1
25
69
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2565/43478/PSaundersJWG18020001.1.jpg
63dfd36db42d4153ee22538504e76310
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Saunders, John Walter Gifford. Training
Description
An account of the resource
118 photographs and a diary. The folder covers John Walter Gifford Saunders’ travel to South Africa on board the Highland Princess accompanied by 1,700 other Royal Air Force and British Army personnel. In 1942/1943 John visited family in Durban before continuing his journey to Zimbabwe by train. During his time there, he went to the Victoria Falls, relaxed with friends and took part in training exercises including camping in the largely uninhabited wild region far from towns. Subjects includes accommodation, transport, landscape, and local scenes.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Clive Saunders and catalogued by Lynn Corrigan, with additional contributions by Ella Keogh and Lucy Liu.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-07
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Saunders, JWG
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
Trainee airmen
Description
An account of the resource
A group of 49 uniformed men in one seated and three standing rows. The central seated figure is wearing corporal stripes with the others wearing white bands on their side caps. The men are arranged outside a NAAFI building with a refreshment sign. The building has a veranda decorated with metal fretwork along its roof edge. The windows, above the veranda, have been taped for protection from shattered glass.
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
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
PSaundersJWG18020001
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending identification. Places
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
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2487/43374/PTeasdaleA22020012.2.jpg
d0802e11004fd47ec08fdaacacf761f8
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2487/43374/PTeasdaleA22020018.2.jpg
02305f921f7126f49337b51f1de17ee4
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2487/43374/PTeasdaleA22010006.2.jpg
47906ce7b1d4a8b09c08a07559afbfa2
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2487/43374/PTeasdaleA22010007.2.jpg
ea248fbde9414e0c080daad0bef5636e
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
Teasdale, Audrey
Audrey Pitts
Description
An account of the resource
21 items. An oral history interview with Audrey Teasdale (b. 1923, 2135963 Royal Air Force) and photographs. She served as a WAAF in the officers' mess at RAF Waddington.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Audrey Teasdale and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2022-12-20
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
Teasdale, A
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
WAAFs
Description
An account of the resource
#1 is seven WAAFs. On the reverse-
'Joyce Mildred Ruby Gwen
Nora Georgie
Audrey'
#2 is Audrey. On the reverse 'NAAFI HQ Gardens'.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four b/w photographs
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PTeasdaleA22010006, PTeasdaleA22010007, PTeasdaleA22020012, PTeasdaleA22020018
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
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.
ground personnel
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/559/42906/BBlacklockGBBlacklockGBv1.2.pdf
1141bb2ce07d176fdab70288e3d24b89
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
Stephenson, Stuart
Stuart Stephenson MBE
S Stephenson
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Stephenson, S
Description
An account of the resource
20 items. An oral history interview with Stuart Stephenson MBE, Chairman of the Lincs-Lancaster Association, and issues of 5 Group News.
The collection was catalogued by Barry Hunter.
In accordance with the conditions stipulated by the donor, some items are available only at the International Bomber Command Centre / University of Lincoln.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
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
Half a Life, Half Remembered
An Autobiography by Group Captain GB Blacklock
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BBlacklockGBBlacklockGBv1
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
GB Blacklock
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
England--Skipton
Scotland--Bedrule
England--Northumberland
England--Yorkshire
England--London
England--Appleby-in-Westmorland
Egypt--Alexandria
Egypt--Aboukir Bay
England--Chester
England--Newmarket (Suffolk)
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Guernsey
France--Marseille
Northern Ireland
Scotland--Montrose
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Wangerooge Island
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Borkum
England--Wisbeach
England--Weybridge
Norway--Bergen
Norway--Stavanger
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Netherlands--Rotterdam
France--Givet
Belgium
France--Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais)
France--Hazebrouck
France--Dunkerque
France--Socx
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Karlsruhe
France--Salon-de-Provence
Italy--Genoa
Germany--Essen
Germany--Lünen
Wales--Hawarden
Germany--Baden-Baden
England--Eastleigh
Scotland--Stranraer
England--Doncaster
France--Brest
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Emden (Lower Saxony)
Germany--Lingen (Lower Saxony)
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Magdeburg
France--La Pallice
Germany--Karlsruhe
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Description
An account of the resource
From his youth to the award of his DFC by the King.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
87 printed sheets
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
101 Squadron
115 Squadron
12 Squadron
142 Squadron
148 Squadron
149 Squadron
15 Squadron
2 Group
3 Group
311 Squadron
4 Group
5 Group
7 Squadron
9 Squadron
99 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
Blenheim
bomb aimer
bombing
Boston
Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940)
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
entertainment
fitter airframe
flight engineer
Flying Training School
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
Gneisenau
ground personnel
Halifax
Hampden
hangar
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Harrow
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Hudson
Hurricane
incendiary device
Lancaster
love and romance
Magister
Manchester
Me 109
Me 110
mess
military living conditions
military service conditions
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
Mosquito
navigator
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
observer
Operational Training Unit
Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
pilot
radar
RAF Benson
RAF Boscombe Down
RAF Catterick
RAF Cosford
RAF Cranwell
RAF Debden
RAF Duxford
RAF Finningley
RAF Grantham
RAF Halton
RAF Hendon
RAF Henlow
RAF Honington
RAF Leeming
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Manston
RAF Mildenhall
RAF Netheravon
RAF Newmarket
RAF Oakington
RAF Sealand
RAF Silloth
RAF South Cerney
RAF St Eval
RAF Stradishall
RAF Tangmere
RAF Upavon
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Uxbridge
RAF Waddington
RAF Warmwell
RAF Waterbeach
RAF West Freugh
RAF West Raynham
RAF Wittering
RAF Wyton
Scharnhorst
shot down
Spitfire
sport
Stirling
Tiger Moth
training
Wallis, Barnes Neville (1887-1979)
Wellington
Whitley
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1963/41315/BLazenbyHJLazenbyHJv1.2.pdf
35022f62bb4527b9a7da34bd424ec42f
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
Lazenby, Harold Jack
H J Lazenby
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
2017-10-10
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
Lazenby, HJ
Description
An account of the resource
11 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Harold Jack Lazenby DFC (b. 1917, 652033 Royal Air Force) and contains his memoir, documents and photographs. He flew operations as a flight engineer with 57, 97 and 7 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Daniel, H Jack Lazenby 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
H Jack Lazenby DFC
Description
An account of the resource
Harold Jack Lazenby's autobiography.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Warrington
England--Wolverhampton
England--Shifnal (Shropshire)
England--London
England--Bampton (Oxfordshire)
England--Witney
England--Oxford
England--Cambridge
France--Paris
England--Portsmouth
England--Oxfordshire
England--Southrop (Oxfordshire)
England--Cirencester
England--Skegness
England--Worcestershire
England--Birmingham
England--Kidderminster
England--Gosport
England--Fareham
England--Southsea
Wales--Margam
Wales--Port Talbot
Wales--Bridgend
Wales--Porthcawl
England--Urmston
England--Stockport
Wales--Cardiff
Wales--Barry
United States
New York (State)--Long Island
Illinois--Chicago
England--Gloucester
Scotland--Kilmarnock
England--Surrey
England--Liverpool
England--Lincolnshire
England--Lincoln
Denmark--Anholt
Poland--Gdańsk
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Essen
Germany--Kiel
Europe--Mont Blanc
Denmark
England--Hull
Czech Republic--Plzeň
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Mablethorpe
Germany--Cologne
Italy--Turin
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
England--Land's End Peninsula
Italy--San Polo d'Enza
Italy--Genoa
Italy--Milan
Algeria
Algeria--Blida
Algeria--Atlas de Blida Mountains
England--Cambridge
England--Surrey
England--Ramsey (Cambridgeshire)
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Munich
France--Montluçon
Germany--Darmstadt
Scotland--Elgin
England--York
Scotland--Aberdeen
England--Grimsby
Germany--Saarbrücken
Germany--Zeitz
Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Kleve (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Heide (Schleswig-Holstein)
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Homberg (Kassel)
Netherlands--Westerschelde
Germany--Rheine
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Bremen
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Belgium
England--Southend-on-Sea
England--Morecambe
England--Kineton
England--Worcester
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Mülheim an der Ruhr
England--London
Italy--La Spezia
France--Dunkerque
Poland--Szczecin
Poland
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Recklinghausen (Münster)
Netherlands
England--Sheringham
England--Redbridge
France--Saint-Nazaire
Atlantic Ocean--Kattegat (Baltic Sea)
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
Royal Canadian Air Force
United States Army Air Force
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
99 printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BLazenbyHJLazenbyHJv1
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lazenby, Harold Jack
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
1654 HCU
20 OTU
207 Squadron
4 Group
5 Group
57 Squadron
617 Squadron
7 Squadron
97 Squadron
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
B-17
B-24
Bennett, Donald Clifford Tyndall (1910-1986)
bomb aimer
bombing
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
briefing
Catalina
Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940)
crewing up
debriefing
demobilisation
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
Distinguished Service Order
Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation (16–17 May 1943)
entertainment
flight engineer
flight mechanic
Flying Training School
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
ground crew
ground personnel
H2S
Halifax
Hampden
hangar
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hudson
Hurricane
Ju 88
killed in action
Lancaster
love and romance
Manchester
Master Bomber
Me 110
Me 262
mechanics engine
mess
military living conditions
military service conditions
mine laying
Mosquito
navigator
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
Oboe
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
Pathfinders
pilot
radar
RAF Barkstone Heath
RAF Bassingbourn
RAF Benson
RAF Bourn
RAF Brize Norton
RAF Colerne
RAF Cosford
RAF Cranwell
RAF Dunkeswell
RAF East Kirkby
RAF Elvington
RAF Fairford
RAF Halton
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Melton Mowbray
RAF Mepal
RAF Oakington
RAF Padgate
RAF Pershore
RAF Scampton
RAF Silverstone
RAF St Athan
RAF Stormy Down
RAF Swinderby
RAF Talbenny
RAF Tangmere
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Upwood
RAF Uxbridge
RAF Valley
RAF Warboys
RAF Wigsley
RAF Wing
recruitment
Resistance
Spitfire
sport
Stirling
target indicator
training
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
Victoria Cross
Wellington
Whitley
Window
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2209/39348/PPowellNI19020026.1.jpg
21d8ded6a73f8a2c88c47f6499157bc5
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2209/39348/PPowellNI19020027.1.jpg
fb098eb4b4278cba1315e3492673996d
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
Powell, Norman Ivor. Photograph album two
Description
An account of the resource
Seventy-nine items. Photographs of people, places and aircraft.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-10-29
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
Powell, NI
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
NAAFI - Foggia
Description
An account of the resource
A large three story building with double floor windows above doorways. Sign on front 'Palazzo Degli Studi, NAAFI - EFI, other ranks club'. On the reverse 'EFI Foggia'.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy
Italy--Foggia
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
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
PPowellNI19020026, PPowellNI19020027
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
military living conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2199/39186/MWainwrightJE1453555-220221-020001.2.jpg
d73ec8f54373e1c05b45fab501438b42
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2199/39186/MWainwrightJE1453555-220221-020002.2.jpg
32092c738f805f091e0bd440e2fdf941
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
Wainwright, John Edgar
Wainright, JE
Description
An account of the resource
59 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer John Edgar Wainwright (b. 1923, 1453555 Royal Air Force) and contains photographs, documents, correspondence and two photograph albums. He flew operations as a with 44 Squadron. He was shot down but successfully evaded. After the war he served in Singapore. <br /><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2206">Album 1</a> <span>of his time in Singapore and the Far East after the war.<br /><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2208">Album 2</a> from his time in France post war.</span><br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Michael John Wainwright and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2022-02-21
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Wainwright, JE
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
Lido Club (Singapore) NAAFI Menu
Sandy's Farewell Party
Description
An account of the resource
A menu for a party. On the reverse several people including Jack Wainwright have signed their names and left messages.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-05-31
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Singapore
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One double sided handwritten sheet
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWainwrightJE1453555-220221-020001, MWainwrightJE1453555-220221-020002
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-05-31
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
aircrew
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2180/38344/S102SqnRAF19170809v20005-0011.1.jpg
7332f36b80e7c2d0840846c46b577b00
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2180/38344/S102SqnRAF19170809v20005-0012.1.jpg
5a61b5481ce141ffc35f9c3124e1260f
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
102 Squadron Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Thirty-one items.
The collection concerns material from the 102 Squadron Association and contains part of a Tee Emm magazine, documents, photographs, accounts of Ceylonese in the RAF, a biography, poems, a log book, cartoons, intelligence and operational reports, an operations order and an account by a United States Army Air Force officers secret trip to Great Britain to arrange facilities for American forces.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Harry Bartlett and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-05-23
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
102 Squadron Association
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
Cartoon - in the NAAFI
Description
An account of the resource
An airman leaning on a counter with a mug of tea talking to a NAAFI serving lady. Above is a sign 'Tea Only'. On the reverse 'Is it Tea!!!'.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
F J Lay
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1942
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
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
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One drawing
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
S102SqnRAF19170809v20005-0011, S102SqnRAF19170809v20005-0012
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
arts and crafts
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1912/36007/MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-39.2.pdf
fc68bd431f4882821eddf33695a7df16
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hayhurst, Jose Margaret
J M Hayhurst
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-25
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hayhurst, JM
Description
An account of the resource
108 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Jose Margaret Hayhurst (2073102 Royal Air Force) and contains decorations, uniform, documents and photographs. She served as a radar operator in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Andrew Whitehouse and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
Cinderella Script
Description
An account of the resource
A script for an RAF version of Cinderella.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
26 typewritten sheets with handwritten notes
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-39
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
arts and crafts
entertainment
love and romance
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Spitfire
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1912/36002/MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-340001.2.jpg
9512e502b04421fec7e5869b3c0365de
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1912/36002/MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-340002.2.jpg
86d2c5e80424a208b103a99b94b51c3b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hayhurst, Jose Margaret
J M Hayhurst
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-25
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hayhurst, JM
Description
An account of the resource
108 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Jose Margaret Hayhurst (2073102 Royal Air Force) and contains decorations, uniform, documents and photographs. She served as a radar operator in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Andrew Whitehouse and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
Chocolate and Sugar Confectionary Coupon Card
Description
An account of the resource
A ration card issued to Jose.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
RAF Duxford
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-03-25
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two printed sheets with handwritten annotations
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-340001, MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-340002
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-03-25
ground personnel
military living conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
RAF Duxford
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1912/35998/MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-300001.2.jpg
5204cb486b9e70e95652e1bd9df61053
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1912/35998/MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-300002.2.jpg
346fa0bea4fe72178bc33f669509481d
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hayhurst, Jose Margaret
J M Hayhurst
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-25
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hayhurst, JM
Description
An account of the resource
108 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Jose Margaret Hayhurst (2073102 Royal Air Force) and contains decorations, uniform, documents and photographs. She served as a radar operator in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Andrew Whitehouse and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
Chocolate and Sugar Confectionary Card
Description
An account of the resource
A ration card issued to Jose.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-09-22
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Pevensey
England--Sussex
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One double sided printed card with handwritten annotations
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-300001, MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-300002
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
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-09-22
ground personnel
military living conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1912/35988/MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-190001.1.jpg
63e5ce47d5891082ce979c11ed3bbcc1
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1912/35988/MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-190002.1.jpg
24c002f91b66c57ea38e67d7e7812523
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hayhurst, Jose Margaret
J M Hayhurst
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-25
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hayhurst, JM
Description
An account of the resource
108 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Jose Margaret Hayhurst (2073102 Royal Air Force) and contains decorations, uniform, documents and photographs. She served as a radar operator in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Andrew Whitehouse and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
Cigarettes and Chocolate Ration Card
Description
An account of the resource
A sheet of paper with typed dates and amounts of cigarettes and chocolate.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
OC RAF Bride IOM
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Isle of Man
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One double sided typewritten sheet
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-190001, MHayhurstJM2073102-170725-190002
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
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1878/35035/PSoltysiakB17010037.2.jpg
225da7521e97a572fdf10a84ccf66d89
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
Soltysiak, Bronislaw
B Soltysiak
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-06-22
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Soltysiak, B
Description
An account of the resource
230 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Bronislaw Soltysiak (1916 - 1987, 781032 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book documents, brevet, button and photographs. He flew operations as a pilot with 305 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Malcom Soltysiak 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
Three aircrew
Description
An account of the resource
Three airmen standing in line two holding mugs, two wearing flying suits and Mae Wests, the other tunic and flying jacket. In the background other airmen, NAAFI truck and hangar.
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
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
PSoltysiakB17010037
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
ground crew
ground personnel
military service conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1879/34807/PClarkM17010001.2.jpg
d65df6e57bb384ea1b39167dfdff5454
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, Marion
Clarke, Marion
M Clark
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-06-23
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
Clark, M
Description
An account of the resource
Ten items. The collection concerns Leading Aircraftswoman Marion Clark (Royal Air Force) and contains an audio recording and photographs. She served as a driver in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force at RAF Hemswell and RAF Ingham.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Dorothy Cole 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
Marion Clark's WAAF Friends
Description
An account of the resource
Four photographs from an album.
#1 is five airman and four WAAFs with a Union Flag. It is annotated 'Pat's 21st birthday party taken on Bishop's Bridge just outside 'The Bell' on the Market Raven [sic] Road'.
#2 is two airmen and nine WAAFs grouped in front of a Austin K6 crew coach. It is captioned 'Joan, Kay and Peg going off to be demobbed'.
#3 is four WAAFs in fatigues. Behind is a view towards Hangar 3 and Nissen huts at RAF Hemswell. It is captioned 'Peg, Lambie, Dickie & Joan'.
#4 is six WAAFs standing at the back of a Austin K6 crew coach, captioned 'Outside WAAF NAAFI, Hemswell'.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four b/w photographs on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PClarkM17010001
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
Robert Langham
aircrew
ground crew
ground personnel
hangar
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
RAF Hemswell
service vehicle
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1561/34804/SRAFIngham19410620v070001-Audio.2.mp3
1cdda487d490705f1871c23fb467186a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
RAF Ingham Heritage Group
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-11-14
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 Ingham
Description
An account of the resource
25 items in six collections. The collection concerns RAF Ingham and contains interviews photographs and documents concerning:
Andrzej Jeziorski - Pilot 304 Squadron
Arthur Hydes - Boy in Ingham
Brian Llewellyn -ATC
Jan Black - Rear Gunner 300 Squadron
Lech Gierak - Armourer 303 Squadron
Marion Clarke - MT Driver RAF Ingham
Mieczyslaw Maryszczak - Armourer
Stanislaw Jozefiak - Air Ops 304 Squadron - Pilot on Spitfires
Wanda Szuwalska - Admin 300 Squadron Faldingworth
Zosia Kowalska - Cook RAF Ingham
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by the RAF Ingham Heritage Group and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Other]: Make a start.
Int: Right, I’ll just, I will leave it on because this is the rough cut. Obviously what we’ll do is, just give you a copy, on a CD, of the whole recording. And then obviously when we come to do a production side of it, we’ll cut out the bits that are relevant towards the Heritage Centre but we’ll give you a copy for your family, or a couple of copies if you’d like that.
[Other]: That’ll be lovely dad!
Int: We’ll just leave the camera rolling. If at any time you want to have a break, or you need to use the toilet, or you would like a drink, if we just say and we can stop, because it won’t matter on the film: we’ll just keep it rolling. Because sometimes, we found in the past, that when we’ve interviewed some of the veterans, they’ll say could I just stop now for a cup of water, glass of water or something, so we switch it off, and that’s when some of the very interesting little pieces of information come out, when they’re just chatting, so sometimes it’s worth leaving it on. I did a very, very quick bit of research into you before I came here, so I know a little [emphasis] bit about you, and it is only a very small amount, because I didn’t realise that you were an armourer, um, I probably should have done, and obviously although you’re known as Michael, or Michael now, obviously you had your Polish first name which, would you like to pronounce it for me?
MM: [Phonetically] Michislov. [Laughter]
Int: Thank you. My pronunciation would be very embarrassing to you.
[Other]: I can’t pronounce it, can’t spell it, let alone!
Int: M I E C H Z Y S L A W. Yes.
[Other]: Miecyzslaw, something like that.
Int: How do you pronounce your surname, your family name?
MM: [Phonetically] Marishtack.
Int: Marishtick.
[Other]: [Phonetically] Marishtak. Marishtak, yes.
MM: There, you see I was in Gaza at that time, that was, Rommel was, British was worried about that, taking over Suez Canal and I wasn’t in the Air Force yet, but was about hundred fifty Polish boys, we supposed to learn how to repair the tanks, you know, but that Australian say look, its take lot of time to learn, I’m going to teach you how to drive and we going to repair and we going on the desert and test them they okay, on the front because there was hurry, you know, be ready before Rommel attacks the Suez, so I got for that, medals.
Int: And how old were you at that time then, in the desert?
MM: I was very young, well [pause] about seventeen I think, seventeen.
Int: And were you part of the Polish Air Force or the Polish Army at that time?
MM: The Army.
Int: Part of the Polish Army.
MM: At Gaza, yes. Because that was Gaza, was on the Egyptian Palestinian border, that time was, [cough] well, under British rule in Palestine, you know that. I was in Palestine as well.
Int: And you’ve obviously mentioned that you were trained in the Polish Air Force to be an armourer. When you were in the Polish Army, in Palestine, did you also deal with the shells and the bullet side of things as an armourer, or not?
MM: No. You see after that I was removed, victory was Alamein, and they moved to Egypt, and Egypt er, that was quite lot of boys and was about, volunteers about six hundred fifty, because Polish was, more to, Polish aid for us in England. So there, you know, the examination, you know, doctor, you know, everything was, so six hundred, six hundred forty five, is only sixty five been accepted, and from that time I joined the, to the Polish Air Force.
Int: Why did you decide that you wanted to apply to join the Polish Air Force? What was the reasons behind that do you think?
MM: Well because Polish, they came round to Egypt and they want some replacement in England for the younger people, you know.
Int: I was just wondering why you chose, did they, was there any, was there an incentive?
MM: I didn’t choose that.
Int: You didn’t choose, oh, okay.
MM: They just said volunteers you see! [Laugh] So this stay in Egypt and from Egypt we travelled by Royal Britannia ship round Africa because we going to go through that where U-boat was, German U-boat, and round the Capetown. We stopped in Capetown for about three days and because not only Polish but was Yugoslavian, all different nationalities, Greeks, and they all different, and we arrived to Freetown, and Freetown to Liverpool. And from Liverpool came to Halton.
Int: What, what time of year did you arrive in Liverpool? Was it the summer, or the winter, or?
MM: That wasn’t winter, no, no, no, that was er, [pause] which date was that, approximately.
Int: I’m just thinking that having been in Palestine, and having been in in Egypt, and then even South Africa, coming to Britain, and Liverpool, must have been probably very cold, very wet.
MM: No, no, no, that was June or July, something like that, that time, we arrive to England. That was in, practically summer, was that time.
Int: What was your, can you remember your first impressions when you landed in Liverpool, in England?
MM: Balloons [laugh]. Yeah, there were balloons everywhere.
Int: Oh, the barrage balloons. Yes, yeah. And then you went, you said you went to Halton.
MM: Halton, yes.
Int: For your training. Can you tell me -
MM: We travelled during the night, I don’t know why, we actually arrived early and having travelled through the night, and I seem to remember they stop us in Crewe; they give us some cup of tea and sandwiches. [Laugh]
Int: That was nice, and was it in the back of a lorry then, that you travelled?
MM: No, no, it was train.
Int: Oh, on a train, right.
MM: Yes. I think it was Crewe which er, and we arrive very late in Halton.
Int: And what are your memories of Halton, as a training?
MM: Oh, they was very good, you know, because most of the people was coming from the 303 Squadron, from Northolt, for, to Halton, for training. Some of them depends what, some of them just gunnery, you know, three months training and you’re off you know. But you know, was very, very, training was very, very good, you know, was excellent, you know, we got everything. Even remember the Russian er, [indecipherable] Bureau like came round to visit Halton and what happened they, the Brit, they shut us completely! [Laugh]
Int: They just, they wouldn’t talk to you, they just ignored you completely.
MM: Yes. They said no, no, put in school and then they shut us, the workshop up is completely: all Poles.
Int: Shut away. And how long after you arrived, did you hand over your Army uniform and then you got the blue, the blue uniform for the Air Force?
MM: Oh yes. When we arrived to Halton I got given blue uniform.
Int: Blue uniform. Then you were in the Air Force, the Polish Air Force.
MM: Yeah. That’s right.
Int: And can you remember the insignia and the badges you wore at all? Were they RAF ones or were they Polish Air Force?
MM: Polish Air Force.
Int: Polish Air Force. How long, roughly how long did you stay at Halton for, to do your training?
MM: Oh, training for, because the, I was for training this time four years, for training.
Int: Four years at Halton!
MM: Because you know, we supposed to go to Poland, after the war and you know, but they, Polish Government, say you must let every arms they got in Britain, you know, like rockets and everything, you know, and at the time was top secret, you know.
Int: So, when your training had finished, at Halton, which RAF station did you go to after Halton?
MM: Hah, Lincolnshire.
Int: Lincolnshire. Can you remember the name of the station?
MM: Cammeringham. Cammeringham.
Int: At Cammeringham, you were actually at Cammeringham were you? Right. So that would have been, it changed its name from RAF Ingham to Cammeringham in November 1944, so if you knew it as Cammeringham, you must have gone there from November ‘44 onwards at some point. So, if you haven’t already got them we can get hold of your service records – you’ve got them have you? No. We can get your service records from Northolt. There’s a lady called Margaret Goddard.
MM: Oh yeah, I know her, yeah.
Int: And she can find your records, which will show the dates you went to each station, which is good for you, and for your family.
MM: I remember there used to be NAAFI canteen on that river in Lincolnshire.
Int: In Lincolnshire. NAAFI, NAAFI was.
Int: Was a NAAFI canteen in the middle of Lincoln was there?
MM: Yes, I can remember the river was you know.
Int: In the middle of Lincoln, there is a -
MM: Yeah. Not far from the Cathedral, you know.
Int: Yes, yes I know the one you mean. There’s a big, large, well they call it a pond, but it’s called Brayford, Brayford Pond, with all the barges.
MM: That’s right, that was NAAFI.
Int: Oh right, okay. What, can you remember much about Cammeringham, RAF Cammeringham? Just to help your memory, the airfield was on the top of the hill and the Station Headquarters was down in the village of Ingham. Does that ring a bell at all?
MM: Well you see at that time they knew that we never go back to Poland and a lot of people try to register, go to Argentina, to United States, you know, Canada.
Int: Oh, as part of the Polish Resettlement Act, yes, but you decided to stay at Cammeringham for a while.
MM: Actually, I was going to [chuckle] Argentina!
Int: Right, okay.
MM: But I met one chap, he was from Argentina, he was in Polish Army, and he said never go to Argentina!
Int: And why was that then?
MM: Because is, you got problems over there and he say I wouldn’t advise you to go to Argentina. So I’ve still got the papers, you know!
Int: That you could have decided to go there, but instead you stayed in England.
MM: Yes.
Int: And when you were at Cammeringham did you do any of your armourer jobs, was that with loading the machine guns or were you an armourer that dealt with the bombs?
MM: I had a, that was, from Cammeringham and was posted to 48MU, in Wrexham.
Int: Okay. Right.
MM: That was, I used to, quite lot of, because guns and machine guns, you know, in Wrexham. You know, Holyhead, if you go that way.
Int: So in Wrexham it was a big store for machine guns?
MM: RAF station!
Int: Oh, it was an RAF station was it, at Wrexham, right, okay. Was your job to maintain them or was it more for storage?
MM: Sort out, you know, quite a lot of them used to go to the, check them in the temperature and everything, you know.
Int: So did that include dismantling, taking machine guns to bits, and refurbish them, change the barrels and things?
MM: From the, yeah.
Int: Right. So is that a job that you could do with your eyes closed, when, at the time, you became very skilled at that.
MM: Well, yeah.
Int: Yeah. And did you get a chance to fire any of the guns on the practice ranges at all, or not? Or were you just purely putting the guns together?
MM: Not in the air.
Int: Was that a bit, was that a good job? Was it a boring job?
MM: Oh, you know. Well you know, somebody has to do it!
Int: Somebody has to do it. Before you went to Wrexham, if we could just go back one step to when you were at Cammeringham, what did you actually do at Cammeringham?
MM: Actually I was doing, there were no jobs, everybody was thinking what I’m going to do, you know.
Int: Right, so you were still in the Polish Air Force, but there wasn’t a job for you at the time? So you spent all [emphasis] of that time training and then you got to Cammeringham and there was no job for you.
MM: Well that was, you know, that was probably closed that station, you were just only waiting for the different people going different countries, you know.
Int: But there was a lot of Polish airmen at Cammeringham at the time, yes?
MM: Yes. Some of them they went back to Poland, you know, but.
Int: It’s not a good story, no. I’ve heard several accounts from people where they went, [beep] especially if they’d been in the Polish Air Force, and then they were arrested by the Soviets, and the Russians, and some were executed, which is er, just for being in the Polish Air Force. A lot of your colleagues were at Faldingworth, which was just about five miles down the road, a lot of them, and the Polish 300 Squadron were there. So you went to Wrexham and you did the 48MU job at Wrexham, how long did you stay at Wrexham, can you remember?
MM: [Pause] No, I said, I was, because my station was er, in Framlingham.
Int: Framlingham. Yes. I’ve heard of it, I’ve heard of Framlingham, right.
MM: There was er, and I was only been attachment to the 48MU’s just only, you know, so I wrote the letter to them: can you call me back to, on my station. So you know, so they, yeah, I went back and say look, now you have to go to London and you have to look for a job.
Int: And that was, so that was the end of your Polish Air Force career.
MM: Yeah. And I stay in South Kensington, and for looking for the job because only job they was offering us is coal mine, you know. [Laugh]
Int: Or engineering? Did they offer you engineering?
MM: Engineering? No, no chance. No chance.
Int: No? So what kind of job did you get in the end then? What was your first job, being a civilian after the war?
MM: They told me you to go to the coal mine, I said no, I never go to coal mine. [Laugh] But all, so they decided to last, and I was from National Health making glasses. Spectacles glasses.
Int: Okay, right, okay, that was here in London was it?
MM: Yes, in London yes, in Camden Passage, in Islington. So I said all right, I’ll go that, but I wouldn’t go to the coal mine. [Laugh]
Int: And when did you meet your wife?
MM: [Cough] Oh, that was [muttering] 19, about 1960 [pause], 1960.
Int: And was she Polish or was she English?
MM: She’s Polish.
Int: She was Polish. And had she been a WAAF during the, a Polish WAAF during the years?
MM: No, no, no. She wasn’t, no.
Int: She’d just come across from Poland, okay. I notice looking at your medals you have the, is it the Tute Militaire? The very first one that you have here. Can you tell me a little bit about how you were awarded that, that medal?
MM: This?
Int: No, the very first one, this one here.
MM: Oh, that, no, no.
Int: This one there.
MM: That was Freedom for Polish, Freedom.
Int: Oh, that’s the Polish Freedom one is it? Right, okay. So that was awarded in about -
MM: At the Embassy.
Int: At 1990, or ’91 when Poland got its freedom.
MM: I have somewhere, upstairs, the letters, that was yes, was in the Ambassy, in London.
Int: Going back to your time in the Polish Air Force again, do you have any funny stories, any funny things, because with your fellow kind of airmen, the Polish airmen, you must have done some funny things then.
MM: Well it was funny stories, you know because when it was in Halton you were only allowed to go out for [cough] eleven, you know, well not twelve o’clock, yeah, before twelve you must be.
Int: You must be back before midnight, yes.
MM: But some of them was climbing through the windows! [Laughter]
Int: And did they get caught, or not?
MM: Yeah, what happened, and the sergeant was checking every bed, and somebody was going to each bed and was like saying yes, he’s in, he’s in, but he’s out!
Int: And then he’s sneaking back to his own bed, good. When you were there, you obviously had the big dormitories, the barrack rooms where you all slept in, what was the food like? Was the food good at Halton? Because it was English food I presume, not Polish food.
MM: That was the, actually, no, it was good food there, yeah, sausages, you know.
Int: Plenty of food, plenty of food?
MM: Yeah. And usually that was prisoner of war working in the cookhouse.
Int: What, German prisoners of war or Italian?
MM: Italians.
Int: Italians. That could be a good thing if you like Italian food!
MM: And they was free to go to the cinema, everywhere!
Int: Really!
MM: Yeah!
Int: But you couldn’t go out after twelve o’clock at night! Huh. That’s very strange, isn’t it. Yeah.
MM: And they used to sell the jewellery because, well, they had some watches and the you know, they was free, they didn’t want to go back to, escape to Germany.
Int: They were happy to stay in England then.
MM: Stay. Otherwise they probably go to Russian Front, you know. Yes, they got.
Int: If we can go all the way back to the beginning of the story, are you okay, do you want a break, are you okay?
MM: It’s all right, yes.
Int: Going back to talking about Palestine and the time you were In the desert with Rommel, and fighting Rommel, and you were saying you were allowed you to drive, what was your job, what kind of job did you do?
MM: Well I was testing the tanks.
Int: You were testing the tanks?
MM: On the desert, because that Bill, they repair, because they, mechanics you know, to learn how to repair the tanks was take time, he said look, we going to repair, I teach you how to drive, on the desert, and that’s you know.
Int: So as well as repairing the tanks then, as a mechanic, you also did, you had to go and test drive them as well?
MM: No, I didn’t repair, I only just test.
Int: Oh, you were only doing the test driving then. And was that fun? Especially as you were young. Driving tanks round the desert?
MM: Oh yes! And that chap, after the, Alamein, he was going, his name was Bill, and he’s Australian, and he would just say, I got nothing else to give you, he just cut his button from his coat and give it to me. So I kept that all the time.
Int: Oh! Did Bill make it through the war?
MM: I don’t know what happened, I don’t know, might have been killed, I don’t know. But what happened, in a Polish club in London, I met there, she was Wing Commander from the Australian Embassy, and I told her I got the button which is that Bill give me, and oh, was probably my grandad, so I don’t know. What regiment he was? But I didn’t ask him!
Int: But he was in Palestine at that time then was he? Yes?
MM: And I give it to her and she says she’s going to find out, you know, the name of that is.
Int: That sounds like a needle in a haystack, but you never know, you never know. So do you attend a lot of the Polish events that happen in London, at the Social Club at Hammersmith?
MM: Yeah, we go so often. Usually, we usually have the dinners once a month, you know.
Int: Well I mean, obviously, I met you, you might remember, in September, at the Polish Memorial, Northolt. It’s great to chat with you, what I was going to do now was just, I was gonna have a rest, just in case you wanted a cup of tea or something, we can talk a little more. Cause I know sometimes it’s, you’re thinking back and your mouth can get very dry, can’t it, especially when we’re just talking and it’s a thing. So I’ll leave the camera on, but if you’re happy, I don’t know whether you’d like a drink of water or a cup of tea or coffee?
MM: No, that’s all right, no.
[Other]: Dad, but where were you when the war finished? That’s the bit I don’t get.
Int: Right. Were you at Framlington?
[Other]: Where were you actually, when the actual physically the war finished?
Int: When it was VE Day kind of thing?
[Other]: Where was he?
MM: [Pause] 1945.
Int: Where were you actually, where were you stationed, at that time, when it was VE Day? Can you remember which station you were on?
MM: 1945, which station, I probably was still in Halton.
Int: Did they not have big celebrations?
MM: No. Because they didn’t invite for the -
Int: For the Polish.
MM: For Britain.
Int: To go to London, did you have them, if you were at Halton, or Wrexham, or even Cammeringham, wherever you were at, when it was VE Day, did they have a party on the station?
MM: Wrexham, we only had one celebration then was when Prince Charlie was born, 1948, and we had a barrel of beer, we had drunk that, you know, on his birthday.
Int: So you were still in the Polish Air Force then, in 1948, so that must have been almost the last year, because most of the Polish Air Force, from what I’m led to understand, obviously straight after the war, after VE Day, along with the problems where they wouldn’t let the Polish parade through London because of the Yalta Agreement.
MM: That’s right.
Int: With Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill, and I know that’s why they had the Resettlement Act and they had to absorb the Polish Air Force into the Royal Air Force properly, just so Stalin couldn’t get -
MM: We had the contract two years, Polish Resettlement Course.
Int: And I think it was 1948 was the last, when the last Polish squadron was disbanded, so that probably ties all of that in. It would be interesting, you know, if your daughter Joanne’s able to, on your behalf, to get the, your service records from Margaret, or a copy of them.
[Other]: Yeah, I can do that.
Int: Cause then it’ll show -
MM: I know her. Yes, I’ll go and see her in.
Int: She’ll be able to photocopy them and then give you a copy and at least you’ll be able to read all the dates on, and if it’s, I think if it’s very similar to the RAF’s one, it’s just a piece of almost brown card, two sides, which shows all of your, all the stations you were at and any courses you did, and even things like when you were on the sick or on leave, it’s all on one card that they did at the time. It’s all handwritten.
[Other]: Cause I’m just a bit confused here dad, so you went from Halton to Lincolnshire and then Wrexham, yeah.
Int: Yes.
[Other]: And then you went to London.
MM: To London.
[Other]: What year?
MM: I came to London to look for job.
[Other]: What year? Cause you were saying you were under the RAF until 1948.
MM: That was Polish Resettlement Course.
[Other]: So I’m just, and I just. It’s all right, I’m getting there. A bit confused.
Int: So, if we get things in the right order: you went to Halton, and then from Halton you went to Cammeringham did you, or did you go to Wrexham first, after Halton?
[Other]: Cammeringham.
MM: No, Cammeringham.
Int: Cammeringham.
MM: And from Cammeringham I went to Wrexham.
Int: To Wrexham, and then to Fram –
MM: Framlingham.
Int: Framlingham or Framlington? I’ll have to check exactly where that is. And then from Framlington that was it: were out of the Polish Air Force then?
MM: Sent us to London for.
Int: To find a job.
MM: That’s right.
[Other]: When they sent you to London, did you stay in an RAF base, or no? Were you private dwellings?
Int: Was it a private house, or was it still in barracks in London?
MM: No, no, in London that was hostel, South Kensington, was houses was probably very expensive, London houses. That was big hostel over that square, that was square, I would call it square.
Int: Straight after the war.
[Other]: So dad, where were you when you, when the announcement of the Second World War was over? When Churchill said, we are not at war any more, where were you? [Polish]
MM: I said I was still in Halton.
Int: You were still in Halton.
MM: In 1945.
Int: So 1945 you were in Halton. Then you moved to Cammeringham in ’46 because I mean Cammeringham was one of the Polish Resettlement Units. And Dunholme Lodge.
MM: That’s right, and they posted us to Wrexham.
Int: It was still under the kind of the Air Ministry’s control.
[Other]: Umbrella.
Int: While they did some training and they did, there was quite a few training: carpentry, electrical. They did all the courses there so they just used it as an RAF station but it was more of a training camp for training purposes.
MM: That’s right.
Int: And then obviously the MUs, which are the Maintenance Units but they normally store, big store camps, so obviously Wrexham was a big store camp where all the machine guns were coming back and they were being -
MM: From there the Wellingtons and all that, big er -
[Other]: So really, until the war finished you were based?
MM: At Halton.
[Other]: Until 1945 and then after that the Resettlement Act came in and by 1948 you were discharged to civilian life. Right, I’ve got that now. Okay. But when the Second World War finished, what happened, because that was a big news! So was there no celebration? Do you remember what you were doing when you found out the war was ended. I mean.
MM: I was still at Halton.
Int: You were still at Halton.
[Other]: But what were you doing?
MM: There still was training.
[Other]: [Polish]
Int: [Beep] Did they have a party perhaps, a big party at Halton, that day?
MM: At Halton, even, because what’s his name, Bevan, and he asked, give us a letter and give us, every members of the Polish er, boys, been given, to go to Poland or, or were you going to join the Polish Resettlement Course.
Int: Yes. Because of the shortage of jobs, he was the Trade Union, Bevan was the Trade Union man, wasn’t he, and they set the Trade Unions up, and don’t get me wrong but his point of view was, he didn’t want the Poles in Britain.
MM: Britain, no. That’s right.
Int: And that’s why, I think that’s why they only offered the Polish military –
MM: Coal mine.
Int: Ex military the coal mine, and some of them got into the steel works, the foundries, almost the jobs that nobody else wanted to do, so it was very restrictive, and obviously because the Trade Unions came in straight after the war, that’s when they were created, and that was very much in the National Health Service and everything else, but that’s when they said jobs for the Britons, you know, it was almost like, Churchill was Conservative, although he led the Coalition through the war years then he was, straight after the war he was kicked out and the Labour government came in and that’s how the Trade Unions came about, and that’s why, the Agreement was obviously made at quite a high ministerial level to have the Polish Resettlement Act.
MM: That’s right.
Int: Of 1947 I think it was, to protect the Polish servicemen and women that wanted to stay in the UK, or it allowed them to go to the Empire countries, Canada, even America although that’s not an Empire country, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and - .
MM: All different countries.
Int: Yes, yes.
[Other]: But Dad, you misunderstand. I’m going to say it in Polish. [Polish]
MM: In Halton.
[Other]: [Polish]
MM: I can’t remember that.
Int: No.
[Other]: I was asking him what he was, the moment he found out when the Second World War finished. I remember when Diana died. I can tell you exactly what I was doing.
Int: Yes.
MM: We didn’t celebrate because was Yalta.
Int: Yes, because of Yalta a few weeks before this, and that meant you’d lost Poland.
MM: We didn’t celebrate.
[Other]: I see, okay, that’s a different side.
Int: That’s probably why, yes because I mean Yalta was really more Roosevelt and Stalin; Churchill was just a puppet.
MM: Puppet, yes.
[Other]: That explains that, yeah.
Int: He was part of the three but he had to go along with what the two big powerbrokers wanted and they carved up Europe at Yalta and Poland unfortunately was the one that suffered because it got kind of.
MM: Roosevelt was very sick man, he was very sick, he was actually dying and Truman took it over, you know, after Roosevelt.
[Other]: But in those four years that you were based at Halton, did you witness bombings in England, you know, saw the active stuff, you know, the active service. Obviously you get the planes ready for them to go off to battle, obviously I’m guessing here.
Int: Halton being a training -
MM: Training.
Int: Was all the four years that you did at Halton, was that all training or were you an instructor then?
MM: No, all training.
Int: Just all training. And was that just [emphasis] for training to maintain the machine guns or did you do bombs, fusing up the bombs and everything?
MM: Bombs, fusing, [indecipherable] everything.
Int: So as an armourer you did all the jobs.
MM: And then rockets.
Int: And the rockets.
MM: They been before well, they was first to use the aeroplane.
Int: To fire the rockets, right at the end of the war, so you had to be trained up to do all of that.
MM: That’s right.
Int: Whilst you were at Halton were there any air raids, at night, where the sirens went off and the bombs dropped at Halton, or not?
MM: What happened, for about each, because Air Ministry was worried when start bombing London, and they move us to Cosford, RAF station Cosford.
Int: Right, okay, yes.
MM: And I assume the Air Ministry wants to move to Halton, that’s, so they move and stay at Cosford, Wolverhampton, you know that.
Int: Yes. Over in the West Midlands, yes.
