1
25
32
-
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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
Saunders, Ernest John. Album 1
Description
An account of the resource
A history of Sam Saunders RAF experiences complete with a biography. It is presented in an album.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Penny Thicket
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-02-13
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Saunders, EJ
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[black and white photograph}
Daddy, Papoos, Sam, left us some fascinating bits and pieces from his time in the War; there are many early photographs, notes, a logbook and scraps of paper, everything from telegrams, to newspaper clippings. He also talked a little about the war years but never with great detail or particular pride, with some effort he was encouraged to list significant events. What follows here is his story, no doubt with many gaps and mistakes but also with some amazing adventures.
The photographs came mainly from the years 1941 to 43, once involved in flying in Mosquitos he was far too busy to take more, that's until he met Mummy. But the log book takes up the flying story and tells us what he got up to.
It seems extraordinary that early on he had a camera at all; he hardly ever took pictures in later life and yet here it's almost as if he had a camera with him all the time.
It was Daddy's Log Book that helped to piece things together and give a sense of order to the pictures, it was a great starting point and should have been handed back at the end of the war. The RAF museum at Hendon took a copy of the logbook and helped in ordering events and then there were some notes written by Daddy himself.
[page break]
[four black and white photographs]
So here is the family, it must be about 1940. Mother, Francis and Father, Sidney and sister Marjorie looking like they are really happy together, Daddy is seen cycling in an Egg and Spoon race! He was a member of the National Cycling Union, we have his badges for that.
He knew Croydon and London, he cycled, he had a warm and happy family and he was bright. He was a scholarship boy with school reports that showed him to be clever, over talkative and sometimes badly behaved. On leaving school he went to Southampton and started training in the Civil Service as a Customs and Excise Officer, he lived in the YMCA.
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
EJ Saunders
Description
An account of the resource
A biography written by his daughter about her father. It describes his early years but mainly his time in the RAF.
Photo 1 is of EJ Saunders.
Photo 2 is EJ Saunders cycling on an egg and spoon race.
Photo 3 is his Mother, Francis and Father.
Photo 4 is a cycling race.
Photo 5 is his sister, Marjorie.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Penny Thickett
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2013-10
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five b/w photographs
Two printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Text. Personal research
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BThickettPSaundersEJv10003
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Croydon
England--London
England--Southampton
England--Hampshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
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
Jan Waller
Mosquito
RAF Hendon
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1627/25333/BThickettPSaundersEJv10013.1.jpg
0ce8f332b3bd9193f6f3057b40381e3a
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
Saunders, Ernest John. Album 1
Description
An account of the resource
A history of Sam Saunders RAF experiences complete with a biography. It is presented in an album.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Penny Thicket
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-02-13
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Saunders, EJ
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[three photographs]
Here are the shoe shine boys in Cairo, the local lido and The Nile.
[photograph]
The Second Battle of El Alamein took place over 13 days from 23rd October to 4th November 1942 and the Allies’ victory marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. The Allied victory turned the tide in the North African Campaign and ended Axis hopes of occupying Egypt, tak-ing control of the Suez Canal, and gaining access to the Middle Eastern and Persian oil fields. By the end of October Daddy’s total flying hours were 283.45 by day and 283.40 by night.
In November and December 1942 he occasionally flew in Hudson bombers as well as the Halifaxes, Opera-tions 31 to 45. There were attacks on Daba on the Fuka Road, Tunis and Elmas aerodromes, docks and jetties in Tunisia and then on to to [sic] Malta. He was finally taken as a passenger from Malta to Benghasi, [sic] El Adem and on to Shallufa, north of Cairo.
[page break]
Between the 4th and the 24th of January 1942, Flight Lieutenant E J Saunders travelled with British Airways from Cairo to Poole in Dorset. This took 13 separate flights. An astonishing set of connections with him as a passenger, he went from Cairo to Wadi Halfa (Egypt) to Khartoum (Sudan) to Malakal to Laropi to Stanley-ville (Belgian Congo) to Coquihatville to Leopoldville to Libreville (French West Africa) to Lagos (Nigeria) to Bathurst (Gambia) to Lisbon (Portugal) to Foynes (Eire) to Poole. We have no idea why he went on this ex-traordinary journey; perhaps many airmen travelled this way in order to take up leave. One of the planes was RMA, BA Bangor (A flying boat) and the other RMA BA Carpentaria (RMA, Royal Mail Aircraft). These long range clippers were American Boeing 314s and servedBA then BOAC when BA joined Imperial Airways in 1939.
At this point he was awarded his DFC, The Distinguished Flying Cross for “an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against the enemy”.
In [sic] 25th January 1943 he completed a Decompression Test and after a brief time with 16 Operational Training Unit (OTU) carrying out special navigational training, he moved to24 Squadron where he stayed until the end of June.
Initially there were Special Navigational flights in Wellingtons and Hudsons, practising cross-country naviga-tion flying out of Hendon Approach, which is now the RAF museum at Hendon.
Then came daytime transport flights in Hudsons and Dakotas out to Maison Blanche (Algeria) and RAF Castel Benito (late RAF Idris) near Tripoli in Libya, and to Malta and Tunisia. Then in Dakotas and Hudsons, he was flying the same long North African routes across RAF bases and through the Mediterranean sometimes out of Portreath in Scotland. These were mainly transport flights but occasionally carried VIPs. The same destina-tions; Blida, Maison Blanche, Luqa, Casablanca, Oujda, La Senia, Gibraltar, Ain Oussera. There were frequent-ly several flights a day with flying time from 15 minutes to 3 hours.
Total Flying Hours to date were an astonishing 653.15 by day and 471.55 by night.
[photograph]
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Sam Saunders in Egypt
Description
An account of the resource
These pages are mostly biography of Sam's time in Egypt and his time with transport aircraft in the Mediterranean region.
Photos 1, 2 and 3 are scenes from Cairo.
Photo 4 is a side head and shoulders profile of Sam.
Photo 5 is a Battle aircraft in flight.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Penny Thicket
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2013-10
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two printed sheets with five photographs
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Text. Personal research
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BThickettPSaundersEJv10013
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Algeria
Algeria--Algiers
Algeria--Blida
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Congo (Democratic Republic)--Kisangani
Congo (Democratic Republic)--Mbandaka
Egypt
Egypt--Cairo
Egypt--Suez
Great Britain
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Poole (Dorset)
Gabon
Gabon--Libreville
Gambia
Gibraltar
Ireland
Ireland--Limerick (County)
Libya
Libya--Tripoli
Malta
Morocco
Morocco--Casablanca
Morocco--Oujda
Nigeria
Nigeria--Lagos
Portugal
Portugal--Lisbon
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Congo (Democratic Republic)--Kinshasa
Sudan
Sudan--Khartoum
South Sudan
South Sudan--Malakal
Tunisia
Uganda
North Africa
Egypt--Alamayn
Gambia--Banjul
Sudan--Ḥalfāʼ al-Jadīdah
Libya--Banghāzī
Congo (Democratic Republic)
England--Dorset
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-10
1942-11
1942-12
1943-01
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
aircrew
Battle
bombing
C-47
Distinguished Flying Cross
Halifax
Hudson
navigator
Operational Training Unit
RAF Hendon
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1627/25335/BThickettPSaundersEJv10015.2.jpg
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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
Saunders, Ernest John. Album 1
Description
An account of the resource
A history of Sam Saunders RAF experiences complete with a biography. It is presented in an album.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Penny Thicket
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-02-13
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Saunders, EJ
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
During January 1944 he was based in North Weald, Hendon and Boxted flying War Operations 48 to 53 and bombing across Germany; Hamburg, Duisberg, Magdeburg, Berlin, dropping 500lb bombs.
In February he moved to 692 Squadron and stayed there until the end of August 1944. This Squadron was specifically involved in bombing into Germany and Berlin, Daddy carried out one of the first drops of a 1x 400lb bomb. Then there was the bombing of Frankfurt, Berlin and Augsberg.
“In February 1944, an entirely Mosquito raid was successfully carried out against Düsseldorf. It was formed of the usual marker aircraft from 105 Squadron, 692 Squadron Mosquitos each carrying a single 4,000 lb 'cookie' and backup aircraft with 500 lb delayed action bombs.”
692 Squadron was formed at Graveley, Huntingdonshire on 1st January 1944. It was equipped with Mosquito light bombers and became part of the force of fast, high-flying night raiders, the Light Night Striking Force of No 8 (PFF) Group. They made a name for themselves with regular journeys to Berlin, hitting the German capital again and again with up to 4 x 500 lb bombs.
Total Flying Hours to date 793.40 by day and 533.50 by night.
Through March and April 1944, with a few flights with 571 Squadron, the 400lb 'cookie' bombs were being dropped regularly, firstly and famously over Düsseldorf as well as Hannover, Hamburg and Dortmund.
The Drops continued into August, attacking Cologne, Berlin, Bremmen, Metz, Saarbruchen, Hannover, Gelsenkirchen, Osnabruck and Stuttgart. The bombing was relentless and by the end of August he had flown more than 10 times to Berlin, dropping bombs.
By Operation 97 there are details of accuracy of the bombing, errors being 260 to 99 yards at 20,000 feet and some flights are specifically 'dummy' ones, either in the UK or across other regions of Germany, practising for the major bomb drops.
[page break]
[black and white photograph]
692 Squadron.
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
Sam Saunders 692 Squadron
Description
An account of the resource
Details of Sam's operations with 692 squadron, mainly against German cities.
There is a photograph of the squadron arranged in front of two Mosquitoes.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Penny Thickett
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2013-10
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One printed sheet and one b/w photograph
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Text. Personal research
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BThickettPSaundersEJv10015
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.
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Augsburg
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Bremen
France--Metz
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Stuttgart
Great Britain
England--Colchester
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Saarbrücken
France
Germany
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Essex
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-01
1944-02
1944-03
1944-04
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
Jan Waller
105 Squadron
571 Squadron
692 Squadron
8 Group
bombing
Mosquito
Pathfinders
RAF Graveley
RAF Hendon
RAF North Weald
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2573/44638/BUreILUreILv2.2.pdf
a87581cb66c4d8dae556d3359dde9c1b
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
Ure, Ivan Lochlyn
I L Ure
Description
An account of the resource
27 items. The collection concerns Ivan Lochlyn Ure (b. 1922, 1323004 Royal Air Force) and contains his memoirs, prisoner of war log, correspondence, documents, and photographs. He flew operations as an air gunner with 10 Squadron before he became a prisoner of war.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Tim and Heather Wright and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-08-15
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ure, IL
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
The Years up to the Outbreak of the Second World War and How it Affected Me
Description
An account of the resource
A part autobiography of Ivan's pre-war life.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ivan Ure
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Wales--Colwyn Bay
England--London
England--Lancing
England--Blackpool
Scotland--Edzell
Scotland--Arbroath
England--Whitley Bay
Germany
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Nuremberg
France
France--Le Tréport
France--Abbeville
France--Paris
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Lithuania--Klaipėda
Poland--Świnoujście
Poland--Białogard
Europe--Elbe River
Germany--Lüneburg
Germany--Rheine
Germany--Dresden
Lithuania--Klaipėda
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Royal Air Force
Polskie Siły Powietrzne
United States Army Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
23 printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BUreILUreILv2
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.
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
10 Squadron
4 Group
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
Anson
B-24
Blenheim
bomb aimer
bombing
Botha
Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940)
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
crewing up
ditching
Dominie
Dulag Luft
flight engineer
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
Halifax
Halifax Mk 1
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Ju 88
lack of moral fibre
Lancaster
Lysander
Me 109
Me 110
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
navigator
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
prisoner of war
Proctor
RAF Barrow in Furness
RAF Hendon
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Madley
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Melbourne
RAF Padgate
RAF Wittering
RAF Yatesbury
Red Cross
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
Spitfire
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 6
Stalin, Joseph (1878-1953)
Stirling
the long march
training
Typhoon
Wallis, Barnes Neville (1887-1979)
Wellington
Whitley
wireless operator / air gunner
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2573/44630/BUreILUreILv1.2.pdf
33ef94d4b6b42cee0b9e403dc49f120a
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
Ure, Ivan Lochlyn
I L Ure
Description
An account of the resource
27 items. The collection concerns Ivan Lochlyn Ure (b. 1922, 1323004 Royal Air Force) and contains his memoirs, prisoner of war log, correspondence, documents, and photographs. He flew operations as an air gunner with 10 Squadron before he became a prisoner of war.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Tim and Heather Wright and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-08-15
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ure, IL
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
... just ... Chapters in a Life .. and some History
Description
An account of the resource
A detailed autobiography by Ivan Ure.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ivan Ure
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1997
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Isle of Wight
Norway
Scotland--Argyllshire
England--Yorkshire
England--Sussex
England--Westbourne (West Sussex)
England--London
England--Hayling Island
England--Evenley
England--Somerset
England--Blackpool
Germany
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Nuremberg
France
France--Abbeville
France--Paris
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Poland
Poland--Gdańsk
Lithuania
Lithuania--Šilutė
Lithuania--Klaipėda
Poland--Szczecin
Poland--Białogard
Poland--Pyrzyce (Powiat)
Germany--Lauenburg
Germany--Lüneburg
Germany--Rheine
England--London
Germany--Dresden
Ireland
Ireland--Dublin
Ireland--Cork
Austria
Austria--Vienna
Libya
Libya--Tripoli
Libya--Banghāzī
Egypt
Egypt--Cairo
Egypt--Jīzah
Egypt--Port Said
Kuwait
Bahrain
Iran
Iran--Tehran
Scotland--Oban
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
Polskie Siły Powietrzne
Royal Navy
Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
140 printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BUreILUreILv1
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.
10 Squadron
4 Group
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
bale out
Blenheim
bomb aimer
Botha
Cheshire, Geoffrey Leonard (1917-1992)
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
crewing up
Defiant
ditching
Dominie
Dulag Luft
entertainment
flight engineer
Goldfish Club
ground personnel
Halifax
Hampden
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Hurricane
Ju 88
Lancaster
Lysander
Me 109
Me 110
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
navigator
Operational Training Unit
perception of bombing war
physical training
pilot
prisoner of war
Proctor
radar
RAF Barrow in Furness
RAF Brize Norton
RAF Cosford
RAF Hendon
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Madley
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Melbourne
RAF Padgate
RAF Sywell
RAF Uxbridge
RAF Yatesbury
Red Cross
Spitfire
sport
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 6
Stirling
the long march
training
Typhoon
Wellington
wireless operator / air gunner
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/559/42906/BBlacklockGBBlacklockGBv1.2.pdf
1141bb2ce07d176fdab70288e3d24b89
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Stephenson, Stuart
Stuart Stephenson MBE
S Stephenson
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Stephenson, S
Description
An account of the resource
20 items. An oral history interview with Stuart Stephenson MBE, Chairman of the Lincs-Lancaster Association, and issues of 5 Group News.
The collection was catalogued by Barry Hunter.
In accordance with the conditions stipulated by the donor, some items are available only at the International Bomber Command Centre / University of Lincoln.
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.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Half a Life, Half Remembered
An Autobiography by Group Captain GB Blacklock
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BBlacklockGBBlacklockGBv1
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
GB Blacklock
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
England--Skipton
Scotland--Bedrule
England--Northumberland
England--Yorkshire
England--London
England--Appleby-in-Westmorland
Egypt--Alexandria
Egypt--Aboukir Bay
England--Chester
England--Newmarket (Suffolk)
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Guernsey
France--Marseille
Northern Ireland
Scotland--Montrose
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Wangerooge Island
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Borkum
England--Wisbeach
England--Weybridge
Norway--Bergen
Norway--Stavanger
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Netherlands--Rotterdam
France--Givet
Belgium
France--Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais)
France--Hazebrouck
France--Dunkerque
France--Socx
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Karlsruhe
France--Salon-de-Provence
Italy--Genoa
Germany--Essen
Germany--Lünen
Wales--Hawarden
Germany--Baden-Baden
England--Eastleigh
Scotland--Stranraer
England--Doncaster
France--Brest
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Emden (Lower Saxony)
Germany--Lingen (Lower Saxony)
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Magdeburg
France--La Pallice
Germany--Karlsruhe
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Description
An account of the resource
From his youth to the award of his DFC by the King.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
87 printed sheets
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
101 Squadron
115 Squadron
12 Squadron
142 Squadron
148 Squadron
149 Squadron
15 Squadron
2 Group
3 Group
311 Squadron
4 Group
5 Group
7 Squadron
9 Squadron
99 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
Blenheim
bomb aimer
bombing
Boston
Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940)
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
entertainment
fitter airframe
flight engineer
Flying Training School
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
Gneisenau
ground personnel
Halifax
Hampden
hangar
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Harrow
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Hudson
Hurricane
incendiary device
Lancaster
love and romance
Magister
Manchester
Me 109
Me 110
mess
military living conditions
military service conditions
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
Mosquito
navigator
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
observer
Operational Training Unit
Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
pilot
radar
RAF Benson
RAF Boscombe Down
RAF Catterick
RAF Cosford
RAF Cranwell
RAF Debden
RAF Duxford
RAF Finningley
RAF Grantham
RAF Halton
RAF Hendon
RAF Henlow
RAF Honington
RAF Leeming
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Manston
RAF Mildenhall
RAF Netheravon
RAF Newmarket
RAF Oakington
RAF Sealand
RAF Silloth
RAF South Cerney
RAF St Eval
RAF Stradishall
RAF Tangmere
RAF Upavon
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Uxbridge
RAF Waddington
RAF Warmwell
RAF Waterbeach
RAF West Freugh
RAF West Raynham
RAF Wittering
RAF Wyton
Scharnhorst
shot down
Spitfire
sport
Stirling
Tiger Moth
training
Wallis, Barnes Neville (1887-1979)
Wellington
Whitley
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2198/40503/MAnkersonR[Ser -DoB]-180129-610001.jpg
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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Royal Air Force ex-Prisoner of War Association
Description
An account of the resource
97 items. The collection concerns Royal Air Force ex-Prisoner of War Association and contains items including drawings by the artist Ley Kenyon.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Robert Ankerson and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-01-29
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RAF ex POW As Collection
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
A 'Long March' of Discovery: Zagan to Spremberg, January 2010
Description
An account of the resource
Written by his daughter, the article details her research into her father's incarceration.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pat Jackson
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2010-01
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Netherlands--Dokkum
Poland
Germany--Spremberg
Germany--Bad Fallingbostel
Europe--Oder River
Poland--Żagań
Netherlands
Lithuania--Šilutė
Germany
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MAnkersonR[Ser#-DoB]-180129-610001,
MAnkersonR[Ser#-DoB]-180129-610002,
MAnkersonR[Ser#-DoB]-180129-610003,
MAnkersonR[Ser#-DoB]-180129-610004
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
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
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
2010-01
77 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
Goering, Hermann (1893-1946)
navigator
prisoner of war
propaganda
RAF Hendon
RAF Leeming
shot down
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 6
the long march
Whitley
Window
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1998/38072/MOates1489926-171207-17.1.jpg
cb46a4a423958f2ec6bb6b7168219855
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Oates, James
J Oates
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
2017-12-07
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
Oates, J
Description
An account of the resource
91 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer James Oates (1489926 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents and photographs. He flew paratrooper drops and glider towing operations as a navigator with 196 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Gina E Welsh and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
Guy Gibson's Log Book Extract
Description
An account of the resource
An extract from Guy's logbook for May 1943. It ends on May 16 with 'Awarded VC'.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Germany--Möhne River Dam
Germany--Eder Dam
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One photocopied sheet
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MOates1489926-171207-17
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-16
1943-05-17
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.
