1
25
307
-
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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
Donaldson, David
David Donaldson
D Donaldson
Description
An account of the resource
309 Items and a sub-collection of 51 items. Concerns Royal Air Force career of Wing Commander David Donaldson DSO and bar, DFC. A pilot, he joined the Royal Air Force Reserve in 1934. Mobilized in 1939. he undertook tours on 149, 57 and 156 and 192 Squadrons. He was photographed by Cecil Beaton at RAF Mildenhall in 1941. Collection contains a large number of letters to and from family members, friends as well as Royal Air Force personnel. Also included are personal and service documents, and his logbooks. In addition, there are photographs of family, service personnel and aircraft. After the war he became a solicitor. The collection also contains an oral history interview with Frances Grundy, his daughter.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Anna Frances Grundy and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-06-02
2022-10-17
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Donaldson, D
Grundy, AF
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
St. Andrew’s
May 19th. 43.
My dear Joyce
Dorothy wrote yesterday & told me about David’s D.S.O.. Isn’t it splendid - I do feel quite set up with pride and pleasure! I don’t know David’s address so I must just leave it to you to pass this on to him. I am so glad.
I am spending two comfortable days with nothing to do except enjoy myself with the Head of St. Leonards School St. Andrews. This is a lovely old house – weather, after being incredibly bad nearly all the time for three weeks, has quite suddenly become perfect and St. Andrews – which is always like a little old grey town out of a fairy-tale – is almost too good to be true. But all along the sea-front the trees & flowering shrubs look as if they had been scorched – scarcely a leaf or a flower, from the terrible N.E. gale of Saturday week. I was at Aberdeen & it was awful.
I shall be back on the 25th – but I
[page break]
am very much afraid I shall be too late to see you & Frances. I [underlined] am [/underlined] so sorry. Anyhow this brings much love to you all three & please tell David how awfully pleased I am.
This doesn’t need an answer you know!
.With love from.
Nettie
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
Letter to Joyce from his aunt A E Clark
Description
An account of the resource
Letter to Joyce Donaldson from his aunt Nettie. Writes she has heard about David's Distinguished Service Order and asks her to pass on congratulations. Describes her current activities, weather and local area of St Andrew's.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A E Clark
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-19
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EClarkAEDonaldsonJ430519
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland--Fife
Scotland--St. Andrews
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
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.
1943-05-19
Distinguished Service Order
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1011/11355/EElyHMacdonaldA430513-0001.2.jpg
7c1d3ee9220bf287064f6de421e660ec
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1011/11355/EElyHMacdonaldA430513-0002.2.jpg
acf928c936fe5bbecce792ca30d07324
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
Staves, Malcom Ely
M E Staves
Description
An account of the resource
77 items. The collection concerns Flying Officer Malcom Staves (1924 - 2012, 1591418, 203137 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, items, documents, photographs, and training notebooks. He flew operations as a wireless operator with 207 Squadron. <br /><br />There is also a sub collection concerning Flight Lieutenant <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/1020">D A MacArthur.</a><br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Christina Chatwin and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-26
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
Staves, ME
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
To the Officer in Charge
‘B’ Squadron
[underlined] 13/5/43 [/underlined]
Dear Sir.
[underlined] Re 1591418 AC.2 Staves M.E. Flight 15/96/B. [/underlined]
The a/n man is the only brother of my fiancée and as his father is deceased it is his mother’s ardent wish that he may be present at our wedding on May 22th [sic] to fulfil the all important ceremony of ‘giving the bride away’
I am not [deleted] converse [/deleted] [inserted] fully [/inserted] [deleted] of [/deleted] [inserted[] conversant with the regulations [/inserted] governing the question of leave in the R.A.F. but I should regard it as a great personal favour if you could see your way clear to allow Malcolm to be present.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely
A Macdonald
Capt. A. D. [one indecipherable word]
[page break]
[wedding invitation]
Mrs. Staves
requests the pleasure of the company of
Mr & Mrs H. Ely
on the occasion of the Marriage of her daughter
Gwen to Capt. Archie MacDonald
at St. Mary’s Church, Cottingham,
on Saturday, 22nd May, 1943, at 2-30 p.m.
and afterwards at
The Berkeley Club, Cottingham.
5 Kingston Villas.
Northgate, Cottingham.
R.S.V.P.
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
Letter to Officer Commanding 'B' Squadron
Description
An account of the resource
A letter from Captain A Macdonald to Officer in Charge, 'B' Squadron, asking permission for Malcolm Staves to attend the wedding of the writer to Malcolm's sister. Also attached is the wedding invitation to Mr and Mrs Ely on the occasion of the marriage of their daughter, Gwen to Archie Mac Donald.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A Macdonald
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-13
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One handwritten letter
One printed invitation
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EElyHMacdonaldA430513-0001,
EElyHMacdonaldA430513-0002
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
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cottingham (East Riding of Yorkshire)
England--Yorkshire
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
Alan Pinchbeck
David Bloomfield
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-22
aircrew
love and romance
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2057/33887/EPriceAPPrice[Mo]430506-0001.jpg
8a1f217501e91817842f5acd1c1d2b77
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2057/33887/EPriceAPPrice[Mo]430506-0002.jpg
094815a6dab3403ab48b2a265d02d6ed
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2057/33887/EPriceAPPrice[Mo]430506-0003.jpg
9233a9744d3ebca2fb641fa8c42683c9
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2057/33887/EPriceAPPrice[Mo]430506-0004.jpg
6c6be6320debe6845606dac734fcdee7
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
Price, Arthur Phillip
Price, PA
Description
An account of the resource
90 items including two photograph albums in sub-collections. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant Arthur Phillip Price (572090 Royal Air Force) and contains photographs, documents and correspondence. He served as ground personnel with 619 Squadron and was killed 9 June 1943 while on an air test.<br /><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2062">Price, Arthur Phillip. Album 1</a><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2064">Price, Arthur Phillip. Album 2</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by John Barnes and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. <br /><br />Additional information on Arthur Price is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/119025/">IBCC Losses Database.</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-05-17
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Price, AP
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Royal Air Force crest]
Sgts Mess,
Woodhall Spa,
Lincoln.
6.5.43.
My Dearest Mum,
Many thanks for your very nice letter and for the Parcel.
I am settled down in this place now and I really like it, I have a Cycle now so I am O.K. for getting around. I use it to go to the Village of Coningsby to Dances and the local Pub, so it comes in very usefull. [sic]
I am pretty well established in the Section now and I have a good crowd of fellows here, we have 3 “Lanks.” [sic] now so we have a little work to do.
Oh by the way my throat was better practicaly [sic] the next day (Sunday) so I did’nt [sic] have any trouble with it at all. Oh and another thing you had better have a good stock of rations in when I am next home
[page break]
because I am eating like a horse here, my average is about 8 slices of bread to fill up with after a hot meal at tea time. Not bad eh?
I was sorry to hear about your cold I hope that is better now, you’ll have to look after yourself a lot more and not bother so much about other people. No 1 is the only one that matters these days.
The weather here has been pretty grand this last couple of days although typically Lincolnshire there is always a wind blowing, and it is pretty cool as we are only a very few miles from the Coast here, we can hear the Coastal Batteries very clearly.
You know Mum it is a lovely spot where our billet is, you wake up in the morning with the birds singing and have them to sing you to sleep at night, at the
[page break]
moment looking out of the window I can see a Cuckoo up in the tree and it is cuckooing its head off, it is getting a bit monotonous.
Oh by the way thanks so much for the Cigs. they came at a very opportune moment. I was right out and going to a Dance.
I see that Pete was mentioned in Dispatches for the Wedding, although by the looks of things he only just made it. Tell him he ought to feel proud that his name was in the Paper or has he being [sic] going around with his chest out already.
I suppose that all our “Friends”? of the district know my where abouts now, if not I do’nt [sic] suppose that it will be very long before they do.
Well Mum dear I think that I am running out of gas now although I think that I had better turn the page.
[page break]
Oh yes how did Dad get on at his Cricket match, I bet he got a ‘duck’ and had a good excuse for it, still I had better not say too much I might want to borrow his overcoat again soon.
Well Mum no more news for now, give my love to Dad, Pete, Joan and Jean and all my fondest love for you.
Your ever loving Son
Phil. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
P.S. Do’nt [sic] be too surprised at the length of this letter.
[underlined] Phil [/underlined] xxxx
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
Letter from Arthur Phillip Price to his mother
Description
An account of the resource
Writes that he has settled in and has a bike and uses it to to get around and go to local village for dances and local pub. Mentions that they now have three Lancasters. Says he had gotten over a bad throat. Catches up with gossip and mentions weather and describes area of his billet. Continues to catch up with news of friends and family.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A P Price
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-06
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-06
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
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. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four page handwritten letter
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription. Under review
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EPriceAPPrice[Mo]430506
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
military living conditions
military service conditions
RAF Woodhall Spa
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1817/32405/EWittyARWitty[Fam]430504-01.jpg
91fbb183c0bc5a3d179f5858f07da315
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
Witty, A R
Witty, Ron
Witty, Ronald
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
2017-03-23
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
Witty, AR
Description
An account of the resource
118 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Ronald Witty DFM (1520694 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, navigation charts and logs of all his operations, photographs and correspondence home from training in South Africa. He flew thirty operations as a navigator with 12 Squadron before going as an instructor on 1656 HCU and then 576 and 50 Squadrons after the war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Witty and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MR. & MRS. H.A. WITTY,
63 FARNDALE AVENUE,
SOUTHCOATES LANE,
HULL,
YORKS.,
ENGLAND.
879560
Sender’s Name and Address: 1520694 L.A.C. WITTY A.R.
12 A.N. COURSE, 41 AIR SCHOOL,
COLLONDALE, EAST LONDON, S. AFRICA.
Date: 4/5/43
[underlined] No. 1. [/underlined]
Dear Mum, Dad, Hazel, & Norman,
Today I received 2 airgraphs and 2 letters forwarded from Woodbrook. You will be amused to hear that the 2 letters (1 from home & 1 from Pop) were dated 20th and 16th Dec. respectively. By the way I received the B.O. & C.M. Ltd. Christmas card a couple of days ago. The 2 airgraphs are from home. [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] I see they are two parts of one message. Fortunately they arrived at the same time. I’m very pleased to hear of the gardening effort and hope something does come up to reward you. You mentioned that Mr. & Mrs. Field wished to be remembered to me. I often wonder how everyone’s getting on in our little “island”. I have some more news for you. I have passed my first exam here so there are only about 14 more to go now. I’m as good as through this course. (??). We are now in our 6th week of the 15 week course so we’re well on the way. I saw Fred Rolph again at the Smyth’s two weeks ago. He seems to be getting on fine & I hope to meet him when we are homeward bound. P. Kelsey will certainly be very fully occupied now that he has joined the A.T.C. I think he will enjoy it, although I should strongly advise him to join the University Air Squadron if he hasn’t already done so. (Continued on Airgraph 2.) Love, Ron. XXXXXX
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
Letter from Ron Witty to his mother, father and siblings
Description
An account of the resource
No 1. Reports arrival of recent mail. Pleased to hear gardening news from home. Says he had passed his first exam and is on his sixth week of fifteen week course. Catches up with news of friends.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A R Witty
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-04
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EWittyARWitty[Fam]430504-01
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Hull
South Africa
South Africa--East London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-04
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
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.
aircrew
navigator
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1817/32407/EWittyARWitty[Fam]430504-02.jpg
7af0450a93be2369c3f892cc445c16f2
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
Witty, A R
Witty, Ron
Witty, Ronald
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
2017-03-23
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
Witty, AR
Description
An account of the resource
118 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Ronald Witty DFM (1520694 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, navigation charts and logs of all his operations, photographs and correspondence home from training in South Africa. He flew thirty operations as a navigator with 12 Squadron before going as an instructor on 1656 HCU and then 576 and 50 Squadrons after the war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Witty and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MR. & MRS. H.A. WITTY,
63 FARNDALE AVENUE,
SOUTHCOATES LANE,
HULL,
YORKS.,
ENGLAND.
879501
Sender’s Name and Address: 1520694 L.A.C. WITTY A.R.,
12 A.N. COURSE, 41 AIR SCHOOL,
COLLONDALE, EAST LONDON, S. AFRICA.
Date: 4/5/43
[underlined] No. 2. [/underlined]
Dear Mum, Dad, Hazel, & Norman,
As you will have seen from Airgraph No. 1 I am still spending my week-ends chez les Smyth’s (Is that correct Hazel! I knew it was!) In case my other airgraph with the address has gone astray, I will repeat the Smyth’s address:- DR. & MRS. G.J.C. SMYTH,
30 ST. GEORGES ROAD,
EAST LONDON, CAPE PROVINCE
SOUTH AFRICA.
I’m sure they would be delighted to hear from you in England. By the way, I wonder whether Grandam & Aunt Etty have received the airgraphs I sent them 6 or 7 weeks ago. Your next airgraph will probably tell me.
I sincerely hope Norman was able to get home on May 2nd. If so, he’ll probably be sitting down to tea right now. He has certainly earned some leave. Please offer A. Swales my congratulations if you see him around. I should be pleased to hear, too, that Sgt. Suddaby had dropped in to see you.
For your general information I’ve had seven flips so far and will have another tonight. I haven’t quite reached Norman’s total of hours yet but I will have done in a few days’ time.
Cheerio, now, everyone & God bless you,
Ron XXXXXX
P.S. For gardening – follow that book.
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
Letter from Ron Witty to his mother, father and siblings
Description
An account of the resource
No 2. Writes that he is still spending weekends with local family and sends them their address. Catches up with family news. Reports he has had seven flights so far with another due that night.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A R Witty
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-04
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EWittyARWitty[Fam]430504-02
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Hull
South Africa
South Africa--East London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-04
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
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.
aircrew
navigator
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1817/32408/EWittyARWitty[Fam]430512.jpg
5d9ff723132bd9a52ea9215a2dabf50d
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
Witty, A R
Witty, Ron
Witty, Ronald
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
2017-03-23
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
Witty, AR
Description
An account of the resource
118 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Ronald Witty DFM (1520694 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, navigation charts and logs of all his operations, photographs and correspondence home from training in South Africa. He flew thirty operations as a navigator with 12 Squadron before going as an instructor on 1656 HCU and then 576 and 50 Squadrons after the war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Witty and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MR & MRS. H.A. WITTY,
63 FARNDALE AVENUE,
SOUTHCOATES LANE,
HULL,
YORKS.,
ENGLAND.
