Second page lists a further 22 Lancasters by registration number only.]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Royall, George. No 166 Squadron]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Personal research]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> ]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Pending text-based transcription]]> Pending review]]> Royall, George. No 166 Squadron]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Personal research]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea]]> France]]> France--Abbeville]]> France--Aube]]> France--Aubigny-sur-Nère]]> France--Calais]]> France--Dieppe]]> France--Poitiers]]> France--Saint-Cyr-l'École]]> France--Saint-Dizier (Haute-Marne)]]> France--Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines]]> France--Thoiry (Yvelines)]]> Great Britain]]> England--Essex]]> England--Maldon]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> England--Barnetby le Wold]]> England--Barton-upon-Humber]]> England--Brigg]]> England--Caistor (Rural District)]]> England--Lincoln]]> England--Market Rasen]]> England--Nottinghamshire]]> Germany]]> Germany--Ruhr (Region)]]> Germany--Cologne]]> Germany--Diepholz]]> Germany--Dortmund]]> Germany--Duisburg]]> Germany--Düsseldorf]]> Germany--Freiburg im Breisgau]]> Germany--Geilenkirchen]]> Germany--Gerolstein]]> Germany--Hannover]]> Germany--Hennef-Sieg]]> Germany--Lehnin (Kloster Lehnin)]]> Germany--Mönchengladbach]]> Germany--Nordstemmen]]> Germany--Nuremberg]]> Germany--Steinheim (North Rhine-Westphalia)]]> Germany--Treuenbrietzen]]> Germany--Welver]]> Germany--Westerburg]]> Netherlands]]> Netherlands--Apeldoorn]]> Netherlands--Nijmegen]]> Netherlands--Oisterwijk]]> 1943-09]]> 1943-10]]> 1943-11]]> 1943-12]]> 1944-01]]> 1944-02]]> 1944-03]]> 1944-04]]> 1944-05]]> 1944-06]]> 1944-07]]> 1944-08]]> 1944-09]]> 1944-10]]> 1944-11]]> 1944-12]]> 1945-01]]> 1944-02]]> 1944-03]]> 1944-04]]> 1944-05]]> 1944-07]]> 1944-12]]> Page one begins with the reformation of the squadron in 1936 and gives details of the aircraft operated, the stations flown from and the roles the squadron played in training and operations.
Page two describes three miscellaneous incidents that occurred on the squadron, including one where the mid-upper gunner accidentally shot and killed the rear gunner.
Page three contains details about three notable Lancasters.]]>
IBCC Digital Archive]]> Pending text-based transcription]]> Royall, George. No 166 Squadron]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Personal research]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> France]]> France--Lorient]]> Great Britain]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> England--Oxfordshire]]> Germany]]> Germany--Dortmund]]> Germany--Hannover]]> Germany--Kassel]]> Netherlands]]> 1936-11]]> 1938-06]]> 1939-05]]> 1940-04]]> 1943-01-27]]> 1943-01-28]]> 1943-01-29]]> 1943-01-30]]> 1943-05]]> 1943-09-20]]> 1943-10-18]]> 1943-11-22]]> 1944-04-10]]> 1944-06-26]]> 1944-06-27]]> 1944-10-07]]> 1944-11-10]]> 1945-04-24]]> 1945-05-07]]> 1945-08-20]]> 1945-09-28]]> 1945-02-20]]> 1947-01-08]]>


This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available. ]]>
Great Britain. Royal Air Force]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Mike Connock]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Log book and record book]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> France]]> Germany]]> Great Britain]]> Netherlands]]> Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea]]> Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay]]> Atlantic Ocean--North Sea]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> England--Norfolk]]> England--Suffolk]]> France--Lorient]]> France--Saint-Nazaire]]> Germany--Aachen]]> Germany--Berchtesgaden]]> Germany--Berlin]]> Germany--Bochum]]> Germany--Cologne]]> Germany--Cuxhaven]]> Germany--Dortmund]]> Germany--Duisburg]]> Germany--Düsseldorf]]> Germany--Elberfeld]]> Germany--Gelsenkirchen]]> Germany--Hamburg]]> Germany--Kiel]]> Germany--Krefeld]]> Germany--Merseburg Region]]> Germany--Müllheim]]> Germany--Nordhausen (Thuringia)]]> Germany--Nuremberg]]> Germany--Plauen]]> Germany--Remscheid]]> Germany--Wuppertal]]> Netherlands--Friesland]]> Netherlands--Hague]]> Netherlands--Rotterdam]]> Scotland--Highlands]]> Germany--Ruhr (Region)]]> 1942-12-10]]> 1942-12-22]]> 1943-01-18]]> 1943-01-19]]> 1943-01-21]]> 1943-01-22]]> 1943-02-07]]> 1943-02-08]]> 1943-02-13]]> 1943-02-14]]> 1943-02-15]]> 1943-02-16]]> 1943-02-17]]> 1943-02-26]]> 1943-02-27]]> 1943-02-28]]> 1943-02-29]]> 1943-03-01]]> 1943-03-03]]> 1943-03-04]]> 1943-03-29]]> 1943-03-30]]> 1943-04-04]]> 1943-04-05]]> 1943-04-08]]> 1943-04-09]]> 1943-04-26]]> 1943-04-27]]> 1943-04-28]]> 1943-04-29]]> 1943-05-04]]> 1943-05-12]]> 1943-05-13]]> 1943-05-14]]> 1943-05-29]]> 1943-05-30]]> 1943-06-11]]> 1943-06-12]]> 1943-06-17]]> 1943-06-18]]> 1943-06-21]]>
A R Witty]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> David Bloomfield]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Memoir]]> Civilian]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Great Britain]]> England--Yorkshire]]> England--Hull]]> England--London]]> England--Devon]]> England--Torquay]]> England--Lancashire]]> England--Liverpool]]> South Africa]]> South Africa--Durban]]> South Africa--East London]]> South Africa--Cape Town]]> England--Staffordshire]]> England--Northamptonshire]]> England--Suffolk]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> France]]> France--Rennes]]> Germany]]> Germany--Aachen]]> France--Paris]]> France--Normandy]]> France--Evreux]]> Germany--Gelsenkirchen]]> France--Le Havre]]> Atlantic Ocean--English Channel]]> France--Calais]]> France--Dijon]]> France--Tours]]> Belgium]]> Belgium--Kortrijk]]> Germany--Kiel]]> Germany--Stuttgart]]> France--Orléans]]> France--Pas-de-Calais]]> Germany--Ruhr (Region)]]> France--Domléger-Longvillers]]> 1943-03-29]]> 1943-07-10]]> 1943-07-27]]> 1943-09-08]]> 1943-10-12]]> 1944-02-25]]> 1944-04-26]]> 1944-04-28]]> 1944-06-14]]> 1944-06-14]]> 1944-06-12]]> 1942-06-13]]> 1944-06-22]]> 1944-07-23]]> 1944-07-24]]> 1944-07-25]]> 1944-07-30]]> 1944-08-03]]> 