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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1087/11545/ARaineyDC180607.2.mp3
e4e0f9a91379454954ba0c8402533130
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Title
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Rainey, Donald
Donald C Rainey
D C Rainey
Description
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An oral history interview with Donald Rainey (b.1928). He grew up in Scopwick near Lincoln and witnessed three crashes.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2018-06-07
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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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Rainey, DC
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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MC: This interview is being conducted on behalf of the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is Mike Connock and the interviewee is Donald Rainey. The interview is taking place at the home of Mr Rainey’s daughter, Mrs Barker in North Hykeham, Lincoln on the 7th of June 2018. Also in attendance is Mrs Wendy Barker.
[recording paused]
WB: Go.
MC: Well, thanks for doing the interview, Don. What I want to start off with is right from the beginning. You asked me how far back I want to go. When and where were you born?
DR: Cranwell Air Force, Air Reserve because my, my mother’s sister husband was a big wig in Cranwell. Teaching through all the war.
MC: So you were born there.
DR: And that’s how I was born there but I lived at Scopwick.
MC: When was that?
DR: At the Royal Oak.
MC: When was that that you were born?
DR: 1927.
MC: ’27.
DR: Yeah. That makes me old.
MC: Yeah. No [laughs] There’s a few of you still around. So what did your parents do?
DR: They lived in the pub. The Royal Oak at Scopwick.
MC: Oh, did they?
DR: Yeah. And in that pub in the war we had George Formby’s wife for ENSA. And she stopped at our pub for about four days entertaining the troops. Beryl they called her, didn’t they? Beryl. George Formby’s wife. Beryl. And she stayed at the Royal Oak at Scopwick in the war entertaining the troops in Digby. In the aerodromes.
MC: So you went to school in Scopwick.
DR: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. What was school —
DR: I left in 1942.
MC: What were schooldays like in those days?
DR: Useless.
MC: Did you enjoy school?
DR: Yeah.
MC: Oh, you did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so tell me so when war broke out how old were you? That would be ’26. Be fourteen.
DR: About just before the war.
MC: Twelve. Thirteen. Twelve or thirteen.
DR: Yeah.
MC: Yeah.
DR: I left school at fourteen. Had to do and go to —
MC: Yeah. Yeah. A lot did.
DR: And I went to engine, apprentice engineering. British Crop Driers.
MC: You did well.
DR: Yeah. I got a job straight away.
MC: Yeah. You did in those days.
DR: A fitter, maintenance fitter. Seven years apprentice it was in them days.
MC: Yeah. So, you did a full apprenticeship, did you?
DR: Yeah. Seven years.
MC: So when you were, so when war broke out you were, you were still in Scopwick.
DR: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. So tell me some of the stories about Scopwick then and what you saw.
DR: Saw? All the Air Force. In our pub at Scopwick after the first war they extended it because we’d got that many customers. Air force. Airmen and WAAFs from Digby aerodrome, you know.
MC: So you mentioned about this Lancaster you saw.
DR: Yeah.
MC: Doing fighter affiliation.
DR: That was, that was the one. That was in the, at the end of the war, wasn’t it? It was the 11th of March 1945 it crashed. And it got hit with that Spitfire and it chopped the back end clean off. And that landed at, near Scopwick Station. The tail end did.
MC: Where did the rest of it go then?
DR: The back of the Ash Holt Woods between Blankney and Scopwick. Outside the main road between Blankney and Scopwick. And they was all killed.
MC: Did you have a lot to do with the RAF at the time?
DR: No. I didn’t go to, I didn’t go in the war.
MC: Yeah.
DR: Because I was a bit too one life, and I’d done, and I was doing an apprentice. They didn’t call you up —
MC: No. I just wondered whether you met any of them on a regular basis?
DR: Oh, I did. In the Air Force.
MC: Up until —
DR: The pilots from Digby.
MC: Yeah.
DR: Definitely we did.
MC: Yeah.
DR: They used to come over our pub swooping when they come back.
WB: Dad used to play the piano accordion in the pub.
DR: Aye. In the pub.
MC: Your dad did.
DR: I did.
WB: No. You did.
MC: You did. You played the piano accordion.
DR: I was taught. Yeah. I was taught music.
MC: Who taught you to play music? Music then?
DR: A firm in Lincoln it was them days.
MC: Oh right.
DR: And then I used to play in the pub. Aye.
MC: You weren’t very old then.
DR: I weren’t. I were seventeen. Eighteen. I was eighteen then.
MC: Yeah. So that would be, yeah towards the back end of the war then.
DR: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. So were you —
DR: And that —
MC: So, and any other instances that you remember from that time?
DR: About the beginning of the war Waddington, I don’t know if anybody knows this there used to be a red flashing light at Waddington Aerodrome. And what they did they used to stop that at night and they used to have a decoy and pull it between Scopwick, on the [Mere?] Lane on a Saturday night for a decoy for the Germans. Not. You know, we used to see it.
MC: That’s, that’s interesting.
DR: That’s true that is. A big decoy. And they used to have that flashing at night and to deflect the Germans didn’t it for they’d think it was the Waddington area.
MC: Yeah.
WB: They said they would bomb the fields then instead of the camp. Yeah.
DR: Aye. They did.
MC: Yeah.
DR: That was another thing they did.
MC: So what about this fuel leak then you were telling me.
DR: Oh, that was, that was after that was. After the war.
MC: Oh was it?
DR: When the Vulcans was there.
MC: Oh right.
DR: But between that a Vulcan, one of them was trying to land at Waddington. Something wrong with it. Three or four of them. No. Three jumped out and one man’s parachute, and he dropped at Dunston Pillar and it killed him. Did you ever know that? Then the pilot got the Vulcan landed. But others, some of them jumped out but one didn’t and he dropped in at Dunston Pillar in my firm’s land.
MC: Yeah.
DR: He got killed.
MC: So what about the war time? I mean, you mentioned about this Lancaster. Were there any others?
DR: Oh scores of Spitfires crashing. Ever so many. At Scopwick village cemetery there’s seventy some odd burial graves there.
MC: And they were all —
DR: Memorial.
MC: And that’s all people killed.
DR: Yeah. All Canadians. All Digby was all Canadian Air Force.
MC: Yeah.
DR: And the bloody, the Germans used to keep bombing that every other night. Air raids that they used to bomb the airfields so the Spitfires couldn’t land. So what they did they took a hundred some acres of Parker’s land, made a dummy airfield so they could land there. Then they took all the WAAFs to Blankney Hall. Did you know that? Did you know? To do the plotting at Blankney hall because they bombed Digby no end of times and got so, you know a few got killed there.
MC: Yeah. So they moved them to Digby Hall.
DR: Yeah. To Blankney Hall.
MC: Blankney Hall.
DR: Then they got it set fire and burned down, about near the end of the war that was at Blankney. Blankney Hall. Aye.
MC: So what about you know you talked about the Lancaster and the Spitfires. Any any other incidents that you can remember?
DR: Aye. On Easter Monday when they bombed Digby they were shooting with bloody guns after this bloody German plane and they got it down. And they’re buried at Scopwick. These Germans.
MC: Oh right. Yeah.
DR: Aye. I can remember that. It was a long time ago though isn’t it? Just let me have a look at —
[recording paused]
DR: That you get from planes.
MC: When you were a boy you used to collect it.
