lethargy here, with no inclination to do anything. We tried to get the fire going in the hut, these stoves are grim things at times. All the time we are chopping fences down & scrounging wood & ‘borrowing’ coal from out of the dump opposite. Most times that we light it, huge clouds of smoke belch out in every direction and there is a frantic rush for the doors to breathe some fresh air in. Last night was an exception though, the fire lit right away, & it gradually warmed up until it was giving out a heat like a blast furnace. It isn’t very often that we get it to go like that though, still I am nearest to it, I had that in view when I chose my bed.
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Today we had quite an interesting time, the morning we spent going round the bomb dumps. Practically all the bomb aimers went out, and at the dump we saw how the carriers are fixed on, & then at the firing point how they are flared. It was quite a sight in the dump to see all the rows of bombs laid out in their rows behind the blast walls. The corporal who was giving us the gen set a 4 lb incendiary off for us to show us how they went, boy they certainly burn, they seem better than the ones the Jerries dropped on London in the blitzes. We handled all the equipment & all of it was quite different from the stuff we had been taught throughout training all that was obsolete a good while before. Finally we went out to the kites to watch them bomb up & then try the various ways of releasing hang ups, it was quite a useful morning.
This afternoon we flew again, to level the bomb sight, & then to continue to Goodestone for a bombing exercise. It went off pretty well, but I don’t know how they are going to figure out where bombs are where, because we didn’t have 3073’s and didn’t inform the range as we dropped each one. As there were at least four kites bombing, they seemed to be showering down. Most certainly there will be some news in the morning.
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[underlined] Thursday 4th November. [/underlined]
There has been some flying recently but not a lot we have been up on a couple of air tests but on the whole the weather is still rather grim. We have been putting in quite a bit of work on the kite, Johnny, Don & myself have had our guns out & cleaned them. They were in a hell of a mess as they were packed with grease, then somebody borrowed our kite & the dope of a bomb aimer fired my guns, mucking things up well & truly. We have got them back again now. Tuesday afternoon they gave us a stand down, its funny no sooner do they say stand down & the fellows have started trekking into the different towns, when the old sun comes out & things are fine again, I bet they gnash their teeth.
All of us except Mac caught the 2.3 P.M. into Cambridge, had a look round, & a decent tea then booked our beds in the W.V.S. Afterwards we saw a show, then diving into a pub for a drink we landed in a flight passing out party. They had just finished their exams at Cambridge I.T.W. & were celebrating, when we entered somebody said “Here’s the gen boys”, at which I nearly fell over. Still they plied us with free beer so that was bang on, they also asked quite a bit about their future training & ‘ops’. Maybe quite a few lines were shot, but we had enough shot at us
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during our training so it was our turn. They all had bright blue uniforms, ‘bully’ white belts, close cropped hair, a general sprog appearance altogether. I shudder to think I was like that once, though not to such a degree, but I was & so must everybody who goes in for aircrew, we didn’t notice anything strange then. They had various toasts & I’m afraid I smiled a little cynically when one chap said “Goodbye to all exams and binding”. Still we had a good time, followed by a meal in a nearby café & then to bed. We rose at 7 AM. & went round to another W.V.S. place for our breakfast, then from there to the station to catch the famous 8.13 AM. to Downham.
They were taking a squadron photograph, & naturally Jack & I had to roll up late and miss being in it – such is life. Last night they had an ENSA show to which we went and surprisingly enough it was quite good, we almost got in without paying, but not quite, it would have helped our financial status quite a bit. Today we had to take the Flight Commander’s kite up an [sic] Air Test it, a doubtful priviledge. [sic] The bind was it was 12 midday when they rang the mess and told us & we were already in the dinner queue, so out we had to go & tramp back to the flights. We came down fairly late so didn’t go back again, but phoned into town & booked our seats for the cinema it was a good film, though I’d seen it before.
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[underlined] Sunday November 7th [/underlined]
Friday was quite a busy day, in the morning there was a smashing lecture by a Dutch F/O who had been shot down in a Lanc. & had got back from Holland. We had been listening to him for about 10 mins & lapping every word, when they came in and dragged us up for flights affil. typical RAF. The bind was there were two crews in the same kite, ourself [sic] & Bennett. We stooged around for over an hour but the fighter didn’t show up, so back we had to go, I was pretty cheesed about missing that lecture though. They put us up again in the afternoon, & after a bit of stooging around, boy! that fighter could fly. I sat in the Wops seat all the time, listening to “Music While You Work” poor old Bennets Engineer was sick, he must be quite a lot because he had a paper bag ready with him. I felt a bit grim once or twice, because they were really throwing the kite around. I am O.K. if I can see out to see whats [sic] doing, but if I am in the middle of the kite unable to look out then its rough.
Ken has gone on leave at last, this was the one he missed when we went, he has gone to Iver, Bucks & to London. I have told him to pop in at my house I hope he does. Meanwhile he has let me ride his bike which comes in very handy at this blasted place. Friday
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night it was given out on the radio that F/Sgt Aaron who used to be with 218 had been posthumously awarded the V.C. The citation said his courage had never been surpassed, & by jiminy they were right. In absolute agony & with severest wounds he had diverted the kite on from Turin to N. Africa, where he died 9 hours after, it was a marvellous show! The air bomber who flew it & landed it, belly landing, with 4,000 lb still on received the C.G.M. & most of the crew the D.F.M. They arrived back from Gibralter not long ago, with tins of sugar & heavens knows what else besides.
All our trips recently have been in other kites ours was U/S, when we came down from a flip they found the tail plane was only secured with about 3 nuts & bolts, we nearly had it that time. Yesterday it was put serviceable again & we had to take her up for a couple of hours. It had rained cats & dogs in the morning so there was a stand down & we were the only joe’s flying, & Saturday afternoon too. We were caught in some hellish storms but dodged them, then found parts with clean weather, & played tag with the cloud tops it was good fun. I broke a bigué and then we couldn’t get the undercart down, so poor old Jack & Bill had to set to & wind it down. We all held our breaths when we came in but it didn’t collapse & we were O.K.
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The Wing Cmdr was attacked by a JU88 on a gardening trip to the Baltic the other night, & they claimed it shot down. Who is to dispute them, I bet they went nowhere near the thing, as everyone else thinks & its popular talk that the Wing Cmdr. may get a gong for it whether its true or not I don’t know. There is something funny going on Stirlings haven’t operated against a land target for a month now, & there are all sorts of rumours going around. We are going on Coastal Command, are going out East, are converting onto Lancs, are towing gliders, are only going to do mining trips, these are but a few of the speculations floating around, there certainly seems to be something in the air. The most obvious solution I think is they are waiting until a .5 mid under gun is fitted, we also have to operate this, quite a few jobs we have now.
It has been bitterly cold all day today, whilst harmonising my front guns I gashed two fingers & I didn’t feel it, nor did it start to bleed for a good while, my fingers were so frozen, it’s a real touch of winter. There are two fires in our huge ante room & that is the only method of heating the place. Consequently there is a circle of fellows packed tightly around it, & another circle around them waiting for someone to vacate a chair at which there is a mad rush. The rest of the fellows just have to hover around hoping to catch a glimpse of the fire or of moving into the outer circle.
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[underlined] Thursday 11th November. [/underlined]
The cold weather continues, it takes ones breath away just walking down to the flight, I am glad there are no ‘ops’ on from this station nowadays. I wonder what is happening, it certainly is funny, Stirlings off ‘ops’ all this time, must be something behind it all. The rumours are flying as thick as ever, but nobody has any definite ‘gen’ at the moment. We will find out in due course I daresay. Yesterday we went on rather an interesting trip, an Eric, which is a daylight bullseye. Naturally the only defences we had to combat were fighters, & we didn’t have any engagements, so everything went smoothly. Our route took us across London three times, & pin pointing became very interesting, as I found the various places I know. The balloons were quite a sight, flying at their operational height, there seemed literally hundreds of them. Old Father Thames looked grand in the sun with the boats chugging slowly up & down, there was a fair amount of shipping off Tilbury & Grays & a convoy at Southend. At Chatham there were a fair amount of naval vessels, but nothing like peace-time. We followed the Thames up to attack our target Tower Bridge, there was a certain amount of difficulty in finding this owing to cloud that had rolled across. We eventually made it though.
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Being used to stooging along by ourselves at night it was a novel experience for us to see about another hundred bombers all around, on the same course & height. It was rather tricky at turning points, some kites E.T.A’s would be due slightly before one’s own & they would turn & come cutting across, diving underneath, or lifting above, there must be some close shaves at night, which the darkness hides. When we returned to base the weather had changed down so we had to stooge around for a bit, but we landed quite safely.
Our leave is due on the 24th, and we are beginning to make our arrangements, praying to the Lord, that nothing crops up & we lose it. I had a letter from Bill today, saying that old Bob Blackburn, who was in our room at I.T.W. had got the chop on his 13th over the Ruhr. He always maintained there was nothing in superstition & insisted on third lights, I guess it was just Fate that it should be his 13th, I hope he managed to bale out safely. We lost a crew the other night on a long mining off the Spanish border, Johnston was flying with them as rear gunner, it was his first trip. He was in Carr’s crew that is the second one gone, these mining trips certainly don’t seem to be such a stooge nowadays.
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[underlined] Sunday 14th November. [/underlined]
What a hum drum life this is, & a cold one. Rush for breakfast, fight to get a wash basin then trudge down to the flights. Knock around in the Bombing Office for a while to see the score then out to the kite for a D.I. It’s a hellish cold job polishing the perspex on the first turret, especially the outside I have to mount a rickety iron ladder, & perched up there 25 ft in the air polish away vigorously with frozen hands, each movement causing the ladder to sway. We generally continue to get back to the flights at 11.15 AM. in time for the NAAFI van. Then back to the mess, with more chances than one of being called back for an air test, just as we are about to go into dinner. The afternoon’s procedure is very similar, if we aren’t flying, it is link or Gee, Astro or something, until we scuttle back to tea. Over to the billet, then, to coax a fire into the stove & all huddle round it. Gangs of fellows scour the immediate vicinity of the huts for wood, posts are pulled up & everything of an inflammable nature seized upon. There is a huge coke dump opposite & every evening sees a dozen fellows or more filling buckets & other articles. These stoves are quite our pride & we take an experts delight in raising a large fire in a short while.
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If we aren’t writing letters we are listening to records on a gramophone that Bill managed to ‘borrow’ from the W/T section, I wish we had a wireless here, though. Sometimes we attend an ENSA show, the one this week wasn’t so bad. Friday afternoon we had a stand down so Jack, Johnny & myself bowled into Cambridge again, following the routine of our previous visit, but not having the luck to fall into any flight parties again. So far this month we have gone in quite a few flying hours the weather has been lousy on quite a few trips. Last night we were stooging round in a rain storm trying to find a bombing target before we were recalled, Saturday night, too. The other day Mac, Johnny Don & myself went up with Wiseman’s crew for Air to Air firing over the Wash. After landing & unloading the blasted ammo. when it came to my turn the Martinet ran out of fuel & had to return.