MM: We stayed there, I can’t remember how many, three months or something.
Int: Three months. And did you go back to Halton afterwards?
MM: Oh yes.
Int: So was just for three months they moved you out of Halton, over to Cosford near Wolverhampton. And did your training continue there, or did you do something special?
MM: Yes, it was training.
Int: Just normal training.
MM: Yes.
Int: At Cosford. And was that quieter at Cosford? Was there not as many air raids?
MM: No, well, was different was because the Cosford was, because Halton was, had the equipment for training but Cosford, you know.
Int: Didn’t have it. So what did you do while you were there then, at Cosford?
MM: Still, you know.
Int: Yes. And was there an airfield, as in where planes aircraft could land at Cosford or was it just a factory kind of?
MM: No, I think that was only for factory.
Int: Just like a training, in a factory, yes.
[Other]: Dad, sorry, why were you trained for so long, for four years, you know, normally now it’s just for three months off you go to, I just, why were they training you for so long?
MM: Don’t forget, we stake everything [emphasis].
[Other]: Yeah, but dad, it’s war, people, they need men.
MM: But you don’t. It’s not only that, you’re training each, even, even if you write there how to kill the person, you know, all different things we didn’t know.
[Other]: But that’s -
MM: Some, if you want to kill the person, if he’s going to start writing and it’s blow up his face and it kill them.
Int: I think what Joanne was perhaps meaning was, normally training would be maybe one year, maybe a little bit, but because it was war you would imagine that they wanted to get you trained very quickly and then straight out to the airfields. The question was -
MM: But not bomb everything targets, it’s not that simple like that.
[Other]: I know dad.
MM: It takes, you know.
[Other]: But four years in a war’s a long time, in a situation of war.
MM: Yeah, don’t forget four years, it’s not only that, guns. [Pause]
[Other]: I’ve lost you.
Int: So during your time at Halton, as well as going to Cosford, did you have small amounts of time where you went off to other RAF airfields to actually practice what you’d been trained, or not?
MM: No.
Int: No, you just stayed at Halton.
MM: They was trying to get more information, you know, and instructors who came from London and give us all the guns, well guns and ammunition and material which is TNT, you know, and so how to.
Int: It sounds a little bit like your training was more experimental training.
MM: Yes, yes.
Int: Not the standard training so any new bombs or new rockets – am I going down the right road here?
MM: Yes. Everything was secret and that’s why the training was so secret.
Int: Right, we’re starting to drill down into a little bit now.
[Other]: So, did you have to sign the secret service act?
Int: The Official Secrets Act.
MM: Well, we have to, you know. The service was secret.
Int: I meant as opposed to maybe an ordinary [emphasis] Polish Air Force armourer, that did his basic training and went straight out onto a squadron.
MM: Oh yes. That’s three month course.
Int: Yes, that’s the three months course. So in fact the time at Halton, although you said it was training, was it more, it sounds like it wasn’t basic training, it was specialist training as each new munitions came out, right.
MM: Yeah.
Int: So you were seeing how things worked and to improve it, so yes, you weren’t so much a student as a team that were there to um, I don’t know how to describe it to you, I’m trying not to put words into your mouth! So were you still in like a classroom situation at Halton?
MM: Yes.
Int: Oh right. But they would bring something new in and then talk about it. And what job did they give you to do? Was it to see how to make it better, or was it just purely to take it apart and put it together? I don’t want to put words into your mouth, I’m trying to find out exactly what you did at Halton.
MM: We usually, they like electrician was coming from London he was going to teach us electrician and some extras you know, which is, came round once a week and teach us electrics; it’s not only guns, everything you must know.
[Other]: What I think we’re establishing dad, is that you were, you’re right, you were training but you were given devices, or guns, or whatever, and they wanted you to try it out, it’s more that -
Int: Test and evaluation or something.
[Other]: Yes. You had your basic training of three months, yes. Everyone does three months.
MM: No, three years.
[Other]: Yeah, but. No.
MM: Basic training that’s only came only there for, for -
Int: I think what Joanne’s trying to ask the question is, you had your basic armourer’s training, at Halton – how to be an armourer basically. Your basic bombs and bullets, but then after that at Halton, you obviously specialised, at Halton, with maybe experimental bombs or experimental rockets, and new things; anything that was new. Cause if you had an electrician that came from London specially to Halton, to talk with you and to teach you, it sounds like what you were doing was more experimental work, maybe I don’t know. Hmm. Is it possible?
[Other]: How many was there in the class at one time, dad? Ten, twenty, fifty? Do you remember? And was there only one class or was there lots of classes?
MM: [Pause] |Well we had, it’s not only that, we had mathematics and everything, turrets, and you know, you have to, how to operate turrets for machine guns for the er, prepare the aircraft to, for the pilot to fly that Spitfire and you know, it’s not simple as.
Int: I know, I fully appreciate, it’s a very complicated.
MM: We started, you see you have to, to, must, it’s not only one turret you’ve got, all you’ve got different one top and bottom.
Int: Different kinds of makes and turret, yes, certainly. It’s interesting, maybe when you get the records from Margaret, it will actually say on there and remind you, you may well have been part, although you did your basic armourer’s training at Halton, perhaps they kept you at Halton, as part of a test and evaluation section and that’s why you stayed at Halton, that’s why you didn’t go to an airfield because the people from London would bring you up, he Air Ministry, would bring new things for you to look at and along with your colleagues.
MM: Because some people, some they decided they got enough and they went for the course for three months and came as a sergeant.
Int: Oh, okay!
MM: They didn’t want to continue.
Int: They didn’t want to continue, no. So it does sound like what you were doing there was some kind of specialisation, after your basic armourers training, so. And then that’s perhaps why you went to Wrexham afterwards, although you went to Cammeringham first didn’t you. But that was at the end of the war, so maybe they just used your skills as an armourer to deal with the machine guns and everything else because you were quite. What rank were you, that’s an interesting, that will give us, help a little.
MM: Well AC1, you know, when we finished.
Int: AC1 when you finished! Crikey. That’s interesting.
MM: We didn’t, we had.
Int: Right, and that was, AC1 is just aircraftsman first class. So that’s kind of the first or the second rung on the ladder, so after four years
MM: After everybody finished at Halton, they was first class.
Int: But you said some people could come out quickly and become a sergeant.
MM: Yes, they didn’t want to continue.
Int: So they didn’t want to do the armourers job.
MM: No, no, it’s not only armourers, they didn’t want continue because was different sections at Halton.
Int: Right, okay.
MM: It was not only the armourer, there was different sections.
Int: So they could change to a different section and become sergeant very quickly.
MM: Some of them engineer and so on, so that was different.
Int: I think it’ll be, it’s certainly worth you trying to get in touch with Margaret and see if you can get your records because that might, you might suddenly find that you were doing a very important job and you didn’t quite realise how important a job it was!
[Other]: But from what I’m hearing dad, because I’ve never heard of any of this, what I’m hearing is that, my understanding is that you, your division, whatever, at Halton, you were doing some secret service stuff, you know, you were examining.
Int: Possibly, yes.
[Other]: And you were probably told [emphasis] that you were under the training umbrella but you weren’t really, I think. [Beep]
Int: There’s a little bit more to this that perhaps they didn’t even tell you [emphasis]. They just said oh, you were doing some more training.
[Other]: So you were just told training so that if anything happened to you you’d say I was just doing training. In fact you were probably doing some.
Int: Some more interesting work.
[Other]: Without you realising you were doing.
Int: Which might be part of the reason as well, that you actually went to Cosford, to do some more things, but that you would think as just ordinary. Cause Cosford now, Halton and Cosford are still in the RAF now. Halton is the -
MM: No, Cosford, the reason we went Cosford because –
Int: They were doing something at Halton.
MM: They was bombing London.
Int: Oh, they were bombing! Right, okay.
MM: And the Air Ministry, I think they was trying to move to Halton.
Int: Right, that was the reason.
MM: That’s probably the reason, they move us from.
Int: Just, yes, they just give you some space at Halton possibly.
[Other]: Where is Halton, sorry.
Int: Halton is down kind of Aylesbury kind of way, that kind of.
[Other]: So it’s quite relatively near London still.
Int: Yes, it’s part of the old Rothschild’s estate.
MM: Yes, that’s right.
[Other]: And Northolt is the London base.
Int: That’s the one, yes, right just inside the M40.
[Other]: And your connections with Northolt is that you just used to go there?
Int: No, no, it was Cosford, which is over in the West Midlands. I don’t, did you ever go to Northolt during the war years when you were in the Polish Air Force? Or not?
MM: No. Some of them they’re coming from there.
Int: It was 303 Squadron that were based there, which is the Polish fighter squadron.
MM: They was coming for training.
[Other]: To Halton?
Int: To you, to Halton.
MM: You know for the, not only for me but for different engines or -
Int: Yes. So, so from 303 Squadron, the 303 Squadron armourers and the engineering teams for the engines and things used to come to Halton.
MM: They had the best in Halton.
Int: To get refresher training on new guns or new types of engines for the aircraft.
MM: They had special camp in Halton.
Int: Within Halton, right.
[Other]: It’s all kind of secretive.
Int: It’s kind of interesting, yes.
[Other]: This is quite intriguing.
MM: Sometimes when the cookhouse was closed for some reason, we went to the Polish dinner which is 303 Squadron used to have.
Int: Oh, they had a canteen, yes.
MM: We some Polish dinner!
Int: Proper Polish food, oh good! [Laugh] It’s interesting because as I say Halton is still there now, they use it for the new recruits just in any trade that come into the RAF. So Halton is still there. Cosford is still there and they do a lot of the training. In fact I think the armourers do their training at Cosford now, which is quite funny: that’s the complete circle has moved round. So both those stations are still there. Halton hasn’t really changed much, so if you ever got a chance to go there.
[Other]: I think Dad, you’ve been there.
MM: I’ve been to Halton, yes.
Int: Cause there’s just like the road that runs through the middle and there’s the top half of the camp and the bottom half of the camp.
[Other]: Yes, he’s been there. Okay.
MM: They use to march, they was calling Polish Avenue, and when they finish, they plant some trees, and they’re great.
Int: Huge big trees now, yeah.
MM: Polish Avenue.
Int: And they called that Polish Avenue did they? I’ll have to go and look. Next time I go to Halton, I’ll look and see if they still call it Polish Avenue.
[Other]: Thank you very much. So dad -
MM: We used to have, every morning we used to march to that, you know, after breakfast, to, to training.
Int: To your training area.
MM: At our school.
Int: Was it, can you remember now where, your barracks, when you lived in the barracks at Halton, were they at the bottom of the hill or the top of the hill? Could you, you probably can’t remember.
MM: The, the barracks, you can’t miss them because Polish Avenue, you’ve got Polish Avenue and that, as you’re walking, on the right hand side, that the barracks.
Int: That was your barracks.
MM: Two barracks, there was three, two barracks was. All different.
Int: And in your room, in your barrack room, it was just all Polish Air Force was it? Or was it a mixture of RAF and Polish?
MM: No. There was just two, two big barracks.
Int: Yes, but in the actual room, where you had maybe ten or twenty beds, in the room.
MM: There were many beds!
Int: But they were all Polish in that big room were they, or the English as well as Polish?
MM: No, no, no just Polish.
Int: Just the Polish.
MM: English were different.
Int: Yes. And when it came to special occasions during the year, special Polish occasions, including Christmas, did you have a Polish church, at Halton, that you could go to? A military church?
MM: Yes, yes. When Hitler declared war on the United States and we had, I remember one Christmas which is, the American came round and we had a big dinner.
Int: On the base, and did you -
MM: Yes. No, at Halton.
Int: Oh, at Halton. And di they bring a lot of extra food, special food from America?
MM: They had, you know, all different.
Int: Chocolate and things like that, yes. And when you were at Halton did you play any sport?
MM: Oh yes, swimming, we must swim, you know, you got, it doesn’t matter which is winter or summer still had to [indecipherable] had to learn must, you know, swim.
Int: I didn’t know whether you were perhaps a sportsman and you liked to play either football, or swimming or anything.
MM: Oh yes we usually have, used to have I think every Wednesday.
Int: Every Wednesday was sports day was it.
MM: And that was Mr Brown. [Chuckle]
Int: And Mr Brown was what, he was the instructor for sport?
MM: Instructor yes, for sport, yes. Was very nice chap.
Int: What’s your, what’s the memories, maybe one or two memories that you always have when you think back about Halton, anything to do with Halton at all. What’s the memories that you have, that you remember, if you were going to tell maybe two stories about Halton, what would those stories be?
MM: Well you know, the stories is completely different stories for our Wing Commander he was, well at that time he had a car, you know, Wing Commander what’s his name? Newbury. Newbury? And as he was coming to, to the station and two chap was walking, and he say can I give you a lift, you know, it was that station, and says oh yes please. And he say don’t tell the guards I left, don’t go through there, go to the main.
Int: And that was you was it? Oh, I thought it was you that he gave a lift to, but he gave a couple of guys a lift!
MM: He did.
Int: And at weekends, did you get time off at Halton? Did you get time off to go to the local town?
MM: Oh yes, we used to go to Aylesbury dancing, you know and also do dancing in Halton as well.
Int: And when you went off for your day off, or weekend, did you have to go in uniform?
MM: Yes.
Int: So uniform everywhere then. You didn’t meet any nice ladies then, when you were dancing? [Chuckles]
MM: Well!
[Other]: It’s all right dad!
Int: Good. Well that’s lovely. The only other thing I probably, we’ve talked an awful lot about Halton and I think there’s probably some more interesting little stories to come out of Halton. Could we, if you don’t mind, could we just go back to Cammeringham, how long do you think you were at Cammeringham for? Was it literally a couple of months, or was it a year?
MM: No, didn’t stay long.
Int: You didn’t stay very long.
MM: No. That’s why we posted.
Int: Yes.
MM: To the, from Cammeringham been posted to the Wales, you know that.
Int: To Wrexham.
MM: Wrexham.
Int: To Wrexham. So, you were saying that when you were at Cammeringham there wasn’t really a job for you, there was nothing to do.
MM: Cammeringham was just only for staying people.
Int: For the Polish resettlement.
MM: Yes, that’s right.
Int: So when you were there what did you do, each day, was there anything to do at all?
MM: Not really. No. The one chap he had a nice dog, and people’s giving him, sometimes give the dog penny, goes to the NAAFI, took penny and got the cake. [Laugh]
Int: Got the cake! That was the dog brought the cake back!
MM: Oh no!
Int: No, you got the cake for the dog!
MM: No, was for the dog!
Int: Ah right, I’m with you, right, okay. Can you remember when you were at Cammeringham, did you live in the village, in the barracks in the village, or up at the airfield?
MM: The airfield and the train was stopped, like where I was in the first squadron, and the train stop, you just put the hand, and the train stopped and you just can go to Ipswich or that place. Like bus now!
Int: Yes, oh man, that’s interesting.
MM: And a lot of people just playing the cards, you know, the cards.
Int: Yes. And that’s it that was it really, you played cards all day and then had your breakfast, your dinner and your kind of evening meal so that was it: there was nothing for you to do. Most of what’s, well, there is very little left at Cammeringham, or RAF Ingham now. There are a few, just a few nissen huts, a few buildings. The rank that you were at Cammeringham, I imagine the building that we’ve, that we’re renovating, was the building you would have eaten in because it was the airmen’s mess, um, oops, is it the other side round, wait a minute, yup, there we go, [paper shuffling] it probably looks very, very different, and that’s the thing with the kitchen, there was a dining room, and another dining room the other side, and that would have been the Junior ranks mess, up on the edge of the airfield, so I imagine, and that’s what it would have looked like, a computer drawing, so I imagine that’s where you would have eaten. You can hang on to that because it’s, some of it’s in Polish and some of it‘s in English, it just tells you a little bit about what we are doing at RAF Ingham, and you can see Cammeringham there, because obviously it was Cammeringham at the end of the war. It might jog a few memories. And we’ve got the web site as well which has got more photographs on it. I think, did I give you one of our cards beforehand? Did I?
[Other]: I’ve got your card.
Int: You’ve got my card, right that’s okay. But we’ve obviously got the web site and we’ve got a twitter now but we just use it purely and simply to put pictures on there and a little bit about what we’ve done the previous week when we’re doing all the works. We don’t use it as a chat room thing.
MM: And is another one which is from Halton, Sikorsky, when Sikorsky been killed, Mrs Sikorsky, and she invite me, I don’t know, another two chaps, for dinner to her, you know.
Int: To her house.
MM: Well, it’s a big house. And actually we came to London, she was in Baker Street, she was waiting for us, and the first thing we went to Madame Tussaud, and Sikorsky was already in Madame Tussaud. From Madame Tussaud we just walk maybe ten minutes, to big house, that policeman was standing in there [chuckle] and they prepare big meal you know, yes, we stay over there. And the evening we went to the, to the Piccadilly which is what er, the place, what you call it, because that Sikorsky had two sons and they was in Navy or you know, and they took us to the Prince of Wales, on Piccadilly, that was: Prince of Wales Theatre.
Int: The theatre, yes, yes. So you went there that evening. They took you for a night out.
MM: Yeah. The Prince of Wales. I remember that.
Int: And why were chosen to go to the evening meal?
MM: I don’t know!
Int: You hadn’t done something special you were being rewarded for?
MM: No, I don’t know!
Int: And what did your officers say, best behaviour and?
MM: No! It was free over there.
Int: That was free, okay, good.
MM: Yes, that was Prince of Wales.
Int: And when you went for this night, for the meal with General Sikorsky’s wife, and the sons, were you at Halton at that point?
MM: Yes.
Int: Oh, you were still at Halton.
MM: Yes, yes, at Halton.
Int: Again, very interesting, very interesting. Mmm. It creates more questions than answers.
MM: And Sikorsky, always, he was against the, you know, the Polish Army, and the army in Warsaw. He was against that, he said you not going to win with Stalin and because well, two hundred fifty, two hundred fifty thousand people been killed, or you know; destroyed Warsaw completely. But, and he was completely against that, [beep] Sikorsky.
Int: So he didn’t want to fight in Warsaw, he wanted to just -
MM: No, because you’re not going to win.
Int: Not going to win and it would just wipe out –
MM: And they just Ignored that, his advice.
Int: What, I haven’t asked you yet, but I should ask you. Where were you born? What’s your town or city you were born in, in Poland?
MM: The, in 1939 the Lvov which is [indecipherable] there was prisoner of war, er Russian soldiers taken to, from Lvov northward up to Podlesice and their massive [emphasis] horses and prisoners, you know. My mum, she gave some bread to me and I went over and throw it because I, well was not enough food probably, and their horses, massive [emphasis] horses, maybe some of them been probably killed in Kharkiv that time and when, when, because when they first er, I think they in the country, but first, because I used to live not far from railway station, and there was Polish policemen all, that took over by Ukraine and Jewish people, because of us welcoming the, Stalin in that way.
Int: Yes. So you’ve mentioned that you’ve been back to Poland since, did you say you’ve been back to Poland since it’s been free, since Poland was free? In ‘90 or ’91?
MM: Oh, yes.
Int: In 1990 ’91 was it, ‘91 when it became a Republic again, I can’t quite remember, with Lech Walesa?
MM: After that, yeah.
Int: So you haven’t been back to your town or your city to see it? No, you haven’t, no.
[Other]: Dad’s only been back to my mum’s side. [Indecipherable]
Int: Right.
[Other]: But can you tell Geoff where you were born dad? It’s what he asked you!
Int: Yes, I know, yeah.
MM: In the, Bokievka.
[Other]: Bokievka, which is on the Russian side.
Int: It’s on the Russian side then. Or is it still in Poland?
[Other]: It is now -
MM: No, that was, that time, when I born we was not Russian.
[Other]: It was Poland.
MM: No, it wasn’t, it wasn’t even part of Poland.
[Other]: What was it?
MM: Austria.
Int: Oh right.
[Other]: What? So when you were born dad, you were born in Austria?
MM: Austria. Because –
[Other]: Huh? But all the documents it says in Poland.
MM: Well, it’s Poland, yeah, it was Poland, but we been under the Austrian.
Int: Oh, was it the Austro-Hungarian?
MM: Hungarian, yeah.
Int: The Austro-Hungarian kind of part of it, it came up before, post, pre Second World War and all that, possibly.
[Other]: I think where dad now, the village, I think now is Lithuania isn’t it? Or Ukraine?
MM: [Indecipherable] is on the top.
Int: But the village, or the town where you were born -
[Other]: Is now –
Int: Which country is it in now [emphasis]?
[Other]: Lithuania.
Int: Is it Lithuania? Or is it still Poland?
[Other]: What is it then? Ukraine?
MM: Ukraine.
[Other]: Ukraine.
Int: It’s Ukraine, right, okay. So the borders have changed.
MM: Ukraine, Ukraine there.
Int: Okay. Is there anything else you can think of at the moment that you’d like to tell me about your time in the Polish Air Force at all? Anything you might have, because we’ve been talking about so many different subjects, and different times through your time in the Polish Air Force, did you, did you ever, here’s a question, at the end, when you’re finishing in the Polish Air Force, did you, did they allow you to keep any of your badges, or your hat, or anything at all?
MM: Yeah.
Int: Yeah? They allowed you to keep some things. That’s good.
MM: When the coat uniform, when demob only had one uniform, all the rest of them was RAF.
Int: So you kept them for a while. Did you, do you still have any of the badges or did you, have the badges all gone?
MM: I think probably got some buttons.
Int: From your original uniform. That’s very good.
MM: But er, well, we kept the uniform and everything.
Int: Well I hope that at some point in the near future, depending on how things go, we’re obviously hoping to open the Centre, maybe not this year, it might be next year now because we’re waiting for Heritage Lottery Fund, but then we’d love to invite you up, with your family, to come and see what we’re doing in Lincolnshire.
[Other]: Yeah? Do that dad.
Int: We are looking the big Memorial Garden, with the Polish Memorials in it, we’re hoping to open on the 26th of May this next year, with His Excellency the Polish Ambassador’s coming up and it’s going to be that kind of thing.
[Other]: Oh let us know.
Int: Once we’ve firmed everything up.
[Other]: Yeah, let us know.
Int: We will yes, we’ll let you know; it’s a Thursday. We thought that’s a little bit easier for people rather than weekends where it kind of clutters things up a bit, so we’re hoping to do all of that and with all the veterans we’ve found and managed to talk to, and what I have [emphasis] got for you, because you are an armourer, I’ve got some footage, it’s RAF footage, but it’s a training, it’s almost like a training video of how to arm up bombs and how to load and unload.
MM: [Indecipherable]
Int: We’ve got something like that already.
[Other]: What I’m trying to get in my head, is how you can train for four years.
Int: Oh I know, yes.
[Other]: When people dying.
Int: They’d be pushing them out onto the squadrons.
[Other]: They need the men. I just think my dad was told a certain thing to do but they were actually doing a different type of job, if that makes any sense.
Int: Yeah. Test and evaluation in some form, or testing new things, but they were training during that time. Yes, that’d be interesting to dig a little deeper into that. Yes.
[Other]: I can’t, I think dad’s been brainwashed by what they told him.
Int: Well yes, they would have just been doing more training, and more training, but maybe there’s a little bit more. It’ll be interesting to see, when the records come out, if, while you were at Halton, it says you were actually attached to a special section or squadron, you were doing test and evaluation, you know, for these four years, because it’s -
[Other]: So it’s Margaret we need to speak to. Do you have her phone number, dad?
Int: If not, I’ve got it. I can email it to you anyway.
MM: I know her!
[Other]: Well I’m sure you do know her, but we want to get your records. She can send you a copy of your records.
MM: We’re going to the [indecipherable] and she’ll be there.
[Other]: She’ll be there. And you can ask her. You want to ask her there, okay. All right then, we’ll go to –
MM: I’ve got her telephone number.
[Other]: He wants to that, okay.
Int: You might well have already have done this anyway, have you been down to the Sikorsky Institute and Museum? In London, down on King Street.
[Other]: Probably have.
Int: Because that’s the main museum for all kinds of things.
[Other]: Yeah, I’ve been there a very long time ago, but not recently.
Int: If you want to look at any of the archives I think you have to ring them up beforehand and book, to go at a certain time and then they’ll get things out. Once you see what Margaret’s got, it might be a case that they’ve got something to do with that particular Halton thing at, in the Sikorsky Museum. They may be able to bring out photographs, cause they’ve got tremendous, we haven’t even been down there yet to look at stuff to do with the Polish squadrons because we just haven’t had the time, but we know [emphasis] they’ve got film, they’ve got photographs; they’ve got a lot of stuff archived in the Sikorsky Institute.
MM: When I been in training the one, what’s his name, he just went you know, trained and was training and he went and shot down the German plane [laugh] and that Squadron Leader he was, I think he was Canadian, and he was very upset because he say you should stick with the, the, all together, anyhow, but later on he say from now on you are in operational; you done very well.
Int: So there was a Squadron Leader who shot somebody down and he was just there practicing or testing, and then they made him operational. Right.
[Other]: So dad, you were never operational then?
MM: Pardon?
[Other]: Did you shoot down any planes?
MM: No, I didn’t fly!
[Other]: No I know you didn’t fly but did you shoot any planes from ground force, from ground level?
MM: No, ground is different people was doing that, not shooting.
[Other]: So Halton was never attacked?
Int: Quite possibly so, yes, I would imagine they would have had some kind of air raids.
[Other]: So when Halton was attacked by Germans, where would you go? You know, like London, they used to bomb London.
Int: Did you have air raid shelters, under the ground? Were they in the basement of buildings? Or were they separate?
MM: We had air raid shelters, yeah.
Int: You had the shelters to go in.
[Other]: There was a, a drill went, you had to go to air raid, yes, but you didn’t actively shoot down planes.
MM: No, no, that was different people.
[Other]: I know but I’m asking, I’m just asking.
MM: No, there was, you’ve got, with the machine gun you can’t shoot them.
Int: No, exactly. they had to be the bigger, the anti-aircraft guns, yes. Oh, okay. Well, if we find out some more information, I’d like to come back maybe, at another time, for a, to have a chat with you again and we’ll put the camera on a second time. Because there might be some other, we might even find some documents or some photographs or something that explain the kind of job that you were doing a little bit more at Halton and it’ll be interesting to see if there’s a hidden story that perhaps you [emphasis] weren’t aware of, that they were getting you doing.
[Other]: I think they’ve got a [indecipherable] that he wasn’t aware of, that they [emphasis] were aware of.
Int: Because they, you were just, with your Polish colleagues, you were just doing training, but on maybe advanced weapons, and new weapons that were coming out which is why you said it was training because it was new stuff.
[Other]: But it wasn’t training.
MM: Yes, that’s precisely, there you go.
[Other]: But that wasn’t training.
Int: So you were doing testing on new [emphasis] types of weapons because you mentioned rockets didn’t you.
MM: Oh yeah, rockets.
Int: Now rockets didn’t come in until 1944 ’45 and they put them, not under the, not so much under Spitfires, but under Typhoon, the fighter aircraft and Mosquitos.
[Other]: But dad, did you put the bombs onto the planes?
MM: Well –
[Other]: Would you put the bombs under the planes?
MM: I didn’t put them, we just I didn’t do the training.
[Other]: Forget the training, did you physically put the bombs on to the planes?
MM: You don’t understand, that was training only.
[Other]: Well that’s what they told you.
Int: So when you actually did the training, as part of the training did they show you how to attach the rockets under the wings and things?
MM: Yes of course! We were doing that.
[Other]: But did you physically do that?
MM: That was not operational planes!
Int: Yes, I understand, because that was just training, so what they would do is, they would have a plane there, and you would practice putting rockets and things on to.
MM: You put the fuses to the bombs, everything.
Int: So the aircraft was just really for practicing your training, it wasn’t operational; I understand.
MM: Was not operational.
Int: So the aeroplane was almost part of your workshop. That you used it to practice putting the bombs and the rockets on.
MM: Yes, that’s right.
[Other]: But weren’t you kind of interested as to why you were constantly on training? For four years. You know, didn’t you think in your, amongst yourselves, we’re constantly training? Didn’t you think about it?
MM: But aeroplanes so complicated.
[Other]: Yeah, but dad no [sigh].
MM: Turrets and, you know, it’s not so simple you think can learn that in one day.
[Other]: But one year was a sixth of the Second World War! We were only at war for six years so four years is a big chunk.
Int: I think you were very lucky, because you were, it does sound like you were on experimental training for all the new weapons, but they told you that it was just training. But to have kept you there all that time I think you have to have been on a very special testing and evaluation.
MM: Like I prepare wings, then rockets, we have to calculate the pins which is going to shell that – it’s not simple.
[Other]: I’m not saying that dad, but dad.
Int: The timing mechanism on a rocket to when it explodes or was it just explode on impact or at a certain distance or height.
MM: Yes! And when the pilot pressed the button, they used to have a red, or the TNT burns and that shell, that pins.
Int: This, this is an experimental area. They were given rockets, but they’re obviously um, looking, your colleagues knew, they were obviously testing different types of fuse lengths and different fuse, not lengths but timers, for rockets and bombs to work in different ways, so some would be designed to explode above the ground, like an air burst, possibly, ground burst or some other. I think there was a lot of experimental work.
[Other]: So, did you think you were getting bombs to dad that were just straight off the, kind of, um tsk?
Int: I don’t think so much production, these weren’t production, these were, I think what you had Michael was pre-production.
MM: Pre-production. Yes, that makes sense.
Int: It was experimental. People who were coming up with the ideas, bit like Barnes Wallis did with the Bouncing Bomb, and you would have scientists that were going: I want to make this and then your bunch of armourers would be there say, working out how they can make that work.
[Other]: This pre-production. So really they weren’t training, they were testers. But they were told training.
Int: But it was classed as probably training, but they were testing different fuses and different things to work out what would work.
[Other]: Before they went into production.
Int: Possibly so, I think.
[Other]: Right, okay. I think, yes.
Int: I think that’s possibly, just listening to what you’ve told us.
MM: That’s right. Definitely
Int: So I think that’s a very important job, very important. Probably more important than you realised at the time.
[Other]: Yes. So basically you were testing all the prototypes and once you’d tried, agreed. So who would sign it off then? Who was it actually, this is gonna work? Who would sign it off, your chief commander? Who was your top man? Wing Commander, or?
MM: Yeah, would be the Wing Commander was. [Beep]
[Other]: Would have to sign it off.
Int: It would be head of that section probably.
[Other]: Who was head of sections, dad?
Int: Who was in charge of your training area? Would probably have been an officer I presume.
[Other]: Do you remember?
MM: Yes, that was er –
Int: Or a Warrant Officer maybe.
[Other]: So he was probably getting information from other agencies, or other.
Int: Yes, very interesting.
MM: That’s, that’s right.
[Other]: Do you remember the name of your head of training?
MM: Um, just a moment, I try to.
[Other]: Cause I think now, you’ve got your scientists, doing your prototype, next thing.
Int: Coming down to Halton, they’re going: right, here’s the basic idea, let’s see how we can make this work.
[Other]: These guys, let’s, and then -
Int: Look at existing –
[Other]: And then someone signs it off.
Int: Bombs and rockets they’ve got, and whether they needed modifying from the scientists and then they do the armourers part of putting the whole thing together and making it work from an armourer’s point of view. And [emphasis] how do you then fix that onto the underside of the wings or into the bomb bays, because obviously the, all the connections for the bombs and the -
MM: Got some of them, rockets, they’re shooting that, they stick to the tank and exploded.
Int: Yes. There you go. So to pierce armour, any, any good project, these days projectiles will go through some serious armour and then they explode inside the tank. So the first charge blows the hole in the tank, the second charge blows inside the tank.
[Other]: So dad, when you were doing all this, you were, you’re risking your life, every time!
MM: No, I’m testing.
Int: Probably not so much cause it was in a research.
MM: Research and test.
Int: In a research kind of environment so it would be like workshop, laboratory, research and they were working out how to, so that the rockets that were fired – cause they were right at the end of the war – they’d come off fighter planes that shoot, basic, very basic rockets at the end of the forties, but you could hit ground targets, so if you got tanks going across an open ground or something, or something like that, then obviously the fighter planes could get in and then fire the rockets to hit the tanks. But as you were saying, if it hits the outside of the thing and sticks to it, so it’s not going to bounce off, and then it explodes.
MM: Otherwise it can slide that, you know.
Int: There you go there’s a very interesting little piece of information there. That, and that’s something you’ve now remembered, getting something so they’d hit the target, and stick on it, and then explode. Rather than hitting the target and bouncing off.
MM: Bounced, yes.
Int: So there we are.
[Other]: Right. So that’s where your engineering, cause dad ended up being a production engineer, so he used to.
MM: That, you had the people was coming from London and was going teach us, you know.
Int: Yeah. It’s starting to come together now! We’re understanding a little bit more about what you actually did.
[Other]: Right! Yes.
Int: So it was probably -
MM: How to drop the bombs as well.
Int: Yes.
MM: You know, was teaching everything, you know.
Int: Which does explain perhaps why –
[Other]: You weren’t operational, non-operational.
Int: And you didn’t go up through the ranks because you were staying at that experimental, although you think they might have given you another rank or two for a little bit more pay, for the job you were doing! But maybe because that was, it was a shorter time and during the war.
[Other]: Four years is a long time in the war! That’s eighty percent out of four years.
Int: We can, the records, the main records for what happened at Halton research are probably out in the public domain now if you know where to find them, just to find out, test and evaluation centre that would have been there, or a small workshops as part of the armourers. And to be honest, if you’ve got the armourers there, the people that taught the armourers will be more experienced people anyway, so then they’d use some of those instructors, probably attached to, with your father, they’d be like the managers, the site managers, or the supervisors looking after the team of younger workers that were doing the test and evaluation on things.
[Other]: But my feeling is there’s a lot going on behind the scenes here.
Int: Oh, probably so, yeah. I mean that happened through the whole of the Second World War. Not just the Air Ministry, but in the Air Ministry would, there would have been a lot of small, trying new things, test and evaluation. I mean nobody had heard about the bouncing bomb, had they, and that just, that was all built.
[Joanne] Did you test the bouncing ball dad?
MM: No.
[Other]: Did you do anything with nuclear war? That nuclear?
Int: No.
MM: No. They was testing in Wales that, yeah.
Int: Yes, I mean the bouncing bomb was all done down at um, Teddington, Teddington Lock, the big old, the big water tanks that they had down there, in towards London. I don’t know what, I don’t know where all the nuclear stuff was done.
[Other]: Wales, dad said it was Wales.
Int: Wales.
MM: Wales, that was in Wales.
Int: Probably in and around the old quarries and things like that where you have low population.
MM: They was doing some in Wales, testing.
[Other]: Oh, very interesting, I didn’t know this.
Int: There we are. It’s interesting sometimes, when things, as people relax a little bit when we have the conversations, little things do tend to come out, so, and the nice thing is we’ve captured it all now so we can put it on to a disc so that if you need to look back and remember points that perhaps you’ll forget about, and then you think ‘oh yes, I said that’, so, and that’s, so it’ll help Joanne as well cause if you get the bug and start doing a bit of research we’ve got at least some ground area now.
[Other]: So, in your testing evaluation school, how many Polish people were there? Sixty, seventy?
MM: No, that was, there was I think six, was five hundred.
[Other]: Five hundred?
MM: But different sections!
[Other]: Yeah, but in your [emphasis] section?
MM: In my section er -
[Other]: Do you remember dad?
MM: No. In my section was [pause].
Int: Five hundred would have been probably for the whole camp. With the standard training for armourers in different points, but then -
[Other]: I can’t believe that dad.
MM: Thirty or forty.
[Other]: Thirty, so it’s quite a small group.
Int: Small group, concentrate on certain things.
[Other]: Concentrate, yeah.
MM: Thirty or forty there was, yeah.
[Other]: And all the other groups, you knew all the other groups, yeah?
MM: Well one actually, he was instructor, he went to Argentina and I think he passed away long time ago.
[Other]: So, so the friends that you see at your monthly Polish Air Force lunch, they used to be in Northolt, Halton, with you, yes? No? Yes?
Int: The people that you have lunch with, each month, your friends now [emphasis] when you see them each month now.
[Other]: They were at Halton.
Int: Are they the people from Halton, or are they just Polish Air Force people that you’ve met since?
MM: No, they’re probably different.
Int: From different things, right. Okay
MM: You know, from different.
Int: Well thank you very, very much.
MM: Not so many left now [laugh].
[Other]: Very interesting.
Int: No! Well thank you very, very much Michael, find where the turn off switch is.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with Mieczyslaw Maryszczak
Description
An account of the resource
Mieczyslaw Maryszczak was born in Bokyivka, Ukraine and served in the Polish Army and then the Polish Air Force. An early memory of the war is throwing bread to starving Russian prisoners being marched from Lviv to Podlesice. At seventeen he was in the Polish Army testing repaired tanks in Gaza. After the Allied victory at Alamein he went to Egypt where he joined the Polish Air Force, sailing via South Africa to Liverpool to train at RAF Halton as an armourer.
At RAF Halton he met fellow Poles from 303 Squadron who were there for three months training. He, however, was there for four years and received training very good on all types of armament and explosives, possibly in the context of weapon research and development.
He was there on VE Day but says the Poles didn't celebrate because of the Yalta agreement. He also recalls how, when some Russians visited, they were locked in a workshop out of the way. He recalls the barrack rooms and how they cheated the midnight bed checks when some were still out dancing in Aylesbury. He also says that the food was cooked by Italian prisoners and was very good.
In 1946 Michael went to RAF Cammeringham pending demobilisation. He was then detached to 48 Maintenance Unit at Wrexham, where he received and checked aircraft guns, before going to RAF Framlingham to await resettlement or repatriation.
Some Polish airmen returned to Poland but Mieczyslaw, by then know as Michael, went to London for resettlement. He claimed that trade unions didn't want the Poles and tried to send them into the mines and foundries but he refused and found a job making spectacles. He met his wife, who is also Polish, in 1960.
In London Michael attended social events and dinners at the Polish Club. He was awarded the Polish Freedom Medal in about 1990 or 1991.
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Polskie Siły Powietrzne
Language
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eng
Type
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Sound
Format
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01:31:02 audio recording
Identifier
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SRAFIngham19410620v070001-Audio
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
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.
Creator
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Geoff Burton
Contributor
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Anne-Marie Watson
Andy Fitter
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1942
1943
1944
1945
1945-05-08
1946
1947
1948
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Egypt
Gaza Strip
Great Britain
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Shropshire
England--Suffolk
England--Lincoln
England--London
England--Wolverhampton
Middle East--Palestine
Wales
Wales--Wrexham
Ukraine
Poland
Poland--Kraków
303 Squadron
demobilisation
ground crew
ground personnel
military living conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
RAF Cosford
RAF Framlingham
RAF Halton
RAF Ingham
RAF Wrexham
recruitment
shelter
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2092/34803/SRAFIngham19410620v060001-Audio.1.mp3
82e9cb8ce17b90dcac1201367cf6a3ee
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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RAF Ingham Heritage Group. Clarke, Marion
Clark, Marion
Description
An account of the resource
Five items. An oral history interview with Marion Clark and four photographs.
Date
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2016-11-14
Publisher
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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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RAF Ingham
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MC: The American President’s daughters, and I used to have to go and get his car and take it to be serviced and whatnot.
Int: So he was a Polish prince then was he?
MC: Prince, yes, Prince Razduvu, I don’t know if I’m pronouncing quite right but yes, and he was there, cause he spoke -
Int: So he was a pilot then was he?
MC: I’m not sure, he was a commander, he had, in charge of one of the squadrons, and he married the American President’s, one of the daughters.
Int: Oh crikey!
MC: I used to go and get his car and do you know, it reeked of cigarettes, oh it was dreadful inside! [Laugh] Oh yes.
Int: So Marion, obviously as we have a chat I’ll ask you a few questions, but obviously you, you remember quite clearly all the you know, the various incidents and things that happened there. I’m hoping that from -
MC: In fact one of the things and I, the standard van that I was driving at the time was going round the flights, caught fire under the nose of one of these bombers that was loaded up for the night’s mission! [Laugh] People, the men round the aircraft, cause there was always someone fiddling around and putting it through its paces and whatnot, they threw their jackets on it, on the engine.
Int: This was your engine of your vehicle?
MC: Yes, of my vehicle, I was sitting in it and you know, it caught fire! And it was under the nose of this bomber loaded with bombs, [laugh] so there was great consternation and throwing of coats and things. Yes.
Int: Was Hemswell your first, your first posting?
MC: Yes, it was, yes, well you know you have to go to a Training Depot.
Int: Yes, to do your training.
MC: Norwich or somewhere, and then I was posted, they asked you where you’d like to go, which county, and they said oh, don’t put where you really want to go because you won’t get there, you know, they’ll cross it out. Well I thought that’s stupid, I’ll put Lincolnshire, there’s plenty of aerodromes there and I got to Hemswell.
Int: To Hemswell. Did you, when you got there, had you already got your uniform?
MC: No, I think it was delivered to, to me there, you know, everything. I was a volunteer, I wasn’t, you know, subjected to regulation that makes you go.
Int: Conscription or anything like that.
MC: I wore my VR very proudly!
Int: Oh right! So you got your VR.
MC: Volunteer.
Int: Even though you were, it was during the war years, you were still classed as a volunteer if you, rather then civilian conscription.
MC: Well I don’t know what sort of difference it made, whether it made a difference to the uniform, because I thought somehow it was a nicer cloth, my uniform, you know, smoother cloth, so I don’t know whether that was why I got it, I don’t know.
Int: Did you always decide you wanted to be, you know, an MT driver or did you try to get in to a different trade?
MC: No! They tried to, when I went for my first interview, to get me to go to signals.
Int: Oh right.
MC: Yes, they tried to push me to signals and I thought no, I want to be outside, being a country girl.
Int: Yes. Where were you actually born then? Where were you born?
MC: I was born in Leeds actually, in Yorkshire.
Int: Oh right. But outside Leeds when you say you were a country girl.
MC: And then my father’s parents farmed at Swayfield, I don’t know whether you know it do you? No, and they farmed there and that’s how I suppose, and my mother was brought up at Little Bytham which is a little village, not far away.
Int: So the idea of being out in the open in the fresh air suited you really well.
MC: Yes, I didn’t want to be cooped up, and I couldn’t, you know, if you’re pushing those things around like they do in signals and your friend had got killed or was shot down, I thought it must have been too awful.
Int: But obviously your job, obviously, did you have different jobs within the driving, within the MT Section?
MC: You had to be able to drive anything: tractors, crew buses, anything.
Int: Right, so even the bigger lorries they had?
MC: Oh yes, one of my worst moments was down, I was down Gainsborough with this six-wheeled vehicle and I had to back it alongside the canal where there was a sheer drop into the River Trent so I was very nervous about that one!
Int: Did you have to have somebody marshalling you back, somebody standing there?
MC: Yes, yes I did! [Laughter]
Int: I’m not surprised.
MC: I mean, well, one of the WAAF drivers down near London, Richmond way I think, or somewhere down there, actually did drown; she went into the river in her motor car.
Int: Really, oh.
MC: So I got this in, at the back of my mind I think [laugh] and I got a six wheel lorry.
Int: Did you, when you, especially at Hemswell first of all, was it, did you always work like eight in the morning till kind of like tea time or did you work evenings and nights and things?
