2
25
214
-
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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Fellowes, David
David Fellowes
Dave Fellowes
D Fellowes
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. Two oral history interviews with Flight Sergeant David "Dave" Fellowes (Royal Air Force), documents and a photograph. He flew operations as a rear gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Fellowes 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
2014-11-25
2015-04-06
2016-08-08
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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Fellowes, D
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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[crest]
Soestdijk Palace,
Saving the lifes [sic] of people, many people, in a war by operating large formations of heavy bombers, seems to be an odd contradiction. Operation “MANNA”, however, was beyond doubt such a mercy mission, carried out by a wartime offensive fighting force.
Almost unrehearsed, this gigantic mass operation was performed with great perfection. The crewmembers having taken part in it, can rightly be very proud of their share in this great lifesaving air activity at the end of the war.
Personally, I feel similarly proud and happy that I was in a position to convince the Allied leaders of the extreme necessity of this fastest possible way of getting urgently needed food to the starving people of Holland, and also in participating in the negotiations with commanders of the enemy occupation forces to arrange the flights.
As usual in an air force, all aircrews were briefed in their briefingrooms [sic] about the execution of this peculiar operation: strange loadsystems, [sic] very low flying over enemy defended areas, the risk of collisions, etc.
Pilots briefings in the R.A.F. were usually well prepared and very professional, as I know from personal experience. But in this particular case, I doubt very much whether the briefing officers were fully aware of the real seriousness of the situation among the starving people in Western Holland.
However, flying low over the Dutch towns and villages, all crews could observe the crowds of Dutchmen, waving like mad at their aircraft. To thank them and also to express their emotional happiness about forthcoming liberation. Many crewmembers, however, learned only several years later, when meeting Dutch people, the details of the real critical situation in Western Holland during that spring of 1945.
It is now known that thousands of lifes [sic] were saved thanks to Operation Manna. The people of the Netherlands will therefore always be most grateful for their manna, delivered in their darkest hour by the men of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command and the American Eight Air Force in England.
And they will never forget!
[signature]
Prince of the Netherlands
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Title
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Letter of Thanks by the Prince of the Netherlands
Description
An account of the resource
A letter from the Price of Netherlands explaining gratitude for Operation Manna.
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Prince of the Netherlands
Spatial Coverage
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Netherlands
Coverage
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Civilian
Royal Air Force
United States Army Air Force
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
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One typewritten sheet
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SFellowesD[Ser#-DoB]v100014
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Pending text-based transcription. Under review
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
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Tricia Marshall
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/253/35489/SFellowesD[Ser -DoB]v100013.jpg
7a179f14c01543c9250d31cbc3541678
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Fellowes, David
David Fellowes
Dave Fellowes
D Fellowes
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. Two oral history interviews with Flight Sergeant David "Dave" Fellowes (Royal Air Force), documents and a photograph. He flew operations as a rear gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Fellowes 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
2014-11-25
2015-04-06
2016-08-08
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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Fellowes, D
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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[photograph]
Operation Manna
1st May T. off 14.40 2.50
2nd May T. off 12.00 2.45
4th May T off 10.00 2.40
Rotterdam – Tesbregge.
Food: Dried egg. Dried Milk.
Potatoes. Biscuits. Butter.
Bacon. Corned beef. Sugar.
Chocolate. Spam. Flour. Salt
Pepper. Fats.
R.A.F flew 3,200 missions
droped [sic] 7,000 tons of Food.
by.
Squdrens [sic] of 1, 3, & 8 Group.
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Title
A name given to the resource
Operation Manna
Description
An account of the resource
A photograph of a Lancaster mid-upper turret and a summary of food drops undertaken by that aircraft. Also a list of the type of food dropped and a total number of missions flown and tonnage of food dropped.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Netherlands
Netherlands--Rotterdam
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
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Text
Photograph
Text. Personal research
Format
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One printed sheet
Identifier
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SFellowesD[Ser#-DoB]v100013
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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
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Steve Baldwin
1 Group
3 Group
8 Group
Lancaster
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Fellowes, David
David Fellowes
Dave Fellowes
D Fellowes
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. Two oral history interviews with Flight Sergeant David "Dave" Fellowes (Royal Air Force), documents and a photograph. He flew operations as a rear gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Fellowes 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
2014-11-25
2015-04-06
2016-08-08
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Fellowes, D
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
29th April 1945
Swarms of swallows bringing food
Visions of victory,
Thoughts of freedom
For the starving,
For the powerless,
For the discouraged ones.
They all laugh and cry . . .
They waved from bridges
From canals
From squares and viaducts
They climbed on roof tops
Once bended down they straightened their backs again
And shook hands
And cheered at every place
For this was a miracle
Salvation from above
Manna-rain
Bringing relief, true blessing
Mighty moment
We waited for months to see it
Elisabeth van Maasdijk
(from ‘To the ones who fell’, The Hague 1945)
[black and white photograph of Lancasters flying over rooftops dropping food]
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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29th April 1945
Description
An account of the resource
A poem about Manna food drops with a photo of Lancasters dropping food.
Creator
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Elisabeth van Maasdjik
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945
Temporal Coverage
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1945-04-29
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Netherlands
Netherlands--Hague
Coverage
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Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Poetry
Photograph
Format
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One printed sheet
Identifier
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SFellowesD[Ser#-DoB]v100006
Conforms To
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Pending text-based transcription. Under review
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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
arts and crafts
Lancaster
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
-
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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Fellowes, David
David Fellowes
Dave Fellowes
D Fellowes
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. Two oral history interviews with Flight Sergeant David "Dave" Fellowes (Royal Air Force), documents and a photograph. He flew operations as a rear gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Fellowes and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2014-11-25
2015-04-06
2016-08-08
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Fellowes, D
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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[underlined] OPERATION MANNA [/underlined] [inserted] by David Fellowes [/inserted]
[underlined] 29th April – 8th May 1945, [/inderlined]
The advance of the 1st Polish Armoured Division liberated the eastern parts of the Netherlands, resulting in a very large area in the west still in the hands of the German army. Earlier the Reichskommissar, an Austrian, Arthur Seyss-Inquart imposed an embargo on food supplies for western urban areas. Food stocks in the thickly populated west had already been reduced by German order, leaving insufficient food to help the people through the winter of 44/45. A shortage of coal and other fuels aggrevated [sic] the situation.
In mid January 1945 Queen Wilhelmina sent identical notes to King George VI, President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, saying in effect ‘That if a major catastrophe was to be avoided drastic action had to be taken before and not after the liberation of the rest of the country’. An Allied invasion of western occupied Holland was considered too costly so representatives of the Dutch resistance were allowed to cross the lines and contact the Allies. Following negotiations the Germans would be willing to negotiate and on April 14th Prince Bernhard travelled to Reims to discuss the Allied answer with General Eisenhower. Churchill was opposed to negotiations with the Germans. South African Prime Minister Field Marshal Smuts mediation allowed direct negotiations with the Germans. Ten days later the Governments of the USA, USSR and the UK allowed Eisenhower to contact Seyss-Inquart the German Governor of Occupied Holland. The same day April 24th the Dutch people were advised by radio that food drops were about to begin. The Germans were forced to co-operate, that to assure themselves of POW status was to obey completely, any acts of sabotage would be considered a war crime and treated as war criminals. The Germans were not impressed and angry as all arrangements had been made without prior consultation and were suspicious of Anglo-US action, but broadcast to the Dutch people on the 25th April that the German military commander agreed to General Eisenhower’s plan to supply food to Occupied Holland, but not by the means suggested. Eisenhower ordered the food drops to start on the 27th April whatever the German reaction. On the day previous the German Governor Seyss-Inquart agreed the fastest way to save the Ducth was to send food supplies by air.
The weather on the 27th April prevented the Lancaster bombers from taking off. On the 28th April in the school building in Achteveld German and Allied representatives, including Air-Commodore Andrew Geddes the Air Commodore Operations and Plans of the 2nd Tactical Air Force met to establish as many ‘drop zones’ as possible and overcome any German objections. General Sir Francis De Guingand, Montgomery’s Chief of Staff headed the meeting and advised the Germans the object of the meeting was to come to an
[page break]
agreement as to how the Allies could best help the Dutch as they, the Germans, were unable to do so. Reichrichter Dr. Ernst Schwebel headed the four man German delegation and said his terms of reference did not include making any detailed arrangements for feeding the Dutch, but to make arrangements for the Reichskommisar Seyss-Inquart to meet General Eisenhower or his representative at an agreed place on Monday 30th April. General De Guingand went through is [sic] proposals to the German delegates, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands a ‘Linch Pin’ in the complex organisation of the distribution of food to points inside occupied territory advised General De Guingand who then concluded that the next meeting would be held at 13.00 hours on April 30th 1945 and that Lt. Gen Bedell Smith would lead the delegation.
The next day at 08.00 hours 29th April hundreds of Dutch people in hiding listened to the ‘Voice of Freedom’ Radio Resurgent Netherlands with a special announcement that aircraft would come to drop coloured flares the other aeroplanes would drop the food, at 12.10 hours another special announcement reported the first aircraft carrying food for occupied Holland had left Britain. OPERATION MANNA had begun.
That day 29th April the RAF took an enormous risk, no agreement had been signed, as the Lancaster bombers approached occupied Holland at very low height 150-1000 feet they would have been easy prey for the many ACK-ACK guns the enemy could still use. If the Germans opened fire and killed hundreds of RAF crews they would have been in their right to do so. The RAF Commanders, the pilots and their crews knew it, the German reaction would be legitimate. However, the start of this life-saving operation was a success and 239 Lancasters dropped 556 tons of food.
The following day 30th April at the school in Achterveld General Bedell Smith met Seyss-Inquart, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Air Commodore Geddes participated in the negotiations and following discussions of sub-committees in various class-rooms the two delegations finally reached an agreement. At the same time 482 Lancasters dropped 1005 tons of food again with the knowledge that the agreement had not been signed. The next day 1st May Air-Commodore Geddes and Group Captain Hill with copies of the agreement in English and German met German delegates in the village of Nude. Following the signing of four copies in each language and two marked maps showing the drop zones each side returned to their own lines at 19.00. Air Commodore Geddes advised that the agreement had been satisfactorily signed. Thus the operation which had already started on the 29th April could officially begin on May 2nd. However, on that day the 1st of May the RAF dropped 1096 tons with 488 Lancasters. The 8th Bomber Group of the USAAF with B17’s using the code name Chowhound dropped 776 tons with 392 aircraft. The operation continued by the RAF until the 8th May and
[page break]
the 8th Air Force on the 7th May. The number of flights made by the RAF was 3154 dropping 7030 tons, the 8th Air Force made 2189 flights dropping 4156 short tons.
Operation Manna was carried out by RAF Bomber Commands No.1, No.3 and No.8 Groups using Lancasters and Mosquitos. This highly successful operation perpetuated by Bomber Command gave life and hope to millions of starving Dutch people held in the German Occupied area of West Holland.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Operation Manna
Description
An account of the resource
Details of events leading to Operation Manna.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Fellowes
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Netherlands
France--Reims
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
United States Army Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
nld
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Format
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Three typewritten sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SFellowesD[Ser#-DoB]v100005-0001, SFellowesD[Ser#-DoB]v100005-0002, SFellowesD[Ser#-DoB]v100005-0003
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
1 Group
3 Group
8 Group
anti-aircraft fire
B-17
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
Lancaster
Mosquito
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Second Tactical Air Force
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Fellowes, David
David Fellowes
Dave Fellowes
D Fellowes
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. Two oral history interviews with Flight Sergeant David "Dave" Fellowes (Royal Air Force), documents and a photograph. He flew operations as a rear gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Fellowes and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2014-11-25
2015-04-06
2016-08-08
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Fellowes, D
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
THE MANNA ASSOCIATION
[sketch]
VOEDSEL UIT DE HEMEL
[underlined] THE FOUNDING OF THE MANNA ASSOCIATION [/underlined]
by E.D. Leaviss
[underlined] PROLOGUE [/underlined]
As a Lancaster Air Gunner I flew with 460 R.A.A.F. Squadron Bomber Command from 1944 to 1945 during which time it was based at Binbrook, Lincolnshire, and took part in many widely differing ‘ops’ over Europe.
None was more outstanding than a series of low level food dropping missions over Holland from April 29th to May 8th of 1945, which were aptly code-named “Operation Manna”.
However, whilst the Netherlands were, at that time, well aware of the near starvation conditions forced upon them by their German invaders, causing the deaths of over 1,000 poor souls every day, it took almost 40 years for most people in the U.K., even aircrews who participated in the operation, to learn the actual extent of Dutch suffering and degradation.
[underlined] THE START OF A DREAM [/underlined]
The full facts may never have come to light, but . . . .
Nearly 36 years later, in 1981, having completed a long list of outstanding household tasks during a period of enforced ‘holiday’ through redundancy, the rapidly shortening winter days allowed reading of every word in my ex-service journals immediately on their arrival. The activities of 460 (RAAF) Squadron Association to which I belonged were, naturally, centred rather a long way away. Never having spotted any entry in the “reunions” columns to which I could relate, I fell to wondering whether I had participated in anything unique during those fateful war years.
Who knows why memory recalled the unexpected? Maybe it was the overnight conversion of Lancaster bombers and crews from delivering bombs from as high as possible to the dropping of food as low as practicable to an obviously appreciative Dutch populace. In a flash of inspiration the R.A.F. christened these plans “Operation Manna” – surely this was indeed unique?
1
[page break]
In order to test this theory, I put adverts in several Aircrew Magazines calling for ex-aircrew wishing to exchange their impressions of those life-saving missions. Due to varying publication dates it was early in 1982 before it became apparent that sufficient interest did indeed exist for a modest reunion to become a reality. Almost the first contact came from Hans Onderwater, a Head School Teacher, Air Historian and Author of several books, who was living in Barendrecht, near Rotterdam, and who avidly scanned ex-service Association Journals of all Air Forces. Hans always states that his Mother would not have lived to present him to the world without the timely arrival of foodstuffs via “Operation Manna”.
By coincidence Phil Irving of York, ex-Air Gunner of 218 Squadron had just submitted an article on this very subject to “The Turret”, the Air Gunners’ Magazine. Seeing my advertisement he telephoned to generously offer his services in the organisation of a possible reunion.
This trio of “Founding Fathers”, myself, Hans Onderwater and Phil Irving went into action just 12 months after the original idea and, at the behest of Hans Onderwater, immediately agreed that the venue must be Holland. The backing of some 35 participants and their wives was eagerly obtained in spite of the lack of an itinerary of any firm costs.
Phil and I journeyed to Holland to find that Hans had already secured the willing services of Colonel A.P. de Jong who, as Head of the Royal Netherlands Air Force Information Services, was able to provide invaluable assistance. This was greatly enhanced by the fact that, as a boy of 17, Col. De Jong had kept a diary of the bleak winter leading up to the “Food Droppings” as they were known over there.
Thus, by the end of a long, wet and windy night in February 1983 the skeleton of an itinerary had been agreed and the first reunion of “Operation Manna” was a reality for the 38th Anniversary in April/May 1983.
However, that is not quite the end of the story for after the reunion our overwhelmed party returned by North Sea Ferry reflecting upon a series of most memorable events. These ranged from Official Receptions by Burgomeesters to meetings in the streets with people anxious to tell us that they too had watched the precious food being dropped for them with tears in their eyes. Tears which flooded afresh as they embraced us in loving gratitude.
For the actual aircrew members the extent of the welcome brought the realisation that starvation conditions were much worse than they could ever have imagined. They regretted it had taken almost 40 years to appreciate this and felt that it could not – it would not end there. So before leaving the ship the Party had decided to form their own Association to hold together all the people who had shared these glorious and emotional experiences.
2
[page break]
Thus, from my first tentative thought stemmed
THE MANNA ASSOCIATION
[underlined] EPILOGUE [/underlined]
With the approval of the Netherlands Ministry of Defence the Foundation of 40 Years Food and Freedom was formed in preparation for a National Celebration. This Foundation was chaired by Col. Arie de Jong with Hans Onderwater as its Secretary and took two years to arrange the event which took place in April 1985, the 40th Anniversary of Operation Manna. The Foundation selected members from each squadron that participated in OPERATION MANNA including R.A.A.F., R.NZ.A.F., R.C.A.F, and a Polish Squadron. Members of the U.S.A.F. B.17. Bomber Units were also invited.
In November 1985 during a visit to Lincoln by the Dutch Foundation the Association was consolidated by the members from 1983 and those visiting Holland earlier that year. The object being to maintain and develop the friendships formed during that memorable week and therefore by definition became a “Closed Association”.
During this memorable visit our Association was honoured by the architect of “Operation Manna” Air Commodore Andrew J.W. Geddes, C.B.E., D.S.O. Legion of Merit U.S.A. R.A.F. (Retd) consenting to be our President.
This was soon followed by an even greater accolade – Hon. Air Marshal R.A.F., H.R.H. The Prince of the Netherlands G.C.B., G.C.V.O., G.B.E. agreed to share this position, thus becoming Co-President together with the Air commodore of the Manna Association.
Consideration was given to the possibility of making membership available to others who were involved in the operation including Ground-crew, Air-crew and Army units. This idea was abandoned due to the vast number of people involved and the overwhelming workload that would be generated. The age of those concerned was also an important factor.
As an Association we meet annually in “Bomber-Country” when a weekend is devoted to usual reunion activities, in which our Friends from Holland and overseas regularly attend.
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The Founding of the Manna Association
Description
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An article written by ED Leaviss about the formation of the association.
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The Manna Association
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1945
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Netherlands
Netherlands--Barendrecht
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Royal New Zealand Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
United States Army Air Force
Polskie Siły Powietrzne
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eng
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Text. Memoir
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Three typewritten sheets
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Steve Baldwin
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SFellowesD[Ser%20-DoB]v100004-0001, SFellowesD[Ser%20-DoB]v100004-0002, SFellowesD[Ser%20-DoB]v100004-0003
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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
218 Squadron
460 Squadron
B-17
Lancaster
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
RAF Binbrook
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2092/34803/SRAFIngham19410620v060001-Audio.1.mp3
82e9cb8ce17b90dcac1201367cf6a3ee
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Title
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RAF Ingham Heritage Group. Clarke, Marion
Clark, Marion
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Five items. An oral history interview with Marion Clark and four photographs.
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2016-11-14
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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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RAF Ingham
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Transcription
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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
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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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
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
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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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Conforms To
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Pending review
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
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944-12
Contributor
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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/642/34648/LSnowballMG1595147v1.2.pdf
682dc0d523dcfcf9ccdf0fd02f0c7ccc
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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Snowball, Maurice
M Snowball
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Snowball, M
Description
An account of the resource
14 items. An oral history interview with Sergeant Maurice Snowball (1922 - 2020, 1595147 Royal Air Force) his log book, documents, notebooks and photographs. He flew operations as a flight engineer with 550 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Maurice Snowball and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
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2015-06-26
Requires
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Maurice Snowball was born in Sunderland, England in 1922, after apprenticing at a brewery in Sunderland, whilst also playing football as an amateur and having spent time in the local Home Guard, Maurice chose to join the RAF as a volunteer. After passing his medical and joining full time in December 1944, he underwent training at RAF Bridlington. Technical training was undertaken at Locking and then at RAF St. Athan as a Flight Engineer. Starting out in Halifax Mk. II & V he then switched to the Lancaster Mk.I & III. Once training was over, he had a short tour at 12 Squadron at RAF Wickenby, Lincolnshire and was sent, to 550 Squadron, based at North Killingholme, Lincolnshire. Here he undertook four bombing operations as well as taking part in Operation Manna, the dropping of food parcels in the Netherlands, After the end of hostilities he also took part in operation Post Mortem, the testing of German Radar systems and operation Dodge, the repatriation of British troops from Italy. He was demobilised December 1947.
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/34648 Log Book
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/8912 Interview
Andrew St. Denis
Maurice was born and brought up in Sunderland, when he left school he was apprenticed to a small company manufacturing equipment for the brewery industry and had become a keen amateur footballer. Although in a reserved occupation he volunteered for aircrew and eventually did his basic training at Bridlington in January 1944. He continued his training at RAF Locking and RAF St Athan and arrived at No 1662 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU) at RAF Blyton to fly the Halifax in September 1944. Part way through the course the HCU became a Lancaster Finishing School (LFS) and the crew converted to the Lancaster. With his crew he was posted to No 12 Squadron at RAF Wickenby. He did one flight with them there and then he returned to the LFS and by January 1945 he had re-crewed and in late March the crew were posted to No 550 Squadron at RAF North Killingholme. He did four bombing operations and one Operation Manna flight before the war in Europe ended. He continued to fly with the squadron doing the usual Post War flying, operations Post Mortem, Dodge and Cooks Tours until late March 1946. He retrained as a Mechanical Transport (MT) driver and was for a time posted to the Middle East specifically RAF El Adam.
Having been demobilised Maurice returned to Sunderland and resumed his career with the brewery equipment manufacturer. He relocated several times within the UK and at one time was the mechanical foreman maintaining the Tornado at RAF North Luffenham. He remained a keen amateur footballer never making the elevation to professional player.
He maintained his links with his No 550 Squadron crew members and Operation Manna, visiting Holland in 1985 and he also met a Dutch woman who was eight years old in 1945.
Trevor Hardcastle
Dublin Core
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Title
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Maurice Snowball's Royal Air Force Flying Log Book for Navigator’s, Air Bomber’s, Air Gunner’s and Flight Engineers
Description
An account of the resource
M G Snowball’s Flight Engineer’s Flying Log Book covering the period 13 September 1944 to 19 October 1945. Detailing his flying training and operations flown as Flight Engineer. He was stationed at RAF St Athan (4 School of Technical Training), RAF Blyton (1662 HCU), RAF Wickenby (12 Squadron) and RAF North Killingholme (550 Squadron). Aircraft flown in were Halifax and Lancaster. He flew two night and three day operations with 550 Squadron. Targets were Bremen, Heligoland, Plauen and Potsdam. He also flew one Operation Manna operation, a Cook's Tour flight and several Operation Dodge flights. His pilot on operations was Pilot Officer Jeans.
Creator
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Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-04-10
1945-04-14
1945-04-18
1945-04-22
1945-04-30
1945-04-11
1945-04-15
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Plauen
Germany--Potsdam
Netherlands--Hague
Wales--Vale of Glamorgan
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
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Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
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One booklet
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is property of the Matt Phillips who has kindly granted the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive a royalty-free permission to publish it. Please note that it was digitised by a third-party which used technical specifications that may differ from those used by International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. It has been published here ‘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.
Contributor
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Terry Hancock
Identifier
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LSnowballMG1595147v1
12 Squadron
1662 HCU
550 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
Cook’s tour
flight engineer
Halifax
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Operation Dodge (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
RAF Blyton
RAF North Killingholme
RAF St Athan
RAF Wickenby
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1876/34462/MTerryD938465-170619-03.1.pdf
6fc063765ca365689bedadd97b82374d
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1876/34462/MTerryD938465-170619-07.2.pdf
e16601d221d72c7664a35efdbcfcb3ef
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
Terry, Dennis
D Terry
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
2017-06-19
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Terry, D
Description
An account of the resource
17 items. The collection concerns Corporal Dennis Terry (938465 Royal Air Force) and contains documents and photographs. He served as a fitter with 166 Squadron and worked on Lancaster ME746 AS-R2 (Roger Squared).
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Rob Terry and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
GOOD SHOW ROGER SQUARED
[photograph]
By John Karl Forrest and John Wayne Musselman
[page break]
[underlined] Dedication [/underlined]
This story is dedicated to the memory and legacy of the crew, led by Flying Officer H.J. Musselman RCAF, DFC, that flew 30 missions in Lancaster Bomber ME-746 AS-R2 (aka Roger Squared).
[photograph]
Roger Squared crew all smiles after another op done and back on terra firma.
Front Row: P/O J.M. Donnelly RCAF (MUG), W/O H.H. Park RCAF (NAV), SGT G. Reid RAF (BA) Back Row: F/S R. Williamson RAF (W/Op), F/O H.J. Musselman RCAF, DFC (PLT), F/S K. Forrest RCAF (RG), SGT J.R. Cogbill RAF, DFM (FE)
[page break]
[underlined] Good Show Roger Squared [/underlined]
Air Chief Marshal A.T. “Butch” Harris sat hunched at his desk studying the latest reports. Aircraft availability and in particular the crews to man them, was at a critical point. Now, early in the new year of 1945 the focus of the air war had changed. The Allies were on full offensive. Missions to attack and bomb the industrialized cities, oil refineries and transportation hubs in the Nazi homeland had tripled in the last year. They were hitting the enemy hard, but the toll being taken by the appalling winter weather conditions, daylight raids, flak and fighters had been terrible. The casualty rate often rose above sixty percent and finding men and machines to replace those lost was a challenge. The grandfather clock in the corner struck the half hour; 11:30 p.m. At this moment at least 300 of his bombers were over enemy territory carrying out their missions. There was a knock at his door.
“Enter.”
A uniformed clerk stepped into the room and approached.
“Yes Cpl. Baker, what is it?”
Baker extended a manila folder. “Recommendations for Honours and Awards Sir. I know you like to read them before turning in for the night.” He glanced toward the clock.
“Soon I hope sir.”
Harris smiled, “Yes, yes Baker.”
“I know sir but . . . .”
“Dismissed!” growled Harris.
“Sir!” Baker exited.
Harris returned to reading the report, then hesitated, made a notation, closed the folder and set it aside.
Baker was correct. Grounded by his rank and position, his most tangible contact with the missions he ordered and the men and machines he commanded was found in the reports recommending them for medals.
[page break]
The accounts of their accomplishments, their resourcefulness and courage were reported tersely on official forms prepared by proud commanding officers.
He knew that hidden in the names and numbers in those reports there were personal tales of remarkable bravery, incredible skill and split second decision making by young men in the heat of battle. He opened the folder Baker had delivered and, as was his routine, scanned the initial information.
The recommendation was from Wing Commander Vivian, 166 Squadron and supported by Group Captain Mackay, RAF Kirmington, Air Commodore Swain, No. 13 Base Commander and Air Vice Marshal E.A.B. Rice, No. 1 Group Commander.
That Squadron had an excellent reputation. They had a skilled and dedicated Ground Crew and a good mix of new and experienced Air Crew. The 166th prided itself on putting up the required number for every flight and completing its missions. It lived up to the “Bulldog” displayed on its crest and the single word “Tenacity” in its motto.