The other day on our Air Test, Mac feathered the starboard outer to test it, but couldn’t unfeather it. After a few unsuccessful attempts we gave up & landed with it feathered, & got down O.K. too. If it isn’t the undercart refusing to come down, its something else. Still old I Item is quite a good kite now, & we can get a fair turn of speed from it.
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[underlined] Thursday November 18th [/underlined]
Quite a lot of things have happened in the few short days since I made my last entry. First like a bolt from the blue came the news that the squadron was being disbanded. It was quite a shock we are supposed to be moving to Chedburgh shortly & there given individual postings. Everyone is thoroughly cheesed about it, we were just getting settled in here too, all the top bags, Bombing, Nav & Gunnery Leaders are fine fellows, one couldn’t wish for a better bunch, I guess that’s typical of the RAF when one gets a piece of cake, they aren’t allowed to eat it. 214 squadron which is at Chedburgh is coming here in our place & we are gradually breaking up. They say we are converting to Lancs & if so it may be time that Stirlings are gradually dieing [sic] out of Bomber Command & the Lancs taking their place. If we are moving in a few days, as the tale says, then it will mess our leave up, after all our arranging, its driving me nuts, we never get a leave that works out smartly. Johnnie Smythe a Nav. from Sierra Leone has had a letter from the people there saying they want to adopt 623 Sqdn. & have collected 100 to £150,000 for our benefit – phew! that’s over £250 per head ground & air crew, of course it would be used for the betterment of the squadron, building a wizard crew room, & various other things.
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The Wing Cmdr. has been up to Group to raise Cain, I don’t know if he has had any satisfication, but I & everyone else hope we stay here together. Monday night we had our Sqdn party, strictly bachelor, the air crew paid for it all, & invited the ground crew to show their appreciation for their maintenance of the kites. There was lots of beer & everyone was happy especially old Mac he was well under, a gang of them started down the mess before the party, then rang Downham for a taxi to take them to the party 200 yds away. There was a championship table tennis match between a couple of top notches in peace-time & then the winner issued a challenge. Ginger Morris who used to play for England, had been waiting for this to just bowl out & beat him. The only fault was Ginger had been imbibing heavily & consequently could hardly see the ball, so lost easily. At 10.30 P.M. it broke up and Mac got in at 5 AM. he had wandered over to the mess to shoot the bull & fell asleep there.
Poor Johnnie has been feeling grim and was very bad the other day & went sick, & they chopped him in dock with flu. Jack was also feeling bad but has recovered, but Don is in bed very queer & I feel it myself, what a crew, but this place is enough to give people all the illnesses under the sun.
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Tuesday night, six Canadians came & gave a concert show, they were a travelling party all [indecipherable word] & they put up quite a performance too. Last night there was an ENSA show which I thought rather good, so we haven’t done too bad for entertainment. Today held a big shock for quite a few people, Group came through to say there was a big do, & 218 & 623 were on the main effort. All crews available were put on, & after 6 weeks they thought it was a laugh & a joke, but realised it was true. Mac was due to go on a second dickie with Sqdn/Ldr. Overton, but it was scrubbed at the last minute as Overton’s Navigator was sick. Petch has gone with Flt/Lt. Willis, & Macgillvray with Flt/Lt. Nesbitt, I hope the morning saw them all back safe & sound. Apparently we are still an operational squadron, but for how long is the question. There is also a fair amount of mining & a new crew is taking our kite, so Don & I were out there this afternoon checking on the turrets.
The other afternoon we had a wizard lecture from a Lieutenant in the Navy. He had quite a few experiences to recount he had been on the Greton in the Graf Spee battle & in the U-Boat War, & seen quite a bit of excitement in the Med., he was very interesting to listen too. [sic] His story showed both sides of the picture too, we weren’t always winning. He said a good word for mining, the results of which were definitely assessed as 1 ship sunk every 11 mins which is good going.
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[underlined] Sunday November 21st. [/underlined]
The squadron definitely is disbanded, though in the meantime it is fully operational. The Wing Co. leaves on Dec 6th to some O.T.U. I believe. Sqdn/Ldr Smith adding his D.F.C. to his D.F.M. is going to an O.T.U. also, - as a flight commander, he has both his tours completed now. The Navigator Leader has already gone, & the Wing Co. has been asking crews what squadrons they would like to be posted to, but nothing is promised. Anyway it appears we are remaining in 3 Group & not going onto Lancs, so that is one theory squashed. Right now we are just praying that nothing will crop up to cheat us of our leave, there are only two days to go. We have arranged to get on the 11 AM pay parade Tuesday & hope to catch the 11.48 AM London train.
Three kites were lost from here on Thursday’s trip to Ludwigshaven – one from 218, & two from 623. Poor old Ray Bennett was one, Johnny Smythe was his Nav. I only hope they baled out, F/Lt Wallis was the other & Petch was with him on a second dicky. That leaves only Macgillvray & us with complete crews from Hixon. P/O Ralph & F/Lt Nesbitt turned back with engine trouble, so it wasn’t too good for 623. It was even grimmer on Friday night, they were going to Leverhulme or something a small place just north of Cologne, & a pretty easy trip it turned out.
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623 only managed to get two kites off the deck, & there was hell to pay, there was quite a bit of finger trouble, though. They said Group sent through the bomb load too late, but then it was the armament officers first experience of bombing up for ‘ops’. Bombs were being sent out to kites that were U/S with engine trouble when others were standing there with engines running merely waiting for bombs, consequently most of them never got off in time. They told one chap to take off 5 mins after time & catch the force up, he told them what to do. Another just got off & set course over the runway in his take off. Wiseman was waiting for one more 1,000 lb H.E. when the Armament Officer said that’s O.K. take off without it, this made the C. of G somewhere in the region of the rear turret – Wiseman’s reply was rather flowery. So poor old Mac didn’t get off again & still has to get his second dicky in. All the kites got back safely but were diverted owing to local fog, one of 218’s was pretty shot up by flak, and pranged at Chedburgh. The kites that were on mining also returned safely. Nesbitt has been told that his tour is completed now, so they are screening him after 24 trips, still that’s enough for anyone, and if I had that number under my belt I would feel very contented.
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Johnny seems a lot better now, we have popped in to see him each day, & he is having a regular rest cure, he intends trying to come out tomorrow as he doesn’t want to miss his leave – nor do any of us – keen types. Ken & I went to the camp cinema the other night, quite a good show but the place is like an ice box. There is a real fiasco here, the water supply is being cut right down, apparently the camps normal consumption is 52,000 gals a day, & the water company will only supply 10,000 gals daily, until their reservoir rises. Consequently all water on the sites is cut off & we cant [sic] have any baths or showers, & now we have been informed we are not supposed to wash or shave in the mess ablutions. This means not washing or showering day in, day out, I wonder what the M.O. thinks of it! There are a couple of water carts that come round the sites & people fill up old cans etc. Even of we hand round all cans we are never on the sites, our whole day is spent down the flights or in the mess. The whole situation is preposterous and it’s a pretty poor show for an RAF camp.
I went into town last night, for the first time for over a week, it was a real pea souper of a night & we muffled right up. The film was quite a decent one, & a drink after made a little break out of the monotony.
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[underlined] Wednesday December 1st. [/underlined]
Another fair interval since I last made an entry, & for the old reason that I have been on leave, we arrived back last night. After all the sweating & heartbreaking we eventually got away on Tuesday, & we did sweat as I will account. On the Sunday, before going on leave, when I last made an entry there had been rumours of something big coming off the following day, as all Ground Crew N.C.O’s had been ordered to have their kites in really tip top condition. Monday dawned a thick misty day, visibility wasn’t more than 50 yds, Jack & I danced for joy as Mac couldn’t possibly do a second dicky that night & we would definitely go on leave on Tuesday, what a fine world it was. Down at the flights a rude shock was awaiting us there was ‘ops’ on that night & Mac was going as second dicky to Sqdn/Ldr. Overton. Everyone thought it must be a farce, it was bound to be scrubbed, the Met reckoned it would clear though. However out we went to the kite & gave it a thorough D.I. because Sgt Ralph was taking it. Gradually the weather cleared, and gradually our hopes sunk, because if Mac got his trip in we would be definitely on “ops” the following night instead of on leave. Every few moments we would gaze at the cloud formations & the fast disappearing mist & try to cheer each other up, although we all felt we had had it.
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We had found out all tanks were to be filled that meant Berlin or Italy & it all pointed to The Big City. Briefing was at 2.30 P.M. & off they went & I went out to the kite again, Johnny was still in dock as his guns had to be checked but Johnny Hyde the Gunnery Leader was out there to do them. At this time the sky clouded over really black, & everyone was certain the Met had boobed. When large drops of rain fell I could have danced for joy, but as though the Met had exercised a superhuman influence the skies miraculously cleared as take off time grew near. The crew came out to I Item & I spoke to the Air Bomber for a bit & happened to see the Nav’s charts, & Berlin it was. I wondered whether Mac was twittering inside, Overton was taking Les Gray, our Nav. who had only done a Nickel before. What a task without even having done a Mining to navigate to Berlin & back. When the actual take off started the weather wasn’t too good but they went, they scrambled at 5 P.M. & set course 5.30 P.M. with our best wishes. During the evening five kites returned early but old Mac wasn’t amongst them, they were mainly 218’s kites too. So off we went to bed, hoping to hear old Mac come banging in at about 2 AM he did. It had been a fairly quiet trip he said, cloud cover all the way, & no fighter sightings. Les’s navigation had been bang on & he was personally congratulated by the Groupie.
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There had been a lot of reporters and photographers there & someone said a B.B.C. chap, lots of lines were shot anyway, we listened to all the story & then sank back asleep. When the morning came it seemed as though our luck was really out, it was clear as a bell. Jack & I grabbed two bikes & dashed down to the Flights to see whether we were on or not. What an anxious half hour that was, the Wing Co. rang for P/O Ralph who was acting Flt/Comdr. then & he came out with lots of papers etc. our hearts sank, but then he said “Nothing on, only mining” we could hardly believe our ears. Back we tore & dressed up for pay parade & a speedy get away. We reckoned without Pay Accounts, with their typical efficiency they paid us at 11.45 AM instead of 11 A.M as it was supposed to be. So we missed the 11.47 train, still nothing mattered then we were off & going home. Scorning the RAF food we had a dinner in Sly’s Café then a drink & homeward bound.
I had a fine leave although the weather wasn’t so hot, that night (Tuesday) it was Berlin dunno if any Stirlings went but we didn’t send any at all. During the leave I saw quite a few shows, among them the new film “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, also read the book, both very good. We arrived back O.K. without any incidents we only stopped 5 mins at Cambridge so couldn’t recreate our previous escapade.
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Johnny was looking very seedy going home, as he had only come out of the dock that day, he wangled round the M.O. He came back looking fit though, we all seemed to have reduced our colds. Ken had been down to Pastow for his Medical Board, & has been taken off flying. So we have definitely lost him, it is goodbye to a fine Navigator & one of the finest fellows it has ever been my priviledge [sic] to meet. We are lucky to have an equally good chap to fill his place they are much alike in many ways. Old Jack Yardley the W/Op who is in our hut & also suffered with air sickness went down with Ken & he is also off of flying.