MC: That’s an interesting thing, we used to do a sort of day duty for about two weeks and then we had to do a night duty and the hours there were so long, you went on at lunchtime, worked all through the afternoon and all through the night, and coming off you did it the opposite way round, was hours and hours. They wouldn’t to do it today, would they. I’d gone to sleep at the wheel driving down to Gainsborough to get the morning mail, [laugh] I bumped over the side of the road and thought oh!
Int: And woke up! Did most of your driving just take place on the base though did it, at Hemswell?
MC: A lot of it, oh yes.
Int: Little kind of –
MC: Yes, I went to Waddington and different aerodromes round about. Swinderby was a bomb dump and so you went there if you were collecting.
Int: Oh, was it really? Oh that’s interesting.
MC: Oh yes, bomb dump there, at Swinderby.
Int: And obviously there was the big bomb dump over at Faldingworth as well, wasn’t there.
MC: Yes. And there was one outside Castle Bytham actually, Stockhenhall Wood.
Int: Right. But there would have been a bomb dump on Hemswell obviously.
MC: Oh yes, the bombs were down at the side, yes.
Int: So did you do that? Because I have a, I’ll show you a picture later, which I’ve got, which shows a WAAF riding one of the tractors pulling the bomb trailer where you had perhaps five, six, seven trollies.
MC: Oh yes, they used these sort of trailers, they used to take them out by tractor and take them round to the different dispersals where the aircraft were.
Int: And that was one of your jobs as well, was it?
MC: No, I never did that, no.
Int: Oh right.
MC: I never pulled the bombs, it was a man usually.
Int: Oh right, okay, probably through the armourers. Right.
MC: Yes, yes, exactly.
Int: So you did mention in your earlier interview that obviously one of your jobs that you had to do was to pick the crews up.
MC: Oh yes.
Int: Cause obviously most of it was night bombing and looking at the er, the flying records from Ingham in particular, they often took off at either ten or eleven in the evening and got then got back at about three or four in the morning depending on how long the raid was.
MC: Oh yes. Yes, and there were no heaters in the vehicles!
Int: Really! Not even in the cab?
MC: No, when you got out of the cab, put your feet to the ground it really hurt; we were so cold! No, the only thing was, when we got the Bedford QL lorry, the engine was inside and so it was a little bit warmer.
Int: Gave off a little more warmth.
MC: There was no heaters in vehicles, no, in fact sometimes there were no windows in the vehicles.
Int: Did they allow you to wear trousers instead of skirts then, to keep you warm, or not?
MC: Oh yes, I got it trousers, and yes, oh no, it was very primitive. Fancy having no heaters, you know, in the winter time when it was so cold. Oh, poor little things, we were frozen.
Int: Exactly, living, living as I do in up that part of the country!
MC: And washing in cold water at Ingham, in the morning!
Int: Really!
MC: Yes!
Int: Well that was what I was going to ask you about now, obviously you went to Ingham just for one stretch, didn’t you.
MC: Yes, I can’t remember, but it was months I think, possibly about nine months or about a year, something like that.
Int: So I wonder if that, if it was 1942 or 1943?
MC: Oh, I was there in ’42.
Int: So it would probably be ’42 then maybe, because they went, 300 -
MC: When I say I was there, I was at Hemswell.
Int: But you used to come, used to –
MC: But I went to Ingham, yes.
Int: Right. Did you actually, so you didn’t actually live at any point, you didn’t live at Ingham, and on the base.
MC: Oh, yes I did. Oh yes, I lived there. We lived in nissen huts, did I not tell you?
Int: Right. You did, you mentioned that.
MC: Put pigs in there in Norfolk, and the condensation used to drop from the sort of tin plate or whatever, and it used to freeze on your blanket! When you woke up in the morning those little icicles on the cloth.
Int: I’ve seen some pictures where you had a like a little pot bellied stove in the middle of the room with all the beds round the side Is that how it was for you cause I’m only guessing?
MC: Yes, oh yes, and if you weren’t there when they brought the coal or coke or whatever it was they were putting in the things, if you weren’t there you just didn’t get any and so you probably were a few days without any fuel. You see being MT you’re often out, not on the station, when the coals arrived and everyone rushed with buckets and boxes and of course you were probably sitting in a vehicle round Lincoln somewhere.
Int: Was, was your accommodation, was it a big room with lots of beds or did you have small rooms?
Mc: At Ingham they were sort of, I should think, probably four, five or six people in one of these nissen huts.
Int: Right, okay.
MC: It was better at Hemswell because you had a sort of construction with a corridor down the middle and rooms off each side and there were two WAAFs in each room, that was better – and hot water. [Chuckle] I mean you had to wash your smalls and things you see.
Int: Of course yes, cause you wouldn’t have had a laundry or anything, no! So how did you get everything dry, that’s?
MC: I know, it was a nightmare!
Int: Were there lots of little clothes lines around the um, around the big heater or boiler?
MC: You did the best you could.
Int: Best you could. My goodness me.
MC: I wouldn’t like to go through that part of it again.
Int: No, and obviously you had, when you were at, when you were working at Ingham, you had your meals in the airmen’s mess. Now this is the building that we are obviously, we’re renovating at the moment.
MC: Well, I’ll tell you what.
Int: What do you remember of that?
MC: Our little, where the living quarters were, and where we slept, was quite a long way away away from the station, and you know, we didn’t bother with breakfast because it was such a thing getting up and getting washed and everything and we had, when the NAAFI van came round at ten o’clock, we had hot scones and er, coffee and things like that which was our breakfast really. We just stood up eating these lovely warm scones [chuckle] and having a hot sweet drink, you know.
Int: Was that something that was provided or did you have to actually pay for that at the NAAFI van?
MC: We had to pay for that, yes, and do you know much we got a week?
Int: Oh go on then, this would be like your wages would it? Yes, go one then.
MC: Ten shillings.
Int: Ten shillings!
MC: Ten shillings.
Int: But what would ten shillings have bought you in those days, per week?
MC: Well, we had to get brasso for the buttons, buy soap, buy shampoos for your hair, buy newspapers, buy your mugs of tea in the NAAFI, buy your bus fare home, you know; I mean it soon disappeared. And of course we were ultra smart, we were, at Hemswell. We had lisle stockings which were provided by the Air Force, they were much finer, you know, and several things like that. What else did we buy? Well I bought Van Heusen collars because they were smarter and stiffer and better than the ones provided, and of course we had, we bought our best shoes because they weren’t clodhoppers like those provided, and if you wanted to go to a dance or some function, you wanted your best shoes on.
Int: Best shoes.
MC: I had a Squadron Leader’s wife used to borrow mine if she was going dancing, Spottiswood, and I think he came to Cranwell not very long ago, because there was something in the local newspaper and I thought well I don’t think there could be, I think he’s Wing Commander now, I don’t think there could be two of them like that, and his wife was a great friend of mine, but anyway he got her posted to be near him, so I had to say goodbye to her.
Int: Ah, that’s nice, isn’t it, when you could actually provide. So when you went to the dances did you, did you wear a nice dress?
MC: Oh yes, I had a best uniform.
Int: Oh, so you still had to go to the dances in uniform? You couldn’t go in what you think of as civvies, a nice colourful dress then.
MC: No. Do you know, that’s one of the things, when the war was over, that I most wanted, a lovely summer dresses made of pure cotton.
Int: That wasn’t uniform.
MC: You couldn’t get it during the war.
Int: So when you were, when you were at Ingham then, and obviously you’ve mentioned about your accommodation was quite a way up from the station.
MC: Oh yes. And it was shielded by trees and I thought well that’s because they wanted, any daytime raids, they wanted to sort of have a, there were quite a few trees round where the WAAF quarters were, and I thought it was you know, just shielding it from the enemy.
Int: Ah, yes. Because obviously you were fairly near to Fillingham Castle as well, weren’t you.
MC: Yes, yes.
Int: That was just, was the other side of the trees.
MC: I have lovely memories of that because when I organised a dance for the MT Section and I was anxious to have flyers everywhere and they let us go for the whole day, several friends of mine, some from the MT, and we collected daffodils and made the place all beautiful, for the dance.
Int: Ahh. If you, if you get a chance, at some point, perhaps later in the summer, I don’t know whether your sister, does your sister drive at all?
MC: Yes.
Int: It would be lovely to –
MC: I drive!
Int: Oh, do you.
MC: My car’s sitting there, and it’s taxed and insured and everything but I’ve got a cataract coming in my left eye so they won’t allow me to drive.
Int: So it’s, well maybe if your sister, maybe later in the summer, cause I’m away, we’d love you to, like to invite you up there, not only from your benefit to see what’s there now, and there are still a couple of the old WAAF nissen huts there.
MC: Oh lovely!
Int: They’re in poor condition I must say.
MC: [Laugh] I’m not surprised!
Int: Because the farmer uses them now, the rest, unfortunately all the rest of the huts have gone. Were they, were all the WAAF huts, were they all metal or were there some wooden ones as well?
MC: Oh no, they were metal, like the ones in Norfolk they put the pigs in!
Int: In that case they’ve all gone bar two of them, but the airmens’ mess is still there and that’s obviously, you had the two dining rooms either side and the kitchen in the middle and you used to come up to the servery basically, and get your food. Do you have any kind of, do you have any recollections? You must have had some lunch.
MC: I think where the food was served was in the main station, wasn’t it, the main part of the station, that’s why we had such a long walk for breakfast.
Int: Yes, it’s just to the north of the actual airfield, but it’s between where you were billeted, and the actual airfield, it’s a bit to the north, it certainly is the only airmens’ mess that was there so I think that probably is the building but it’s across several fields to get from where you were sleeping.
MC: Well it was quite a distance, that’s why we didn’t bother in the end.
Int: Bother with breakfast, no.
MC: We went to the NAAFI van that came at half past ten, with everything warm and nice.
Int: Where was your erm, at Ingham, where was the MT yard or where you had all your vehicles at Ingham? Can you?
MC: Well [sigh] there was the main entrance, a sort of gateway, you know, and then I think it was on the right hand side. I think it was on the right hand side. I can remember that entrance going in through the, where they used to lift up the gate and things but I can’t remember which side it was on. No. 199 Squadron I can remember quite well being there. They had a lot of bicycles round the place, you know, used to cycle from one place to another.
Int: They were certainly there from February to June of 1943, so that kind of, that pins the time.
MC: Well I went to Hemswell in ’42.
Int: Right, and obviously 300 Squadron.
MC: And then from Hemswell I only was a short time at Ingham, and then I went back to Hemswell again.
Int: Right, but the fact that you remember 199 Squadron means you must have been going to Ingham between February and June of 1940 because that’s the only time they were at Ingham, between that period.
MC: Yes, I can remember that, yes.
Int: So the Poles weren’t actually at Ingham at that point, it was just purely 199.
MC: It seems to me they came later.
Int: Right.
MC: That’s what I think. But I can remember 199 Squadron, and we had a Medical Officer, and if they were going on a long mission, a ten hour, he used to go round to each aircraft and give the men pills which would keep them awake because it was a long mission. And there was a pub backing on to the perimeter of the airfield. Did you know that?
Int: The Windmill pub? Was it call the Windmill pub?
MC: When we, when they had all gone, when we had all done, the medical officer and I used to nip in to the back of the pub when the back of the pub used to come right up to the perimeter. Have a quick drink. [Laugh]
Int: Did you, um, I think you were saying before that you used to, one of your jobs, fortunately or unfortunately, was to go and collect the crews before they flew, and take them.
MC: Yes it was, most of the time, yes.
Int: Can you tell me a little bit about that?
MC: Only about six of us used to do the crew duty and I was one of them and then they had two others, yes. One was a very pretty girl, blonde and everything, but in the end some of the crews wouldn’t go, didn’t want her taking them out, because they thought she was unlucky; she lost such a lot of crews that never came back.
Int: Oh dear.
MC: But I never had that problem, you know, so they used to come and go out with me. [Chuckle]
Int: So what, can you talk me through what used to happen then, from you, for you picking them up, cause obviously you picked them up, there must have been set routines that they did and set places they had to go to.
MC: Oh yes, we had to go round the perimeter to the dispersal and you know, pick them up when they came in. Of course we were in, sitting underneath the control tower, or up in the Control Tower sometimes, and then when they were calling up permission to land and you know, and wanting any news about the weather or runway or anything, we then used to set in motion, we’d to go scampering downstairs and go out and pick them up, so overjoyed to see them back again. There was only one thing, when the Poles came they used to relieve themselves when they got out of the aircraft and I’d be sitting there with my lights on and they used to come round the front so I used pick up my book and pretend I was reading. [Laughter] English people didn’t do that, it was only the Poles. Strange that, wasn’t it.
Int: How did you know, because at Ingham there were about thirty different aircraft dispersals, you know, what we call the frying pans, the concrete pan where each of the, we’ve looked on maps and things and we can’t see any numbering system or letters. How did you know what, in those days was there a different number for each kind of aircraft dispersal, or was it a letter, or something?
MC: Oh yes, they all knew their dispersal because they’d been working, and the engineers would be working on during the day and they had the same crew sort of in six months time, still working.
Int: I was just wondering from your point of view when you came down from air traffic control to drive to the dispersal, did air traffic, did they have a numbering system so you know, you’re going to dispersal number twenty three or seventeen or something?
MC: No, they didn’t have a number, not that I’m aware of.
Int: Not at all, no. Just pointed you, he’s going over to that one, or you just watched to see.
MC: Yes, yes. Well you knew by the name of the crew.
Int: Ah right, okay.
MC: You see, you knew where you were going because unless something happened they usually flew the same aircraft, so they you know, A for Able. Do you know, one of the funniest things, they had a large Humber Snipe, they were beautiful motor car, and this was all yellow and I had to drive out.
Int: Yellow!
MC: Drive round the dispersal, come out again and the aircraft was following me all the time, I was taking them out to the dispersal and I don’t, it really was a bit frightening when you first do it, because you’re aware of this coming up behind you and you think they’re doing it on purpose, to make you feel nervous, but they’re not that because that was the accelerator they were pushing you see, so they were coming along in jerks and you were driving this yellow Humber Snipe with ‘Follow Me’ up here!
Int: Oh, so they had it on in those did it? I’ve seen the Americans have it – so it actually said ‘Follow Me’ on the roof did it? Oh my goodness me!
MC: Yes. It was a great joke, yes.
Int: So this thing stood out a little bit, being painted yellow then!
MC: Yes, we thought it was funny, and of course they were sniggering when the aircrew came out of the aircraft – ‘Follow Me’, [laugh] that was the new thing when I went back to Hemswell from Ingham.
Int: Oh right, but did they have them at Ingham, the ‘Follow Me’?
MC: No, they didn’t. That was the only one I ever saw.
Int: They just had the yellow vehicle.
MC: ‘Follow Me’, and of course it’s a bit frightening because they’ve got a huge roar, those Merlin engines.
Int: The engine behind you, yes.
MC: Brr, and then there’d be a pause and then brr, another pause, yes.
Int: So this yellow car, was the yellow car at Ingham then, or just at Hemswell.
MC: Hemswell. Used to call it the yellow peril.
Int: The yellow peril!
MC: And you used to drive up to dispersal point, circle the dispersal point with the yellow peril and then come out again and then the aircraft.
Int: Do the same, do the same thing. Crikey. But then did you have to then rush back, to come back with the lorry or the bus for them?
MC: Oh yes, once they were in, once they were in, yes. Back to the Control Tower.
Int: To pick up the other vehicle, to then come straight back out to pick them up from the aircraft?
MC: Well that was when I was doing the, driving the yellow peril, other times, when you were just driving the ordinary crew bus, you just went out to the dispersal and waited for them to get in.
Int: Oh I see, somebody else was doing the crew bus while you were doing the yellow peril then.
MC: Yes, and they didn’t have it all the time. It was a new invention while we were there: it was the newest, you know.
Int: The latest idea.
MC: Yes. We didn’t have it all the time, when I first went there, we didn’t have it, we just used to say A-Able landed, well you were waiting, watching it land and then you had to go out and pick them up.
Int: When you were at Ingham, driving at Ingham, did you have to go up the Control Tower then for waiting for the crews to come back?
MC: No, no, as far as I know, it was you know, very sort of laid back, I mean you never used to do that at Ingham, no. No, I don’t know how they managed to, I can’t remember. I used to be helping the sergeant out at the Control Tower if there was an aircraft coming back early, you know, they’d all, as they were flying over the coast one developed trouble or something and came back early, cause we had to be on stand-by in case that happened. And this sergeant from the Control Tower seemed to be doing most of the work then. Yes. But at Ingham, erm, at Hemswell of course they had a Squadron Leader up in the Control Tower there and it was all very different.
Int: Yes, very much a bigger station wasn’t it, yes, certainly. I mean obviously the station, for Ingham, the Station Headquarters was down in the village. I don’t know whether you remember that? Perhaps didn’t go down into the village much.
MC: No, I don’t. I never went down into the village, no.
Int: It’s interesting that you were housed, or billeted, up on the, just to the north of the airfield at RAF Ingham, when you were so close to Hemswell. You’d think they’d have kept you at Hemswell.
MC: Yes. It was on the way to Hemswell.
Int: Indeed! Yes.
MC: Yes, it was on the way to Hemswell. I remember there was a sort of a spinney, and I thought oh well they’ve picked the right place because the nissen huts are sort of probably covered partly, you know, from above, by the trees.
Int: I think so, and the spinney is still there, if it’s the same one I’m thinking of.
MC: Oh it’s still there is it?
Int: Yes, along the front and down the side as well. Very much so.
MC: Yes. So you can see what a long way we had to walk for breakfast!
Int: You can now. The fields, the fields are very much open now, but it’s still a long, you know, it’s a good five or ten minutes trek to get to the airmens’ mess.
MC: Would you say about a quarter of a mile?
Int: I think so, possibly yes.
MC: That’s what I thought.
Int: And you probably wouldn’t have gone straight across the ploughed field, would you, you’d have gone along the road or something, and that’s where the airmen’s mess is. It’s on the edge of another little wood, or a small spinney, a bit further down.
MC: Yes.
Int: We found, when we were digging around, we found a few of the old mugs.
MC: Oh did you!
Int: Because you had the white mugs, but on the bottom of it, it was by people like Wedgewood and some of the main pottery makers, but it says: ‘For the Air Ministry’ 1942 or ‘43. We’ve not found a complete one yet, we’ve found lots of broken pieces.
MC: Oh, what a shame.
Int: And one or two knives and forks with NAAFI written on them, where people, for whatever reason, had thrown them out the windows or just got rid of them. So we have found quite a few little artefacts around, so.
MC: Oh, that’s nice.
Int: So when you come for the visit, it would be lovely to show you round and to show you what we’ve actually done.
MC: That would be great. Yes.
Int: So did you, obviously you must have had, did you get just like one or two days off a week? Did they give you days off or not?
MC: Do you know I really can’t remember. I remember going down into Lincoln on some days, when there was transport, but er, I can’t, I can remember coming home and er, but it wasn’t more than a, one day a week. I think you had to work until your leave came up. I think it was just about one day a week.
Int: And then you just used to catch, was it service transport, was it the military transport, or was it like the normal bus that ran into Lincoln?
MC: No, they provided transport down into Lincoln.
Int: And that’s where you caught the train I presume did you, when you wanted to go home to Leeds, or not?
MC: No, I caught the bus actually, because at that time my mother was living in Castle Bytham. Which is difficult to get to when there’s no train going. Well, there used to be trains running through there but there’s not any more, after Beeching, you know.
Int: Yes, indeed.
MC: We had a wonderful train service, even got an evening paper in the village and it came from Leicester, the train, and went through to Spalding and right to the coast.
Int: Oh right!
MC: Yes. And it was Beeching that cut that out. Yes, we used to get an evening paper.
Int: So what would you say, what are the memorable things about working at Hemswell and Ingham? I mean there must be some day-to-day funny situations that occurred that you remember to this day?
MC: Well I always remember the buzz that you knew when operations were on. No, no one had to come and tell you because everyone was rushing around and you know, doing things. They used to issue a Battle Order in the morning and if it was brandy we were operating, if it was lemonade they were standing down. But, I think that, it really impressed me, that did, how everyone sprang into a quicker pace, and you know, you knew if you were on the station, oh yes they would be operating tonight.
Int: Operating tonight.
MC: And another thing is, it was so nice, that when the war was just finishing, they flew over to Holland a lot to drop food, for all those people that were starving you know.
Int: Operation Manna.
MC: Yes.
Int: Was it called Operation Manna?
MC: Yes. They were going to allow so many people to go and they had to volunteer. Well I volunteered but unfortunately the day it was my turn and they came for me, I was at home on leave, so was sorry about that, cause they said they were waving tablecloths and you know.
Int: Ah, that’s tremendous.
MC: They were so pleased to see the British Air Force.
Int: We’ve looked at the operational records and it shows that right at the end of the war, RAF Ingham was used with the big hangars that they’d got to store a lot of the food for Operation Manna so I presume that yourself and other people that were on the MT Section, the transport, would have probably come down to pick up the food to take it back to Hemswell to put it on the aircraft did you, or were the aircraft drops from Hemswell or from other?
MC: Oh, well I think they went from other stations but I know Hemswell sent quite a bit.
Int: Sent some stuff on Operation Manna, cause we found records.
MC: I’m so sorry that I missed it, you know. I thought oh that would have been lovely.
Int: That was your one opportunity you had a chance to go in the aircraft then.
MC: Well I had been in a Wellington bomber, I think told you before, and I did go in a Lancaster when he was evening exercises, it was in the summer time, what we used to call circuits and bumps, you know, and we got a, did a circuit and we landed and got going again and the tyre burst so the aircraft sort of went over sideways a bit, [laugh] but er, no, yes, I’ve been in a Lancaster and I went in a Wellington as well.
Int: Oh, I am so envious that you’ve actually flown in a Wellington, because of course there are no airworthy Wellingtons, there’s only two, two Wellingtons in existence now: one’s down at the Hendon, the RAF Museum at Hendon, and the other one is at Brooklands, where they were originally made.
MC: Oh really!
Int: By obviously Vickers Armstrong at the time.
MC: How lovely, yes. It was lovely, because we flew, it was a training exercise obviously, for the aircrew, otherwise I wouldn’t have been on it; they were just sort of giving me a free, you know, taste. We flew all around Lincoln Cathedral, all round there and do you know, it looked so beautiful, it looked like the tooth fairy in those original advert for toothpaste I thought how beautiful it was, it was really lovely. I told you the groundcrew were saying oh I wouldn’t go in that, it’s got a hole in the canvas or something! No, it was lovely aircraft, yes.
Int: Oh, that’s tremendous, yes.
MC: I was quite attached to the Wellingtons, a sort of tail coming up.
Int: I know. Not perhaps the prettiest of aircraft but certainly very much the robust, and they made more of those than they did of Lancasters during the war, so, but it’s just that the Lancaster I think because it’s, it looks a more, I don’t know, pretty’s not the right word to use, but.
MC: Bit more aggressive, isn’t it.
Int: Yes, and maybe a little bit more graceful. The Wellington always looked a bit short and chunky didn’t it, but a very, very good bomber and that’s why they kept going for so long I think.
MC: I can remember a crew saying to me, my boyfriend’s crew actually, and he said we’ve got the newest and fastest bombers and they’d just had a delivery of the Lancasters and I thought well a big step up from the Wellingtons, weren’t they.
Int; Very much so, power wise and the amount they could carry. Did you stay as a WAAF right to the end of the war, did you?
MC: Well no, when they finished operating and dropping bombs, I was sent down to Air Ministry in London.
Int: Oh right.
MC: And at that time they were bringing a lot of sensitive stuff back from Germany and I was taking um, high ranking officers out to, Hendon is it?
INT: Hendon, yes.
MC: RAF thing, and they were bringing all this fibreglass things and all sorts of things back and, it was MI5 really, work, [laughter] so I can understand a bit of your setup! And they were bringing this stuff back and this Wing Commander used to want to go out and have a look at this stuff and check it I suppose and do things like that and I had to drive him round there.
Int: So you did a lot of driving round London then really.
MC: What a change from driving round Hemswell to Lincoln! I was terrified the first few days.
Int: I’m not surprised.
MC: Because you got round the, I can’t remember the name of the place in London, round that corner, some corner in London, and the traffic, they used to come up right almost scraping the paint off your car - course it wasn’t my car, I didn’t have to worry about the expense.
Int: No!
MC: I still didn’t want to crash and they were dreadful, round Hyde Park Corner, any time from three thirty, was a nightmare, after coming from the lovely ribbon like roads of Lincolnshire.
Int: Indeed yes. And you occasionally met another vehicle coming the other way and that was about it.
MC: Well the taxi drivers used to push in in front of you and I got as bad as they were in the end, you know, pushing in.
Int: You get used to it, don’t you, yes.
MC: But er, no, I wouldn’t like to have to do it today!
Int: So, just going back a little bit to when you were talking about when you were at Ingham, did you make many good friends at Ingham, did you have?
MC: Oh yes, yes, it was nice.
Int: I suppose all the girls that were in your -
MC: Oh yes, I was going to show you some photographs. Shall I put the kettle on?
Int: Please. I’ll just turn this off for a moment as well.
MC: If you want to use the bathroom it’s upstairs.
Int: Thank you. It’s still not the same, looking at anything, looking at a picture or something that’s written down, is almost two dimensional, the minute I talk to you or anybody like yourself that were there as veterans, it makes it three dimensional, it’s so, so different. Please, if you care to take a seat and then I’ll sit next to you have a look at the photographs.
MC: Yes. We’ll have tea.
Int: Oh yes, we drink tea first. Oof. [Crockery sounds]
MC: Oh yes, it’s, there was a spirit about, everyone seemed to be willing to help everyone else, you know, you’ll never get that again, I think, quite like that.
Int: I don’t think you do these days, with most young people these days, they’re out for themselves rather than the collective spirit.
MC: Yes. Exactly. Yes, it was a wonderful time to be alive, really. You know the awful things were happening but at least you could help and do something about it.
Int: You felt what you were doing, as you said, very long hours through the night.
MC: Oh yes.
Int: But you felt at least you were doing your part on the ground whereas the aircrew were doing their part in the air.
MC: You now, Air Commodore Cousins that made that film, I’ve got a copy of it: ‘The Night Bomber’, have you seen it?
Int: The one from Hemswell? Yes, it’s like twenty four hours in the day, yes.
MC: Yes. Exactly. Well Air Commodore Cousins was a Group Captain in charge of Hemswell, at one time, and then he was promoted and left it, but he made the film after he left Hemswell, but he was able to go and have the hangars done and everything organised for him – for the film. But he came in, I was on night duty actually, in MT Section, and he came in, had a look round, about two in the morning, and you know what it was like, there was no one there to have tea cloths or dish cloths or any washing up things, there was just a tiny little basin with cold water and you had to put water on the stove, you know the sort of stoves they had, to make the tea, so I made him some tea and I said I’m sorry, I must apologise for the washing up; there’s no tea cloths and no washing up at all, [chuckle] you just put the water in the cup and swished round and hoped for the best!
Int: Did you get on to the film yourself? Were you seen on the film driving at all?
MC: Oh, the film he made? Yes. Oh yes! I’m on the film.
Int: You’re on the film are you? Oh, tremendous!
MC: Yes. Only for a second, if you close, blink, you miss me, but when they were coming out of the briefing, they come all, coming out of the briefing and coming to get in my, well it was the lorry I was driving that night. The corporal driving the van, he wanted to be in the film you see. He sat in the office every day, never came out, but for the film he did!
Int: For the film he had to come out.
MC: You just see me at the bottom, the trousers on and jacket just as they’re coming out cause some of them were coming to get in my lorry, they used to hang onto the thing in the back of the lorry, if no crew was available. We only had two crew buses, and you did, if you blink you might miss me, but when they’re coming out, if you see it, look for me when they’re coming out of the briefing, from the locker room, got in the Mae West and everything, and they’re coming to get in the transport and I just appeared at the back, for a few moments.
Int: And that’s it is it?
MC: I’ve been told this corporal, when they were making the film in another part of the aerodrome, I drove up saying where’s Joan, I thought she was driving the crew bus today and they said get out of the way, get out of the way we’re making a film! [Laughter] So I thought on the second occasion I’d better sort of not be around.
Int: Oh, well that’s good.
MC: You just see me for a brief few minutes.
Int: I’ll have to have a look now.
MC: In my trousers.
Int: My goodness me. Well once I’ve seen you on some of these, the photographs you’re going to show me, it’ll be, it should be easy to spot you, anyway, on the Hemswell thing. Now I do remember I think at the time, he was a Group Captain Cousins, and he definitely flew some of the missions, not many, from Ingham.
MC: Oh he did, yes.
Int: Cause from the flight records that was either with 199 or it was with 305 Polish, it wasn’t 300, so it may well have been 199 that he flew with, maybe it was just to keep his um, flying hours up or something because I did think at the time it was strange to have a Group Captain flying in an aircraft, but that was probably why. That was to keep his hours up.
MC: He was ever such a good chap. You know I mean how many Group Captains go around at two in the morning see if everything’s running all right?
Int: That’s tremendous, yes. I’ll have to, I’ll see if I have a photograph of him.
MC: Oh my God, you know! He was Station Commander, Group Captain at that time and he’s sitting in the rest room there. [Laugh] Such a surprise!
Int: But then you do get a mix, even this day and age, you get a mix of people who are Station Commanders. some of them are nice and very approachable and some are very kind of awkward and standoffish. I suppose that’s just individual personalities isn’t it.
MC: Well I tell you what, I was invited to an Officers Mess dance, somewhere in the Wolds, I can’t remember the place now, and this Squadron Leader came and picked me up, it was a friend of a friend, he came with his car and picked me up and took me there and I was there, and of course really, although it was a dance, we hadn’t got enough clothes with us in the WAAF to have long evening gowns and all the stuff they have today, we just didn’t have it and I was there and suddenly I saw him approaching the door the same time as me! Oh my god I thought, here I am at the Officer’s Mess dance and the Group Captain from my station’s here!
Int: And he’s gonna wonder why you’re there!
MC: And do you know what he did? He just winked at me and went on! [Laugh] I thought oh, that’s nice!
Int: But did he recognise you do you think? You think he recognised you?
MC: Yes, yes. I’m sure he did, otherwise he wouldn’t have winked, would he.
Int: No. That’s probably true, what a pretty young lady, you know [laughter]!
MC: He just looked round and smiled and winked at me so I thought oh, perhaps he’s not going to say I’m doing something I shouldn’t. Cause I was only an ordinary LAC you see.
Int: Of course yes, almost, almost to them the lowest of the low really! [Laugh] Did you ever have any, were there any dances at Ingham while you were there at all?
MC: Oh yes, oh yes we did. Cause I remember one night and the atmosphere changed so suddenly because three of our aircraft hadn’t got back; we lost three in one night.
Int: Oh dear, so.
MC: The whole atmosphere of the place changed.
Int: That was during the dance itself?
MC: Yes, during the dance when the news came back that three of our aircraft hadn’t returned; cause we all knew the crews you see.
Int: Indeed.
MC: Yes, oh yes. It was awful really, when they didn’t come back.
Int: Where did they hold the dances at Ingham then?
MC: Well they must have held it in the nissen hut I think.
Int: Right, okay.
MC: As far as I can remember. [Laugh]
Int; Because just past the airmens mess, where you would have had your, where you had your lunch and your dinner, there was what they used to call The Institute. You probably remember the NAAFI Institute, which was like the club, in the evening where, it was another big building.
MC: It wasn’t the NAAFI was it?
Int: It was the NAAFI, yes, that’s what they were called, the NAAFI. Where you had different rooms in there, and that’s why I was thinking did they hold the dances in there, and things.
MC: No, not in the NAAFI.
Int: No, they were up in the nissen hut near the WAAF, near the WAAF quarters.
MC: I’m not sure, and I can’t, I couldn’t pinpoint where we had the dancing, but I think it was, er, really where the, um, not far from the Control Tower I don’t think. Is the Control Tower still there?
Int: The Control Tower is still there, but the gentleman, because obviously the Control Tower, there was a big house next to it, in the middle of the airfield, it’s called Cliff House. I think some of the officers used it to live in, so it was literally about twenty yards from the Control Tower and that has been, that’s been quite derelict, and the owner of the house in the middle now, he’s a doctor, [crockery sounds] and he decided rather than knock it down, he’s rebuilt part of it so it’s still got that square shape to it.
MC: Oh really, do you know I don’t remember that.
Int: But er, it’s a, he’s turned it into like a gymnasium, so he’s, it’s still got the same shape, but unfortunately -
MC: Shape, you can recognise it.
Int: Yes, yes.
MC: Is the pub still there, where we used to go and have a quick drink?
Int: The pub? Yes. It’s called the Windmill now [emphasis], because there used to be a windmill opposite it, on the other side of the road. The landlord and lady, landlady have been there since about 1964. They’ve retired a couple of times but just keep it open for fun I think! But obviously I don’t know whether it was called The Windmill a long, long time ago.
MC: No, I can’t remember what it was called. I know we used to have a quick sort of drink there and, but it was so obvious, such a temptation. It backed on to the perimeter you see.
Int: Indeed, yes, and we’ve walked around the back and there are still several of the old buildings left there. There used to be three hangars on the airfield: one to the north, one near where the pub was, and there used to be one over on the A15 itself, right next to the A15; it’s on three sides of the airfield.
MC: I can’t remember that.
Int: No. But then again, if you didn’t have to drive round there you probably wouldn’t have noticed those. Did it seem a very strange place, RAF Ingham, from what you can remember, because it was very, it wasn’t like Hemswell, it was.
MC: Oh no, nothing like that, no.
Int: Just an old grass airfield.
MC: Yes. Did I tell you? I perhaps, I don’t know whether I told you or not, when we used to put goosenecks out? If an aircraft was, got to the coast and was returning early, the sergeant from the Control Tower and I had a little standard van with a cloth covering over, can you, I don’t know if you ever saw one?
Int: Yes.
MC: It had a sort of irons over like that, and a cloth, and the back was open, and they used to take him round and they used to put, made a sort of runway, lit it up with these goosenecks. It was paraffin inside, and they set the paraffin alight and just put these down on the ground.
Int: Just a, like a kind of runway lights.
MC: One night, I was timing it, I could see through the back because the canvas thing was here you see and this was all bare and putting the goosenecks in and out, the sergeant from the Control Tower.
Int: Oh, so he didn’t just light them, they were already, he actually put them out and then lit them.
MC: Oh yes, yes.
Int; I didn’t know they were already out. Put them all out.
MC: We had to manhandle them and put them out, yes. And I happened to look round at the back and there was great big Wellington lumbering along behind there and I thought my god, get off the runway quick! [Laughter].
Int: Oh dear!
MC: Yes. That was a, cause I probably realised that he might have been in such difficulties that he couldn’t control it as he would like and here was I sitting on the edge of the runway, so I got off quick. Yes, it used to be quite exciting.
Int: Did you have any, to your recollection, did you have any where the aircraft actually kind of crashed on landing when they came back? Did you ever see any of that?
MC: Not, no, not while I was around and out there. We had, well we had two crashes on the station while I was there. One of them was, there used to be a big green in the, at Hemswell, [horn sounding] separating the men on that side, the housing, the men were billeted in houses and the same on that side, and the aircraft sort of got back to base but crashed on this huge piece of green grass and the gunner was dead in the back of the turret. It was awful, you know, to see him there, but I mean they didn’t stand much of a chance to get out did they.
Int: No, not if it came down like that, no. The problem with the gunner, the rear gunner, of course is that he’s in a little capsule bubble.
MC: Yes.
Int: And if the, because the whole turret, as you probably remember, rotated.
MC: Rotate round.
Int: You had the little doors at the back, behind him.
MC: And then they’ve got their parachute and things on.
Int: And if it was jammed round at a strange angle he would not have physically been able to get out, so that was pretty er, pretty horrendous.
MC: And then there was another time there was a Flight Lieutenant and he was due, he’d done his two tours of ops and he was looking forward to sort of a fairly normal life, and someone was sick and they couldn’t go so he took their place and they crashed into the hangar, edge of the hangar; they were all killed. And then there was an ATA, I always remember her, brought in a new aircraft, beautiful new aircraft, and I thought uh, wouldn’t I love to be doing that, you know. And anyway, they took off and there was a Squadron Leader with her, and whether he was going through the controls or not I don’t know, because the ATA didn’t have much time to study the controls, did they.
Int: No, no that was it.
MC: On those things.
Int: They flew all different kinds of aircraft as well.
MC: They took off and I had to go somewhere and I came back and they said do you know, that aircraft that took off, and this beautiful ATA girl, lovely she was, so pretty, and they said it’s just crashed, they’re all killed. Yes, and they were just sort of trying it out I think. But yes, it was very sad in many ways. [Pause] There you are. I wouldn’t have missed it, you know, the experience of being in the services. Lots of trying times when I put sort of old, crisp bread on a toaster, I’d come in hungry and the cookhouse was closed. [Laugh] They give you those straw things to put your head on you know, it’s not a pillow, when you go in, I thought oh, I can’t do with this, I had to take a down pillow from home. [Laugh] I couldn’t go to sleep well with one of those. And the irritating thing used to be kit inspection.
Int: Oh, you still had those through the war did you, kit inspection?
MC: Oh yes! [emphasis] Had to be polished and laid out and woe betide you if it wasn’t as it should be.
Int: Who did the inspection? Was it the Station Warrant Officer, or?
MC: No, WAAF, WAAF officer.
Int: Oh, the WAAF officer.
MC: And do you know I was put on a charge, everybody thought it was a huge joke, because I’d got a silk scarf on my battledress thing, collars were a bit stiff, particularly at two in the morning and you were nearly nodding off. So I used to wear a silk scarf and the WAAF officer came down, round, one evening and I was put on a charge for being improperly dressed. And the thing was, what did they give me to do for my charge? Was to go up the Officers Mess cookhouse, peeling onions. [Chuckle] And they kept opening the door and looking in and saying what are you doing there Marion, [laugh] cause they knew me so well taking them out to the aircraft.
Int: Tears streaming down! You must have smelt of onions for days afterwards.
MC: [Laugh] Oh dear, that was my punishment.
Int: Oh, dear me.
MC: You wouldn’t think they would bother about not wearing a -
Int: No, think more important things to do, you know. Gosh.
MC: Yes, and I thought I was much more comfortable with the silk scarf round my neck than the tight collar. However, it all went off quite well and was a huge joke really – or they thought it was.
Int: So you were saying earlier that you had to wash, obviously there’s no laundry, you had to wash your own clothes. I presume they obviously, [clink of china] whoops, they provided you with an iron and an ironing board to iron your clothes with, that was in the -
MC: No, I don’t know, I just can’t remember what we did. I think we saved it up, I sent mine home by post I think! We saved it up and did it when we could. If we were going home on a day off or something you’d do it then.
Int: That’s when do all your ironing and things.
MC: Yes. It was difficult times, yes.
Int: Yes, yes. And certainly if you were working from early afternoon right the way through to the middle of the night –
MC: Oh yes. That was awful really, the night duty.
Int: You try and sleep during the day time as well. That’s not always the easiest of jobs is it.
MC: No, no. Oh yes, it was a long stretch that was. I suppose it was the only way they could do it because you know, there weren’t so many drivers you see.
Int: No, indeed. If the vast majority were female, were WAAF drivers, then the small number of you have to keep doing all the different jobs you had to do.
MC: Yes.
Int: So did you have like a sergeant in charge of you, or a corporal, or somebody?
MC: There was a corporal in the MT office. Yes.
Int: MT office. And thing is all the vehicles that you drove in those days are probably sitting in museums somewhere now aren’t they. Everything from like the little, was it Austin 9, or Hillman 9? They were little cars, weren’t they.
MC: Do you know, I did my training, they made us, even though we could drive, well I could drive anyway, they sent us up to Wales and we had sort of um, like a Hillman, only it was a van. That’s what we started, we had to be trained, RAF way, and then we went out the following week and there was all these big lorries lined up, so we looked and thought good gracious they’re not expecting us to drive those are they! [Laughter]
Int: And they were!
MC: They were. And the thing was, I thought my instructor seemed very nervous and itchy and you know, watching what you were doing every moment. Someone told me, we were driving in Wales at this time, someone told me that he’d had a previous pupil and she’d taken him down one of these ravines; they’d gone over the edge. So no wonder he was nervous!
Int: I’m surprised he was still doing the job, yes.
MC: So no wonder he was nervous, I thought, oh gosh this man is very nervous.
Int: Could we have a look at your, your album.
MC: Oh yes, he used to -
Int: I tell you what, you sit down, I’ll pass it over. There we are.
MC: Thank you very much, I can.
Int: I’ll kneel down next to you if that’s all right.
MC: Oh yes, do. Pass it over.
Int: Just leave that.
MC: Most of my family -
Int: Is that you is it?
MC: No, that’s my sister Pat, this is the one that’s just lost her husband; he died last week, yes.
Int: Oh right.
MC: There’s one of my co-drivers, at home with her mother. And that’s another one, she was in the MT. Oh, there’s me as a child! [Laugh] Oh.
Int: Either of those you? No?
MC: Oh. Which one? That’s my sister again. That’s me, yes; that’s me, that’s me there.
Int: Very nice.
MC: That was our paddock, a two acre paddock behind the house there and that was in to the back street at Swayfield.
Int: So these were taken before the war were they, or just at the very beginning.
MC: During the war, yes.
Int: Just during the war.
MC: Now wait a minute, give you the right ones.
Int: Now can you remember, can you remember your service number, cause most people?
MC: 2053210.
Int: There we go, isn’t it amazing, it sticks with you all, all through your years.
MC: Here you are, there’s the first one.
Int: Some pictures of the coast. Oh look, there’s your crew bus.
MC: Yes, there we are, there’s a friend of mine there, that’s Joan, she was, there’s another one. I don’t know what aircraft that is? That’s me in uniform.
Int: There’s a picture in the distance there, is that Hemswell? Or is that? No, that looks more like a cricket ground.
MC: Lords. That was my rest room when I went down to London, to Air Ministry.
Int: Oh right.
MC: Yes. Oh here we are, we’re getting to it.
Int: Yes. That’s, that looks like a Lancaster cause it’s got the twin parts.
MC: It is, yes, and this is the skipper there, that’s him.
Int: And is that you in the middle then?
MC: This is me, here. Must have been a windy day, my tie.
Int: Would that have been at Hemswell then?
MC: Oh yes, Hemswell, yes. That’s Bob something his name was, oh yes here, Bob, you see we knew them all so well.
Int: Which was this?
MC: Hemswell.
Int: I’m just thinking which squadron would that have been then?
MC: That’s a Lancaster, isn’t it.
Int: Yes.
MC: [Pause] This is more.
Int: Oh yes, more pictures of you. Is that you with your friends?
MC: Yes. And then there’s, that’s a friend of mine, yes.
Int: That’s you with the ambulance.
MC: This is, they’re all crew bus drivers, those girls are. She’d lived down south and a beautiful wooded area, I can’t remember the name of it though, and that’s Joan. This is a friend of mine. Oh, and you can look, we were, I was volunteered to shovel snow off the runway there.
Int: Oh! Next to the aircraft!
MC: Because the Ardennes offensive was on and they were suffering over there and we couldn’t get aircraft off the ground, because of the snow. So I volunteered to go and clear the runway. There was about four women, all the rest were men.