1944-08-31]]> 1944-12-12]]> 1945-07-07]]> 1945-07-17]]> B A Gilbert]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> eng]]> Map]]> Map. Navigation chart and navigation log]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Great Britain]]> Netherlands]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> Netherlands--Rotterdam]]> 1945-04-30]]> Great Britain. Royal Air Force]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Mike Connock]]> Cara Walmsley]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Log book and record book]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Belgium]]> France]]> Germany]]> Great Britain]]> South Africa]]> Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea]]> Atlantic Ocean--English Channel]]> Belgium--Hasselt]]> Belgium--Kortrijk]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> England--Northamptonshire]]> England--Staffordshire]]> England--Suffolk]]> England--Yorkshire]]> France--Argentan]]> France--Berneval-le-Grand]]> France--Boulogne-sur-Mer]]> France--Bruz]]> France--Calais]]> France--Cherbourg Region]]> France--Dieppe (Arrondissement)]]> France--Dijon]]> France--Evreux]]> France--Flers-de-l'Orne]]> France--La Rochelle]]> France--Le Havre]]> France--Longvilliers]]> France--Maubeuge]]> France--Orléans]]> France--Pas-de-Calais]]> France--Paris Region]]> France--Sainte-Maxime-sur-Mer]]> France--Saint-Riquier]]> France--Tours]]> Germany--Aachen]]> Germany--Gelsenkirchen]]> Germany--Kiel]]> Germany--Rüsselsheim]]> Germany--Stuttgart]]> South Africa--East London]]> Germany--Ruhr (Region)]]> France--Les Catelliers]]> France--Domléger-Longvillers]]> France--Saint-Martin-de-Varreville]]> France--Sangatte]]> 1943]]> 1944-05-07]]> 1944-05-08]]> 1944-05-11]]> 1944-05-12]]> 1944-05-24]]> 1944-05-25]]> 1944-05-28]]> 1944-06-02]]> 1944-06-03]]> 1944-06-04]]> 1944-06-05]]> 1944-06-06]]> 1944-06-07]]> 1944-06-09]]> 1944-06-10]]> 1944-06-11]]> 1944-06-12]]> 1944-06-13]]> 1944-06-14]]> 1944-06-15]]> 1944-06-17]]> 1944-06-18]]> 1944-06-22]]> 1944-07-02]]> 1944-07-04]]> 1944-07-05]]> 1944-07-06]]> 1944-07-12]]> 1944-07-13]]> 1944-07-20]]> 1944-07-21]]> 1944-07-23]]> 1944-07-24]]> 1944-07-25]]> 1944-07-30]]> 1944-08-02]]> 1944-08-03]]> 1944-08-10]]> 1944-08-11]]> 1944-08-25]]> 1944-08-26]]> 1944-08-27]]> 1944-08-28]]> 1944-08-31]]> 1945]]> 1946]]> 1944-06-16]]> E R James]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Jan Waller]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Diary]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Germany--Kiel]]> Germany--Stuttgart]]> France--Le Havre]]> France--Creil]]> France--Paris]]> France--Blaye]]> France--Caen]]> Poland--Szczecin]]> Russia (Federation)--Kaliningrad (Kaliningradskai︠a︡ oblastʹ)]]> Germany--Castrop-Rauxel]]> Germany--Saarbrücken]]> Germany--Wanne-Eickel]]> Germany--Duisburg]]> Germany--Wilhelmshaven]]> Netherlands--Walcheren]]> Germany--Cologne]]> Germany--Jülich]]> Germany--Neuss]]> Germany--Leipzig]]> Germany--Essen]]> France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)]]> Germany--Osnabrück]]> Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein]]> Germany--Münster in Westfalen]]> France]]> Germany]]> Poland]]> Netherlands]]> Russia (Federation)]]> Germany--Ruhr (Region)]]> 1944-07-23]]> 1944-07-24]]> 1944-07-28]]> 1944-07-31]]> 1944-08-03]]> 1944-08-04]]> 1944-08-05]]> 1944-08-07]]> 1944-08-29]]> 1944-09-11]]> 1944-09-13]]> 1944-09-15]]> 1944-10-05]]> 1944-10-06]]> 1944-10-12]]> 1944-10-14]]> 1944-10-17]]> 1944-10-15]]> 1944-10-16]]> 1944-10-25]]> 1944-10-28]]> 1944-10-30]]> 1944-10-31]]> 1944-11-16]]> 1944-11-18]]> 1944-11-21]]> 1944-11-30]]> 1944-12-03]]> 1944-12-06]]> 1944-12-13]]> 1944-12-15]]> 1944-12-18]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Service material]]> MFordTA1585520-170411-050002]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Royal Air Force. Fighter Command]]> Netherlands]]> Netherlands--Vlissingen]]> 1944-10-03]]> Alastair Montgomery]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Julie Williams]]> Pending review]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> France]]> Germany]]> Great Britain]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> England--Yorkshire]]> France--Mailly-le-Camp]]> Germany--Berlin]]> 1943]]> 1944]]> His pilot on operations was Pilot Officer Carter.]]> Great Britain. Royal Air Force]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Mike Connock]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Log book and record book]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> France]]> Germany]]> Great Britain]]> Poland]]> Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea]]> Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay]]> Atlantic Ocean--North Sea]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> England--Staffordshire]]> France--Royan]]> Germany--Bremen]]> Germany--Dortmund]]> Germany--Dresden]]> Germany--Duisburg]]> Germany--Essen]]> Germany--Gelsenkirchen]]> Germany--Hamburg]]> Germany--Hannover Region]]> Germany--Helgoland]]> Germany--Hildesheim]]> Germany--Kiel]]> Germany--Koblenz]]> Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein]]> Germany--Merseburg]]> Germany--Munich]]> Germany--Nuremberg]]> Germany--Paderborn]]> Germany--Pforzheim]]> Germany--Plauen]]> Germany--Stuttgart]]> Germany--Wiesbaden]]> Northern Ireland--Down (County)]]> Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)]]> Great Britain]]> Germany--Ruhr (Region)]]> 1944]]> 1945]]> 1944-12-06]]> 1944-12-07]]> 1944-12-12]]> 1944-12-15]]> 1944-12-22]]> 1944-12-29]]> 1944-12-30]]> 1945-01-02]]> 1945-01-03]]> 1945-01-04]]> 1945-01-07]]> 1945-01-08]]> 1945-01-22]]> 1945-01-28]]> 1945-02-02]]> 1945-02-03]]> 1945-02-08]]> 1945-02-09]]> 1945-02-13]]> 1945-02-14]]> 1945-02-20]]> 1945-02-21]]> 1945-02-22]]> 1945-02-23]]> 1945-02-24]]> 1945-03-08]]> 1945-03-09]]> 1945-03-11]]> 1945-03-12]]> 1945-03-15]]> 1945-03-16]]> 1945-03-17]]> 1945-03-22]]> 1945-03-24]]> 1945-03-27]]> 1945-03-31]]> 1945-04-04]]> 1945-04-05]]> 1945-04-09]]> 1945-04-10]]> 1945-04-11]]> 1945-04-18]]> 1945-04-22]]> Great Britain. Royal Air Force]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Mike