1
25
27
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/272/1103/PBubbGJ16010030.2.jpg
1c815538f59c54c89ae17338cb2575d7
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/272/1103/PBubbGJ16010032.2.jpg
d5e45a0d0abe96e63c39918c07fbb732
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/272/1103/PBubbGJ16010031.2.jpg
13a723a3f69794db011f3b21076100ea
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/272/1103/PBubbGJ16010029.2.jpg
199f1e092174048cdc6d73ec5ed8a177
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
Bubb, George. Album
Description
An account of the resource
32 items. The album contains photographs, propaganda, service material, memorabilia and research concerning George Bubb's service with 44 Squadron at RAF Spilsby.
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Bubb, GJ
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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[photograph]
[page break]
[underlined] LEFT TO RIGHT [/underlined]
[underlined] BACK ROW [/underlined]
J. HEANEY. E. RAY E. HEMMINGS, P. MANNING. J.MARSDEN. F. WOODS. E. NASH J. FLETCHER. W. BOOTH. E. UDEN
[underlined] MIDDLE ROW [/underlined]
A. TANNER. L. PARKER. E. GORDON. K. FORD. J. HARDING. H. SMITH. J. McKAY. W. GULLIS. A. MOORE. G. WARRINER. R. WYLES. R. GILL. P. MOOR
[underlined] FRONT ROW [/underlined]
[underlined] G. BUBB [/underlined] J. BRASH. G. WILLIAMS . F/O. JOHNSON. Sgt. A. FRANCIS W. GEDDES. R. WILLIAMSON S. REED.
[underlined] CHIVENOR FEB. 1943 [/underlined].
[page break]
[repeat of previous page]
[page break]
[repeat of first 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
A name given to the resource
Royal Air Force personnel at RAF Chivenor
Description
An account of the resource
On one page 29 airmen, an officer and a sergeant in three rows. All airmen apart from one in battledress are in uniform tunic and side caps. Front row is seated with a flying officer and sergeant in the centre. Rear two rows standing. To the left and right buildings and at the rear a corrugated roof. Separate document on another page provides names of all participants in group portrait. George Bubb is front row first on the left. At the bottom 'Chivenor Feb 1943'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-02
Format
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One b/w photograph and one handwritten document
Language
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eng
Identifier
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PBubbGJ16010029, PBubbGJ16010030, PBubbGJ16010031, PBubbGJ16010032
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-02
Type
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Text
Photograph
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
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Steve Baldwin
RAF Chivenor
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/581/8850/AHearmonPC160317.1.mp3
357fd317f299351fbd3b3b83ddd33699
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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Hearmon, Peter Charles
P C Hearmon
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Hearmon, PC
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Flight Lieutenant Peter Charles Hearmon (b. 1931, 2507699 Royal Air Force). He served as a pilot with 55, 58 and 61 Squadrons between 1951 - 1971.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-03-17
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and we’re here in Milton Keynes with Peter Charles Hearmon who was a peacetime pilot and navigator and this is a sequel to the RAF’s activities in the war and we’re going to talk about his life from the earliest days and to joining the RAF and his interesting variations. Peter, where do we start?
PH: Well my father was a London fireman and he was stationed at Euston Road Fire Station so I was born in University College Hospital which was in Gower Street just across the road. My earliest recollections are of a flat because in those days firemen lived on the premises and my earliest recollection is a flat at Clerkenwell Road Fire, not Clerkenwell, yeah Clerkenwell Road Fire Station because my father had moved by then and my grandmother Nanty lived with us. And I can remember as a kid of about six or seven, strictly forbidden to but we used to slide down the poles ‘cause that was the way the firemen got to the, to the ground in those days and they, I don’t know if people realise it, it wasn’t a continuous pole. It just went two floors. Well this, otherwise they would pick up such a speed they’d break their bloody legs when they got to the bottom. No it wasn’t a long pole, it was, you know. Anyway, then we, my father left the fire brigade in about 1938 and we moved to a council flat in Lewis Trust in Amhurst Road, Hackney from which we were bombed. And I was evacuated initially in, I should think, before the Second World War started in about the August. I was one of those kids with a gas mask in a brown box with a label saying who I was and I was evacuated to a place called Toller Porcorum which is in Dorset, a small village but we lasted three days. There were three Cockney lads, seven or eight billeted on some poor old dear well into her nineties and we all, well in those days they, they allocated, they just said to one of the local councillors, ‘You’re the allocation officer,’ and they just went around and knocked on doors and said, ‘How many rooms you got?’ ‘I’ve got three rooms.’ ‘Oh you’ve only got one kid. You can have two evacuees.’ It was as simple as that. We lasted three days and we all ran away back home and I was variously evacuated to Exmouth in Devon. I got an eleven plus and that was, we were, I went to Westminster City School which was billeted with Tonbridge High School in Tonbridge. That was during the Battle of Britain and that was a good thing because all, we were being rained on and bombed on and then I was re-evacuated to Devon and then back to, I think eventually back to London during the V1 V2 campaign because there was nowhere is England that was any different by that time. We’re talking about 1944/45. The Germans were raiding ad lib as it were, you know. Indiscriminately. So London was as bad or as good as anywhere so I went back home and the school came back to London, Westminster City and I left in 1947 with a good clutch of O levels especially in languages. French and Latin. Didn’t do German in those days. And due to a friend of my mother’s I got an apprenticeship with a firm called Princeline in the merchant navy and I did three and a half years but decided it wasn’t for me and I left. Couldn’t get a job really because although I was, I was over nineteen I was still national, liable for National Service by then because having been in the merchant navy, the merchant navy was a reserved occupation but because I’d left so I wrote to them and asked to be called up and I was called up for the army and I went to a place called [Inacton?] I forget what it was. Selection centre. The Korean War was on and I went, I went in front of the naval chap who said I could join the navy. They only took twelve National Servicemen a year and I said no thanks. The army chap was, said to me you can join and with your educational qualifications even as a National Serviceman you’ll probably get a commission but then for some reason, I forget why, the air force chap interjected and said, ‘We’re looking for aircrew,’ and he did some dickering with the army chap and that was how I joined the air force. I was literally sort of called up, you know. Went to Padgate and that was a laugh because the, the instructors were all acting corporal, National Servicemen who’d done a six week course or somewhere or the other and given a couple of stripes and in fact our, our hut commander was an acting corporal who was quite frankly illiterate. I used to, used to get one of my guys to read him from the Beano, to read to him from the Beano. You may laugh but it was the God’s honest truth, you know. Anyway, went to Hornchurch selected for pilot, navigator and I think gunner or gunner something like that. And I then accepted and we were offered at that stage the choice of staying as a National Serviceman or becoming what they call a short term engagement where you got regular pay so I opted for short term engagement. Went to nav school at Hullavington and when we first arrived at Hullavington my course were all suspended pilots with wings which rather upset a lot of the staff pilots because we were all officers and they were only sergeants but eventually we were told to take our wings down so we had to take our wings off. So I then qualified as a navigator. Spent five, six months at St Mawgan because there were no vacancies in the Navigation Training Scheme flying Lancasters so I did some Lancaster flying there. And then I went to Lindholme, that’s right, for the air observer’s course on Canberras. Didn’t do any, in those days the pilots and navigators went through Bassingbourn together. The set up or bomb aimer or whatever you like to call them did six weeks at Lindholme and then joined the crew on the squadron which is what I did. That was at Upwood and when I arrived I think we only had about four or five, there was only about four or five aircraft. That was when you had squadron leader COs as well but we slowly but surely got aircraft from Short’s. I think Short’s made some Canberras and I think we ended up with something like eight UE and twelve crews. Sounds about right. I think it’s something like that. We were chased out of Upwood eventually by, no, sorry Wittering, it wasn’t Upwood, it was Wittering. We were at Wittering. We were chased out by the arrival of 148 squadron Valiants and we then went, then went to Upwood which I think by that time we ended up with something like four Canberra squadrons from Scampton or, I think, well it was 61 squadron. 40 squadron. I can’t remember the names of the others. I think there was four ‘cause at one time in the air force I counted there were forty eight Canberra squadrons in the UK, Cyprus and the Far East. I think [I was more or less?] was astounded when I counted. Yeah. I mean, I don’t think there are forty eight squadrons in the air force at all at the minute is there? You see we had Canberras at Upwood, Scampton, Waddington. What’s the one further north? Binbrook. Wyton. All had three or four squadrons. I think I’m talking of the days when there were a squadron leader CO and I was, I was a flight commander as well. I was acting flight commander as a flying officer. [cough] excuse me. Anyway, let me go and get a drink of water. Sorry.
CB: Ok.
PH: Talking.
[Recording paused]
CB: We’re re-starting now to recap slightly and go to the initial training that Peter did and just take us through that.
PH: When I, when I, is it going?
CB: Yeah.
PH: When I was called up in 1951 I went to Padgate where we didn’t do very much at all. I was there for about six weeks. We really got kitted out. That’s where we got our uniforms or up to a point our uniforms. Some of it. Some of it. It was, it was very odd because at times there were groups with wearing their own jacket but air force trousers and air force shirts and air force berets or whatever but anyway after about six weeks at Padgate we went to Hornchurch for aircrew selection which and I was given pilot. I don’t think I was given navigator believe it or not. I think I was given pilot, gunner, engineer. We then went back to Padgate and we awaited and we got, I got posted to Number 3 ITS at Cranwell and that was a six month ab initio course doing square bashing, PT, customs of the service. Mathematics. Physics. We had a lot of National Service teachers in those days of course who had done their, because in those days at eighteen you could either opt to do your National Service straightaway or you could defer it until after you’d been to university. And a lot of these guys had been, had degrees and were just doing their National Service after university so they were in their twenties normally. They only wore hairy battledresses because they weren’t issued even though they were officers they weren’t issued with anything else so that was it. So we did six months at the ITS and I think there was, there was, if I remember there were four ITSs at Cranwell. At Cranwell alone or [as of anywhere?] and there was over a hundred on each. The chop rate was about fifty percent so at the end of the course of the six months there would only be fifty of you left and these, these were pilots, navigators and gunners and then from there you went to your specialist training and I went then to Feltwell and I did my flying training on Prentices, then Harvards. Got my wings, as we said on the time and went to Driffield on, on Meteors. And then from there I went to Chivenor on Vampires which I didn’t get on with and of that course of fourteen because the Korean War ended seven of us were suspended from pilot training.
CB: So when you went doing your training at Driffield. What did you do? It was a two seater Meteor was it?
PH: Two seat. Yeah. The Meteor 7.
CB: And so what was the programme that you had for that?
PH: Well you -
CB: ‘Cause it was the first jet really.
PH: You flew, you flew nearly every day even only for a short time. Say an hour or so if that. A with an instructor and eventually I forget, it will tell you in my logbook you. Eventually went solo and because you went solo that didn’t mean, you still, you still did dual trips for various other things like aerobatics and things like that. And then eventually you did your final trip as a flight commander you were passed out you know as having satisfied. I got a white card at Driffield but then I went to say Chivenor and there were fourteen on my course at Chivenor of which seven were suspended and I was offered the choice. By that time I was a regular of course and I was offered the choice of finishing my National Service, I had about a week or so to do or retraining. By that time I was married. I was married in the previous year so I decided I rather liked the air force so I decided to retrain as a navigator. And so then I went to Hullavington and I had my pilot training. Actually my pilot training stood me in good stead because I finished about second or third on the course you know because a lot of the navigator and pilot training, especially the ground school, they were the same, you know, the meteorology, all that sort of thing was pretty good so I’d already done it. Most of it. But they were, in fact the course I was on at Hullavington were all chop pilots and I think as I mentioned earlier we were, we were forced to take our wings down eventually.
CB: Only temporarily.
PH: Well no we never got them back again because we then had, we then got navigator brevvies and the law of the Royal Air Force was you wear the brevvy of the trade in which you are practicing.
CB: Ok.
PH: Well we, our brevvies were virtually removed permanently. We were told we could no longer wear them. Right. Ok.
CB: Ok. So you did the Hullavington course.
PH: Yes.
CB: And you then got your new brevvy which was –
PH: Correct.
CB: The navigator. So then where did you go?
PH: Went to St Mawgan as the assistant flying adj because there was no vacancies for Canberra training at the time and I was there for six months. Did quite a lot of flying in Lancasters.
[phone ringing]
PH: Which one was that? Or was it –
[Recording paused]
PH: In training.
CB: Right. So –
PH: But because, because I was a navigator and I got on well with the squadron leader flying –
CB: Yeah.
PH: He said, ‘Pete, come and fly with us,’
CB: Yeah.
PH: So off I went. You know.
CB: So we’re talking about using your time at St Mawgan.
PH: Correct.
CB: And you got –
PH: Went to Gibraltar two or three times.
CB: Right. As the navigator on the –
PH: As the nav. Yeah.
CB: On the Lancaster.
PH: On the Lanc. And believe it or not we used to take down in the bomb bay bundles of hay because the AOC there and the brigadier they had a cow because they couldn’t stand Spanish milk. Have you ever tried Spanish milk? Spanish milk is bloody awful.
CB: Yeah. Yeah.
PH: Anyway, they had a cow so in the bomb bay of the Lanc which is quite large we used to take bales of hay for the, for the AOC’s cow and bring back things like Christmas trees or potatoes and things like that you know.
CB: Yeah. Any wine?
PH: And wine. Yes. Of course.
CB: Ok. So you had six months of this.
PH: About six months.
CB: Time.
PH: And then I went to Hullavington and did the nav course.
CB: Oh this was before. This, was this after the nav course or before it?
PH: What?
CB: No. This being at St Mawgan was after –
PH: Oh no that was before, that was after getting brevvy, between getting a brevvy.
CB: Yeah.
PH: And actually getting, no it wasn’t the nav course. No. Start again.
CB: Yeah.
PH: I’d already completed my nav course.
CB: Exactly. Yes.
PH: And I had a brevvy.
CB: Yeah.
PH: I went to Hullavington. I went to St Mawgan.
CB: St Mawgan.
PH: On, all of my nav course there was no slots available.
CB: No.
PH: And we all got jobs and went to all sorts of places as, I don’t know –
CB: Just a holding position.
PH: A holding yeah.
CB: Yeah.
PH: A holding post. Some went as MTs. Some went as –
CB: Right.
PH: If you could drive they made you MT officer, you know.
CB: So, so what was the unit that you were supposed to go to after that?
PH: Well it was the flying, it was the, I was, it was the flying wing, just the flying wing.
CB: Ok.
PH: ‘Cause Hullavington at that time was the School of Maritime Reconnaissance.
CB: Right.
PH: MRS. And it was, they used Lancasters prior to, to the chaps training on Shackletons because typical of the air force the MRS was at St Mawgan which is in bloody, you know, Cornwall and the OCU was up in Scotland. So the guys did their course and they had to go all the way up to Scotland to do, to convert to Shackletons. They used, ‘cause of course the Shackletons as you know was a development of the Lancaster.
CB: Sure. Ok so you went back to Hullavington in order to get ready to go on to what aircraft?
PH: No. No. From, from, from St Mawgan I then went to Lindholme.
CB: Right.
PH: Ready to go on to Canberras.
CB: Ok.
PH: And we did the six week bombing course and then I joined 61 squadron direct at Wittering and as I said earlier on the pilot and navigator, plotter he was known as, they called them the plotter in the, in the Canberra and I was the observer. The plotter, they went to Bassingbourn together and the observers joined straight from Lindholme which was the Bomber Command Bombing School. BBBS.
CB: Ok.
PH: So, I didn’t do a conversion as such. Conversion was done on the squadron.
CB: Right. Ok. So, now you’re at Wittering.
PH: Yes.
CB: 61 squadron. So what happened there?
PH: Well we were there for about a year and then they decided to move us to Upwood because of the formation of the first Valiant squadron which was coming to Wittering. 148 squadron. Tubby, Tubby Oakes, something like that was the guy who ran it. It was quite amusing because when we were doing the major exercises, I forget what they were called now, where we used to fly right up to the Iron Curtain and then all turn left as it were. We used to have to take off on the peri tracks because the mock, the invisible Valiants were using the main runway. That’s the honest truth. There were no, we didn’t have any Valiants there but they were, we had to get used to, I mean the peri tracks, if you know Wittering.
CB: I do. Yes.
PH: There was a big runway and there was a big peri track so it was quite funny. I’m trying to think of what they were called. It will be in my logbook somewhere.
CB: Ok. So –
PH: We used to do these operations quite regularly.
CB: So when you were at Wittering you were in Canberras and where are you flying? Are you on your own or do you go out as a formation?
PH: Sorry. Say again.
CB: You’re at Wittering.
PH: Yes.
CB: And you’re now on operations.
PH: Yes.
CB: Effectively. Do you go off as a formation or did you go off as -?
PH: No. No. We’re still using the World War Two tactics. Stream.
CB: Right.
PH: You didn’t, I don’t think I ever done, I can’t ever remember doing formation. Did at Wyton eventually but only as a practice. It was never used operationally.
CB: Right.
PH: The Canberras. The Canberra was a night bomber really and it was, and of course we had Gee.
CB: Yeah.
PH: And GH and you did a minute stream. A minute stream.
CB: Yeah.
PH: We all flew one after the other up to the Iron Curtain and then all turned left you know. It was just to stir, stir up the Warsaw Pact. That was what it was really all about.
CB: Yeah. Quite predictable. Always turning left.
PH: That’s correct. Yes. That’s right.
CB: Ok.
PH: And then we’d probably go to Nordhorn or somewhere like that and do some bombing or whatever.
CB: Yeah. So, in Norway.
PH: No. Nordhorn is in Germany wasn’t it? I think.
CB: Oh was it?
PH: Yeah.
CB: Oh so you were flying that way as well as going up to the –
PH: Well we’d go out direct to the Iron Curtain, turn left.
CB: I see.
PH: Come back via Nordhorn which was -
CB: Yeah. Ok.
PH: In the northern part of Germany.
CB: Ok.
PH: In fact I’m not sure. It’s one of those islands that are off Sylt. Somewhere like that.
CB: Ok. So, yeah. Right. Ok.
PH: This is a long time ago now.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Fifty years ago, you know.
CB: So, when you were bombing what were you dropping?
PH: Twenty five pound bombs.
CB: Ok.
PH: When we, when we were using the bigger ones. The thousand pounders we tended to do that at, in Malta. Filfla. There was a bombing range. There was an island there that was used as a bombing range in Malta.
CB: Right.
PH: For daylight bombing we always used to deploy to, to Luqa for about a month at a time and use the bombing ranges in Libya which of course was not part of the empire but I don’t know, we had some, I forget, we had some interest in it.
CB: Yeah.
PH: And the Americans had some interest in it when they kicked out whatever his name was. I’m trying to think.
CB: Yeah. Well the airfield there was El Adem wasn’t it?
PH: That was one of the airfields. Yes. There was Benghazi. And there was another one the Americans had which had been called King, it was called Idris. That’s right.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Yes.
CB: Ok. So when you went on a sortie how did the sortie run?
PH: Say again.
CB: When you went off on these sorties how did the sorties run? Did you go on a dog leg or directly or how –
PH: Well you were given a timing to time on, TOT, Time On Target and you may have to dog leg if you were a bit early but usually you were late [laughs]. You were urging the, urging the pilot to put a bit more steam on.
CB: Ok.
PH: It was just a, I mean if that was Germany and say that’s the Iron Curtain there was a stream like and when you got there you turned left and went off to various places. Theddlethorpe, Nordhorn or sometimes back to base. That’s interesting. That’s right. We had something called to recover at base. You had something called a Trombone and the idea was to keep secret. You didn’t transmit or anything and they used to, your base would give a time. They would give a time. They would say whatever it was and you in your individual aircraft had a plus. So many minutes for your overhead so they had something called a Trombone and I know from Wittering on several occasions my Trombone ended over Liverpool ‘cause you had to lose thirty minutes or some bloody nonsense you know. This was so that when you landed you were landing in, I don’t think they, you see I don’t think although we were a minute apart in the bombing thing landing was a different ball game. They had to have a gap of about two minutes or three minutes which meant of course that the further back you were in the stream the longer you had to lose. In other words to land.
CB: So when you were actually doing the bombing the space time between aircraft doing the bombing is one minute. Is it –?
PH: Something like that. Yeah.
CB: The same for everybody was it?
PH: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: Right.
PH: But then after that as I say because you couldn’t land at minute’s slots at night you see.
CB: Yeah.
PH: During the day possibly. Excuse me [cough]. So you had to, as I say I had this Trombone where you flew down the Trombone to lose whatever minutes.
CB: Lose time.
PH: You had to. Yeah.
CB: Yeah. Ok. So how many planes are going up at a time on this sort of thing?
PH: Oh I would have thought, well I was, you know well you say four hundred out?], a couple of hundred at least. Half. Every, every airfield, every Canberra airfield would have to send up about fifty percent of their aircraft.
CB: So –
PH: There would be a lot of aeroplanes in the air at the time.
CB: We’re in the dark as it was the case in the war.
PH: That’s right.
CB: And how were you aware or otherwise of the other planes on the stream?
PH: Never. [laughs] Didn’t see them. I think we flew with lights up to a certain point and then I can’t remember. I’m sure we flew with lights up to a certain point. Then they were switched off. I mean there were, there were mid airs as you can imagine.
CB: Mid-air collisions. Yeah.
PH: Correct.
CB: Fatal.
PH: Well I presume so yeah I mean let’s face it they didn’t advertise it too much as you can imagine.
CB: No. Ok. So you were at Wittering with 61 squadron. How long were you there?
PH: I’m trying to remember. Only about a year I think it was. Then we went to Upwood.
CB: Same squadron.
PH: Same squadron. Yes. I think, that’s right, I’m trying to remember. There was 61 squadron and I’m trying to think, there was, was there another squadron came from, yes there was another squadron came from, from Wittering. I can’t remember its number. There was 35 squadron and 40 squadron which came from somewhere like Scampton or Waddington. Somewhere like that. They ended up with four squadrons at Wittering if I remember right.
CB: Ok. And what about overseas detachments? How often did you do those?
PH: Oh yeah. We used to go to Malta, oh I should think every three months for anything up to, up to a month at a time. Some two weeks to a month doing visual bombing either at Idris, not Idris, I’m trying, Tarhuna, I think was the range in Libya.
CB: In Libya. Ok. And I’m just thinking of the envelope you were operating in. So you take off. What height would you cruise at?
PH: Anything between thirty six and forty thousand feet.
CB: And what speed would you be doing?
PH: Are you talking about airspeed or ground speed? Air speed would be about –
CB: Take air speed.
PH: Four hundred and sixty. Oh no. Not air speed, no. True airspeed about five hundred. I can’t remember. Two hundred and twenty knots. Something like that.
CB: Oh you were quite, quite –
PH: Something like that. Your true airspeed is twice your indicated airspeed.
CB: Ok.
PH: Something like that.
CB: Right.
PH: I don’t remember the figures.
CB: The indicated air speed would be?
PH: Well the indicated air speed would be, well about two hundred and twenty knots you see.
CB: Right.
PH: That was what you saw on your dial with your back –
CB: Yeah.
PH: Because we didn’t have GPI on 61 squadron.
CB: GPS. Right.
PH: GPS.
CB: Ok. So your, the actual speed that you’re going is what? Over –
PH: Four hundred and eighty knots.
CB: Four eighty. Ok.
PH: Something of that order.
CB: And you’re at variable heights. How was the height decided?
PH: Well I can assure you in 1955/56 there wasn’t a fighter in either the allied or the Warsaw Pact that could touch a Canberra flight. We could turn inside them you see.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Of course that really broad wing. I mean if we turned inside a Hunter it fell, it fell out the sky.
CB: Yeah.
PH: So did Sabres.
CB: Sure. So how often did you do fighter affiliation?
PH: Not that often. Not that often. Not true fighter affiliation. We, I can’t, I don’t remember doing any actual fighter affiliation with the RAF. Fleet Air Arm yes. I’m trying to think. Was it HMS Albion? What was the carrier they had in those days?
CB: So this would be in the Mediterranean or in the North Sea.
PH: No. In the Mediterranean. Yes. Yeah.
CB: Yeah. Ok.
PH: When we were at, they used to ask us to come down five thousand feet –
CB: Ok. Did they?
PH: Because their fighters couldn’t reach us. I think they had Venoms –
CB: Yeah.
PH: Or something on board didn’t they?
CB: Then Sea Hawks. Later they had Sea Hawks.
PH: Oh and Attackers.
CB: Then Attackers. Yeah. So now the bombing run so where would the bombing run start?
PH: I’m not with you.
CB: So you’ve got a target.
PH: Yes.
CB: And you’ve transited to the target.
PH: Yes.
CB: But how would you handle the bombing run? Would you be higher? Lower?
PH: Well that was, that was when you were sort of vulnerable because you had to be, fly straight and level for at least twenty miles before the target.
CB: Right.
PH: So then you had to stay straight and level. In fact we developed a technique, the Canberra squadrons developed a technique called the late bomb door opening because if you opened the bomb doors way back it made it very difficult. It made the aircraft wobble.
CB: Yes. Yeah.
PH: So we I think it was seven seconds before target, before, not target, but before actually dropping the GH bomb.
CB: Yeah.
PH: I mean, don’t forget you’re way back aren’t you?
CB: Yeah.
PH: I mean you’re about thirty miles from the target. I can’t remember the exact distance but you’re well back because of the forward throw of the bomb.
CB: Yeah. Yeah. Well it -
PH: It had a different –
CB: Depended on the height and speed as to just how –
PH: Yes, exactly. Yes.
CB: Far you were letting go in advance?
PH: We had, you had a set of, you had a set of figures which were quite amusing. This is a true story. You’ll like a true story. You had a set of figures which you set up on your G set.
CB: Yeah.
PH: And when they [clashed?] the bomb went automatically.
CB: Right.
PH: And we were, we were first in the stream, that’s right, it was when we, Squadron Leader Hartley so it must, we were, it must have been soon after we arrived at Wittering because we were still a a 8UE squadron. Squadron Leader Hartley was the boss who got killed subsequently. Anyway, we arrived back to be greeted and this was on a night exercise and I should think it’s in the book. They used to do them, we used to do them regularly. About at least once a month. Let me have a look and see. See if I can get the name.
CB: So we’re looking in the book now but –
PH: Well I’m trying to see what –
[pause]
CB: Well what we could do Peter is come back to that.
PH: Well yeah anyway.
CB: Because –
PH: There used to be, used to be an exercise, an operation so and so. This is what I was talking about where you flew to the, I’ve lost the thread now. Oh yes we were first in, we were first at Nordhorn and I dropped the bomb. Fifty yards I said. I said, ‘That’s the fifty yards [two hours down?]. We landed. We had this enormous bloody greeting. Station commander. Squadron commander. ‘What did you do Pete?’ ‘Well what did I do?’ ‘Well your bomb dropped two thousand yards short in the woods, set fire to the woods and the whole exercise had to be cancelled’. So I said, ‘Well I don’t understand that.’ And they said, ‘Can we see?’ And what had happened was the nav leader had typed the wrong, one of the digits wrong in my G set. So it wasn’t my fault.