Int: Are you one of these?
MC: That’s me.
Int: Oh, the furthest one, yeah?
MC: That, we were on our way out to the pub at the village near, and that’s a great friend of mine, Pat.
Int: Was this Ingham or was this Hemswell?
MC: This: Hemswell.
Int: I’m just intrigued with the bridge. That’s a lovely kind of stone bridge, that should be easy to spot these days; that must be around somewhere.
MC: That’s not at Hemswell though.
Int: That’s not at Hemswell, oh, no.
MC: That was taken, we’d all gone out to the pub, on the Market Rasen road.
Int: Ah right.
MC: This is a, I’m not sure, this is a Wellington bomber, isn’t it, in the snow.
Int: Um, it looks Wellington yes, because it tends to sit up. Was that you as well?
MC: No. That’s a friend of mine. That’s me there.
Int: Yes.
MC: Yup, and that’s me there.
MC: Definitely you. With your big grey coat on. Oh! And that’s definitely you cause of your - that’s a lovely one that, isn’t it. Did one of the aircrew give you this?
MC: Yes. One of the, yes, they did it actually. Oh here we are, clearing the snow off the runway! You see how thick it was.
Int: They got everybody doing that did they? Everybody was doing that, or just MT?
MC: Well a lot of the men were, but not many of the WAAF. But er, and here, this is a Polish pilot that one.
Int: Yes, and this is a Polish aircraft because you can’t see the B on it, but H. BH was 300 Squadron, so.
MC: And the thing was that the chappie taking the photographs said get close together, get close together! And I thought [laughter].
Int: Oh yes, you’ve got it down there: 300 Squadron. Just read that now, yes.
MC: Oh yes.
Int: And are you on this one? Oh, sick quarters staff.
MC: Yes. No, I’m not on that one but I spent a night doing my MT duty down at sick quarters on a stretcher. Gone to sleep as well! Wait a moment, there’s some more here. Oh this is a, we all went out to the pub.
Int: It’s that, the same bridge you’re on there, yes.
MC: And here you are, these are mostly MT girls. Am I on this one? I’m not sure whether I am on this one. What do I say here? Can you read it?
Int: Er, let me have a little look. Um, somebody Kay and Peg, going off to, oh, going off to be demobbed it says. Somebody else at first, is it Joan? Or a name like that. Somebody else, Kay and Peg going off to be demobbed.
MC: Oh yes. Is that the back, is that the crew bus there?
Int: It looks it. What does this say here? It says WAAF NAAFI, something.
MC: Hemswell.
Int: Is it outwards, or outbounds, at Hemswell. Let me just have a little look.
MC: Yes, you can probably see better than I can.
Int: You have lovely um [pause].
MC: Is that the crew bus then?
Int: It says something and then it says W A A F, the WAAF NAAFI, but I can’t. Let me just have a look in the light. Just one second, [Pause]
MC: Do you know in those days I was offered a little Austin 7, for five pounds! [Laughter]
Int: Did you take it? I can’t work out what that word is, but it definitely says WAAF NAAFI, Hemswell, so whether that’s the NAAFI bus, or you’re just going out to the NAAFI, I don’t know.
MC: WAAF NAAFI Hemswell. I can’t read that. Outside!
Int: Oh, outside!
MC: Yes, outside the WAAF NAAFI.
Int: Oh, so you had a separate NAAFI did you? One for the WAAFs and one for the men then did you?
MC: No, not really. I don’t know, and they used to use that as a crew bus. I don’t know what I’ve got down there. That’s one of the Canadian pilots.
Int: That’s a Lancaster.
MC: That’s a Lancaster.
Int: What does this say? The beautiful old thing was my crew bus.
MC: Oh yes, that was before the lorry.
Int: This, yes it says this beautiful old thing was my crew bus. And that’s you obviously, there.
MC: That’s me in front there. Oh yes.
Int: Let’s have a look up here. You on that one? I can’t see. Again, it looks like Joan or something.
MC: Yes, that is Joan, yes.
Int: Peg, Bill, is it Enid? Possibly. And something else.
MC: Do you know, I can’t see it.
Int: No, nor can I!
MC: This white ink is getting further and further away from it.
Int: Yes.
MC: He was a Canadian pilot.
Int: Right, so that would –
MC: And he was quite friendly with my friend. And these I can’t see. Can you see their faces? I haven’t written under that one have I? Oh yes, I’ve written under that one there.
Int: You’ve written at the side. Erm, [pause] no, I’ll have to have to get a magnifying glass myself to have a look at that.
MC: There we are.
Int: Ah, some other photographs, again.
MC: That’s groundcrew isn’t it. This is the aircrew, I don’t know which crew it is, and there’s me again here look, I’ve got the Mae West on! [Laugh] I don’t know what I was doing there, with the Mae West on!
Int: Would it be possible, for us to borrow this and to, to duplicate some of the photographs?
MC: Yes, that would be a good idea.
Int: And then obviously you’ve still got the original ones, but it would be lovely, because what we can do is, we’ll either photograph them with a really good high powered camera that they’ve got at RAF Cranwell, which we’ve used before, or we can get them scanned where you put them onto a glass plate and it scans them at very high resolution then you can actually reproduce the photograph as good as it originally was.
MC: And can you get them all back to me in one piece?
Int: We certainly can. No, no, it would, we just borrow them to actually get them.
MC: That’s me there, that’s Peggy. That’s Joan. Oh, that’s Lamby we used to call her, I don’t know why it was Lamby. And there’s with the ground crew again.
Int: Flight Boys of something 10. P10 or T10 squadron, oh no, 170 Squadron, sorry.
MC: Oh yes, 170 Squadron.
Int: 170 Squadron, er December ’44 it says there.
MC: There, I’m afraid he was, he was killed, yes.
Int: But I presume when you say flight boys, I think they were the ground crew, weren’t they, because some of them have got the -
MC: Oh yes, on B Flight or A Flight, yes.
Int: They’ve got the leather jerkin on that they used to wear.
MC: Oh yes, oh yes, they’re definitely ground crew. They used to be very important people, you know.
Int: And then this one says –
MC: That’s outside the pub at Caenby Corner.
Int: Oh right, yes!
MC: You know Caenby Corner?
Int: Yes! Now that, that has been empty for about fifteen years now. They’re trying to sell it, and nobody, in fact Max, who I told you about – there was a Polish officer in Nottingham - he asked about the pub, he couldn’t remember the name of it but remembered they always used to have lockins, you know, you could go in there and they closed the doors and shut the curtains and they’d be drinking all night in there you see.
MC: Oh yes, fascinating. We used to go and we used to play that and we’d drink to the Health of Cardinal Puff Puff, [laughter] I don’t think you know that game?
Int: No, but I can imagine it’s um, yes!
MC: Oh yes, there’s the ground crew, yes, and some of the drivers.
Int: That one says. Yes. I’ll have to get my magnifying glass to look at this, cause you, obviously your writing was very, very beautifully written but you write very small don’t you, obviously when you wrote these, yes.
MC: Yes. But interesting to you I suppose.
Int: Oh very much so, yes! [Emphasis]
MC: But if they’d been taken at Ingham you’d have been more interested.
Int: No, but Hemswell as well, because of your connection with it and its [indecipherable].
MC: Some of these people would recognise themselves.
Int: Yes.
MC: What do I say here? Something, so small, isn’t it.
Int: I know, yes. My something crew, R for Roger, er, it was the groundcrew, it says here, groundcrew, R for Roger, er, my something or other. I can’t quite make it out.
MC: What does it say here? Can you read that? No I can’t. 1945 I’ve got. Or is it 1943?
Int: No, that’s actually ‘46.
MC: Oh is it! [Laugh]
Int: Or at least I think so. 22nd of April 1946. It says, I think it says Bremen there. Would they have been going to Bremen?
MC: Oh yes, they went to Bremen, yes. We never realised when, what awful things they’d got to go through when we took them out to their aircraft, and the groundcrew were pretty good. Oh that, he’d a pilot: he’s a Canadian. I remember him, he used to go off to Doncaster for weekends with dubious girls! [Laughter] I kept out of his way! Yes. Well I suppose they only lived once don’t they.
Int: Indeed and -
MC: Well, the time was so short for them.
Int: With everything that was going on, yes they probably felt it more than anybody else, didn’t they, that they had to live life while they had -
MC: While they could.
Int: Yes, while they could.
MC: What’s that? Country Kerry. Oh, that was when I was in Ireland. That’s my sister when she was a tiny girl, and my mother.
Int: That’s Dorothy is it?
MC: Yes. That’s Dorothy, and my parents had the Royal Oak at Swayfield at that time and that was in the pub garden. Oh, that’s the back of the pub. There’s a doorway there now, that must have been very old. Course it is a very old pub but the doorway is now there.
Int; That’s probably kind of late thirties.
MC: The door was there when we were living there, but that must have been before they, that time, yes.
Int: Knocked it through. Oh gosh.
MC: That’s shovelling the snow.
Int: Again! [Laughter] There’s a theme building here, shovelling snow, isn’t there, but!
MC: That was when I was in Ireland I suppose. Can’t pronounce that word, Country Kerry, passenger from. Hmm. That’s my brother who’s, died in September. That’s my dog, just see the little nose, there.
Int: Oh yes, yes.
MC: And that’s my girlfriend’s, the back of her house. She’s gone also. They’ve gone. That’s in Surrey, visiting a friend. Right, well. I don’t know, can you guarantee I’ll have them all back?
Int: Oh yes, I can.
MC: Why don’t you sit on this?
Int: No, no, it’s easier to kneel. Yes, oh yes, and we’d only borrow them a short time, just to get them, to get them duplicated.
MC: And that’s my brother, yes. Sort of mark off the ones you wanted. You see the first few, that’s me as a little girl, [laugh] with the basket, I was a bridesmaid, and that’s my sister.
Int: Oh gosh. Yes, it’s the RAF ones onwards that obviously we’re interested in, and we’d come back to get you to talk us through them. Cause what we’ll probably do with each of them, when they scan them, because they scan them at such high resolution, we can actually make the pictures bigger, so we can give you a set of copies that are a lot bigger so they’re easier for you to see the photographs as well, because that’s what we did for -
MC: Yes. Well, you can see, that was the crew bus they used, and if they weren’t available we would take them out in a lorry. That’s the crew bus.
Int: Who is that?
MC: Oh yes, he was a Flight Lieutenant, but I think he was on Wellingtons, I think he was, and his father was managing director of Kleeneze Brush Company. [laugh] and I remember when I was poorly once he brought me a little flask full of whiskey, you know, to get me better quick! Oh dear. He was nice. But you see they were moved on after a certain time. They didn’t er -
Int: Indeed. But some of these photographs here, especially ones where you’ve got all the crew around you, they’re -
MC: I mean Bob Hartley’s family would probably love to have something like that.
Int: They’re superb.
MC: He’s the skipper: there. These are the members of his crew. [Indecipherable] No wonder they asked us to clear the snow that time.
Int: Yes. But just, the nice thing is, they’re just natural pictures aren’t they, of people.
MC: Yes. She’s strangling him, you see?
Int: Going about their, going about their kind of their work, through the war years but just getting on with it and seeing the funny side at all, of things which is [indecipherable].
MC: We enjoyed yourselves.
Int: That’s lovely itself because it’s got you, it’s got your vehicle in it, which is tremendous. We’re, we are trying to find some of these old vehicles, and see if we can buy one to renovate up, get it running.
MC: Oh really!
Int: They do have classic old ones around.
MC: What about that? It’s a pity that’s not clearer, isn’t it.
Int: You can probably get it clearer though. I mean each one of these we can blow them up a lot bigger.
MC: What do I say there?
Int: Let’s just have a little look.
MC: Hare’s Hound is it?
Int: Yes, it could be Hare’s Hound.
MC: That’s the aircraft name.
Int: Ah, right. I think so, yes.
MC: The name of the aircraft, yes. There’s the crew, you can’t see them very well can you. I think I’m there. There’s the rest of the crew, cause it’s in darkness, isn’t it. What would they do if they had a photography of today?
Int: Well you know, you see so many pictures these days, where they’re colour, cause they’re all colour, and they never, they don’t look as, it makes it look too real, and I think if this day and age if we took more black and white photographs, there’s a lot more contrast in a black and white photograph. I have some photographs of my father when he was in his early, let’s see, must have probably been the late forties, early fifties, and he’s got some, well he’s just sitting at the table, he looks sideways and somebody’s taken a photograph, and they’re black and white and the difference in contrast of everything: you don’t need [emphasis] the colour to make it a beautiful photograph, so. Whereas colour, I think, sometimes detracts away from what you’re actually talking the photograph of.
MC: Yes, yes. And would you sort of tell me when you want it and have it back within a certain time? It’s precious this, to me.
Int: I fully understand that. Now what I’m thinking is, perhaps, because I said to you that I’m going away to Afghanistan next week.
MC: Oh yes, you brave man.
Int: Everything has been a little bit rushed.
MC: Brave but foolish! [Laugh]
Int: Well, you know as well as I do, when you take, in your case it was the King’s Shilling, in my case it was the Queen’s Shilling, when you take the Queen’s Shilling, then you’re in the RAF and if they want you to go somewhere, you go somewhere.
MC: You’re actually in the RAF?
Int: Yes, I’m just finishing, thirty years, that’s, next year’s thirty years. So I’ve had a complete career in the RAF. Tell you what, I’ll just switch this off now.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Marion Clarke Interview
Description
An account of the resource
Marion Clarke served as an mechanical transport driver during the Second World War, her main duties were on Bomber Command stations primarily driving crew buses. She talks about the conditions she experienced such as her accommodation, uniform, leave and dances. Marion recalls some of the people she knew including those who did not survive the war whilst looking at her photographs of the time as well as being in a film which was made about night bombing. She was also interested to hear about RAF Ingham and what is still there.
This item was provided, in digital form, by a third-party organisation which used technical specifications and operational protocols that may differ from those used by the IBCC Digital Archive.
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
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eng
Type
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Sound
Format
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01:14:25 audio recording
Identifier
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SRAFIngham19410620v060001-Audio
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Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
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Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
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IBCC Digital Archive
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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.
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Geoff Burton
Temporal Coverage
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1942
1943
1944-12
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Anne-Marie Watson
170 Squadron
199 Squadron
300 Squadron
control tower
ground personnel
Lancaster
military living conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
RAF Hemswell
RAF Ingham
service vehicle
Wellington
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1817/32357/MWittyAR1520694-170323-010001.2.jpg
fbb61a0ecb8743433d16bc9b4c669ca6
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1817/32357/MWittyAR1520694-170323-010002.2.jpg
8d37204d96456b35c4ac7c4e3dcc025c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Witty, A R
Witty, Ron
Witty, Ronald
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-03-23
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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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Witty, AR
Description
An account of the resource
118 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Ronald Witty DFM (1520694 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, navigation charts and logs of all his operations, photographs and correspondence home from training in South Africa. He flew thirty operations as a navigator with 12 Squadron before going as an instructor on 1656 HCU and then 576 and 50 Squadrons after the war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Witty and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Notes on the back of a notice for Christmas party
Description
An account of the resource
One one side a notice for a grand Christmas part to be held on boxing day in the NAAFI. On the other side handwritten notes with names and times.
Date
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1943-12
Format
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Typewritten document with handwritten notes on other side
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eng
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Text
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MWittyAR1520694-170323-01
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
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1943-12-26
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.
entertainment
ground personnel
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1066/32271/BPayneGPayneGv1.1.pdf
56a2f0d01bb4921591ab94fc697c80ee
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Payne, Geoff
Geoffrey Albert Payne
G A Payne
Description
An account of the resource
Two items. An oral history interview with Geoff Payne (b. 1924, 1584931 Royal Air Force) and his memoir. He flew operations as a wireless operator / air gunner with 115 and 514 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Geoff Payne and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
2017-05-28
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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Payne, G
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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AN AIRMAN’S TALE
By Geoff Payne
[514 Squadron Crest]
[115 Squadron Crest]
[RAF Training Command Crest]
[RAF Bomber Command Crest]
[Picture] Artist’s Impression of Bomber Command Memorial in Hyde Park
[page break]
AN AIRMAN’S TALE
By Geoff Payne
Chapter 1
Under Training (U/T)
Chapter 2
Operations RAF Witchford
Chapter 3
Back on Operations RAF Waterbeach
Chapter 4
Grounded
Chapter 5
As Time Goes By
[page break]
Page 1
An Airman’s Tale By Geoff Payne
The Story of His Time in The Royal Air Force
Chapter 1
Under Training (U/T)
Having attended the Aircrew Assessment Board at Viceroy Close in Birmingham, I passed for aircrew training, given my RAF service number and told to return to work and await my call up documents. This was in August 1942 I was seventeen and a half at that time, an Air Cadet and eager to join the service of my choice. Time seemed to drag over the next few months, air raids had virtually ceased, although fire watching duties at my factory were still a priority and was able to pick up five shillings per night doing this chore, a useful supplement to my apprenticeship wages.
The end of March 1943, my travel documents arrived, together with information that I was to report to the Air Crew Reception Centre (ACRC) at Lords Cricket ground, St John’s Wood, London.
A month later, my family and I stood on platform three at New Street Station awaiting the early train to London, fortunately, a trainee school teacher from my school was also going to ACRC so it was nice to have his company. This was the first time I had been away from home by myself and looked forward to the new experience.
London Euston station was all bustle, full of service personnel manoeuvring around the station looking for directions, we eventually got to the tube station and made our way to St Johns Wood and Lords Cricket ground. What a fascinating experience travelling on these tube trains and, from information gathered, all service personnel could travel anywhere by tube, free of charge. Booking in, we were given a pack of sandwiches, told to hang about for an hour so, spending our time, inspecting the wicket, gazing at the pictures of past players in Lords Taveners and in general, soaking in the atmosphere of the home of cricket.
About fifty of us were assembled and given a general talk on what was to happen during the next hour or so and, told to memorise our service number and to mark every piece of our service clothing and equipment when it was issued.
We were then marched into a hall and ordered to stand behind the gym benches that lined the hall and ordered to strip, including socks, this inspection was known in the services as a FFI (free from infection) then two M/O,s [sic] walked down the lines of naked men checking fingers, toes and nether regions. Modesty went out of the window that afternoon.
When clothed, we marched in single file to the stores where we were issued our uniform and kit then assembled outside the hall to board a service bus that took us to our billet, a set of high rise luxury flats facing Regents Park and the Grand Canal, our block was Stoneleigh Court. All the civilian occupants had been decanted, six airmen were allocated to a room. Quite cosy under the circumstances.
After settling in, we assembled in the main road with our enamelled mug, knife fork and spoon (irons) ready to march to our mess, not knowing at the time, we were to be fed in the London Zoo canteen.
Later that evening our time was spent sprucing up our “best blue”, trying to get a shine on our boots, parcelling up our civilian clothes and in general, just getting sorted
[page break]
Page 2
out ready for our first parade in the morning.
The following morning, we deposited our “civies” [sic] to be posted home, after breakfast we paraded in the main road at eight o’clock, inspected by a sergeant, then marched off to the medical centre for our inoculations and whatever. The RAF medical centre, Abbey Lodge was also a high rise block of luxury flats, half a mile away from our billet, which also doubled as a RAF hospital and surrounded by a fence of black architectural iron work. We were organised in a single file that stretched alongside this fence. here we waited for some time before the file began to move along slowly, up stairs into one room where an orderly drew an armful of blood, up more stairs and into another room, a scratch on the arm for small pox, injections for tetanus and whatever, so it went on until finally we emerged into a courtyard to the rumble of expletives. Not finished yet, now for night vision testing which took over an hour to complete before being marched back to our billet and lunch at the zoo.
During the first week at ACRC the air raid alarm sounded and our group were woken up to go to Abbey Lodge.
As we set out the anti aircraft batteries in Regents Park began to open up and falling shrapnel began to scream on its way down, thankful for our tin hats on that occasion. Arriving at the hospital, the lifts were off so we had to manhandle the bed patients down the stairs on stretchers into the car park situated beneath the block. this was by no means an easy task negotiating ones way down the stair wells, manoeuvring around the sharp corners. The raid continued intermittently for three hours before we could take these patients back to their wards then began a slow walk back to Stoneleigh Court for a well earned rest.
Most of the remaining time at ACRC was taken up with rifle drill, physical training and marching everywhere, however, we had plenty of leisure time to take in the London sights, thankful for the free transport on offer.
One amazing coincidence was meeting up with my cousin Jack Stone whilst wandering around London Zoo.
I knew he had enlisted in the RAF as a boy and trained as an armourer, surprisingly, he was also wearing a white flash in his forage cap, the sign of an aircrew cadet. He had re-mustered and was going forward for air gunner training the same as me, sadly that was the last time I saw him, he was lost on his second tour of operations later in the war. His name is recorded on the walls of The Runnymede Air Force Memorial as having no known grave.
Finally, after four weeks of hard training and feeling fit, we received orders to move as a group to ITW (Initial Training Wing) wherever. Destinations were never broadcast because of security, although we knew the next port of call was Kings Cross Station.
14 ITW RAF Bridlington
Arrived at Kings Cross in full marching order, back pack, side pack, water bottle and kit bag plus a pack of sandwiches to sustain us on our journey. A reasonable journey up to York, then changed over to a non corridor train for the final leg of the trip to the seaside resort of Bridlington. Here we were met by transport which took us into the town to be dropped off in a street of vacated terraced houses. Ten cadets, including my two friends, Vic Lodge from Halifax and Nick Alkemade from Loughborough
[page break]
Page 3
were allocated to one of the houses, a sparsely furnished house without running hot water. We had arrived at 14 ITW RAF Bridlington, Yorkshire.
The messing facilities were located in the Spa Ballroom near to the promenade, an art nouveau type of structure where one could imagine the flappers of the twenties and thirties gyrating around the dance floor, soon to be brought back to reality with the greasy food odour permeating the once splendid ballroom.
Our time at Bridlington was spent on drill during the morning, and being an ex corporal in the ATC, the DI (Drill Instructor) often gave me the opportunity of taking the squad on these exercises. The favourite route was along the promenade where there was always an audience to give us a cheer or on occasions, a humorous comment from “Matelots or Squadies [sic] who were out for a stroll.
The afternoon parades were less exhausting, attending classes on aircraft recognition, a very important aspect of an air gunners job, sessions in a gun turret simulator and boring lectures on KR’s (Kings Regulations). We also had regular excursions to the 303 rifle range and to the Butts for pistol and Sten gun practise, surprisingly these visits became very competitive amongst our group with bets being bandied about.
The most enjoyable afternoon sessions was the visit to the local swimming baths where we could partake of a hot shower, get some dinghy drill in and generally play around in the pool.
All this exercise, the bracing sea air, made us healthily fit and always hungry. There was the NAAFI, a few fish and chip shops and cafes around the town but on this occasion, short of cash we decided to make use of our own mess for “supper”. Usually there was bread, margarine, jam and sometimes the left-overs of a sweet. We were lucky this night, there was plenty of trifle available and tour regret. three of our group including myself, were up all night vomiting and feeling very, very sick. The following morning we had no alternative but to report sick, the doctor immediately diagnosed food poisoning and dispatched us off to hospital, a rambling country house on Flamborough Head, I never looked at nor even consumed trifle again for many a long year.
Five days later, having been discharged from hospital, our group of city airmen were scheduled for posting to Gunnery School in two days time, quite excited and looking forward to our first flying experience. Bridlington had been a pleasant town to be posted to, nice beaches for sunbathing and swimming and ample entertainment in the town. Although our billets had been pretty Spartan we were sorry to say goodbye to this friendly seaside resort..
11 AGS RAF Andreas IOM
We boarded our train at Bridlington Station early evening with no idea the route we were taking, it must have been westwards as the sun was just setting ahead of us. After a lot of stopping and starting, we eventually arrived at Piccadilly Station, Manchester to be allowed of the train and told there was an air raid in progress somewhere in the vicinity. We spent an uncomfortable three hours hanging about the station not knowing when we would be on the move again, luckily the tea bar was open.
Back onto the train feeling tired and hungry, our train clattered on until someone shouted that we were coming into Blackpool as theTower could be seen in the
[page break]
Page 4
distance, no such luck, we ended our train journey in the fishing port of Fleetwood alongside the quay. Tethered to the dock was a one funnel steamer, looking like a cross between a cargo ship and a ferry boat, bringing to mind the John Masefield poem, “Cargoes”.
Feeling miserable and weary after our lengthy train journey, we scrambled aboard this ship and looked for a spot to get some sleep during the four hour sea crossing. Very surprised to find a sort of tea and sandwich bar on board, although welcome, we were disgusted at the exorbitant prices. After an uneventful journey we arrived in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man, the home of the TT Races and the tailless moggy.
Disembarking, following roll call, we marched off to the train station to board a very unusual and unique style of rolling stock, most of our group including myself were unaware that an efficient railway system served most of the island. The island scenery was quite lush, hilly and dominated by Snae Fell, the only resemblance to a mountain on the island. Travelling on we by-passed the little town of Peel before arriving at the end of the line, the little fishing port of Ramsey to the north east of the island. Transport met us at the station to take us the short journey to RAF Andreas ready for a welcome meal in the airmens mess after our long drawn out journey from Bridlington.
RAF Andreas was a normal wartime airfield, a mixture of wooden and concrete buildings and sporting the usual three runways. With it’s sister airfield RAF Jurby just four miles from our base, these airfields were built primarily to provide cover for our shipping against the long ranging Condors of the Luftwaffe.
Having been split up into groups of ten, our Gunnery Course was set out with lectures and practical work during the mornings with afternoon sessions flying in the worthy Avro “Annie” Anson.
[picture of Wartime Anson in RAF markings]
Avro Anson
A very comprehensive course started with practical work on the reliable air cooled 303 Browning machine gun, getting to memorise the parts, stripping and assembling and eventually being able to do this job blindfolded with flying gloves on. During these exercises, our instructor timed us with a stop watch, here again bets were being laid and even encouraged by our instructor, I think he was a bit of a gambling man.
[page break]
Page 5
These lectures also included the identification of different types of ammunition by the use of colour coding on the base of the cartridge case as to whether it was tracer, incendiary, armour piercing or general purpose, a calculated mix of all these types of rounds were used operationally.
A very important part of this course was the understanding of the hydraulically operated Frazer Nash gun turret currently in use on the Lancaster and Stirling bombers. It became obvious that we were destined to be operating in either the Stirling or Lancaster aircraft as we never had any instruction on the electrically operated Boulton Paul turret currently in use in the Halifax bomber.
Many hours were spent on the workings of these turrets, the causes of stoppages and rectification, how to obtain an aircraft drift reading by using the movement of the turret against a fixed point on the ground or sea, how to synchronise four guns firing 5000 rounds per minute to achieve the optimum bullet spread over a certain distance. Then there were the visits to the special firing range using fast moving aircraft models at 100 yds distance. Firing from a gun turret was quite an experience although only one Browning was operable for obvious reasons.
Our first exercise in the Anson was a simulated attack by a Miles Martinet, three cadets were allocated to our aircraft, each one of us to take turns in the turret using a camera gun. On all our flying exercise, lots were taken in cranking up or cranking down the undercarriage, quite an exhaustive feat especially winding up the landing gear, some chore 140 turns up or down.
Two more flights with camera guns then on to drogue target practise using a single Vickers machine gun in the turret. Each cadet was allowed 200 rounds of identifiable ammunition, meaning that the tip of each round was dipped in a soft colour paint ie; 200 rounds blue, 200 rounds red, 200 rounds green. If a bullet pierced the drouge[sic], the gunner could then be identified. These exercises varied in many ways, with simulated attacks coming from all directions, finally the last few exercises of our course, were air to ground firing.
A enumber[sic] of bulls eye targets were set up on cliffs to the north end of the island, it must have been upsetting for the bird life in that area.
[picture of X Squad 11 AGS RAF Andreas IOM – Standing 3rd from left Geoff Payne, 5th from left Nick Alkemade]
[page break]
Page 6
Looking in my log book recently, I noted that in just the month of July I had clocked up twenty flying details of roughly an hours duration, mostly with Polish pilots.
During our time at 11 AGS, apart from the occasional guard duty, Saturdays and Sundays were non working days which, gave us the opportunity of exploring the island. The weather during our months course was excellent, so we took advantage of swimming off the charming little coves to the North of the island, there was also a small yachting pool alongside Ramsey harbour with the nearby Enemy Aliens Stockade, a series of commandeered boarding houses, bordering on the nearby Enemy Aliens Stockade, a series of commandeered boarding houses, bordering on the pool. We had previously been warned not to fraternise with the inhabitants of any of these camps. Sitting in a Ramsey pub one Saturday, three aircrew sergeants, all sporting navigators brevets, wandered into the bar, what a surprise to see my brother in the party, they were on a Wireless Operators course at nearby RAF Jurby and destined for operations flying in the “Wooden Wonder” the Mosquito. It would be another four years before I met up with my brother again.
The first week in August 1943 saw the end of our course with, a passing out parade and presentation of our AG,s brevet by a high ranking officer whom, if my memory serves me correctly, was then, Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire.
Not much time to celebrate, within two days we were given our seven days leave passes and travel documents. Pity my two friends were posted to RAF Desbourough[sic] whilst I was posted to RAF Chipping Warden by Banbury, only forty miles from my home and on the London to Birmingham main rail line.
I had enjoyed my time in the Isle of Man but very sad that over the years I have been unable to make a return visit to this interesting island.
12 OUT RAF Chipping Warden
Enjoyed my first seven days leave at home, left in civilian clothes and returned three months later in uniform, sporting three stripes on my sleeve with an AG,s brevet above my breast pocket feeling proud of myself. The seven days passed very quickly with time taken up visiting my relatives, ex workmates and of course my girl friend. Standing on Snow Hill Station waiting for my train back to Banbury, my thoughts brough me back to reality that this war is serious and that I could be on operations by the end of the year.
Chipping Warden was a pre war station, two story[sic] barrack buildings, administration blocks and massive hangers with brick built flight offices attached.
After picking up my bedding I enquired where the billets were and was taken aback when I was directed to a wooden hutted compound, complete with a sergeants mess, outside the main camp confines. This posed the question, are the newly promoted NCO aircrew being discriminated against?
Entering my designated hut I found a motley collection of aircrew including Aussies, Canadians and New Zealander’s, it was then that I discovered that aircrew NCO,s under training had there[sic] own messing and accommodation facilities. Meeting up with my fellow bunk mates, pilots, bomb aimers, wireless operators, navigators and gunners, found difficulty in picking up their accents and slang words. Meeting up with thee airmen, created a great feeling of camaraderie which was almost instantaneous.
The following day was spent doing the usual round of signing in and getting kitted out
[page break]
Page 7
with flying clothing, me being a rear gunner I had special issues, electrical heated Irvine Suit, fur lined heated bootees and gloves, fisherman’s sweater and thermal underwear. All this gear required another kit bag issue which I lugged back to the billet, spending the rest of the day getting to know more about these friendly “Colonials”.
Reporting to Flights next day, the various aircrew trades were segregated, we as gunners went to the firing ranges for some rifle and clay pigeon shooting. During the afternoon we were introduced to the type of aircraft that we would be flying.
[picture of The Vickers Wellington (Wimpy)]
At that time all the aircraft at 12 OUT were all ex operational Wellingtons, virtually “clapped out”, the replacement parts being in short supply creating a shortage of serviceable aircraft. A rotational system of aircrew to aircraft had to be adopted, hence a crew could be flying three to four times in one day utilising the same aircraft.
The course began in earnest with a mixture of circuits and landings, fighter affiliation using camera guns, high and low level bombing, the same such exercises applied to night flying, apart from fighter affiliation exercises. After three weeks of intensive activity, the day came when the CO told the assembled aircrew to get moving on to the satellite station RAF Edge Hill some ten miles west of Chipping Warden.
My bunk mates and I had anticipated being crewed up so we had already sorted ourselves out as a crew, two Aussies, one a pilot from Melbourne, the other, a navigator from Sidney, our bomb aimer from Carshalton and wireless operator from Bognor Regis with myself as rear gunner. Over the past three weeks we had really got on well, that was a good start.
RAF Edge Hill
A typical war time airfield, very dispersed with plenty of walking between sections, built right up to the edge of Edge Hill itself. Due to an indecisive battle fought out between the Royalists of King Charles 1st and the Roundhead Parliamentary forces of Oliver Cromwell, the local population believed that the area was haunted by a headless horseman. Will that be a bad omen? Weird!
This part of our course was to develop these newly formed crews into an efficient operating team, an essential commodity in our own survival and for effectively doing the job that we had enlisted for.
[page break]
Page 8
An intensive programme of night and day cross country flights began, usually incorporating high or low level simulated bombing attacks using small smoke or flare bombs. During our daylight flights we were often buzzed by a fighter, all part of the learning process for air gunners.
On one night exercise, we must have gone miles off track when we encountered a Barrage Balloon which stood on it’s tail as it caught our slipstream, we knew we had entered a defended area when a few bursts of anti aircraft fire appeared not far away. This caused a bit of a panic until our wireless operator fired off the Very pistol with the colours of the day, to our relief that gunfire abated. At de briefing, our navigator learned that, due to a false wind forecast we had strayed close to the defences of Bristol.
Time came to return to Chipping Warden for our crew assessment to be met with news that we were to participate in a Nickel, a leaflet drop to Lille in France, however, the operation was scrubbed due to our aircraft being unserviceable. At OUT’s this type of operation was a normal occurrence enabling proficient aircrews to get in some operational experience. I still have one of those leaflets.
20th of August 1943 was the end of our time at 12 OUT and the faithful old Wellington, the next phase of our training schedule was a posting to RAF Feltwell in Norfolk to undergo an Escape and Evasion course.
RAF Feltwell
RAF Feltwell was a typical pre war brick built airfield with grass runways, then in the process of converting to concrete runways. Upon arrival, surprised to find that there was only a skeleton staff in occupation, apart from a unit of RAF Regiment personnel who were to be our instructors to this Escape and Evasion course. We were joined by six other crews, a total of thirty airmen. In the event of being shot down over enemy territory, the object of the course was to impart some skills that would assist downed airmen to escape or to evade capture. It was a prerequisite for airmen to attempt escaping thereby tying down essential enemy manpower.
The first part of the course was training in the rudiments of enarmed combat, no holds barred, using all the dirty tricks available, the Queensbury rules didn’t apply in dangerous situations one may find oneself in.
Following on this exercise we practised the art of concealment, our five crew members would spread out in some scrubby woodland approximately one mile square, then to conceal themselves the best way they could and, using whatever materials came to hand. The Regiment unit were then sent out to locate us if they could and after a number of attempts this exercise proved useful and effective although one escapee got bitten by an Adder whilst hiding in some gorse bushes. Our final exercise was hilarious, we were taken out at midnight in an enclosed vehicle, dropping two of us off at a time some fifteen miles from the camp with only a box of matches and some cigarettes, no money and told to make our own way back to Feltwell. This exercise proved to be a non event as it began to pour with rain. We had been dropped off on a farm track in the middle of a scrubby wheat field where we found a dilapidated corrugated type of shed. A few fairly clean sacks were lying about and some wooden boxes which gave us an ample supply of fuel for a small cosy fire.
[page break]
Page 9
There we stayed until a farmer with his truck arrived to give us an amount of verbal abuse until we explained that we were on an exercise and would wish a lift back to Feltwell. The truck dropped us off about a mile from the rear of the camp, success! The Regiment were out looking for us that night but we got back into the camp unchallenged and in time for a welcome breakfast.
One memorable occasion during the evening playing cards in the billet, we heard a sort of rumbling noise which got louder and louder. We rushed out of our billet and looked up at the sky, a clear night and almost dark. At about ten thousand feet there must have been hundreds of four engine heavy bombers heading eastwards, an amazing sight. Back in our billet, we contemplated that we could be part of that type of air Armada very shortly.
At the end of our weeks course we were given our travel documents to report to RAF Wratting Common, a Stirling conversion unit which caused much consternation among the crew. We had hoped to avoid operating in Stirlings due to the high loss rate attributed to this aircraft.
1651 Heavy Conversion Unit RAF Wratting Common
Wratting Common was a war time aerodrome situated between Cambridge and Newmarket, it had recently been vacated by 90 Squadron who had operated with the Short Stirling Aircraft. A well dispersed cap, miles from anywhere, the nearest rail station being Six Mile Bottom, three miles from the camp. Mud everywhere, I am sure that if you stepped off the concrete paths you would be a goner.
Settled in our Nisson hut and proceeded to scout round for wood and coke to service our lonely stove, an east wind was blowing in over the low lying expanse of East Anglia, cold enough to try out our new thermal underwear.
Reporting to the flights the following day to meet up with two new crew members, Dick Hollis, Mid Upper Gunner and Cyril Bridges, Flight Engineer making, up our seven man crew. Together with two other crews, we were then taken to a hanger[sic] to get to know this massive aircraft, the Short Stirling.
[photograph of the Short Stirling]
[page break]
Page 10
Spent the afternoon scrambling about this aircraft, proudly showing off the various escape hatches and doorways to my crew. As an apprentice, my company was involved in the manufacture of various component parts associated with the Stirling, as was my girl friends[sic] mother being an electrical inspector on this aircraft.
Our first flights in the Stirling consisted of two three hour sessions of circuits and landings, not at all present, no wonder this exercise is known as “Circuits and Bumps”, we certainly had our share of bumps that day. It was a relief when the Gunnery Leader informed us that all the gunners on the course were to undertake an advanced gunnery course at RAF Newmarket as, there was no point in wasting time just sitting in an aircraft doing circuits and landings. Newmarket was some experience, we were billeted in buildings associated with the racecourse, even the Wellington based there took off from the racecourse.
This gunnery course took place over the North Sea and was more realistic using the same type of gun turrets that we would use on operations. Spitfires simulated the attacks and our Wellington would be doing the defensive manoeuvre of corkscrewing.
On the firing exercises we were either in the front or the rear turret firing at a drogue being towed by a Miles Martinet. Our time at Newmarket was very instructive being trained by ex operational air gunners. I am positive that by imparting their experiences gave me confidence for the task ahead.
Back at Wratting Common to find that we had lost our Australian pilot, they had been engaged on circuits and landings at RAF Downham Market when the starboard outer engine failed when coming in to land, the wing dipped and struck the ground causing the aircraft to crash. Our pilot sustained a severe head wound but was dragged to safety by the Flight Engineer. Apart from a few bruises the rest of crew escaped unhurt although the aircraft was a write off. The accident allowed us to take a fortnights leave over Christmas and New Year awaiting the arrival of a new pilot.
Festivities over, back to Wratting Common we met up with our new pilot F/O Bill Martin an experienced pilot on twin engine aircraft, it did not take him long to master this giant of the sky. Just a few day and night exercises of circuits and landings then on to long distance three to four hour cross country flights.
After nearly forty hours flying time converting to Stirlings our course finished abruptly when we were informed that as a crew we would be moving onto RAF Waterbeach to convert on to Lancasters. A quiet feeling of relief when word came that due to the heavy loss rate on German targets, Stirlings were being withdrawn from the main thrust of Bomber Commands activities.
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1678 Heavy Conversion Unit RAF Waterbeach
[photograph of Lancaster Mark II (Note: Flying on one engine)]
What a great feeling to get away from Wratting Common with it’s isolation and mud to arrive at a pre war brick built camp with all the amenities, a regular bus service into Cambridge, three pubs in the village and comfortable billets.
Accordingly to the talk around the camp, we were to convert onto the Lancaster 2 with Bristol Hercules radial air cooled engines as opposed to the Merlin inline liquid cooled engines. According to records, there were only five squadrons allocated this type of aircraft, three Canadian and two British. Just over three hundred were build by the Armstrong Whitley Company in Coventry as a stop gap, due to a shortage of Merlin engines and a surplus of Hercules engines. This Lancaster was a strange looking aircraft, but apart from it’s ceiling, the performance was comparable to the original Lancaster.
Within a week of arriving at Waterbeach, with only seven hours day and six hours night flying exercises under our belt we were considered capable of joining a squadron. Unfortunately, due to the Stirlings being phased out, a bottle neck seemed to have occurred throughout the squadrons of Three Group, consequently, our crew were sent to a holding unit at RAF Stradishall for two weeks before being awarded a seven days leave prior to our operational posting to 115 Squadron at RAF Witchford by Ely.
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Chapter 2
Operations RAF Witchford
After seven days of a very welcome leave, I arrived at Liverpool Street Station, London, early afternoon, joining up with three members of my crew, Sid Longhurst our Wireless Operator, Joe Waple, Bomb Aimer and Cyril Bridges our Flight Engineer. As usual, the train full of servicemen, mainly RAF, stopped at every station en route to Ely, destined for the many aerodromes scattered about East Anglia. Dusk was approaching giving the flat frosty landscape a look of foreboding which added to the apprehension that was building up inside me. Even the idle chatter failed to divert my thoughts away from the task that we had so flamboyantly volunteered for.
Arriving at Ely, the crew bus picked us up with all our gear and drove the short distance to Witchford camp, collected our bedding before being dropped off at our billet. Here we met up with our Mid Upper Gunner Dick Hollis and our Australian Navigator.
RAF Witchford, a Nisson huttet[sic] camp, recently vacated by 196 Stirling Squadron. The domestic site was situated to the rear of the village of Witchford with our billet directly behind The Shoulder of Mutton public house as it was named in those days. The administration area and airfield was situated at the eastern end of the village with the main runway start, close on the borders of Ely itself, a camel trek from our billet.
The following day was very cold, a hoar-frost covered the trees as we went about getting our bearings and doing the usual business of signing in at the various sections of the camp ie medical, transport, parachute section etc eventually arriving at C Flight to be designated a locker for our flying kit. Our Pilot, F/O Bill Martin arrived on the scene and introduced his NCO crew to the C Flight Commander, Sqd Leader George Mackie.
[photograph of the crew] L to R Back Row; Sid Longhurst W/op Cyril Bridges F/eng Dick Hollis M/u Jim Henry Nav
Seated; Geoff Payne R/g Bill Martin Pilot Joe Waple B/a [/photograph of the crew]
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Early next morning February 5th 1944, reporting to the Gunnery Leaders office, I meet up with F/Lt Eric Bilson who casually informed me that I was on the Battle Order for that nights[sic] operation, briefing at 19.45hrs. I would be joining the crew of P/O Speirenberg as their rear gunner for that nights[sic] operation.
During the afternoon, met up in the Sergeants mess, some of the crew with whom I was to fly with that night. Most of the afternoon was spent moping about the Mess trying to allay the nervous tension with a “cat nap” or a lot of idle chatter. This operation was to be the first for P/O Speirenberg and his crew, we were indeed a “sprog” crew.
Time came for our operational meal of bacon, eggs and fried bread, a luxury in those days, then the leisurely stroll to briefing along the ain street of Witchford to the admin site. Here we were directed to a large Nisson hut, on guard at the entrance stood two white capped service police looking very ossicious. Our pilot and navigator had already been briefed and were awaiting us at a large trestle table. Introductions all round, we sat waiting for the formal proceedings to begin. A command from the back of the hall brought us to attention when the squadron hierarchy marched to the front, led by the squadron commander.
