1
25
27
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1544/28351/NScrimshawCC160930-01.2.jpg
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Scrimshaw, Christopher Charles
C C Scrimshaw
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
2016-09-30
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Scrimshaw, CC
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. The collection concerns Pilot Officer Christopher Scrimshaw (1905 - 1944, 957856, 182431<a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/120871/">I</a>Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs and documents. He flew operations as an air gunner with 61 Squadron. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Kathleen Garner and catalogued by Barry Hunter.<br /><br />More information on Charles Scrimshaw can be found via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/120871/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
The Daily [missing word]
No. 10,975 WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1944
MONTGOMERY BR[missing letters] LINE AT CAEN
Tanks Into Open Country:
7,000-Ton Bomb ‘Barrage’
GENERAL MONTGOMERY HAS BROKEN THE GERMAN LINE AROUND CAEN, AND STRONG ARMOURED AND MOBILE FORCES ARE OPERATION IN THE PLAIN OF CAEN TO THE SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST OF THE TOWN AFTER THE BIGGEST SURPRISE ASSAULT OF THE WAR.
The attack was preceded by the biggest concentration of air power the Germans have ever faced. Seven thousand tons of bombs were dropped on the German positions between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. by R.A.F. Lancasters and Halifaxes and Allied Liberators, Marauders, Havocs and fighter-bombers.
Here is the full text of last night’s special communiqué which told the great news:
“Early this morning British and Canadian troops of the 2nd Army attacked and broke through into the area east of the Orne and south-east of Caen.
“The attack was preceded and supported by a very great weight of air power organised by the Allied Expeditionary Air Force.
The town of Vaucelles, on the south side of the Orne opposite Caen, is being cleared of the enemy and strong armoured and mobile forces are operating in the open country further to the south-east and south.
‘Well Satisfied’
“Heavy fighting continues. General Montgomery is well satisfied with the progress made in the first day’s fighting of this battle.”
Before the attack 1,500 Halifax and Lancaster bombers dropped 5,000 tons of bombs in 45 minutes on Mondeville Steelworks and Colombelles, on Mondeville and Sannerville, and on Cagny, seven miles south-east of Caen.
Five hundred medium bombers dropped 500 tons of bombs. A force of 600 Liberators dropped 1,400 tons of bombs. No fighter opposition was met, and the results are described as “terrific.”
Nine bombers only were lost in the whole operation.
Turn to Back Page, Col. 2
[inserted] Advancing on the Periers sector in Normandy American infantry move up into open country with heavy tanks as cover. [/inserted]
[/inserted in margin] DAD [/inserted]
1,000 RAF BOMBERS BACK UP THE ARMY
“BOMBER” HARRIS sent out more than 1,000 Lancasters and Halifaxes early yesterday for the first time in daylight and for the first time against the German army in the field.
They dropped more than 5,000 tons of bombs before breakfast – between 5.45 and 6.26 a.m. – and this was only the first operation of a day in which the Allied air forces gave close support to the armies in Normandy.
As our bomber crews returned across the Channel they met great forces of American aircraft heading for the battlefield.
The main object of the assault was to destroy or put out of action the German defences and guns and the troops manning them.
In the eastern suburbs of Caen the Germans had made a strongpoint out of the steel works at Mendeville. They had great numbers of mortars which kept up continuous fire against our troops.
Target Obliterated
Here, and at Colombelles, further to the north-east along the east bank of the river Orne, the enemy had strongly fortified himself with anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, and great numbers of troops were in position.
These two targets together were attacked by 500 Lancasters and Halifaxes.
“When we were over Caen,” said F/O. A.A. Harris, a Canadian pilot, “the steelworks looked as if
Turn to Back Page, Col. 1
‘Like Looking Into Hell,’ Say Pilots
SPITFIRE pilots over the Caen sector of the battlefront yesterday had a grandstand view of the bombing.
Flight-Lieut. R.A. Beardesley, D.F.C., of Tolworth, Surrey, said afterwards:
“The sky over the target was absolutely packed with aircraft. Fighters and bombers seemed to fill the air flying wing-tip to wing-tip and from above we could see the bombs go down.
“The whole target area was a mass of flames. It was an impressive and terrifying sight, and I for one was glad I was not a German soldier.
“When the bombers turned for home they left a belt of black smoke two miles wide by nine miles long, and from the reflection through the smoke it seemed as if the earth itself was on fire beneath.”
The Norwegian leader of one of the Spitfire wings said:
“Looking down on the target area was like looking into hell.”
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
1000 RAF Bombers Back Up the Army
Description
An account of the resource
A newspaper cutting referring to the first daylight 1000 bomber operations. Chris Scrimshaw took part in this attack. It is annotated 'Dad'.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Daily Star
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-07-19
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One newspaper cutting
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
NScrimshawCC160930-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France--Normandy
France--Caen
France
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
David Bloomfield
Anne-Marie Watson
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-07
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Workflow A completed
B-24
B-26
bombing
Halifax
Lancaster
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Spitfire
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1519/30385/PSladdenD1601-Inventory.1.pdf
152e3e88081505b69b7208ab407f40bc
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
620 Squadron
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
2016-06-23
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
620 Squadron
Description
An account of the resource
Twenty-three items. The collection concerns 620 Squadron and contains photographic slides or aircraft and places, an autobiography of Alan T Gamble, wireless operator training school documents, a memoir of operations on D-Day by Noel Chaffey and a short biography of him as well as noted of crews lost on 620 Squadron during Arnhem operation.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Darren Sladden and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
35mm slides by Noel Chaffey 620 Squadron of WW2 1943/6 and 1954 onward
Description
An account of the resource
Typed and handwritten list of slides captions.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
N Chaffey
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page 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
PSladdenD1601-Inventory
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
United States Army Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Essex
England--Bishop's Stortford
England--Colchester
Norway
Norway--Gardermoen
England--London
Netherlands
Netherlands--Arnhem
England--Cambridgeshire
England--St. Ives (Cambridgeshire)
England--Huntingdonshire
England--Herefordshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1954
1945
1946
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.
120 Squadron
620 Squadron
aircrew
B-25
B-26
Halifax
Horsa
Stirling
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1937/38332/PJolliffeFSW17070001.2.jpg
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Jolliffe, Frank Sidney Walter
F S W Jolliffe
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-09-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Jolliffe, FSW
Description
An account of the resource
129 items. The collection concerns Wing Commander Frank Sidney Walter Jolliffe (b. 1923, 1314311 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, documents and photographs. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 149 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Margaret Lowe and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Aircraft photographs
Description
An account of the resource
Five photographs, all in flight, first is of a B 26 Marauder, second is of a 419 Squadron Wellington Z1572, Q-VR, third is of a 35 Squadron Halifax. Fourth is of a 447th BG B-17G, fifth is of a Lancaster ED58?.
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. Bomber Command
United States Army Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five b/w photographs
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PJolliffeFSW17070001, PJolliffeFSW17070002, PJolliffeFSW17070003, PJolliffeFSW17070004, PJolliffeFSW17070005
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
35 Squadron
419 Squadron
B-17
B-26
Halifax
Halifax Mk 1
Lancaster
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2198/40358/MAnkersonR[Ser -DoB]-180129-03.pdf
dd90747e7abd3657167b099d0ce081d4
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
Royal Air Force ex-Prisoner of War Association
Description
An account of the resource
97 items. The collection concerns Royal Air Force ex-Prisoner of War Association and contains items including drawings by the artist Ley Kenyon.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Robert Ankerson and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-01-29
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RAF ex POW As Collection
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Allied and Axis Aircraft
Description
An account of the resource
A list of aircraft with a brief description of each one with size, construction, engine, armament and observation details.
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
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Regia Aeronautica
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
30 printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MAnkersonR[Ser#-DoB]-180129-03
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Anson
B-17
B-25
B-26
Beaufighter
Blenheim
Boston
Catalina
Do 18
Do 215
Do 217
Do 24
Fw 190
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Hampden
He 111
Hudson
Ju 52
Ju 87
Ju 88
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 2
Lysander
Manchester
Me 109
Me 110
Mosquito
P-38
P-40
Stirling
Sunderland
Typhoon
Wellington
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2231/40701/MBirdJH184015-180215-20.1.pdf
8f77186c954aef8db5693e1aaa927fe1
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Bird, JH
Description
An account of the resource
50 items. The collection concerns Flying Officer J H Bird (b. 1921, 184015 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, note books, newsletters and a <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2251">photograph album</a>. After training in south Africa, he flew operations as a pilot with 104 Squadron. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Lissie Wilkins and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-15
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Bird, JH
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
American Aircraft Notes
Description
An account of the resource
Notes kept by JH Bird during his training.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
JH Bird
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
United States Army Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Training material
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
34 handwritten sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MBirdJH184015-180215-20
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
B-17
B-24
B-25
B-26
Boston
Catalina
Harvard
Hudson
P-38
P-40
P-47
P-51
training
Ventura
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/368/10061/LDeytrikhA1381508v1.1.pdf
7a86e4150408629425043aa853221a9d
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Deytrikh, Andrew
Description
An account of the resource
Six items. An oral history interview with Wing Commander Andrew Deytrikh (1921-2016, 1381508, 111248 Royal Air Force), his log books and three photographs. After training as a pilot in 1941, Andrew Deytrikh flew Spitfires on 66 Squadron at a number of locations until July 1944 when he joined Vickers Armstrong as a production test pilot. After the war he served on 604 Squadron Auxiliary Air Force flying Spitfires, Vampires and Meteors. He finished his air force career as a wing commander air attache in Finland.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Andrew Deytrikh 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
2016-04-26
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. 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
Deytrikh, A
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Andrew Deytrikh’s pilots flying log book. One
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for Andrew Deytrikh, covering the period from 20 May 1941 to 1 February 1944. Detailing his flying training and operational flying. He was stationed at RAF Brough, RAF Montrose, RAF Grangemouth, RAF Portreath, RAF Zeals, RAF Ibsley, RAF Skeabrae, RAF Church Stanton, RAF Redhill, RAF Kenley, RAF Perranporth, RAF Hornchurch and RAF Southend. Aircraft flown were, Tiger Moth DH82, Master, Hurricane, Spitfire, Magister and Whitney Straight. He carried out convoy patrols, interceptions, army co-operation, scrambles, Fighter affiliation and bomber escorts with 66 squadron. Targets attacked, and bomber support targets were, Cherbourg, Caen, Abbeville, La Pallice, Amsterdam, Schipol Aerodrome, Courtrai, St Malo, Poix, Bryas, Gosnay, Beaumont-le-Roger, St Omer, Boulogne, Brest, Le Touquet, Brussels, Beauvais, Arras and Calais.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Log book and record book
Text
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. Fighter Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Belgium
France
Great Britain
Netherlands
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Belgium--Brussels
England--Essex
England--Hampshire
England--Somerset
England--Surrey
England--Wiltshire
England--Yorkshire
France--Abbeville
France--Arras
France--Boulogne-Sur-Mer
France--Brest
France--Caen
France--Calais
France--Cherbourg
France--Gosnay
France--La Pallice
France--Le Touquet-Paris-Plage
France--Poix-du-Nord
France--Saint-Malo
France--Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais)
Netherlands--Amsterdam
Scotland--Angus
Scotland--Orkney
Scotland--Stirlingshire
England--Cornwall (County)
Belgium--Kortrijk
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1942
1943
1944
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LDeytrikhA1381508v1
66 Squadron
aircrew
B-17
B-25
B-26
bombing
Boston
Flying Training School
Fw 190
Hurricane
Magister
Me 109
Me 110
Operational Training Unit
pilot
RAF Brough
RAF Hornchurch
RAF Kenley
Spitfire
Tiger Moth
training
Typhoon
V-1
V-weapon
-
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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
Leadbetter, John. Aircraft Recognition
Description
An account of the resource
48 items. Aircraft recognition cards of British, Japanese, American and German aircraft.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-21
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
Leadbetter, J
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
B-26 Marauder
Description
An account of the resource
One photograph and two silhouettes of a B-26 Marauder. On the reverse 'Marauder I, B26'.
#1 A port side aerial photograph of a Marauder.
#2 a port side silhouette.
#3 a frontal silhouette.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph and two printed sheets
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Artwork
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MLeadbetterJ163970-160421-010094, MLeadbetterJ163970-160421-010096, MLeadbetterJ163970-160421-010097,
MLeadbetterJ163970-160421-010098, MLeadbetterJ163970-160421-010099, MLeadbetterJ163970-160421-010100
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
United States Army Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
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.
B-26
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22414/PCurnockRM17020001.1.jpg
2d25b81fc0a01f3c908d5082f5e52e3e
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22414/PCurnockRM17020002.1.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22414/PCurnockRM17020003.1.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22414/PCurnockRM17020004.1.jpg
e1dd1c6068ff6e9feacfdd94c802b774
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
British, American and German Aeroplanes in Operational Service
Description
An account of the resource
Plan, head-on, angled and side views of 65 aircraft in use during the war.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Aeroplane Spotter
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Training material
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PCurnockRM17020001,
PCurnockRM17020002,
PCurnockRM17020003,
PCurnockRM17020004
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
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
United States Army Air Force
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.
Anson
B-17
B-24
B-26
Beaufighter
Blenheim
Boston
Catalina
Defiant
Do 16
Do 18
Do 24
Halifax
Hampden
He 111
Hudson
Hurricane
Ju 52
Ju 87
Ju 88
Lysander
Manchester
Me 109
Me 110
Oxford
P-38
P-40
Spitfire
Stirling
Sunderland
Ventura
Wellington
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/474/8362/LClydeSmithD39856v1.2.pdf
eb7cf0f79771738c84dfe6e7cee923db
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
Clyde-Smith, Denis
Clyde-Smith, D
Description
An account of the resource
Collection contains 26 items and concerns Squadron Leader Denis Clyde-Smith Distinguished Service Order, Distinguished Flying Cross, who joined the Royal Air Force and trained as a pilot in 1937. He flew in the anti aircraft cooperation role including remotely piloted Queen Bee aircraft before serving on Battle aircraft on 32 Squadron. He completed operational tours on Wellington with 115 and 218 Squadrons and Wellington and Lancaster with 9 Squadron after which he went to the aircraft and armament experimental establishment at Boscombe Down. The collection consists of two logbooks, aircraft histories of some of the aircraft he flew, photographs of people and aircraft, newspaper articles and gallantry award certificate.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by John Clyde-Smith 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
2016-09-19
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Clyde-Smith, D
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/.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LClydeSmithD39856v1
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Description
An account of the resource
Pilot's flying log book for Denis Clyde-Smith covering the period from 1 June 1942 to 19 July 1945. Detailing his flying training, operations and test pilot duties. He was stationed at RAF Honington, RAF Wigsley, RAF Waddington, RAF Boscombe Down. Aircraft flown in were, Wellington, Lysander, Manchester, Lancaster, Tiger Moth, Halifax, Proctor, Stirling, B-17, Liberator (B-24), Marauder (B-26), Anson, Warwick, P-51, Mosquito, Spitfire, Lincoln Stinson, Typhoon and York. He flew a total of 24 operations with 9 Squadron. Targets attacked were, Essen, Bremen, St Nazaire, Borkum, Wilhelmshaven, Baltic coast, Duisberg, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Munich, Wismar, Aachen, Kiel, Genoa and Milan.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Suffolk
England--Wiltshire
France--Saint-Nazaire
Germany--Aachen
Germany--Borkum
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Essen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Munich
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Germany--Wismar
Italy--Genoa
Italy--Milan
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
1945
1942-06-01
1942-06-02
1942-06-25
1942-06-26
1942-06-27
1942-07-02
1942-07-03
1942-07-07
1942-07-08
1942-07-09
1942-07-11
1942-07-12
1942-07-13
1942-07-14
1942-07-21
1942-07-22
1942-07-24
1942-07-26
1942-07-28
1942-07-29
1942-09-10
1942-09-11
1942-09-13
1942-09-14
1942-09-16
1942-09-17
1942-09-19
1942-09-20
1942-09-23
1942-09-24
1942-09-29
1942-09-30
1942-10-01
1942-10-02
1942-10-05
1942-10-06
1942-10-13
1942-10-22
1942-10-23
1942-10-24
Title
A name given to the resource
Denis Clyde-Smith's pilot's flying log book. Two
1654 HCU
9 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
B-17
B-24
B-26
bombing
Halifax
Halifax Mk 1
Halifax Mk 3
Halifax Mk 5
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
Lincoln
Lysander
Manchester
mine laying
Mosquito
P-51
pilot
Proctor
RAF Boscombe Down
RAF Honington
RAF Waddington
RAF Wigsley
Spitfire
Stirling
Tiger Moth
training
Typhoon
Wellington
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2330/43393/LClarkHA532059v2.1.pdf
5b3fb05ff0650d27a3ac2e68c5cf300c
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
Clark, Herbert Ashton
Description
An account of the resource
Two items. The collection concerns Wing Commander Herbert Ashton Clark (b. 1911, 532059, 43414 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books. He flew operations as a pilot with 37 Squadron from the UK and North Africa.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Wayne Clark and catalogued by Nick Cornwell-Smith.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2021-12-02
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
Clark, HA
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
LClarkHA532059v2
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Title
A name given to the resource
Herbert Ashton Clark's pilots flying log book. Two
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Description
An account of the resource
Pilot’s flying log book for Flight Sergeant Herbert Ashton Clark from 8 March 1937 to 20 August 1956. Detailing operational posting in Iraq with 70 Squadron. On return to England further training with 215 Squadron. Conversion to the Wellington at 11 OTU followed by posting to 37 Squadron in August 1940. Posted to the Middle East in November 1940. Promoted to Squadron Leader and then Wing Commander during this posting. Awarded DSO and DFC.
Stationed at RAF Hinaidi, RAF Driffield, RAF Manston, RAF Honington, RAF Bramcote, RAF Bassingbourn, RAF Feltwell, RAF Shallufa. Returned to England post-war staying in the RAF. Aircraft flown were Valentia, Harrow, Wellington, Magister, Lysander, Maryland, Fiat CR42, B26, Harvard, Auster, Proctor, Anson, and Prentice.
He flew 1 propaganda leaflet drop with 11 OTU, 1 day and 21 night operations with 37 Squadron in Europe. Targets were St Omer, Eindhoven, Soest, Osnabruck, Frankfurt, Stockum, Bottrop, Hannover, the Black Forest, Gelsenkirchen, Hamm, Flushing, Bitterfeld, Rotterdam, Mannheim, Leipzig, Kiel, Hamburg, Berlin.
12 day and 18 night operations with 37 Squadron and 257 Wing in the Middle East. Targets were Benina, El Adem, Derna, Berca, Bardia, Tobruk, Benghazi, Rhodes, Brindisi, Halfaya, Marble Arch landing ground, Heraklion, Misurata, Homs, Palermo, Gabes, the Mareth Line, El Hamma, Kourba, Pantelleria, Villa San Giovanni, Vibo Valentia, Adrano, Cape Peloro. Posted to HQ RAF Middle East where carried out 28 day supply dropping operations.
Post war career included postings to Air Division Control Commission Germany, Flying Training Command, 41 Group, 22 Maintenance Unit and RAF Negombo, Sri Lanka.
Log book also contains Form 3921 – Aircrew Qualification Record, a 1949 calendar and Form 2745 Record of Service, Educational and Professional Qualifications.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-08-09
1940-08-10
1940-08-15
1940-08-16
1940-08-17
1940-08-18
1940-08-19
1940-08-20
1940-08-24
1940-08-25
1940-08-26
1940-08-27
1940-08-29
1940-08-30
1940-09-01
1940-09-02
1940-09-04
1940-09-05
1940-09-07
1940-09-08
1940-09-12
1940-09-13
1940-09-14
1940-09-15
1940-09-20
1940-09-21
1940-09-29
1940-09-30
1940-10-02
1940-10-03
1940-10-05
1940-10-08
1940-10-09
1940-10-10
1940-10-11
1940-10-14
1940-10-15
1940-10-16
1940-10-17
1940-10-21
1940-10-22
1940-10-23
1940-10-24
1940-10-25
1940-10-26
1940-12-08
1940-12-10
1940-12-11
1940-12-13
1940-12-14
1940-12-17
1940-12-18
1940-12-20
1940-12-21
1941-01-02
1941-01-05
1941-01-13
1941-01-14
1941-01-20
1941-01-22
1941-02-16
1942-11-07
1942-11-08
1942-11-25
1942-11-26
1942-12-02
1942-12-03
1942-12-22
1942-12-23
1943-01-08
1943-01-16
1943-01-17
1943-02-03
1943-02-04
1943-02-24
1943-02-25
1943-03-17
1943-03-19
1943-03-20
1943-03-25
1943-03-26
1943-04-13
1943-04-14
1943-06-10
1943-06-27
1943-06-28
1943-07-15
1943-07-16
1943-08-01
1943-08-08
1943-08-09
1944-02-29
1944-03-02
1944-03-25
1944-05-05
1944-05-15
1944-05-31
1944-06-01
1944-06-02
1944-06-09
1944-06-10
1944-06-16
1944-06-27
1944-07-03
1944-07-12
1944-07-25
1944-07-27
1944-08-03
1944-08-15
1944-08-17
1944-08-19
1944-08-22
1944-08-25
1944-08-29
1944-09-07
1944-09-12
1944-09-16
1944-10-13
1944-10-21
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
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Yorkshire
England--Kent
England--Norfolk
England--Suffolk
England--Warwickshire
France
France--Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais)
Germany
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Bitterfeld-Wolfen
Germany--Black Forest
Germany--Bottrop
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Hamm (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Soest
Greece
Greece--Ērakleion
Greece--Rhodes (Island)
Iraq
Italy
Italy--Adrano
Italy--Brindisi
Italy--Palermo
Italy--Pantelleria Island
Italy--Vibo Valentia
Italy--Villa San Giovanni
Libya
Libya--Al Adm
Libya--Banghāzī
Libya--Bardiyah
Libya--Darnah
Libya--Miṣrātah
Libya--Ra's Lanuf
Libya--Tobruk
Netherlands
Netherlands--Eindhoven
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Netherlands--Vlissingen
Syria
Syria--Homs
Tunisia
Tunisia--Mareth Line
Tunisia--Qābis
North Africa
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Nick Cornwell-Smith
11 OTU
215 Squadron
37 Squadron
70 Squadron
9 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
B-26
bombing
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Service Order
Harrow
Harvard
Lysander
Magister
Operational Training Unit
pilot
Proctor
RAF Bassingbourn
RAF Bramcote
RAF Digby
RAF Driffield
RAF Feltwell
RAF Honington
RAF Leconfield
RAF Manston
RAF Shallufa
RAF Silloth
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1033/11405/AMillinJR160126.1.mp3
ce6e5d1cf8f839a386755e45bf8ab79f
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
Millin, Jack Robertson
J R Millin
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Jack Robertson Millin (b. 1924, 2208997 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a wireless operator / air gunner with 12 Squadron South African Air Force.