617 Squadron
Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation (16–17 May 1943)
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
Lancaster
Oxford
RAF Hendon
RAF Manston
Victoria Cross
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/934/36536/MLovattP1821369-190903-75.2.pdf
51c3fbced3b1e3bd9c7237f2cb79c94a
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Lovatt, Peter
Dr Peter Lovatt
P Lovatt
Description
An account of the resource
117 items. An oral history interview with Peter Lovatt (b.1924, 1821369 Royal Air Force), his log book, documents, and photographs. The collection also contains two photograph albums. He flew 42 operations as an air gunner on 223 Squadron flying B-24s. <br /><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/1338">Album One</a><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2135">Album Two</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Nina and Peter Lovatt 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
2017-09-27
2019-09-03
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
Lovatt, P
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
A Reminiscence of the Flying Characteristics of Many Old Type Aircraft
Description
An account of the resource
A detailed analysis of very early aircraft and their flying characteristics.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Air Marshall Sir Ralph Sorley
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Felixstowe
England--Eastbourne (East Sussex)
England--Calshot
England--Bembridge
Atlantic Ocean--Spithead Channel
England--Cowes
England--Stroud
Scotland--Montrose
England--Sunbury
England--London
Monaco
Egypt--Cairo
Iraq--Baghdad
England--Felixstowe
England--Aldeburgh
Iraq
Middle East--Kurdistan
Middle East--Palestine
Jordan
Iran
Middle East--Euphrates River
Syria
Yemen (Republic)--Aden
Singapore
Australia
Borneo
China--Hong Kong
England--Kent
United States
New York (State)--New York
France--Paris
Nigeria
South Africa--Cape Town
Yugoslavia
Norway
Portugal
Spain
Denmark
Japan
Belgium
Argentina
Austria
Brazil
Canada
Chile
Greece
China
Lithuania
Estonia
England--Weybridge
Scotland--Island of Arran
England--Kingston upon Thames
France--Dunkerque
England--Hatfield (Hertfordshire)
Newfoundland and Labrador
New Brunswick
Maine
Maine--Presque Isle
Washington (D.C.)
Massachusetts--Boston
Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
Maryland--Baltimore
Washington (D.C.)--Anacostia
Tennessee--Nashville
Arkansas--Little Rock
Texas--Dallas
Texas--Fort Worth
Texas--Midland
Arizona--Tucson
California--Burbank (Los Angeles County)
California--Palm Springs
California--Los Angeles
California--Beverly Hills
California--San Diego
Arizona--Winslow
New Mexico--Albuquerque
Kansas--Wichita
Missouri--Saint Louis
Ohio--Dayton
New York (State)--Buffalo
Ontario--Toronto
Québec--Montréal
Newfoundland and Labrador--Gander
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Germany--Rheine
Germany--Osnabrück
India
Switzerland--Zurich
Lebanon--Beirut
Pakistan--Karachi
India--Kolkata
Singapore
Indonesia--Jakarta
Australia
Northern Territory--Darwin
New South Wales--Sydney
South Australia--Woomera
South Australia--Adelaide
Victoria--Melbourne
Sri Lanka--Colombo
Spain--Madrid
South Africa--Johannesburg
Kenya--Nairobi
Sudan--Khartoum
Greece--Athens
Italy--Rome
Zambia--Lusaka
Zambia--Ndola
Zambia--Mbala
Heathrow Airport (London, England)
Turkey--Istanbul
France--Nice
Utah--Salt Lake City
Italy--Genoa
Atlantic Ocean--Firth of Clyde
Italy
France
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Kansas
Maryland
Massachusetts
Missouri
New Mexico
New York (State)
Ohio
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
New South Wales
South Australia
Victoria
Northern Territory
Egypt
Sudan
North Africa
Ontario
Québec
Germany
Indonesia
Iraq
Kenya
Lebanon
Netherlands
South Africa
Switzerland
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Turkey
Yemen (Republic)
Czech Republic
Slovakia
England--Gloucestershire
England--Hampshire
England--Herefordshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Suffolk
England--Surrey
England--Sussex
England--Great Yarmouth
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 Navy
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
82 typewritten sheets
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1971-08-16
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
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MLovattP1821369-190903-75
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
aircrew
Anson
B-17
B-24
Battle
Blenheim
C-47
Chadwick, Roy (1893-1947)
Defiant
Dominie
Fw 190
ground crew
Halifax
Harvard
Hudson
Hurricane
Lancaster
Lincoln
Lysander
Magister
Manchester
Me 109
Mosquito
Oxford
Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
pilot
Proctor
RAF Boscombe Down
RAF Eastchurch
RAF Hendon
RAF Henlow
RAF Martlesham Heath
RAF North Killingholme
RAF Pembrey
RAF Prestwick
RAF West Freugh
Spitfire
Stirling
Swordfish
Tiger Moth
training
Wallis, Barnes Neville (1887-1979)
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1881/36451/SChristianAL29160v10070.2.jpg
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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Christian, Arnold Louis
A L Christian
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
2017-06-26
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
Christian, AL
Description
An account of the resource
93 items. The collection concerns Wing Commander <span>Arnold Louis</span> <span>Christian </span>(1906 - 1941, 29160 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents and photographs. He flew operation as a pilot with 105 Squadron and was killed 8 May 1941.<br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Steven Christian and catalogued by Barry Hunter.<br /><br />Additional information on <span>Arnold Louis</span> <span>Christian</span> is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/204958/">IBCC Losses Database.</a>
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Wing Commander Arnold Louis Christian, RAF, was posted missing as the result of air operations against enemy shipping in the area of Stavanger harbor, Norway, on Thursday 8th May 1941 and later, for government purposes, presumed killed in action as a result of those operations.
At the time of his death he left a widow, Catherine Allan Christian, less than one month past her 30th birthday, and three young children under the age of eight – Brian Arnold, Derek Allan & June Margaret.
As the Commanding Officer of No 105 Bomber Squadron he was responsible for some 20 Bristol Blenheim mark IV bomber aircraft each with 3 crew members, plus the associated ground crews. The squadron was part of No 2 Group, Bomber Command, the only major command in the British forces at that time capable of, and so instructed by Winston Churchill, to take the war directly to the enemy.
During the latter part of 1940 the squadron, which was based at RAF Swanton Morley, near East Dereham, Norfolk, was carrying out night bombing operations against enemy aerodromes in occupied Europe, and against other targets including Hamburg & Boulogne. In early 1941 No 2 Group was tasked to concentrate on attacking enemy shipping and coastal targets in Western Norway and the Heligoland Bight area of Germany & Holland.
As a result, the Commanding Officer of 105 Squadron had to rapidly retrain his crews to convert from medium level night bombing of land targets to low level daylight bombing of shipping – sometimes down as low as 50 feet above sea level. It was a wholly new discipline for the crews. The Blenheim aircraft were already obsolete and not satisfactory for the task but were all the nation and the air force had for the job. In early May 1941, 105 Squadron temporarily detached from its home base at Swanton Morley and relocated to RAF Lossiemouth near Elgin on the Moray Firth, Scotland, so that they could be closer to enemy targets in Norway.
At 05:10 on Thursday 8th May 1941, six Blenheim aircraft of 105 Squadron led by their CO lifted from Lossiemouth and turned east for the Norwegian coast at Stavanger. To the crews, that area was known as Beat 2 and their job was to attack any enemy shipping found there. Three aircraft at the northern end of the beat area returned to Lossiemouth having found no shipping. The remaining three aircraft, one being that of the CO, found a convoy of 20 ships, including six flak ships, at the southern end of the beat area and the engagement began. After the attack, the CO’s aircraft was seen to have been hit, with the port (left) engine ablaze, and descending toward the surface. Witnessed by a Norwegian fisherman, Herr Leidland, it crashed into the sea at the entrance to the Hardangerfjiord to the north of Stavanger. The same fisherman recovered a flying boot from one of the crew, Flight Sergeant Hancock, (it had his name in it), and handed it over at the end of the war. Nothing else was recovered from the crash area. The remaining two aircraft returned safely to Lossiemouth.
The CO of 105 Squadron was a regular RAF officer having joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot in 1930. He had flown aerobatics in some of the popular Hendon air displays of the 30’s, and in 1935 was sent to Atbara in the British Protectorate of Sudan for 9 months during the insurrection there.
In October 1939 he was the navigator on the maiden flight of the Handley Page Halifax heavy bomber from RAF Bicester, Oxfordshire, and carried out further trials with the aircraft.
In 1940 he was twice mentioned in dispatches to HM King George VI for gallant and distinguished action.
Bomber Command losses were disproportionately high with No 2 Group losses the highest within Bomber Command. Of all major British commands, Bomber Command lost the most men at some 55000+. Of these, 20000 including the Commanding Officer of 105 Squadron, Wing Commander Arnold Louis Christian, have no known resting place. His name, along with those others, is inscribed at the Royal Air Forces Memorial, near Runnymede.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
105 Squadron and Arnold Christian
Description
An account of the resource
A brief biography of Arnold and his time with 105 Squadron.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Norway--Stavanger
Germany--Hamburg
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
Atlantic Ocean--Helgoland Bight
Great Britain
Scotland--Elgin
Norway--Hardanger
England--Runnymede
France
Sudan
North Africa
Germany
Norway
England--Surrey
Sudan--ʻAṭbarah
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Format
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One typewritten sheet
Identifier
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SChristianAL29160v10070
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 Baldwin
105 Squadron
2 Group
aircrew
Blenheim
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
crash
Halifax
killed in action
navigator
pilot
RAF Hendon
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Swanton Morley
shot down
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1881/36292/SChristianAL29160v10037-0001.1.jpg
dfcd727b48e65a07a8ef89f36a0c393e
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1881/36292/SChristianAL29160v10037-0002.1.jpg
0829e0cfe53817f6dff75fe5a6b228ec
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
Christian, Arnold Louis
A L Christian
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
2017-06-26
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
Christian, AL
Description
An account of the resource
93 items. The collection concerns Wing Commander <span>Arnold Louis</span> <span>Christian </span>(1906 - 1941, 29160 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents and photographs. He flew operation as a pilot with 105 Squadron and was killed 8 May 1941.<br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Steven Christian and catalogued by Barry Hunter.<br /><br />Additional information on <span>Arnold Louis</span> <span>Christian</span> is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/204958/">IBCC Losses Database.</a>
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
ARNOLD LOUIS CHRISTIAN
Grandpa’s early life has been covered, such as is known, in earlier narratives in this history. From here it will be covered from 1929.
Around this time he was in Newcastle Upon Tyne to investigate the possibility of opening a second branch of the family motor business and it was here that he met grannie, (Catherine Allan Cordner). Grandpa was lodging in the house of a friend of grannie’s grandmother – also called Catherina Allan Cordner. The story from grannie herself is that she had been ill and that she needed gentle exercise in the form of walking and outside air to aid recovery. It was suggested by grandpa’s landlady that he would prove a suitable walking companion for grannie. Gt. Gt. Grandma Catherine thought him such a nice young man that no chaperone would be needed at any time they were together.
While in Newcastle, grandpa entered a newspaper competition the first prize for which was a flying lesson. He duly won the competition and the flying lesson prize. From then on flying it was to be and he left the family business to join the Royal Air Force as a pilot.
After initial entry training at the RAF training depot, RAF Uxbridge, London, he was gazetted into the RAF in October 1930. From there it was to No 3 Flying Training School at RAF Grantham, Lincolnshire for pilot training. After successfully graduating with his ‘wings’ from Grantham, he was posted as a fighter pilot to No 54 Fighter Squadron at RAF Hornchurch, Essex in September 1931. On 27th September 1932 he married grannie at St. Marks Church, Birkenhead. A year later their first child, Brian was born at Hornchurch followed just over eighteen months later by their second, Derek, also at Hornchurch. Grannie told me the story of when, while at RAF Sealand, she and grandpa held a dinner at home for fellow squadron officers. One of these was a chap called John Grandy who, upon arriving late for dinner at the front door asked how he could atone. Grandpa jokingly said he could ‘crawl the path from the front gate to the front door and beg (grannie) for forgiveness.’ This Grandy proceeded to do. This very junior officer ended up as Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Grandy, Knight of the Order of the Bath, and who held such posts as Chief of the Air Staff, Governor of Gibraltar, and Governor & Constable of Windsor Castle.
During the 1930’s air displays at Hendon Aerodrome drew large crowds. Grannie told me tha [sic] grandpa was involved in some of these while based at Hornchurch, often doing the aerobatic elements of the displays. For a period of eight months between 1935 and 1936, grannie and grandpa were separated when grandpa was sent to the then British Protectorate of the Sudan in support of Britain’s peacekeeping and security role. That must have been quite tough on both of them but especially grannie with two very young children. Back in England, grandpa was posted to No 218 (Bomber) squadron at RAF Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire and it was here, in June 1937, their third child, June Margaret, was born. At the time grandpa was away at the RAF Central Flying School, RAF Upavon, Wiltshire, where he was completing flying instructor training. His next main posting was to No 5 Flying Training School at RAF Sealand in Nth Wales, where he was a flying instructor commanding No 5 flight at the school. At the end of his time at RAF Sealand he was promoted to Squadron Leader and posted to RAF Debden near Saffron Walden in Essex. Next, in September 1939, it was to RAF Bicester in Oxfordshire where the family moved into 556 Banbury Road, Oxford. This was to be home for the next twenty years or so before a short move to Woodstock Road, Oxford.
In October of 1939 grandpa acted as navigator on the maiden flight of a new heavy bomber, the Handley Page Halifax. He also flew as part of the crew on a number of further test flights conducted at Bicester. From October 1939 to April 1940 grandpa was Officer Commanding ‘B’ Flight with No 104 squadron at Bicester and, from April 1940 to November 1940 was first an instructor and then Chief Flying Instructor, on No 13 OTU, (Operational Training Unit), also at Bicester. A good friend, contemporary and his predecessor as Chief Flying Instructor was Squadron Leader Sam Elworthy. This officer also went on to have a most illustrious career becoming a Marshal of the RAF, Chief of the Defence Staff, Chief of the Air Staff, Knight of the Garter and, eventually, receiving a peerage as the Baron Elworthy. Grannie can be forgiven for feeling that life had not been fortunate for her and grandpa, which she indicated to me on one occasion, when compared to the success of some of his juniors and cotemporaries, and which too could have been grandpa’s had he been lucky to survive. On 25 November 1940 he was posted to No 105 Squadron, an operational Blenheim bomber squadron at RAF Swanton Morley, near East Dereham, Norfolk. On Christmas Eve 1940 he was promoted to the rank of Wing Commander and became the commanding Officer of the squadron.
Grandpa, commanding an operational squadron, flew a number of operational sorties and these included attacks on Boulogne, night operations against Hamburg and against enemy airfields. On 5th May 1941, grandpa led a number of aircraft from RAF Swanton Morley to RAF Lossiemouth on the Moray Firth in Scotland. The squadron had been tasked to carry out anti-shipping operations against the enemy operating along the Norwegian coast and RAF Lossiemouth was the nearest airfield to this target area. On the 8th May, with five other aircraft, grandpa lifted off and turned east for the
[page break]
enemy coast at Stavanger, Norway. He didn’t return from this last operation and his aircraft was last seen off the Norwegian coast with its port, (left), engine in flames. The action claimed one German submarine hunter, UJ 173 sunk and another, UJ 179 damaged. Grandpa’s aircraft was believed hit by German minesweeper M84.