979225
Sender’s Name and Address: 1520694 L.A.C. WITTY A.R.,
12 A.N. COURSE, 41 AIR SCHOOL,
COLLONDALE, EAST LONDON, S. AFRICA.
Date: 12/5/43
Dear Mum, Dad, Hazel, & Norman,
We’re now in our 7th week here and all is still going well. We had our second exam. today & I feel pretty confident as regards the result. I shall be seeing Fred Rolph (my 48 A.S. pal) again on Sunday when I go along to the Smyth’s once more. I’ve received only one or two airgraphs recently although they’re arriving more quickly from England. I’ve got 2 photographs now but as I haven’t any duplicates of them I think it will be safer to bring them with me when I come home.
I haven’t much news for you this time as I’ve spent a good proportion of my spare time swotting. I’ve got about 30 flying hours to my credit now, though as yet I’ve done no night-flying. We have been detailed for this twice and have had it “scrubbed” both times. I can see there’ll be plenty of work in our spare time for us right up to the end of the course but I intend to keep you supplied with the latest “gen.” Please let me know what Norman is doing now & how Hazel is getting on with the piano lessons, etc. Hoping you are all in the very best of health, as I am, I’ll sign off.
Cheerio & God bless you all. Ron. XXXXXX
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
Letter from Ron Witty to his mother, father and siblings
Description
An account of the resource
Writes he is now in seventh week of course and had had his second exam and was confident of result. Catches up with gossip and mail received. Spends a lot of time swotting and now has 30 flying hours. Had not done any night flying yet. Asks after the family's activities.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A R Witty
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-12
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EWittyARWitty[Fam]430512
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Hull
South Africa
South Africa--East London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-12
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
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.
aircrew
navigator
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1817/32409/EWittyARWitty[Fam]430515.jpg
73b87a84236e9fe29b95fe11fc752893
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
Witty, A R
Witty, Ron
Witty, Ronald
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
2017-03-23
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
Witty, AR
Description
An account of the resource
118 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Ronald Witty DFM (1520694 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, navigation charts and logs of all his operations, photographs and correspondence home from training in South Africa. He flew thirty operations as a navigator with 12 Squadron before going as an instructor on 1656 HCU and then 576 and 50 Squadrons after the war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Witty and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MR. & MRS. H.A. WITTY,
63 FARNDALE AVENUE,
SOUTHCOATES LANE,
HULL,
YORKS.,
ENGLAND.
007908
Sender’s Name and Address: 1520694 L.A.C. WITTY A.R.,
12 A.N. COURSE, 41 AIR SCHOOL,
COLLONDALE, E. LONDON, S. AFRICA.
Date: 15/5/43
Dear Mum, Dad, Hazel and Norman,
For a change I’m writing this week-end’s airgraph home early, instead of on Monday night as usual. The chief reason is that I stopped in camp today to do a bit of [deleted] swopping [/deleted] [inserted] swotting [/inserted] for Monday’s exam. instead of having my usual Saturday night at the pictures. I shan’t have time to do any revision tomorrow, Sunday, as I shall be with the Smyth’s once more. Fred Rolph will be there on leave from Queenstown, so we’ll be able to swap experiences again.
The flying is still going well. Our last trip was exceptionally bumpy and I was just a little sick though not sufficiently to interfere at all with my work. I think most of the chaps were the same way that day. I must have about 35 hours now. I’ve still done no night flying. It has been cancelled each time for one reason or another.
The war news has been great, hasn’t it? I wonder where the next move will be. I bet you were all thrilled by the sudden finish in N. Africa. I hope you are not being unduly disturbed these nights at home though you’re bound to have regular minor visits. I have 8 weeks more to go on this course now. Time is certainly flying, whatever else is. Cheerio now and God bless you all. Love, Ron XXXXXX
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
Letter from Ron Witty to his mother, father and siblings
Description
An account of the resource
Writing weekly letter early as would be revising for exam later. Mentions that flying was still going well although last trip was bumpy and he suffered from air sickness. Now had 35 hours but no night flying yet. Comments on latest good war news.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A R Witty
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-15
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EWittyARWitty[Fam]430515
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Hull
South Africa
South Africa--East London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-15
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
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.
aircrew
navigator
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1817/32411/EWittyARWitty[Fam]430525-01.jpg
05a9dfb1d94f4bda015979c323a01cf7
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
Witty, A R
Witty, Ron
Witty, Ronald
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
2017-03-23
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
Witty, AR
Description
An account of the resource
118 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Ronald Witty DFM (1520694 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, navigation charts and logs of all his operations, photographs and correspondence home from training in South Africa. He flew thirty operations as a navigator with 12 Squadron before going as an instructor on 1656 HCU and then 576 and 50 Squadrons after the war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Witty and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MR. & MRS H.A. WITTY,
63 FARNDALE AVENUE,
SOUTHCOATES LANE,
HULL,
YORKS.,
ENGLAND.
107916
Sender’s Name and Address: 1520694 L.A.C. WITTY A.R.,
12 A.N. COURSE, 41 AIR SCHOOL,
COLLONDALE, E. LONDON, S. AFRICA.
Date: 25/5/43
[underlined] AIRGRAPH NO. 1. [/underlined]
Dear Mum, Dad, Hazel, & Norman,
I’ve received quite a shoal of airgraphs from you all since I last wrote, including three, each of which was written in two parts from Mother, Hazel and Norman. In each case the two corresponding portions arrived together so I was able to read the complete messages. I’m a day late this week in writing to you but that is because I was night flying last night. I was sorry to hear that Norman is still being shoved around from one station to the other. The aircrew racket was tedious enough a year ago. I can imagine what it’s like now.
I was very pleased to learn that Mum & Hazel have been making such a good attempt with the gardening and shall recommend both of you for medals. You will be surprised when I tell you that I have done some gardening here in S. Africa. I spent the whole of last week-end with the Smyth’s and on Saturday I tackled the smaller garden, dug it over and put in about 2 dozen plants. The soil here is very easy to work but is poorer than English soil. To grow a good lawn here is a real feat and needs great patience. There are however, to compensate some very splendid flowers which one does not see in England. Ron
XXXXXX (CONTINUED ON AIRGRAPH NO. 2)
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
Letter from Ron Witty to his mother, father and siblings
Description
An account of the resource
Airgram No 1. Reports arrival of latest mail and says he is late due to night flying previous day. Catches up with family news and mentions that he had also been gardening with his local hosts over the weekend.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A R Witty
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-25
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EWittyARWitty[Fam]430525-01
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Hull
South Africa
South Africa--East London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-25
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
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.
aircrew
navigator
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1817/32412/EWittyARWitty[Fam]430525-02.jpg
c030797c6fce1b08ec559bbf5f7c4104
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
Witty, A R
Witty, Ron
Witty, Ronald
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
2017-03-23
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
Witty, AR
Description
An account of the resource
118 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Ronald Witty DFM (1520694 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, navigation charts and logs of all his operations, photographs and correspondence home from training in South Africa. He flew thirty operations as a navigator with 12 Squadron before going as an instructor on 1656 HCU and then 576 and 50 Squadrons after the war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Witty and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MR. & MRS. H.A. WITTY,
63 FARNDALE AVENUE,
SOUTHCOATES LANE,
HULL,
YORKS.,
ENGLAND.
107921
Sender’s Name and Address: 1520694 L.A.C. WITTY A.R.,
12 A.N. COURSE, 41 AIR SCHOOL,
COLLONDALE, E. LONDON, S. AFRICA.
Date: 25/5/43
[underlined] AIRGRAPH NO. 2. [/underlined]
Dear Mum, Dad, Hazel, & Norman,
This is the continuation from No. 1. I have a little news for you this week regarding my present course. We have taken 4 exams. so far out of 13 or 14 and we know we have all passed the first 3 of them. By the time you receive this we shall [deleted] [indecipherable letter] [/deleted] probably know the results of 2 or 3 more exams.
By the way I received an airgraph from Aunt Ettie late last week in [deleted] the [/deleted] reply to one I sent as I was about to leave Woodbrook.
I saw Fred Rolph again just over a week ago when he was over from Queenstown to spend a week-end with the Smyth’s. He is getting on fine and now runs his own soccer team. They’re very keen on soccer at Queenstown. I also had a very pleasant meeting with 2 of my old Torquay mates in town on Saturday morning. They were Ted Julier (an ex P.C.) and Ernie Gates whose name you will remember. They are 3 weeks further ahead of me on a similar training course at Queenstown so they will be passing out in just over 3 weeks time. Lucky devils!
I wonder how you all are, at home. I’m fine. I expect it seems strange to you nowadays when there is no aircraft overhead. Cheerio now, & God bless you all,
Your affectionate, Ron XXXXXX
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
Letter from Ron Witty to his mother, father and siblings
Description
An account of the resource
Airgram No 2. Continuation from no 1. Says he had now taken 4 exams out of 13 or 14 and knows he passed the first three. Catches up with family mail received and news of friends who was over from Queenstown. Mentions catching up with other friends in town at the weekend.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A R Witty
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-25
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EWittyARWitty[Fam]430625-02
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Hull
South Africa
South Africa--East London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-25
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
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.
aircrew
navigator
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1817/32413/EWittyARWitty[Fam]430531.jpg
5727125a596569c265e1d10c91b70e32
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
Witty, A R
Witty, Ron
Witty, Ronald
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
2017-03-23
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
Witty, AR
Description
An account of the resource
118 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Ronald Witty DFM (1520694 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, navigation charts and logs of all his operations, photographs and correspondence home from training in South Africa. He flew thirty operations as a navigator with 12 Squadron before going as an instructor on 1656 HCU and then 576 and 50 Squadrons after the war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Witty and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MR. & MRS. H.A. WITTY,
63 FARNDALE AVENUE,
SOUTHCOATES LANE,
HULL,
YORKS.,
ENGLAND.
170591
Sender’s Name and Address: 1520694 L.A.C. WITTY A.R.,
12 A.N. COURSE, 41 AIR SCHOOL,
COLLONDALE, EAST LONDON, S. AFRICA.
Date: 31/5/43
Dear Mum, Dad, Hazel, & Norman,
I am still receiving your airgraphs regularly. The most recent are two dated 11th May from Dad & Norman and one from home dated 10th May. I received these during the past week so you see they are taking less than 3 weeks now. This airgraph is meant to be a birthday card as well for you, mother. As you will know by my other letters I am unable to send telegrams from the camp. I do hope this airgraph arrives in time.
I wish you a very happy & peaceful birthday, mother. I send you all my love. I only wish I were home to share it with you. That day will come before so very long. I am really very fortunate. One chap on our course has been out here 18 months. All being well I shall be completing this course in 6 weeks time and then - .
I was very sorry to hear of Mr. Hirst’s death. He was such a cheery, pleasant type of man in spite of his ill-health.
You seem to be doing a lot of work at home. Congratulations! I sincerely hope you get some results to reward & encourage you. Carry on with the good work, Hazel, & don’t grow [underlined] too [/underlined] tall. You’ll make me feel small! Cheerio now & God bless you all, Ron XXXXXX
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
Letter from Ron Witty to his mother, father and siblings
Description
An account of the resource
Reports arrival of latest mail and sends birthday greetings to mother. Speculates that the course would soon be over in 6 weeks and then wonders what will happen. Catches up with other sad news from home.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A R Witty
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-31
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EWittyARWitty[Fam]430531
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Hull
South Africa
South Africa--East London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-31
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
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.
aircrew
navigator
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1817/32437/EWittyARWittyN430515.2.jpg
f2926758cb0123bc40c10d9c339be62c
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
Witty, A R
Witty, Ron
Witty, Ronald
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
2017-03-23
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
Witty, AR
Description
An account of the resource
118 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Ronald Witty DFM (1520694 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, navigation charts and logs of all his operations, photographs and correspondence home from training in South Africa. He flew thirty operations as a navigator with 12 Squadron before going as an instructor on 1656 HCU and then 576 and 50 Squadrons after the war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Witty and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
1622275 A.C.2. WITTY N.,
63 FARNDALE AVENUE,
SOUTHCOATES LANE,
HULL,
YORKS.,
ENGLAND.
14467
Sender’s Name and Address: 1520694 L.A.C. WITTY A.R.,
12 A.N. COURSE, 41 AIR SCHOOL,
COLLONDALE, E. LONDON, S. AFRICA.
Dear Norman,
I haven’t written to you for at least 3 weeks now and I feel pretty rotten about it. I’ve spent so much of my spare time swotting that I have been too tired to write. However, tonight I’ve seized an opportunity to scribble you a few lines. I was sorry to hear of the way you were being pushed around the country. It must come as such an anti-climax after your first impressions of air-crew. I don’t want to dishearten you at all Norman but you will find there’s a lot of hanging around when you first get into this racket. There doesn’t seem to be so much on the pilot’s course though. Have you any definite news at all about when you’ll be starting? I still do not know exactly what your situation is. As for all this moving from place to place – it’s got me puzzled. All I can hope is that you’re keeping with some good pals and getting a few more leaves. I only wish I had my “sparks” now as we shall have to do a few hours Morse sending & receiving [inserted] in the air [/inserted] before we leave here. It takes me all my time on the ground. Cheerio for the present Norman. I hope to be seeing you before so very long.
All the best. Yours affectionately, Ron.