CB: No.
PH: It was the nav leader.
CB: This was before you took off.
PH: Oh yeah. Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
PH: You had a set of digits.
CB: Yeah.
PH: And those are the ones you put in your GH set?
CB: Yeah.
PH: And he’d, he’d typed them up in a hurry or whatever and he’d got one of the digits wrong and it was two thousand yards out. So I was, I was exonerated and he got his bum kicked.
CB: Yeah.
PH: You can imagine.
CB: Yeah. Sure.
PH: Well the whole exercise had to be cancelled ‘cause we were the first ones through. ‘Cause I mean, I had the, I was the best bomb aimer in Bomber Command at the time.
CB: Right.
PH: Allegedly you know.
CB: Yeah. Yeah.
PH: Done on results.
CB: Yeah. Right. So just going back. Here we are on the run in.
PH: Yes.
CB: And –
PH: That’s when you’ve got to fly straight and level.
CB: You’ve got, straight and level. Would you normally be at a higher or lower level than your cruise approach when you actually did the bombing?
PH: Do you know I can’t remember?
CB: Ok.
PH: No. I’ve got an idea that you tended to fly around at the height you were going to bomb at.
CB: Right. So the practicality is we’ve got the pilot and then we have the navigator and –
PH: The plotter. Yes.
CB: Plotter as well so there’s three of you in the aircraft.
PH: Correct.
CB: Who did the bombing?
PH: I did. The, the set up.
CB: Right. Ok.
PH: So you had, the navigator had in front of him, he had his radar screen.
CB: Yeah.
PH: And I had a GH screen up there.
CB: Yeah. So you’re sitting side by side in the back.
PH: Yes. That’s right.
CB: How did you get through to the front?
PH: Well you climbed on the, there was a, only, only fifty percent of the back, I mean all the instruments were there and there was a gap.
CB: Yeah.
PH: You had to go under the, you know you had to –
CB: So you’re crawling down to the –
PH: This was only for visual bombing.
CB: Yeah.
PH: You had to go in to the nose.
CB: That’s what I meant.
PH: For visual bombing. For GH bombing you did it in your seat.
CB: Ok. That’s what I’m trying to get, differentiate here. Sometimes you’d do visual bombing would you?
PH: Correct.
CB: On what circumstance would you do visual bombing?
PH: Well they did a lot during the Suez campaign.
CB: Ok.
PH: When they bombed because it was in, the Gee and GH didn’t reach that far.
CB: No. Right. So you were practising visual bombing.
PH: Correct.
CB: At any time.
PH: From forty eight thousand feet sometimes.
CB: Right. Ok.
PH: Used to have, there was a strike barge at Wainfleet and I think there was another one at Chesil, Chesil beach.
CB: Right. In the south. Yeah.
PH: These were, these were the old invasion barges painted black and yellow and they used those as targets. And there was Theddlethorpe, Nordhorn but some, I think Theddlethorpe and Nordhorn were GH I don’t think they were visual. I can’t remember.
CB: Right.
PH: I think they were straight GH.
CB: So here we are flying along on your final approach to the target.
PH: Yes.
CB: The pilot and you are coordinating the activity.
PH: Completely yes.
CB: Who is actually running the plane at that time?
PH: Oh the pilot. The pilot.
CB: Right he’s still running it.
PH: Yeah.
CB: Who is pressing the –
PH: Unlike some of the American aircraft where the bomb aimer actually had physical control of the aeroplane. The Brits never went for that.
CB: No.
PH: You always used to say to the pilot left a bit, left a bit, steady, steady, steady.
CB: Sure. Yeah. And then you pressed –
PH: You pressed the bomb.
CB: Right.
PH: The pilot had to activate, had a switch to activate the, the –
CB: The release.
PH: The bomb aiming equipment.
CB: Yeah.
PH: But the bomb aimer was the one who opened the –
CB: Oh the bomb aimer equipment. Ok.
PH: Who did that?
CB: Ok. So you physically had to press the button for it to go.
PH: Correct. That’s visual bombing only.
CB: He, right, so on GH how did that happen?
PH: It was all done automatically.
CB: Ok.
PH: When the bomb –
CB: So effectively when the crosses merged.
PH: That’s right. Yeah.
CB: The lines cross.
PH: Yeah.
CB: Then it goes. Right.
PH: Correct.
CB: And it’s been programmed on the ground on the basis of what the wind –
PH: Yes. That’s right. Yeah.
CB: Is expected to be. Now what about circumstances where you have to approach at a different height for some reason? Would that happen? So you had a planned height of say forty thousand.
PH: Well I think on the GH side you’d have to throw it away because you you wouldn’t have the necessary coordinates you know. On the visual side we’d [play?] off the cuff.
CB: Right. Ok. So a lot of this is practical stuff in training.
PH: Yes.
CB: So Suez comes along.
PH: Yes.
CB: How did you get involved in that? What? Were you still with 61?
PH: Well I was never involved in the actual bombing of Egypt but I was involved in, I was in, I was at Nicosia and my crew were involved. My son was born and then they, they didn’t send me abroad. Our crew spent, George [Cram?], myself and a chap called oh, I should think Roger Atkinson, we were transiting carrying three, thousand pound bombs from the UK to Cyprus via Luqa.
CB: Right.
PH: It was a bit hairy. We had three thousand pound bombs on board.
CB: Makes a heavy landing does it?
PH: Yeah. Well of course they, I mean they were dropping, it was thousand pounders. The Canberra could carry thousand pounders of course and also nuclear weapons later on but originally the actual iron bombs were the thousand pound.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Which we used to drop, practice dropping on Filfla which is just off Malta. Big island off Malta.
CB: Right. So how many thousand pounders could it carry at one time?
PH: Three.
CB: Ok.
PH: Two and one.
CB: Right. Two side by side. Yeah and one behind or below.
PH: Below.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Below.
CB: Ok. Right. So we’re on 61 squadron and you’re occasionally going on your detachments.
PH: Yes.
CB: Where did you go after Wittering?
PH: Ah well what happened was I was on what was known as an eight and four at the time and when 61 squadron packed up I was, I only had about eighteen months to do in the air force [allegedly?] so I was posted to 58 squadron at, at Wyton as by that time they had, the squadrons had a full time adjutant. And I was posted there as the adjutant with no admin training [allegedly] but I was, but because it was Canberras again I did a lot of flying and I went to Christmas Island during the H bomb tests.
CB: Ok.
PH: It’s all in the book.
CB: Yeah. So the H bomb is what size in relation to the iron bombs of a thousand pound?
PH: I’ve got no idea. Never seen one.
CB: Oh you didn’t see one there.
PH: No.
CB: Ok.
PH: Well Wyton was PR you see.
CB: Right.
PH: It wasn’t, it wasn’t bombers, it was, we had PR7s.
CB: Ok. PR7s. So the photographic reconnaissance Mark 7s.
PH: Yes. That’s right.
CB: So what did, what did what did you do there?
PH: Well I was, my full time job was adjutant.
CB: Ok.
PH: Squadron adjutant. A chap called Colin Fell. Wing Commander Fell.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Nice chap. Ended up as an air commodore. Navigator. One of the, you know at that time one of the few navigator squadron commanders.
CB: Yeah. So how long were you at –?
PH: Eighteen months.
CB: Right. Then what?
PH: Well, I happened because I was the adjutant I always read the DCI, Defence Council Instructions and one came. I was into judo, I was a judo instructor and then and one of these DCI’s came around saying that there was vacancies to learn Japanese so I put my name down and I’m trying to think. [North?] Lewis. [North?] Lewis was the CO and he said, ‘Oh no,’ sort of thing but there was a caveat on the Defence Council Instructions saying that all applications had to be forwarded regardless of whether they were approved or not by the CO so mine was forwarded. I was called to London for an interview. Sat in front of this large group of men and as soon as I walked in and sat down they said, ‘Well of course we’re not, we’re not teaching Japanese.’ So I sort of almost got up to go and they said, ‘Sit down. Would you like to learn Chinese or Russian?’ And I said, ‘What’s the role?’ They said, ‘Well if you learn Chinese you go to Hong Kong for a couple years.’ And I was married at the time so, well I was married. ‘And if you learn Russian you go to the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London and as I’d recently bought a house in Edgeware I thought I’ll do that because by then I’d accepted a –
CB: PC.
PH: A permanent commission.
CB: Right.
PH: So I went to the School of Slavonic and East European Studies for a year. That must have been about ‘58/59. I then went and stayed with a family in Paris for ten months. A Russian family. Emigre family. Did the Foreign Office interpreter’s exam and got a, I got a second class pass which is not bad really. I mean very few people get a first class pass. I then went to a place called Butzweilerhof in, in Germany.
CB: Germany.
PH: Cologne. Where for a time I was CO of the intercept, the intercept section.
CB: You were a squadron leader by now.
PH: No. Still a flight sergeant.
CB: Right.
PH: And from there I went back to flying on Victors at Marham, tankers. As navigator.
CB: Ok so –
PH: And then I was short toured deliberately by the, by, despite my, despite my AOC saying that, ‘He’s part of a crew, a five year crew,’ and I was only three years, I was short because of my Russian and I went to a unit called BRIXMIS in Berlin. British Commander in Chief’s Mission to the Group of Soviet Forces and I was an interpreter with the Soviet forces in Germany and met lots of Russian generals. And my boss was a chap called Gerry Dewhurst. Have you ever come across Gerry?
CB: So in practical terms what are you doing at brexmas, BRIXMAS?
PH: Sorry?
CB: What were you doing at BRIXMAS then?
PH: Spying.
CB: Right. So –
PH: In practical terms. We used to tour East Germany.
CB: In cars.
PH: In a car.
CB: Yeah.
PH: With cameras to make sure that they weren’t building up their forces.
CB: This was part of the agreement with the Russians.
PH: Correct. They had SOXMAS.
CB: They watched you and you watched them.
PH: Yeah. They had, they had a similar unit at a place called Bunde.
CB: Yeah.
PH: And the Americans and the French, we all had, I mean I got on very well with the Americans and the French and we used to, we used to you know talk to each other about where we were going to go and make sure we weren’t double you know. We made sure that we didn’t, I mean one stayed out all night sometimes on an airfield and God knows what.
CB: Didn’t [know]
PH: Because, see what happens was the Soviets, the Russians because East Germany was, you know, very delicate, sensitive they always put their new kit there. So, I mean, you know we had army tourers and air force tourers and we got some of the first photographs, good photographs of the MIG, the MIG 21J which was very early on. But I mean it’s surprising Janet, when I was doing the, when I became a volunteer of RAFVR and I was doing the air, air. Well analysing the air side because intelligence you try and pretend you’re the enemy really because you give your, your boss what you think the enemy is going to do so you put yourself in the enemy’s place. At one time the Russians or the East, sorry the Warsaw Pact had twenty eight divisions in East Germany. Twenty eight divisions, the Brits, the Brits had one, the Americans had one, the Germans had about four. Three or four. And the French had one and they had nearly three hundred aeroplanes, three hundred, sorry what am I talking about? Two thousand aeroplanes and I think we had about three hundred or four hundred. I mean when I used to do the briefings for the, for the war, you know, for what was it called? There was a –
CB: The war games.
PH: Wintex. Wintex was the big, they say the generals they’ll be at the, they’ll be at the coast in, they’ll be at the channel coast in four days. That was why you know they had the tactical nuclear weapons.
CB: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
PH: I mean you know that was the truth. There was no good, no good denying it. There was no way. You know.
CB: No. So you were doing that from ‘50/60.
PH: Well I did that from, let’s think. That must have been ‘67. ‘67 to ’70. Something like that.
CB: Ok. Right. Just –
PH: Then I came back to MOD and I was going to be posted to Uxbridge as gash supernumerary but a chap, I’m trying to think of his name in MOD, who I knew very well. He used to, he was a great fixer. He got me posted to the Foreign Liaison Section to finish my time in MOD and because I was a Russian speaker I was given the South American desk [laughs] of course.
CB: Good service logic isn’t it?
PH: Sorry?
CB: Good service logic.
PH: Yeah. Well I mean that was vacant and that was, you know, he got me in and I was quite pleased with it because I still met the Russians and more cocktail parties than you could shake a stick at and I’ll tell you a thing. The poorer the country the more ostentatious their cocktail parties and social events are. Some of these African countries that were starving their ambassadors used to throw these champagne fuelled caviar and Christ knows what, you know.
CB: Amazing. Right.
PH: And by then I was, and I was lucky enough to be asked if I wanted, when was leaving I was to ring a certain telephone number which I did and I got a job and I did another twenty two years with a, an organisation which I think the last letter of its number was five.
CB: I can’t think what on earth you’re talking about. Right [laughs] Right.
PH: Am I allowed to say these days?
CB: Yeah.
PH: At one time we weren’t.
CB: So –
PH: Which I thoroughly enjoyed.
CB: Yeah. The South American desk. In practical terms you were doing something useful but what was it?
PH: Liaising with anybody, any, I mean –
CB: Anybody in South America.
PH: No. No. Anybody, anybody across the board.
CB: Right.
PH: But I did, I remember one occasion that’s right. Yeah mainly South America but I mean you didn’t have to speak, they all spoke English anyway.
CB: Yeah.
PH: But I always remember I had to introduce new attaches to the chief of the air staff and I’m trying to think at the time who it was. [unclear] Oh dear. It will come to me in a moment and I know that the guy, the guy I introduced was Peruvian Air Force. He was lieutenant colonel, no lieutenant [stress] general and they kicked him out because obviously he was probably involved in some sort of coup. Jesus [Gabilondo?]. His name was General Jesus [Gabilondo?] and I remember I introduced him to the, said to the chief of the air staff who sort of almost said, ‘What.’ [laughs]. I said, ‘Sir, this is General Jesus [Gabilondo?].
CB: Yeah.
PH: Nice chap.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Flying Canberras ‘cause we’d sold Canberras to the Peruvians if I remember right.
CB: Absolutely. Yeah.
PH: So we did have something in common. Nice chap.
CB: Just going back –
PH: But that rank. I mean, you know, that incredible rank to be, to be a military attaché really.
CB: Yeah. Yeah. Just going back to your Victor times at Marham.
PH: Yes.
CB: So here we have a tanker squadron.
PH: Yes.
CB: So what were, you as the navigator in one of the aircraft there.
PH: Yes.
CB: How did that work? You were linking with [pause] nice picture on the wall.
PH: There I am in the –
CB: What was the typical day? You were up fuelling fighters.
PH: Well we were very very busy because what happened was the Valiant packed up as you know. The Victor was brought in in a hell of rush. In fact what I was initially on 55 squadron which only had the two point tanker.
CB: Right.
PH: They borrowed or stole or whatever it was from refuelling pods from the navy.
CB: Oh.
PH: Which were put on the wings.
CB: Right.
PH: And we did something called Operation Forthright which was flying between the UK and Cyprus to bring back, believe it or not, Lightnings that were stranded all around the Middle East ‘cause with the demise of the Valiant they couldn’t get back because as you know the Lightning, Lightning, the early Lightnings only had a range of about seventy bloody miles. They were terrible. Unless we, the lightning 6s were a bit better but I mean the original Lightnings had to be, they had to be refuelled as soon as they got airborne virtually.
CB: Yeah. Right.
PH: I mean they were designed to go up, shoot down the incoming and come back.
CB: And come back again. Yeah. Right.
PH: But that was Forthright. So we enjoyed that. We were doing a lot of flying. Unusuall. I mean I was doing something like sixty hours a month which is really double what the air force normally. I mean thirty hours used to be the norm wasn’t it really?
CB: So this is in two sections really. There’s the overseas deployment.
PH: Yes.
CB: And there is the UK. So on the UK you’re flying from Marham which is Norfolk.
PH: Yeah.
CB: Where are you flying and what are you doing?
PH: Well what we did mostly and I shall think of the name of it. What did you call it? Between the Wash and Newcastle and we used to refuel. They used to practice refuelling. We used to go around like that for about four hours.
CB: So you’re flying in an oblong shape are you?
PH: Yeah. I have the thing, just one moment
CB: And what are you refuelling? Only Lightnings?
PH: Anything.
CB: Only Lightnings or Americans.
PH: Let me just tell you in a moment. Let me look.
CB: Yeah. Ok. We’re just stopping, stopping just for a mo.
[Recording paused]
PH: For refuel.
CB: So you’re flying an elliptical circuit.
PH: That’s right.
CB: Effectively so that just, how does that work then?
PH: And we called it a Tow line.
CB: You called it tow line. And how did it work?
PH: Well you just, they called you up and said, you know, we, they knew we were there and the Lightnings from Leuchars or wherever. Coltishall. I think there were Lightnings at Coltishall. They knew we were there and for them to practice refuelling.
CB: Right.
PH: And we just, I mean it was quite boring. I mean just went around in this elliptical shape. As I said, tow line.
CB: So as the navigator what was your role in that?
PH: Virtually nothing because the guy doing the refuelling was the co-navigator. Two navigators in the Victor. One was the nav, one, I was the plotter and he was the other guy was the set up.
CB: Right.
PH: A chap called Pete [Hall?] and he was the set op around the radar but he also controlled the refuelling setup. I believe latterly they transferred it to the co-pilot.
CB: Right.
PH: But I mean in those days it was done by the –
CB: The nav radar.
PH: The nav. Nav radar. Nav radar. Yeah.
CB: Yeah ok. So did he have a means of looking backward?
PH: Yes. The telescope.
CB: They’d put a telescope in specifically for that.
PH: Yeah.
CB: Ok. So how did it work? So you’re flying straight and level. What sort of speed would you be flying for the refuelling?
PH: Well depending what you were refuelling. Normally about three hundred knots.
CB: Ok and so you’re straight and level for specifically a period.
PH: We’ll all the time straight and level. Well until you turn, you turn and come –
CB: Yeah.
PH: I mean the leg would take probably fifteen or twenty minutes.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Each –
CB: And what speed are you going?
PH: Well around I think.
CB: Three hundred knots you said.
PH: Yeah. Well no about two hundred and forty air speed.
CB: And, and height?
PH: Anything between thirty two and thirty eight thousand feet depending on the, how bumpy it was.
CB: Yeah.
PH: We would try and find you know the smoothest level we could, we would and then we’d settle down and they’d transmit what height we were at.
CB: ‘Cause in practical terms the air force system was to run a drogue line.
PH: That’s right.
CB: Effectively.
PH: Yeah.
CB: With a –
PH: He had, he had a nozzle.
CB: A nozzle in the back.
PH: And we had a drogue.
CB: Yeah.
PH: And that was it.
CB: Right.
PH: And once and it was, there was a set of rings and things and when it connected it wouldn’t float.
CB: It held it.
PH: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
PH: But of course when you withdrew when it withdrew there was always a spurt of fuel came out you know which which could blind the pilot sometimes.
CB: Yeah.
PH: ‘Cause it could go on his windscreen.
CB: Yeah. Well yeah. So the fighter is coming up and getting fuel on.
PH: Correct.
CB: And is trying to negotiate the drogue.
PH: Correct.
CB: And –
PH: You had to fly, you had to fly –
CB: Into it.
PH: Depends where the drogue were. I think on the Lightning it was above them.
CB: His nozzle was above his head.
PH: I’m trying to think, I’m trying to think. What was the other one? We did refuel the odd one.
CB: Phantom.
PH: Phantoms, I think, yeah. Yeah.
CB: Buccaneer.
PH: Buccaneers. That’s the other one. Yes. Yes.
CB: Right.
PH: Buccaneers.
CB: What about the Americans? Did you do any of those?
PH: I personally, I didn’t but I know the squadron did eventually but the Americans had a different system you see.
CB: Yeah.
PH: The Americans –
CB: Theirs is a guided.
PH: They had a drogue operator who fed the drogue on to the –
CB: Yeah.
PH: On to the other aircraft.
CB: It was a long bar wasn’t it?
PH: Yeah.
CB: Yeah. Well is. Yeah. Ok. Right. And did you refuel other Victors occasionally?
PH: Eventually because as I pointed out originally it was only a two point tanker because they hadn’t, they hadn’t yet got the hoodoo. The hose drum unit.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Known as the hoodoo.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Which eventually was –
CB: In the centre.
PH: Fitted into the bomb bay. Once that was done because the wingspan of a bomber you couldn’t accommodate it on a wing –
CB: No.
PH: Refuelling pod but then oh yeah we did what we called mutual. Victor to Victor.
CB: And you could do two fighters at the same time.
PH: At a time.
CB: Could you?
PH: But only one large aircraft.
CB: Yeah. Ok.
PH: Other Victors we had Victor to Victor and then we had Victors to whatever was available.
CB: Ok. So that’s UK. Then when you went overseas how did that work? You were based in Cyprus or where were you?
PH: Normally in Cyprus yeah. That was, they were called Forthrights if I remember right. Operation Forthright. That was taking Lightnings backward and forwards between because we didn’t have Lightnings based permanently in Cyprus at that time they were always on detachment from the UK squadrons and they would be out there for a couple of months and then changed over.
CB: So would they fly the whole distance non-stop or would they pop into Southern France. In to Orange?
PH: Oh no we tried to take them all away.
CB: You did. Right.
PH: The trouble with the Lightning was as soon as it landed it bloody went u/s.
CB: Oh right. So you’d want to keep it airborne.
PH: So they kept it airborne [laughs] Yeah. I mean they, well it didn’t take, it only took about five or six hours to get to Cyprus from the UK.
CB: Sure. Yeah. Because they’re, they’re transiting quite fast.
PH: Yeah. I, yeah and I enjoyed being a nav because my responsibility was not just looking after the Victor but looking after the Lightnings as well just in case they had some form of malfunction like breaking a probe which did happen. They had to make sure that the refuelling, they had refuelling brackets enroute. I had to make sure the refuelling brackets, if something happened instead of dropping into the sea they could divert somewhere you know.
CB: So the refuelling bracket is a period, a space over the route.
PH: Yes.
CB: Certain areas where you would do it.
PH: These were pre-determined –
CB: Right.
PH: Between, you, you had a special map which had what they called refuelling brackets and that was where –
CB: Right.
PH: You actually did the refuelling.
CB: So were you stationed in Italy sometimes as part of the -?
PH: Say again.
CB: Would you sometimes have your Victor in Italy in order to be able to deal with the brackets.
PH: Personally no. I know that, that, no after I left the squadron because of, what’s his name, Mintov they had to use Sigonella in Italy but, because he, he banned the RAF from Luqa but we always used Luqa.
CB: Right.
PH: What happened was we would have on day one a Victor would go to Luqa.
CB: Yeah.
PH: On its own with a crew and that would be refuelled and everything ready and then on day two the Victor with its two Lightnings would take off from Marham. The Lightnings would join, go via Luqa. You’d call up when you were approaching Luqa. [cough] Excuse me. He would get airborne, take over your slot and you would then go into Luqa.
CB: Right.
PH: And depending on what was going on you might well stay there and do the same thing as he’d done the day before. Refuel. And the next pair through you would take on to Cyprus.
CB: Right.
PH: It was quite complicated. It was quite well thought out.
CB: Ok.
PH: And occasionally if we were going further we’d do a Victor to Victor refuelling at height because like, like the Lightning the Victor used nearly half its fuel getting to height.
CB: Yeah. So how long did it take to get up to height with a full –
PH: What? The Victor? Forty minutes.
CB: Did it?
PH: Lightning did it in three. [Laughs]
CB: Yes. [Laughs] Going to stop there for a mo.
[Recording paused]
CB: So we’re just re-starting. Are you due to have your lunch shortly?
PH: No. I’m ok.
CB: Ok.
PH: No problem. I’m eating this evening so I shall just –
CB: Right. Ok
PH: Have a cup of soup at lunchtime.
CB: Right. Ok. So one of the interesting things here is that, two things, first of all in the war the pilots who re-mustered to do other things maintained their wings.
PH: Oh I see.
CB: You didn’t.
PH: No. The law, the regulations state –
CB: How did you feel about that?
PH: You wear the brevvy of the job you are doing.
CB: Yeah. So how did you feel about that?
PH: Well as a youngster I was a bit miffed but you know it was a fact of life. You do as you were told.
CB: And once you got in to being a navigator.
PH: I enjoyed it very much. The navigator on Victors was the best job in the air force.
CB: In what way?
PH: On tankers.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Well because you were in control really. I mean the pilots did exactly what you told them. I mean they did anyway but I mean in that particular context I mean, you were, the two navs ran the operation completely.
CB: ‘Cause you’re running a pattern.
PH: Yes.
CB: And you’re also doing a task that is very intricate.
PH: Correct.
CB: Right.
PH: Not like sitting on your backside you know on QRA for God knows how long waiting for the –
CB: Yeah.
PH: We did do a QRA at one time. The Victor tankers because of the way we could stay airborne for quite a long while. There was a phase that the NATO went through where they were simulating that all the, the, shall we say the, let’s get the, war headquarters etcetera had all been wiped out by the Warsaw Pact and by getting a tanker airborne with a senior officer in it he was the, he was the one who could control what was going on and we did that for about a year and that was, that was a type of QRA where you set the aircraft sat at the end of the runway and you were in a caravan in your flying kit ready to get airborne if you were told.
CB: Yeah
PH: We did, we did simulate it once or twice but it never came to anything.
CB: Just to –
PH: The concept was you’d end up with a group captain sort of determining whether or not you were going to obliterate bloody Moscow, you know, quite frankly.
CB: Right. So just to clarify that. QRA is Quick Reaction Alert.
PH: Reaction alert. Yes.
CB: You’ve got a bunch of aircraft at the end of the runway.
PH: Correct.
CB: That can, can –
PH: Get airborne –
CB: Start off.
PH: In three or four minutes. That’s right.
CB: And move quickly.
PH: Correct.
CB: Yeah. Ok. Next bit is the difference between the wartime experience with the family and peacetime is that wartime the families were banned from the airfield and its environment.
PH: Yes.
CB: But in peacetime.
PH: Oh yeah. We lived in quarters.
CB: You had quarters. So what was it like -
PH: Yes.
CB: For the family?
PH: Well enjoyable. I mean we enjoyed living on, on station. Plenty going on. Social life in the officer’s mess you know. Kids went to decent schools.
CB: So, in Germany the children –
PH: My oldest son was at boarding school when we were in Germany.
CB: Where was he at school?
PH: He was at Wymondham College.
CB: Oh yes. Yeah.
PH: But the others were with us because my last son Anthony was born in ‘64. By that time we were back in the UK.
CB: Right.
PH: Semi permanently.
CB: Right. So the others didn’t go away to school.
PH: No. Not really. They stayed with us. ‘Cause in Germany the schooling was quite good. The British education system was quite what they called –
CB: Yeah.