[photograph] RAF Witchford Briefing (I am seated forefront left) [/photograph]
Stepping on to the dais, the CO wished us a good evening before withdrawing the curtain covering a blackboard showing a large map of Europe. Starting at Witchford, a red ribbon stretched out, crossing the North sea, meandering across France and finally ending way down in southern Germany. Gentlemen, your target for tonight is Augsberg, announced the CO to gasps from the assembled crews, many had recently operated on some very difficult and long distance sorties, including a number of Berlin raids.
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Following the CO,s briefing on the importance of this target, the M.A.N. works, we were briefed by the section leaders as to fuel and bomb loads, weather conditions, intelligence reports on enemy flack areas and industrial installations etc with a final word from the CO wishing us good luck. My own thought at that moment was, we will need all the good luck we can get.
Our pilot, a South African, gathered his “sprog crew” together, and trundled of[sic] to the flights to change into our flying gear and to pick up a thermos of coffee, flying rations, a few biscuits, barley sugars and “wakey wakey pills” (Benzedrine) plus my lucky Golliwog which my girl friend had made for me. Not too long before our transport arrived with it’s WAAF driver who would take us out to our aircraft dispersal pan.
At dispersal we chatted to our ground crew and chain smoked until it was time to climb aboard our aircraft M for mother. As a crew, we had not air tested our aircraft during the day so, each crew member did his own preliminary checks prior to start up.
A green Very light rose from the control tower then one by one the powerful Hercules engines roared into life, disturbing the roosting bird life and breaking the eerie silence of the darkened evening. Our skipper called up for crew reports if everything was Ok before waving chocks away, a short burst of engine power we began moving forward on to the perimeter track following a long line of Lancaster’s trundling towards the start of the east-west runway. On to the main runway, I was surprised to see a number of airmen and WAAF’s congregating alongside the Control Caravan waving their arms wishing us god speed.
The green Aldis lamp signalled us to go, and with a mighty roar from our four engines we sped down the runway taking off at 21-45 hrs thereon setting course for our turning point on the East Anglian coast. There we would be joining a bomber stream of almost 600 heavies on their seven and a half hours operation into the heart of Germany. The German air defences would already be aware that a heavy air attack was being prepared because they were able to pick up the RT traffic emanating from the large amount of air tests being carried out from the airfields of Eastern England during that morning.
Crossing the North Sea our Bomb Aimer called up to announce enemy coast ahead, a term that I had heard many times while watching such films as “One of Our Aircraft is Missing”. I never thought at the time that I would hear it for real which brought about an awesome feeling of apprehension, we were going into battle from which there was no opt our clause. We were going to war.
Now at our operational height of 18500 ft, above cloud and beginning to feel the intense cold, the condensation from my oxygen mask started to dribble down onto my Irvin suite[sic] where it froze solid.
Apart from a few searchlights and spasmodic flak activity away from our track, the journey across Germany was uneventful until our Bomb Aimer reported target ahead, seeing the Pathfinders red ground markers falling. Approaching the target, our aircraft began to be buffeted about from the slipstream of other aircraft converging on to the aiming point. The Master Bomber happily giving instructions as to what colour markers to bomb on.
Our squadron was in the second wave, the air defences were by now fully alerted with the many searchlights weaving about the sky accompanied by heavy flak, sometimes a
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loud crump as a shell burst close to our aircraft sending the acrid smell of cordite wafting into my turret. Lancasters and Halifaxes seemed to be closing in upon us, our bomb doors came open, and almost spontaneously, the Lancaster flying above us opened it’s bomb doors, my right leg began to jerk uncontrollably wondering if their bombs were going to hit us. Bombs away, bomb doors closed, nose down for a little more speed before setting course for home. By now my leg jerking had ceased and looking down into the target area it was like grazing into a giant cupola of molten metal, heaving and bubbling, a truly awesome site.[sic] Another glance down, I saw six ME109’s flying in formation three and three, well down below us silhouetted against the flow of the fire with their with[sic] navigation lights on. Very weird!
As we cleared the target area, a burst of tracer from the starboard quarter passed over us followed by a ME 109 crossing fast above our aircraft. The Mid Upper gunner and myself managed to get in a short burst but the fighter disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. I think that this 109 had his sights on another aircraft.
Heading for home, I could still see the glow from the destruction that we had caused even after an hours flying time. A few fighter flares, spasmodic bursts of flak and the odd searchlight were seen but way off our track, however ! we still kept our vigilance as these were the occasions with your guard was down, fighter attacks occurred.
Feeling very tired and cold we landed back at Witchford at 05-15hrs after a seven and a half hour flight then transported directly to de-briefing. A welcome cup of tea and a generous swig of rum in a chipped enamelled mug awaited us, served up by one of the cheerful WAAF’s, followed by a welcome breakfast.
Back to my billet, my own crew were away on a cross country exercise that day which left me completely alone thinking of that horrendous nights operation before dropping of[sic] to a very disturbed sleep.
According to records, the Augsberg operation proved successful although 21 heavies were lost on that raid, the equivalent to the loss of a squadron.
Due to adverse weather conditions on the continent Bomber Command was relieved of operations for the next seven days. This respite allowed our squadron to re-group, taking in a series of training flights and air tests. The break also gave us the opportunity of exploring the ancient city of Ely with it’s magnificent Cathedral, the little tea shops or just strolling the banks of the river Cam. There was also the unforgettable boozy evenings in the Lamb and other hostelries entailing a three mile stagger back to Witchford.
The third of March brought us back to reality when the Battle Order was pinned on the mess notice board indicating that operations were on that night and our crew were to participate. At briefing, the usual rigmarole, then naming Stuttgart as our target for the night, another southern Germany flight of six and a half hours. Our take of[sic] time was put back two hours due to the fore-casted weather conditions on our return, new take off time now 23-45 hrs.
An uneventful flight out with lots of thick cloud at various ceilings en-route until we neared our target, then clear skies above and 10/10ths cloud below us, illuminated by the many searchlights and exposing the bomber force to the higher flying German night fighters. The Master Bomber brough us in to bomb on the red sky markers (Wanganui flares) our bomb aimer began his instructions then, bombs away. Our pilot turned away from the target and requested a course for home but received no response
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from the navigator. Our flight engineer went back to find out if we had a casualty but, found the navigator was refusing to do his job. This caused a nasty verbal confrontation between the navigator and pilot who then ordered our bomb aimer to find a temporary course back as there was no possibility of trying to continue on the route set out at briefing.
This serious set back put our aircraft and crew in a very dangerous situation, not on track with the bomber stream, we were liable to being picked off by enemy fighters. Although the cloudy conditions at various levels gave us a modicum of cover, we were virtually alone in the heart of Germany, running tight on fuel and a navigator still refusing to do his job. Thankfully we had a very experienced pilot and our bomb aimer had a good knowledge of navigation. After flying in and out of cloud for some time and diverting occasionally to avoid defended areas the bomb aimer reported coastline and English Channel ahead, well south of our projected route.
Immediately our pilot radioed that we were running low on fuel and requested an emergency. Crossing the English coast, two searchlights lit up indicating a flare path, one circuit and we were down. We had landed at RAF Manston in Kent at 06-30 hrs with just fifteen minutes of fuel in our tanks, a flight of nearly seven hours.
While our pilot was at the officers mess, we tried to reason with our navigator but to no avail. Later in the day we were transported to our refuelled aircraft and took off on the 45 minutes flight back to Witchford, our bomb aimer doing the map reading.
Arriving back at Witchford dispersal awaiting transport, a staff car arrived with two service policemen. After consulting our pilot, the navigator was apparently arrested and taken away in the staff car. That was the last time that we saw our navigator, even after the war, we have been unable to trace him.
According to records this Stuttgart raid was highly successful with 557 heavies participating in the operation and only four heavies lost.
During the next few days, we carried out a series of training flights, including an abortive five and a half hours North Sea rescue search which classed as an operation.
On the 18th of March, with the Navigation Leader on board, our crew was listed on the nights Battle Order, the target Frankfurt, a heavily defended large industrial town with the massive factory complex of the IG Farben Industrie. Take off time 20-30 hrs.
The flight out was uneventful apart from a number of exchanges of tracer fire seen away in distance but, as we approached the target, many fighter flares lit up the sky. The target area was less cloudy than on the trip out and as we went into bomb, masses of searchlights were probing the sky. With the continuous red flashes of bursting shells, light flak tracer coupled with the crump of heavy flak, one wondered how anything could penetrate these defences let alone make it through the target area unscathed. However! We made it through and headed on track for home when a twin engine aircraft appeared astern and below at about 400yds, it was a Me 110 closing in on us. I switched on my mike to alert the crew to be ready to corkscrew but, the mike was dead, frozen up with condensation. Taking off my glove, I attempted to scratch away the ice that had collected in my oxygen mask but to no avail. I then tried to contact the crew using the emergency light button but no response was forthcoming. As the fighter closed underneath our aircraft, I got a good bead on it’s nose area and pressed the trigger. A two second burst and all four guns jammed leaving us completely at the mercy of the Me 110, the rest of the crew being unaware of the desperate situation that was to unfold.
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Suddenly there was a number of loud bangs, our aircraft shook and the strong smell of cordite permeated my oxygen mask. The aircraft began to manoeuvre violently as if out of control and with no information coming through on the intercom, panic set in, thinking that the crew were either dead or wounded. As I could not be of use in my turret, without an communication and my guns out of action, I decided to find out what was happening. Clipping on an emergency oxygen bottle I began to work my way up the fuselage when I noticed the main door flapping open and the M/u gunner gone. A horrible feeling came over me as I thought that the crew had baled out and left me to my fate. Looking up and around the M/u gunners position, there were bullet and cannon shells in the fuselage, an intercom junction box shattered, the gunners helmet hanging on the foot stirrups.
Our aircraft began to level out as I made my way up the fuselage, drawing aside the gangway curtain, to my relief the W/op and the navigator were settling down. Reporting that the M/u gunner had baled out, I went back to sit in my turret contemplating that if we got attacked again, we didn’t have the capability of defending ourselves. However! The rest of the journey was uneventful apart from my turret electrics being out of action which left me at the mercy of the bitter cold.
When we were almost back home, my oxygen mask off, I could smell something burning. I opened the doors of my turret and saw a yellow glow emanating from one of the ammunition panniers and reported to our pilot that we had a fire, he immediately requested a priority landing. After the engines were cut I raked out the belt of ammunition from the pannier and found that an incendiary bullet had penetrated the pannier and lodged in between the rounds of ammunition. Luck seemed to be on our side again, if this incendiary bullet had penetrated a cartridge casing, there would have been an almighty explosion.
After de-briefing I was taken to the sick bay to be checked for frost bite, the ends of two fingers on my left hand were numb due to scratching out the ice in my oxygen mask. After an overnight stay in sick quarters, the MO declared me fit for duty.
According to records this raid was successful with 829 heavies taking part in the attack with the loss of 22 aircraft.
Two days later, on the 22nd of March, we were detailed for operations again to Frankfurt, this announcement caused an air of dismay amongst our crew having lost two of our original crew members over the last two operations. However! we were fortunate in having the Gunnery Leader as our M/u gunner and the Navigation Leader on board again. Take off time 19-00hrs.
Over 800 heavies were detailed for this raid, a well planned diversionary route to the target was detailed which caused problems for the German night fighter force. Nothing of real concern encountered during the flight out but, being in the third wave, the defences were fully deployed by the time we arrived. Around the target area we were met by a terrifying barrage of flak with many searchlights weaving about the sky. We bombed then, flew on through this heavily defended area and, as we turned on to our course for home, a blue master searchlight came on astern of our aircraft.
I reported to our pilot that the searchlight was closing in upon us and coming closer, closer, closer, it’s got us. Immediately, our pilot put the aircraft into an almost vertical dive which caused all four engines to cut, then came the crackling on the intercom “prepare to abandon aircraft”. Opening my turret doors I struggled out and unclipped my parachute from it’s housing before dragging myself into the fuselage. The aircraft
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was still diving and I thought “this is it” there was no way that I could reach the doorway as I was floating about in mid air. Luckily the engines picked up again, with a mighty roar the aircraft began to pull out of its dive pinning me to the fuselage floor by the G forces. When the aircraft levelled out I made my way back into the turret and found that we were flying very low, almost in a valley with a river beneath us and searchlights crossing the valley almost horizontally. The intercom came on “pilot to crew we are going home now chaps” to a muffled response of “hear hear”. or words to that effect.
On the way back I began to have a peculiar sensation of throbbing in my hands, something akin to how chilblain’s feel until I realised that during the scramble to get out of my turret my heated gloves had come detached from my Irvin Suit. I tried desperately to reconnect my gloves but found it impossible, due to the numbness in my hands. My hands didn’t seem unduly cold, I wasn’t even bothered until we landed back at Witchford. After de-briefing the MO examined my hands that had started to blister, a sure sign of frost bite. I was immediately transported to the RAF hospital at Ely and put to bed, both hands being tied up to the bed rail.
Spent a couple of weeks in the ward having my hands dressed three times a day with mentholated spirits then allowed out, dressed in hospital blue. For a few hours each day, along with a couple of other patients, we wandered around Ely sampling the many tea rooms, the pubs were out of bounds to servicemen dressed in hospital blue.
One interesting feature at the time was wandering down by the river Cam and witnessing the actual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race taking place on the river because London was too dangerous at that time to hold the event.
After another week in hospital, the blisters on my hands disappeared, the top skin had peeled and I was getting plenty of movement in my fingers so the doctor discharged me and gave me a few days sick leave.
Back at Witchford I learned that my friend Sgt Nick Alkemade and his crew had been lost on the previous Berlin raid and also that the squadron had lost two of its aircraft when they were shot down by a ME 410 intruder as they were coming into land after a raid on Rouen.
Reporting to the MO the following day and told that I was posted to 75 New Zealand squadron at RAF Mepal, just four miles down the road from Witchford. Sad to say farewell to the remainder of my crew with whom I had trained and flew with over the past few months, incidentally, that crew completed their tour of operations.
Spent a couple of weeks at Mepal just kicking my heels until the Gunnery Leader told me that I was posted and to report to 514 squadron at RAF Waterbeach awaiting my medical assessment.
In closing this chapter I would like to make reference to my friend Nick Alkemade.
Their aircraft was returning from a raid on Berlin when they were attacked by a JU88, setting the Lancaster on fire. The pilot ordered the crew to bale out but, the rear gunner found that his parachute was ablaze, his oxygen mask began to melt on his face, leaving him no alternative but to jump, better a quick death than being burned alive. He abandoned his aircraft at 18.000 ft and landed in a huge snow drift, high in the Hartz Mountains and eventually to[he] became a prisoner of war.
His story is well documented in the records of 115 Squadron and the RAF
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[photocopy extract] Log Book Copy of the Frankfurt Action
[photocopy extract] Medical Report
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[photocopy extract] [underlined] Combat Report [/underlined]
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[photocopy extract] [underlined] Combat Report [/underlined]
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Chapter 3
Return to Ops RAF Waterbeach
514 Squadron was formed at RAF Foulsham in September 1943 as part of 3 Group and began operations in November 1943 flying Bristol Hercules radial engined Mk2 Lancaster’s before relocating to RAF Waterbeach for the rest of the war until disbanded in August 1945 Arrived at Waterbeach and deposited on the ground floor of one of the H Blocks. RAF Waterbeach was a pre war aerodrome with all the facilities one could wish for. Hot and cold water, baths and showers within the billet and only fifty yards to the Sergeants Mess, Luxury indeed as opposed to the Spartan conditions which prevailed at Witchford. The rest of the inhabitants of my billet were all aircrew awaiting medical assessment prior to being returned to operational duties and were known as the “Odd Bods”. Some were recovering from wounds, frostbite, or illness and would be joining other crews when declared fit. In the meantime, we were all allocated some useful task to keep us fully occupied until we were returned to operational duties.
Together with another air gunner and as senior NCOs we were allocated airfield defence which meant on occasions being in charge of the perimeter guard or of manning the guns at either end of the main runway when the squadron was operating. This duty was necessary due to the frequency of German intruders who followed the bomber stream back to their bases. One night as I was manning the guns on the downwind end of the main runway awaiting the return of the squadron, I saw a twin engined aircraft approaching the runway and got a bead on it. As it came closer I noticed that it had it’s port undercarriage down but to my relief this aircraft turned out to be a Mosquito, obviously, in trouble coming in down wind. It must have landed half way down the runway in a shower of sparks then, a terrific bang and flames lit up the sky. After about five minutes the field phone rang to inform me that I could stand down as the squadron had been diverted. Three days later the station adjutant informed me that as I had recently been promoted to Flight Sergeant, I was to take the funeral parade for the two airmen that had perished in that Mosquito crash.
During my time “convalescing”, there was ample time to get involved with the many recreational activities on the station. One such time was the visit by a dramatic group with Margaret Lockwood taking the lead ni a play by and directed by Terrance Rattigen. On another occasion the RAF film unit arrived on camp to get the feel and film some aspects of an operational squadron. Among the group was the famous American actor Edward G Robinson with a retinue of lowly airmen who were to participate in this documentary/film although in later would become famous, such names as Dickie Attenborough, George Cole, David Tomlinson and a few others. This film became a box office success entitled “Journey Together” a copy of which I now treasure.
Very soon the “honeymoon” would be over, a message came over the Tannoy for me to report to the Medical Officer who told me to pick up transport the following day
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and report to the RAF hospital at Ely for my final medical assessment. A friendly type of third degree took place and, eventually I was passed fit for flying and would return to Waterbeach operational. Back at Waterbeach I reported to the Gunnery Leader and had a pleasant chat with him concerning my interview with the Medical Board. He told me that they were trying to ascertain if I was “swinging the lead” as frostbite was considered, in the first instance a self inflicted wound and that the recipient had to prove otherwise. With that, I was given first option of joining a crew when a vacancy arose and ordered to report at the gunnery office the following day and every day. D Day came and went and as I was now operational I was excused normal station duties so, I spent much of my time flying in the Link Trainer or knocking about in the cricket nets or even swimming in the river Cam. Bomber Command had switched from attacking the industrial cities of Germany to supporting the advancing allied armies by attacking German troop concentrations, communications, flying bomb sites/storage areas as well the many oil plants.
Reporting to the Gunnery Office July the 7/th, to my delight was informed that I would be flying that night with F/sgt Witwood’s crew as M/u gunner, as their own gunner was off sick with a bad stomach Target for the night was Vaires railway marshalling yard Paris and was part of the plan to disrupt the German supply route to the Normandy battlefields. Take off time 22-30 just as darkness was falling.
Flying as a M/u gunner was a new experience for me with great views all around. A fairly direct route to the target, plenty of searchlight activity but the flak was nowhere near as heavy as my experience of German targets. A well concentrated attack without the loss of aircraft possibly due to another attack on a flying bomb storage depot at St-leu-d’esserent north of Paris where enemy fighters claimed thirty aircraft. Landed back at base after a 4hr 45min flight.
On the 10th July I was with F/sgt Witwood’s crew again on my first daylight raid for an attack on a flying bomb dump at Nucourt. Take off time 04-04hrs uneventful trip with light flak at the target area which was covered in cloud. Landed back at base at 07-45hrs F/sgt’s Witwoods crew completed their tour of ops and all survived the war. Five days later I was to join a crew who’s R/gunner had lost a foot from a predicted flak shell which had penetrated his current and continued on to it’s predicted height before exploding. F/O Cossets crew were, navigator F/O Jimmie Gould a Scot from Kilmarnock, F/eng R J Flint from Motherwell, B/a FO Billie Lees Canada, W/op F/O Hayden, M/u Sgt Dennis Young, with myself as rear gunner. As there was four officers in the crew, socialising as a crew never arose, however, the M/upper gunner Dennis Young became firm friends until he passed away in 2008. It will be a mammoth task to describe all the remaining operations in detail so will pick out some of the more interesting ones as I detail all the operations at 514 sad.
15/16th July 44 My first trip with my new crew was a night operation to Chalons sur Marne a railway marshalling yard, a trip of six and a half hours.
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18.th [sic] July 44 Daylight raid to Amieville to attack enemy troop concentrations. Arriving at base at 00-70 [sic] hrs and informed to be ready for operations again that night
18/19th July 44 Night attack on the rail junctions at Auloyen, flak was moderate but in the distance, another attack was taking place at the rail junction at Revigny with fighter rockets seen. Back at base 00-40 [sic] hrs very tired but ready for a seven day leave.
Back from leave, we practised formation flying for a few days in preparation of deep penetration behind the German lines but once again Bomber Harris still wanted to continue his attacks against German industrial towns hence, another night trip into the heart of Germany.
28/29th July 44 Detailed to attack Stuttgart which was to be the third heavy raid by Bomber Command against Stuttgart in seven days.
Fairly clear moonlight night, fighter flares began to illuminate the sky as we approached the French/German border with a number of combats taking place north of our track. It seems as though the German Radar had correctly forecast our target owing to the amount of searchlights waving about the target area. Very heavy flak as we went into bomb with usual buffeting about, turning for home I spotted a number of Me 109’s scurrying about, silhouetted against the fires. The return journey was uneventful although these were the times that a marauding fighter could catch you unawares. After an eight hour flight we landed back at base at 04-00 hrs. Later we were to learn that 39 aircraft had been lost on this raid against the five hundred that had participated.
30th July Daylight raid to Normandy in support of our ground troops who were ready to advance against the stubborn resistance of a German mechanised division. Caen target area B was our aiming point, orange smoke was deployed as the British front line, and we were to bomb east of that line at 4000 ft.
Going in to attack we were met by a lot of light flak which subsided appreciably as the Germans took cover. I don’t know how anyone could have survived such a concentrated battering that I had witnessed.
3rd Aug 44 Daylight operation to Bois de Cassan flying bomb storage sites, four hours flying time.
4th Aug 44 Daylight raid Bec d Ambes oil storage port on the Gironde Estuary (of The Cockleshell Heroes fame) leading into Bordeaux.
Take off time 1330 hrs To avoid being detected by the German RADAR we were detailed to fly out below 4000 ft. Setting course in close formation, we joined up with other squadrons at Falmouth Cornwall then out to sea heading for the Bay of Biscay, an area notorious for patrols of Ju 88’s. Nearing the French coast we climbed to our bombing height then went into bomb. The attack was extremely successful as I could see the storage tanks on fire and a tanker alongside the jetty listing badly. Very strange that there was only light flak in the vicinity, it being obvious that we had caught the defences unawares
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Relative pleasant journey on the way back but it must have been quite a strain for our pilot flying at that low level. A couple of our Mosquito escorts buzzed us on the way home which was gratifying. Back at base after an eight hour flight and ready for a 48 hr pass
8/9th Aug 44 Night operation Forte de Luchieux, munition storage dumps and depots.
12/13 Aug 44 Back to the German industrial towns with a night operation to Russelsheim by Frankfurt on Main. Target, the Opal factories who were manufacturing aircraft and military vehicles. Very apprehensive as, this was my third visit to Frankfurt and held many unpleasant memories. Clear night with heavy flak and many searchlights and fighter flares. Incident free trip but losses were high, losing thirty aircraft, a loss rate of 6.7 percent
16/17th Aug 44 Loud groans from the assembled crews as the target Stettin was revealed, a Polish port away in the Baltic. We were to adopt the same tactics as employed in the successful daylight raid on Bec de Ambes and to fly out below 4000 ft under the RADAR screen. A diversionary raid would also take place against Kiel in an attempt to confuse the German defences.
Take off time 2100 hrs we set out over the North Sea, crossing over the northern tip of Denmark. To the north we could see the lights of Stockholm with one or two searchlights wafting about, accompanied by a few bursts of flak. I think they were warning us to keep clear although, I knew that some of our aircraft had wandered into Swedish neutral airspace.
Continuing on over the Baltic we began to gain height in preparation to attack. Not many searchlights about With [sic] a moderate amount flak we bombed and turned away dropping very quickly down to almost sea level for our flight back home. Uneventful trip back to base after a [sic] eight and a half hours flight.
It seemed as though the tactics employed on that raid were successful, with Stettin being very badly damaged, unfortunately our squadron lost one aircraft crashing in Denmark on the return flight.
Five aircraft were lost on that raid.
19/20th Aug 44 Night operation to Bremen. Very heavily defended and reports indicate that this raid on Bremen was the most devastating of the war. Uneventful trip
21st Aug 44 Converted to Lancaster III s Merlin engines
25th Aug 44 Operations Vincly. Flying Bomb site and storage depot in the Pas de Calais area. Watched a Lancaster spiral into the ground, two parachutes deployed.
26/27 Aug 44 Night attack on Kiel
6th Sept 44 Operations Le Harve. [sic] German fortifications and transport
20th Sept 44 Operations Calais enemy troop concentrations
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[black and white arial photograph of Calais]
[underlined] Attack on Calais [/underlined]
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Picture taken during the R.A.F. attack on Calais in September. Calais was bombed by large forces for two and a half hours.
BRITISH OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH NO. CL. 1200. (XP)
(Air Ministry Photograph – Crown Copyright Reserved)
R.A.F. BOMBER COMMAND’S ATTACK ON CALAIS.
Picture shows:- Under the pall of smoke lie heavily defended positions four miles West of Calais. The picture was taken during R.A.F. Bomber Command’s attack on 20.9.44. when large forces of Lancasters and Halifaxes bombarded Calais for nearly two and a half hours. Two aircraft can be seen flying over the target. The craters at the top of the photograph were caused by bombs dropped from aircraft in the opening stages of the attack. (Picture issued September. 1944)
[underlined] Attack on Calais [/underlined]
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23/24 Sep 44 Night attack on Neuss (Ruhr) Heavily defended
25th Sept 44 Operations Calais enemy troop positions
26th Sept 44 Operations Cap Griz Nes enemy troop concentrations.
28th Sept 44 Operations Calais enemy troop concentrations
[copy of a navigation plot chart]
F/Lt Nye Navigation Plot Westkapelle 3-10-44
3rd Oct 44 Daylight operation to Westkapelle. The target shown was the Dutch island of Walcheren at the approaches to the port of Antwerp on the river Scheldt. We were informed that the target was strategically important as the Germans were denying the Allies the use of the port of Antwerp and was required for the supply of material for our advancing armies. The object of the raid was to breach the dyke’s and to flood the island purposely to neutralise the German forces established there.
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I was feeling rather disturbed that we were going to flood vast tracts of land that had taken years to establish and concern for the population who had suffered four years of hardship and deprivation during the German occupation
Take off time 1207 hrs. Reaching our rendezvous point there seemed to be hundreds of four engine aircraft converging before heading out over the North sea. Dropping down to our bombing height we approached our target and dropped our 8000 lb bomb which according to our bomb aimer, got a direct hit on the dyke. Passing over the target I saw that the dyke had been breached with the sea gushing through the gaps. Due to the concentration of German forces on the island there was an enormous amount of light and heavy flak as we turned for home, however it was thankful that no enemy fighters were seen over the target area but we still had to keep a watchful eye open as there were many enemy fighter airfields in Holland. Back at base after a two and a half hours flight, after “interrogation” we repaired to our mess for a meal and a pint to celebrate our M/uppers 20th birthday.
Some time later I was to learn that my best friend, a Marine, was killed during the assault on the island of Walcheren at Westkapelle. They attacked through the breaches that we had made in the dyke.
[black and white arial photograph of the dykes at Westkapelle]
Breaching the Dykes at Westkapelle 3-10-44
5/6th Oct 44 Night operation to Saabrucken to attack marshalling yards and steelwork installations This raid was at the request of General Patton in preparation for the American forces offensive along the Southern front in an attempt to stem the flow of German reinforcements to that front. Heavy flak in the target area, no fighters seen.
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7th Oct 44 Daylight operation to Emmerich a German town on the border with Holland. Synthetic oil installations and German supply were to be attacked.
It was the first time that we had been ordered to fly in formation, our two sister squadrons, 115 ahead and 75 New Zealand squadron behind us. Other groups and squadrons had made similar arrangements. As we neared the German/Dutch border very accurate flak opened up which immediately dispersed the Bomber stream. The lead Lancaster of 75 squadron who was following us took a direct hit and completely disintegrated, the wreckage slowly drifting to earth, a very
[black and white photograph of a Lancaster taking a direct flak hit]
75 New Zealand Squsdron Lancaster taking a direct flak hit.
disconcerting sight. Clear sky’s [sic] over the target which we bombed on the PFF flares accurately but as we closed our bomb door an enormous crump shook our aircraft and shrapnel rattled along the fuselage, putting my turret and M/uppers out of action. The hydraulics had been severed somewhere leaving us to operate our turrets by hand, not a good position to be in, although we were supposed to have an escort of Mosquito’s. [sic] Arriving back at base there was some concern that we would be unable to activate the undercarriage owing to the problem with the hydraulics, however, the undercarriage dropped down perfectly.
We delivered U for uncle to the hanger for repair and said a fond farewell to the lady. That was my 29th operation and keeping my fingers crossed that number 30 would be an easy one ?????
14th Oct 44 Briefing 05-00 hrs Taken aback when the target was revealed, a daylight attack on the Ruhr town of Duisburg one of the most heavily defended areas in
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Germany, dangerous enough at night. This is me going out with a bang one way or another. As we were to have a fighter escort, the flight out was uneventful until we were approaching the target area, there were nearly a thousand heavy bombers converging towards then passing through what seemed to be a black haze intermingled with deep red flashes of exploding flak shells. As we dropped our bombs, I looked down to see the fires and the ground erupting, a truly awesome site. Soon we were out of the Ruhr defences heading back to Waterbeach feeling slightly more relaxed but still scanning the sky’s [sic] for the unexpected fighter to jump us. Landing back at base I felt that the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders and what a relief to be looking forward to a fortnights leave in a couple of days [sic] time.
At de-briefing, the C/o said that operations were on again that night and read out the crews who were to participate. All gunners who were not flying that night were to report, to the bomb dump to assist the armourers to bomb up again. That included me.
The following day I learned that our squadron Had followed up on our raid with a night attack on Duisburg in the company of almost a thousand bombers.
Two days later, the crew celebrated the completion of our tour of operations at The Eagle, a well know hostelry in Cambridge.
Off on leave then, as a redundant airman, I was given a posting to the Aircrew Re assessment Centre at RAF Brackla by Nairn, Northern Scotland, jokingly this station was known as Brigadoon. That is another story.
[copy of a log book entry by F/O Cossens]
F/O Cossens Log Book entry at the end of operational tour
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Chapter 4
Grounded
[underlined] RAF Brackla [/underlined]
After a long food less overnight train journey from Peterborough, we eventually arrived at Nairn station late morning. During the journey to Scotland, I teamed up with a F/sgt F/Engineer, Jim Simpson from Walsall who was in the same situation as myself, redundant aircrew both feeling fairly low. Awaiting the crew bus, we became aware of how bitterly cold it was with snow on the hills and a cold east wind blowing in from the Moray Firth.
Eventually the crew bus arrived to transport us to our new home, a dispersed unused airfield with a few wooden buildings as the domestic/administrative site, our Nisson hutted billets a mile away from the main camp, situated on a hillock. With the usual rigmarole of signing in, we eventually made it to the Sergeant’s mess for a late lunch which we ate ravenously. Back to our billet we scoured around to find wood and coke to feed the pot bellied stove, the only means of warming our “tin hut”.
The following morning after breakfast, about fifty aircrew of various ranks, including officers, paraded outside the headquarters hut, many dressed in what one would describe as non regulation dress. Some wearing their Irvine jackets and many with scarves much to the displeasure of the parade Warrant Officer, however! due to the bitter cold wind that was still blowing around the camp, nothing more was said on the subject. Sectioned off, we waited in one of the offices until called individually for interview and assessment.
RAF Brackla was a war time airfield built alongside an ancient distillery, according to the stories from the permanent staff, it was to be used by Wellington aircraft patrolling the North Sea. Because of the peat sodden ground the runways began to sink and distort, making the airfield unserviceable for heavy aircraft.
Called in for my interview by a seemingly disinterested Flying Officer, I addressed him with the usual courtesy, before his questioning routine began. What was my education qualifications, my civilian occupation, and my recreational activities etc;? and so it went on for some time. I had worked in the automobile industry as an apprenticed sheet metal worker so I was offered training as an airframe fitter or a driver/mechanic.
I had given a lot of thought to what sort of peace time occupation I would like to be involved in when demobilised, deciding that factory work with set routines was not for me. As a youngster I had always been keen on all sporting activities, this could be the opportunity I was looking for. I conveyed my thoughts to the interviewing officer that I would like to train as a PTI (physical training instructor) which would give me the opportunity of going on to Loughborough University. With a wry smile, he said he would make a note of my request and that was the end of my interview.
On parade the following morning, the Station Warrant Officer addressed us with the comment that “we looked like a bunch of layabouts and needed to get back to some discipline and fitness”, we were then dismissed and told to report back in an hours [sic] time dressed in “Best Blue” ready for inspection. The inspection was performed by
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the C/O, an ex operational pilot sporting the DFC and Bar, with a bit of tongue in cheek formality he handed over the parade to SWO. The officers were dismissed leaving us in the hands of a F/sgt air gunner who marched us away and continued to march us at regulation pace onto and then around the perimeter track. After about fifteen minutes, the parade began to mutter amongst themselves until one wag in the centre of the file bawled out an order “parade break step”, the whole parade then began to shuffle along to guffaws of laughter until the parade F/sgt brought us to a halt and demanded to know who gave the order and why? The offending airman a F/sgt Engineer put his hand up and said or words to the effect “If we had continued to march in step we would have disappeared into the peat and I wouldn’t like you to be responsible for the catastrophe”.
That was the end of marching at RAF Brackla, to the tour expired airmen, Brackla became known as Brigadoon.
Christmas and new year was nearly upon us although Christmas as such, did not exist in Scotland, the New Year being the prime celebration. Brackla was just a small cluster of cottages, not even a pub or shop. We had absolutely nothing to do on the camp although I took the opportunity of playing rugby for the station which relieved the boredom. At other times we could scrounge a lift into Nairn, although it was a lottery getting return transport.
Nairn was then, a sleepy seaside resort with a couple of hotels and the odd bar. Sunday was a day of rest in Scotland and Nairn was completely shut on the Sabbath. On Saturday nights, there was always the dance at the Pentecostal Church hall. My friend Jim Simpson and I always stuck together on these excursions and invariably we were offered digs for the weekend, we even attended the Pentecostal Church on the Sunday. This weekly event followed the same pattern during our stay at Brackla, friendly people the Nairn folk. Two weeks into the New Year, Jim Simpson and I were summoned to the administration office to be informed of our posting to RAF Weeton near Blackpool to undertake a motor transport course. My hope of becoming a Physical Training Instructor was finally dashed.
[underlined] RAF Weeton [/underlined]
Met up with Jim Simpson at Birmingham New Street Station after a welcome seven day’s leave, en route to Kirkham and RAF Weeton.
RAF Weeton was a sprawling complex of wooden huts with manicured verges, white painted kerbs and edging which typified a multi training establishment, a formidable place. One of it’s [sic] saving graces was the close proximity to Blackpool, sporting a frequent bus and train service to the seaside town with it’s [sic] many entertainment attractions.
We soon settled into one of the wooden huts and made acquaintance with the other inhabitants, all tour expired aircrew, two of them were air gunners with whom I had trained at the Isle of Man, one of them was a fellow named Ward from Hull. His Stirling had been shot down during a French resistance supply-drop and he was the only one to survive, being rescued by a French resistance group. He fought alongside this group, the Maquis and with the assistance of a French escape organisation, he eventually made his way back home via Spain. He proudly sported a German Eagle emblem sewed under his breast pocket flap, he claimed that he had taken it off a German soldier whom he had shot during his association with the Maquis.
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The following day, we assembled in one of the huts, our dozen aircrew plus about twenty airmen recruits (Sprogs) were briefed on the course that we were to undertake, then spent the rest of the morning doing basic drill. Although the aircrew were senior NCOs we were still expected to carry out the same tasks as the recruits during the course, this didn’t unduly worry us. The afternoon was far more interesting, firing 303 rifles on the range.
Then began a very intense and interesting two months course on all aspects of motor transport. The squad was split up into two groups, one group being involved with class work and practical mechanics during the morning and then taking driving lessons during the afternoon, the other group rotating in a similar fashion.
Our first driving lesson was in an Austin 10 saloon under the auspice’s [sic] of The British School of Motoring (BSM) three to a car taking half hour instructional driving in and around the Blackpool area during the morning or afternoon.
After three weeks of driving lessons and intensive course work we were ready to take our driving test around the narrow streets of Blackpool. In those days hand signals were the norm as there was no such modern aids as indicator lights. Jim Simpson and I were delighted that we had passed our driving and theoretical test and were ready to move on to the heavy vehicles, 75 percent of our group were also successful.
Our first introduction to lorries, Bedford’s, Fordsons, Albions and Dennis’s, [sic] took place within the camp precinct getting familiarised with “double declutching”, reversing on mirrors and in general, getting the feel of a heavy vehicle. Out on the road we enjoyed the convoy excursions into the Pennines with it’s [sic] many twisting and turning country lanes, stopping on occasions at village cafe’s [sic] to sample the home baking.
Apart from the extra guard and orderly sergeants [sic] duties, as well as our normal course work, we had ample leisure time to take in the delights of Blackpool. During the war, Blackpool was an extremely busy town, full of service personnel of all nationalities, undertaking various courses or being kitted out prior to postings overseas. Competition for the attention of the ladies of Blackpool was very fierce, however! there was plenty of other diversions such as free entrance to the many shows at the Wintergardens, the Tower and other establishments. One such show remains in my memory was, seeing Sandy Powell doing his ventriloquist act at the Tower, hilarious!
During the final three weeks of our course, we graduated on to lorry with trailer driving, then finally the long articulated “Queen Mary’s” complete with an aircraft fuselage. The achievement of driving and manipulating this lengthy vehicle, made one feel like Mr Lucas or “The King Of The Road”.
Our course ended with notification of our posting and presentation of our RAF driving documents, the equivalent to a full driving licence. This would serve us well when we returned to civilian life. Jim Simpson and I were very lucky to be given home postings to RAF Halfpenny Green, within easy reach of our homes.
On leave, my mother received a letter informing us that my cousin was missing on operations to Harberg 7/8th of March 1944. He was a M/upper gunner with 57 squadron based at East Kirkby in Lincolnshire, lost on his second tour.
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[underlined] RAF Halfpenny Green [/underlined]
RAF Halfpenny Green was a war time aerodrome situated within easy reach of Wolverhampton, Stourbridge and Bridgenorth. It was originally called RAF Bobbington alongside a village of the same name, but the name was changed because of the possibility that the name Bobbington would conflict with an army base in Wiltshire.
Quite a compact camp with a mix of wooden huts and Nisson [sic] huts with all services within easy walking distance. Halfpenny Green was the base of No 3 Air Observer Navigation School using the reliable Avro Ansons and Airspeed Oxfords.
Signing in completed, Jim and I were billeted in a Nisson [sic] hut situated adjacent to the sports ground and, occupied by four Canadian F/sergeant pilots and four F/sergeant navigator instructors. We were in good company.
The following morning we reported to the MT office to be confronted by the MT officer, a surly red faced looking Warrant Officer. When he was told that we were his new drivers and were reporting for duty, he burst out laughing and said “I wonder what this air force is coming to”. or words to that effect. He turned out to be a decent enough fellow and we became firm friends during our time on the camp.
The MT section was overloaded with drivers and my actual driving consisted of driving the ambulance and patients to either, RAF Bridgenorth or to RAF Cosford and on occasions driving the salvage truck around the camp lifting the rubbish to the incinerator. Italian POW’s carried out this task accompanied by their patriotic Neapolitan singing.
Every Thursday evening, I was detailed to transport the Station Education Officer into Dudley to supervise the local Air Training Corps. As I was an ex ATC cadet, we got on famously, I think that is why I was always his driver on these occasions
When I dropped him off, invariably he gave me a free pass to visit either the Palace cinema/Dudley Hippodrome/the dance hall or the roller skating rink. It transpired that he and his family owned these entertainment facilities and is a pity that I cannot recall his name.
On one of these excursions I took in the Dudley Hippodrome to see Vera Lynn who was top of the bill that week, a very enjoyable evening.
Due to the posting away of two of the station drivers, our friendly Transport Officer gave Jim and I the opportunity of manning the Fire Tender, each on a turn about 24 hr on and 24 hr off basis, I think he wanted to get us off his patch as my promotion to Warrant Officer had just been posted on Daily Routine Orders (DRO’s) together with my war medal awards.
This arrangement was ideal, we would have more free time and also avoid the embarrassment to either party in the Transport Section.
The fire station and crash tender building was situated by the main gate and opposite the Headquarters Office Building. Our fire officer was a F/lt Lieutenant and a dead ringer for Arthur Askey, he also played the ukulele and entertained us on many occasion when flying was scrubbed. Some character that fellow.
Each morning, we gave our Fordson fire tender a run round the perimeter track and if flying was on, we would position ourselves on the hard standing at the end of the runway until the flying ceased.
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Fordson Crash Tender
[coloured photograph of a Fordson Crash Tender in front of a Nissen hut]
[black and white full length photograph of Warrant Officer Geoff Payne in uniform]
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My navigator Jim Gould from 514 squadron was the Navigation Leader on the station and was now a F/lt Lieutenant. He arranged for me to get some unofficial flying lessons on Ansons and Oxfords during my down time. We kept in touch over the years but sadly he passed away in 2001.
VE day arrived and I managed to get home for the celebrations, although very short and sweet, everyone let their hair down and danced into the early hours of the morning around the street bonfires. The war in Europe had ended with victory for the Allies, the Japanese conflict was still a major problem. My elder brother was flying in Burma as a Mosquito navigator, would I be seconded to the Tiger Force for a second tour on the other side of the world,?
On duty, sited at the end of the runway one day, our phone rang to tell us that one of our Oxfords had crashed, and we should follow the staff car to the site. When we arrived, it seemed as though the aircraft had dived into the ground, the cockpit area completely crumpled up. We had managed to get into the field with some difficulty and began to play foam onto the engines whilst the ambulance crew began to retrieve the occupants. Sadly there were no survivors and flying was scrubbed for the day.
When our shift finished, I returned to my billet to be met by a strange silence, two of my friends, a Canadian pilot and one of the navigation instructors had died in that crash plus the pupil navigator. During my time at Halfpenny Green, that was the only incident we were called upon to attend.
Arrangements were made for an open day on the camp to which I invited my girl friend and her mother. A lovely summers day wandering around the camp and showing off our station facilities. The highlight of that day was the appearance and aerobatic display by a Gloucester Meteor, the RAF’s first jet powered fighter. This was my first sighting of this amazing aircraft.
The following day, all camp personnel were assembled in one of the hangers to be congratulated on the station performance during the open day, then came the bad news that Halfpenny Green was to close down within the next few weeks. This news came as a big shock, Halfpenny Green was a friendly sort of station, in easy reach of familiar places and my home. Jim and I received our notice of posting quite quickly due to the cessation of the flying programme, both of us being detailed to report to RAF Croughton.
Our final task on the station was to dig a large hole on Bobbington Common and to destroy all the camp pyrotechnics. We literally left Halfpenny Green with a bang.
RAF Halfpenny Green is now Wolverhampton Airport and also home to the RAF Fire Services Museum.
[underlined] RAF Croughton [/underlined]
RAF Croughton is a 1938 airfield, sited on a hillock with grass runways and a concrete perimeter track situated about seven miles southwest of Brackley in Northamptonshire and within easy reach of Banbury, Oxfordshire.