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
Letter from Ron Witty to Norman
Description
An account of the resource
Apologises for not writing but says he has to spend a lot time studying and had little to spare for letters. Commiserates over Norman being pushed around the country but needed to says that he would find there would be a lot of hanging around. Asked if he had any news on when he would start but was still puzzled over exactly what Norman's situation was. Concludes with some discussion on signals training.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A R Witty
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-15
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EWittyARWittyN430515
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.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Hull
South Africa
South Africa--East London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-15
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
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.
military service conditions
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1817/32438/EWittyARWittyN430531.2.jpg
1c2038b7984c3071549bc43d26832686
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Witty, A R
Witty, Ron
Witty, Ronald
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
2017-03-23
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
Witty, AR
Description
An account of the resource
118 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Ronald Witty DFM (1520694 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, navigation charts and logs of all his operations, photographs and correspondence home from training in South Africa. He flew thirty operations as a navigator with 12 Squadron before going as an instructor on 1656 HCU and then 576 and 50 Squadrons after the war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Witty and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
The Address must be written in LARGE BLOCK LETTERS wholly within the panel alongside.
1622275 A.C.2. WITTY. N.,
63 FARNDALE AVENUE,
SOUTHCOATES LANE,
HULL,
YORKS,
ENGLAND.
Sender's Name and Address: 1520694 L.A.C. WITTY A.R., 12 A.N. COURSE, 41 AIR SCHOOL, COLLONDALE, E. LONDON, S.A.
31/5/43
Dear Norman, I received another airgraph from you late during last week. You got a lot of lines on it but it was perfectly legible. I was very glad to hear that you managed at last to get a few days leave. You should be entitled to some more leave in the near future to make amends for the long delay you experienced in getting your last leave. Your news from home is always very interesting but I was amazed to hear that Hazel is practically as tall as you. In that case Dad & I will feel rather small.
I have passed the first 3 exams of this course and am waiting the results of the fourth. Our 5th exam falls due next week and after that they come thick and fast. If I don't go crazy with swatting during the next 5 weeks or so I shall have completed the course in 6 weeks time, which is relatively no time at all by the way time flies here at Collondale. For your interest I have approx. 50 flying hours now including a couple of night exercised to my credit (?)
I am pleased to know that you and your pal from Hull manage to stick together. It's a great help – I know. How old is Peter now. I should certainly have thought he was over 18 now. If he joins the R.A.F., I wish him all the best of luck. All my best wishes, too, to the Beckett's when you write to them. [underlined] It [/underlined] won't be long now. Affectionately yours, Ron.
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
Letter from Ron Witty to Norman
Description
An account of the resource
Reports arrival of airgram from Norman and was pleased that he had had a few days leave. Catches up with family news from home. Mentions he had passed the first three exams on the course and was waiting for results of the fourth. He would be working very hard over the next 5 weeks with just six to go until the end. Concluded with banter and gossip.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A R Witty
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-31
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EWittyARWittyN430531
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.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Hull
South Africa
South Africa--East London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-31
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jan Waller
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.
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/480/8363/ABrooksR151029.2.mp3
d0d059fc3e408586027f57552f30d5d2
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Brooks, Edward
Edward Brooks
E Brooks
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Brooks, E
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Rita Brooks. Widow of Flight Lieutentant Edward Brooks DFC, DFM who flew operations with 12 and 460 Squadrons.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Rita Brooks and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
AS Right we’re in business. We’re ready to start. Ok, thank you.
RB Right. My late husband was Flight Lieutenant Edward Brooks DFC, DFM. Now Ted hadn’t meant to join the RAF. He’d already started work as an office boy in London and had joined the Home Guard, but he wanted to join the Army. So he went to the army recruiting office and all was going well, until with the innocence of youth, he stated that he wish to join the Oxford and Bucks, the regiment in which his uncle Company Sergeant Major Edward Brooks had been awarded the Victoria Cross in 1917. The recruiting sergeant looked up and said : ‘You can’t pick and choose sonny.” To which Ted replied : ‘Right, I’ll go and join the RAF.’ This he promptly did. His date of enlistment February 1941. But he was dismayed to learn that they were unable to take him immediately, but they gave him a lapel badge to indicate that he’d enlisted and that they would let him know. The months passed and although he must have been very busy, working during the day and Home Guard duties at night, he just wanted to be in the service, so after several months had elapsed he wrote to the Air Ministry [Shuffle of paper]. Two months later, two weeks later he was at Uxbridge. There followed the initial three months training course at Blackpool. There they were billeted in a former seaside boarding house. They had to surrender their ration books to the landlady and they were always hungry. Their meals were served in the dining room, but they soon realised that the Corporal in charge of the bul- billet had all his meals in the kitchen with the landlady, and was enjoying much better fare. On the day they all left, to register their dissatisfaction [turning of page] they nailed a kipper to the underside of the dining room table. Another memory of Blackpool was, before leaving they were lined up, sleeves rolled up and given multiple vaccinations. Then they were allowed to go home on leave before their next posting. Ted collapsed on arriving home and taken by ambulance to RAF Henley hospital, they lived nearby, where Vaccine Fever was diagnosed, and where he spent most of his leave. The chapter Ted contributed to “Lancaster At War Two” as wireless operator follows his training up to OTU where he said he met the RAAF. At some time during those previous months his mother, always concerned for her sons comfort, was worried that his regulations shirts were too rough. So she bought him officer’s shirts which she sent to him and which he wore on a night out to the local town. He was, however, picked up by the MPs and put on a charge for this offence. This was quickly followed by an individual posting to Northern Ireland to serve on a small anti-aircraft observation unit miles from anywhere. The isolation of this unit and the ever-present threat of the IRA made him sleep with his rifle alongside. They were a small group of young lads unused to cooking for themselves, so each one took their turn to be cook for the day buying meat and vegetables from the local farmers. Stew was the main meal of the day but Ted was horrified to see how it was being cooked. Meat and vegetables were thrown into a large saucepan, potatoes, carrots etc just as they had been lifted from the ground complete with the soil. Ted said that he’d do the cooking. Then to OTU at Litchfield where they crewed up. Five of the crew were Australian with the pilot being Murray Brown. I had the privilege of knowing Murray Brown and John Clarke, his 460 Squadron pilot in post war years when they visited the UK. The crew were posted to 12 Squadron at Wickenby, a satellite station of Binbrook. The Commanding Officer was Group Captain Huey Edwards, who was the CO of Binbrook [alarm sounding in background]. Many post war years later, Ted saw an article by Group Captain Basil Crummy[?] who said he was Wickenby’s first CO. Ted said he’s confirm the facts by writing to Sir Huey Edwards VC who kindly wrote at some length explaining that for a short while he was in charge of Binbrook, Wickenby and one other station, Basil Crummy taking over from him soon after. I realised a little while ago that these letters from Sir Huey should be in an appropriate archive, and I donated them to the RAAF Museum, Melbourne. And so Ted’s first com- tour commenced on 13th May 1943. The target being Bochum. The operation had to be abandoned after crossing the enemy coast due to an outer engine catching fire , and they had decided that would have to ditch but Murray went into a steep dive and mercifully the fire went out. When looking through their list of t- targets it illustrated Bomber Commands Battle of the Ruhr, known to the crews as Happy Valley. Also Peenemunde, Berlin, Cologne, Turin, Genoa and Hamburg. [Turning of paper]. Many years later in the 1950s we sailed along the River Elbe to Hamburg. As we reached our moorings Ted looked at the other bank where there was a large sign Blohm and Voss. Ted said that the shipyard had been their aiming point. Their tour finished with Stuttgart on 8th October 1943. After returning from Mannheim they were on their crew bus on their way from dispersal to the interrogation room when it collided with a petrol tanker which had broken down on the perimeter track. They were all pitched forward off their seats and were dazed for some seconds, Ted had been smoking at the time but when he came to he realised that it was still in his mouth but broken in half. They hadn’t realised, however, that a member of the crew had been pitched out they continued. Some considerable time later when he[stuttered] he they continued but some con - considerable time later [stutters] he appeared in the briefing room and amongst other things was asked for his escape rations. He said : ‘He couldn’t eat, he couldn’t as he’d had to eat them on the long trek back.’ On their leave on the 22nd of October 43, the crew made a BBC broadcast entitled : “Lancaster crew describes an operation.” I found in Ted’s papers a receipt from the BBC for three pound. Ted was then posted to Lindholme instructing. He said that one night in the mess Squadron Leader John Clarke came up to him and said that he was forming a crew to do a second tour, would Ted like to join him? ‘Yes,’ he said and so to his posting to Binbrook and 460 Squadron. The first operation there was the 22nd/23rd May on Dortmund and the last 16th September, Rhine which was the night of on [incomplete]. [Turning of page] The pattern of this tour was essentially supporting the invasion. On D-Day 5th/6th June 44, their target was the Normandy coastal bat- batteries in which over a thousand aircraft were involved. Their target being the battery St Martin de Varreville. The following night the important six way junction near, road junction near Bayeux and the Forest de Cereza. There followed oil plants, flying bomb sites culminating in their final operation 16th/17th September Arnhem. Bomber Commands main operations that night were in support of the following days landings. Several surrounding airfields were to be bombed 46- 460’s target was Rhine. However John Clarke’s crew was selected to remain behind after bombing Rhine [cough]. They were secretly briefed to carry out a low level reconnaissance over Arnhem, and told because of the importance [sneeze] of this assignment the radio equipment would be modified to take quartz crystals, so that the tuning would be spot on to transmit their observations. Just as Ted was about to enter the aircraft the Signals Officer drew up thrusting two small objects into his hands. ‘I don’t know how to use them,’ said Ted. ‘Neither do I,’ said he, ‘but you’ve plenty of time to find out.’ So ended his operational career. During this time, I’m not sure whether it was 12 or 460 Ted had been feeling very unwell during the day but they were told that would be taking two high ranking army officers on their night’s operations as they wished to observe the German anti-aircraft defences. During the flight Ted felt very sick but there was no suitable receptacle. He looked down and by his position he saw two upturned army caps, these he suitably filled and then despatched them down the flare shute. On landing the two chaps searched for their caps but they were told by the crew that very strange things happen at night. He always suffered from severe migraines in post war years, this he attributed to the fact that on one trip shrapnel had penetrated the fuselage and severed his oxygen tube. He didn’t tell his pilot at the time as he knew it’d been very dangerous to reduce height and did not do so until it was safe. However he said the pain in his head was just unimaginable. After Binbrook, I believe it was back to Lindholme, there they would take ground crews to see the destruction in Germany. On one separate occasion the flu had to [laugh] the crew had to fly to the Luftwaffe base on the Island of Sylt, purpose unknown. They dined in the mess with the German officers and I understand it was rather a tense situation. After time he flew to Brussels but burnt a tyre, burst a tyre on landing. They were there one month before a replacement tyre was obtained. He said that he had volunteered for Tiger Force and that he had crewed up. I believe that this was the plan for the RAF and USAF bombing campaign of Ger- of Japan. And I found confirmation of this in his 460 records. Finally, in summer 1946 he was demobbed at Swinderby. You will note that in the 12 Squadron crew list I didn’t named the mid-upper gummer gunner. This is because on July 28th/29th they were briefed for Cologne and during the outward flight he had collapsed very distressed and had to be physically restrained by other crew members. The operation had to be abandoned and they returned to base after dropping their bombs in the sea. [Sharp turn of page]. After that they had several replacement MUGs. He finally left the service in August 1945 from RAF Swinderby.
AS Thank you very much.
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
Interview with Rita Brooks
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Adam Sadler
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-10-29
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:14:54 audio recording
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ABrooksR151029
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.
Language
A language of the resource
eng
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
Second generation
Description
An account of the resource
Rita’s late husband was Flight Lieutenant Edward Brooks DFC, DFM. He was in the Home Guard before he enlisted with the Royal Air Force in February 1941, and sometime later went to RAF Uxbridge. Following his training at Blackpool the recruits were billeted in a former seaside boarding house. Whilst at Blackpool they had their vaccinations before going home on leave. On reaching home Ted collapsed and was diagnosed with vaccine fever and he spent most of his leave in RAF Kenley hospital.
Ted was trained as a wireless operator and was posted to Northern Ireland to serve on a small antiaircraft observation unit. Next he went to Operational Training Units at RAF Litchfield where they crewed up. His crew was posted to 12 Squadron at RAF Wickenby. Ted’s first tour commenced on 13 May 1943. The operation had to be cancelled due to an engine catching fire. The pilot managed to extinguish the fire by going into a steep dive. Targets included the Ruhr, Berlin, Peenemünde, Cologne, Turin, Genoa and Hamburg. On the 8 October 1943 the tour ended with an operation to Stuttgart. On their leave on 22 October 1943 the crew made a BBC broadcast entitled 'Lancaster crew describes an operation'. Ted was then posted to RAF Lindholme as an instructor but then joined a second crew and was posted to RAF Binbrook with 460 Squadron. On D-Day they supported the landings by bombing batteries. In August 1945 Ted finally left the service from RAF Swinderby.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Northern Ireland
France
Germany
England--Lincolnshire
England--London
England--Staffordshire
England--Yorkshire
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Stuttgart
Italy--Genoa
Italy--Turin
England--Lancashire
England--Blackpool
Germany--Peenemünde
Italy
Great Britain
Great Britain
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-13
1943-10-22
1943-10-08
1945-08
1941-02
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending revision of OH transcription
12 Squadron
460 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
Bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943)
Cook’s tour
crewing up
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
RAF Binbrook
RAF Kenley
RAF Lichfield
RAF Lindholme
RAF Uxbridge
RAF Wickenby
Tiger force
training
wireless operator
-
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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
Perry, Pete
W R P Perry
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
2017-07-19
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
Perry, WRP
Description
An account of the resource
Sixty-nine items and an album sub collection with twenty-four pages of photographs.