DR: After the, after, in the war it was. You see we’d nothing else to do as I say. And another thing they had at, night at Scopwick there used to be a big beck if it’s still there and it was the blackout, wasn’t it? They used to come out of the pub. Kept on falling in the bloody beck. No idea. I can remember that.
WB: They’d obviously had one or two too many.
MC: So where did you go to pick this ammunition up? Did you go —
DR: Well, where the planes crashed.
MC: Oh right [unclear]
DR: They used to leave no end. They used to leave no end and there was another one crashed. I reckon there was some. I think it came from Metheringham. It crashed at Scopwick in, near Scopwick Railway Station and I reckon the graves were still there. That’s near when we, just before you get over to Scopwick Station to come to Timberland around the back there and one crashed there. A Lancaster. And I reckoned that was from Metheringham ones I reckon.
MC: Oh aye. Yes.
DR: Yeah. We was always going to go to that but we didn’t go because it was blazing like hell that. Because we were on our bikes. Do you know what I mean? [unclear] There was nowt else to do then but. And then with the bloody, if you were in the old fields, them days we used to be out with say bird, or nesting, and the bloody Germans would come over you at head height, in case they machine gunned you. Planes, up at Digby. They were trying to keep Digby down because it was a fighter station, wasn’t it?
MC: Yeah. Yeah. It was.
DR: And then when we worked at Temple Grange that’s there, we could see Digby. And I see thirty Flying Fortresses land in Digby. Aye. Because they couldn’t get down in Norfolk because of the dense fog. And they were there. Thirty. As I say some of them Yanks used to come to our pub. It’s all in this book. If you ever got that book it’s in there about it.
MC: Is that the, “Slightly Below the Glide Path.”
DR: Aye. It’s in there about —
MC: About Digby.
DR: Digby.
MC: Yeah.
DR: And the funerals. There’s a Memorial. I was brought up massive funerals there was at Scopwick. Military, you know. [pause] My grandad took that Scopwick pub in 1864. Them days. And he had a bit of a land holder there and they had the pub. That was his pub in them days. And they had a farmyard at the back of it. A lot of land. You know. Olden days wasn’t it? That’s what happened. Then we had three, he had three daughters. My mother and two more and they all married service people. The three of them. And my father, by 1926 he come up from Somerset and he was a fitter at Digby working on the double wingers. Engines. Aeroplanes. Just before the war. Not those double they had before the war. Scopwick Puff or something. Double wing planes used to be at Digby just before the war. That’s how my dad met my mother in Scopwick pub, you see.
MC: He came up from Somerset.
DR: Yeah. He lived at somerset. He would, he would be eighteen I think when he came up there. Somehow he got. I don’t know how he got there. He joined, working on the air, the old aeroplanes.
MC: Yeah.
DR: The olden days. That’s how he got to that area you see.
MC: It would be interesting to know what aeroplanes they were. You said —
DR: Scopwick Pup, wasn’t it?
MC: Oh, Sopwith Pup.
DR: Aye. That were them.
MC: That’s it. Yeah.
DR: That was at Digby. Just before the war. Aye.
MC: Goodness me. That was [pause] yeah. They were a popular aircraft in the First World War.
DR: Yeah. That would be 1927/26 because I was born ‘27 28 and he was, met my mother in the pub, you see. She was only eighteen. Seventeen. Eighteen. In them days that was a sin weren’t it [laughs]
[recording paused]
DR: Name. I forget his —
MC: No. No. It’s ok. You say there was another fighter pilot buried at Scopwick.
DR: One of them. And after the war they came and took his body up in the middle of the night. And then they come up with four bodies in a lorry and parked in my grandad’s yard, barn yard for the night. And they got, and his name and his photo’s in here in this flight book. I forget what they called him. They took him back to Belgium. His body.
MC: Oh right.
DR: And there’s a plaque at Scopwick where they dug him up from. Aye. That were after the war that was. And I know that.
WB: Because I suppose people would want their families home wouldn’t they? If at all possible. Yeah.
DR: Aye. Was full of Air Force.
MC: Yeah. So what were the nearest air bases to you then? So there was Digby.
DR: Digby. There was a bomber one was Metheringham.
MC: Metheringham.
DR: And then, then Waddington.
MC: Waddington. Then of course Digby.
DR: Then there was another one at Coleby Grange. That one. That was all interlinked with Digby.
MC: Yeah. So you were pretty well surrounded by them.
DR: Yeah. Every night around us bombers going off and off and off.
MC: Yeah. Did you used to watch them at night?
DR: Yeah. The noise. They used to pan around don’t they? To get up.
MC: Yeah. Yeah.
DR: Aye. But the Germans was all after Digby.
MC: Yeah.
DR: So they couldn’t, the fighters couldn’t get back down. And they did that [unclear] you know, the emergency landing strip.
MC: Yeah.
DR: Aye.
[recording paused]
MC: So you used Scopwick house for.
DR: Big house.
MC: Yeah.
DR: And the Air Force commandeered it and made it into a hospital for Digby Aerodrome.
MC: Did you ever get a chance to visit any of these places?
DR: Yeah. We used to go there every Monday night at Digby, Scopwick. You’d have a film show for all the patients in this big house. Aye. From Digby Air Force. Aye. That’s right.
MC: Yeah.
DR: That was another thing they did.
MC: So they allowed you in.
DR: Yeah. They —
MC: As the public as well as the —
DR: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. Yeah.
DR: Because I used to know them coming down the pub.
MC: Yeah. Of course you did.
DR: Said it was me.
MC: Yeah.
DR: Then after the war we had a gang of Germans in a big building there. Prisoners at Scopwick. No end of them.
MC: Did you meet any of them?
DR: Aye. One was a nasty sod and he was a Nazi. He had a tattoo on his arm. The other ones weren’t but there was one nasty one there. Yeah.
MC: You didn’t make friends with them then.
DR: No. They weren’t. We met them after the war. They were working on the land for Parker’s that I worked for then.
[recording paused]
DR: Aye.
MC: Entertainment.
DR: Yeah. George Formby’s wife. Beryl.
MC: Yeah.
DR: She came and she stayed at our pub for four days and she was entertaining the troops out at Waddington, at Digby and Metheringham.
MC: She was.
DR: Yeah. George. Beryl, they called her. George Formby’s wife. She worked for ENSA.
MC: Yeah. Yeah.
WB: Mensa.
MC: No. ENSA.
WB: Oh, was it ENSA?
DR: Aye.
MC: Yeah.
DR: Aye.
MC: Yeah.
DR: Toured around in a big car she was in them days. Aye. Beryl.
MC: I never knew that.
DR: It’s true that is.
MC: Yeah. So you used to have bed and breakfast in your pub.
DR: Yeah. Well, we had, there was six bedrooms in our pub. And they knocked, knocked the lot, the end off after the war because they reckoned it was too dangerous with the narrow road going up to Sleaford. So you can see where the end piece was chopped off. The kitchens and all that bit. Aye. But I’ll tell you they put an extension on our pub after, in the war because there were that many customers.
MC: Yeah. Because it’s still there.
DR: Yeah. You go in there and you’d see. You go in the front door, turn left. There’s like a long bar. The tap we used, there used to be a tap room we called it in them days for the roughs, and the posh would be in the, then they built another L shape on the back. In the gardens.
MC: Did they have any memorabilia in there of the RAF at all?
DR: My mother and father was the last person I was in there. I don’t know whether — it’s changed hands four or five times since.
MC: Yeah.
