1
25
2
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/580/8849/PHawkinsIFV1501.2.jpg
782ab0bbc92c323c50838bd64ea7a1e8
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/580/8849/AHawkinsIFV151103.1.mp3
8d893fa98e4005bc85e1fb6e25a049a1
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
Hawkins, Ian
I F V Hawkins
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hawkins, IFV
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Flight Lieutenant Ian Hawkins (- 2022, Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a pilot with 214 and 299 Squadrons.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-03
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MJ: It’s on.
IH: Hello, my name is Ian Hawkins. I served in the RAF as a pilot with 214 and 299 Squadrons. In 1939, in common with other members of my family, I was destined to become a teacher, and after my first year at Winchester the college was commandeered by the army. We were told to report to Culham [?] College for our second year but some of us didn’t like it. So, come the end of 1940, some fourteen of us volunteered for the RAF. I was actually called up early in 1941, did the usual reception centre and ITW at Scarborough and then was destined to join a group sailing to the United States under the Arnold Training Scheme. Arnold because of General Arnold, who had helped to introduce this scheme of training as civilians [emphasis] in the United States before they were in the war. Having embarked on a ship, Duchess of Atholl, at Glasgow and sailed down the river and parked, or moored [emphasis], for two weeks we then went back to Glasgow again because the, the survival of life on the convoys was not very high. We transferred subsequently to a late, later vessel and sailed across the Atlantic to Canada and from Canada we landed, landed and went to Toronto and we had the most marvellous food which we hadn’t seen for a couple of years, and then we went down to the south-eastern part of the United States to start our flying training. I was lucky. I passed after two hundred years, two hundred hours [emphasis] flying to get my pilot’s wings. Several of us were not so lucky because we were being trained under American peacetime standards and the standard was higher. [pause] Those who failed the course often went on to become navigators, or bomb aimers, or wireless operators. A member of, er, my course, who unfortunately I never actually met, was Michael Beetham, who went on to become Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Sir Michael Beetham, Chief of Staff. He volunteered to stay in America for a further six months to become an instructor. I was too keen to come back. He got his commission. I came back as a sergeant. Back in England I did my usual advanced flying course on Oxfords, twins, and then on to OTU on Wellingtons where I was crewed up. Then on to a conversion unit on to four-engined Stirlings, adding two members of the crew to make a crew of seven, and finally on to 214 Squadron. I did my first three trips as second pilot to get the experience I could pass on to my crew. The first bit of luck I had was that my first two trips as a second pilot was as, with a Sergeant Baldock [?]. I was due to go with him on my, on a third trip but didn’t. He went missing. The whole crew killed. My third trip as a second pilot was with Flight Lieutenant Youseman, who became better known later in the war, and I knew the difference immediately on how he organised his crew to how Sergeant Baldock had organised his. So I carried on after that as first pilot with my own crew. After I’d completed sixteen operations my crew was called before the commanding officer and we were told, ‘You are going to be instructors.’ We objected to this because we wanted to finish our tour but, as subsequently dis– we discovered, hardly anybody finished thirty trips on a Stirling at that time. This was in 1943 and the OTUs were desperately in need of instructors to bring on the next generation. So I went off to become an instructor at an OTU at Chipping Warden. I spent about eighteen months there instructing, instructing crews, ending up as a course shepherd [?]. It was during this time that my, one of my friends got killed. He was my bomb aimer who had transferred to the, er, Dambusters’ Squadron and he was killed on a subsequent trip to Kembs, K-E-M-B-S, after the original Dambusters’ route, raids. At the end of my period as an instructor I was reintroduced to the Stirling and I obtained a new crew, of seven, had a refresher course and joined 299 Squadron. 299 Squadron was glider towing and we were being trained and practiced towing gliders. This was just after the invasion and the Rhine crossing. So I missed out on that but we were being prepared for the invasion of Japan [emphasis], if you please, glider towing in a Stirling with a large glider with forty soldiers in the back. Not something we were looking forward to but fortunately for us the atomic bombs came and Japan capitulated. Staying on in 299 Squadron I changed over, eventually, to Transport Command and was flying a variety of different aircraft, never a Spitfire, never a Lancaster, anything from a Tiger Moth to a Stirling, carrying air– aircraft abroad, bringing troops back. Eventually, I was due for de-mob. One sad occasion was that my second navigator, by the name of Jim Holborough [?], who was due for de-mob, decided to make one last trip with a strange pilot in a Mosquito and he was unfortunately killed. Very sad. The day before he was due to be de-mobbed. One further sad occasion was that my cousin, Leo Hawkins, who was on 218 Squadron Stirlings as a navigator was, er, struck by lightning, the aircraft was struck by lightning, soon after take-off and he was killed. I was de-mobbed, went back to train and become a teacher, decided to join the RAFVR to do my fortnight’s flying training with the occasional weekend and in 1951, when there was trouble in the Middle East and we were expanding the RAF, I was asked if I would care to go back into the RAF as a qualified flying instructor. I was very pleased about this and in 1951 did my refresher course, went to the CFS, got my qualification as a flying instructor, and for the next eighteen months I was instructing on Harvards. At the end of the time the trouble in the Middle East blew over and for the second time I was de-mobbed. I must admit I tried to stay in the RAF but this time I was considered to be too old in my 30s and although I stayed in the RAFVR as long as it, er, persisted it was not long before that was also disbanded, disbanded, so I became a teacher for the rest of my working life. I think that’s all I can say.
MJ: Why is it called brown jewels [?]
IH: Soldiers.
MJ: Yeah.