This morning we did the inevitable Air Test, it always happens the day one returns from leave. I Item is still here, someone buckled a wing tip whilst we were away, there are only four kites left now, they have ferried all the others away. So we should be leaving in a few days, but where to nobody knows yet, rumours are flying as thick as ever. One thing that is definite 214 Sqdn are arriving here on Monday so we will have to leave by then. It is so cold as anything today, there was a frost like snow this morning. If this weather continues & gets worse during the winter I would welcome a posting to Italy or somewhere warm. Talking of warmth, I think I’ll turn in, bed is the best place to warm anyone up.
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[underlined] [missing words] December. [/underlined]
The cat is out of the bag, & there were a few surprises in the bag too, the gen has been dished out as to where we are all going. We all leave tomorrow on the 2 P.M. train, except for those who were due for leave & they went today, (our luck was in we were the last ones to get away, all leave was cancelled after we went). The Wing Co. went a few days ago to 90 Sqdn at Tuddenham, & P/O Ralph, Macgillvray & somebody else are going as well. After all this time then we are parted from Mac, it’s a pity, we two crews have been together a fair while, we are the only ones from Hixon now. By the by. Macgillvray appeared in the newspapers, there was a large photograph of old Wiseman & crew being interrogated upon their return from Berlin, & Macgillvray was in as second pilot quite celebrities now. That B.B.C. chap was here he gave a hell of a ‘bully’ story after the 1 P.M. news the following day.
To resume we and about six other crews are off to Waterbeach to convert onto Lanc IIs. As they have Hercules engines, we wont have Jack, as he won’t have to take another course. Four or so of the crews have gone on leave, today as they are due for it & they arrive there a week after us. It came as quite a surprise we all thought we were set on Stirlings, it will be quite a
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bind, circuits & bumps & screened cross countries all over again, oh hell! There is a squadron there as well 514, I wouldn’t mind being put on that, pray to the Lord we are. Four chaps are being transferred to 218 Sqdn. Overton & Wiseman are amongst them, they say Overton will have to revert to F/O. Nickie Nesbitt went back to P/O & Vickers the Engineering Leader did also, daresay they will have ‘em back again soon though. Some of the postings were to 199 & 149 Sqdns I believe. Last night we were put on the main effort, right in the middle of getting cleared from here, quite a flap. It was only 2, 4 & 6 tanks and 8 x 1,000 lbs & 6, x 5,000 lbs, as it must have been to these rocket gun emplacements they are building to shell London. It was scrubbed though, the minings went & poor old P/O Puch got the chop, his B/A Sutherland was a good guy, they were only an a short mining, too, quite shaking.
The latest Berlin raid where they lost 41 two war correspondents are missing, one got back though, gee! if they were paying that reporter £200 for going on a mining trip, heavens knows what those boys were raking in. One thing is sure from the way the Lancs are operating nearly every night whatever the weather, our tour will be over pretty soon one way or the other. We were paid today & finally cleared from here, last night we went into town to the dance & to the Crown for a farewell ‘do’ before we said goodbye to the hallowed precincts of Downham.
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[underlined] Thursday December 9th. [/underlined]
This entry is being made at Waterbeach, another new station this is my eighteenth station since I have been in the RAF, like Crosby & Hope I certainly get around. We left Downham Monday dinner time, and in the rush I missed saying cheerio to Ken, and was sorry but I have written to him. As usual when they tell you transport will be waiting, there was none, so we walked it was about 15 mins to the billet. The tales of the billets etc. being good inside the camp are quite true, the only snag being we aren’t in the camp. Our quarters are in the inevitable huts “Con Sight” as we call it though it is listed as Conversion Site. The Con Unit (1678) is almost entirely separate from the squadron we have our own mess about 5 mins walk from the hut. The food is good, better than at Downham, but the mess is bare, empty & cold. Not being many crews here either, it is generally isolated, & not very cheering. The squadron have a smashing mess in the camp, with living quarters above, very handy, wish we were in it.
I think the most shaking thing is that breakfast finishes at 7.45 A.M. right on the dot, so we have to be up really early. Then breakfast over we wash & are supposed to be at the flights at 8.15 A.M. It is a 25 min walk too, so we have to start out in time. There is [underlined] P.T [/underlined] 8.15 till 8.30 AM. then lectures.
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The walking is rather a bind as we didn’t expect it here, poor Mac is looking somewhat slimmer, as he lost his bike at a [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] wild party, before leaving Downham. Tuesday was occupied with filling in the arrival chits as usual, then yesterday & today we have had ground lectures, weather permitting we may commence our circuits & bumps tomorrow. There was nothing new in the ground work, the bombing side of the Lanc. is simpler than the Stirling. We carry cookies on there now, there is no second pilot, so I have lost my comfortable seat. This is compensated by the much better bombing compartment, there is a fine huge vision panel in the nose, no more straining one’s neck to get a line on the target. One also enters the turret from the bombing compartment, so there is no chance of being locked in the turret. The performance of these aircraft are pretty good, especially speed & climbing power.
Tuesday afternoon we went into Cambridge, there is a pretty decent bus service to & from there. In the village there isn’t a lot of life but a couple of decent pubs do a good trade. I have just heard from Bill Taylor, & he tells me poor old Jack is missing now, he was on the same squadron as old Bob Blackburn who is now reported killed. Its pretty grim to hear of the old pals getting the chop, wonder if I’ll be alive at the end.
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[underlined] Monday 13th December. [/underlined]
The weather at this place is as bad as at Downham, I didn’t think there could be another place as bad. Mac’s day circuits & bumps are now complete & we are ready for a day cross country which finishes the day flying & then on to night c & b’s. I rather like the lay out of this station, it is very neat and compact, of course that is because it was a peace time station. I wish we were billeted in the camp although I understand the food in the permanent mess isn’t as good as in ours. On Friday the Duke of Gloucester came down to inspect the camp, we knew a full 24 hrs before who it was, the old grape-vine certainly defeats security. On the Thursday morning the Bombing Leader asked us who it was as he wasn’t able to find out. Our six crews were joined for a cheering party we had to line up opposite a line of WAAF’s at the gate & cheer when he left. I haven’t been on P.T. yet I have a hard enough job to get up in the mornings. Mac has managed to scrounge an official bike now, that is one thing he moves fast for. Every Wednesday they have a C.O’s parade and march past, there is a fair amount of bull here considering they have an operational squadron, I guess it is because they have the Con Unit still, yes, the more I think of it, the more easier 623 appears.
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[underlined] Tuesday December 21st. [/underlined]
We are now back on an operational squadron again, 115 Sqdn at Witchford near Ely. Our course finished here last [inserted] Sunday [/inserted] night and yesterday & this morning we were completing our clearance chits. It wasn’t such a bad place, & the work was pretty easy, the ground work was nothing new at all, except a new photo flash fuse. Our first flip was a day cross country at 23,000 ft, a really binding trip, 10/10ths all the way, just sit there and freeze about 25o below. Then after the night circuits and bumps, we were on a Bullseye, Sunday night. Or rather a Flashlight exercise, because the I.R. bombing is abandoned over London, & they have a target of three red lights to simulate T.Is, & at various distances of a couple of miles altogether were white lights flashing various Morse characters, so on the photograph, one could tell in theory how near the bombs would have landed. That trip was a cold one as well but we had a hot time with the defences, a solid belt of searchlights all the way round, & a hell of a cone sight over the target, we were picked up on our bombing run & they sure dazzled me. We rather preferred to remain at Waterbeach with 514 Squadron owing to the compactness of the station. They don’t operate such a lot, the other night they landed at Downham Market, practically all kites were diverted. It was a black night, & the Met boobed badly, all England almost was fog bound, & we have heard from reliable sources that 65 kites either crashed or had to be abandoned owing to weather. With the 30 kites lost that made 95 kites, the public will never know of that.
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The transport brought us by road from Waterbeach it is 13 miles & when we reached Witchford there was a howling gale & the rain was lashing down. Nobody knew where we were supposed to be billeted & we were driving around the place, dashing in & out of huts, until soaked to the skin, we eventually found one. Roger’s crew is in the hut with us, we are on 4 site & it is about two miles from the mess. I have seen some dispersed stations but this is the worst of them all, the mess is a 30 min walk from the flights as well, we certainly use Shanks Pony here, it is killing Mac he hasn’t done so much walking for ages. The usual thick mist is everywhere that is the trouble in East Anglia. Everything about the station & squadron seems to be grim, at one time it was a happy squadron & contented, but this station has got everyone down a lot; they have only been here 3 weeks. To give a typical example of the way the place is run, they moved here via Berlin. The crews were sent off to Berlin from this base & on return had to land here, what a fiasco that must have been, tramping round in the dark trying to find billets etc. Leave here is about every 12 weeks, its incredible, they don’t appear to worry whether you have any or not. There is no operational meal before ops, just tea & a couple of sandwiches & the rations are pretty small, & no coffee. No transport is organised to take us into Ely, & there are hardly ever stand downs, there appears to be a complete lack of interest in air crew, oh! well I’m too cheesed to write any more.
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[underlined] Monday 27th December. [/underlined]
Xmas is over now, & I’m none too sorry really, it wasn’t a lot to shout about. Now we are settled down a bit better, but its hard to shake off the feeling of being cheesed here, everyone is, the old chaps of 115 Sqdn, the fellows on 196 the sqdn that was here before, & ourselves the mix crews from 623. The Bombing & Engineering Sections are in the same room, the Bombing Leader is a decent chap, but I don’t see how you can get to know the other bomb aimers, they don’t make any advances or anything. We flew the second night we were here on another Flashlight exercise, & were getting around O.K. but as we were running in towards London for the target, all the searchlights began homing us away from London, so we realised there was an air raid in progress, & beetled back to base. There they told us over the W/T to continue with our exercise & we had to beetle up North & keep cracking around. The trip took us 6 1/2 hours & they didn’t give us any rations at all, I was absolutely frozen, & had an electric waistcoat on, but that didn’t keep my legs warm, I was glad when we landed. On Thursday night, Mac did his second dicky they have to do them on these kites as well, of all places it was Berlin again. Thats [sic] two second dickeys he has done there now, packing ‘em in alright. I think it is a terrible feeling waiting around for them to come back I would rather go myself, he returned O.K. there was one missing from here.
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On Xmas Eve afternoon Bill & I cycled the 26 mls to Waterbeach & back to collect the Xmas mail for about a dozen fellows, we could have used a truck coming back. That night we all went into Ely to the Lamb Hotel to commence the celebrations. What a night it was, & what a head I had next morning. On Xmas Day the officers mess invited us over in the morning then came over to our mess in the afternoon, it was more of a drunken brawl than anything else. Bags of broken bottles & glasses, it is grim like that, we were supposed to serve Xmas dinner to the airmen, but I felt too grim to go across. Our tea that night was really wizard, it was served buffet form, & there were sausage rolls, cakes, pastries, sandwiches, sardine on toast, spam & chopped egg, trifle & cream cake it was grand! There were two fights, because tempers were rather frayed after drinking. Afterwards we all tramped into town to have our Xmas Dinner for the crew, in the Lamb Hotel, it was pretty good, we were in bed pretty early that night. Boxing Day was very quiet, we had our turkey dinner at 7.30 P.M. it was well served, afterwards there was a dance in the mess. There wasn’t a single decoration in the mess for the Xmas just lovely & bare. Anyway that was the end of the festive season, & this morning we donned battle dress once more & got cracking on the same old grind.