PH: BF, British Forces.
CB: BFPO.
PH: No. Yeah. British Forces education. BFES or something.
CB: Education yeah. Ok and on the airfields what sort of, what were the quarters like?
PH: Cold [laughs]. Cold. At Marham we didn’t have central heating and we, we couldn’t use the dining room ‘cause it faced, faced north east and you know when you’ve got that wind in from Norway or the North Sea all you had was a radiator or something you know. No central heating.
CB: Electric radiator.
PH: Yeah. Something like that.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Yeah.
CB: Right. But the quality of the building and the furniture was ok was it?
PH: As far as we were concerned they were ok, you know.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Oh no. That’s right. Marham. Yeah, that’s right. No. At Marham we had a lounge which had a door directly into the lounge which if you opened it you stepped into the mud in the garden.
CB: Oh.
PH: And I’m told, we were told that it was an architect had made a note for a door instead of a window. It should have been a window but in fact they put a door in there for some unknown reason. I mean who would have a door directly in to the lounge? I mean we had a front door and a back door. I mean they were nice quarters. They were but they were cold. These days of course they’ve all got central heating but in those days there was no such thing.
CB: No. So these are all traditional airfields. Expansion period airfields.
PH: That’s right yeah.
CB: The ones you were based in.
PH: Marham. We weren’t in quarters.
CB: Wittering.
PH: We lived on a caravan sight at Upwood and at Wittering. We had a caravan there.
CB: Oh. Because the quarters were all full were they? The quarters were full?
PH: Yes they [might have been?]. I was fairly junior at the time, you see.
CB: Yeah.
PH: There used to be a waiting list.
CB: Yeah.
PH: But then you got to a frozen list eventually.
CB: Right.
PH: If you were lucky.
CB: And in Germany what were the quarters like there?
PH: Very good. Excellent. Central heating. The lot. My wife said to me after we’d lived in one of those, ‘When you leave the air force Pete I’ll live in a shed but it’ll have to be bloody centrally heated.’ [Laughs] Having been in quarters in the UK which were bloody freezing you know.
CB: So in Germany what was the life like there?
PH: Excellent. Local overseas allowance and all sorts of things you know.
CB: And did you, was everything centred on the airfield or did you tend to get out much?
PH: I wasn’t flying in Germany.
CB: No.
PH: They were both were ground tours.
CB: I was wondering if you got out in to the hinterland much.
PH: I did in, in Berlin. Yeah. I was touring East Germany.
CB: Yeah.
PH: My wife often said our tour in Berlin was, our three year tour was the best ten years of our lives. The social life was incredible.
CB: Yeah.
PH: I mean I was almost a diplomat you see.
CB: Yeah.
PH: Virtually had diplomatic immunity. And I mean you know it was very difficult. The Americans were always throwing enormous parties, you know. My kids loved going to the Americans. They used to have forty gallon bloody drums of ice filled with coca cola and Christ knows what you know. Just helped yourself.
CB: Yeah. Extravagant with everything.
PH: Absolutely.
CB: But very hospitable.
PH: Absolutely. Yes. Very difficult to, to reciprocate.
CB: Yeah. And on a professional front then how did that work?
PH: I’m not with you.
CB: Well from the air force and intelligence point of view how did the working together –
PH: We were told by –
CB: Operate.
PH: RAF Germany that the intelligence we produced was invaluable. I think I said we got the first pictures of the new MIG 21J.
CB: Yeah.
PH: All the new tanks [unclear] yeah.
CB: So in when you went out on these sorties, forays in to East Germany you weren’t staying in airfields there ‘cause they didn’t let, you were driving around all the time were you?
PH: Well no. You camped up with luck. If you get in undetected on the landing side of an airfield.
CB: Right.
PH: Which, of which one had heard there was particular interest.
CB: Right.
PH: ‘Cause what you were after was photography.
CB: Yeah.
PH: And especially if an aircraft had got its gear down and its undercarriage open and then it’s you know the technical boys can tell a lot from that apparently, you know.
CB: Right. Yeah. Good. Ok. I’ll just stop there again thank you.
[Recording paused]
CB: So you’re out in East Germany winter and summer so –
PH: Yeah.
CB: What sort of things was that like?
PH: Well go back to square one. What you’ve got to appreciate is that the west did not recognise the east. The Soviets called it the Democratic Republic of East Germany. The west called it the Soviet Occupied Zone of Germany and this was the protocol.
CB: Right.
PH: And you know the diplomacy sometimes is childish because I would have to go sometimes to a meeting because we’d been called because of an infringement or something and they’d produce this protocol which said so and so so and so happened in the Democratic Republic of East Germany which I then had to cross out and write Russian Occupied Zone of East Germany and initial it and then they would cross it out [laughs]. But that was, that was the situation. So basically if you got into trouble in East Germany we weren’t allowed to discuss it with the, with the Volkspolizei. We had to call for a Russian officer. And that was the situation.
CB: So were these engineered incidents were they?
PH: Oh yeah. Absolutely yeah they I mean they, they I mean we would take pictures. We used to be, I used to have one and I lost it unfortunately when I moved. A big sign said, what was it -? “Presence of Foreign Liaison Missions Forbidden” in German and in Russian and in English [ unclear] and if you went [?] what we would do, quite often we would take the sign down and throw it in the nearest bloody river. If you wanted to get near to an airfield. Which they had no right to do you see.
CB: Right.
PH: Allegedly. But they’d come and put another one up and then you’d get, you’d get nicked you know by the Russians because you were behind the sign as it were you know and then there would be a protest and that was where I would have to go with my boss because there had been a protest that flight lieutenant, always referred to me you know, Flight Lieutenant Hearmon was caught speeding at such and such a place and I’d have to deny it you know and say no, it wasn’t true you know but quite often it was true but sometimes it wasn’t. It was just fabricated by the Volkspolizei, the East German police. It was quite amusing at times. Yeah.
CB: So you’d camp out.
PH: Oh yeah. I had a little tent and a very good sleeping bag. An army sleeping bag. You know one of those ones that zips up with arms.
CB: Oh right.
PH: You know the sort I mean?
CB: Yeah. Yeah. So it was quite cold sometimes.
PH: Yeah. Oh yeah but you know one slept ok. You’d wake up sometimes with ice all over your bloody face.
CB: So how low would the temperature go?
PH: Minus twenty two. I think that was the lowest one we ever had.
CB: Summertime. What about summertime?
PH: Well that would be ok. It would be hot.
CB: But not too hot.
PH: No. No. You’d do about one, you’d do about two tours a month. That was all because you had to write everything up as well you know and that could take two or three days.
CB: So you’d come back. You’d write things up. How did the debrief go?
PH: Well the debrief was done by you. I mean it was all, it was a question of matching up. You would give a narrative about the photographs etcetera etcetera and then that was all sent. It was looked at by our own ops officers. Usually an army chap and then it would go to, what do you call it? RAFG. Royal Air Force Germany. Second ATAF intelligence. Yeah.
CB: So were you verbally debriefed by your seniors after these trips?
PH: No. Not really. Just asked, ‘How did it go?’ Because you know they might look at your report before it went off but you know they knew what you’d, they trusted you shall we say.
CB: Yeah and you were able to practice your Russian regularly were you?
PH: Yes. Yes.
CB: So you got even more proficient.
PH: I did at one time but don’t forget we’re now talking about twenty, thirty years ago.
CB: Sure. Yeah. So when you eventually retired.
PH: Yes.
CB: What did you do?
PH: I went for an organisation that’s number ends in 5.
CB: Yes.
PH: For twenty odd years.
CB: And after that what did you do?
PH: Retired [laughs]
CB: Ok. To Milton Keynes.
PH: Yes. Well we’d already moved to Milton Keynes while I was still working in MOD. Well we lived in Amersham and we had quite an old house that wasn’t double glazed, wasn’t double skinned and it was quite cold and we couldn’t afford, well the new houses they were building in Amersham at that time I should think that the lounge was about that size, you know. Remember they went through a phase of building houses with rooms that I mean I had four kids. We couldn’t have all get in one room together.
CB: Crazy.
PH: I mean they showed you around and they had undersized beds and undersized wardrobes and Christ knows what in the various rooms because they were, they were tiny. Whereas the house we had in Amersham was, Milton Keynes was very comfortable. I like a decent sized room.
CB: Yeah.
PH: I’m a, I mean this room’s quite pleasant isn’t it, really?
CB: Yeah.
PH: Nice aspect.
CB: This is brilliant. Yeah.
PH: That balcony goes all the way around by the way.
CB: Right. And your children they left school. Then what? Any, any of them go in the forces?
PH: My eldest son went in the army for a while but then he became a policeman. He retired. He retired three years ago as a policeman. He works for an organisation that is on contract to the Home Office escorting undesirables back to their own countries. He’s been, he’s been all over the world. China, Italy, Peru. Oh God. And if you excuse me I’ll tell you. They took this rather, what’s his name, he was a China man who didn’t want to go back so he was being a bloody nuisance and they found, realised afterwards why he didn’t want to go back. He was wanted in China for something or other, being deported, escorted, they had to go via Moscow. They got to Beijing and Pete, he was in handcuffs ‘cause there were two of them with this guy in the middle in handcuffs and they got to, got to Beijing and they were met by a Chinese police lieutenant who spoke English. He’d worked, he’d served in the UK or something and he came out and he said, ‘Mr Hearmon. Yes we’ll take him.’ Pete said to him, ‘Look,’ he said, ‘He’s been a hell of a problem. We’re quite happy to leave you the handcuffs. Here’s the keys.’ ‘No. No. No. No. No.’ And he said something to this chap who went and sat meekly in a corner. And Pete said, ‘What did you say to him?’ He said to him, ‘If you don’t go and sit down and behave yourself I’ll f***ing shoot you,’ and he said, ‘I meant it Mr Hearmon and he knew I meant it.’
CB: How amusing.
PH: ’Cause the Chinese, you know.
CB: Yeah. Yeah.
PH: I mean they’d charge, they’d charge the family for the bullet or something.
CB: What did the others do?
PH: Sorry?
CB: What did the other children do?
PH: Oh well my second, well my second daughter is retired. She lives in Lincoln. My other son is also retired. He’s married to a Channel Islander and lives in Jersey. My youngest son is the only one who’s working. He’s not married and he lives in London and he’s, he comes and sees me about once every three weeks. He works for the local council. He’s in to environmental things of some sort.
CB: Right. Right.
PH: But even he’s, I mean he was born in, let’s see, ‘52, ‘56 ‘64 so I mean he’s coming up to his fifties quite soon.
CB: Your eldest son, what did he do when he was in the forces?
PH: Sorry?
CB: Your eldest son. What did he do when he went in the forces what did he do in the army?
PH: I’ve no idea. He was just in the infantry. That was all. He was just a soldier and then when he left he joined the air force, er joined the police and did twenty eight years or something in the police.
CB: Right.
PH: And he wasn’t an officer. He was just a soldier of some sort.
CB: We’ve had a really interesting discussion. Thank you very much indeed.
PH: Good.
CB: And we’ll stop it there.
PH: Good.
[Recording paused]
CB: When you were at Driffield.
PH: When I was at Driffield.
CB: Yeah.
PH: We had an instructor there called Flight Sergeant [Chalky]. This is God’s honest truth. Flight Sergeant [Chalky] double DSO DFC. Been a wing commander during the war and a friend of mine said he was, he was at the, he was the adjutant. He was in the air force. He was a National Serviceman but he became a navigator eventually as a regular but he went out. At the time he was in the secretarial branch and he was the adjutant of the reselection unit in MOD and when people, they were recruiting people back into the air force and they offered him the lowest thing they could get away with you know and this guy apparently had gone to, had gone to MOD and they said come back but we can only make you a flight sergeant. He accepted and Dave Kinsey said he should never have done because what he should have done was, ‘You must be joking.’ Gone away. A fortnight letter he’d have got a letter saying we’ve changed our mind you can come back as a flight lieutenant.
CB: Yeah.
PH: But he said yes. He was obviously desperate to get back and he was a, and he, the sad thing was he was killed as a result of a mid-air collision at Driffield at the time.
CB: Was he?
PH: Yes. And he’d gone through the war as a DSO double, wing commander double DSO. And we had DFCs and other things you know.
CB: Yeah. Pilot.
PH: Pilot yeah. Oh yeah. No. He was an instructor.
CB: I think one of the sad situations I don’t know what you’d call it the number of people who actually who were killed after the war in accidents.
PH: Well don’t forget when I joined the air force in ‘51 still there was an awful lot of ex-wartime guys still around you know with double, double medal ribbon you know. DFCs and God knows what. I mean when I was at Marham the wing commander flying there Mike Hunt, that’s right, yeah I think he was a DSO DFC you know. He’d been, he ended up as station commander at Leuchar I think at one time.
CB: Amazing.
PH: I can remember as I say at Marham there were certainly, no at , sorry there were certainly guys, Tubby Oates who took over the, I think it was Tubby Oakes, a name like that, took over 148 squadron as a wing commander. He was ex-wartime you know. Well decorated. DSOs and God knows what.
CB: Right. I think that covers a lot. Thank you.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Peter Charles Hearmon
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Chris Brockbank
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-03-17
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AHearmonPC1600317
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
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
Second generation
Format
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01:17:26 audio recording
Description
An account of the resource
Peter was born in London and evacuated for part of the war. For National Service, he was taken on by the Air Force for a short time engagement and subsequently accepted a permanent commission.
After RAF Padgate, Peter was selected as pilot/gunner/engineer at RAF Hornchurch. He was posted to Number 4 Initial Training School at RAF Cranwell and then went to RAF Feltwell. He trained on Prentices and Harvards and became a pilot. RAF Driffield followed and Meteors. Afterwards at RAF Chivenor, Peter flew Vampires, which he did not particularly like.
Peter re-trained and received his navigator brevet at RAF Hullavington. He took a holding post at RAF St Mawgan, the Maritime Reconnaissance School. He trained at RAF Lindholme, Bomber Command Bombing School, on Canberras before joining 61 Squadron at RAF Wittering. He was at RAF Wittering for a year before they went to RAF Upwood.
Peter describes his overseas detachments, and outlines and contrasts visual bombing and Gee-H bombing.
For the last 18 months, he was posted to 58 Squadron at RAF Wyton as adjutant. He flew the PR.7 variant of the Canberra for photographic reconnaissance.
Peter then learnt Russian and passed the Foreign Office interpreters’ exam. He went back to fly Victors at RAF Marham as a navigator. Peter talks of Operation Forthright, flying between the UK and Cyprus bringing back Lightnings. In the UK, they practised refuelling.
Peter subsequently went to the British Commanders-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Berlin. He took photographs in East Germany, particularly of airfields. He then went to the Ministry of Defence South American desk and worked for the Security Services before retirement.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
England--Lincolnshire
England--Yorkshire
England--Norfolk
England--Wiltshire
England--Cheshire
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Cambridgeshire
Germany
Russia (Federation)
Cyprus
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sally Coulter
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending revision of OH transcription
61 Squadron
aerial photograph
aircrew
fuelling
Gee
Harvard
Meteor
military living conditions
military service conditions
navigator
perimeter track
pilot
RAF Bassingbourn
RAF Chivenor
RAF Cranwell
RAF Driffield
RAF Feltwell
RAF Hornchurch
RAF Hullavington
RAF Lindholme
RAF Marham
RAF Padgate
RAF St Mawgan
RAF Upwood
RAF Wittering
RAF Wyton
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/365/8925/WardM [Pesaro].jpg
d9a2d9c693790af82307dda6f15eb90a
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/365/8925/AWardEM160424.1.mp3
ec3474ac270a998bd385dc21d7ddedec
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
Ward, Mary
Mary Ward
Elsie Mary Ward
E M Ward
Mary Brown
Description
An account of the resource
Six items. Three oral history interviews with Elizabeth Mary Ward (893293, Women's Auxiliary Air Force), her dog tags, an aeroplane broach and a photograph album. Mary Ward was a cook but re-mustered and was promoted becoming a map officer. She served with Bomber Command at RAF Driffield between 1940 and 1944 before being posted to Coastal Command.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Mary ward and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-24
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is Tuesday the 26th of April 2016 and we’re having our third meeting with Mary Ward but the topic is her husband — Roy Ward. And the reason that Mary’s doing it is because he is suffering from dementia and is in hospital and so this is a proxy interview with Mary. Right. So, we’re starting with Roy’s earliest time. So, he was born near Halifax and his father was a wool mill manager so they —what do you know about the family?
MW: Well, they lived —his father had been in the war. The First World War. He’d had malaria and he wasn’t in a terribly good health but they lived there until Roy was roughly five or six, I would say, when they moved to Ardsley. His father died when he was five —
CB: Yeah.
MW: Or six. Something like that age and their circumstances changed and they had to move. They moved to Ardsley. His father, his father had become — I’m getting this wrong. I’m not going to be able [unclear]
CB: It’s alright. Don’t worry about it.
MW: His father had an upset with the owners of the mill and he left the wool industry and bought a house in Ardsley with a sub-Post Office which he managed. He then, he died when Roy was eight and his mother continued to operate the post, the sub post office with his older brother Nory.
[Pause]
CB: So where did he go to school?
MW: He went to school at the local primary school. Let’s see. Yes. Until he was ten when he passed a scholarship to go to boarding school. Crossley and Porter’s in Halifax. This was, this was a boarding school. Very similar to Wellington College. Which was provided by the local woollen manufacturers for boys, boys only, who had lost their fathers in circumstances to do with the First World War. He stayed there until he was in the sixth form. Only six of them in the sixth form and he was heading for university with maths and science. And then the war came. He decided he would skip university and join the RAF. This wasn’t possible at the time and he then decided to go into the Met Office. He got a job in the Met Office as an assistant and was sent, after a few months, he was sent to Ismailia. He went all around the Cape in a convoy. He got lost in the convoy at one stage and got left behind but they did catch up and they ended in Durban and then went to Ismailia. And this was for a course with the Met Office which, I understand, lasted about three months and then they sent him back home because there was no need. They didn’t need them there apparently. So, he came home a more direct route than the Suez Canal. You know. That way around. And when he arrived back in this country the Met Office said that he’d, he’d been accepted for the RAF. And the RAF told him to go and buy himself an officer’s uniform and report to — I’m not sure where he had to report but he, from then on he was in the RAF as a flying officer and doing — I’m not sure exactly where he was stationed until he came to Brawdy where I met him at Brawdy.
CB: Which is South Wales.
MW: South Wales. Pembrokeshire. Yes. Yes. Then I, after that we went Brawdy. He was attached to 517 Squadron and flew with Steve Hughes in a Halifax. Steve being the pilot. And Roy was known as, what was known as the Met observer. Now, all this other information regarding what he did is down here. In 1939 this was where, when he joined the Met Office and he was stationed at 4 Group at Linton on Ouse. [unclear] This was when he was in Linton on Ouse. And then in 1940 he was at Headquarters, RAF Linton on Ouse at Heslington Hall. Which is where we’re going to see George Smith. George is at Heslington Manor.
CB: Yes.
MW: This is Heslington Hall. The manor house where George lives in. He then went to Pocklington. Headquarters at Pocklington. He was then posted to Queenstown, South Africa. And RAF [pause] Ismailia in Egypt.
CB: Yeah.
MW: Then from RAF Ismailia, he went to training school at Kilburn in London when he came back. And then from Kilburn to Marston Moor. That was back up north again, you see. And then from — in ‘44 he went from Milham to Aldergrove and then to Brawdy.
CB: Right.
MW: And then from Brawdy to Chivenor. From RAF Chivenor — a detachment to Mountbatten. And then from RAF Mountbatten to Shawbury and his last station was Waddington.
CB: Right.
MW: In the RAF.
CB: Right.
MW: Then he got transferred back to the Met Office and we were [pause] we were in Dunstable.
CB: Ah, so —
MW: From Dunstable he came here to actually open the — Bracknell. Bracknell was built —the Met Office was built in 1960. We came in. He came, in charge of the computer at Bracknell in 1961. Well he came actually in ‘60 but we didn’t move until ‘61. From Bracknell he went to Gan. For a year in Gan.
CB: The island in the Pacific.
MW: The island. Yes.
CB: Yeah. Well Indian Ocean.
MW: The Indian Ocean. That’s right. Yeah.
CB: Yeah. When was that? When was that?
MW: That would be in about 1968 or ‘69. It doesn’t say here. This is what I’ve to use.
CB: Ok.
MW: ‘Cause we moved here by then you see. He was away a year in Gan and he came back to Heathrow. And from, on and off, until he retired he was Heathrow or Bracknell.
CB: So, he was moving up the ladder all the time was he?
MW: Yeah. He, he was forecasting at Heathrow, of course. Not doing computer work.
CB: Right.
MW: And he was forecasting again at Bracknell when he came back. He came off the computer. Of course it was as big as this bungalow.
CB: Yes.
MW: I don’t know if you want this in here.
CB: No. No. That’s fine.
MW: It was all, it was all big. The valves. And now it’s reduced to this size of course.
CB: Extraordinary isn’t it?
MW: But in the latter years he was forecasting. He was a senior forecaster.
CB: What did he do in Gan? When he was in Gan what was he doing there?
MW: He was the forecaster.
CB: Oh. That was the same.
MW: Yes. It’s a main, it was mainly a dropping off station for refuelling on the way to Singapore.
CB: Right.
MW: But no women were allowed there. Hence, we didn’t go.
CB: No. And where was he working when he eventually retired?
MW: In Heathrow.
CB: Oh, was he? And after he’d retired — what age did he retire?
MW: He was retired quite early. Well a couple of years before normal because he’d done overseas duties.
CB: Oh.
MW: You could do if you’d done overseas duties, you know. You got a special concession to do.
CB: Right. So what age was he?
MW: Hmmn?
CB: What age was he when he retired?
MW: He would be — is sixty the age for retiring? I think it was. So he would have been about fifty eight then.
CB: Ok. Ok. Now, casting your mind back when you first met him under what circumstances were those?
MW: That was at Brawdy. Yes. We were, Brawdy was quite an isolated place on the coast in Pembrokeshire. And he was flying with 517 Squadron doing reconnaissance flights and this is when he was attached to Epicure. These were doing the high level, taking readings for the weather. I should have a map somewhere.
CB: So, what was Epicure?
MW: Epicure was the name given to that.
CB: It was specifically –
MW: Here we are. This is all in here.
CB: Right.
MW: And RAF Brawdy. Now this is all listed. The people with whom he flew and for what purpose. But you wouldn’t want all that. It’s — Epicure’s were all normal except for — remarks 44. 30th of November. Normal track 215 to position 9, 450.
CB: So, these are the sorties you’re reading about.
MW: Yes.
CB: In the book.
[pause]
MW: I think you’d better have this Chris because there’s some — you may –
CB: Ok. Well, we’ll look at that. Yes.
MW: Yes.
CB: Thank you very much.
MW: These are, these are the other squadrons. There’s one called –
CB: This is where they flew.
MW: Yes.
CB: So, we’re looking at a map that’s the Atlantic.
MW: This is — this is from Brawdy and this is where Roy flew out of.
CB: Oh. I see.
MW: And Epicure. These are the other squadrons that did different — had different names you see.
CB: Right.
MW: And went to different places on here.
CB: So, this map is showing the areas in which certain squadrons operated.
MW: That’s right. Yes.
CB: According to these. So, we’ve got Bismuth, Mercer, Ella, Sharon.
MW: Yes.
CB: Epicure and Rhombus.
MW: Yes.
CB: And also, Nocturnal down, out of –
MW: Yes. These are all the details. These are the details of what he —
CB: Ok.
MW: Who he flew with. This is all with Epicure.
CB: Yes.
MW: All down.
CB: Yeah.
MW: And the flight. The pilots that he was with.
CB: Who he flew with. Yeah. Right. That’s really good. And then out of Iceland is Magnum.
MW: Sorry?
CB: So he —the aircraft were always Halifaxes.
MW: Halifaxes. Yes.
CB: Right.
MW: Yeah. Do you want to —
CB: If we can borrow those. We’ll have a look at them. May I look in just a moment. Thank you. So, the practicality of this really is that we’ve been talking [coughs] excuse me, to people. Bomber Command very largely but in order to go on the operations they needed to know what the weather was.
MW: That’s right.
CB: So, the reason that we want to know about Roy and what he did —
MW: Well they started off from zero and I think they moved up to five thousand feet. Took the readings. He took the readings. The Met readings then. And then they’d come down a bit and then they went up a bit higher and in those days the Halifax could only do eighteen thousand feet. That’s the height they went to. And then took these, and then these readings were [terms]. They could send them from a Halifax. I can’t remember that bit but anyway they were used then for — to forecast the weather for the flying.
CB: So, in practical terms they had a crew in the normal way but they had one extra person who was the meteorological observer.
MW: That’s right. Yes.
CB: Is that right?
MW: Yes. The Met observer.
CB: Yeah. The Met observer.
MW: Yes
CB: Right. So that made eight people.
MW: In the crew.
CB: In the crew. Yes. Do you happen to know where his station was in the bomber?
MW: In?
CB: In the aircraft. In the Halifax. Where was the Met observer? Do you know?
MW: Oh. I’ve never thought of that. No.
CB: No.
MW: He would, he would probably tell me on a good day.
CB: Yes.
MW: Yes. He would have done yesterday.
CB: Well we can pick up with that later.
MW: And then of course we became very friendly and I was moved from Chivenor. He was at Chivenor with me. 517 moved from Brawdy to Chivenor.
CB: Right.
MW: And then I was –
CB: In Cornwall.
MW: Ah. Yes. Devon isn’t it?
CB: Cornwall. Oh well it might be Devon on the north. Yes.
MW: No. No. No. It’s Devon.
CB: Devon. You’re right. Ok. Yeah. I take it back.
MW: Getting my maps wrong.
CB: No. You’re right. You’re right. Yes.
MW: And we, we became friendly and he was at Waddington and I was at, still at Chivenor and then I moved to Northwood. To headquarters. Coastal Command. To try and tidy up their map office. And we met frequently up and down in London. Concerts and things. And then we, we were married in ’47 in Lincoln because he was then at Waddington and I was working at the Post Office. I managed to get a job in the Post Office and —
CB: Because you had left the RAF by then.
MW: Hmmn?
CB: You had left the RAF by then.
MW: Yes. I was demobbed in 1947.
CB: Yeah.
MW: Because I did an extra year, you see. I could have come out earlier but I did an extra year because I didn’t really know what I needed. What I wanted to do. From being a nursery governess on civvy street the RAF didn’t really want me. So I re-mustered to being, and was promoted to acting sergeant to become a telephonist and I was training as a telephonist and then decided that I would do an extra year but after that I came out. And then we lived in Lincoln — Navenby, for a while and then we moved. Roy was moved to Abingdon. And to Upper Heyford and we moved in to Oxford and I was working for the Post Office then. And after then [pause] he was posted to Aden. That must have been 1948. We were married in ‘47. In ‘48 he was posted. He was posted to Aden for two years. I didn’t go immediately because the RAF were very difficult [pause] fussy about where you, where you lived. There wasn’t really much European accommodation in Aden at that time and you had to find somewhere that was vetted by the RAF if you had a wife or somebody going out there. So I went later and we were out there in Aden for two years. Came back to Abingdon and he, and we managed, we bought a house in Radley.