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
2017-01-26
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
Millin, JR
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
JM: I was born in 1924. The son of a World War One veteran who had been wounded on the Somme having joined up at eighteen to a local Manchester regiment. Transferred to the Royal Engineers because he was in the building trade and came home from the Somme via hospital in hospital blue. Instead of being shipped out to France he was part of the Balkan Expeditionary Force in Salonica in Greece. And he served there ‘til the end of the war because of course the Royal Engineers are the construction department of the army mostly. The officers were civil engineers or architects. So he was a corporal and he came out in 1919. And in 1920 he started his own business in painting and decorating. So I was born in 1924 and became his third apprentice. And I wasn’t able to go to a grammar school by passing a scholarship and he didn’t want to pay for my grammar school education so I left school at fourteen. So that was it. Evening classes. I was sent to evening classes when I was thirteen and continued doing painting and decorating evening classes until I went in the air force. Eventually, after the air force I became qualified with City and Guilds to became a part time teacher for sixteen years in painting and decorating. So that was my sort of background of how it all happened. And of course as a young boy I used to remember the KLM, or whatever it was called, the Dutch airlines aircraft coming daily into Manchester. And also an R-34 airship flying over and thinking that this must be great. I wasn’t into transport but my grandfather was a railway transport person. He was a carrier with a horse and so his job was, was as a transport person. He wasn’t involved in air or, and he worked on the railway. So that was where it happened. So when, I was fifteen when the war started. Remembering Neville Chamberlain’s broadcast that now we are at war with Germany we didn’t know what was going to happen. So all the things, we had a very quiet start with the phoney war err the phoney war until they started to drop bombs in our area. Eventually I volunteered when I was sixteen to become an ARP which was Civil Defence cyclist messenger. And I used to do duty every week on the basis of the, if the telephones went out of action we were able to take messages. So that was one of the things I did. But when I was sixteen the Air Training Corps started after the Air Defence Corps was its founder. So this was very attractive to me and joined with my future brother in law. And we attended and we were the founder members of the Air Training Corps in Ashton under Lyme. So I went through that and all the various training. Got promoted. Corporal. Sergeant. Flight sergeant. And then I volunteered for air crew as soon as I was coming up to eighteen. Of course it wasn’t the thing. You weren’t supposed to push yourself and volunteer too early. It was just wait your turn. So eventually I was called up after some delay which they called deferred service, via RAF Padgate where there was a selection of medical for aircrew. Passed fit all aircrew but because of my lack of education I didn’t qualify for the pilot navigator bomb aimer. They agreed I could be a wireless operator air gunner under training. Which I did. So there was a delay. Eventually I was called up and went to London to the Aircrew Receiving Centre. Lord’s Cricket Ground. We would go on then to Bridgnorth ITW. From there I went on to Yatesbury. Number 2 Radio School near Calne in Wiltshire. From there after long delays because of course the bad weather of the winter didn’t allow people to train or be killed so we couldn’t move forward. And eventually it was decided that in addition to signallers which was our qualification when I qualified at RAF Yatesbury as a sergeant signaller with an S brevet. There was something that was still needed as wireless operators/air gunners for Coastal Command where they had ASV training. And also for Bomber Command because sorry medium bombers because medium bombers had to be dual role people. They couldn’t be just signallers and specialists. So I was sent to a full Air Gunnery School at Evanton in Scotland. Number 8 Air Gunnery School. And I did the full training there and I remember the dates particularly because on VE Day I was just coming to the end of my training. So after we’d got another brevet, an air gunner’s brevet we were sent home on embarkation leave. No. To West Kirby on the Wirral where they sorted people out or kitted them out for overseas service [coughs] Excuse me. Then we had embarkation leave and went by Liverpool by ship. Monarch of Bermuda to Gourock in Scotland and then joined a convoy to have a week on a long sweep in the Atlantic to Gibraltar and then another week in the Atlantic err in the Mediterranean hugging the North African coast to Port Said. From there we were shipped by rail with sliding doors and spent a day in straw. And all us getting off at eating points via Ismailia up to Jerusalem. I do remember Jerusalem was the first place I had seen since 1939 with street lights on and a lovely temperature. The balmy air as we arrived there. And I spent six weeks in Jerusalem. Part of them under curfew because the Jewish Stern Gang, Irgun Zvai Leumi I think they were called had killed a police commissioner. They’d assassinated him. So we were kept inside after dark. We were confined to the place we were staying. It was an ex-German hospital. From there because of my name and this was one of the, the lucks of the draw. My name was Millin and all my courses were from A to L and M to Z. So I was Millin and the first of the group who went to Jerusalem. So when I had to go to, from Jerusalem after six weeks to Shander on the Great Bitter Lake I was given the pass to take this group of people — Millin, Mullin, Pearson, Stewart, these were all my contemporaries at that time to this Shandur on the Great Bitter Lake which was a desert air force bomber base with Nissen huts sunk in the sand. So we stayed there and we were, the day we arrived after being photographed we were told to go and find a South African aircrew because they were looking for a wireless operator air gunner. So I joined this crew of five South Africans to fly an aircraft I’d never heard of. The B-26 Martin Marauder known as The Widow Maker. The Martin Murderer. The Flying Prostitute — no visible means of support. Because it was a very advanced aircraft. Very fast. Very streamlined. Straight off the production line. Never had a prototype so it had lot of accidents and things. But of course it’s teething in the air force was number, RAF Squadron, Number 14 Squadron which operated from the Middle East. From the El Alemein area. And used to do torpedoes and bombing of transport ships. German ships coming to the North Africa. They stayed there until the Italian campaign. They were, I think based in Sicily at one time. And they came back to the UK. That’s number 14 Squadron. But the South African Air Force were equipped with lease lend aircraft. They first of all converted their Junkers 86 airliners which German aircraft were designed to convert to warplanes into bombers and they went in to East Africa and operated as [coughs] Sorry about this. They eventually were, equipped with the Martin Maryland and then they had the Martin Baltimore. And they and they took these to the Middle East from East Africa. And then they had a period, one period with Bostons. But the South African Air Force eventually had four squadrons of B26 Marauders in the Desert Air Force — 12, 21, 25 and 30 all came together as 3 Wing SAAF. But in addition to that they had another squadron, Number 25 which had been on Coastal Command around South Africa on the [pause] it’ll come back to me — the name of the, the name of the aircraft. But it was originally a Lockheed Hudson that was converted. And they, they came to the Middle East but converted then to Marauders and they went to fly with Balkan Air Force. The Balkan Air Force was set up to support Yugoslavia primarily in its attacks but it also had in its air force this squadron, this Balkan Air Force, Italians who were ex-prisoners of war and people who were in the south of Italy when we invaded and were captured but volunteered for aircrew. So, they flew in Baltimores and they had various other aircraft as well to make this air force that went into Yugoslavia and part of Greece. The idea was the Italians wouldn’t have to fly against their compatriots in the north. They were flying into Greece err into Yugoslavia. So, we were based then from various places that moved up. The squadrons only joined together when they were at Pescara. That was the first base when 3 Wing operated. And then they eventually moved up to Jesi where I joined them. And after the war they moved up to Udine which was in North Italy. After the surrender of the German forces in Italy. So this was the B26 Operations. They are all historically recorded. I have got all the books and all the history of their record both in America and in, in the British use of it which was quite a, quite an aircraft in itself. Very advanced. The details were in this Winged Chariots and all the other things I’ve done for the Imperial War Museum North to talk about its aircraft. So when I arrived in the late February my first operation I think was early March. We were flying in boxes of six or boxes of four on daylight targets. I’d never flown at night except one operation at night in that OTU where we flew out to the Mediterranean and around by Cyprus and back again because we used to do — our bombing range was the Sinai desert where Sharm El Sheikh, whatever it is called, all these resorts are. We used to do all these bombing and courses there. And we flew up to the Mediterranean at that end. So that’s where we were up to there when we did our training. And I did twenty operational flights. Some to the bomb line where we were supporting the British 8th Army as they moved forward. And we used to fly and bomb ahead of T markers on the floor with anti-personnel bombs against the major part of the, when we were there the line was pretty stable where the Po River crosses was attacking that north of Italy to get into there and drive the Germans out of Italy. And we supported one day an attack by commandos. The last commando landing in Europe at Lake Comacchio, Porto Garibaldi where they used these landing craft that went in off the sea behind the Germans. And we attacked supporting that. By coincidence I met a commando some months ago who’s recently died who took part in that. I met him on the ground at a Manchester Historical Society. They got us together to talk about our — we above it and him getting wet below. So that was quite something. This Porto Garibaldi. Porto Garibaldi is named after Garibaldi and the Risorgimento where they, they came back to Italy to capture Italy again in the 1800s where Italy became reunited. And he was part of it. The Red Shirts I think they called them but that’s, you can look them up in history anyway. But that was fascinating in itself. It’s a lake, Comacchio and the Porto Garibaldi were a lot of marshes and they were attacked by commandos. They laid low. There were two VCs there during that attack. And I, first of all got the link with it at Eastleigh. The Royal Marines Museum when I went there since the war to visit and found out that one of these landings I’d done there was a VC awarded for that attack we were on. And it’s the same thing again I found that there was a second one eventually there. It was a quite a, quite a part of the war that not many people know about. This landing there. So I felt that I was doing something worthwhile. I had done something worthwhile. The other things was marshalling yards. We attacked a couple of marshalling yards in North Austria err in South Austria because we were flying over the Alps to attack these and of course we were bombing dumb bombs and we had to find the target and drop them on the leader. The bomb aimer was the leader and he dropped and we all dropped at the same time. Mostly between twelve and thirteen thousand feet. But when we went over the Alps nobody ever told, only ever told us to use oxygen then. We never used oxygen over ten thousand feet because most of the things were at ten and eleven thousand feet when we were attacking the North of Italy because these were at choke points in roads or railways we were always attacking. But one of the problems our squadron had and it lost two lots of aircraft with it was that there was a complication with the American bombs and leaving — British bombs leaving American aircraft. And those fuses were — they clashed with each other and they exploded before they left the aircraft too far and blew up other aircraft. Something I’ve only recently found out in my history. They had this. It brought other aircraft down with it. But also they lost other aircraft over one target called Udine where we were flying over predicted flak. Exploding one aircraft and took others down with it because they were in formation close together. And of course the whole thing exploded. So that was one of the things. Of the, I think five hundred odd aircraft we had a fifty percent, fifty seven percent losses by accident in the RAF’s use of B26. These figures I’m only remembering but of course I don’t have them all at my fingertips. But there were more losses with accidents than enemy action. So if you survived a B26 alone, without operations there was a high risk situation. Btu there we are. But having done all that and coming out of the air force early because of the B, of the Class B Release to come back to the building trade. Again, coincidence. I arrived back and had to register at the Employment Exchange for work of national importance to help build, re-build the country as a painter and decorator. I suppose they still wanted things finishing. I’d already escaped. Oh I haven’t told you about when I finished flying because the people in the South African Air Force who were Royal Air Force members were no longer needed. So we got, we were interviewed and offered various jobs. RAF regiment, clerks, motor transport drivers as well. As I couldn’t drive I decided I’d be a motor transport driver. So eventually I was allocated to 9 Supply and Transport Column in Naples. Their job, because during the desert you know there are no railway lines in the desert so all the bombs and all the support had to come up by road transport. There were special units set up by the Royal Air Force to transport these backwards and forwards in the deserts as the advance and retreats came. And they were 9 Supply and Transport Column and I was one of those. So they, they taught me to drive in a fifteen hundred weight truck, a three ton Dodge and a ten tonne mac diesel. So I flew, I drove these around Naples and across to Bari and Rome and different parts. So I became a motor transport driver. Whilst I was there they were advertising. The Royal Engineers. They wanted to build some accommodation and they wanted building trade members. So I was interviewed to become one of their team. And it so happened that I was due for three weeks leave. My three weeks leave was coming and then I got a call to say I was called to this support team so I ignored it and went home on leave. And then when I got back from leave they said I was going to face the consequences. They said, ‘Don’t unpack. Your release has come through. You’re going home on Class B Release.’ So I’d been home on three weeks leave via rail right from Naples. Came back again. All the way to Naples again. And then I went all the way back again to be released at RAF Hednesford with my demob suit and everything. That was early. So that, that finished my just three years in the Royal Air Force. Of course my contemporaries stayed in eighteen months to, twelve to eighteen months longer because of that and they did all sorts of things like were in charge of movements on the docks. In charge of leave centres or transport places. They were all given administrative jobs as senior NCOs but my job as a senior NCO when I was an assistant driver was to roll my sleeves up so that they couldn’t see my stripes. And I used to go in the airmen’s mess with the driver. So that was the way. But on some units they wanted us to take our stripes off you know. They didn’t want us to be sergeants although we went in the sergeant’s mess. There was a lot of, especially the regulars took a dim view of aircrew being given rapid promotion. And also when they, they started to sort out the regulars what they were doing after they didn’t want to know us. And of course that’s a bit like Churchill didn’t want to know us and neither did the Royal Air Force. There were too many of us. A glut of aircrew. And of course there was a glut of aircrew during the war because my brother in law was given labouring jobs on these things, handling bombs and things in between whilst they were waiting to be moved. And they were given a lot of labouring jobs. In fact when I went to Air Gunnery School I’d also been ill with a boil and I’d been in hospital so I missed my draft. But they sent me off on, and this was an interesting trip because I’d got my arm in a sling, sergeant’s stripes on moving on my own from RAF [pause] where was I moving from? [pause] Put it right, in the portion where it is. With an arm in a sling going through London on the rail, went to the RTO and I’d got a berth on the train. Everybody, wherever I went, because I’d got my arm in a sling and I’d sergeant’s stripes and aircrew brevet was given VIP treatment where ever I went thinking I’d been wounded [laughs] So that was quite a travel to travel with a sleeper up to Inverness. A couple of senior NCOs helped me in to my bunk each night with it. And when I got there the course had gone ahead so I had to wait two weeks whilst then so they give me a job amending all the code books. The log books and everything. And learning how to swing an aircraft around with its compass and everything like. I was a labourer. So these were various aspect things. The Royal Air Force had a glut of aircrew and they had, we had to put up with it. We were bored stiff a lot of times but I relaxed and I could, I could enjoy my life. In fact I was very comfortable in the air force because I conformed. I was smart. I was sharp. And I could have got on well. But my father persuaded me that I ought to be a partner with him in the firm. Which I did and on balance it was alright. I did sixty years part time teaching as painting and decorating until I found that I found more time keeping these day release people in evening courses after they wanted to get home. They were not interested in some respects. So when I could earn enough to do the things I wanted I did. I gave up that income. But that was the Royal Air Force summarised from 1943 ‘til 1946.
HD: Lovely Jack. Thank you very much.
JM: Put these in there. I’ve lost the thing —
[recording paused]
HD: This is a continuation of Mr Millin.
JM: Yes. One thing. On arrival at Shandur on the Great Bitter Lake I and nine other wireless operator air gunners were taken to a hangar and told of our South African Air Force crews who needed one extra crew member. The good news was that my captain was a twenty nine year old married man with a family. He’d been an instructor in South Africa. And that the observer was an ex-infantry soldier who had survived Tobruk before volunteering for aircrew. With such maturity and experience we had great assets in the survival stakes. It appears that some crew members were a bit hair raising. I remember well whilst at OTU having to squeeze through the bomb bay between the two bomb racks when approaching the target we were training to attack. This meant carrying my chest parachute whilst manoeuvring along a nine inch wide catwalk holding on to two rope hand rails. When I was right in the middle at twelve thousand feet the bombs doors were suddenly opened. A special treat for me planned by the rest of the crew. They laughed their heads off. And I recall at 5.30 in the morning calls for 6am PT sessions arranging for the time because of the high daytime temperatures in Egypt. After a while we conspired to give it a miss. At 6.15 all of us who were still abed had our names taken. On Sunday, our day off we were lectured on keeping fit and detailed to walk the two mile runway picking up empty cartridge cases and ammunition belt links which had dropped out of landing aircraft. Eventually we thought the job was completed. The South African CO inspected the runway in his jeep and sent us back again. Not, not, nor was that all. Had to walk right across a desert airfield to lunch were presented with overalls, forty five gallon drums of paraffin and long brushes and told to wash and clean our marauders. In the heat of the blazing afternoon sun no one missed PT again. That was what I’d put in there, you see.
HD: Right.
JM: And that’s it.
HD: Ok.
JM: Yeah.
HD: Apologies. I meant to put a header on the last recording and sorry it seems to have slipped my mind. The last recording is from Mr Jack Millin who was an NCO serving as a wireless operator air gunner with 12 Squadron South African Air Force in Italy. The interview was conducted at Mr Millin’s house in Stalybridge near Manchester. Thank you.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with Jack Robertson Millin
Creator
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Hugh Donnelly
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-01-26
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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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AMillinJR160126
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
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00:25:13 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
South African Air Force
Description
An account of the resource
Jack Millin was working for his father as a painter and decorator before he volunteered for the RAF. He was a Civil Defence bicycle messenger and joined the ATC. When he joined the RAF he trained as a wireless operator/air gunner and was posted to 12 Squadron, South African Air Force flying Marauders, Bostons and Marylands. He left the air force under Class B release because of his building trade experience.
Contributor
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Julie Williams
Spatial Coverage
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Egypt
Italy
Middle East
South Africa
Middle East--Jerusalem
Egypt--Sharm El-Sheikh
Italy--Porto Garibaldi
North Africa
Egypt--Suez Canal
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
B-26
bombing
Boston
crash
RAF Evanton
RAF Yatesbury
training
wireless operator / air gunner
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/551/8815/PLancasterJ1501.2.jpg
794d475655253509adf90821a41de268
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/551/8815/ALancasterJO170308.1.mp3
0854aad26e9a380b5f2a5cc40af42a9a
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
Lancaster, Jo
John Oliver Lancaster
J O Lancaster
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Lancaster, JO
Description
An account of the resource
17 items. Two oral history interviews with John Oliver 'Jo' Lancaster DFC (1919 - 2019, 948392, 103509 Royal Air Force), photographs and six of his log books. Jo Lancaster completed 54 operations as a pilot with in Wellingtons with 40 Squadron, and after a period of instructing, in Lancasters with 12 Squadron from RAF Wickenby. He became test pilot after the war and was the first person to use a Martin-Baker ejection seat in an emergency.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Jo Lancaster and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-08-18
2017-03-08
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.
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is the 8th of March 2017 and I’m in Hassocks with John Lancaster. Jo Lancaster. To talk about his long career in the RAF and as a test pilot afterwards. So, Jo, what are the earliest recollections of life that you have in the family?
JL: I was born in Penrith in Cumberland. In the Lake District. I was very lucky really. I didn’t realise it much at the time. And my first ideas of aeroplanes were drawn entirely from, from books. They were very rarely seen over Cumberland. If they were they were just a spot in the sky making a humming noise but I became very interested in aeroplanes and made models out of the rough materials I could find to hand. I eventually had a flying model with an elastic band which gave me great, great fun but I never actually saw an aeroplane close to until I was about aged sixteen when a Gypsy Moth made a landing due to bad weather in the, in the area. I left school in 1935 aged sixteen and it was during that summer that Alan Cobham’s Flying Circus visited Penrith and I had my first flight in an Avro 504. I remember that well. There was a bench seat going forward and aft of the rear cockpit on which you sat astride and a young lady who I didn’t know was my co-passenger and she just put her head down in the cockpit and screamed throughout the whole flight. [laughs] But I thoroughly enjoyed it. I could see the engine with the tapits, with the bells going up and down. The exposed bells. And it was on that flight that the pilot had a piece of piano wire on the wing tip and picked up bits of cloth from the ground with it. I was completely bitten by flying then but there was little chance of it in the, in the near future. I left school at sixteen and I didn’t want to go to university. In point of fact I couldn’t really because my father’s business had a bad time during the recession and there wasn’t any money left in the kitty but I didn’t mind that. I didn’t want to go to university. I wanted to go out and get amongst mechanical things and an aircraft apprenticeship seemed to be the answer. We considered the RAF apprenticeship scheme, I forget where now. Henlow. Not Henlow.
CB: Halton.
JL: Halton. Considered the RAF apprenticeship scheme at Halton but I wanted to be in the start of the aeroplane flight and not, not the sort of maintenance of it and so I, somehow or other, got a list of aircraft manufacturers in Britain who were offering apprenticeships. Some of them wanted premiums so that put them out but Armstrong Whitworth sounded the best and in due course my father accompanied me down to Coventry for an interview. And I was accepted and joined Armstrong Whitworth in October 1935 starting a five year apprenticeship. The apprenticeship was very good. We had pay and we had one morning and one afternoon off paid time for, to attend the local technical college. [Cough] Can we have a pause?
CB: Yeah.
[Recording paused]
CB: So you’re at Coventry.
JL: The apprenticeship.
CB: And you’re just on the apprenticeship.