Arnold Louis Christian – RAF Career Dateline
10 Oct 1930 – 24 Oct 1930 – RAF Depot, RAF Uxbridge, for initial entry to the Royal Air Force.
24 Oct 1930 – 22 Sep 1931 – No 3 FTS (Flying Training School), RAF Grantham, Lincs, for pilot training.
22 Sep 1931 – 19 Sep 1935 – No 54 Fighter Squadron, RAF Hornchurch, Essex.
20 Sep 1935 – 14 Oct 1935 – No 207 Bomber Squadron, RAF Bircham Newton, Norfolk, for embarkation to Sudan.
15 Oct 1935 – 31 Jan 1936 – No 207 Squadron, Ed Damer, Sudan.
01 Feb 1936 – 29 Aug 1936 – No 4 Air Patrol, Atbara, Sudan.
30 Aug 1936 – 27 Sep 1936 – No 207 Squadron, Worthy Down, Wiltshire.
28 Sep 1936 – 21 Oct 1936 – RAF Depot, RAF Uxbridge.
22 Oct 1936 – 25 Apr 1937 – No 218 Light Bomber Squadron, RAF Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire.
26 Apr 1937 – 10 Jul 1937 – CFS (Central Flying School), RAF Upavon, Wiltshire, for Flying Instructor Training.
11 Jul 1937 – 20 Sep 1937 – No 6 FTS (Flying Training School), RAF Netheravon, Wiltshire for Instructor consolidation.
21 Sep 1937 – 20 Nov 1938 – No 5 FTS, RAF Sealand Flintshire, Nth Wales. Flying Instructor.
21 Nov 1938 – 19 Sep 1939 – Station Headquarters, RAF Debden, Essex. On promotion to Squadron Leader.
20 Sep 1939 – 02 Oct 1939 – No 108 Squadron, RAF Bicester, Oxfordshire.
03 Oct 1939 – 07 Apr 1940 – No 104 Squadron, RAF Bicester, Oxfordshire.
08 Apr 1940 – 24 Nov 1940 – No 13 OTU (Operational Training Unit), RAF Bicester, as Chief Flying Instructor.
25 Nov 1940 – 08 May 1941 – No 105 Squadron, RAF Swanton Morley, Norfolk, promoted to Wing Commander 24th Dec, as Commanding Officer.
8th May 1941 – Posted as missing in action off Stavanger, Norway, presumed killed.
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
Arnold Louis Christian's Biography
Description
An account of the resource
A biography written by his grandson, covering from 1929 to 1941.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Newcastle upon Tyne
England--London
England--Grantham
England--Birkenhead
England--Oxford
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
Norway--Stavanger
Sudan
France
North Africa
Norway
England--Lancashire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Oxfordshire
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Text. Personal research
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SChristianAL29160v10037-0001, ChristianAL29160v10037-0002
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription. Under review
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
Tricia Marshall
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939-09
1939-10
1940
1941-05-08
104 Squadron
105 Squadron
13 OTU
207 Squadron
218 Squadron
aircrew
Blenheim
Flying Training School
Halifax
navigator
Operational Training Unit
RAF Bicester
RAF Bircham Newton
RAF Debden
RAF Grantham
RAF Hendon
RAF Hornchurch
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Netheravon
RAF Sealand
RAF Swanton Morley
RAF Upavon
RAF Upper Heyford
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1912/35969/MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-10.2.pdf
8adc0584fe9122033ffbde93777215e1
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
Hayhurst, Jose Margaret
J M Hayhurst
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
2017-07-25
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
Hayhurst, JM
Description
An account of the resource
108 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Jose Margaret Hayhurst (2073102 Royal Air Force) and contains decorations, uniform, documents and photographs. She served as a radar operator in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Andrew Whitehouse and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
DIVERSION
Being the Camp Magazine of R.A.F. Station, Wratting Common.
(Editors - F/L. Sole and P/O. Whyte).
[crest]
The price charged is to cover the cost of production only. Any excess will be given to the C.O.'s Benevolent Fund.
[page break]
CONTENTS.
Editorial – "Can you take it? – Page 2
Stolen Goods – Page 2
Foundation Stones, by the C.O. – Pages 3 & 4
Our 'Apply Family – Page 4
Sectional News – Page 5
We'll Live Again (Poem) – Page 5
Wingless Wonders – Page 6
What's On – Page 7
Dark Deeds – Page 8
Things we would like to Know – Page 8
Found in Camp Post Censor Check – Page 9
Poem – Page 10
The Escapist – Page 11
Worth Fighting For – Page 11
Gentlemen You May Smile – Page 12
[page break]
Editorial.
CAN YOU TAKE IT?
The first issue of [italics] Diversion [/italics] is out! Did you help to produce it? The material submitted for publication showed great promise, but there is unfortunately too much apathy and passive interest.
This is your Magazine, and in all seriousness unless you support it, it will fade out before it is under way. It is not enough to leave the work to others and then read our current copy. If you are unable to write anything tell us your ideas and we'll readily express them for you.
A number of ideas and features have been incorporated in this Magazine and we hope they will prove popular but we must have your help with items and suggestions for improvement. We want to increase the interest of our Diversion and make it really representative of all sections of the Camp. Please forgive our stern fatherly lecture, but we do want our Station Magazine to be at least as good as those published by other Stations, don't we?
The Station Commander has contributed to this, our first issue, and the Squadron Commander and other Senior Officers have promised to send us contributions for future editions.
Meanwhile, our thanks are due to all who have helped to produce this effort. Initial diffidence in the submission of material will soon be overcome and we ask you all to let us have anything and everything which you believe to be of interest. Starred items are regular features – please help us to keep them going.
One last word, if you send in something to us and are unable to find it in the next issue – remember – we must maintain a balance of the various types of articles and also – we can't send all our finest goods in one shipment!
* STOLEN GOODS.
[italic] Picturesque Speech and Patter (taken from "Readers Digest" for those who cannot afford the time or money to peruse the original items). [/italic]
"A fine mistry rain – 'feather rain' as we in China say" – Iian Suyin.
"The elms go down main street arm-in-arm" – George Bly Shaw.
"Brown wigwams of corn shocks" – R. H. Wilkinson.
"The rusty light of an autumn moon" – Karl Detzer
"The wind shuffled the crisp leaves and dealt them again" – Allyn L. Acosta.
"The sea like a piece of velvet, brushed the wrong way" – W. S. Maugham.
"I dropped in to drink it over" – Sam Justice.
"Wooden swearing – that's what my mother called it when we banged doors and slammed things" – Mae Wright.
"Machine guns gulping at the belts of bullets" – David Goodis.
"The tanks crawl ahead slowly, then stop and point like bird dogs" – Newsweek.
"Club members slouched in leather chairs as comfortable as potted plants" – Howard Whitman.
“The way she pushed around you’d think she came from a long line of revolving doors” – Walter Winchel.
"The children tumbled about, notching memoranda of their accidents in their knees" – Chas. Dickens.
2
[page break]
FOUNDATION STONES.
Time and again one hears the Royal Air Force referred to as "a young service". Indeed the frequent references to its youth tend to leave on the mind an impression that our weapons and our ways have been hastily evolved under the pressure of the events of the present war.
It is true that our Service has not tradition comparable with those of the Royal Navy and the Army, nor the experience of wars throughout hundreds of years on which to mould our methods. There is for example nothing in Royal Air Force parlance so expressive as that magic phrase "A ship of the line." – nor have we any equivalents of the classical works on the art of war on land and sea, to teach us how to fight our battles.
Eventually we shall have traditions and a proud place in the history books. Of that there is no doubt. In the meantime we have foundation stones, laid by our predecessors and by ourselves – foundation stones on which the whole structure of the Royal Air Force has been erected and has stood the buffets of the fortunes of war.
Let us examine some of those foundations which were the work – sometimes the life work – of our predecessors. Picture a famous fighter aerodrome near London, year 1931. Taking off are three Gloster Gamecocks – surely one of the most delightful little aircraft ever built. They are the last of the single-seat fighters of the Great War style, tiny bi-planes mounting two guns and with controls of the lightness of a feather. These three take off, perform the most complicated and perfectly synchronised aerobactics [sic], form up again and land in formation. The whole time while in formation, even while taxying on the ground, the distance between them has remained so invariably at half-a span that they seem as though linked together by some invisible structure.
That the onlooker has seen a superb display of flying is unquestioned. He has, in fact, seen a practice for the R.A.F. Display at Hendon. What he has not seen is that the pilots were setting a standard in fighter teamwork and co-ordinated flying which would one day result in 185 German aircraft being shot down over Southern England in one tremendous, glorious day of Royal Air Force achievement.
Let us look for our nest foundation stone in the East. A famous Squadron occupies an aerodrome which is, in fact, nothing but a collection of buildings, fenced about with a barbed-wire barricade, on a perfectly featureless piece of yellow desert. To-morrow all the squadrons' Wapiti's – trusty veterans of years of desert flying – are to go "down the Gulf" as a peacetime warning that tribal wars must be kept clear of Imperial Airways landing grounds. A momentous conference is taking place in the Flight-Commander's office where the Flight Sergeant has reported that one of the aircraft must have an engine change.
Soon it will be mid-day and after mid-day the temperature in the tin-roofed hangars will rise to over 125 degrees. Men, if they are to retain their health, will be asleep in their billets, waiting for the cool of the evening before coming to life again in a tolerable temperature. The Flight-Commander sorrowfully resigns himself to the fact that the aircraft will not be ready for the start at crack of dawn to-morrow, and that the Flight will be one aircraft short. The pilot too is disappointed, but resigned, until at three o'clock in the afternoon, obeying a "hunch" he steps out into the shattering, blinding glare and heat and makes his way to the hangars. There, sure enough, the "dead" engine is being taken out and the replacement stands ready for installation. The Squadron fly one short? Not b______ likely!
3
[page break]
So, on this occasion and innumerable others like it, voluntarily and unknowingly, were set the standards of technical serviceability which have carried the Royal Air Force from strength to strength through the long ordeal of strategical bombing which will, in large measure, decide the outcome of the present war.
These are foundation stones – the good solid basis on which our Service has been and is being built. Some day, from these foundations, will arise traditions.
L. J. C.
OUR "APPY" FAMILY
The dorn broak wunce agane wiv a blindin bang and the zooloos (as our lait guvnor used to call the erks) cood be seen pushing out to the kites alarfing and assinging as thai alwais are in the mornins 'cos thai ave all spent the nite before in the locals.
The mad flight-sarjent wot sum calls Willie (and others ain't so perlite) is screamin and ollering at the top of is vois but the zooloos don't take no notis cos them wot aint got 'angovers are wot thai call "brarsed."
Ours laiter the bloaks wot drives the kites kum along looking all unappy and sorrowful like becors thai are all cheesed off and the wevver is duff any way too.
Evenchooly, very much laiter, all the kites sumhow stagger orf and the fun begins. The alligators – as flite corls 'em – ave a battle wiv the pielot becors they are out to lose im or kill im and thai make desprit attempts by givin im foney corses to steer and dog legs (becors a pielot's bark is wers than is bite). The Bom aimers chime in wiv duff pin points and the wop joins in the gaim wiv ropey W/r gen.
But sum ours laiter thai all get overhead and the pielot, disgusted like, dives at the runway and wiv a blinding bang arrives oam. Then the flite commander sees im and tairs im orf a strip and ses next time a intervoo will follow wiv sumwun who noes the score.
Final, approaching the midnight our, I walks sloely down the rode wiv the mad flite sarjent and noebody speeks a werd until someone parses im in the blackout and ses "Ow are yer Willie," and as ee vanished into the darkness I can eer im mutter in replie – "BRARSED MATE - BRARSED."
SOME RANDOM RHYMES.
Her eyes they were as black as jet,
This charming girl I knew,
I kissed her and her husband came –
Now mine are jet black too!
Roses are blue,
Violets are pink,
Immediately after
The thirteenth drink.
As I have gone through life I've learnt
Some lips were meant to kiss –
Some weren't!
4
[page break]
*SECTIONAL NEWS (or around the Camp in monthly instalments).
TECHNICAL WING HEADQUARTERS.
A Conducted Tour.
If you, unhappy reader, should ever venture to tour this far flung outpost there is one spot you should visit. I, of course, refer to Technical Wing H.Q. Here you can be sure of a ready welcome, so join me and we will enter the portals of this edifice of knowledge.
After a preliminary call on the W.O., who will greet us cordially, take our fingerprints, tell us to get a haircut and wait outside, we enter one of the imposing array of doors. Here we shall be received with old-world courtesy by the Sergeant and introduced to the Orderly Room. The first impression is usually one of surprise, for contrary to the general rule, and unlike similar institutions in the vicinity, the atmosphere is one of concentrated industry, and we find a small but highly efficient staff dealing with a vast quantity of technical correspondence which emanates from the "master mind" in the inner sanctum (first door on the right as you go in).
It is rumoured that this is the only Orderly Room on the Station in which there is sufficient work for all members of the staff to be employed at the same time, but this is doubtless an exaggeration, for the writer distinctly remembers that on one occasion when he visited an Orderly Room nearby he was greatly shaken to find everyone present busily engaged on those arduous tasks eloquently described by themselves (N.B., not the Daily Express crossword).
After a welcome cup of tea we must regretfully say farewell to this Seat of Learning, observing as we go the attractive roped surround which has been erected to keep away the motley crowd. – (With Apologies).
WE'LL LIVE AGAIN.
We'll live again in history as momentous days go down
On the roll of England's battle field for honour and renown;
Eager eyes will glisten as they read of brave deeds done,
Pride rise in every bosom over glory that's been won;
'Tis true there will be moments when we're filled with doubt and fear,
It won't be always good news – the news that we shall hear
In learnng of the actions in which glorious deeds are done
We'll stop and wonder with whose life that victory was won;
Our faith will sway and falter if we think of every loss
As the main deciding factor that we win or lose the toss,
British feet will never falter, British hands will never tire
As they raise the British Standard high, yet higher still and higher,
British hearts will never weaken, British courage never fail,
And even when they're facing death, their souls will never quail;
They'll face each weary hardship for with courage they were born
Knowing well the darkest hour is just before the dawn.
TRUTH.
It's a funny world –
If a man gets money he's a grafter,
If he keeps it he's a capitalist,
If he spends it he's a playboy,
If he doesn't get it he's a ne'er-do-well,
If he doesn't try to get it he lacks ambition,
If he gets it without working for it he's a parasite,
And if he accumulates it after a life-time of hard work, he's a sucker.
5
[page break]
WINGLESS WONDERS – MARK 1 – FITTERS 2E.
Folks eulogize pilot and air navigator.
Bomb aimer and W/op and A.g.
But none care a jot for the cream of the lot
We Gen men the Fitters - 2E.
We absorbed all our culture from Sabre and Vulture,
Our zeal for real gen never shrinks,
There's no mystery for us, in Cyclone or Taurus
In Merlin, Pegusus or Lynx.
Despite their fine titles, we uncover their vitals,
Peer into their inards and find
The source of their wheezes, their coughs and their sneezes,
And why they spit, splutter and grind.
We acknowledge no betters, when we tune carbureters
And adjust contact breakers with care,
We toil with real passion in exemplary fashion
To rejuvenate kites for the air.
And when there's conjection on petrol injection
You'll find us all expert, you'll see,
We're sure Daimler-Benz's cause teutonic frenzies
But not so to Fitters-2E.
We effect to despise every fellow that flies,
All pilots we think are a bore,
If we had our way, they'd have much reduced pay,
As aeroplane driver – Group 4.
But with every due stress we are glad to confess
We are proud of our place in the sun,
We do our full share, so that up in the air
You've the technical edge on the Hun.
The Editor's reply :-
Oily Fitters 2E, greasy, grimy ye be,
But we're proud of the mark of your trade
More skill to your spanners, screwdrivers and hammers
Keep em ticking – we'll all make the grade.
6
[page break]
WHAT'S ON?
Sports and Entertainments Page of Past and Coming Events.
SOCCER.
To the surprise of many it is to be announced shortly that we have a soccer team – yes – here on the Station. What's more – they're good! But they need your support, and bags of it. So this is to give you the gen, when they are playing and where!
Now you have all read the [indecipherable word] Station sports sheets – well in future all information will be here on this page allotted to us.
FILMS.
Again we are coping with entertainments and on Jan. 13/14th, you'll be able to see Edward G. Robinson in "Double Indemnity, " a film which rates ***. Then on Jan. 17/18th, an American army farce entitled "See here Private Hargrove," you'll either like this film or hate it! I rate it **. Next on Jan. 20/21th [sic], we see Bob Hope in "Thanks for the Memory," you're sure to laugh, so ***. Following this on Jan. 24/25th, we have "The Beautiful Cheat," score ***. On Jan. 27/28th, "Murder in Thornton Square," *** a real thriller – see this one! Lastly, on Jan. 31st, another American Air Force Film for which we give ** – for those who like 'em.
STAGE.
On Tuesday, Jan. 23rd, we have a really first-class show, when th [sic] R.C.A.F. present "W. Debs." If you saw the last Canadian show you'll not miss this one, and if you didn't it was your loss, so don't let this go by.
Now to prove that we are genuinely trying to look after your entertainment (wer'e [sic] big hearted that way!) – for those who like music, The Bomber Command Orchestra will visit us on Thursday, Jan. 25th, and give their performance at 20.00 hrs. in the New Naafi – a really wizard show this!
DANCING.
If it's rhythm you seek
We've a dance once a week
And a really hot band on the job;
There may not be beer
We can't have that there 'ere
But you can't expect more for a bob.
There are girls by the score
No S.P.'s on the door
It's your welfare we have in our heart;
And we put the lights low,
For a short spell, you know,
So get here or below, that's your part.
Dance Band – This is now static and plays at all Station functions. But if you play – or you! – we can always increase the number of players to advantage.
Station Concert Party – The Concert Party are putting on their first show on Jan. 29/30th. Now as this is their first effort and is taking all their spare time, roll up and give them a hand – let's see what they can do.
Dramatic Society – It is proposed to form a Station Dramatic Society. Sgt. Jackson (Waaf.) of the Operations Staff is acting as Secretary and will be glad to hear of any interested Waafs or Airmen.
D. MORAVEC.
(Sports & Entertainments Officer)
7
[page break]
DARK DEEDS.