DR: So, I don’t know now. And every, every Saturday night at Scopwick they used to packed in the village hall dance. All in a big dance in a wooden hut. Packed it was. Every Saturday. You used to have to shut down while about 11 o’clock them days, didn’t they? Not allowed on Sunday.
MC: No.
DR: No entertainment.
MC: That’s what it was like. Yeah. So it was packed with airmen was it?
DR: Airmen. WAAFs. I mean, I mean, and I was they used to come down on bikes from Digby. Leave their bloody bikes. No one cared did they? And my dad in his own car would take them back home to Digby. Some of them. That was about a mile wasn’t it to walk from Digby aerodrome down to Scopwick. That was the nearest pub from Digby aerodrome.
MC: So it must have been popular.
DR: It was. There were any more in them days. Then we got short of beer. It was rationed a bit.
MC: Was it?
DR: Yeah. In them days. Yeah. In the end.
MC: You must have been popular if you ran out of beer.
DR: True. That was true that was. Aye.
[recording paused]
DR: Put it on?
MC: Yeah. Do you want to —
DR: All the fighter pilots all had a revolver with them, flying. Did you know?
MC: Yeah.
DR: Because we were all given the bloody gun. That’s true that is [unclear] because I was on about guns and that. Flaffing about.
MC: You talked about rationing. So what was food like?
DR: We was alright because my grandad had a farm. We had pigs.
MC: I was going to ask.
DR: Chickens. And all the apple trees and pear trees up in the back gardens you see because my grandad had that farm. Part of it. So we weren’t, we were lucky.
MC: Yeah. So you had plenty to eat. Did you used to share it around?
DR: A little bit. Aye.
MC: Were you a big family then?
DR: No. No. I was the only one.
MC: Oh, were you?
DR: Yeah. And my, my mother’s sister she only had one. That’s all there was. There was only two of us. I’ve only got one more cousin. But there’s a few more down Somerset from my dad’s relatives down, but we don’t see them now.
MC: No.
DR: We’ve lost them.
MC: So you hid, you were given the gun were you?
DR: Aye.
MC: And you had to hide it.
DR: I chopped it up at our works and I chucked it in the bin.
MC: Oh, did you? Oh, you didn’t keep it.
DR: No.
MC: It was a bit dangerous wasn’t it?
DR: Yeah.
MC: Yeah.
WB: Yeah.
DR: What I did I had an air rifle. A 22 air rifle. I was training to be a lathe worker, tap work, and I turned a twenty two barrel round and pressed it on inside the roller and all the firing pins were a rim fire. For twenty two cartridges [makes noise] True that is.
MC: That’s the advantages of being an engineer.
DR: Yeah. Trained up lathe work. See.
MC: Yeah. Who was it your worked for?
DR: Blankney Estates. Parker’s.
MC: Oh right.
DR: Did you hear of them?
MC: Yeah. They had their own engineering workshop.
DR: Yeah. They did. We had forty thousand acres of land in the finish.
MC: Yeah.
DR: We started off with British Crop Driers. Then they split it. But it was too big for one workshop to do all the lot and we had a new workshop built at Blankney for the bottom half of [pause] Aye. They took the Londesborough Estate didn’t they? All that lot. Took everything. Even my grandad’s land. They came up from Norfolk just before the war from the Queen. He used to farm the Queen’s Estate at Sandringham.
MC: Oh right.
DR: And they all come up to this area of Lincolnshire. They took the lot. All the Lincolnshire Showground. All up there. North Carlton. That belonged to Parker’s.
[recording paused]
DR: The fighter pilots. There were no end of them and when they’d been out on a raid they used to come back over Scopwick. Oour pub. Zoom.
MC: Yeah.
DR: Around the back.
MC: So going up the Memorial Spire that reminds you. Reminded you of them.
DR: Yeah. But the Memorial at Scopwick is still missing, you know.
MC: Yeah.
DR: The big one.
MC: Yeah.
DR: All that lot in there. But the, but the military funerals used to come, every. How many were there? About seventy buried in Scopwick.
MC: Yeah. You said.
DR: Massive funerals there in the Air Force.
[recording paused]
MC: So what did the WAAFs do?
DR: I say, they used to come down and swim in Scopwick Beck. We was dam, the, where the farmer was at bottom end of Scopwick he used to bank the beck up so the water’s deep and they used to on a Sunday or a Saturday they used to be down there in the summer swimming in Scopwick Beck.
MC: So, this was the WAAFs.
DR: Yeah. Anybody could. No end. In the summer. That’s true. That’s another thing. It’s unbelievable. It used to be about six foot deep at least. They used to be jumping in and diving in. Scopwick Beck.
WB: Well, the water would be lovely then, wouldn’t it?
DR: Yeah. That was another thing that used to happen.
[recording paused]
DR: The first thing I drove was lease and lend after the war. But our firm had about five or six Yankee jeeps running about the farms. That was the first vehicle I drove across the fields. Left hand drive Yankee jeeps. Classed as a lease and lend. Lease and lend, wasn’t it?
MC: Yeah.
DR: Aye.
[recording paused]
MC: You had to, you left school and then you had to work then.
DR: If you didn’t go to Grammar School at fourteen you had to go to work. When you was, and if your birthday was in November but you had to go to school until Christmas. You couldn’t leave school on your [pause] you finished at the end.
MC: At the end of the term.
DR: End of the term. That’s it. And I worked, it was Parker’s in them days. They’d come up from Norfolk.
MC: How long was your apprenticeship?
DR: Seven years.
MC: Seven years.
DR: Seven years. We used to go down Monks Road once a week. The old place. It’s still there for the, we learned to lathe and weld, acetylene weld and all that in the war. Petrol was rationed.
MC: Yeah.
DR: Farmers used to get extra.
[recording paused]
MC: So you were saying they used to, going back to this shooting. They used to come and practice their shooting.
DR: Yeah. In Scopwick pit.
MC: Had they dug the pit?
DR: The big pit. Then they dug a big trench at the end where they sunk the boards up, and blokes used to be in this pit, in the pit in the back of the board marking the board where the bullets had gone. Practicing. And we were at the top of end of Scopwick watching them. Every Sunday they used to come down. Shooting at that pit. And that’s still to this day you can see where that other pit was dug. In Scopwick.
MC: So this was Army as well as Air Force.
DR: Yeah. And the Air Force. Practicing.
MC: Yeah.
DR: Aye. With rifles and machine guns. So that that was another thing they used to do at Scopwick. And that’s there to this day. You can say if they ever got in Scopwick pit where they dug the pit so the men could be under the bullet with the [makes noise] flying all over. That was another incident there you see.
MC: Come down. This is a flax factory.
DR: The flax factory on the Metheringham Heath Lane. Because the Germans used to try bombing that because at the end the, where that lane is was Coleby Grange.
MC: Oh yeah.
DR: Flying field there.
MC: So they’d probably been trying to bomb Coleby Grange.
DR: Yeah. Aye.
MC: And got the flax factory instead.
DR: Aye. Aye. They built, they built an air raid shelter right round the side of it. That was another lot of works in the war. An anti-aircraft gun on the road side there there was. Down Meg Heath Lane. You can see the stand was, where it was on defending the area.
MC: Were there a lot of anti-aircraft guns around that area?
DR: Yeah. Rowston Hill Top. Have you heard of that? And just past Digby area. Another anti-aircraft gun centre there. Parker’s land again. Near Rowston Hall that was.
MC: So you didn’t see any German aircraft brought down?