The domestic site, a mix of wooden and Nisson [sic] huts, was a good mile away from the airfield. fortunately [sic] Jim and I managed to get our accommodation in a farm house alongside the airfield which was inhabited by two pilots and two glider pilot instructors, all NCOs. The rooms of the farmhouse were comfortable and had been decorated throughout by a modern day Picasso, very cosy.
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After the usual signing in. we reported to the MT Section and told that we were detailed to report to the airfield tractor section the following day for glider towing. RAF Croughton at that time was Number 1 Glider Training School, training pilots on Hotspur gliders. Our job was to tow the gliders, using small nippy American tractors, on to the runway and to retrieve them upon landing. The Miles Martinet was used as the towing aircraft, a noisy little beast.
With the dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, VJ day came and went with no celebration on my part as I was detailed for a twenty four hour duty as Orderly Officer. The war was over to great relief and there was no danger of doing a second tour which left me pondering as to how long before demobilisation. Time began to drag as our only serious occupation was tractor driving when the weather was suitable for flying. During my down time there was ample opportunity of getting plenty of unofficial flying lessons in gliders and the Miles Martinet.
[black and white photograph of a group of men carrying a Hotspur glider]
Troop Carrying Hotspur Glider
Christmas and the New Year over, there were rumours that the Gliding School was to be relocated, possibly to RAF Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire. This left me wondering if I would be relocated or posted to some other RAF station. Two weeks later all flying ceased and I was to be posted to RAF South Cerney with immediate effect, my friend Jim was to be posted to RAF Coningsby. With the sale of our jointly owned 600 cc Panther motorbike, there ended a very close friendship.
[underlined] South Cerney [/underlined]
South Cerney is situated on the old roman road A419 three miles east of Cirencester, a pre war brick built aerodrome with a grass airfield and home to No 3 Advanced Pilots Course. Nicely laid out, compact, with all the services within easy walking distance.
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Quite a friendly greeting when I reported for duty at the MT section and was given my
main task of driving the Albion ambulance, based at the station sick quarters.
The camp also housed a German POW compound, the prisoners being employed in work activities around the area or within the station on general duties. I became friendly with one such POW, Ollois Kissel who worked in the station sick quarters. He was with a flak battery in Belgium before he was captured and was a chemist in his home town of Koblenz, we corresponded for many years but sadly he died 1998
On occasions, I was offered the task of delivering the camps dirty linen to the Tyseley laundry in Birmingham, entailing an overnight stay at my home, allowing me time to visit my girl friend. I even managed to get to my cousins wedding on one of these trips, much to the surprise of my cousin and family.
During my time at South Cerney most of my down time was spent either scrounging flights in Tiger Moths or Harvards or getting in some athletics training. At weekends I played football for the station team, the station sports officer being the centre half. After one of the games he asked me if I would like to drive him to RAF Tern Hill as he and another officer were representing the station at the Training Command athletics meeting.
During general conversation on the way up to Tern Hill in Shropshire, I said that I had been involved in athletics with Bromsgrove Athletic Club and I would have been interested in competing for our station. When we arrived at Tern Hill, I was introduced to the other members of the South Cerney team who managed to provide me with a pair of spikes and told that I would be competing in the long jump, high jump and the 120yds hurdles. Pleased to say that I was third in the long jump, and second in the high hurdles, our station coming second in the competition. This achievement gave me the opportunity of competing for Training Command at the RAF Inter Command Athletic Meeting held at White City London gaining fourth in the long jump and a fourth in the high hurdles. My only claim to fame at that meeting was competing in the final against the British Champion and Olympic Hurdler F/Lt Lord Burghley.
[black and white images]
Training Command Championship Medals 1946
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[coloured photograph]
Albion Ambulance
Summer 1946 came and went, the station started to run down and in October rumours began to circulate that No3 Advanced Flying Course was being transferred to RAF Little Rissington
. These rumours became fact when my name appeared on DRO's and I was posted to RAF Little Rissington with immediate effect. Two days later at RAF Little Rissington my name appeared on DRO's stating that, after seven days leave I was to report to RAF Homchurch, Essex in preparation for a posting to a Micro Film Unit in Germany.
Deutschland
RAF Homchurch was one of the original RAF airfields situated some fifteen miles south east of the centre of London. The fighter aircraft based there during the war played a prominent role in the defence of our country during the Battle of Britain.
Our short time on the camp was taken up by lectures governing the rules of occupation upon arrival in Germany. This covered such topics as, non fraternisation with the German population, the Black Market, and medical issues regarding the high prevalence of venereal diseases.
After a medical examination plus inoculations for Typhoid and boosters, we were issued with a . 303 Lee Enfield rifle and five rounds of ammunition. The rest of our time at Homchurch was spent just hanging about waiting for our travel documents.
This waiting time gave us the opportunity of wandering around, sightseeing in London, getting cheap meals in the crypt of St Martins in the Fields or Lyons Cornerhouse in Piccadilly. Sadly this rest period came to an end, our group of airmen were handed travel documents for the following day to train up to Hull for the overnight sea crossing to Cuxhaven, en route to RAF Buckeberg.
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Arriving at Hull station, we boarded the waiting transport for the journey to the docks, ahead of us there was this massive all welded American Liberty ship. Proceeding up the gang plank, a typical army RSM confronte.d me, addressing me with the correct term of Mr, assigned me in charge of the Deck Guard, no ifs or buts. However, this arrangement suited me as I was allocated a cabin, shared with two anny sergeants and a naval PO, a far better situation than being squashed in between decks and packed like a tin of sardines. A walk around the deck on occasions, checking on the deck guards was all the official requirements.
The night crossing was horrendous, these Liberty ships didn't cut through the seas, they just rode the heavy swell, sinking and rising, very uncomfortable. There was, the uneasy feeling that somewhere in that expanse of water there may be a rogue mine drifting about in the North Sea. Accompanied by sleet and snow, my first sea voyage, literally turned out to be a nightmare. My cabin companions and I were issued with red arm bands to signify that we had some official status when supervising the decks. Apart from the odd sandwich which the cooks specially made up for us , the food on board was quite unpalatable although a regular supply of coffee kept us warm on our regular strolls around the decks..
Dawn was breaking as we nosed our way into Cuxhaven, cracking the ice that had formed in the harbour overnight. We had arrived in Deutschland feeling miserable and cold, the Air Force party given priority to disembark to the RAF transport waiting on the quayside. A short drive through the cobbled streets of the port, we arrived at what was once a German army barracks for the overnight stay prior to our journey to Buckeburg, a spa town and holiday resort 25 miles east of Hanover. At that time RAF Buckeburg was the Headquarters of the RAF in Germany, and used mainly as a transit camp, although later, it became strategically important during the Berlin Airlift
The following morning, after a well earned rest, we boarded our RAF transport for a seven hour journey. arriving at our destination late afternoon. Most of the town, including hotels and homes had been taken over by the RAF, my group of four senior NCOs being deposited in a Pension a type of boarding house. After settling in I took a walk through the town and was taken with, children and adults begging for chocolate and cigarettes, little realising then, that these commodities were a valuable means of barter due to the German Mark being worthless.
The Messing facilities and Station Headquarters were situated in a large hotel near the town centre. After breakfast I reported to the Orderly Room to discover that I was posted to Frankfurt on Maine that same night to join a Micro Film Unit based at the IG Farben Industrie at Hoechst. My pay and British currency was changed into British Forces paper money, the travel documents made out for me take transport into Hanover and connect with the Bremerhaven to Stuttgart overnight train, little knowing that this train was run by the American Forces.
All my kit had to be packed again in a hurry, humped to the mess for an evening meal and given a travel pack of sandwiches just in time to get my transport to Hanover Bahnhof (station).The train arrived on time full of American service men newly arrived from the States and like myself, were heading for the American Zone.
This overnight journey was the most uncomfortable trip that one can imagine, the carriage that I was allocated had wooden bench seating and was full of coloured American troops, although that situation didn't worry me, I was concerned that the white troops were in the plush seated accommodation. This sort of discrimination
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stayed with me for many years. There were many interruptions to the journey and, time seemed to drag until, eventually we arrived in Frankfurt 10-00hrs, two hours late. Having contacted the American RTO regarding transport to my allotted base, I hung around for a couple of hours before a RAF Sergeant arrived in a 15cwt F ordson. Introductions completed, he was the Sergeant in charge of the Micro Film section and responsible for all the equipment plus a complement of four airmen operators.
I was to take over responsibility of a three ton Fordson van which housed a mobile micro film laboratory and the 15cwt truck.
During the drive to our base I was amazed at the utter destruction of the city of Frankfurt and it's environs, caused by the many concentrated raids by Bomber Command and the US Eighth Air Force. Strange to relate, I felt little sympathy for this destruction or for the German people at that time.
[black and white photograph]
Frankfurt on Main 1944
Our final destination was a small company housing estate which had been occupied by workers from the nearby I G F arben Industrie factory. These workers had now been decanted, the estate now occupied by units of the British Army, RAF and British civilians working for the British Control Commission under the umbrella of The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR).Two of these houses were allocated to the Micro Film Group .. A Board of Trade official was part of our unit who's function was to visit various factory organizations and to confiscate machine tool drawings and important documents as allowed under the War Reparations Agreement. Our unit would then photograph any important documents or drawings onto micro film.
[page break]
Page 39
Another group on the site was a unit of the RAF Investigation Branch, who's sole purpose was to investigate and locate RAF aircrew, declared missing on operations .. This meant exhuming bodies from unmarked graves to ascertain if they had been murdered or otherwise. Many cases of murder had been discovered; the perpetrators being brought to justice.
The Americans had taken over office accommodation blocks within the massive factory complex of the IG Farben factory at Hoechst for their administrative headquarters. The British Control Commission for the area also had use of these office buildings. This arrangement was ideal during our off duty time, we were able to use the iced up tennis courts for skating and attend the many shows and musical concerts that were on offer. We also had the use of the American PX with it's restaurant, serving up real hamburgers and coffee. There was not much restriction on the amount of cigarettes and chocolates that we could purchase, the shop itself was like a miniature Harrods, selling a vast selection of quality goods. The Americans didn't want for much.
[black and white photograph]
Frozen up at Hoechst
There had been rumours circulating around the RAF bases in the UK that, redundant aircrew were going to be demoted At that time. I didn't give much thought to this situation, thinking this would not apply to me as my demobilisation was due
[page break]
Page 40
sometime early 194 7. How wrong could I be when I received notification from Bucke burg that, I was to be demoted two ranks to Sergeant, with immediate effect. Christmas 1946 just two weeks away, what a nice Christmas present.! On the same notification was an order to proceed to Triberg in the Black Forest on completion of our task at Hoechst.
Christmas day, along with other senior NCOs we had the pleasure of serving up the Christmas dinner to the OR's (other ranks) followed by our own festive meal in the Sergeants Mess, a small hotel that had been taken over by the anny.
On Boxing day, I played my final game of f football for the base against a select Gennan side. We lost or should I say we were thrashed, losing 7--0 what a
humiliation. This was my first experience of playing against a team, playing a different style of football, this showed up how out of date British football was.
On New years day we set about clearing our house of equipment, loading up our transport with boxes of provisions and a few Jerry Cans of petrol, not knowing what the situation was like in the French Zone.
It was bitterly cold the following morning as, we filled up our radiators with water, no such luxuries as anti freeze. Now ready for the long journey to the Black Forest, our Board of Trade official had already departed in his Volkswagen having left us with all the relevant details regarding the route and our hotel accommodation.
This was my first experience of driving on the autobahn, two lanes of white concrete stretching as far as the eye could see, very quite, no civilian traffic, only military vehicles. We made excellent progress. although the temperature in the cab must have been around the zero mark, no heaters in those days, though a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator kept the ice from forming on the windscreen. At intervals, there were large advertising hoardings along the route, one of which struck me forcibly, a hangman's noose with the message "The Penalty For Rape is Death”, a sobering thought.
During our journey along the autobahn, we passed a few towns which had been visited by Bomber Command during the conflict, the twin towns of Mannheim-Ludwigshafen then on to Karlsruhe and eventually
Stuttgart all showing signs of utter destruction. There would be many an airman who had these names added in their log books.
Turning off the autobahn beyond Stuttgart we eventually entered the Black Forrest Region, along winding roads through valleys, flanked by tall snow covered coniferous trees glinting red in the sunset, what a beautiful sight. Darkness had just fallen as we drove up the main street of Triberg. Stopping to ask directions from a passer by, we eventually arrived at our hotel the Golden Kreuz to be met by a French Officer who questioned us regarding our authorisation documentation. While the unit was involved in setting up the equipment in one of the Hotel rooms, I took the opportunity of wandering around this picturesque town and familiarising myself with what was on offer. Triberg, a Ski Resort, world famous for cuckoo clock manufacture, and is also the home of the largest cuckoo clock in the world.
During the period of our stay, I was able to take in some elementary skiing lessons, having bartered for a pair ski's plus a complete pair of ice skates for a few cigarettes, our Forces money was of no use at all, being in the French Zone. A tin of corned beef was the going price for a large cuckoo clock which I "purchased" and is still hanging in my lounge after sixty three years, pity the cuckoo is croaking some what.
[page break]
Page 41
[coloured photograph]
Triberg 1946
We completed our assignment in Triberg after three weeks and were ordered to return to our base at Hoechst for further instructions. After a few days at base, orders came through that I was to be demobilised, a replacement driver would arrive by car from Buckeburg with two officers. The officers were to carry out inspections at the RAF Units in the Frankfurt area then return to Buckeburg with me as their driver. Three days later, the inspections completed, we set off in the Humber Staff car, arriving early evening just in time for an evening meal.
Spent the next couple of days getting clearance and travel documents, selling off my ski's and ice skates, posting home my treasured cuckoo clock and changing my forces money into coin of the realm, I was then ready to take the reciprocal journey back to the UK and to RAF Kirkham for demob.
Date 25th of February 1947, what an anti climax, wondering where do I go from here? civilian life seemed to be a daunting prospect, after almost four years of interesting and sometimes traumatic experiences of war time RAF. During that period many friends were made, many were lost during flying operations ..
Let us hope that their sacrifice was not in vain and that we will always remember them.
[page break]
Page 42
Chapter 5
As Time Goes By
During the Second World War, in order to avoid being conscripted into a military service not of your choice, the way was open to enter a choice of service if you signed up at 17½ years of age. This happened in my own particular case when I passed the Aircrew Selection Board in 1942 and was given my service number.
Searching through some of my old documents, I came across this very interesting patronising letter addressed to me from the then Secretary of State for Air, Archibald Sinclair, dated July 21, 1942, and though it would be interesting to reflect on how some of these young men fared during and after the conflict.
AIR MINISTRY
WHITEHALL SW1
MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR AIR
July 21, 1942
You are now an airman and I am glad to welcome you into the Royal Air Force. To have been selected
for aircrew training is a great distinction, the Royal Air Force demands a high. standard of physical fitness and alertness from its flying crews. Relatively few attain that standard and I congratulate you on passing the stringent tests. You are, of course, impatient to begin and you naturally ask, "When do I start?" Your order on the waiting list is determined
by your age, date of attestation, and so on, and you may be sure that you will not be overlooked when your turn comes. While waiting, go on with your present job, or if you are not in employment, get a job if possible one which helps on the war effort.
You will want to know why you, who are so eager, should have to wait at all. I will tell you. The Royal Air Force is a highly organised service. In the first line are trained and experienced crews whose stirring deeds and dauntless courage daily arouse the admiration of the world. Behind these men and ready to give them immediate support the newly trained crews fresh from the schools. In your turn, you and other accepted candidates stand ready to fill the schools. Unless we had a good reserve of young men like you on which to draw, time might be lost at a critical moment and the vital flow of. reinforcements would be broken. I hope this explanation will help you understand. The waiting period should not be a waste of time. There is much you can do. You are very fit now or you would not have been chosen.
[page break]
Page 43
See that you keep fit. Work hard and live temperately. Learn all you can in your spare time about the things you must know if you are to be efficient later on in the air.
The more knowledge you gain now, the easier it will be when you come to do your training.
In wishing you success in the service of you choice I would add this. The honour of the Royal Air Force is in your hands. Our country's safety and the overthrow of the powers of evil depend upon you and your comrades. You will be given the best aircraft and armament that the factories of Britain and America can produce. Learn to use them well. Good luck to you.
Signed ARCHIBALD SINCLAIR
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR AIR
INTO THE STORM
RAF Bridlington ITW
[black and white photograph]
RAF Bridlington was one of the aircrew Initial Training Wings (ITW) and catered mainly for Air Gunners and Flight Engineers. In this photograph are aircrew cadets, the majority of which were barely 18 years of age, marching six abreast after just four weeks of training. Another four weeks of training.
[page break]
Page 44
and then they were off to gunnery schools for the Air Gunners or to RAF St. Athan for
the potential Flight Engineers. Then further training through Operational Training Units, Heavy Conversion Units and, eventually, destined for an operational squadron within
Bomber Command.
Many books have been written about Bomber command during the Second World War by aircrew members and distinguished authors. The media also has been at the
forefront with films, newspaper articles and television programmes, some authentic,
some controversial. The role of Bomber Command has been well documented, so there is no reason for me to add any comments and I will move to the ending of hostilities with Germany and Japan.
VICTORY
The Second World War ended with victory for the allied nations. An estimate of the
deaths accredited to all the nations involved was in the region of 40 to 50 million,
including the civilian populace. Still on the subject of the RAF, and in particular the
aircrew of Bomber Command, losses were in the region of 56,500, which was, in
proportion, far greater than any of the three services, although our Merchant Service
lost more than 30,000 semen/women.
[coloured photograph]
Rheinberg War Cemetery
The above photograph of the Rheinberg Cemetery is one of many such cemeteries in Germany and other locations throughout Europe which contain the remains of RAF
Aircrew, many of whom were from the Dominions, the Commonwealth or from allied
nations. Over 2000 airmen who have no known grave are commemorated by name at
the Runneymede Memorial and could be lying in a watery grave of the North Sea or
buried in unmarked graves after being murdered by the Gestapo or by German civilians. Over 100,000 young men volunteered for aircrew in Bomber Command, over 50 per
cent of them died in flying accidents or from operating in the hostile skies of Europe and the Third Reich.
[page break]
Page 45
THE AFTERMATH
The war in Europe over and a Labour Government elected to govern the country. As bomber Command had a surplus of trained men, tour expired aircrew were made redundant, a new word in my vocabulary, and were sent to re-assessment centres throughout the UK, then on to training establishments for non-aircrew trades within the Royal Air Force, i.e. motor transport/clerical duties, etc.
The war against Japan finally ended on September 2, 1945, after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Jubilation all round, the country celebrated, then came the recriminations.
[black and white head and shoulders photograph of Air Chief Marshall Arthur “Bomber” Harris] ’Cometh the hour, cometh the man.’ Tough and uncompromising. ‘Bomber’ Harris was the C-in-C that Bomber Command desperately needed, a man who could express himself clearly and who exuded a strong sense of purpose.
A high-ranking Labour government minister, John Strachey, began a vicious campaign to belittle the strategy of area bombing as devised by Air Chief Marshall Arthur Harris. Pre-war, this politician was a sympathiser of Oswald Mosley, the Fascist leader in Britain, and then he changed his allegiance to the Communist Party. He joined the RAF in 1940 and held a ‘grace and favour position’ as public relations officer in the Directorate of Bombing Operations. At that time Harris was becoming very concerned about the possible internal security risks posed to his command and who, following a tip-off from a member of his staf [sic] and, identified this officer as a person with an unstable political background. Harris demanded that the Air Ministry remove him at once, but thanks presumably to friends in high place, this person remained in place for the rest of the war.
After the war Strachey, as a minister in the Atlee government, maliciously continued his attacks on Harris and his command, gathering support from other party members and some high-ranking clergy. As the political pressure grew, even Winston Churchill withdrew his support of the area bombing campaign, although he had backed Harris during the conflict. Sections of the British and German press took up the debate, with some pundits questioning the contribution made by Bomber Command as to the necessity of area bombing, on the outcome of the war.
[black and white headshot of John Strachey]
[page break]
Page 46
Peerages and knighthoods were handed out to our war leaders and campaign medals issued to our armed services, except for the aircrew of Bomber Command and its leader Sir Arthur Harris. The aircrew of Bomber Command were not issued with a campaign medal and Harris was ignored when the peerages were handed out. Many aircrew were unfortunate to be shot down and deemed to spend the rest of the conflict as prisoners of war. Some of these airmen did not have the nominal amount of operations or the length of time on a squadron to qualify for either the Aircrew Europe Star or the France Germany Star, and all they were entitled to was the 193 Star and the war Medal that was issued to every serviceman/woman, irrespective of their duties. The reason given for this anomaly was that as POWs, they were unable to take any further part in the war effort, although they were expected to make escape attempts, thereby tying down much-needed German manpower resources.
These aircrew were incarcerated in POW camps throughout Europe and were kept in appalling conditions on starvation rations and suffering severe malnutrition. As the war in Europe was coming to an end, they had to endure The Long March across Europe with many of them dying on the way from starvation and freezing temperatures.
Some time after the war the Ex-Prisoners of War Association made a request to hold a Thanksgiving Service in Coventry Cathedral. This request was refused by the then Provost of the Cathedral, Canon Paul Oestriecher, on the grounds that the Ex-Prisoners of War Association had ex-aircrew of Bomber Command among its member. It seems to have been forgotten that public donations contributed to the re-building of Coventry Cathedral as a centre of reconciliation. Also at that time, this cleric was instrumental in organising a protest at the unveiling of the statue to Air Chief Marshall Sir Arthur Harris by the Queen Mother and he even had the temerity to post an advertisement in the RAF News touting for monetary contributions to replace the Dome of Dresden Cathedral, which had been destroyed by bombing during the conflict. There are many more instances where this so-called cleric and pacifist has castigated the efforts of the aircrew of Bomber Command in the execution of their duties, so these instances can be left for another time.
[coloured headshot photograph of Canon Paul Oestriecher]
THE LAST POINT OF IGNOMINY
These redundant NCO aircrew, now trained in ground duties, were posted off to the many Air Force stations throughout the UK and were allowed to keep their aircrew rank, even though the tasks that they had been trained for only warranted a starting rank of AC2. However, on some stations, the aircrew rank was ordered to be covered during working hours.
[page break]
[black and white photograph of airman in flying kit]
[underlined] RAF Waterbeach 1944 [/underlined]
[page break]
Page 47
At the end of 1946, a directive from the Air Ministry, stating that all these redundant aircrew be demoted by two ranks, I.e. WOs to Sergeants, Flight Sergeants to Corporals, Sergeants to LACs, although the pay would remain the same as was. This was a ruse in case any of these aircrew pursued a claim for a war pension when they returned to civilian life.
Upon demobilisation I was extremely surprised and disgusted to find entered in my discharge papers that my rank was AC2 Driver (Sgt. Air Gunner) and not the rank of Warrant Officer that I had achieved during my operational service with the Royal Air Force.
However, RAF Records graciously forwarded my Warrant Certification sixty four years after my promotion to Warrant Officer.
EPILOGUE
With a lot of back-slapping and encouragement these young men from Britain and the Commonwealth donned their Air Force Blue and went off to war knowing full-well that their chances of survival were very slim. The press and the public supported the efforts of Bomber Command as, at the time, it was the only means of taking the war back to Germany. Yet, just in the matter of a few months of the ending of hostilities the recriminations began. A few left wing politicians and some blinkered clergy crept out of the woodwork and began a vitriolic campaign against Arthur Harris. This campaign eventually permeated through to his airmen who began to suffer the brunt of these biased accusations.
As the political situation in Europe developed into the ‘Cold War’ it was thought prudent to keep Germany and the German people supporting the west, hence ‘The Marshall Plan’, etc, with respective British governments distancing themselves from the controversy of the Bombing Campaign against the Third Reich, a controversy that continues today. These proud young men went to war to preserve our democracy and freedom against two of the most tyrannical regimes in the history of mankind, yet there are still these vociferous groups of politicians/clergy and the media who continue to abuse this privilege of freedom for their own political expediency and personal agenda.
On a point of interest, our previous government recently decided to recognise the war-time achievements of three groups, the veterans of the Arctic Convoys, the ‘Bevin Boys’ and the Land Army, yet we as a country have failed, or are politically reluctant, to recognise the contribution that Bomber Command made during this terrible conflict.
[page break]
Page 48
115 SQUADRON FINAL REUNION, HOUSE OF LORDS 2008
[coloured photograph of veterans of 115 Squadron]
Back Row
Not Known Cyril Bridges Lord Mackie Frank Leatherdale Geoff Payne
Front Row
Jim McGillivray Not Known Not Known W Farquharson Not Known
On that note let us recall Philip Nicholson’s “Return”
[underlined] RETURN [/underlined]
We have come home, dropping gratefully through friendly skies,
And though in tired brains the engines thunder on and images of death remain in reddened eyes,
Though nostrils sniff the legacy of oil and sweat and legs must learn to cope with the solid ground,
We have come home and are at least alive, to mourn our friends, indifferent now to sight or smell or sound.
Philip Nicholson
WARNING
Beware the retrospective historians and university-trained politicians who may eventually turn history on its head, whereby Britain could become the aggressor.
G.A.P. 2010
[page break]
[coloured portrait photograph]
[underlined]Geoff Payne[/underlined]
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
An Airmans Tale
By Geoff Payne
Description
An account of the resource
Geoff Payne's autobiography divided into five chapters.
Chapter 1. Under Training.
Having been assessed in Birmingham Geoff sets off to London in August 1942 for training, at Lords. Initial training was at Bridlington then gunnery school at Andreas on the Isle of Man. After a short leave he was posted to an operational training unit at Chipping Warden followed by intensive training at Edge Hill. Finally he went to Feltwell for Escape and Evasion training before joining a Heavy Conversion Unit at Wratting Common then Waterbeach.
Chapter 2. Operations RAF Witchford. After seven days leave he commenced operational flying in a Lancaster. Their first target was Augsburg and he reports being waved off by WAAFs and airmen. On the next operation the navigator had a breakdown and refused to help. He continues with details of several operations.
Chapter 3. Return to Ops RAF Waterbeach. Initially this proved to be a very relaxing posting but after his recovery he was back on operations. After 30 operations he was posted to RAF Brackla, Nairn.
Chapter 4. Grounded. He was unhappy at Brackla which was remote and cold. Next was a transfer south to RAF Weeton where he learned about motor transport and learned to drive. He was then posted to RAF Halfpenny Green, followed by RAF Croughton and South Cerney. He then went to Hornchurch before being sent to Germany where he joined a micro film unit at Frankfurt. On completion of photographing relevant factory installations his unit headed south to Triberg in Bavaria.
Chapter 5. As Time Goes By. He reflects on his letter from the Secretary of State from Air, Bomber Command losses and life after the war. he discusses Labour minister John Strachey, a pre-war fascist then Communist Party , who belittled the work of Bomber Harris. and the refusal to allow a thanksgiving service to honour the ex-Prisoner of War Association at Coventry Cathedral.
Creator
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Geoff Payne
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2010
Format
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56 page memoir
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
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BPayneGPayneGv1
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Training Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Birmingham
England--London
England--York
England--Halifax
England--Loughborough
England--Flamborough Head
England--Manchester
England--Blackpool
England--Fleetwood
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Douglas (Isle of Man)
England--Banbury (Oxfordshire)
England--London
England--Bognor Regis
France--Lille
England--Cambridge
England--Coventry
England--Ely
Germany--Augsburg
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Stuttgart
France--Rouen
France--Vaires-sur-Marne
France--Normandy
France--Creil
France--Nucourt
France--Caen
France--L'Isle-Adam
France--Gironde Estuary
England--Falmouth
France--Somme
Germany--Rüsselsheim
Germany--Kiel
Sweden--Stockholm
Germany--Bremen
France--Le Havre
France--Calais
Germany--Neuss
Netherlands--Walcheren
Belgium--Antwerp
Germany--Emmerich
Germany--Duisburg
Scotland--Nairn
England--Peterborough
England--Walsall
England--Hull
England--Wolverhampton
England--Dudley
England--Brackley
England--Cirencester
Germany--Cuxhaven
Germany--Bückeburg
Germany--Bremerhaven
Germany--Black Forest
Germany--Triberg
Germany--Rheinberg
Germany--Hannover
Poland--Szczecin
France--Châlons-en-Champagne
France--Pas-de-Calais
Poland
France
Germany
Belgium
Netherlands
Sweden
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Gloucestershire
England--Lancashire
England--Leicestershire
England--Northamptonshire
England--Oxfordshire
England--Staffordshire
England--Suffolk
England--Sussex
England--Worcestershire
England--Yorkshire
England--Warwickshire
England--Newmarket (Suffolk)
Contributor
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David Bloomfield
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.
115 Squadron
12 OTU
1651 HCU
1678 HCU
514 Squadron
75 Squadron
90 Squadron
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
bale out
bomb aimer
bombing
Cheshire, Geoffrey Leonard (1917-1992)
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
crewing up
escaping
evading
flight engineer
ground personnel
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Ju 88
lack of moral fibre
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 2
Lancaster Mk 3
Martinet
Me 109
Me 110
Me 410
Meteor
Mosquito
navigator
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
Pathfinders
pilot
prisoner of war
RAF Andreas
RAF Brackla
RAF Bridgnorth
RAF Bridlington
RAF Chipping Warden
RAF Coningsby
RAF Cosford
RAF Downham Market
RAF East Kirkby
RAF Feltwell
RAF Foulsham
RAF Halfpenny Green
RAF Hornchurch
RAF Jurby
RAF Little Rissington
RAF Mepal
RAF Newmarket
RAF South Cerney
RAF Stradishall
RAF Ternhill
RAF Waterbeach
RAF Witchford
RAF Wratting Common
searchlight
Spitfire
Stirling
target indicator
the long march
Tiger force
training
V-1
V-weapon
Wellington
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1063/32267/B[Author]ParkerEv1.pdf
0e0d169b9f1fca9213bafb9d9117e82c
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
Parker, Eric
E Parker
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Eric Parker (b. 1924, 1522919 Royal Air Force), a photograph and a biography. He flew operations as a navigator with 12 and 166 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Eric Parker and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-05-05
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Parker, E
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined]DECEMBER 2014[/underlined]
[underlined]"ERIC'S STORY"[/underlined]
Eric Parker was born on the 12th of January 1924, in the district of West Derby, Liverpool.
The youngest of three brothers he went St Mary's village school. He had an adventurous
childhood, since his father Thomas a farm labourer readily gave him access to the open
country life on the farm where he worked. The farm was situated in Knowsley and was
called Bathers Farm which is now a built up area.
As a boy Eric enjoyed many happy hours on the farm, especially during hay making and
harvesting time. This closeness with nature meant as he grew up he really enjoyed the
outdoors. He became a boy scout when he was twelve years of age and his love of the
outdoors meant many years of happy camping and scouting in general.
He left school at fourteen years of age and went into immediate employment as a lift
attendant working in the seven stories National Bank in Fenwick Street, Liverpool for the
magnificent sum of fourteen shillings per week (70 pence in today's money). This was a very
good wage at the time for a fourteen year old boy, the average then being about ten to
eleven shillings per week. However being a boy with higher ambitions he voluntarily left his
job as lift attendant and became aa apprentice electrician for a wage of seven shillings and
sixpence per week (an appreciable drop in earnings).
This job however didn't last too long, as his love of nature and the outdoors still lingered
and he soon left this employment to become a student gardener with Liverpool Parks and
Gardens. This meant each year he would be employed at a different park, nursery or farm
belonging to the corporation all this whilst studying to become a professional gardener. His
first year was at Newsham Park, Liverpool in the greenhouse and nursery site.
A year later he was at Harbreck Farm, Aintree. This farm produced vegetables for the
hospitals and homes in the corporation's bounds. By this time by attending various technical
college courses he obtained his junior Royal Horticultural Societies Certificate in Botany and
Practical Gardening.
[page break]
The year was now June 1941 and we were at war with Germany, at the age of seventeen
and a half years he joined the RAF as air crew and awaited call up which came in January
1942 on his eighteenth birthday.
After the usual enlistment procedures in London and Brighton, he found himself at the
Initial Training Wing in Paignton, Devon. Here with, many others he learned the mysteries of
things like navigation, meteorology, electronics etc. as well as physical exercise and drill.
Such a course was very exacting and all grew up from callous youths to seriously competent
young men, so that by 1943 he was part of a large body of airmen ready to be shipped to
Canada as possible pilots having successfully been graded by flying in Tiger Moths at RAF
Sywell in the midlands.
The troop ship Empress of Scotland safely took him and many others to Halifax, Nova Scotia
despite the great U Boat threat of the time. Soon he was on a troop train which took him to
Moose Jaw, Satchewan and from there to a nearby RCAF airfield named Caron. Here he
settled in to a twenty four week pilot's course, flying Fairchild Cornell Trainers. As a pilot he
had a very short career and was soon grounded as unsuitable (The Chief Flying Instructor
remarked "Parker as a pilot you would be more use to the enemy") and posted to a holding
unit at Brandon in Manitoba, awaiting a thirty two week course as a navigator/bomb aimer
(The longest aircrew course at that time).
Finally he was posted to number six Bombing and Gunnery School at Mountain View,
Ontario, learning all about bombs, bomb sights and machine guns and bomb aiming. Twelve
weeks later after flying on Ansons and Blenheim Aircraft he passed this part of the course
and was posted to the number nine air observer school at St Johns, Quebec, which was
quite close to the provincial capital Quebec City and also near to Montreal, where his uncle
John lived having emigrated to Canada after World War 1.
With his friend Bill Readhead, they were able to spend weekends at his apartment as he was
now a nationalised Canadian and held a Managerial post in the celebrated Mount Royal
Hotel. Consequently the pair was in regular attendance as his guests at the exclusive
Normandy Roof Club on a Saturday night (All on the house).
[page break]
By February 1944 Eric qualified as a Sergeant Navigator and received his flying brevet. He
sailed for home just before Easter 1944, again on the Empress of Scotland (With very little U
Boat threat this, time).
Back in UK (He holidayed in a commandeered hotel in Harrogate for a couple of weeks)
After a few short postings for familiarisation with UK wartime flying conditions and
restrictions he was posted to RAF Husbands Bosworth, Northampton on operational training
unit, flying on Wellington Bombers for a twelve week course. Here he along with a mass of
various aircrew trades, signallers, gunners, pilots etc. were all assembled en'masse in a big
Hangar and told by the Wing Commander Flying to crew themselves up. He left the hangar
saying he would be back later.
As they all mingled together Eric was approached by a tall gangly New Zealand pilot who
introduced himself as Alec Wickes who asked him if he would consider joining his crew as
navigator, Eric agreed and soon together they assembled a crew, namely Alec Wickes Flight
Sergeant Pilot, Eric Parker as Sergeant Navigator, Trevor Connolly (NZ) Sergeant Wireless
Operator, Bob Whyte (NZ) Sergeant Bomb Aimer, Arthur Saunders Sergeant Mid Upper
Gunner, Doug Horton Sergeant Rear Gunner and finally Bill McCabe Sergeant Engineer.
Later that morning the Wing Commander returned and those who were still uncrewed (Very
Few) were told by him without any argument, this was his final decision and he crewed
them up. His last act of that morning was to line them all up in two ranks and say "Look at
that man next to you" (This they all did) "Gentlemen you have thirty operations ahead of you
and I tell you now, one of you will not be coming back from your tour, good luck to you all
and if anyone here wishes to opt out take a step forward now." No one stepped forward.
So they finished their crew flying and they all went on to the heavy conversation unit at
Blyton near Gainsborough to start flying on the famous Lancaster on a course that was to
last for six weeks.
Eric enjoyed his time at Blyton and he with his new crew soon bonded together becoming
almost like brothers, doing everything together on and off duty. They were billeted in a
Nissan hut along with another crew and they learned to become a reliable crew who
depended totally on each other for their survival.
[page break]
Finally they finished their course on Lancaster's and in December 1944 just before Christmas
they were posted to One Group B Flight Twelve Squadron Bomber Command at RAF
Wickenby as a brand new crew.
Wickenby is situated twelve miles south east of Lincoln and Lincoln Cathedral was a
wonderful land mark for any returning aircraft. Twelve Squadron itself was a very old World
War One squadron whose motto is "Foxes lead the field." This and a Foxes head are
emblazoned on its crest; it is still in service today.
Life on the squadron was fairly easy going apart from when you were on "Ops" and Eric and
crew soon fell into the swing of things. A normal day would normally entail going across to
the "flights" (A group of Nissan huts on the other side of the airfield). This was quite a long
walk, like everyone else Eric signed out a bicycle for himself and most of the crew followed
suit later. At "flights" they had a crew room, where crew sat, drank tea and gossiped.
By this time "Wickes's" crew had been allocated a brand new Lancaster with Squadron
Markings PH-Y painted on its fuselage and soon they took it on its first air test. The air test
proved perfect and they were all delighted at having a brand new machine for their tour. At
this time during lunch in the Sergeants Mess everyone gathered around the notice board to
read the battle order for that particular night. Wickes's crew were on it and they read out
the petrol load required for the operation; it was full tanks (21 .54 gallons). They knew it
was to be a very long trip, but where to? That would come later at briefing.
Eric's first operation was in fact Chemnitz in Far Eastern Germany a few miles from Dresden
which had been fire bombed the day before. A thousand bombers took part, it was very
long and exhausting, but the crew came back elated at their success in getting back home
safely.
This posting to Wickenby now presented Eric with a big problem; he was due to get married
on the 6th of January 1945 to his dearly beloved fiance Aimee having become engaged to her
prior to leaving for Canada a year earlier.
[page break]
Eric had first met his wife to be at a dance in St Andrews Church Hall, Clubmoor, Liverpool,
one Saturday night. He always remembers this time fondly. He had arrived there with his
friend Lenny Hughes and was waiting along with many other young men for a ladies choice
dance to begin. He didn't hold much hope of being chosen, but a lovely young sixteen year
old girl came confidently across the floor and asked him if he would like to dance. For Eric it
was love at first sight and they became engaged six months later.
Luckily the CO realised Eric's Marriage problem and granted Eric and all the crew a five day
emergency leave and so all the crew attended his wedding.
The wedding took place at St Andrews Church, Clubmoor, Liverpool on the 6th of January
1945. After the wedding ceremony Aimee and Eric went to Blackpool for a three day
honeymoon.
The crew remained on leave in Liverpool until Eric and Aimee returned from Blackpool, they
as a crew left Liverpool from Lime Street station on the fifth day of their leave back to their
Squadron at Wickenby.
[page break]
Life went on as usual and soon the crew had a dozen operations under their belts and went
on to seven days leave in the month of February. Eric went home to Liverpool and the other
members of the crew went elsewhere.
On return it was with utter dismay, they found that their aircraft PH-V had been shot down
and the crew listed as missing in action. This was a new crew who had borrowed PH-V for
their first and only operation. The crew were really dismayed at losing PH-V, but were then
given PH-N, this was the oldest kite on the twelve Squadron, but it was a "lucky machine"
that had ninety seven operations to its credit, so they didn't mind too much.
So life continued much as before, a series of events, such as air test, practical bombing,
take-off and landing sessions, air gunnery with Spitfires as enemy and of course night
bombing operations over Germany.
[page break]
During nights off the station emptied out into Lincoln or more usually to the local pub.
These were very lively evenings were everyone got a little drunk and sang their heads off.
The station also put on dances with WAFF'S and invited ladies from local villages in
attendance. While to camp cinema showed numerous films of the time.
Eric noticed as their tour progressed that like many other crews they started to get a little
"twitchy" as they completed more and more operations. To date Wickes's crew had been
lucky for they had survived three night fighter attacks by using a favourite tactic called "cork
screwing" The fighter attacks always came from above the port or starboard wing of the
bomber. For example if it was the starboard side under attack the air gunner concerned
would shout "Fighter Fighter starboard beam, prepare to corkscrew, starboard now" On this
command the pilot would partially throttle back the four engines and but the aircraft into a
steep diving turn to starboard, this meant that by turning into the attacking aircraft it would
have to steepen its turn also to keep on the target. By the time the Lancaster had lost about
one thousand feet the pilot would pull it up and go in a steep turn to port and climb up a
thousand feet, thus completing the first cycle of a corkscrew. Which would be repeated until
the fighter broke off his attack. By the time he got his aircraft back on track the Lancaster
had managed to escape out of sight, unlike today the attack planes had no way of re
locating their foe. The aircraft suffered little damage from these attacks except during an
attack by an ME 109 the tail fin being partially shot away.
Navigational tactics during an operation could also endanger the aircraft and many aircraft
collided and blew up when navigators took an action which was called "Dog Legging". This
happens when the navigator realised he would be too early over the target and would have
to take time losing action which couldn't be actioned simply be reducing airspeed (Usually
navigators had plus or minus three minutes tolerance over the target). Dog legging meant
altering course off the briefed track by sixty degrees for three minutes to starboard or port,
this meant that the bomber would be cutting directly across the main bomber stream all
virtually unseen at night. Usually the dog leg aimed to lose three minutes of time, so after
three minutes the navigator turned the opposite way through one hundred and twenty
degrees for a further three minutes, and then the navigator turned the bomber back on
track to the target. This would effectively put him back on time by three minutes. He would
repeat this action again if he still found it necessary to lose more time. It was an extremely
dangerous tactic to undertake as there was a huge risk of collision.
[page break]
They also successfully survived flying through anti- aircraft flack box barrages, apart from
loud explosions from nearby exploding shells and the clatter of shrapnel on the fuselage;
they suffered little damage from the running of the gauntlet.
Soon Wickes's crew became the senior crew on the Squadron with twenty three operations
to their credit and so with a final operation to Heligoland the war came to a close, although
an armistice had yet to be agreed upon.
By this time PH-N had completed one hundred operations and was awarded by the
Squadron members with a DFC and they all celebrated that night in the mess.
Things were in a bad state in Europe. The Dutch particularly were all starving, so the
Germans agreed on "a safe passage" for a massive air drop on Holland. This was carried out
by our bomber command and the USA Eighth Air Force which flew B17 Fortress bombers.
This huge Operation was given the code name "MANNA" by the British and "CHOWHOUND"
by the Americans and so Eric continued on Ops, but this time instead of bombs Wickes's
crew dropped food, and didn't they come down low, zooming across the flat, flooded
landscape of Holland at zero feet, with hundreds of Dutch civilians waving to them as they
passed over their villages.
Eric's crew did four food drop operations, so he completed the Air War with twenty seven
operations, three short of his tour of thirty. It had been a successful war for Wickes's crew
but the icing on the cake was yet to come, when a few weeks later whilst on end of war
leave Eric discovered he had been awarded the DFM (Distinguished Flying Medal) while Alec
Wickes (Now and officer) had been awarded the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross) and so
they all disbanded and took de mob leave.
Eric for his part was very unsettled for in January 1945 he had become a married man and
now had a wife to consider. He now realised that he enjoyed service life and loved flying and
after a long talk with Aimee they decided to continue RAF life together/ come what may. He
signed on for a further eight years. later he extended this to twelve years. Finally as time
passed by for the full twenty two years which entitled him to a full retirement pension at
the age of forty? This also meant that he could live out with Aimee and she would receive a
[page break]
living out allowance along with her marriage allowance. As a married couple they were
financially comfortable compared to many young couples settled in Civvy Street at the time.