One Sunday afternoon some while ago, I was passing down the corridor on the way to my room, when I noticed the door of F/Lt. __________'s room standing ajar. Just as I passed he looked out and said in a quiet, but determined fashion, "I say, old boy, will you do me a favour?" Being well bred, I said, "Certainly, what can I do for you?" He looked me squarely between the eyes and still in a strained voice said, "Would you lock me in my wardrobe, old boy?" "Jehosophat," I thought, "what's this?" Has he, whom we always suspected of eccentricity, but never insanity __________ has he gone batty at last. And then I noticed IT. Being polite, I could no more than glance hastily at IT. Could it be _________, surely not __________ yes, it looked like a slip of __________, but that was impossible. Was this pillar of the Station, this outstanding man among men, this bewiskered Lothario, this love-lorn swain finally going to end it all? Had he finally decided, that since wedded bliss was impossible, single loneliness was unendurable? Being courageous myself, I admire courage in others, so I decided not to attempt to reason with him. Accordingly I stood aside as he bent down, slid into the floor of the wardrobe and covered his legs and body with an old dressing gown. Slowly I shut one door and bolted it down. Then with heavy heart, but resolute mind, I swung the other half in as well. A brief moment I stood to with a hasty prayer for him and mutter an inaudible goodbye. Just as I was about to steal sadly away, a muffled voice shouted, "I say, old boy, would you close the bottom right-hand side a little tighter. If the least bit of light gets in it simply ruins these wretched Black Market films, and I don't want to spoil another spool!"
* THINGS WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW
1. Ooh dat ooh say ooh dat? And is Foo related to Joe?
2. Which Senior Officer lost his arrow at Hastings in 1066?
3. How does one find the aiming point?
4. If you still appreciate income tax jokes? And if you are still thankful for your single state?
5. Should laundry always come back on a Saturday night?
6. What has happened to a certain Orderly Room's duplicating ink? Is it true that a certain L.A.C. is using it as shaving cream?
7. Which erk was heard to remark – "What only 93% for my board? I must have lost 7% for dirty buttons!"
8. And did he check up on K.R.'s to see if "props" could be worn on overalls?
9. Is it true that mention of "swinging a compass" brings on a sudden increase of "swinging the lead" in a certain section?
10. If you have found a nice dispersal spot?
11. If it is true that a certain Scotch "woman-hater" has decided to get his own back on the wedding present racket?
12. If black horses breed pick elephants?
13. And does a certain W/op. send morse with a Welsh accent?
14. If history will record the invasion of Cambridge by U.S. troops?
15. If you have made a contribution to Diversion?
16. If not, why not?
8
[page break]
FOUND IN A CAMP POST CENSOR CHECK.
Dear Ma,
I'm passing the time by just sitting in camp
'Cos I haven't a bob to go out on the ramp.
I'm writing this letter, but haven't a stamp. –
How I love you – Dear Ma.
Dear Ma,
Our rotten old chiefy is on such a bind.
He's got me brassed off with his groans and his grind,
He says I'm a scrounge and the curse of mankind –
How I love him – Dear Ma.
Dear Ma,
There's no flying to-day as the weather is bad,
But do they let us off – oh no, that's where we're had,
We've to clean out a hangar to please the old lad, –
How I love it – Dear Ma.
[inserted] [sketch] [/inserted]
Dear Ma,
Can you give me the gen on my girl friend at home,
I've five others right here, each thinks she's mine alone,
Do you think that she'll wait till this laddie comes home?
How I doubt it – Dear Ma.
Dear Ma,
I'm really afraid this is all for to-day,
It's a heck of a time until our next pay-day,
So I'll borrow a tanner to send this away, –
How I wish for some good luck – Dear Ma.
BILL.
IMPROVING ON THE DICTIONARY.
Arab: A fellow who gets out of bed and takes the sheet with him.
Optimist: A man who marries his secretary, thinking he'll be able to keep dictating to her.
Squaw: A pistol packin' mamma with a rear gunner.
Hula Girl: A swing shift in a grass skirt. –
Gay Nineties: When the men looked gay and the women looked 90 – BERTRAM HALE.
Bachelor: An eligible mass of obstinacy surrounded by suspicion.
She.
9
[page break]
POEM.
Spring has touched the barren brown
And down
The gentle slope they call a "hill" in Lincolnshire, a mist
Of green is kissed
By early morning sun and mid-day shower
And when the hour
Of neither dark nor light is here, a bird
Is heard
He sits upon a water-tower and sings;
Into the dusk pure silver notes he flings
And all around the quiet camp they fall –
A call
To those who have forgotten lovely things
Like blackbird trills, and stiffly quivering wings.
Absurd!
That such a humble, little-throated bird
Should sit up there,
As if he owned and ruled the very air,
And challenge with a limpid semi-breve,
The voices of the bombers as they leave.
A POET'S PROVERB.
You're sure that you are right,
How fine and strong!
But were you ever just as sure
– and wrong?
LINES WE HAVE HEARD – OR "WHO SAID IT?"
"And it wasn't till after I had shot it down that I realised it wasn't a buzz-bomb, it was a comet!"
"The weather was so bad – even the eagles on my buttons were walking!"
"I wouldn't mind volunteering for P.F.F., but this place couldn't spare me!"
"As long as the war lasts till I've had my next leave – I dont [sic] mind!"
"We flew so low our R/G. got 2 telephone numbers and his face covered in lipstick!"
10
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Diversion
Description
An account of the resource
The Camp Magazine of RAF Wratting Common. This is the first issue and features articles of general interest, poems, sports and activity reports and witty comments about station life.
Creator
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RAF Wratting Common
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
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Format
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11 printed sheets
Identifier
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MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-10
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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
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Sue Smith
arts and crafts
entertainment
Pathfinders
RAF Hendon
RAF Wratting Common
sport
V-1
V-weapon
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1912/35962/MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-03.1.pdf
21597822f767468bd10a82b71f6e703f
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
Hayhurst, Jose Margaret
J M Hayhurst
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
2017-07-25
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
Hayhurst, JM
Description
An account of the resource
108 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Jose Margaret Hayhurst (2073102 Royal Air Force) and contains decorations, uniform, documents and photographs. She served as a radar operator in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Andrew Whitehouse and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
RAF Badges cigarette card collection
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of RAF squadron badges kept in a booklet.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
John Player & Sons
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France--Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais)
Great Britain
England--Birmingham
Pakistan--Risālpur (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)
Germany--Cologne
England--Gosport
Egypt--Alexandria
Jordan--Amman
England--Martlesham Heath
Pakistan--Peshawar
Pakistan--Kohat District
Pakistan--Miānwāli District
India--Ambāla (District)
Pakistan--Karachi
Egypt--Ismailia (Province)
Belgium--Zeebrugge
Belgium--Ostend
France--Somme
Egypt--Ḥulwān
Iraq--Baghdad
England--Copmanthorpe
Iraq--Baṣrah
Germany--Düsseldorf
Egypt--Heliopolis (Extinct city)
Singapore
England--Andover
England--Old Sarum (Extinct city)
England--Folkestone
Scotland--Dalgety Bay
Scotland--Montrose
England--Thetford
England--Winchester
England--Hucknall
Scotland--Abbotsinch (Air base)
France
Egypt
Germany
Belgium
India
Iraq
Pakistan
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Hampshire
England--Kent
England--Norfolk
England--Suffolk
England--Wiltshire
England--Yorkshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Warwickshire
Scotland--Stirling (Stirling)
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Format
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18 page booklet
Identifier
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MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-03
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
104 Squadron
12 Squadron
15 Squadron
18 Squadron
20 Squadron
207 Squadron
216 Squadron
23 Squadron
25 Squadron
27 Squadron
28 Squadron
31 Squadron
32 Squadron
35 Squadron
38 Squadron
40 Squadron
43 Squadron
57 Squadron
66 Squadron
70 Squadron
9 Squadron
RAF Abingdon
RAF Biggin Hill
RAF Bircham Newton
RAF Calshot
RAF Catterick
RAF Duxford
RAF Farnborough
RAF Hendon
RAF Henlow
RAF Hornchurch
RAF Kenley
RAF Marham
RAF Martlesham Heath
RAF Mildenhall
RAF Netheravon
RAF North Weald
RAF Northolt
RAF Odiham
RAF Scampton
RAF Tangmere
RAF Upavon
RAF Upper Heyford
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1794/35730/MWilsonRC1389401-170113-100002.1.pdf
2eae94bb927f83b9bbfa6215308853ca
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Wilson, Reginald Charles
R C Wilson
Description
An account of the resource
166 items. The collection concerns Reginald Charles Wilson (b. 1923, 1389401 Royal Air Force) and contains his wartime log, photographs, documents and correspondence. He few operations as a navigator with 102 Squadron. He was shot down on 20 January 1944 and became a prisoner of war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Janet Hughes 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
2017-01-13
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
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Wilson, RC
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] MY POW DAYS - POSTSCRIPT [/underlined]
Caterpillar Club
I became a member of this Club soon after the end of WW2. I registered that I had saved my life, having baled out of an aircraft on fire and out of control. In freefall, I manually pulled the ripcord of my Irving parachute, which released the parachute canopy and supporting shroud lines.
The Club has no structure, committees or branches, but is still famous for its huge worldwide membership of airmen who have saved their lives by parachute.
The Wright Brothers of America designed and launched their rudimentary Wright Flyer aircraft at Kittyhawk in 1903. But it was many years before an acceptable parachute was designed to save the lives of aircrew escaping from disabled aircraft.
The Centenary of the 1903 event was celebrated at the Biggin Hill Airshow in 2003, when Barbara and I were invited to a VIP Marquee with a number of the Caterpillar Club members who resided in the London area.
Leslie Irving was the American pioneer who developed the successful parachute. In 1911 at the age of sixteen he jumped from a static balloon, and continued his interest in designing parachutes. In 1919 he designed a parachute pack, using pure silk for the large canopy and the shroud lines, and a ripcord for manual release of the parachute after baling out. His design proved that you could parachute safely from an aircraft in flight. However there was doubt that it was safe to bale out from a stricken 'plane. Until in 1922, Lieutenant H.R. Harris made an emergency jump using this Irving parachute. As a result of his experience the American Air Force adopted the Irving design that same year. And in 1925 the RAF chose the Irving seat pack parachute for their use. WW2 brought about a huge demand for parachutes (seat and chest packs).
In 1922 Irving decided to form a club of those who had saved their lives and Harris was to be the first member. Irving named it the Caterpillar Club and by 1945 there were 34,000 members! (The caterpillar is symbolic of the silk worm which descends gently to earth from heights, by spinning a silky thread from which to hang.)
The Irving Parachute Company gives every member a certificate and a gold tie/lapel pin, shaped like a caterpillar, and with red eyes (red eyes if the aircraft was on fire). The recipient's name and rank are engraved on the reverse.
1
[page break]
The Post War Years
One month after WW2 ended, our surviving crew of four met at Laurie Underwood's wedding. This was a time of great celebration for us and we didn't waste time reminiscing about the RAF or the previous 15 months in captivity!
I remained in the RAF until August 1946 but no longer on flying duties. During this time I was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. I had several months on leave after which I attended an RAF Administration course and eventually was posted to RAF Hornchurch, where I was in charge of the Overseas Holding Unit. This Unit was responsible for looking after RAF personnel, serving in Germany and on leave in the UK. Some, who were on compassionate leave, needed more time to deal with their problems; some, on normal leave, had applied for an extension of leave on compassionate grounds (often 'passionate' rather than compassionate!); some just went absent without leave and had to be arrested by the RAF police! It was not the most exciting job, but I was able to live at home and it filled the time until I was back in 'civvy street'.
After we were all demobbed, the ensuing years were spent on developing our careers etc. I returned to Unilever and eventually became a management consultant. George Griffiths continued flying as a pilot in a civilian air transport company and then, a senior captain with British Airways. Laurie studied accountancy and eventually, as sales manager of Philips, sold mechanised and later computerised accountancy equipment. Johnny Bushell developed tuberculosis shortly after the war, contracted as a result of poor conditions in Stalag1VB. He had one lung partially removed and was awarded a full war disability pension. He was still able to work and became a housing officer for Bedford Council. Johnny remained a bachelor, but George, Laurie and I married and raised families, which gave us little time to muse about our wartime experiences.
Remembering our wartime experiences
Apart from exchanging Christmas cards and an occasional meeting up with Laurie and John, in my business travels around the UK, we didn't meet as a group. I had lost contact with George Griffiths until, sometime in the 1970's, I managed to locate his wife's parents in Craven Arms and they gave me his address. He was still serving with British Airways when, some time later, I phoned him - at precisely 8 o'clock GMT on 20 January (the anniversary of the exact time when we were shot down). This became a pleasant ritual, and every year by this means, we congratulated ourselves on our lucky survival.
I retired in 1984, and George who lived in Ruislip retired some time later. Barbara and I managed to visit George when we stayed over at Northolt to see Barbara's mother - this would be in the early 1990's. George had done some retirement research at the RAF Museum at Hendon, and had obtained photographs and information about the four crew we had lost. They were all killed. Two were buried in the 1939-45 Berlin War Cemetery, and two were
2
[page break]
remembered on the Runnymede Memorial, as they had no known graves. Also, George had obtained (through a German archivist) details of how and where we were shot down. We were not shot down by flak, or a bomb through our wing from one of our aircraft above as first throught, but by an ace night fighter pilot. The archivist had also traced the crash point of our plane in Berlin. In support of this information he had sent George a photograph, a 'history' of the night fighter pilot, and a map of the exact point where the 'plane debris had fallen. (George had landed in waste ground, amongst the wreckage.)
Our 50 year reunion
All this information, and reading several books about Bomber Command and the Berlin Raids, stimulated my thoughts, which had remained dormant on this subject for many years. As a result, we and our wives arranged to meet at a Peterborough Hotel on our 50th Anniversary, to exchange our personal experiences and to celebrate our survival. We dined and raised our glasses "to absent friends" at the exact hour (8pm GMT, 20 January 1994). This was our first meeting as a group since June 1945!
A cousin of Laurie Underwood, hearing about this celebration, contacted the BBC and arranged that a TV Team and a Radio car would attend this meeting, in the afternoon prior to our dinner at 8pm. We were requested to bring any memorabilia we had; which meant we were able to fill in a number of gaps in our experiences. Johnny and I learned how George, when the plane was 'on fire' over Berlin, had been held in his seat, with his head thrust forward and the throttle levers behind his ears, when the plane went into a spiral dive. He had a vivid recollection of seeing the altimeter 'unwind' from 17000ft through 7000ft before he blacked out! He regained consciousness and was 'in the air' in freefall, after the plane's fuel tanks had exploded and he had been blown out of the aircraft. He was now only hundreds of feet from the ground, but managed to pull his parachute ripcord. His parachute opened but was still 'on the swing' when he hit the ground, with the debris of the aircraft around him. Although in shock he had landed virtually unscathed.
Laurie told Johnny and I how, immediately after arriving at Stalag Luft3 Poland in February 1944, he was recruited as an extra lookout, whilst they completed the escape tunnel 'Harry' for the Great Escape. Laurie being a latecomer was not included in the escape. He was lucky, as 50 of the 76 who did escape and who were recaptured, were murdered on the orders of Hitler. Laurie and George, like me, had to march away from their prison camp as the 'Front Line' approached at the end of January 1945. In their case it was the Russians on the Eastern Front. They marched in freezing conditions and then entrained on 2 February to Malag camp, where they stayed until 10 April. They then marched again for two weeks across Northern Germany, and were liberated a week later on 2 May 1945, just south of Ludbeck on the Baltic, by the British Army.
3
[page break]
Thus, by the end of our celebrations at Peterborough, we had learnt more4 about each other's experiences. BBC made a three minute video tape of the occasion, which was sent out over Yorkshire and Look East Television on the Eight O'clock News that night. George and I were interviewed in a BBC radio van and a three minute radio tape of the interview was broadcast from Cambridge also. The tape was so popular that it was broadcast three times.
Following this occasion I began to compile some of my experiences in Bomber Command, and assemble documents, and letters received after being shot down etc.
Runnymede War Memorial
In August 1994 Barbara and I attended the annual Memorial Service, arranged by the Aircrew Association, at the Runnymede War Memorial. This was particularly important to me as we were able to view the names of the two of the four members of my crew - Flight Engineer L Bremner and Mid-upper Gunner C Dupueis - who were killed and have no known graves. Their names are recorded within in the cloisters of the Memorial, and 1994 ws the 50th anniversary of their death. The Memorial lists some 22,000 names of RAF personnel without known graves, who were killed in WW2.
Laurie and Beryl's Golden Wedding in Wetherby and other Yorkshire visits
In June 1995, it being Laurie's Golden Wedding Anniversary, we all met again, this time in Laurie's home town Wetherby, Yorkshire. After the celebrations we took the opportunity of visiting the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington, which was a satellite airfield to RAF Pocklington during the war. They were in the process of rebuilding a Halifax Mk 3 Bomber to represent the most famous wartime Halifax, 'Friday 13th', which achieved 128 bombing missions. It was displayed on Horse Guards Parade in London after the war and then broken up!; whereas a Lancaster has a 'place of honour' in the RAF Memorial Flight, and another is displayed in the RAF Museum at Hendon for all time.
There were over 6000 Halifax aircraft built during the war. They were used for over 80,000 bombing and mine laying missions in Europe in Bomber Command, and supported the other armed forces on D Day and in the continuing liberation of Europe. They operated in the Middle-East, and in Coastal Command attacking U-boats in the North Sea and North Atlantic. They also towed airborne troops in gliders to Normandy on D Day, later to Arnhem and, in the final stages of the war, to the crossing of the Rhine.
It beggars belief that any Government would scrap every Halifax built, taking into account its contribution to the success of WW2 and its place in history, but they did!