JL: Yes. When I — I went down to Coventry to take up my apprenticeship having negotiated some digs through the local paper. I didn’t like the digs we had, I had but [pause - interference] but when I first started there [I feel sure?] it was at the airfield at Wheatley, an old World War One airfield with still the original hangars. I first of all went to, as a stop-gap to the final assembly unit where they were building Hawker Hart trainers. I found everybody very very friendly and one of the almost time expired apprentices, expired apprentices asked me about my digs and I said I didn’t like them and he said there was a vacancy at his digs so I was very glad to go there and I, I was there for over three years. Nearly four years in fact. In, in the original interview it was, it was stressed that there would be no flying involved in the apprenticeship but I had ideas that I would join the, what was then the RAF Class F Reserve which operated very similarly to the Territorial Army. Consisted mostly of a two week summer camp. But on reaching the age of eighteen that coincided with the start of the RAF Volunteer Reserve and I joined straight away and followed that up with the full time ab initio training course at Sywell in July of 1937. Having done that I went back to, to my apprenticeship of course and attended the local RAF, [pause] oh dear. Elementary Reserve Training School at Ansty. That was local to Coventry. During the day, during the weekdays the instructors there were instructing a course of short service, short service commission pilots and at evenings or other times when convenient as at weekends they were training the volunteer reservists. There instead of Tiger Moths as at Sywell we had Avro Cadets with Armstrong Siddeley Genet engines and I converted on to Cadets and then converted on to Hawker Harts. When I was still eighteen I was flying solo on Hawker Harts which was a beautiful aeroplane.
[pause]
JL: I don’t know how to continue.
CB: We’ll stop just for a mo.
[Recording paused]
CB: You mentioned digs. People don’t seem to have digs now so what were they and how did it work?
JL: Well my first digs, which were arranged through the local, by post through the local paper, when I got there I didn’t know the people. I didn’t care for them very much. I was there for really just over a week I think and I was happy to leave when my new acquaintance apprentice, Tony Carpenter suggested I join him in his digs. There I was with a family, or we were with a family. Mrs Hinder who was a widow, widow of a parson and her two children Ruby and Percy. So there were five of us in the house and Mrs Hinder provided us with breakfast, a packed lunch, an evening meal five days a week and breakfast and all the other meals during the weekend at the princely sum of twenty five shillings a week.
CB: Brilliant. Yes. And what about your washing?
JL: I can’t remember. I didn’t do it. They must. It probably went to, I don’t know. I don’t suppose she did it. I don’t remember.
CB: What sort of hours did you work in those days?
JL: We had to be there at 8 o’clock in the morning. We had a half hour’s break for lunch and left at 5 o’clock four days of the week and half past five on Thursdays. And Saturday morning it was 8 o’clock till twelve [cough] I shall have to go and get another drink.
CB: Ok.
[Recording paused]
CB: That’s really useful so when we have the time to talk about the apprenticeship how did the apprenticeship work?
JL: Well as I said I actually started in final assembly but I was only there a couple of weeks. That was a stop-gap and then I was moved to what they called a detailed fitting shop where all the various parts of the aircraft were made using hand tools. And I was there for probably nine months and then I moved to the milling machine shop. Learned how to work a milling machine and then moved on from that to working a, working on a lathe. Learned all about lathe work. Then I went to sub-assembly where units of the aircraft were assembled. The aircraft going through at this time was the Whitley. And then eventually I went on to, moved up to Baginton. The new airfield and the new factory on final assembly and I was there until the — when the war started. I was, I was held back until I joined the — the RAF decided to have me back in January 1940. But I wasn’t actually called up until June of 1940. Incidentally there was a rather amusing episode in May of 1939. Shortly before the war. Everybody knew the war was coming. They had to re-introduce conscription and I was a bullseye for the first age group and I had to go and have an interview with a little [petrie?] army major so I lost no time in telling him I didn’t want to join his army and I was a trained engineer and a trained pilot and he said, ‘Well you’ll be, you’ll be a dead cert for the Royal Army Ordinance Corps.’ And why he said that and not the Royal Engineers I don’t know. But anyway the war started and in no time at all I received a letter containing a traveling warrant to Budbrooke Barracks and a postal order for the four shillings in advance of pay to join the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
CB: Oh.
JL: So I dashed down to, and by this time they had a combined recruiting centre in Coventry. They’d taken over a skating rink, a roller skating rink. And the air force recruiting officer was no help at all but the naval recruiting officer was a Chief Petty Officer Brown and I went and told him my problem and he said, ‘Well we’ll get you out of that,’ and he took me on for the navy on, on deferred service. So I then got a letter saying please return the travelling warrant and postal order. You need not now apply, attend Budbrooke Barracks. So whilst, whilst I was on deferred service for the navy the RAF changed their mind and decided to have me back and, but I didn’t actually re-join until about June of 1940 starting with a six weeks course at ITW Initial Training Wing at Paignton in Devon. And then we were all disbursed to [pause] God. [pause] Sorry, this is my brain. [pause]
CB: From ITW you went to Initial Training Wing.
JL: Well it was Flying Training School.
CB: Yes but at Sywell again.
JL: The first one was Sywell.
CB: Yes.
JL: But this time, after the war started it was Desford near Leicester
CB: Oh yes.
WT: Yes. Desford. Yes.
JO: Yes. Yes. We were, we were all divided up. I went, I went to Desford with some others. During the, during this ab initio course the Battle of Britain was in full swing and of course we all wanted to be fighter pilots and I was in fact selected to be a fighter pilot and sent to number five elementary flying, 5 Flying Training School at Sealand which had Miles Masters and there I was going to be a fighter pilot. I trained on Miles Masters. Later — later in the — we were down, we moved from Sealand down to Ternhill in Shropshire and continued training there but the, during the winter ‘40/41 it was very bad. The training — some of us got well behind and I was on a course of about forty eight divided into four flights of twelve and our flight was the only one, was the only one who succeeded in doing the night flying part of the syllabus on Masters and at the end of the course the whole flight was posted to bomber OTUs whilst the rest went to fighters. And I went to Lossiemouth, 20 OTU as I remember and was converted on to Wellingtons. I was very cross about this at the time but in the event I think it was the right thing to do. When I got to Lossiemouth we were next door to [pause] oh dear [pause] sorry. A Whitley OTU.
WT: Wycombe?
JL: Hmmn?
WT: Wycombe
JL: No. A Whitley OTU up in Scotland. Oh God. I’m sorry.
CB: Was it on, was it a coastal OTU or was it a Bomber Command OTU?
JL: It was a bombing.
CB: Whitleys. Yes.
JL: I was at Lossiemouth converting on to Wellingtons.
CB: Yes.
JL: At 20 OTU.
CB: Yes.
JL: And there was another OTU only about ten miles away with Whitleys. It was well known. It’s still open.
CB: Yes. Kinloss.
JL: Kinloss. Yes.
CB: Yes. Yeah.
JL: Sorry. Thank you.
CB: It’s ok.
JL: I got an interview with the group captain of Lossiemouth called Group Captain Smyth-Piggott and told him that I had been building Whitleys and knew all about them and that I’d like to convert. To transfer to Whitleys. And he wouldn’t have it so I was stuck with Wellingtons. And so we were paired off as pilots with first and second pilot. I was the first pilot and my second pilot was Derek Townsend and having done our conversion training we then had to be crewed up and we were all ushered into a hangar with the right proportions of pilots, navigators, wireless operators and air gunners. And Derek and I wandered around looking at people we’d never seen before and we eventually finished up with a Canadian navigator Glen Leach, a very Welsh wireless operator called Jack Crowther, another Canadian front gunner and a New Zealand rear gunner. Now, at that time I’d never met a Canadian before and I was just, I was surprised they spoke like people we saw in the cinema. But I hardly knew where New Zealand was. Anyway, we went down to that, to the pub in Lossiemouth that night and we were blood brothers from then for the rest of our lives.
[pause]
CB: Right. Stop there for a mo.
[Recording paused]
JL: What had happened.
CB: At Desford. Yeah.
JL: At Desford. We did a — went off and did a flight. When we landed he said, ‘You haven’t forgotten how to fly.’
CB: But you still had to go through.
JL: I still had to do the whole thing through.
CB: The whole thing.
JL: Yes.
CB: Because that’s the way the process ran. Can we just go back to your VR time because you might have continued with that but how long were you in the VR, flying and what caused you to cease?
JL: Well I as I say I was being converted on to — [pause] Oh God.
CB: On to the Hart. Yeah.
JL: Cadets.
CB: Oh the Cadet. Yes.
JL: And Harts. I was flying Harts at a very tender age and I was the ace. I thought I was the ace of the base. And one Sunday after a very bad period of weather where there was no flying we had a very fine Sunday morning in April 1938 and I dashed out to Ansty. There were no Harts available but I was given a, alloted a Cadet to go and do aerobatics and off I went. There was something wrong with the engine actually. It tended to choke and had to be re-started. I wasn’t even bothered with that. I went off and I did some aerobatics. I got doing a slow roll. There was a fire extinguisher under the dashboard and the instrument panel and on the final turn with full top rudder the fire extinguisher fell out and got behind the rudder bar so when I got right way up I got a whole lot of left rudder on. I managed to sort of kick it halfway through the fabric so that I could get steering rudder and instead of going back to Ansty as I should have done I became insane and landed at Wheatley. Well it was a Sunday so there was only a sort of a maintenance man there. When he walked up I gave him the fire extinguisher and took off again. And then, then I, my fellow digs chap, Tony Carpenter, he couldn’t join the VR because of his eyesight but he bought all sort of what we would call a microlight called a dart splitter mouse and he had it at a field near Kenilworth and I then went over to him and did a few aerobatics there. Then I did what was actually a perfectly legal exercise. A simulated forced landing where you from two thousand feet or whatever you throttle the engine back and did an approach on to a suitable field, opened it up and go around again at the end. I did what the, I opened up and the engines stopped and I went through a hedge so that’s rather spoiled things and I was thrown out. You’ll find it in there.
WT: Gosh.
JL: I wasn’t thrown out for going through the hedge. I was thrown out for doing low level aerobatics.
CB: Ah
JL: That was because very very close by was Kenilworth Golf Club and playing golf that morning was a chap called Tom Chapman who was a director of Armstrong Siddeley’s who was hand in glove with Armstrong Whitworth’s and he, he reported it. [laughs] Tom Chapman. Bless his heart.
CB: You never became friends.
JL: I never met him.
[pause]
CB: Right. So we’ve got to the stage that you’re at Lossiemouth and you’ve crewed up. This crewing up — could you just explain how it actually happened? The process.
JL: Well Derek and I just wandered around looking at people’s brevets and we got together a navigator. We found this Canadian with a, he had the O brevet.
CB: Yeah.
JL: He was very proud of that. The Observer. Asked him and he came along and we continued the process till we got the full crew. And we all, we all agreed to meet in the pub that night and we were thick as thieves from that time on.
CB: So how long were you together for?
JL: Well from Lossiemouth, when we were crewed up we did a number of cross country exercises [cough] oh dear. To finish the course. Air firing and practice bombing and then we were posted as a crew to 40 Squadron at Wyton. So we all went off on leave and we all arrived at Wyton on the appointed day only to be told that we weren’t supposed to be at Wyton. We were supposed to be at Alconbury. The satellite. And so we got a service bus from Wyton to Alconbury and signed in there and we were promptly all put on a charge for arriving late. And we were, what are the — ? [pause] I forget the expression was. The lowest. The lowest telling off. So that wasn’t a very good start because we didn’t like the WingCo much anyway. He wasn’t a very popular chap. A [jock?]. Wing Commander Davey. Anyway, we were, then Derek, Derek left us to join another crew and we were given a captain in the form of a Jim Taylor who — he’d already done a lot of ops and he took us on our first eight ops and then he left us. He was, he was screened and I took over as captain and we were given a series of second pilots from then on. And we succeeded in surviving thirty operations including a daylight on Brest. And then we, then we all split up.
CB: So this is in a Wellington.
JL: Yes. And I was posted to a Wellington OTU as a, as an instructor [coughs] oh dear. I’m sorry about this.
CB: Ok. Would you like to stop for a mo?
[Recording paused]
CB: So can we just talk about the tour? The aircraft was a Wellington. Which model?
JL: Yes. Throughout this period all my flying was on Wellington 1Cs which was powered by Bristol Pegasus Mark xviii and with these it was very very underpowered. It was supposed to be able to fly on one engine but in fact it couldn’t because it had non-feathering propellers.
CB: Oh.
JL: Fortunately the engines were fairly reliable. The most common problem would be that one of the rocker boxes would break loose from the cylinder head which introduced, which put that cylinder out of use and caused it to be, to vibrate rather a lot. That happened from time to time. But at least you had the use of most of the engine.
CB: So you couldn’t really feather. You couldn’t feather the prop.
JL: No. No.
CB: So you kept it running did you or you stopped it? The drag was huge.
JL: Well if you lost the engine it just, just windmilled.
CB: Yeah. Right.
JL: Caused a lot of drag.
CB: So of the ops, one of them was to Brest. What was that like?
JL: There was one occasion when we went off. Actually it was fortunately in daylight and when we got up to about seventeen hundred feet and the oil, the oil pressure on one engine dropped to zero. I looked out and there was oil all over the engine but fortunately we were just within a mile or so of Wyton and I was able to drop straight down and land in Wyton complete with a full load of petrol and bombs. But had, had it been dark the situation would have been very different. It was too late to bale out and we had a full load of bombs and it was dark.
CB: In circumstances where you’re still, you’ve still got your full load of bombs what was the proper procedure?
JL: Sorry?
CB: In the circumstances where there was difficulty with the aircraft and you had a full load of bombs what was the proper procedure as far as the bomb load was concerned? Were you supposed to jettison or keep them?
JL: Well normally only jettison over the sea.
CB: Right.
JL: But of course you had to be in full control of the aircraft. If you lost an engine and you weren’t able to, to maintain flight you’d probably leave them where they were.
CB: So thinking of the rest of the tour how did the ops go on that? You had a bit of variety. They were all at night were they?
JL: All except one. The 24th of July 1941 there was a major daylight operation on Brest in which we were involved. The squadron sent six aircraft in two lots of three. The other three lost, lost one aircraft in a direct hit but our three all survived. Knocked about but still working.
CB: So the other one was lost to flak.
JL: Yes.
CB: What operating height were you using then?
JL: Twelve and a half thousand feet.
CB: And what bomb load were you carrying?
JL: Probably five. I can’t tell you. I didn’t record these. Probably five hundred pound armour piercing but it was all a waste of time as I discovered later. Much later. I visited Lorient after the war and went and saw the U-boat pens there and none of our bombs would ever do anything to them. They had a huge roof about two metres thick and then a false roof on top of that. You could see where bombs had hit it. There was just a little pock mark. That’s all. We were all wasting our time. I don’t know what our intelligence people were doing. Thinking about.
CB: So for the other ops then. These were at night. Where? Where were they going? Where were the targets?
JL: Mostly in Germany but we did one to [pause] oh Christ, I’m sorry.
CB: Was it a port?
JL: On the Baltic.
CB: Right. Kiel or Wilhelmshaven. Bremen.
JL: Further east.
CB: Ah.
JL: Poland.
CB: Oh. Danzig.
JL: Oh God. I’m sorry. My brain’s going on strike.
CB: Stettin.
JL: Stettin. Thank you.
CB: Right. So that was a port. And what were you after there? The shipping. Were you?
JL: The port. Yes. That was a long one. That’s well over nine hours. We had overload tanks.
CB: The overload tanks were jettisonable or were they inside the aircraft?
JL: Oh no. They were, they were in the bomb bay.
CB: Oh right.
JL: So we had a reduced bomb load.
CB: And this is the early part of the war so how were you getting on in terms of navigation and pinpointing the target?
JL: There was very little to help us with navigation. We had a choice of dead reckoning and any pinpointing we could get. At night, providing there was no cloud, water could usually be seen. The River Rhine. We used to get quite a bit of haze over the Ruhr but you could usually pick out the Rhine. All the coastlines and harbours. We did have Hamburg two or three times. Bremen. Wilhelmshaven. Berlin. Most of them were to the Ruhr though. I think we did [pause], oh God my brain.
CB: So there was flak all the time but to what extent were there —?
JL: Nearly all the time. Yes.
CB: What about night fighters? Were they?
JL: We were attacked. Yes. On the way back from Berlin actually. We were. Berlin was clear but there was, on the way back we encountered cloud and we were being shot at through the cloud pretty well continuously. And we couldn’t understand this because we shouldn’t have been but what had happened was that the forecast wind which was all we had had changed and they’d taken us north and we were actually going down via Hamburg, Bremen, Emden but eventually there was a break in the clouds and as I looked down I could see the causeway across the mouth of the Zuiderzee and as I reported this and obviously everybody, including the rear gunner, was looking down and it was just at that moment that a burst of fire went right over the top of us followed by an ME110. And we didn’t see it. We were lucky. But anyway, anyway we went down a very steep spiral and this 110 tried to follow us and Keith Coleman, our New Zealand rear gunner got a good shot at it and we both went into cloud and we never knew what happened to it but after the war some people checked up on it and there were no night fighters shot down that night but one inexplicably crashed on landing and it’s just possible it might have been the one.
CB: Because you’d damaged it. Yeah. Now, in those days had the corkscrew evasion system operated or did you make up your own technique for avoiding a fighter?
JL: Well, only, only did corkscrewing if you were, if you were attacked. In my second tour actually it was different. It was my own idea. I kept changing course and height. Five hundred feet up. Five hundred feet up. Turned left, then right. Pretty well all the time because the eighty eight millimetre guns were radar controlled and they were bloody good. So by doing that we were never actually seriously shot at. Not enroute.
CB: You mentioned that you had various co-pilots. Why was that? Were they being prepared for captaincy themselves or what?
JL: Yes. They were doing their training before taking over their own crew. I’m very sorry.
[Recording paused]
JL: That was the daylight raid on, on Brest I think.
CB: Oh. We talked about the 110 just now but what, on what other occasion were you attacked by a fighter?
JL: On the daylight raid on Brest in July there were several 110s about. Sorry. Correction. 109s about.
CB: Yes.
JL: But there were a lot of Wellingtons about and they were all, they were all firing at these 109s and one went, certainly went down because the pilot baled out but all the others tend to claim it. [laughs]
CB: Right. Is that your —
JL: In retrospect it’s impossible to say who hit it.
CB: Yeah. Ok.
JL: We had, we had beam guns but both my gunners, front and rear were blasting away and we had two beam gunners with Vickers, Vickers VJOs fitted up and the second, our second pilot and the wireless op were blasting away with theirs as well and of course all the Wellingtons were probably doing the same thing so the sky was absolutely full of CO3.
CB: Right. So in your flying training at Ternhill what sort of people were there?
JL: We had two American air force officers. Sam Morinello and the other one was called Galbraith. But of course they left us to join their Eagle Squadrons. We also had Neville Duke.
CB: Oh right.
JL: And we had David. Oh God, here we go again [pause] oh I’m sorry. My brain’s —
CB: It’s alright. That’s interesting Neville Duke because he took the world speed record in the Hunter.
JL: Yes.
CB: Didn’t he? In the fifties.
JL: He was also on the same course at ITW.
CB: Was he? Yeah. What about these Americans then. What were they like? Because they weren’t in the war and they’d volunteered to join?
JL: Yes. Well most Americans joined the Royal Canadian Air Force but these two didn’t. Sam Morinello had done a lot of parachute jumps. Just what he’d, they’d been doing. I think they both had pilot training. Why they didn’t join the Canadian Air Force I don’t know but I suppose this was the — they wanted to be certain to get to the American squadrons.
CB: So they were posted to the Eagle Squadrons.
JL: Yes.
CB: Yeah.
JL: Yes. They were. I think they distinguished themselves fairly well later on.
CB: And how did they fit into the general way of things because they were a different culture?
JL: Oh well. Very well. I’m trying to think of the name of this. His father was chief. Well his father was a pre-war, a World War One pilot. He became a chief designer at Bristol and he had four sons. He was killed in 1938 flying one of his own design and the [pause] and the three sons, I think it was three sons. Might have been more. So, anyway, two of them were killed early in the war and this David. He was just one of the boys. Happy. We knew nothing at all about his background at all.
CB: Oh dear.
JL: But he, unfortunately he was killed as well. Oh God. The name, name, name. [I must have written it?] I bet it’s in there.
CB: Ok. Right. We’ll stop just for a mo.
[Recording paused]
CB: So going back to the time when you finished at 40 Squadron. Where were posted and why?
JL: I was posted to Wellesbourne Mountford for instructional duties. Wellesbourne Mountford being Number 22 OTU. Operational Training Unit. Still with Wellington 1Cs. I was attached to the conversion flight. I was converting them to fly the Wellington after which they did their navigational exercises. I didn’t like the job at all. I’m not born, I wasn’t born to be an instructor and I was very unhappy about it. Not only that but it involved night flying details and in the winter the night flying practice was divided up into four sessions being 6 till 9, 9 till 12, 12 till 3 and 3 till 6 and if you were on a late show you know you had to be out at 3 o’clock on a cold, miserable morning and go and do three hours circuits and landings and that was not very funny. I discovered that there was, at Central Flying School, they ran a course for OTU instructors so I asked to go on that which I did but it didn’t help. It didn’t help me much. When I went back to Wellesbourne I was still doing conversion training. Then in July another OTU opened at what is now East Midlands Airport.
CB: Castle Donington.