Eric had left Wickenby and the crew had dispersed while he in turn was at a holding unit on
'an old airfield called Snaith in Yorkshire. Aimee then was living with her sister Lillian while
continuing with her post wartime job as a machinist at Lybro Clothiers; they only met at
weekends and on leave. This was rather an unsatisfactory arrangement for them both but
they accepted it and the short term separation until he got his life on a more permanent
station.
Unfortunately this was not to be as he was posted in May 1946 to RAF Dishforth in Yorkshire
on a heavy conversion unit on York Transport Aircraft. This would ultimately mean that
shortly he would be posted on to a Transport Command Squadron and would be spending
lots of his time out of the country on route flying to the middle and far-east, at least once a
month. Aimee was not happy about this, but accepted the enforced separation
philosophically.
There was one good piece of news that came out of this new posting. Seemingly his old war
time skipper Alec Wickes had not left the service and returned to New Zealand, but had
signed on with the RAF. He to had been posted to Dishforth and had asked for his old
navigator to join him there on the next available course. This request was granted so they
met up once again and flew together for nearly three more years.
It is worth mentioning at this point that aircrew on obtaining their wings were promoted to
the rank of Sergeant. Some were commissioned as officers. After one year Sergeants were
promoted to Flight Sergeant and a year after that they became Warrant Officers. By Easter
1946 Eric had become a Warrant Officer. These ranks were not permanent however and
only acting by definition as he explains later in this account.
Soon, Eric with his old pilot Alec Wickes (Now a Flight lieutenant) completed their course on
the York Transport, this plane is a development of a Lancaster Bomber, but with a large
under slung roomy fuselage designed to carry both cargo and passengers or both.
[page break]
and an air quartermaster and so joined 246 Squadron, Transport Command.
They had only been on the Squadron two days when Alec approached Eric and said "get
your maps and charts together we are going on a ten day round trip to India tomorrow".
This entailed a five days each way flight which was achieved by slipping crews in Egypt (This
means one crew rested in Egypt and the other went on and Eric's crew followed with
another plane the next day). The route was UK to Castel Benito, Tripoli, from there to
Heliopolis in Cairo, then to Shaibah, Iraq, to Karachi, India and then on to Palam near Dell. It
was all daytime flying, they night stopped at Tripoli and slipped crews at Heliopolls for one
day. They night stopped at Karachi and after Palam they returned to UK on a reverse flight
order. These were gruelling flights and they all came back greatly fatigued (Today known as
jet lag).
Such flights had their compensations and such was the case here in the form of smuggling.
This was quite easy in those early days of peace. The British public had been deprived of
luxury goods for many years and now had money to spend. There were no customs officers
on any of the airfields and strangely, at many places along the routes luxury items like
watches, jewellery, nylons, perfumes and ladies shoes were readily available and cheap.
One of the most popular items smuggled in by the crews was large Chinese embossed Indian
carpets from KarachL They cost about thirty pounds in Karachi and sold for around one
[page break]
hundred and fifty pounds in the UK. Smuggling became so well known in Cambridge (a later
transport station) that at nights in the Criterion Hotel Bar transport crews would be
approached by young ladies with a torn out copy of an advert from some American
Magazines, this would be pocketed by the would be smuggler along with an outline of the
ladies foot and this pattern would be faithfully copied by a back street shoemaker in Karachi
for five pounds and later sold in UK to the lady for fifteen pounds. This also applied to all the
other short supply goods mentioned. This smuggling continued a" the time Eric was on
Transport Command to late 1948. Finally ended when a Customs Airfield was established at
RAF Lyneham and all future route Yorks had to call there for customs clearance. From then on
all the crew's duty free allowance was restricted to a bottle of whisky and two hundred
cigarettes, a" other imports were taxed and so ended smuggling - more or less.
Eric and Alec were only at Holmsley South for about four months then they were posted to
242 Squadron at Oakington, ten miles from Cambridge. At Oakington they had a new role
flying Yorks with both passengers and freight and their route had now been extended to
include Singapore and RAF Changi. Flying basically the same route as before, but now
including either Dum Dum near Calcutta or Negombo in Ceylon. The choice of which route
depended on the position and activity of the monsoon rains at the time.
Most ofthe time on the UCS route so called, was uneventful, except for one incident
halfway across the Indian Ocean on enroute from Changi to Negombo. Eric - as navigators
do, was taking a merpass of the sun with his sextant, when his astrodome blew off and away
went the dome and the sextant. He was rather shaken as were the rest of the cabin crew,
but soon they all settled down to a rather noisy and windy flight. luckily there was no rain
and at Negombo the ground crew sealed the opening temporarily and so they were able to
continue for home next day.
Eric and Alec carried on flying Yorks on 242 Squadron until the end of 1947. The Alec was
posted to the Empire Air Training School at Shawbury and Eric to 148 Squadron at Upwood
near Peterborough and back on Lancaster’s at Bomber Command again.
It was whilst on this Squadron that he received the news on 14th January 1948 that his wife
Aimee had given birth to a baby girl, later to be christened as Sandra. (So named after the
homing searchlight beacons present on Bomber Command during the war).
[page break]
This period in their married lives meant that for once they could be together even though
accommodation was hard to come by. However they struck lucky and Eric was able to hire
an eighteen foot caravan situated about half a mile from the RAF Station gates.
[page break]
They were very happy there, but by February 1948 Eric was on the move once more, being
posted to RAF Wyton, (is Squadron Bomber Command) twelve miles away from Upwood
towards Huntingdon. Eric would commute by bicycle.
luckily they had just started building new married quarters at Wyton and after a few
months they moved from the caravan into brand new married quarters on the camp at
Wyton itself.
These were very settled times for them both and baby Sandra. Eric was now flying Lincoln’s.
This was really a stretched version of the Lancaster, but updated in several ways, yet still
obsolete, now that Canberra's and V bombers would soon be coming into service.
Never the less life was now settled and enjoyable for Eric and Aimee, but for how long?
Unfortunately it was not for long at all, by April 1950 he was posted to RAF Marham, near
Kings lynn, Norfolk and so they had to vacate their quarters and move on once again.
luckily this station was also embarked on a big building scheme, but quarters would not
become available for about eighteen months. luck was again on their side and they
managed to rent a self-contained flat over a general store in Downham Market. So they all
settled down yet again. Aimee and Sandra were very happy there and became lifelong
friends with the owners of the flat. However this meant that Eric had to cycle back and
forward to work each day which was rather a bind (Twelve miles each way). Once the
building started he was able to hitch a lift with the Lorries delivering materials for the
building of the new runways.
[page break]
Marham turned out to be a very special posting; he became part of a team chosen to form a
new conversion unit because the RAF had decided to re-equip their Bomber Squadrons with
B 29 Bombers from the USAF (United States Air Force). The B29 had proved itself in the
Japanese theatre of war and was seen as a perfect stop gap plane until the Squadrons of the
RAF were re-equipped with jets.
Initially these new crews were all converted on to the B29 by American crews and Eric
because he was already familiar with the "Norden" bomb site became a Bombing Instructor
when the first of the new RAF B29 Squadrons came into conversion. The B29 was known in
the RAF as the Washington and he remembers up to eight Squadrons of RAF air crew that he
was involved in training. The conversion unit then finally became a full Squadron in its own
right and was given the title 35 Squadron. He now served on the new Squadron as a
Navigator/Bomber Aimer.
A year later Eric was able to move into a new married quarter on the base, this was a three
bedroom semi-detached house with all mod cons of the day.
[page break]
During his time at Marham Her Majesty the Queen visited the base and the next door
married quarter was inspected by her. All the children were lined up to meet her.
He remained at Marham until June 1956. Sandra grew up and then at five years old
attended a small “hutted" infant school set up by the camp authorities for Eric's part, life
settled down to the usual humdrum Squadron life, except now he was a full Flight Sergeant
but life was similar to before. Cross country exercises, bombing and gunnery etc. life had
become quite boring.
Things changed in 1955 when other bomber squadrons in the RAF were now being re
equipped with jet bombers and the B 29 crews had the very pleasant task of ferrying a well-
used B29 back to the USA.
Eric was lucky and made three transatlantic crossings, firstly via Iceland to near New York
and then down to Dover in Delaware. They night stopped at Dover and next day flew via
Montgomery in Alabama and then on to their destination at Davies Monthan Air Force Base
near Tucson, Arizona, a very successful flight to a huge desert airfield full of thousands of
moth balled military aircraft stretching out into the desert as far as the eye could see. It
really brought home to him the enormity of the American Air Force and how it now had an
Air Force fully equipped with jet planes.
[page break]
The crews returned to Marham courtesy of American civil and military transport planes as
passengers.
Later at Marham 35 Squadron converted on to the jet Canberra Bomber.
It took Eric quite a while to adjust to the new speeds and altitudes of the Canberra, then
gradually as before he settled down to normal Squadron life.
He remained at Marham until June 1956, until the whole Squadron was relocated to RAF
Upwood and so he completed a full circle in Bomber Command. Shortly after arriving Aimee
and Sandra moved into a new quarter on the base and Sandra went on to the village school
in Ramsey village.
Eric was only at Upwood a week when the Suez Canal crises occurred, this was when the
canal was nationalised by Colonel Nassar and closed to shipping. British and French
Governments strongly objected to this action and several Squadrons of Canberra's were
posted out to Akrotiri in Cyprus, 35 Squadron being one of them. As history shows this
campaign to open up and free the blockaded Suez Canal which was aided and abetted by
France and Israel became an utter farce and even after successful landing of troops in the
zone and one bombing raid by RAF Canberra's on Cairo Radio Station the whole force had to
withdraw, like whipped dogs since the United Nations with USA in the lead, insisted that this
[page break]
action was against International Law and that sanctions would be taken against us all if we
disobeyed the UN's orders.
Once again Eric was back at RAF Upwood to whatever lay ahead, he didn't have to wait too
long, by early July 1957 he was posted to Kuala Lumper in Malaya to the Department of
Psychological Warfare (Whatever that was).
So by late July 1957 Eric found himself on the troop ship 55 Oxfordshire along with Aimee
and 5andra, as he had organised an accompanied passage for them.
[page break]
The ship had to go via Durban, South Africa, because the Suez Canal was still closed to
shipping. When they reached Durban they were on the first troop ship to call there since the
end of World War 2. In those days the "troop ships" were always met by the "Lady in White"
who sang patriotic songs over a very loud PA system and the citizens welcomed all the
troops as they passed through. Now as patriotic as ever, she came out of retirement to
welcome them all both in and out of the harbour during their twelve hour stay. As the
Oxfordshire left Durban at dusk she was on the quay and sang them away with land of hope
and glory. It was a very emotional experience for all on board.
A couple of weeks later they arrived early morning at Singapore and they all spent the day
sight-seeing in Singapore City, before boarding a sleeper train bound for Kuala Lumpar {KL}.
The night trip was uneventful in spite of terrorist activity in certain areas of the route. All
servicemen including Eric were issued with rifles and revolvers.
[page break]
They arrived at KL early morning and took up residence for a few days in the Paramount
Hotel in Batu Road.
It took Eric and family a few days to get settled in but soon they were safely billeted in an
RAF civilian hiring at an area called Brickfields.
Meanwhile Eric acquired an old Standard 9 saloon car for a small sum and soon was using it
to get himself and family to and fro from hiring to airfield and elsewhere. In fact life became
very pleasant indeed, Sandra was soon enrolled in the local British Army School and was
bussed into lessons every weekday. These lessons finished at lpm every day, Aimee and
Sandra taxied to the airfield nearly every day where they met up with Eric at the Naffe Club
and swimming pool, since he had usually finished the days flying duties by then. The family
[page break]
later moved into a small bungalow at Petaling Jaya and new housing estate on the outskirts
of KL.
Eric discovered that he was now a navigator attached to a flight of three old Dakota
Transport Planes of World War Two vintage, but still fully operational. They were known as
"The Voice Flight" each was named as "Faith" "Hope" and "Charity" and had been especially
adapted to carry out loud hailing operations for the Department of Psychological Warfare.
Each Dakota carried four ground tannoy loud speakers securely attached to the underside of
the fuselage on a metal girder pointing out to port (Left) (Can be seen in photo just above
wheels). Power to these was in the form of a huge emergency AC Ground Generator and
was firmly bolted in the centre of the empty fuselage along with four by fifty vault valve
operated amplifiers which stood at each corner of the generator. Messages in various local
languages such as Chinese, Malayan and Indian were recorded on an endless tape and so
messages were sent out to various terrorist groups in their jungle hideouts asking them to
surrender. These terrorist groups were determined to break away from the British Empire
and form a free Malaya, but not as a democratic government, but as a Communist one
which the British Government was not prepared to sanction.
Eric soon found out that this was quite a dangerous job since all the flights were done at a
very low level and followed a square search pattern at a very low airspeed which meant
flying near the aircrafts stalling speed. Most flights were [performed early morning and
lasted three to four hours every day seven days a week, but not in bad weather conditions.
Paint Your Wagon (Not the film later released starring Clint Eastwood and lee Marvin) was a
very popular musical on Broadway and soon the voice flight had adapted one of its songs as
a signature tune, namely "l Talk To The Trees" (Clint Eastwood later sang this in the film). It
was a very exacting job, but seemed to get results. As the terrorist war progressed so the
terrorist groups gave ground more and more towards the Siamese Border. Soon the voice
flight was on the move and found themselves at Bayen Nepas a small airfield on Penang
Island.
Aimee and Sandra soon followed a few days later when Eric had obtained a small Bungalow
hiring at a small hamlet on the Island named Buket Glugar. This was also HQ for an RAF Boat
Squadron for the region and several high speed launches were birthed there for sea patrols
in that region. The voice flights were made very welcome by them and gave them access to
their mess and outside film show which the family enjoyed. Eric was also a member of the
Army Sergeants Mess at Minden Barracks which allowed them to use the facilities including
swimming pool, this was near to their home in Green lane.
[page break]
During the move to Penang, there was a tragedy the Dakota's were being used to carry
freight to their new base in Penang and since the airfield had no night facilities one of the
planes fully laden was in a hurry to take off to get there before nightfall and in his haste the
pilot Flight lieutenant Kevin Kelleher failed to carry out his ground checks and took off with
his elevator locks still inserted in the elevators in the fully up position. On take-off he went
straight up in the air and stalled and crashed on the end of the runway. Fortunately no one
[page break]
was injured but the plane was a write off. (I recently learned in December 2014 that Kevin
had died). Now we only had "Hope" and "Charity" left.
In August 1959 Eric was promoted to Warrant Officer yet again, but this time he was of
substantive rank and now known as a Master Navigator. He remained in this rank until he
retired.
By the end of December 1959 the terrorist war came to a victorious end to the British and
Commonwealth Forces. The terrorists surrendered in droves. The Chinese leader Chin Peng
disappeared over the Thai Border and presumably ended up back in Communist China (He
lived to a good age and died last year 2013). It was also the end ofthe British Governing in
Malaya as the country became an Independent state. At the beginning of January 1960 the
Malayans celebrated MERDEKA (Freedom) and became known as Malaysia. On 1st January
1960 Eric and family arrived by air into London's Heathrow. After a visit to Air Ministry Eric
was posted (After a month's leave) to Dishforth.
It should be mentioned at this point that prior to leaving Malaya Eric had ordered a new
Hillman Minx Car from a dealer in George Town, Penang. In those distant days it was almost
impossible to buy a new car in the UK as they all went for export and any UK models carried
a huge purchase tax burden. However since he was then deemed as overseas he was able to
purchase a new model free of taxes which was duly deducted from the export line in the UK
and was awaiting his collection for when he had finally arrived home. This collection was
duly made by him whilst on leave and so he became the owner of a brand new Hillman Minx
At Dishforth instead of York Aircraft he found himself on a twelve week conversion course
on the mighty Bristol Beverley a workhorse transport aircraft as navigator.
[page break]
In early 1960 Eric finished the conversion and was posted to 47 Squadron at Abingdon in
Oxfordshire. A lovely area to be posted to. With his seniority he soon moved into married
quarter whilst his daughter Sandra who had passed the eleven plus examine in Malaya,
moved into the local Grammar School, so the Parkers were settled once more except for the
number of detachments he would have to suffer, now that he was back in Transport
Command.
Whilst stationed on the new base apart from the usual crew training so named as
continuation training, they were also involved in para trooping and heavy drop training, but
most of the time the crews were out of the country ferrying passengers and freight to all
parts of the Med, Middle East and all over Africa north of the equator. For example the
Squadron flew out to Eastleigh/Nairobi, Kenya for a month in November 1962 and made
numerous food drops to the famine suffering areas of Kenya in the northern frontier district
on the Ethiopian border, either air dropping or landing with heavy supplies, on very short air
strips carved out of the bush. Short field landings and take offs were a speciality for the
Beverley with its four reverse thrust engines and very low landing speeds and robust under
carriage. The Squadron spent Christmas in Nairobi and returned to UK in January 1963.
Satisfied that they had done a good humanitarian job in Africa.
During his time with 47 Squadron he made several interesting trips, one in particular was to
a place called Manfe in the British Cameroons; this meant crossing the Sahara Desert with a
load of heavy freight for a new airfield being constructed there right in the middle of a
dense jungle region. On his first flight, his navigation took him to a couple of miles of the
new airstrip, but unfortunately for him all homing devices on the airfield had broken down,
making it impossible to find the airfield among the dense canopy of trees. They flew around
for about half an hours searching vainly for visual contact, but to no avail. But hope came
from an unsuspected source, as one of the passengers, a civilian air engineer, returning to
Manfe from UK leave came forward and recognising a nearby river bend was able to direct
them to the much concealed airstrip. Relief was expressed all round as fuel was getting
critical by this time and they would have had to consider diverting to Kano a big airfield in
Nigeria.
The second trip was no problem as all the radio waves were fully serviceable, on returning
to UK Eric had to report sick as he found out he had contracted amoebic dysentery and
spent three weeks in isolation hospital at RAF Ery, Norfolk. He finally got clearance for the
disease and was soon back on flying with the Squadron, with a medical restriction which
[page break]
supposedly was to restrict his flying to Europe only but the squadron ignored this and soon
he was back en route to Khormaksa, Aiden. This airfield served the port of Aiden and the
Yemen.
This was at the time when Britain was withdrawing from the smaller outposts in the middle
and Far East. With many others on the squadron he helped in this withdrawal. Evacuating
troops and valuable freight back to the UK.
Eric remained with 47 Squadron until August 1964, when he applied for a one year home
posting which airmen ending long service were entitled to receive under RAF regulations.
The parker family packed their bags and bought a brand new semi-detached house at
Formby. This house had a large back garden. The house had been purchased
and equipped during an earlier leave period. His new posting was to an RAF telephone
exchange at Haydock - between Liverpool and Manchester alongside the Haydock
Racecourse. This exchange also supported a Radar tracking unit in its grounds. In his last
year Eric became a RT controller on the unit. (A very cushy posting). Although the hours
could be very irregular depending on when the new V bomber force wanted to practice
their radar bombing. As he now still had the Hillman Minx, the journey from Formby was
not onerous.
[page break]
At this time the role of the Plotting Unit should be explained. Its purpose was to allow the V
Bomber Force to practice it's blind bombing techniques. Each unit (There were several
dotted over the UK) had two radar dishes in cabins, it was the task of the operators to track
the V Bombers as they made their bombing run in for the target, which in this case was the
dead centre of the plotting table. So that as they came into range information from the
dishes was passed to this part of the unit.
This triggered off the ink filled tracker arm fixed on the plotting table and this track
continued towards the table centre until the bomber pilot called bomb had gone then the
plotting arm stopped drawing. The by a series of mathematical tables a controller was able
to calculate where the bomb would have struck in relation to the target on the plotting
table centre and the results were then passed to the bomber by VHF radio. The V Bomber
Force honed its blind bombing skills in this way and became more proficient.
The bombers would fly from their various bases situated in other parts ofthe UK and
ostensively bomb Haydock and other such units situated elsewhere in the course of the
exercise.
[page break]
Eric quite enjoyed his short time at Haydock and recalls one very special evening which has
stayed with him until this day. About 1030pm all RT discipline on the unit was broken when
a V Bomber pilot called him up and said "Have you heard the news? President Kennedy has
been assassinated." Soon the airwaves were awash with uncontrolled chatter. It seemed so
strange as strict radio discipline had always been the rule.
Soon Eric's time at Haydock and indeed the RAF ended. He departed in late August 1964, on
his last but one day to the de mob centre just outside Blackpool and took a bed there for the
night. Next morning he went through all the de mob procedures and finally was kitted out at
the clothing store with a full set of civilian gear. This gear was exactly the same as that given
to conscripts at the end of the World War 2 -1945-1948 and comprised: Hat, shirt, tie,
three piece suit, socks and shoes, and belted raincoat. Eric found them handy for working in,
in the garden and other odd jobs. He also received his final wages which surprisingly
contained a £12 bonus for winning his DFM. Seemingly officers received £25 for their DFC's,
but were expected to forgo this amount and donate it to the RAF Benevolent Fund (Or so he
was told).
Eric became a civilian once more and he felt quite disconsolate as he made his way home to
his new house in Formby and new life with his wife and daughter. He had made plans for his
future, during his last few years at RAF Abingdon and he now intended that his new work
life would be that of a schoolmaster and so during that period he attended many
educational courses provided by the RAF to obtain the necessary GCE's to gain entry to a
training college.
During this time he obtained good passes of GCE's in Maths, English Language, English
literature, Navigation, Chemistry, Geography and General Paper. These were quite
sufficient at that time for entry into college. He was finally accepted by Edge Hill Teachers
Training College, near Ormskirk, Lancashire, which is situated about twelve miles inland
from the coast of Formby, which is now a part of Merseyside (Since 1974) and so he
travelled to and fro each day in the comfort of his Hillman Minx (Quite a change from his
cycling days in the RAF).
Edge Hill was a very stately college in lovely grounds and as a former lowly lad from West
Derby, he felt very privileged to be a mature student there. This mature status meant that
he only had to complete a two year course and so he joined up with a junior course of
students that had just completed their first year's study. He joined this course at the
beginning of the Easter Term 1965 along with about six other mature students, both men
and women were on the course.
[page break]
For his main subjects he elected to specialise in Geography and Rural Science as he still
maintained his love of the outdoors and the wider world. Rural Science comprised many
topics such as general gardening, soil science, botany, chemistry and he found it very
interesting especially as his new house in Formby embraced an extra-large garden. (As
earlier photographs have shown).
The Geography course was equally comprehensive and he found it quite fulfilling as it
embraced so many subjects that he had used every day as his role as RAF Navigator. Such
topics as map projections, meteorology, geology, astronomy, time and tides, all were
relevant to him and so he found the course quite absorbing and easy.
During the two years at Edge Hill Eric had to complete a full school term teaching practice
for each of the years, for the first year he was lucky and completed his practice at Holy
Trinity Junior School in Formby which was very convenient for him.
For the second year term of practice he taught at Ormskirk Secondary School. He enjoyed
both these postings and learned a lot about handling children and general classroom
procedures.
Finally he qualified and left college and took up a position at St luke's C of E School in
Formby.
For his main subjects he elected to specialise in Geography and Rural Science as he still
maintained his love of the outdoors and the wider world. Rural Science comprised many
topics such as general gardening, soil science, botany, chemistry and he found it very
interesting especially as his new house in Formby embraced an extra-large garden. (As
earlier photographs have shown).
The Geography course was equally comprehensive and he found it quite fulfilling as it
embraced so many subjects that he had used every day as his role as RAF Navigator. Such
topics as map projections, meteorology, geology, astronomy, time and tides, all were
relevant to him and so he found the course quite absorbing and easy.
During the two years at Edge Hill Eric had to complete a full school term teaching practice
for each of the years, for the first year he was lucky and completed his practice at Holy
Trinity Junior School in Formby which was very convenient for him.
For the second year term of practice he taught at Ormskirk Secondary School. He enjoyed
both these postings and learned a lot about handling children and general classroom
procedures.
Finally he qualified and left college and took up a position at St luke's C of E School in
Formby.
[page break]
This was a typical small village school still maintaining its links with the church even though
this was now the responsibility of the local council.
The headmistress at this time was an old fashioned spinster named Miss Cubbons and she
ruled the school with a fair but firm hand. Eric remembers his opening week with her when
one day she said to him "Remember this Mr Parker, you don't want children to like you, you
want them to resoect you and liking you will follow." Eric took this on board and it served
him in good stead during his twenty two years of teaching.
During his first two years at St Lukes Eric was in charge of second year Juniors and settled in
well until Miss Cubbons retired and a new headmaster was appointed, a Mr Brian Waiter
Mills who was formerly Deputy Head at St Peters, Formby.
Eric and Brian became firm friends almost overnight and when the school reconvened at
the end of the summer holidays he move Eric up to fourth year junior class teacher. Eric was
delighted with his new post and soon spread his wings, since the new head although quite
traditional, was not afraid to accept new challenges. This suited Eric and he spread his wings
into all sorts of educational topics of curricular and non-curricular. By and large the boys and
girls of the fourth year responded well to his efforts and he gained the respect not only of
the children but their parents as well.
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
Eric Parker's Biography
Description
An account of the resource
Titled Eric's Story it details Eric's life from birth in Liverpool. He joined the RAF on his 18th birthday in January 1942. Initial training was at Paignton then he was shipped to Canada. He failed to progress as a pilot and was transferred to a navigator course, returning to UK in February 1944. He flew in Lancasters with 12 Squadron at Wickenby. He and his entire crew were given five days leave so that he could get married in January 1945.
His crew dropped food for the starving Dutch as part of Operation Manna. After the war he served with Transport Command on Yorks. He continued moving around and spent time on B-29s then Canberras at Marham. Later he and his family were sent to Kuala Lumpur then Penang on Dakotas.
On his return he was posted to Abingdon on Beverleys. This included trips to Nairobi.
He transferred to Haydock as a radio controller, after which he left the RAF and became a teacher.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2014-12
Format
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32 page typed sheets
Language
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eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Identifier
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B[Author]ParkerEv1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
United States Army Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Liverpool
England--Knowsley (District)
England--Liverpool
England--Aintree
England--Paignton
Canada
Nova Scotia--Halifax
Saskatchewan--Moose Jaw
Manitoba--Brandon
Ontario
England--Harrogate
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Dresden
England--Blackpool
England--Lincoln
England--Bournemouth
India
Egypt
Libya--Tripoli
Egypt--Heliopolis (Extinct city)
Iraq
India--New Delhi
Pakistan--Karachi
Singapore
India--Kolkata
Sri Lanka--Negombo
England--King's Lynn
England--Downham Market
Iceland
United States
Delaware--Dover
New York (State)--New York
Arizona--Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
Egypt--Suez Canal
Malaysia--Kuala Lumpur
South Africa--Durban
Kenya--Nairobi
Cameroon
Sahara Desert
Nigeria--Kano
Yemen (Republic)--Aden
England--Formby
England--Haydock
England--Ormskirk
Germany--Helgoland
Québec
Québec--Montréal
Arizona
Delaware
New York (State)
Libya
Saskatchewan
Germany
Nova Scotia
Kenya
Malaysia
South Africa
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Nigeria
Yemen (Republic)
Malaysia--George Town (Pulau Pinang)
England--Devon
England--Hampshire
England--Lancashire
England--Norfolk
England--Lincolnshire
Manitoba
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
1945
12 Squadron
148 Squadron
15 Squadron
242 Squadron
35 Squadron
47 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
B-29
Blenheim
bomb aimer
C-47
Cornell
crewing up
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
entertainment
flight engineer
ground personnel
hangar
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lincoln
love and romance
Me 109
navigator
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Operational Training Unit
pilot
RAF Abingdon
RAF Blyton
RAF Dishforth
RAF Eastleigh
RAF Husbands Bosworth
RAF Lyneham
RAF Marham
RAF Oakington
RAF Paignton
RAF Shawbury
RAF Snaith
RAF Sywell
RAF Upwood
RAF Wickenby
RAF Wyton
Spitfire
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/630/30878/BPotterPLPotterPLv1.2.pdf
215d429e240fa469c70531762e1abedb
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
Potter, Peter
P Potter
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Potter, P
Description
An account of the resource
39 items. Collection concerns Peter Potter, (1925 - 2019, 1876961 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a rear gunner with 626 Squadron. Collection contains an oral history interview, his logbook, memoirs and photographs
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Peter Potter and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-09-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
1
[underlined] Childhood [/underlined]
Stanford-le-hope in Essex was my place of birth, but my early years were spent at Fobbing where the peasants revolt was planned at the Vicarage and the arch placed on order of the king still stands.
We lived on a smallholding overlooking the A13 and Bread and Cheese Hill. My Grandfather had three farms on the marshes of Fobbing, Coryton and Corringham.
We caught Sticklebacks, Newts, Lizards, Raft Spiders, Elver, Water snails etc. and sold them to other school children and sometimes the teachers.
The marsh ditches were drained and the eels [inserted] were speared and [/inserted] scooped up and those large enough sent to market or jellied for our own consumption. On the sea walls we picked wild garlic. On the sea side of the wall were whelks and winkles, further out cockles and oysters, also clams. A net was laid across the creek at low tide so that the incoming tide lifted the top and trapped the fish. Special traps were set for ducks and geese, young swans were eaten, the old ones released, partridges and pheasants were also trapped. Everything caught was sold if possible, if not sold the meat would be removed and be
[page break]
2
preserved in salt in barrels. The salt was from the six small salt pans at the back of the sea wall. At high tide the sluice gate would be opened and the sea water channelled to one of the pans, when full the gate was closed and the water allowed to soak away and evaporate, leaving the salt. Also in the same area were three shellfish beds where any shellfish could be stored until needed. Beach combing was a regular chore after high tide, a great variety of flotsam an [sic] jetsum [sic] was collected over time, some quite valuable.
Sea birds eggs were collected in season and sold to London Hotels as were the mushrooms from the marshes. Mushrooms were picked after midnight until they had to go on the rail to London. Grandfather had orders from over thirty hotels. All above their needs went to market. The method of picking was for two people with a two handled galvanised bath, us kids had small baths, adults very large ones, sometimes as many as sixty baths working. All the mushrooms had to be put into trays for transport. The marsh used to be white in season.
At sheep shearing time, us kids had the job of folding the fleece. We had leather aprons and sleeves to stop the lanolin from getting on us. Every now and again the aprons, etc. were
[page break]
3
changed and washed in boiling water, the lanolin was taken off and stored to make a base for ointments or sold. Absolutely nothing went to waste.
Another way of catching eels was to place kitchen scraps into a sack and a few weights attached to the underside, a line was threaded round the mouth, wire was threaded to make a loop in the centre of the opening. The sack was placed weights down in the Fleet, the cord tied to a stake.
They were placed in the evening and collected about 5 a.m. By pulling the cord hard closing the mouth, the eels would have entered during the night. Usually about five large eels would be trapped with a number of lesser ones. To separate them they were tipped into a bucket standing in a bath, water was added to the bucket until the large eels could slither out. The smaller ones were tipped back into the Fleet.
During the winter there was shooting, rabbiting, ratting, snares and if someone or ourselves wanted something without shot in it, trapping.
4
A careful watch if walking on the sea wall or long grass was necessary as there were Adders everywhere, also black water snakes, which could be quite a size. One killed by my dog “Tip” was 6ft. 4ins. The skin was used to make a whip.
Every so often Grandfather would count his sheep. This was done by driving them from one field to another and counting as they passed through the gateway. With sheep running through I soon lost count, but not Granddad. He knew if any were missing and would send the dogs to find them.
At lambing time if a ewe lost her lamb and would not accept another, she would be milked and milk either fed to orphans or in house, or made into cream cheese.
On one occasion, a foal was fed a mixture of cow and sheep milk and flourished, unusual.
Fruit, nut and willow trees were planted on any area they had a good chance of surviving. Any produce was used in any of a number of ways. The pigs and chickens etc. Were fed anything not suitable for human consumption.
My mother taught us from the time we could talk. By the time we went to school (4 years old) we
[page break]
5
were ahead of our age group and put into older classes. My father taught us about the world around us. Both had the patience needed to ensure we understood.
At 4 years old, I started school. The teacher told us to put our sweets on a ledge in the cloakroom and hang our clothes there. Quite a no go for me, I had no intention of leaving sweets where others could help themselves to them. I was even more adamant about my cap of which I was inordinately proud, being red velvet with a silk lining. Ignoring the teacher I went into class wearing my jacket as somewhere to keep my sweets and my cap I put on my chair and sat on it. The teacher kept telling me I could not carry on like that, but I would not give in.
Next day, I told Mum, I didn't want to go to school any more, to no avail as she got me ready together with my packed lunch, no sweets, cap finally on my head and pushed me out of the door. After I had stood rebelliously for some minutes, Mum came out, walked to the hedge, broke a twiggy branch, came back stung my legs with it and said “school”. For 3 1/2 miles to school we travelled at adult pace and every time I slowed down I received a sharp sting with the twiggy stick. At
[page break]
6
school Mum put my cap on the hook and told me to leave it there. With the memory of the twiggy stick, I decided that would be advisable. There was no harm to me, a lesson not forgotten and my first introduction to the fact that it is sometimes necessary to put up with things you don't like, self-discipline in a nutshell.
At 9 years old I went to college, but that was short lived as we moved to a farm when I was 10 years old.
At school, I was always getting into all kinds of trouble and received the cane many times. Fighting was probably the main cause as I had been taught that boys never hit or hurt girls and every time I saw a boy hitting a girl, I would protect her. I got the cane because I should have told a teacher and let them deal with it.
Also I was punished for work when I wrote out word for word after a reading, the teachers were convinced I was cheating.
After a while the teachers realised I was not cheating and I was given special tuition as were two of my sisters.
[underline] [italic] [bold] Childhood (2)
Peter Potter Written 1 [/bold] [/italic] [/underline]
I was born in the 1920’s, which was a time when there was peace almost all over the world and an idyllic time for children in England. It was a time when the people believed in themselves and their country, a people truly proud of their heritage and their countrymen.
When living in a village, it was necessary to help one another whenever and wherever possible and if a call for help was made, it was never ignored. Trust was very strong. If someone went out for any reason, their house would be left unlocked and a neighbour would pop in to see that everything was OK and sometimes even prepare a meal for the occupiers return.
My parents were farmers and considered that it was their duty to look after the welfare of all the villagers, regardless of whether they were our employees or not. All those who were in need for any reason, would each receive a parcel of items that they might require, such as food, clothing, soap etc. which would be left on their own doorstep at night.
As in all communities, there were some rogues, but they were invariably known and folk took protective measures against them, but we still helped them to if they were in need.
[page break]
- 2 -
Children all had jobs to do and were proud of the responsibilities given to them, even though they may not have liked the job itself, the very fact that he had been given responsibility gave them pride. Accidents were rare and mostly minor, a bruise or a cut could occur because you were subject to many dangers. From the time you were able to move around you learned very rapidly to be very careful, to look for danger and avoid it wherever possible. The greatest teacher was life and the sooner a person experienced it the better.
Neither boys nor girls were favoured in their choice of chores in most families, although the better off a family was, the more varied the tasks for the children appeared to be. I had four sisters and over the years we all did the same chores. My jobs were many and varied, looking after certain animals, chopping and gathering kindling for our house and also for the pensioners in the village. Grinding, cutting and mixing and cooking animal feed, mucking out the animals, milking cows, collecting the eggs, cooking dinner on market and shopping days, cleaning and sharpening tools. I would also collect cows for milking and round up the sheep and other livestock, counting and grooming them. I helped with the harvest, checked
[page break]
- 3 -
fences, gates and carried out many other chores, in fact anything that came up whilst I was available, even doing the accounts, which I did for my father. By the time I was ten, I was capable of almost any job on the farm and could use and operate all of the equipment.
In my spare time, I went shooting with a four ten shotgun, hunting rabbits with ferrets, setting snares, traps for pheasants and partridges. I also made the nets and snares. After dinner I did the accounts and my homework from school.
Somehow I also found time to go courting, as my love life started at this time. My parents were like most of the adults of time capable of all aspects of working and social life, they shared the problems of the community and like most workers were adaptable in that they were capable of several occupations. My father was able to put his hand to anything, engineering, tool making, mechanics, chemistry, doctoring plus of course general farming. He was in great demand to repair anything, or make a replacement if repair was not possible. Not only was he extremely clever, but also superbly fit and strong. All of his movements were perfectly coordinated and his speed of movement was the fastest I’ve ever witnessed. Two of his brothers were boxing champions in the Royal Navy at heavy and middle
[centred] – 4 – [/centred]
weight respectively, but Dad could outbox both of them comfortably.
On one occasion when he was about forty years old, we were walking around the farm when we saw two young men in the middle of a corn field knocking the corn down. Dad shouted at them to stop, whereupon they shouted abuse at him. Dad took off like a rocket, they were about a hundred and fifty yards away and they started running as fast as they could, but they might as well have been standing still. Dad overhauled them and as he caught up with the nearest one he picked him up by the scruff of the neck and then continued running until he caught the other one in the same fashion. He then banged their heads together and told them he didn’t want to see them ever again on our farm and we never did. The spectacle remains with me as clearly now as it was then. The power as he ran with two grown men suspended in the air was quite unforgettable. When I later related the tale to my uncles at a family get together, they told me that as a young man he was working on a jetty at Shell Haven in the Thames Estuary. Full oil drums were being loaded ten at a time on a cradle, into the hold of a ship. Suddenly the loader in charge slipped under the descending load. My father was on the ship and into the hold and under the load taking the weight on his
[page break]
[centred] – 5 – [/centred]
shoulders. Then the loader got up and signalled the crane driver to lift the load while Dad got out of the way. Ten barrels of fifty gallons is about four thousand five hundred pounds, plus the cradle and chains comes to about two tons. An amazing feat witnessed by about fifty people. Apparently he didn’t have to buy a pint for a very long time. Later, when I worked at Shell Haven myself, the event was still spoken about with the weight having been increased over the years along with other embellishments. When I told Dad he was a legend, he laughed his head off.
Mother was small and she was lovely and beautiful. Her family were farmers and landowners as were my father’s. During the First World War, she was employed in the local powder and cordite munitions factory and then after the war she went off to learn the hotel trade with old family friends. There she met my father and they hit it off immediately. They never lost their love for one another and were loved by all who knew them. Their funerals were attended by mourners overflowing the church. At my father’s funeral, the churchyard and the road for about a hundred yards were crowded with people from all over the world.
Just as many farmers of the time, money was short. It was laid out in livestock, grains, fodder and equipment etc. although there was usually enough money in the
[page break]
[centred] – 6 – [/centred]
bank and in hand to pay our employees and casual labour, such as pea pickers and potato pickers. Etc. Quite often, after paying everyone, there would be very little left for housekeeping for us and we would live on the farm produce. Such fare was much better than one may think. Homemade bread, home killed beef, pork, bacon, lamb, veal, chicken, turkey, guinea fowl, pheasant, partridge, duck, goose, etc., eggs, potatoes, many sorts of vegetables and fruit, home brewed beer, homemade wine and cordials, peppermint and ginger beer etc. We were never hungry, milk was plentiful to drink or make delicious desserts. Also pigeons, rabbits, hares, peacocks, all these things were also given to folk in the village who were out of work or suffering an illness.
At Christmas, all the needy were given whatever fare we had plenty of. Our workers were paid above the standard rate and also shared with all of the above produce when plentiful or in season. One rule, however, was whatever job they were doing had to be completed satisfactorily before going home. Anyone not doing their job properly would be given one chance and then if they failed they were sacked.
I enjoyed an idyllic childhood and I must say I thought it was a wonderful time for children.
[page break]
7
Right opposite the gates of my first school, Herd Lane Junior School, there was a sandpit in which the sand martins used to nest in the cliffs which had been formed. One day I went down into the sandpit to see if I could look into a sand martin's nest. I proceeded to climb up the cliff where the nests were and then suddenly the cliff face collapsed on me. My eldest sister who saw what had happened managed to pull me out. I had been completely buried, so that all she could see was one foot. I then complained, asking why she had pulled me out as I had been quite happy in there, I supposed I must have been suffering from oxygen starvation.
I was about six or seven then and at that time she was going to the same school as myself and there was also a particular twelve year old boy at the school who was a bully. He used to bully the girls as they were going home. On one occasion we were on our way home walking up what we called Green Hill, a footpath that was on my grandfather's land, when this boy started chasing us. When we got to a style leading into the next field he caught us up I took hold of the bar of the style for support and then kicked him as hard as I could and then I pummelled him and thumped him about as much as possible as a result of which he then ran down the hill screaming his head off. Just after we arrived
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home, the boy and his mother turned up. She asked my mother “Where is that boy of yours? He has given my boy Claude a hiding and has been bullying him”. My mother said, “Peter, come out here”. When I went outside, the boy's mother took one look at me and then looked at her son and said to him “you mean that little squirt is the one who did it?” He said “Yes Mum” at which point they left.
We had a small holding at that time in the village of Fobbing and it was three and a half miles from the school. We had to walk to school as there were no buses. From the time I was about seven, if the cattle were in the fields when I was walking back, it was my job to let them out of one field and on opening another gate get the cattle across the road into the field opposite. On one of the occasions that I was doing this, a policeman came along. He shouted “What do you think you're doing? I said “I am just letting the cows through”. He said “You can't do that “and proceeded to clip me around the ears. He asked me where my father was, I told him he was at home. We then had to walk all the way round the road to get to our place, as the constable had his bike and it couldn't go the short way across the fields, which would have been one mile instead of the two by road.
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We got home just as my father was arriving. The policeman said “Oh! It's you Lou”, as he obviously knew him. He said “Your boy has just let the cows cross the road down at the bottom of Green Hill. Dad said, “Yes, he would, that's his job”, to which the policeman said, “Oh, is it? Well I have just clipped him round the ears for it”. My father said “Well, he must have done something wrong at some time, so he probably deserved it”.
The policeman was a chap called Thorogood and about twenty-five years later I met him again when he was an inspector of police at Braintree and we became good friends. There was another occasion when our I [sic] paths crossed. When I was about 11 years old, one of my uncles was staying with us and he suggested that I take his car for a run and so I drove off in it and ended up going from Easthorpe to Earls Colne. While I was parked and sitting in the car at Earls Colne, this policeman came up and asked me what I was doing sitting in the driver's seat. I told him I had just been driving. He asked where the driver was, whereupon I said “I am the driver”. The policeman said “Do you mean you have been driving this car?” I said “Yes”. “You are not old enough to drive”, he said. “Well, I've driven here from East Thorpe” I told him. He said “Well, you can't drive”. He then turned to a
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constable that was with him and told him to take me back home and then left. At this point the constable got into the passenger's seat. I said “Aren't you going to drive us back”. He said “No, I can't drive”. So I had to drive all the way back home and then my father drove the constable all the way back to Earls Colne. At the time I had just sold some rabbits that I had caught and the proceeds had to pay my uncle for the petrol that had been used, but fortunately I never got into any trouble with the police about the matter.
At the smallholding, we had many livestock including goats. All livestock was pedigree and dad showed them, winning nearly everything possible,
[indistinguishable picture] Mum with pigtails, self on bonnet Chas Olive and Jean.
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which meant he received premium prices for anything he sold.