4
[page break]
It was not until 1983 that there was enough historical interest to consider restoring a Halifax. Yorkshire being the 'birthplace' of the aircraft, it was natural that the Yorkshire Air Museum would take on the task. In 1984, they found the fuselage of a Halifax that had crashed in the Hebrides in 1945. It had been bought by a farmer and used as a hen house! This was acquired by the Museum and moved to Yorkshire. Parts were collected from almost all corners of the world. Pieces from at least three Halifax aircraft were used: the wings came from a post-war Hastings and the engines were donated by the French Air force, (who flew Halifax bombers from Elvington in 1943). The nose section had to be rebuilt from scratch with the help of British Aerospace, aided by volunteer engineers. When we visited the Museum the aircraft was still only partially assembled. It was some years later before it was completed and is now on display, as 'Friday 13th', in its own hanger[sic]. As far as I know, contributions to its construction, both in effort and cost, were all voluntary; no Government money was ever offered.
We also took the opportunity, mainly for the benefit of Laurie and George, of visiting another Museum in Yorkshire. (This site was originally a British POW Camp for German prisoners of war and now converted to a WW2 Museum). One of its exhibits was the replica of the escape tunnel 'Harry' used at Stalag Luft3 for the escape of 76 RAF prisoners (50 of whom were murdered when recaptured). The tunnel was of particular interest, as it displayed the pump system for providing ventilation and the novel trolley mechanism for moving the escapees along its whole length, to the end of the tunnel.
Tom Nelson and Stalag1VB
On 23 December 1995, the Daily Mail had a double page spread featuring life in Stalag1VB, and particularly what happened at Christmas in 1944, when American prisoners of war arrived. Taken prisoner at the Battle of the Bulge, they were in a very sorry state, physically and mentally. The article had been supplied by Tom Nelson (and included a large photograph of him). I did not know Tom Nelson in Stalag1VB as he had been in another barrack block whilst I was there. But I met him in OflagV11B when we were both moved to this camp in February 1945. We shared the same room with two Australian army chaps, until we marched out on 15 April 1945. Apart from a chance meeting, and a fleeting hello in London in 1946, I had not seen him since our liberation at the end of April 1945.
I got in touch with the Daily Mail, and they agreed to forward a letter to him but they would not give me his address. I wrote him a letter and included photocopies of my drawings of OflagV11B, from my wartime logbook. In particular there was a drawing of 'our room', which he and I had signed, along with our two Australian colleagues.
A week or so later I received a phone call (at least two hours long) from an amazed Tom Nelson. He said his memory of OflagV11B was a bit hazy but the signature on the drawing was without doubt his, and we agreed to meet at the RAF Club in Piccadilly and renew our memories.
5
[page break]
After Tom was demobbed, he worked for several American airlines in flight operations, and married Pat, an American. He spent time in America and Germany and returned to UK to run a travel agency. It was then that he joined the Stalag1VB ex-POW Group and attended their annual reunions in Edinburgh. As a result he had collected photographs, drawings, poems and various records about 1VB. He brought these along to the RAF Club, and I was able to copy them.
The most important information I learnt from him, was what had happened to the Muhlberg Stalag1VB Camp Site in 1945, after this area in Germany became part of the Russian Zone. At first Stalag 1VB ex-kriegies, returning to visit the Camp Site post war, were told by the Russians or members of the GDR (German Democratic Republic), that it had been occupied by German refugees who had nowhere to live. And as there were barracks, electricity and water available here, they had made it their home. These were complete lies:
The Camp had become Special Internment Camp No. 1 (with even more barbed wire than Stalag1VB), where Germans who were considered to be a danger to the Soviet State, or for any 'reason', could be interned without any evidence or trial. They were not allowed visitors, parcels, or help of any sort, and were not able to communicate with anybody outside the camp. In a short time it became a filthy, disease-ridden place. This camp remained open until November 1948, during which time about 22,000 'victims of communism' passed through it. Some 6700 of them died of starvation or disease during this period and were buried in mass graves, just northeast of what previously was the RAF compound when I was there. Many others were moved to Soviet camps and never heard of again. All this information was withheld from the general population, and those who did know were threatened with punishment if they disclosed it.
After the closure of the Camp, the Russians removed all the wooden barracks for workers' huts elsewhere. Other structures were sold to local farmers. In the end nothing was left except the concrete foundations of the washhouses,[sic] the barracks, and the 40-holer latrines and the static water 'reservoirs'. The Russians then decided to obscure the place by planting birch trees overall. Soon the site became overgrown with trees and brush.
Now that the Russians have left, East and West Germany unified, and the lies and cloak of secrecy exposed, many of the relatives of those who died in the camp have visited the site. They have put crosses in the area of the mass graves and the place has become a shrine, with its own Memorial.
I met Tom several times in the next few years at the RAF Club but later, he suffered from double vision and did not travel on his own. He put me in contact with Stalag1VB ex-POW Group, which by now was much depleted, and with fewer members had moved their venue south, to Peterborough.
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Public Records Office at Kew
In August 1999 Barbara and I visited the Public Records Office as I needed some more detail for my RAF memoirs on my operational flights in 102 Squadron. Also, as my first pilot had been killed, I wanted to know the circumstances in which my second pilot Sqdn. Ldr. G. A. Harvey, withdrew from flying on medical grounds, yet was later awarded a DFC. This left our crew 'headless' and meant we were destined to fill in as 'spares' until another pilot was posted to the squadron. Being a spare was not an enviable roll to have in operational flying, especially if you were the navigator!
I found the Records Office a fantastic place for providing information. All operational squadrons had their records held on microfilm and every operation throughout the war was accessible. Other documents such as RAF Station records and medal award citations were the original documents, but surprisingly still available on request. Harvey's DFC citation was in great detail and stated his award was long overdue. He had clocked up 390 operational hours in the Middle East in 1940-41.
Mel Rolfe and 'Flying into Hell'
During the period 1999 - 2000, Laurie was in touch with Mel Rolfe, the author of two successful books about crews' experiences in Bomber Command, and was planning to write a third book. As a result of this meeting, Laurie, Johnny and I (but Laurie being the prime subject) featured in one of 20 chapters in the book entitled 'Flying into Hell', which was published in 2001. Our chapter focussed on our first operation, mine-laying, during which we were badly hit by flak and had to bring damaged mines back, in an aircraft without radar or hydraulic power. And our last operation, when we were shot down over Berlin by an ace night fighter plane, with incredible escapes for the four survivors.
In order to advertise his book, Mel Rolfe contacted local newspapers and BBC Radio and gave them the addresses of those mentioned in the chapters. Laurie, Johnny and I, all gave newspaper interviews. Laurie and I also gave 25 minutes live radio interviews, Laurie from Leeds and I from Essex. We were able to get copies of the newspaper articles and tapes of the radio broadcasts. Sadly George Griffiths, our pilot, who had the most remarkable escape, had died suddenly in 1998 and thus could not be featured in any interviews.
Planned visit to the Stalag1VB site
In year 2000 the son of a member of Stalag1VB ex-POW Group, Tony Drewitt, offered to organise a visit to Muhlberg and the Stalag 1VB site, which was enthusiastically taken up by the members of the Group (this included Tom Nelson, Johnny Bushell and myself).
In 1944 Tony Drewitt's father (Harry Drewitt) had lost his best friend in 1VB. His friend had been shot dead by a guard, as he leaned over the trip wire to pick some wild strawberries. In recent years Tony and family have gone to
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Germany, visited Muhlberg Stalag1VB site and the Berlin 1939-45 War Cemetery. His friend and all those British & Commonwealth POWs who died in Stalag1VB, (previously interred in Neuburxdorf cemetery), are buried there.
On these visits to the Stalag1VB site, the Drewitt family met Mayor Brendel and others who, since 1990 (after the Russians and the GDR had left), have openly publicised the atrocities perpetrated in Muhlberg Special Internment Camp No. 1, (previously Stalag1VB). To this end they have formed the Munlberg Initiative Group, to make the Muhlberg Camp a permanent memorial. They have cleaned up the main road through it, marking out the various areas of the camp, and where the mass graves and memorial of the Special Camp No. 1 is situated. Where possible, they have revealed the foundations of the cookhouses, barrack washhouses and latrines etc, which is all that is left of the original camp - see my notes about Stalag 1VB under 'Tom Nelson'.
Mayor Brendel and the Muhlberg Initiative Group welcomed the idea that a party of British ex-POWs and families might wish to visit the site, and said that Muhlberg would like to host to the visit.
Every year ex-kriegies from Poland, France and other countries visit the Neuburxdorf cemetery (about 4000 POWs who dies in 1VB were buried here originally). It now has a War Memorial to represent all the nations who had prisoners there. This visit is now combined with the service, held in the Muhlberg Camp, for the German civilian post war victims who died in the Special Internment Camp No. 1.
As a result, Tony Drewitt agreed with Mayor Brendel that she would arrange the hotel accommodation in Muhlberg, and host an evening dinner with the Initiative Group. The date would coincide with the remembrance services at Neuburxdorf cemetery and Muhlberg Camp site. Coaches would be available for all planned visits.
Visit to Berlin, Muhlberg, Stalag1VB, related sites and Colditz
Day 1
There were over 90 ex-POWs, family and friends including Tom Nelson, Johnny Bushell, Barbara and myself, who flew to Schonefeld, Berlin on 6 September 2001. (The airfield was only a few miles from where I landed by parachute on 20 January 1944)
We were taken in two coaches (which, with their drivers and guides, were to 'look after us' for the rest of our visit), to Treff Park Hotel, about 6 miles southeast of Brandenburg Gate. We had dinner, and then a coach tour of central Berlin. Although the tour was impromptu, with a helpful but inexpert guide, it was sufficient to give us a glimpse of the contrasts between 'East' and 'West'. We had a passing view of the main shopping centres which showed that the 'East' looked deprived with poor buildings, displays and lighting etc. We also viewed the famous graffiti on the remains of the Berlin
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Wall and, at my request, the new Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church alongside the ruins of the original. The original church was destroyed on 22 November 1943, the second Berlin raid that I was on. It was a somewhat similar Memorial to that of Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in 1940, with the exception that Coventry Cathedral was deliberately destroyed.
Day 2
The following morning we were taken to the 1939 - 45 British War Cemetery, where nearly 2900 RAF aircrew, killed furing the Battle of Berlin and other raids in East Germany, are buried. (Only 800 of the 4000 shot down in the Battle of Berlin, survived this operation - John and I are two of these). Many whole crews are buried together, in lines of seven graves, running up to the Stone of Remembrance and on as far as the Cross.
The Cemetery is situated in an area of woodland, which is part of the Grunewald Forest in the district of Charlottenburg, west of Berlin. It was beautifully maintained, as are all British War Graves. Barbara and I together with Johnny Bushell, took some time locating and placing poppies on the graves of our two crew members who are buried here: F/Sgt. K F Stanbridge (Co-Pilot), and P/O. E Church (Wireless Operator), as they were not side-by-side, but on opposite ends of the Cemetery. We found Ken Stanbridge's grave first and I remembered that Ken had passed George Griffith's parachute to him, not long before the aircraft went into a spiral dive. George lived and Ken didn't. Visiting Eric Church's grave had a particular significance for me, as he had helped Laurie Underwood and me, kick out the jammed escape hatch, and he should have followed us out. But the 'plane must have gone into the spiral dive immediately after we had baled out, and he had no chance to bale out - just a few seconds, between life and death. George, Laurie, John and I, were incredibly lucky to survive this event.
Following personal visits to the graves of colleagues, Reverend Michael Whelton (a friend of Tony Drewitt who was acting as the 'Padre' for the party) held a short but emotional service. Then a wreath was placed on the Stone of Remembrance before we continued our itinerary to the centre of Berlin.
I was glad that Johnny and I had been able to make this visit to the Cemetery after so many years and it closes a chapter in my mind.
In Berlin, we first visited the Brandenburg Gate. This also had some significance for me, for it was 18000 ft. above here that we were attacked by a night fighter and shot down in 1944. Our target had been Hitler's Chancery which was just south of the Gate. Our second visit was to the Reichstag, a short distance away. The Reichstag was not destroyed during WW2. After the re-unification of East and West Germany in October 1990, when Berlin became the Capital again, it was to house the German Parliament. It was renovated by the British Architect Sir Norman Foster, who had been chosen to do the work. His idea was to enlarge the Plenary Hall and add a new modern glass cupola, from which the public could view Parliament in action - its main feature. The task was completed in 1999. Although the cupola could be seen
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from outside the building, we didn't have time to go inside to view it, before we continued our journey south to Muhlberg.
We travelled about 75 miles to Muhlberg through mostly open countryside, passing several buildings or barracks that were once occupied by the Russians, and were now in a dilapidated state.
Muhlberg is a small town on the river Elbe, noted for its number of Renaissance buildings (which luckily escaped damage when the Russians advanced through it on their way to Berlin in April 1945). But today the town is also remembered for its close proximity to the Prisoner of War Camp, Stalag1VB which, post-war, became 'Special Internment Camp No. 1' where German civilians suffered under Russian Occupation.
On arrival we were met by Mayor Brendel and a number of helpers, who took us to our small hotels or private accommodation dotted around the town. In the evening we were invited to a reception in the Town Hall organised by Mayor Brendel and the Muhlberg Initiative Group.
The reception was addressed by a Representative from Berlin, to all of us from the Stalag1VB ex-POW Group and those connected with the Muhlberg Initiative Group; this being the 11th. Anniversary of their Memorial and Remembrance Meetings.
In the address he explained that Initiative Groups were formed all over Germany (after the Reunification in 1990), by survivors of the Special Internment Camps, to remember and make known the atrocities perpetrated by the Russians during their occupation. To this end the Initiative Groups have preserved sites like Muhlberg, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen etc, and set up small museums, containing documents and photographs, so that the younger generations (their children and grandchildren) will know about these dark days of their history. To these memories they have added the wartime atrocities of Nazi Germany, in their own country and the occupied countries of Europe. In Muhlberg, they have also included Stalag1VB, as it is said hundreds of thousands of POWs from all over the world, passing through the camp from 1939-1945, suffered from cold, damp, overcrowding, poor inadequate food and lack of hygiene. There were many deaths, many more than those recorded in Neuburxdorf Cemetery, including thousands of Russian POWs who died of typhus in the early years of the war and were buried elsewhere.
After the address, to complete the evening we were hosted to a fantastic buffet dinner, provided by the people of Muhlberg, who really did appreciate our visit to their town.
Day 3
The following day (punctuated by heavy bouts of rain) we visited the small Muhlberg museum which had, apart from their local history, records, drawings and artefacts donated by ex POWs from 1VB. This was followed by a lunch of
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soup, goulash, hunks of bread and coffee (warming and very welcome), provided by the Town Fire Service. Luckily it was in a Marquee, erected for the occasion, which sheltered us from the drenching downpours.
In the afternoon we were taken in our coaches to Neuburxdorf and we viewed the railway sidings, where all POW's had 'disembarked' from their cattletrucks, for their march to the sinister Stalag1VB in the middle of the flat fields of Saxony. I recall the ground was covered with slushy snow and the camp site looked as if [it] were in the extremities of Siberia!
After the visit we proceeded to the Neuburxdorf Cemetery to attend the annual memorial service for all POWs (Polish, French, British, etc.), who died in 1VB and were buried here. During this service, our exPOW Stalag1VB Group dedicated a plaque, which was laid in the Cemetery as a Memorial to the 60 British POWs, who were buried here and now removed to the Berlin site. The plaque was donated by the Canadian RCAF.
To complete the day's visits we travelled the short distance to the Stalag![1] VB site. We drove through what was originally the East Gate. The lagerstrasse or main road was still there, but now flanked with birch trees and undergrowth which covered the whole site. As described earlier, the Muhlberg Initative Group and associates had cleared some parts of the camp to reveal the concrete foundations of washhouses and latrines. They had marked out the areas of the various compounds and the two cookhouses. As my barracks was close to the French cookhouse, Barbara, John, Tom Nelson and I, were able to locate the area of the barracks, but due to the undergrowth we were unable to reach it. But we were able to get to the site of our 40-holer latrine, which still had (though somewhat crumbled) the concrete foundation and septic tank below. It still had four open channels in the concrete base. Over each channel there had been a long wooden rectangular box as a seat with ten holes in it, (so 40 of us could be there at one sitting!)
We were only a short distance away from the mass burial site of the victims of Special Camp No. 1, just a few yards to the north-east of us. Here, there is now a large Cross erected as a Memorial to the 6700 German detainees who died of starvation and disease (1945-48). Amongst the undergrowth, near the Cross, there were many smaller crosses put there by relatives and friends over previous years.
We joined the Muhlberg Initiative Group, again in a drenching downpour, with relatives and friends (of several nationalities), for their annual service of remembrance, at the Memorial. Then we made a further inspection of the remnants of the Camp, nearer the West Gate entrance, before returning in our coaches to Muhlberg.
So we said 'goodbye' to the site of Stalag1VB and Special Camp No. 1. It was now a 'sleeping forest' of birch trees, encompassing (in this terrible place) the memories and miseries of probably hundreds of thousands of 'prisoners' from many nations, who passed through it during the war years and the aftermath.
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On return to Muhlberg, we attended yet another Memorial Service in the Church, just for ourselves this time, before we had our evening meal in the Town Hall. This was followed by Lew Parsons (our Chairman) giving a slide presentation of photographs of Stalag1VB to local people, including some older children, who afterwards asked us questions about the camp and WW2.
Day 4
On our 4th day we visited two preserved POW Camp sites, Jacobsthal and Zeithain. Both were originally slave camps for Russion POWs. Later Jacobsthal was a punishment camp for Stalag1VB I believe, (though Zeithan seemed to have more evidence of Russion prisoners). We were told that many tens of thousands of Russians who died of a typhus epidemic in 1941-42, are buried in mass graves beneath the lawns at the entrance to this camp. It now has a Memorial Archway, erected by the Russians during their occupation after the war.