Connock]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Log book and record book]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Belgium]]> Great Britain]]> Netherlands]]> Belgium--Brussels]]> England--Buckinghamshire]]> England--Leicestershire]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> England--Norfolk]]> England--Warwickshire]]> Netherlands--Hague]]> Netherlands--Rotterdam]]> Scotland--Inverness]]> 1944]]> 1945]]> 1946]]> 1947]]> 1948]]> 1949]]> 1950]]> 1951]]> 1945-05-01]]> 1945-05-02]]> 1945-05-03]]> 1945-05-05]]> 1945-05-08]]> 1945-05-26]]> 1945-06-19]]> Jeff Brown]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Steve Baldwin]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Memoir]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Great Britain]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> 1945-05-08]]> Jeff Brown]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Steve Baldwin]]> eng]]> Text. Personal research]]> Text. Memoir]]> Text]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Netherlands]]> 1944-09]]> 1945-04]]> 1945-05]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Steve Baldwin]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Service material]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Great Britain]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> Patricia Selby]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Jennie Mitchell]]> Julie Williams]]> Pending revision of OH transcription]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Germany]]> Great Britain]]> England--London]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> England--Northumberland]]>
In accordance with the conditions stipulated by the donor, this item is available only at the University of Lincoln.]]>
David Spencer]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Pending review]]> FS: Well, I’ll just start about school. Later school time. I was in Bradford when the war was declared and I was about fourteen. And previous to that we’d seen the German airship, the Hindenburg pass over the city. I don’t know whether that had any connections to the war but it was an unusual thing to get the German airship over the Channel. But anyway —
DS: And mum saw that as well didn’t you mum?
Other: Yes. Yeah.
FS: And then later we had a few bombs dropped in Bradford and there was one or two fires. Huge fires. My dad insisted that the family, we had a cellar but he thought that wasn’t good enough so there was a firm that was on war work and they had a tremendous shelter and dad, it was about two hundred and fifty yards away and dad wheeled us to this shelter many nights for quite a long time. Then the war did go on long enough and I got my papers to be called up for my medical and I, I stretched up to try and be tall enough for going in the Guards but I didn’t make it by a long way. And when I got my papers I was surprised it was RAF because I really wanted the Army and the papers told me to report to the Scottish town of Arbroath and I did. The idea is to give you, you were, you were supposed to get an eight week initial course, training anyway. That’ll do. And, but just to the end of it I got some sort of a bug and I had to go into the hospital in Arbroath. When I came out after a week I had to go right back to the start of my training again so instead of eight weeks I did sixteen weeks training. And then I was sent to Weeton, I think. RAF Weeton which is six miles from Blackpool and we were, we were given bikes and I could scoot around to Blackpool for the dancing in the tower and that sort of thing.
Other: You did your training there.
FS: Yeah. That was.
Other: Your training.
FS: That was the trade training. I was repairing a bullet holes, or two or three bullet holes in Mosquitoes and also and then I got sent to —
Other: Elsham?
DS: Sealand.
FS: Sealand. And at Sealand it was the hours in the hangar were working at the bench were tremendous and I wasn’t there long because I wasn’t doing that long because they had me on, on burying aircrew. It was 23 MU and evidently all killed airmen who couldn’t be sent home because there were overseas airmen, Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders they couldn’t be sent home and they gave them a military funeral. We gave them a military funeral in a little cemetery by the railway lineside just out of Chester Station going towards Wales. And I did that quite a, quite a while. I thought I was pretty smart and reversing arms and all the things that go with ceremonial drill. I liked that.
DS: How did you become good at that?
FS: I always was interested in that. I knew a Guardsman very well and he lent me his, I shouldn’t say this, he lent me his rifle once or twice and I got a lot of practice in and of course I had Home Guard training. I joined the Home Guard a year before I should. I gave the wrong age for that. And we used to guard an airfield, sorry [pause] a railway goods yard and there was a big Irishman who’d spent a lifetime in India in the Army and he was as tough as old nails, called him Eddie Connor. And when we went on, it was pitch black when we went to guard the, when we went on guard up the railway lines and yard I used to go with Eddie because I thought if there was any trouble I’ll be right behind Eddie. So that passed and then I got my papers and went in the RAF. I think I’m doubling up on myself but the RAF started up in Scotland at Arbroath.
Other: You’ve done that.
FS: I’ve said that.
Other: Talk about the [pause]
DS: You didn’t talk about your accommodation in Arbroath.
FS: Yeah. There was an overspill of the mills that everybody was billeted in and me and a friend who became a friend we were put in with a Mrs Grimond in a flat in Arbroath and of course we got rather well treated compared to sleeping in the mill.
DS: He was a butcher, was he?
FS: Yes. He was. He was the town butcher.
Other: Still is.
FS: Probably still running their own shop there. The business in Arbroath.
Other: It’s still there.
FS: Grimond.
Other: It’s still there. We talked to somebody.
DS: They’re still, the family butcher is still there.
FS: The butcher is still in Arbroath. Yeah.
Other: It’s still there.
DS: Right.