The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant WR Pete Perry DFC (1923 - 2006, 1317696, 146323 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, photographs, correspondence, memoirs and documents. He flew operations as a pilot with 106 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Helen Verity and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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
Commissioning form
Description
An account of the resource
Commissioning of airman GD branch - information on employment as pilot and hours flown.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Adjutant RAF Wigsley
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-16
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-16
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Nottinghamshire
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
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One sided printed document with handwritten entries
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SPerryWRP1317696v10007
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
aircrew
pilot
promotion
RAF Wigsley
-
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b46dc6c21c563c1711ca54d881ba7871
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1541/28234/SGreenAW104402v10006.2.jpg
1c71e9598ac89079448cb6726f28b732
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
Green, Alan William
A W Green
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
2016-09-19
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
Green, AW
Description
An account of the resource
58 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Alan William Green (b. 1920, 104402, 1150518 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, diary and correspondence. He flew operation as a navigator with 218 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Stuart Green and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[inserted] Rec'd Dec. 20/44 [/inserted]
Kriegsgefangenenpost
Postkarte
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
England
Sender Green (Alan) F/Lt
287
[rubber stamps] PASSED P.W.3901, GEPRUFT 111 [/rubber stamps]
[page break]
[inserted] Received July 17th 1942, Written May 30/42 [/inserted]
Kriegsgefangenenpost
Postkarte
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
(Warwickshire)
England
Sender F/O Green
287
[page break]
[inserted] Prisoner of War Post Written 30.6.42. [/inserted]
Kriegsgefangenenpost
Postkarte
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
England
Sender P/O Green
(not yet allotted)
[page break]
[inserted] Rec'd May 13, Written 21/3/43 [/inserted]
Kriegsgefangenenpost
Postkarte
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
(Warwickshire)
England
Sender F/O Green
287
[page break]
30-5-43
My Dear Folks,
Your birthday greetings arrived in good time. In fact about a week ago. During last few days have received Gwen’s 23/4, Ma’s 21/4, Pa’s 26/4. I shall be pleased to receive the hold-all & birthday present. I shall have much to make up to you for when I return. How are the mushrooms & cucumbers getting along in the frames? I wish I could be there to help & the eating of them. I don’t think I have seen a mushroom for years! Please congratulate Pauline on my behalf. Rodney Rockingham, Blake certainly ought to make the “grade” for the navy. Your Affectionate Son Alan.
[page break]
25-10-44
My Dear Folks,
Just a line to let you know that I have received a host of letters this month (36 to date) & that I shall be writing again before November to acknowledge them all. I was grieved when I heard of Bill’s misfortune & would like you to pass on my condolences to poor Barbara. – I will write to her as soon as I hear that all is well with the baby. The news of Basil is a great relief – please send him my love. Hoping that you are all well & that we shall be together before 1945. I remain Your Affectionate Son, Alan.
[page break]
21-3-43
My Dear Folks,
Please send me some more photographs sometime. I would like a shall on of “Hollingworth” etc etc. The last one which you sent of Peter came through OK. Suppose by now Bill will be a happily married man. Gwen tells me Pa is working too hard again. – I think this is very foolish, he should go away for a holiday. Recent letters Pa’s Dec 8th, 19th & Ma’s Jan 1st, 24th Gwen’s Jan 22nd Sorry this postcard is such a jumble, will write again in about 10 days. Please give my kindest regards to all. Your Affectionate Son Alan
[page break]
Prison Camp 30/6/42
My Dear Folks,
Just a little note to add to my requests. I would like some cigarettes, and also a tooth brush. I am just about through my socks, which have already been washed about 10 times. With regard to my request concerning that girl, I would like Mrs Sutton to write – no one else. It is a point of tact.
all for now
Love Alan
[page break]
[inserted] Written May 25/43 [/inserted]
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
England
F/O Green
287
[page break]
[inserted] Written 22/8/43 Received 15.11.43 [/inserted]
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
England
F/Lt Green
287
[page break]
[inserted] Written 5/12/42 Rec’d Mar 26
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
England
F/O Green
287
[page break]
[inserted] Rec’d Aug 12/44 [/inserted]
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
England
F/Lt Green
287
[page break]
22/8/43
My Dear Folks,
Have just been reading thru old letters & find I have not answered many of your questions. The shorts are excellent, & are now giving a service which should long outlast my POW life. The [indecipherable word] in my last parcel but one is excellently made, & has also been very useful. [indecipherable word] received “Lyall’s Languages of Europe” yesterday & sends sincere thanks. I have recently received two P.S.’s which are very interesting one with advert in back by some Chemist “Green” in Coventry. K regards to staff. Grandma’s both. Your Affectionate Son Alan.
[page break]
[inserted] Received 1 s t July. [/inserted]
23-5-43
My Dear Folks,
I received Ma’s letter of 5/4 & Pa’s letter of 10/4 several days ago. I see the mail situation is definitely looking up. I must congratulate Pa on the part he played in the Earlsdon team. I am rather pleased to hear that if Gwen is bound to do something, she intends to embark upon the midwifery & children branch. It is about the best thing she could do & may mean that she will be able to live at home. Ma the only photograph which I have is one which is so inaccurate that it may frighten you. Will send a decent one as soon as possible. Your affectionate Son Alan
[page break]
19-6-43
My Dear Folks,
Pa’s 8/3/44 Ma’s 8/3/44 & 18/3/44 all arrived together about 10 days ago. Pa mentions that he has just been planting lettuces & hopes that I may be home before he plants the next lot. – I just don’t dare to contemplate any alternative. I enter into my second year of P.O.W. life in a few days. My Feb parcel arrived about 2 weeks ago. It was quite intact & extremely welcome, though I think you ought to make the May on the last. Please give my congratulations to Barbara & Bill Bushill at appropriate moment. Yr Ever Loving Son Alan
[page break]
5-12-42
My Dear Folks,
My first clothing parcel has just arrived. It is excellent. A really fine XMAS present. among other things it contained 1lb of chocolate, half of which has already been dispensed with. Apparently the Br R X. deemed It necessary to remove the razor & blades. The razor does not matter, but I would welcome a few blades & a shaving brush in a later parcel. I am very fit and am receiving your letters regularly. Please give my love to all & keep smiling – Writing again next week
Your Affectionate Son. Alan.
[page break]
[inserted] Rec’d. Nov. 25. Written 18/8/43 [/inserted]
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
(Warwickshire)
England
Sender F/Lt Green
287
[page break]
[inserted] written 31.7.42 [/inserted]
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
England
Sender P/O Green
287
[page break]
[inserted] written 31.9.42 [/inserted]
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
England
Sender F/O A.W. Green
287
[page break]
[inserted] written 9.9.42. [/inserted]
Mr & Mrs W.H. Green
“Hollingworth”
Firs Estate
Kenilworth Road
Coventry
England
Sender F/O Green
287
[page break]
31.7.42.
My Dear Folks,
Have written [underlined] Mary Smith [/underlined] requesting her to give you some advice on Buying of Books for PART II. should you decide it is worth sending some. [underlined] I will pay you [/underlined] for them when I rejoin you “après la guere” or shall we say in [underlined] 5 yrs. [/underlined] time! I hope by now that you have all the “gen” on sending things. I will leave it all to you. [underlined] Uniform parcels [/underlined] can be sent “ad lib” I believe. Have you kept [underlined] my car? [/underlined] – Have not [underlined] as yet received [/underlined] any news from you. [underlined] How is Basil? [/underlined]
I am your loving Son Alan.
[page break]
18/8/43.
My Dear Folks,
I have a little surprising news for you today. I think you will remember the Corbishleys who were at Swallows at the same time as myself: well, Peter arrived here yesterday having been captured by the Germans after the fall of Italy. I would be grateful if you could convey this news to his people together with assurances that he is well & much the same as ever. He has been a P.O.W in Italy since ’41 & it is possible that his people have had little or no news of him during the recent [censored word] period in that country. Writing again soon.
Love, Alan
[page break
9/8/42
My Dear Folks
I had only just posted my letter yesterday when I received two letters from you. (First 2) The first one came through quite OK, and I was pleased to get all the news – I never knew I had so many friends that you should be snowed under. I am jolly pleased to hear that you have had a short holiday, - and if it has put 10 yrs on Pa’s expectation, take him away again at XMAS, and make it 20 yrs instead. Pleased to hear Bas OK, tell him we’ll make some of the Chemists sit up when we get back again. Glad you got my things OK. Go right ahead on the C&D arrangements, & I’ll have a crack at it. Cannot send much more mail this month – so don’t worry Love to all Alan.
[page break]
31-8-42
My Dear Folks
This is my last card for August, I have been keeping it in case I should hear from you but have not as yet done so. the things I have so far requested you to send are, [underlined] razor, blades, T. Brushes & paste. My oldest uniform [/underlined] (F/O tapes to be put on sleeves) some [underlined] blue shirts, shoes, ties, underpants, my flat topped hat [/underlined], and my [underlined] greatcoat [/underlined] can follow when you find it possible to send it. I would also like you to send me a few parcels of cigarettes, and medical comforts, such as horlicks, ovaltine, etc & other body-building foods. I think that any chemist can pack these, & have them forwarded to the Red X All for now, Hope to hear from you soon. Your loving Son Alan.
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
Postcards from Alan Green to his parents
Description
An account of the resource
12 postcards written by Alan Green whilst a prisoner of war. He thanks his parents for their mail, news of Basil, requests cigarettes, photographs, socks and a toothbrush, receipt of parcels and a list of clothing.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Alan Green
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
12 handwritten postcards
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SGreenAW104402v10001,
SGreenAW104402v10002,
SGreenAW104402v10003,
SGreenAW104402v10004,
SGreenAW104402v10005,
SGreenAW104402v10006
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Coventry
Poland
Poland--Żagań
England--Warwickshire
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
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-06-30
1942-07-17
1942-07-30
1942-08-31
1942-09-08
1942-09-09
1942-09-30
1942-12-05
1943-03-21
1943-05-23
1943-05-25
1943-05-30
1943-06-19
1943-08-18
1943-08-22
1944-10-25
1944-12-20
aircrew
prisoner of war
Stalag Luft 3
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/252/3436/PJohnsonGL1703.2.jpg
b0e04e09829fa1165d2691d7c4cc044c
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/252/3436/AJohnsonG150325.2.mp3
a07acf5f6a792924aa50c3e5fc765f07
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
Johnson, Johnny
George Johnson
G L Johnson
Description
An account of the resource
Three oral history interviews with Squadron Leader George Leonard ‘Johnny’ Johnson MBE (1921 - 2022). Johnny Johnson flew operations as a bomb aimer with 97 Squadron from RAF Woodhall Spa and with 617 Squadron from RAF Scampton. On 16/17 May 1943 he took part in Operation Chastise to attack German dams with bouncing bombs. He served in the RAF until 1962 and then had a career in education. He was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Lincoln in 2017.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
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
2017-08-01
2015-03-25
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
Johnson, G
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
AP: This interview is being conducted for the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is Andrew Panton. The interviewee is George Johnny Johnson. Mr Johnson was the bomb aimer on Lancaster AJ-T that took part in the Sorpe Dam raid on the night of May the 16th 1943. In this recording Mr Johnson recounts his memories of the events leading up to the attack, the attack itself and the events following the attack.