IH: Flying expression. Is it recording again now? Oh.
MJ: It’s alright.
IH: I don’t think really I have anything more to say. I know that the soldiers were very happy when we, when we brought them back to, er, this, this country after the war was over. The Stirlings were converted into troop char– troop carriers, as well as, er, glider towers.
MJ: So you got everything.
IH: Yes.
MJ: I’ll turn it off. On behalf of the International Bomber Command I’d like to thank Ian Hawkins at his home in Lee-on-Solent on the date of the 3rd of December 2015. For this recording once again we thank you.
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 Ian Hawkins
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Mick Jeffery
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
2015-11-03
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AHawkinsIFV151103
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:12:39 audio recording
Description
An account of the resource
Ian Hawkins was training to be a teacher when he decided to volunteer for the RAF, joining in 1941. He commenced training under the Arnold Scheme in Canada and the United States and passed the course as a pilot. He returned to England as a sergeant and eventually joined 214 Squadron flying Stirlings. After sixteen operations he became an instructor at an Operational Training Unit at RAF Chipping Warden. He later returned to flying, this time with 299 Squadron, towing gliders in Stirlings. He describes how, at the end of the war he was flying a variety of aircraft with Transport Command before being de-mobbed. He returned to teaching but joined the RAFVR to fly at weekends and in 1951 was pleased to be invited back to the RAF as a flying instructor. He was later de-mobbed again and returned to teaching for the rest of his working life.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Christine Kavanagh
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. Transport Command
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Great Britain
England--Northamptonshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940
1941
1943
214 Squadron
299 Squadron
aircrew
Harvard
Oxford
pilot
Stirling
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1998/38071/MOates1489926-171207-15.2.jpg
48314c747aca26a2a6663a90954f0d56
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
Oates, James
J Oates
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-12-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Oates, J
Description
An account of the resource
91 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer James Oates (1489926 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents and photographs. He flew paratrooper drops and glider towing operations as a navigator with 196 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Gina E Welsh and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[a] Date [b] Sqn [c] Aircraft type [d] Target [e] Crash location [f] Crew Details [g] Fate
[a] 5/6 June 1944 [b] 299 [c] Stirling LJ819 [d] Paratroop Operation "Tenga" airborne invasion force over Caen [e] Not known [f] F/Sgt L J Gilbert, F/O A G Franklin, Sgt L G Knight, F/Sgt B A Croft, Sgt R H Fizer, Sgt F L McMahon [g] All killed and they have no known grave. Therefore they are commemerated [sic] on the RAF Memorial to the Missing at Runnymede
[a] 31 March 1945 [b] 196 [c] Stirling LX197 [d] Supply dropping in Norway [e] Not known [f] P/O C Campbell, F/Sgt K W Linney, F/Sgt F W Matthews, W/O G G Allman, F/Sgt F C Brenner, F/Sgt E S Lloyd [g] All killed, they have no known grave and therefore P/O Campbell and his comrades are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial
[a] 2 April 1945 [b] 196 [c] Stirling LX193 [d] Container dropping over Denmark [e] In the North Sea, off Cromer, Norfolk [f] F/O M Carroll, W/O G Hughes, W/O S J V Philco, W/O J Grain, F/Sgt A O Bennett, F/Sgt R E Marshall [g] All killed. The bodies were recovered from the sea and buried in Cambridge Borough Cemetery on 13 April 1945, except F/Sgt Bennett who is buried in Barwell Cemetery. Our records show that F/Sgt Cayley was not a member of this crew.
[a] 31 March 1945 [b] 196 [c] Stirling LJ888 [d] Dropping supplies to Norwegian Forces (30 miles North of Kravera) [e] Braasted Wood near the Ostre-Moland border, approximately 2 miles north west of Arendal [f] F/Sgt D V Catterall, F/Sgt G S Reed, F/Sgt R S Harding-Klemanek, F/Sgt T L Brunton, Sgt P M Myers, F/Sgt J R Cross [g] All the crew are buried in Collective Grave No 9, Row 5 in Arendal Civil Cemetery
[a] 31 March 1945 [b] 299 [c] Stirling LX332 [d] Supply dropping in Southern Norway [e] Crashed at Vierli on Vegars Moor [f] F/Lt R Trevor-Roper, DFC, AFC, F/O H W Ricketts, F/O D Peat, Sgt K C Hayward, Sgt J A Elliott, W/O P S Brinkworth [g] All of the crew were killed in the crash and they are buried in Indre Sondeled Cemetery, 50 miles north east of Khristiansand, Norway
[a] 31 March 1945 [b] 161 [c] Stirling LX119 [d] Supply dropping over Southern Norway [e] Shot down over the headland at Holt near Arendal [f] F/Lt E P C Kidd, DFC, F/Sgt G A Heath, DFM, F/O T S Macaulay, W/O A M Taylor, Sgt R A Burgess, F/Sgt A D Shopland, F/Sgt H Minshull [g] All the crew are buried in Arendal Civil Cemetery, Norway
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
List of Crashed Stirlings
Description
An account of the resource
Six crashed Stirlings listed with the date, squadron, operation, location (where known), crew and fate.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Runnymede
England--Cromer
England--Cambridge
Norway--Arendal
France--Caen
Denmark
England--Norfolk
England--Surrey
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
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 printed sheet
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MOates1489926-171207-15
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-06-05
1944-06-06
1945-03-31
1945-04-02
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
161 Squadron
196 Squadron
299 Squadron
aircrew
crash
final resting place
killed in action
memorial
missing in action
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Stirling