CB: How long were you in, was he in Abingdon? RAF Abingdon.
MW: Quite a while actually. Until he went to Dunstable and then he went to Dunstable and we moved to Aylesbury.
CB: Now what was the significance of Dunstable because this is, he’s now out of the RAF?
MW: The Met officer at that time had various little places. There was Harrow and Dunstable and somewhere else but no, no proper headquarters as such. And then they built the Met Office headquarters at Bracknell and he moved with everybody else from Dunstable and Harrow. Everybody went. Came to Bracknell.
CB: So —
MW: Yes, well he then, after being at Aylesbury we came to Bracknell and he then, we all, we moved here in 1960.
CB: ‘61.
MW: And we’ve been here since and as far as —Roy retired and he did a little bit of work with the Met Office after he retired but nothing very much and he spent most of his time gardening and going for walks and that sort of thing really for his retirement. But he didn’t play golf or do anything like that particularly.
CB: At what point did he leave the RAF? Was that after being stationed at Abingdon?
MW: What time?
CB: Yeah. So, you went to Aden.
MW: Yes.
CB: And he was still in the RAF then. Was he?
MW: No. He was back in civvies.
CB: Ok. So, when did he come out of the RAF?
MW: It must have been. It was — when we were married in ‘47 he was, he was still, he was back in to the Met Office so it must have been early ‘47 when he came out.
CB: So, by then the RAF had forecasters who were civilians and Met Office employees.
MW: Yes. You see they were civilians because — that was the difficult thing in the RAF. And I had difficulty with one on one occasion at Linton when I went into the briefing room with the maps and I found a civilian in there. A civilian man who — everything was so secret. So spot on with security.
CB: Yeah.
MW: And I said to him, ‘What are you doing here?’ And he said, ‘Well, I am the Met Officer.’ And I didn’t know that the Met officers were still civilians you see. Of course this was a problem in the RAF at that time. Some of the cooks were civilians. And one, one or two of the map people were civilians but not to do with intelligence. That was a different section. Navigation maps. Anything else there?
CB: Yeah. So he, in practical terms, if the Met observers were flying then they were part of the RAF is what you are saying. As I understand it.
MW: Yes. Exactly. Yes.
CB: Is that right? So, the war ended in Europe on the 8th of May 1945. Where was Roy then?
MW: He was still at Brawdy.
CB: Right. Oh at Brawdy still. Ok.
MW: And he was in the RAF at Brawdy. Yes.
CB: Yes. Then he went to Chivenor and he was still in the RAF.
MW: That’s right. Yes.
CB: So, after Chivenor then? Is that when, because the war had now finished, did he come out immediately then or was it only at a later —
MW: I can’t really remember that but he I think he came out quite soon and then he was, he went to Waddington.
CB: Yes.
MW: And he was certainly by ‘47. In April ‘47, when we were married, he was out of the RAF.
CB: Yeah.
MW: And back in civvies. [pause] You’re tired. I was doing that at church
Other: A short nap.
CB: Forty winks in church doesn’t do you any good does it? No.
MW: I know. I know. I get so tired.
CB: I know what you mean. Anyway, so that’s really useful because you’ve prompted me ‘cause I remember the point about the Met officers on airfields tended to be civilians. And so what you’re saying is –
MW: It was confusing.
CB: When the war finished.
MW: Yes.
CB: Then he wasn’t flying any longer. So he was flying from Chivenor still? Was he?
MW: From Chivenor?
CB: Yes.
MW: Oh yes.
CB: Yeah.
MW: Yes.
CB: Right.
MW: What were they doing in Chivenor? I can’t quite remember that very well. It might well tell you in there. It will. In the back.
CB: Yes.
MW: [unclear]
CB: We’ll have a look. And you talked about on the sorties then they were flying at different heights.
MW: Yes.
CB: What affect, what sort of strain were they under as a result of this sort of operation?
MW: What sort of —?
CB: Because —well they were sometimes high and low. And sometimes low. Did that put a strain on them?
MW: Absolutely. It did. Yes.
CB: In what way? How did that manifest itself?
MW: Keep going up and down. Yes.
CB: Yeah.
MW: And those were twelve hour shifts usually.
CB: Were they?
MW: It was very long. It was a long trip out.
CB: And what do you remember about the crews of these —?
MW: Oh, quite a lot.
CB: Go on.
MW: They were a very cheerful crew.
CB: Were they?
MW: We kept in touch until Steve died two years ago. He was the pilot. We’d been in touch all those years. Bob Hockey was the navigator. He was an extremely good navigator. In fact, in later years Bob navigated on Morning Cloud for Edward Heath.
CB: Right.
MW: Yes. He was very good. And Taffy was the rear gunner I think.
CB: So, on what circumstance — you met Roy originally.
MW: Oh, probably at a mess dance or something although probably more likely it would have been at the music club because he wasn’t in to dancing. He would be at the music club. Or we used to go down to the coast. We could walk from Brawdy to [unclear] and there was a café down there. We used to go down there in sort of bunches of us, groups of us and have a cup of tea and a chat.
CB: Did the whole crew move around socially together?
MW: Yeah. Most of the time. Yes. Yes. They were always — they were always together at private functions and things. They were. You found that with the bomber crews. They all, they were always, if one came in to the office then the whole lot would be in. They would follow.
CB: They were the family.
MW: They were like a family. Yes.
CB: Their bond was extraordinary.
MW: It was. Yes.
CB: And it was just interesting to know about what it was like in the Met flights as well because that had a different danger.
MW: Oh, you read about this bond with the crew. They were like brothers really.
CB: Yeah. So, the Met flight. The squadrons like 517 that were collecting the Met information had the task of flying high and low. Twelve hour flights. To what extent was there a danger of enemy aircraft?
MW: Enemy aircraft.
CB: Interception.
MW: Very little.
CB: Right.
MW: Yes. I don’t think they had one. They did have one or two tragic things happen but it’s not worth going into those.
CB: What sort of things would happen?
MW: Well, one of them they were diverted because the weather was notoriously bad in Brawdy. You could be flying on the circuit ready to come in and the mist would just come down just in a sheet and you couldn’t land. You’d have to be, you’d be diverted somewhere. And this aircraft got diverted and didn’t know the area presumably and crashed into [pause] whether it was, I think he must have mistaken the, mistaken the cloud base for the, for the top of a cliff and they were all killed. I can’t really remember a lot of the details of that but it was quite tragic because Roy had actually flown with that pilot.
CB: Oh, really.
MW: He was a chap, I think he was either from New Zealand or Australia and he was called Skinner but I’m not [pause] they did have some — one or two near shaves. I remember Roy saying they went around three times trying to get into Brawdy and they bumped three times. It was all a bit — they made a bit of fun of it but it wasn’t funny at the time. They really weren’t. They had one or two. What else?
CB: Sorry.
MW: Anything else you want to —
CB: Yes. So as, meteorological observers — meteorological observers — Met observers were they trying to find good weather or bad weather?
MW: In the Met Office?
CB: Normally. When they were, when the squadron was going on its flights.
MW: Oh, they went. When it was good enough they went. It had to be very bad — they couldn’t take off or something. Otherwise they always went. Yes. Yes. As I say Brawdy was very bad in as much as it didn’t, it didn’t give you much, much time to get because the low cloud would come in very quickly. Within minutes. And you couldn’t manage.
CB: And at Chivenor where he moved to next what was that like for weather?
MW: Chivenor was better. Yes. Yes. Brawdy was unusual. I suppose along the Welsh coast you might expect that to happen really.
CB: Why did the squadron move to Chivenor? Do you know?
MW: We all moved. I don’t know why but we all moved there really. I moved into a map office that was [pause] I think, yes, the girl I took over from was being demobbed ‘cause she’d been in earlier but I worked quite a lot with the navigation officer at that stage rather than intelligence because at that stage I was really clearing up. The map offices were closing down. They didn’t need them at that stage, you see. They didn’t need maps and charts like we had done during the war. During the actual activities. So, and then when I came to Northwood from Chivenor it was equally the same. But I haven’t said about being at Shawbury and I was at Shawbury before I went to Brawdy.
CB: In Shropshire.
MW: I’d forgotten about that because I wasn’t really concentrating on me.
CB: No. No.
MW: We were concentrating on Roy. I was at Shawbury and we were doing a lot of work with — what was that aircraft?
CB: With the Halifax?
MW: No. It’s not a Halifax.
CB: I’ve got it here. I’ll pass it to you. Hang on. I’ll stop the tape for a mo.
[Recording paused]
CB: Now if we may just go back on Roy’s activities. You’ve got out the album and we’re looking at pictures in the album. This is showing low level pictures of ships that they photographed here. So were they, were there weather ships as well as aircraft gaining Met intelligence or was it only aircraft?
MW: I’m not sure but I think, I don’t think it was only aircraft that were involved.
CB: Right. Yeah. So, what was Roy’s attitude to his job flying as a Met observer?
MW: Oh, I think he enjoyed it. Yes. I think he enjoyed the company of being with a crew and being —he always wanted to fly because as you know they were all volunteers anyway.
CB: Absolutely.
MW: But he — the Coastal Command is quite different from Bomber Command and also with Fighter Command. They’re all individual flights and don’t really relate to each other very much [pause] but equally they were all doing their —
CB: So, there, 517 Squadron was his squadron flying out of Brawdy. What were the other squadrons there because you weren’t supporting 517 were you?
MW: Yes.
CB: Oh, you were.
MW: Yes.
CB: Right.
MW: By that time, Bomber Command, I’d moved from Bomber Command to Coastal.
CB: Yes. But there were several squadrons at Brawdy were there?
MW: No. Not really. I don’t think. There was 517. I can’t remember any other squadron.
CB: Ok. Right.
MW: Mind you we were running down you see.
CB: Yes. Because we’d got to the end of the war.
MW: This was late on, you see.
CB: And Roy was commissioned in the RAF in the war. He started as a flying officer. What rank did he progress to?
MW: He didn’t go any further than flying officer.
CB: Right.
MW: But he really didn’t, I said to him yesterday, ‘Do you know where your log book is?’ And he said he didn’t know exactly. He thought it might be in one of the top cupboards which I can’t get in to now but he said there isn’t a lot of information in the logbook but you are welcome to have a look at it.
CB: It would be useful to see.
MW: Right. Yes.
CB: Please because —
MW: I’ll get Richard to go up there.
CB: Yes. Thank you. It would set the scene really well on what’s going on. So, now we’re getting to the end of the war so the requirement for Met observers is different. Did he ask to transfer back to the Met office or was he just instructed to do it?
MW: No, he wanted to come back. He needed to. He wanted to get out of the air force to come back in to the Met Office because that’s where his work was, he felt. The work he needed to do.
CB: Then you went to Aden. So what was it like being in Aden?
MW: In Aden. It was very hot [laughs]. It was quite enjoyable really when you got used to the heat but being, in younger days you did get used to the heat and it’s — [pause] We lived in the Crescent Hotel which was, because he was entitled to RAF accommodation but not for a wife. So, he came out. There was very little accommodation for Europeans. We couldn’t really — it was very difficult and expensive to try and find. I went out by boat on The Windrush. It took fourteen days, fifteen nights to get there.
CB: Through the Suez Canal.
MW: And Roy said, ‘You don’t need to bring any wellie boots because it never rains here.’ It was pouring when I arrived.
CB: So, what other families were there?
MW: I hadn’t any family then.
CB: No. But other families. There were other wives there. Were there?
MW: Oh yes. Yes.
CB: And what did you do because it was hot and no house?
MW: Well, we — [pause] Yes. We had coffee mornings together and because we didn’t have any people like hairdressings or manicure ladies or anything it was quite a big social life. We were either dining out or dancing or something practically every night. And so we, if we had any skills at all we helped each other out with hairdressing and those sort of things. Roy had — Roy had to wear, in the mess, and when we were dining out, always white shirts and cummerbund. Black cummerbund and for the ladies it was always evening dress. You couldn’t go anywhere without evening dress. It was really quite formal in that respect.
CB: So, he was a civilian by then, and — but the circle of people was RAF.
MW: Yes. Officer class because Roy was then classed as an officer although he wasn’t in the RAF.
CB: No. No. He had officer status. And was there a link with the navy and the army as well?
MW: Possibly, that I really didn’t know about. But I had a small job and I worked for British Airways. Or BOAC as it was then.
CB: Right.
MW: And I was, I suppose you would call it an air hostess but possibly not quite that strong. I went on the aircraft as they came in to land and told them — checked all their documents. The ones that were staying overnight — got them into the hotel. And the rest of them — told them where they were and what date. What the date was and what the time it was and made sure they were going in the right direction. And then I brought the other ones — anybody else back to the hotel. Collected them again in the morning to get them onto their flight. So, I did that for quite a while.
CB: So, when Roy went to Gan did you come back to the UK?
MW: Well, we came back from Aden.
CB: Yeah.
MW: Yes.
CB: Oh you did come back from Aden first. Yes.
MW: We came back from Aden to Abingdon.
CB: Right.
MW: And then we started the family and then we came here. It wasn’t until we came here that he, he went to Gan.
CB: Yeah.
MW: Roy went to Gan on his own.
CB: Yes.
MW: Because we couldn’t take families to Gan anyway.
CB: No. No. So what do you think Roy’s recollections of his flying times were?
MW: His?
CB: When he was flying as a Met observer.
MW: Oh very good. Yes.
CB: Yeah.
MW: They were a very happy crew. Yes.
CB: But he, he progressed well in civilian life and went around to all sorts of different places.
MW: Roy’s not ever been a very social person. This is his problem now. That he won’t socialise. Any socialising I’ve had to do and he had hardly any friends when he really left the RAF, the Met office, for that simple reason. That he doesn’t, he doesn’t know what to talk about other than the Met office or his family or perhaps the garden. Politically yes. He knows. If you want to know something he will, he can tell you the answers but he’s not a social person at all. Now, he’s having difficulty because he won’t socialise in the home. Yesterday, he was sitting on his own. But he’s got to be alright.
CB: Good. Thank you.
[Recording paused]
MW: His achievements.
CB: So, you said that Roy always wanted to be in the RAF but he was a clever boy at school.
MW: I mean his maths and science were exceptional and [pause] but the fact that the war was already on. Started. Decided, decided that he would miss university and go into the RAF but he couldn’t get in to the RAF at that time so he took the Met office.
CB: Do you remember why it was the RAF wouldn’t take him at that moment?
MW: I think it was, it was possibly due to age because he was only eighteen when he left the boarding school.
CB: Right. And had he identified that in going in the RAF he wanted to do Meteorology? How did he get into that?
MW: No. I think he was sort of, he was rather pushed in to that.
CB: Right.
MW: But his degree he was going to do on geography he did actually, started to do an Open University type of course. But he didn’t continue with it. The pressure in the Met Office was quite a lot really.
CB: How much do you know how he came to be guided towards the Met Office?
MW: With?
CB: How did, how did he join the Met Office?
MW: How did he? His job.
CB: How did he join it? Who persuaded him that that was the –
MW: I’ve no idea really.
CB: No.
MW: No. I think his leaning towards science had always — well I mean I think he would, if that’s where your strength was, in other words, wasn’t it?
CB: Now we spoke earlier about the situation of D-day particularly and the controversy about the forecasting there. Now, was Roy to some extent involved in the forecasting for D-day?
MW: No. Not really. No.
CB: Not directly.
MW: That was later you see and Roy was — I don’t think so. But I’m saying no but I wouldn’t be absolutely sure what he [pause]
CB: The reason I asked the question was because he was flying Epicure which was down in the Bay of Biscay. The concentration of shipping and air was based would be having weather from that area because on balance the British weather comes from the west. So that’s why I was asking the question.
MW: Yes. He may well have done. I wouldn’t be sure. I don’t know how I could — I could ask Brian Booth. He might know.
CB: Well we might pick up on that later.
MW: Yes.
CB: Yes. So, what was the — what would you say was the highlight of Roy’s career in the Met Office? Or associated activities.
MW: I have to tell you Chris if I wanted to wind Roy up I would say, ‘You didn’t want a wife. You’re married to the Met Office.’ And quite honestly, he was. He enjoyed it. I think. Enjoyed the forecasting.
CB: Right.
MW: And he, he was involved in quite a few special things that went on and he had his picture in The Telegraph and The Observer on occasions when they were doing special things. But I don’t know [pause] it’s —
CB: This was Met office activities rather than the RAF. Yes.
MW: Yes. Since we’d been married but where those cuttings are I would have to get the boys to find them.
CB: Yes.
MW: You can’t reach them. You really can’t.
CB: What would you think in his mind was a particular low of his activities in — either in the RAF or in the Met Office?
MW: What?
CB: A low point.
MW: A low point.
CB: Yeah. That he didn’t like, in other words.
MW: Well, he didn’t like, in fact a lot of them didn’t like the fact that the civil service were not progressing or not keeping up with, with the scale of pay until well after we came here. I can’t remember the year now but the pay was very poor compared with industries. In fact, he did, when we’d been married nine months when he was posted to Aden and he seriously thought of giving it up then and applied to the various firms that dealt with the sort of jobs he felt the jobs he could do. In fact, he was offered various jobs but in the end the pension plus the wages — one outweighed the other, you see. And he decided he would stay with the Met Office. But it wasn’t until quite late on that the pension scheme and the salary came into line with the rest of the people. You probably remember.
CB: I remember that the civil service pay was a bit of a challenge some years ago.
MW: It must have been — it must have been about ‘62 when we did get a rise. And now of course the Met Office pension — well, I don’t know what I’d do without it.
CB: No. Quite.
MW: It is a very good pension.
CB: Yeah.
MW: On his on his grade.
CB: Yes. Ok. Did he have any inhibitions about his activities in the war? Were there things that he particularly didn’t like?
MW: I don’t think so. No. I don’t think. We were all very young you see I think.
CB: Yes.
MW: We didn’t really — and we went into the business of young men who decided to be conscientious objectors at one stage and I think we did go into that didn’t we?
CB: Yes. Yeah.
MW: But you had to be a certain type and I — very few of the boys that I met and knew who were [pause] well they all wanted the war over. Yes. They all wanted to be back in civvy street and doing the things they wanted to do but on a whole it was, it wasn’t a sad story at all.
CB: No.
MW: No.
CB: That’s really interesting and helpful. Thank you very much Mary. So, we’ll stop there and we’ve got the album so we’ll pick up various bits, if necessary, at another time.
MW: Ok.
CB: Thank you, Mary,
[recording paused]
MW: You may find them of interest. Otherwise —
CB: So, we’re talking about Brian Booth who was a Met Office colleague.
MW: Yes.
CB: And do you want to just describe what the key issues there are?
MW: This?
CB: The main issues associated with what Brian has said.
MW: Well no. I think, I mean Brian would be happy to talk to you.
CB: Yes.
MW: If you wanted to.
CB: Yes.
MW: But these are lectures that he’s given.
CB: Oh right. Ok.
MW: Over the years. Over the last few years. He’s still very much into doing the –
CB: Yes. Ok. So, we’ll —that’s a separate issue. I think I’ll start with this.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Mary Ward about her husband Roy Ward
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Chris Brockbank
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-24
Type
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Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AWardEM160424
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Description
An account of the resource
Roy Ward joined the Meteorological Office when he was 18 and served as a Meteorological officer with 517 Squadron. He returned to the Meteorological Office as a civilian after the war and his final job before retirement was as a weather forecaster at Heathrow Airport.
Contributor
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Julie Williams
Cathy Brearley
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.
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Wales--Pembrokeshire
Heathrow Airport (London, England)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:54:30 audio recording
517 Squadron
ground personnel
Halifax
meteorological officer
RAF Brawdy
RAF Chivenor
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/9671/PWardEM16010044.1.jpg
8d5d763bd011aead70cd64efc9260660
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
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
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
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
Flying Officer Ron Ward
Description
An account of the resource
Formal photograph of 175740 Flying Officer Ron Ward, in uniform, with meteorological observer's half wing. Captioned 'Ron Ward', 'RAF Service August 1944 - 1946', 'Photo 1946, MORLEY'.
Page has hand written log of his flights at Empire Air navigation School in 1946, flying in Lancaster, Lancastrian 'Aries' and Halifax. Also a list of the RAF stations he was stationed at from 1939 to 1946.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWardEM16010044
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Text. Personal research
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
England--Lincolnshire
England--Shropshire
England--Yorkshire
Wales--Pembrokeshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
aircrew
ground personnel
Halifax
Lancaster
Lancastrian
meteorological officer
RAF Brawdy
RAF Chivenor
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Pocklington
RAF Shawbury
RAF Waddington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/9974/PWardEM16010036.2.jpg
013f34d60c5822a4fbed98865cebed2d
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
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
517 Squadron's last Epicure
Description
An account of the resource
Top left, air-to-air photograph of two Halifaxes one behind the other, over the sea, captioned '517 Sq 'Last Epicure'', '1946 Chivenor'.
Top right, air-to-air photograph of Halifax PN460 from front left, captioned '517 Sq 'Last Epicure'', '1946 Chivenor'.
Centre left, air-to-air photograph of four Halifaxes in diamond formation with on aircraft further back, captioned '517 Sq 'Last Epicure'', '1946 Chivenor'.
Centre right, air-to-air photograph of Halifax from front left, part of engine cowling of Halifax in foreground, captioned 517 Sq 'Last Epicure'', '1946 Chivenor'.
Bottom left, photograph of a Halifax airborne, from below, captioned '517 Sq 'Last Epicure'', '1946 Chivenor'.
Bottom right, photograph of three Halifax on the ground, airfield background, part of shed with vertical stripes in foreground, captioned '517 Sq 'Last Epicure'', '1946 Chivenor'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Six b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWardEM16010036
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
517 Squadron
Halifax
RAF Chivenor
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/9980/PWardEM16010035.1.jpg
e14651cdac6abdc8659fdb531cb63afe
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
FLYING TIME CARRIED FORWARD 2600
[underlined] 517 SQUADRON RAF BRAWDY [/underlined]
1944 DAY NIGHT
24 NOV HALIFAX S S/L BECK MAO DUAL CHECK 0005
24 NOV S P/O SKINNER MAO CIRCUITS & LANDED 0010
30 NOV 1317 U S/L BECK 2ND MAO EPICURE 0500 0200
02 DEC 1410 T P/O SKINNER MAO PRACTEX 0340 0250
09 DEC 1830 J P/O SKINNER MAO NAVEX 0240
12 DEC 0145 T P/O SKINNER MAO EPICURE 0055 0655
15 DEC 0137 J P/O SKINNER MAO EPICURE 0015 0655
17 DEC 0205 V P/O SKINNER MAO EPICURE 0025 0635
24 DEC 1330 V P/O SKINNER MAO EPICURE 0420 0310
1945
09 JAN 1445 W P/O MACPHEE MAO EPICURE 0300 0500
13 JAN 1230 V P/O MACPHEE MAO EPICURE 0500 0245
17 JAN 1400 K W/C LYNEHAM MAO EPICURE 0320 0355
23 JAN 1510 D F/O SKINNER MAO AIRTEST 0145
02 MAR 2320 P S/L BECK MAO EPICURE 0130 0820
07 MAR 2345 P F/O SKINNER MAO EPICURE 0300 0735
18 MAR 1005 J P/O MACPHEE MAO EPICURE 0705
25 MAR 2340 T F/L ENGEL MAO EPICURE 0345 0720
30 MAR 0940 A S/L KEMP MAO AIRTEST 0135
10 APR 1215 V J F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0905
17 APR 0020 V A F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0205 0730
22 APR 0040 V D F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0310 0700
17 MAY 1150 III N F/L KIMMINS MAO EPICURE 0925
22 MAY 1201 III N F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0900
28 MAY 0015 N F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0300 0635
30 MAY 1204 N F/L VAREY MAO EPICURE 0915
02 JUN 1130 B F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0940
07 JUN 1123 E F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 1035
13 JUN 0045 B F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0420 0515
16 JUN 1235 L F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 1000
25 JUN 0022 T F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0400 0540
[underlined] 517 SQUADRON RAF BRAWDY [/underlined]
1945 DAY NIGHT
28 JUN 0041 P F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0450 0520
03 JUL 1153 E F/L HUGHES MAO SPECIAL 0610
05 JUL 1125 T F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 1030
06 JUL 1130 T F/L HUGHES MAO CHIVENOR-BASE 0030
11 JUL 1120 P P/O BLAKE MAO EPICURE 0920
23 JUL 2340 D P/O PROVERBS MAO EPICURE 0350 0550
19 AUG 1140 B W/C THOMSON – F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0850
24 AUG 2302 F F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0230 0730
31 AUG 1100 E F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0900
04 SEP 2330 C F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0220 0740
10 SEP 0145 E F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0420 0540
15 SEP 1028 L F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0850
19 SEP 1100 C F/L HUGHES MAO TRANSIT TO GIBRALTER 0820
21 SEP 0101 A C F/L HUGHES MAO GIB TO LAGENS 0030 0715
22 SEP 1105 A C F/L HUGHES MAO LAGENS TO BRAWDY 0725
25 SEP 1130 C F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0815 0130
29 SEP 2257 B F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0310 0640
10 OCT 2153 P F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0135 0755
14 OCT 1019 L F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0740 0120
1945 [underlined] 517 SQUADRON RAF CHIVENOR [/underlined]
03 DEC 2219 K F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0045 0910
16 DEC 2040 J F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 1050
20 DEC 1008 C F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0620 0315
24 DEC 0901 A F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0735 0300
31 DEC 0938 A F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0700 0220
1946
05 JAN 0017 P F/L HUGHES MAO EPICURE 0215 0815
18 MAR 2130 III K F/O BEESON MAO EPICURE 0100 0900
03 APR 2230 C F/O BEESON MAO EPICURE 0155 0717
TOTAL FLYING TIME 300/45' 213/22
EPICURES WERE ALL NORMAL EXCEPT FOR REMARKS [underlined] 1944 [/underlined] 30 NOV NORMAL WAS TRACK 215 TO POSITION 9 450NM 09 DEC NAVEX NOT COMPLETED AIRSPEED INDICATOR U/S 15 DEC LANDED AT ST DAVIDS 17 DEC ASCENT POSN 8 DESCENT 3 STRONG WINDS [underlined] 1945 [/underlined] 23 JAN CLIMB TO 500MB BRAWDY THUM 02 MAR NORMAL NOW TO POSITION 13 650NM TRACK 215 18 MAR POSN 9 ONLY 30 MAR THUM ASCENT BRAWDY 17 APR POSITION 11 (WESTON ZOYLAND - DUNKESWELL) 17 MAY NORMAL NOW TRIANGULAR 198 TRUE 400NM 240 T 300NM 035 T 650NM 17 MAY DIVERTED TO WESTON ZOYLAND 03 JUL SPECIAL FLIGHT IRISH SEA FOR HM KING GEORGE VI VISIT TO ISLE OF MAN. LOW CLOUD & SEA FOG SITUATION 05 JUL LANDED CHIVENOR 11 JUL HIGH LEG MAINLY AT 700 MILLIBARS DUE TO ICING AT 500MB 19 AUG 229 T – 44°-47’ N 17° 27’ W 070 T – 46° 47’ N 0935 W - 030 T - BASE 10 SEP DIVERTED TO WESTON ZOYLAND 19 SEP MET OBS AT 50NM INTERVALS AT 950MB 21 SEP ditto 22 SEP ditto [underlined] 1946 [/underlined] 05 JAN 14 POSITIONS OUT – 1480NM TOTAL 18 MAR HALIFAX No NA175 03 APR NA546
“No 1404 FLIGHTBECAME 517(MET) SQUADRON AND MOVED TO BRAWDY IN FEB 1944” (HALIFAX AT WAR BRIAN J RAPIER)
MOVED TO CHIVENOR NOV 1945 DISBANDED JUNE or JULY 1946
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
Informal log of 517 Squadron's Epicure flights
Description
An account of the resource
Informal handwritten log with notes of 517 Squadron's flights, records aircraft squadron letter, captain, reason for flight and duration. Starts 24 November 1944, last entry 3 April 1946. Covers flights from RAF Brawdy and RAF Chivenor.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Hand written sheet on an album page
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
PWardEM16010035
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Wales--Pembrokeshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
1945
1946
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Angela Gaffney
517 Squadron
RAF Brawdy
RAF Chivenor
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/9995/PWardEM16010032.2.jpg
3b24a1a8ba1c6631497ebdf8f373426c
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
ON WING 17 HARRIS 18 – 19 POWELL 20 MAINWARING 21 – 22 – 23 WILLIAMS 24 – 25 – 26 – 27 WHITEHEAD 28 – 29 – 30 – 31 TOUGH 32 ROWLEY
BACK ROW MAINLY GROUND CREW
THIRD ROW 19 VINCER 20 DOYLE 21 BOSWELL 22 TRANTER 23 CLARKE 24 – 25 – 26 GALBRAITH 27 WINSLOW 28 – 29 KIRK 30 – 31 – 32 TROTTMAN 33 – 34 – 35 KIRK
SITTING 15 COOKE 16 – 17 TATE. 18 HOLLYBONE 19 CAWTHORNE 20 CHAPMAN 21 FREDDIE KING 22 SIBLEY 23 COMER 24 THOMPSON 25 RUSSELL VICK 26 ASTOR
CROSS LEGGED GROUND CREW
[Photograph]
[Missing Letters] F. CHIVENOR. JUNE. 1946.