At Zeithain, the Initiative Group had built a wooden hut to illustrate the type of barracks used to house POWs. We had to criticise it, as it did not illustrate the conditions under which prisoners had to live. It had no rickety three-tier bunks, it was not overcrowded or dilapidated, it had no floor of bricks set in earth, and it did not indicate the unhygienic state of living. They also had a small museum which included photographs showing guards and others, mistreating and punishing prisoners.
Our next visit was 30 miles or so southwest, for a tour of Colditz Castle. We had lunch in a restaurant first and then (in the pouring rain again), we made our way up hill to this gaunt formidable place.
Colditz Castle, first mentioned in 1014, built on a hill overlooking the rive Mulde, was never used as a stronghold. It was destroyed by fire in 1504, and rebuilt in 1583. Used as a residence and then a hunting lodge, the building was not popular and fell into decay. In the 1800s the State took it over as an alms house and then a workhouse. In 1929 it was used as an asylum, then a prison for anti-fascists and finally an old folks' home until 1939, when it became a POW Camp until 1945.
Colditz was used for high ranking officers and persistent escapees, as it was considered to be, because of its design and location, virtually escape proof. In fact it became an 'academy for escapers'. Over the period of the war, 300 escape attempts were made - only 120 prisoners got out but were recaptured, 31 escapees got home. The camp was a hive of ingenuity, manufacturing German uniforms, forging documents, and finding ways to get out via the main gates. The most audacious plan was to build a glider for two escapees, to be launched from the roof. It was to be catapulted to give it gliding speed to get over the river Mulde. This was to be achieved by dropping a bath tub filled with concrete, 60 feet 'through' the floors of the castle, to pull a cable attached to the glider. The glider was built in an attic, behind a false wall above the Chapel, but the plan was never carried out as the war ended sooner than expected. (Later another glider was built to the plan specifications and tested
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successfully!) One of the first British escapers to get home was Airey Neave. Post-war he became an MP and was murdered by the IRA, when his car was blown up by a bomb in the Palace of Westminster car park.
Our visit to Colditz covered only a small part of the building, mainly the rooms adjacent to the spiral staircase. At the top of the building we saw a copy of the famous glider and some of the rooms of the high ranking POWs. A museum covered several floors with photographs, displays of escape clothing, forged keys and documents, 'rubber stamps' for approving passes etc., a sewing machine made of wood and several other artefacts. A 'tunnel' constructed by the French POWs was exposed. It was unusual, in that it was made up of channels located between walls and floors and not as you would think, dug underground. My general impression was that Colditz was a claustrophobic place compared with the three camps I experienced. But they were probably better supplied with food than we were and had better amenities.
The camp was liberated on 16 April 1945 by American forces. They had made rapid advances to the east and did not know that this castle was a POW camp. The Germans were still defending the town and castle approaches. The Volkssturn ('Home Guard'), now integrated with the Wehrmacht by Hitler, were also active in its defence. The American Commander was just about to order the shelling of the Castle, when Allied flags were waved from windows high up in the building! This saved the day and the order was cancelled - another bout of 'friendly fire' was averted, and no doubt casualties as well!
After this visit we returned to Muhlberg, stopping on the way to view Strehla on the river Elbe, where the Americans and the Russians met in April 1945. It was fifteen miles or so south of Torgau, which was later named as the official meeting place, on 4 May 1945. In the evening we returned to the Town Hall for our final meal of the tour.
Day 5
After breakfast we assembled at the Town Hall and said goodbye to the people of Muhlberg. We travelled, accompanied by Mayor Brendel, to Holzdoff Airbase (where her son was stationed) for a presentation by the Stn. Commander.
Holzdoff was a Helicopter Base (a part of the new German Airforce) and was involved in civil duties. The Commander gave a detailed talk about the work of the station. We were given a tour of the hanger[sic] responsible for the maintenance of the helicopters and a demonstration by the fire fighting services. This was followed by a snack, before we continued our journey to Schonefeld and back to Stansted.
We arrived back in Stansted on the evening of 10th September, after a very busy and successful tour. We were to find that we were back 'in the present day' - just a few hours before the atrocities perpetrated by terrorists in New York (nine/eleven!) were to make a 'world change' of momentous proportions.
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Tom Nelson and his American wife, both knew New York well, and were very upset about what had happened. Sadly Tom, who had not been completely fit for some time, died suddenly later that year, in November 2001.
Stalag1VB ex-POW Group Reunions in Peterborough
The 1VB reunions were held every year over the weekend nearest to the 23 April, which was the day the camp was liberated by the Russians. Barbara and I have attended these in April, years 2002-4 and we will attend next year, which will be the 60th anniversary of liberation day, Saturday 23 April 2005, and the final reunion for the Group. This will be a memorable occasion. No doubt the day will end with an even more rousing rendition of 'Land of Hope and Glory' which is sung every year. It was sung in 1VB, in place of the National Anthem, which was disallowed.
Medals
After my 80th birthday I decided that, for the sake of my children and grandchildren, I should claim my medals. According to my assessment I was entitled to four. If Bomber Command had been awarded a campaign medal, it would have been five. Air Chief Marshall Sir Arthur Harris said that 'every butcher, baker, and candlestick maker' within 200 miles of the front got a campaign medal ... but not Bomber Command'. The post-war government was embarrassed about the heavy loss of life in the bombing of Dresden, and the aircrews got the blame for it! As a result a campaign medal was not granted, despite their courage and dedication, in high risk bombing operations night after night. Bomber Command aircrews, mostly in their early twenties, carried out orders in a total war situation, and suffered the highest casualties of all the British and Commonwealth forces during the whole of WW2.
In fact my claim for medals finally amounted to three; the fourth medal, the Defence Medal, required three years' non-active service. After deducting elevan and half months training time abroad, I could only muster two years nine months, even adding my Home Guard time before I joined the RAF. The rest of my war service (one year three months) was as a POW, and I was told by a civil servant in the Medal Agency, that the time as a POW didn't count! (In America, there was an additional medal - for being a POW!)
My medals are:-
* 1939 - 1945 Star - active service.
* Aircrew Europe Star - aircrew active service Europe 1939 - D Day 1944
* War Medal - general service.
These are still in a small cardboard box with a piece of ribbon for each rolled up in it, sent to me by registered post. There was no covering letter, only a printed list of all the medals available, with their ribbon colours, so that you can match the medal to the ribbon yourself.
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Footprints on the Sands of Time (Bomber Command Prisoners of War in Germany 1939 - 45) by Oliver Clutton-Brock
This unique book, published in 2003, covers the German POW Camps. It includes anecdotes and stories of aircrew in the camps, covering capture, escape, liberation, those who were wounded, suffered illness and many that were murdered. It lists all the 10,999 POWs, who did not suffer in any way like those in the 'Holocaust' yet, nevertheless, experienced poor living conditions in German hand. They owe their health and many of them their lives, largely due to the food, clothing etc. supplied to the camps by the International Red Cross.
I add a few comments here about the treatment of POWs featured in this book, which I have not referred to directly in my experiences. It is important to include them here, as they are the additional risks that aircrew were exposed to, when they baled out near or in the target area, in the last two years of the war.
Also I refer to escaping and getting back to England, which only a tiny number succeeded in doing, despite the large number of prisoners who attempted it.
Additional risks to Aircrew in 1943-45
From mid-1943 onwards, after baling out into enemy territory, the treatment received on capture was a matter of luck. Many were humiliated, beaten and murdered. It was estimated, that one-in-twenty captured aircrew never returned home, overall more than 800 RAF were lynched or shot.
Personally my capture was reasonably civilised. Apart from the hint, at a suburban police station, that I was a 'terrorflieger', and experiencing with a part of other captured RAF, ugly threats from a crowd of civilians at a Berlin main railway station, I was ok. But of course we were under armed guard at the time!
Interrogation at Dulag Luft for me was a relatively mild experience, and the 'heat treatment' I received lasted only a couple of days. However this book states the Kommandant and some of his staff were tried for War Crimes in 1945, and he was given five years' imprisonment for his use of heat treatment (from 1943 onwards), and for withholding urgent medical attention from some wounded aircrew whilst they were being interrogated.
Following the Hamburg raids in August 1943 when the port and town were virtually destroyed, Himmler ordered the police not to interfere with the lynching of aircrew (who had baled out) by the civilian population. In March 1944 after the murder of the 50 escapees from Stalag Luft 3 POW Camp, Hitler ordered that airmen making emergency landings in Germany should not be protected by Wehrmacht from the atrocities perpetrated by the enraged population. In June 1944 Goring, Ribbentrop, and Himmler stated that airmen
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strafing trains, non military targets etc, would not be protected as POWs. In 1944 generally, there was a 'drip down' from the Nazi leaders to all the Military and Luftwaffe, not to interfere when civilians had taken action against captured airmen. They were also encouraged to take the lives of the hated 'terrorflieger'. After the Dresden bombing in February 1945, Goebbels stated that the 1929 Geneva Convention wasn't worth the paper it was written on. He hinted to the neutral Swedish press, that more heavy raids could result in all RAF and American airmen POWs, now in custody, being summarily executed! Hitler subsequently dropped the plan.
Churchill, early in 1945, was fearful of reprisals against all POWs in Germany. He suggested to Roosevelt and Stalin that a warning to Germany - not to maltreat prisoners - should be made by the Allies. But it was not until 23 April 1945, (due to the prevarication of Stalin,) that warning leaflets were dropped over Germany. By that time the war was almost over.
The worst excesses of murder happened during the last 12 months of the war and this book describes a number of them. The following example relates to what happened to a flight sergeant rear funner from my squadron (102). On 24 December 1944, a Halifax on a raid to Mulheim, was shot down near Neuss. All seven crew baled out, but only F/Sgt J G Williams was known to be captured at the time. He was taken by car, by the police, and handed over to Kreisliter Johannes Esser (Nazi Party Official) who took him to a room where he was reproached and beaten for bombing the town. He was then shot in the head and his body taken to a cellar, where it was wrapped in paper and sacking and tied with string. Esser and another, then took the body by car and threw it into a stream running into the Rhine.
On 28 September 1946, Esser was sentenced to death by a Military Court and hanged in Hameln prison, on 23 January 1947.
It is possible that the pilot and mid-upper gunner were also murdered on the same day. No details are known, but a letter from the MOD, as late as 1982, to their next of kin, suggests that a war crime was committed against them and four Germans were tried for the killings, in 1948. Looking up 102 Squadron records, I find that three of the crew were killed (murdered?) and the remaining four survived as POWs. This is an example of the 'hairs breadth', between life and death, when members of the same crew were captured by different Germans, probably only a few hundred yards apart.
Escaping - 1939 to 45
Despite the large number of Bomber Command POWs, there were only 34 successful escapes from prison camps, of aircrew, during 1939 - 45. Most of these were by aircrew, exchanging their identities with working parties who worked and lived outside the main prison camps. There were eleven (over the war period) who made their escape from Stalag V111B by this means. Not all got back to England in good time; some former Polish aircrew (now in RAF) stayed with the Polish Resistance until the war ended! Others stayed with Underground Forces until liberated by the Allies.
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There were two escapes, both from Stalag Luft 3 that were made via tunnels. The most famous, the 'Great Escape': 76 POWS (out of 200 planned) managed to get out before the tunnel was discovered. Unfortunately 73 were recaptured and Hitler ordered the murder of 50 of them, as a reprisal. Only three, two Norwegians and one Dutchman, all in the RAF, managed to get back to England.
The other, earlier escape, planned at the beginning of summer 1943, 'The Wooden Horse', was probably the most ingenious and most successful of them all. Everyday a wooden vaulting horse was carried out to the same spot, only 30 metres from the wire. While other prisoners exercised, Eric Williams, Michael Codner and Oliver Philpot, would dig from a trap door beneath it. After 114 days of work, the three men finally escaped on 29 October 1943. All three, Oliver Philpot separately, caught a train from the local station, Sagan. Philpot posing as a Norwegian reached Danzig, slipped aboard a ship and arrive in Sweden on 3 November and was taken by police to the British Legation in Stockholme the next day. The other two got to Stettin, then by ship to Copenhagen, and finally to Sweden and the British Legation in Stockholm on 13 November. After being delayed by a spell of bad weather, they were flown home at the end of December.
I met Oliver Philpot at the end of the 1950s, when he was Chairman of Truefoods (a Baby Foods Company), then owned by Unilever. I was in Organisation Division and doing an assignment there. Shortly afterwards he was made the Head Office Manager of Unilever House.
Memories of my RAF service
1. These are contained in the following documents, computer files and on floppy disc:-
BOMBER - deals with my time in the RAF until I was shot down.
NOEL COWARD - a poem paying tribute to Bomber Command
POW DAYS - covering my prisoner of war days to the end of the war
POW Days Postscript - covering events post war until 2004
2. There are also other records and papers:-
* Pilots Log Book and Observers/Navigators Log Book.
* A wartime log written as a POW, which also contains photos and sketches (unfortunately not completed).
* Two binders
Red - containing telegrams and letters from relatives and friends, and memorabilia, after I was shot down and became a POW.
Blue - containing details or [of] my bombing raids and when I was shot down over Berlin, with drawings and photographs.
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* All my POW letters to my parents.
* There are short one-page descriptions of the following events
- 'RAF arrive with pyjamas'
- 'Friendly Fire'
- Our Incredible Escape'
* The following events covered in my documents have supporting records
- 50th anniversary of our survival, celebrated at the Post House, Peterborough: there are photographs, a 3 minute video tape broadcast over the BBC 'Look East' network; a 3 minute radio tape of me and George Griffiths (Pilot) broadcast several times over BBC Cambridge Radio; Laurie Underwood also produced a video tape of the whole event.
- Attending Runneymede Memorial Service (ACA) to pay our respects to the two of our crew who have no known graves - photographs and programme of the service.
- Laurie Underwood's golden wedding anniversary, visit to the Yorkshire Air Museum to see the Halifax Bomber being rebuilt - photographs
- Tom Nelson meetings - his Daily Mail newspaper article re Christmas at Stalag1VB, photographs, drawings, poems of Stalag1VB, also photographs obtained from the Stalag1VB website
- Visit to Kew Public Records Office - extracts from 102 Squadron micro film operational records, original records of Pocklington Station and S/Ldr Harvey's DFC citation.
- Visit to Germany covering Berlin, Muhlberg, Stalag 1Vb site etc. - photos and data (including descriptions of Stalag 1VB post war from the German Muhlberg Initiative Group). There is also a map of the area highlighting places connected to our visit and when I was shot down.
- Two local newspaper articles and two 25 minute radio tapes (also recorded on a CD), of live interviews of me at BBC Radio Essex and Laurie Underwood via a telephone link to BBC Radio Leeds, used to advertise the book 'Flying into Hell'.
3 A number of books about Bomber Command, the Berlin Raids, a book and two journals about 102 Squadron, and two books about RAF POWs were used in making my own records
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4 Sundry items that support my records:-
- Banner of all Bomber Command Squadrons
- Banner of all Halifax Bomber Squadrons
- My Commission Parchment
- Framed picture and separate copies (one black & white and one coloured picture) of Stalag 1VB layout.
- Photo album of my training days in USA and Canada
- Photo of a Halifax 3 Bomber and a large model, made by my son-in-law, David Hughes
March 2005
19
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
My POW Days - Postscript
Description
An account of the resource
Reg starts with a page about the Caterpillar Club then describes his life after the war. Over the years he had many reunions and he undertook research regarding the four crew members who died the night they were shot down. In 2001 he and 90 or so ex-prisoners of war went on a tour of German war graves, Stalag IVB and Colditz.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Reg Wilson
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2005-03
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Craven Arms
England--London
England--London
England--Peterborough
Germany--Lübeck
England--Runnymede
England--Wetherby
Scotland--Edinburgh
Germany--Mühlberg (Bad Liebenwerda)
England--London
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Colditz
Germany--Torgau
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Mülheim an der Ruhr
Germany--Neuss
Poland--Żagań
Poland--Gdańsk
Sweden--Stockholm
Poland--Szczecin
Denmark--Copenhagen
Poland
Germany
Denmark
Sweden
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Shropshire
England--Sussex
England--Yorkshire
England--Surrey
England--Bishop's Stortford
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
19 printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWilsonRC1389401-170113-100002
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
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription. Under review
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
102 Squadron
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bale out
bombing
Caterpillar Club
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Dulag Luft
escaping
final resting place
Goebbels, Joseph (1897-1945)
Goering, Hermann (1893-1946)
Halifax
Halifax Mk 3
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Lancaster
memorial
mine laying
navigator
pilot
prisoner of war
RAF Elvington
RAF Hendon
RAF Hornchurch
RAF Pocklington
Red Cross
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 3
Stalin, Joseph (1878-1953)
the long march
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1560/35630/BMillingtonRWestonFv1.2.pdf
8f0a70969cd59c55fef62f5a0d5a383d
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
Weston, Fred
F Weston
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
2016-11-13
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
Weston, F
Description
An account of the resource
20 items. The collection concerns Fred Weston DFC (1916 - 2012, 126909 Royal Air Force) and contains documents and photographs. He flew operations as an air gunner with 101 and 620 Squadrons.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Catherine Millington and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
Air Gunner
Based around the WWII service of Fred Weston DFC RAFVR
Description
An account of the resource
A biography of Fred. In addition it includes histories of aircraft and squadrons he served in, Details are included of airfields he served at. Additionally there are biographies of various servicemen associated with Fred's squadrons and service.