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[underlined] Thursday 30th December. [/underlined]
We have made a start at the squadron now, they don’t waste a lot of time, last night we began ‘ops’ here with a trip to Berlin. The pre-briefing was at 1.30 P.M. & Les & I got cracking on the maps and charts before all the crews arrived at 3 P.M. for the main briefing. Our route was worked out to try to bluff Jerry in believing the attack was being carried out on Leipzig or Magdeburg. We went straight for those places and as Mossies opened the dummy attacks on both towns we suddenly turned north & headed for the “Great City”. Taking it on the whole it wasn’t a bad trip twenty kites lost when over 700 were sent.
The trouble with these early take offs is that we don’t get a meal before we take our kites away & start dicing. At the end of briefing there is a mad rush to grab a cup of tea and a couple of sandwiches at the back of the room; then down to the locker room to change. Out we lumber to the transports, & they take us to the waiting kites. Here we dump all our heavy kit & climb in to check all our equipment & run the kite prop to see everything is bang on. Then we shut her down, & climb out to complete our dressing, a few minutes for a smoke for those that need it, then 20 minutes before we are due to take off we climb aboard again & start up. As the time approaches we taxi out & take our place in the line, then one by one [missing words]
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Round & round we circle, then as the time for setting course arrives we make the last circuit and away we go. By this time we are at about 13,000 ft & generally by the time of crossing the English coast we are a little [deleted] of [/deleted] over 15,000 ft. I carry out all my Bombing checks & put the front guns on Fire, all ready for something, we begin our vigilance here, as the German fighters often operate right across the North Sea. At our turning point we are at our operational height of 20,000 ft, & we set course for the Dutch Coast. Approaching the coast the flak can always be seen coming up from Texel or other equally well defended spots. The cloud was 10/10ths awarding us a natural protection from the searchlights.
Every now & then along the south some place would start throwing up flak, if it came close we weaved but generally didn’t bother. Quite a few times a fighter would drop three flares, lighting up quite an area of sky, if they were too near for safety we corkscrewed quickly, with everybody searching the sky carefully. The searchlights would also shine on the clouds in large concentrations causing us to be silhouetted to any fighter above. Two markers were dropped on the route to guide us away from hot spots, we didn’t see the first, but the second at Leipzig was plainly visible. The dummy attacks had commenced & there were some red & green T.I’s & a few bombs, they were certainly throwing up some flak, we had to nip in between Magdeburg & Leipzig, it was very warm & we got away as soon as possible.
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Just after leaving Leipzig I had a momentary panic when three ME110’s came whizzing past us going the opposite direction to Leipzig, I guess they came haring back later when Berlin opened up. We were running into a head wind coming up to the target & I thought we were never getting there; the T.I’s were burning there, & the cookies exploding, & the flak was pouring up, although it wasn’t too heavy; but we never seemed to be getting any nearer. As we eventually approached I could see the glow of a large fire reflecting on the clouds. Then “Bomb Doors Open” – “Running Up”, “Left Left” “Steady” “Bombs Gone” “Bomb Doors Closed” & away we went. The return journey was much the same as the outward, but we found the W/Op had turned the inter-wing balance cock the wrong way & we had lost 200 galls. So we had the worry of whether we would be able to make it or not. We crossed the English coast O.K. and were trying to make base, when the fuel warning lights started to flicker meaning we were almost out. There we were at 400 ft to [sic] low to bale out & unable to use up petrol to climb, just expecting the motors to cut at any moment. Suddenly a drome appeared & we screamed in there without announcing or anything but we were down & that was the main thing. It was a P.F.F. place Warboys, we didn’t get the egg there & had to sleep in a chair in the mess, so it wasn’t so good, next morning we flew back to base, & had a badly needed sleep. There was one missing from here which wasn’t so bad, however that was our first major ‘op’ over.
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[underlined] Monday January 3rd [/underlined]
Well that’s another year gone and 1944 is here, I wonder if this year will see Germany out of it, somehow I doubt it, though I think she will be well on the way. Last Friday ‘ops’ were on, so we had visions of seeing the New Year in over the other side. Briefing was at 3 P.M. again and the target was Frankfurt, it was an attempt to fool the Jerries and make them think we were going to Berlin, somehow I don’t think it would have been successful, anyway just as briefing it was scrubbed and we didn’t cry over it. There was a New Year’s Dance on in the gym, so we went there and got pretty merry, eventually getting into bed around 4 A.M.
Getting up well the worse for wear in the morning we were shaken to find there were ops on again that night. Pre briefing was 1.30 P.M. but the main briefing wasn’t until 9 P.M. there being an operational meal before we took off. The target was once more Berlin, this time we were going in from the north with a dummy attack on Hamburg though I wasn’t so sure that that would fool them. Take off was at a quarter to one in the morning a hell of a while to wait up till. This time they sent the fighters out to meet us and the fun started right over the Dutch coast. The flak was as eager to greet us as ever.
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About 10 mins after we had crossed the Dutch coast I saw a burst of tracer go streaking across the sky then suddenly flames burst out on a Lanc & she slowly peeled over & went spiralling down through the clouds, then a few seconds later a huge glow shot up – poor devils. It couldn’t have been more that five minutes afterwards when Johnny the rear gunner screamed “Corkscrew Port”, I thought “here it comes” & gripped on. I guess whoever they are they all feel a bit of panic at such moments, I know the flesh on my back crawled as I kept anticipating the feeling of bullets ripping into my back. However we dodged him, it was a JU88 who came screaming down and fired a burst at us, he broke off the attack though. The flak in the target area was quite a bit heavier this time & it was really close, the return journey took us a fair bit longer as we were pushing against the wind. There were quite a lot of fighters lobbing down three flares at a time, it certainly is a hell of a feeling when one is battling along in the dark, & suddenly one is lit up as plain as daylight, & the feeling that every fighter in the sky is leering down at you is no fun. Mac generally swears and corkscrews viciously. We got back to base without mishap, shot the lines at interrogation then trotted off to another bacon & egg meal. There were 28 missing on that raid out of about 450 kites so it was heavier losses, none were missing from here which was good but 3 didn’t take off, and 3 turned back. ‘We got to bed at 10.30 A.M.
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At 2 P.M. we were awakened by the Tannoy blaring for all Navigators to report to the briefing room at 4 P.M. for pre-briefing. My God! there were ops on again & we were feeling nearly dead from lack of sleep already. It certainly set me back when going into briefing the target map showed Berlin again, gee! three times in five nights to the Great City it was pretty rough. Take off was at 12.20 P.M. because we were fighting to avoid the moon, even then it wasn’t set when we took off, but it had set before we reached the enemy coast. Things were pretty lively because there was a ninety mile an hour gale blowing and we had to go straight to Berlin, with no dummy attacks, & boy were they ready for us. For miles around the target it was like day with lanes of flares and kites whizzing around. It certainly was hectic over the target, I was expecting a fighter attack at any moment, & when the bombs had gone I got in the front turret & scared old Mac by flashing the guns backwards & forwards. Altogether we were in the thick of it for nearly 25 minutes it seemed like 25 years. I thought we would never get clear of there. It took us 2 1/2 hours [deleted] for [/deleted] to reach the target & 4 1/2 hours returning, because we were battling almost head on against the gale, it seemed an eternity before we reached the French coast. We reached base O.K. & tumbled in at 10.30 A.M. & boy! did we need the sleep, we lost one from here & I believe 27 on the whole effort.
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[underlined] Saturday 12th January [/underlined]
Its quite a while since I wrote here, but as usual I have been on leave in the meantime. There were no ops on the Tuesday after I last wrote, but on Wednesday there were. It was to Stettin & the route was all around Norway & the Baltic, then the stream suddenly headed south to Berlin, where Mossies started a dummy attack & the main force suddenly swung west to Stettin. The trip was terribly long 8 hr. 32 mins at the minimum & it was cutting it fairly fine with a full petrol load. At the last moment the route was lengthened by another three quarters of an hour, so that if we had made the trip we would have landed in the North Sea, consequently all Lanc IIs were scrubbed, the I’s & III’s went though & only lost 15 I wouldn’t have minded going. The next morning at two hours notice we were told we were on 7 days leave & had to rush around to get away that day.
We returned Thursday night, & got to bed about 1 A.M., then as it was the 4th day after the full moon, we were sure there would be no ops. Because 4 days before & 4 days after the full moon is the moon period & there are no ‘ops’. However Chopper Harris shot us up by putting ops on, after the morning air Test we dashed off for dinner then Les & I went back for 1.30 pre-briefing. The target was Brunswick, the place that the Forts went to a couple of days previously. They attacked aircraft factories about 20 miles from Brunswick, & we attacked the town.
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It was a real daylight take off, & when we were approaching the Dutch Coast it was quite light behind us, so I was expecting a head on attack. The weather was quite clear so the searchlights were active, there was quite a cone on Texel, & three large dummy fires as well, they must have quite a faith in the dimness of Air Bombers to bomb there. Our route took us quite close to Bremen, & there was a T.I. marker there cascading yellow. Later as we were getting close to the target we had to come really close to Hanover, & they were pretty active there. She had a hell of a lot of searchlights and if anyone strayed across the old flak would poop up. The attack started when we were a quarter of an hour from there, down went the T.I’s & up came the old flak. At briefing they said it would be pretty quiet, and that the Americans had destroyed 150 fighters for us – lovely it sounded. However there was quite a bit of flak and damned accurate, & more fighters milling around there us & other crews had seen before. I saw four kites go down in flames, [inserted] & burst [/inserted] on the ground, it was really grim. There was a lovely fire burning a huge thing with the green T.I’s in it, then a minute later our load went crashing down to help the conflaguration. The return journey wasn’t so bad there were numerous red flares dropped that burnt for a very short [deleted] [indecipherable letters] [/deleted] while, not like the usual fighter flares. We landed at 10.20 A.M. came butting back to beat the moon rise, we lost Blackwell & Christianson two senior crews, which was pretty grim, 38 [missing words], it certainly was no easy raid.
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[underlined] Tuesday January 18th. [/underlined]
The weather certainly is grim, we haven’t flown since Friday, there has been a thick fog, and these last two days it has rained, but tomorrow promises to be clear so I guess there will be ops on then. According to the Press the Brunswick raid was fairly easy, they certainly harped out some guff, one of them said there were no fighters over the target & the Luftwaffe was fooled. I was looking at the official list of combats & sightings over the target, & there really were some. One chap from here claimed a confirmed & a probable. Three times over the target Bill the W/Op. happened to knock our huge nose light on, it put five years on my life, ‘cos the first time nobody knew who did it, & I was crouched there with my hands over it, & cursing like a madman. F/Sgt Foggarty who was with us put up a damn good show, over the target he was attacked consistently for half an hour by fighters & an engine (stbd inner) hit by cannon shell. He feathered it and it fell right out, he came down from 23,000 ft to 7,100 ft before he could pull out, & had to stay down low all the way. He sent out an SOS because he thought he wouldn’t make it, & the Jerries followed our homing procedure identically. They homed with searchlights to a ‘drome in Holland, lit it up & gave him a green, luckily his Gee operated and he battled off in a hurry. He crash landed with 3 engines, one bust tyre, no flaps or brakes, & nobody hurt. The engineers right arm & leg were rendered useless over the target & he carried on, but they both got a gong. Beside the two we lost we had three kites written off through fighter attacks, Waterbeach lost two. Dimmock was one of them he came back from leave with me the night previously.