This recommendation was significant; a Distinguished Flying Cross for a Lancaster pilot (Acting Flying Officer) Harold John Musselman (RCAF).
He noted Musselman had logged almost 125 hours on operations. He turned to the appended crew list. Lancaster Bomber ME-746 AS-R2 (Roger Squared), piloted by Musselman, included crew members; Flight Engineer Sgt. J.R. Cogbill, Navigator W/O H.H. Park (RCAF), Air Bomber F/S G. Reid, Wireless Operator F/S R. Williamson, Mid Upper Gunner P/O J.M. Donnelly (RCAF), and Rear Gunner F/S K. Forrest (RCAF).
No doubt graduates from the Lancaster Finishing School at Hemswell. He noted this was their 21st sortie as a crew, then leaned back into his chair and began to read Vivian’s remarks:
“This Canadian Officer was detailed to attack Schloven – Buer as captain of aircraft on the evening of the 29th December, 1944. On the way out . . . .”
As he continued to read the room around him disappeared and he joined Musselman in
[page break]
the cockpit of Roger Squared.
Avro Lancaster ME-746 AS-R2 sat trembling on the hard stand, parked at right angles to the runway, her mighty Merlin engines idling, waiting to be unleashed.
[italics] “Flight, how are we looking?” [/italics]
Flight Engineer, JR Cogbill turned in his “second dicky” seat, tapped a couple of the gauges on his right, checked others above and behind and gave his pilot thumbs up.
[italics] “Great Skipper all four running well. Mag. readings steady on each. Corporal Terry and his crew were up all last night and spent most of today getting the airframe in to top shape. I dropped by on my way to briefing and he was just finishing painting the bomb symbol for her 84th mission on the fuselage. [/italics]
[italics] “Cog, you know R2 is his prize possession and he just loans her to us for missions. You heard him when we did the walk around. He pointed out some of the recent repairs and practically ordered me to keep the flak hole count down tonight. He is determined to see his darling become a Century Lanc.” [/italics]
A MK I Lanc with almost 100 missions noted Harris. A unique and lucky aircraft. Or would this mission end their streak?
Pilot Musselman checked his watch. 15:30. The mission had been scheduled for 15:00 but a light rain and a heavy overcast had delayed take off. They had been idling too long.
“ R2 to tower. Ready for take off.”
[italics] “Roger R2 standby. You’re up next.” [/italics]
[italics] “There goes Nicklin in A2 Sir.” [/italics]
[italics] “You are cleared for take-off R2” [/italics]
[italics] “Pilot to crew. Ok lads buckle in, we’re off on “lucky” number 21.” [/italics]
[italics] “Flaps at 30 degrees Flight?” [/italics]
[italics] “30 degrees Sir.” [/italics]
Harris felt again the adrenaline rush of take-off and the nervous tension the crew would be experiencing. Having no idea of what lay ahead; they were, for the next 6 hours, trusting
[page break]
their lives to a man, a machine and the grace of God.
Musselman advanced the throttles, taxied into position on the runway and began to open them up. Roger Squared responded and the roar of the Rolls-Royce engines became deafening. The fuselage began to vibrate as she sped down the runway.
“I’ve got rudder control; take the throttles Cog.”
Musselman now grasped the control column with both hands waiting for the tail to come
up and as take off speed was reached he pulled back on the column and R2 shed the shackles of earth’s gravity and began the climb to join the formation.
[italics] “Gear – up and locked Skip.” [/italics]
[italics] “Pilot to gunners. It’s crowded up here tonight lads. Set Course Time is just a few minutes away but keep a sharp look out and sing out if you spot any of our friends getting too close. [/italics]
Harris noted grimly Musselman’s concern. Far too many aircraft had been lost to collisions while “milling” on overcast nights waiting for their Set Course Time, when the stream would form up and head for the target.
[italics] “Pilot to navigator, cruising at 15,000 ?” [/italics]
[italics] “Yes Sir.” [/italics]
[italics] “Harry do you trust the “Met” report? They predicted this slop, but do you think the call for clearing weather over Schloven-Buer will hold?” [/italics]
Navigator Harry Park seated at his port side chart table curtained off from the cockpit checked his briefing notes.
[italics] “I think so Sir. We should expect heavy cloud cover until we reach Schloven with some clearing on the return trip. Good news is, this lot is supposed to move on before we return to base.” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger that and let’s hope so Parky.” [/italics]
He scanned ahead and then side to side. What he could see of the formation looked tight.
He could even see intermittent flashes of blue exhaust flame from nearby aircraft and the stream was moving well. They were about half way across the Channel when he got the request he was expecting.
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[italics] “Mid Upper to Pilot; permission to test guns Sir?” [/italics]
“Permission granted J.M. You and the kid can light ‘em up.” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger that Skipper.” [/italics]
[italics] “You too Bombs?” [/italics]
[italics] “Aye sir.” [/italics]
There was a slight pause and then the sound of six Brownings firing short bursts dominated the engine noise and the airframe shook in response to their recoil. Then the pair of .303s in the nose turret opened up below his feet.
[italics] “You sound ready Bombs.” [/italics]
[italics] “Aye Sir.” [/italics]
[italics] “Test complete Sir, rear turret ready and able.” [/italics]
[italics] “Mid-upper, same here Skipper.” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger that, and let’s hope you don’t need them.” [/italics]
[italics] “Well Cog we are in the groove, let’s sit back and enjoy the ride” [/italics]
Musselman heard the sudden change in the sound of the engines and his aircraft shuddered. From experience he knew what it was, but he waited for confirmation.
[italics] “We’ve got a problem Skip. The starboard inner has packed up. The gauges say she should be running but am looking at her and she is not. I’ll try a restart.” [/italics]
[italics] “Navigator.” [/italics]
[italics] “Sir” [/italics]
[italics] “Parky, what’s our position?” [/italics]
[italics] “Sir, target is about forty five minutes away.” [/italics]
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[italics] “ Roger that.” [/italics]
[italics] “No luck with the restart Sir. Number 3 is done.” [/italics]
[italics] “Right Flight; feather and will see if we can maintain altitude and stay with the stream.” [/italics]
[italics] “ That’ll be a tough go Sir, with the load we are carrying. We caught one of those new “Abnormal” packages; 14,000 pounds of HE and incendiaries.” [/italics]
[italics] “Well we’re over Germany, so let’s give it a go and see what happens.” [/italics]
Harris knew that with the Starboard Inner gone power would be lost to some of the main services and hydraulic pumps, despite this he noted the calm in Musselman’s voice.
[italics] “Pilot to crew. We’ve lost an engine boys. I’m going to drop to the rear of the formation but we will try to stay with the group. Gunners keep your eyes open, particularly you in the tail “kid”. If the fighters are up they’ll be looking for stragglers.” [/italics]
[italics] “More trouble Sir Number 1 is overheating badly and quickly. I recommend we shut her down. We’re going to have to finish this on two.” [/italics]
[italics] “No choice?” [/italics]
[italics] “Not right now. I can try a restart later.” [/italics]
[italics] “Lucky number 21 eh, let’s hope some of that luck starts showing up soon. Shut her down
Flight.” [/italics]
Loss of power from the port outer engine would affect the alternator for special radio, rear turret hydraulic pump. It’s decision time thought Harris.
[italics] “Well that seals it. Cog. We can’t make altitude or even keep up. I don’t fancy scrubbing the mission and flying her home as a lame duck with a full bomb load.” [/italics]
[italics] “Pilot to Navigator. Parky we are going to have to abort Schloven. Can you find an alternate?” [/italics]
[italics] “They gave us three at briefing. Give me a minute Skipper.” [/italics]
R2 took this new development calmly but her air speed continued to fall and she began to drop out of formation.
[italics] “Skipper, Duisburg is about 15 minutes away. It’s a large rail junction, noting predicted and accurate flak, fighters not likely. If we can maintain this air speed we should be able [/italics]
[page break]
[italics] to bomb and then intersect our stream on the way home.” “What’s the heading Harry?” [/italics]
[italics] “Our Gee is not functioning Sir, so we are on dead reckoning. West north west will do for now.” [/italics]
[italics] “Pilot to crew, another change in plans boys. We’re flying on two now. I’ve chosen an alternative target, Duisburg. This will be a tough one. Expect the usual flak but as a single at low altitude we will have the advantage of surprise. Fighters not likely. Harry thinks we can reconnect with our flight after the attack and ride their coat tails home. We are about 10 minutes away. God bless us.” [/italics]
Tough decision, bravely taken admired Harris.
[italics] “Bomb aimer to pilot, I’m in position Sir. All my instruments are functioning.” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger that Bombs. Conditions are clearing, I can see the rail junction from here. I’ll make for it, then you can take your best shot. We’ll be at 9,000 over the target.” [/italics]
[italics] “Aye Sir.” [/italics]
[italics] “Well Flight this will be a shaky do. But their defenses should be pre-set for 12 to 15 and we can sneak under them for much of the run. They shouldn’t be expecting us from this direction; so the plan is to get in and out before they know what hit them. Once we bomb I am going to turn hard to port and make for home before climbing. Can you keep those two running?” [/italics]
[italics] “No signs of trouble Skip. I‘ll nurse them.” [/italics]
[italics] “Let’s take her down to 9 and lay her in.” [/italics]
[italics] “Here come the lights Flight.” [/italics]
Great silver swords began to appear probing the sky around them. Searchlights seeking to expose their prey. Muzzle flashes on the ground announced the anti aircraft guns were opening up and hundreds of deadly cotton puffs began to appear in the night sky.
[italics] “So far so good Skip. None of those new big blue radar lights and the cones are focused well above us.” [/italics]
R2 seemed to crawl through the sky and almost stall over the target. The bursting pods of flak were creeping closer. Then a flurry of sharp sound, metal striking metal, announced
[page break]
that one had found them.
[italics] “Sounded like a belly hit Sir.” [/italics]
R2 shrugged, barely shuddered and carried on. Another burst and then another dose of shrapnel hit the starboard side, but the controls remained steady.
[italics] “She’s all yours Bombs.” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger Sir, I can see the target; Navigator activate the master switch, pilot open bomb bay doors. Setting my selector to salvo.” [/italics]
[italics] “A little to the right . . . steady . . . right again . . . left . . . steady. Bombs gone! Get us out of
here Skip.” [/italics]
He smiled as R2 responded to his touch on the controls and broke to port and away from danger.
[italics] “Way to go girl.” [/italics]
The anti-aircraft fire was now zeroing in and more shells were exploding near them, but he was now lengthening the range. Then two more bursts bracketed them from above.
[italics] “Pilot to gunners. You two OK?” [/italics]
[italics] “I’m alright, but that was a close one Skip. No Mid Upper damage but I think the rudder and tail fins took some hits.” [/italics]
[italics] “Kid what’s the story back there?” [/italics]
[italics] “No turret damage here Sir, but we have a lot of new holes in the fins. They have ceased fire. Way to go Bombs! I don’t know what you hit, but there is one hell of a fire burning back there.” [/italics]
Harris took a deep breath and sighed. Well done son. They were out of it, but can you get them back home?
[italics] “Good stuff. Well stay awake you two. Mid, keep an eye on 10 o’clock high and sing out if you see our boys coming up. Karl any fighters should be off chasing the group looking to pick off stragglers. We should be well below them but you never know. Sharp eyes Kid!” [/italics]
[italics] “Sparks, see if you can pick up any chatter.” [/italics]
[page break]
[italics] “Seems like we picked up a few new holes. How’s she handling Sir.” [/italics]
[italics] “She seems steady Cog. The hits don’t seem to affecting her trim. But we need to gain some speed and altitude. About the new holes, I can’t wait to get Cpl. Terry’s count. Let’s try a re-start on number 1 and let’s see if she can help us out.” [/italics]
[italics] “Righto Sir.” [/italics]
[italics] He saw the port outer fire up, eased the throttle to half speed, felt R2 respond and began to climb gently seeking the safety of the stream and the pathway back to base.” [/italics]
[italics] “WOp to Captain, I’m picking up some chatter sir. Sounds like our lads.” [/italics]
[italics] “Sparks, I think I’m going to maintain radio silence until we’re closer to rejoining. I don’t want any fighters hearing there is a straggler out here and come looking.” [/italics]
[italics] “Mid Upper to Pilot. I think I see them sir. 11 O’clock high.” [/italics]
[italics] “I think you’re right. Let’s see if we can catch them Flight. We can at least hang on to their coat-tails and follow them home.” [/italics]
He advanced the port outer to full throttle.
[italics] “Number 1 is overheating again Skipper. You had better shut her down for good. The other two are beginning to heat up too. I recommend throttling back.” [/italics]
[italics] “Right Flight, I think our girl’s had about enough. Let’s put her down as soon as we can. Manston is the divert base and given the problems we may have with the hydraulics and the weather, they have the width and length we need for a rough landing.” [/italics]
[italics] “Captain to crew. We’re approaching the channel lads and it doesn’t look like we’ll need the dinghy, but R2 is a hurting girl. We are back on two engines, some of the hydraulics are out and we may have some damage to the undercarriage. I am going to put her down as soon as I can. We will be landing at Manston and it will be a little dodgy. We are about 10 minutes away. Start securing your stations.” [/italics]
[italics] “Sparks, see if you can raise the tower at Manston. Ronnie, identify us, tell them to light it up and let them know we are coming in on two.” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger that Skip.” [/italics]
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[italics] “Well Flight, at least the “Met” report was right about visibility, but the runway will still be wet.” [/italics]
He had landed at Manston before but not under these circumstances. The runway was dead ahead.
[italics] “Gear down and locked Skipper. No warning lights.” [/italics]
He put R2 in the groove and rode it in. Touchdown was a little heavy and the tires squawked as they met the wet tarmac. The brakes were very soft but they held and he eased back and let his aircraft run out. Roger Squared sat idling on the runway, for a moment the interior was quiet and then.
[italics] “Well done Skipper.” “You too Flight.” [/italics]
[italics] “Captain to crew, well done lads, everyone ok back there?” [/italics]
[italics] “Way to go Skipper! Great job Cap! Thanks Skip! We made it boys!” [/italics]
Harris added his silent praise to the appreciative responses pouring in from the crew. Then the sound of the grandfather clock striking midnight brought him back to the present.
A remarkable mission against all odds, by a courageous crew. He picked up his pen and then paused. Another tale of split second decision making, incredible skill and courageous leadership by a remarkable pilot.
He signed, confirming the Distinguished Flying Cross for Musselman.
[italics] “Thanks for taking me along lads.” [/italics]
He closed the folder and as he placed it in his out box he added a final invocation.
[italics] “Good show Roger Squared!” [/italics]
[page break]
[underlined] Tribute to a Century Lancaster [/underlined]
Lancaster Bomber ME-746 AS-R2 (aka Roger Squared) was one very special aircraft. It completed a total of 126 operations (117 Combat, 6 Manna and 3 Exodus). It was one of only 35 of the 7,377 Lancasters built to attain that distinction.
Roger Squared was well and carefully maintained by a dedicated ground crew under the leadership of Corporal Dennis Terry and flown with skill and determination by a number of pilots and air crew including, as noted in the story, Flying Officer H.J. Musselman RCAF, DFC.
In a highly unusual ceremony Bomber Command awarded the aircraft itself, the Distinguished Service Order. In the picture below the maintenance crew and flight crew assembled on the tarmac for a special ceremony following R2’s 100th mission. Note the large wooden medal (created by Corporal Terry) being held between himself and Flying Officer Musselman. A stirring reminder of that record can be seen in the ten rows of ten bombs painted on fuselage below the pilot’s window.
[photograph]
[page break]
(COPY)
[underlined] NO. 166 SQUADRON [/underlined]
[underlined] LANCASTER AIRCRAFT ME.746 – R2 [/underlined]
This aircraft has now completed 100 sorties against the enemy in a wide variety of attacks, ranging from targets in enemy occupied territory to the deepest penetrations made into Germany itself.
Throughout these sorties this aircraft has carried many gallant and courageous crews through the fiercest opposition which the enemy has been able to offer, and has never failed to bring them safely home.
The magnificent record established by ‘R2’ has only been made possible by the devotion to duty of the ground crews. Called upon to service their charge at all hours of the day and night, they have set a standard of serviceability which it will be difficult to equal. The successful completion of 100 sorties by the aircraft bears striking testimony to their skill.
In recognition of the fine achievement of this aircraft, and as a tribute from the aircrew of the Squadron to the ground crew whose efforts have met with such remarkable success, the aircraft is awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
11.3.45.
R.L. Vivian
Wing Commander, Commanding
[underlined] 166 Squadron, R.A.F. [/underlined]
Distinguished Service Order presented to ME-746 AS-R2 by Wing Commander Vivian, 166 Squadron
[page break]
[underlined] Transcript of DSO Letter [/underlined]
(COPY)
[underlined] NO. 166 SQUADRON [/underlined]
[underlined] LANCASTER AIRCRAFT ME.746 – R2 [/underlined]
This aircraft has now completed 100 sorties against the enemy in a wide variety of attacks, ranging from targets in enemy occupied territory to the deepest penetrations made into Germany itself.
Throughout these sorties this aircraft has carried many gallant and courageous crews through the fiercest opposition which the enemy has been able to offer, and has never failed to bring them safely home.
The magnificent record established by ‘R2’ has only been made possible by the devotion to duty of the ground crews. Called upon to service their charge at all hours of the day and night, they have set a standard of serviceability which it will be difficult to equal. The successful completion of 100 sorties by the aircraft bears striking testimony to their skill.
In recognition of the fine achievement of this aircraft, and as a tribute from the aircrew of the Squadron to the ground crew whose efforts have met with such remarkable success, the aircraft is awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
11.3.45.
R.L. Vivian
Wing Commander, Commanding
[underlined] 166 Squadron, R.A.F. [/underlined]
[page break]
[underlined] GLOSSARY [/underlined]
BA – Bomb Aimer – seated when operating the front gun turret, but positioned in a laying position when directing the pilot on to the aiming point prior to releasing bomb load.
CONED – when radar controlled master searchlight (often a bluish beam) locked onto an aircraft and other searchlights would also swing onto the aircraft, thus coning it – then flak would be concentrated into the cone.
DFC – Distinguished Flying Cross – medal presented to officers (commissioned and warrant) for conspicuous bravery (immediate) or sustained excellence on active service in operations against the enemy.
EXODUS – flights by Lancaster’s to fly liberated POWs back from captivity.
FE – Flight Engineer – seated opposite the pilot on right side of cockpit on folding seat.
GEE – a receiver for a navigation system of synchronized pulses transmitted from the UK – aircraft calculated their position from the phase shift between pulses. The range of GEE was 300-400 miles.
MANNA – flights to provide relief to starving Dutch civilian population with numerous food supply drops. 2,835 Lancaster flights were made.
Mk I – Mark I AVRO Lancaster crewed by seven and fitted with four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines capable of 1,280 hp each, maximum speed of 287mph, maximum ceiling of 22,000 ft, range with a 14,000 lb bomb load 1,000 mi and armament consisting of three powered gun turrets- 2 x .303 in nose, 2 x .303 mid-upper and 4 x .303 in the tail.
MUG – Mid-Upper Gunner – seated in the mid upper turret, which was also in the unheated section of the fuselage.
NAV – Navigator – seated at a table facing to port of the aircraft and directly behind the pilot and flight engineer.
PLT – Pilot – seated on the left hand side of the cockpit. There was no co-pilot.
RG – Rear Gunner – “Tail End Charlie” seated in the rear turret this was in the unheated section of the fuselage and was also the most isolated position. Most rear gunner’s once in their turrets did not see another member of the crew until the aircraft returned to base.
SECOND DICKIE – all new pilots were required to fly a familiarization flight with a veteran crew in order to expose them to operational hazards and the German defences. Since there was no co-pilot there was a fold down seat on the right side of the cockpit which was used by the Flight Engineer and on occasion the “Second Dickie” pilot.
SHAKY DO – a particularly hair raising operation or situation.
W/Op – Wireless Operator – often nick-named “Sparks” for the insignia worn denoting their position, they were seated facing forward and directly beside the navigator.
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TOTALS
LANCASTERS BUILT 7,377
LANCASTER SORTIES FLOWN 156,192
LANCASTERS LOST ON OPERATIONS 3,431
LANCASTERS LOST IN ACCIDENTS 246
[photograph]
TOTAL BOMBER COMMAND AIRCREW KILLED IN WORLD WAR II
55,573
LEST WE FORGET!
[page break]
Good Show
Roger Squared
[photograph]
by
JOHN KARL FORREST and JOHN WAYNE MUSSELMAN
[page break]
[underlined] Dedication [/underlined
This story is dedicated to the memory and legacy of the crew, led by Flying Officer H.J.
Musselman RCAF, DFC, that flew 30 missions in Lancaster Bomber ME-746 AS-R2
(aka Roger Squared).
[photograph]
Roger Squared crew all smiles after another op done and back on terra firma.
Front Row: P/O J.M. Donnelly RCAF (MUG), W/O H.H. Park RCAF (NAV), SGT G.
Reid RAF (BA) Back Row: F/S R. Williamson RAF (W/Op), F/O H.J. Musselman
RCAF, DFC (PLT), F/S K. Forrest RCAF (RG), SGT J.R. Cogbill RAF, DFM (FE)
[page break]
[underlined] Good Show Roger Squared[/underlined]
Air Chief Marshal A.T. “Butch” Harris sat hunched at his desk studying the latest reports. Aircraft availability and in particular the crews to man them, was at a critical point. Now, early in the new year of 1945 the focus of the air war had changed. The Allies were on full offensive. Missions to attack and bomb the industrialized cities, oil refineries and transportation hubs in the Nazi homeland had tripled in the last year. They were hitting the enemy hard, but the toll being taken by the appalling winter weather conditions, daylight raids, flak and fighters had been terrible. The casualty rate often rose above sixty percent and finding men and machines to replace those lost was a challenge. The grandfather clock in the corner struck the half hour; 11:30 p.m. At this moment at least 300 of his bombers were over enemy territory carrying out their missions. There was a knock at his door.
“Enter.”
A uniformed clerk stepped into the room and approached.
“Yes Cpl. Baker, what is it?”
Baker extended a manila folder. “Recommendations for Honours and Awards Sir. I know you like to read them before turning in for the night.” He glanced toward the clock.
“Soon I hope sir.”
Harris smiled, “Yes, yes Baker.”
“I know sir but . . . .”
“Dismissed!” growled Harris.
“Sir!” Baker exited.
Harris returned to reading the report, then hesitated, made a notation, closed the folder
and set it aside.
Baker was correct. Grounded by his rank and position, his most tangible contact with the missions he ordered and the men and machines he commanded was found in the reports recommending them for medals.
The accounts of their accomplishments, their resourcefulness and courage were reported tersely on official forms prepared by proud commanding officers.
[page break]
He knew that hidden in the names and numbers in those reports there were personal tales of remarkable bravery, incredible skill and split second decision making by young men in the heat of battle. He opened the folder Baker had delivered and, as was his routine, scanned the initial information.
The recommendation was from Wing Commander Vivian, 166 Squadron and supported by Group Captain Mackay, RAF Kirmington, Air Commodore Swain, No. 13 Base Commander and Air Vice Marshal E.A.B. Rice, No. 1 Group Commander.
That Squadron had an excellent reputation. They had a skilled and dedicated Ground Crew and a good mix of new and experienced Air Crew. The 166th prided itself on putting up the required number for every flight and completing its missions. It lived up to the “Bulldog” displayed on its crest and the single word “Tenacity” in its motto.
This recommendation was significant; a Distinguished Flying Cross for a Lancaster pilot (Acting Flying Officer) Harold John Musselman (RCAF).
He noted Musselman had logged almost 125 hours on operations. He turned to the appended crew list. Lancaster Bomber ME-746 AS-R2 (Roger Squared), piloted by Musselman, included crew members; Flight Engineer Sgt. J.R. Cogbill, Navigator W/O H.H. Park (RCAF), Air Bomber F/S G. Reid, Wireless Operator F/S R. Williamson, Mid Upper Gunner P/O J.M. Donnelly (RCAF), and Rear Gunner F/S K. Forrest (RCAF).
No doubt graduates from the Lancaster Finishing School at Hemswell. He noted this was their 21st sortie as a crew, then leaned back into his chair and began to read Vivian’s remarks:
“This Canadian Officer was detailed to attack Schloven-Buer as captain of aircraft on the evening of the 29th December, 1944. On the way out . . . .”
As he continued to read the room around him disappeared and he joined Musselman in the cockpit of Roger Squared.
Avro Lancaster ME-746 AS-R2 sat trembling on the hard stand, parked at right angles to the runway, her mighty Merlin engines idling, waiting to be unleashed.
[italics] “Flight, how are we looking?” [/italics]
Flight Engineer, JR Cogbill turned in his “second dicky” seat, tapped a couple of the
[page break]
gauges on his right, checked others above and behind and gave his pilot thumbs up.
[italics] “Great Skipper all four running well. Mag. readings steady on each. Corporal Terry and his crew were up all last night and spent most of today getting the airframe in to top shape. I dropped by on my way to briefing and he was just finishing painting the bomb symbol for her 84th mission on the fuselage. [/italics]
[italics] “Cog, you know R2 is his prize possession and he just loans her to us for missions. You heard him when we did the walk around. He pointed out some of the recent repairs and practically ordered me to keep the flak hole count down tonight. He is determined to see his darling become a Century Lanc.” [/italics]
A MK I Lanc with almost 100 missions noted Harris. A unique and lucky aircraft. Or would this mission end their streak?
Pilot Musselman checked his watch. 15:30. The mission had been scheduled for 15:00 but a light rain and a heavy overcast had delayed take off. They had been idling too long.
[italics] “ R2 to tower. Ready for take off.” [/italics]
[italics] 1“Roger R2 standby. You’re up next.” [/italics]
[italics] “There goes Nicklin in A2 Sir.” [/italics]
[italics] “You are cleared for take-off R2” [/italics]
[italics] “Pilot to crew. Ok lads buckle in, we’re off on “lucky” number 21.” [/italics]
[italics] “Flaps at 30 degrees Flight?” [/italics]
[italics] “30 degrees Sir.” [/italics]
Harris felt again the adrenaline rush of take-off and the nervous tension the crew would be experiencing. Having no idea of what lay ahead; they were, for the next 6 hours, trusting their lives to a man, a machine and the grace of God.