DR: Not brought, I see them shooting that one Easter morning when they bombed Digby and it killed, it killed some WAAFs as well that bomb. Aye. A few got killed and they were shooting. Then the guns stopped and the fighters come chasing them because they can’t shoot with the fighters after them. And the shrapnel was dropping because we were outside our pub watching. ‘They said come in. There’s shrapnel.’ From the shells bursting dropping down. There’s no end if you stop and think what happened. But the best bits is when the WAAFs would come out the pub and drop in the beck because it was black out [laughs] Oh, airmen did as well. Not only WAAFs.
MC: Yeah. Because it was dark.
DR: It was dark innit [laughs]
MC: Yeah.
DR: And it was deep in them days. Still there to this day the beck is. And that’s where they used to swim. Right at the bottom. Half a mile further down because it got deep because it only started at the top end of Scopwick that beck did. Out the ground. Come building up from where it started. And when my uncle come he was a warrant officer at Cranwell. When he used to come to the Scopwick pub he had to take his uniform off because everybody were saluting him. All [laughs] it was a right bloody game it was. He used to come because he married my mother’s sister you see.
WB: Was that Dorothy?
DR: Dorothy. Yeah. And he finished a wing commander at Halton at the end of war. Finished the post. Left after the war. He’s passed away now. He came —
MC: So, what did he do in the war?
DR: He was, trained pilots at Cranwell. Teaching people to fly.
MC: Oh he was a flying instructor.
DR: Aye. He was. That’s how I got born at Cranwell. In their hospital. Through my dad being in the forces. Fighters at Digby. A mechanic what he was.
MC: So your dad was in the forces then you say.
DR: He was at the beginning of the war. Yeah.
MC: Yeah.
DR: Then he come out after the war.
MC: Yeah.
DR: Took the pub over because my grandad sold that pub to a firm called Soames Brewery but he kept all the land and the farm. Then my dad went as landlord of the pub.
MC: Yeah.
DR: All through, all through the war. He’d seen my mother. That’s how it worked. And my grandad died on the day the war broke. Brought on 1939, weren’t it? Aye. So my granny really brought me up because the pub was full. We had two bar women every night in the pub.
MC: Busy in those days.
DR: Oh God. It was. It was unbelievable. Nowhere else for them to go. Some of the Yanks came from them Flying Fortresses used to come down to Scopwick. So there was thirty planes then. There was ten people in each plane. They had to get that lot mended because it was that dense fog. They couldn’t land in Norfolk. Because we could see it from Temple Grange. It was across from Digby. All them bloody planes that day, one day when I went to work. I was working up there in them days. All them. They had a job to get off again. Had to wait for the wind. Certain day, when they got them out the, and I tell you the fighters was landing on another piece what they’d emergency landed.
MC: So you, you stayed with Parker’s throughout.
DR: All my life.
MC: My goodness.
DR: Forty five, fifty years.
MC: Goodness me.
DR: I had a good job.
MC: I was going to ask you what you did after the war but that’s, it’s what you did after the war.
DR: That’s true that is. And I stayed on for four, for four years at, for six months a year keeping on while they trained me up you see. I’d keep going you see because they used to do peas for Bird’s Eye at Grimsby. And what they did them days they used to send a student out all day and night clocking all the lorries out every two hours. Because they had to have around about fresh peas every two hours. And they used to say if that that lorry aint got his load of peas up for to go to Grimsby he still had to go after the time. Because they’d tell you’d they’d been well two hours from the frozen and that was true that was but they used to clock you. This person used to clock the lorries out. You couldn’t stop on if you hadn’t been broke down. Make your load up. You had to be off. He did.
MC: Goodness me.
DR: And that lot, them lorries them days there was the only one allowed to drive off with the hours running because it was perishable goods. Peas weren’t they? You couldn’t stop when you’d done your hours. They were exempt that was. Perishable goods.
[recording paused]
DR: In Mannheim was Lanz. In the war they flattened Mannheim. The British did. You know. Bombing them. And after the war it rebuilt up and it went to John Deere. And that’s where all the John Deere’s come in this country come from. Mannheim. And they land at Langar. Have you heard of Langar? Near Nottingham. Aerodrome. And that’s their, that’s the dropping point. All stuff come to Langar. Then it’s distributed. What I’m getting at we were send to Langar twice a year to keep up with all the trends in John Deere’s, new coming in. They was training us there in the new technology of John Deere’s at Langar.
MC: So John Deere’s equipment used to come from Mannheim.
DR: Yeah. To England. That was the manufacturing factory there at Mannheim. It used to be Lanz. And it got, and if you wanted a tractor John Deeres got the Lanz symbol on. Are you on there? But the Americans they sell them. They have them in America. They get dropped off. But in England it all goes to Langar. All John Deere stuff. And our firm had an agency. Parker’s at Metheringham they were. Then it went to Louth. Louth Tractors. Have you ever heard of that? Well, that belonged to our firm, because you had to get out of the ranges to get another one up. Another one at Dyke. Have you ever heard of it? Near Bourne. Dyke. There’s an agent’s shop there as well. That was our lot.
MC: Well, thank you very much, Don. I’ve got a fair bit there. It’s nice. And thank you very much for taking the time to, to be interviewed.
WB: Yeah.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with Donald Rainey
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Mike Connock
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2018-06-07
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
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ARaineyDC180607
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Pending review
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00:34:53 audio recording
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eng
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Civilian
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Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Description
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Donald Rainey was born in 1927 and he lived with his family at the Royal Oak in Scopwick. Donald remembers George Formby’s wife, Beryl staying at the pub for four days in the war whilst entertaining the troops at Digby. Got a job as an apprentice engineer at British Crop Driers, as a maintenance fitter. Donald describes life in Scopwick during the war. Scopwick was surrounded by RAF stations and Donald describes the pub and meeting servicemen there. Donald remembers aircraft being shot down. Donald describes the pub as always busy as there was nowhere else for servicemen to go.
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Julie Williams
Benjamin Turner
Temporal Coverage
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1945-03-11
childhood in wartime
crash
ground personnel
prisoner of war
RAF Blankney Hall
RAF Digby
RAF Metheringham
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/529/8763/PReddishDE1709.1.jpg
4403b07c2d04be641a9404794f3f2812
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/529/8763/AReddishDE170131.1.mp3
8c96b769611544c7a968374e5bc21d65
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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Reddish, Doris
Dorris Edith Reddish
D E Reddish
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Reddish, DE
Description
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14 items. An oral history interview with Doris Reddish (1925 - 2017) a memoir, correspondence and photographs. She served in the Royal Observer Corps.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Doris Reddish and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
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2017-01-31
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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TJ: Right this is Tina James and I’m interviewing Doris Edith Reddish. We’re at Doris’s home in —
DR: My name was Wright though before.
TJ: [redacted] Heckington. The date is the 31st of January 2017. So Doris your name is Reddish now?
DR: Yes.
TJ: What was it?
DR: Wright, Wright.
TJ: W, R, I, G, H, T?
DR: Yes, yes.
TJ: And that was your name from birth. So you were born in 1925 I see. So what about your parents did, did your father fight in the First World War?
DR: Yes, yes he was in the First World War
TJ: Did he survive?
DR: Yeah. He was in the trenches
TJ: Well he must’ve done —
DR: Yes.
TJ: If you were born in 1925 —
DR: Yes, yes. He got wounded about five times and always in October. Yes.
TJ: Really?
DR: Yes. He got bullet holes, scars all over him and then he finished up being crippled by arthritis from standing in the water all the time.