GJJ: As part of our training we used the Derwent Dam in Derbyshire and also the Uppingham Lake in what was then Rutland. But the Derwent had its towers and we could use those for sighting with our home-made bombsight so that our base pins were in line with the towers before we dropped our practice bombs. These were the twenty five pound smoke bombs. We also used Uppingham Lake but Uppingham Lake didn’t have any towers so they put up a couple of flagpoles for us, the authorities, and we used those as sighting devices along with our three pin, three prong bombsight. And it was that that created the similar action that we would have on the night of the operation which we didn’t know at the time of course. On the Uppingham we had to fly down the lake and sixty feet was the maximum. And we were going down there, along until we came to bomb dropping. Up and down and then up and back again. I came down again, again, right along the lake until you had the same dropping point and if you were lucky or, perhaps I should say if you were accurate your bomb dropping point would be good on all occasions. The night before the raid we were summoned into a meeting room and for the majority of the crew it was the first-time meeting Barnes Wallis and he showed us a film of his development of the bouncing bomb. And we saw this being bounced across the water as it was released, initially from Wellington aircraft but ultimately from a Lancaster aircraft. One shot that he did show in the film showed one bomb that went a bit haywire and chose its own route after it had hit the water and came straight back to the beach where they were all taking film and so on. So, that of course meant they had to get out of the way a bit sharpish before it got to them. They were, of course, inert bombs they were dropping but that sort of weight in concrete can do an awful lot of damage if it hits somebody. So, there we are. That was the film that he showed us and that explained how it was going to be necessary to drop this bomb so far away from whatever the target was going to be. We didn’t know what the target was going to be and he didn’t mention dam when he talked about the, hitting the target. He just said when it hits the target it would roll down and then explode. On the Sunday afternoon, about three o’clock, all crews were called into the operations room for briefing and man what a briefing that was. Up to that time we had no idea what the target was going to be. This was the first indication. There was a model there of the Möhne Dam, there was a model of the Sorpe but apparently the model of the Eder hadn’t been completed and so it wasn’t there. A big map on the wall showing two outward bound courses and one homeward bound course. And the people there — the AOC Sir Ralph Cochrane was there, the station commander Group Captain Whitworth. Gibson of course was there. Barnes Wallis was there, and the senior armament and engineering officers and the dear old Met man whose job was made so much easier by knowing it was going to be a brilliant moonlight night and that was going to extend not only from our take off but to our target and to our coming home. So, for once he was able to give us a correct forecast of what we could expect and when we got to the target. And Barnes Wallis explained what the targets were. And how wrong we could be in our estimations. He explained the three dams that we were going to attack. The Sorpe, the Möhne and the Eder. He also explained the difference between them. The Möhne and the Eder were very similar. They had towers and they were accessible for a head- on approach. The Sorpe of course was different. It had no towers and it was so placed in the hills that it was difficult, if not quite impossible, to make a head-on attack and the only one of those three that was defended was the Möhne. Gibson carried on with the briefing and he explained how the take-offs would be arranged and which, how many crews were taking each part. We were part of five that were scheduled to attack the Sorpe Dam. The Sorpe, of course, had to be different. No towers. Different mode of attack. And our attack had to be by flying down once, the hills on one side aiming to have port engines over the dam and flying along the length of the dam. And on that run, estimating to drop the bomb in the centre of the dam. Shortly after ten o’clock we took off from Scampton. We flew low over Lincolnshire, certainly, no more than a hundred feet, out into the moonlit North Sea. A beautiful sight. Lovely moon and a perfect, quite calm sea. And we headed for the Dutch coast. As we crossed the Dutch coast we were aware, or Joe was aware that the gunners there would be well aware that this single aircraft was coming. They’d recognise the noise and had all the other aircraft over it already, the other four, over already they’d be ready for us. And so he went down. He picked up two sand dunes and went down between those two so that we avoided the flak that they would have loved to have thrown at us. At this stage, Bill Ratcliffe, in fact he had been throughout the flight coasting the engines as much as possible so that we could make up speed and make up time having taken off so late. We, in fact, arrived there about nine minutes later than the scheduled time. We carried on across Germany into the Ruhr and eventually arrived at the Sorpe Dam. Mist was beginning to gather outside but over the target it was perfectly clear. Brilliant moonlight. And as we approached we noticed that on the side, on the hills from which we were supposed to be making the attack there was a church steeple and so Joe used this as a marker. From above that he could line the aircraft up as best he could, aiming to get the port outer engine along the dam itself and then go down to height. Because we weren’t spinning the bomb we were carrying, we were going to drop an inert bomb, we were not governed by the conditions on which that bomb had to be dropped. So, the height and speed equally didn’t matter and if I wasn’t satisfied I called dummy run. In which case we went up again and came down again. If Joe wasn’t satisfied he just pulled away and left me to call dummy run and after about the seventh — sixth or seventh of these dummy runs a voice from the rear turret said, ‘Won’t somebody get that bomb out of here?’ And I realised how easy it was to become the most unpopular member of crew in double quick time. However, we pressed on, trying to get the drop exactly right. There was no point in having gone through all that training and flown low level in bright moonlight over Germany and particularly into the Ruhr area in not getting, doing the job that you had gone to do and doing it to the best of your ability. So, we went on trying. And on the tenth run, in the meantime Joe and I hadn’t said anything to each other but I’m sure we both realised that the lower we got the less forward travel that bomb would have before it hit the water and the lower we got the easier it would be to estimate the dropping point. It was pure estimation. There was no bombsighting involved at all. So, on the tenth run we were down to thirty feet. And when I said, ‘bomb gone,’ — ‘Thank Christ,’ came from the rear turret. It was a question of nose up straight away otherwise we would have been into the hills on the other side. And so I didn’t see the explosion but Dave did in the rear turret and he estimated that the tower of water went up to about a thousand feet. Well, as you can imagine sixty five, six and a half thousand pounds explosive being exploded at a depth of twenty five feet is going to displace a hell of a lot of water and it’s going to go upwards as well as outwards. So that was quite understandable. But he also said that as it came down some of the downflow came into the turret so he thought he was going to be drowned as well as knocked about by us so and so’s at the front. But he managed to get back to normal. We circled and we discovered that we had crumbled the top of the dam for a distance of about ten yards. Barnes Wallis had told us at briefing that he estimated it would need at least six bombs to crack that dam because of its construction but if we could crack it the water pressure would do the rest and judging from the amount of water in that dam I’m quite sure he was right. However, that was only the one bomb and what we couldn’t understand was that because we were late nobody else was there when we got there and nobody else appeared whilst we were there. And this, the reason for this we didn’t find out until we got back. We circled, satisfied ourselves and set a course for home and then had perhaps the most satisfying part of the whole trip. Route out took us straight over what had been the Möhne Dam. It was just like an inland sea. There was water everywhere. We knew that it had been breached by radio broadcast but water was still coming out of the dam and this must have been twenty minutes, perhaps half an hour since the breach. We also knew that the Eder had been breached. Again, by broadcast. So we had at least the satisfaction of seeing some real results for the endeavours of that particular raid. After the excitement of seeing the result of the breach of the Möhne things calmed down but not for long. For some peculiar reason and I still have no idea why we found ourselves over a railway. Not only a railway but a marshalling yard and we were, in fact, over the Hamm marshalling yards, yard. And this, of course was the centre for the distribution of all the armaments that were made in the Ruhr to the various war areas throughout Europe. Not the healthiest of places to be in May of 1943. But once again Joe goes down and again a voice from the rear turret, ‘Who needs guns? At this height all they need to do is change the points.’ However, we eventually got out of the yard. After the marshalling yards incident we set course for home. We came back on the route that we came out on and as we were crossing the Zeider Zee, Bill Ratcliffe opened up the taps, paid in the speed so we could get out and away as soon as possible. So perhaps this is what he did and as we crossed the coast one of the gunners on the ground got a sight on us but Dave Rodger in the rear turret replied promptly with his guns and that was the last we heard of the attack. As we crossed the North Sea, eventually we could see the welcoming sight of the Lincolnshire coast and so we were able to head over for our home base at Scampton. I’m not quite sure that we went, that we went via the cathedral. I don’t recall actually having seen it but it wasn’t unusual to head for the cathedral when you crossed the coast so that you knew when you were actually almost home. We could always see the cathedral by the red light on the top and that was a welcoming light and told us we were close to home. And so we got back to Scampton. Now, Scampton was still a grass airfield and so all landings were a bit lumpy but ours was more than a bit lumpy it was really bumpy and we were starboard wing low. And the flight engineer, looking out of the Perspex said, ‘We’ve got a burst tyre skipper.’ And so we were, we taxied around to take off to the dispersal and the aircraft went off for inspection. And when the inspection team came back the leader said, ‘You guys ought to think yourselves very lucky.’ He didn’t use ‘very’ but never mind, that will describe it. He said, ‘That shot that you felt and heard went through the starboard undercarriage nacelle, burst a tyre enroute. It then went through the wing and ultimately landed in the roof just above the navigator’s head.’ How lucky. But once again we’d got away with it. Thank you, Lady Luck. That had been our night. After debriefing we began to realise that there seemed to be an awful lot of people that hadn’t come back. And it came, transpired that of the nineteen that took off, sixteen had taken part in the actual raiding since three had had to come back for various reasons. Of those sixteen, eight did not come back. Three of the crews escaped but were taken prisoner and the rest were killed. Fifty three aircrew of our squadron were killed on that one operation one night and we lost eight aircraft. That was a devastating reaction and we heard that in the operations room, when the final news was known, Barnes Wallis actually cried and said, ‘I have killed all those young men. I’ll never do anything like that again.’ But Wing Commander Gibson managed to say to him, ‘No Barnes. You didn’t kill those young men. Without you that raid could never have taken place anyway.’ He said, ‘But whenever we take off on any of these raids, we know there is a chance that we won’t be coming back and those people probably went off with that thought in mind.’ Of the nineteen aircraft that took off three had to return early, five were lost before the attacks and eleven made attacks on the dam. Of those eleven one was lost during the attack, two were lost after the attacks and eight aircraft returned from making attacks on the dams. In total fifty three aircrew were killed, three were taken prisoner and eight aircraft were lost.
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/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AJohnsonG150325
PJohnsonGL1703
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Johnny Johnson. One
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
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Format
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00:19:33 audio recording
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Andrew Panton
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-03-25
Description
An account of the resource
George ‘Johnny’ Johnson was the bomb aimer in Lancaster AJ-T flown by Joe McCarthy during operation Chastise 16th of May 194. He discusses the attack on the dams and the events before and after the attack. He describes training over the Derwent Dam and Uppingham Lake. He describes the challenges of the Sorpe Dam in contrast to the Möhne and Eder dams. He describes the tensions of getting the bombing run correct and the nervous words of the rear gunner. Flying home they flew over the Möhne dam and they were able to witness the devastation of the aftermath of the attack. They also flew over the Hamm marshalling yards and again Johnny describes the nervous details of that event. Johnny refers to the realisation of the heavy losses of the operation and how Barnes Wallis actually wept when he heard how many crews had been lost.
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
Great Britain
England--Derbyshire
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Hamm (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Sorpe Dam
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-16
1943-05-17
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
617 Squadron
aircrew
bomb aimer
bombing
bouncing bomb
Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation (16–17 May 1943)
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
Lancaster
operations room
RAF Scampton
training
Wallis, Barnes Neville (1887-1979)
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/27/215/PFilliputtiA16010126.2.jpg
ee52b1ff372bfb0380d0df36c0f70393
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
Filiputti, Angiolino
Angiolino Filiputti
Alfonsino Filiputti
A Filiputti
Description
An account of the resource
127 items. The collection consists of a selection of works created by Alfonsino ‘Angiolino’ Filiputti (1924-1999). A promising painter from childhood, Angiolino was initially fascinated by marine subjects but his parents’ financial hardships forced an end to his formal education after completing primary school. Thereafter, he took up painting as an absorbing pastime. Angiolino depicted some of the most dramatic and controversial aspects of the Second World War as seen from the perspective of San Giorgio di Nogaro, a small town in the Friuli region of Italy. Bombings, events reported by newspapers, broadcast by the radio or spread by eyewitnesses, became the subject of colourful paintings, in which news details were embellished by his own rich imaginings. Each work was accompanied by long pasted-on captions, so as to create fascinating works in which text and image were inseparable. After the war, however, interest in his work declined and Angiolino grew increasingly disenchanted as he lamented the lack of recognition accorded his art, of which he was proud.
The work of Angiolino Filiputti was rediscovered thanks to the efforts of Pierluigi Visintin (San Giorgio di Nogaro 1946 – Udine 2008), a figurehead of the Friulan cultural movement, author, journalist, screenwriter and translator of Greek and Latin classical works into the Friulan language. 183 temperas were eventually displayed in 2005 under the title "La guerra di Angiolino" (“Angiolino’s war”.) The exhibition toured many cities and towns, jointly curated by the late Pierluigi Visintin, the art critic Giancarlo Pauletto and Flavio Fabbroni, member of the Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione (Institute for the history of the resistance movement in the Friuli region).
The IBCC Digital Archive would like to express its gratitude to Anna and Stefano Filiputti, the sons of Angiolino Filipputi, for granting permission to reproduce his works. The BCC Digital Archive is also grateful to Alessandra Bertolissi, wife of Pierluigi Visintin, Alessandra Kerservan, head of the publishing house Kappa Vu and Pietro Del Frate, mayor of San Giorgio di Nogaro.
Originals are on display at
Biblioteca comunale di San Giorgio di Nogaro
Piazza Plebiscito, 2
33058 San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD)
ITALY
++39 0431 620281
info.biblioteca@comune.sangiorgiodinogaro.ud.it
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Filiputti, A-S
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.
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 Eder, Möhne and Sorpe operation
Description
An account of the resource
A Lancaster flies over the explosion of an Upkeep bouncing bomb against a dam. A second aircraft has been hit by anti-aircraft fire and is plunging towards the water, engulfed in flames and smoke. A third Lancaster is visible on the right with a bomb visible below it.
Label reads “320 bis”; signed by the author; caption reads “16 MAGGIO 1943. Ore 21.28 il primo “Lancaster” inglese dell’operazione “castise” [Chastise] si alza in volo da Scampton, con a bordo il tenente colonello Guj Penrose Gibson [Guj Penrose Gibson] della RAF, pilota notturno dagli obiettivi impossibili, prima sull‘Italia settentrionale, poi sulle dighe della Rhur. Si prova la bomba rotante, o rimbalzante a forma cilindrica, alta m 1.50 diametro di 1.27 pesa 4.196 Kg con carica esplosiva di 2.992 Kg. – 18 bombardieri in 3 ondate attaccano le dighe di Mohne [Möhne], di Sarpe [Sorpe], di Scwelme [Schwelm], e al 3o tentativo quella di Eder, squarciata, 110 milioni di metri cubi d’acqua precipitano a valle. La contraerea spara a zero, 8 bombardieri su 19 sono abbattuti, il 20 settembre 1944 Guj Penrose Gibson [Guy Penrose Gibson] decorato con “Victoria cross” in azione con “master bomber” su Rheidt [Rheydt], sarà abbattuto.”
Caption translates as: “16 May 1943, 9.28 pm. The first British Lancaster involved in operation Chastise took off from Scampton, carrying the RAF Lieutenant Colonel Guy Penrose Gibson. He was the night pilot of impossible operations: at first on the North of Italy, then on the Rhur dams. They tried the rotating bomb, or the bouncing one, a cylindrical device which measuring 1.5 metres in height, 1.27 metres in diameter, weighing 4,196 kilograms, and with an 2.992 kilograms explosive charge. 18 bombers attacked the Möhne, Sorpe and Schwelm [sic} dams in three waves. On the third attempt they hit the dam in Eder. They collapsed and 110 million cubic metres of water rushed downstream. The anti-aircraft artillery fired point blank, shooting down eight bombers out of nineteen. On 20 September 1944, Guy Penrose Gibson, who was honoured with the “Victoria Cross”, was shot down in action as “master bomber” over Rheydt.”
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PFilliputtiA16010126
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Angiolino Filiputti
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca Campani
Alessandro Pesaro
Helen Durham
Giulia Banti
Maureen Clarke
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany--Eder Dam
Germany--Sorpe Dam
Germany
Germany--Möhne River Dam
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-16
1943-05-17
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
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.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
617 Squadron
anti-aircraft fire
arts and crafts
bombing
bouncing bomb
Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation (16–17 May 1943)
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
Lancaster
Master Bomber
Victoria Cross
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/518/10421/EWallisBChadwickR430525-0001.1.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
Lapham, Rosemary
R Lapham
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Lapham, R
Description
An account of the resource
100 items. An oral history interview with Rosemary Lapham, the daughter of Roy Chadwick, family correspondence, congratulations on being honoured, personal documentation as well as photographs of family, acquaintances and aircraft. The collection also contains a thank you letter from Barnes Wallis to Roy Chadwick and a note from Arthur Harris to Robert Saundby about the in-feasibility of the Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation, some conceptual aircraft drawings and other mementos.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Rosemary Lapham and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-06-22
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.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
TELEGRAMS: “VICASTRONG-TELEX. WEYBRIDGE”
TELEPHONE: BYFLEET 240 (14 LINES)
[National Scheme for Disabled Men Crest]
REGISTERED OFFICE: VICKERS HOUSE.