FS: It’s probably a relative obviously.
DS: Yeah.
FS: It’s a passed down family, family business. Where are we now?
DS: Well, that, so you were in the Maintenance Unit in Sealand.
FS: 23 MU.
DS: And because —
FS: And I did it, from there I used to go and do the military funerals.
Other: You mentioned —
FS: Yeah, I’ve just mentioned that.
DS: The four flights. It was broken up into four flights.
FS: Ah that was when, that was when you were first sent to Arbroath to do your training. You were brought, you were, there a flight was about eighty people. Eighty men. And the fourth flight was consisted of all people that had been Home Guard, Cadet Forces. Any Scouts. Anybody who was well accustomed to discipline, marching and of course I was part of that.
Other: You were particularly moved by the —
FS: Oh yeah. I mean —
Other: The loss of them.
FS: Yeah.
Other: Being, overseas.
FS: Yeah. Well imagine the only people we buried were the lads who’d come and died for us from Canada, Australia and New Zealand and of course it’s a very sad thing that their bodies could not be sent back during the wartime and we buried them here and that was, that has always stuck in my mind as being a very sad thing that they did come and couldn’t be ever reunited with their families again.
DS: So when you left Sealand where did you go then?
FS: Well, Sealand was Air Force and I got transferred to Fleet Air Arm was the object.
Other: No. Not yet. Not yet.
DS: Not yet. There was, there was something else wasn’t there?
Other: That was the last one. That’s the last one.
DS: You went from Sealand to Elsham.
Other: Elsham.
FS: Oh yeah. Elsham was RAF. Yes.
DS: So —
FS: And that was an actual bomber squadron. It’s still there and we still go. It’s still obvious it was an airfield.
Other: How many hangars?
FS: Three. One still remains.
Other: Three hangars.
FS: Yeah.
Other: And —
FS: And of course I used to —
DS: What squadrons?
FS: 103 and 576.
DS: Yeah.
FS: Lancaster squadrons. And of course, I used to go to the end of the runway. There was a little lane. It’s still there and I used to watch them go. They were only just, they only just got over the treetops in the lane and we knew of course where, where they were going to. But there you go.
DS: Did you do that every time?
FS: No.
DS: Or was it just occasionally?
FS: No. Just occasionally. So it would sometimes, it was very cold and you were glad to get in your Nissen hut and get the stove red hot. It was, it was a cold place was Elsham Wold.
Other: Where did you work?
FS: Oh yes. And because of that the bike, we cycled everywhere and left our bikes outside the cookhouse and when we came out of the cookhouse the bike wheels had frozen so we got used to bringing a mess tin of hot tea out and throwing it over the gear wheel so we could defrost it.
DS: So, what, what buildings were they? You’ve talked about three big hangars.
FS: Well —
DS: How was it all arranged?
FS: Well —
Other: Well, there were some where you had your little work bench in.
FS: Yeah. Well, attached to the hangars were Nissen huts where you had work equipment because [pause] but all the, all the ground crew that were in in little sites some distance from the main airfield and that was, that was where we were. I presume they were dispersed like the aircraft were. All the Lancasters were put out on dispersals so, and if you were on night patrol you had to go around those dispersals to see that there was, that the Lanc was still safe and sound. Of course, a lot, a lot were out on raids but the, it was a big, a big dark job walking around. The airfield patrol they used to call it.
DS: Did you often do that?
FS: No. It only came around to me a few times. I mean I was never at any depot all that long, you know. A few months or nine months, a year or around that and then you were moved somewhere else for some reason or other.
DS: So, what was your trade when you were at Elsham?
FS: I was air fitter air frames with a W for woodwork.
DS: Oh, and what did that involve?
FS: No, it hadn’t a W sorry. It was air fitter air frames with an A on your badge as opposed to E for the engineers who worked on the engines.
DS: Right. But what did your job involve? What sort of things?
FS: I have told this story many a time that, about the sergeant who moved a Lancaster when he shouldn’t have done and, and knocked the wing tip against the hangar side and he was put on a charge for moving the plane without —
Other: Single handed.
FS: Single handed and that night he stayed on all night and with the aid of winches and stands under the wings he replaced that wing tip and the plane was ready for flying the next day and his charge was removed by Squadron Leader Gardiner. So, he had a, he had a clean sheet after that heroic single-handed job on the wing tip.
DS: How did he put a Lancaster in to the hangar single handed? Was there a tow truck?
FS: Yeah.
DS: Yeah.
FS: Yeah. There was a trolley. There was a trolley that fits under the, somewhere or other and he hooks it to, there’s a tractor and they’re all moved by tractor.
DS: Right.
FS: But at that time besides the driver of the tractor you had to have someone at each wing tip and he didn’t.
DS: Right.
Other: What about the lunches when you got —
FS: The what?
Other: The syrup from your father. The lunches.
FS: No. That—
DS: So, you all ate together in the Mess.
FS: Yeah. Yeah. But, but you went yes you went. You queued up for the, at the servery and got more or less the same as everybody else and you went back to your table and if you were lucky like I was and my dad had sent me some, some Lyle’s Golden Syrup and you put a spoon full of that. And I offered it to my mate next door and he offered it down the table and the whole tin of soup, of Lyle’s Golden Syrup disappeared. By the time I got the tin back it was Lyle’s empty tin of syrup.
DS: And so was the good, do you have any memories of the food?
FS: It wasn’t regarded as being good but I think it was probably better than, but it was, it was a privilege to grumble about everything and I think it was probably over grumbled about. But there you are. I mean we had better rations then the civilians but on the other hand you know when it’s cooked in those huge —
DS: Cauldrons.
FS: Cauldrons. Yeah. Containers. Right.
DS: Yeah. And knives and forks?
FS: Yes. You carried your own knives and forks around as far as I remember and you washed them in, as you went out there was a big, a big bath. It was the size of a bath and it was supposed to be boiling water which run clean all the time. Well, it didn’t. It ran greasy and cold and your knives and forks were cleaned in that which wasn’t the best of things. But that’s what it was.
Other: There was a war on.
FS: There was a war on [laughs] Yeah. There used to be a saying didn’t they?
Other: Yes.
FS: Don’t you know there’s a war on. That excused everything.
DS: So did you live on the aerodrome?
FS: No.
DS: The airfield.
FS: It was the, for obvious reasons if the aerodrome was attacked you didn’t want all the, all the ground crew to be wiped out so these now what did they call them now were perhaps a mile or a mile and a half away from the actual airfield. And that’s when you cycled up to each day to do your job.