Musselman advanced the throttles, taxied into position on the runway and began to open them up. Roger Squared responded and the roar of the Rolls-Royce engines became deafening. The fuselage began to vibrate as she sped down the runway.
[italics] “I’ve got rudder control; take the throttles Cog.” [/italics]
Musselman now grasped the control column with both hands waiting for the tail to come up and as take off speed was reached he pulled back on the column and R2 shed the shackles of earth’s gravity and began the climb to join the formation.
[italics] “Gear – up and locked Skip.” [/italics]
[page break]
[italics] “Pilot to gunners. It’s crowded up here tonight lads. Set Course Time is just a few minutes away but keep a sharp look out and sing out if you spot any of our friends getting too close. [/italics]
Harris noted grimly Musselman’s concern. Far too many aircraft had been lost to collisions while “milling” on overcast nights waiting for their Set Course Time, when the stream would form up and head for the target.
[italics] “Pilot to navigator, cruising at 15,000?” [/italics]
[italics] “Yes Sir.” [/italics]
[italics] “Harry do you trust the “Met” report? They predicted this slop, but do you think the call for clearing weather over Schloven-Buer will hold?” [/italics]
Navigator Harry Park seated at his port side chart table curtained off from the cockpit checked his briefing notes.
[italics] “I think so Sir. We should expect heavy cloud cover until we reach Schloven with some clearing on the return trip. Good news is, this lot is supposed to move on before we return to base.” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger that and let’s hope so Parky.” [/italics]
He scanned ahead and then side to side. What he could see of the formation looked tight. He could even see intermittent flashes of blue exhaust flame from nearby aircraft and the stream was moving well. They were about half way across the Channel when he got the request he was expecting.
[italics] “Mid Upper to Pilot; permission to test guns Sir?” [/italics]
[italics] “Permission granted J.M. You and the kid can light ‘em up.” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger that Skipper.” [/italics]
[italics] “You too Bombs?” [/italics]
[italics] “Aye sir.” [/italics]
There was a slight pause and then the sound of four fifty caliber machine guns firing short bursts dominated the engine noise and the airframe shook in response to their recoil. Then the Brownings opened up in the nose turret below his feet.
[italics] “You sound ready Bombs.” [/italics]
[italics] “Aye Sir.” [/italics]
[page break]
[italics] “Test complete Sir, rear turret ready and able.” [/italics]
[italics] “Mid-upper, same here Skipper.” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger that, and let’s hope you don’t need them.” [/italics]
[italics] “Well Cog we are in the groove, let’s sit back and enjoy the ride” [/italics]
Musselman heard the sudden change in the sound of the engines and his control column reacted. From experience he knew what it was, but he waited for confirmation.
[italics] “We’ve got a problem Skip. The starboard inner has packed up. I’ll reset and try a restart.” [/italics]
[italics] “Navigator.” [/italics]
[italics] “Sir” [/italics]
[italics] “Parky, what’s our position?” [/italics]
[italics] “ Sir, target is about forty five minutes away.” [/italics]
[italics] “ Roger that.” [/italics]
[italics] “No luck with the restart Skip. Number 2 is done.” [/italics]
[italics] “Right Flight; feather and will see if we can maintain altitude and stay with the stream.” [/italics]
[italics] “ That’ll be a tough go Sir, with the load we are carrying. We caught one of those new abnormal packages; 14,000 pounds of HE and incendiaries.” [/italics]
[italics] “Well we’re over Germany now, so let’s give it a go and see what happens.” [/italics]
Harris knew that with the Starboard Inner gone power would be lost to some of the main services and hydraulic pumps, despite this he noted the calm in Musselman’s voice.
[italics] “Pilot to crew. We’ve lost an engine boys. I’m going to drop to the rear of the formation but we will try to stay with the group. Gunners keep your eyes open, particularly you in the tail “kid”. If the fighters are up they’ll be looking for stragglers.” [/italics]
[italics] “More trouble Sir. Number 3 is overheating badly and quickly. I recommend we shut [/italics]
[page break]
[italics] her down. We’re going to have to finish this on two.” [/italics]
[italics] “No choice?” “Not right now. I can try a restart later.” [/italics]
[italics] “Lucky number 21 eh, let’s hope some of that luck starts showing up soon. Shut her down
Cog.” [/italics]
Loss of power from the port outer engine would affect the alternator for special radio, rear turret hydraulic pump. It’s decision time thought Harris.
[italics] “Well that seals it Cog. We can’t maintain altitude or keep up. I don’t fancy scrubbing the mission and flying her home as a lame duck with a full bomb load.” [/italics]
[italics] “Pilot to Navigator. Parky we are going to have to abort Schloven. Can you find an alternate?” [/italics]
“They gave us three at briefing. Give me a minute Skipper.” [/italics]
R2 took this new development calmly but her air speed continued to fall and she began to drop further out of formation.
[italics] “Skipper, Duisburg is about 15 minutes away. It’s a large rail junction, noting predicted and accurate flak, fighters not likely. If we can maintain this air speed we should be able to bomb and then intersect our stream on the way home.” “What’s the heading Harry?” [/italics]
[italics] “Our Gee is not functioning Sir, so we are on dead reckoning. West north west will do for now.” [/italics]
[italics] “Pilot to crew, another change in plans boys. We’re flying on two now. I’ve chosen an alternative target, Duisburg. This will be a tough one. Expect the usual flak but as a single at low altitude we will have the advantage of surprise. Fighters not likely. Harry thinks we can reconnect with our flight after the attack and ride their coat tails home. We are about 10 minutes away . God bless us.” [/italics]
Tough decision, bravely taken admired Harris.
[italics] “Bomb aimer to pilot, I’m in position Sir. All my instruments are functioning.” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger that Bombs. Conditions are clearing, I can see the rail junction from here. I’ll make for it, then you can take your best shot. We’ll be at 9,000 over the target.” [/italics]
[italics] “Aye Sir.” [/italics]
[italics] “Well Flight this will be a shaky do. But their defenses [sic] should be pre-set for 12 to 15 [/italics]
[page break]
[italics] and we can sneak under them for much of the run. They shouldn’t be expecting us from this direction; so the plan is to get in and out before they know what hit them. Once we bomb I am going to turn hard to port and make for home before climbing. Can you keep those two running?” [/italics]
[italics] “No signs of trouble Skip. I‘ll nurse them.” [/italics]
[italics] “Let’s take her down to 9 and lay her in.” [/italics]
[italics] “Here come the lights Flight.” [/italics]
Great silver swords began to appear probing the sky around them. Searchlights seeking to expose their prey. Muzzle flashes on the ground announced the anti aircraft guns were opening up and hundreds of deadly cotton puffs began to appear in the night sky.
[italics] “So far so good Skip. None of those new big blue radar lights and the cones are focused well above us.” [/italics]
R2 seemed to crawl through the sky and almost stall over the target. The bursting pods of flak were creeping closer. Then a flurry of sharp sound, metal striking metal, announced that one had found them.
[italics] “Sounded like a belly hit Sir.” [/italics]
R2 shrugged, barely shuddered and carried on. Another burst and then another dose of shrapnel hit the starboard side, but the controls remained steady.
[italics] “She’s all yours Bombs.” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger Sir, I can see the target; Navigator activate the master switch, pilot open bomb
bay doors. Setting my selector to salvo.”
[italics] “A little to the right . . . steady . . . right again . . . left . . . steady. Bombs gone! Get us out of here Skip.” [/italics]
He smiled as R2 responded to his touch on the controls and broke to port and away from danger.
[italics] “Way to go girl.” [/italics]
The anti-aircraft fire was now zeroing in and more shells were exploding near them, but he was now lengthening the range. Then two more bursts bracketed them from above.
[italics] “Pilot to gunners. You two OK?” [/italics]
[italics] “I’m alright, but that was a close one Skip. No Mid Upper damage but I think the rudder and tail fins took some hits.” [/italics]
[page break]
[italics] “Kid what’s the story back there?” [/italics]
[italics] “No turret damage here Sir, but we have a lot of new holes in the fins. They have ceased fire. Way to go Bombs! I don’t know what you hit, but there is one hell of a fire burning back there.” [/italics]
Harris took a deep breath and sighed. Well done son. They were out of it, but can you get them back home?
[italics] “Good stuff. Well stay awake you two. Mid, keep an eye on 10 o’clock high and sing out if you see our boys coming up. Karl any fighters should be off chasing the group looking to pick off stragglers. We should be well below them but you never know. Sharp eyes Kid!” [/italics]
[italics] “Sparks, see if you can pick up any chatter.” [/italics]
[italics] “Seems like we picked up a few new holes. How’s she handling Sir.” [/italics]
[italics] “She seems steady Cog. The hits don’t seem to be affecting her trim. But we need to gain some speed and altitude. About the new holes, I can’t wait to get Cpl. Terry’s count and comments. Let’s try a re-start on number 3 and let’s see if she can help us out.” [/italics]
[italics] “Righto Sir.” [/italics]
He saw the port outer fire up, eased the throttle to half speed, felt R2 respond and began to climb gently seeking the safety of the stream and the pathway back to base.” [/italics]
[italics] “W/Op to Captain, I’m picking up some chatter sir. Sounds like our lads.” [/italics]
[italics] “Sparks, I think I’m going to maintain radio silence until we’re closer to rejoining. I don’t want any fighters hearing there is a straggler out here and come looking.” [/italics]
[italics] “Mid Upper to Pilot. I think I see them sir. 11 O’clock high.” [/italics]
[italics] “Let’s see if we can catch them Flight. We can at least hang on to their coat-tails and follow them home.” [/italics]
He advanced the port outer to full throttle.
[italics] “Number 3 is overheating again Skipper. You had better shut her down for good. The other two are beginning to heat up too. I recommend throttling back.” [/italics]
[page break]
[italics] “Right Flight, I think our girl’s had about enough. Let’s put her down as soon as we can. Manston is the divert base and given the problems we may have with the hydraulics and the weather, they have the width and length we need for a rough landing.” [/italics]
[italics] “Captain to crew. We’re approaching the channel lads and it doesn’t look like we’ll need the dinghy, but R2 is a hurting girl. We are back on two engines, some of the hydraulics are out and we may have some damage to the undercarriage. I am going to put her down as soon as I can. We will be landing at Manston and it will be a little dodgy. We are about 10 minutes away. Start securing your stations.” [/italics]
“Sparks, see if you can raise the tower at Manston. Ronnie, identify us, tell them to light it up and let them know we are coming in on two .” [/italics]
[italics] “Roger that Skip.” [/italics]
[italics] “Well Flight, at least the “Met” report was right about visibility, but the runway will still be wet.” [/italics]
He had landed at Manston before but not under these circumstances. The runway was dead ahead.
[italics] “Gear down and locked Skipper. No warning lights.” [/italics]
He put R2 in the groove and rode it in. Touchdown was a little heavy and the tires squawked as they met the wet tarmac. The brakes were very soft but they held and he eased back and let his aircraft run out. Roger Squared sat idling on the runway, for a moment the interior was quiet and then.
[italics] “Well done Skipper.” “You too Flight.” [/italics]
[italics] “Captain to crew, well done lads, everyone ok back there?” [/italics]
[italics] “Way to go Skipper! Great job Cap! Thanks Skip! We made it boys!” [/italics]
Harris added his silent praise to the appreciative responses pouring in from the crew. Then the sound of the grandfather clock striking midnight brought him back to the present.
A remarkable mission against all odds, by a courageous crew. He picked up his pen and then paused. Another tale of split second decision making, incredible skill and courageous leadership by a remarkable pilot.
He signed, confirming the Distinguished Flying Cross for Musselman.
“Thanks for taking me along lads.”
He closed the folder and as he placed it in his out box he added a final invocation.
[page break]
“Good show Roger Squared!”
[page break]
[underlined] Tribute to a Century Lancaster [/underlined]
Lancaster Bomber ME-746 AS-R2 (aka Roger Squared) was one very special aircraft. It completed a total of 126 operations (117 Combat, 6 Manna and 3 Exodus). It was one of only 35 of the 7,377 Lancasters built to attain that distinction.
Roger Squared was well and carefully maintained by a dedicated ground crew under the leadership of Corporal Dennis Terry and flown with skill and determination by a number of pilots and air crew including, as noted in the story, Flying Officer H.J. Musselman RCAF, DFC.
In a highly unusual ceremony Bomber Command awarded the aircraft itself, the Distinguished Service Order. In the picture below the maintenance crew and flight crew assembled on the tarmac for a special ceremony following R2’s 100th mission. Note the large wooden medal (created by Corporal Terry) being held between himself and Flying Officer Musselman. A stirring reminder of that record can be seen in the ten rows of ten bombs painted on fuselage below the pilot’s window.
[photograph]
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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Good Show Roger Squared
Description
An account of the resource
A story based on the service of Lancaster ME746 AS-R2 (Roger Squared). There is a slightly shorter version included.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
JK Forrest
JW Musselman
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany--Gladbeck
Germany--Duisburg
Germany
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Text. Personal research
Format
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17 printed sheets
13 printed sheets
Identifier
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MTerryD938465-170619-03, MTerryD938465-170619-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12-29
1945-03-11
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
1 Group
166 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bomb aimer
bombing
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Service Order
flight engineer
Gee
ground crew
ground personnel
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
navigator
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
pilot
RAF Hemswell
RAF Kirmington
RAF Manston
searchlight
training
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1876/34461/MTerryD938465-170619-02.2.pdf
1766726c4167ea7c301cd51e0125c64c
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
Terry, Dennis
D Terry
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
2017-06-19
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Terry, D
Description
An account of the resource
17 items. The collection concerns Corporal Dennis Terry (938465 Royal Air Force) and contains documents and photographs. He served as a fitter with 166 Squadron and worked on Lancaster ME746 AS-R2 (Roger Squared).
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Rob Terry and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[picture]
[underlined] Centurion Lancaster [/underlined]
ME-746 AS-R2
"Roger Squared"
On behalf of the Squadron aircrew, Lancaster ME-746 AS-R2 and its dedicated ground crew are presented the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), on 11 March 1945, upon completion of her "100th Operational Sortie" by her then regular and grateful aircrew skippered by F/O Musselman along with Wing Commander R.L. Vivian, Commanding, 166 Squadron, Royal Air Force.
DSO mock-up help by F/O Musselman and Cpl Dennis Terry Lead Aircraft Fitter 2A, who was responsible for the growing number of painted bombs on her fuselage and to his right the rest of the proud "erks". Roger Squared was the oldest aircraft on station, delivered by AVRO Metropolitan-Vickers Ltd., Mosley Road, Manchester to RAF Kirmington, on 14 April 1944 and began her operational service life shortly thereafter and flew her last operational sortie (Exodus mission) on 26 May 1945, with skipper F/O K.D. Foxall and crew. Of note; on 25 April 1945 with P/O S. Todd and crew she flew in the last combat mission of the war against Berchtesgaden, striking the 'SS Guard Barracks' and Hitler's 'Eagle's Nest'. Having carried numerous brave crews through the rigors of battle, the old girl had some narrow escapes along the way with the odd bits of flak damage to prove it and was beginning to show her age, but she survived the war and was subsequently assigned to RAF Hemswell, then designated CAT "AC", struck off charge, sold to Hestons, Ltd on 21 February 1946 and scrapped; thus culminating what can only be described as a very lucky and illustrious service career. Of the 7,377 Lancaster's built ME-746 was one of only thirty-five to attain the milestone of completing a 100 or more operational sorties. This venerable aircraft completed a total of 126 Operational Sorties (117 COMBAT, 6 MANNA and 3 EXODUS).
[boxed]
[underlined] NO. 166 SQUADRON [/underlined]
[underlined] LANCASTER AIRCRAFT ME. 746 – R2 [/underlined]
This aircraft has now completed 100 sorties against the enemy in a wide variety of attacks, ranging from targets in occupied territory to the deepest penetrations made into Germany itself.
Throughout these sorties this aircraft has carried many gallant and courageous crews through the fiercest opposition which the enemy has been able to offer, and has never failed to bring them safely home.
The magnificent record established by 'R2' has only been made possible by the devotion to duty of the ground crews. Called upon to service their charge at all hours of the day and night, they have set a standard of serviceability which it will be difficult to equal. The successful completion of 100 sorties by the aircraft bears striking testimony to their skill.
In recognition of the fine achievement of this aircraft, and as a tribute from the aircrew of the Squadron to the ground crew whose efforts have met with such remarkable success, the aircraft is awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
11.3.45.
R.L. Vivian
Wing Commander, Commanding
[underlined] 166 Squadron, R.A.F. [/underlined]
[boxed]
[page break]
Aircrew pictured:
F/O H.J. Musselman RCAF, DFC (Plt), F/S J.R. Cogbill RAF, DFM (F/E), F/S R. Williamson RAF (W/Op), W/O H.H. Park RCAF (Nav), F/S G. Reid RAF (BA) P/O J.M. Donnelly RCAF (MUG), F/S K. Forrest RCAF (RG) and W/Cdr Vivian, Commanding, 166 Sqd, RAF [picture]
[picture]
Aircrew pictured:
F/O H.J. Musselman RCAF, DFC (Plt), F/S J.R. Cogbill RAF, DFM (F/E), F/S R. Williamson RAF (W/Op), W/O H.H. Park RCAF (Nav), F/S G. Reid RAF (BA), P/O J.M. Donnelly RCAF (MUG), F/S K. Forrest RCAF (RG) and W/Cdr Vivian, Commanding, 166 Sqd, RAF [picture]
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
Centurion Lancaster ME746 Roger Squared
Description
An account of the resource
A document referring to the DSO awarded to Lancaster ME746 AS-R2 (Roger Squared). It describes some of the operations undertaken and its maintenance by Dennis.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Text. Personal research
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two printed sheets
Identifier
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MTerryD938465-170619-02
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-03-11
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
166 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
Distinguished Service Order
ground crew
ground personnel
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Lancaster
navigator
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
pilot
RAF Hemswell
RAF Kirmington
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1178/34345/EvanRielCvanRielCv1.1.pdf
6d2385875bd2e59d5ae841012f48ffc0
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
Van Riel, Coby
J F Van Riel
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. An oral history interview with Coby Van Riel (b. 1932), a memoir and her brothers war diary. She was a recipient of the Operation Manna food drops.
The collection was catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-08-25
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
VanRiel, JF
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Coby van Riel
Personal Experiences in the War of 1940 -1945.
10th May 1940
It had been a restless night with planes flying over and the distant sound of shooting. The shooting did not worry me too much. I was only 8 years old and I had never heard any shooting before.
I did not understand why I heard my parents talking in the other room, silently but in an anxious and agitated way. At last, it must have been about 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning that they came to me and my brother to tell us that Holland was at war with Germany. My parents looked sad and worried.
I started to wash and dress myself, when suddenly the shooting had come nearer and louder. There was a commotion outside of people getting out of their houses calling, talking and shouting.
I ran outside forgetting that I had not put my skirt on and instead picked up a children's apron and hastily tied the ends round my waist.
People had come into my mother's chemist shop and everybody talked at once, pointing at the airplanes, which now filled the sky with an almighty heavy droning sound. They came in their thousands and I thought it was all very exciting and perhaps something to celebrate.
Suddenly I saw things slowly falling from the planes. I heard the adults say that they were parachutists and I had learned a new word.
Somebody said you could see them better on the open road leading to the beach. We lived in the west of The Hague, just one street away from Scheveningen, a fishing place and harbour at the North Sea, where the women wore traditional clothes and headdresses.
So everybody started running through the few small streets towards the old locks of the harbour. And there, with now hundreds of people, we stood there, some in silence, some shouting and arguing, some crying, watching this spectacular sight of masses of parachutists falling slowly away from the German planes, the parachutes like huge umbrellas opening and floating down.
With the other children, I started dancing and shouting. For us it was, we thought, a sudden pleasant surprise the adults had dreamed up and staged for us.
Then within minutes the whole scenery changed. There were no parachutists to be seen anymore. Other planes were still coming over and this awful shooting started; awful because the noise was increasing to a terrifying loud almost rhythmic crackle, causing people to panic, scream and cry.
Even the children had stopped dancing around and now I realized that something dreadfully serious had started and the word war started to have a frightening meaning for me. At this moment I noticed that I did not have a skirt on.
I looked up at the planes and again the dropping started, but to my and everybody's horror, there were no people floating down, but bombs and bombs and bombs, whooshing and whistling, their awful sounds, falling in rapid succession, hitting the harbour and houses around us.
Everybody started running back to their houses and I reached my mother's shop “Drogistery” (Separate from but like a chemist, but without prescriptions.) in time, before the bombs hit the very streets we all had been running through. I was very afraid now.
The first casualties were brought into the shop. My mother gave some first aid. My father tried to keep my brother Han and me away from the sight of the crying and injured people. Helas, my mother was not trained to help the more serious injured people and when somebody came to her with blood all over his face, one eye hanging down on his cheek, she started shaking so much, shocked into a state where she could do no more, so that she had to close the shop. This sounds awful, but who are we to judge people’s reactions?
Fortunately, there was a first aid post not too far away, so that people went there and I guess that by now things were getting organized, as ambulances and fire engines were driving on and off to help where they could.
The bombing went on for four days and we soon got used to react to the sirens. A continuously high and low howling sound announced that an air raid was, imminent, giving people time to get into their houses and protect themselves as best as they could. We used to huddle in a recess under the staircase of the neighbour or stand under the architraves of the doorway which was advised on the radio in emergency bulletins, issued the whole day through.
I got bored with this 'hide and seek' drill and wanted to play with the toys and wooden blocks I had in a large carton box. I turned this box over in one go and the wooden contents clattered on the linoleum floor, making my mother jump and scream. She thought that a bomb had hit our house. Her nerves must have been very shaky to mistake falling blocks for bombs, but I did not get a chance to, play anymore during unsafe periods: The siren gave one long plain sound when the air raid was over, so that people could relax until the next came along.
Rotterdam was bombed heavily and Germany threatened the Dutch government to bomb and flatten all the other big towns. An ultimatum of 12 hours was given. The Dutch had fought courageously but all in vain. Holland surrendered after the 4th day of the war. The bombing stopped and there was an eerie silence. People emerged from their houses to see the bomb damage. My mother had opened her shop again and soon after we saw the first Germans in their uniforms. We all stared at them like they were some aliens out of space. For some reason, I was scared stiff of their helmets and for a long time even after the war, when in a film I saw these helmets nicknamed, “dakpannen” (“roof tiles") they gave me the, shivers as well as having nightmares of German soldiers running after me which often used to wake me up screaming. But the latter was maybe a result of experiences later in the war.
We noticed their loud bragging voices and soon we learned to understand their language. One of the soldiers entered our shop to buy something and although he was not unfriendly, my mother was trembling while she served him.
Until 1942 I cannot remember that anything dreadful happened to disturb our daily life too much. The only incident was when one Sunday, returning from church, we passed some German bunkers (underground shelters). German soldiers were standing guard at the entrance. We stared at them too long to their liking and to our horror one threatened us with a hand-grenade if we did not move on quickly enough. My mother pushed my brother, who was still looking over his shoulder, and he promptly walked into a lamppost with such a force that he broke some of his teeth. Although in much pain and bleeding he started running, followed by us, afraid the soldier would throw his murder weapon at us.
At some time all Dutch citizens were forbidden to listen to radios and this was constantly checked by the Germans. Most people ignored this and we listened in secret to the English broadcasts.
We were ordered to tape or blacken all the windows in case of air raids from the English and after sunset no light was supposed to shine from the houses onto the-streets.
After the Dutch initially lost hope, they soon pulled themselves together and resistance groups were formed all over the country. Whenever a serious thing happened, like a German soldier being murdered etc. a curfew was immediately imposed and everybody had to be in by, if I remember well, at 8 o'clock in the evening.
One day we were ordered to hand in radios, bicycles, cars, any copper, lead, etc. Immediately people had jewelry made of these coins, of which I still have one: A small brooch showing Queen Wilhelmina on a “kwartje” (About 25p) and other things. The only cars that were not requisitioned were those that were needed for business and emergencies. They had to run on wood gas (Gas from burning wood) as there was no petrol available. Of course many Dutch people tried to hide as much as they could.
Jews were ordered to wear a yellow star, the David Star, sewn on to their clothes and they were forbidden to go to cinemas, theatres, concert halls, hotels, cafes and other public places. My own friend, Jetje Stelleman, who lived a couple of houses further on, had to wear her star as well as her whole Jewish family.
It became dangerous to have contact with Jewish people and my mother out of sheer fear told me it was better not to be friends with Jetje anymore as everybody who talked to Jews were considered Jews themselves.
Since then even after the war and up till now (2015) being 83 years old I felt and still feel sad and painful not knowing what happened to Jetje and if she survived the war.
This whole situation lasted until 1942 when suddenly the war became more serious. The Germans started to build a 'tank wall' next to the existing canal. They planned to build it in such a way that it would run parallel, although with a few miles distance from the beach. The beach was partly mined, many 'bunkers' were built and large parts of the beach were made into inaccessible terrain, 'planted' with concrete posts and barbed wire. It was forbidden to the Dutch to enter the beaches. This whole operation was meant to keep away the British in the event of an invasion.
The next move was to announce that everybody living in this area had to leave their houses in a certain short time. My parents were forced to sell off the contents of the shop as quickly as possible and that meant that they did not get the true value; everything was sold very cheaply. They kept boxes of soap which proved to be very handy as later in the war there was no soap to buy anymore. For my brother and me they kept boxes of liquorice and probably some other useful articles which I don't remember.
My uncle and aunt offered us a temporary place to live in, a cellar under their cafe. My parents accepted as they thought the war would last only a few months. As it happened we lived there for over three years. Children were still allowed to go to school in the now 'German' area, called “Spergebiet”, with an “Ausweis” (Permit). I used to go on my scooter which took me an hour to 'peddle' down and an hour to 'peddle' back. I wore my shoes out in a short time.
One day there was a terrific commotion in the area and I did not manage to reach the school. Germans were all over the place, an air raid was going on and there was a lot of shouting and screaming. I got very frightened and turned back home. This was the end of my long journey to school and I went to another school nearer home.