BROADWAY. WESTMINSTER. S.W.1.
Vickers-Armstrongs Limited.
(AIRCRAFT SECTION)
WEYBRIDGE WORKS.
WEYBRIDGE. SURREY.
OUR REF. CA.
YOUR REF.
25th May 1943.
Roy Chadwick, Esq.,
A.V.Roe & Co. Ltd.,
Greengate,
Middleton,
[underlined] MANCHASTER [/underlined]
My dear Chadwick,
I am sorry that my erratic movements since the great event have prevented my receiving your telegram of congratulations until today. I am very deeply grateful, but feel an enormous share of the credit is due to you, and I have been trying to find the time to white and tell you how much I appreciate all the work which you and your assistants have done, and personally, in a special degree, was given the making or breaking of this enterprise, for if at that fateful meeting in C.R.D’s office on the 26th February, you had declared the task impossible of fulfilment in the given time, the powers of opposition were so great that I should never have got instructions to go ahead. Possibly you did not realise how much hung on your instantaneous reaction, but I can assure you that I very nearly had heart failure until you decided to join in the great adventure. No-one believed that we should do it. You yourself said it would be a miracle if we did, and I think the whole thing is one of the most amazing examples of team work and co-operation in the whole history of the war.
May I offer you my very deep thanks for the existence of your wonderful Lancaster, for it was the only aircraft in the world capable of doing the job, and I should like to pay my tribute of congratulation and admiration to you, the designer.
Let us hope that the future will hold for us another terrific adventure in which we may join, though I fear no such spectacular target
P.T.O.
[page break]
remains to be brought down.
All good wishes for the future success of Lancaster [inserted]s[/inserted] and Yorks.
Yours very sincerely,
[underlined] B.N.Wallis. [/underlined]
[inserted] Received Stamp dated 27 MAY 1943 & numbered 683/5700 [/inserted]
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
Letter to Roy Chadwick from Barnes Wallis
Description
An account of the resource
Addressed to Roy Chadwick at A.V.Roe on Vickers-Armstrong headed paper. Thanks Chadwick for existence of Lancaster and his support at a meeting in C.R.D's office on 26 January without which the dams operation would not have happened. States is was one of the most amazing examples of team work and cooperation in the war.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
B Wallis
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-25
1943-05-27
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page typewritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EWallisBChadwickR430525
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--Surrey
England--Weybridge
England--Manchester
England--Lancashire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-25
1943-05-27
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
bombing
Chadwick, Roy (1893-1947)
Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation (16–17 May 1943)
Lancaster
Wallis, Barnes Neville (1887-1979)
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1230/16006/EHobbsAHRedgraveJM430909.1.jpg
0381650bc356c05826095161f3a3782b
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
Redgrave, Henry Cecil
H C Redgrave
Description
An account of the resource
187 items. The collection concerns Henry Cecil Redgrave (743047, Royal Air Force) and contains his decorations, letters and photographs. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 207 Squadron from RAF Waddington. He was killed 13/14 March 1941. <br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pam Isaac and catalogued by Barry Hunter.<br /><br /><span>Additional information on Henry Cecil Redgrave is available via the </span><a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/119457/">IBCC Losses Database</a><span>.</span>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-10-02
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
Redgrave, HC
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Borough Collector’s Office,
39, Alexander Street,
Southend-on-Sea
Mrs. J. M. Redgrave.
32 Clive Avenue.
Boultham Park Road.
Lincoln.
General Rate 37828- re “Redwood”, Oaken Grange Drive.
[underlined] Arrears to 31st March 1941 [/underlined]
Dear Sir or Madam
The Finance Committee has directed me to inform you that no action will be taken with regard to the arrears shown above, and they refer and remission by the Council.
Yours faithfully,
[signature]
Chief Collecting Officer
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
To Jessie Redgrave from Southend-on-Sea Borough Collector's Office
Description
An account of the resource
A letter advising Jessie that no action would be taken on the general rate arrears for the house 'Redwood'.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Borough Collector's Office, Southend
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-04
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One typewritten sheet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EHobbsAHRedgraveJM430909
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--Essex
England--Southend-on-Sea
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.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05
-
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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
Wynn, Ian Archer
I A Wynn
Description
An account of the resource
146 Items. Collection concerns Pilot Officer Ian Archer Wynn (1908 - 1943, 146838 Royal Air Force). After training as ground crew he remustered as a flight engineer and flew operations with 100 Squadron. He was killed 25 May 1943 on an operation from RAF Grimsby to Düsseldorf. Collection consists of a diary, a memorial book, an official report on what was his final operation, photographs of his crew, his family and the squadron as well as official correspondence from Air Ministry and British Red Cross, letters of condolence and a large number of letters from Ian Wynn to his wife Kathleen. <br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Patrick Anthony Wynn and catalogued by Nigel Huckins. <br /><br />Additional information on Ian Archer Wynn is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/126116/">IBCC Losses Database.</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
2015-07-13
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Wynn, IA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
(1101038) Sapper Boyes G. H
C Coy Party 126
FWTW
TN T C R E
Longmoor
Liss Hants
[inserted diagonally] 30 May 1943
Dear Kath,
I received your two letters at noon today and I am afraid I cannot find words to express my feelings but you can guess what they are, if only I could say a few words of comfort to you as I know how you must feel.
We must pray that at the worst Ian is only a
[page break]
prisoner and that he is safe and well and I pray you will soon hear from him so that you can have a little peace of mind.
If there is any way in which I can help you, you only have to let me know Kath and I will do everything possible as you know.
Write me a few lines as soon as you feel like it.
[corrected] Ever [/corrected] your friend.
Love to all
Bert
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
Letter to Kathleen Wynn from Bert Boyer
Description
An account of the resource
He writes about his shock that Ian is missing. Hopes that he is a prisoner.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Boyer G H
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-30
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoyerGHWynnK430530
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
British Army
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Hampshire
England--Petersfield
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-30
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
missing in action
-
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efe82770ad47f3a8a8d8230c433ee667
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/756/10754/ACrabbJL170604.2.mp3
6b99b4940a0e55a188574e1f8cd0bfac
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
Crabb, John L
J L Crabb
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with John Crabb (1920 - 2022, 158596 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a navigator with 49 Squadron and 162 Squadron.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
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
2018-04-24
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
Crabb, JL
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
BJ: This interview is being conducted for the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is Brenda Jones. The person being interviewed is John Crabb. The interview is taking place in Mr Crabb’s daughter’s house in Burnside, Lanarkshire on the 4th of June 2017. Thank you, Mr Crabb for agreeing to speak to me today.
JC: That’s fine.
BJ: So, could you tell me a bit about your early life please?
JC: Just an ordinary childhood. No, as I say just, I was interested in sport, cycling, football. Just the normal run-ins. And then eventually I decided that I’d like to be a civil engineer so I went into that particular, well industry shall we say and was doing that when I went to the, joined the territorial camp. My boss was quite happy about that. It was mobilised and that was the end of civil engineering. So when I came back to start the civil engineering again to go in university etcetera it was just going to be too much. I’d been away for six and a half years which is a long time. So I decided, no. My father was in the Customs and Excise I thought, and the exams for that particular Customs and Excise came up and I sat and I passed and that was my life as a Customs and Excise officer. Distilleries, tobacco warehouses. All that sort of stuff.
BJ: And where did you grow up?
JC: Where? In Glasgow. Over in Dennistoun.
BJ: Ok.
JC: That, that was me. We got married and we moved out and got a house in Burnside and that’s where we’ve been ever since.
BJ: So, how did you come to join the RAF?
JC: Well can I go through that?
BJ: Yes.
JC: What I said to you.
BJ: Yes.
JC: I had no, I had no intention of going into the forces but war clouds as I said gathered and a friend and I decided we’ll have a fortnight’s camp in Gailes, get some money and have a nice two week holiday. So summertime came and we went to Gailes camp. It was lovely. The second week war was declared. They read the riot act. Everybody [laughs] Why I don’t know. And that was us. We were in the Army. I mean we got home for maybe a week or two but then we were called up and you started Army life. And I had that for two and a half years. I was the most healthy I think ever when I was in the Army. But conditions, food, tenting in winter time and all that was not happy. And then by good luck after two and a half years it was advertised they were wanting pilots. So we applied, myself. I’m talking about myself. I applied for the, to the colonel but [unclear] because at that time I was, at that time I was a qualified surveyor in the, in the Army. But with one of the conscripts had come in to, met with the conscripts had been conscripted and been put in to the Army. The same Army as I was in. And one of them, a friend of mine wore pilot’s wings. He had had an accident and he’d been washed out of the Air Force and had been pulled into the Army. But he, when he heard that, he also wanted to get back into the RAF, when he heard that a colonel had turned down my particular push he got in touch with somebody in RAF Command and we got our transfers. And we were going to get and it was like the life was between like chalk and cheese. Shirts. Nice tables laid out. Nice mugs. Chairs. Tables. Crockery. Chalk from cheese. And that was the start. So after that I was in the RAF and that was my life as a RAF.
BJ: So what happened when you first joined the RAF then?
JC: Well, when we first [pause] I think, I’m a little bit vague. I think we went to Newquay and we were, we were, I think we, aye we stayed at hotels that had been taken over and we just sort of had various lectures on planes and RAF life etcetera. But before, no, I’m a wee bit of touch. Before all that we went to Cardington. You know the airship hangars? And went through the medical tests, physical, all different types of tests and passed there. Then we went to Newquay and we were hanging about. So I was there for, I don’t, I can’t just remember but the next thing was I was posted to a flying school at Fairoaks outside of Woking and my pilot there, I cannot just remember his name I think he would have been a Spitfire pilot who was on rest. It was on a resting period for him. So we were flying Tiger Moths there. So flying Tiger Moths. I finished the course there and we were standing by. We didn’t know what was going to happen. And the next thing he said, you’ve got to go to a certain, I can’t remember if it was Manchester, and wait there. And the next thing we knew we were going to Canada. We were going to be sent out to Canada. So the next thing, by good, well not good luck we were sent back to Glasgow and we picked up the Louis Pasteur ship and we were off to Canada. It was quite funny. My father was still living in Glasgow and we managed to get word that we were going on this particular ship [unclear] So that was that. The Louis Pasteur. The next beautiful thing were the lights of Halifax. And oh boy, boy were we, well we got off and then we were, we were immediately, no time in Halifax. We were entrained and we went to a place called [pause] it was New Brunswick we went to. To a holding camp. And there it was, there were drills, lectures and various things. And the next thing we knew was you’re going down to America. But America at that time was at peace so we were inducted into the American Army. And because [laughs] because I had been in an Army they made me a corporal. I’ve got the certificate to prove that I was in the American Army. And that was wonderful but it was a completely different Army life. There was worked in peacetime everything. Drills. It was ridiculous things. Drills. And they had a, I think it was called the honour system. If I saw you doing something wrong I had to report you. And if I didn’t want, if I didn’t want to be reported you were told, they would say to you. ‘Right. You are now an aeroplane and you have to fly around the quadrangle and you have got to, you know go over as you go around the corners.’ It was ridiculous. Food every, everything you could think of for food. And as, as for hospitality you, you weren’t allowed out until you had what they called the Open Post and when you went out there all the girls in their cars, ‘Come on and meet the folks. Come on meet the folks.’ So that was that. From there I was sent to, that was Maxwell Field I was sent to. The name doesn’t come to me. And we were then on training again but this time on what they called Stearman planes and my instructor was Ray [Farenger] who was a Hollywood cartoonist. But for some reason he decided to, I don’t know whether he still did his cartooning with Walt Disney or that was only part time and he decided to be a pilot trainer. So he had three pupils. Training there was strictly to the letter. You had to do everything exactly right. But unfortunately after quite a long time doing very well in a Stearman some of our landings weren’t as good and of the three pupils three of us were washed out. Five pupils. Three of us were washed out. So what happened? We were sent back to Canada. To Trenton. At Trenton you had the option. You could either train as an observer or I think it was w/op ag wireless operator air gunner. So I chose to go on observer’s training. And that took, I think that it took about [pause] aye took just well over four months. And that was the a place called Portage le Prairie which is just outside of Winnipeg and we were flying Ansons. Ansons. Again were just two planes, two engine planes. So we completed and got the wings. At that time you got an O with one wing. But the minute, apparently the invasion of Europe, after that you were either got an N for navigator or you got a [pause] I forget what the other thing was but you didn’t, the O was done away with and that. As an observer you did bombing, you did navigating, you did gunnery, you did photography and all the rest. So went in a boat. And I just can’t [pause] it was a P&O boat. I can’t just remember. Got back safely to London and I was, we were actually I think we went down to Bournemouth and we stayed in Bournemouth. Then we did a bit of training in [pause] where was it now? It was one of the coastal towns in Scotland. Did some training there and then eventually we went up to Kinloss. At Kinloss they were Whitleys. You know, the bigger planes. And there you crewed up. Well, seven in a crew in in the, in Lancasters so what you did you went into a big, just into a big room, a big hangar. And everybody was there. Gunners, navigators, pilots. And you just mingled about and you decided or asked, ‘Can I fly with you?’ Well, I saw an elderly, I think he was a London solicitor. I may be wrong. But he had one medal. The Air Force medal which I thought now this guy can, he’d obviously done some training. He’s been good at it and he’s been awarded the Air Force Medal so I approached him. Yes. And then we got other people. The bomb aimer, gunners and w/op ags and we formed this crew. It was flying, maybe he was a flying, no he was a pilot officer then. Miller, Miller. I think he was John Miller, M I L L E R and he was an officer but the rest were NCOs. So that was us. The first, our first if I can get the page. I’ve got to keep thinking. Revise. Our first operation was Dortmund on the 23rd of May 1943. That was our first operation. And I did thirteen operations with them and they were all over Germany. And the next operation was going to be an Italian one. And we thought that’s great because compared with Germany Italy was, it was a different picture as regards the flak and night fighters and all that. So we were looking forward to that but unfortunately myself and the bomb aimer developed colds. You weren’t allowed to fly with colds. So we grinding our teeth watching, we were actually watched the crew with another operator, operator and the bomb aimer fly off. But they never came back. They were killed.