JL: Castle Donington. That had just opened and I was posted there. When I got there there were four or five other people there and no aeroplanes. So we had a nice time for a while. Then we collected some aeroplanes and started training. Right. Now we start. Originally I was on conversion training but then I went on to the navigation side and I was sent on a cross country with a, a five hour cross country, with a pupil crew and when I got — this was in October ‘42 and when I got back I found I was rostered to go on what they called a bullseye that night which is an exercise cooperating with the Observer Corps and the ground defences. I went to the mess and there was no food and there was no option but to go back down to the flight and took over yet another pupil crew I’d never met before. We went off on this bullseye. We got, we got over the Solway Firth, we were actually going to North Wales but via the Solway Firth and we hit icy conditions. Ice was [cough] ice was banging away on the side. I discovered that the wireless operator had declared his apparatus unserviceable. I’d no idea what the navigator was like. I was frozen stiff so I decided to go home. We were over ten tenths cloud as they called it and so I flew east for a long long long way before letting down safely and then found my way back to, to the airfield. The next day I was on the carpet for abandoning the bullseye. I explained everything but it didn’t cut any ice. This wing commander who hadn’t done a thing I think for himself demanded to see my logbook and in my logbook I’d cut out a little comic thing from a flight magazine where the caption was, “All the way from Hamburg on one engine,” and of course it was a chap sitting astride just an engine and this wing commander took exception to this and told me to take it off. By this time I told him I didn’t want to take it out. And we departed. We departed the worst of friends and very shortly after that a posting came through for me to 150 Squadron at Snaith which I quite welcomed because I was absolutely sick of OTUs. When I got to Snaith the wing commander said, ‘Who are you and what have you come for?’ So I said, ‘I don’t know why I’ve come, sir. [laughs] I’ve just been posted.’ And he said, ‘Well what do you want to do?’ I said, ‘I want to go on a Lancaster squadron.’ And so I did about three flights in their aircraft. 150 Squadron’s. They had Wellingtons 3s by then with a Hercules. And then I was posted to, [cough] oh dear. I’m sorry. 12 Squadron at Wickenby. Just outside Lincoln. When I got to Wickenby they still had Wellingtons but they were scheduled to train on to Lancs. I did three operations with Wellingtons. Then we were stood down for six weeks to transfer. Convert on to Lancasters.
CB: We’ll stop there just for a mo.
[Recording paused]
JL: And I think a couple of squadrons in 5 Group. That’s all there were at that time.
CB: So how did the conversion process operate? Bearing in mind there were no HCUs.
JL: Conversion on to Lancasters? Well we had a couple of pilots seconded to us. [coughs] I’m so sorry. Let me take a cough pill.
CB: Yeah.
[Recording paused]
JL: Between the Frisian Islands and the mainland.
CB: We’re just talking about your ops on the Wellington before you moved to Lancaster. So one was Hamburg.
JL: Not many on 40 Squadron.
CB: No.
JL: Nor at the OTU.
CB: No.
JL: But when I went back to 12 Squadron as I say we still had Wellingtons and I took over the flight commander’s crew as a going concern. We did one mining operation between Terschelling Island and the mainland and one on the approach to St Nazaire. In the estuary. That was a timed run for an island. I think in between was Hamburg. Bombing.
CB: And with mines you couldn’t drop from too great a height because it would shatter the mine so what height did you go?
JL: I think it was five hundred feet and a hundred and sixty miles an hour.
[pause]
CB: And you operated in miles an hour rather than knots did you?
JL: Yes. Incidentally on that run when I went to St Nazaire I decided to go across Brittany. Low down. It was dark but it was clear enough to fly at two or three hundred feet and I saw quite clearly somebody on the ground with a lantern and they swung it around in a circle as we went past.
CB: Exhilarating at low level at night was it?
JL: Well I think I probably thought it was safer than going higher because the guns couldn’t get at you.
CB: So that was a lone sortie. You weren’t going out as a squadron at the same time.
JL: Oh no. They were all lone sorties.
CB: Right.
JL: Except the, except the daylight on Brest.
CB: Right. So after those three then you do the conversion on to the Lancasters. So what was the process there?
JL: We spent quite a little time learning about the Lancaster on the ground and then we had two pilots from 460 Squadron attached to us and they quite quickly converted us. It didn’t take very long. A Lancaster was quite easy to fly and then we took over our crews and spent some time.
CB: So when you moved to Lancasters the four engines all had an engineer. How did that selection work? Did you have all the crew with you?
JL: Well we had, oh a suitable number of mid-upper gunners and engineers arrived and we didn’t choose them. They were just allocated.
CB: So —
JL: And with a full crew then we started doing navigation exercises, a lot of which, much to our concern, were low level formation.
CB: Daylight or night?
JL: Daylight. We didn’t like the idea very much. In the end we didn’t do any daylights.
CB: So what time are we talking about now? 1942.
JL: 1942. Yes.
CB: Yeah.
JL: My first operation on Lancs was a mining operation. To Norway. Haugesundfjord fjord
[pause]
CB: What was the, that was just in the fjord. Just in the entrance was it? Or close to the shipping?
JL: It was more or less parallel to the coast as I remember.
CB: Right.
JL: It wasn’t, it wasn’t very well defended at all. Searchlights came up and a bit of light flak and my gunners responded quickly and, and they put the lights out again.
CB: What sort of height were you doing your mining?
JL: Five hundred feet.
CB: That was also five hundred was it? Right. Ok. And then the rest of the ops. On that tour how many did you do? With 12 squadron?
JL: I think I did twenty two [pause] on Lancasters. Did thirty on Wellingtons. I did the two thousand bomber raids. And then another twenty two [coughs], another twenty two on Lancs which made fifty four I think.
CB: So that normal tour would be thirty. So why did you stop at twenty two?
JL: Oh well I’d done, I did the fifty fourth operation which was to La Spezia in Italy. And the next morning I was called in by the wing commander. And wondering what I’d done wrong, and he said that a new edict had come through that a second tour was now twenty operations. Not twenty. And as I’d done twenty I was finished as of then.
CB: Right. Not thirty. Yeah.
JL: So I finished very suddenly at fifty four.
CB: So what was the next move from there?
JL: Well I wanted to be a test pilot and I thought the best way of starting was getting a posting to a maintenance unit. The wing commander. Wing commander. [pause] Oh dear. Wood. Wing Commander Wood was very very helpful because my first posting after having finished the second tour was back to Wellington 1Cs at Harwell.
CB: Oh right.
JL: And I complained very very loudly about that so WinCo Wood took me off that and made me sort of supernumerary on the squadron. I was talking to new crews and doing odd jobs and then I couldn’t go on forever so they gave me a posting to the Group Gunnery Flight at Binbrook. 1481 flight. I was, they had a Wellington flight and a Martinet flight — the target towers. I was in charge of the Wellington flight and I had a right royal time there. I was my own boss and we did as we liked. But then a posting came through for me to Boscombe Down. A&AEE which I was rather frightened about that. I wasn’t sure if I was up to it. In the end it was fine. Incidentally, the posting to Harwell, another second tour pilot finished shortly after me [pause] Once again his name’s gone. But he took it because his wife lived near Harwell and within about six weeks he was dead. The engine caught fire and the thing folded. What was his name? All these names are in there.
CB: Yeah.
JL: In ten minutes time I can tell you.
CB: Ok. We can pick it up. So now you’re on the way to Boscombe Down.
JL: Yes. I went to Boscombe Down. I was posted to, there was an armament flight and a performance testing flight. I went to the armament flight and the flight commander gave me a ride in a B, oh dear, B25.
CB: Mitchell.
JL: Mitchell. Mitchell. And that was it. I didn’t have any dual. You just got in to an aeroplane and flew it.
CB: Right.
JL: And that’s just, just what happened. And I amassed a total of, I think eventually a hundred and forty four types.
CB: Really. So what formal process did they have for introducing you to test flying?
JL: None at all then. I was just posted in, as I said given a ride in a Mitchell because I’d never been in an American aircraft before. And that was it. I flew them all. Liberators, Fortresses. What was the, was it a B26?
CB: Marauder.
JL: Marauder. That was a bit of a handful.
CB: Was it?
JL: Very high wing loading.
CB: And when you were doing the flying did you have people with you on instruments? Who were monitoring instruments? What was actually happening at Boscombe Down?
JL: Most of my flying was done for armament purposes and we had armament technical officers. Sort of bombing and gunning and we were supervising the tests. We were just drivers really.
CB: Yeah.
JL: My first job, my very first job when I got down there was to drop a four thousand pounder from fifteen hundred feet. Well in the, in Bomber Command the quoted safety height for dropping a four thousand pounder is six thousand feet. Really it was nothing. You felt, well you heard and felt just a little bump. And all this was, they were doing a lot of tests in preparation for what they called second TAF. Second Technical Airforce for the invasion.
CB: So this is army support effectively. So the four thousand pounder’s the cookie which is just a barrel.
JL: Oh yes.
CB: And did you feel there was some danger in doing that? Or did you prove there wasn’t?
JL: Well as I say we’d been told the safety height was six thousand feet and we were sent off to do it at fifteen hundred but I had no problem.
CB: Which was what they wanted to know.
JL: They were measuring it.
CB: Where would you, where was the range where you dropped those?
JL: Lyme Bay. Just off Lyme Regis.
CB: Yeah. What other things were you dropping? Or was there a lot of gunnery involved as well with the fifty seven millimetre.
JL: A bit of both. I had another job with a Mosquito. Oh incidentally. Mosquito. This was typical Boscombe at the time. There was quite a lot of social drinking went on in the evenings and one of the chaps who was, I was very fond of as an armament officer called Shepherd. He was a school master in civil life but he was involved with the rocket. RPs rocket projectiles which was flown by the [pause] oh God.
CB: The Mosquitos and the Beaufighters.
JL: Yes.
CB: Yeah.
JL: Anyway, one night he said, ’Would you like to fly a Mosquito?’ So I said, ‘Yes please.’ And the next day we just walked out to this Mosquito. Let’s say 8RPs. Four under each wing. And I got in. He got in behind me and we went off. That was literally true.
CB: And you’d never flown a two engine.
JL: I’d never flown a Mosquito before.
CB: No.
JL: And I’d certainly never fired rockets but there was quite an art in that because he was telling me what to do all the time. And then another job I had with the Mosquito was — I think they were probably four thousand pound casings filled with [pause] oh dear my brain. Flammable stuff.
CB: Oh yes. Napalm.
JL: What?
CB: Napalm.
JL: Napalm. Yes and this was, this was done we had a range at Crichel Down which, which was, I guess, sometime after the war and low level and so I went off and dropped one of these things at low level. Went back and landed and they phoned up and said, ‘You’re too high.’ So I had another one. I think we did this four times. Eventually I was flying just as low as I possibly dare.
CB: Was this in a Mosquito again?
JL: Yes. And then I saw some cine film of it afterwards but to see this Mosquito scuttling along just above the treetops and a great flame drops the, a great flame went up like a clutching hand way up above the Mosquito. Came down just missing its tail. It was quite frightening to watch and I did that four times.
CB: Blimey. This is using the four thousand pounder casing.
JL: That’s what it looked like. Yes.
CB: When you were doing your four thousand pounder at fifteen hundred feet what plane were you using to drop?
JL: The Lanc.
CB: That was the Lanc. Right. Ok. What other exciting planes? Did you fly single seaters at Boscombe Down?
JL: Oh yes. You could fly anything you wanted. Just go along and say, ‘Please can I have a go at this.’ And you did. There were, well I’d already flown Spitfires. I don’t know where they got that from but I pinched a Spitfire.
CB: Oh did you?
JL: At Binbrook.
CB: You felt it needed exercising.
JL: Yes. You haven’t, you haven’t got on to this one.
CB: No. Go on.
JL: Well —
CB: Right.
JL: 1 Group. They had a, I think he was a New Zealander with a Spitfire. He used to go around all the squadrons doing fighter affiliation. He came. He used to come to Binbrook about once a week I should think. Every time he came I used to say, ‘Give us a go in your Spitfire.’ And eventually he said, ‘Well I’m going to lunch. I know nothing about it.’ So I took that as a have a go.
CB: Have a go.
JL: Yeah. So I went off and did fifteen minutes in this Spitfire and the station commander was Hughie Edwards.
CB: Oh right. [laughs]
JL: Well actually I got on well with him and just a couple of days later, I can’t remember what he said but it was just a very few words just to let me know that he knew about it and having done that I thought well I’ll have another go. So the next time this chap came in I had another go. And then at Kirton Lindsey, not very far away there was a Spitfire OTU. So I went off in — Hughie Edwards used to have a Tiger Moth. He used to let me fly that and I just introduced an Aussie, Aussie wireless op of 460 Squadron. So we went over to Kirton Lindsey and said we wanted to fly Spitfires and they said, ‘Well you’ll have to use Hibaldstow. Our satellite.’ So I went over to Hibaldstow. Now. I can’t for the life of me think how this ever happened but I walked in there and said, ‘Please sir, I have flown a Spitfire before. Can I have another go?’ And then he gave me a Spitfire and I went off for forty five minutes. They’d never seen me before. I’d never seen them before. But this is true. It’s true.
CB: Was this the OTU for the Eagle Squadron?
JL: No. I don’t think so.
CB: No.
JL: I don’t know what it was. It was just a Spitfire OTU.
CB: Yeah. Right. Amazing.
JL: I mean authorising. Who the hell would authorise a flight in a Spitfire from somebody they’d never seen before?
CB: What rank were you at that time?
JL: Flight lieutenant. [pause] Yeah. Lots of things like that happened to me. It’s hard to believe them now.
CB: Yeah.
JL: I guarantee it. I don’t know how you would ever prove it now but [poor old Max Kiddie?] the Aussies. He died. Well most Aussies seem to die young. Most of the ones I knew did.
CB: Yeah. Back at —
JL: Hughie Edwards only made sixty eight.
CB: Yes. Back at Boscombe Down you’ve got all these variety of planes and you’re in the armament flight. So on the single engine planes what are you testing?
JL: Mostly guns. Things like the Avenger I remember, which was quite a nice aeroplane. We didn’t have many single engines. Only for our own test purposes but I used to go around and fly other people’s.
CB: So the Grumman Avenger was — you were doing that for the navy were you?
JL: Yes.
CB: Right.
JL: Yes I remember the Avenger. The Avenger, I think, yes. I can’t remember what. We did anything. And we were all much the same. We were entitled to one day off a week but nobody ever took it. All that happened when there was a non-flying day we all went into Salisbury. Otherwise every day was the same.
CB: Yeah. What other twin-engined aircraft did you fly at Boscombe Down?
JL: I don’t know.
CB: Did you have a Whirlwind for instance?
JL: No. No. Unfortunately not. I liked the look of a Whirlwind. They had the, they had the Wyvern there but it never went into production. It was a sort of larger, uglier looking one.
CB: Wellington.
JL: I’ve made a list somewhere of what I’ve flown.
CB: Ok. So after Boscombe Down. Then what? We’re now getting to what? What time of the war?
JL: Well the Empire Test Pilot School had started and had number one course for only about eight or ten people on that. And they had number two course. That was going on during the time I was there. They were based at Boscombe. I applied for number three course which began on the 13th March 1945 and actually I’d been, I was scheduled to drop the, I can’t remember whether it was the Tallboy or the Grand Slam but the weather had been duff and the 13th of March came up and that was the date of DPDS started so I had to give up that and a chap called Steve Dawson did the dropping of it. But of course 514. Oh my brain. Come on. The Dambusters.
CB: Yeah. 617.
JL: 617. That’s better. They already had them of course.
CB: So talking about Tallboy and Grand Slam. How were you testing those and where?
JL: Dropping them on Ashley Walk in the New Forest.
CB: So did they, they were looking for penetration were they? Or accuracy of flight? What were they looking at?
JL: I can’t remember.
CB: Because they were pinpoint delivery bombs.
JL: Probably the mechanics of dropping it. Yes that would be it. No point in dropping it on Ashley Walk except to make a big hole.
CB: Were they testing the ability of the two bombs to penetrate concrete?
JL: I don’t think so. I think 617 squadron were already doing that. They did the Tirpitz and that thing in France.
CB: Yeah.
JL: Coupole or whatever they called it.
CB: Coupole. Yes. They did a good job on that.
JL: Did a good job of the Tirpitz too.
CB: Yeah. And V3. Tallboys. The guns. The guns in the hillside. So did you, after doing your dropping did they ask you to look at the result of what you’d done?
JL: I can’t remember that. No.
[pause]
JL: I had a wonderful time at Boscombe. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
CB: I bet. So you talked about ETPS the Test Pilot School so what happened there. Number three course.
JL: I was on number three course. Yes. And of course the end of the war came. Chief test pilots round the industry had a habit of coming down and taking lunch with the senior officers and Cyril Feather who was the chief test pilot at Boulton Paul wanted a pilot and somebody suggested me. And I was a bit flattered and thought it would be a good idea so I accepted. And at the end of the course actually we were all being, getting the future sorted out. I had applied for a permanent commission. In the event they didn’t issue permanent commissions immediately. They did what amounted to short service. They didn’t call it short service. Four year contracts.
CB: Yeah. Just Short Service Commissions.
JL: It was a short service commission but they called it something else.
CB: Yeah.
JL: Extended Service Commission
CB: Oh right.
JL: In the event they only issued Extended Service Commissions and I took this offer of Boulton Paul’s but when I got there the chief test pilot engineer was there. He didn’t know I was coming. He was a bit put out understandably. Anyway, we got on alright but there was nothing to do there and I went to ETPS course dinner and we had a number four course I suppose which at this time it was [pause] oh dear [pause] somewhere near Milton Keynes
CB: Oh Cranfield.
JL: Cranfield. Thank you. I’m sorry about this.
CB: That’s alright.
JL: And the Groupie — I can’t think of his name now. A little chap. Said, ‘Are you happy where you are?’ I said, ‘No sir.’ He said, ‘Well, Saunders Roe are looking for somebody. Well, Saunders Roe suited me very well because apart from being on the Isle of Wight my wife lived near Winchester and so I I left Baulton Paul and went to Saunders Roe and [cough] oh dear. I don’t know why my throat’s doing this.
CB: Do you want a break? We’ll just stop for a mo?
[Recording paused]
CB: Now, one thing I didn’t ask you about the Boscombe Down range was you were actually testing American aircraft as well as British.
JL: Oh yes.
CB: One of the night fighters, American night fighters was called Black Widow.
JL: Yes. Flew that.
CB: What was that like?
JL: It was not a very pleasant aircraft to fly really. I think it had remote controlled guns for even firing. It was alright but not a, not a very brilliant aircraft. Yes. The P51.
[pause]
CB: Right. Thank you. So we’re now at Saunders Roe. So what was the task there?
JL: Well they didn’t have a proper pilot there but chief designers [unclear] had been at the fleet air arm. He was doing a little bit. There were, at the time they were building Sea Otters and refurbishing Walruses, the jet flying boat fighter was on the docks. The SRA1. And in the distance was the Princess.
CB: Right.
JL: And so I just joined in flying the Walruses and the Sea Otters and then they, they sent me on a Sunderland conversion course to Pembroke Dock which was very nice. So I had the full OTU course on the Sunderland. Now what had happened at Saunders Roe was that Short Brothers — where did they used to be? On the Thames.
CB: At Chatham. Rochester.
JL: Rochester. Stafford Cripps, who was a trade minister or something, nationalised Short’s and sent them to Belfast. They never did like that including the chairman Sir Arthur Gouge. So he carried these down to Saunders Roe and he was, he was followed by a whole lot of other people including a general manager, Browning and a whole lot and they just didn’t want to be at Belfast. And whilst I was away at Pembroke Dock I got a letter from the managing director [laughs] Captain Clark saying that Geoffrey Tyson would be joining the company as chief test pilot. Well he was one of the Short’s. Well he was chief test pilot at Short’s. I thought well that’s fair enough. He knows his stuff. I don’t. And so I wrote back and said, “Yes, that’s fine by me sir.” And when I got back I met Geoffrey. He was the most peculiar chap. He wasn’t the least interested in me, my background. He didn’t want to see my logbooks. Nothing. He knew nothing about me. And I found it very hard to get on with him. He hadn’t any sense of humour, he didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke. But we staggered along and he did the first few flights on the SRA1 and then he let me have a go. Well then, well we, we didn’t get on at all. Face it. We shared the same birthday but he was twelve years older than me.
CB: Right.
JL: And —
CB: In flying boat terms he was a cold fish.
JL: Then he, he told me one day that John Booth, who was another Short pilot was going to join as his number two so obviously that was my invitation to leave. So I rang up Eric Franklin at Armstrong Whitworth and got a job back there straight away and that was, that was the end of the things. I flew the SRA1 at Farnborough along with several other do’s.
CB: Just to put this —
JL: He was a most peculiar fellow.
CB: To put this into a context if I may. The SRA1 was the first jet powered Flying Boat.
JL: Yes.
CB: So what was the concept and what was it like?
JL: I think the idea was it would be handy in the Pacific area where they wouldn’t have to have a runway. It was quite a powerful machine with four twenty millimetre cannon.
CB: It was a fighter.
JL: It was a fighter. Yes. And although it was a bit bulky for a fighter it was quite lively but of course the Pacific war ended and there was no more call for it. Three were completed and two were crashed. One by Winkle Brown and one by a [Pete Major?] at Felixstowe. Another one is at Southampton.
CB: So you did the course on the Sunderland at Pembroke. That set you up.
JL: Pembroke Dock.
CB: Pembroke dock. That set you up in anticipation of flying the SRA1 did it? Was that the idea?
JL: Yes. That was the Flying Boats in general.
CB: And you were flying the Walruses and the Otters
JL: Yes. The Walruses and the Sea Otter you could taxi on the slipway.
CB: Yeah.
JL: The others needed mooring.
CB: So, what, how did it feel flying a jet flying boat? Because compared with flying a piston engine it was quite different.
JL: Well I had flown jets before. I flew the Vampire and the Meteor.
CB: At Boscombe Down.
JL: Yeah. [pause] I don’t know. Didn’t feel particularly different.
CB: Did you have to have particularly unusual handling techniques because of being a jet engine and getting water in it?
JL: Well they had designed in an extended snout but it was never necessary. It was never used because the spray was always well clear of the intake. I’ve got to have another.
CB: That’s alright.
[Recording pause]
JL: At that time the Isle of Wight was bristling with retired naval captains.
CB: Oh.
JL: Actually I thought he was one of those.
CB: Right.