TJ: Yeah.
DR: And they said they had a pint of tea in the morning and it had to shave them and wash them and drink. And that’s how it was and he said that he’d be talking to one of his mates, those stood in the trenches, and his silence and looked down and he’d been shot dead. Killed. Yes by the side of him.
TJ: Did he talk a lot about his experiences?
DR: Not really. No, no if we just asked him, you know, a bit about it he would then but, no.
TJ: What year did he die?
DR: Um.
TJ: Roughly.
DR: It was eighty — he was eighty when he died, um.
TJ: So he was eighty. So he achieved quite a reasonable age —
DR: He was eighty when he died yes.
TJ: So maybe in the sixties was it?
DR: Um. No it was — oh ‘cause I’m — er.
TJ: So anyway never mind.
DR: I can’t — yes ‘cause he was — fortunately their family they were farmers.
TJ: Um.
DR: He had — there was eight boys in the family. And they left the eldest son each time on, for the farm and then they took three boys, the next three boys and all of them came though, yes. One of them was a stretcher bearer out in the trenches.
TJ: So I bet your dad couldn’t believe it when it was — all started to happen again.
DR: Um. Such a waste wasn’t it?
TJ: Wasn’t it? Yeah.
DR: Dreadful.
TJ: Um. So, when war broke out in 1939 what were you doing at that time?
DR: I was at school. Yes. I was at school.
TJ: In where?
DR: Sleaford High School.
TJ: So you’d have been what — about [pause] fourteen, yeah? So you were fourteen? Your school stayed open did it?
DR: Oh yes.
TJ: Being in Sleaford.
DR: Oh yes. Used to go on the bus, ten miles on the bus every day to school. Yes.
TJ: So how old were you when you left school?
DR: Pardon?
TJ: How old were you when you left school?
DR: Sixteen.
TJ: And then what did you do?
DR: I went to commercial college and then I worked at Market Rasen for Moore, Cooper and Burkett’s for a short time and then —
TJ: In the office?
DR: Yeah.
TJ: And so how did it come about that you joined the—
DR: You had to, didn’t you, it was compulsory.
TJ: Had to do something?
DR: Yes, had to do something like that yes.
TJ: Um. Did you get a choice —
DR: Yes.
TJ: Of what you did?
DR: Yes and we just, I just chose that.
TJ: What else could you have done? Do you know? Can you remember?
DR: You could’ve just gone into the army or something like that. For boys they could go down the mines. They were called Bevin boys or something like that.
TJ: They were.
DR: Um. Yes.
TJ: So, you chose, chose the observer corps, what year would that have been? About forty, forty-one?
DR: I think it was nineteen — was it forty [pause] six?
TJ: Well the war finished — were you doing it during the war?
DR: Oh well yes. That’s right isn’t it? Oh yes, er, um.
TJ: Can you remember how old you were when you started with the observer corps?
DR: Yes I was just seventeen. Nearly, nearly eighteen, yes. Because my friend and I were both —
TJ: So about forty-two then?
DR: Yes.
TJ: So it was, by then it was the Royal Observer Corps?
DR: Yes, yes. That’s right. Yes.
TJ: It was 1941 —
DR: Well it used to be, originally, apparently it was RAF OC, Royal Air Force Observer Corps and then it went to Royal Observer Corps.
TJ: Yes, 1941 I understand that was. So tell me about your training. Where was that done?
DR: That was done at St Peters Arches in Lincoln. Do you know where that is?
TJ: Yes, I think so.
DR: It’s on the corner, not far from the Stonebow.
TJ: Yeah.
DR: It used to be the fifty shilling tailors or something I think underneath it. And there used to be a guard at the bottom. We used to go up there in the lift and then after a while we left there and went to Beaumont Fee.
TJ: I know that.
DR: At Todson House. That’s where I did my commercial college training. And then latterly we went to Fiskerton and at Fiskerton it was underground.
TJ: What did your training comprise of?
DR: Aircraft recognition but we were not out on the outpost we were in the operations room. We were plotting the aircraft on a table.
TJ: Yeah.
DR: And also we had what they call an RDF board which stood up, a big metal thing with a map on.
TJ: So do you know what RDF stands for?
DR: Yes, you listen for the planes coming in over the sea and plotted them as they come over, over the coast. Yes. Onto that.
TJ: Do you know what RDF stands for?
DR: Radio? No I don’t.
TJ: No.
DR: No I don’t think we ever bothered. But you see when the aircraft were coming back home the Germans used to mix in with them.
TJ: Really?
DR: Yes, they used to come back with them. So — but from the sounds of the aircraft and things you can tell, you could tell the difference. You knew what each sound was. But with the recognition there was three different classes in that, basic, intermediate and masters. But you had to just recognise planes by just coming on at you, like that. You could only just [unclear]
TJ: Did you get a first class? Did you get a masters?
DR: No, no, no we didn’t, we just did the basic and intermediate. I think the masters was for the people more out on the posts. The outposts. Yes.
TJ: So you, you never went on an outpost?
DR: No, no, no.
TJ: Out onto the fields?
DR: No.
TJ: No.
DR: No we felt there was a bit — [laughs]
TJ: So. How did they get the reports in? Did they telephone them in?
DR: Yes. Yeah. Um, it’s funny because they would be like telling you to have your headphones on they’d be telling you these things about them and the planes were coming closer and closer and they’d be fighting. You know, there’d be one of our Spitfires and things like that and you’d be listening to it like that and all of a sudden, pop [emphasise] off. They’d shot them down. It’s how to see and things. It was really — it was fun anyway and we used to go on different shifts, off at three in the morning and the next day back on at three in the morning. It was a bit — but, em, there was some marvellous times, it was good and because of the ops room and things where we worked the aircrew boys could come in as well to, er —
TJ: Right in the middle of town?
DR: Yes, yes, yeah, but no when it was full on it was really full on.
TJ: How many people would’ve been in that room?
DR: It’s in the book. There’s photographs of them. I should think, how many would be at the table, probably twelve probably and then there used to be along with two people on the RDF board and then up above there was a tellers [?] coming in from Digby and different places. And officers sat at the top. I should think there’d be about twenty. Yes, at a time. Yes.
TJ: Various ages?
DR: Yes, oh yes, yeah, but like I say we were the, we were the two youngest of them.
TJ: You and your friend?
DR: Yes.
TJ: And what’s her name.
DR: Betty Bally.
TJ: And you said she’s still with us?
DR: No she’s dead.
TJ: Oh right. Who’s the other lady you were talking about earlier?
DR: No, no. Evelyn lives at Woodhall but another friend who was with me but her memory is not as good as mine.
TJ: Um.
DR: Yes, yes.
TJ: So did you have quiet nights of —
DR: Oh yes, yes
TJ: Lots?
DR: If they weren’t flying and if there was no ops and things it was very quiet.
TJ: Um. So what did you do whilst you weren’t —
DR: We used to play shove ha’penny [laughs] and all those sort of games like that they had and the food. Beans on toast, cheese on toast, pilchards on toast. It’s what we used to live on.
TJ: And that was provided for you was it?
DR: Oh yes, yes.
TJ: Whilst you were on duty?
DR: Yes. No they, the manager from Freeman Hardy and Willis, Sidney his name was, he was a, he was nice and things. But yes, I can remember him, but, um —
TJ: He, was he in there too was he?
DR: Yes. He was a, he was a very bit higher rank, was Sidney.