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[underlined] Monday January 24th. [/underlined]
Still no more ops, in a week, at least no ops that we have completed. Last Thursday we were on the Berlin trip, it seemed a pretty good route, but there was a terrific long sea leg up to Denmark. I hate that, I don’t mind baling out over land ‘cos you have some chance, but there is no sense in baling out over water as by yourself in a Mae West, a chap wouldn’t last a couple of hours. So the only thing is ditching, then if the kite is out of control & we are unable to ditch, we’ve had it. However soon after taking off we couldn’t see any other kites & Johnny & I were picking up opposite drifts from what they should have been. Suddenly Mac checked his compasses and found they were all haywire, we were well off track, and crossed the coast at Ipswich instead of Cromer. Then trying to steer a straight course we went round in a huge circle. It was impossible for us to go on so we tried to jettison fuel in order to land. Mac & Jack tried to jettison fuel to bring our load down, but were unable to do so. We had to jettison the cookie, and flew sixty five miles out from the coast & let her go. So back we went, & were we cheesed, & hate a turn back, it was our first. Jimmy Rodgers returned earlier with a U/S rear turret & W/O Robbins with a U.S Rev counter, Anderson got lost & bombed Wilhelmshaven & I believe F.O Ogden came back after 4 1/2 hrs we were airborne 2 hrs. We lost P/O Canning, on his 19th trip.
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The following night we were going to Magdeburg, with a dummy attack on Berlin, by 15 Mosquitoes, & 20 Lancs (dont [sic] fancy that). There were 690 kites detailed, quite a few for a place that size, we were taxying out, & were almost at the flare path when the kite in front of us became bogged, it was old Howby in F, Freddie. The dim of an ACP let us get right on top of it, before flashing a red, so there was no room for us to turn & go round the perimeter in time to take off. There were other guys in the same position as us & there we all sat whilst the minutes ticked by & we were scrubbed, did we curse. In all eight kites didn’t take off & we lost one, Waterbeach lost four, which was grim, and they say six returned early, I don’t know if thats [sic] right, if so only six kites got to the target & back, it certainly was a chop raid.
Hardwick the chap who was at OTU with us has 5 weeks more [deleted] week [/deleted] grounded, he is cheesed. He gave us some news of fellows at OTU. Doc & his crew are P.O.W’s poor old Cecil Kindt had the chop, Chiefy Young is a P/O with 15 in & his navigator Shields has his W/O they have [deleted] [indecipherable letters] [/deleted] been doing O.K. Bouchard is O.K. with 9, old Towne is in jail, stripped for beating up a town low level. Mac met, Pat Macguire, who was Petch’s Navigator, in London, he said Petch was killed outright. They have an English chap who was a staff pilot in Canada. Ray Bennett was killed outright, but Johnny Smythe his dark navigator is a P.O.W. I don’t know about the rest of the crew.
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[underlined] Sunday 30th January [/underlined]
Everything was peaceful until Wednesday & then ‘ops’ were on again, bags of twitter, we beetled out to old G George to see everything was bang on. The weather wasn’t too hot & everyone was sure it would be scrubbed. When we found out it was Frankfurt, we were certain we wouldn’t go as before we had been briefed for it & hadn’t gone, sure enough it was scrubbed. The Forts went there the other day though, (yesterday in fact) 800 bombers, they certainly must have wanted to rub that place out. However the following night (Thursday) we were dicing once more & it was the old Faithful Berlin again. It seems strange but I have on obsession for that place, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I like it, that would be plain dumb, but I am less disturbed when we go there than anywhere else. Why I am at a loss to explain as it is the longest & hardest trip we will ever have to do. All I know is I wouldn’t mind doing quite a few there, I hope it isn’t a fateful fascination & we get the chop over there.
We had a strong westerly wind blowing behind us & the outward trip only took 2 1/2 hrs, whilst the return took 5 1/2 hrs. Our journey wasn’t too bad, we had a nasty moment when Les told Mac to turn on a course of 037o & Mac thought he said 137o. We were on it for 2 minutes before I saw a Lanc. cut across us & I queried our course.
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This caused us to stray over, Brandenburg I believe it was & by jimini their predicted flak was damned accurate. It burst at the dead same height about 200 yds in front & another lot off the starboard beam. Another few seconds & we were flying through the black smoke puffs. As we saw the P.F.F. flares go down (they were a couple of minutes early) the first fighter flares dropped. Some of the kites had obviously arrived early & been stooging around, waiting for zero hour, because the flak had been going up for a while already. By the time we arrived, we were in the blasted last wave as usual, there were scores of yellow fighter flares making a lane into the target & another one out of it. There was one fair sized fire going but not so big as I have seen, just after the W/Op watched my cookie go through the clouds he reported a huge explosion. I smile to think it might have been me, but one can never tell what happens in a concentrated attack like that.
Two minutes after the bombs had gone, Don the Mid Upper spotted a fighter, & called to Johnny to watch it. Then we heard Johnny’s excited voice over the inter-com, “Its a JU88, he’s coming in he’s crossing over now, get ready to corkscrew port, - corkscrew port go”. I was scrambling up to the front guns & just reached there in time. Our corkscrew was so violent that neither of the gunners were able to open fire, it also
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must have surprised the Jerry because he overshot above us, & skidded in a stall turn about 200 yds away from our nose. I remember thinking “My God what a bloody size he is”, somehow I had never realised how large a 66ft wing span was for a fighter. Anyway he was in the wing right & a no deflection shot my fingers squeezed & I nearly whooped with joy, when I saw the tracer striking the rear of the port engine & the [deleted] sp [/deleted] mainplane between the engine & the fuselage. Then he dived down to port at a hell of a speed & my little bit of fun was over. It shook me that I was the one to open the attack, as the B/A’s don’t often get a crack. I think it rather shook him to be fired at from the front as he didn’t break away there again.
The battle really started then, & it was a battle too. Up he came from underneath, & Johnny yelled “corkscrew” & opened fire, we could hear his guns shattering, & we were zooming around the sky. Johnny said he hit the port engine again, as I hit it previously & some sparks & flames shot out then subsided to a glow, I think everyone thought we had had it then, though I must hand it to that fighter pilot he really had guts. Round he would come firing right in close & both our gunners would return the compliment. We were corkscrewing violently all the time and my stomach felt as though it was being torn apart & my head smacked against the perspex. Mac & Jack were both thrown against the
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roof too. Every now & again a huge stream of tracer would pour across the top of us, & my mouth was dry with fear as I saw the cannon shells exploding at 600 yds. The gunners would be shouting “Corkscrew keep corkscrewing – here he comes again,” then the guns would chatter & we’d roll around. When it came to the break aways I kept praying he would come up to the front & I could get another crack but he never did. I would yell “Where is he?” each time but he would dive right down underneath & they would lose him, it was a separate sighting & attack each time. He made 7 attacks on us, I thought it would never end, on the third he hit us in the elevator trim. Then on the fifth attack a cannon shell exploded in the port wing & bullets ripped through the port inner nacelle. Though we couldn’t tell where the damage was we could only feel the hits. However we gave him quite a bit of punishment, we all hit him, & on the seventh attack, the glow in his engine suddenly became brighter & he dived down & that was the end of the attack, we claimed him as a probable. The whole engagement lasted 18 to 20 minutes it seemed like years, I had one moment of real fright in it. In the middle of a corkscrew with squirts of tracer everywhere I felt a violent blow in the left leg & thought “Hell, I’ve been hit” but it was all the heavy bundles of window that had shaken loose & crashed on my leg.
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We were at 18,500 ft when the attack started & were down to 13,000 ft at the end, the corkscrews were so violent, the Elsan came right out & was all over the floor & the ammo from one of Johnny’s tanks was all out. My God I was really thankful we had seen that through, one doesn’t often get continuous battles like it. Mac had a fair amount of work with no elevator trim but there was nothing vital hit and the kite flew O.K. We managed to get back on track but we were pretty late, everything went pretty well until it came to the part we squeezed between Frankfurt & the Ruhr. Everything was O.K. until some wicked predicted flak shot up about half a mile to the starboard, there were only three bursts then suddenly there was a Lanc. with flame pouring from the nose & three of her engines. She held her course for a short while, then swung round in a huge circle, came behind, assumed course for half a minute or so then plunged down, I hope they got out. I thought the return journey would never end, I hate it as long as that. We came out pretty well south of track, but we were back O.K. a fair few landed away through lack of fuel. The bullets that ripped through the port inner [indecipherable word] punctured the tyre, but we didn’t know, and landed with a flat tyre, swerved off the runway & there we were. The crash wagon & blood wagon tore out, & they insisted on us riding in the blood wagon.
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The M.O. insisted upon giving us some capsules, to make us sleep that night & wouldn’t let us go on ops the next night. He knew his ‘gen’ because when we woke we were pretty dizzy & weak from their effect & couldn’t possibly have operated. It was Berlin again, another 8 hr effort, it was a shambles here. They only got 9 out of the squadron airborne, & 2 of these returned, leaving 7 to go on to the target. Out of these 7 we lost 2 which is pretty grim, F/Lt. Aarvin & P/O Tyn were the ones missing. From the night before we lost F/O Harris & F/Sgt Morris, old Morris had been with us at Downham, they said he was in a dinghy, at least he was going to ditch, but they heard no more. Friday night, the RAF Bomber Command Band gave a performance here & was very good, Saturday there was a stand down we went to a camp dance. G George is U/S for a fortnight or so & we were going to take another kite tonight but they were so short of kites they couldn’t put us on. We are right hard up for kites now, two had a head on crash when taxying, nobody was hurt, but the kites are really ripped up. Another had incendiaries through it, they only sent 11 tonight, it was Berlin again, Chopper is really pushing ‘em in again. Old Foggarty has been awarded the DFM for the show he put up, I thought he would. So 623 has made a start here anyway. I wonder if we will be going to Berlin much more I should think it must be pretty well smashed up, they haven’t been able to get photographs for awhile.
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[underlined] Monday February 7th. [/underlined]
A week has elapsed since I last wrote, a week of doing practically nothing. That Sunday raid on Berlin was the last op there was, we got eight kites off I believe, & lost poor old F/Lt Hicks. He was the Asst. Flight Commander in our flight, a [deleted] [indecipherable letter] [/deleted] ‘Newzie’ & a good chap it was his 24th. There were no ‘ops’ then for a few days & then the moon period commenced. Our kite won’t be serviceable for nearly three weeks so they have given us J Johnny, Hicks’ old kite it was U/S & he took another when he got the chop. Sqdn.Ldr [indecipherable name] the ‘Corkscrew King’ had a real do. They had a contact on the Monica & instead of corkscrewing as they were told he asked the gunners if they could see anything. They were looking down & said “No”, & a fighter sitting about 10o up gave them a long burst while they were straight & level. He raked them right along, the rear turret smashed, the mid upper had about 20 fragments pass between his legs. A couple of cannon shells exploded in the fuselage, the [deleted] [indecipherable letter] [/deleted] D.R. Master Unit was hit, a large hole in the main plane, one prop damaged, Boy! they were really shot up. The only one who was hurt was the A/B who had a small piece of flak in his behind. We have been informed that the old Groupie has detailed us for an hours circuits & bumps for the bad landing we made returning from Berlin. That was with a burst tyre. God knows what he wants, I don’t even believe he knows we were shot up.