My mother tried to make a home of this unfriendly concrete cellar by partitioning the space with curtains and small carpets on the floor. We slept in one long narrow space, where also one of my cousins slept as my aunt had only 2 bedrooms upstairs.
Later we were joined by the domestic help who was slightly odd. Every evening she started talking in her sleep and shouting, “geef mij maar beschuit met muisjes!” which meant she only wanted to have a Tea-break (breakfast biscuits) with some particular Dutch sweet on it. Now in England called “Dutch Crisp bakes”. She used to give me the creeps but soon we all got accustomed to her monotonous cries.
A brother of my mother and aunt and my Uncle Luuk came to live with us as well, so another bed was added to the row.
When the raids on people started, whereby boys from 16 years of age to men of 42 years old were picked up to be sent to labour camps in Germany, the son of our neighbour a student in economics joined us as well in our dormitory.
Depressing were the big drainpipes along the walls and the unavoidable noise that came from them at certain times plus the fact that there were only 2 small windows looking out into a small brick walled-area meant to catch the surplus rain water from the garden. We could only look and see some sky.
At a later time in the last winter of the war the Germans started, apart from their plan to starve the entire population in the West of the country, (as a punishment after the railways went on strike) to inundate the west as well with the result that our brick 'holes' overflowed and every morning our cellar was flooded with an inch or two of water. The-scooping out and mopping up was a tedious job. We had to take care not to leave shoes, carpets, etc on the floor. The resulting dampness was not very healthy and my parents had a lasting struggle to fight off mildew and mould of the furniture.
Another disgusting thing was that we had to cope with a flea epidemic. When I was doing my homework at my mother's dressing table (my brother used the dining room table), I could see them jump on the towels and I became quite an expert in catching these vermin at the cost of time spent on my homework.
We had our evening meals together upstairs with the rest of the family, which by now had extended to 13 people, including the neighbours, to save fuel as there was not much left to burn.
My aunt used a large wood-stove in the café called "Goliath" and in the living room a very small one called "Mayo" but nicknamed "David”. The latter was made purposely for people to buy, a very economic stove to warm up just one room.
One day when my aunt heated too large a kettle of water on this "Mayo," she accidentally knocked it over and the near boiling water severely scolded her legs, too bad in that time as very few medicines were available. She was in agonizing pain and it took weeks for the wounds to heal.
One day towards sunset my Father and Brother Han were spotted by neighbours while they demolished (“sloopten”) a wooden door for firewood in our "Mayo " from one of the bicycle sheds in the ally-way at the back of our and neighbours houses, which was highly punishable.
Luckily one of our close and trustworthy neighbours called Henk Overzee came up with a brilliant idea to prevent a probably less trustworthy person to call the police, for all of our family and friends quickly to go outside to give my father and Han the opportunity to mix with us and go inside straight away, while leaving the desired door behind of course which next day had disappeared, very likely stolen by somebody else in need
People got their fuel for these stoves by cutting down any wood in sight. Many trees in the woods were felled and sawn into logs and pieces, despite the German's ban to do so.
The last severely cold winter made people steal every bit of timber from empty houses. Doors, window-frames, even the wooden blocks between the rails of the 'trams' (electric street-cars) were broken up and taken away.
So we spent most of the time of the late afternoons and evenings with 13 people together in one room. As there was no electricity anymore the boys took it in turns to peddle bikes, put up in bike pedestals, to provide some light. We had still some candles, but soon we all had to get used to go to bed at a very early time. This was a blessing in disguise because of the increasing food shortage. People became so weak, that lying in bed and sleep as long as possible, meant saving the body's energy.
We queued every day on the street waiting for the organised "Central Kitchen" to bring food (for which we got coupons) in big metal containers, which were not cleaned properly, on open Lorries.
The food in the containers was not too bad, mainly either soup or stew but too little and not much meat or fat in it.
We waited patiently sometimes for an hour or more because the deliveries were often held up by air- raids or other disturbances, it was nothing unusual to see people faint.
Sometimes the Lorries did not turn up until the next day. In the summer on a hot day it meant that the food had gone off, but nevertheless we took it and ate it.
How I hated to see the bakery shop 'Steenbeek," where people worked voluntary or forcibly for the guarding Germans. Once I peeped through the open doors to see these delicious custard slices. Hoping with many other children that one of the cakes would come to us in a miraculous way, we hung on until a soldier chased us away, slamming the doors in our face.
For some reason I forgot the food was not delivered as usual in the"Regentesselaan” but instead in the "Kootwijkstraat", a street parallel to the street where I lived. Large mess-tins like the small tins as used in the Army and the Navy, called "gamellen" delivered the food. They were on a sort of flat trailer and as soon as all the people in the queue got their portions in their small saucepans and other containers, the hungry children climbed on the trailer.
I joined as well and we tried to get the last morsels out of the "gamellen", scraping and licking with our bare hands. It soon developed into a huge fight between some gangs of children, joined by myself as well, until pelting of stones to each other started to prevent one getting more than somebody else.
Suddenly I felt very sad and down by all this going on. I stopped, decided to give up and went home. My parents knew nothing about this fighting for these bits of food and I never told them.
People started to go to the farms and nurseries on bikes most of them without tyres, or on foot, often long distances to exchange their linen, silver or any other valuables for food. Many farmers got very rich and also a bad name for taking advantage of these terrible situations. On top of that, very often people fell in a trap when returning home, German soldiers were waiting to order these poor people to hand over all they had, including bicycles.
It was very disheartening indeed. I had my own very personal disappointment when after a whole day trying at the nurseries in “Westland”; I came home exhausted and empty handed.
Another time my classmates and I stole potatoes with plants and all what used to be flowerbeds in one of the great parks, "Zuiderpark”, when suddenly one of us cried out, “run, run, they have seen us, they are coming after us!" I did not wait and ran as fast as I could, looking back once just to see that what looked like running uniforms behind us.
I managed to get home, proudly presenting my prey to my parents. To my utter shock and surprise they were furious with me. They said they could not possibly keep stolen goods and my father took me back to the park where I had pulled out the potatoes. He told me to wait near the entrance of the park. What he did or where he left the potatoes I cannot remember, but that was my last effort to solve a food crisis.
Identification cards and ration cards were distributed (but many false ones were printed by people, with the latter we were able to occasionally buy a loaf of bread, called “Regeringsbrood”, Government bread made from rye or wheat, which was very hard, probably because of shortages of yeast and fuel to bake. Also butter or vegetables, etc. but soon there was nothing left in the shop and in the last winter, which was called “Hongerwinter” (Hunger Winter) even with the ration cards there was nothing to buy. I still have the old ration cards.
The black market was thriving, I remember my uncle offering one guilder for one potato to one of his customers, a potato merchant but the man could not help him.
We started to eat tulip bulbs nettles, grass and sugar beet, Together with the “Linsen” (Lentil) Soup of the Central Kitchen my stomach refused to keep this peculiar bitter tasting mixture inside. Every evening I woke up being sick and with my imitating the sirens in my sleep and wetting my bed. The doctor told my mother the last was a sign of physical weakness. I must have given my parents a lot of anxiety and worry. I felt very ashamed of the bed wetting and tried to clean and dry secretly.
New clothes were hard to get. My mother paid 23 guilders for 1 shapeless cotton vest and pants of an awful green colour for me. People became very handy and economic. They made do with old clothes repairing them endlessly, turning the material of old coats inside out, so that they looked nearly new, making skirts from men's old trousers, etc.
They kept up the spirit and the resistance groups fought bravely underground.
Sir Winston Churchill kept our hopes up with his calm speeches on the radio and to us he became our hero. We loved to hear the sound of the Big Ben at the start of the broadcasts.
The resistance groups printed their own news-bulletins and there was a widespread network of workers, who secretly and often at great risk distributed this welcome news.
Once I had to take an important message, hidden under the sole in my shoe a few streets further on. Children were not suspected and quite reliable as they considered this trust from the adults as to be very proud of. Moreover, they had become to dislike the Germans as much as the adults.
When I was 12 years old or so, in 1944, I went to a grammar school in the City. It was a long walk; it must have been 35 or 40 minutes. The thing I liked about it was that with the other children we passed a shop which used to sell ice -cream before the war. Now they sold what we called "shaving-cream," a very light, fluffy substance, 25 cent per portion put in a cup or mug you had to bring yourself. It gave a feeling if you had eaten a huge meal. The only difference was it did not last long. Only now have I learnt that this “Shaving cream” was made from the juice of Sugar beet.
In the City for the first time homes and a bookshop of a Jewish family burned. Raids on Jewish people had been going on for a while already and now the Germans unexpectedly started picking up boys and men from the street and after announcing that every boy and man between the age of 16-42 had to go to certain centres to be send to labour camps in Germany, they would suddenly scoop through streets, knocking and ramming doors, dragging boys and men from their hiding places.
My cousin and neighbour's son tried to hide on a shelf at the top over a cupboard, "Sammy" the dog had seen them go in there and would not stop barking, so they had to find another hiding place.
I remember the Jewish owner of the corner second-hand furniture shop next to our cafe, suddenly taken away and us children staring unbelievingly through the window.
Only one more time we managed to get our relatives together to have a birthday party. We forgot the war and we were dancing, singing and we did some sketches. We were enjoying ourselves tremendously and decided to do the conga round the billiards in the cafe. Then suddenly, shock-horror, a loud knocking on the door and shouting in German to open the door.
We all stood there silent and nailed to the floor. On order of my uncle we tiptoed quickly down into the cellar and while we were all sitting or half lying on the staircase peeping through the space under the door, we heard my uncle open the door and invite the German soldiers straight to the bar and assuring them that the noise must have come from the cinema next door. He kept on talking to them and pouring them any drinks he was still lucky to have.
When we heard the Germans change from angrily shouting into cheerful laughter, we relaxed a little but stayed silent, till after what seemed like hours, at last the soldiers, a little drunk, left the cafe.
We just continued our party, whispering our songs and tiptoeing through the cafe without putting on any lights. This was exciting as well, but my uncle did not want to take the risk of the soldiers coming back and soon we retired, most of us in the cellar. It looked like a hospital, everybody sleeping in beds or on the floor in one long row and to my aunt this was a good excuse to dress herself up as a Red Cross nurse very early next morning to wake everybody up with a sponge of cold water from her bowl. Everybody was drenched. We followed this up with a great pillow fight and I still remember the whole party as one of the best we ever had.
We drifted into 1944 and the war situation became grave and grim.
The raids on people were intensified. A few times the cinema was raided and many men were taken away. At school the boys of the higher forms were picked up. One day on a Tuesday in September there was a commotion and there were rumours through the whole town that the liberators were practically on our doorsteps and people got so excited that they actually believed that the end of the war was there.
They started dancing and singing in the streets, ignoring the warnings of the cautiously minded. As it happened it was a false alarm and the Germans reacted by shooting and arresting people all over the place. Many lost their lives that day. This tragic day was to be called and still referred to as "Dolle Dinsdag" (Mad Tuesday). My mother started looking for my brother and me, but we managed to get home safely. After all this our school closed down.
The winter turned out to be very cold and hard indeed and the food shortage became even worse, as the Germans had decided to starve the population as mentioned before. As proper coffins were difficult to get by and no cars or petrol were available not even wood-gas anymore, people who died had to be buried, carried in rough wooden coffin-like boxes on hand-carts.
However, apart from starvation, very few illnesses occurred and people did not give up. They did not moan, but courageously plodded on with their daily lives which were often broken up by bombings and V1s.
On New Years Eve 1944 we saw one of them go wrong. It stopped high in the sky, its huge flames spouting. We stood stunned, except me screaming non-stop.
Nobody told me off. Then suddenly the V1 turned and came down a couple of streets further on, destroying most of the houses, killing and maiming many people. Windows were broken over a wide area.
Very frightening were the V1's often exploding at launching, causing great damage at the houses.
When that happened the Germans had only 15 minutes to escape. The launching pads were at the "Frederik Hendrik plein" (square) where nearby I used to live. My brother Han who one day passed this square, witnessed one such an explosion and ran away with the flying away Germans along the "Spergebiet" (border of no entrance or exit without permission "Ausweis") down the for us well-known "Johan de Witlaan".
A few other places were for instance "Clingendaal" a military area and barracks in the district Benoordenhout where "Seyss-Inquart", by Hitler given the title of "Rijkscommissaris', had his head-quarters.
I think the cause was that people were undernourished by the increasing shortage of food which started to effect people’s behaviour.
I'll never forget the quarrel between my parents and uncle and aunt, something about the talk of our family better to stay some time in the cellar where we lived to give them some privacy in there own living-space. At some point the quarrel and shouting between my uncle and father got out of control which frightened me. Luckily my mother came in between and stopped them as they all noticed that I was there watching and listening in fear.
My mother then took our own family down into the cellar where we all calmed down. Luckily this episode never occurred again, but for a while it left a strain between the families. We still had to live together for about another 4 or 5 months until the liberation, a time we did not know then how long that would be.
We all started loosing weight rapidly. My uncle Luuk, the brother of my mother who had come to live with us became very ill. One morning he was taken to hospital; he died soon after of starvation and cancer of the stomach. My parents became ill as well and their voices changed. I was told later that this often happens to severely underfed people.
The doctor came in and from my hidden place behind my bed I heard her (woman doctor) say that they (my parents) better die, as she could not do anything for them. It would help if they could only have some broth every day to stay alive. I went straight away to a chicken-farm and asked the farmer if he could give me a chicken and I explained the situation. He was not very friendly and as he wanted to shut the door, I put my foot inside and promised him a small loaf of bread in exchange. How I did not know, because I knew even though my father's job was to deliver bread, there was no bread anymore. So whatever I said, it was in vain and the man forced me to pull my foot back and slammed the door close.
Next I chose the biggest pan from my aunt's kitchen and went to the well known dairy "van Grieken" that was taken over by the Germans and used as kitchen and canteen. I remembered the lovely smell of cooked food, when I passed the building every day on the way to school. Two soldiers stood guard and I asked them politely and friendly whether they could give me some food for my sick parents. At first they laughed and teased me, but when I kept on nagging them, they got very angry and told me that if the Queen, that "swinehund" had not left the country we would have had plenty of food.
When they pointed their guns at me, threatening to shoot, I ran off, the empty pan under my arm. Coming home my parents were not at all pleased and told me however much they appreciated my thoughts and efforts, I was not to do this again. Somehow my parents managed to stay alive.
Only a few times we were lucky to obtain a bag of grain from unknown source to me, probably the black market. We had to sort out the grain as mouse droppings were included. This was a time consuming job, but we didn't mind as time was one of the few things we had plenty of. We made fun of it by making a game to see who was first to finish his or her portion and who had the most droppings.
My aunt would grind the grain and bake the most delicious bread with it or "roggepap", a kind of porridge made with water which tasted so lovely, that we thought we would like to eat it for ever even after the war would be finished.
There was nothing to buy in the food shops anymore and the only things available at the greengrocers were bunches of parsley for which my mother had to pay 6 guilders each which was about £6.00, a lot of money at that time and customers were allowed to buy only 3 to 6 bunches.
However times became worse and the only highlight was one evening when it was already dark and we were sitting together around the light of one precious candle when we heard a sudden knocking and banging on the window. It gave us a start, because we never knew whether it would be a raid or somebody trying to find a hiding place while escaping from the cinema next door: Sometimes this cinema was raided by the German soldiers to pick up young men.
Well, after my brother, a cousin and the neighbour's son hastily had left the room to go to their hiding places, my uncle dared to slightly open the curtains and shout "Who is there?" To our great surprise and joy my uncle and cousin from Arnhem in the east of Holland had managed to get to us by dodging the Germans, travelling by night and hiding in the daytime. We all laughed, cried and hugged each other, knowing how dangerous such .a journey was. They took the risk though because they had heard that the situation in the west was very bad and that many people were dying of starvation. As there was no means of contact either by telephone or mail, which was blocked or stopped by the German occupiers, they decided to see for themselves. ,
They had brought 2 suitcases with food, emergency rations like "zeekaak", and a very hard biscuit, normally eaten by people who used to be at sea for a long time.
There was much to talk about, exchange all the latest news and to hear that all our other relatives in Arnhem were safe and sound.
As it had taken my uncle and cousin a few days to reach us, they were now very tired and dirty. They had something to eat and drink, went to bed and slept for many hours.
The next day after they'd had a long soak in the bath (my cousin had to be scrubbed clean!) they left after again hugging each other and us thanking them gratefully. The food they'd brought sustained us, for several days feeding 13 people: my uncle, aunt and their 2 children, my parents, my brother and I, another uncle and the neighbours mother, father and son, Annie the servant (plus 1 small dog).
Help for the undernourished children came from IKOR (Or IKB according to my Brothers diary of the war), an international church organization. All children had to come to certain centres to be examined buy doctors. We were divided into A, B or C groups; the C groups being the worst off children. My brother and I were placed in C and three times a week we were asked to come to the Centre and bring a small saucepan to be filled with porridge or stew.
The problem was that as soon as we came home the whole family ate from this little portion. As soon as the committee of IKB (International Kerk Bureau) got to know this, they let the children stay in the Centre to eat everything there and then. That was much better.
A kind butcher called Mr Beusekom, who’s shop was in the Nunspeetlaan asked my mother if she would allow my brother and me to have a lunch of some soup every Wednesday in his shop. Of course she gratefully accepted and we were surprised and pleased to see real pieces of meat in the soup. Some children's stomachs were not used to proper food anymore and they were sick straight away but ate it again! Soon my brother and I became a little stronger.
The English started bombing Germany, joined by the Canadians and Americans.
Every night we could hear the droning of hundreds of planes going over and we knew the war could not last much longer now.
The centre of Rotterdam was bombed; the Northern parts of The Hague also; we could see this from a distance. Tragic was that the English bombers confused two districts. They should have bombed "Benoordenhout," where there was a large concentration of the notorious Gestapo Headquarters. Instead they bombed "Bezuidenhout," a quiet residential district.
My mother happened to be there visiting a cousin of mine who had her first baby in a maternity hospital 2 days before. There were many casualties and my mother and other visitors were told to lie under the beds, as the bombing was severe.
However, my mother could not stand it any longer and at her own risk, she ran out of the hospital back home. How she ever got safely through, I don't know. The next day my cousin and her husband with their new born baby came to us as the hospital was bombed flat and my cousin had to flee with the baby, only to find her own home gone, and then walked with her husband and baby to where we lived, a distance of about an hour. (I don’t know if somebody helped them). She had absolutely nothing left and a friend of mine and I went round to other mothers who we knew had babies to ask for some clothes and nappies.
As it became clear to the Germans that they were losing the war, they allowed English planes to drop parcels with food at certain times and certain places, known as Operation “Manna! The Americans did the same known as operation “Chowhound”. This was a tremendous sight. Everybody was out in the streets and many of them on rooftops to see these low flying planes dropping the food parcels on parachutes, a very moving sight indeed. I felt like crying and laughing at the same time like everybody else. It was as if there was no difference in class or age.
We were, and still are very grateful for having been saved just in time from starvation.
The food was distributed. We were given corned beef, biscuits and chocolate. We were warned to eat small portions and slowly in order to let our stomachs get used to this proper food again.
Soon an assignment of Swedish bread arrived, baked after the flour had been dropped, and never in my life has bread tasted so delicious anymore. At last the typical hunger stomach pains disappeared.
People were getting excited once more with the end of war in sight but after the experience of "Dolle Dinsdag" everybody kept quiet in fear of German reprisals.
At last on the 5th of May 1945 our allied liberators came rolling in with their tanks and again people were out on the street but this time it was real and they could let go and sing and dance with thousands of people going down the streets. It was like one big family party. My mother had called me out of my bed as the news came through in the evening at perhaps 7 or 8 o'clock.
I saw the soldiers on the tanks, showered with masses of flowers, girls climbing onto the tanks and kissing our liberators. I saw the German soldiers taken prisoner and their Dutch girls all their hair shaved off run the gauntlet between rows of booing and shouting people.
It was amazing to see all the red, white and blue and orange flags, which people had managed to hide all those years and now waving them or draping the houses.
Very slowly after many parties and celebrations people went back to normal. It took many months to have a house of our own in Scheveningen again. (A Dutch Harbour by the sea in The Hague).
As it took a little while for the English to take over from the Germans in that area, only the schools were opened and my brother and I got our “Ausweis” to enter and later a permit from the English and once again we had a long way to walk to school and back home.
It also took a while to get food in the shops and unfortunately people still died from the starvation period before the end of the war.
It was very strange and eerie to see all the empty, plundered and damaged houses. After school time my brother and I went into some of the empty houses and we got the shock of our lives to find beds and German uniforms under the broken up floorboards.
One day a very sad thing happened when my brother Han, myself and 2 sons of the neighbours, a close family of our family, went to school and despite the warning not to take the shortcut via the open field with the hidden mines, the elder son Bobbie Ruis did just that. He stepped on a mine and was instantly killed. His little brother ran home and told his mother that he had seen Bobbie suddenly fly into the sky. The little boy had no idea that something very serious had happened.
It was a big shock to the parents of the boys, relatives, us and many more people who had known them.
I took it on me to try to get my parents a house to live in. They had decided not to go back to the old house and not to have a shop anymore.
So when people started to come back I asked them to tell me the name and address of their landlords which they were very reluctant to do so, as they were all still very afraid and suspicious of questions, even asked by children. One lady who was so scared, that I had to put my foot in the door (I got very used to this tactic) was at last convinced that my family's only aim was to live in peace as ordinary neighbours. She gave me the information I wanted and lo and behold I met this very kind landlord who gave me a whole bunch of keys of several houses.
My mother managed to get a day permit and we chose a house we liked best and was the least damaged. Also here, there were remains of a German's 'den' under the floorboards.
After the English had done their last duties and the Germans were taken prisoner, the area was free again and soon all the houses were occupied.
One nastier thing happened. The water in the canal near the tank-wall was contaminated. We did not know this and we never knew if this was done deliberately or not. As children used to play there every day and many swam in the water there was soon an epidemic of scabies which was very itchy and painful. My brother and I caught it as well. We had to be covered with a certain sulphur cream which we got from the Health Authorities. We had to sleep with this cream on us and the next day we had to be scrubbed with a hard brush and lots of soapy water. Our pyjamas and underwear we had worn that night had to be burned and we were asked to bring mattresses and bed linen to Health Centres to be burned.
However my mother cleaned everything herself and surprisingly we did not get this scabies back for a second time.
Our lives went slowly back to normal. The war was past and we all hoped for a better world and an everlasting peace.
Now I feel very sad that since 1945 wars happen in different countries all over the world.
Why can’t people live peacefully together?
Now the situations in the world are very risky, dangerous and threatening.
I hope and pray that we will never have a third world war but it is very worrying.
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Title
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Coby van Riel - personal experiences in the war 1940-45
Description
An account of the resource
Begins in May 1940 in the Netherlands and relates experiences of start of war, invasion, air raids, casualties, air attack on Rotterdam, surrender of the Netherlands. Continues with account of events and life during occupation including regulations, treatment of Jewish people, German anti-invasion measures, forced relocation, starvation policy, lack of food and fuel for stoves, rationing, black market, speeches from Winston Churchill, raids by Germans on civilian population, cold winter 1944/45. Mentions launching of V-1s, increasing food shortages and measures used to get food. RAF dropping food at end of war. Concludes with account of times after war ended. Includes b/w and colour photographs.
Creator
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C van Riel
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-05-10
1942
1944
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Netherlands
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Coverage
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Civilian
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
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Text
Text. Memoir
Photograph
Format
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Fourteen page printed document with text and photographs
Conforms To
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Pending review
Identifier
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EvanRielCvanRielCv1
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
anti-Semitism
bombing
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
V-1
V-weapon
-
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1825/33687/SBrennanJ1210913v20005-00020004-0002.2.jpg
75120c7d47dbb1d7e0a496bc832764ca
Dublin Core
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Title
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Brennan, Jack
John Brennan
J Brennan
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
2017-04-05
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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Brennan, J
Description
An account of the resource
Twenty-four items.
The collection concerns Sergeant John Brennan DFM (1210913 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book as well as documents including a Goldfish Club certificate, notes from station and squadron operational record book with details of activities and operations, memoirs, newspaper cuttings and correspondence. In addition, contains operation order and other details for 617 Squadron's attack of German dams on 16/17 May 1943.