At the end there is a biography of the officer in charge of Arnhem, Lt-Gen Sir Frederick Browning and his wife Daphne du Maurier.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Roger Millington
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2005-01
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cambridge
England--Letchworth
Wales--Bridgend
Wales--Penrhos
Egypt--Heliopolis (Extinct city)
Singapore
France--Cherbourg
Netherlands--Eindhoven
France--Brest
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
France--Dunkerque
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
France--Brest
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Berlin
Italy--Turin
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
France--L'Isle-Adam
France--Quiberon
France--Boulogne-Billancourt
Germany--Essen
France--Le Creusot
Germany--Leverkusen
France--Caen
Netherlands--Arnhem
Norway
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Belgium--Brussels
England--Rochester (Kent)
Northern Ireland--Belfast
England--Longbridge
France--Arras
England--Darlington
Italy--Genoa
England--Longbridge
Yemen (Republic)--Aden
Europe--Frisian Islands
Germany--Peenemünde
Germany--Nuremberg
Italy--Sicily
France--Normandy
Netherlands--Arnhem
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Netherlands--Nijmegen
Wales--Pwllheli
England--Yorkshire
England--Leicester
England--Sunderland (Tyne and Wear)
Scotland--Edinburgh
England--Rochford
England--London
England--Cornwall (County)
Scotland--Ayr
England--Friston (East Sussex)
England--Gravesend (Kent)
England--West Malling
England--Hailsham
England--Yelverton (Devon)
England--Bentwaters NATO Air Base
England--Great Dunmow
England--Heacham
England--Weybridge
Wales--Hawarden
England--Blackpool
England--Old Sarum (Extinct city)
England--Kent
England--Folkestone
England--Hambleton (North Yorkshire)
England--York
Scotland--Scottish Borders
England--Cambridge
England--Thurleigh
England--Darlington
England--Hitchin
England--Lancashire
Italy
France
Egypt
Germany
Belgium
Netherlands
Great Britain
Yemen (Republic)
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Bedfordshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Devon
England--Durham (County)
England--Sussex
England--Essex
England--Herefordshire
England--Norfolk
England--Suffolk
England--Surrey
England--Wiltshire
England--Worcestershire
England--Leicestershire
England--Swindon (Wiltshire)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Royal Air Force. Fighter Command
British Army
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal New Zealand Air Force
Free French Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
85 sheets
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BMillingtonRWestonFv1
1 Group
100 Group
101 Squadron
103 Squadron
105 Squadron
114 Squadron
139 Squadron
141 Squadron
148 Squadron
149 Squadron
162 Squadron
1657 HCU
1665 HCU
18 Squadron
180 Squadron
2 Group
208 Squadron
214 Squadron
239 Squadron
3 Group
301 Squadron
304 Squadron
342 Squadron
6 Group
6 Squadron
620 Squadron
7 Squadron
75 Squadron
8 Group
9 Squadron
90 Squadron
97 Squadron
99 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
air gunner
aircrew
B-17
B-24
B-25
bale out
Beaufighter
Blenheim
bombing
Bombing and Gunnery School
Boston
Caterpillar Club
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
crash
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
ditching
evading
final resting place
Gee
Gneisenau
H2S
Halifax
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Horsa
Hurricane
Ju 87
killed in action
Lancaster
Lysander
Manchester
Me 109
Meteor
mid-air collision
mine laying
Mosquito
navigator
Oboe
Operational Training Unit
P-51
Pathfinders
prisoner of war
propaganda
radar
RAF Bicester
RAF Biggin Hill
RAF Boscombe Down
RAF Bottesford
RAF Bourn
RAF Bradwell Bay
RAF Bramcote
RAF Chedburgh
RAF Chipping Warden
RAF Coltishall
RAF Drem
RAF Driffield
RAF Duxford
RAF Elsham Wolds
RAF Evanton
RAF Fairford
RAF Finningley
RAF Great Massingham
RAF Halfpenny Green
RAF Harwell
RAF Hendon
RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor
RAF Honington
RAF Hornchurch
RAF Horsham St Faith
RAF Kenley
RAF Lakenheath
RAF Leconfield
RAF Leuchars
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF Little Snoring
RAF Ludford Magna
RAF Manston
RAF Marham
RAF Martlesham Heath
RAF Mildenhall
RAF Newmarket
RAF Newton
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Oakington
RAF Penrhos
RAF Pershore
RAF Ridgewell
RAF Shepherds Grove
RAF Sleap
RAF Stradishall
RAF Tangmere
RAF Tempsford
RAF Tilstock
RAF Tuddenham
RAF Waterbeach
RAF West Raynham
RAF Woodbridge
RAF Wratting Common
RAF Wyton
Resistance
Scharnhorst
Special Operations Executive
Spitfire
Stirling
target indicator
Tiger force
training
Typhoon
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2084/34478/SWeirG19660703v050001.2.pdf
d145f2e96df2ca6c739b9222cbb3b0b7
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
Weir, Greg. Thiele, Keith
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. Collection concerns Squadron Leader Keith Thiele DSO and DFC and two bars (1921 - 2016, Royal New Zealand Air Force). After training in New Zealand came to Great Britain and completed operations of 405 Squadron flying Wellington and Halifax and subsequently on Lancaster with 467 Squadron. He then converted to fighters flying Spitfire, Tempest and Typhoon over Europe. The collection contains his log books, combat reports and a letter reporting his missing.
The collection was catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-26
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Weir, G
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
Keith Thiele - Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot's flying log book
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal New Zealand Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One photocopied booklet
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SWeirG19660703v050001
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
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for Keith F Thiele, covering the period from 20 January 1941 to 18 February 1946. Detailing his flying training, operations flown and instructor duties including his conversion to single seat fighters with operations over Europe claiming 2 Me 109s and one Ju 52. He was stationed at RNZAF Harewood, RNZAF Woodbourne, RAF Wellesbourne, RAF Pocklington, RAF Marston Moor, RAF Abingdon, RAF Hullavington, RAF Waddington, RAF Bottesford, RAF Hendon, RAF Dorval, RAF Eshott, RAF Bulmer, RAF Tangmere, RAF Friston, RAF Bolt Head, RAF West Malling, RAF Wigram, RAF Lympne, RAF Swanton Morley, RAF Bognor, RAF Thorney Island and RAF Vokel. Aircraft flown in were Tiger Moth, Oxford, Wellington, Magister, Halifax, Whitley, Tutor, Anson, Lancaster, Ventura, Dakota, Hudson, Norseman, Mariner, Liberator, Spitfire, Dominie, Typhoon, Auster, Tempest and Harvard. He flew a total of 56 operations, 32 with 405 Squadron and 24 with 467 Squadron. He also flew fighter operations with 41 and 486 Squadrons. Targets were Dunkirk, Berlin, Wilhelmshaven, Cherbourg, Emden, Bremen, Brest, Mannheim, Kiel, Paris, St Nazaire, Essen, Cologne, Hamburg, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Duisburg, Bayonne, Turin, Nuremburg, Stuttgart, and La Spezia. His first or second pilots on operations were Pilot Officer Robson, Sergeant Field, Flight Sergeant Weakly, Sergeant Howe, Pilot Officer Desmond, Sergeant Claxton, Sergeant Heavery, Pilot Officer Manifold, Sergeant Rodgers, Sergeant Stuart, Sergeant Byers, Sergeant Wallace, Sergeant Wilson, Flight Lieutenant Sinclair and Sergeant Gillman, and Sergeant Carrington. This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-10-31
1941-11-01
1941-11-04
1941-11-05
1941-11-07
1941-11-08
1941-12-16
1941-12-17
1941-12-22
1941-12-23
1942-01-06
1942-01-07
1942-01-15
1942-01-16
1942-01-21
1942-01-22
1942-01-31
1942-02-01
1942-02-12
1942-02-13
1942-02-14
1942-02-15
1942-02-26
1942-02-27
1942-03-03
1942-03-04
1942-03-08
1942-03-09
1942-03-10
1942-03-11
1942-03-26
1942-03-27
1942-04-05
1942-04-06
1942-04-08
1942-04-09
1942-04-10
1942-04-11
1942-04-15
1942-04-16
1942-04-17
1942-04-18
1942-05-30
1942-06-01
1942-06-02
1942-06-06
1942-06-07
1942-06-08
1942-06-09
1942-06-25
1942-06-26
1942-07-02
1942-07-03
1942-07-08
1942-07-09
1942-07-26
1942-07-27
1942-07-31
1942-08-01
1942-08-03
1942-08-06
1942-08-07
1943-01-02
1943-01-03
1943-01-07
1943-01-08
1943-01-12
1943-01-13
1943-01-16
1943-01-17
1943-01-18
1943-01-23
1943-01-24
1943-01-27
1943-01-28
1943-01-30
1943-01-31
1943-02-04
1943-02-05
1943-02-18
1943-02-19
1943-02-21
1943-02-22
1943-02-25
1943-02-26
1943-03-01
1943-03-02
1943-03-03
1943-03-04
1943-03-05
1943-03-06
1943-03-08
1943-03-09
1943-03-11
1943-03-12
1943-03-13
1943-03-22
1943-03-23
1943-03-29
1943-03-30
1943-04-14
1943-04-15
1943-04-18
1943-04-19
1943-05-04
1943-05-05
1943-05-12
1943-05-13
1944
1945
1946
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
Netherlands
New Zealand
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
England--Devon
England--East Sussex
England--Kent
England--Leicestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--London
England--Norfolk
England--Northumberland
England--Oxfordshire
England--Warwickshire
England--Wiltshire
England--Yorkshire
France--Bayonne
France--Brest
France--Cherbourg
France--Dunkerque
France--Paris
France--Saint-Nazaire
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Emden (Lower Saxony)
Germany--Essen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Italy--La Spezia
Italy--Turin
Netherlands--North Brabant
New Zealand--Christchurch
New Zealand--Marlborough
Québec--Montréal
Québec
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Sussex
England--Sussex
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
10 OTU
1661 HCU
22 OTU
405 Squadron
467 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
B-24
bombing of Cologne (30/31 May 1942)
C-47
Dominie
Flying Training School
forced landing
Gneisenau
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hudson
Ju 52
Lancaster
Magister
Me 109
Me 262
mine laying
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Abingdon
RAF Bottesford
RAF Hendon
RAF Hullavington
RAF Lympne
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Pocklington
RAF Swanton Morley
RAF Tangmere
RAF Thorney Island
RAF Waddington
RAF Wellesbourne Mountford
Scharnhorst
Spitfire
Tiger Moth
training
Typhoon
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
Ventura
Wellington
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1405/26420/LRobinsonFA33520v1.2.pdf
708f1dc7bd64207eea63cd6cffe934ff
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
Robinson, F A
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
2019-06-17
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Robinson, FA
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. The collection concerns Squadron Leader F A Robinson (b.1920, 33520 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books and a poem. He flew over 130 daylight operations with 1 PRU and 543 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by P A Robinson and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
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
F A Robinson’s flying log book for pilots. One
Description
An account of the resource
Flying log book for F A Robinson covering the period from 8 September 1938 to 22 January 1951. Detailing his flying training and operations flown, includes flight certificates, congratulatory messages and notes of appreciation from senior officers, a poem about 'Gremlins', newspaper clippings, photograph of a radar installation. He was stationed at RAF Cranwell (RAF College), RAF Old Sarum (S of AC), Abbeville (2 Squadron), RAF Odiham/Hendon (ROC Flt), RAF Hatfield/ Hendon (116 Squadron & 24 Squadron), RAF Benson/St. Eval (1 PRU & 543 Squadron). Aircraft flown in were Tutor, Hart, Hind, Audax, Hector, Lysander, Magister, Master, Roc, Stinson, Proctor, Spitfire, Anson, Wellington, Expediter, Oxford, Gladiator, Blenheim, Harvard, Tiger Moth, Hornet Moth, Meteor, Vampire. He flew over 130 daylight operations with 1 PRU and 543 Squadron. Photographic operations were flown over Le Havre, Honfleur, Cherbourg, Boulogne, Abbeville, Zeebrugge, Cap Gris Nez, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Ostend, Charleroi, Douai, Den Helder, Amsterdam, Lille, Bethune, St Omer, Leipzig, Ruhr, Flushing, Gronigen, Heppel, Cologne, Weert, Calais, Dunkirk, Nurnberg, Dortmund, Ems, Kiel, Emden, Cuxhaven, Franco-Spanish border, Brest, Bordeaux, St Nazaire, Ploumanac, Le Croisic, Ushant, St Lannion, Lorient, St Nazaire, Douarnez Bay, Pt Duraz, Morlaix, Toulouse, St Malo, Poissy, Lubeck, Travemunde, North German ports, Dortmund, Cologne, Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Frankfurt, Mezieres, Essen, Amsterdam, Swinemunde, Hamburg, Brussels, Liege, Gironde ports, La Pallice, Martha, Saarbrucken, Mealte, Aachen, Rouen, Alten fiord. The log book also lists his post war flights.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike French
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.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LRobinsonFA33520v.1
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Belgium
France
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
Norway
Belgium--Antwerp
Belgium--Brussels
Belgium--Charleroi
Belgium--Ostend
Belgium--Zeebrugge
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Hampshire
England--Hertfordshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Middlesex
England--Oxfordshire
England--Surrey
England--Wiltshire
France--Abbeville
France--Béthune
France--Brest
France--Calais
France--Cherbourg
France--Le Croisic
France--Douai
France--Douarnenez
France--Dunkerque
France--Le Havre
France--Honfleur
France--Lannion
France--Lille
France--Lorient
France--Charleville-Mézières
France--Morlaix
France--La Pallice
France--Poissy
France--Rouen
France--Toulouse
France--Ouessant Island
Germany--Aachen
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Cuxhaven
Germany--Dortmund-Ems Canal
Germany--Essen
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Heilbronn
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Lübeck
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Saarbrücken
Netherlands--Amsterdam
Netherlands--Den Helder
Netherlands--Groningen
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Netherlands--Vlissingen
Netherlands--Weert
Norway--Altafjord
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Germany--Emden (Lower Saxony)
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Saarbrücken
France--Saint-Malo
France--Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais)
Belgium--Liège
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
France--Ouessant Island
France--Saint-Nazaire
France--Cap Gris Nez
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1940-05-13
1940-05-14
1940-07-10
1940-07-11
1940-07-12
1940-07-23
1940-07-24
1940-07-29
1940-07-30
1940-08-02
1940-08-03
1940-08-06
1940-08-07
1940-08-10
1940-08-11
1940-08-14
1940-08-15
1940-08-18
1940-08-19
1940-09-11
1940-09-13
1940-09-18
1941-08-10
1941-08-17
1941-08-18
1941-08-19
1941-08-21
1941-08-22
1941-08-26
1941-08-27
1941-08-31
1941-09-02
1941-09-04
1941-09-16
1941-09-21
1941-09-22
1941-09-23
1941-09-26
1941-09-28
1941-10-02
1941-10-06
1941-10-13
1941-10-20
1941-10-23
1941-11-01
1941-11-03
1941-11-06
1941-11-12
1941-11-14
1941-11-18
1941-11-20
1941-11-24
1941-11-25
1941-12-01
1941-12-05
1941-12-07
1941-12-11
1941-12-13
1941-12-15
1941-12-19
1942-01-02
1942-01-04
1942-01-06
1942-01-09
1942-01-11
1942-01-12
1942-01-15
1942-01-16
1942-01-24
1942-01-26
1942-01-28
1942-02-02
1942-02-03
1942-02-05
1942-02-07
1942-02-08
1942-02-10
1942-02-11
1942-02-18
1942-02-19
1942-02-27
1942-03-05
1942-03-09
1942-03-24
1942-03-26
1942-03-27
1942-03-29
1942-04-02
1942-04-06
1942-04-12
1942-04-14
1942-04-16
1942-04-25
1942-04-30
1942-05-03
1942-05-06
1942-05-16
1942-05-18
1942-05-24
1942-05-28
1942-06-06
1942-06-17
1942-06-21
1942-06-22
1942-07-08
1942-07-18
1942-07-30
1942-08-06
1942-08-17
1942-08-18
1942-08-19
1942-08-23
1942-08-28
1942-09-11
1942-09-18
1942-10-04
1942-11-09
1942-11-10
1943-01-18
1943-06-25
1943-09-03
1943-09-05
1943-09-09
1943-09-13
1943-09-14
1943-09-19
1943-09-24
1943-09-26
1943-09-29
1943-10-09
1943-10-16
543 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
Blenheim
bombing
Flying Training School
Gneisenau
gremlin
Harvard
Lysander
Magister
Meteor
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
pilot
Proctor
RAF Benson
RAF Cranwell
RAF Hatfield
RAF Hendon
RAF Odiham
RAF St Eval
Scharnhorst
Spitfire
Tiger Moth
Tirpitz
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1596/25340/LSaundersEJ924532v1.2.pdf
c78158eb8860fddc9d2b39689fa6731e
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
Saunders, Ernest John
E J Saunders
Sam Saunders
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
2020-02-13
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
Saunders, EJ
Description
An account of the resource
Nine items. The collection concerns Ernest John Saunders (924532 Royal Air Force) and consists of his log book, photographs and correspondence as well as two photograph albums of his service and family life. He flew operations as a navigator in North Africa in 1942 with 40 Squadron and with Bomber Command in 1943 - 1944 with 692 and 128 Squadron on Mosquito.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Penelope Thicket and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
Sam Saunders's flying log book
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
Description
An account of the resource
Detailing his flying training and operations flown as navigator 16 January 1941 to 9 January 1946. He was stationed at RCAF Winnipeg (6 AOS), RCAF MacDonald (3 B&GS), RCAF Rivers (1 ANS), RAF Harwell (15 OTU), RAF Shallufa (38 and 40 Squadrons), RAF Upper Heyford (16 OTU), RAF Hendon (24 and 512 Squadrons), RAF Doncaster (271 Squadron), RAF Marham (1655 MTU), RAF Oakington (627 Squadron), RAF Graveley (692 Squadron), RAF Wyton (128 Squadron), RAF Crosby-on-Eden (109 TCU), RAF Almaza (216 Squadron).
Aircraft flown in were Anson, Battle, Wellington, Hudson, Tiger Moth, Dakota, Sparrow, Oxford, Proctor and Mosquito.