BJ: What happened?
JC: I don’t know. They’ve never, they’ve never, quite often go down to visit foreign sites where the bombers have come down they’ve identified the people but I think myself they must have been shot down over the sea or something went wrong. But there was nothing. Never heard anything about them. So I went with a brand new crew. My bomber went with another crew and on his last trip he was killed. So that was, that was it. So, the fact was that on a Lancaster you had to do thirty trips. Normally the Lancaster trips were five hours, six hours, seven hours and eventually I worked my way through. And I came to my thirtieth trip which had been my last trip and that last trip I knew that if I, if I managed to survive that last trip I’d become an instructor again. And the last trip was, let’s see, Munich. And instead of a five hour trip it was eight hours forty minutes. And boy was I sweating all the way home [laughs] But I made it. So after that they sent me to Market Harborough and I was an instructor in certain of the navigational aids, and also a screened navigator. In other words you flew with navigator pupils. Just to make sure they didn’t get lost or they got into a panic you’d bring them home. So that was, oh I did for, I suppose it must have been about a year. I have to refer to this to find out. I would imagine it must be a year. Then you were told you were going back on. You had to go back on operations. Now, the alternative was twenty trips on Lancasters or fifty trips on Mosquitoes. Well, I looked back on the folk I knew that had been killed and how it was. I mean Lancasters went into operate normally bomb at about twenty feet, sorry twenty thousand feet. And I mean the flak along that, when we were actually flying through flak bursts you know that the people on the ground have got your heights or the heights of the main planes going in very accurately. And you see them going down. You see the planes going down in front of you. Going down on fire. You think. But what kept, what more or less kept you going was it’s not going to happen to me. It’ll happen to somebody else but it’s not going to happen to me. So, and there was night fighters as well shooting you down. The night fighters quite often there’d be two of them. If they picked you out and they were going to attack you normally there was two of them and one had a light and that was to sort of attract you. That’s, that’s where he is. But the other one had no lights and they were the ones that would come and shoot you down. It was exactly the same when you were caught in certain searchlights. You were actually coned. You could read a paper it was so bright. All you could do was to dive and all the rest of it. But anyway I had the choice. Twenty on, going back on Lancasters, or fifty on Mosquitoes. So I chose Mosquitoes. And that was, went to a place called Bourn just outside of Cambridge, aye. It was Cambridge. So, on a Lancaster Berlin was about seven hours forty. On a, on a Mosquito it’s five hours forty. It’s three hours safety. And you’re flying at twenty nine, thirty thousand feet. And you were, as Mosquitoes was one of our practically the fastest bomber in the war. But you’d no guns. I know there were two types of Mosquitoes. There was the bomber Mosquito where we carried no guns but we had the Perspex noses. And the fighter Mosquitoes which had closed in noses because they had the guns. I mean they also bombed but their main aim was as fighters attacking. So that was that. So we carried on and got forty three in out of the fifty when the war was declared but then we were stood down to go out as a Mosquito squadron to fight the Japanese. And that war finished so we were put on just flying all over Europe, visiting practically Rome, Naples, Copenhagen. Norway. All over. All over the place. And that was what I kept up to ‘til I was finished with the forces altogether. But I had one, one good spell on the Mosquitoes. They were filming a big raid on the Amiens Prisons. The Amiens Prison was, it was, I can’t remember which [unclear] it was. It could have been in France at that time. It was full of prisoners of war, of people who, British spies and that and they wanted to get these people free so they’d got hold of London and asked if anybody, anybody could release these prisoners. So they decided to mount a Mosquito raid which did breach the walls and made a lot of prisoners escape. The actual man in command of that raid was shot down and killed. So they wanted to make this film. So to make this film myself and I forget who, the pilot’s name we were sent over to Paris and we carried the cameraman to film all the shots of the, the [unclear ] the pilots going in to attack the walls and see the walls getting shot down.
BJ: So this was after the war was it?
JC: This, oh this was after the war.
BJ: Yeah.
JC: So some delightful days in Paris [laughs] Came back to this country. That more or less is my war.
BJ: Ok. Do you want to take a break now then?
JC: Pardon?
BJ: Do you want to take a break now?
JC: Well, I can’t, I can’t think of anything more what to tell you. But that was —
BJ: Ok.
JC: What happened. So that was as I say we were flying. We flew all over the country which was very interesting.
BJ: Ok. Alright. We’ll take a break there.
[recording paused]
BJ: So, interview with Mr Crabb continuing. Ok. So, Mr Crabb can you tell me what it was like when you got to your first operational RAF base?
JC: Well, you knew that the people who were there were experienced bombers or flyers. They’d been over Germany. You hadn’t been over Germany. Now, initially they used to do what they called a second dickie. In other words I think it was observers were also included but for some reason only my pilot went on the second dickie. So, when we, myself and the rest of the crew went that was our first operation. So you, you were, well you didn’t know what to expect. You just hoped for the best. That you’d come back.
BJ: What was it like? The first one.
JC: It wasn’t anything like what I had experienced because part of the journey until you actually got to the target was comparatively quiet and you could see all these other planes, you know going in the same direction. You thought well again it won’t happen to us. It’ll happen to the other person. So that was really the first and then after that well you get used to it. You knew the risks and you say, well you still thought it won’t happen to us. It’ll happen to the other chap.
BJ: What was it like being in the plane for that length of time?
JC: Well, we were, normally you were too busy. You didn’t see anything because in a Lancaster there was a curtain drawn between you and cut out the engineer, cut out the pilot and there was a big metal door that prevents you going down the fuselage. So the only person you could see was the wireless operator sitting to your left. And you were at the particular table and you were working more or less all the time because wind changes and changes of direction and you had to be able to give the pilot the changes etcetera. Maybe two or three minutes before it actually had to happen. So you, you were busy all the time really.
BJ: And were there any particular memorable missions that you flew on?
JC: Not really. The only one I really remember as I mentioned was the fact that my thirtieth trip was from Munich and that was an eight hour. I think it was eight hours forty and I was more or less sweating all the way home. But I made it so that was, that was it. But normally it was just you’d go to briefing and you could, if you knew what the actual petrol, amount of petrol put in the planes you could have a rough idea whether it was the Ruhr you were going to, in other words called Happy Valley or you were going, you were going further to the Berlin which, which was the Big City. So you’d a rough idea but really until you went in for briefing and you saw the charts with the red lines. I mean once, once they pulled the curtain off you saw the red lines you thought, oh God, it’s the Big City tonight. You just, fair enough. Navigators and, and pilots went in one hour before the rest of the crew because you’d your flight plans to make out and various other, and then the main briefing would go in. The commander would give a chat and the pilot, the wireless people were given a chat and the weather persons would give a chat and that was it. It was finished. Just went to your lockers. Got your equipment. Your equipment on and got to your particular van. Took you out to your plane and you sit about. If you were a smoker you sat around, or you’d sit around smoking. And occasionally you would think, I wonder whether it will be scrubbed. In other words, cancelled. And then you knew eventually that operations were on that night so, so you get into your plane and once you get in to your plane you settle down. You’d a job to do. You did the job and you hope you were successful and that was it. Come back and go for your nice cup of coffee or tea and a fried egg and a bit of ham and get to bed. And the minute, more or less get back to your cabins you were out. You were fast asleep.
BJ: What was it like getting, flying through flak?
JC: Well, again, you just, the flak’s bursting all around you and as I said before it’s, if you’re flying through the smoke signals or the smoke from the actual explosions you knew that you had the right, the right height of the planes flying in. You just. There was nothing you could do about it. You just hoped for the best. The night fighters were the worst because eventually they did develop the technique of having their guns, instead of their guns pointing straight ahead of the plane they elevated them so they were up at probably angle of probably forty five degrees. And what they did was to fly below the Lancasters and fire upwards to get into the tanks and once they did that and the tanks were on fire that was it. You either baled out or you went down with the plane but that was, they were, they were flak you could see it, searchlights. You knew you could get through them but the first thing when you were approaching the target you see the flak going up all over the place. You think how are we going to get through this? You get through it. You find it’s not quite as deadly as it looks from a distance, it’s [pause] you look as though there’s no possible way you could get through that without being hit. So that —
BJ: Did, did you ever get hit by a night fighter?
JC: Well, I had a Canadian and an Australian gunner and they both shot down two. Well, the two of them shot down two German fighters. And the great thing about that is the smell of cordite from their guns coming into the cockpit. It was that sort of acrid smell. But there you are. They both went down in flames so we knew we’d killed them and that was —
BJ: Did your plane ever get hit?
JC: Twice we had a bit of shrapnel. Shrapnel. And on one occasion we were flying along and the mid-upper gunner shouted, ’Oh I’m hit. I’m hit.’ So you’d got to have an emergency oxygen can to go and see what was wrong and what had happened was the shrapnel has come up through the floor of the plane, hit the bottom of his seat and gone through it and gone in to his Mae West and it had stopped there. But obviously he’d felt the tremendous impact of the shrapnel coming. But he wasn’t cut or anything. But it was the only time really. I mean, you had bits of flak through occasionally but on the whole, no. We didn’t have any. We were lucky. We didn’t have any trouble in that respect.
BJ: And you said earlier that after VE day your squadron got sent off to Japan.
JC: No.
BJ: Oh.
JC: No.
BJ: Oh.
JC: As I said before I did forty three of the forty operations. The forty third and forty fourth were scrubbed because the war had finished. But then we were stood by to go as a Mosquito squadron to fight the Japanese. The Japanese capitulated and that was that. So we were, the whole squadron we left Bourn, and were sent down to Blackbushe. And from Blackbushe we were carrying diplomat mail, newspapers, mail, all over Europe. Just, just depended where you were sent. You didn’t know. You just went to a sort briefing and say you were flying to Copenhagen. Ok. Off we’d go. Flying up to Norway. And that was it.
BJ: What was it like visiting those places and actually landing?
JC: Oh, it was great. It was great. Up in, up in Norway the Germans, there was lots of Germans soldiers still there. Unarmed of course. The war was finished. You went past. You’d get the Germans saluting you, aye. But that that was it. there’s nothing more you could do about it.
BJ: And, and what did you do after you left the RAF?
JC: Well, after, after I left the RAF I went back to civil engineering. But after six and a half years I reckoned that I wasn’t really fit for the real studies to get the degrees. So I thought well the civil, the Civil Service examination you got for the Customs and Excise. I thought I’d sit for them and I passed them. And I’ve been happy ever since in the Customs. Well, I’m retired now obviously. But it suited me fine. But six and a half years is a is a big, part of your life.
BJ: How do you think it affected the rest of your life?
JC: Well, as the years pass you, you begin to forget about what the war was like and what you, what you actually you did. You just contented yourself. Got married, had children, settled down. That was it. Just a normal life with, but you got plenty of memories obviously.
BJ: And did you stay in touch with the people that you’d gone through the war with?
JC: No. I lost touch with all of them. And as I say the ones I was most in contact with were killed. So there was no, nobody that’s, but I’m still in touch with I can’t remember whether it’s called TM I get this little booklet from. From, it’s a squadron, purely 49 Squadron booklet that comes out. It keeps you in touch but now most of the actual original members of the squadron are, are gone. But people who were associated with these people are still interested in 49 Squadron and keep writing in. And others who are still alive who served in the actual wars still write in or they ask about do you know anything about such and such a person? So it keeps you in touch to a certain extent but apart from that the war is over.
BJ: Yeah. Ok. That’s the end of my questions. Anything else that you —
JC: No. I can’t think about. I had two crashes. Once in a Mosquito and once in a Manchester but it was nothing serious. We walked away from it. It was just —
BJ: What happened then?
JC: Well, the Manchester we were about to take off and one, they were not very good engines in a Manchester. It caught fire. So it was nothing you could do but get out quick. Now, the Mosquito well we were we must have been hit by flak because when the pilot put down the landing gear it still looked as if it still had got the green lights or whatever it was that the landing gear was ok but when we actually landed it just collapsed under us. We just, we didn’t, we just slid along the runway so we were perfectly safe, jumped out. There was no fire or anything. But the plane was, well I don’t know whether it was a write off or not. But that, that was all really. The rest of the time there was nothing much really that I can think about or would be of interest. If you have any questions.
BJ: What was it like when, did you get leave when you were on service?
JC: Oh right. You had regular leave. You’d come back home. You were in to your civilian clothes and forget about the RAF.
BJ: Yeah. What was it like coming home then?
JC: Oh very, very good. Coming back home. There was nothing like home.
BJ: No.
JC: East west home’s best.
BJ: What did you say to your family about life in the RAF?
JC: Never talked very much about it. My mother’s, when I went back on operations the second time I never told her at all because I mean she was worrying all the time.
BJ: Right.
JC: We kept most of, we kept, kept it away from the papers the folk who were getting killed on the Mosquitoes. I didn’t tell her at all. She just —
BJ: So she thought you were still.
JC: Training.
BJ: Still training. Goodness.
JC: She knew. She knew I was training at Market Harborough and I presume she, she wasn’t that terribly interested because she thought I was simply training people or instructing in classes.
BJ: Did anybody else, did anybody else in your family know you were back on operations?
JC: Not really. Well, my father. My father. But as I say my wife didn’t know. My father knew but he also kept my mother in the quiet too because she would have been a worrier too. But I just twice decorated and I had to send a telegram home just to let them know obviously. After I said, ‘Oh God. They’ll think it’s I’ve been killed.’ I couldn’t [laughs] I couldn’t stop it going so but —
BJ: Oh. Could you tell me about the decorations that you got? From the war.