He flew operations as a wireless operator with 102 and 35 Squadrons.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by T Noble and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MEMORIES OF 405 PATHFINDER SQUADRON AND THE LAST FLIGHT of HOMEBY S/L John Roberts
The date was June 19, 1945. At 1100 hrs. I estimated our position as about halfway to the Azores from St. Mawgans, Cornwall. We cruised in brilliant sunshine at 8,000 feet, just above a solid bank of clouds. "WE" were the last crew of 405 Squadron, flying home from Linton-on-Ouse in a Canadian built Lancaster. With us were two passengers, A/V/M C.M. McEwen, AOC 6 Group Bomber Command, and his Scottish terrier, also known as "Black Mike". As I rose to stretch, F/E P/O A.W. (Bill) Bishop (no relationship to his namesake), his usual impish grin stretched from ear to ear, was pointing to our skipper, W/C Don McQuoid. "Tex", with folded arms and half closed eyes, relaxed while dependable "George" flew the Lanc steadily southward. "BISH", one of the freer of the many free spirits who inhabited Gransden Lodge, had been plucked one day from the ground crew by John Fauquier, whole F/E had suddenly taken ill. That same night BISH found himself on the way to THE target. ... Berlin, searching frantically, but unsuccessfully, in the nose of the Lanc for the chute through which to eject the bundles of "WINDOW". He remembered having been told that every time a bundle of the stuff hit the slip-stream a distinctive sound could be heard on the inter-com. Rising to the occasion, with his inter-com open, he uttered a discreet "pip, pip, pip" at suitable intervals to indicate that he was hard at work! Having done several "ops", BISH presented himself in the C.O.'s office. "Sir", he began, "I can see there is some risk involved in flying ops, but I am still being paid as a ground crew Sergeant. Shouldn't I be getting air crew pay?" Recognizing the merit of this observation, G/C John Fauquier, with one stroke of his pen, transformed BISH into instant Aircrew. Memories came, and still come, flooding back: thoughts of friends who were not flying home, or going home by any other means of transportation... The seven weeks, prior to take-off from Linton the night before, had been hectic ones ... The "MANNA" flights, marking the race track at LeHague, so that others could drop food – not bombs ... The "Exodus" flights, with twenty five P.O.W.'s jammed forward of the main spar for take-off from Brussels; back at 1,000 feet: tears streaming down the cheeks of battle-hardened "Tommies" as we crossed the White Cliffs – "Thought I'd never see 'em again, Matey!" VE DAY – and permission to fire Very pistols from the air on return to base. The first haystack, I'm sure, caught fire accidentally ... BISH, fat face aglow, eyes alight, bursting into the billet at midnight, with the SP's in close pursuit ... "The stupid SP's! If they had gone to the haystacks that weren't on fire, they'd have caught us, for sure!" May 26 – Sad farewells from the RAF, WAAF, and local residents, as the Canadians departed by train from Gamlingay to take up temporary residence at Linton-on-Ouse, Yorks, and to prepare to fly home. June 16 – The take-off of nineteen Lancs under the direction of W/C "Tex" McQuoid ... Alternating running down port and starboard sides of the same runway, number two half-way down the runway as number one was lifting off ... forming up and doing a low-level fly past in V's of three ... a magnificent show! Quiet descended. "Tex" and his crew must wait behind until the AOC was ready to depart. We could not leave the station – but the bar was still open. On the evening of June 17, BISH and his roommate "tied one on". Sometime after midnight, just before they both passed out, a cigarette butt was tossed in the general direction of the corner fireplace. About 3 A.M. a passing "ERK",
[page break]
seeing smoke coming from a window, turned in[sic] the alarm. The firemen found BISH and his pal sleeping soundly on smouldering mattresses. The carelessly thrown butt had ignited some newspapers, which had set fire to window drapes, which in turn had caused the only real casualty of the night – BISH's large kit bag, all packed for the journey home. Even BISH had to laugh as he viewed the remains in the early morning – nothing left but fine ashes and a near little pile of ... buttons! As one would expect, they were placed on charge: "Appear before SCO – 0900 hrs, best blues. "Best Blues?? BISH's best blues had just made the major contribution to the pile of scorched buttons. But the resourceful BISHOP, scrounger par excellence, searched the almost empty officers quarters and found a discarded, well-worn, officer's uniform. Shortly after 0900 hrs. The charges against BISH and pal were dismissed. Moreover, the SCO, trying to keep a straight face, had some difficulty delivering a severe reprimand. BISH was standing stiffly to attention in the uniform of ... A Group Captain! The SCO was outranked! ********* As we left the clouds behind us and rode the beam earthwards the island of Terceira was a beautiful sight, ruby red in a sea of wrinkled green velvet, under a deep blue sky. Our intended refueling stop was extended and after much delay became an overnight stop. Gander was socked in, as it so often is! Like so many places and people you see and encounter in life, the jewel of the ocean, on closer examination, was not what it appeared to be. The rich ruby red soil was volcanic dust, which rose in a cloud and hung in the still evening air as we trudged steadily downhill three miles to the nearest village. The five of us, who had exchanged our sterling for Portuguese escudos, endeared ourselves to the proprietor of the first pub we saw by each purchasing one or two bottles of good wine. The profit on these transactions put the publican in an expansive mood: drinks were on the house! While we sat on stools at the bar, the shot-glasses in front of us were repeatedly filled and emptied of many and various liquids. Finally, it was time to leave: we called a taxi. After a lengthy wait, during which the imbibing continued, the "taxi" arrived. Our conveyance was a two-wheel buckboard powered by a very small horse. BISH instinctively took the F/E position to the right of the vehicle's pilot – a small man with half-shut eyes, wearing a huge straw sombrero and carrying a whip. The rest of us piled in the back, two pairs facing each other. At the crack of the whip the little horse started up the hill at a gallop, its dainty hooves churning up the volcanic dust, which rose in a crimson cloud from the rough road. We bounced about on the hard benches, one such bounce shifting all of us far enough back to lift the little horse clear off the road. While the tiny hooves pounded the air the buckboard proceeded to roll down the hill. As we all shifted forward, the poor little horse also plunged forward with its heavy load. This manoeuvre, I regret to say, was repeated several times until BISH, who had been unusually quiet, suddenly turned, tears streaming down his face and exploded, "Stop! I can't stand it! All out!!" And out we, without anyone had to ask why. We paid the driver his fare, plus a handsome tip – in order to buy extra food for the over-worked horse – and completed our journey on foot. BISH turned to me. "Robbie" he said, "if, in the future, you're down on your luck, and life's going wrong for you – just think of that poor, bloody horse, and things won't seem so bad!"
Dear BISH ... Where are you now? S/L John F. Roberts 405 Squadron.
1.
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Title
A name given to the resource
Memories of 405 Pathfinder Squadron and the last flight of HOMEBY S/L John Roberts
Description
An account of the resource
Account of the last crew from 405 Squadron flying home from RAF Linton-on-Ouse. Tells the story of an airman groundcrew plucked to replace a flight engineer who had been taken ill and subsequently being transformed into aircrew. Mentions Operations Manna and Exodus. Writes of Canadian crew returning home and escapades of crew. Refuelling and overnighting adventures in the Azores.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
J F Roberts
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-06-19
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
England--Cornwall (County)
Azores
Azores--Terceira Island
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
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Two page printed document
Identifier
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SBrennanJ1210913v20005-00020004
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
405 Squadron
6 Group
aircrew
animal
flight engineer
ground crew
Lancaster
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF St Mawgan
-
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2e94d9db3d7c0e28d527952fa8407be0
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
Brennan, Jack
John Brennan
J Brennan
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-05
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
Brennan, J
Description
An account of the resource
Twenty-four items.
The collection concerns Sergeant John Brennan DFM (1210913 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book as well as documents including a Goldfish Club certificate, notes from station and squadron operational record book with details of activities and operations, memoirs, newspaper cuttings and correspondence. In addition, contains operation order and other details for 617 Squadron's attack of German dams on 16/17 May 1943.
He flew operations as a wireless operator with 102 and 35 Squadrons.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by T Noble and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[boxed] SQUADRON HISTORIES [/boxed]
[crest]
[italics] THE WINGED HORSE'S HEAD in the badge of 35 Squadron commemorates its co-operation with the cavalry in the First World War. Translation of the motto is "We act with one accord." Authority for the badge was given by King Edward VIII in October, 1936. [/italics]
OVER 400 TIMES THEY LED THE WAY
First of the Pathfinders
NIGHT after night they flew eastwards into danger.
Always they were there, ahead of the main bomber group, leading, guiding, indicating.
To them the men of the R.A.F.'s select Pathfinder Force, goes the highest of praise.
Their magnificent work ensured that Bomber Command's all-out efforts during the Second World War were not wasted, that the bombs hit Germany where it hurt most.
Among the most distinguished of the Pathfinder squadrons was No. 35.
With 7, 83 and 156 Squadrons it formed the nucleus of the force in August, 1942. And from then until the end of the war it supplied marking aircraft for no fewer then 425 attacks.
From St. Nazaire to Berlin and from Turin to Hamburg its aircraft clearly and effectively showed the way.
And the outstanding courage of its crews earned over 50 D.S.O.s, D.F.C.s and D.F.M's
But it wasn't only as a Pathfinder squadron that No. 35 gained distinction.
For 18 months before becoming one it had already been [missing letter]itting hard at a great variety of targets, from factories at Manheim to the battleship Tirpit[missing letter] at Trondheim.
It was, in fact, the [missing letters]rst squadron to us Halifaxes. It received them at Leeming, Yorks. on November 20. 1940.
From Madras
[italics] The money for them was [missing letters]vided by people of the Mad[missing letters] Presidency. And in appre[missing letters]tion the squadron has [missing word] been officially known as [missing numbers] (Madras Presidency) Squadron [/italics]
It was the intention of [missing word] Madras Provincial War Com[missing letters]tee to commemorate the gift [missing word] some more permanent to[missing letters] Soon after the war, [missing words] presented the squadron with a writing-table set, comprising an inkstand, blotting-pad and roller-blotter, all of Indian beaten silver and bearing the Madras Presidency arms.
No. 35 also saw much action in the First World War.
It was formed at Thetford, Norfolk, from a nucleus of 9 (Reserve) Squadron, on February 1, 1916.
After a period of training it flew to France on January 25, 1917, as a Corps squadron. Its aircraft were Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8s.
[italics] It was soon in the thick of the fray. Without respite it did sterling work in the Battles of Arras, the Somme, Ypres and Cambrai. [/italics]
Casualties were often heavy, but there was never any sign of faltering.
Advancing with the Army and carrying out a mixed bag of duties, from bombing to laying smoke-screens, it kept up the pace [indecipherable word] up to the Armistice.
Ten-year break
It returned to Britain early in 1919 and was disbanded on June 26 at Netheravon.
When it was re-formed on March 1, 1929, at Bircham Newton, Norfolk, it became a bomber squadron.
At first it received D.H. 9As, but they were soon replaced by Fairey 3Fs. Then in 1933 came Gordons.
In October, 1935, after the Italians had invaded Abyssinia, the squadron was sent to the Middle East. It stayed ten months.
Back home it faced a period of reorganisation. After moving in 1938 from Worthy Down to Cottesmore, it received Battles and Ansons. Then in 1939 came a move to Cranfield.
Quick start
For the first year of the war No. 35's duties were confined to training. But it soon made up for lost time.
Based at Linton-on-Ouse, it struck its first blow at the enemy on March 11, 1941, with a raid on the docks at Le Havre.
Other early targets included Bremen, Essen, Hamburg, Hanover, [indecipherable name], Kiel, Rotterdam, Stettin and Turin.
Several attacks were made on the battleships [italics] Scharnhorst and Gnelsenau [/italics] at Brest.
Among first crew-members to win awards were S/Ldr. J. B. Tait, who gained a bar to his D.S.O., and S/Ldr. T. P. A. Bradley who won a D.S.O. and a bar to his D.F.C. The latter was killed three years later in the Far East.
Early in 1942, before it became a Pathfinder squadron, No. 35 hit continually at vital targets in the Ruhr and other parts of Germany.
A change came on two successive nights in April, when attacks were made on the [italics] Tirpitz [/italics] in Trondheim Fjord.
1,000-bomber raid
[italics] Then on May 30 the squadron took part in the first 1,000-bomber raid on Cologne. [/italics]
First Pathfinder operation was made on August 18 against Flensburg. It was not a success.
The crews quickly gained proficiency, however, and were soon providing an effective spearhead to raid after raid.
In an attack on November 18 on Turin, the C.O., W/Cdr. B. V. Robinson, flew back to base at Gravely with his aircraft on fire.
He was killed the following August during a second spell with the squadron. Then a group captain, he had gained a D.S.O. and a D.F.C. and bar
Almost nightly
An attack on Berlin marked the opening of 1943. Then came raids on U-boat bases at Brest, Lorient and St. Nazaire, followed by almost nightly trips to the Ruhr.
Included in targets during June were the Schneider armament works at Le Creusot.
During that month F/Sgt. N. F. Williams, an Australian rear gunner, became the first member of the squadron to win a C.G.M.
[italics] On a raid on Dusseldorf, though partly paralysed through wounds in his body and legs, he stayed in his turret and shot down two enemy aircraft. [/italics]
He already held a D.F.M. and bar.
In August Nuremburg and Peenemunde were among the targets. Then, as another winter of all-out effort began, strong forces were led to Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Kassel, Mannheim, Munich and many other towns.
Another outstanding act of gallantry occurred in December S/Ldr. J. Sale, returning to [indecipherable word] with an aircraft extensively damaged by fire, ordered his crew to bale out.
But when he discovered one member had an unserviceable parachute, he stayed at the controls and brought off a most difficult touch-down.
The following March he crashed in Germany and was seriously wounded.
Conversion
That month No. 35 converted to Lancasters and began blasting pre-invasion targets.
[italics] After D-Day it augmented strategic bombing with tactical operations. It gave close support to our troops at Caen and Falaise and bombed the heavy-gun batteries at Walcheren. [/italics]
Attacks against flying-bomb sites and important store centres also formed part of the programme.
On a raid against Dusseldorf in November, S/Ldr. G. A. Patrick, a veteran of 118 sorties, kept on course even though his navigational aids were useless, and made a faultless bombing run.
No letting up
Operating by both day and night, the squadron kept hard at it right to the end.
Targets hit during the last months of the war included Bonn, Cologne, Goch, Mainz and Potsdam.
Final tasks were dropping food to the Dutch and flying home repatriated prisoners of war.
[italics] In July and August, 1946, No. 35 was honoured by being chosen to carry out the R.A.F.'s first post-war goodwill tour. [/italics]
Today it is still a vital part of Britain's striking force, being equipped with Canberras and based at Marham.
There is no doubt that it can always be counted on to maintain the magnificent pattern of efficiency and devotion to duty set by its gallant wartime crews.
[italics] Most of the information in this article was supplied by Air Force historian [indecipherable words] [/italics]
[page break]
[missing number] 6455
[inserted] DAILY TELEGRAPH MON. 29/12/1997 [/inserted]
SIR – I was disappointed that your obituary of Professor R. V. Jones (Dec. 20) mentioned only the Lancasters of Bomber Command. At the start of the Second World War the Wellington, Hampden and Blenheim did sterling service. Later the Command became all four-engined with the Sterling, Halifax and Lancaster.
While the Sterling was not a success, valuable work was done by the 6,000-odd Halifaxes, especially the later versions fitted with Hercules engines. Indeed, some Halifax crews loved to cut one engine on return from a raid and then overtake Lancasters while making an appropriate gesture. And while the Lancaster served only with Bomber Command, the more versatile Halifax operated with both Coastal and Transport Commands and dropped supplies and agents in occupied Europe.
Why is it, these days, that only the Lancaster is ever mentioned?
MIKE USHERWOOD
York
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
Two newspaper cuttings
Description
An account of the resource
First - over 400 times they led the way. Article about RAF Pathfinders. Crest and details about 35 Squadron. Also mentions 7, 83 and 156 Squadrons as nucleus of force in August 1942. Mentions some of their attacks and numbers of decorations awarded. Continues with mention of 35 Squadron Halifax and past history. Continues with other wartime exploits of squadron. Second cutting is a letter from Daily Telegraph complaining that the obituary of R V Jones did not mention aircraft of Bomber Command other than the Lancaster.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
M Usherwood
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1997-12-25
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-08
1940-11-20
1941-03-11
1942-05-30
1943-08
1946-07
1946-08
1943
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
France--Saint-Nazaire
Italy
Italy--Turin
Germany
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Mannheim
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
France--Le Havre
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Essen
Germany--Kiel
Netherlands
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Poland
Poland--Szczecin
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Flensburg
France--Brest
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
France--Lorient
France--Le Creusot
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Peenemünde
Germany--Kassel
Germany--Munich
France--Calais
France--Caen
France--Falaise
Netherlands--Walcheren
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Bonn
Germany--Goch
Germany--Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Germany--Potsdam
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
The Daily Telegraph
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two newspaper cuttings mounted on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SBrennanJ1210913v20004-00020003
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
156 Squadron
35 Squadron
7 Squadron
83 Squadron
bombing
bombing of Cologne (30/31 May 1942)
Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
Distinguished Service Order
Halifax
Lancaster
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Pathfinders
RAF Leeming
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF Marham
Tirpitz
V-1
V-weapon
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2007/33446/LDaymontWH1111945v1.1.pdf
30d966723d212a70c4a332f1d4e9507e
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
Daymont, William Henry
W H Daymont
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-10-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Daymont, WH
Description
An account of the resource
Seventeen items.
The collection concerns William Henry Daymont (b. 1920, 1111945 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, correspondence, his caterpillar club pin and photographs.
He flew operations as a flight engineer with 100 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Pauline Daymont 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
William Daymont's flying log book for navigators, air bombers, air gunners, flight engineers
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LDaymontWH1111945v1
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
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Flying log book for navigator’s, air bomber, air gunner’s, flight engineers for W. Daymont, flight engineer, covering the period from 11 August 1944 to 24 August 1945. Detailing his flying training and operations flown. He was stationed at RAF St Athan, RAF Hemswell, RAF Grimsby, RAF Elsham Wolds and RAF Driffield. Aircraft flown in were Halifax and Lancaster. He flew a total of 28 operations with 100 Squadron, 8 daylight and 20 night. Targets were Dusseldorf, Bochum, Dortmund, Wanne-Eickel, Aschaffenburg, Duren, Essen, Hamburg, Heligoland, Bremen, Berchtesgaden, Frieburg, Cologne, Leuna, Zeitz, Kleve, Dresden, Chemnitz, Duisberg, Pforzheim, Dessau, Kassel, Misburg, Plauen and Berlin. He also flew one Operation Exodus and two Operation Manna flights. His pilot on operations was Flying Officer Butler. </p>
<p> </p>
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.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
1944-11-02
1944-11-03
1944-11-04
1944-11-05
1944-11-06
1944-11-14
1944-11-15
1944-11-16
1944-11-17
1944-11-21
1944-11-22
1944-11-27
1944-11-28
1944-12-24
1945-01-14
1945-01-15
1945-01-16
1945-01-17
1945-02-07
1945-02-08
1945-02-13
1945-02-14
1945-02-15
1945-02-20
1945-02-21
1945-02-22
1945-02-23
1945-02-24
1945-03-07
1945-03-08
1945-03-09
1945-03-11
1945-03-12
1945-03-15
1945-03-16
1945-03-31
1945-04-10
1945-04-11
1945-04-14
1945-04-15
1945-04-18
1945-04-22
1945-04-26
1945-04-27
1945-05-01
1945-05-02
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Belgium
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Belgium--Brussels
England--Lincolnshire
England--Yorkshire
Germany--Aschaffenburg
Germany--Berchtesgaden
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dessau (Dessau)
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Düren (Cologne)
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Essen
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Hannover Region
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Kassel
Germany--Kleve (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Leuna
Germany--Pforzheim
Germany--Plauen
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Germany--Zeitz
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Wales--Glamorgan
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Germany--Freiburg im Breisgau
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
100 Squadron
1662 HCU
466 Squadron
aircrew
bale out
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
flight engineer
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 5
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
RAF Driffield
RAF Elsham Wolds
RAF Grimsby
RAF Hemswell
RAF St Athan
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1791/32506/LWierT500238v1.1.pdf
a4e87163f2955332acf448cb22d4dbe4
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
Wier, Tadeusz
T Wier
Tadeusz Wierzbowski
T Wierzbowski
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-01-22
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
Wier, T
Description
An account of the resource
24 items. The collection concerns Tadeusz Wier (b.1920) and contains his log books, memoirs, photographs and documents. He flew operations as a pilot with 300 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Michael Wier-Wierzbowski and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Tadeusz Wierzbowski grew up on a farm near Zgierz, Poland. He learned to fly at the training school at Deblin and escaped from the Nazi and Russian invasions in 1939. He travelled through Romania to the Black Sea, and was in France when the Nazis invaded. He eventually arrived in Liverpool on the Andura Star in June 1940.
He flew as an instructor, training others to fly for three years, before he was posted into combat with 300 Squadron. He flew 25 operations as a Lancaster pilot from RAF Faldingworth including bombing Hitler’s Eagle’s nest at Berchtesgaden.
Tadeusz was a test pilot after the war and shortened his name to Wier to make it easier for air traffic control officers. Over his career, he flew over 40 different aircraft types from Polish RWD 8 trainers to Vampire jets.
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
Tadeusz Wier flying log book. One
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One photocopied booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LWierT500238v1
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
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for T Wier, covering the period from 12 May 1941 to 5 October 1955. Detailing his flying training, Instructor duties, operations flown and post war flying with Number 4 Ferry Pool and Number 48, 9, 27 Maintenance Units. He was stationed at RAF Newton, RAF Montrose, RAF Farnborough, RAF Hucknall, RAF Finningley, RAF Blyton, RAF Hemswell, RAF Cardington, RAF Hawarden, RAF Bassingbourn, RAF Hullavington and RAF Shawbury. Aircraft flown in were Magister, Master, Hurricane, Henley, Tiger Moth, Lysander, Oxford, Tutor, Anson, Wellington, Halifax, Lancaster, Harvard, Vampire, Prentice, Auster, Lincoln, Dominie, Martinet, Hastings, Valetta, York, Meteor, Devon, Tempest, Mosquito, Beaufighter, Chipmunk, Spitfire, Hornet, Shackleton, Dakota, Canberra, Varsity, Venom and Balliol. He flew a total of 25 operations with 300 squadron including Operations Manna, Exodus and Dodge. Targets were Wiesbaden, Cleve, Dresden, Pforzheim, Gelsenkirchen, Nuremberg, Hanau, Bochum, Bremen, Hannover, Paderborn, Kiel, Plauen, Berchtesgaden, Gouda and Rotterdam.<br /><br />This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
England--Bedfordshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Shropshire
England--Yorkshire
Germany--Berchtesgaden
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Hanau
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Kleve (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Paderborn
Germany--Pforzheim
Germany--Wiesbaden
Netherlands--Gouda
Wales--Flintshire
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945-02-02
1945-02-03
1945-02-07
1945-02-08
1945-02-13
1945-02-14
1945-02-23
1945-02-24
1945-03-13
1945-03-14
1945-03-16
1945-03-17
1945-03-19
1945-03-20
1945-03-22
1945-03-23
1945-03-25
1945-03-27
1945-04-09
1945-04-10
1945-04-25
1945-05-02
1945-05-07
1945-05-25
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
1662 HCU
18 OTU
300 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
Beaufighter
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
C-47
Dominie
Flying Training School
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 5
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hurricane
Lancaster
Lincoln
Lysander
Magister
Martinet
Meteor
Mosquito
Operation Dodge (1945)
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Bassingbourn
RAF Blyton
RAF Cardington
RAF Farnborough
RAF Finningley
RAF Hawarden
RAF Hemswell
RAF Hucknall
RAF Hullavington
RAF Newton
RAF Shawbury
Shackleton
Spitfire
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1791/32503/BWierTWierTv1.2.pdf
5f188c9ba5ddfdcf0a5d99baf50ed940
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
Wier, Tadeusz
T Wier
Tadeusz Wierzbowski
T Wierzbowski
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-01-22
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
Wier, T
Description
An account of the resource
24 items. The collection concerns Tadeusz Wier (b.1920) and contains his log books, memoirs, photographs and documents. He flew operations as a pilot with 300 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Michael Wier-Wierzbowski and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Tadeusz Wierzbowski grew up on a farm near Zgierz, Poland. He learned to fly at the training school at Deblin and escaped from the Nazi and Russian invasions in 1939. He travelled through Romania to the Black Sea, and was in France when the Nazis invaded. He eventually arrived in Liverpool on the Andura Star in June 1940.
He flew as an instructor, training others to fly for three years, before he was posted into combat with 300 Squadron. He flew 25 operations as a Lancaster pilot from RAF Faldingworth including bombing Hitler’s Eagle’s nest at Berchtesgaden.
Tadeusz was a test pilot after the war and shortened his name to Wier to make it easier for air traffic control officers. Over his career, he flew over 40 different aircraft types from Polish RWD 8 trainers to Vampire jets.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
FLASHBACKS – 0 to 4
SQN. LDR. T. WIER, A.F.C., R.A.F. (Retd.)
[page break]
[underlined] 0 FLASHBACKS 0 [/underlined]
Most of my family are of the opinion that I ought to write something about my childhood. I guess they are right because I came and eventually settled in this country over half a century ago and with the exception of my wife and my son, Michael, no other member of my immediate family have seen or heard much about the part of Poland where I come from.
I must confess that up till now I did not think that the times of my youth were particularly interesting but, having lived all these years I have come to the conclusion that one should leave something in black and white for the children and succeeding generations.
I can even cite a personal example why one should do so. I have never met or known my grandparents because I was born quite a few years after their death. Therefore, the only good and reliable source of information about them would have been my own parents but, due to the way my life has been fashioned by world events, I could not talk to them about it, simply, because I was not able to see them in my later years. I saw the family for the last time during the Christmas holidays in 1938 when I was already in military uniform and spending the few days of my leave at home between recruit training with the infantry and posting to the Officers' Flying Training School in Deblin, Poland.
My father died less than a year later and I was not able to visit my mother after the war because the communist regime would not allow Polish citizens any social contacts with the people living in the Western countries. Actually, I received a letter from by brother about my mother's death six months after her demise while I was serving in Singapore. She died on the 1st of May, 1960, age 77 years. The next person to die in my family was my eldest brother, Wacek, and I got the news of that event again half way round the world while I was serving in Belize, British Honduras, in the early seventies.
It is obvious that I should start writing my story from as far back as it is possible. And, as all the beginnings come from our ancestors, then it must be in order to mention them at this stage.
Every time when I go to Poland, I set aside a few hours to visit the Parish Cemetery in ZGIERZ where a lot of my dead relations are now buried. It is not in any way a depressing experience because I usually find people there tending the graves, bringing flowers, clearing the footpaths or just simply walking about. There are permanent flower stalls outside the cemetery gates and they are open every day of the year. I still remember All Saints' Day celebrated on the 1st of November each year when there is a real flood of people who turn out in the evening to light the candles on the graves of their family departed. Some persons travel long distances, even scores of miles, to visit on that day their parents or other relatives graves
[page break]
2
and also to meet old colleagues and friends. Most of the graves will have dozens of candles flickering in the wind, others a few and there may be the odd one unattended. Very likely it will have a candle lit by a neighbour. The glow of thousands of candles is visible a long way off even on a darkest night, no matter what the weather. It is a real social occasion and one not to be missed lightly.
Last year, when I went to the cemetery, I made a note of the inscriptions on the gravestones of my grandparents and my parents.
Here are the names and dates I have noted: -
My mothers' parents: -
WAWRZYNIEC i MALGOZATA (z PABIANCZYKOW) WIERZBOWSCY
ZYL LAT 39, ZM. 4.10.1904 (Born 1582)
ZYLA LAT 67, ZM. 28.11.1917 (Born 1850)
My fathers' parents:-
BRONISLAWA i MARCEL WIERZBOWSCY
ZYLA 44 LAT, ZM. 3.1.1904 (Born 1860)
ZYL 56 LAT, ZM. 20.1.1906 (Born 1850)
My mother: -
ELEONARA WIERZBOWSKA
UR. 22.11.1882, ZM. 1.5.1960 (Lived 77 years)
My father: -
JOZEF WIERZBOWSKI
UR. 19.3.1883, ZM. 1.10.1939 (Lived 56 years)
Some explanatory notes: -
ZYL, ZYLA means Lived
LAT means Years
ZM. (Zmarl, a) means Died
UR. (Urodzony, a) means Born
WIERZBOWSCY is a collective name of the family.