[Photograph]
TAFFY JONES & JOHNNY JOHNSTONE 1946 CHIVENOR
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
517 Squadron RAF Chivenor June 1946
Description
An account of the resource
Top, the left wing and fuselage of Halifax with members of 517 Squadron, in uniform, one row standing on the wing, two rows standing beneath the wing, one row seated and one row sitting on the ground.
Bottom, shows two men in sports kit, running across the grass with a rugby ball, with Halifax X9-K in the back ground, captioned 'Taffy Jones & Johnny Johnstone', '1946', 'Chivenor'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-06
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWardEM16010032
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-06
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Babs Nichols
517 Squadron
aircrew
ground crew
ground personnel
Halifax
RAF Chivenor
sport
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/9998/PWardEM16010031.1.jpg
1b40a2ee7236f8bdb3da28681740ed47
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
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
Studying maps
Description
An account of the resource
Top, five airmen head and shoulders, some in uniform, gathered round a desk, one with a map, one using a telephone. Map on wall in background. Captioned 'Includes Ron Gunse & Leo Cann', '1946 Chivenor'.
Bottom, shows six airmen, head and shoulders, some in uniform studying maps on a table. Captioned 'Includes Ron Ganse, Pat Butler and Leo Cann', '1946 Chivenor'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWardEM16010031
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
RAF Chivenor
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/10000/PWardEM16010030.2.jpg
213d19298d3b9ac1d00e5fa94401aa6d
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
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
Pre-flight briefing
Description
An account of the resource
Top, shows five airmen, seated, some in uniform, two taking notes, maps on the wall. Captioned 'Includes Ron Gunse, Pat Butler', '1946 Chivenor'.
Bottom, seven airmen seated, some in uniform, two taking notes. Maps and briefing boards on walls. Captioned 'Includes Ron Gunse, Pat Butler'. '1946 Chivenor'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWardEM16010030
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
briefing
RAF Chivenor
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/10001/PWardEM16010029.2.jpg
6eb38edeec130584d797ca750d117aaa
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
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
Meteorological office staff
Description
An account of the resource
Top, two airmen in uniform, outside on airfield at the meteorological station, slatted instrument housing and aerial in barbed wire enclosure. Mosquito immediately overhead about to land. Captioned 'Leo Cann ', '1946 Chivenor'.
Bottom, an airman with an instrument on a tripod, Captioned 'Roger Rackwell', '1946 Chivenor'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWardEM16010029
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
ground personnel
meteorological officer
Mosquito
RAF Chivenor
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/10135/PWardEM16010028.1.jpg
082f50832b82878089c50480178cd5ec
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
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
Wendy Lord
Description
An account of the resource
Top, photograph of a Women’s Auxiliary Air Force corporal reaching up to a cable, with meteorological measuring equipment including a weather vane. Captioned 'Wendy Lord', '1946', 'Chivenor'.
Bottom, photograph of an airwoman looking at meteorological equipment, other equipment in background. Captioned 'Wendy Lord', '1946', 'Chivenor'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWardEM16010028
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
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
ground personnel
meteorological officer
RAF Chivenor
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/10139/PWardEM16010027.1.jpg
bf2520b5ed8a69a0c895a58cbbbe37f5
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
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
Meteorology department personnel and a Christmas card
Description
An account of the resource
Top right, six ground personnel, three female, two in Women's Auxiliary Air Force uniform, three men in RAF uniform, standing in front of hedge in a country lane. Captioned 'Mary Ozzy Wendy Bish Roy & Liz', '1946', 'Near Chivenor'.
Right, same group standing by corner of building, dry stone wall in immediate background, village background of building, wall and church tower.
Left and centre, two small head and shoulders portraits of Wendy Lord in Women's Auxiliary Air Force uniform, from right side, captioned 'Wendy Lord' and 'Wendy Lord', 'Met office Brawdy'.
Bottom left, a Christmas card with has six children with angel wings around Christmas tree, inscribed 'Wesolych Swiat'.
Bottom right, a photograph of two very small children sitting on a blanket with part of building in background. Captioned '[undecipherable] Bishop's children', 'Mar 1947'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five b/w photographs and one Christmas card on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
pol
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWardEM16010027
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Wales--Pembrokeshire
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.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945
1946
1947
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
1946
1947
ground personnel
meteorological officer
RAF Brawdy
RAF Chivenor
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/10142/PWardEM16010026.2.jpg
8f71ddca928307c65169bf38bc01c469
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/10142/PWardEM16010025.2.jpg
32e591b66cb5a08963cc7e413e13a3fd
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
SR Hughes
S Pepper
J Howell F/O
R Ward F/O
D J King
P Dexter
J Johnstone
[indicyperable] Brewer
MH Forbes
FJ Straws
G Bethworth
Alan W Geekie
Aubrey H Diamond.
Joanne Showorth
[indecipherable]
Charlie [indecipherable]
Babs Senale
G.F. Davis
T Howe
G O Evan
Windyheary Long
L. Carile
Kenneth Anders
“Ships that pass in the night”
[Page Break]
Royal Air Force Chivenor
MENU
The Commanding Officer and Officers wish you a Merry Xmas 1945
Tomato Soup
Roast Turkey Savoury Stuffing
Chipolata Sausage
Watercress Bacon
Roast Port Apple Sauce
Gravy
Green Peas Brussel Sprouts
Roast and Boiled Potatoes
Christmas Pudding
Brandy Butter
Cheese Biscuits
Coffee
Apples Beers Minerals
[inserted[ 1945 [/inserted]
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
Christmas menu RAF Chivenor, 1945
Description
An account of the resource
Christmas dinner menu 1945 from RAF Chivenor. 24 signatures on reverse.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-12-25
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Printed card on an album page
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
PWardEM16010025, PWardEM16010026
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-12-25
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Claire Monk
Linda West
mess
military living conditions
RAF Chivenor
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/10150/PWardEM16010023.2.jpg
b27d69f2569776383faa63f564160d76
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
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
Meteorological staff
Doris Batchelor's wedding
Description
An account of the resource
Top, 12 airmen and airwomen all in uniform, one holding a balloon, standing in two rows in front of building, captioned 'Met Office Staff', 'RAF Chivenor'.
Bottom left, is of a bride in wedding dress with veil and flowers standing on path in front of bank of flowers and hedge, captioned 'Doris Batchelor', 'Cook - Chivenor 1945', 'Sep 1946'.
Bottom right, is of a wedding party, two ladies in long dresses with flowers , two men in suits and a young lady in long dress with flowers, standing on grass in front of a tall hedge. Captioned 'Wedding Doris Batchelor', 'Sep 1946'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1946-09
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWardEM16010023
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-09
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
ground personnel
love and romance
meteorological officer
RAF Chivenor
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/10388/PWardEM16010006.1.jpg
72a129a9565dca5c91a0ffd6f0c0c5f9
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
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
Mary Brown at RAF Shawbury
Description
An account of the resource
Top left, a head and shoulders portrait of Mary Brown, wearing dress with a necklace. Captioned 'Cpl Mary Brown in Shrewsbury Town', 'RAF Shawbury Mar 1945'.
Top right, photograph of 24 aircrew in uniform, in three rows, in formal pose. Captioned 'Shawbury 101 Course', 'January 1945'.
Right is a photograph of Cpl Mary Brown, head and shoulders in uniform, at a table, barrack huts in background, captioned 'Cpl Mary Brown', '1945', 'Chivenor'.
Bottom left is an invitation to Corporal Brown to a dance on Friday Mar 16 1945 from the members of the Sergeants Mess at RAF Shawbury,
Bottom right is a photograph of two women standing by a fence with river or estuary and opposite bank in the background, captioned 'Mary & Peggy Nurse', 'Shawbury', ' Nov 46', 'Shotley',
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four b/w photographs and printed invitation on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWardEM16010006
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
England--Shropshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-01
1945-03-16
1946
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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
entertainment
ground personnel
mess
RAF Chivenor
RAF Shawbury
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/10522/PWardEM16010003.1.jpg
7ba5a0a004f56544976eb6e599c7b411
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
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/.
Description
An account of the resource
Top left. Head and shoulders photograph of Ivor Jones, in uniform, captioned 'Sq Ldr Ivor Jones 1941 Linton on Ouse', ''The Colonel' had been previously Indian Army'.
Bottom left. Photograph of Mary Brown, civilian clothes, seated in a field of long grass, captioned 'Mary Brown 1944 Silverstone', 'WAAF 20 June 40 - 2 December 1946', '1940 RAF Driffield, RAF Pocklington RAF Linton', '1940 - 44 RAF Linton on Ouse', '1944 RAF Linton RAF Silverstone RAF Shawbury', '1945 RAF Shawbury RAF Brawdy RAF Chivenor', '1946 RAF Chivenor HQ Coastal Command RAF Northwood'.
Top right. Cutting showing crews at a briefing, printed caption 'Briefing for a daylight raid by No 35 Squadron; Wg Cmd Collings can be seen standing at the back, pipe in mouth, whilst Doug Hogg, to the Wing Commander's left, studies a target map over a shoulder', ' RAF'. Hand written caption 'March 1941', 'Intelligence Officer RAF Linton on Ouse Sqn Ldr Ivor Jones "The Colonel" (Bald head) Cpl Mary Brown worked for Ivor Jones at RAF Linton from 1940 - 44'. 'From Halifax at War Brian J Rapier'.
Bottom right. Cutting of head and shoulders picture of Leonard Cheshire in uniform, printed caption '21 Wing Commander L.G. Cheshire V.C., D.S.O. and Bar, D.F.C.'. 'Master bomber, over a 100 operational missions. 8 Sept 1944'. Hand written caption '1944 Cheshire was at Driffield in 1940 Linton 1941-42'.
Format
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Two b/w photographs and two newspaper clippings on an album page
Language
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eng
Type
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Photograph
Text
Identifier
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PWardEM16010003
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.
England--Yorkshire
England
Great Britain
Great Britain
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-03
1944
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.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-03
1944
Title
A name given to the resource
Bomber Command people
35 Squadron
briefing
Cheshire, Geoffrey Leonard (1917-1992)
ground personnel
Master Bomber
RAF Brawdy
RAF Chivenor
RAF Driffield
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF Pocklington
RAF Shawbury
RAF Silverstone
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/998/10723/PWardEM16010033.1.jpg
d199f74a7523c508821889444c8372c7
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
Ward, Mary. Album
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
2015-12-14
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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Ward, EM
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The album concerns the work of 517 Squadron Meteorological Flight at RAF Shawbury, RAF Chivenor and RAF Brawdy. It contains photographs of aircraft and staff at work and on leave.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
ON WING 1. PEDRICK 2. ANGEL 3. 4. MATTEWS 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. GOODIN 13 14 15 WALFORD 16
BACK ROW MAINLY GROUND CREW BUT A FEW AIRCREW INCLUDING GALBRAITH. OWEN PRITCHARD. ILETT
THIRD ROW 1. 2 3 4 5 DORSETT 6 BEAUMONT 7 HELMRICH 8 9 BRIGGS 10 11 HASLAM 12 13 TOON 14 GEEKIE 15 CASTLE 16 17 BUTLER 18
SITTING 1 2 FONCARD? 3 BEESON? 4 D J KING 5 R GUNST 6 GRAHAM STEELE 7 FRED EVANS 8 ROY WARD 9 YOULL 10 IAN JOHNSTONE 11 BOB HOCKEY 12 PARSONAGE
CROSS LEGGED GROUND CREW
[photograph]
[photograph]
TAFFY JONES, JOHNNY JOHNSTONE 1946 CHIVENOR
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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517 Squadron RAF Chivenor June 1946
Description
An account of the resource
Top, the right wing of the Halifax with members of 517 Squadron in uniform, one row standing on the wing, two rows standing beneath the wing, one row seated and one row sitting on the ground.
Bottom, shows two men in sports kit, running across the grass with a rugby ball, with a Halifax in the background, captioned 'Taffy Jones & Johnny Johnstone', '1946', ' Chivenor'.
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
1946-06
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
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Two b/w photographs on an album page
Language
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eng
Type
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Photograph
Identifier
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PWardEM16010033
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1946-06
Contributor
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Steve Baldwin
517 Squadron
aircrew
ground crew
ground personnel
Halifax
RAF Chivenor
sport
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/902/11141/PJeziorskiAFK1705.1.jpg
b0afbe684515684bf5971bdd84c46713
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/902/11141/AJeziorskiAFK170705.2.mp3
19b7a4c29196aeb69bb8636724988644
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
Jeziorski, Andrzej
Andrzej Fragiszek Ksawery Jeziorski
A F K Jeziorski
Description
An account of the resource
25 items. An oral history interview with Colonel Andrzej Fragiszek Ksawery Jeziorski (1922 - 2018 P241 Polskie Siły Powietrzne), his log books and photographs. Originally in the Polish army, he arrived in England from France in 1940. He flew operations as a pilot with 301 Squadron and Coastal Command 1942 - 1946.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Andrzej Jeziorski and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-05
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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Jeziorski, AFK
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is the 5th of July 2017 and it’s half past twelve and I am in Chiswick, Grove Park with Andrzej Jeziorski to talk about his time in the RAF and experiences of getting to Britain. So, what are the earliest recollections you have of life?
AJ: Well, I was, as I said, I was born in Warsaw and first few years I, we lived near Gdansk, in Sopot because my father was an officer in the Polish Navy. My father served during the First World War in the Navy but shortly after I was born, he transferred to the Air Force and he reached rank of Colonel eventually. We, initially we stayed in Sopot in Gdansk then we moved to Warsaw and shortly after that my father was sent to Paris for two years to Ecole Superior [unclear] for further technical studies, he was actually diploma engineer and he was sent there for further studies on airline engines and airframes. On return to Poland, we, my father was initially posted to Deblin, which is the Polish Air Force Academy and we stayed there for four years, that was my sort of first contact with the Air Force. We returned to Warsaw in, round about 1930-31 and I commenced schooling in Warsaw, in Poniatowski Gymnasium [laughs] but that’s not very important. And I, and we stayed in, lived in Warsaw until the outbreak of war, in fact I remember in 1939 I returned from the summer holiday on the 28th of August 1939 and I was getting ready to go back to school when in the morning of the 1st of September I was awakened by the gunfire and sirens. I ran into the garden and I saw the formation of German bombers surrounded by the puffs of explosion from the anti-aircraft guns and that was it, that was the beginning of the war. And my father was recalled back to [unclear], he was already retired and worked as engineer in the [unclear] aviation factory in Warsaw but he was recalled back to service and he was posted to South-Eastern Poland with a group of officers to receive the aircraft that was sent from Britain via Constanta, unfortunately the aircraft only reached Constanta harbour and they were never offloaded because of the advance of, very quick advance of the German forces. Aircraft were Fairey Battle, even that all, that useful to Poland because it was a light bomber, really, and we needed fighters but neither France or Britain could provide fighters, they were rather short themselves. Anyhow, we, my mother on the 5th of September, my mother decided that we follow our father to Lviv, to South-eastern Poland and we left Warsaw for Lviv and we stayed in Lviv for several days and on the 17th of September when Russia attacked Poland we travelled across the border to Romania where we re-joined my father in Romania, he was already across the border. We stayed in Romania for about a month I think and then we travelled via Yugoslavia, Italy [unclear] to Paris, to France. Initially I was a little bit too young to join the forces, so I went back to lycée, back to school. It was a Polish Lycée that existed in Paris for many years before the war. Anyway, I started my school again in Paris. In, one [unclear], I completed the first year of study, was actually lycée for last two years before matriculation. When offensive started, German offensive started, my father agreed that I would join the Army and I was, I passed my, all the tests in Paris and the interviews and I was posted to cadet officer’s school near Orange, I think the name was Bollene but I am not sure, don’t quote me that, I only managed to reach Bollene when France collapsed and school was evacuated via Saint-Jean-de-Luz and to Plymouth and from Plymouth up to Scotland to Crawford in Scotland. In Scotland we continued our training very quickly, it was amazing how quickly everything was organised, initially we were issued with infantry armament but shortly after that [unclear] carriers arrived and Valentine tanks and we trained, completed our training by November 1940, we completed our training and I was made the cadet officer, corporal cadet officer [laughs]. The, shortly after I completed my training, the Polish forces decided that, to be an officer, I must get my matriculation, in other words pass my what is the A level exam the Matura [laughs]. So, I was posted back to the same school that I was in France, that school was evacuated as well to England, to Scotland and it was in Dunalastair House near Pitlochry in Perthshire, very beautiful place [laughs]. Anyway, I was sort of released from the, for six months, from the forces to complete my study and pass my matriculation, well, I only had six months, it was difficult, but I managed and I managed to pass all the exams and I went back to the tank corps, it was 16 Tank Brigade number 2 Battalion of tank corp. Round about that time, I decided that I must try to transfer to the Air Force and I started to applying to be transferred to the Air Force, explaining that I have sort of family links with the Air Force [laughs] and I asked them to consider this and transfer me to the Air Force. Eventually, I managed [laughs] and in beginning of 1942 I commenced my training as a pilot. Training initially was four months of ground training in preparation for flying, then, after short leave, initial flying in Hucknall near Nottingham and from there another four months service flying school at Newton, also near Nottingham. I completed my training, I obtained my wings, and also I obtained my commission [laughs], which was organised [laughs] and I was posted to RAF Manby, which was the first Air Armament School, it’s half, about half way between Peterborough and Grimsby, a line between Peterborough and
CB: It’s in Lincolnshire, yes
AJ: RAF Manby
CB: Manby
AJ: First Air Armament School, pre-war station, the station commander was Group Captain Ivens, First World War pilot, rather severe but we [unclear] [laughs] and [unclear], he had certain sympathy towards us and he was a good station [unclear] and we spend many months flying there and I was flying as a staff pilot, flying Blenheims IV and Blenheim I on mainly bombing training. Well, after many months of that, I was suddenly posted to Squires Gate to a general reconnaissance course which meant that I will be posted to Coastal Command because it was mainly navigation training for flying over the sea. It was just over two months course, rather severe but that course helped me a lot in the future because I obtained second class navigation warrant and that helped me in obtaining my licence later on, civvy licence. Eventually, after completion of training in Squires Gate, I was posted to the squadron, which was based in Chivenor and I started flying as a second pilot. Initially, one had to do at least ten, sometimes more flights as a second pilot before being posted to Operational Training Unit to pick up his own crew. Well, I did my ten operations mainly flying over the Atlantic. The flying was consist of patrols, long ones lasted, patrols lasted for over ten hours, we had special additional fuel tanks in bomb bays, apart from depth charges, aircrafts was Wellington XIV, especially designed for operations in Coastal Command, it was equipped with ASV, Aircraft-to-Surface Vessel which was, although it was a primitive radar, it was a very good radar, we could pick up contacts distance over one hundred and twenty miles, that if contact was large enough [laughs], it was, flying was tiring but I found rather interesting it, weather was not in favour of us particularly when we were based up north in Benbecula the weather was our greatest enemy, flying sometimes in very terrible conditions over the Atlantic and several times we had to be diverted to different fields because weather was closing on, closing the fields on the west coast of Scotland so we had to be posted sometimes to Northern Ireland to Limavady. It was interesting and eventually I was posted to Operational Training Unit to Silloth, RAF Silloth that was 6 OTU Coastal Command to pick up my own crew. We completed our training there, we were posted back to squadron and just as we completed initial sort of training with the squadron, war ended and that was the end of my war, but the squadron was posted to Transport Command and I was posted to Crosby-on-Eden Transport Command Conversion Unit, it was a tough three months course for pilots, getting them ready for operation in Transport Command, it was tough course but again that course helped me in obtaining my civvy licences later on. In, on return from, unfortunately I was due to go to India with my crew, getting ready to be posted to India but unfortunately my navigator failed the last of overseas medical, they discovered that he suffering from anginal heart and I lost my navigator and because of that I was posted back to the squadron, 304 Squadron, which in the meantime, was operating as Transport Squadron from Chedburgh, and that was the squadron operated Warwicks, sort of large Wellington [laughs] transport plane, and operating mainly to Athens with [unclear], we operated via east, Pomigliano near Naples and then Athens and back again [laughs]. And I stayed with the squadron until the end of the existence of Polish Air Force and we were all transferred to Polish resettlement call but I decided to continue flying and I was posted to [unclear] Navigation School and I flew Wellingtons, Wellington X, from Royal Air Force Topcliffe in Yorkshire and I was there for about a year and a half until I was asked to relinquish my commission and I went back to civil life, civilian life, but, as I said, I managed to complete two very important courses in RAF and that helped me quite a bit in passing the exams for airline transport pilot licence. And I, in possibly 1948 when I commenced my flying in civil aviation. Initially, my first employment was in, up in Blackpool and I operated Rapid aircrafts, De Havilland Rapide over the Irish Sea from Blackpool to Ronaldsway and to Dublin and Belfast and Glasgow, for about, for a whole year I was operating over the Irish Sea for Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, that was the firm I was employed with, Lancashire Aircraft Corporation. Lancashire Aircraft Corporation later changed name to Skyways and I stayed with the firm and I was, after a year in Blackpool, I was moved to Bovingdon to join the crew of captain Raymond, very good pilot, to operate Haltons, a transport plane, Halton was a civil version of Halifax 8 C and we used to operate freighting services to, well, yes, we used to fly everywhere, to the Far East, to Singapore, to Island of Mauritius [laughs] on the Indian Ocean, to the, all around the Middle East and but in about, after about a year operating with, flying with Captain Raymond we had a rather, in fact very unpleasant incident. We were due to take eight tons of optical instruments, four tons from UK and then four tons from Hamburg and operate to Hong Kong. We took off early in the morning, must have been seven o’clock in the morning, beautiful day, we climbed to our cruising altitude which, as far as I remember, was nine thousand feet, and I just went down to my navigation cabin to start my navigation, I obtained first pinpoint I remember at [unclear], I’ve written it on my logbook, when fire bell rang. I rushed back to the cockpit and I saw the number one engine on fire, it was not only fire but black smoke, we turned back towards Bovingdon but just at that time, just looking at that engine when the whole engine separated, the engine cracked in second row of cylinders, just cracked, and propeller, reduction gear, cowlings and front part of the engine just separated and took fire [unclear], and propeller just sort of twisted right and hit the leading edge of the aircraft, between the engines and cut through the leading edge and through the oil tank of number one, number two engine and a few moments later engineer had to stop number two engine because of lack, he was losing oil. Anyway, we were still at about eight thousand feet and we flew towards Bovingdon, Bovingdon also of course helping us with QDMs etcetera, help passing all the weather information etcetera and weather, as I said, was absolutely perfect, I could see Bovingdon from great distance I could see the runway and captain Raymond decided that we would land crosswind on as long runway accept crosswind was about ten knots and land direct on a long runway and we made a superb approach, or actually captain Raymond did [laughs] and we landed safely in Bovingdon. The aircraft looked terrible. One engine gone, one engine feathered, the aircraft covered with oil and dirty smoke [laughs], remnants looked absolutely terrible but would you believe, the engineer managed to fix it in three days, they replaced the engine, replaced the tank, replaced the leading edge and three days later aircraft operated to Milan. It was almost unbelievable [laughs]. But anyway, great work on British engineers [laughs]. So that was a rather unpleasant beginning of my long service with civil aviation, would you like me to continue?
CB. We’ll stop just for a minute.
AJ: Sorry?
CB: We’ll stop just for a moment. So, we are talking about Skyways and the incident with captain Raymond,
AJ: Yes
CB: But after that you got, what happened to you, you got your own command?