DS: So you had a bike.
FS: Yeah. Pushbike. You had a bike.
DS: Was it your bike or was it just something —
FS: No, it was a Service bike. It was signed out to you so you really were responsible for it. So I don’t know of anybody, anybody having been charged for a bike because if you lost, if they lost theirs they’d pinch somebody else’s and so it would go on.
DS: Ok. And what was the places like that you lived in?
FS: It was a Nissen hut with about —
DS: A Nissen hut.
FS: With about I would think about a dozen beds up each side and two great big iron stoves in the middle. One towards each end.
DS: And how long were you at Elsham do you think?
FS: I would think about nine months.
DS: Yeah.
FS: Yes, I did. I was. I looked it up, didn’t I? somebody at Elsham asked me that and I looked it up. I was about nine months.
DS: Ok. So you were doing joinery all the time.
FS: Yeah. More or less nearly all connected with timber. I didn’t do any metal work.
DS: And can you remember anything that you did particularly on a Lancaster?
FS: Well, I think I’ve said about the light on them.
Other: Yeah.
FS: Well, for some reason the, you can see it on this picture I’ve got of the Lancaster in front of me the rear lights were on each side of the turret on a bulkhead and we were told they had to be sunk in so the rear guns didn’t knock them off. And so we put an extra platform in to the last rib. No. Not a rib.
DS: Frame.
FS: Yeah. Anyway, and we mounted, we remounted.
DS: The bulkhead.
FS: Bulkhead. You know, we put a dummy platform just three or four, five or six inches down the plane of the [pause] Now I’ve got it all mixed up but anyway they were, they were sunk in. That’ll do.
DS: You did a lot of that.
FS: Quite a lot.
DS: Yeah.
FS: Quite a lot.
DS: Ok.
FS: So it was always, there was always new Lancs coming in to replace in that had been, that didn’t return from the raids. So I suppose those had to be done too.
Other: You even got the Americans in didn’t you?
FS: Hmmn?
Other: You got the Americans in with their —
FS: Yeah. Some Fortresses. We got the word around that there was a squadron of Fortresses coming and we all went out. I don’t know why we thought they were going to come in like bullets but they did. They came in faster than I’ve ever seen anything in my life one after the other nose to tail and we all went out to watch this. And then the aircrew came off the, and bomb aimer was carrying his sight in a bag and I believe this sight was supposed to be the you know the wonder thing that would that would win the war. But they didn’t leave it on the planes. They carried, they carried it away with them did the bomb aimer.
DS: So the RAF when they were flying they didn’t land in formation. They [unclear]
FS: Oh, these weren’t in formation. The Americans just came nose to tail. One, one, one like that but very fast. No, because coming back the Lancs would often be straddled.
DS: Yeah. Ok.
FS: But I didn’t used to often stay up to see them come back. Watched the go.
Other: Coming in on a wing and a prayer.
FS: Yeah.
Other: That’s what one of the pilots said.
DS: Yeah.
FS: It was just —
DS: I wanted to deal with that. What, so in terms of the everyday life of a squadron you had the flying crew and —
FS: Aircrew.
DS: The aircrew. Were you involved with them on a day to day basis?
FS: Yeah. You were often in the sort of the canteens you were stood next to one you know. Shoulder to shoulder waiting to be served. But they were all sergeants or above so in many cases they would have their own Mess.
DS: And then there was the ground crew that were devoted to an aircraft.
FS: Yes.
DS: Were you ever —
FS: No.
DS: Were you ever part of a ground crew?
FS: No. Each aircraft had engine, engine fitters and airframe and there was mainly the engines I would think because you couldn’t really repair the air frame outside. But the engines of course were, were messed about with, and tested and replaced if necessary actually on, outside where they landed.
DS: Right. So you tended to be based around the hangar.
FS: Yes.
DS: And your Nissen hut workshops.
FS: Yeah.
DS: And planes would be brought to the hangar for more substantial work or —
FS: Yeah. Well, yeah. There was all sorts of, there was all sorts of inspections had to be carried out. So many a hundred hours and all that and they came to the hangars for that.
DS: Good. And so what did you do in your spare time at Elsham?
FS: Well, not a lot. In summer the airfields were always in lovely countryside and in summer I’d walk for miles and I got you know in the countryside around and then of course there was the, there was one or two of the NAAFIs and they had a billiard table you see. A snooker table so you could spend your time, all the time thinking it’s only four days until the weekend, you know. You didn’t get away every weekend but you got away many weekends.
DS: Yeah. So you were given weekend leave.
FS: Yeah. You needed to go to the guardroom and get a pass. Say where you were going. I think so.
DS: Where did you go on weekend leaves?
FS: Well, weekend leave was no good to you unless you were, unless you’d relations or friends that lived within get-at-able distance to the airfield. We had, I had, when I was at Weeton which was six mile out of Blackpool I had some family friends that were in Blackpool and I could go and stay the night there. The Saturday night. If I had a pass of course. And then there was, there was the wonderful dance halls in Blackpool wasn’t there? The Tower and the Winter Gardens. Well, I think it was eight pence. Eight old pence for the Forces to use those ballrooms. I’m pretty sure it was eight pence. It could have been nine but I think it was eight.
DS: So how did you get from Sealand to Blackpool?
FS: Well, there would be buses. There would be buses. Oh, did you say from Sealand?
DS: Yeah, to Blackpool.
FS: No. No. Blackpool wasn’t Sealand, sorry. I misled you. Blackpool was Weeton.
DS: Right. Yeah.
FS: Now you got there. If there wasn’t the bus, if there wasn’t a bus then you could bike and we used to use the train from Kirkham but you’d to get to Kirkham and there again that was a bike job.
DS: Yeah. It was from Sealand you went to Liverpool wasn’t it?
FS: Yes. And came and came to Liverpool station from Sealand on, on through the Mersey Tunnel, about thirty of us on the back of the Queen Mary. The Queen Mary is a, I don’t know, fifty sixty foot long girder like trailer and it was used for transporting aircraft. You could get a fuselage and the two wings of an aircraft stood at the side of the fuselage. But there were empty ones that we occasionally got and about thirty chaps got on the girder work and clung on. We went under the Mersey Tunnel coming to Liverpool Station on the back of a Queen Mary. And I’ve talked to current present day RAF men and they all know what a Queen Mary is and probably there’s some similar ones used for transporting aircraft.