JL: It turned out to be a captain in the Royal Flying Corps and equivalent of a flight lieutenant.
CB: But he called himself Captain Clark.
JL: Oh he was very fussy about the captain bit.
CB: Yeah. How interesting. What was he like as a personality? As the chairman.
JL: He was a bit peculiar. He had very little technical knowledge. How he came to be managing director I don’t know.
CB: Of an aviation company.
JL: Finance I suppose. But he was a bit of an oddball.
CB: Now after the Saunders Roe situation changing you went back to Armstrong Whitworth.
JL: Yes.
CB: So how did that come about? You just made direct contact or how did it work?
JL: Well when Geoffrey told me John Booth was joining as his number two that was obviously my cue to go so I immediately phoned Eric Franklin who — he’d been an apprentice with me at Armstrong Whitworth and he was then chief test pilot and he offered me a job straight away. So I was on my way within a very few days.
CB: So what was Armstrong Whitworth working on then? We’re talking about 1946 now are we?
JL: ‘49
CB: ‘49. Right.
JL: When I, when went back there the bread and butter was the production of Mark iv Meteors which became Mark viii Meteors. Simultaneously we had the Apollo which was a heap of rubbish.
CB: An airliner.
JL: Yes.
CB: An imitation air liner.
JL: It was supposed to be in competition with the Vickers Viscount. That was because it had to have Armstrong Siddeley engines, which were rubbish so it was never made anywhere. They were very [pause] well, a child of ten could have designed it.
CB: Oh.
JL: We had the 52. The 52 glider.
CB: So how, the AW52 was a flying wing.
JL: Yes.
CB: So could you just explain what the concept there was and the use of the glider first?
JL: Well, one of the purposes of it was to try to develop laminar flow over the wing.
CB: Right.
JL: But it wasn’t very successful because it’s impossible to keep the wind surface clear of squashed flies and things but actually it was a very experimental aircraft. I suppose they had ideas of building a massive passenger aircraft in that form but in this case it was just a two seater but they, it only had twenty six degrees of sweepback which was not nearly enough. And on controls they had several choices. What they chose was an elavon — a combined elevator and aileron. They could have split them and had separate ailerons and elevators or power controls were coming along although they hadn’t reached it yet. Well they wrongly decided on the elavons which meant that fore and aft was a very short lever balance, was very vert sensitive fore and aft, very very heavy laterally and they had a compromise and the compromise was through a spring tab. Are you familiar with a spring tab?
CB: Yeah.
JL: On a spring tab the spring had to be very very weak so that your controls are connected to a very floppy spring and my problem was exceeding the [pause] exploring the higher speed range before flutter set in. I was completely disorientated and I believe that I would have passed out very quickly so instead of that I pulled the blind down. I didn’t do anything properly in the ejection. You were supposed to put your heels on the footrest. I didn’t do that. I just didn’t do it. That’s all. And it had spectacle controls. Somehow or other my knees missed that. They were bruised but otherwise, otherwise ok. So once again I was very very very lucky.
CB: What height were you flying?
JL: About three thousand feet.
CB: And what speed?
JL: Three hundred. About three hundred and fifty. The limiting speed had just been increased and that’s what I was doing.
CB: So it’s the —
JL: Exploring that.
CB: Right. And theoretically what was the maximum speed? Fairly low was it?
JL: Oh I expect so. Yes. Yes not much performance testing was done. It was all sort of handling. Trying to get the controls right.
CB: So you’re at three thousand. Three thousand feet. What sort of speed were you actually flying at at that moment?
JL: Well the last I remember was about three fifty.
CB: It was at three fifty. Right.
JL: We were still at miles an hour.
CB: Yeah. Yeah.
JL: And —
CB: The parachute automatically deployed.
JL: No. No.
CB: You had to do it.
JL: I had to do the whole thing.
CB: Yeah.
JL: I had to release the Sutton harness and pull the rip cord.
CB: Right.
JL: I made a very bad landing and hurt my shoulder a bit. Still hurts.
CB: Where? Where did this take place?
JL: A place called little Long Itchington.
CB: I know it. Yes.
JL: Do you know it? South of Coventry.
CB: Yes. Good pub there.
JL: Yes. I’ve been there.
CB: The Blue Light.
JL: The Blue Light.
CB: Yes.
JL: Used to kept by Wing Commander Sandy Powell.
CB: Oh.
JL: Who had been at Boscombe Down. In charge of C flight.
CB: And he he became a Comet test pilot and that blew his mind.
JL: Hmmn?
CB: He had been a Comet test pilot as well hadn’t he?
JL: Sandy?
CB: Yeah.
JL: Well he’d flown all sorts of things.
CB: Yeah. Right. So that’s where you came down. And the plane came down somewhere. Where?
JL: About two miles further on.
CB: Yeah. What? How did you start off with the gliders? The Glider. How did that handle? You were towed up by something and then —
JL: [laughs]. Not exactly. They had, they had a Whitley to tow it off first of all but when I got there they’d just been allocated a Lancaster. That Whitley was the last off the production line and they took it away and broke it up. There was no Whitley any more. But we had a Lancaster which was much better getting the glider up to a decent height. Used to take it up and then do tests on the way down.
CB: So how manoeuvrable was the glider?
JL: Well it was much better. It was two thirds the size of a big one and it was not metal? It was plywood construction which made it much more rigid and the controls were much better. Still a bit odd.
CB: And what sort of test envelope would you be exploring in that?
JL: Oh I don’t know. I don’t remember.
CB: Then you moved to the AW52.
JL: Yes. I only did two and a half flights in the AW52.
CB: Right.
JL: And the other one was grounded. Then they did some vibration tests with it at very slow speeds. When they sent it to Farnborough where it was regarded as a curiosity. I think they tried to resurrect the laminar flow test but it was no good and it finished up as a curiosity and was eventually broken up.
CB: What was the engine power on that? Was it twin engine?
JL: Yes. Two Nenes. Yes. One had two Nenes. One had two Derwents.
CB: Right. So this was a government contract.
JL: Yes.
CB: To examine laminar flows.
JL: A research. A government supported.
CB: So after that you get out. You’re the first person to use an ejector seat in serious operation.
JL: Yes. The Germans had got on of course during the war. They weren’t as good of course. I think they were operated by compressed air. But I think there were a quite a lot of German ejections.
CB: Were there?
JL: And I was the first of the allied side shall we say.
CB: In peacetime. So you injured your shoulder. What did you do after that?
JL: I was off flying for about a month and then I went to central, CME Central Medical Establishment in London and they gave me a going over and sent me home with a little piece of paper which said, “Fits, fits civilian MOS pilot but not to be exposed to the hazards of the Martin-Baker ejection seat.” And so shrieks of laughter at that. Still are. [laughs]
CB: An interesting point though in practical terms the seat is operated by a cartridge. What was the affect? The seat is operated by an explosive cartridge so what did the ejection itself do to your spine?
JL: Well I had already gone up to [Denham?] and got on the test rig and following that I had a little bit of pain in my tail. I mentioned this to my GP and explained what had happened. He said, ‘Well, I expect you bruised it a bit.’ But the pain didn’t go away. It wasn’t constant and so I ignored it. Then when I ejected they x-rayed me and they said that I’d suffered a compression fracture of the first and second vertebrae and what’s more this was the second time this has happened. So the same thing happened both times.
CB: Right.
JL: I think it’s quite common actually.
CB: Yes. It’s just the modern seats are rocket and they still have a sharp acceleration don’t they?
JL: Yes.
CB: So, ok. What did you do next then? Did you return to flying?
JL: Oh yes. I went to Armstrong Whitworth and started again. And well we went through a lot of productions the Sea Hawk, the Hunter 2 and 5, Hunter 7. We had [pause] God. Come on brain. Javelin.
CB: Oh yes. ‘Cause they were building all of these. Some contractors were they?
JL: Yes. I mean we took over. We took over the Sea Hawk complete. Design and everything.
CB: Oh right.
JL: But the others were just sub-contracts. The Hunter 2 and the 5 had Sapphire engines. We built all those.
CB: How long did all that go on?
JL: Well the Argosy came along 1959. And I participated in that for a while which wasn’t a very good aircraft at all. Didn’t have enough range for the RAF to start with. But Glosters closed down. Who else closed down? Avro. Avro’s closed down [pause] No they didn’t. Glosters closed down. Somebody else closed down and the Hawker Siddeley Group was sort of imploding rapidly and so I thought it time to go rather than just sit about and wait to be picked to be sacked. And so I went to the managing director and said I’d be happy to leave and that I had a suggestion that they see me through the necessary, considerable training to obtain an airline transport pilot’s licence and they happily agreed to that. They paid all my expenses. In all for about three months. I got that licence and they gave me a year’s salary and said thank you very much. And unfortunately I was, met another chap who’d got into crop spraying in Africa. Made a lot of money. And he talked me into joining him in the business but unfortunately he had a wife too many and he bought a house out of the business and things were going very wrong and I lost a lot of money and pulled out. And I needed a job and there was a job down here at Shoreham regional air maps. Doing air survey photography and map making. So I took that job to give me, keep me sane while I looked around for an airline job but the only airline job that came my way was flying a Dakota to Dusseldorf at night with the papers. I didn’t fancy that at all. I was well placed because the crewing manager at British United was a chap who’d been at Boscombe Down, Charles Moss and he was looking out for me. And nothing came along. This was in 1964. So I took this job and I got engrossed in the air survey business anyway and passed the point of no return age wise I think and I stayed there until I was sixty five.
CB: So looking back on your RAF career what was the most memorable point, would you say, of your activities?
JL: I think my first tour with that motley crew I had.
CB: In what way?
JL: Well we went everywhere together. Did everything together.
CB: Yeah.
JL: It was rather different with the second tour. We didn’t sort of mix socially so much.
CB: Didn’t you?
JL: Well I had good happy times but —
CB: When were you commissioned? In the first tour.
JL: In my first tour. Yeah. August 1941.
CB: Right.
JL: This was another little story. I was down in the dispersal one day and an airman came down and said, ‘Here. You’ve got to fill this in.’ [laughs] And it was an application form for a commission. So I thought I’d better fill it in which I did and I had to go to London for an interview and my crew, I went down by train late at night. My crew duly saw my off via the George Hotel and I was in a pretty fair state when I got on the train. Got to London in the blackouts. There was an air raid warning on. I had nowhere to go. I eventually found a dim light which was the Church Army or Salvation Army or something. A little hostel. So I went in there and they gave me a bed for the night. In the morning I never saw the proper toilet facilities. I just got, I just got dressed. I had a terrible hangover and went for my interview. I think it was actually Adastral House in Kingsway. Then went back to the squadron and carried on. And then we went on leave and I still had my car. If you had a car and you went on leave you had petrol coupons for the place you were going so obviously the best thing is to have a destination as far away as possible to get the most petrol. So I had the address of a friend in Shrewsbury and I just gave that as my address whilst on leave. Whilst I was on leave they sent a telegram to this address saying commission granted and never to return as pilot officer so I turned up not knowing a thing about this so I had to rush into Cambridge and get myself fitted for a uniform and rushed in again to put it on and went in as a sergeant and came back as a pilot officer. And my crew all came with me as usual and they marched in front demanding that everybody saluted me. [laughs]
CB: Sounds like a riot.
JL: Yeah.
CB: Didn’t work the same way with the Lancaster crew. Is that because you had two people join later?
JL: Well I had a ready-made crew. The commanding officer had gone off sick. He needed some surgery and I took over his crew which was a Wellington crew. And the navigator was a ex-Exeter prison jailer and he had, he had funny ideas. He used to take a .38 revolver with him on ops. Yeah. The wireless operator was, came from Dublin and surprisingly he was a teetotal. The original wireless op and the rear gunner both changed quite quickly having finished whatever they were on and so I had a sort of a scratch crew to start with and when we changed we changed on to Lancs we had two new members and we were all on happy good terms but we didn’t sort of go down the the pub as a gang as we did on the first tour.
CB: How many other officers in your crew? In that case. On the Lancasters.
JL: There were no officers except me in the first crew. The second crew [pause] I had two changes of navigator and they were both commissioned. The rear gunner in both cases both were commissioned. Just in the last legs I had a commissioned wireless op. A Canadian. Gordon Fisher. The rest were all sergeants.
CB: You had an unusually broad experience because you started early and did various other things. To what extent did you come across LMF?
JL: On 40 Squadron we had a chap. I can tell you his name can I?
CB: Ahum.
JL: [Hesketh?]
CB: Yeah.
JL: And all sorts of things kept going wrong with him. He did a lot of second pilot trips. I had my [unclear] [serves me right?] one time prior to going out on ops he retracted the undercarriage. Almost anything to stop him and he was eventually flying second pilot with the flight commander and that aircraft was seen circling on a point on the East Anglian coast well north off the point where we were supposed to stage through and it spun in and crashed and they were all killed including the flight commander. Creegan was it? And this chap Hesketh. You can’t help but think that Hesketh had something to do with that but why they were, they were about fifty miles north of where they should have been. The other one I only know by hearsay which was 12 Squadron. A crew ditched in the North Sea. The dinghy was upside down and they had to sit on the upturned dinghy for three days and they were rescued and of course they were hospital cases. Apparently for days afterwards when they squeezed [the flesh?] water came out. The wireless op I believe, this was all hearsay Flight Sergeant Rose and he was put back on ops far too soon. He wasn’t ready for it and he was whisked off. Presumably pronounced LMF. Which was very very very unkind. My experience of the RAF was that they were always very kind and compassionate to me.
CB: Well.
JL: Particularly Wing Commander Wood.
CB: Jo thank you very much indeed for a fascinating interview.
JL: I don’t think it was very good.
[Recording paused]
JL: One incident at 12 Squadron again. Lancs. We were right over the top of Hamburg a Junkers 88 went. We heard his engines.
CB: Did you?
JL: Straight over the top of us. Missed us by about ten feet I think.
CB: In the dark.
JL: In the dark.
CB: Yeah.
JL: Well in the dark but you could see quite a lot.
CB: Yeah. Yeah. Quite a shock.
JL: Yes [laughs] if he’s close enough to hear the engines he’s too bloody near.
CB: Yeah. And you thanked your lucky stars.
JL: I had another one. I had a very good Australian navigator on 12 Squadron. Anyway, he had to miss an op for some reason or other and we were given a Canadian. A chap called Abrahamson. I’d never sort of met him till we got in the aircraft and the target was Essen. And we went off and by the time we got to the Dutch coast he wasn’t making any sense at all but fortunately the PFF were putting down markers at a couple of turning points and the night was absolutely gin clear. You could see everything. You could see the coast and rivers and I didn’t want to take issue with this Mr Abrahamson so I just carried on and we duly, I made the markers that PFF had put down. You couldn’t miss the target because they were marking that as well. Some duly did deliver the bombs and just flew home. Didn’t need any help flying home. We could see everything and of course when we got back we had to report everything to the squadron navigation officer. Mr Abrahamson was never seen again. By the time we got up in the morning he wasn’t there.
CB: Was he —
JL: Off the station. Where he went? Don’t know.
CB: Did you put that down to stress or just as an incompetent navigator?
JL: I’ve no idea. I’ve no idea. I didn’t know the chap. I hadn’t spoken to him.
CB: Right. Thank you.
[Recording paused]
CB: Wife died.
JL: Well [unclear]
CB: Right.
JL: Very sad. That’s right. We had a legal separation and she wanted to marry again so we did the divorce and then she died 1977.
CB: Right.
JL: I remarried and this wife went a bit berserk. I think she was almost certainly she was got onto drugs. She had her own car. Used to disappear into Brighton for days but she had her father who was a mouse living there and looked after my daughter Jenny and eventually she, well I divorced her and the next thing I knew she’d developed cirrhosis of the liver.
CB: Oh.
JL: And due to her very very peculiar behaviour she hadn’t any friends left at all. She was a very very sad case and she committed suicide.
CB: Right.
JL: In 1964. I’d just retired.
CB: A big strain.
JL: I was left with a daughter sixteen. Just doing her O Levels.
CB: Oh were you really.
JL: Fortunately she’s turned out absolute trumps.
WT: Good. Good.
CB: Excellent.
JL: And the son is fine too. So I have a son of seventy and a daughter forty nine and a loving and loyal family.
CB: Is Jenny married?
JL: She should be.
CB: Oh.
JL: I said, ‘Why don’t you get married?’ ‘What’s the point?’
CB: Oh right.
JL: One of those.
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Interview with Jo Lancaster. Two
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Chris Brockbank
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IBCC Digital Archive
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2017-03-08
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Sound
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ALancasterJO170308
PLancasterJO1501
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Pending review
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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.
Description
An account of the resource
Jo Lancaster grew up in Cumbria and joined the Air Force as soon as he was able. After training as a pilot he flew a tour of operations with 40 Squadron from RAF Alconbury. He then became an instructor before his second tour flying Lancasters with 12 Squadron from RAF Wickenby. He then became a test pilot at RAF Boscombe Down. He continued to be a test pilot after the war and was the first person to eject from an aircraft in danger using a Martin-Baker ejector seat. In all he flew a total of more than 144 aircraft types.
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Julie Williams
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eng
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
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France
Germany
Great Britain
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Coventry
France--Brest
France--Saint-Nazaire
Germany--Hamburg
Scotland--Lossiemouth
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Warwickshire
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1940
1941
1942
1945
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02:00:18 audio recording
12 Squadron
150 Squadron
20 OTU
22 OTU
40 Squadron
aircrew
B-25
B-26
bombing
bombing of Cologne (30/31 May 1942)
crewing up
Grand Slam
Lancaster
Me 109
Me 110
Meteor
mine laying
Mosquito
Operational Training Unit
pilot
RAF Alconbury
RAF Boscombe Down
RAF Castle Donington
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Wickenby
RAF Wyton
recruitment
Spitfire
Tallboy
training
Walrus
Wellington
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1112/11602/ASaundersR160616.2.mp3
b3356a853701a750fdd3e8f084c2f486
Dublin Core
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Title
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Saunders, Ron
Ronald Saunders
R Saunders
Description
An account of the resource
Two items. An oral history interview with Sergeant Ron Saunders (1923 - 2018, 1803753 Royal Air Force) and his obituary and memoir. He flew operations with 114 and 55 Squadron.
The collection was catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-06-16
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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Saunders, R
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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DB: Todays’ recording is with Mr. Ron Saunders of 114 Squadron in Stowmarket on the 16th of June at 2pm.
RS: This is really just a brief history of my life which started off being born in a place called Ewhurst on the borders of Kent and Suffolk, Kent and I beg your pardon, Sussex and Kent, maybe you’ll correct that, it’s Sussex and Kent, not too far away from Bodiam Castle. At that time my father was working for the Gypsum Mines over in Mountfield, Sussex and the journey was a bit too much so they, eventually they built two houses in another village called Netherfield, to which we eventually moved. However for my short time there I don’t remember going to school at all unless it was at the end of my seventh year which was when I moved with them I think, but the only notable thing I can remember is that one evening, after I’d gone to bed, being woken up to look out of the window and all I could see was a black mass with lights on which turned out to be the airship 101 on its fateful voyage where it crashed in France. Apart from that, as regards an interest, even young of having an interest in the Royal Air Force or airplanes in general. I was always given toys with the someone would just balsa wood which had a notch on and you had a catapult and you just, every time it had the same effect, they all finished up on the ground after half a loop. Then they went on to stronger, elastic bands with propellers, again not very strong, the same result, nothing lasted really long and it ended up on the deck. However, we then moved on to another field [laughs] and there life opened up really to me. I was at the right age, my father was very interested in cricket, he was a captain of the local village team so naturally I was drawn towards him, in that respect, and from then on I never lost my love of cricket. I was also, talking back to R 101, I was perhaps sitting idly not far away from where we lived, one Sunday afternoon, I think it was a Sunday, and I felt some sort of change in the atmosphere, I looked up and there was another airship, this time with a swastika largely emblazoned on the fin or tail and this turn out to be Hindenburg. In both cases I’ve, many years later, sorted out whether I was seeing things, which I wasn’t apparently, and you could tell by the route R 101 took it would have come over where we were in a direct line to Hastings, the other one I think went to Yorkshire. As I said, we moved to this property that the Gypsum Mines who were part of the British Plaster Board had built which four families occupied [coughs] the property that we now occupied was situated, one would say, very nicely because it sat in between two public houses, neither of them very far away, but these were not available to be not only have been young but mum and dad were quite strict chapel which of course I had to attend regularly. But nevertheless the country opened up for me and we could go where we liked, looking for dam chicks nests or plover’s eggs and joining the local haymaking, going up on the hayrick, and laid in the horses and I never lost my love of the country from that point. However on rainy days I was able to go into one of the public houses with the publican’s son and when it was not open to the public and have a game of darts or perhaps shove opening or whatever was available at that time [coughs] I’m trying to do it in short verse.
DB: Yeah, that’s fine, that’s
RS: It gives me a chance to get a thought.
DB: Yeah, if you find it easier, that’s a much better way of doing it.
RS: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
DB: You’re in charge [laughs]
RS: Yeah. Oh God!
DB: No, don’t worry.
RS: [unclear] either until I bring something up, that’s the trouble.
DB: Got it? [laughs]
RS: [unclear]
DB: Oh, Goodness gracious, I’m glad I didn’t turn up earlier for you.
RS: I don’t know what you would have done actually, left it till tomorrow. But you didn’t think it would be anything like this.
DB: No, I’m sure she didn’t. [unclear] for you while you cough.
RS: [coughs] Yes, I don’t want to cough.
DB: That’s alright, don’t worry. Don’t’ worry, you’re doing really well.
RS: It’s a pity about the cough.