TJ: Did he manage to keep on going in the shop, in the shoe shop?
DR: Um, yes.
TJ: At the same time as –
DR: Yes, yes.
TJ: Yeah.
DR: Yes. I think several of them had part time jobs. I don’t know how they managed it though because of — had to sleep when you came off duty which was difficult with changing times all the time. But, um, no —
TJ: So where did, where were you living at that time?
DR: I was living up Cheviot Street.
TJ: Which I believe is near Monks Road?
DR: Yes, yes.
TJ: What were you in digs or —
DR: Yes, yes, yes we were in digs. Evelyn and I were together there but Betty Bally she lived at Saxilby. So she used to go home to Saxilby.
TJ: What on the bus or the train?
DR: No, no, no, her dad used to pick her up. Or often we used to cycle and I used to go home with her to Saxilby. We used to cycle to Saxilby. But then we got friendly with the full crew and they often used to come in a taxi and pick us up because they could stay in the ops room as well you see. And they would taxi and take us home like that.
TJ: That was nice.
DR: Yes, yeah. So —
TJ: So what about social life?
DR: Well what — we used to find a dance in Lincoln. Tuesday nights it was the Montana which is across the road from the Theatre at Lincoln. Wednesday night it was the Drill Hall. Thursday night it was the Astoria which was over the Burton’s clothing shop there. And, um, we used to [pause] dance, you know about three, at least three nights a week we used to go dancing and like we’d go in, if we was going on duty at eleven well we’d go to the dance till eleven. But if we came off duty at eleven we used to go. Yes.
TJ: To the dancing?
DR: Yes. It’s, it was absolutely marvellous it really was.
TJ: From the social point of view?
DR: Yes. And the work was interesting.
TJ: How good were you at aircraft recognition?
DR: Very. Yes. Very.
TJ: Did you always keep up an interest in that? After the war?
DR: Yes. Yes. I’ve always been interested in the planes. Yes. Um, propeller planes, I don’t know anything about jets and —
TJ: No.
DR: And those sorts of things
TJ: It must have been, there must have been some upsetting times though?
DR: Oh yes. Yes. Because you had various friends and you knew which aerodrome they were going from because we could see, and you’d count the planes out, plot them out and then when they came back you’d plotted that there’d be two or three missing and if you had boyfriends in the thing like I used to have to nip down to the Post Office to ring up to find out if Monty, who was my boyfriend then. Thing with — then one night he went to Berlin on the 1st of January 1944 and he didn’t come back from that. Yeah. But also we had a — at home because I lived at a bakers shop at Billinghay and dad thought it was his duty to help look after them and they had a notice up at the camp at Coningsby and Woodhall if anybody would like a meal to come. Which they did, we had lots of them, lots of them come and this particular one, Ken Ingram his name was and he was only young, he was twenty-one and on a Wednesday if I was off duty we used to go to Boston our parents, did for, to the wholesalers. And he used to want to drive to Boston and I used to want to drive to Boston so he would jump in the driver’s seat to go to Boston but I used to pull him out and I think then, I used to get in and he used to pull me out. Well he went on this raid, right tearaway, sort of little thing he wasn’t very big and of course when they got shot down he bailed out. Joined — wouldn’t be taken prisoner he joined up with the resistance and did that for a while and then the Gestapo got him and they killed him. They hung him up on the wires and his body wasn’t allowed to be cut down for two or three days. Yes. It’s — and he was an only — well he had a brother who was killed by the Japanese and then he was like that. And he had no, his mother was dead. Yes. And his father kept a hotel and he came over to visit us. Yes. After the war to tell us all about it. And it is apparently Wendy who comes, well Billy’s friend, lady friend and she got it all up on the thing and apparently they have put a, some sort of a monument for him over — yes.
TJ: In?
DR: Where it happened.
TJ: And where would that have been?
DR: I don’t think —
TJ: France?
DR: I don’t, I don’t know if he joined with the French or the Dutch resistance. Yes. No. There were lots and lots of them but. Yes. Got shot down. That was dreadful.
TJ: Was there much bombing near or in Lincoln?
DR: Oh yes, quite a bit. The worst part about it was like when the planes got home and crashed when they landed and things and that was dreadful.
TJ: I know Waddington Church was bombed.
DR: Yes.
TJ: Was there much bombing in the town itself?
DR: Yes. I know at Tattershall. Was it in Tattershall they bombed didn’t they? I know when war was declared on the Sunday they came over and dropped incendiary bombs at Billinghay.
TJ: Um. I wonder why there?
DR: I don’t know. Well it’s funny because that Lord Haw-Haw man you know who used to come on. And one Sunday lunchtime it was, at Chapel Hill, there was a pumping station and the people at the house were just having their lunch and they got the carving forks stuck in the joint and this plane came over, bombed it, the place, and killed them at the pumping station down there on that Sunday lunchtime. And then Lord Haw-Haw at night said that some, something special they’d bombed but it was just the pumping station. And dad, like I say was a baker, and one particular morning the — you can hear a German ‘cause you know the German planes when they came over, really low over the village and he had got his white apron on and he went outside to look and the thing was just coming over and went ‘tut, tut, tut, tut’. Yes.
TJ: Um. Missed him I take it?
DR: Yep. Yep. Yeah. Really low they used to come over. So we used to have our excitement.
TJ: Yeah.
DR: No and then they had a spell to go to Digby to the RAF at Digby there. And when I was there we were staying at Blankney Hall and one of the WAFs left an iron on the ironing board and I’d gone home on — for the weekend and she burnt the hall down. Blankney Hall was burnt, she burnt the hall. So that’s how I went back to Lincoln.
TJ: Um.
DR: That was sad.
TJ: Did you ever get to go up in an aeroplane?
DR: We went up once but only for just a little few minutes just — yes.
TJ: What sort of plane was it?
DR: In the Lancaster. Yeah.
TJ: And from where from? What airfield?
DR: I believe it was Skellingthorpe I think. I can’t just remember. ‘Cause we went —
TJ: There were so many of them in the area?
DR: Yes, that’s right, yes in the area.
TJ: Was that your first time flying?
DR: Yes. Never done — No. I’ve never been abroad to —
TJ: Never been in an aeroplane since?
DR: No. No, don’t want to. Never. No.
TJ: Did you enjoy that flight?
DR: Well no because it was so rough in the thing. In those Lancasters there’s no comfort or anything and yes.
TJ: So you weren’t keen to do it again?
DR: Yes.
TJ: Did you all go for a ride in the plane or —
DR: I can’t remember to be quite truthful. I can’t — I don’t know why I can’t remember more about it.
TJ: It’s alright. It’s just something I read that the people in the Royal Observer Corps were offered an opportunity if at all possible to go up in aeroplanes.
DR: Yeah. You know to think about it I can’t even think if it even got off the ground or if we just taxied on the thing. It’s funny that I can’t — I wonder why no one wanted to go in an aeroplane since. The thought of being closed in. If you could have the windows open, yes. No I’m not an air traveller. But like I say that my time in the Observer Corps was my happiest time, couldn’t help but enjoy it. It was serious but there was a lot of enjoyment.
TJ: Camaraderie?
DR: Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I often try to think about — I can remember [pause] getting in the thing but —
TJ: After that?
DR: There was sometimes, I don’t think we went in the air even. I think we just taxied.
TJ: Maybe that’s why you don’t remember it.
DR: Yes, that’s right. Yes.
TJ: Maybe if you’d gone in the air you might have stronger memories.