DS: Yeah. So, what got you into the RAFA and Elsham and things like that?
FS: It was just a pure accident and it was only about, I don’t know now. Was it about ten years ago? Something like that but we just heard two, we just heard some ladies talking didn’t we?
Other: Oh, about the —
FS: About the RAF and the —
Other: Elsham Wolds.
FS: And —
Other: The Elsham Wolds —
DS: Association.
FS: Yeah.
Other: Association.
FS: Yeah.
Other: Which he’d never been in anything like that in all the years.
FS: No. No. No. And then and then —
Other: Once the RAF had finished, the war finished. That was it for many many years.
FS: Oh yeah. We wouldn’t have joined the Christmas Club. That was, nobody wanted to be in anything at all after they’d done you know three, four, five, six years of their life. It’s a long time in, in the Services unless they were destined to be Servicemen all their life. You wanted to be out and home.
Other: But Elsham was really very good.
FS: Yeah. But, but I came to, I came to Elsham and we’ve been I hope stalwart members haven’t we? And we go twice a year. August and also in November for the Armistice and —
Other: And they have a museum.
FS: We have a wonderful museum there and by arrangement people can go to it. They’ll be the person to contact on the internet. Have I got the word right?
DS: Yeah.
FS: Good.
DS: Yeah.
FS: But it is a wonderful museum and it’s in, it’s in the book of the tour of museums in Lincolnshire. So it’s, it’s on the tourist trail.
DS: Yeah.
Other: And Elsham village have put the signs out.
FS: Yeah. That’s another thing. Yes.
Other: That’s interesting.
FS: Only recently.
Other: Very interesting.
FS: Elsham village have put the squadron crest on their road sign. On the —
Other: Two. Two squadrons.
FS: Yeah. The two squadrons. One on each end of the street signs and road signs haven’t they?
Other: Yes. Wonderful.
FS: They are very very good. I haven’t heard of anybody, there may be other towns but I haven’t heard of them but Elsham did.
Other: You could even talk about leaving and moving to the Fleet Air Arm.
DS: Well, I was going to ask next about, did your involvement with RAFA lead to Mailly.
FS: Yes.
DS: Visits to Mailly.
FS: Definitely and we’ve been back to Mailly two or three times haven’t we?
Other: Because of the raid.
FS: And Mailly of course is where we really gave the German —
Other: It was a French town.
FS: It was a French military depot but the Germanys captured it and made it into a base for tanks to be prepared for defence of the, of the coast when we did invade and —
Other: A month before D-Day.
FS: Pardon?
Other: A month before D-Day.
FS: Yeah. It was just before D-Day.
Other: That they did the raid.
FS: Oh yeah. It was a wonderful raid was that.
DS: Keep going [unclear]
FS: Yeah. Well, I can’t. I don’t know how to draw.
DS: Ok.
FS: On that really.
DS: So, going back to Elsham.
FS: Yeah.
DS: Did you ever fly in an aircraft?
FS: Yeah. I had one or two [laughs] I’ve had one or two flights in a Lancaster. Three I think. Three or four.
DS: How did that happen?
FS: I think illegally most times. Yes. I think illegally because I’d been, I’d been working and talking to the aircrew and the skipper and he was saying, ‘Do you want, do you want to go up?’ And I’d say, ‘Yes.’ And then once he didn’t tell me they were going on fighter affiliation and that is when they throw the Lanc all over the sky to evade a practice attack and boy oh boy I brought everything I’d got up there. I never left the elsan because I thought I wasn’t airsick but I was on fighter affiliation.
DS: I think you once mentioned to me about you were pleased that you were on air frames rather than armaments.
FS: Yeah. Well, I’d no skill. That was my skill if any. That was my skill was airframes. It was more you know more what I’d been doing in Civvy Street and I’ve always [pause] but engines? I know nothing about them and never, you know if a car breaks down it’s not for me to discuss it.
DS: But the, was it the armament people who had to do additional work.
FS: Oh well.
DS: Or was that a different —
FS: Yeah. Well, there was armourer guns and armourer bombs. Well, armourer guns you know what that is and the guns would take out and they would go in a workshop but armourer bombs they used to bomb up ready for the raid. And sometimes you’d be in the cinema and you knew our, and there would be an announcement, ‘Would armourer, would all armourer bombs go back to the base.’ Go back to their bases because some person in charge had decided the load, the load of that type of bomb wasn’t suitable and it had to be changed. So I used to debomb and bomb up again so sometimes a night at the cinema went for a, went for a burton as you could, as we used to say.
Other: And my father was one of them.
FS: Yeah. Betty’s, yeah my wife Betty’s father was.
Other: He was an armourer.
FS: An armourer. Yeah.
Other: In the RAF.
FS: Yeah.
Other: And he joined voluntarily.
FS: Yeah.
Other: And he joined voluntarily in the First World War but one he was too young and the other he was really too old.
FS: Too old. Well done.
DS: So how did everybody get to the planes if they were scattered all over the airfield?
FS: You went —
DS: Was that done by bike?
FS: Yeah. It could be bike but you could often get a lift on a utilicon. They dashed here and there around. A little Bedford truck and they dashed all over the place and you could ask a WAAF if she’d take you too. But bikes were very much used.
DS: So you kept fit.
FS: Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
DS: Ok. So you did nine months I think you said, at Elsham.
FS: Yeah.
DS: And then what happened?
Other: The end of the war came.
FS: No. Elsham was RAF wasn’t it?
Other: Yes.
FS: Yeah. I had to go in the Fleet Air Arm then didn’t I?
Other: The end of the war came.
DS: The end of the war in Europe.
FS: Yeah, that’s right.
DS: Yeah.
FS: Yeah. And very very quickly. Very very quickly I was taken out of RAF uniform and put in, sent to a Naval place and that was at the one near Liverpool. Sealand.
DS: Oh right. Ok. Was that the first time you’d been —
FS: No. Wait a minute. No. Wait a minute. The training for the Navy was, was —
Other: Weeton.
FS: Was Warrington.
DS: Yeah.
FS: It was —
Other: That’s right.
FS: It was at HMS Godwit at Warrington. Yes. And there was about six of these camps all within a mile or two and they were all called HMS this, HMS that. I think it was HMS Gosling actually. There is a, yeah. Ok. And then you did, you know when you were —
Other: That was the Fleet Air Arm.