DB: Sorry, [unclear]
RS: You have it? It’s on. Also at the time there were many false alarms and the sirens would go and probably no one would have even hear an aircraft and the manager of the shop was getting a bit fed up with lowering the shutters every time the sirens went and having to put them up again and people in the shop could go below where they kept all the cheese, the eggs and all the meat and all the stuff which ran parallel with the shop as a sort of air raid shelter, eventually though he decided he would open and he put me up on the roof, I volunteered of course, to be a spotter for if there is anything in the area to which I could then warn them and he would just leave the main door open. For warning purposes to the shop below I was, had a bell available at my discretion, to use as and when I thought fit. However, this came to an end when on one day I was watching contrails up in the sky, there didn’t seem to be any risk of any danger to the vicinity when all of a sudden, a bomb hit the Plaza cinema, the front of it, which in a short distance, in a straight line from where I stood, I disappeared down where joined the rest of them underneath, but that was the only bomb which killed the manager. But the manager stopped any future activities up there and not long after that I volunteered for the RAF although I had to continue working for quite a while because there was a [unclear] of aircrew and I volunteered to be a wireless operator air gunner. Eventually I was called up to the Royal Air Force in 1942 in September and we were, went to the usual kitting out place and from there we went on to Blackpool for our initial training, ITW, I suppose it was, here we had a mixture of physical exercises, a bit of general walking about town, listening to Morse both in plain language and in code and once you had reached the required speeds in both of those groups, you eventually were able to pass out for the first stage after about six weeks. You then had to follow on to the radio school that was [unclear] of you, which was number 1 radio school at Yatesbury. Here we had a bit longer, a small discipline [unclear], I don’t know, I was put on a charge twice anyway, I’m not quite sure why, now I will gloss over that but you were surprised you know, once you got onto a charge you had to be very careful not to get another one, or it seemed that to me anyway. I did go on the first parade near the guardroom, I put [unclear] four packs I was a very clever and put a blanket and things in the back, which made it considerably lighter. Turned up on the parade ground, the first thing the corporal did was punch the back of it, I suppose he’d had this happen to him or knew all about it many, many times but I was naïve I thought I was being rather clever. That produced another judge, anyway to escape from that, we eventually passed out and the next move was to Madley, where we were to do air to ground training, communication that is and we had two types of aircraft there, initially six of you went up in a, as I said, the remaining part of the course was to confirm the ability to communicate with the ground station from the air. We flew initially with five others plus the instructor taking turns at the radio sets. The aircraft was a DH Dominie. Next was carried out the same exercise, only this time it was just yourself and the pilot. The aircraft was a Proctor. To our collective surprise we were given seven days embarkation leave at the end of the course having passed successfully. In due course we were called up and on 13th November 1943 I was sailing on a P&O line, now a troop ship. My accommodation was situated on the lowest deck, namely H deck and was consisting of a mattress and a small base alongside for kit bag and clothing. We were soon on the move and we were joining up with a convoy, twelve other ships plus escort. Sea legs were required across the Bay of Biscay and beyond but eventually past Gibraltar and entered the calmer waters of the Mediterranean. So far the trip had been uneventful but it then changed when two sustained air attacks took place on the convoy. Being down on H deck, we can only imagine what’s happening and, happening above and listen very intently to everything, there was a barrage of gunfire, bomb explosions, bomb explosions produce sort of shock waves which came with a thud against the hull. I must admit that nearly every eye on the deck was focused on the one set of stairs which criss-crossed up to the various decks and that was our only outlet from where we were. Many years later I obtained a copy of the voyage report, which part of the captain statement contained the following: “the convoy was attacked twice off the North African coast, the first by thirty enemy planes using glide bombs and tornadoes and the second by twelve dive bombers. The Ryan seemed to be the target of the second attack and then four near misses, one within ten feet of the ship which splashed the boardside and covered the deck with oil. The ship was severely shaken and the pumps and the engine were in stop for a few moments”. We were down there, everybody was looking at these stairs, cause it just crisscrossed like that once. [coughs] One finished on one side of the boat, the other [coughs]
DB: [unclear] A little bit of information right [unclear] be great.
RS: Yeah. There were no further allowance and after fourteen days at sea since leaving England the Ryan entered the Suez Canal, passing the statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps, to dock a short distance away. Up early in the next day and packed and a short walk across to a station railway side. NAAFI tea and catering available before boarding the train to take us to Cairo. The journey from Port Said was long and tiring mainly due to the hard wooden seats and it was dark when we arrived at Cairo where we were bundled into waiting lorries which took us to a transit camp. It was tented accommodation, six to a tent just a pile [unclear] for sleeping. We were there for six weeks, waiting for number one course to move out of the newly opened gunnery school before I was able to pay a visit to the visit [unclear] and after that we moved hopefully to be our last part of the training. We were now heading for 13 air gunnery school at El Ballah in Egypt, it was tented accommodation recently allocated by number 1 course, and in which we settled in for another six weeks training. This comprised mostly of courses of ground faring and then airborne exercises with accompanying an aircraft towing the droves to the target in order to demonstrate air gunnery skills, we all had more than one trainee on board, coloured tipped bullets were allocated, so that individual markings on the drove could be connected to the individual person having fired them. This gave you the necessary efficiency to survive the course and at the end of it there was a badge, an air gunners badge together with a set of sergeant stripes which were automatically given at the end of training for aircrew duties. We were then transferred back to the suburb of Cairo at Heliopolis at number 5 ME. This time the accommodation was in the pre-war palace hotel, although all the furniture had been removed it was a pleasant change from tents. Eventually my name appeared on the notice board for operational training unit. This transpired to be at number 20 OTU Shandur in the Canal Zone. We travelled by train from Cairo to Port Tewfik and then by lorry to the airfield at Shandur. South Africans were also there undergoing training on Marauders. Before crewing up it was a case of travelling in your own category, training in your own category, I beg your pardon, and this involved flying in Baltimores, tests were carried out in Avro Ansons for gunnery and all went well and then it became forming of crews, which was quite a casual affair. I was walking along with a [unclear] when the pilot invited me to join him, which I accepted, meeting up with his navigator and upper gunner later. We got on well together and on nineteen occasions we did some training exercises before completing the course. We then departed for a week’s leave at Alexandria, we both [unclear] a house I think therefore and reporting back to 22 PTC transit camp in Cairo. While we were at Alexandria, my pal and myself found ourselves travelling and having a look around and in doing so we visited a street well known for the attention given to you by ladies, however it was fairly dark when we arrived and after hearing some whispering and shuffling about behind a barricade of [unclear] we decided it was best that we took to our heels. On one of the occasions when myself and my pal Jimmy visited the centre of Cairo as we did on several occasions after dodging the bootblacks as we called them, who’d threaten you with the polish if you didn’t have your shoes clean, we were walking along and hearing this terrific crescendo of noise, cavalcade of motorcycles came by as in v-shaped formation and behind them was travelling along was the young king Farouk and we had a good view as he motored on. After Alexandria, after a few more days at our posting to 22 PTC we found ourselves on our way to Naples. One morning we left for [unclear] airfield nearby, we were put into some waiting Dakota, on the way we stopped at, sorry, Benina and Tunis before alighting at Capodichino airfield at Naples. Things were very different. There was a general shortage, the children were ragged and starving and we settled down in a Villa Drusi I believe it was called. In the morning as a [unclear] formed outside of folk, young and old, waiting for anything that we left over from our meals. This was not uncommon and our pilots, at one stage where we had to be careful of thieves, he had his complete kit bag stolen while he was asleep. And the Americans would often have armed guards on the back of food vehicles. One of the [unclear] who gathered at the gates every morning offered to do my laundry, this was accepted and it always came back and she’d be rewarded with a bit of bread or something as well. She was very grateful. Not long after this, a squadron CO came to interview the pilot and the result of which were we were posted to 114 Squadron flying Boston aircraft, a medium bomber, American, operating at night. Not long after we packed our kit and set off to join the squadron, which was situated at that time at the American fifth army front at Tarquinia. Here we found the squadron under canvas and the first task was to surrect tents for ourselves in a field of thistles, which even [unclear] through the socks which we were wearing. An interview of the CO followed who explained the squadron’s duties and one morning I was roughly awaken and sent off with the advance party to a field which was at Cecina, being much nearer to the front line and the realities of war. With a lorry and ten days rations we slept under some trees which were mostly taped off as dangerous, in fact there was one who trod on a butterfly bomb and one of the ground staff later on, we also found ourselves that we could go down onto the beach for a swim, I more or less learned to swim there, however it was rather puzzling when after a few days we’ve been doing this the Americans turned up and starting having metal detectors along the beach, which we’ve been using. Anyway all was well. I don’t know how bad the danger was. 114 Squadron was a part of 232 Wing which contained also the Squadrons numbers 13, 18 and 55 and they were occupied in similar duties. We converted to Bostons, which took nearly a month due to heavy rain. In particular one heavy storm, at all four Squadron crews, ground and air, walking along the runway to dislodge stones had been thrown up by the rain, we carried out our first sortie from here which was bombing the marshalling yards at Medina, followed by a short recce. The main thrust of the Italian campaign was taking place on the Eastern side of the country where the Eighth Army were engaged in heavy fighting against Field Marshall Kesselring’s forces. We were set out various strategic defence lines as they retreated northwards. Once again we did another move, the crews were split up, the pilots flying the aircraft [unclear], our game was on the road party, the convoys several vehicles, sleeping the first night in the [unclear] post office and the second was Assisi. We reached Chiaravalle where we were to stay pending the completion of an airfield at Falconara. Before we left Cecina, we were visited firstly by Sir Winston Churchill, followed soon after by his Majesty King George the Sixth. Both were met by the American general Mark Clark, Commander of the American army. King George the Sixth stopped to walk along our lines but Winston Churchill seemed to disappear almost straight away. Chiaravalle was a very small town and the building we occupied was, used to house all of us was having a basement and a small yard for the cook house. After a few weeks with Christmas 1944 approaching we moved five miles to an empty building in Falconara close to the airfield in which we resumed our flying duties. We did our best to make ourselves comfortable and keep out of the cold. The first thing was to put in a fire and this was helped by someone from the MT section. It was ok when the wind was in the right direction otherwise we were smoked out. One item we were lacking was a wireless, so myself and a pilot from the same squadron hitchhiked around the area initially without any luck until we came across an army camp which was New Zealanders who were on the move home and they had a home-made wooden box set who reluctantly parted with it. Having a wireless was a great assistance to us and greatly helped as well by the member from the MT unit managed to fix us out with the necessary power. Our crew took some leave from here going back to Rome and while we were away we, the squadron lost a third of its crew, including two COs, which rather made us feel a bit subdued having not taken part in what obviously was a bad time. With the arrival of March, we heard that we would have moved nearer to the frontline and the next day the field we would have occupied was at Forli. Before we left Falconara, we carried out our twentieth sortie, which was a bit different aircrew, we were briefed directly on the airfield of Vicenza. The difference was taking off in daylight when previously we had flown only at night. Was a strange feeling to be so visible, dusk soon fell and nothing was seen but we were receiving some interest for the ground so we bombed the runway and went for home. For memory, the attention we were receiving from the ground was basically only one gun but it was getting very, very accurate firing arm piercing stuff which coloured green as you know.
DB: [unclear]
RS: Ok. With the rest of 232 Wing we arrived at Forli airfield were allocated with billet in an empty house on the main street, we set up our beds into red tents and helped with the mess necessary to be erected in the back yard. We were very busy there in support of the Eighth Army who had started a new offensive, many of our sorties were under radar control, one particular area where the army was held up near Argenta at 3 am on the 19th of April, forty-five crews took off at two minute intervals to assist for the breakthrough. For aircrew it was our fiftieth sortie. The area was a mass of smoke and the artillery were firing red marker shells to give the air crews and bomb aimers some idea of where they should be aiming their missiles, something like that. Oh, we are doing well now. Of course, did I take it off? Out of line of further twelve sorties, attacking ferry points, bridges, rivers and any moment generally we were then stood down. The day came and everyone joined in the celebrations which is very low key, as a crew we had been pleased, we were very pleased to be still around and thankful to the ground crews that had looked after us and in various aircraft. With regards to the ground crew, we often had a chat and a cigarette before the take-off and their reply on the V-E-Day was that the party of them we would a large floodlight down the street to a camp nearby parking outside the main gate they treated the Germans to a few patriotic songs. After weeks watching the German prisoners come through, the news came that we would have moved further north to an airfield in Aviano. Soon afterwards we flew in formation with the CO. And so ended the nights appearing into the darkness, throwing out flares by hand, dropping propaganda leaflets, and surrender invitations to the Italians. At Aviano, this was a large airfield situated on the Lombardy plains, well away from the road at the foot of the lower Alps. Our first job was to find a decent tent, wasn’t it always? And settle in for flying formation training. This was because the CO wanted to do a flypast over [unclear] in Southern France, obviously had some connection there, apart from that we did the old country exercise. This time Marshall Tito was making his demands over Trieste which resulted in the aircraft shuttling to and fro to bring the bomb ship, bomb dump up to the required level that may be needed. We visited a nearby village where local girls were taking care of her laundry and where local partisans were showing themselves probably more than they had done before now that it was at peace, theoretically and they were distinguished by coloured neckerchiefs. They were still patrolling in the mountains and at once I was invited to join them but I declined. On one visit we attended several of us a local dance and I was dancing around with a young lady who had a headscarf on and I eventually noticed that under the headscarf there was very little hair. To this end, I was apparently receiving the attention of one of the local young men and one of my pals tipped me off between dances which decided me that we would probably leave and we went back to the lorry and in due course got back. There was quite a bit of head shaving I believe going on in the village of the girls that had associated themselves with the Germans while they were there. One evening in the camp we were alarmed by a large explosion and columns of smoke came up from the bomb dump. German incendiary bombs had been set off by an Italian civilian who was severely injured. There were no camp railings, it was barely an open altogether so they were able to just wander about, though not many of them bothered to do so but he did apparently and the [unclear] dump for personal bombs was swiftly removed by many hands. And the same night we had a severe storm which hit the camp, leaving tents in a bit of a mess to say the least. I woke up looking at the heavens and feeling rain on my face. Sorry [unclear]. A few weeks later the CO pulled us all together to say that the squadron was now being posted to Aden and the other three squadrons were going to Greece. We thought then as we got the worst deal before of us. I was on leave when the main party left to go by sea but on my return I was put in charge of a small party and we flew down from Udine to Bari in two Marauders and we met up with others there who were still waiting for a boat. The Winchester Castle arrived at Taranto taking us direct to Aden. We thought we might be going to Egypt but we were right, we had to disembark at Port Said and go back to 22 PTC, we repeated the journey that we had carried out quite some time before. After that we waited for another ship which eventually arrived, I forget the name, which took us down the Red Sea to Aden and we joined up with the rest of the squadron at Khormaksar airfield. The squadron was posted there to releave 61 Squadron which slowly departed. Unfortunately a Wellington bomber belonging to them with eight people on board took off, circled the airfield, established radio contact, set off for Egypt but unfortunately nothing more was ever heard of them. Our crews flying carrying out ten more flights around the area, including one across to Somalia at a place called Hargeisa. On hearing the news that the squadron was to be disbanded and the Mosquitoes would be replacing our [ unclear] Bostons, we were to be split up into various duties in the area. In my case, I was put onto flying control, this included [unclear] the control towers at Khormaksar and shake off satellite airfield four miles further inland and two weeks at Masirah Island. When going into Masirah I travelled in a Dakota, I stopped at Salalah on the way, my only company in the, was a goat. I ended up then after that on the main traffic air control centre in the area at headquarters and then I awaited my clearance to return to England and demobilisation.
DB: Yeah.
RS: Yeah. The SS Alcantara arrived to accomod us for the return home, so at 1700 hours we were told that we had to be on board at 1900 hours, naturally we accomplished this. The boat made a short stop at Naples and then on the afternoon of the 17th of October 1946 we docked at Southampton, two [unclear] away from the Queen Mary. After approximately three years continuous service overseas it was with mixed emotions to see a double, red double decker bus passing along a nearby road. I was demobbed at 1 POC Kirkham Lancs and after that I set off to Hastings having warned my mother in advance. I finished up taking the milk train and arriving at Warrior Square Gardens at Saint Leonards on the train to be awokened up by a lady, grey-haired lady who at first I didn’t immediately see but this was of course my mother having spotted me snoozing away and being in uniform she was very lucky, I might’ve had to go onto Hastings otherwise and woke me up, quite a shock. But it was a lovely feeling.
Us: [unclear] 1952. [laughs]
RS: Returning home I didn’t go back to my job at [unclear] so I was in several others occupied that position before during the war and I finished up in RAC records office which was a place where, if they didn’t know what to find you with from the employment, they would put you up there and you filled a hole, I did nothing and they put me in a room which unfortunately was occupied by a bookie who spent all his time going around this very large building collecting bets. Nobody ever came into the room I did a few letters if I remember, but eventually got away from it and found other employment. Strangely enough this employment was back at the Gypsum Mines which my mother had not wanted me to go to at all, but this time I suppose she thought that I wasn’t qualified to do anything other than going down the mine but this time a friend of mine had given me the whisper that the current job was available, I applied and I got it and I worked there and I was trained by an ex-navy lieutenant who also had been demobbed and spent mostly twelve years there. At that time we were, where were we living, Doris? My wife, I’m just asking a question now cause I forget the answer.
US: Silverhill, I should think.
RS: At Silverhill, we were living at Silverhill [unclear] and we used to cycle something like eleven miles there and back, or I did, not my wife, with my mate too, who also worked there, was about twenty two miles a day, I put that down the fact my legs are still going there, nearly ninety three. After that I felt that I could do better on my own which was a mistake really. I took another job in a garage, also sold cars for hire and this sort of stuff and left there after about a year. One thing I should mention is that I married my wife Doris in March 1952 and in 1953 both of us with the two friends took a coach from Hastings central and went up to London to witness what we could of the coronation of our present queen. To do so we had to sit in the rain in one of the London main streets, I forget which one, Bond Street or Regent Street and the happiest memory was seeing Queen Charlotte drive by unexposed by any in a carriage, waving to the crowds whereas everybody else was in closed carriages.
DS: Lovely.
RS: You’re alright?
DS: Yeah, absolutely fabulous. No, that’s fine.
US: [unclear] in Kent, not Lincolnshire.
DS: No, don’t worry. Yeah, don’t worry. Yeah, no, cause I know some of the places as well, cause I, no, no, don’t worry about it, I mean they may not use that little bit anyway, so, it’s no problem.
RS: No, no. Yeah, that’s right.
DS: No, that’s brilliant, lots of little bits that they can pick out of that.
RS: Yeah, that’s right. They can actually do that then, they cut their own tape of it.
DS: Yeah, what they’ll do is they’ll take the bits out that they want and put them all together and that sort of thing, so, yeah, there’s lots of little bits in there that, you know, the whole point is to let you just talk.
RS: Yeah. That’s it, yeah.
DS: So that you just say things. A bit like your, you said about your friend and you going down with [unclear], they’ll love that sort of thing. And the little sort of side you put in and that sort of thing. It’s all extra interest.
RS: Obviously [unclear] at the same time.
DS: No, of course. No, no, no, that’s fine, I mean.
US: [unclear] well, I could have said that.
DS: Well, [laughs] that’s always the same, there’s always, afterwards there’s always stuff that you think of that you could say but I wouldn’t. [file missing]
RS: One item I forgot to mention was a fact that shortly after joining up, at Blackpool I chummed up with a Scotch fellow by the name of Jimmy Sneddon. One thing I could have mentioned which presumably is not unusual but I thought it was, was the pal I mentioned when we were in Alexandria and doing a walkabout, we actually got together when we were at Blackpool, we went through obviously not unheard of to do what you are training together but after that we were both posted on 114 Squadron, we joined up with two a crew each of which the two pilots had also trained together and this meant that we kept on leave, we were going together and all the events, and he was with me when we arrived at Aden, we travelled together in the boat then in the Red Sea, but he had a class B posting and was able to get away from Aden a few months before I was able to, but he was a good friend and we met up twice after the war, it was a long time afterwards mind you because we drifted apart and you sort of lost track with everybody but it was good to have someone like it on your side, someone who could deal with all the day events and go on leave with, talk about, unfortunately we smoked too much and I’m suffering for it. End of story. After becoming a sergeant, which was automatic in those days, I carried on flight sergeant and when I left Aden I was a warrant officer and pride to wear the badge on my sleeve.
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 Ron Saunders
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Denise Boneham
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
2016-06-16
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.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ASaundersR160616
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
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00:43:53 audio recording
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
Description
An account of the resource
Ron Saunders joined the RAF as a wireless operator rear gunner and served on 114 Squadron during the war. Remembers, as a little boy, seeing the airship R 101 and the Hindenburg flying in the distance. Describes his training in England and in Egypt at various stations and being posted to Italy afterwards. Mentions various episodes: the troop ship being attacked twice; seeing king Farouk passing by in a convoy in the streets of Cairo. Recounts various episodes of his service time in Italy: wartime hardships, the Prime Minister’s and the King’s visit to their airfield, joining locals at a village festival. Tells of how his squadron supported the Eight Army in the Battle of the Argenta Gap. Remembers then being posted to Aden, where he was put in charge of flight control. After the war, mentions going to London to see the queen’s coronation.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Peter Schulze
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Egypt
Great Britain
Italy
Oman
Mediterranean Region
Egypt--Alexandria
Egypt--Suez
Egypt--Cairo
Italy--Naples
Oman--Masirah Island
North Africa
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
114 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
B-26
bomb dump
bombing
Boston
C-47
demobilisation
training
wireless operator
wireless operator / air gunner
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/551/23212/LLancasterJO103509v2.1.pdf
8aa0ac3d00822c71e7fdc52152e714cd
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
Lancaster, Jo
John Oliver Lancaster
J O Lancaster
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Lancaster, JO
Description
An account of the resource
17 items. Two oral history interviews with John Oliver 'Jo' Lancaster DFC (1919 - 2019, 948392, 103509 Royal Air Force), photographs and six of his log books. Jo Lancaster completed 54 operations as a pilot with in Wellingtons with 40 Squadron, and after a period of instructing, in Lancasters with 12 Squadron from RAF Wickenby. He became test pilot after the war and was the first person to use a Martin-Baker ejection seat in an emergency.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Jo Lancaster and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-08-18
2017-03-08
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
Jo Lancaster’s pilots flying log book. Two
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for J O Lancaster, covering the period from 17 September 1943 to 31 May1950. Detailing his duties as a flying instructor, Test pilot with Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, Empire Test pilots School, discharged on 13 March 1946 he flew as test pilot with Bolton Paul Aircraft Ltd, Saunders-Roe Ltd and Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Ltd. He was stationed at RAF Binbrook, MOD Boscombe Down, Wolverhampton, Isle of Wight, RAF Pembroke Dock and Coventry. Aircraft flown were Wellington, Martinet, Tiger Moth, Lancaster, Spitfire, Skua, Mitchell, Hampden, Defiant, Anson, Beaufort, Avenger, Ventura, Barracuda, Boston, Liberator, Halifax, Marauder, Hurricane, Typhoon, Vengeance, Sea Otter, Buckingham, Blenheim, Mosquito, Firefly, Black Widow, Beaufighter, Swordfish, Warwick, Stirling, Albacore, York, Auster, Fortress, Lincoln, Harvard, Tempest, Oxford, Hudson, Meteor, Albemarle, Traveller, Siebel, ME410, Sunderland, Aerovan, Mercury, Dakota.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
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MIke Connock
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.