It seems that in the nineteenth century Poland people did not live too long – old age being an exception rather than the rule.
As I said before, I never saw my grandparents and now I very much regret that I did not talk closely to my parents about the life of our ancestors. Were my mother and father
[page break]
3
alive today, I would have hundreds of questions to ask them but, unfortunately, it is too late and I have only odd bits of information which remained in my memory.
Somehow, I don’t think there was an opportune time, urge or sufficient will to delve deeply into my parents’ past. Neither do I know if the lives of my grandparents were particularly happy or joyous. None of them lived in a free country because Poland was then partitioned amongst our age-old enemies of Russia, Germany and Austria. It is certain that they were not benevolent as masters.
By a curious coincidence my mother’s parents had the same surname as my father. I queried that fact once or twice with my mother but she assured me that there was no blood relationship between her and my father. Apparently, her family came from a small settlement 25-30 miles to the west of KROGULEC which was the name of the village where we lived. I suppose, the chances are that some Wierzbowski strayed in one direction or another long, long ago and started a new branch of the family. However, my maternal grandparents must have lived not too far away because they are buried in our cemetery.
I only vaguely remember being told that my father’s parents lived in a neighbouring village and raised altogether twelve children, my father being the eldest of the five brothers. My mother had two brothers and two sisters, making five children in all on that side of the family. When I went back to Poland for the first time after my retirement in 1976, my brother, Ryszard, and I sat down and made a list of our first cousins. There were over sixty of them and some were already dead. One was killed as a soldier during the Polish campaign and another was murdered by the Gestapo during the occupation.
I think that my paternal grandfather was a small farmer because I remember that the parts of the land which were inherited by my father and belonged to our farm were really in the next village where the grandparents lived.
There is not much more that I can write about my grandparents so I will now say something about my parents, my brothers and my only sister.
My mother was married twice, my father being her second husband. Her first husband’s name was KOSTECKI so that my two elder brothers and the sister had that surname. Her name was GENOWEFA, I think she was born in 1900 or 01 which made her the eldest of the children. Unfortunately, she died in 1936 with lung disease – her trade was tailoring. Next was my brother WACLAW who served as an officer in the Polish Army (Armoured Brigade) and he was followed by HENRYK who trained at an Agricultural College and became a farmer. I believe their father died just before the First World War at a fairly young age.
I was born on the 2nd of January 1920 as the first of three brothers, the other being RYSZARD born in February 1921 and ZENON born January 1927. Ryszard became a chemical
[page break]
4
engineer and Zenek studied Agriculture and eventually took over our farm. There is only Ryszard left now of all of my family and we are in a kind of a race for the second place with the undertaker. I think our chances are fairly even.
Something about my father. As far as I can figure out, our part of Poland was under Russian occupation because my father was called up or conscripted into the Russian army. I still have a photograph of him in a Russian army uniform which was taken somewhere in Moscow. (There is an inscription on it to that effect). He was eventually taken prisoner by the Germans during the First World War and spent sometime in a Prisoners of War camp in Germany. I want to mention one legacy of those times which remained with him for the rest of his life – he had a somewhat choleric temperament and when he got mad he could swear fluently in three languages – Russian, German and Polish!
He returned home after the war and married my mother who was then a widow. I suppose one of the factors which helped in the marriage was the fact that my father's land was adjoining my mother's. The plots were divided only by the village road so it made economic sense to combine the two properties together. As a matter of fact, this made our farm one of the largest in the neighbourhood.
I was really born in a thatched cottage. It was very ancient, rather small and built on my mother's part of the property. A few years after my birth my parents must have decided that a larger dwelling was necessary. A new house was built of bricks and roofed over with tiles simply on the outside of the old cottage so that we had somewhere to live while the building was going up and the new roof covered the lot. I was then 4 to 5 years old.
One incident from that period of time remained in my memory and it concerns the actual new building. Well, the external walls were built of red-fired bricks but, I think, that in order to save expense, the chimney which was located in the centre of the house, was built of dried but unfired clay bricks. It was an important structure in the house because it contained near its base a kind of bakery for making our bread every week. I guess it was an accepted practice to use unfired bricks in that situation because, when the fire was lit in the bakery stove, it produced a lot of heat and would, obviously, further dry and harden the bricks. The chimney was partly built and then one night it came crashing down. There must have been some damage but, fortunately, no one was hurt. Next morning the builders inspected the havoc and looked for the cause of the disaster and eventually said that it must have been one of our dogs which peed against the corner of the chimney and thus weakened the structure. Some explanation! In point of fact I now think (with hindsight!) that the mortar they used which was lime and sand only might have been too wet and thus soaked the unfired bricks so they eventually gave way. Anyway, I believe they stuck to their story but had to rebuild the chimney where it stayed until recent years.
[page break]
5
One of the earliest memories which I have is that of our orchard. This happened while we still lived in the cottage and when I was very young. I was sick with measles and on top of that I caught a cold or some other infection, became very seriously ill and remained in bed for good few weeks. I remember when I was eventually allowed outside I saw the orchard in full bloom. We had a lot of fruit trees; - apples, pears, plum and cherry trees, damsons and also lots of fruiting shrubs. The time must have been in May or so because all the trees were covered in blossom. They looked beautiful to me and after being cooped up inside all those weeks, seeing the sun and the blue sky, and feeling the warm spring air, was as good as heaven to me, or at least a kind of paradise. I have never forgotten the experience.
I was my father's oldest child and he must have been quite fond of me because I was often with him and sometimes he led me around the farm by the hand. Life slows down in winter on the farm, the days get shorter so on most evenings my father would sit me on his knee and read aloud books to me. They were mostly fairy tales and, of course, I was fascinated by the wonderful stories. When my father read to me he also used a pointer showing me the words and letters as he pronounced them. Somehow or other I very quickly learned to read myself and from then on I was always in love with the written words and the treasures and wisdom to be found in books. Later on, when I was at school, I belonged and used three different libraries so that I would always have an unread book at hand. To illustrate my commitment to reading I will quote my uncle who seeing me for the first time during my return visit to Poland in 1976 said:- “Last time I saw you before the war you were reading a book and now almost forty years later on you still have a book in front of you.” Another uncle used to say to his children:- “Why aren't you like Tadek and read books?!” Those cousins reminded me of that many years later. I must have been a real pain in the behind to them.
The school starting age in Poland is seven years, although now they have a kind of preparatory classes from the age of six. My father knew the local village Schoolmaster fairly well and he arranged for me to start school before I was even six years old. It was a very small school, one classroom, one teacher and the kids up to the age of twelve or fourteen. I was probably a little shrimp of a lad amongst the other village boys and girls but I could read, while my contemporaries were beginning to learn the alphabet. Life was real easy for me then.
I don't really remember too much about that school except that I busted my collar-bone during one playtime period and was off school for two or three weeks. It was a peculiar kind of a game called “Snake” where about a dozen boys and girls would join hands in a line, usually according to size and then run. The 'heavy' end of the Snake would turn and the whole line would act like a whip. I was the sucker at the end of the line and went flying as if I were shot out of a catapult. Result, damaged and painful arm.
[page break]
I left the village school at the age of ten to attend a large school in town. From there to the Gimnasium still in Zgierz where I matriculated in 1938.
A few lines of information about our farm. It was situated 2 1/2 miles or so west of Zgierz which was our nearest town. I think we had over 25 acres of land and were mostly self-sufficient in food. 2 or 3 horses to work on the farm. 6 to 8 cows, some pigs, chickens, geese and turkeys. The farm produce included mainly rye grain, oats, barley, potatoes and plenty of fruit in the season. We had to go occasionally to town to get such things as sugar, coffee, tea and again fish which was usually salted or fresh herrings.
While I was at home, that is to say between the wars, we always had a hired man and woman living in; the woman helping mother in the house (laundry, baking) and working outside on jobs like milking cows and feeding poultry and pigs. The man would work mainly in the fields with my father. Of course, at harvest time everybody was on the go including us when we were off school. When the cherries were in season and there was no panic about work I would often hide in a tree with a book and stuff myself with fresh fruit. Now and again mother would chase us around to pick the cherries or plums as they could be sold in town without any trouble. They were sure great times!
I do not wish to create the impression that we were particularly well-off. Far from it! There was never too much money about and regular taxes to pay. It was the time of the Great Depression and there certainly weren't any farm subsidies to collect. It was more or less a hand to mouth existence and people would work for next to nothing, very often for their keep and a small reward. For instance, I never heard of the idea of pocket money for kids until I came to this country. I guess it would be very difficult to starve on a farm but we certainly never had any luxuries. Nevertheless, it was a healthy kind of life and the sun always seemed to be shining. Youth is such a wonderful time but one only learns to appreciate it in later years!
January 1992 T. Wier
N.B. One of my Aunts' first name was NEPOMUCENA. How about that?!
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[underlined] FLASHBACKS 1 [/underlined]
I still remember our first bombing raid. Not necessarily because it was the first but because it did not go exactly according to plan.
I was posted with the crew just after Christmas 1944 to No 300 Bomber Squadron at Faldingworth, near Lincoln. It was snowing heavily at the time - fortunately the journey was not too long, about 30 miles from Blyton, near Gainsborough, where we had finished our training on four-engined Halifaxes and Lancasters.
I think I ought to write something about my experiences in England up to that time because it is likely that they are different from those of my colleagues.
I started flying in England in May 1941 about 10 months after the collapse of France. I had one week on aircraft type Magister at Hucknall, near Nottingham and after that to Montrose in Scotland (NO 8 SFTS) for training on Masters and Hurricanes. From September until the end of that year I was in the south of England flying Henleys and Lysanders at Weston Zoyland [sic], Somerset. January and February 1942 Flying Instructors Course at Church Lawford, near Rugby and then a posting to No 25 (P) EFTS at Hucknall, Nottingham for duties as a Pilot Instructor. I must have been one of the youngest instructors there – a new, 22 year old Pilot Officer serving in “C” Flight with Capt. Tanski as Flight Commander.
The next two years felt like a constant roundabout. Each instructor had, normally four pupils every eight weeks and the first ten hours flying (average) with a pupil is mostly all talk in the air and often lots of explanations on the ground. So much talk that often one’s throat would get sore. And the pupil listened and learned to fly, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. What amazes me now is the fact that they learned so much in such a short time – first solo, spinning, aerobatics, instrument flying, cross-country flights and even night flying. I remember one poor soul made 23 approaches before finally landing without mishap. I must admit that landing was difficult that particular night because the wind was from the wrong direction. The Flight Commander and the instructors heaved a sigh of relief – somebody wanted to bring anti-aircraft artillery!
At Hucknall there was also another problem.
Practically each and every one of the instructors wanted to join an operational Squadron. Of course, the result was that there was a regulated list of such volunteers and one had to wait for one’s turn to be released from flying instructor’s duties. I must have been way down the list because my turn did not come until June 1944. Moreover, I only got in because someone ahead of me declined this privilege.
I received an allocation to a bomber Squadron and a posting to Finningley, near Doncaster for training on twin-engined Wellingtons. I was very pleased that my instructor would be Janek Dziedzic and Flight Commander Jozek Nowak – both of them my colleagues from the Flying School, Deblin, in Poland.
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At Finningley, apart from flying training the aircrew personnel were formed into individual aircraft crews, that is to say the crew would consist of pilot, navigator, bomb-aimer, radio-operator and two gunners. The flight-engineer would join the crew later for training on four-engined aircraft.
I was very lucky with my crew. They approached me as a gathered and complete group – all good lads – I had a lot of flying hours under my belt, maybe that helped. They were all N.C.O.s, younger than I was with the exception of the bomb-aimer a year or so older. The youngest was the rear-gunner, only nineteen!
Flight Sergeant Hieronim Stawicki, our Flight Engineer, became eventually “The Father” of the crew. I think he was 27 years old at the time and started flying with us in November 1944.
I return now to our arrival at Faldingworth. The end of December, winter, frost. There were not too many people as the older crews were finishing their tours of duty and some of the others simply were not returning from the raids. In spite of the fact that the Germans were retreating on all fronts, the Squadron was still losing crews. One aircraft lost meant seven aircrew, leaving a large hole in the Unit. Even during the last raid of the war on the 25th of April 1945 while bombing Berchtesgaden, one of Squadron aircraft was so badly damaged that the pilot was forced to crash-land in France. Luckily, the whole crew escaped without too many injuries. The bomb-aimer in that crew was my school-friend, Flying Officer, Roman Piaskowski.
A few weeks after our arrival, reporting to all our Commanders and some training flights we found ourselves on the 2nd of February 1945 at the briefing with all other aircrews for our first raid on Germany. Target – WIESBADEN. A night flight, but not too bad because most of the route was over France. The flight duration was about six hours.
As far as I remember the weather was fairly good. From time to time we could see the other aircraft in the stream. The only problem which we discovered on route to the target was strong head wind, much stronger than forecast – the navigator was complaining that we should be late over the target. I was not sure what to do about it – we increased the speed slightly, but this was not necessary as we discovered after our return to base. The correct procedure was to continue as per flight plan following the principle that the same wind was affecting all the other aircraft. I guess we must have been in good time over Wiesbaden.
There was quite a bit of anti-aircraft fire on the approach and over the target. Not much time to worry about it because one has to fly accurately following bomb-aimer's instructions. After a while the aircraft jumps up, “Bombs gone!”, bomb doors close and the aircraft shoots forward without the load.
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14,000 pounds went down – a great relief for the aeroplane and all crew members.
The return flight is always easier. The aircraft is very light and after crossing of the Channel everyone feels fairly safe. We were returning to Faldingworth from the south. When the navigator said that we were getting near the airfield I noticed the lights and received clearance to join the circuit and to land over the R/T. Normal circuit, approach and landing without much trouble.
Then our problems began. After clearing the runway and taxying [sic] to dispersal we stopped the engines and started to leave the aircraft. To my surprise we had landed at FISKERTON, an airfield few miles south of Faldingworth which also had Lancasters probably taking part in the same raid.
The worst trouble was that we were not allowed to take off again and return to Faldingworth because we had one or two hung-up bombs in the bomb bay which we were unable to jettison earlier. And naturally, the Armament Officer in charge of such operations decided that it would be more sensible to tackle a job like that in daylight rather than in the middle of the night. We, of course, had to sit and wait there, returning eventually to Faldingworth eight or nine hours later.
What had happened? Well, there were quite a number of Bomber Command airfields in Lincolnshire (I can list 10 of them within 12-15 mile radius of Faldingworth) and they were very much alike. That is to say, their lighting was similar, the runways more or less in the same direction and of nearly standard length. One thing which distinguished one airfield from another were the recognition letters placed in, what was called “The Outer Circle” of airfield lights. Nearly always they consisted of two letters – the first and the last letter of the airfield's name. Thus Faldingworth had FH and Fiskerton FN. I did see the letters when I was doing the circuit, but unfortunately, I did not know or realize that there was an airfield with similar letters so close to ours. As a matter of fact, I thought that the installation of the lights was slightly damaged and the centre bar of the letter H had dropped at one end and was simply leaning over. I fully intended to report the matter on the ground after landing.
This is my explanation of the incident. It ended without mishap, but now I realize that we really avoided trouble. A simple oversight on my part, but talking to our own air Traffic Control and landing at another airfield was neither a sensible nor a safe occupation.
I stopped flying as a pilot in the Royal Air Force towards the end of 1959. Sometime later I read the following short article (I do not know the author and I decided that it would be appropriate to place it on the last unused page of my Pilot's Flying Log Book:-
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[underlined] “I WANT TO BE A PILOT” [/underlined]
[underlined] by a 10- year old Schoolboy [/underlined]
“....I want to be a pilot when I grow up ….because it's a fun job and easy to do. That's why there are so many pilots flying today. Pilots don't need much school, they just have to learn to read numbers so they can read instruments. I guess they should be able to read road maps so they won't get lost. Pilots should be brave so they won't be scared if it's foggy and they can't see, or if a wing or motor falls off, they would stay calm so they will know what to do. Pilots have to have good eyes to see through clouds and they can't be afraid of lightning or thunder because they are closer to them than we are. The salary pilots make is another thing I like. They have more money than they can spend. This is because most people think plane flying is dangerous except pilots don't because they know how easy it is. There isn't much I don't like except girls like pilots and all the stewardesses want to marry pilots so they always have to chase them away so they don't bother them. I hope I don't get air sick because I get car sick and if I get air sick I couldn't be a pilot and then I would have to go to work....”
I guess this is the right way to finish this part of my recollections.
June 1991
T. Wier
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There must be lots of reasons which influence and help young people in the choice of their career. I was already interested in flying in Primary School – I read what I could find about the subject, made flying models of gliders and aeroplanes and when I was in Gimnasium (Grammar School) I attended several lectures given by a glider instructor. At fifteen or sixteen I received a brochure describing conditions of Service in the Polish Air Force and in the Officers Flying Training School situated at that time in Deblin forty or fifty miles south of Warsaw. There were a number of photographs in the book and the one that impressed me a lot was a photograph of a pilot with the rank of a colonel in the Polish Air Force. He looked very smart at at 36 was about to retire. Fantastic! Of course the profession was somewhat risky and there was always a possibility of a fatal accident but the pilot then had a very impressive funeral and a propeller over his grave!
One of the books which I read was by Captain Janusz Meissner and the title of it was “School of Young Eagles”. Beautifully written and the contents were really inspiring – kind of an answer to the dreams of all would-be young Flyers. As it happened we met Captain Meissner later while we were interned in Romania and where he was our Unit Commander for a while. A very imposing and kind officer – he looked after us like a father. Very much like “Captain Grey” - the character in the book I mentioned.
While considering my future career I received some advice from my older colleague. Takek Walczak matriculated from the same school in ZGIERZ one year ahead of me and joined the Polish Air Force in 1937. He was actually then at the Flying School and I met him while he was on leave all resplendent n his uniform and the “walking out” dagger at his side. My original intention was to apply for admission to the Technical Officers School but he soon convinced me that life as a “plumber” would be very dull and that of a pilot much more interesting.
I must now admit that he was absolutely right. I can not now imagine the 22 years of my life from 1938 to 1960 in a profession other than as a military pilot. I feel certain that I have lived during the “golden age” of aviation. When I started flying the aeroplanes were “string, wires and canvas” (at least the first ones I trained on were!) and by 1948 I was flying the early jet aircraft. In 1957 the SPUTNIK was circling the globe and in 1969 NEIL ARMSTRONG walked on the surface of the moon. What progress!
Soon after my matriculation in 1938 I received a notification to attend a course on gliders in Ustianowa, South-East Poland. Two weeks earned my category “B” on glider type “Wrona”. Week or two later another course in Ustianowa but this time for selection to the Officers Flying Training School. Gliders “Czajka” and “Salamander” ending with the award of category “C”.
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After all these valiant efforts the authorities still managed to get hold of me and sent me to a Labour camp in Southern Poland. The work involved building a road and was kind of obligatory for all students who have completed secondary education. I think the attachment was for a month or so. However, the Camp Commandant realized that I have done my stint of service for the Government and sent me home after three or four days. Just in time for the harvest! Father was very pleased – great help on the farm.
End of September 1938 found me in a khaki uniform with a very short haircut in the barracks of 31st Infantry Brigade in Lodz for my course of Recruit Training. Lots of drill, marching, weapon training, instructions in field tactics, rifle and machine-gun range firing and, thank God, after Christmas posting to Flying School in Deblin. Much, much better there! Fitted uniforms, modern barracks, mattresses instead of straw pallets. (Easy to remake the bed after duty N.C.O.s' failed inspection). About an hour of drill a day and an awful lot of lectures. I think that we had about seven hours – one had to have a brain like a sponge to assimilate it all – somehow a lot stayed in. We started lectures about six or seven in the morning then one break and a small snack at eleven. Lunch was well after two in the afternoon. And one hour of drill after that!
Spring 1939. The weather was kind because I remember that we finished initial flying training on aircraft RWD 8 fairly quickly. We used a small grass satellite airfield called Zajezierze on the west side of the river Vistula. I ought to add that the main airfield at Deblin, the other satellite airfields and the nearby town Irena were all on the right, east bank of the river.
Before the first solo we had a dual flight and carried out spinning on aircraft type PWS 26 (our initial RWD 8 was non-aerobatic and not stressed for practice of spinning) and after that a free fall parachute jump out of a large three-engined Fokker aircraft. There were six of us in each group to carry out the jump and I was the first to be pushed out of the aeroplane. I do not know if I was the lightest or the heaviest in the group but I fell down fairly fast. 3 seconds later I pulled the ripcord and the parachute opened without any trouble. One had to hang on to the handle of the ripcord because it’s loss meant a small fine and every penny of our meagre pay soon got used up. What actually frightened me most was the fact that I seemed to be heading straight for a huge metal wind indicator which was situated in the corner of the airfield not too far from the Officers’ Mess. However, my Guardian Angel looked after me and I managed to land several yards away from this obstruction. There would not be much fun having an argument with such a heap of iron and one could certainly do oneself an awful lot of painful injury by landing on it.
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I do not remember now the exact date but early in June we found ourselves at another satellite airfield called Borowina. I still had my original instructor on the next type of aircraft which was a biplane PWS 26. I think now that my instructor was near enough a saint – he never got angry and had infinite patience. Only once, I remember, he told me after an hour’s instrument flying under the hood that he could not have lasted much longer. I don’t know if it was my flying or some other reason that caused the remark.
I recollect a couple of incidents from that part of my flying career. I was very impressed with the speed with which our Technical Branch dealt with a problem which was discovered in our aircraft following a near-fatal accident. It happened that one of our lads, Stasiek Litak, was carrying out an exercise in spinning. This required starting the spin, two or three turns and then recovery. Fairly simple exercise – one needed some height, a clear bit of sky, speed reduced to minimum and then the stick fully back, rudder pedal hard over to one side and the machine goes round. for the recovery exactly opposite action of the flying controls, that is to say, the stick fully forward and the rudder pedal hard over to the other side. I must add that Stasiek Litak was a big chap and wore very large size boots. (This has no connection with the incident but he was a brilliant player on the accordion). What I heard eventually was that Stasiek started the spin OK but while doing so his foot slipped of [sic] the rudder and got jammed by the side of the fuselage and the bar itself. In spite of great efforts he was unable to pull his foot out and apply the opposite rudder. And so the aeroplane continued spinning although at a slower rate all the way down. I believe Stasiek was injured but, fortunately, still able to explain what had happened.
Few days later all the PWS 26 aircraft were modified – special wooden guards were fitted to prevent the foot getting jammed. Very simple and effective.
We had a very comprehensive program of flying exercises to carry out. Towards the end of the course one of them involved live air to ground firing – fixed machine gun firing through the propeller into a target on the ground. The target was a large rectangle of cleared ground and covered with smoothed-out sand so that every bullet hitting it would show a trace. We had a prescribed number of rounds loaded for each pilot to fire and it was thus fairly simple to count the hits and figure out who was a good shot.
As the target was flat on the ground, one had to dive and aim the aircraft. Furthermore, the nearer the vertical the dive and closer to the ground, the better the score. Of course, we were limited to the number of passes we could make on the target so one had to judge everything nicely – there wasn’t much time to correct any mistakes.
I guess, I must have got a pass-mark for my live firing – I certainly do not remember my score. But I remember what happened to another pilot doing the same exercise.
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Parallel with our course we had eight or ten officers from the Bulgarian Air Force trained by Polish instructors. They were not billeted with us and we saw them only from time to time. Their senior officer was a Bulgarian captain, very strict, keen and correct. He was always trying to get top marks in every activity, no doubt to set a good example to his other officers.
Unfortunately, as I said before, one did not have much time to correct mistakes during the air firing exercise. It was necessary to stop the firing and pull out of the dive in good time to avoid crashing into the ground. Few seconds too long and the pilot was in trouble which is exactly what happened to our Captain. He must have pulled out very hard but did not quite make it and left some bits of his aeroplane on the surrounding bushes and trees. Somehow he got away without serious injury himself.
September 1939 and the German invasion of Poland. The bombing of Deblin and our own airfield was not very pleasant. Fortunately, we were a mile or so away from the airfield and nobody was injured in our Section. The bombing took place about lunchtime on the 2nd of September and that afternoon we cleared out of our barracks and continued the march for most of the night in the direction of Lublin, which was South-East of our airfield. We stopped for a couple of days near a large farming estate and from there I was detailed for my last flight in Poland. I do not know how it happened but I think that my instructor must have been confident of my flying ability because I was instructed to fly one of our training aircraft, PWS 26, in formation with my instructor in the direction of Lwow in South-East Poland. These aircraft were already dispersed from our home airfield so the take off and landing were to be on temporary landing grounds. My instructor flew ahead and I had to follow him. We were flying quite low and I simply kept close so as not to lose his aircraft – he was navigating for both of us. My attention must have wandered off temporarily because I got a real fright when a tall chimney of some brickworks or a factory suddenly appeared ahead of me. Quick yank on the stick and full throttle got me out of that predicament. I landed, eventually, behind my instructor on a field still covered with short stubble from the recent harvest. After landing, the aeroplane was pushed tail first into a nearby wood, few branches across the front completed the camouflage. I guess, the Russians found the aircraft there when they marched in, we could not fly them any further because of lack of fuel.
About 11 o'clock on Sunday, 17th of September our Commanders received a message that the Russians have invaded Poland from the East. Soon after came the order to evacuate the Unit in the direction of Rumanian border and next day we found ourselves in that country – disarmed and in a foreign land.
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It must have happened during our journey to the southern region of Rumania. Somewhere and somehow I contracted dysentery, most likely eating contaminated fruit. I spent about a week in a hospital in Tulcea and slowly recovered my health. My youth and skilled medical care helped to overcome a very unpleasant illness.
Unusual coincidence. My father, in Poland, only 56 years old at the time, also contracted this disease about the same time as I did. He died because of it on the 4th of October 1939. I received the information about his death and the cause of It well after the war ended. Life for a life?
The following recollection which touched me very deeply will always remain in my memory. It happened on the first Sunday of our internment in Rumania. A large camp of tents, Holy Mass in the open and at the end a hymn: -
O God, Who for centuries Have allowed Poland
The splendour of might and glory and Who
Protected her with the shield of Your care
From the misfortunes which had threatened.