AJ: After that I started flying as a captain, we converted from Haltons to Avro York. I don’t know if you know the aircraft
CB: I know
AJ: [unclear]
CB: The Lancaster
AJ: And we started to operate mainly to the Middle East
CB: Right
AJ: Mainly to a place called Fayid in Canal Zone, that was of course in military zone of Canal Zone and civilian planes were not allowed to land there because of agreement between Egypt and UK, that only military planes would be landing on Canal Zone so we were all given a complementary commission between Malta and Fayid we operated as RAF crews on RAF markings and everything, we were back in uniform for a little while. The operation to the, there was always something happening when we were there, I remember first sort of international problem was the Iran, the, Mr Mosaddegh trying to get Abadan
CB: The oil field
AJ: [unclear] Abadan
CB: Yes
AJ: So we were all put up in uniforms and transferred to Castle Benito in Libya, later Castle Idris, artillery was loaded on our aircraft and we were all ready to occupy Abadan [laughs] but fortunately nothing happened, Shah returned to Iran and don’t know what’s happened to Mr Mosaddegh, but anyway he disappeared. So that was the first sort of international incident that I have seen and the next one of course was Suez, that was during the premiership of Mr Eden when Nasser, President Nasser decided to nationalise Suez Canal and of course there was a war between Israel and Egypt and Israel occupied Sinai peninsula and we were also involved, immediately involved in transferring flying troops not only to Cyprus to reinforce the Polish British base, there but also to other parts where there was a danger to the British [unclear] in Bahrein, Aden we had to fly troops there, also we had to evacuate British personnel from Castle Benito because of the danger in revolt in Tripoli. There was of course a big row between United States on one part and France and UK on the other but anyway everything slowly settled down and we started to operate via Cyprus to the Far East, mainly on trooping contract again. Cyprus was very pleasant place initially after the war as far as I remember, but slowly EOKA started to operate and things started to get really nasty, well, in fact, we lost one aircraft, EOKA managed to plot to put bomb on, in the gallery of one of our aircraft departing from Nicosia to UK with RAF families. The captain on that flight was I remember captain Cole and they were travelling from the hotel in Kyrenia via through the Kyrenia Mountains they had a puncture and the wheel was damaged, anyway they were delayed about forty five, fifty minutes to arrive at the airport, they were of course in a hurry, immediately [unclear] ran to the aircraft to distribute pillows and get cabin ready for the families to join the aircraft and the engineer was on a wing and captain, captain Cole and his first officer were walking towards the aircraft from the control tower, they were about half way, when bomb exploded in the gallery. The aircraft was immediately on fire, but it was a Sunday, was it Sunday? No, it was, only day but lunchtime and everything was quiet on the airfield, just one aircraft getting ready to departure was our aircraft, well, I mean, firm aircraft not mine [laughs], and the fire tender and all the emergency equipment parked near control tower, they didn’t expect anything, it was a very hot day and the crew of fire tenders had sort of undone their buttons and they were sort of sunning themselves and they didn’t notice that bomb exploded, was just [mimics a detonation] was a very small, small bomb and of course the captain, first officer noticed that, there were explosions and they started to run towards control tower to tell, to call the fire and the controller didn’t know, he was looking at them and sort of, he went on the balcony, he said, what? Aircraft on fire. So he ran back, pressed the button alarm but by the time fire tender alarm, the aircraft was gone
CB: Completely
AJ: Lost an aircraft. No one was hurt, the engine, when bomb exploded this engineer was on a wing, he almost fell off the wing but he didn’t [laughs] fortunately, girls were distributing pills in the cabin so they ran out of the cabin, no one was hurt but aircraft was lost. If you visit Nicosia, visit the museum, there was, there is a place, commemorating EOKA activities and there is a photograph of that aircraft, EOKA sort of proud that they managed to destroy one aircraft but they nearly, the aircraft was, the bomb was so timed to explode at the top of climb, had it not been for the puncture of the car bringing the crew from Kyrenia, the aircraft would have been at top of climb and that would have been it, six, over sixty RAF families, women and children were due to fly back to UK, that was one of the things that
CB: Fascinating, yeah
AJ: I still remember. The, after that, we, after that incident we started to operate trooping contracts to Far East, mainly to Singapore. We changed aircraft from Hermes to Lockheed 749s Constellation and of course it was much beautiful aircraft, lovely aircraft to fly and we initially started operating with troops to the Far East, to Singapore but later this changed into the freighting contract for BOAC to the Far East, that’s operating freight from UK to Hong Kong and to Singapore and I was posted for two years to New Delhi to operate the sector between New Delhi and Hong Kong and Singapore. It was interesting posting, India is an interesting place and it was lovely flying, one week of flying, one flight to Singapore, one flight to Hong Kong in a week and then a week off [laughs], rather pleasant and it was, generally speaking, I remember that as a very pleasant, very pleasant stay in India. As [unclear], when I returned from India, the Skyways decided to finish the operation and all the aircraft and crew were transferred to Euravia and Euravia two years later on obtaining Britannia aircraft changed the name to Britannia Airways.
CB: Ah, right
AJ: So, initially we operated 749s on inclusive tours mainly but later we started to operate Britannias, not only on inclusive tours, we had occasional rather interesting charter flights to various parts of the world. One such, interesting but not very pleasant, was evacuation of British, Belgian population from Leopoldville in
CB: In Congo
AJ: Belgian Congo. The unpleasantness of that was that we had to night stop in Leopoldville and to get to town we had to go through several military checkpoints at night and military checkpoints were of course Congolese military and they all drunk and automatic pistols it was not very pleasant to be stopped by troops, whatever they are, when they are drunk and armed with automatic pistols [laughs]. I remember that I had to stop three times in Leopoldville and every time it was rather, if I may say so, frightening experience [laughs] but anyway we managed to transfer some of the Belgian civilians from Leopoldville and by then we were, as I said, we were operating Britannias and shortly after that with this development of inclusive tours and Britannia decided to buy Boeings and I was posted together with other pilots to Seattle to train on Boeing 737-200 series, very interesting two months, a technical course first in Seattle, then simulator flying and then eventual flying on 737. And that was beginning of operation Boeing 737 which lasted for several years and then there was break because company decided to start operating to the West Coast of United States and to do so they managed to obtain two lovely aircraft, was a Boeing 707-320 Intercontinental, that was the most lovely aircraft I ever flew and we were operating the 707s to the West Coast, mainly to San Francisco, to Los Angeles, to Canada, Vancouver, occasionally to Tokyo via Anchorage, polar route to Anchorage, so always very interesting and also I was, for six months I was transferred to British Caledonian because they ran out of, they were short of crew and I was posted to join them for a few months and rather unpleasant sort of posting because I was operating South American routes, operating to Santiago, to Chile. Now, Chile at that time was run by president Allende, communist, he was elected Communist president but the whole country was trying to get rid of him because the country was in chaos there was, shops were closed, there was shortage of food, in the hotels food was rationing, we had to take some food off the aircraft to reinforce our ration in the hotel and as you know eventually military took over. I was the last aircraft to leave before the revolution, so I remember how the aircraft, how the country looked during President Allende regime, and I was the first one to land after, with military already in command and all of a sudden the country changed completely, all shops were open, plenty of food, wine shops open, the lovely Chilean wine in hotel, everything was in perfect, so I know that British public and particularly British press very much in favour of President Allende and they hated the idea of military takeover but to us who operated [unclear] the difference between what it was like during the Allende regime and later was very noticeable and to be quite honest we were on the side of Mrs Thatcher [laughs], side of Mrs Thatcher. After these few months with British Caledonian, I was getting close to my retiring age and eventually I retired at the age of sixty. My last flight with Britannia was on 22nd of December in 1982. And I was immediately offered the position of ops manager with Air Europe in Gatwick. I started to work there and at the same time a friend of mine, Mike Russell, who was training [unclear] Britannia Airways, he informed me that he bought Rapide aircraft, that was an aircraft that [unclear] operated [unclear] and he asked me if I would like to occasionally fly for him out of Duxford, the Imperial War Museum in Duxford with the passengers to show them how the old airliners used to look and fly before, in 1930s and soon after the war and I agreed and every weekend practically I used to go to Duxford to fly the Rapide for him. So, as you can see, I commenced my civil flying on Rapide aircraft and I completed my last flight, civilian flight was also on a Rapide and that’s, that’s the end of the story.
CB: Amazing, yes. Thank you, we’ll stop for a bit.
AJ: We
CB: We are just taking a step back now to when you arrived in the UK, what happened?
AJ: As soon as we arrived in UK, the courses were arranged by the local authorities to teach us or to commence to teach us English and it was normally arranged but sometimes by military, sometimes by local authorities. In RAF of course it was standard procedure that we had to attend lectures in English practically every day, that’s in RAF, in the army it was sometimes arranged by the local authorities, as far as I remember, but somehow, somehow we managed [laughs] in spite of difficulties, it’s not easy to learn the language when one is over twenty, but we managed somehow
CB: Who were the people who did the training, the courses in English for you? What sort of people, were they schoolmasters or what?
AJ: The, in RAF they were mainly lecturers from Oxford and Cambridge [laughs], mainly young lecturers from Oxford and Cambridge and so, I didn’t pick up the accent but [laughs], but anyway they were very good. They were excellent lecturers. And lectures were all in English
CB: But
AJ: And we managed, but somehow we managed
CB: They were part of the RAF education department
AJ: Yes, commission
CB: Yeah
AJ: Commission area and they were teaching us [laughs]
CB: And
AJ: Mainly very young lecturers
CB: They were, yes. And how did they deal with that because you had two requirements, one was the basic understanding of English, wasn’t it? Then the other one would be technical English for flying, so how did that
AJ: That used to go together with lectures, during lectures of course we, we learned the technical language, how these things are called in English and that was fairly easy and also we had sort of general lectures to improve our ability to express ourselves [laughs]
CB: So, how many of you were on this course?
AJ: Sorry?
CB: How many people were being trained with you at the same time?
AJ: [unclear], about twenty, normally about twenty [unclear]
CB: Right. Were they all Polish or were some Hungarian and Czechoslovakian?
AJ: Only Polish
CB: Right
AJ: No, we, in those days there were no Hungarians, [unclear] only Polish. As I said, our relationship with lecturers were very, very good [laughs]
CB: So, off duty, cause you were all the same age so, off duty what did you do?
AJ: [laughs] So we, we managed somehow
CB: But you would go to the pub, would you, with them, off duty, or what would you do?
AJ: Oh yes, yes, always, nearest one [laughs]. My social life was always pleasant, particularly when I was based in Blackpool for a while, I remember, the social life there was very pleasant because Squires Gates was quite close to St Annes and there were very pleasant girls living in St Annes [laughs], it was, rather pleasant
CB: And were there lots of dances?
AJ: Oh yes, yes, we, dancing was a typical past time during the war [laughs]
CB: And cinema?
AJ: And cinema as well
CB: Did the
AJ: We, in, when we were based in Benbecula, we had a special sort of supply of new Hollywood productions, always first of all they used to arrive us to show us the film that appeared in London about a week later [laughs]
CB: [laughs]
AJ: That was just to try, trying to make our unpleasant life in Benbecula just a little bit more pleasant
CB: Yes
AJ: I assume Benbecula is a dreadful place for weather, sometimes the winds were size eighty miles an hour [laughs] and it was difficult to sleep because of the noise
CB: Oh, really?
AJ: And quite often unfortunately the airfield was closed by the weather
CB: Yeah
AJ: [unclear] divert
CB: This is on an island on the west coast of Scotland. What was the accommodation like?
AJ: Mainly Nissen huts
CB: Right
AJ: I think the only brick house on the station was a squash court [laughs], the rest was all Nissen huts [laughs]. But squash court was brick [laughs]
CB: Now you were used to a different type of food and catering in your youth so how did you adapt to the British diet?
AJ: Oh, there was no problem. Polish diet here, if Polish families was a little bit close to British because food was rather scarce and was difficult to arrange Polish menu [laughs]
CB: Yeah
AJ: Which was rather rich and
CB: Yeah. Now, this business of learning English, so you are learning English for a social conversation but when you came to learn RT, radio telephony, then was it more difficult to deal with English that way?
AJ: No. I think, no, we had no difficulties on the radio, we used standard procedure and standard language
CB: Yes
AJ: Limiting the conversation to absolute minimum, only necessary information absolutely necessary, we were not allowed to run long conversation, before operation of course there was a general arty silence, complete silence before operational flight, we were not allowed to use radio for to get permission for take-off, was all visual
CB: All done with [unclear]
AJ: All visual
CB: Yeah
AJ: Yeah, so not to, you’re doing everything possible to, not to tell the Germans where we were or what we were doing
CB: Yes. Thinking of how the process of training, so you did your initial training on what aeroplane?
AJ: On Tiger Moths
CB: Right. And after the Tiger Moth, what did you?
AJ: Oxford
CB. Onto the Oxford
AJ: Oxford
CB: For your twin engine flying.
AJ: Yes
CB: Then what?
AJ: Oxford and then I, when I was posted to First Air Armament School, it was Blenheim I and IV
CB: Right
AJ: Again we converted, on arrival there we had to pass conversion course, which was run by local training, training officer
CB: Now you said we, does that mean you were all Poles or was there a mixture of people on all these courses? Were you all Polish people on the training, or was there a mixture of nationalities?
AJ: No, mainly all Polish and sometimes some Czechs. But Czechs from different squadrons, we had our Polish squadrons, [unclear] few Czechs served with Polish Air Force. Among them was the highest scoring pilot in the Battle of Britain. He was, his, he was Polish by nationality but he was born Czech
CB: Ah
AJ: So his nationality was actually Czechoslovakian,
CB: Yeah
AJ: But he was Polish
CB: Polish born
AJ: Citizen
CB: Ah, right
AJ: It was flight sergeant Frantisek, he was the highest scoring pilot in the Battle of Britain but we never say he was Polish, he was Czech [laughs]. Unfortunately, he was killed during the battle
CB: So after you were on Blenheims, what did you move to next?
AJ: To Wellingtons
CB: Right
AJ: So, in the RAF, I flew Tiger Moths, Oxfords, Ansons, Blenheim I and IV, Wellington X and XIV, Warwicks and DC-3s. The DC-3 was mainly in Transport Command conversion unit
CB: Right
AJ: That was all. We were due to fly DC-3s in India but
CB: Ah, so you went to conversion unit
AJ: Didn’t happen [laughs]
CB: Now, you were all being trained together, in Bomber Command at the OTU, the various specialities were pilot, navigator and so on, were put in a room and they then made a self-selection of a crew, how was your crew put together as Polish people?
AJ: Mainly by sort of knowing each other and for first few months were lectures so it was easy to know the, to become aware of that particular, he must be a good navigator [laughs], so I used to ask him, would you join my crew [laughs]? As exactly my navigator was a lawyer from Krakow University [laughs] and I thought, oh, he’s a lawyer, he must be good navigator [laughs] and he was, he was, unfortunately he was not very healthy
CB: And the crew of the Wellington with six in Bomber Command, in Coastal Command what was the crew numbers? How many people in the crew in Coastal Command?
AJ: In the crew? Six
CB: Right. So, who ran the ASVE? Who ran the ASV Set?
AJ: Sorry, I didn’t
CB: Yeah, you had the airborne radar, the ASVE
AJ: Yes
CB: Who’s job was it to run that?
AJ: Who, radar?
CB: Yeah
AJ: Well, all three radio navigators were trained gunners, radio officers, and radar operators and during the operational flight, they changed every two hours
CB: Right
AJ: They changed rotation, one, two hours in the rear turret, two hours at the radar and two hours at radio station,
CB: And you said that when you went on ops, then they were long and you had extra tanks, what was the nature of the sortie? Would you drive, fly to a long, the farthest point and then do a square search or what did you do?
AJ: We managed to go to the patrol area and then we patrol, mainly box patrol in a certain area, sort of and there was one aircraft operating this sector, the next aircraft, several aircraft was sort of blocking say Western approaches
CB: Right. And what height would you be flying?
AJ: Fifteen hundred feet
CB: Right
AJ: We were flying at fifteen hundred feet mainly
CB: So, how often did you use your armament when you were on ops?
AJ: Well, [unclear] we didn’t have, we didn’t attack submarine [unclear] but what you’re trying to do is to try to keep submarines submerged and several times we picked up a good contact but as soon as we started flying towards it the contact disappeared because they could see us on their radar or could hear us
CB: Cause they had a radar detector didn’t they?
AJ: And they of course submerged very quickly and changed course. So it was very difficult to. In 1943 the Germans decided to not to dive but to accept and fight and they armed the submarines, it was a very heavy armament and it was extremely dangerous to attack submarine because of heavy anti-aircraft armament on the submarine and the attack was normally from between fifty and one hundred feet, we had electrical altimeter
CB: Ah, right
AJ: To get down to a very low altitude [unclear] and we had to illuminate the target with Leigh light, the aircraft was equipped with a very heavy reflector which used to be lowered hydraulically and the navigator, just about a mile from the target used to illuminate and he could control the reflector to pick up the target first standing above him were the [unclear] machine guns and of course as soon as he saw the target he used to open up to the front guns, a very high rate of fire, Browning machine guns, they were like automatic pistols, mainly anti-personnel guns
CB: Yeah
AJ: And very high rate of fire, very close to one thousand five hundred rounds a minute so and that was type, the radar operator was to sort of directing the aircraft towards the target until it was about a mile from the target, about a mile from the target the navigator used to illuminate the target
CB: Where was the Leigh light mounted in the aircraft?
AJ: Sorry?
CB: Whereabouts in the aircraft was the Leigh light?
AJ: It was in the middle of the fuselage
CB: Pardon?
AJ: Middle of the fuselage, underneath
CB: Ah, middle of, right
AJ: Used to be
CB: Ahead of the bomb bay, was it?
AJ: And that’s why ditching on Wellington XIV was never successful because the fuselage used to break just where the Leigh light was so there was never, not one Wellington XIV ditched successfully
CB: Really? Yes
AJ: Cause was the weak point
CB: Yeah
AJ: In the fuselage, so
CB: Now
AJ: General, general sort of method of attack which we trained of course all the time was to, as soon as the target was picked up by radar, to obey the instructions from radar operator to direct the aircraft towards the target [unclear] come down to about a hundred feet, sometimes even lower, and about a mile from the target illuminate the target [unclear] and attack six depth charges, it was a stick of six depth charges so if that was the target [unclear] six [unclear]
CB: Was the method of attack
AJ: That was the method of attack
CB: To the side of the submarine or head on?
AJ: No, we used to drop the depth charges trying to in front of it so that the submarine ran into them but it, as I said, it was not easy, you can imagine at night submarine firing back at you [laughs] and to aim six depth charges to drop in front of the submarine in the direction the submarine was heading, it’s, it required quite a lot of courage to
CB: I can imagine. What about the other members of the squadron? How many of those attacked submarines?
AJ: I can’t tell you exactly but aircraft, we had some success but not during the time when I was in the squadron because then German submarines were equipped with [unclear] and they could stay submerged for a very long time, in fact the only time, the only possibility of finding the submarine was to observe the sea and to see the smoke coming, providing wind was not too strong, it was possible to see the smoke just like smoke of the train going through the depression
CB: From the diesel engine
AJ: You could see the, you could see the puffs of smoke coming out from sea [unclear] that was the submarine and
CB: Because
AJ: It was to attack, but of course submarine dived before that [laughs] because they were on the periscope all the time and they could see the aircraft approaching so they would crash land, crash dive
CB: Yeah. So the period that you were with the squadron on these anti-submarine duties was quite short. Did you feel disappointed that you hadn’t had enough time?
AJ: Yes
CB: How did you feel?
AJ: Sorry?
CB: How did you feel?
AJ: I felt that the war avoided me [laughs]
CB: Yeah
AJ: That was my feeling. I wanted, you know, I thought that I’d do at least one tour in Coastal Command and then I would, that I would go back to Bomber Command, but it never happened,
CB: No
AJ: War ended
CB: So, as a Pole in England, in Britain, did you feel a particular sense of urgency to do something about Germans?
AJ: About?
CB: The Germans and submarines. Did you feel you really wanted to make a mark?
AJ: Sorry, I didn’t quite
CB: Well, as a Pole, in view of what the Germans did to Poland, did you feel, putting it a different way, that you really wanted to pay them back?
AJ: Well, that was a general thing that you wanted to, as you know the, towards the end of the war we realised that we in Poland is the only country had lost the war
CB: Because of Yalta
AJ: We knew that sooner or later Germans will be supported by United States not only because of the power of Russia but because of industrial power that it represented and what can we say, it was few rather unpleasant years, we were absolutely certain that there will be friction between the West and East but we also knew that it will not be a major war because of the danger of atomic power but you knew that there will be some small wars like Korea and others. Nowadays we are on reasonably good terms with the Germans but memories last for a long time
CB: Yes. And after the war, what was the general feeling of Polish people, that war had finished and how did the Polish people feel about it?
AJ: Well, we were all, as you know, we were all very disappointed, everyone was trying to organise himselves to get back to normal life, in spite of the fact that it will be away from Poland. We were all sort of rather disappointed but somehow we sticked together, we managed to stick together in our organisation and we knew that sooner or later something will happen but unfortunately it lasted for over fifty years
CB: Yes. But in the time after the war, in the fifties, there was the Hungarian and the Czechoslovak uprising, so how did the Polish people react to those?
AJ: You know, there was a very strong reaction in Poland although the Polish government was, then Polish government, Communist government was very much with the Russian policy, the general opinion of Poland, of Polish population was very much pro Czechoslovakia, later on pro Hungary and eventually problems, troubles started in Poland, we started [laughs], Solidarity, this, we knew that sooner or later something will happen, but we were not certain how long it would take
CB: Just finally going back to when you came to Britain
AJ: Mh?
CB: When you first came to Britain, what was the reaction of the population?
AJ: Initially, it was very friendly, very friendly indeed, particularly that was time of Battle of Britain and was well known fact that Polish fighters were fighting together with RAF, Polish Navy was still in action, together with Royal navy, Polish forces defended, together with Australians defended Tobruk, they distinguished themselves in Norway before that, in Narvik [laughs], so there as, Poland was popular initially, but towards the end of the war, change, everything changed completely
CB: Did it?
AJ: Russia was the great ally and we, we were the troublemakers, we tried to create trouble between the West and Russia, that was the general opinion
CB: Was it? Really?
AJ: But of course change, things have changed very slowly, changed again because Russia begin to show their power and there was of course Berlin airlift and all those difficulties created by Russia and we all knew about it, this is part of the Russian policy to establish Communist regime everywhere
CB: Right, we’ll stop there a mo. Now, after the war, then a lot of squadrons and the Air Forces created associations, so, the RAF had squadron associations and there was a Polish Air Force association
AJ: Yes, Polish association was established very soon after the war, initially as soon as war over it started to become but the year it was established actually in 1945, 1945 and initially it was created by Polish Air Force senior officers, junior officers and other ranks were sort of more interested in getting themselves organised initially but later on everyone sort of joined in and the Polish Air Force Association was one of the biggest organisations, Polish organisations in UK. We all, the Polish Air Force Association was helped by the Royal Air Force association and we established a very good contact with the RAF, Royal Air Force Association, several clubs were formed very quickly, clubs one in London and one in Blackpool, one in Nottingham, Derby and so on, and generally speaking it was
CB: Just a couple of minutes
AJ: Generally speaking, it was very sort of organisation, which was very active, very active socially
CB: Yes
AJ: And of course, initially was also helping the former members of Polish Air Force to establish themselves here or in other countries, United States, Canada, Argentina even [laughs]
CB: Yeah
AJ: So
CB: And then the memorial, so a memorial was established, built at Northolt
AJ: Yes, the Polish Air Force memorial was built rather early, soon after the war. It was unveiled by Lord Tedder and later on it was enlarged and now it just exists [unclear] we have ceremony there every year
CB: Yeah
AJ: Was a tradition to have one, wreath laying ceremony in September every year. And another memorial was built in Warsaw, giving the, with names of all the aircrew that had lost their lives during the war. If you are in Warsaw, you go and see that memorial, it is one of the nicest memorials in Warsaw.
CB: Now, after the war you were busy flying airliners so, to what extent did you get involved with the Polish Air Force association?
AJ: Well, initially when I was flying, it was rather difficult because I was busy all the time but towards the end, when I started working in Gatwick as ops manager, I started to work for the Polish Air Force association, initially as chairman of London branch, and then as honorary secretary, vice chairman [laughs], gradually I went up in a position in Polish Air Force Association, in a
CB: And you became the chairman
AJ: Sorry?
CB: And you became the chairman
AJ: Well, chairman of Polish Air Force Association charitable trust
CB: Right
AJ: That was at the end of existence of Polish Air Force Association. Polish Air Force Association organised trust from all the remaining [unclear] the organiser trust
CB: Yeah
AJ: Which was very active for several years and
CB: And that then lead to the Polish Airmen’s Association
AJ: [unclear] what [unclear] is now Polish Airmen’s Association
CB: Yeah
AJ: Mainly sort of consisting of families, families [laughs]
CB: Yeah
AJ; But there are still a few of us
CB: You’re active in that still, aren’t you?
AJ: Few of us remaining [laughs]
CB: Thank you
AJ: Thank you
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Andrzej Jeziorski
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Chris Brockbank
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-05
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.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AJeziorskiAFK170705
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
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01:19:38 audio recording
Language
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eng
pol
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Polskie Siły Powietrzne
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Great Britain
Poland
Singapore
England--Lincolnshire
France--Paris
Poland--Warsaw
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939-08-28
1939-09-01
1940
1942
1943
1945
Description
An account of the resource
Andrzej Jeziorski was born in Poland and, when war broke out, fled to Britain, where he flew as a pilot with 304 Squadron. Remembers the 1st of September 1939. Talks about his father, a Navy officer who served in the First World War. Mentions his first contact with the Air Force when he and his family moved to Deblin. Tells of his escape from Poland to France, his further education there and his evacuation to Britain. Initially, he was posted to Scotland and trained to join the 16th Tank Brigade. He then decided to transfer to the Air Force and in 1942 started training as a pilot. Was posted to 304 Squadron on various stations. Tells of his career in civilian aviation after the war: operating flights for Skyways and Britannia all over the world, until his retirement in 1982. Talks about his life in Britain during the war and mentions various episodes: being taught English by university lecturers and socialising with them. Tells of being assigned with going on patrols, locating and attacking enemy submarines. Expresses his views on Poland’s situation after the war. Talks about the Polish Air Force Association in Britain, his involvement in it and the memorials to Polish aircrews.
301 Squadron
304 Squadron
aircrew
Blenheim
memorial
pilot
radar
RAF Chivenor
RAF Manby
submarine
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1343/22172/BTyrieJSBTyrieJSBv1.2.pdf
a3c3d60d1ceae9d6dcc5d3d3cbdad658
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
Tyrie, Jim
Tyrie, JSB
Description
An account of the resource
34 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Jim Tyrie (1919 - 1993, 87636 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, correspondence and prisoner of war log as well as a photograph album. He flew operations as a pilot with 77 Squadron before being shot down in April 1941.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Brian Taylor 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
2019-06-01
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Tyrie, JSB
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[centred] JIM TYRIE [/centred]
James Sedric Bruce [Tyrie] - b. Montrose Scotland 18.10.19
Educated Secondary School Dundee and took Scotts Higher Leaving Certificate in German
Joined General Accident Insurance Co. Dundee
RAFVR 1938 as A/C 2 but automatic promotion to Acting Sgt. to learn to fly.