Format
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One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LLancasterJO103509v2
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--Coventry
England--Isle of Wight
England--Lincolnshire
England--West Midlands
England--Wiltshire
Wales--Pembrokeshire
England--Hampshire
England--Warwickshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
aircrew
Albemarle
Anson
B-17
B-24
B-25
B-26
Beaufighter
Blenheim
Boston
C-47
Defiant
Halifax
Hampden
Harvard
Hudson
Hurricane
Lancaster
Lincoln
Martinet
Me 410
Meteor
Mosquito
Oxford
pilot
RAF Binbrook
RAF Boscombe Down
Spitfire
Stirling
Sunderland
Swordfish
Tiger Moth
Typhoon
Ventura
Wellington
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/551/27009/MLancasterJO103509-170308-010001.1.jpg
9eb5ad57db9dad590d41600eac977d09
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/551/27009/MLancasterJO103509-170308-010002.1.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/551/27009/MLancasterJO103509-170308-010003.1.jpg
cae1cb1f4138bdaee4672b4b94eb9a70
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
Lancaster, Jo
John Oliver Lancaster
J O Lancaster
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Lancaster, JO
Description
An account of the resource
17 items. Two oral history interviews with John Oliver 'Jo' Lancaster DFC (1919 - 2019, 948392, 103509 Royal Air Force), photographs and six of his log books. Jo Lancaster completed 54 operations as a pilot with in Wellingtons with 40 Squadron, and after a period of instructing, in Lancasters with 12 Squadron from RAF Wickenby. He became test pilot after the war and was the first person to use a Martin-Baker ejection seat in an emergency.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Jo Lancaster and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-08-18
2017-03-08
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
John Lancaster DFC
Description
An account of the resource
A summary of the aircraft that John has flown and a list of his flying awards.
Format
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Three printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MLancasterJO103509-170308-010001,
MLancasterJO103509-170308-010002,
MLancasterJO103509-170308-010003
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--London
England--Coventry
England--Warwickshire
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
aircrew
Albemarle
Anson
B-17
B-24
B-25
B-26
Beaufighter
Blenheim
C-47
Dominie
Halifax
Hampden
Harvard
Horsa
Hudson
Hurricane
Lancaster
Lincoln
Magister
Martinet
Me 410
Meteor
Mosquito
Oxford
P-51
pilot
Proctor
Shackleton
Spitfire
Stirling
Sunderland
Swordfish
Tiger Moth
Typhoon
Ventura
Walrus
Wellington
Whitley
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2566/44590/MJonesTJ184141-220105-120185.1.jpg
bf6f63831ff6a94d82b5c69d26d61cc3
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2566/44590/MJonesTJ184141-220105-120186.1.jpg
e3a136dabfeddc673a3722b151486350
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
Jones TJ. Aircraft photographs
Description
An account of the resource
129 aircraft recognition photographs.
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
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Jones, PW
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
Marauder
Description
An account of the resource
Side view of an airborne Martin B-26 Marauder.
Coverage
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United States Army Air Force
Royal Air Force
Free French Air Force
Type
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Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MJonesTJ184141-220105-120185, MJonesTJ184141-220105-120186
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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.
B-26
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2566/44406/MJonesTJ184141-220105-120097.2.jpg
6cd81535b8bae6d59b2b98f63ab6e164
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2566/44406/MJonesTJ184141-220105-120098.2.jpg
6e9a0c98b151a7da88c61915b9d7863f
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
Jones TJ. Aircraft photographs
Description
An account of the resource
129 aircraft recognition photographs.
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
Jones, PW
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
Marauder
Description
An account of the resource
View from below of an airborne Martin B-26 Marauder.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
United States Army Air Force
Royal Air Force
Free French Air Force
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MJonesTJ184141-220105-120097, MJonesTJ184141-220105-120098
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
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.
B-26
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2566/44245/MJonesTJ184141-220105-120027.1.jpg
a6cb1cc2ac508f3d477340c4ed3eba8d
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2566/44245/MJonesTJ184141-220105-120028.1.jpg
4548ecb3eb4c699a2d0252a16a99fd66
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
Jones TJ. Aircraft photographs
Description
An account of the resource
129 aircraft recognition photographs.
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
Jones, PW
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
Marauder
Description
An account of the resource
Rear quarter view of an airborne Martin B-26 Marauder.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
United States Army Air Force
Royal Air Force
Free French Air Force
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MJonesTJ184141-220105-120027, MJonesTJ184141-220105-120028
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
B-26
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1847/37686/NBlythTS170516-010002.1.jpg
2618852dbb44688f3b268cadcd3a87df
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1847/37686/NBlythTS170516-010003.2.jpg
f92d1cfc792582b762a945f8c2ee576f
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
Blyth, Thomas Sidley
T S Blyth
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
2017-05-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Blyth, TS
Description
An account of the resource
Twenty-one items. The collection concerns Thomas Sidley Blyth (b. 1913, Royal Air Force) and contains a mascot, documents and pictures as well as Peter Galan's, log book and photographs. He flew operations as a pilot with 51 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Ronald Blyth and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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
MORE TWO-WAY BLOWS ON GERMANY
R.A.F. DOUBLE ATTACK ON SCHWEINFURT
REGENSBURG PLANE WORKS DEVASTATED
BIG BRITISH FORCES OUT LAST NIGHT
The great R.A.F. and United States non-stop effort to crush Germany's air strength rose to a new height yesterday when massive forces of American heavy bombers from both Britain and Italy blasted Regensburg, in Bavaria, in the third two-way assault in four days.
Berlin Radio reported that a fourth double attack was in progress last night when it announced violent combats over Germany's southern and western frontiers between night-fighters and British raiders.
This followed closely on big night activities by more than 1,000 R.A.F. bombers. Most of these concentrated on two shattering blows – new tactics against Schweinfurt, in Bavaria, most vital bottleneck of the German arms industry, which had already been battered by day a few hours earlier by American heavy bombers from this country.
Thirty-five R.A.F. bombers are missing from the night's operations, which included attacks on objectives in North-West Germany and the completion of a very extensive mine-laying programme. Intruder patrols, from which one aircraft is missing, destroyed three enemy aircraft.
Last night two big forces of R.A.F. heavy bombers crossed the East and South-East Coast heading for the Continent. Later an alert was sounded in Western Switzerland.
Describing yesterday's operations, United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe said:
"Strong forces of heavy bombers of the Eighth A.A.F., escorted by A.A.F. and R.A.F. fighters, to-day attacked aircraft works at Regensburg, ball-bearing works at Stuttgart and other targets in South-West Germany.
[page break]
"The 15th A.A.F. from Italy joined in the attack on Regensburg. The escorting fighters shot down 27 enemy aircraft, three of our fighters were lost Thirty-one of the 8th A.A.F. bombers are missing."
The destruction of more than 25 German planes of more than 100 which attacked the bomber fleets from Italy was claimed in incomplete reports.
At Regensburg two plane plants were the objective: one at Prufening, making component parts, another at Obertraubling, assembling ME 109s. The latter was raided last Tuesday by the largest force ever sent out by the Mediterranean Allied air forces against a single target.
Photographs developed as soon as the British-based bombers got back from Regensburg showed that the target had been devastated.
Regensburg ranks among the main centres of enemy fighter production. Crews said they left columns of black smoke rising 10000ft high from the plane factories and flames that could be seen 35 miles away.
GUIDED BY FIRES
R.A.F.s Changed Tactics
The R.A.F., in making their first visit to Schweinfurt on Thursday night, departed from their usual tactics of one big cascade bombing on a target in one night.
Fires started on Wednesday by the United States Eighth Army Air Force were still burning on the arrival of our first force. The target was effectively marked and by the end of the second attack a large conflagration was seen, with smoke rising to a great height.
Hundreds of Lancasters and Halifaxes, by far the greater part of the force of well over 1,000 aircraft despatched on Thursday night, made two separate attacks at an interval of two hours. In the force were many Canadian and Australian crews.
The enemy began to lay fighter flares during the first attack which began at five minutes past eleven, but not a single flare was seen during the second attack. Zero hour for this was at five minutes past one.
Within a few minutes of zero hour an effective concentration of markers was laid. Great numbers of H.E. and incendiary bombs were dropped, and clouds of black smoke began to rise.
The fires were still burning to guide the second force, but again the target indicators were laid. There was much smoke over the target and the markers were needed.
The fires were rapidly extending and the smoke now rose to a great height.
The ground defences were strong initially, especially at the beginning of the first attack, but their efficiency decreased under the weight of bombing.
"The 50 or 60 searchlights around the town were standing aimlessly up on end," said a pilot in the first force.
When the second attack began the searchlights were again forming a ring and another strong barrage was put up, but once again bombing disorganised the ground crews and prevented any effective co-operation.
Some crews reported that they saw fires still burning in Stuttgart, last attacked on Sunday night.
There was better weather on Thursday night over a great part of South-West Germany than there has been in some weeks. The skies were clear and visibility very good.
With the defences in this part of Germany not so strong as around Berlin, cloud cover is less essential.
"The sky was perfectly clear all the way to the target," said a Lancaster squadron commander in the first force.
"Though there was no moon, there was brilliant starlight, and as we flew over the Continent we could see that the ground was snow-covered all the way. It was dazzlingly white round Schweinfurt."
Though a town of no more than 60,000 inhabitants, Schweinfurt is considered by the economic experts who advise in the choice of targets as the most important industrial centre of its kind in Germany or German-occupied Europe and probably the most vital bottleneck in the whole of the enemy's armament industry.
This is because its main factories used to produce about 50 per cent. of the total production of ball and roller bearings of all types available to the Axis.
Every branch of industry supplying the armed forces requires a large supply of bearings. All modern machines made for high performance would be useless without them.
The seven ball-bearing plants in Schweinfurt had a pay-roll of more than 20,000 – one third of the town's population. In scarcely any one other industry in any other town in Germany is there a higher proportion of industrial workers to the whole population.
Throughout yesterday aircraft of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force carried out a series of attacks on enemy-occupied territory. Marauder medium bombers of the United States Ninth Air Force attacked the airfield at Gilze-Rijen, Deelen, and Leeuwarden, in Holland. St. Trond, in Belgium, and military objectives in Northern France.
R.A.F., Dominion, and Allied Boston, Mitchell, and Mosquito bombers and Typhoon fighter-bombers of the Second Tactical Air Force attacked military objectives in Northern France.
The Marauders were escorted and covered by R.A.F., Dominion, and Allied Spitfires, and the Bostons, Mitchells, Mosquitoes, and Typhoons by R.A.F. Typhoon fighters.
From all these operations one Mosquito is missing, says a joint Air Ministry and American H.Q. communique.
For the first time this month the Marauders and their R.A.F., Dominion and Allied fighter escorts ran into determined fighter opposition. Four medium bombers and one fighter failed to return.
A medium-sized enemy merchant vessel was hit by a torpedo off the Norwegian coast during the hours of darkness early yesterday morning by a Beaufighter from a New Zealand squadron of Coastal Command, states the Air Ministry.
The attack took the enemy by surprise, and a huge orange explosion was seen on the merchant vessel, followed by a fire on the port bow.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Newspaper cutting - more two-way blows on Germany
Description
An account of the resource
One single article covering with three separate columns. Headlines - RAF double attack on Schweinfurt, Regensburg plane works devastated, Big British forces out last night. Accounts of attack by British and Italian based American heavy bombers on Regensburg. Continues with account of RAF attack on Schweinfurt and mentions losses. Second and third column on second item give accounts of operations including claims by escorting American fighters. Mentions specific objectives, describes new tactics used by the RAF at Schweinfurt, reaction of defences, and crew accounts of operations. Concludes with account of other operations against air fields in the Netherlands, Belgium and northern France as well as by Coastal Command in the North Sea.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Italy
Germany--Regensburg
Germany--Schweinfurt
Switzerland
Netherlands
Belgium
France
Germany
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
United States Army Air Force
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
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
Three newspaper cuttings mounted on two album pages
Identifier
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NBlythTS170516-010002, NBlythTS170516-010003
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
B-25
B-26
Beaufighter
bombing
Boston
Halifax
Lancaster
Me 109
Mosquito
Spitfire
target indicator
Typhoon
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1827/33563/NWeedenRC170409-030007.2.jpg
5d78f10472eaddd8929bdaa56463eb2e
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Weeden, Reginald Charles
R C Weeden
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
2017-04-09
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Weeden, RC
Description
An account of the resource
89 items. The collection concerns Reginald Charles Weeden (b. 1922, 1602823, 153661 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, letters, documents, badges, medal ribbons and photographs. He flew operations as a navigator with 75 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Scott Weeden and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Beginning at 8 a.m., the R.A.F. pounding went on until 7 p.m. Wave after wave of planes went over in the late afternoon. Then the British artillery round the town went into action.
Visibility was perfect and the defences negligible. One air target was a coastal battery only 100 yards from the beach. It had to be pin-pointed – and it was.
The centre of the town is in flames, all civilians have left and the fortifications are softened "in preparation for the coming British assault on land," according to the German News Agency.
SAFE CONDUCTS
The enemy claimed that fire from shore batteries forced a formation of British warships to turn away.
About 4,000,000 surrender leaflets and safe conduct passes were dropped by 9th Air Force Marauders on German positions along the Channel coast last night.
They fell on isolated points of German resistance at Le Havre, Boulogne and Calais and areas in Holland. The bombers met no German aircraft, and all returned safely.
While the Havre battle reached its climax, the Canadian Army entered, without opposition, another good port – Zeebrugge, scene of the famous St. George's Day raid of the last war.
All along the coastal pocket our forces closed rapidly yesterday. The Canadians are slicing the Germans up into isolated units. They are on the outskirts of Blankenberghe, and are reported in Bruges.
TIP CAPTURED
To the south one column cut the main road from Calais to Gravelines and another reached the coast at Wissant, four miles east of Cap Gris Nez.
The Germans have flooded large areas behind Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk.
The bitter fight for another great port is reaching its final stage. Brest is slipping from the German grasp.
American troops have captured Lochrist, at the tip of the Brittany Peninsula, near the besieged fortress.
As the Allied armies closed in on the German frontiers along the whole length of the Siegfried Line they met with stiffening opposition, but an American column drove within seven miles of the frontier town of Aachen and two others crossed into Luxemburg.
An unconfirmed report from U.S. Third Army H.Q. says that American tanks have entered the city of Luxemburg. It is 10 miles from the border at the nearest point.
INTO DITCHES
Another U.S. front-line message says that the battle of the Siegfried Line began in earnest when the first shells fell yesterday on the German town of Bildchen, just across the Belgium frontier near Aachen.
A German News Agency message said: "A major Allied operation on a 60-mile front has been launched between Verviers (16 miles south-west of Aachen) and Arlon (18 miles north-west of Luxemburg).
"The Americans are using tanks on a massed scale in this operation and they have succeeded in making some gains of ground."
German troops jumped out of their escape trains in Holland and Germany yesterday, and ran for the ditches as Air-Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham's Second T.A.F. switched their all-out effort on to the transport lines carrying them east away from the advancing Allied forces.
MOVE BARRIERS
By mid-afternoon at least ten trains had been destroyed.
Germany attempts to reinforce the Belfort Gap have met with staggering blows from the air force.
In the last three days Allied planes have destroyed 60 loaded trains and wrecked 60 more locomotives.
Troops moving up by road were constantly harassed and a tank column was knocked out.
Marauders and Havocs of the U.S. Ninth Air Force yesterday opened their first round of the "battle of the German frontier" by bombing immediately ahead of General George Patton's southern wing to remove barriers in the path of the American Third Army's advance toward Nancy.
The Americans here captured their first Maginot line fort at the point of the bayonet.
[map]
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Title
A name given to the resource
Newspaper cuttings - the battle for Le Havre
Description
An account of the resource
Description of battles for Le Havre and generally in northern France. Mentions surrender leaflet drops along channel coast. Canadians entre Zeebrugge, Americans in Brittany. Other war news from the continent and map of battle area.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four piece newspaper cutting
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
NWeedenRC170409-030007
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
British Army
United States Army
United States Army Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
France--Le Havre
France--Calais
France--Inzinzac-Lochrist
France--Brest
Belgium
Belgium--Zeebrugge
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
France--Dunkerque
Germany
Germany--Aachen
Luxembourg
France--Belfort
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
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
Sue Smith
B-26
bombing
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1901/35228/MRobertsEJH[See -DoB]-170712-02.pdf
b6b0445730de3f22759eebd9263e152b
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Title
A name given to the resource
Roberts, E J H
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
2017-07-12
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Roberts, EJH
Description
An account of the resource
50 items. The collection concerns E J H Roberts DFC (408451 Royal Air Force) and contains maps, documents, news clippings and photographs. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 61 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Carole Grant and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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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
Nos Aviations
Description
An account of the resource
Victoires de la RAF en 1943
Air Marshal Sir Richard Peck describes large composition and successes of RAF during 1943 whilst underlining the threat still posed by Germany.
Les machines
Maintains Anglo-American aircraft production is four times better than their opponents; combining skills and resources is highly beneficial.
Les hommes
Through the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, men from different countries trained in Canada, with the training spreading out to other countries.
Bomber Command
Main aim is to weaken the enemy’s war potential and open the way for the liberation armies.
Les barrages de la Ruhr
Describes the dawn operation by Lancasters on 17th May 1943, which destroyed the Möhne and Eder dams in the Ruhr Valley, using mines.
10,000 tonnes Hambourg
11 days of raids put Hamburg and its naval port out of action with 70% of the town destroyed or damaged.
Berlin 30,000 tonnes
As the main industrial hub and centre of Nazism, Berlin was one of the RAF’s main targets with many factories destroyed or damaged.
Les éclaireurs
Pathfinder Force, commanded by Air Vice-Marshal Bennett, was created in August 1942. They marked targets with flares to improve bombing accuracy.
Coastal Command
Important role played by aircraft in the Battle of the Atlantic, finding and attacking German submarines, and protecting allied ships.
Fighter Command
After four years, Fighter Command disbanded and split into defence and tactical aviation.
Transport Command
Created in 1943 to transport equipment from American and British production centres to operational bases and bases on the front.
D’El-Alamein en Italie
Campaigns from Africa to Italy have seen the air force and army leaders thinking and acting as one to maximum effect. Grip tightening on German industry.
Les ailes franco-brittaniques
Air Brigade General Martial Valin, commanding the Free French Air Force in Britain, outlines the positive Franco-British relationships and training provided. The Air Force’s different groups are described and how structures were effectively reformed, including in North Africa.
Normandie en Russie
Runs through the activities of the Normandy group on the Russian front during 1943, from training to successful operations. The Russians have shown friendship and esteem.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Germany
Canada
Ontario--Trenton
Germany--Essen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Peenemünde
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Mülheim an der Ruhr
Germany--Kassel
Germany--Elberfeld
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Augsburg
Germany--Berlin
Italy
Egypt--Alamayn
Libya--Tripoli
Tunisia--Tunis
Italy--Sicily
Italy--Pantelleria Island
Russia (Federation)
Russia (Federation)--Smolensk
France--Limoges
Tunisia
Libya
Egypt
North Africa
Ontario
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Royal Air Force. Fighter Command
Royal Navy
British Army
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
Free French Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
fra
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
48 sheet booklet
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MRobertsEJH[See#-DoB]-170712-02
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sally Coulter
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription. Other languages than English
aerial photograph
aircrew
B-17
B-24
B-25
B-26
Beaufighter
Bennett, Donald Clifford Tyndall (1910-1986)
bombing
Boston
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation (16–17 May 1943)
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
Halifax
Hudson
Lancaster
Mosquito
P-51
Pathfinders
pilot
propaganda
reconnaissance photograph
Spitfire
Stirling
Sunderland
target indicator
training
Typhoon
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2635/46238/LKeelingRV82689v2.2.pdf
8f109c3bf51bfb8b9c44c793052ce7e1
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
Keeling, Robert Victor
Description
An account of the resource
48 items. The collection concerns Robert Victor Keeling, DFC (b. 1916, 82689 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, correspondence, decorations and a <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2655">Scrapbook</a>. He flew operations as a pilot with 51 Squadron. Following his retirement from the Royal Air Force with the rank of Squadron leader he became a civilian pilot. <br /><br />The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by David Keeling and catalogued by Lynn Corrigan.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2023-06-01
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
Keeling, RV
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Title
A name given to the resource
Robert Keeling's pilot's flying log book. Two
Description
An account of the resource
Pilot's flying log book for Robert 'Bob' Keeling covering the period 1 July 1943 to 23 October 1945 when he was a test pilot with the Royal Aircraft Establishment. In addition it covers the period 14 January 1946 to 26 November 1949 when Bob was a civilian pilot with Hunting Air Travel.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Bedfordshire
England--Luton
England--Hampshire
England--Surrey
England--Gatwick
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
Text. Log book and record book
Format
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One booklet
Identifier
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LKeelingRV82689v2
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
Anson
Ar 232
B-17
B-24
B-25
B-26
Battle
Beaufighter
Boston
C-47
Defiant
Dominie
Fw 190
Halifax
Hampden
Harvard
Hudson
Hurricane
Lancaster
Magister
Martinet
Meteor
Mosquito
Oxford
P-47
P-51
pilot
Proctor
RAF Farnborough
Spitfire
Stirling
training
Typhoon
Ventura
Walrus
Wellington
Whitley
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1112/32450/BSaundersRSaundersRv1.1.pdf
1531231bab4c109b7befa8b35fe5a652
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Saunders, Ron
Ronald Saunders
R Saunders
Description
An account of the resource
Two items. An oral history interview with Sergeant Ron Saunders (1923 - 2018, 1803753 Royal Air Force) and his obituary and memoir. He flew operations with 114 and 55 Squadron.