We carry this prayer before Your altars
Bless our free Motherland, O Lord.
We sang:-
Return to us our Motherland, O Lord.
I was then nineteen....
Tadek Wier
August 1991
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Rumania. Soon after my return from the hospital (first days of October, 1939) we were moved from the tented camp in Tulcea to a village in Dobrudja, somewhere near Bazargic in South-East Rumania. Bolek Uszpolewicz and I were billeted with a village family which consisted of the old farmer and wife, his married son and wife, and a younger daughter of the old farmer, about twenty years of age. Bolek was six years older than I and his family lived in Lithuania.
I must add that I am relying entirely on my memory when writing these recollections and sometimes I am not quite certain of the dates. The reason for this is that during our internment in Rumania everybody was trying to escape to the West, that is to say to France or England which were still at war, and so to continue fighting the Germans. The right way to go about it was to get rid of everything which would connect a person with the fact that he was in the Polish Forces, then acquire a civilian suit and proceed to a designated collection point given to us just before the escape. Therefore, all the photographs, documents and papers had to be destroyed or thrown away. As a result, I do not have any positive records from that period of time. I am not quite certain now that such a drastic clear-out was absolutely necessary, but when one is young and without experience of tricky matters, it is best to listen to the advice of people who are older and have the knowledge of what to do in unusual circumstances.
Our old farmer left the house practically every day to work in the fields and always took with him a full jug of wine. The jug was a fair size, three pints or so and when he returned in the evening he was in high good humour. His son invited us one day to have a look at their cellar where the wine was kept – huge barrel, about five feet in diameter – must have lasted a whole year until next grape harvest.
I am ashamed to say that I do not remember our host's name or even their religion. Rut religious they were. Each Sunday the young woman in the house would trot off to church and later join the group of young people gathered in the village square. There was a small band of musicians and men and women would dance. The dances had a definite oriental flavour – very likely the influence of Bulgaria and Turkey.
A small happening which I recollect with pleasure. Our food was no great shakes and there wasn't too much of it. The winter was approaching fast, November, snow, frost and often howling wind – a hungry person feels such discomforts quite a lot. Bolek and I decided that it would be nice to have a real feast for once. We managed to save some money and then bought a goose from a neighbour's wife. This lady, very kindly has agreed to cook or roast the goose for us. The cooked bird was truly delicious – stuffed with sauerkraut and paprika. These two ingredients seemed to a perfect flavouring for the goose meat, I would recommend this method of preparing it to any cook or chef.
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Sometime at the beginning of December we got our, sort of, civilian outfits, some extra money for the journey and one early morning caught a train which eventually took us to Balcic on the coast of the Black Sea and very close to the Bulgarian frontier. We waited there a couple of weeks or so for the boat and for our travel documents. These, of course, were forged and our senior officers had a lot of work inventing new names for all of us. I don't think they had much trouble finding one for me – Tadeusz Eugeniusz Wierzbowski disappeared and Maciej Gruszka showed up in his place. I guess I ought to add that there is a common Polish proverb which says that the good times will come when willow trees will start growing pears. And wierzba means willow in Polish – gruszka is a pear!
A few days before Christmas a boat called “Patris” showed up in the harbour. There must have been several hundreds of us and all eager to get away. We eventually found out that our destination was Beirut in, as it was then Syria. The boat must have been fairly small and rather unstable because when we were passing one of the islands and most of the passengers on top moved to one side to get a better view, the boat listed quite a few degrees towards the island.
We landed in Beirut two or three days before Christmas and spent the next three weeks in a military camp just to the north of the city. With French hospitality we were treated at Christmas to a choice meal and half a bottle of champagne. Once or twice we wandered into the city – very busy, lots of money changers and cafes – sweet, thick coffee and cakes when one could afford it! What surprised me a lot was the sight of fruiting orange trees (January!) and the cheepness [sic] of oranges – one could buy a dozen for next to nothing.
About the middle of January we embarked on a large passenger ship and after leaving Beirut spent few pleasant days on the journey to Marseille [sic]. They were pleasant because the weather was quite good and when we sailed through the Straits of Messina (between Sicily and Calabria – Italy was then still neutral) we had a good view of Mount Etna and sometime later the island and volcano of Stromboli.
The ship docked in Marseille on the 20th of January, 1940. Hard winter there - frost, some snow and a short stop-over in a camp just outside the town. Very primitive, I think we inherited it after the refugees from the Spanish Civil War. Eventually we were transported to a camp near a village of Sept Fonds, not far from Caussade in South-West France. Lovely countryside, but the camp not so good, very much like the one in Marseille.
The situation improved a lot when we were moved to Lyon in March, 1940. We stayed in Lyon-Foire, a large building which housed some sort of Exhibition a year or so before. It was located on the edge of the city and right on the bank of the River Rhone. Nearby was a nice park – I still remember a flock of peacocks which was kept there – they would strut around and display their dazzling tail feathers.
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The city itself was very impressive – lovely buildings, bridges over the Rhone, spring and early summer – about the best time of the year to get to know the place and to learn French which was most important for further service in the Air force there.
It did not last long. The German offensive started on 10th of May, 1940. We had an early raid by German bombers directed mainly against nearby airfield of Lyon-Bron used by our training Units. There were casualties, killed and wounded. One of the young officers in the air at the time attacked the formation of bombers but was himself shot down by them and killed – death of a hero!
The 18th of June, 1940 was a sad day in Lyon. The end of the fighting in France and the armistice. Also the tears of the women who wept as they watched us marching from Lyon-Foire to the railway station. Overnight journey and we found ourselves the next day somewhere near Montpelier on the Mediterranean coast of France. We waited there nearly two days because our Commanders expected a boat or a ship to transport us to North Africa or to England. Unfortunately, nothing turned up and we were loaded on to a train again and transported in the direction of the West coast of France. The train stopped for several hours in Toulouse on a siding and alongside a goods train. I mention this because someone discovered that one of the wagons of the goods train was loaded with boxes of fresh peaches. I do remember that we were very hungry, so in no time at all quite a few of the boxes found their way on board or our train. Soon there was no trace of the peaches and the empty boxes disappeared also. Since then, I have noticed, that I had become very indifferent to the sight or taste of fresh peaches.
After our stop in Toulouse the train headed southwards towards the Spanish frontier through Bayonne and halted eventually in St Jean de Luz. I think we spent the night there and the next day started boarding a British ship which was anchored about half a mile from the shore. The ship was called “Andora Star”.
The following letter from a reader appeared in the “Sunday Times” on the 13th of October, 1991:-
LAST TO LEAVE: The account of Sir James Goldsmith's escape from France in 1940, News Review last week stated that his family left from Bayonne in the last ship to leave for England. On Monday, June 24 1940, we (my family) overtook a German advance military unit just north of Bordeaux and raced on to Bayonne to find the British Consul had moved to St Jean de Luz. It was there that we boarded the Arandora Star, together with the remnants of the Polish air force. The ship sailed at 17.30 on June 24 with 4000 on board and reached Liverpool on June 27. That was the last sailing from the Atlantic coast of France to England.
I remember it well – I was there. - R.S. Bendall, Exeter.
I was there as well among the others....
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I also have a Post Scriptum about the ship “Arandora Star”. It happened that the journey from St Jean de Luz to Liverpool was the last that the ship completed successfully. The next sailing from Liverpool to Canada on the 1st of July 1940 ended tragically when the ship was torpedoed soon after passing Ireland by a U-boat whose Captain was the renowned Gunther Prien of Scapa Flow fame. The Arandora Star went down in half an hour with the loss of 800 lives.
My Guardian Angel was still taking care of me.
Tadek Wier.
October 1991.
[underlined] FLASHBACKS 4 [/underlined]
I ought to explain how it came about that I changed my surname from WIERZBOWSKI to WIER.
During the second half of 1948 I received my appointment to a Short Service Commission in the General Duties Branch of the Royal Air Force. This was a very welcome news because, before that, I spent my time in the Polish Resettlement Corps on detachments to various R.A.F. Units where I was employed on administrative duties and later, just over four months of 1948, on a training course in Millom, Cumberland, learning the trade of turner and metal-worker. I enjoyed that course quite a lot because I was always interested in technical matters. The theory and practice of turning and metal work came in very handy when I retired from the Royal Air Force in 1975 and managed to do one year's training in watch and clock repair under the auspices of the Training Opportunities Scheme (TOPS) which was then available for ex-service personnel.
It was great to get back to flying. I shall always be grateful to the members of the R.A.F. Selection Board for allowing me to continue my career of the military pilot which was my original choice when I left school in Poland in 1938. My flying stopped when I left 300 Polish Bomber Squadron a few months before the Squadron was finally disbanded on the 11th of October 1946.
Actually, I did a fair amount of flying with the 300 Squadron from the end of the war until 7th of June 1946 – my last flight there recorded in my Pilot's Flying Log Book.
My final wartime bombing raid was on Berchtesgaden, Hitler's residence in the Alps, on the 25th of April 1945. Three days later, on the 28th of April we were off again to Europe, but this time on, a kind of, rescue mission, that is to say, repatriating former British Prisoners of War from one of the Allied forward airfields which I think was somewhere in Belgium. We were scheduled to carry back 20 men from Belgium to an airfield just north-west of London. We were taking with us 20 extra Mae Wests (life jackets!) for our passengers. I mention this fact because the flight did not start very well as one of our engines caught fire few seconds after take off. To close the throttle, feather the propeller, turn off fuel and press the fire extinguisher took less than a minute and we were back again on the ground in 12 minutes-flat landing on 3 engines.
While we were carrying out our circuit and landing, Wing Commander Jarkowski, our Squadron Commander, did some very smart, fast footwork and organised a replacement aircraft, so that after landing all we had to do was to transfer our own flying gear and the extra 20 Mae Wests to the other aircraft which was waiting for us with engines warming up. We were slightly behind the rest of our chaps but at least we got on the way without further problems and well in time to collect our 20 passengers who, otherwise, would have been cruelly disappointed.
[page break]
2
About one and a half hours after take off from Belgium we were landing in England. There was a very touching moment when we were coasting in somewhere near Dover and my crew brought the passengers forward in small batches to see The Cliffs when we were approaching the coast. There were some tears – quite a few of the men have been in captivity since 1940.
Few days later starting on the 2nd of May we carried food supplies to Holland which was then still under German Occupation. The drop was made from a very low altitude to prevent scattering of the load. These supplies were desperately needed because the people in Holland were near starvation and the drops must have been a success because we flew again on identical missions on the 5th and 7th of May, 1945.
The war in Europe ended on the 8th of May 1945. From then on we were busy carrying supplies to Europe and on the return journey bringing back former Prisoners of War. One or two flights were to and from temporary forward airfields surfaced with PSP (Pierced Steel Planking) making it a bit of tight squeeze to land a four-engined Lancaster on an airfield used only by our Spitfires or other light aeroplanes.
These operations ceased towards the end of June 1945 and we were then able to relax and fly over Germany on sightseeing trips. I have two such sorties listed in my Log Book – the first with my crew only to see the damage caused to targets which we bombed and to observe the results of the bombing from a comfortable height of 2000 or 3000 feet. Appropriately, this flight was named “Post Mortem”. The second flight was made for the benefit of our ground crew personnel who worked all hours of day and night throughout the war years to keep our aeroplanes in the air. No doubt, they understood that without their contribution, it might have been German airmen looking at such sights over England.
In September 1945 we started flying to Italy to transport mainly army personnel back to United Kingdom for their leave. Again 20 men at a time were back in England in about seven hours. The route for the outbound and return flight was via the South of France, near Northern Corsica, then Elba, with landing at Pomigliano, close to Naples which was our pick up point. On one occasion, when we were approaching Naples, I made a wide circuit over the Vesuvius and Pompei and actually had a look from above inside the cone of the volcano. It looked like a funnel of ashes – that’s all.
We usually spent one night in Naples and then back home the next day with the passengers. I remember that on one of my trips when we were delayed, I managed to get a ticket and see a splendid performance of the opera “Aida” at the Royal Opera House in Naples. Beautiful singing, music of the orchestra, costumes and scenery – quite an experience, I must say.
As a Flight Commander, it fell to me on one return journey to carry 20 nurses – all females; and all delivered safely back to England.
3
Some of the flights were not very pleasant because, as the autumn progressed, we had to fly sometime through severe storms which seemed particularly vicious at that time of the year in the Bay of Genoa and on our route. For the comfort of the passengers and safety we had to maintain heights of about 5000 to 8000 feet and these are pretty nasty heights to fly through a thunderstorm. Fortunately, such bad flying conditions do not last for very long and twenty to thirty minutes was enough to get through the worst turbulence, hail rain, lightning or what there was about. Nevertheless, we were unlucky in losing one aircraft and the crew somewhere over the Mediterranean. I do not remember now if they had any passengers on board or not.
On the 4th of November, 1945, my crew and I flew to Gatow airfield, Berlin, for an overnight stay and to have a look at the capital of Germany which was then still mostly in ruins. A short wander around the City, a walk through the parts of Reich Chancellery which were accessible and a flight back to UK. I guess, we used the same corridor route as the aircraft which were to fly in the supplies during the Berlin Airlift a couple of years later.
I had 2000 flying hours flown on various types of aircraft when I left the Squadron in 1946. I suppose this flying experience helped me to be selected for service in the Royal Air Force and to be employed on flying duties as a pilot.
Because I haven't done any flying for over two years I had to complete a 3-week Pilot Refresher Flying Course at R.A.F. Finningley and then I was posted to No 4 Ferry Pool which at that time was located at R.A.F. Hawarden, near Chester. I also spent further 3 weeks at R.A.F. Aston Down, near Stroud, converting to other types of aircraft, as well as jets.
I found the task of ferrying aeroplanes very rewarding and interesting for two main reasons. The first was the fact that I visited just about all the airfields in use in the United Kingdom at the time, delivering or collecting aircraft. The flights were carried out normally in fairly good weather but, inevitably, one encountered all sorts of conditions on longer trips and sometimes diversions were necessary. Great experience for getting acquainted with the geography of the country as we operated the length and breath [sic] of Great Britain, from the very North of Scotland to the Channel coast in the South and from the North Sea in the East to all of Northern Ireland in the west. Later on we also flew on some of the ferrying duties between UK and our Units in the British Zone of Germany.
The second interesting point was the variety of the aircraft which we ferried about. I was lucky because I qualified on all the categories which were then currently in use. All the single-engined, twin, four-engined and jets. Such was the variety that flying three different types and categories in one day was routine.
[page break]
4
Looking through my Log Book and monthly summaries I have the following: -
January 1949 - 9 types
May 1949 - 10 types
June/July 1949 - 12 types
June 1951 – 13 types
With such a collection of aeroplanes, one would learn peculiarities of each type and remember the differences – Pilot’s Notes were always handy to refresh one’s memory. Fortunately, flying itself is always standard; forward fast or slow, left or right, and up or down!
As I mentioned before, ferrying of aircraft meant landing and taking off from a lot of different airfields. Visiting 20, 25 locations in one month was again routine. Normally, the flight details would be passed to these airfields by phone from our Operations Room first thing in the morning and, similarly, that information updated would be phoned through between the airfields concerned as the day progressed.
One of the items of information phoned through would be the aircraft captain’s name and, of course, a name like Wierzbowski with eleven letters in it offered innumerable permutations for misspelling to the Air Traffic Control clerks who would copy out the name on the Movements Board for use by the Controllers.
A pilot would usually visit or contact the Air Traffic Control after arrival or before departure to check on the weather or other flight information of the destination aerodrome. Nearly every time during my visits I would see my name misspelled in a variety of ways. Then, after a few weeks with the Unit even our operations people got tired of spelling-out such a long name and started using a shortened form of the first four letters of it, that is to say, WIER.
I suppose, it was lucky that we had no other pilot with a name like WEIR because that is how my name sometime still appeared. And still does!
I guess what really convinced me that it would be right to change my name formally was the incident which occurred when my daughter, Elizabeth, started attending the Primary School in Ellesmere Port where we lived from 1949 onwards. I do not remember the exact date when this happened but Libby was then about eight years old and, one day, her teacher asked Elizabeth to write her full name on the blackboard for all the children in the class to see. No doubt, the teacher meant well but was somewhat insensitive to Libby’s embarrassment at being so different from all the other Smiths, Jones, Mills or what have you. I believe, Libby cried and refused to obey the teacher’s request and had to suffer painful consequences as a result.
I changed my surname by Statutory Declaration soon after to WIER. Even after that, my name was still somewhat
[page break]
5
unusual because of the strange spelling and until my retirement from the Service in 1975 was the only one so written in the Official Air Force List.
My son, Michael, was born in February 1952, a couple of years after the change of my surname and was duly registered as Michael Richard WIER. Sometime in his teens he decided that he was deprived of his Polish heritage to a certain degree and so after his eighteenth birthday he added the full name of Wierzbowski to his own. This was all done legally and at his own expense. I must say, I was quite touched by his determined action and, of course, very proud of the fact that he wanted to acknowledge his paternal ancestry and descent.
I imagine all this sounds like a very long-winded explanation of a simple happening but I have to point out that the situation and conditions 40-45 years ago were very different from the present. Life is much simpler now – we have Singhs, Patels, Wongs or Muhammads, one hears names like Gorbachev or Yeltsin and nobody bats an eyelid at the sound of them. It sure is a very welcome progress!
Talking of progress; I had a good example of it when Michael was about 3 years old. I will mention it now because at the time it made me realize that the world is developing much faster than we think or are aware of.
We lived in Whitby, Wirral, not very far from R.A.F. Station, Hooton Park, which was then used by an Auxiliary Squadron equipped with jet aircraft. These were flying around quite a lot and on occasions fairly low so that Michael was very familiar with the shape and sound of these aeroplanes. Well, one day, we were waiting at the traffic lights on the road passing the end of the runway at Hawarden near Chester, where I was actually stationed. As it happened, and old ANSON (twin-engined, propeller driven aircraft), was coming in to land and passed in front of us very low, throttled back and with the propellers turning slowly. I still remember the remark which, greatly astonished Michael made :- “Look, Daddy, an aeroplane with windmills on!”
June 1992.
T. Wier.
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
Flashbacks 0 to 4
Description
An account of the resource
Starts with commentary on family in Poland and names recorded on visits to Poland. Continues with account of early life, school and life in Poland before the war.
Flashback 1. Mentions first operation on 300 Squadron at RAF Faldingworth. Continues with account of training in England at Hucknall, Montrose and Western Zoyland. He then trained as an instructor and was posted as a flying instructor. He volunteered for operational duties and eventually was allocated to a bomber squadron at RAF Finningley training on Wellington where he crewed up before posting to RAF Faldingworth, Continues with description of first operation to Wiesbaden and mistakenly landing at RAF Fiskerton on return. Concludes with a 10 year old schoolboy's wish to be a pilot.
Flashback 2. Account of Tadeusz joining the Polish Air Force including the reasons for his ambition, early experience of gliding, labour camp and military training. Continues with account of flying training with various incidents. Describes events during German invasion and escape to Romania.
Flashback 3. Continues with events after arriving in Romania and then travelling onwards by boat to Beirut then onwards to Marseille, Lyon. Gives account of German invasion of France in May 1940 and his escape via Toulouse, Bayonne and St Jean de Luz and then by British ship to Liverpool.
Flashback 4. Writes of changing his name and of his career in the RAF after the war including continuing flying with 300 Squadron and his final operation to Berchtesgaden as well as prisoner of war repatriation flights and food drops in Holland. Continues with account of flying troops back from Italy and a visit to Berlin. He was posted to ferry aircraft of many different types.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
T Wier
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1992-01
1991-06
1991-10
1992-06
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Poland
Poland--Zgierz
Poland--Dęblin (Warsaw)
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Hucknall
Scotland--Angus
Scotland--Montrose
England--Somerset
England--Warwickshire
England--Rugby
England--Yorkshire
Germany
Germany--Wiesbaden
Romania
Lebanon
Lebanon--Beirut
France
France--Marseille
France--Lyon
France--Toulouse
France--Bayonne
France--Saint-Jean-de-Luz
England--Lancashire
England--Liverpool
Germany--Berchtesgaden
Belgium
Italy
Italy--Genoa
Germany--Berlin
England--Bridgwater
Romania
Romania--Tulcea
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1944-12
1941-05
1944-06
1944-10
1945-02-02
1939
1939-09-17
1940-05-10
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Twenty-five page printed document
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BWierTWierTv1
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
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jan Waller
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
300 Squadron
aircrew
crewing up
Halifax
Hurricane
Lancaster
Lysander
Magister
Operation Dodge (1945)
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
pilot
RAF Faldingworth
RAF Finningley
RAF Fiskerton
RAF Weston Zoyland
training
Wellington
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Leaviss, Ted
Edward Derek Leaviss
E D Leaviss
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Leaviss, ED
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Edward 'Ted' Derek Leaviss (1818433 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents memorabilia and photographs.
He flew three Operation Manna operations as an air gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Irene Leaviss 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
A name given to the resource
Operation Manna route
Description
An account of the resource
Chart shows route for one flight. It has an inscription which reads 'No 576 Squadron, R.A.F. Fiskerton to Delft, 30 Apr 45, Lancaster G for George, Crew: Pilot F/O. Everitt, Nav Sgt B A Gilbert, BA Sgt T Royall, Eng F/S Kitchen, W/Op P/O. T Pappauiannu, Mid/Upper T Johnston, Rear/gunner A Houghton'.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
B A Gilbert
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-04-30
Format
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One printed map with handwritten annotations
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Map
Map. Navigation chart and navigation log
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CLeavissED-151116-020004
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Netherlands
England--Lincolnshire
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-04-30
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.
576 Squadron
Lancaster
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
RAF Fiskerton
-
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c0d9a0f5b2d215caabcc8534d0eb4858
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1416/32277/MLeavissED1818433-151116-240002.2.jpg
466bb8f14089b0fa52380f44589686da
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
Leaviss, Ted
Edward Derek Leaviss
E D Leaviss
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Leaviss, ED
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Edward 'Ted' Derek Leaviss (1818433 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents memorabilia and photographs.
He flew three Operation Manna operations as an air gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Irene Leaviss and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] OPERATION MANNA
29th April – 8th May 1945 [/underlined]
The advance of the 1st. Polish Armoured Division liberated the eastern parts of the Netherlands, resulting in a very large area in the west still in the hands of the German army. Earlier the Reichskommissar, an Austrian, Arthur Seyss-Inquart imposed an embargo on food supplies for western urban areas. Food stocks in the thickly populated west had already been reduced by German order, leaving insufficient food to help the people through the winter of 44/45. A shortage of coal and other fuels aggrevated [sic] the situation.
In mid January 1945 Queen Wilhelmina sent identical notes to King George VI, President Roosevelt and winston [sic] Churchill, saying in effect ‘That if a major catastrophe was to be avoided drastic action had to be taken before, and not after the liberation of the rest of the country’. An Allied invasion of western occupied Holland was considered to [sic] costly so representatives of the Dutch resistance were allowed to cross the lines and contact the Allies. Following negotiations the Germans would be willing to negotiate, and on April 14th Prince Bernhard travelled to Reims to discuss the Allied answer with General Eisenhower. Churchill was opposed to negotiations with the Germans. South African Prime Minister Field Marshall Smuts mediation allowed direct negotiations with the Germans. Ten days later the Governments of the USA, USSR and the UK allowed Eisenhower to contact Seyss-Inquart the German Governor of Occupied Holland. The same day April 24th the Dutch people were advised by radio that food drops were about to begin. The Germans were forced to co-operate, that to assure themselves of POW status was to obey completely, any acts of sabotage would be considered a war crime and treated as war criminals. The Germans were not impressed, and angry as all arrangements had been made without prior consultation and were suspicious of Anglo-US action, but broadcast to the Dutch people on the 25th April that the German military commander agreed to General Eisenhower’s plan to supply food to occupied Holland, but not by the means suggested. Eisenhower ordered the food drops to start on the 27th April whatever the German reaction. On the day previous the German Governor seyss-Inquart [sic] agreed the fastest way to save the Dutch was to send food supplies by air.
The weather on the 27th April prevented the Lancaster bombers from taking Off. [sic] on the 28th April in the school building in Achteveld German and Allied representatives, including Air-Commodore Andrew Geddes the Air Commodore Operations & Plans of the 2nd Tactical Air Force met to establish as mant [sic] ‘drop zones’ as [possible and Overcome [sic] any German objections. General Sir Francis De Guingand Montgomery’s Chief of Staff headed the meeting and advised the Germans the object of the meeting was to come to an agreement as to how the Allies could best help the Dutch as they the Germans were unable to do so. Reichrichter Dr. Ernst Schwebel headed the four man German delegation and said his terms of reference did not include making any detailed arrangements for feeding the Dutch, but to make arrangements for the Reichskommisar Seyss-Inquart could meet General Eisenhower or his representative at an agreed place on Monday 30th April. General De Guingand went through his proposals to the German delegates, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands a ‘Linch [sic] Pin’ in the complex organisation of the distribution of food to points inside occupied territory advised General De Guingand who then concluded that the next meeting would be held at 13.00 hrs on April 30th 1945 and that Lt. Gen Bedell Smith would lead the delegation.
[page break]
2
The next day at 08.00 hrs 29th April hundreds of Dutch people in hiding listened to the ‘Voice of Freedom’ Radio Resurgent Netherlands with a special announcement that aircraft would come to drop coloureed [sic] flares the other aeroplanes would drop the food, at 12.10 hrs another special announcement reported the first aircraft carrying food for occupied Holland had left Britain. OPERATION MANNA had begun.
That day 29th April the RAF took an enormous risk, no agreement had been signed, as the Lancaster bombers approached occupied Holland at very low height 150-1000 feet they would have been easy prey for the many Ack-Ack guns the enemy could still use. If the Germans opened fire and killed hundreds of RAF crews they would have been in their right to do so. The RAF Commanders, the pilots and their crews new [sic] it, the German reaction would be legitimate. However, the start of this life-saving operation was a success and 239 Lancasters dropped 556 tons of food.