Called up 1.9.1939, No 3 IPW Hastings Oct 1939.
No 1 EFTS May 1940 (Tiger Moths)
Cranwell as Officer Cadet July-Oct 1940 (Oxfords)
Commissioned P/O Oct 1940, posted No 10 OTU Abingdon.
Joined 77 Sq. Topcliffe (Whitleys, 4 Group Bomber Cmd.) as 2nd pilot.
Flew 7 Ops.
10.4.41 Target Railway Station in E.Berlin
Sgt Lee 1st pilot
F/Lt. Tyrie 2nd pilot
Sgt. Young Observer
Sgt. Budd Wireless Operator
Sgt Hull Rear Gunner
No of A/C Taking Part 98
No of A/C Lost 10
Hit by flak over target & set on fire
Famous Last Words:
Sgt. Budd "Do you know the Port Engine is on fire"
Sgt. Young wounded in leg, headed N for Sweden but forced to abandon A/C 15 mins later.
[page break]
Bailed out and landed in garden of house in Bernau
Followed down by searchlights and caught immediately on landing.
Taken to Police Station where midst [sic] much noise and chaos, Young's leg was bandaged by elderly VAD Lady. Photographed by all and sundry
Taken to Flak School cells, later interrogated and spent night in cell.
Next morning complained to visiting Luftwaffe officer of poor breakfast - rewarded by white bread, jam and some jellied meat. - also permitted to visit freely rest of crew.
About 10 am proceeded in wagon to Berlin, Anhalter Rly station, where caught train for Frankfurt - On - Main and Dulag Luft - arrived about midnight at cooler.
Interrogated and searched nex [sic] morning and allowed into main camp in the afternoon.
11.4.41 Telegram to J.B.Tyrie Esq. 1 Robson St Dundee - "your son reported missing as result of air operations on 10.4.41 [sic]
2.5.41 Telegram - now prisoner of war. - reported 'missing' in local press which stated he was in big raid on Kiel at beginning of week
17.4.41 - 9.4.42 Stalag Luft 1 Barth
"Among the most dedicated tunnellers [sic] of the early inmates at Barth was Jim Tyrie [sic]
[page break]
Jim Tyrie's tunnelling [sic] efforts also included one from his own block. Besides digging he copied maps, planned prospective escape routes and brushed up his German - He tried whenever he could to chat to the guards to perfect his German and exploit any opportunities conversation might present. Information on gate-passes and travel permits would be passed on via the escape cttee [sic] to Mike Bussey, a brilliant artist who was one of the first officers at Barth to apply his skills to forgery.
Towards the end of March '42 after a camp wide search of Stalag Luft 1 by SS and Gestapo it was announced that officers would start leaving for a new camp in 3 days time
The move was in 3 groups
1st group Friday 20th March '42
2nd group Sat. 7th April 42
3rd group, incl. Jim Tyrie moved Tues 10th April
11.4.42 - 20.3.43 Stalag Luft 3 (East Camp) SAGAN
30.3.43 - 29.2.44 Stalag Luft 3 (North Camp) SAGAN
29.2.44 - 28.1.45 Stalag Luft 3 (Belaria) SAGAN
28.1.45 - 4.2.45 By sledge, foot and cattle truck via Kunau, Gross Selten, [?] Birkenstedt, Raustein [?] Spremberg to Stalag 3A, Luckenwalde.
4.2.45 - 12.4.45 Stalag 3A (OFlag) Luckenwalde
12.4.45 - 14.4.45 in Cattle Trucks in Luckenwalde Goods Sation (intended destination ST.7A Moosberg nr Munich.[sic]
[page break]
14.4.45 Stalag 3A (Luckenwalde)
21.4.45 Germans evacuate camp.
22.4.45 (0603 hrs) Russian Tanks and Motorized Infantry Arrive
20.5.45 Proceed by Russian Transport to Elbe, where met by American Trucks and go to Halle, arriving 10 pm
25.5.45 By Air in DC3's to Nivelles (Brussels) arriving 2 pm - By lorry to Brussels
26.5.45 By lorry to Schaacht, by air in Lanc to Dunsford, by train to Cosford (106PRC)
27.5.45 By train to Dundee.
10.4.41 to 26.5.45 - 4 years 1 month 16 days
Worked tirelessly for SSAFA and Royal British Legion, organising The Poppy Appeal - organised a trip for volunteers to visit Poppy factory and I spent many hours with him counting the poppy collections in Shenfield Essex.
A real gentleman and a man I was proud to know.
[page break]
About middle of January 1945 a wager of One D-Bar was made between
Flight Lieutenant W H Culling [?] and
Flight Lieutenant J S B Tyrie
- the latter stating that the war would not be over by 15th of March 1945
- it has been decided mutually that in view of the present lack of parcels, the wager shall be
One good dinner in London - to be consumed when convenient to both parties - Expenses to be paid by loser who will present winner with a Half a [sic] pound of milk chocolate, to be consumed the same evening.
Both signed the above 26th Feb 1945 Luckenwalde.
2nd March '45 - autographed photo of Max Schmelling [?] obtained during his visit to Luckenwalde
- Reason of visit unknown, perhaps connected with visit of unknown SS Obergruppenführer - air raid alarm that morning for 2 hrs.
[page break]
Post-war. Stayed on in RAF
Joined 90 Squadron flying Avro Lincolns as F/L and short time as acting Sq cdr. [?]
Still as A/S/L four years in Germany (3 in Berlin) as interpreter with Foreign Office 1948-52.
Met Glemnitz at Gatow [?]
Then back to F/L.
Full medical in London revealed failing eyesight, so changed to Air Traffic Control at RAF Workshop [sic]
1953-56, a Meteor FTS.
Air Traffic Control Germany 1956-58, then Chivenor, North Devon.
RAF Shawberry as Ground Control Approach/Radar Instructor.
Cyprus, Akrotiti, Nikosea: [sic] led evacuation of families from Limmasol [sic] during Turkish Insurgence 1964.
Then RAF Walton, I/C joint military/civilian installation of area radar control.
Bishops Court NI.
Retd 1969 Joined Barclays Bank and spent fifteen years as First Cashier in various branches
Retd. 1984.
Jim Tyrie died in April 1993.
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
Jim Tyrie
Description
An account of the resource
A biography of Jim Tyrie. He was called up on 1st September 1939 and learned to fly on Tiger Moths. He was shot down on his 7th operation over Berlin. In POW camp he was described as a dedicated tunneller. There is a list of the camps he was kept in with dates and details of their transport. After the war he stayed in the RAF until his eyesight meant he could no longer fly. He was transferred to air traffic control.
Format
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Six handwritten sheets
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
BTyrieJSBTyrieJSBv1
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.
Germany
Great Britain
Poland
England--Hastings
Germany--Barth
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Luckenwalde
Belgium--Nivelles
Belgium--Brussels
Cyprus--Limassol
Poland--Żagań
Scotland--Dundee
Poland--Żagań
Germany--Bernau (Brandenburg)
Belgium
Cyprus
England--Sussex
Cyprus--Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joy Reynard
David Bloomfield
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940
1942
1945
10 OTU
4 Group
77 Squadron
90 Squadron
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bale out
C-47
Dulag Luft
escaping
Flying Training School
Lancaster
Lincoln
Meteor
missing in action
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
prisoner of war
RAF Abingdon
RAF Bishops Court
RAF Chivenor
RAF Cranwell
RAF Shawbury
RAF Topcliffe
RAF Watton
RAF Worksop
Stalag 3A
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Tiger Moth
training
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1343/22177/LTyrieJSB87636v1.1.pdf
2593c27faef4f15089ccae84e95bc4f2
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
Tyrie, Jim
Tyrie, JSB
Description
An account of the resource
34 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Jim Tyrie (1919 - 1993, 87636 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, correspondence and prisoner of war log as well as a photograph album. He flew operations as a pilot with 77 Squadron before being shot down in April 1941.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Brian Taylor 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
2019-06-01
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
Tyrie, JSB
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
Jim Tyrie's flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Flying log book for J S B Tyrie covering the period from 1 July 1939 to 9 August 1959. Detailing his flying training and operations flown Following which he was shot down 9 April 1941 and became a prisoner of war. Returning to flying duties 25 May 1945 to 27 October 1964 detailing his duties as instructor and with 90 squadron. Also included his flying in various aircraft including his airline flying. He was stationed at RAF Perth, RAF Hatfield, RAF Cranwell, RAF Abingdon, RAF Stanton Harcourt, RAF Topcliffe, RAF Wheaton Aston, RAF Seighford, RAF Perton, RAF Moreton, RAF Finningly, RAF Lindholme, RAF Wyton, RAF Shallufa, RAF Khormakser, RAF Hendon, RAF Gatow, RAF Shawbury, RAF Worksop, RAF Wunstorf, RAF Bruugen, RAF Chivenor, RAF Akrotiri, RAF Nicosia, RAF Sopley, RAF Watton and RAF Bishops Court. Aircraft flown in were, Tiger Moth, Oxford, Whitley, Wellington, Dakota, Lancaster, Vengeance, Anson, Lincoln, Proctor, York, Viking, Valetta, Auster, Meteor, Varsity, Prentice, Canberra, Vampire, Whirlwind, Hunter, Shackleton, Viscount, Brittania and Hastings. He flew 7 operations with 77 squadron. Targets were St Nazaire, Hamburg, Berlin, Brest and Kiel. His first or second pilots on operations were Pilot Officer Bagnall and Sergeant Lee.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LTyrieJSB87636v1
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Cyprus
Cyprus--Nicosia
Egypt
Egypt--Suez Canal
France
France--Brest
France--Saint-Nazaire
Germany
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Niederkrüchten
Germany--Wunstorf
Great Britain
England--Berkshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Devon
England--Gloucestershire
England--Hampshire
England--Hertfordshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--London
England--Norfolk
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Oxfordshire
England--Shropshire
England--Staffordshire
England--West Midlands
England--Yorkshire
Northern Ireland--Down (County)
Scotland--Perth
Yemen (Republic)
Yemen (Republic)--Aden
North Africa
Great Britain
Cyprus--Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1940
1941
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1941-03-10
1941-03-11
1941-03-12
1941-03-13
1941-03-14
1941-03-23
1941-03-24
1941-04-03
1941-04-04
1941-04-07
1941-04-08
1941-04-09
10 OTU
21 OTU
77 Squadron
90 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
bombing
C-47
Flying Training School
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lincoln
Meteor
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
prisoner of war
Proctor
RAF Abingdon
RAF Bishops Court
RAF Chivenor
RAF Cranwell
RAF Finningley
RAF Hatfield
RAF Hendon
RAF Khormakser
RAF Lindholme
RAF Moreton in the Marsh
RAF Seighford
RAF Shallufa
RAF Shawbury
RAF Stanton Harcourt
RAF Topcliffe
RAF Watton
RAF Worksop
RAF Wyton
Shackleton
shot down
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
Whitley
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1607/24382/PWatsonJB15010023.1.jpg
7365bd3cf0814581204837fac4b0fcbf
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
Watson, Joan. Watson, K. Album
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-08-25
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Watson, JR
Description
An account of the resource
28 items.
Covering K Watson’s service from training onwards and in Bomber Command and then Coastal Command. Includes sketch maps and mementos.
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
K Watson's RAF Service
Description
An account of the resource
A hand-drawn graphic on an album page with K Watson's RAF Service detailed. It includes the dates and where he served.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
K Watson
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One hand-drawn graphic on an album page.
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
PWatsonJB15010023
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
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.
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Devon
England--Gloucestershire
England--Lancashire
England--Yorkshire
Wales--Glamorgan
44 Squadron
620 Squadron
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
RAF Chivenor
RAF Fairford
RAF Lindholme
RAF Padgate
RAF South Cerney
RAF St Athan
RAF St Eval
RAF Witchford
RAF Wyton
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/900/24850/LJarmyJFD134695v1.1.pdf
f8359d06e1c1f6ebf8e121a357d933ef
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
Jarmy, Jack
Jack Francis David Jarmy
J F D Jarmy
Description
An account of the resource
23 items. And oral history interview with Jack Francis David Jarmy DFC (b. 1922, 134695 Royal Air Force) his log books and photographs. He flew operations as a navigator with 75 and 218 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Jack Jarmy 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
2015-09-21
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
Jarmy, JFD
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
Jack Jarmy’s Royal Canadian Air Force observer’s and air gunner’s flying log book. One
Description
An account of the resource
Navigators log book for J Jarmy covering the period from 7th August 1942 to 12th November 1957. Detailing his flying training in Canada and England and operations flown, including various certificates and a list of his operational crew. He was stationed at RCAF Portage La Prairie (7 AOS), RAF Carlisle (15 EFTS), RAF Westcott (11 OTU), RAF Waterbeach (1651 HCU), RAF Mepal (75 Squadron), RAF Feltwell (3 LFS) and RAF Chedburgh (218 Squadron). Aircraft flown in were Anson, DH82 Tiger Moth, Wellington, Stirling, Lancaster, Oxford, Meteor, Harvard, Hastings, Beaufighter, Pembroke, Valetta, Dakota, Shackleton. He did two tours of operations, flew 21 night operations with 75 Squadron and a further 20 operations (7 night and 13 daylight) with 218 Squadron. His pilots on operations were Flight Sergeant Mayfield and Flight Lieutenant Guinane. Targets were the Freisians, Hamburg, Bordeaux, Nuremburg, Turin, Peenemunde, Gladbach, Berlin, Mannheim, Boulogne, Montlucon, Modane, Hanover, Kassel, Frankfurt, Bremen, Warne-Eikel, Hohenbudburg, Dresden, Chemnitz, Wesel, Dortmund, Kamen, Cologne, Gelsenkirchen, Dessau, Datteln, Hattingen, Bocholt, Hallendorf, Kiel, Heligoland and Bad Oldesloe. The log book also lists his post war RAF Flights.
This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike French
Cara Walmsley
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LJarmyJFD134695
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 New Zealand Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1943-07-30
1943-07-31
1943-08-03
1943-08-04
1943-08-06
1943-08-07
1943-08-10
1943-08-11
1943-08-12
1943-08-13
1943-08-16
1943-08-17
1943-08-18
1943-08-27
1943-08-28
1943-08-30
1943-08-31
1943-09-01
1943-09-05
1943-09-06
1943-09-08
1943-09-09
1943-09-15
1943-09-16
1943-09-17
1943-09-22
1943-09-23
1943-09-24
1943-10-03
1943-10-04
1943-10-05
1943-10-08
1943-10-09
1943-10-10
1943-11-18
1943-11-19
1943-11-20
1945-02-07
1945-02-08
1945-02-09
1945-02-13
1945-02-14
1945-02-15
1945-02-18
1945-02-20
1945-02-21
1945-03-01
1945-03-02
1945-03-04
1945-03-05
1945-03-07
1945-03-08
1945-03-09
1945-03-14
1945-03-18
1945-03-22
1945-03-29
1945-04-13
1945-04-14
1945-04-15
1945-04-18
1945-04-24
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
Manitoba--Portage la Prairie
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Cumbria
England--Norfolk
England--Suffolk
France--Modane
Germany--Bad Oldesloe
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Bocholt
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dortmund-Ems Canal
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Dresden
Germany--East Frisian Islands
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Mönchengladbach
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Hattingen
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Kamen
Germany--Kassel
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Italy--Turin
Atlantic Ocean--Baltic Sea
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
France--Montluçon
Germany--Mönchengladbach
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Peenemünde
Germany--Hannover
Manitoba
Germany--Dessau (Dessau)
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
11 OTU
1651 HCU
218 Squadron
75 Squadron
Air Observers School
aircrew
Anson
Beaufighter
bombing
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
bombing of Hamburg (24-31 July 1943)
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
Bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943)
C-47
Flying Training School
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Meteor
mine laying
navigator
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
RAF Abingdon
RAF Carlisle
RAF Chedburgh
RAF Chivenor
RAF Dishforth
RAF Feltwell
RAF Kinloss
RAF Mepal
RAF Middleton St George
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Shallufa
RAF Swinderby
RAF Topcliffe
RAF Waterbeach
RAF Westcott
Shackleton
Stirling
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/596/25236/LLathamPA[Ser -DoB]v1.pdf
072ab5be42f614e5f379d1947dfc140a
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
Latham, Peter
Peter Anthony Latham
P A Latham
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Latham, P
Description
An account of the resource
Two items. An oral history interview with Air Vice Marshall Peter Latham (b. 1925) and his log book. He flew operations as a pilot with 26 Squadron.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Peter Anthony Latham’s pilots flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for Peter Anthony Latham, covering the period from 22 February 1945 to 24 January 1948. Detailing his post war flying training and flying duties with 26 squadron. He was stationed at RAF Perth, RAF Cranwell, RAF Keevil, RAF Fassburg, RAF Chivenor, RAF Sylt, RAF Ahlorn, RAF Zeltweg, RAF Gutersloh and RAF Gatow. Aircraft flown were Tiger Moth, Harvard, Spitfire, Tempest and Auster. His log book also lists him as having flown Dominie, Oxford, Vampire, Meteor and Sea Fury. This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
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
LLathamPA[Ser#-DoB]v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Fighter Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Austria
Germany
Great Britain
Germany--Celle Region
Austria--Zeltweg
England--Devon
England--Lincolnshire
England--Wiltshire
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Gütersloh
Germany--Lower Saxony
Germany--Sylt
Scotland--Perth
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
1946
1947
1948
aircrew
Dominie
Flying Training School
Harvard
Meteor
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Chivenor
RAF Cranwell
RAF Keevil
Spitfire
Tiger Moth
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/586/26630/SHorryM[Ser -DoB]v10008-0004-0001.jpg
62916129a38d04868dfce8b5abce47fe
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/586/26630/SHorryM[Ser -DoB]v10008-0004-0002.jpg
931e452d451b5181deb435894be58b00
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/586/26630/SHorryM[Ser -DoB]v10008-0004-0003.jpg
3fcef33b4c28b9c29773af057b331563
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/586/26630/SHorryM[Ser -DoB]v10008-0004-0004.jpg
4f542863a223669d2a3954db4c133fc8
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
Horry, Margaret
M Horry
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Horry, MA
Description
An account of the resource
20 items. An oral history interview with Margaret Horry, and her brother, Gordon Prescott's log book (1582098 Royal Air Force), documents and family photographs. She discusses her brothers' and husband's service during the war. Gordon Prescott flew operations as a wireless operator / air gunner with 12 Squadron and was lost without trace 7 January 1945. <br /><br />Additional information on Gordon Prescott is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/119000/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Margaret Horry and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-08-19
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Frank Horry's Record of Service
Description
An account of the resource
Air Ministry Form 1406 issued to Frank Horry. It covers his service in detail.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Four printed sheets with handwritten annotations
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
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.
162 Squadron
40 Squadron
47 Squadron
51 Squadron
99 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
Heavy Conversion Unit
RAF Chivenor
RAF Lyneham
RAF Manston
RAF St Mawgan
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2090/34780/SRAFIngham19410620v010004.2.jpg
6876ea79afc07b00e10a7f4f4cd2acd3
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2090/34780/SRAFIngham19410620v010001-Audio.1.mp3
863d4820f91339ff0c46c7bb1aa17ee2
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
RAF Ingham Heritage Group. Andrzej Jerziorski
Description
An account of the resource
Five items. An interview with Andrzej Jerziorski, pilot's notes and photographs.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-11-14
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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RAF Ingham
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GB: Okay, we’re recording now, so. What would you like me to call you by the way?
AJ: Andre.
Andre.
AJ: Andjay is the correct pronunciation, but, I don’t know why, in RAF and in Britannia they always called me Andre. [Laugh]
GB: Andre right, Andre it is then, lovely. Can we start, first of all, could you tell me, please, what year you were born and where you were born in Poland, please?
AJ: I was born in, on 23rd of December 1922, in Warsaw.
In Warsaw itself.
AJ: And I lived in Warsaw most of the time, well, say important [emphasis] part of my youth I lived in Warsaw. Part of the time I lived in, when my father was serving officer Polish Air Force, so I spent four years in Polish Air Force Academy in Deblin. Before that we were in Paris for a little while while my father was studying at the Ecole d’Aeronautique in Paris.
GB: And how old were you when you were in Paris then?
AJ: Oh, I was four years old.
GB: Oh, four, so very young, probably didn’t realise Paris, what Paris was.
AJ: I still remember a little bit, not much.
GB: And as it came towards the beginning of the Second World War, was your father involved in defending Poland?
AJ: He was already retired, but working as an engineer in aeronautical, in engine manufacturing, aero engines factory in, but he was still reserve officer and he was called back to, to the service just before the war.
GB: So it was natural for you to want to join the Polish Air Force.
AJ: Yes, but unfortunately it didn’t start with that, [chuckle] it was, took me a long time before I managed to get to the Air Force. I joined the Army first.
GB: Right, okay. Can you tell me a little bit about that, and your journey?
AJ: Yes. I managed to get to France after the campaign in Poland, with my father. We travelled via Romania, Yugoslavia, Italy, Italy to France, where I went back to school, for a year, and in 1940, the German offensive already started, I joined the Polish Army, in France, and I was posted to Officers Training School in southern France near Orange, place called Boulin; it was the Tank Corps Officer’s Training School. Of course I didn’t stay very long because France collapsed, we were evacuated to the harbour, very close to Portuguese, to Spanish border, Saint Jean de Luz, it’s a small fishing village to the south of Bayonne. And Polish ships and British ships picked us up from there and we sailed from Saint Jean de Luz, well actually, we had to first of all row to get to the ships because they were moored about a mile or two from the shore.
GB: You had to row!
AJ: [Laugh] Yes. This is just fishing village. Anyway, it took us about four days and four nights to get to Plymouth, part of that we were escort by Sunderlands, and then we were transferred from Plymouth to Scotland when, where the Polish Army started to re-establish again. [Laugh]
GB: How did you get from Plymouth up to Scotland?
AJ: By train.
GB: Oh, by train, not by lorries or anything, no.
AJ: No, by train.
GB: Quite comfortable though.
AJ: Very comfortable, by comparison to France it was great camp. Everything was, I must say, very well organised. We landed at [indecipherable], we had to wait for everything to be arranged for us, when we left the ship everything was prepared for us, a big buffet, tea [laugh] typical NAAFI tea, sweet, and we were sort of given some food to take with us for the journey to Scotland.
[Other]: Shall I put it on the table?
GB: Please, if you’d like to yes, thank you, yes. Sorry, do you want me to help at all? Would you like me to, shall I move that for you just while you do that? Is easy? Is that all right there?
[Other]: It’s fine. [indecipherable]
GB: Oh lovely, thank you very much. [clinking china]
AJ: So we, it was amazing how quickly we managed to get organised. First of all we were given the infantry equipment, but soon afterwards [door noise] bren gun carriers started to arrive, then small tanks, Crusader and Valentines and eventually Churchills.
GB: And this was all up in Scotland.
AJ: Up in Scotland. Initially in a place called Crawford, I think that’s where we trained, and then we were moved to Blairgowrie, near, in Perthshire, and we were based there for about just over a year trying all the time to get to the Air Force, eventually I managed, in beginning of 1942.
GB: How did that come about, that you, you say you managed to get into the Air Force, did you have to keep asking and applying, or were they after volunteers?
AJ: I have to, well I was trying to tell them, this is, you know, my father served in the Air Force, why shouldn’t I serve in the Air Force!
GB: Better than the Army.
AJ: I volunteered anyway, to join the Army from, eventually they considered my application and immediately I joined the Air Force I started training. First of all in Brighton, I did have initial training in Brighton, then initial flying in Hucknall, near Nottingham, and service flying in Newton, also near Nottingham. All the training, Polish Air Force training, was concentrated round Nottingham.
GB: I know, I’ve just finished thirty years in the RAF myself, and I did some of my training at Newton. Oh thank you very much. Yes, so I do know Newton, unfortunately, this last, whoops, excuse me, [crashing sound] I tell you, I’m all fingers and thumbs, let me just, excuse me.
AJ: Use my spoon, I’m not going to use it.
GB: Are you sure? Thank you. Yes, they have started to pull Newton down now unfortunately, it’s no longer an RAF camp, which is very sad. They’ve knocked a lot of the old blocks down there, but it happens all over.
AJ: Pity. Pre war station wasn’t it.
GB: I think they’re possibly going to put a memorial up to the Poles, on the station which is very, very good. So you did your training at Brighton, Hucknall and Newton then, yes.
AJ: Then I was posted to first bombing school as a staff pilot to fly with the bombing leaders [dropping sound] [laugh] on the various exercises, bombing exercises. The, Manby was the, well pre-war station was first armament school, very nice station, maintaining all the pre-war traditions including dining in nights every Thursday. [Laugh].
GB: Did you like those? You found them very?
AJ: Yes. I must say it was very nice, your guys always [drinking] parade every, every Wednesday morning. [Laugh] Station Commander Parade. But there used to be quite a lot of flying, mainly on Blenheims, Blenheims I and IV.
GB: Right.
AJ: Quite interesting.
GB: Did they try and persuade you to do a different job other than pilot, or it was straight away you want to be a pilot?
AJ: No, after initial training in Brighton, there was, that’s where we could sort of either choose to go as navigators or as pilots, or sometimes they simply they told you you are very good for navigation, you are going to navigate! [Laugh] Anyway I went for pilot’s training.
GB: Do you think, yourself, do you think you were a very good pilot at the beginning? Or did, did you take to it naturally?
AJ: Er, no, I wouldn’t say it was all very easy, it was, I was an average pilot, not bad.
GB: Some bumpy landings then!
AJ: [Laugh] Well, had no trouble with landings, more with, initially we were flying on instruments there but it all came back, working. Eventually, I can’t imagine now without, flying without good instrumentations.
GB: Obviously after the war when you flew civil aircraft it was all much better instruments, probably, than through the war. So when you’d finished your flying training then, and your staff position at Manby.
AJ: I was posted to General Reconnaissance Course, that was in Squires Gate, near Blackpool. It was a two months course for aircrew detailed to go to Coastal Command, mainly navigation training. Very, very tough course, but very good one. But, and after that I joined the squadron.
GB: Was, was the actual navigation course that you did there, the air reconnaissance course, was that all based in the classroom or was there a lot of work out and about?
AJ: There was quite a lot of flying as well, on Anson, Avro Anson, over the Irish Sea.
GB: Anson. Not the best [indecipherable].
AJ: Not many flying hours as pilot but quite a few, as navigators, with day and night, various exercises, including astral navigation and everything. So it was very interesting, very interesting indeed. I joined the squadron when the squadron was at Chivenor, it was.
GB: Down in Cornwall, isn’t it.