The collection was 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
2016-06-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Saunders, R
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Those We Loved Remain With Us
Those we loved remain with us,
for love itself lives on.
Cherished memories never fade,
because a loved one is gone.
Those we love can never be,
more than a thought apart.
For as long as there are memories,
they'll live on in our hearts.
Donations if desired made payable to RAF Association,
Stowmarket or East Suffolk Association for the Blind Stowmarket
may be sent care of Andrew Bingham Independent Funeral Service.
Ron's family appreciate your support today and
warmly invite you to join them following the service
at The Royal British Legion, Stowmarket.
[logo]
Funeral arrangements entrusted to:
ANDREW BINGHAM INDEPENDENT FUNERAL SERVICE
The Nutshell, Milton Road South, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 1EZ
Tel: 01449 771666
CCL No.1138712
[page break]
A Service of Celebration and Thanksgiving
RONALD SAUNDERS
'RON'
19th August 1923 - 28th July 2018
[photograph]
West Suffolk Crematorium
Monday 20th August 2018
at 3.30pm
[page break]
Ron Saunders - RAF Service No.1803753
At the age of 18 I volunteered for aircrew duties with The Royal Air Force and was accepted for training as a wireless operator/air gunner. After a few months delay I was finally called upon 29 September1942.
[underlined] ITW Blackpool [/underlined]
This is where my initial training began having first been billeted in a typical seaside boarding house of the day. Apart from drill, marches. P.T. and the odd lecture, most of my time was spent wearing headphones translating Morse both in code and plain language. I passed the required speed tests enabling me to continue training as WOP/AG.
[underlined] No. 2 Radio School RAF Yatesbury (Wiltshire) [/underlined]
I arrived here on 29 January 1943 to complete my training as a wireless operator. This was successfully achieved, the proof of which was the attachment of the official RAF "Sparks" badge on my uniform. Pending the next move, I, along with the rest of the course, were scattered around various RAF sites.
[underlined] 20.P.A.T.U Weston-on-the-Green (Oxfordshire) [/underlined]
The pilots here were flying simulated night landings with the aid of darkened glasses and a runway lit by sodium flares. I had my first ever flight here, made even more memorable when, after warning me, the pilot deliberately stalled the Oxford aircraft in which we were flying. A short lived posting and soon I was back in the main stream to continue training.
[underlined] No.4 Radio School RAF Madley (Herefordshire) [/underlined]
This was the flying part of the course to confirm the ability to communicate with a ground station from the air. I flew with five others plus an instructor, taking turns at the radio sets. The aircraft was a DH Dominie. Next was carrying out the same exercise, only this time it was just me and the pilot. The aircraft was a Proctor. Then to our collective surprise we were ail given seven days embarkation leave.
[underlined] The Boat [/underlined]
I left England on 13 November 1943, sailing on the P&O liner, now a troopship. My "accommodation" was situated on the lowest deck of the ship, namely "H" deck. This was simply a mattress and a small space alongside for kitbag and clothing.
We were soon on the move joining up with a convoy of 12 other ships plus escort. Sea legs were required across the Bay of Biscay and beyond but eventually we passed Gibraltar and entered the calmer waters of the Mediterranean. So far the trip had been uneventful, but this soon changed when two sustained air attacks took place on the convoy. Being down below deck in “H" deck I could only imagine what was happening above. I listened intently
[page break]
to the barrage of gunfire and bomb explosions, with the latter producing shock wave thuds against the hull. Many years later I obtained a copy of the voyage report in which part of the captain's statement contained the following "The convoy was attacked twice off the North African coast, the first by 30 enemy planes using glider bombs and torpedoes; the second by 12 dive bombers. The Orion seemed to be the target far the second attack and we had four very near misses, one within 10 feet of the ship which splashed the port side and covered the deck with oil. The ship was severely shaken and the pumps in the engine room stopped for a few moments."
There were no further alarms and after 14 days at sea since leaving England, the "Orion" slowly entered the Suez Canal, passing the statue of Ferdinandde Lessops to dock a short way in at Port Said. Up early the next day, kit packed we left the ship to walk the 1/2 mile to a railway siding. NAAFI tea and cakes were available before boarding a train taking us to Cairo.
[underlined] 22 PTC ALMAZA (CAIRO) [/underlined]
The train journey from Port Said was long and tiring mainly due to the hard wooden seats! It was dark when we arrived at Cairo where we were bundled into waiting lorries which delivered us to the transit camp. It was tented accommodation - six to a tent with just a palliasse for steeping. We were here for six weeks waiting for No.1 Course to move out from the newly opened gunnery school. Before leaving I was able to pay a visit to the Pyramids.
[underlined] 13 AGS BALLAH (EGYPT) [/underlined]
Again it was tented accommodation recently vacated by No.1 Course in which we settled down for another six weeks training. This comprised mostly of lectures, a bit of ground firing as well as airborne exercises with an accompanying aircraft towing a drogue as our target against which we demonstrated our gunnery skills. With more than one trainee aboard, different coloured tipped bullets were allocated for individual markings when the drogue was inspected later. Having obtained the required proficiency at the end of the course I was entitled to display the Air Gunners badge on my uniform, together with a set of Sergeant's stripes which were automatically given at the end of training for aircrew duties.
[underlined] No-5 M.E. ARC HELIPOLIS (CAIRO) [/underlined]
To await further postings we were transferred back to a suburb of Cairo. This time the accommodation was in the pre-war Palace Hotel. Although all the furniture had been removed it was a pleasant change from tents. Eventually my name appears on the Notice for Post to an Operational Training Unit (OUT) [sic] .
[underlined] 20 O.T.U. SHANDUR - SUEZ CANAL ZONE [/underlined]
We travelled by trains from Cairo to Port Tewfik and then by lorry to the airfield. South Africans were also there undergoing trainings on Marauders. Before crewing up it was a case of more travelling in our own category. For me this involved flying in Baltimores for
[page break]
radio tests and in Ansons for gunnery. All went well and then the forming of crews began. This was quite a casual affair. I was walking in a mixed group when a pilot invited me to join his crew which I accepted, meeting up with his navigator and mid-upper gunner later. We flew together on nineteen occasions before completing the course. We then departed for a week's leave in Alexandria before reporting back to 22 PTC - Cairo.
[underlined] 56 PTC – NAPLES [/underlined]
After a pleasant week's leave at Beaufighter House in Alexandria we returned to Cairo and 22PTC. Again it was back to tents but our stay was short-lived. After just a few days a morning parade found us on a posting to Naples.
Early one morning we left for Payne Airfield nearby where we were put into a waiting Dakota. On the way we stopped at Benina and Tunis before alighting at Capdechina Airfield at Naples. Things were now very different. There was a general shortage, the children were ragged and starving. This resulted in a queue including some old folk outside our billet (Villa Druise) waiting for scraps every meal time. Thefts were not uncommon and one of our pilots had a full kitbag stolen whilst asleep. The Americans usually had armed guards on the back of food vehicles.
A woman from the crowd which gathered at the gates in the mornings, offered to do my laundry-and it always came back!
It was not long after when a Squadron C/O came to interview the pilots, the result of which we were posted to 114 Squadron flying with Boston Aircraft - a medium bomber (American) operating at night. Not long after we packed our kit and set off to join the Squadron at Tarquinia situated on the west of Italy on the American 5th Army Front.
[underlined] TARQUINIA- CECINA [/underlined]
We found the Squadron under canvas and our first task was to erect a tent for ourselves in a field of thistles. An interview with the CO followed, which explained the Squadron's activities. I was roughly awakened one morning and sent off with the advance party to an airfield -- this was at Cecina and much nearer the front line and the realities of war. With a 15 cwt lorry and ten days rations we slept under some trees which were mostly taped off as dangerous.
[underlined] CECINA [/underlined]
114 Squadron was a part of 232 wing which also contained Nos 13-18 and 55 Squadrons, all engaged in similar duties. We converted to Bostons which took nearly a month due to heavy rain. After a particular heavy storm all four Squadrons and crews were called upon to remove stones thrown up onto the runway. We carried out our first sortie from here, bombing the marshalling yard at Modena, followed by a short recce. With the main thrust of the Italian Campaign taking place on the Eastern side of the country where the 8th Army
[page break]
were engaged in heavy fighting against Field Marshall Kesselring forces who set up various strategic defence lines as they retreated northwards. So once again it was another move! The crews split up with the pilots flying the aircraft to Perugia. I was in the road party - a convoy of several vehicles - sleeping the first night in a derelict post office. The second was in Assisi. We reached Chiaravelle where we were to stay pending completion of an airfield at Falconara. Before we left Cecina we were visited firstly by Sir Winston Churchill followed soon after by HM King George VI. Both were met by the American General Mark Clark commander of the American Army.
[underlined] CECINA - CHIARAVELLE – FALCONARA [/underlined]
Chiaravelle was a fairly small town and the building we occupied just managed to house all of us - having a basement and a small yard for the cookhouse. After a few weeks with Christmas 1944 approaching we moved five miles to an empty building in Falconara close to the airfield from which we were to resume our normal flying duties. We did our best to make ourselves comfortable and keep out the cold. The first thing was a fire put in by a fitter from the M.T. section; this was OK if the wind was in the right direction otherwise we were smoked out! One item we were lacking was a wireless, so myself and a pilot from the squadron hitch - hiked around the area initially without any luck, until we came across an Army camp which was on the move, who had a home-made wooden box type set and who reluctantly parted with it.
Our crew took some leave from here going back to Rome. While we were away the Squadron lost a third of its crew including two C/Os. With the arrival of March we heard we were to move nearer to the front line. The next airfield which we were to occupy was at Forli.
While at Falconara our 20th sortie was a bit different! Our crew were briefed to recce the airfield at Vicenza. The difference being was taking off in daylight when previously we operated only at night. It was a strange feeling to be visible. Dusk soon fell and nothing was seen at ail but as we were receiving interest from the ground, we bombed the runway and headed home.
[underlined] FORLI [/underlined]
Along with the rest of 232 Wing we arrived at Forli Airfield and were allocated a billet in an empty house on the main street. We set up our beds then helped to erect tents for the Mess in the back yard.
We were very busy here in support of the 8th Army who had started a new offensive. Many of our sorties were under radar control! One particular area where the army was held up was at Argenta. At 3 a.m. on the 19th April, 45 crews took off at 2 minute intervals to assist with the breakthrough. For our crew it was our 50th sortie. The area was a mass of smoke but the artillery fired red markers for guidance in bombing. The army now moved further
[page break]
north as did our flying. After a further 12 sorties attacking ferry points, bridges, the River Po area and movement generally, we were stood down.
VE day came and everyone joined in the celebrations, but it was quite low key. As a crew we were pleased to still be around and very thankful to the ground crews who had looked after our various aircraft and with whom we had often had a chat and a cigarette before the take-off. One event was when a party of airmen wheeled a large floodlight down the street to a PoW camp nearby. Parking outside the main gate they treated the Germans to a few patriotic songs.
After a few weeks watching the German prisoners come through, the news came that we were moving further North to an airfield at Aviano. Soon afterwards we flew up in formation with the C/O. And so ended my nights of peering into the darkness, throwing out flares by hand plus propaganda leaflets in German - and surrender invitations in Italian.
[underlined] Aviano [/underlined]
For us, Aviano meant a large airfield situated on the Lombardy Plains, well away from the main road at the foot of the Lower Alps. Our first job was to find a decent tent and settle in. Our first flight was flying in formation for a fly past over Cannes in Southern France, otherwise it was the odd cross-country exercise. About this time Marshall Tito was making claims over Trieste which resulted in aircraft shuttling to and fro to Forli to bring bomb stocks up to the required level should they be needed.
We often visited the nearby village from where local girls were taking care of our laundry and where local partisans were showing themselves distinguished by coloured neckerchiefs; they were still patrolling the mountains. I was once invited to join them but I declined.
One evening, the camp was alarmed by explosions and huge columns of smoke from a nearby bomb dump. German incendiary bombs which had been set off by an Italian civilian who was severely injured. An adjacent dump of anti-personnel bombs were swiftly removed by many hands. That same night a severe storm hit the camp leaving tents in a bit of a shambles to say the least - I woke up looking at the heavens and rain on my face!
A few weeks after this the C/O called us all together to say the squadron was going to Aden, while the other three squadrons were going to Greece.
I was on leave when the main party left to go by sea, but on my return I was put in charge of a small party and we flew from Udine to Bari in two Marauders. From Bari we travelled to Lecce where we met up with others still awaiting a boat.
[underlined] Italy - Aden (via Egypt) [/underlined]
The liner "Winchester Castle" arrived at Taranto taking us not direct to Aden as we thought but via Egypt, disembarking at Port Said then back to 22PTC - a repeat of the journey two
[page break]
years earlier! Soon it was back to board another ship sailing down the Red Sea to Aden where we joined up with the rest of the Squadron at Khormaksar Airfield.
134 Squadron were posted here to relieve 621 Squadron who slowly departed. Unfortunately a Wellington bomber belonging to them, with 8 people on board, took off, circled the airfield, established radio contact then set off for Egypt. Nothing more was ever heard from them. Our crew resumed flying carrying out ten more flights around the area including one to Hargeisa (Somalia) before hearing the news that the Squadron was to be disbanded and Mosquitos would be replacing our Leaselend Bostons. Before we all split up a grand farewell was held in the Mess. All aircrew remaining here were allocated ground duties. In my case it was flying control. This included spells in the control towers of Khormaksar and Sheik Othman, a satellite airfield four miles further inland and two weeks on Masirah Island. I travelled in a Dakota stopping at Salalh [sic] on the way. My only company was a goat! Finally ending up at the main air traffic control centre for the area at HQ. I now awaited clearance to return to England for demobilisation.
[underlined] Aden to England [/underlined]
When the SS Alcantara arrived to accommodate those of us returning home, we were informed at 1700 his to be on board by 1900 hrs - naturally we accomplished this l The boat made a short stop at Naples. On the afternoon of the 17 October 1946 we docked at Southampton - two berths away from the Queen Mary.
After approximately three years continuous service overseas it was with mixed emotions I watched a red double decker bus passing along a nearby road. After I was demobbed at 101 PDC Kirkham Lancs, I set off for Hastings, having warned my mother in advance!!!
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
Ronald Saunders memoir
Description
An account of the resource
Document contains order of service for funeral and memoir of service in the RAF. Includes training as wireless operator/air gunner, troop ship to Cairo and continued training in Egypt. Posted for operation on Boston aircraft with 114 Squadron in Italy. Continues with details of operations in Italy. His squadron was then moved to Aden where he operated in the area of Aden and Somalia before returning to England by ship.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
R Saunders
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-08-20
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page order of service and six page printed 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
BSaundersRSaundersRv1
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--Lancashire
England--Blackpool
England--Wiltshire
England--Oxfordshire
England--Herefordshire
Egypt
Egypt--Cairo
Egypt--Shanhūr
Italy
Italy--Naples
Italy--Cesena
Italy--Chiaravalle
Italy--Falconara Albanese
Italy--Forlì
Italy--Aviano
South Yemen
Yemen (Republic)--Aden
Somalia
Yemen (Republic)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-09-29
1943-01-29
1943-11-13
1946-10-17
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Peter Bradbury
114 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
B-26
Boston
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
crewing up
Dominie
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
military living conditions
military service conditions
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
Oxford
Proctor
RAF Madley
RAF Weston-on-the-Green
RAF Yatesbury
training
wireless operator / air gunner
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1519/30384/PSladdenD16010003.2.jpg
36635e55013d65153f9eaa9b08f5ec3e
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1519/30384/PSladdenD16020003.2.jpg
06a94976430438faab0beb5610c5c206
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1519/30384/PSladdenD16040009.2.jpg
882a744bf7177102bc6074a6c1580b8c
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1519/30384/PSladdenD16040010.2.jpg
43081742e8ef57480377acc05d7cb74f
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1519/30384/PSladdenD16040011.2.jpg
615ac5d96d62b02ad5333cd5c524828e
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1519/30384/PSladdenD16040012.2.jpg
1a794e087f24e13a20c5dcd2f47deba7
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
620 Squadron
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
2016-06-23
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
620 Squadron
Description
An account of the resource
Twenty-three items. The collection concerns 620 Squadron and contains photographic slides or aircraft and places, an autobiography of Alan T Gamble, wireless operator training school documents, a memoir of operations on D-Day by Noel Chaffey and a short biography of him as well as noted of crews lost on 620 Squadron during Arnhem operation.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Darren Sladden 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
Scenes on the ground
Strip of four slides
Description
An account of the resource
Two versions of the same strip (b/w and colour) with enlargements of all slides.
Slide 1 - captioned 'USAF at Great Dunmow shows Mitchells + Marauders on station with bomb dump'. In the foreground bombs piled in rows on top of one another. In the middle distance further bomb rows and in the distance four twin engine bombers with D-Day stripes on wings. There is a fuel bowser behind one aircraft.
Slide 2 - captioned 'Stirling of 620 Squadron D4 "N" NAN (sorry about the short nose)'. View of port side of a Stirling parked on hardstanding. In the background another aircraft.
Slide 3 - captioned 'Old gateway to front lawn of Easton Lodge taken after the big house pulled down'. Wrought iron gate with private sign with trees either side and a grass field beyond the gate.
Slide 4 - captioned 'deRome crew: N Chaffey, (w/op), B Crocker (N), D deRome (P), (back row) P Griffin (r/c), R Pearman (f/e), B Garwood (b/a)'. Six men sitting and standing in two rows. All are wearing tunic with brevet and side caps aprt from navigator centre of front row who wears a peaked cap.
Additional information about this item was kindly provided by the donor.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two strips of four slides and four enlargements (2 b/w and 2 colour)
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSladdenD16010003, PSladdenD16020003, PSladdenD16040009, PSladdenD16040010, PSladdenD16040011, PSladdenD16040012
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
United States Army Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Essex
England--Bishop's Stortford
England--Herefordshire
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.
620 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
B-25
B-26
bomb aimer
flight engineer
navigator
pilot
Stirling
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/377/6710/LDawsonSR142531v2.2.pdf
49c83001650f4a5f72ee40cfc1a96250
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
Stephen Dawson's pilot's flying log book. Two
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LDawsonSR142531v2
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.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
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
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for Stephen Dawson, covering the period from 6 April 1942 to 30 August 1944. Detailing his instructor duties, flying training and operations flown. He was stationed at RAF Swanton Morley, RAF Cottesmore, RAF Swinderby, RAF Wigsley, RAF Bourn, RAF Gransden Lodge, RAF Market Harborough, RAF Silverston and RAF Boscombe Down. Aircraft flown in were, Oxford, Wellington, Lancaster, Boston, Mitchell, Buckingham, Marauder, Halifax, Liberator, Harvard, Avenger, Defiant, Barracuda, Hampden, Black Widow, Hurricane and Mosquito. He flew a total of 32 Night operations with 97 Squadron. Targets were, Krefeld, Mulheim, Wuppertal, Cologne, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Essen, Nurnburg, Milan, Leverkusen, Berlin, Mannheim, Munich, Hannover, Frankfurt, Fredrichshaven, Modane, Cannes and Ludwigshaven. The log book included pictures of examples of some of the aircraft flown, also handwritten list of targets and bomb loads.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Leicestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Norfolk
England--Northamptonshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Rutland
England--Wiltshire
France--Cannes
France--Modane
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Essen
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Friedrichshafen
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Krefeld
Germany--Leverkusen
Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Mülheim an der Ruhr
Germany--Munich
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Wuppertal
Italy--Milan
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
1943-06-21
1943-06-22
1943-06-23
1943-06-24
1943-06-25
1943-06-28
1943-06-29
1943-07-03
1943-07-04
1943-07-08
1943-07-09
1943-07-10
1943-07-24
1943-07-25
1943-07-26
1943-07-27
1943-07-28
1943-07-29
1943-07-30
1943-08-02
1943-08-03
1943-08-10
1943-08-11
1943-08-12
1943-08-13
1943-08-22
1943-08-23
1943-08-24
1943-09-05
1943-09-06
1943-09-07
1943-09-22
1943-09-23
1943-09-24
1943-09-27
1943-09-28
1943-10-02
1943-10-03
1943-10-04
1943-10-05
1943-10-07
1943-10-08
1943-10-09
1943-10-22
1943-10-23
1943-11-03
1943-11-04
1943-11-10
1943-11-11
1943-11-12
1943-11-17
1943-11-18
1943-11-19
1943-11-22
1943-11-23
14 OTU
1654 HCU
97 Squadron
aircrew
B-24
B-25
B-26
bombing
bombing of Hamburg (24-31 July 1943)
Boston
Defiant
Halifax
Hampden
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hurricane
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
Mosquito
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
Pathfinders
pilot
RAF Boscombe Down
RAF Bourn
RAF Cottesmore
RAF Gransden Lodge
RAF Market Harborough
RAF Silverstone
RAF Swanton Morley
RAF Swinderby
RAF Wigsley
training
Wellington