The following day 30th April at the school in Achterveld General Bedell Smith met Seyss-Inquart, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Air Commodore Geddes participated in the negotiations and following discussions of sub-committees in various class-rooms the two delegations finalley [sic[ reached an agreement. At the same time 482 Lancasters dropped 1005 tons of food again with the knowledge that the agreement had not been signed. The next day 1st May Air Commodore Geddes and Group Captain Hill with copies of the agreement in English and German met German dlegates [sic] in the village of Nude. Following the signing of four copies in each language and two marked maps showing the drop zones each side returned to their own lines at 19.00. Air Commadore Geddes advised that the agreement had been satisfactily [sic] signed. Thus the operation which had already started on the 29th April could officially begin on May 2nd. However on that day the 1st of may [sic] the RAF dropped 1096 tons with 488 Lancasters, The 8th Bomber Group of the USAAF with B17’s using the code name Chowhound dropped 776 tons with 392 aircraft. The operation continued by the RAF until the 8th May and the 8th Air Force on the 7th May. The number of Flights made by the RAF was 3154 dropping 7030 tons, the 8th Air Force made 2189 flights dropping 4156 short tons.
Operation Manna was carried out by RAF Bomber Commands No 1 No 3 No 8 Groups using Lancaster’s Mosquito’s. This highly successful operation perpetuated by Bomber Command gave life and hope to millions of starving Dutch people held in the German Occupied area of west Holland.
[underlined] VOEDSEL UIT DE HEMEL [/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
Operation Manna
Description
An account of the resource
An account of how the need for Operation Manna arose, how negotiations with the German accupying forces proceeded, how the operation was announced to the Dutch people and a summary of the Operation.
Format
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Two typewritten pages
Language
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eng
nld
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MLeavissED1818433-151116-240001, MLeavissED1818433-151116-240002
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Netherlands
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
1 Group
3 Group
8 Group
B-17
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
Lancaster
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
Second Tactical Air Force
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Leaviss, Ted
Edward Derek Leaviss
E D Leaviss
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Leaviss, ED
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Edward 'Ted' Derek Leaviss (1818433 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents memorabilia and photographs.
He flew three Operation Manna operations as an air gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Irene Leaviss and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined]OPERATION MANNA[/underlined]
For almost six long years Bomber Command took the war to Nazi Germany, helping to force the enemy on to the defensive and steadily weakening his powers of resistance. Towards the end, however, it was becoming clear that missions of a different type would be essential once hostilities ceased: in particular there would be tens of thousands of prisoners of war in urgent need of relief and repatriation.
Then by April 1945 it was apparent that a desperate situation had developed in the densely populated areas of the Nether1ands. The persecution of the Jews and the deportation of industrial workers, among other things, had been causing bitter hostility to the German occupation forces; in September 1944 the Dutch transport workers had gone on strike in the attempt to help the Allied forces during the Battle of Arnhem, and this had led to the Germans ordering an embargo on the movement of food to the urban areas; then during the hard winter fuel supplies too had virtually run out. Yet amid this situation the Germans were determined to hold on, not least because their V2 rocket offensive against London could be mounted only from the Dutch launch sites. So as the Allies advanced into the heart of Germany in March and April, cutting off the strong German forces based in the Netherlands, the great majority of the Dutch people faced starvation.
For some time before this Queen Wilhelmina, in London, had been leading urgent pleas for Allied help in avoiding "a major catastrophe", and the possibility of using Bomber Command's Lancasters to drop food supplies had been carefully examined. One thing, however, was certain. Flying by day at low speed and little more than treetop height they would be sitting ducks, and only if the Germans undertook not to open fire would the operation be remotely feasible. Such were the objections to doing any sort of a deal that not until 24 April, with the local situation now critical, did General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, feel able to force the issue by contacting the German commander and announcing his intentions to the Dutch people. There followed an interchange of messages in the attempt to ensure the bombers safe passage but when Allied and German delegations first met formally on the 28th none of the necessary guarantees was forthcoming. Air Commodore Geddes, who as Director of Operations and Plans, Headquarters 2nd Tactical Air Force, was to mastermind the operation, was full of foreboding.
Yet further delay was out of the question; stem warnings were given of the consequences should the Germans try to interfere; and on 29 April - amid understandable apprehension on the part of the crews - the first missions of Operation Manna were launched. After the dropping zones had been marked by 18 Mosquitos the first Lancasters delivered their loads, a total of 258 sorties being flown on that first day. The Germans responded sullenly but the anti-aircraft guns which were trained on the bombers and could so easily have shot them down remained silent; only the shaking of fists and the occasional burst of small arms fire marked their frustration. For the local inhabitants on the other hand, it was an unforgettable moment. As a Dutchman, then a young schoolboy, later wrote:
“We heard them coming, Each Lancaster opened its bomb doors and out came a cloud of bags like confetti. My father and lots of other grown-ups were sobbing like children. It may have been the sound of the engines, but it was probably because now they knew they would stay alive".
For the aircrew, sometimes flying as low as 100ft, the sight was unbelievable. People were going mad, screaming with delight; waving previously hidden flags, tablecloths, anything they could grab; rushing towards the sacks, some of which had burst, and eating the contents straight off the ground.
Over the next ten days Bomber Command doubled its daily effort, greatly extending its dropping zones, and the Flying Fortresses of the United States 8th Air Force shared the task in what they called Operation Chowhound. On 7 May the Germans surrendered, thus enabling land and sea supply to take over, and the next day the last drops took place. Altogether, despite bad weather having restricted them on several days, 33 RAF squadrons
[page break]
had carried out 3,191 sorties, delivering 7,000 tons of food, and a further 3,700 tons had been dropped by 1 O USAAF bomb groups in some 2, 189 missions. It was an operation which has remained etched in the memories of all who took part. As a 576 Squadron navigator recalls:
“All the crew took along something extra, a bat of chocolate or bag of sweets, to throw out to the kids. I slipped mine out of the sliding window above the nav table. It was one of the big emotional experiences of my life."
Instead of bearing death and destruction he and his comrades had at last been able to switch to missions of mercy, and what they did is recalled to this day with the deepest gratitude by those who received the help they delivered.
Not long afterwards, by remarkable coincidence, Dutch men and women were among the beneficiaries of a second operation, far less remembered but just as critical for those involved. Code-named Mastiff, this was undertaken in August and September by Dakotas and Liberators of Air Command South-East Asia to bring relief to prisoners-of-war and where possible to internees who had survived the appalling rigours of being held captive by the Japanese during the Far East war. Here too the airmen were at last able to tum their skills to humanitarian tasks, setting a pattern for so many similar operations that have been undertaken by the Royal Air Force in the subsequent half century.
Air Commodore Henry Probert 1995
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Operation Manna
Description
An account of the resource
An account of how the operation came about and evolved. Describes the events leading up to the need for food relief in Holland, a brief account of how the operation was set up and executed.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Air Commodore Henry Probert
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1995
Format
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Two typewritten pages
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Identifier
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MLeavissED1818433-151116-250001, MLeavissED1818433-151116-250002
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Netherlands
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1995
Contributor
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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.
B-17
B-24
C-47
Holocaust
Lancaster
Mosquito
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
V-2
V-weapon
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Leaviss, Ted
Edward Derek Leaviss
E D Leaviss
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Leaviss, ED
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Edward 'Ted' Derek Leaviss (1818433 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents memorabilia and photographs.
He flew three Operation Manna operations as an air gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Irene Leaviss and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
OPERATION MANNA II - 27Th APRIL-1 ST MAY 1983.
On the 27th April 1983 at approximately ll.30 am, a party of 33 men and 20 wives boarded a coach on the Victoria Embankment to set forth on a journey that would take them across the North Sea to Holland to visit the food dropping zones of 38 years ago. This reunion, the brainchild of Mr. E.D. Leaviss of Derby was the result of eighteen months of hard work and organising ..
At 12 noon we set off on the first stage of our journey to Hull, entertainment on the way being provided by a Video film on the coach's T.V. of "633 Squadron''. Everybody was a complete stranger to one another, the only two things the men had in common were that they were all ex aircrew and they all had grey hair. The journey to Hull was uneventful and we arrived at the Dock at approximately 5.0 p.m. to be met by the Dutch organiser, Mr. J.G Onderwater and his wife. After being issued with our boarding tickets we went on board the "M.V. Norland" owned by North Sea Ferries who took the whole party, coach and driver included, there and back free of charge in appreciation of the food dropped to them 38 years ago. It must be mentioned here that this included a five course meal and breakfast both ways. It was at this stage that the captain of the ''Norland" invited the men of the party who were interested up on the bridge as we were leaving harbour.
After a calm crossing and an uneventful night we arrived at Europort, Rotterdam. We were addressed on board by Colonel A.P. de Jong of the Royal Netherlands Air Force and Col. Breukelen of the Royal Dutch Marines, Commander of the Military in Rotterdam. Both expressed their sincere thanks for the help given by the R.A.F. and after the press had taken photographs on the stern deck of the ship we were given our first taste of V.I.P. treatment by being told that we did not have to go through the Customs
After further photographs on shore we boarded our coach for the trip to our Hotel. On the way to the Hotel we were all handed a folder containing a properly printed programme of the events we were going to participate in over the next four days. Little did we know how e1notional these next four days were to be. On entering our hotel rooms we found a copy of a Dutch newspaper headed ''Welcome and Thanks'' with a paragraph in Dutch and English. It read - "Tomorrow morning around forty former members of the RAF will arrive in our City. They all took part in the food droppings of 29th April - 8th May 1945 over western Holland. Many people in and around our City will remember those marvellous days. Finally the definite proof was given that after five long years the terrible war would come to an end. In Operation "Manna" 1,51 O English Lancasters took part in the area of Rotterdam. Here we would once more like to thank the representatives of this big group from the bottom of our Hearts. We are sure they will, these coming days, find out that Holland has not yet forgotten them."
Our attention was then drawn to a sheet of headed paper on which had been tped the following "Dear Friends, thirty eight years ago food came falling from the sky on our City. As a symbolic token of gratitude these products are offered you by a group of Rotterdam enterprises. These products included gramophone records, jigsaw, a, bottle of gin, box of chocolates, packets of coffee, biscuits, sweets and small bottles of liqueurs.
After we had composed ourselves we prepared to get ready for our first Civic Reception at the Rotterdam Town Hall. As this was to be a Civic reception we were asked to wear lounge suits and war medals. The Town Hall was a very impressive building, the interior being all marble. We were received by the Deputy Lord Mayor and Col. Breukelen. There were drinks of sherry, gin and wine and various small cocktails. The Deputy Lord Mayor made a short speech where he once again thanked all present for their part in Operation Manna carried out 38 years ago and which helped to save the lives of many Dutch people and boosted their morale by the fact that they then realised that the war was nearly over. All the men of the party were then given an envelope on which was stuck two postage stamps. One stamp bearing the head of Sir Winston Churchill, the other showing a Lancaster dropping food. Both stamps were franked with a post mark dated 29.4.83. Our party then presented a Bomber Command plaque to the Town of Rotterdam. In addition to this plaque two brothers in the party who had a brother buried in the local cemetery presented a photograph of their brother, together with his war medals and his brevet to the Deputy Lord Mayor. After much handshaking and reminiscing the party left the Town Hall by coach to travel to Rotterdam(Crooswijk) General Cemetery for a
[page break]
wreath laying ceremony.
The weather now took a tum for the worse and it really poured down with rain but fortunately for us it left off just as we arrived at the cemetery. The men in the party formed up in columns of three and marched through the cemetery to the Commonwealth Wargraves and Warmemorial. A short memorial service was held and a wreath was laid by the Ketley brothers at the War Memorial and the last post was played by a bugler of the Royal Netherlands Marines. After looking at many of the war graves the party returned to the hotel to prepare for the next item on the programme.
At 16.00 hrs. the party boarded the coach for the journey to Rotterdam Zestienhoven Airport where \.Ve were to be the guests at a reception given by the Dutch Airline KLM. After a meal which included fresh strawberries for the sweet and the usual supply of drinks we departed at 18.30 hrs. to travel to the headquarters of the Royal Netherlands Airforce, Binckhorsthof, The Hague. On arrival we were greeted by the Commander in Chief RNLAF, General Major M.C. Visser. We were taken into a small room, complete with bar and made welcome with the hospitality we had now become accustomed to .. We were told that we were then going into another larger room where the room would be full of small tables. These tables would have four Dutch people seated at them and that there would be two empty seats which we would be expected to fill. On entering this room all the Dutch people rose to their feet, clapping and cheering, and I think most of our party fou.nd it a bit overawing and embarrassing. We had been told that we had nothing to worry about as roughly 99.5% of the Dutch people spoke English. Trust us to pick the other 0.5%. We sat with three Dutchmen and only one of them spoke a smattering of English but nevertheless we managed to make conversation, helped on with the draught Pils. We had a further welcome speech by Mr. Dick Bakker, who we were to meet again on our last day, and a lecture and slide presentation by Col, A.P.de Jong on the receiving end of Operation Manna. It was from Col. de Jong that we learnt how welcome our food drop was. We were told how the Dutch people were living on Tulip bulbs and how they were dying at the rate of hundreds per day. All the men who took part in this drop agreed that they had no idea that this situation existed. We also met a member of the Dutch resistance, Mr. Bagmeister, who had escaped to Gibraltar and then back to England to be dropped back in Holland by parachute to organise the reception areas on that side. As a memento we were given a folder containing copies of the telegrams he had sent back to England. So ended the first day of our visit which had been very emotional and overwhelming. On this first day something like eighty photographs had been taken and these were made into slides and shown that night on an automatic projector. These slides were then presented to Ted and hopefully will be circulated for members of the party to order what they require. It was at this reception that the men were presented with a Royal Netherlands Air Force necktie and the ladies received a box of Dutch toffees.
The second day of our visit started with a trip to Valkenburg Naval Air Station, one of the original dropping areas for operation Manna. We were welcomed by Capt. T. Tak of the Royal Netherlands Navy where once again we were thanked for the food dropped in 1945, after coffee and cake we were taken out on to the runway where the group was photographed with a Navy Anti-submarine chaser in the background. After the photographs the plane took off and did several low level passes over the runway. On the last two passes the plane dropped leaflets on the party which showed food being dropped by La.ncaster bombers.
After leaving V alkenburg air base we travelled to Haagsche Courant which is the name of a local newspaper where we were taken to a balcony on the fourth floor of the Suthoffpers building to witness a flypast by World War II aircraft of the Gilze Rijen Flying Club who dropped leaflets over Ypenburg airbase, another original dropping zone for operation Manna. We were then welcomed by Mr.A.M.Hoefnagels a member of the newspaper board and enjoyed a lunch and drinks given by the Haagsche Courant. After being presented with photographs taken in 1945 the party left for a sightseeing tour of the Hague. Our guide was Monique Willemse who pointed out various places of interest. After tea and cakes at Schevenigen (Hotel Kurhaus) we travelled to the Town Hall of the Hague, Groenmaekt. We were received by the Lord Mayor of the Hague, Mr. F.G. Schols who once again thanked everybody for operation Manna in 1945. The men were all presented with a necktie bearing the Hague coat of arms and we in turn presented a Bomber Command plaque to the Lord Mayor.
[page break]
An elderly lady turned up at this reception with an original label from the food dropped in 1945. The wording on the label was in Dutch but it was translated by Hans Onderwater and read - "this food is for you the Dutch people and it is given to you by the British Government. If the Germans take any of this food let us know". This elderly lady then told us what it was
like in those hungry days of 1945 but found it a bit too overwhelming and turned away to cry. everybody in the party agreed that they all felt the same, even one of the dutch photographers was seen to wipe his eyes. When the time came to leave all the party kissed the elderly lady
goodbye although more than one of the men found it too emotional. On arriving back at the
hotel we ere told that there was nothing more planned for that day and that it was late night
shopping in Rotterdam so everybody went into town to do some shopping.
On Saturday we boarded the coach for the journey to Amsterdam, where we were
amazed to see that although all the shops were closed, everywhere we went goods were spread out on the pavement for sale. It appears that it was the Queen's birthday and on this day of the year people could sell anything they wanted to from the pavements. We were told that quite a lot of it was rubbish but that it was possible to pick up some really good bargains. The party was then taken on a boat trip through the Amsterdam canals with a guide giving a commentary as we went along. The canals were lined with barges on which quite a large proportion of the community appeared to live. Some of the barges were quite nice and had electricity laid on and it appears that these were the ones that had official permission to moor whereas the ones
moored illegally were dirty and in a dilapidated condition. On disembarking from the boat we were introduced to the owner who had been a member of the Dutch resistance and had been
instrumental in helping about 170 allied airmen get back to England.
After leaving Amsterdam we travelled to Schipol airport, another original dropping zone where we visited the Fokker aircraft factory. The aeroplanes in production were the Friendship and the Fellowship and we saw them being made from the start. We were then given a lunch by Fokker and presented with a further necktie, it was at this point that one of the chaps said
"nobody will ever believe I went to Holland, they'll think I went to Thailand". After lunch we went on a conducted tour of Schipol airport by coach where we saw how the KLM Boeing 747 Ju.mbojet was loaded, and we were given a further collection of literature and a classical record.
We then left for the hotel to prepare for a dinner dance with the RAF A. At
approximately 18.30 hrs. we arrived at the headquarters of the RAFA Club, Amsterdam branch at Schipol airport, where we were welcomed by the club Chairman Mr., Peter Sainsbury.
After a dinner and drinks given by the RAFA club, the MC led the entire party with orchestra in a complete rendering of "Roll Me Over". There then followed a dance, raffle and further
speeches and the men then received their fourth necktie, a navy blue tie with a coloured motif of a Lancaster on the front. It was at this dinner dance that a tin of biscuits dropped in 1945 was produced, still sealed with the words "packed in July 1944" on the tin. It was agreed that this
tin should be held by the RAFA club and opened in 1985 on the 40th anniversary of operation Manna. It was at this dinner that we were seated next to a lady whom we took to be English, it turned out that she was Dutch and employed by the Dutch Broadcasting Corporation so she
obviously spoke very good English. She told us she was 17 at the time of the food dropping and she had vivid memories of it. At approximately midnight we all joined hands and sang
"Auld Lang Syne". On the journey back to the hotel several of the batchelor members chorused forth many of the old RAF songs and most of the men joined in. I think the ladies present were a steadying influence as none of the really bawdy songs were sung.
On Sunday 1st. May 1983 our first job was settling the hotel bills and packing our
luggage in the coach. It was raining hard and as we were going to the races the prospects did not look very promising./ Before we left the hotel we presented a photograph of a Lancaster
dropping food and signed by all the men in the party. We then left for Duindigt race course,
another one of the original dropping zones. We had not looked forward to this horse racing at all, but we were to enjoy it much more than we had expected. On arrival at Duindgit we
entered a large glass fronted stadium which we were told had cost thousands to build.
Tables were all arranged with flowers and sited so that the racing could be watched while
seated at the tables. At the back of the stadium was a tote with wickets at which to place bets. On the tables were betting tickets and a programme of the races. The names of the races had
been printed in the programme in our honour and were given as ''The Mosquito'', ''The
[page break]
been printed in the programme in our honour and were given as ''The Mosquito'', ''The Lancaster'', ''Operation Manna'' and ''The United Kingdom''. There was also a magnificent buffet laid out for people to help themselves to and we were told that no expense had been spared on this buffet. While we were drinking and talking it was suddenly noticed that Prince Bernhart had arrived, without any fuss whatsoever, and was helping himself at the buffet. He was introduced to several members of the party and was seen to exchange neckties with one of our party. Several of the ladies were also introduced. After an enjoyable day at the races it was time to return to Rotterdam to board the boat home. As we boarded the coach quite an appreciable crowd had gathered and they all waved us farewell as we pulled away. As a last show of VIP treatment we were given a police motor-cycle escort to Rotterdam, we really felt important as he stopped all the traffic and we went through traffic lights at the red. At the port we found we were sailing on the sister-ship ''Norstar'' and we all had special cabins which included W.C., Shower and Wash-basin. After a meal and duty free shopping we all finished up in the bar for a drink which was a bit of an anti-climax as everybody had the same feeling that the trip was over. After an uneventful crossing we arrived in Hull one hour late which they said was due to trouble with one of the engines. The whole party passed through customs without anyone being searched and we then boarded the coach for the jou1ney back to London. We dropped Ted off near Derby and all joined in singing ''For he's a jolly good fellow''. On arrival at Victoria we all dispersed after wishing everybody all the best and see you again sometime.
As a follow up to this re-union we all met the following year at The Chateau Impnie, Droitwitch where the Manna Association was formed. We have met every year since then at various venues throughout the Country, but mostly in Lincolnshire. Included in these yearly meetings are the ones we held in Holland in 1985, 1990, 1995 and the one to be held this year 2000.
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
Operation Manna commemoration visit 1983
Description
An account of the resource
A detailed account of the visit made by a group ex aircrew who took part in Operation Manna who had been invited for a five day visit to commemorate Operation Manna.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-04-27
1983-05-01
Format
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Four typewritten sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MLeavissED1818433-151116-280001, MLeavissED1818433-151116-280002, MLeavissED1818433-151116-280003, MLeavissED1818433-151116-280004
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Netherlands
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1983-04-27
1983-05-01
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.
Lancaster
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
-
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
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
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
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
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 search light 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
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
32 page typed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
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
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Leaviss, Ted
Edward Derek Leaviss
E D Leaviss
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Leaviss, ED
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Edward 'Ted' Derek Leaviss (1818433 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents memorabilia and photographs.
He flew three Operation Manna operations as an air gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Irene Leaviss 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
A name given to the resource
Ted Leaviss's ties
Description
An account of the resource
Ties from the various organisations Ted belonged to. They include ties from the Air Gunners Association, Royal Air Force Association,, Operation Manna, 460 Squadron, and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Nine ties
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Physical object
Physical object. Clothing
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PLeavissED15030001, PLeavissED15030002, PLeavissED15030003, PLeavissED15030004, PLeavissED15030005, PLeavissED15030006, PLeavissED15030007, PLeavissED15030008, PLeavissED15030009, PLeavissED15030010
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
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.
460 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Leaviss, Ted
Edward Derek Leaviss
E D Leaviss
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Leaviss, ED
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Edward 'Ted' Derek Leaviss (1818433 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents memorabilia and photographs.
He flew three Operation Manna operations as an air gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Irene Leaviss 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
A name given to the resource
Operation Manna button badges
Description
An account of the resource
Badge background are the Dutch colours of red white and blue in horizontal wavy lines. Silhouette of Lancaster dropping packages, with the wording Manna, 1945-1995, 50th Anniversary.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Round button badges
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Physical object
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PLeavissED15040001, PLeavissED15040002, PLeavissED15040003, PLeavissED15040004
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
Civilian
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.
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Leaviss, Ted
Edward Derek Leaviss
E D Leaviss
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Leaviss, ED
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Edward 'Ted' Derek Leaviss (1818433 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents memorabilia and photographs.
He flew three Operation Manna operations as an air gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Irene Leaviss 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
A name given to the resource
Memorial tile for Operation Manna
Description
An account of the resource
Tile and dedication presented to Ted. Tile shows two representations of the Lancaster, flying over a woman and child, with the outline of a town with a rising sun behind, with an inscription in Dutch.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Tile and dedication
Language
A language of the resource
eng
nld
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Physical object
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PLeavissED15050001, PLeavissED15050002, PLeavissED15050003
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. Bomber Command
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.
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Leaviss, Ted
Edward Derek Leaviss
E D Leaviss
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Leaviss, ED
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Edward 'Ted' Derek Leaviss (1818433 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents memorabilia and photographs.
He flew three Operation Manna operations as an air gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Irene Leaviss 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
A name given to the resource
Operation Manna medals and medallions
Description
An account of the resource
Medals and medallions presented to Ted Leaviss and others who attended the anniversary celebrations of Operation Manna in Holland in 1984 and later.
Medallion showing Lancasters dropping packages over a stylised Dutch landscape with 1945 and Operation Manna around the border.
Medallion which has a central head of an aircrew man, surrounded by three other heads of then contemporary leaders, with 1985 and an inscription in Dutch around the border.
Medal, the ribbon uses the colours of the Dutch flag. One side of medal says 'Thank you for coming'. On the reverse a B17 dropping packages over a Dutch city and 'Operation Manna 55 years freedom 29.04.2000 Vlaardingen Holland'.
Medal with yellow and green ribbon inscribed ' The Hague, thank you Liberators 1985. On the reverse a heraldic badge.
Medal, the ribbon uses the colours of the Dutch flag, has B-17 dropping packages over a Dutch city with the inscription 1945 Operation Manna 50 years Freedom 1995. On the reverse a Dutch inscription.
Medallion from Rotterdam celebrating the 1945-1995 anniversary. It has a ribbon using the Dutch colours.
Lapel pin reflecting Rotterdam 1945-1995 anniversary.
Medallion recording Erasmus and Rotterdam, reverse and the medallion in its presentation box.
Coin with images of Lancaster and B-17 dropping packages, with the inscription 'Utrecht thanks the food dropping air crews, April-May 1945'. Reverse and its presentation box.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Various medals and medallions
Language
A language of the resource
nld
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Physical object
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PLeavissED15060001, PLeavissED15060002, PLeavissED15060003,
PLeavissED15060004, PLeavissED15060005, PLeavissED15060006, PLeavissED15060007, PLeavissED15060008, PLeavissED15060018, PLeavissED15060025, PLeavissED15060027, PLeavissED15060028, PLeavissED15060029, PLeavissED15060030, PLeavissED15060031, PLeavissED15060032, PLeavissED15060033
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. Bomber Command
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.
460 Squadron
B-17
Lancaster
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1416/32130/PLeavissED15060038.1.jpg
1ec6c2e360e861b713935e529790595e
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
Leaviss, Ted
Edward Derek Leaviss
E D Leaviss
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-16
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Leaviss, ED
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Edward 'Ted' Derek Leaviss (1818433 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents memorabilia and photographs.
He flew three Operation Manna operations as an air gunner with 460 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Irene Leaviss 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
A name given to the resource
Ted Leaviss's name tag
Description
An account of the resource
Ted Leaviss's name tag, presented to him for the 40th Anniversary visit remembering Operation Manna. It has small silhouettes of the Lancaster and B 17 dropping food packages. It has his name, his squadron and the Union Flag. There are three embroidered flowers which are obscuring part of the lettering on the tag.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1985-04-26
1985-05-03
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Small printed name tag
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Physical object
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PLeavissED15060038
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
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1985-04-26
1985-05-03
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.
460 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
B-17
Lancaster
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
RAF Binbrook