AJ: In 1944, Autumn 1944. The squadron was based at Chivenor, equipped then with Wellingtons 14s. Specially adapted Wellingtons for work, as an anti submarine work, equipped with very good, for those days, radar, ASV - Aircraft Surface Vessel. That went with seven, later eight machine guns, and six depth charges in the main bomb.
GB: Yeah, the bomb bay
AJ: Bomb bay, the aircraft was of course prepared for very long patrols, so the additional tanks in a bomb bay, so we could stay on patrols for over ten hours. So it was, we had sufficient fuel for just over eleven hours.
GB: Was that mainly daytime or was that night time flying as well?
AJ: Mainly night.
GB: Night.
AJ: Some day, but mainly night. Aircraft was, apart from radar, was equipped with a Leigh Light, the huge hydraulically operated reflector in the middle of the fuselage which was operated by the navigator during the attack, and the usual stuff, I’m detailing you with?
GB: No, no this is very good, the details are very important so as many details as you like!
AJ: Providing you stayed safe, radar operator picked up contact, could have been anything, could have been submarine, could have been fishing vessel, or small coastal vessel, French. We were, of course, told never to attack either the fishing or the coastal vessels because we were on anti-submarine work and we had to stick to that, but we of course didn’t know what the contact was.
GB: Until you got very, very close.
AJ: Until we were right on top of it. So the radar operator used to guide pilot towards the target, of course pilot used to decrease the height to minimum. We were equipped with, the only Wellingtons equipped, with the, it was a sort of a radar altimeter, we called it electrical altimeter. It was a very accurate machine and could estimate our height above the sea level. We could go actually, with a little bit of risk, we could go down to fifty feet on, using that altimeter. Although it was bit of a risk, but anyway during the attack it was quite [beep] altimeter, very, very good instrument. Now the idea was that the radar operator used to guide the pilot toward the target, the aircraft was all prepared for the attack. The navigator was forward operating the Leigh Light, he used to operate like two handlebars, up and down, left and right.
GB: And it was a million candle watts or something like that, that kind of power was it? Must have been quite, er.
AJ: That’s right. The first officer, or actually the second pilot, was standing above him, operating machine guns, and the idea was to get to the target to within one mile and then navigator used to count to ten then switch on the light, of course becoming a magnificent target for the submarine to open fire. [Laugh]
GB: And I presume the submarines were always on the surface at night time because they considered there was less chance to be seen.
AJ: Contrary to opinion, submarines tried to stay on the surface all the time, if possible, and submerge only when either there was a danger of air attack or, or say they picked up a convoy and they wanted to attack the convoy. They were trying to have batteries in best condition possible for this kind of work. So, most of the time, time, submarines were actually on the surface, so it was possible to pick them up with radar. But of course they were not asleep, as soon as they heard us they used to crash dive or change course and become a disappearing contact.
GB: It was a case of picking them up on nights where it was a bit. So was it a case you had to try and catch them on nights where weather wasn’t so good so they couldn’t hear, lookouts couldn’t actually see you.
AJ: In 1943, that was before I, before I joined the squadron, the Germans were actually ordered to stay on the ground, on the surface and fire back. They were equipped with very good anti aircraft guns and they were very dangerous indeed, particularly at night, because of Leigh Light. One of our aircraft attacked submarine, they damaged it, but aircraft was also very badly damaged. It was, I remember, Flight Lieutenant Jan Sobraski, they survived, but only just. They managed to get to base but with huge holes in the wing and in the tail.
GB: That’s probably testament that they got back to the -
AJ: So that was only proof.
GB: The geodetic design of the Wellington.
AJ: Oh yes, Wellington could withstand considerable contact.
GB: Could stand that: burn all the skin off and still stay in the air couldn’t it, yes. So during your time with 304 down at Chivenor, can you tell me a little bit about what life was like on the ground during those days when you weren’t actually flying?
AJ: Chivenor of course was always a very nice station, beautifully situated. When I joined the squadron, squadron was very, very happy. [Laugh] Social life was very, very lively at Chivenor. Of course crews, only, when one arrived as a pilot to join the squadron, first ten flights was always as a second pilot, just to get experience because of waves, navigation and weather and also the difficulty in picking up the targets, it was necessary actually to gain some experience. First ten flights was always as a second pilot, so I was flying there as a second pilot. Life on the station as well, I remember at Chivenor was, we didn’t stay, we didn’t stay, I didn’t stay perhaps long enough to know it better but it was, I know quite a few parties organised at the officers mess and so the social life was very pleasant, overall, particularly during the summer when plenty of tourists about.
GB: The beach is a lovely place to be, and Chivenor, is that Devon or Cornwall?
AJ: It’s Devon, still Devon. Later on, after Benbecula, we were stationed at St Eval and that was in Cornwall.
GB: Yes, I’ve heard of that. So when you were at Chivenor then, were you in, was your accommodation in nissen huts or was it proper brick built?
AJ: It was not nissen huts, it was sort of a barracks. We shared rooms, normally two officers to one room. Sometimes it was bigger accommodation for four officers in one room, and that was quite a big room, so it was reasonably comfortable. But I say, I didn’t stay very long because, Admiral Donitz started his offensive with submarines equipped with snorkels, you probably heard about that. We heard for a long time that they were moving such a possibly to operating diesel under the sea and to work sort of exhaust pipe sticking out, but it was a matter who actually invent, was quicker in inventing it. The Germans were a little bit quicker and there was a danger that Admiral Donitz would start new submarine offensive going around Scotland, entering the Atlantic from the north, so the squadron was moved from Chivenor to Benbecula, to Outer Hebrides, and that was quite a considerable change from the comfort of Devonshire to the Outer Hebrides.
GB: And the weather as well I would think!
AJ: The weather was absolutely, and that was winter 1944 45. After several, actually, the biggest enemies there were a, weather, b cruel seagull. But, so, still ten hours patrol in continuous sort of westerly strong winds and very frequent wintry showers, with visibility dropping to zero; it was quite tiring, tiring patrol.
GB: What kind of, obviously I know you wear wearing flying clothing with the big fur jackets, the leather jackets but did you have any other form of keeping you warm in the aeroplane?
AJ: Wellington was heated a little bit, the worst place was tail of the aircraft, but up to position of navigator it was not necessary to wear any specially hot clothing, just ordinary flying suit.
GB: Just your flying boots. And the big fur boots.
AJ: Sometimes some pilots used to wear those fur, Scottish aero jackets but I used just ordinary flying suit and I was quite comfortable, I was not cold at all.
GB: On a normal, average, ten hour flight that you did, the operational flight, how much of it was actually action and how much of it was just, not mundane, but just looking and everything is quiet?
AJ: Well during the ten hour patrol, sometimes we had to go down perhaps three, four times to investigate what the target. Most of the time it was a fishing vessel, we used to scare them! [Laughter]
GB: Suddenly putting the light on, yes.
AJ: Sometimes it was just a coastal, coastal one, little one, ship, same as coast to French, crossing Bay of Biscay, plenty of fishing vessels and our patrols from Benbecula used to go the almost to the, almost to the coast of Iceland but not quite. We could see Iceland on the radar.
GB: I’ve read, I’ve looked into a lot of the operational records of 300 and 305 Squadron, and they’ve flown Wellingtons Mark III, IVs and Xs, and they seem to have an awful lot of problem with hydraulics was one problem, oxygen supply seemed to fail to the back gun turret a lot. and there was another one, I think was it oil pressure, oil pressure on the engines, and they seemed to be the things that, they’d fly out on an operation they’d have to turn back and in the column at the end, the, is it the 541 or 540 that the Station Ops would write afterwards.
AJ: When they were operating Bomber Command they had different engines. They had I remember the big [indecipherable]. We used to have already Hercules 100, much better engines.
GB: The Bristol Hercules.
AJ: And we didn’t have much trouble with, in fact great admiration for our engineers who maintained our aircraft on Benbecula in atrocious conditions. We didn’t lose one [emphasis] aircraft throughout the winter. It was amazing to think that they, every time the aircraft was prepared up to the best, was the best possible condition.
GB: Were you the only squadron up there or was there any other squadrons?
AJ: No, initially when we arrived there there was our squadron and four Fleet Air Arm squadrons, they operated Swordfishes on patrols closing shores, and we used to go into the Atlantic.
GB: Further afield.
AJ: Initially we sort of looked at each other, but not becoming too friendly! But the Station Commander said now this must end, so he asked us to organise a huge party. So we arrange huge party and entertain four, four squadrons of Fleet Air Arm and after that we were great friends. They stayed, in think, on Benbecula for, with us, for about two to three months around then and then they left. I think they, I don’t know where they were posted back to [indecipherable] somewhere.
GB: And what was roughly the date, or the month and year when you left Benbecula can you remember? Can you remember when you left Benbecula?
AJ: Ah, we left Benbecula in spring 1945. I was due to go to OTU to pick up a new crew, already, and as a captain but it was, for some reason, the course was delayed and the squadron was posted back from Benbecula to St Eval, in Cornwall, and started to operate over the English Channel again.
GB: Just in time for the summer!
AJ: Yes, that’s right. Anyway, and I did one operation, last operational flight as second pilot from St Eval and then after that I was supposed to pick up a new crew in number six OTU at Silloth, near Carlisle. And that’s where the war ended, [laugh] when I was, when we had just completed our course, due to be posted back to the squadron as a unit. And after that the squadron was, shortly after, was posted to Transport Command and I, with part of my crew, I was posted to Transport Command TCU at Crosby on Eden to train to go to India but unfortunately my navigator failed the last medical, for overseas medical. They discovered anginal heart, and so I was posted back to squadron again with only radio officer so I, instead of flying Dakotas in India, I was flying Warwicks with 304 Squadron again after the war, mainly operating to Athens, to Naples and east in south of France.
GB: All difficult destinations then, after the war! [Laugh] Naples and South of France.
AJ: Well, South of France was all right. But even in winter, the weather sometimes over the, over the Masif Central of France could be quite nasty and the Warwick was not particularly good in the bad weather, so.
GB: No. So how did you end your time in the Polish Air Force, you became part of the RAF didn’t we in 1947?
AJ: Well actually towards the end we [bleep] part of the RAF, and then the authorities decided to form what was called the Polish Resettlement Corps, and to, but then I was already determined to join civil aviation. Because I completed the course for Transport Command, and because I completed the navigation course with general reconnaissance, I managed to get civil licences very easily because they considered those courses up to standard [laugh] so I managed to get civvie licences, and very quickly after leaving the Air Force I was employed by Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, first. Initially at Blackpool but then they operated from Birmingham and all over the world.
GB: Yes. Well, you’re obviously, you were the right person at the right place and the right time really, to get that because I’ve spoken with many veterans, who after the war, struggled to find a job because obviously there were only limited occupations that the then British government would allow the Polish, the ex Polish veterans, to go into. You were, well not lucky perhaps, right place, right time.
AJ: I was. I must say that from the moment I joined the civil aviation I was sort of walking from one job to the next. My firm, I was changing the firms but it was simply because the firm decided to change the name! So from Lancashire Aircraft Corporation it was Skyways, from Skyways it became Britannia eventually. So I stayed with the same, more or less, same pilot same firm, for my flying career.
GB: If you could, if now, if you, if I said to you you can fly any aircraft you like, that you’ve never flown, past or present, what, if you could have a wish, to fly one aircraft now, if you were capable and able to fly, what would be the one aircraft, past or present?
AJ: Most favourite aircraft was, for me, was Boeing 707 320 Intercontinental. It was a most magnificent plane and I used to fly, well we used to fly, to Los Angeles, direct from Los Angeles back to Luton, used to fly to South America, to Far East, to Tokyo, everywhere. Beautiful aircraft.
GB: Beautiful aircraft.
AJ: Absolutely superb aeroplane; that was absolutely my most favourite aircraft ever.
GB: Compared to the Wellington.
AJ: Well, the Wellington also, from, well perhaps from military.
GB: From that era.
AJ: I would say Wellington was nicest planes to fly.
GB: They were very nice. Do you have any particular memories from the time that you were in 304 Squadron? Any funny stories that happened on the ground or in the air, anything?
AJ: No, I was, I must say, I am one of those lucky ones. My worst incident was in the beginning of my career in civil aviation when flying Haltons, that’s Halifaxes actually, we, well that was on one, that was very close one because we caught fire on number one engine after take off, we were actually at top of climb, flying to, was the beginning flight to Hong Kong and we were due to pick up some freight from Hamburg, we were flying from Birmingham to Hamburg and we just reached the top of climb and I just reached down to start navigation and all of a sudden bells started to ring and we caught fire number one. Few moments later, the whole engine separated and the propeller sort of twisted and hit the leading edge of the port wing, where oil tank was for the inboard engine, so we lost all the oil from the inboard; we lost two engines. One engine was completely gone, separated, and one we had to stop. But it was very difficult to fly because of this huge, flat surface where engine was, and that was not aerodynamic, so the huge drag, to fly straight you had to drop on one wing and anyway, we managed to, the weather was superb, we could see Birmingham for miles and miles and we flew slowly back to Birmingham and landed Birmingham without any incident; that was an experience!
GB: Oh, you go through the whole of the war years and afterwards.
AJ: Surprisingly enough, this aircraft was serviceable within two days!
GB: Really.
AJ: They changed the leading edge and changed the tank, they changed the engine aircraft was fully serviceable and flew to Milan as far as I remember.
GB: That just shows you. I’m sure these days it would be in the workshops for weeks and weeks wouldn’t it – that’s the difference. [Pause for tea!] During your time up at Benbecula, was the accommodation a bit more sparse up there?
AJ: Benbecula we stayed in nissen huts, and we shared nissen huts, well as far as, four officers to a nissen hut. We had a batman too who kept sort of fire going all throughout the night.
GB: You had a stove in there.
AJ: Right in the middle and sometimes it was too hot! [Laugh] [Cough] But kept it running. And of course it was reasonably comfortable, but what was amazing really, because of these very harsh conditions, very hard conditions in Benbecula, the squadron kept together and we had much more pleasant memories from Benbecula than we had from many other stations, for some reason. Was difficult to explain, but because of the harsh conditions, and difficulties, difficulties everywhere.
GB: It brings you together I think.
AJ: It brings the whole squadron together.
GB: I’ve experienced that in my time in the RAF, that when you’re away deployed to a location which is very sparse and you’ve perhaps just got a couple of tents and some camp beds, it’s better because people do bond closer together, whereas if you’re in a nice posh barracks or things, or there’s a town just down the way, people disperse and go everywhere, don’t they.
AJ: You know, for many many years during the conversation when we used to meet, we always used to remember Benbecula as the place, not St Eval and Chivenor, but this difficult station, where we are not even allowed to use the public transport which was, there was a communication between Benbecula and mainland was maintained by Rapides, de Havilland Rapides, and this was only for civilian populations, we were not allowed to use it unless there was an aircraft of ours going somewhere, that was different. But we had to go by boat from Lochboisdale to Oban or to Mallaig; that’s sixteen hours sailing, you know, atrocious weather, you know, waves appear to be higher than the mast.
GB: The boat disappears and comes back up.
AJ: And screw come, can sometimes coming out of the water, vibrating, it was most unpleasant. Sixteen hours of suffering!
GB: It was one of those places. I mean the furthest north I ever got posted was Lossiemouth, in the Moray Firth, and that was, that could be good weather and it could be bad weather a lot, lot further north, my goodness me.
AJ: Well I remember on Benbecula gusts to eighty, eighty miles an hour every few days and quite often we were unable to land back from the patrols on Benbecula, we had to divert. Divert to Tiree which was most, probably nearest, but also to Limavady and Ballykelly in Ireland, sometimes had to stay in Ireland for a day or two too.
GB: Ah, that was difficult for you, yes, I’m sure!
AJ: Usual practice was that we had to bring one bottle of Irish whiskey back [laugh]!
GB: I was going to say, I knew where that was going!
AJ: That was a duty!
GB: And some nice Irish food in boxes and see what you could bring back.
AJ: That was duty to bring one bottle of whiskey for the Officers Mess.
GB: Do you know, sixty or seventy years later, when an RAF aircraft has to stop over somewhere unusual, they’ll normally have a box of something in the back they’re bringing back for the groundcrew normally, as well as the aircrew, back at the home base, so that still goes on even though it’s not so much wartime. Nothing changes, does it. [Laugh] Goodness me. When you, with um, with your squadron being Coastal Command, when you didn’t have the second pilot was it still just a five man crew for the Wellingtons, or was more was it?
AJ: Normal crew for Coastal Command was always six.
GB: Six.
AJ: Six.
GB: Six, and then you had the extra second pilot.
AJ: Two pilots.
GB: Oh, two pilots
AJ: Two pilots, navigator and three radio officers, air gunners, they all, radar operators, gunners and radio were trained, they changed every two hours.
GB: So even the second pilot, if he wasn’t training, you still had a second pilot, automatic.
AJ: Automatic, yes. That was necessary because we, to change.
GB: The amount of time that you’re in the air.
AJ: We used to change very two hours.
GB: Yes. To give them a break.
AJ: Every two hours we used to change.
GB: I imagine, and you’ll probably be able to tell me, but even when you’re flying the Wellington I imagine there’s a lot of vibration through the yoke is there? Or not?
AJ: No, in smooth, when weather was smooth, aircraft was very nice to fly and it could go through quite rough weather, very nicely, so it was very strongly built however. We trusted it!
GB: Have you had a chance to look at the Wellington that was at the Museum, the RAF Museum, at Hendon?
AJ: Yes.
GB: I know it’s at Cosford at the moment, they’re taking it apart, rebuilding it, yes.
AJ: But that one was Mark 10 I think, not Mark 14.
GB: Yes. Was it 304 Squadron that had the Wellington with the big metal loop at the front? That was a kind of a protype radar. Was that an anti submarine radar? It was a huge big -
AJ: No, no. The 14 had the sort of, underneath the nose, antenna in a sort of covered compartment.
GB: And that was the radar was it?
AJ: Just underneath the front, where the front um –
GB: The bomb aimer?
AJ: Front gunner used to.
GB: Okay. When I go back I’ll have to research now and have a little look at them, because obviously we -
AJ: 14 was quite nice really, was quite an open, good visibility prospects.
GB: Would need to be.
AJ: One would sit and have a very good view.
GB: Did it have upper gunner on the 14 or not?
AJ: No. Just one gun forward, later two, they were very high, had a high rate of fire with very automatic pistols, anti personnel.
GB: Yeah. What was that, was that Browning 303s was it?
AJ: I can’t remember the rate of fire, but it was close to two thousand rounds per minute.
[Phew]
AJ: The normal Browning had one thousand three hundred something, but the, two Brownings for Wellingtons 14 had very, very high rate of fire.
GB: Very short bursts too, otherwise you’d have no ammunition left.
AJ: Towards the end of the war we had two, so that was very, very high. The fore gunners in the back and two guns on side.
GB: Guns on either side, right, okay.
AJ: Operated by radar operator.
GB: Well, that’s, it’s quite interesting to hear it from your perspective because obviously, a lot of the veterans I’ve spoken to so far, over this last year, have been on either 300 or 305 Squadron, very much bomber Wellingtons and members of the aircrew and even, we’ve spoken to a rear gunner Jan from, Jan Black, I can’t remember his, er, oh crikey, he lives here in London. He crashed and suffered a lot with burns and he was in the early Guinea Pig Club. What was his name? Let me have a quick look, but we spoke to him quite a bit. Um, Jan Stanichki? That’s him there, I don’t know if you perhaps see him or not. Obviously he married a lady called Black so he changed his name. It’s the one in brackets at the very top there.
AJ: Stangryciuk. I don’t know. [bleep]
GB: He lives in London, but he was an air, a rear gunner for 300 Squadron. But he, although he got badly burnt, he managed to get enough treatment and well again and so he carried on then, on to Lancasters, as well. So, he’s obviously got other stories to tell, and some are not so nice, but lots, that’s to do with the crashes and things. And then one or two others, a couple of gentlemen I’m going to go and see on Monday over in Birmingham, and I think one of them is a navigator actually, let me have a little look, oh crikey, I’m just wondering if that was somebody from 304 Squadron as well? Stanislaw Jusefac?
AJ: Jusefac. He was in 304 Squadron initially as an air gunner, then they crashed and then he was trained as a pilot.
GB: As a pilot on Spitfires
AJ: And flew as a fighter pilot.
GB: Yes. Two hundred and sixty six missions all together in total.
AJ: Something like that, yes.
GB: That’s crazy isn’t it, when you think of the whole year, the whole war time, the amount of flying, but the other gentleman was, I can’t see it now. There’s another one from 304 Squadron. But I can’t see it, I wrote it down on one of the pieces of paper. Never mind. But it’s just very interesting, listening to different, different stories and accounts of how their war kind of panned out, what they did and things. So thank you very much for chatting. Is there anything that else you think, because what we’d like to do is, once the Heritage Centre, which is the old airmens’ mess, it’s a brick built airmens’ mess, at RAF Ingham but it was only, it’s one of the war years ones so it’s just a single story with a kind of corrugated roof, and we’re renovating it to turn it into a museum, a heritage centre. Originally it was just going to be for the three squadrons that were at RAF Ingham which was 300, 305 Polish and 199, but Richard, and the Polish Memorial, asked us, because we’re the only people in Lincolnshire looking after and telling the story of the Polish bomber squadrons, because Northolt looks after the fighter squadrons, he asked us if we would accept the honour to become the home of the Polish Bomber Squadron so, and we’ve included 304 in that because flying Wellingtons you kind of fit in with that, so the intention is, when we open hopefully later next year, that part of the Heritage Centre will just purely be given over to the four squadrons to tell their whole, the whole story, but not just the squadrons, but individuals, like yourself, just to tell a little bit of your story, so it’ll be like wartime pictures and then hopefully a little bit of you, because we have a technical gentleman who does all the, he’ll cut short little bits out where you’ve been talking today, perhaps thirty seconds to a minute where you’re talking about maybe Benbecula, and then future Polish, and British, generations can come along to the centre and hear what you have to say. I don’t know, have you got a family here in Britain at all? Have you got sons and daughters at all, or not?
AJ: Yes. My son is in Germany, although he was born here, then he’s, one daughter is working in London and one in Birmingham.
GB: It would be lovely to invite you and your wife, and your family down, at some point once we’re open, for you to look around and hopefully we have done justice to the men and women of the Polish Air Force, cause we’ve, we’re covering everybody, not just the aircrew. We’re looking for, there was a lady, Zosya, not Kulinski, she was actually a cook, but she has some funny stories to tell, working in the cook, so that’s good. We had suppliers, we had a female who was doing instrument checking, so she had a workshop, she would do the instruments then go on board the aircraft, fit new instruments into, I presume your cockpit, test them and things, so that was her war and we found one or two this morning, I spoke to the, another gentleman who was an armourer so he concentrated on the bombs and bullets side of things. But it’s telling everybody’s story, and it’s, hopefully it’ll be there for future generations, Polish and British, to be able to say: never forget this; this is what happened and these are the people that it happened with. We don’t have, the group of local community volunteers that work on the project, none of us have a Polish connection, we just were so [emphasis] interested. The more we researched our little airfield above our villages we realised what had happened there, and the Poles, and then we started to do the research into the Polish Air Force and found out a lot more, and then obviously we had the connection with Richard down here in London and also the Polish Consulate General in Manchester: Lukash Lutastanski, and he’s very much on board and he’s provided some funding from Warsaw, to help with our project, so it’s exciting. I never fail to kind of be amazed when I come to visit veterans like yourself, you tell me your story which is everyday story, this is how your years went, and it’s really, really nice so thank you very much.
AJ: So we’ll probably see you at the memorial next September.
GB: Well, yes, but we are hoping, we haven’t officially announced it yet, on the 26th of May we are hoping to open our memorial garden with the memorials at Ingham because that will be done before the building is, because we’ve received some funding from different locations. So there’ll be a huge big memorial stone for the three squadrons at RAF Ingham, but there’s another big, huge big memorial stone for the four Polish squadrons, including 304, and we’ve got two nice granite name plates, because although RAF Ingham was only operational from 1942 to the beginning of ’44, a hundred and forty two aircrew lost their lives flying from Ingham, of which two thirds were Polish. So the name boards, a bit like you have at Northolt, will have everybody’s name on them, in the memorial garden. So once we know, once it’s been confirmed with the Embassy and various other VIPs, that everybody’s good to go, then we’ll send out a letter, so obviously we’ll send yourselves a letter as well, invite to come down for the day, and hopefully, well up, down, I’m used to being in Lincolnshire, up to Lincolnshire for the day, and it would be lovely to welcome you and show you what we’ve got. It’s not Chivenor, and it’s not Benbecula but it, we’re hoping that it will be embraced as the home of Polish bomber squadrons, including 304. Do you have any photographs from your time in?
AJ: Do you know, I was looking at photographs the other day, all my photographs practically evaporated, because all the, [cough] every time I was interviewed they used to borrow them and never returned.
GB: Nobody’s brought them back! [Sigh]
AJ: Sorry, but er.
GB: No, no. That’s okay. We were going to do differently. What we do is we put the photographs on the table and we photograph them, we’ve got a high resolution camera, and then take, so you always keep the photographs because several had people said that to us, that they, you know, they’ve given them out, which is really bad of people not to then return them.
AJ: But you know when, during the war, no one really bothered to take photographs somehow, although it was, there could have been some [indecipherable].
GB: I’ll have a look through my collection, they’re all electronic on the computer, but I’ll have a look through my collection, see if I can find anything with you in them, and if I do I’ll print a copy off and send it in the post to you, just so you get, it’s almost like me returning a couple of photographs to you. I’ll see what I can find.
AJ: There is one photograph of my crew in Cynk’s Memorial, Book on Polish Air Force.
GB: Yes, I’ve seen that, the two volumes.
AJ: That, yes.
GB: Oh right.
AJ: That photograph my crew in that, that photograph was taken, I think it was taken at St Eval.
GB: I’ll have a look now you’ve mentioned that, when I get home tonight I’ll have a look.
AJ: Whole crew except first officer. He took that photograph [laugh]so he is not on, but the rest of us are on.
GB: Lovely. Well thank you very, very much, I’ll just er.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Andrezej Jerziorski
Description
An account of the resource
Andrezej Jerziorski's wartime memories. Andrezej Jerziorski was born in Poland but after he and his father were evacuated from France, he managed to join the RAF and flew in Coastal Command during the war, stationed as far apart as Scotland and Cornwall. Andre explains about submarine hunting and conditions on the stations where he served. He became a civil pilot after the war flying all over the world.
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. Coastal Command
Polskie Siły Powietrzne
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SRAFIngham19410620v010001-Audio, RAFIngham19410620v010004
Format
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00:59:29 audio recording
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
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Great Britain
Poland
England--Devon
Scotland--Benbecula
England--Cornwall (County)
Contributor
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Anne-Marie Watson
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
Pending OH summary
304 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
Blenheim
pilot
RAF Chivenor
RAF St Eval
submarine
Wellington