Farming was much more intensive, us children were each given chores to do according to our ages. We had many more livestock. At 10 years old, I had to milk the cows and feed them, tractor driving, at this time I learnt to fly and navigate. I learnt to plough with horses, had my first livestock, billy goat, which I took round as stud at two shillings and sixpence a time, also I dealt with the bull and the Pencheron [sic] Stallion for local journeys.
[inserted] My dog Tip [/inserted]
Sometimes I wanted to go shooting on my own, I would pick up my 12 bore shotgun and as silently as possible creep out the front of the house. Tip was chained at the back. Every time he would have worked his way loose and be waiting for me. At milking time, he would open the doors to the byre, then the gates to the cows, hooking them all back, the cows would be waiting. In the milking byre, he would make sure they were all in their right place and shut the doors. After milking he would open the doors and take the cows back to the correct field then close and latch the gates, never a mistake. He would not enter the house for any reason and I had to give him a bath outside,
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when he pulled the bath which was under a shelter near his kennel. He changed the straw in his kennel on a regular basis and would stand by the shelter and bark lightly if I had not restocked the straw.
When ferreting or searching for wounded birds, etc. he never made a mistake. If a rabbit was in a ‘seat’ he would walk round it getting closer all the time until close enough to pick it up. If I was with him he liked me to flush the rabbit while he placed himself where the rabbit would run. He would cut it off until it just sat and he would pick it up. Everything he did was self-taught. Once he saw us do something, he never forgot and would do it himself if it was possible and always seemed to know when to.
We chained him at night, but he could wriggle out anytime he wanted. If a bitch was on heat he would be gone and we were left to sort things out, not always as well as him. On return it was always easy to see if he had been lucky as he had a dog grin of satisfaction, quite unmistakeable. He could turn taps on and off if he wanted a drink and lived to 21 years old. He had ways to tell what he wanted. He was a fantastic guard dog and tore the
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throat out of an Alsatian that was chasing our sheep.
Our workers and anyone who were on hard times were allowed to chop down and train a hedge for winter fuel. Dad would show them how he wanted a hedge laid, which was designed to keep the laid stems to stay alive and keep the hedge strong. Then he would inspect the result and give them payment according to the quality. They had all the large wood and the small not needed for laying.
At the smallholding, I used to take bread and milk which I fed to an adder and young in a hedge. (Because I had seen it eating a mouse) my mother curious to see what I was feeding was terrified and told a gypsy who was our neighbour. He said “Don’t worry, they won’t bite him, no animal will ever hurt him”. He wasn’t entirely right as the Pencheron Stallion took great pleasure stepping on my foot at every opportunity, each time with a kind of snuffle - snort. (Don’t ask me to give a demonstration). He removed his hoof immediately and I was never really harmed.
Whenever our family left the place for a while, the gypsies would look after it for us and were most
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trustworthy. We children often played with theirs and also ate with them ( hedgehog and other most unusual dishes all very tasty).
After eating too many apples, I suffered a very severe stomach ache. My eldest sister in charge for the day found a bottle of Syrup of Figs and gave me a dessert spoonful. The fluid, however, was Jeyes Fluid and only made me worse. The commotion I made brought a gypsy over and he ran back and brought a yellow liquid which made me vomit. When mum returned I was taken to the doctor who could find little burning, but prescribed goats milk for six months. I believe the gypsy saved me from more serious affects.
Another thing I was taught as soon as I could understand, was to be positive. This included facing and at times laughing at misfortune or injury, it doesn’t take long to know which is the best medicine for a given occurrence. Used well it dispels shock. Nowadays people are told the trauma will bring on shock and they should take a break. What rubbish. The answer is to get fully occupied physically and mentally as soon as possible, get the blood flowing, feed the brain with oxygen, help it back to normality. Tell a person they are, or they look inland they will be. Tell them they look great and they may not believe they are, but it will still give them a boost.
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Also work and learning were portrayed as being good. We were encouraged to do everything to the best of our ability, to try to improve all the time, to try to perfect. If mistakes were made, we were told we would get it right if we kept trying. If we got it right we were told “well done”. I still enjoy work. At no time in my life have I ever considered any task too menial for me, or out of my reach and I have concluded over the years that though one person may earn more, inherit money or rank, dress differently, speak differently, be better educated, be healthier etc. that person is in fact no more or less than any other human being. I treat all equally. Over the years I have met Royalty, Dustmen, Prime Ministers, Lavatory Cleaners, etc. and found them all concerned generally about the same things.
My childhood followed the general pattern of the times, work, school, country pursuits, such as bird nesting, which meant finding nests and watching them from being built through to the last young bird leaving and learning to fend for itself. Climbing trees, building tree houses, dens of many kinds, playing Mothers and Fathers, Doctors and Nurses, Cowboys and Indians, Cricket, Football, Rugby, Tennis, Athletics, Swimming, Boxing, Wrestling, etc.
Few people realise the freedom enjoyed by living with their family. This together with the added security and trust is unequalled by any other way of life and I was fortunate to find this out whilst I was still young.
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[picture] Fishers Farm Fobbing (Home For My Early years)
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When the Second World War started, I was still at school I found that as a farmer's son. I was considered to be in a reserved occupation and I would not be allowed to join the RAF as I wanted. This meant that I had to change the career that I had for another. After giving it some thought, I realised the only thing I could do was to run away from home, which would absolve my father from blame. So I then had an argument with him and then packed my bags and left. My destination was a friend's parents with whom I lodged until I found a job. As soon as I started work at Shell Haven, I went to the RAF recruiting Centre at Grays and volunteered for aircrew. I gave my friend's date of birth as I could remember it easily. He was quite a bit older than me and he had to
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sign on as he was eighteen. My idea was that if I signed on at the same time as a group the likelihood of a check on ages would be less than on a slack time. I then returned to Fingringhoe and worked where the wild life park is now.
My cousin Ron Polley, went into the army when he was called up. He joined the mechanised section and he was stationed somewhere in the Colchester area. His regiment had bren-gun carriers and light tanks. When they were sent out on training manoeuvres, they would often come to visit our farm. A number of their vehicles would arrive on the road outside. We had a large yard with a brick wall around it, which had double doors which were about eight foot high, this was where we normally kept the stock. They used to go on manoeuvres at the bottom of one of our fields. However, on some occasions they used to drive down to our yard, then drive any cattle or pigs in there into the back section of the yard and close the gates so the animals couldn't get out. Then they would drive all their vehicles into the front section of the yard and then come in and drink cups of tea with us until the manoeuvres were over. I don't know why they were never missed. I asked him once what he would tell his superiors and he said he would just tell them that they
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had got lost if they asked, but he said they never did. Surprisingly he still managed to survive the war!
The bottom of one of our fields was used as a hand grenade practice area. They used to throw hand grenades from the tanks or bren gun carriers. They would come down with a sergeant and maybe a half dozen blokes. They would drive round and throw the grenades from the bren gun carrier, then duck down. On one occasion, one of the chaps pulled the pin out and dropped the hand grenade. The sergeant in charge shouted to the men to get out and then he fell on the grenade, because he knew that they wouldn't have time to get clear as the grenades only had four second fused. All the chaps jumped clear and the sergeant had all of his intestines blown up. My sister,Chris, the one in the States now, gave him first aid, but of course he died. She did what she could for him while he was still alive. She was recommended for the George Cross Civilian Award.
In the same area, during the first weekend that we moved to Fingringhoe, the Germans dropped bombs across our farm. We had bombs from the top, right down to the marsh. The hand grenade range was where two parachute mines came down, one was just above the range and the other in the marsh. The parachutes came in very handy, the ropes which were
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as thick as my thumb came in handy on the farm and the silk made all kinds of clothing. Everyone thought that they had been ordinary bombs because the parachutes had disappeared long before the authorities had come to have a look. The crater at the top of the field filled with water naturally and I used to teach the kids of Fingringhoe how to swim. I used to tie the reins (leash lines) that you used to have with plough horses, under the children's armpits, then I would stand on one side of the crater and then they would jump in from the other side and I would pull them over. I think nearly all of the kids in Fingringhoe learned to swim that way, at that time.
We had most of our windows smashed by the bomb blast and we had a dark house for a while because we used the black-out curtains to keep the weather out. The black-out would have been there at night anyway at that time to stop a light showing, but we had it during daylight too. One of our farm houses was taken over by the army to house a searchlight company and we think the plane was trying to hit the searchlight. Searchlights were quite visible from the air, you could always see the glass or the reflector in daylight when you flew over it. The bombs were dropped during daylight. It was a very cloudy day and the plane was
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only at about five hundred feet. I believe he actually crashed into the sea near St. Osyth.
When I worked at Shell Haven, I was checking the number of empty oil drums being built in a stack on a piece-work system and I suspected there was a discrepancy in the figures and found I was right. I told the chap stacking I would have to report it. He knew it would mean he would be sacked and attacked me.
A week before I had stopped a runaway barrel of boiling pitch from striking him by turning it, in so doing I had my thumb crushed and had my nail removed in hospital. That night he bought me a pint at the “Sun” pub and had told me his father had been killed in France and he was the family earner for his mother and three young sisters.
After the fight which was in front of the offices, I felt sorry for him, so went straight to the office and gave in my notice.
Later that day, I went to the reclamation site at Mucking where my cousin was the Manager and got a job as a plant operator, driving cranes and loco’s also repairing machinery and equipment.
I still came back [inserted] home [/inserted] on some weekends and I used to cycle 30 miles each way. If half a dozen barges or a ship
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came in then I would have to work on a weekend and couldn’t get away. When I was at the rubbish tip, on one particular day I was crane driving, I think it must have been a Bank Holiday, because everybody wanted to get away. We were all going on a charabanc trip. My cousin Bert Hipsey, the manager said I have to get six barges emptied over the weekend. Although we would have got paid time and half, nobody wanted to work because we all wanted to get away on our trip. When the barges were really full, the water level was within 6 inches of the top. So all I did was drop the grab on the edge of the furthest barge out from the jetty and the water rushed in and sank it. That then pulled the others down because they were all tied together. So there was no way anyone could work on them until the tide had gone down, so everybody cleared off home. Bert said I had done it on purpose, but I said I wasn’t used to the crane yet. We all went on our trip, which was to Walton-on-the-Naze.
When we were at work, sometimes bombers would come over and you didn’t know whether you would be hit or not. They did drop one quite close, but we never actually got hit, not even the tip, which was about one mile by half a mile in area.
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We used to have to flood the rats out of the tip every now and then because they would dig holes in the sea wall. So we would fill all of the holes except one and then put the hose down it and pump water in, usually when the tide was up. You would then see all of the rats come out and come to the surface of the water and all the blokes would be at the bottom of the bank with sticks to hit them with.
You used to get toys and ornaments and these you would sell locally or give away. We used to have the London sewage boats came down the river. They were supposed to go out into the North Sea and release the sewage through the false bottoms in the boats. They would drop the sewage when they got just past our tip and if the tide was coming in, we used to pack up until the stuff had washed away. We would make a cup of tea.
Brown, C/M of the firm, asked me if I would move to branch at Fingrinhoe and I accepted (my cousin probably wanted to get rid of me).
I was a plant operator there until I was called up. One incident whilst I was there was in a lunch hour.
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The manager had a boat moored against the jetty and we decided to take a trip in it. The Manager (another relative) caught us and knocked ten shillings off my pay and five shillings off the [deleted] officer [/deleted] [inserted] other [/inserted] chap. We didn’t do it again. He took the cash as payment for the hire of the boat.
Fingringhoe was run by Brown’s brother and I went to work there so I could be near home and it was there that I got called up to the Methodist Church in Long Wyre Street to attend the medical centre for a medical check to join the RAF. I passed the medical and then I had to go to RAF Cardington in Bedfordshire for the air crew educational test. I was there for three days for the tests. I had to have another medical as well as passing what was then the University Entrance Exam.
One of the things that got to me while I was there, was a hearing test that was conducted in one of the airship hangers. A chap would stand close to one end of the hanger and he would talk in a normal fashion and I had to write down what he was saying. The eye test was very severe too, you had to have what they considered to be perfect eyesight. There was no such thing as aircrew with glasses, as the aircraft were not heated, if
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you had worn glasses you would have suffered frostbite in no time. I passed everything there and then I had to wait to be called up. When I was called up I went to St. John’s Wood, to a place called Grove Court on the Marylebone Road, which were luxury flats, very posh. There were still civilians living in the flats. I was billeted with another chap in the rooms that we were in. There were two rooms, a kitchenette which we never used because we didn’t have any rations or anything. The other room was a bedroom. Just opposite us were living two posh young ladies. When we were off duty, they used to take us to either the Panama Club or somewhere like that. As we were trained airmen wearing our white flashes, we were allowed to go to the Chevrons Club in London, so sometimes they would take us thee and it never cost us a cent, it was very nice.
We used to have to eat at Hamilton Court, which was named after Lady Hamilton, a friend of Lord Nelson, which was across the road and about a hundred yards away. We went to Lords Cricket Ground to have our photographs taken, to the Beaumont Street Baths for swimming to make sure we could all swim, even if you were towed. It was alright if you were towed, but you had to do three lengths of the baths to say that you could
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swim. The chap who was eventually to become my mid-upper gunner, Johnny Moore, was there and we had to tow him backwards and forwards, otherwise he just sank. We also used to go to Regents Park Zoo to do square bashing and that sort of thing. When we had a break there, they had a NAAFI van in the monkey cages and when we were in there the women who used to serve us would shout “Come on monkeys”. They had moved the animals from there up to Whipsnade and some went to Bristol. They then had to move them on from Bristol when the bombing started to get bad there. This was my initiation into the RAF. We had to take turns guarding the place and also being fire pickets and you had to wear all of your back pack. I was on fire picket one night with one of the other chaps and we were standing out in the Marylebone Road, when a couple of young ladies came along, so we started chatting them up. I walked down the road with one and the other chap walked the other way with the other young lady. We came to a seat and we sat down and I thought I was getting on very well and then an RAF sergeant turned up. “What are you doing” he said. “Are you supposed to be on guard duty or fire picket?” I said “I'm on fire picket”. He said “What are you doing here?”. “You had better get back”, he said. He didn't put me on a
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charge, but it's a wonder that he didn't. The last I saw was him chatting the young lady up.
I used to take part whenever I could in all of the sports at the Lathol Club and Grays Athletic Club. I also used to box at the Grays Club too. Before the war, Freddie Mills used to be among the people who went there. He was also a friend of my father. Both my father and my uncles used to spar with him. He joined the RAF, he was a Pilot Officer. When I moved from Brignorth to Pembrey, he was the P.T. Sports Officer there. We put on three or four exhibition bouts in the gym for the chaps because Freddie Mills was famous at that time. He was the Middle Heavyweight Champion of the World. He was a lovely chap and he knew all of our family, in fact he knew more of them than I did, I think. He knew all of the Grays ones, but I only knew some of them. We had a sewer that ran right through the Pembrey camp, which was like a small brook and it was called the Swan Pool Drain. It was nothing like a swan pool, if you had anything like a bit of wind coming the wrong way, you knew all about it. Pembrey was where I started flying. We used to fly to Kidwelly Flats, where we used to practise air to air firing, air to sea firing. We were flying Avro Ansons and Airspeed Oxfords. None of us were allowed to even sit in the
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pilot’s seat in those days, we were all trainees. All of these aircraft were converted, they all had turrets in for air firing. The aircrafts were stripped really, they had bench seats along the side and there would be about half a dozen of you and you would have to take turns at air to air or air to sea firing. On Kidwelly Flats,
they used to have targets to fire at and the Magisters used to tow drogues for you to fire at. I did very well at that as I had been shooting all of my life and as I had been shooting birds I knew what to do and that made a big difference. We used to have competitions with a twelve bore and clay pigeons. Everybody put in threepence and the competition was a knockout. I won it every time. I even beat the instructor every time too and he got really savage because he had been used to taking the money. It wasn’t until we got to Hixon that the chap who was to be my mid upper gunner said “How do you manage to hit them things each time?” He said, “I can’t hit anything”. I said “Just follow it through and as soon as you get past it, pull you triggers and you will hit it”. So he did, and he beat me the very next time. That was about a hundred and twenty cartridges, going from being hopeless, getting one in every twenty, to beating me. I didn’t mind, as we had already agreed to get together as aircrew as we got on together really
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Well. We used to call him 'Jumbo' because he had a massive nose. He had been a fireman on the railway shovelling coal and his body was solid. He was the one that we used to tow in the swimming pool and he never did learn to swim. We used to have regular swimming tests and even with a Mae West, Johnny managed to sink. I never saw anybody like it. When we had dinghy drills, during which we went to the coast and had a fuselage in the water and you had to climb out of the escape hatches and as the dinghy was upside down, you had to turn it up the right way. One of us would have to hold Johnny up, while someone else turned the dinghy over so he could get in it. Everyone wanted to help him, they would almost fight to do it. Everybody wanted to help everyone else really.
There was a policeman from Bristol in our squad at Pembrey. Every morning we had to go on a ten mile run and he would tread on my heels and call me a country bumpkin or an old farmer's boy. I didn't mind the name calling, it was the treading on the heels that annoyed me. I told him that the next time he trod on my heel and pulled my slipper off, I would hit him. So he said, why didn't I try it. No sooner had I warned him than he did it again. So I just swung around and hit him in the solar plexus as hard as I could. He went
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down like a stone. The Corporal P.T. Instructor who was with us, said “Right, in the gym tonight”. So we went to the gym that night, but we weren't allowed to fight because he was much bigger than me. He was in the heavyweight and I wasn't. I argued and eventually they called in Freddie Mills. He said “Do you really want to fight him?” I said, “Yes. You know my Dad, you have sparred with him”. He said “Who are you then?” I said “ My name is Potter”. “Oh! From Grays?” He asked. I said “Well, from Stanford-le-Hope”. He asked if I was anything like my Dad, I told him I was OK. He then told me I could fight him, so I did and gave him a good thrashing. He never trod on my heels again. That was the only trouble I ever had in the RAF like that. I was good at all sports. I used to play rugby, football, cricket, whatever came up. I was also a very good sprinter, but I wasn't so good at long distance running. The rest of my RAF Service is already recorded.
Farmers helped one another out of necessity, sharing equipment and labour.
When I was on leave the next door farmer, Jim McNair asked me to break in a mare for riding, at three years old she was fully grown, cross between a Cleveland and a Clydesdale, standing at 18 hands. There was no
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halter to fit her, so I made one up, but it had no bit, no saddle either so I rode bareback. McNair gave me a hoist and all was quiet. The gate was opened and Queenie walked across the road to the field opposite.
A few days earlier, manure had been placed in heaps at a distance apart for them to be spread by hand. In those days there were no mechanical muck spreaders. Just as we entered the field, a car came past and tooted his horn, hand operated and extremely strident. Queenie took off like a whirlwind and then feeling me moving to keep my balance on her back, started to buck round and round, rearing and doing her best to unseat me. After two or three minutes, she gave up and started running up the field straight for a row of muck heaps. She jumped the first one and immediately had to hunch to jump the next as they were about 1 1/2 strides apart and so we continued heap after heap for 300 yards to the top of the field, where she turned and ran down the next row.
On the way up the first row, I was able to balance OK, but when she turned and jumped I was slightly unbalanced and as we proceeded down, at every heap I slid a little bit forward and by the end of the row, I was sitting on her neck with my legs crossed behind her head and holding onto her ears. She ran straight
[centred] – 25 – [/centred]
across the road and cleared the five barred gate into the cow yard with ease and stopped just short of McNair, who had collapsed with laughter and was sitting in cow manure quite helpless. My wife Janet’s mother was also helpless with laughter, but did not sit down. How I managed to stay on I do not know and how Queenie jumped the gate with me at the back of her head was incredible.
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[centred and underlined] Childhood [centred and underlined]
At one farm we moved to in the 1930’s, the lavatory was outside and had seven seats, all different sizes to accommodate all ages. On her first visit my mother bolted the door and sat down, then suddenly a door opened at the other side of the building and a workman, lowering his trousers, sat down, saying “Morning Missus” and proceeded to talk about the weather and farm trivia. Mum sat petrified until he left. She always made sure both doors were bolted afterwards.
[centred and underlined] Childhood [centred and underlined]
Many of the tasks were gradually lost to machinery, pea picking, potato and bean picking all by hand, the Binder was replaced by the Combine, which also saw the demise of the Thrashing Tackle and Stacks.
All the above were social occasions, almost on a par with the local fete, but much more intimate. To a great extent fruit picking has gone the same way.
The farm to-day is not the social meeting place it was. Farm Shops are mainly impersonal.
The conviviality, gossiping, laughter and jokes, with the occasional sharp tongue are rarely to be found today.
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Sadly, even at meetings today, people are becoming afraid to voice their true opinions due to foolish laws which prevent free speech.
One of the bright spots of the advance of machines is the cutting of kale for cattle in winter. On a frosty day the tall plant would have multiple pockets of ice, which at every stroke of the knife, would fly up and make a beeline for the neck and nothing could stop the ice and water running down the neck and body, ugh!
A source of income for us kids was our tree house on the edge of one of the woods built in the rooftops of a circle of Holly trees, it overlooked a lovely secluded glade, much used by courting couples. We would take careful note where they settled and once they were gone we would search the grass and were often rewarded with coins etc. that had fallen out of pockets. One further benefit was our education increased in leaps and bounds, or should it be “Ups and Downs”.
Gleaning by the villagers has also disappeared. After harvesting they would collect any corn left in the fields, which they fed to chickens etc. Afterwards they would all gather for a harvest supper which we provided for them.
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Cleaning ditches and digging furrows to allow water to drain from a field seem to be a thing of the past. Roadside ditches and grips dug through verges to allow water standing on the road to drain to the ditch have been allowed to fill in and the water standing on the road soaks through cracks and softens the underlay, causing further cracking of the surface. The village roadman who kept all in good order has been replaced by systems and machinery accompanied by large numbers of men costing vastly more by comparison and doing an unbelievable inferior job. The ideas that abound today are devoid of common sense. Theory cannot be of use unless it is used in conjunction with proven experience. The balance of more non-productive staff than productive is a sure way to bankruptcy of both ideas and finances.
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
Peter Potter biography - part
Description
An account of the resource
Describes childhood in great detail and work after the war started. Continues with account of training after being called up.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
P Potter
Format
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Multi-page printed document
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Identifier
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BPotterPLPotterPLv1
Coverage
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Civilian
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Essex
England--Stanford-le-Hope
England--London
England--Shropshire
Wales--Carmarthenshire
Wales--Kidwelly
Contributor
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David Bloomfield
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IBCC Digital Archive
animal
Anson
bombing
home front
Magister
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Oxford
RAF Bridgnorth
RAF Pembrey
recruitment
sanitation
searchlight
sport
-
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1524/30419/PBaxterPD16020007.1.jpg
bcb03ea60a5887ee7eecaa4cbb10c265
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1524/30419/PBaxterPD16020008.1.jpg
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Dublin Core
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Title
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Baxter, Peter Dennis
P D Baxter
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-07-12
Rights
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Baxter, PD
Description
An account of the resource
63 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Peter Baxter (b. 1922, 52604 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs and documents. He was trained as an airframe apprentice at RAF Halton and served as ground crew before volunteering to become air crew. He flew operations as a flight engineer with 12 and 153 Squadrons.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Michael Baxter and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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Title
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RAF Cosford in 1939 and 1940
Description
An account of the resource
From information provided by the donor. Eight photographs of R.A.F. Cosford when Peter was under training there.
The first is of two apprentices sitting on a raised bank, captioned 'Armourer Brown and armourer Smith'.
Second is of a vehicle parked outside a wooden hut, other huts in the background, captioned 'Blood waggon outside Sick Quarters'.
Third is of seven apprentices standing outside one of the huts, captioned 'Cosford Cross - Country stalwarts'.
Fourth is of two long rows of wooden huts, separated by strips of grass and surfaced paths. Raised bank, pile of sandbags and an air raid shelter entrance in background. Captioned 'Cosford No2 Wing N.A.A.F.I.'.
Fifth is of ten apprentices grouped around the raised bank, two with musical instruments, two rows of wooden huts in background, captioned 'Cosford'. Sixth is of two apprentices , one seated with a guitar, one standing outside one of the huts, captioned 'Cosford, more of the Boys'.
Seventh is of two apprentices about to go on parade or duty complete with rifles and fixed bayonets. Standing on the path in front of the accommodation huts, captioned 'Cosford two of the Boys'.
Eighth is of Peter standing in the doorway of his hut, captioned 'Cosford P.D.B.'.
Date
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1939
1940
Format
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Eight b/w photographs
Language
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eng
Type
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Photograph
Identifier
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PBaxterPD16020003, PBaxterPD16020004, PBaxterPD16020005, PBaxterPD16020006,
PBaxterPD16020007, PBaxterPD16020008, PBaxterPD16020009,PBaxterPD16020010, PBaxterPD16020011
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
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Great Britain
England--Staffordshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940
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.
entertainment
military living conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
RAF Cosford
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1524/30282/BBaxterPDBaxterPDv1.1.pdf
577eb11ecf5974b8a0c61795657b59c5
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Title
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Baxter, Peter Dennis
P D Baxter
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-07-12
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
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Baxter, PD
Description
An account of the resource
63 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Peter Baxter (b. 1922, 52604 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs and documents. He was trained as an airframe apprentice at RAF Halton and served as ground crew before volunteering to become air crew. He flew operations as a flight engineer with 12 and 153 Squadrons.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Michael Baxter and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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I Flew with Nine Wing Commanders
Description
An account of the resource
The detailed and wide ranging story of Peter Baxter's service in the RAF from an Airframe Apprentice to Flight Engineer Leader.
Creator
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Peter Baxter
Format
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Book in .pdf
Language
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eng
Type
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Text. Memoir
Text
Identifier
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BBaxterPDBaxterPDv1
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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England--Lincolnshire
England--Buckinghamshire
Wales--Glamorgan
England--Staffordshire
Wales--Gwynedd
Germany--Berlin
Italy--Milan
France--La Rochelle
Europe--Frisian Islands
Germany--Essen
Germany--Düsseldorf
Italy--Turin
France--Lorient
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Nuremberg
France--Saint-Nazaire
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Mülheim an der Ruhr
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Germany--Bonn
Germany--Paderborn
Italy
Great Britain
Germany
France
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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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.
12 Squadron
153 Squadron
50 Squadron
aerial photograph
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
Battle
Beaufighter
Blenheim
bombing
Cook’s tour
coping mechanism
crash
crewing up
debriefing
dispersal
Distinguished Flying Medal
Do 217
entertainment
final resting place
fitter airframe
fitter engine
flight engineer
fuelling
ground crew
Halifax
Halifax Mk 1
Halifax Mk 3
He 111
Heavy Conversion Unit
incendiary device
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
Lincoln
mess
military ethos
military living conditions
military service conditions
mine laying
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
nose art
Operation Dodge (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
pilot
promotion
RAF Cosford
RAF Faldingworth
RAF Halton
RAF Hemswell
RAF Kirmington
RAF Llandwrog
RAF Scampton
RAF St Athan
RAF Sturgate
RAF Tilstock
RAF Waddington
RAF Wickenby
recruitment
target photograph
training
Whitley
Window
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1663/27138/SHughesCL1334982v10035.2.pdf
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Dublin Core
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Title
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Hughes, Clarence. No 1 Officers Advanced Training School
Description
An account of the resource
37 items. Precis of subjects covered at No 1 officer's advanced training school at RAF Cranwell in June and July 1945.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-06-02
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SHughesCL1334982v1
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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[date stamp of No. 1 Officers Advanced Training School 5 JUL 1945]
[underlined] 23C5
OFFICERS ADVANCED TRAINING SCHOOL
PRECIS: SERVICE INSTITUTES [/underlined]
References: K.R. and A.C.I., Chap. XXI
A.P. 837, Sect. 55
A.P. 1409, Standard Instructions for Keeping Non-Public Accounts, Part III.
[underlined] Objects and Organisation of N.A.A.F.I. [/underlined]
1. The letters N.A.A.F.I. stand for Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes, a company run for the Services and not for private profit. The net revenue is used for the benefit of the Services in the form of rebates paid to the P.S.I. fund.
2. It is the intention that N.A.A.F.I. will provide an institute at every R.A.F. station at home and abroad. Service is provided for airmen and airwomen, sometimes at a loss, at many small and isolated camps where no shopkeeper would open a shop. N.A.A.F.I. also supplies a large part of the food used in the airmen’s mess. The station institute funds benefit by a rebate of 6 percent on all money spent by the airmen and airwomen in the institute and on the cost of most of the food supplied by N.A.A.F.I. to the airmen’s mess. Rebate is paid monthly by N.A.A.F.I. to P.S.I.
[underlined] The Running of the Institute [/underlined]
3. Airwomen usually have a separate Institute when the W.A.A.F. sleeping site is distant from the communal site, but a common-room for R.A.F. and W.A.A.F. in the Main Institute is desireable. [sic]
4. N.C.Os. are not allowed to use the rooms provided for aircraftmen and aircraftwomen. (Sergeants have their own Mess and the Corporals have a part of the N.A.A.F.I. reserved for their use). As few civilians as possible should be allowed to use the N.A.A.F.I. K.R. 1766 governs permits for civilians.
R.A.F. personnel are responsible for the cleaning of and discipline in the rooms used by the airmen and airwomen. For this purpose a “Canteen Corporal” is usually detailed daily or weekly and the Orderly Officer visits daily. The N.A.A.F.I. staff look after the service rooms, kitchens and all rooms behind the serving counters, (K.R. 1754). The Air Ministry Works Directorate is responsible for repairs to the whole building.
5. Food is not to be sold from 1 1/2 hours before until two hours after the time for beginning the mid-day meal. This restriction includes chocolate and sweets but not liquid refreshment, cigarettes or tobacco. (A.M.O. A.204/43).
It is important to ensure even distribution of the ration of sweets and chocolate and of cigarettes and tobacco at pre-budget prices.
No intoxicating liquors other than beer may be sold in the Institute. (K.R. 1768).
6. The only airmen who should work in the N.A.A.F.I. are the airmen i/c billiard tables, the airman librarian (if the library is in the N.A.A.F.I.) and the cleaning party.
[page break]
- 2 -
[underlined] President and Committee of the Institute [/underlined]
7. The C.O. details an officer to act as the President of the Service Institute. The letters “P.S.I.” signify both the President and the Institute funds. The President should, if possible, be a Squadron Leader or above and never below Flight Lieutenant. The S. Ad. O. is normally the President.
8. An institute Committee is elected by and should be representative of all the corporals, aircraftmen and aircraftwomen on the camp. (K.R. 1758). The Committee (known either as “P.S.I.” Committee or the “Institute Committee”) should meet not less than monthly. They deal with complaints and suggestions about the running of the N.A.A.F.I. and proposals for the expenditure of institute funds. This Committee is distinct from the Station Welfare Committee which has a much wider sphere of activity. Minutes of Committee meetings should be kept in a special book.
[underlined] Sources of P.S.I. Income [/underlined]
9. In addition to the rebate mentioned in paragraph 4, which is the main source of P.S.I. income, P.S.I. also receives a library allowance from the Accountant Officer (K.R. 2908 and 3377 and A.M.O. A.162/41). Further income is sometimes derived from station activities such as dances, gardening, etc. A separate banking account should be kept for P.S.I. funds. Accounts are to be kept in accordance with A.P. 1409. Accounts are audited every four months and an audited balance sheet should be exhibited on the notice board in the N.A.A.F.I.
[underlined] Expenditure of P.S.I. Funds [/underlined]
10. P.S.I. funds should be used firstly to make the Institute rooms comfortable and club-like by providing extra:-
furniture pictures games wireless sets papers etc.
and then for the general benefit or airmen and airwomen on the station e.g., purchase of sports gear, travelling expenses for sports teams:-
outings gardening schemes concert parties dances library books wireless sets
and games at dispersed sites. A grant from P.S.I. funds may also be made in aid of messing on special occasions, e.g. Christmas. K.R. 1783 prohibits certain expenditure.
11. Commanders should give special consideration to personnel at satellites and detachments who have equal right to a fair share of P.S.I. funds and usually have a much greater need than those on the parent station. P.S.I. funds should not be hoarded.
[underlined] Procedure for dealing with the N.A.A.F.I. in regard to complaints and suggestions [/underlined]
12. The C.O. will deal firstly with the local Manager or Manageress of the N.A.A.F.I. and if no satisfactory settlement is arranged, the C.O. will request the District Manager to call on him. The Group Supervisor of the N.A.A.F.I. may sometimes accompany the District Manager. If this meeting does not produce a satisfactory settlement, the C.O. should refer the matter in writing to his R.A.F. Command Headquarters. (K.R. 1759).
[page break]
- 3 -
[underlined] P.S.I. Property [/underlined]
13. A Property Book should be kept showing all property purchased by or belonging to the P.S.I. This includes gifts made from organised public bodies such as R.A.F. Comforts Committee and from members of the public. (A.M.O. A.1065/43).
14. Items such as wireless sets, sports equipment, gramophones and musical instruments are very difficult to replace and are apt to get lost or broken unless an N.C.O. or other responsible person is put in charge of each item and a signature obtained. All property recorded in the Property Book should be physically checked by two officers at each four-monthly audit.
[underlined] Some other activities of N.A.A.F.I.. [/underlined]
15. N.A.A.F.I. have built up a large organisation for entertainment of the Services at home and abroad under the title “ E.N.S.A.” which runs concert parties and cinema shows and also assists station concert parties and lends films. Sports equipment is supplied and repaired by N.A.A.F.I. At the larger stations, N.A.A.F.I. run a grocery shop where all service personnel and their families and Officers and Sergeants’ Messes may buy at a discount of 10 percent a large range of grocery and household goods.
[underlined] Some useful A.M.Os. (Series A) [/underlined]
495/41 Assistance in provision of sports equipment by R.A.F. Sports Board.
855/41 Only one wireless licence required for any number of sets.
15/42 No charge for current for wireless sets.
632/42 Special insurance policy for Institute property.
959/42 Supply of sports gear through N.A.A.F.I. (amended by 1131/42 and 115/43).
1046/42 Supply of valves for wireless sets through N.A.A.F.I.
1150/42 Grants to new units for sports gear.
1248/42 Supply of musical instruments through R.A.F. Comforts.
201/43 Land Cultivation.
582/43 Repair of sports and games equipment by N.A.A.F.I.
945/43 Supply of library books.
87/44 Grants for new units from R.A.F. Central Fund.
[underlined] Amendments to this Precis: [/underlined]
[page break]
[underlined] OFFICERS ADVANCED TRAINING SCHOOL
Questions: Service Institutes [/underlined]
1. What happens to the net profit earned by N.A.A.F.I.?
2. Does a Station have to be a certain size before it can get an Institute?
3. On what is the N.A.A.F.I. rebate calculated?
4. To whom is it paid?
5. Who is responsible for cleaning the Institute?
6. How is discipline maintained in the Institute?
7. Who is responsible for repairs to the Institute?
8. Who is allowed to use the Institute?
9. What restriction is there on the hours for sale of food in the Institute?
10. May whiskey and gin be sold in the Institute?
11. May airmen be employed in the Institute?
12. Who appoints the President of the Institute?
13. What rank should the President be?
14. Who appoints the Committee?
15. What ranks should they be?
16. When should they meet?
17. What matters do they deal with?
18. Where are the decisions of the Committee recorded?
19. Name two sources of income of P.S.I.
20. Where would you look for the regulations on keeping P.S.I. accounts?
21. How do airmen know the financial position of P.S.I.?
22. How are P.S.I. Funds used?
23. What is the procedure for settling complaints with the N.A.A.F.I.?
24. How is a record kept of what belongs to the P.S.I.?
25. Name two ways in which P.S.I. property is safeguarded.
26. Name three other activities of N.A.A.F.I. besides the Institute.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Officers advanced training school - service institutes
Description
An account of the resource
Covers objects and organisation of N.A.A.F.I., the running of the institute, president and committee of the institute, sources of P.S.I income, expenditure of P.S.I funds, procedure for dealing with the N.A.A.F.I in regard to complaints and suggestions, P.S.I property, some other activities of N.A.A.F.I., some useful A.M.Os and questions.
Publisher
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No 1 Officers Advanced Training School
Date
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1945-05-05
Format
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Four page typewritten document
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Service material
Text. Training material
Identifier
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SHughesCL1334982v10035
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Temporal Coverage
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1945-05-05
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
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Tricia Marshall
Conforms To
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Pending review
military living conditions
military service conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
RAF Cranwell
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1694/26715/PBrooksWA20010005.2.jpg
b12301df3ee6a755f7ddb5aaebce87e0
Dublin Core
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Title
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Brooks, William Alfred. Album
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2020-01-17
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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.
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Brooks, WA
Description
An account of the resource
23 items. A photograph album of photographs of his service in Singapore
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Title
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Army in Singapore
Description
An account of the resource
Four photographs, first is of a substantial two story building set in a jungle clearing captioned 'My billet', second is of local fishing boat captioned 'Chinese Junk'. Third is of large room with open veranda cane furniture, captioned 'Naffi (sic) canteen', fourth is of tree covered headland, captioned 'The Island'.
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Three b/w phtographs and one colour photograph
Language
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eng
Type
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Photograph
Identifier
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PBrooksWA20010005
Coverage
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British Army
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
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Singapore
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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.
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IBCC Digital Archive
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1636/25947/PShawSR16020030.2.jpg
a4bf91449feb68c7b5673ed605c61f1b
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1636/25947/PShawSR16020031.2.jpg
646997079e1284d909565587a899fd31
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Title
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Shaw, Stanley R. Album 2
Description
An account of the resource
46 items. Photographs concerning Stan Shaw's service in the RAF.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Stanley Shaw and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Creator
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Shaw, SR
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-01-14
2016-02-11
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.
Identifier
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Shaw, SR
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Aden
Description
An account of the resource
An oblique aerial photograph of Aden. On the reverse 'Aerial view of Aden, showing the NAAFI Lido and Sapper's Bay.'
Format
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One b/w photograph
Language
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eng
Type
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Photograph
Identifier
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PShawSR16020030, PShawSR16020031
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
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Yemen (Republic)--Aden
Yemen (Republic)
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
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IBCC Digital Archive
Conforms To
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Geolocated
aerial photograph
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1590/25347/EManassySNichollsJEK441203-0001.2.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1590/25347/EManassySNichollsJEK441203-0002.2.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1590/25347/EManassySNichollsJEK441203-0003.2.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
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Nicholls, Jill Ethel Kathleen
J E K Nicholls
Thomson, Jill Ethel Kathleen
Goodfellow, Jill Ethel Kathleen
Description
An account of the resource
57 items. The collection concerns Jill Nicholls (b. 1921, 2011088 Royal Air Force). The collection contains documents, photographs, mementos and a considerable number of poems. It also contains an album in a sub-collection with documents, newspaper cuttings and photographs.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Julie Stocks and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2020-02-01
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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Nicholls, JEK
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[postage stamp]
[date stamp]
[RAF censor stamp]
BY AIR MAIL
AIR LETTER
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT BY ORDINARY MAIL.
Miss J. Nicholls,
Greystoke,
Cleveland Avenue,
Bishop Auckland,
Co. Durham, [underlined] ENGLAND [/underlined]
1476429 Cpl. Manassy S., R.A.F.
The following Certificate must be signed by the writer:-
I certify on my honour that the contents of this envelope refer to nothing but private and family matters.
Signature Name only [signature]
[page break]
1476429 Cpl. Manassy S.,
Block D, Hut No. 5, R.A.F.,
MAISON BLANCHE, B.N.A.F.,
3rd December, 1944
Dear Corporal,
Hurrah and hooroo! Or words to that effect, anyway. But one thing I would ask of you: when you are a lady chiefie, don’t push the blokes around [underlined] too [/underlined] much. I have yet to see one of your colleagues out here, although I have spoken to one of your officers – on the phone, alas. You may be interested to know that a Waaf officers’ training unit exists on this continent – a long, long way from here. A number of snappy-looking items in Waaf uniform hail from Palestine. There I go again – wandering right off the mark. You will be a W.O. a long time before I get my third. Pour moi, my future is well behind me, for I am not employed in my service trade, and that is fatal to progress. However, I am relatively easy about it; my job up here is infinitely preferable to that of a sergeant W/M.
No question of home leave yet, Corp. I’ll have to spend another two years or so before I become eligible for it; and eligibility is no guarantee of getting leave, anyway.
This locality is no longer a haven of refuge from the feminine gender. The invasion has commenced in a large manner, but the vast majority of them are very unalluring. Of course, there are exceptions, but they are few. French and Arab. No, the latter do not wear veils! They are referred to as Arab, but are actually Kabyle, and do not veil themselves. In a large and most un-Naafilike Naafi in town, tea and wads (and ice-cream!) are slung at one by French girls garbed in the inevitable blue overalls. They have a working knowledge of such terms as “giss a wad” and “tub”
[page break]
o’ swill, gal”.
One rather elegant youth up here is very diffident and self-conscious in the presence of the unfair sex. Well, one day last week a rather nice-looking though not so young French dame came in to make an enquiry about something or other of no importance; but she had to wait in the office while the gen came through. My rather elegant youth was trying to struggle with a sheet of figures, but I could see that all was not well with him. So I whispered in his ear, “I am aware that there is a disturbing influence in the room”. There came into his eyes a look of deep gratitude; I felt as though I had given a swig of water to a wounded man. “For once you’re right”, he replied. But he was U/S for the rest of the day.
That hardy annual “Journey’s End” was performed by a R.A.F. company this week end. A brother of the late Leslie Howard is a few miles from here (in the airworks) and conducts a dramatic society. A couple of weeks ago there was a veritable music festival in the Station theatre (officially known as the Tivoli). It lasted about four hours, and was broadcast over the (sic) Tannoy.
The Naafi in this camp is pretty grim; it is still in the u/t stage. A Corporals’ room is under way and may (R) may ease the congestion. But the huts our [sic] remarkably good; the reason being that our new domicile is a redundant hospital. The one real snag about the huts is lack of proper heating; even in Africa the evenings can be quite chilly, and two oil stoves are not sufficient. Incidentally, since coming out here I have never seen a piece of coal or smelt a whiff of gas. All lighting is done by electricity (or oil) and all firing on any but the smallest scale is done with wood.
[page break]
It is quite difficult to believe that one is only a few miles from one of the largest towns in North Africa. In Britain it is the practice for gas, water and drainage systems to extend for umpteen miles from their source. But not here. Once you are out of town you are lucky to have electric light. Of telephones – the less one says about or into them, the better. Smoke signals or tomtoms would be far [deleted] better [/deleted] quicker and more reliable.
Well, that’s the line as shot by
Yours sincerely,
[signature]
God bless!
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Corporal S Manasay
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from a Womwn's Auxilliary Air Force friend or colleague stationed at Maison Blanche in Algeria. Catching up with news and writing of her experiences in North Africa. She talks of other service woman as well as local people. She mentions her work and recent entertainment. Goes on to describe local NAAFI in unflattering term as well as conditions in their location just outside Algiers.
Creator
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S Manasay
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12-03
Format
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Typewritten airmail form
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
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Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
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EManassySNichollsJEK441203
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.
Algeria
Algeria--Algiers
North Africa
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12-03
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
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IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
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Tricia Marshall
ground personnel
military living conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force