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It seems pretty definite that the German [indecipherable word]. is evacuating from Berlin to Breslau, its another 200 miles to the South East, surely they wont go there from here, it would be about a 10 hour trip. There is some talk that the tour is being reduced to 25 ops as they are pretty grim now with the Berlin trips, it seems pukka ‘gen’ I hope it is. During the week we have been doing loaded climbs on J to test her starboard outer now it has to be changed. We have also been trying to get some GH Bombing in but the weather isn’t so good. Yesterday we had the day off, they are giving crews a day off during the moon period. Johnny & I went home catching the 1036 AM. Sunday, & travelling back on the 8.20 AM. Monday, I had a wizard time.
On Saturday night we lost a kite on the Bullseye, it was Bishop who was at Downham with us. Poor old Jack Speechly was the Bomb Aimer, I had known him 18 months ever since Manchester, we did our training in Canada together, he was a rattling good chap. They had an American pilot with them, they were all killed, & they don’t know how it happened yet. The crash was found with them all in it, its really grim. That’s three of the crews that were with us at Downham gone now P/O Whitting Ginger Morris & now old Bishop, boy! I only pray we see the tour out & so do all the others. There’s nothing much happening, consequently there isn’t much to make an entry of, think I’ll snatch an early night.
[underlined] Sunday February 13th. [/underlined]
The moon period has definitely finished now and our period of rest is over. Once more ‘Chopper’ whipped a day off the end of it, we were briefed for Berlin & were out at the kites with about 30 mins to go before take off when it was scrubbed. The reason being the bad weather at base on return, it was pretty grim, & was a [deleted] poo [/deleted] wonder it wasn’t scrubbed before. I wouldn’t have minded the trip, because for a change it was a long trip out, & a short trip home. Last minute scrubbings are worse than some ‘ops’ I think after being keyed up all that time, still it shows there is still some of the Big City left there.
We haven’t done much this week, as the weather has been pretty duff, most of the time we tried some GH Bombing nothing came of it, owing to climate conditions. The other day we were up in a hell of a snow storm, all the time we were running before it & trying to find a way out. All the countryside looked pretty Christmassy with a coating of snow over the fields & villages. As I was in the rear turret all the time I was more interested in keeping warm. Our turrets got in grim condition during the moon period and we had to work like the devil all day to get it in shape. I was late for briefing through it and had a hell of a flap trying to get my tracks & maps all ship shape.
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All Jimmy Rodgers crew went to Cambridge on Friday, as two of [deleted] Jim [/deleted] Bishops crew were being buried there. It is terrible really four of them were married & a couple engaged, old Bishop was only married at O.T.U., I would never get married in war time for that reason. Looking at it soberly with all the chaps getting the chop it seems a hell of a mugs game still there it is.
There has been a fair amount of entertainment this week, we had a night out in Ely with a wizard meal in the KUMIN Café. On Wednesday night there was a dance in the gymnasium, then Thursday night we had a big social in the mess. They even went to the extent of polishing the floor, & in our grim mess that really is something. It went on until 1 AM. & there was bags of beer & eats, the food was very good, marzipan cakes, sausage rolls etc. £25 was allowed for it, so it should have been good. On Saturday there was another dance but I was cheesed with that & don’t think I will bother going again.
The siren is going now & there is some gunfire, be quite comical now, with us refraining from bombing Berlin owing to the met. here, & the Jerries using the same conditions to bomb us. They have left the bombs on the kites & only drained the tanks to 1500 so it looks as though they will be parking us along tomorrow. I guess now they have started again, Chopper will try & really finish Berlin, hope he doesn’t finish us.
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[page break]
[underlined] Thursday 17th February. [/underlined]
All was quite [sic] until Thursday, when ‘ops’ were on again, & there it loomed on the briefing room chart, the [deleted] G [/deleted] Big City once more. It was another daylight take off, quite a sight to see all the kites streaming over the coast at Cromer. The first leg was a terrific long one up to Denmark, & it was quite light most of the way, but luckily got dark by the time we were crossing the coast. Those Danish islands can certainly poop up some flak, & I was glad when we hit the Baltic Coast. The last leg to the target was a terrific long one, straight to it, I couldn’t see that the Jerry would be fooled regarding the target, even though there was a spoof attack on Frankfurt-on-Oder. The P.F.F. boobed by sending the flares down before zero hour, & the flak certainly opened up. It was the heaviest I have seen there, I think he was relying more on that than his fighters. Running up I could see about six Halifaxes beneath us, they seemed quite happy as the flak was all bursting between 18 & 21,000 ft. We were carrying just one 8,000 lb cookie, which is quite a goodly size, it was handy in the way that immediately I said ‘Bombs Gone’ Mac could whip the Bomb Doors shut.
Bomber Command was trying new tactics this time the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd waves went one way, & we in the 4th & 5th waves went a bit south of them along another route. The idea was to split the fighter forces, & I think it succeeded we only saw two all night, one ME110 just after
[page break]
[inserted] [two newspaper cuttings regarding the raids on Berlin] [/inserted] [duplicate page]
[page break]
[inserted] [newspaper cutting about obliterating bombing techniques]
[page break]
leaving the target flashed across our nose. We ran into some flak though, getting off track a bit we stooged right over Magdeburg. Beside window there were two huge packets of nickels to throw out so I was sweating like anything shovelling it all out. Not much happened on our return journey apart from a few fighter flares & some rockets. We saw a kite go down in flames over the North Sea, I should hate to get the chop right back there. Two were lost from here, F/S Whyte who had 16 trips in & F/S Ralph who was with us at Downham. He had Pinky Tomlin, Petch’s old B/A, who arrived with a new skipper F/O Nice, beside losing his B/A he lost his rear gunner who went as a spare with Whyte. I hate this spare business they always seem to get the chop.
Yesterday we were briefed for Berlin, then scrubbed, then again tonight & were out at the kites before being scrubbed, the weather was terrible both days, yet they wait till the last minute before scrubbing it. We were read a message from Chopper Harris C in C. congratulating us on the progress of the Battle for Berlin. After the usual flowery comments on our ‘courage & steadfast spirit’ he said we were well ahead of schedule in the obliteration of the capital. He also said the Allied Command considered it the most important battle of all land, sea or air battles fought & yet to fight in the war. There was a long list of reasons of its immediate need to be liquidated, & he said he had to rush us to finish the job as the lighter nights and the Northern lights would soon be making their appearance. Well I hope there isn’t many more trips to be done there.
[page break]
22
[underlined] 60/520 [/underlined]
8
196
2443
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
Book 5, Return to UK
Description
An account of the resource
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, Harrogate. He was then posted to AFU Bobbington, training on Ansons. From there he went to O.T.U. Hixon and satellite station Seighford training on Wellingtons. He then went to Flying Conversion Unit Woolfox Lodge to train on Stirlings. Once training was complete he was posted to RAF Downham Market on 623 Squadron flying Stirlings on operations. When 623 Stirling squadron was disbanded he was transferred on to Lancasters. He was posted to Flying Conversion Unit 1678 at RAF Waterbeach to train on the Lancaster and then on to RAF Witchford where he undertook operations over Germany, including a number on Berlin. Covers the period 17 March 1943 to 17 February 1944.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Geach
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One handwritten 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
YGeachDG1394781v5
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Greenock
Scotland--Glasgow
Scotland--Edinburgh
England--Harrogate
England--Whitley Bay
England--Bournemouth
England--Stourbridge
England--Birmingham
England--Wolverhampton
England--Stafford
Canada
Ontario--Ottawa
Atlantic Ocean--Cardigan Bay
Wales--Rhyl
England--The Wash
England--Nottingham
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Isle of Man
England--Cannock
Wales--Aberystwyth
Scotland--Orkney
France--Saint-Malo
France--Rennes
France--Isigny-sur-Mer
France--Cherbourg
France--Avranches
England--Southampton
England--Stamford
England--Cambridge
England--Peterborough
England--Bedford
England--Portsmouth
Netherlands--Friesland
England--Cromer
France--La Rochelle
France--Gironde Estuary
France--Nantes
England--King's Lynn
Italy--Turin
North Africa
Gibraltar
England--Thames River
Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Berlin
England--Ely
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Hamburg
Norway
Netherlands--Texel
Germany--Bremen
Denmark
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Germany--Brandenburg
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Braunschweig
Germany--Hannover
England--Sunderland (Tyne and Wear)
Poland--Szczecin
Poland--Wrocław
England--Southend-on-Sea
Italy
Atlantic Ocean--Firth of Clyde
Poland
France
Ontario
Germany
Netherlands
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Bedfordshire
England--Durham (County)
England--Essex
England--Hampshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Norfolk
England--Northumberland
England--Sussex
England--Staffordshire
England--Worcestershire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Warwickshire
England--Selsey (West Sussex)
Wales--Caernarfon
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
David Bloomfield
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-03
1943-04
1943-05
1943-06
1943-07
1943-08
1943-09
1943-10
1943-11
1943-12
1944-01
1944-02
115 Squadron
149 Squadron
1678 HCU
196 Squadron
199 Squadron
214 Squadron
218 Squadron
30 OTU
514 Squadron
623 Squadron
90 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aerial photograph
air gunner
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
B-17
bale out
bomb aimer
bombing
Catalina
Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
crewing up
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
entertainment
fear
flight engineer
Gee
ground personnel
Halifax
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hurricane
incendiary device
Ju 88
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 2
Me 110
military living conditions
military service conditions
mine laying
Mosquito
navigator
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
Operational Training Unit
Pathfinders
pilot
RAF Chedburgh
RAF Downham Market
RAF Halfpenny Green
RAF Hixon
RAF Lindholme
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Seighford
RAF Tangmere
RAF Tuddenham
RAF Warboys
RAF Waterbeach
RAF Witchford
RAF Woolfox Lodge
Red Cross
sanitation
searchlight
Stirling
target indicator
target photograph
training
Typhoon
Victoria Cross
Wellington
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1279/17566/YPearceAT1874945v4.2.pdf
a2351da247af3b1b94f5f4679bb41f42
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
Pearce, Arthur
A T Pearce
Description
An account of the resource
140 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Arthur Pearce (1874945 Royal Air Force) He served as an air gunner with 12, 170 and 156 (Pathfinder) Squadrons and completed a 44 operations. After the war, on 35 Squadron he took part in the June 1946 Victory flypast over London and a goodwill visit to the United States. It contains his diaries, memorabilia and photographs.