DR: Yes. I think I would somehow. Yes.
TJ: So you kept abreast of what was going on in the war?
DR: Oh yes. Yes.
TJ: With radio and the newspapers?
DR: Yet [pause] I don’t know why at Fiskerton I don’t really know — I think it must have been at the end more, right at the end while we moved to Fiskerton. Like I said to Evelyn about it, but she can’t, she can just remember us being there.
TJ: What, where you worked from?
DR: Yeah. Yeah. From Fiskerton at the end. Why did we move from Beaumont Fee? I just can’t think. Like I say there’s no one to check with.
TJ: Ask?
DR: That’s the point, yes. I don’t know of anyone round about here who’s left and —
TJ: You did say about what, what aircraft was first on the board in the morning.
DR: Oh yes, yes. The first aircraft on the board was from, it was a Beaufont [pause] Beaufont, Beaufont
TJ: Beaufort?
DR: Beaufort I think and it was from up at Donna Nook, up that direction.
TJ: Which air —
DR: You’ll find it in that book, all in that book. Yes.
TJ: I’ll have a little look at that. This?
DR: Yeah.
TJ: So you always got the same plane first up every day?
DR: Yes. The same one, well the weather plane it was. It used to fly out to sea and — yeah. For the weather.
TJ: For a reccy and come back?
DR: Yes. Yeah.
TJ: Beaumont, check.
DR: I can’t even remember the proper name for the thing. Beaumont fighter, yes. That um, the trouble is with, especially with the young Spitfire pilots I mean they were only young boys when they joined and they had about twelve hours tuition, I think it was, and they went and they knew that they would only be there for one or two flights and then they would be killed, it’s dreadful, isn’t it? Yeah. And to start with, in the air crew they were all the cream of the young lads that went, you know the rich peoples sons they seemed to be and — I mean in the village at Billinghay there was quite a few of them stationed in the village. You know they were probably married and got their families and that and then they wouldn’t be there many weeks and then they’d be gone because their husbands had been killed [long pause]
TJ: Did you ever visit one of the outposts where they used to —
DR: I went to Billinghay to — yes, to —
TJ: Where you used to do the spotting and the bringing in from?
DR: To look in there. Yes. But that was, that was not my cup of tea at all. No.
TJ: Did you have to climb down a ladder to get into it?
DR: Yes, yes, yeah. Up and down, yeah. Climb over a bit, yes to get in.
TJ: And what was in there?
DR: Nothing, only a table, chairs and a kettle. Yes. You see they did all that with the binoculars and things you see and — but I mean they were good I mean they knew every, the sound of every aircraft that was, that was coming. I mean well everybody got to know about the doodlebugs and while they kept going and things I mean they used to come over the village and while they were going it was OK. It was when, ‘cause the engine cut out and you knew you know to look out, yes. I mean really and truthfully I mean it should’ve been a frightening time but somehow you weren’t frightened.
TJ: That’s interesting.
DR: Yeah. I can remember you know like Sylv the air raid warden coming round blowing my dad was one, blowing the whistle for people to go and then we used to just run along the road up to the pub and into their cellar. That’s it, it was, it was an experience and really wasn’t it and — no. They were good times, enjoyable times really and sad times.
TJ: So coming towards the end of the war, presumably you knew that the end was in sight, did you or didn’t you?
DR: No. No, I don’t think we did. No. No.
TJ: What do you remember about the news breaking of the invasion? Of the Normandy landings? Did you, can you remember hearing about it?
DR: About the what?
TJ: The Normandy landings? The D-day?
DR: No. Um.
TJ: Did you read it in the paper or hear about it on the radio?
DR: I can remember that all the — we had on the Observer Corps there was part of it called the sea raids, sea rangers or something and they all went out to spotting for the, to do the spotting, yes they did.
TJ: Yeah.
DR: Yeah. Lost a lot of them got killed on that but it was essential you see for them to know to pick which was the Germans which they could do.
TJ: Yes, it was to avoid friendly fire I understand.
DR: Um.
TJ: And it worked well.
DR: Yeah.
TJ: So —
DR: Yes it was — the worst part was plotting things out and them not coming back again. That was — used to cast a cloud over everything.
TJ: So the Observer Corps actually carried on into the nineties I think.
DR: Yes.
TJ: When did you actually finish with them?
DR: Um [pause] that’s another question I asked my friend ‘cause I just couldn’t remember and nor could she said ‘I can’t remember either when we finished’. How we finished.
TJ: Can you remember VE day?
DR: Yes.
TJ: And what did you do to celebrate?
DR: Came home [laughs] yes.
TJ: To Saxilby?
DR: I think [pause]. No, I can’t remember, no.
TJ: Details no?
DR: No. I think, I can remember celebrating I think I must have been in Lincoln celebrating in the streets we did. But then how much longer did we stay on? You know, I just don’t know.
TJ: You don’t remember? No?
DR: I don’t.
TJ: You don’t know when you were demobbed?
DR: No, I can’t. I wish I could. I wish I’d kept a record of all these things but at the actual time you don’t think about it do you?
TJ: So what did you do — let’s look at it. What did you do for work after you left the Royal Observer Corps? What was the first job you had in civilian life?
DR: I just went and did my dad’s business. Just worked at home.
TJ: The bakery?
DR: Bakers, yes. The baker, confectionist, general store, yeah.
TJ: Were you a baker yourself? Or a confectioner?
DR: No. No. We had special people to do that.
TJ: Did you work in the shop during the day?
DR: Yes, yeah. Drive the vans on bread rounds. We had, you know we used to go round to all the houses then down the fens and everything. I used to drive a van.
TJ: Did you have to do a driving test in those days?
DR: No, I didn’t take a driving test. On the day I was seventeen my dad said to me ‘jump in the car and go get a licence’. So I drove to Sleaford without a licence, got a licence and drove back again.
TJ: On your own?
DR: Yes. Just went on my own because I’d been driving since I was eight years old.
TJ: On private land?
DR: Yeah. Used to go down the fens with the bread down all the fens you used to have to drive across fields to the farmhouses and things as soon as you used to get through the gates dad used to say ‘you drive’.
TJ: Can’t imagine that these days, can you?
DR: No.
TJ: You’d have been put into care [laughs]
DR: [laughs] Yes. I’ve been driving since I was eight years old.
TJ: Wow. So you’ve never, never held a driving licence?
DR: No. My brother, no my brother, he wouldn’t. No. He was three years older than me.
TJ: So you worked in the family business?
DR: Yes, until I got married.
TJ: And what year did you get married?
DR: That’s another thing I can’t even remember. I know I’ve been a widow fifty years. On the 19th of February.
TJ: When you got married would it have been the fifties, early fifties possibly?
DR: I think I was twenty-four. Was I? Twenty-four.
TJ: Yes, if you were born in twenty-five.
DR: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
TJ: Yes, about 1950 ish, forty-nine, fifty
DR: I think I was twenty-four. Was I? I don’t know.
TJ: So, what did your husband do in the war?
DR: He was, he was in the army. I didn’t know him then, yes. He was a sergeant in the — I don’t even know what regiment.
TJ: Where was he during the war? Can you remember that?
DR: I know he was abroad, I don’t know where. I know it was hot [laughs]
TJ: Africa then [laughs]
DR: Yes. Yes. It’s funny ‘cause you never talk about it you know.
TJ: Did you not?
DR: No.
TJ: Between yourselves?
DR: No. No.