FS: That was. That was Fleet Air Arm which is classed as Royal Navy but it was —
DS: So you were doing a similar job in terms of —
FS: Yes, that was —
DS: Joinery work.
Other: Yeah.
FS: Yeah.
DS: But on Naval planes.
Other: Yeah. But obviously it was the end of the war in Europe and that’s why he went because there was still the war in Japan.
FS: Yeah.
Other: That was the reason.
FS: Yeah, I got the draft. I got a draft to Sydney. To a ship in Sydney.
Other: This was for the —
FS: Yeah.
Other: War in Japan.
FS: And I came up two weeks embarkation leave and I went back and within a couple of days we’d dropped the bomb and the Japs surrendered so they cancelled the draft. So I never went on that draft although I got even my lightweight tropical kit issued by that time. Don’t know why I didn’t keep it.
Other: It was the seventieth anniversary yesterday.
FS: Yeah. It was seventy years ago.
DS: Yeah. You mentioned about the sergeant being on a charge for damaging the wing.
FS: Well, you’ve gone back a long time. I mentioned that.
DS: Yeah. I was just wondering if you’d ever been on a charge.
FS: Yes. I was. I stayed over. I stayed over a weekend until Monday morning. I should have gone back Sunday night and been at work and I was late you see. Instead of being 8 o’clock in the morning to go to work I wasn’t around and Squadron Leader Gardiner put me on a charge.
DS: Is that a serious thing to be, to —
FS: It is if you change into civvies as I did. I didn’t realise until afterwards how. I only changed into civvies so the Redcaps on the station, they were Redcaps you know, military police on the stations and I thought well if I’m in civvies they won’t, they won’t pull, but I found out later if I had have been pulled in being in civvies was a very very serious charge because it was like desertion from the Forces you see.
DS: Yeah. So just going back you went into the Fleet Air Arm. They then dropped the atomic bomb. And then what happened? You were talking about getting —
FS: They stopped the —
DS: On to a ship.
FS: Yeah, they stopped the draft. They stopped the draft and we still had [pause] they sent me to another, another place somewhere on the Welsh border. I can’t remember the name. I think it was a Maintenance Unit and what they called a MU. I’ve talked to somebody who lived, who lives near it and so I remembered and from there I got demobbed. It was a matter of wasting time then ‘til your group came and I was fifty some group. And when it came I came up and I was sent to York to be demobbed and get my civilian clothes. That was it. All over.
DS: You altered the date.
FS: Yeah.
DS: We’d better have all the secrets here you know.
FS: Yeah. Well, in the Fleet Air Arm we all had age and service groups for demobilisation and so I could, so I could go, still get away on a summer holiday with a friend. My age and service group was just capable of being altered from 57 to 54. So when the call for 54 Group to go out I marched out with them and didn’t get caught. So I owe them a couple of month I think. That’s what it, that’s the difference it made getting out in August as opposed to probably late September. Something like that.
DS: So how do you feel about Bomber Command was treated after the war?
FS: Well, it seems to be that they’re [pause] they’re only just, it’s only just getting around to realising you know when those lads flew out they had very little chance. They’d only, I don’t know what the odds were but you know they’d [pause] there was a good chance that they wouldn’t get back. And they were all kids you know. There was only seemed to be the pilot that had any, had —
Other: Any age to him.
FS: Had any, yeah had any age on his shoulders you know. They all, he was always, he seemed always a little bit older but I mean the kid, the kid in the rear turret you know he’d probably be killed at eighteen, nineteen.
Other: We met people at Elsham who had flown. You met didn’t you?
FS: Oh yeah.
Other: At our Association.
FS: Yeah.
Other: In later years.
FS: Yeah. We, we palled up with as Betty said, at Elsham we palled up with a lad who had been the rear gunner. Have I said this about the rear gunner?
DS: No.
Other: This is the place —
FS: Oh well —
Other: This is the Association.
FS: Yeah. We were, we went down to Mailly. I think I talked about Mailly where we bombed and as we were coming away he said, ‘Just, I’m in the last coach to come away just as I was on the last plane that left after that raid,’ he said. ‘And I was in the rear turret and —’ he said, ‘This Messerschmitt,’ or whatever it was, ‘Was shooting at me with his cannons and he was reaching me but he missed but he was closing in on me.’ And he said, ‘I thought when he gets within range of my 303s I won’t miss, you know.’ So of course, he didn’t and he peppered him and down he went. He said, ‘You know, I didn’t miss because my father taught me to shoot. He was a gamekeeper.’ I’ve always thought that was a tremendous story. He hung on ‘til, ’til the attacker was within his sight, within his range and he could have easily been shot down a lot earlier.
DS: I think about the only sort of hole in this from before was the element between war starting when presumably you were still at school and joining up or you’d be how old when the war started?
FS: About fifteen.
Other: Fourteen, I think.
FS: I wouldn’t say. No. I I think it would be nearer fifteen.
Other: And I was thirteen when the war started.
DS: So you were at school.
FS: Yeah.
DS: And was, what happened to the school?
FS: Well, the school was in the city you see and it was obviously not a safe place to have two or three hundred children so they divided them up and they put them in to school. They made schools in halls and all sorts of things way out in the country. And so instead of going to your school you had to go to this, some hall or other.
DS: So you were bussed in and out daily?
FS: No.
DS: You lived —
FS: You weren’t bussed.
DS: You lived, you lived out there.
FS: No, you had to get yourself there. I mean you’d get yourself there.
DS: Oh right.
FS: I don’t know whether there would be buses. Public buses to get.
DS: Ok. And then I think it would be, anything else that you would like to say?
Other: Yes, he [unclear]
FS: Yeah. That’s —
DS: We’re getting all the stories now, aren’t we?
FS: Well, it was a bit of going to these classes which were out, you know, out in the sticks. I thought it was easier to stay in the middle of Bradford and going to Brown Muff’s Toy Department and spend a bit of time there. So I, and when my father found out and he, I was supposed to be going to school until I was sixteen. So my father found out and he said, ‘You’d better leave and get a job.’ So I did. So I got a job at fourteen.
DS: Where did you get the job? What were you doing?
FS: I went to the super, the superstore in the middle of Bradford called Brown Muffs. They’re no longer there but it was a, it was the elite store and I got a job there.
DS: And what kind of job did you get?