The collection also contains an album concerning his post war activity with the Goodwill tour of the United States.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Steve Allan and catalogued by Nigel Huckins
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
2015-12-17
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
Pearce, AT
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Bank Holidays, 1944
[page break]
PERSONAL MEMORANDA
Sgt PEARCE
[page break]
Bank CITY 6001
G.T. HOP 1293
N.S.D. CITY 3623
G.W.R PAD 7000
Parry G.I P 3832
TENY KIN 5052.
[indecipherable word] EUS 6292.
MESS Seiford 61.
K.C. SER 4200.
Club TEM 3135
[page break]
1944 JANUARY
1 SATURDAY
[deleted] GIP 5852, KIN 3032, UES 6292 [/delete]
7412
Stalag XX13 (84)
Germany
2 SUNDAY
J.W. Simmonds
3 Malmesbury Road
South Woodford
E. 18
SG Parry
189 Gipsy Road
West Norwood
S E. 27
GIP 3832
[page break]
3 MONDAY
FX.115112. LDG AIR. PALMER JJ JEa/AG.
825 R.N.A. SQDN.
c/o GP.O LONDON.
Joan White
238 New Kent Road
London SE. 1.
[underlined] 4 TUESDAY [/underlined]
14423672
4th Batt C. Coy.
No.1. IR.T.D.
C.M.F
[page break]
5 WEDNESDAY
letter from home, wrote home.
Irene Hudd,
28 Upper Kenton St
Thorne
Nr Doncaster
Yorks.
6 THURSDAY
letter from Flo
[page break]
7 FRIDAY
[blank page]
8 SATURDAY
letter from Flo.
[page break]
9 SUNDAY
letter from Mum
10 MONDAY
went to Belfast good time.
[page break]
[blank page]
[page break]
13 THURSDAY
[blank page]
14 FRIDAY
Leave. Sgt. Tapes Belfast
[page break]
15 SATURDAY
arrived at home
16 SUNDAY
London. Pleasant surprise good time
[page break]
17 MONDAY
good time
18 TUESDAY
good time
[page break]
19 WEDNESDAY
good time
20 THURSDAY
good time
[page break]
21 FRIDAY
good time
22 SATURDAY
saw Bill.
Ring. Lovely night
Cable
[page break]
23 SUNDAY
good
24 MONDAY
good
[page break]
25 TUESDAY
good
26 WEDNESDAY
good
[page break]
27 THURSDAY
good
28 FRIDAY
good
[page break]
29 SATURDAY
good
30 SUNDAY
Cable
good week end
[page break]
31 MONDAY
very good time
FEB. 1 TUESDAY
Worried browned off
[page break]
2 WEDNESDAY
still worried and browned off
3 THURSDAY
good tan
[page break]
4 FRIDAY
good time in county
5 SATURDAY
browned off
[page break]
6 SUNDAY
things going wrong.
7 MONDAY
Birthday [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted]
Smashing time
[page break]
8 TUESDAY
went to Parry.
Good time Joyce
Silvia
9 WEDNESDAY
Flos Birthday
not so good
[page break]
10 THURSDAY
[boxed X] trouble
Bad
11 FRIDAY
County. not so good
[page break]
12 SATURDAY
[deleted] Four indecipherable words [/deleted]
13 SUNDAY
still felt bad.
[page break]
14 MONDAY
Cable.
good leave untill [sic] last few days
15 TUESDAY
Hixon 2-45.
[page break]
16 WEDNESDAY
Met pilot [indecipherable word] and crew. O.K.
Wing/Co. Caulson
P/O Stevens
P/O Soo.
P/O Davies
17 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
18 FRIDAY
[blank page]
19 SATURDAY
Wals Birthday
[page break]
20 SUNDAY
[blank page]
21 MONDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
22 TUESDAY
[blank page]
23 WEDNESDAY
Marina Birthday
[page break]
[pages missing]
28 MONDAY
Roses Birthday
29 TUESDAY
Leighford
1 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
2 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
3 FRIDAY
plenty of cloud Bashing
4 SATURDAY
still cloud bashing
Stafford good time plenty of fun.
[page break]
5 SUNDAY
bags of flying,
good crew.
6 MONDAY
still bags of flying and doing grand job.
[page break]
7 TUESDAY
grounded.
Very good time
8 WEDNESDAY
plenty of cloud Bashing and Bombing
[page break]
9 THURSDAY
more Bombing
10 FRIDAY
went to Stafford with crew. very good time. plenty of fun.
[page break]
11 SATURDAY
dingy [sic] Stafford plenty of fun
12 SUNDAY
Cloud Bashing
[page break]
13 MONDAY
more Cloud bashing no time off
14 TUESDAY
went sick. Hospital
[page break]
15 WEDNESDAY
Hospital
16 THURSDAY
Hospital
[page break]
17 FRIDAY
Bombing.
Not so good Hospital
18 SATURDAY
Hospital
[page break]
19 SUNDAY
Hospital
20 MONDAY
[author indicates he’s in hospital]
[page break]
21 TUESDAY
[author indicates he’s in hospital]
22 WEDNESDAY
[author indicates he’s in hospital]
[page break]
23 THURSDAY
Hospital
24 FRIDAY
flying
[page break]
25 SATURDAY
Bombing
26 SUNDAY
Cloud bashing
Bombing
Pilot hurt.
[page break]
27 MONDAY
48 hours leave
3-31 Stafford
dispointed [sic]
Pilot in Hospital
28 TUESDAY
good time in county
[page break]
29 WEDNESDAY
Cluston 5.38
Pilot Bad
30 THURSDAY
easy time
[page break]
31 FRIDAY
pressure test
48 hours. Leave
5.48 Stafford
APRIL 1 SATURDAY
Good time.
hard going
[page break]
2 SUNDAY
Uaston 12.00
all was well
3 MONDAY
Browned off
[page break]
4 TUESDAY
[deleted] Met New Pilot Sgt [indecipherable word] [/deleted]
5 WEDNESDAY
nothing to do no pilot or Wireless/opp
[page break]
6 THURSDAY
[blank page]
7 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
8 SATURDAY
flew with madman.
9 SUNDAY
[deleted] almost killed [/deleted]
[page break]
10 MONDAY
very easy day.
A good night out.
11 TUESDAY
nothing to do.
[page break]
12 WEDNESDAY
Volenteered [sic] to go on Balls eye.
Good things
13 THURSDAY
easy time
[page break]
14 FRIDAY
still nothing to do.
15 SATURDAY
good time in town bags of fun
[page break]
[missing pages]
20 THURSDAY
good time at Dance
21 FRIDAY
end of long rest
Posted
[page break]
22 SATURDAY
back to Hixon New Pilot Sgt Keeler.
23 SUNDAY
plenty of flying
new Pilot O.K.
[page break]
24 MONDAY
cloud Bashing
25 TUESDAY
cloud Bashing Bombing
[page break]
26 WEDNESDAY
grounded bad weather good time in town
27 THURSDAY
Cloud Bashing bad Crash
[page break]
28 FRIDAY
felt bad. No flying.
29 SATURDAY
flying again
[page break]
30 SUNDAY
Bombing
MAY 1 MONDAY
Cine Bombing
[page break]
2 TUESDAY
Bombing
3 WEDNESDAY
night off. good time Plenty of fun.
[page break]
4 THURSDAY
grounded
5 FRIDAY
grounded
[page break]
6 SATURDAY
grounded
7 SUNDAY
grounded
[page break]
8 MONDAY
grounded lost leave.
9 TUESDAY
48 hrs leave. Stafford 9-48.
[page break]
10 WEDNESDAY
disapointed [sic] but had good time
12 + 13 11 THURSDAY
Claston 8-30 a.m. Met new “Wop” Flt. Sgt Stricket
[page break]
12 FRIDAY
Cloud Bashing
13 SATURDAY
Cloud Bashing
[page break]
14 SUNDAY
long trip bombing plenty of trouble every [deleted] the [/deleted] thing wrong. I was nocked [sic] out. Pilot in trouble but all ended well Balls eye.
15 MONDAY
lots of flying
[page break]
16 TUESDAY
busy night Mick killed
17 WEDNESDAY
hopes of leave. Steve got F/O.
[page break]
18 THURSDAY
13 days leave. Stafford 5.48.
19 FRIDAY
Joe home. very good times
[page break]
20 SATURDAY
plenty of fun [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] Flo. old feeling again but held my own.
21 SUNDAY
pleasent [sic] time
[page break]
22 MONDAY
good time with Sal. good time with Joan
23 TUESDAY
Stepney good time Good time with Joan, plenty of fun
[page break]
24 WEDNESDAY
went to Totenham [sic] took Joany out from bank. Plenty of fun.
25 THURSDAY
County plenty of fun
[page break]
26 FRIDAY
Stepney, baby. Good time
27 SATURDAY
took Joan and Betty out. Stepney. Party. good time but worried
[page break]
28 SUNDAY
went out with Flo. Jess and Joe, hard time trouble
29 MONDAY
Bad time
[page break]
30 TUESDAY
Bad for me
31 WEDNESDAY
Kings Cross 12-45 Doncaster 4.10 Boston Park.
[page break]
1944 JUNE
1 THURSDAY
Bill Charlie O.K.
2 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
3 SATURDAY
day off, Thorne Plenty of fun.
4 SUNDAY
day off Thorn More fun.
[page break]
5 MONDAY
Stones O.K.
6 TUESDAY
The day.
[page break]
7 WEDNESDAY
on Charge. got away with with it
8 THURSDAY
Fred got his Comision [sic] Thorne. Morends [sic]
[page break]
9 FRIDAY
Irene. Smashing girl a very good time plenty of fun. Pleasant suprises [sic]
10 SATURDAY
Background danger. Irene. Smashing time More fun Wally went home. Charlie, Bill Posted
[page break]
11 SUNDAY
“P/O Keeler”
12 MONDAY
Stones O.K.
[page break]
13 TUESDAY
Posted Sandtoft Pool
Epworth. good time bags of fun.
John got Married
14 WEDNESDAY
Epworth O.K. bags fun
Whiteheart Raynor.
Doreene
[page break]
15 THURSDAY
Hopes of Posting
Epworth good time Joan. Plenty of fun.
16 FRIDAY
Bill & Charlie Posted.
[page break]
17 SATURDAY
Epworth. good time Plenty of fun Peggy.
18 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
19 MONDAY
[blank page]
20 TUESDAY
Posted to Blighton
Met Engineer JOE.
[page break]
21 WEDNESDAY
Posted Ingham.
Bill and Charlie again
Castle
22 THURSDAY
Went to Lincoln good time bags of fun.
[page break]
23 FRIDAY
flying.
24 SATURDAY
flying
Lincoln good time plenty of fun
[page break]
25 SUNDAY
flying
26 MONDAY
flying
[page break]
27 TUESDAY
flying
28 WEDNESDAY
flying
[page break]
29 THURSDAY
flying
30 FRIDAY
flying
Lincoln good time
[page break]
JULY 1944
1 SATURDAY
Posted to Blyton
2 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
3 MONDAY
[blank page]
4 TUESDAY
[blank page]
5 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
6 THURSDAY
flying Bombing
[page break]
7 FRIDAY
Gainsborough. good time fun.
8 SATURDAY
Gainsborough. good time plenty of fun.