JC: Well, I got the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Distinguished Flying Medal. Went down to Buckingham Palace and shook hands with the King. But unfortunately that was with the Distinguished Flying Medal. The second Distinguished Flying Cross, it was simply sent home to us because the King was ill. And I thought it was a great, a great loss to the people who had been given the decoration and didn’t have the opportunity of going down to the Palace and meeting the King. Your parents, my father and mother got free passes to London. There and back. Had good friends there. Stayed with them. But I mean to go as a, in to this great big room. There’s a little orchestra playing. Your parents are sitting facing the rostrum and it’s, you had to go up some steps to this little rostrum. The door behind that. That’s where the King came through. And as you went up, before you went up they pinned a little clasp. You go up. Your name is called. You go up. You stood in front of the King. You bowed. You shook hands. I forget what he said. Something about missions or something you’d done. You stepped back, bowed again and went down the side. Rejoined your folk. Your parents. But I thought for those who were decorated and didn’t get that it was very, very disappointing. I thought somebody else could have officiated in the King’s place. But that didn’t happen.
BJ: What did you get decorated for?
JC: Just keeping alive [laughs] That’s all. That was all. Nothing, nothing special.
BJ: Ok. Ok. Well, thank you very much, Mr Crabb.
JC: Thank you very much for the interview.
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
Interview with John L Crabb
Creator
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Brenda Jones
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-06-04
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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.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ACrabbJL170604, PCrabbJL1701
Conforms To
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Pending review
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Format
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00:40:11 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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Canada
Germany
Great Britain
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Munich
Description
An account of the resource
John Crabb transferred to the RAF from the Army. He began training as a pilot in the USA but then returned to train as an observer in Canada. On his return was posted to 49 Squadron. After thirteen operations he and the bomb aimer developed colds and were unable to fly. Their crew left for an operation and were killed that night. John and his bomb aimer went to other crews. The bomb aimer died on his last operation. John’s last operation was to Munich and he worried for the entire time whether he would make it home. After being an instructor John went on a second tour of operations. This was with a Mosquito squadron based at RAF Bourn.
Contributor
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Julie Williams
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-23
1945
162 Squadron
49 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
crewing up
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
forced landing
Lancaster
Manchester
Mosquito
navigator
RAF Bourn
Stearman
Tiger Moth
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1414/28196/EBaileyCBWareingR430528.2.jpg
162c33612093608f93859cdde9629df6
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
Wareing, Robert
R Wareing
Description
An account of the resource
258 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Robert Wareing DFC* (86325 Royal Air Force) and contains his flying logbooks, prisoner of war log book, memoirs, photographs, extensive personal and official correspondence, official documents, pilots/handling notes, decorations, mementos, uniform badges and buttons. He flew operations as a pilot with 106 Squadron. After a period of instructing he returned to operations on 582 Squadron but was shot down and became a prisoner of war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Andrew Wareing and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-05
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Wareing, R
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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TELEPHONE: BUCKMINSTER 228.
TELEGRAMS: BAILEY, COLSTERWORTH, GRANTHAM.
APPLEBY-FRODINGHAM STEEL CO. LTD.
ASSOCIATED WITH
THE UNITED STEEL COMPANIES LIMITED.
IRONSTONE MINES,
COLSTERWORTH,
NEAR GRANTHAM,
LINCOLNSHIRE.
GOODS TO GRANTHAM STATION. L.N.E.R.
SIDINGS A-F-S Co. SIDINGS, COLSTERWORTH.
STAINBY (G.N. SECTION) L.N.E.R.
OUR REF: CB/MA
28th. May 1943.
Squadron Leader Wareing D.F.C.
R.A.F.
Cottesmore,
Rutland.
Dear Squadron Leader Wareing,
When I was at Scunthorpe on Tuesday last I was very surprised to know that anyone from the Frodingham Works was likely to be so near to the mines owned by the Company in this district, and perhaps I might extend to you a very sincere invitation to come along and see us at any time you feel you have a loose end.
I know too that our village would very much like to use your services in the “Wings for Victory” week which is being held June 19th. to 26th. and whether you are an expert speaker or not, I know that they would very much welcome you at any functions you may be able to attend.
They are particularly asking me to find someone to officially open the “Wings for Victory” week, which will be about 3 p.m. on Saturday the 19th. at a Garden Fete to be held at “Highfield.”
I know full well that you may think this is something of a “dog hanging”, but believe me, the general public are very interested in you good fellows who are giving such efforts for us.
Yours sincerely,
[signature]
Chas. B. Bailey.
[The United Steel Companies Ltd crest]
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
Letter from Appleby-Frodingham Steel Company to Squadron Leader Robert Wareing
Description
An account of the resource
Writes inviting him to speak at their village’s festivities during the “Wings for Victory” week and, in particular to officially open the week at the garden fete.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
C B Bailey
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-28
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page typewritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBaileyCBWareingR430528
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Grantham
England--Rutland
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-28
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
RAF Cottesmore
-
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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
Lapham, Rosemary
R Lapham
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Lapham, R
Description
An account of the resource
100 items. An oral history interview with Rosemary Lapham, the daughter of Roy Chadwick, family correspondence, congratulations on being honoured, personal documentation as well as photographs of family, acquaintances and aircraft. The collection also contains a thank you letter from Barnes Wallis to Roy Chadwick and a note from Arthur Harris to Robert Saundby about the in-feasibility of the Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation, some conceptual aircraft drawings and other mementos.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Rosemary Lapham and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-06-22
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.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
A short personal observation of life as an engineer at Rolls Royce during the war; as they watched the designer of the Lancaster, Roy Chadwick and later Barnes Wallis, who designed the bouncing bomb, work towards what was to become known as the “Dam Raids.”
[Heading] Roy Chadwick at Scampton RAF Station on the Night of the Dam Buster Raid. [short shaky line]
This is an account which I am [underlined] most [/underlined] delighted to receive; from a Gentleman who knew Roy Chadwick and who was with the “Lancaster’s” designer at Scampton, on the night of the Dam Buster raid. [underlined]Mr C.E. Brennan of Littleover, Derby.[/underlined]
I was seconded to A V Roe [sic] at Woodford, late in 1940, where I was to spend the next, most enjoyable 2 years of my working life.
How well, and with what affection I think of those wonderful people – of the long but rewarding hours we spent together. I think of my first flight with the late Captain Thorne; of the Rugger Club we formed and how we would play, at Poynton playing fields under the tutelary eye of the manager, Mr Ainsworth; that is, when we were given that brief tot [sic] of time off.
I think of how your Father would come, now and again, to see if his boys were beating the Rolls Royce boys; and of our sessions in the (Thieves[sic] Neck) or to give it its [sic]correct name, I believe, “The Devonshire Arms”; across from the factory.
At this time I saw Mr Chadwick almost every day, as he came to see how the line of aircraft was progressing and, of course, how promptly they were rolling to the FLIGHT SHEDS for the attention of Captain Thorne.
Later I was to spend more time travelling between Woodford, and what was then, RINGWAY – this was quite a business because the Paratroop [sic] was there, and there was quite a palaver to get in past the sentries.
Our Rugger sessions came to an end when the first Americans to arrive in England were stationed on our beloved pitch at Poynton. However we did have one session at Sale, which your Father came, especially, to watch.
[page break]
I remember too, with great affection, a lady who worked in the canteen at (AVRO) Woodford who had a wonderful singing voice. Her name was Hilda Green. She was known as the Gracie Fields of Stockport, and she really did have a remarkable voice. I had a signed copy of Gounod’s AVE MARIA which she gave, and which I have now lost; along with my youth. I believe this lady died, no more than five to six years ago; & she was in her eighties.
Of course there was at times, the odd bit of conflict between the R.R. men, and the A V Roe men; but no more than pride on both sides, in our respective ...? [sic] but no more than bitter sweet; and never anything serious, - although it was known to both sides that Mr Chadwick was to be avoided if he came to the factory in the early morning.
It was rumoured that he suffered with his stomach*[sic] and was to be avoided until 10AM at least!! But with all the worry that goes with running such a large empire and under wartime conditions, it is no wonder his stomach troubled him at times. Also, of course, in those days, it was nothing to be working until 10pm - 11pm, and many times all through the night, and on the next day. This applied to A V Roe [e may not have been in original] men, to management and of course to we Rolls Royce men too.
Despite this the camaraderie between us all in our task, was fantastic.
All this was to come to an end in early 1942. Because of my experience on the beautiful old “Lancaster”, I was seconded to 5 Bomber Group in Lincolnshire, and spent my time travelling around 16 Aerodromes sometimes being on 2-3 aerodromes in one day.
[Short shaky line]
at [sic] one point in the late 1930s, I think, my father went on a Breakfast diet of Egg, beaten in milk, because he had this pain in his stomach. But I do not think that he suffered from any serious trouble. It would be the nervous tension of his working life. Hidden otherwise [initialled MD]
[page break]
I stayed at whichever aerodrome we finished work. So, from then on, there was very little time for the social life we had enjoyed at Woodford.
It was at this time, that we had one session of about 3 weeks at Scampton; modifying, and bringing all the 'Lancasters' up to scratch. It was a really hectic time. We would often see, what we would call “Boffin” around; who would occasionally call “good morning”, but never get into conversation. We were later to discover that this was the great “Barnes Wallis”.
On the night of the “Dam Raid”, and having watched “Take Off”, after supper, we repaired to the Mess; still not knowing for certain the destination of the departed “Lancs” only rumours at this stage. -
We wondered why there were so many “Brass Hats” in attendance? – But then, thats [sic] how it was in those days.
Later in the night: I believe around 11pm, I spotted Mr Chadwick among the “Brass Hats”. I caught his eye, and he came across and asked how I was, and did I miss dear old Stockport. We had quite a conversation.
I left the mess about 2.30AM; Mr Chadwick was still there, and I was to see him no more.
Later that year, having tried and been stopped by Rolls Royce, to Join the FLeet AIR ARM, and the MERCHANT NAVY, as an engineer – I Joined [sic] the Royal Engineers as an Engineer on Landing Craft – and have never been able to return to dear old Woodford again. So I think I had a pretty full war.
But despite all, they < The AVRO years > [initalled MD] were and always will be the happiest years of my life.
C.E.Brennan
[page break]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Roy Chadwick at Scampton RAF Station on the Night of the Dam Buster Raid
Description
An account of the resource
A personal account of life of an engineer, C E Brennan, who was seconded to A V Roe at Woodford and Ringway who saw Roy Chadwick frequently. He talks of comradeship, playing rugby and listening to singer Hilda Green. Mentions the sporting rivalry between A V Roe and Rolls Royce and Roy Chadwick's character. Continues with his secondment to 5 Group and travelling around all their airfields as well as preparing aircraft for the Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation. Talks about the night of the Dams attack and talking to Roy Chadwick. Eventually he joined the Royal Engineers on landing craft and never returned to Woodford.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
C E Brennan
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three page handwritten document
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BBrennanCEBrennanCEv1
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Greater Manchester
England--Stockport
England--Manchester
England--Lancashire
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.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-16
1943-05-17
617 Squadron
bombing
Chadwick, Roy (1893-1947)
Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation (16–17 May 1943)
Lancaster
RAF Ringway
rivalry
sport
Wallis, Barnes Neville (1887-1979)
-
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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
Bell, Oliver
O Bell
Description
An account of the resource
47 items. The collection concerns Flying Officer Oliver Herbert Bell (1915 - 1997) and consists of photographs and documents. He served as ground personnel at RAF Cranwell and was then posted to Aden and the Middle East with 12(B) and 8(B) Squadrons before the war. He later served at establishments in Canada and at RAF Blyton and married <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/208">Joyce Bell</a>.<br /><br />The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by G Sadler and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Achive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-10-02
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Bell, O
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
Canadian Red Cross Society Voluntary Blood Donor Service Enrolment Book
Description
An account of the resource
A booklet with records of blood donations and dietary advice when giving blood.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Canadian Red Cross
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-09
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
Civilian
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
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One printed booklet with handwritten annotations
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MBellOH565848-210421-020001, MBellOH565848-210421-020002, MBellOH565848-210421-020003, MBellOH565848-210421-020004, MBellOH565848-210421-020005, MBellOH565848-210421-020006, MBellOH565848-210421-020007
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.
1943-05-09
Red Cross
-
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2bf0755a7c87950b98d13a2cd60df67a
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
Ansell, Albert
A V Ansell
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
16 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Albert Victor Ansell (-1943, 1390280 Royal Air Force). It consists of his logbook, notification of awards, correspondence from the air ministry and ten photographs. He trained in the United States and flew as a navigator with 57 Squadron from RAF Scampton. His Lancaster crashed on an operation to Essen 30 April/ 1 May 1943. Its remains were discovered in the Zuider Zee in 1978. <br /><br />The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Vicki Ansell and catalogued by Terry Hancock and Nigel Huckins.<br /><br />Additional information on Victor Ansell is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/100453/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-07-30
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ansell, AV
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Gerrard 9234
Casualty Branch,
77, OXFORD STREET, W.1.
26 May, 1943.
Sir,
I am commanded by the Air Council to express to you their great regret on learning that your son, Sergeant Albert Ansell, Royal Air Force, is missing as the result of air operations on 1st May 1943, when a Lancaster aircraft in which he was flying as navigator set out for action against the enemy and failed to return. This does not necessarily mean that he is killed or wounded, and if he is a prisoner of war he should be able to communicate with you in due course. Meanwhile enquiries are being made through the International Red Cross Committee and as soon as any definite news is received you will be at once informed.
If any information regarding your son is received by you from any source you are requested to be kind enough to communicate it immediately to the Air Ministry.
The Air Council desire me to convey to you their sympathy in your present anxiety.
I am, Sir
Your obedient Servant,
Charles Evans
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
Letter from Casualty Branch
Description
An account of the resource
Expresses regret that Sergeant Albert Ansell is missing as a result of his Lancaster failing to return from operations on 1 May 1943. Enquiries are being made through International Red Cross.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Charles Evans
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05-26
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page photocopied typewritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Text. Service material
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EEvansCAnsell[Fa]430526
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-01
1943-05-26
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Claire Monk
aircrew
Lancaster
missing in action
navigator