FS: Well, everybody that went to Brown Muffs had to start in the parcel department so you ran, you sorted your parcels into, Brown Muff’s was so posh they would hand deliver that day a pair of lady’s stockings. It was, you know it was a, ‘Yes, sir,’ ‘Yes madam,’ store of the likes you don’t see today. And I used to be, sort these little parcels into areas and then set off on the bus with six, perhaps six deliveries under my arm. But then, then a job came in the Joinery Department and I thought well I’m fairly handy I’ll ask for that job as an apprentice. It wasn’t as a [pause] so I went from delivering the parcels into, into the Joinery Department which was mainly upkeep of the store you see.
DS: Right. So did that have any bearing then on when you went into the RAF?
FS: Yeah. Well, I could say, I could —
DS: Why you became an airframe fitter and joined —
FS: Yes, it did because I could honestly say that I’d been a trainee. A trainee joiner you see or a cabinet maker. A cabinet maker it was really in that store. And they sort of said ok. They gave me a trade test and as long as I passed that trade test that bore out what I’d told them. That I’d —
DS: Yeah.
FS: I could handle tools and then that’s why I got into the air fitter air frames.
DS: Right. Very good. Anything else that you want to mention?
FS: I think I’ve said enough.
Other: He didn’t go into when he came out that he went into photography.
FS: Yeah. You see, yes. That is important because I’d done, I’d messed about with photography since I was many years before that and I don’t know why I didn’t mention. Well they’d know. They’d know what I’d been doing. But I decided photography was a far better life and after a few, after a few freelance jobs I was very lucky I met, I met the editor, or a connection with the editor of the Bradford Telegraph and Argos and I started as a staff photographer and kept it up for you could say all my working life.
Other: And you were outside.
FS: And I’m still —
Other: Yeah, you were outside Westminster Abbey.
FS: Yeah.
Other: With your plate glass camera.
FS: Yeah, and the —
DS: At the Coronation.
Other: On Coronation Day.
FS: And over ninety there are members of my family are still trying to get me. Get me to work. Ok.
DS: So you’ve been [pause] right.
FS: Is that it?
DS: I think that’s absolutely fine, dad.
FS: I feel, I feel better.
DS: We’ll finish that.
FS: Yeah, let’s have a drink.]]>
eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Great Britain]]> England--Lincolnshire]]>
Julian Maslin]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Benjamin Turner]]> Pending review]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Great Britain]]> 1943]]> 1944]]> 1945]]> Brian Wright]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Julie Williams]]> Pending review]]> Pending revision of OH transcription]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> France]]> Germany]]> Great Britain]]> Norway]]> South Africa]]> Arctic Ocean--North Pole]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> Germany--Berlin]]> Scotland--Montrose]]> 1939]]> 1940]]> 1941]]> 1942]]> 1944]]> 1945]]> 1946]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Photograph]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Great Britain]]> 1945-06]]> Bruce Blanche]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Peter Schulze]]> Pending review]]> Pending revision of OH transcription]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Royal Air Force. Coastal Command]]> Belgium]]> Great Britain]]> Germany]]> Belgium--Brussels]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> 1941-02]]> 1944]]> 1945-01-18]]> Bill Bailey]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Sue Smith]]> David Bloomfield]]> eng]]> Text]]> Text. Memoir]]> Photograph]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> United States Army Air Force]]> Free French Air Force]]> Canada]]> Germany]]> Great Britain]]> Norway]]> Poland]]> Atlantic Ocean--English Channel]]> Atlantic Ocean--Kattegat (Baltic Sea)]]> England--Birmingham]]> England--Devon]]> England--Leicestershire]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> England--London]]> England--Yorkshire]]> France--Domléger-Longvillers]]> France--Ardennes]]> France--Calais]]> France--Cap Gris Nez]]> France--Le Havre]]> Germany--Bochum]]> Germany--Cologne]]> Germany--Dortmund]]> Germany--Düsseldorf]]> Germany--Essen]]> Germany--Frankfurt am Main]]> Germany--Freiburg im Breisgau]]> Germany--Hannover]]> Germany--Karlsruhe]]> Germany--Leipzig]]> Manitoba--Carberry]]> Netherlands--Domburg]]> Netherlands--Eindhoven]]> New Brunswick--Moncton]]> Norway--Oslo]]> Nova Scotia--Halifax]]> Ontario--Hamilton]]> Ontario--Picton]]> Poland--Szczecin]]> Netherlands--Hague]]> France]]> Ontario]]> New Brunswick]]> Nova Scotia]]> Netherlands]]> Germany--Ruhr (Region)]]> England--Warwickshire]]> Manitoba]]> 1942]]> 1943]]> 1944]]> 1945]]> 1946]]> 1947]]> Ken went to RAF Shawbury, flying Oxfords. He was posted to RAF Lindholme on Wellingtons where he crewed up. He was posted for a very short time on Halifaxes, followed by a Conversion Unit onto Lancasters. He then went to RAF Elsham Wolds and 576 Squadron. From flight sergeant, he quickly became pilot officer.
Ken shares some good advice he received from a fellow pilot and describes some of his operations. Ken was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses. His first operation was to the Bielefeld viaduct and the last was to Berchtesgaden.
Ken flew three different Lancasters for 617 Squadron and they were the only heavy bomber crew to carry out over 100 operations. During his time at RAF Woodhall Spa, he fostered a good relationship with a local farmer.
When the war ended, he went to RAF Waddington and flew back army personnel from Italy.]]>
Chris Brockbank]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Sally Coulter]]> Pending revision of OH transcription]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> Great Britain]]> England--Shropshire]]> England--Cheshire]]> England--Yorkshire]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> Canada]]> Québec]]> Queensland]]> Saskatchewan]]> Québec--Mont-Joli]]> Alberta--Innisfail]]> Saskatchewan--Swift Current]]> Germany]]> Germany--Berchtesgaden]]> Germany--Bielefeld]]> Italy]]> 1945]]>
Andrew Sadler]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Carolyn Emery]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Bomber Command]]> France]]> Germany]]> Great Britain]]> Germany--Ruhr (Region)]]> England--Cambridgeshire]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> France--Mimoyecques]]> Wales--Bridgend]]> 1940]]> 1941]]> 1944]]> 1945]]> Pam Locker]]> IBCC Digital Archive]]> Carmel Dammes]]> Pending review]]> Pending OH summary]]> eng]]> Sound]]> Royal Air Force]]> Royal Air Force. Balloon Command]]> Great Britain]]> England--Lincolnshire]]> 1943]]> 1945]]>