[page break]
9 SUNDAY
[blank page]
10 MONDAY
Lincoln. Gainsboro [sic] photo
[page break]
11 TUESDAY
flying
12 WEDNESDAY
flying Geordy killed
[page break]
13 THURSDAY
flying
14 FRIDAY
[deleted flying [/deleted]
Gainsboro [sic] good time
[page break]
15 SATURDAY
Lost Navigator
16 SUNDAY
Gainsboro [sic]. good time
[page break]
17 MONDAY
New Navigator. Flying. F/O. Yule.
18 TUESDAY
flying New Nav O.K.
[page break]
19 WEDNESDAY
Gainsboro [sic].
20 THURSDAY
flying
[page break]
21 FRIDAY
flying Bombing.
22 SATURDAY
flying
23 SUNDAY
flying Ballseye.
24 MONDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
25 TUESDAY
[blank page]
26 WEDNESDAY
Posted Hemswell 6.25. Lincoln
[page break]
27 THURSDAY
[blank page]
28 FRIDAY
11.15. Kings X.
[page break]
29 SATURDAY
[blank page]
30 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
31 MONDAY
Gainsboro [sic].
AUG 1 TUESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
2 WEDNESDAY
Gainsboro [sic]
3 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
4 FRIDAY
[blank page]
5 SATURDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
6 SUNDAY
flying
7 MONDAY
Gainsboro [sic]
[page break]
8 TUESDAY
flying
9 WEDNESDAY
flying Dingy [sic] 8.30
[page break]
10 THURSDAY
[blank page]
11 FRIDAY
Posted to Squadron No 12. Wickenby
[page break]
12 SATURDAY
No.1. O.K. Cornfield “Falaise”
13 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
14 MONDAY
7. days leave Lincoln 1.55 Kings Cross 6.15
15 TUESDAY
good time
[page break]
16 WEDNESDAY
good time
17 THURSDAY
good time
[page break]
18 FRIDAY
good time
19 SATURDAY
good time fun
[page break]
20 SUNDAY
good time fun
21 MONDAY
Kings Cross 5.40
[page break]
22 TUESDAY
Guns OK.
23 WEDNESDAY
year.
[page break]
24 THURSDAY
[blank page]
25 FRIDAY
No 2. O.K. “Russelsheim”
[page break]
26 SATURDAY
[blank page]
27 SUNDAY
flying guns O.K.
[page break]
28 MONDAY
[blank page]
29 TUESDAY
No. 3. Cornfield O.K. “Stettin” Paddy killed good fellow real Pal
[page break]
30 WEDNESDAY
Lincoln good time
31 THURSDAY
[blank page]
1944 SEPTEMBER
1 FRIDAY
Lincoln good time
2 SATURDAY
flying
[page break]
3 SUNDAY
No.4. O.K. “Eindhoven”
4 MONDAY
Lincoln
[page break]
5 TUESDAY
No 5. O.K. “Le Havre”
6 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
7 THURSDAY
Lincoln good time
8 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
9 SATURDAY
Lincoln
10 SUNDAY
No. 6. O.K. “Le Havre”
[page break]
11 MONDAY
[blank page]
12 TUESDAY
No 7. O.K. “Frankfurt”
[page break]
13 WEDNESDAY
[deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] flying
14 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
15 FRIDAY
[blank page]
16 SATURDAY
No 8. O.K. “Rheine Hopsten”
[page break]
17 SUNDAY
[blank page]
18 MONDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
19 TUESDAY
[blank page]
20 WEDNESDAY
No 9. O.K. “Calais”
[page break]
21 THURSDAY
Lincoln
22 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
23 SATURDAY
No. 10. O.K. “[deleted] Calais [/deleted] “Neurs”
24 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
25 MONDAY
No.11. bombs back not so good. “Calais”
26 TUESDAY
No 11 OK. “Cap Griz Nez”
[page break]
27 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
28 THURSDAY
Lincoln 6.25. 7. Days leave.
[page break]
29 FRIDAY
Watch Bill good time Ted
30 SATURDAY
good time
[page break]
OCTOBER 1944
1 SUNDAY
Bill Home good time
2 MONDAY
Bank good time
[page break]
3 TUESDAY
good time
4 WEDNESDAY
good time
[page break]
5 THURSDAY
Reggie good time
6 FRIDAY
Kings X. 5.50
[page break]
7 SATURDAY
[blank page]
8 SUNDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
9 MONDAY
[blank page]
10 TUESDAY
flying F.A.
[page break]
11 WEDNESDAY
flying A.F.
12 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
13 FRIDAY
flying F.A.
14 SATURDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
15 SUNDAY
Posted to. [indecipherable word] Lincs
Binbrook.
16 MONDAY
flying Picked up new kite 190. Squadron.
[page break]
17 TUESDAY
Grimsby. good time
18 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
19 THURSDAY
No 12. O.K. “Stuttgart”
20 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
21 SATURDAY
Louth good time Watch.
22 SUNDAY
New Squadron. 170 Dunholme Lodge
[page break]
23 MONDAY
[blank page]
24 TUESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
25 WEDNESDAY
No. 13. O.K. “Essen”
26 THURSDAY
Lincoln
[page break]
27 FRIDAY
[blank page]
28 SATURDAY
No 14. O.K. “Cologne”
[page break]
29 SUNDAY
[blank page]
30 MONDAY
No 15. OK. “Cologne”
[page break]
31 TUESDAY
No 16 OK. “Cologne”
NOVEMBER 1 WEDNESDAY
Party. Black Bull good time
[page break]
2 THURSDAY
No.17. OK. Dusseldorf
3 FRIDAY
Lincoln
[page break]
4 SATURDAY
P.F.F. ?
5 SUNDAY
Posted Warboys P.F.F.
[page break]
6 MONDAY
Warboys. 2.9. Kings X. 4.2. Joe. Good time
7 TUESDAY
Kings X. 6.40.
[page break]
8 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
9 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
10 FRIDAY
test OK. Dinghy Cambridge
11 SATURDAY
flying
[page break]
12 SUNDAY
flying
13 MONDAY
flying Huntingdon
[page break]
14 TUESDAY
Post. Upwood. Squadron. 1.5.6.
15 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
16 THURSDAY
[blank page]
17 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
18 SATURDAY
[blank page]
19 SUNDAY
flying
20 MONDAY
[blank page]
21 TUESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
22 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
23 THURSDAY
flying
[page break]
24 FRIDAY
[blank page]
25 SATURDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
26 SUNDAY
[blank page]
27 MONDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
28 TUESDAY
[blank page]
29 WEDNESDAY
No 18. “Essen”
[page break]
30 THURSDAY
No 19. “Duisburg”
DECEMBER 1 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
2 SATURDAY
[blank page]
3 SUNDAY
No. 20. “Urfurt [sic] Dam”
[page break]
4 MONDAY
[blank page]
5 TUESDAY
No 21. “Soest” ears bad
[page break]
6 WEDNESDAY
No. Grounded ears bad.
7 THURSDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
8 FRIDAY
[blank page]
9 SATURDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
10 SUNDAY
[blank page]
11 MONDAY
leave Peterboro [sic] 3.58 Kings X. 5.25
[page break]
12 TUESDAY
good time Bank. Ted home Flo
13 WEDNESDAY
good time
[page break]
14 THURSDAY
good time County Flo. Dolly O.K.
15 FRIDAY
good time. Dolly
[page break]
16 SATURDAY
Ted good time. plenty fun
17 SUNDAY
good time Ted ship Dolly.
[page break]
18 MONDAY
Kings X 5.50 Peterboro [sic] 7.30
19 TUESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
20 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
21 THURSDAY
No 22. “Bonn”
[page break]
22 FRIDAY
Mess Dance Audrey O.K. Pat.
23 SATURDAY
Peterboro [sic].
[page break]
24 SUNDAY
Sqd Dance Audrey OK
25 MONDAY
Dance Ramsey Audrey. O.K.
[page break]
26 TUESDAY
[blank page]
27 WEDNESDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
28 THURSDAY
No 23. “Opladen”
29 FRIDAY
[blank page]
[page break]
30 SATURDAY
No 24 “Cologne”
31 SUNDAY
No 25. “Osterfeld”
[page break]
Flight 8/113
RAF. Stockleigh Rd
Regents Park
London. S.W.1.
E Flight
6 Squadron
18 I.T.W.
Bridlington
Yorks.
Hut 55.
D. Squadron
N.1. E.AGS,
R.A F Bridgnorth
Salop
[page break]
11 Course
12 A.G.S.
R.A.F.
Bishops Court
N. Ireland.
Sgts Mess
R.A.F. Hixon
Sgts Mess
R.AF. Leighford
Sgts Mess
R.AF. Hixon
Sgts Mess
R. A. F. Boston Park
Lindholme
Yorks
[page break]
Sgts Mess
R.A.F. Sandtofts
Yorks
Sgts Mess
R.A.F Blyton
Lincs
Sgts Mess
R.A.F Ingham
Lincs
Sgts Mess
R.A.F. Hemswell
Lincs
[page break]
Sgts Mess, Red
Wickenby,
Lincs.
Sgts Mess
[indecipherable word]
Lincs
Sgts Mess
Dunholme Lodge
Lincs
Sgts Mess
Warboys
Hunts
[page break]
Sgts Mess
Upwood
Hunts
Sgts Mess
Wyton
Hunts
Sgts Mess
Warboys
Hunts
Sgts Mess
Wyton
Hunts
Sgts Mess
Graveley
Hunts
[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
Arthur Pearce Diary 1944
Description
An account of the resource
Memorandum items addresses of friends and acquaintances, mentions many days/evenings out and what sort of time he had in Belfast, Lincoln, Gainsborough and many others. Mentions various journeys and postings, lists birthdays. Jots down daily activities and feelings. Mentions crew and other he flew with and comments about them. Entries for days flying and activity. Entries for news of acquaintances and colleagues, some of whom were killed. Mentions posting to 12 Squadron at RAF Wickenby, 170 Squadron at RAF Dunholme Lodge and to RAF Warboys for Pathfinders. mentions many targets from August to December 1944.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A Pearce
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Multi-page booklet with handwritten entries
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
YPearceAT1874945v4
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Yorkshire
England--Doncaster
England--Lincolnshire
England--Cambridgeshire
Northern Ireland--Belfast
England--Staffordshire
France
France--Pas-de-Calais
France--Calais
France--Le Havre
France--Falaise
England--Lincoln
Netherlands
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Germany
Germany--Cologne
Poland
Poland--Szczecin
Germany--Bonn
Germany--Essen
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Neuss
Germany--Soest
Germany--Rheine
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Düsseldorf
Great Britain
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-08-11
1944-08-12
1944-08-25
1944-08-29
1944-09-03
1944-09-05
1944-09-12
1944-09-16
1944-09-20
1944-09-23
1944-09-25
1944-09-26
1944-10-19
1944-10-25
1944-10-22
1944-10-28
1944-10-30
1944-10-31
1944-11-02
1944-11-30
1944-12-21
1944-12-05
1944-02-16
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
Steve Christian
David Bloomfield
12 Squadron
170 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bombing
Pathfinders
RAF Dunholme Lodge
RAF Hixon
RAF Sandtoft
RAF Warboys
RAF Wickenby