He flew 3 night operations with 38 Squadron, 42 with 40 Squadron, 8 with 627 Squadron, 45 with 692 squadron and 9 with 128 Squadron, a total of 107. His pilots on operations were Warrant Officer Brodie, Sergeant Le Brog, Squadron Leader Booth, Wing Commander Lockhart, Flight Lieutenant Grainger, Squadron Leader Saunderson, Wing Commander Birkin, Wing Commander Watts, Flying Officer Page, Pilot Officer Burnett, Flying Officer Richardson, Flying Officer Goodwin, Wing Commander Burrough, Flying Officer Boyer and Flight Lieutenant Gallanders.
Targets included Benghazi, mining, Tobruk, El Daba, Alamein, Ras el Manatis, Fuka, Cagliari, Tunis, Bizerte, Duisburg, Cologne, Hamburg, Magdeburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Schweinfurt, Augsburg, Hannover, Dusseldorf, Koln, Osnabruk, Stuttgart, Friedrichshaven, Leverkusen, Cologne, Gelsenkirchen, Bremen, Homberg, Weisbaden, Saarbruchen, Wanne-Eichel, Castrop, Kiel, Kassel, Brunswick and Cochem.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Terry Hancock
Cara Walmsley
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Egypt
Great Britain
Italy
Libya
North Africa
Egypt--Alamayn
Egypt--Cairo
Egypt--Suez
Egypt--Tall al-Ḍabʻah
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Cumbria
England--Doncaster
England--London
England--Norfolk
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Braunschweig
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Castrop-Rauxel
Germany--Cochem
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Friedrichshafen
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Homberg (Kassel)
Germany--Kassel
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Leverkusen
Germany--Leverkusen
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Saarbrücken
Germany--Schweinfurt
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Germany--Wiesbaden
Italy--Cagliari
Libya--Tobruk
Manitoba--Winnipeg
Tunisia--Bizerte
Tunisia--Tunis
Germany--Augsburg
Germany--Magdeburg
England--Oxfordshire
Libya--Banghāzī
Tunisia
Germany
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Yorkshire
Egypt--Fukah
Manitoba
Manitoba--Rivers
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1942-05-24
1942-05-25
1942-05-26
1942-05-27
1942-05-30
1942-06-05
1942-06-06
1942-06-08
1942-07-11
1942-07-12
1942-07-15
1942-07-16
1942-07-18
1942-07-19
1942-07-20
1942-07-21
1942-07-23
1942-07-24
1942-07-25
1942-07-26
1942-07-27
1942-07-29
1942-07-30
1942-08-01
1942-08-02
1942-08-04
1942-08-05
1942-08-18
1942-08-19
1942-08-22
1942-08-23
1942-08-26
1942-08-27
1942-08-28
1942-08-29
1942-08-31
1942-09-01
1942-09-06
1942-09-07
1942-09-13
1942-09-14
1942-09-18
1942-09-19
1942-09-20
1942-09-21
1942-09-24
1942-09-25
1942-10-09
1942-10-10
1942-10-12
1942-10-13
1942-10-18
1942-10-19
1942-10-20
1942-10-21
1942-10-23
1942-10-24
1942-10-25
1942-10-26
1942-10-27
1942-10-29
1942-10-30
1942-11-02
1942-11-03
1942-11-04
1942-11-05
1942-11-06
1942-11-07
1942-11-08
1942-11-09
1942-11-10
1942-11-11
1942-11-14
1942-11-15
1942-11-18
1942-11-19
1942-11-20
1942-11-21
1942-11-24
1942-11-25
1942-11-27
1942-11-28
1943-12-28
1944-01-02
1944-01-06
1944-01-14
1944-01-21
1944-01-22
1944-01-29
1944-02-01
1944-02-07
1944-02-19
1944-02-24
1944-02-25
1944-02-26
1944-03-06
1944-03-11
1944-03-13
1944-03-14
1944-03-23
1944-04-04
1944-04-12
1944-04-13
1944-04-20
1944-04-21
1944-04-24
1944-04-25
1944-04-27
1944-04-28
1944-05-08
1944-05-09
1944-05-10
1944-05-11
1944-05-26
1944-05-27
1944-06-12
1944-06-13
1944-06-15
1944-06-16
1944-06-17
1944-06-21
1944-06-22
1944-06-23
1944-06-24
1944-06-25
1944-06-26
1944-06-28
1944-06-29
1944-07-04
1944-07-08
1944-07-10
1944-07-11
1944-07-14
1944-07-15
1944-07-16
1944-07-17
1944-07-18
1944-07-19
1944-07-20
1944-08-05
1944-08-06
1944-08-07
1944-08-08
1944-08-09
1944-08-11
1944-08-12
1944-08-13
1944-08-14
1944-08-15
1944-08-25
1944-08-26
1944-08-27
1944-08-30
1944-08-31
1944-09-01
1944-09-02
1944-09-13
1944-09-14
1944-09-27
1944-10-01
1944-10-02
1944-10-19
1944-11-27
1944-12-05
1944-12-06
1944-12-11
1945-01-01
1945-01-18
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LSaundersEJ924532v1
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
128 Squadron
15 OTU
16 OTU
216 Squadron
38 Squadron
40 Squadron
627 Squadron
692 Squadron
Air Observers School
aircrew
Anson
Battle
bombing
Bombing and Gunnery School
C-47
Hudson
mine laying
Mosquito
navigator
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
Proctor
RAF Graveley
RAF Harwell
RAF Hendon
RAF Marham
RAF Oakington
RAF Shallufa
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Wyton
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22571/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-018.2.pdf
016c5b36e006bb2bf9b025c8d8d14b3a
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
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
Ex-RCAF The Camp Jan 1990
Description
An account of the resource
News-sheet of the ex-Air Force POW Association. This edition covers POW's in Perpetuity, the Red Cross, a new memorial at Plymouth Hoe, Geoof Taylor -author, advance notice of a reunion in Vancouver, lost members, ex-POW histories, Obituaries, a message from the President, Gen from around the circuit and photographs from the 1989 Ottawa reunion.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The RAF ex-POW Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1990-01
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
16 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-018
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 Canadian Air Force
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Plymouth
France--Dieppe
Canada
British Columbia--Vancouver
Ontario--Ottawa
Germany--Koblenz
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Luckenwalde
Ontario--Toronto
Alberta--Edmonton
Belgium
France--Fresnes (Val-de-Marne)
France--Saint-Nazaire
Alberta--Hinton
Germany--Berlin
England--Cambridge
England--Oxford
England--Southampton
Germany--Cologne
France--Le Havre
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Lübeck
Manitoba--Brandon
Switzerland--Geneva
United States--Mason-Dixon Line
England--Skipton
France--Falaise
Manitoba--Winnipeg
Germany--Essen
Virginia--Norfolk
Italy--Sicily
Italy--Calabria
Italy--Naples
Italy--Florence
Austria--Spittal an der Drau
Poland--Toruń
Poland--Gdańsk
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Europe--Elbe River
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Bad Fallingbostel
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Germany--Mühlberg (Bad Liebenwerda)
Italy
Poland
France
Virginia
Ontario
Alberta
Germany
Austria
Switzerland
United States
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Devon
England--Hampshire
England--Yorkshire
England--Oxfordshire
Manitoba
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.
10 Squadron
214 Squadron
4 Group
40 Squadron
405 Squadron
408 Squadron
415 Squadron
419 Squadron
420 Squadron
424 Squadron
425 Squadron
426 Squadron
427 Squadron
428 Squadron
429 Squadron
431 Squadron
432 Squadron
433 Squadron
434 Squadron
6 Group
air gunner
aircrew
B-17
bale out
Beaufighter
Bennett, Donald Clifford Tyndall (1910-1986)
bomb aimer
Caterpillar Club
Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
crash
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Service Order
Dulag Luft
escaping
Goering, Hermann (1893-1946)
Halifax
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Hurricane
Lancaster
Me 110
memorial
Military Cross
navigator
Operational Training Unit
P-51
Pathfinders
prisoner of war
RAF Alconbury
RAF Biggin Hill
RAF Digby
RAF Hendon
RAF St Eval
Red Cross
Spitfire
Stalag 3A
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
Stirling
strafing
training
Typhoon
Victoria Cross
Wellington
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22570/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-017.1.pdf
71c89cd5622fbbb2f0ce3a1b16012534
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
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
The Kriegie August 1986
Description
An account of the resource
News-sheet of the RAF ex-POW Association. This edition covers the large Canadian reunion of 1985 at Calgary, the Annual Dinner at Lords, Recco report of ex-POW activities, requests for help, Alan Bryett's lectures, the Association's AGM and annual reunion, Book reviews, advance notice of the Southampton reunion, two donations from the Larry Slattery Memorial Fund to a County Primary School band and to Merida - a 17 year old from Wiltshire, a reunion at RAF Hendon, news and photograph of the Blenheim restoration, the newly formed RAF Historical Society, the Dedication Parade and Service held at Windsor, a story about a German girl from Heydekrug who had moved to Brazil and a cartoon exhorting members to pay their subs.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The RAF ex-POW Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1986-08
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
12 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-017
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 Canadian Air Force
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Alberta--Calgary
Alberta--Banff
Alberta--Lake Louise
England--London
Australia
Victoria--Melbourne
Queensland
England--Manchester
England--Great Yarmouth
England--Taunton
Ontario--Cornwall
Lithuania--Šilutė
England--Doncaster
England--Brighton
England--Pulborough
England--Kingston upon Thames
Scotland--Aberdeen
England--Fordingbridge
England--Bristol
England--Nottingham
England--Princes Risborough
England--Olney
England--Southampton
England--Cheshire
United States
Texas
Poland--Żagań
Germany--Bad Fallingbostel
Victoria
England--Windsor (Windsor and Maidenhead)
Poland
Great Britain
Ontario
Alberta
Germany
Lithuania
England--Berkshire
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Gloucestershire
England--Hampshire
England--Norfolk
England--Somerset
England--Surrey
England--Sussex
England--Lancashire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Yorkshire
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.
10 Squadron
158 Squadron
7 Squadron
aircrew
arts and crafts
bale out
Blenheim
entertainment
Halifax
Lancaster
memorial
mess
navigator
Pathfinders
prisoner of war
RAF Duxford
RAF Hendon
RAF Melbourne
shot down
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22562/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-016.2.pdf
c215259212e8a221a69e87300af18941
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
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
The Kriegie December 2005
Description
An account of the resource
News-sheet of the RAF ex-POW Association. This edition covers the 60th anniversary of VE day, Great Escapes at the Imperial War Museum, requests for help, Obituaries, Sixtieth anniversary of the Great Escape, Recco report on ex-POWs, Kriegies help RAF apprentices, Mystery tour of Munich article, The Collector article about a POW who repeatedly visited the crash site of his Halifax, Return to Sagan, the Long March revisited, plus photographs and sketches of POW life.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The RAF ex-POW Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2005-12
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
16 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-016
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
British Army
Royal Navy
Royal Canadian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Plymouth
Germany--Munich
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Spremberg
Poland--Żagań
Germany--Bad Fallingbostel
Poland
Germany
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Devon
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.
10 Squadron
106 Squadron
144 Squadron
544 Squadron
601 Squadron
619 Squadron
air gunner
Air Raid Precautions
aircrew
arts and crafts
bale out
Caterpillar Club
civil defence
Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain (1926 - 2022)
escaping
flight engineer
Goering, Hermann (1893-1946)
Halifax
Hampden
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
killed in action
Lancaster
memorial
mess
Mosquito
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
pilot
prisoner of war
RAF Benson
RAF Duxford
RAF Halton
RAF Hendon
RAF Northolt
RAF St Athan
Red Cross
shot down
Spitfire
Stalag 3A
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 6
Stalag Luft 7
the long march
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22544/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-012.2.pdf
9b4c8e2553331a037c7dc2406bba8fd6
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
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
The Kriegie November 2011
Description
An account of the resource
News-sheet of the RAF ex-POW Association. This edition covers a charity motorcycle rode commemorating Roger Bushell, Charles Hancock's Long March told by his daughter, Book reviews, Alfie Fripp's revisit to Stalag Luft 3, Goings-on at Zagan, a dinner at RAF Henlow and a three part TV series about the Long March.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The RAF ex-POW Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
18 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-012
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Dover
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Netherlands--Arnhem
Germany--Celle
Germany--Barth
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Colditz
Germany--Berchtesgaden
Germany--Füssen
Italy--Stelvio Pass
England--Capel (Kent)
Austria--Kaunertal
Liechtenstein
Austria--Feldkirch
Germany--Baden-Baden
Germany--Trier
Netherlands--Dokkum
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Poland
Germany--Spremberg
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Bremen
England--Bristol
France--Lille
Italy--Turin
Denmark--Esbjerg
Netherlands--Amsterdam
Poland--Żagań
Germany--Düsseldorf
France--Dunkerque
Belgium--Ieper
Germany--Bad Fallingbostel
Italy
France
Germany
Denmark
Austria
Belgium
Netherlands
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Gloucestershire
England--Kent
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.
103 Squadron
104 Squadron
166 Squadron
207 Squadron
214 Squadron
218 Squadron
220 Squadron
35 Squadron
460 Squadron
50 Squadron
619 Squadron
77 Squadron
88 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bale out
Blenheim
Boston
crewing up
Distinguished Flying Cross
entertainment
escaping
Fw 190
Hudson
Lancaster
memorial
mess
navigator
P-51
prisoner of war
RAF Abingdon
RAF Attlebridge
RAF Biggin Hill
RAF Elsham Wolds
RAF Hendon
RAF Henlow
RAF Leeming
RAF Waddington
shot down
Spitfire
sport
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 6
the long march
Wellington
Whitley
wireless operator / air gunner
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22536/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-011.2.pdf
74fa5e15c5e7788b9a6f73056580fbd3
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
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
The Kriegie March 2010
Description
An account of the resource
The news-sheet of the RAF ex-POW Association. This edition covers refurbishing the memorial to "The Fifty" and the construction of a replica hut 104 at Zagan., the 65th anniversary of the Great Escape, the Royal Windsor Tattoo, a POW day at High Wycombe, photographs of the memorial at Zagan, the annual dinner at RAF Henlow, Recco Report ofg ex-POWs activities, Obituaries, Book Reviews, changes to the membership directory, and newspaper cuttings about Air Cadets on parade.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The RAF ex-POW Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2010-03
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
21 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-011
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
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Royal New Zealand Air Force
United States Army Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany--Berlin
Great Britain
England--High Wycombe
England--London
Germany--Sylt
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Kiel
Poland--Żagań
Germany--Helgoland
England--Windsor (Windsor and Maidenhead)
Poland
Germany
England--Berkshire
England--Buckinghamshire
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.
10 Squadron
144 Squadron
57 Squadron
77 Squadron
aircrew
Blenheim
Distinguished Service Order
Dulag Luft
escaping
evading
flight engineer
Hampden
Hurricane
Ju 88
Lancaster
Me 109
memorial
Military Cross
mine laying
navigator
prisoner of war
RAF Bassingbourn
RAF Coningsby
RAF Cranwell
RAF Dishforth
RAF Halton
RAF Hemswell
RAF Hendon
RAF Henlow
RAF North Coates
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Northolt
Special Operations Executive
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 6
Stalag Luft 7
the long march
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22523/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-009.1.pdf
a5ee9f765734a082357230edbe6bc59b
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
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
The Kriegie April 2004
Description
An account of the resource
News-Sheet of the RAF ex-POW Association. This edition covers the memorial to the POWs at RAF Hendon, Recco Report of ex-POWs and their activities, Obituaries for Maurice Butt and others, Book reviews, A time for Reconciliation, the Great Escape 60th Anniversary Air Power Association Dinner and Reception at the Imperial War Museum. Colour photographs of the memorial programme are included.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The RAF ex-POW Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2004-04
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
12 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-009
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
South African Air Force
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Royal Navy
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Alberta--Edmonton
Netherlands--Den Helder
Netherlands--Texel
England--London
England--Coventry
Germany--Cologne
England--Oxford
Germany--Barth
Malta
Great Britain
Alberta
Germany
Netherlands
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Oxfordshire
England--Warwickshire
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.
10 Squadron
51 Squadron
61 Squadron
aircrew
bale out
Beaufighter
Distinguished Flying Cross
Dulag Luft
Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain (1926 - 2022)
entertainment
Halifax
Harvard
Lancaster
Manchester
memorial
Mosquito
navigator
Operational Training Unit
prisoner of war
RAF Hendon
RAF Little Rissington
Red Cross
Spitfire
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 6
the long march
training
Typhoon
Victoria Cross
Wellington
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22522/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-008.1.pdf
1eace9778a4d8293c3066b0c2a62c393
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
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
The Kriegie December 2002
Description
An account of the resource
The news-sheet of the RAF ex-POW Association. This edition covers the POW memorial, Recco report -stories of ex-POWs, the Larry Slattery memorial fund, the Second World War experience centre, an article by Vitel Formanek about his visit to the UK, BBC drama Night Flight review, a promotional tour for 'The Bomber War', the members march at the Golden Jubilee Parade, a memorial service for Bill Reid VC, 60th Anniversary of the Comet Escape line and Book reviews.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The RAF ex-POW Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2002-12
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Eight printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-008
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal New Zealand Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Reading
Wales
England--Leeds
Belgium--Brussels
Germany--Essen
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany
Belgium
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Berkshire
England--Yorkshire
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.
150 Squadron
35 Squadron
427 Squadron
49 Squadron
61 Squadron
617 Squadron
9 Squadron
aircrew
bale out
bombing
Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
de Jongh, Andree (1916 - 2007)
Dulag Luft
entertainment
escaping
evading
flight engineer
ground personnel
Halifax
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Lancaster
memorial
navigator
prisoner of war
RAF Hendon
Spitfire
sport
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 6
the long march
Victoria Cross
Wellington
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force