TJ: Didn’t swap stories?
DR: No.
TJ: What did your husband do for work?
DR: He was a butcher.
TJ: Oh. So the butcher and the baker.
DR: Yes, that’s right, yes.
TJ: Where did you meet him?
DR: Heckington. It was in Heckington where I got married. And I had a fish shop.
TJ: Oh.
DR: A fish and chip shop. Yes.
TJ: That was your own was it?
DR: Yes. A small holding we had as well.
TJ: Did you sell wet fish?
DR: Yes.
TJ: As well as fish and chips?
DR: Fish and chips. And the shop is still there. Yes.
TJ: How much did it cost?
DR: Tuppence for the fish and a penny for the chips.
TJ: I bet they were absolutely delicious.
DR: Yes. That’s a fib anyway because they weren’t. It was — no, it was how much was it, probably was, it was only a few pence anyway. Yes. And when you think now how much it is. About six pounds for fish and chips isn’t it?
TJ: Something like that, yes.
DR: Yes. But I could buy fish then for eleven shillings a stone. Yes. And we had coal fired pans which made good fish and chips. Like all the people in the village here they said ours were the best fish and chips you could get.
TJ: What did you fry in? Dripping?
DR: Yes. Yes.
TJ: Beef dripping?
DR: Yes. Yeah. Butcher’s dripping.
TJ: Well that’s handy ‘cause your husband was the butcher.
DR: Yes. Used to get this beef dripping for, from Spalding. From the butchers up Spalding way.
TJ: I remember you telling me about Christmas Day when you were in the Royal Observer Corps.
DR: I know. That’s naughty.
TJ: Oh go on.
DR: Oh. Yes my friend and I on the Christmas Day we were on the RDF board and the officers brought us a crate of cider and we just sat there and drank this, steadily drank all this cider while we were on — but I don’t know, was there an armistice on Christmas Day? but the Germans didn’t come over did they? [laughs] So if they’d come sneaking in over the sea it would’ve been just too bad. ‘Cause we weren’t quite responsible enough to think that — yes. So we didn’t get bombed. Yes.
TJ: What about rationing? Did you, did you find that very difficult?
DR: Pardon.
TJ: Rationing of food and clothes.
DR: No not really because with being in a shop we weren’t really rationed you see were we. We could dip in — though. [pause] No we didn’t seem to be even in our digs. No we didn’t. No it wasn’t too bad at all. There’s always things that you could get. I mean you never got bananas and things like that in the wartime and I can remember with being in the shop and things that they’d probably send six tins of salmon. Well what could you do with six tins of salmon when you’ve got scores and scores of customers can you. And they always used to come in and say ‘have you got any salmon?’ and all these sorts of things but no and Monty my boyfriend, at one time, all he loved was Fry’s chocolate cream when he was went on ops. Chocolate and we used to save all our points, sweet points to keep to buy it so he could have plenty of this Fry’s chocolate, yeah. That’s what he loved when he was flying and like I say he got, he got killed. Yeah [pause] but they used to know you know those boys when they weren’t coming back.
TJ: Did they?
DR: Um.
TJ: Premonition?
DR: Yes, yeah. Yes they knew. Yes ‘cause I can remember one particular friend that I had and he had cycled down from, from Coningsby and that and I stood you know to wave, to wave to him when he went and he went up the road about six times and came back.
TJ: Um.
DR: And that and away he went and then he went out I think it was at night and he didn’t come back again. No it was very funny, but well [long pause]
TJ: That’s war for you isn’t it. Terrible. Let me just —
DR: He was my friend for several years. Even after, after the war and he was a flight lieutenant but he was gunnery leader and he used to have to take the crews out to Scherluffer[?] for practice. Yes. But he was, he got the DFM and bar and the DFC, in fact I’ve got the ribbon somewhere round about from them. Yes. And he did three full tours of ops. That’s twenty in a tour. And a few odd ones at the end. He did over sixty tours. He got shot down a couple of times, once in the sea and I think it was about a couple of days before they got picked up. Yeah. But he got through, came through it all relatively unscathed. The good part about it was when he went in the sea he got these, all these new things and I got a new pair of flying boots out of it [laughs] yes.
TJ: Did you find it hard to adjust to ordinary life —
DR: Yes. Yes
TJ: After the war.
DR: Yes. Yes it was difficult.
TJ: Tell us about how you felt.
DR: Yes. I think it was just having all your friends together and all doing the same thing.
TJ: Did you miss the sort of the friendship?
DR: Yes. Well I kept friends with Betty Bally right up to her dying. She’s been dead probably four years I think. About four years. She lost her leg and everything. It was sugar diabetes I think it was that caused that. No we just stayed friends. Like I say they called us the terrible twins because our birthdays were only about five days apart and with the young ones they used to call us babe because we were — yep.
TJ: So working in the shop out in Saxilby, was it, wasn’t as —
DR: Billinghay.
TJ: Sorry Billinghay.
DR: Yes.
TJ: So where does Saxilby come in?
DR: Betty lived at Saxilby.
TJ: That’s right, yes. Billinghay. The shop in Billinghay —
DR: Well her dad was a beekeeper. He kept bees. He was a small holder but he had bees, all these bees and I think he was head of the bee —
TJ: Keepers Association?
DR: Yes, that’s right. Yes, yeah.
TJ: So the shop in Billinghay must have all seemed a little bit ordinary mustn’t it after what you’d been doing all during the war?
DR: I didn’t think, didn’t look at it like that no.
TJ: No.
DR: Well it was like a bit strange coming back to live in the village. Yeah.
TJ: So you must’ve been proud of the contribution you were able to make —
DR: Yes.
TJ: To the war effort.
DR: I notice on the Armistice Day and things there are, that there are members of the families I think of — must be ‘cause the people, but they march right at the — with the RAF and then the Observer Corps with them aren’t they next to them when they march.
TJ: Yes, when they do the Cenotaph
DR: Yes, that’s right. Yes because I mean there was some younger people who were on there I didn’t see many old crocks [laughs].
TJ: Yeah marching it’s more of a young person’s sport isn’t it?
DR: Yes, that’s right. Although you get the old people in the wheelchairs and things don’t you at that ceremony.
TJ: Well I’m going to finish this interview here. So thank you very much for sharing your memories with us.
DR: Yes. It’s a pity you don’t read through the book there because it’s all about the Observer Corps and that.
TJ: Yes, we’ll have look at the book and perhaps we’ll copy it for the archives.
DR: Yeah, yeah.
TJ: OK. End of recording.
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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Interview with Doris Reddish
Creator
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Tina James
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
2017-01-31
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AReddishDE170131, PReddishDE1709
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.
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Civilian
Format
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00:47:42 audio recording
Description
An account of the resource
Doris Reddish attended Sleaford High School followed by commercial college. She worked at Moore, Cooper and Burkett’s in Market Rasen until she joined the Royal Observer Corps. She trained in Lincoln for aircraft recognition then served as a table plotter at RAF Digby, RAF Blankney Hall and RAF Fiskerton. After demobilisation she went to work in the family shop, then got married and run a fish and chip shop in Billinghay. Doris also discusses her father’s experiences in the First World War and reminisces about social life in wartime, bomb damage, and rationing.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Lincoln
England--Market Rasen
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1944
1945
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Carolyn Emery
bombing
entertainment
home front
love and romance
military ethos
operations room
RAF Blankney Hall
RAF Digby
RAF Fiskerton
Royal Observer Corps
training